Q. Have you seen this clever project? By the filmmakers of King Corn, comes “Truck Farm,” a movie about the smallest CSA in the biggest city. You can grow food anywhere….
A. Have I seen it? Of course I’ve seen it.
I’m in it.
I joined the CSA and got filmed when they delivered my share.
Cool.
Q. I would love to hear what you think about hydroponic food. My instincts tell me that organic soil is full of life and traces of nutrients and elements we don’t fully understand and here we have another frankenfood that is scientifically derived.
A. Frankenfood is too strong but I’m basically with you on this one. I don’t get hydroponics. Obviously scientists have figured out enough about plant nutrient requirements to keep them alive in water and nutrient broth but what’s the point? Soil works really well and is bound to contain substances we don’t even know about. These may even influence taste.
Chefs say even the best of hydroponic vegetables, according to a recent New York Times article, are not considered serious replacements for field-grown lettuces because they can’t reproduce the flavor.
My suspicion? People who like hydroponics don’t like getting their hands dirty (but isn’t that half the fun?).
Focus Features has been asking people in the food community for five recommendations of films they particularly like. Here are my picks:
By administrator November 19, 2010
I have to begin with this one because it’s my screen debut! I appear in it for ten seconds as a talking head defining calories, among other things. This is Morgan Spurlock’s account of a month-long experiment eating nothing else but food from McDonald’s. Spurlock’s depiction of his 25-pound weight gain is not only a commentary on the role of fast food in America’s obesity epidemic, but also a fast-moving and riveting examination of the corporate side of our country’s love affair with burgers and fries.
It’s hard to imagine that a story about how two guys grow corn on one acre in Iowa could be so utterly delightful, but Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis have a sense of humor along with plenty of imaginative smarts. This is the best place to see how industrial farming really works. Spoiler alert: I love the scenes in which they start with corn and cook up a batch of high fructose corn syrup, take two minutes to plant their acre, and discover that their acre is eligible for corn subsidies. This film may be a documentary about corn production and harvesting, but it is a pleasure to sit through again and again.
This is the most commercially successful of the recent documentaries exposing the evils of the industrial food system, and for good reason. Starting with the splendid opening credits, it is wonderfully directed (by Robbie Kenner) and narrated by food movement superstars, Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. Even for people who know something about industrial food production, the film breaks new ground. For me, the most moving episode was the 4:00 a.m. immigration raid on hapless Mexican workers at a Smithfield packing plant. The film tells stories ranging from the infuriating (seed patenting) to the heartbreaking (the lethal effects of toxic E. coli on a small child). Best, it is a rousing call to action. Join the food movement!
Who knew that the Japanese made spaghetti Westerns? As it happens, they do or at least used to. A lone cowboy rides into town and teaches a young woman how to cook noodles so delicious that customers line up to eat them. The message? It takes hard work to develop real cooking skills but the results are worth it. The hero may ride off into the sunset, but this film carries its lessons lightly and is marvelous cross-cultural fun.
I can’t decide between these two films for my number five. La Grande Bouffe (The Great Binge, in my translation) is a French film of the 1970s that doesn’t seem to show up in food film festivals. It deserves a revival, not least for its splendid cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Philippe Noiret, and Ugo Tognazzi, among others. As I recall, the guys spend a weekend gorging on food and sex, giving entirely new meaning to the pleasure of food in general, and to fruit tarts in particular.
Ratatouille is, of course, about a cartoon mouse who yearns to become a chef, and does so with great panache. The film is surprisingly faithful to the day-to-day reality (OK, exaggerated) of professional kitchens, and the extraordinary amount of teamwork involved in producing superb restaurant food. It may not make anyone want to become a chef, but it gives plenty of insight into what it takes to do so.
I’m a big fan of the movie, FRESH, so much so that I took it with me to Rome last fall, showed it at the Food and Agriculture Organization on the occasion of World Food Day, and left my copy with the American Embassy. Its director, Ana Joanes, announces two lectures by one of its featured stars, farmer-citizen Joel Salatin:
1. “Can you feed the world? –Answering elitism, production, and choice.”
Sunday, April 4, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Teachers College / Columbia University (Broadway between 120th and 121st Streets)
By far and away the two most common questions asked of Joel Salatin are: How can we afford local artisanal heritage-based food? And: Is it realistic to think we can really feed the world with a non-industrial food system? Using his own Polyface Farm principles as a foundation, Joel builds this vision one piece at a time by blending theory and practice.
Tickets: $35. This comes with a movie voucher to see FRESH at the Quad Cinema from April 9-15. Get tickets here.
2. “The sheer ecstasy of being a lunatic farmer.”
Sunday, April 4, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Teachers College / Columbia University (Broadway between 120th and 121st Streets)
In this mischievous lecture, Joel Salatin compares the industrial global food paradigm with the heritage local food paradigm. Using hilarious stories from his family’s Polyface Farm experience, Salatin examines the contrast on many different levels: fertility, carbon cycling, energy use, relationships, marketing, and spirit.
Tickets: $35 At this event you will receive a movie voucher to see FRESH at the Quad Cinema from April 9-15. Get tickets here.
He’s worth a listen. Enjoy!
Today is the official release date for Food, Inc., the latest film about our food production system and its discontents. This one has generated tons of interest, and for good reason (I’ve seen it twice). For one thing, it is star-studded: Eric Schlosser! Michael Pollan! For another, it takes a hard look at the less savory aspects of industrial food production for a purpose: to make you think before you eat.
To that end, the film comes with:
And, not least,
Here’s my favorite quote from the review in the New York Times:
one of the scariest movies of the year, “Food, Inc.,” [is]an informative, often infuriating activist documentary about the big business of feeding or, more to the political point, force-feeding, Americans all the junk that multinational corporate money can buy. You’ll shudder, shake and just possibly lose your genetically modified lunch.
Go see it and decide for yourself!
Earl Butz, former Secretary of Agriculture in the Nixon administration, died last week at the age of 98. He had a long and varied career, but in the context of food systems he is famous for having revolutionized U.S. agricultural policy. Instead of paying farmers not to produce food, he encouraged farmers to produce as much food as possible. They did, and indeed produced so much corn that new uses had to be found for it. Voila! High fructose corn syrup! The movie, King Corn, includes an interview with Mr. Butz. He was proud of having so greatly increased U.S. food production. Indeed, the number of calories in the U.S. food supply increased from about 3,200 per day in the mid-1970s to the present 3,900 per day, with all the consequences that I discuss in Food Politics and in What to Eat. His passing marks the end of an era.
King Corn (the movie) is opening in New York today, but you can read about it on the blog site of one of its makers, Curt Ellis. Enjoy!
It’s a movie worth seeing. Here’s the trailer!
I’m confused. Is Simpsons a movie or a lengthy ad for Burger King? And is this about marketing to children or what? You can watch the ads and decide for yourself.
I love food movies. Ratatouille and No Reservations would make a great double bill. They both reveal a lot about what goes on in restaurant kitchens. Anyone can cook? Maybe, but not necessarily well.
Policy lunch talk in the series “the future of global food policy,” UN church Centre, 777 UN Plaza @44th St and 1st Ave, 1:00-2:45.
