I have a little surprise waiting for you at the end of this post so I will make the food portion of this post quick.
My snack was courtesy of my Healthy Living Summit Swag Bag.
The amazing people at Peeled Snacks shipped us an assortment of their nothing added organic dried fruit. I love how all the packaged of color coded. Today I choose the dried apricots which came in a pretty pink container.
The dried apricots were perfect. They were just a tad sweet like nature intended, not like overly processed sweetened junk. I loved it! I managed to snag a couple more bags to sample and am looking forward to trying those as well.
Lunch was simple and delish.
I had some spaghetti squash left over from the other week which I had frozen and let thaw in the fridge over night. I popped it in the microwave at lunch with some chick peas (I wanted black, but didn’t have any 
) and topped with Parsley, Jalapenos, Salsa, Cheese, Pita Chips and Avocado.
A yummy Mexican fiesta of flavors!!
I couldn’t help digging into one of my cookies I got for dessert.
Lindsey gave me this cookie she had purchased from the HLS Bake Sale so I’m not sure who originally made it or what the name is, but it contained oats & dates. It was thick, buttery and delish!
Derek’s Review of Food, Inc.
I hate to bring up a topic that has been played out plenty of times on my fellow blogs, but many of you requested it so I am delivering. 
* Please note this is Derek’s opinion and not mine. He understands, as do I, this will bring out both negative and positive comments. We just ask you respect his freedom of opinion as we respect everyone else’s. Thanks!
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Hey there everyone.
It’s my second official post and, again, I have no idea how Meghann does this everyday. I’ve been searching and searching for time to write this one post let alone 2-3 posts a day. But, the time has come where all you inquiring minds get to read my thoughts on…dun dun dunnnnnnn….Food, Inc.
When I saw the previews for the movie it definitely looked interesting. I’m the kind of person that likes to, in general, be informed so it seemed like my kinda movie. My initial reaction when they began detailing the dark & dirty secrets about multinational corporations and the way our food is processed/prepared/delivered was that I always knew, but didn’t know the specific details until now. Any reasonable and common sense person should know that hormone inhalation, cramped living quarters, and bully tactics by food companies is nothing new. I’m a “why” person. By that I mean that I don’t want to focus on what the food companies are doing or the content of the movie, but rather the bigger issue of why they’re doing it that way and what I believe the message of the movie is.
The movie began by placing blame on McDonald’s. What a shocker. Why is it that when we feel that we’ve been wronged in some way we always rush to blame the biggest or most popular company in that respective area? Some examples are McDonalds, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, etc. The companies in Food, Inc. are not the problem…just part of the problem. The only reason any company starts up is because they’ve identified a demand and want to be part of the supply while turning a small (or large) profit along the way.
Companies don’t go out and operate the way they do because they’ve lost their moral compass or because the executives weren’t raised right. They act the way they do because if they didn’t, it would hurt the bottom line and that’s not good. We’ve all heard the phrase “time is money”. Well, it applies here. Companies are constantly asking themselves, “how can we do what we do but faster and cheaper without compromising quality?” This is the nature of business and the food industry is no exception. Do I think they compromise quality? Yes I do. But does the majority of the country? I don’t think so. Companies ask themselves this question because they’re looking for our business. If they didn’t, they’d lose us to the competition. That is why those food companies fed hormones to their chickens and made them grow freakishly fast.
That is why they have mechanized their processing of food the way they have. It’s the answer to a lot of the questions you have for them. This brings me to my point…like it or not, but we as a society have created these monsters and continue to feed them. I would say that a good number of people don’t really understand the concept of “We the People”. That’s how our constitution starts. Not only are they the first 3 words, but also the largest handwritten words. Basically, they mean something. We ultimately dictate how food companies will behave.
The best example of this from the movie that I can think of is when Wal-mart introduced Stonyfield to its stores. Many products want to be on Wal-mart shelves because of its customer base. This allows Wal-mart to be selective with its vendors since they don’t have unlimited store space…even though it seems unlimited when you walk around in there. Don’t forget. Wal-mart wants to supply a demand while turning a profit…and they put Stonyfield on their shelves. Ahh, good and evil collide! =) I really like what Stonyfield is doing though because I think it really fits into what I believe Food, Inc. is saying.
Consider other healthier and local options. I think Food, Inc. would like us to consider all our food options much in the same way Stonyfield would like all Wal-mart customers to consider their yogurt as a healthier option.
Have I changed how I eat after watching the movie? Not really. I will still go to a nice steakhouse and eat cow without knowing where it came from or how it was fed. However, I will be trying to notice food labels more closely and often and utilize fresh markets when I can. I don’t think companies are motivated to change and I doubt government will do anything drastic. The movie had a good segment on how political relationships played a big part in who controlled wh
at. So what does that leave us with? Well…us to motivate them.
Like I said before about us feeding the monster…We the People need to slowly stop. Food companies will supply what we demand. It’s just not something that will happen quickly, but Food, Inc. was a great start. I’m not sure how my opinion will match with yours. I’m thinking that mine may not be the popular view overall. We’ll see. =) Hopefully you enjoyed reading my thoughts on the movie.
One last thing…if you still haven’t seen it and have a showing close to you, go!
Derek
