Food, inc.

I was almost afraid to add it to my Netflix queue, but I did it anyway. Food, Inc. will be in my mailbox this afternoon, and I will dutifully pop it in the DVD player, take a chair in front of the big screen and carefully lay the wool blanket over me, careful to use each inch from nose to big toe. I already know what this is going to be thematically. I will be preaching to the choir, on a buss-man's holiday. I will again attempt validation on what I already hold to be true, if not self evident, by letting someone else tell the story. Maybe they can tell it better than me, which shouldn't be too difficult a task considering how many times, an how miserably, I have failed at this in the past. One would think that the question, "Why don't you eat meat?", would be easy to answer, taking less than a minute and/or 100 words. It isn't. It is like asking someone to describe God, or define quality. You can make friends just as easily as lose them by asking a definition of love.

So tonight I get another POV. Another spin. The writers and director will talk about greed, profit, propaganda, inhumane treatment, totalitarian agriculture, emerging markets, poverty, famine, pork bellies, Soylent Green, politics, capitalism, religion, health, e-coli bacteria, obesity, McDonald's, rice, vegetables, methane, the buffalo, The Bible, Henry VIII, soy beans, super-foods, Omega-3s, blue-fin tuna, dogs, cumin, carbon footprints, fossil fuels, legumes and evolution. And maybe even Darryl Hannah if we're lucky.
agriculture
Geese, with all of that I could come up with a plot on something!

But this is about food. And I can't wait to watch. After all, it's pretty important stuff. And doubly important if used more for fuel than fun.

I have been vegetarian for almost 20 years now. It all started with one book, Diet for a New America by John Robbins. He the son of Mr. Robbins of 31 Flavors fame. Another interesting perspective. I have many reasons why I choose this route consciously. Amongst them are many spiritual reasons, several socioeconomic ones, eight or nine moral ones, five philosophical, three political (or anti-political), two physical and one health related.

The last few days have provided a plethora of relevant material on this theme. Here is one for the "Must Love Dogs" crowd, followed by two from the fuel for athletes category. Moral of these two in combination would be "Don't eat your best friend and don't fatten up over the winter."

It's still your choice.

Over the course of the last twenty years I have made hundreds of bad choices.

This one, my dear friends, isn't one of them.

Pix (from the RCV road)

My favorite fast food dive from Madison, WI, La Bamba. Bigger than your head, Fred.
La Boucherie in Nice, France, Lance.
One of the many painted rocks in Port Macquarrie, Australia. Says it all, Paul.