Talkin' Turkey

We're back home after visiting Esme's family in the Central Valley (Visalia) for the Thanksgiving holiday. The theme of the weekend was food. Thanksgiving? Are you kidding me? Of COURSE it was food. But besides the annual gluttony/slothfest that centered around our delicious turkey dinner (& the many subsequent spontaneous naps they caused), we also watched "Food Inc.", an eye-opening documentary about the history of food production in the United States. We've been wanting to watch this film for awhile, though I've gotta admit I was dreading it a little bit (I'm still a bit scarred from the kill floor scenes in "Fast Food Nation"). We opted to wait until after dinner, barring any unfortunate in-depth turkey farming footage. There was none of that (turkey-centric, anyway), & it was actually really informative. A little depressing & aggravating, yes, but ultimately, a worthwhile experience. It mostly focuses on the factory farms that have taken over our food production system & the multinational corporations that run them. It argues for a flatter system, one which puts us more in touch with our food. It also focuses a great deal on the upswing local/organic movements (a tip of the cap to folks like Michael Pollan, who also narrates a portion of the film, for that).

It's almost impossible to know exactly where everything you eat comes from, but in a place like San Francisco, thinking about what you eat & where it comes from is mostly done for you. Every month, there seems to be another farmers market popping up someplace, & we're within walking distance to several organic markets. Even without trying, we wind up buying mostly seasonal produce, organic meat & dairy. We even buy our milk in bottles from a place called Strauss Family Creamery, which is super old school, yeah, but it tastes amazing -- trust us.

We've also been considering having our fruits & veggies delivered to us. There are several local services who only send what's in season (read: no genetically-modified tomatoes in January). We'd be forced to cook with vegetables we're mostly unfamiliar with, but the benefits of having a blank slate with which to work are many, & it's hard to find anything in the store that's been just a day or two out of the ground. Plus, considering how much is delivered in each box, you're getting a pretty good bargain. That said, please let us know if you have any good recipes for root veggies.

Not that it's a regular occurrence or anything, but watching Food Inc. just sealed the deal: Neither of us will be eating a McDonald's cheeseburger EVER again.

Have YOU seen the movie? Has it changed the way you eat, or at least think about your food? Please let us know.