Food, Inc.

A few years ago, this little movie called Food, Inc. came out and I didn't bother going to see it for whatever reason. It's a really interesting examination of the food system in America.

It goes through the history of how our current system came into place, and its effects - both on labor and the animals involved, and how huge some of the food companies really are. Just thinking about how animals are raised and seeing the way the industry handles these living creatures is kind of mind-boggling, and I think seeing footage is vastly different from just reading about it. It's strange realizing how many industry insiders are involved in even governmental oversight of our food systems.

This documentary is really well-rounded, too, and much less judgmental than, say, a secret video filmed by PETA or whatever. They keep things fairly balanced and the tone is very even-handed but it still feels to me - as a vegetarian - like sort of an indictment. Looking at a huge lot full of chickens that can barely walk and are stumbling all over each other is horrific, and animals constantly die on the floor of the house even though they're stuffed up with antibiotics. Their housing is unclean, and animals end up wading in their own feces.

They also go into depth about the preponderance of corn in our food, both as human and animal feed. A huge proportion of America's farmland is dedicated to corn and it's used for all kinds of things you wouldn't even suspect. One obvious example is how common high-fructose corn syrup is as a sweetener in absolutely everything, even thinks you wouldn't traditionally expect to be sweetened.

A lot of companies refused to even talk to the investigative journalists making the film, which doesn't bode well for them. Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle over a hundred years ago, but it seems like - despite advances in technology and technique in raising animals - things have barely changed in some ways.

One of the worst things, to me, is learning about all these problems but being powerless to avoid them. My income fluctuates, and I can't always afford sustainable or organic foods, meaning I - like so many millions of Americans - am trapped in this system, locked into terribly produced foods with little other choice. There are just these entrenched economic interests, and even though we trust our government and the FDA/USDA to protect us they exercise their incredible financial and political leverage to override any meaningful oversight. You're constantly hearing about outbreaks of salmonella and E. coli that don't get recalled until well after people have died, rather than being caught and shut down at the source/ahead of time.

Here's the trailer:

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You can view the whole film on Netflix, streaming instantly. You can also buy the DVD or Blu-Ray version online at their site, and it also seems to be up on Youtube for a couple of bucks if you just want to watch it that way. If you Google a bit, you should be able to find it for free - I'm not sure if any links I find will be taken down in the future so I'll leave that up to you to find.

Have you watched this film, or read/watched any other books or films about America's food system? What do you think? If you live outside America, what are things like there?

Kallari Chocolate Review

Have you ever heard of Kallari Chocolate? I was down at my local food co-op today and a representative for them was there sampling chocolates!

Kallari is a cooperative group of cocoa farmers from the rainforest in Ecuador. Back in 2008, the New York Times ran a story about them! Rather than selling their beans to a larger company, Kallari's farmers instead produce their own chocolate in a factory only four hours away from where they grow the beans! This reduces the amount of impact on the environment, as the cocoa beans don't have to travel across the world for processing. The farmers are indigineous Kichwa families and live in the Upper Napo Region of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. They grow the beans in traditional, biodiverse ways on rich volcanic soil, in family gardens rather than huge plantations. While still down in South America, chocolate from Kallari also has a much shorter distance to travel than fancy European bars.

They grow and use organic beans, of an heirloom varietal called Cacao Nacional de Arriba that's prized for flavor rather than hardiness and production like many of the common cocoa beans used in more mainstream chocolates, and I think the flavor difference really pays off. The cocoa is lower in tannins, which means it has less of the bitterness that other dark chocolates sometimes have - the woman I talked to at the co-op mentioned that they're 70% dark is good for "converting" milk chocolate lovers to the dark side! Personally, I've always enjoyed dark chocolate - it's got such a rich, complex flavor that gets drowned out by milk and sugar in lighter milk chocolates, plus dark chocolate is often vegan, which I like. You can find out more about the cocoa beans at this link.

Anyway, on to the chocolate itself:

They had three varieties on offer - a 70% dark, 75% dark and 85% dark. Seeing as I'm a huge dark chocolate buff, I started out with the 85% (it's vegan!).

It's got a surprisingly mellow, fruity flavor, with nice nutty undertones to it. the best way to enjoy this chocolate, rather than biting off a piece, is just letting it melt on your tongue, eating a square at a time. The squares on these bars are small enough that you can just enjoy a single piece - other bars I've eaten have much larger squares, making it inconvenient. This one's easily portioned.

I was really pleased with this chocolate's flavor, and there's just enough sweetness from the vanilla and sugar to keep it from being overpowering so you still know you're eating a chocolate bar rather than something more savory with cocoa (maybe that'll be another post - savory cocoa recipes?!).

The 75% was nice as well - a little sweeter. I only had one piece of this, but I liked it. I mentioned offhandedly to the woman offering samples that my mom HATES dark, and she recommended the 70%, so I gave that a shot too - I think if you don't usually like dark, it's definitely worth giving this a shot!

The 70% is a lot sweeter than I usually prefer my chocolates, but tastes closer to a 55% or 60% cocoa bar. The sweetness is delicate, but not excessive, and the chocolate has an incredibly smooth mouthfeel as it melts in your mouth! If you're not already converted to the world of dark chocolate, give this one a shot.

I ended up buying an 85% bar, and I'm really happy with my purchase. I think it would pair well with fruit or cheese, though I've just been eating it on its own. This stuff is super good, and worth a shot if you're willing to drop a fair bit of money on a bar of chocolate. Considering how terrible the cocoa industry often is to its farmers, I think it's worth paying a little more and eating chocolate a little less often to support farmer owned cooperatives. I'll probably make a post about the effects of the chocolate industry later ... but just know you can feel pretty good about these guys.

Apparently you can buy Kallari at Whole Foods market, but check your local food co-op first to see if they sell it. If no, you could always tell them about it and see if they're interested.

Trader Joe's

Is anyone else obsessed with Trader Joe's? Because, seriously, it is possibly the greatest grocery store ever invented - or at least in a neck and neck race with Aldi. That makes sense, though, since they're both owned by the same company. Trader Joe's always has lots of fun stuff, and the prices are almost universally fantastic.

One of my friends complains about the cost of meat there, but being a vegetarian means I don't actually care that much. Frozen fruit here is a steal, and the bread prices are decidedly tolerable. Also, a dollar for a pound of pasta is good enough for me these days - though I definitely miss when it was less! Sometimes other places will have sales, but Trader Joe's is great for the consistency of their pricing.

Also, their produce?  Yeah. Go to Joe if you need some bananas. Those puppies are cheap as heck.

Trader Joe's is compact, and not cluttered up with ten thousand brands and options - nearly everything they have is own-brand, which helps both to keep the costs down and make choices easy. I tend to get a little overwhelmed in normal supermarkets, trying to work out the pros and cons of the ten thousand different types and brands of bread - at Trader Joe's, it's all the same brand, so you don't have as much thinking to do.

I'll admit it, I don't really like thinking when I'm out grocery shopping. I want to see good stuff, buy good stuff, and take it home to eat. I can do that here. It's the best.

Plus, seriously, the frozen fruit is a godsend. Frozen pineapple is way cheaper than fresh and tastes AWESOME, without having to worry about slicing up a huge pineapple and getting rid of the skin and leaves yourself. I dunno, I like low-effort food, too. Eating shouldn't be hard work, I don't think.

While there are certainly some aspects of eating and cooking that should and do require more effort, I also like the easier solutions. So: frozen.

If you have a Trader Joe's near you and haven't been, check it out! If not ... well, I kinda pity you. See if you can hit one up on vacation sometime. It rules.

Giveaway!

It's a little last minute, but:

Our Ordinary Life is doing a giveaway for a gift card to ColdStone Creamery! Get your entries in by tonight and you could get a $20 gift card from them!

Head on over to their post to check it out! Since the warm weather hit so early - even if it HAS taken a turn to the cold side again - ice cream's been sounding awfully good lately. I've never actually been to a Cold Stone Creamery before, but I've heard good things.

What's everyone else think?

Weather

The weather here keeps getting stranger and stranger! Just last week, it was in the eighties ... now we're stuck in the forties. I didn't realize how cold it would get and left my window open last night - brr! You can imagine how chilly the bathroom was, too, with THAT window open. Blech. I can't say I quite approve of this weather swing, even if it is fairly typical for Chicago.

We get weather swings, but this seems intense even for us. The winter was so mild that I'm almost grateful for a little more cold, though I doubt it can be great for all the plants that have started coming up early. (There are a lot of those...) It seems like weather's become one of the #1 topics of conversation around these parts - usually, that's just plain banal, but with how odd it's been it actually seems valid to stand around talking about the weather. Not just pleasantries like usual, eh?

Springtime still means more outdoor time, and even if it's cold I won't let it keep me in! Regular sunshine and long walks go a long way to cheer me up. A day without at least a few quick walks is a day wasted, I think. I may not exercise quite as much as I should, but getting moving does help my mood and energy levels a lot.

At least it isn't raining!

I should post more - it's been an interesting winter! Most of it's been taken up by work, but what's really been interesting is the weather.

Ridiculous! It's 60 degrees out in March. And there were a lot of warm days over the winter, too. I wonder what will happen with pests and weeds this year - with less time frozen, I bet more bugs will have survived. I'm concerned how the weather this spring and summer will be, too ...

I can only imagine there'll be lots of terrible weather. With hot and cold all topsy turvy, it'll be windy and I imagine we'll have lots of storms. What all else that means, though, I couldn't say.