Green Options » Eric Schlosser

Food, Inc. The Companion Guide

Jamie Ervin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:57:19 +0000

Finally, it’s in my hands. I’ve been waiting for what feels like EONS for my copy of Food, Inc. (Edited by Karl Weber) to arrive. I first laid eyes on this delightful book on a shopping trip to Whole Foods Market and was prompted by husband to not buy it that day because surely we could get our hands on it for less. Once again, he was right.

The book is a companion to help one further explore the issues raised in the documentary, Food, Inc. Starring Eric Schlosser and directed by Robert Kenner. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to watch the documentary, but I’m near to frothing and not sure I can wait for it to hit DVD and my Netflix queue.

The companion book contains 13 essays to explore the facts behind the problems we see in the news every day, issues like hunger, human rights, tainted food and pollution.

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The Chain Never Stops by Eric Schlosser

John Chappell — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:10:05 +0000

Best known as the author who brought you Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser is also an award winning journalist who had been writing about the food industry in the United States for many years prior to the publication of the popular book.

Publicity surrounding his new movie, Food Inc., urged me to revisit some of Schlosser’s earlier writings during his stint writing for The Atlantic Monthly and other magazines and journals. This article was originally published in the July/August 2001 issue of Mother Jones and though it may be a few years old, it is well worth the time to read.

The article details the human side of the American industrial meat packing industry, and though the stomach turning descriptions of death and maiming rarely ever involve the animals, they don’t need to, there are plenty of human victims. The accounts of workers being burned, cut, crushed, impaled, and debilitated from repetitive stress injuries are sad. The accounts of those same injured, loyal workers being cast aside and cut off from medical care by their employers are heartbreaking.

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Food, Inc. Documentary Movie Removes Shroud of Secrecy

Keith Rockmael — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:04:15 +0000

For those in America who have yet to read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Fast Food Nation or even The Jungle, the new docu pic Food, Inc. smoothly stirs the boiling pot of food production controversy while allowing those not familiar with the dark secrets of the food production industry to enjoy a film in bite size nuggets.

With Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser a co-producers and Omnivore’s Dilemma writer Michael Pollen one of the consultants (in addition to being on-screen participants) the film offers a solid, well presented structure that offers not only scary, gut wrenching even stomach turning scenes in meatpacking plants, chicken coops and but offers a silver lining into the future of food.

Producer/Director Robert Kenner weaves the film through the various food landscapes from the cramped chicken coops of Maryland to the aerial CAFO vistas to the open grasslands of Polyface Farms. Inside one of the chicken coops live chickens that wallow in their own filth and barely have room to move. Factory farm shots show downer cows being uplifted by forklifts to be transported to the slaughterhouse. The film makes a point of showing people how dangerous and unregulated our food system remains.

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“Food Inc.” Exposes the Putrid Underbelly of Factory Farming

Rhonda Winter — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:35:46 +0000

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“You’ve got a small group of multinational corporations who control the entire food system, from seed to the supermarket.”

A new documentary film, “Food Inc.“, exposes a frightening portrait of how dysfunctional and destructive our food system has become, and how dishonest corporations repeatedly compromise safety for profit. The movie illustrates how our nation is almost totally divorced from seasonal food, biodiversity and local production. We have entrusted the safety of our food system to a small handful of huge greedy corporations that are destroying us and the planet with massive monoculture factory farms and poisonous chemicals. According to Michael Pollan, this movie is “The most important film about our food system in a generation”. This excellent documentary was made by Robert Kenner and co-produced by Eric Schlosser, of Fast Food Nation fame; it is scheduled to be released on June 12 of this year.

From My Bookshelf-Part 1

Lee Welles — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:07:16 +0000

As a writer of fiction, I constantly get the question, “Where do you get your ideas?” The answer is, two places: I get out and play in the world a lot and I read a LOT! I wanted to share some of the books on my shelf, so that you too…can get inspired.

Food and food production was the first topic I tackled. I haven’t read it yet, but Michael Pollan’s new book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, sounds excellent. I enjoyed listening to a recent interview with him on Talk of the Nation and have it on hold at my local library. Michael Pollan also did a fantastic job with An Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Many people are familiar with Pollan’s writing, but I wanted to make you aware of some titles you may have missed.

I believe I stumbled up Fat Land by Greg Critser first. Being a health and wellness consultant, the subtitle, “How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World,” is what caught my eye.

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