Have you seen Food Inc.? - RANT WARNING!

I AM DOWNRIGHT TRAUMATIZED!! 

 

So have you seen this documentary? It's sooooo disturbing! I'm pretty tempted to go vegetarian about right now. I actually think I will. Well, vegetarian with grass-fed beef, free range chicken, and cage free eggs. I don't think I could go fully vegetarian. I was pretty much sickened by this movie. It is unfortunate that it costs so much more to eat well. But while that is the case, I also know that in the long term it costs less and is much less stressful to a person's body.

I thought it was interesting because they were showing this one family that opted for dollar burgers over broccoli. Now while I get what they were saying, I found it fascinating that the father was taking two diabetes meds that together cost over a couple hundred dollars a month. And you know that probably if he ate right and exercised he would most likely be able to be off those meds in no time. So there you would have 200 or so extra dollars to spend on food. It must be daunting though if you're in that position where you only have 4 or 5 dollars per meal for a family of four. And where you're out of the house from 7 in the morning till 9 at night. It would be really hard to say that you were going to eat well and exercise when you probably truly are more satisfied with a burger since your body is used to it.

The cruelty to the animals was extreme to say the least. I've heard this being the reason for many people turning to vegan or vegetarian diets. I get it. I, however, just don't imagine myself ever giving up meat altogether. I just like the texture too much. But I will tell you that I will be hard put to order anything meat at any restaurant that isn't a grass-fed beef or free range chicken restaurant. I just don't think I can stomach that at this point. I even have some of my Thai Basil Chicken in my fridge that will go in my freezer because I really don't think I can stomach it right now.

And then there's fish. I don't even want to know where that's coming from because then I think I will NEVER eat any fish again either. Oh, man! I'm SOOOOOO traumatized. Just for the record, I watched this movie almost 2 days ago and I'm still just as traumatized as if I just watched it. Also keep in mind that I knew of what the movie was about and had even seen some footage but it really didn't prepare me for the horror that was this movie! Okay, that's a little dramatic but it really was so much more disturbing than I thought it would be.

And of course there are all those huge conglomerate companies that own so much of the livestock in the U.S. That is also disturbing to me. But that's life in the U.S. (and most other countries) these days. The big conglomerates own most of the country. We saw this same thing happen with the major financial institutions and brokerages. Just watch Inside Job if you haven't. Again disturbing. And of course all these major companies have got their farmers by the balls, so to speak. It's just not right. The treatment of their farmers and workers is just wrong and inhumane. So the animals, workers, and farmers are all living horrendous lives and the higher ups just seem to think about money and definitely not about how to improve the situation to make everyone profit and live a healthy, happy life.

I won't go on and on. Just to say that I am traumatized to the point that I'm reconsidering what I'm eating and looking for good protein substitutes to meat. I realize I could eat a lot less animal protein and be fine. I also find it amusing that I was already turned off of animal protein and leaning more toward vegetable protein anyway. Hmmm...very interesting! So if any of my fine readers know of good websites/blogs with vegetarian recipes, please let me know. I'm not going to go crazy and do a complete 180 but I'm definitely going to be making a lot of changes and bringing in a lot more vegetarian/vegan recipes into my life. For ME, it's better and makes me feel better. I already get most of my produce from the farmers markets but my animal protein was definitely a cheaper thing that I was compromising on quality. I do have a good grass-fed beef vendor at my farmer's market though so I'm good there. And cage free eggs I've been buying forever.

It will be a change but I'm going to aim for balance and not overdo the vegetarian thing or the cage-free/grass-fed thing. I'm sure you'll get to read all about it. Hope you had a great weekend and it wasn't nearly as traumatizing as mine was! ;-)