FOOD, Inc. shares a pear moment
Jun 15th, 2009 by Laura Reinsborough
A girl roams the produce section of a supermarket with her older sister, searching for a tasty snack. After careful deliberation, she chooses a fresh pear. Her sister weighs it to see the cost value per pear. Even though the pears are on sale, the older sister puts the pear back and suggests a candy bar instead.
Such is the choice in today’s supermarkets for members of a low-income family, even with a father suffering from diabetes.
This scene from the new film FOOD, Inc. is one of the more poignant ones, revealing the personal implications of the industrial food system. It brings home just how important it is to share our backyard fruit as a small step with big implications.
The film ends with a string of messages to empower us as consumers, encouraging us to consider the way we vote by eating, three times a day. For Torontonians, the time is now for us to vote in a much more powerful way.
The City of Toronto is currently considering policy changes to support local food production, and is looking to its citizens to inform how that is done. Deputations are being made tomorrow to the Parks and Environment Committee (see the agenda here). I just found out about this meeting today, but hope to be able to keep informed of the process as it continues.
FOOD, Inc. opens this Friday, June 19th. For those who haven’t read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation or would like a refresher, check it out.
One thing the City should do, in support of this considered policy change, is to make it easier for gardeners to have access to its allotment garden program. Community gardens don’t quite fill the gap for a family serious about vegetable production. The City’s allotment garden sites are still in operation, yet it is impossible to find contact information on the City website, and even if you find the number, the waiting lists are long. Plots, such as the allotments at the foot of Leslie Street, are becoming as precious as cottage properties on Toronto Island. New allotment sites should be created and it should be simple for interested gardeners to find them.