Food, Inc.

July 25 2009

Last night I saw “Food, Inc.” at the Red River Theater in Concord. The showing was preceded by a reception with food provided by local NH farmers, growers, purveyors and the like – essentially, the kind of food you depart from the movie swearing you will seek forever and ever.

The theater was packed, including several folks from Derryfield. I arrived a few minutes late and could not find a seat (a nice problem for a small, not for profit theater). Connie Rosemont, the Executive Director of the theater, was in the front of the audience introducing the film and, when she saw me looking for a seat all the way in the back, called me by name and offered to help. It was both a somewhat awkward entrance and an impressive testimony to her ability to remember names amidst a crowd.

The movie has a clear point of view that is familiar to any fan of, say, Alice Walters, or Michael Pollan. Our own Gary Hirshberg, class of 1972, is an important part of the film as the chapters turn from a fairly horrifying set of circumstances to considering the way forward – can we have earth-friendly, healthy, food that is profitable to make without taking advantage of farmers or the workers? Gary and Stonyfield Farms, I am relieved to say, give us some hope. His refrain that we are voting with our choices every time we check-out at the supermarket is an essential idea for our students to understand, and one he spoke passionately about as our Founders' Day speaker last year. I often have the sense many teenagers have little understanding of how much power they have as consumers, and yet – looking through the other end of the consumption telescope – it seems marketers, advertisers and the like have a very refined sense that the teenage demographic matters to the success of their product.

I want our students to see this movie because I think it can add a great deal to the conversation about healthy choices in their lives – not just about food, but about what we put in and on our bodies, how our choices affect the planet and the people who may seem to be “away” but in fact are getting closer and closer (aside – just finished Thomas Friedman’s book “Hot, Flat & Crowded,” his follow-up to the sensational “The World is Flat,” so I may be more aware of population concerns than normal). No doubt some percentage of our students would be undeterred in eating McNuggets shortly thereafter. But the film demands a level of thinking about our daily choices, and I can’t help but believe many of our students, armed with new and provocative information about urgent issues, will be inspired to be a part of the solution.