Food, Inc., “lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA.”  The movie discusses how the industry has changed over the last few decades, consumer health, American farmers and other topics relating to agriculture.

As with any documentary of this sort, it presents a one-sided argument, although this one I agree with.  I do believe the food industry has gotten out of hand with the number of multinational conglomerates that have taken over.  Why should a hamburger at McDonald’s cost less than carrots at the supermarket?  Logically it does not make sense when more components are involved with the creation of the burger.  It also was a bit scary that a typical grocery store contains over 42,000 different items, 90% of which contain corn or soy.

Unfortunately, I believe the movie was a bit too short and glossed over the points I thought were the most interesting.  The bulk of the time the film was exposing wrongdoings with the agriculture industry (there are a lot).  There were only a few brief minutes discussing how the organic industry has evolved.  For example, Stonyfield Farm, the #3 yogurt producer in the United States is now owned by the Dannone Group and supplies Wal-mart.  I think the argument Gary Hirshberg (CEO of Stonyfield) brought up was very thought provoking.  He felt for every million Wal-mart spent buying organic, it was one less million spent on non-organic.  Of course, that million is going to his company, so it’s not surprise he’s supporting it.  I would have loved to have seen some people’s views supporting and opposing this theory.

I’m a big supporter of making small changes.  I think it’s unrealistic for everyone to stop what they’re doing and only buy organic and local foods.  I think the suggestions for everyone at the end of the movie were things people already knew for the most part.  I’ve listed them below, with my comments in italics ;

1. Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages – Did I just watch Food Inc. or Fast Food Nation?
   
2. Eat at home instead of eating out - Duh, it saves money and is healthier
   
3. Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post caloric information on menu and menu boards – Isn’t this already passed?
   
4. Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks – I don’t have kids, not applicable
   
5. Meatless Mondays – go without meat one day a week – I agree with this.  Personally I think everyone could benefit from some extra legumes
   
6. Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides – Great if you can afford it, see further comments below
   
7. Protect family farms; visit your local farmer’s markets – Usually prices are good and the food variety is better.  Also look into CSA boxes, they tend not to be outrageously expensive
   
8. Make a point to know where your food comes from – Read labels – Duh
   
9. Tell congress that food safety is important to you – I think they should have told us how to do this
   
10. Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections – See comment for #9

Personally, I would have liked to see more information on how to make an impact.  These last ten items were almost an afterthought to the movie.  For example, suggestions on  how to make a difference when on a tight budget is just one item that would have been more interesting.  Additionally, I was surprised the website did not go into further detail on the ways you can make small changes.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and the entire US Food System isn’t going to change overnight either.

Criticism aside, I think everyone should go see the film.  I had no idea that over 80% of meat products are controled by 4 companies (as opposed to 5 companies controling less than 40% in 1970).  It’s those small nuggets of information that make the movie worthwhile.  It’s important to see what you’re feeding your body.  If you don’t take care of yourself, who else will?

Developed by Buster McLeod and designed by Matt Hickey, Locavore finds your location and provides you with a list of fruits and vegetables that are currently in season plus others that will be in season soon.  Additionally, the application features local farmer’s markets and a social networking aspect.

I downloaded this application because I thought it would assist with helping to choose the right foods in the grocery store.  That aspect is lost on me right now because I’ve been hitting up the Farmer’s markets in California.  However, it is nice to look at and see which fruits and vegetables are almost out of season.  This allows me to make sure I buy those and get my fill before they’re gone until next year.  This application was also helpful since I just moved to the bay area.  It gave me a list of all the local farmer’s markets with their websites.

I could also see this application being helpful for those with CSA boxes.  There were a few times in Boston where I had difficulty identifying some produce contained in my bi-weekly delivery.  Locavore would have allowed me to see what was locally in season and use process of elimination to determine the unknown item.

Ease-of-Use:

It’s just about idiot-proof.  The phone locates your position and tells you what’s in season.   Strawberries are in season?  Awesome, they’re one of my favorite fruits.

UI:

The interface is clear and organized.  The pie slices act like a timer, showing you how long before the item will no longer be locally produced.

I also like that clicking on the produce gives you further information, including where else the item is available and for how long (who knew Kohlrabi was grown in 7 states?!)

One of the smartest features is globe icon in the bottom right.  When clicking more information, the website is embedded in the application and you’re not automatically booted to Safari (which really annoys me sometimes all the time).  You have control over whether or not you want to leave the application.

Gripes:

How necessary is the Facebook connect?  I’m pretty sure all my friends are annoyed by the copious amounts of Twitter updates that dominate their news feed.   I understand it spreads the “let’s eat local” love, but do they really want to read about every morsel I put in my mouth? I’m not that interesting.  Now if Martha had joined, maybe people would pay attention, but even the Domestic Diva called Facebook “dippy“.

Improvements:

Locavore should hop on the push notification bandwagon.  I might be busy and forget blueberries are on their way out.  A notification once the pie reaches the red reminding me to buy a stockpile before the price skyrockets would be fantastic.

Final Verdict:

It’s a good, clean, well-built application with little-to-no bugs.  If you’re a total local-food-only person, it would be worth the $3.99 to have that information right at your fingertips.  If they lowered the price and added push-notifications, I would recommend this application to more individuals.  Until then, try Google.

Just so you know, it’s still good.

(Lemon Cream Tart)

Being from NY, the concept did not make sense to me.  Why would I use instant coffee, there is a coffee place (most likely Starbucks) open right across the street!  Then I read the back of the package…”It took more than 35 years, but we’ve created a way to bring you the bold taste of Starbucks coffee in any cup.”  Ohhh!!!!!!  I get it!  They’re just trying to make sure I never drink any coffee besides Starbucks ever again!  Case Closed.

Ok, Ok, back to the review.  The package comes with three individual servings of instant coffee.  So if you’re away from home, you can bring them with you to have coffee on demand (provided there is hot water, milk and sugar around).  I did notice a big difference between traditional instant coffee (top) and the starbucks (bottom).  The granules themselves are MUCH smaller, a factor Starbucks claims comes from their top-secret process for making the instant coffee taste better.

If you watch the videos Starbucks has online (especially the London one), people keep saying the coffee is smooth. I suppose they’re right.  I would say this cup of coffee reminds me of one of those Keurig or Flavia machines.  The coffee is better Folgers and almost satifsying.  It just isn’t strong enough for a serious coffee drinker.

My biggest peeve is that the directions tell you to add 8 fl oz of hot water to the packet.  The smallest coffee at Starbucks is 12 fl oz and I constantly see people ordering the larger sizes.  Therefore, one would need at least two of these instants in the morning to fill their normal brew size.  Since the packets aren’t strong enough to replace the traditional cup, you might as well throw in the last packet that comes in the $2.95 package.  Wow.  My hat is off to you Starbucks, you’ve figured out how to get people to spend even more money on coffee…Genius.

Mooo….

No really, that’s the name of the restaurant (kinda awesome, huh?).  As an early birthday celebration, I got to experience some fantastic high-class steak in an uber-swank location.  I’ll cut right to the chase on this one, we only ordered 1 course…steak.  No appetizers, no dessert (I know, I know, I’m just as shocked as you are, after all this was my birthday dinner). To be honest, the one course was almost too much, almost.

So the steak… 8 oz. Fllet Mignon, which was the smallest one offered on the menu, with a wine sauce…medium-rare.  I debated going rare but MR was perfect, melt-in-your-mouth perfection.  It didn’t even need the wine sauce, but that just made it all the more delicious.  My partner in crime also ordered the filet mignon, albeit the more aggressive 12 oz. portion.

For sides, we ordered the “Mooo Side Flight,” which consisted of  yukon gold mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, truffled Parmesan fries and a mushroom medley.  Here is my advice on this one: don’t get it.  Instead, just get the truffled fries and mushrooms.  The fries were amazing and the mushrooms were a nice delicate balance.  I’m not a huge fan of creamed spinach to begin with, but this wasn’t even good.  I took one bite and decided my stomach capacity should be saved for other things.  The potatoes were just potatoes, nothing fancy..again, not worth it.

At the end of the meal, I was very happy, beyond full and then realized I just ate half a pound of steak.  Gluttony at it’s best.

And now for something completely different….

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The Clover Food Truck

A relatively recent addition to the famed food trucks on the MIT campus, my friend Emily introduced me the day after my steak excursion.  Not your typical street-meat cart, this place serves vegetarian, local and when possible, organic food.

Started by MIT grad Ayr Muir, the food truck brings easily accessible healthy food to the the Kendall community.  I’m just bummed I didn’t find out about this place until after the semester was over!  Hopefully it will be back next year.

While more expensive than the competing food trucks, Clover delivers warm meals with uber-fresh ingredients.  For lunch I had a Tofu BLT, cucumber and tomato salad and an unsweetened iced tea (my favorite summertime beverage) all for only $9.  The only catch is food runs out quickly, so you have to get there early for the full selection.  You can also follow them on Twitter for updates.

I also recommend reading these articles on the Clover Food Truck and Ayr’s food concepts in

The Boston Globe and

MIT News