Additional Reactions to Food, Inc.

The documentary didn't specifically mention the following ideas, but we (my husband and I) intend to:

(1) Eat more vegan meals. We already eat vegan breakfasts daily, vegan lunches 2-3x a week, and vegan dinners twice a week. We can easily increase the number of vegan lunches and dinners (from legumes and grains or legumes and nuts or seed combination foods) which we consume.

(2) Limit our consumption of poultry to organic, free-range, antibiotic free poultry, but at least turkey once or twice a year.

(3) Limit our consumption of other meats to organic, free-range, antibiotic free animal sources.

(4) Mostly eat local or homegrown products. Some of our foods come from Pacific Northwest companies like Bob's Red Mill in Portland, which produces many of our gluten free grains and cereals. However, we buy most of our gluten free sandwich breads from Ener-G foods in Seattle. My husband drives right by their bakery on his way to work. I make all of our quick breads and pastries, like fruit breads, cakes and cookies. We previously made all our own dairy/soy free icecream. However, we recently began buying Truly Decadent coconut milk based frozen desserts. I intend to either investigate that company's location and practices or resume making my own vegan 'vice' cream.

(5) Continue to freeze whatever we don't immediately consume from our produce garden harvest and other farmers' market purchased produce for later use.

(6) Try some local vegan restaurants. Perhaps that will introduce us to more vegan entree ideas. I already found many great vegan meat substitute recipes in my allergy free cookbooks.

(7) Finally, continue to eat nonallergenic foods that are healthy for our bodies. Above all, eat no more than we need according to physical hunger/fullness sensations. Serve ourselves only as much as we can comfortably consume. Then freeze leftovers for future meals. Cook in quantity to save food for future meals. We can waste less food by only serving ourselves what we need. If we feel overly full or even stuffed after a meal or if we eat more than necessary to maintain our ideal weight, WE ARE WASTING FOOD. Obviously weighing more than our ideal healthy weight means we wasted food just as effectively as throwing away good food. The solution is not to serve ourselves more than we need.

The "Food, Inc." documentary really opened our eyes to unhealthy practices in the food industry. We now better understand all the 'fuss' about non GMO foods, free range raised animals, antibiotic free meat and organic produce. We're glad we belong to and shop at a local food coop. Most of all, we appreciate what that coop is doing to support local farmers and oppose big food industry conglomerate practices.