Why Are Food Prices Out of Control? What Are We Really Eating? R Reich, M Pollan, Food Inc 2

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Sat Apr 13, 2024, 08:49 PM - Edit history (2)

- Retail grocery consolidation, monopolistic; giant corporations have taken over what we eat; corn, ethanol; new documentary, 'Food Inc. 2.'

- Companies are using inflation to price-gouge Americans – and making it worse, Robert Reich, The Guardian, April 11, 2024. Thanks to near-monopolies in many industries, corporations are seeing record profits as consumers struggle with high prices...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/11/companies-inflation-price-gouging

- 'Food Inc., 2' Official Trailer, new documentary.
-------------------
- (Wiki) Earl Lauer "Rusty" Butz (July 3, 1909 – Feb. 2, 2008) was a US government official who served as the secretary of agriculture under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. His policies favored large-scale corporate farming and an end to New Deal programs..
His mantra to farmers was "get big or get out",
and he urged farmers to plant commodity crops such as corn "from fencerow to fencerow". These policy shifts coincided with the rise of major agribusiness corporations, and the declining financial stability of the small family farm...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Butz#:

- 'King Corn' or How Earl Butz Changed the Way Americans Eat,
.. What eventually emerges from this lighthearted buddy film, however, is a tragic lesson in how a few well-placed individuals–in this case the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Earl Butz, working with a supportive president, Richard Nixon, and profit-hungry corporate interests–can alter the life and health of an entire nation in lasting ways. It was Butz, himself raised on a family farm, who flipped the federal system of farm supports on its ear with the specific intention of flooding the country with cheap food...
http://www.theslowcook.com/blog/2007/10/19/king-corn-or-how-earl-butz-changed-the-way-americans-eat/

[marble falls]

1. Michael Pollan knows about food. I read anything he writes. Robert Reich always gets the big picture.

[erronis]

2. Both are smart and see the whole perspective.

Not as much into Pollan's articles/books on psychedelics, etc. but I do read them.

[marble falls]

3. The Omnivore's Dilemma was the eyeopener for me.

[appalachiablue]

6. Reich is the best; great work from Pollan. Adding *FAST FOOD NATION*..

- Trailer, 'Fast Food Nation' 2006. Based on the book 'Fast Food Nation, The Dark Side of the All- American Meal,' by Eric Schlosser (2001).

- Wiki. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is a 2001 book by Eric Schlosser. First serialized by Rolling Stone in 1999, the book has drawn comparisons to Upton Sinclair's 1906 muckraking novel The Jungle. The book was adapted into a 2006 film of the same name, directed by Richard Linklater...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Food_Nation

[appalachiablue]

10. R., Reich: Companies Are Using Inflation to Price- Gouge Americans & Making It Worse, Ap. 11, 24

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/11/companies-inflation-price-gouging

[erronis]

4. Squeezing the producers(farmers), price gouging, consolidation, lack of competition

Wonderful segment. I'd love to see a good outline of this discussion.

[erronis]

5. Links to "Food Inc. 2". Looks like a very good watch.

https://magpictures.com/foodinc2/watch-at-home/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/apr/11/food-inc-2-documentary
https://rocofilms.com/films/food-inc-2/

[appalachiablue]

7. These are good, thanks much.

[gopiscrap]

8. one word:

greed

[appalachiablue]

9. Check!

[Dave Bowman]

11. Can't wait to watch this.

The 1st one was great and pretty disturbing.