Want a movie with that burrito?

Chipotle, the Mexican place that used to be owned largely by McDonald's, is sponsoring free screenings of the movie "Food Inc.", in 32 cities this week, including tonight (July 15) in Berkeley and Houston, and tomorrow (July 16) in Austin, DC and West Hollywood. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. For more information on the screening, and other cities, click here.

Suitcase full of surprises

Good news - The Sacramento Bee sent me home with a suitcase full of cookbooks, so I'm going to get started on testing them right away and will be reviewing them soon. Some of the titles: The Scandinavian Cookbook, The Adaptable Table, Cooking Green, Real Cajun and Falling Cloudberries. I'm getting hungry just looking at them.

But today, here are some tidbits I've collected over the past few days from my reading while in airports.

• Over the past couple of years, 100-calorie snack packs have soared in popularity as a convenient way to control portion size. But sales are falling and, according the Mintel Global New Products Database, new launches of 100-calorie packs have slowed. What isn't known is if anyone lost weight by snacking. I'm betting the answer is no.
  
  
• A piece on NPR over the weekend says that ordinary farmers — the people who grow the lion's share of what America eats — have largely been left out of the mainstream media debate over "Food Inc.," a documentary film about the modern agricultural industry. The movie argues that large-scale agriculture produces inexpensive meat and vegetables, but imposes high costs on the environment and Americans' health.
  
  
• Is your favorite chef touting avocados? If so, he or she may be getting a little gift from the California Avocado Commission. The Packer, an industry journal, notes that the commission's Artisan Chef program has 14 chefs in California, Georgia, Florida, New York, Texas and Illinois. To see a full list of who's on the avocado dole, go to www.avocado.org.

New movie: Food Inc.

One of the joys of living in Charlottesville is being able to get a more personal view of our food (although thanks to the farmers market in Sacramento, we got to know several of the farmers in that area, too), and to learn about small-scale agriculture.

I was just reading this Q&A in Denver's Westword tied to an upcoming movie, "Food Inc." (The photograph is from foodincmovie.com.) I was struck by this quote (to read the whole Q&A, click here):

It's a minor miracle, and we (Americans) spend less on our food than at any point in history, but this low-cost food comes at a really high cost. I thought it would be interesting to talk to all the producers from Joel Salatin (owner of Polyface Farms, which is near Charlottesville) to big companies, but agribusiness does not want us to know where food is coming from.

I didn't realize this, but they didn't want us making this movie. From their point of view, they don't want you thinking about this stuff. There is still the white picket-fence illusion and from their point of view, they don't want you to know it's coming from a huge factory.

It all relates to the tobacco analogy, where there were powerful organizations with connections to government. They totally lied about what smoking did to your health. There are total similarities. There is this misconception that we have many options for food, but it's all coming from a few big companies.

Food for thought, eh?