Food Fight!

I thoroughly enjoyed the new documentary Food Fight - about the much-needed revolution in growing and eating - and so did the audience. The only nit-pick my friends and I had?  Wishing the movie had included some restaurants outside of California, and less of Alice Waters, who seems to really irritate people in DC, and elsewhere.

Oh, and in the post-screening Q&A (at DC's Independent Film Festival) filmmaker Chris Taylor told us that come June, there WILL be a veg garden at the White House and that Will Allen was offered the job of tending it (which, in a bit of good news to the residents of Milwaukee, he turned down).  So maybe a local veg-grower still has a chance?

Comments

[TC]

Do you know when this documentary will be released for public viewing?

[Susan Harris]

TC, I just added a link to the movie's website - hope they have the answer to your question b/c I don't know.

[LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Will Allen is such an inspiration to Milwaukee that I am glad he turned it down. The exposure might be nice, but after you've won a MacArthur grant, I''m betting anyone who needs to know about your work has gotten the message!

[Chris]

HI, Susan,
Thanks for the kind words. I had a great time at the screening in DC. Anyone who wants to buy the film can e-mail me at "kinophile@mac.com"

We didn't get to any restaurants outside of California because it's expensive to travel and shoot, even with a small crew. And the real story outside of California was more the political one. Of course we did shoot at the Union Sq Greenmarket, with Dan Barber. That was fun--he is a great chef and a great guy.

thanks,
Chris (FOOD FIGHT Director)

[Chris]

Also, the note about Alice upsetting Anthony Bourdain. I have no sympathy for someone like Bourdain who is long on attitude (smoking cigarettes between meals on his food show) and very short on intelligence. His comment about (paraphrase) "keeping the government out of my kitchen" is shockingly ill-informed about the state of food in our country--I've got news for Anthony: the government is already in his refrigerator, his pantry, his food market, everywhere he shops, because government food policy (through the Farm Bill) gives Anthony very little choice about his food. It's basically iterations of cheap corn and soy, very unhealthy, and very limited dietetically. I am surprised that someone with a major food channel presence would be so dangerously ill-informed.

[Debby]

Everyone should be aware that there is a farm bill being pushed through Congress that would make organic farming of food highly restricted if not downright illegal. Here is a petition we should all consider.
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=12671

[chuck b .]

I set up a blog poll designed to answer the most pressing question of our time, Who is more annoying--Alice Waters or Anthony Bourdain?

http://tr.im/hbRr

[Plantanista]

We can't pick "both"?

Breathy, fragile Alice, and bloviating Bourdain in the same kitchen... That would be a great night at the chef's table!

But really, we must give Alice her due, even if she *is* from California. She is the unequivocal grandmama of the new food movement. Yeah, she's a bit contrived at times, but I think that her public persona is intended to protect the true artist that resides within her. She is one of a kind. And irritating.

[wildsuburbia.blogspot.com]

I was looking over an earlier post on native plants from last December - a topic dear to my heart. I see the current gardening movements - native plants and growing your own food - as being more closely related than they appear. They both reflect a reaction to large corporations making decisions about our lives, diminishing our choices, and endangering our world for money.