Food Inc.

Judging by the strong turnout at our recent showing of "Food Inc."— and the numerous requests we received for more information —there is no topic generating more personal and national concern these days, and more impatience for solutions, than the dysfunctions of the American industrial food “system.”

More appreciated than ever before are corporate and industrial food’s depredations on our communities’ health, economies and environment, but where to go from here, and how to effect meaningful change, is not as readily apparent. No wonder the New York Times called Food Inc. “one of the scariest movies” of 2009, and also “inherently frustrating” with a checklist of actions at its coda that “registers as far too depressingly little.”

We plan to stay on this topic—possibly with more film events—and to offer periodic tips on how to get more information and get more involved in meaningful activism, on such topics as eco-labeling, soil carbon, food and emissions, government subsidies, agriculture and trade, and how to get the Sierra Club itself to pay more attention than it has to agricultural issues (my personal effort to jumpstart a dormant national Agriculture Action Team frustratingly fizzled). After all, agriculture’s impacts on climate change, water conservation, land use and health and overall community well-being are either unquestionably the most important of any sector, or right near the top. We all want to know, what can we do, beyond supporting local growers and markets?

For starters, check out www.goodguide.com, founded by Dara O'Rourke, an associate professor of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. GoodGuide rates the impacts of tens of thousands of a wide range of consumer products on health, environmental and social areas of concern. The site provides an overall point score in each of the three areas, plus sub-scores on such important dimensions as energy impacts, emissions reduction, water efficiency, biodiversity “controversies” and employee health and safety. For shopping convenience, GoodGuide’s information is available on mobile phones by entering product bar codes,
and there is even an iPhone app, of course. Just visit the site and check it out.