"Ingredients" is a film I recently watched. It's a documentary concerning the current state of our industrial food system juxtaposed with a growing local, sustainable trend in agriculture. Most of the focus is in Oregon and California with a turn to New York in attempt to prove that local sustainability works in big cities. In Harlem, a food bank is provided fresh produce from a farm in Kinderbrook, NY (upstate NY not NYC), where people of low income and livable wage are serviced. The narrator explains the diversity of economic status welcomed at the food bank lowers the price for those of low-income.
The beginning of the film features a rancher of sorts that is following a type of biodynamic farming. His father before him exclusively raised sheep. After attending a conference on slow food with questions concerning why his sheep were infected with parasites the son learned of two things; density and diversity. The rancher reduced his number of sheep who are susceptible to consuming anything and brought in cows who are less vulnerable to parasites and ducks who will finish off anything left behind. I've read of other farmers practicing this method; a miniature eco system that eliminates the use of chemical pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, etcetera. This works for livestock as well as produce. I find it to be fascinating. The simplest things seem the hardest to come by.
The score of the film is fraught with mood altering string instruments. Invoking serene thought during scenes spanning a beautiful cinematographic field of crops, a light morning mist from dawns dense fog, mountains peering in the horizon. The score then brings one to the playful chaos of a kitchen with bouncy rhythms as beautiful food is plated with a bounty of colors and flavors left for the imagination. The entire film solicits a mood; one of calm and joy watching people who love food speak about it happily and passionately. It leaves one feeling, not lectured or preached to-dispite Alice Waters part on her restaurant in Berkeley, Che Panisse; she has a tendency to seem preachy-but given hope that there are people who care about the state of our food, where it comes from, how it is brought to the table and where the future lies. I have seen other food production documentaries, this is one of the few to have an unleveled juxtaposition of the good and negative aspects of the food industry. "Ingredients" chose to look toward what's currently happening and give hope that what's being done is for the sake of better times when local sustainability is the norm; the negatives where reduced to factual reminders of what occurs and what we want to move further beyond. I am hopeful and I look to contributing to this possible positive future, hopefully this blog will help in encouraging one to consider the pathway of our food system and how one can make an impact on keeping it at it's best ...
The beginning of the film features a rancher of sorts that is following a type of biodynamic farming. His father before him exclusively raised sheep. After attending a conference on slow food with questions concerning why his sheep were infected with parasites the son learned of two things; density and diversity. The rancher reduced his number of sheep who are susceptible to consuming anything and brought in cows who are less vulnerable to parasites and ducks who will finish off anything left behind. I've read of other farmers practicing this method; a miniature eco system that eliminates the use of chemical pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, etcetera. This works for livestock as well as produce. I find it to be fascinating. The simplest things seem the hardest to come by.
The score of the film is fraught with mood altering string instruments. Invoking serene thought during scenes spanning a beautiful cinematographic field of crops, a light morning mist from dawns dense fog, mountains peering in the horizon. The score then brings one to the playful chaos of a kitchen with bouncy rhythms as beautiful food is plated with a bounty of colors and flavors left for the imagination. The entire film solicits a mood; one of calm and joy watching people who love food speak about it happily and passionately. It leaves one feeling, not lectured or preached to-dispite Alice Waters part on her restaurant in Berkeley, Che Panisse; she has a tendency to seem preachy-but given hope that there are people who care about the state of our food, where it comes from, how it is brought to the table and where the future lies. I have seen other food production documentaries, this is one of the few to have an unleveled juxtaposition of the good and negative aspects of the food industry. "Ingredients" chose to look toward what's currently happening and give hope that what's being done is for the sake of better times when local sustainability is the norm; the negatives where reduced to factual reminders of what occurs and what we want to move further beyond. I am hopeful and I look to contributing to this possible positive future, hopefully this blog will help in encouraging one to consider the pathway of our food system and how one can make an impact on keeping it at it's best ...