An Abundance of Food

We rented Fantastic Mr. Fox, and it wasn't as great as I thought it would be. My second grade teacher Mrs. Askins read us the book, which was wonderful, but this movie just wasn't entertaining even though it cracked lots of jokes. I did enjoy Meryl Streep's lines (Mr. Fox's wife) taming her unruly husband.



Mr. Fox is a chicken robber who is cornered underground by his enemies, farmers Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, until the end of the movie where he finally escapes by the skin of his teeth, and then serendipitously raids the ginormous Boggis, Bunce, and Bean supermarket store, as though he's mastered his enemies.

"Do another toast, Dad," says his son.

"Okay. Let's see. They say all foxes are slightly allergic to linoleum. But it's cool to the paw. Try it. They say our tree [their home which was dug up] may never grow back. But, one day, something will.

"Yes, these crackles are made out of synthetic goose, ...and these Giblets come from artificial squab. And even these apples look fake...but at least they've got stars on them.

"I guess my point is we'll eat tonight, and we'll eat together, and even in this not particularly flattering light, you are without a doubt, the five-and-a-half most wonderful wild animals I've ever met in my life.

"So let's raise our boxes. To our...survival!

"How was that?"

"That was a good toast." -His closing lines
(Best shot I could get of the store is just a glimpse in the above video clip).

So, my point: was he really moving up in the world by trading in his chicken stealing days for raiding the Boggis, Bunce, and Bean supermarket store? (Waah!) Hello, heart disease. I feel that the sentiments he shared on that momentous night are what most people are feeling deep inside across this great land. "This might be fake food, but this is livin'."

The superfoods guru of FoodMatters believes we should be having the best food in the world. Instead of demanding good food people would rather spend money on rent or other luxuries. Food, Inc. producers states we average spending about 9% of our income on food in the U.S., which is measly. (For our family its a lot bigger chunk than 9%!)

Others believe that our modern technology has helped the world meet the demands of a growing population; but watch John Perkins Speaking Freely, Supersize Me, Food, Inc., Fed Up! or King Corn to see our food supply is not what it could be. Greed (from businesses and industry) will never supply us with good food. Quite the contrary, what has Monsanto given us? Soybeans, GM corn, tons of pesticides and herbicides, rBST growth hormone? Sounds like a bunch of poison to me, illegal dumping aside.