Seared Tenderloin, 24-Hour Sous-Vide Short Rib, Quebec Fois GrasRed Wine Jus, Truffle Vinaigrette.
No real purpose for the photo on this posting per se, but it is a great carnivores delight no?
I watched a good documentary called "Food Inc.", which has a left lean on the American food corporations and how they do business.
I enjoyed it, though I am also the first to admit that I am a hypocrite.
You see, I got in a decent debate with friends about this very topic. Out of 6 of us eating at Toritos in Kensington Market (http://www.toritorestaurant.com/), I was the only one to side with GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms). My feeling on this issue is that there are concerns, (mainly, I am not a food scientist and am not privy to some rudimentary facts here) but I am not about to cause starvation for millions of people because of laymens' grey areas that I have with the subject by entirely ruling out GMO's on principle. It seems, as we all ate this amazing Chilean Tapas Feast that I was the only one to feel this way. I think it was more about everyone's lack of understanding the basic arguments involved. In regards to my friends, god bless them, they mean well, they'd love to buy local, "organic" is a word straight from Jesus, and it's all about Vegetarianism for a couple of them ...sheesh, but GMO's have a role too. A very important one.
The basic philosophy of the film was buy local, eat organic, use what's in season. As much as I buy into that, I still get cravings for fast food, which I deal with FOR ONLY $7 and 3 MINUTES! and having a habit of buying what's cheapest at the store (Though it's usually "fresh" and unprocessed) and not in season (I gotta have my blueberries in January...). See, I am a hypocrite, but everyone else is too. Nobody I know is 100% organic, local, sustainable.
My favorite one liner in the doc. was every item that rings through a scanner is a vote of food preference.
I love the idea of local, organic, sustainability. This year will be the first year I get to start up a reasonably sized garden, I have a cold cellar, where preserves are important, and prosciutto is cured. I make most dishes at home completely from scratch, and unlike most people, I am all too happy to kill things to eat on. ...though, I normally will use everything of the carcass if that's the case. ...I have Karma to live with...
I view GMO's in a grey coloured hue. Two opposite areas of my approach; On the one hand, some area's of GMO's (such as cloning) have been considered not to have had enough long-term studies to conclude their safety in our food chain. Contrast that to the current impact of bigger, fuller yields (like wheat and corn) in harder to grow parts of the planet through the work of people such as Norman Borlaug which has stemmed off starvation for millions of people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution).
I lean towards the latter view for the sake of humanity. Having said that, I would love to see cloning labels attached to the products we buy in the supermarkets.
Any who, here is a link to the movie,
Happy watching!
-Jerek
Definitely a complex and interesting topic. I like the Wendell Berry quote, "Eating is an agricultural act". It would be great if more people kept in mind where their food comes from even if they aren't eating local, organic, sustainable products. We are at a crossroads with industrial food in the sense that we are simply running out of room to farm, GMOs or not. Seems like people have been making that argument for years, that population would most certainly decline due to catastrophic food shortages—but we are going to have to face realities at some point since our supply of oil is not indefinite.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I think we can all do is to eat less meat. Not NO meat, just less and derive more calories from plants. Also, we need to get better at cooking—animals are not just made up of chops, ribs, and tenderloins. It is a disservice to the death of an animal to not make the nasty bits delicious—a fact I appreciate about chefs like you. Thanks for the engaging post—