Food Inc. Teacher’s Guide

Dear Friends,

Last week we talked about the powerful, transformative movie: Food Inc. I would like to continue our discussion to further impress upon you the absolute importance and opportunity that this film offers us to bring about real change in our childrens’ attitudes and behaviors relative to the food we produce and eat. It gives us a tool to bring about change, at the grass roots level, through our childen as our next generation hope—the architects and caretakers for a better world. It is suggested that this film be used with high school kids. We all think that we know the reality of our food supply system, and here I would entreat you to take another look—you will be changed.

The movie (documentary) has been divided into 12 chapters. That is, you may select between 12 sections of the movie to view and use as a focal point for discussion. Each section takes about 10 minutes to view. A 103 page Discussion Guide, produced by the Center for Ecoliteracy, is provided online for teachers to use as individual lesson plans relative to each section of the movie.

In the guides Table of Content the following are the focus questions:

Fast Food To All Food: Do animals have the right to certain quality of life?

A Cornucopia Of Choices: Do people have the right to know what is in their food?

Unintended Consequences: Who is responsible for keeping our food safe?

The Dollar Menu: Should access to healthy food be a right for everyone?

In The Grass: When deciding what to eat, how much should we consider the workers who pick, process and transport it?

Hidden Costs: Does it matter to you which food companies produce your food?

From Seed To The Supermarket: Should companies be able to own the DNA contained in plant seeds?

The Veil: Should a company have the power to decide what information to give consumers about the food it produces?

Shock To The System: What individual or collective actions are you willing to take to improve our food system, and what would be their impact?

As Zenobic Barlow, Cofounder and Executive Director of the Center For Ecoliteracy says:

“Food Inc. presents the challenges posed by our current food system. It also offers hope.”

“The guide is designed to support teachers and students in exploring the profound impacts of daily actions. It is a learning aid that demonstrates how to make choices that promote well-being by honoring nature’s ways of sustaining the web of life.”

Our children are our future. Food Inc. and the materials around it should be brought to every school system, every office and clinic, and into our homes. The issues it tackles are the very issues that the holistic community is all about—a healthy environment, social equity and a sustainable life style. Resolving the issue of food will bring health back to the biosphere and the human race. What actions on our part could be more important and life-saving than to fill the hearts and the minds of our next generation with such a mission and purpose?

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

When we look at the nature of human diseases in the world today, more and more people of all ages are chronically ill. Cancer, hearth disease, diabetes, arthritic, neurological diseases, gastrointestinal disorders—the kinds of conditions old people mostly conversed about, in the good old days, are now affecting younger populations, as you know only too well. Therapeutic Foods help protect against these conditions. Let’s take a look at the most feared of the big three—cancer—and how Therapeutic Foods help protect against its development.

Blueberry is known to protect against cancer. The polyphenols within its pigment block four out of five of the stages of cancer development, including the vascularization of tumors. Take one capsule Wild Blueberry Extract a day. It is a cup and one quarters worth of blueberries.

Cruciferous vegetables are known to be anticancer foods. The sprouts of cruciferous vegetables magnify this ability ten fold. We benched trialed our Cruciferous Sprout Complex on their ability to stimulate the production of Phase Two Enzymes in human liver cells. Within a month of dosing 2 tsps a day or 8 capsules a day, they caused an increased output of P2Ps by 2.6 times. P2Ps (Phase Two Enzymes) are important anticancer enzymes within our body’s antioxidant defense system. In animal trial where their P2P production is inhibited, they live 20% less and virtually 100% of the time develop cancers. Take one teaspoon a day of the Cruciferous Complex powder or 4 capsules of the Crucifersou Complex capsule daily.

The goods bugs (probiotics) used in the American collection were bench tested for their ability to neutralize heterocyclic amines, and four out of five of the bugs in the Original and Beta Glucan Formulas accomplish this task. In the Triple Berry and the High ORAC we used L. acidophilus and B. longum—both of which neutralize these very dangerous carcinogens, produced when red meats are cooked with very high heat. In our powdered formulas there is enough prebiotic per dose that you get a nice amount of butyric acid produced upon the fermentation of the inulin and beta glucan soluble fibers. Butyric acid stimulates the differentiation of stem cells. Take one teaspoon to one tablspoon of the synbiotic formulas daily.

The Last Quiz Answer: The African wild ass is primarily active in the cooler hours between late afternoon and early morning, seeking shade and shelter amongst the rocky hills during the day. Swift and sure-footed in their rough, rocky habitat, the African wild ass has been clocked at 50 kmph / 30 mph. Mature males defend large territories around 23 square kilometers in size, marking them with dung heaps – an essential marker in the flat, monotonous terrain. Due to the size of these ranges, the dominant male cannot exclude other males. Rather, intruders are tolerated – recognized and treated as subordinates, and kept as far away as possible from any of the resident females. In the presence of estrous females the males bray loudly. Despite being primarily adapted for living in an arid climate, African wild asses are dependent on water, and when not receiving the needed moisture from vegetation they must drink at least once every three days. However, they can survive on a surprisingly small amount of liquid, and have been known to drink salty or brackish water.

“Food, Inc. does for the supermarket what Jaws did for the beach.—VARIETY”I love this quote in regards to the movie and the companion book— Food, Inc., How Industrial Food is Making us Sicker, Fatter and Poorer—And What You Can Do About It, edited by Karl Weber. The book explores the challenges raised by the movie through thirteen essays, most of them written especially for this book, and many by experts featured in the film. Food Inc., the book, provides the facts behind the problems, and shows what we can do to make a difference.