As the post-industrial food movement continues to grow at its rapid clip, there are new shows, documentaries and books coming out in a steady stream. The following is a sample of some of those resources. But before I get to that, here on Beams we're passionate about transforming our relationship to food too, and we have a few articles toward that end you might be interested in. TJ wrote an early article called Shovel it Down! about how we treat food in our fast paced culture; Andrew wrote a food manifesto of sorts called The Case for Food, which provides some excellent context for the ongoing food revolution; and I wrote a sermon about food and the industrial food supply called It's Time to Go Home- A Sermon on Exile and Return.

Turning elsewhere, PBS has a new series ready to launch called Food Forward, which bills itself this way- "Food Forward goes beyond celebrity chefs, cooking competitions, and recipes to reveal the compelling stories and inspired solutions envisioned by food heroes across America who are striving to create a more just, sustainable and delicious alternative to what we eat and how we produce it". Here's the trailer for that new show:

I've also recently come across a couple of documentaries that escaped my attention. The first is called Food Matters (2008), which explores the negative effects of our current diet on our health. It was a controversial film as the political battle over our food supply and our medical treatment (particularly in the US) is fraught with power players and deep pockets. Here's the trailer: 

Another documentary came out in 2009 called Fresh: The Movie, and its website has some really great resources. There's also the new (2011) documentary called Forks Over Knives, which Roger Ebert called "a movie that could save your life". Here's that trailer for that:

There are also several pages on Facebook you can follow (or Like) that provide a steady stream of links to all sorts of articles, recipes and other happenings in the alternative food movement. Here's a list of some of those- Food Forward, Food Inc., Food Revolution Community, Soil Association, Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, Millions Against Monsanto, Sustainable Farming, Slow Food International, and Michael Pollan.

In the realm of books, I'm sure there's a lot coming out, but one that caught my attention is a new book called Tomatoland, examining why supermarket tomatoes are such tasteless, cardboard pieces of junk. Here's a startling blurb from that book- "Fields are sprayed with more than 100 different herbicides and pesticides. Tomatoes are picked hard and green and artificially gassed until their skins acquire a marketable hue. Modern plant breeding has tripled yields, but produces fruits with a fraction of the calcium, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C, and fourteen times as much sodium as the tomatoes our parents enjoyed. The relentless drive for low costs has fostered a thriving modern-day slave trade in the United States. How have we come to this point?"

A good question. I'm convinced that there is no issue like food that has the ability to affect change and healing on so many levels (earth, body, soul, politics, energy etc.). And there's almost no other issue where we get to 'vote with our fork' three times a day and directly effect the issue at hand and the growth of alternative systems and ways of being. May it continue into a rich new food future. Bon appetite.