Anyone who knows me knows my love of eating crappy. Really crappy. Instead of blood coursing through my veins, I’m pretty sure that there are preservatives and artificial food coloring pumping my heart. By the sheer luck of good genes, I am fortunately not the 700 pounds I should be. So, when I watch movies such as “Supersize Me,” I just laugh at the poor schlubs who can’t enjoy McDonald’s as much as I can. Processed food? Yummy!
And then I saw Food, Inc.

Sure, I’ve seen films that highlight the evils of our food system before, but this one really caught my attention, especially since it wasn’t preachy. The most thought provoking point for me was that how we treat the environment and animals is eventually how we will treat people. I thought that was a huge jump myself at first but when they highlighted how many people making and processing our food are treated, it was easy to believe. Now, I’m not an obsessive animal lover like most of my neighbors here in Portland (I like animals, don’t get me wrong, I just probably won’t ever tattoo a pic of Fluffy on my back), but when you talk about mistreated humans, especially illegal immigrants, now that’s a cause I can rally behind. And the controlling nature of just a few meat and seed producing companies? And the lack of power the U.S.D.A. has? Lame, my friends, just plain lame. My love of the Mickey D’s Double Cheese is waning.

So, I’m relenting and becoming Portland-ish. The Bong and I shop at the farmers markets every week now and we actually went blueberry picking a couple of weeks ago. And it was fun. Really fun. And every time I make blueberry muffins, I think about just how fun it is to be healthy (as I dump the last of my processed inorganic sugar into the mixing bowl). For those of you who fear I’m turning into a dirty hippy, fear not. I still shave my legs and don’t have dreads. Yet.