Food Inc.

I have seen the documentary "Food Inc." more times than I can count on one hand, but I have to say it never ceases to amaze me. Each time, I leave with a new feeling of wanting to pay more attention to my food choices and think deeper about how it connects to everything else. One thing, or word, really, that the movie brought up that I have been thinking about a lot is "deliberate". The movie uses this word several times in relation to the "deliberate veil" in between us and where our food comes from. It's like there is this thing that has been purposefully placed in front of our eyes but we can remove it if we want to, we just usually choose not to. In the book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" which I am currently reading for another class, Barbara Kingsolver calls her food choices deliberate. She and her family decide to eat an only local food diet for a year and they often refer to this as deliberate eating. Additionally, Henry David Thoreou makes good use of the word "deliberately" in one of my favorite quotes from "Walden"...

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

There is something so powerful about the use of the word "deliberate" in all of these cases. It is about doing something with a specific intention, with a purpose that is clear. Maybe living a deliberate life just means being aware of your actions and how they affect the greater system.