Jimmy's Grow Your Own Christmas Dinner

Our Christmas dinner feels like it's been around forever, but in fact much of it is a surprisingly recent invention. In this one-hour programme, Jimmy Doherty tries to find out where the food on our Christmas plate comes from historically, and how it has evolved in the age of mass production.

To find out, Jimmy has spent months growing and making his own traditional dinner from scratch - to discover if it tastes better than the modern turkey and trimmings provided by the giant supermarket farms and factories.

Jimmy's 1845 recipe for Christmas pudding, with silver trinkets and cow stomach, may have matured for months before being served, but will it taste better than a microwaveable modern pud? And can he nurse his knobbly heritage variety vegetables (potatoes, sprouts and carrots) through the attentions of numerous farm pests just to compete with their washed, graded and uniform counterparts from the supermarkets? Jimmy's best mate Jamie Oliver is on hand to help decide the winner.

Watch on Putlocker, Putlocker, Putlocker, SockShare or SockShare.

Continue reading →

Vegucated

Vegucated is a guerrilla-style documentary that follows three meat- and cheese-loving New Yorkers who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks and learn what it's all about.

They have no idea that so much more than steak is at stake and that the planet's fate may fall on their plates. Lured by tales of weight lost and health regained, they begin to uncover hidden sides of animal agriculture that make them wonder whether solutions offered in films like Food, Inc. go far enough.

Before long, they find themselves risking everything to expose an industry they supported just weeks before. But can their convictions carry them through when times get tough? What about on family vacations fraught with skeptical step-dads, carnivorous cousins, and breakfast buffets?

Part sociological experiment and part adventure comedy, Vegucated showcases the rapid and at times comedic evolution of three people who are trying their darnedest to change in a culture that seems dead set against it. Watch the trailer below and the documentary here or here.

Continue reading →

The Genetic Takeover or Mutant Food

Have we become unwitting guinea pigs for multinationals who blithely disregard millions of years of evolution? In just a few short years, genetically modified plants have become part of our daily diet and are already found in 75% of processed foods.

This revolution has occurred without consumer awareness and without the knowledge of potential risks to our health and to the environment. Many scientists and farmers vigorously condemn the absence of independent, adequate testing.

The Genetic Takeover casts a sober look at a potentially explosive situation. In response to consumer demands, many European and Asian countries have instituted mandatory labelling of genetically modified foods. North America, however, has been slow to react. In their relentless fight for profits, the industrial giants seem willing to ignore basic safety rules. Can food crops, a vital element of the collective wealth of this planet, remain at the mercy of private interests? Some subtitles.

 
The Genetic Takeover or Mutant Food by Karl Parent & by Louise Vandelac, National Film Board of Canada

Continue reading →