Review of Ingredients (2009) by Tom B — 06 Aug 2011

I love documentaries on the food movement. I always find them interesting and while there is a lot of hype about it being propaganda at times, I find it all informative. This particular food documentary was in regards to the local food movement.

In search of great ingredients, this documentary gets up close and personal with farmers, chefs, and other movers and shakers in the local food movement. It explores getting people interested in sourcing their food locally. The relationships between the chefs and farmers that coexist to provide seasonal food on a rotating menu and everything sounded fantastic. It also explored introducing school age children to where their food comes from. Several of the people interviewed talked about concerns with the seed industry and the high volume farming that isn't very sustainable and while small local sustainable farm methods are taking hold in the United States. Overall the film was broken up into four parts titled by the seasons and revolving around the different aspects of farming in those seasons.

All the speakers were very informative. They shared information clearly, listed out their beliefs on why they thought the way they did, and gave advice for those looking to join the movement. There were a couple that made things sound like doomsday, which could be alarming, but as with all information, you have to be the final judge and look at the world around you before buying in to anything. The information was good, the method of delivery was all that needed worked on. Don't let that scare you away from this film though, it was overwhelmingly in the positive for most things.

Most people who aren't interested in this type of information or who don't believe the ideas shared by this film probably shouldn't bother watching it. But for those who are interested in learning more or already know a bit about finding local food sources, this is a great documentary. Experts in the field probably won't learn anything new, but it was interesting to listen to the different people talk about their experiences with local farming. I know a little big about local sustainable farming and have recently started a large garden on my property myself so I found everything fascinating and want to look into more documentaries like this one to get an even bigger picture of what's happening with today's food resources.

Great informative documentary that should be enjoyed by any who like to have the best freshest possible ingredients that are farmed without hurting the land or destroying the eco-system.

Review by M. Reynard 2011.