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a we REVIEWS NOT ON THE LABEL: seasonal produce in favour of out-of-season What Really Goes into the Food on imports, takes the easy way out with Your Plate processed foods and snacks, and doesn't care by Felicity Lawrence if our food is genetically engineered or not. Penguin Books, UK, 2004 Among the positive strategies Lawrence ISBN 0-141-01566-7 (272pp pb} suggests is that we support local, sustain- able, organic food production as well as Fair Availability: Penguin Books, Trade products that help Third World pro- http:/Awww.penguin.co.uk : aera P fter roading Felicity Lawrence's book, ducers improve their livelihood. you'll never feel the same way about . shopping at the supermarket. Like her, HOODWINKED: . . you'll become a shopping detective, check- Watching Movies with Eyes Wide ing labels, questioning the sources of the Open products on show, wondering what the heck by Uri Dowbenko really is in frozen chicken nuggets (if you Conspiracy Digest LLC, USA, 2004 even bother to go near the frozen food sec- ISBN 0-9710-0422-6 (257pp tpb) tion), and perhaps thinking there has tobe a_—_— Availability: Conspiracy Digest, better and healthier way to eat and not be http://www.conspiracydigest.com beholden to the industrial food giants. f we go to the cinema to be entertained, do In Not on the Label, Lawrence incorpo- we expect to be deceived in the process? rates much of the undercover investigative Not necessarily, but Uri Dowbenko (author reporting featured in her columns in the UK _ of Bushwhacked; see NEXUS 10/01) Guardian newspaper in recent years. And reminds us in Hoodwinked that movies are eye-opening It is. Despite health authorities’ — "the most powerful form of programming controls, there are still significant breaches yet devised, implanting specific perceptions of the world". They can carry hidden mean- WHAT REALLY GOES INTO ings and secret messages, and not everyone THE FOOD OW YOUR PLATE is aware enough or sufficiently equipped to be able to resist any adverse indoctrination intended by the films' producers. Dowbenko, an alternative media author who specialises in "conspiracy" research, moonlights as a film reviewer, and for this compilation he has assembled a number of previously published critiques that help N OT ON explain the subtexts of a host of films that may have eluded all but the most astute THE LAB EL viewers. He deconstructs a large selection of relatively recent movies according to cat- egories: political science fiction (The . Matrix); Uluminati/mind control/psy-ops in protocols that take place between farm (Conspiracy Theory); mystical (Contact); and supermarket. Readers will be gobs- historical secrets and lies (Seven Years in macked to learn that Dutch food processors Tibet); pop idolatry with an emphasis on sex have worked out ways to incorporate beef and death (Armageddon); and government/ protein (and extra water) in frozen imported —_ bysiness scams (Bulworth). chicken breasts to plump them up and also Not all the examples given are what could to evade detection in DNA tests. be judged as attempts to brainwash the pub- But chicken is just one of a number of lic in sinister ways; some are actually adulterated foods that Lawrence focuses on designed to make people think, throw off the thematically—other foodstuffs being salad, shackles of government/media/corporate/ beans, bread, apples and bananas, coffee and religious oppression and become self prawns, and ready-made meals. She argues empowered, even self transcendent. that the powerful supermarket chains and the A difficult call, but it would have been corporate industry that they support are not just compromising the quality of our food supply but are promoting practices that are ecologically unsustainable and are unjust to marginalised workers. Indeed, migrant workers in the UK as well as workers abroad bear the brunt of a callous, globalised food production/distribution system. We need to reassess where our consumer society is heading—a society that forgoes helpful to have more detail on each film's funding to aid our appreciation of the agen- das behind the scenes. Still, each critique contains interesting background research that provides additional context for under- standing and appraising each film. Dowbenko's perspectives, whether you agree with them or not, will encourage you to watch your next movie with your eyes wide open—so you don't get hoodwinked. sea eile aa lth IQ NOT ON THE LABEL in protocols that take place between farm and supermarket. Readers will be gobs- macked to learn that Dutch food processors have worked out ways to incorporate beef protein (and extra water) in frozen imported chicken breasts to plump them up and also to evade detection in DNA tests. But chicken is just one of a number of adulterated foods that Lawrence focuses on thematically—other foodstuffs being salad, beans, bread, apples and bananas, coffee and prawns, and ready-made meals. She argues that the powerful supermarket chains and the corporate industry that they support are not just compromising the quality of our food supply but are promoting practices that are ecologically unsustainable and are unjust to marginalised workers. Indeed, migrant workers in the UK as well as workers abroad bear the brunt of a callous, globalised food production/distribution system. We need to reassess where our consumer society is heading—a society that forgoes NEXUS +71 DECEMBER 2004 — JANUARY 2005 www.nexusmagazine.com