Did you know this about your food?

Lately, I've been feeling on overload a bit.  I've been reading so much about local eating, and the problems with our food system in this country.  Well, I have actually been studying this for about 5 years now and the more I learn, the more hopeless it becomes. 

We have so little control over the food that goes into our bodies.  When you want to live beyond the processed grocery store food, which the government in all its wisdom deems "safe" it is a very frustrating and daunting task to many.  The government has decided that the irratiated, chemical laiden cheeseburger from McDonald's or that nutritionally bankruptTwinkie are safe for you, but that raw milk from a cow with all it's beneficial enzymes intact is "dangerous"....well, that scares me.  A lot.

Let's think about this.  There have been many studies done of McDonald's hamburgers that will be put on a shelf for literally years, never touched, and they look exactly the way they did when they were bought.  Or a Twinkie, many, many years after manufacture, looks exactly the same as the day it was pressed into a mold and baked.  This food is dead food or it would break down.  What nourishes our bodies?  Why, here's something that some of you may not have thought about.  Living food does.  Our bodies need living food that will actually break down in order to remove the nutrients from it to nourish your physical form.  Dead food will not break down, and therefore does not feed the all important cells in our bodies.  If you don't feed your body living food (which most processed food is no longer living), then you are not providing your body with what it needs to not only survive, but thrive.  Your immune system depends on these living organisms to create resistance to food germs and fight many illnesses.  If you're only eating "sterilized food" then your body is unable to build up resistance to the germs and illnesses that are searching to seek and destroy. 

I could go on and on about this topic, I really could.  I read so many well researched books and found out how dysfunctional our government is that it's terrifying to me that they can control such a personal choice as what I put into my mouth to nourish my body.  The entire food system of our country is owned by big business, but mostly the one I fear the most is Monsanto.  They are in the forefront of genetically modified food and patenting seeds.  Seeds are life, how can you patent food and life?

 And for the love of God, please don't believe the commercials that show the white bread middle Americans walking through their placid little corn field  and tell you that "corn sugar (what the corn industry is calling high fructose corn syrup these days) is just as safe as sugar, why, your body can't tell the difference!"  I know your liver begs to differ with them! 

I think for me, I feel so aggravated some days by the misinformation and agendas from the big business and corporate greed that drive what happens to our food.  Did you know that the USDA is not allowed to force a recall on tainted food?  They can only recommend it, they aren't allowed to order it.  So if hamburger goes out to 10,000 retailers from some large factory farmed plant and it's tainted with ecoli, some of which very possibly could kill people (or hey, spinach that has used that "fertilizer" from that factory farm and spread that ecoli to spinach), the USDA is only allowed to say to the company, we recommend a recall.  Then, the company is allowed to do whatever it wants from there.  How many times have they ignored the recommendation because recalling thousands of pounds of tainted meat would be too costly?  Anyone seeing the problem here but me?  The stories I have seen and the research I have read would scare the hell out of the average American.  Or maybe it wouldn't, I don't know, but it sure scares the hell out of me.

I'm eternally thankful that I have fresh, local food available to me to feed my family.  I'm very grateful for the farms that raise that food and fight the fights they need to to keep that option alive for me.  However if the government and big business have their way, I will no longer be able to purchase that food.  In fact, believe it or not, I would not even be able to consume the food I've grown myself for my own consumption.  Oh, this is no joke, folks.  Legislation like this tries to sneak through at every turn.  And you can say what you will about NH, but this is one time I'm truly thankful for our motto, "Live Free or Die"...I just hope it doesn't actually come to that. 

Trying to find my way through the food industry minefield, ~Peacemom 

Apples and Pears EVERYWHERE!

This was the last weekend for apple picking at our local orchard. I have also discovered that they sell pears as well. A 1/2 peck bag is $5.50, I don't know how many pounds that is, but it would not matter. I would buy them anyway. AMAZING fruit delicacies. I would have to challenge anyone that said they don't like fruit or vegetables to still feel that way after eating these wonders. I'm very happy that since I've started to pursue the "locavore" lifestyle, I've found some of the most delicious goodies right in my own backyard. I would love it if somehow, some way I was able to inspire more people to eat locally. Not only is this wonderful as your food is so much fresher, so many less nutrients are lost during the storage time, but it's also so much better for our planet and country. Not having to use the fossil fuel to transport food from great distances, which in turn pollutes the environment. Not having the factory farms mass produce your food, using poisons and chemicals to kill pests (did you ever wonder how it can kill other living creatures and not be expected to affect us?? We're all just flesh and blood after all). I think most people don't give a lot of thought to where their food comes from, I know in the past I did not. But with the degradation of our environment so quickly on the rise, how can we not care about this? Thousands of babies poisoned in China, so much toxic ways of life, we've got to change it or we won't have a planet to take care of.

Since I took the ultimate leap of faith and had children after 9/11/01 happened, it's become more and more clear to me that preserving what we have left is the only choice we have. There is no other option, is there? Anyone with children wants a better world, one where their children can thrive. As it stands right now, I guess part of me hopes my children won't have children themselves because what will they be left with? What kind of world will they be inheriting, one that's poisoned and has such weather extremes that they can't survive anyway? Polar caps melting causing the temperatures to rise, less fresh water available and still the imperative to change NOW is not realized. It makes my heart very heavy and saddened to know that my boys, whom I love more then life, will have to deal with all this mess if we don't start to care.

So, besides recycling like a fiend, changing my buying to being basically most of what is only necessary and freecycling all our stuff we don't need, I decided to start to buy local. And, like I said earlier, besides having that wonderful benefit of much more delicious food, I also feel like I'm supporting the farmers in my town, the money stays in my community instead of going to Walmart or Shaw's or whomever else would get the profits. They don't live in my community, they don't care about my children, they won't say hello to the migrant workers that come here in the fall to harvest apples, none of this matters to "them" since they are only caring about the bottom line on their spreadsheet. No love, no caring and no grace are felt in my community from these conglomerates. I shop now where I get to meet the people growing my food. Where I can see the soil it's grown in, look into the eyes of the cows that will be my hamburger and see that they are humanely treated, watch the chickens whose eggs nourish my family happily picking bugs up around the farm where they roam freely. All these things make for a more sustainable life for all of us, not just the shareholders of some company thousands of miles away.

I hope I've caused you to think a moment about your local choices for food. Find that farmer's market or neighborhood farm stand. Make the commitment to buy at least one local meal's worth per week. Make the choice to support your own community, children and planet. It all starts with one choice and your dollar speeks volumes.

Thanks for reading my diatribe about local eating, it's a deep passion for me and I appreciate your taking the time to read it. Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you treasure that's local to you.

Wishing you fresh local pears that are bits of heaven, ~Peacemom