A post about food

Food is a huge issue these days. I suppose it always has been, but I honestly believe that it has become more pressing in the past 10 years. The more I read on this stuff, the more I honestly believe that our food supply is tainted, and we may very well be on the road toward causing our own extinction via our dinner plates. I always thought human extinction would be caused by pollution, or maybe nuclear war (but more likely pollution). Now, I believe it will be caused by food.

Did you know that 72% of the food on American store shelves contains genetically modified (GMO) ingredients? That means only 28% of food is made only of plants that we have evolved to consume. GMO foods have unknown long term affects on our systems. New studies are showing that they may be more harmful than we had thought, showing that some of them cause cancer, or decreased organ function, in lab animals. That's pretty scary when you consider that lab rats evolved to eat the same kinds of foods as people evolved to eat. If this GMO food is doing that to them, what's it doing to us? Yet when you grab some product off the shelf at your local grocery store, there's a 72% chance it contains something that could cause you this harm over the course of time. Be vigilant. For now, buying organic is a good way to get around GMO's, because no organic certification agency in the US allows GMO crops to be certified.

Then we have the issue of chemicals. Pesticides have been used for generations now. Having grown up on an organic farm, and been in the FFA with a bunch of conventional farmers' kids, I have been acutely aware, from a young age, of how wrong pesticide use really is, and how feasible it is to farm without them. I've always had a distaste for conventional agriculture, but a recent study that showed that Round-Up was found in every urine sample the researchers tested, just brought that to a whole new level. This also ties in with the GMO foods. Monsanto markets "Round-Up Ready" crops, which are genetically modified to repel bugs, so all you have to do is spray Round-Up, and you're good to go. That's what they say anyway. This has resulted in Round-Up becoming pretty much ubiquitous throughout conventional agriculture. Mark my words, Round-Up is our generation's DDT. We have yet to see the long and far reaching impact of this stuff, but we will, and if Monsanto isn't too entrenched in the government by then, we'll probably see it banned, just as DDT was. This, again, is a reason to buy organic. You won't be eating Round-Up, nor genetically modified "Round-Up Ready" crops. Buying organic or growing your own, are really the only ways around this at this time.

Then we have other chemicals, things that are added to foods intentionally, which have unknown side effects. Everyone has read about artificial sweeteners like Aspartame, and how bad they are for you. There's also High Fructose Corn Syrup, which has been hotly contested in recent years. The corn lobby has bought themselves a lot of influence in the government, and therefore, a lot of leeway with their product. It's in almost everything, and it's not good for you. For one, it's made of GMO corn, probably Round-Up Ready GMO corn, sprayed with Round-Up, and then processed within an inch of its life, into a diabetes cocktail of nothing but pure fructose. Nobody should eat that stuff, ever, but it's in everything, unless it's labeled "HFCS Free" or "No HFCS". Short of buying only products labeled so, the only solution is to make as much stuff from scratch as you can so that you know what went into it. The same goes for other food additives as well. Nearly anything you buy prepackaged has some pretty nasty chemicals in it. Avoiding prepackaged foods as much as possible is of utmost importance in today's world.

Animal products are at least as big a problem as the plant products, and the problems are as much for the animals themselves as for the people who consume the products they make, or are made into. I worked briefly in the commercial dairy industry, and after that experience, I will not use conventionally produced milk. I can't. Seeing the filthy conditions the animals are kept in, how poorly they're treated, how they are injected frequently with hormones to stimulate more milk production, because a few gallons a day JUST. ISN'T. ENOUGH. Their conditions cause bone, joint, and foot problems, and they have shorter lives than they would if they were in a pasture environment. Infection is rampant, due to filthy conditions. Now, think about the fact that milk is produced in that environment. Would you willingly drink that? I didn't think so. Now, add to that, rBGH (also known as rBST, or simply BST), the hormone that these dairy cows are injected with, has been shown to increase the incidence of cancer in those who consume the milk. Now, think about the fact that there are trace amounts of dairy in almost everything. Also think about the fact that over 50% of babies receive formula at some point in their lives, and the vast majority of this formula is milk based. Pretty scary, huh? The only way to avoid the health consequences of conventional milk is to buy organic products only. This doesn't necessarily make it any better for the animals, though. An ideal option would be a cow share, from a small farm, where you know that the animals are kept in decent conditions. Not to mention, with these types of arrangements, you can often get raw milk, which is preferable from a nutritional standpoint anyway.

Egg production is just as bad as milk production. The chickens are often fed some really questionable things, and kept in conditions that are completely deplorable. Some egg laying hens never once, in their entire lifetime, set foot on the ground. The key is, of course, to buy organic, cage-free eggs, if you have to buy them from the store. It's pretty easy to find somebody with chickens, who will gladly sell you a dozen here and there, though, and this is always preferable to store bought eggs from every possible standpoint. In fact, in El Paso, you are allowed to keep chickens within the city limits. Someone on our block just got some, and their rooster has been crowing away at sundown and sunrise every day. I love it! If we were staying here longer, I'd have a chicken coop in my yard, too.

Meat is where animal products become the most questionable of all. Feed lots are every bit as unethical as commercial dairy and egg farms, and slaughterhouses are terrible. I have toured the kill floor of a conventional slaughterhouse, and I have walked the catwalk of multiple feedlots. Every person who thinks factory farming is ok, really should do that at some point, just to see what the animals you are eating, really go through in their short lives. (The average feed lot steer, who becomes your dinner, is not even two years old.) Ethics aside for a second, let's look at the nutritional implications of this stuff. These steers are grown huge in a very short amount of time. This requires synthetic growth hormones (RalGro), usually implanted as a pellet under the skin of the ear, and timed released into the blood stream. That means all conventionally produced meat is grown at an unnatural pace, due to a huge dose of synthetic hormones, which stay in the body, even after said body is cut into bite sized chunks and placed on a styrofoam tray in the grocery store. When you eat conventionally produced meat, not only are you voting with your dollars for inhumane treatment of animals in feedlots and slaughter houses. You are also ingesting hormones that made a steer grow to about twice the size he normally would in the space of 16-20 months. That ain't good, y'all. Add to that, of course, that this steer has been fed all his life, on the same GMO corn, which is covered in Round-Up, so there's probably Round-Up residue in the meat as well, and there you have a case for avoiding conventionally produced meats. Buying organic meat will solve some of this, but it is best to either hunt, or buy from small scale local farmers whose practices you approve of. Too expensive? Eat less meat. Quality over quantity is definitely a true statement when it comes to animal products.

These are the things I think about when I walk through the grocery store, with Chai on my back, Orren in the shopping cart, and Erin trying to grab at things. It's what I think about when I cook dinner, and figure out what I'm going to feed Chai, or what treats Erin and Orren might like. Last night, we found organic popping corn for only $1 a pound in the bins at our local health food store. I popped some up, stove-top, with a bit of olive oil, topped it with some raw butter and sea salt, and Erin and Orren enjoyed every bite of it as they watched a movie on Netflix. Meanwhile, Chai and I enjoyed seconds of beef stew, made of all organic ingredients. When I look at my kids, and I look at our food supply, I know it is worth the extra effort to be sure I'm not slowly poisoning them at the dinner table. Everybody wants to do what's best for their kids. Everybody wants their kids to grow up strong and healthy. That's the motivation behind all my research and focus on food. Today's parents have one hell of a challenge every time we set foot in the grocery store, and the candy at 8-year-old eye level in the checkout, is the least of our worries. With much consideration, though, it is possible to navigate the mine field that our food supply has become.