Since my post last week about securing good honey, I have seen two more resources for those of you interested in the topic:
Excerpt from "Joel Salatin teaches philosophy of farming: PolyFace Farms blends Eastern, Western cultures" (The Santa Clara):
"We have to understand that food safety, primarily in this country, is not about food safety. It's about who has access to the market...I know this is not about food safety, it's about regulating market access...consumer advocates believe bureaucrats can protect them and that a paper 1,000 miles away can protect them...[as a society] we love being victims; that's why we call them ‘stoplights' and not ‘go-lights.' Ultimately, the question is, ‘Who owns me?'"
...
"Eventually, we all walk by faith — at the end of the day, we put our faith in something, whether it be God, family, friends...all of these opportunities and decisions come down to who you're going to trust. Life is full of risks. It's so risky you could die from it!"
Salatin concluded with one final benediction, "May all your carrots grow long and straight. May we all leave the planet in a better place than it was found."
The Foreword of What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets is entertaining and informative. Click to read what 25 people (most of whom you will recognize) have to say about diet, nutrition, and eating habits [pdf]. The range of topics is wide, and includes yoga, temptation, taste, pornographic food, hunger, health, and cooking.
With many eye-catching photos, the book is beautiful. I'm not surprised it is ranked #1 in the category of "Photojournalism" at Amazon. Most of the photos can be viewed at the book's Web site.
Note: Review of the book (includes some good photos) from Brain Pickings. Excerpt:
Part Food, Inc., part FridgeWatcher, the project is a potent antidote to Neil Burgess’s recent rant about the death of photojournalism — What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets is a bundle of storytelling and humanity that unravels itself before your eyes, leaving you hungry to better understand the correlation between food, environment and quality of life.
Unable to locate a list of local restaurants and stores that sell food that's good for you, I have decided to create my own list.
Please contact me with any suggestions for additions.
Establishments below profess a commitment to selling meats, poultry, and eggs that are free of chemicals, such as antibiotics and hormones; and/or other offerings, including produce, that are of the highest quality (e.g., organic).
If you have any questions or doubt about something you are purchasing at any of these places, be sure to ask and verify. They should be happy to address your concern and interest.
I will be adding to this list as I learn of more healthy food in Denver.
Note: When I initially contact a non-vegetarian restaurant or market, the first question I ask is something like this:
I have a question, please. I wanted to check to see if your meat and poultry are raised without antibiotics and hormones? Thank you.
After that response, I typically will then ask about other ingredients. Sometimes I ask several questions in the initial contact.
When I ask a server or clerk, I follow up to verify the response.
For example, the very kind and skillful waitperson at Racines told me their meat is all chemical-free. I have e-mailed them to verify. If appropriate, I will add them to the list after hearing back. [Added later: As of the evening of January 14, I have not yet heard back from Racines.] [Added February 16, 2011: I have still not received a response to my inquiries to Racines; the last one was sent this week via their Web site.]
Despite several e-mails, I have not yet been able to get Smashburger to confirm that their meat is chemical-free.
Ana Sofia Joanes has written an article for abcnews.com; I recommend that you read it. She talks about the value of knowing the sources of your food. Click for a link to, and an excerpt from, the article.
From "Criminalizing Nature’s Most Perfect Food: FDA's war on private food contracts" (thepeoplesvoice.org):
In his latest book, The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging Battle over Food Rights, David Gumpert details several cases of malicious prosecution against the natural dairy industry, reporting the myths, exaggerations and deceptions by authorities charged with protecting the food supply.
What you won’t get from the book is a whitewash of the raw milk movement. Even advocates were caught exaggerating claims or ignoring evidence. Gumpert also includes tender, heart-wrenching stories in the words of mothers whose children became critically ill from drinking contaminated raw milk, or so they believe. Though the link was never scientifically made in those cases, it was in others, including a raw milk herd share. Gumpert bridges compassion for those mothers with compassion for dairy owners who are financially wiped out by the government’s strategic war on private food arrangements.
From the cases explored in the book, and from recent government actions and statements, it becomes clear that food safety authorities are using their power to destroy competition of drugged, genetically engineered, factory processed foods.
For years, writers and researchers have shown how regulatory agencies have been captured by industry. President Obama exemplifies this in his Food Policy picks, recruiting directly from biotech firms like Monsanto and lobbying groups like CropLife America. His Supreme Court pick, Elena Kagan, in her capacity as Solicitor General, intervened on behalf of Monsanto in the first case to reach the US Supreme Court regarding genetically engineered food.
In the potent Foreword to the book, farmer Joel Salatin admits:
“People like me don’t trust Monsanto. We don’t trust the Food and Drug Administration. We don’t trust the Department of Agriculture. We don’t trust Tyson. And we don’t think it’s safe to be dependent on food that sits for a month in the belly of a Chinese merchant marine vessel.”
And the outcome?
“When the public no longer trusts its public servants, people begin taking charge of their own health and welfare. And that is exactly what is drving the local heritage food movement.”
Click to read the rest of the article. Click to read Gumpert's blog.
This weekend has included a focus on the source of our food, highlighted last night by viewing for a second time the movie Fresh. Today my attention was pointed to an episode of Nightline about a family in Pasadena, California, growing all of their food on 1/5 of an acre. And then someone alerted me to a video of Joan Dye Gussow talking about why she grows her own food. From the Cooking Up a Story web site:
This Organic Life [Gussow's book] tells the story of how she began her first garden, the challenges, and the small triumphs as a new gardener. Her interests and abilities in growing food grew over time. Soon she had fruit trees, berry bushes, along with the many vegetables in the annual garden. But it’s not necessarily a gardening book, it’s more of an ongoing inner dialogue from someone who cares deeply for this planet. She kept wondering, how can I get my food closer to home? After a eating a clementine orange, she reflected on how many miles had it traveled to get to her? When the genetically modified tomato FlavrSavr came on the scene she was concerned how a farmer would lose the right to save his own seed. And, as bountiful as California was, it was facing serious agriculture challenges from soil erosion, water, among other concerns. Would the current food system be able to continue to put food on our tables?
Her book was written back 2001. Have the number of people asking these kinds of questions grown? Are there now more people growing their own food? Or am I just noticing these people more because of my new interest in the source of my food? What do you think?
This video "What's Wrong With Our Food System? And How Can We Make A Difference?" filmed at TEDx in Asheville is only a wee bit over 5 minutes, yet Birke Baehr presents a lot of thought-provoking information. And he is occasionally humorous.
Bonuses for you: In his talk, the young boy mentions Joel Salatin. Here are some videos of Salatin giving a tour of his Polyface Farm in Virginia.
Here is an article written by Salatin answering this question: "How should we respond when we’re called elitists because we buy more expensive, local food?" (Flavor, a magazine in Virginia).
Note (added October 2, 2010): Click for many more videos of Joel Salatin (Daily Paul).
Image credit: justmeans.
Edible Radio podcasts stories related to Edible Communities, Inc. From the company's About page:
At the heart of our company is a commitment to sustaining the unique local flavors and economic viability of the communities we serve. As individuals and professionals, we live, breathe and literally, eat these values. They are reflected in our work and in our lives.
Before I point you to some of the podcasts, I warn the raw food purists among readers here that the interviews are not strictly about raw food. I have changed my diet significantly since the day I took up the raw food lifestyle. BUT, after much research, I now eat foods other than raw, too. I call my kind of food consumption "high-raw, high-qual." What does that mean? I believe that lots of raw foods are good for me, and that
I do not find this drop in vegetable consumption to be surprising, do you? I believe part of the reason for the decrease can be found in Fresh, a movie I highly recommend to all. Government intervention in the food supply has resulted in some crops, such as corn, becoming increasingly cheap and plentiful. Another consequence of subsidies for certain crops: Other vegetables are more expensive.
And what do you think has brought us the ubiquity of high fructose corn syrup? A huge supply of corn that must be used somehow.
What's the solution? There are several, including educating yourself by watching Fresh, then letting your politicians know you do not want this kind of manipulation of crops to continue.
What is not the solution is Michelle Obama lecturing the restaurant industry. Mrs. Obama seems not to understand human nature, and I do wish she would provide citations for some of the "science" she puts forth. Her simplistic ideas of how to change the nation's eating habits indicate no knowledge of the real challenges we face as described in Fresh.
