PROPOSITION 37 I must say I am pretty darn dissapointed that Proposition 37 failed. Yes, folks, we are one of the few civilized countries in the world that does not require the labeling of genetically modified food. 60 countries around the world require labeling and yet the ‘land of the free’ does not. Might the [...]
Food Politics
Food politics?The TruthFood DesertsWho is it up to?
On this page, I will be posting blogs and articles on the politics of food. This is a heated issue right now in our country (and the world) and if you pay attention, you will find that our right to clean, unadulterated, pure, organic food is being attacked on many fronts. Farm raids sponsored by the USDA and led by the FDA are happening at alarming rates. Small farms with clean records of food safety are being harassed and shut down, raw cheese and milk consficated and farm family lives ruined. Consumers are left wondering what happened to the trusted supply of dairy of meat. Is this a plan? A conspiracy? A government shut down of small local farms? If one really looked at all the evidence, it would be easy to make this conclusion. How much easier for us all to eat the government or corporate produced hand out food void of any real nutrition.
We are living in a period of history when it has become so difficult to find and consume the healthy, nutritious food of one’s choice, not because of scarcity but what seems to be a form of obfuscation. Grocery stores are laden with cheap junk food, the byproducts of modern industrial agriculture, but to find nourishing, life giving food can be like going through an obstacle course. I go to the farmers market once or twice a week to buy my local meat, dairy and produce, as well as make a trip to my local health food store to fill in on staples. I also order some bulk foods and seafood online for good measure and make a special trip to find my supply of raw milk. I go to the trouble and expense of buying these nourishing foods because they are what sustain my life, my energy and enable me to live a happy, healthy life and I want to support my local economy and farmers that produce them. If I shopped for my food at the local grocery store, I could not say the same.
Almost all of the food at my local chain grocery is coming from the modern industrial agriculture complex where food is grown in mass amounts by machines and chemicals rather than by human hands. Even if I were to simply buy produce, dairy, eggs and meat at my local grocery store, I can count on almost all of these foods being mass produced, genetically engineered, grown with pesticides and herbicides and coming from factory farms. These are systems that I do not want to support with my lifeforce/my dollars, so I do not buy them.
Unfortunately, many people across the country live in what is called a “food desert” where the only food choices are the ones in which I just mentioned. Is it any surprise that we have the disease and health problems we do when not only are we eating the a fore mentioned foods, but we are also eating massive amounts of processed foods laced with sugar, preservatives, hydrogenated oils, msg, refined salt, aspartame and more. The list goes on…and on.
It’s up to us, the consumers, to speak out (or shout out if we have to) and share our voices that we the people want access to the food we want to eat. No government nor corporation nor food institution shall hinder us anymore from obtaining the food of our choosing in the name of corporate profits or food safety. If they want to sell their junk to the masses, let them, but we the people who want clean food will not be stopped from having it.
