Are you for the Earth? What about buying & eating locally produced food?
Are you REALLY for these things or do you just have bumper stickers on your vehicle that say so?
Step up to the plate, America. Don’t just SAY you’re ‘for’ the environment:
DO for the environment, BE FOR the environment, get out in the trenches FOR the environment.
What about food? Do you SAY you’re for good food…, do you SAY you’re for the small farmer? Do you DO anything FOR the small farmers?
….. or do you do all your shopping at Wal-Mart because it’s cheaper?
….. or do you come home from work and feed microwaveable crap to your kids because its quicker?
….. or do you pack their lunches full of fruit juices with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), food laden with chemicals, artificial ingredients and salt?
….. or do you go out to eat at fast food establishments like McDonald’s who serve ‘food’ that really isn’t food but nothing more than artificial ingredients, flavorings? The meat comes from animals who’ve been raised in factory farms and pumped full of hormones, steroids and antibiotics? You’re ‘lovin it’ all the same, right?
It’s lonely out here in the vast food fight arena. Mainstream America is still too brainwashed by commercials that says Mickey D’s really serves good food; that the Healthy Choice meal you’ve nuked is good for you (READ the ingredients - if you can’t identify it, it CAN’T be good for you!)
Visit your local farmer’s market. Ask questions. Ask to come for a farm tour. Fellow VICFA member, Joel Salatin in Swope, Virginia WILL let you tour his farm. Read Michael Pollan’s “Omnivore’s Dilema” for a lot more info on Joel and the food industry.
Bumper stickers make us feel good - like we’re doing something. For far too many of us, though, we’re just not into doing, but are into just being.
We’re not going to get anywhere unless everyone who has read this - and more of you - actually get out there and voice your opposition to the food industry. Monsanto has been getting away with murder (literally) between poisoning the Earth with Round-Up, getting PATENTS on SEEDS - that’s right - which force farmers to use perticides and herbicides. The U.S. government has been bought by the food industry and now wants to pass a sweeping food ’safety’ bill and NAIS that will just about be the end of many, many small farmers, organic farms and farmer’s markets all across the country!
To the uninitiated on the reality of where your food r e a l l y comes from, “FRESH” is probably a bit upsetting.
This is why the local food movement is so important, folks! Together we are strong. Together, our voices can and will be heard! We can make ‘Big Food” and our government stand up and take notice.
Without v o i c e s , though, the silence shouts a message of its own.
Silence = complacence. Silence is an acceptance, acquiescence, agreement, submission…, “Oh, it’s OK!”
NO IT ISN’T
We have been lied to, used as Guinea pigs, lab rats and been made sick by our food. The very few control the entire food industry in the U.S. and the world. We’ve been brainwashed to t r u s t the government and the food companies and now look!
We’ve got record numbers of cancers from children up, diabetes in all sectors of the population, and numbers are rising. Children are predisposed to heart disease, asthma, high blood pressure, cholesterol numbers higher than most adults, and this is all even before they’re out of grade school!
Adults are gobbling medicines to treat preventable diseases like high blood pressure to acid reflux. Acid reflux has even become common in children!
Why?
Things like s o d a and fast food….. from your ‘friends’ at Mickey D’s and The Colonel.
Answer one question: Is THIS the life you want for yourself and your children or grandchildren?
Probably not.
LEARN MORE
Read some reviews– learn and GET INVOLVED.
http://www.google.com/movies/reviews?cid=b3fa7714d5f1e2e3&hl=en&oi=moviesr
If you’re into eating local food, you have to see this trailer for the movie “FRESH”. If you’re NOT into local food - watch it anyway!
Joel Salatin, of PolyFace Farm is featured in this film, as is another inspiration for the growing local food movement, Will Allen of Growing Power. Russ Kremer a hog farmer in Missouri, nearly died from an antibiotic resistant staph infection after being gored by one of his animals. These men, along with hundreds of other across this nation are in the forefront of the sustainable agriculture movement and local food.
Food production in this nation has long been a sort of secret society. We all blindly accepted that the groceries we bought at our local store were good for us. Ads on TV and radio promised its goodness and purity. Chemicals were our friends, weren’t they? Why, good old Monsanto and others promised us they were safe, there was no danger to our children or pets, and yes - we could even spray the stuff on our vegetable gardens and eat the veggies right away! Now, however, the spotlight is ON them, their dirty little secrets are being found out.
The public is getting smarter and starting to realize that corporate America isn’t and hasn’t been acting in their best interests. That’s why farmer’s markets have become so popular. People get to know where their food comes from. They get to meet the farmer (or his/her representative) each week. Their food has a ‘face’ so to speak. A connection has been made.
Get informed about what you eat! All is NOT what it seems!
Produce on grocery store shelves may look good, but there’s a dirty secret behind it. Most of it has been grown using chemical fertilizers. The earth in which it has grown has been treated with herbicides, fungicides and pesticides, too. It has also been genetically engineered to resist treatment with weed killers like “Round-Up” . What you’re getting in the store is loaded with potential toxins. This food has traveled an average of 1500 miles to get to your plate and has probably - without your knowledge - been irradiated: treated with low levels of radiation to kill off bugs and prolong storage.
The food at your local farmer’s market is a lot different. Raised in soils amended without chemicals, the food is healthier from the get go. Studies have shown that the nutritional value of food has actually declined in the last 50 years due to poor soil management. Farms have for the most part abandoned the age-old practice of crop rotation, thus stressing out the soil and depleting nutrients.
If your buy meat from your local farmer’s market, most vendors do not treat their animals with steroids or antibiotics. Do you really want to eat steroids (growth hormones) or expose your kids to more antibiotics?
Check out this link for farmer’s markets near you: LocalHarvest.org
Another plus is that your money is staying in the community. You are also helping your local farmer stay in business, rather than sell his/her land to a mega farm or to a developer. We DON’T need more shopping malls!
You can further reduce your toxin load by taking a regular detox bath. This assists your body in fighting off illness and enhances the removal of toxins. Be clean - inside and out!