Enviro Mentality

What’s on your food?  Below is a list of the highest pesticide contaminated fruits and vegetables published by the Environmental Working Group.

This list allows you to make better choices when buying food.  Obviously, for the most tainted products, organic produce is best.   If you can’t get organic, check at your local farmer’s market to see if  local farmers use chemicals.  Many farmers are opting not to because of consumer concerns.  Although local food providers are not ‘certified organic’  (which is a very expensive and paperwork-intensive process) some farmers call themselves ‘beyond organic.’  This means that they go far beyond what the current USDA specifications for organic are.

Notice, too, that imported grapes (from Chile, for example) are higher in pesticides that their U.S. counterparts.

This makes it even more important that you adopt a detox regimen, drink pure water and rid your life of as many chemicals as you can.  This is why herbal detox remedies are important, as well as detox baths.  Add to this the benefits of massage and you’re on your way to a healthier life!

FoodNews: Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides

The Full List: 47 Fruits & Veggies

Note: We ranked a total of 47 different fruits and vegetables but grapes are listed twice because we looked at both domestic and imported samples.

Because I feel very strongly about supporting local food endeavors and educating people on environmental issues, I recently  made an announcement of an upcoming showing of “Fresh, The Movie” and “Food, Inc.”

In my e-mail I stated: “Please keep this in the back of your minds to come to because these are two VERY IMPORTANT films that anyone concerned about our food supply really needs to see.”

I received an reply from a editor in the Charlottesville area:

“I question the validity of your statement that either or both of these films are important for everyone to see.”

Excuse me????

If you are truly concerned about our food system I would think that you’d want people to see these films.

If you feel that the public has been purposely kept in the dark by the FDA, USDA,  the food industry, large corporations like Wal-Mart, chemical giants such as Monsanto, fast food companies and large agribusiness concerns, how can you ‘question the validity’ of my attempt to educate consumers?

Current health statistics cite rising rates of cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, food allergies, birth defects and a host of diseases from our modern diet. Consumption of food laced with pesticides, additives, hormones, antibiotics, artificial colorings and flavorings are making people sick.  Society’s dependence on cheap processed foods, proffered by our ‘friends’ in the food industry and fast food chains, have led to a frightening rate of obesity, illness & premature death.  With this in mind, can you honestly say that either or both of these films are NOT important?

Pending legislation threatens the very existence of small farms and farmer’s markets across this country.  Passage, without amendments, will sound a death knell for small farmers and severely damage organic food concerns. If you support our farmers and local food initiatives, then I would hope you would be for the dissemination of this information.

If  you are committed to preserving the right of citizens to get their food directly from small farmers, instead of corporate giants who put profits ahead of the health of their customers, why then do you not support this venue?

Are you at all concerned about Monsanto and their tactics of bullying, spying on and putting small farmers out of business through litigation?

Do you question Monsanto’s worldwide monopoly for Round-Up Ready crops?  What about the environmental effect of farmer’s increasing use of  pesticides on  all GMOs?  Are you unfazed about the environmental impact of pesticides on the health of this planet & ALL of its inhabitants?

“Fresh” captured many accolades in 2009.  Among them were official selections from:  Environmental Film Festival, Sustainable Living Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Maine International Film Festival and the Kerry Film Festival.  It was reviewed far and wide, garnering praise for insightful views into the food world.

“Food, Inc” also was applauded in many circles last year.  In addition to the Gotham Award, it also was on the list for Academy Award for Best Documentary, the 25th Anniversary Spirit Award, and is on the list for an Oscar Award.

Everyone that I’ve talked to who has seen either (or both) agrees that these two films are important.

Methinks, dear scribe, that you are outnumbered!

I am so inspired by Will Allen and his non-profit organization, “Growing Power.”

THIS is what we need to be doing for ourselves, people.  We must break the chains of hunger that grips this nation.  So many families are starving in our country.  Millions are starving around the world!  Mr. Allen’s vision and strategy could help alleviate hunger throughout the planet!

Just gaze at the map of the Milwaukee farm, a 2 acre plot that is the LAST remaining farm in the ‘city.’  It is an absolute inspiration. As you read about the other endeavors in the area, you’ll see that this is a thriving, workable and amazing effort!  These are not only ‘farms’ but teaching centers… I’d like to call them instead, “inspiration centers,” because one can NOT be uninspired by this!

Governments are strugging to oversee their environmentally damaging, unsanitary, inhumane factory farms. Innovators like Mr. Allen and Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm, are trying to educate and reintroduce humane, environmentally conscious and Earth-healing farming.

Our farmer’s markets are only the starting place.  We need our small farmers because they are our last link to good, clean, safe food.  Farmers like Will Allen and Joel Salatin are few and far between.  We need to have good food for all, everyone, everywhere!

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!