06.28.09
Lettuce from the garden, with worms
An article in the N.Y. Times with the above title caught our attention, because it resonates so strongly with us. My Hubby has always grown a garden, and in recent years he has tried gamely to minimize if not totally eliminate chemicals applied. This makes a good crop difficult to produce. It means that bugs, grubs etc. stunt or kill a lot of your plants.
Nevertheless, the effort is worthwhile and the food is very healthy for us. In the Times article (by Nicholas D. Kristof, June 21, 2009) the author is somewhat nostalgic remembering backyard-grown lettuce which had to be rinsed and carefully examined for possible unwanted dirt or critters. Hubby calls it “extra protein.”
A recent documentary film, “Food, Inc.”, declares that “the way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000.” Hubby and I ourselves believe that to eat healthy, you should NOT eat anything your great grandmother would not have recognized. In other words, get away from PROCESSED food.
Described are chickens grown today to maximize their breast meat. They are genetically re-engineered to grow breasts so huge and to mature so quickly that the rest of their bodies can’t keep up, such that they cannot walk around normally and every few steps must plop down onto the ground. (I wonder if they actually have opportunity to walk around at all.)
The article asks “Do you know what’s in hamburger? Or cookie dough?” citing how E. coli makes its way into commercial food products. The film notes that if feedlot cattle, which are typically fed massive doses of antibiotics, are moved onto pasture for five days, 80% of E. coli bacteria disappear from their gut. The point made is that “one reason for [America's] health problems is our industrialized agriculture system, and that should be under scrutiny…” as well as our health care system.
Giant agribusiness is the norm today in this country, with lobbies almost as powerful as the oil or banking industry. Small local farms are bought out, driven out, or struggle to survive. “Unhealthy calories are cheaper than nutritious ones. We even inflict unhealthy food on children in the school lunch program, and one in three Americans born after 2000 is expected to develop diabetes.”
Something is terribly wrong with this picture.
We personally do what we can– we buy a side of grass-fed beef and also lamb for our freezer. Hubby grinds his own wheat berries and makes homemade whole wheat bread. We eat lots of fresh or frozen vegetables. Food, Inc. declares that we as consumers DO have power. We can “vote to change the system, three times a day.”
