June 16, 2010

Grange II

While on this topic - allow me to introduce Annie Green Jeans and her blog! I met Annie in California this past March and she is one dynamite spark-plug for the Grange movement. Seems like Annie reminds me of an old blog friend Sunni. Good ideas, good times.

Here is an example of material from Annie's site. It is well worth the read.

START SEEING FARMERS!

Hey - I do hope we all "Start seeing Farmers" …around town, around our county, around our nation… small farmers that is - ones that grow "real food"!!!


There is an exciting new farmer movement - young people who realize that farming is sexy & that feeding people is where it is at - for survival into the next human phase.

SO-

Come on farmers - stand up & be counted! WWOOFers, PERMACULTURISTS, TREE PLANTERS, Green Uprising Farms all…

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Why do we need a farming revolution? Yep, since the 1970’s (or earlier) we have been losing the ancient farm web - a structure that fed all of us for millennia. In just a few decades, we became dependant on Big Ag. Large farms are not feeding us in a healthy way, they are part of the corporate food complex, creating obesity & health concerns with the use of fields & choice of crops. Too bad for everyone… It is about Government Farm Subsidies as much as anything else.


A decade ago, an American woman's waist, on average, was close to two inches smaller than it is today. Eighteen year olds are at least 15 pounds heavier than they were in the 1970s. That is a bad start on adult life & habits.

One reason is federal subsidies for food production.
Check out these numbers:

  • Meat/Dairy -- 73.8 percent
  • Grains -- 13.2 percent
  • Sugar/Oil/Starch/ Alcohol -- 10.7 percent
  • Nuts/Legumes -- 1.9 percent
  • Vegetables/Fruits -- 0.4 percent

That’s right – just 1.9 percent for nuts and legumes and 0.4 percent for fruits and vegetables. As a result, a salad often costs you more than a Big Mac.

Follow the money - & it should come as no surprise that federal subsidies for certain kinds of food will directly influence the production and subsequent consumption of that food.

As you can see in the list above, the US food subsidies are grossly skewed, creating a diet excessively high in factory-farmed meats, grains and sugars, with very little fresh fruits and vegetables or healthy fats from nuts and seeds.

The food crops currently subsidized are corn, soy, wheat and rice. What do you end up with?

A fast food diet!

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It’s quite clear that the farm bill creates a negative feedback loop that maintains the status quo of the standard American diet, which is directly responsible for our current epidemic of diabetes & obesity. By subsidizing the farming of corn and soy, the US government is actively supporting a diet that consists of these crops. And, the food processing industry is using the bulk of these crops to either feed animals before slaughter or to be used as foodstuffs in their processed form - so what we are getting for all of our tax supported farm subsidies is a lot of high fructose corn syrup (GMO), soybean oil (GMO), and grain-fed cattle (GMO) – all of which are known contributors to obesity and chronic diseases.

(See my reminders that the vast majority of these two crops are also genetically modified, which in and of itself is a major health hazard that has hardly begun to play out in our lifestyle or timeline of health & genetics of future generations)

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is perhaps the most obvious example of how the farm subsidies are destroying our health, as opposed to promoting the production of food that is actually worthy of being called “food.” I’ve done a few rants (posts) on this subject, http://anniegreenje ans.com/wp- admin/post. php?action= edit&post=406 and it is all over the information field that this stuff is bad news. I am traveling right now, and (am not in my normal zone of food selections - including homemade salad dressings, natural ice cream, carefully chosen foods - even is they are from the Grocery Outlet)…checking a few labels from my friend’s cupboards, I find that the proliferation of corn syrup is amazing! It is truly in almost everything.

I am sure that when I was a kid - hot fudge syrup did not have corn syrup to sweeten it (of course we didn’t have it in our cupboards actually - only as an occasional treat from the dairy queen), so those recipes have been altered & I bet - are much cheaper to make without regular sugar. Funny - to think we have come to a point where “sugar” is considered a “healthy alternative”. Yikes! Everyone - check those labels & refuse to buy that stuff…maybe we can get it off the shelves if we just don’t vote with our dollars. Cheap food is not better if it kills us sooner…

Get involved with your food. You don’t have to be an activist to make a few healthy choices at the grocery store. Your budget can handle it. Your kids will thank you when they don’t get diabetes.

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