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It’s coming to this….
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Get the dirt out of food!
Sounds good in Washington. And in the Big Food board rooms. So the FDA is going to crack down on—who else—small farmers. The idea is we should all disinfect our produce and pack it in plastic. Okay, so there’s a big recall underway right now for vegetables that Big Food packed just that way. But nothing’s perfect. Small farmers, of course, can’t afford to buy the machinery to market food that way. And intelligent consumers are smart enough to know they don’t want it that way. The last thing they want is another chemical (not to mention plastic) on their veggies. But the feds….right up to the guy closest to…
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GMO….what’s it worth to you….
….$15-million dollars or more if you’re Monsanto, DuPont, or your neighborhood supermarket and their buddies. That’s how much they’re pouring into a fight in Washington State to prevent consumers from knowing whether they’re eating genetically-modified food. Most places in the world require a GMO warning label on food but not in the United States. (Somehow Democrats and Republicans always manage to get together on that!) However, the state of Washington is going around the fix in the capital of Washington (where Monsanto focuses its dollars) and is voting on a referendum making GMO labels mandatory. http://www.cornucopia.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/I-522.poster.1023.jpg
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Eat your arsenic….
….it’s good for you! The Feds have finally discovered that maybe feeding arsenic to chickens and hogs could be hazardous to their health….and yours’! So they’ve banned most of the arsenic that is routinely fed to the industrial animals to speed their weight gain….and make the meat a little more colorful. Of course, they’ve known about the problem for at least four years. Thanks to Dr. Sue Beal for the link. http://noharm.org/us_canada/news_hcwh/2012/dec/hcwh2013-10-01.php What’s in your meat?
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The power of meat….
….it’s the wonder drug for fertility! From Australia comes the story of a woman, a life-long vegetarian, who was told she would never have children. Went on a meat diet…had triplets! Thank God it wasn’t Thistle Hill meat! http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/vegetarian-eats-meat-falls-pregnant-with-triplets/story-fnet08ck-1226709927137
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The anti-biotic menace…how bad is it….
….well, bad enough that the government finally recognizes it. The Center for Disease Control now recommends you stay away from meat raised with antibiotics, but of course you can’t……if you shop at the supermarket or even the few butcher shops remaining. Of course, in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of our food supply, while the CDC says stay away from meat laced with antibiotics….the USDA labels are still slapped on everything proclaiming it’s safe to eat. The problem is almost all the meat in this country is raised with the stuff, the animals are in such close quarters they’d die without it, and it also helps fatten them more quickly. Pork is a particularly…
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Myth busting – Part 3….
….I’m from the government and I’m here to protect you. Bt toxin has been around for a long time; a major ingredient in pesticides farmers use on crops such as corn. But those clever folks at Monsanto developed Genetically Modified Corn that puts the Bt toxin right in the seed. Well, along with all the reservations about GMO food, some experts worried that it would only be a matter of time before those clever bugs developed a resistance to Monsanto’s “wonder seed”. Even the government’s own advisory panel argued against the product but, of course, the USDA ignored it’s own experts and sided with Monsanto. So now, the expected as…
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Gilding the lily….
….that’s pretty much what I think about bacon recipes. Really can’t imagine anything improving the flavor and aroma of lovely Tamworth bacon (from Thistle Hill, of course). But recently the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund had a “Baconpalooza” event at Polyface Farms in Virginia…and 250 people jammed Joel Salatin’s farm near Staunton to bear witness. The winner was Russ Crandall, who blogs under the name “The Domestic Man”. Maybe some cold and slow winter day, I’ll try it. http://thedomesticman.com/2013/09/10/bourbon-and-cider-braised-bacon/?utm_source=September+15+Newsletter+-+New+Edition&utm_campaign=130915&utm_medium=email
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Myth busting – Part 2….
From time to time we’re asked why we’re not organic….”just” grass fed. Well, for openers I don’t want the government approving or disapproving of what I choose to eat. I can’t think of any personal freedom more important than that. But beyond that, you can farm “organically” and still do terrible things to your cows, your land and yourself…..and the consumer is none the wiser. The label, he thinks, tells him all he needs to know. Reassured, he goes on to other worries. Meanwhile, the “idea” of organic has been corrupted by the usual alliance between the government and big business, including Big Ag. http://www.cornucopia.org/USDA/OrganicWatergateWhitePaper.pdf I’d like to comment: “there…
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Myth-busting – Part 1….
….we don’t make a big thing of it, but we’re basically gluten-free in our kitchen. Wooz believes in it; I just feel better and it also helps keep my weight down. As for the science of it, I’m an agnostic. Is the whole thing just a fad? Hype? Here’s an article that’s fun with all the science on the subject you could possibly want: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/gluten-free-fad/#axzz2e9JiOVRs?utm_source=September+15+Newsletter+-+New+Edition&utm_campaign=130915&utm_medium=email Note: we found the link on the US Wellness website.