Sunday, October 31, 2010

Thoughts and what's going on Part 2

Dear Friends,

My apologies for the delay, seemed that in between trying to finish outside work and finish a little bit of canning of tomatoes from the neighbor  (sorry, but I'm a sucker for free food, I do not like to waste anything) , and trying to finish my posting to all of you,  I picked up a "little" flu bug.  It didn't go into the full blown flu but boy, did I have a tummy ache and the achy joints and headache and general ill feeling that you get.  I generally do not get sick so to speak, but a few days ago, I had to go to the dollar store that we have here to pick up some plastic wrap to finish some meat wrapping for the freezer and there was a woman who had 3 kids who didn't need to be running around in the first place, they were all sick and I tried to avoid them, but you know cooties, how they float around in the air! So out come the herbal teas I have, the Echinacea, the Elderberry syrup, and some juice, and aspirin  and just rest. It sure doesn't get the work done though, don't have a Cabana boy running around. lol

I wanted to sort of finish my posting on the big 4 packing houses and something else that goes hand in hand with this:  Please re-read the post if you need to, but on top of the big 4,  pretty much ALL of our food is genetically altered by some of the biggest names in the seed business, Monsanto being at the head of the class in GM seeds and promoting their claims of safe seeds.  Some of the others that we have here are, Cargill, and then you again get into the food companies like Cargill, ConAgra, which goes hand in hand with the big 4 packing houses, and you basically have a recipe for a boatload of disaster for all of us. Monsanto promote seeds all over the world, and from what I have read, their seeds are back-firing and making growing and secondary things coming out from the use of these seeds even worse.

In the new issue of Mother Earth News, (http://www.motherearthnews.com/), there are several articles pertaining to mega farms and an article which pertains to systemic pesticides that are "in" the seeds already, the article  is named "Chemicals you can't wash off".  Then the article of factory farms is called "The danger lurking in factory farm chicken".  Go to their site and search these articles and they will be for this Oct/Nov 10 issue.  Please read these if you can.  Then search for more articles about this control that the packing houses and the seed companies have on our food.  I am sure most of you keep track of GM food, there is an article out on the GM salmon that the FDA wants to throw on your table also.

I probably shouldn't even be talking about this, to me, it seems that you do not have control over your food except if you grow it yourself, or support your local growers and farmers.  And I'm  also sure that like all of you, I some what do not have control of what I buy because I am on a limited income, and have little choice here where I live, especially during the late winter, when I do not have good access to fresh greens or fruit.  I get very frustrated a lot from this, I am envious of some of my readers who have fresh milk and cream, and have farms who  are very self-sustaining as best as they can.   This is a worrisome thing for me as I really feel that the gov is controlling pretty much everything that we eat or make you eat, and those of us who are urban or limited communities,  are really at the mercy of others who truly don't care about anything but the dollar, or euro or anything else that matters. Then the gov wants to control the small farms that want to bring fresh milk and cream and fresh eggs and other farm fresh items to you, because of the food safety issues which are brought about by the big 4 packing houses and the big mega seed companies in the first place that make food unsafe and is processed in unclean and unhealthy facilities in the second place, but makes the small farms responsible for it like they did the bad deeds to start.

I'm not even sure where this will go,  I don't like to speak of politics at all, but I guess, if we want change, please go to the polls on Nov 2nd, and vote.  That is all I will say about this subject, as I don't want to give opinions about government issues, though they are important to all of us.  Even if we are all different, and have different views, we still are seeking a simple and less stressful life that is more fulfilling that the materialistic realm that others live in.   I love to hear what all of you are trying to achieve, again, we are all different, and seeking different but for the goal of a more simplistic lifestyle.
Going back to the food issues, (sorry for the wandering, I have a fuzzy head)  I guess, we just have to seek out food for our families and seek harder, look farther, do more for ourselves if possible, but yet, IF we have to fall back on some things to get us through till next year, seek out more organic from a health food store or a co-op, then so be it. It is not the end of the world, it is not taboo, and if  we have to buy some things from the conventional grocery, we pick what we can, as healthy as we can, or simply go without till the next growing season and better access.We need to read more and look into the companies that provide us these foods or mixes, and do more searching on our own about these companies and asking more questions, and the best yet, the power of OUR dollar, telling these companies that we will not buy until they change ingredients, (like high fructose corn syrup).  I have called several companies or email them and told them that I refuse to purchase any more of their products until they change the ingredients and on some, they have done so, so I guess the power of the voice and the dollar do work, but for how long, who knows.

This also is following something that we in the state of Nebraska are dealing with.  The building of a gas pipeline through one of the purest water holdings in the nation, The Ogallala Aquifer.  It seems that this Canadian company wants to run a pipeline right through our source of fresh water.  This source of water runs from Nebraska, some parts of South Dakota,  through Kansas, Oklahoma, and parts of Texas and is pure to its form.  This company is not addressing the issues that pertain to leaks in the pipeline or other safety issues, (the Gulf gusher), and is just basically trying to just ram this down the state of Nebraska's throat.  As I read or hear more, I will keep you posted on this.  This is not being talked about much by the state government, and I assure you, that the state's citizens are not happy at all about this either.

Anyway, I think that this is enough of the ranting for now.  There are better things to talk about now. All of you will think that is all I do....

Well, like I said at the beginning of the post, I have been trying to clean up my garden areas and the now dead plants the  freeze took out.  It sure looks pretty sad around here now, everything is looking like November now, I'm  not ready to be forced inside yet, we have been having very cold weather now, but the days are nice and warm by early afternoon, so I will resume my clean-up this afternoon and hopefully be done.

Well, this post was long winded, and probably will make someone mad, hope not, but if it does, I'm sorry.
So, to all, please have a great weekend, what ever the plans, if you are going out for Halloween, please be careful, have fun, and don't eat too much sugar, or "you'll get worms", like my grandmother would tell me. lol

Take care all

7 comments:

  1. Hey there, good post. I am ready for some cold weather. It has been really hot here.

    I have the same issues with envying other bloggers because they have fresh foods. I try not to but...well, you know.

    I get overwhelmed easily if I think about how bad everything is. So, I just do the best I can and always try to keep moving forward. Replacing bad stuff little by little the best I can. It gets really hard though because we just took a major hit to our income. Just getting food on the table is a challenge.

    However, I think that cooking from scratch is a big step in the right direction. At least you can eliminate a lot of chemicals that way.

    Well, these are just some rambling thoughts. I look forward to reading what others have to say.

    Glad you are feeling better.

    Blessings,
    Lorie

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  2. Keep on ranting sister! I'm right there with you. I have made a number of dietary changes this year. We have gone organic in most areas or at least free range and try to buy local as much as possible. Recently, we had a new market that just opened up that is supposed to cater to fresh produce and organic and happens to label where the produce is from. Not one vegetable or piece of fruit was from Florida and most weren't even from this country. This infuriates me! And don't get me stated on genetically altered seeds. See...you're not the only one who can rant!

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  3. You have the same concerns about food that I have. Trying to avoid gm, pesticide, produce is so difficult. I am having an easier time finding, humanely treated, hormone free, protein. But am considering trying a full vegetarian diet. I hope you are feeling better

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  4. I live on a farm and I do know how blessed we are . I have always had a garden even when we were first married and it was a tiny little 30x30 foot area.

    You just do the best you can with what you have. Some areas have community gardens which is a real blessing if you don't have a large lot.

    I think some of the local grown and organic would be priced way out of my budget if I had to buy it.

    I think the best first step is to cook from scratch. Try to buy nothing with ingredients you don't recognize as food!

    Here is something to ponder: A man from Portugal told us on another Forum that Americans were the only people who felt they had to have fresh fruit and produce the year round. The rest of the world just eats it in season.....

    We all need to be aware of what is happening to our food sources and fight it in every way we can.
    In the Ozarks a local cheesemaker was forced at gunpoint to destroy 50,000 lbs. of cheese because it was made from raw milk! This was over a $200,000 loss and several families were living from this business.

    We all need to support one another in the struggle.

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  5. Totally agree - I've been watching the way the world has changed and I don't like it much Money rules and when it even gets to the point that those of us on low incomes can't buy decent food, then there is something wrong. Maybe we need to go back to the 60's and set up a co op commune kind of a thing and share food and raise all that we can I, for one, am working hard to return to a more simplistic life style and disappear all those chemical names from the food I eat!!

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  6. Having been out of gradening for a dozen years [WY is no place to raise your own food!] I was unaware of the trend in genetically altered seeds or the Monsanto take-over until reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" just after we moved to KY 7 months ago. In my former years of gardening in VT I raised my own tomato and pepper plants and such from seed--mainly my seed was ordered from a small company in Rochester, NY--Harris Seeds at the time.
    We had no time or space to start plants this year so I bought them from the local Mennonite market. Sadly, the heirloom varities for which I had high hopes did not perform well, but that may have been in part due to the extremely hot and humid season.
    I've done a preliminary search and found that some of the varieties I used years ago are still available and those will be what I order in spring of 2011.
    I think education in these matters is the crucial thing and so many people [a majority?] simply don't care, aren't interested in a quality diet.
    There was almost no "fast food" when I was growing up--and I think that overly processed gimicky food surfaced as the tip of the poorly nurished trend which has followed.
    While we personally have been able to implement very positive changes in returning to more wholesome food, I still balk at the price of "organic eggs" [so-called?] at double the cost of "regular" eggs. And I don't want to keep chickens.
    We can only choose from among our realistic options, dedicate time and energy to the work that is involved in serving better food, and continue to be persuasive about the benefits.
    Your themes deserve a wider readership, but too many don't wish to change. [Sorry this is a rather hastily written response--have just finished putting away fresh yogurt and butter and cleaning the kitchen for the umpteenth time today!]

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  7. How I agree with you. I expect you already know the wonderful Down to Earth blog http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ and perhaps you are familiar with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his River Cottage programmes? http://www.rivercottage.net/ His philosophy is very much grow your own, eat seasonally, cook from scratch, avoid mass-produced and factory-farmed food, etc. I think you are very much the same mindset.

    The power that Monsanto has is frightening. Imagine the scenario of something going wrong with a crop, for whatever reason, and there being only ONE seed type being sold and controlled by them. Famine would follow in short order. . . Greed, pure greed.

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