Why be choosey when shopping??

I remember when I lived in Santiago Chile and going shopping at we refer to as the "Farmer's Market". There were at least bi-weekly markets in all neighbor hoods. There were very few grocery stores, people bought what they ate fresh, had very little garbage, supported local economy, and didn't need to have a giant refrigerator and massive storage for food.

We can only afford to do this now because of the artificially low energy prices that we currently enjoy, and by externalizing the environmental costs of such a wasteful food system. We do this also to the detriment of small farmers by subsidizing large scale, agribusiness-oriented agriculture with government handouts and artificially cheap energy.

I reflect on those experiences when I shop here in Missoula or go to the store. At Costco or other stores like Walmart you can see people leave with a massive bounty of food stuff and other goods. My attitude has shifted from being a box store addict to, well lets see...ill describe it!! (its hard)

Cheap energy and agricultural subsidies facilitate a type of agriculture that is destroying and polluting our soils and water, weakening our communities, and concentrating wealth and power into a few hands. It is also threatening the security of our food systems, as demonstrated by the continued e-Coli, GMO-contamination, and other health scares that are often seen nowadays on the news.

We joined a co-op, Trying to ween my better half off Walmart, we buy much less processed and packaged food. We dint buy too much from the co-op yet and I cant bring myself to brave the Local farmer's market scene...and it is a scene. over all it takes discipline and quite a bit more effort to eat healthy and shop responsibly.

Why do it? It is not just about eating organic, as a matter of fact I don't really focus on organic as much as locally grown. We have some excellent local farmers who don't jump through the USDA hoop of red tape, bureaucracy and fees and actually have higher standards. So I can buy stuff where I know the grower, know where it was grown. Also it wasn't shipped 1500 miles and harvested prematurely to adjust for shelf life at the super market.

Most produce in the US is picked 4 to 7 days before being placed on supermarket shelves, and is shipped for an average of 1500 miles before being sold. And this is when taking into account only US grown products! Those distances are substantially longer when we take into consideration produce imported from Mexico, Asia, Canada, South America, and other places.

What is becoming an even more significant reason is that the money we spend supports a local economy, a local family, a local school. It doesnt go to a corporate farmer or some other agri-giant that has found a way to manipulate the system and is only socially responsible and organic on the nifty packaging.

These large-scale, agribusiness-oriented food systems are bound to fail on the long term, sunk by their own unsustainability. But why wait until we're forced by circumstance to abandon our destructive patterns of consumption? We can start now by buying locally grown food whenever possible. By doing so you'll be helping preserve the environment, and you'll be strengthening your community by investing your food dollar close to home. Only 18 cents of every dollar, when buying at a large supermarket, go to the grower. 82 cents go to various unnecessary middlemen. Cut them out of the picture and buy your food directly from your local farmer.

Family farms are an important part of the American tradition of self-sufficiency, forming the bedrock for communities across the U.S.

Since 1935, the U.S. has lost 4.7 million farms. Fewer than one million Americans now claim farming as a primary occupation.

Go to local harvest for more great info

Top Five Ways to Avoid GMOs in Your Food
by Dr. Gregory Damato, Ph.D., citizen journalist
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(NaturalNews) Recent polls across the world have consistently shown that, if they had a choice, 90% of people would actively seek to avoid GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in their food. The large multinational corporations of the world have gone through extensive measures to ensure the citizens of most nations have no possible way of knowing whether the food they and their children are eating contain contaminants of GMOs. The labelling of GMOs on the packaging of any foods in the US for example, is illegal. For example, if a company like Kellogs decided to include a full disclosure label on their cereal box that stated, "contains genetically modified corn" they could be sued by the manufacturer and then face possible prison time.

This is a very important issue because the democratic process of many nations has been surreptitiously supplanted by the corporatocracy of the seed company juggernauts. America has one of the highest levels of GMOs in their food chain in the western world with up to 85% of its pre-packaged and processed foods coming from genetic engineering. The people have never asked for GMOs- but got them anyway. The people then asked that they be properly labeled so they could avoid them- they were ignored. Therefore, seeing how our health freedom and well-being is consistently under attack from large multi-national corporations only seeking to increase profits at the expense of our health, what are we to do?

What we can do is simply try to avoid the GMO contaminants altogether and be extremely vigilant of how we spend our money and which companies we are choosing to support. Here are five simple and effective ways to decrease your contact with untested, toxic and dangerous GMOs.

1.) Buy Locally Produced Food

For now, GMOs are only used by large multinational corporations who buy direct from large farms. Produce from local mom and pop farmers have yet to become genetically modified. Purchasing locally grown food supports your local farmers and your health. Not to worry about GMO tomatoes and potatoes as they have all been pulled from the market.

2.) Buy Organically Grown Food

For now, the organic certification process is a relatively safe bet to ensure your food is free of GMOs, although this may not be the case in the future. Help support global sustainability by purchasing certified organically grown food.

3.) Avoid the Top Four GMO Crops of Soy, Corn, Canola and Cottonseed

This is a bit tricky as most blended oils in North America contain canola and cottonseed. Whenever you go out to dinner and receive anything fried, you are most likely consuming GMOs from the oil, not to mention transfat. A way around this would be to purchase 100% extra virgin olive oil, but be sure to avoid the term olive oil as most of it is blended with some GMO cottonseed or canola. Unless it specifically states "Non-GMO" or some derivation on the label, it most likely contains GMOs.

Likewise, any time you go you consume corn chips, tacos or soy milk, you are eating GMOs, again unless it specifically states Non-GMO or is organic.

4.) Avoid Artificial Additives and Sweeteners

Most of use are aware of the dangers behind the artificial sweetener and excitotoxin, aspartame (known as preservative E951), but may not be aware that it is created using genetic modification. Even the majority of vitamin C (asorbic Acid) and many B vitamins have been created via genetic modification. A Japanese company was forced to pull GMO L-Tryptophan off the market in 1989 after thousands of people became severely ill with many developing an extremely rare blood disorder called, Esinophilia-Myalgia Syndrome (EMS), although the FDA never publicly mentioned that GMO contamination was the true cause of the recall.

5.) Look For the Non-GMO Label

This includes all animals used for food because most are typically fed GMO feed. If it does not state Non-GMO on the label, then email the manufacturer and ask if they use GMO feed. It is best to attempt to contact all of the manufacturers of the foods you generally eat on a daily or even weekly basis and determine whether GMOs ingredients are utilized in the food. You have a fundamental right to know whether the foods you are consuming have been contaminated with GMOs. When in doubt always look for the Non-GMO label, and unfortunately assume that it has been genetically modified unless the opposite have been explicitly stated.

More.....

GMO food lessons for kids

I was listening to our sixth grader talk about his day at school and all the great things they learn. I mean that, they have some great teachers at our school here in Target Range. Well the subject of Genetically Modified (engineered) food came up and of course I was courious. They get this little news paper like thing called the World History Studies weekly published by American legacy publishing based in Utah.

The artcle started out like this..."Have you ever heard of genetically engineered food? Now, dont be ashamed if you say "no". I like how the subvesive connection is made between being ashamed and not knowing about GMO's. the article goes on to state that farmers like GMO products because they dont have to buy pesticides....and this we know is an outright lie or completely ignorant sloppy journalism. Monsanto alters the traits of foods so that they are resistant to pesticides, therefore they can sell MORE pesticides to the Farmer...and get the farmer to buy more seeds every year because they are patented.

The best one is when the author explains how this technology can be used to feed the starving people of the world. Someone needs to inform the author that we in the USA already pay farmers to NOT farm their land. Feeding the poor starving people in third world countries is just a PR talking point so that GMO's can gain emotional acceptance. The article does mention some worry about this technology in terms of creating "franken foods" but only explains them as pesticide resistant weeds.

The article reminds me of a pay for post artcle, an ad or PR piece that appears as a legit piece of journalism. I dont know why they would be citing a 3 year old study that focused on acceptance and knowledge of GMO's rather than facts on what GMO's are and the real dangers.

It seems that more and more schools are being used to influence kids, their beliefs but more in terms of how they will eventually spend their Money.

In Montana...On January 27,2003 the Montana State Senate unanimously passed a bill which says that the introduction of GM wheat and barley “must be carefully timed so that it occurs only when there is acceptance of these crops by Montana’s major customers.” Timing and acceptance are important...not safety,.Source

Do you wonder why they call it round-up ready...because they can dump tons of toxic chemicles on it....and finally we now get GMO sugar..."After seven years of keeping sugar from genetically modified sugar beets out of their food, Kellogg, Hershey’s and the Wyoming based American Crystal Sugarwill use sugar made from genetically modified (GM) beets.

The decision marks a turnaround for Crystal Sugar, the nation’s largest sugar producer,....source

We have a chance....

Mike Adams of Natural News says some great things and I like his Ideas...

...let's also remember that Big Pharma is all of a sudden funneling tens of millions of dollars into the pockets of Democrats, and there's one simple truth about Washington that transcends all political parties: Money buys influence.

And Big Pharma has more money than you can imagine (thanks, in part, to the Bush-sponsored Big Pharma ripoff of America over the last eight years).


Thirteen suggestions for positive change on health and health care

read the rest here

More of this please!!

The Farm to School program works with local farmers, ranchers and food service staff to feature Montana-grown food items in the school cafeterias when possible. Efforts include incorporating Montana items into the menu on an on-going basis, as well as in special meal events....read more