Fresh Food Challenge
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to watch "FRESH" a film about coming back to sustainable, organic farming, and a vision for the future of food and our planet. If you get a chance to watch this film I can almost guarantee it will change the way you think about the food that is on your plate every day. Another fantastic source of information about where our food comes from is Michael Pollan's "The Omnivores Dilemma".
I am trying my best to maintain a healthy organic diet, but I am finding it a challenge to do so. For one thing, products labelled as organic may not mean that exactly (i.e. What is 70% organic? What is allowed to make up the other 30%?). There seems to be some lose rules when it comes to what portion of the food needs to be organic to be labelled as such.
I am wary shopping at the large supermarkets; the ones that sell us convenience foods packaged and displayed to catch our eye and part with our money for food that is full of chemicals, additives and GMO's in the form of soy bean and corn by-products. And, since an alarming roughly 85% of the corn and soy bean crops in north America are GMO, you can be sure you are consuming them every day. The list of things that are made with corn is mind bogglingly extensive. As my daughter quoted from Pollan's book after taking a course at University called The Anthropology of Corn, with all the corn we consume (and put on our bodies) human beings are basically "walking corn chips".
Even Whole Foods is in the news this with their admission that they are using GMO products in their "organic" foods. The question is how do we get away from the big companies that seem to be in control of everything with ingest. One of the best ways to avoid chemicals and GMO's is to avoid pre-made packaged foods.
A good way to ensure you are getting organic vegetables is your growing your own . Great if you have the room for a garden and great in the summer months, but what about the rest of the year? (In Ontario our growing season is really only about 5 months). Another good source is your local farmers market. Chat with growers - see what they are doing and how they are keeping their farms organic. Or, join a CSA. I intend to extend my vegetable growing space yet again next year and grow more vegetables that can be stored during the winter. That in itself raises yet another challenge as my house does not have a cold storage. Perhaps the garage might be an option.
The moral of this blog post is that yes, there are challenges, but the end result - fresh, healthy food - is worth it. The only way we as consumers are going to get that kind of food is to refuse to buy anything but. The industry will have to change if we do.
This Thanksgiving I am challenging myself to cook the entire dinner with locally sourced organic food. I will report back on how I do with that after the big meal. Wish me luck.
I am trying my best to maintain a healthy organic diet, but I am finding it a challenge to do so. For one thing, products labelled as organic may not mean that exactly (i.e. What is 70% organic? What is allowed to make up the other 30%?). There seems to be some lose rules when it comes to what portion of the food needs to be organic to be labelled as such.
I am wary shopping at the large supermarkets; the ones that sell us convenience foods packaged and displayed to catch our eye and part with our money for food that is full of chemicals, additives and GMO's in the form of soy bean and corn by-products. And, since an alarming roughly 85% of the corn and soy bean crops in north America are GMO, you can be sure you are consuming them every day. The list of things that are made with corn is mind bogglingly extensive. As my daughter quoted from Pollan's book after taking a course at University called The Anthropology of Corn, with all the corn we consume (and put on our bodies) human beings are basically "walking corn chips".
Even Whole Foods is in the news this with their admission that they are using GMO products in their "organic" foods. The question is how do we get away from the big companies that seem to be in control of everything with ingest. One of the best ways to avoid chemicals and GMO's is to avoid pre-made packaged foods.
A good way to ensure you are getting organic vegetables is your growing your own . Great if you have the room for a garden and great in the summer months, but what about the rest of the year? (In Ontario our growing season is really only about 5 months). Another good source is your local farmers market. Chat with growers - see what they are doing and how they are keeping their farms organic. Or, join a CSA. I intend to extend my vegetable growing space yet again next year and grow more vegetables that can be stored during the winter. That in itself raises yet another challenge as my house does not have a cold storage. Perhaps the garage might be an option.
The moral of this blog post is that yes, there are challenges, but the end result - fresh, healthy food - is worth it. The only way we as consumers are going to get that kind of food is to refuse to buy anything but. The industry will have to change if we do.
This Thanksgiving I am challenging myself to cook the entire dinner with locally sourced organic food. I will report back on how I do with that after the big meal. Wish me luck.
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