I wanted to start a thread in an attempt to do my part to help educate people on the food system in this country.
I'm not sure people realize the lengths corporations are going to get you using their products and sometimes addicted to their products. I hope this thread is of some use. I plan on posting random cases, legislation, movements that I hear about and hope we can have good discussion about all of it.
To get started, I'm posting a general overview from the Food Inc guys about the differences between whole foods, processed fooda and ways we can simplify the issues we currently face.
Helping Facilitate Change in the Food Industry
you have a good article that expands on this? i want to send it to my coworker.
I hesitate to post this but I'm going to. I want to make clear the point of me posting it though. The point is to show how extensive research is in getting people to buy a product.
This link is a snopes article regarding a misconception that Pepsi is using baby stem cells in their product. The reality is, the research company who is developing food additives.
I know that it is only a cell line and not actual fetus but that just sounds nasty and quite over the top in the effort to make food more "flavorful".
And this is really the point of this thread. There are TONS of examples like this. It's not just "taste test" anymore with these companies. They are spending billions trying to figure out how to get you legally hooked on their processed food. It's an uphill battle for us as individuals. At this point, I really don't see a way to combat it other than to educate ourselves on it. I don't even buy ice cream in the store anymore. We make it at home. The only things I really buy on a regular basis from the store are peanut butter, chips (with 3 ingredients or less), lunch meat, milk and bread (from time to time).I've found a local source for pork, chicken and beef and a local source for veggies. Add fruit to the list above...don't have a good local source for fruit.
You mind sharing your sources?We use absoluteorganics.com for fruits & veggies and meats from a local farmer co-op type delivery.
We also usually buy lots of peaches from the peach stand on 160 and strawberries from Hall Family Farm in Ballantyne.
Peach stand is how I found Mills Family Farms. They are all the way up 77 almost in Troutman. It's a drive and we've only done it once, but you can go to their page and get on their emailing list. There's a restaurant in Rock Hill called "Erin's" or something like that who uses Mills as well and they told my wife we can order from Mills and they'll deliver to Erin's so we can pick it up there instead of driving. There are a couple co-op groups that people in my neighborhood use, but I haven't checked them out yet. There's a place in Anderson SC that sells whole animals too. I haven't looked closely at it, but have a couple friends who have used them.
thisis where we get our meat and eggs from. Not 100% sure how they comapre to the local grocery stores; my wife does all the shopping and she says they are comparable when you are looking at organic, hormone-free, etc. The way it works is you place an order on-line, and the farmer dude loads everything into a regrigerated trailer and drives around town to make his deliveries. Easy.Between this and the fruit/veggie link, this is how we do most of our shopping. We only go the stores for a few odds/ends outside of that, and it's mostly for raw ingredients. We avoid pre-packaged foods as much as possible. It's really hard to get away from it all completely, but I figure if we can get even 65% of our nutrients this way, that's a step i nthe right direction.
it is more expensive though. The way I look at it, this is what food is supposed to cost. The other stuff is cheap because there are accountants and food-scientists working diligently to drive costs down at the expense of anything but taste.
rovided, That all such conditions shall be applicable only for the interim period necessary for the Secretary to complete any required analyses or consultations related to the petition for non-regulated status: Provided further, That nothing in this section shall be construed as limiting the Secretary’s authority under section 411, 412 and 414 of the Plant Protection Act.
The hardest thing for me to justify is the chicken. I'm not sure why it costs so much more to be organic than the other meats, but I've seen in some places where whole chickens are 15-20 bucks for ONE. Doesn't make sense. Earthfare will process a whole chicken for you for about $3 a pound.
