Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change?
Shared via AddThis
Monday, August 24, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Turkeys!
Our Thanksgiving dinner arrived yesterday morning, with 7 of her friends. Well, perhaps that sounds a big too crass when the emotions of looking into a cardboard box containing 8 little baby turkey poults have labels such as "oooooooooooh How Cute!" and "Wow, look - it ate a spider!"
Turkey poults are different than baby chicks. More active, more confident, way more 'are you my mommy?' They also need a very much higher protein diet than their smaller cousins.
As I drove by cornfields green and tasseling, soybeans still dark green and growing, windows down to feel the cooling breeze, I reflected on the moment. Here it was the height of Summer, cicadas buzzing, me in shorts and t-shirts night and day. The kind of day-the season in fact- we like to daydream about during a snowstorm. And I was driving into town to go pick up what will be my holiday dinner centerpiece. I believe this is what they mean by 'slow food'.
Our 8 poults have settled in nicely. You may not know this, but it is nearly impossible to find turkey starter (the feed formulated with the 28% protein that baby turkeys need) that does not contain drugs. I have had success in the past (the one time I raised turkeys) with non-medicated feed, so we are going to try it again. Most all the books say to give them medication to get them off to a healthy start. Since I couldn't find any feed in bags that fit our bill, I decided to mix my own from the grain mix I had on hand and added more soybeans to up the protein level. This involved grinding the whole roasted soybeans in our Kitchenaid grain mill and adding it to the grain mix, then putting it all in a cement mixer to ensure adequate mixing. I also am adding a poultry vitamin and electrolyte mix to their water. As of day 2 all is well.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Pig farming round 2
The pigs came today- or rather, we retrieved them. Last year the guy we got them from brought them here and this time we got to load them, with his help, and unload them into their new home. I got to perfect my subcutaneous injections on swine (somehow, very different than newborn babes) and even with that additional insult the piggies were really mellow and hugely curious and rompy almost immediately. Having been farrowed in a barn, in a crate- this was the first day their hooves hit grass and dirt and the first time out in the glorious summer sunshine. They are quite pleased. They spent more time rooting, grazing, and chewing on the logs and fencing in their palace than finding where their grain was. Likewise, it took a while for them to find the nipple waterer but to cool them off and help them drink we put out a rubber tub filled with the hose and they launched and lurched their little bodies into it, limbs hanging off the sides while they splashed about. It is really cool (all over again) to see how pigs just like to be pigs- no matter how many generations have been raised in concrete slabs- they know what to do with dirt and pasture, know how to rummage out it's nutrients, cool themselves in it, play in it.
Every day seems to have it's successes and I've been finding ways to relish them amidst my 'constructive criticism' of what we'll do differently next year. Today- it was the pig arrival- not only celebrating our launching of another season, our second herd, but also hearing so many exuberant and encouraging responses from our friends who became our first customers last year. One family who had our pork and signed up for another hog this year came to visit and see the pigs today. Everyone is really excited and is sharing their appreciation of how great the pork was. It reminds me of one aspect of why I love this so much- it's like having all these friends for supper and knowing they enjoyed the meal! We will likely need to use another butcher and I'm hoping it will be as good or better than last time.
Another success - a funny one actually- is my first successful compost. I have been too busy to turn it much- and today- after cleaning out the chicken coop and adding the manure to our new pile- saw that both the new and old pile are that dark rich hummusy crumbly stuff that I've only READ about. I've been using compost bins in some form now for about 7 years, in my urban yards, and both because of frequent moving and the limitations in size, scope and content, my composting has always felt like a bit of a failure. I always cheer folks on- and tell them it's not complicated- but now I've really done it well!
A few days ago I was digging out hip-high weeds in my perenial garden and finally looked up to miraculously catch that view of the chartreuse dill weaving above the echinacea and the asters and the bobbing sunflowers and then surveying the alpine strawberries started from seed and the 6 strawberry transplants that now spread over the bed into a real PATCH and suddenly the 'What a disaster' summation of the garden turned to 'it's brambly and taking form into something really really beautiful'. Given that all of this work gives ya time to think, it's a great exercise in turning towards optimism- seeing what emerges and trusting that the world will grow and mend itself, that pigs will play in mud and runners throw out shoots to make strawberries, that rich fertilizer will emerge from what was dead and discarded.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
A few minutes before bed left.
Tonight after work we went to check out our next batch of feeder pigs. Way cute! They are the same three-way breed cross as the first batch, but they are mostly red and white, no black ones in this bunch. There is at least one 'calico' in the bunch. I wonder at my potential to make a true pig farmer due to my weakness for cute colors in a pig. Not the best way to pick out a good sound animal, but it certainly pleases me.
Been working hard on a new outdoor pig enclosure for these guys. This will be a large permanent pen set up in a grove of scrub trees, providing lots of shade, grass, leaves, fresh air, and general piggy heaven. There are still a few final touches that need doing, but the major work is done, and it feels good to know we'll soon have little grunting porkers pushing their noses through the soil.
When we have not been building pig pens and moving the new chicken fence, we have been
preserving as much as we possibly can from the garden. The limitation here is time. Our garden is providing us with a great bounty of everything. The peas are finally about done, and I am glad to not have to shuck them for a while, though I love fresh peas for sure. The beans are on their way to finished. The garlic is mostly out of the ground and drying in the barn, and the onions are soon to follow. We are waiting for the potatoes to season in the ground before we dig them for storage. We have been eating some fresh fingerling potatoes - yum! The biggest, best garden arrival in my opinion is the sweet corn! The corn is at it's peak right now, and I have to say, this is an excellent crop in all regards. Big, beautiful ears of snapping sweet kernels. Besides eating it right in the garden, and slightly cooked at dinner, we have been freezing most of it. This weekend I'm sure we'll be canning more corn. I think we'll have to go get more jars, as the tomatoes are right behind the corn.
Tonight after work we went to check out our next batch of feeder pigs. Way cute! They are the same three-way breed cross as the first batch, but they are mostly red and white, no black ones in this bunch. There is at least one 'calico' in the bunch. I wonder at my potential to make a true pig farmer due to my weakness for cute colors in a pig. Not the best way to pick out a good sound animal, but it certainly pleases me.
Been working hard on a new outdoor pig enclosure for these guys. This will be a large permanent pen set up in a grove of scrub trees, providing lots of shade, grass, leaves, fresh air, and general piggy heaven. There are still a few final touches that need doing, but the major work is done, and it feels good to know we'll soon have little grunting porkers pushing their noses through the soil.
When we have not been building pig pens and moving the new chicken fence, we have been
preserving as much as we possibly can from the garden. The limitation here is time. Our garden is providing us with a great bounty of everything. The peas are finally about done, and I am glad to not have to shuck them for a while, though I love fresh peas for sure. The beans are on their way to finished. The garlic is mostly out of the ground and drying in the barn, and the onions are soon to follow. We are waiting for the potatoes to season in the ground before we dig them for storage. We have been eating some fresh fingerling potatoes - yum! The biggest, best garden arrival in my opinion is the sweet corn! The corn is at it's peak right now, and I have to say, this is an excellent crop in all regards. Big, beautiful ears of snapping sweet kernels. Besides eating it right in the garden, and slightly cooked at dinner, we have been freezing most of it. This weekend I'm sure we'll be canning more corn. I think we'll have to go get more jars, as the tomatoes are right behind the corn.
My birthday present arrived today - it's the book titled Charcuterie, the Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing. This book is very much hailed in the meat foodie world, and a quick perusal tonight has me excited. I've got some pork ribs thawing in the fridge awaiting a magical transformation.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Who Owns Organic
Who Owns Organic
This is a link to a very interesting chart. It is very eye-opening. There is a link on the page below it to view it as a full sized pdf, if you want.
The Corportization and loss of diversity and choice for both consumers and producers is not solely a problem for standard, commercially produced foodstuffs. No indeed, the Big Boys have eyed the success of the organic trade, and they have begun to move their attention toward many brands amiliar to those of us who think we are buying responsibly.
Be aware, be willing to buy small, local, and farmer friendly.
Shared via AddThis
This is a link to a very interesting chart. It is very eye-opening. There is a link on the page below it to view it as a full sized pdf, if you want.
The Corportization and loss of diversity and choice for both consumers and producers is not solely a problem for standard, commercially produced foodstuffs. No indeed, the Big Boys have eyed the success of the organic trade, and they have begun to move their attention toward many brands amiliar to those of us who think we are buying responsibly.
Be aware, be willing to buy small, local, and farmer friendly.
Shared via AddThis
USDA Admits GMO Contamination is Inevitable
USDA Admits GMO Contamination is Inevitable
Well, this is great news. Though Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the EU have studied the issue of Genetically Modified Foods and determined that the unknown health risks are too great to allow, the United States of Corporations has of course been told we will accept these products, and accept them we have.
If anyone really wanted to stay away from these genetically modified foods, it is now assured that will be virtually impossible. These genes are like gazillions of tiny genies which have been invisibly popping out of their bottles across the land for the last decade now. I read an article by a prominent organic seedsman that basically admitted that even organic seeds are now heavily affected by GMO genes. In other words, they have escaped and are inserting themselves into plants all over the place. Only the very most isolated crops of corn, soybeans, cotton, etc. may be unaffected. For how long they can hold out is anyone's guess. My guess? Not too long.
Shared via AddThis
Well, this is great news. Though Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the EU have studied the issue of Genetically Modified Foods and determined that the unknown health risks are too great to allow, the United States of Corporations has of course been told we will accept these products, and accept them we have.
If anyone really wanted to stay away from these genetically modified foods, it is now assured that will be virtually impossible. These genes are like gazillions of tiny genies which have been invisibly popping out of their bottles across the land for the last decade now. I read an article by a prominent organic seedsman that basically admitted that even organic seeds are now heavily affected by GMO genes. In other words, they have escaped and are inserting themselves into plants all over the place. Only the very most isolated crops of corn, soybeans, cotton, etc. may be unaffected. For how long they can hold out is anyone's guess. My guess? Not too long.
Shared via AddThis
And Now For Something Completely Political
Sunny, 80
It's a Saturday morning (for me), the sun is shining, the birds are singing. The garden and wild berry harvest are in full swing. We finally did get the much-needed rain over the last few days, so the lawn needs mowing again. Everything seems to be as it should be.
But there are unseen forces at work behind the scenes and beneath the radar that will surely have very serious long-term implications for every one of us in this country and even on this planet. I remember back in the late 60's and 70's, when I was a kid, the birth of the ecology movement. I remember public service commercials meant to wake citizens up to the shameful practice of throwing garbage out along roadsides or in other inappropriate areas. There was a commercial with a Native American man in full ceremonial dress (I guess so we could tell he was an Indian), with a tear streaming down his cheek at the wanton destruction of his precious Mother Nature. I remember there was a movement amongst the people sporting t-shirts and flying flags with the green 'e' symbol on them, meant to indicate support for a green revolution.
Fast forward 40 years. Yes, we've made some progress in some areas. Our understanding and application of organic agricultural practices has grown considerably. We now have words such as sustainability, free-range and permaculture in our lexicon. But at the same time, dark, evil forces have turned out nation into a Corporacracy. (Corporacracy, btw, is the term I use for a government by the corporations, for the corporations. We certainly are there, folks.) The Corporacracy has been growing like a giant blob monster in a b movie laboratory, feeding itself on the knowledge that people will make decisions based on emotion and not on fact. The monster has learned to become our master by manipulating our emotions via the advertising industry (one of it's most vital corporate tentacles) and the media spin industry. It has quietly and cleverly positioned it's minions inside political and legal processes, and inside government itself. In so doing, it has ensured for itself a smooth road to control of our food, our land, our bodies, and next, even our water.
This monster does have a name and a face. Monsanto, Cargill, DuPont, Siemens, Nestle.... it's actually (and tellingly) a rather short list. Taking advantage of loopholes in anti-trust laws and armies of it's own lawyers, these few companies went on a feeding frenzy in the 90's, gobbling up smaller companies that supplied essential goods to local communities and the world. Local packing plants, slaughterhouses, farms, feed stores, grain mills, auction barns, seed companies, chemical plants, food processors and suppliers, grocery stores and pharmacies, all bought up and rapidly shut down in the process of eliminating any possibility of competition (a principle on which our free market was founded, remember?) and diversity. Untold numbers of self-sustaining small towns across rural America have become ghost towns. No more jobs, no more customers, no more stores.
At the same time, the corporate megaliths have been planting their representatives in very key and crucial positions to ensure their own future health and, obviously, profit.
We had hope (yes, we did) with the election of Obama that things would finally be turned back toward justice and policies and decisions that would benefit the public and not the corporations. But despite a very loud and organized plea from citizens and small farmers across our country to appoint as the new Secretary of Agriculture someone who was not in the back pocket of Big Agribiz, someone who would guide us toward a more healthful and sustainable method of growing and harvesting our food, he appointed Iowa's former Governor Vilsack, a guy who is Big Corn, and who believes the Ethanol Myth. And now, this. Appointing a Monsanto Man to head the Food and Drug Administration. In most countries, this would cause civil unrest, but here we are too lulled by the circuses of media that tell us this is a good idea.
Apparently President Obama forgot that the only way we can avert total ecological, economic, and cultural disaster is to break the chains the monster has slipped around us all. It will take representatives in Washington who are actually willing to listen to the people instead of their corporate sponsors, and vote accordingly. Thus far, that has been impossible. The stranglehold this monster has on us is so strong that not only will our elected politicians not stand up against them, but if anyone does, most Americans believe the monsters' media campaigns, and actually fight against their own best interests, attacking any calls for reform and calling them "radical", "nutty", or (gasp!) "liberal".
If we continue at this pace, our entire food supply will be GMO, whether we want it to be or not, our small farms will be taxed and and regulated out of business (this could literally mean no more roadside stands for you all to buy fresh, local veggies, for instance), big business will succeed in literally choking off free water supplies to people and farms , food you buy in the stores will not have to carry labels informing you that they may contain chemicals you wish to avoid, every animal on even the smallest homestead will have to be implanted with a radio frequency chip, our soils, air, water, fish and wildlife will continue to be contaminated with hormones, pcb's and other chemicals with no government watchdogs to control or stop it.
As we were all told that we were standing on an economic precipice last Fall, we understood that we had to allow for drastic action in order to avoid falling over that cliff as a society, which would be a very bad thing. We are at an even higher precipice right now, that of being on the tipping point of the point of no return for our environment and the very means by which we obtain our food, and thus our future health and safety.
If the current economic disaster has been an eye-opener into how inter-connected and centralized our financial system is regarding who the powerful elite are and how much of our economic system they actually control, wait until you figure out who is in charge of our food, fiber, soils, seeds, and drugs.
If we don't wake up NOW and demand the turnabout of past good ol' boy practices and the investigation into facts surrounding these abominable for-profit companies stopping short of absolutely NOTHING to capture and control our food, water, and soil, we are going to experience a crisis far worse than something caused (and solved) by simple, silly money. There is no Central Farm to simply crank out more food or water when worldwide shortages hit. And like the greedy bankers selling off bad loans and investments that they knew would fail, causing our arrival at the monetary and credit cliff, these guys are busily manipulating markets and rules and governments in order to squeeze every penny of profit they can as fast as they can, never mind the crash course we are all headed on.
It's a Saturday morning (for me), the sun is shining, the birds are singing. The garden and wild berry harvest are in full swing. We finally did get the much-needed rain over the last few days, so the lawn needs mowing again. Everything seems to be as it should be.
But there are unseen forces at work behind the scenes and beneath the radar that will surely have very serious long-term implications for every one of us in this country and even on this planet. I remember back in the late 60's and 70's, when I was a kid, the birth of the ecology movement. I remember public service commercials meant to wake citizens up to the shameful practice of throwing garbage out along roadsides or in other inappropriate areas. There was a commercial with a Native American man in full ceremonial dress (I guess so we could tell he was an Indian), with a tear streaming down his cheek at the wanton destruction of his precious Mother Nature. I remember there was a movement amongst the people sporting t-shirts and flying flags with the green 'e' symbol on them, meant to indicate support for a green revolution.
Fast forward 40 years. Yes, we've made some progress in some areas. Our understanding and application of organic agricultural practices has grown considerably. We now have words such as sustainability, free-range and permaculture in our lexicon. But at the same time, dark, evil forces have turned out nation into a Corporacracy. (Corporacracy, btw, is the term I use for a government by the corporations, for the corporations. We certainly are there, folks.) The Corporacracy has been growing like a giant blob monster in a b movie laboratory, feeding itself on the knowledge that people will make decisions based on emotion and not on fact. The monster has learned to become our master by manipulating our emotions via the advertising industry (one of it's most vital corporate tentacles) and the media spin industry. It has quietly and cleverly positioned it's minions inside political and legal processes, and inside government itself. In so doing, it has ensured for itself a smooth road to control of our food, our land, our bodies, and next, even our water.
This monster does have a name and a face. Monsanto, Cargill, DuPont, Siemens, Nestle.... it's actually (and tellingly) a rather short list. Taking advantage of loopholes in anti-trust laws and armies of it's own lawyers, these few companies went on a feeding frenzy in the 90's, gobbling up smaller companies that supplied essential goods to local communities and the world. Local packing plants, slaughterhouses, farms, feed stores, grain mills, auction barns, seed companies, chemical plants, food processors and suppliers, grocery stores and pharmacies, all bought up and rapidly shut down in the process of eliminating any possibility of competition (a principle on which our free market was founded, remember?) and diversity. Untold numbers of self-sustaining small towns across rural America have become ghost towns. No more jobs, no more customers, no more stores.
At the same time, the corporate megaliths have been planting their representatives in very key and crucial positions to ensure their own future health and, obviously, profit.
We had hope (yes, we did) with the election of Obama that things would finally be turned back toward justice and policies and decisions that would benefit the public and not the corporations. But despite a very loud and organized plea from citizens and small farmers across our country to appoint as the new Secretary of Agriculture someone who was not in the back pocket of Big Agribiz, someone who would guide us toward a more healthful and sustainable method of growing and harvesting our food, he appointed Iowa's former Governor Vilsack, a guy who is Big Corn, and who believes the Ethanol Myth. And now, this. Appointing a Monsanto Man to head the Food and Drug Administration. In most countries, this would cause civil unrest, but here we are too lulled by the circuses of media that tell us this is a good idea.
Apparently President Obama forgot that the only way we can avert total ecological, economic, and cultural disaster is to break the chains the monster has slipped around us all. It will take representatives in Washington who are actually willing to listen to the people instead of their corporate sponsors, and vote accordingly. Thus far, that has been impossible. The stranglehold this monster has on us is so strong that not only will our elected politicians not stand up against them, but if anyone does, most Americans believe the monsters' media campaigns, and actually fight against their own best interests, attacking any calls for reform and calling them "radical", "nutty", or (gasp!) "liberal".
If we continue at this pace, our entire food supply will be GMO, whether we want it to be or not, our small farms will be taxed and and regulated out of business (this could literally mean no more roadside stands for you all to buy fresh, local veggies, for instance), big business will succeed in literally choking off free water supplies to people and farms , food you buy in the stores will not have to carry labels informing you that they may contain chemicals you wish to avoid, every animal on even the smallest homestead will have to be implanted with a radio frequency chip, our soils, air, water, fish and wildlife will continue to be contaminated with hormones, pcb's and other chemicals with no government watchdogs to control or stop it.
As we were all told that we were standing on an economic precipice last Fall, we understood that we had to allow for drastic action in order to avoid falling over that cliff as a society, which would be a very bad thing. We are at an even higher precipice right now, that of being on the tipping point of the point of no return for our environment and the very means by which we obtain our food, and thus our future health and safety.
If the current economic disaster has been an eye-opener into how inter-connected and centralized our financial system is regarding who the powerful elite are and how much of our economic system they actually control, wait until you figure out who is in charge of our food, fiber, soils, seeds, and drugs.
If we don't wake up NOW and demand the turnabout of past good ol' boy practices and the investigation into facts surrounding these abominable for-profit companies stopping short of absolutely NOTHING to capture and control our food, water, and soil, we are going to experience a crisis far worse than something caused (and solved) by simple, silly money. There is no Central Farm to simply crank out more food or water when worldwide shortages hit. And like the greedy bankers selling off bad loans and investments that they knew would fail, causing our arrival at the monetary and credit cliff, these guys are busily manipulating markets and rules and governments in order to squeeze every penny of profit they can as fast as they can, never mind the crash course we are all headed on.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
