You’ve probably heard the old saying before: "If you want to cook a
frog, you can’t toss it into a pot of boiling water because it will just
jump out. Instead, you put it in the water first and then slowly turn
the temperature up. The frog will slowly adjust to the change until it’s
too late."
I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't what's happening to the control over the foods we eat. Rather than implementing strict controls all at once, "incrementalism" makes small changes over time in an atmosphere where people are usually resistant to change. This is especially easy if you add the fear about food "safety" to the mix.
The fear about food safety is now so wide-spread that it ranks right up there with terrorism. The American Public, thanks to government and media hype, has come to believe that even our food and water is subject to a terrorist attack; therefore, we have become hypervigilant and have allowed laws to be passed that curtail our basic food freedoms. In fact, the FBI now can prosecute anyone as a terrorist if they expose animal welfare abuses taking place on factory farms like feedlots, slaughter houses or poultry houses.
Now I am not saying an attack on our food and water could not happen... surely some home-grown malcontent, or even a foreign terrorist, could find a way to poison any water supply, or any fresh produce shipment, but is it prudent to control the entire food supply (and diminish the nutrients) to the extent the government now does, or proposes to do? Where is MY choice for the chemical-free food I prefer to eat?
The Devil is in the Details. "It’s the Farm Bill that largely shapes food and agriculture policy, and — though much of it finances good programs [like food stamps and WIC ~editor] — ultimately supports the cynical, profit-at-any-cost food system that drives obesity, astronomical health care costs, ethanol-driven agriculture and more, creating further deficits while punishing the environment." (Source)
The Devil is in the Details. "It’s the Farm Bill that largely shapes food and agriculture policy, and — though much of it finances good programs [like food stamps and WIC ~editor] — ultimately supports the cynical, profit-at-any-cost food system that drives obesity, astronomical health care costs, ethanol-driven agriculture and more, creating further deficits while punishing the environment." (Source)
I eat fresh local fruit and vegetables from family farmers I have come to know personally. (I'm pretty sure there are no terrorists among them, nor do I believe they are out to poison me.). So why should that fresh food be subject to the same, and very expensive food packaging mechanization, chemical washing, and handling requirements for the massive produce shippers from several thousand miles away, who must contend with multiple handling of the foods and multiple storage sites of their "fresh" foods for weeks until it finally hits the shelves?
Will the next regulation require Federal testing of the produce I grow in my own garden before I am allowed to eat it?
"If you control the food supply, you control the people." ~Henry Kissinger
ps... I'm almost through ranting about adulterated food... for a while, at least. Soon it will be time to start the 2012 garden and have my own real foods to eat again!
I have found that most people don't have a clue as to what they are eating and what is happening to the so called "food" that they consume.
ReplyDeleteIf we could just take out Monsanto.....all might be well!
Taking Monsanto out of the picture would help... if you took out the other Big 2 that also do GMO's. However, Mike's remarks below bring up other valid points to consider.
DeleteWhile taking out Monsanto might have an impact on one aspect of adulterated food - transgenic modification, it would have little or no impact on other aspects. You don't need GMO corn for cattle feed lots so you'd still have the antibiotics and E. coli 0157:H7. And ammonia baths would still be used to kill the E. coli, more or less successfully while chlorine baths would still be used to lower the overall level of bacteria on poultry and extend its shelf life. Before you had GMO foods (the first was introduced in 1996), you had large-farm, corporate mono-culture with its heavy use of herbicides and insecticides.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that people don't have a clue as to what they are eating and what is being done to the food they eat probably has more to do with ongoing urbanization of the population. The farther away you are from something, the less you know about it.
Regards,
Mike
Excellent points, Mike. Thanks for adding them!
DeleteRobin Must Be Talking About The People That Think Meat Is Made In The Store so people do not go hunting for meat and the stores make the veggies in the back. Now That's Funny
ReplyDeleteI was talking to my own daughter and she said that she and her husband may have problems growing there own food if they had too.
Itold her she should be growing it now
So many people would have problems growing food if they could not buy it in a store and that sad most people dont have a Clue.
Stan, growing some of your own food takes practice (trial and error) so I agree you told them the right thing... that they should start now.
DeleteDarius, this attack on our food systems really concerns me, too. I'm not sure what the impetus is for these regulations that strangle the small, local farmers. Some of it is obviously fear, but I'm wondering if agri-business isn't sponsoring this stuff in an effort to eliminate competition. I can only hope that as fossil fuels become more expensive and less available, the regulatory climate will change in favor of local, organic, and unprocessed.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's worrisome. The USDA and the FDA now give lip service to local/organic, but no aid nor encouragement.
Delete"If you control the food supply, you control the people." ~Henry Kissinger
ReplyDeleteYou also control the market and the profit. Consolidation and monoculture in big ag continues to drive down the price of raw ingredients while removing competition for finished products. A gallon of store milk continues to rise in price even though the dairy farmers are paid less today than 10 years ago. Grain farmers pay fixed costs for their seed, fertilizer, fuel, etc. while the price paid for their crops is at the whim of the commodity markets that are concentrated in the hands of the few.
Hi Darius,
ReplyDeleteI have read your blog (the only one I ALWAYS! read) for over 2 years. I have learned so much from you: thru Daves Garden, you taught me about high Brix gardening -- my favorite. gmos are only a tip of the iceberg, unfortunately, in the scheme to take over the food supply. Our right to real healers (like nutritionist -- not to be confused with inferior delusional dietitians), not just getting doctored up with drugs -- is also threatened. Our soils are lacking minerals and we are diseased because of it...yet those of us who understand this are laughed at and ignored. Farmers are being put out of business in every way conceivable. the "powers that think they are" know this and are using it against us in every way possible. It's sad and pathetic. People like you are helping to wake up the world, the powers' worst fear. There are 6 billion of us and only a 6,000 of them and their billion lackeys. Alex Jones of infowars.com, G Edward Griffin, Robert Scott Bell and many others are spreading the truth at an encouraging rate. I enjoy your rants and feel your righteous anger, esp about gmos.
I have been thinking about ways to totally gross people out with the thought of what they are eating.
Thank you for all your good work.
Olympia
Thanks, Olympia! (Is that also your DG screen name?)
DeleteI still struggle to increase Brix in my garden; it's hard for me to understand the 5-6 different forms of calcium, and what the plants need and can take up best without expensive professional lab soil tests. The state tests don't tell me squat.
The deal happening about healers and herbs is also alarming. I often wonder if their ultimate goal is depopulation?