Consider the big picture

dengarrett

At one point (think 30's - 50's), families spent a large percentage of their time, money and energy in growing, storing, and preparing wholesome foods.

Science and technology found ways to create lower cost, prepackaged foods. People went for it because it reduced the cost and time required to feed their families. Earl Butz led the charge during the early 70's as Secretary of Agriculture with his "get big or get out" mantra. Farmers began producing unprecedented amounts of corn.

What to do with all the corn? Make high fructose corn syrup, which can be used in anything. Look at all the products sold in a supermarket and you will find a huge percentage (75% or higher) use high fructose corn syrup. But guess what - high fructose corn syrup is almost pure energy resulting in obesity and diabetes in the human population.

Another thing that was done with the corn - feed it to livestock that is then sold to us in the stores. And fast food. McDonalds is the single largest purchaser of beef. But guess what - corn changes the PH balance in the cow’s stomach to one that is much more conducive to E. coli.

The end result? Almost everything you can buy from the store is made from or raised on corn. Your hair is an effective tape recorder of what you eat. Analyze it and you will find that the carbon content of our body is from corn.

In the midst of this comes Monsanto. They created Roundup - a very effective vegetation killer. Farmers began using it to produce more and more corn per acre. Then, Monsanto created genetically modified corn and soybeans that are immune to Roundup. What a great thing - farmers can then grow corn, spray the fields with Roundup and all the weeds die but the corn lives.

However, Monsanto owns and strictly enforces a patent on the genetically modified seeds. Farmers have to license the use of the seed and are strictly forbidden to use the modified seed from one year to the next. Monsanto has sued many farmers because they used Monsanto seed from one year to the next. In another case - a farmer in Canada who never used Monsanto seed had Monsanto seed blow into his crops from a passing truck. Monsanto sued him - and won - because he violated their patent by using unlicensed seed.

And guess what - the government has ruled that companies do not have to tell us which foods have been genetically modified and which ones are not. Other countries have either banned genetically modified food, or at least required labeling. Some countries are even looking at our country as a test case to see how they should address this issue. Our children are lab rats. The US government even went so far at one point to say that certified organic food could be genetically modified with no labeling. 275,000 people protested and they relented. Certified organic cannot be genetically modified.

So, in the midst of all this, farmers are not able to make money growing corn. But look at all of the business and money that surround the farmer - the seed manufacturers, pesticides, farm equipment manufacturing, transportation of product, oil required to transport the product, grocery store giants (think Wal-Mart), fast food. What would happen to all of this if the farmers pulled out? So - the government pays farmers a subsidy so they can stay in business. But I am convinced that once someone figures out how to grow corn without the farmer - that will end. Is it more or less likely that they are working towards that end even now?

The solution? Eliminate this huge, intermediate delivery chain that is laden with chemicals and mistreatment of animals and driven by greed. Walk up to the farmer that is growing our food and buy directly from them. It is surprisingly easy to do this via CSA's and farmer markets. In the process you will address the base reason for why we are here on this site - to lose weight and become more fit.

You can look at this in one of two ways - 1) it costs more to eat better from CSA's and farmer markets, or 2) it costs less to eat crappy food from super markets. And this doesn't even approach the question of the health and environmental costs of this massive industry.

We are currently on a quest to buy all of our food directly from a farmer. I don't know how successful we will be, but it is well worth trying. We have signed up for a meat CSA and a veggie CSA from local farmers; we have bought a pressure canner, and will be purchasing a deep freezer. We have to spend our time and energy doing something - might as well be something that can make us healthier and do something positive for the environment.

Here are some sources you should read or view for more information and reach your own conclusions:
Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Available from Amazon or Audible.com
In defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Available from Amazon or Audible.com
Food Inc. Available on Netflix.
King Corn Available on Netflix
The River King Available on Netflix

SammyPacks

Oh yeah I remember watching a documentary on all of this! All the corn we eat... really adds to so much issues!

helenium

I don't know much about the corn situation in the US. I just want to clear up that it is not genetic modification itself which is the problem, but the way it is handled with patents which is obscene. Genetic modification does not involve unnatural chemicals (often peoples' concern). Here's to hoping some other company develops an alternative method of growing corn without weeds and stops Monsanto from holding a monopoly so the cost of the GM seeds go down.

cmriverside

Did you catch "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" ?
http://movies.netflix.com/Search?v1=The Real Dirt on Farmer John&oq=farmer&ac_posn=6


A former regular farmer who almost lost it all (along with most family farms) - and went on to become one of the first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms in the Midwest U.S.



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bbush18

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