Raw Foods

Although my last post was about my thoughts about my food, there's another aspect to it that I still need to cover.

Politics.

Let me describe something to you: a lazy summer day, walking across a 40 acre parcel of land covered in lush, green grass. We'd just turned "the girls" (our 100+ holstein cows, all of them personally named and appreciated) out onto pasture and they were loving it. Fat and happy, as my dad used to say.

They were clean. They got to walk around on open pasture all day, with the occasional prodding from one of us on the 4-wheeler to get up and move to the next pasture. Then of course, they had to make the long trek back to the barn twice a day to be milked. They were fed some grains during the milking process, but overall these girls were maintained on hay and open pasture. And we loved them; we loved them all.

What a life.

Fast forward to today and how dairy cows are now handled: they have sad lives. They stand around on muddy partitioned areas being fed who-knows-what in large bins. There are, literally, millions of them on one very large farm. There is no pasture. They might get some hay, but mostly their life consists of being fed grain, being given antibiotics because their living conditions are so bad, they are sick all of the time, standing around with their feet in mud (which leads to foot rot) and giving away their life in the name of providing food for the masses.

If you don't believe this description, you need to visit the large CA dairies.

I doubt that most people have a concept of how food is supposed to be farmed. This is because the demand on the food supply has dictated that the small, family farm become extinct and the large, corporate food producing machines grow in size.

That's the premise behind the show Food, Inc as well as many other documentaries that spell out what's really going on behind the scenes.

Do I think I'm going to change a damned thing? No. Do I think I'm going to make a difference politically? Hell no. Do I think I'm going to have any affect at all on those around me? Fuck no.

What I do think is that I've witnessed such a drastic thing in my lifetime - just since I was about 20 years old - that I have to do something on a personal level, for myself.

And what no one seems to want to mention... the drain on the food supply, the dangers of the way food is now farmed by large, uncaring corporations, the absolute obvious loss of personal freedoms that is evolving daily - is all due to overpopulation and over-demand on the food supply. Say what you want about the evils of corporations, but the reality and bottom line is that this way of farming food has developed because of the amount of food we now have to raise to feed the masses. The reason we have to farm huge amounts of beef and chicken and vegetables on a corporate level is because the mom and pop farms cannot sustain the population. It's still supply and demand, no matter how you look at it. And people don't seem to get this - they can't even remotely imagine a world where their kids might live, where the food supply is controlled, contaminated and manipulated - they can't even imagine something like that happening.

But ask my parents. They're farmers. They know what I'm talking about.

I don't have children that I'll be worried about when I leave this earth. My family members that will be left behind will be enduring their own world and their own battles.

And I fear for what's coming in the next few decades, even if it's behind the scenes or subtle - lost rights, less or maybe even no personal freedoms, inabilities to earn livings, etc etc. - will affect them more than anyone realizes right now.

It makes me proud to own a small business, it makes me proud to be a part of America that many others do not see or appreciate. I may not retire with much money in the bank or with any sort of decent retirement plan, but I'll retire with my asshole intact, knowing that I didn't make my entire life revolve around retiring from society. I want to do it myself.

This is a partial explanation of why I am making an effort to buy much of my food these days from small farms, coops, etc. Not because I think I can change a damned thing but because, in my mind, I'm rejecting the theory of supporting the overpopulation of this country and the corporatization of our entire society.

I used to loathe being on a farm as a kid; now? I'd go back in a heartbeat. I am so thankful I was not one of those kids who was raised in the city, who never got to raise dairy cows or calves or chickens or collect fresh eggs or watch the baby chicks run around every spring and summer. I rode horses, stacked haybales, played in big barns, fished and explored the land. I grew up with fresh milk, fresh meat, guns and freedoms.

What do we have now?

**Note: in the interest of those who think I'm becoming a paranoid nut or an extremist, just don't worry about it. Go feed your kids the shit from the grocery store because that's all you know and I'll start looking for the farm I'm gonna buy so I can grow my own food later in life. You can support corporate America because you don't get it.

Finally a real change?

I'm becoming a little obsessed with something.

My food.

It started several years ago when I started having issues with my weight. Then that turned into concern about sugar in my food. I even wrote about how evil I thought sugar was when I did the 60 mile walk a few years back - all they had for snacks was sugar stuff! That turned into worrying about where the heck my food came from. That turned into many more steps that eventually led me to watch a movie called "Food, Inc."

I spent part of my childhood in soybean country in the deep south, on my parent's dairy. Watching a documentary about the control and takeover of that type of farming by huge corporations who ran small farmers out of business simply made me open my eyes.

Have you ever gone to the grocery store and just looked at where all of the food you're buying comes from? It's pretty much from a handful of companies. All of it. And, try to find something that does not have added sugar in it.

It's nearly impossible.

That bothered me. That was a few months ago.

So then I decided to make some dietary changes - no more fast food, no more cokes. It was a start. My reasoning behind that was simple: I love fast food. I love McDonald's double cheeseburgers and cokes. I love french fries. But it was getting to where I wanted to eat that stuff every day. You can't tell me it's not poison for our bodies and that it's not addictive because it IS.

Besides weight gain, I started noticing how tired I was all of the time, how grumpy I was, how difficult it was becoming to maintain my concentration at work much less maintain a positive attitude, which has always been important to me.

Soooo.... this morphed into some drastic changes about 4 weeks ago: I changed what we eat. (because where I go, Steve goes :) ) We stopped eating out. We started cooking nearly every meal with fresh meats and produce. We cut out all of the "white death" (white rice, potatoes, bread). We essentially started the Atkins Diet - which I've always thought highly of. In fact, lately my answer for people who say, "isn't that an unhealthy diet?" is: yeah, until you become diabetic eating the shit you eat.... then you'll be forced into the low carb lifestyle.

Now THIS part led me to another path as well. I joined a local organic food co-op. We get to buy local produce from organic farmers as well as fresh farmed meats from organic farms in CA. Occasionally someone local provides us with something yummy like freshly slaughtered lamb. There is a leg, some steaks and some stew meat in the freezer that I cannot wait to cook!

Another part I'm excited about is our ability to obtain raw dairy products. Raw. Not pasteurized. And, it's from an organic farm right here in CA. I'm waiting for my first shipment of raw milk, raw cream, raw butter - not sure how I'll like it, although as a kid I loved it - and I have to watch how much I eat because of the diet changes (milk has a fair amount of carbs in it) but I'll keep it in moderation and enjoy it.

Being a non-fruit eater overall, I've made some changes there, too. I've started slow, with adding berries to my diet. Amazingly, once I cut out the sugar and fast food, I started craving strawberries! Yes, me, the person who hates fruit, started eating berries every night. I've expanded that to include blueberries, raspberries - you name it. Things taste different when you cut out the crap in your food.

No more sugary peanut butter - just plain ol' ground up peanuts. I add some flaxseeds to a spoon of it and it's like nature's perfect food for me. :)

What all of this means is that I'm making some huge changes to the way I eat. We will still go out to nice restaurants, etc. but not as much as we used to and we are totally avoiding fast food.

The bottom line is that I think there are major problems with the food we buy at the grocery store. I think there are major problems with corporate farming. I think there are major problems with food contamination. I think that unhealthy eating is shoved down our throats daily and it's damned hard to fight that.

End of the day - weight is falling off of me. I'm eating well, not starving like I did on weight watchers and having things I love. It's working for me. Sure, I'll indulge on occasion, but honestly... this is about soooo much more than weight loss for me, that I'm not sure I want to ever let myself go back. I'm also walking a lot - did 13 miles last Sunday - which is also extremely important to my well-being. I'll be up this Sat. at 5 am. making the pavement miles on my feet.

What is boils down to? The Farmers of America deserve my attention. Not corporate America, but Country America. Where the heart is. Where the health is. Where MY health is.