--> These farms are more like an assembly line system of animal harvesting than anything resembling a genuine farm or ranch.
"Factory farming has taken the joy out of the lives of millions of calves and pigs, and billions of hens; it has driven countless family farmers off the land; it has polluted streams and rivers; it has injected massive amounts of antibiotics and other drugs into the public food supply resulting in serious health risks. It has lowered food quality," says Christine Stevens, author of the book Factory Farming, The Experiment That Failed. |  Although the nuts are not certified organic, the owners of the farm informed me they don't use any chemical herbicides or pesticides, and they keep the mac nut farm is a very natural state (I've visited the farm twice and saw it myself).
South Kona Macs has over 350 macadamia nut trees, and they harvest and process them in a unique way using their own special nut cracking and drying technology. It's the lowest temperature drying technology on the island, and the dried mac nuts come out as close to raw as you can possibly get in a dried mac nut. | | Another operation worth supporting is Purdy's Macadamia Nut farm, located on the small island of Molokai. I flew to Molokai and interviewed Purdy himself, who gives daily tours of his mac nut farm to visitors. You'll find his site at http://molokai-aloha.com/macnuts/
Neither one of these sites has any sort of sophisticated e-commerce system. You have to order the nuts by phone or mail. It's cumbersome, but it's worth it. Order several pounds at a time to make it worth your while. (My last order from South Kona Macs was for 35 pounds of mac nuts. I give some away to friends and family. | | Meat from members of the same species -- The factory farming industry is turning farm animals into cannibals. Scientific research has linked this practice to the spread of both mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE) and avian bird flu.
Manure and animal waste -- This can include cattle manure, swine waste, and poultry waste. It can also contain wood, sand, rocks, dirt, sawdust and other non-food substances. |  National farm to School Program
A project of the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College (California); more than four hundred farm-to-school programs in twenty-two states connect local farms with school cafeterias; a similar program is called farm-to-college, www. farmtoschool. org www.farmtocollege .org
Parents Against Junk Food
Started by the editor of PBS's America's Test Kitchen, this nonprofit is devoted to the elimination of junk food from public schools. www.parentsagainstjunkfood. | | This is a highly carcinogenic chemical that can then contaminate the water supply near the farm, or emerge in the meat later eaten by consumers.
In fact, an estimated 13.5 million pounds of antibiotics are used on factory farm animals every year in the U.S. These antibiotics are grossly overused and are especially dangerous because they aid in the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria -- an urgent health problem that costs the American taxpayers billions of dollars every year. | | One employee elaborates on the abuse that animals endure by reporting, "On the farm where I work, they drag the live ones who can't stand up anymore out of the crate. They put a metal snare around her ear or foot and drag her the full length of the building. These animals are just screaming in pain. The slaughtering part doesn't bother me. It's the way they're treated when they're alive. Dying animals unable to walk are tossed into the 'downer pile,' and many suffer agonies until, after one or two days, they are finally killed. | | Factories of despair
Factory farm animals endure great suffering through the entire process of being housed, fed, transported and slaughtered. Approximately 95% of factory-raised animals are subject to deplorable conditions such as overcrowding, hunger, thirst and sometimes-fatal weather extremes. Many times, they are kept conscious or even skinned alive during the process of slaughtering.
The only significant law regarding the handling of factory animals is the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. |  It is hard to eat badly from the farmers' market, from a CSA box (community-supported agriculture, an increasingly popular scheme in which you subscribe to a farm and receive a weekly box of produce), or from your garden. The number of farmers' markets has more than doubled in the last ten years, to more than four thousand, making it one of the fastest-growing segments of the food marketplace. It is true that most farmers' markets operate only seasonally, and you won't find everything you need there. | | Meth heads actually stole his farm equipment and tools, and the local cops seemed remarkably uninterested in solving the case.
This is one of those stories you'll probably never hear in the mainstream media. The Hawaii press isn't interesting in printing anything strongly negative about the macadamia nut industry for obvious reasons. Plus, the big business macadamia nut processors are highly influential in the economic and political circles in Hawaii. | | I flew to Molokai and interviewed Purdy himself, who gives daily tours of his mac nut farm to visitors. You'll find his site at http://molokai-aloha.com/macnuts/
Neither one of these sites has any sort of sophisticated e-commerce system. You have to order the nuts by phone or mail. It's cumbersome, but it's worth it. Order several pounds at a time to make it worth your while. (My last order from South Kona Macs was for 35 pounds of mac nuts. I give some away to friends and family. A pound of raw mac nuts from the Big Island of Hawaii makes a great gift! | | If you know of another good mac nut farm that consumers may want to contact, you may list their URL in the comments section of this article. (Please do! |  Courtesy of Takahiro Tanaka) the highway, Jaume told us that we were going to his father's farm: "They are expecting us for dinner." We passed the formidable mountain mass of Montserrat, which suddenly rises out of flat, reddish terrain, and continued north, into a greener, hilly countryside. In an hour or so we drove up to the Garriga family farm.
Amazingly, the same family has worked this land for more than 750 years. The farmhouse was an impressive Catalan masia, looking like a small fortress, complete with a tower. I was totally blown away and forgot all about physics. |  These indentured servants were people who agreed to work a farm or plantation for a period of 4-7 years in exchange for passage to America. But dishonest plantation owners played a cruel trick on the indentured servants: They had to buy their farm tools and supplies from the plantation owner. But they couldn't pay cash since they didn't have any money, so they were forced to extend their work commitment in exchange for tools and supplies.
A shovel, for example, might cost you another month on the farm. A set of work clothes might cost you two months more. |  With the shift in the U.S. of agriculture from pasture grazing of animals to feed lots there has been a need to provide massive amounts of antibiotics to farm animals to prevent epidemics of disease. Another advantage of giving antibiotics to farm animals is that they promote growth. Although no one knows exactly why antibiotics do so, some theorize that they eliminate the bacteria that consume nutrients in the gut, thereby enabling the host (i.e., the farm animals) to take up more nutrients.
There is no reason to believe that these effects are not transferable to humans. | | But buying as much as you can from the farmers' market, or directly from the farm when that's an option, is a simple act with a host of profound consequences for your health as well as for the health of the food chain you've now joined.
When you eat from the farmers' market, you automatically eat food that is in season, which is usually when it is most nutritious. Eating in season also tends to diversify your diet—because you can't buy strawberries or broccoli or potatoes twelve months of the year, you'll find yourself experimenting with other foods when they come into the market. |  This is more than eight times the amount administered to humans.13
Jane Goodall, in her book Harvest for Hope, warns of the dangers and short-term folly of eating farm-raised seafood. According to her research, commercial seafood farms use massive amounts of pesticides, antibiotics, and disinfectants to combat disease in the crowded environments where the fish and tiger prawns are raised. To make them grow faster and larger, their diet includes growth hormones. Farmed salmon are fed pink dye to colour their flesh. |  If the packages really told the truth, you'd change your grocery shopping habits in an instant because when you bought fresh fruits, like organic blueberries from a local, family-owned farm, you'd see an image of Mother Nature smiling. You'd see health sprouting out of this package and into your body, as blueberries help enhance your cardiovascular health, provide antioxidants, fight cancer, protect your eyes from vision loss and offer a whole host of other benefits. |  The new rule is unwarranted and could have many harmful impacts," said Mark Kastel, senior farm policy analyst at Cornucopia. "The costs of the chemical and heat treatments, in addition to the costs of transporting and recording the new procedures, will be especially onerous on small-scale and organic farmers, and could force many out of business."
The only exemption to these new regulations will be organic "raw" almonds that will not be fumigated, but will undergo the steam-heat treatment, and small-scale growers who can sell truly raw almonds but only direct to the public from farm stands. |  I visited Krause on her farm shortly after she'd lost her organic certification.4 Krause was devastated. Where traditional farmers apply pesticides, she counts on natural predators and aromatic repellents to keep the pests away; where traditional farmers apply herbicides to rid their fields of weeds, Krause and a crew do the weeding. It is a lot of work—all of which, suddenly, meant nothing in the cool calculus of the marketplace. From no fault of her own, the premium price she was accustomed to receiving for her organic seeds dropped from $3.50 a bushel to $1.75. | | Raw foods can also be infected by poor employee sanitation either on the farm or in processing facilities.
Glenn Anderson, a small-scale organic almond farmer in the central valley of California, worries that "This could be one more way for the big companies and the government to put us small farmers out of business."
The equipment to sterilize almonds is very expensive. A propylene oxide chamber costs $500,000 to $1,250,000, and a roasting line can cost as much as $1,500,000 to $2,500,000.
Anderson also questions the scientific logic behind the rule. | | GRACE Factory farm Project
Works to create a sustainable food system that is healthful and humane, www. fac toryfarm. org
Health Care Without Harm
Working with hospitals to provide nutritious food from sustainable sources. www.noharm.org
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Promotes family farms and sustainable agriculture through research and advocacy; authors of the excellent 2006 report, "Food without Thought:
How U.S. farm Policy Contributes to Obesity." www.iatp.org www. agobser vatory. | | Such inspiring efforts include farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture (buying shares in a local farm), community gardens, and independent stores and co-ops, to name just a few. One of my favorite programs is called "farm-to-school," through which local farmers supply school lunch programs with fresh, healthful produce. There are hundreds of such alternative movements throughout the country, and their numbers are growing. Working at the community, state, and national levels, they are refusing to accept the current corporate-controlled food system. | | If you're concerned about chemicals in your produce, you can simply ask the farmer at the market how he or she deals with pests and fertility and begin the sort of conversation be-
*One recent study found that the average item of organic produce in the supermarket had actually traveled farther from the farm than the average item of conventional produce. | | Jaume in his younger years at the family farm. (Courtesy of Jaume Garriga)
After the dinner, Jaume's older brother led us up the winding stairway to the top of the tower. It was used as a watchtower in times of danger. When the enemy was sighted, the guardsmen could signal with a torch to similar towers at the neighboring farms, all the way to the duke's garrison at the castle of Cardona, about five miles away. We looked out of the small square windows of the tower—to check if there were any villains in sight. The sun was already setting over the hills. | | In an hour or so we drove up to the Garriga family farm.
Amazingly, the same family has worked this land for more than 750 years. The farmhouse was an impressive Catalan masia, looking like a small fortress, complete with a tower. I was totally blown away and forgot all about physics.
The dinner was served in a spacious hall, where the Garriga family had gathered. As a guest of honor, I was seated next to Jaume's father, who enchanted us with tales of the ancient history of the land and made sure that my wineglass was never empty. |  PHILIPPINES
"The Farm" at San Benito Isle of Luzon, Philippines Hippocrates Health Resort of Asia The farm at San Benito Manila Office
Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Makati Avenue, Makati City (632) 7513498 / (632) 750 8888 be. 72428 Fax: (632) 751 3497 info@thefa •m.com.ph www.thefanri.com.ph This is a raw-food resort facility in the Philippines. Millions of dollars have been spent to bring you this opportunity for luxurious healing and food enjoyment. The farm offers detoxification prog-ams, fine raw-food dining, yoga, dance, massage and much more! | | Another advantage of giving antibiotics to farm animals is that they promote growth. Although no one knows exactly why antibiotics do so, some theorize that they eliminate the bacteria that consume nutrients in the gut, thereby enabling the host (i.e., the farm animals) to take up more nutrients.
There is no reason to believe that these effects are not transferable to humans. | |
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