--> Corporate farming isn't sustainable farming
This brings us to one more level -- the corporate level, or the business model level. Everything you choose at the grocery store is a vote for a certain type of business model. If you choose small organic family farms, then that's what you create. If you choose mega-corporations who sell food only because it's something that makes money, just the same as drugs make money or cigarettes make money, that's what you choose to support, as well. | | You'd see happy farmers working with their families, who have created a sustainable revenue model, who honor the earth, who love the soil and who are doing this because they feel passionate about farming and working close to Mother Nature.
That's what you'd see on the package, and you'd say, "Yes, this is the kind of food I want to feed myself, my family, my children and my community. This is what we need." You'd see images of clean running rivers and streams because there are no pesticide runoffs. |  One, organic farming is usually a low-yield operation compared with high-yield commercial farming. Research by Donald R. Davis, Ph.D., of the University of Texas, Austin, has shown that an acre of soil has only so much nutrition to give. High-yield farming dilutes that nutrition among a larger number of plants. Two, pesticides reduce plants' production of vitamins and other antioxidants.
When you can, buy grass- or range-fed meat or fowl, although they may not be organic per se. Animals that graze on grass have a healthy fat profile—high in the omega-3 fats—similar to that of wild salmon. | | Eat Organic Food as Often as You Can Afford It
Organic foods are grown without pesticides and with farming methods that sustain soil quality. You can buy organic vegetables, fruits, dairy products, and eggs at natural food stores, specialty markets (such as Trader Joe's), and many supermarkets. You can even get a few organic foods at Costco and Wal-Mart.
Organic produce has higher nutrient levels for a number of reasons. One, organic farming is usually a low-yield operation compared with high-yield commercial farming. Research by Donald R. Davis, Ph.D. | | That way of life includes farming organic produce from the earth in the local sustainable way that honors nature. That's a miracle in action, and every time you purchase those foods, you support those local community miracles.
If you want your community to be made up of farmers who know the land, who can deliver fresh organic produce and who honor the earth, then that's what you need to buy because you support whatever you buy. | | They have not been given clean water and, more importantly, have been planted and harvested under a system of greed, exploitation and corporate farming. Then, they've been processed and had their nutrients stripped away. They've been reformed and combined with various chemicals, such as preservatives and taste enhancers, and have been packaged in pretty boxes and put on the shelf in the grocery store.
That is a very unhappy food and, if it comes from unhappy animals, then it's even less happy. | | You can create positive energy by having the foods harvested by people who are happy to be doing this work, who are not slave workers and who are making a fair wage, either by farming or wild harvesting these foods. This is how you create healthy foods, and when you purchase something at the grocery store, the closer you can get to that vibration of happiness, the healthier the energetic effect is going to be on your body. This is one reason to buy organic foods; not just because they don't have pesticides, but also because they are literally happier foods. | | One, organic farming is usually a low-yield operation compared with high-yield commercial farming. Research by Donald R. Davis, Ph.D., of the University of Texas, Austin, has shown that an acre of soil has only so much nutrition to give. High-yield farming dilutes that nutrition among a larger number of plants. Two, pesticides reduce plants' production of vitamins and other antioxidants.
When you can, buy grass- or range-fed meat or fowl, although they may not be organic per se. Animals that graze on grass have a healthy fat profile—high in the omega-3 fats—similar to that of wild salmon. |  Mike: We had a very large percent of our population farming.
Cousens: That's one thing. The second thing is we will eventually get to a place where we'll be teaching farming: How to grow your own little greenhouse for a family of four. We're going in that direction; probably in another year will get to that place. If you can't do farming, you have two other options. You, for example, can contact a local organic farmer, and he will give you a certain amount of produce each month or each week. You just pay him a fee for the food. |  Oil acts like a helping hand to every individual; it leverages and magnifies the intentions and efforts of societies, allowing, for example, only two percent of the population to engage in farming activities in order to feed 100 percent of the population; whereas a hundred years go, around half of the population engaged in farming. We are able to build our cities, grow our population and businesses, and erect a large international travel infrastructure thanks to cost-effective energy that, according to Kunstler, is likely to start dwindling. |  Let's face it -- that's what cattle ranching and pig farming and chicken farming is today. It's a system of exploiting the lives of these animals in order to make a profit. So if artificial meat can replace that, that's an important benefit. Let consumers eat meat without having to kill animals. |  They had no interest in the arduous tasks associated with agriculture, although they possibly learned rudiments of farming from the Romans. "Even if ancient Sardinians knew of farming techniques, it didn't take," Francalacci said. "They carried on largely as hunter-gatherers and later as shepherds."
Perhaps that's why Sardinians developed an intense wariness and disdain for visitors. Newcomers had always meant subjugation, exploitation, and taxes. So they turned inward,
> developing an intense dedication to their families and community and earning a reputation for toughness. |  Steven Farrell, the Luna Nueva farm manager, told me he began farming organically twenty-five years ago in California. His passion for organic farming spurred him to cofound the National Association of Organic Growers in Costa Rica. The more than two hundred acres of fields are not exactly as we might think of farm fields, if our only point of reference were the big farms of the San Joaquin Valley of California. Instead of geometric rows of monoculture crops, the fields are being farmed with an emphasis on permaculture so that forest and farm blend into one and nothing is lost. |  According to growers practicing sustainable farming methods, the USDA plan ignores the root causes of food contamination -- the dangerous and unsustainable farming practices on industrial farms.
Consumers who oppose the new regulation also worry about its impact on the quality and nutrition of pasteurized almonds, since the Almond Board of California (a marketing arm of the USDA) has conducted the only study on the practice. Their research concluded that "there was no significant degradation in the quality" of the almonds. | | Adds Kimbrell, "USDA is being run lock, stock, and barrel by agribusiness and has abandoned its duty to protect the public and the farming community. This USDA decision, along with FDA’s long-standing refusal to label genetically engineered food, and its recent decision to attempt to label irradiated foods as "pasteurized," is a conscious effort by the Administration to leave consumers in the dark about the dangers lurking in their food. |  Many factors in modern food growth, consumption, and processing have contributed to this change, including:
>¦ "Conventional" farming methods that tend to produce nutrient-deficient foods, as opposed to traditional organic farming methods.
>- Increased food storage and transportation time, which increases nutrient depletion.
> Food processing and refinement that destroys nutrients.
>- An increase in the amount of processed foods consumed by the average American. | | The ultimate result of these profit-driven farming practices is toxin-laced
Refined:
Meaning, a substance has undergone chemical or mechanical manipulation prior to consumption. crops with little nutritional value, not to mention the economic hardship of small-production farmers who cannot compete with multi-million dollar corporations.
Niacin (Nicotinic acid):
Part of the Vitamin-B complex made from the oxidation of nicotine.
For example, twenty years ago a half-pound of spinach contained 50 milligrams of iron. A half a pound of spinach today contains just five milligrams! | | We normally associate the use of hormones with humans or livestock farming, but even plants are now receiving synthetic or genetically engineered hormones. Cycocel"'7 is a synthetic hormone applied to wheat to produce thicker and longer stems. Researchers are also looking into manipulating the wheat's natural hormones to control germination and also to produce plants that can withstand cold weather. | | The principal guidelines for organic production are to use materials and practices that enhance the ecological balance of natural systems and that integrate the parts of the farming system into an ecological whole. Organic agriculture practices cannot ensure that products are completely free of residues; however, methods are used to minimize pollution from air, soil and water."8
Aspartame:
An artificial sweetener marketed under several brand names, Aspartame is commonly used in more than 5,000 consumer products such as diet colas, candy, chewing gum, and baking goods. | | Thanks to irresponsible commercial farming techniques that depend on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and hormones to grow crops on already overworked land, a large percentage of today's produce supply has become saturated with toxins and has very little nutritional value.
Everything was fine until large corporations began creating their own "improved" foods, forcing them to mature unnaturally and boosting their size for increased profits. |  Food Production
The commercial food we now consume is grown in soil that has been seriously depleted of its minerals because of continuous farming without crop rotation or rest. In addition, there is a total dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides to grow produce. Depending on the soils they are grown on, there can be a significant difference between commercially grown and organically grown vegetables. One study concluded that organically grown foods were richer in minerals than commercially grown products. |  As a young boy in 1920, my husband's Uncle Phil left his dirt-floor home in the small farming village near Bialystok, a region that was either Russian or Polish depending on the tumult of history. Phil and his older brother Ralph had learned to avoid the bodies on the streets of those who had been felled by bullets or poison gas warfare against the Russian army. The Morgenstern boys and their mother Fannie spent two very long, stomach-churning weeks in third class on a packed steamer. None of them would ever set foot on an ocean vessel again. |  Exacerbating her family medical history was Paula's use of tobacco and her environmental exposure to pesticides and fertilizers because she worked intermittently in commercial farming in rural Australia. She was on a regular regime of pharmaceuticals, including medications to thin her blood and help control high blood pressure and an elevated cholesterol level.
In 2002, Paula failed a stress test. An angiogram revealed that the main artery to her heart was 80 percent blocked. | | Synthetic hormone technology is applied to cattle farming to increase meat content and milk production. According to the Sierra Club of Canada, "Hormones are widely used in US agriculture: over 90% of US cattle producers use hor-h mone implants or add them to feed [termed fodder]. These hormones ~ are normally administered in a slow-release lozenge-type tablet which is £ inserted under the cow's skin on their ear. The ears are then cut off and g thrown away at slaughter."16
Concern is now growing that treated cattle are excreting toxic manure with dangerously high amounts of these hormones. |  THE NATURAL CHOICE
I recommend free-range poultry and grass-fed beef, as their food sources are closest to those found before the advent of modern farming methods, which rely primarily on grain. Grazing animals are likeliest to have the most beneficial ratio of omega-3s to omega-6s, as well as being a great source of plant phytonutrients in their tissues. Likewise, you're better off eating wild-caught than farm-raised fish.
BECOME A LEAN, GREEN EATING MACHINE
I promised you that you would be able to eat plenty of food and never feel hungry on Diet Evolution. | | In the first phase of Diet Evolution, you followed a way of eating that was as close as possible to the way people ate roughly a century ago, before modern farming methods changed the diet of cattle and other animals from grasses to grains and the introduction of new manufacturing processes that produced grain-based oils and ground grains. During the next six or more weeks, you'll evolve your eating patterns to mimic the diet of our ancestors before the onset of agriculture and the domestication of animals roughly 10,000 years ago. |  Because of the toxins, antibiotics, steroids, pesticides, and growth hormones used in factory farming, I'm reluctant to recommend unlimited amounts of nonorganic meat and poultry. But let's not kid ourselves—protein is a critical part of a healthy diet. Of course we should try to get it from the healthiest sources we can (which, in my humble opinion, doesn't include fast-food restaurants). While it's certainly possible to be healthy on a vegetarian diet, it takes more planning than you might imagine. | | If you're interested in learning more about grass farming and the health benefits of pasture-raised animals and their products, a great place to start is www.eatwild.com. Another fine source of information is the Weston A. Price Foundation (www.westonaprice.org).
Eggs
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I can't say enough good things about eggs. They're nature's most perfect food. Eggs are plentiful, inexpensive, easy to prepare in a zillion different ways, and loaded with vitamins. They're also one of the best sources of protein on the planet. | | If you're interested in learning more about grass farming and its benefits to your health, a great place to start is www.eatwild.com. Another is the Weston A. Price Foundation (www.weston-aprice.org). Also highly recommended: the excellent book by Michael Pollan, The Omnivores Dilemma. worth knowing
The original "energy bar" was a food called pemmican, which was developed by the Indians and other indigenous cultures like the Inuit in Greenland. It's a high-energy food that can be transported easily and lasts for many months. | |
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