Archive for the ‘Food Freedom’ Category

Hard to believe it’s summer again, and sweltering in Texas though we’ve had a nice break the last few days with a good amount of rain due to the hurricane down south. Here in Texas we’ve always taken great joy in celebrating Independence Day. After all we are one of the few states that can boast our own independence.

I find myself thinking about what that really means these days though. Are we truly free? In some ways yes, but in other ways we are definitely not. It’s been a busy summer already with reports of food and health freedoms being trampled upon by an over-eager government enforcing outrageous regulations and not just in our country.

Locally we felt it. It was with great sadness and not a little anger that I write about one episode close to home. Our local CSA was shut down by the USDA because of outrageous requirements that make sense on large farms and no sense at all on small operations selling directly to the customer. What was the evil they committed? Recycling wax boxes to save money and prevent waste instead of always using new ones when harvesting the organic produce.

In Great Britain they are now banning the sale of eggs and other food products by number instead of by weight/volume. That sounds alright on the surface but then again when you consider it is now illegal to buy eggs by the dozen or a dozen dinner rolls, or even to see how many rolls are in a package it begins to become absurd. These regulations are burdensome on the producers and end up costing money to regulate which increases the tax burden and they cost money for the producers to comply. For example in this situation the egg producers and shopkeepers will have to design and obtain all new packaging, will have to design new methods to weigh and calculate instead of just put 12 medium sized eggs in the medium carton and the costs for all of this will be transfered to the consumer. Read more here: EU to ban selling of eggs by the dozen

Back here at home we have the FDA telling us that we do not have the right to obtain our own food or to make informed decisions about what types of food we will purchase and cosume. Read more: “FDA says ‘No right to eat what you want’”. This was in response to the law suit filed by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) claiming that the federal regulations against the purchase and consumption of raw milk are unconstitutional.

With this news it should come as no surprise that the FDA is also moving to severely limit the amount of “sodium” in processed foods, also sounds good on the face of it but is it really? Real salts have minerals that are good for the human body and are required for many foods to be preserved, and also for them to taste good. What do you suppose will take the place so producers can make sure their products don’t spoil and they taste good? Probably dangerous toxins like MSG. That would likely suit the FDA just fine as they’ve shown a serious conflict of interest with the large corporations that make food additives, GMOs and other products including the monster Monsanto. The FDA has a revolving door with Monsanto where Monsanto executives end up running the FDA, then head back to Monsanto and big bucks and who knows what else. When will this corruption end? Read more: Labeling Issues, Revolving Doors, rBGH, Bribery and Monsanto

This Independence Day I’d like to ask you all to think about what freedom means to you. To think about what our country fought for when they decided to declare their independence. Did that include the most fundamental rights to choose what we eat and how we live? I think so. How about you?

A Red Barn

I remember many hours spent in history courses in grade school and then in college that talked about the building of the United States.  A country that’s backbone was agriculture.  Now that backbone seems to be rotting to the core.  What happened to us?

It seems to be mainly due to two things.  Firstly a lack of respect for farming, nature, and agriculture in general.  Secondly government interference which include subsidies and “regulations” that don’t solve any of the real problems and create a thousand more.

Today’s discussion is about respecting our means of nourishment, food.  Such a simple word for something so important and vital that effects us so profoundly physically, emotionally and mentally.  Over the coming weeks we will discuss the government’s role in destroying the agriculture of America piece by piece.

Before the industrial age agriculture was part of the every day lives of most people.  Even if you didn’t live on a farm you weren’t far from one and had a closer connection to the people that raised your food.  But with the industrial age people began abandoning the small towns to move to the big cities for work.  The food needs went from buying from your local farmer and raising some necessities yourself such as a family cow, a few chickens and a vegetable garden to relying on purchasing food from 3rd parties.

Eggs are taken for granted

The connections were lost.  No more appreciation for each and every egg, knowing the chickens that produced it and instead taking for granted they will be there on the grocer’s shelves.  I was so disconnected growing up that I never realized what a real, fresh egg tasted like.  How the yolk was a dark golden yellow or orange.  The egg white wasn’t watery but thick and stuck around the yolk with a tenacity that the store bought eggs had never shown.   Even making a hard boiled egg was a new experience as the fresher eggs were harder to peel because the eggs hadn’t spent considerable time breaking down during shipping and shelving.

My meat came from plastic wrapped packages with dyes added to make it look more red, and more fresh.  The meat was so bland it had to be helped with unhealthy chemicals to induce flavor such as steak sauces and corn-syrup based ketchups.

I had no idea what herbs were, or spices, nor how they were used.  I never saw fresh ground pepper until I saw a chef cooking on TV.

Is this the sad legacy that has fallen onto America?  The once strong agricultural based country is now based on overpriced, nutrient lacking, mass marketed, psuedo-food.  Our very existence is ruled by what marketing companies have trained us to want and feel we need.  It’s a hollow and empty existence.  It surely explains why our country’s moral center is also starting to atrophy.

It is no wonder we have no respect for the animals that provide our food, for the farmers that work so hard to produce that food and get so little for their efforts, and for the resources that it takes to get that food from production to our plate.  We are disconnected from them behind a wall of middle men that also take the big chunk of the  money we pay for these products.

Our values are all out whack.  It’s time to take our agricultural heritage back.  If you can’t raise a couple of inconspicuous hens for eggs or have a milk cow (or a couple of goats) then find a local farmer who can and support them.  Buy directly from that farmer, get to know them, get to know where your food come from.

For some things we do have to rely on markets, especially those of us that are financially challenged.  For other reasons we also must rely on some food made from a distance, such as coconut oil, but we can buy with discernment.  Buy from companies with integrity and honor, also run by people and not corporations.  Let’s get back to the people and not the profit share.

Easy to use glass jars, labeled and refilled as needed.

We all need affordable items to augment our kitchen but we can make good choices.  Organic spices and herbs are more nutritious and not irradiated.  If you cannot grow your own herbs (even some in a pot in the kitchen window) then buy organic from places like Mountain Rose Herbs.  Not only is buying in bulk cheaper it saves resources as you can reuse the glass container you store the herbs in.  Join a buying club or form a group of friends to divide up a pound of organic black peppercorns or a 5 gallon pail of Virgin Coconut Oil.  The possibilities are then endless.

Respect the food you cook with, waste less of it and make judicious choices.  It will save you money in this current depression we are experiencing and it will also make you feel better.  When we respect and honor our food, we are respecting and honoring our bodies and ourselves.  It’s the first step to a new world and if we each take a few steps together it will be a brighter place.

Next week’s article will discuss farm subsidies and how they are ruining our agriculture and serious economic and health problems not just for United States Citizens but for our neighbors in Mexico.  The  subsidies have a broad impact, and it’ s not a good one.

In the mean time check out this great article on Nutrition and Physical Regeneration about Farm Subsidies, “Subsidizing Cheeseburgers”

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This is an unpleasant and controversial topic but for those of us that are naturallyminded, eating whole and nutritious foods and going back to nature for healthy saturated fats there is no more important topic in America.  For those of us who choose to trust in nature instead of man-made hydrogenated fats, genetically modified organisms and toxin laden vaccines the health care debate is life and death.  Though this debate often pits friends against one another it’s an important issue to discuss especially because of the danger this so-called health care reform bill poses to all freedom loving Americans and especially those who prefer to eat wholesome and real foods instead of industrialized, government approved factory food.

I have seen many people who are like minded about nutrition and holistic health care supporting a federal government health plan and I am shocked, dismayed and disappointed.  I am not sure how anyone who has spent years fighting the “Diet Dictocrates” (as Sally Fallon calls him) about their faulty junk science that demonize saturated fats can reconcile with government run health care.  We’ve had plenty of experience with misguided, ignorant and down right dangerous government officials interfering with our food and health choices in the past.

For example there’s the raw milk controversy, some states treat it as if citizens are trying to smuggle cocaine.  Of course the regulating agencies are all influenced by big agribusiness which has created for itself a nice monopoly on dairy with the help of law makers.  This is only possible because of the manufactured fear of raw milk that has no logic or basis in real science yet is used by government officials and regulatory bodies to harass farmers, destroy property and imprison innocent people.  We’ll save that lengthy discussion for another day though.

There is ample and unmistakable evidence that such regulations fail to offer protection, are almost always corrupt from their inception and as with anything the government runs are bankrupt causing greater tax burdens and debt.

There is no government regulatory agency without a history of abuse and corruption especially among those that are supposed to “protect” the American public.  “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” so it should be no surprise that protection turns into tyranny.  These agencies stop protecting and instead use their influence and unlimited powers to destroy small business, small farmers and personal freedoms.  These agencies get infiltrated by the very industries they are supposed to be regulating which creates a blatant conflict of interest and opens the doors wide to more corruption where the big companies get special treatment and at the same time get their competitors, namely small business owners, harassed and fined out of business.  If you have doubts just Google “Monsanto FDA corruption”.

Such corruption is already inherent within the proposed health care bills.  Reading the 1990 page Pelosi version leaves little doubt how medical care will be rationed, big pharma and other businesses will be able to fix pricing, and schools are turned into vaccination centers.  Perhaps the worst is that with this bill those who can’t afford to pay for health care will be facing new penalties with the IRS or jail time… the ultimate loss of liberty.  The Wall Street Journal called it the “Worst Bill Ever”¹ I definitely agree but what I see coming out of the Senate isn’t much better.

There are even greater risks involved that I feel are being overlooked.  How hard is it to see a day when people feeding their children pastured chicken livers are arrested for putting their child at risk because the lipid hypothesis says saturated fat will kill you? I’ve witnessed first hand my great grandmother, raised on farm foods, limiting her liver intake despite craving it and loving it all her life because some doctor told her it will kill her.  How long before refusing to follow doctor’s advice is also breaking the law?  It’s already happening in the UK where parents are threatened by government officials with having children taken away because they refused to follow the doctor’s requirements or because their children are obese^2. Here in the US the outlook is just as bleak for parents.  In Texas the state officials kidnapped a teenage girl and forced chemotherapy on her³.  It’s happening already and it will be much worse when the government can argue it pay the bills, thus the doctors work for the government and not the patient.

It’s logical after all that big brother knows best, right?  After all according to them you are creating future obese heart patients if you give your child whole milk instead of chemical laden skim milk.  And there’s no disputing that obesity is a majorhealthproblem in America, already they call it an epidemic, and it will eat up massive amounts of tax payer dollars in this government run health care system.  But few will acknowledge the government and the industrial medical establishment’s role in causing this obesity epidemic by pushing high carbohydrate diets, processed foods, sugar/corn syrup consumption and trans fats.  These are the real cause of obesity and parents trying to do what their doctor and experts advise end up making their child’s obesity worse. The government and experts can’t be wrong, they will never admit to a mistake. Instead the parents will be blamed and then it becomes an easy choice that parents lose their rights to raise their own children. Governmenthealthcare will result in parental inference as we’ve never seen before. The government will say its best to prevent disease even if that means removing a child from her home and only the government and the those dubbed experts will have the authority to say what constitutes prevention of disease, what is healthy and what is not. And as we’ve already seen the government isn’t opposed to using force. It won’t be long until that force is used on parents to insure they feed only what some government agency like the USDA says is a healthy diet, a diet plan designed and contrived by big industries in such as the grain/cereal, pasteurized dairy, and sugar industry… USDA food pyramid anyone?

This utopia of health care for all won’t work, it won’t happen and instead it will meanhealth care rationing⁴, corruption by those in power, forced and unnecessaryhealthchecks including increasingly controversial mammograms that may actually increase your chances of developing cancer all so that the big cancer machine can keep on grinding and making more and more money. And it will mean the destruction of alternative medicine for once and for all which is already underway with outrageous FTC and FDA over-regulation. Freedom of choice in diet must be eliminated also, by this logic, otherwise tax payers will be paying for someone’s triple bypass because they cannot lay off the trans-fat, corn syrup laden, doughnuts.

We will instead have health care for none and even worse we’ll be facing laws and regulations that take away our freedom to see the doctors we want, take alternative remedies and treatments or choose not to vaccinate or do chemotherapy.

And what will all this government interference in health care mean for those who refuse vaccination?  I seriously doubt parents will be given any choice when this passes.  “No Child Left Unimmunized” in Pelosi’s bill really leaves no room for exemptions and totally disregards our conscientious objections, religious beliefs or possibly even medical risks.  We’ll face more regulation from those who are already trying to prevent us from “hurting ourselves” with raw milk and on top of destroying our ability to consume raw milk when and if we want we will also lose our rights to consume saturated fats, meat, eggs and whatever the food they’ve painted evil this week.

Our most fundamental freedom, besides free speech and the right to bear arms to protect ourselves is the right to control our health.  Once the government starts interfering we will have doctors working for some government agency instead of the patient and putting government rules and regulations before the health and well-being of their patients.  Also there are already deals being made with big pharma, the AMA and other groups to make sure they can secure exactly what they want be it price fixing of pharmaceuticals and prohibition against importing the same exact drugs from Canada to preventing any natural doctors from practicing in the United States because the AMA won’t approve them.

See where this is going folks?  Can you imagine a day when butter is illegal?  When allowing a healthy fever to run is course is child abuse?  Where refusing toxic drugs like Tylenol is negligence or insanity? I can.  I can already see a day when failing to buy your health insurance, whether you can afford it or not, lands you in jail or gets the IRS on your case… ruining your life⁵.  That day is nearly here.

There is one silver lining for the poor of American through.  In prison you get three square meals a day of soy based foods that will make you sick but that’s another discussion for another day…

Sources

1. “The worst bill ever: Epic new spending and taxes, pricier insurance, rationed care, dishonest accounting: The Pelosi health bill has it all.” –http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703399204574505423751140690.html

2. “Fattest children to be taken away from their parents” –http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/fattest-children-to-be-taken-away-from-their-parents-898972.html

3. “State sponsored medical terrorism: Texas authorities arrest parents, kidnap their teenage daughter, and force her through chemotherapy against her will” by Alexis Black – http://www.naturalnews.com/016387.html

4. “Health care rationing and the swine flu vaccine” –http://americaswatchtower.com/2009/11/30/healthcare-rationing-and-the-swine-flu-vaccination/

5. “Kill the insurance mandate” by Sheldon Richman -http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=421