Those of you who know me, either through this blog or in real life, know that I am neither religious nor liberal. I have said here before that, while I believe the earth is in a warming phase, I’m not 100% sure I buy that man is mostly responsible. In my political beliefs I tend to be in the middle of the road. In regard to religion I just don’t buy it. Period. That said, there are things about the eco-friendly cause that I do believe and I read an article here at the Mommy off the Record blog that solidified my belief. See, I think we’re being poisoned by big business and our government. I know, I know. Now I’m starting to sound like Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory, but bear with me.
Years ago, people used to eat food, real food. Not partially hydrogenated anything, no high fructose corn syrup, no xzygfhjkrdwseti. All things had a mommy/daddy, or you could identify them as having grown somewhere. In the name of “convenience” companies started packaging our food for us and in order to do so they had to lengthen the life of these products. Enter additives and preservatives. Ok, so then an entire business is built on the food industry and we are dependent on others for our food. We trust that what has been approved by our government is safe for us to eat so we eat it. Now I’m afraid that the love of money has encouraged folks to disregard the risks of certain ingredients and incorporate them in our daily bread, so to speak. Look at all this crap coming out of China for goodness sake! We assume that when we go to Target and buy a toy it’s going to be safe. A little common sense must come into play, of course. You wouldn’t buy a toy with tiny pieces for a baby but, the toy you WOULD buy should be safe for them to put into their mouth for crying out loud! We the consumer are completely in the dark as far as the process involved in packaging our food and that is a scary thought. How do we know our food is safe? We don’t! We just eat it and hope that we’re not going to fall over dead from it.
There is another conspiracy at play here. Eating healthy is price prohibitive. Why is that? When there is less processing involved why is organic and healthy food so much more expensive? The green movement is huge right now and, while I don’t begrudge anyone a profit, why can’t these eco-conscious companies provide their products at a reasonable cost to consumers? Some of the companies are small and their production costs may be higher than those involved in a larger operation. Hell, I can afford the healthier products and I balk at the prices so what is someone living at the poverty level going to do about it? Don’t they deserve to be healthy, too?
Like I said, people, bear with me. This is a fluid chain of thought and so is not complete in my head yet. I’m still figuring out where I stand. I just think the big companies should start offering food options that are good for all of us and stop offering the unhealthy crap that they produce in droves. There should be more competition in the healthy food market and then the prices will come down. It shouldn’t be trendy to eat healthfully. It should just be What We Do.
My mother was a “from scratch” mama, and so am I, usually.
I buy organic because I believe that farming organically is the right thing to do.
It’s a political thing for me. It burns my butt that companies put put in fillers and use sub par ingredients – but people buy them -or else they wouldn’t make them.
Which, again, is why I (near)always buy organic or “natural”, to make a point as a consumer that this is my preference.
I don’t know that people choose green because it’s trendy, or because things have gotten so bad… half of the ingredients in things aren’t even real foods. GMO’s, and hydrogenated, just as you said.
Makes me mad. So I choose “no thanks”.
I figure if I’m willing to spend my money on it (natural), then maybe someday others will see that it’s what the people want (more money for them if they provide more natural options).
And things will change.
Your liberal 🙂 friend.
See, I like the idea of from scratch and I like the idea of organic food. Don’t you agree that it’s extraordinarily expensive to buy organic food than conventional food?
I didn’t mean to imply that all people choose green because it’s trendy because that’s not my feeling. I do think that it’s become hip to be green though. When celebrities start touting it, then it’s becoming pop culture to me.
Maybe because it’s hip it will cause the big companies to try and capitalize on it, I don’t know. As I said, these thoughts are still percolating in my brain.
I have many liberal friends and am glad I may count you as one. 🙂
I think it’s about subsidies for companies to use byproducts that the unhealthy junk comes off so cheaply.
Organic can be expensive, but as you start getting away from packaged food -even organic packaged food- then you can be a bit more frugal. I think of the ideal diet, whole foods (foods in their original, whole, natural form – meat, eggs, fruits, veggies, and nuts) and then I consider how every level of interference is a step in the wrong direction. Apple-good, applesauce-pretty good, apple jacks-bad. And I go from there.
I learned to make homemade granola and granola bars, we mix our own trailmix, and I preserve garden food (or farmer’s market food or the neighbor’s surplus) every summer by canning or freezing. I know where our meat comes from and I keep filling, high-protein snacks front and center (like apples and peanut butter, roasted almonds, hard-boiled eggs). We blend smoothies when we need something sweet.
And before I sound like I know it all, you can actually find a box of Apple Jacks in our pantry right now. I don’t get all heavy-handed about it, but our base meals are extremely healthy and whole.
I admire you for asking questions and digging into this – that’s always a good thing for you and your family!
Laura, I am a firm beliver albeit not a pracitioner of the whole foods concept. Have you ever read a book called, “The Fat Fallacy”? Really interesting reading and it changed the way I look at food.
Anyway, I think my bigger problem is that one of my children is incredibly finicky. THe other day he ate nothing but ice cream all day long. He was raised unfortunately on frozen chicken nuggets, chips, sugary cereals and the like. He won’t touch eggs, only eats broccoli or corn on the cob and gets really upset when we suggest he try something new.
It’s a struggle for me to find foods that are healthy that he will eat and I’m concerned because I really believe that ingesting all those chemicals can’t be good for you. (sigh) I feel at a loss about it really.
I try to make chicken nuggets for him but he won’t eat them because they’re different. It’s a real struggle.
I think I will try the smoothie idea though. It’s possible he’ll go for that. Any good recipes you can suggest?
Thanks for your comment, I really found it very helpful.
Evie