Food for thought...

Is anybody out there as frustrated as I am with our government's irresponsibility in protecting our food supply? I know, I know, many of you, but it just keeps getting worse! I mean what is the FDA's job, if they don't inspect and regulate our FOOD???

Last week I had the opportunity to do a presentation to a group of alternative health professionals. These folks are natural health providers and most were organic farmers and activists for the health and well-being of the human race as a whole.

Andrew Weil's "Quiche" recipe made with mostly organics.

During the discussions and presentations I found out some new things:

1. Those cute little carrots we buy for a snack for our children are soaked in bleach to kill bacteria.
2. Some potatoes may also be soaked in a solution as one attendee said she let a bag of potatoes sit for about a week in her kitchen and when she opened the bag, her white potatoes had turned green. (We are warned NEVER to eat GREEN potatoes or areas of the potato that are green.)
3. Most bottled water today is PURIFIED tap water, not spring water -- read the labels carefully. Not saying the purified stuff is necessarily bad for you, but you are not getting what you are paying for. Plastic bottles of course are terrible for our environment.
4. Filtered tap water from your home may be better for you than some of the spring waters.
5. Much of our produce is sprayed with chemicals to keep it FRESH. Almost all produce is irradiated. Some is coated in wax (or as we read today "shellac"!) to maintain the freshness. Any idea what wax does in our system (not to mention shellac)?
 6. Of course our meat supplies have been known to contain hormones (and we wonder why our kids are so "developed" at such young ages), antibiotics and chemicals from fertilizers for years.

Again, I ask what is the FDA for?

By there own definition they are:

An agency within the Department of Health and Human Services  and consists of Centers and Offices, which are listed in menu at left (see http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/default.htm for this menu or click "left").


The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation, and by regulating the manufacture, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products.


The FDA is also responsible for advancing the public health by helping to speed innovations that make medicines and foods more effective, safer, and more affordable; and helping the public get the accurate, science-based information they need to use medicines and foods, and to reduce tobacco use to improve health.

And don't tell me they aren't getting enough money to hire people to cover the jobs. We all know the second term for "government" is "WASTE"...

Years ago I learned the fact that what we put into our mouth affected our immediate well-being and long-term heath. So I did my best to prepare meals that I thought were healthy for my family. Assuming the government was overseeing the production of food coming into our country, being manufactured in our country and being sold in our supermarkets and eaten in our homes, I rarely worried about what I bought unless it was a funny color or wilted or just plain looked bad.


If you do attempt to get through the FDA website you will see it is huge and covers so much more than food. I am sure millions of people are employed by the FDA to do parts of the job from office administration to inspections. I have heard for years how inspectors are few, so much gets through without being opened, let alone inspected.

Then we have the whole idea of pasteurization! This was started to kill bacteria in milk that was collected in the barns of dairy farmers in days of old. Now many of you that have an idea of what pasteurization entails knows that they heat the product to kill the bacteria and just like chemo kills cancer cells and all the GOOD cells in one's body, pasteurization kills all the good stuff in our food as well!

Today you can't buy any juice, milk or any dairy product for that matter that is not pasteurized. Those farmers that wish to sell raw milk, must meet stringent criteria to do so. Thereby keeping many dairy farmers from doing so. The only other solution is to buy your own cow.

My personal Juice Master (Grandson Elijah)

I even try to juice the oranges I buy for fresh squeezed juice that isn't pasteurized...I am kind of surprised that the government hasn't made the fruit farmer find a way to pasteurize the fruit from the tree before it gets to the supermarket. I do see pasteurized eggs now (how do they do that and not have hard-cooked eggs? We probably don't want to know.)  Good grief! What are we coming to?

I think we already have that answer:

People dying of all kinds of cancers that they can't find the cause.
Children developing autism for unknown reasons.
Populations of people so obese that the next generation will not outlive their parents.

Organic food was the answer and many have jumped on the bandwagon. No longer given the stigma it had of being "granola" if you bought organic food, the industry started taking notice.To the point of Monsanto wanting to force farmers to use their seed to for crops. Seeds that are loaded with chemicals. Yes, even the organic farmers would be forced to use these seeds.

If you don't know who Monsanto is, please watch the movie FOOD, INC. and other documentaries on the food industry. It 's disgusting what our government is allowing. When will health take precedence over the mighty buck?

I empathize with my daughter-in-law who tries valiantly to protect her family by providing healthy, clean food for her family. It's a full time job! It's coming down to growing your own vegetables, eliminating all meat from your diet or raising your own chickens, cows, goats or any of your own food. The cost to buy it from someone else has been prohibitive. The prices are coming down, but as the demand is going up the non-organic food producers are trying to get the standard for "organic" to be lowered rather than bringing their standards up to meet the federal standard -- enter Monsanto once again.


Please get involved. Watch when the votes come up on items dealing with our food supply.  If you want to get involved or learn more please research it on line. If you know of any particular websites, please put them in the comments to share.