flicker/sustainabletable
Sustainable: of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged.
This one should be easy: we all know that factory farms are bad, right? Because I believe this, I have looked into purchasing a meat share with a local, sustainable farm. It seems great; you pay a set amount and then use your card at the farmer’s markets where the farmer is at and buy what you want. Great, right? Now, if I can just convince my husband. After all, $600 for six months of meat and eggs is a chunk taken upfront. It works out to be about $25 per week, that’s about 4 pounds, and approximately $6.25 per pound. Pretty good when you consider it’s organic, pastured, sustainable, local — and deliciously fresh. Still, it’s more expensive than whatever is on sale 3 for 1 at the GMO-CAFO supermarket. Anyway, I love the set up of this farm. The farm sells grass-fed beef, pastured and forest-finished pork, pastured chickens and eggs. It’s even more economical if you buy whole or half hogs and bulk chickens. It seems very flexible, and easy to get too— and local, organic, sustainable: healthy. Heck, I could ride my bike there. I’ll just affix a compact cooler onto the back of my bike (don’t laugh, I’m joking).
There are more and more opportunities to buy fresh local, sustainable foods and buying a cow or hog share is very economical. Eat Wild has a database of pastured animal products if you want to find a source in your area.
I’m not even eating meat yet!
I eat chicken and fish, which is new this year after being vegetarian my whole life. I always thought the idea of meat was disgusting (industrial meat still is); after all, I never grew up with the experience. My evolving journey however, brought me to Dr Mercola’s website and then to the Weston A Price Foundation website. These sites told me that being vegetarian could be the culprit of my thyroid disease. I was under the impression that my Hashimoto’s thyroiditis was genetic. Sure, being susceptible to the auto-immune disease was genetic, but could my diet have been the trigger? Anyway, I knew I wanted to make a change. My disorder has caused significant loss for me; it zaps my initiative, and makes me feel cold. Apparently, meat feeds the thyroid.
My husband knows that conventional meat is full of antibiotics and hormones. He’s aware of how animals are treated, but I don’t think he spends any time thinking about it. I believe he felt immune to any repercussions from eating it as long as our daughter and I weren’t eating it. It catches up with us eventually, though. He also doesn’t compare the costs of the grocery store bill today and environment and health costs tomorrow.
I understand that not everyone is even aware of the problems with modern food. But, it’s hard for me to understand how a person can continue to buy meat from the grocery store once they are aware? That’s just me though, and I’m a little obsessed. We are trained to not think about where our food comes from. We are victims of marketing and advertising (and subliminal advertising?). I know meat is expensive, and money, or lack of money, is a big issue for many people— including me and my family. But, it’s also convenient to buy all of your food in one big store and even more convenient to buy packaged foods. Then again, there are food deserts, and finding fresh food is difficult for many people.
Who is making money when we buy from factory farms? Very few companies control the industrial food chain. They control everything from providing the seeds, fertilizers and pesticides to then buying them back below the cost of production to make feed for the concentrated animal organizations that they own. So, the farmer isn’t making money, the workers are being paid minimum wage or below, in fact the workers are only working part time with no benefits and those workers are who? — Illegal immigrants and trustees of the local prisons.
Michael Pollan said, “Cheap food is an illusion.”
When we support a local food system, we support our local economy and community, fair wages and health benefits for workers, farmers and artisanal craftspeople, and the environment.
Because the animals raised in concentrated animal feed operations have no room to move— let alone graze, stand in their own manure and are fed a diet that is not natural to them, they get sick. In order to treat them, they get injections of antibiotics. They also get antibiotics to speed their growth. Livestock are fed GMO grains tainted with sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics. This arbitrary feeding of antibiotics created deadly bacteria strains that are resistant to antibiotics. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that 70% of antibiotics used in this country are used in agriculture. This is why we are seeing an increase of antibiotic resistant strains of MRSA.
The FDA is concerned about antimicrobial resistance. So, what is the FDA doing about all the antibiotics?
“The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is implementing a voluntary strategy to promote the judicious use in food-producing animals of antibiotics that are important in treating humans. The goal of the strategy is to protect public health and help curb the development of antimicrobial resistance and in turn help to reduce the number of infections in humans that are difficult to treat because existing antibiotics have become ineffective.”
Implementing a voluntary strategy? That’s pretty wishy-washy. Judicious use? That’s subjective too. Sounds to me like they aren’t doing anything but recommending that livestock aren’t fed abundant amounts, but all at the discretion of the hand that feeds them.
flicker/sustainabletable
When you have animals crammed in together with nowhere to move, what do you think they do with all that waste? In pastured fields, livestock graze and their waste fertilizes the land, and then they move on to the next pasture. But, when animals have no where to go their manure piles up. So, we see/smell manure lagoons pooping popping up everywhere (sorry, couldn’t resist). These manure lagoons pollute the air and run off into our water ways. Talk about toxic sludge!
When we buy conventional meat (at the grocery store or the fast food restaurant, or almost any restaurant for that matter) we are supporting poor animal welfare. Their living conditions are crowded beyond belief, their diets are unnatural and their bodies are mutilated. Chickens beaks and claws are cut off; pigs and cows tails are shortened.
Fifty years ago, livestock lived on farms now they live in factories.
Cows are herbivores. Nature intends for cows to move through the pasture and eat grass. On industrial farms, cows are fed GMO- crops and rendered dead cow parts. I know! Here’s the rundown if you haven’t seen the link from Union of Concerned Scientists before (I have linked to it in another post), it breaks down conventional feed for all livestock.
This is very important: the choices and decisions we make have an impact on more than just ourselves. When we choose to buy meat from industrial farms, we are buying into the system of antibiotics, unnatural foods like GMO-grains and rendered dead meat. The vast fields of corn and soy growing in the Midwest are not for our consumption like we think, the majority of them are for industrial processing for: animal feed, hydrogenated oils, ethanol, corn sweeteners. These fields are sprayed heavily with pesticides that run off into our water systems and kill off beneficial wildlife.
When you take animals off the pasture and raise them in factories, they develop deadly bacteria: E. coli 0157:H7, salmonella, listeria, mad cow disease, and avian bird flu. Currently, there is the largest recall in Canadian history, an E coli beef recall affecting more then 1100 products. Last year, 36 million pounds of turkey (from Cargill— do they make meat or chemicals?) were recalled due to a salmonella outbreak. We hear about these major recalls all the time now.
Joel Salatin, of Polyface Farms said, “Part of our responsibility as stewards of the earth is to respect the design of nature.” I like him. He also said that all these outbreaks were nature’s way of saying, “Enough!” which is a favorite term of my husband’s.
If every person spent $10 of his or her weekly grocery bill on local food, can you imagine what a difference that would make? (The idea was planted in my head from the film, Fresh). How much money would that pour back into the local economy?
When we buy locally, we have an influence. When we don’t buy industrially processed food we have an influence too. Every decision we make at the grocery store (or farmer’s market or on the farm) will help create the future of our land, our farmers, diversity of crops, and health of our bodies. Everything we do affects the environment, and we should want to preserve it for our children— and their children. What an empowering idea.
How many outbreaks of E coli and other deadly bacteria are we going to put up with?
Modern food is unsustainable. We have GMO’s that withstand multiple applications of pesticides, and grain-fed, antibiotic-ridden meat from animals that stand in their own manure, acres and acres of food production that is destroying the environment. The only way forward, for our health and the environment is to choose more sustainable meat and produce.
What are your meat buying habits? Do you buy it from the grocery store or find more local sources? I would love to hear from you in the comments.
All animals have E coli in their gut. I believe we do to. I am all for sustainable agriculture but how will small farmers feed the world. Don’t knock farmers until you have walked in their shoes.
Hi Vicky,
Thanks for your comments. Yes, E.coli is naturally found in our gut and is a healthy part of our gut flora, however, there are strains of it that can make us sick. The one I mentioned is E. coli 0157:H7 and it is rampant in feedlot cows (I believe it’s found in 89% of beef.), that’s why we see the huge recalls of beef. I thought my article came down on corporations and even the government, not the farmers. I cannot imagine walking in the shoes of a farmer, although I have walked on many farms. I know farmers suffer and they are not the ones getting rich off of America’s food system.
I don’t have the solutions to feeding the world, however, from what I read, there is enough food to feed the world, it’s more of a problem of access and affordability. But, to really delve into your statement is a whole other article.
This was so well written. I have been meaning to write something similar. You are so correct that we are victims of marketing and often we don’t even know what that means. It often does not come to us in the form of a TV or advertising, but our wallets.
We are greedy. We always want something for nothing (or next to nothing), not realizing that there is a cost. I do love that quote from Pollan: Cheap food is an illusion. It’s so true. And others don’t get it . . . until modern medical ‘science’ has failed to give them answers for their health problems. I know it didn’t happen for me until I got tired of the same non-answers.
Hope you get your health ironed out. It’s a long road. Keep up the good work with educating people.
Thanks, Jen!
Together, we can make a difference, if by one person and one article at a time.
I agree with you, I don’t know if by changing my diet that it will “cure” my auto-immune disease/disorder, but I do know by eating more whole, unprocessed foods and eliminating industrial-processed and factory-farmed foods that it is healthier in the long run and I can only reap the benefits from it.
Thanks for the feature, I shared it (your webpage) on twitter and Facebook.
Thanks. Let me make one more argument for mothers everywhere. In the dollar store, you can buy peaches two cans for a dollar, from China or South Africa. In the grocery store you can buy peaches two dollars a can, grown in Washington. If all you can afford is the two for a dollar, than that is what you get. If you can afford the grown in Washington, that is what you should get. I can my own, but I would never tell another mother not to buy peaches to feed her family because I believe she is doing the best for her family. I don’t like the way peaches in China and South Africa are grown but if that’s what you can afford to feed your family then that’s the way it is. I would like to think we as mothers are doing the best we can. On the beef side, if you can afford ‘natural beef’ that’s great, but not everyone can so to imply that they are feeding their family an unhealthy food is counterproductive. I am a beef producer(surprised) and I eat my own beef. And I would like to think that all farmers treat their livestock humanely, but there are bad apples in every group. You know that and I know that. But I would never judge another on their choice, not even a vegatarian. Enjoy your beef!
Hi Vicki,
You make some very valid points, and I want you to know that I am very sympathetic and empathetic to mothers and families that cannot afford to eat more healthful food. My purpose is to make people think about this stuff, not to pass judgement on anyone that is different from me— I’m not sure why you think I am that way. I’m speaking from a personal stance, and I point out that because I am a little obsessed with food, it is hard for me to understand continuing to buy foods that are unhealthy. It’s not that I can afford to buy anything that I promote on my website, but I make sacrifices. I make my own elderberry syrup instead of buying a bottle for $14. I buy raw milk at $4 for a half gallon and make my own yogurt, kefir, and butter— a quart of organic yogurt at the store is $4-$5, and even more if you buy individual containers. I know that there are many people that don’t have obvious access to healthy foods, I know that there are food deserts, but I also know that things are changing. For example, my vegetable CSA brings vegetables to the city for people in urban areas so they can have access to fresh foods. My vegetable CSA works out to be about $15 a week for more than a weeks worth of pesticide-free, fresh vegetables. I know that some people also go to the store and see soda on sale, which costs less than milk, and buy that for their families. Drinking water is a better alternative than soda. My daughter drinks water because that is all I have ever given her. If we think about the long term, and try to plan accordingly, we can make changes.
It pains me to see how sick our society has become. Obesity is an epidemic, cancer-rates are soaring, auto-immune diseases are afflicting approximately 50 million Americans, and children are developing type 2 diabetes, I could go on and on. If more people think about this stuff that I, and many others, write about, maybe it will make a small difference. That small difference is good. I’m not trying to chnage the world here, I am writing about what is important to me. This article by Mark Bittman in the NYT really says it well: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/is-junk-food-really-cheaper.html?pagewanted=all , everything that I’m trying to do here.
Thanks for mentioning that you are a beef producer, I don’t know what you do on your farm, but I hope you get paid the cost of production for the beef you sell.
Take care.
It’s all about choices, isn’t it? Thanks for visiting with me and I mean it-enjoy your beef.
Absolutely, and thank you for your comments.
i love this post
i learned about the horrors of mass-produced (read: grocery store) meat about 3 years ago and have done my very best to buy pastured, local, organic meat since. there are the odd times that i just stop by the supermarket and pick something up – but i die a little bit inside each time (literally and figuratively).
my dad is the same way as your husband: he sees the bank account NOW. we’ve been taught, as you said, to see food – especially meat – as all the same. it’s not. we’ve also been taught to see and live in the immediate now. with both of those lessons deeply ingrained in us, it’s very difficult to get the NOW thinkers (especially in relation to money) to see the whole picture. and it’s eternally aggravating for me to see people just say “i don’t care”. or at least “i care more about an extra 20 dollars in my bank account this week than an extra 10 years of healthy living” or whatever. especially when they’re presented with the information. ARGH! not everyone can afford ethical meat – but those of us who can (ie those of us with cell phones, tv, internet, bottles of wine, new clothing, etc…) have a responsibility as citizens and consumers to live and eat in ways that cause the least amount of damage to the planet and each other, whether we want to acknowledge it or not…
to know that i live in a way that causes harm to other people, animals and the earth is just plain immoral, in my eyes. so i try to do my part where i can.
Hi Kristy,
Thanks for the love!
I know, it’s a hard one, and to convince the ones we love to listen can sometimes be impossible. I agree with you that those of us that can afford it should be made aware and try to make better choices, after all, we are not the only ones sharing the earth. The damage done to the environment, the cows, and the people that work there and ultimately the people that consume it, is unsustainable. That’s why if enough people make a change and demand change we will start to see change.
I have a guilty conscience too whenever I buy something or my daughter eats something that isn’t “perfect”.
p.s. thank you for sharing with us at the Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up! I hope to see you again with week with more seasonal & fresh/whole food posts
xo, kristy
Thanks Kristy!
Hi There! I really enjoy following along with your blog! You have some amazing info, so honest and open, and very relatable (a lover of Organics) I nominated you for a blog award! See my blog for more details : http://www.thatorganicgirl.com/2012/10/liebster-award-nomination.html
Not sure if you qualify (might have more than 200 followers) but I couldn’t find a list of followers on your blog so I just went ahead and did it anyways
Hi Susanah,
Wow, thank you! I will check out your blog!
We are fortunate that we live in an area (in Maine) with access to a variety of farms. We even have a farmer’s market during the winter months. We still buy some meat at the grocery store, but this article is making me think we should take that extra effort to buy local all the time.
Thanks for visiting my blog on my SITS Day! I’m happy to have found your blog!
Thanks Jennifer! My father lives in Rockport, Maine, so I go the the farmers market there when I visit. It’s a pretty amazing market!I think every bit helps and every time you buy directly from the farmer you are helping them earn retail on their product.
I’m glad I found yours too, I really like you blog and I know I’ll be visiting it again soon.