Thread: Real food
View Single Post
  #1 (permalink)   Report Post  
Beach Runner
 
Posts: n/a
Default Real food

The amazing thing is you see how American's eat, and it's not real
food. It's all this highly processed food, made with increasingly
genetically engineered products, filled with Chemicals.

Clearly, in spite of incredible medical advances, cancers and heart
disease run rampant. Our increased longevity is due to toilets, dental
care, antibiotics and drugs. We can keep unhealthy people alive much
longer.

Fresh, local or best home grown food is the best alternative, but what
has become America's largest crop? Grass. And the grass consumes a
huge quantity of limited ground water and we pump tons of chemicals and
toxic chemicals to make gold course like lawns. To get a picture, go
to Wallmarts and see the pallets of grass growing toxins and think about
the huge multinational effect.

The insects will become increasingly resistant to the chemicals, and
weeds resistant to them as well.

Why is corn in almost everything? There were farm subsidies at one time
to keep the market price profitable for small farmers. Now huge
corporations get those subsidies, and grow huge amounts of corn and put
it into everything. See corn syrup and corn starch in most products. I
know people allergic to corn and it creates a nightmare. Not to
mention, what does it contribute to health.

Health, except for a small market doesn't drive food, the most important
medicine. Even most of the vegetarian prepared foods are full of salt
and fat. Don't think buying Tuffitis, Amys, or Linda McCartney's
products are healthy.

Genetically engineered products will and do escape the confines of their
plantings, and can become super weeds.

We also see the production of seeds and food go into fewer and fewer hands.


Usual Suspects, does make a very valid point that the collateral damage
of growing produce using modern methods is heavy. But what concerns me
more is that it becomes so heavily processed foods. Of course much
healthier gardening is possible and should be encouraged.

A great book is Square Foot Gardening on how to use small spaces to grow
large amounts of produce using non toxic methods.

We all know the meat manufacturing industry consumes vast quantities of
water, produces tremendous pollution, and produces very unhealthy foods.

It does profit a few very rich people, especially as the multi-national
food producers consolidate their grip, with tremendous influence on
politics. And of course, if you care as I do about vast amounts of
suffering, food factories are hell holes for the lives of animals.
It is also, heavily dependent on petroleum products.
We need real change. Being a vegan does make a point and does reduce
our impact on the world and is a start. But only a start in the big
picture.

Overpopulation is a root cause of world problems, yet leaders ban birth
control. We can't stuff more people on the planet without the quality
of life and little bit of habitat left to disappear. The Chinese are
using draconian methods of population control, but I wonder if they have
much choice. What would have happened if they kept having 10 kids in
families?

Poor long term planning is course coming back to haunt us. Our road
system doesn't accommodate bicycles and urban sprawl is dependent on oil.
Adding a foot on the side of a road for safe bicycle use would allow
people like myself to use a bicycle for much utility use where it is too
dangerous.


We should be making a Manhattan Project to make solar, wind, and
geothermal viable to sustain our energy. We keep making houses that
require extensive amounts of energy. Our refrigerators and hot water
heaters give off heat, which we than air condition. The entire system
needs to be designed to use the heat of one appliance for the next.

Our educational system is antiquated, with the latest emphasis being on
testing. The sad fact is children go to school and are bored because
the teaching is horrendous. So much busy work. Schools can be made
exciting and interesting. Music and art stimulate young brains, yet are
cut out of the budgets. For example, MRIs show that students trained in
music grow structures in their brains that assist in all abstract
thinking. Schools need not be boring.

But back to real food. How much real food to people eat? Most people
consume mostly coffee, sugar, highly processed wheat products, and meat
manufactured under horrendous conditions.