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Alex and I woke up to gloomy, rainy weather, which is not the ideal condition for the last day of the Andersonville farmer’s market. For the past 4 months, we’ve been frequenting our favorite farmer’s market in my neighborhood. Not only do we buy a bulk of our weekly produce, we converse/flirt (teehee) with the farmers and distributors, learn about the sustainable agriculture community and movements, support individual farmers, do research and ask questions about different CSA programs, gather recipe recommendations, find alternatives to grocery stores, and allow food to help us build these positive, rewarding relationships. I am extremely sad that the growing season is over because I look forward to every Wednesday that I get to stroll through the market with Alex, talk to farmers, and think on my feet about what dishes I’ll be making the following week.
As a winter alternative, we have joined New Leaf Natural Grocery’s produce box program where all of the produce comes from local and organic farms. For $33, we get enough produce to feed about 4-6 people with an awesome variety of fruits and veggies. Since we do not eat much processed foods and have a produce-based diet, it amounts to a week’s worth of food between the two of us. We went in and bought a few things, signed up for the program, and checked out the grocery store for the first time. I was tempted to blow all of my money on cacao nibs, organic dark chocolate, hemp oil, organic and fair trade coffee, and other new age health stuffs. I had to resist this time, but I’ll be back to get more stuff.
As for meat, we joined C&D Family Farms CSA. It will cost us $310 for 3 months supply of meat. We get 15 lbs of a variety cuts from different animals (mainly chicken, pork, and beef). I am pretty excited for all this since I won’t have any control over what comes in these boxes, so I’ll have to come up with creative ways to prepare these meals. :)Oh, and I finally took the air conditioner that’s been sitting in my bedroom window, so I definitely feel like I’m finalizing the arrival of fall. Poo.
I’m gonna drown my sorrows in jambalaya left overs and kale chips! \m/(Source: better-than-anything)
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Things I Want For X-Mas and Probably Won’t Get:
1.) KitchenAid Boysenberry Artisan 5-quart Stand Mixer
3.) A gray pair of Tom’s shoes
4.) Special Effects Hairdye in “Devilish”
5.) More tax dollars to go toward subsidizing fresh, organic produce rather than junk food.
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OMG, I had no idea! Also, this little girl is adorable. I love how she smiles in the end.
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High-res →
I’m considering going on the October Unprocessed Food Challenge with Alex. The last time I restricted myself from anything was about two and a half years ago when I went on the South Beach diet, which resulted in me losing 45 lbs (though I only followed it for 3 months and constructed my own diet for a little over a year after that). While it would be great to lose some weight from this challenge (and it probably will happen), I would be in it more for other aspects of my health, sustainable practices, and… discipline, really. I’d like to “recalibrate” my taste buds for whole foods. I’m just worried about not being able to eat Sriracha. D:
Here’s a more in-depth definition of “unprocessed”: http://www.eatingrules.com/2010/09/defining-unprocessed/
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Retailers: 12 actions you can take to fight GMOs
Even if you are not a retailer, network with one (or five) in order to expose people to the issues with GMOs.
I recently hosted a sustainable agriculture night at my workplace where I screened Food, Inc. and a few episodes of Perennial Plate, and am hoping to make it a monthly thing. Let’s work toward change!
- Highlight Non-GMO Project Verified products with green shelf tags, shelf talkers and educational signage. Log on to nongmoproject.org and check out the Supporting Retailer Program section for more information.
- Use red stickers to label products that include “at risk ingredients” from crops that are frequently grown with genetically engineered seed, such as corn, soy, canola, sugar beets and cotton. Or better yet, don’t carry these products.
- Sponsor a public-education talk on genetically modified organisms, or a webinar for staff. Learn more at responsibletechnology.org/retailers.
- Construct a Non-GMO Education Center, complete with books, DVDs and pamphlets. You can buy a pre-built center through the distributor UNFI.
- Host a screening of the documentary The World According to Monsanto. Details are at responsibletechnology.org.
- Start a local non-GMO action group.
- Offer non-GMO shopping guides in your store entry. You can download the guides for free at nongmoshoppingguide.com.
- Host an event or organize a community rally for Non-GMO Month in October.
- Send a GMO protest letter to your local newspaper. Templates are available at organicconsumers.org.
- Write your congressional representative and tell him or her you want GM foods to be labeled.
- Check out the Organic Consumers Association’s Millions Against Monsanto campaign at organic consumers.org.
- Participate in the Right2Know March, Oct. 2 to 16 from New York City to Washington, D.C., and demand labeling. For more information, visit right2knowmarch.org.
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High-res →
In retaliation to large-chain grocery stores that package, waste, and charge far too much for food and support factory farms, I have done extensive research on CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) before making the commitment to join one.
In my ideal world, all food is free from GMOs, affordable, and accessible. Farming is done outdoors or in green houses through natural and organic methods which allows for safer and more humane working conditions for animals, farmers, and others who handle the food from farm to table. Sadly, this is a far cry from the predominant farming system in America, where plants are genetically modified for convenience (see: monoculture) and artificially ripened through ethylene gas, animals are injected with antibiotics and hormones to yield more plump areas of desired cuts, and farmers are some of the hardest-working yet lowest-paid laborers in America who take the hit of climate change due to our massive carbon footprint.
From talking to many others about sustainable agriculture, I’ve encountered a lot of non-believers who view it as just another money scam. I can understand why someone would be skeptical of expensive produce on a superficial level, but beyond the new-found organic certification system, organic farming has existed for thousands of years. Before the discovery of fast and convenient weed-killing, bug-repelling chemicals for farm plants and antibiotics/hormones for farm animals in the 50’s (see: Monsanto), people farmed using homeopathic methods, which is a creative way to utilize natural resources that is economically beneficial and better for the environment. It makes sense that in order to facilitate life, we must turn to nature rather than technology. Sure, it’s not as convenient as we’d like because we have a lot of mouths to feed, but we should not succumb to the McDonaldization of society. Life and nature cannot be controlled, made fool-proof, or bend to our every need. We should be thankful to live in a world that provides us with such beautiful living things, not demand so much from it or abuse it. That’s exactly what I believe corporate companies have done. They have robbed us of our right to pure food that is free of harmful chemicals and genetic modification. On top of that, those who produce this poisoned food are being abused as well by not receiving proper pay, training/education, and working conditions. It’s a bit backwards—conventional farming has always been organic up until about 60 years ago. What is now seen as conventional farming is merely part of the scheme to hide where our food comes from (cuz it ain’t a pretty place) and disconnect us to one of the most important aspects of life.
By joining a CSA, I will be supporting and directly funding a local farmer, biodiversity, and organic farming rather than having that money go toward hierarchical corporate monsters and packaging (which ultimately results in waste). A major bonus is that I am saving myself tons of money on my weekly food supply. Alex and I do our grocery shopping together and share our food. We spend roughly $160-180 a week on food (the amount varies based on whether or not we decide to buy meat). However, by joining a CSA, we could cut our weekly grocery budget down by half. I’ve read about many CSAs and am still trying to decide which to support and commit to, but The Local Beet has a good comprehensive chart that compares between a select few if you are interested in joining yourself. If you don’t live in Chicago, you can locate a CSA, farmer’s market, and natural foods store in your area through Local Harvest.
If you’d like to learn more about farmers/farm life, CSAs, and the growing organic community, I highly recommend watching one of my favorite documentaries, The Real Dirt on Farmer John. Farmer John is the founder of one of the earliest CSAs, Angelic Organics, located in Caledonia, Illinois. I hope to visit his farm someday to volunteer or work as a summer intern.
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The truth about Monsanto, the multinational monster.
“Oh, Monsanto, you sly dog.
You keep trying to make us believe you are “committed to sustainable agriculture” with your canny advertisements on American Public Media, even as you force-feed farmers your lab-grown Frankenseeds that expire every year (which are, let’s be honest, opposite of sustainable).
But we shouldn’t be surprised by the mixed message, should we? After all, you’ve been doing this for decades. With long-running corporate sponsorships like Disney’s Tomorrowland building reserves of goodwill as you spray us with DDT, it’s clear you’re entitled to send out products into the world with nary an environmental or health concern—just as long as you spend a bit of that hard-earned cash convincing us otherwise.
On that note, let’s take a quick look at some of the biotech giant’s most dubious contributions to society over their past century in business.”
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Asian Innovations in Insect Control
Innovations in Insect Control in Asia date back almost 2,000 years to when ancient Chinese farmers learned the art of biological insect control. China’s ancient orchardists annually introduced colonies of predatory ants to cultivated trees to control caterpillars and other pests of crops such as citrus. Ancient Chinese biocontrol practices included constructing bamboo bridges between trees, so predatory ants could easily wander from tree to tree foraging for pests.
Fast forward to the twenty-first century: Tea is arguably the second most widely consumed beverage, after water. Tea production occupies 2.7 million ha (6.7 million acres) in 34 countries, with 78% of production in Asia and 16% in Africa. Sustainable tea production practices emphasize displacing pesticides with cultural and biological control practices to control spider mites and other pests in tea plantations.
