What's Corn Have to Do With It?

Good Day Everyone!

A few posts back I talked about an amazing book I had just read, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. During the past week I've been reading his next book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. I strongly urge everyone these two great reads.

We cannot discuss healthful good skincare without addressing diet and food, as they are inexorably linked. What is coming into focus for me is that we are, as a nation, very poorly nourished. This seemed odd to me, at first, because I live out in the back country and don't watch commercial television. As a result, I'm really not in tune with what is being "marketed" to consumers on a daily basis. Now I do get New York Times online everyday, and frequently cruise BBC or Washington Post, etc. But the point here is that my consumption of information is discreet and selective.

I began reading Pollan's first book, In Defense of Food, because I love to grow things and was told it was "my kind of book". I truly enjoyed it; but even more it was enlightening to me that the way I think of food had become, well, obsolete. And that now more than ever, the organic food industry was becoming the fastest booming industry in America. I was pretty astonished, as I've always been "green" and "organic". So that I who had once been derided as "hippie" "earthy" and "way out there" was now "IN"....well, you can only guess my astonishment.

What I have always just thought of as common sense is now trendy and a movement. I guess if you live long enough you see things come back around. But I do have to confess that over the years as more "fast food" and "packaged" foods found their way to our shelves, I found that I was no longer going to grocery stores like Safeway, Albertson's or Vons. There was nothing there that "enticed" me, not to mention that I found it really odd that to get the best prices you had to "join up" and swipe your name into their data banks. It was just off-putting to me so I didn't participate.

But I grew up in Ohio and PA in a time where local farms were plentiful, and no one thought twice about what kind of corn or what kind of fertilizer they used. There was nothing else except the natural kind. When corn came in, we went to the farm stand and bought it. We purchased raw milk from the local dairy where you could see the cows out at real green pastures - well, gee, where they might be expected to be. (Where else?) We'd go to a tree farm in spring and get our maple syrup where they were tapping the trees. I still remember the aroma in the air. No one bought store eggs, they were at that farm where you could also purchase chicken. This is the picture of Real Food that I grew up with, and thus carry with me when I'm selecting food to cook and consume. As a result, over these last 30 years I just noticed that less and less was I "intuitively" attracted to what was offered in the stores. I can honestly say that it wasn't an intellectual decision, but rather - I'd go to shop and be kind of put off, and walk out without the "usual purchases". Little did I realize that this was indicative of a huge food revolution going on in America's heartland.

This brings me to Pollan's most recent book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. I congratulate him on the title, as I actually found myself in a food dilemma. Nothing looked good to eat or felt good to eat. I don't know if I would have noticed this if I still lived where local farmers were growing food, but since I live in San Diego County where water is such an issue, local farms are not on a small scale, producing food to take to market. My little garden produced some wonderful tomatoes and eggplant, but again, water being such an issue, this is kept to the bare minimum. I recently purchased a pork loin from Costco, came home, stuffed it with lots of garlic, cooked it off and when I went to take a bite, once again, something in me warned me off it.
I froze it. It's still in the freezer, as my head is arguing with me about throwing it out. Still, there is something going on.

Pollan is exposing how we are systematically being led to eat what industrialized farming, Monsanto, Cargill and the USDA want us to eat. It's been carefully constructed over the last 30 years so that even cows, who ought to be eating grass that is fueled by sunshine, are now being forced to eat corn, which is fueled by oil. It's been an economic construct that has resulted in the poorest nutrition for Americans in all of our history, the greatest amount of illnesses, and disgusting treatment of our beloved animals.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080218/ap_on_bi_ge/slaughterhouse_abuse

I guess what I really can't understand is how an individual can go along with these types of decisions whether it is in the FDA (who keeps loosening the standards to accommodate agra-business or the genetic scientist who works for Monsanto who is systematically making us into a mono-culture of corn and soybeans). It's like planning for the disease and destruction of your fellow man. And this is for money?

I truly can't wrap my mind around making choices like that as an individual or as a corporation, when you know it's got such far reaching consequences for so many. To me it is on par with being a traitor to your country. Whether you sell secrets for money or plan the poisoning of it's people, it's all the same.

The weirdest part is that it is so anti-common sense. It makes absolutely no sense to me to turn a perfectly working system (sun, grass, cattle, people) - a naturally occurring sustainability into something that is artificially supported. The hubris to think that man can possibly improve on Nature only indicates to me that we (humans) now think we are separate and not a part of nature. When we alter our food to this extent, we must think that we can outsmart the perfect wisdom of IT, Nature, God. What stupendous folly, which I had no idea was happening behind the scenes.

I'm not sure what recommendations I can make to you at this point, except to say that it is imperative that you consult your internal Self when you consume anything whether it's food or a cosmetic application. In one way, I find it a good thing, as we are being returned to our very own Knowing - our Common Sense - not theirs.

Stay tuned, for I know that one wonderful thing happening is that slowly these notions of Natural and Common Sense are returning to the farmers in America's heartlands - Ohio, Iowa, Kansas. And it will turn on them, which way America's food supply, our health, our beauty goes.
We can support our local farmers to change over those vast fields of black earth from GMO crops to grasslands to feed the animals that feed us. And we can do this by NOT buying what is in the store called USDA Choice (UGH)...and supporting those farms that only raise grass fed pork, chicken, beef. Buy direct. Thank heaven for the internet, because I suppose this is how it happened, when we really couldn't communicate with each other so directly and immediately.

It's equally interesting to realize, full circle, that our government has not had our best interests at heart even to the level of our food supply.

On this score, I can only tell you to trust your intuition, your Knowing and if you are looking for organic, then the best you can do it look for certified organic.

In the end this is about Conscience and Consciousness. And it will be and is up to us, the consumers to lead the way back to Common Sense, Conscience and a government that is truly "for the people". We must create it from the ground up. It is clear to me that it is now up to us.

Thanks for reading!


k

Grassroots Change

Hello Everyone,

Today I had a lovely conversation from a young lady named, Jill, who was calling me on behalf of the Organic Consumers Fund. "OCF is focused on grassroots lobbying and legislative action to promote organic and sustainable food and farming, health, peace, justice, sustainability, and democracy." http://organicconsumersfund.org

Jill was doing prospecting calls and asked me if I had a minute. I did and we ended up having a 20 minute conversation about the Renaissance going on in America.

What Renaissance you might ask? It's the Renaissance coming about as the result of the last period that I refer to as the Dark Ages. When "they" knew what was best for us. When we believed that "they" knew what was best for us. Like chemicals in the food, ground, water and air. Like genetically modified foods. Like synthetics in our personal care products. Like toxins in our food; synthetic medicines that make us sicker. And all the while we, like sheep and lemming, giving over our knowing and authority to "them" as willing, naive and gullible participants.

This is all coming to an abrupt halt. John and Jane Doe are asking really dangerous questions!
Why does my tomato taste like cardboard? What exactly is in my deodorant? What do you mean children are being born with DDT in their bodies and it has been banned for years? We are slowly exchanging substance for shallow; quality for quantity; real for Real and I know what's best for me rather than you know what's best for me.

Why is this on this blog for honestskincare? I keep telling you, I can't separate out honest skin care from these larger issues. And I suppose that it's part of my joy to notice this Renaissance and cheer it on with all my heart.

Things are not so disconnected and compartmentalized as "they" would have you think, but rather it is all interconnected like dominos. How exciting is it that our farmers - according to Jill who lives in Lincoln, Nebraska - are starting to return to organic farming, and that even there, the demand at the Organic Markets is outstripping the supply. One of those farmers is going to start growing organic herbs. And somebody is going to start formulating skin care products made from these organics. And voila, a new economy is happening in America.

This is the grassroots, John and Jane Doe America where the power lies, always has and always will be. This is Us! And we will change the face of America by simply asking the question, "How could we do.....? And then moving towards that with singular focus knowing that WE CAN.

Promise next blog will be about products and or information!

Thanks for reading,


Kath