BAD SEED: The Truth About Our Food BAD SEED: The Truth About Our Food
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BAD SEED: The Truth About Our Food plzchuckle
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Let's face it, eating a healthy Diet with lots and lots of fruits and vegetables DOES cost more money than living on rice, beans and potatoes. And with the higher cost of organic food, and the huge quantities of fruits and vegetables that are necessary to eat in order to be well nourished on a raw food diet, it's no wonder that many people find this diet a little expensive.
However, when we keep things in perspective, eating a raw food diet ends up being no more expensive than eating a "good" diet that features eating out, drinking good wine and buying delicacies and special ingredients. However, eating raw is generally not a cheap diet unless you live in a tropical country where lots of fruits and vegetables are available at very low cost.
The good news is that you can dramatically cut down on your food bills by following the simple tips I'm going to share in this article.
How to Get Organic Food for Less
We all know that eating more organic food is one of the best things we can do to limit our exposure to pesticides and help the environment. However, due to the cost of organic fruits and vegetables, many people cannot afford to eat organic.
But what if I told you that you can get organic food at the *same* price that your health food store gets it at, or less!
The secret to spending less on food and at the same time have access to higher-quality food is to buy in larger quantities and cut the middleman.
By doing this you will save *at least* 30% on your food bill, if not more.
*Buy Boxes*
When you eat a mostly or completely raw food diet, you can no longer buy foods the way most people do, which is to go to a store and buy a few apples or bananas at a time. You have to stop doing that and buy food by the case.
First of all, you won't waste any food since you WILL go through a case of food. Raw-food families will tell you they easily go through cases of food in no time, and even single people like me go through cases of food easily.
Second, it's a lot cheaper to buy by the case. When I buy organic bananas by the case, I get the *same* price for these bananas that the health food stores get, which is the lowest price possible. So instead of paying $1.30 a pound for organic bananas, I pay around 65 cents a pound.
Everything is cheaper by the box, and another advantage is that you'll have plenty of food. One of the main reasons why people fail on a raw food diet is that they don't have *enough* food. They live on a starvation diet, or worse, they run out of food completely and end up eating junk!
Find a Distributor
In order to buy food by the case, you will have to find a distributor or a food co-op. Distributors or food co-ops will be different in each city, but generally, the process is the same.
You will likely have to drive to a larger town in order to get food directly from distributors, but as I have found, by buying larger quantities you won't be wasting time going back and forth to the store several times a week.
I live in a small town and about once a week or less, I drive to the city in order to renew my supply of food.
In the next part of this article, I will show you exactly where to go in order to find distributors for organic food and get better food while at the same time saving at least 30% on your food bill.
Frederic Patenaude, is the author of the best-selling e-book "The Raw Secrets". He is currently giving away free access to his private library of over 100 exclusive articles along with a subscription to his newsletter Pure Health & Nutrition. Visit http://www.fredericpatenaude.com while charter subscriptions last.
(NaturalNews) Organic food is now the fastest growing segment of U.S. agriculture. In 2007, the value of retail sales from organic food was estimated at more than $20 billion. According to the Food Marketing Institute, more than half of Americans now buy some organic food product at least once a month. The industry is expected to grow at a rate of 18 percent per year until 2010, making organic food sales one of the fastest growing sectors in the generally sagging U.S. economy. Cutting organic food from their budgets is just not an option for many people who are struggling to make ends meet.
What does it mean to be organic?
According to the National Organic Standards Board:
"Organic agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony.
"The word organic is a labeling term that denotes products produced under the authority of the Organic Foods Production Act. The principal guidelines for organic production are to use materials and practices that enhance the ecological balance of natural systems and that integrate the parts of the farming system into an ecological whole.
"Organic agriculture practices cannot ensure that products are completely free of residues; however, methods are used to minimize pollution from air, soil and water.
"Organic food handlers, processors and retailers adhere to standards that maintain the integrity of organic agricultural products. The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people."
This definition gently shades the meaning most people associate with the term, such as the use of non-chemical fertilizers and pesticides as the food is being grown. Canada`s recently instituted organic regulations specifically prohibit synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and genetically-modified organisms (GMO).
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) puts it this way: "Organic crops are raised without using most conventional pesticides, petroleum-based fertilizers, or sewage sludge-based fertilizers. Animals raised on an organic operation must be fed organic feed and given access to the outdoors. They are given no Antibiotics or growth hormones."
The USDA allows a sliding scale that reduces some of the rigors of their own definition. According to this scale, only goods that are made entirely of certified organic materials and methods are labeled as "100 percent organic", while those whose makeup is only 95 percent pure are labeled organic. Both categories provide a USDA seal. Salt and water are exempted from consideration as ingredients.
Then there is another category that permits the use of up to 30 percent non-organic materials and methods in production, but which may be legally labeled "made with organic ingredients". Products that are less than 70 percent organic are not allowed to call themselves organic in any way. However, organic ingredients may be listed as such.
Just reading these definitions and finding out what cannot be included in a product labeled as organic is a powerful inducement to buy only organic products.
Organic farming offers a difference
In the U.S. alone, more than one billion pounds of pesticides are released into the environment as a result of non-organic practices. Some of these are very persistent and remain in the environment long after application. Extensive pesticide residue testing by the USDA found that conventionally produced fruits and vegetables are three to over four times more likely to contain pesticide residues than organic produce, and these are eight to eleven times more likely to contain multiple residues and residues at levels three to ten times higher than corresponding residues found in organic samples.
A recent study reported in Environmental Health Perspectives found that by substituting organic fresh fruits and vegetables for corresponding conventional food items, the median urinary metabolite concentrations of malathion and chlorpyrifos pesticides could be reduced from a high level to a level of non-detected or close to non-detected.
Conventional agricultural methods can cause water contamination. Beginning in 1995, a network of environmental organizations, including the Environmental Working Group, began testing tap water for herbicides across the Corn Belt, and in Louisiana and Maryland. The results revealed widespread contamination of tap water with many different pesticides at levels that present serious health risks. In some cities, herbicides in tap water exceeded federal lifetime health standards for weeks or months at a time. The elimination of polluting chemicals and nitrogen leaching by the use of organic farming methods, in combination with soil building, works to prevent contamination and to protect and conserve water resources.
The term "natural" has no real meaning
The parameters of the word "organic" are fairly well defined and specified. Many other food producers wish to gain the appeal and higher price tag of organic foods without going through the rigors to obtain organic certification. Instead, they label their food products as "natural". This term does not in any way mean that the product meets the criteria met by organic products.
If it seems like there are more products labeled as natural, it is not your imagination. Almost everyone who is not an organic producer wants to cash in on American`s desire to eat healthier. One-third of all new U.S. food and beverage products in 2008 highlighted claims of being "natural" or otherwise healthy. But terms like these have nothing to do with the nutritive value of the final product. Even the term "organic" simply refers to how the product was grown or raised, and does not refer to the nutritional value of the product.
The USDA, the regulating body for meat and poultry, says those products can be labeled as "natural" if they do not contain any artificial ingredients or added color, and are only minimally processed (a vague requirement). But if the term is used, the label must also give an additional explanation, such as "no added colorings or artificial ingredients".
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows the term "natural" to be used on food labels when the food contains no added colors, artificial flavors or synthetic substances. This leaves a large gray area. When asked in 2005 to be more specific in its definition of "natural", the FDA declined. Soon after, the Center for Science in the Public Interest sued Kraft Foods because of an "all natural" claim for its Capri Sun drinks. The suit was dropped when Kraft agreed to take the claim off the label. The makers of 7 Up tried to make the same claim but removed the term from its label under threat of court action.
Why does organic food cost so much?
Prices for organic foods reflect many of the same costs as conventional items in terms of growing, harvesting, transportation and storage. Organically produced foods must also meet stricter regulations governing all of these steps, resulting in a more labor and management intensive process. Organic farming is usually on a smaller scale. Mounting evidence shows that if all the indirect costs of conventional food production, like the cleanup of polluted water, replacement of eroded soils, costs of health care to farmers and farm workers, were factored into the price of food, organic foods would cost the same or even less than conventionally grown foods.
A July, 2008 survey found that among customers who reported buying organic products, 56 percent had household incomes of more than $100,000, and 36 percent had incomes of less than $25,000. This data shows that the decision to shop organically is a matter of priorities.
Although the organic industry is predicted to grow at 18 percent a year through 2010, the sagging economy may tempt some Americans to cut back on organic purchases they perceive as costing more. But in the long run this choice is clearly not cost effective considering the damage to health and productivity losses associated with a conventionally grown diet, as well as the hidden costs of buying conventional. And then, there`s the taste to think about.
Sources:
Organic Trade Association, www.ota.com.
Gregory McNamee, Just What Does Organic Mean, Anyway? Encyclopedia Britannica Blog.
Martha Filipic, Chow Line: `Natural`often means little on label, Ohio State University Extension.
by: Barbara Minton, Natural Health Editor
About the author
Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a Breast Cancer survivor using "alternative" treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural.
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Buying Organic is Well Worth the Cost even When Times are Tough
(NaturalNews) This week, the CSPI released a "risky foods" list aiming to reveal the top ten riskiest foods responsible for most food-borne illnesses. Number one on the list is "leafy greens." Does this mean people should stop eating leafy greens? Of course not: The list itself is flawed from the very start.
There's nothing inherently "risky" about leafy greens. There has never been a single food-borne illness caused by a leafy green. What causes food-borne illnesses are the bacteria that get onto the leafy greens. Putting the focus on the food item itself is not only scientifically inaccurate; it's also misleading to consumers.
The real question is how do foods get contaminated with e.coli? And that answer involves the growing and processing of those foods. Foods that are grown near factory animal farms are far more likely to be contaminated with e.coli than those grown in more natural settings. Foods grown using methods of biodynamic gardening are far more likely to be free from e.coli than those grown as monoculture crops.
What really causes foods to be contaminated are conventional mass-agriculture farming practices, not the foods themselves. So buying leafy greens from a local organic market is completely different from buying leafy greens grown with a corporate-controlled monoculture approach.
Don't blame the veggies!
It's a shame to see CSPI blame the veggies for all this, especially when fresh produce is precisely what more Americans need to be eating (or drinking as raw juice smoothies) in order to prevent degenerative disease and enhance their health. By publishing this list, the CSPI perpetuates the myth that only "sterile" food is healthy. With this list, they are implying that dead foods are better for you than living foods, and yet that's completely the wrong conclusion from all this. Dead foods lead to dead people. Only live foods can keep you alive in a healthy way, and when you're dealing with live foods, there's a need for more mindful agricultural practices.
Raw milk offers us a great demonstration of all this. Raw milk is far healthier for human consumption than pasteurized, homogenized, processed milk (the stuff most people buy and guzzle down). But selling raw milk would require dairy farms to clean up their unsanitary practices, and that's just too much trouble, so it's easier for the whole industry to just continue with their unclean milk collection practices (with blood, pus and all) and then cook the bacteria out of the milk while declaring it "safe" for human consumption.
The FDA wants to enact a similar death sentence for all vegetables, requiring fumigation or irradiation before any such items are allowed to be sold to consumers. Such a nefarious plan has already been put into place with California almonds (http://www.naturalnews.com/021776_almonds_food_raw_almonds.html).
The ultimate goal? Irradiating all vegetables
Most of what you're hearing today about e.coli qualifies as just more "scare stories" (much like the swine flu) designed to get the public to react by agreeing to a food irradiation plot (http://www.naturalnews.com/023015_food_foods_USDA.html). Remember this: U.S. health authorities don't want anybody eating healthy, living foods. They want the nation to subsist on dead foods because that's what brings in the most repeat business for the drug companies.
Dead foods also happen to save the government a fortune by making sure people don't live long enough to collect much money on social security or Medicare. (Seriously.) In the minds of the people running the USA, longevity is the enemy of health care cost control.
Most of the people who die from eating e.coli, by the way, were already suffering from compromised immune systems caused by -- guess what? Eating too many dead, processed foods!
People don't need more sterilized, dead foods. What they need is more live foods, more fresh produce and more living enzymes (which you can only get from living foods). Live foods have their natural medicines intact -- the delicate phytonutrients that provide most of the plant's medicinal benefits. Heat processing (pasteurization, etc.) destroys that natural medicine, transforming healing foods into dead, lifeless foods that are good for nothing more than a source of bland calories.
I find it astonishing that in an age when our national leaders are trying to figure out how to reform health, they would simultaneously be trying to figure out how to kill and sterilize the entire U.S. food supply.
E.coli is not the problem here. Disastrous farming practices are.
Sources for this story include:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/10/the-point-of-...
About the author: Mike Adams is a holistic nutritionist with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of super bright LED light bulbs that are 1000% more energy efficient than incandescent lights. He's also the CEO of a highly successful email newsletter software company that develops software used to send permission email campaigns to subscribers. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and pursues hobbies such as Pilates, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org
Subscribe to this FREE email newsletter
CSPI "top 10 risky foods" list gets it wrong: We need more leafy gr...
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Natural health physician Dr. Joseph Mercola and drug company insider Dr. Shiv Chopra talks about food safety, the destruction of our food supply, and what you can do to protect the health of your loved ones. For more about this interview, visit http://articles.mercola.com/sites/art... (Part 1 of 9)
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Everything You HAVE TO KNOW about Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods
from Jeffrey Smith on Vimeo
Everything You HAVE TO KNOW about Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods from Jeffrey Smith on Vimeo.
Read this article and/or sign up for Dr. Mercola's FREE NewsLetter click here
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http://www.detox.net.au hosts interview with Mark on organic food and growing practices, mineral deficiencies, attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, food poisons (pesticides and herbicides) and Sugar in the diet.
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