In the winter I buy organic greens for my family - but are they organic? How organic is organic? I just finished "Omnivore's Dilemma" and it did not disappoint. (ok ok I didn't finish it - the last section was "hunter/gatherer" and since my hubby and mother hunt and my mother gathers oh 100 or so pounds of chanterelles a year...I'm pretty sure I get what goes into that type of meal!) The book delves into Joel Salatin and sustainability and "Industrial Organics" and it is all a huge eye opener. It takes an astronomical amount of fossil fuel to produce 1 pound of organic salad greens. ASTRONOMICAL. I get it. Now. Everyone should. I feel quite like a born again christian, a born again eater. I should be singing from the rooftops, preaching to everyone I meet, writing to the editor.....but alas, I suspect the bright ones have been doing so for years to no avail. I didn't hear them. In fact in some ways I was encouraged to ignore them and the message. Cheap food means computers, ipods, xbox, mobile phones...disposable income. Why do we not see the true cost of our food system. I will be trying to plant a "winter" garden this year for our winter greens. Unfortunately we are at 500 feet in the snow zone, so it will be a challenge. What is going to happen when the cost of fossil fuels start to skyrocket? Then the other side of the coin, the cheap corn based food, the feedlots, the many derivitives at corn, that are cheap at the grocery store but cost SO MUCH IN HEALTH CARE - diabetes, heart disease, obesity.....And the "cheap" corn is SUBSIDIZED by the american government and yet irony is that it ends up costing SO MUCH MORE. And what on earth will happen when food costs start going crazy???
Now I'm reading "In Defense of Food" also by Michael Pollan. Eyeopener!!!
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