I have a little worry and cynicism I want to get off of my chest. I beg your pardon if this isn’t your cup o’ tea.

Despite being a real food & small farmer champion, I’m not political otherwise, and I rarely read or watch the news. I’m an admitted cynic who prefers to mind my own matters, reading and watching things that uplift me and give me hope for the future. The news never did that; in fact, when I used to read/watch the news it was one reason my daily mood was so…sour, let us say (there are other words for it, but I won’t write them). Why? Because the “news” is nothing more than a daily scare tactic designed to make us feel frightened, disempowered, and ready to accept whatever is offered by the powers that be. I don’t need to know about who was murdered today, I don’t need to hear about why kids “need” statins (!), and I don’t want to know about politics. Especially not politics! Doesn’t matter who’s in power. Politics is a vile, mud-slinging wrestling pit made to capture the attention of the masses while the real power—the corporations—does its dirty work behind the scenes.

I did mention I was cynical, right?

I figured out that if I stop watching or reading the news, life was much happier day to day. I look for positive “news” where I can find it, and there is a LOT of it out there. I love to read about people helping people, working with animals, building communities, building gardens, honoring the elderly, and so forth.

Real food is usually just such an empowering topic. The more I learn about it, the more I have realized how much power I have over my own health. I love reading about how others use real food, how they grow it, how they promote it. I love that people are supporting small farmers and coming to understand that real food is what they need, and I love that people are interested in food- and plant-based ways of healing.

Of course, I can’t stay completely away from the less-than-feel-good, political aspects of real food. But I can usually “withstand” them better, probably because I feel empowered with the options I have available. Yet every now and then a political food topic gets under my skin and riles me up, and my cynical sides comes out swinging. I read something today that did it. The post was on the wonderful “The Healthy Home Economist” blog, written by a woman in my neck of the woods. I love Sarah’s blog, and I love what she had to say today about the organic label:

“When my husband and I began eating organic produce and meats back in the early 1990′s, the word “organic” was almost a sacred word in the food industry. … The USDA Organic certification has now become nothing more than yet another way to dupe customers into spending more money for something that has next to no additional value. … in the span of a single year, the USDA increased the number of allowable fillers and additives in USDA Organic foods from 8 to nearly 300!! The push for expansion of fillers and additives in USDA Organic food is coming from none other than Big Food. Big Food companies like Kraft, Cargill, Heinz, Kellogg and others are gobbling up small organic food companies by the dozens while at the same time, diluting the very meaning of the “organic” label itself. … Big Food clearly has its sights on dominating the Organic Food industry and if you want to stay healthy, you need to steer clear of foods that are produced by any of the companies on these charts if at all possible.”

I agree with her 100%…but this trend worries me. These companies are doing this because enough people had stopped buying their brands and were buying organics…so big food bought up the organic companies so that they get the money. It is part & parcel with the real milk fight, where all sorts of efforts are underway to kill off all raw milk producers and scare off raw milk consumers out of hyped up “food safety” fears. So what will happen if too many people stop buying premade food and cook from scratch with ingredients they get from local CSAs, co-ops, and small farms? It is already difficult for small farmers to exist at all; will they soon be completely squashed? Will we end up with laws that prohibit CSAs & co-ops, out of fear of “safety” as with raw milk prohibitions? And then ultimately, will we have laws that curtail home gardening, because you can’t possibly know how to grow “safe” food yourself?

Sometimes I worry about all of us who publicly champion real food and local farmers. Sometimes I think that we need to go underground, spread the word by talking to people in our communities, and quietly go about our business of rejecting all mass-produced food. I love that Jamie Oliver’s new show “Food Revolution” is a hit, but all I see is the attention put onto real food. I can practically hear the meeting room doors ominously clicking closed in big food boardrooms across the nation as they start taking this real food movement seriously…and discuss what to do about it. Just like “organic” got big enough to be taken seriously, I now fear real food is about to be, too.

Well, nothing I can do except keep on keepin’ on. I’ll keep growing food and buying food from locals and rejecting everything that comes from big companies…and I suppose if one day I’m not allowed to have a garden, well, you know what that means. “If gardens are outlawed…” Anyone game for the Outlaws Garden Club?

(Click the picture to visit the site it came from—and buy an old West shirt, too!)

Have you heard the latest? That the maker of neurotoxin aspartame is going to rename it “AminoSweet” and market it as a natural substance because it is made from “amino acids?” Then there’s Sara Lee, coming up with “EcoGrains” that are supposed to be “more sustainable”  because they use 15% less fertilizer and will be marketed as “better than organic.” I’m sure you’ve heard about all the various “organic” companies that have been shown to be anything but organic (Dr. Bronner’s is still fighting in court about this regarding hygiene products). And then there are the TV commercials that claim high fructose corn syrup is just fine for you because it’s made from corn; despite the numerous problems with such a claim on its own, the commercials then go on to say it is fine “in moderation.” Anyone who’s been reading labels knows the lunacy of that statement—HFCS is in just about every processed/packaged food on store shelves. Even if a person believes that crap about it being ok for you “in moderation,” if you eat processed/ready-made foods, it is impossible to ingest HFCS “in moderation.”

Every time I hear about industrial food propaganda like these, I get angry. Really angry. It seems that whenever a piece of information regarding true health & wellness gets widespread attention—aspartame is a poison, organic farming is better, HFCS is bad, etc—industrial food producers find a way to twist the truth to their advantage and dupe the public. It makes me very rant-y. Might even have steam shooting out of my ears, cartoon-style. How dare they lie so blatantly?! How dare they try to trick me into eating crap that I know causes illness and eventual dependence on their drugs?! How dare they try to deny me my quality of life?!

Ranting a bit helps me let off steam. And after I’ve let it out, I can take a deep breath, and realize that “they” cannot hurt me any more. Because I know better, and I can (and do) make different choices. I know aspartame is poison, so it doesn’t matter what they call it, I’m not going to eat it. I make my own bread, so anything Sara Lee does doesn’t have to affect me. I am aware of the problems with personal care products so I am finding alternatives that work for me (Dr. Bronner’s is one of them; I’ll post on my experiences soon). And I wouldn’t touch anything with HFCS in it with someone else’s ten-foot pole.

I can make these choices because I know better. Sadly, most people don’t, so the best way I try to help them is to live my talk and pass on as much knowledge as I can. Let’s all do what we can; those of us who know the truth of our food system can do the most good by showing people that it’s not hard to make better choices. Answer questions when you can, talk about how you do it. You never know who you might encourage to finally stop drinking sodas or start eating grass-fed butter.

When I used to teach college writing, I placed a lot of emphasis on critical thinking and questioning pop culture. I wasn’t as concerned with the specific subjects the students chose to question (music or movies or fashion, usually whatever they wanted), but with the fact that they just start questioning. All the “greenwashing” that industrial food companies do only works when their audience does not question what they say and blindly accepts what they are told. The more people who start to pause and wonder and question, even in tiny fits and starts, the less people who are duped by fake greenwashing.

I do still get a bit grumbly if I happen to see a pro-HFCS commercial, but then by the end of it, I can smile a little smug smile to myself as I remember that not only does that propaganda not work on me, but that I’m actively working to lessen its power over others, and I know that many of them are likewise reaching out. Food knowledge is power. Let’s keep spreading the word.

UPDATE on Friday, March 5: Today word is out about a big recall of processed foods that use “hydrolyzed vegetable protein” (basically, MSG). If you don’t eat processed foods, then such recalls don’t affect you…but it’s one more reason, as if we need any more, to make changes and spread the word.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday for March 5, 2010.

From The Matrix Reloaded: Morpheus speaking to the people of Zion

[Warning: mini rant!] I’ve been reading a lot lately about “food safety.” About the fight for raw milk, about horrible new drugs used in livestock, about more food contamination, about more meat recalls. It is frustrating, scary, and rage-inducing, because I know the problems are all caused by dirty factory/mass farming practices and driven by greed.

Oh, and fear. Their fear of losing money and our fear of getting sick. Our fear is being stoked by theirs so that people easily agree to new laws that have their food bleached, irridated, and drugged, thus resulting in more money for the big corps. Our fear is their tool that dupes people into thinking that the twisted “modern” methods of food production would be perfectly safe if those bad little independent farmers would stop screwing things up by not bleaching, irridating, or drugging their food. “People are getting sick! Well we need stricter controls (of the little guy)! We need more chemicals blasted onto our food so that we don’t ingest any germs! How dare these little farmers try to poison us! Make them comply with the big, safe food guys!”

Of course, I understand that there is also a lot of ignorance about how food is produced. I am ever grateful for all the work currently underway to change this. But there is also so much ignorance of basic biology and science (shown by how many people buy into the “germs are bad” and “antibiotic” marketing). This goes into the serious, serious problems with the (un)educational system, problems that drove me right out of it. I do see hope in the school garden programs, although my cynical side sees that as too little, too late. Of course, I don’t believe that the powers that be, whoever they actually are (take your pick), want anyone truly educated. We’d not be as easily fooled or led.

Aaaggghhh. It drives me batty! I get so angry every time I read about some new way to “clean” food. How about cleaning up the factory farming operations? How about keeping the animals healthy and happy and in their natural states? There are plenty of non-factory farms currently running that prove quite nicely that it can be done, it does produce better food, and it does have positive ripple effects into the surrounding community.

Oh, wait. Silly me. Such things don’t line the pockets of the big fat cats who control the big factory farming megacorporations. They’ll never allow their profits to go without a fight. So they get their friends in government to keep coming up with new regulations and inspection requirements that cost so much money that small food producers are either put out of business or never get into business in the first place.

And silly me to say, “just let me choose.” I would like to choose better food, so as long as I have that choice, I’ll just go on my merry way. But lately it seems that more of us are choosing differently, and the corps are noticing. They see it as profit going away. So they’re working hard to destroy what little choice is left.

Which just strengthens my desire to produce as much of my own food as possible. But I’ve heard mutterings here and there about ways to prevent home gardens, although I don’t know the specifics. My first reaction is, why the h*ll would anyone do something so asinine? Then I remember. Oh, right. Money. If I’m growing my own food, I’m not buying someone else’s, and this consumption-based economy can’t stand that. So I suppose I would not be surprised if some politico though to make his food corp cronies some extra money by outlawing gardens. But you know what? “If gardens are outlawed, only outlaws will have gardens.”

I can’t help thinking of The Matrix again. In The Matrix, people who refused to “accept the programming” of the machines were allowed to “escape” the matrix and live free. The free people formed their own society and fought to free more people. Neo became their leader, and as their numbers grew, they caused more disruptions in the system. The machines realized they needed to be controlled, so they decided to send in their sentinels (fighting machines) to wipe out the free humans. At this point in factory food production, I feel that more and more people are realizing they have a food choice between natural and factory-farmed and are choosing to be “free” from factory-farmed food. But we are starting to reach critical mass, the point at which our numbers equal too many lost profits for the food corps to ignore us any longer. The sentinels are starting to sniff us out. Regulations are being proposed, “food safety” bills are inching through Congress, and my fear is that our choice could soon end. The machines seem ready to declare war.

But to quote Starbuck from the new Battlestar Galactica and throughly mix my pop culture metaphors, “fight ‘em ’til we can’t.”