Food

Do you ever stop to think about where your food comes from? If not, why?

Last night after work my husband and I watched the movie Food, Inc. with our pastor’s wife for an upcoming adult education session they were preparing for church. We’ve seen it before, but it seemed like we all discovered something about ourselves while watching the film again. For me part of it is that while I like to be informed and prefer to eat natural and not chemically engineered foods, it isn’t going to necessarily stop me from having a Coke every now and then, even though our United States variety is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, an ingredient you can’t buy on the shelves but is in practically every packaged food.

I’m not an advocate for going one-hundred percent all organic or anything, but a few things I don’t understand are how we’ve allowed our food supply to be taken over by multinational corporations. So many of the seeds farmers grow are made and patented by the same company that created Roundup. Seed saving, a common practice among farmers in decades past, is now threatened by lawsuits for patent infringement, even with farmers who didn’t plant those seeds but instead had seeds migrate over from neighboring farms. Personally I buy heirloom seeds when I can and won’t purchase anything from Monsanto. Well, anything except Roundup. Actually, I haven’t bought Roundup in six years, but the bottle of concentrated stuff I have still works.

We decided years ago to be just a little bit more self-sustaining. I mean, I’m not plowing the entire yard and planting wheat or anything radical like that, but we did get chickens for eggs and have a small raised vegetable garden. Of course, if we had more land, I’d love to have a fully working farm. I’d want a couple goats and cows as well, for milk to make cheese and butter and for drinking as well as field mowing. I’d probably plant more vegetables that can be canned or frozen for later consumption in the winter and early spring months. But if I had to fend for myself, I’m afraid I’d become an instant grain-free vegetarian.

Next time you are in the grocery store, make a conscious effort to find out where your food comes from. Better yet if you are unable to grow the food yourself, shop at local farmers markets or go to the farms and buy directly from them.