To begin at the beginning.
Food. It is life's elixir, the base of Maslow's pyramid, the thing we all need. It has become a topic of great debate and a flood of interest is stirring up the pot -- finally. The controversies regarding the safety and quality of our food supply are raging daily now, both to my satisfaction and dismay as the grim details are uncovered and the onion peels back to reveal a sad story of mismanagement, misinformation and escalating corporate greed. The mass confusion about food labeling and the inability of the population to control the origin of the ingredients of the food we buy is a constant fight between food lobbyists and health advocates. This weeks's news scandal of Kashi, a subsidiary of Kellogg, is a case in point. While we were earnestly paying high dollars for Kashi's quality; you know, seven grains on a mission, the story comes to light that Kashi contains a hefty amount of GMO soy and corn. I don't know if I heard the sound of Kashi hitting the trash can in households across the US, but it certainly did at my house. In truth, it is said that 95% of US households have GMO grains in their food, which are not legally required to be identified in a food label, and the jury certainly hasn't weighed in on the long term health affects of consuming these genetically modified organisms on a daily basis.
While the lobbyists fight to hide the truth about what is in our food and protect their profit margins, the health contingency argues for our survival. The escalating epidemic of obesity in America is rabidly protected by those food lobbyists and the diet industry, who, after all, really don't want anyone to lose weight, since it would put them out of business. They want to sell regardless of the social costs. In their desire to protect profits, they are running their companies straight out of the business management model - contain and reduce costs and increase profits. Isn't that the capitalist way? So the war rages on and the battlefield is Congress, where the protection of constituents who pay high dollars for lobbyist representation sweeps over the noble intentions of the health advocates. Studies commissioned by Congress are rejected and hidden under the rug in the face of contention by the food lobbies. It goes on and on in a circle, and we are paying dearly for this endless debate.
I am a plant soil science major, currently working on a BS for sustainability. As such, I have always been interested in how our food is produced and have always advocated sustainable farming practices, both for the safety of the consumers and the integrity and long term health of our planet. I have very strong opinions on food politics topics, but since I am back in school and accessing a lot of research material to write papers, my strong opinions are rapidly turning into radicalism on this topic. This is partly due to the fact that these issues are escalating and approaching a tipping point, but truly this shift in my attitude is fueled by my outrage. Simply put, I feel used and abused by runaway capitalism. It was bad enough to follow myriad stories of corporate greed, from Walmart's bribery of foreign trading partners to the unbelievable pile of malfeasance in the banking industry to the pathetic story of Enron and their destruction of their employee's retirement funds and all the investors they rooked out of their hard earned dollars. When this staggering greed hits us all at home, in our pantries, my anger grows in leaps and bounds. After all, in the large picture, we are the work force that enables capitalism to continue on it's merry pursuit of profits, and our very existence is being threatened by this quest to sell our children garbage in the guise of breakfast, our teenagers completely artificial energy drinks and so called healthy, flavored water and to dump a pile of experimental food on our dinner tables nightly.
I really don't want to see this sordid story end in our rapid health decline and the destruction of our natural resources. I try to reason that there are many more of us than there are CEOs protecting their massive distribution chains and, of course, their year end bonuses. However, not everyone shares these strong opinions, nor my alarm at what I view as an escalating disaster for the health of the human race and the beautiful planet we live on. As I turn these thoughts over in my mind, I conclude that what is needed here is education for the people and a demonstration of alternatives to provide people with the food they need to survive. So, I will target my rage and increasing radicalism into actions. I vow to educate through this blog to begin with, and to use any means necessary to disseminate the information regarding the corruption of our food supply. I also vow to promote and demonstrate the power of alternative means of food production, through the establishment of urban gardens, vertical gardens and even window gardens in individual homes. I will use my education and experience to teach people how to grow their own food. I will facilitate urban gardens and push the distribution of the end products into low income neighborhoods, where people don't have the access to fresh produce. I will, as I move into this final career change of my life, try as hard as I can to make a difference and have a beneficial impact on my fellow citizens.
I hope to see you all join in and participate. Welcome to the food revolution.
