Wednesday, April 7, 2010

My Experiment: End Of Week One

Well things are going pretty smoothly, despite a few glitches here and there. (The grapes thing really threw me!) Now I feel I've got a better handle on things. But it really is amazing where our food comes from. The 'object' part is easy, I live at a flea market, and I'm taking a trip to Goodwill this Saturday to both offload AND pick up.

The food thing, however.......*shudder*
I live right up the road from a health food shop, a farmer's market AND a local gormet shop....and I STILL can't believe where food comes from!!!

I was at the health food grocery (NOT the 'big one') and picked up a jar of "Genovese Italian Pesto". Now you would THINK this was imported from Italy. Still not really on my list for food, but a pretty honest guess.

Israel.
Not kidding.
Floored me.

SO...off I go to the LOCAL farmer's market. I got som eggs from right up the street and not too pricy, some local goat cheese and a head of garlic from their farm. Then I asked THE question...
"So the grapes over there....where are they from?"
"Ya know, I'm not sure, lemme ask."
"Cool, thanks."
"______, where are our grapes from?"
"Hmmm, not sure. Someplace in South America."
.........................................
..........................really?..............

.......................................
.........really...........huh. Ok then.

SO.......the gist here is that, unless the 'BIG ONE' has grapes from at LEAST California....I get no grapes for a year. What that also means is, I have to really check where my jelly is coming from too.

This shit trickles down ya know.
Man......Ok, so no grapes. No big deal, really.......

But in the scheme of things ladies and gents, I would like you all to try a little experiment of your own. Walk through the produce of your LOCAL market, be it Farmer's or otherwise, and check the labels. How much FOOD do we actually grow here?
I understand the seasonal thing, I get that. But there are actually LOADS of fruits and veggies that are in season NOW. Why is my lettuce coming from South America?? I LIVE IN THE GARDEN STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-ahem-
Sorry. But this experiment is really opening my eyes in a way that no politician or documentary could. By living this way I have allowed the changes this country has undergone in the past few decades to really hit home.
Small farmers wiped out by factory farms with mutilated chickens and tortured cattle always seemed a horrible thing that I should be really upset about.

NOW it strikes me as a serious deterioration of this country's ability to sustain itself. Everyone is so worried about our ability to 'stand on our own' in the oil race.....



but we'll DIE without food.


And the stuff we're putting into our bodies looks less and less like food every year.

I fear the age of the nutrient pill!!


So to sum up.....
This year I see how well I can do this thing. I'll take notes and post all my steps here.....next year, I'm going to see If I can get anyone else to join me.
Cause this is really a bigger job than I can handle! LOL!
A good, eye opening first week......


I hope I don't end up a radical fruitcake.



Awww crap.













6 comments:

Unknown said...

Aw girl, I feel for you. You have chosen a big pill to swallow. It's a little easier here in Europe (although in winter a lot of our stuff comes from Turkey and the Middle East), but in the US you are going to have a hard time...

Unknown said...

Thanks hon. Ya, it seems like so much of our food is coming from south america and overseas! I really had no idea!

Dria said...

I'm with ya Sister! I am not committed to absolute local but have chosen to follow sustainable food choices. My first steps were to get Toxic Soy and HFCS out of our diet. After a year, Brett's blood work came back perfect...no more evidence of Diabetes, no cholesterol problems, BP fine, good liver and kidneys, etc. ( I have no insurance, so no blood work for me..LOL)
I do have about 1/4 acre organic vege garden, a separate herb garden and a huge strawberry patch. And, I planted a small fruit orchard last fall.

BTW, the mantra we use to get through this lifestyle change (which I plan on keeping indefinitely) is...good, better, best. You can't always do the best for yourself or the environment but at least do good, try to do better, and sometimes you can reach best!

Love ya.

Unknown said...

Dria...I love you!

And YES!!!!!!!!! We did the HFCS dump a few years back and it made a HUGE difference!
Amazing what has HFCS in it that isn't supposed to be sweetened....hmmm...

But tell me more about toxic soy! I eat tofu like it's goin outta style, and it IS helping with my estrogen levels...but I jump a bit at the word toxic....

Dria said...

I have personal reasons for starting my research about Soy. Blood tests about a decade ago showed I have a secondary allergy to it which was probably a cause for the adrenal failure I went through. Because of that, I have learned so much more. This article from the Guardian is a good overview of the problem with Soy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/jul/25/food.foodanddrink
After that, the book "The Whole Soy Story" by Dr Kaayla Daniel is a great read about all kinds of studies about it. Her website is http://www.wholesoystory.com/

And I won't even go into the problems of GM Soy from Monsanto.....it gets even worse.

Unknown said...

Well ya...Monsanto = evil.
I'll check out the article tho, as I am a tofu junkie!
I'm glad as hell they figured all that stuff out with you though! I remember there was a time where everything was making you feel crappy. :(
Seems like you guys are really fixing things up!!