Why is it?

Why is it that I have the freedom to buy 64 ounces of diabetes inducing, obesity promoting, corn syrup laden soda at any gas station, convenience store and grocery on the map? Why is it that the purchase of raw milk is flat out illegal in virtually every state even though it has been scientifically proven to be of higher nutritional value than the pasteurized, homogenized and centralized stuff that we have available to us now? Why is it that I have the freedom to willfully intoxicate myself with alcohol at any number of state and/or federally sanctioned bars , restaurants or private premises but it is illegal for me to willfully buy meat processed by the people who raised it? Why is it that I can freely purchase "food" items containing a veritable cornucopia of genetic modifications, medications, chemical preservatives, additives and other artificial ingredients, but we can not be permitted to know if our food was genetically modified? Why is it that although we have the freedom to reproduce and raise children we are not able to decide for ourselves what we can eat?
For far too long our government has been driven by corporations to blatantly pump our food system full of products that are little or no benefit to our health and well-being, we are fed a strict diet of denial and untruth about what we are really eating, "Chemical X is fine to eat as long as it's done in moderation". Of course there is never a mention that it's virtually impossible to obtain moderation because the vast majority of the grocery store contains chemical X.
Our health care system is flooded with insurmountable illness and ailments due primarily to the homogeneous fodder that is being sold to us under the guise of "food". We are led to believe that potato chips can be a healthy because they are fried in fats that are high in antioxidants and are trans fat free. We are even flat out lied to about the contents of the products we buy. An item that is trans fat free may actually be permitted to contain trans fats. Items supposedly better for you because they have been enriched with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and electrolytes may or may not actually contain any of the claimed contents.
If you go out to dinner and order a porterhouse steak for $30.00, wouldn't you be furious if they brought you the vegetarian special without changing the price. If you paid $40,000.00 for a luxury car and received a used Ford Festiva you would not go quietly and drive home happy would you? Then why do we continue to vote and promote people into positions to remove our freedom to decide what is safe to eat and what should or should not be legal to consume? Why is it that we have systematically allowed , even encouraged the removal of free living options. We should have the freedom to choose for ourselves what we can purchase to eat.
When government ceases to serve the people and protect their freedoms, it is the responsibility of those who have the power, to change things. If you are a die hard patriot you may recognize this thinking from the Declaration of Independence. I assure you, we do have the power to change things, it is us, not one spokesman elected into office, that will make a difference. We vote every time we buy something, I encourage you all to start reading labels, if you see a special claim on the front, read the back, check the small print-remember, the devil is in the details. Write or e-mail the USDA, the FDA, any Initials related to the production of food and food safety, demand that we be returned our freedom to real food produced by real American farmers.

Immigration's not the Problem

I heard an interesting bite on NPR the other day. An individual who was being interviewed made the statement "if you hear illegal immigrant enough times, they cease to be people, they become animals and so you have situations like this where some Ecuadorians are hunted down and beaten on the street." I had to admit, he had a point, after all, we've been doing this for as long as we've been around. Dego, spic, wop, kike, dyke, nigger, spook, chink, dink, mick, kraut, dot-head, towel-head, wet-back, cracker, honkey, peckerwood, faggot, freak. These are just a sampling of our efforts to reduce someone else to where we can justify "targeting" them for blame, regardless of whether they deserve it.

One very interesting point of fact with the current "Immigrant problem" is that we only blame the immigrants and not the entities responsible for bringing them here. Immigrants from south of the border (Mexico, Central & South America) have been coming here for a very long time to work, originally in the fields of California then on to other miscellaneous jobs in factories, warehouses, construction and kitchens. There is the argument that they are taking jobs away from U.S. Citizens, but the rebuttal is that no citizens wanted to do these jobs, which was true for a large part. Things have changed a bit over the past 5-10 years. More and more jobs are being done by immigrant workers, many of which may be here illegally, and it is becoming more difficult for U.S. citizens to obtain jobs where they must compete with these workers. The problem, however, is not the fault of the worker who in my personal experience, rarely misses work, works long hours and works hard, usually does a decent job. In comparison to Domestic employees who have a tendency to call-off often, don't want to work 10+ hour days (which is stupid anyways), complain often and demand higher wages. If I'm a business owner with no ethical dilemma on the subject, I'm hiring the immigrant worker, illegal or not.

Basically it boils down to a simple formula, this is a Capitalist country, i.e. we aim for the highest profit margin. Immigrant workers do more work for less money than domestic employees. this means lower cost to consumers (that's you and I) and higher profits for the business owners. A good example of this formula at work is our food system (yeah, I brought it back to food). The workers in the field planting and harvesting your fruits and veggies, the slaughter house employees butchering your meats and packaging your seafood are being paid a wage that is probably well below minimum wage. These people are working long hours with no overtime pay and no health benefits. This allows the company to produce, package and ship foods at less expense which in turn means we will buy more because it is so affordable. Furthermore, the "rotating door" employment of immigrants allows the flow to be virtually never ending. If a worker is ill or injured, there are five more waiting to take his place, if a group is picked up by INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services), there is a group waiting to start today. These jobs typically are simplified tasks repeating the same thing over and over again so it's relatively simple to train a new worker with little or no lull in the work line.

If for some reason there ceased to be jobs available in the U.S. (wait, I think this is already happening), don't you think our citizens will begin to look elsewhere for employment? If you answered no, well, come see me when you wake up from your nap because we already do this domestically. People travel from city to city or even state to state so they can have a job. Workers in Cleveland can't find work so they move to Columbus or from Pittsburgh to Ohio and so on. What's to stop us from finding work in Canada?

The simple fact is this, there are few good paying jobs south of the border and the U.S. has a lot of work that pays well (comparatively), not only that, they are willing to hire illegal immigrants. So the problem isn't really the people coming here to work is it? No. The problem lies with our greed driven business owners and with our "cheaper is better" mentality that we apply to everything from food to people. So please think about that the next time you feel the need to blame someone for this so called "Immigrant problem".

Auggie Doggie & Doggie Daddy

Not sure what I was thinking with the title, just a kick back to the old Hannah-Barbera cartoons I grew up with I guess.

Anyways, today's subject is dogs, specifically dog food or rather the food we feed our dogs. This is a sampling of some of the ingredients listed in Purina One pet food:

Wheat, corn, barley, corn, corn gluten, barley malt, rice, brown rice, beet pulp, brewers yeast, cranberries, oatmeal, pea fiber, potatoes, powdered cellulose, soybean hulls, soy protein, sweet potatoes, turkey, chicken, lamb, beef, fish meal, liver, salmon.

Now some of these mind you are in their cat food, the website doesn't give specs for just the dog food but cats and dogs have fairly similar designs as far as foods they should eat. These are not all the ingredients though, there are a plethora of added vitamins and minerals which of course are added in powdered form.

Now I know there are far worse and far cheaper things that you could feed your pet but humor me for a moment and let's think about our pets as what they are-animals, specifically carnivores, that is, they are designed to eat the meat and bones and organs from other animals (you people who feed your pets vegetarian pet foods, don't even get me started). They have pointed teeth and jaws that move only up and down for grabbing pulling and tearing flesh which they then gulp down in chunks and slowly digest. That being said, let's think about the ingredient list above. Not a whole lot of animal products in there huh? yes a little bit, but the majority of the recipe is likely vegetable and grain fillers, especially corn and soybeans (just like our foods!).

I will admit that I myself do feed my pets this same stuff most of the time, it's cheap and it keeps them fed plus it's easy to store and has a shelf life of dirt (as if it would be around long enough to go bad anyway). However, in recent months I have been supplementing our dogs food with raw beef tongue, kidney, heart and treating him with raw beef leg bone sections with marrow intact. I can not afford to feed both pets raw meat daily, especially since the dog is of the "small horse" variety but I still make attempts to give them what they were made for. I have read a number of testimonials about how pets have improved or recovered from ailments of various types by switching to a raw diet (yes raw, animals have never been able to cook). Have I noticed any in my own pets? Well since there were no noticeable problems to begin with, no, I haven't. However, when you fill that bowl with raw meat that smells slightly of wild game (or occasionally is wild game at our house) there is a greater excitement in the pets eyes, their senses are more active, more sniffing and attentive watching until they get to dig in. The overall demeanor seems to be better as well although that could just be maturity. I have noticed one great benefit to the raw meat diet with our dog, less gas! Thank god! When you have an animal the size of a grown adult with bad gas walking around, you do what you need to in order to remedy the situation.

Here are some relatively inexpensive ways to obtain raw food for your pet, specifically a mid size to large dog.

1. Buy bone in or whole chicken at the store and feed the scrap bones to them i.e. wings or tips, backs, breast bone, giblets.

2. Make friends with a farmer, many times they have trouble selling hearts (actually a muscle not organ meat), kidneys, tongue, small femur bones. May even give a discount on bulk purchase like with chicken backs, necks and feet.

3. Save the scrap when you cut up meats like beef or pork, tendons, sinew, excess fat and gristle. You don't want to eat it but dogs are made for it. This way you are not only feeding yourself (for cheaper in the case of whole chicken) but you are getting more for your money by utilizing all that you bought, and the more meat they eat, the less they need to eat. Their bodies were designed to digest raw animal meat so it takes longer in their system while their digestive system extracts all the goodies, vegetable and grain products are no digested so thoroughly so they are in and out in a flash. More meat usually means less poop too and that may be the biggest plus to many pet owners (I hate litter boxes!)

And a final reason this could benefit our pets, there is less likelihood that they will become sick from contaminated food as has been a problem with pet foods lately, by feeding raw food you have better control over what does or does not go into their bowl. Purchasing from local farmers also helps reduce the risk of heavy pathogenic contamination like E.coli or Salmonella which has been more of a problem with food for people. Remember, most pets, at least dogs, spend enough time outdoors to be exposed to small amounts of cooties so they have a much stronger immune system than we do, I mean c'mon, you've seen where dogs put their noses and tongues and they still survive.

A final Reminder

This coming Tuesday is election day and for those of you readers located here in Ohio I wanted to give a final reminder and plea to vote NO on Issue 2. If you recall my last post i listed some of my reasoning to reject Issue 2. The following is from a local small farmer and friend about why he is against it.

I have been asked many times in the last week to give my opinions on Issue 2. I am pleased to hear so many seem to want my opinion before making up their own mind. So, here goes:

I am solidly against Issue 2 and will vote NO on Issue 2!!
The reason is that Issue 2 was created by the confined animal producers to protect their right to raise animals in confinement. It will create a board to oversee animal care made up primarily of these confinement farmers.
Issue 2 is NOT about local food, it's about Ohio farmers who want to retain their right to raise confined animals. The advertising is Orwelling double-speak in the worst way I have ever seen.
As you know, raising animals this way is not healthy for you who eat the food, whether it is dairy, eggs, pork, or beef. It takes away the Omega 3, betacarotine and CLA and replaces it with fat and cholesterol. Please read "Why Grass-fed is Best" and "Omnivore's Dilemma."

Again I want to emphasize that the responsibility is not nor should it be given to the government to make our food safe. If the government was truly committed to a safe food supply then we would not have entered into our current situation. They are more concerned with packing their excess of corn and soybeans into your diet for the sole benefit of the economy. More inspectors and chairpersons can be "influenced" just as so many have been already. If you are the inspector of your own food supply then the system becomes far more legitimate.

So please, for the sake of small local safe farms, for the sake of rural communities and most of all for the sake of actual safe and healthy food for all of us please vote NO on Issue 2 this coming Tuesday.

Vote Like You Mean It!

In regards to Issue 2 on the upcoming November 3rd Ohio Ballot

Here is an exceprt from the website in support of Issue 2: http://www.safelocalohiofood.org
But consumers also want to know more about how their food is produced on Ohio's farms. That means knowing that animals are healthy and well cared for, that the food they buy is safe and of the highest quality, and that farmers are running their farms responsibly and following all regulations. Consumers also want choice at the grocery store, both in the foods they buy and in how those foods are produced.

And here is my two cent rebuttal Illuminating the truth:
If consumers want to know more about their food and know the animals are healthy and well cared for, if they want to know that farmers are running their farms responsibly then don’t rely on or trust in the government to give you that information, GO SEE FOR YOURSELF! The government tells you that beef from hundreds of miles away is safe for consumption and treated humanely, if you were to go and see for yourself you’d realize this was not true at all. As for regulations, they only look at the logistics, does the barn look like it should, is the killing floor non porous are the slaughter house walls stainless steel and are they cleaned regularly. How about sampling the goods?! Measure the bacteria and contaminants, set some acceptable standards for the stuff that actually makes people sick, are the employees healthy, do they even know how to safely handle potentially hazardous food products? Does the facility operate at a pace conducive to maintaining safety for the staff as well as the food products?
The answer is not to help the government create thirteen more pointless taxpayer draining jobs just so we can “feel” safe when we bite into our mass produced burger, the answer is to demand more transparency of our food system. Demand to see where your food comes from, demand to see how the animals are treated, especially demand to see where and how they are slaughtered. You will never be permitted to see a killing floor, no intelligent mass producer will let anyone in that area, they don’t think you need to know what goes on in there. You do need to know but you don’t want to know, if you did you would probably quit eating meat, at least their meat, and they can’t allow that.
Food bourne illness was not a real problem until we began to centralize our entire food system and require that everyone raise their food in the same way, meeting the same requirements.
A vote for Issue 2 will not reduce the incident of food bourne illness, it will not make local foods any more affordable, it will not create more jobs or boost the economy, what it will do is lead to the closing of more small scale farms that can’t afford to meet the same requirements as the mega farms for whom these requirements were designed. If you want to vote for local foods, for safe foods, then do it with your wallet, buy from farmers who are really responsible, buy food that is produced locally and really does boost the local economy. This is the only vote that will really count.
For information about local farmers or local food systems and the issues surrounding them check out some of these sources:
Websites
http://oeffa.org
http://local-matters.org
http://www.localharvest.org


Books
Everything I Want to do is Illegal Joel Salatin
In Defense of Food Michael Pollan
The Omnivores Dilemma Michael Pollan
Animal Vegetable Miracle Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp
The Revolution Will Not be Micro waved Sandor Ellix Katz

Push and Roll

The hollow whirring sound of polyurethane rolling and sliding on asphalt, reverberating through the laminated hardwood they are connected to by cast steel trucks- a symphony of aggression. The pure unadulterated clap of the tail against the pavement or the grinding of the steel trucks against concrete curb- like angels singing a chorus to god. This is the music of my childhood.
Growing up somewhere between the burbs and the inner city during the 1980’s there were, for me, few choices where to fit in, there was the mainstream option, you know, the usual football games or other sports events, pop music and conservative or “acceptable” clothing from JC Penny or some other trendy department store. The other option was the “alternative” as it was referred to back then. Thrift store clothing, Hardcore-punk music and the cherry-on-top, skateboarding! Around this time, skateboarding had begun to return as a pastime for youth across the nation after a sabbatical from the 70’s.
This however, was not a “sport” that was welcomed with open arms by the mass public. To this day I’m not entirely sure what the problem with skateboarding was, most likely it was more with skaters than with the sport itself. It seemed that for some reason skateboarding attracted a less than appealing personality. Perhaps it was the fact that here was a physically demanding sport that required determination, practice, agility, endurance and most of all, durability but lacked all the usual guidelines and rules that fenced in other sports activities. Skateboarding was a sport that embraced freedom, freedom from regulations, freedom from rules, freedom from any one location, and because of that only a short lived freedom from laws. This is most likely where skateboarding lost it’s attraction to the mainstream public. With no centralized location to practice or play, skaters took their game to the streets and parking lots and public walkways and shopping centers and so on. This seriously annoyed business owners, managers and police, oh yes, and especially security guards who with their false sense of authority and self proclaimed supremacy, regularly entered into territorial pissing matches with skaters.
It was this rejection by mainstream society coupled with teenage rebellion and the desire to find ones place in the world that lead to the boom in “skate-punk” population. Here was a sport or activity that became a subculture that accepted the unacceptable. Skateboarding was no longer something to do between school and dinner; it had become an identity, a culture and community. You didn’t even need to know how to skate, some kids just carried a board or pushed around clumsily, it didn’t matter, no one else wanted them and that was for a large part, a common thread. There were kids from good homes with loving parents, kids from broken homes or abusive parents, rich kids, poor kids, black, white Asian and Hispanic kids, even disabled kids, and they came from all over town. I met people from all over the state that either came to our town to skate or we went to theirs, and if you went away on vacation and took your board, you were almost guaranteed to meet someone new while you were skating.
This was not just about the subculture or the community, it was about the board. The board became an extension of you, if you had the right wheels, the right trucks and deck, it was like God himself reached down and blessed the earth for you to skate. The slide, the kick, flip, pop, tap, clack, whirring, grinding, flying, spinning. The world saw it as wanton destruction, jumping around messing things up, we on the other hand, saw it as pure poetry, a ballet of aggression and control, an expression of our lives and trials. When you were in the moment, when everyone around was just doing their thing and having fun, no one was competing, no one was trying to prove anything to anyone but themselves, the synchronicity, of five people skating a single curb, ramp or transitioned wall, anything that spoke out to us “skate here!” -it was absolutely amazing.
That is all behind me now, as the board gave way to the car and girls, then work and college and even more work, then a wife and kids. I may never get that back, the feeling of flying, the grind, the slide, the landing, and the impact. I don’t heal as well as I used to, I may still have the determination and endurance, but I have lost the durability. No longer can I hit the pavement at 20 miles an hour and just shake it off, I can’t take a blow to the head like I used to, and leaving an open wound to bleed concerns me now. A wife and kids has softened me up considerably, but I’m happy for that. Now when I see kids out skating, I heckle them just like people did to me, but I’m not mean about it, it builds character! I tried a while back to get back into it but it ad been so long that I lost the balance, I’m not as coordinated as I once was. Now I watch when I get the chance, I like to see kids at a parking lot more than the pros on T.V., they still have the grit that I used to love about skating. Yes, I have been reduce to a spectator, but I’m O.K. with that, I’m not an armchair commentator, I watch in awe and reverence as a reminder of what fun it was and as an inspiration to pass on to my kids.

Mi Corazon!

At the prompting of my wonderful wife, I am about to do something rather unorthodox and plug a fast food restaurant.
"Like OMG, WTF, dude, are you like totally losing your mind, lol?" -This may be what you're thinking (god I hope not), but rest assured, I am staying true to my standards.
As you may recall (not likely), I once wrote about Kentucky Fried Chicken being somewhat of a whole food outcast in the realm of fast food, not that that means it's a great decision for a meal, but considering the alternatives, at least you know what it once was. But anyhow, I wanted to take this opportunity to endorse in my own way, La Bamba! Yes the beloved Burrito shop located on OSU campus with it's ridiculously large burritos as well as a number of other Latino offerings.
Why on earth would I endeavor to promote this fast food business, you may ask? I have a few reasons. First let's look at the "real food" reason; They use actual food items that are cooked on premises, not just reheated there. The chicken came from actual chickens, the beans are simply that, beans- hell their even vegetarian beans, no lard! (which I'm personally not against by the way, healthier than butter!). Keep in mind that not everything they have is necessarily good for you (chorizo) and probably none of it is sourced locally or even from sustainable producers, but it's faaar better than anything the big chains are offering. Next let's look at the "Authentic Mexican" dilemma. I like Mexican food, hell, most of the time I find it preferable to American food and that's probably because I've had some really good stuff cooked by people who know what they're doing, none of which were "professionals" by the way but rather Dishwashers, salad station workers and various grunt labor in non-Mexican restaurants (Viejo, I miss your lunches!) What is the dilemma? It is the hoard of restaurants around town all offering the same homogeneous beans rice and cheese dishes slopped on a plate and labeled as "Authentic". Bullshit! It's pasty drab colored three ingredient garbage! If I wanted to eat that, I'd go to a Chinese restaurant! (yes, I do believe there is NO such thing as "good" Chinese food).
I will admit, Labamba does offer the usual beans and rice, and it is of course all that I have illustrated above, however, they have at least kept it simple for the most part. Tacos, Burritos, Tortas, Tamales Quesadillas and Nachos (for all you gringos). There are no enchiladas, no chimichangas, no psuedo chilies rellenos, chilaquiles, no pinche "Cuco's Special" or Steak Ranchero. They do a few things and do them well, although I can't vouch for the Quesadillas or Nachos, I go for the good stuff.
Some larger chains that recently cut the cord from McDonald's (Chipotle) make a good attempt at tacos and burritos, and don't do a bad job either, but it's a little dressed up and made pretty, not to mention LOADED with rice filler. Labamba is a sort of street food looking, chicken juice dripping, wrestle with the super burrito and you're gonna lose messy concoction of good ingredients prepared daily and assembled to order so that your mouth, stomach and wallet will all be happy. Don't get me wrong, it ain't no taco truck (Oh pupuseria how I love you!) but remember, Labamba is a chain restaurant, so all things considered, this place is awesome! And the best part is, you can eat your corn there!

Loco-ly Groan Feuds

I recently read an article ( http://www.alternet.org/environment) about how Frito Lays is trying to advertise their chips as "Locally Grown", of course my first response was "BULLSHIT!" However, I decided to check out their website www.fritolay.com to see what I could find out.
I discovered that they have or at least purchase from 80 farms across the country that could be 1.5 farms per state (we do still have 52 states right?) that's not to shabby. However, the chips are only made in 21 locations nationwide, that's like 1 factory (don't even think they are made in anything resembling a kitchen) per every 2.5 states. To an extent I can see Frito Lay's self proclaimed green-ness, compared to other chip manufacturers they probably are very local, that is as long as the potatoes for each plant are supplied by the nearest farms (good luck with that one).
I know, what you may be thinking, "hey, at least they're beginning to make an effort." Don't count on it! More than likely, they as are so many large corporations (Monsanto) are simply trying to cash in on the Green and Local trend, by fooling us into believing they care about our foods as much as we do (or should), c'mon, this is the same company that makes Doritos, Tostitos, Cheetos, Frito's and Sun chips-dear god, is there anything you don't fry?! Oh but they are fried in oils with no trans-fat, oil with omega-3's-whoop-dy frickin-do! Last I checked, a chip wasn't going to help save anyone from type II diabetes or heart disease. But I digress.
If you check out the ad gallery on their website you see images of "Farmers" in front of fields of potatoes, tractors, and people holding potatoes in their hands. I know we all still feel comforted by the agrarian backdrop with a green tractor and red barn when we think about our foods, we think of someone lovingly pulling our veggies from the ground with their honest, hard workin hands. The reality is that while the fields pictured may well be real, the farmers and equipment are likely false, and it's more likely that a worker would be reprimanded if they were to dare touch the product with their bare hands, hell, the government might even fine them for it. No, sorry folks but this is most likely a facade, projected to lull you into a false sense of camaraderie so you'll do what you're meant to do buy, buy, buy and especially buy more over-processed and nutritionally bankrupt vegetables and genetically modified grains.
The moral to this story is "don't be an idiot!" It's your on decision what you eat, and honestly, you could do a lot worse than some of Frito lays products, at least when it comes to snack time, but don't let them pull the all natural, locally pastured Lamb's wool over your eyes with their advertising, a chip grown in an overly fertilized and pesticide ridden mega farm field and processed in a fully mechanised fryer warehouse two to three states away is still just that.
An extremely unfortunate twist here is that if I were anyone of importance, if I were to have all the facts on my side and were to make them public, I would be in the wrong, legally speaking. One of the pitfalls of our Capitalist system is that Frito Lay could file suit and likely win to silence my exposure of their facades. While they are free to promote their product as something it is not (trust me they're not the only ones doing it) it is unacceptable for another party to publicly portray that product as an imitation. Hopefully, one day we will grow so tired of being blatantly lied to about what we are eating, drinking and being medicated with that we will demand the kind of transparency that should have been there all along. Trust me, there are no secret ingredients, no proprietary secrets, just unhealthy and illegitimate practices.
Corn it up ya'll!

Milky Discharge

On Monday, the great state of Ohio, namely Governor Ted Strickland, issued that milk that was produced without the use of rBST a.k.a. rBGH cannot market itself as such without also carrying a label stating that "there is no difference between milk produced with rBST than milk produced without it". Ironically, this chemical that synthesizes a natural growth hormone in dairy cattle so they will produce more milk was developed by Monsanto, a company that REGULARLY markets GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) products as being superior in quality to their natural counterparts, although there has been plenty of cases where their product did not perform any better but did however cost considerably more (notably India's cotton farms).
I'd like to say that I'm surprised at the Governor's action but I'm not, Ohio is after all still a largely agricultural state which likely benefits largely from government subsidies and support from uber-corporations such as Monsanto and it's smaller business tentacles, especially since Ohio is also one of a number of states that have strongly welcomed the growing of Genetically Modified crops such as corn and soybeans while entire countries including the European Union have banned them.
As for the claim of Lewis Jones, Chief of the Ohio Dept. of agriculture's Dairy Division, that there is no difference in composition between the two types of milk, perhaps he's correct. I guess that you could likely say that there is no difference in composition between pasteurized milk than raw milk as well, well you know, except for the drastic drop in nutritive value and beneficial enzymes. I guess it that according to his statement, the introduction of hormone altering chemicals makes no significant differences or changes. So for all you ladies out there on birth control, all those "side effects" that you say you have are really just in your head.
Anyhow, I guess we'll just have to give it up to the big money once again telling us what we do and do not need to know about our food, after all, big brother knows best, right? Just remember to wash all that rBGH milk down with a good helping of GMO corn and all will be OK with the world.

Yes Mom...

Not only in honor of Mothers day but also because my mom pointed out that I had been "slacking" on my posts, I decided to give a short homage to the heroines of ovarian and placental fortitude (aw yeah, didn't see that one comin, did ya?!).
A heart felt "thank you" to my own Mom, not just for carrying me for nine months, but also for putting up with me for even longer. She managed to help keep me alive and relatively unharmed despite the efforts of two older brothers. A woman of little patience but great tolerance, through small kitchen fires (wait that was from Dad), and juggled eggs (damn! Dad again), to football in the house (that was definitely us!). I have her to thank, at least in part, for my less than P.C. sense of humor and the evolution of my witty one liners. She helped to maintain a functioning albeit dysfunctional home life where there was freedom to express yourself and follow your dreams, even if they did occasionally lead to calls from local police at the wee early morning hours, (I'd like to take this moment to thank the Westerville, Lancaster, Upper Arlington, Huber Ridge and of course Columbus Police departments for their involvement in this family moment).
I of course could not post this without mentioning another Mom of utmost importance, the mother of my own children, my wife. She has for many years dealt with many of the same problems as my Mom (mostly from me), but has also helped to raise our awesome kids- loving, nurturing, sacrificing and motivating. Let's not forget though that she is raising my kids, so she has also needed to be steadfast (stubborn), Disciplining (loud), and extremely patient (vodka).
To both of these women and many, many more deserving of the title MOM, I bid a gracious and sincere "thank you" for all that you have done and will do. I also offer a likely long over due "Sorry", for all that you have endured and will continue to endure. For all this and much more-
YOU ROCK!

"Death Becomes Us" or "Repurposing the War Machine"

Today's subject is a bit outside of my normal periphery but I've been thinking about it off and on for a while now. After catching part of a news bit on NPR about drug cartels in Mexico and the violence associated with them I decided to finally post something.
To begin, I believe that people should be permitted to own a firearm, however, they should also be required to pass a safety seminar (more than a ten minute instruction on how to point & shoot), and I believe that they should be limited to a firearm within reason. For instance, I own a shotgun which is used for hunting, it is simple and basic and serves the purpose very well and if so needed, it could serve to protect my family & home. There is no need for the ridiculous amount of semi-auto and automatic firearms of various calibers that exist in the hands of so many people today. I understand that many of them do use caution and common sense, but I fear, and the news makes it obvious, that many do not. The entire idea of "Army Surplus" is ludicrous, why did we generate so many weapons that we have a massive surplus? Furthermore, who is the genius that decided they should be made available to untrained civilians with little or no need for such devices? Really, who needs a fifty caliber sniper rifle?
If we find ourselves sitting on a mountain of weapons, wouldn't it make more sense to disassemble them and recycle them into new military equipment when it's needed rather than disperse them to whomever has the cash? If you really want a picture of why we need gun control visit the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot held every spring & fall in Knob Creek Kentucky, talk about your proud American moments! (Dear God, please get the sarcasm there!)
Aside from our own domestic gun problems, we also need to answer for the problems of the countries that are utilizing our surplus, such as the drug cartels in Mexico (see, I finally brought it back to the NPR segment).
I know what some may say about this- "If guns are too controlled then only the criminals will have guns." Yes, you're right, and that's primarily because a severe lack of common sense and control by the responsible party (U.S. government and military) has allowed criminals to purchase them. It's that simple, if military grade weapons are being sold to civilians it's because the military is selling them. I guess that as long as most crimes involving firearms remain primarily in the lower income areas, there's no reason to try and remedy the situation since the people living there are of little intrinsic value, much like the countries we don't bother to assist like Mexico and Africa. We're better off focusing our efforts on places with perceived value such as the middle east.

"A Dime a Dozen" -- Just Not with Organics

As you may well know by reading past postings, I am an advocate of organic foods, for a number of reasons, primarily their lack of mystery ingredients, genetic manipulation and chemicals used in their production and processing. I believe that if grown properly with care, they are higher in flavor and nutritional content than what we now call "conventional" foods, this applies to fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products. I am also a strong advocate of real food, that is, food that contains what you expect it too without the addition of a gauntlet of miscellaneous preservatives. I'm sure that someone did a study of these added chemicals and determined that they are "generally recognized as safe", however these studies also typically result with "in moderation". Now how can we practice moderation if (as with high fructose corn syrup) the vast majority of food on the store shelf is littered with the same few preservatives? But I'm sure that they won't cause any health problems over extended and repeated exposure (sarcasm).
Before I get too far off track (I know, it's a theme with me), here's my problem- why must it be so damn expensive for people to buy real food that is nutritious and safe?
I would like to speak for those people who, have little or no education in regards to organic foods and little or no access to them. We have perhaps the most abundant food system in the world, you can go to almost any grocery store and choose from a plethora of attractive, fresh foods. I say almost any grocery store because 1) lower income areas may not even have a grocery store within reasonable distance, while most suburban sprawl areas typically have numerous stores to choose from and occasionally not even from competing companies. 2) Lower income areas also tend to maintain a much lower quality of food availability. That is to say that the foods in their stores is not as attractive and fresh, if there is even any "fresh" food available, many times there are only processed and canned or dry items available. And please don't get me started on the quality of restaurants available in lower income areas, if you can't cook for yourself then you are destined to a life of preservative-chemical ridden foods and fast food that has the quality nutrition of a bowl of sugar dipped in liquid fat.
Back to the subject at hand- Organics are supposed to be a means to help save the world from itself, -reducing the impact on the environment by using less fuel and petroleum based fertilizers. Reducing the impact on our health by not using chemical preservatives, chemical fertilizers which have residuals in the food itself, and boosting the nutritional quality. Along the way we are allowing a large number of our countrymen to remain in a food-ghetto because they cannot afford the luxury of healthier food, they have no decision to make because there is only one choice in front of them, they must continue to consume the same low quality products because they don't have the extra cash to commute to a store that offers a real selection and even if they did, wouldn't be likely to have the extra funds required to buy organic.

Land of MILK and Honey

I have noticed over the past ten years or so the rising popularity of "Gluten Free". It seems like everywhere you go you can find gluten free this or that, and if you work in a kitchen- oh the dread when a customer comes in and can't have gluten! Trust me, you don't want to know the things that come out of cooks mouths about beloved customers.
I understand that people with gluten allergies a.k.a. celiacs, risk serious problems if they consume wheat gluten, and yes, I understand that wheat is in all kinds of things that most wouldn't expect, like soy sauce for instance. What I don't understand is this,- Why is it that these folks get all the glory? Why is everyone catering to the gluten-free needs? It's rather irritating for someone like myself who has been unable to consume milk products for pretty much his entire life without experiencing some really adverse effects (for myself as well as anyone near by). Yes I know-"they have pills for that.", or "try soy milk or rice milk or almond milk." First of all, those pills are expensive especially when you need to down 4-6 for an ice cream cone or a single glass of milk, and sometimes they still aren't that effective. As for the milk "substitutes", 1. They definitely should NOT have MILK appear anywhere in their names, considering that they do not taste, feel or behave (in cooking) anything like milk. I mean come on, do you really think that veggie burgers remotely resemble hamburger?(vegetarians need not answer that) It's the same concept.
I would simply like to see at least a small act of consideration from the public on behalf of myself and my brother and sister "Lac-tards"(I coined that term myself, I'm soo p.c.). I'd like to go out to eat with my wife (ironically allergic to milk- completely different) and be able to order nearly anything off a menu or even better, have at least one damn option on a dessert menu to choose.
I mean c'mon! We have two freakin culinary schools in this town and waaay too many restaurants and no one can come up with an original dessert idea that doesn't include a pound of butter and a quart of milk or cream?! I understand that the culinary originality is scarce in this city and all the restaurants a selling their version of the same ten items but please, can we at least get a little effort? I know that I can always go to the health food places or vegetarian/vegan restaurants and bakeries, but I have yet to experience something truly comparable from those places. I know, nothing is the same as butter or milk, and god knows that I love heavy cream, but there are tons of options for the sweet tooth out there, hell, most grow on trees and require far less labor than milk, but I'm rambling off the subject a bit.
Simply put, it would be nice to go out to eat or even go to the grocery and not have to seriously examine every damn thing I buy for dairy products, especially in places it shouldn't be (smoked sausage for example). It would be nice to have more choices for dessert at restaurants, you want me to spend more money at your place, then offer something I can actually eat. Until that happens, I guess I'll stick with corn.
-g

SAFE-until proven otherwise

I recently caught an article from msnbc about how the FDA will try and be more open about genetically engineered foods and drugs placed on the market. This is a crippled baby step (sorry for the imagery) in the right direction, however, this doesn't really seem like it will help anyone make an educated choice about the products they are buying since there will be no labeling on the GE products themselves. In order to obtain information about what products are genetically altered you would need to visit the FDA website and look them up (great more people surfing the net at the grocery store).
Furthermore, the FDA said they will not allow any GE products on the market without submitting them to scrutiny by independent advisers at a public meeting. Also they will "not approve any application until we are convinced of the safety and effectiveness. The public should rest assured that we are not going to be rushing any decisions." OH good! I feel so reassured now, I thought maybe GE foods might slip through the bureaucratic cracks like MSG (generally recognized as safe) or Aspartame (breaks down to formaldehyde and also linked to brain cancer) or something like that.
The main point is that the FDA and the government at large, are ignoring the consumers desire and right to know what they are purchasing. We already have labels informing us of the nutritional content and ingredients as well as possible allergen contents of products, why can't we get them to place a simple GMO (genetically modified organism) label on the package as well? I know they will posture that they are building a better product and there is nothing to be concerned about. You know what? We've been "building a better product" for hundreds, even thousands of years through cross breeding (various breeds of like animals) and cross pollination (various types of familial plants), that doesn't concern me too much, but playing god with unlike species and genus, cutting and pasting together plants and animals? I think I'll be concerned! Not to mention the fact that these "Better" products can and I would venture to say will infect the general population of fauna and flora and likely cause a great deal of damage, just look at the dilemma with GMO canola in Canada and how it has repeatedly infected the fields of organic farmers and ruined their financial well-being. Animals will find a way out of their cages, plants will find a way to spread their seeds, they will create a new problem. Look at the Africanized Honey bee (killer bee to most of us) they infest domestic colonies and take over the hive everywhere they go, destroying the indigenous species. and this was just from people traveling across the sea, just imagine with us more purposefully imposing our ideas on nature.
The other "noble" proposal behind GMO products is that they will help underprivileged areas of the world with higher productivity of crops and thus greater availability of foods and income. That would work if they 1. didn't have to pay for the products or at least didn't have to pay a higher price for it. 2. They were permitted or even capable of saving some of the seed for next planting as farmers have already done for so long. 3. The products actually perform as they are supposed to, thus making the higher cost worth while.
No instead we see farmers paying higher prices for seed that grows GMO plants that DON'T perform better, thus losing their money and in cases such as India's cotton farmers, losing their land. We see products like Roundup Terminator seeds that have genetic alterations to cause their offspring seeds (those produced by the mature plant) to be worthless for planting, thus you have thousands of corn farmers having to constantly buy more seed every year, usually at a higher price. This is detrimental to third world farmers that rely on saved seed just to make it to the next planting.
Sorry folks, I'm not buying your logic, and you can be damn sure that I'll do all I can not to buy your Frankenstein products either, so you can keep your corn!
-g

George Washington Carver Never Meant to Kill Anyone

Newcomer to the foodbourne illness posse-Peanut Butter, a family favorite for years, even popular with the health food types. Recent news has this tasty-pasty treat linked to one of our old favorites, Salmonella, you know, that cootie made popular and powerfully widespread by washing the chicken we are going to eat in fecal stew. So far I haven't sen or heard anything explaining how that particular bacteria ended up in a vegetable based food stuff, but I'm sure the explanation will be well thought out and acceptable (sarcasm).
Now if you're an avid reader of this here "publication", you'll likely remember the post "Stop Shitting in My Spinach" where I listed numerous outbreaks linked to spinach contaminated with E.Coli as well as other food contamination's and their related illness/death tolls. Well so far, the latest report that I have read stated that more than 470 people in 43 states have become ill, 90 of which needed to be hospitalized and there have been 6 deaths. SIX PEOPLE DIED FROM EATING PEANUT BUTTER! This may not seem strange to those who have a food allergy to peanuts, however, to those of us without over-reactive immune systems, this makes no damn sense.
That brings me to one of my favorite government agencies, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration, or as I call them Freakin Dumb Asses), they apparently may or may not have the "authority" to demand food recalls from companies that produce foods (or drugs), when there is a public health concern revolving around that companies product. What they DO instead of reacting in the public best interest is "request" that the company test their product and consider voluntary recalls. On top of that, the Health Officials are cited as saying that consumers that have purchased any of these products should throw them away. Um, did we pay money for this product? I think a better idea is that we return these products for a full refund and the stores we purchased them from will also receive a full compensation for their losses, to be paid by the producer, who should NOT be eligible for any government handouts to keep them from feeling the financial pain caused by their negligence. We live in an economic system that at least lately only seems to punish the middle and lower classes for making poor choices, whereas the already wealthy are able to obtain more money to try and fix their mismanaged businesses, but that's another problem all together.
We have an antiquated regulatory system in place, the FDA is impotent to prevent and react to the onslaught of foodbourne illnesses and contamination's that have begun to take over our multinational food system. We need to institute new ways of tracking foods from field to home and all steps in between if we ever hope to prevent even larger scale outbreaks, God forbid anyone try to "attack" us via our food supply chain, we could have serious problems in just a matter of days. Is processed food really an added convenience if it requires a trip to the ER or the morgue? It's not a pretty thought but I'm not here to blow smoke up your ass, just to help you eat that corn.
-g