Better yet, see if you can find a local CSA group.  If you can’t find one you may be able to start one.

It is possible to eat well. Get to know a farmer, give him a hand, see how generous he is. Even a small farmer lets food rot in the field because he doesn’t have the help to harvest it all.

Let’s stop the nonsense.  It’s no coincindence, that the rise in prices for organically grown food, such as you find in the Whole Foods market chain, happens to coincide with rates of obesity in this country, that have never before been seen Let’s say that organic food is, on average, 50% higher in price than conventionally grown food.  We can solve this crisis by simply buying and consuming 50% less food than we presently do.  If we buy and consume 50% less food, we lose most of our obesity problem, and make Whole Foods prices seem equal to the cost of the non-organic stuff.  But rather than try out this simple though challenging measure, we’d rather complain about Whole Food prices.

For a great read, check out “Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal” by Joel Salatin. Those familiar with the movie Food, Inc. will remember Mr. Salatin as the owner of Polyface Farms.

In his book, he describes the jaw-dropping mountain of gov’t regulations (ostensibly for our protection) which serves to drive the small farmer out of existence, while actually rendering our food supply less local, less wholesome, less secure, less humane and less sustainable.

Like most (all?) government regulatory agencies, USDA is just another arm of mega-corporate interests.

I think it’s probably relevant that government policies plus racial fears and of course the intrinsic corporate desire to make money by whatever means greatly encouraged suburbanization, which among other things moved food sources much further from consumers than they had been.  Near New York City, Long Island and New Jersey used to be covered with ‘truck farms’.  Now they’re suburbs with serious transportation and infrastructure problems.

@prisnersdilema

Don’t knock caffeine!!!

...and ignoring the, lymphoma, leukemia, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, that GMO
food causes, until it kills us…

But that’s where all the caffeine and psychotropic medication comes in, it keeps us from
connecting the dots…

Ironically, in spite of the externalized costs of crappy food, I (a full grown adult male)can still eat healthy (extremely healthy) and organic and non-GMO for less than 4$ a meal easily (closer to 3$), however I happen to live in the Seattle area (where organic food is an option) and have been working at it for quite some time.

If there was no non-organic, unhealthy, non-gmo food being heavily subsidized, it would be even cheaper and available to everyone.

P.S. for five bucks I could give you a healthy, protein packed (more than you could hope to get from meat) meal that would stick to your ribs and even put you to a deep slumber (I might be pushing it a bit there, but…)

The unspoken assumption of Sirota’s article seems to be that the government and the corporations dictate our diets, and the way to get better food is to have them simply dictate a different diet.  The concept of people choosing their own diets, either individually or collectively, rather than counting on some authority to do it, is just off the board.  Or am I reading this wrong?

I’m not questioning the assertion that subsidies are used to lower the cost of crap food like corn syrup.  I’m questioning the idea that people are totally passive recipients of elite policy.

Not exactly a news flash…but welcome attention anyway.

Interestingly, the roots of the our food crisis can be found in good-intentioned liberal programs. The cartelization of the food industry into an oligopoly occurred as a result of the regulatory regime enacted during the “Progressive” Era. Farm subsidies were started during the Depression to help save the family farm. Boy, that worked out great, huh?

Gosh…if we could just find politicians honest and smart enough to create a big, wonderful set of rules that wouldn’t be manipulated and exploited by the plutocracy and would cover the needs of 300 million of us.

Maybe next election.

ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council EXPOSED,

ALEC’s model legislation reflects long-term goals: downsizing
government, removing regulations on corporations and making it
harder to hold the economically and politically powerful to account.
Corporate donors retain veto power over the language,
which is developed by the secretive task forces. The task forces
cover issues from education to health policy. ALEC’s priorities for
the 2011 session included bills to privatize education, break
unions, deregulate major industries, pass voter ID laws and more.

“Dozens of corporations are investing millions of dollars a year to
write business-friendly legislation that is being made into law in
statehouses coast to coast, with no regard for the public interest,”
says Bob Edgar of Common Cause. “This is proof positive of the
depth and scope of the corporate reach into our democratic
processes.”

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/07/13-8

Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange
Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind
closed doors to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These
so-called “model bills” reach into almost every area of American life
and often directly benefit huge corporations. Through ALEC,
corporations have “a VOICE and a VOTE” on specific changes to
the law that are then proposed in your state. DO YOU?

NOT, if you are a citizen of the 70% Majority Common Population of the United States.

http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

“Any rational person can look at what these corporations are
doing through ALEC and on their own and know that essentially
for-profit corporations are writing legislation in Arizona,” said
Caroline Isaacs, AFSC program director. “The spirit of the
law—which I think most of us believe is there to prevent money
from buying undue influence in politics—is clearly being violated.”
http://www.alternet.org/story/151627/inside_alec,_the_koch-funded_group_behind_right-wing_state_laws?page=entire