Playing with my food

Since reading the book, Diet for a Small Planet, in 1970 my world turned upside down on the food chain and has been turning ever since...for the better! That book was the first place I ever saw that suggested we had our agriculture all wrong. I was living in the corn belt of Illinois which is also part of the hog belt and when I brought some of the ideas to my speech class at college, the farmers' children bristled in their seats. The main idea I got was that we were using most of our land to feed the livestock instead of ourselves and we were eating too much meat!

I've been cutting back on my meat intake ever since. I'm not a vegan but I never loved veggies until my daughter showed me how to eat them! We would shop for them fresh which made a world of difference, trying new ones I had never tasted. We foraged in the grocery store! I used mustards and light sauces for dipping and we both ate our veggies and fresh fruits more than sweets. She has beautiful teeth unlike mine because she ate less sugar and drank juices instead of sodas. Also there was more yogurt instead of ice cream. Not that we didn't have these things, but they were saved for special occasions. My mother rarely monitored my eating and opened canned vegetables more than cook fresh. Salads was all there were that was fresh.

My dream was to eat organic but it was always too expensive. I learned what levels of certified organic meant from levels of spraying and ways of growing. Slowly over the years, organically grown has grown, especially here in California. Free range poultry, no hormones or antibiotics, no preservatives, of course, appear on more labels that I can buy. What a treat. And the organically grown fruits and vegetables even have their own large section at Safeway!

Now it will be even more democratic, according to the Environmental News Network article featured today as California organic farmers are looking at legislation that labels food Sustainable which also means more affordable. Of course the Certified Organic farmers are suspicious but this new label isn't a new standard to me. There always were levels of organic according to spraying of pesticides and herbicides. Some spraying of synthetic pesticides is allowed in the Sustainable label. Still it is a step away from the heavy poisonous farming practices that are par for the course.

A lot of the farming under this new label will be for bigger markets so the farmers markets with certified organic produce will still be popular.

Cute item coming from this new idea...the Sacratomato...only in California!

Something I am thankful for this Thanksgiving plus a state budget that is in the black, at last.