| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| ArmyWifey |
Posted - Mar 14 2007 : 08:40:33 AM
The Omnivore's Dilema. I haven't even got halfway through it but it is very interesting. Makes me want to throw out half the food in my cupboards!
He follows the food chains for several of our products begining with how Corn is in everything! Very interesting reading. Especially telling about farming today. Makes me want my own little self-sufficent homestead even more.
Holly
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Nance in France |
Posted - Mar 17 2007 : 09:29:38 AM
Bonjour, gals! Hope everybody is having a great Saturday. Robin, thanks for the link to the Omnivore's Dilemma. I saw Michael Pollan featured on one or two HGTV channel shows and really liked his logic; now that I have read his first chapter, I will look for the book. Eliot Coleman and his wife have also been on The Victory Garden show from time to time and I loved seeing the lifestyle they live and promote. Your growing season must be the same as northern France, I bet.....here in southern France where we are is near the Mediterranean Sea, so we get the jump on our northern friends by a good deal, as far as the growing season goes. It is also more arid and sunny hereabouts, whereas northern France is more lush because of the surplus of rain they get.
What a neat thing it would be if you could have a type of exchange program with a farm here, Robin?! Compare notes, swap a worker for a season and take the best each has to offer. Change for the better, globally, will still continue to be made on an individual basis, one person, one family at a time, and the more people who "vote with their dollars" in a healthier fashion, the sooner big biz/government will have to take notice and then take action. Keep planting, everybody, and make compost happen!! Nance |
| Woodswoman |
Posted - Mar 16 2007 : 4:49:53 PM
Thanks for the information! I'm going to try to pick it up from my library!
Jennifer |
| ThymeForEweFarm |
Posted - Mar 16 2007 : 4:49:53 PM
I think everyone, literally everyone, who eats should read Omnivore's Dilema. Skip over a few things here and there, read a chapter or two, whatever, but read at least some of this book.
http://www.michaelpollan.com/omnivore.php
Nance, one of these years I'm going to jump on a plane and go to France. The growing season is similar to what I have here in Maine. We share the 45th parallel. I'm especially envious of your bakeries.
I started learning about France's food production from Eliot Coleman, a vegetable grower I greatly admire. From him I've developed a passion for small farmers. Wouldn't it be nice if we had one sustainable farm where we could buy our vegetables? One for milk, another for grain products, fruits.... and wouldn't it be wonderful if they all worked together.
Watch for rising corn product prices. If you haven't seen it yet, you will soon.
Robin
SALE! http://www.localharvest.org/store/M572?srt=2
www.outdoorwriter.wordpress.com
www.thymeforewe.com
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| simpler1773 |
Posted - Mar 16 2007 : 1:01:33 PM
Great post Nance!
~Ricki~
You can't pour anything out of an empty vessel, take care of yourself! |
| Nance in France |
Posted - Mar 16 2007 : 04:24:47 AM
Bonjour, ladies. After having lived now in France on and off for two years, and for most of my life in the US, I definitely see a difference in lifestyle. European markets are quaint and cute, but lets face it, we consumers have to TRUST the farmers to honestly explain what chemicals and fertilizers they use, here in France, in Idaho, or Barcelona! Big grocery stores here have all the processed foods, including bread with preservatives, but absolutely here in France there are more alternatives that are more easily accessible. Given that France, for example, is TINY compared to the US, maybe it is easier to feed everybody. France is largely agricultural, which I think is terrific, and things are produced and consumed on a more local scale here. For example, my sister in law lives in Brittany, northern part of France, about a 10 hour car ride away. We visited her last summer and André made sure to bring her a few melons that are produced in our area, that she can't find there. I suppose the local farmers choose NOT to ship their produce, which is better for ripening, vitamin content, etc, and their growing season is shorter. But we will ship berries from California all the way to the eastern seaboard of the US without blinking an eye. Where is the logic in that? Certainly we citizens in the eastern part of the US won't curl up and die if we have to wait a few months for local berries??? I think for us consumers, it has come down to a mindset of convenience over making an effort to ensure quality. Take BREAD, for example; buying it here is nearly a daily occurrence for EVERYBODY. But that is because it is so easy to get it. Our town has only about 7,000 residents and we have SEVEN bakeries, all producing hot fresh bread every day, usually closing for one day per week. Who would buy supermarket bread with chemicals, with fresh bread either a short ride or even a walk away? I think we americans are coming back around to living/eating locally, after such a long stretch of big agribiz farms choking small family farms to death. It is more hip now, to go to a store and buy fresh bread, or visit a farm market for veggies, or a seafood shop for fresh seafood. And thankfully I think, in a few more years, it will no longer be hip, but routine, as more and more people begin to see the logic in, and have the desire for, providing fresh local foodstuffs. When we live at my home, we go out of our way to go to a farm market to get whatever we can, instead of simply accepting grocery chain offerings. We have a good bakery a short drive away, and I have also begun baking our bread, too. I have always cooked "from scratch" so that hasn't changed. People have gotten so far removed from the production of food, and we eat foods that are so far from their original state, that our senses are dulled to what fresh really is. That is why we are walking "corn chips". Kids don't tote apples to school now; instead, they have fruit flavored roll up things with a little vitamin C thrown in for advertising purposes! And the fruit rollup dealies can stay in the cupboard for a year, while an apple can't.
And a big high five to anybody who DOES farm, because hard work ain't for sissies! I saw a French documentary that was made forty or so years ago, where men were being interviewed about the increasing scarcity of women who were WILLING to be farmers' wives!!! They simply couldn't find women willing to live the life of a farmer.....sound familiar? Young people want the ease of city jobs/city life, when they are really just trading physical exhaustion for mental exhaustion. Somebody posted that it gives incentive to try to have a small piece of your own land where you can feed yourselves as much as possible, and I agree with that, along with supporting local farmers, etc. so that when more and more people adopt this (healthier, more environmentally friendly) lifestyle, agribiz can feel a little of the pinch they have caused others. Gotta quit! Sorry for rambling so much. Nance |
| Miss Bee Haven |
Posted - Mar 15 2007 : 2:01:32 PM
Okay, Holly. I'm number two on a request list(for the large print edition - LOL) at the library for this book. The list for the regular edition had 44 people in front of me! So it must be a very popular book! I'm looking forward to reading it.
"If you think you've got it nailed down, then what's all that around it?" - 'Brother Dave' Gardner |
| Miss Bee Haven |
Posted - Mar 15 2007 : 08:55:03 AM
Thanks, Holly. I'm going to see if my local library has a copy. It sounds interesting.
"If you think you've got it nailed down, then what's all that around it?" - 'Brother Dave' Gardner |
| ArmyWifey |
Posted - Mar 15 2007 : 07:55:54 AM
It wouldn't surprise me.... which would also explain some of the paranoia about raw milk & why it's so heavily regulated.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!
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| _Rebecca_ |
Posted - Mar 15 2007 : 07:40:54 AM
I heard a long time ago that the government pays for milk production too. In a way, it makes sense as it keeps up production, but still. I'm so thankful that I'm not a politician. There are so many strange things about this country that we live in.
.·:*¨¨* :·.Rebecca.·:*¨¨* :·. |
| Love-in-a-Mist |
Posted - Mar 14 2007 : 2:19:16 PM
Talking about corn made me think of this. We grow corn and green beans for Flav-r-pack. I think people would be amazed by how much is wasted, just left on the ground. Every year my stomach gets sick when I think of all the starving people and look around at all the waste. We have encouraged people to come and get what's left after the cannery harvests it, but no one wants to work.
My stall cleaning helpers
http://shannon-love-in-a-mist.blogspot.com/
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| ArmyWifey |
Posted - Mar 14 2007 : 2:11:30 PM
Well I haven't read that much yet -- just found the trail of corn very interesting. He starts with a specific farmer in Iowa & trys to follow the trail of his corn to humans. Corn is used for humans for corn, hf corn syrup, corn syrup, maltodextrin, and lots of other additves. He also discusses how the govt. has caused a glut of corn - by encouraging farmers to get higher yields for higher dollars - which then must be used somehow. Talks about how eating/agriculture has changed since WWII & the advent of synthetic fertilizer. He doesn't really get into how evil it all is just discusses the changes and how they eventually effect us. I find it all fascinating -- and an impetus to get our own little parcel of property which can be diversified & self sustaining. That's about as far as I've gotten. There are three parts to his book (seperate food chains -- Industrial (corn), Pastoral (organic --both small farm type and Whole Foods store type), & Personal (hunting & foraging). part one is 7 chapters alone (94 pages).
I say I think it's important because it really gets into detail about what we are eating -- that according to hair anylysis most American's are walking Corn chips!!! I knew we didn't want some of that stuff but couldn't really say why - this helps.
I got it from the Library but may buy it when I'm done.
Holly
ps-- I will write more as I read but I do have to say it makes me yearn for the European open air markets!!!
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!
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| sweetproserpina |
Posted - Mar 14 2007 : 2:03:28 PM
Sounds interesting, I'll put in an order at the library for it!
"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world."
http://theprimroseway.blogspot.com/ |
| Miss Bee Haven |
Posted - Mar 14 2007 : 12:03:04 PM
When my son was little, he was found to have an allergy to corn products. That's when I became aware just how many products contained corn in some form. It's everywhere! Usually in the form of the cheap sweetener 'corn syrup', which adds empty calories and has no nutritive value. Since I gave up red meat/poultry fifteen years ago, I am reading labels again and it's hard to find a yogurt without gelatin. Does this book talk about the chemicals that are used before processing? I'm with Nance. Can you tell us all a little more? Thanks
"If you think you've got it nailed down, then what's all that around it?" - 'Brother Dave' Gardner |
| Nance in France |
Posted - Mar 14 2007 : 11:49:30 AM
Tell us a little more, Holly!!! Nance |
| ArmyWifey |
Posted - Mar 14 2007 : 11:47:27 AM
seriously ladies --- this is an important book in my estimation.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!
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