We use a lot of tofu (many different kinds), and lots of Asian vegetables. We actually try to avoid organic as organic has its own problems (plants have their own immune systems and to ward of pests/disease they excrete/produce their own toxins. organic varieties may have to increase production of these to compensate for a lack of pesticides).

Finally we cook from scratch almost all the time. The cost is far less ( excluding labor of course), and you know what you are eating. After a while of this you find almost all restaurant/packaged food inedible (no taste or incredibly salty).

Cooking is not that hard – especially with youtube videos for everything.

http://www.canadians.org/water/issues/right/index.html

“The Canadian government has tarnished its reputation on the world stage by continuing to oppose attempts to enshrine the right to water at the United Nations.

At the World Water Forum at The Hague in 2000, in Kyoto in 2003, and in Mexico City in 2006, Canada refused to assert water as a human right. In 2002 and 2003, Canada was the only country to vote against United Nations (UN) resolutions on the human right to water, stating, “Canada does not accept that there is a right to drinking water and sanitation.” The Harper government also played a key role in blocking a motion by Germany and Spain to officially recognize water as a human right at the UN Human Rights Council in March 2008.”
We are screwed as far as food goes, but….it’s very easy, and much cheaper to drink your own tap water, filtered of course, than to pay 500 to 1000 times more for bottled water from the global water thieves.
I have a filter with silver as the active ingredient. Works good…no chlorine taste, kills bad stuff!

Acres is the name of a publication that’s been the voice of eco-agriculture covering every detail of the struggle for the past 30 years. Headquartered in Austin, it’s been a beacon for truth and a staunch defender of decency and fairness regarding animal husbandry, the soil, labor, farmers, ranchers and consumers. They do the hard work on multiple-fronts of the ongoing food-war here at home and have created a respectable and informative venue for alternative voices. I recommend it highly.

There’s quite a few uncanny parallels between what’s happened on the ground to those involved in food production – with the decades-long, relentless consolidation of everything from seeds to meat – and the abstracted world of finance with it’s derivatization of everything conceivable over time. The engineering of plants and animals based on manipulation of genes reminds me of the engineering of investment vehicles based on the manipulation of law. When the codes that form the blueprint of the end-product are deformed, due to the apparent need of psychopaths to control reality, the final result is a poisonous brew indeed.

The folks at NORM – National Organization for Raw Materials – who have a physiocratic notion of wealth – would argue that what happens first to agriculture in America will happen to the rest of the country in due time. I think we have seen the evidence of that in spades. City folks basically ignored the plight of family farmers in the 80’s when hundreds of thousands of them lost their livlihoods and land and Willie Nelson’s bandaids did little to patch a system bent on agricide – now to the point of designing plants that don’t reproduce.

Well, it has come full-circle to industrial America and the urban centers and we have to figure out how to bootstrap our way out of this situation. I’m not too hopeful that there’s any meaningful way to avoid hitting a wall that permanently injures our ability to reorganize. I think it’s far too late for that. This thing we’re facing only appears to be financial but in reality it’s physical – it is the utter exhaustion of the collective resources of the system. It’s like an engine that has reached the end of the line – still useful for parts but incapable of running. Sure, we can survive it as individuals but our relationship to everything around us will change dramatically when we fully understand that the system has failed and no longer exists. Something else will, but in the meantime …

One of our big problems regarding going local and such is the cost factor. CSA’s and personal relationships with food producers are expensive. Cooperatives have become co-opted by a margin mentality that doesn’t make them much of an alternative when 90% of their shelf-space is devoted to multi-national corporate products that rely on a cozy brandedness to impart that smug feeling for members. C’mon, didn’t we knew it was so over when Seeds of Change was purchased by M&M/Mars Corporation? I know, I know – they’re carrying the yuppie burden to the world of chocolate at large!!!

Then there’s Whole Foods Market’s new 5-Step Animal Welfare program which has not met the test of the marketplace and no one has any idea about its ability or desire to channel sufficient money to those producers who are willing to reach for a higher (more costly) bar – not to mention the various incentives – both internally and externally – to game the system and its new third-party, standards and verification arrangement called the Global Animal Partnership. It may be the best potential retail solution out there thus far but it’s most likely too little and far too late to be anything but window-dressing on this national calamity and it will be facing the 2010/2011 CAT-7 financial storm like a scarecrow on Mount Washington. Good luck with that.

I share John Mackey’s vision of a de-industrialized agricultural system but he can’t seem to keep his eye on the ball. The inconsistencies and outright contradictory forces afoot in Whole Foods lead me to believe that he is at best a fortunate person who rode a nice wave over the last 20 years but essentially couldn’t manage his way out of a paper sack (others did it for him) or at worst something that would take far too long to explain.

I’m pretty much critical of all the playerz at this point because it’s become such a free-for-all and everybody appears to be just talking their book – even Joel Salatin. With that said, I’d like to point out an exceptional report published in April 2009 – The Truth Behind the Labels: Farm Animal Welfare Standards and Labeling Practices – A Farm Sanctuary Report. It’s must reading for anyone who wants to get up-to-speed quickly on the retail and marketting side of the equation where confusion still reigns on the side of those who would mislead customers – or better said – allow customers to mislead themselves with their faulty assumptions regarding the meaning of words and phrases that conjure pastoral vistas.

Also, check out the upcoming PBS movie on Temple Grandin and the impact she’s had on slaughterhouse practices – albeit mainly it’s the McDonald’s and Tyson’s who can afford to implement her unique perspectives – at least there’s a well-deserved reduction in suffering at the end of the line for those particular animals.

Finally, although I understand the importance of division of labor, economy of scale, trading futures and free market ideology – I think there must be a place for what existed during WWII and that was the condition of Parity in Agriculture whereby cost of production was ensured. The fact that food producers are among the very few businessmen who don’t control the price of their product is one that has come back to haunt us. Many have forgotten or never learned that there really is no such thing as cheap food. Lamenting the fact that we’ve gotten exactly what we paid for – corporate agriculture and all of its tender mercies – is as short-sighted as pointing fingers at Goldman Sachs for everything wrong with the country today. Maybe they’re just serving a noble purpose like an opportunistic fungus that feeds on a dying life-form. God’s work as someone recently put it??

Thanks for an informative site.
Adios

Right on Rick.

Worth recalling plutocrats favour population control. Organic Grass and insect fed free range beef and chicken far healthier, as corn sugars, oils and pesticides push cholesterol, diabetes and cancer higher. Monsanto death hybrid seeds, estrogen food additives and rapeseed finish the job.

Two proactive solutions to getting off the agribusiness bankster conveyor deflation repossession belt:

http://survivalseedbank.com/

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=31623 7:45

Good trades all.

Regards*Rich

There’s not much your vote is good for, but your dollars spent wisely is one way to support what you believe in. cp