The news has been filled lately with outbreaks of disease related to both contaminated meat as well as fruits and vegetables. As more and more of our food is produced corporately, both here in the US and those imported from around the world, the chances of poor food safety and excessive exposure to legalized toxins such as growth hormones and pesticides only increases. It is clear that the only alternative that makes sense as far as gaining maximum nutrition and avoiding dangerous substances in our food is to grow our own or buy locally what we cannot produce ourselves.

Even when buying organic it is important to know your sources. Many corporations have jumped on the organic bandwagon, and the powers that be have allowed them to advertise foods as organic when they are not truly organic at all. I encourage everyone to grow as much of their own food as possible and to make sure that the seeds that are purchased are organic and not genetically engineered. Typing heirloom seeds into a search engine will give you a lot of information as well as places to buy seeds. Growing your own produce can be done even if you reside in an urban setting through the use of alternative gardening techniques such as growing veggies in specialized containers on a deck or porch, or even indoors. One particular company is marketing a growing container for vine vegetables or fruits called the Topsy Turvy Upside-down Tomato Planter which looks very easy to use while taking up a limited amount of space. Growing your own food is a great way to eat well and to get the whole family involved in the agricultural process as well.

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For those of us who were concerned when Wal-Mart announced their dive into the organic food industry, the situation has now played out to warrant that concern. The equation of Wal-Mart + organics just doesn’t set right with me. What Wal-Mart didn’t prepare for is that people who buy organic have usually done their homework. It is very difficult to pull-the-wool-over-the-eyes of organic consumers by cutting corners in order to make a profit. This very week Wal-Mart has decided to get out of the organic business. To that, I say Hooray! The big food conglomerates are trying very hard to smudge the meaning of organic. Why? Because they realize that they cannot make the money they are used to making by offering healthy food. And they realize that Americans are beginning to wake up to the toxic chemicals and junk that is being included in processed food–we are not consuming food, we are consuming chemicals. As the article states below more and more Americans prefer unadulterated food and why shouldn’t we? Organic milk is just the beginning–



By: Mike Adams
http://www.newstarget.com/021763.html
Monday, April 02, 2007

With consumer demand for organic products continuing to grow, more large corporations are entering the organic market. To maximize profits, some of these companies don’t follow organic standards but still label products as organic.

For example, Horizon Organic and Aurora Organic, sold by Wal-Mart and other retailers, continue to produce “organic” milk under factory-farm conditions that few reasonable people would consider truly organic.

According to the Organic Consumers Association, half of Horizon’s “organic” milk today comes from what can only be considered “factory” dairy feedlots — and much of Aurora’s organic milk does as well. Rather than buy organic calves that have been raised from birth on organic farms, these companies seemed to have discovered it’s cheaper to buy conventional calves that have been raised on conventional farms, install them in factory feedlots, then milk them and call it organic.

The situation has become so alarming that the Organic Consumers Association ultimately called for a boycott, and many knowledgeable consumers are now avoiding the Horizon brand entirely.

The organic milk controversy extends to organic soy milk as well. Horizon Organic’s parent company, Dean Foods, also bought out Silk, the leading organic soy milk brand in the United States. Dean Foods has pushed for lower organic standards in the United States and to allow industrial-style production to be called “organic.”

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