Photo by Joel Dinda
I have food issues. It started yesterday. I have been watching 30 minute snippets of the movie Food Inc. while on the treadmill and am just appalled by what I am learning about food in our country. This idea that our food comes from idyllic farms with cows and chickens grazing on green pastures is all an illusion. Our farms have turned factories and these factories are created to make a product at a profit. The health of the animals and the people that eat them and the safety of the farmers that tend to them are not as high on the priority list as making a cheap product. How the food that we eat and rely on for our nutrition and health has become an engineered product is frightening.
I will not go into the details of the film or book. I encourage people to investigate on their own. Personally, I will be making some lifestyle choices for myself and my family including making vegetables and fruit the focus of the meal with proteins as the side. The protein I use will be farm raised, free-ranged, organic and local (if possible). I will not be eating meat out at restaurants unless I know it is grown locally or free-range and organic.
My biggest frustration is that there is so much junk in school cafeterias. We see a rise in childhood obesity and allergies and yet still provide school cafeterias with Tyson brand chicken products, sugared up Intense Milk, and other equally unhealthy options. Tyson chicken might claim to be baked but it doesn’t get to the bottom of why this type of chicken isn’t good for us. Tyson is one of a few chicken “manufacturers” in the country. The power these companies yield is ridiculous. Again, investigate more about how these chickens (and the farmers that raise them) are treated. I don’t want to disgust anyone reading this so I will just send out the idea that it is worth looking into. More over, it is even more worthwhile to pack your kids lunches and take back control of what is feeding their brains and bodies. I don’t see an end to this injustice until the consumer makes a stand. Stop buying school lunches. Demand healthy and nutritious food in schools.
Being a runner and yoga teacher, I know first hand that what you put into your body and mind affects performance. Take a stand and have a food issue. It might just be what the doctor orders.
Karmaspot's Blog 
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February 5, 2010 at 1:26 am
RASJ
This is a great entry for a million reasons.
1) You are not preaching; you are encouraging people to look things up for themselves.
2) Everything you say is true. (We’ve made some subtle changes in this house, too – including eggs, organic milk, and we’re eating less meat and when we do it is farm-raised, organic.) Compelling research shows the hormones are bad for humans.
3) School lunches aint what they used to be. The lunch ladies aren’t back there making anything; they place store bought products on plates. My li’l one only buys on pizza days. Sure, it’s a hassle to make his lunches everyday (and in a pinch he’ll buy a bagel) but I like to know what he is eating (and not eating). I would love to know why elementary schools in the US don’t offer salad bars as a viable lunch option.
On a side note, I have relatives that used to be in the poultry/egg business. It WAS an old-fashioned farm. They went out of business in the mid 1980s as they simply couldn’t compete with these super companies to which you are referring. And yes, the conditions are appalling. Producers care so little about the process (only the product and how much $ it will give them) that we are doing damage to ourselves.
xoxoRASJ
February 14, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Aruna
I’ve been meaning to watch this movie for a while, but I’m a little afraid to watch it!
There was a great TV series that Jamie Oliver did on school food. He picked a school and taught the cafeteria ladies to cook. But then the kids wouldn’t eat it because they weren’t used to good food. So next he had to teach the kids how to actually enjoy the taste of food. They didn’t realize what they were missing. I was very inspiring to see the kids learn how great fresh food tastes and makes you feel. But it wasn’t easy to get them to that point.
February 16, 2010 at 9:43 pm
The PranaMama
I agree with Aruna – I’m a little afraid, much like how I’m afraid to look at my online bank statement…I am usually most afraid of seeing something I know will scare me!
I read Fast Food Nation a long time ago and felt the same way. Recently I’ve started learning more about these issues with a local nutrition coach. I try hard to buy local, organic and only free-range chickens and grass-fed beef, etc. But it usually comes down to cost and convenience. I’m afraid that is also the issue with school lunches.
Recently I wrote about a little girl in my community who got the attention of the superintendent of schools by complaining about the school lunch. (It was actually a still-frozen chicken nugget that grossed her out) He had a good point.. aside from cost, he said that schools have to provide food that kids will ACTUALLY EAT. He said he can’t have kids spending the whole day at school on an empty stomach because they don’t like their school lunch. So it goes back to the issue of, how can we make healthy, local foods taste better for kids, as they are already used to the processed tastes of Tyson and Kraft?!
I agree with you though, that it seems to be better to send in your own kid’s lunch, something that is both tasty and healthy. It’s just too bad that most of America won’t or can’t do this for cost or convenience challenges.
Definitely food for thought….thanks for bringing it to the table for discussion!
February 21, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Lisa Flynn / ChildLight Yoga / The Kids Yoga Resource
Right on everyone. I need to watch this movie…also a bit afraid to do it as it would surely mean major changes even in my own home, including making school lunches for my children. I’m going to give this serious consideration again after reading this post.
I’m a huge fan of Slow Food USA (http://www.slowfoodusa.com) and their Time for Lunch program. Perhaps instead of writing about it, I should practice it…slow down and take the time to shop for and make my children’s lunches. I’ll let you know what I decide to do.
In the meantime, I hope everyone will be inspired to sign the petition to pass the Child Nutrition Act focused on improving the government run school lunch programming. Takes about 30 seconds to send email letters of support to your local legislators: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5986/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=828
Thanks for the eye opener and reminder that our food choices are in our control. I’m one parent who is going to continue to fight the good fight in our home and for our schools.
February 22, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Dez Gruber
I just recently had an IEP (Independent Education Plan) meeting for my daughter and expressed my concerns about the ice cream they sell in the school cafeteria. I have always packed my daughter’s lunches because I want to take care of my daughter’s nervous system through nutrition (she has ataxic cerebral palsy). When I go to have lunch with my daughter, the majority of the children are eating ice cream and not touching anything else. I asked the staff at the meeting, can’t you at least give these kids their ice cream after they eat their lunch? They looked at me like I was crazy and didn’t say a word like it was a taboo topic.
February 26, 2010 at 8:31 pm
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