What?! That's not how the old adage goes?! Okay, I know knowledge is supposed to be power, but lately, I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the knowledge I have, especially in regards to our food supply. In a nutshell, GMO foods (wheat, corn, tomatoes, etc...), most corn in this country (which feeds most animals) and the pesticides on our fruits and veggies are all going to give us cancer and kill us. Yep. I just gave you a complete summary of my knowledge.
What can we do about it? We can buy organic and/or grow our own organic foods. That doesn't sound hard until you factor in the cost of all of these organic foods. Organic fruits and veggies can easily cost twice as much as the "regular" food in the store. Today, I paid $4.99 for 5 pounds of organic potatoes, when the regular ones were next to it for just $1.50. That's more than 3x the cost.
Q just started eating food. I would love to be one of these moms that makes her own baby food, but I have to be honest with myself. a. I am not always home to feed my child b. I barely get dinner on the table some nights (or have to order out because I didn't have time to) c. That seems like a lot of work, right?! Today, I went to buy some organic baby food because let's be honest, if I choose to feed the rest of the family organics, then I should definitely do the same for the baby. All I found were the Gerber Organics in the plastic containers, no Earth's Best, no glass jars. Here again, knowledge bit me in the butt. We all know that plastics leak harmful chemicals into our food and water. I know from working in a distribution center that merchandise can sit in hot trailers for months if there is no room in the warehouse or the store for the item. So, how am I to assume that my child's food is safe? I just don't trust it. Instead, I bought nothing. I threw an organic banana ($0.79/lb vs. $0.39/lb) into the blender and mixed it with some oatmeal for lunch. Okay. That worked, but I was lucky we were home to do so. Not to mention that the bananas are all pretty ripe, so I guess tonight I'll have to blend up some more and freeze it into individual servings. This could become a nightmare.
Now, I probably sound like a nut, but I'm not. I'm not a crazy and I don't buy everything organic. I try to just get the dirty dozen. But, did you notice that the dirty dozen are all things that are pretty much staples in our diets? Apples, potatoes, lettuce/spinach, grapes, celery, strawberries, bell peppers, carrots, blueberries... These may not be your family's staples, but when you have kids, these are pretty much the main things that they eat, so what choice do you have? Grrr! I just want to stick my thumb up the butt of the food industry and tell them to stop poisoning us, and themselves. If they don't serve this junk to consumers in other countries, why would they choose to serve it to us; their fellow countrymen, neighbors, family?!
Add to this the fact that I just watched a documentary call Blue Gold. You can learn more about it by clicking here. Basically, it talks about the impending shortage of fresh water in the world, due to misuse, pollution, waste, forced migration and consumerism. I have to say that after watching, I realized that we are pretty good when it comes to water conservation in our house, but we could do more. We already turn the tap off when brushing our teeth. We don't buy bottled water except when we are out and we are all parched. We don't take terribly long showers and often shower the kids rather quickly instead of filling our huge jacuzzi tub. Could we do more? Yes. We have to run the water for quite a while to get it up to temperature. We could invest tons of money to get one of those tankless water heaters to fix that problem. We could flush the toilet less. We could stop buying bottled water all together. I could wash dishes in the sink instead of using the dishwasher. We could demand that something be done to ensure that all people have clean drinking water. We can encourage others to conserve, as well. So, we will do what we can, when we can.
The thing is this: I now have an abundance of knowledge about our food, our resources and our bodies, but I don't have the time or money to respond to this information in the manner I feel it deserves, therefore, I feel like a prisoner. I have to come to the realization that we can only do so much, and what we do better than doing nothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment