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Monday, August 30, 2010

What is a "right"?

I recently posed a question on LinkedIn. So far I've had a handful of replies from people I don't know. Wouldn't know if they walked in the room. Chances are there is all kinds of bias in these answers and the ones still to be posted. However, it is a start to a discussion that I think is long overdue. My question?


Do you think access to healthy (fresh, nutritious, safe) food is a right? Why or why not?


What's your take on this? Click the link above and reply to a survey on Survey Monkey or comment here. I'll circle back to this in the future. 


(Sorry for the problem with the link since it was posted! It works now....) 

Monday, August 23, 2010

Some statistics on farming in Michigan

Michigan is a state that has a long legacy of growing wonderful fruits and vegetables. In fact, Michigan taught California how to grow. According to the Friday, August 13, 2010 issue of The Farmer's Exchange newspaper, Michigan:

  • Has agriculture as its second largest industry, generating $71.3 billion annually and serving as a key part a diverse economy for the state.
  • Is home to about 10 million acres of farmland. Although this is a lot, it is much much less than even a few years ago as farmland has been turned over to developers and younger generations choose not to continue farming.
  • Has 56,014 farms averaging 179 acres each. This means that there also farms in the 1000s of acres and I'm not sure if it counts the "farming" that gets done by backyard gardeners who feed their families and friends from what they raise. Including chickens, eggs and more. According to the article which cited a 2007 USDA census of agriculture, "there has been significant growth in the number of small farms over the past few years."
  • Is comprised mostly of family farms. Ninety percent of the farms are owned by families. Many of , these families raise crops specifically for a limited number of large food processors. 
  • Has 271 farmers markets; the fourth greatest number in the country, following California, New York and Illinois.  

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Not such a good deed after all

I admit a guilty pleasure of salty snacks. I try to be as healthy as possible with my unhealthy behavior, and as responsible too. So when I saw a "compostable" bag with Sun Chips, it assuaged my guilt just a bit. At least I wasn't creating more trash.

Not so fast.

As this press release states, the bags are not really, truly compostable in a reasonable time. They don't meet the guidelines set out by the Walkers Gore(TM) composting facility, a large commercial operation in Canada. A little more investigation gave me an insight into high volume composting using the Gore Techology. (No, not "that" Gore....) If large scale composting facilities whose business it is to compost can't get the bags to disappear in a timely way, my little compost pile isn't going to do so well with them either. One more reason to get my salt hits from popcorn made at home.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Rights and responsibilities

For some time I've been inserting the thought into conversations that maybe, just maybe, the epidemic of obesity and health problems in the US are related to both how we eat and what we eat - mostly on the run and prepared foods. And that it was scarily amazing that food went from being something nutritious and absolutely necessary to being "the problem" to be dealt with by low fat, low carb, low sugar products fortified with nutriceuticals, because food in its "natural" state wasn't nutritious enough. This happened in the last 25 years or so it seems to me.

A recent article on the SuperMarket Guru website describes the next stage in this process. A process that first took cooking out of the kitchen and now seems poised to take responsibility for eating well away from the individual. Rather than say "no" to prepared foods and eating freshly cooked meals at home (no, it is NOT boring to do this) there may be a movement afoot to medicate the problem away, absolving eaters from the responsibility of what they put in their mouths.

Admittedly it isn't possible for everyone to walk out to their garden and harvest their next meal. However, it certainly wouldn't be a bad thing if it were possible. However it IS possible to act more responsibility in terms of the food we eat and to vote with our purchases whenever possible, showing that we want naturally nutitious, fresh foods. And to lobby to erase food deserts wherever they exist - in other countries or our own. Eating healthy is both a right and a responsibility.