Let’s take a look at sea kelp noodles, a great source of the all-important sea vegetables that most of us don’t eat enough of (me included). I discovered these about two years ago and quickly bought a case.

What Are Kelp Noodles?

Kelp noodles are…noodles made from kelp. Okay, that was an easy one. But that’s really about all of the description that’s needed. They contain only three ingredients: water, kelp, and sodium alginate. Before you freak, sodium alginate is a salt derived from brown seaweed that, they claim, helps chelate heavy metals from the body.

They have a neutral taste and are pretty light with a slight crunch. Some people think they’re a bit rubbery, which I can see, but they might have an “off” package. Mine are typically slightly crunchy, kind of like properly cooked spaghetti squash, whether I eat them raw or cooked.

You can use them either straight from the package as long noodles or chop them up into more edible sizes. I almost always chop mine up into about 1″ long pieces just by slicing across the mass that comes out of the package. They also work both raw and cooked.

Why Are They White?

Yeah, I know, kelp isn’t white. Kelp is a dark brown color. According to Sea Tangle, the only company I’ve found that makes them for mass market sale, when you strip off the outer covering, the inside of kelp actually looks just like the noodles. Obviously I haven’t tried it myself, so I just have to take their word for it.

I usually avoid packaged products, but I put this in the same area as olives. There is a little processing required to get to the inner portion of the kelp and I’m willing to let someone else handle it since they do minimal processing. I’ve heard that in some Asian markets, you can actually find green kelp noodles. I’ve never found them and have no idea if the green is a natural thing or food coloring. Let me know if you find them.

Five Easy Uses

Over the course of the last couple years, I’ve found some good uses for kelp noodles. They blend in well to most any recipe that calls for rice or noodles. The first thing I do is dump out the water, then rinse them in more water to remove as much of the salt as possible.

• Top with a peanut or almond sauce – Take any Thai Peanut Satay sauce recipe (sub in almond butter if you prefer) and toss it with the noodles. Add some meat and you have a full meal (skip the meat if you’re vegetarian, of course).
• As a replacement for spaghetti squash – I love spaghetti squash, but sometimes don’t feel like cooking it. Kelp noodles have a similar crunch and mild flavor, so they fill in nicely most everywhere. I haven’t tried them with actual spaghetti sauce though. I’m not sure they’d have the body to carry the delicious sauce to my hungry mouth.
• As part of a vegetable side dish – Saute them up with carrots, onions, and cucumbers and add some sesame oil and tamari for a quick compliment to your main dish.
• As a base for your stir-fries – Instead of rice or noodles, use kelp noodles. They work either raw or cooked with some seasonings.
• To make a great seaweed salad – Kelp noodles, wakame (rehydrated), cucumbers, carrots, green onions, ginger, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, tamari, and sesame seeds. No heat required to make delicious Asian flavor.

Where To Buy Kelp Noodles

While you can order kelp noodles from Amazon, the best bet is to buy them directly from the Sea Tangle website or find them in a store near you (which aren’t very common).

On Amazon, you’re looking at about $7.50 for a single package, whereas on the Sea Tangle website, you’re looking at 12 packages for $35, so just under $3 per package. I’m not real sure what the sellers on Amazon have been smoking, but don’t order from there. One package is enough for at least one meal, so really not all that expensive in the grand scheme.

Sound Off!

Do you use kelp noodles? What other ways to use them do you have?

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Hello! I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday (for those of you that celebrate Thanksgiving). My girlfriend and I spent another Thanksgiving away from home in Kentucky. Last year, I was living in San Diego and she came out for us and some friends to have a big meal and a lot of wine. This year, we’re helping on a farm down in Macon, GA. I smoked a turkey, made a great CranApple-Sage Stuffing, and played with the horses.

Here are some great posts and news articles from around the web to check out while you’re recovering from yesterday.

Hey There, Honey

Real Food Forager – What’s In Your Honey?

For instance, traces of GM pollen have been found in honey.
….
Dishonest honey distributors buy the cheap stuff from China where it may be contaminated with antibiotics and heavy metals or it may not even be honey at all — it may be high fructose corn syrup or other artificial sweeteners.

This is one part of the honey news from the past week or two. And now for part two.

Speaking of Honey, Buy From Sources You Trust

Time – Tainted Chinese Honey May Be on U.S. Store Shelves

I could quote a ton of this article, so your best bet is to just go read it, but I’ll show you some highlights:

Chinese honeymakers are laundering their products through other Asian nations, including India, Vietnam and Malaysia, in order to smuggle it into the U.S. The scheme is being aided by American importers and lax enforcement by the Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA):
….
What’s wrong with honey from China? For one thing, it may contain lead
….
Further, FSN reports, Chinese honey may contain tiny amounts of an antibiotic known as chloramphenicol, which was used in the early 2000s to thwart a bacterial epidemic that was killing tens of millions of bees.
….
Another favorite con among Chinese brokers was to mix sugar water, malt sweeteners, corn or rice syrup, jaggery, barley malt sweetener or other additives with a bit of actual honey. In recent years, many shippers have eliminated the honey completely and just use thickened, colored, natural or chemical sweeteners labeled as honey.

So going back to that first article, buy your honey from people you know and trust. Local honey is better in general for people with allergies because it has the pollen from your surrounding area in it.

Like Grandma Said: “Don’t Forget To Eat Your…Pizza?”

LA Weekly – Congress to USDA: Pizza is So a Vegetable, Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah

Did you all see the good news? Pizza is still a vegetable! I’m calling Dominos, post haste!

The Obama administration wanted to make school lunches more healthful, cutting back on the endless procession of potatoes, corn, refined flour, and sodium. One such provision was that a mere two tablespoons of tomato paste — the quantity required to blanket a slice of pizza — not be considered a “vegetable.”
…
No, said Congress. Two tablespoons of tomato paste is a vegetable, and a slice of pizza serves as its conveniently filling transportation device. The U.S.D.A. had slyly suggested that a brimming half-cup of tomato paste might work, an amount even a lunch line pizzaloo would find excessive. The idea was to cut back on the pizza, but Congress didn’t blink.

Now, I don’t want to get into the Democrats vs. Republicans thing here, because frankly, I don’t think it accomplishes anything or is actually indicative of what’s going on. The bottom line is that while I don’t have a whole lot of love for the USDA, I’d at least give them the benefit of the doubt to make decisions on what kids eat over Congress. Congress is deciding things based on who’s greasing their palms. Why do we trust these people to make important decisions when they can’t even figure out what a vegetable? No wonder we’re going bankrupt.

The Flu Shot

The ads are cranking up again to sell flu shots. They’ll tell you how irresponsible it is not to get one. Remind you of how much having the flu sucks (which it does, can’t argue that). You’re endangering the people around you. They’ll make you feel like it’s the responsible thing to do.

For me, the best protection is having a strong immune system, which comes from eating real food; exercising enough, but not too much; getting plenty of sleep, and not loading my body up with toxins. I don’t get a flu shot and I also don’t get the flu. If I do end up getting the flu, well, it sucks, but it’ll go away in a day or two. Your call, but I won’t be getting stuck.

While you’re considering whether or not to get the flu vaccine, take into account the ingredients. This year, the FDA has approved 6 vaccines: Afluria, Fluvarix, FluLaval, Fluvirin, Fluzone (plus Fluzone High-Dose & Fluzone Intradermal), and FluMist (nasal spray).

While the ingredients differ, 3 of the 6 have formaldehyde and 4 of the 6 have thimerosal (mercury). For me, letting my immune system do the work is better than injecting those and other unknown ingredients. Here’s a complete list of the ingredients for this year’s vaccines.

Oh yeah, and if you’re overweight, the vaccine might not work. (Of course, they still want you to get one so they can collect your $20-30, I mean, so that you’re still somewhat protected.) And as with all years, they might not have selected the right strains for the vaccine and it might not work anyway!

Sound Off!

Did you see any other good articles this week? Will you be getting (or have you gotten) a flu vaccine?

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I came across this article awhile back and forgot all about it until I came across it in some saved links. It’s pretty interesting to me, especially considering the number of kids now on psychostimulants like Ritalin and Adderall.
9 Food Additives That May Affect ADHD

I’ll go ahead and warn you that some of my commentary on this subject is likely to tick more than a few people off, but oh well.

Some ADHD Stats

• 9.5% of kids 5-17 have been diagnosed ADHD
• ADHD diagnosis increased an average of 3% per year from 1997 to 2006 and an average of 5.5% per year from 2003 to 2007
• The percentage of children with a parent-reported ADHD diagnosis increased by 22% between 2003 and 2007
• Boys (13.2%) were more likely than girls (5.6%) to have ever been diagnosed with ADHD

Source

So let’s see…what’s this tell us? One in ten kids has trouble paying attention; every year there are more of these kids; the parents think it’s getting worse; and apparently boys are worse than girls.

Interestingly, if you look at the map on the CDC’s page (Source link above), living west of Mimal The Chef (a mnemonic I learned in school: Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana…I must have paid attention) means you’re less likely to have ADHD and it’s worst in the Southeast.

What Causes ADHD?

Of course, the standard claim, as with nearly everything these days, is that it’s mostly genetic. Okay, maybe there’s a genetic component, but if that’s the cause, then the genes must be getting worse because the number of ADHD diagnoses is going up.

I’m inclined to believe that it’s a multi-factored issue, possibly starting with a “nature” component, i.e., genetic susceptibility (just like with diabetes and numerous other problems), but that is triggered by “nurture,” i.e., environmental factors such as toxins and food.

Seriously, is it really that hard to believe that what kids eat affects how they behave? I know that when I eat crap, I feel like crap. When I eat good food, I feel good. Does that somehow not affect kids? Or is it that we’re just afraid to point out that it’s our food system causing so many of the behavioral problems we’re seeing? Maybe it’s because when we point out the flaws in the Industrial food system and the resultant issues, we have to point fingers at the government, the Food Bill, the companies that make vast swaths of cash serving up this inferior junk, and ourselves for buying it. I suppose sticking with “genetics” is just easier. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…

[Of course, one could easily argue that the structure of our school system is a major causative factor in ADHD by not stimulating the mind and specifically by not being designed in a way that young boys learn. I could go off on that tangent for a few pages, but that's not the point of this post.]

The easy solution, naturally, is to Eat Real Food. Believe it or not, but I never use any of these food additives because they don’t actually do anything to improve food. Really, they’re mostly food colorings, which are there to fool you and make your brain enhance a flavor based on color associations.

The 9 Additives

1. Blue No. 1
2. Blue No. 2
3. Green No. 3
4. Orange B
5. Red No. 3
6. Red No. 40
7. Sodium Benzoate
8. Yellow No. 5
9. Yellow No. 6

The best part though is the list of processed foods that these ingredients are in: Frito-Lay Sun Chips French Onion and other Frito-Lay products; some Yoplait products; some JELL-O dessert products; Fruity Cheerios; Trix; Froot-Loops; Apple Jacks; Quaker Cap’N Crunch’s Crunch Berries; some Pop-Tarts products; some Oscar Mayer Lunchables; Duncan Hines Whipped Frosting Chocolate; Edy’s ice cream products; Skittles candies; Jolly Ranchers Screaming Sours Soft; Chew Candy; Eclipse gum; Fanta Grape; Froot-Loops; Post Fruity Pebbles; Pop-Tarts products; Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Strawberry Supreme Premium Cake Mix; Betty Crocker Frosting Rich; Creamy Cherry; M&M’s Milk Chocolate Candies; M&M’s Milk Chocolate Peanut Candies; Wonka Nerds Grape/Strawberry; pet foods; Fruit juice, carbonated beverages, and pickles.

Note that is only the combined lists from three of the additives. It’s a veritable Who’s Who of junk food.

Are Drugs The First Resort Or The Last?

It seems that drugs like Ritalin and Adderall have become the easy way out. Why try changing the environment and the food when it’s easier to just get a prescription and dose the kid? Never mind that it stamps the creativity right out of the kids on it (maybe we’re getting back to that school system argument…).

Maybe we should quit taking the easy way out and start taking a hard look at the things we’re putting into the kids’ systems that are creating the outcome of so much misbehavior.

Sound Off!

What do you think? Is it the food the kids are eating? Or is it some other issue?

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With Thanksgiving coming up, I figured now is a good time to give you a few turkey tips. First up, let’s talk about how to pick a turkey, then I have a tip on how to cook your turkey so that it turns out moist and juicy every time. Finally, I have a recipe that I made last year for Thanksgiving (using a goose instead of a turkey) that is lip-smacking good.

How To Pick Your Turkey

Pastured Vs. Conventional Turkeys

As you all know, I’m a big fan of high-quality grass-fed beef instead of the mass-market, grain-fed stuff you find in most stores. Similarly, I am a big fan of pastured poultry. And since Thanksgiving dinner typically includes a turkey, I hope you’re using a pastured-raised turkey.

I’ll just cut to the chase and give you 4 reasons why you should pick a pastured turkey instead of that tasteless, dry, grain-fed turkey you’re used to eating at Thanksgiving. If you’re one of those that thinks turkey is boring, look no further than that Butterball on your plate. Pastured turkeys:

• Taste better – Turkeys are natural foragers, like chickens. On an unnatural, grain-fed diet like all those turkeys you find in Kroger, Von’s, Albertson’s, etc, turkeys are bland. Allowed to move around and forage, turkeys develop a richer flavor.
• Are better for you – Pastured turkeys have higher levels of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (a healthy cancer-fighting fat), along with higher levels of other nutrients.
• Aren’t dosed with antibiotics – Pastured turkeys are only given antibiotics when necessary to fight an actual disease, not as a matter of course to counteract poor production methods.
• Are good for the ecosystem – Go drive past a commercial turkey production facility and tell me that the noxious odors emanating from the turkey houses, where the turkeys never see the light of day, are good for anything. Pastured turkeys, on the other hand, fertilize the soil and don’t require the use of pesticide-laden feed.

Quality Costs Money

You do pay more for a pastured turkey, just like you pay more for grass-fed beef. You do have to pay for better quality. Nobody complains about paying more for a Toyota than for a Yugo because the quality difference is evident. The same goes with turkeys, chickens, beef, pork, and lamb. Pay more for a higher quality, healthier, tastier product.

One other thing: the price difference shrinks (though there is still a difference) when you consider that you’re being lied to in the grocery store. Check out this recent USDA study about brine-injected meats:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday that brine-injected meat is composed of 40 percent salt water and proposed a rule that would require companies to disclose this information.

That’s correct…up to 40% of the weight of those birds (and other meats) that say “Enhanced with a solution of salt water” (or something like that) is water. So you’re paying for water. No wonder the price is so cheap, but the actual price for the meat can be almost double what the price tag reads in the worst instances (since water is both heavy and non-meat).

What Size Turkey Do You Need?

Alright, if you aren’t convinced that you should buy better meat by now, me hammering you over the head with it isn’t going to change your mind. The bottom line is that food raised the right way tastes better and is better for you. If you don’t buy that, I can’t help you. I know, it’s probably too late for this Thanksgiving since you likely already have your turkey, but think about it when you buy a turkey for Christmas or Easter or next Thanksgiving.

So now what size turkey should you buy? Regardless of what type of turkey you buy, the rule of thumb is about 1lb of turkey per person. That will get you through the Thanksgiving holiday, but if you want leftovers, you might want to add an extra one-half to two lbs per person (depending on how long you want to be eating turkey).

Tom or Hen?

You can buy a Tom turkey (male) or a Hen turkey (female). They are the same in terms of tenderness and flavor, but a hen will have more breast meat. I prefer the dark meat because it has more flavor, but if you and your family prefer the white meat, opt for a hen (though on a pastured bird, the white meat is less white since the turkey actually uses its wings some).

How To Cook Your Turkey

How To Thaw Your Turkey

Most likely, you have a frozen turkey. If not, well, skip this part. To thaw your turkey, it’s best to place it in the refrigerator several days prior to cooking to let it slowly thaw. The general rule of thumb is about 24 hours per 5lbs of turkey. So for the 14.5lb turkey I have, it’ll take about 3 days.

How To Brine Your Turkey

This is a key step for those of you with conventionally-raised turkeys. Pastured turkeys will be juicier and more flavorful. Conventional turkeys tend to be dry, especially in the white meat. Therefore, you want to stave off having bland, dry meat before you start cooking it. The way to do this is with a brine, either wet or dry.

The Wet Brine

I was going to do a full run-down on how to do a wet-brine for your turkey, but my friend John beat me to the punch. Instead of reinventing the wheel, I’ll just send you over to his post about it: How to Wet-brine a Turkey

I love the wet-brining method. It produces an incredibly moist and juicy turkey. It gets the flavor past the skin, which just applying a rub to the outside just before cooking won’t do. Like John says in his post, even if you overcook the turkey, it’ll still stay moist (to a point, of course!).

The Dry Brine

I recently came across a dry-brining method that I’m very interested in trying. It reduces the amount of clean-up and eliminates the large space requirements for a big bucket or bag of water to hold the turkey. And it actually beat out the wet brine in a taste test.

With a dry brine, you heavily salt the turkey 2-3 days early, then massage the turkey once or twice a day. What happens is that the salt pulls the moisture out of the muscle cells (counter-intuitive, I know, stay with me). The muscle cells then reabsorb the water, pulling in the salt and any other flavors you add to the rub. You can actually dry-brine a frozen turkey while it thaws, but get the giblets out first by running cool water into the cavity to break the ice.

Adding Some Extra Flavor

Brining gets the flavor deep into the bird. If you want to add some additional flavor, you can pull the skin on the breast up so you can reach your hand in and add some melted butter, fresh rosemary and thyme, or anything else your heart desires. The butter will help baste the bird as it cooks and the herb flavors will distribute more evenly, especially on those breasts, which (as I’ve said already) tend to be blander and drier.

I have access to a good-sized smoker this year, so I’m going to try smoking my turkey after dry-brining it. Two new techniques…here’s hoping for the best! Oh yeah, don’t forget to remove the giblets before you roast your turkey. Surely I’m not the only one that has forgotten to do that.

Turkey with CranApple-Sage Stuffing

After all that yammering about turkeys, here’s an awesome recipe for you. I cooked this last year for me, my girlfriend, and two friends, using a goose instead of a turkey. It was absolutely amazing! If you’re not quite set on what you’re making this year, skip the Stove Top stuffing and go with this Turkey with CranApple-Sage Stuffing.

The stuffing is gluten-free and can be cooked on the stovetop in a pan instead of inside the bird if you prefer that from a food safety standpoint. For last year’s dinner, we added a Sweet Potato casserole (made with coconut cream), Sesame Green Beans, and Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan cheese. And more wine than 4 people should drink.

Sound Off!

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Who’s doing the cooking? What dish are you most looking forward to?

If you learned something new today, share this post with your friends using the buttons below.

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That’s Not Red Snapper

Delish – Consumer Reports Finds 22% of Fish Purchased is Mislabeled

Consumer Reports other findings as per the article:

• “Only four of the 14 types of fish we bought — Chilean sea bass, coho salmon, and bluefin and ahi tuna — were always identified correctly. Eighteen percent of our samples didn’t match the names on placards, labels, or menus.”
• Fish were incorrectly passed off as catfish, grey sole, grouper, halibut, king salmon, lemon sole, red snapper, sockeye salmon, and yellowfin tuna. Four percent were incompletely labeled or misidentified by employees.
• All 10 of the “lemon soles” and 12 of the 22 “red snappers” we bought weren’t the claimed species. One sample, labeled as grouper, was actually tilefish, which averages three times as much mercury as grouper.

Why would they do that? Well, Red Snapper commands a higher price, as does King and Sockeye Salmon, typically. And since Red Snapper is a fish found predominantly in the Gulf of Mexico (and already overfished), you can bet that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill there in 2010 did plenty to further decimate stocks of real Red Snapper. Bottom line, find a fish source you trust to provide you with what they are actually charging you for.

Nevada Stops Dangerous Criminals

Farm To Consumer – Farm-to-Fork Dinner Fiasco

A little over a week ago, Quail Hollow Farm in southern Nevada hosted a farm-to-fork dinner, made with the freshest, realest ingredients possible. But the Southern Nevada Health District had other plans. They worked hard to put a stop to the dinner.

The only way to keep our guests on the property was to destroy the food.

I can’t tell you how sick to my stomach I was watching that first dish of Mint Lamb Meatballs hit the bottom of the unsanitized trash can.

Here we were with guests who had paid in advance and had come from long distances away anticipating a wonderful dining experience, waiting for dinner while we were behind the kitchen curtain throwing it away! I know of the hours and labor that went into the preparation of that food.

We asked the inspector if we could save the food for a private family event that we were having the next day. (A personal family choice to use our own food.) We were denied and she was insulted that we would even consider endangering our families health. I assured her that I had complete faith and trust in Giovanni our chef and the food that was prepared, (obviously, or I wouldn’t be wanting to serve it to our guests).

I then asked if we couldn’t feed the food to our “public guests” or even to our private family, then at least let us feed it to our pigs. (I think it should be a criminal action to waste any resource of the land. Being dedicated to our organic farm, we are forever looking for good inputs into our compost and soil and good food that can be fed to our animals. The animals and compost pile always get our left over garden surplus and food. We truly are trying to be as sustainable as possible.)

Again, a call to Susan and another negative response.

It’s a good read and a telling look at the level of freedom we as thinking adults have, or rather the level we don’t have.

New Site To Help You Find Local Food

I want to let you all know about a new site launched by my friend John Moody. John runs Whole Life Buying Club, the local buying club here in Louisville that I’m a member of. His new site, Food Clubs & Coops, is basically designed to help people create their own buying groups to improve access to organic, local, sustainable foods.

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It’s fall and that means pumpkin! I love cooking with pumpkin and other winter squashes. So I have a special celebrity guest chef to bring you three easy, fresh pumpkin recipes. Enjoy!

Our Celebrity Guest Chef Is…

(...)
Read the rest of It’s Pumpkin Time – Three Recipes & A Special Celebrity Guest Chef (148 words)

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Until the past year, I was never much of a yogurt fan. I had some texture issues with yogurt. Then I discovered Greek yogurt, which has quickly become a favorite of mine. And good news, along with tasting incredible, it’s a great souce of probiotics. Greek yogurt is characteristically sour like all yogurt, but due to a process of straining, it’s thicker, somewhere between yogurt and a soft cheese.

Here are four ways I’ve come up with to use Greek yogurt.

Tzatziki Sauce

I absolutely love Greek food. It’s typically very fresh and deliciously spiced. Part of Greek cooking is the sauce known as “tzatziki”. To make it, you just need some basic ingredients, most of which you probably have on hand already. Here’s a recipe to give you a start:

• 1 (32 ounce) container plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cucumber with peel, grated
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 3 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp black pepper

Just put the ingredients together and mix, then use it with some lamb or chicken for a simple dinner. Thin it a touch and you have a flavorful, fresh salad dressing.

As A Replacement For…

• Mayonnaise
• Sour Cream
• Milk & Buttermilk

My girlfriend isn’t a fan of sour cream, so using Greek yogurt as a replacement is pretty appealing for us. I’d rather make my own more flavorful mayonnaise though.

Fruit & Yogurt

Okay, nothing ground-breaking with this one, but I love chopping up a banana in a bowl or throwing in some grapes and apples and topping them with Greek yogurt and sometimes chopping walnuts or pecans. The fruit adds more than enough sweetness for me without needing honey and the nuts add crunch. It makes a great dessert or snack.

On Grilled Salmon & Burgers

Mix a tablespoon of lemon juice, a tablespoon of tahini, and Greek yogurt (1/2 cup to 1 cup, depending on desired consistency), then throw it over top of some grilled salmon or burgers.

I’m always looking for new ways to use foods. What other uses do you have for Greek yogurt?

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The Government-Industry Revolving Door Continues

Food Freedom – ‘No Food Rights’ Judge quits to work for Monsanto law firm

Recently, Wisconsin Judge Patrick Fiedler ruled that citizens:

• “Do not have a fundamental right to own and use a dairy cow or a dairy herd;”
• “Do not have a fundamental right to consume the milk from their own cow;”
• “Do not have a fundamental right to board their cow at the farm of a farmer;”
• “Do not have a fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice;” and
• Cannot enter into private contracts “outside the scope of the State’s police power.”

Basically, the government holds the power to tell you what you can and can’t eat. Well, that ought to pretty well solidfy whose side the government is on, but to make it even better, Mr. Fiedler quit his job as a judge to go work for the law firm that defends Monsanto.

The government is regularly eroding our rights, the choice of what food to eat being what I’d consider one of the most fundamental of “inalienable rights”. And, if you have been watching, you’ve seen the USDA get stacked with biotech-friendly former industry insiders, which is only further working hard to stack the food system against small farmers and consumers.

You Are Free To Buy Any Food…As Long As We Say So

Mises.org – The Freedom to Buy and Sell Raw Milk

This is another interesting article into the armed FDA raids over the dangerous substance known as cocai…wait, sorry, I meant milk.

The fear mongering over the dangers of raw milk is rooted in government–special interest propaganda with no basis in facts or science. In the interest of alarming the populace, the prohibition campaign has portrayed the decision to drink raw milk as a public danger rather than a personal choice.

I don’t drink raw milk (or any milk, for that matter), but I support anyone’s decision to choose what they want to put into their body.

Scare Or Inform?

Des Moines Register – State Department: Biotech labeling would scare consumers

“If you label something there’s an implication there’s something wrong with it,” said Fernandez, speaking on a panel organized by CropLife International, a group that represents Monsanto, DuPont and other biotech giants.

Of course, what’s really going on is all of the bio-tech boosters that are in the USDA are opposing free-market principles, one of the key ones being that consumers have knowledge of what they’re buying. They don’t want you to know, because they you might choose not to purchase those products.

It’s really funny because you’d be hard-pressed to find any issue that 90+% of Americans agree on. But labeling of GMO products is one thing that we’re nearly unanimous on (results of numerous GMO surveys). Don’t worry though…the government is on the side of “we the people,” right?

Denmark Taxes Eggs, Butter, And Avocados

Food Renegade – A Tax On Saturated Fat

The country of Denmark recently passed a tax on all foods containing more than 2.3% saturated fat. Naturally, many healthy, whole foods made the list of taxable foods, including: avocados, butter from grass-fed cows, eggs from hens raised on pasture, and coconut oil.

Yikes! The newest tax charges the equivalent of $1.29 per pound on all foods that contain above the restricted amount of saturated fat.

Okay, for starters, let’s just go ahead and ignore the misguided vendetta against saturated fat. Let’s instead look at what is indeed a slippery slope. Last year, Denmark added a 25% tax to chocolate, ice cream, and sweets. Now they’ve levied a tax on other supposedly unhealthy foods based on one nutrient. And where does it end?

I’m not even down with taxing soft drinks because I see where it leads. The last thing we need is the government involved in nutrition anymore than it already is. And we’ve seen where that leads us.

I’ve been saying it for years: Eat Real Food. If you do that, you don’t need to worry about carbs and calories and saturated fat and whatever other good or bad nutrient the mainstream decides you need to develop a neurosis over.

Your turn…sound off about whatever (of relevance) is on your mind this week.

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Once Again, Organic Proves Superior

The Star Phoenix – Study debunks myths on organic farms

The results are in from a 30-year side-by-side trial of conventional and organic farming methods at Pennsylvania’s Rodale Institute.

In fact, studies like the Rodale trials show that after a three-year transition period, organic yields equalled conventional yields. What is more, the study showed organic crops were more resilient. Organic corn yields were 31 per cent higher than conventional in years of drought.

These drought yields are remarkable when compared to genetically modified (GM) “drought tolerant” varieties, which showed increases of only 6.7 per cent to 13.3 per cent over conventional (non-drought resistant) varieties.

There’s some interesting facts about the differences in energy consumption and soil run-off in the article too. I suppose that pretty soundly defeats the thinking that we have to endure toxic chemicals because organic can’t feed the world.

Think It Costs More To Eat Healthy?

NY Times – Is Junk Food Really Cheaper? – Graphic showing three different meals

THE “fact” that junk food is cheaper than real food has become a reflexive part of how we explain why so many Americans are overweight, particularly those with lower incomes.
…
In general, despite extensive government subsidies, hyperprocessed food remains more expensive than food cooked at home.

This is a recent article by Mark Bittman showing that you can actually eat healthy food at home much cheaper than fast food. But I think it misses a few key points. For one, a lot of people don’t have the necessary cooking skills to cook a meal of roast chicken and vegetables.

Second, if you don’t have your kitchen stocked with some basic cooking gear, all of the fresh food in the world won’t help.

The comments are pretty interesting. One thing someone pointed out is that poor families aren’t buying Big Macs. They’re buying from the dollar menu.

Nut Butter Prices Going Up

Delish – Peanut Butter Prices on the Rise (Plus Alternative Nut Butters)

Peanut butter prices are on the rise. NPR reports that a peanut shortage due to factors such as a drought and farmers abandoning peanut crops in favor of cotton has caused the price of peanut butter to jump.

Trader Joe’s has discontinued their line of organic peanut butter for the time being. When it does finally return to the shelves, customers can expect to pay about 70 cents more per jar.

I’m glad I’m not a big nut butter eater!

See any good news this week?

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Does Government Ag Policy Affect The National Waistline?

Food Renegade – Agricultural Subsidies Linked To Obesity

Everyone who comments on the obesity epidemic points fingers at various culprits. We don’t exercise like we used to. We eat more calories than we used to. We eat more fat than we used to. We eat more refined carbohydrates than we used to. It’s the wheat! It’s the gluten! It’s the polyunsaturated fats found in vegetable oils! It’s the lack of play! The extra TV time!

But, would you believe that for the first time ever, a report has actually pointed the blame at agricultural subsidies?

GMO Salmon Is Still Swimming

Grist – Feds help GMO salmon swim upstream

AquaBounty Technology’s genetically modified salmon just got a hefty financial boost from the USDA: On Monday, the agency awarded the Massachusetts-based company $494,000 to study technologies that would render the genetically tweaked fish sterile.

My favorite part is that the company trashes people that oppose the GMO salmon as “anti-technology”. Uhh, perhaps we just want to see some proof that you’re not going to destroy natural fish stocks like other GMO crops are doing to the environment. Maybe we think salmon is just fine as it is.

Maybe it’s because GMO companies have routinely opposed labeling of GMOs on packaging so that consumers can make their own decisions about what they eat. It doesn’t really matter that a majority of consumers would like to know whether they’re eating GMO or not; the GMO giants are opposing it (which says a lot about how much they value real free market capitalism).

That the government is giving a half-million of our dollars to companies making products we may not support is a discussion for another time, but really interesting in considering whose interests the government is really protecting.

The Government’s Highest Duty Is…?

CNS News – NYC Mayor Bloomberg: ‘Government’s Highest Duty’ Is to Push ‘Healthy’ Foods

There are powers only governments can exercise, policies only governments can mandate and enforce and results only governments can achieve. To halt the worldwide epidemic of non-communicable diseases, governments at all levels must make healthy solutions the default social option. That is ultimately government’s highest duty.

Nope, nope, I think the government has done quite enough in deciding what the right thing for me to eat is. From the debacle that has been the low fat diet to armed raids on family farmers, the last thing I need is more of the government deciding what’s healthy and what should be mandatory. Just stay out of the way and let grown adults decide that we really do know best about what to put in our bodies.

Do You Know What Your Tax Dollars Subsidize?

Neon Tommy – Does The U.S. Government Subsidize Junk Food?

About $7.5 billion went directly to corn-based sweeteners and starch, the report says.

If agriculture subsidies went back to the people, Americans would receive 19 free Twinkies per person per year, Russo says. However, with the $262 million that go towards the production of apples, we would be rationed about a quarter of a red delicious apple per person per year.

What more do I need to say?

Cash Or Happiness?

Live Science – Most Choose Cash Over Happiness, Study Shows

Given the choice, most people would take a high-paying job with longer work hours over a good-paying job with reasonable demands on their time, a new study shows.

I know, this has nothing to do with food at all, but I find it really interesting and perhaps quite telling of a major issue in our culture. Most people, it seems, are unwilling to give up money to be healthy and they’re especially uninterested in spending more money on better food when that might cut into their cable TV and car budget.

Looking For A New Beer?

Delish – 10 Weird Beer Flavors

We like a unique beer just as much as the next guy, but sometimes brewers go a bit overboard trying to be different. Here are ten of some of the strangest beers to be bottled.
10 – Tea Beer
9 – Chocolate Donut Beer
….

Is it bad that some of these actually sound good? I mean, why go to the trouble of grilling a steak to go with your beer when you can just have a steak-flavored beer?

Leave your thoughts and discussion in the comments!

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