Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Eating with a Conscience: "A Diet for a Mindful Society"

The Diet for A Mindful Society

"Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I will ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society.  I am determined not to [...] ingest foods or other items that contain toxins. [...] I am aware that to damage my body with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations.  I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for society.  I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and for the transformation of society."  Thich Nhat Hanh's "For a Future to Be Possible"  

"Cook Because You Care" is not only about health on an individual level, but choosing what to eat and how to eat it is now more important than ever before. It is vital to the health of our bodies, community, and planet to make mindful food choices by taking personal responsibility for the products we choose to buy.  The following are some concepts that I will go into further detail about in future blogs, but the purpose of today's blog is to give an overview of what it means to be a mindful consumer and why it is important, or rather, imperative that we become one.


What does it meant to BE A MINDFUL CONSUMER?


Being mindful doesn't simply involve asking yourself, "hmmm... what would I most like to eat today and where can I find it most conveniently?"  The food industry has trained us well... most of us don't think twice about what we eat, the food just appears before us.  What magic!  However, eating mindfully means making decisions with something larger at stake, making food choices not just on what we'd like to eat or what is most convenient, but what is best for everyone, including our environment.  In general, being a mindful food shopper means knowing what you're buying, where it comes from, and ultimately, what kind of impact it will have on yourself, the community, and environment at large.  First I will list some tips on how to be a mindful food shopper and then give a rundown on the most pressing food issues of present time for those who'd like to know why being a mindful food shopper is so important. 


Buy Organic:  If you can, buy organic foods as often as possible.  This means that you are supporting farmers who use no harmful chemicals to produce your food and farm in ways that are more sustainable for the environment.  Buy a Share of a local "Community Supported Agriculture" farm and get fresh veggies weekly




Buy Local: Look at the package and find out where your food comes from.  Buying an apple from washington has less of an environmental impact than buying an apple from New Zealand.  Better yet, buy local if your grocery store teams up with local farmers.  Support a local Co-op, shop at local farmer's market, or buy a share as part of a community supported agriculture program Learn more about the Eat Local Challenge  Top 10 Reasons to Eat Local
Buy Fresh food or in Bulk: buying bulk flour, nuts, beans, etc with your own cotton bags saves you money and  trash


REFUSE PLASTIC:  As the nightmare of the plastic problem becomes more public, people are taking active steps to refuse plastic containers, forks/knives, packaging etc.  It is immensely helpful for whatever plastic you actively avoid for this purpose.  Environmental plastic waste video  Take the REFUSE pledge




Buy products with the least packaging: making decisions like these helps the food companies know what consumers want.  If we refuse to buy products with packaging or refuse plastic altogether, they will have to change their ways. 

Bring your own renewable bag, NO PLASTIC BAGS!  plastic bag mockumentary 

Advocate, advocate, advocate:  There are several advocacy groups that are well under way trying to change laws from the top.  Food safety MUST be a priority for all.  SAFE FOOD is a right, but it won't be legally enforced unless individuals take action.  Take Action Here NOW 

Join Meatless Mondays: If all Americans simply substituted one meal of chicken per week with a vegetarian alternative, it would be the equivalent of taking 500,000 cars off the road  Why go meatless?  "Livestock Impacts the Environment" -United Nations Article 

Vote with your dollars: Just know that every time you buy something you say "Thumbs up, guys, I love your product, keep it coming!"  With that being said, know WHAT and WHO you are supporting.  Investigating the companies from which you buy food is a start and with every little morsel of knowledge, you will be able to vote in a much wiser way each time







CONTINUE TO EDUCATE YOURSELF

Food companies will continue to do whatever it takes to increase their profits, as long as people let them. For the sake of your own health, the health of your children, the health of the planet, and the future for all of us, please take the time to educate yourself on these matters.  If this information is new to you, it may seem overwhelming.  But being educated helps us make better decisions and allows us to be a part of the solution instead of ignorantly causing more destruction.  In these passages, I have covered these topics generally, but I urge everyone to look into these in more detail.



WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO BE MINDFUL OF OUR FOOD CHOICES?


Who regulates the safety of our food?

Unfortunately, safe food is no longer a right but a privilege offered only to those who can afford it or who have the time to educate themselves about these issues.  The majority of food that is readily available in our supermarkets, restaurants, and fast food chains are no longer safe to consume (see the Bionic Burger Video.  The FDA continues to allow vast amounts of pesticides, harmful preservatives, artificial food coloring, and many other chemicals into food that have been proven over and over again to cause cancer, learning disabilities, hyperactivity, obesity, heart disease, etc.  Additionally, the American people have unknowingly submitted themselves to a decade long experiment about whether genetically modified foods are harmful.  The European Union and many other countries have banned GMO foods, as many international experts have shown these foods to manipulate human DNA, leading to cancer and many other health problems.


Environmental Working Group's Guide to Food and Toxins

Center for Science in the Public Interest (gives science based proof and helps with safe food options and advocacy efforts) 


Info and Guide to Food Born Illnesses


Shopper's Guide to Pesticides: The Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15 (By the way, the Environmental Working Group is a great organization to donate to or get involved with.  They are the major organization that funds advocacy for healthy food)


Food Coloring Health Risks for Children  (please pass this on to ALL parents)

How is our food produced?


The vast amount of processed foods produced by corporate food companies are simply different variations of corn, wheat, and soy, all government subsidized crops. These large scale corporate farming techniques jeopardize health in more ways than one.  Corporate farming, whether in the U.S. or abroad, uses mass amounts of chemicals in their products to increase crop yields and to make bigger, better, flawless versions of each crop.  However, the residues of these chemicals are left on the food we eat and have been proven to cause a number of serious health risks.  Corporate farming eventually ruins the soil and has created barren wastelands where nothing grows for decades.   The fertilizers and chemicals used in these techniques create water runoff that flows deep into our soil, water systems, lakes, rivers, and oceans, poisoning our water systems, poisoning the marine life (which we eventually consume), and creating dead zones in our oceans.  The meat industry produces more environmental toxins than any other industry. Finally, releasing genetically modified foods into the natural environment has led to breading of plant species that have already wiped out the diversification of corn species and could eventually leave no seed untouched, meaning there will no longer be any seeds which are NOT GMO in future generations.


Learn more about the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico

What does the dead zone look like from space?

Environmental Working Group's Guide to Safe Fish

"Livestock Impacts the Environment" - United Nations Article

Documentary: "The Future of Food" (talks about Genetic Modification) See Trailer

How are the workers who cultivate these crops treated?

The food industry continuously disrespects the quality of human life of the workers who cultivate the crops we eat.  American apathy has led to an "out of sight out of mind" philosophy when it comes to food.  Whether it is produced in the U.S. or not, the fresh foods we consume are often the result of a labor-intensive workforce of underpaid and mistreated employees.  For decades, the United States has worked diligently to privatize the natural resources of other countries, claiming to help their farms flourish and local jobs increase.  Much of these situations lead to slave-like labor where communities are kept at impoverished levels while the United States food corporations make billions.

The Seven Myths of Industrialized Agriculture

A story of Indian Rural Farms as a result of industrialized farming: Dispendable humans?

What is the impact of the trade and packaging of food having on our planet?

The wastefulness and pollution that comes from the food industry is atrocious.  We are eating apples from New Zealand, strawberries from Chile, and mangos from Mexico, all which come prepackaged in beautiful purple plastic netting or a convenient plastic carton.  The carbon output from shipping foods here and there is obviously contributing to the pollution of our environment.  What is more worrisome,  is the culture of packaging in our food products.  The amount of waste that is produced by food packaging leads to millions of tons of trash a year that will simply be shipped off to a landfill.  The nightmare of plastic has become a reality, as there is an island of plastic twice the size of Texas in the middle of the Pacific ocean.  What most people don't know is that, even though there is that little recycle sign on the plastic we buy, only 3-5% of plastic ever does get recycled.  Any other plastic that has been created since the inception of plastic, is either sitting in a landfill or slowly breaking down into smaller and smaller parts, poisoning our soil, water, and food chains.  This endless cycle of wasteful plastic use, especially in the food industry, must end immediately.
This is the packaging from the groceries I bought last night.  My boyfriend and I are going to take the Refuse plastic challenge and start living a life plastic free.  This is ridiculous!


This is just one of the many photos that Declan has taken while picking up trash in the local Minneapolis area.  It usually is always food wrappings and packaging, especially bits of plastic, he finds in the rivers and ponds.


The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Marine life consuming plastics

www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org

The Two Hands Project  take your two hands and for 30 min clean up your world (also look for them on facebook)

Documentary Declan made about all the trash he found at our local ponds Golden Valley Ponds
He found TONS of food trash left by others and washed through storm drains, plastic decomposing into the earth....

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