Next year, it's be organic and free trade chocolate though. Or one of those $7 chocolate bars from French Broad :)
I'm re-educating myself lately on the asshatrickery that is the food industry, and the knowledge is so eye-opening. I get the newsletters from the Organic Consumers Association, and I send the emails telling Washington or Big Food that they're douchebags, and I try to shop more carefully. But you have to look deeper. I didn't know that Alexia Foods was owned by ConAgra. Their sweet potato bites are a nice go-to option when you want fries, but hate the thought of Ore-I-vebeensprayedtowithinaninchofmylife-DA. But I'm not contributing any more to a company that panders to the organic community with those products while also pouring millions into the campaign against GMO labeling.
I was cooking and prepping some Tyson breasts the other day (a hand-me-down from the MIL's deep freeze - believe me, I don't buy Tyson since watching Food Inc.), and couldn't help wondering if the chickens in question died from slit throats in the killing cones, or from 2 broken legs because they couldn't support the weight of those ridiculous breasts, that have been bred to get that big to feed the American public in a cost-efficient manner. Can't quite say no, thank you when the MIL brings them up on her visits, but maybe they need to go to one of the many food banks in the area next time. Because I'm finding I'm really over being so dependent on, and catering to, an industry that could be killing us.
There are those that say, yea, but if you boycott every food that has ethically pissed you off, that'll 86 most of the aisles of the supermarket.
Guess what? That's not a bad thing. The walls of the supermarket are where the real food is. And I want to eventually provide for my own family anyway.
I was already reading the OCA stuff and thinking about this today, when I got word that we just lost another family member to cancer. And as I think about it, the sadness that I'm feeling is awash in anger. We have to do better. This person didn't have genetics on her side; her mother passed from cancer at a horribly young age...but I also have to wonder how much of the standard American diet is to blame. How much Big Pharma hurts rather than helps, inoculating us against bugs we may not even get and making bugs worse inadvertently (I'm one of those "life finds a way" people, who thinks that all this antibacterial lotion we're using is just going to make the bacteria bigger and stronger eventually).
I'm not anti-vaccinations...I totally dig that we have the science to all but eliminate diphtheria, polio, and some of the other big baddies. But the system's so broken. I don't appreciate being told that insurance won't cover the shingles vaccine in anyone under the age of 65, because statistically it's worse when older folks get it. I already had it, which means my body's more inclined to have it again, it'll get worse every time, and the vaccine could decrease the intermittent nerve pain I have now from the first time I caught it. Yet I would have to slog through a pile of paperwork and pay through the nose to get the vaccine. Doesn't make sense...but also moot while we're still insurance shopping.
I have that interview tomorrow for a retail sales spot at a local farm. I want it so badly....I'll study for it tonight, so that hopefully I'm coherent with my interviewer tomorrow, because my enthusiasm could make me a babbling imbecile. We're talking a 40-minute commute, $9 an hour, 2 days a week, and the chance to sell good local food and get manure on my shoes. I'd be in frickin' heaven!
Send some good vibes, y'all!
Image snitched from here.
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