Review of "Food, Inc"

Do you eat genetically modified food? Yes, you do, unless you grow and produce everything yourself. According to Food, Inc, which is now available on DVD, 70% of the processed food in the supermarket has genetically modified food in it. If you consume any soy products -- including "vegetable" oil -- there's a 90% chance that you're consuming genetically modified soy.

We went to the theater to see Food, Inc when it was released this past summer, and within a couple minutes, I was trying to remember if I had anything in my purse with which I could take notes. The information comes fast and furious in this documentary, so if you seriously want to know more about your food, you might want to plan to watch it at least a couple times before sending it back to Netflix. Then again, you might just want to buy it.

The movie relies heavily on information from Michael Pollan (author of Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food) and Eric Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation), who also narrate parts of the film. We are taken through commercial chicken farms and a pork slaughterhouse to see the plight of meat animals, as well as the workers in those facilities. It doesn't take long for the viewer to realize that poultry farmers are little more than indentured servants to corporate giants like Tyson. After taking out loans of half a million dollars or more to build their poultry houses, they have no choice but to raise chickens according to the corporation's rules -- and subsist on wages that hover around the poverty level. The deleted scenes on the DVD offer more of the interview with the poultry farmers, giving the viewer a better understanding of their plight.

Stories from a meat-packing plant were equally disturbing. At the largest pork slaughterhouse in the world, 32,000 hogs are slaughtered every day. Workers who handle pork all day long wind up with infections under their fingernails, which then fall off. In the deleted scenes, we hear about a 200-pound dead hog falling on a pregnant woman, who then had a miscarriage. Another worker tells of how there was not even a moment of silence before returning to work when a man was trampled to death by hogs. Because of the bad treatment of workers at the plant, most employees are now bussed in from a 100-mile radius around the facility.

We follow a family through a fast-food drive-through lane, as well as a supermarket and listen to them justify why they buy cheeseburgers for their daughters but not fresh fruit -- even though their young daughter begs for a pear in the grocery store. "It's too expensive." The father, who has Type II diabetes spends $130 for a bottle of 50 pills, and that's only one of his medications. They seem conflicted about whether a change in diet might actually help his condition, even though the evidence is quite clear. I personally took care of my father for two years before he died, and within a month after he moved in with me, he no longer needed any of his three different diabetes medications, and we kept his blood sugar under control with diet until his death. Type II diabetes used to be rare. Today, $1 out of every $5 spent on health care is spent on diabetic patients.

There is some good news though. There is a visit to Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in Virginia, where he raises pastured chickens and grass-fed beef. He talks about healing the land, our planet, and our bodies by switching to sustainable agricultural practices. One comment that resonated with me was when Salatin said that we should strive to have fewer sick people next year. That would be a worthy goal.

These are just a few highlights. I can't possibly cram all the info into a blog post, so if you're serious about healthier eating, I highly recommend this video.



If you enjoyed this post, you might also want to read my review of Fresh, another documentary released this year about our food system.

For more posts on real food, check out Real Food Wednesday.

Bad apples?

I'm always surprised when people with their own apple trees don't use the apples. They usually assume the apples are bad because they're not pretty on the outside. In other words, their apples don't look like the apples in the store. Well, that's kind of like comparing yourself to the supermodel that's been Photoshopped on the cover of the fashion magazines. Those apples look like that because they've been sprayed with pesticides and fungicides while on the tree. After they're picked, they're waxed so they're shiny and last longer. Organic apples are picked through, and only the prettiest make it to the stores, because produce managers know that people are prejudiced against ugly apples. The above photo shows you what a few of our Granny Smith apples look like this year. Although they're not perfect on the outside, most of them are delicious on the inside. Sometimes, part of the apple might be bad, but the rest of it is still perfectly edible, and once it's cut up and put into something like a pie or apple crisp, no one knows that it once had an Ugly Duckling past. Although you might think that organic apples are too expensive to buy, are you overlooking free apples in your own yard?

Forcing bulbs - time to get started!

If you're like me, you have a few spring bulbs that never found their way into the ground this fall. I always do! If I get everything planted, then I get overly optimistic and go out and buy more. And I repeat this exercise until I wind up buying more than I can actually plant. Luckily, a few years ago, I discovered how to force bulbs. It's an incredibly simple process! Savvy Gardener has some good advice about how to force bulbs, as well as the Minnesota Extension Service.

This is a picture of a tulip and daffodil that I forced a couple years ago. Although these articles say not to mix species because they might bloom at different times, I do it because I like to have a pot that just keeps blooming and blooming. And sometimes you do wind up with different varieties blooming at the same time, and it's really pretty.

Farm photo fun

Sarah, our apprentice, has taken a lot of very cool photos since arriving a couple weeks ago. I love this one! I wonder what Lizzie is saying? (Yeah, I know she's just chewing her cud, but it looks like she is saying something interesting.)

This picture of Jo seriously needs to have a thought bubble above it.

Katherine and Sarah have also had a great time taking pictures of each other.

I can't believe Katherine got into the creek -- she said the water was quite cold!


Sarah has been obsessed with horses most of her life and made fast friends with MidKnight. She's been riding for about 10 years and says he's the calmest horse she's ever known. Yes, she just hopped up on his back in the middle of the pasture.

Should raw milk be banned?

Last week, I tweeted a link to I drink raw milk, an article by Joel Salatin, and I commented that I liked the article, but the comments made me want to scream. Later that day, I received this response via Twitter:

mitoticspindle @antiquityoaks I'm all for small farms and sustainable agriculture, but I've gotten ill from raw milk--have to say I agree with the comments

Well, I've gotten ill from Vicodin and Tramadol and about five different non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines. Should we ban them? My husband got sick after eating a soy cheese pizza once. Should we ban that? In Illinois, they tried to ban church potlucks after people got sick from one, but they didn't get very far. My mother and uncle (and a few million other people) died from smoking cigarettes, but no one is willing to attempt to ban them, in spite of the fact that there is absolutely nothing good about cigarettes. Why do we think that it's okay for people to choose to use tobacco, and at the same time, we don't think people should be able to choose to buy raw milk? What about capitalism and our free market?

From reading some of the comments on Salatin's article, I've come to the conclusion that some people have no idea what pasteurization does to milk. People seem to think it is some highly scientific process that renders milk completely harmless -- and that milk is inherently contaminated. On the contrary, if milk has been pasteurized and is then handled incorrectly, it can become just as toxic as any other food that is handled incorrectly. Any food can make you sick if it's not handled properly. Remember the problems the U.S. had recently with peanuts and spinach? Has anyone suggested we ban them?

So, just in case you were wondering -- here's a primer on milk and pasteurization. Pasteurization was started because people were getting tuberculosis from cows through their milk. Today, 48 states in the U.S. are certified TB-free in cattle, and all 50 are TB-free in goats. There is an accurate and inexpensive TB test available to make sure your goats or cows don't have TB in case you're worried about it.

Milk is full of bacteria, and contrary to popular belief, this is not a bad thing. It's the basis of cheese and yogurt making. Milk is alive. Pasteurization kills it. Just as antibiotics indiscriminately kill good and bad bacteria in our bodies, pasteurization indiscriminately kills both good and bad bacteria in milk. How? By heating milk to 145 degrees and holding it there for 30 minutes, the vast majority of bacteria and other living organisms are killed. Ultra-pasteurized milk has been treated at 280 degrees, which kills everything instantly. Dairies like UP, because it means milk will not spoil for 45 days in an unopened carton, meaning they will have less waste, which equals more profit.

What's wrong with this picture? It's probably not a big deal to some people, but you cannot make cheese or yogurt with milk that has been ultra-pasteurized, even after adding cultures and rennet. It's just that dead. More important, however, is that some people can't drink pasteurized milk. This is often misdiagnosed as a lactose intolerance. Ask just about anyone with cows or goats, and they've been approached by people who need raw milk. Yes, they need raw milk. Some merely need raw milk if they're going to have milk in their diet at all, because they need the live cultures in the milk to help them digest it. But there are some people with severe medical problems, and raw milk is one of the only foods they can digest. Some of them are able to find a farm where they can buy raw milk, but others wind up moving to the country and starting their own herd of dairy goats or cows. Every year, someone buys goats from me because they need raw milk. Can you imagine having a loved one so ill that you'd be willing to leave your current life, move to a new home, and begin living a completely different lifestyle?

I use raw milk a lot. I even make cheese and buttermilk with it. It seems pointless to pasteurize milk for mozzarella when it's going to be put on a pizza or lasagna and baked, because heating it will essentially pasteurize it. Using milk in cooking also pasteurizes it, especially when you make something like pudding where you're boiling it. Ironically, I've only had one batch of cheese and one batch of yogurt go bad during processing -- both were from pasteurized milk. Assuming that milk is safe because it's pasteurized is a bad assumption. People can get sick from pasteurized milk. So, why don't we just ban milk completely? And while we're at it, we could also ban cigarettes.

Nothing replaces common sense -- not even legislation.

For more posts on real food, visit Fight Back Friday.

Soap, biofuels, food and the rain forests

Everyone reading this blog, including yours truly, is contributing to the destruction of rain forests in Indonesia -- yes, even if you (like me) buy shade-grown coffee. The culprit now is palm oil and palm kernel oil. Apparently, the demand for palm oil is so high that rain forests are being leveled to make room for palm plantations. How are we all contributing? Because, we buy food, soap, and cosmetics made with palm and palm kernel oil, which is also being used to create biofuels in some parts of the world. I recently came across this disturbing information when researching the benefits of various oils in soap.

Although I love my soap, there is always room for improvement, and I know some oils have various healing properties, which was why I started searching for more information. Among the changes I'll be making with my soap, I'm going to create a new recipe that includes avocado and castor oils, and when my current supply of palm and palm kernel oils run out, I won't be buying more. After reading several articles on the topic, my conscious does not allow me to continue using something that is not being sustainably produced -- especially when I purchase a 50-pound block -- and ultimately I have options. I can use other oils to make my soap.

Learning about palm oil and rain forest destruction has make me realize another important aspect of buying locally as much as possible. If Indonesia were not half a planet away from Illinois, I'd have known about this a long time ago. Illinois does not produce a lot of high-quality oils (corn and soybean oil don't make great soap), but I'm going to look into the possibility of using lard from our pigs, since I know its history. That's not as simple as it sounds, because it would involve rendering the fat, which I've never done before -- however, as you all know, lack of experience has never stopped me from trying anything. I've also decided to start using organic oils when I can find them. So far I've found organic olive, sunflower, and coconut oils, which are three of the most popular oils used in soapmaking. As they say, back to the drawing board!

If you'd like to learn more about palm oil and the rain forests, you can read The guilty secrets of palm oil by a UK newspaper or The cost of the biofuel boom by Pulitzer-winning author Tom Knudson or The Palm Oil Crisis by the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado.

What's for breakfast?

It's no secret that most breakfast cereals are bad for you, but now consumers can get a better understanding of exactly how bad they are, as well as how they stack up with each other. If you can't find your cereal listed here, there is a cereal calculator here where you can input data from the "Nutrition Facts" on the label, and the calculator will give it a score, which tells you how healthy it is -- or not. It's especially sad (although not surprising) that the least nutritious cereals are those marketed towards children.

So, what can you do for breakfast? When I searched my blog, I realized I've talked about this a lot in the past, so instead of reinventing the menu, here are links to some of my breakfast suggestions from past posts:

It's winter now, and I'm enjoying oatmeal or grits several times a week. Before you say, "Eeyew!" and head off to read another blog, however, check out these great ideas to make that gray goo delicious.

Biscuits are one of my favorite breakfast foods, and they take less time to mix up than it takes for my oven to heat up. Here's my recipe for quick, yummy biscuits.

Hash brown potatoes have always been one of my favorite breakfast foods, and shredding a small potato takes less time than you think.

French toast is another super easy, delicious, nutritious, and inexpensive breakfast. It's especially good with dense homemade bread that has the body to soak up the egg and milk mixture. Since it takes the same amount of time to make one or two loaves of bread, I'll often make a double batch for dinner one evening, planning to make French toast for breakfast the next day.

And no breakfast list would be complete without a recipe for buttermilk pancakes, which is also quick, easy, and inexpensive. If your children don't like them, throw in a few chocolate chips, and they'll still be less expensive and more nutritious than commercial breakfast cereals.

I'm sure all of you have ideas for good breakfasts, so don't be shy -- share your ideas in the comment section!

For more blog posts on real food, check out Kelly the Kitchen Kop. For other money-saving ideas, check Life as Mom, and for more recipes, check out Foodie Friday and Friday Food.

Meet Sarah

Sarah arrived Sunday afternoon, November 1, to start her three-week apprenticeship on the farm. She's taking a break from college to see if she's interested in pursuing a degree and career in sustainable agriculture. As a vegetarian, she fits in great (our daughters are vegetarians) and has already learned to make mozzarella and ricotta cheeses. She got up bright and early Monday to start learning to milk goats. Throughout the week, she met all the different animals and started sharing in their care. Friday, she started learning to spin wool into yarn. I just love the lumpy-bumpy yarn that new spinners create.

Sarah and I had a great time last Monday afternoon trying to cross the creek with pans of grain when the goats had escaped from their pasture. They met us the moment we stepped onto dry land. Of course, they wanted the treasures we possessed and proceeded to jump on us and walk in front of us as we tried to encourage them to go back to their pen. Somehow we made it to our destination without tripping or spilling the feed, which we had taken over there for the sole purpose of enticing them back into their pasture, where they will be safe from predators.

Saturday, Molly escaped from her pasture and went across the creek to visit with the goats. I had just been talking about how we needed to work with the cows on halter training some more. That skill would have come in handy Saturday morning. Instead, Mike, Katherine, Sarah, and I tried all sorts of tricks to capture her. I eventually got her to follow me as I pretended not to care whether or not she followed me -- and I just happened to be holding alfalfa cubes behind my back as I walked away from her.

Sarah really likes Pearl, our bottle-baby goat, and is wishing she could take her back with her to the Chicago suburbs when she leaves shortly before Thanksgiving. I can hardly believe a week has already passed. We've had a great time teaching and learning from each other, and I'm hoping the next two weeks don't go by too fast.

To hear more about Sarah's adventures, you can read her blog, The Greener Sheep.

You don't like dark turkey meat?

I never liked dark turkey meat growing up, and then I didn't eat commercially raised meat for 14 years. Now I eat only our homegrown turkeys, and it took me a long time to bring myself to try the dark meat, because I remember thinking that it tasted terrible. After writing about heritage turkeys a couple weeks ago, a light bulb went on in my head. Why do we treat dark turkey meat as if it were the same as the breast meat? It's different! Not all chicken recipes work equally well with dark and white meat, so why should we expect to be able to just dig into a turkey leg or thigh as if it were a piece of breast meat?

So, Jonathan and I got crazy with the two turkey legs we had in the refrigerator. We looked for recipes that worked well with pork, beef, and chicken, thinking that they should also transfer well to the dark turkey meat. And we were right! The first thing we did was a pineapple chicken recipe using a turkey leg and thigh that had been cooked in simmering water much like we cook a stew hen. The next day we made turkey and mushrooms with gravy. As you can see from the picture of the pineapple turkey, it looks a lot like chipped beef, and I really thought that it tasted more like beef than any other type of meat. If we had added a chopped green pepper, it would have tasted like a pepper steak recipe from a Chinese cookbook.

I'm kind of embarrassed to say that I used to cringe at the thought of having to deal with the dark meat on a turkey, and most of the time, I'd stick it in left-over containers, and my husband would take it to work for his lunch. But those days are gone! Now I'm excited about trying other beef and pork recipes with my turkey legs. I'll no longer think of it as second fiddle to the breast meat. It's uniquely delicious and is just as versatile as the breast meat. In fact, I'm starting to think I might actually like the dark meat more.

For more posts on real food, check out Fight Back Friday, and for more recipes, see Foodie Friday.

Using vermicompost

To collect my vermicompost, I use a spoon to scoop a little off the top. I do this so I don't accidentally pick up any worms. After all, I want them to stay in the worm bin to continue eating and pooping.I put the vermicompost into a gallon jug. After I've added five or six spoonfuls to the jug, I add water and let it sit for a day or two. This picture was taken as soon as I mixed it up. It gets much darker with time as the vermicompost dissolves.Currently I'm using it to water my tomato and pineapple plants that had previously been on the deck during the summer. Now they're in my dining room in front of the sliding glass door. The tomato plant is scrawny, but it's alive, which is more than I can say for the tomatoes in the garden, which all succumbed to a late blight. The pineapple is doing surprisingly well. I tried growing a pineapple plant a couple years ago, and it did not grow anywhere near this big this fast. I feel confident that the vermicompost is making the difference. I never used any fertilizer or any kind of supplement with the previous pineapple plant. If you want to know how I started the pineapple plant, you can check out my post from May. It's even grown a lot since I last updated you in August.

When I start seeds in my basement in January, I'll be watering them with the vermicompost tea. Of course, I'll let you know how it goes.