Our Garden

Our garden is progressing.
We have planted: corn, zucchini, squash, beans, watermelon, cantaloupe, and two kinds of tomatoes.

We dug out a large plot for the garden, but didn't use all the space. The other day we saw two quail happily settling into the soft earth to rest or lay a nest. We quickly opened the window and yelled at them. I felt bad and I hope they didn't wander to far, but didn't think we would co-exist well when it was time to water the garden.

Olivia helped me plant some of my seeds. She didn't love the muddy feet, but was willing to tolerate it, unlike her sister.

These pictures are old because now the garden is actually growing. A little bit of everything has popped out, but it looks like the corn is what has taken off the most.

Practice the Sabbath

J. Matthew Sleeth, MD is the author of "Serve God Save the Planet."

He was here in town a month or so ago. I missed most of his discussion but heard the question and answer time. So, when I heard someone ask, "So, what is the most important thing we should do to protect the planet?" I was pleasantly surprised by his answer. I was expecting any one of the hundreds of different pieces of advice we hear on the news, on the internet or in magazines. But it wasn't any of those. It was even better. Can you guess what his advice was?

Keep the Sabbath. Take a day of rest. Do you remember back when almost everything closed on Sundays? I'm old enough to remember. Only 7-11's were open. People didn't go shopping Sunday afternoon. People didn't go out to eat (ok, that's before my time). Families and friends hung out and above all RESTED. We don't know how to rest well these days and it seems like there is always something better we have to go do or buy.

If you go back to the original commandment it is really fun to look at. It is rooted in God's justice and love for ALL people and creation. Everything gets to rest. From the most important to the least important: the kings, their servants, the foreigners, the animals-they all had to rest. Everything and Everyone got a day to BE and not take advantage or be taken advantage of.

Today we still have servants and aliens. They're the ones with the minimum wage jobs. If I have to shop or eat out and decide to forgo my Sabbath, then they MUST forgo theirs. Obviously, if I choose to rest one day then a lot of energy is being saved. My car rests, I spend less money, I consume less food, and I think those things are good for my body and soul. But, for God, I also think it's about justice, and that is very good for my soul.

Genetics

I found out an interesting thing a few weeks ago. I went to San Diego with my mom and the girls for a great aunt's funeral. She was in WWII as a nurse in England. It was a military funeral, they played the taps (sorry if that's not the right way to say it) and presented one of her children with a flag. It was really an inspirational ceremony.

While I was there I learned more about my family on my mom's side. One of her cousins told me what she remembered of my grandma. (I never knew her well because she was not healthy prior to her death.) So, my mom's cousin said she remembered that my grandma always looked like she stepped off the cover of a Vogue magazine. She made all of her own dresses, hats, gloves and shoes to match.

So, now it all makes sense. What, you may ask. Well, now it makes sense to me that my oldest daughter will ONLY wear dresses. It makes sense that they have to be FANCY. And it makes sense when she cries for an hour and refuses to get dressed because of all the options she has NONE of the dresses are so "foofy" that they prevent her from going through the door. OH YES, we battled one day because she wanted a dress that was full and wide, so wide that she wouldn't be able to go through the door.

I've always wondered about her preferences. I consider myself easy-going and I know that many times I lack fashion sense or honestly just don't care. I don't feel like I created my girls to be as picky as they are about their clothing.

But now I'm definitely wondering if it's just in her genes!

Harvest for Hope

Harvest for Hope
By Jane Goodall





I found this book at the library when I was looking for a book about my children’s nutrition. While it didn’t answer all my questions in that regard, I still learned A LOT of information and also feel encouraged about how our family is eating and like we are trying to do what we feel is best. There was so much information in the book that I think everyone should know that I can’t share here, so I thought I would just share random facts from the book to maybe get people thinking, questioning, and maybe doing your own research.


A study done on children with similar backgrounds was done. One group lived in the foothills and the other lived in the valley closed to farms where pesticides were used. The children who lived in the agricultural valley had difficulty performing basic eye-hand coordination tasks. They couldn’t draw more than lines while the other children could draw people and they had poorer memory skills and stamina, were more prone to physical aggression and were less sociable and creative while playing. Page 43


The US regulations of milk allow pus cell concentrations in the milk, yes I said PUS! The US actually allows almost twice as much PUS in our milk than any other country in the world. The pus is caused by infections that are caused by growth hormones that increase the milk production and the size of the cow utters. Page 86


Growth hormones in farm animals is related to the buildup of estrogen in humans which some scientists believe explains why girls are maturing earlier and why sperm count in boys is decreasing. Girls who mature earlier are at greater risk of getting breast and other cancers. Page 86

Before the advent of chemical farming, the main cause of unnatural death for US farmers was farm accidents, but today it is at least five times more likely to be suicide. Page 39

Many Genetically Modified foods have been created to produce their own pesticides in EVERY cell! Page 58

A scientist by the name of Dr. Pusztai said he will never eat GM foods again after doing research with potatoes. Page 62

Food makes up 95 percent of our exposure to two highly dangerous carcinogens, dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), with the highest levels coming from animal products, especially liver and oily fish. Page 143

The average daily intake of dioxins in the U.S. in 1999 was more than 200 times higher than the EPA’s cancer risk guideline. Page 144

It is estimated that between one third and almost half of the world’s harvest is fed to animals to fatten them for human food. Page 145

A generation ago there were probably about 800 items in the average U.S. supermarket. Today, we can find between 30,000 and 40,000. Page 153 (Yet we’re not getting healthier)

A typical “fresh” food item in a North American household typically travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles. Page 154

The Rodale Institute calculated that America could comply with the Kyoto Treaty’s demand for a 7 percent reduction in greenhouse gases simply by making a full switch to organic farming. Industrial, monoculture agriculture uses around 30 percent more fossil fuel than organic. Page 221

Teenagers who regularly eat meals with their families get better grades and say they are happier with their present life and are more optimistic about their prospects for the future. They are also less likely to smoke, have substance abuse problems, become depressed or suicidal, or develop eating disorders. Page 260

Gallons of Water Required to Produce About 2 pounds of Food

Beef 26,400
Chicken 920
Soya beans 530
Rice 505
Maize 370
Sorghum 290
Alfalfa 235
Wheat 235
Potatoes 130

Page 260

I don’t remember the source but I’ve heard that the next wars will be fought over water.

I also wanted to share this, though I can’t find it in the book. Goodall mentioned a link between MSG and Asthma. MSG is hidden in most fast food and also most processed foods. It is listed under other “names” but is MSG. Also, a doctor friend said if we had problems with asthma to stop all dairy for three months and that they thought it could cure it. They did this with their son.


Must have Organics
The following are especially high in chemical residues:

Raspberries
Apples
Peaches
Cantaloupes
Cherries
Celery
Green Beans
Gapes and raisins
Potatoes
Spinach
Tomatoes
Winter squash
Strawberries

For more info see www.foodroutes.org, www.localharvest.org


Sorry these posts are so long.
Today I want to be a farmer...a good one.
We get our garden going tomorrow :).

Take Care All

Stirred

I don't know if you ocassionally learn something that shakes you up a bit, but that's what happened to me the other day.

Now, I know I should just be careful when Paul brings home a documentary from the library. He is willing to watch and learn about almost anything and that is great, but I'm not quite as good about watching something just for knowledge's sake and it sometimes not shaking me up a bit.

So that's what happened with this show we watched called "The Future of Food". I don't want to lose anyone who may be interested because of my inability to describe it accurately, so I firstly just want to suggest: WATCH IT!




What's it about? It's about the food we eat. Though it is called "The Future of Food", it is about the food we eat daily and how it was grown. It is about genetically modified foods that are grown primarily in the US and now around the world and about their questionable benefit to us as a food product. Corn, Soy, Canola and Cotton are the largest Genetically Modified crops and are in many foods that we eat. Corn is obviously in many of our foods, but I was suprised when I started looking to find that soy and soy lecithin are also in many foods, and cotton seed is used to make vegtable oil.

So, without getting too scientific and getting way beyond what I know this is what I learned is a "Genetically modified (GM) foods are foods produced from genetically modified organisms (GMO) that have had their DNA altered through genetic engineering. GM foods were first put on the market in the early 1990s. The most common modified foods are derived from plants: soybean, corn, canola, and cotton seed oil.[1][2]Controversies surrounding GM foods and crops commonly focus on human and environmental safety, labeling and consumer choice, intellectual property rights, ethics, food security, poverty reduction, and environmental conservation." I quoted Wikepedia, just to make sure I got it right.

Now, it all sounds so matter of fact and nice and scientifically packaged, but it's not so clean cut. The GMO's that have their dna altered to make them resisitant to insects actually kill the insects when the insect eats them. The plants are toxic! Instead of spraying a pesticide ON the plant the plant actually contains the pesticide IN it's genes in order to kill insects. So, I'm just wondering why would anybody in their right mind eat these plants?? I don't think anybody would. It's just that most people don't know.

These crops are dangerous for many other reasons, so you should watch the show.

Sometimes I hesitate to share these things. Not because I don't care, but honestly, if I get too "environmental" to some I fear that I'm going to isolate myself. But, I have lost sleep over this and I know a lot of you have made many health changes for yourselves and your kids and so I just want the information to be known and I hope not to be judged and don't place judgement if I'm listened to or not. Just get the facts and then do what you want with it.

So, with that I also want to say a few more things.

Most of the large food companies in the US use genetically modified foods in their food. Greenpeace has a website that lists the companies that use genetically modified foods and I checked it out and will list it here. I thought I would check out what I had in my cabinet. A few of the items I found were: wheat thins, Aunt Jemima syrup, rice a roni, cadburry mini eggs, nabisco graham crackers. So, it was alarming to me to find out that we eat (however small amounts) of insect killing toxins in virtually every meal we eat. Another food item on the list that really scares me was Infamil baby formula. Olivia used this for 6 months. So, I know that right now many moms are giving their young, vulnerable babies milk that was made with these genetically engineered foods.

I am no doctor, though the few I have talked to about this are also concerned. It seems to me like illnesses are increasing. Cancer, alzheimers, ADD, Autims, Asthma...I wonder if it isn't linked to the increased amount of toxins in our diet. GM foods were put on the market in 1994. That means that our children possibly could be recieving them nearly from birth.

Now, I have to say one more thing. The reason I feel I have to share all this is not because I feel like I'm on some kind of mission to avoid death. We're all going to die and I get that and am fine with that. What I don't like is that we are not well educated and the companies that make these scientific leaps with our food would be happy if we stayed in the dark. In other countries their governments have seen that it is important for them to label the foods as having a genetically modified ingredient. Our country does not label genetically modified food just like they do not plan on labeling the cloned meat that will soon (if not already) be on the market. I think that everyone needs to be given information and a choice.

One thing we can do is to try to eat organic if it is a possibility. The cost at the counter is more, but if you take into consideration what diseases you may be avoiding by buying it, the cost will eventually even out. Another thing that can be done to buy organic and help local farmers at the same time is to join a "Community Supported Agriculture" or "CSA". Which means you are buying locally grown organic produce and are helping yourself, the farmers and the environment.

So, for now, here are a few websites to look into if you're interested.

Find a local "CSA" organic farmer in your area:
www.localharvest.org
See what you're eating and if it contains genetically modified ingredients:
www.truefoodnow.org
From this website click on "shopper's guide"