Food Democracy .. or lack thereof
Democracy consists of four key elements: a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; the active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic li fe; protection of the human rights of all citizens; a rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens.”-Larry Diamond
On a smaller scale democracy is really a freedom of choice based on information. For example, in Switzerland pretty much anyone can file a proposal about anything and get people to vote on it. It a lengthy process but its legit and it works.
And now lets look at what food is promoted to feed our children, and based on what information…
Did you ever get a letter describing what the options are? A letter describing pros and cons of boxed cereals versus lets say simple oats or an egg? Did you have a chance to vote?
You didnt?
I thought so.
So nobody told you that those boxed cereals that give toys, promise muscles, pink cheeks, regular poo and a bikini body in a week are made from over-hybridized grains, extruded at super high temperatures, rendering it as useful as the cardboard they are packed in? Sugar and synthetic vitamins are added and proudly listed on the bright box. Commercials are blaring at your kids “oh how fun is it to listen to cocopops pop!” in that ultra-heated pasteurized dead milk that the previous commercial was singing about.
Food processing industry is one of the biggest industries in the world, because they can make lots of shit from nothing, package it nicely and feed it to us. Or lots of nothing from to nothing – try to fill up a 14-year old with Kellogs Special K – 1 box lasts two days. Why? Because there is nothing in it!
Going back to democracy – did YOU get to vote on who decides what to put on your plate?
It happened a long time ago, but not long enough for us to forget everything we or our parents and grandparents know.
I remember a conversation with my father-in-law after he watched a docu on intensive cow farming – he grew up a country boy and naturally assumed all cows grazed happily in the field and produced happy milk delivered by the local milkman in glass bottles in a little van going ding-dong. The change happened seemlessly, gradually over the years, no milkman, no glass bottles, milk is homogenized, pasteurized or even UHT, cows are standing on rotating platforms, alternating between some sort of intensive feed and milking machines (cow Matrix?) He was so shocked… He recalled “the top” (the cream) of the milk and wondered where it has gone?
Seemlessly, gradually this change happened everywhere. Bread bakers used to have to start work at 3 am to tend to dough that they started the night before. Then “we” discovered additives that mimic the long elaborate process and now there are mere hours between when wheat enters the factory and the bread leaves to the consumer, sliced and packed in plastic.
We have embraced the convenience, who wouldnt! But we were never informed of consequences of going from slow to fast food processing… Vitamin and nutrient defficiencies, causing chronic conditions, sky rocketed during the last decades.
Gluten intolerance is a big topic nowadays – while gluten is pre-digested by lactic acid bacteria in naturally fermented bread, it needs time, it needs someone to get up at 3 am. Gluten has also changed with hybridization of wheat, ancient varieties of wheat have a different molecular structure of gluten, more easily digestible. So we “chose” to give up both and ended up with a product that makes us sick.
Vegetable oils are touted as THE fats to use. Do you know what happens after the cold-pressed extra-virgin oil is made? There is still quite a lot of oil left in the pressed grains and seeds, so it is extracted chemically by using industrial strength solvents such as hexane. Hexane is then rinsed out to a certain degree, but some of it is allowed to stay in, AND its not required to declare it if its below the limit. Moreover due to heavy processing these cheap vegetable oils go rancid and build free radicals during processing and need to be bleached and deodorized, so you dont puke when you open the bottle.
So you may say, ok, hexane is below the limit, the hormones and antibiotics in my milk are below the limit, the additives in my bread are below the limit, the pesticides in my veg are below the limit, I dont know what rancid is, free-radicals are below the limit …. and what about the SUM?
The sum is the you have no power and no control and you get sick.
The solution is going back to basics and question everything.
Its not as hard as it sounds, its actually much easier if you have a solid belief and understanding of what a whole real food is. There are no ingredients or labels on a cucumber, just make sure its reasonably local and responsibly grown. And you know what, you can have a cucumber for breakfast! And a steak! And we used to, who told us that it should be cereal ot muesli or pancakes? Think about that, who told you? Why did you believe?
