got milk?

i've never really wanted to know much about where my food comes from. ever since my short stint as a vegetarian in high school, i have been pretty sure that if i looked into i'd probably have issues with being a carnivore. ignorance is bliss, right?

a few weekends ago i finally sat down and watched food inc.. wow! if you haven't seen it... i am not even sure i would recommend it (i mean- rent it now). it did exactly what i thought it would. it confirmed all the reasons that i am suspicious of mainstream grocery stores, it supported why i care so much about eating organic, and it created a whole new heap of problems for me. it also made me start to have some serious questions about fellow consumers.


i made it a point to speak to the butcher in several of the "mainstream" grocery stores that i have been checking out. it was interesting! the overall conclusion was that they have tried to sell more organic beef, chicken, pork, etc but that it doesn't sell. more than one butcher said that it is too expensive and that the average consumer isn't interested.


isn't interested? after i picked my jaw up off of the floor i gave some serious thought to that. in the middle of a health care crisis nationwide, we consumers, ought to make it our business to be more interested. we are only hurting ourselves if we don't make it our business to connect the dots between what the animals we eat ingests and our own personal health. it is a scary thought to realize that "the average consumer" (assuming the butcher is right with his analysis) doesn't care about this.


a few weeks ago, our family visited some local relatives up near sacramento (i should insert that we had an awesome time and that they were way generous and made our crazy family feel very much at home). across the street from their house is a dairy farm. ahhh... the heart of america.


when i think of a dairy farm, my mental picture and reality aren't really in sinc. and while it was fun for the kids to see the cows, it made this momma kind of insane. the cows were packed into small fenced in "cages" if you will. there wasn't a blade of grass in sight. in fact, the bottom of the area was covered in cow dung. no joke, they were standing ankle deep in their own feces and the feces of their cell mates. it was foul.

it even made the kids a little bit uncomfortable.

as it should. we should all be uncomfortable that the food we eat is raised in such filth. we should also be uncomfortable with the fact that our food is pumped with corn, antibiotics and junk to fatten it up. and once again, we should connect the dots. is it any wonder that we are becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics?

so many people that i know say that they can't afford to eat organic foods. and while i recognize the huge impact that eating organic has on the family budget, and while i am not here to judge your personal values, i wish more people would think about the challenges that we face if we don't start "voting with our dollars". i believe that if more and more people rejected the "food" that is offered to us in our local groceries, we would begin to see a shift in the way that farmers farm.

i hate blogging about such political topics, but in this climate (where health care is about to change in a dramatic way) i believe we can't afford to not address this issue. certainly, what we eat and the health of our bodies are very much connected.

and i'm not even addressing the cruelty factor...

seriously, this just isn't right? now, every time i see a glass of milk my mind is flooded by the image of cow dung. i know that it isn't in the milk, but isn't there a better way? won't you join me in making it our business to care where our food comes from?