When a Tomato is a Tomato

Besides killing a variety of species, introducing diseases into our food system and creating seed monopolies, what else do genetically modified organisms do?

Genetically modified organism or seeds owned and sold to American farmers by companies such as Monsanto, are our food system. Farmers buy the seeds annually, plant the crops, harvest and sell the produce, grain, whatever to food manufactures. There is nothing farm fresh about the tomatoes you pick up at the local super market. That tomato has more than likely been bought and sold more than 4 or 5 times, between many middle people/companies and has traveled on average 3000 miles from farm to your table or better yet food chain restaurant. Mom and pop restaurants that purchase food from distributors are no exception to this rule.

I left the house this morning early, without packing my lunch. I had no idea that I would be gone until 2 pm. By noon, I was starving, having not had breakfast. I pulled over a national chain restaurant and ordered a veggie wrap and cheddar broccoli soup. The wrap was packed full of veggies. Tomatoes, olives, lettuce, peppers, etc.

It's January and I live in New England. No local tomatoes. What was I thinking? Tomatoes in January?

Thanks to GMO's and cheap fossil fuels, America (I) has become accustomed to having tomatoes year round. But at what cost? It's not just the waste of said fossil fuels, the loss of biodiversity or health risk. What about taste?

We are becoming more and more accustomed to bland food. Maybe that's why super markets, restaurants and drive thrus stock so many tasty dipping sauces and spreads. Manufactured flavors. No wonder kids prefer chips and candy to fresh fruits and vegetables. They taste better.

So what to do during the winter in New England? Eat flavorful (as local as possible) winter veggies. Boiling up some super tasty rutabagas now.

I am an Oilaholic

Hi! My name is Calyb and I am an alcoholic. Yup a meeting makers make it, 12 stepper.

Step 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and our lives had become unmanageable.

Easily, I can replace alcohol with oil. I am addicted to oil and am completely powerless over it. The way I transport myself, heat and cool my home, cook my food, purchase my food, write this blog post, flush my toilet, shower, brush my teeth. Actually, in what way am I not using oil? About the only thing we as humans do with out oil, is breath. Maybe I should say Americans, but more and more the earth is developing and people are becoming more and more oil dependent.

What's most interesting to me is how something much larger than I (the government and big business...ssshhh), have allowed us all to believe that being oil dependent is progress and best for our economy. Similar to how the alcohol branders like you to believe that the best way to relax and have fun is to drink and that everyone has the ability to choose to drink in safety.

I know how to treat my alcoholism. I go to meetings, work the steps with my sponsor, talk to another alcoholic, but how do I recover from my oilism? Is there a big book the lays out the twelves steps of recovery? Are there support groups where I can talk about the way oil impacted my life and what I am doing today to recover from my addiction? Should I consider reaching out and asking my fellow oilaholics for help or even a sponsor?

In Alcoholics Anonymous, the 12 steps are not 12 distinct changes I make and then are therefor recovered. The 12 steps are a new way of life. In most cases, you go through them in order the first go around (however long that takes)and then they become principles that become a part of your daily life.

When I think about my oilism, I think about very absolute changes I need to make in my life. But I wonder if I would be a bit more successful by applying the principles of AA to this aspect of my life as well. What would that look like?

1. Accept the fact that I am addicted to oil and it's a part of everything I do
2. Come to believe that I can not do it alone
3. Make a decision to turn my will and life over to the care of my higher power
4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of my oil eating habits
5. Admit to my higher power, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature
of my wrongs
6. Be ready and willing to have my HP remove these short comings.
7. Humbly asked HP to remove our shortcomings.
8. Make a list of all natural things I had harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
9. Make direct amends (changes)to above said wherever possible, except when to do
so would injure them or others.
10. Continue to take personal inventory and when I am wrong, promptly admit it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with
HP praying only for knowledge of good will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to
carry this message to oilaholics, and to practice these principles in all our
affairs.

So, here is what it boils down for me;

I was not successful staying away from a drink on my own and without a program of support and recovery. I could not just say, I am never going to drink again. Just like I can not say, I will never use oil again.

Peak Oil and Climate Change are two very scary realities for me. Overwhelming realities. I can easily get depressed, frustrated and defeated by it when I try to bite off too much at one time. A day a time. Acceptance. I am much more successful adopting new principles into my life when I take the 12 step approach. First recognizing, then asking for help and spiritual guidance, and going through the process of understanding and becoming willing to make changes, also allowing room for set backs or bumps along the road. For me it can not be a "be all, end all" proposition.

I believe it is a common frustration among people that are become acutely more aware that the state of our planet and humanity are at stake.

Relax. Don't struggle. Easy does it. First things first. Be a part of the solution, not the problem.

Strength in Numbers

Last night I watch an episode of Frontline, titled "Poisoned Waters". Frontline is a PBS news program that covers a variety of topics from the environment to the war in Iraq, and is typically known for telling the truth, even when it hurts. This program was obviously about the water quality in America, but it also spoke a lot about how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was originally founded back in 1970.

In 1969, college students across the country came together to organize the first national Earth Day. The event took place on April 22th, 1970 and people showed up by the millions. 20 million Americans to be exact. This was and still is the largest protest ever held on American soil. 20 MILLION AMERICANS!

With 20 million Americans collectively calling upon our government, we started to see results. The EPA was established and finally, American Industry was being called upon and held accountable for their actions and impacts on public health and the earth.

I think this is amazing and I start to wonder why we don't see more demonstrations of this size today. Is it that the world is healthier and these kick starting protest are no longer needed?

When I think even deeper about it, I realize there is still an Earth Day. Every year in April hundreds of millions of people across the globe get together to call our governments into action. I have seen them on MTV and even one in person a couple of years back at some professional football field in NY. There were rock stars there, beer trucks, plastic cups and a few display tables out front where you could sign up to be on some environmental nonprofits mailing list.

I wonder if the Earth Day of 2009 or 2010 does more harm then good?

And I know smaller, still grassroots organizations and movements are out there, but I wonder why we don't see them in the press. I wonder why their grassroots vigils are not getting people out there by the millions in support?

Perhaps I just feel guilty for having skipped one tonight. (It's 20 something outside and the wind is howling). When I watch programs like Frontline or movies like "The Future of Food", I feel like everyone should be watching them. Everyone should want to watch and learn this information. I guess I think if people did, they would want to make dramatic changes in their life to change the future of our planet and our people.

And I guess for me there's still a lot of guilt that I am not doing enough. More and more scientific evidence is telling us, dramatic change is the only way, but I don't see dramatic changes in the way we live our lives collectively. I haven't made that many drastic changes. Saying I do my part or every little bit counts by not using plastic bottles or bags at the grocery, is not enough.

Why Blog? (and gratitude)

So I realized yesterday that if anyone was reading my blog (and I believe I have perhaps one reader) that I might sound like a Southern Baptist preacher, threatening Armageddon.

Why am I blogging?

Over the last year, I have been purposefully reading a lot about our environment, mostly in terms of industrialized food production and alternatives. When I read, I do not always retain. Talking to people about my discoveries help, but writing is much more efficient. The bonus is having an online journal, I can access no matter where I am, so long as there is a computer and the internet. Reason #1.

Reason #2. I think this may become my life's work. I feel called to learn more about it and educate. My mom told me once that when I was 8, I declared God spoke to me and told me to recycle. So, if I can convince a person to read this from time to time and they learn a little tid bit that perhaps encourages them to no longer purchase bottled water, then I have made an impact. That's my ego I guess, but what good is knowledge if it is not shared.

Reason #3. I want to share my vegetarian adventures. Cooking and eating is a passion of mine and I love to read similar blogs. I promise to be a bit less bleak and offer a variety of post in the future. Recipes, pictures, etc.

Sunday is gratitude day for me and this week, boy is my gratitude plate full. I am alive, eating healthy, been to the gym 3 times in the last 3 days, have a life full of wonderful friends and family (that I absolutely love and adore), AND, AND, AND.....

I finally have a garden plot!!! An amazing garden plot and an absolutely fabulous friend to share it with! I am super excited about the 2010 growing season and I have all winter to research and learn, with a great friend. Can life get any better?

Whoever controls the seeds, controls the food.

While eliminating industrialized meet in your diet is one way to do the earth a favor, avoiding industrialized farming is even better. I recently ran across the film The Future of Food, an eye opening film about GMO's (genetically manufactured organisms), seed patents, food politics and how this effects human health.

In an attempt to help spread awareness, I am going to attempt to paraphrase some of the films high points.

In 1978 the first living organism was taken to the United States Patent office by General Electric. The organism was an oil eating microbe that was promised to help in a crisis such as an oil spill. The US Patent office rejected the idea of patenting the living organism on moral grounds. That had been their stance on the patenting of life for over 200 years.

General Electric, not satisfied with the results went to the Supreme Court and sued the US Patent Office. The Supreme Court heard the case and voted in favor of GE by one vote. The microbe was never used, as it was found to have an appetite for more than just oil and dangerous to the environment. However, the court case changed the patent law forever.

During the Regan administration the patenting of life went into over drive with companies patenting animals, human genes and even human body parts. During the economic struggles of the 1990's, the pesticide industry began to bail out and purchase seed companies and seeds. Whether they were genetically modified or not seeds were being patented by the 1000's. Monsanto, today North America's largest seed and pesticide corporation, spent 8 billion dollars during this time purchasing seed companies and patenting over 11,000 variations of seeds. As an added fyi; the people of the United States and Congress have never been given the chance to vote on whether or not to allow the patenting of life.



So what's wrong with patents and GMO's? Well the picture and title should give you a clue, but to explain further....

If a seed is patented, it can not be sold by anyone but the one who owns the patent. A farmer can not grow a crop of canola, harvest, save the seeds and sell the seeds to his neighboring farmers. That's the first trick.

The second half of it is the GMO. Scientist have the ability to genetically alter the behaviors of plants, fruits, vegetables, and so on. One example is the flounder (yes the fish) gene being mixed with the common tomato so that the tomato can live longer in colder temperatures. Scientist have made it possible to shut down the natural reproductive qualities of seeds and plants. They have been nicknamed "suicide seeds". Every year, a farmer has to purchase seed and to top that off, whatever brand of seed you buy must be fertilized and protected via pesticides by the same brand of chemicals.

What's wrong with Genetically Modified products in our food system? Who knows, really. At the University of California one professor has started a program to study the importance of diversification within plant life with a budget of 2K per year. That's 2K against the more than 26 million spent a year on GMO testing and research. In fact, some studies that have proved the harmful effects of GMO's in our food supply have been suspended, like the one that proved depressed immune systems in rats. In 2001, a public interest group revealed the harmful effects of Starlink's GMO corn product and had millions of dollars of taco shells and corn chips pulled off the shelves, unfortunately not in time to prevent a health scare. Dr. John Losey at Cornell University found that 40% of his butterflies died that were fed GMO corn pollen. Surprisingly, he still has a job. Many have been fired for much less.

We can expect nothing but the unexpected with genetically modified foods. To genetically modify a living organism requires a cell invasion. Invasion by viruses or bacteria must occur for the gene to accept the new particle. Once that particle is put in, antibiotics must be used to protect the mutation. So food pumped full of viruses, bacteria and antibiotics. Doesn't sound healthy to me.

But don't expect the FDA to protect your health. GMO's are classified as GRAS (generally recognized as safe) and not in need of testing by law. In the United States, food manufactures are not required to label food as being genetically modified. In 1999 the "Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act" was introduced to the House, but we have yet to vote on it. In Europe, the people were given the chance to vote. 75% voted against GMO's and for labeling. Today 15 European nations have enacted a similar "Right to Know Act" and while GMO's still exist in their super markets, the people have the option to purchase them or not. Thank goodness public interest groups have public health in mind.

I always thought industrialized farming was hazardous to human health, but I had no idea how politically involved it was. I could go on for a long time, but you could always watch the movie for yourself. It's available on hulu here.

The Protein Debate

My biggest concern in going veg is my protein intake. In years past, anytime I have maintained a successful weight, it's been on a balanced diet of lean animal protein sources, vegetables and very few whole grains, if any at all. So, I am a bit fearful of adding to my waste line with this. There's also the whole mental crash between meals. Carbohydrates naturally have more sugar then animal protein sources. So even if I am eating the healthiest of the healthiest whole grains, rices, beans and veggies, my sugar intake could increase.

*I should just interject here and say for the last 2 years, I have not really paid close attention to what I have been eating, in terms of macro nutrients (the balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates). However, I know how to do it and with a new way of eating will track and share. So as you are reading this, please do not envision six pack abs :)



So what to do about protein? Vegetarians will argue if you eat enough vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes, you will get the protein that you need. I can attest to nuts being a great mid morning or afternoon snack to help fight hunger and keep the mind sharp. But I wonder about not having a big protein source at the major meals. Animal proteins have been a part of my day to day since my baby teeth started popping through.

The American Dietetic Association claims that it is possible. Vegetarian Times stated that in 1900's the recommendation from within the medical community was no more than 100 grams of protein a day. Now Americans are consuming twice that number and the advice from the FDA is to eat as much animal protein as you want in a day, including dairy and eggs.

*I should note that many of the Food and Drug Administration advisers and board members either currently or formerly were employed by poultry, beef and milk associations and manufactures.

Are we Americans eating more meat because the high protein, low carb diet is best for our bodies, even though 30% of our population is obese (compared to 14% international average). When heart and kidney disease, cancer and kidney stones are on the rise, is a high protein diet, commonly associated with these illnesses really the best option for me?

I think it's just going to take more effort on my part. Habits take 21 days to create, so if I can stay vigilant for the next three weeks, I might have a shot at creating a new way of life for myself. Here are some rules I have created to live by for week one:

1. No meat
2. Egg whites are okay, as long as they are cage free organic (local if possible) and used in moderation. Not as my #1 protein source.
3. Yogurt. I can not give it up. 1/2 cup serving per day. Local source.
4. No milk. I will use almond milk.
5. I have to have vegetables or fruit at every meal, preferably fresh, but frozen and sometimes canned is okay too.
6. No processed foods containing High Fructose Corn Syrup (that means NO donuts at the morning meeting!)

I have software where I can enter in my food consumption and post my total caloric intake, the macro nutrient balance and total vitamins and minerals consumed. I will start flashing some screens to bring some color on this blog and perhaps some photos.

Tomorrows fun new recipe - Brussel Sprouts with chopped walnuts and dried cranberries.

Why go Veg?

Why should I consider giving up my beloved burgers, cheese, yogurt and eggs?

Why?

Because it’s not just my health that’s at risk anymore. Well, it hasn’t ever really been about my personal health, so much as it has been about the health of the human race and the earth we live on.

Without even knowing it, we American’s are steadily and increasingly eating away at the health of our planet, the place we all must call home. Most of us are oblivious to the simple acts of industrialization, over production and pollution wrecking havoc and potentially ending life as we know it. However the evidence does not lie and all we have to be is willing to open our senses and see what’s happening around us.

I think more often, people are becoming aware and are beginning to understand the devastating effects, but have no idea how to help. Do we donate money to a green energy charity? Change light bulbs in our homes? Purchase a Prius? How much of an impact can one person, one family make? The problem is so huge, how can me recycling my plastics bottles really make a dent in the grand scheme of things?

It’s frustrating. Like many people, I have had that defeatist idea. If I can’t do it all, I am not going to do anything. Or when I try to speak out against industrialized farming and for local economies, I am looked at like I have three heads. Did I mention my brother in law is one of those industrialized farmers? Well, he is and I love him and he provides for my sister and my niece and nephew like any family man. It just kills me that the comfortable life they live directly destroys the earth and the health of humanity. I did mention I love him and would obviously never begrudge him and his family prosperity or should I at the expense of others?

I grew up in a small southern town that comprised of small family farmers until the agriculture shift of the 1970’s. In 1973 Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz, in an attempt to drive down the price of commodities such as corn and soy beans encouraged farmers to plant “fence row, fence row”. This was the birth of over production and farm subsidies for said commodities in the United States. Today those subsidies cost tax payers $19 billion a year and only about 3,100 farmers nation wide benefit from those funds. The small farmers of my fathers child hood and mine have slowly sold out and have retired or changed careers.

On average, we are producing 2.800 calories per person per day. That’s 17% more per person per day than 30 years ago. No wonder obesity is on the rise. And it is not just the over production of food, agriculturally speaking. It’s what happens to the over produced food. Fifty percent of the corn raised in the United States goes to feed animals and the rest of it goes to producing junk food, usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup. Sixty percent of soy in the US is found in processed foods, while globally 90% is fed to animals.

So what’s wrong with all that industrialized corn and soy going to meat production and processed foods? The problem I see is that it is not a field to table crop. Meaning, we can not directly eat the food we are raising on our home soil. Monocrop farming strips the land of its natural balance. When small farmers planted and harvested a diversified crop, the land was constantly being replenished with nutrients. There is even mention of this in the bible, rotating species of plants and giving the land rest on the Sabbath or seventh rotation. Now, farmers use petroleum based chemicals to provide synthetically manufactured “nutrients” that further strip the land of its natural health, not to mention contribute to depleting our supply of petroleum.

Livestock production produces more greenhouse gases in a year then our total transportation budget (cars, trains, air planes and trucking). American livestock is raised in such conditions that require antibiotics to keep the animals alive (not healthy) long enough to fatten up and slaughter for consumption.

So what can we all do? I am challenging myself to adhere to a vegetarian diet. Not interested in following me? How bout being a vegetarian one day a week? You absolutely can make an impact on our environment and yes, changing your light bulbs helps. But if you are like me and are interested in the next step, join me.

Take the challenge, it’s only one day a week without meat, but doing this for a year will lower your green house emissions the equivalent to 760 driving miles and if you cut out all processed foods on that day as well, you will lower your emissions by 1,160 miles that year. That’s a huge impact with very little effort. Just think what you could change if you had a couple more veggie, meat free days in the next year ahead.