Dr. Mercola April 01 2008 77,797 views
I'll most likely not recieve votes on this one, but I think we all need a reality check. I live in a rural area; I garden w/o pesticides, I hang my laundry out to dry, we use a woodstove so as to not drain more electricity than nessessary, and other ways to be green. However, when you live 90 miles from the nearest city, the only options you have is a couple small grocery store. The very few items that are sold as organic are rape on the pocketbook. Forgive my strong language, but it is true. We are a struggling middle class American family, barely scraping money together to have gas for my husband to work out of state. Why out of state? Because we cannot make a living on $14 an hour; which happens to be a great wage in Lakeview. So these big companies are making organic? If they are certified, where is the problem? They are trying to make it affordable for the little guys like our family who cannot afford to pay the outragious prices elsewhere. I've mentioned in a comment on farmers markets, which I sold at. It is a government approval you need to be certified, and as a stay at home mom, I cannot afford to pay the outragous fees to be "certified organic". You go through soil testing; There has to be proof there was no chemicals in the last seven years to be approved. I pull my weeds by hand; yes, I have dirty fingers, and have to deal with earwigs in my corn and lettuce, but they wash away. I can only market my items as naturally grown; same with our cows that we sell the meat each year. In essense, your damned if you do and damned if you don't. Trying to eek out a living in this day and age where I have to pay $3.57 a gallon for gas is tough at best. I live 12 1/2 miles from town, so bike riding is out of the question. When are we going to have compassion for those of us who try and are shot down for doing so? In the words of John Stossel, "Give me a break"! My article is not intended to offend, just point out the little guys perspective.
I know what you mean, Amy. I live IN a mid-sized town right by a main airport, and wages are low. $14/hour? $14 buys as much in the US as £14 does for us in the UK. I can only dream of earning that much until I qualify as a nutritionist! $3.57 a gallon for gas?? You're making me cry! It costs more like $9 A GALLON here! Bus fare 2 miles into town & back is around $6; I often walk it. We only have the supermarkets for organic food. My favourite biodynamic farm & shop is 12 miles away and VERY expensive. They sell their own but also import, plus excess from the local school (the children grow it organically & sell to parents; wish I could afford to send my daughter there).
Last week someone lent me a car and I went. Their raw milk is now £1($2) a pint, grass-fed stewing beef is £10 a kilo (ca $10 a pound). I blew over half a week's food budget there: £20 ($40) on 2 day's food and 4pts raw milk. They're co-operatively owned and not making big profits but price to cover their costs, and some of the work is done cheap by apprentices keen to learn biodynamic methods. It's just not economical. As I have to make a living for my daughter and me all by myself, we can not live on their food unless I make double national average wages and move to their village (= my dream).
Growing my own proved even more expensive (small scale) and I've mostly given that up now.
So I stick with the stupor-markets and try to find the least toxic options.
BUT be warned: with goverment organic certification, remember that giant corporations and government (agency) employees are not above bribery "...in the same way that the sea is not above the sky." (Douglas Adams, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
LadyPam,
Thank you so much for your support and sympathy. When I read what you pay, it humbled me and I got tears in my eyes for your situation. My question to the world, not just the USA government, would be "How are we expected to survive?" and what are you willing to change to make it happen. Arg. We all have the same battle worldwide, and I appreciate you letting me know what life is like in a different country. God Bless You, and I hope you get the opportunity to move to the village you spoke of.
even organic corn is not good for anybody
My friend and I were just commenting on this same thing... how many food items our local co-op and health food shoppe sells that has canola oil in it and they think it's just fine. Anything processed is going to need some way to keep it from going rancid so they add all these terrible oils in it and even "health concious" people eat too much of it.
It's time to get back to raw foods.
Sobber, that's useful information. But then can anyone explain how the mesoAmericans thrived on maize (and still do)?
Charisse, shops don't sell things because they're good for us, they sell them if they think we will BUY them. Don't blame them; when I did a course on starting a business we were warned that 90% of all new businesses and 99% of IDEALISTIC businesses fail within the first year. Therefore, the stuff in the health food sections (in UK it's labelled 'healthy choice') is not there because the shop owner wants to improve customers' health but because he knows there enough customers who will buy it.
I do have to say: what are you doing buying corn chips anyway? Dr Mercola says corn is bad - he may be wrong but chips, high temperature fried (even if they're 'baked') are definitely not part of a healthy diet.
Islander: your question to Sobber: "Sobber, that's useful information. But then can anyone explain how the mesoAmericans thrived on maize (and still do)?"
The answer is because they soaked their corn before eating - see the Weston Price Foundation and/or Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions. During the dust bowl when many Americans were dying of (scurvey, I think - don't quote me) becuase of their diet of mainly corn, the Mexicans and Indians did not have that ailment, because the soaking process eliminated the phytate in the corn, as does soaking other grains eliminate that substance. I think, and again don't quote me, the eliminate of phytates made the nutrients in the corn absorbable.
Pretty soon,they'll be marketing organic doughnuts and cupcakes. Doesn't mean they're good for you.
One big drawback everyone is missing.
There companies have a an evil track record. They have always put their profits ahead of our health and lives.
It is like, lets say, a person has been trying to poison you(by poisoning ur food), you find out, you file a case, he gets convicted, but is let off Scott free, by bribing the judges.
Then after a few years you hire him as your cook. Would you do that, especially when you have a choice of other cooks.
All I am trying to say it is plain stupid to trust the companies that have never thought twice to harm our health or even kill us to maximize profits.
Right now we have our local farmer giving us good trust worthy organic food. IF we stop buying from him he is going to go out of business.
If support these companies, they will change the meaning of the word organic to suit their pockets and convenience, or to increase shelf life of their products. For example the case of irradiated almonds being labeled raw in California.
Your local farmer or most of the organic food companies have a passion for organic food and delivering healthy foods.
The evil companies are just being smart and trying to grab a market share, in future we will never be able to trust them totally(atleast I will not). They might adulterate their food with non-organic contents, and not declare it.
In India coke and pepsi had more than the permitted levels of pesticides in their drinks. A test by a govt agency caught them or else they would have gotten away with it. We would have to be constantly watching them.
If we support them we will literally handing over this organic food market over to these thieving corporations whom we cannot trust.
The current suppliers and our local farmers and co-ops have striven so hard and compromised on their profits to give us organic food when no was there. I think it will be unfair to them, if we start buying from these corporations, especially when we can never trust them. We are digging our own graves here.
I agree. It's the large corporations who have gone into third world countries and driven the small family farmer out. Watch the movie "Future of our Food".
"Your local farmer or most of the organic food companies have a passion for organic food and delivering healthy foods."
If this is so true, why are most of them selling out to the Big Conglomerates?
I live in the Northwest and quite a few of the companies in that chart started out here as small local companies. So...what's up?
rajsanand, you are so right.
If you want to know the answer to most of this stuff, just follow the dollar. There is a great documentary called The Century of the Self. It's about Edward Bernay's and all the propaganda that corporations started in order to sell products to people that they do not need. Yes, we all need food, but it used to be we grew our own and industrial food products did not exist. I do not even trust the USDA organic label, because the Department of Agriculture has proven time and agin to not have the publics interest at heart. They are lobbied too hard by corporate interests. This is a fact. Not someone's opinion. All meat at the grocery store is an industrial product full of chemicals, steriods, caw growth hormone, brine water and antibiotics. Why? because it all adds up to more profit for the Big Ag cattle business men. Period.