Amen!!

I thought the FDA,EPA,USDA were paid from public dollars to protect public interest, so that we  would not have to wonder if there are harmful ingredients in the foods we consume. The fact is that certain chemicals in foods, dairy and meat have a consensus from those with no conflict of interest to be harmful to humans. In fact you are probably better off eating and buying food in a Eurpoean country than here in the states. Untill unbridled free wheeling of corporate behavior, unchecked by non accountable publicly funded agencies became corrupt the American food supply was among the safest in the world. I feel strongly that the public agencies we pay for need to divest of their corporate bedfellows and start their love affair with the American people. It is we not they that by law they must protect. About the only path to that end as far as I can determine is term limits of politicians.   

I think that this one of  the sad results of a school system that encourages memorization of facts and teaches to the test and in the process does away with critical thinking.  We need to learn that life is like a chess game and we need to consider ten steps ahead.  If I do this or eat that the consequences may not show up for twenty years.
I met a diabetic coach who told me that most people don't realize that they have type II diabetes for ten years and that damage starts being done the moment you have it.  We need to read labels and start learning about our bodies. God gave us an amazingly intricate and
complicated body that is a universe in and of itself.  I know that we have a lot more to learn... it was only just recently that they discovered that the appendix does have a job, DUH !!!  Why would God put useless things in our body ?  Dr Oz on Oprah Winfrey has started to teach us about our organs and Discovey channel has a lot of good programs teaching us about muscles and organs.  So let's teach ourselves and
our children critical thinking and responsibility and not always depend on marketing and advertising which only lulls us sleep in many cases.

Right, you are!  Folks, it's time you learn that the government allows certain levels of contaminants in your food, water, etc.  Don't believe it?  Check out the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 21, Part 130 (Food Standards: General).  Do a Google (or whatever search engine you like) search on "CFR or Code of Federal Regulations.  It is in your best interest to read and learn about the CFR as it applies to you (i.e. read between the lines!!).  In 21CFR there are 169 subparts.  Just skimming the subpart titles should be a little bit scary! As you read the CFR titles, you'll discover that the gov't allows some toxins and contaminants in food/water. Albeit small amounts, but things like PCBs, rat excrement, bugs and bug parts, heavy metals, etc.  In one of the subparts there is a table listing many, many contaminents and the levels that the FDA considers to be "safe".  How much inspection do you think occurs?  How many USDA and FDA agents do you think there are?  Farmers Markets are probably the best source for food especially if they make efforts to be "organic".  I forgot to mention, the FDA also allows for levels of pesticides that are "acceptable" in your food supply.

I really don't understand the Whole Foods bashing. I shop there. I find lots of organic produce and staples (beans, rice) sold at discount under their store label. They aren't tricking me into buying anything I don't want. Read the labels.  They've got the same stuff as our crappy local health food stores, just unexpired dates and much, much superior selection. No one is forcing you to shop there.

Corporate organic is a nice resting point in between conventional and locally grown organic. Local is great, if you want a small slice of the populace to have access to organic food. Even with concessions in the organic standards for big producers, you're saving millions of pounds of pesticides from the food chain, and you're saving millions of pounds of synthetic fertilizer from the ecosystem.  

Dissing Whole Foods for using diesel trucks to ship around organic produce is silly. The infrastructure of the US is the result of years of government planning gone wrong.

Now, a response to the requisite public school bashing. We have lots and lots and lots of great public schools. Find one you like, rent a house there, send your kids. Then, when your kids get home, talk to them and teach them more stuff. The resources in a good, modern, public school are something that most kids should not be missing out on. There are severe problems with inner-city schools and some schools in poor districts, no doubt, but in those cases you're often asking a school to be a substitute parent, which will always fail.

TupeloHoney:  calling someone a Jack Ass just because you disagree with them, only brings to attention your inability to articulate your disagreement in an intelligent manner.  You, at some level, are seeing something in Jonny, that you see in yourself.  

geminga, you need to buy, borrow, whatever, the book, "The Peter Principle" which explains a number of things about why things go the way that they do.

A few years ago I attended the early performance of a show by political & social commentator Mort Sahl, who said in his discourse that "...there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two major political parties in this country anymore..." refering to the nuts on the Left and neocons on the so-called Right.  So I visited him between shows in his dressing room.  After standard pleasantries I reminded him what he'd said and told him there's a big difference:  The Republicrats are GENERALLY faithful to their wives, and the Democlicans think that's abolutely hilarious."  (He thought it was very funny.)  The point I want to make here is what I forgot to tell him then:  "The other main difference is that the Republicrats generally come from business, to visit briefly in government, in order to improve business, while the Democlicans have no business in government whatsoever."  Whether or not you think that's funny, what the point is, is that Big Business has an annoying habit of hijacking governmental regulation, to the point where you could say that EPA stands for Economic Protection for Alcoa.  To put it another way, Socialism is where government invests in and controls Business, and its inverse Capitalism is where Business invests in and controls government.  Like the man said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

As for term limits, they are utterly ineffective because they send no message, carry no force, and simply become part of the background scheme of things.  There is a movement starting called VAIP:  Vote Against Incumbent Politicians.  The idea is, every election, if things haven't been markedly corrected since last election, "throw ALL the bums out."  VAIP 'em.  Sure a few good ones will go out too, but they were completely ineffective anyway, so what good were they really?

I agree with most of the comments from the dumbing down of the masses, to the understanding of the need to be more involved in our own lives in general.

I think that having all of that information, we need to do a big campaign regarding local foods and the value of it!

If you get the local farmers to grow the food and support that decision, things will turn around for many industries.

I lived in St. Paul MN where there were coops and two Whole Foods within driving distance..( that was back in 2002 when the price of gas was not as high!!!)

I now live in South Dakota and I shop with local farmers.  I can tell them what I want and how much and they grow it for us. We have also turned our big yard into a cornucopia of different types of fruits and veggies.

It is really not hard work once you get an agreement with the rabbits.

We get raw milk locally and my husband makes fresh yogurt weekly.

Now I know that is not what all of you will do...some live in apartments and such but I am sure we all know someone that has the room and we can share the time to work, just like community gardens.  There are other ways like gardening out of pots...use your imagination.

When I realised organic food sometimes  is put in a warehouse and is gassed to stop the bugs and rodents from getting to the food until it gets to the store.   They also gas to reduce spoilage.  I went crazy, all of that work getting good food to have it messed up!

I buy locally all veggies and our meat too.

We have a butcher that gets his meat from places he knows has great quality.  He makes things using-natural spices to get the taste right.  He uses no MSG or anything that is harmful.

If we band together as a group of people that: gets good food, has no need for the Dr., will settle for nothing less we can change things from the inside out.  

Let the children experence real food out of the ground, not off the shelf.  If you think the farmes are far away, just drive and not use the freeway, they are there!

All the troubles in this country, including the one we are discussing stems from the mixed economy and government regulating business, ridiculous anti-trust laws and absence of political philosophy that would value personal liberties and freedom of enterprise above all. We need a true  laissez-fare  economy!

The FDA, EPA and USDA are indeed paid for with public dollars, But unfortunately they do not act on behalf of the public interest per se, instead they're accountable to whom ever is in power.

As for Whole Foods or any store, we need to be proactive - read labels and choose foods, supplements, personal care, cleaning products, etc. that don't have ingredients that may be harmful.  Bottom line, it's up to us.

I agree that checking labels is important but as we know, some of the worst foods are those sold as no or low fat, sugar, cholesterol, trans-fats, etc. The other problem is the deception used by the manufacturers and sanctioned by government. MSG goes by a dozen different names. Numerous products in health food stores contain genetically modified ingredients such as soy and canola -- but does the label state that?

Check a package of Yves tofu dogs or any of their other so-called 'nutritious' meat alternatives. The label states they are cholesterol free, high in protein, low in fat, blah, blah, blah. But no where does it indicate if the soy protein or the canola are certified organic. (as is the case with the Sol tofu product line). When I questioned an Yves customer service rep about the absence of such labeling --which would give some assurance the product was wholesome, she stated "the ingredients are organic but there's only so much room on a package so not every descriptive can be included". She also assured me the company's marketing department would look into it. I assured her I wouldn't touch their product with a 10 foot pole.

Anyone familiar with Amy's? They used to be a trusted source for quality vegetarian 100% organic ingredients. If you look closely at the packaging on the front of their boxes now, you'll see in small print the fact that the contents range from between 65 and 90% organic -- mainly due to the dairy and other key ingredients being replaced with conventional sources.

What about the recent revelation that some organic products contain known cancer-causing elements or that cloned meat is going to be marketed to unsuspecting consumers? I guess there's just no room on the package to state so.

"You're all liars and you've been telling me lies,

Yeah you're liars and I caught you with your finger in the pie".

"Liars" - Canadian singer/songwriter Ian Thomas.