Imagine, if you will, your favourite summer street festival or an indie parade. Add a joyous rallying cry, one amazing cause and 24 beautiful hectares of farmland in a wild corner of Vancouver. This mix of music festival and protest march made Tuesday's Great Farm Trek to UBC Farm the highlight of my year so far, on the most gorgeous spring afternoon we could possibly hope for.

When I got off the bus at UBC, finding the Student Union Building wasn't too difficult: I followed the drumming noises (percussion ensemble Sambata) and the hum of a thousand voices gathered in the square. I was pleasantly stunned to see how many people turned out.
The opening speaker began soon after I arrived. Ben recorded a video of the inspirational speech by Shane Pointe (Musqueam Nation). I recorded some of it but his view was better. The crowd exploded in cheers when he encouraged us. I fell into awe and silence during his song.

Continue reading "UBC Farm Trek: a huge, fantastic, musical success!" »

Posted by Erika at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

[Via Donna Passmore]

Dec. 9, 2008

DELTA – The Agricultural Land Commission's decision to reluctantly hand over prime Delta farmland to Campbell government bulldozers reveals the extent to which the integrity of the farmland protection process has been destroyed, say New Democrat MLAs Charlie Wyse and Guy Gentner.

The commission has reluctantly agreed to remove 90 hectares from the Agricultural Land Reserve so the Campbell government can proceed with its preferred route for the South Fraser Perimeter Road, despite widespread public opposition. The commission said it "deeply regrets that suitable highway alignment alternatives to the use of prime agricultural land were found not to be acceptable from transportation and environment perspectives."

The news follows last week's discovery that construction along two sections of the proposed route started before any decision had been finalized.

Continue reading "New Democrats slam Campbell's plan to bulldoze prime Delta farmland" »

Posted by Erika at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday I attended my first Slow Food Cycle Sunday, in Pemberton. Whew, what a ride!

We arrived in Pemberton Village rather on time considering the road construction on the Sea to Sky Highway. (No rockslides, thankfully!) Treacherous road, but man, what a view! The parking lot at Signal Hill Elementary School was rapidly filling up when we unloaded our stuff, packed up our saddle bags and took off in the direction of the Community Centre which would be our official starting point. It was obvious then that there was a huge turnout, and in fact the count thus far exceeds 2000 riders! It was mildly sunny and cool, but the weather didn't do what was forecasted. It did the exact opposite, without the potential thunderstorm that seemed imminent.

Continue reading "Slow Food Cycle Sunday Recap!" »

Posted by Erika at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I learned of this annual event when I naughtily "borrowed" my landlady's Westworld Magazine to read a few interesting food-related articles before I delivered it upstairs. When I finished reading the article about Slow Food Cycle Sunday, I wrote down the event details and without hesitation decided I would attend. (Do read the article, a PDF complete with tantalizing photographs!) Now the date is finally approaching — not that I wish summer to pass quickly as it has been, but I've been looking forward to this — and I'm training daily now for the tour.

Training?

Continue reading "Slow Food Cycle this Sunday in Pemberton" »

Posted by Erika at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My family — mainly my oldest niece and I — have been enjoying the edible gifts borne by our favourite local park and other nearby forests. This summer's crop has been especially fruitful and we're expecting a ridiculous bumper crop of blackberries soon(!!!). I go crazy for salmonberries and introduced the avid 7-year-old berry-picker to the fine art of picking: get a grabby stick, dress the part, and get into the shrubbery! The two of us went on a little adventure, avoiding mud and trampling on dry brush, then hiking up the hill to safe ground when turning back to return across a log and over a creekbed seemed like a more difficult option.

If we'd had more time and more adults we could have probably matched the huge amount my friend and I picked last year. We missed out on picking at Green Timbers this year and I can only imagine how many berries must have been there. At any rate, over a few trips to the local parks here we yielded a significant amount for desserts and snacks, which the family enjoyed. Early in the season my cousin and his Korean girlfriend were here. She hadn't tasted salmonberries before and the two of us went nuts!

Continue reading "Bunches and bunches of berries" »

Posted by Erika at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Celsias posted a shocking film, Patent for a Pig: The Big Business of Genetics (43 mins) with some grim truths about Monsanto that are beyond frightening. I find it hard enough to comprehend sometimes that we place a monetary value on something nature alone created, e.g. selling your cat's litter or some plants that appeared in your backyard. (Breeding/raising is a bit different as there is work input into the result, but it's still animals creating animals.) I'll let the film tell the details, with this intro from the Celsias post:

It's amazing what humankind can do with a little effort and ingenuity. Who'd a thought we could create an intelligent, four legged creature with a curly tail, that actually walks and makes cute grunting noises?

Stand by to be horrified at the lengths Big Biotech will go to take over the world's food supplies. You'll also be shocked to learn that pig and cattle farmers are seeing their livestock go sterile due to giving them genetically modified feed.

"Introducing Monsanto, the inventors of the pig..."

Thanks to my mother for the heads up on this item.

Posted by Erika at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It figures it's been a month and a half since I wrote Part 1 and said it would be "a couple weeks." I have a legitimate excuse, however: the topic on which I desperately wanted to write was (is!) getting bigger and bigger as news stories and blog posts flooded the papers and internet on the topic. An overwhelming amount of information to sort through, half of it's out of date by now and much of it I haven't yet read.

My blogging has been sparse at best lately, and this behemoth of a topic isn't helping. Of course I'd also like to write about everything! But whilst I muster up the energy/time to do this, here are my key points:

- global food crisis overview
- modern agriculture... permaculture... what our monoculture system + pesticide/herbicide use did to our natural systems: reducing yield, damaging and polluting the earth, losing diversity, bringing in GMO which is proven to harm humans
- hoarding: it's human nature
- food wastage (also see BBC article)
- oil: peak oil, pesticides, the benefits of local eating
- community and personal gardening
- developers get (potentially large) tax credit by turning land into "public land" while waiting for a project to get underway, then can install a community garden, makes them look socially responsible

PHEW!

Well, now that I've got a few hours of my life per week back from the brain-sucking, life-wasting machine called the Television (I watch mostly intelligent programming, but it's TV nonetheless), I should have few excuses not to sit down and churn this out. Unless, of course, I get distracted by Stephen Rees's blog.

And now it's time for bed, but I will leave you with this tidbit and links, and inform you that I'm still alive!

Posted by Erika at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Monday lunch blog addresses food... again!

A paradox, you say? How can a restricted diet be at the same time diverse? I reckon I might have asked myself the same question almost a year ago when I embarked on the very thing.

I have what you might call a self-imposed restriction on my diet in two ways: one, I have a tidy list of food sensitivities that were determined last March/April by a naturopath; and two, I'm on the 100-Mile Diet as far as veggies go — and you'd be surprised at how much of a challenge just that creates.

My food sensitivities are: soy, sugar, dairy (the proteins, not lactose), cashews, and some food additives. Corn was on the list for about 3 months so I just take it easy with that one. Yeast was also on the list, but when told to cut out all grains and refined foods including oats and quinoa for 2 weeks, I did what I normally do when trying to cut back: I ate more. And it went away, so whatever.

The personalised 100-Mile Diet I adhere fervently to is such that I don't eat what ain't in season. In other words, if it grows here in the summer, I don't buy it from California in the winter. I haven't applied this so much to dining out, but I can say that if I were strict, I'd have gone hungry at the Northern Voice conference because between the cheese, the unknown, spiced meat and the dismal tomatoes and iceberg lettuce curiously provided at lunch in the form of very unseasonal burritos, there wouldn't have been much for me to eat. Suffice to say I had an apple with me and had forgotten my packed lunch at home.

But I digress.

Continue reading "A diverse restricted diet" »

Posted by Erika at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Posted today to CBC.ca: "Michigan restaurateur makes 61-kilogram burger and hopes for world record"

The "Absolutely Ridiculous Burger," made with beef, bacon and cheese, was delivered on a 23-kilogram bun, The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press reported. It sells for $350, and orders require 24 hours' notice.

How much water, corn/other feed, cow's meat, cow's milk, gasoline, energy and waste products went into making that? How much of it was meat? Moreover, how many third world people would it feed? How many of them would be shocked that humans consume crap like that?

"Where's the Beef?" Signals Design Group / Coast Paper at Canstruction 2005.

Meanwhile, in our corner of the continent, Canstruction^® Vancouver starts showing tomorrow. I wonder if we beat any records for numbers of cans this year? All cans/food packages go toward nourishing the people who rely on the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. There, they appreciate the value of food!

Posted by Erika at 11:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What better to write about over a Monday lunch than food?

I never got around to posting about it, but I've been on a "restricted" diet for almost a year now (what an accomplishment) that requires me to find alternatives to cow's milk and cheese, sugar/honey, soy sauce, cashews and products that contain any of the above (and any form of soy), plus some food additives like red dye. For awhile, corn was on the list, too and I'm just bringing it back into my diet now. The repercussions of this are not just psychological, physical, and emotional, they are also financial. But wait... are they?

Continue reading "Is expensive food actually so in the end?" »

Posted by Erika at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Who knew saving the planet could be so self-serving.

I've been thinking lately about how good I feel when I'm using or eating something that's healthy for me and/or the planet. Now, "good" is a very broad term, but in this context it encompasses feelings of excitement, reward, self-satisfaction, accomplishment and wellness. (In other words, opposite of the dental pain and regret I'm feeling after having eaten a naughty piece of Toblerone. Glad it was the last one.)

I think it's important to emphasize the personal benefits of doing good for the earth, and oneself. There are, in fact, many opportunities and I'm always looking for more.

When do I feel good?

Continue reading "Green at heart: feeling good starts with doing good" »

Posted by Erika at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The latest ads from Tim Hortons feature the "Bagel B.E.L.T.", a breakfast sandwich with bacon, eggs, lettuce "and toh-may-toooe." Aside from my friends' unrestrained mocking of the sheer stupidity of the commercial and the name (more belt notches, anyone?), I can't help but wonder how Tim Hortons aims to uphold their "Always Fresh" slogan (with questionable typography, I might add) when it's clear that the ingredients for the B.E.L.T. are anything but fresh in the middle of a Canadian winter. In the past their "freshness" has been called into question with a little doughnut scandal: apparently they were being baked out east and shipped westward to be warmed up before sale. Maybe the Tim Hortons idea of "fresh" is more to do with not being "canned, frozen or otherwise preserved" and less to do with being "recently made or obtained" (fresh, Oxford American Dictionaries).

Continue reading ""Always Fresh?"" »

Posted by Erika at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I've updated AfterTASTE (my other blog and grad project) with a tidbit about Thanksgiving dinner and a link to an article at the Globe and Mail, titled "The manufactured meal". Visit AfterTASTE for more information and my thoughts on it.

No Monday lunch blog tomorrow, obviously, seeing as it's a holiday up here... although maybe if you're really lucky. ;)

Posted by Erika at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's 1:30 am and all I want to do is eat pizza.

It's true, I haven't had pizza in months, but the reality is my kitchen smells like heaven and there's leftovers in the fridge. It wouldn't be called "leftovers" if the aroma hadn't tempted me into sampling it — twice. Truth be told I already had dinner hours ago, with the rest of the sauce and pasta. Tomorrow is my family's Thanksgiving dinner, and it's a potluck, so I made roast potatoes and carrots with lots of olive oil and herbs. YUM! Obviously I sampled that aromatic dish, too. So where does the pizza come in? Monday is Thanksgiving dinner with the mister's family, and apparently we're having pizza. My heart sank... since I cannot eat commercial pizza due to dairy, sugar and soy sensitivity. (The first two make my skin panic and the latter makes my digestive system panic. Actually, all three make my digestive system angry at me to some degree.) I also am or was sensitive to corn. Anyway I took it upon myself to make my own pizza, knowing that otherwise I would a) sit there and whine and eventually eat it anyway because everyone else is, or b) just indulge, pretending I haven't got a problem. So, problem solved.

I just realised it's been 6 months since I started this "new diet."

Well, Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Posted by Erika at 1:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Britain follows suit on the current discussions of whether or not to administer the vaccine against HPV (human papilloma virus), several strains of which cause most cervical cancer. The article from BBC News, titled "Public in dark on HPV cancer link", reveals how few respondents to a survey are aware of HPV as a risk factor for the prolific cancer, and even its STI nature. The title suggests perhaps that the public has been kept in the dark, but the article seems to me to do what everything else I've read does: it puts the blame on women for not knowing.

Continue reading "Oh, you didn't know? Shame on you!" »

Posted by Erika at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Welcome to my first installment of the Monday lunch blog. More on this later...

Last week my other half asked me why I've suddenly become so interested in natural and organic cosmetics. I had just come home with Burt's Bees shampoo and conditioner, a mineral salt deodorant and some natural creams and lotions. Looking up some ingredients on Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database, I discovered some unfavourable and increasingly risky items in two of my new purchases and started to complain. It was difficult to express, to begin with, why I was choosing the most toxic-free products I could get my hands on. Besides the obvious health and environmental impacts, I can't bear knowing I'm using something bad for me, especially if I just spent $10 on it. Let's face it, it's not cheap.

Continue reading "Get your green on" »

Posted by Erika at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Everything you LOVE about QUAKER OATMEAL," it says inside a graphical ribbon on the front. An illustrated steaming bowl of oatmeal and a poorly-drawn sprig of what appears to be wheat. (Brilliant.)

Oatmeal to Go: Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Oatmeal Squares. Sounds delicious, right? Its soft, dense texture just waiting to be handled like a moist oatmeal cookie. At the time, I succumbed more to the curiosity than the anticipation of pleasure; that and I knew I didn't want my dearest eating this crud but I couldn't bear to throw it out. So, I ate it. And it was good.

Not.

Continue reading "Quaker's Oatmeal Deceit" »

Posted by Erika at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are a lot of things in this world I would change. Call me a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I may be the only one I've ever heard of, however, dreaming about the day that food—well, processed food—doesn't contain allergens, crap and genetically-modified ingredients. I want my grain products without things like soy lecithin, corn syrup, modified milk ingredients, and x-y-z's... without paying a premium. If everything was expensive, period, then organic cereal wouldn't be such a big deal to pay for. The good news is, pure processed foods aren't always bad: Gesundheit Bakery in Abbotsford, BC makes rye bread so good I ate four small pieces while waiting for the bus right after I bought it. I then went home and ate at least two more, plain. No scary crap or things I can't eat on my food-sensitivity diet.

Continue reading "I'm an unrealistic dreamer" »

Posted by Erika at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've realised lately how much I value food that I've paid good money for. I don't take it for granted and devour it to my heart's content without due thought. We are in the habit of going for the cheapest price possible, with a few exceptions, so most items we eat don't have to be moderated based on cost. This would include milk, eggs, and bread. Cereal, on the contrary, is an expensive food to be eating as a snack, so my indulgence was limited... until now.

Continue reading "Expensive food on a small budget" »

Posted by Erika at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(By sugar I mean refined sugar from sugarcanes and/or sugar beets. The photo above is from awhile ago, so it's with milk but before sugar was added.)

We like to make our oatmeal (aka porridge) with half milk, half water, but given my new "diet," I can't do that anymore. It's just as welll, because I can walk off and do something else instead of standing around to make sure the milk doesn't burn.

For two large servings, we follow the recipe on the package: 3 cups of water and 1 1/3 cups of oats, combined into a pot then cooked. Follow whatever portions you like. I find half of that amount is a bit too much for me, but the single serving can be too little. Anyway.

whole rolled oats (not quick oats)
water

topping: sliced banana, honey, cinnamon, and vanilla flavouring to taste. If the proportions are right, you won't need milk or alternative milk.

or: sliced banana or apple, raisins (I forgot them again! shucks), and thick, plain (goat's milk) yogurt, with honey if desired.

Posted by Erika at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An article posted to CTV News says that most advertising that children and youth see are for foods that we are trying to promote as "eat less" and not "eat more." While schools are implementing healthy eating programs with vending machines and cafeterias (not applicable to post-secondary, however!), the advertising they see on television is, according to the article, completely contradictory to health-positive messages.

It begins:

In a child's buffet of food commercials, more than 40 per cent of the dishes are candy, snacks and fast food. Nowhere to be found: fresh fruit, vegetables, poultry or seafood.

Why no ads for fresh fruit, vegetables, poultry or seafood? Because fresh fruit and vegetables don't get advertised. The money for it isn't there, while processed and fast food companies invest billions into advertising to make sure you buy their products. The best you'll get is a glimpse of wholesome food in a Safeway or Save On Foods ad. As for poultry, it seems to me a long time since I've seen a Maple Leaf chicken ad, and I can't recall seeing anything about seafood beyond, what was it, KFC Popcorn Shrimp?

Continue reading ""Nearly half of ads targeting kids show junk food"" »

Posted by Erika at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Hah, I just realised that title is a sort of pun. In that case, no pun intended?

I was pointed to this article in the Georgia Straight.

"[Tom Glass,] [t]he professor of forensic sciences, pathology, and dental medicine at the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences has plenty to say about how toothbrushes are a breeding ground for viruses, bacteria, mould, and yeast, and consequently can easily transmit disease. The adjunct professor of microbiology advises healthy people to replace their toothbrush every two weeks and those with compromised immune systems to do so even more often. And no, he's not funded by manufacturers of the hygienic devices."

Continue reading "Germ Culture, and meats or veggie-tables" »

Posted by Erika at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you read that title and started to back away, don't fret: animal welfare isn't synonymous with PETA or extremism. It's about the ethical treatment of animals — raising, feeding, caring and, in certain cases, killing them in ways that prevent (or minimize, if unavoidable) their suffering and maintain their natural needs and environment. That's my extended definition/interpretation, anyway, via my readings and class discussions in my Environmental Ethics course.

Through this Plenty Magazine article about hens, eggs, nutrition and welfare, I got to this (A) Brief Guide to Egg Carton Labels and Their Relevance to Animal Welfare. The facts are striking. Mind that this is an American site so some labels we see in Canada aren't listed, and others listed aren't seen in Canada. I guess. I've seen "free run" and thought it to be different from "free range," and perhaps it isn't, but no answers are provided on that page.

Continue reading "Eggs, hens, and animal welfare" »

Posted by Erika at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, we had several good meals put together with some effort. It felt very good to have something hearty. Breakfast was toast with jam — mine included butter and a decadent soft-boiled (local) egg. At lunch, he made excellent fried eggs that we had with toast. Mine was an "egg McMuffin without the Mc or the muffin," as in, with cheddar and salami. In the absence of tomatoes, I put lettuce in. Yum.

Continue reading "Dish Delish" »

Posted by Erika at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Normally I don't feel like I need to tighten the belt on my eating habits post-Christmas. This year, however, with various predicaments that I attribute to excess sugar and irregular eating and sleeping patterns, I'm taking control of my mind and my stomach — or, perhaps, my taste buds.

Continue reading "A yummy, guilt-free snack" »

Posted by Erika at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just turned on the TV, which was left on HGTV (the Canadian version), and an American show called "I Want That!" was on. I'm dismayed. Consumer culture and cheesy shopping network style aside, some of the "nifty" new products it was showcasing are troubling.

Continue reading "HGTV gets a taste of the shopping network" »

Posted by Erika at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Beyond Robson:
"Welcome to a new wrinkle in Beyond Robson. The New Wrinkle is a daily video podcast produced right here in Vancouver, now producing weekly episodes for Beyond Robson.

"Today's episode: The sugar industry has kept the healthy herbal sweetener stevia off the market in many countries around the world."

Watch the video

Stevia has a different taste than sugar, but it tastes oh-so-good in tea. I really like sugar in my tea. I'll go without it for green tea, mint tea, and ginger-mint tea. I've reduced the amount of sugar I use by a small amount, but I feel guilty having black tea because it requires more sugar. Stevia would be a guilt-free answer! It comes in liquid and granule form, and is great with yogurt.

Posted by Erika at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know, it's funny. When I go to the produce market and come back with two bags of goods instead of one (proudly knowing I spent less than $15, by the way), it's usually because I've spotted several items that I've just got to have, whether they were on my list or not. When I'm there, I pick up an item because I know it tastes — or should taste — really good. Fresh corn on the cob, peaches, plums, strawberries, asparagus. Just gotta have 'em. It makes me salivate, and I run around that place doing my usual half-drool "hhhhh" and eagerly bagging things... unless I'm not sure. If I doubt at all the quality, especially if I've had bad experiences before (no more kiwis, nuh-uh), then I'll take 2 or 3 and see how it goes. I got 3 mandarin oranges a week or two ago, and they turned out tasty, so I got some more. (Hand-chosen 69c/lb by the way. Don't be fooled by inexpensive-looking boxes!) I've had bad peaches that tasted like nail polish remover, and terribly unripe plums whose delicious home-grown cousins came from my parents' tree.

A dreary day for a dried corn stalk at the market

I gingerly bought two red plums today that were from California. Yes, imported. Shame on me!

I buy these fruits because I like how they taste and I enjoy them. So when I bite into a plum, or any fruit, and am greeted sourly with a hard, pithy, tasteless, dry fruit, I am not impressed, California.

And let me say that your grapes lasted 1/10th as long as my local ones, which started becoming raisins in my fridge eventually (after a month or more?), and still tasted as delicious as the first day, when yours would have been mouldy and doomed to the trash (or compost) long before.

Oh sure, your grapes tasted fine
But I think you'd better stick to wine.
I'm not paying another dime:
You've shipped your grapes too far this time.

That said, I think Cal-i-forn-i-a will be the first one to change!

Posted by Erika at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had some observations recently regarding tomato choices, prices, and quality. And trust me, the $1.00/lb+ tomatoes are hardly better than the $0.99/lb ones that used to be over $1. They pretty much all taste like... well... really old, unripe tomatoes. They look ripe, but don't be fooled. That's why my project was called Tomatoes don't grow on trees. You might think they do, but when it comes to non-organic tomatoes, more likely than not, they're picked green and then gassed to turn red — which is not the same as ripening. BC Hot House, however, says on their website:

All BC Hot House produce is hand picked when the timing is perfect-which means the fruit has been given the opportunity to vine-ripen naturally. Careful hand picking helps prevent bruising.

But why do some pictures such as the one on this page show unripe tomatoes?

Continue reading "When it comes to tomatoes, beauty is only skin deep" »

Posted by Erika at 1:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An article in today's Province talks about the new giant Wal-Mart stores to open in Canada, up to 17 of them. I am positive that Vancouver City would strongly oppose opening one here.

I found this part interesting.

''Our goal is to become the one-stop shop for customers,'' said Mario Pilozzi, chief executive of Wal-Mart Canada, gesturing at palettes of impeccable, unbruised produce.

''You see how fresh that is today? We are going to maintain that freshness in these stores.''

Continue reading "Wal-Mart Supercentres to threaten Canadian retailers" »

Posted by Erika at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By the time I visited my doctor today, my symptoms had finished wreaking havoc on me for a couple of days, though I was still fatigued. An extremely stressful day started it: a horrible, often unbearable pain in my stomach that I thought might be a stomach flu or an ulcer, or feared that it might be allergies. I ruled out the allergies after the painful bouts had stopped, and figured it probably wasn't a flu. Ulcers feel better when you eat, whereas after anything I ate, I would immediately be in pain. Two extra strength Tylenols were nearly defenseless against the pain, and only sitting back or lying down would ease it. Walking about, going up stairs (generally exercising), and sometimes even standing would make it worse. I could not do anything but lie on the couch in front of the TV, or sit at the kitchen table doing crossword puzzles and Sudokus. (I've now figured out the strategy behind the latter!)

Continue reading "What stress can do to you" »

Posted by Erika at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was lucky enough to be offered a free copy of the Vancouver Sun on the day (Friday) they published a long article about fortified/enriched "super foods," the lead-off of which appeared on the front page. Now, I've always considered "Vitamin A & D Added" to milk to be a good thing. I have also noticed that (Lucerne) unsalted butter is, for some reason, a few cents more. It's very easy to be seduced by products that boast health benefits. Do not be fooled by cereal boxes that boast about being made with whole grains and having all these essential nutrients if it's packed with sugar! Admittedly, it's better than cereals that are not, and have little to offer, and are still packed with sugar, but I digress...

The writers visited a downtown Safeway and found 12 "super foods." Compared to their regular counterparts, they were either the same price or more expensive. The real debate is whether we need these foods. Basically the answer is yes and no. Yes if you're anemic and need extra iron in your diet, or if you have other special circumstances. No, for everyone else if only we'd "do what we're told" and eat a balanced diet! Of course, a balanced diet these days that is truly up to the recommendations would involve us having to eat about 5x as much fruits and vegetables as our predecessors 50 or more years ago due to the decline in vitamin and mineral content. (The report does mention the decline, and Thomas Pawlick's book, but refers to the issue as "alleged," essentially failing to acknowledge the fact that is also supported by federal food tables and books such as Randall Fitzgerald's The Hundred-Year Lie.) At any rate, I try my best, but I'm still a little fuzzy about eggs. I've recently heard that the colour of the yolk is meaningless. I prefer to buy PC's free run eggs because a) they're free run (not the same as free range), b) they're brown so I can distinguish shell from flesh easier, and feel like I'm eating something more natural, c) the packaging is transparent and brightly-labeled so I notice the carton in my fridge, and (best of all), d) the packaging is fully recyclable! Styrofoam is not, though it comes in handy at Easter.

Continue reading "Fortified and enriched foods... are they really better?" »

Posted by Erika at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The last few days I've been feeling sick on and off. It may be a stomach flu. As such I have had little energy (or time, even, due to other circumstances) for writing here, but after a talk with a friend and a stop at the local market, I'm feeling rather energized.

It was quiet by the time I got to the market around 6:30 (and even quieter when I left!). It was just getting dark and they had the lights on outside. It was my first time being there or even seeing the place at night. It felt good, it smelled good, and the air was crisp and cool.

I was disappointed that the main item I was there for wasn't there; organic golden nugget potatoes that smelled like dirt and made incredible mashed potatoes. I regret not buying more at the time. I got local grown yukon gold, though, so even while they didn't smell like anything at all, I knew I was supporting a good venture. I did manage to get organic buttercup squash (to add to my organic kuri), and... ORGANIC TOMATOES!!! And they're only 70c more than the ones we usually buy, but the difference is striking. We usually get a pint of "cocktail" tomatoes (one out of over 6,000 varieties of tomatoes that exist). They tend to be better than the larger ones, but don't always taste great. Those are $2.29. Seems like a rip-off right? They last a long time, and are great for just throwing into your lunch box, so whatever. These organic ones are $2.99 (I didn't notice the price at the time), and I got one that weighed more. I was eager to have one when I got it home. Here's how it went.

Continue reading "I found organic tomatoes!" »

Posted by Erika at 7:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I delivered the first set of my neighbourhood questionnaire yesterday evening, while waiting for the rest of them to print off. (Might have taken longer than photocopying, but it was easier to read and not messy.) I don't know how many responses I'll get, but if you happen to be here because you received my survey on your doorstep, welcome!

This post will give you a bit more insight into my grad project and the issues surrounding the decline of food quality in North America, also called The End of Food, so named by Canadian author Thomas Pawlick. I stress that it is not a doomsday book so much as an encouragement to make changes in your lifestyle to counteract the changes in industry.

Continue reading "Hello, Neighbour! + Grad project overview" »

Posted by Erika at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was very pleased with myself to have been able to buy local, BC grown, and organic foods recently at my local farmer's market. No hope of finding organic tomatoes this summer, but I did pick up organic potatoes, squash, and broccoli (all they had was organic!). They also had their own butter lettuce and corn, which I bought as well. The mashed potatoes we made with those organic potatoes (79c/lb, golden nugget) were SO GOOD! And the potatoes actually smelled like dirt, unlike the non-organic red ones (69c/lb.. they tend to be cheaper regardless) which... don't smell like anything. The peppers are BC grown, grown without sprays, and not waxy like BC Hot House peppers. Earlier in the year, we figured the price difference between BC Hot House ($$) and farmer's market produce (79c/lb for green up to $1.29 for red and yellow — red is on sale for 79c right now) was to do with having to pick through the not-so-good ones for the nice ones. Recently, however, they've all been spectacular! And they're all light-weight.

Continue reading "Yay for farmer's markets!" »

Posted by Erika at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"It's perfect on a cracker. Almost too perfect. Explore the secrets of one of the world's most unnatural foods", says Patrick Di Justo of Wired.

It's squirt-on cheese from Kraft, called Easy Cheese. No kidding. Who needs a knife and a cutting block when you can squirt on cheese?

Read the short article which outlines its major ingredients, including "twice the sodium of typical organic cheddar." Oh, and it's an "excellent source of calcium," too, but only because they added calcium phosphate... to make up for the effects of sodium phosphate.

From Kraftfoods.com:
Ingredients: MILK, WATER, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, WHEY, CANOLA OIL, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF SALT, SODIUM CITRATE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, LACTIC ACID, SORBIC ACID AS A PRESERVATIVE, SODIUM ALGINATE, APOCAROTENAL (COLOR), ANNATTO (COLOR), CHEESE CULTURE, ENZYMES.

By the way, annatto, a common food additive that produces a yellow colour, "often produces allergic symptoms like skin rashes and large wheals on the skin. In one patient written up in the Annals of Allergy, his morning breakfast of Fiber One cereal with milk produced these symptoms, plus severe low blood pressure. Annatto is also known to cause blood-sugar levels to rise precipitously, producing damage to the energy-production sites in the liver and pancreas." [From The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children, by Carol Simontacchi.] The source she sites is from 10 years ago. Annatto is "extracted from the seeds of the tree Bixa orellana..." a reminder that not everything from a natural source is good for you.

Continue reading "Cheese & crackers just got lazier" »

Posted by Erika at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm making my lunch.

Orange cheddar cheese — my favourite, but it's dyed orange and I don't know why.
White sourdough bread — I think you get the point.
Finnish mustard — really good.
Honey ham — sodium nitrate and smoke. Good luck finding any deli meat that isn't.
Tomato — here's the fun part.

I realised my tomatoes need to get eaten up. My boyfriend grabbed the usual, tomatoes-on-the-vine. That was on Wednesday. They're... not as red as they should be, and still very firm after 3 days. I did a test and dropped one on the counter. I hucked it against the kitchen cupboard, and then it fell on the lino-covered cement floor. Not a bruise. It incurred a slight slit to its skin, but that was it. I cut it, and listened... a slight crunch as I broke the skin, then I looked at it... "Oh my god, he's right," I said out loud, referring to author Thomas Pawlick. "I have to photograph this."

The Dole brand tomato has a thick, fibrous layer under the skin that is pale and gross-looking. Inside, it's watery, not juicy. It's big, and looks exactly the same as the other 3 in every regard.

Finally, a taste test: I bit into the beautiful red tomato from my boyfriend's granddad's home-grown tree. MMM... oh yeah. So good. Now for the other one... crunch, chew, chew... YUCK. It's BITTER! Not sweet, not soft, not yummy.

And I'm having second thoughts about putting it on my sandwich.

Photo documentation

large Dole tomato versus small homegrown tomato

see all that pale pith? that's not good.

less pith, darker. a RED tomato. juicy, not runny.

After lunch thoughts:
The Dole tomato's "juice" ran down my arm... every single time. I wasted a kleenex just cleaning it up (I wasn't about to drip all the way to the kitchen!). I enjoyed my sandwich with homegrown tomatoes much more.

Posted by Erika at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was just at Two EEs Farm Market getting my usual produce. It was raining and the water was dripping, or spraying, through the canopy, giving the produce a nice wash. I stocked up on apples (mostly golden delicious at 49c/lb and some gala apples), mostly for making apple crisp. I like having fruit for snacks at school as well, and grapes are good for that. I usually get green seedless grapes, nice and crispy and sweet. They were from California this time, so I eyed them suspiciously and decided to take a second look at the purple ones outside. The darker ones were from Arkansas... uh... I can't even find that on a map. The other ones were locally-grown lighter purple grapes. Small and seedless, and round.

Oh my gosh.

Continue reading "Locally-grown grapes a delicious treat" »

Posted by Erika at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I got an add on MySpace from Conspiracy Clothes, which makes t-shirts with messages the government doesn't want you to know. One of them is about the dangers of fluoride, which I knew about, but the references outline way more problems than I knew.

Continue reading "Why I use toothpaste sans fluoride" »

Posted by Erika at 11:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Notice of Submission for Approval of Novel Food, Livestock Feed and Environmental Safety for Alfalfa Genetically Modified For Herbicide Tolerance from Monsanto Canada Inc. Date Posted: September 7, 2004
It was approved.

The CFIA and Health Canada (HC) have received a submission from Monsanto Canada Inc. seeking environmental safety approval, and livestock feed and food use approvals of alfalfa designated as Events J101 and J163, which have been genetically modified for glyphosate herbicide tolerance.

Continue reading "Monsanto's alfalfa" »

Posted by Erika at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm reading this article about efforts in Florida, and US-wide, to make children's lunches more nutritious and (hopefully) reduce obesity. Well it sure doesn't hurt, even if it's not working that well.

It got me thinking, though, about kids whose moms or dads take them grocery shopping. Supermarket checkouts all have candy, gum, and chocolate bars from the floor to about 4 feet up — SMACK DAB in the reach of children's hands. Even if parents try to raise their kids without candy and nasty chocolate bars, what's to stop them from getting them with their allowance on the way home, or at friends' places, or at school? (I remember spending $15 one month on a Reese peanut butter cup addiction in high school.) Anyway, it's pretty easy for a kid, bored, waiting there for mom to finish up to just grab something and say "Pleaaaase can I have this?" or just put it right on the belt if they're tall enough. If mom is distracted by the tabloids and magazines, she might just brush it off and say "mhm," or maybe she's not concerned about it at all. Maybe it'll keep the kid occupied while she loads everything into the car.

Continue reading "Supermarket check-outs & childhood obesity" »

Posted by Erika at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This one tells me that people DO want to discuss the issues and the book, which is good news for me, because my grad project will have an emphasis on discussion.

I like how each interview and each article are different. Will We Ever Eat Well Again?

I love this comment in response to a vegetarian's response to the original poster:

Truman,

Cheers, Ed.

(Truman, unfortunately, can't simply take a joke for what it is, so you can stop reading then!)

Posted by Erika at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This man is my new hero. Now Chapters, please, hurry up and ship my book!!!

I've been talking a lot about organic and home-grown fruits ("eff arr double o tee") and vegetables. I've noted that I'm doing my grad project on it. In doing some research today, trying desperately to find some blogs on related topics, I came across this interview at Gremolata with Canadian Thomas Pawlick, author of The End of Food: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Food Supply — And What You can Do about It.

Continue reading "Gremolata interview with Thomas Pawlick" »

Posted by Erika at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hands-on learning is a great way to get kids excited about food, where it comes from, and how to eat healthy. Growing up, we were given seeds for tomato plants, cucumber, etc. I enjoyed watching my mom's tomato plants grow, and then savouring the tasty fruit when it ripened. In the fall, we picked granny smith apples from the old tree (RIP). Now the effort to curb obesity in the United States has produced some juicy, fun education. Ohio farm family teaches kids nutrition

Mmm... carrot cake... ahem.

Eleven-year-old Timothy Thomas, of Norwalk, carefully seasoned his fish with salt and pepper, but he wasn't too sure about adding strips of zucchini and squash. "I'm a picky, picky eater," he said.

Still, he enjoyed learning about vegetables. "It's cool to see where it comes from," he said.

(That makes me think about the detachment between where fruits & vegetables actually come from, and where we acquire them. The grocery store has absolutely nothing to do with the farm, or my mom's tomato plants in the back yard.)

Continue reading "Veggie U" »

Posted by Erika at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MMM!!!

We were given some peaches from a fruit stand/store near Keremeos, BC (close to Penticton & Osoyoos — yeah, I've never heard of it, either!). Ohhh my. I just ate a nicely ripe one, and it was DRIPPING with juice and flavour! Unbelievable!

The last peach I had tasted like nail polish remover, if one could taste a smell, and it was absolutely awful. This peach, tonight, is what peaches are supposed to and do taste like! You know when you enjoy it incredibly so that it's a real peach, and not some combination of pith and chemicals.

Mm, mm, mm, mm, mmm!

We were also given home-grown potatoes and tomatoes. I can't wait to sample them. The home-grown grapes we tried were incredible, too. Currently I am also enjoying plums from my parents' front yard, and friends have enjoyed them, too. When I get a house, I want fruit trees!

Posted by Erika at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Featured in this week's 24 Hours newspaper is a series on environmental toxins. Today's was "Toxic nation, toxic families." Tests done across the country revealed that, "of 68 possible toxic chemicals tested for, a staggering 39 were detected in our children." The amount of toxins in children were higher than their parents! For more information, including helpful tips, suggestions on how to improve the health of your home environment, and a petition, please visit Toxicnation.ca

What I'm doing to reduce my risk of cancer and other diseases, by making healthy choices (according to the list on the website above, plus some extras):
- replacing my polycarbonate (#7) Nalgene water bottle with polypropylene or polyethylene
- choosing steel and cast iron over Teflon
- choosing fresh and frozen foods, or foods canned in glass jars, instead of canned foods in tin
- using biodegradable, natural dish soap, and avoiding cleaners with chemicals and antibacterial formulas
- opting for wax paper and safe plastic containers instead of plastic wrap, especially in the microwave
- using the stove and oven instead of the microwave whenever possible
- choosing natural materials (cotton, linen, solid wood)
- using The Keeper cup (women only!)
- avoiding store-bought microwaveable popcorn and movie theatre popcorn; using instead organic popcorn kernels cooked in a pot over the stove, with real butter

Posted by Erika at 1:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Fat Factors", by Robin Marantz Henig. Posted by Andrew V. Uroskie.

This article is about the role of gut microbes and viruses in determining a person's weight. The researchers concluded every person's menu of microbes is different, therefore the way in which they use calories varies, as well.

"A diet has a certain amount of absolute energy," [Jeffrey Gordon] said. "But the amount that can be extracted from that diet may vary between individuals -- not in a huge way, but if the energy balance is affected by just a few calories a day, over time that can make a big difference in body weight."

It is a long but very fascinating article that provides insight into the complexity of obesity and its causes.

Posted by Erika at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I enjoy taking baking and fruit to school for my morning and/or afternoon snack. Months ago, I saw a friend eating a granola bar and thought, gee, it would be pretty cool to make my own to bring to school. I've finally found a recipe with ingredients I had on hand, and that I agreed with. (No "quick oats," no margarine, no non-stick sprays, no fake peanut butter.) I realised I don't have honey or icing sugar.

Continue reading "Peanut butter oatmeal bars, yum!" »

Posted by Erika at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two men are alive today thanks to gene therapy, "using genetically modified versions of their own immune cells." Posted on BBC News.

This sounds kind of scary, but to be honest, chemo sounds far scarier.

Also scary: "Malignant melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer with 8,000 new cases per year in the UK and approximately 1,800 deaths."

While the cure for cancer research is of utmost importance, what about the focus on preventative care? (This goes for more than just cancer.) How many of those melanoma cases could have been prevented?* What about lung cancer? I think we've made good progress on battling lung cancer in terms of restricting public smoking, such as in restaurants and the workplace, but doing so in the home and outdoors in crowds or with families is still a facet to be addressed, and is the individual's responsibility.

What can we do better in terms of nutrition, chemicals, architectural pollution, and education to reduce cancer rates?

*Ironically, I was told that a certain ingredient common in sunscreen is actually carcinogenic.
Progressive researchers suggest that sunscreens do not prevent cancer, but may actually increase the risk of cancer because they encourage people to remain longer in the sun.
Ninety percent of all sunscreens contain a highly toxic ingredient called octylmeth-oxycinnamate or omc. Habitual sunscreen users have unusually low levels of Vitamin D. [Source]
A Coppertone brand 45 SPF sunscreen I got for my boyfriend last year doesn't appear to contain it, although there are other oxy-somethings I have yet to look up. I use a 25 SPF sunscreen from Aubrey's Organics.

Posted by Erika at 7:08 PM | Permalink

Thanks to my mother for sending me this link to Robert Brady's post about Monsanto and the Terminator seed. Please read the full article here.

I knew about the Terminator seed from Ban Terminator, a campaign to ban, worldwide, Terminator:

Terminators, or GURTS (Genetic Use Restriction Technologies), are a class of genetic engineering technologies which allow companies to introduce seeds whose sterile offspring cannot reproduce, preventing farmers from re-planting seeds from their harvest. The seeds could also be used to introduce specific traits which would only be triggered by the application of proprietary chemicals by the same companies. (Excerpt from Ban Terminator.)

The other, bigger problem reported in the article is the government and corporations' ability to completely control the people, farms, agricultural industries, and food supplies, GLOBALLY. Farmers who currently, and in the future, adopt the genetically modified way to increase food crops will see themselves having to fork over money in order to keep buying seeds every year — because the crops will yield sterile seeds. Oh, and, any farmers who are getting patented seeds "unlawfully," will be unable to use them the next year through their traditional methods of saving seeds. The movement would render farmers penniless. (If you've seen The Corporation, you might remember the part about farmers doing much better by traditional, natural methods.)

D&PL [Delta & Pine Land] calls the thousand-year-old tradition of farmer-saved seed by the pejorative term, 'brown bagging' as though it is something dirty and corrupt. Excuse me?

Or what about what "Kissinger said back in the 1970's, 'Control the oil and you can control entire Continents. Control food and you control people...'" Are you scared yet?

With Terminator patent rights, once a country such as Argentina or Brazil or Iraq or the USA or Canada opened its doors to the spread of GMO patented seeds among its farmers, their food security would be potentially hostage to a private multinational company, a company which, for whatever reasons, especially given its intimate ties to the US Government, might decide to use 'food as a weapon' to compel a US-friendly policy from that country or group of countries.

Food as a weapon? Who are the real terrorists here — Islamic extremists, or the US Government and their corporate friends? Think about it.

Posted by Erika at 11:57 AM | Permalink

Yeah I'm just rattling them off, tonight.
I might not be if I'd had enough butter, because I really, desperately wanted to make more apple crisp tonight. It's funny... I go most of my life hardly ever baking. Oh, mom, you are so good at it I didn't need to! And I put too much rum in the rum balls last year (and I don't even drink!).

I made banana bread recently, and, well, you can read about that disaster here. I've wanted to make apple crisp for awhile because it's just so damn good. I've started to like and consume oats quite a bit, and I knew I had all the ingredients (except cinnamon, but I rectified that pretty quickly).

Horrified, of course, to discover that we bought artificial vanilla extract... sigh... but I guess that's what ya do when you're living paycheque to paycheque. Tastes fine. Anyway.

I made some a few days ago, and not enough because it was gone the next afternoon. Yup. And no more apples. Got the man to pick up 12 today. He bought Galas... yum. The ones I used the other day were, uh, early something or other. I'd like to think early girl, but that's tomatoes.

Here's the recipe, from the book my sister so kindly passed down called "Cooking without Mom." No kidding.

Continue reading "Apple crisp!" »

Posted by Erika at 12:45 AM | Permalink

I found this article on Dr. Mercola's website: "Politically Incorrect: The Neglected Nutritional Research of Dr. Weston Price".

You know, it's funny how seemingly misunderstood food, nutrition, and a "balanced diet" are, considering how important it is. I remember high school; the triangle. They were right about the sweets at the top, and perhaps the carbohydrates at the bottom have been challenged. HOWEVER, I've always found the low-carb thing to be somewhat preposterous because I was always told we gain a lot of energy from carbs. The painting contractor chickie makes an interesting point about the whole low-fat thing as well: "Fat free, lite and diet foods make people fat, by the way. Only fat people buy these products. Ever noticed?" If it doesn't make them fat it might kill them, because aspartame is deadly, and will kill ants... in case you have an ant problem. (Might wanna try boiled potato leaves instead.)

But I digress.

The article I referred to above is about the findings of Dr. Weston Price. He discovered that Native peoples with their traditional diets were incredibly healthy, and had "on average, less than 1% of tooth decay"! (I've heard about this before, but what are we going to do in our society anyway, since we're basically screwed.) Do read about his findings; I think they will surprise you.

My grad project will explore what the food industry has done to ruin nutrition. If I can, I'll be a little more politically charged and criticize the pharmaceutical industry as well. I think they're all in cahoots. It's capitalism. "But we are a capitalist nation!" you say. I can't remember the clever statement I had in response to that, but why should we deny our bodies what we fundamentally need, just because a handful of people are greedy? Are those people, too, eating foods abnormally high in sugar, and tomatoes that might as well be plastic? Cardboard potatoes?

Man, potatoes are so good, too. I want a vegetable patch! Is nothing sacred?

Posted by Erika at 12:28 AM | Permalink

My boyfriend has been complaining for months about the smell of my Nalgene water bottle. Best friend told me, it's just old, that's unavoidable. So I finally decided to replace it, but bf could not find them at Superstore. I read on Mercola tonight a confusing article, but understood his comments about safe(r) plastics.

Plastics that are safer to use for storing food and beverages, none of which are known to leach harmful substances include:

Polypropylene, designated "#5 PP"
High-density polyethylene, designated "#2HDPE"
Low-density polyethylene, designated "#4 LDPE"

I was thankful, then, to find out that all our plastic containers are #5 PP. My water bottle, unfortunately, just says #7, and it's getting old. It's Lexan. I can't tell if it has discoloured because it's grey! (Say no to Lexan and polycarbonate!!!) It's not going to kill me but I feel a little uneasy. I still used (and re-used, once) bottled water we bought on our trip. We ended up buying 3 and didn't use as much on the way home. My 500mL bottle gets used up very quickly between the two of us and it was unfortunate that we didn't have two more, but at least we had cold water!

I re-used your good old basic thin plastic water bottles for YEARS, from elementary school through to at least grade 10. I don't know how old my Nalgene bottle is, but maybe 3 years old. Gross... time to be replaced.

The best, they say, is still glass... but it's heavy and it breaks, so it's not that practical for use when I go out. Mercola made a good point, though, about the style of Nalgene bottle you might get: the wide-mouth ones can be CLEANED! I find it very comfortable to drink out of, although the biggest ones (1L) are a bit large. Great for day-long excursions and road trips, though.

We'll see if I can find them tomorrow, hm? And good thing, too, that we didn't get Lexan ones again because it's entirely possible they're not safe, or at least in the long run. The safer, but less trendy HDPE ones are cheaper on their website than the polycarbonate. I'd rather know that I'm not damaging my body than look cool with a water bottle in tow.

Any more evidence?

Posted by Erika at 11:33 PM | Permalink

As a graduation requirement, we must establish communication with a mentor during the course of our grad project(s). They can be a subject, technology, or production expert (with at least 5 years of professional experience) or a designer. "Mentors provide valuable input to Senior Projects to help validate topics and design solutions."

I've now decided to focus my grad project on creating/increasing (through a website) our awareness of the degradation of the quality of our food, in order to change our relationship with food, to change our attitude toward it. I'm also going to be exploring alternative methods of navigation within the frame of the website.

I'm looking for someone who can either provide expertise in nutrition -- and all that is wrong with the food industry and its products today -- or expertise in Flash/web design. If you are either, or know anyone who is, please contact me right away. Thanks!

Posted by Erika at 5:44 PM | Permalink

Everyone at this point is aware of the airline terrorism plot, metro/train bombs, etc. I'm reading this article from BBC News about the remote possibility of agro-terrorism in the US.

Craig Watz, an FBI special agent who runs the agro-terrorism conference, says that when he talks at lunches or dinners, he emphasises how people need to change the way they think about food.

"How many people thought about the safety or security of food, who handled it, who prepared it, where it came from?" he asks.

"We do have to be vigilant not only getting on an airplane or in buses or train systems, but we also have to be vigilant in who's handling our food."

I think the first two statements make important points, but outside of "terrorism." (Personally I think there should be more emphasis on a term they've started using, "extremists.") We really don't know where our food comes from most of the time. We don't know what's been put on our fruits & vegetables. Industralized food often means a lack of nutrition, so we're forgetting that food EQUALS nutrition, not food equals edible stuff we can shove in our mouths to satisfy a hunger.

Continue reading "The right to live without fear" »

Posted by Erika at 4:26 PM | Permalink

BBC News has posted a story with some shocking details about the health of English children. I was aware of the proliferation of sugar in processed foods but wasn't aware of the decrease in fibre. Maybe I'd have less sugar cravings if I ate less sugar, period. Hmm... anyway. "One in four children in England are obese, official statistics published earlier this year showed." If this doesn't tell you there's a problem, I don't know what does. I feel bad for overweight kids I see, and not all of them have similarly overweight parents. And, for pre-teen and teenage girls, on the one hand you've got stick-thin models and actresses, and on the other a source of food that is not ready to promote a healthy body. Even the agricultural industry tends to prefer lusty-looking, big fruit lacking in nutrients and taste. Potatoes are now cardboard, and you're lucky if you find french fries made of potatoes. I have a feeling that I'm a rarity to have grown up eating McDonald's on shopping outings and now avoid it and tend to say 'no thanks' to fries. When it comes to the ice cream in the fridge, though... it's hard to resist. For those of you with my problem, try replacing some of the ice cream with a banana, or other fruit like strawberries, blueberries, or blackberries.

Posted by Erika at 10:41 PM | Permalink

My bananas, disappointingly, went spotty before they even ripened. At that point, they're too sweet and squishy for my taste, so I decided to make some banana bread. Mm-mmm. I bought two small loaf pans today. They're non-stick and I hope they're not teflon, but it doesn't say so. Anyway, they're SO slippery that when I got the pan out of the oven with my oven mitts on it SLID OFF MY HANDS and fell on the floor, spilling my almost-done "bread" on the floor. If it were done it might have slid out but not been ruined. I figured out I had too much banana, as the recipe said 3 or 4, and I had 4 so I used them all, but they were large. Next time I want a cup measurement!

It's in the oven again, what remains of it. No longer perfect. It's mushy and now I'm wondering whether it'll be burnt before it solidifies, and of course, while the chocolate is liquid it's not going to be solid in there. What a disaster!

The good news is... IT TASTES AMAZING!!!

I used this recipe but added milk chocolate chips and chopped pecans. Other recipes included nuts but required bigger pans and more ingredients.

At least the Angel Food Cake turned out pretty well...

Posted by Erika at 8:57 PM | Permalink

There's a new mania and I've got it. At least, I think I've got it.

I seem to have all the symptoms for someone whose mania is seeing diseases everywhere. It's like "all illness, all the time."

I've got "disease mongering mania." Call it DMM for short.
All around me I hear voices chanting the mantra, "You're sick, don't suffer in silence, see your doctor, get treatment. You're sick, don't suffer in..." etc.

These same voices seem to be coming from all kinds of unique places: television and magazine ads, the wife of a former prime minister, even from the pages of a medical journal as two psychiatrists battle it out.

Ironically, my current form of DMM seems to be largely emanating from the makers of powerful drugs for schizophrenia - a coincidence, that? - and they all seem to be saying the same thing: It may not be depression; it could be bipolar disorder."

Full article at Common Ground

Posted by Erika at 12:21 AM | Permalink

from Wikipedia's page on food irradiation
"Under certain circumstances some research suggests that irradiation forms new chemicals in food, some of which are uniquely radiolytic products. However, the levels of these compounds produced in irradiated foods have been deemed too low to present a meaningful risk to consumers. At very high doses, e.g. >6 kilogray, irradiation can reduce the vitamins and other essential nutrients; and negatively impact the flavor, odor and texture of food. At the doses typically used in irradiation treatment of food, e.g. <3.5 kilogray, these changes appear minimal."

save a penny a day, you have $1 in 100 days. what about this?

for more information and some great links please visit my third year, second semester project, O: organic produce. (not related to Safeway's O organics label.)

Posted by Erika at 9:29 PM | Permalink