New Years Resolution - Go Local and Organic!

I usually don't participate in New Year's resolutions because I know I most likely won't keep up with it. But after watching the film, Food Inc., I decided to make an exception.

I generally think of myself as someone who has a relatively good diet. I try to stay away from red meat and pork, and increase my consumption of fruits and vegetables. I try my very best to limit my fast food intake. From there, I thought I was doing a pretty good job. Then, I watched Robert Kinner's film and totally had a change of heart.

If you haven't seen this documentary yet, it is a must see!!! Thanks to campus organizer, T. Stewart, I am now a believer.

Filmmaker, Kinner, does a phenomenal job of revealing the secrets behind our national food industry. In this film, you will learn about the monopoly only a few corporations have over the so-called variety of food products we look for at our local grocery stores. What's really sad is the debilitating impacts they have on local farmers and immigrant workers who are, in most cases, recruited from Latin American countries illegally to work in very inhumane conditions. In addition, bacteria that was once considered foreign and rare, has infiltrated our food supply. Even the foods that we generally think about as the healthiest are often contaminated (remember the E. coli found in spinach leaves and salmonella in peanut butter?).

You would think the federal government would not allow this to happen. Think again! In fact, government agencies such as the USFDA employed top representatives who are or once were executives at these companies, leaving very little room for objective governance when it comes to our most sacred resource.

Today, Huffington Post had a very interesting article about most food purchased in the US are packaged and come from factory farms, the breeding grounds for deadly pathogens that are making their way to our dinner tables.

Well, with all of this in mind, I thought to myself, what could I do to reduce my health becoming impaired by what I eat and not participating in how these companies treat their workers and contracted farmers. Luckily, at the end of the film, there's a listing of recommendations of how every day citizens can make a difference:

• Buy locally grown foods
• Support farmers markets and ask them to accept food assistance programs such as EBT or food stamps
• Go organic (though costly, the higher the demand, the likelihood of prices to drop - your buying power is your vote!)
• Start a community garden

These simple actions also got me to think about how our current administration is approaching health care reform. I'm all for uninsured Americans to be covered under this possible new law (hell, I'm looking forward to the day when we'll have universal coverage. I'm still crossing my fingers). But I would really like to see our country take a huge leap forward and not only reform health care insurance, but also our very health and well-being, which is completely tied to what we eat and often our lifestyles. Though I don't expect nor want our government to legislate our lifestyles, more can certainly be done to give us healthier choices and incentives in both providing and making those choices.

In order to achieve true health care reform, we can not leave out the need to do a serious overhaul of our food industry. Because what's the point of promoting preventive care (though we should definitely continue to do so) if the veggies or eggs most Americans buy are covered with deadly bacteria?

Well, until we get it all figured out, I've made a commitment. I will try my very best to go local and organic! Wish me luck!

NBC's Green Screen

It's widely understood that the images and ideas that we see on TV have an effect on us, though there are disagreements on the extent of the effect. Watching ads about toothpaste encourage us to believe cavities are the modern equivalent of the black plague; the Twilight movies have turned every human being (as well as some pets that have unfortunately been exposed to the material) into Emo Goths that want to shag vampires (alas, we all doomed to perpetual sexual frustration!); and Gossip Girls' portrayal of a threesome is OBVIOUSLY meteor-cultist propaganda encouraging all preteens to go have one.

But if the fairies hiding in every TV box were to use their magical powers of persuasion to encourage environmental responsibility?

Next week, the TV station NBC is going to be incorporating "green themes" into many of their TV programs, according to the Associated Press. 30 Rock will have a cameo with Al Gore, and Alec Baldwin's character will tell his staff they need to cut their carbon footprint. The show "Heroes" will feature a recycling truck. Dwight from "The Office" will don the awe-inspiring title of "Recyclops". Even "The Biggest Loser" will get in on the green game, as they will tell the contestants to eat organic food and bring their own mugs to coffee shops.

So what do you think? Can NBC brand "green" as cool? Will next week's shows act as the harbinger to a happy hippie apocalypse? Or will viewers not be tricked by the blatant environmentalist propaganda? (Being a happy hippie feminist who knows that climate change has a disproportionately negative effect on women's well-being and rights, I'm rooting for the propaganda).

Photo Credit: stringberd on flickr.com

Pregnant Women Exposed to Pesticide Drift

Insecticides such as Assail 70 WP and Fujimite 5EC have been shown to cause miscarriage, preterm delivery, and severe birth defects. So what they are doing in the bodies of two pregnant women?

Workers at an organic farm in Tehachapi, including Julia Rojads Sabino and another pregnant woman, were exposed to these pesticides when a neighboring farmer sprayed his orchard while they were in the field harvesting onions. The workers experienced effects of the chemicals almost immediately. When the effects worsened, their supervisor was forced to seek medical assistance.

Despite the fact that pesticides drift when they are sprayed, the law does not require any buffer zones or communication between neighboring farms when a spraying is scheduled. Pesticide drift can continue to spread over large areas for hours, days, and even weeks.

Take Action at the United Farm Workers website and ask officials to strengthen laws on pesticide use.