My Dad and I recently got into an increasingly heated coversation regarding my strong feelings towards CAFOs and what turned out to be his lack of knowledge about them. The phone call progressed into a series of emails in which we both tried to convince the other to see the industry our way. Eventually, I stopped writing back. Not because I began to agree with him - but because I found myself out of memorized argugment. Since then I've been pushing myself to write a comprehensive blog post about why I no longer eat CAFO meats and why sustainable agriculture needs to be priority for all Americans. Fortunately, in addition to Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver there are many resources on the web. If my posts slow down for a while it'll be because I'm working on the best way to share my point of view. Until then, enjoy this great little animation of a Michael Pollan lecture. - Cullen
I'm struggling with posts this week. I've wanted to write something that would convince everyone to give up "food like" substances as well as recipes based on "cream of this or that" - but I've found I'm not that good of a writer. So instead, I'm turning to my old faithful, Micheal Pollan, for his help.
The following food tips come from his book Food Rules - an eater's manual. These are my ten favorites (in no particular order): 1. Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature. 2. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well. (I like to add "lived well" too). 3. Eat well grown food from healthy soil. 4. Favor oils and grains that have tradtionally been stone ground. 5. Avoid food products that contain more then five ingredients. 6. Treat treats as treats ("...special occasion foods offer some of the great pleasures of life, so we shouldn't deprive ourselves of them, but the sense of occasion needs to be restored...") 7. Pay more, eat less. ("...you get what you pay for. There is also a trade-off between quality and quantity...") 8. If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don't. 9. It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language. Think Big Mac, Cheetos, or Pringles. 10. Plant a vegetable garden if you have the space, a window box if you don't.
If you're not already a fan of Michael Pollan then his appearance on the Colbert Report is a fantastic introduction. Pollan's book In Defense of Food is what set my lifestyle change in motion. Until that point I'd just been thinking about changing. His book gave me all the reasons I did't know I needed.
