21st Century Homesteading: Why Grow Your Own Food?

(Page 3 of 6)

February/March 2007
By Harvey Ussery 
Article Tools
Print
Comments
RSS
Bookmark and Share

Lack of ingredient choices. Nothing would seem to characterize our food system more than abundant choice. More and more, we can have what we want to eat at any hour of the day or night, in any preferred flavor — Italian, Mexican or Chinese. But if my Cordon Bleu Chicken Supreme and my Thai Chicken Noodle Delight are largely (aside from the meat) the same blend of highly processed ingredients, have I really made any meaningful choice in how I nourish my body — as opposed to how I tickle my tastebuds?

RELATED CONTENT

Even if I eschew highly processed foods, I may be shocked to learn how limited my food choices truly are. For example, do you know any consumer who would knowingly purchase chicken for his or her family’s dinner that had been soaked in water contaminated with fecal matter? Surely not, yet that is in fact part of the history of almost all supermarket and fast-food chicken. Nervous about genetically modified crops? Not only are these ingredients ubiquitous in our food, but you’re on your own in determining which foods contain GMOs, because the FDA decided that food labels don’t need to divulge this information. Ditto for synthetic recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), used to boost milk production in most large commercial dairy herds. You may conclude, based on reliable research, that rBGH is an unsafe addition to milk, but the FDA has ruled that you need not be advised of its presence in the milk you buy.

Ignoring the true costs of food. Americans spend, on average, a smaller percentage of our income on food than any other national population. The cheap food that our government has pushed so hard to achieve, however, is cheap only insofar as we ignore some of the true costs involved; costs such as the pollution of groundwater by runoff from giant feedlots and excessive use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers; and the heavy use of antibiotics in high-confinement feeding operations that eventually makes those antibiotics less effective. In a rational accounting system, these costs would be added to the price of fast-food hamburgers and the like.

The hidden costs of industrial food are being charged against the future as well as the present. In our cheap food system, we lose soil 10 times faster than it is being replenished. According to a recent study from Cornell University, around the world, cropland the size of Indiana is lost each year to erosion. In addition to the washing and blowing away of overtilled, chemicalized soil, one of the most critical forms of topsoil loss is the oxidation of humus in the soil — that is, the binding of the carbon in humus with the excess oxygen to which it is exposed, resulting in release of CO2 to the atmosphere.

Page: << Previous 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Next >>
Bookmark and Share
RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print
FEATURED ARTICLES
MOST POPULAR


Subscribe Today - Pay Now & Save 66% Off the Cover Price

First Name: *
 Last Name: *
Address: *
 City: *
State/Province: *
 Zip/Postal Code:*
Country:
 Email:*
(* indicates a required item)
Canadian subs: 1 year, (includes postage & GST). Foreign subs: 1 year, . U.S. funds.
Canadian Subscribers - Click Here
Non US and Canadian Subscribers - Click Here

Lighten the Strain on the Earth and Your Budget

Mother Earth News is the guide to living — as one reader stated — “with little money and abundant happiness.” Every issue is an invaluable guide to leading a more sustainable life, covering ideas from fighting rising energy costs and protecting the environment to avoiding unnecessary spending on processed food. You’ll find tips for slashing heating bills; growing fresh, natural produce at home; and more. Mother Earth News helps you cut costs without sacrificing modern luxuries.

At Mother Earth News, we are dedicated to conserving our planet’s natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources. That’s why we want you to save money and trees by subscribing through our Earth-Friendly automatic renewal savings plan. By paying with a credit card, you save an additional $4.95 and get 6 issues of Mother Earth News for only $10.00 (USA only).

You may also use the Bill Me option and pay $14.95 for 6 issues.