Let’s Take Back Food

Farmer FruitMonster

What We Eat and How We Make It is Crazy.

Using huge swathes of land we relentlessly grow one type of crop in a petroleum intensive fashion to produce pesticide laden, genetically modified crops using methods that exhaust soils, deplete aquifers and wash nitrogen into our rivers.  Instead of eating this produce, it is either delivered to food processing companies, sent off to feed massive numbers of livestock, or used to produce expensive and inefficient biofuels.

Monocropping or Monoculture, No Good

These food processors turn that fresh produce into dead, sugar ridden, salty infused, fatty crap that sits on shelves or hums in freezers for months or even years before it ever enters our bodies.  The livestock community feeds this food to penned and caged up animals whom are weak, sick and essentially tortured for most of their lives - and then we eat their flesh and drink their milk.  The biofuels industry takes crops which could feed hundreds of millions, and put them into our cars, driving up the costs of food related commodities worldwide.

The products that we eat after these massive amounts of produce are turned into ‘food’, leaves us sick (heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc) and we are then bled dry by expensive pharmaceuticals and medical treatment.  This leads to more than just the person who ate the nasty food suffering from it!  It hurts our families, our communities and whole countries.  It’s such a big problem that it even blows up our national deficits, because of the subsidies we give to this process and from the great costs medical treatments impose on us ($2.4 Trillion in 2008)

Click Here to Read About This 'Corporate Crap Sandwich'

To be brief – the way we grow food, what we eat as ‘food’ and the effects it has on our bodies after we eat it is absolutely INSANE.  It’s actually comical that people look at someone like me who thrives off a locally sourced, seasonally driven, produce based diet that I try to grow in my backyard and call what I’m saying ‘controversial’ or ‘crazy’.   I don’t think it takes much more than an average understanding of our actual food production process and some basic nutritional intuition (one that ignores the heavy lobbying of the FDA and USDA by the meat and dairy industries), to see that the ‘normal’ way to eat is actually completely broken.

If this gets you down, then stop right now and cheer up.  Because I’ve got answers to this  pollution ridden, poisonous and corrupted system we depend on, and using these ideas we can quite literally save the planet, changing this world for the better.  So are you ready?  Listen up.

The whole plan revolves around your food choices

That’s because the revolution starts with your mouth.  You can change what you eat tomorrow and that is true power.  We the People can shift the supply and demand curve back into the direction we wish, just with our dollars.  It’s already happening everywhere around you, people are ‘waking up’!  So why not join in?

Alright fruit-freak, where do I start?  By shifting your diet towards a whole-foods based one, away from this system. The best way to start doing this and make a sustainable, community driven, change, is to start your own garden and grow some food on your own.  That’s what ‘The FruitMonster Garden’ is all about!

It’s easier than you think, and I’m going to devote this section of my blog to covering how you can do it.  Through my YouTube videos, helpful links on my Twitter feed and a series of blog posts – we’re going to go over how just about anyone can have a garden (yes, even you apartment ridden folks!).  There are countless methods of doing so, so there is really no excuse. If you want to make a difference in this world, then starting with a garden is an excellent way to start.  You’ll be amazed what you learn and how big the smile is on your face when you reap your first harvest!

7 Ears of Corn, Is That 9 With An Ear-to-Ear Grin?

It’s quite obviously hard to grow ALL of your own food, so what else can you do?  Start doing more of your shopping at your local farmer’s markets.  We really need to start doing this enmass right now!  (Watch out, Wal-Mart sells over 20% of the food in the US!).  So where are they?  In the United States, search for the nearest one here.  Australians, check out this link.  By supporting your local farmers, you are stimulating your local economy, getting fresher and healthier produce, and you will find great satisfaction in getting to know the person who grew your food.  Plus, I often find the best deals on fruit and veggies there!  Its a win-win-win-win!!

$55 At the Farmer's Market, Beat That!

If you can’t get to the farmer’s market, then there is another option for you Australians (if anyone knows of a system like this in the U.S., please email me: unleashthemonster@live.com) – it’s called Aussie Farmer’s Direct.  They will deliver fresh fruits and veggies right to your door, and you will get a GREAT deal.  They get goods straight from the farmers, bypassing the supermarkets and supporting Australian agriculture.  What a great deal!

So to review – I’m endorsing a produce based diet, self grown, locally sourced and supportive of farmers.  Doing so, you can snag up armloads of fresh fruits and veggies and indulge in a vigorous fruitmonstering session, a refreshing juice or a monster-sized green smoothie.

Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for the latest from the ‘FruitMonster Garden’!

Eating, Growing and Inspiring the Food Revolution,

Let’s Take Back Food

Farmer FruitMonster

What We Eat and How We Make It is Crazy.

Using huge swathes of land we relentlessly grow one type of crop in a petroleum intensive fashion to produce pesticide laden, genetically modified crops using methods that exhaust soils, deplete aquifers and wash nitrogen into our rivers.  Instead of eating this produce, it is either delivered to food processing companies, sent off to feed massive numbers of livestock, or used to produce expensive and inefficient biofuels.

Monocropping or Monoculture, No Good

These food processors turn that fresh produce into dead, sugar ridden, salty infused, fatty crap that sits on shelves or hums in freezers for months or even years before it ever enters our bodies.  The livestock community feeds this food to penned and caged up animals whom are weak, sick and essentially tortured for most of their lives - and then we eat their flesh and drink their milk.  The biofuels industry takes crops which could feed hundreds of millions, and put them into our cars, driving up the costs of food related commodities worldwide.

The products that we eat after these massive amounts of produce are turned into ‘food’, leaves us sick (heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc) and we are then bled dry by expensive pharmaceuticals and medical treatment.  This leads to more than just the person who ate the nasty food suffering from it!  It hurts our families, our communities and whole countries.  It’s such a big problem that it even blows up our national deficits, because of the subsidies we give to this process and from the great costs medical treatments impose on us ($2.4 Trillion in 2008)

Click Here to Read About This 'Corporate Crap Sandwich'

To be brief – the way we grow food, what we eat as ‘food’ and the effects it has on our bodies after we eat it is absolutely INSANE.  It’s actually comical that people look at someone like me who thrives off a locally sourced, seasonally driven, produce based diet that I try to grow in my backyard and call what I’m saying ‘controversial’ or ‘crazy’.   I don’t think it takes much more than an average understanding of our actual food production process and some basic nutritional intuition (one that ignores the heavy lobbying of the FDA and USDA by the meat and dairy industries), to see that the ‘normal’ way to eat is actually completely broken.

If this gets you down, then stop right now and cheer up.  Because I’ve got answers to this  pollution ridden, poisonous and corrupted system we depend on, and using these ideas we can quite literally save the planet, changing this world for the better.  So are you ready?  Listen up.

The whole plan revolves around your food choices

That’s because the revolution starts with your mouth.  You can change what you eat tomorrow and that is true power.  We the People can shift the supply and demand curve back into the direction we wish, just with our dollars.  It’s already happening everywhere around you, people are ‘waking up’!  So why not join in?

Alright fruit-freak, where do I start?  By shifting your diet towards a whole-foods based one, away from this system. The best way to start doing this and make a sustainable, community driven, change, is to start your own garden and grow some food on your own.  That’s what ‘The FruitMonster Garden’ is all about!

It’s easier than you think, and I’m going to devote this section of my blog to covering how you can do it.  Through my YouTube videos, helpful links on my Twitter feed and a series of blog posts – we’re going to go over how just about anyone can have a garden (yes, even you apartment ridden folks!).  There are countless methods of doing so, so there is really no excuse. If you want to make a difference in this world, then starting with a garden is an excellent way to start.  You’ll be amazed what you learn and how big the smile is on your face when you reap your first harvest!

7 Ears of Corn, Is That 9 With An Ear-to-Ear Grin?

It’s quite obviously hard to grow ALL of your own food, so what else can you do?  Start doing more of your shopping at your local farmer’s markets.  We really need to start doing this enmass right now!  (Watch out, Wal-Mart sells over 20% of the food in the US!).  So where are they?  In the United States, search for the nearest one here.  Australians, check out this link.  By supporting your local farmers, you are stimulating your local economy, getting fresher and healthier produce, and you will find great satisfaction in getting to know the person who grew your food.  Plus, I often find the best deals on fruit and veggies there!  Its a win-win-win-win!!

$55 At the Farmer's Market, Beat That!

If you can’t get to the farmer’s market, then there is another option for you Australians (if anyone knows of a system like this in the U.S., please email me: unleashthemonster@live.com) – it’s called Aussie Farmer’s Direct.  They will deliver fresh fruits and veggies right to your door, and you will get a GREAT deal.  They get goods straight from the farmers, bypassing the supermarkets and supporting Australian agriculture.  What a great deal!

So to review – I’m endorsing a produce based diet, self grown, locally sourced and supportive of farmers.  Doing so, you can snag up armloads of fresh fruits and veggies and indulge in a vigorous fruitmonstering session, a refreshing juice or a monster-sized green smoothie.

Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for the latest from the ‘FruitMonster Garden’!

Eating, Growing and Inspiring the Food Revolution,

There has been an awful lot of talk in the United States lately about the corruptive influence of corporations on our government and the negative impacts that they inflict upon our livelihoods.  And while not all corporate products or services deserve to be demonized, there is sure plenty to be upset about – a lot of which has gotten TheFruitMonster pretty riled up lately!  The result?  You guessed it, a series of blog posts about how you can take back your country just by changing what you put in your mouth.  How so?  Let’s dive down this rabbit hole together, shall we?

Hint: You're the Dollar Bills!

Part 1 | Part 2

The Corporate Crap Sandwich

When it comes to what we put in our mouths, we Americans (and quickly, the rest of the world – hint, hint Australia!) are caught up in the middle of what I have come to call the ‘Corporate Crap Sandwich‘, within which all of us are getting screwed over by corporate greed on both sides of our dietary choices. 

On the first side of this Corporate Crap Sandwich, you have the energy, agriculture, fertilizer, meat, dairy and food industries delivering you ‘food’ through a system that is terrible for the environment, nutritionally deficient and destructive to local economies all while making them huge piles of cash!

'Trillion'? Try Trillions

Flip this sandwich over, and you get an equally crap-tastic set of problems on the other side, showing up after you eat this  ’food’.  These problems are lead by ‘Big Pharma’ and medical insurance/professionals profiting from your illness.  These, in turn, feed into the national deficit problem, thereby cutting down on the benefits your government offers you and reducing the quality of your life, all the while costing the American economy trillions of dollars.  Sound bad?  Well that’s why its a Corporate Crap Sandwich!

For this blog post, I’m going to (briefly, a book could be written on this section alone!) go over the first part of the first half of the Corporate Crap Sandwich which is….

Meet Modern Day Farmers

The Industrialization of Agriculture

The whole Corporate Crap Sandwich problem really started in the post World War II environment, when the invention of refrigeration and the incorporation of petroleum into agriculture, allowed for the effective industrialization of our food supply.   By introducing, on a large scale, petrol powered farming equipment into the tilling, sowing, reaping and delivery of our produce and the ability to store food for longer periods via refrigeration, an inevitable march towards large scale farming began.  While this process did allow an unprecedented number of people to move off of the family farm and into the suburbs to take up service oriented jobs, it was at the expense of the quality of our food and caused people to become  disconnected to ‘where their food comes from‘ (a fatal error!).

This disconnect of people from the origins of their food allowed for the entire process to be hijacked for profit-making by energy, fertilizer and seed corporations.   Famers have been forced to focus on delivering greater amounts of produce with increasing amounts of it created for processed foods (rather than fresh goods).  This has made the whole process distorted, increasingly poisonous and ultimately, more destructive.

Energy

Insert Corny Energy Joke Here

First lets look at energy.  Mechanization of the farming process has steadily incorporated increasing levels of GHGs (GreenHouse Gas) into the food production process and created a farming industry addicted to petroleum for its equipment and natural gas for its fertilizers.  As a consequence, our global food system is at the mercy of oil markets and has been identified by the IPCC as one the of the three main causes of climate change (the others are land use and fossil fuels).

Furthermore, the growing disconnect between people and their food, both physically and psychologically (i.e. knowing whats in season) has led to the destruction of local food economies and increased globalization of the food supply (e.g. bananas in Ohio from South America), through the petroleum fueled long distance transport of foods worldwide, creating extensive carbon footprints for our foods (try reducing yours!)

Who Profits?:  Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, Deere, CNH, Caterpillar

Fertilizers

Making N,P,K is Dirty, Money Making Business

Secondly, ‘modern’ agricultural practices exhaust the soils via relentless growing of vast fields of the same crops – known as mono-cropping. While rotating crops, growing a diversity of crops, or allowing for fallow fields could avoid this problem, the lure of profit detracts farmers from these practices (i.e. lucrative corn ethanol subsidies).

This exhaustion of the soils then necessitates the use of artificial fertizers, which is where corporations like Mosaic or Intrepid Potash start to reap in their massive profits.  And guess what?  These fertilizers don’t even provide crops with all the nutrition they need (that means they don’t give it to you either!) AND they destroy the organic content of the soils!  What’s more, the Haber process is very energy intensive consuming up to 2% of world energy (and growing) and emitting copious GHGs in the process.  Plus, as a secondary effect, fertilizer run-off is also terrible for aquatic ecosystems, causing events such as algae blooms and dead zones as they consume all of the oxygen in the water.  Disgusting stuff!  Why do we do this to ourselves?  Oh yeah, for money!

Who Profits?:  Mosaic, Agrium, Potash Corp, Dow Chemical

Seed, Pesticide, Herbicide

This Sums it Pretty Well

Third, you have the influence of big seed companies, or should I say ‘company’, like Monsanto (which controls 90-95% of the market share in the U.S.) and the pesticide/herbicide corporations.  Whereas a biologically diverse farm resists disease, weed and pest intrusions, mono-cropping increases the susceptibility of crops to insect blight, disease and the intrusion of weeds.  This then ‘necessitates’ the use of cancer causing pesticides and herbicides (also sold, conveniently by Monsanto as well), which, lucky for you, are applied generously.

Monsanto interferes the most by patenting genetically modified (GMO) varieties of crops which are resistant to disease/weed killers or even ones that generate their own pesticides.  This is great for Monsanto, since they hold patents on these products and charge lots of money for them through their monopoly.  Using these patents, they then bully farmers into using Monsanto seed (watch Food Inc for a synopsis of this), furthering their illegal monopoly and cutting into farmers’ already meager profits.  This whole process is also bad for you, because you are now (often unknowingly) eating GMO products with unforseen consequences (e.g. potatoes producing their own pesticides).

Bad for farmers, bad for workers, bad for you

Furthermore, GMO or not, all throughout the food chain, what you eat is covered in carcinogenic pesticides/herbicides!  These chemicals are used excessively, with over a hundred million pounds of it used in the U.S. each year, accounting for over $2 billion in expenditure.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, there are now increasing reports of pesticide resistant bugs, meaning more powerful pesticides are on the way.  And guess what else?  GMO crops don’t even result in less pesticide use anyway!  But this is no problem for the pesticide industry, because they have made and are continuing to make billions of dollars worldwide.

Who Profits?: Monsanto, Bayer, SynGenta, DuPont, BASF

Did you know?  “Known as the ‘Big 6′, Monsanto, Dow, BASF, Bayer, Syngenta and DuPont control 74% of the global pesticide market and 49% of the global seed market, making the pesticide/agricultural biotechnology industry one of the most consolidated and powerful sectors in the world.” Scary! www.panna.org

—

As you can see already, there are a number of very wealthy and influential corporations involved in the process of feeding you!  And rather than do their job ethically and responsibly, they’ve instead created an industry focused on corporate profits, rather than your best interests! Delivering you a product that is poisoned, bad for the planet and that takes advantage of the farmers producing it.

We’ve only just begun to cover the crappy deal you get in this Corporate Crap Sandwich!  I’ll warn you, that in my next post the situation will only get worse, as we delve into the problems caused by the food processing and livestock corporations.  But on the tail end of it, I promise I will provide some solutions…. you can be sure they will involve fruit

Until then, go grab yourself some local organic produce and eat guilt free!

Read Part 2