Ye-HaDo you REALLY want to be Green?
Juvenile Pink Salmon with Sea Lice
If you are recycling, keeping you tires inflated, and turning off appliances or using them at off-peak hours, not over-fertilizing your lawn then you are making a difference in the evolution of our planet. If you have taken much larger steps such as removing your grass lawn all together, purchasing a hybrid vehicle, or installing solar panels even better.
But, did you know that your food choices have more to do with shaping our planet than all of the above? The simple choices that you make 3-5 times a day influence large and powerful industries who in turn have the ultimate influence on our land and oceans.
This may sound corny to you, but the Food Movement has begun. We have seen time and time again how information, from diet fads to government reports, affects behavior and that affects how food production industries behave. Now, with people and organizations taking issues into their hands and the Internet helping to spread the truth and join people together, consumers are starting to learn the truth about food production and the havoc it is wrecking on our environment and ourselves.
There are many examples of the growing food movement about which you may have already heard. Michael Pollen's books. Movies such as The Cove (Academy Award® Winner for Best Documentary of 2010) and Food Inc. (nominated for the award), and The End of the Line.
Perhaps you saw The Cove and are mad at the Japanese for the dolphin killings, but shouldn’t we first address our own back yard? (Although feel free to organize a boycott of Japanese products.)
What can you do?
Start with educating yourself and voting with your wallet, or as Michael Pollen says, vote with your fork, but that is just a start. People need two things to be powerful and really make a difference. Knowledge and numbers.
There are many examples of knowledge. Some examples are knowing that cows raised on pastures that never eat corn are much higher in Omega-3 fatty acids (the good ones people talk about that are in fish) than corn-fed which are higher in Omega-6 fatty acids (the bad ones). But that is just a small piece of the pie. An awful lot of fossil fuel energy goes into getting that corn-fed hamburger to your plate than a more locally raised pastured animal. The situation with fish isn’t any better, in fact, it’s worse. Wild fisheries have or are collapsing. Atlantic cod off the Grand Banks is probably gone for good. For good. That’s it. Nada. No “do over.” Farmed salmon is full of carcinogens and parasites, is devastating to the surrounding waters, and is flown in from far away places. Genetically modified foods waltz through lax regulations and appears on your plate without notice.
All the while the food production industries are trying to hide it from you with “happy cows from California,” pictures on egg cartons of chickens running around on grass fields on farms, the artificial coloring of farmed salmon, and subsidies to artificially cost the food the garmongous food industries want you to eat while they destroy the planet and your health.
We need transparency into the economics and the process as to how our food gets to us, including the effects on the environment and our health. From sources that we can trust.
And we also need power in numbers. That means spreading the word and taking actions that change the course of how food is produced and delivered to your plate.
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