It Begins

I woke up still on a tear, so that's a good sign. I'm a notorious non-finisher of projects, but this is really interesting and very important to the health of my family. If I can just survive all the scary and gross information...

I'll get to that in a minute, though. I need to do a little before photo-taking. Here is my refrigerator and kitchen pantry in its current state (Yikes! A little messier than I'd like, and why does Lauren have four sippy cups in the fridge?):



You'll note that I have a decent stash of frozen veggies, nestled right up next to the Mickey Mouse Chicken Nuggets. In the fridge, I have two kinds of milk sharing space with a massive container of ranch dip (for the nuggets, of course!) There's low-fat yogurt (which I'm now feeling dubious about) and some string cheese, which according to the ingredients is actually decent. In the pantry, I have all my baking stuff, the granola bars with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), Gatorade powder and not one but three kinds of oatmeal. Like I said, I'm not starting off horribly, but I can definitely do better.

What you're not seeing is our other pantry downstairs that has most of the canned tomatoes (which I'm also feeling dubious about), broths, pastas, and extra juices for Lauren. We also have a large freezer in the garage: we buy half a cow's worth of meat every year and a half or so and it's all wrapped up in its pretty white paper in there. This is one choice I feel really good about. We buy the meat from a family friend in Idaho and we know exactly where the cow has been. Plus, it's a great deal. We have that, at least.

I just feel like I have a ton of learning to do. I don't know enough about local resources, what sweeteners are best, whether organic is worth it... It's going to be quite a learning process, and I just have to be patient.

I did start my learning today, though all the books I want to read are on hold at the library. Behold the power of the Internet! Without yet picking up a book, I've already learned a bunch of interesting things about the food we eat and the business of food.:

- Half the people that helped to develop the food pyramid had ties to agribusiness.
- 70% of the antibiotics consumed in America are consumed by animal husbandry. Those antibiotics given straight to us through the meats we eat.
- Every American gets the equivalent of a 5 lb. bag of pesticides each year. (That literally made me shiver to write!)
- We spend about $500 a year per student feeding the children in the schools in the United States. Given all the payroll costs and other overhead, it ends up being about $1 a day per child.
- One out of every four meals is eaten in a car. (Are they counting snacks, you think? What about when I'm wolfing down some of the groceries I just bought because I'm starving?)

All of these facts come from a couple of TED talks I listened to today:

Mark Bittman, "What's Wrong with What We Eat"

Ann Cooper, the "Renegade Lunch Lady"

Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" page has lots of interesting and disturbing facts and figures here


The good news at the bottom of the page? Congress is looking at creating new standards for all food at schools, including vending machines. $4.5 billion over 10 years is a small payment towards the improved health of our children!
See the story here.