Good Morning healthy food lovers! As I sit here eating my Naturally More™ peanut butter right out of the jar with a spoon, and drinking my Chinese White Peony tea that I bought in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, I start to think about just how involved I am or am not in the organic food movement.
I buy organic milk, eggs, and whatever else that strikes my fancy on any given shopping trip; but I am not immersed in an organic or green lifestyle. I try to use cleaning products like Seventh Generation that say they are better for the environment, but why not just use vinegar and water or baking soda to clean?
Being raised in the 1970’s, the processed food and polyester clothing period, it will take a lot of unlearning for my husband and I to go against the conventional way we have lived so far. But we all have choices.
I thought this peanut butter was organic when I bought it–the grocery store displayed it that way–but I don’t see the word “organic” anywhere on the jar. It says “all-natural, contains no cholesterol, and has no trans fats”. Is that the same thing?
Naturally More is fortified with flax seed, flax oil and contains omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids. Well that sounds good, doesn’t it? The ingredients list is as follows: roasted peanuts, wheat germ, flax seed, cane sugar, egg whites, honey, flaxseed oil. Huh. Those are more ingredients than I was expecting, especially the egg whites and cane sugar. It tastes good though.
Anyway, breast cancer has made me more vigilant about what I bring into my home. The thing is, we’ve got to get the whole country to demand healthful water and food supplies, as well as eco-friendly products. If we don’t demand it, corporate America and the world will not provide it. Supply and demand. Cancer has become an epidemic in my generation. We are obviously intaking too many toxins.
Sorry China, but whenever I can, I choose goods made in America. At least I know there is some regulation here; and if I’m poisoned I can sue sombody (I say that facetiously). I do buy Chinese tea.
Researching organic food necessarily leads you to “green” websites like treehugger.com and planet green. discovery.com . These websites have a global vision. I wrote a poem last year after watching a documentary on HBO about a tiny Pacific island that is actually sinking due to the effects of global warming. My Creative Writing professor liked it. Here it is.
Tuvalu Sinking
You are my Tuvalu in an unconscious world.
Knowing that one day the bottom will fall out
We go about our business as if it didn’t matter.
I eat the bitter poi and sugar coated cereal.
I repair the broken asphalt that will break again tomorrow
So the children can ride their motorbikes to school
So my people can drive recklessly to the end
And seek the wisdom of blue-eyed strangers
Who chronicle our fate with impartiality.
Who keep their distance from our decaying reality.
Twilight settles in all around you, Tuvalu.
Eternally desperate, mostly invisible, unstoppable.
My brown eyes fill to the brim, spilling over
Sinking my beautiful Tuvalu, drowning you unmercifully.
By Maureen Habeck
Fall 2007
Poetry is my real passion, but ever since I was a child I have cared deeply about the environment. Now I want to “walk the walk”. I guess sometimes it takes a personal crisis…
Hey, I was trying to upload a picture of Tuvalu onto this post and I came across two blogs about Tuvalu! One was posted by Michael Ritter, titled Tuvalu: That Sinking Feeling, and the other by Stephen Leahy, titled Stephen Leahy Environmental Journalist. These are both really interesting blogs with beautiful pictures plus links to other “Earth” sites.
Have any of you seen the movie Michael Clayton? George Clooney is great in it and so is Tom Wilkinson. The theme of the movie is corporate corruption, but this case has to do with poisonous pesticides that give farmers cancer when they get into their water supply. It’s good to know that Hollywood is addressing some of the issues the planet is facing (along with blowing up cars and buildings-haha).
Leahy, Stephen. (July 30, 2007). Drowning Country: Tuvalu Symbol of Catastrophe and Hope. Retrieved October 24, 2008, from http://stephenleahy.wordpress.com
Ritter, Michael. (February 13, 2007). Tuvalu: That Sinking Feeling. Retrieved October 24, 2008, from http://tpeblog.wordpress.com
Organic Food: Going Against the Grain 