Hola Amigos, please check this great story that came out in the New york times this past Sunday!

Health Care savings could start in the Cafeteria

This was in part my thesis when I came to America to start up GustOrganics! And it is great to see the topic in mainstream media with such great research and coverage!

The other part of my thesis is related of course to sustainability!

Enjoy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/health/policy/29diet.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&sq=health%20care&st=cse&scp=2

In America, if we are what we eat, most of us are fast, cheap, and easy.

Check this link:

http://www.grist.org/article/colonel-of-truth/

I strongly recommend all of you to read Clean, a book written by Alejandro Junger, (MD)

The doctor brilliantly explains the level of toxicity that we all have in our bodies due to modern life and the terrible food that most of us eat in our current lifes.

I was told that Clean is a New York Times best seller and I truly believe that the ideas on this book will help many people all over the world.

Clean also details the different methods of detoxifying our bodies in a simple and effective way.

Check the info in the following link: http://www.cleanrevolution.tv/2009/04/clean-by-alejandro-junger/

I often try to encourage all the people that I know to be careful about making good consumer’s choices regarding the food we eat. I frequently say that “we are what we eat” and “we shape the world by what we eat”…

Please read this great article in Time Magazine about the food system in America and the relationship to our cheap personal choices.

Enjoy!

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1917458,00.html?artId=1917458?contType=article?chn=sciHealth

America’s food system is unfortunately a Frankenstein that we have created by supporting the $3.99 value meal for many years!

Through our purchasing habits we were also led to believe that we should save money in food and use it to buy things we do not need! Now watch what happened with the cost and the situation of US healthcare!

In 1930 Americas used to spend 24.2% of their income in food. In 2005 only 9.5% of the income was spent in food. There are many things behind this ratio, but in any case it shows about our damaging consumptions habits..

By supporting the $3.99 value meal we were not only ruining our collective health, but also creating a consolidated food system that is damaging our environment in a terrible way!

About 50% of the food is produced by only 2% of the farms in America.

81% of the beef, 73% of sheep, 56% of pork and 50% of chicken is produced by only 4 firms in the USA.

Only 0.5% of the America’s agriculture is organic!

We should take the lead by example and start creating different movements to change our health, our environment and with it, America’s food system for good!

Think before you eat! Whether you like it or not, if it is cheap, most likely it is low quality!

Unless real exceptional cases, food in order to be cheap must be mass produced and full of antibiotics, hormones, chemicals and GMO’s.

To save money in food in order to buy things that we really do not need is a harmful idea driving to mortgage our long term health.

Junk food = Junk Body = Junk Mind!

Please think before you eat and encourage other to do the same.

By doing that we will be enjoying a much healthier and better quality of life but also we will be contributing to change America’s food system for good!

I personally believe the way we eat in America has 3 main problems:

1)      The quality of food we eat

2)      The kind of food

3)      The quantity

The quality of food we eat:

I noticed that majority of the food in America is not organic; and most of it is produced in a big scale using harmful pesticides, antibiotics, GMO’s and hormones. This is definitely very bad to our health no matter which way we look at it.

The kind of food:

In general I see that US diet in main cities is based on too many hamburgers, French fries and hot dogs, instead of eating vegetables (as raw as possible) good meats and fruits.

The quantity of food:

In Europe or South America, the people eat in average about 60% of the quantity that is consumed per person in America. And most of these countries have much less health problems and obesity than US. The logic seems to me very obvious! We must eat less!

I know this is a generalization and if you are in fact reading this post, you are probably not eating this way! However, I believe that if we properly address these three issues, our health should be in a much better way. Eating better quality food, different kinds of food and less quantity is something that most people can do. This is just about changing our food paradigm.

I encourage starting to think about this before we eat until it becomes a positive habit that allow us to change our eating habits and by doing that our entire food system.

USDA proposes allowing organic seal on GM foods.

It looks like USDA-NOP might surrender under the pressure of Biotech companies.

If they allow GMO’s to become organic, then organics will start meaning nothing for many savvy consumers in America and fragmentation seems inevitable.

Organics is a movement of well intended farmers and consumers doing the right things and trying to change our food paradigm, from Just profit driven business models to Social and Environmentally driven business models. (That by the way, will generate much more profits in the long term..)

USDA organic means for me the assurance of quality and integrity.

Organic GMO’s will be in my opinion the beginning of the end of the organic movement that is being driven mostly by educated believers and change agents.

The real organic movement is hope for change in our food system, and these eventual changes toward “Organic GMOs” will seriously jeopardize that hope.

In any case, GustOrganics will not buy Gm, even if they now become organic!

Please resist!

The last few weeks there was a lot of talk and controversy about the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (bill HR 875)

I was somehow forced to do some research by some of my organic and sustainable reference’s friend from California, who have provided me with some good insights…

Here is some interesting clarification of the bill made by Bill Marler, attorney at law related to the food industry:

http://www.marlerblog.com/2009/03/articles/lawyer-oped/guest-blog-trula-myths-facts-about-hr-875-the-food-safety-modernization-act/

For those who like to read more about the bill and other ideas please check The Cornucopia Institute:

http://www.cornucopia.org/2009/03/action-alert-critical-pending-food-safety-legislation/#more-1221

For me and my family, I tend to avoid food that is not natural. That is to say, I stay away from anything that looks like something but it is something else…

Being from Argentina I have to say that I hate soy. a) Because my organic country is unfortunately becoming a world power producer of GMO Soy (in my opinion, literally poison for people and the environment) and almost all this soy is being exported (Argentineans do not eat much soy…) Monsanto is helping this crazy and ignorant development of ruining the soil and selling profitable & horrible food to people in other places.. B) I love real meats!

In Argentina and Uruguay, the sustainable deal is, the cows feed the soil, and the soil feeds the cows, so by permanently rotating the different crops on the same soil, and by later having cattle feeding and living in that soil, the sustainable circle closes nicely…