But what about older and/or more disabled people or people not living on a
farm or not flush with money to buy organically produced food? When I
lived in the big city, you had to drive an hour just to get to a corn field
and most apartments in the city hardly had grass let alone a community
garden (but they should for food as well as community building reasons).
These are the people who really need access to food quality information
about food in the regular distribution channels and even more protection
from chemical trespass. We as a society must protect the weakest amoung
our citizens if we are to have any claim to moral legitimacy. I think we
have to do both: grow more food for ourselves as you suggest and insist on
food quality information on the goods we purchase. Mike, now with aching
hands, Miller
>>
>>You wrote:
>>"It is not a question of amount of the contamination. It is a question of
>>whether we have sovereignty over our own bodies. Do we have the right to
>>know about and select the type of food we eat or to resist the chemical
>>contamination of our bodies or have these rights been ceded to corporations
>>and the WTO and NAFTA trade tribunals?"
>>
>>I don't mean to disagree with what you're saying but I would add that the
>>problem is us. We already have the choice. Why are we buying processed
>>foods, grown and prepared somewhere we've never been by someone we don't
>>know. Stop it and you won't have to worry about labelling and contents.
>>Grow and buy whole foods from as near as possible. Get to know the
>>producers and the local processors. You don't have to worry about Nestles
>>and Kraft, Gerber's and Heinz, Frito-Lays and Unilever. If you really want
>>to have control over what goes into your bodies, you won't wait for
>>governments and corporations to legislate your safety and comfort.
>>
>>Each of us has to pick out our own comfort level. There was a time when we
>>went a lot farther toward being self-sufficient then we do now (you know,
>>like making soap from our own rended beef tallow or using oil from dogfish
>>(a small shark) livers in the coal oil lamps (it didn't work very well),
>>and living without electricity. But we still grind organically grown wheat
>>for our bread and can, freeze, and dehydrate much of the food we grow and
>>trade with our neighbours. Our wine is homemade from blackberries and
>>grapes. Our freezers have chicken, pork, lamb, and beef, none of which
>>ever came near the commercial meat production industry. There's a lot of
>>canned salmon in the pantry. In the cellar are fresh apples of several
>>varieties, pears, and Asian apple-pears and the apples will stay fresh
>>until March. There are dried plums, apples, apricots, pears, tomatoes,
>>carrots, sweet peppers and hot chilis. There are leeks, brussel sprouts,
>>and celery still growing outdoors, with broccoli, chard, lettuce,
>>radicchio, parsley, and other greens in the greenhouse.
>>
>>We are not certified organic and neither are our neighbours but no chemical
>>of any kind has come on this property in the 16 years we've lived here. We
>>are part of the fight against the chemical corporations and their effort to
>>control the world's food supply. But the truth is we don't really need
>>them.
>>
>>Don Maroc
>>Vancouver Island, Canada
>>
>>
>>
>>To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
>>"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
>>"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
>>To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
>>"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
>>
>>All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
>>http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail
>>
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail