Why many can’t afford to eat healthy

Image by elycefeliz (computer not working – back later) via Flickr

I have always wondered why healthy food cost so much more than unhealthy food and now I know. Today I watch the movie Food, Inc. I have to say it was an eye-opening experience.

Many years ago the small farmer became an endangered species and he was replaced by the corporation. Much of the beef, pork, and chicken we eat in America is provided by a small handful of companies (less than 10). In the 1970′s there were hundreds of slaughterhouses in America now there are 13!

The animals are raised in very close proximity which leads to disease and to combat that the animals are fed huge doses of antibiotics, antibiotics which end up in us. Chicken are genetically engineered to have larger breast (because consumers buy more breast meat), they also grow so fast that they can’t even stand up on their own. Their internal organs can’t support how fast their bodies are growing.

Cows raised for beef have similar problems. First off they are fed corn. Cows are supposed to eat grass not corn. It has been discovered that cows that eat corn develop a specific antibiotic resistant form of e-coli that grass eating cows don’t get. It also true that taking these cows out of the feedlot and into a grass field for a few weeks clears out 80% of that bacteria. Great, right? A solution to the problem….Well the corporations that manage the beef production came up with another solution. They treat the meat with ammonia! The beef that you buy at the store has likely been doused with ammonia to get rid of the e.coli.  Did you know that? I didn’t

Years ago you could only get certain vegetables when they were in season. Now you can get them all year long, do you ever wonder why? They are often picked early and ripened using techniques like exposing them to Ethylene gas(which occurs naturally in apples). They are then often trucked thousands of miles from wherever they are season so that you can have them whenever you want.

All these things have one thing in common: money. Corporations want to give you what you will buy. They will genetically engineer chickens with bigger breast if that is what you will buy. They will make cows grow fatter and fatter and do it quicker if it means you will buy more meat. They will truck vegetables halfway around the country or the planet if they know you will buy it. The problem is that to give you what you want, when you want it, trade-offs have to be made. Unfortunately, you are often not informed of those trade-offs. In many cases laws are made specifically to keep you in the dark.

Ok, so this post is about healthy food vs cheap food where does all this fit in. Well, antibiotic filled genetically engineered chicken doesn’t sound healthy to me. Nor does cows infected with antibiotic resistant super e-coli. All of these tradeoff allow you to purchase cheap beef and chicken. Vegetable are picked early and artificially ripened which keeps them available all year and actually lowers cost.

To grow smaller non-engineered chickens is slower and results in a smaller chicken. To raise cows on grass takes a lot of land and longer to get to a harvest-able weight. Leave vegetables on the vine until they ripen and doing it without pesticides means smaller crop yields and less crop yields per year. All of this means it cost more.

Now you can buy all the grass fed beef, free range chicken, and organic vine-ripened vegetables you want at Whole Foods. The problems is that Whole Foods has a well-deserved nickname “Whole Paycheck” because it will cost you a LOT more to shop there.  You can also shop at the local farmers markets but they suffer from much of the same problem. Here lies my dilemma. What is a person of modest income to do? If you can’t afford to shop at Whole Food and want your family to eat healthy how do you do it? If you want to support your local framers, ranchers, and growers but have a Wal-Mart budget what do you do?

The people in the middle suffer the most. Many farmers markets now accept food stamps. So if you are really poor and qualify for food stamps you have that option available to you. For the majority who make too much to qualify for assistance and not enough to pay the higher premium there is no solution.

If you understand what I’m talking about please leave a comment.

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3rd Generation Toyota Prius

I’ve liked this car for a a long time. The addition of the solar roof, intelligent parking assist, and a full EV option make it my first choice when it is time to buy another vehicle. It’s not the only one I would consider but the other options, the plugin-hybrid Mini Cooper and the Chevy Volt, are not actually in production yet.

Being green and saving green

There is a green movement in America. Everyone wants to be green and for the past few years they have been paying more for the privilege. The current economy might seem like the death knell for being green but I think it is actually going to be great for the green industry. The bad economy is going to force companies to bring the prices of their green products down to, or at least in line with, the non-green or ‘less’ green versions.

Until then, I want to let you know about a few things that you can do that are green and will save you some green.

Summer is coming and in most parts of the country this means that you will be using your A/C. Before you turn it on:

1. Check your filters and make sure they are clean. You don’t want any that look like this. Make sure you change them regularly. Write the date on the edge with a permanent marker and change them on the day you pay your electric bill.
2. Get up in your attic and check your duct work. You may need to start the system it and let it get cold first and them run your hands over the ducts and look for leaks. If you feel one, get some duct tape and fix it.
3. Take a walk around the outside of your home and look at your doors and windows. If you find peeling caulk around your doors and windows pull out the old caulk and re-caulk them.
4. Go down to your local Home Depot and look for these little foam inserts that go behind your outlet covers. You only need to use these on outlets that are located on exterior walls.
5. Also look for space around your doors (hint look for light) and if you see some pick up some weather stripping while you are at Home Depot.
6. If you can afford it, get an energy audit done of your home. If you don’t know what an energy audit is here is a good description at Wikipedia

Welcome to Green New Orleans!

I’ve been looking online for information about the green community in New Orleans and to be honest I couldn’t find much. I know there are things going on besides the efforts of Global Green USA in the Holy Cross neighborhood.

I decided to create this blog as a resource for those in New Orleans interested in being green or building green. I plan to bring you info on green companies in the area, green homes going up, green legislation, and any other areas that may be of interest to the green community.