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Think About Your Food

Think that the "organic" veggies you are getting at Whole Foods and other chains are truly "organic" "Local" and/or "sustainable"? Think again. As long ago as 2011 the problems with some suppliers of healthier foods was newsworthy.

[A]s more Americans buy foods with the organic label, the products are increasingly removed from the traditional organic ideal...farms from Mexico to Chile to Argentina that grow organic food for the United States market are enjoying their busiest season. “People are now buying from a global commodity market, and they have to be skeptical even when the label says ‘organic’ — that doesn’t tell people all they need to know,” said Frederick L. Kirschenmann, a distinguished fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. [NY Times]

Just one more reason to secure your food through Steepleview Farm.

Related articles

Why We Are Raising Better Food At Our Farm

New Chapter In Our Lives

Why We Are Raising Better Food At Our Farm

The world wakes up everyday to horrific stories of how much of our food is unfit for consumption.  Genetically modified, pesticide laden, artificially enhanced food is the norm in the supply chain.  But there are alternatives.

We travelled the country over the past two years searching to find out what others are doing about it.  In Michigan, Florida and California for example the move toward non-GMO foods, naturally grown without chemical pesticides is an exploding industry.  Just take a look at the footprint inside your local Kroger store devoted to "organic" food selections.  Just a year or so ago it was an aisle or two.  Today it is an expanding section of their marketplace.

Look at the success of stores like "Whole Foods" and you will see a trend that spells a change in where we get the food we eat.  That's why we have redirected our farming efforts toward helping supply the growing market for wholesome foods here at Steepleview Farm.

If you need any more reason to change your food buying habits, here is a story out of Yakima Washington that might help persuade you.

There is something seriously wrong in the fertile Yakima Valley region of Washington. A surging number of babies are being born with major birth defects, and the reasons why are eluding state health officials.

As reported by CNN, a nurse in the area, Sara Barron, was the first to report on a particularly horrifying condition: anencephaly -- a condition in which babies are born without much of their brain and skull.

Her shocking finding and report eventually prompted an investigation by the state health department. Investigators found some disturbing results.

Over a three-year period, there were 23 cases concentrated in three southern Washington counties -- Yakima, Benton and Franklin. That's a rate (8.4 per 10,000 live births) that is four times the national average (2.1 per 10,000 live births), CNN reported.

What could be causing such a phenomenon? Is it just one of those weird coincidences, or is something more sinister at play?

Mandy Stahre, with the Washington State Department of Health, conducted the investigation into the high rates of anencephaly. She says she and other investigators are stumped.

"We have not found an answer, and that's a very frustrating part, because this is such a devastating diagnosis for a woman to have," she told CNN.

Barron, however, says she wonders if state health authorities did not find anything because they didn't look hard enough at all possible causes.

So, exactly how did the state conduct its investigation? Stahre said investigators examined data in each parent's medical record -- what sort of prescription drugs they were taking and preexisting medical conditions.

"But medical records don't have details about diet or pesticide exposure," CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reported, "two key considerations for this type of birth defect." [Natural News]

At Steepleview Farm we raise the food we sell to you the same way we raise it for ourselves, 100% pesticide free, in the field, not under plastic, instead it's the best "under the sun".

New Chapter In Our Lives

As many of you know my wife and I have known each other since we were kids.  We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary last fall.  We celebrated the birth of our first grandchild last spring.  And as we reflect back on our wonderful life few things stand out as defining our lifestyle as clearly as our farm life.

Yes, I am still, after 34 years, a full time attorney blessed with a busy practice.  But our connection with nature on our farm, our connection with the food we raise and eat and feed our family and friends has been a constant.  So, more than two years ago now, Harriet and I began exploring a new path for our future.

We wanted to use our farm in a way that was more conducive to our philosophy.  Sure, we'd raised tobacco, cattle, hay, corn, soybeans and other "cash crops" over the years, but those practices involved other farmers, tractors driving all around and the use of some chemicals and sprays that we didn't want but were told were necessary.

We always raised an organic garden for ourselves.  Over the years we expanded it to include enough to preserve for the winter and to give away to family and friends.

Lately we began experimenting with curing hams, and sausage and bacon and doing things the "old fashioned way".  Our food purchases at stores tended to be more and more "organic" produce, "organic" meat and artisan cheeses and other products from people who shared our way of thinking.

So we began looking at our farm as a place where we could have more control over what we raised and how we raised it.  Two years ago we started our plans.  Last year we traveled the nation looking for sources of non-GMO seeds, heirloom varieties of produce and studying methods of marketing them.

Since last fall we have been working our second full time jobs as farm planners with an eye toward launching a new venture this spring.

I will give great credit to James Comer and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture as well as the Food Safety Branch of the Department of Health and Family Services.  Their assistance has been invaluable and their dedication to "farm to table" wholesome food for the people of Kentucky deserving of praise.

So, with lots of resources and lots of study, thousands of miles of travel, hour upon hour of seminars and reading we have finally arrived at the point of making our announcement.

We are proud to be a brand new part of the entire community of farm to table producers, Farmer's Market owners, wholesome food vendors, "community supported agriculture" purveyors, roadside market operators and agri-tourism participants.

We welome the world to our little piece of heaven.  Welcome to:

 

We invite you to visit our website: Steepleview Farm

We invite you to "like" us on our Facebook Page.

And of course we invite you to come and visit, shop at our market, or become one of our "Customized Customers".

Also we invite you to look for our brand "Steepleview Farm"

at your local Farmer's Markets as we join and travel and sell our wonderful production around the region.

We are happy to announce this new venture and look forward to serving you.

$1T Farm Bill - How They Voted - What It Does

John Yarmuth and Rand Paul voted against the $1 Trillion Farm Bill.  All the rest of the Kentucky delegation voted for it.

So what do you need to know about what it does and doesn't do?

It is in essence a government perk for corporate farms. 

It props up the corporate food producers by spending billions of dollars each year buying food with taxpayer earnings for people who "qualify" for free food.

It drives the price of land downward benefiting big agri-business, and hurts the small farmer whose land could now be worth less.

It raises taxes on the backs of rural residents by adding a cost to their heating oil.

It opens the door to growing hemp.

It imposes some additional labeling requirements for certain foods.

Oh, and no pun intended, it is laden with pork:

[T]he 949-page bill is packed with pork and giveaways to favored groups.

For example, the bill includes $1.5 million in funding this fiscal year to strengthen and enhance “the production and marketing of sheep and sheep products in the United States.” It also creates a National Christmas Tree Board, funded through a 15-cent tax on every Christmas tree sold. The bill maintains the Department of Agriculture’s $17 million per-year catfish-oversight program, even though the Food and Drug Administration has a nearly identical program (which costs a mere $7 million a year!). The Department of Agriculture will also be establishing new federal standards for “the identity of honey.” Apparently even bees are helpless without the federal government. [NRO]

I May Switch Parties

I am a fourth generation Kentucky Republican.  My wife's family have been republicans since the Civil war.  I've devoted myself to the cause of the Republican party over my entire life.  But I'm about to tell them, enough is enough.

Congress is celebrating the upcoming vote in favor of the likely passage of the Farm Bill.  Once again the GOP is bought and paid for by big business.  Here's just one little straw they added to my back.

Congress‘ mammoth farm bill restores the imposition of an extra fee on home heating oil, hitting consumers in cold-weather states just as utility costs are spiking.

The fee — two-tenths of a cent on every gallon sold — was tacked on to the end of the 959-page bill, which is winding its way through Capitol Hill. The fee would last for nearly 20 years and would siphon the money to develop equipment that is cheaper, more efficient and safer, and to encourage consumers to update their equipment.

It’s just one of dozens of provisions tucked into the farm bill, which cleared the House on a bipartisan 251-166 vote last week and faces a key filibuster test in the Senate on Monday. It is expected to survive and face final passage Tuesday before heading to President Obama’s desk.

Taxpayer groups say the bill could increase spending over the previous version and that it’s crammed with favors for individual lawmakers, such as rules legalizing industrial hemp.

The heating oil fee was backed by Northeast lawmakers who said it would fund important research to benefit consumers. [Washington Times]

Forget the fancy hemp provisions that somehow have blinded the rest of my fellow Kentuckians into falling in line behind the farm bill.  And put aside the slam to those of us who use heating oil.  Do you know what the farm bill really is?

[T]he bill’s main budget attribute is that it ratifies the huge recent increase in food stamp spending. The House bill had proposed trimming a modest $39 billion (5 percent) from food stamps, but Republican leaders caved in and agreed to just a token 1 percent trim in the final bill.

The farm bill is far too costly. George W. Bush vetoed the 2008 farm bill because it “would needlessly expand the size and scope of government.” Unfortunately, Congress overrode his veto and enacted that bill, costing $640 billion over 10 years. Today, the House is considering a farm bill that would cost taxpayers $940 billion over 10 years — 47 percent more than the one that even big-spending President Bush couldn’t stomach.

Food stamp costs have exploded. About four-fifths of the cost of the farm bill is for food stamps.

Farm subsidies are reverse Robin Hood.Farm subsidies even go to millionaire farmland owners such as Mark Rockefeller and Ted Turner.

Subsidies are very concentrated. Although politicians love to discuss the plight of small farmers, the vast majority of farm subsidies go to the largest farms. In recent years, the biggest 10 percent of farm businesses have received three-quarters of farm subsidies, according to the Environmental Working Group.

Farm programs harm free trade.

Farm subsidies are scandal-prone. As in all federal subsidy programs, a substantial share of farm subsidies are wasted on fraudulent and improper payments. Subsidies also go to farmers who haven’t suffered substantial losses. [CATO]

Now back to the heating oil tax.  I don't think that many of my republican elected officials have any sense whatsoever of the plight of millions of their countrymen.  I know many people trying to live on less than $700 per month.  That's TOTAL INCOME!

Out of that they have to pay rent, or a mortgage payment, utilities, taxes, insurance if they can afford it, food, gasoline, car repairs, medical expenses, pharmacy expenses, clothing and all of the other things needed to survive in this world today.  They do it on less than $700 per month. 

Do you Republicans have any sense whatsoever of how hard it is for those people to survive?  They are your grandmothers, your disabled brother, your neighbor.  They are human beings and they are struggling while the big businesses, like big agriculture, are getting billions in support.

Yes, the farm bill does indeed fund food stamps.  And that is a help to some, but the next time you have a minute, go to Walmart, watch a family of illegals push two or three shopping carts piled to spilling over up to the checkout and pay for it with their food stamp card.

And then watch as the hard working guy with a paycheck struggles to pay for a few items in a nearly empty cart out of his earnings.  Why is this wrong?

Because the money for food stamps isn't really helping all the poor.  Not all of them qualify for food stamps.  I know many people who own their homes who don't qualify but are trying to pay for everything else on a pittance.  And now you want to tax their heating oil, in the middle of this cold winter, to fund research?

Bullship!  That research money is going to go to some of the well connected who will spend it to conclude that we need to give the government control over thermostats, or that we need tighter emission controls on furnaces in order to force people to buy new furnaces, a ploy by the furnace makers, or some other cockamamie pop culture idea that will either result in fewer freedoms or be swept into a dust pan with all the other wasted money we spent researching how the government can make life better.

If any one of our Kentucky republicans votes for the farm bill with this level of spending and with this heating oil tax in it, you will disgrace our Commonwealth and our party.

Get over yourselves.  What you do hurts real people.  Forget the rich donors for once and be human again.

FDA Wants To Ban Trans Fats, So What Are They?

The FDA wants to remove "trans fats" from the "safe" for consumption food list, in essence, banning its use in food made and sold to the public for consumption.  On one hand it may look like the FDA is going too far, but then again, most people might not know what a "trans fat" really is.

As most liberty minded people will tell you, unlike health care, social security disability checks and food stamps, people really do have a "right" to food and water.  After all, God put everything we need to survive on this planet for us.  The right to hunt, to farm, to raise food and to gather food and drink clean water all attach as part of the right to life.  But does that mean you have the "right" to make a substance out of anything you find and then sell it as "food"?

That's what has happened with "trans fat".  It does not occur naturally, it is made by infusing normal fat with hydrogen, which makes it creamy and more solid.  You might have heard of "partially hydrogenated oils".  That's "trans fat".

However, this chemical process which changes normal fat into a different substance comes with a well known health risk.  "Trans fat" tends to clog arteries by raising your lipoprotein or LDL sometimes called the "bad cholesterol".

So when you hear of the FDA trying to ban an unhealthy food, don't think of them banning unpasteurized milk, farm to table meat products or trying to regulate "big gulps".  Instead think of them banning adulterated meat, genetically modified food or the addition of formaldehyde to your pickles.

Not all government is bad.

Don't Feed Your Pets Chinese Dog Treats

The FDA has issued a warning regarding dog treats made in China.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to caution consumers about a potential association between the development of illness in dogs and the consumption of chicken jerky products. The products—also called chicken tenders, strips, or treats—are imported from China. FDA continues to receive complaints of sick dogs that their owners or veterinarians associate with eating chicken jerky products.

Apparently there have been over 600 deaths attributed to the product.

Eewww! Chicken Nuggets Are Mostly Guts And Stuff

Gag:

Just after getting over the Taco Bell meat scandal, we have another (though not exactly surprising) scandal involving Chicken nuggets.  A study in the American Journal of Medicine found that nuggets from two unnamed fast food chains that they analyzed consisted of 50 percent or less actual chicken muscle tissue. The first nugget was half muscle and the rest was  fat, blood vessels and nerves. Close inspection revealed cells that line the skin and internal organs.  The second nugget was only 40 percent meat and  the remainder was fat, cartilage and pieces of bone.

Of course, the National Chicken Council (NCC) was quick to object.  ”Chicken nuggets are an excellent source of protein, especially for kids who might be picky eaters,” said Ashley Peterson, vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the NCC.  I wonder how picky they will be when they learn that they are eating nerves and chicken guts. [Turley]

Well Isn't That Special: British Companies Sold Chem Weapon Components To Syria

The video below is a bit over generalized, but the information is essentially correct.  The British government did authorize various companies to sell chemical components of Sarin gas directly to Assad.  What components?  One was Sodium Flouride, you know, the stuff in your tap water.

Of course potassium flouride is not in toothpaste as far as I can tell and Britain did not authorize the sale of Sarin gas. In fact, Sarin gas is so unstable that it has a shelf life of only a few days. So the idea that flouride is a chemical weapon is silly, and so is the notion that tap water is a chemical weapon silly, but......that the British did in fact know that these chemicals were used in the production of chemical weapons and allowed the sale of the components to Syria AFTER the uprising, does at least offer one explanation why the British Parliament wouldn't give the Prime Minister permission to participate in bombing.

Another Blow To Small Farms

I have alerted you to this problem for several years now.  I told you about the effort of the government to benefit huge Agri-businesses.  I told you about the use of laws to forbid farmers from growing anything except patented seeds.  And I warned you (before it made major headlines) about the Food Safety Act.

Now it seems that the consequences of those efforts have come home to roost.  I predict that what has happened to this one farmer will have a domino effect across the nation and as a result, you just watch the price of food skyrocket.

Sweet corn season will begin this month without one of Akron’s favorite growers.

Bessemer Farms, the only working farm within the city of Akron, has stopped growing vegetables for local tables.

Farmer Don Bessemer this year planted all of his fields with soybeans instead of the corn, squash, peppers, lettuce and other vegetables that he typically grew. His farm market on St. Michaels Avenue is closed, and he has laid off all of his workers.

Bessemer called it quits out of frustration with pending federal food safety regulations that likely will require farmers to very specifically track their produce and how it is handled from seed to sale, among other things.

“We don’t want to quit, we were forced out of the business. We can’t spend enough money to comply,” he said. “We’ve been farming for 117 years. I’m the third generation and we’re being put out of business by the government. We can’t comply with all of the safety laws. We haven’t poisoned anybody with an ear of corn for 117 years and we’ve shipped it all over,” he said.

“I can fight the bugs, I can fight the lack of rain, but when the guy comes with a clipboard what are you going to do?” Bessemer said. [Ohio.com]

And for those of you who think that you can avoid the higher costs by raising, canning and/or freezing your own food, you better think again.  The government has a plan for you too.  It might be that the Department of Homeland Security will have authority over your own food production and seed saving.

Welcome to the Brave New World.