Food as a Weapon

Why is there not enough food to feed all of humanity? We can send probes to other planets and deep into the far reaches of the solar system. We have technology today that can make foods faster and pest resistant. But is it healthy?

I remember listening to a late night talk show many years ago, the guest was an agricultural biologist who claimed that the food we eat today has only a fraction of the nutritional worth of foods our grandparents ate. We would have to eat two pounds of broccoli to gain the same value in nutrition as our ancestors gained in a single serving. Diseases are on the rise even though we have made so many advances in medicine. Or have we?

I submit to you that all of the problems we face as humans around the world is based on an illusion. It's like watching the Wizard of Oz for the first time and discovering the "man behind the curtain." Many of my friends and family will not even look there. They are embarrassed to think that they have been duped for all these years. Many think that I am crazy to think that my government would condone such things. But after all, they are of the same flesh and blood as us, capable of the same successes and failures. One only needs to look at where we are today to see that government has not been capable of controlling its own bloated growth, let alone act on behalf of markets and commodities. Why our Congress even gave up its Constitutional mandate to coin currency and set its value to private banks, trusting them to act with integrity on our behalf.

There are many ways in which the very wealthy can manipulate markets. But staying with food, there are now a few extremely large corporations both foreign and domestic that control possibly as much as 80% of the food supply of the globe. Some think it can be closer to 100% but living in an area where there remain a good number of independent family farms, I am not willing to make that leap. But the truth is that many of these small farms are being forced out by the conglomerates through the outright manipulation of the commodities markets.

A bushel of wheat will still feed the same number of hungry people as it did when it was first cultivated. The growth of any food crop demands the proper arable lands and the cooperation of nature. But it does not determine the amount of food crop available to feed the population. Remember in the biblical stories in Exodus, the temple granaries were full and yet their were people starving during a drought. It was used as a weapon to  wield power over people. It took an act of divine intervention to convince those priests of Egypt to release the stores to the starving masses.

How many other times has food been used as a weapon? A practice still used today through subsidies, is to have farmers turn under a good harvest so as to keep the prices higher. The justification is that the farmer could not make a living selling the crops at a very low price.but the reality is that they are doing just that, only the government is making up the difference. Would it not be better to have that crop sold to either the free market or to the government? Instead of funding dictators and foreign governments that will use our "gifts" to oppress their own people and they themselves live in wealth and splendor, send tons of wheat to feed the masses?

People need not be punished for their prosperity unless they obtained their riches by cheating, lying, stealing from others. There are methods employed today that produce rich and abundant foods naturally, without the use of chemicals for fertilizers or pesticides. I myself have grown tomatoes in my patio garden and always have such an abundance to share with many of my neighbors. I have demonstrated how we can each grow a crop and share our harvests so well will obtain a variety of nutritious fruits and vegetables and not have to buy them from high priced markets. Even when I must make a purchase, I go to markets that offer locally grown produce when available.

We live in a world that has become as much of an illusion as the science fiction film, The Matrix. And it is just as difficult for most of us to awaken ourselves and face reality. We have to do that now. The alarm has been ringing for quite some time and all we are doing is hitting the snooze button.

Food, Health and Nutrition

It seems that the government wants to protect us once again, and the Food Safety Modernization Act, as its disclaimer suggests, 


"The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law by President Obama on January 4th, 2011. It aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus of federal regulators from responding to contamination to preventing it."


Well I do not buy it. It is yet another expensive government program that will create more expense for the growers, add more workers to government payroll (that is more tax revenue spent on public sector jobs) while putting many small farms out of business because they cannot afford the new "safety" regulations.


The major source of contaminated food is imported. It is obvious that we cannot control the safety of food unless it is inspected thoroughly upon arrival into U.S. ports, and that seems like a very daunting and expensive exercise. But the legislation is loaded with fees that will drive many small businesses into closing because only the large corporate processors will be capable of paying the many fees included in this poorly written bill.


For example, and this is directly from the FDA website:


Q: How will FDA calculate the total fee assessed?
A: For Fiscal Year 2012, the hourly rate is $224 if no foreign travel is required and $325 if foreign travel is required. The total fee that is assessed will depend on the number of hours FDA spends directly on the reinspection-related activities or food recall activities associated with a recall order. 
Reinspection-related activities could include conducting compliance reinspection at the facility, making preparations and arrangements for the reinspection, traveling to and from the facility, analyzing records, analyzing samples, preparing reports or examining labels, and performing other activities as necessary to determine compliance with the requirements found to be violated in the initial inspection. 
Food recall activities associated with a recall order could include conducting recall audit checks, reviewing periodic status reports, analyzing the status reports and the results of the audit checks, conducting inspections, traveling to and from locations, and monitoring product disposition.


Here in the Pacific Northwest there are many family farms, local growers who depend on the small profit margins to sustain their business and provide healthy produce to their customers. Local packaged food processing will be driven out due to these high fees and regulatory hoops they must jump through. But who will monitor the produce in Costa Rica that is imported by American food processors?

Stay out of my medicine cabinet!

The FDA recently has demanded that Proctor & Gamble stop selling its Vick's Nyquil products which contain vitamin C because it violates the mixing of supplements with drugs. Now to some this may seem trivial, but in reality it is a blow against the supplement market in general, and against the rights of an individual to pursue a course of treatment they feel comfortable with for their own health.

Contrary to the FDA and AMA position regarding the use of natural supplements, I have found that these supplements have done more to enhance my own health and reduce my need to visit professional health care practitioners significantly. Recently, while battling a kidney stone, I used chamomile tea for pain and apple cider vinegar to reduce the stone(s) for passing. The only other treatment was using a heating pad on the area in pain, and that also proved to be most effective, and I did not have to ingest any pain medications at all.

My Grandfather who was a physician for over 50 years, and a man that I respected more than anyone, insisted that drugs treat symptoms and do not cure diseases. I see advertisements on television for drugs that relieve symptoms of allergies, arthritis pain, Asthma, erectile dysfunction, cholesterol, and the list goes on. No cures offered, only relief of the symptoms. But at what price?

If drugs don't cure, then why are we being "forced" to take them? If natural supplements work within the body to build and reinforce the immune system, then why are they ostracized? Plain and simple, it is all about profits. The AMA has done nothing short of extorting from the drug manufacturers, to lobby the government to keep out any real cures from reaching the public.

Americans must be informed, they must be made aware of treatments and cures that do work, even though they have not been sanctioned by the AMA or the FDA. The FDA needs to be held accountable to the people, and not to the AMA and the pharmaceutical companies that profit from this collusion.

Let your Congressional representatives know how you feel and demand they take action on your behalf. After all,they do work for us, and not the lobbyists from corporations.