See how it’s being done, and demand your favorite restaurant do the same!

Not listed is Mashiko’s, my favorite sushi bar of all time. Mashiko’s recently announced that they are moving to a strictly sustainable seafood menu as of August 15th. My love for them has deepened! Read more about the exciting news here!

What You Will Need:

• A Window – ideally with Southern exposure in winter. If you live in a dark place, you can use full-spectrum lamps to keep your plants happy!
• Herbs – choose plants which you will actually use (I rarely use marjoram, even though it grows easily). My favorites – basil, thai basil, lemongrass (not an easy one to grow), cilantro, and oregano. You can start from seed if you wish, or purchase starter plants from your nursery.
• Several small pots with holes for drainage – individual pots will allow you to keep an easier eye on each plant and its needs. If space is of concern, you can group them in one container, but growth may be compromised if your herb choices have differing needs.
• Organic Soil – Choose organic, compost-rich soil for your plants. It contains a wider spectrum of nutrients and beneficial organisms than standard potting soil.
• Plant food — worm castings, worm tea, PlanTea, or fish emulsion among others to give your herbs once a week.

For actual planting, this video is a basic how-to.

For some medicinal qualities of common herbs and spices we use in cooking, check out this blog post!

Anyone out there enjoy almonds? Almond butter? Do you like that almond butter on apples?

Do blueberries, peaches, avocados, pears, pumpkins, cherries, melons, soybean and sunflower products also contribute to part of your daily diet? If so, you have bees to thank.

Bees are responsible for pollinating the above plants, and are an unrecognized essential part of our agriculture industry. Without bees, not only would apples and almonds disappear from our grocery stores, but $15 billion dollars of agriculture crops would no longer be available — that’s 100 different varieties crops grown in the USA annually. Overall, honey bees are responsible for 1/3 of our food crop.

I don’t write about this to discourage you from being afraid of bees, or from swatting at them. I bring light to the benefit of the honey bee because there is a significant problem affecting bees which threatens our food supply and bees’ very existence.

Western beekeepers have lost more than 25 percent of their colonies over the last few winters, in what is being termed as “colony collapse disorder”, in which an entire colony leaves the hive and dies. Reports of CCD come from 35 states in the USA and several other countries in the last three years. Suspected causes range from pollution and chemical exposure to poor nutrition, viruses and cell phone signals.

We each can do a part to help honeybees survive. Planting bee-friendly species such as lavender, rosemary, thyme, jasmine, wisteria, sunflowers, violets and other bee-pollinating flowers will ensure adequate food sources for your local population and keep worldwide populations sustained.

Make a donation to UC Davis or Pennyslania State University to help them find a solution to Colony Collapse Disorder (Click here to donate).

Support your local beekeeper by purchasing their products at the farmer’s markets. Beeswax candles and local honey are natural, sustainable products that support your local economy and keep your local beekeeper in business.

Thanks to Anthropologie for the alert on the honey bee crisis.
Click on the links below to learn more:

Photo taken from flickr.com (user Autan) Click here for more of Autan’s work

Agnew, Singeli. “The Almond and the Bee.” San Francisco Chronicle October 14, 2007

“Bees Vanish, and Scientists Race for Reasons.” The New York Times Online.October 14, 2007.

“Disorder Caused 45% of Bee Losses.” The Daily Green Online. 14 June 2007.

Haagen-Daaz’s website for education and more: http://helpthehoneybees.com/

UC Davis Research Facility and Upcoming Garden Plans: http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/honeybeehavenwinner.html

Bee-friendly plants for your garden: http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=12052

What does it mean to treat a food with radiation? Ionizing radiation is the equivalent of blasting our produce with tens of millions of chest x-rays. Just as this would be lethal to human beings because it alters cellular structure, it alters the cellular structure of the food radiated and in some foods, creates new compounds which have been recognized as carcinogenic.  The appearance of these cancer-causing compounds have been confirmed by FDA officials. Little testing has been done to determine the safety of consuming irradiated foods.

Rather than irradiation to treat potential food borne pathogens, we need to go to the root of the issue. Unhealthy soil, poor farming practices and lax regulation have allowed the spread of food borne illnesses among crops. Treating farm crops with sewer sludge, planting crops near slaughterhouse run-off, and poorly supervised, underpaid workers all contribute to the weakened infrastructure of our food supply.

To change these policies and practices, we must take matters into our own hands. Because of how our government has organized the agriculture in this country, grassroots movements will be the only way to change the direction our food supply is headed.

Here’s what you can do:

• Buy Organic: Organic foods are not treated with sewer sludge and come from farms with healthier soil (which in turn leads to greater nutrient value). It is still commonly believed that organic spinach caused the 2006 Ecoli outbreak, however, investigations revealed it was NOT the organic supply which was contaminated. (Source)
• Support Your Local Farmer: Getting to know who grows your food empowers you by knowing more about how your food was grown and allows you to have a significant impact on farming practices by voicing your needs directly to the source of your food.

• Please ask Congress to step in and protect consumers – email congress asking that they require all irradiated products to be labeled. Consumers have a right to know exactly what they are buying.

For more information:

Food Politics by Marion Nestle – a wonderful book talking about the creation of the first food guide pyramid, public school nutrition, supplement regulation in the United States and delves into just why the marriage of food promotion and food protection is a bad idea.

Food Irradiation and Known Vitamin Loss

Take action and learn more at the Organic Consumers Association website. From here is a link to comment within the 30 day window allowed by the FDA.  Aside from voting with your dollar, this is the most powerful way to make your voice heard!

Aside from being a fabulous resource, they also offer educational articles on why grass-fed is a preferable option, have a small store of books on farming, food, food politics, and cooking gadgets. It’s a site worth bookmarking for future reference!

To find local suppliers of grass-fed products in your area, click here:

Click here to find out which foods are best purchased organic.

On the flip side, if availability or costs are a concern and it is difficult for you to purchase organic foods, you can still minimize your exposure to pesticide residues by focusing on the following:

It is important to note that any almond you purchase labeled as “raw” is in fact, no longer raw. Pasteurization kills enzymes – just try sprouting any “raw” almond you find in the stores now.

In light of this news, it isn’t too late to possibly reverse the decision. Since this decision went into effect, the Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, has stepped down. He has been temporarily replaced by Chuck Conner. With another leader at the helm, a new opportunity for reversal exists.
If you are even the slightest bit outraged, disgusted, or concerned about irradiation spreading to other crops such as spinach and other greens (yes – this proposal has already been made) I highly encourage you to click on this link to the Organic Consumers Movement to send a quick email to Chuck Connor asking him to consider re-opening discussion on the almond issue. Our nuts (and other crops) are in his hands.

As a human being and a consumer, I am positively outraged and aghast at the United States’ response to mad cow disease. If you stop and think about it, you may have noticed that we haven’t heard much about that in the last year or so. Has it gone away?

Of course not. Do not think for a minute we are protected.

I came across an astonishingly grim article from Vegsource, a vegetarian website that I have keep sporadic tabs on for many years. I am the first to admit this source is biased, but the information presented in the article is reportedly drawn from the USDA’s own reports.

According to presented statistics, between the years of 1998 and 2006, an estimated 777 cows infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (ie – Mad Cow) entered our national food chain undetected. This estimate is derived from examining the number of cattle slaughtered daily, the amount inspected, and cases found.

Last year, despite (or because of) growing concern of BSE risk in the United States, the USDA decided to SCALE BACK on mad cow testing, from 1000 cattle daily to 110 a day. Keep in mind over 70,000 cattle are slaughtered in this country every single day. The majority of these are processed in huge processing plants, where thousands upon thousands of animals become the various cuts of meat enjoyed by millions of Americans. The potential for contamination is ridiculously high; particularly among ground beef which, depending on the processing facility, may contain proteins from 300-1000 different cows in a typical patty. Please also note that while the United States was testing approximately 1% of their cattle, Japan and a number of European countries test 100% of their cattle. It isn’t like it cannot be done.

While the practice which creates mad cow — feeding cattle back to cattle — has been banned in this country since 1997, the USDA lags far behind in inspecting and ensuring this practice is not continued. The law does not prohibit the feeding of one species to another – for instance, downed cows may be fed to chickens, and these chickens can in turn be fed back to cattle. Given this disease can transfer from bovine to homo sapien, who’s to determine it cannot be passed to avian species as well? In a time of lagging profits due to concerns of cholesterol, saturated fat, and BSE, who is to say that a number of feedlots would not continue to sneak in some free food to cut operating costs? It isn’t like USDA inspectors are making spontaneous surprise visits.

Are you concerned yet?

If you consume beef, there are a number of things you can do to protect yourself and your family. It is absolutely imperative in this culture to practice what I call “defensive eating” in order to stay healthy and well because the industry and the government will not be doing this for us. Below are some steps you can take to prevent contamination:

1. Consume 100% grass-fed, free range cattle. These cattle are the healthiest because they consume a natural diet they can process (corn is difficult to process, increases digestive disorders and the risk of illness in cows). Know your sources (Thundering Hooves and Oregon Country Beef are a couple) and become intimately aware of where your food comes from.
2. If you can’t find grass-fed, look for cows which have been fed a 100% vegetarian diet. This may be corn or another grain, but keep in mind newspaper is “vegetarian”, and is a common filler in animal feed.
3. Grind your own beef. The best way to not ingest 300 cows in a hamburger patty is to have a butcher grind up a cut of beef before your eyes.
4. Eat less beef. Experiment with meatless meals every few days and see how it feels. Most people know at least one vegetarian – ask for a favorite recipe or idea for lunches and dinners.
5. Ask Questions. Be a detective. Ask your server where the beef comes from – not the supplier – the RANCH. Look that ranch up online. Just because the menu assures “all-natural beef” doesn’t mean a darn thing. Does the ranch disclose how the cattle are housed, fed, and slaughtered? If not, it probably isn’t pretty. Call them and ask more questions. Your concern will prompt change within the industry – especially among smaller ranches. Don’t underestimate the power of being an informed consumer.

Good luck out there, my fellow defensive eaters. We have a lot of homework to do!

Click here!