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In the tank…Pt 2….
…do you ever wonder how much of the so-called “scientific research” we treat as gospel has been bought and paid for by Big Ag, Big Food, Big Chemical and Big Government? The other day we posted an article about how the association of nutritionists was essentially a propaganda arm for the likes of Kellogg and Pepsi. Naturally, no one is more active is corrupting what used to be called “research” that our good buddies at Monsanto. Just the other day we read how soon we’ll be eating what is labeled as salmon, but in reality is a genetically-engineered combination of two types of salmon and…..eel! You see, this wonder salmon grows…
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Are nutritionists in the tank….
….for Big Food? You probably aren’t surprised to learn that the answer is “yes”. Again and again, though, I am stunned by the details of the unholy alliance of industry, bought-and-paid-for experts, and government that have so thoroughly corrupted our food system and devastated the health of our country. Chris Kresser, a blogger on health matters who specializes in covering holistic health issues was interviewed recently on the sell-out by the professionals we believe are protecting our well-being…and he discussed a press release on the subject: Chris Kresser: So, the press release was “Public health attorney and author Michele Simon asks: Are America’s nutrition professionals in the pocket of Big…
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Cocoa Puffs “good”….
….Aunt Matilda’s pickles “bad”! Virginia natural farm spokesman Joel Salatin has issued a blistering indictment of our commercial food system in a speech at Willamette University in Oregon. Salatin said the U.S. food system is too industrialized, too opaque and too segregated to be sustainable. Here’s the story as reported by Capital Press. “We don’t have a way for food innovation to occur on a local level because … (the USDA and Food and Drug Administration) don’t allow small-scale, embryonic innovation to come to the marketplace, unless it comes through their infrastructure and regulatory and paperwork sieve,” Salatin said. “And that sieve is prejudicial to all small-scale operations. …
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Thawing frozen steaks…
…it’s a question we get asked frequently and we have always recommended thawing gradually in the refrigerator. But the Stockman Grass Farmer quotes the USDA as saying that’s best for roasts, but not necessary for steaks. USDA researchers test-thawed more than 200 one-inch thick strip steaks…some in the refrigerator, some at room temperature in constantly circulating water, and some in a water bath at 102 degrees. The conclusion was that the last, the warm water bath, was the most efficient and the steaks leaked less juice. There was no difference in tenderness. For roasts, however, room temperature thawing resulted in surface bacterial growth to occur before the center was fully thawed. Therefore,…
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“I’m cutting back on meat”….
….I don’t know how often I hear that. Just the other day, a woman was raving about the taste of Thistle Hill meat but added, just a bit apologetically, that sadly she was “cutting back” for “health reasons”. Of course, I answered that it might well be that, in fact, she might better improve her health by increasing the amount of grass fed beef she eats. A significant percentage of our customers do indeed buy our meat precisely because they have decided it’s good “for what ails them”. The biggest source of propaganda against eating red meat, of course, is our very own government. The bureaucrats are still tied to…
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So God made a farmer…
…in case you missed it on the Super Bowl last night, Dodge built a commercial around the old Paul Harvey essay: “So God Made a Farmer”. For me, this moving recitation is always a reminder of how much we’ve lost to pay for the “progress” we’ve made. Thomas Jefferson, of course, thought our country could not survive if it moved away from its agrarian roots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sillEgUHGC4
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Breeding heifers…and more…
The other day some of us got into a discussion, via email, about breeding heifers. But as these things go, we wandered off topic quite a bit. When I signed off, I realized that there might be some thought-starters in our ramblings for readers of this blog and so I have reproduced it here with the permission of the participants. Taking part were myself, and our two partners in Traditional Devon, Bill Walker and John Forelle, as well as two people whose counsel we frequently seek out: Bill Roberts of 12 Stones Grasslands Beef and Dr. Sue Beal, a holistic vet in Pennsylvania. The give-and-take began when I posted a video…
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The chemical arms race…
…. was going to call this post “GMO Roundup” (pun intended). But it really is chemical warfare right on the farmlands of the United States. It all started with Monsanto developing a powerful herbicide, “Roundup”. The trouble was, Roundup not only killed weeds, it killed the corn. Not to worry, then Monsanto developed Roundup-resistant seeds and today most of the major crops come from those seeds—corn, soybeans, sugar beets—in all, about 165-million acres of GMO crops. But then a new crop developed: weeds; weeds that were resistant to Roundup. Again, Monsanto was ready with the answer: more powerful Roundup. And of course, what happened was the weeds kept up with…
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But is it the final “final rule”?
For years, the government has been trying to lay down animal identification and transport rules that would have imposed a particular burden on the small farmer and favoring Big Ag. But now it does appear that most of the burdensome regulations have been stripped out of the final rule thanks to the work of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Farm. What’s left is a requirement that animals shipped across state lines must be accompanied by identification and health papers…something we already do….but no longer is the government demanding premises registration and a report every time we move a cow from one pasture to another. They really wanted to do that! Being…
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It’s all right here….
….your assigned reading for tonight is the following article by Dr. Joseph Mercola. He reports on the finding that Americans have the poorest health of any of the other industrialized nations. Now, of course, our government finds that that is good reason to have more government. But Dr. Mercola thinks otherwise….he says that basically, the problem is the government. I urge you to read this: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/01/23/united-states-health-ranking.aspx