Even Prince Charles says You Should Grow an Organic Garden!

Prince Charles of England has recently revealed that he encourages people to grow an organic garden. Whether the garden be large or small, one can be self-reliant for food as well as reduce carbon and feed local birds and insects.
Prince Charles has an estate in Gloucestershire, England where he has acres worth of organic crops including strawberries, leeks, carrots, and Brussels sprouts in addition to endangered plants.

Prince Charles has admitted in the past that he even talks to his plants. O.o

So everybody should really go and plant some sort of organic garden! You can start out small and slowly increase your yield of fruits and vegetables (:

-Larissa


Image courtesy of Victoria Johnson

Read more »

Overall Review of "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was a very inspiring book about a family who ate their own produce or other locally-grown produce for an entire year.  This may sound a little extreme to some, but it is possible.  And even if we are not willing to go all out like this family, Barbara Kingsolver (the author) describes many other ways through which Americans can make a difference.  For example, we can buy our food at local farmers' markets and plant our own gardens.  This book teaches several valuable lessons, and it provides many healthy recipes as an added bonus :)

Overall this book was very insightful about making living an organic lifestyle more realistic and attainable for the average Joe.

We would definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in organic foods as well as anyone who is looking for an informative book on living a better lifestyle.

- From all of us here at More-Ganic

Read more »

The Pros and Cons of Going Organic

Since the farmers' market season is quickly approaching, Laurie Goldberg has spelled out the pros and cons of going organic in the following article.  She also gives a lot of helpful advice.  Long story short, we should:

• Always buy from local farmers.
• Look for the most colorful and heaviest produce.
• Watch out for foods labeled "natural" because there is a big difference between natural and organic. (see earlier post)
• Avoid any raw sprouts.
• Buy organic soy products.

Picture Courtesy of Natalie Maynor: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliemaynor/2539937014/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Read more »

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Chapters 16-20

I found the last couple of chapters in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to be very enlightening. She spends some time analyzing the issue of childhood obesity and how nowadays with all the junk in the food industry, we must raise our kids to be knowledgeable of all of the things they are putting into their bodies. I also loved how the author had a pet turkey who had such a funny personality and would even blow air kisses to her mate! Just like Mrs. Collier and Barbara Kingsolver, I want to have some sort of animal I can rely on to provide some food because I think that being more aware of what America is eating as a whole could ultimately lead to change in the food industry as a whole.
Lastly, I loved all of the little recipes that were sporadically spread throughout the book. It provided diverse ways of eating both healthy and organically. (:

Larissa

Read more »

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Chapters 6-10

This book was great to read especially since our blog was about organic food. It provides useful information about food production in America that really demonstrate how eating organic is a good choice to make. Some facts about conventional food given in these chapters were:

• big companies are looking for the cheapest way to produce food and they do not care about the treatment of the animals, pollution caused by the methods they use to produce the food, and the health of the person who consumes the food.
• large companies produce 98% of the chicken in America. In these chapters she gets her own chicken to raise.
• prices of conventional food are not as low as they look. Organic food is more expensive in the store but people pay taxes to help produce conventional food. The hidden costs of conventional food add up to make organic food actually a more economic choice.
• organic food costs more to package but environmental issues should also be taken into consideration when buying conventional food.

The most important lesson presented in these chapters of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is nothing about the food industry will change unless the average American takes action. One example she gives is when you go to check out at a grocery store and they ask if you have found everything okay you should say no. Tell them you did not see any local produce. If people do this we may start to see action taken to improve the food industry, but people need to be heard in order to make a change.

Read more »

High Fructose Corn Syrup

We already know that most of the ingredients in the food we eat comes from corn, and one form it may come in is high fructose corn syrup. Very similar to table sugar, it used as a sweetener in  many of the things we eat, but research shows that high fructose corn syrup can be harmful to a person health because of the way it is processed but the FDA says that products containg this ingredient can still be labled natural. The FDA stated, referring to a process commonly used by the corn refining industry, that it “would not object to the use of the term ‘natural’ on a product containing the HFCS produced by [that] manufacturing process....” (Letter to Corn Refiners Association, July 3, 2008). There are many health effects surrounding high fructose corn syrup and by avoiding foods loaded with this ingredient we are eating better.


Here is an SNL commerical about high fructose corn syrup that I thought was funny: http://www.hulu.com/watch/223360/saturday-night-live-corn-syrup-commercial

Read more »

"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" Chapters 11-15

I (being the slow reader that I am), just completed chapters 11-15 of the assigned book and found a number of things very interesting. Here are just a few:

• In 1948 farmers were using about 50 million pounds of pesticides. In 200, they were using 1 billion pounds of pesticides. This extreme over use of pesticides has led to the evolution of many species of weed and bugs. For example, 270 of recently developed herbicides are now completely ineffective.
• The reason that organic foods are so pack with antioxidants is that the plants not sprayed with insecticides are forced to come up with other ways to defend themselves against things such as hornworms. This in turn, causes the plant to produce many disease/pest fighting compounds which are good for human health as well as plant health.
• Some people may ask "How can I really contribute to the organic industry? I eat organic food but can I do more?" Chapter 12 of the book says "YES!" In this chapter, Steven L. Hopp suggests many ways for people to get more involved. He suggests having a garden with herbs and produce. And for Urban organics, he suggest joining a local community garden.
• One of the major things I learned from Chapter 13 was that only 1/3 of our farms are still run by families. The rest are corporate owned.
• There is a Federal Farm Bill that is supposed to aid all farmers but times have changed. It now gives most of its aid to the top 10 producing growers which are obviously not those owned by families. This added benefit to commercial farmers is one of the main reasons that small farms are generally being eliminated.
• Apparently urban areas only cover 2 percent of the earth's surface but consume 75 percent of its resources. Because of this distribution, many countries have stepped up their urban growth game. For example, in Britain, urban growers produce 40 percent of the nation's food supply. Also, in Shanghai over 600,000 acres of garden are tucked into the margins of the city. So if all of these other countries have already stepped up, when will America step up too

These are just a few of the things that I found very interesting while reading the book. I look forward to FINALLY finishing it!
-Katani Ostine-Franklin

Read more »