Friday, August 22, 2008

Holy Cow! Not Potato Chips and M&M's In Their Diets!

In my quest to not only rid my body of rheumatoid arthritis, but to live a healthier lifestyle, I have read numerous horror stories about the food industry. Still, when I see videos like this one, where factory cows are now being subjected to diets of not only corn, which they are not intended to eat, but also potato chips and chocolate because of the rising cost of corn, it truly amazes me.



For the last three years or more, my family and I have owned shares in a food cooperative. We are able to obtain all of our meat (chicken, beef, pork, lamb), eggs and milk from a group of farmers who raise their animals on pasture, making sure they are free to roam and eat what nature intended them to eat. Is it more expensive? Definitely. Is it worth it? You bet. I feel it is important to feed my family and friends the foods intended for our bodies and to eliminate the artificial colors/flavors, preservatives, hormones, etc in our diet as much as possible. I believe our family dog has every right to live a life on food she was intended to eat and therefore provide her with a varied homemade diet of meat, organs, bone, and veggies/fruits. I also believe that each of the animals that provide food for us deserve to live a life on good food, sunlight and movement.

The way that I eat and the foods I provide has become more of a spiritual journey for me than it ever was in the past. I now see how we are all connected to each other and the earth that provides for us. To expect the cows that I am eating to live on a diet of processed food and foods they are not intended to eat, is not going to make me healthier. Plus, it is just not the right thing to do to any living creature.

If you would like to learn more, please check out these sites:
http://www.eatwild.com/basics.html This is a great informational site on grass food facts
http://www.themeatrix.com/ Although these videos are very educational, they can be disturbing.
http://www.westonaprice.org/ A good friend of mine introduced me to this site and this is where a lot of my food practices changed.
http://www.localharvest.org/ This site is a great place to find local resources for meat, eggs, milk, and vegetables.

5 comments:

  1. That's pretty sad! One of my blogger friends Beth is a member of a group like yours, you should check out her blog sometime http://life-is-a-musical.blogspot.com/


    :-)
    Sherry

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cathy,
    Thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving me a message. I'm going to check out the infor on Voluntary Simplicity. I find it very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cathy. Hello! Thanks for visiting my blog. It's so funny, we have a St Bernard and she is on a raw diet. She's a rescue dog. She's originally from a puppy mill out in the midwest and had never seen grass or the sun or moon before she came out here to MA - and she chewed endlessly! My husband was ready to give her back to the rescue but I convinced him we should try a raw diet. This dog is the BEST animal I have ever owned. You're right - everyone should eat local, even dogs. Have you read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover? I just finished it and found it really interesting.

    I love what I've read of your blog so far & can't wait to explore more of it. Beth

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow! This really made me sick. I am still amazed after watching my dog do a 100% turn around in his health, at what eating what we a supposed to eat can do for us. Very informative post! I will definately be checking out local harvest.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've been a fan of all those linked sites (Local Harvest, The Meatrix, etc) for several years now, but that WSJ video is new one! I didn't see how the confinement industry could get more disgusting, but they did! Potato chips and candy by-products? That's really pathetic. Again, I am so glad I haven't eaten commercial meat since 1989.

    ReplyDelete