Cheap Food!

[Guest guest]

Today I read a message from one of our members who said they " couldn't

afford organic food " and it really affected me to the core. My immediate

thought was " I can't afford to NOT eat organic food " .

BUT, I've been in the exact position of that person many times before. It's

what I call Poverty Mentality and I've been there most of my life actually-- it

takes constant meditation and deliberate creation to keep it from reappearing.

We come by these values very early in life. I don't mean to single anyone out,

but it's a crucial issue to the entire Trad-Foods movement.

This thinking is extremely common and a huge barrier in our proposed food

paradigm shift to NT. Wherever I go I see it. I've gotten into frequent food

arguments with Rebekah's parents, for example, who retired rich and could

afford the finest food in the world, but they religiously clip Cub Foods coupons

and seek out $0.89 bacon and $0.99 hamburger! Anything that isn't the

cheapest food in the world seems completely ridiculous, wasteful and

over-priced to them. They LOVE finding super cheap food in the supermarket

and extoll the virtues of the Great American Way as a sign of " how far we

have come " . We buy them a pound of MVV butter and they " save " it as being

just too expensive to use, while they eat el cheapo butter! They are still

locked into poverty thinking from the Great Depression! As a result, their

health suffers and the factory farms hear another CHA-CHING of the cash

register! We all vote every day, and with every purchase.

NAFTA, WTO and the factory farms have us locked into a " cheap food "

mentality as well. Back in the '50's people spent 18% of their budget on food

and less than 8% on health care. Today those numbers are exactly reversed.

Our food today is TOO CHEAP.

When ghetto people eat cheap food they guarantee their future, and probably

their offspring's future, will remain ghetto. So many middle-class people

remain in cubicle jobs they hate, just to maintain their jumbo health care

package benefit. As their health declines from a sick life, not to mention

living

on a mediocre diet, they will need LOTS of health care. It's all backwards.

Most people have such a poverty mentality regarding their view of TIME as

well. They say they don't have time to GARDEN, to COOK, or to GO

LOOKING for good food. They serve their kids deli food and prepared

microwaveable meals and you see them lined up for blocks in the drive-up at

Mcs because they " don't have time to eat " . It's almost funny.

Every day I become more and more convinced that we all create our own

reality. What reality would you like to create? I will propose that no family

can

afford to eat conventional food any longer.

Will