Monday, November 17, 2014

Journeyperson Check-in: Allyson Angelini at Full Heart Farm *WinterShare*

Full Heart Farm is excited to be wrapping up our third growing season and begin planning for 2015!

The 2014 growing season produced our best harvest yet -  an abundance of vegetables, pasture-raised chicken + eggs, and pork.  We continued to provide dinner ingredients for the  50+ families that support our farm through our MemberShare Program, and are incredibly grateful for the community that surrounds the farm.  Our main harvest season is 26 weeks (six months straight!), with a smaller WinterShare program that completes the year.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Fueling up in Cheyenne, Wyoming


An array of fueling options at a gas station in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Even the gasoline contains a corn product-it is 10 percent ethanol.
The wastes from making ethanol are fed to
beef and dairy cows, pigs and chickens.
Fueling up in Cheyenne, Wyoming
By Bill Duesing

The American way of eating is shaped more by the availability of low-cost fossil fuels and government crop and other subsidies than it is by nutrition, health or flavor.

I took the photo above while buying gasoline at a station in Cheyenne, Wyoming this summer. This array is an example of the ubiquitous advertising for these kinds of foods: ground beef sandwiches, often with bacon and/or cheese or processed hot dogs on white bread buns. (For the chicken nuggets, their wheat breading is the bun equivalent.)

It also made me think about the health consequences of eating this kind of food: weight gain, obesity, diabetes, sore joints, heart disease, cancer and possibly even schizophrenia!

Why are foods that may cause so much damage so heavily advertised? A rhetorical question really. The answer: profit.  Much of that profit comes because food industry accounting doesn't include many significant costs.  Health care costs are not included.   The illnesses above, and the foods that cause them, are responsible for millions of dollars in health costs.