Good Food is Everybody's Business
All about living a healthy life, having safe and nutritious food, growing and making good food.
What I mean to talk about is seafood, even though we hardly ever eat it at our house. In landlocked Montana the fresh stuff is impossible to get, and it’s so hard to know whether your fish is coming from a sustainable source. (Unless you catch it yourself, which we sometimes do and, if you can, I recommend it!)
Do we need industrial agriculture to feed the world? A while ago I came across a video online that answered this question. The answer, I was happy to find, was a resounding “No!” So often the argument against organic food is “you can’t feed the world that way,” and here the truth was being spoken so plainly, I felt that if everyone could see it we wouldn’t be arguing anymore.
Here it is at last, well-documented investigation that shows how we have all been manipulated into bad health by the food industry; people who have literally made a killing off us by getting us hooked on synthetic food. It’s a problem that just can’t be fixed with a bag of Bunny Luv baby carrots.
This recipe is a little overdue considering we’re long past pumpkin season, but I figured it’s OK because I still have canned pumpkin in my cupboard (I bought a bunch while it was cheap). I can get a batch of granola and a small batch of cookies out of one can. Fresh pureed pumpkin is even better, and if you have some of that on hand I envy you. If however you have some canned on hand, you should try making this! It’s almost like eating pumpkin pie for breakfast.
I opted to use crimson lentils for this dal, and I’m glad I did – the result was this delicious, bright yellow dish that is pleasing to look at and fun to eat. Yes it’s essentially lentil mush, but the prettiest tastiest lentil mush you ever did see.
There are winter markets going on in Missoula – two of them! That might not seem like a big deal to someone from California or our states in the south, but in Mondana where the growing season is short, it’s exciting news.
A grassroots campaign has been launched in Washington State for the adoption of a labeling law for genetically engineered foods (a.k.a. GMO or transgenic foods). The grassroots initiative seeks support for I-522, which would mandate labeling of transgenic crops or foods containing GMOs. You can read the full text of the proposed initiative below this commentary. The I-522 movement is led by a diverse group of consumer advocates, organic farmers, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and has recruited a wide variety of endorsements from NGOs, municipalities, faith-based groups, farmers and farmer associations, seed savers and exchange groups, plant breeders, and well-known and respected elected officials.
There are so many creative good food growers and processors putting their hearts into bringing back wholesome and healthy food. We’ve been so lucky to meet a few of them! Last weekend, we spent the day cooking, baking, and eating grain-based foods that connect us to good friends and their hard work.
