If I could only read one book this month...

...it would have to be this one. I CANNOT RECOMMEND this book enough:

In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan.

RUN, don't walk, to the bookstore and buy it!

This book hits the nail on the head as far as what's wrong with our new Western diet and I say 'new' because its really what we've been eating for the past 150 years, and especially the past 50 years, that is killing us!

This is the biggest national health crisis we face and it far outpaces (or is directly related to) the rest like obesity, diabetes, arteriosclerosis, and cancer.

We at Whitmore Farm, have literally staked everything we have to try and offer an alternative to factory farmed products.

Now the USDA is looking at exporting meat to China for processing and reimportation into the United States, but I can't process a chicken on my farm and sell it to you at a farmer's market 20 miles down the road!

If Americans don't take more of an interest in where their food comes from and stop buying food because its cheap, we are headed for disaster. While there are many hungry people in this country, most Americans are over-nourished and mal-nourished at the same time.

Being obese or overweight does not mean that a person is eating well or getting what they need from their diet. There are some that say overeating is in part, the body's attempt to replenish micronutrients absent or deficient in our modern agricultural products.

The USDA stopped tracking nutritional content of fruits and vegetables in this country in the 1970's, but at that time, our food was showing a steady and significant decline in its mineral and vitamin content as compared to the 50's, and these were things that we even know to measure.

Currently, the average American spends 8% of their budget on food, as compared to 18% in Europe. Interestingly, we Americans formerly spent over 15% on our food back at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, at a time when heart disease, obesity, and type-II diabetes were rare.

It has been the USDA's disastrous promotion of cheap food (at any cost to the environment, animal welfare, human health, national security) through a policy of artificially cheap corn and oil, that has created this problem.

So, when you get a burger at Mc Donald's for a buck, its not because corporate America is better at what they do than your struggling local farmer, but because our tax dollars make their products artificially cheap.

Just something to think about...thanks for listening to my rant.

Best,

Kent