Food for Thought

Eating as healthy as possible is important to me. Teaching my kids healthy eating habits is equally important.

Back in October I read an article about cash strapped farmers feeding their cows candy as the price of corn rises. They are mixing traditional feed with crushed up pieces of marshmallows, candy bars, even powdered hot chocolate mix. The farmers see this as a win-win because they are reducing their expenses in terms of feed cost and they are fattening up the cows, therefore increasing their profit.

Think of it in terms of this; Would you put vinegar in your gas tank? No, because cars were not meant to "consume" vinegar. No, because cars will not run at their optimal efficiency by putting vinegar in the gas tank. No, because it can't be good for the car and the desired output of the machine.
I have no scientific proof here but logic tells me cows will not produce the most nutritionally rich products (milk, beef) if they are being fed non-nutritious food on a daily basis. I am no scientist or official nutritionist and I do not even claim that I do not nosh on the occasionally candy bar myself. However to me, it seem preposterous that someone out there thinks feeding cows candy is even somewhat ok.

And if you want to talk schematics here, cows are not, by nature, even meant to eat corn. Cows are meant to eat grass. However corn is cheaper than grass so we have forced cows to alter their diet and eat corn. I will not go into how they get cows bodies "prepped" to a corn diet, you can search that on your own if you are interested. But I thought I would just give you some food for thought.
How bad does it have to get before we demand better?

This is just a reminder, there are some markets that are still open in the winter, two that I frequent are The Rochester Public Market and The Brighton Farmers Market. If you go to eatwellguide.org you can type in your zip code and find locally grown foods that are close to you.

 me supporting my love of vegetables in this one of a kind beaut of a shirt. This is actually an old shirt but I am proud to say that it is made in America and can be found here.

…C