Food for Thought: Blog Action Day 2011

Carlos Candelario was born without arms and legs. 

His mother had been exposed to a cocktail of toxic pesticides 

whilst harvesting tomatoes (photographer unknown)

click on the link to see this story

Today is World Food Day, and it is also Blog Action Day. This year's topic is food. 

We all have different experiences with food and we all need food for life.

As I've been working on being a more conscious consumer, I have questions about food, and what it means to all of us.

Please feel free to respond in the comments!

Questions for you!

 

Where does your food come from?

Is your food a world traveller? Did it come from an exotic locale? Did it fly on a plane, sail on a boat, ride on a truck?

Or is your food a native, or a local? Did it come from a nearby farm? Or your garden?

Nopales cactus

at Mexican market in Phoenix, AZ

How long is its life cycle?

Who grew or raised your food?

What is it? Animal? Vegetable? Fruit? Fungus? Spice?

What's in your food? Is it GMO (genetically modified organism)? Was it raised with pesticides or chemical fertilizers?

Right 2 Know March

to Washington, D.C.

is a group of concerned people

who want GMO foods to be labeled

How does the food you eat affect your body?

Does your food cause disease? Does it lead to sickness and early death? Do you eat the "Standard American Diet (SAD)"?

 

Does food give you life energy? Does food heal you?

Do you have a favorite market?

Do you like to try new things?

Or do you like to stick to what you know?

What's your favorite food?

What attracts you to food? Color? Smell? Presentation? Package? Price?

This is my 100th blog post!

I'd like to celebrate with you, by sharing some recipes I like.

Enjoy in good health!

Hummus

1 small can chickpeas, with 1/2 of the liquid 

2 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

salt and pepper if desired

Blend ingredients in a blender. Serve with warm pita bread and raw vegetables like carrot, celery, tomato and spinach

Massaged Kale Salad

Wash kale and remove the stems. Tear it into small pieces and put into a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and squeeze lemon juice on top. With clean hands, "massage" the kale by squeezing and pressing it. Do this for a couple of minutes and the kale leaves will start to wilt and turn dark green in color. It will release a beautiful floral fragrance!

Enjoy the kale like that, or you can add raw, cut-up vegetables and salad dressing, to make it into a mixed salad.

Green Zinger Smoothie

1 apple, cut and peeled

1 banana

1 celery stalk

1 slice of melon

1/2 cucumber, peeled and cut

handful of baby spinach leaves

small piece of ginger root, peeled and cut

coconut water or filtered water

(these ingredients are suggestions, use whatever you have available)

Blend all ingredients together in a blender. If the mixture is too thick, add water or coconut water. Drink immediately.

LINKS

Blog Action Day 2011

World Food Day

Right 2 Know March


#bad11

Are you a Consumer? Are you a Producer?

 Photo by PressPhoto

I hear the word consumer used a lot, as a measure of personal and collective financial health. We live in a consumer culture. We read Consumer Reports. We measure various consumer statistics to determine the health of our economy. When consumer spending goes up, we feel better, because we think we are richer.

What does the word consumer mean? Literally, to consume means to eat. According to Mirriam Webster Dictionary, the word is derived from Latin consumere, which means to take.

Consume has various meanings:

 

1. to do away with completely, to destroy (fire consumes buildings)
2. to spend wastefully, squander, use up (time-consuming)
3. to eat or drink especially in great quantity, to enjoy avidly, devour (consumed a feast)
4. to engage fully (consumed with curiosity)
5. to utilize as a customer (consumer goods)

We are all consumers. We are constantly making exchanges with others. We exchange money for time, services, things.

I believe there is an over-emphasis on the word consumer. There is an imbalance, because we don't often hear the word producer.

So what's a producer? According to Mirriam Webster Dictionary, producer also has various meanings:

1. one that produces; especially one that grows agricultural products or manufactures crude materials into articles of use
2. a person who supervises or finances a work for exhibition or dissemination to the public (like a movie producer)
3. an autotrophic organism (as a green plant) viewed as a source of biomas that can be consumed by other organisms

So the producer grows the food source, or in the case of the green plant, it is the actual food source, that will be consumed.

I think a producer is a maker, a grower, a creator. Someone who can take raw materials and make useful things out of them. Someone who can generate, invent, improve, craft, cook. A producer uses hard work and wizardry to make something that wasn't there before.

What if we valued producers as much as we value consumers? What if we talk about producer culture, and read Producer Reports? What if we use production quality and numbers as a measure of abundance in our lives? What if we identify ourselves as producers, as much as we identify ourselves as consumers?

 African Christmas beads and charms

jewelry by Rosa Phoenix

A few years ago I decided that I want to produce more than I consume. I realized that being a consumer is time-consuming, and also money-consuming.

I opted out of a lot of things I used to consume regularly: movies, TV, books, magazines, a lot of entertainment and pop culture. After taking in so many images, stories, ideas that had been produced by others for my consumption, I grew full. I needed to go on a fast for awhile.

I want to be a producer of ideas and art. So instead of using my time to consume, I use that time to produce.

Of course we are all consumers and producers. I want to find a healthy balance between producing and consuming. I want to create as much as I consume.

I recently went to MakerFaire for the first time. I was happy to find an event that was more about producing, than consuming. It wasn't so much about buying things. The things for sale were materials, kits and how-to books. Lots more people were making things, than buying things. Ideas are free.

How do you feel about being a consumer? How about being a producer?