Dear Health Conscious Reader,
Talk about putting the fox in charge of the hen house…
President Obama recently selected Michael Taylor, former chief lobbyist for Monsanto, as the new “food safety czar” at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Think about that: The former lawyer and lobbyist for the company that manufactured Agent Orange will now make decisions about our nation’s food supply.
Taylor is the man most responsible for getting recombinant bovine growth hormone (rbGH) approved for use in dairy cows. That’s the stuff that fattens the cows to dangerously obese sizes, getting them ready for slaughter faster (By the way – Monsanto produces the growth hormone).
And the food safety concerns don’t stop there. The push for producing food faster extends to the produce you eat, too.
Genetically-modified seeds and hormones are now staples in the food you eat. You drink it in your milk, eat it in your cheese and yogurt, and ingest it each time you eat commercially-raised, grain-fed beef.
Since these seeds hit the market in 1996, we’ve seen:
- Children reach puberty at earlier ages
- A dramatic rise in asthma, autism, obesity and diabetes
- A jump in food allergies, especially among children
- Allergy-related emergency room visits double 1997-2002
Your health is too vital to leave it in the hands of corporate lobbyists and their political cronies. It doesn’t have to be this way. Take charge of your own food choices.
Here’s how to do it:
- Don’t be fooled by beef labeled “organic”. The organic label only means that the cattle do not have obvious levels of antibiotics or hormones in their body at the time of slaughter. It does not mean that ranchers have never given cattle these treatments.
- Get serious about eating grass-fed beef. There are many farmers who have pledged to raise their cows purely on the natural foods they are supposed to eat – grass, not grains. Visit www.grasslandbeef.com and www.eatwild.com for a list of grass-fed farms in the U.S. and Canada.
- Become a locovore. There is a movement in place to eat and buy locally farmer’s co-ops within a 100-mile radius of where you live. Visit your local farmer’s market and ask questions about how they grow their crops. Threats to small family farmers and co-ops may come heavy-handed regulations by the food safety czar, so get the good stuff while it lasts.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD