Peggy at Madison Creek Farms, my CSA farm, came upon this article that is rather alarming regarding your personal right to any food you wish to choose to grow or eat for your personal health….
Here’s a quick follow-up article to the one posted a few days ago about the Rawesome Food Club raid. Feast your eyes on the following statements released by the Food and Drug Administration regarding the raid.
Note: Below, ‘Plaintiffs’ refers to James Stewart, Rawesome’s founder, Sharon Palmer, owner of Healthy Family Farms, and Victoria Bloch. The trio were charged with the production and sale of unpasteurized goat milk, goat cheese, and other products; and with “mislabeling cheese.” They were also charged with four counts of conspiracy to commit a crime.
According to the FDA…
“Plaintiffs’ assertion of a new ‘fundamental right’ to produce, obtain, and consume unpasteurized milk lacks any support in law.
“There is no ‘deeply rooted’ historical tradition of unfettered access to foods of all kinds.”
“Plaintiffs’ assertion of a ‘fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health, which includes what foods they do and do not choose to consume for themselves and their families,’ is similarly unavailing because plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish.”
I don’t know about you, but if the FDA is telling me I don’t have the right to grow or eat the healthiest food that I choose then I am serious about getting more active in determining my food health!
I was super excited when Peggy offered a seed saving workshop at the farm this past Saturday for those interested in preserving our food heritage. Even though I live in an apartment it is still very easy to get involved in the local food kick by preserving seeds and participate in what I like to call ‘urban homesteading’.
A little background on seeds and how they work:
Growing plants from collected seed preserves the genetic diversity of open pollinated plants. Most of the plants you buy in a nursery are grown by some means of asexual reproduction, which guarantees you the same ornamental characteristics of the plant’s parent. But all of the offspring are genetic clones of the parent.
In nature, the vast majority of flowering plants develop seeds by being pollinated openly by insects. This means each pollinated plants gets mixed with the genetic material of another plant close by, resulting in genetic variation. More genetic variation creates new strains of plants that are tougher and more resilient than their parents. Collecting and saving your own seeds creates stronger, healthier, and more genetically diverse plants.
How can you start seed saving to participate in the preserving of more healthy, hearty produce?
If you purchase from an organic, local farm or CSA then you can save seeds from the produce you purchase. Ask the owners if they would let you harvest seeds in September-the best month of the year to start thinking about your garden for the next year and when the seeds are in abundance as plants are going to seed prolifically at this time.
Even if you aren’t a member of CSA I would be willing to bet the farm owner still knows about the benefits of seed saving and would let you come harvest some seeds if you asked nicely!
Check back tomorrow for part two of seed saving!
Have you joined a CSA, gotten involved in the health foods movement
or started your own gardening efforts lately?
Shared on the Penniless Parenting Blog Hop. Check it out!
Pin It
[...] last week we talked about seed saving to ensure our food source heritage? This week we are going to talk about saving dry [...]