Real food? - Mini vent.

[sumi]

@Britesea that's the problem. There are too many regulations on unimportant things.

I recall reading a thread on BYC some time ago, someone got told they are not allowed to grow their own vegetables on their own property? Why not? Because they want us all to go to the shops and buy inferior quality produce and pay through our noses for it? What harm does a veggie patch do? There is a shortage of food in this world. More people should be growing their own food. The world economy is a mess, people are struggling, friends of ours lost their houses, but no, we're not allowed to look after ourselves and do what we want to come right. People are allowed to keep dogs that bark all night and cats that cause trouble with the neighbours, but not a few hens that will provide the family with a few eggs. It doesn't make sense to me.

Why don't they rather spent their time and energy fixing things that ARE broken? Like the crime levels and the corruption?

Off my soapbox now.

 

[Denim Deb]

It's all about control. What better way to control the population than to make them dependent on others for their food?

 

[sumi]

That and money. To give you an example, a local farmer told me he sells processed pig carcasses to a supermarket @ZAR13.00 per kilogram (± $1.25/2.1lbs). He even delivers them! The supermarket cuts up the carcass and sells the meat on at 4x as much. Milk here and in the UK is so dear to produce that some farmers struggle to make any profit on it. The big guys like Parmalat forbids them from selling a drop to anyone but them, then pays them less than R3.00 (about $0.33c) per litre, takes the cream off, waters the milk down before selling it to shops who slaps 25-35% profit on it, before charging us between R19.00 ($1.90) and R25.00 ($2.50) per two litre bottle of watery "milk".

And they call this progress?

 

[baymule]

I was watching something on TV about how they milk cows and why they can't sell it raw, and it made no sense. They wash the cows udder, then a machine is attached and the milk is pump directly from the cow to a holding tank. But they have to pasteurize it for just in case any fecal matter gets in the milk. How in the world is it supposed to get in there w/the way the milk is handled?

Fecal matter.....look up confinement dairies....dry lot cows standing in their own manure... There is even plastic mesh to put in the cow lots to keep them from sinking in the mud/manure. Not saying that all dairies are like that, but still.....

 

[Britesea]

 

[goatgurl]

@baymule the cows i milked (120 head twice a day and we were a small dairy) weren't kept in a lot but if they came in with poo on their udder we scrubbed them down with disinfectant stuff. now i will say I've been to dairys that i didn't want to drink the milk even if it had been pasteurized but their not all that way. i drank the milk from my pet cow patty, yes cow patty but i have a weird sense of humor.
@denimdeb is right, its all about controlling the masses and the best way to do that is thru food and health care. make people dependent on you and you control them. stepping quietly down off that box now.

 

[WendyJ]

There are other issues as well. It used to be one bad batch of milk made one or two families ill, and they would know pretty quickly that there was a problem. Now that milk from thousands of cows is all combined, one poorly washed cow could make hundreds of people sick, and be very hard to trace. One glass of milk could contain milk from 50 cows in it, and while that might water down the bacteria, etc. it also increases the likelihood of there being a problem.

 

[goatgurl]

ever so true wendyj

 

[baymule]

And the answer is.....your own small acreage, your own garden, fruit and nut trees, berries, grapes, chickens, poultry, small livestock. And if that is not where you are in life, then find someone who is and buy from them. Replace as much of the industrial crap food as you can.

We live in town on a tiny lot, but have a garden and chickens. No, it doesn't totally feed us, but it sure makes a difference. We are in the process of buying a home on 8 acres and can't wait to close and get moving!

 

[sumi]

Exactly @baymule! Good luck with the sale and the new start! That sounds wonderful... 8 acres? You can do a LOT with 8 acres

We are trying to sell our place at the moment. Once that's done I can move back to Ireland where I'l looking to buy 2 acres, or more depending what's available in my price range. Once I'm settled there I'm going to do my best with animals, garden and chickens to produce as much of our own food as possible.