Yesterday on the site I spoke of a website (Real Time Farms) whose goal is to show you where your food is coming from. It's important to know what conditions your food was grown under. Case in point, this week's story of exploding watermelons in China. Watch the AP new story below about these watermelons.
In order to help get these melons to market the farmer sprayed them with a chemical that causes them to grow fastier, but in this case it was overkill and the melons exploded. This same chemical is used in the US on grapes and kiwis (a good reason to buy organic). Is the purpose of the chemical to make better tasting and more healthy fruit? Of course not, it's all about money. Is the chemical harmful to us? It is legal to use this chemical here but I can't imagine this chemical is good for our bodies. At the very least it might not be harmful. But what if later down the line we discover that it causes some type of disease or cancer? Asbestos was commonly used in households as insulation for decades. Until they discovered that exposure led to health problems. So who is to stay we won't find this chemical used on fruit to cause a problem in the future?
This is one reason why it's important to know where the food you are eating comes from. If you don't know, how will you know how the farm is handling it. Unfortunately a lot of farmers are motivated solely by money and will do what is in their legal right to do in order to make the greatest profit. Do you want to keep supporting these people? This is why more people need to get behind movements like Real Time Farms and Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Jamie showed how companies add beef filler (pink slime) that was once unfit for human consumption and use a little bit of ammonia to make it usable, which saves money. We may think that the companies control the market, but if enough consumers show them with their biggest asset their pocketbooks by spending it on sources they know are growing their food in acceptable ways, then the companies will have no choice but to make changes. Just something to think about today.
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