Eat Local

Two weeks ago I was taking a teacher training in Vancouver (taught by the lovely Kristin Campbell, also a Squamish local) and was able to make a handful of new friends. We laughed, we joked, we got serious, as most girls do.

As with many conversations we diverted to the topic of food. The first question about food that arises with yogis is meat consumption. I call myself  a quasi vegetarian because I only eat meat if it is local, grass fed and has not been injected with hormones or antibiotics. I had just finished telling one of my fellow trainees this and she asked if I knew where the feed for the organic meat was coming from. My heart immediately sunk, oh no, the feed! After a momentary feeling of betrayal I asked my friend, "what about the feed?" Many of you may already be aware of this and I suppose I may be last to know of this "secret" but I feel it is important to share the knowledge.

My friend began to tell me how the animals are not fed organic feed but instead are fed genetically modified corn based products. She also said  that organic farms that have fully organic (non-genetically modified crops) can be in close enough range to non-organic farms that the seedlings from the non-organic farms travel (by wind) to the organic farmland where they land and germinate. This causes issue in the authenticity of the organic farm crops as well as issues of who truly owns the crops, the organic or non-organic farmer, but I won't get into that. The issue of natural seed dispersal is the biggest problem for corn and soy crops as these two crops are the world's most prominent non-organic crops. Here I thought when I was eating soy it was better than eating conventional meat!

 Of course this rolls over into the garden, surprise, surprise. I have been excited for years, yes years, to have a garden of my own. Living in Squamish allows me to bring this excitement to life. I went out and bought a bunch of different seeds to start growing inside and they have sprouted up nicely. When I got home from training and gazed over at my beautiful little buds poking out from the soil, curiosity got the best of me, and I started to research where my seeds had come from. I should have guessed! They were coming from the crop tycoon of the world and were anything but natural. The realization hit hard, my home grown little sprouts would produce veggies that were no better than the conventional grocery store products. Luckily, I have a garden savvy neighbor and she told me where she gets her organic (non tampered with) seeds. I quickly did some research on the company and decided to go get some more seeds from the "West Coast" seed company. Their seeds are grown in Canada are organic and are not genetically modified (yipee!).

If you like to eat organic, natural food it is important to do your research, as I have learned! Buy local and grow local. We are lucky here in Squamish, as we have the "Squamish Farmers Market" every other weekend during the winter and every weekend in the summer. Not only is the Farmers Market a great place to buy local fruits, veggies and personal care products, but it is a great place to meet the community!

Below are some links about different non-organic and organic foods and the issues with the seedlings. Happy reading:)

Feel free to leave any comments or insight to this topic. 

~Liz




http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1599110,00.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/life-video/video-debunking-myths-about-genetically-modified-foods/article4360365/?from=7018634
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19584953