Mindful Eating #1 by Jill Davies Off the Corporate Food Grid 12.3.08

Over the past few months, as our nation engaged in the election process, we heard a lot of talk about how to fix our ailing health care system. But I would ask what is our primary resource for maintaining good health? Agriculture is our primary health care system. We are made of plant stuff and the choices we make regarding what to consume, of both food and beverages, will largely determine our state of health. And to make the healthiest choices we need to know a lot about how our food is produced, what’s in it, where it comes from and how various foods, and drugs for that matter, affect our bodies.

BeforeWWII most communities were close to their food source. Farms were diverse and marketed their products locally and regionally. Every town had a number of butcher shops. In Montana, 70% of the food consumed was produced in-state and food processing was our state’s number one employer. The BitterrootValley was the bread-basket of Montana, providing nearby populations like Butte and Helena with much of their food.

Now, 90% or more of the food we consume in Montana is from somewhere else, often many, many fossil fuel miles away. And our communities have lost nearly all of their capacity to process and store food. It’s the same all over the country, and it did not just happen by chance. After WWII our government encouraged the conversion of the munitions industry to fertilizer, and the conversion of nerve-gas research and production to pesticides. The government also began subsidizing commodity crops, telling farmers to “get big or get out”. That meant getting mechanized and resorting to monocropping. Thus “Industrial Agriculture” was born.

To me the term “industrial agriculture” is an oxymoron, that is, a figure of speech in which an adjective that means the opposite of the noun that it describes is used, (e.g. a planned coincidence, jumbo shrimp). ‘Agriculture’ is cultivation of the land, the soil and the organisms that live there. It requires extensive knowledge of ecosystem dynamics and whole systems thinking. ‘Industrial’ refers to man’s production of goods under a reductionist, machine-like model where efficiency and profit are the only factors that guide the process. Living organisms, including the soil, do not respond well to a reductionist, exploitive, industrial model and chemicals have replaced ecosystem knowledge. The food now produced in the industrial agriculture system has lost its capacity to maintain health.

One of these loses is in trace mineral content. A book: The Healing Power of Minerals has extensive information about this derived from many studies, some by the US Department of Agriculture. Decreases in mineral content (calcium, iron, magnesium) measured in a range of vegetables, fruits, grains and meats from 1963 to 1992 is shown from around 10% to 80%, and if averaged overall would be somewhere around 50%. Vitamin content from 1963 to 1992 has also shown a marked decline, especially vitamin A in chicken and beef. Industrial agriculture crops are depressed, fatigued, with depleted immune systems, overly vulnerable, and kept alive with artificial food (chemical fertilizers) and drugs (pesticides); and so are we.

The first effects of broad-spectrum nutritional deficienciesin humans are usually felt in the emotional life and energy level: depression, anxiety, insomnia, mental imbalance, and fatigue. Compounding this is our high sugar (including high fructose corn syrup, HFCS)consumption. Government subsidized HFCSis now in nearly all processed foods and drinks. Sugar depresses the immune system, hinders calcium and magnesium absorption, exhausts the body's chromium supplies, and causes the body to start stealing minerals from bones and teeth. Sugar stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin which is needed to metabolize sugar. The pancreas wears out, or most likely, runs out of the minerals it needs to produce hormones, and diabetes is the result. We are now seeing an epidemic of obesity and diabetes in our nations' children. It is ironic that we are both obese and starving.

The secondary effects of mineral deficiency are the organic, systemic Western diseases: heart disease, cancer, and stroke. ‘Western’ because these diseases are rare or nonexistent in indigenous societies, but appear in such societies when the native people switch to a Western diet. In order to maintain optimum health, we need to eat healthy, fresh, nutritious foods. Make connections with farmers and ask how they produce their crops and maintain soil fertility. We still have a lot of good natural farming in the Bitterroot and we could have a lot more if people decided to get off the corporate food grid. A great resource for finding your local farmers is our Producers' Directory on our Community Food Project website at:

- Jill Davies - Director: Sustainable Living Systems