Chemical additives, antibiotics, genetically altered seeds and the dominance of huge companies, such as Monsanto, threaten the safety and integrity of our food supply.
Why worry about nutrition or healthy eating when most of the commercial food produced is so tainted with chemicals, pesticides and toxins that it may not be safe to eat anything at all.
PHOTO BY ANNEMARIE DONKIN  (L-R) David Sonnenshein, Jordanne Dervaes and Abby Gilad admire a giant squash grown by Dervaes and her family on their home farm in Pasadena. Sonnenshein and Gilad were inspired by the Food Forum to expand their home garden in Topanga. |
To address these very real concerns about our food supply, the Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains and the Topanga Peace Alliance hosted a forum on food issues at the Topanga Community House on October 16.
Among the topics covered were the growing corporate influence on our food supply surrounding the issues of high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, factory farms, CO2 emissions and Monsanto, which now owns most of the world seed, pesticides and fertilizer markets.
Also up for discussion were the fatal flaws in the new food "safety" legislation, what to do about it and choosing to buy locally grown foods as an alternative to the processed foods that fill the supermarkets.
Vote With Your Fork
To illustrate just how dire the situation is, TV writer and producer Kathleen Green opened the evening with a short video she made titled "Vote With Your Fork."
PHOTO BY ANNEMARIE DONKIN  Filmmaker Katherine Green introduces her film, "Vote with Your Fork," about the dangers of genetically modified food at the Topanga Community House on October. 16. |
Green's video is a scathing account using various sources - researchers, doctors, corporate whistleblowers, farmers and food experts - to chronicle the horror of U.S. food production that charts the increasing use of food additives and preservatives, the ubiquitous use of corn syrup in processed foods and the alarming rise of brain tumors after the introduction of aspartame (NutraSweet) in 1983.
Considering that tobacco company R.J. Reynolds also owns General Foods, Kraft and Nabisco, one can see where the future of food is going.
Michael Pollan, a professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley and the author of several books including The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, described on the video the "catastrophe of the American diet" that now causes us to spend up to $1.5 trillion on preventable diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
"The food system is replete with edible food-like substitutes that are not actually food," Pollan said. "My best advice is to not eat any food that is incapable of rotting."
In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan asks a critically important question about why livestock were removed from pastures and stuffed into confined area feed lots.
"Why did we ever turn away from this free lunch in favor of a biologically ruinous meal based on corn," Pollan writes. "Why in the world did Americans take ruminants off the grass? And how could it come to pass that a fast-food burger produced from corn and fossil fuel actually cost less than a burger produced from grass and sunlight?"
Monsanto
Also implicated in Green's video is the domination of the U.S. food market by government-subsidized crops of corn, wheat, cotton, soy and canola from genetically modified seeds patented and owned by Monsanto, which achieved tremendous success developing a line of Bt corn resistant to disease and the pesticide, Roundup. Monsanto says the Bt trait works as a protein in the corn that, when ingested by the corn borer, kills them.
"What keeps Monsanto healthy is Roundup, an herbicide developed more than two decades ago," wrote David Barboza in a New York Times article published in 2001. "It is the best-selling agricultural chemical product ever, with $2.8 billion in sales last year; it outsells other chemicals five to one."
Green's video also implicates the dairy industry in treating cattle with Monsanto's rGBH and rBST product, Posilac, a supplement of the naturally occurring cow hormone BST, that when administered to cows allows them to produce more milk. But farmers and veterinarians say it makes cows weaker, requiring them to administer antibiotics to keep them healthy.
Good Food News
So how can a person avoid toxic food and eat well? Dorothy Reik, president of the PDSMM, offered some good advice:
"Boycott bad products, buy organic food, eat locally and seasonally, grow a vegetable garden, support local farmers' markets and lobby food manufacturers to begin producing healthier food," she said. She also encouraged attendees to support a Topanga Community Garden.
Coming as a breath of fresh air at the conclusion of the food forum was the Dervaes family, who transformed their South Pasadena yard into a sustainable farm complete with chickens and goats. Known as urban homesteaders, Jules Dervaes and his three grown children, Justin, Anais and Jordanne, produce three tons of organic food a year on their one-tenth of an acre property.
They are off the grid, preferring solar power for their house and outdoor oven. They use hand-cranked and bicycle-powered appliances, installed a biodiesel filling station in the garage, capture rainwater and irrigate with clay pots known as ollas, an ancient method used by the Chinese, Egyptians and Romans. Naturally, they compost their food and plant waste. As a result, the Dervaes have become local celebrities and sell their eggs, fruits and vegetables at farmers' markets and local restaurants, including Elements Café in South Pasadena.
"We view it as a model to show people what can be done," said Jordanne Dervaes while holding up a six-foot squash known as a trombocino.
The Dervaes' life journey as eco-pioneers is documented in their film "Homegrown Revolution," available at www.pathtofreedom.com. Their website gets about five million hits per month from more than 100 countries. They also preserve and sell organic, heritage seeds at www.FreedomSeeds.org.
"In our society, growing food yourself has now become the most radical of acts," Jules Dervaes said. "It is truly the only effective protest, one that can – and will – overturn the corporate powers that be."
Those interested in following the Dervaes' example can interact and network with local gardeners at www.freedomgardens.org.
Some Topangans at the meeting were shaken up by the graphic depiction of the threat to the food supply, but inspired to start or expand their gardens.
Ken Widen is a call fireman at Station 69, and on the advisory board of the Topanga Community Club; he grows macadamias, walnuts and persimmons on his half-acre lot.
"I learned how much food you can grow on a small piece of land," Widen marveled. He hopes to expand his vegetable garden but said deer and squirrels do more damage than pests.
David Sonnenshein and Abby Gilad, were certainly shaken by the information about the dwindling food base, down from 10,000 edible plant species to about 60, but were determined to work harder on their home garden in Old Canyon.
Sonnenshein, a photographer and filmmaker, felt that starting small was the best idea for them. "We already planted twelve fruit trees, and I am interested in having duck eggs," Gilad, a music teacher, said. "Our idea is to turn [our yard] into a sustainable, organic garden, but we have a lot to learn."
