Food Selection in the Age of Modern Food Production

Discussion in 'Survival of the Fittest' started by melbo, Aug 28, 2013.


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  1. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    Over the past 6-8 months, my family has made great progress in weening ourselves off of commercial/industrial food. We now refuse to purchase any meat that comes from CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) farms. We also look for US grown organic produce and try to make it local if possible.

    chuck (Small).

    5 lbs local, grass fed chuck roast after 6 hours in the pot.

    I was making a mental list of the things that are banned from our grocery cart during this process.

    Anything GMO
    Artificial colors
    Artificial flavors
    Preservatives
    Nitrates
    Nitrites
    BHT
    High Fructose Corn Syrup (any corn syrup actually)
    All meats containing growth hormones or antibiotics
    Artificial sweeteners
    Vegetable Oil - PUFA (Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids like corn and canola)

    This spring we purchased a half cow from a local grass fed (100%) cattle farm. On top of being so clean and pure, it's also the best tasting meat we've ever had. I will admit that the Ribeye steak is not as good as one from a grain fed, marbled, CAFO cow but we have adjusted our tastebuds accordingly. After going Primal, we are devouring our beef supply and I'll pick up a whole cow next spring.

    We purchase 3 dozen eggs a week from a farm down the street. If you've never had a farm fresh egg, you really ought to find a dozen. The color of the yolks is quite different from even the 'best' (most expensive) store bought eggs and ours are only $2.50 a dozen compared to $4.99 for the EB cage free variety. The chickens roam everywhere and eat a diet that includes insects - which is the main difference from the veg-fed chicken eggs.

    salmon (Small).

    A couple of months ago, we purchased 80 lbs of king salmon from the fresh market in Seattle. It had been caught that day. After portioning into entree sized pieces, we smoked 1/4 of it and vacuum sealed it all for the freezer. No added color, no preservatives. It's the best tasting fish I've ever had and we've found lots of ways to cook it.

    I'd really love to buy get some body's elk this hunting season - might post a craigslist ad. Corrected. Amazing what our .Gov can prohibit in the land of the free.

    We do not have a garden yet at this new location but will correct that next spring. We do get quite a bounty of freebies from neighbors and community contacts and supplement with the local farmers markets. There are also all natural chicken and pig farmers in my area and I'll be exploring those options soon as well.

    One thing anyone following this same path will quickly find out is this: mechanized, industrial food production methods allow for really cheap food. Organic, local produce and meat is not cheap. I guess it comes down to what your health is worth to you - pay it now or pay the Doctors later.

    Some awesome reference sites for finding local food:
    Eat Wild
    Local Harvest / Farmers Markets / Family Farms / CSA / Organic Food
    Eat Well Guide :: Local, Sustainable, Organic Food
     
  2. Hex

    Hex Amateur Survivalist

    I've eaten my own caught fresh salmon and farm eggs (from my job/cousin's farm) for longer then I can remember, just benefits from that alone. But reading this post makes me so hungry and it all just looks amazing... and the benefits! Wow! Guess you've got a possible follower on your hands. I would encourage others to do as well.

    Congratulations on the journey progress, I'm sure it's doing wonders for you!
     
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  3. Quigley_Sharps

    Quigley_Sharps The Badministrator Administrator Founding Member

    Dont do that, sale of wild meat will get you locked up. Farm Elk are ok and there is a Elk farm near you on the west side of the highway you might check them out and see if they are ranging naturally there?
    Or you could come Elk hunting with me some time.
     
  4. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    Thanks for the tip, found the Elk farm - looks like it passes all the tests.
    Can we hunt with machine guns?
     
  5. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Quigly sharps beat me to it. You can not buy, sell or trade wild game. It CAN be a gift. And anything to do with illegal wild game, would be seen as a Lacy Act violation. Big bad federal "we take your guns away" violation. That would be what they just nailed Ted Nugent with, and forced him to take a deal, or lose all of his gun rights. Bad mojo.
     
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  6. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017

    You are living every awake preppers dream!
    CONGRATS MELBO!

    For my part, this years garden has been a great learning experience. I am totally confident that there is no way I could grow enough to feed my mom/dads/3brothers for a winter with any success. (other than potatoes) It is no coincidence that "wild game" is not main stream outside the hillbilly/redneck community. It's a control thing. If i take my home grown carrots, cucummbers etc to work and offer to give them away some folks will decline because they don't LOOK like what they buy in the grocery store. Several years ago, we had a freezer full of moose, I brought a huge amount of steaks to a team bbq for FREE....of my 20 or so team, only 1....ONE had ever tried moose bbq before. I brought 1/2 of it back home uncooked because it didn't taste like beef or chicken. Dogs ate good for a couple days but it kinda shocked me. When I've given free range eggs away that I got for free/next to nothing from my neighbor or golf course...I had a buddy I gave a dozen brown eggs to tell me he had to throw them out thinking they were rotten because they tasted so much stronger than mass-grocery store bought white eggs. They were fresh....2 days tops.

    Just my .02 and congrats on doing what we all know is RIGHT.

    G
     
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  7. STANGF150

    STANGF150 Knowledge Seeker

    Hey Mindgrinder, Move yer arse next to me!! I won't turn away Free Good Foods!! Hell, I'll even help ya sum & you can pay me in Foods! :D
     
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  8. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017


    There is a house for sale on my road.... $450k CDN.
    Fill yer boots. I'm dug in.
     
  9. Airtime

    Airtime Monkey+++

    We like pork at our home. We specifically get it from a farmer who has a CAFO (confined animal feeding operation, not a concentrated animal feeding operation) in part specifically because the feed is much better controlled. Free range pigs will eat ANYTHING including small critters that get into the pasture. It's the eating of raw meat that can contaminate a hog with trichinella that can then infect a person if the meat is under cooked. I really don't like over cooked pork and prefer it to not be cooked above 145 F. That will kill the tichinella cysts but if we somehow undercook an area there is virtually no trichinosis risk with CAFO pork and there is a very low risk with "free range."

    I know various research has shown CAFO pork to also have lower incidences of salmonella and the like but much of that was funded by the .gov's pork producer board so the data can't be assumed to be pure and untainted. So I prefer CAFO raised pork due to a very small probability that it is a bit safer but it's probably nonsense since the slaughter methods probably create far more health risk than the feeding methods. Read "Fast Food Nation" for some perspective on our food supply. Yeah the author is probably a left winger but even if you discount 75% of it there is still enough to prompt some concerns. The engineer in me wishes more was done with irradiation in our food supply. But that is just me...

    AT
     
  10. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017


    Keep it in America please.
    You export enough cancer to my country as it is.
     
  11. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    If you've never had :
    small farm Beef, pork, lamb
    nor
    eggs from chickens and ducks that roam the yard and garden
    nor
    vegetables raised in your own garden.

    OMG You have no idea what you are missing.

    If you have on the other hand, you had and now have to buy from the supermarket. You definitely know what you are missing.
     
  12. Airtime

    Airtime Monkey+++

    Just curious... why do you think irradiation would cause cancer?
    AT
     
  13. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    erm, you do know that most if not all contamination comes from processing right?
    what they are doing with irradiation is killing the creepy crawlies so they do not have to maintain a super clean premise for the slaughter.

    I inspect the houses that do my processing. No frickin way my piggies are going into a sty to get processed.

    If you know what goes into the piggy, where and how the piggy lives and dies, .. well anyway i could wax on for a really long time.

    No way is any CAFO and industrial processing (w/o serious chemicals and antibiotics) going to beat the health and taste of my farm raised pigs processed at a local custom meat packer.

    Have you seen how they raise pigs for general consumption? How they are processed? If so, I'm surprised you haven't given up pork (or any other industrial raised animal)

    You don't want to see what they do with beef and poultry either.
     
  14. Hex

    Hex Amateur Survivalist

    I've had 'em all! Good eats. Best meal in my opinion from these:


    Farmhouse lamb with home-grown or locally grown vegetables stew. Amazing burst of flavor! I also enjoy the salty broth. My mouth is watering at the thought!

    P.S. If you haven't already, you guys might like the movie Food Inc. It's kind of sad at times in the movie but it's very informative. It's on Netflix, or possibly on Youtube. Not sure about Youtube, though.
     
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  15. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017

     
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  16. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    We don't even wash our farm eggs and they sometimes sit _gasp_ refrigerated for days.
    Antibiotics are given to animals that live, eat and sleep in other animals waste. They are also immuno-compromised due to the lack of sunlight, fresh air, pastures, etc.

    Our grass fed beef raised locally by an Animal Welfare Approved farmer and packed at a clean local plant can be consumed raw, with no fear of anything nasty in the meat. I fear the processing factories more than I fear what a pig can eat in the yard.

    just my .02
     
  17. Quigley_Sharps

    Quigley_Sharps The Badministrator Administrator Founding Member

    Nope no machine guns, can use a can though.or my 50 :lol:
     
  18. Silversnake

    Silversnake Silverback

    Unrefigerated? We do that with the eggs from our hens also.
     
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  19. Airtime

    Airtime Monkey+++

    Read my post again. I was only talking about pork. My preference for CAFO pork did not say or infer I prefer industrial processing. Quite the contrary. And as I noted before, it is probably nonsense for me or anyone to worry about CAFO or free range as the processing is likely far more significant towards contamination and health risk. And most store bought "free range" or organically feed meat goes through the same processing plants so what's the point? The one point is trichinella is caused by what the pig eats.

    And yes, I know quite well, first hand and with poop covered boots exactly how grain is grown, hogs are raised, beef and eggs are produced and processed. I'm mostly out of it now but our families are in various ag related jobs. Not a fan of the big packing houses, prefer my custom packer whose facility I have seen inside and out. I agree the processing and food distribution side of things have some real concerns. I too like pasture feed beef but I'll stick with CAFO for pork.

    Regarding irradiation: it is not an excuse to permit compromised sanitation though your suggestion the big packers will do just that is quite likely. That has been a criticism for years and probably the most valid one. But I didn't elaborate what I thought it should be used for, just that I wish more was done with it. Ponder this: lettuce in a bag that you could put on the shelf and 2 months later be as fresh as if you picked it yesterday. Milk in a box that was not heated to pasteurize it but will be good stored on a shelf a year later. Peaches that last for weeks. The potential for preppers is huge. And those could all still be organic or whatever.

    AT
     
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  20. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017


    Food Irradiation Risks: Too many questions about food safety and cancer

    The nation's first irradiated fruits and vegetables, were sold in 1992 at a small Miami supermarket. This food was treated with massive doses of ionizing radiation (100,000 rads, roughly equivalent to 10 million medical X-rays) at large cobalt-60 facility, Vindicator Inc., which plans to treat 800 million tons of food a year for nationwide sale.
    Food irradiation was the brainchild of the Atomic Energy Commission's efforts in the Eisenhower administration to find practical uses for the flood of radioactive wastes from nuclear weapons.
    Atomic Energy of Canada (Nordion Ltd), with its virtual monopoly on cobalt-60 and with strong backing from the International Atomic Energy Agency, hopes to operate a chain of U.S. plants with U.S. irradiation companies.
    Industry and the Food and Drug Administration insist that irradiated food has been thoroughly tested and is absolutely safe. However, New York, New Jersey and Maine have prohibited the sale and distribution of irradiated food, as have foreign governments, including Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand. Claims of safety are unproven at best. High-energy irradiation produces complex chemical changes in food with the formation of poorly characterized radio lytic products, including benzene, organic peroxides and carbonyls. Radio lytic products kill bacteria, molds and larvae and thus ensure spoilage-free food, a major attraction to the purveyors of marginal produce and contaminated poultry. However, concentrated extracts of these products have never been tested for cancer and other delayed adverse effects. The overdue need for such studies is further emphasized by numerous reports of chronic toxic effects in insensitive studies on test animal fed unextracted whole irradiated food. These include reproductive damage in rodents and chromosomal damage in rodents, monkeys and children.
    Besides food safety, irradiation poses serious occupational and environmental hazards due to the transport and handling of radioactive materials. Accidents have already been reported in facilities sterilizing medical supplies by irradiation. Irradiation also reduces levels of essential nutrients in food, especially vitamins A, C, E and the B complex. Cooking irradiated food reduces these levels still further. The industry reluctantly admits this but suggests that the problem could be taken care of by vitamin supplements!
    In spite of this substantial evidence, Food and Drug Administration approved food irradiation in 1986. The FDA based its decision on five questionable or allegedly negative tests and on theoretical estimates on cancer risk, which was claimed to be insignificant and "acceptable". This position is consistent with the administration's revocation of the Delaney law, which banned the deliberate contamination of food with any amount of cancer-causing chemicals, and its substitution by rubber number standards based on "acceptable" cancer risk. Cancer rates have now reached epidemic proportions, striking one in three and killing one in four, with 500,000 deaths last year. Further risks to the entire nation of cancer, besides other health effects, hardly seem justified by the narrow economic interest of a small industry supported by a highly politicized federal bureaucracy.
    From USA TODAY, January 22, 1992
     
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    Thread by: Quigley_Sharps, Dec 22, 2013, 6 replies, in forum: Survival of the Fittest
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