A couple of months ago I read the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for book club and it really made me take a closer look at the products I was buying. Since reading the book, I make an effort to buy products produced/grown closer to home and no longer by Dean Foods products, bananas and products with high fructose corn syrup. I've made a few another changes but these are the ones I consistently follow.
I no longer buy Dean Foods, also the owner of Horizon Organics, because of their practices regarding dairy products. If I am going to buy organic dairy products, I try to buy Organic Valley if I'm willing to spend a lot or I'll by the Whole Foods brand which has received decent ratings for their organic practices.
I no longer buy bananas because of how far they travel to get to me. Is it really worth all that fuel? We'll see if I can go the winter without them though. If Brian didn't like grapes so much, I probably wouldn't buy those either since they usually come from Chile.
Do I really need to buy products made with high fructose corn syrup, which is made by changing the sugar (glucose) in cornstarch to fructose — another form of sugar to extend the self life of processed foods? No. I try to stick to products that have the real stuff.
Sometimes I wonder where to draw the line. Buying organic is expensive and I wonder if it's worth it. Yes, our generation ate regular food, but food today is grown and processed much different today than 20 plus years ago.
I'll save a discussion on feed-lots for another post.
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Hi Kathy - you might also like the book Plenty: Eating Locally on a 100 mile diet by Alisa Smith and J.B. McKinnon. It's about a Canadian couple that tried to eat only foods that were grown, raised or caught within 100 miles of their city apartment. I'm still reading it, but so far, so good. I'll have to check out your recommendation too.
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