Saturday, May 19, 2012

The Pleasure of Eating

We have enjoyed an early spring in Utah.  Thinking back to last year with the snow still falling through the first part of June has given me an extra sense of gratitude.  The gift of watching two extra months of natures re-birthing process has been spectacular!  

Over the last week I've spent a few moments each day from the horizontal perspective of my hammock...........looking up at the different colors & shapes of leaves swaying in the breeze, smelling the variety of blossoms & watching hundreds of birds gathering food for their new born chicks as they chirp nearby.  There were even 14 baby ducks greeting me as I pulled into the driveway one evening.  I'm blessed to be living on this property that I affectionately call my "treehouse" located in what feels like a nature preserve.  I feel as if I have become one with this property and all the animals living on it.  Looking back on my life, I wonder how I could've ever taken for granted this miracle of nature. 

 This leads me to the reason why I have started this blog....Nature and the Natural rhythm of this planet.  As I become more and more aware of natures perfection and the natural balance of this world, I become equally involved in the effort to keep it that way.  Everything on this earth has basically started out as a seed perfect in its natural creation.  Now a great majority of those seeds are being genetically altered and created in laboratories.  Do we really understand what this is doing to our planet, to our environment and to our health?

 As a society of consumers most take for granted the food we can so easily purchase in grocery stores located on almost every block of our cities.  Everything is available to us whether it is in season or not.  Many people do not give a second thought to where their food has come from, the specific ingredients it contains, the far reaching affect on our planet and what it is doing to our own bodies.  Believe me, I understand how overwhelming it all seems....and with our busy lives, who has time for it?   I answer that by saying... If we want to be healthy and live on a balanced planet, we had all better take time for it! 

Following are two excerpts from the article, The Pleasures of Eating by Wendell Berry.....

  "The food industrialists have persuaded millions of consumers to prefer food that is already prepared.  They will grow, deliver, and cook your food for you and (just like your mother) beg you to eat it.  That they do not yet offer to insert it, prechewed, into our mouth is only because they have found no profitable way to do so.  We may rest assured that they would be glad to find such a way.  The ideal industrial food consumer would be strapped to a table with a tube running from the food factory directly into his or her stomach." 

"How does one escape this trap?  Only voluntarily, the same way one went in: by restoring one's consciousness of what is involved in eating; by reclaiming responsibility to one's own part in the food economy.  Eaters must understand that eating takes place inescapably in the world, that it is inescapably an agricultural act, and how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used.  This is a simple way of describing a relationship that is inexpressibly complex.  To eat responsibly is to understand and enact , so far as we can, this complex relationship."

 Mr. Berry goes on to list several things we can do to change how we eat. They include becoming Producers more than Consumers and most importantly LEARNING about every aspect of where are food comes from. To read the entire article go to: http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/pleasures-eating

This blog was born from my own LEARNING process which started approximately 27 years ago when I was pregnant with my son. My story is a long one which will unfold with this blog and continues as I learn something new each day.  I feel a responsibility to share what I have learned to those who want to improve their health and their lives through healthy eating...  

(My Blog Dedication will share some light on my history.)

 My hope is to make this learning process easier and less time consuming for you than it has been for me. I also want to learn from you! My purpose is that together we can change the politics, esthetics and ethics of the food we consume enjoying healthier lives while creating a balanced planet. 

Remember, YOU ARE what you EAT ..... Beci :)