Figures . . .

We got an automated call tonight from the Big Box store we often shop at. It seems that the five pounds of ground beef we bought from them last May has been recalled. Good to know. All of that beef was browned, sauteed with onions, and thrown into a five-gallon stock pot as a main ingredient in the enormous batch of chilli we cooked up for the neighborhood potluck we hosted last Spring. Luckily, none of our neighbors complained of being ill after our party.

Now, we know exactly what day we bought that meat. I remember the way heavy package felt and how odd it was that the meat was pink on top, but brown in the middle. I remember all this because it was the only time this year that we have bought feed-lot meat. That is, meat from cattle raised on whatever food will help them grow fast - often corn that their four-chambered stomachs have trouble digesting - and housed on big feed-lots that create enormous stench and ample opportunities for disease. Knowing what feed-lot meat is, it really is a wonder more people don't get sick.

With that one exception, all of the beef we buy is grass-fed and humanely raised. There are many reasons why we do this. For one, grass-fed beef often comes from small, local farmers that keep the $5/lb we pay for their beef in our hometown. Another reason is that studies show grass-fed beef is higher in nutrients than feed-lot beef. Lastly, we buy grass-fed meat because it respects the nature of cattle. We doubt that cattle were created to be raised on dirty, barren plots of dirt and fed food for which they were not designed.

Clearly, we pay more for our meat and, because of that, we buy and eat less. That's o.k. Meat doesn't have to be on the menu every day. We're not vegetarians, but by making a commitment to eat humanely raised meat, we eat more meals where plant foods are the featured dish. With a culinary repetoire that includes eggplant parmesan, tofu stir-fry, and tasty black bean soup, we're not exactly suffering. And when we do eat meat, we know it is going to be very good - and not likely to ever be recalled.

Potato Pizza

Our youngest was recently diagnosed with intollerances to potato and the sucrose/fructose combination (his body has trouble digesting sugar and fruit at the same time). While we are thrilled to have answers to - and relief from - his hives, swollen hands, eczema, and sore stomach, his diagnosis has changed how our family eats. Potatoes, we have found, have everything to do with pizza.

Do you have any idea how many products at your local supermarket have potato in them? We don't exactly, but in the past week we have learned that potato is definitely not limited to those bins in the produce section and the frozen french fries on Isle 7. Many commercial flours are processed with a potato product. Most skim and low-fat dairy products are fortified with Vitamin A palmitate - a potato product. Packages of shredded cheese are coated in potato to keep the cheese from sticking together in one big glob. Processed meats often contain dextrose, a potato product.

We are not health experts of any kind, but our son's food issues are not unique among his friends. A boy our kids play with regularly has severe tree nut allergies. Another friend has food intolerances similar to our son, but is also intolerant to soy. We wonder if God intended potato to be put in milk? Or if our children are paying for our efforts to preserve food and extend shelf life. We ponder these things as we make our own pizza crust, search in vain for whole-milk mozzarella, and leave the potato-containing pepperoni off his his part of the pizza.

This is just common sense

From the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/15/AR2009041501960.html

The gist of the article is that the EPA is going to start requiring pesticide manufacturers to test some 67 chemicals contained in their products to see if they have an adverse affect on human health, specifically the endocrine system which regulates our growth, metabolism, and ability to reproduce.

My question: why isn't every chemical required to pass such a test? Why should anyone be allowed to knowingly put chemicals into our food, our environment, and our bodies without first proving that they are safe? Yes, I can see the burden this would place on business interests, but what about my interest in not dying of thyroid cancer? Or my sons' interest in being able to produce children of their own?

Eat local - it's good for you!

At our house, the first sign of impending warm weather is when Mike hooks up his basement grow light and places tiny seeds in the grid-shaped seed starter. It's a sign of faith that the cold Kansas winter will eventually come to an end and when it does, our broccoli, chard, spinach and lettuce will have a head start in our small garden space so and that we'll be eating fresh-from-our-garden salads soon. Our backyard doesn't get much sun, so we plant what we can and enjoy the growing process.

Growing food, however much we can, is a way for us to remember where our food comes from. It's a lesson for our children. Our boys know that lettuce starts out as a seed and that someone grows it before it makes its way to the supermarket isle. It's also a way for us to eat frugally and in a way that is beneficial to our environment. Enough lettuce seed to last a season costs only a few dollars. In our climate, rain is usually plentiful enough to water our garden. What sun our backyard gets is free. No fossil fuels are burned on our walk out back.

What we can't grow in our small plot out back, we try to buy from local farmer's markets. Produce at these markets is usually brought in from less than 100 miles away and most of the growers are small family farms. Over the past couple of years, we have developed real relationships with a few of the growers whose stands we frequent. When our youngest was born a few years ago, we even sent one farming family a birth announcement.

But it's not just about the relationships. Local food tastes better, too, and has been shown to have more nutrients. A zucchini picked 2 weeks before purchase and trucked in from 500 miles away pales in flavor to the zucchini picked the night before it was purchased from a farmer's stand.

If the idea of shopping at a farmer's market baffels you, or you don't know where to find one, a favorite website of ours is http://www.localharvest.org/. It will point you to farmer's markets and other sources of good, local food. Here in Kansas City we even know a few local farmers who deliver.

Cheers!

What it means to be Assisi Minded

What is Assisi Minded?

This blog was born out of our desire to humbly promote a consistent pro-life ethic. We feel strongly that God's call for human kind to care for creation encompasses ALL of creation - from that newly formed child in the womb to the humble bumble bee.

As a family, we are actively involved in both the environmental and pro-life movements. To many, that seems very contradictory, but to us fighting the rise in green house gasses and saying a rosary outside an abortion mill have the same goal in mind - a healthy world that sustains and values life.

To be 'green' or an 'environmentalist' often means to value something other than oneself. That is a noble quality of character, as being 'green' can require a number of sacrifices for the good of our planet. Still, we feel such intentions often spring from disordered thinking. We are frustrated by environmentalists who bemoan the mountain of land-fill destined waste created during a child's first year of life and who see population reduction as the answer to that problem. As if the value of a human life can be measured in trash. We would like to see environmental problems approached from a perspective that respects the dignity of every person, born and unborn. It is easy to do away with our most fragile and vulnerable when they have no voice.

We also want to encourage our friends in the pro-life movement to embrace environmental stewardship. That bumble bee is important. If he's not protected, he can't pollinate the plants that provide the food that sustain us all. We're at the top of the food chain, and that makes us perhaps the most vulnerable of all God's creatures to environmental degradation. Also, as we plan to discuss in this blog, there are many farming and industrial practices common today that not only harm the environment we all share, but that insult our very dignity as human beings. Our biblical call to stewardship over God's creation is important.

Our inspiration for this blog comes from St. Francis of Assisi, the poor 13th century beggar. Few, if any, have lived the Gospel so concretely as St. Francis. In his day, he ministered to lepers and gave sermons to birds. He exemplified what it means to serve all of God's creation. The name Assisi Minded is a reference to the ideal for which we are imperfectly striving. In some small way, we hope to contribute toward what was begun some 700 years ago.

We humbly ask for St. Francis' intercession as we seek to start this conversation.