Whole foods selling “locally grown-organic” products that are actually from China.

I have been introduced to this after seeing Food Inc and I am still in the process of learning more about it.

So based from what I understand as of now, I would try to share what I know about this new grass-fed buzzword that is taking the food industry by storm. But let me begin by writing what grass-fed beef is not:

• It is not meat coming from cows who satisfy themselves on a field flourishing with high–potency–designer quality marijuana.  Therefore, It does not come from cows that are tripping all day, bobbing their heads slowly as they hear unusual hidden sounds while fully grasping the meaning of The Beatles’ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. No, these cows are not potheads. They do not laugh for hours long just by looking at their dung, nor sway along to the movements of the cosmic force, but yes, they are happy.

• It is not meat rich in scandalous amounts of fat. Since the standard grading of beef today is based on marbling, which is the amount of fat in its meat, I am pretty sure that grass-fed beef will flunk and probably get an F from the USDA, just like my grades in high school. You see, grass-fed cows move a lot. They do so because they roam around the vast fields of grass picking the best species of grass that they desire. Once the grass in one patch gets consumed, these cows move on to the next appetizing salad bar. Therefore these cows are muscular, lean, and lacking of the fat that is of high value in today’s standards.

• It is not cheap meat. Local grass-fed beef is expensive–about twice the price of conventional corn-fed-feedlot beef. It is expensive not because it is bloated with premium fat, but because the human labor involved in growing the pastures allowing the cow to graze, and keeping everything in nature balance is costly. It is costly because it is clean, safe, and free from E-Coli worries.

Why grass-fed?

Cows evolved to eat grass in as much as modern humans evolved to eat Doritos and I Can’t Believe It’s Butter, which should be renamed as “I Can’t Believe I Am Eating This.”

These cows can transform pure chlorophyll into protein. Likewise, these cows don’t need antibiotics to defend themselves from diseases because they get their natural defenses from the greens they are eating.

Sadly, most of the beef we eat here in the US are not grass-fed but rather corn/grain fed. The beef industry adapted this new feeding system to speed up the growth of the cows to meet the demand of the fast food industry. In addition, to accommodate this new system, the industry introduced the feedlot system, where cows are confined into military barracks-like sheds and get fed there with millions of tons of surplus corn feeds.

Corn-fed cows require hormones and antibiotics to supplement their nutritional deficiencies resulting from eating non-grass feeds. Not to mention that the milk from these nutritionally deficient cows is equally deficient, hence the industry adds the missing vitamins in the milk after the fact. That’s why we have processed milk laden with every imaginable additive to compensate for the missing goodies.

For a more complete understanding of grass-fed beef visit this awesome site.

By the way, my order finally came last night from Udder Milk. I ordered some grass-fed beef for stewing, and some ground beef for making hamburgers. Oh, how I miss having burgers! I haven’t eaten any since last year! It will be my first time making homemade burgers using organic locally available ingredients: local grass-fed beef, local cheese, and locally grown produce and fresh bread.

In my past life, homemade burgers for me meant pre-packaged patties, supermarket ketchup, pre-bottled mustard, grocery mayo, and wonder buns. I know, I should have just walked into a McDonald’s and ordered me a triple angus burger and fries and save me the effort of assembling this pre-made things since the nutritional value of my homemade burgers and the ones in the store are just about the same.

But that was then and I am trying my best to eat well now.

I also ordered grass-fed raw milk and raw cheese.

I haven’t tasted any of the beef products, so I cannot write about it yet. But the raw milk and the cheeses are beyond belief. I can’t even put it into words! For now I’ll just write this to describe it: $%QO&#!!!!

Grass-fed beef is available also at our local Whole Foods Market. I already purchased some locally grown grass-fed beef shanks for soup last month. You have to remember that most grass-fed beef are local–meaning supplied by a farmer near you area. This way, you are also helping the environment by minimizing the use of petroleum to obtain your food.  Imported beef from Argentina? California? No need. It pays to know that you have a local supply of healthy and happy herd of cows grazing over nutritious pastures making high quality meat for you in the future.

Tomorrow, we might check the farmer’s market in Union Square and buy some produce. This food search has been really awesome so far!

Since reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma I have been suspicious about certain items in the supermarket, most notably the ones in the center aisle.

In this aisle, we see organic and non-organic pre-prepared food frozen and designed to last until the end of the world.

Most are preserved by something as simple as sodium, others are preserved by something as complicated as rocket fuel from the netherworld.

There are frozen boxes of pizza, full steak and mushroom meals in simple green boxes, Your–Not-So–McNuggets–Chicken Nuggets (free range), Fresh from the Sea Fish n’ Chips packs, and just about any other processed edibles. All of these things are guaranteed organic as evidenced by the Organic Seal of Approval.

Pollan’s observation is valid. How can the words organic land on a package of TV Dinner? Doesn’t organic mean natural and unprocessed? And doesn’t processed food mean old and unhealthy?

Well, it seems that there is a loophole in the very meaning of the word organic. After more research, I found out that the term refers only to agricultural practices. It involves the production of food without the use of pesticides, artificial fertilizers, growth hormones, genetic engineering, irradiation, and antibiotics. It does not mean natural or unprocessed.

Processed food, on the other hand, means foods that have been altered from their natural state for safety reasons and for convenience. The methods used for processing foods include canning, freezing, refrigeration, dehydration and aseptic processing.

So a farmer can grow corn organically, dry freeze it, add some sarin gas, then stuff it in can for convenience. That constitutes a processed organic food item.

In the same vein, a chicken farmer can raise his or her products without antibiotics and hormones, yet after slaughter, can process the meat along with organically grown potatoes and gravy for a classic organic chicken TV Dinner.

If this is the case, then the question to be asked should be whether organic TV Dinners are natural.

Natural food, by definition, means food items that are whole, minimally processed, and free from artificial or chemical preservatives.

Natural foods can be organically grown or conventionally grown like fruits, chicken, grains, beef etc. But not all organic foods are natural, as evidenced by the existence of organic Twinkies and mystery meat hotdogs bearing the organic seal of approval.

For the manufacturers of these organic TV Dinners, however, they claim their products fall under natural since no artificial preservatives are being used. I checked some, and yes, they are not lying. There are no artificial preservatives that could even make a Hollywood celebrity’s marriage last a lifetime.

For me, I think these organic TV Dinners are a lesser evil than their non-organic counterparts. I just hope the time that I would actually nourish myself with these meals in a box would never come. I just enjoy being deeply involved with my food right now, from my first encounters with them in the market to the preparation of the actual meals. I feel empowered because I know where my food comes from and how it is being prepared.

Here’s a breakdown of ingredients in a conventional non-organic TV Dinner we all find in the center isles of our supermarkets. I have put links into some of the more unfamiliar ingredients here for further investigation.

Non-Organic Glazed Chicken TV Dinner

Ingredients:

Cooked chicken tenderloins (chicken tenderloins, high fructose corn syrup, water, corn oil, modified cornstarch, lemon juice concentrate, sodium phosphates, salt, caramel color, potassium chloride, garlic, onion, paprika, spice), water, blanched enriched long grain rice (rice, ferric phosphate, niacin, thiamin mononitrate and folic acid), green beans, mushrooms, onions, blanched wild rice, modified cornstarch, sugar, salt, cultured whey, chicken fat, lemon juice concentrate, caramel color, dehydrated onions, spices, dehydrated garlic, paprika

Contains: milk ingredients

Note: Potassium Chloride- Harmful when swallowed. Oops!

How do I say no to somebody who sincerely offers something that I know is bad?

No, this is not a solvent–sniffing kind of a dilemma or a kill–someone–for–me kind of a deal. This is, as you all know by now, about food.

I am aware that, in all honesty, that somebody, a woman I’m going to call Lady in Red, does not know that the item she gives out can kill me or her or the entire population in the long run. She is a very kind and generous person–a saint trapped in this wicked earth– a well-respected citizen and a very talented and skillful human being. However, she is not health conscious.

Every time I see her, she always hands me a bar of Baby Ruth. She is giddy and glad when she gives me those sweet nothings.

Growing up, I loved Baby Ruth, and she knows it that’s why she gives me those to make me happy. But I am a grown human being now, yet somehow, she thinks I still party with that candy.

The last time I remember eating Baby Ruth was when boys like me still had Alyssa Milano in the category of Babe To Be Imagined.

I am in a conundrum. A problem that even high-minded physicists would find more difficulty in solving than the problem of Dark Energy.

What am I going to do with the Baby Ruth bars that I have amassed in my fridge?

I can’t throw them away. I can’t give them away to kids on Trick or Treat Night. I can’t share it with anyone and more so, obviously, I can’t eat them. Why? Because I know it is bad.

If I do any of these options either guilt or diabetes will cause my demise.

But if I don’t do anything, Baby Ruth will eat my fridge and I would have no more space to even cool a slice of lemon.

What should I do? I don’t want to hurt Lady in Red’s feelings by asking her to stop. What’s the best way to handle this?

As I write this blog, Sheryl Mae, with arms folded, and deep in thought, is looking inside the fridge like Edwin Hubble peeping into a Black Hole.

Help!

PS: I am investigating Organic TV dinners and will post something about it tomorrow.

I mean, seriously, how could a heavily preserved and frozen packaged meal be called organic?

Leche