Eagles Nest

And Other Lofty Places

Classic Happy Breakfast

The strawberries, bananas, raisins, and cereal are organic, but the blueberries come from one of my favorite places; FamilyTreeFarms in Reedley, California.

Family Tree Farms is a favorite of mine, because a few years ago, when I saw their name on a carton of blueberries, I wrote to them and asked if I might visit and see their blueberry trees.

The lady who wrote back, had a good sense of humor and a warm way of stringing words together in sentences that made me a fan of anything she was part of. I mentioned them in This Blog Post a couple of years ago.

Anyway, I am reminded that I promised to write an understandable guide to ‘Organic’ labeling, because the U.S.D.A. regulations allow misleading uses of the term organic.

This is the result of the big time players in the agriculture business having filled the seats on the various boards, and it’s no longer about quality food, but about bigger profits for Monsanto, Philip Morris, Kraft, etc.

I have found that there are some more trustworthy alternative certification labels to look for, HERE is further information about three of them. HERE is a whole list of what may, or may not be reliable, (I think that Earthwatch is one of those Corporate groups posing as something healthy, particularly because they listed the USDA as reliable).

Another source discovered that the USDA does not bother to actually test any of the USDA Certified Organic foods to make sure they are in compliance, so I would say that that label is not reliable at all.

Some label stuff is simply word baloney; Like, “Farmer Friendly”, and “Hormone free”. Those are meaningless terms meant to make you think you are getting something healthy for you, for the animals, and for the earth. They are misleading at best.

These labels, (shown below), represent three of the organizations that maintain high standards for growing food;

Best Red Rose Pic I Took Today

Certified beautiful by Happy Phil

My food shopping method is to find something I trust, (like a particular vendor at the farmers market, or a brand at the store), then learn everything I can about the provenance of what I have chosen to eat. That seems to work for me.

One sure way I can tell if the food I eat is nutritious, is by how much of it I have to eat to feel satisfied. I can eat a foot long Subway sandwich and be just as hungry as I was before I ate it. Or, I can eat a small 11oz Michael Angelo’s frozen vegetable lasagna entree and feel comfortably content.

Compared to Nature’s Path cereal; Kellogg's, Post, General Mills,and their fake ‘natural’ brands, (like Cascade Farms, Kasha, and Barbara’s), have flakes that taste like cardboard while Nature’s Path flakes taste like grain.

I will look up some of my older research on foods and include links and particulars in a future post, but I think I have served up enough stuff today for you to chew on. Bon Appetit.

Tonight’s Moon

Today’s Relative Video;

Nature Gives Us Life On Earth