I know I sound like a snob sometimes, I'm sorry, Doug.

I was keeping my mouth shut for a reason, about the ground chicken, yesterday. I used to love ground chicken... then I started reading about our food industry and slaughter in this country. I don't know how many hundreds of chickens are in that one pack of ground chicken, but I know that they had horrible lives, and ghastly deaths. I know I sound like a snob about food. But I grew up on food that was more like we ate in this country once upon a time. Local, fresh, sustainably raised, without a lot of chemicals. I was talking to my mom, and she said they used to freeze stuff in summer to eat in winter. They didn't really have fresh stuff in winter. And then there are articles that say eating organic is healthier. There is a Presidential Panel on Cancer that says just that:


I know organic food costs more. Which is why I shop at the Farmers Market in the summer. That way I can get lovely organic food for less. I know my spinach and strawberries have not been sprayed with toxic run-off from feedlots. Of course I can't eat all organic all the time, although I wish I could. But I just can't eat ground chicken that's been ground hundreds of miles away, from hundreds of chickens, who have lived miserable lives.

I don't eat commercial ground meat most of the time (I do get a burger out, once in a while, which I know I shouldn't even do that). There have been so many cases of people getting sick from meat.. it does scare me eating any feedlot beef. There are things one can do, and things one can't. And for me, trying to eat organic, trying not to eat feedlot meats, its what I do.

There are things I eat the ordinary, conventional ones of. Cheese. Avocadoes, watermelon, chocolate, yogurts, asparagus, bananas, oranges, dates, blueberries. Apples, grapes, and strawberries tend to have the highest pesticide residues, as well as spinach and peppers. The peppers are the only thing I tend to cave in on in the winter, because I love them.

Anyway, that's why I went silent on the ground chicken yesterday. I know I'm difficult, just think of me as Sally, from When Harry Met Sally, if that helps. 'I need a sandwich without the bread, no crumbs, no mayo, dressing on the side, fries in a little bowl to the side, and maybe some steamed broccoli, but make sure its crisp, not soggy, and not drowned in butter'.