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Precisely who is the government trying to protect by suing a small Kansas meatpacker in order to prevent them from testing all of their cattle for BSE aka Mad Cow Disease, rather than the pitiful sub-1% level currently required?
For some reason, I don’t think it’s me or my family…
One area I’d love to lighten up on would be our family’s food budget, both in the area of environmental impact as well as dollars spent if possible. After all, who wouldn’t like to save a little money? Even though we live in the breadbasket of America with possibly the greatest concentration of agriculture in the world, it’s a lot more difficult to eat locally than you would ever think.
Oh, sure, locally raised beef / pork / chicken is everywhere (especially the first two). But there’s only so much meat you can eat before you, well, die. Try to find any local vegetables outside of onions, tomatoes, or sweet corn (bleh), and the pickings are slim indeed. Even hitting the local farmers market doesn’t yield much more: red and white onions, maybe a couple varieties of tomatoes, soon enough all the god awful sweet corn you can stand; if I’m lucky, some carrots or cucumbers of maybe even a green pepper or two might make an appearance. Heck, if I’d stumble on some asparagus or broccoli or salad greens or even garlic, I’d wonder if I was in the right place. No doubt my experience is tied to the quality of my particular farmers market (because I’ve been to many that are excellent; just not our local one 
), so all you farmers market proponents out there can relax! 
I’d love to get a local CSA subscription. But the closest ones I’ve been able to find leaves us quite a distance outside their delivery range. And far enough away that driving to pick up weekly deliveries makes no economic sense.
I’m personally looking forward to setting up our own garden - I’ve got too many ideas for what I’d like to attempt - once we settle a bit more at our new home. But considering that it’s almost June already(!), I’m not sure there is time this year to plant all that much. But future years will certainly see quite a bit of very local produce! 
So I am a little bummed that I can’t pull something off like Rebecca Blood with her Eating Organic on a Food Stamp Budget series - Nebraska just ain’t California, I’m afraid. Our little family of three will just have to continue to spend a fairly ridiculous amount to eat. We go out of our way to avoid as much overprocessed food as possible, and unless I’m missing out on some cost savings that haven’t occurred to me, eating healthy is expensive.
I see via Lighter Footsteps that this week is National Vegetarian Week. When I first saw the headline I thought someone was taking a page from the Buy Nothing Day book by scheduling it during an especially meat-centric time: the opening of the grilling season AKA Memorial Day (Yes, I know that that is not the purpose of the day! Yet, many many grills will be making an appearance that day…). But I see the Vegetarian Society is UK-based, so I’ll excuse them from fighting the uphill battle here in the U.S.
Nevertheless, in the spirit of the week, I am going to be bringing a few extra veggies to any get-togethers I hit this weekend.
And I don’t just mean ketchup…
I’m not a big fan of PETA (don’t care much for their methodology) nor Burger King (their food is just awful for you — some day take a look at their menu’s nutritional info and be disgusted), and it is exceedingly rare that they agree on just about anything.
But over the weekend, I read that BK is planning to show preference for cage-free agriculture methods in it’s purchasing decisions which, as a softie, pleases me. Large corporate farm methods may produce food that is cheap and plentiful (at least here in the US), but knowing they way my food was treated before it becomes my food sometimes has me considering going vegetarian.
So kudos BK, for at least using a bit of your marketing muscle to make what I would consider a positive impact. Nevertheless, I still won’t be eating there any time soon. And the King, well, he still creeps me out…
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