Kody Hanner
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“Food is no less a weapon than tanks, guns, and planes. As the power of our enemies decreases, the importance of the food resources of the United Nations increases.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Heartbreaking Truth of Food
My relationship with food and agriculture is bifold. I have often joked that agriculture was my first love, and then to realize that food has been a weapon against us for generations, I feel like a scorned ex-lover. I was a proud agriculturalist for years, having grown up on a cattle ranch on the rich farmland of Northern California. I spent my youth showing animals at the county fair, going to rodeos, and dreaming of one day working for the United States Department of Agriculture.
When my husband was diagnosed with end-stage liver disease 8 years ago, we were faced with having to examine everything that we ate. Between the revelations we had during those early years after his diagnosis and the MANY things that have come to light about our food and pharmaceutical companies since COVID-19, our family is disgusted with what has been allowed right under our noses. In a book I read recently, the author very clearly and proudly states that the “food system is not broken; it is doing exactly what it was designed to do!” How scary is that?
Let’s Travel Down a Rabbit Hole of the Food Industry
Then, on top of that looming thought, I uncovered a rabbit hole recently when I was looking into the #cancelkellogs movement online. I guess I should back up a little. I recently recorded a podcast on Boycotting Boxtops. This is the marketing system set up for kids in public schools to collect little tabs off of many brands of processed foods (there is an app now, too) to turn in to their schools for additional funding for these programs. I remember at one point in my life thinking how generous the company was in donating to thousands of schools across the country! Now, I realize it was no more than a marketing expense where schools and children were doing their dirty work of promoting the most processed, sugary, and dye-filled products as staple (and nutritional) foods.
Now, let’s dig into the #cancelkellogs movement. In 2015, Kellogg’s said that it would remove food dyes (that cause a host of behavioral problems in children) along with other chemicals. Keep in mind that they have already removed these additives from their products in every other country. So when their deadline to do so came and went, two very influential women, Ginny Yurick from 1000 Hours Outside and Vani Hari known as Food Babe online, decided it was time for Kellogg’s to answer why they hadn’t made the promised changes. Unsurprisingly, the company would not talk to them and even mocked them when angry parents protested at their doors.
I have worked in the food industry (as a quality assurance manager and food safety specialist), and I’ll tell you right now, I don’t know anyone whose goal was to poison their customers. Let’s face it, it is bad business to kill your client base. But as with any business, the bottom line was far from the last thing on their list. The problem is a much bigger issue, in that as a culture, we are being marketed to and then choosing these products as healthier, more nutrient-dense options because they taste good, are addictive, and in some way cost less. And the big companies are not going to change their practices because things like breakfast cereal cost next to nothing to product, ingredient wise. Its not about customer relations at this point, they can pay for good press.
I can’t speak to the exact costs of producing cereal. I know that the $5-$8 per small box of cereal is nowhere close to an exponential level. What I can speak to is the cost and then customer price of a truly nutrient-dense breakfast. As a small-scale farmer, for one of my customers to buy a pound of sausage, a dozen eggs, a half gallon of raw milk, and a fresh loaf of bread, they are paying about $25 dollars. Now, could a box of cereal feed my current family of six just as easily as the above-mentioned items? Absolutely. The difference is my family will feel better, be able to work harder (mentally and physically), be able to go longer before they need to eat again, make many of those items stretch to an additional meal, and there will be no long term effects from spiked insulin levels, food dyes, preservatives, and whatever chemical the grains carried in on them.
Why has this become our food system?
Just like FDR said, “Food is no less a weapon than tanks or guns.” This statement was made towards the end of WWII in reference to the weakening of the enemy forces. When that happened, the Allies needed stable food sources to keep them going strong. Thus making food just as important as any other weapon of war. I would like to think that his statement was innocent or naive, but many of the changes made to agriculture, food, and government agencies also came during this era and his presidency. On paper, it was strictly in response to the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. Bigger picture, even though we moved right into the Cold War against communism, I believe the government (and the checkbooks funding them) set out to keep the people under control and, therefore, stronger than the Soviet Union.
If we stayed healthy and self-sufficient like people were in those days, we would not need government intervention as we had in the thirties. Plus, the bank accounts of those in the agriculture commodities business (not farmers, but brokers and up) would lose money rapidly if they did keep the “futures” system running ahead of schedule. This system is where farmers are paid based on future inventory and prices. Therefore, if there was a surplus, no one was making anything. So they had to push grains on us in ways beyond their traditional uses like flour and animal feed. This is where sugary cereals, corn syrup, and seed oils joined the stage.
This article from a 2017 publication of the Los Angeles Times (https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-teicholz-saturated-fat-wont-kill-you-20170723-story.html) brings light to the fact that it was never proven that animal fats cause heart disease. What is really going to blow your mind is that the sugar industry paid off scientists in the 1960s to downplay the effects of sugar on heart disease. Go ahead and Google it. Healthy animal fat is actually necessary for our brains to function properly, whereas sugar and food dyes have been proven to cause inflammation in our brains and guts. Want to hear the best of it? When our kids are misbehaving, and we feel depressed (primarily due to our bodies screaming for us to cook something in lard), instead of doctors and scientists suggesting we heal our bodies with unprocessed foods, we are handed a pharmaceutical.
So where are the whistle-blowers or gate-keepers to sort through the mess of private industries paying off private scientists on “findings” that are detrimental to American’s health? I have bad news. The final say and guidance “should” come from the FDA, CDC, and NIH. The reason it’s not? Each one of these agencies has associated non-profits (should NOT be allowed, in my opinion), and their largest donors are the very companies that are marketing nutritionally deficient cereals to children through their educational institutions that they are required to attend by law. Then, the food companies put out statements like, “They are committed to food safety practices,” when they pay off the companies that set the guidelines for safe food.
How do we change the food system?
I have been hearing a lot lately about how millennials believe that they can make a difference by voting with their dollars and that this form of protest is not as effective as we would like to believe. And honestly, it’s probably true. So, let’s look at some real logistics for this. Firstly, continue to not buy from companies you don’t believe in. I really don’t think that even if food dyes were taken out of sugary cereals, I doubt I would suddenly view them as a quality food source and run out to buy them. I may view them as a reasonable quick grab occasionally or not be so darned disgruntled that they force them on our children. Frankly, stop buying them, period. The next step is to do exactly what we did last week and vote in an administration on almost every level that is poised and ready to listen to how pissed off the American people are about our health. And most importantly, is to keep yourself educated, look outside the box (literally and figuratively), and buy local, whole foods and every opportunity, learning new ways to cook them and make them last.
You are the future of our food system. Do not accept what you do not find acceptable.
