Get moving on the food, already

Story tree farm, a CSA family farm

I really want to be and stay healthy and have a long wonderful healthy life with my family. I have been thinking about this for months and months, but to be honest, I still haven't done much.

Well, that isn't true. I joined the CSA. I am thinking more about healthy eating. I am watching my calories. All that is certainly important, but it isn't truly substantive, you know what I mean? I need to get on this. And it almost seems like the universe is conspiring to get me there. For example - my sister got involved in the CSA, and now I am participating.

A summer CSA share

And this weekend, while listening to NPR, I heard about the movie coming up - FOOD, INC. My first reaction was, "I don't want to watch that. I won't eat!" But you know, that might be the point. Eating better is certainly on my list. Not indulging in everything just because I can. Giving my body what is good for me. Voting with my dollars every day.

So I went out to the Food Inc web site and there is lots of really great information there. I recommend you go take a look at it, and consider what you might do, every day, when you have three opportunities to vote on food with your dollars and your actions.

Here are then things that you can do right now, from the web site, where they detail the issues and how you can take action. More ideas can be found on Takepart.com, but these ten below are pretty straightforward -

1. Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages. You can lose 25 lbs in a year by replacing one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).

2. Eat at home instead of eating out. Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.

3. Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards. Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.

4. Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks. Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years.

5. Meatless Mondays—Go without meat one day a week. An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.

6. Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides. According to the EPA, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.

7. Protect family farms; visit your local farmer's market. Farmer's markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.

8. Make a point to know where your food comes from—READ LABELS. The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.

9. Tell Congress that food safety is important to you. Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.

10. Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections. Poverty among farm workers is more than twice that of all wage and salary employees.

I am on the bandwagon. I can do these ten things. And I am going to have some oatmeal and berries for breakfast. Not such a bad way, to start the day.

Dear friends, dear family, dear colleagues, let's remember that we are what we eat, and do better. Love ya, mean it.