Ann Arbor, Michigan – Right now as I write this there is
some lunatic running around loose on the streets of Ann Arbor, Michigan dousing
fruits and vegetables with some kind of poison. No, it’s not some mega
corporation this time, (although I am sure that’s another story) it is some
young hipster douchebag with a twisted mission. We don’t know what his motives
are but we sure have his picture plastered all over the web. The FBI are hot on
his trail and he has been the subject of many popular websites including Grub
Street and Business Insider. Maybe he is trying to start some kind of homicidal
movement or maybe he just wants attention. Whatever he wants I am pretty sure
you don’t want it.
He will get caught. Make no mistake about it. But he is just
one menace in a sea of thousands looking to get you sick and cause other types
of bodily harm.
I was tipped off at a
health convention a few months back about some gruesome growing conditions in
Mexico. Apparently, it is OK in Mexico
to leave human feces and toilet paper in a cilantro field. The excrement was
also found on shipping containers and helped create an ugly E Coli condition.
That tainted produce was then imported into the U.S. and made its way into some
fast food restaurants. Cilantro is
pretty cheap to grow on your own. It is also a pretty good idea to go ahead and
grow your own too for sanitary reasons. I saw pictures of this growing field
and it was most disgusting.
The cilantro found its way into some popular Mexican fast
food places and made people sick. E Coli isn’t something you want to take
lightly. You can expect abdominal cramping, severe gas, fatigue and fever. And
let’s be frank here…. You’re brain is going to feel like it is swollen and you’re
head will feel like it is ready to explode. Then there is the vomiting and bloody stools
with diarrhea. This isn’t something you will want to fool around with. The
level of carelessness in this food chain is obscene.
E coli is nasty business. Your pets can even get it. Baby’s
are not immune to it and can be hospitalized. You are putting your family at
serious risk by doing something simple like eating out in a restaurant.
Thankfully there are consumer awareness websites that report on these types of
findings. The bacteria will end up living in your intestines and spreading from
there. Even if the mainstream media steers clear of this ugly news you are
count on honest independent news sites that look out for the community. So get used to checking on them from time to
time so you won’t become a victim.
So what led up to this outrageous event? The sequence of
events is a bit alarming but it went down something like this…. For starters at
this particular farm they workers had no soap or water to wash their hands. There was also no toilet paper, paper towels
and a complete lack of toilet for that matter. Then the crates that were used
to transport the cilantro was dirty and unclean. Then the water that was found
in a holding tank, used to wash hands, was also contaminated with Cyclospora
cayetanensis, (according to the Food Poison Journal).
WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT – The Solution Is In Your Hands
The real question is how much of this nonsense are you going
to put up with? I have read about two outbreaks of E Coli in Mexican fast food
restaurants in the last six months. Then on top of that I heard about a bizarre
video where fast food employees were found tampering with food items in the
kitchen. The young adults who did this were eventually caught and fired but it
is enough to make you want to do something. Taking action is the first step.
I was at the Novi Expo Women’s Show over the weekend and saw
people taking action. There was indoor growing systems for sale. These came in
many different varieties. Some of them were little more than stackable clay
pots that held plants and soil, (a very simplistic approach). However, this did
appear to get the job done. These pots came in different sizes so they could
stack up on top of each other while attached to a pole.
Other systems require no soil whatsoever and are aeroponic.
The plants actually grow through a unique system of water based nutrients and
lights. Unlike a hydroponic system this method has a very fast turnaround.
Users can expect to have edible produce in as little as three weeks. Over all
this is very exciting.
The quality of the produce is incredible. Since there is no
soil there is no need for pesticides or harmful growing mediums. There are no
bugs to worry about since the plants are being grown indoors. When you use Non
GMO seeds and seedlings you can expect abundant, healthy and more flavorful
produce. I was fortunate enough to sample some of it when I was visiting a
friends place. We were sampling some of the fresh basil. I was standing a good
seven feet away from the plant as the leaves were being plucked off. That was when I could smell the fresh aroma
from where I was standing. At first I thought I was imagining things. It
happened again minutes later when we picked some cherry tomatoes. Once again I
could smell the freshness of the produce. When I tasted the tomatoes I noticed
they had a snappy skin to them and they carried a certain sweetness to them to
boot. They certainly were nothing like the cherry tomatoes I had been accustomed
to in the big super markets. These little guys were tasty and had a very
distinguished characteristic to them in the sense that they were outrageously
delicious.
People are experimenting with all sorts of ways to grow
their own food. I met this indoor grower who made his own indoor growing system.
It was little more than a plastic tub with a lid with holes drilled in it to
hold the growing media. He had a combination of nutrients and fish guts of all
things. From here he was able to grow strawberries. He assured me that this
wasn’t disgusting and that strawberries will, in his own words, “Will grow in
anything”. This turned my stomach a bit
and I decided not to partake in this whimsical endeavor. I opted for another
route and found a much cleaner process with more sophisticated indoor growing systems.
This type of food is not organic and the reason being is
that certified organic produce actually uses a considerable amount of
pesticides. The food I am talking about doesn’t even use pesticides and instead
uses clean water based nutrients. What I
was really impressed with was how fast this produce can actually grow. This
allows you to actually grow zucchini, watermelon, strawberries, beefsteak
tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, chives, parsley, basil, oregano, celery, butter
crunch lettuce, romaine lettuce, kale, arugula, swiss chard, and much much
more.
The food was somewhat abnormal in size. I noticed that the
Basil leaves were exceedingly large and were the size of my palm. They almost
didn’t seem real. These grew very quickly and my friends had to figure out ways
to process them into edible foods. Pesto was the logical choice and the
particular one I had was made with cilantro and kale as well as basil. The overall
taste was fresh and very green. That was really the best way I could describe
it. The comforting thought for me was that this was also going to pull heavy
metals out of my body. Cilantro has that ability.
So to sum it up you actually do have a choice when it comes to healthy
produce. A lot of people didn’t know they had options. Growing your own food in
this manner is actually very cheap and when you use non GMO seeds the quality
of the food is so much better.
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