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.