Let Them Eat Grass

We see labels everywhere, to the point of immunity. Not that we're immune to their effects, but definitely to their presence. We see a label, like "USDA ORGANIC" or "CERTIFIED ANGUS BEEF", and we assume it means they are healthy for us. We feel like we've connected the mental dots. But we haven't.

Labels haven't been around forever. Only since meat could be shipped nationwide year-round, which was 1867, did consumers begin to lose touch with their food supply. Leapfrogging to today, and we have no idea where 99% of our food came from. We go further to assume some things are inherently "pure", like wine, and couldn't possibly be contaminated with anything. A man named Rudy Kurniawan exploited this trust, and pumped over $550 million dollars of fake wine onto the marketplace before he was arrested in 2012. Oh, and one study found that 90% of french wines contained traces of insecticides.

Labels don't have to be misleading though. Some labels don't just tell you what ISN'T in the meat, they also are affirming of good agricultural practices. I got to interview CARRIE BALKCOM, Executive Director of the American Grassfed Association. If you think I'm nuts, listen to her. She's been doing this for nearly 20 years. And she knows her stuff.

The majority of the hens in the United States lead monotonous and disgusting lives. From getting their beaks chopped off to prevent nervously pecking their friends, to living in a cage the size of an iPad for their entire lives, millions upon millions of eggs get produced in closely guarded facilities with are often cesspools of death and disease. The eggs are often washed in multiple chlorine baths, which end up leaching through the outer membrane into the egg itself. Yet, as Austin Williams will point out, the valid response is to search for eggs from hens who live lives on pasture.

The egg industry has done a phenomenal job popularizing the narrative, "An egg is an egg is an egg." There is such widespread confusion about the differences between "all natural", "organic", "cage free", "free-range", and "pasture-raised" that people just assume they are different ways of saying the same thing. They are not.

By the end of the episode, you'll learn three questions you can ask any egg producer to guarantee you're getting eggs from hens who live their lives on pasture, rather than dirty confinement barns. (And you'll get to hear the tales of Cindy and Henrietta!)

We have food amnesia.

So often we can just buy food without ever thinking where it came from. This has terrible consequences for our bodies and the natural world. I am making this podcast not for other producers of food, but consumers of it. The main problem I had as a consumer of food was a knowledge-problem. I didn't know enough to feel like I could make a difference in my diet. This podcast seeks to arm consumers with the knowledge that makes them dangerous as critical consumers.

We will cover many topics in the coming episodes. Everything from eggs to raw milk to wilderness abandonment to CAFO's to the California wildfires and more. Please join me on this journey. Eventually, I hope more people support farmers who's mission is to heal the land and nourish them with healthy food.