What’s in your food?

Happy Equinox!

What an exciting time of year! I’m breathing a sigh of relief – finally, the first fresh baby greens in the garden ready to harvest for the daily salad. And the nettle! This is the perfect time of year to be harvesting nettle tops to steam like spinach (and drink the water from steaming to get those lovely minerals!)  …. more about nettle in just a few days…..

While I have such deep gratitude for the amazing local grocers that fill the produce department with organic greens through the winter season, nothing makes me feel more abundant than having my own greens just outside my front door or down the road at the local farm stand.

And as I’m getting ready to plant my first garden at this new house, I’m thinking a lot about food: How many of us, myself included, can easily take for granted the fact that we can just pop down to the grocery store and fill our cupboards with wonderful organic food. It’s easy to forget that the organic movement started as a small grassroots one, that it was very small “mom and pop” health food stores who risked themselves financially and lost popularity contests for many years while standing behind what they believed in. Do you remember the days when it was difficult to find organic whole brown rice? I do, and I’m from the big city of Toronto.

And even though we’ve come this far, such that organic is the new norm here’s a short video reminding us that we still need to remember that there are politics in food.

Robyn O’Brien business woman turned corporate food analyst speaks about her child’s sudden allergy sparking her sudden passion for cleaning up the food supply.

A mother of four children  she asks the simple yet poignant question, how can a child be allergic to food?

Thank you to my friend and colleague Shannon Cowan for bringing this excellent TED talk to my attention.

P.S. If you are a subscriber and experiencing trouble viewing the video go here and try viewing it from my home page.

Enjoy!