Natural foods markets – helpful in a number of ways
I headed into my local natural food market today for a number of reasons. I wanted something different for lunch, I needed a couple of homeopathic remedies in a hurry, and I needed deodorant (I prefer the chemical free kind). My local natural food market is GreenAcres Market in Bradley Fair, Wichita, KS. Find GreenAcres Market on Facebook, too, at
https://www.facebook.com/greenacresmarketwichita
Take a turn around your local natural foods market if you have one – it’s not all about alfalfa – there’s even chicken pot pie!
I’ve always enjoyed the atmosphere in there, and today was no exception. GreenAcres Market is about to re-open with an expanded shopping space (official opening tomorrow, but they have finished most of the remodeling today). I was greeted at the door with a taste of homemade chicken pot pie made with natural ingredients. I ended up buying one to take home and had some of it at lunchtime…have to say, it kept out the cold after the recent snowy and icy weather we’ve been experiencing here in Wichita.
Organic food prices are becoming much more reasonable, due to public demand
One of the main ways we can changes things about the quality of food provided in the USA is by voting with our wallets. Most natural food markets offer coupons and promotions, just like your local mainstream foodstore, and the more we vote with our wallets on a regular basis, the more the food industry will realize that the public is serious about higher quality food at an affordable price.
If you don’t know much about the current state of the Food Industry, watch Food, Inc.
If at this stage you’re wondering why to make the effort to head to another store when you have enough on your plate already (‘scuse the pun) then you might want to watch this movie. If you are already concerned and informed about the state our food supply, then perhaps it’s time to think of one small way that you can help grow this market. After all, it’s in everybody’s best interests. It’s also important to become informed enough that we know we really ARE getting organic foods to required standards and not just a relabeling bonanza where we pay more for not a lot of difference.
The Food, Inc. movie (click on the link to watch the trailer) is eye-opening. There are only a few companies that currently control a huge food industry. Chickens are forced to grow supersized in a period of weeks (assisted by hormones) because we are told ‘people only want to eat breast meat’. Some of the chickens can’t even stand up, they are so top heavy. The Virginia based ‘kill-floor’ of one company in order to produce the ‘perfect’ pork chop has to be seen to be believed. And never mind the animals, wait until you hear what they’re putting in some of the vegetable produce.
10 Easy Ways to get started with organic produce from Food, Inc., plus an extra idea from me
It’s really not that difficult to make the switch to more naturally produced foods. Here are 10 easy tips from Food, Inc. There are other great resources on the Food, Inc. website, plus a blog with recipes, well worth checking out.
- 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).
- Eat at home instead of eating out. Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.
- Bring food labeling into the 21st Century. Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections.
Taste test some carrots!
If you are wondering if making the effort to eat more organic produce is really worth it, set yourself and your family the carrot ‘taste test’. When better food controls were put in place in the UK several years ago with more organically grown produce available, I started to buy organic and immediately noticed that the organic carrots tasted 10 times better! Why not give it a try?
How else to support your local natural food market?
The first part is simple, walk in the door and see if there’s anything you’d like to eat! Our local market is officially unveiling it’s store expansion tomorrow morning. There will be lots of free food sampling, the opportunity to meet local producers, register for a give-away, and more. 11am-3pm at
GreenAcres Market, 8141 E. 21st Street
Wichita, Kansas 67206
316-634-1088
We’re lucky enough that our local market offers classes from cooking Mediterranean through to informational breakfasts on health and wellness. How do you think your local market could help you if you asked them?
Chicken pot pie, anyone?
Sarah Lawrence Hinson sarah@momonaspiritualjourney.com
