On using wedges

A wedge is a very handy tool if one wants to split wood. It is also a very handy and oft used tool of political parties and the government in general. Both major parties use them. The idea is to split the populace over an issue. Now if this was just to generate debate over a hot button issue that might be OK. Wedges used by politicians in America are used for different purposes, namely distraction and diffusion of the power of the people. That power they hold is an illusion. They only have it if we give it to them by continuing to fall for their tricks--like using wedges.

This week the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments about the "gay marriage" issue. Why the government or citizens think the government needs to be involved in human relationships is a total mystery to me. It seems like there would be far more important things to concern politicians and bureaucrats but here we are. My personal opinion is this, get government out of people's bedrooms and personal lives. Period. Marriage is between consenting adults. Not courts, not politicians. Yet, it is a highly charged, emotive issue for many who have had basic rights denied them and for those whose religion is perceived by them to be against love. This dynamic creates a convenient wedge to be exploited by the power hungry politicians and their corporate paymasters. And while attention is focused on this (just look at the media these days, so called progressive politicos are shouting about it from the roof tops) backroom deals that affect the lives of all citizens are taking place.

One of these deals is the so called Monsanto Protection Act. This makes it possible for Monsanto to create and sell whatever poisons they choose with absolutely NO RECOURSE when those "products" turn out to be lethal either for the environment (which we all depend on) or the people who are duped into eating them. This rider was attached to a completely unrelated bill and just signed into law by Obama without public debate despite it being blatantly unconstitutional. It was brokered by the former Monsanto executives now serving in Obama's administration (both at the EPA and the US Department of Agriculture) and by politicians on the take from lobbyist. This is what Corporatocracy looks like (or as Mussolini called it Fascism) not democracy, particularly not progressive democracy.

Why should the average citizen care? There are a lot of reasons. Undue influence and control of the food supply by a major, mega-wealthy corporation whose sole purpose is to generate profit is one reason. Monsanto does not care if their products are safe (in fact they know that they aren't hence the Protection Act). They only care about money. Their motive is to control all food from seed to plate. Think about that for a second. This company's stated goal is to control every thing YOU eat. Everything YOU feed your kids. This is the same company that said Agent Orange was safe and that DDT was safe. This is the same company that makes potatoes that are classified as a pesticide rather than a food yet still end up as fast food fries. Around the world other nations are making Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) illegal or at the least are making laws that these must be labelled so people know what is going into their food. In America, Monsanto has spent millions to ensure that that labeling never happens because an informed public would never buy them.

Another reason average citizens should be concerned about Monsanto's GMO "crops" is that these crops require more pesticides and fertilizers to grow. This is important because these pesticides kill the soil creating a hard pan of inert dirt (which creates run-off of soil and chemicals whenever it rains). Soil is alive but cannot survive when drenched with chemical agents designed to kill everything except the crop. Without healthy soil our planet does not survive. Your kids don't survive. It really is that simple. Recall the Dust Bowl of the 20th century. Greed and poor farming practices created a national crisis and an enforced migration of thousands of people. Growing GMOs will kill the grain belt of the U.S. creating another dust bowl, this time laced with chemicals.

Along those same lines is water quality. When a farmer applies chemicals (or a homeowner on their lawn for that matter) some of the chemicals are taken up by the plants (be it grass or crops) and the rest filters down through the soil and into the ground water or runs off. German researchers found that people living in cities had Round Up in their urine. How could that be? Basic hydrology. When the chemicals end up in the ground water they eventually end up in the water supply. When it rains some of the chemicals run off and end up in streams, rivers, and creeks poisoning the watershed and people end up drinking it later. Water is the basis of life on this planet. We all need it. We all need it to be clean. There is no way to have a clean water supply while also allowing GMO crops to be grown in vast swaths of mono-cultured corn, wheat, potatoes, rice, etc.

Pollinators also seem to be reacting very badly to GMO crops. Bees are dying off in an epidemic called Colony Collapse Disorder. These die offs are being attributed to GMO crops and certain pesticides. This is a true national (and global) emergency far more important than if Junior has two daddies or Sally has two mommies. Without bees and other pollinators our food cannot grow. Anything that destroys the things that make life possible should immediately cease to be produced. The societal love affair for the "free market" however could condemn us all.

The moral here is to beware of wedges and the politicians who wield them. Wedges come in such disguises as a two party system (not at all subtle), abortion, patriotism, and gun rights. To change the political discourse and the results, it is important to get to know where we live. Ask yourself the following questions. Where does our food come from? How healthy is the watershed here? What companies and industries are present? How are they treating the land, water, and air? How will those actions affect me, my family, and future generations? When we really know and LOVE our life places we begin to see how important it is to nurture those physical places rather than exploiting them. Then we stop GMOs from growing, cease all fracking, strip mining, and clear cutting. We refuse to participate in the exploitation of our life-place or the people that inhabit it. We foster life and the conditions which favor it. We become intimate with our community.

The following is a quote from Aldo Leopold: "In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo-sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow members and also respect for the community as such."

Most politicians and corporations want exactly the opposite. Their goals are to exploit (wedges, people,"resources") and to silence those who oppose them.

Peace begins with me. Peace begins with you.

Peace begins with me. Peace begins with you. Peace begins with non-violent communication. Peace begins with self love. Peace begins in the home. Peace can be cultivated, on this point all religions agree. Peace is an attitude. Peace is a vibration and if the quantum physicists are correct, when we vibrate with peace more peace will come. Peace begins with me. Peace begins with you. We've witnessed and experienced the opposite of peace for far too long. Peace begins with me. Peace begins with you. Be peace and your home, community, and world will follow suit. I am intelligent enough to be peaceful. You are intelligent enough to be peaceful. There is no way to peace. Peace is the way. Be peace. For my sake. For your sake. For your children's sake. Be peace.

Peace comes when we embrace it. It stays away when we embrace war, militarism, and foster mentalities of US versus Them. Peace demands disarmament of our nations, of our homes, or our hearts. Peace demands recognition that all humanity is equal and that every human being is sacred. Peace demands that we stand up and say with clarity, ENOUGH! Peace demands economic fairness, ecological sanity, and recognition that all spiritual paths are valid. Peace demands that all human beings needs be met regardless of profitability.Peace begins with me. Peace begins with you. Be peace.

Peace begins with stillness. Quiet your surroundings. Quiet your mind. Peace begins in my heart. Peace begins in your heart. The desire for peace is innate within me. The desire for peace is innate within you. Peace recognizes the folly of war. Peace recognizes the folly of forced conversion to a creed, religion, or dogma. Peace recognizes the inherent good within us all. Peace recognizes that all people are deserving of non—violation of their person regardless of nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion or lack thereof. Peace recognizes that there are many paths to the common human goals of wanting a life filled with meaning, happiness, and fulfillment. Peace recognizes that all people deserve to live their lives free of fear, repression, or coercion. Peace recognizes the wonderful diversity that is represented in humanity world-wide. Peace recognizes the seeds of beauty, kindness, mutuality, and joy that every child on Earth is born with.

Peace recognizes the wisdom in the expression, “whatever you sow you will reap.” Plant your garden with love, kindness, affection, gentleness and watch peace bloom. My life is that garden. Your life is that garden. Peace begins with me. Peace begins with you. We must all start somewhere. Start here. Start now. Peace begins with me. Peace begins with you. Greet your neighbor with peace. Your neighbor is humanity. Your neighbor may have different skin color than you, different beliefs than you, or a different language than you. Revel in that. Take joy in that. Greet them with peace. Peace begins with me. Peace begins with you. Peace begins now. The desire for peace is universal. Be peace. Here. Now. I am intelligent enough to create peace. You are intelligent enough to be peace. Be peace in this moment. Practice peace and it becomes second nature.

Be peace and watch the world around you change. In your home be peace. In your community be peace. In our thoughts be peace. In your actions be peace. Peace begins with me. Peace begins with you. Be peace.

A Chicken’s Tale: How to Eat Well on a Budget

I love to eat good food. Gone are the days when I just shoved any old thing into my pie hole. Fast “food” is definitely out. It may seem cheap when looking at the monetary cost to purchase it. In holistic terms however it is anything but. All those burgers, fries, and cherry pies are filled with chemicals, have next to no nutritional value and often contain poisonous genetically modified organisms. The conditions the animals are kept in are appalling as is the waste inherent in the factory “farms” and all the packaging for the “meal”. One may save a few pennies by stopping at the local drive thru today and then pay a much higher price later when the doctor bills come due. There is a more healthful way to go about things than eating processed foods.

Recently, I purchased a whole organic chicken from the co-op we are members if in New Haven. The chicken was approximately 4 pounds and cost around $24. I can almost hear the air being sucked out of the room by anyone reading this and the accompanying exclamations of shock and horror at that impossibly high priced bird! When all was said and done however that one bird provided us with a dozen meals. That’s right 12 meals were made with that one chicken as well as a full quart of chicken broth, which will be turned into yet more meals. When looked at from that perspective, a $24 chicken makes a lot more sense than a Big Mac from McDevil’s or a bucket of “chicken” from Colonel Buzzard. We ate for several days because I used the entire chicken.

I like to use a crock pot to cook a whole chicken. As the bird cooks slowly it becomes tender and delicious. I baked two large organic yams in the oven (which provided starch for five of the12 meals in and of themselves) and added some organic broccoli to the crock pot near the end of the cooking time to round things out. When we had eaten all the legs, thighs, breasts and wings over the course of six meals, I took the crock out of the fridge to begin separating the rest of the meat from the bones. There is a surprising amount of meat left in the crock pot when cooking a chicken this way. It takes a little patience to separate the meat-seeing that big pile of chicken showed that it is well worth it though. Along with the meat, I piled up the bones on a cloth to boil for broth. The tiny bits of meat I missed or couldn’t get off the bones just enriched the broth. There is also the chicken fat that had congealed in the fridge which I used for the next recipe.

Organic rice is really inexpensive and nutritious. I combined two cups of rice with the chicken fat and all the meat I had separated to make a big pot chicken and rice with curry spices. There was plenty of chicken mixed in with the rice and the fat helped to make it really rich. It was if I say so myself delicious. The meals of chicken and rice (6 in total) were made even more delicious with the addition of some Swamp Yankee Killah hot sauce made in small batches by a friend of mine named Jason Morse here in New Haven. It added a spicy kick to our meals as well as adding to the local economy because I buy it direct from Jason. It always feels good to me to support local artisans!

Today I will make a root vegetable soup with the quart of chicken broth that remains from the chicken. I imagine that will feed us for a number of days both well and inexpensively using almost all organic ingredients. The most expensive ingredient was of course the chicken. When it all adds up though making over a dozen meals in this way is surely cheaper and infinitely more healthful than buying a dozen “value meals” at a purveyor of poison like Burger King.

For more info on Swamp Yankee hot sauce please visit the facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Swamp-Yankee-Products/290389740985099?ref=ts&fref=ts

Paying it Forward--Permaculture style

Recently I was interviewed for a permaculture themed podcast by one of my former students, Scott Mann. Since taking the Permaculture Design Course in Lancaster, PA Scott has himself gone on to get certified in teaching permaculture and is doing some good things in the Harrisburg, PA area including the aforementioned blog and being involved in the local food movement there. One of his reasons for interviewing me was to ask about a project I've had percolating in my head since about a minute after I took my own design course. The idea is called The Permaculture Paid Forward Project.

The idea was born out of the ethics of permaculture which I first learned at the Eco-village Training Center at The Farm in Summertown, TN. Those ethics are Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share of resources. Learning those ethics taught me that we as humans can live sustainably, beautifully on the Earth by taking care of the natural world and ensuring that ALL people have their basic needs met (which is a far cry from what we see today with billions living well below poverty level). The project is predicated upon people sharing their surplus time, money, talent, or other resources to spread the ideas, techniques, and benefits of permaculture.

The inspiration for the project came from a couple of different sources. In 2007, I discovered a program from the non-profit Heifer International where people can donate money for the purchase of livestock ranging from bees and bunnies to goats, cattle, water buffalo or even a camel. The livestock will then be given to a poor family in an impoverished area of the world. The animals are bred and the offspring are then given to another family in their area thus ensuring that the benefit is multiplied.

The Hollywood film entitled Pay it Forward also came to mind when thinking about the project. In that film, a small boy designs a way to change the world by paying acts of kindness or debts forward to three people instead of paying things back. In one scene a man who had heard of the idea gives his car away to a complete stranger in order to pay something forward. Imagine a world where kindness was multiplied by a factor of three!

More recently in a documentary from the BBC I heard of an Ethiopian farmer who had been taught perennial agriculture based on agroforestry as a response to the problems of drought and over grazing that plagued his area. The food forest was so successful and life transforming that the farmer then went on to teach 300 other people in the area the techniques thus transforming the local ecology, restoring it to more balance, and helping many people in the process.


My goals for Permaculture Paid Forward are big and far reaching. I want to train as many people in permaculture as possible, provide right livelihood for permaculturists who receive training and share the vision, and I'd love to see permaculture sites spring up around the world as a result of permaculture designers taking the knowledge to everywhere it is needed. Participants in the project would then be tasked with paying it forward in an equally meaningful way. There is more about the project in the interview.

Here is the link to the podcast with Scott Mann. It comes out garbled at times due to us doing the interview over the phone. Most of it is audible. Cut and paste the link. I've still yet to figure out the formatting.


www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/2012/interview-dillon-cruz/


I also encourage you to check out Heifer International. It's a great way to give a gift to someone for the holiday of your choice.

www.heifer.org/

Food is medicine part 3: Genetic Scientist call GMOs unsafe

In a previous entry I spoke of the need for people to eat organic foods as a way of being more healthy and to protect themselves from genetically modified foods (GMO). As a follow up on that post I wanted to link an article that I found today about evidence from genetic scientist who confirm (yet again) that GMO foods are unsafe for you, for farmers, and are completely ecologically unsound.

You may recall that I mentioned that almost all of the major commodity crops--corn, soy beans, wheat, rice, canola, and potatoes-- are GMO. The only way to be sure that that the foods you are buying are safe and GMO free is to buy organic. If it comes in a package, like crackers, chips, pasta, canola oil etc, and says it's "All Natural" you can guarantee that it is GMO. Again, buy organic and you will know. "All Natural"is a marketing ploy to get you to pay more money for fancy packaging.

The article is very telling in my opinion as it is written by experts. These experts are not on the payroll of Monsanto or any other "biotech" company either. One of them returned over $600,000 in research funds at one time, so clearly their research is motivated by truth rather than pocketing cash.


Cut and paste the link to your browser. I keep having trouble with making it a click-able link.

http://earthopensource.org/index.php/news/60-why-genetically-engineered-food-is-dangerous-new-report-by-genetic-engineers

Myths that need to be busted, dispelled, and otherwise put to bed. Part 1

There are a lot of things that can get me riled up and persistent myth making by those who wrongly assume they have the power is one of the biggies. We hear about or read about these myths from the political arena (especially during the election cycles) and from the news media be it print, television, or internet. Too often, we're being sold a bunch of snake oil from slick looking hucksters in suits and a lot of people are buying. For that reason I'd like to dispel some of the myths that get me worked up the most. For this post, I'll start with myths about the price of gasoline.

I had a conversation with a mechanic who was working on our 1993 pick up recently about the price of gas. He said something to the effect that "gas is too expensive" and "could be cheaper" if someone would do something about it. The myth that gas is expensive in the U.S. is pure fiction. A lot of people seem to be unaware that we are now in the midst of a phenomena called peak oil. That basically means that all the easy to get oil has already been taken out of the ground, refined, and used up whether as gasoline, agricultural chemicals, or the myriad other uses for oil based products. Now the oil coming out of the ground is getting harder to come by and companies are going into increasingly sensitive areas to find and extract it, such as pristine rain forests in South America or deep water drilling in the world's ocean. We all saw how terribly wrong that can go with the still horrifically damaged Gulf of Mexico. Corporations and politicians are allowing the natural capital of the world to be used up for the sake of an increasingly arbitrary concept called money. This behavior is similar to heroin junkies shooting up into the veins of their genitals because those are the only veins they have left that are not track marked into oblivion.

Coupled with the ignorance about the reality of peak oil is the false belief that we as Americans have some sort of right to cheaper gasoline. Those with this view fail to comprehend that our gas is already incredibly cheap compared to many areas of the developed world. From 1997-1999 I lived in England. While there I worked at the gas station on a military base that housed American service personnel and civilian contractors. Our gas on base was sold only to those American personnel for about $1.35/gallon. British citizens filling up in London, York, Sheffield, Glasgow Cardiff or any other town were paying about $5.00 a gallon at that time. These days in England it's over $7.00 a gallon and in France I read recently it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $8.00 or more. Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute speaks of a report published over a decade ago that said the true societal costs for using fossil fuels should make gas over $10.00 per gallon due to the enormous subsidies and tax breaks governments give oil and gas companies, the ecological damage done in obtaining them, and the health implications from breathing air that is toxic due to automobile and other emissions. With that in mind, our current $3.50 per gallon gas is ludicrously cheap. Considering that those aforementioned companies are raking in record breaking profits, I'm surprised that people are being so passive about it all.

A final myth surrounding this issue is the belief that the current resident of the White House is to blame or can take credit for the price of gas. This is pure nonsense irrespective of whether the puppet at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is a republican or a democrat. The President of the United States has beggar all to do with it, unless he (or eventually she) finally makes it politically palatable to raise taxes on fuel prices or chooses to end subsidies to the likes of Shell, Exxon Mobil, BP et al. The president also does not set the supply and can do nothing about the ever increasing demand for gas and oil from emerging economies such as China and India. In those countries with their teeming BILLIONS of people, they have decided that passenger cars are the way forward (someone should tell them about peak oil too).

To sum up, gas in the U.S. is cheap all things considered. What makes it feel expensive when we fill up at the pump is the number of outlandishly large vehicles we drive and the ridiculously low miles per gallon ratings on almost every vehicle on American roads (25 m.p.g. is NOT good gas mileage, nor is 50 for that matter). The fact that Americans drive so much for any and every reason and use public transit, bike, walk so little is also a factor. The 'go speed racer go' type speeds of drivers all over the place adds up monetarily as well. The faster one drives, the more often one needs to fill the tank. Sooner or later all of this will change because the reality of peak oil and increased demand for oil will make it happen. Hopefully, Americans and the rest of the world that is wedded to their cars will get the memo quickly. If not things could turn out much harder than they need to be. Knowing the truth about oil is a good place to start.

Some links for further exploration:

Peak Oil author Richard Heinberg (copy and paste to your browser)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybRz91eimTg


Driving tips to save on gas
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/drivehabits.shtml

Food is Medicine part two: The Meat We Eat.

When animals are raised properly and harvested humanely the meat, dairy and eggs are healthier for us to eat. It really is that simple. In the U.S. these days this is far from the norm despite the idyllic pictures on the packaging at your geographically local grocery store. Drive through the great plains states and you will eventually come across a feed lot where thousands and thousands of cattle are standing on hard packed bare earth. The stench from all that manure is over-powering. The same is true for the chicken and pork "farms" one finds all over the country. A large metal building jam packed with "units" of poultry or pork is a biological hazard for those "units" as well as the living beings in the surrounding area. Proponents of such factory farm set-ups love to talk about how "efficient" these facilities are. What they are really talking about is only a tiny, monetary profit piece of the puzzle. They are efficient only in that someone makes a lot of money of off them (usually a corporate entity such as Tyson, Cargill, ADM, or Monsanto)and that they produce a lot of poisonous products.

What they fail to consider, either through willful obtuseness, malfeasance, or ignorance is the big picture. Part of that big picutre is this, animals raised in confinement get sick. A lot. With all those animals crowded into small, unnatural spaces the animals require vast amounts of antibiotics just to survive. Fecal matter piles up harboring huge amounts of pathogens. Bacteria, like all life forms, adapt to their environment. Some of them become immune to the drugs, survive, replicate, and then continue to sicken animals (be they chickens, pigs, cattle, or farmed salmon)and sometimes people. Who benefits from this type of scenario? Certainly not the animals or the people who choose to eat them. Perhaps the drug manufacturers...

Confinement animal feeding operations (cafos) are notoriously awful in terms of animal well being. The critters in those places are often sullen, scared, sick, and "over worked". Cattle evolved to eat grass rather than grain. Sure they may love the taste of corn ( which is mostly GMO poison) but it actually makes them sick. Despite this fact, it is fed to them to speed weight gain. Dairy cattle, in addition to grains, are often pumped full of growth hormones to make them produce unnaturally large quantities of milk. Back in the mid-90s as a young herdsman on a dairy farm, I myself shot cows up with Monsanto's bovine recombinant growth hormone. The effects were dramatic and due to my ignorance I thought it was great at that time. I failed to connect the dots however. One, the animals live much shorter lives because their bodies simply are not made to produce like that (similarly with egg producing chickens who are housed and fed in ways in cafos that make them crank out more eggs than is natural). Secondly, I never considered what happens to the hormones. When a dairy cow is given antibiotics she must be milked into a tank that gets dumped so the antibiotics stay out of the public's milk. If the antibiotics are going into the milk, surely the hormones are as well. What type of repercussions does that have on human health? What about all the stress hormones that must end up in the meat, milk and eggs from scared, stressed out animals? Surely that has an impact on the people who eat them. Mahatma Gandhi is quoted as saying, "We can judge the heart of a man by how he treats his animals." The system that has produced cafos has hardened the hearts of Americans often unwittingly.

Here in Lancaster County it is possible to find traditionally smoked meats. The smoking process preserves the meat so that it is healthful and nutritious as well as delicious. One of my favorites is apple wood smoked bologna. One taste of that and people would shun Oscar Meyer products forever. Have you ever considered what is in all that lunch meat, bacon, and ham you're eating? Chances are almost 100% that it contains poisonous chemicals sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, and/or sodium erythorbate. Sodium nitrite aka nitrate is a known carcinogen. It is used to keep meat looking fresh and red. When the FDa tried to ban its use in the 70s the meat industry cried foul and the government caved thus putting profits over health once again. The sodium erythorbate has been linked to a host of problems including anemia, fatigue, dizziness, light-headedness, and digestive disorders. The only people who benefit from this practice are corporate types and perhaps their political allies. None of these chemical poisons can be put into organic meats.

From a strictly culinary and tasty deliciousness stand point cafo produced "products" (I find it impossible to call them foods) are left in the dust by meat, milk, and eggs produced on actual farms where animal welfare is taken into account. Industry best standards on cafos for chicken production for instance allow for the cutting off of beaks and crowding the birds into tiny cages. Anyone who has ever seen a chicken will know that this is inhumane and unnatural for a bird who lives to scratch the Earth and peck it nearly non-stop throughout the day. A free range chicken is a happy chicken. Happy chickens produce more healthful eggs. Crack open a farm fresh free range chicken egg and pour it into a bowl. Next crack open an egg from the local grocery store that probably costs $.99/dozen. You will instantly see the difference. The cafo egg purchased "cheaply" will be a pale, wan imitation of its free range cousin. The free range egg yolk will be a deeply colored orangish-yellow and will be thicker and more nutrient dense. The same holds true for grass fed beef. Studies show that grass fed beef is higher in nutrition than feed lot fed beef. Sure the retail price is more. Just look at that as preventive maintenance costs figured in and remember that raising livestock is hard work and EXPENSIVE. As farmer/activist/author Joel Salatin has said, "If you think organic food is expensive, have you priced cancer lately?" Buying direct from the farmer ensures that he/she is getting a fair price for all the hard work it takes to produce rather than padding some agri-corp's CEO's bonus packet.

Factory farms pollute the air with toxic smells and pollute the water with unreal amounts of chemically laced manure which destroys watersheds and aquatic life. They can only remain profitable if people continue to buy their poisons and lies. We have the power to change policy by refusing to buy the cafo meats. We have the power to redirect funds from agri-business subsidies to ecological restoration projects and helping family organic farms to get established. Refuse to participate. Demand change from your elected officials. Start at the local level. Demand that cafos in your area be taxed so highly that they cannot operate. Give tax breaks to family farms. Raise some backyard chickens. If you choose to eat meat, eat less of it. Drink raw organic milk. Find a farmer's market. Get to know where your food is coming from. You're health depends on it. The health of your planet depends on it.


For more information on these issues I recommend Barbara Kingsolver's excellent book entitled Animal, Vegetable Miracle: A Year of Food Life. I've also heard great things about Michale Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma The films Food Inc and Fastfood Nation are both illuminating as well.

To find locally produced organic foods check out the following websites:
EatWild http://www.eatwild.com/products/
Sunstain Lane http://www.sustainlane.com/
Slow Food USA http://www.slowfoodusa.org/