Here in Sonoma County it is easy to believe that eating clean, local food is possible, but even if one shops for and prepares food consciously, what passes as such can often astound. Over on PSFK there is a post on who is watching what we eat. Two different articles illustrate this important issue.

According to a New York Times article on nanotech food additives - a most unappetizing thought - the FDA’s equally unappetizing attitude towards the technology was stated:

“F.D.A. officials said last week that treating every new nanotechnology
product that consumers swallow as a food additive might compromise the
agency’s mandate to foster innovation and might not be within its
authority.”

Hmmm, an interesting stance from the regulatory body that approves food and drugs for consumption in the US, with far reaching implications worldwide.

In another article, this time from the San Francisco Chronicle, blogger Bonnie Azab Powell writes that while out to dinner with her husband, he ordered what was touted on the menu as “humane, sustainable pork”. After the fact, and upon investigation, Powell learned that White Marble Farms pork was indeed a “premium” brand of SysCo, the largest food services distributor in the United States. The pork is produced in the same manner as conventional pigs - raised indoors in confinement barns by the second largest meat processor in America - Cargill Meat Solutions.

These related stories beg the question - What are we eating? - and how do we navigate nourishing ourselves in these times of insidious GMOs, sustainably “wrapped” foods, and marketing to the green consumer?

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