Janese Johnson

The United States has long been known to offer great food for the world. We have been known to produce enough food for ourselves, offer food aid to other areas of the world and have enough to export.

But recently that has changed. According to data from the U.S. Department of Agricultureís Foreign Agricultural Service, ìIn 2006, the nation exported $62.6 billion in food items and imported $75.1 billion from 175 countries, a jump of more than 60 percent in the last decade.î

We are now getting more food from elsewhere than we are growing ourselves. The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for assuring the safety of around 17 million shipments each year, about two-thirds of them food. They usually inspect only about 1 percent of that. This lack of attention has already caused some serious problems.

The recent tainted pet foods from China have affected the lives of many dogs, cats, pigs, and chickens ó and raised the specter of affecting us humans. The tainted medicine that came out of China also took the lives of hundreds in Panama. We seem to be concerned about terrorists coming over here to get us, while we leave our food supplies wide open and vulnerable. This does not make sense at all.

If we continue to depend on imported food to feed our nation, it seems we are not only putting ourselves in danger of more contaminated food, but also having a negative impact on our economy. Our farmers who have tilled the land for generations are now going bankrupt and leaving the family profession for jobs in town so that they can support their families.

Because of the addiction that America has to processed foods, we now would rather buy a lot of cheap frozen and processed foods than support the local farmers. Perhaps we have become off-balance and lost our way, and now it is becoming very clear to some that dependence on foreign food might be as detrimental as is dependence on foreign oil.

This crisis will continue unless we change our eating habits. There are a few things that we can do as individuals to rein in our food habits. We can buy from our local farmers. It not only helps the local economy, but also is healthier for our bodies to eat food that is grown in the area and in the same season that it is being eaten.

We can also eat more natural and less processed foods. And we can† pressure legislators to help U.S. farmers and demand greater oversight from the FDA of imported foods.

There is quite fertile ground here in Western North Carolina for the finest of fruits and vegetables. Letís take advantage of what we have here. There are numerous tailgate markets through WNC that offer great produce and homemade products at reasonable prices.

For a complete listing of times and days they are available, you can visit the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project Web site at www.asapconnections.org or www.buyappalachian.org.

Going back to a simpler lifestyle can definitely add many bonuses to our health and greater well being and it is certainly much safer.
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Janese Johnson has been doing intuitive counseling nationally for more than 20 years. She may be contacted at janesej-at-buncombe.main.nc.us.