Giving Thanks for Natural Food

In a few days we'll be sitting down to a pretty traditional Thanksgiving dinner; roast turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, winter squash, brussels sprouts, rutabaga, cranberry-orange relish, pumpkin and apple pies and probably a few other things I left out. The difference between our meal and what most Americans will be eating this year is what's missing from our food: GMOs, antibiotics, pesticides, artificial flavorings, artificial colorings, preservatives and a host of other chemicals that have contaminated our food supply.

Few of our ancestors would recognize most of the food items that pass through the checkout counters and end up on dinner tables this week. They might shake their heads in disbelief at genetically-modified fruits and vegetables in styrofoam trays and plastic wrap, boxes of "food products" that contain virtually no actual food but lots of chemicals, and meat and poultry raised in huge commercial feeding operations and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones.

The truth is that we are what we eat, and a diet of these chemicals will eventually take its toll on our bodies. During the great debate over health care in this country, we were astonished at the public disconnect between our typical American diet and the state of our national health.

How will it change? It will change when mothers and fathers rise up and collectively say "no more." It will end when feeding your kids junk food is seen for what it really is - a form of unintentional child abuse. It will change at the grassroots level - one family at a time, just like every other movement.

We'll be out at the farm this year, celebrating our first Thanksgiving with our grandson and his parents, Maggie and Matt. We'll be giving thanks for a bountiful harvest this year, for good health, and for the real food we eat.