This article has given me new ideas for nori wraps. And it also presents a new challenge coming up for us raw vegans:
[www.nytimes.com]

what the hell is wrong with people? I'm sure they have better things to do!

"Strawberries could be dipped in a soup made from egg proteins and shrimp shells. The resulting film — invisible, edible and, ideally, flavorless — would fight mold, kill pathogens and keep the fruit ripe longer"

Hmm. That's very considerate towards people with egg and shellfish allergies!

Can you believe it?

It's one thing to put crap like that into packaged goods, but when they do it to fresh produce -- sheesh!

"an edible film made from a fiber found in crab and shrimp shells" ...

OMG. That makes me want to barf just thinking about it! >:-(

I really do feel sorry for the trusting public.


Info is not readily available about the quality of food and household products.


Few people think to check or relate it to health problems..



Yeah, that propostion is disgusting .

greenie, Thanks for the post. I boggles my mind how they come up with sh-- and think it will "improve" us.

I gotta say I love the sanity of the people on this board.

This artical has been put forward with the usual PR spin that all new "breakthroughs" in food and health products get, and insted of the common review that the less educated public make of it whereby they buy it hook line and sinker, the reactions shown in the above comments shine with a deeper understanding which has an immediate kneejerk repulsion from such things.

Seriously, anyone who has studied the subject surrounding modern day miracle health products and food enhancers (with an open mind) in the slightest knows better.

Good on ya's

God is helping us. She gave us the understanding of raw foods. And practicing a raw lifestyle will help us heal our bodies.

That's funny Bryan. A practical comment to a serious threat.

Bryan,
Your comment was not helpful at all. We are expressing our concern about a real threat to our choice to eat raw food. I just don't understand your attitude. I know a lot of other leaders in the raw food movement, and believe me, they're very concerned about these recent developments and are working together to stay on top of the situation. I invite you to join them.

Sharrhan:


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Kwan,

Ouch! It feels like your judging my path.

The food industry creates these things TO MAKE MORE MONEY. They look for ways to extend shelf life and appearance. Consumers' health is NOT their interest/priority; running a profitable business is.

To them, if putting shrimp-shell soup coatings on strawberries EXTENDS SHELF LIFE of the strawberries, then it is GOOD. They don't care what it does to people who eat it, but they will look for the best "spin" to put on it, to make it sell!

Most supermarket bananas -- all the usual stickered bananas one sees in the supermarkets -- have been bred to look nice. They spoil from the inside out, so the yellow skins stay looking nice as long as possible. But there are MANY varieties of bananas, just as there are many varieties of apples, another fruit which has been bred into "Franken-fruit". The problem with those bananas is that they are so un-natural that they do not digest properly, either, and can cause all kinds of problems in the people who eat them. Some people (like Dr. Mercola of online fame) suggest avoiding bananas as a result.

However, here in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia, I have found alternatives in other varieties of bananas available fresh from the street markets. There are huge, fat ones (my favorites) and short stubby ones, even reddish-brown ones. They rot from the outside in, so even when the skins are turning black, sometimes the insides are still good - fresh and delicous. Just the opposite of the unnaturally-bred kind you get in the supermarkets. They digest VERY EASILY, and the texture is noticeably different from the supermarket kind. They are more flavorful, too.

So why do nearly all the American supermarkets carry only the same few, awful and unhealthful kind? Because with their greatly extended shelf life, it is more practical and cost-effective to ship them, than the more fast-spoiling truly natural kind. They just don't care that the bananas they sell are no longer a health food, but more of a health hazard.

As for telling us things are good for us, just look at how many labels trumpet "NO CHOLESTEROL!" on them, as if cholesterol were something bad, to be avoided (a thirty-years behind-the-times serious misunderstanding), while these same foods contain great amounts of refined sugar or artificial sweeteners. Ever seen ORGANIC cookies? Over-processed refined and baked grain flours with lots of "organic" sugars... is that really a health-promoting choice? NO! But they don't hesitate to promote it as such to people who don't understand nutrition at all.

Simply put, the food industry is just that --an INDUSTRY. It is people trying to make money, NOT people trying to help us become and remain healthy. The only way we can protect ourselves is to learn and use our knowledge and awareness of their games, to make the right choices for ourselves. When they do something wrong, let others know (via internet!) and "vote with your dollars" by not purchasing their products. Support those who produce better choices, by buying from them. When the industry gives you no choice at all, perhaps the answer is to go back to earlier roots (pun intended) and grow your own!

Hi Bryan,
Sorry, you're right; it was a pretty strong statement. I'm sorry if I touched a nerve. I certainly don't want to be judgmental; I actually have great admiration for you.

I guess I was a bit frustrated, and trying to evoke a response.

Let me try to reframe it. :-)

I'm just wondering if there's a bit of a disconnect, in that perhaps you are so strong and passionate an advocate (and that's a really wonderful thing) for raw foods that it's hard for you to imagine or deal with the possible consequences of government intervention with our food supply. I know for me it's a strong temptation to just look away from the problems and hope they'll go away, and so I give myself plenty of breathing space and I only spend a little time each week researching Codex and similar issues.

If you met me you would laugh; I do not look or act much the part of the 'activist' at all. I'm a musician and artist and I'm really into spiritual healing and raw food and the last thing I'm inclined to be doing is going online and trying to find out what's being done to our food supply. It's sort of a labor of love.

Sorry for my sharp voice in the earlier post; I just got back from a camping trip and I was tired and a little cranky.

Love, joy and peace--
Sharrhan

Sharrhan:


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Bryan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kwan,
>
> Ouch! It feels like your judging my path.


Bryan,

Of course she's judging you. It's what we do. BTW, that's one of my favorite oxymorons ("You're so judgemental!" along with "STOP TRYING TO CONTROL ME!" Irony is great!

FWIW, I sign all the petitions and write letters but really wonder if it does any good. Spraying fresh produce with this garbage is really upsetting. Where and how will we be able to get untainted raw fruits and veggies without growing them ourselves? I grow a lot of my own and buy from farmers markets in the summer but live in a cold climate and must rely on shipped produce in the winter.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2007 11:33PM by greenie.

i had a dream about this earlier-
how can people not see that their RIGHTS
are being trampled on with this bull****?!
how can they say things like
"we want choices"
and then ignore it when the real choices are being edged off
the plate and trashed?

how can they be so stupid
to think that
SAFETY FIRST
is a good moral law?
Safety after life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (and the availability of raw, fresh, living untainted foods!!!)

safetly is on the list
but good gracious
let us LIVE.

and don't get me started on pregnancy and childbirth in america..........lol.

peace-

Mama Cass Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i had a dream about this earlier-
> how can people not see that their RIGHTS
> are being trampled on with this bull****?!
> how can they say things like
> "we want choices"
> and then ignore it when the real choices are being
> edged off
> the plate and trashed?

because they believe the b****hit that is coming out of the fda rda and any other persons mouth who they believe is "more educated" than themselves. it is much easier to be a follower than to make your own path. it is much easier to believe and listen to the nonsense spewed than to do the research and educate yourself and make your own decisions. it is much easier to play the blame game and take the pressure off yourself and it`s easier to play the victim.i`m with ya all the way friend. i wish ppl would wake up and really look at what`s happening in all avenues of society. the majority want the easy way out and the most convenient...at whatever cost
patty

...that explains a lot...

Yes and it sounds so cynical to state these things.

I used to think people who talked them were just defensive, cynical or paranoid, because I hadn't realized they had impacted me. It's like growing up in family with personality disorders - it's all 'normal' to you until you realize you have been hurt by it and that there are other ways of being.

the translucent sheets of "vegetable" product were the freakiest to me. ugh, like that rainbow coloured fake fruit leather people stick in their kids lunches omg wtf? my son's school requests "no junk" food in the kids lunches but the other day one of the boys had bright smurfy blue "juice". lunchables, yogurt tubes, granola bars with more sugar and fat then a whole cake, crackers labelled "no trans fats" in giant letters that have hydrogenated oils in the fine print ingredients. colour, sugar, preservatives, bad fats, hormones, biphenal A added to the inside of cans of food (scary!).

you know, this list is ENDLESS but so what. i can make a change by keeping my money away from those products. by feeding my children better and teaching them how to nourish themselves and the importance of that. i can lead by example and most of all, most importantly of all, i can STAY POSITIVE!

other coco, you used to think people were so cynical. imagine if the message you had gotten from them was all about all the amazingly simple and thoroughly powerful and effective things that they had discovered they COULD do for positive change for themselves instead of all that negative crap?
stay in the light people, stay in the light.

Coco, I got inspired by the veggie films. I'm traveling now but when I get back I'm gonna experiment with dehydrating different blended veggies into nori-like sheets.

kwan,

I love the Gandhi quote: You must be the change you want to see in the world.

This doesn't mean for me to control the world until it changes to what I want it to be. But rather to change myself until I am what I want the world to be. This is the difference my approach versus the approach of others.

I agree with coco, that where I spend my dollar makes a difference on what will be produced in the world. And so I don't spend my money on gimmicks like thin film like sheets of random biological matter to use a sushi wrapper (actually, this sounds a lot like nori sheets).

I have limited time and resource. Whatever free time I have, I prefer to spend on my self realization and liberation rather than trying to control what other people do. But just because this is what I want to do, it doesn't mean that what you are doing, the political activism, is wrong for you. If it rocks your boat, the by all means, its the best thing you could be doing for yourself.

In the title of this thread, the original post exclaimed "God help us!". And I replied "God is helping us". I truly see this in my life and in the world around me. And this makes me happy. What do you see? And how does it make you feel?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2007 02:04AM by Bryan.

Interesting how the (hastily) written word takes all sort of meanings. When I posted the article, my Oh God, etc. was not meant as an expression of desperation but of amazement - what kind of nuttiness will they think of next. The subject line 'omiGAWD' would have reflected my feelings more.

Hi Bryan,
This is a great thread! I've been thinking a lot about this subject today. I'll respond to your post below with *:

>I love the Gandhi quote: You must be the change you want to see in the world.
* Me too!

This doesn't mean for me to control the world until it changes to what I want it to be. But rather to change myself until I am what I want the world to be. This is the difference my approach versus the approach of others.
* I was into the Abraham-Hicks material for awhile. Is it kind of like that? I used to be much more like you are, I think, when I was totally into metaphysical healing and I felt my calling in life was to be a healer and to look away from negative appearances and thus heal them. In the past couple of decades since that time I've come to see it as not quite that simple, yet I would not hesitate to agree that we must heal ourselves before we can go out and make the world a better place.

I agree with coco, that where I spend my dollar makes a difference on what will be produced in the world. And so I don't spend my money on gimmicks like thin film like sheets of random biological matter to use a sushi wrapper (actually, this sounds a lot like nori sheets).
* Sound advice. I've really been working this year on finding better places to put my food money, and found an organic farm that delivers once a week at a great price-- a win for me and a win for them.

I have limited time and resource. Whatever free time I have, I prefer to spend on my self realization and liberation rather than trying to control what other people do.
* Me too. But I might make a distinction between respecting and honoring others choosing differently for themselves on the one hand-- which is fine with me, and others choosing to manipulate and oppress me and limit MY choices on the other-- which is where I draw the line. I have no problem at all with mobilizing in a democratic manner to take back our rights and the rights of those around us when we see them being taken in an unjust, underhanded way. That said, your way is a time-honored and very honorable way.

But just because this is what I want to do, it doesn't mean that what you are doing, the political activism, is wrong for you. If it rocks your boat, the by all means, its the best thing you could be doing for yourself.
* Heh heh... ;-p it doesn't usually rock my boat, though I guess you could say I rock the boat sometimes.

In the title of this thread, the original post exclaimed "God help us!". And I replied "God is helping us". I truly see this in my life and in the world around me. And this makes me happy. What do you see? And how does it make you feel?
* I see a beautiful, pristine spiritual world, and in it everything is divinely perfect. I call it the Realm of True Form. If we are conscious of it, yes, we are helped in the most wonderful ways in all things. It is always there, always has been there. We will experience it fully after we leave this parenthesis in eternity. Yet even though it's always been there, beckoning us, calling us to experience peace and joy, there has been massive suffering, oppression and ignorance from time to time, and I believe we are sometimes called to be our brother's keeper and unbind the oppressed.
* BTW, I'm not really much of a political activist. I only chose to take decisive action after I fasted for 14 days on a camping trip last summer, and I felt very strongly from within at that time that I was being led to a) work for world peace and b) learn all I could about Codex and the global politics of food so that I could help protect our food supply.

*Thank you, Bryan. It's really nice to get to know you better. This probably sounds hopelessly corny, but 'I'm really glad we had this conversation.' ;-)

Sharrhan:


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