Saturday, October 3, 2009

Read 'n Seed: Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life

I have chosen to read two different books, but the book I will focus on for my Read 'n Seed is called Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life. The link provides a website in which you can see details about the book as well as purchase this book or shop for other environmentally friendly products. Amazon provides a rating of the book, as well as a way in which you can view the chapters of the book for you to explore. Additionally, more specific information and a more in depth review of the guide can be found here. I chose this book because I feel I can use it as a personal guide to help me take steps in becoming healthier and more environmentally friendly. The first chapter I read is simply called "food." This chapter has so far been a reality check. I have tried incorporating organic foods into my diet in the past, but after reading this chapter, I now see even more importance to this goal. How many of us actually think about how everyday foods are delivered thousands of miles, packaged, processed, over processed some more, and the distributed with loads of plastic and chemicals. This not only hurts the environment, its slowly poisoning us and our families when we do not take that extra time to cook a fresh meal and spend a little more money on organic food. Another big problem with not using organic food is GMO's ! (a more precise definition by following the link). These are genetically modified organisms...which are a huge concern, but the have laid low until recently; they are largely unregulated, untested, unlabeled, and unannounced. I found the author's list of America's top contaminated fruits and veggies to be very beneficial. Topping the charts was strawberries and bell peppers, which in a way makes sense to me because when I grow strawberries they NEVER get as big as the ones in the store.  There are 227 pages in this book, and 9 chapters. I will finish the first chapter and move into the 2nd chapter for the first quarter, 2nd quarter will be 3rd, 4th and 5th chapters, 3rd quarter will be 6th and 7th chapters, and 4th quarter will be 8th and 9th chapters.  The other book I have purchased is called The Organic Food Guide. This one is more of a personal guide that I can use to make smart decisions when grocery shopping; it talks about how to "shop smarter, and eat healthier." If time prevails when I finish my first book, I would like to discuss what I learn in this 2nd book. In the pictures below I would like to compare a normal sized strawberry, like one I would find in my garden, compared to those I buy at the grocery store with GMO's. 
normal sized strawberry  at right  GMO strawberry below
(very large strawberry) just kidding, but you get the idea :)

2 comments:

  1. Those books sound pretty cool! Do you really grow your own garden? You're so right when you talked about where we get our food. When I'm picking out my frosted flakes from Cub Foods I never think twice about the resources it took to get that box of cereal to Duluth. It seems like the sad truth of the U.S. is we are a convenience based society, without thinking of our impact. This post goes along well with the carbon footprint activity! I'm excited to hear more of your thoughts on these books!

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  2. I have also started to slowly incorporate more and more organic foods into my diet. A big one for me is milk and dairy products. I grew up in a farming community and grew up on 3 glasses of milk a day. But learning all the antibiotics cows are injected with FREAKS ME OUT! I've been trying to my staple foods first and realizing that spending a little more on quality products is not that bad, because actually I am more conscious about what I am buying and usually spend less and waste less.

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