Weekly Wrapup

From the Toronto Star: A investigative report turned up complaints against a moving company that held customer's goods for ransom until they got $1500 above the original estimate. They were clearly breaking the law, but felt they could get away with it because the police said it was a matter for the courts, the courts denied jurisdiction, and the attorney general referred it back to the courts. A sidebar says if it happens to you, contact the Ministry of Consumer Services. Yeah. Call the government. That'll speed things up.

From Morrisville: See that big, red "Sold" sign by the vacant lot next to Morrisville Square? The seller had advertised the property zoned as Office and industrial, but approved for high density residential. Morrisville's zoning map has no high density res' indications there. Was it just a sales ploy? I hope so, and I wrote to the Planning Director to find out.

Michale Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma warns about industrialized organic foods. I hoped he was just being an alarmist, but last week's recall of ground beef delivered to Whole Foods from Coleman Natural Beef shook me up. I bought ground beef from Whole Foods during the recall period. When I checked the label, I found I had fortunately chosen the local grass fed stuff. In July Full Circle dairy got a letter from the FDA for an infraction discovered five months earlier, which actually happened seven months before that (or a year ago).

From the homefront: The dogs are doing a great job in Pet Therapy training, and Poochy Boy started on Cosequin to relieve arthritis. Cosequin is supposed to work gradually, but Poochy has come alive during our morning exercise time.

I was With the Program Until I Reached Chapter III-2

Deep into Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, the author and I were on the same page (if you will) until I got to the chapter titled "Eat Food: Food Defined".

The book exposes the evils of our industrialized food chain, and this chapter revealed Pollan's full agenda -- to solely eat whole food. I think it was his reference to eating as our great-grandmas ate that flashed the amber light for me. I didn't know my great-grandma, but I imagine food was something she labored over up to six hours a day, every day, except the sabbath which she probably thanked God for each Friday as the sun went down.

I know I don't have to slaughter my own chicken or draw well water, but the thought of cooking everything from scratch, not to mention dealing with the shorter shelf life of whole food is daunting. I work, have hobbies, friends, and cable. My mental picture of a total dedication to whole foods is one where women's lib is set back 80 years.

I can see social advantages to some packaged food. The convenience frees us all to do other things. I'll probably keep my kitchen at around 80% wholeness, as long as the convenience foods on my shelves don't have high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats or any varieties of MSG. And I'll keep buying my meat directly from local farmers. Happy livestock don't cost me anything but a few extra dollars.

Sorry if I disappoint you, Michael Pollan, but you really hit a nerve with that great-grandma thing.