I was talking with friends recently at a camp out and they told me Niman Ranch was bought by another company, Natural Food Holdings. This interested me because I have come to trust meats that are associated with Niman Ranch for their quality and humanity. Having heard other stories of natural companies being "sold" to conventional ones (such as Burt's Bees sale to the Clorox Company years ago), I decided to do some research.
It turns out the turnover took place in 2006 when Natural Food Holdings took a controlling stake of Niman stock. Bill Niman left the company, disappointed at how they changed the way the cattle were handled.
In his own words: "I left Niman Ranch because it fell into the hands of conventional meat and marketing guys as opposed to ranching guys," Niman said. "You can't really ferret out how [the cattle] are being raised [now]."(from Business Insider)
This kind of event troubles me. When someone can infiltrate a company that values sustainable, humane food practices and then buy and sell their stocks in such a way as to put conventional producers at the helm, forcing out the original creator of the company, that is a scary thing for all of us. It means our food sources are at great risk of becoming monopolized by those in a position to undermine the organic, humane and sustainable practices that keep us all healthfully fed.
Be aware that all food is not healthy food. It may fill your belly, but the question is, "With what?"
I'm not just talking about processed grains and sugars, but produce, meats, eggs and dairy products. Depending on the source, you can buy food that is organically, sustainably and humanely grown and manufactured or food that is not organic (i.e., full of GMOs and pesticide toxins), not sustainable (i.e., depletes the soils and poisons the environment), and not humane (i.e., the animals are tortured and treated worse than concentration camp prisoners).
Many people I know choose less expensive food over food that is more expensive because it is organic, sustainable and humane. But seriously, folks, money is the least of your concerns in the long run. All food is not the same, even if it looks the same. And you are ingesting it into your body. It is meant to nourish you, but food that is poisoned with pesticides it has absorbed, or riddled with excess hormones and other drugs, or genetically modified, or vibrationally toxic to your life force energy does not nourish you.
Again, it may fill your belly but the question is, "With what?" Toxic food causes innumerable health problems in our culture. This is not an opinion; it is a fact.
I personally choose not to eat conventionally produced food whenever possible. I don't like how it tastes, feels or what it represents. I want nothing to do with non-sustainable, environmentally-destructive, inhumane foods. I don't want to eat a vegetable or fruit that is full of poison. I don't want to eat a piece of meat from an animal who suffered its whole life and was in distress and fear before being inhumanely murdered to produce it.
I heard a story from a friend of mine about a hunter friend of hers who suddenly stopped hunting after doing it his whole life. When asked why, he said, "I looked down the barrel of my rifle and the buck looked back at me with fear in its eyes. I don't want to eat that fear." Exactly...
I know such foods will eventually make me too sick to recover. Our bodies cannot detox all the shit that comes from such conventional food today, especially on top of all the other stressors it deals with - constant EMFs, chemically-saturated water, air pollution, toxic body products, and the list is endless. Yet beyond that, it's a vibrational thing. They make my body feel...heavy.
They probably make your body feel heavy too, if you pay close attention. But if you have not eaten "clean" meats regularly - meats from happy animals who are honored and treated to a good, comfortable life before being humanely slaughtered, and if you have not eaten organic produce regularly - grown without toxic chemicals, you may not recognize the difference. Subtle or not, it is significant.
Many of the chemicals in our foods settle into our soft tissues and organs where they continue to poison our bodies and cause health issues until we get them out. The nervous system is particularly vulnerable. The body cannot simply flush these toxins out of its own accord. They have to be chelated, or pulled, out using a binding agent. Mercury is such a chemical. I learned all about it when I had my old mercury fillings removed years ago at the start of my own health journey.
The way I see it, when our food system in the United States was turned into an industrialized market, everything changed. To sustain such a market, things must be done to keep production excessively high, to keep food transportable and to give it a longer than natural shelf-life. This means the conventional foods you eat are more artificial than natural.
The body does not know what to do with them. It expends extra energy trying to sort through what it can digest for its functional benefit from the toxins and excessive chemicals that harm it. That leaves you with less energy to live by, and probably results in unnecessary sluggishness, stress and tension in your body...that is, if you are not already sick from it.
There is a bigger picture here worth paying attention to, besides just how much food costs. In the long run, pricing is the least of your worries, for there are far greater costs to eating toxic food and continuing to support the conventional, industrialized food system that perpetuates it.
Now go eat something organic and yummy. Your body will appreciate you for it.
