Please take some time and read the full article here, it is really long and actually has two parts! I have extracted my favorite sections and it is still very long. I have left out some of the very interesting examples of traditional societies foods, as well as the history and description of how vegetable oils are hydrogenated and the history of the McGovern Committee. I do recommend you read the full article:

Secrets of the Edible Oil Industry by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig

While turn-of-the-century mortality statistics are unreliable, they consistently indicate that heart disease caused no more than 10 per cent of all deaths – considerably less than infectious diseases such as pneumonia and tuberculosis. By 1950, coronary heart disease (CHD) was the leading source of mortality in the United States, causing more than 30 per cent of all deaths.

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Given the rising plethora of food outbreaks courtesy of our industrial food system, this article will give us some history and a clear example of how large-scale agriculture is destroying every corner of our world.

The following events are taken from Vandana Shiva’s book Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply, which was written in 2000. As she states, the Indian small scale edible oil industry is not what it once was.

The story of how the soybean displaced mustard in India within a few months of open imports is a story being repeated with different foods, crops, and cultures across the world, as subsidized exports from industrialized countries are dumped on agricultural societies, destroying livelihoods, biodiversity, and cultural diversity of food. The expansion of global markets is taking place by extinguishing local economies and cultures.

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After reading this recent horrific news about what the biotech industry is plotting for our supposed ‘health’ by manipulating vegetable oils even further, we realized we need more info about oil and fat and the economic battles that are being and have been fought over this most basic and vital nutrient for humankind on this website.

Many years ago–way back in 2000–I was the Sous chef at a Renaissance International Hotel, we were hosting some kind of very important conference for UNICEF for a week or so. During this conference I had to pander to the dietary demands of the most nasty, easily irritated and just generally grumpy old man I have ever met (and I have met some grumpy ones I guarantee it). He was on a low-cholesterol diet and I had to cook everything for him on a no-stick pan with absolutely no fat of any kind. At that time I had not yet heard of Weston A. Price or Sally Fallon, but I was pretty sure that his grumpiness was a direct result of his no-fat diet.

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I recently came across the organization NextCourse in my travels on the web. As they say, San Francisco is indeed at the forefront of improvement and ever since Alice Waters started the Edible Schoolyards project in 1995, I have been very excited with what is going on down there. Next Course includes a project for teaching women in prisons and half-way houses basic skills in identifying good food, helping them shop at local farmers markets, as well as training them in the variety of ways to prepare foods.

I was born in Berkeley so I confess to getting a bit of patriotic-type pride going when I think about Alice Waters. She is my original chef hero and if it hadn’t been for her ideals and the things she has created to help and improve the situation of the people around her, first locally and then onto the National and International scale, I would have had a lot less faith in humanity and our ability to get past this stupid economy and world we have greedily created to the happy existence for everybody that many of us are currently creating, (or at least thinking about creating).

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As you can tell from the poll on our homepage (please take a second to vote if you haven’t already , I am a bit of a fan of street vendors, illegal or otherwise since legal and illegal can vary quite a bit depending on what country you are in. I would love to sell some food in the park, so I listen and my eyes glimmer with bright green envy when I hear people tell their tales. I have made a deal with a vibrant lass from New Zealand here in Vancouver to start up a underground restaurant, so we will keep you all posted on that, but in the meantime I would like to share this experience a friend had in Portland with her curbside cuisine

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As most of you know, Canada’s tar sands are creating insane environmental destruction. I just read this article about a coalition of Indigenous Nations that have come together and issued a declaration barring the proposed Enbridge Northern gateway pipeline that would transport crude oil from Alberta 1,179 km through many delicate ecosystems and across more than 1,000 rivers and streams.

Read the whole article here. Read the Coastal First Nations Declaration here. Add your voice to stop the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline here.

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Published in Far West Almanac, November 2009.

I recently attended a Food Justice Forum geared to generate a variety of solutions to the issues of getting nourishing food to the lowest income groups in the downtown Vancouver, BC area, while still paying the farmers a living wage. This is an issue that cities around the world have been working to overcome. Belo Horizonte in Brazil is one outstanding example that has established a Zero Hunger program by subsidizing local farmers to come into the city and sell their food at affordable prices. This is in contrast to Slow Food movements and farmers markets all over North America which have been criticized for being priced out of range for the average person.

One of the things mentioned at this forum was that food banks and other institutions are being used as tax write-offs for large corporations to dump their surplus of unhealthy highly processed food items that are often nearing or past expiration. Highly processed foods of these types are to blame for the epidemics of heart attacks, diabetes and obesity that are characteristic of developed countries. Up to this point I have avoided entering the health reform debate raging in the US of A, as I have been fortunate to escape from my previously uninsured status by fleeing to Canada (which still costs around $50 per month whereas in New Zealand basic health is completely covered). Nevertheless it is truly shocking that the US is so backward in this area, but there are many false underlying assumptions that sideline the debate before it even gets started. When looking at the issue from a holistic perspective and combining it with the food justice issue what has happened to the US health care system can be viewed realistically. From this perspective we can no longer waste energy discussing bandages or how to set up another centralized institution where all money gets tied up in red-tape and unnecessary executives, and we start talking about how we can prevent obesity in the first place so that we don’t also waste money on triple bypass surgery for twelve year olds.

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Published in Far West Almanac, September 2009.

Perhaps I have been watching too much Al Jazeera, but that, along with the film Blue Gold: World Water Wars, has got me worrying about folks down in LA. I honestly still can’t believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger is really the governor of California—I keep wondering when I will wake up and find that I have somehow gotten stuck in a chapter from Robert A. Heinlein’s book Job: A Comedy of Justice. In a parallel universe this must be a big joke. It seems that Los Angeles in particular is at the forefront in showing the world how the United States of America handles our economic difficulties. I have recently rediscovered long lost friends from my high school days in Pasadena via facebook, and I wish I had more answers for establishing sustainable community under the difficult conditions of LA.

The summer has been hot and dry in Vancouver, BC and I have enjoyed the ritual of nightly excursions to water my little garden under the sky-train, which unfortunately recently got mowed. Hauling water under the constantly changing moon gives me time to think and I wonder how different it would be to be doing this in LA. The documentary Blue Gold also highlighted the issues around water that LA faces. We talk about sustainable living and eating locally until all they are is buzz words, and once again we find we are just frantically putting bandages onto something we know is built on a corrupt foundation.

To the extent that people separate themselves from nature, they spin out further and further from the center. At the same time, a centripetal effect asserts itself and the desire to return to nature arises. But if people merely become caught up in reacting moving to the left or to the right, depending on condition the result is only more activity. I believe that even “returning-to-nature” and anti-pollution activities, no matter how commendable, are not moving toward a genuine solution if they are carried out solely in reaction to the over-development of the present age.

Masanobu Fukuoka

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FOOD FIGHT was the message we got in our mailboxes as an invitation from Libby Davies and NDP Agriculture Critic, MP Alex Atamanenko to attend the Food Security Forum on July 9th, 2009 at St. Patrick Parish Hall, 2881 Main Street, Vancouver BC.

I was very glad to go and hear about this issue, I recently got residency so I can finally let my roots down into this rich Canadian soil, and get involved in my new community.

Alex Atamanenko is on a Food Security Tour to hear concerns and to look into the gaps in Canada’s food systems, he will put together a proposal for a long-term food security strategy to deal with climate change, global energy insecurity and the world economic crisis. The sooner we see more systems for this being put into place the better we will all be and the more hope our children have. If you have anything you would like to add to this report please go to his website and submit your comments.

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Food Security & Sustainability: For The Times Ahead by Harvest McCampbell, published by Bio Diverse Press in May 2008 arrived just in time.

This book is a level headed and comprehensive look at what is coming our way. Without fear-mongering and trying to get rich off of your fears, Harvest McCampbell provides a wealth of resources and practical steps that you can take to prepare for the transition that our world is gearing up for.

Harvest shares her vision of a Green World that her Grandmother passed down to her, and makes us consider how we would survive if we woke up one day in a world without asphalt or cars. In this book Harvest shares her answers to the question her Gram used to ask her when they were out in the woods gathering wild food and herbs.

“Maybe today, maybe when we get back to where we left the car, there will be no car, there will be no roads. Then what will we do Little One?”

In a few simple paragraphs, Harvest McCampbell filled my head with visions of the Green World her Gram spoke of and my heart with a secure feeling of hope. This book points to how we can each help each other to find our way through the mess we have made of things by working together with respect and confidence.

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