I'm back!!!!

I've been experiencing writer's block.

Descriptions of the great food we've been eating are lodged in my throat behind my frustration at recent news stories on food production.

I don't want this to turn into Angry Eater Blog. I want to share my love and excitement for real food with you, not bore you with my venting. (I don't write well when I'm angry.)

So I think I've found a solution. I will continue to write about great grains and vegetables, sharing recipes and nutritional information.

And when necessary I will write a rant. Hopefully short. Hopefully not too often. But it will clearly be a rant, so you can skip it if you want and not miss any good food.

Because boy we've eaten some great stuff in the last six weeks, and I've missed telling you about it.

Tune in Wednesday for some good food.

But today, I'm undoing my writer's block with a good rant.

My incredulity started with an illustration in The NY Times Sunday Review section of a chicken with a stalk of broccoli for a head. Gross. It took me a long time to be able to look past the picture and glance at the article, which was on ways to ease the suffering of factory animals. One way is to remove the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain which feels and holds consciousness, pretty much turning the chicken into a vegetable so humans feel less guilt about the inhumane conditions their dinner lived in. Unbelievable.

A few days later, I read about a study that found that dietary cadmium (a heavy metal found in chemical fertilizers and sewage sludge) is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. The reporters wondered if that meant women should eat fewer vegetables and whole grains to reduce their cadmium intake. Really. The scientists who did the research said no, actually eating real food is very good for women and outweighs the possible damage from the cadmium. But no one said anything about how organic produce is not grown with chemical fertilizers or sewage sludge so women can eat it worry-free.

Next up was a report that a fumigant has been withdrawn from the US market amid concerns that it increases cancer, brain damage and miscarriages among the workers who apply it, plus it can leach into groundwater. Some California strawberry growers are concerned that farmers in the eight other countries (including Mexico) where this toxic chemical is still used will have an advantage over US farmers. An advantage? I would say the advantage is not having workers with cancers, brain damage and miscarriages. And not having toxic fumigants in the groundwater. Yet another reason to buy from organic farmers.

Speaking of organic, the online journal Nature published a McGill University study that found that good organic farmers can have almost as high (83%) a crop yield as chemical-dependent farmers.  A Washington State University researcher has found that organically-grown strawberries contain more nutrition than chemical ones.

I just can't believe we're still wondering if organically-grown food is better.