Get to Know Your Food!

Do you know where your food comes from or what’s in it (whether intentionally or maybe as a contaminant)?  

According to FarmAid, “corporate concentration is pushing you and over 300 million eaters in America farther and farther away from the family farmers who grow our food. Despite the appearance of choice in the marketplace, food is being produced by fewer and fewer family farmers and controlled by just a handful of corporations. As of 2007, four companies owned 83.5% of beef production, while 93% of soybeans and 80% of corn grown in the United States fall under the control of just one company.”

This growing monopolization of our food not only makes it difficult to know where our food really comes from, it’s also compromising the quality of our food in innumerable ways and negatively impacting our environment and family farmers. One of the best ways to reclaim our food and our health is by really getting to know what we’re eating and where it comes from.

Join us this month for our newest Holistic Living Challenge: Get to Know Your Food! It’s National Nutrition Month, so we encourage you to go beyond eating healthier and try to really understand what’s in your food, where it comes from, and more.

Take the challenge and share your experience for a chance to win great prizes from holistic companies that will further support you on your holistic living journey!

Here are the details:

Challenge: Get to Know Your Food. Is it from a factory farm or a family farm? Is your produce in season? How far did your food travel from farm to table? Does your food contain artificial growth hormones, antibiotics or GMOs? The more you know, the easier it is to make the best food choices for your family’s health and the health of the environment.

Directions:

• Choose what you’d like to do. Here are some ideas to get your creative gears going:
• Try the 100-Mile Diet for a day or week.
• Visit your local Farmer’s Market and talk to some of the farmers.
• Visit a local farm.
• Grab a food from your pantry and investigate where it was made (and where all the individual ingredients come from).
• Do a full kitchen audit to identify where GMOs might be lurking or how many synthetic additives are present or ?
• Go GMO-free for a week or the whole month.

(If your kids are older, get them involved! What would they like to try?)

• Take it one day at a time (and celebrate every success).
• Record your experience. Was it easier or harder than you thought? What did you learn? Will it change how you eat moving forward?
• Share your experience for a chance to win great prizes!

Tips & Tools:

• Join the weekly #HolisticMoms Twitter Parties on Tuesdays at 10est/7pst
• Join the Facebook chat (details to come!)

• Connect with your local Holistic Moms Network chapter to learn what other moms are trying and get tips for your challenge.
• Invite friends over and watch something like Food Inc, Forks Over Knives, or even go see the new film from the creators of Food Inc. A Place at the Table!
• Follow recommendations from FarmAid.org to get connected to your food and local farmers.

Enter for a chance to win fabulous prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Exciting Prize Details:

• Prize bundle #1: Applegate -  T-shirt (please request shirt size), Food Rule Book, Chico Bag, Free Coupon, Buttons, Stickers (estimated value $70)
• Prize bundle #2: Frontier Co-op - Frontier Bulk (organic Calendula & non-alkalized Cocoa Powder), Frontier bottled Salt Free (SF) blends (SF Lemon Pepper Org, SF Garlic & Herb Org, SF All-Purpose Org, SF Onion & Herb Org), and Simply Organic (Greek dip mixes, Cinnamon and garlic powder mini spices, Black pepper in our new tin) (estimated value $120)
• Prize bundle #3: Organic Valley - Healthy Eating Kit (Tote bag, educational literature and 4 of free product coupons) (estimated value $50)
• Prize bundle #4: Yummy Spoonfuls - case of fresh organic baby food variety pack (estimated value $45)
• Prize bundle #5: Fyrefly Organic Teas - 50 gram bag of Organic Uplifting Tea and a Holistic Moms Cookbook (estimated value $30)
• Prize bundle #6: Holistic Moms Network - One annual membership (for you to use or gift!) (estimated value $45)