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Why Preserve Your Own Foods?

© Pier Jones

People choose to put up their own food for a number of reasons. When asked, I generally list the following:

1. I enjoy the time I spend preserving foods.
2. I hate to see anything go to waste, whether I have purchased it or grown it in my garden.
3. Y2K, while not my main motivation, is a concern for me, and I'd rather be prepared than not.
4. I am concerned about the safety of the foods that I am able to purchase in the store, and would like to at least minimize my family's contact with toxic chemicals.

Number 4 is, I have to admit, my most motivational reason. Health, plain and simple. And, my responsibility to see to my family's health and well-being.

It never ceases to amaze me the number of toxic chemicals that, having been banned for use in the United States, are allowed to be manufactured here, sold to third world countries for use on their fields, and then perfectly ok, according to the Powers That Be in this country, for that produce to be bought and sold to us in the supermarket. What makes those toxins dangerous if used on food grown here, but safe for us to eat if grown elsewhere?

Are you wondering if you are really coming into enough contact with these toxins to be concerned? Do you think that the foods you are buying at the supermarket are safe and that this issue should not be of much interest to you? Do you assume that the government, FDA, and other agencies are looking out for your health? I did.

Think about this:

How many chemicals do you think you would be exposed to if you ate the following meals today? (Keep in mind, too, that this does not take into consideration other environmental pollutants that we come into contact with daily, in our air and water.)

• Breakfast: Coffee (black), Orange juice, 1 banana, bagel with margarine, yogurt

• Lunch: Garden salad, baked potato, apple, iced tea

• Snack: popcorn and a soda

• Dinner: Roasted chicken, spinach salad, carrots, cornbread, white wine, and strawberries.

(Now, you have to admit, this isn't even an indulgent diet-how often do you eat this "healthy"? Note that there are no chips, no candy bars, fried foods, no hamburgers or hot dogs from fast-food chains!)

How many chemicals would you have consumed in one day of the above diet, eating conventionally produced foods? 26

These included chemicals with the following health effects:

Cause Cancer 12

Cause Birth Defects 9

Damages Reproductive System 5

Interferes with Hormones 11

Damages Brain and Nervous System 17

Damages Immune System 2

Some pesticides have more than one health effect, so these numbers may add up to more than 26.