Adios pink slime!

The media attention being given lately to the ubiquitous "pink slime" that finds its way into ground beef all over the country, in schools, restaurants, and homes is thankfully bringing some awareness to the poison that so many people unknowingly put in their bodies each day.  (Shouldn't poisoning school children be illegal anyway?!)  It is about time that people become aware of what goes into the industrial food industry, and how we get what we decide to put into our bodies.  If each individual was a little more aware of pink slime or mechanically separated chicken, many more people would put the McNuggets down and refuse to take part in their own poisoning...I think.

It can be hard to navigate the language of different diets.  Vegetarian, vegan, paleo, slow food, locavore, "I'm a vegetarian but I eat fish", gluten free, raw foodist, these labels often get in the way of the common goal and higher purpose of attention being given to what an individual puts into their body.  Labels can be oppressive and isolating, they prevent us from communicating with each other and coming together around what is really the enemy: the pink slimes of the world.

The famous guru and yogi Swami Satchidananda, who is credited for being one of the first to bring yoga to the West, famously lived by the saying that "Truth is one, Paths are many."  I am disturbed by the short-sided nature of many assumptions or simplifications of these various "food movements."  Really, shouldn't we focus attention not on the restrictions of the diet, or which foods will make you "fat," but instead recognize and honor the underlying, vital message of GOOD, clean, whole food?  The reaction to pink slime should NOT be a movement towards similarly processed soy burgers, which are arguably worse for the body, environment, and ecological diversity.  The solution to over-processed food should not be more processing.  If we focus more on the value of the emphasis on whole food--food which is as close as possible to its natural state--our bodies and the earth will thank us.  There will be no need for pink slime, or for factory farms, if the objective is not on creating new dogmatic categories and further bracketing off and categorizing ourselves and each other, but rather is placed on eating food that is raised naturally, whether it clucks or grows from the ground.

Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface farms, has said: "I'm always struck by how successful we have been at hitting the bull's-eye of the wrong target."  I think he couldn't be more right.  If we want to eat healthily and ethically, whatever that means, it must begin with everyone respecting their body enough to put whole, clean foods into it, not figuring out how to process our way out of the mess of a food system that we have.  Jaime Oliver is part celebrity chef, part activist.  His TED talk about school food is inspiring and reminds us what is really at stake with our food system--our bodies, our health, our planet, and future generations.  We need to learn about what goes in our bodies.  I mean, who would be comfortable eating a whole bowl of this (mechanically separated chicken):
                             
Then why the heck would someone eat it after it was breaded and deep fried?!?!?!

Jaime Oliver might be a celebrity, making money of showing overweight school kids on TV who can't tell the difference between a tomato and an eggplant, but we should take his point and bring it into our own lives....EAT WHOLE FOODS THAT NOURISH YOU INSIDE AND OUT!