Alternative Food Distribution System
by: Val Jacobson
Living Foods Chef
I'm an artist and an art teacher. However, the kitchen is my studio right now. I'm enjoying making wonderful food to share. I've had this in my genes for a while. I was studying ancient cuisines in the '80s, while living in Iowa city, IA, as a means to study ancient cultures. You can learn a lot about a society by their foods. It turned into a study of longevity and health later, as I came to understand that the SAD (standard American diet) was making us sick, listless, dull and then killing us. And these other cultures were experiencing something very different: long, productive, phisically active, meaningfull lives. Adding to our SAD problem, the Pharmacutical industry then prays on us to buy their products and processes. A healthy population woud'nt serve the so called health-care industry very well. Eating better-quality food and learning about food-combining and cleansing-diets does not make money. Plane and simple. It seems criminal not to teach about real nutrition in medical schools. "Do no harm." Isn't that the oath? But, since the Pharmacutical companies are funding most (not all) of the research and the food pyramid is an extinct notion that was formed by industrial food lobists, actual nutrition is left out of the equasion. I decided to get a degree in nutritional counceling. I could see there was a desporate need that could be filled through educating people about food choices. I had no idea how beautiful and simple my life would become! in oder to teach health through nutrition, I get to live it. It's my only bonus and it provides everything I need.
Sceptical? I was too. And, you should be. Don't take my word for anything. Investigate for yourself. But listen to real people. Not just medical studies. Can you change your health situation just by changing the way you eat? YES! I see it all the time. I'm helping people heal from degenerative diseases including Cancer, Diabetis, Heart Disease, Lupis, ADD, mild forms of Autism and manic disorders -just by showing them how to change the way they eat. I love doing this! And my clients are so happy to learn they get to eat the best-quality, tastiest food they have ever experienced. I'm slowly adding clients and hope to make a profession of it. I've been doing classes and workshops for about 3 years now. The term "Special Needs Diets" has been popping up in medical journals, but they don't tell you what it is. I do. I always make sure the special needs diets are easy, tasty-good and sometimes down-right gourmet. If it doesn't taste great, people won't do it.
I did it. I had Breast Cancer and was given a death sentence by the MD doctors, but I'm not dead and have no detectable cancer in either of the breasts that is was recommended be REMOVED. In fact, I have no detectable cancer anywhere. I go every few years for a whole-body CT scan and a sonogram of my liver. (The type of cancer I was diognosed with typically quickly remastitizes in the liver. But, it never has in 8 years). The statistics (on liver cancer killing breast-cancer survivors) are based on women who have had traditional treatments: chemo, surgery and radiation. Someone like me, who healed without those measures, is not included in the statistics because I chose not to buy their services. But, they sell me the tests for my own monitoring. And I pay for those. I'll probably quit doing that soon. I'm learning to know that my body heals even when I'm not watching it!
My story is not uncommon. I found thousands of similar stories from credible sources like The Hippocretise Institute in Florida and The Gershim Institute on the West Coast. I used to think that people that "cured themnselves of cancer" were the same loonies that were abducted by aliens and subjected to scintific expriments. Yea, sure. Talk to the hand...But I'm only mildy insaine, like the rest of us, from dealing with an inharited malfuctional culture. Attempting to change it has been a struggel. Baby steps are necisary and we need lot's of help! First, we have to feed the people in a way that helps them heal and enliven. More good news, this venture will encourage sustaiable land-use that will benefit our environment and honor our natural connection to it all. Then, we can get to work on a community that supports our sharing of gifts with eachother and rasing healthy involved children. There is much good work to be done. It is already unfolding.
I work with a team in Kansas City called Transitions. They help get people off their medications and heal (most of them in about 8 weeks). It's a great thing to behold! Even if you are not sick. You can enhance your live with organically produced sustainable nutrient-rich foods. We all deserve better than monster food. My fiance, Jamie Phalen, has been healthy his whole life, but suffered from joint pain in his fingers. He was going to give up playing guitar because it was painful to practice. Now, his joint pain is gone and he feels younger, more energetic and less prone to seasonal distress disorder. He plays with Highfalutin String Band and does solo performances and teaches for a living. He could not realize his dream without this shift in eating habits. What dreams have you given up on because it hurt or you didn't have enough energy? We want to help people realize their dreams. What is life for otherwise? I personally believe realizing your dream is your gift to the universe!
The Alternative Food Distribution System grew out of the nutritional counselling because the clients I serve need to have easy access to high-quality organically produced foods. Well, actually we all do! So, I decided to get the food to the people! We can't rely on corporate food systems to nurourish us sustainably. It's been shown the pre-packaged, processed and monster-food is the reason for so much of our illness. Jamie and I are trying to change that. Part of what we do is educate and inform. We want people to see, if its in a package, its a gimick. Just because its everywhere, and there's a lot of it, doesn't make it any less of a gimick. But, if you stop going to the grocery store to get your food, what will you eat? We must have an alternative in place so that people have a choice. A choice of REAL FOOD. You don't have to do it alone.
The alternatives are more plentiful than most people know. We don't advertise. So, many other farmers don't either. Facebook and Meet-ups have been helpful in spreading the word. But, the most transformative thing that is happening is that people are telling their families, co-workers and friends about us. We do presentations that include lunch or dinner and eveybody eats a full meal. There are a lot of questions about what we are doing, what people are hearing about in the media and what their doctors are telling them. Sometimes it's like conducting a press-conference while I'm preparing food and demonstrating how to make the food at home. I have a stenogapher write down the recipes (sometimes they eveolve as i go) and everyone gets a copy of the recipes at the end. So far eveyone has loved the food. The bottom line is, its critical to your health to start incorperating some actual nutrition in your diet and wean yourself off the processed foods and pharmicutically produced suppliments that are addictive and damaging to your health. We want to you to thrive, not mearly survive! And, the REALLY good news that the prescription for thriving is to eat the best food ever!
The new diet craze is the Paliolithic or Cave-man diet. It's actually a very restorative diet based on natural cooked meats and lots of mostly raw veggies, sprouts and a few nuts and seeds. However, it won't work if you are getting these foods from corporate sources and still binging on fast-food. A cave man would never have been exposed to the level of toxins or the genetic manipulation of the monster foods. Monster-foods are industial agriculture's answer to filling the poduce isle with large, colorfull veggitables and tubers that look really apealing, have a long shelf life are resistent to pests (including us!) and make money. Most are deviod of any actual nutrition. Corporate organic foods are just as devoid of nutrients as what is now termed, crimminally, "Coventional". Think about the term "produce". A cave-man (or womwan) would be eating wild game, sprouts, seeds from native plants--eating real foods, grown in living dirt, that have all the microorganisms and minerals that were plentifull in the furtile soils and seas. I'm not proposing that we all go back to living in caves. But, we can structure our food production to mimic that system so we don't all have to go out foraging. Forage if you like, its fun. Not eveybody wants to maintain a big garden, either. Most of you still have those things called "jobs". Your food needs to be grown and tended for you. No shame in that. And, when people value that in-mass. We can change the intire landscape!
There is a huge local food movement growing everywhere! It's great. We can actually change our local landscapes by what we choose to eat. Creating markets for organic farmers and permaculture gardening will surround and engulf our our communities with beautiful natural foods, plants and helpful animals that we have coexsisted and co-evolved with for centuries. I'd rather live in a garden than a cement-land. Would you? Wouldn't you like your children to be set free from institionalized commerce-producing opression into a cooperative gift-giving, earth-loving venture that honors individuals, values good health for everyone and encourages personal growth? How do we make this a reality? I have a suggestion: Turn off the TV and start particiapating in the real thing. Help devine and inspire the real thing. We are working together to create abundance for everyone. The dominator cultural model has proven to be far worse for us (and the planet) than we could imagine. It's time for a change. We host "reality check" meet-up the first Monday of every month at 7:30PM. It's also an organic pot-luck. Please come. RSVP to Val or Jamie at 364-6922 or studiolvel@stjoelive.com.
You may place your order, pledge a donation to the alternative food distribution network in exchange for gourmet meal delivery, or sign-up to volunteer for many things from: creating a web-site to helping plant and maintain the Krug Park Community Garden. We are doing this by e-mail and by phone. Let's make the world a better place and enjoy doing it.
To sign up for a delivery of a Goode Acres Abundance Box in one of three sizes: $15, $25 or $55. Send an e-mail to Val Jacobson atstudiolevel@stjoelive.com
Include your e-mail and a phone number. She will e-mail you a delivery schedule, a weekly list of what's in each box along with a list of extras like: Almish butter; organically-raised stress-free, grass-fed beef, dog and cat food; free-range hierloom-bread chicken and austich eggs; fresh fruit; seeds for sprouting; raw nuts and heirloom tomatoes.
There is also a monthly e-newsletter with recipes, photos and stories from the farm. Orders in by Weds at 6 PM will recieve a confirmation e-mail. Delivery to your home is $4. Or you can choose from a free-drop-off point. To BE a Free Drop Off location, contact Val for details! (We bring live music and food!) We do not advertise, so please spread the word to those you think might be interested in good food or gardening or philanthropy.
You can read about the farm and see pictures at goodeacres.com
Free recipes are available at demoanddinelive.blogspot.com
