While studying a BSc in Fishery Studies in England in the 90s, as students, we were required to complete a common food technology first year, an introduction to commercial food production. It was during this time i began to question the conventional food industry and where it was headed in the future. My first question arose when i worked one summer on a salmon farm in the west of Éire. After completing my secondary school leaving certificate i wanted to see the world and West Mayo was where my journey began. It was an exciting time, a summer of pure freedom. My home for that summer was a caravan beside the salmon farm where i worked. I was given the responsibility of taking a small boat out in the early morning to feed 50,000 young salmon with pellets that were flicked using a scoop into huge circular cages. It was an amazing sight to see thousands of fish emerge from the deep dark water to feed each time. Something i noticed after handling the feed was my hands were always orange from something that was added to the feed. A few months later after commencing my college degree i researched what this additive was and discovered it was canthaxanthin a food colouring that is added to animal feeds to change the colour of animal products. It can be found in lots of food products from chicken skin, egg yolks, to salmon and trout.
In the wild, salmon obtains its pink/orange colour from its natural diet like shrimp, prawns, etc. When farmed, and not allowed to migrate naturally, the colour of the salmon flesh would not appeal to the marketplace so canthaxantin is added to give the salmon a more pink colour (in fact it turns the flesh more orange in colour). This was my first experience of how food is altered in modern cultures and it got me questioning the effects of human diet on health. i will be honest and say i believe that being able to market salmon as ‘organic’ when it is grown in cages and not allowed to migrate across the Atlantic naturally is unethical as most consumers are unaware. i will not eat ‘organic’ salmon or any farmed salmon. Now, wild Atlantic salmon that is a different matter and i enjoyed eating the ‘real thing’ a lot when i worked on a small salmon fishing boat in the early 2000s off Ceann Sibéal in West Kerry. i also believe that local salmon fisheries should be reopened for local consumption to keep a valuable tradition alive in rural communities that historically fished for salmon each summer. That will be discussed in another post in the future. There is a plan in the pipeline.
The next awakening i had in college was learning about the addition of ‘sweeteners’ in foods to replace sugars. Aspartame, for example, is 200 times sweeter than sugar and is a fine powder or dust that is synthesised in a laboratory, not grown on a farm. Aspartame is produced by coupling microbial fermentation and synthesis. Phenylalanine and aspartic acid are produced by microbial fermentation and phenylalanine is reacted with methanol to form the methyl ester. It is further treated with acetic acid, purified, crystallized and powdered to produce aspartame. All sounds very natural, right? Like nature intended??
As part of our common first year students had many industry visits, for example, i witnessed a company that produced one million chickens indoors in controlled environments each week. The chickens did not see natural daylight while growing. This is the same for all cheap chicken you buy in supermarkets. The scientists and government lobbyists will say it is fine for the chickens. You know yourself. We also learned how to can foods, dry foods, produce fish fingers and frozen food products on an industrial scale. Many of the graduates went on to become managers and technologists in the food industry of their home countries. After graduating i worked in new product development in Éire and researched and developed the first commercial scale Seafood Chowder on the island.
My time learning about and working in the food industry taught me to question the food i consume in life. I remember an Irish friend returning from his new life in America once telling me how the food was so much better over there and that things lasted a lot longer than in Éire. For example he told me sliced bread he bought in a store could stay fresh for a month. I said ‘you do realise it is staying fresh because of all the ingredients/chemicals they add to extend the shelf life’? I told him to read the ingredients and i bet you will see lots of ingredients you can barely pronounce and ‘E’ numbers. ‘Real’ bread stays fresh for a couple of days at most. That is why a local bakery always has a wonderful aroma in villages and towns because it is always producing fresh bread with natural ingredients. A few years later i lived in America where i witnessed this ‘miracle bread’ and sure enough the store bought bread that lasted a month had a multitude of added ingredients. It is important for your health to consume the freshest most natural foods you can each day and not go for the convenience offered. Heal’thy’ Food. Have a look at this short video – the ’43 year old Twinkie’.
A famous quote from Henry Kissinger is ‘he who controls the food supply, controls the people’. This to me is one of the most tyrannical statements of intent made in modern history and that is exactly what unscrupulous corporations are now putting into practice. It is a warning to heed. In olden days many people were producers of food and were very much food independent. With the modern ‘designed for convenience’ cultures most people are food dependent, ie. they depend on the supply of food from an industrial food production system. There are only a few days supply of food in supermarkets if there is an actual emergency. Along with these modern food production systems most companies have been vertically integrated where large companies buy up smaller companies in their supply chain. This can be witnessed clearly with Monsanto one of the largest Big Agriculture companies (who control seed production and pesticide production) being bought by Bayer one of the largest chemical companies in the world. Having the largest chemical company in charge of your food production systems should alarm everyone.
Beyond Meat ‘Plant Based’ Food / Impossible Foods.
For a few years i chose to be vegetarian for health and ethical reasons. My disapproval of factory farming was the primary reason. After a while i decided that organically grown meat was essential as a source of local protein in the temperate climate where i lived. If the world came to a standstill and there was no imporation of soy, seed, grain and nut products the majority of vegetarians in temperate climates would go hungry. In the tropics where there is an abundance of fruit and vegetables grown year round it would be easier to survive.
I now produce some of my own meat using organic principles and believe that it is essential to incorporate animals into organic vegetable growing as animals provide excellent organic manure for local vegetable production as well as maintaining a vibrant local ecosystem. From being a vegetarian and working in the food industry i was always conscious of the marketing language used and when i noticed a shift in recent years from the use of the word ‘vegetarian’ and ‘vegan’ to the words ‘plant based’, my scientist researcher instinct kicked in. All you have to do is check the labels and you will see a plethora of unnatural ingredients appear on ‘plant based’ products that are once again manufactured in a controlled laboratory environment. Plant based food is not the same as vegetarian ‘healthy’ food and the majority of consumers do not realise they are being duped. We are being encouraged to eat ‘plant based’ food to help the environment, tackle ‘climate change’ and be more ‘sustainable’. You will hear all the marketing buzz words in the background like ‘reduced carbon footprint’ to capture the publics attention. The lowest carbon footprint food you consume is food you grow yourself or food that is purchased from local producers and this is the ONLY solution to improving the environment. Less food miles, healthier food, grown with care, that supports a local economy. Forget about the nonsense you see on TV (in fact throw out your TV!) and stop reading establishment newspapers which are all owned and controlled by the people who own the corporations that are selling this non agricultural fake food. By the way they also own the medical industry which will sell you the drugs when you get sick from eating all their shit food.
Two of the main drivers of the ‘Plant Based’ food industry are Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods (very futuristic sounding). Also the word ‘based’ is the hip word for cool among younger generations at the moment … an example of predictive programming. Bill Gates who i believe is one of the most evil entities in the world is a major investor. In 2021 Bill Gates also became the largest farmland owners in the USA. This i believe is an effort to control the future of food by promoting his alternative plant based products and nanotechnology (which by the way you can be sure he is not eating himself on a regular basis). Bill is the seer who knows all the answers to the problems of the world from his silver spoon lifestyle. Here he is telling The Economic Club of Washington DC, how eating Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat (synthetic lab grown meat) will save the world.
Bill will make lots of money as he has invested in both companies. ‘Doctor’ Bill was also the pharmaceutical industry expert for the past two years promoting all the gene therapy technology aka. ‘vaccines’ and made billions of dollars in profits from his investments in these companies. He is some man for one man as the saying goes. Maybe Bill should create an award for himself, called Saving The World Award (Bills Way). Stay away from our food chain Bill! Chill out in your organic garden and admire your fancy gas guzzling private car collection and gulfstream jets for the rest of your life. Anyone who buys into this mutant food that could potentially modify you genetically has only themselves to blame. Bill Gates is a narcissist geek with too much power who needs to be locked up for the damage he has caused to societies. Who gave him the authority to be the expert on how humanity should evolve? The governments and institutions his foundation has invested heavily in is the answer.
Nanotechnology In Food – Are you being genetically modified through diet?
A good interactive tool that lists nano ingredients in foods can be viewed here https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/nanotechnology-in-food. I consider this form of nanofood technology to be comparable to the creation of FrankenFoods with very little study done on the long term health impacts of consuming these unnatural ingredients and additives. If products last for an unnatural amount of time ‘for your convenience’ you may inconvenience your health in the longterm. Food should be full of vitality and healthy. Again heal-thy food. The simple solution is to return to a local food production society and eliminate all possibilities of nanotechnology from your diet. If you do not produce food yourself start supporting those that do in your community. Also try to barter goods and services in your community. Wouldn’t it be nice to trade a years supply of vegetables or home baked bread for work you may need done in your home by a local electrician? Yesterday in conversation with a barber i asked if i could trade some of my produce for my next haircut. The answer was yes. He will get a supply of eggs and whatever i have to trade the next time i get my haircut so start bartering today and a chain reaction will happen.
Here is another short video from an Israeli company trying to sell you a 3D printed steak ‘the perfect, beautiful steak’ as they call it. Mad scientists at work … about the only thing beautiful about this steak is the CEO of the company’s name ‘Shitrit’. Folks don’t buy into this shit food and if it appears at local stores or restaurants ignore it. Eventually it will go away. Support your local economy!