Category: Nourishing Lifestyle

A Simple Way To Keep Your House Uncluttered

September 1st, 2010 · Vina Barham · Simplify and Declutter 3 comments

Photo By Tozzer577

This was originally posted in February 2010. As part of me figuring out where to take this blog, I’m looking back to how it all started.

There so many sites out there with a lot of nifty advice on how to get organized. There are so many gadgets out there that promise to make our life more organized. There are even classes to teach us how to be better organized.

Not to belittle the value of these organizational helps, but why is that?

Because we simply have too much _______ (fill in the blank). We have too much to do, too many emails in our inbox, too many clothes, too many books, too many whatever else.

The Simple Way
The answer is not more organization. The answer is not more, whatever. The answer is less.

  • Own less clothes and you won’t need anything but a rack, hangers and a simple dresser.
  • Own less things in your house and you won’t need to always be downsizing or finding places to put your stuff in.
  • Own less paperwork and you won’t be needing filing gadgets galore, cute as they come now.
  • Own less kitchen gizmos and knick-knacks and you won’t be needing to learn how to make them all fit in your cupboards.
  • Own less books, DVDs, whatever media you fancy and you won’t be needing to catalogue or buy containers to store them in.

If less is too vague, then ask yourself, what are the things you truly need and what are the things you can truly do without? The answer will surprise you.

How We Are Doing
We live in a three-bedroom townhouse and we try to keep our place as uncluttered and simple as we could. We rarely buy new clothes (except for our growing toddler). I usually borrow books from the library. We watch movies from Apple TV or online. We mostly recycle 90% of what comes in the mail. I don’t buy cosmetic stuff. We just have the basic necessities for the most part. We don’t subscribe to magazines. We try to only buy what we really need when we go to IKEA. We just don’t buy a whole lot of stuff. Most of the time. Perhaps it’s just our personality, we’re just both pretty frugal. There is one thing we are trying to be better with: baby stuff. Before we had her, we were able to use our one-car garage for parking our car, but now it has tons and tons of baby clothes parked there instead. But then again, we might have a second child, and a third, so it’s all good.

If you find it hard to let go of stuff, maybe it’s a sign to examine your life. What are you holding on to? What makes you buy more? What do you think you will lose if you let go? Next week, I’ll address these questions and share my own journey of living on less.

Would You Do Nothing For A Child Who Will Die of Malnutrition Tonight?

August 10th, 2010 · Vina Barham · Everyday Justice 4 comments - Tags: ,

By Foto Morgana

This is the question I am asking myself these days. A sober, heart-wrenching question. I got an email yesterday from World Vision alerting me to the famine crisis in Niger. And I wanted to ask you, my readers the same question. Not because I want to fill you with guilt and all that crap. But because I have great hope and trust that we, mothers and protectors and nurturers of the world’s precious little people, have the ability to DO something about this. We can act. And we must.

People don’t die of hunger. People die of malnutrition. And about half of 13 million Nigerians Niegeriens are facing that possibility. Right now.

Of which 17% or more are children.

Did that sink?

It sure did for me. It sunk pretty deep and hard. There are a lot of causes I care about, but nothing as urgent as children dying of malnutrition. Some little child is wasting away  because there is nothing to eat. That just blows my mind and shreds my heart to a million pieces.

We went to Whole Foods today to stock up on our pantry, and the irony was not lost on me. That I have choices of what to eat, while others don’t even have a choice of eating anything at all. 

If the situation in Niger sounds eerily familiar, it’s because this happened five years ago. In 2004, the world was alerted of the food crisis in Niger but sadly, hardly anything was done. The government denied the problem, and donors did not give a single cent. See the timeline of the 2004-2005 crisis here.

The famine was averted, but there obviously was no solution that made a long-term difference. Because here we are again.

Nearly 12 million people in Niger – about 80% of the population – are now affected by food insecurity, a status that indicates they have as few as 10 days’ food supplies remaining with all other income-generating activities exhausted…Save the Children now estimates that as many as 400,000 children in Niger are facing starvation.

International organisations say that the immediate obstacle preventing them from meeting the urgent food needs of hundreds of thousands in Niger is a donor shortfall of over $100m.

What Can We Do?
I don’t know the long-term solutions to Niger’s food shortage problems, as I’m learning that the issues are complex and beyond my expertise. On one hand, I know that a crisis like this requires urgent action. But on the other hand, I also know that many non-profits are charged with exaggerating situations overseas in order to campaign for more funds. And that AID often does more harm than help.

So what do we do?

At first I was thinking about asking people to donate, give money, that sort of thing. But then I realized that’s the easy way out. Because often, once we write the checks, we feel absolved of the guilt that we didn’t do anything about it. And then we move on. Just like what most of us did regarding Haiti. We gave through our phones and texted our way out of any further involvement.

So Here Is My Challenge

In as much as we spend our time and efforts in learning about real food, finding awesome recipes to make for the week, obsessing about our menu plans and caring about what to feed our family, let’s invest like-energy towards learning about the WHY of the global food crisis. Let’s look into the agriculture, politics, economics and culture of global food production. Let’s learn about the complexities of global poverty instead of just hastily writing a check so we can be in a better position to answer the question: What Can We Do That Is Truly Nourishing, Empowering, Liberating and Sustainable? 

Further Reading
Famine Persists in Niger, But Denial is Past
Niger’s Markets Are Full, Yet Famine Shadow Looms
You, Too, Can Help Find Niger’s Famine
Famine Early Warning Systems Network
One Website Issue Brief on Agriculture
On Philantrophy in Developing Countries

Insight Vs. Information: A Smarter Way To Work

July 20th, 2010 · Vina Barham · Productivity + Tools 3 comments - Tags:

By Solstizio

We live in a world where there is more useful information than we can ever possibly need. Millions of recipes to choose from everyday is just a click away. Information on how to save more, how to live greener, how to live healthier, how to do almost anything you can think of. And as a first time mom, I needed some of that information to help me my first few months of navigating a world so alien to me. But one information leads to another and before I knew it, I was subscribed to hundreds of blogs. I felt overwhelmed with the Information Overload. Everyone has an idea of how to do things, of what I need to do in my life to be a better mom, a more productive mom, a simpler mom. Everyday I was constantly bombarded with More of Other People’s Ideas and Less Of My Own Original Ones.

How do we simplify?

We need to tune in more to Insight than Information.

Instead of being bombarded with information you might not TRULY need via blogs, news, websites, whatever else, soak yourself with Insight that illuminates truth about Life, the World and Yourself so you can filter the information and focus on what will truly be useful for you. It requires more soul+heart+mind work but once you put in those hours, Life becomes a bit more effort-less because you have more Clarity of your Everyday. You are able to let go of the Stuff that are non-essentials to you at this point in your life, and tune in with laser-like focus on what Matters and Make Sense for You right now in this present.

How this looks like in my life: I’ve stopped reading blogs that offer nothing more but information on a daily basis. I decided that I will find the information I need when I need it. What is essential for me to thrive everyday, to find the answers within me, to parent from my Authentic Core is Insight that Inspires, Encourages and Empowers. The kind of stuff I linked to yesterday. The stuff that keeps you from being a purist, from sucking enough and from the messy middle.

What Insight Do You Need Today?

Rearrange Your Life: When Decluttering Isn’t Quite Called For

July 13th, 2010 · Vina Barham · Simplify and Declutter No comments - Tags:

Photo by fa73

Yesterday was pretty productive around the house. I’ve mentioned before how I often rearrange the furniture around here and I haven’t done it in awhile. I haven’t been inspired at all, but lately I have been feeling like things needed-a-changing and there wasn’t much to de-clutter around here. We keep things to a minimal most of the time but I love the constant change that rearranging provides because it keeps things fresh and novel without having to add anything in or take anything out. It’s such a good exercise in creativity: rethinking about what you already have in new ways.

I wish I took a before + after picture so you can see what a huge difference it made to put the couch there and the dining table there and the TV here. But I wasn’t think blog-post material, so you’d just have to trust me on this one. Our living room feels more open and welcoming, especially since our TV is not the central piece anymore and has become a side accessory. And there are a lot more empty places that do not need filling in. I feel a creative energy from freeing those spaces.

Sometimes, all you really need is to rearrange the pieces in your life to create spaces you didn’t think you had and to discover a hidden beauty that you missed before, even though it had been there all along.

Sorta Unplug Challenge: Family Updates and Secret Projects I’m Working On

July 5th, 2010 · Vina Barham · Simplify and Declutter One comment - Tags:

Photo By AndyRobe

It’s Week 2 of The Sorta Unplug Challenge, my personal fast from Social Media (Blogging, Facebook and Twitter) for the months of July and August. And it’s going fantastically well. Surprisingly, I am not missing being plugged in all the time, especially to Facebook and Twitter. Though I have to admit, I am itching to write in my blog more than ever. I feel like I have so much I’m learning that I’m dying to share and I miss the wonderful community of folks who come to visit me here. I also am itching to check my Google Reader to get an update on all the good stuff people are writing about. I’m still processing connectedness and community and what that all means to me as I unplug sorta, from my virtual community so no deep insights to share for now! Instead, how about some family updates and a little something to look forward to in the Fall, no?

A (Sorta) Vacation
All I can say is, Whew! My hubby had an entire week off and then some, and being that we love travelling and the outdoors, we did some camping, hiking and lots of driving to the beautiful places here in the Northwest. We also visited my hub’s favorite city north of here, Vancouver B.C. and biked around the city for hours and hours on end. And then ended the week with a 4th of July Celebration with family that included lots of BBQ treats. How we fit that all in one week, I don’t know! But I am super tired and am ready for my own personal vacation…oh the irony. Compared to my spouse, I tend to take things more leisurely and prefer say, heading to the beach and lounging in my chair with a really good book to read. THAT is my idea of heavenly break. But marriage is all sorts of compromises and while I enjoyed such active time with my family, I am so looking forward to when we get to do my version of rest and fun one of these days.

Growing Veggies and Getting Hooked
We ate all our snap peas from our garden and I’m impatiently waiting for the tomatoes to please grow! I am SO not a gardener and I was so sure nothing will survive my utterly blackened thumb, but oh my little veggies are proving me wrong! Taking that first crunchy snap pea bite got me hooked! So I signed up for a plot in our P-Patch garden hoping for more space to grow more stuff, as we only have a very small spot in our backyard that gets full sun. I thought I was going to have to wait FOREVER but I got in! Plot 14 is mine! Of course, my left brain needed the reassurance that I would be doing things right, so inspired by a friend who volunteers at a local farm in exchange for veggies (Hi Christa!), I also signed up to volunteer at Seattle Tilth where I can learn organic gardening hands on while helping them out with an extra pair of hands for any dirty work they need. Oh my. Am I evolving. Who would have thought?

Projects To Rock Your Socks
Stuff I’m working on? I have some secret projects crowding my mind these days, and I’m excited to let you in on it. Soon. They will rock your mismatched socks, for sure. If you are one of my people and I am one of yours. They are created especially for our Tribe of Moms and I am pouring the best pieces and bits of my heart and soul and mind and sweat into it. A creative labor of love and projects of passion that I hope will encourage and empower my kindred spirits and beautiful virtual friends. I’m a little freaked out and terrified that I’m telling you about it now, because what if it’s a total sucker and what if the best I have to offer isn’t good enough? But oh it isn’t, and it is. Completely.

So how about you? How are you enjoying your Sorta Unplug Challenge? It’s not too late to join in the Unplugging Fun! I know I know, I don’t have buttons or anything to share. I’m a rebel that way. Just pass the word around, that’s good enough. No hype needed. You can do your Sorta Unplug Challenge your way, whatever nourishes you. I’d love to hear!

Plugging Into Joy: Sorta Un-Plugging Challenge Revisited

June 28th, 2010 · Vina Barham · Simplify and Declutter 8 comments - Tags: ,

Photo by Tgrs

When I first thought of The Sorta Unplug Challenge, it was really a response to a subtle feeling of burnt out. As a blogger and as a homemaker, the two primary hats I wear these days. They are very intimately and insanely intertwined as I blog about my life at home and as I make my home live up to what I blog about. Most of the time, it’s a wonderful chemistry and integration of what I love but some days, they become routine and devoid of Joy. The last month or so, it has become that.

I thought the main reason for this is that I am too plugged in. Too plugged into learning about mothering and blogging. But as I have taken the last few days to reflect, I realized that it’s not necessarily being plugged in. It more has to do with WHY I am plugging in.

Plugging In To Become Who I Should Be
I don’t know, maybe it’s that people are actually listening to what I have to say that I start thinking I should be a certain way to keep people tuned in. But what kind of crazy is that? People are listening just because I am being me. Straight and true. When we are embracing our Design and honoring the Blueprint we come with in this life, certain kind of people listen. My kind of people. Everyone doesn’t have to like what I write, but those who do are exactly the ones this blog is for. You and I, we’re kinda like a tribe.

And so instead of plugging away to Facebook and Tweeter and The Blogsophere with the intent of shaping myself, my mothering and my writing into Something Else, I plug into what gives Life and Energy and Wisdom and Truth. The internet, I remind myself, is a tool just like anything else. I can master the tool for Good or I can let it master me into What I Think I Ought To Be.

The Alternative: Plugging Into Joy
So I propose that we unplug, not primarily in terms of quantity but in terms of quality. When we are plugging into the Internet, are we plugging into something that grows us, honors us unique Design, nourishes our hunger for the Beautiful and the Good? Sometimes, when I browse and surf the net, I’m left feeling like I should be more like that mom, or I should take up sewing once again, instead of being inspired from within and empowered to summon my own creative energies that are unique to me.

I still will follow my once-a-week Sorta Unplug Challenge, as it is summer after all! Like this week, the family is off camping! I can’t wait to unplug and leave behind all our beloved Apple gadgets, though I’m sure my husband will have his IPhone with him. But I have also sensed that this could be a great opportunity to pursue a new project that I can’t wait to share with all of you at the end of the summer! I’m already getting excited.

So here is to unplugging from what distracts and leaves us empty, and plugging into all sorts of Joy around us!

The Case for Slowing Down

June 22nd, 2010 · Vina Barham · Happiness + Growth, Nourishing Lifestyle, Nourishing Moms, Simplify and Declutter 3 comments - Tags: ,

Photo By Slimmer Jimmer

(My apologies for being away for several days without warning! My family took a four-day weekend vacation and spent a good portion of that in the beautiful city of Vancouver, BC. I spontaneously took the opportunity to ignore my blog for the entire time in hopes of preparing for the Sorta Unplug Challenge, which I’ll be tweaking a bit more so there’s room to participate, for those of you who are interested. We’ll be focusing on the slow life as a prelude to the Sorta Unplug Challenge.)

Did you know that Stress is the #1 killer in the United States? Even though we have more money, more (perceived) time due to time-saving high-technology devices, more opportunities to pursue what makes us “happy,” we are one extremely-stressed out nation on the verge of death by anxiety.

No wonder Buddhism is gaining steady popularity, homesteading is finding its way back even in urban spaces, people are downsizing big time, homeschooling is on the rise, and the slow food movement is making inroads in transforming how we eat. Many of us are searching for ways to slow down as a way to heal ourselves and actually, well, live. And we find the pathway to peace by looking not only deep inside for Truth but to Ancient Wisdom that is often lost in our fast-forward progressive culture.

So do we all have to be Buddhist, raise chickens, live in shacks and grow our foods?

Not necessarily. I’m not a Buddhist (though I embrace some of their practices) nor a homesteader wanna-be. I live in a 3-br townhome that is considered spacious enough for 3 families in other countries, and can only boast of six containers of vegetables growing in our small yard (snap peas are ready for harvest!). But I’m committed to the slow life. Or at least to the intentions of doing so. I often get sucked into fast and mindless living until I realize that my life and my family suffer because of it.

I actually stumbled onto Slow Living when I became a mom. And a stay-at-home mom at that. Because children have a way of calling us back into a Nourishing Life. Becoming a mom is the second greatest thing that has ever happened to me (next to marrying my husband!) because I’m learning that love is patient, and that patient happens only when we slow down.

Why Slowing Down Is Essential As Breathing

You only need to look at our current culture to know that something is terribly wrong about the way we live. Slowing down is not about being nostalgic nor is it about trying to relive the past. Slowing down is not about being anti-progressive nor is it about shunning technology. While there are unifying similarities in lifestyle among Slow Lifers, it’s more of a mindset that will vary in expression. For me, it boils down to two things:

  • Slowing Down So We Can Be In The Present. Many of us do a lot of things as a reaction to the scripted stories in our heads from our past, or as a response to our worries about the future. We slow down so we can be  more aware of our intentions and our actions and how many times, they are incongruent to who we truly are. We wish for one thing but do something else and the dissonance between the two is often cause for our anxiety. We live according to other people’s expectations or cultural conditioning without knowing it. But when we live in the now, we can tune in to the Unseen, which helps us experience fully the Visible. And vice versa.
  • Slowing Down So We Can Love Unconditionally. The only way to love others is to be present. Fully. When we are not present, we  are not able to love without strings attached. And so we love, or try to act in love, but miserably fail to express it in ways that are truly loving and nourishing for others. We focus on ways that could deliver external results, we control, manipulate (no matter how gently) or we hide. We get others to love us by loving. Often our fears keep us from loving others, and when we slow down, listen to our internal dialogue and face those fears, we liberate our energies toward truly loving others, with Love as the end, not as a means for something else. 

So how do we even get started on slowing down? What does it mean to slow down in our everyday> In our parenting? In our career? In our spending? In our pursuit of well-being and happiness? In serving others and the world? I’d love to hear your thoughts as usual!! Please don’t be shy!!! Have you embraced the Slow Life? How are you adopting it into your way of life? Has it changed you for the better?

Nourishing Summer: The (Sorta) Un-Plug Challenge

June 17th, 2010 · Vina Barham · Happiness + Growth, Nourishing Lifestyle, Simplify and Declutter 5 comments - Tags: ,

Photo By Graela

I’m taking a break from the Nourishing Family Philosophy Series. I need a little breather. And summer is the perfect time. Why? Keep reading.

I am feeling light-hearted and fun these days. I just want to be outdoors all.day.long. The day starts early and fades out ever so slowly into night. Children are wrapping up school, farmers markets are everywhere, the deliciousness of fresh produce fills the air. (Only the sun is still playing hide and seek with us Seattle-lites but I don’t really care.) Summer is almost officially here.

So I want to propose something outrageous. I want to propose something many would consider the ultimate blogger suicide. I want to propose The Un-Plug Challenge. No blogging, no Facebooking, no Tweeting for the rest of the summer. Gasp. OMG. She’s lost her mind. She’s going down. Good-Bye. It sounds utterly irresponsible doesn’t it? To take a whole freakin’ month off? But stay with me for a few minutes while I explain myself (and alter my original proposal to something more palatable.

Honoring Longer Days and Shorter Nights
My daughter now sleeps when the sun is out (9 pm!) and is up and perky before I’d like her to be (7 am!) Nothing I do changes this (thank Goodness she naps for a really long time!). We even have those light blocking curtains in our room but she seems to just sense that the day is supposed to be longer. It is summer after all. And so because for those of us who live in regions where rain pours more often than we’d like, summer is a welcome invitation to embrace fully the season of play and leisure. Reading blogs, commenting on posts, updating FB status, tweeting about something mostly mean our attention is away from all that summer has to offer. It seems to me that there is a time and season for everything, and summer is the time to unplug, naturally.

Rethinking Our Virtual Community
Now granted, some of you may depend on plugging into the Mother Matrix of the Internet for livelihood or supplemental income or sanity. If that’s you, disregard everything I have to say. Or maybe if that’s you, regard highly everything I have to say. It’s a matter of perspective. I’m a blogger so obliviously I value social media. But I also sometimes detest it. Once your livelihood or your sanity is intimately tied to a virtual community, it suddenly feels like an essential part of life. But is it? I mean, what would happen if we didn’t have our virtual community anymore? What would happen if people quit Facebooking or tweeting or blogging? The world would be a quieter place. Yes, less information being exchanged at a much slower pace, but is that a bad thing? I’m not proposing trying to pretend the virtual world isn’t there. Or denying its value. I’m just suggesting that maybe it’s less important than we think it is. (And yet I value each one of you who stops by to read and even so for saying hello!)

Mindful Living and Blogging
So here I am blogging about un-blogging. The hypocrisy, eh? Let’s call it a paradox instead. Often, we find it really difficult to hold two truths that seem to contradict each other as simultaneously true. But when we do, then we don’t need to figure out a way to reconcile things in our heads. Or maybe I’m just justifying how I am using this platform to call people to unplug. Oh the mysteries of our motivations.

Blogging is awesome, but unblogging is also awesome. Let’s be honest, how many of us moms have a harder time being present to our children (or just being present) because of the constant plug in factor? Sure, it has given us an outlet for our stories, a platform for our passions, a connection to the outside world. But what would we give for a more present way to live? Or do we even know how to? Are you just as valuable without your Tweet followers or faithful subscribers? Do you really need a new recipe week after week after week ? Or tips on living more naturally every single day? Maybe you do, I’m just asking, that is all.

The Sorta Un-Plug Challenge
So here is my proposal. It would be ridiculous to blog the way I’ve been blogging and going UnPlugged. So with my heart trusting (that you won’t totally unsubscribe or quit visiting) and my fingers crossed, I’m going off the grid for the entire months of July and August except on Mondays. That way, if you decide to unplug as well, then I won’t be contributing to your virtual noise as much. What I promise to do: I’ll check in, write a post, tweet and do a FB status update weekly on Mondays. (I mean, do people really care?) I’ll still be at Passionate Homemaking once a month. I’ll read my blog subscriptions on my Google Reader only on Mondays. And then take a good rest of the week off to relish the goodness of summer and do a little bit of Internet Detox the rest of the week. I dream of one day going totally virtual-free, but the heck, I’m a blogger and a voracious e-reader so this will be a compromise of sorts for now. Baby steps, baby. One day, I’ll get there somehow. And I’ll make sure I blog and tweet about it.

I’m Over At Passionate Homemaking Today, Talking About The Awesomeness That IsTravel

June 16th, 2010 · Vina Barham · Everyday Justice, Happiness + Growth, Nourishing Lifestyle, Nourishing Moms No comments - Tags: ,

Oops, I forgot! Please come by and check out my post at Passionate Homemaking onHow To Be Well Travelled Without Leaving Home.

Hope you are all having a much better weather than our Seattle Gloom.

~ Vina

Please Don’t Pass Sterility To Your Children

June 15th, 2010 · Vina Barham · Everyday Justice, Nourishing Food, Real Food + Eating Well 4 comments - Tags:

Photo by Kevin Dooley

Last week, I talked about my determination to be a GMO-free household, and my husband brings home a box of donuts laden with ingredients I don’t even want to think about. Sigh. So today, I spew off some studies I found that I think have convinced him never to touch that stuff again (which means I have to come up with a healthy alternative to all that stuff he likes to eat without breaking bank!)

Sterility and Oral Hair Growth May Just Make Our Case in Point
So in case your significant other needs more reasons why it is essential to steer clear of processed food in general and non-organic food items (although I have to make a note here that some farmers don’t go through certification but still utilize organic methods, which is still organic in my book), here are some articles you may want to read:

A new study done by Russian scientists suggests that Genetically Modified Food may cause long term sterility, that is, sterility in second and third generations. The scientists used hamsters for this research and divided them into groups. One group of hamsters was fed a normal diet without any soy products, a second group was fed non-GMO (genetically modified organism) soy, the third ate GM soy and the fourth group was fed an even higher amount of GM soy than the third.

“This study was just routine,” said Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov, in what could end up as the understatement of this century. Surov and his colleagues set out to discover if Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) soy, grown on 91% of US soybean fields, leads to problems in growth or reproduction. What he discovered may uproot a multi-billion dollar industry.

After feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups.

And if this isn’t shocking enough, some in the third generation even had hair growing inside their mouths—a phenomenon rarely seen, but apparently more prevalent among hamsters eating GM soy.

“Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted. As there normally exists sex differences in liver and kidney metabolism, the highly statistically significant disturbances in the function of these organs, seen between male and female rats, cannot be dismissed as biologically insignificant as has been proposed by others. We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity….These substances have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences for those who consume them, especially over long time periods are currently unknown.”

Wait. It Gets Worse.

So, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, I believe. The U.S. Government insists that GMO is safe. Of course, you need to know that Michael Taylor, former Vice President of Monsanto (the Big Guys behind GMO’s) is the new Deputy Commissioner at our lovely Food and Drug Administration (FDA.) Curious, isn’t it? I am not a conspiracy theorist of any kind, but there’s something suspect about this. But maybe not? What do I know, right?

This Blog is Part of Two For Tuesdays Blog Hop, Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday.

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