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Farmageddon: A Food Documentary That Should Serve as a Wake-Up Call to All Americans

Last night, I went to go see the documentary Farmageddon, a movie that I had been hearing about for the last few months.

Farmageddon highlights the USDA’s brutal crackdown on farmers selling raw milk and how the agency’s heavy-handed, corrupt and politically-motivated ways have destroyed the lives of small, organic farmers trying to do the right thing.

The objective of the movie is not to promote raw milk, however. The objective of the movie is to get people to wake up and to start demanding change.

Our food system is in serious, serious peril. As of now, Big Ag has tremendous influence in setting food policy and controlling the USDA, all to the detriment of organics.

This has resulted in monoculture farming, widespread adoption of genetically-modified foods and seeds, growth hormones and antibiotics for animals, toxic pesticides and factory farms — nothing that creates more nutritious food.

Additionally, as Farmageddon so deftly points out, it has also resulted in Americans losing their right to choose what to eat, grow and sell.

Yet the reality is this. Americans are not getting angry enough and raising hell with our president, senators and representatives. Politicians would absolutely change their views regarding industrial agriculture if they knew that their jobs were in jeopardy.

Hopefully, this movie will serve as a true wake-up call for all Americans. We MUST make change happen.

What Can You Do?

1) There is a list of resources on the Farmageddon website of ways to get involved.

2) Sign up for the newsletter at The Center for Food Safety, my favorite non-profit when it comes to protecting the rights of organic consumers. They are constantly suing Monsanto and the USDA in order to protect organic food.

3) Get involved, don’t sit back and educate your friends and family as to what is truly going on in this country.

If you are under the assumption that President Obama cares about protecting organic food, then you must watch this video I shot recently with Andrew Kimbrell, the Executive Director of The Center for Food Safety.

Our president has a very, very strong GMO agenda.

A message from Tradin Organic

Why Tradin Organic is Prioritizing Regenerative Organic Farming

At Tradin Organic, we believe that regenerative organic farming is key to growing healthy and nutritious food ingredients — for now and for future generations.

And in Sierra Leone, we have grown the world’s first Regenerative Organic Certified cacao.

Learn more.

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Living Maxwell

Personal

Am I Being Too Rigid with My Dating?

Last week I wrote about dating a non-organic woman and the challenges that it creates. A few questions that I grapple with are these — Is my very strong desire to be with someone who eats organic eliminating many great women with whom I could have a relationship? And, is my rigidity causing more harm than good?

Over the last few years, it has become increasingly clear that health is one of my most important values. Almost everything I do revolves health and eating organic food is a huge passion of mine.

My values are what they are and they are not going to change. The only woman with whom I am going to have a successful and happy relationship is someone who shares this same value. Does this mean that she has to be as passionate or into health (organic food) as I am? No, because she may never have been exposed to this lifestyle and doesn’t know much about it. That is perfectly understandable. However, she needs to be open to this way of living and eager to embrace it.

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A message from Tradin Organic

How Tradin Organic is Helping Coconut Farmers in The Philippines

For more than a decade, Tradin Organic has been working with local partners in The Philippines to bring a diversified range of organic products to the market, such as coconut oil, tropical fruits and even cocoa.

The company is helping to support local farmers by assisting them with technical support and organic certification, in addition to paying Fairtrade premium on top of the organic premium.

Learn more.

Living Maxwell

Personal

Do I Ever Cheat?

Last week, I was asked by a friend of mine if I ever cheat.

No, she was not asking if I ever cheat on women but rather wanted to know if I ever cheat on my diet.

While I was taken aback by the question and didn’t have an immediate answer, she followed up with “Don’t you ever eat a doughnut?”

“No, I never eat doughnuts,” I quickly responded. That was an easy one to figure out. The thought of putting a Krispy Kreme into my body never ever enters my mind.

The larger question about cheating, however, really got me thinking and this is what I came up with.

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Living Maxwell

Personal

Was Taking Antidepressants in College The Right Decision at the Time?

This is a very complex question that my father and I discuss from time to time. He insists that it was the right decision for me to go on it and doesn’t regret it at all. He also thinks I should never have gone off antidepressants when I did in 2001.  He and my mother were adamantly against this decision.

For me, the question of whether going on antidepressants was the right decision brings up many thoughts and additional questions.

* As I talked about in my last post related to this subject, there were tremendous and disastrous repercussions for going on Prozac. There is no doubt about it.

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livingmaxwell: a guide to organic food & drink