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Cathmom,

I may not have seven children yet, but I am in a similar situation, so being really rabid when saying that I'm overly obsessing about what goes into my body is very judgmental.  

Since we're talking about how much we make now, we make less than $30,000. I have five children, and one is mainly still nursing.

I don't drink tap water. Ever. I get the reverse osmosis water (which takes the vast majority of contaminants out of the water) from the store for 30 cents a gallon. I know what's in the water. I also know that not all of it can be taken out (not even all the fluoride, no matter what kind of filter you have.) I know what they add at the plant, and what people flush down the toilet. I know that the medication people are flushing gets into the water, and that's why I don't drink it, and certainly not my children.

I live in a "marginal neighborhood," where, if you go a few blocks away, there are a couple of gang houses. When you talk about protecting souls, and that we must be worried about that, I do my best. I homeschool, and I try to go to daily Mass. What I read (and perhaps, forgive me, inferred) is that I should be more concerned about the salvation of the souls that God has put me in charge of,  than what they put in their bodies, and if you read anything that I have posted prior to this, you, perhaps, would see that it is my main focus, however, there is nothing wrong with keeping them away from contaminants I know could psychologically and physiologically damage them. Saying I "obsess" about these things is a very big exaggeration.

For me, having to budget to be able to afford it was a very big task (considering, now, that perhaps even I have less money to work with than even you do), but if you adjust gradually, it makes it easier, at least from my experience. Doing it all at once before you know what brands are the most cost-efficient, is a very big headache, and one that I wouldn't recommend.

I am not trying to point fingers at anyone here, and I believe it's tragic that people could have taken it that way. I'm trying to show you what I've researched, and hopefully it will make it a bit easier to make your decision about what you choose to eat.

Writing off organic simply because it's more expensive, I believe, is a mistake. I'd rather spend $20 more on a product made by workers in the United States, or Wisconsin, even, so that my neighbor could keep his job, rather than buy the cheaper thing for much less and support some big corporation enslaving Chinese people.

Most of the time, saying yes to organics is saying no to globalization, which has gotten the US in the mess it is in right now.

Anyway, if I offended you, Alex, or Cathmom, I'm sorry. People say I am rather blunt, and my writing evidences that.

I don't think that wanting to go organic equals obsession. In a way we have to be "obsessed" nowadays because the food situation has gotten way out of control. We have to relearn everything. With the losses of the homestead and the stay-at-home mom, we have turned to mass production to support us, and with mass production comes additives that are not good for us in order to give food more shelf life. (A sandwich is not supposed to last 2 months! Ew!)

This isn't limited to food either. It's a vicious circle that has gone too far but it's nearly impossible for many people to break out of it, precisely because breaking out of it is more expensive. The nasty chemical toxins used are cheap to produce in a factory, therefore cheaper to use in our food and personal care products, therefore cheaper on the shelf. It's cheaper to create a synthetic nauseating "vanilla" scented "air freshener" out of God knows what chemicals at a manufacturer's disposal than it is to actually sustain a vanilla farm and use true vanilla extracts. It's our reality.

In the long run I think making the switch to more expensive natural foods and personal care products pays itself off (not that anyone is trying to avoid death, but the quality of life is certainly improved), but the problem is that it takes money up front to make many of these changes. We have been making changes around the house but it's slow going because we just don't have that money up front even though we can see that the changes save us in the long run.  

Those who can need to vote with their dollars so that truly natural products can become cheaper with higher supply and demand, but there are many who cannot and who have to wait until that stuff is less expensive. Of course many don't change because they are lazy or stuck on bad habits or stubborn or ignorant, but I know there are some who simply can't afford it. We have to do the best we can and accept that this is the time God placed us in.



 

PFT

Being blunt is not the problem, it is your inability to comprehend that when people say that they have no money, that is what they mean, they have no money.  Don't interpret it to mean what it would mean to you; some people are just having a hard time eating and paying basic bills at the same time.   Some people live on a bit more than what you spend for food in a month.  

Years ago, if we were in dire straits financially, we could first go to our families, then the church, and if all else failed, we would go to the state for help.

Nowdays it's all backwards. You have people first going to the government, hence, we have unbearably high taxes. This was by design, so that people would become dependent on the system.

That being said, for people making less than what we make here, you would absolutely qualify for the government program foodshare.

Your taxes are already paying for this "benefit." It makes no sense anymore to not take advantage of it if you can, because most of us have been supporting this program for some people that don't even need it, for many, many years, and it's about time, if you haven't looked into this option already, to take advantage of it.

The government has been subsidizing the agricultural industry for years, keeping huge farm commodities down purposefully to get the food industry dependent on it.

When I was growing up, my father had a heart attack at a shockingly early age (38). For years he suffered with a condition that was caused by Agent Orange (the same people that grow most of the conventional food, and own the seeds and "copyrights" on those genes in the seeds, by the way). For 15 years he fought with them, and by the grace of God, we made it through that time, being able to at least eat, if we had nothing else.

With people losing their jobs, being underemployed, and having their standards reduced, more taxes being collected from average people by the prices rising on things, there is a good case for going and getting what you have been charged for all these years, hence, my belief that people are entitled to it.

If the government is going to make these laws that make us dependent on their assistance despite our fighting to stop socialism, we might as well go after those programs whilst they're still there to take care of ourselves when we don't have enough.

People need to stop being ashamed of going to get help when they need it, instead of biting someone's head off for alerting them to the dangers of what they put into their bodies, like it's the whistle blower's fault.