Food War Killing Us All

Just got back from the Heirloom Festival in Santa Rosa, the first non-gmo food festival in the nation. I've been an exhibitor at many trade shows in my life, but this one was truly a fair where caring and sharing were visible everywhere. I took my 3 year old and 5 year old and was convinced that I would have to drop them off at the hotel during the day, not so! They had fun for at least 9 hours each day, every day.  My neighbors weren't bothered by them, the volunteers cared for them, and the numerous kids activities and exhibits kept them enthralled. So, first off, hats off to the Baker Seed Company for the best family friendly event I've ever been to! I met so many fantastic exhibitors like Fermentation Nation, I watched chef demonstrations, there was free movies, Q&A's with producers and heirloom varieties of so many veggies. The attendees were open and freely sampled our raisins and appreciated the work of growing them organically without any sulfur.

The Keynote Speaker was my hero, the foremost advocate of the pure food movement Vandana Shiva, who many of you have probably seen in Food Inc. and Future of Food. When I found out that she was going to be in California speaking at a free event, I just had to go.  Vandana has been advocating pure food for over 30 years, long before it was trendy to do so. She put in perspective the magnitude of what we're dealing with in GMO foods.  She pointed out that this is a war. A war on our food. Many people want to avoid the war. At one conference a speaker said that he has two sons, one is organic and one is GMO and all he wants is for the two of them to get along. They're different but he wants them to co-exist. The film maker of Future of Food, spoke up and said "one of your sons is a bully." Organic food will never contaminate and pollute GMO food, but GMO food contaminates organic crops. How can one co-exist peacefully with a bully except by being subjugated?

Vandana pointed out that when the war was over, war tactics were applied to the production of food and it was called the Life Sciences Industry. There were three things that this industry claimed. 1) Feed the World. Monoculture was needed to increase yields to produce the vast amounts of food needed. 2) Reduce Pesticides. GMO crops like Round up Ready Soy would get rid of weeds. 3) Seed was intellectual property.

As regards the first point, monoculture does not increase yields. Biodiversity of crops is able to produce higher yields. In India where Monsanto claimed that the yield would be 1500 per acre of Cotton, the yield was actually 400-500. As part of our non-profit, our goal is to have a sustainable small farm model where a diversity of crops is grown on 17 acres. The biggest difference I notice from when we stopped our monoculture of grapes, is that our family actually eats from our farm. Think about it, what is the point of owning a farm when you rely on the commercial food industry to feed you because you are only growing one crop? Vandana also pointed out that the "backwards" or "low yielding" varieties were the ones that survived in areas affected by typhoons and tsunami's. The "advanced", "high yielding" varieties didn't survive the climactic changes. Bottom line, even if yields were lower with a diversity of crops, the fact that the farmer could feed himself and that the soil would be getting input from the crops is reason enough to support this type of farming.

The second point about reducing weeds has not materialized. Instead of weeds, there are now super weeds. Indian farmers were told that if they bought Monsanto seed - which sell to the tune of 4,000 rupees per kilo, inflated from the 5-10 rupees per kilo that seed used to sell for, they would not have to use pesticides. They are using 13 times the amount of pesticides they used before. Think about the financial cost, the environment impact, and the health impact of that. Industrialized farming also uses 10 times the amount of water. The water crises is created by our farming methods.

Lastly: that seed can be patented. A patent is given for an invention that is someone's intellectual property. Vandana defined the definition of the hindi/punjabi word beej. J or Ji means life. Bee is the seed. Every seed contains life and propagates life. When we plant a seed, it freely gives life to thousands more seeds. The question then is, who has the right to patent life? Right now we think it's acceptable to patent seed, before we thought slavery was acceptable. Monsanto claimed that when they infected an existing seed and modified it, it was so different that it became their intellectual property and could be patented. When it came to testing their invention, they then claimed that there was no significant difference between their seed and what occurs in nature and therefore testing is unnecessary. Which one is it? Is it different or not? Oh, I forgot, they're the ones with minds not us. We shouldn't be asking questions, just planting their seed and eating the food genetically engineered for us.

Monsanto is creating pollution.  Their gmo seeds are either carried to other farmers fields or they are mingled with pure seeds and they contaminate crops. The governments job is to regulate pollution, to punish the polluter, not to fine the victim. With Monsanto, time and again, farmers have had to pay fines because gmo seeds, which are intellectual property, pollute their farms. If anyone doubts this is a war on our food, please reflect on the 250,000 Indian farmers that believed Monsanto's claims and that subsequently drank pesticides to commit suicide when they lost their farm.

Vanada said that in some places it has become illegal to collect and plant seed without governmental permission. Think about that, the seed that a plant freely gives us is the governments property and we cannot collect or plant without their consent.  The Bible says in Genesis 1:28 that every vegetable and fruit bearing seed must become food for us. That command was issued by God.  All plants bearing seed were a gift from our creator and inherently were meant for sharing, not for the governments to take what was already present in nature and regulate which varieties we get to plant and eat. Intrinsic in the above command is what shouldn't serve as food for us: seedless and genetically engineered varieties. The Bible says that man will dominate man to his injury. There have been 250,000 farmer suicides from drinking pesticides when they cannot pay the bill and Monsanto has taken their land.

There was a call to action last night. Vandana gave us countless examples of countries like Europe who have banned gmo seeds. There have been treaties created to regulate gmo's, problem is, the U.S. doesn't sign them. Gandhi did two things when the British were dominating India. 1) In 1930 he rebelled against the salt laws. The government ordered that no resident was to gather salt because it was the property of the government. He picked up the salt that was on the beach, and would not subjugate himself to British Tyranny, the little island that ruled three quarters of the world. 2) He said that every family should own a spindle and be able to spin their own cotton.  Many people wondered how that would help. His point was that it was small enough that every home could have it.  This empowered Indians to produce their own clothing. At 6, Vandana wanted a polyester frock and her mother said that she could have it, but that she needed to realize that the frock was like a Mercedes 4, the latest thing to make a corporation richer and that the purchase of a cotton frock would put food on the table for a local village woman since they lived in the area where cotton was grown. 

Two questions were raised about markets last night. Vandana said that markets independently run are not a bad thing. In India, most markets are that way. The commercialization of markets is what has failed and we can learn not to follow that model. Second, we shouldn't purchase food from any place that supports Monsanto. I know it's easier to go to one grocery store and purchase all your organic goods but how does that put money in the pockets of farmers who are fighting the fine fight and growing organically? These large chains buy produce from farmers at the lowest possible cost, i.e. 50 cents a pound for grapes, they then charge consumers $3 or more a pound for those grapes. We buy grapes for $1.25 a pound and sell at our little market for $2.50 a pound. The farmer got paid more than double and the consumer pays less. Everybody benefits from small markets. 

The parallel here is that each of us play a role in the food movement. Other countries have banned Monsanto because people stopped shopping at supermarkets where GMO food was sold or supported. They have stopped supporting politicians that supported GMO foods. Every home in the entire world can do one of two things. 1) we can collect seed. Build a bio-diversity of seed so we can weather any storm and feed ourselves with seeds that we collect and plant. 2) Eat non-gmo foods. When we choose to support organic foods and natural varieties, we support bio-diversity. We must insist that gmo food labelling laws be required.

May you stand up for what you believe in, even if it takes more time. I'd like to close with Raw Foodist and Actor Woody Harrelson's words: I feel like an alien creature for which there is no earthly explanation. In money we trust in which there is no happiness. Like a genetically modified, irradiated Big Mac is somehow symbolic of food. Morality is legislated, prisons overpopulated, religion is incorporated, the profit motive is permeated all activity. Can you imagine clean water, food and air, living in community with people who care? Do you dare to feel responsible for every dollar you lay down, are you going to make the rich man richer or are you going to stand your ground? You say you want a revolution, a communal evolution, to be a part of the solution? Maybe I'll be seeing you around.

Encouraging you to get on the SOL train (Simple Organic Living), I remain

Yours in food and health,

Ta-raw Hamilton

www.organicfresno.com

tarahamilton@me.com

Revive cafe owner and chef

1807 Broadway Street

Fresno, CA 93721

559.4920.raw

911, It's how you view it

10 Years ago today, I was outside my hotel at the Marriott in Chicago waiting for the bus to take me to McCormick Place for our trade show with our eldest daughter Laura.  When the bus driver pulled up to pick up the 20 or so of us, in a panic he said "they've attacked New York".  It was happening as we rode to the Trade Show.  This was day four of an eight day trade show.  Needless to say, nothing else seemed to matter.  Most businesses in Chicago shut down that day and we were glued to our TV and missing the rest of our family in California terribly.  The sense of deep loss and sheer terror made me want to be close to those I loved and be reassured that my world wasn't collapsing around me.

I often look back at that day and think that how the whole group of us felt moments before being told about the attack was totally different than after the attack.  I personally didn't know anyone in that tragedy, just like I didn't know anyone in the Japanese Tsunami but I was more frightened than I had ever been before. Although that day was a tragedy, I have learned a valuable lesson about how powerful our mind is.  Before they attacked New York, the world was the same place as after the attack. Now don't get upset about that statement, think about it. Those terrorists were already out there, they were already planning the attack, they already knew they were going to kill thousands of people.  What changed after the attack was not just the massive loss of life as happened in the Tsunami, but our view of the world.  

Before the attack I viewed the place I lived as a secure, strong fortress.  Had it really been or did I just become aware of the fact that my view was an illusion? Now when I face situations that seem to be overwhelming I remind myself that becoming absorbed in tragedy as we all did in Chicago is not empowering.  For the next four days, business had NOT carried on as usual.  We were so frightened that the trade show pretty much shut down. The businesses remained largely closed. But, other than wallowing in fear, what good did we accomplish?  Looking back on it it now, I could have empowered myself to reach out to the victims of the families in some way.  I could have spent the next four days writing letters of comfort. I could have read books on how to comfort survivors of tragedies, I could have driven to New York and volunteered, I was certainly close enough.  Instead I fed my fear by being glued to the TV.

I've adjusted the way I deal with difficult situations now. I know difficult means something different to everyone but sometimes personal attacks on our character can be difficult and for others difficult is taking care of four grandkids ages 1 to 6, while your daughter is in the hospital. What was the lesson learned for me?  Assess the situation, see if your world is really any different than before you found out about the event.  i.e. before you found out about the character defamation or your daughters severe sickness, did the person already feel that way about you and was the disease already present?  The answer is generally yes.  Then I ask myself, is there anything I can do about it?  If I'm not sure, I seek advice.  Not from friends who don't really have all the answers but from authorities on the subject.  In terms of the sick daughter, read everything you can about that disease, find out what you're dealing with. Remember I'm not saying fill your head up with fear about the disease and worry about if your daughter is going to be fine, I'm saying real knowledge about what the root problem is and are there any solutions. Next take action about what you've learned. Do what you can to alleviate the problem.  It's not going to fix itself overnight, it didn't happen overnight. Although the action or hospitalization may have been swift, there was a long lead up to it. Once you've done what you can, focus on other things that need to be taken care of and that make you feel good. For example, if it's not our daughter that is in the hospital but someone elses, just like it wasn't my family that was hurt by the attacks on 911, can we do something to help the caregiver? Maybe a nourishing meal, a massage, a day trip with the kids.  This flow of positive energy helps overcome the fear and helplessness and reassures the person that you love them.

So today, don't just read about 911 tragedies, reach out to make our family, our community, our city, our world a better place. Remember that 10 years after the attack, you didn't sit in fear thinking about it, you reached out to help someone. Today, I'm going to teach people how to prepare food that nourishes their body and mind. I'm going to spend my resources supporting people working for positive change in their health. We will tape it, so all of you can learn from the comfort of your home later. May you reach out to help people today, in whatever way you can. In with the good, out with the bad.

Yours in health, hope and action.

I remain,

Tara Hamilton
facebook.com/revive
www.makeloveinthekitchen.tv 
www.wholefarmsexpress.com 

 

To be vegan or vegetarian, that is the question

I grew up in a Punjabi family where every farming family had their own buffalo and the ultimate sign of love, health and prosperity was being able to afford to drink milk. We lived in a village surrounded by farm land in the State of Punjab which has a lot of similarities to Fresno. It's an agricultural society and it provides half the food for the entire country of India just like California is the major grower in the United States. Punjabi vegetarians don't eat eggs but they do eat dairy in the form of paneer cheese, milk, yogourt and they cook with butter.  I found it hard then to understand why there was such a big hullabaloo about people being vegan and avoiding dairy in California. I have since then learned the vast difference between the dairy I consumed as a Punjabi and what is provided here.

The one thing that is most memorable to me about Punjab is the scent of country air. When I was 16 and we returned to India for a visit, we got off the plane in Delhi and it stunk so bad of pollution that I asked my mom if we could just go back to Canada right then. Boy was my mom upset. When we drove into Punjab though, the bad smells totally dissipated. Every day for four months, I walked to our farm from the village and the scent of vegetation hung heavy in the air mixed with dew in the early mornings. In Canada, my husband grew up in the country, in Callander, Ontario and when we visited, we smelled the difference in the country air.  Our eldest daughter lives in upstate New York in Wallkill, which is in the country and the air there smells far different from Brooklyn or the other cities. The closest description I can give you to the scent of India is when you are camping in the true back woods and you wake up early in the morning and there is a slight smell of the camp fire mingled with dew and greens. It's an intoxicating smell that you can envelop yourself in.

Fresno is pretty far in the country. I understand we live in the city, but we own a 20 acre farm and we lived in the small town of Kerman before moving to Fresno. On Friday, I drove down to L.A. to pick up supplies for the cafe and my senses were continually assailed by the country smell. Unfortunately, it wasn't the pleasant aroma of India, it was the stench of dairies. I left at 5:00 a.m. in the morning and this should have been the time for the air smelling the sweetest. Instead, I could barely breathe because of the manure scent at the Costco Gas station in bakersfield at 7:00 a.m. with not a dairy in sight. It reminded me of Kerman where we sometimes could not step outside our house because the putrid stink from the dairy was so bad. You've heard the commercials of happy california cows and you see the posters that say, "meet us, meet our cows". Now, the first time I drove to Kerman from San Diego, I was shocked at the first dairy I drove by. The cows were ankle high in their own manure and I nicknamed them mud cows. I lamented that dairy cows who gave milk every day were never allowed to leave the mud and were confined in such disgustingly filthy close quarters. I asked why some cows were pastured in fields that weren't a dairy and I was told they were beef cattle. How intelligent is that? Animals that are only used for food when they are dead are allowed to have a happy life, but animals that daily give us milk are treated worse than human slaves. After watching Food Inc. I realized that most feed lots are just as bad as dairies, the cattle I had seen were organic, free range cattle.

Well, I have to say that the farms in India, Canada or New York don't smell like the dairies here. I don't even know if they would envision degrading animals to such a degree that their entire life is spent in mud and manure. No wonder they have to pasteurize the milk, it is so contaminated you'd have to ultra pasteurize it to kill the germs, along with any nutritional value of course. My husband visited Organic Pastures and my son goes out there weekly and they say there is no stench from their farm. Their farm smells like the ones in Canada and India. My 3 year old and 4 year old both drink their raw milk. Megan brings me goats yogourt and cheese which is also nutritious and delicious. I have to say though folks, nobody anywhere in India consumes dairy like Americans do. Our one buffalo provided the dairy for our entire family. At $6.50 for a half gallon of whole milk, my children drink it conservatively too. My eldest son swears by raw colostrum to beat a cold and many say it helps with asthma and a host of other diseases. Organic Raw milk is high in Omega 3s and is good for you. Organic or regular Pasteurized milk is detrimental as shown in the movie "Forks over Knives".

If my noise bothers my neighbors they can call the police and get the situation corrected. The stink from dairies is not just bothering their neighbors, it's bothering tourists, travellers and people miles away and yet we all put up with it. Driving down the highway, they get to poison my air and we accept that because they are the all powerful dairies. I can't work at my farm some days because of the stink of cow manure but no police officer will respond to my complaint because they're allowed to infect my air.  Well I know a way to stop them, become vegan. If everyone became vegan, there would be no reason to treat cows like the manure they stand in. Or if people only purchased Organic, Raw milk we would indeed be surrounded by happy california cows. You pick. To breathe, or not to breathe seems more the appropriate question. I choose to breathe and let breathe.

Yours in food and health,

Tara Hamilton
Revive Cafe - facebook.com/revivecafe
organicfresno.com
559.4920.raw
tarahamilton@me.com

 

Don't Mega Size Me, Maximize Me.

My husband and I went to San Francisco this weekend for our wedding anniversary and we hung out with customers/ friends of ours who showed us the "real" San Francisco.  We went to Pizzetta 211 which uses organic ingredients when possible. The restaurant was half the size of our cafe but it was the best pizza I have ever had, including the pizza we had in venice, italy.  The place had 4 tiny tables and was busy all the time, I was getting stressed that people had to wait. I wondered when they would move to a bigger location and the guy said he'd been working there for 6 years. They had no intention of expanding, instead they maximized what they already had.  There was many similarities to our cafe with the care they took in preparing innovative fresh food for their clients.  Difference is nobody tells them to get a new location or get a bigger place. They aren't stressed when people have to wait and the people understand they need to wait for good food.  What other striking differences did I notice about San Francisco and Fresno?

1) The people there are generally much thinner than residents of Fresno.  They walk a lot more and they bike. Even when we drove somewhere, we had to park so far away that we got a good walk to our destination.

2) They support the local food movement.  There are mom and pop fruit and veggie neigborhood stores that people preferred to shop at instead of  large Save Marts etc.

3) There wasn't a McDonalds, Taco Bell or Carl's Jr. etc. at every major intersection, instead there was innovative neighborhood restaurants. The food is prepared by people who own the restaurant and make buying decisions with respect to their ingredients. Their food is not all high fat and low nutrition.  The coffee restaurant served organic coffee and the organic bakery served a different organic vegetarian pizza every day.

4) Although San Francisco is much bigger than Fresno, people's homes are smaller and the city is split into small communities where people know each other and support the local businesses. They don't have mega fever, they've learned contentment and maximize what they have.

What did I learn from my experience? I don't have to have mega fever, I can maximize what I have.  Like San Franciscans, I can promote a community neighborhood feel by personalizing my cafe to be a personal expression of my beliefs and convictions in an artistic way.  After all, we are in the mural district. I want to promote the little neighborhood I work in, I don't have to change all of Fresno, I just have to believe that I can affect change in my neighborhood and in the lives of the people I come into contact with.

Let's reject Mega Fever and embrance the contentment that come with maximizing what we have like Europeans and San Franciscans. Let's reject mega chain commercialized junk food and shop at neighborhood markets selling locally grown fruits and veggies. May we maximize our money and make our voice count with every dollar we lay down. Never give up believing that we can be a community and that we can connect with each other.  I look forward to the day that we can walk in Fresno at 11:00 p.m. at night with hundreds of others without fear of violence because we care about each other and the place we live.  I'm planning to change the whole decor of our cafe, so look forward to a more artistic atmoshpere in the next few weeks.

Yours in community and Health,

Tara Hamilton

www.facebook.com/revivecafe

www.organicfresno.com
tarahamilton@me.com 

To Kill or Not to Kill

To Kill or not to Kill, that is the question.  Killing has become so commonplace for people today that they don't even think about it.  We watch violent movies, play violent video games and violence is the top of the news.  The killing I'm referring to though is the kind that is killing us.

I've blogged about Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  The most exciting part of that movie for me was the new food pyramid that they said is the most successful in all history for losing weight and keeping it off.  In the food pyramid you were allowed to eat unlimited veggies, fruits, beans and legumes.  You were allowed limited daily amounts of nuts and seeds.  Meat was recommended once or twice a week.  One of our customers was kind enough to loan me a copy of Forks over Knives, the new movie that is released.  The movie is a documentary by two medical doctors, one who is a surgeon.  They talk about the china study and it's results tracking cancer and disease and their connection to diet.  In all of their research they found that 20% casein in your diet promotes the growth of diseases such as stroke, cancer and diabetes.  5% casein in the diet didn't seem to elevate these risks at all.  Where does casein come from?  Meat protein and dairy.

Let's break it down.  When we kill animals or eat animals that someone else has killed for us on a daily basis it is easy to consume 20% casein in our diet if one of our meals per day is half meat, like in a burger and fries.  Unfortunately, most Americans on the S.A.D. diet or M.A.D. diet, Standard American Diet and Modern American Diet consume meat at every meal, i.e. bacon and eggs with toast, hamburger or chicken burger or chicken salad for lunch and meat, potatoes and overcooked veggies for supper.  That is at least a whopping 30-50 percent meat in their daily diet.  Do you know that the USDA recommends a 5 ounce portion of meat as a serving, the typical steaks served at restaurants are 12 ounces.  So at one meal, you can eat two or more portions of meat.  The result: all this animal killing is killing us.  Sad fact is that for 25% of heart attack victims, death was their first symptom that anything was wrong.

Plant based diets are the answer as Forks over Knives clearly illustrates.  More than that like Woody Harrelson's documentary illustrated SOL living is the solution, Simple Organic Living.  David Wolfe, raw foodist whose parents are both doctors said that Genesis 1:29 is very specific about what kinds of fruits and veggies we should eat.  He said that it is fruit bearing seeds that were given to us.  Therefore seedless varieties or genetically modified foods are not optimal for our bodies because that was not what was provided for us.

In Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, the man who had heart surgery resumed his old ways of eating and knew that food was going to kill him.  He didn't much care about missing out on 5 or 10 years of his life.  Cancer patients are "cured" of their cancer and continue eating in the manner that caused cancer to grow in the first place as Forks over Knives illustrates.  The result? Cancer returns. 

Folks, we're slowly killng ourselves with the food that we eat.  We're killing animals, we're killing our soil with pesticides and we're killing the air and water that support life.  Most of us would never dream of killing ourselves with a bullet and yet, worse than that, we're killing ourselves and all the things that sustain life by the way we eat.  Each of us is personally responsible for the food we spend our money on and what we put into our bodies.

I love what Woody Harrelson said at the end of his movie: Go Further.  I'm going to close this blog with his words, because they are inspiring:

I feel like an alien creature for which there is no earthly explanation. In money we trust in which there is no happiness. Like a genetically modified, irradiated Big Mac is somehow symbolic of food. Morality is legislated, prisons overpopulated, religion is incorporated, the profit motive is permeated all activity. Can you imagine clean water, food and air, living in community with people who care? Do you dare to feel responsible for every dollare you lay down, are you going to make the rich man richer or are you going to stand your ground? You say you want a revolution, a communal evolution, to be a part of the solution? Maybe I'll be seeing you around.

How is Your Heart Beating?

As healthy people, we are aware that everything we put into our bodies affects our health, but do we stop to think of what's coming out of our body?  I have the privilege of meeting and serving awesome people at our cafe.  Many of them become near and dear to me.  Sometimes they're happy and sometimes sad, what can I say ... Life Happens.  Over the years I've had to deal with too many stresses to mention but I realize that there is a simple philosophy for keeping your heart beating strong.  Remember the serenity plaque "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference." In these difficult economic times, hard working people are having a tough time paying bills.  In the morally bankrupt environment we live in, parents are struggling to raise responsible children and single people are struggling to be contributing community members.  50 Years ago, nobody would have believed that the number one problem among our younger generation would be drugs and alcohol.  50 Years ago, nobody would have believed that people would choose to eat food that kills them because it tastes good. And that they would feed it to their kids because they're too busy to make wholesome food and they don't educate themselves about the difference. 50 Years ago, people would have been shocked that foreclosures would be a problem affecting mililons of Americans.  In this depressing climate how does the serenity plaque help us?

I always think of it in reverse order, I start with praying for Courage to change the things I can.  Every morning I wake up and make time for my two honey bears, Daniel and Sarai who are 4 and 3 years old.  After our daily text, I stay in bed working on the computer until they wake up at about 7:15 a.m. so they can cuddle with me.  We read books as time allows.  At 8:00 a.m. I hug them and kiss them and bid them adieu as I head off to work.  I walk 40 minutes to our store so I can prepare food with love for the people I love.  I work as hard as I can until 7:00 p.m. when our store closes.  During that time, I co-ordinate with my older children and try to train them to carry our their responsibilities so that they will be able to carry on without me in the future, should the need arise.  I always try to do the right thing.  By my family, my friends, my customers and my God.  This can be a challenge since there are scammers trying to bilk you at every turn.  I've learned you can't control everything but you can keep your heart beating strong and hard.

At work, we can't change the people around us, but we can make sure they don't change the happy, loving people we are.

At home, we can't make our children be who we want them to be, but we can make sure that we don't give up on them because they don't treat us the way we treated our parents.

With our money, we can't always earn more, so we can try to spend less. Figure out what we need and be content with those things.

 

At work, we show courage by being the best workers we can be, no matter how tired we are.

At home, we show courage by being the best parents we can be and making time for our children no matter how many other demands there are on our time.

With our money, we work hard and smart so we don't squander our money on late fees, service charges, parking tickets, speeding tickets and fines that could have been avoided with planning.

With our heart, we accept who we are.  We discern where we need to make changes so we can take better care of ourselves and our families. Then we give, give, and give until we are spent.

We trust that there is indeed more happiness in giving than in receiving.  

 

Find joy in all you do so your heart beats hard and strong, Find the courage to do the right thing so your heart beats true and your heart beats steadily, not giving out until there is nothing left to give.

May what comes out of you be as pure as the organic untainted food that goes into it.

Yours in health, inside and out,

Tara Hamilton

www.organicfresno.com
tarahamilton.com
facebook.com/revivecafe

Revive Cafe
1807 Broadway Street
Fresno, CA
559.4920.raw 

Obsess or Accept

The question I get asked most is whether I'm 100% raw.  The answer is a simple no.  I am high raw and eat more than 85% raw. If I'm invited to someone's home, I choose to accept the meal prepared for us with love rather than obsess about what went into it.  We also have six children who we spend a family night with, and we have company once a week.  These two meals often include cooked food.  

The next question I'm asked is why I eat raw.  Simple answer, I feel great and I'm worth it!  If you haven't seen the movie "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" I highly recommend it, as it was inspirational!  Not just informational like Food Inc, Future of Food, Food Matters, Flow and other movies but Inspirational. I mean there is Joe in this large, unappealing body, accented by a heavy gut and generous bottom.  He emerges from his 60 day juice cleanse like a butterfly emerges from it's cacoon.  I love my husband and confess that he is the hottest man I've ever laid eyes on.  Having said this, I am not blind, and know if someone is attractive or not and disgusting was what came to mind when I saw Joe in his swim trunks at the beginning of the movie.  At the end of the movie, I cheered Joe for discovering the "hot" body that was hidden behind his mounds of fat.  Throughout the movie, he transforms from a lethargic subject to a sparkling, passionate conversationalist who bonded with all sorts of people as he tried to encourage them on the road to health. 

Then you meet the truck driver who is so likeable, he has a good heart but the body of a heart attack waiting to happen.  The interviews on the show were so typical of standard american sentiment.  People knowing that their food is no good for them but not caring.  Europeans in general spend most of their income on shelter and food.  They aren't attracted to cheap food, their goal is quality food and they are willing to pay for it.  Americans spend less money on food in proportion to their income then any other country in the world, but we have more gadgets than anywhere else.  We spend  money on our cars, flat screen tv's etc. but complain about the "idiots" that shop for organic food. I must profess that I saw myself in some of those interviews.  When I took the course for well children at the Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential 4 years ago and they told us to eat strictly organic food, I put up my hand and said I couldn't afford to eat organic.  They asked me how much more expensive it was and I said "double" and sometimes triple.  They told me the food had 8 times the nutritional value so I could eat half as much and be 4 times healthier without changing my budget.  I was 4 weeks pregnant with our daughter Sarai and was unbelievably sick. But, I tried their elimination diet, which is posted on our website at www.makeloveinthekitchen.tv, and was shocked when 72 hours later I was up and walking around.  I had never felt healthier.

Since everyone is always asking me questions, let me ask you the question, I asked myself.  If you aren't working to sustain your life, why are you working?  The one thing that sustains our life directly, is the food we eat.  If I can't afford to eat food that nourishes my body to keep me alive and free from disease, what the heck am I working for? Whether a house is big or small, in the end it's the place we sleep, which is why entire families live in tiny abodes in India. A car, whether it's old or new, big or small, still just gets us from point a to b. But every bite that enters our mouth can heal us or sicken us.  Why then did I work my whole life to earn money to surrender the most important input to my life to the cheapest bidder, the absolute stranger who cares nothing about me or my health.  So if you can't afford to feed yourself nourishing, life-sustaining food, what are you working for?

The answer to why I eat raw is simple, because I want to be the best I can be.  The more pertinant question is why don't you? Can you really afford to be so busy that you can't invest in your health or are you like the guy in the movie who, despite having a son, wasn't motivated to sacrifice his penchant for disease inducing food in order to live longer.  I'm pleased to say that I'm in love with my life, my family, my friends, my health and  my God.  I am a purista and my energy is spent creating living foods that Revive!  I am proud that my occupation is preparing healthy raw foods that nourish people at Fresno's only Raw Food Cafe.  I am proud of the people who choose to eat raw food and am especially proud of the group of young people who are becoming advocates of their health by starting the 30 day juice/raw food challenge tomorrow. Follow them at http://www.facebook.com/FSSSRebootChallenge.>

May you become inspired to love your body and reject cheap, degrading, disease ridden food that only abuses you and embrace a healthy relationship with foods that love your body back. I'm not suggesting that you obsess about everything you eat. I certainly don't.  Accept that you choose what goes into your body and that certain occassions call for eating cooked foods that aren't nutritionally dense.  However, accept too that you are your bodies advocate. Don't drown out the voice begging you to be the best you can be.  Like Joe, discover the healthy, hot body inside of you. Revive!

Tara Hamilton

tarahamilton@me.com, organicfresno.com

facebook.com/revivecafe

1807 Broadway Street, Fresno, CA 93721

559.4920.raw, 559.497.5085