FACT FINDING FRIDAY!

Welcome back! This week I wanted to talk about what you can do to help fix our food industry. What I think is most vital for this change is that everyone sees and realizes that it isn't that difficult to integrate these changes into daily life. Simple things can have great impact if we all work together. Baby steps are vital. Making changes is difficult, and we have to want to change for that to happen. I don't think it is realistic to ask Americans to stop eating meat or to stop going out. But we CAN make small changes at home to make a large impact.
From the website Food, Inc. I found this list.

Learn more about these issues and how you can take action on Takepart.com

Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages.

You can lose 25 lbs in a year by replacing one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).

Eat at home instead of eating out.

Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.

Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards.

Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.

Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks.

Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years.

Meatless Mondays—Go without meat one day a week.

An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.

Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides.

According to the EPA, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.

Protect family farms; visit your local farmer's market.

Farmer's markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.

Make a point to know where your food comes from—READ LABELS.

The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.

Tell Congress that food safety is important to you.

Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.

Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections.

 Even just choosing one of this list for this week and adding to it as you go along, you can make a difference.