How to Rebel Against Corporate Food (and Why You Should)
By Daisy Luther
The term “corporate food” is pretty disturbing if you stop to think about it. Corporations aren’t usually known for their strong ethics or for placing people above profit. And yet, somehow, more than 70% of food in America is processed and almost two-thirds of the food available comes from only 4% of the farms. This means that a very high percentage of the food consumed in America was somehow provided by a corporation whose main goal is profit, not nutrition. (Read more about the dangers of this type of consolidation.)
And lately, there has been recall after recall after recall of things that honestly should be safe to eat.
We would all be much better off if we focused on local food and cooked from scratch, wouldn’t we?
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Please remember that rebellion doesn’t mean that you have to lead a protest against some Big Food company’s national headquarters or march through the fields of a nearby industrial farm, waving signs. You can rebel quietly and staunchly by refusing to purchase what they are selling. Growing your own, buying from small local farmers, avoiding processed food like the plague that it is, and cooking from scratch are powerful weapons against corporate food.
Cookbooks
Mason Jar Salads: One of the biggest reasons that healthy eating plans go awry is a lack of time. If food is not convenient when you’re hungry, you are far more likely to reach for something processed or go through drive-thru. I recently discovered the wonderful world of mason jar salads and life will never be the same. (Obviously, as a canner, I have many jars just waiting to be filled with healthy ingredients.) If you like to prep your food ahead of time so that something good is always at hand, check out this awesome little book with 50 recipes for mason jar food prep. These are kid-friendly, too, since you can customize the ingredients to suit the tastes of picky eaters. Mason jar salads will stay good for 4-5 days, meaning that you can make an entire week’s worth of lunches in a Sunday afternoon. There is a little more to it than just slapping some ingredients into a jar, though, so pick up this book! ???? (Note: as with all successful books, there are quite a few knock-offs, many of which aren’t very good. Ensure that you get the original book!)
The Fanny Farmer Cookbook: If you want to avoid processed food ingredients in your recipes, one of the best ways to do so is to use a cookbook that was written well before processed food was commonly available.
My very favorite old friend in the kitchen is my Fanny Farmer Cookbook that I picked out of a dusty box at a yard sale. When I was newly married, Fanny is the one who taught me to cook as I worked my way through the recipes.
It’s a little different than modern cookbooks since it came from an era during which nothing could be allowed to go to waste. This is a thorough, old-fashioned cookbook that deserves a place on your shelf.
The Seasonal Kitchen Companion: This is my own PDF book about eating what’s in-season and preserving some of it for later. It’s loaded with recipe ideas, preservation instructions, and loads of ways to eat locally.
The produce chosen for this book is the stuff that my family loves. There are a few veggies you won’t find in it because we just don’t eat them. This is like a personal glimpse into our dinner table throughout the growing season.
It doesn’t matter if you get your produce from your own back yard or from the farmer’s market. Just enjoy that wholesome, delicious, fat-burning foods.
How do you break free from corporate food?
It’s not as hard as you might think to free yourself from relying on the huge industrial farms and the food manufacturers. And if you can’t trust the FDA, the USDA, and the EPA to enforce reasonable rules upon the huge corporations responsible for most of the American diet, you can avoid them altogether. Here are 3 tips to help you break free:
- Eat local. (Find a local farm or market HERE)
- Grow your own. (Every little bit of food that you can grow yourself chips away at the foundation of corporate food. You can find some tips for small-space growing in this round-up.)
- Cook from scratch. (Ditch the processed food with these kitchen shortcuts.)
Focus on ingredients instead of on items that are put together for you. Grab produce, meat, grains, and simple dairy products. Look for items with fewer than five ingredients and stick to things in season whenever possible.
Food Preservation
I love filling my spice cabinet with homegrown goodness. Chili powder is easy to make, and it’s intensely delicious. Here’s the DIY for that, and here is a link to seeds for poblano chilis, my favorite pepper for making my own chili powder.
Speaking of chili, canning your own is delicious, healthful, and easy. No longer do you need to worry about the questionable ingredients in storebought canned chili. Try canning your own for the most delicious “fast food” meal around. Here’s are recipes for canning two kinds of chili.
Grab some preservation books. You can get all of my own canning recipes in The Prepper’s Canning Guide and you can learn to dehydrate things you never even imagined dehydrating from The Prepper’s Dehydrator Handbook.
What to Eat This Week When You Rebel Against Corporate Food
Below, find two lists that focus on making your own instead of buying processed, and eating in-season.
In-Season Food
How to Cook (and Eat) Artichokes
How to Preserve the Whole Peach
Make It From Scratch Instead of Buying it Processed
How to Make Whole Wheat Crackers
Broccoli, Bacon, and Cheese Salad (So much better than the deli kind!)
Easy Homemade Pasta (There’s also this no-egg noodle recipe)
Meat in a Loaf (say goodbye to those nasty Pizza Pockets forever)
How to Make Cottage Cheese (Here’s the recipe if you are using raw milk)
2 Ridiculously Easy Ways to Make Homemade Yogurt
Some Anti-Corporate Food Products You Might Like
Have you tried fermentation as a food preservation method? It’s surprisingly easy. This e-course will get you on the right path to safe and simple fermentation. You’ll save a fortune making your own kombucha instead of buying the storebought kind, and you can also make sauerkraut, kvass, and all sorts of other delicious goodies. If you’ve been thinking about learning how to ferment foods, ORDER THIS COURSE (it is well worth the low price).
Make speedy veggie side dishes! One of my prized kitchen possessions is my handy 3-piece steamer set. I simply add fresh or frozen veggies to the basket, add water to the bottom, and in just a few minutes more than it takes to boil water, I have fresh, tender, steamed vegetables to serve beside my main dish. You can sprinkle some Parmesan on your veggies or top them with better if you don’t care for them plain. I got mine for Christmas and it has been the best addition to my kitchen in a very long time. I use it almost every day! (ORDER HERE)
What do you make from scratch that most people buy?
In a processed world, how do you rebel against corporate food by making from scratch something that most folks buy from the store? Is it easier than people think it would be? Tell us about it!
Are you doing some food preserving this week? Is there any local, seasonal food on your menu?
Dish with me in the comments below!
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, gun-toting blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, voluntaryism, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, The Organic Prepper, where this article first appeared. She is widely republished across alternative media and she curates all the most important news links on her aggregate site, PreppersDailyNews.com. Daisy is the best-selling author of 4 books and lives in the mountains of Virginia with her two daughters and an ever-growing menagerie. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
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