I agree with everything you say. But if we're really going to help families raise their kids with healthier food as free as possible from all the toxins, it's got to start with parents and kids learning how to cook. It has driven me crazy since I was in public high school, how little value has been placed on the survival arts.
When I was in 12th grade here in Santa Barbara (1970), I signed up for Home Ec/Food. My counselor said it would be a waste of my time, I was “too smart” for that. I insisted. And it was the best class I took in high school. It also gave me a very cynical view of the Left taking over education. Because I was required to take a course called “American Problems” (I kid you not) that semester.
That course was all about how awful America's with its poverty, exploitation of indigenous cultures, ruination of the environment, etc., etc. I agreed with much of it - I was a hippie - but the class was just depressingly passive anger-feeding. The students taking it were all college bound.
Then I'd go over to my Foods class. The class was entirely made up of working class kids, who were going to go to our City College and then right to jobs, except me. Our teacher was great. She actually lectured us on how important it is to cook our own meals. She would give us food stamps and a budget and requirements for buying for a healthy meal. (You had to buy real ingredients not Ding Dongs). We'd be sent across the street to the market to buy the ingredients, then come back and learn what to do with them. Granted the health food organic store was too far away near UCSB fr the class, but our teacher did encourage us to buy from it. It was all about taking control of what you put in your body.
Then Home Ec got squeezed out of our education system just when it was most needed, when families split up and moms were too busy to cook and instead of addressing this, the answer was “more processed fast food.”
This really angers me. Families are told they don't have enough time to cook, but that's just fast food marketing. My mom grew up during the Great Depression. Her mom had to go to work when her dad died early. Her granny took over the home. I looked over my great granny's recipes. My mom grew up on homemade beef and chicken broth, and sucked the marrow. Eggs delivered by farmers. Chickens her granny plucked. My mom lived to be almost 96 and the doctors did studies of her brain because she was so sharp. There was next to no diminishment. No micro plastic. Contrast that with twenty-somethings today.
I believe in MAHA. But it's going to take more than regulations. They destroyed healthy home cooking and we need to get that back in our schools.
My apologies for this long comment - you touched on something I'm angry about.
Part of Bobby's specific platform is to increase personal responsibility. In their defense, millions have trusted agencies like USDA, FDA, CDC, and EPA that have become so corrupted by big chemical companies that they are now exposed. But those agencies have put a semblance of safety and legitimacy on practices that were neither -- we must use these resources to educate.
I have been doing a deep dive into the WIC program, and one issue that stands out is how much young mothers benefit from nutrition classes. My Mom was told to use baby formula in the 1960s -- she trusted the government that lied to her. I know from raising calves and lambs just how crazy it is to replace mothers' milk with formula! But most Americans aren't farmers. We must teach people, and then they can make informed choices. And reforming SNAP to restrict benefits to healthy foods would be very impactful!
I took Home Ec in 7th and 8th grade and learned to make stuffed peppers, Danish pastries, etc. Before that, I got my cooking badge in the BOY Scouts. Later I was a cook for years. But fewer than half of people today know how to correctly boil an egg, per many polls. As Joel Salatin says, no one in the world spends more on kitchens than Americans -- and no one in the world spends less time using them. Fast food is full of phthalates, sugars, salt, and bad fats. People need to get back to the kitchen, and back to the Garden!!
The same line of “reasoning” that produces such statements as “Oh, but the carbon, and the agriculture, and the woodstoves – but not the lawnmowers, the antlike lines of cars to ski areas, the flat screen TVs, computers, iPhones, golf courses, fireworks, and air travel that spew toxins like Greta Thunberg with a megaphone. Cows, pigs, and chickens – but not dogs, parrots, or kittens.” Is the same “reasoning” that also decided that the C19 “virus” spreads in churches but not massive well funded protests, spreads in mom and pop farm stands but not in Wallmart, spreads during during the wee hours of night but not during today ( virus gotta sleep too ), spreads at Thanksgiving dinners but not at strip clubs…. So this is not reasoning, this tyranny.
I totally agree with the need to address the microplastics issue, and I'm very happy RFKJr is taking that on. Thanks for this article.
However, your claim about Bernie Sanders is highly misleading. According to Open Secrets, yes, he did receive $1.4M classified under their database as having come from "pharmaceuticals/health products." However, that only means the contributions came from individuals who work in pharmaceuticals and healthcare. He did NOT receive money from any PAC affiliated with pharma, or from any pharma top exec. I work in the pharmaceutical industry. I contributed to Bernie's campaign. I'm sure my $20 a month has not swayed his loyalties to Big Pharma.
As you well know, Bernie has spent his career railing against Big Pharma and the cost of healthcare in general in his quest for Medicare-for-all.
I am not sure whether he received Pharma PAC $ prior to the individual donor set-up in which you participated, but I don't believe I have alleged PAC money currently, and I have just used block quotes. I do think $1.4M is an influential amount of money even if veiled as small donations, and I do think he focused the hearings AWAY from food toxins and the core of Kennedy's very clearly stated MAHA agenda. And I do think he has taken money unethically for personal use. I once supported him too, as an outsider populist, but when he so blithely capitulated to the DNC and Clinton crew after they pushed him out of the running in 2016, I came to see him as a sell-out. Bobby Kennedy kept fighting that machine, making him a hero in my eyes. Both parties are complicit in allowing Big Food and Big Pharma to sicken us! Bernie has recently stood in the way of recapturing HHS to free it of corporate control. We need both HHS and USDA to MAHA. Bernie is irrelevant now to that mission, and does not appear to be supporting it in any way. I hope he changes his view, but forgive my skepticism. I thank you for writing!
If Bernie did not take pharmaceutical money, why did he admit to only taking “a small portion” compared to the large amount pharmaceutical companies have given?
Agreed-- I didn't misinform when I quoted him exactly.... He seemed to be admitting it! (perhaps referring to receipts prior to the small donation collections).
According to Sludge, during Bernie's 2016 and 2020 campaigns, "out of thousands of donors" (like me) who held non-executive, non-PAC affiliated positions in pharma, only three donations by executives were made. One donation from a pharma CEO was rejected/donated to an AIDS clinic. Another was $250 that was given in 2016 by a Pfizer employee who listed his occupation as “Executive.” The third was a $1,000 contribution in 2015 from Managing Member, which Sludge says does not appear to have been refunded. I'm not sure if that is the "small portion" he spoke of, or if it is unclear as to the donor's function in the organization.
Sludge concludes that "There is no evidence that Sanders violated his 2020 campaign pledge* against taking pharmaceutical industry money. That’s not always the case when candidates take such pledges."
*to reject all donations over $200 from the PACs, executives, and lobbyists of pharmaceutical and health insurance companies.
Thanks, but it raises more questions. I'm not sure I trust Sludge, but even if that is accurate it raises additional questions: 1) As I say, Bernie was in a lot longer than those elections. What did he accept before these limitations and was that what he was referring to when he initially 2) admitted to Kennedy that he took over a million. I appreciate seeking truth here, but the truth also remains that Bernie tried to stifle free speech which is just outrageous -- I can put whatever I want on my onesies, and so can CHD, He also doesn't seem to care about cleaning up food -- Kennedy's main issue and intro statement, and the biggest reason he has had so much support. Will Bernie support reducing chemicals in farming and food, and making kids' lunches and food healthier? I'd like to hear him support those, now that Bobby is in....
I think Bernie has stuck with his main messages and probably doesn't plan on changing at this point in his career. I truly wish a lot more politicians would get involved in addressing all of the industrial food atrocities that exist--raping the earth and poisoning the people. I think that's something we agree on! :)
I agree with everything you say. But if we're really going to help families raise their kids with healthier food as free as possible from all the toxins, it's got to start with parents and kids learning how to cook. It has driven me crazy since I was in public high school, how little value has been placed on the survival arts.
When I was in 12th grade here in Santa Barbara (1970), I signed up for Home Ec/Food. My counselor said it would be a waste of my time, I was “too smart” for that. I insisted. And it was the best class I took in high school. It also gave me a very cynical view of the Left taking over education. Because I was required to take a course called “American Problems” (I kid you not) that semester.
That course was all about how awful America's with its poverty, exploitation of indigenous cultures, ruination of the environment, etc., etc. I agreed with much of it - I was a hippie - but the class was just depressingly passive anger-feeding. The students taking it were all college bound.
Then I'd go over to my Foods class. The class was entirely made up of working class kids, who were going to go to our City College and then right to jobs, except me. Our teacher was great. She actually lectured us on how important it is to cook our own meals. She would give us food stamps and a budget and requirements for buying for a healthy meal. (You had to buy real ingredients not Ding Dongs). We'd be sent across the street to the market to buy the ingredients, then come back and learn what to do with them. Granted the health food organic store was too far away near UCSB fr the class, but our teacher did encourage us to buy from it. It was all about taking control of what you put in your body.
Then Home Ec got squeezed out of our education system just when it was most needed, when families split up and moms were too busy to cook and instead of addressing this, the answer was “more processed fast food.”
This really angers me. Families are told they don't have enough time to cook, but that's just fast food marketing. My mom grew up during the Great Depression. Her mom had to go to work when her dad died early. Her granny took over the home. I looked over my great granny's recipes. My mom grew up on homemade beef and chicken broth, and sucked the marrow. Eggs delivered by farmers. Chickens her granny plucked. My mom lived to be almost 96 and the doctors did studies of her brain because she was so sharp. There was next to no diminishment. No micro plastic. Contrast that with twenty-somethings today.
I believe in MAHA. But it's going to take more than regulations. They destroyed healthy home cooking and we need to get that back in our schools.
My apologies for this long comment - you touched on something I'm angry about.
Part of Bobby's specific platform is to increase personal responsibility. In their defense, millions have trusted agencies like USDA, FDA, CDC, and EPA that have become so corrupted by big chemical companies that they are now exposed. But those agencies have put a semblance of safety and legitimacy on practices that were neither -- we must use these resources to educate.
I have been doing a deep dive into the WIC program, and one issue that stands out is how much young mothers benefit from nutrition classes. My Mom was told to use baby formula in the 1960s -- she trusted the government that lied to her. I know from raising calves and lambs just how crazy it is to replace mothers' milk with formula! But most Americans aren't farmers. We must teach people, and then they can make informed choices. And reforming SNAP to restrict benefits to healthy foods would be very impactful!
I took Home Ec in 7th and 8th grade and learned to make stuffed peppers, Danish pastries, etc. Before that, I got my cooking badge in the BOY Scouts. Later I was a cook for years. But fewer than half of people today know how to correctly boil an egg, per many polls. As Joel Salatin says, no one in the world spends more on kitchens than Americans -- and no one in the world spends less time using them. Fast food is full of phthalates, sugars, salt, and bad fats. People need to get back to the kitchen, and back to the Garden!!
The same line of “reasoning” that produces such statements as “Oh, but the carbon, and the agriculture, and the woodstoves – but not the lawnmowers, the antlike lines of cars to ski areas, the flat screen TVs, computers, iPhones, golf courses, fireworks, and air travel that spew toxins like Greta Thunberg with a megaphone. Cows, pigs, and chickens – but not dogs, parrots, or kittens.” Is the same “reasoning” that also decided that the C19 “virus” spreads in churches but not massive well funded protests, spreads in mom and pop farm stands but not in Wallmart, spreads during during the wee hours of night but not during today ( virus gotta sleep too ), spreads at Thanksgiving dinners but not at strip clubs…. So this is not reasoning, this tyranny.
Absolutely spot on!!
Note to self, learn to read.
(“Fiberglass wind turbines hailed as salvific are ecological disasters standing in mute testimony to stupefying ignorance and anthropogenic hubris.”)
I totally agree with the need to address the microplastics issue, and I'm very happy RFKJr is taking that on. Thanks for this article.
However, your claim about Bernie Sanders is highly misleading. According to Open Secrets, yes, he did receive $1.4M classified under their database as having come from "pharmaceuticals/health products." However, that only means the contributions came from individuals who work in pharmaceuticals and healthcare. He did NOT receive money from any PAC affiliated with pharma, or from any pharma top exec. I work in the pharmaceutical industry. I contributed to Bernie's campaign. I'm sure my $20 a month has not swayed his loyalties to Big Pharma.
As you well know, Bernie has spent his career railing against Big Pharma and the cost of healthcare in general in his quest for Medicare-for-all.
I am not sure whether he received Pharma PAC $ prior to the individual donor set-up in which you participated, but I don't believe I have alleged PAC money currently, and I have just used block quotes. I do think $1.4M is an influential amount of money even if veiled as small donations, and I do think he focused the hearings AWAY from food toxins and the core of Kennedy's very clearly stated MAHA agenda. And I do think he has taken money unethically for personal use. I once supported him too, as an outsider populist, but when he so blithely capitulated to the DNC and Clinton crew after they pushed him out of the running in 2016, I came to see him as a sell-out. Bobby Kennedy kept fighting that machine, making him a hero in my eyes. Both parties are complicit in allowing Big Food and Big Pharma to sicken us! Bernie has recently stood in the way of recapturing HHS to free it of corporate control. We need both HHS and USDA to MAHA. Bernie is irrelevant now to that mission, and does not appear to be supporting it in any way. I hope he changes his view, but forgive my skepticism. I thank you for writing!
If Bernie did not take pharmaceutical money, why did he admit to only taking “a small portion” compared to the large amount pharmaceutical companies have given?
Agreed-- I didn't misinform when I quoted him exactly.... He seemed to be admitting it! (perhaps referring to receipts prior to the small donation collections).
According to Sludge, during Bernie's 2016 and 2020 campaigns, "out of thousands of donors" (like me) who held non-executive, non-PAC affiliated positions in pharma, only three donations by executives were made. One donation from a pharma CEO was rejected/donated to an AIDS clinic. Another was $250 that was given in 2016 by a Pfizer employee who listed his occupation as “Executive.” The third was a $1,000 contribution in 2015 from Managing Member, which Sludge says does not appear to have been refunded. I'm not sure if that is the "small portion" he spoke of, or if it is unclear as to the donor's function in the organization.
Sludge concludes that "There is no evidence that Sanders violated his 2020 campaign pledge* against taking pharmaceutical industry money. That’s not always the case when candidates take such pledges."
*to reject all donations over $200 from the PACs, executives, and lobbyists of pharmaceutical and health insurance companies.
Hope that answers your question! https://readsludge.com/2025/01/31/on-the-bernie-rfk-pharma-money-spat/
Thanks, but it raises more questions. I'm not sure I trust Sludge, but even if that is accurate it raises additional questions: 1) As I say, Bernie was in a lot longer than those elections. What did he accept before these limitations and was that what he was referring to when he initially 2) admitted to Kennedy that he took over a million. I appreciate seeking truth here, but the truth also remains that Bernie tried to stifle free speech which is just outrageous -- I can put whatever I want on my onesies, and so can CHD, He also doesn't seem to care about cleaning up food -- Kennedy's main issue and intro statement, and the biggest reason he has had so much support. Will Bernie support reducing chemicals in farming and food, and making kids' lunches and food healthier? I'd like to hear him support those, now that Bobby is in....
I think Bernie has stuck with his main messages and probably doesn't plan on changing at this point in his career. I truly wish a lot more politicians would get involved in addressing all of the industrial food atrocities that exist--raping the earth and poisoning the people. I think that's something we agree on! :)