Industrial Food: What are they feeding us?

You have heard the old saying "You are what you eat".  The big food companies have to keep their foods stable for a very long time so they add preservatives.  For people like me that have a list of allergies that can not go on one page without making 2 columns that can be a BIG problem.

I have never been able to eat much cheese.  It makes me itch if I eat alot of it.  Now keep in mind I am not allergic to dairy products.  I am however allergic to a multitude of antibiotics and specifically ALL of the "Mycins"... If the name ends in "mycin" then I can not have it.  The same goes with "cillins".  Before I started making my own cheese I bought cheese from the store just like everyone else.  Now that I am making it I can eat it.  Store bought cheese has "Natamycin" added to prevent it from molding.  They all have it.  Here are 2 different brands bought from 2 different stores.  The first is the label from a bag of shredded cheddar from Sam's Club and the second is a block of cheddar from Aldi.

Please note the front label on the bag:

It says "Natural" My natural cheddar has 5 ingredients:
Milk
Annato coloring (natural coloring made from the Annato tree)
Mesophillic starter
Rennet
Salt

Obviously my definition of natural and theirs are worlds apart.

Now here is another point to ponder.  We live in a world of "super bugs" created by the over use of  antibiotics.  One of them is called VRE "Vancomycin resistant enterococcus"  This bug is resistant to all of the "mycins".  Allergies are treated by making us "resistant" to the things we are allergic to.  This is accomplished by giving us very small amounts of the allergen over a period of time.  So my ponder point is this.  Could the resistant strains of super bugs have been created by these small doses of antibiotics in our food?  Mycins in our cheese?  Cillins in our meat?

If you have allergies, I suggest reading carefully the backs of all packages.  Although that is not even fool proof as they are not required to put in everything.  For example many chickens are given Tetramycin in their water.  The chicken consumes the tetramycin then is butchered.  You will not see all of the things that the chicken has consumed prior to slaughter on the package only that it contains a chicken.

The only way to really know what you are eating is to grow, process and produce all of your food.  That is not possible for many city dwellers.  But even the cities have farm land around them.  You can go to the farmers market or get to know a farmer and buy directly from the farm.  You can inquire of their practices regarding what you are buying from them to eat.

Many states have laws that say you can not buy or sell raw dairy products. In Arkansas I can sell 100 gallons a month of goats milk.  I can not however sell the cheese or butter made from it.  And cows milk is right up there with illicit drugs.  The powers that be have put farmers that sell milk in the same classification as a meth dealer!!!  Write to your Governor and complain about those laws.  We should be able to buy what we want to eat and eat whatever we want to.  Our government has become so audacious in its control that it is telling us what we can and can not consume.  I think the worst one was New York saying you can no longer buy a large cup of soda.  Really???  I thought this was supposed to be the "land of the free"  Look at some of the presidential executive orders we are no longer free!  Look at laws on the books regarding food and farmers... Nope, Not free!!!