Call us at: 617-244-1966
Food and Money
A presentation by David Snieckus, January 6, 2020
Bio of David Snieckus: I am a graduate of the world renowned Kushi Institute, and have been practicing Macrobiotics since 1977. My passion is to share my knowledge and experience, invoke self-awareness, and empower individuals to experience optimum health, well-being, and happiness through the understanding and practical application of Macrobiotics, particularly as it applies to the proper selection, cooking, and eating of healthy, wholesome foods. In particular, I espouse eating wholesome, organic, mostly plant-based, local whole foods in harmony with the seasons - which is the Macrobiotic way.
My vision is “every kitchen a wellness center” and one peaceful and healthy world. For an in-depth article, OUR KITCHENS AS WELLNESS CENTERS, visit my website, www.davidsnieckus.com
As Sheriff of the MA Republic, I help mitigate conflicts with a healthy meal and good conversation. I like to keep things light and moving. My partner says I have a good heart and a magnanimous generous spirit. I am forgiving and for giving!
***
Many of us have heard the saying, "We are what we eat." Indeed, the quality of our food effects the quality of our consciousness and our health. Hippocrates, a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles (Classical Greece) and considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine, often referred to as the "Father of Medicine", stated: "Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food." Hippocrates also asked his clients, “Who Cooks for you?” This is an important aspect of health as the cook could instill the energy of love or hate into the food. Consider how nasty you might feel if someone who hates there job cooks for you. (Available in the near future will be our collaborative book, WHOOO COOKS FOR YOU?)
When we eat well, we feel well, are healthy, and are more mindful, conscious, and integrated. When we don't eat well, we experience dis-ease, which can result in various illnesses, are not as mindful and conscious, and instead are likely to be fragmented.
This consciousness or lack thereof permeates everything in our lives as well as the planet as a whole. As we heal and become healthy and whole through the healthy food we eat, so do our lives and so does the planet heal and become healthy and whole. And visa versa. As within, so without.
I believe paying attention to quality food sources is our priority, and is an eventuality.
In the meantime, our poor food habits, and thereby our unconscious and fragmented behavior, currently mirror a distorted and fragmented world in which money rules, and to our detriment.
The following addresses:
1.
Our relationship with money
Our relationship with money2.The state of our economy and world
The state of our economy and world3.Our corrupt monetary system, and
Our corrupt monetary system, and4.Our industrialized food system
Our industrialized food system1)Our Relationship with Money
Our Relationship with MoneyMoney has become a “love” obsession for many of us, including myself for a long time. IMHO we base our lives on the illusion of money rather than the reality of food. Why is that?
I believe that because we are eating processed foods instead of growing and eating our own organic whole foods, we base our lives on the illusion that money is what takes care of us instead of food. While money serves as a means of exchange of goods and services, often needed for our survival and livelihood, when it comes down to choosing between food and money, food (along with clothing and shelter) is what we actually need to survive, which we could grow (and create) ourselves. Instead our priorities are often backwards. As stated by an Indian elder: “When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, and the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.”
Furthermore, we are seduced by advertising. Foods in the form of packaged and processed food, (including vitamin pills), are advertised to give us strength, energy, more sex, and beauty, which is an illusion we buy.
2)The State of our Economy and World
The State of our Economy and WorldWhile our economy facilitates the movement of goods and services, it is also based on a corrupt monetary system, unsustainable growth, the depletion of our natural resources, and destruction of the earth's living systems, resulting in climate catastrophe and species extinction. As quoted by American economist Kenneth E. Boulding, “Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. Somehow, we have come to think the whole purpose of the economy is to grow, yet growth is not a goal or purpose. The pursuit of endless growth is suicidal.”
Despite the alarming trends stemming from global warming and degradation of ecosystems, the imperative of economic growth remains the first priority for national and global development.
3)Our Corrupt Monetary System
Our Corrupt Monetary System I believe our first money was receipts for grain, which was honest money. Allow me to quote Benjamin Franklin here: “There seems to be but three ways for a Nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors, this is robbery. The second is by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third is by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and virtuous industry.”
So how does the money get corrupted?
The deception initially occurred when goldsmiths, who stored the physical, valuable gold for people, found out that they could issue more receipts than the gold they had in their vaults. Initially, the goldsmiths gave out honest receipts for that gold, but, over time, discovering that many people transacted with the receipts, (since gold was heavier and could easily be stolen, and since many never demanded the actual gold), the goldsmiths lent out gold receipts in the form of paper money at interest, creating an unhealthy monetary system. The interest on that money (receipts) could never be totally repaid since it was not, and is not, issued and put into circulation. Furthermore, the interest is usury, which is banned by many religions because of the conflicts, poverty, and austerity it caused by increasing debt. The goldsmiths had originated the biggest money scheme ever.
4)Our Industrialized Food System
Our Industrialized Food SystemFurther, our corrupt monetary system favors big chemical and industrialized agriculture and factory farming, which undermines the quality of our food. The larger the farming operation, the greater the profit that could be extracted to the capital markets rather than going to the farmer.
The way the economy is organized favors large enterprises, which is a big problem. One of the results is that food is robbed of its nutritional value (e.g. fatty meat, sugar, processed food, fake food, GMO, added hormones, chemicals and preservatives, etc.), and very importantly, the soil from which our food is grown is depleted. We get a false picture of what nutrition is, which is based on "whole foods" (not its components) grown in nutrient rich soil.
***
If we had a Republic based on claiming our sovereignty, we could not only change our debt based monetary system, which renders us debt and wage slaves, to a credit based monetary system, we could change our unhealthy relationship to food to one that is healthy.
Instead of being entrapped by the scramble for money in the corporate world and fed by industrialized factory farming that ships our food everywhere around the country and globe, we could return to a more healthy, dignified, and sustainable agrarian and crafts based lifestyle, eating healthy wholesome organic local food grown by ourselves and local farmers. Since knowing where our food comes from is vitally important, we could return to knowing and supporting our farmer, such as with community supported agriculture (CSA), which our friend John Root jr. started by the way!
There is also a "slow food movement" https://www.slowfood.com with the following mission statement that our Republic could help model:
"Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization, founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, counteract the rise of fast life and combat people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, and how our food choices affect the world around us.
Since its beginnings, Slow Food has grown into a global movement involving millions of people in over 160 countries, working to ensure everyone has access to good, clean, and fair food.
Slow Food believes food is tied to many other aspects of life, including culture, politics, agriculture, and the environment. Through our food choices we can collectively influence how food is cultivated, produced and distributed, and change the world as a result."
Currently, my partner and I host weekly community dinner gatherings of healthy wholesome meals I prepare - to build intentional and healthy community.
Understanding the parallel evolution of plants and animals is also important in learning about healthy foods. See the Plant and Animal Evolution chart from The Book of Macrobiotics: The Universal Way of Health, Happiness and Peace, by Michio Kushi.
Again, I encourage all of us to eat wholesome, organic, mostly plant-based, local, whole foods in harmony with the seasons - which is the Macrobiotic way for one peaceful and healthy world.
***
