Homesteading for Real Food?

I've recently been getting emails in regard to non-natural chemical use in foods. (By chemicals I'm referring to those that are not naturally put there by Mother Nature.) I have to agree that finding non-altered and chemical free foods in stores is close to impossible. Even most fruits and vegetables have been chemically treated one way or another. My own solution to this is to eat locally produced, non-treated fresh foods....mostly my own. Plus some raised by people that I know. Some foraged. 

I'm currently in Waikiki so I'm eating whatever is available via stores and restaurants. Bananas chemically ripened. Apples treated with fungicides for shipping purposes. Pineapple treated on the farm while growing. Meals in restaurants using processed foods. I'm finding it totally impossible to eat totally "clean & natural" foods. They simply aren't available. 

Out of morbid curiosity, I took time to note today how much actually fake food was around me here. I never thought about it before, so it was quite revealing what has happened to our foods. 

Fake......

.....bacon bits on the salad

.....fake blueberries in the breakfast muffin

.....fake lemonade offered at lunch - the label showed zero lemon juice in it!

....."fake" cranberry juice at breakfast - mostly sugar water

.....fake crab salad on the dinner menu

.....fake ribeye on the plate of a diner sitting at a table beside us. The muscle pattern was all wrong so it had been made by meat cuts put together with meat glue.

And how much stuff was fake or close to fake that I wasn't aware of? Was the chocolate milk really just milk and cocoa? I don't think so. How about the honey? Real or flavored sugar water? Was that slice of cheese on the omelet really cheese, or possibly some stuff sold as processed cheese? Were those eggs fresh or out of a carton? They looked to be out of a carton. Way too uniform in color and texture. 

While I'm not a vegan eater, I know of folks that are. Now you talk about fake food! Take a look at vegan offerings in the stores. Vegan cheese. Vegan bacon. Vegan shrimp. Vegan sausage. And on and on. All fake food with long chemical additive lists. 

One of the side benefits of creating a homestead farm is that I have easy access to "real food". Now that I've moved to eating mostly real foods, I discover that I prefer it. Spending the last couple of days in Waikiki has reaffirmed that. Eating here has made my body object. It's gotten use to real foods. It will be much happier when I return home. And quite frankly, so will I. Visiting "the city" from time to time makes me really appreciate living where I do.