The End of Rural Towns
It is surprising and sad to see how much rural towns like Kamsack have declined over the years. When I was a child, Kamsack was a smaller town but very vibrant. There were many stores and business was booming.
Now most of the stores have closed and younger people have moved to bigger cities. On every street there are five to ten for sale signs on houses. If you want cheap real estate in Canada, this is a good place to come. Some of the older houses can be bought for less than $30,000.
The worst part of all this urbanization is that our food production is shifting to large corporate farms. We are eating more processed foods with more chemicals. It is getting very difficult to find decent quality fresh food in supermarkets. Meat is especially scary with all the growth hormones and antibiotics being used.
I don’t blame the corporations, they are just serving consumer demand. It is our own purchases that are fueling the demise of real food. If you care, pay more and buy from local farmers. Don’t buy pre-cooked and frozen foods. Sure it costs more, but how much is your health worth to you.
Please let me know in the comments if you like these picture posts or not. I am not sure if I will continue to add them.
I definitely love the pictures! I agree with you about family farms. I purchase my meat from a small farmer here in Texas who doesn’t give the animals any antibiotics, vaccinations, or hormones. They breed their own animals and don’t buy any from others. All the livestock get to wander around on pasture as well. I truly believe you are what you eat.
.-= Jennifer Barry´s last blog ..Tigers, Tea and Technology =-.
Great pictures! And thanks for mentioning rural towns and small farms in the end. Growth hormones, antibiotics and the whole mass production of the food industry; treating animals as things/commodities and not actual living sentient beings is the main reason I’m seriously considering making the switch to vegetarianism. Consumers indeed drive production so I want to do as much as I can to support local produce as well!
.-= floreta´s last blog ..The Road to Emptiness: Zen Travel =-.
Thanks for the comment Jennifer.
Meat really is getting scary now. You can taste and see the difference between factory grown animals and free range ones. That doesn’t even count all the filler and chemicals used in processed foods.
Of course, it is difficult to justify more expensive choices but it is becoming increasingly necessary.
Hi Floreta,
Yes, it is up to us as consumers to vote with our feet. If you want local jobs, buy local. If you want healthy food buy from real farmers. It is not so complicated, just more expensive.
My wife and I have significantly cut out meat from our diet. We are not 100% vegetarians but we are definitely conscious about not eating too much meat. It also makes us feel much better and more energetic. Heavy foods make you feel heavy.
These photos make Canada look really appealing. I’ve never been, though it’s been on my list for years thanks to lots of Canadian friends both online and offline.
.-= Sharon´s last blog ..Holiday Celebrations For Expats and Travelers =-.
Definitely enjoy the photo posts! After all pictures speak a thousand words they say.
I totally agree you can tell the difference. The farm raised beef smells like popcorn raw, not that metallic smell I used to associate with beef. My doctor tells me that agribusiness raised chickens are given arsenic in their feed to promote growth. How creepy is that?
I believe you are what you eat, and I am willing to spend significantly more in order to eat healthy.
.-= Jennifer Barry´s last blog ..Return to Oz, Part 3 =-.
Hey John – Since I returned to the US a couple of weeks ago, my biggest challenge has also been finding fresh food.While I don’t eat too much meat, it has become incredibly frustrating trying to find such things as organic fruits and vegetables. And I’m losing a lot weight down here simply because I don’t want to start eating processed foods. After a long time of eating fresh food every day in Mexico, my body already feels different (and not in a good way) from the quick change in diet I’m faced with here.
And I’m a fan of the photo post by the way!
.-= Earl´s last blog ..An Unexpected Lesson From Meditation =-.
Great photos!
I’m from Canada, and I’m pretty sure that these shots were taken on the Prairies……….it’s flat:)
I agree, it is sad that rural Canada is dying. Maybe we’ll all come back from living/traveling overseas and revive small town Canada. Nice thought, eh?
.-= Nancie (Ladyexpat)´s last blog ..Election Campaigning =-.
Hi Sharon,
Canada is great but come in the summer. We are still getting snow now. I was caught in a snowstorm twice now while driving.
Thanks for the feedback.
I will start to make the picture a regular feature.
Thanks for the comment Earl.
I definitely hear you on the food. Our industrial focused society has lost it’s effectiveness. We don’t need industrial food, industrial educational systems and industrial age jobs. It is time for our societies to grow up.
Thanks Nancie,
I hope the small towns will be revived someday but I am not holding my breathe.
I’m not sure I can tell the difference about the beef, but I kinda can about chicken meat. In Indonesia we have what we call ayam kampung (pretty much a kind of free range chicken) which the chicken is raised naturally, not in that super fast tempo. In the small towns or villages, you can find them running around people’s yard and sometimes on the road. You can really tell the difference between that meat with what you get at cheapest price in Canadian supermarket (sometimes the chicken that is sold skinless, boneless, frozen, taste like wet sponge).
.-= Dina´s last blog ..Top 3 Modes of Transportation by Travelers Around the World =-.
Yeah, I agree about the whole issue with growth hormones and antibiotics, and other chemicals used in farming. It was what caused me to go vegetarian for a number of years. I’ve been seriously thinking about going back to it. In recent times there have been a number of cases here in Japan of foods being deliberately mis-labeled and sold as ‘free-range’ or ‘organic’. Who can you trust? Maybe I should grow more of my own vegetables. Not sure I could ever raise my own livestock, though. It’s the whole pet versus food issue!! LOL! And I was probably indelibly scarred at the age of 4 or 5, by the sight of my father lopping the head off a hen and then seeing it run right off the end of the kitchen counter…!