I can hear my friends now: “Lori is easy to spot…nerd in the front row: black hair, black shirt, black skirt, probably has a pen, notebook, and a calculator somewhere on her person.”

I was recently invited to attend a Women’s Blogger Roundtable with Indiana’s Lt. Governor, Becky Skillman.  After doing a “this is so awesome” dance for a couple of weeks, I hired a babysitter (rare event in this house), found that I fit into only 1 career anything that might be left in the back of my closet, and made a beeline for downtown Indy.  In 9 minutes, I arrived at the Statehouse.  God I love this city.  Our Lt. Governor is in charge of Agriculture, Community and Rural Affairs, Housing, Energy, and Tourism.  I arrived with a briefcase full of notes after having read every article pertaining to hot-button issues in the state, and pages of thoughts generated after interviewing some of my favorite people working in Indiana’s Educational System (currently the most newsworthy topic in our state).  I took notes in Driver’s Ed Class in high school people…what did you expect? But mostly, I just wanted to hear what our Lt. Governor and other Hoosier women had to say.

Her office was set up for us to simply have a conversation and ask questions.  I can state this fact: Becky Skillman is a bright, bright woman.  Unflappable, real, and genuinely concerned about the welfare of Indiana.  She is a small-town Hoosier, and most certainly in touch with the issues of our great state.  Honestly, she’s kind of a no-bullshit gal, but gracious…I like her style.

Not surprisingly, our discussion was primarily centered around agriculture, or what I think the rest of America calls, “FOOD”.  In the ever-growing discussion of “real food” vs “preservative-laden food”, if you are wondering where “food” is made…it’s made HERE.  In Indiana.  We grow the real kind.  Many women at the Roundtable are farmers, and having grown up in a farming community, it was refreshing to see the state of my childhood, is still, essentially, a farming state.  Now that America is saddled with cancer, obesity, and diabetes, knowing where our food comes from and how it was made has become a central topic to our nation.  For decades, agriculture has taken a back seat to “pop culture”, and I think America is moving into an era in which food-IQ is becoming a mandatory life skill.  You want to talk about whole foods?  Get me some coffee and take off your heels ladies.  I could have sat there all night, learning that I’m not alone in my wish for Indiana’s school children to eat nothing but “real food” at their lunch tables.  If Indiana can’t serve whole foods, seriously, who can?  WE MAKE IT HERE. That’s like telling Florida’s school children we cannot give them oranges.  But wait….they are RIGHT OVER THERE…

Our State Rep Democrats are holed up in a hotel in Illinois.  See what happens when you give into your kids too many times?  They become Representatives who FLEE the state when they don’t get their way.  It’s mayhem, I tell you.  We can’t negotiate when you aren’t even IN THE STATE.  Just so you know, if the Republicans did this, I would be equally horrified.

We talked seriously about agri-business, farmland preservation, internet and cell phone service in our rural areas, and manure run-off (a far more serious concern to our water safety than people in more urban states realize).  There are parts of the state where you can drive in one direction on a road and have cell phone service, but if you are driving in the opposite direction in the same location, you will not have any service whatsoever.  I’m sure every state struggles with dead zones, but in rural areas, they can be expansive, and quite dangerous if your fields catch on fire and you cannot call for help.  I learned about Ms. Skillman’s Certified Livestock Producer Program, which certifies livestock producers who go above and beyond normal production standards, and are committed to the environment, food safety, and livestock well-being.  To come to the realization you truly are what you eat, it helps to live among the livestock and crops.  You’ve heard me say in this space 100x, “I don’t eat stressed out chickens.”  In all seriousness, how, as a nation, can we expect to eat sick animals, and yet, miraculously, be healthy humans?!  It’s just not possible.

I learned that I can learn a lot from my state-wide fellow bloggers.  I received menus from schools who are partnering with local farmers and getting it right.  I’ve been able to learn through their writing much more than just my soapbox rantings will give you.  I learned that as a group, we are a more powerful voice than as singular concerned citizens.  I learned that “getting that voice” together, wasn’t terribly difficult.  I met some extraordinary women.  So while we didn’t have the time to delve into my concerns about our education system, and my deeply held beliefs that if we ask more of our children academically, they will indeed, deliver more, it was still an afternoon very well spent.  And if you are listening, let me just reiterate my concerns that for a nation to cure cancer with scientists and doctors, we must RAISE AND EDUCATE SCIENTISTS AND DOCTORS.  Teaching to, and testing to, minimum standards lacks the long-view for our state and for our nation.  We lowered our own bar years ago with the ISTEP exam, and in the process, we have lost our way.  Let our great teachers loose, and they will give us our future leaders.

That being said, what can you do with this information?  It’s not overly complex: don’t buy meat from animals given hormones.  Forget the claims that the hormones can’t hurt you; they are sicker animals, and not a single scientist disputes that fact.  Don’t buy milk from animals given hormones for that same reason.  Don’t eat eggs from caged chickens.  Not just because it’s inhumane, but because they are stressed out animals, passing their stress hormones straight onto you.  It’s called cortisol, which causes insulin resistance, which causes your body to store fat in the middle.  Call and make sure your cage free eggs truly are “cage free”.  Check out the website of the companies from which you purchase your food.  If it’s local, you can just drive right on out there and see for yourself.  Pack your kids lunches until our cafeterias stop giving them french toast for lunch, and standing on the argument, “but we also offered them carrots…they CHOSE the french toast…it’s not our problem”.  If we stop buying the preservative-filled, hormone-laden food, it will stop being profitable.  Real food will become an option for us again.  Does it sound inconvenient?  Does it sound expensive?  I’ll give you something that is more expensive and far more inconvenient….CANCER.  We bath our cells in our food choices all day, every day, to quote my enlightened Stepmother.

To read what the women of Indiana are writing, I invite you to view their blogs:

Flesworthy

Moosh In Indy

DesignHER Momma

BargainBriana

Redefining Perfect

The Fourth Frog Blog

In Good Cents

Gotcha Baby

Just Like The Number

Inexpensively

Thought for Food

Eternal Lizdom

Chaos Is Bliss

Simplified Saving (my apologies…cannot get the link to open)

City Chic on a Farm

Deal Wise Mommy

Going With What We’ve Got

Fairy Tale Mom

The Lazy Christian

Arrows Sent Forth

Naptime in Naptown

The Average Parent

Smiling Green Mom

Walking the Off-Beaten Path

Beyer Beware

BagNitAll