Sunday morning at our local, organic market I like nothing more than watching my kids (and kids generally) forage in the children’s garden - dig their hands into fresh compost, pull out weeds, dig holes, plant seeds.

In mulberry season, I watch them shamelessly climb the purple laden branches for the juiciest berries at the top. It got me thinking about how we have cultivated a culture of ‘battery kids’ - an industrial kid factory.

Why it is that we produce and market, more processed, preservative packed, low (or no) nutrient food for our kids than any other time in history.

Then we fatten them up (often unintentionally) on these products, drug them when they get sick from these foodstuffs, and then put them in cages (professionalised structured and supervised environments) where we train them to be good citizens, dependant consumers, compliant patients, obligated workers. And like the battery hens in cages, where 10% or so do not endure the stress and simply die (which is built into the cost of production), I think about the rising mental health rates among our children and young people, depression, anxiety disorders, learning difficulties, body image issues, and suicide.

It makes me think about the lack of soul it takes to build (and feed) an industrial kid factory in this way.  I think about the vigilance people extend to investigating the credentials of their house cleaner or their accountants, but rarely extend that same kind of vigilance to the people growing our food or the quality of the food we are consuming. I think there would be nothing better for the integrity of our food chain, than the gaze of the consumer on the very farm in which our food is grown. To ask the farmer directly about the crops he/she grows, the way the animals are treated and how much life (nutrient density) is still in this food that we take home.

It makes me realise that the raw/slow/local/organic food movement doesn’t seem like an unreasonable lifestyle choice. It gives me faith that alternative food systems are rising up
on the margins.

What do you think our world would look like if we threw away our microwaves, limited the use of our ovens and stove tops to only a few times a week, and instead fired-up our blenders, juicers, nut and seed grinders, and dehydrators more.

What would the world look like if every household had their own vege patch? What if we opened up our kids’ cages and let them fly free? We could introduce them to local, organic, raw foods, fermented foods, superfoods, cold-pressed oils, raw honey.

I know when I do this my chicks come back to me laden with grimy covered clothes, berries stains on their faces, dirt under their finger nails.

They ask me when mango’s are in season and when are the mulberries coming back. They tell me they don’t want kale in their smoothie this morning, only goji and acai berries, almond milk and a vanilla pod today. All of this is instinctive to them. Raising rawsome free range kids is awesome. And it’s a choice!

Dr Sarah Lantz (PhD) is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, mama, and author of the bestselling book Chemical Free Kids: Raising Healthy Children in a Toxic World. For more information www.nontoxsoapbox.com or www.chemicalfreeparenting.com