How to Eat to Live: Focusing on food and well being

By Brian E. Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Mar 16, 2011 - 11:51:39 PM

Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, at podium, speaks,as presenters John Muhammad, left, and Durce Muhammad wait to make comments. (rt photo, l-r) Kelvin Muhammad, Erica Allen of Growing Power Photos: Michael M. Muhammad

ROSEMONT, Ill. | Stephens Convention Center (FinalCall.com) - Before there were health food stores and alternative practitioners of health care, there was the teachings and books on “How to Eat to Live” by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Those books were the centerpiece of a Feb. 26 Saviours' Day plenary that focused on the meaning and the proper practices of eating to live.

Considering rising food prices and the dismal health statistics in America, Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, minister of health for the Nation of Islam, walked an eager audience through the importance of taking full control of their lives through growing their own food. Moderating the panel discussion, Dr. Alim Muhammad connected the urgency of the time since the coming of Master Fard Muhammad in 1930, marking the judgment of America.

He also noted the response of the government that has interfered with Black life through destroying health with chemical-based food and its commercialization. The panel discussed expanding the perception of the meaning of how to eat to live and the availability of new technologies in urban farming that are inexpensive.

Hoop houses created by Growing Power were on display as examples of how farming could be taken into an urban environment and quality food produced in a confined area. Photo: Timothy 6X

Speaking straight words in the session, he gave the example of those who know the benefits of how to eat and what to eat but still rely on those outside themselves to provide the food.

“Here's where the trick comes in, you got How to Eat to Live, and you're reading the foods that you are allowed to have and then you go into Whole Foods, or Giant, or Safeway, or Kroger or whatever super market it is and you are buying from them,” said Dr. Alim.

How to eat to live cannot be practiced until you control and grow your own food, he said, adding that the quality of fresh food available to the public are degrees lower than what was available in the 1930s.

Dr. Alim Muhammad, who is known as a strong advocate of new technologies in the area of health, introduced a video presentation by Will Allen, founder of the Wisconsin-based Growing Power that builds hoop houses—a low-cost greenhouse suited to colder climates and urban areas.

During his talk, Mr. Allen said the food system is “broken” and the inner cities of America, for the most part, are “food deserts” where hoop houses can fill a major void of inadequate supply of fresh, wholesome foods.

Growing Power is an organization that exists in several states and is part of what Mr. Allen calls the “good food revolution” to empower ordinary people to control the quality of what they eat by controlling the quality of the soil in which food grows.

“This revolution is about good food,” said Mr. Allen, “food that is grown without chemicals.”

Growing Power offers workshops to train communities how to grow their own food and distribute it. Poor, processed foods deliberately land in the poorer communities, he said. His approach is also multicultural in scope.

“This is a lifestyle, this is a passionate thing, it's a spiritual piece that goes through and touches the soil,” said Mr. Allen.

His daughter, Erica Allen, is project manager at the organizations Chicago facilities. She told the plenary audience that community involvement and a strong youth employment effort by Growing Power will be another force against the powers that keep residents of inner cities poor.

“Environmental racism and oppression can be counteracted by us in a very holistic way,” said Ms. Allen.

The plenary also addressed dairy farming and the budding campaign for consumption of raw milk.

John Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque No. 6 in Baltimore explained the benefits and listed the products made from the raw milk such as cream, yogurt, sour cream, cheese and butter. Demonstrating the economic benefits, John Muhammad and his wife have business relationships with members of the Amish community in Pennsylvania and a distribution system for the milk.

Durce and Kelvin Muhammad of Houston embarked on a project to raise cattle to produce pure milk. They talked about the growing movement for the use of raw milk, which some states have banned although scientific studies show many health benefits.

“We must pool our resources, and our resources is not just money, but it's time, energy, labor, all those necessary things that will give us the opportunity to produce what we need to produce, which is food, clothing and shelter,” said Durce Muhammad.

Kelvin Muhammad—who is affectionately called “the farmer” for his leadership and drive to acquire a farm and animals to turn the words of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad into reality—said he grew up in the city and doesn't have a farm background. His wife got him into raw milk and the research that led into dairy farming, he said.

He brought the idea to Houston's Fruit of Islam, who saw the vision and pooled their resources to buy the first and second cow. “Brothers, out of the kindness of their heart and wanting to do the work themselves, started to do the farming,” said Kelvin Muhammad.

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