Feb
It must have only been 4 or 5 years ago when started getting interested about health and food. Previous to these years my persona was pretty much like that of an average mainstream consumer of my generation. I was naive to think that FDA or food regulation organisms would allow dangerous foods to be sold to the masses. As a young kid i had been thought by TV and mainstream culture to love MacDonalds, frozen lasagna and what not. However food was pretty healthy at home i must say and I was never to much into fizzy drinks or sweets, so i was kind of lucky there. However popular culture and my own ignorance had me on a path that was unhealthy, excessive and damaging to my soul and body.
About 4 years my mother was diagnosed with high risk breast cancer. It was not easy to go through it all, I witnessed the fear, the chemo and all its symptoms. Being an IT professional I spent countless hours doing my research into the subject to learn how to beat this disease and how one can recover from it. Thats where i learnt about sugar and processed foods being such an important agents for the occurrence of cancer. I learnt that multinational companies make huge profits from sugar because of its addictive properties. Moreover i learnt that the food industry is completely manipulated by private interests and that governments are involved in aiding these multinationals and that there is little care about the general health of the population. I learnt about agrochemical companies such as Monsanto and their threat to the survival of our ecosystem through its genetic, chemical and seed patent products.
I also learnt that there is great food out there, and that anyone can grow it. I learnt about organic farming, permaculture, superfoods, sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, alternative medicine and the importance of local economics. I learnt that there is a huge amount of people that are demanding this change to the food industry and that there is a whole economy growing around health and sustainability throughout the planet. I learnt that sustainability is the only way forward, and that it is only a matter of time everybody realizes this. I also learnt that it was up to the people that really care to make this change happen.
Letting go of old habits and changing your lifestyle is never an easy task. It takes a lot from one self and it is always easy to fall back into those old cues and thoughts. Since the time of my research i have been on a personal mission to become healthier and learn as much as i can about food, health and sustainability and share it with everyone I can.
It also became my dream to help make local and organic food more accessible to the mainstream market and be part of this change which the world needs. This brought me to develop the concept of Los Hortelanos as an online e-commerce platform that connects local farmers and food artisans to their consumers. Taking care of all the technological, logistics and marketing aspects which are needed to reach the masses and selecting only the best local, organic health food products, as well as advocating for fair trade, sustainable agricultural practices. In general our mission would be to help farmers and food artisans sell more so that they can focus on growing food for all of us.
I hope you will enjoy buying your food from Los Hortelanos.
Support your local economy and those that you love by eating healthy local food.
To Food, Health, Sustainability & our Future
Johan Steneros
Founder – Los Hortelanos
