Battling the Dogma of Big Ag

I just wrote another article for AgriTrue. You can read the full article on their site (see link below). You can read more about AgriTrue here... unfortunately we have had some set-backs, but we are still working on making AgriTrue a reality.

Home Extension Agent Canning Demonstration 1932

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/C/images/CO053.jpg

I just read an article at the Hobby Farms website, Grow Smart: Keep Food Safe. I was frustrated with it for a number of reasons, but the underlying theme of this article was that we should be scared to raise our own food. What better way to keep the food production in the hands of the big agricultural corporations than to instill fear in those of us that would challenge them? I would recommend reading this short article first (follow this link), and then come on back and see what I have to say about it.
The article documents an interview with Roy Ballard, Purdue Extension educator for agriculture and natural resources. The Extension Services were meant to disseminate information to local farmers and home producers to make their lives better. Unfortunately, it seems that they are becoming just another mouthpiece for Big Ag. Here are a few of his quotes and my issues with them:

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a commercial wholesale grower, hobby farmer, home gardener or direct marketer, the risk of food-borne illness is the same and the precautions that need to be taken are very similar.”
Really? Does he really believe that the risk of my eating a handful of blackberries I picked from the canes growing up the wall in my garden with nothing ever sprayed on them and never even being irrigated is the same as eating blackberries imported to the U.S., which were grown in Mexico, grown under who knows what conditions, sprayed with a variety of chemicals, and then shipped to the local grocer, stocked, and sat on the shelf for a few days before being bought? This fails the common sense test, and unfortunately, I think he really believes what he said.

Read the rest of the article here...

The Importance of Knowing Your Local Farmers

I just wrote another article for AgriTrue. You can read the full article on their site (see link below). You can read more about AgriTrue here... unfortunately we have had some set-backs, but we are still working on making AgriTrue a reality.

In the cooling room at Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese.

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/bgdailynews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/af/faf2ae91-c2bc-5809-91b0-b7d5899c9ba8/4fbf94230386f.image.jpg

I recently read about a recall of over 14 tons of ground beef in Vermont. This got me thinking about a number of things.

First, this is a lot of meat. I wondered how many steers (or old dairy cows) it takes to make 14 tons of ground beef...

Read the full article here

It is Time to Ban Atrazine.

Atrazine being sprayed

http://www.peoplesworld.org/assets/Uploads/Atrazine.jpg

Following is a great article from Mother Earth News on Atrazine, an herbicide that has been around for a long time and has been under fire for health risks. This type of double-speak from the Environmental protection Agency (EPA) is why we need more transparency in agriculture… it is why we need AgriTrue.


Ban Atrazine NOW!
By Top Philpott

Atrazine is the second most widely used pesticide in the United States. Farmers have been using it since its registration in 1958 to control weeds in fields of corn, grain sorghum and other crops, and it has pervasively contaminated our drinking water for years.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which regulates pesticide use, has been operating under the assumption that atrazine (produced by Syngenta) is “not likely to be a human carcinogen.” But in 2009, the agency launched what it called a “comprehensive new evaluation of atrazine to determine its effects on humans.”

Please keep reading here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/sustainable-farming/ban-atrazine-zmgz12amzrog.aspx

Which foods are most important to buy organic?

http://www.organicfood.com.au/SiteMedia/w3svc1159/Uploads/Images/pf2_potato.jpg

"I really don't want to eat food with chemicals all over (and in) them, but organic food is so expensive. Do I have to eat only organic food to be healthy?"

This is a common thought process for those of us concerned about the quality of our food. In my opinion we should do all we can to avoid any and all foods that have chemicals applied to them during any stage of a plant's lifecycle. We can get tied down with semantics on the definition of chemicals, but I am going to use the term in the common vernacular... roughly meaning manmade chemicals used to enhance growth or production or applied to kill animal or plant pests. With any definition, we have little reliable, trustworthy data on the safety of chemicals in modern agriculture, and in many cases the data we do have shows these chemicals are definitely or potentially harmful to humans.

For me, in an ideal world, all my food would be produced naturally with no chemicals whatsoever. But we live in the real world, and it is tough, and usually expesive, to eat a "chemical free" diet all the time. This leads people to feel overwhelmed and obsessed trying to find "healthy" foods. They will often severely limit the variety in their diet due to lack of "chemical free" food products and sources, or they will spend increasingly more and more money to purchase these items from many far away locations. Unfortunately, many of these people eventually give up and choose to consciously ignore these concerns, because it is just easier to live life and eat food without these worries.
But is there a middle ground?

The answer is yes! Obviously, I think AgriTrue will be a valuable tool to find producers that raise food in a way that is important to us. I hope that one day we will be able to eat totally "chemical free" in a simple, local way for a reasonable price tag. But that is not the purpose of this article.

The growing concerns about chemical pesticide exposure in our food is exactly why the Environmental Working Group (EWG) developed its annual list of "clean" and "dirty" foods. From EWG's website:

The mission of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment. EWG is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded in 1993 by Ken Cook and Richard Wiles. In 2002, we founded the EWG Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization that advocates on Capitol Hill for health-protective and subsidy-shifting policies. EWG specializes in providing useful resources to consumers while simultaneously pushing for national policy change.

Their Shopper's Guide to Pesticide in Produce will help you determine which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticide residues and are the most important to buy organic. You can lower your pesticide intake substantially by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated produce. Here is their list:

The Dirty Dozen

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Strawberries
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Nectarines (imported)
7. Grapes (imported)
8. Sweet Bell Peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Blueberries (domestic)
11. Lettuce
12. Kale/Collard Greens

The Clean Fifteen

1. Onions
2. Sweet Corn
3. Pineapples
4. Avocado
5. Asparagus
6. Sweet Peas
7. Mangoes
8. Eggplant
9. Cantaloupe (domestic)
10. Kiwi
11. Cabbage
12. Watermelon
13. Sweet Potatoes
14. Grapefruit
15. Mushrooms

Introducing AgriTrue!

I am very excited to tell you about a project I have been working on for some time... for almost a year now. We are finally about ready for our website to go live. 

I would like to introduce you to AgriTrue.

I am the project manager for AgriTrue, and I have spent many hours working behind the scenes to make this idea a reality.

As a Family Medicine physician, I have seen how the food we consume can make us unhealthy. I have seen how the food we eat can literally kill us. Half of the battle for our health is deciding to make good choices in the food we eat. But once we have made that decision, we have to act on it.

But how can we make good food choices when we don’t even know what we are eating anymore? Where did that vegetable come from? Is it even from this continent? How long ago was it picked? What vitamins and phytonutrients have been lost in the transoceanic voyage it made? What chemical was sprayed on it, and is it still there in the plant’s cells ready to be consumed by us? It gets even more complicated when it comes to meat and dairy.

These questions cannot be answered by going to the local grocery store’s produce aisle.

Connecting the people who produce food with those who eat it. It’s a simple concept, but it is a concept that has been lacking for too long in the U.S. There are a growing number of farmer’s markets and there are more and more CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture) and cooperatives being created across the country every week. But what do you know about those vendors? How can you find out about the things that are important to you about your food?

You can go out and visit the farms. Talk to the people who produce your food. I highly recommend this, but it is very, very time consuming. Few of us will actually do this. So what are we left to do?
This is what AgriTrue is all about, and this is why I am so excited about it. AgriTrue is about information, and it is about relationships.

AgriTrue will provide a place where we can find out where our food comes from, who produced it, how they produced it, and why they produced it. AgriTrue will help us make informed decisions about our food.

I can hardly wait!

Our site will be going live in 30-60 days.  I'll keep you posted.  Stay tuned.