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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Hay belly nation
  • Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:47:36 -0600

Hay belly nation
by Deborah Rich
http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=206&Itemid=1

Mum's the word among federal officials about the health benefits of
eating organic foods.

The Department of Health and Human Services defers questions about
organic foods to the Food and Drug Administration. But the FDA has no
policy on organics because it says they're the domain of the
Department of Agriculture, which will admit to using the "o-word," but
says its mandate is simply to regulate use of the certified organic
label, not to judge the relative benefits of organic versus
conventional foods.

While the agencies entrusted with safeguarding our food and health
pass the potato, a fast-growing body of scientific literature suggests
that the connection between farm practices and the healthfulness of
our foods merits attention. Organic foods don't come out ahead of
conventionally grown foods in 100 percent of comparative tests, but
they rise to the top often enough to suggest that organic farming can
increase, sometimes dramatically, the nutrient density of what we put
in our mouths.

Even a cursory look at recent peer-reviewed studies should be enough
to get public health officials talking.

Researchers at the University of California at Davis found that 10-
year mean levels of quercetin were 79 percent higher in organic
tomatoes than in conventional tomatoes, and that levels of kaempferol
were 97 percent higher. Quercetin and kaempferol are flavonoids that
studies suggest protect against cardiovascular disease, cancer and
other age-related ills.

Another Davis study compared organic and conventional kiwis and found
that "all the main mineral constituents were more concentrated in the
organic kiwifruits, which also had higher ascorbic acid (a precursor
of vitamin C) and total phenol content, resulting in a higher
antioxidant activity."

A Spanish study measured 1.5 times more carotenoids -- associated with
reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and some cancers -- in peppers
grown organically.

And Swiss researcher Lukas Rist found that mothers consuming at least
90 percent of their dairy and meat from organic sources have 36
percent higher levels of rumenic acid in their milk. Research suggests
rumenic acid may deter cancer and diabetes, and preserve and improve
immune system functions.

These and other studies give hope that organic farming can reverse the
nutrient decline of fruits and vegetables that appears to accompany
the widespread use of agricultural chemicals and produce varieties
selected primarily for yield. And while it's true that nutrition
science is still a long way from understanding what the amount of a
specific nutrient in a tomato, kiwi or glass of milk means for overall
health, ignoring the opportunity to improve the nutrient density of
foods at the foundation of the USDA's food pyramid seems foolhardy.

Based on a review of data collected by the Centers for Disease
Control, Brian Halweil, senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute,
says, "Thirty percent or more of the U.S. population ingests
inadequate levels of magnesium, vitamin C, vitamin E and vitamin A,
all nutrients we get from plants."

In a paper he published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, Bruce Ames, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
at the University of California-Berkeley, noted that vitamin and
mineral deficiencies are common in the United States, and that these
deficiencies may accelerate degenerative diseases.

Even our ever-expanding waistlines may be due in part to nutrient
declines in our foods. Paul Hepperly, director of research at the
Rodale Institute, thinks we may be responding like cattle do.

"Cattle will eat more of hay that's been rained on and had most
of its nutrients leach out than they normally would," he says. "The
animals get these big bellies, and they're unhealthy, but they're just
trying to get their nutrients. Ranchers know that if they have animals
with hay belly, they have poor quality food. What we've done with the
erosion of nutrient content in our foods -- what we've done with
additives, processing and artificial agriculture production methods --
is that we have basically produced a hay belly nation."

Refusing to enter the discussion about how farming methods affect the
nutrient density of our food helps our government duck the question of
why it lends so much support to the status quo of conventional,
nonorganic agriculture. But failing to acknowledge the connection
between what happens on the farm and the healthfulness of foods may be
enough to make a nation sick.

-----

Deborah Rich grows olives near Monterey, Calif., and writes about
agriculture for the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications.
She wrote this comment for the Land Institute's Prairie Writers
Circle, Salina, Kansas, released June 11, 2008. Used by permission.
The Land Institute's founder Wes Jackson is a national treasure. Check
out the group's website: http://landinstitute.org





  • [Livingontheland] Hay belly nation, Tradingpost, 09/02/2008

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