Health – Food 2

I saw a great quote yesterday – “The elite create myths in order to debunk myths they don’t like” – could have been something straight out of writer Eco Umberto’s ‘Foucaults Pendulum.’

An anecdote I have seen attributed to several people is, “When did putting poisons on our food seems like a good idea?” Yes, I hear the biologists and chemists assuring us that these toxins can be simply washed away by rinsing and that they don’t exist long after being used. That’s why we can still find DDT (banned since mid-1970s) still showing up in the environment. Since Rachel Carson first warned us about problems in 1962, the chemicals have only multiplied and gotten more toxic – a scientific belief system that petro-technology is always good will not go away it seems – again, look at the money trail as to why? One of my favorite lines from a documentary about DTT: “Right after World War II…we went into a binge of developing new technologies…people thought it was a good thing because they saw action in solving a problem as they conceived it. The chemists and the agriculturalists knew that DDT killed insects. They didn’t know why, they didn’t ask why. It was enough that it killed insects, it seemed enough for them. They should have been more curious, they there were not. They were practical people and they went to work.” Rachel Carson wasn’t against pesticides per se (although she did refer to them as biocides) but she was upset in their cavalier use without strict enforceable regulations. I have spoken to organic farmers who said that very occasionally they would resort to minimal use of chemical pesticides when an infestation had gotten out of hand.

I once spent a wonderful afternoon touring a farm (a practical farmer of Iowa – PRI) with an older Iowa farmer who was technically retired but now playing with different agricultural techniques. As we walked around his farm he would pull out a small notebook he used as a record about his crops. He did not use any pesticides, no chemical fertilizers (only green manure from a small dairy herd he kept), and very little weed maintenance because he used a self-designed plow and planter that eliminated weeds! He proudly gave the numbers of weeds for each row of crops that year per month. “No weeds this row all summer; 2 weeds in the whole next row in August, etc…” and that his yields were higher than all his neighbors’ farms. He lamented to me that while he was invited to speak to farmers all over the country about his techniques, and people from around the world came to see his farm, he could not get his neighbor across the road to listen to him. A good example of his neighbor’s rigid belief system and fear of failure! To be fair, farming is a marginal business, and to change something that could end up failing can devastate a farmer within a single growing season. In my SL text, I talk a bit about Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs and farmer’s markets that alleviate this fear. Yet, it is up to us that want clean healthy food to share this economic burden. Not everyone has that spare change will be able to invest, but those of us who can need to step up to the plate.

Now to one of my favorite modern chemicals brought to you by that family friendly giant called Monsanto – Glyphosate that was adopted by the FDA as harmless (GRAS – Generally Recognized As Safe – a wonderful acronym meaning no research needed because the company that makes it said so), and if you truly believe that it is harmless, I have some great beachfront property for sale near Denver. Write anything that implies otherwise and you are a hopeless and obviously poorly informed conspiracist!! This despite the immense amount of data showing problems with Glyphosate and GMOs. Recall I am not against all GMOs, but I would love to see serious largescale research done that has as its primary goal our health and protection, and not cover-ups that maintain profits through deception. We are not talking about a dose of poison slipped into your glass that kills you in minutes. We are talking about insidious poisoning that takes years to happen, but slowly debilitates the body systems. And where the ‘cause’ of the diseases is almost impossible to determine. As Rachel Carson emphasized, the Borgias would be impressed, for we have a system of subverted science, corrupt government, and systematic deception as a norm of business dedicated to making money – at any cost to us apparently.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient of ‘Roundup,’ was first used to descale calcium buildups on water pipes – it is an incredible and potent sequester of ions. Considering the amount of ion pumping that goes on in any organism, one has to wonder why there is such casual acceptance of Glyphosate. It is now used as a herbicide that inhibits the synthesis of aromatic amino acids in plants. Monsanto says it is OK and that it seems is good enough for the agencies supposedly meant to protect us. The research done about Glyphosate problems is consistently debunked and dismissed. What happened to the scientific process? Work used to be reviewed by peers in the field and then its acceptance or rejection occurred over time. Not by corporations throwing vast amounts of money to cover up incredibly inconvenient data that would devastate profits. One factor rarely mentioned by the chemical companies is soil quality. With most pesticides, the plants are coated with a fine spray that can then drip onto the soil. This means that over time there isn’t much quality left in the soil – it is now simply dirt (inorganic minerals with added inorganic fertilizers (phosphate and nitrogen, and other trace ions – most of which can be easily sequestered by glyphosate in the soil). The addition of potent toxic pesticides gets rid of the weeds effectively, but the micronutrients from the soil biota (you know, all the living organisms that live in the soil breaking it down to humus) are getting slowly demolished and micronutrients are no longer incorporated into the plants. Now add to this melee the introduction of 2,4 D (2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) and 2,4,5 T (2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid), the active ingredients of Agent Orange – you know that chemical used to defoliate jungles in Vietnam and attributed to the massive case of cancers in soldiers that served over there. Because Roundup isn’t working well anymore, Monsanto wants to add a second herbicide to its arsenal. But for some reason the mention of Agent Orange on our food has made some Americans queasy! – finally some concern, but not far enough. OK, less of the doom and gloom disclosure, and more positive messaging and actions you can take to ensure you get clean, healthy food.