Going Organic — Hip or Hype? (2 of 3)
March 29, 2008
Organic products are flying off the shelves. Are they really what they claim to be?
In my last post I promised to return with more information on the safety of organic products. In this, the next article of the series, we will hear two sides on this issue, which it turns out, is not a simple one.
The premise: Organic products are better for you and safer. Are they?
Remember that E.coli scare in 2006? Well, that contaminated spinach that killed one woman and hospitalized 29 other people with kidney failure came from one of the largest organic farms in America, Earthbound Farms. In all, the contaminated spinach made nearly 200 sick in 23 states and Canada. What you may not have heard about were the California children that had to be placed on dialysis with permanent organ damage from the same strain of E.coli O157:H7 after consuming raw, un-pasteurized milk or colostrum from the Organic Pastures Dairy of Fresno.
The irony lies in the fact that these victims were all seeking safer food alternatives. They were promised the health benefits of milk and vegetables produced "the way nature intended."
So what happened exactly? This is where the conversation gets tricky.
"After four generations of innovation in agriculture, harvesting, and now bottling, we know that everything really important (freshness, great taste and good health) still begins in the fields." says Earthbound Farms.
"And it’s the fields that are the problem," cites Canada Free Press writer Judi Mcleod.
As John Miller from the National Review reported in 2004:
"Organic foods may be fresh, but they’re also fresh from the manure fields."
Earthbound fertilizes its leafy vegetables with cow manure.
"Most conventional farmers fertilize their food crops with "chemical" fertilizer, and put their livestock manure on feed crops like corn. Organic farmers reject chemical fertilizer. Instead, they compost raw cattle manure for some weeks, hoping that will kill any dangerous organisms that could contaminate the food. Sometimes it doesn’t," say Hudson’s Center for Global Food Issues Dennis T. Avery and Alex A. Avery.
Furthermore, a study by the Center for Global Food Issues found that although organic foods make up about 1 percent of America’s diet, they also account for about 8 percent of confirmed E.coli cases. (The Center for Consumer Freedom, Jan., 2004).
Meanwhile, the Avery’s believe "our objective should be to get the manure away from our food crops. Organic and natural aren’t safer, or more nutritious: Just more expensive, and far more dangerous."
Did I happen to mention that Bolthouse Farms, which bottles three brands of "organic" carrot juice, included three recalled products that same year? Bolthouse Farms 100% Carrot Juice, Earthbound Farm Organic Carrot Juice and President’s Choice Organic 100% Pure Carrot Juice. Two Toronto residents were paralyzed after drinking carrot juice that tested positive for a botulism toxin. Four cases of botulism in the United States have been linked to toxic carrot juice.
California grows about $400 million per year in organic produce–and about half of it comes from just five farms.
And now lettuce has been added to the potential E.coli contamination list. Earthbound fertilizes its leafy vegetables with cow manure.
Wow. So that’s a lot of scary information. What’s the flipside to these arguments?
The Flipside
There is another theory that I stumbled upon to how these products could have become contaminated. I don’t want this post to get too long, so I will refer you to another webpage for the intricate details and I will summarize below.
For the details go here:
A California Organic Spinach Farmer: How E.Coli Gets into Bagged Spinach
For my brief summary keep reading…
Andy Griffin, an organic spinach farmer, discusses an alternative theory to the E.Coli contamination theory offered by the FDA for the spinach contamination of 2006. He says:
Although the victims got sick by eating spinach from a sealed bag it’s wrong to seize on spinach as the culprit in the controversy; it makes more sense to look at the processing and handling of pre-packaged greens in general. Put another way, it’s the harvest procedures that were followed, the pre-washed claim made for the greens, and the bagged environment the greens are in that are the relevant issues, not the specific variety of leafy greens that were actually contaminated at some point during the harvest and post harvest handling.
He puts the blame on a different culprit than manure:
When we harvested baby greens by hand at Riverside Farms the workers dipped their knives periodically in buckets of antiseptic solution to clean them. We were unsophisticated then, compared to the way the industry is today, but we knew that any bacteria on the knife could contaminate the wound in the leaf where it was severed from the plant at the moment of harvest. …If the cutting blade on a harvesting machine isn’t properly cleaned, tons and tons of product can be contaminated by a filthy blade during the course of the day - Not just tons and tons of baby spinach, but tons and tons of ANY PARTICULAR LEAFY GREEN VEGETABLE, ORGANIC, CONVENTIONAL, OR OTHERWISE, that is being harvested.
So are organic products the way to go, or no?
(See the videos below for two professional opinions. First, a pro-organic viewpoint from Naturopath and Board-Certified Clinical Nutritionist David J. Getoff, and next a different take from John Edward Swartzberg, M.D., F.A.C.P., and Chair of the Editorial Board of the University of California, Berkeley).
Ultimately, after reviewing the facts it’s up to the consumer to decide. However, there is some very real data about the benefits of some organic products.
In part 3, the final post in this series, we will be discussing those products. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion!
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Baby’s First Airplane Ride
March 27, 2008
I had been looking forward to the time when I would be able to travel with my son. We would be going on a short flight — one hour — and my mom would accompany us to help out. I had only taken my son camping so this was a huge event for
me. While at the airport he ran around as expected. He said hello to everyone he came across and tried to play with other childrens’ toys. No big deal here.
Our flight was delayed about one hour so he continued to flirt with pretty girls and play with the pay phones. We had a "wonderful" airport meal consisting of McDonald’s. Yum! Then it was finally time to board the plane.
By this time it had come very close to his normal bedtime and he was starting to be a little grumpy. We finally got onto the plane and found our seats. As we settled in, my son looked around with confusion. He did not seem to know if he should be excited or scared. Nonetheless, he sat on my lap and looked out the window. When the plane began to move he grew excited with anticipation of what would happen next.
Suddenly, the captain uttered these distressing words: "We will be held over for an additional 25 minutes." My heart sank so quickly I was sure the other passengers had heard the thud. There was no way a 16 month old boy would sit quietly in a confined space for 25 minutes — at least not MY 16-month old boy. Sure enough, it took less than a minute for my son to begin crying and trying to get down from my lap. There was nowhere for him to go and he got really angry. My mom took him and tried to calm him with his toys and a game of peek-a-boo. That worked for a few minutes then he started kicking and screaming again.
I could see some of the nearby passengers looking uncomfortable at the high pitched wailing of this child. There was not much I could do. I tried calming him by rocking then by showing him features of his toys he had not tried out. Again, this only worked for a few minutes.
Needless to say, that was probably the longest 25 minutes of my life. My son finally settled down and laid across our laps. He was tired and started to fall asleep as we took off. Whew! The short flight was over before it started. As we began to descend my son awoke to his ears popping and the screaming started up again. It was not as bad as earlier because he was half asleep but he was not happy.
Finally, off the plane and into his stroller my son was able to relax and just ride along off to the hotel. We will be returning tomorrow night so I will be sure to update you all. We have a late flight going home so this could be additionally troublesome.
I hope my experience opens the door for you to share your own experiences. I would love to hear what others do to prepare and deal with a delayed flight where you have to sit on the plane.
Here you can find an excellent article providing tips on what to do when flying with kids:
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Going Organic — Hip or Hype? (1 of 3)
March 26, 2008
Been shopping lately?
If you have, then you’ve probably noticed the growing selection of organic products being offered. At first glance this seems like a no-brainer. No chemicals, no pesticides, no genetic engineering and hey– it’s more expensive so it has to be better, right?
Well, before you snatch up that organic milk and fill up your young one’s sippy cup, you might want to read this blog post… In this first post, let’s approach the concerns in three parts.
First:
THE GOOD
Every day, millions of infants, children and adults in the United States are consuming genetically engineered food without their knowledge. Everyday groceries have been tested by the Consumers Union and it has been shown that genetically engineered foods are already on supermarket shelves — in baby formulas, drink mixes, "veggie" burgers — and even in fast-food. The FDA’s policy on this? No pre-market notification, no pre-market safety testing is required. In fact, the FDA has allowed the corporations themselves to determine whether these foods are safe. (see http://www.panna.org/node/1075)
Okay, I know what you’re thinking. What’s good about that? Well, technically there isn’t enough cumulative information to decisively say that genetically engineered food products
are harmful to us. Admittedly, I’m not doing cartwheels or anything at the thought of my family and me being experimented on, but compared to the next sections, this is definitely the better of my three bullet points.
THE BAD
Our bodies are being contaminated. Toxic chemicals from everyday products contaminate the bodies of every single person in the U.S. Baby bottles, toys, shower curtains, water bottles, shampoo, cosmetics, couch cushions, computers –hundreds of other common products that ordinary people use every day contain toxic chemical ingredients that are being absorbed into our bodies. (see: http://isitinus.org/project.php)
Yuck.
This definitely qualifies as bad in my book.
But now for–
THE UGLY
Our agriculture is littered with pesticides. Here are some facts you should be aware of:
10 Things You Should Know About Pesticides
1. A 1992 analysis of 5,592 washed and peeled fruits and vegetables showed that 61 per cent of them contained pesticide residues. Grapes had 21 different pesticides, apples 25.
2. Pesticides banned in North America still end up in the produce we buy here. In fact, we manufacture banned toxic chemicals and sell them to other countries who then use them on food which is shipped back and sold in our markets. Half of our winter produce is imported.
3. Scientists have traced DDT in our Great Lakes to sources i n Central America, where it is still used.
4. Dow Chemical, Monsanto and Ely Lilly are among the multinational companies which produce banned pesticides with known health dangers. One such product, DBCP, has rendered thousands of Latin American banana workers sterile.
5. Worldwide sperm count levels have dropped 50 per cent in only the last half-century. If these levels continue, most men will be sterile in two generations. (See the video below.)
6. DDT was banned in 1972; however, researches have found no decrease of this chemical in human breast milk since that time.
7. If the same levels of DDT found in human breast milk were found in cow’s milk today, the product would be banned.
8. Recent studies show that breast cancer patients have higher levels of DDT in their blood than those without cancer. Other studies show higher pesticide levels in the bodies of stomach and lung cancers.
9. Multinational chemical companies have spent millions to block or lighten legislation that proposes to limit pesticide use.
10. Despite repeated appeals from consumers and scientists, Agriculture Canada does not test for the effects of combined pesticide toxicity or of long-term effects when regulating pesticide safety and usage.
Scary, huh? So, now that I’ve provided all of this data then it must be true that organic products are better for us, right?
Well… Not necessarily.
"Stay tuned for Part 2 of 3 in this article series in which I reveal some surprising facts about so-called ‘healthier alternative’ organic products. You don’t want to miss it!"
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A Sobering Conversation with a Catholic Mom
March 24, 2008
I usually shy away from things with religious or political overtones, simply because there is never really a conclusive answer to those types of conversations–at least none that everyone can leave the conversation satisfied with. I’m going to break my rule today, simply because I was so astonished by what was said that I simply had to share it.
I was talking with a young mother who has a little boy who is attending a Lutheran school. She was raised Catholic so this news did not go over very well with her family (as you might guess). This well known fact was the "elephant in the room" as she visited with her family over Easter weekend and she thought she might get out unscathed, until one of her more aggressive sisters had finally had enough.
"What’s the deal with your son going to Lutheran school?" she asked with a tone of stark disapproval. The mom, we’ll call her Linda, steeled her nerve and prepared to engage formidable foes.
"I’ll send him to Catholic school when the Catholic Church accepts responsibility and does what it needs to do to keep him safe," she said succinctly with just a quiver of adrenaline tinged nervousness inside.
"What’s THAT supposed to mean?" her sister fired back.
"It means that I’d be afraid for him physically and mentally if he attended Catholic school. Right at this moment there are priests serving who are known to have sexually abused children and the Church is protecting them and allowing them to stay in their stations. Until they admit these things and correct them, I will keep the name but they will not put my child at risk or see a cent of my money ." (See a related video from KCVE Newscenter Channel 5 for a new development on this issue.)
If you think you can imagine what happened next you might be surprised. Linda’s father joined in the conversation, and supported her position!
"I’m proud of you for not just going along with the flow, Linda," he said. He went on to say that though he desired his grandson to embrace Catholicism, it was important to him that his daughter made the best decisions for her son.
This was related to me by Linda herself. It was shocking to her, as it was to me that her family supported her decision and dropped the matter completely.
The truth of the matter is, although the light has been thrown upon the problem of abuse in the Catholic church, the problem is quite literally everywhere. It is when the places and people that we put the most trust in disappoint us that it becomes such an emotional affair that it is predominant in our minds and in our society.
Figures such as priests or preachers, doctors and police officers are supposed to represent what is good and decent in our society. When these people fail us, it strikes a chord that pains us all to our very cores. I write this not to discredit any religion or generalize any group, but rather to share the feeling I had when I heard the story. Truly saddened.
Linda then related this last little tidbit that I found very amusing. She said that there is a very wealthy man that attends her cathedral. He is adamant that priests who violate the priesthood should not be protected by the church and should be removed from their stations. He has not given up on his faith, but rather he has decided to take a stand about some of it’s practices. When the offering plate is passed, he does not put money in. Instead he puts a single, folded piece of paper in every time. On the paper it reads the same every week:
"I have opened up a separate account for the money which I have tithed to the Church. (A huge figure has amassed in the totals column). I will remit payment of these tithes, when the Church recognizes what it needs to do and ceases to protect the predators of our children and properly denounces and dismisses them."
Do you think more involved parishioners like this one might help incur changes that could save a new generation of children from prosecution immune predators? (See the video above for an update on this issue.)
Controversial, but none-the-less interesting…
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