[lit-ideas] Re: Soil and Food









It depends on what they were testing for.  If they were testing for leader 
nutrients like Vitamin C and other better known nutrients, then probably the 
levels were comparable.  The study I quoted measured for *micro* nutrients, 
phytochemicals, of which there are in the thousands, as opposed to the 40 or so 
nutrients in a vitamin bottle.  There are no RDA's set for phytochemicals and 
probably never will be for most of them as it may be the interaction among them 
as much as any individual micro nutrient that's beneficial.  Also, the move 
away from organic, at least in the U.S. from what I've read, isn't so much away 
from organic as it is toward local.  Eat local is the new organic because it 
saves on oil for transportation.  Local can be up to even 500 miles so the 
transportation is still there.  It's as much a statement about herding 
instinct as it is about nutrition.  Which isn't to say local isn't good.  It's 
very, very good.  It just
 needs to be nuanced.
 
Organic conserves not only micro nutrients, but it saves on fossil fuels in an 
era when they're depleting.  We absolutely must retool life to learn to live 
with a lot less oil and a lot more expensive oil in the relatively near 
future.  Not using fossil fuel to grow food also helps to save things like the 
oceans that in addition to being overfished (80 to 90% of the big fish are 
virtually gone) are suffering from accumulations of fossil fuel agricultural 
pollutants that run into the rivers which empty into the oceans.
 
Unfortunately, if the entire world went organic, most of it would starve to 
death.  The 'green revolution' of the mid 20th century is the result of using 
soil to turn fossil fuels into food.  We spend approximately ten calories of 
fossil fuel to get one calorie of food.  Historically farmers invested one 
calorie of energy to get three calories of food, so clearly the green 
revolution is sustainable only when we can be profligate with fossil fuel, 
which is to say, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers (mostly natural gas) and 
oil (processing, transportation).  
 
Also, it depends on who funded the study.  I was watching a PBS program on the 
heart the other day, and the doctor said to the woman with the coronary artery 
disease that lifestyle changes aren't enough, she has to take statins.  The 
credits at the end revealed Astra Zeneca as funding the show (and Mars, 
presumably the candy company; take a statin, eat all the candy you want).  Dean 
Ornish proved years ago that CAD not only can be slowed but *reversed* (as in 
cured) through diet, exercise, meditation and social support.  But his diet is 
extreme in terms of what Americans eat, so almost no one wants to do it.  They 
prefer to take a drug.  That certainly works for big pharma.  Those who do Dean 
Ornish's method (Pritikin is another) get reversals far higher than with 
statins, not to mention they cure or substantially reduce diabetes and other 
diseases that statins don't touch.  Statins also have side effects, and the 
statistics for them are
 misleading, promulgated by pharma and rubber stamped by the FDA.
 
This all goes back I think to the comment that Chris made about being in tune, 
in harmony, that if we're in tune with nature who designed us in context with 
and arising out of the environment, health (riches) will follow.  Out of step 
with nature's 'design' and we're out of tune.  Metaphorically speaking, we're 
putting dirty diesel into cars designed to run on gasoline.  They'll run, but 
not as well and not as long.  Process out what nature put in, then put back 
four nutrients (iron, niacin, riboflavin, folic acid; it's called 'enriching') 
and Yellow #X and Red #Yand sustain biochemical life with it.  Then fund a 
healthcare (actually sick care) system with money you don't have, which is to 
say, keep your tow truck driver's number handy and hope somebody else pays for 
the tow and the repairs.  Personally, I'll take organic.
 
Andy  
 
 


--- On Thu, 7/30/09, Paul Stone <pastone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


From: Paul Stone <pastone@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Soil and Food
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thursday, July 30, 2009, 4:32 AM


Here's an article especially for you, posted without prejudice either way:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE56S3ZJ20090729

p
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