Organic Label Under Attack

Two separate articles have crossed my desk today both dealing with the issue of attempts to weaken the USDA Organic label. First off is a report by the Cornucopia Institute on the efforts being made by agri-business to fly under the radar of organic regulation by subverting the rules of organic egg production. Giving access to the outdoors to chickens does not mean providing them with a small caged run attached to an enormous chicken shed!

Likewise The Huffington Post reported today on efforts to sneak non-organic sulphites into organic red wine. Check out Ronnie Cummins article Proposed Sulphite Amendment Weakens Organic Standards.
If you struggle with sulphites this could be a matter of life or death.

Let's hope the USDA National Organic Board remember just who they're there to protect. Definitely two stories to watch!

7 Foods To Avoid For A Healthy Life

Just as I finished canning my final batch of tomato paste this week, I came across an article by Anne Underwood published in Prevention Magazine. 7 Foods That Should Never Cross Your Lips questions the methods of modern day food production and reveals just how many toxins and chemicals are lerking in the foods we eat daily. The magazine asked a group of seven scientists, farmers and health experts which foods they try to avoid. Their answers were enlightening and the first one out of the gate made me feel very grateful for all the time and effort I'd just expended in the kitchen.

1. Dr Fredrick Von Saal PhD, an endocrinologist, listed canned tomatoes as the main food he avoids. Unfortunately the resin linings of the cans contain bisphenol-A, a synthetic estrogen which has been linked to heart disease, diabetes and reproductive issues. As the tomatoes sit in the cans, their acid content breaks down the resin and releases the toxin. Before you know it, you're creating health issues along with your pasta sauce!

The solution: Buy tomatoes in glass jars or Tetra Paks (or can your own!)

2. Joel Salatin, farmer and author, avoids corn-fed beef. "We need to respect the fact that cows are herbivores," says Salatin, "and that does not mean feeding them corn and chicken manure." On the giant feedlots cows are fed corn and soybeans which fatten them up faster for slaughter. This keeps the prices at the grocery stores low (and more money in the cattle farmers pockets), but sacrifices nutritional value for the consumer.

The solution: (aside from eating less beef) Buy from Whole Foods stores or local farmer's markets. Cuts on the bone are also cheaper (and actually cook better and have more flavor too.)

3. Olga Naidenko PhD, a scientist for the Environmental Working Group, chooses to avoid microwave popcorn. A chemical known as PFOA is used in the lining of the bag and has been linked in animal testing to liver, pancreatic and testicular cancer. When the bag is microwaved the chemical migrates to the popcorn, which is then consumed and the toxin accumulates in the body.

The solution: Do what I do, pop your popcorn in a heavy-bottomed pan on the stove top. It takes no time and is very cheap!

4. Jeffery Moyer, chair of the National Organic Standards Board, stays away from non-organic potatoes.
Potatoes are treated with herbicides, pesticides and fungicides during the growing season and are then sprayed again after harvesting to prevent sprouting. All these chemicals are absorbed into the flesh of the potato making organic the only alternative.

5. David Carpenter MD, Director of the Institute of Health and the Environment at the University of Albany, recommends avoiding farmed salmon. Like the cows the salmon are fed soy, chicken litter and even chicken feathers. As a result farmed salmon is full of pesticides including DDT, which has been linked to a myriad of health problems including diabetes. The fish are also treated with antibiotics, not what you really want on your dinner plate.

The solution: Buy wild Alaskan salmon instead.

6. Rick North, project director for The Campaign For Safe Food, avoids milk produced with artificial hormones. Farmers treat their cows with rBGH, or rBST as it's also known, to stimulate milk production. Sadly this also leads to udder infections in the cows which results in pus in the milk. In all other industrialized countries this bovine growth hormone is banned.

The solution: Look for milk produced without growth hormones (rBST-free) or buy organic.

7. Mark Kastel, co-director of the Cornucopia Institute, stays away from conventional apples. Again it's the amount of pesticides used which are of concern here. Apples are one of the most doused fruits and with evidence mounting that exposure to these chemicals is putting farm workers health at risk, it makes sense to avoid eating something that has the potential to contribute to the development of neurological illnesses such as Parkinson's Disease.

The solution: Buy organic apples.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Are there certain foods you avoid?


Links:
Cornucopia Institute
The Campaign For Safe Food
Institute For Health And The Environment
National Organic Standards Board
Environmental Working Group

Breast Cancer Linked To Everyday Chemicals

If ever I had any doubts about my quest to reduce my family's chemical exposure, they were obliterated on Friday with the release of The Breast Cancer Fund's 2010 "State of The Evidence" report. The report clearly links the rise in breast cancer in women to the abundant use of petro-chemicals in our environment and our food.

“A substantial body of scientific evidence indicates that exposures to common chemicals and radiation contribute to the unacceptably high incidence of breast cancer,” said the report’s lead author Dr Janet Gray, a professor at Vassar College, New York. The research investigated all the scientific data on how breast cancer risk is increased by exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals, carcinogens and radiation.

This news also received coverage from the UK's Daily Express and you can read the full article here. The newspaper goes so far as to link cancer with cleaning products, clearly exposing the threat to women (and men if they clean the house regularly) caused by frequent use of household cleaning solutions.

"Experts warn that as many as one in eight women is at risk of contracting breast cancer – a dramatic increase since the 1930s when the first reliable cancer figures were recorded," declares the article. It goes on to state that, "The increasing incidence of breast cancer since the 1930s parallels the proliferation of synthetic chemicals."

In the words of Jeanne Rizzo, President of the Breast Cancer Fund, "This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, our message is clear: we must move beyond awareness to prevention.”

I couldn't agree more!

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In the meantime, while the scientists decide just how often it's safe to have a mammogram, some women are dying because they can't afford one in the first place. Screening that could catch breast cancer early should be available to all. Please go to The Breast Cancer Site and 'click-to-give.'

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Links

National Breast Cancer Foundation

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Susan G. Komen For The Cure

Breast Cancer Awareness

Breast Cancer Care (UK)

Breast Cancer Research (UK)

Photo: BritneyBush