Michael Pollan on Agriculture and Health Care
We might ask ourselves why we should want a change in the system. There is plenty of food and it is realitively inexpensive…. What could be wrong with that??
The impact on the environment is great. These are just a few of the issues with conventional methods of growing:
- chemical pesticide and fertilizers used in conventional farming, in not good to the water eco-systems, workers that handle the pesticides or to our own bodies ( pesticide use has been connected to a number of cancers- prostate, breast, and more).
- large scale industrial farms with intensive irrigation facilities use a tremendous amount of water and are depleting water supplies.
- many of the chemicals on our farmlands are petroleum bases.
- the implications of genetically modified foods have not been studied sufficiently enough. GM field crops include: corn, rice, soybeans, sugar beets, canola, oilseed rape, wheat. While they crops are used primarily for animal feed, they are also used as ingredients in processed foods. Fruits and vegetables that also have ‘some’ GM crops include: tomatoes, cantaloupe, potatoes, radicchio, squash and papaya. They do not have to be marked in the supermarket so if you choose these items conventionally grown (not organic) they could include GM produce.
- Food irradiation- uses electricity to kill flies and eggs on the skin of fruits and vegetables. By law, foods that have been treated with irradiation are to be labeled (a very very small label is permitted).
Lets look at fruits and vegetables, the “fresh” items :
- conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are sprayed with various pesticides.
- fruits and vegetables imported from other countries frequently have different standards that they were grown under. An example would be pesticide usage is not the same, and there are some countries with more lenient rulings than those in the US.
- fruits and vegetables that travel long distances have been frequently picked before they are ripe and then travel 7-10 days before they reach your local supermarket shelves. And these are the items that were grown in the US! The longer the time from harvest the more nutrients are lost in the food.
- Bananas and tomatoes for example are picked while still green and then chilled, warmed and gassed to make them ripen.
- Bagged vegetables and salads have been washed and cut- then subjected to ‘modified- atmosphere packaging” (which changes the proportion of oxygen and carbon dioxide to delay spoilage)
- ‘baby’ carrots are ordinary carrots cut into small carrot shapes and then bagged
- Flavor depends on distance traveled, the variety and the production methods. Most of the fruits and vegetable varieties used in industrial farming were chosen for their tolerance to long distance transportation, resistance to pests, continuity is size and shape…but nothing to do with taste or nutritional value!
- Food Safety- much of the produce on the shelves in US supermarkets comes from third world countries–where sanitation conditions are such that you would only be drinking bottled water.
Thinking about new choices:
- Locally grown foods are fresher and because they are fresher they taste better and they carry more of their nutrients.
- Organic produce, because it is monitored has to be grown under strict guide lines- no chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. People who eat organic foods have lower levels of pesticides in their bodies.
- Organic foods are grown in better soils and contain many of the nutrients from that better soil.
- Some of the largest producers of organic produce are in California, so if you live on the eat coast they still have the same issues with regard to transportation and length of time from harvest to your dinner table.
- Food Safety -remember to wash your produce well especially of you plan on eating the skin ( which often has many of the nutrients)
- Bottom line- EAT MORE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES and try to eat those in season and locally grown (organic preferable) as often as possible. After that look for organic produce that may have traveled a bit.. and then conventionally grown.
