Dr. Mercola November 17 2007 85,657 views
The debate over whether organic food is healthier than conventionally grown food may be over, according to results from a $25-million study into organic food -- the largest of its kind to date. The four-year, European-Union-funded study found that:
The good news is that more and more local communities have farms that are switching to organically grown crops. This way, we get the best of both worlds,,,organic and local.
Talk to your local farmers about going organic; make them understand that it is better for all in the long run---even their bottom line.
Best Regards
Dr Dave
I remember visiting my Grandmother in Kansas (1970s) and having to go out and help her pick veggies (yuk) from the garden for dinner. She taught me how to pick the green beans and ate one right there while she was picking. Of course I was polite when she offered me one.... and upon chewing, I thought it was one of the most amazing things I had ever tasted!!!!! Islander is SO correct, kids would love their veggies if we only had the kind of soil and organic methods my Grandmother had.
Mary, If you ever bother to do research of your own, on your own, you will find that a good amount of research comes from overseas. I agree with all the replies.
Gudni Einarsson,
Careful not to confuse American corporations with the American public. Huge numbers of us here are very aware of what's going on. We are protesting, and it's either being restricted or not covered. We are active, but the corporations have stolen the government. People can be incarcerated indefinitely without reason, etc., etc.
I recently toured Germany, and one kind woman asked what it was like to be in the US right now. She compared it to the beginnings of Nazi power where one knows there is something really awful going on, and one even tries to stop it, but we haven't figured out exactly how to get it to change.
Personally, I think if everyone here really stopped buying all but the absolute bare necessities such as organic food and decent shelter even for just a short period of time, the corporations would crumble and the power would come back to the people. This could be one way of going about it without violence.
EQ - Thank you for defending those of us who do know the tragic consequences of ignorance....You have a perfect solution! Let's keep trying to educate.
Scary about the correlation between Germany prior to WWII and the United States prior to .....(what's scarier, is it's true!)
Let every devious, corrupt and harmful corporation to the planet, to the animals and to humans die off as quickly as possible!
RE: correlation between Germany prior to WWII and the United States prior to .....
You guys think small.
Have you read George Orwell’s 1984?
We are driving straight at it. In a few generations, we will live to see some permutation of “Big Brother”. We have the technology talked about in the book, we will have it more so in the future, and we have the biochemistry down now. There are some ideas in the book that are too radical to discuss here, but I can envision them coming true sooner than you might think. (and I am talking about the stuff at the back of the book.)
KT, that was Mary's point... her statement at the beginning of the sentence referred to what she thinks will be the reply of big business. It seems you made the mistake I always do, reading too fast, and not to the end. I still do it, you'd think I'd learn... but I read a bit and jump to conclusions instead of reading the whole shabang!
I've lived 25y in Denmark and 20y in the US. I can tell you this, Americans are as smart as Danes, or any other group of people. But by God, most Americans are ignorant to point it is embarrassing. But it's not their fault. It's the fault of them being swallowed up by the American belief system, the brainwashing news and commercials, the American selfish value system and the worst of them all, the so-called American dream. It's all focused on money, lies and self gratification.
My toes curl up when Bush mentions Gods name. God is for society, caring and unselfishness. Any God that I know of represents these fundamental traits. America calls itself "God's own country". I makes me wanna puke. To succeed in this country, you "must" follow the money - you "must" adopt the American dream abc - you can't afford to be open minded - be ignorant and follow the crowd if you wanna make that first $1M.
Even my own wife, who's a highly educated and successful person, is ignorant. Occasionally, I can reach her, though that is the exception. Even when I do manage to make her see the light, it's only a matter of time before she relapses into robotic state. She's been brainwashed - and I don't have the skills nor energy to reverse this. She can not fathom that inorganic pasteurized milk might be bad for our kids or that giving them chocholate chip cookies before bedtime is a bad idea no matter how you look at it.
It's therefore no wonder to me that medical doctors, news casters, scientists, our government, etc can not comprehend these things either. It's not that they are not smart. It's simply that there exists a mental block to even consider the possibility that the food we eat is no good. It's too much for them...and of course they also won't believe it because it's bad for business and bad for their careers.
Michael
Unfortunately the word 'organic' has lost it's meaning in the USA. For years organic growers had been using the word before the government got their hands on it and everything was fine. Now that the government has officially defined 'organic' and set standards, it is no longer the same. Many organic producers were actually selling food that was much better than the government definition. When the government got involved in defining 'organic', they allowed for a much lower standard than what the food producers were holding themselves to, so a lot of the food you see labeled as organic now, may not be as healthy as you think. It is time that top tier organic growers got together and registered a trademark for a term that they can use to distinguish themselves from growers that only meet the government minimum standard in the same way that Certified Angus was trademarked by the beef industry to denote their highest quality product. Once the term is trademarked, the government can't step in and mess around with the standard.
I agree completely with your comments and would like to see that happen. Hey, there's a guy doing a podcast now that has info on small farming, organics, raw foods, other real health issues. Anyone interested in getting more health news other than from Dr. Mercola, can find it at the following link.
web.mac.com/.../Podcast.html
Very good information.
We have been organically certified through California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) since 1992. I am not crazy about the Feds getting their hands on our operation.... they have complicated things a bit while not improving the integrity of the system from our perspective as a small grower in a state that already had VERY stringent Organic Production Laws... but one benefit is that the nationwide standards are now standardized from state to state. But just as the smog emission laws of a state can be written to a higher standard than that of the Feds (like Calif does), a certifying agency can also make its own standards higher than the national standards. We are also registered with IFOAM (International Federation for Organic Ag Movement) which is an international standard accepted in Europe and Japan… this is done through our agreement with CCOF giving us higher standards than the federal organic standards laws.
In short, the Feds did get rid of a patchwork quilt of varying standards from state to state, they also loosened the standards in some states which probably had higher standards initially (like Calif), but they have also gotten rid of the deceptive wording in some produce sold before, words such as ‘no spray’ and ‘no pesticides’, which were legal to be used legally as long as the pesticide application was made within the application/harvest dates. So on one hand, one could say that the consumer can be assured of relatively organic produce.. on the other hand, Calif was probably better off with the older standards, still, the highest standards are available for growers to pursue, and for the consumer to search for.
And for sure, I do support people knowing their farmers, whether they buy from them in the local market, the stores or over the internet... try to get to know the people growing your food... and try to get an impression as to whether they are truly growing organically and have the 'organic mindset'.
Everything in my household is organic and that includes toiletries. I wouldn't have it any other way.
We are right there with you dare2baware!!! In the big picture - it's the only way to go.
"Be responsible for your actions upon the earth - from the foods that you eat (know where they come from and how they've been grown) to the products that you use" "ORGANIC AND GREEN IS THE NEW COOL SCENE."
I neglected to mention that this Cote family of Seven (well now five) has been following the "Scene" are far as consuming mostly fresh fruits and veggies for 17 years....as organic as possible.
We recycle everything we can, produce less than one bag of trash per week, drive small cars that get at least 35 mpg, rely on our wood stove, using the furnace for hot water only when we need it, and have been using all green cleaning products for the past two years.