Know any good recipes for bushes?

Sept. 25, 2015

My lovely niece visited us while she was following a strict diet of raw fruits and vegetables. She astonished us when she ate an entire bunch of bananas for breakfast, followed by a whole watermelon for lunch. We took her for a picnic at a local winery and she brought an enormous papaya for herself. Admittedly, she looked great. She had clear skin, her chronic headaches had disappeared and she was slender. Maybe too slender since she had sharp points on her shoulders. By her own admission, she refused to eat “anything that had a face or muscles, or could grow up to have a face or muscles. Or anything that was taken away from an animal and its baby was sad about it.” She said if we would all become vegetarians we could feed the world because most farmland was growing grain to feed the poor animals we were eating. I had heard of "grain fed beef" which I assumed meant that was the animal's diet, so her claim seemed to make sense.

Recently I came across a booklet, published six years ago. It addressed misconceptions about agriculture and one of them was why vegetarianism could not save the planet. Evidently, this was not as new a concept as my niece seemed to be convinced it was. I was intrigued. According to the publication, which was quoting World Bank  information, about 11% of the land on our dear globe is farm-able. Eleven percent of the world is all we have to grow all the grain, fruit and vegetables to be consumed every day by over 7.2 billion souls. Fortunately, for us who intend to continue to live here, animals are able to graze another 38% and digest grasses and shrubs, turning them into meat we can use for food. I suddenly realized the importance of those grazing lands to human survival. Since I can't eat grass or most other plants on that range land, it's important for me to know I have a food source that can. Those animals typically put on most of their weight nursing from their mothers who are roaming around foraging. When they are weaned, many continue to graze the range and pasture land that isn't fit for growing crops. Just before they are brought to market, they are given grain and other vegetable matter grown on that precious arable land. Contrary to what I thought grain fed beef was, they are not fed corn their entire lives.

In addition, it becomes starkly apparent how crucial it is to human life that the agricultural land that does exist for raising crops be as productive as possible. We need to use all the knowledge we have to maximize the food it produces while preserving its capacity to continue to feed us indefinitely. It's a daunting task and we need to support the farmers and scientists who are devoting their energies to feeding the world. Grazing is a great way to turn wild forbs and grasses into food fit for people. And I DO enjoy the end product on my barbecue!  

It ain't natural.

Sept. 18, 2015

When my kids were young, I joined a support group of uber-moms. All of us had earned at least one

college degree, so we began homeschooling our kids starting at pre-pre-school. Every errand became an "educational field trip.” We kept up with the trends on the internet concerning toxins, vaccines,

microwaves and other insidious child-killers. Daily we monitored every mouthful of food that went into our precious children's mouths. Now, many years later, despite my helicopter-hyper-vigilance, my children appear to be normal. At least from the outside.

Probably because we were smart and confident, we thought we knew more than we really did. My mom-friends are no longer rabid about every little threat, but remain convinced that they must always buy organically grown products because they believe "growers don't use pesticides on them, they are

more natural, therefore more authentic.” Research at our favorite fount of knowledge, the internet, reveals a poll by the organic certifying body in the UK discovered that 95% of people who buy organic do so to avoid pesticides. So we are not alone in being wrong. Yes, it is embarrassing to admit now, but mom doesn't always know best.

Our food supply faces numerous threats. Insects, mold and critters threaten to devour whatever the weeds don't choke out. These hungry enemies make no distinction between organically or conventionally grown crops. Organic farmers face this war armed with an arsenal of techniques and tools, some of which are pesticides and fungicides approved for use by the USDA organic standards. What sets apart the organic farm is not the use of pesticides, but the nature of the pesticides they can use. They must come from natural sources. There is an official list of substances that can and can’t be used for organic farming. Spinosad, for example, is made from naturally occurring soil bacteria and is poisonous to insects and mollusks, like slugs and snails. Extracts from chrysanthemums and the Asian neem tree are also approved for use as pesticides on organic crops.

So okay, moms can still retain some dignity here. Maybe they do use pesticides on organic produce, but they're natural, so they can't hurt us, right? Sorry moms, but we were wrong about that too. Rotenone is a case in point. It is derived from roots, stems and leaves of subtropical plants and kills insects. But in mammals, inhaling Rotenone can cause increased respiration followed by depression and convulsions. Humans are considered to be fairly susceptible. Although, none of this will happen to people when it’s applied safely according to the label. Sometimes synthesized agricultural chemicals are actually safer than naturally derived ones. Glyphosate, which is a common synthesized ingredient in weed killer used worldwide, has far less toxicity to humans than naturally derived Rotenone insecticide.

Still, any intelligent mom would conclude the sure way to avoid pesticides is to always eat food that has not been treated. As my friend said, it’s more “authentic.” It turns out most species of plants contain their own set of toxins to defend themselves against pest attacks. One study estimates that Americans eat about 1.5 grams of natural pesticides per person per day, which is about 10,000 times more than they eat of synthetic pesticide residues. Who knew?

Manzanita is one plant that kills all other plants that try to grow under it.

Farming is an art as well as a science and each farmer follows his or her own methods. So, even if you are eating food from organic farms that use little to no pesticides at all, that doesn't always mean the food is safe. (Safety really motivates uber-moms.) Organic foods tend to have higher levels of potential pathogens according to a study(1) which found food from 10% of organic farms to have E. coli compared to only 2% of conventional ones. The same study found Salmonella in food from organic farms and none in the conventional farms. Organic farmers often use manure for fertilizer and many pathogens are spread through animal feces. Because organic farmers don’t have the ability to use non-organic, anti-microbial agents, their products might contain microscopic organisms that can make people sick.

My advice to my friends now would be to go ahead and buy organically grown food if you like it. If you can learn about the source and the farming methods used by particular farmers it will help you to follow the values you have for eating food that is as naturally grown as possible. I'm glad we live in a country where we can have that option, and I work for an organization that supports both organic and

conventional agriculture. But did I fail as a mom because I didn’t check the facts thoroughly? My kids survived and they remember being happy children. But had I known then, what I know now, I probably would have been a lot more relaxed! Okay, maybe just a little more relaxed. I still would have been anxious about random kidnappings at the mall.

For an interesting look at other myths about organically grown food see

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/httpblogsscientificamericancomscience-

sushi20110718mythbusting-101-organic-farming-conventional-agriculture/

1.       1.  Mukherjee A, Speh D, Dyck E, & Diez-Gonzalez F (2004). Preharvest evaluation of coliforms,

Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and Escherichia coli O157:H7 in organic and conventional produce

grown by Minnesota farmers. Journal of food protection, 67 (5), 894-900 PMID: 1515122

Are there magic beans in that can?

Sept. 11, 2015

Last week my family had a barbecue. At the last minute, I decided we really needed some baked beans to go with the burgers. We have serious foodies in our family, so I couldn't just buy a can or two of a popular brand and heat it up; I had to combine my own beans and molasses so my nearly instant cheaters’version would taste as authentic as possible.

At the local grocery store, I searched for some pink beans. On the shelf, down by my knees was a can of generic, pink beans for $.96. About the middle of the shelf were the organic pink beans for $1.42 and up at eye level, right in my face, (I'm rather tall), under the warm glow of the light bulb were the organic, non-GMO-verified, pink beans for $2.46!

What was this non-GMO-verified label anyway? I pulled out my smart phone and went to the website

listed on the can. Even though I was in a hurry, I wasn't going to spend that kind of money on a can of beans unless it was really worth it. It only took a few minutes for me to discover that companies and grocery stores were paying to have their products labelled as non-GMO-verified. At the site, there was a list of "common GMO foods" There were eight of them. Beans were not one of them. Neither was wheat, coconuts, almonds or any of the other foods I have since seen pointlessly carrying this label at the store.

That narrowed my choice down to the two less expensive cans. Since my family's bodies can't tell the

difference between cooked, canned beans based on growing method, I decided to go with the $.96 can of conventionally grown pink beans and call it good.

But my wallet knows the difference. Shelling out extra money for a non-GMO-certified label on a food that has never been GMO (at least in the current context) makes no sense. I can’t support a company attempting to dupe me into thinking there is a danger when none exists. But those foods are making money appear like magic in the bank accounts of the company behind the verified label. Magic beans are real after all!

I'm just along for the ride

In another lifetime, I was an aspiring-field-ecologist-turned-timber-cruiser. In those days, mining and timber companies didn’t believe something as small as a little snail darter fish in Tennessee could ultimately shut down an enormous hydroelectric project. Employment for someone who wanted to specialize in a concept called Environmental Impact Statements had not yet evolved. After all, those statements were bound to be short-lived bumps in the road to progress. A grad student, way ahead of her time, I tried to be content hanging out in the woods cruising timber for an international timber company. But who was I fooling? Measuring trees and fighting head-high brush in the pouring Oregon rain, wasn’t enough to keep my interest for long and I quickly moved over to drier, friendlier opportunities eventually becoming a volunteer manager for a regional food bank. Natural  sciences became a hobby instead of a vocation and I was free to read, study and form any opinions I liked. My husband has had a long career in vegetation management. He was quick to defend the use of pesticides, genetic modification and the companies who brought these concepts into the market. He supported our family with sales of herbicides and raised our kids to believe inΗbetterliving through science.” I wasn’t always so sure. The moms in my daughters’ playgroup planted large, “organically-grown,” seeds of doubt about the safety of what he did for a living. I subjected my husband to laser-like interrogations on issues of environmental consequences, organic, pesticide-free, natural vs. synthetic and demanded answers to questions my friends were raising. Dedicated, focused moms make a powerful peer group and I felt pressured to maintain their trust.

When I took my present job as an executive assistant for a trade association that represents farmers, foresters and their suppliers, I realized I would have access to a wealth of resources addressing my now barn-sized collection of questions. Having spent years trying to end hunger in the Northwest, I understand the last thing we need is a smaller, more expensive food supply. I find I have become a hitchhiker in the field of ag-science. My job allows me to take a journey along this roadmap of sources of our food and fiber. Along the way, I’m discovering a landscape of communities of scientists, farmers and regulators who are operating with a wealth of information that is often only sporadically accessed by the general public. I hope to help intelligent people connect the right dots and get a larger, more realistic picture of what is going on in ag-science today. I invite you to come along with me on the road while I discover why farmers and foresters make the decisions they do.