May 2007 Newsletter
Buy Locally Grown Meats and Produce
Observing Micorrhizal Effects – Patience Required
Spring Hours
The gardening and growing season is on, so here are some new opening hours that will help accommodate your work schedule:
M-F 9-5 except W 9-6
Sat 10-5
Sun 10-4
Buy Locally Grown Meats and Produce
There is increasing media attention about the benefits of buying locally grown food. Not only does it keep your local farmer or organic producer in business, keep dollars in the local community thus stimulating local economic growth, but often if not always is fresher, more nutritive and healthier for your body. Moreover, in these times of increasing numbers and sizes of natural disasters, you may be glad that you can rely on a local producer when foreign or distant foods become difficult to obtain or downright unobtainable.
Some local producers sell from their farms. Other local producer’s produce is sold through Co-Ops, while other larger local producers have their products in large supermarkets. You can also join a CSA. We will put together a local list for Yelm in our next issue. For the greater Seattle area, visit www.pugetsoundfresh.org.
A recent news article mentioned that 2/3rds of India’s population are farmers. In the US, at best 0.2% are farmers. In the event of a natural catastrophe, which society do you think will survive? Support your local farmers so that you can!
Worm Tea Saves Crops
Talking with another worm farmer in the San Diego area recently, we learned that there was a run on worm tea as a result of the severe freezing weather this winter in the Imperial Valley, a major California farming area. According to our source, crops that were tead survived the frosts while untreated crops froze and died. As a result, there was a run on castings and tea with tea going for $16/quart for “concentrated worm tea.”
We see similar increased freeze and drought tolerance with living soils here at the farm and get similar reports from various customers. One customer recently said she was digging through snow this winter to get at living spinach in her garden!
And here is an interesting testimonial off of the KIS webpage. They make tea brewers and brewing kits of which one of the fundamental brewing elements is worm castings:
"I must say that Leon's KIS Machine is the finest in the WORLD! We have grown the worlds largest medical marijuana plant with it... 12 inch stalk. Yes, a stalk the size of a 1 gallon milk jug."
~Richard Maughs, author of Medical Marijuana Guide 2007, www.medicalmarijuanaguide.com. Rick's Book is five years published and he has helped over 13,000 people become state registered cardholders. Rick is currently working with 116 doctors and he holds clinics every week.
Observing Micorrhizal Effects – Patience Required
From Don Chapman’s newsletter of BioOrganics, Inc.:
“I received a call today from a landscaper who related his
experience with a mycorrhizal inoculant (not ours). He said that plants
responded immediately to it, but after 2-3 weeks couldn't see any further
benefit and the plants didn't look good.
After having him read the label to me, it was obvious that there were several
fast-acting ingredients in the product which would produce the responses he
observed, but only a very few Endomycorrhizal fungi spores - probably not
enough to reliably create the beneficial infectivity.
As Endo spores are relatively expensive (In contrast, Ecto types are a few
dollars per billion), a common marketing strategy is to grandly tout
"contains mycorrhizae" in packaged products, and to downplay the
actual guaranteed Endo-type numbers or not even show such information.
This is all in the category of buyer beware.
Having a relatively low concentration of Endo spores is perfectly legitimate
for products that are designed to be used as soil additives (such as our
MycoMinerals), or for potting soils where a few spores scattered throughout the
mix will do the job. However, for products that are sold as inoculants,
it pays to put on your reading glasses and examine the fine print!
Sometimes the most expensive products don't offer very impressive spore counts,
especially of Endo-type spores.
A final caution: A guaranteed "spore" count is a more stringent
measure of value than "propagule" counts, which can include cheaper
and short-lived hyphae fragments. If used fresh, hyphae bits can
certainly create infectivity, but their shelf life is far briefer than dormant
spores - some of which can remain viable for 10-20 years or more.
To get back to my landscaper call, I told him that his experience was about
exactly opposite of what he should expect to see from a successful mycorrhizal
inoculation - that it takes some time (maybe 2-4 weeks) for spores to activate
and colonize the surrounding soil to forage for nutrients. Inoculated
plants often appear weak and yellowish until the fungi became established, then
they typically "take off" and thrive. We advise patience -
don't give in to the temptation to drench newly inoculated plants with liquid
fertilizers - that will usually disrupt the biological process.”
Evolving Food Crisis
There is trouble a-brewing in our food supply. Recently Congress held hearings over the safety of the US food supply, and what was broadcast in the media was a statement from the head of the FDA saying “Our food supply is safe.” Let’s consider which part of the food supply he may be referring to as “safe.”
US Food Production:
- As of 2005, agricultural imports almost equaled exports $63.0 to $59.3 billion. What this means is increasing reliance on foreign foods for our consumption. In years leading up to 2005, a much wider margin was observed. NOT SAFE. data
- Recent storms and natural disasters have adversely affected wheat crops in the Midwest all of the way south into Texas, and all crops in California. If you did not notice, storms this winter were huge and abnormal. One weather front this winter spawned 70 tornados in one night in an area stretching from Texas through Central US – and this not the normal tornado season! So nature, which we are dependent upon for all crop growing, is demonstrating unpredictable erratic behavior. NOT SAFE.
- Recent energy concerns has spurned huge investment and subsidies into the production of ethanol refineries. The primary food source for these refineries is corn, which also happens to be the largest consumed crop in the US. Now we have energy demands competing with the food we eat! NOT SAFE.
- The current bee Colony Collapse Disorder: “This crisis threatens to wipe out production of crops dependent on bees for pollination,” Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in a statement. NOT SAFE.
US Food Imports:
- There are currently about 25,000 shipments of food into the US daily coming from all over the world. Many of these countries are using pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals in their crops that are outlawed in the US for health reasons. In fact, in California there is a major supplier of banned US crop chemicals manufactured by US companies selling to overseas farmers. These chemicals come back on food imports that we are now dependent upon (see above), and there is no way all 25,000 imports daily can be screened for these chemicals. NOT SAFE.
US Food Prices:
·
In
all food related sectors, prices are rising.
Energy costs are increasing, fertilizer use and costs are
increasing. Recent debates over
immigration reform and resultant US customs raids on factories where illegal
workers are suspected have reduced labor pool availability and increased labor
costs to the point where fruit growers in California are watching their fruit
rot on the ground. Many are considering
cutting down decades old orchards and turning them into hay fields where
minimal labor is required. NOT SAFE.
- The US dollar continues to fall as the US is forced to buy food from overseas. NOT SAFE.
US Food Nutritive Value:
- Studies have shown a drastic drop in both vitamin and mineral content of large scale commercially grown US crops. NOT SAFE.
US Food Toxicity:
- The use
of pesticides, herbicides, and other petrochemical derived crop aids
continues to leave detectable levels of residue on in-store produce. See the next article below, but again, NOT
SAFE.
- The E. Coli poisonings and the pet food problems show that there are toxicity problems that are occurring in our food supply NOW. NOT SAFE.
There you have it. The only consideration we have not yet made is certified organic produce, home garden organically grown produce, locally organically grown produce, and small farm or locally raised livestock that is hormone and antibiotic free. Here we can finally say, SAFE. Although a very small part of what is eaten in America, this could be what our FDA considers as “safe.”
An Inconvenient Truth II
Last newsletter referred to a recent book, The Hundred Year Lie, by Randall Fitzgerald ( www.hundredyearlie.com ). In this well researched book, Fitzgerald summarizes conclusions derived from reports and studies all pointing to this: chemicals in everyday products are ruining your health. Most every paragraph of the book points out astounding facts or report summaries that show this to be true. Consider just these few:
- “Male sperm counts worldwide have been reduced by 50 percent in the last half century, and during the same period, testicular cancer has underwent a 600 percent increase. In China, the fastest developing country in the world, a 2001 study found that 85 percent of university students tested were infertile.”
- “Among eight-year-old girls in the United States, Britain, and Australia, one out of every six has already entered puberty . . . Just a generation ago only one out of every one hundred eight-year-old girls had entered puberty, whereas today nearly two out of every one hundred girls are showing sexual development at three years of age!”
- A chemical substance called PBDE has been found to be carcinogenic and damaging to the nervous system, hormonal functions, and reproductive organs in animal tests. They contaminate thirty-one of thirty-two common name-brand grocery products, including fish, pork, turkey, chicken, cheese, butter, milk, eggs, and ice cream (Environmental Science & Technology, 2004). “Measurements conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that PBDE levels in our bodies are doubling every eighteen months.”
- In a shocking 2005 study conducted by a team of biologist at Washington State University on rats and reported in the journal Science, scientist found that toxin damage from endocrine disrupters can be inherited, passing from one generation to another as a DNA modification. This is not gene mutation, but a change in how the DNA works. Subsequent generations exhibited the disease without direct exposure to the toxin that caused the original problem!
- Americans now have a 50% chance of developing some form of cancer in their lifetime. In 2005, “the journal Health Affairs reports that half of all personal bankruptcies that occur each year in the United States are due to medical bills.” Now instead of lawyers or the IRS getting what is left of your estate, the medical and drug industries take it first!
- Fish and animals worldwide are mutating into hermaphrodites or from male to female in alarming numbers. “In the River Aire in Yorkshire, 100 percent of the male fish have been feminized by gender-bender chemicals.”
- “A 2004 study of ten randomly chosen babies born in the United States analyzed their umbilical cord blood and found an average of two hundred synthetic chemicals, including chemicals from food packaging, flame retardants, from household furniture and appliances, and the Teflon chemical PFOA. Nearly every one of the chemicals has been linked to either cancer, brain and nervous system disorders, birth defects, or developmental problems.”
There is no longer any question that these toxins are disturbing us and all other life forms on this planet in a major way. Moreover, much of what exists in the environment is not going away, and we will continue to be exposed at high levels for the foreseeable future. The most unfortunate fact is that governments and industry are not going to curb the use of chemicals shown to be toxic any time soon.
So what to do?
From here on out, for those wise enough to understand the dangers and motivated enough to do something about it for their personal health and those around them equally motivated (or for your children or yet born that need things done for them) here is the plan:
1. “Limit your exposure to synthetic chemicals of all types at all times.” (There is even a new chemically reduced sector in housing that uses only wool or natural fabric carpets or sustainable wood flooring, for instance.)
2. “Get yourself tested to determine your chemical body burden.” (You can skip this step. For any human on Earth, if you do not think you are contaminated or you think these contaminates are not affecting you, think again. You are contaminated, and these contaminates are affecting you! If you do get tested via urine or blood, remember that the level of results you see are 200 times more concentrated in your fatty tissues!)
3. “Develop a detox strategy for yourself to eliminate the toxins detected in your body.” (There are many detoxification routes available – probably with varying effectiveness. Some have been clinically proven to work: toxins can be measured in the body, they can be measured as they are excreted from the body, and the final toxic level can be measured after the detox. These studies have been done. The author relates his experience in his book, and you can view example test results on his web site.)
For optimal health, plan on continuing this strategy from here on out to protect yourself from the diseases that are crippling our society.
For the protection of future generations, support these five societal changes outlined and described in the book:
1. Pressure the Toxins Manufacturers
2. Create a Naturally Occurring Standard
3. Encourage Preventive Health Care
4. Make Dining a Health Education Opportunity
5. Accept Alternative Remedies
Quick Facts
23 million Americans drink water contaminated with
herbicides. This is linked to 1,000 deaths per year.
- Environmental Working Group
For every human being on the planet, the world produces 2
lbs. of grain per day-roughly 3000 calories, and that's without even counting
all the beans, potatoes, nuts, fruits and vegetables we eat. Worldwide, almost
half of this grain is fed to livestock.
- From Hope's
Edge, the Next Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé and Anna
Lappé
In 1998, 275,000 Americans successfully protested against
proposed USDA organic rules that would have allowed food labeled organic to be
genetically engineered, fertilized with toxic sewage sludge, and irradiated.
- From Fatal
Harvest, Andrew Kimbrell, Editor
To produce 1 pound of feedlot meat takes 7 pounds of grain, which takes 7,000
pounds of water to grow.
- Time Magazine
The American lawn uses more resources than any other
agricultural industry in the world. It uses more phosphates than India and puts
on more poisons than any other form of agriculture.
- Bill Mollison as quoted in "Gardening for the Future of The
Earth", a Seeds of Change Book
Americans throw away one hundred billion polyethlene bags a
year. They choke thousands of marine animals annually; the inks used to print
all those smiley faces break down in landfills and create a toxic seep. Though
plastic bags take up less than 4% of all landfill space (they're easily
compressed), estimates on how long they take to decompose range from a hundred
years to a thousand.
- From onearth,
"It's not my bag, baby!" by L. J. Williamson
According to the Rural Advancement Foundation (now called ETC Group), 75 types
of vegetables, or approximately 97% of the varieties available in 1900 are now
extinct.
- From Fatal
Harvest, Andrew Kimbrell, Editor
A properly prepared and maintained bed of 100 square feet
can yield enough vegetables and soft fruit in a 4-6 month growing season to
sustain one person.
- As estimate by John Jeavons in "Gardening for the Future of The
Earth", a Seeds of Change Book
About 30 billion pounds of fertilizers are applied annually
in U.S. agriculture.
- David Pimintel, Ph.D., Cornell University
Nearly half of earth's forests have been cleared for
agriculture and development. Habitat destruction is a foremost threat to
maintaining biodiversity on the planet.
- From The Future of Life, by Edward O. Wilson
Historically we have used 7,000 plant species for food.
Today 20 species provide 90% of our diet.
- David Pimintell, Ph.D., Cornell University
In the year 2000 73% of the lettuce grown in the United
States was from one variety: Iceberg. From 1903 to 1983 92.8% of lettuce
varieties were lost.
- From Fatal
Harvest, Andrew Kimbrell, Editor
The livestock population in the U.S. outweighs the U.S.
human population by about 5 times. They
produces nearly 1.5 billion tons of manure for disposal each year.
- David Pimintel, Ph.D., Cornell University
To replace 1 inch of lost topsoil under agricultural
conditions requires about 500 years. U.S. agriculture is losing topsoil 13
times faster than sustainability.
- David Pimintel, Ph.D., Cornell University
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 300,000
farm workers suffer acute pesticide poisoning each year.
- From Fatal
Harvest, Andrew Kimbrell, Editor
Over 440 species of insects and mites as well as 70 types of
fungus have developed immunity to the specific pesticides used to kill them.
- From "Gardening for the Future of The Earth", a Seeds of Change
Book
The Consumer's Union calculated that a person eating a 3.5
oz. serving of fresh U.S. grown spinach has as an 8.1% chance of ingesting
residues of at least one pesticide at a level exceeding the federal
government's "Safe Daily Dose".
- From Fatal
Harvest, Andrew Kimbrell, Editor
Despite the use of over 1 billion pounds of pesticides
applied in the U.S., about 37% of all potential crop production is destroyed by
pests (insects, weeds, and diseases). Worldwide there are about 26 million
human pesticide poisonings each year, with about 220,000 deaths. The total
environmental costs of using pesticides is more than $9 billion each year.
- David Pimintel, Ph.D., Cornell University
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MONSANTO WANTS TO
MAKE RBGH LABELING ILLEGAL |
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- The value of U.S. organic imports now exceeds exports by a ratio of approximately 8 to 1.
- In California, which grows 40% of US organics, the number of acres transitioning into organic are now nearly balanced by the acres transitioning out. Evidently, many farmers aren't making enough money growing organically to remain certified, despite the booming retail market.
- In the U.S., organic food accounts for about 2.5
percent of all food sales. But out in the field, just 0.2 percent of
farmland is under organic production.
Source: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4587.cfm
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MORE REASONS TO BUY LOCAL
Source: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4897.cfm |
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FIVE WAYS TO REDUCE
YOUR ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT WHEN SHOPPING
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14741 Lawrence Lake Rd SE
Yelm, WA 98597
360-894-0707
M-F 9-5, except W 9-6
Sat 10-5
Sun 10-4