6 Reasons Food is Central to the Health Care Debate

Treehugger
David DeFranza
Thrusday, October 8, 2009

The debate over health care has, thus far, revolved around access and cost. While these are important issues, and will no doubt be the focus of any reform plan that emerges from Congress, they overshadow other more fundamental health concerns.

Food, what we eat and how we eat it, is central to the health care debate in America for six reasons.

1. America’s Epidemics

The CDC reports that preventable chronic diseases account for three quarters of America’s health expenses each year. This includes, as Michael Pollan points out, “$147 billion to treat obesity, $116 billion to treat diabetes, and hundreds of billions more to treat cardiovascular disease and the many types of cancer that have been linked to” our diets.

Indeed, America is suffering from several costly epidemics and nearly all of them are related to what we eat. Reducing the frequency of these diseases would significantly lower our annual health care expenditures, making a universal plan without deficits, rations, or extreme tax increases possible.

2. The Answer is Health, not Care

Instead of creating a system focused on solving expensive problems we create for ourselves, a universal health care system should be devoted to helping people get and stay healthy.

Writing about the health care debate in the Huffington Post, Dr. Andrew Weil explained that if we did so:

It would be a system that puts the health back into health care. And it would also happen to be far less expensive than what we have now.

The first step to a plan that encourages health, rather than manages disease, is to change what we eat.

3. You Are What You Eat

“You are what you eat,” a mother once scolded when her family chose chips over fruit. It turns out, that mother was right.

It’s becoming increasingly apparent to more and more people that fast food, corn syrup, processed snacks, and sodas are the root of our nation’s problems of obesity, heart disease, and Type 2 diabetes.

A health care system that gave doctors an incentive to teach healthy ways of eating and living would help fight these epidemics. A national food system that encouraged healthy, local eating would be even more powerful: it would remove the very source of the problem

4. Food is Part of the Environment

Fast food and soda are easy targets but out-of-season fruits, factory farms, and other elements of our industrial food system are also to blame. Understanding that food is part of the environment, that something grown locally and organically is better for you, for the producer, and for the planet, is an integral part of America’s transition to health.

Making the switch to local and organic food will lead to reductions in pollution, another serious health concern, fewer farm workers poisoned by pesticides, and leave the American public with simpler food choices based on what’s fresh and in season, rather than what has the most evocative marketing.

5. Food is a Gateway Choice

Eating good, fresh, healthy food is one choice that leads to many others. Once you start down the road of locally-sourced vegetables, sharing grass-raised meat or becoming a vegetarian is not far behind. If you spend an afternoon walking around the farmers’ market, it’s easier to make the choice to walk home or to work the next day. Over time, all that walking may lead to running and other forms of exercise.

Understanding that your food is a product of the environment encourages you to care for your surroundings. Conserving water is easy when you know the relationship it has to the food you eat and composting makes much more sense if you’ve seen the magic it can produce in a garden.

People’s habits won’t change overnight, but, through many small steps, the can change. Finding healthy food is just one of the first of those steps.

6. It’s All About Respect

Ultimately, a system based on health instead of health care will depend on respect. Insurance companies must respect the choices of doctors who say it’s better to prevent illness than treat it. Doctors must respect patients by teaching them healthy ways to avoid illness. Most importantly, however, patients, the American people, must respect their own bodies.

Eating food that was grown with dignity, near your neighborhood, without chemicals or engineering, is one way, an easy way, to respect your body.

If our diets in America changed, health care would be a much smaller issue. Indeed, people would have reformed the system themselves, using nothing more than their kitchens and their stomachs.

Guayaki Delivers Powerful Rainforest Experience with Newest Yerba Mate Beverage Innovations

Reuters

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

SEBASTOPOL /PRNewswire/ — As America’s fascination with energy, superfoods and exotic ingredients grows, rainforest-grown yerba mate is quickly catching on as the newest organic and innovative beverage sensation to hit the market.

Guayaki, a pioneer and leader in the yerba mate beverage category, is driving yerba mate into the mainstream in new packages and formats. Today, Guayaki introduced two new products that are sure to tantalize the taste buds — ready-to-drink Lemon Elation Yerba Mate and the Lime Tangerine Organic Energy Shot. Delivering a rejuvenating rainforest experience, both products provide tremendous invigoration, focus and nourishment.

Regarded for centuries as the “drink of the gods” in South America, yerba mate is made from the leaves of the rainforest holly tree ilex paraguariensis. Guayaki’s new Lemon Elation Yerba Mate, the first-ever yerba mate available in an aluminum can, delivers a powerful rainforest experience packed with a unique blend of naturally occurring vitamins, antioxidants and nutrients for a balanced stimulation. Well-suited for the health-conscious and eco-conscious, the new Lemon Elation Yerba Mate, like all Guayaki products, is organic, fair-trade certified and cultivated using sustainable and environmentally conscious processes.

Fueled by yerba mate’s naturally uplifting and nourishing properties, the new Lime Tangerine Organic Energy Shot is the first-ever all organic offering in the fast-growing energy shot market. An all-natural alternative to artificial energy drinks and shots, the Organic Energy Shot provides a convenient and long-lasting boost of clean energy without the crash or jitters. Powered with whole plant extracts, including yerba mate, acerola cherry and goji berry, the Organic Energy Shot is also available in Chocolate-Raspberry and Lemon.

Re-vitalizing the Body
Rainforest-grown yerba mate is rapidly growing in popularity as a nutritious alternative to coffee, tea and synthetic energy drinks. Yerba mate contains 24 vitamins and minerals, 15 amino acids, more antioxidants than green tea and an abundance of saponins to bolster the immune system. Yerba mate is as versatile as it is nutritious, and Guayaki Yerba Mate offers it in all forms, including the new cans and organic energy shots, bottled yerba mate, yerba mate tea bags and in the traditional loose form.

Restoring the Rainforest and Re-energizing Communities
Guayaki’s mission is to preserve and restore 200,000 acres of South American Atlantic rainforest and create over 1,000 living wage jobs by 2020. By purchasing Guayaki, consumers are financing the restoration of the rainforest and empowering communities in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. To date, more than 37,000 acres of South American Atlantic rainforest have been restored through Guayaki’s restorative business model. Full article here…

As health care investment, organic food advocates offer ideas to stay bountiful on a budget

Examiner
Heidi Fuller
Saturday, August 15, 2009

Lean economic times may tempt some consumers to steer their shopping carts past organic food choices and opt for lower-priced groceries even if it means increasing their exposure to toxic pesticides. But Bay Area organic food advocates urge shoppers to stay the course, offering a bounty of smart ideas to stretch their organic grocery dollar along with advice not to be misled by straight price comparisons.

“The cost of organic food averages about 20 percent more than non-organic, but the average household throws away about 20 percent of its food budget in the form of spoiled or unused food,” said Helge Hellberg, executive director of Marin Organic, an association of organic food producers in Marin County, California. “Financially, you can live organically on about a dollar a day – especially if you do a good job with resource management – just as you can with a non-organic diet. It requires that people calculate the health value of organic food and not just the straight cost of the item on the shelf,” he said.

According to Jessica Prentice, author of Full Moon Feast, Bay Area professional chef, and blogger, cooking with organic food does not have to be a luxury. But even if purchasing pesticide-free foods adds to the cost of the food bill, she wants consumers to think about it as an investment in improved wellbeing that will save on health care expenses in the long run.

Organic foods aren’t just a grocery list item, according to Prentice, who coined the term “locavore” (someone who goes out of her way to shop from local sources), which the Oxford University Press voted 2007’s “Word of the Year.” “They are a health care choice, the basis of wellbeing,” she said. “So it’s not where we should skimp.”

Hellberg agrees, explaining that one major difference between organic and non-organic food is in the amount of nourishment per serving. Because non-organic foods are grown more aggressively with synthetic fertilizers to create high-yields faster, they tend to absorb more water in the process.

Organic foods also are grown in nutrient rich soil, Helge explained. “Organic farmers add nutrients to the soil with nitrogen rich cover crops and natural fertilizers, whereas in non-organic farming, the synthetic fertilizer are added directly to the crop; the soil is neglected and therefore can’t contribute nutrients to the food.

“You end up paying for more water and less nutrition in non-organic foods,” Helge said, adding that Americans could eat less and spend less on an organic diet and still end up healthier with leaner and more highly nourished bodies.

For practical cost-cutting choices, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), suggests consumers on tighter budgets can reduce their pesticide exposure by 80% simply by avoiding the most contaminated fruits and vegetables and purchasing non-organic foods on their cleanest list. The group’s “Dirty Dozen” includes produce with thin skins that allow pesticides to penetrate, such as apples, grapes, strawberries, celery, and coffee beans. It recommends consumers pinching pennies can avoid pesticides on non-organic items like avocados, onions, pineapple, corn and mango whose thicker skin protects edible portions of the food from chemical exposure.

Prentice’s advices the easiest way to cut organic food bills is to incorporate into meals low cost staples, such as organic rice and beans, which costs just pennies a serving, and adding one higher-priced fresh organic item on top of that.

Resource Management Number One
Hellberg, who also hosts a radio show called a Organic Conversation and writes a blog with the same name, recommends resource management as the number one way to maximize a shrinking organic grocery budget.

“We only use a fraction of the foods we buy,” he said. Hellberg advocates buying whole foods, which are less expensive than packaged products anyway, and instead of throwing away the chopped off parts, make use of them in creative ways. Not only do we pay extra for the labor it takes to peel, chop, and package vegetables prepared before getting to the grocery store shelves, he explained, we are missing some remarkable and satisfying nutritional options.

Hellberg offers his favorite tips for resource management to reduce waste and stretch the organic food dollar:

* Broccoli stems often are discarded, but they can be thinly sliced and roasted with olive oil and salt for a snack.
* Beet and carrot tops can be prepared the same way or simply added to soups for a boost of superior nutrition.Revive limp vegetables with an overnight water bath. Better yet, make a soup.
* To avoid spoilage in the refrigerator, cook foods for more than one meal, store and reheat.
* Like peas from the farmers’ market? A willing farmer might sell you the shoots if you ask for them, and she might give you a great price.

“These are simply news ways of relating to your vegetables and adding to your diet things you’ve never experience before,” Hellberg said.

Meats and Proteins
The Environmental Protection Agency reports that meat contains less pesticide residue than plant foods. However, the EWG lists it as number one on its “Dirty Dozen” group for the hormones and antibiotics it contains in addition to the pesticides used in the grains fed to animals.

Soups and stews are common in meat-eating parts of the world where people economize by using the whole animal product. “They don’t get boneless, skinless chicken breasts or a single cut of steak on the plate in these places.” Prentice said.

For cost conscious organic meat eaters, Prentice suggests braising cheaper cuts of meat, such as bottom round and brisket, then making a broth with the left over bones.

“The gelatin in a bone broth maximizes protein and can be used for cooking rice or soups for a boost of nutrition,” she said. “Boil the stripped bones in water and a splash of vinegar, which takes more calcium out of the bone.

For serious organic meat buyers, Hellberg recommends forming a coop to purchase a quarter or half cow directly from the meat farmer, who will offer significantly lower prices than the same amount of meat sold at a market.

For low-cost protein powerhouse meals, Prentice advices eating eggs more often. “If you splurge on anything, eat pastured eggs. They cost about 75 cents each, but pastured organic eggs are still the best value when a two-egg breakfast cost only $1.50.”

Healthy Fats
Fat has made its way back into favor with nutritionists in the form of heart healthy Omega 3s and 6s that show up in olive oil and fish for example. Prentice considers herself a “believer in fat” and recommends eating most protein alongside a fat item.Good fats are not only healthy, Prentice explains, but they offer a clever strategy for reducing food bills. “Fat is a much more sustaining food than sugars and carbohydrates for energy,” she said. “They burn more slowly, so the body doesn’t require as much food to stay satisfied and energized.”

Rethink Nourishment
As a Buddhist teacher, Hellberg suggest participating in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) to gain nourishment as much from the connection to the source of the food as the nutrients in it.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, CSAs consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation and share with the farmer the risks and benefits of food production. Typically, CSA members pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer’s salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm’s bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production.”

“Nourishment comes from your relationship with food on many different levels,” explains Hellberg. “It’s knowing the farmer who produces your food. It’s about feeling safe because you know what went into it. It’s from enjoying more taste. And, above all, it’s about building a better future for children and animals. All that for one price.”

Top 15 organic foods to buy and eat

Practically Green
Supriya Doshi
Tuesday, August 4, 2009

For starters, not all un-organic food has as high a pesticide contamination as others. What does that mean? It means that you don’t have to buy everything organic. Phew! Thank goodness, because our wallets would be hurting–and empty–if we did that.

Here’s are lists of the “dirtiest” and “cleanest” fruits and veggies out there, according to the Environmental Working Group:

Highest pesticide levels:
1. Peach
2. Apple
3. Sweet bell pepper
4. Celery
5. Nectarine
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Kale
9. Lettuce
10. Grapes–imported
11. Carrot
12. Pear
13. Collard Greens
14. Spinach
15. Potato

Lowest pesticide levels:
47. Onion
46. Avocado
45. Sweet corn–frozen
44. Pineapple
43. Mango
42. Asparagus
41. Sweet peas–frozen
40. Kiwi
39. Cabbage
38. Eggplant
37. Papaya
36. Watermelon
35. Broccoli
34. Tomato
33. Sweet potato

In addition to produce, buying organic meat, milk and coffee is recommended.

Farmer insists health benefits of organic food production are clear

UK Times Online
Valerie Elliott
Thursday, July 30, 2009

Rob Wallrond, who runs Glebe Farm, a 40-hectare (100-acre) estate in Pitney, near Taunton, Somerset, switched to organic farming eight years ago.

He keeps Saddleworth pigs, Dorset sheep, Black Rock hens and Angus and Hereford-cross cattle, and grows 80 different vegetables, all to organic standards. While he never expected to be creating “a superfood” he is convinced there are benefits for anyone eating organic meat, milk and eggs.

“There are obvious health benefits to our diets if livestock are fed on grass and forage. There are higher levels of omega-3 and beneficial fatty acids in milk, meat and eggs. We don’t use pesticides but I am convinced their use could be storing up trouble for the future. I don’t think we as a society really yet know the long-term effects of pesticide residues.”

Despite his belief in the nutritional benefits of the food he produces, he was not angry about the findings from the Food Standards Agency as the watchdog has never endorsed the health benefits of organic over conventional food. His main worry was that some people might be put off eating organic food.

“I think the timing is insensitive when we have got this recession and it is hard for us to maintain our premiums. But on the plus side for us, people who buy organic don’t just do it for nutritional content. They buy it because of the care in which the food is produced, the stricter welfare rules, the environment and wildlife.

“We’ve noticed an increase in farmland birds here such as skylarks. We have more birds of prey, lots of voles and butterflies and we are even getting orchids on our grassland because we don’t use fertiliser and graze fewer animals. I wish more people did take an interest in food production and what they put in their bodies and maybe we would sell even more, but sadly we are a fast, cheap-food nation. I’m not sure what the FSA says will make a difference.”

Don’t Let Obama Put GMO Boosters in Charge of Food Safety!

Organic Consumers Association
Alexis Baden-Mayer, Esq.
Sunday, July 26, 2009

Genetically modified foods are not safe. The only reason they’re in our food supply is because government bureaucrats with ties to industry suppressed or manipulated scientific research and deprived consumers of the information they need to make informed choices about whether or not to eat genetically modified foods.

Now, the Obama Administration is putting two notorious biotech bullies in charge of food safety! Former Monsanto lobbyist Michael Taylor has been appointed as a senior adviser to the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner on food safety. And, rBGH-using dairy farmer and Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff is rumored to be President Obama’s choice for Under-Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety. Wolfe spearheaded anti-consumer legislation in Pennsylvania that would have taken away the rights of consumers to know whether their milk and dairy products were contaminated with Monsanto’s (now Eli Lilly’s) genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH).

Please click here to send a message to President Obama, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (oversees FDA) demanding Michael Taylor’s resignation, and letting them know that you oppose Dennis Wolff’s appointment.

About Michael Taylor

Michael Taylor is a lawyer who has spent the last few decades moving through the revolving door between the employ of GMO-seed giant Monsanto and the FDA and USDA. Taylor is widely credited with ushering Monsanto’s recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) through the FDA regulatory process and into the milk supply — unlabeled. A Government Accounting Office (GAO) investigated whether Taylor had a conflict of interest and or had engaged in ethical misconduct in the approval of rBGH. The report’s conclusion that there was no wrongdoing conflicted with the 30 pages of evidence that Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) described as proof that “the FDA allowed corporate influence to run rampant in its approval” of the drug.

Taylor is also responsible for the FDA’s decision to treat genetically modified organisms as “substantially equivalent” to natural foods and therefore not require any safety studies. The “substantially equivalent” rule allowed the FDA to ignore evidence that genetically engineered foods, including soy, are in fact very different from natural foods and pose specific health risks.

In November 2008, Tom Philpott reported that Taylor was among President-Elect Obama’s “team members” looking at energy and natural resources agencies, including USDA. In March 2009, President Obama announced the creation of a White House Food Safety Working Group to improve and coordinate the government’s approach to the nationwide food safety crisis. Agri-Pulse reported that Taylor was “the leading candidate to staff the White House [food safety] working group.” While anti-GMO activists, including the Organic Consumers Association, protested — OCA members sent 13,435 letters to USDA Sec. Tom Vilsack, who co-chairs the Food Safety Working Group with HHS Sec. Sebelius — Taylor laid low. He was nowhere to be found at the White House Food Safety Working Group’s May 13th Listening Session. But, the rumor proved true. On July 7, 2009, the FDA announced that Taylor had joined the agency as senior adviser to the commissioner.

As Philpott describes in a July 8th article, Taylor’s food safety agenda is to “shift much more of the burden for funding food-safety operations to the state and local level” and to promote HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) systems where the points in a process that pose the most risk are identified and “fixed” with remedies like ammonia washes and irradiation. Taylor’s approach — putting a few bandaids on an industrialized food system gone wrong — is in direct conflict with organic practices and is likely to unduly burden small producers.

Taylor has long been hostile to real food safety. While working as a lobbyist, Taylor authored more than a dozen articles critical of the Delaney Clause, a 1958 federal law prohibiting the introduction of known carcinogens into processed foods, which had long been opposed by Monsanto and other chemical and pesticide companies. When Taylor rejoined the federal government, he continued advocating that Delaney should be overturned. This was finally done when President Clinton signed the so-called Food Quality Protection Act on the eve of the 1996 elections.

Taylor is featured in the documentary, The World According to Monsanto, which you can watch on OCA’s Millions Against Monsanto page.

About Dennis Wolff

Dennis Wolff is the Secretary of Agriculture for the State of Pennsylvania. Wolff also is a dairy farmer and owns Pen-Col Farms, a 600-acre dairy cattle operation. Wolff has championed agribusiness interests as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Agriculture, including banning local dairies from marketing their products as free of Monsanto’s rBGH. Wolff is a member of the Agriculture Technical Advisory Committee to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO has been largely credited with forcing so-called “free trade” on farmers and consumers around the globe, undermining national sovereignty and food safety. Finally, Wolff was a strong proponent of the “ACRE” initiative (Agriculture, Communities and Rural Environment), which gives the Pennsylvania state attorney general’s office the authority to sue municipalities over local farm ordinances deemed to exceed state law, depriving communities the right to ban toxic sewage sludge, factory farms, and GMOs.

Aside from having absolutely no experience in meat inspection, the chief food safety responsibility of the USDA, Dennis Wolff should be rejected for any post within the Obama Administration for the hostile position he has taken, as Pennsylvania’s Agriculture Secretary, against consumers’ right to know what is in our food. According to the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Wolff:

* Tried to ban all labeling of dairy products that didn’t use genetically engineered growth hormone (rBGH or rBST). This was an outright violation of freedom of speech of the dairy processors and the farmers who supplied them.

* Said that consumers were “concerned or confused” about the labeling and said his department received “many calls” about it. Yet when a New York Times reporter asked him about this, Wolff couldn’t provide any surveys showing consumers were confused and could not come up with the name of ONE CONSUMER who had complained.

* Held one meeting of the so-called Food Labeling Advisory Committee and said they recommended the labeling ban. Yet the committee never voted on anything and never made any recommendations specific to dairy. Moreover, the group most affected by the rules and most opposed to them, the PA Association of Milk Dealers, was never even invited to the meeting.

Organic movement sprouts new crop of farmers

Fresno Bee
Joan Obra
Saturday, July 25, 2009

In the Valley and across the country, there is a new force in agriculture: environmentally minded young farmers.

Some are urbanites cultivating small fields. Others grew up on farms and are returning home. And among college students or recent graduates who are passionate about food, interning on a farm is a rite of passage.

John Teixeira, a Firebaugh farmer who maintains an organic ranch for interns, says he has received more than 50 inquiries this year. “We’ve had tremendous interest,” he says. “They want to grow their own food. That’s the craze.”

Questions about food production lead these youngsters to the fields. Some read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” author Michael Pollan’s critique of industrial agriculture. They buy food from small farms, both to support local businesses and preserve farmland. They’re concerned about chemicals in their diets.

And they’re recruiting more farmers. In December, 170 young farmers from around the country attended a conference at the Stone Barns Center For Food & Agriculture in New York — far more than expected, organizers say. They’re even documenting their movement in “The Greenhorns,” an upcoming film.

The trend helps offset a problem in agriculture: the aging of the nation’s farmers. According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average age of all farmers is 57, up from 55 in 2002.

Young farmers such as Nikiko Masumoto, 23, exemplify the trend.

“By going to U.C. Berkeley, I was able to look at what my family has done through different perspectives,” says Masumoto, the daughter of Del Rey author and organic peach-and-raisin farmer David Mas Masumoto. “Those perspectives allowed me to realize that I could practice my passions for social justice and environmental sustainability through our farm.”

Her peers have similar interests. “It’s just hilarious, all of these friends deciding to work on organic farms,” she says. “It’s like their domestic Peace Corp experience.”

Not all young farmers distrust conventional agriculture. In the central San Joaquin Valley, the nation’s capital of food production, it’s common for children to follow in the footsteps of their farmer parents.

“It’s almost expected,” says Michelle Shackelford of Robert Johnson Farms, a 450-acre conventional farm in Madera that grows raisins and table grapes.

After working in San Francisco as a Goldman Sachs analyst and a buyer at Williams-Sonoma corporate headquarters, Shackelford returned home about five years ago.

The reason was simple: “I think what my family does is a very noble business and I wanted to keep that going,” says Shackelford, now 33.

In the world of agriculture, so-called greenhorns still are a niche movement, says Dave Goorahoo, a Fresno State soil scientist who sits on the transitional steering council of the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association. But they help fill consumer demand for sustainable and organic food, which “are the fastest growing trends in agriculture right now,” he adds.

Organic food played a role in Bryce Loewen’s journey back to Blossom Bluff Orchards in Parlier. Loewen, 31, spent a decade in the Bay Area, where he became a strict vegan for three or four years.

“I think that definitely affected my perceptions of organic agriculture,” he says.

After abandoning plans for a career in digital animation, Loewen worked the farmers markets, selling his parents’ organic stone fruit.

“I left the area because I wasn’t interested in farming, and then found out along the way that I was interested,” says Loewen, who returned to the Valley in January. Full article here…

Inspiring Vertical Gardens for Small Spaces

Low Impact Living
Bridgette Meinhold
Thursday, June 25, 2009

Space is a precious commodity, especially now that so much of our backyard or balcony space is occupied by containers for growing organic vegetables. For those of you out there getting tight on space, but who still want beautiful flowers and plants to look at, consider a vertical garden. It’s organic art for your indoor or outdoor wall space and is a beautiful way to help filter air naturally and add humidity to your environment. Check out these beautiful and inspiring small vertical gardens.

A vertical garden is essentially a framework of plants placed onto the side of a building or a wall. They can be placed indoors or outdoors, in full sun or shade, depending on what types of plants you want. You can plant all types of flowers and plants on them, including epiphytes, tropical plants, succulents, ferns and even herbs. Check out ELT Living Wall Systems for a great list of plants to try if you want to do it yourself. In general, plants with shallow roots are better, because they have an easier time staying attached to a vertical wall.

The grandfather of vertical gardens is Patrick Blanc, who is a French Botanist and practically came up with the idea. He is also responsible for a long list of building integrated vertical gardens like these stunning examples. His basic system consists of a steel frame for structural integretity,[sic] a waterproof backing material to keep water off of the building, and felt fabric for the plants to adhere and grow into. Depending on what type of climate the garden is in, then depends on the necessary humitidy [sic] requirements.

Newer companies like ELT Living Wall Systems are starting to come out with wall planting systems like the one above that allow you to plug plants into individualized compartments. ELT now sells a smaller version of their large scale walls through Smith & Hawken now complete with irrigation system. These beautiful units would be a wonderful addition to your kitchen as an herb garden.

This vertical garden is actually made from recycled rain gutters nailed to the side of a house. Suzanne Forsling, who lives in Alaska, came up with this system to keep her salad crops off the cold ground and away from critters, but it’s a perfect way to reuse abandoned gutters and take advantage of empty outdoor wall space. Flowers, herbs, vegetables, and greens could be planted here and if you pair it with a drip irrigation system, you’ve got a perfect vertical planting system.

Here, epiphytes, are stuck into a recessed wall at an installation at the Bardessono Hotel in Yountville, which is a LEED Platinum Certified hotel. Epiphytes, or airplants, attach themselves to objects without need for soil and do not need irrigation, which makes them perfect for such an installation. There is no watering system in place and the plants draw their nutrients and water straight from the air. This fantastic vertical wall was created by Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco. Flora Grubb Gardens is also responsible for the framed living wall below, which is like a tiled mosaic of succulents. Built inside of a large and deep frame, the succulents each have their own pocket and are tightly packed in against each other.

And finally, this adorable little wall was created by Jill Bert, who built a large frame from wood and partitioned it off into sections. Inside she is growing herbs and lettuces in a delightful and artistic pattern. This design looks spectacularly easy enough to create out of leftover wood laying around. Another option for a DIY vertical garden is a Succulent and Moss Trellis, found at Lowe’s Creative Ideas. Click here for a complete how-to creation. This one doesn’t require an irrigation system, just occasional misting to keep the moss moist so it provide stability to the succulents.

For more inspiration and some larger installations, check out these vertical gardens at Apartment Therapy.

HR 2749: Totalitarian Control of the Food Supply

FoodFreedom

Thursday, June 18, 2009

A new food safety bill is on the fast track in Congress-HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. The bill needs to be stopped.

HR 2749 gives FDA tremendous power while significantly diminishing existing judicial restraints on actions taken by the agency. The bill would impose a one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme on small farms and local artisanal producers; and it would disproportionately impact their operations for the worse.

HR 2749 does not address underlying causes of food safety problems such as industrial agriculture practices and the consolidation of our food supply. The industrial food system and food imports are badly in need of effective regulation, but the bill does not specifically direct regulation or resources to these areas.

To read a detailed account of the bill, go to: http://www.ftcldf.org/news/news-15june2009.htm

(Read the section on tracing. That is NAIS, isn’t it? – highly disguised yet triggered by the word “trace.” )
Alarming Provisions:

Some of the more alarming provisions in the bill are:

* HR 2749 would impose an annual registration fee of $500 on any “facility” that holds, processes, or manufactures food. [isn't this every home in the US, every garden?] Although “farms” are exempt, the agency has defined “farm” narrowly. [What is the definition?] And people making foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, cheeses, or breads would be required to register and pay the fee, which could drive beginning and small producers out of business during difficult economic times. [Yes. There are laws against this corporate-size-destroys-the-little-guy policy, aren't there? Are home bread or cheese or lacto-fermented vegetable makers who make for their own families included in this?]

* HR 2749 would empower FDA to regulate how crops are raised and harvested. It puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers. [This astounding control opens the door to CODEX. WTO "good farming practices" will include the elimination of organic farming by eliminating manure, mandating GMO animal feed, imposing animal drugs, and ordering applications of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers, thus, will be locked not only into the industrialization of once normal and organic farms but into the forced purchase of industry's products. They will be slaves on the land, doing the work they are ordered to do - against their own best wisdom - and paying out to industry against their will.

There will be no way to be frugal, to grow one's own grain to feed the animals, to raise healthy animals without GMO grains or drugs, to work with nature at all. Grassfed cattle and poultry and hogs will be finished. So, it's obvious where control will take us. And weren't these the "rumors on the internet" that were dismissed but are clearly the case?]

* HR 2749 would give FDA the power to order a quarantine of a geographic area, including “prohibiting or restricting the movement of food or of any vehicle being used or that has been used to transport or hold such food within the geographic area.” [This - "that has been used to transport or hold such food" - would mean all cars that have ever brought groceries home so this means ALL TRANSPORTATION can be shut down under this. This is using food as a cover for martial law.] Under this provision, farmers markets and local food sources could be shut down, even if they are not the source of the contamination. The agency can halt all movement of all food in a geographic area. [This is also a means of total control over the population under the cover of food, and at any time.]

* HR 2749 would empower FDA to make random warrantless searches of the business records of small farmers and local food producers, without any evidence whatsoever that there has been a violation. [If these bills cover all who "hold food" then this allows for taking of records of anyone at any time on no basis at all.] Even farmers selling direct to consumers would have to provide the federal government with records on where they buy supplies, how they raise their crops, and a list of customers.

[NAIS for animals and all other foods?]

* HR 2749 charges the Secretary of Health and Human Services with establishing a tracing system for food. Each “person who produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, or holds such food” [Is this not every home in the US?] would have to “maintain the full pedigree of the origin and previous distribution history of the food,” and “establish and maintain a system for tracing the food that is interoperable with the systems established and maintained by other such persons.” The bill does not explain how far the traceback will extend or how it will be done for multi-ingredient foods. With all these ambiguities, [with all these ambiguities, it is dangerous, period, separate from the money] it’s far from clear how much it will cost either the farmers or the taxpayers. [It is massive and absurd and burdensome beyond the capacity of people to comply - is this not fascism? - so it is a set up for being used to impose penalties endlessly and/or to eliminate anyone at will.]

* HR 2749 creates severe criminal and civil penalties, including prison terms of up to 10 years and/or fines of up to $100,000 for each violation for individuals. [Does it include judicial review, Congressional oversight, a defined and limited set of penalties and punishments for a defined set of "crimes"? Or is it entirely ambiguous and left to the whim and sole power of "the Administrator"? Who is that person set to be? Is it Michael Taylor, Monsanto lawyer and executive, as Food Democracy has said? That is, do these bills set up an agency by which the entire US food supply will be turned over to the control of a multinational corporation under WTO regulations (and not to US farmers and not to US laws under the Constitution), with boundless freedom to do what it wants, and one infamous for harm to farmers and lack of safety of food?]

If it was not clear before how frightening these bills were, this small section of provisions, should make their actual fascism clear now. It goes way beyond “food safety” to absolute control over farms, animals, food, and us, including our movements and access to food at all.

Action to Take:

Contact your Representative now! Ask to speak with the staffer who handles food issues. Tell them you are opposed to the bill. Some points to make in telling your Representative why you oppose HR 2749 include:

1. The bill imposes burdensome requirements while not specifically targeting the industrial food system and food imports, where the real food safety problems lie.

2. Small farms and local food processors are part of the solution to food safety; lessening the regulatory burden on them will improve food safety.

3. The bill gives FDA much more power than it has had in the past while making the agency less accountable for its actions.

HR 2749 needs to be defeated!! Please take action NOW.

Or, contact your Representative by using the finder tool at www.Congress.org or send a message through the petition system (the petition will be on our website this evening) at http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions_new.htm. Or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

To check the status of HR 2749, go to www.Thomas.gov and type “HR 2749″ in the bill search field.

The Importance Of Organic Gardening.

Organic vegetable gardening seems to be the trend these days as more people have become conscious of what they are eating. This is because conventional methods allow the use of harmful chemicals, which may enter our bodies via the food we eat.

In order to control the problem, the US Department of Agriculture has issued a new directive. This encourages farmers to shift to organic farming.

With organic farming, farmers will no longer need to plant crops using genetic engineering, irradiation and sewage sludge. Instead, this will be replaced with crop rotation.

Crop rotation is the practice of planting a different crop in the same area where another crop once occupied. This keeps the soil’s nutrients fertile, so it can be used again in the following season.

This approach is easier said than done as farmers are accustomed to the old ways of doing things, and may be reluctant to change. To help them change their minds the government offers incentives and subsidies to farmers who decide to follow this plan.

But the main reason why organic vegetable gardening is so important is the fact that the crops harvested have 50% more nutrients and vitamins, compared to those produced using conventional farming methods. This means organic food may reduce the risk of people suffering from a number of diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and certain cancers.

Children who drink organic milk will get more anti-oxidants, CLA, Omega 3 and vitamins, compared to GM milk, which will really help strengthen their bones and muscles.

You can buy organically grown vegetables from many supermarkets nowdays. The sad part is the almost everywhere you go, although the packaging comes from Department of Health, Quality Assurance International, California Certified Organic Farmers or the Oregon Tilth Farm Verified Organic, most processed ‘organic’ foods are only 50% to 70% organic. This is why homeowners who want to eat 100% organic vegetables are encouraged to grow these themselves.

There are two ways to achieve this. Buy seeds, or seedlings, plant them and wait until they grow or you can buy fully grown organic plants virtually ready to harvest.

In both cases the garden soil needs to be prepared, to suite the type of plants, and the area needs to be made safe from weeds, and insects and other animals that will eat the plants. Such problems can be fought off with other animals, insects, organic fertilizers, deodorant soap and a few other items which you can find out after doing a little research.

For those who don’t have a big garden, they can try growing these organically grown vegetables in containers. They require more water than those planted in the soil, and more care to ensure roots don’t overheat, or dry out.

There are many internet sites dedicated to organic gardening, and many forums if help or advice is needed. Taking control of what you eat can have a very positive effect on your health, remember, YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT…..