Organic food not NUTRITIONALLY better

So a new UK study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition came out comparing the nutrtional content of organic versus conventional foods.  The meta-analysis of 55 studies showed that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority. There were a small number of differences in nutrition between organic and conventionally produced food but not large enough to be of any public health relevance and found no differences in most nutrients in  including in vitamin C, calcium, and iron.

Without large-scale, longitudinal research it is difficult to come to far-reaching clear conclusions on this, and there is not sufficient research on the long-term effects of pesticides on human health.

Now the debate rages on. Slate, Huffington, Independent, to name a few are posting opinion pieces. I dont think this is going to stop people from eating organic. Most consume organics because they feel it treads more lightly on the earth, and they dont want to consume pesticides, antibiotics, chemicals etc.

But read the study for yourself and make your own conclusions. And do what is right for you, and your budget…

Eating “good” is not easy

New York magazine published an interesting article on the 17 most politically problematic foods but that is not what interested me as much as the introduction:

“Eating was once an enjoyable, relatively uncomplicated experience; the biggest dilemma was how much butter to put in the mashed potatoes. No more. In this post-Pollan, Food, Inc., locavore-aware world, your dinner plate, like it or not, is a minefield. Beyond the enduring concerns about calories, artificial ingredients, and, of course, taste, there are now a host of politically minded food anxieties. Is the chicken free-range? Is the salad from a labor-friendly farm? Was the coffee shade-grown? Sometimes it seems the future of the planet is riding on your hamburger. While it’s wise (and often delicious!) to maintain a healthy skepticism about too much food-correctness, it’s not a bad idea to do your part where you can.”

Why does this ring so true and what is a foodie to do? I fare on the healthy skepticism side as the science has not yet caught up with the hype. Read on to see the 17 foods but topping this list are my personal indulgences – shrimp, coffee and wine. ugh…

What is organic? Your guess is as good as the USDAs

“USDA Organic products must contain at least 95 percent organic ingredients. The five percent non-organic ingredients could include additives or synthetics if they are on an approved list. The label must contain a list that identifies the organic, as well as the non-organic, ingredients in the product, and the name of the organic certifier.”

Its a good thing that Obama wants to double the budget of the USDA’s National Organic program with the growing number of “organic” foods coming onto the market, and the growing number of organic and local devotees…

A Post report of the USDA’s National Organic program put into question the integrity of the USDA organic food label. With “relaxed” federal standards, or the fact they they have never issue rigorous standards on what is organic and what gets a label or not, basically leaves the consumer guessing if a food is truly organic, or made with organic ingredients. The article mainly talks about the standards and the arbitrary assignment of what is or is not organic by the few working in the program at the USDA, but it doesn’t even get into the regulation of those semi-adhoc standards to ensure farmers and producers are truly adhering. Scary times for consumers if you ask me.

kristof is plugging Food Inc too…

The new documentary Food Inc is getting lots of press, and Kristof just gave it a plug. Would love to know people’s thoughts on this movie. From the outset, and I dont think the makers would object, the movie is slanted and I will write more this week on why i think so. The movie contains important information for the general consumer, but when it comes time to science, the environment and nutrition, we need to start digging deeper. We are talking about global food systems in all their complexity. Equating things to food miles, organic and grow your own food (!) are simple answers that dont address the need to feed 7 billion people in a sustainable and pro-nutritious manner.

Slow food? Slow eat.

Check out this graph from the O’Reilly Radar. Of course, Mexico and US are way up there. And then there is the French. Eat and smoke their way through decadence and remain stick thin. god dammit. One thing not really accounted for, as there are many confounders in this, is soda consumption…

This was done byCatherine Rampell of Economix.

Time spent eating versus obesity rate

Snacks and Glints

Forging a Hot Link to the Farmer Who Grows the Food – cool article in the Times

Raj Patel wants you to Buy Japanese or at least, live in Japan

Teenagers near fast food = obesity. And Marion Nestle has some ideas on it. And she was in the NY times last week. Go Marion.

The new Food Inc movie. Can’t see it here in Nairobi but see it if it comes to a theater near you…

And another film called “Food Fight”. It is hard to keep up these days…

Best Trattoria in Rome? Let the Debate Begin. God, how I would die to be eating this food every night. Taking slow food to the profound letter. But hell, this the origin of slowness in all its beauty.

a vegetable garden on the south lawn

The new administration has broken ground for a vegetable garden of local, organic foods on the White House lawn. This idea, advocated by First Lady Michelle, should be credited to Slow Food USA’s president Josh Viertel and organic chef Alice Waters who have been pushing for our government to take notice and make changes how America’s food is produced and consumed. High time we have a government who is thinking about nutrition. A true seed of change indeed.

NY Times published a map of what will be planted. No beets for Barack but plenty of the fixings for Mexican food. Sounds like my kind of people.

There are some accompanying articles on organic food and its movement in the Times. And I must add that the vegetable garden article was the most viewed for three days in a row.

2nd Time’s a Charm

So Jess and I have been kind of quiet about our home garden because, well, it was pretty much a failure. Except for a bunch of tasty arugula it produced for us. Everything else either didn’t even sprout or fizzled and died. There’s a number of speculative reasons for this:

1. The day after we planted our seeds, it absolutely poured. Enough that I think a lot of the seeds were washed away, as evidence by them sprouting in random areas of the garden instead of in  the rows we planted them in.
2. Before it was a garden, our tiny shamba, it was part of our landlord’s lawn. Lawns probably delete soil of nutrients, and it made the ground really hard to till the first time. I added manure, but I’m not sure if it was enough (or maybe too much?).
3. It didn’t rain at all in Nairobi for all of January and most of February until a few days ago. So whatever was hanging on (squash, onions, peppers and eggplant) completely died by the time we got back from our recent trip.

Anyways, you live and you learn. In theory, the “long rains” start in Nairobi in another week, continuing all the way into June. As I’m writing this I’m watching clouds building up. So I figured it was a good time to plant again. Especially as I was inspired by all the farmers we met on our recent trip to Tanzania and Malawi.

What we are planting is a small “home garden.” Most Africans have shambas far bigger than this that they are reliant on with their lives. Just tilling this small plot is back-breaking and skin-blistering work, I can’t imagine doing 3 acres worth. And I think it’s good exercise, but usually people that are doing all this hard work hardly need the extra exercise, nor do they probably get enough calories to give them enough energy to be doing such work. These small home gardens are the kind of thing Jess is encouraging farmers in Africa to grow, to supplement their diets of maize with some vegetables and varieties of other foods.

So this morning I tilled the soil (much easier the second time around!), cleaned out more rocks and roots, added more goat manure and planted some seeds. I made the row mounds flatter and packed the dirt down harder over the seeds to prevent them from being washed away. And I was more thorough in tilling the soil. So we’ll see. The only problem is there hasn’t been power at our house all day, so no water to give them a good initial soaking. Of course I could do what most Africans would have to do, which is carry buckets of water from the nearest borehole. Or pray for rain. Here’s what the “blank canvas” looks like:

In order from left to right I planted: jalapenos, arugula, swiss chard, eggplant, red onions and red bell peppers. We are leaving in a few days for NYC, for three weeks, so it will be exciting to see what grows while we are gone. Hopefully the rains will come, other areas north of here in Kenya and Ethiopia are suffering from drought. So we’ll be praying for rain with the rest of them.

Ecogastronomy pleasure and GMOs

For the past few days, I attended Terra Madre, the very large (7000 people, 153 countries represented) Slow Food meeting in Torino Italy as a U.S. delegate but had the added benefit of also attending Salone del Gusto, a gourmet/artisan food festival held simultaneously and in the same venue. The opening ceremony for Terra Madre was quite grand and held at the Olympic stadium for the Winter Olympics in 2006. Carlo Petrini, godfather of slow food, and Vandana Shiva, anti-technology and GMO (genetically modified organism) hero, both spoke to the crowd, but the most amazing part was the music played from around the world and the flag procession, in which a native of the country carried their flag wearing traditional clothing. It was quite incredible to have 153 countries represented and says a lot about how the world is feeling about the global food system.

terra madre

The opening ceremony set the tone for the rest of the meeting – no GMOs, no chemicals, no pesticides. No ifs ands or buts about it. There was not too much scientific evidence presented, just passion in all its grassroots glory. I dont think scientific data is really the point of Terra Madre anyhow. Vindana said that GMOs did not promote more food production and that it was “a fact.” In her manifesto, she does not just count absolute tons of maize produced but the cultural and social fabrics that have been lost. Perhaps she is right, but to say that it is a fact may be a bit overstated. She was also quite negative about the African Green Revolution, which was disappointing. The Asian Green Revolution was not a perfect model by any means – so can’t we take the mistakes from the last revolution and at least try to make it better for Africa’s sake? Small holder farmers in much of Africa are struggling. I am a HUGE advocate of biodiversity and its subsequent diet diversity, but reason, evidence and rationale are needed to feed 6 billion souls high quality foods right now. I am not sure if bashing on companies who use technology without much care for diversity, is the most productive approach. Manifestos were passed out, with lead writer Vandana, on topics of climate change and the future of food, and the future of seed. You can find the manifestos here.

I also attended the US delegate meeting. Alice Waters opened and I always find her thoughtful and engaging. She signifies what slow food is all about. Josh Viertel, the new president of Slow Food, is a great story teller but has a lot of work ahead of him to really make an impact in the United States this coming year. In a world of fast food and fast eaters, and fat people, the slow food approach has not sunken in. Josh – i wish you luck.

US Delegate Meeting

I attended earth workshops of bee keeping, food security, climate change, Africa foods and others. Many had the same tone that GMOs were very bad and that farmers need to take back their communities and promote biodiversity. Biodiversity is key and is being lost by the day. But about GMOs and their reputation. GMOs could very well be “bad” but again, the science should be presented at these meetings, particularly to the youth who attend the meeting. Do it for the kids! I am not against what they are saying. I want to eat wholesome, unmanipulated, chemical and pesticide free food too. But when presenting anything as complex as our food system, it is always more productive to get many players to the table. The big companies and multinational agencies are here to stay. We need to learn to work with them and find a way forward together. Projecting a photo of two random wall street guys looking at numbers on the stock exchange and saying they are evil and have a plan to destroy bees, is not exactly productive or true (which is what they did at the bee seminar…).

pulito

One of the coolest aspects of the fair was the Slow Food Presidia that are funded and promoted by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity. The program focuses on biodiverse projects of small scale producers from around the world demonstrating all aspects of Slow Food – good, clean and fair. There were very unique, rare products being promoted by local farmers such as lost cereals, diverse potatoes from peru, poultry and goat breeds, cheeses, honey in ethiopia etc etc. Textiles were also being promoted as part of this year’s Terra Madre.

slow food presidia projects map

Salone del Gusto hosts “neogastronomes” and it was so crowded I could barely stand it, being a slight clostraphobe. I always find conferences funny. When there is something free on a table, people are like ravenous wolves and will claw their way to get at whatever it is just because it is there and free. Salone, with all its high class ecogastrons was NO exception. People were like hungry beasts. So much for slow food. There was pushing, there was shoving, there was knocking people over, just to get a little 1 inch by 1 inch piece of bread with some olive oil drizzled on it. Isn’t this standard fare for Italians? If there was a piece of cured meat sitting out on a plate, forgeddaboudit.

Derek posted a great blog on the event here. and some more photos are here.

Off to Terra Madre

Next week I am off to the large Terra Madre meeting in Torino Italy. Can’t wait! I will post from there with all the latest. I will also be posting lots of photos on my photoblog site here. If you dont know what terra madre is, all is explained here.