Slimming Today

Are you and your family ready to handle supergerms, superweeds, and other risks created by chemical agriculture?

Using toxic chemicals to grow our food has produced serious threats to our health and our environment.

RODALE NEWS, ANAHEIM, CA—The way we grow food in this country, and increasingly do around the world, is making us sick. As Rodale CEO Maria Rodale points out in her brand-new book, Organic Manifesto, that’s because pesticides aren’t just on the food, they’re in it, too. In her book, she discusses (in an easy-to-understand way) how many scientists are linking the hormones, genetically engineered seeds, and estrogenic, synthetic pesticides that are used in the chemical farming industry to diabetes, accelerated aging, a skyrocketing rate of food allergies, the feminization of boys, and even obesity.

Analyzing some of that same peer-reviewed, scientific research, Charles Benbrook, PhD, chief researcher at The Organic Center and former agricultural policy and science researcher for congress and the National Academy on Sciences, released a list of his seven predictions for food in 2010 and beyond last weekend at a news conference held in conjunction with Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California.

Here are seven major health and environmental threats from chemical farming, and how to protect yourself and your family.

Threat # 1: An increase in the number of children facing developmental issues, including autism, ADHD, birth defects, and allergies.

Benbrook says just 1 percent of pesticides are responsible for virtually all pesticide-related developmental risks from exposure in the diet. If the government bans the high-exposure uses of these pesticides and increases the availability of organic fruits and vegetables, which are generally free of these residues, in schools, many pesticide-linked health problems in children could be avoided.

Protect yourself:

School yourself on the Dirty Dozen, a list compiled by Environmental Working Group of the produce items that generally harbor the most harmful pesticide residues. They are: peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, imported grapes, carrots, and pears. Don’t stop there, because it’s best to buy organic whenever you can. But always try to get certified-organic versions of those 12 foods.

Threat #2: An increase in the number of Americans who are obese, diabetic, or both.

We’re all responsible for choosing a healthy diet. But it’s also true that we live in an “obesogenic” world that pressures us to eat more high-calorie, high-fat food than is healthy for us. “Government agencies and programs either directly control or shape one or more of the daily meals consumed by 25 percent of Americans,” according to Benbrook. “More can and must be done in the marketplace to reward the food industry for offering healthier choices.”

Protect yourself:

Recently, Michelle Obama urged the food industry to stop pushing unhealthy food to kids, and to get busy offering healthier choices. We can all send a similar signal to the companies that make and market the food on our supermarket shelves. “Consumers get to vote three times a day when they eat,” says Benbrook. “That is the most profound statement.”

To find organic-food bargains, buy some of your grains in bulk. For instance, “a 50-pound bag of organic rolled oats for just $5 more than conventional will feed a large family oatmeal once a week for a year,” Benbrook explains. “It’s the same thing with rice, potatoes, and apples.”

Buying in-season and cooking at home more will greatly bring down the costs, and you might even save money over conventional processed foods. For more free healthy meal and snack ideas, visit the Rodale Recipe Finder.

Threat # 3: A decrease in the efficacy of lifesaving antibiotics.

This statement should give pause to everyone. Antibiotics save lives, but because we routinely use them to accelerate growth and boost animal health in filthy concentrated animal-feeding operations (CAFOs), superbugs are emerging. “There are now several strains of bacteria that are essentially untreatable in humans, and more will follow, without major changes in how antibiotics are used on farms,” says Benbrook. Even this winter’s swine-flu epidemic may have been the result of CAFO practices.

Protect yourself:

The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that 70 percent of antibiotics used in the U.S. go to the livestock industry, where farmers don’t even need a prescription to administer them. Buy organic meat and dairy (antibiotics are not allowed), and tell your elected official to support Congresswoman Louise Slaughter’s (D-NY) bill that would ban subtherapeutic agricultural uses of human antibiotics. Know how to protect yourself from hospital infections, how to kill household germs, and how to talk to your doctor about prescription antibiotics.

Threat # 4: An increase in disease linked to inflammation.

Inflammation is the root of many chronic diseases that are skyrocketing in incidence lately, and antioxidants are vital to repairing the damage done. But chemical farming practices seem to be robbing our food of the natural antioxidants that help fend off diseases.

Protect yourself:

Organic produce generally contains 25 percent higher levels of these health-boosting antioxidants, so choose organic whenever you can, or even grow your own healthy organic food.

Threat #5: An increase in the spread of “super-weeds.”

Genetically engineered, herbicide-tolerant crops have increased herbicide use by more than 380 million pounds since 1996, with 46 percent of the total increase occurring in 2007 and 2008, reports The Organic Center. Mother Nature’s smart (she always outsmarts us), and this rise in the use of weed-killing chemicals is leading to super-weeds throughout the 160 million acres of U.S. genetically engineered corn, soybeans, and cotton grown every year. This leads to farmers applying even more chemicals to control the weeds that overuse of chemicals strengthened in the first place.

Protect yourself:

On the policy level, Benbrook says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should impose binding rules in time for the 2011 crop season to reduce usage if farmers don’t cut back on their own. At home, resist any temptation to zap weeds using RoundUp, one of the chemicals leading to the rise in super-weeds in the agricultural setting. Not only is it causing a problem by creating pesticide-resistant weeds, but the pesticide is actually more dangerous than initially realized. Learn about retro weed-killing methods, chemical-free lawn fixes, and see Organicgardening.com for all sorts of anti-weed tactics.

Threat # 6: The continued rapid decline of the honeybee.

Five insecticides are known to hamper bees’ immune systems, as well as the insects’ ability to find their way back to the hive. In Italy, Benbrook explains, a ban on insecticide seed treatments during the 2009 crop season resulted in virtually no bee losses.

Protect yourself:

Protecting honeybees will help ensure our survival—we need them to pollinate our crops, as well as produce honey. Buying organic produce supports a system that keeps nasty chemicals out of the environment so other critters have a shot at survival. Make friends with an organic beekeeper; create a garden that attracts native bees.

Threat # 7: Global warming.

The Rodale Institute, a nonprofit research farm that compares the effects of organic and chemical farming, has found that organic farming can be used as a tool to help combat climate change. That’s because the microorganisms in healthy soil absorb and store carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere. In chemical farming, pesticides kill most of these beneficial creatures. And that’s on top off all the greenhouse-gas emissions that come from producing, transporting, and applying the pesticides.

Benbrook says farm and conservation-program payments should be redirected toward proven ways to sequester carbon in soil organic matter. Supporting organic farms yields healthier food and healthier soil, and now we know it can lead to a more stable climate. “Few public-policy changes offer such significant and diverse benefits at such a modest cost,” says Benbrook.

Protect yourself:

Climate change is linked to all sorts of worsening health problems, so prepare for a rise in allergy symptoms, heat stress, waterborne illness, Lyme disease, and diseases spread by mosquitoes. To do your part to support organic agriculture, join the DemandOrganic.org campaign led by the Rodale Institute.

From>> http://www.rodale.com/food-and-health?cm_mmc=DailyNewsNL-_-2010_03_18-_-Top5-_-NA