Horsemeat Hot Dish and Petroleum Pie

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    Jay Kovach

    ESPM 3601 - Spring 2013

    Writing Assignment #2

    Horse-Meat Hotdish & Petroleum Pie:Outdated recipes for disaster.

    The U.S. Food System

    Every time I mention something that involves machinery to be grown, to be processed and preserved, or

    to be prepared and served I am mentioning something that takes oil to function. The more machines used

    in production the bigger the embodied chemical load of the product. Pesticides to packaging all rely on

    persistent chemicals and petroleum and their chemical signatures are everywhere. Everything that we

    eat has been touched by these things figuratively and if it has touched physically there is some trace that

    remains. Approximately 1400 pesticides are currently approved for use in the United States, those are alot of chemical hopefuls for becoming the future DDT.

    Environmental researcher Charles Benbrook estimates that switching to organic

    food production would reduce our overall exposure to pesticides by 97%. His

    report, Simplifying the Pesticide Risk Equation, concludes that the switch would

    lead to more full-term births, fewer underweight babies, reduced rates of birth

    defects and significant benefits for developing immune, reproductive and nervous

    systems. He says the benefits of avoiding pesticide exposure begin about six

    months before conception and continue throughout life, (Alterman, 2013).

    Incredibly, we give subsidies to oil and industrial agriculture instead of the healthier alternatives. Theway things are done may have made sense at the time of inception and most likely saved more lives than I

    could imagine but they dont anymore, in fact, theyre damaging society. Governments job is to foster

    positive changes to maintain the well-being of its people, in order for Congress to do this they will have

    to pull an 180 turn and take a few cues on food education from the First Lady, Michelle Obama. In the

    U.S. 1 in 6 need food assistance and many are in situations where they cant grow their own food behind

    their White House, we need to identify new, stronger leverage points than EBT and incentives for

    corporations to make cheaper but not nutritionally valuable food.

    Taxes would go down if chemical-agricultural supporting subsidies were eliminated leaving more income

    for food. Give those same subsidies to renewable energy and organic farms (the two often go together)

    and you encourage growth and development in the industry with unknown numbers of benefits toconsumers, at least for now. In a 2008 UN report, chem-farming yields were lower than organic-farming

    yields, my theory is weve destroyed the soil with chemicals and many would agree. Organic is said to be

    15% more labor intensive and has been said to hire 2.5 times the employees as its chemical counterpart -

    creating more jobs and less dependence on food support.

    In response to a 2013 incident involving horsemeat entering the food supply the Academic Health Center

    at the UMN said, There are still many unknown aspects to the situation, but this incident of

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    economically motivated adulteration (EMA), or food fraud, is notable for its scale and provides yet

    another example of how globalized and complex our food supply chain is. It also illustrates how EMA

    occurs and why it can be so difficult to prevent.

    For EMA to occur there must be a perpetrator and an incentive, combined with a feasible method for

    committing the fraud and vulnerabilities in our quality assurance/regulatory systems for food that allow it

    to persist undetected. This concern is almost entirely bypassed by positive food choices like organics,

    CSAs, local, and farmers markets as qualities like fresh and unprocessed are harder to fake.

    Three quick things of note shared by the UMN:

    EMA is a $10-15 billion per year problem in the food industry. EMA is essentially the mislabeling of food or the willful addition of

    inferior or undeclared ingredients for economic gain.

    NCFPD director Shaun Kennedy has stated that an estimated 10% of thefood we buy on the shelf may be adulterated.

    Finally, the Academic Health Center mentions something else of interest on the UMN website: Ground

    beef was not routinely tested for the presence of horsemeat because it was not an expected adulterant.

    Because analytical methods for identifying adulterants in food can be expensive and are often tailored

    toward specific known adulterants, unexpected or novel adulterants can be particularly difficult to detect.

    This also means that if something isnt known about or considered harmful, it cannot and will not be

    looked for.

    Weve given up control and let the system run wild but the answer isnt more control, instead it is in

    identifying strategic leverage points with holistic effects.

    Diet Health Effects

    What we eat is just as important as the act of eating itself.

    According to the FAO, 36 million people die each year of hunger and poor

    nutrition. An estimated 868 million people 12 percent of the population are

    undernourished, (UMNews, 2013).

    What this really breaks down into is what we do and what we dont get and negatives are hard to quantify

    so lets start with one of the things we can really see obesity overweight and undernourished. In a

    2010 TED Talk Jamie Oliver, celebrity chef and activist delivered a passionate talk on the food system in

    the United States in which he used obesity and its consequences as an example of the system runningrampantly in the wrong direction.

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    In his talk Oliver dropped a lot of pertinent information:

    Children today, because of what they are eating, are predicted to have alifespan 10 years less than their parents

    2/3 of North America are obese In the 18 minutes his talk took, 4 Americans died obesity related deaths 10% of U.S. healthcare costs are caused by obesity which totals about$150 billion That $150 billion dollar price tag is set to double in 10 years Diet is the leading cause of death in the United States The biggest difference is that food, when healthy, was fresh and local but

    now it is poorly labeled and full of additives

    At one point he shows a video clip of children unable to even identify vegetables

    in their natural forms and then shared that it only took two 2 hour sessions to fix

    with education

    You can also end up with a weakened immune system, making you more vulnerable to allergies

    and illness. Mark Holbreich collaborated with German researchers in 2010 and their findings

    were later published by theJournal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in 2012. They found

    that 50% of the general population will test positive for an allergy test, 25% of Swiss farm

    children will test positive, with only 7% of Amish children testing positive. The more exposed

    to nature, what is natural, or what is raw, both as a developing fetus and a child, the better off the

    childs immune responses.

    To borrow from a 2013, Mother Earth News piece (77) by Megan Phelps:

    How exactly this works is still unfolding, but exposures early in life, including in

    the womb, seem to be important. Theres also some question of whether its

    simply that we are exposed to microbes that matters, or if there are specificprotective microbes. Or both. In any case, farms are a great place to study this.

    The farms are rich in microbial environments, Liu [Dr. Andy Liu at National

    Jewish Health in Denver] says. A lot of it seems to be related to animals or the

    other people were around. To the extent that we can quantify microbial

    burdens, its much higher in farm homes. You also find richer microbial

    environments in homes with pets or many young children.

    We didnt evolve for an urban environment.

    Its not so much what were exposed to thats causing these diseases, its the

    conditions we evolved with that are now missing.

    Going back to the chemical residues you receive from certain food choices, chemical fertilizers,

    pesticides and herbicides are bad for our health and the health of the environment, in addition to

    costing money. In a 2012 statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics advised parents to

    reduce or eliminate prenatal and early childhood exposure to pesticide because of their

    association with pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive functioning and behavioral problems,

    (Star, 82, 2013). Pesticide exposure has been linked to multiple types of cancer from brain to

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    colon, nervous system damage, reproductive and metabolic problems, diabetes, obesity, several

    neurological diseases typically associated with aging, and other chronic conditions. Children are

    particularly susceptible due to their development being in process.

    With organics and sustainable, positive food choices we avoid all of this. Nothing is a hard thing

    to quantify, but a happy, healthy life is more meaningful than all the disconnected numbers andstatistics anyway. The biggest win with better diet choices and rebooting the food system is

    what we dont do to the health of ourselves, our environment, and future generations; however,

    there are a few things that can be documented now. Some fruits contain high levels of

    antioxidants that have cancer fighting properties. Alpine strawberries, blackberries, blueberries,

    grapes, and plums can be grown just about anywhere in the U.S. and all of these contain higher

    than average amounts of antioxidants. Their wide range of growth and availability make them a

    perfect local or organic choice. Some of the antioxidants found in the 5 fruits:

    beta-carotene coenzyme Q10 flavonoids glutathione

    lipoic acid manganese phenols phytoestrogens

    polyphenols selenium vitamin a vitamin e

    This goes well with findings from the Human Nutrition Research Center in the UK who found

    that organic, on average, contains 12% more defense-related compounds than conventional

    produce.

    What You Can Do

    Its easy, in fact, youve already started. Informing yourself is arguably the most important thing

    you can do, the second would be actively putting what you learn to work. Some people will give

    you lists upon lists, I ask you to think about it, where it comes from before you and where it goes

    after you, does it even leave you? The final component is to share what you find and when you

    do lead with what you are most interested or excited about because passion is infectious.

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    References

    Alterman, T. (March/April, 2013). 5 antioxidant-rich fruits that grow anywhere. Mother Earth Living,

    1(3), 86-87. Also accessible as of 03.05.13 through:

    http://www.motherearthliving.com/gardening/vegetable-gardening/5-antioxidant-rich-fruits-

    zmgz13mazmel.aspx

    Alterman, T. (March/April, 2013). Why its still smart to buy organic. Mother Earth Living, 1(3), 51-

    54. Also accessible as of 03.05.13 through: http://www.motherearthliving.com/food-and-

    recipes/food-for-health/why-eating-organic-is-still-smart-zmfz13mazmel.aspx

    Baehr, B. (2013, April 16). Whats wrong with our food system. [Downloadable TED Talk]. Retrieved

    from http://www.ted.com/talks/birke_baehr_what_s_wrong_with_our_food_system.html

    Can we feed the world? : UMNews : University of Minnesota. (n.d.). Twin Cities - University of

    Minnesota. Retrieved March 14, 2013, from

    http://www1.umn.edu/news/features/2013/UR_CONTENT_430583.html

    Eskenazi, B., Bradman, A., & Castorina, R. (1999). Exposures of children to organophosphate pesticides

    and their potential adverse health effects. Environmental Health Perspectives, 107(supplement

    3), 409-419. [UMN Library accessed journal used for research per criteria]

    Horsemeat: A food safety expert's perspective. (n.d.).Academic Health Center - University of Minnesota .

    Retrieved March 14, 2013, from http://www.health.umn.edu/healthtalk/2013/02/22/horsemeat-in-

    the-food-supply/

    Oliver, J. (2013, April 16). Jamie Olivers TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food.

    [Downloadable TED Talk]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver.html

    Phelps, M. E. (March/April, 2013). The farm effect. Mother Earth Living, 1(3), 74-78. Also accessible

    as of 03.05.13 through: currently unable to access some of the articles online.

    Siple, J. (August 22, 2012). More MN farmers markets accepting EBT. MPR News. Retrieved on

    03.06.13 from: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/08/22/more-minnesota-

    farmers-markets-accepting-ebt

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    Siple, J. (February 03, 2013). Farm to Cafeteria events planned in MN. MPR News. Retrieved on

    03.06.13 from: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/02/03/regional/farm-to-school-

    workshops

    Siple, J. (March 05, 2013). More fruits, veggies for food stamp recipients goal of MN program. MPR

    News. Retrieved on 03.06.13 from:

    http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/03/05/news/fruits-veggies-food-stamp-

    recipients

    Star, L. L. (02.28.13). Donate excess produce to food pantries. Mother Earth Living. Retrieved

    03.06.13 from: http://www.motherearthliving.com/in-the-garden/donate-excess-produce-to-food-

    pantries.aspx

    Star, L. L. (March/April, 2013). Zero-Waste Gardening. Mother Earth Living, 1(3), 84-85. Also

    accessible as of 03.05.13 through: http://www.motherearthliving.com/gardening/gardening-

    tips/zero-waste-gardening-zmgz13mazmel.aspx

    To protect and defend...our food : UMNews : University of Minnesota. (n.d.). Twin Cities - University of

    Minnesota. Retrieved March 14, 2013, from

    http://www1.umn.edu/news/features/2013/UR_CONTENT_434622.html

    Zerbe, L. (2010). Organic is worth it - and heres why. Rodale: Where health meets green. Retrieved on

    03.01.13 from: http://www.rodale.com/organic-food-benefits

    Zerbe, L. (2011). Lower taxes! And 4 other surprising reasons to save the Earth by going

    organic. Rodale: Where health meets green. Retrieved on 03.06.13 from:

    http://www.rodale.com/buy-organic-food