Practice Paper: Promoting Ecological Sustainability within the Food System

A new Practice Paper from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetic is available and the topic is Promoting Ecological Sustainability within the Food System. I'm happy to see the final paper since I helped review it months ago as a member of the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group. The final paper was authored by my colleague Ramona Robinson-O’Brien and Bonnie L. Gerald.

I really like this call to action:

It is important to continually evaluate current food system practices and promote practices that support and sustain natural resources and the environment. Food system sustainability is dependent, in part, upon the protection and conservation of soil, water, energy, and the preservation of biodiversity. Promoting food system sustainability can be an admirable goal among RDs and DTRs. 

I was also intrigued by this address to decreased pesticide usage and possible suggestion to support organic agriculture:

The use of pesticides in agriculture may have a negative impact on wildlife and the wider environment (water, soil, air) if leaching, runoff, or spray drift occurs. In an effort to mitigate adverse environmental exposures, consideration should be given to alternative cropping systems less dependent on pesticides, the development of pesticides with improved safety profiles and formulations, and appropriate use of spraying equipment. 

There is also a fantastic section on consumer options, including growing interest is local food, “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food,” farm to institution work, and innovations to address food access including SNAP benefits at farmers markets, community gardens, and utilization of cooperative extension. 

Finally, I was also super excited to see a shout out to some fantastic resources that some fellow HEN DPG members developed:

Included in the resource figure (Figure 1) is a link to the document “Healthy Land, Healthy People: Building a Better Understanding of Sustainable Food Systems for Food and Nutrition Professionals,” which provides wide-ranging recommendations for RDs and DTRs to incorporate professional practices in support of ecological sustainability in the food system. RDs and DTRs are encouraged to utilize this valuable tool to identify practical examples within a variety of practice areas. Wilkins and colleagues contend that the economic, ecological, and social sustainability of the food system matter as much as the nutritional value of its products and encourage RDs and DTRs to practice “civic dietetics” by integrating food system awareness into their work.

ADA publishes benefits of organic talking points

In July, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition(AJCN) published a meta-analysis on the nutritional quality of organic versus conventional food creating a stir in the media. This month, the American Dietetic Association(ADA) has published a 'Hot Topic' which takes a more holistic approach to the benefits of organic food. According to ADA, 'Hot Topics' are "short, concise practice and science-based answers to current questions Registered Dietitians(RD) may receive."

The 'Hot Topic' was co-authored by Christine McCullum-Gomez, PhD, RD and Anne-Marie Scott of the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition(HEN) Dietetic Practice Group(DPG) of ADA. In their review they challenge the AJCN study for "not examining differences in contaminants (such as pesticide, herbicide or fungicide residues) or the possible environmental consequences of organic versus conventional production practices." Further, the authors claim there are benefits to organic beyond human nutrition.

When considering benefits and costs of organic versus conventional agricultural production, it is important to consider benefits and costs to consumers, farmers, communities and the environment. For example, current research in numerous areas is showing both short-and long-term benefits to our population and the planet with organic and other sustainable production systems. Documented environmental benefits of organic production systems include reduced nutrient pollution, improved soil organic matter, lower energy use, reduced pesticide
residues in food and water and enhanced biodiversity.

It is refreshing to see the ADA not taking their traditionally myopic approach.

The challenge for our field(dietetics) is to understand exactly how foods and food products are grown and manufactured and the effects these methods may have on our personal health and the health of the global environment.

Disclosure: I am a HEN member. HEN is currently the fastest growing DPG of the ADA. (phew..a lot of acronyms)

Vicotry Garden of Tomorrow- 2009 Collection

I love this artist Joe Wirtheim and posted about his 2008 Collection of New Age Victory Garden posters back in February. Joe combines two things I love: art and propaganda to propel my favorite cause: independence through sustainability! His new 2009 Collection promotes planting and growing organic food, remembering that reducing and reusing come BEFORE curb recycling, and the importance of protecting and contributing to our forests and trees for the sinking of carbon.

I think they make awesome kitchen or office art. You can buy them at the ETSY store, an online artisan bizarre where you can support other people in their skills and sport on of a kind items.

Merrigan speaks on organics across USDA

USDA Deputy Secretary Pledges Full Organic Integration Across Department

Attendees at the third annual Organic Summit in Stevenson, Wash. in early June heard USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan pledge that organic agriculture will be integrated across all agencies in the department. View Merrigan's full video statement. (Length 11:22)

Jeff Stier on Jon Stewart

UPDATED June 5, 2009** The video was tagged due to Viacom's copyright. Thanks to Melinda for pointing that out. She also thinks it would be wise for me to clarify that the ACSH is a front group for the industry, if you couldn't tell from the video. Thus, my sarcasm.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Little Crop of Horrors
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Economic Crisis

Jeff Stier is the Associate Director of the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). He is responsible for external affairs, including media and government relations, policy, legal affairs and development. ACSH is a not-for-profit, public health, consumer advocacy organization dedicated to promoting sound science in public health.


I think he deserves a round of applause.

Pesticide Guide

The Environmental Working Group has release a new guide to 12 foods that contain the most and least pesticides. If you are going to buy organic, these are the ones. From there website:

What's the Difference?

An EWG simulation of thousands of consumers eating high and low pesticide diets shows that people can lower their pesticide exposure by almost 80 percent by avoiding the top twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead. Eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables will expose a person to about 10 pesticides per day, on average. Eating the 15 least contaminated will expose a person to less than 2 pesticides per day. Less dramatic comparisons will produce less dramatic reductions, but without doubt using the Guide provides people with a way to make choices that lower pesticide exposure in the diet.

Most Contaminated: THE DIRTY DOZEN

Consistent with two previous EWG investigations, fruits topped the list of the consistently most contaminated fruits and vegetables, with seven of the 12 most contaminated foods. The seven were peaches leading the list, then apples, nectarines and strawberries, cherries, and imported grapes, and pears. Among these seven fruits:

• Nectarines had the highest percentage of samples test positive for pesticides (97.3 percent), followed by peaches (96.7 percent) and apples (94.1 percent).
• Peaches had the highest likelihood of multiple pesticides on a single sample - 87.0 percent had two or more pesticide residues — followed by nectarines (85.3 percent) and apples (82.3 percent).
• Peaches and apples had the most pesticides detected on a single sample, with nine pesticides on a single sample, followed by strawberries and imported grapes where eight pesticides were found on a single sample of each fruit.
• Peaches had the most pesticides overall, with some combination of up to 53 pesticides found on the samples tested, followed by apples with 50 pesticides and strawberries with 38.

Sweet bell peppers, celery, kale, lettuce, and carrots are the vegetables most likely to expose consumers to pesticides. Among these five vegetables:

• Celery had the highest of percentage of samples test positive for pesticides (94.1 percent), followed by sweet bell peppers (81.5 percent) and carrots (82.3 percent).
• Celery also had the highest likelihood of multiple pesticides on a single vegetable (79.8 percent of samples), followed by sweet bell peppers (62.2 percent) and kale (53.1 percent).
• Sweet bell peppers had the most pesticides detected on a single sample (11 found on one sample), followed by kale (10 found on one sample), then lettuce and celery (both with nine).
• Sweet bell peppers were the vegetable with the most pesticides overall, with 64, followed by lettuce with 57 and carrots with 40.

Tufts Merrigan -Deputy Secretary of Agriculture

I can finally announce that my Agriculture Science and Policy professor has been officially chosen for Deputy Secretary of Agriculture under Tom Vilsack. Change is in the works. I am blessed to have had her for my policy classes. Obviously learning from the horse's mouth is the best. This is a very exciting time for Tufts faculty and students. Congratulations to Kathleen. From Reuters:

President Barack Obama chose Kathleen Merrigan, an assistant professor at Tufts University who helped develop U.S. organic food labeling rules, for the Agriculture Department's No 2 job, the White House said on Monday.

Merrigan, tapped for deputy secretary of Agriculture, was head of USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service from 1999-2001 during the Clinton era and helped develop USDA's rules on what can be sold as organic food. As a Senate aide, she worked on the 1990 law that recognized organic farming.

"Sustainable and organic farmers are excited ... that someone who has been associated with these issues her whole career is going to be at that level in the department," said Ferd Hoefner of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Hoefner encouraged the Senate to confirm Merrigan for the post.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was confirmed on Jan 20. The deputy agriculture secretary usually oversees day-to-day operations of USDA.

Merrigan, who went to work at Tufts in Boston after serving at USDA, has worked at the Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture and as a consultant for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization from 1994-99. She worked on the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee from 1987-92. She has a doctoral degree in environmental planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Organic Coke & 'retro-foods'

(Fair trade and naturally produced health drink)

Thanks to Marion Nestle for her blog post: Today's Giggle.


Hopefully people see the humor in this. If we can get organic high-fructose corn syrup, organic artificial coloring & flavoring and organic phenylalanine, we have a problem.

These were made by Koert Van Mensvoort. From the site Next Nature:

Thus, while engineering might make food healthier, it also makes food more abstract. And abstraction is not something people generally appreciate, whether it is in language, music, painting, or food. No surprise that people, who can afford it, move away from engineered food, packed with abstract chemicals and meta-substances, towards the so-called organic food, which can be more or less classified as ‘food produced in the way your grandparents produced their food’.

Historically, the organic farms have been relatively small family-run farms — which is why the retro-food was once only available in small stores or farmers’ markets. However, since the early 1990s organic food has had growth rates of around 20% a year, far ahead of the rest of the food industry. With the market share of organic food outpacing much of the food industry, many big corporations have moved into the market of retro-food production.

Van Mensvoort's concerned are not without warrant. The Cornucopia Institute has produced a white paper: Wal-Mart: The Nation’s Largest Grocer Rolls-out Organic Products — Market Expansion or Market Delusion, after their announcement to start offering more organic lines in the spring of 2006. You can read their letter to Walmart's CEO here.

In July 2007, Dr. Phil Howard, an Assistant Professor at Michigan State, created and updated the organic food business chart: Organic Industry Structure: Acquisitions by the Top 25 Food Processors in North America. There is also a new graphically animated version of consolidation occurring in the organic food sector between 1995 and 2007. Two other revealing presentations of organic business have also been prepared by Dr. Howard. There are also charts of major independent organic companies and a chart of private label organic brands, including supermarket chains, specialty chains and distributors.

Prairie Horizon's Farm Tour and HEN meeting

My dietetic practice group of the American Dietetic Association- Hunger and Environmental Nutrition(HEN) convened on Mary Jo Forbord's organic farm in Minnesota for strategic planning, epicurean delights, and amazing convergence of ideas and ideals. After an introductory semester of US Agriculture, I was able to take a field trip into the heart of America to see a history of farm policy in action.

My photos tell the story. Enjoy.

In 1973, the oil crisis, Vietnam war, Watergate and inflation were on the rise. As hunger and depression hit the rural areas, Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butts enters the scene. His motto's:

'fence row to fence row' and 'get big or get out!'

Fern Gale Estrow- New York- MS, RD, CDN - Policy Guru - Driving us home.
Kelly Horton- Seattle- MS, RD, CD Tufts Food Policy Graduate: owner of Connect Nutrition - Co-pilot.


Me with my backseat companion and cohort, Caroline Baum Webber PhD RD- Professor and Director of Dietetic Internship at Western Michigan.


Sunset over the farm.


Back row: Melinda Hemmelgarn MS RD:The Food Sleuth, Susan Roberts JD MS RD: Visionary HEN Mama, Fern
Front row: Caroline, Lynn Mader MBA RD: The All Star, me, Chris Wharton PhD-Nutrition Professor at ASU, but also a rock star: Our Presidential Hopeful, Andy Sarjahani, (almost) RD, Sustainability Soilder at Virginia Tech: Intensity Builder who always lives the dream, Angie Tagtow MS RD LN, Consultant & Food and Society, Ames, Iowa: The Teacher, The Inspiration.


Back: Mary Jo Forbord RD: Co-owner of Prairie Horizons Farm, Family Farm Visionary & Hopeful and HEN Historian, Barbara Hartman RD West Virgina: Spiritual Mama and Guide; Helen Costello MS RD LS- New Hampshire and Friedman School graduate: Or, Melinda, Susan, Fern.
Backrow: Christina Dyer MS RD NYC: The General, Caroline, Lynn, me Chris, Andy, Chief, Angie, Kim Prendergast MS RD- Massachusetts: Our President and Kelly.


Farmer Luverne Forbord takes us on the farm tour.


The dogs run along side, until they hop up for a ride.


Mary Jo explains the challenges of being organic is a conventional and industrial agriculture world. Their love for the land and respect of ecosystem is apparent in everything they do.


Buffer Zone- Since the Forbord's farm is surrounded by GM corn from Cargill, they have opted to utilize some of their own acereage for a buffer zone. Although it is the other farm's responsibility, they came to the conclusion it is more energy efficient than going to court.


The old dairy farm that Laverne grew up on. The silos were built with 20% interest in the 70's during times of grain surplus. They now sit empty since their cattle are grass fed.


Luverne and Mary Jo have a vision of turning the old farm and farm house (below) into a education and community center. They are considering a farmers market, interns and want to utilize the house for guest to come learn and write about an important practice that is eroding away from farms in America.


This could be my home one day.



Erosion is not a new topic to conventional farming and the issue continues to grow due to monocropping and lack of care to the soil. A talk with Angie Tagtow revealed more of the destruction happening in Iowa:

During June 2008, 60% of Iowa's counties lost an average of seven tons of soil per acre as a result of the flooding. That is 15,680 pounds of soil lost in one acre in a month. Year-to-date erosion data have identified several areas in Iowa that have lost upwards of 56 tons of soil per acre. That is more than 125,000 pounds of soil lost per acre in eight months. According to Soil Science Society of America, it takes 500 years to build up one inch of topsoil. Without significant transformation in agriculture and land use policies and practices which protect, preserve and build fertile soil, the astounding loss of soil will significantly deteriorate the ability to grow healthy, fresh food and sustain societies.

How' that for homeland security?


This is about 5 feet of erosion on the Forbord's property line going into the Cargill field. GM corn and soy continues to be planted here annually. Another issue is the lack of biodiversity, which directly translates to the American diet.



The Forbords are also running out of pasture this season due to the lack of rain in the last three months. These soybeans, which typically would be harvested and then dried, have dried out in the fields.

The Forbord's beef. These guys were (hold your ears guys) going to slaughter the next day.


He was not too happy that we were visiting.



Picking crab-apples. In this area, the Forbord's had brought in a herd of goats to do some clearing work, and clear they did. Across from here they are attempting to regrow some of the lost native prairie lands. It is said that only 1% of the native prairie's remain in the area. The regrowth project is being done completely by hand.


Kelly and her crab-apples.


Chief takes a ride.

Laverne let me drive the tractor as Chris, Cristina and Kim held on for dear life. Apparently I was a natural. This tractor is from the 50's!


Letting the clutch out nice and easy.




The HEN founders/grandma's: Helen, Mary Pat Raimondi, Barb, Sue and Angie.


The guys harvest food from the garden for our Iron Chef competition. I think Chris found a good one. The secret ingredients were Apples and Farrow (a grain).


Our team's meal.


Me pondering the plight of the organic farmer and the need for a major overhaul in the agriculture policies enacted in this country to help save the family farm.

Organic Lawsuit

A press release by the Organic Consumers Association has found that carcinogenic 1,4-Dioxane, was found in Leading "Organic" Brand Personal Care Products.
"1,4-Dioxane is considered a chemical "known to the State of California to cause cancer" under proposition 65, and has no place in "natural" or "organic" branded personal care products."

The products include:
JASON Pure Natural & Organic
Giovanni Organic Cosmetics
Kiss My Face
Nature's Gate Organics

Thanks to Dr. Bronner. A name I know I can trust...his were found not to Contain 1,4-Dioxane. That's my Doctor.

The suit, filed in Alemeda County can be read here.

Press Release

WIC-Michigan- No Organic for you!

Two colleagues have sent me this "blogger fodder." This will make you cringe. Apparently Michigan is going to prepetuate the idea that organics are only for the wealthy. They are specifically stating in their informative documents that NO ORGANIC is allowed for any of the foods the Woman, Infant and Children(WIC) will be purchasing and eating. I understand the idea of penny pushing, but we need to start thinking about long term ramifications. Children are most at risk to pesticide exposure. Michigan should be using its resource to gain more access to CSA's and farmers....especailly the organic ones. Here is the article by the great, Tom Phillpot. Make sure you check out the information brochure in PDF form.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/5/27/17826/0511