March 22, 2009
Source: The New York Times
In the six-and-one-half years since the federal government began certifying food as “organic,” Americans have taken to the idea with considerable enthusiasm. Sales have at least doubled, and three-quarters of the nation’s grocery stores now carry at least some organic food. A Harris poll in October 2007 found that about 30 percent of Americans buy organic food at least on occasion, and most think it is safer, better for the environment and healthier.
“People believe it must be better for you if it’s organic,” says Phil Howard, an assistant professor of community, food and agriculture at Michigan State University.
So I discovered on a recent book tour around the United States and Canada.
No matter how carefully I avoided using the word “organic” when I spoke to groups of food enthusiasts about how to eat better, someone in the audience would inevitably ask, “What if I can’t afford to buy organic food?” It seems to have become the magic cure-all, synonymous with eating well, healthfully, sanely, even ethically.
But eating “organic” offers no guarantee of any of that. And the truth is that most Americans eat so badly — we get 7 percent of our calories from soft drinks, more than we do from vegetables; the top food group by caloric intake is “sweets”; and one-third of nation’s adults are now obese — that the organic question is a secondary one. It’s not unimportant, but it’s not the primary issue in the way Americans eat.
To eat well, says Michael Pollan, the author of “In Defense of Food,” means avoiding “edible food-like substances” and sticking to real ingredients, increasingly from the plant kingdom. (Americans each consume an average of nearly two pounds a day of animal products.) There’s plenty of evidence that both a person’s health — as well as the environment’s — will improve with a simple shift in eating habits away from animal products and highly processed foods to plant products and what might be called “real food.” (With all due respect to people in the “food movement,” the food need not be “slow,” either.)
From these changes, Americans would reduce the amount of land, water and chemicals used to produce the food we eat, as well as the incidence of lifestyle diseases linked to unhealthy diets, and greenhouse gases from industrial meat production. All without legislation.
And the food would not necessarily have to be organic, which, under the United States Department of Agriculture’s definition, means it is generally free of synthetic substances; contains no antibiotics and hormones; has not been irradiated or fertilized with sewage sludge; was raised without the use of most conventional pesticides; and contains no genetically modified ingredients.
Those requirements, which must be met in order for food to be labeled “U.S.D.A. Organic,” are fine, of course. But they still fall short of the lofty dreams of early organic farmers and consumers who gave the word “organic” its allure — of returning natural nutrients and substance to the soil in the same proportion used by the growing process (there is no requirement that this be done); of raising animals humanely in accordance with nature (animals must be given access to the outdoors, but for how long and under what conditions is not spelled out); and of producing the most nutritious food possible (the evidence is mixed on whether organic food is more nutritious) in the most ecologically conscious way.
The government’s organic program, says Joan Shaffer, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, “is a marketing program that sets standards for what can be certified as organic. Neither the enabling legislation nor the regulations address food safety or nutrition.”
People don’t understand that, nor do they realize “organic” doesn’t mean “local.” “It doesn’t matter if it’s from the farm down the road or from Chile,” Ms. Shaffer said. “As long as it meets the standards it’s organic.”
Hence, the organic status of salmon flown in from Chile, or of frozen vegetables grown in China and sold in the United States — no matter the size of the carbon footprint left behind by getting from there to here.
Today, most farmers who practice truly sustainable farming, or what you might call “organic in spirit,” operate on small scale, some so small they can’t afford the requirements to be certified organic by the government. Others say that certification isn’t meaningful enough to bother. These farmers argue that, “When you buy organic you don’t just buy a product, you buy a way of life that is committed to not exploiting the planet,” says Ed Maltby, executive director of the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance.
But the organic food business is now big business, and getting bigger. Professor Howard estimates that major corporations now are responsible for at least 25 percent of all organic manufacturing and marketing (40 percent if you count only processed organic foods). Much of the nation’s organic food is as much a part of industrial food production as midwinter grapes, and becoming more so. In 2006, sales of organic foods and beverages totaled about $16.7 billion, according to the most recent figures from Organic Trade Association.
Still, those sales amounted to slightly less than 3 percent of overall food and beverage sales. For all the hoo-ha, organic food is not making much of an impact on the way Americans eat, though, as Mark Kastel, co-founder of The Cornucopia Institute, puts it: “There are generic benefits from doing organics. It protects the land from the ravages of conventional agriculture,” and safeguards farm workers from being exposed to pesticides.
But the questions remain over how we eat in general. It may feel better to eat an organic Oreo than a conventional Oreo, but, says Marion Nestle, a professor at New York University’s department of nutrition, food studies and public health, “Organic junk food is still junk food.”
Last week, Michelle Obama began digging up a patch of the South Lawn of the White House to plant an organic vegetable garden to provide food for the first family and, more important, to educate children about healthy, locally grown fruits and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become national concerns.
But Mrs. Obama also emphasized that there were many changes Americans can make if they don’t have the time or space for an organic garden.
“You can begin in your own cupboard,” she said, “by eliminating processed food, trying to cook a meal a little more often, trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables.”
Popularizing such choices may not be as marketable as creating a logo that says “organic.” But when Americans have had their fill of “value-added” and overprocessed food, perhaps they can begin producing and consuming more food that treats animals and the land as if they mattered. Some of that food will be organic, and hooray for that. Meanwhile, they should remember that the word itself is not synonymous with “safe,” “healthy,” “fair” or even necessarily “good.”
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
S'pore kids faring well
Source: The Straits Times
Jan 7, 2009
Report to UN cites progress in health, education
SINGAPORE'S children are among the best cared for, with the lowest infant mortality rate in the world, according to a government report released on Tuesday..
And as they grow up, fewer are dropping out of school and getting into trouble with the law.
The Government's report to the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child, which tracks key developments in child welfare and protection, shows that steps have been made in the right direction between 2003 and 2007 to ensure that children are safe and being educated for the future.
According to the United Nations Children's Fund, Singapore had the world's lowest infant mortality rate at 2.1 per 1,000 live births in 2007.
Measures to help pupils stay in school, such as helping lower primary pupils struggling with English and maths, brought down the dropout rate from 3.2 per cent in 2003 to 1.6 per cent in 2007.
The number of children aged between seven and 15 who were arrested also dropped from 2,637 in 2004 to 2,131 in 2007.
But not all developments have been positive.
The number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases among youngsters aged 10 to 19 has been rising steadily every year, with 820 infected in 2007, more than double the 368 in 2003.
As well as a reflection of increasing sexual activity among youth, the numbers could also be a sign that more are seeking diagnosis.
Furthermore, some children as young as eight are so wayward that their parents request the State to discipline them.
In 2007, the parents of 140 children went to court saying their kids were beyond parental control (BPC). Five were aged between eight and 10.
In 2003, only two of the 164 children considered beyond parental control were in that age group.
Dr Carol Balhetchet, director of youth services at the Singapore Children's Society, observed that more younger children are getting into trouble these days.
Dr Balhetchet, whose agency counsels BPC cases, added: 'Today's young kids, at seven or eight, are bolder and more willing to experiment than the seven- and eight-year-olds a decade ago.'
The report card combines Singapore's second and third updates to the UN. It is a requirement of the Republic's accession to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The report highlights the measures taken by the Government to boost children's social, physical and emotional well-being here.
One of these was to introduce compulsory education in 2003, so that all children born after 1996 have at least six years of schooling.
The Government also amended the Penal Code to give youth more protection from sexual exploitation.
Since February last year, for example, it has been a crime to pay for sex with someone under 18.
Two months ago, a pimp who arranged for a teen from China to prostitute herself in Singapore was jailed for one year.
Last year, the Government also ratified the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which sets the minimum age for compulsory recruitment into the armed forces at 18, among other things.
Jan 7, 2009
Report to UN cites progress in health, education
SINGAPORE'S children are among the best cared for, with the lowest infant mortality rate in the world, according to a government report released on Tuesday..
And as they grow up, fewer are dropping out of school and getting into trouble with the law.
The Government's report to the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child, which tracks key developments in child welfare and protection, shows that steps have been made in the right direction between 2003 and 2007 to ensure that children are safe and being educated for the future.
According to the United Nations Children's Fund, Singapore had the world's lowest infant mortality rate at 2.1 per 1,000 live births in 2007.
Measures to help pupils stay in school, such as helping lower primary pupils struggling with English and maths, brought down the dropout rate from 3.2 per cent in 2003 to 1.6 per cent in 2007.
The number of children aged between seven and 15 who were arrested also dropped from 2,637 in 2004 to 2,131 in 2007.
But not all developments have been positive.
The number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases among youngsters aged 10 to 19 has been rising steadily every year, with 820 infected in 2007, more than double the 368 in 2003.
As well as a reflection of increasing sexual activity among youth, the numbers could also be a sign that more are seeking diagnosis.
Furthermore, some children as young as eight are so wayward that their parents request the State to discipline them.
In 2007, the parents of 140 children went to court saying their kids were beyond parental control (BPC). Five were aged between eight and 10.
In 2003, only two of the 164 children considered beyond parental control were in that age group.
Dr Carol Balhetchet, director of youth services at the Singapore Children's Society, observed that more younger children are getting into trouble these days.
Dr Balhetchet, whose agency counsels BPC cases, added: 'Today's young kids, at seven or eight, are bolder and more willing to experiment than the seven- and eight-year-olds a decade ago.'
The report card combines Singapore's second and third updates to the UN. It is a requirement of the Republic's accession to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The report highlights the measures taken by the Government to boost children's social, physical and emotional well-being here.
One of these was to introduce compulsory education in 2003, so that all children born after 1996 have at least six years of schooling.
The Government also amended the Penal Code to give youth more protection from sexual exploitation.
Since February last year, for example, it has been a crime to pay for sex with someone under 18.
Two months ago, a pimp who arranged for a teen from China to prostitute herself in Singapore was jailed for one year.
Last year, the Government also ratified the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which sets the minimum age for compulsory recruitment into the armed forces at 18, among other things.
China steps up poultry checks
Source: The Straits Times / AFP
Jan 7, 2009
BEIJING - CHINESE authorities said on Wednesday they had stepped up monitoring at poultry markets and closed down some sellers of live birds after a woman in Beijing died of bird flu.
The death on Monday of the 19-year-old was China's first in nearly a year, highlighting the heightened risk of the deadly and highly contagious H5N1 strain of the virus during the winter, when it is most virulent.
Authorities in neighbouring Hebei province disinfected the market where the woman, Huang Yanqing, on December 19 reportedly bought nine ducks suspected of being the source of her infection, Xinhua news agency reported.
Four live poultry sellers were shut down, it added.
Authorities in Sanhe city, where the market was located, have also examined 15 people involved in the poultry trade, inspected farms and checked on all local cases of fever, the city government said in a statement.
'So far, nothing unusual has been found,' said the statement faxed to AFP.
Huang, who lived in Beijing, apparently contracted the disease on December 24 after cleaning the internal organs of the ducks.
Contact with infected poultry or surfaces and objects contaminated by their faeces is considered the main route of human infection, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Beijing also ordered stepped-up monitoring of the live poultry trade in the Chinese capital, with experts launching inspections at slaughterhouses and poultry farms, a city government statement said.
Xinhua reported earlier that 116 people - 14 of Huang's relatives and 102 medical workers - had come in contact with her and that one, a nurse, had contracted a fever but subsequently recovered.
Huang's death was the first in China since a woman died of the disease in the south of the country last February.
The WHO said on Tuesday there was no immediate fear of a wider outbreak.
Authorities in Vietnam announced Tuesday an eight-year-old girl had tested positive for H5N1 in the north of the country.
H5N1 bird flu has now killed 248 people since it re-appeared in Asia in 2003, according to the WHO. Twenty-one of the deaths have been in China.
Scientists fear the virus could eventually mutate into a form more easily transmissible between humans, triggering a global pandemic.
Jan 7, 2009
BEIJING - CHINESE authorities said on Wednesday they had stepped up monitoring at poultry markets and closed down some sellers of live birds after a woman in Beijing died of bird flu.
The death on Monday of the 19-year-old was China's first in nearly a year, highlighting the heightened risk of the deadly and highly contagious H5N1 strain of the virus during the winter, when it is most virulent.
Authorities in neighbouring Hebei province disinfected the market where the woman, Huang Yanqing, on December 19 reportedly bought nine ducks suspected of being the source of her infection, Xinhua news agency reported.
Four live poultry sellers were shut down, it added.
Authorities in Sanhe city, where the market was located, have also examined 15 people involved in the poultry trade, inspected farms and checked on all local cases of fever, the city government said in a statement.
'So far, nothing unusual has been found,' said the statement faxed to AFP.
Huang, who lived in Beijing, apparently contracted the disease on December 24 after cleaning the internal organs of the ducks.
Contact with infected poultry or surfaces and objects contaminated by their faeces is considered the main route of human infection, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Beijing also ordered stepped-up monitoring of the live poultry trade in the Chinese capital, with experts launching inspections at slaughterhouses and poultry farms, a city government statement said.
Xinhua reported earlier that 116 people - 14 of Huang's relatives and 102 medical workers - had come in contact with her and that one, a nurse, had contracted a fever but subsequently recovered.
Huang's death was the first in China since a woman died of the disease in the south of the country last February.
The WHO said on Tuesday there was no immediate fear of a wider outbreak.
Authorities in Vietnam announced Tuesday an eight-year-old girl had tested positive for H5N1 in the north of the country.
H5N1 bird flu has now killed 248 people since it re-appeared in Asia in 2003, according to the WHO. Twenty-one of the deaths have been in China.
Scientists fear the virus could eventually mutate into a form more easily transmissible between humans, triggering a global pandemic.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
China issues bird flu alert
Source: The Straits Times / Reuters
Jan 7, 2009
BEIJING - CHINA issued a bird flu alert on Wednesday after a woman died of the virus, the first such death in the country in almost a year, and closed poultry markets for disinfecting in a province surrounding Beijing.
The 19-year-old woman died of the H5N1 virus after coming into contact with poultry in Hebei province, bringing the total death toll in China to date to 21.
In Hebei's Yanjiao, where the dead woman had bought ducks, poultry markets were closed and the sale of live birds stopped as workers in masks and white coats sprayed disinfectant.
The World Health Organisation said it appeared to be an isolated case.
'We are concerned by any case of human H5N1 infection, however, this single case, which appears to have occurred during the slaughtering and preparation of poultry, does not change our risk assessment,' the WHO said in a statement.
'WHO expects the ministry will continue to keep it updated on this case, and is prepared to offer technical assistance if requested,' it added, referring to the Health Ministry.
The virus is generally more active during the cooler months between October and March, although the new Chinese case points to holes in surveillance of the virus in poultry.
No poultry, no outbreak
Paul Chan, microbiologist at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, said it was worrying that this case was not accompanied by the detection of the virus in poultry nearby.
'The source of this infection seems to be poultry or the market (where the girl bought the ducks). If that is true, we need to know why we missed the outbreak of the virus in poultry or in the market,' he said.
'If there was an outbreak in the market, there should have been large numbers of poultry deaths. If people in the markets and the government can't recognise this, then we have a serious problem on our hands,' Mr Chan added.
The H5N1 strain remains largely a disease among birds but experts fear it could change into a form that is easily transmitted from person to person and spark a pandemic that could kill millions of people worldwide.
The last human H5N1 death in China was in February last year when a 44-year-old woman died in the southern province of Guangdong.
With the world's biggest poultry population and hundreds of millions of farmers raising birds in their backyards, China is seen as crucial in the global fight against bird flu.
Since the H5N1 virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003, it has infected 391 people, killing 247 of them, according to WHO figures released in mid-December.
Vietnam's agriculture ministry has confirmed an outbreak of bird flu among poultry in the northern province of Thanh Hoa, where a girl was hospitalised with the deadly disease last week.
Thanh Hoa is the second province in two weeks to report an outbreak of the bird-borne illness among poultry, the other being Thai Nguyen, directly north of the capital.
The health ministry has said an 8-year-old girl from Thanh Hoa was infected with bird flu after eating poultry.
Jan 7, 2009
BEIJING - CHINA issued a bird flu alert on Wednesday after a woman died of the virus, the first such death in the country in almost a year, and closed poultry markets for disinfecting in a province surrounding Beijing.
The 19-year-old woman died of the H5N1 virus after coming into contact with poultry in Hebei province, bringing the total death toll in China to date to 21.
In Hebei's Yanjiao, where the dead woman had bought ducks, poultry markets were closed and the sale of live birds stopped as workers in masks and white coats sprayed disinfectant.
The World Health Organisation said it appeared to be an isolated case.
'We are concerned by any case of human H5N1 infection, however, this single case, which appears to have occurred during the slaughtering and preparation of poultry, does not change our risk assessment,' the WHO said in a statement.
'WHO expects the ministry will continue to keep it updated on this case, and is prepared to offer technical assistance if requested,' it added, referring to the Health Ministry.
The virus is generally more active during the cooler months between October and March, although the new Chinese case points to holes in surveillance of the virus in poultry.
No poultry, no outbreak
Paul Chan, microbiologist at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, said it was worrying that this case was not accompanied by the detection of the virus in poultry nearby.
'The source of this infection seems to be poultry or the market (where the girl bought the ducks). If that is true, we need to know why we missed the outbreak of the virus in poultry or in the market,' he said.
'If there was an outbreak in the market, there should have been large numbers of poultry deaths. If people in the markets and the government can't recognise this, then we have a serious problem on our hands,' Mr Chan added.
The H5N1 strain remains largely a disease among birds but experts fear it could change into a form that is easily transmitted from person to person and spark a pandemic that could kill millions of people worldwide.
The last human H5N1 death in China was in February last year when a 44-year-old woman died in the southern province of Guangdong.
With the world's biggest poultry population and hundreds of millions of farmers raising birds in their backyards, China is seen as crucial in the global fight against bird flu.
Since the H5N1 virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003, it has infected 391 people, killing 247 of them, according to WHO figures released in mid-December.
Vietnam's agriculture ministry has confirmed an outbreak of bird flu among poultry in the northern province of Thanh Hoa, where a girl was hospitalised with the deadly disease last week.
Thanh Hoa is the second province in two weeks to report an outbreak of the bird-borne illness among poultry, the other being Thai Nguyen, directly north of the capital.
The health ministry has said an 8-year-old girl from Thanh Hoa was infected with bird flu after eating poultry.
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