We Are Part of the Great Chemical Experiment

Being in the Health/Fitness industry for the last 100 yrs has put me in information overload with all the "stuff" out there that wants to infuse into my brain. I have decided it can only process and store so much, and frankly these days I just never know what to really believe, especially when it comes to nutrition and food. I have certain "guru's" I follow (Michael Pollan being one) that I trust and feel are worth my time to read what they have to say based on research they have done. So when my friend Barbara recommended I read "Organic Manifesto" by Maria Rodale I thought "hmm it's Barb recommending this", who is a trusted source of honest material, but do I want to bother to read yet another food/nutrition book? I waited a few days to see if I still had any interest and then ordered it. When it arrived, I saw it was only 200 pages and felt relieved. I decided to open it up and read the foreword by Eric Schlosser (which i usually skip) and the first three lines read like this:

Pesticides are poisons. They are manufactured to kill insects, rodents, fungi, and weeds. But they can also kill people.

Now I know this. That is the main reason why I have been eating organic for a while - to avoid the poisons. Pesticides and toxic sprays used by agri-business was something that was not new to me, but I kept on reading and it was the next few sentences that hooked me and made me angry and scared.

Organophosphates-one of the most common types of pesticide-were developed in Nazi Germany to be used as chemical weapons. It was later recognized that the same sort of nerve gases formulated to attack enemy soldiers and civilians could be used against agricultural pests

.....he then goes on to say that over the past 60 years a multitude of these same chemicals

have been applied to the American landscape on a massive scale.

Turns out the federal government has not done a pesticide use survey since 2001 because President George W Bush in his last year of office halted the program because spending 8 million dollars to conduct such a survey was too expensive. I am sure Dow Chemical and Monsanto had something to do with this decision no doubt. Schlosser goes on to give a conservative estimate of the current pesticide use in the US agri business as being

1.2 BILLION Pounds a year

which equates to being about 4 pounds of this toxic crap for every American man, woman and child.

I started reading last night and will probably finish this book in a day or so. I can tell you that this book is an extremely important book for everyone to read. Maria Rodale is no stranger to this area she is an expert and has the lineage to prove it. She has been "walking the walk" along with "talking the talk" for years because it's in her DNA. In case you recognize the name, her grandfather J.I. Rodale, launched Organic Farming and Gardening magazine in 1942 in addition to the organic movement. Then Maria and her father launched Prevention magazine in 1950. This woman does her research and it shows in this book. A word of warning...it is disturbing and it should be. It should disturb every single person who eats, breathes, drinks water and walks on soil enough to do something. And what can "we" do? is the question... Well first get the book and read it. Be angry. Be disturbed. Be scared....but don't be paralyzed and do nothing. This is your life, your food, your air along with everyone else on the planet and this includes your kids. The generations after us are who is in the greatest peril and it is with them in mind that we must DEMAND ORGANIC and demand it NOW.

Go to this link and read this interview with Maria Rodale

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2010/03/maria-rodales-organic-manifesto.html

See You Next Sunday... Now go get this book and read it.

http://www.rodale.com/maria-rodale-organic-manifesto

Ciao ~ L