Pictured here: a recent visit to one of Santa Cruz's best places to eat and mingle: Soif Wine Bar & Merchants. I was recently hired to do some photography for their new website—they're in the process of selecting photos now. The wine is a dry moscato, Oppidum, from Italy, and the padrón peppers are from Meder Street Farm, up near UCSC.
I will write more about them another time: it is a wonderful place to go.
This is going to be brief, but Bob handed me the newspaper yesterday, and it contains an answer to the flawed thinking of Mr. Fred Freid (and allegedly, his professors). Mr. Freid wrote: Our professors in the subjects of Botany and Agriculture have both stated that there is no scientific basis for Organic foods to be healthier than Conventionally grown foods. I took a course on Botany, and will say now that nutrient density is not based on the amount of pesticide sprayed. The words straight from my professors mouth: "The Organic craze is nothing but un-researched, hippy-spread bull****."
In yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle, a long article appeared called "California's Real Water War." It is a series on the urgent issue, and the gist of it is this:
"In 2004 alone, tens of thousands of Central Valley residents received bright orange notices from their public drinking water systems saying their water
was not safe to drink and exceeded legal contaminant levels. Many
Central Valley residents drive 30 to 50 miles each week just to buy
bottled water, effectively doubling the price for this basic need. "More than 90 percent of Central Valley communities depend on water stored underground for their drinking water.
Unfortunately, years of intensive farming with uncontrolled chemical
use has heavily poisoned that source. Recent groundwater sampling in
Tulare County found that 3 out of 4 homes with private wells have
contaminated water that is unsafe to drink."
Snippets:
• These contaminants mix with water used to irrigate crops and wash cows and then seeps into the Central Valley's groundwater. When people in neighboring communities drink this water, they consume known carcinogens and acute poisons, such as nitrates, which can kill infants in a matter of days.
• Virtually every water agency ignores California's massive groundwater contamination problem. Regulatory agencies such as the state and regional Water Quality Control boards have given a green light to rampant agricultural pollution. California and Texas remain the only states in the country without a groundwater management program.
• The largest sources of groundwater contamination in the Central Valley - agriculture and dairies - are virtually unregulated. Agriculture is allowed to discharge waste water that does not meet Clean Water Act standards, while virtually every other industry must meet these basic water quality standards. This highly toxic water then contaminates the source of drinking water for many small communities.
About the authors: Laurel Firestone is
co-director of the Community Water Center, based in Visalia. Amy
Vanderwarker is the outreach coordinator for the Environmental Justice
Coalition for Water, based in Oakland. They will be participating in a
panel discussion on water and social justice as part of the
Commonwealth Club's Cool Clear Water series on Aug. 30th. More
information is available at www.commonwealthclub.org/water
• • • • • • • • • • •
Having had some time to reflect on Freid's appalling remarks, I found the MSU website today and e-mailed everyone in the Agricultural Department to see if anything he said had an element of truth. And I apologized for using "Mr. Republican Midwesterner" as a goad—me and my big mouth.
• • • • • • • • • • •
News from my friend and client, Suvir Saran: Dévi has closed. He and Hemant intend to continue their professional relationship, but the restaurant has closed. (It is not a secret that 15 immgrant staff workers are suing the owner, owner Rakesh Aggarwal, for illegal practices involving skimming tips and improper compensation for overtime.)
Very sad: it was one of my favorite restaurants.
• • • • • • • • • • •
That's all for now.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "True conservation provides for wise use by the
general public. The American people do not want our resources preserved
for the exclusive use of the wealthy. These land and water resources
belong to the people, and people of all income levels should have easy
access to them." — George D. Aiken
Thanks for visiting.
Thanks for giving a voice on the web to sustainable agriculture -- on a visceral level people should understand that there is something wrong with spraying a chemical in full-body suits on crops that people eat! It looks like the battle is slowly being won by giving people great tasting food and gently shoving back like you have done with Mr. Freid.
Posted by: Simon Huntley | 29 August 2007 at 05:36 AM
It seems to me that there is enough room and nuance in this topic for both sides to be correct. My guess is that there is usually not much difference between the nutrient densities found in organic and conventionally grown foods.
For most urban and suburbanites the nutrient densities of the most commonly available organic and non-organic produce are going to be largely a function of the genetic makeup of the organism, and time-from-field-to-table rather than the type of fertilizer that was used or whether or not the crop was sprayed with pesticides.
However (!), when you drill down to the kind of organic foods that I suspect the author of this blog sees or what I grow myself or get from my CSA, the nutrient densities should be higher.
For reasons that are not at all clear to me, most of the organic produce in the supermarkets (and probably the same stuff that this alleged professor was referring to) is just as bloated with water and just as tasteless as the conventionally grown stuff. But none of this means that there is not much difference in environmental impact between the two. I don't think that anyone can argue that responsibly applied systems of organic agriculture are better for the environment and, by inclusion, people. That question was settled for me long ago during my studies for my BA in Environmental Science (1976-80) and it flips me out when I read that some folks are still arguing about it.
I love this blog by the way.
Posted by: Bob delGrosso | 03 September 2007 at 07:29 AM
Bob delGrosso: Yeah, misinformation is a powerful weapon. It bums me out too.
Have any of year read Jared Diamond's new book, Collapse? He talks alot about groundwater contamination...I don't really know how you decontaminate water.
Well I'm glad people are beginning to take action on these issues.
Tata,
Evan
Posted by: healthytraveler | 06 September 2007 at 06:09 PM