by Janice Shayne, CEO NutriPlex Formulas
I was so excited to come across this TEDtalk regarding our food system. I spend a majority of my marketing time trying to get across the exact message eleven-year old Birke Baehr brought so simply and clearly to the TED “Next Generation” Talk Series in Ashville, NC.
The title of his talk: “What’s Wrong with Our Food System”
He Gives Me Hope
He’s eleven years old.
He gets it.
The fact that someone so young understands the crucial facts regarding the connection between our food, our planet and our health is encouraging.
Believe me, sometimes it seems like such an uphill battle to get adults to understand the situation we are facing. I become discouraged.
Adults can learn from the straight-forward facts this young man presents. They could learn to look at the science, and not the spin. They could look at the logic and not the rationalizations.
We all have something to gain by doing so: healthy bodies and a healthy planet. — We all are seeing what we have to lose if we don’t: The sickness that abounds now.
I wanted to focus on one area in particular of young Birke’s talk by giving some straight-up stats to support the argument he is makes so succinctly.
AgriBusiness, Pesticides & Monocultures
When it comes to the impact agriculture has on so many aspects of our lives, it’s hard to believe the leaders of industry don’t care, even for selfish reasons.
All the money in the world isn’t going to change the fact that they too inhabit human bodies that require fresh air to breathe, clean water to drink, and nutritious food to eat.
- Each year, the agribusiness industry dumps around 2,500,000 tons = billion pounds of pesticide on the planet’s crops.
- Five of the top nine pesticides used in conventional cotton production (one of the largest users of pesticides) in the US are known cancer-causing chemicals. (These are cyanide, dicofol, naled, propargite and trifluralin.)
- In recent tests, 90% of water and fish samples from streams in the USA had pesticides. Approximately 50% of all sampled wells contained one or more pesticides.
- DDT and chlordane pesticides have been found in vegetables grown in contaminated soil 38 years after being banned.
- Pesticides are responsible for ‘colony collapse of up to half of the 2.5 million colonies in the United States.
- The pesticide industry is huge – about $30 billion a year.
In nature, what makes plants grow and provide nutrient-dense food is a combination of nutrient dense soil, photosynthesis from the sun and fresh water.
Over-farming, extensive usage of pesticides, which kills all the insects and micro-organisms that decompose into and enrich the soil, and monoculturing of crops depletes the nutrients in the soil. The plants are not able to grow on their own and are more prone to disease and pests. Fertilizers and pesticides have become the chemical fix. But while it forces plants to grow, and in most cases (not all) kills pests that thrive on monoculture crops, it also produces food low in nutritional value and high in poisonous chemicals.
Pay the Farmer or Pay the Hospital
For years I have said to clients, to students and to patients:
My food is my health insurance.
Research shows that by eating food raised local, organic, and in clean, rich soil, I am maintaining a strong immune system, healthy internal organs and a fantastic warning system, that not only tells me when I have “foreign invaders” but also immediately begins the task of cleansing my body of them, before they are able to do damage.
I have the nutrient-dense foods in the formulations from my company, NutriPlex Formulas, that you won’t be able to find in the grocery store, to insure that I get exactly what my body needs to be strong, healthy and resilient.
Pay the farmer and have a happy, sickness-free lifestyle.
I see too many friends who end up living a life of going from doctor to doctor, from drug to surgery to drug, just to maintain. I’d rather thrive than just survive.
That is what Birke tried to tell us. I think he did a stupendous job too!
( photo © 1980 Steve Cadman)