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Epicor: Strengthening our Immune Response

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As you may know, we do not normally write about supplements, let alone tout a specific product. As we enter the winter season, we want to be sure to enjoy all the fun activities. Here is a product that the D2D team, our friends and families, and many of us have been successfully taking over the past few years to boost our immunity.

EpiCor, a supplement derived from yeast, is gaining momentum in the marketplace for its immune function benefits. Clinical trials show that taking EpiCor, a yeast-based supplement, can strengthen your immune system and support a healthy gut.

EpiCor has undergone eight human clinical trials, all of which have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and have used a standard dose of 500 mg per day.

Six of the eight trials conform to the “gold standard” of clinical design in that they were randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials.

Results show that EpiCor strengthens the immune system while it balances immune response.

What is Epicor?

Epicor is a postbiotic supplement made from fermented brewer’s yeast. This fermentation process creates metabolites, which include proteins, polyphenols, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, polysaccharides, and fiber.

EpiCor’s history began with Diamond V, an animal nutrition company located in Iowa. Embria Health Sciences, owned by Diamond V Mills, discovered the health benefits of EpiCor back in 1998 when farmers noticed increased animal health once they switched their animal feed to Diamond V’s products as part of their feed rations.

Simultaneously, the Diamond V employees manufacturing the yeast-based products also experienced improved health, simply from exposure. In fact, the employees’ health improved so much that their corporate health insurance company contacted management to make sure that they hadn’t switched health care providers because there were little to no healthcare claims.

Once this was brought to their attention, Diamond V management conducted a pilot study comparing workers exposed to the yeast and those who were not. Those exposed to the yeast had 65% more IgAs, antibody proteins that fight off antigens, in their saliva!

Sounds impressive, but what are IgAs, exactly?

This chart shows the difference in IgAs between the workers exposed to the fermented yeast while making the feed formulation and those working in the offices. Source: EpiCor.

IgA and Immune System Response

Let’s say you are at the grocery store, happily stopping your cart in the aisle to say hello to your neighbor. She smiles, her face mask slips, and then…. ACHOO! You have just been sneezed on. Now, what do you do? Of course, being polite, you find a way to gracefully end the conversation, all while frantically wondering if she is sick or was it just a sneeze.

Your body knows exactly what to do to protect you! We don’t think about it but, with every breath, we move large volumes of air through our nose and mouth. It is no surprise that we have millions of microbes (viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens) constantly entering our bodies. While no one likes to have a lot of mucus floating around in our head, the right amount of mucosal fluid serves as a ‘liquid wall’ between these outside invaders and your epithelial tissue, the protective lining inside our organs and glands.

Mucus lines our nose, trachea, lungs, esophagus, and intestines and serves as the first layer of defense to keep those pathogens out of our interior environment. As a point of interest, the entire mucosa in our body is about 400 square meters – about two times the size of a tennis court!

Floating through your tears, saliva, sweat, lungs, and gastrointestinal passages are antibodies called IgA (secretory immunoglobulin A) that help prevent the viruses from entering a host cell.

When a virus enters the host cell, it sits on the cell membrane, unlocks a cell door, and drops in its own RNA to infect it. Once the cell is infected, it rapidly makes at least tens of thousands of infected copies. In turn, each one of those cells makes tens of thousands of copies, and so on, and so on. This is why colds and flu can come on so quickly and spread so rapidly through our bodies.

You basically want a lot of IgAs. EpiCor may help increase our IgAs, thus giving us a stronger defense to protect our cells from getting infected with virus-causing colds, flus, and other sicknesses entering our airways.

Antibodies 101

To help you understand antibodies, here’s a brief tutorial on how we are protected against millions of pathogens we encounter daily. Antibodies like IgA are a critical line of defense throughout your body. We have five different types: IgA, IgE, IgG, IgM, and IgD. Each of them has a distinct function and location, but all are made by our millions of B lymphocyte white blood cells.

Like law enforcement protecting our neighborhoods, our B lymphocyte white blood cells constantly patrol our blood and lymph nodes for destructive pathogens trying to enter a cell. But just as law enforcement would have one strategy for a bank robber and another for a drug dealer, B cells send out a different antibody depending on the toxin or pathogen. For example, an antibody that kills a cold virus is different from one that kills a staph infection.

B cells are incredibly adaptable. If our body needs more of a certain type of antibody to fight a specific virus, the B cell can change the genetic structure of an antibody and turn it into what is needed. Let’s say the body has received an onslaught of a cold virus. The B cell that recognizes a cold’s antigens will start producing more antibodies. Additionally, if the body’s defense needs more IgAs, the B cell can change an IgM antibody into an IgA antibody.

Do you know why you become immune to a disease after you have contracted it or received a vaccine? B cells have memory. If they see a familiar pathogen, they will send out antibodies to kill it. Even if they encounter a similar but not exact pathogen, they will make antibodies to kill that, too.

EpiCor and Cell Invasions

What happens if a virus enters the cells and begins to replicate?  What does your body do then?

Enter the T cell. Produced in the bone marrow and maturing in the thymus, one of their many functions is to attack a cell once it has been compromised by a pathogen. One subset of T cells are NK cells (Natural Killer cells), which comprise about 20% of our white blood cells and can react to a pathogen within hours. They are like sharks, constantly patrolling the body, looking for infected or cancerous cells, and then destroying them.

The Effect of EpiCor on Natural Kill Cell Activation. Source: EpiCor.

In vitro data suggests EpiCor can help activate your Natural Killer Cells. This is the second layer of added protection if the virus escaped the antibodies created by the B cells.

EpiCor and Allergies

There are times when our immune system overreacts, which can lead to chronic inflammation. Allergies are caused by an overreaction to an allergen, such as pollen or animal hair. An increase in the immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibody causes sneezing, itchy eyes, and inflammation.

EpiCor may help keep the IgEs in balance, helping to ‘up regulate’ and ‘down regulate’ your immune system faster so your system doesn’t become as allergic or inflamed.

Source: EpiCor.

EpiCor Protects against Cellular Damage

As we mentioned earlier, EpiCor is made with fermented yeast. Fermentation happens when yeast and bacteria break sugars into alcohol or acids. This gives us beneficial pre-, pro-, and post-biotics for our digestive health. Consuming these products can help our body have more antioxidants.

Yeast produces complex sugar molecules called polysaccharides. One of these is called beta-glucan which is known to increase our antioxidants to help prevent cell damage by eliminating free radicals. Eating fruits and vegetables also help boost antioxidants, delivering the same benefits.

EpiCor’s prebiotic effects increase ‘good’ bacteria (such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli), promoting better digestive health. But ‘good’ bacteria alone aren’t enough to help your intestine thrive.

An unhealthy diet of sugar, carbohydrates, and fats – without the right balance of lean meats, fruits, and vegetables – can lead to ‘bad’ bacteria overwhelming your microbiome. 

How to Take EpiCor

Each one of us has different genetics, epigenetics, immune systems, and lifestyles. Like a diet, your response to EpiCor will be different than mine. Similarly, the way that you administer it within your household may be different than ours. For example, at home, we take EpiCor every day. If we are around sick people or traveling, we double the dose. While it begins to work within two hours of taking it, effectiveness is best after 60 days. So it’s best to not skip a day!

If you’re looking for a bottle yourself, just know that EpiCor is a business to business company, so you’ll find several brands of supplements that include the recommended amount of 500mg in their products. As with any supplement, your physician can help guide you in this process.

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5 Considerations for Your Thanksgiving Turkey

Whether you’re looking for quick information, or want something to impress your friends at dinner, here’s our Featured 5 of the Week!

When Covid swept through our nation, it took red meat, milk, and a lot of toilet paper with it — showing shortages of products across the supply chain. With Thanksgiving so close, can we expect the same thing with our turkeys?

5. The Number of Turkeys Grown Did Not Change

Covid brought turkey production down a few percentage points this year by impacting supply and demand, thus slowing down parts of the supply chain. This created a back-up at the processing facilities in spring and early summer, which in turn did have an effect on the weight of some turkeys, however not enough for us to see any difference in the grocery stores.

When production slowed down, turkeys had to keep getting fed, so they gained more weight than companies originally thought they would, but it did not change the number of turkeys grown. We will still see the same amount of turkeys on the shelves at the same weights we usually see them.

4. Retailers Settled On Amounts and Prices Before Covid Hit

Every January, retailers negotiate with turkey producers on how many frozen turkeys they want to buy for the upcoming Thanksgiving and at what prices they will pay per pound. In late summer, they do the same thing for fresh turkeys.

This means that retailers will carry the same amount of turkeys, at a similar cost as they do every year since these decisions are pre-set.  Right now, frozen turkeys are already on the shelves and will continue to be stocked right up until Thanksgiving day. Fresh turkeys are just starting to appear now. So, there is no reason to go out and stock up on turkeys. There is plenty to go around!

3. Size May Matter

Many believe there will be a higher demand for smaller birds this year because Thanksgiving gatherings will be with immediate families rather than extended. Due to this projection, any families may keep dinners small to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Conversely, others believe that consumers will still get the same big turkey they normally do because they want to go all out this year due to a lack of normalcy. And, you know what big turkeys mean? More leftovers!

So, if you do want a small turkey or any of a certain size, it may be smarter to shop for one earlier rather than later. But, if you’re like us and still want that big turkey to have lots of yummy leftovers, shop as you normally would—both sizes will be available!

2. Frozen vs. Fresh

Like we said above, the amount of frozen and fresh turkeys hasn’t changed. Similarly, the window for producing fresh turkeys hasn’t changed either. The difference is that fresh turkeys have a limited shelf life. Between leaving the warehouse to being stocked at the grocery store and getting home to the consumer, there is a smaller window for fresh birds prior to needing to be cooked.

There is a common misperception among consumers that fresh is better. However, this is not always true, as there are definitely upsides to frozen. More nutrients may be retained in frozen birds, moisture is locked in so frozen turkeys tend to be less dry, and there is less of a chance for bacteria growth and food poisoning since the bird is stored in a temperature-controlled environment and the consumer controls the defrost process.

So if you’re thinking of getting a fresh bird this year, reconsider frozen. You may be surprised!

1. Do NOT Panic-buy!

The supply of turkeys from last year vs. this year has remained the same, so there is no reason to stock up on turkeys.

Both producers, processors, and grocery stores have done everything possible to make sure that every American has a turkey on their Thanksgiving table this year. Panic-buying will only cause local shortages — so shop smart, shop calmly, and make this holiday the best one yet!

For more information, check out the full article on Thanksgiving turkeys here. And be sure to safely cook your turkey with our tips here!

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Sustainable Seafood & Healthier Oceans


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Wandering the seafood counter in the grocery store can be overwhelming. There’s a global map at your fingertips of Pacific cod, Ecuadorian mahi-mahi, U.S. Gulf shrimp, New Zealand mussels, and Chilean swordfish. For a healthy dinner, should you choose fresh or frozen, or farmed or wild-caught? Conversely, when ordering online, are specific items like frozen wild Icelandic ocean perch or ahi poke cubes tasty? And how do you navigate sustainability and eco-friendly labels?

In the U.S., the fall season is highlighted with October as National Seafood Month. And with the approaching holidays, what better time to eat healthy, sustainable seafood and learn how wild-caught seafood can help to meet global food demand? We can use this information to make a difference in improving the health of our global oceans.

Challenges facing our ocean and seafood supply

As our population grows, we are faced with an enormous challenge of meeting the increased demand for overall protein.

By 2050, projections for global population and income growth suggest a future need for more than 500 megatonnes (Mt) of meat each year for our consumption – a substantial increase from today’s needed volume of 360 Mt.

To put this in perspective, this increase equates to producing the weight of approximately 780 billion servings of salmon, or about 16 million school buses, each year.

Seafood can actually provide a solution to these protein demands — one that can have a much lower carbon footprint than land-based meat production and fewer impacts on biodiversity.

Making healthy seafood choices depends on being informed, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming – in fact, it can be simple.

Let’s start with a quick guide to define common seafood terms seen in our grocery stores:

  • Sustainable marine fisheries provide some of our best tools to ensure healthy oceans while producing seafood. For instance, U.S. marine fisheries are scientifically monitored, regionally managed, and legally enforced under strict sustainability standards.
  • Wild-caught, or wild capture, refers to seafood directly caught or “harvested” from the sea, rivers, or other natural aquatic habitats. This includes sustainable marine fisheries, like wild cod.
  • Farm-raised means that the seafood was not captured in the wild, but grown in a farm, pen, or other systems. These systems can either be on land or in water.
  • Aquaculture refers to the broader category of farming aquatic species (both fresh and saltwater). The use of the term “aquaculture” generally encompasses farming that occurs both on land or in the sea, such as land-based tilapia farms.
  • Mariculture exclusively refers to species farmed within the marine environment or saltwater, such as seaweed or mussels grown on ropes in the ocean, or salmon pens near coastal areas. Mariculture is the correct term for sea-specific farming, even though “aquaculture” is often used here.

Aquaculture is a fast-growing part of our food system that can provide increasingly sustainable options for consumers and – when done right – can offer ecosystem restoration benefits for the planet. The below chart shows wild-capture fisheries as relatively stable when compared to aquaculture’s increase in supply, as reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Sustainable wild-capture marine fisheries

Globally, wild-capture fisheries are unbelievably unique in that no other large-scale food sector continuously removes a comparable sheer volume of wild animals from any natural habitat on earth. This demonstrates the incredible capacity of our oceans to regenerate so future generations may reap its benefits.

Wild-caught seafood holds enormous potential for increasing food supply, yet is heavily dependent on improving management practices in the ocean. Wild-capture provides both an opportunity and a threat to our oceans. Threats include overfishing, unsustainable labor practices on ocean vessels, throwing away bycatch, destruction of habitats (e.g., coral reefs), and ocean pollution.

Although these challenges exist, the status of world fisheries is far from a completely “doom and gloom” situation. Sustainable interventions provide our best opportunity to reform our global seafood system and create thriving, healthy marine ecosystems. If we effectively manage fisheries, marine ecosystems and species can recover.

Recent research supports this good news for well-managed global fisheries. New research published in early 2020 examined the status of 882 global fish stocks (the term for defined populations of fish) and found big improvements, especially in developed countries.

There are also bright spots in smaller-scale fisheries around the world. For example, Kenyan fisherwomen recently closed nearshore reef areas with the goal of helping octopus species recover. Upon returning to fish, the women caught far more octopus, leading to greater sales. Community-based interventions like this can support population recovery, protect valuable habitat, and even improve the livelihoods of coastal fishermen and women.

“Effective fisheries management is actually one of our strongest tools to conserving the health of our oceans,” says Carmen Revenga, who leads the Global Fisheries Strategy at The Nature Conservancy. “Science-based fisheries management and direct engagement with fishers, industry, and governments produce not only sustainable seafood, but benefit marine habitats and species while maintaining coastal communities and fishing-dependent jobs worldwide.”

Who monitors sustainable fisheries?

Before being sold at the grocery store, seafood is produced and regulated by a diverse group of fishermen and women, scientists, fish processors, lawmakers, technology providers, and NGOs. Each group tackles ocean challenges and drives seafood products towards sustainability.

Seafood eco-labels are one mechanism to ensure sustainability – and they can help guide you at the grocery store. For example, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) provides third-party assurance of seafood sustainability and supply chain traceability. Look for the MSC blue fish label to feel confident that your seafood purchase comes from sustainable sources. In addition, large retailers have made seafood and fishery sustainability commitments, from Whole Foods to Wal-Mart, which can help drive improvements down the supply chain.

Let’s look at the details of how MSC certification can spur action that benefits communities and the ocean ecosystem. The spiny lobster in the Bahamas is one of the island nation’s most important fisheries. Each year, around 6 million pounds of spiny lobster tails are sold in the $90 million fishery. Through a collaboration of stakeholders determined to ensure the sustainability of the fishery, the spiny lobster fishery became the first Bahamian, Caribbean fishery to obtain the recognized MSC seal of sustainability. Even after certification, this fishery must demonstrate continual improvements to ensure sustainability, such as refining the assessments of lobster populations and continuing to work on decreasing illegal fishing.

© Jeff Yonover / TNC

On the other hand, another important fishery in the Bahamas, Queen Conch, is experiencing a decline. Conch not only supports thousands of Bahamian fishers but is a national cultural emblem. It is featured in typical dishes and even displayed prominently on The Bahamas coat of arms. Bahamian conch is in decline due to overfishing, which has led to fewer individual conch in the water that can reproduce. A music video called “Conch Gone” draws attention to the plight of conch and the need for conservation measures – and what may happen if we aren’t careful. Today, scientists, fishermen, and government officials in the Bahamas are working to address challenges in the conch fishery.

Eyes on the ocean to ensure sustainability

Seafood certifications and regulations such as the U.S. Seafood Import Monitoring Program or E.U. Catch Certification Scheme provide mechanisms to reduce illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices. And new technologies are revolutionizing the ways we monitor compliance on the water and collect information.

Recent advances in electronic monitoring (EM), essentially video cameras, sensors, and GPS on fishing vessels, can provide verifiable data on where and how fish are caught and what types of fish are brought on board, including bycatch of unintended species, like sharks or turtles.

“Sustainability can’t happen without transparent supply chains – and this has to start right at the point where fish are caught,” says Mark Zimring, who leads The Nature Conservancy’s Large-Scale Fisheries Program. “Electronic monitoring provides a mechanism for transparency and accountability, while also providing better data so we can improve management of our fisheries”.

An example of EM in action can be found in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, a region that produces approximately 60% of the world’s tuna. This region also harbors incredible marine biodiversity, including sharks, turtles, and many fish species.

© Tim Calver / TNC

EM data from fishing vessels can be combined with data on locations of protected animals, such as sea turtles, to identify hotspots where fishing may threaten them. This information can be used to avoid certain areas while fishing in others – a win-win for sustainable tuna fishing and marine conservation. In addition to Western and Central Pacific nations, more and more countries are adopting EM at scale, including the Seychelles and New Zealand.

What you can do

The future of seafood can be bright if we acknowledge the challenges instead of shying away from them. Educating ourselves and purchasing seafood from sustainable sources supports businesses that are doing the right thing and can contribute to ensuring healthy oceans. Our choices directly impact the future of sustainable seafood and our oceans.

Here are a few ways we can make a difference:

  • Diversify your plate! Branch out from the familiar salmon and shrimp with other choices that are lower on the food chain, such as sardines, or bivalve shellfish such as clams or mussels. These less popular species can be really good for the ocean and good for you – and may often be more friendly on your budget. Friendly new recipes and seafood health tips can be found in the #EatSeafoodAmerica campaign by the Seafood Nutrition Partnership.
  • Find a local seafood supplier. To support local businesses and get fresh or frozen seafood delivered to you, check out Local Catch, an easy-to-use seafood finder to help you find local seafood in your area or learn about community-supported fisheries (or CSFs, a similar concept to a CSA produce box, but with seafood).
  • Order seafood online. Many seafood businesses have been heavily impacted by COVID-19 but are adjusting to online ordering when restaurant demand is lower. Look for websites that offer pick-up or home delivery, and help support their businesses during these challenging times. You can check out sites like Vital Choice, Monterey Abalone Co., and CrowdCow
  • Look for eco-labels or use a guide. Look for the Marine Stewardship Council blue fish label to ensure sustainability. Or, when considering new seafood choices, Seafood Watch has a user-friendly app to use at restaurants or the grocery store.
  • Learn more about the connections between seafood, healthy oceans, and the science behind wild-capture fisheries. Scroll through this interactive publication by the FAO about the global state of fisheries and aquaculture. Follow work by The Nature Conservancy and its partners to implement sustainable fishery management reforms around the world. For science updates, check out this Sustainable Fisheries blog by scientists at the University of Washington.
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Will We Still Have A Thanksgiving Turkey This Year?


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Thanksgiving is a day filled with gratitude and togetherness, with dinner as its crowning symbol of deep appreciation and thankfulness – for our family, our friends, our health, or all of the above mixed into the perfect holiday bite. Whether baked, grilled, smoked, or even deep-fried, you will find a big, delicious turkey on almost every table in the U.S.

So, with the upcoming holiday as important as ever while COVID-19 looms overhead, will we be able to get our hands on our table’s delicious centerpiece this year? We decided to find out.

The U.S. Turkey

Every year, a whopping 88% of Americans have turkey on Thanksgiving, accounting for 46 million turkeys consumed on this one day. All these birds are produced domestically which, when you think about it, seems completely appropriate.

In 2018, the U.S. produced 245 million turkeys, the equivalent to almost 8 billion pounds. That is about 15 miles of rail cars! Almost 20% of these turkeys are consumed on Thanksgiving.

In 2016, two-thirds of all turkeys produced in the U.S. were from just six states. Minnesota leads the way with the production of about 44 million turkeys, followed by North Carolina, Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, and Virginia.

When I think of Thanksgiving turkeys, the first brand I think of is Butterball. That’s probably because Butterball leads the country in turkey production, producing about 1.3 billion pounds of turkey in 2019. Jennie-O Turkey Store, Honeysuckle White, and Stony Brook Farms round out the top four producers. Will these producers still be able to get us our turkeys this year?

We talked to a leading expert in the field, Thomas Windish from Cargill Protein, and here is what we know…

How has Covid changed turkey production?

Turkey production is down a few percentage points from last year. A small part of this is attributed to Covid’s effect on the entire supply chain, not the number of turkeys grown.

But this downward trend wasn’t unprecedented — total turkey production has dropped 15% since 1999. Whole-turkey consumption was already in decline because cooking a whole bird is a daunting task, especially for the younger generation of food buyers. These consumers want modified turkey products, such as boneless or ground turkey breasts, which is why these easier-to-cook, value-added turkeys have experienced such growth.

Similar to the other meat processing facilities, Covid changed the speed at which turkeys could be processed. This caused a backlog of supply, especially in spring and early summer. This also affected the weight of the turkeys – it’s a complex supply chain where companies can anticipate the weights of their turkeys.

But when production lines were disturbed or couldn’t run at all due to Covid, turkeys were fed more and they kept growing, giving companies larger birds than what they anticipated. However, it wasn’t enough to cause a change in the sizes of birds we’ll see this year.

This is something all companies had to work through, especially with decisions about turkey production being decided last September for this Thanksgiving. It’s all about adjusting to what’s happening in the world around us—flexibility is key.

Bigger turkeys are great, but will there be enough?

Every January, most retailers negotiate with turkey companies on how many frozen turkeys they will be ordering for that upcoming Thanksgiving and at what price. In late summer, retailers do the same for fresh turkeys. In fact, the set price and pound of turkeys being produced for Thanksgiving 2020 were set before Covid had much of an impact on the U.S.—good news for us!

Whether we run out of turkey or not will all depend on the retailer and their pricing strategies. In past years, grocery stores would have Thanksgiving marketing deals, decreasing the prices of turkeys per pound or even giving them away depending on how much money the customer would spend at the grocery store in preparation for the holiday. This strategy was great in year’s past; however, low prices on essential, or iconic, items during a pandemic where panic buying is the norm may cause areas of demand outstripping supply, leading to empty shelves in our supermarkets.

Experts don’t think retailers will be as aggressive to give away free or low-priced turkeys this year. However, a mid-November spike in Covid cases could change all that.

Right now, frozen turkeys are beginning to hit the shelves at grocery stores and you’re going to see a lot of them—but don’t run out and buy them all up! Shop as you normally would to avoid shortages and ensure everyone has a chance to have Tom Turkey grace their tables.

What can we expect when buying our turkey this year?

Many believe there will be a higher demand for smaller birds because of the pandemic, as Americans won’t have as big of a Thanksgiving this year due to social distancing and difficulty traveling. However, some experts believe that because our country has been faced with a total lack-of-normal life, they will go all-out for Thanksgiving this year, including buying the same-sized turkey they typically would and just having lots of leftovers.

“Our consumer research suggests that consumers are keen to make the holidays special this year in the face of Covid and with the impact it’s had on families. It also suggests that traditions and foods are the comforts and areas where consumers will not be making trade-offs or cuts to the budget.”

– Thomas Windish, Retail Channel President, Cargill Protein

Grocers may request smaller birds in their freezers, but not many turkey companies can accommodate these requests this late in the game. So, if you want a small bird, shop early! Sidenote: we’re big fans of leftovers here at D2D, so we will all continue to find us the biggest bird we can!

What’s the deal with fresh vs. frozen birds?

The window for producing fresh turkeys remains unchanged. They are headed to the grocery store about three weeks in advance of Thanksgiving. This is because fresh turkeys can only last so long until they have to be cooked.

Even though one out of six turkeys produced is sold as fresh and not frozen, consumer preference for fresh has increased over the last few years, mostly due to the popular saying, “fresh is best”. But does this hold true for meat? Surprisingly, for meat, this is simply not the case. There are a lot of benefits to frozen meat, in general. Fresh just sounds better to a consumer.

When you freeze beef or poultry, an intercellular breakdown occurs, making the meat more tender. And when you freeze fruits and vegetables, nutrients are better retained, making the levels higher than their fresh counterparts. Although no study has been done on frozen turkeys, we can assume the same may be true. However, we do know that moisture is retained far better in frozen turkeys than in fresh ones, leading to a more tender turkey dinner. Yum!

Companies take extra special care of frozen turkeys, too. They freeze them right away after the bird is harvested, cleaned, and packaged, and then store them in a temperature-controlled environment. This allows the consumer to control the thawing process at home.

With a fresh bird, the clock is ticking: by the time the retailer sells the turkey, it is crunch time. Companies have a lot more confidence in the safety of frozen birds because if fresh turkeys aren’t properly stored, handled, or cooked, they’re more prone to pathogen growth, causing a lovely family dinner to turn bad very quickly.

With that in mind, don’t forget to check out our guide on how to cook and handle your bird this Thanksgiving!

Turkey-shopping Take-aways

  • Do NOT panic buy!!! There are more than enough turkeys to go around. Stocking up on turkeys will just ruin Thanksgiving for other families.
  • If a moist turkey is top priority, buy a frozen bird
  • If you are looking for a specific size turkey, consider buying sooner. If you’re ok with any size, then proceed as you normally would.
  • And be sure to read about safe prepping and cooking practices so everyone can enjoy a delicious and healthy turkey this year!
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5 Healthier Candies To Enjoy This Halloween

Whether you’re looking for quick information, or want something to impress your friends at dinner, here’s our Featured 5 of the Week!

Halloween is here and I’m sure many of us are thinking the same thing – how can we indulge in a little candy this Halloween without totally ruining our health and fitness goals? Well, worry no more. We’re going to give you 5 healthier candies that you can eat in moderation this Halloween!

5. Fun-Sized Snickers Bar

Ok, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “How can a Snickers bar possibly be one of the healthier candies?!” Bear with us for a minute.

When it comes to healthier candy bars, you want to look for ones that have less sugar and less saturated fat. Snickers satisfy both of these categories when you opt for the “fun size” because let’s be honest, who needs a big candy bar anyway? A fun-sized Snickers is 80 calories and only has 1.5 grams of saturated fat and 9 grams of sugar. Many other candy bars are almost made up of entirely sugar, so this is a major improvement. This is also less sugar than some protein and granola bars which we perceive to be healthier for us!

Also, we’ve seen the commercials about satisfying your hunger with a Snickers. Although we always recommend a healthier option to satisfy hunger, Snickers has filling protein to leave you feeling more satisfied longer and less likely to go for more. So, on Halloween, we say it’s ok to indulge in one!

4. Peanut M&M’s

Again, you’re probably thinking, “another candy?! I thought these were terrible for our health!” Well, they’re bad if you eat them every day, but for a sweet treat on Halloween, they’re one of the better options.

The first word that sticks out to us is peanuts, and we know that nuts and legumes can be good for us when consumed in moderation. Because peanuts contain both protein and fiber, they help prevent blood sugar spikes that can lead to us wanting more and more. One fun-sized pack is 90 calories and contains 2 grams of saturated fat and 9 grams of sugar, so of course, we recommend to keep it at one for the night.

Think of this as a sweet treat while still getting some necessary nutrients for the day. Just remember, it’s a slippery slope to overindulging, so keep it at just one!

3. Better-For-You Gummy Candies

We all love a good gummy bear or Sour Patch Kid, but they are some of the worst candies for you. This may be a good alternative for you!

One brand that we just came across, Smart Sweets (sold on Amazon) is the healthier version of the gummy candies we know and love. They come in 6 different flavors – Sweet Fish, Sweet Chews, Peach Rings, Sour Blast Buddies, Gummy Bears, and Sour Gummy Bears, and contain only 80 calories and 3 grams of sugar per pack! The candies are sweetened entirely from Stevia and don’t contain any sugar alcohols either, giving them 76% less sugar than regular gummy candies.

There are lots of other brands of healthier gummies on the web, so be sure to check them all out!

2. Dark Chocolate

Our favorite! We’ve said it before, a small amount of dark chocolate may be able to help your body more than hurt it!

Studies have shown that eating a small amount of dark chocolate (about 6 grams a day, or 1 to 2 squares) has numerous benefits for our health, including lowering one’s risk of heart disease and diabetes. Dark chocolate contains flavanols that support nitric oxide production in the body, which helps improve blood flow. They also have been shown to lower blood pressure and inflammation. Flavanols can also help lower the risk of diabetes because it helps increase the production of insulin.

Dark chocolate is high in calories at 170 and in saturated fat with 7 grams, so it’s important to consume in moderation. Too much could lead to weight gain. But, on Halloween, feel free to indulge in this beneficial sweet!

1. Fruit!

Yes, fruit! Fresh fruit can be just as sweet and satisfying as candy on Halloween, especially if you prepare it in a fun way!

Fresh fruit, like berries, oranges, apples, etc., have natural sugar, making them a sweet treat without all the negative outcomes of added sugar and sugar alcohols. They also contain a lot of good nutritional components, like potassium and fiber, and vitamins and minerals, like vitamins A, B6, and C, and magnesium. Fruit is good for our digestive systems, our immune systems, and our overall health!

And, there are so many fun ways to use fruit to create different spooky things on Halloween! Below are a few of our favorites:

     

Pumpkin Fruit Cups                    Monster Teeth

 

         

Ghost Banana Pops                     “Candy Corn” Parfaits

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5 Top Issues Important to Farmers

We asked hundreds of farmers and ranchers across the United States to tell us their thoughts on the 2020 presidential election and the issues that matter most to them going forward to help us better tell their stories. Here are the 5 issues they said were most important as a farmer in America.

5. Farmer Subsidies

“Farmer subsidies” refers to the financial assistance they receive from the government, and over half of our respondents said farm income is one of their top concerns. This also includes economic support programs during an especially weak and unsettled farm economy.

Over a quarter of respondents included farmer subsidies in the top 3 most important issues to them. However, many said that they don’t want to live on government subsidies and that agriculture needs an open market and fair trade instead.

4. Educate a Disconnected Consumer

28% of our respondents put this category into the top 3 most important issues to them and it is an issue we are seeing become more prevalent among farmers and consumers alike.

Transparency is a reoccurring topic and, in terms of farming, it refers to consumers being aware of where their food came from, along with every step of the production process until it is on their table. Education also includes pesticide application, GMO crops, organic farming, and farming practices in general.

When asked about common misperceptions regarding farmers, some responses were:

“They (think we) play in the dirt all day.”

“That we are not astute business people. They do not recognize that we are managing multi-million-dollar business enterprises… and that we are better educated than the majority of the US population.”

3. Input Costs

35% of our total respondents included input costs in their top 3 issues American farmers face today. Many feel as though politicians underestimate the costs it takes to run a farm and they think farmers are much more profitable and wealthy than they actually are.

Farmers made it clear they don’t want to live on government subsidies. Lower input costs would help them achieve this and become profitable.

2. Global Free Trade

Global free trade was a common issue among many farmers and 37% of our respondents put it in their top three.

When asked to address further what either political party could do to help, many responded to support free trade. They also want less government intervention across all aspects of agriculture. Some wrote that they want to see an improvement in economic policy and stability in regard to both global trade and all of ag.

1. Trade with China

Trade with China was the most common issue we saw among farmers. 40% of our respondents included it in their top three.

Farmers are especially concerned about the unsettled state of relations with China. When asked about the most important thing either party could do to help farmers and ranchers in America, many responded to resolve the trade war with China.

COVID had a large effect on global trade, however, China still remains a vital participant. In 2018, China led the country with the highest amount of combined imports and exports at $5 trillion. We need trade with China and they need trade with us, and farmers recognize this.

To see the full Farmer and Rancher Election Survey results, click here.

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Farmer & Rancher Election Survey Results

Our thanks to the hundreds of farmers and ranchers who took time during a busy season to tell us what they think about how the two major political parties are addressing their interests and concerns in the 2020 election campaign. These responses will help D2D do even more to tell your story.

Given this heated political environment and neither presidential platform addressing highly-specific plans for agriculture and food production, we set out with a goal to better understand the issues affecting American farmers – their concerns, hopes, and thoughts about the next four years.

A look at our respondents

Our survey launched in late September and amassed 300 completions from U.S. farmers and ranchers. Respondents provided a good cross-section of the farm and ranch population. They tended to be:

  • 45 years of age or older, and overwhelmingly politically aware and engaged
  • Diverse, across all types of farms sizes and crops/livestock
  • Dispersed geographically with a heavy concentration in the Midwest, reflecting the overall national character of farming and ranching

Cutting to the chase

Overall, respondents believe the Republican party is stronger on general farm economics and trade, and earned consistently higher marks than the Democratic party across all areas of interest addressed in the survey. 

Furthermore, respondents believe Republicans better understand their professional challenges and that the party will better support them by promoting their sound farming practices.

Democrats fared relatively better on questions related to environmental protection, food safety, diet, and nutrition – but still trailed the GOP in each category.

Putting issues in order

Farmers and ranchers have a lot to say about the obstacles they face daily to sustain their way of life for their staff, families, livestock, and customers.

When presented with a specific laundry list of potential issues, three out of four respondents cited a trade-related matter as one of their three biggest worries today, especially the unsettled state of relations with China. Just over half said farm income was one of their top concerns, as reflected in both the cost of inputs and availability of subsidies and economic support programs during an especially weak and unsettled farm economy.

But which issue is most important?

When asked to write in detail about what either administration could do right now to help them, most respondents addressed anticipated needs, such as free trade and less government regulation. But a surprising number of respondents looked beyond particular policies and roadblocks and instead, demanded some diplomatic aplomb for the parties to work together and get these issues remedied.

Politicians’ biggest misperceptions

Despite many farmers and ranchers preferring the Republican take on key issues affecting their operations, respondents won’t be giving either political party a free pass on their approach to food and agriculture. They weren’t shy about offering advice to both candidates on how to better connect both politicians and the larger public with the people who produce the nation’s food.

In summary, they believe they are a very misunderstood group. Respondents felt that politicians think they don’t care about the environment, don’t understand the physical and financial demands to run a multi-faceted operation, and that they are just ‘dumb hicks wearing overalls’.

When asked what particular misperceptions about farming and ranching need to be addressed, respondents offered some often colorful comments:

“They [think we] play in the dirt all day.”

“That we are not astute business people. They do not recognize that we are managing multi-million-dollar business enterprises. They do not recognize that we know a balance sheet and that we are better educated than the majority of the US population.”

“We don’t want to have to live on government subsidies.”

Many respondents felt the average politician doesn’t see farming and ranching as a demanding profession that requires shrewd business and operational knowledge. Additionally, respondents believe they also fail to grasp the economic stakes of modern farming and the risks that come with it from so many directions.

Delivering a message to candidates

Farmers and ranchers also had some equally blunt advice to politicians when asked about what they’d tell the presidential candidates if they had the opportunity:

“We provide the best, safest, and cheapest supply of agricultural products in the world, but have to go through expensive risk to do so.”

“Production ag needs markets and fair trade, not subsidies, to succeed long-term.”

“You are both full of manure.” 

The overriding sentiment expressed in this open-ended question was that respondents felt as though the food system they operate every day for every American and countless others around the globe goes unnoticed by politicians and consumers alike. Farmers and ranchers remind us that “we in the middle of the country matter, too”, feeling forgotten or only catered to around election years.

And many expect better treatment for others, too — even presidential candidate to candidate. One piece of sage advice: “Get along with each other’s party…do what is best for America”.

Farmers remain resilient

Despite the litany of misperceptions that need to be addressed, the farmers and ranchers who responded to the D2D survey remain surprisingly optimistic about their future.

After almost seven years of declining income and sustained economic stress, seven in 10 respondents say they are optimistic about the future of their operations.

Making changes on the farm

When asked unaided about the biggest changes they’re currently facing in ag, most individual respondents described several ways they’ve continued their operations amid such instability. They’ve done everything, from cutting costs to utilizing marketing and technological strategies to adding new product lines and income sources.

Get ready…

So who do farmers foresee as president in 2021? Two-thirds of our respondents predict a victory for Donald Trump on Nov. 3.

In Closing

This feedback garnered from farmers and ranchers – our readers and friends—are not the end of the discussion, but just the beginning. Please stay tuned for further efforts to engage and empower our farmers and ranchers who sustain us and our families every day.

To review all quantitative responses in this survey, please click here. 

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5 Benefits of Apples

Whether you’re looking for quick information, or want something to impress your friends at dinner, here’s our Featured 5 of the Week!

Fall is upon us! And, with fall comes delicious, fresh apples! We all love an afternoon of apple-picking in the crisp weather, the smell of an apple pie in the oven, or even snacking on a crisp, locally-grown apple, but we sometimes overlook all of their nutritional benefits. An apple a day really can keep the doctor away and we’re going to tell you why!

5. Good For Your Gut

You’ve heard us talk before about how important a good gut microbiome is for our health.

Studies have shown that apples may promote a good gut microbiome. This is because apples are full of fiber, including pectin. Pectin acts as a prebiotic in our bodies, which is key for keeping our microbiome healthy and for promoting the growth of good new bacteria in our intestines.

Having a diverse microbiome leads to a high-functioning immune system, better digestion, and an overall healthier you, so eat those fiber-rich apples and know your gut is thanking you!

4. Good For Your Brain

You mean, eating apples can help our brains? Yes!

Studies have shown that apples and other apple-based products may help decrease mental decline by reducing the amount of ROS, or reactive oxygen species, in brain tissue. ROS can build up and cause brain damage, but the antioxidants and other properties in apples can help reduce this.

Furthermore, apple juice concentrate was found to prevent the decline of acetylcholine, which is linked to aging and oxidative stress. A decrease in acetylcholine has also been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, showing that apples may be able to reduce the risk of developing this disease.

However, it’s good to note that apple juice and other apple products may contain a lot of added sugar, something that is definitely not good for us. So, try to eat whole apples as much as possible!

3. Protection against Some Cancers

According to the CDC, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S., contributing to 23% of overall deaths in 2012.

Apples contain fiber and many phytochemicals with antioxidant properties. Studies have shown that these antioxidant properties may protect a cell’s DNA from oxidative damage, a precursor to cancer; stop the spread of cancer cells; and prevent new ones from forming. Cancers linked to these effects are colon, breast, and lung cancer, but only for past smokers.

Anything we can do to reduce our risk of developing cancer is very important, and a healthy diet can be one of the best and easiest forms of protection.

2. Good for Weight Management

Many of us are always looking for that secret way to lose weight or keep bad weight off. Apples may be a great way to help!

Apples contain a lot of fiber, and, in addition to fueling our microbiome, it also helps keep us feeling fuller for longer. By eating an apple, the fiber content can help slow digestion and keep us satisfied so we don’t go looking for another snack to eat. Apples also have a low-energy-density at 0.63 calories per energy density, meaning they have fewer calories respective to their weight. In one study, participants who ate apple slices before each meal ended up eating 200 less calories a day than those who didn’t.

Rather than going for a cookie or a bag of chips, eat an apple! If you’re still feeling hungry after snacking on an apple, try adding a little nut butter. The extra protein might be just what your body needs!

1. Protection against Diet-related Illnesses

Diet-related illnesses include diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and 34% of the deaths from heart disease could have been prevented by changes in health habits.

Plant chemicals in the apple peel, such as pectin, have been shown to protect free radicals in the heart and blood vessels from damage. They have also been shown to lower the amount of LDL, or “bad”, cholesterol in the body, and the number of triglycerides, both being key contributors to diet-related illnesses. Flavonoids in apples have antioxidant effects that have been shown to protect cells in the pancreas, which helps control the secretion of insulin in people with type 2 diabetes.

A healthy diet is so important in preventing the onset of these diseases and many more health conditions. So, along with apples, be sure to eat lots of fruits and vegetables.

And remember, fresh is always best, but if you’re looking for a special treat to spice up your apple intake, here is one of our favorite recipes for apple fritters!

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Trump vs. Biden: Comparing Ag Platforms

Everyone agrees it will be an important event for all Americans – a momentary pause, if not an end, to the endless argument about the future direction of the country. On November 3rd, we will select our President, our entire House of Representatives, and a third of our Senate.

When it comes to food and agriculture, what makes one presidential candidate different from the other? The significant farm issues are the economy, international trade relationships, China as a strong component but other countries as well; the Renewable Fuel Standard; rural broadband access; the regulatory environment, and COVID. What will be the key goals and objectives they set? What big ideas will drive their actions over the next four years? What is likely to change and what will stay the same?

Don’t expect any great epiphanies from reading party platforms. Such documents are great at grand philosophical statements, but light on the specifics that might risk offending some potential voter. But there are insights in there anyway, especially when combined with the public statements and media coverage that have emerged in this campaign.

Candidates’ Philosophies

We took a look at comparing the policies that would most affect food and agriculture from each of the candidates. We focused on trade, the economy, climate change, and immigration.

Biden/Harris:

America is in trouble, due largely to the missteps of the current administration. America must return to many of the approaches of the previous Democratic administrations, including:

  • a stronger focus on building consensus, stepping up government support and engagement in things that build a fairer society

  • governmental programs to protect individual rights, reduce anti-competitive practices among agricultural businesses, reform our criminal justice system, and expand access to health care, broadband, and other social services

  • more aggressive governmental regulations to climate change, and in the process spur a broad effort to generate new jobs, protect our environment and revive the economy with innovative environmental products and technologies

  • revive a spirit of international cooperation to boost trade

Trump/Pence:

America is on the right track, so let’s stick with what we have started:

 

  • take the tough steps needed to compete in a global marketplace, while shielding U.S. citizens, with subsidies, from the immediate adverse effects of such actions

  • keep current policies and programs and continue to reduce the governmental barriers that hold back enterprise and initiative

  • support worthwhile government programs but still rely on private enterprise and voluntary effort as the primary engines of progress in protecting the environment and managing financial risk

  • stand up for American interests first in the international arena, especially on matters of trade

Both platforms share some commonalities around the ideas of conservation. Their differing philosophies are on the role of the government as it pertains to conservation, trade, taxes, regulations, and immigration.

Plans for Trade

Biden/Harris:

  • seek international consensus: multilateral and bilateral before negotiating trade agreements

  • restore more traditional negotiating style and posturing with trade partners

  • revitalize focus on boosting ag exports; concerned about Brazil and Argentina taking place of U.S.

  • expand focus on workers’ rights and interests in trade negotiations

Trump/Pence:

  • take the tough steps needed to compete in a global marketplace, while shielding U.S. citizens, with subsidies, from the immediate adverse effects of such actions

  • maintain efforts to implement improved trade deals with China, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Britain, and E.U.

  • enforce tougher negotiating philosophy with focus on exports and long-term opportunities

  • continue direct aid to farmers while negotiating trade deals, currently at $32 billion

 Trump favors the aggressive use of higher tariffs as a tool for negotiating better trade deals. Biden prefers a more traditional approach of focusing on progressive tariff reductions.

Addressing Farm & Rural Economies

Biden/Harris:

  • raise taxes: income, capital gains, corporate tax rate; end stepped-up basis

  • provide more financial support for rural economy via initiatives and infrastructure modernization, including direct farm support, rural health care, broadband

  • support local trade between farmers and schools and hospitals

  • preserve and protect smaller operators from unfair, anti-competitive forces with a higher focus on FTC antitrust regulations such as the Clayton Act, Dodd-Frank, etc., trickling down to farm economy

  • enhance labor rights and protections; support union workers

  • provide more financial support for younger, beginning farmers/ranchers, and smaller farms

  • support Farm Bill and SNAP

Trump/Pence:

  • continue 2017’s tax plan that enables farmers to pass their farms to their next-generation farmers

  • preserve lower-tax environment

  • continue efforts to identify and remove regulatory and other barriers to support private initiative and innovation

  • support broadband throughout rural America

  • continue financial relief through direct payments to affected producers, as needed

  • maintain financial discipline in existing government programs

  • support Farm Bill and SNAP, but close loopholes that allow ‘able-bodied working-age adults’ collecting food stamps to move into a work environment to create a sense of fiscal independence

Trump offers a strategy to continue the ‘America First’ initiative, providing increased business opportunities by limiting regulatory barriers, while providing relief to those in need. Biden proposes tax increases to overhaul current systems in rural America, such as broadband access and healthcare. He also plans to strengthen antitrust enforcement.

Climate Change & Sustainability Affecting Ag

Biden/Harris:

  • Green New Deal is ‘a crucial framework’ for climate challenges

  • make American ag first in the world to achieve net-zero carbon emissions

  • increase research funding focused on zero-carbon and productivity-increase goals

  • support renewable fuels and ethanol mandates

  • expand financial incentives for programs that reduce greenhouse gases – conservation reserves, reduced tillage, ‘blue sink’ programs, regenerative ag

  • expand USDA’s Conservation Stewardship Program

  • promote development of new, innovative products and technologies related to environmental protection, reduced carbon footprint

Trump/Pence:

  • against Green New Deal due to added costs and reduced income for farmers and added regulations

  • maintain existing conservation programs, including Conservation Stewardship Program, based on voluntary participation

  • encourage regenerative ag, soil and farm technology, and clean water

  • continue to support Renewable Fuel Standard program, including ethanol

Both parties maintain conservation efforts as a priority and state that ’sound science’ is highly important in addressing food and ag issues, but neither is anxious to define exactly what ’sound science’ is, other than a broad philosophic concept.

While Biden looks to increase funding on its zero-carbon emission goal, Trump focuses its funding on renewable energy sources and fuel alternatives.

Immigration

Biden/Harris:

  • take immediate action to undo policies regarding wall construction on U.S. and Mexico border

  • reassert a commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees and investigate the root cause of irregular immigration

  • reexamine relationships in Central American nations as part of plan to deter violence causing influx of refugees

  • create doorway for seasonal farm labor and migrant workers

  • address path to citizenship for undocumented workers

Trump/Pence:

  • continue funding for construction of a wall to differentiate nation’s border with Mexico

  • close legal loopholes that enable illegal immigration

  • end chain migration and eliminate visa lottery program

  • continue work on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and move to a more merit-based immigration plan

Biden would work to reverse the Trump administration’s U.S.-Mexico wall construction and instead focus on refugees and irregular migration from the southern border. Trump would maintain a strong process for legalizing immigrants, including the continuation of his work on DACA. In a continued effort to deter illegal immigration, construction would resume on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Summing it all up…

Biden & Harris’ platform proposes a larger and more aggressive role for the federal government in guiding the system through wide-ranging policies and programs that overlap with wider social, environmental, and other policy objectives.

Trump & Pence maintain a more traditional role for the government in creating an environment that rewards individual initiative and competitiveness in pursuing many of the same ultimate goals — economic growth, environmental protection and sustainability, adaptation to changing societal needs, and expectations of our modern food system.

Was this information helpful to you? We want to know!

Contact us on Facebook, Twitter, or via connect@dirt-to-dinner.com!

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Nootropics: How to Eat for a Better Brain


On the run? Listen to our post!

Today’s demanding lifestyle has us frequently on our toes, waiting for the next hurdle to jump over. It is no wonder about 450 million people worldwide suffer from mental illness, chronic fatigue, as well as some serious neurodegenerative diseases.

Just like your body, your brain needs the right fuel to perform at its peak. Nootropics, a class of cognition-enhancing compounds, are hailed as the newest type of brain medicine and can be found in medicines, supplements, and foods. Early applications of nootropics include uses to improve mental and physical performance and boost memory, increase focus, and enhance creativity and motivation.

Nootropics: Natural or Synthetic?

These so-called “smart drugs” are a relatively new class of drugs. They are part of a category known as PIEDs, or Performance and Image Enhancing Drugs, and are broadly categorized into three groups:

  • Stimulants, like amphetamines and methylphenidate, are synthetic drugs primarily prescribed to those diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorders, given their effectiveness with improving cognitive function. These are only available by prescription in the U.S.
  • Racetams, such as piracetam, are lab-made and can help our brain neurotransmitters, specifically glutamate and acetylcholine, function properly and effectively. They are known to boost memory in people with brain injuries, help with seizure control, depression, or age-related decline but do not affect otherwise healthy individuals.
  • Natural Compounds found in whole foods and supplements, like caffeine, ginseng, and creatine, are over-the-counter nootropics that are among the most popular agents of neuroenhancement. They are a healthy way to help with brain function without the unwanted side effects if consumed in moderation.

At D2D, we are focusing on the fascinating group of natural compounds, which are found in whole foods or available over-the-counter. These nootropics provide myriad benefits when consumed in a healthful way. But be aware: researchers are still working to define what constitutes “a healthful way” to consume nootropics.

Given its recent increase in demand, what problem are we all trying to solve here? Do we have poor concentration, memory, and lack of energy because we are eating a diet full of fats, sugars, and salt rather than fresh fruits and vegetables? Or can we enhance our brain function just by increasing the consumption of healthy foods? We believe that for the best brain and body performance, you need a healthy diet with lots of variety.

Nootropic supplements are unregulated and lack sufficient approvals to confirm efficacy. So instead, let’s focus on the natural nootropics found in foods, herbs and drinks, and what their potential health benefits are.

With only a handful of high-quality studies and no FDA oversight for supplements, it’s difficult to make an informed decision. We need more clinical data to see if nootropics have a measurable and lasting cognitive effect.

So don’t fall for any brands that claim to be cure-alls – know the science and the proven benefits.

What We Do ‘Noo’

Nootropics found in foods affect certain neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, GABA, serotonin, and acetylcholine, in various ways. They can help increase blood flow to the brain, support neurotransmitter health, regulate the amount of specific neurotransmitters, and increase brainwave activity. These “smart foods” target metabolic or nutritional components of brain function. They deal directly with memory and attention to create a clear, efficient pathway for all signals to reach the intended neurotransmitters. When neurotransmitters can function at peak efficiency, the result is overall increased cognitive function.

Your Morning Nootropics

Many everyday whole foods contain varying amounts, as well!

Caffeine. Let’s start here — Caffeine is a natural nootropic found in coffee, cocoa, tea, and certain nuts, like kola and guarana. It is a compound often added to energy drinks and sodas and is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance worldwide.

An intake of 40 to 200 mg a day, or between one and two cups of coffee, can increase alertness and decrease reaction time. This is especially helpful for those who are feeling fatigued, which is why your 6 a.m. cup hits much differently than your 2 p.m. cup. However, too much caffeine will do more harm than good, causing jittery, anxious feelings.

While the nootropics in coffee block the effects of adenosine, a brain chemical that makes you feel tired, it can also trigger the release of adrenaline, which can cause anxiety and sleeplessness.

L-theanine. Teas containing L-theanine, such as green tea, matcha, and black tea, can help calm an overactive brain. Green tea contains about 5mg of L-theanine per cup, while matcha and black tea contain about 46mg per cup. What does it do? Several studies have concluded that this type of nootropic can have a calming effect, while simultaneously not causing drowsiness. In roughly two cups of brewed green tea, you can increase your brain’s alpha waves, which can promote creativity. L-theanine, when coupled with caffeine, is even more effective. Supplement companies often combine these nootropics to create performance-enhancing supplements.

Ginkgo Biloba. This plant has an extract in its leaves that may positively affect your brain function. Most commonly, ginkgo biloba is taken as a supplement to improve memory and mental processing functions in adults. This is because it helps increase blood flow to the brain, making neurotransmitters more high-functioning.

Making a Nootropic-rich Meal

By adding in various whole foods, like eggs, salmon, and blueberries, your brain gets a boost of nootropic compounds at every meal!

  • Eggs are rich in choline. Choline can assist our brains with transmitting signals across our neuronal membranes. What in the world does that mean? Well, our bodies take in choline from eggs, and use it to produce a compound called acetylcholine. Acetylcholine aids the body in retaining memories and in achieving restful sleep. One egg provides 27% of your recommended daily value of choline!
  • Spinach is another incredible brain-boosting resource. With nutrients like lutein and zeaxanthin, it can help with quicker mental recall and increased memory capacity. Furthermore, a cup of spinach a day is adequate for absorbing nutrients to increase performance.
  • Salmon is a fatty fish that can improve one’s ability to send and receive messages in the brain. Because of its high DHA density and protein-packed profile, it helps keep the brain in tip-top shape. A 3-4 oz serving of salmon will cover your daily recommended intake.
  • Lean meats contain creatine, an amino acid that helps your body produce protein. Once creatine enters your brain, it binds itself to phosphate to create a molecule that can fuel your brain’s cells to help improve short-term memory and increase reasoning skills. Studies show that ingesting just 5g of creatine per day will have cognitive benefits without any side effects.
  • Turmeric, a long-used spice in Chinese medicine, also possesses incredible nootropic benefits. It helps trigger neurogenic creation and is often used to treat Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. About 2.5 grams a day is all it takes to capitalize on its benefits.
  • Blueberries are another natural nootropic. Super-high in antioxidants like anthocyanins, blueberries help boost cognitive function and protect the brain from damage caused by aging, as it rids the brain of free radicals. 500 mg or 2 cups of blueberries is a sufficient amount for nootropic results.
  • Dark chocolate is a flavanol-rich food made from cocoa beans. Cocoa beans increase blood flow to the brain, much like gingko biloba, and can actually trigger the production of new brain cells! Dark chocolate, made with 70% cocoa or higher, has shown to have these antioxidant effects.

Challenges of Nootropics

Addiction to nootropics is common, most typically in the stimulant or supplement category. But it also can be found in caffeine intake. Unfortunately, more is not always better, as in the example of nicotine. While nicotine can increase mental sharpness, its long list of side effects, including chest pains, headaches, abdominal discomfort, and anxiety and irritability, outweigh any potential positive benefits. The abuse of, or overuse of certain nootropics, like nicotine, amphetamines, or creatine, can cause severe dependence and significant health problems.

Let’s also not forget our golden rule here at D2D: variety and moderation. 

Don’t go out and overload on blueberries and coffee thinking it will turn you into Einstein.

Choose a healthy diet with a variety of different foods including fish, berries, leafy greens, and protein. The emerging new field of nootropics will be exciting to watch unfold as new studies are published. However, to truly maximize cognitive function, you must also focus on sleep, exercise, and brain-building activities to keep your mind sharp, as found by an Oxford University meta-analysis study. Also, keep your body healthy by eating good-for-you calories, rather than processed, unhealthy ones.

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5 Ways to Catch COVID

Whether you’re looking for quick information, or want something to impress your friends at dinner, here’s our Featured 5 of the Week!

5. Don’t Wash Your Hands

Washing hands? Please.

Every day, we come in contact with millions of germs through our hands. Healthcare workers carry about 5 million bacteria on each hand. Pathogens on hands can be very easily spread from person to person, either through direct or indirect contact. For example, if someone coughs or sneezes into their hands, then shakes your hand, you now have those germs. If someone coughs or sneezes into their hands then touches an elevator button, which then you touch, you, plus probably a dozen or so other people, now have those pathogens on your hands.

Now, imagine that person has COVID-19, and you don’t wash or sanitize your hands then touch your face. Congrats – your chances of contracting COVID-19 just skyrocketed!

4. Don’t Exercise

Exercise is incredibly important for a healthy immune system.

Exercise improves cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, controls weight, and fights off diseases. It is especially important to fight off diet-related illnesses, such as heart disease and diabetes. Exercise allows for better blood circulation, which in turn helps our immune system. More oxygen can get to cells and our bodies are overall healthier.

If a healthy and working immune system is not what you’re going for, we highly recommend staying clear of exercise. Sit on the couch, watch some TV. You’ll get COVID in no time.

3. No Mask, No Problem

Wearing a mask has become a very controversial topic, and we’re here to tell you that if you want COVID, take a pass on the mask.

The CDC has made it very clear that masks and face coverings can protect oneself from COVID-19. In fact, in Missouri, wearing a mask protected 2 hairstylists in a salon from contracting the virus. Because of this, it is now mandatory in most places to wear a mask. I know that I can’t enter any grocery store, restaurant, or any other building where I live without a mask.

It seems pretty easy to us – wear a mask, don’t get COVID. Don’t wear a mask, get COVID.

2. No Vitamins

When in doubt, take your vitamins.

Vitamins are a great way to supplement your diet with nutrients that you’re not getting enough of in whole foods alone. New studies are showing that vitamin D is helping patients suffering from COVID-19. Vitamin D has been seen to reduce both complications and even the risk of death from the illness. Some COVID risk quizzes online even ask if you are taking vitamin D in one of their questions.

So, no vitamins, especially vitamin D, if you are looking to contract the virus.

1. Stick To An Unhealthy Diet

We posted a couple of weeks ago how important a healthy diet is to protect yourself from COVID-19.

A healthy diet is just as or more effective at fighting off illnesses than washing your hands, wearing a mask, etc. Eating healthy keeps our entire body running at tip-top shape. Fruits, vegetables, fish, water…these are all incredibly important to get essential nutrients that keep us healthy. Fast food, added sugars, and saturated fats are things you want to stay away from at all costs if you want to stay healthy.

However, if you are looking to indulge in those fats and sweets, just know you are putting your body more at risk of getting sick.

Want to step up your COVID game and protect yourself further? Check out our other articles on how to protect yourself!

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Chlorinated Chicken: Public Health or Politics?


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The United Kingdom says no to chlorinated chicken. But is their opposition based on science – or something else?

As I took my chicken breasts out of the package and put them in the baking dish, some of the chicken juice splashed into the sink. I dutifully scrubbed the sink and threw away the packaging, hoping no pathogens survived or dripped on the floor on the way to the garbage. I know I’m not the only one concerned about contamination in a food prep area. No one wants to get food poisoning.

To counter this concern, a small share of U.S. poultry processors use a mild sanitizing spray as the chicken pieces are getting washed which includes chlorine as part of their rigorous food safety procedures. Most scientists – as well as U.S. and even European food safety agencies — agree the practice poses no substantial health threat to people who consume the chicken.

But UK trade negotiators say ‘no’ to such a practice anyway, and use this reason to deny U.S. imports of lower-cost poultry into Great Britain. They argue such practices are inconsistent with the more stringent food standards they prefer. Better to focus on how poultry is grown, processed, and handled, they say. Focus on preventing a potential food safety problem more than on correcting it. to prevents E. Coli in cattle. U.S. trade officials say it’s just an excuse to close off an important export market for U.S. agriculture and to protect the UK industry.

As Mild as a Swimming Pool

On hearing some of the rhetoric in this debate, you would think U.S. chicken is coated in chlorine. That’s not the case.

We’ve all gone swimming in chlorinated pools.  It gets on our skin, goes in our mouth, and even up our noses. We certainly don’t mind that much because we know it’s cleaning the pool and for our overall benefit. Chlorinated water for sprays or rinses in chicken processing – much like the water in swimming pools and in many municipal water supplies – is used in only about 5 percent of processing plants, according to the National Chicken Council. Most of the chlorine used by the industry goes into cleaning and sanitizing equipment, not on chickens.

The industry makes much greater use of antimicrobial products to kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria and pathogens like salmonella. Used repeatedly and sequentially across the processing chain, these agents help minimize contamination and create a safety-first philosophy of seemingly redundant levels of sanitization.

It’s an important part of providing consumers with a safe supply of poultry.  If you eat undercooked chicken or other foods or beverages contaminated by raw chicken or its juices, you can get a foodborne illness, which is also called food poisoning.

To help consumers avoid microbes, chickens go through a ‘car wash’ where the industry routinely uses various FDA approved acidic washes in multiple stages of processing and chilling poultry, many with imposing and clinical names like paracetic acid (PAA), cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), and acidified sodium chlorite (ASC).

Food safety experts, however, warn against a natural tendency to look at such imposing names as somehow dangerous substances. PAA, for example, is nothing more than an organic compound of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide, used by the poultry industry in concentrations that make it less acidic than lemon juice. CPC is an antiseptic commonly found in toothpaste, mouthwash, and nasal sprays. In addition, bromine and diverse organic acids are sometimes used. The industry simply does not rely on one ‘magic bullet’ antimicrobial agent – or some terrifying chemical cocktail out of a teenage sci-fi horror movie.

In most cases, the antimicrobials are used in very minute quantities – generally parts per million.  The amount can be visualized as “an inch out of nearly 16 miles,” or as “one minute in almost two years.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and the international Codex Alimentarius Commission all have found no serious threat from safe levels of chlorinated water or chlorine washes. Various university studies have drawn similar conclusions.

Reasons for UK and EU opposition

These approaches the U.S. uses to potentially reduce harmful food contamination seem to have worked well. But even with these science-based arguments behind the U.S. poultry industry, the European Union and the United Kingdom have banned imports of chlorinated poultry for almost 25 years. Politicians there dismiss the science – even from their food-safety related agencies and scientists. Their reasoning follows largely political lines.

The UK and the EU generally prefer to argue for a food safety system focused very strongly on avoidance of contamination, much more so than dealing with actual contamination. Food safety policy focuses on all aspects of how animals are raised, handled, processed, and delivered, even if that might make the production process less efficient than the U.S. model. Indeed, many opponents of chlorinated chicken are in fact fundamentally opposed to what they see as the “industrialized farming” of the United States.

The UK imports large volumes of poultry products – worth close to a half-billion dollars – each year, almost half from the Netherlands and much of the remainder from other EU-based nations. While UK poultry production continues to grow each year, demand has recently outstripped the industry’s ability to meet it. The importance of trade is clearly recognized in the UK, and apparently increasing – prompting hopes for progress in the continuing trade debate with the United States.

The argument against U.S. chicken imports reflects a desire to preserve and protect the rural nature of much of the UK and EU countryside, with maintenance of long-standing food-based segments of the economy. 

Poultry is just one front in an on-going war to guard against the demise of a valued way of life. 

Likewise, these opponents also often cite the humane aspects of their preferred approach as a strong reason for an adamant trade position. Critics sometimes allege the defense of science-based sanitary practices is in reality advocacy for “U.S.-style industrialized farming” practices that compromise not just a valued way of life but the safety of workers in these labor-intensive facilities as well.

Science or Protectionism?

Those favoring a more liberalized approach to poultry trade often call such arguments a “weak defense of outright trade protectionism” – the use of non-science-based reasoning to insulate a special interest from the global competition that drives higher productivity across the food system – greater savings for consumers, and better access to the food consumers want.

But with the UK facing an uncertain future with its largest historic trading partner – the European Union – there’s hope for some kind of breakthrough. One option talked about quietly behind the scenes would allow some imports of U.S. chicken, but with a hefty tariff attached. That would buy some time to gauge public reaction to the new food option – and its effect on the existing UK poultry industry – and the larger agricultural system.

Consumer Considerations

The United States exported about $4.5 billion in poultry and eggs in 2017, and is the second-largest provider of broiler meat for the international market, with exports exceeding $4 billion annually. Growing global demand for animal protein, rising dietary and health concerns, and relatively rapid production cycles make the industry ripe for further growth – and additional economic opportunity for those capable of serving the demand.

U.S. producers want access to every possible market. And in one important respect, so should American poultry consumers. The economic vitality that exports help make possible for poultry producers help provide the money for further investment in producing more of the animal protein the world increasingly demands – and in making that process yield the safe, wholesome, and affordable product that makes food contamination a much lower risk for everyone.  

What happens next? It’s up to us…

Our highly-regulated food system in the U.S. is designed to provide us with food we want, at a price we can afford, and to safely consume it without fear of contamination. But’s it’s our job at home to prepare our foods in a way that maintains those rigorous practices.

Nearly one in six Americans suffer from some form of food poisoning each year. And while most cases are generally mild, following a few sound safety steps can help make sure you and your family members don’t become victims. Want to read more on the safe handling of poultry? Read this.

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5 Ways To Help Your Body During COVID-19

Whether you’re looking for quick information, or want something to impress your friends at dinner, here’s our Featured 5 of the Week!

Navigating through COVID-19 can be stressful. Stress causes the body to produce increased amounts of cortisol. While these can be beneficial in the short-term, in the long run, stress can wreak havoc on the body, weakening our immune systems. This is why we’re here to give you our advice on the 5 best ways to help you manage your stress and strengthen your immune system during COVID and all year round!

5. Meditation and Breathing

 One of the craziest things about humans is that when we are stressed out or anxious, sometimes we forget to breathe.

Meditation and breathing are incredibly important, and studies are showing that the benefits are endless. They can help decrease our stress levels, ease our anxiety, and put us into a more relaxed state of being. They have also been shown to help our emotional control and psychological well-being.

With the stress of schools returning, places opening back up, it can be a lot to handle. Allow yourself a few minutes every day to relax. It will help you become more present in life, combat COVID times with ease, and decrease stress levels, ultimately helping your immunity.

4. Turn off your Devices

Your phone. Your computer. Your tablet. Your TV. Just turn it off.

Over 90% of Americans have a smartphone and almost all of them rarely turn it off. Constantly being exposed to upsetting and stress-inducing content about the pandemic can wreak havoc on our bodies. By turning off our devices even just for an hour a day, it’s been shown we can create better connections with those around us, especially friends and family,  sleep better, and become present.

We all need a break once in a while, so go screen-free for some time every day, forget about the stressors of the outside world and pandemic, and see how much better and more present you feel.

3. Sleep

You knew it was coming. Sleep.

Sleep is so important when it comes to taking care of your body. It allows you to unwind, relax, and reset yourself to take on the next day. But, studies are showing that there is a relationship between stress and sleep. The hypothalamus in our bodies is key to regulating sleep. However, stress can activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system, leading to insomnia and sleepless nights, which can then lead to more stress.

Stress and sleep deprivation seems like a never-ending cycle, but you can break it. Make sure you’re getting the sleep you need every night – 7 to 9 hours for adults. It will make all the difference in your body, and help you tackle anything that comes your way.

2. Exercise

Exercise is probably one of the best things you can do for your body. It is so important to stay active during the day for both stress and your immune system.

Exercise is great for the body. It improves our cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, and keeps us healthy by controlling weight and fighting off diseases. Exercise helps our immune system by allowing for better blood circulation and contributing to an overall healthy body. Exercise can help with stress by decreasing both adrenaline and cortisol – the body’s stress hormones – and helping to produce endorphins, which are our mood boosters.

Your body will feel better. Your immunity will strengthen. Your waistline will shrink. Your mood will boost. And you’ll have the energy to take on anything.

1. Stay Connected

Between social distancing, working remotely, and protecting ourselves and others, it’s easy to feel both isolated and alone during COVID. That’s why staying connected to both friends and family is so critical for our mental health during the pandemic.

When we experience a lack of in-person contact, it can cause stress and loneliness, neither of which will help us fight a novel disease. But, with the technology we have today, it’s easy to get that face-to-face interaction without being in the same room. Between Google Hangout, Zoom, Skype, Facetime, Netflix Parties, Facebook video, and social gaming, the possibilities are endless. Sending a text or call is one thing, but getting face-to-face human connection can help the body and the mind.

So be sure to stay connected during COVID-19. And, if you are lucky enough to be surrounded by family or friends during the pandemic, be sure to check up on those who are by themselves. It will make all the difference.

The Bottom Line

The behaviors we have are just as important to protect ourselves from the virus as the food we eat. Be sure to take time for you during the pandemic, listen to your body, and become present in life’s everyday moments.

BONUS!

You may be wondering, “but where is the information about food?!” Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Take a look at last week’s Featured 5 to learn what foods you can eat to protect yourself from COVID. And, for more, check out our other articles about foods that can strengthen your immune system:

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Protein Quality: Animal vs. Plant-based


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With a feeling of uncertainty infiltrating our lives lately, many of us are looking for concrete information to help us make it through this “new normal”. And what is more concrete than science? Because of this, we’re turning to research-backed studies and data to explain the differences between plant and animal proteins.

What we’ve found is that multiple sources of healthy proteins should be a part of our regular and varied diets. Any documentaries or overtly “over-the-top” productions that tell you otherwise, no matter how compelling, likely have an ulterior motive.

Let’s talk basic needs

To understand why protein conversations are so plentiful and ongoing, we must understand how essential protein is in our diets. Proteins are the building blocks of life. Every single cell in our body contains proteins.

The essential function of protein is to provide the body with energy to repair cells and make new ones. Without protein, and the capability to regenerate cells, our immune system weakens, inhibiting us from maintaining our health.

For a relatively active adult, protein should make up about 10% of our total calories, or a ¼ of your daily plate as shown here.

Now, our dietary needs are unique, so the USDA has created an online resource to help calculate their own daily nutrient recommendations.

There are two primary identifiers for what makes proteins higher quality:

  • the amino acid profile
  • its digestibility, or bioavailability

With this in mind, let’s explore both plant and animal protein sources.

Complete vs. incomplete proteins

Part of what makes plant and animal proteins different is whether or not they are considered “complete” proteins. What makes a protein complete? Its amino acid profile. Harvard School of Public Health explains it best:

“Some proteins found in food are ‘complete’, meaning they contain all twenty-plus types of amino acids needed to make new protein in the body.”

They go on to explain that “incomplete proteins” are lacking one or more of the nine essential amino acids, which our bodies can’t make from scratch. Typically, animal-based foods like meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy are great sources of complete protein, providing amino acids that your body simply cannot produce.

Plant-based foods, however, like nuts, seeds, grains, fruits and vegetables, while critical parts of any balanced diet, are not a sufficient choice as a sole protein source, as they lack one or more of the essential amino acids.

Does this mean vegans and vegetarians are not getting the amino acids they need? Not necessarily. They just have to be more strategic in their dietary choices. You can create a complete protein by combining one plant-based food with another that makes up for where the other lacks. For example, you need to combine the amino acids together to make a protein complete.

Take rice and beans for example: separately, they are not considered complete. Beans are missing an amino acid known as methionine; while rice – a grain – is lacking in lysine, another essential amino acid. But, according to the American Society for Nutrition, when consumed together, this would form a “Protein Complementation,” or a complete protein.

Not a fan of good ol’ rice and beans? Try one of my personal favorites: peanut butter and whole wheat bread, which can achieve the same complementation. Here is a chart that shows which amino acids different protein sources contain and, more importantly, what they are deficient in.

What else does meat have that plants don’t?

Nutrients in plant and animal proteins differ outside of just their amino acid composition. While eating fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains is part of any balanced diet, there are nutrients in animal protein that an all-plant diet just cannot provide in adequate amounts. Take Vitamin B12, for example – this is an essential nutrient that is almost exclusively found in animal foods – fish, meat, and eggs are some of the best options.

Think B12 isn’t that important? Think again. B12 aids in the development of red blood cells and helps to support and maintain nerve and brain function. Some studies have concluded that, without supplementation, vegetarians are at a high risk of B12 deficiency. This can cause weakness, fatigue, psychiatric and neurological disorders, and well as possible links to heart disease.

Vitamin D is another essential nutrient that serves many necessary functions. Also called the sunshine vitamin, it comes in two types – D2 found in plants and D3 count in animal-based foods. The best sources of D3 are fatty fish and egg yolks. Deficiencies in D3 have been linked to increased risk of cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, and most recently, COVID-19.

DHA or Docosahexaenoic (say that ten times fast!) acid, is an essential omega-3 fatty acid that is important for brain function. This is mainly found in fatty fish and certain types of microalgae. However – fear not, vegans! – you can take a supplement of algal oil, derived from microalgae, to ensure you are getting enough! There is always a way to find a balanced diet, if you are open to multiple forms of nutrient and protein consumption.

Other deficiencies include creatine, a molecule found primarily in muscle cells, which allows the body to easily access energy reserves for strength and endurance.

Digestibility and bioavailability

Plant protein and animal protein – though both “proteins” – are registered in the body differently. What do I mean by this? Well, when our body intakes any food, it can last for 36 to 72 hours in our twenty-five foot gastrointestinal tract. During this time, the body is breaking down the protein into building blocks, or as previously discussed, its amino acids. Depending on whether the protein is from animal or plant, that determines the rate at which they can be absorbed and the percentage that is available to be used within the body.

Because plant proteins must link up with another food or supplement that contains its missing amino acids to become complete, they absorb more slowly in the digestive tract. On the other hand, animal proteins are readily available for use at a much faster rate, with a much larger profile.

Why should we care how fast a protein is absorbed? Well, because it directly affects our metabolism. The amino acids that plants are deficient in are commonly known as branched-chain amino acids, or BCAA. Studies have shown that their lack of essential amino acids provides a lower anabolic effect, which means lower digestibility. For these reasons, it’s possible that 20 grams of protein from one source can be superior to the same amount from another source.

Protein bioavailability, or the ability of proteins to be absorbed and used, is formally based on a quality scoring system called PDCAAS and DIAAS.  Protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) is a system that measures the quality of different sources of protein by analyzing how the human body can digest the total amount of protein. This system was developed in the early ’90s as a way to determine its quality. The digestate indispensable amino acid scoring system (DIAAS) is the newer method proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization to replace the PDCAAS. The difference between the two is taking into account the anti-nutrients, or nutrients that can limit absorption of amino acids.

According the new DIAAS system, a score of >100 is a high-quality protein, 75-100 is a good-quality protein, and a score of <75 is a low-quality protein. Below is a chart of various animal and plant protein scores based on the new system.

As we can see, the highest quality proteins, providing the best bioavailability are animal proteins, while soy-based proteins are just slightly under the ‘high quality’ threshold. Foods like dairy, eggs, poultry, and meat are the most effective and efficient way to intake protein.

What about vegans and vegetarians?

Fear not: while animal proteins are the highest quality, there are ways for vegetarians and vegans to meet their essential amino acids needs. Eat higher amounts of plant foods, meaning greater portions, and strategically plan meals to ensure full amino acids profiles are met. According to the Kerry Health and Nutrition Institute, soy-based foods seem to have the highest ratings among plant proteins, so seek legumes like edamame, tofu, chenggukjang, and miso to combat potential deficiencies. A recent study from the U.S. Department of Food Science and Nutrition showed links between plant proteins in your diet and healthier markers for heart health and blood sugar management. Remember, a healthy diet is comprised of a balanced diet, including a variety of different foods, all in moderation.

Don’t fall for pretty productions

As a rule of thumb, for all things food-related or otherwise, we should always be wary of over-the-top claims and overtly “scary” statements. By nature, media is polarizing, be that the news, flashy articles, or well-made productions. Without a controversial stance, things simply wouldn’t sell. But we don’t want to be sold! We want the truth, the science! Well, the truth is, things are never as black and white as they are made out to be.

Our optimal diet lies somewhere between an all plant-based protein diet and an animal protein-only diet. There is no yes or no, right or wrong – it is all moderation and variation. While gram-for-gram, animal proteins are the most effective way to meet our nutritional requirements, both sources of protein can be nutritious and should be considered as a tool in your toolbox of healthy eating.

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5 Foods to Fight Off COVID-19

Whether you’re looking for quick information, or want something to impress your friends at dinner, here’s our Featured 5 of the Week!

Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. We’ve all heard these things as a response to protect ourselves from becoming infected with COVID-19. What we don’t hear is how a healthy and balanced diet is just as…or if not more effective at protecting ourselves against COVID and other illnesses! Here are 5 foods you can add to your diet right now to keep you healthy!

5. Berries

Experts say those who suffer from diet-related illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity are at higher risk of developing serious implications from COVID-19. Experts say that one thing all of these diseases have in common is systemic inflammation, meaning inflammation may be negatively affecting those infected with Covid.

Berries are a great food to incorporate into your diet to protect your body because they are anti-inflammatory. Berries contain an antioxidant called anthocyanins, which help to reduce inflammation in the body, as well as boost the immune system. They have also been shown to reduce one’s risk of heart disease.

Keeping your body protected against inflammation may be key not only during COVID-19, but to protect yourself against heart disease and other diet-related illnesses. Added bonus? They even help with brainpower!

4. Leafy Greens

Fresh vegetables from Hindinger FarmAll vegetables are very important to ensure a balanced diet, but leafy greens especially have the vitamins and minerals needed to help protect us against Covid.

Leafy greens, including broccoli, brussels sprouts, spinach, kale, and turnip greens, all are very high in vitamin C. We know that vitamin C supplements are incredibly important when it comes to helping our immune system, but a better way to ensure you’re getting your vitamin C intake is through food!

For adults, 65 to 95 mg of vitamin C is recommended every day. In one cup of cooked broccoli, there is around 102 mg of vitamin C. What an easy way to get your veggies and vitamin C!

Broccoli especially is also a great vegetable to eat to protect against COVID-19 because it’s a great source of vitamin A. Vitamin A is an anti-inflammatory and is critical in maintaining proper immune functioning in our bodies. It has been used to help fight against many infectious diseases, including measles. And, since broccoli contains 13% of our daily value of vitamin A, it is a no-brainer that we should be incorporating broccoli into our diets regularly!

3. Fish

Fatty fish, such as salmon, tuna, and mackerel, are full of nutrients and have many benefits for our bodies, protecting from COVID-19 being just one of them.

They are full of Omega-3 fatty acids, which help lower our LDL “bad” cholesterol, raise our HDL “good” cholesterol, and help lower inflammation in our bodies, which is critical during COVID-19. Fatty fish are also full of vitamin D, another key vitamin we need to help our immunity.

Vitamin D is known for regulating the immune system. Studies have shown that vitamin D can reduce one’s risk of contracting Covid. In one study, findings showed that participants with a vitamin D deficiency were almost 2 times greater to test positive for COVID-19 than those with sufficient levels of vitamin D.

One serving of farmed salmon contains about 66% of one’s daily value of vitamin D, so make sure to incorporate it into your diet!

2. Fermented Foods

yogurt with berriesFermented foods are foods that have good bacteria, or probiotics. They are essential for good gut health and our immune system!

Fermented foods contain microbes that help regulate the microbiome in our guts. They are essential for a healthy gut, and to help with gas, bloating, and diarrhea. They are also essential in immune response! Studies have shown that those who lacked fermented foods in their diets showed a decreased immune response. This decrease could ultimately affect one’s ability to fight off infections, including Covid.

A few great choices for fermented foods include sauerkraut, Greek yogurt, and kombucha. All of which contain lots of good bacteria!

1. WATER

We can’t believe that we even have to say this, but just drinking water can help your body get rid of toxins and keep your immune system running!

Our bodies are over 50% water. Water is essential for us to live, yet we sometimes take it for granted or just plain forget to drink it! On average, we should be drinking at least half of our body weight in ounces every single day. Now, this does not include tea, coffee, or any other mixed drink beverages. This is just straight water.

To give an idea of what this looks like, someone who weighs around 140 pounds should drink at least 70, but ideally 140 ounces of water a day to promote healthy body functioning and to maintain a healthy weight.

Water helps with body functioning by carrying oxygen to all the cells in our bodies, ensuring they have enough to run properly. Water also removes toxins to stop them from building up in the body which can cause us to get sick.

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How COVID Affects Global GM Crops

Dirt to Dinner is pleased to introduce accomplished Ghanian agriculture journalist, Joseph Opoku Gakpo, to Dirt to Dinner. A 2016 Cornell Alliance for Science Global Leadership Fellow, Joseph contributes to the Multimedia Group Limited in Ghana, working with Joy FM, Joy News TV, and MyJoyOnline. He has a master’s degree in communications studies from the University of Ghana and is a member of the Ghana Journalists Association, where he was awarded the 2015 prize for Best Journalist in Poverty Alleviation Reporting for “Poor Millionaires,” his story about cocoa farmers. His main interest is telling the story of how farmers and rural residents struggle to survive, with the objective of bringing development to their communities.

The Dirt

The demand rising from COVID-19 has ramped up vaccines using various genetic modification technologies, but when it comes to agriculture, the inverse has been true. Covid significantly slowed down the global process to commercialize genetically modified (GM) crops, and no one feels it more than farmers in developing countries, like Kenya, Ghana, and Bangladesh, where significant progress quickly came to a screeching halt.

Although many countries have approved the fast track use of genetic modification in the production of COVID-19 vaccines, the contrary is the case when it comes to approvals for GM crops. Kenya, Ghana, and Bangladesh are some of the countries where efforts to get GM crops into the hands of farmers have either stalled, or timelines for approval been rescheduled because of COVID-19. Genetically engineered crops bring more food to a continent that struggles with food security. And these crops can grow with fewer pesticides, thus keeping us healthier while working in the fields.

“In Kenya, we have had regulatory delays in the continuation of the national performance trials on [insect-resistant] Bt maize,” Kenyan plant breeder Dr. Murenga Mwimali told Dirt to Dinner in an interview. “There were planned national performance trials in six sites in Kenya. However, with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdowns, the activities by all stakeholders were all stopped.”

Bt maize has been genetically modified to produce a protein -safe for humans and other animals-but can kill the destructive stemborer insects that destroy maize crops. Bt crops have been shown to reduce pesticide use. Bt maize also often contains traits for drought tolerance, which can help increase productivity on farms by at least 10%.

It is Essential to Continue Moving Forward

Dr. Mwimali is worried the situation with COVID-19 will push back the expected time frame for commercializing GM maize for use by Kenya’s farmers. It is already being grown in South Africa, as well as the United States, Brazil, and Argentina, among other countries.

“It takes about 100-150 days to gain [government] approval but now it is taking longer and longer given the many requirements for a team of regulatory institutions to sit and approve the processes,” Dr. Mwimali explained. “This [approval] period may now double and the food and nutrition security of more than 80 percent of smallscale farmers will continue to suffer.”

Stakeholders, however, remain confident things will change in the months ahead as COVID-19-related lockdowns ease. Recently, Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and Fisheries, National Biosafety Authority, National Environment Management Authority, Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services, and other regulatory stakeholders have been meeting to brainstorm ways to proceed with the national performance trials on Bt maize.

“Despite the current COVID-19 situation, there is hope that the national performance trial activities on Bt maize will proceed with the teams observing the safety requirements by the Ministry of Health,” Dr. Mwimali said.

Dr. Rose Gidado, assistant director of the National Biotechnology Development Authority in Nigeria, said the situation there is no different. For some years now, the government has fast-tracked the adoption of GM crops and has approved Bt cotton and cowpea for commercialization.

Since last year, the multiplication of seeds has been ongoing to allow for the mass sale of GM seeds to farmers. But COVID-19 has slowed down activities so the farmer does not have access to the seeds. “The process is only affected by COVID-19 in terms of restricted movements, limited travels, and social distancing,” she told Dirt to Dinner. “You cannot do so much at this time. Things are moving at a slow pace.”

Dr. Gidado argues, however, that Nigeria needs GM crops now more than ever in the COVID-19 era.

“There is the need to step up production in order to measure up as well as prepare for the high demand for food in the country in the post-COVID-19 era,” Dr. Gidado said. “The potential for economic growth arising from the cultivation of genetically engineered crops in Nigeria is high with increased access to food, good health, and productivity. It will also attract foreign investments and earnings, leading to wealth creation.”

As the Nigerian government eases COVID-19 restrictions, work has begun to revive the GM crop commercialization processes. “We are still on track to produce GE cowpea,” she said. Insect-resistant cowpea is the country’s first GM food crop.

Complicated GMO regulations

The regulation of GM crops in much of the world is guided by the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, an international agreement currently ratified by about 170 countries to ensure the safe use of living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. The protocol requires that products arising out of technologies like genetic modification be regulated based on the precautionary principle, which requires that countries pause and review new technologies extensively before they are adopted.

A lot of countries have thus passed new legislation that lays out extensive, in-depth and complicated processes that need to be exhausted before GM crops are approved for use. When plant researchers finish breeding a new GM seed, it has to be taken through trials in confined areas, then contained trials on a fairly large scale. If it passes both of those reviews, then governments authorize an environmental release, which allows it to be grown by farmers in several areas of a country.

The next step is applying for commercialization so farmers can legally access and cultivate the seeds. It can take more than a decade, and tens of millions of dollars, to bring a GM crop to market.

In Ghana, efforts to allow for the commercialization of GM crops started more than 10 years ago but crystalized in 2011 with the passage of the National Biosafety Act to guide the process. In 2018, Ghanaian scientists completed field trials on the insect-resistant Bt cowpea, the country’s first GM crop variety. This GM crop is expected to help farmers dramatically reduce their use of pesticides, while also enjoying better yields of this important staple food. “When you look at the conventional seeds, you can spray as much as eight times (a season). But with the Bt, you spray only two times.

“Just the two sprays can confer resistance in Bt crops like the eight sprays in the conventional,” Dr. Mumuni Abdulai, principal investigator in charge of the Bt cowpea project, explained.

After years of additional background work following completion of tests on the varieties, scientists were hoping to zoom into the final approval processes by applying to the National Biosafety Authority for environmental release of the variety in the first half of 2020. But the process stalled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The document is ready for submission. Everything is ready…if not because of COVID-19, we would have done it by now.”

Burkina Faso is the third West African country, apart from Ghana and Nigeria, that is working to get the Bt cowpea variety into the hands of farmers. Burkina Faso is hoping to use the GM cowpea project to re-establish itself as a nation that puts science first after its government halted the cultivation of Bt cotton in 2015. But the Bt cowpea approval process has slowed down there, just as in Ghana and Nigeria.

Farmers in Burkina Faso are calling on the government to fast-track the approvals for Bt cowpea in response to COVID-19. Burkina Faso farmer Wiledio Naboho said COVID-19 has negatively impacted production this year and farmers are counting on GM crops to help them increase productivity.

“Really, COVID-19 has impacted us as farmers negatively,” Naboho said. “First, it’s limited our access to quality seeds. And also, the few [seeds] we have are sold at a high price. Secondly, access to food is limited because of lockdown… So, COVID-19 came to add more sorrow to my people. I can tell a lot of families don’t have food to feed themselves.”

Of the 53 countries in Africa, only South Africa, Eswatini, and South Sudan farmers are currently growing GM crops commercially. More than 20 nations are currently undertaking trials on about eight GM crops, including banana, cassava, and maize, in preparation for their introduction into the food supply. The research and approval processes have slowed down in virtually all these countries as a result of COVID-19.

Situations elsewhere

The challenge in Africa is being experienced in Asia, as well. In the Philippines, the COVID-19 pandemic has added energy and vigor to the activities of anti-science groups campaigning against Golden Rice, a GM rice variety rich in vitamin A, a nutrient to prevent blindness and other serious health challenges in millions of children. In December 2019, the Philippines Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry issued an official notice of permit approving Golden Rice for direct use in food, feed or processing.

In early August, the Stop Golden Rice Network launched its annual week-long line up of activities to protest plans to commercialize Golden Rice. “There are enough reasons to safely conclude that non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are exploiting the dire situation of our food system during COVID-19”, Mr. Cris Panerio, one of the coordinators of the campaign claimed, even though Golden Rice is a philanthropic endeavor.  Such re-invigorated campaigns linking COVID-19 and GM crops will make it more difficult for the authorities to introduce the lifesaving varieties.

In Bangladesh, following the success of genetically modified Bt brinjal (eggplant), the country is also researching Golden Rice, potatoes resistant to the devasting late blight disease and pest-resistant Bt cotton. Bt brinjal, which is the first GM crop developed by public sector scientists for farmers in South Asia, increased farmer income by $658 per hectare over the four years between 2014 and 2018. GM rice, potato, and cotton are expected to make an even higher and better impact on the population, but COVID-19 is now serving as a distraction against its approval.

“COVID-19 is having a grave impact in Bangladesh and soon we might have more positive cases than Italy. It has slowed down the whole system and our economy. So, the government has many burning priorities other than speeding up the process of research and development of Golden Rice and other biotech crops,” Arif Hossain, executive director of Farming Future Bangladesh, told Dirt to Dinner. “We hope that our research system will resume all its activities in full swing after this pandemic. But right at this moment, the government is giving priorities to production, mechanization, and market value chain, along with large scale subsidy programs for farmers and others engaged in agriculture.”

The opposite appears to be the case in some South American countries. Over the last few months, reports indicate that the transitional government in Bolivia has approved 5 GM crops, including sugar cane and cotton, as part of its efforts to boost agriculture during the pandemic. A pilot project for GM wheat is also being planned.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Mexico, a group of researchers at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León have begun work on using bioinformatics and computational genetic engineering to possibly produce a tomato that can deliver an edible COVID-19 vaccine. In the US, very little movement has been seen on the GM crop front since the pandemic broke. Europe continues to resist the technology, though the United Kingdom is considering its adoption as part of its break from the European Union.

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5 Foods to Promote A Healthy Brain

 

Whether you’re looking for quick information, or want something to impress your friends at dinner, here’s our Featured 5 of the Week!

Did you know that certain foods can help slow the cognitive decline of the brain, combating the onset of diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s? We’re here to tell you 5 things that you should consider adding into your diet to feed your brain! It’s called the MIND Diet!

5. Chicken and Turkey

Chicken and turkey are both lean meats with a lot of great benefits. They are excellent sources of protein, healthy fats, and essential vitamins and minerals, including vitamin B.

We’ve heard of the B vitamin providing our bodies with energy, but did you know it can also help the brain? Specifically, choline, which is found in both chicken and turkey, is a B vitamin that accelerates the body’s creation of acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is a protein and it carries signals to different brain cells. It’s extremely important for memory, muscle control, and other brain and nervous system functions.

Eating chicken and/or turkey just two times a week can help your body get the proper amounts of choline, between 425-550 mg/day, and help get your brain in top condition!

4. Wine

Who doesn’t love a glass of red wine at the end of the day? Well, now you can feel better about your relaxing drink because it actually has great benefits for your body!

Drinking just one glass of wine a day, specifically red wine, can help in many different ways. First, a glass of red wine can help improve insulin sensitivity. This can decrease your risk of both diabetes and high blood pressure. A glass of red wine can also help decrease inflammation in the body and clear away toxins from the brain, especially toxins that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

So go ahead and have that glass of wine after a long day! Just remember, wine contains a lot of sugar, so be mindful of how much you’re putting into your body.

3. Berries

Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries – they all have great health benefits, but what are their effects when it comes to our mind? Don’t worry, it’s all good news!

Berries have many antioxidant properties. They also contain anthoyanis, which are plant compounds that help decrease inflammation, and flavonoids, which help strengthen the brain’s neuron connections. Both of these, plus other properties in berries, can help prevent age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, and also strengthen motor and cognitive functions, including communication and memory.

In regards to a healthy mind, berries should be consumed around 2 times a week, and don’t be afraid to switch it up! Try different berries or eat them in different ways!

2. Leafy Greens and Other Veggies

When it comes to vegetables and leafy greens, the nutritional values are endless! These nutrient-packed plants deliver so much goodness to our bodies AND to our minds!

Veggies are full of vitamins and phytonutrients, including carotenoids, flavonoids, and ellagic acid. Many of these are needed to create sphingolipids, which is a type of fat that contains an amino acid called sphingosine. Sphingolipids can be found packed in our brain cells, especially in nerve cells. Here, they help with structural functions and protect the cells from outside factors.

Veggies are also rich in antioxidants, including carotene and folate, and contain many vitamins and minerals, including vitamin K. Aside from also contributing to sphingolipid function, vitamin K is also anti-inflammatory and promotes cell growth.

However, some say that too much vitamin K can have an adverse effect on cognitive performance, but more research is needed to make any conclusions, so keep eating your veggies at least once a day and exercising your brain!

1. Whole Grains

Whole grains, we know we need them, but we didn’t know we needed them for our brain power too! Whole grains, which include barley, oats, quinoa, and brown rice, have three parts. These three parts are the bran, which is the nutritious outer layer, the germ, or the nutrient-rich center, and the endosperm, which contains a lot of starchy carbs. In a whole grain, all three of these compounds are included.

Like many other of the foods we’ve discussed, whole grains are rich in B vitamins and are anti-inflammatory. They help with blood flow in the body, including blood flow to the brain, increasing cognitive functioning and help with memory. Whole grains also contain high amounts of magnesium, which aids in the ability of brain cells use of energy.

Try to stay away from foods like white rice and white bread, and substitute them with whole grains. Whole grains are tasty and consuming them 3 times a day can help protect your brain and other parts of the body!

 

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Around the World at My Local Restaurant

Finally getting out for a meal makes me appreciate our amazing food system even more than usual – and marvel at how important trade is to it, and to the consumers who depend upon it.

But once again, I realize that I am a junkie. I take great pride in being a true “global food junkie.”  I LIKE it. I’ve eaten in fine Parisian restaurants, a mud hut in Ethiopia, a vendor’s stall in Nigeria, a city square in Bangalore, a BBQ shack in Lexington, North Carolina, the famous Carnivore in Nairobi, a Soviet hotel ‘restaurant’ before the fall of the wall,  a village festival outside Sevilla, a field workers’ shack in Zimbabwe, a university food hall, a Singapore food market, a Boundary Waters’ campfire…and somehow, I’m still alive.

And here I am in my local restaurant. I’m not so much enjoying the excellent food, marveling at the choices available to me on this menu, slavering in anticipation of the sheer epicurean joy in what I will be served, or savoring the sweet satisfaction of seeing other people again. I find myself thinking that here in a small town in the rural south, in a modest typical country restaurant, I’m really dining out in a much bigger, more diverse world than I’ve ever fully appreciated. I’m truly dining out – dining out not on the town, but on the great big world.

You see, in this modest meal at a small eating place on North Green Street in zip code 28655, I’m consuming food that connects to an entire world of food. What I’m eating and drinking here tonight has links around the globe.

I don’t mean that I’m fascinated by the thought of eating Italian food, or maybe something from a Latin culture or maybe even Icelandic. What amazes me as I sit here and think about it are all the farmers, ranchers, processors, manufacturers, merchants, distributors, and countless other people that make up all the links and combinations possible in a food system that has become amazingly international.

Let your mind wander with me as we select our dinner….

To start…

Okay, I’ll pass on the pre-dinner cocktail. But on a warm summer evening in the south, a Mimosa sure would have been nice. If I had one, I’d be drinking orange juice from Florida. Or maybe Brazil. Brazil exports more than $1 billion in OJ each year – about 10 times what the United States sells abroad. Even some European countries export more orange juice than we do, so who knows where the juice in that particular drink might come from.

But I will have a nice salad. I know this restaurant likes to feature locally produced foods, especially the fresh vegetables that grow so abundantly around here. But when they aren’t available, where does it come from?  Maybe California, or Arizona, or Florida. But it also could be from lush fields in Mexico, or maybe Canada. We import cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, onions, squash, and a lot of other vegetables every year, from all across Latin and South America, and even China. If I add fresh and frozen fruit, the list of international suppliers is even longer. It’s a huge part of our food supply picture – about $9 billion each year in vegetables and produce, another $15 billion in fresh and frozen fruits.

I could have a small cup of gumbo to start instead, or maybe some of the fish stew this place is known for. That could include shrimp or bits of fish from across Asia or any number of other suppliers in the northern Atlantic and southern Pacific waters. The chunks of salmon in it might come not from Alaska but farms in the Nordic area. The sea bass could be from Chile. China, Norway, Sweden, Chile, Indonesia, India – all are major fish exporters to the world. We import about 90% of our seafood each year.

The dinner rolls in the basket on the table are made from wheat. I’d like to think the flour originated in the vast fields I’ve seen in the American Midwest. But the world trades just over 180 million tons of wheat each year. (Just for fun I did a quick mental calculation – that would give everyone in the world about 40 loaves of bread) so it must mean that wheat from the United States and a lot of other countries finds its way into bread everywhere. Consumers sitting at restaurants like I am tonight – or at home most other nights — could be eating wheat from Australia, Argentina, Canada, France, or Russia, or any of the 15 countries that account for over 90 percent of global wheat trade. Now the really mind-blowing part…

What should I have as my entrée?

I could go for the grilled salmon. That takes me back to the same international connections I made when contemplating the gumbo and fish stew. Salmon is the most-traded seafood in the world, after all. Almost $4 billion worth of salmon moves in international trade each year, as hungry consumers look for fresh and farmed supplies from Norway, Scotland, Chile, Russia, Canada, Japan, and other sources.

If I go for the nice sirloin on special tonight, I most likely will be eating a U.S.-produced cut of meat. But the Department of Agriculture acknowledges that perhaps 8 percent of our beef supply – and maybe a touch more, according to some — comes from outside our borders, probably Canada or Mexico, or Australia or lean meat from New Zealand.

If I go for the pork medallions, the international picture is even stronger. The United States imported $1.1 billion worth of pork in 2019. (Japan and China together imported over $9 billion worth, out of a global total of pork imports of $32 billion.)  Any way you look at it, that’s a lot of pig meat, so I can’t be surprised if some of it winds up on my plate.

If I go for the roasted chicken, the picture is more than a little convoluted. The United States is very good at producing poultry, and we export a lot of what we produce. Poultry is comparatively easy to produce in most parts of the world, albeit sometimes very inefficiently compared to our modern methods. But as much as 12 percent of global poultry meat consumption still depends on trade, according to USDA statistics.

Feeding what kind of mouths?

Which reminds me… the global food system really provides for a lot more than my needs or just human needs.

Our food system has to feed a lot more than human mouths, you realize. Corn and soybeans flow in an almost endless stream around the world to feed the cattle, pigs, chickens and other animals people demand for their tables. More than 70 billion – yes, billion – animals go to market each year around the world, not counting fish and other aquaculture. Corn, soybeans, and other feed grains and oils from the United States, Europe, South America, and other regions around the world keep their food flowing, too. And without that flow, providing the animal protein everyone wants simply wouldn’t be possible. I very likely wouldn’t have the choices available to me on this menu.

But let’s get back to my dinner…

Even the salt and pepper on the table have their global links. The world trades pepper worth over $4 billion each year. The United States is the largest pepper importer in the world, most coming from Vietnam, the largest exporter. If I want more exotic spices – say, those hot peppers I like so much, or even vanilla or oregano or sesame seeds or cinnamon, I have to look to suppliers outside the United States, too. My mind paused as I am now going way back to 130 BCE, thinking of the Silk Road which opened up trade between the East and West.

The global salt trade is even larger, although much of that is used in de-icing and industrial uses, not just for food purposes. The world’s leading exporter of salt is the Netherlands, selling about $278 million worth of salt into export markets in 2018. Germany sold another $206 million, Chile $189 million. This simple staple of life, which I so easily can take for granted, could have originated from 20 different countries, including my own.

The sugar and sweeteners in front of me tell a similar story. Sugar can come from beets or cane and is produced around the world. India and Brazil duke it out most years for the top-producer spot, but the European Union and various sub-tropical countries also contribute to a global sugar trade that normally runs about 55 million tons each year.  I am going back to my mental math and figured all that sugar would give everyone in the world 164 cans of Coca-Cola. Demand for sugar is so strong that China still imports large quantities every year, despite being the fifth largest sugar producer in the world (an estimated 10.6 million tons in 2019.)

Even if I grab the Stevia on the table as an alternative, I’m using a product that originates from the leaves of a shrub that grows in Argentina – or even China.

It all makes my head spin. So maybe I’ll skip the dessert, as enticing as the marble cake and its legendary chocolate icing (from cocoa beans that could be grown in Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, or even Mexico) may be.

Instead, I’ll go for a nice, soothing cup of tea to cap the meal. But do I select a tea grown in India or China? Maybe Japan or Sri Lanka, or Indonesia?

Maybe the main point I should focus on is actually fairly simple.  As much as we depend on our local food supplies, for a variety of practical and personal reasons, we live in an inter-connected global food system. The vast majority of the foods we consume every day have some direct or indirect connection to the world of global food trade. I’m really dining OUT!!!

What Trade Makes Possible

How did this happen?  Why did we create such a complex and amazingly efficient way of feeding ourselves?

It comes down to economics. International markets assure a steady supply of whatever food we want, whenever we want it, at the best price. It exists so everyone can have exactly what they want, when they want it, without regard for the local growing season or capacity to produce everything such a robust food offering demands. It makes it possible for me to have such an incredible selection of great food, year-round, at affordable prices, right here on North Green Street, or in my home.

We created a marvelous interlocking system of continuous gratification made possible by trade. Trade is the backbone of our modern food system, whether we think about it or not.

No wonder I’m a food junkie. No wonder my head spins. The global food system puts such a variety and quality in front of me every single day. Who could resist?

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Shrimp Scampi

Looking for something YUM for dinner, a side dish to elevate your entrée, or healthfully satisfy your sweet tooth? Check out our list of tried and true recipes  – you won’t be disappointed 😉

Want some free D2D stuff? Post a photo of your creation on instagram or twitter!

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Learning to live with – or without – Ethanol *Click for poll results!*

For several decades, we have watched a sometimes animated debate about ethanol – the alcohol made from plants such as corn and sugarcane that the government has mandated we add to gasoline used by the cars and other vehicles we drive every day. We built a big processing industry to produce ethanol, mostly from the corn that the United States produces so well and so abundantly.

On the surface, it seemed to make a lot of sense. It used a renewable resource. It helped us reduce dependence on foreign oil imports. It was supposed to be good for the air and our environment. It helped prop up corn prices and injected a lot of money into the rural economy.

But over the years, I couldn’t help but have this not-so-vague sense that something might not be quite right. More and more scientists popped up to debate the so-called environmental benefits. Engineers warned of the effects of ethanol on machinery. Lower-cost petroleum costs made ethanol increasingly non-economic. Experts argued the whole system might have net energy costs more than net energy gains. In addition, producing ethanol costs more to the environment than saving it.

To add to my unease, it simply bothered me enormously that we were devoting four of every 10 acres of the corn we produce to feeding machines, not people or animals. I kept asking myself a lot of questions. Is ethanol still the right thing to do? Have changes in the world around us made ethanol less appealing and less practical? Am I being told the complete story, or only a story cranked out by a well-funded, aggressive PR machine?

What’s the real story behind ethanol today?

What is ethanol, anyway?

In simple terms, ethanol is a form of alcohol – a volatile liquid produced from the natural fermentation of sugars. It’s been around for literally thousands of years, often used as a recreational beverage – also known as moonshine. It’s made from a very wide variety of plants – anything containing the starch and cellulose that provide sugars for fermentation.

Sugarcane is a common source material in production of ethanol in South America and other locations.

But in America, by far the most common source is good old corn.

Several decades ago, with growing concern everywhere about both our dependence on foreign energy sources and the protection of our environment, lawmakers found a way to make corn a part of the public-policy response. Lawmakers rushed to bring a vibrant ethanol industry to life. Tax breaks, subsidies, grants, loan guarantees – all these and more emerged to stimulate ethanol production. Farmers responded by making investments in a productive capacity. Investors poured massive amounts of money into new processing plants, handling equipment, and other necessary production tools.

Today, the ethanol industry appears to be on shaky ground. Competing commodity prices made the raw material for ethanol processes that much less competitive, tightening their operating margins. Lower gas prices have cut demand for ethanol substantially. Production plants, key economic cornerstones of rural communities, are seeking new markets or new products to produce. Some are closing down, and many are up for sale.

At the same time, the United States has stepped up its energy independence with fracking and other energy-development initiatives. Pandemic stay-at-home orders added to the problem by drastically reducing gasoline demand. By April 2020, production had dropped by almost half from its peak earlier in the year. Almost a third of ethanol plants had shut down, and another third were operating on reduced schedules.

What’s the right future for ethanol?

Ethanol critics argue for radical change – or an end to the program. To critics, ethanol’s day has passed and we should be glad.

  • Ethanol is non-economic and a drain on taxpayers. Even in the heyday of our fight to reduce dependence on foreign oil imports, we still had to pay ethanol producers (not the farmers) tens of billions in all sorts of subsidies and incentives to keep them afloat.
  • With oil prices below the cost of ethanol, ethanol no longer lowers gas prices. Our domestic energy production picture and global markets tell us we don’t need to mandate the addition of a more expensive component to gasoline.
  • A 10-percent ethanol blend in our gasoline may actually hinder rather than help fuel economy. The biofuels industry has long claimed that the ethanol blend can boost mileage by 1-3 percent. But some reports – including figures from the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy – contend the 10-percent ethanol blend can reduce fuel economy by 3-4 percent, and a 15 percent blend by as much as 4-5 percent. We could be adding as much as $10 billion to the fuel bill for American consumers, according to the Institute for Energy Research.
  • The energy gains from ethanol are illusory. Some studies contend that it takes as much as 29 percent more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than to produce a gallon of gasoline. The energy needed to refine ethanol may be greater than the energy it delivers.
  • Ethanol artificially raises commodity prices, and the prices consumers pay for food. Analysts at the Congressional Budget Office estimate that consumers may pay an additional $3.5 billion for food as a result of the program and its effect on commodity prices.
  • It’s more about politics than anything else. The ethanol program had at its core a desire to provide an appealing economic opportunity for a group very important to politicians seeking rural votes, especially in key primary election states.

But there’s another side to the debate. Ethanol supporters challenge many of the criticisms and point to other critical considerations. Supporters of ethanol say the rural economy needs ethanol more than ever – and so do food consumers, even if they don’t realize it.

  • We’re in too deep to quit now. Our country has made massive commitments to the ethanol industry, in good faith. We have invested literally billions of dollars in plants and equipment, and in the production tools and systems we need to serve a huge market for a crop critical to farmers and our economy. Farmers have built ethanol into their production and marketing plans and their budgeting. We just can’t let that investment go down the tubes.
  • Farmers need a vibrant ethanol industry for their economic security. Rural communities need the money generated by the industry up and down Main Street America. Investors need to know they can continue to place their money – and faith – in building a multifaceted agricultural system.
  • The ethanol industry is about a lot more than energy. By-products from its production have multiple other uses – such as livestock feed additives, other forms of alcohol, and other potential fuels, not to mention things like hand sanitizer and disinfectants. There is more at stake here for consumers than just fuel for our cars and other vehicles.
  • Economic risks to farmers and rural America from Covid make ethanol more important than ever. We need to make the investment – government and taxpayer dollars – necessary to preserving this critical element of our farm economy. We need to do that just as much as we need to keep Main Street restaurants and other businesses alive during a pandemic, using the same government tools and resources. In comparison to what we are spending to deal with Covid-19, the ethanol program is small change.
  • The energy picture can change quickly. The global and national energy picture isn’t carved in stone. The fracking industry is on edge because of low prices. Oil markets are in turmoil. The global economy eventually will open up and begin growing again – and energy demand will grow with it.
  • We must protect our environment in every way we can. Cutting greenhouse emissions should be a priority, and ethanol can help us do exactly that. Ethanol has real, important advantages over petroleum, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent compared to those of traditional gasoline. That alone makes the industry worth special effort to preserve it.
  • We should exploit our natural advantages. Producing ethanol from corn is another way to exploit the natural advantage the United States has in producing corn. U.S. farmers are the most productive corn farmers in the world. Maintaining an ethanol industry just helps us use that capability to our advantage.
  • Consumers need the healthy farm sector ethanol helps provide. Ethanol provides the economic support needed to keep many of the 400,000 farmers who grow corn in business. It helps them make the necessary investments in producing crops critical to our food system, and in the technology and equipment needed to drive continuing improvements in operational efficiency – and the lower food costs that come with them.

So which way forward?

We asked what you thought is the best solution: maintain the current ethanol program…or disassemble it? Below are your responses, and some of you even offered some alternative solutions worthy of serious consideration. Stay tuned to see your ideas implemented into our next ethanol post…it’s already in the works.

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Making the Case for Sustainable Aquaculture

While fish is still a secondary choice in protein in the U.S., coming in behind poultry, beef, and pork, it is projected to be a growing industry. How can we ensure our seafood comes from sustainable fish farms, like those in Europe, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia? And how will domestic production react to this need for more local, sustainable, and traceable ways to farm fish?

When it comes to seafood, the average American diet is about as limited as it gets.

We eat salmon, crabs, lobsters, shrimp, and scallops and that’s about it for most people, with some pollack and cod thrown in for good measure. You’re likely to get far more variety in a bowl of seafood stew at a restaurant than you do in the typical American’s seafood diet.

Not only do we lack variety, but volume as well. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average American consumed a little over 16 pounds of seafood in 2018. Although that figure has been steadily rising for several years, it still pales in comparison to the 94 pounds of chicken, 58 pounds of beef, and 52 pounds of pork we consume every year.

The Food Marketing Institute’s 2019 Power of Seafood Survey found that 56% of Americans eat seafood twice a month. Freshness, flavor, and information about the product all play a major role in the decision to buy a piece a fish at the grocery store, along with the understanding of how to cook and enjoy it once they get home.

Some recent studies have suggested that a large and growing segment of the U.S. is interested in eating more shellfish and finfish (the industry term for fish like salmon and cod), provided they can find it at a price and quality they expect. This aligns with the EAT-Lancet Commission, as they fully support increasing seafood consumption for a healthy diet – as long as it’s sustainable.

Farmed fish – a “cleaner” option?

“The global demand for fish protein in people’s diets is growing and will continue to grow,” says Jacob Bartlett, CEO of Whole Oceans, a company raising sustainable Atlantic salmon in land-based facilities in Maine.

Companies like Whole Oceans hope to benefit from the rise of responsible fish farming by offering cleaner, more sustainable seafood than is commonly available from today’s aquaculture producers.

There has long been a difference between farmed and wild-caught when it comes to seafood. Many consumers perceive that wild-caught products are “cleaner” and more sustainable. Farmed fish, however, has a reputation more associated with dirty pens, sick fish, and an overuse of antibiotics to compensate for all this. In reality though, wild-caught fish is fraught with sustainability issues and farmed fish can be a clean alternative – depending on its country of origin.

To be fair, there are environmental pros and cons to wild and farmed seafood. Though wild-caught fish require fewer resources, it’s not a long-term alternative – 90% of wild-caught fish are either fully or overfished. Aquaculture – done safely and sustainably – is a great way to support a healthy diet and a healthy environment.

An unsustainable system

As of 2018, wild-caught and aquaculture (farmed) seafood each made up roughly half of the world’s fish consumption. But that balance is expected to tilt increasingly toward farmed fish, which is easier to scale and overall more sustainable. Major grocers like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have been actively promoting its benefits to their customers.

But it hasn’t always been this way.

Aquaculture, or fish farming, was a $169 billion global industry as of 2015, and that’s on track to exceed $242 billion by 2022. It produces more than 80 million metric tons of fish annually from some 580 aquatic species and employs roughly 26 million workers around the world.

From 1990 to 2018, we’ve experienced:

+14% Rise in global capture fisheries production

+527% Rise in global aquaculture production

+122% Rise in total food fish consumption

Despite its size, however, the industry is largely concentrated in central and southeast Asia, with China dominating overall production, followed by Vietnam, India, Thailand, and others. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for more than 85% of all aquaculture production, followed by Africa at 10% and Latin America and the Caribbean at 4%.

The U.S. ranks surprisingly low in aquaculture production at 17th in the world as of 2017, which equates to just 0.2% of total production. This is no surprise because the U.S. imports more than 80% of the seafood we eat. Most of the imports – in the order of volume – are shrimp, Atlantic salmon, tilapia, and shellfish.

90% of the shrimp that Americans eat is imported from facilities in southeast Asia, while the vast majority of the farmed tilapia sold in this country comes from Latin America and Asia. Canada, Norway, Scotland, and Chile supply most of the salmon. Typically, smaller, more resilient species – tilapia, carp, trout, and salmon – are farmed, as their feed-to-growth ratio has been optimized through research and development.

No matter the farmed species, practices vary by country…and that’s part of the problem. Lax government oversight of the industry in countries like China, which make up the majority of all aquaculture producers, has created a two-tiered system: places like the U.S., Europe, Canada and elsewhere with industry practices with strict quality and environmental regulations, and those where the industry regulations are under-enforced.

Murky farming practices

This part of the aquaculture industry has a well-earned reputation for environmental contamination, poor working conditions, and poor health conditions for its fish. Raised in large, open-water pools, many of these unregulated farms are a hotbed for disease and pollution, and the chemicals and antibiotics often used to control these problems leach out into surrounding waters, affecting the local ecosystem, and just generally making matters worse.

That’s to say nothing about the working conditions at these facilities. For one thing, the parts of Southeast Asia – and now Africa – where much fish farming is conducted are a known hotbed for human trafficking, and a 2018 report by Human Rights Watch found widespread abuse in Thailand’s fishing industry, where migrants from all over the region are effectively sold into modern-day slavery.

Though the wild-caught seafood industry doesn’t have the safest labor practices, either. Because most fishing takes place in international waters, few regulations exist to keep the industry and its workers safe. It’s easy to exploit a vulnerable crew when out on the open seas for weeks at a time.

It’s a grim picture…no one wants to eat fish that was packed into filthy open-water pens, fed a diet of farm waste, and hopped up on antibiotics before being harvested, processed, frozen, and flown halfway around the world to market.

These practices raised questions as recently as 2012, when it was reported that fish being fed a diet of pig waste was being sold to the U.S. market. Contaminants ranging from fish waste to antibiotic-enhanced feed, to parasites, chemicals, and more have been known to leak out of open-water facilities, impacting wild populations in the area.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, farmed species can even escape from their pens and interbreed with local wild stocks, throwing off the gene pool and further spreading disease.

Higher quality comes at a price

Proper regulation and safe working conditions are costly, positioning quality fish against the prices that many of these international producers can offer for their seafood. Higher quality operators in the U.S. and elsewhere are finding it difficult to compete.

It’s no wonder that the idea of fresh, healthy seafood is so foreign to most Americans.

“Our seafood supply chain is worse than broken”, says Eric Pedersen, founder of Ideal Fish, which is raising branzino fish in Connecticut in a sealed, land-based facility that hopes to bridge this gap by shortening the supply chain to reduce costs.

“We almost have no domestic seafood supplies. Almost everything we eat in the U.S. has been imported from abroad, flown thousands of miles, which means a tremendous diminution in the quality, freshness, and shelf life of the seafood.”

At the same time, Pedersen says, often we don’t even know where it’s coming from. Neither do the retailers we’re buying it from and the restaurants that are preparing it.

“You walk into most grocery stores and go to the seafood counter and it’s a sad experience,” he says.

Traceability is another concern that domestic aquaculture providers are working to overcome. As it stands today, most people know very little about the seafood they eat. Wild-caught fish often goes straight from the boat to a wholesale fish market, either locally or in cities such as New York and Seattle, where most seafood enters the U.S.

From there, it can go anywhere, from restaurants to grocery suppliers, to meatpacking and more. Fish buyers are a knowledgeable bunch, often tasked by their employers to identify and purchase products that are fresh and healthy, but that information is lost once that fish is loaded onto trucks for their next step in the process.

Farming – a solution

By leveraging fish farming to source some of this fish, proponents hope to introduce new layers of traceability to this traditional system. Fish sourced from a particular facility and bound for a particular customer can be tagged and traced, from pool to plate, using everything from blockchain technology to direct sales, in ways that the fragmented fish supply chain never has before.

That’s why there has been a push in recent years for more aquaculture production in countries where it can be produced with more regulatory oversight such as Norway, Canada, and the U.S. (the U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees aquaculture operations in this country).

In May 2020, President Trump issued an executive order promoting American seafood competitiveness and economic growth to create jobs while eliminating illegal, unreported, and unsustainable wild-caught or farmed fish. This order also prompted offshore aquaculture as another solution for sustainable fish, resulting in the NOAA developing two out of the ten designated Aquaculture Opportunity Areas to develop fisheries.

Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping consumers and businesses make choices for a healthy ocean. They even have a smartphone app consumers can access while food shopping.

Ryan Bigelow, Senior Program Manager with Monterey Bay says, “There’s increasing interest in knowing more about our food, having local sources, and aquaculture could certainly fill that niche.”

He’s quick to admit that U.S.-based producers won’t be able to compete on price due to the costs associated with running sustainable, regulated facilities, but the truth is we as consumers should also be questioning our consumption habits.

“That $15 all-you-can-eat shrimp plate, how is that possible?” Bigelow asks. “What’s happening in those pens, on that production line, that makes it possible to raise an animal on the other side of the world and ship it over for less than it costs to grow here?”

As with many things, the COVID-19 outbreak brought this reality into stark relief. Why is the U.S. relying so much on a hazy, underground seafood supply chain involving thousands of international suppliers when the technology exists to farm fish safely and sustainably here at home, or in countries that take pride in their aquaculture production?

Due to the gross lack of safety standards in some of the countries we import from, the FDA in recent years has discovered chemicals, carcinogens, antibiotics (often expired), and pesticides. Even more alarmingly, of the imported seafood, the FDA inspects less than 1% of it. And of that 1% the U.S. regularly rejects 50 to 60% of imports.

What can you do? 

While regulations are being updated to increase imported food inspections to ensure quality, and efficacy, there are things we can do at the consumer level:

  • Check out Seafood Watch, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Guide – use their app at the seafood counter and see what you learn while you shop!
  • Look for packaging with Aquaculture Stewardship Council and Global Aquaculture Alliance labels that certify sustainable farms and seek out operations with best aquaculture practices worldwide
  • Beware of misleading statements on packaging, like “Prepared for” or “Packed by”, as this may not be the country of origin. Instead look for labels showing the fish are from the U.S., Canada, the European Union, Australia, or New Zealand as these countries have some of the safest seafood regulations.
  • Know your fish market! Buying from a local, trustworthy fishmonger can help to ensure the highest quality, as they will do the label and country sourcing for you.
  • Consider buying shrimp sourced from the U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico – it’ll be more expensive, but you can feel good about its quality and production.
  • Vary your seafood choices. Lower food-chain fish, like anchovies and sardines, are smaller and have had less time to accumulate contaminants than larger fish. Add farmed bivalve shellfish – oysters, clams, and mussels, to this list – eating lower trophic farmed fish is good for the environment and healthy for you.
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5 Benefits of Blueberries

Whether you’re looking for quick information or want something to impress your friends at dinner, here’s our Featured 5 of the Week!

Blueberries – they’re known as a Superfood due to their high nutritional benefits. We know they’re good for us, but what’s going on in those tiny berries? We’re here to tell you!

5. Help Strengthen Bones

Blueberries contain a ton of micronutrients, including iron, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and more. Almost every micronutrient found in a blueberry is also found in our bones!

A study done on polyphenol intake from berries – including blueberries – on bone aging showed that polyphenols from berries had a positive effect on bone mass, leading to a decrease in the potential risk of age-related bone loss.

So, whether you suffer from low bone density or just want to make sure you can keep up with your kids and grandkids down the road, blueberries may be a great, natural source of polyphenol!

4. Low in Calories, High in Fiber

The million-dollar question – what snacks can I eat that are low in calories? Blueberries!

Blueberries are 85% water, and a cup of blueberries is only 84 calories. Now, we know that sometimes we need a little bit more to fuel our bodies and get through the day. BUT, the best thing about this low-calorie snack is that they are high in fiber – around 4 grams per cup!

We need fiber to keep us full throughout the day, which is another reason why blueberries are a great choice for your mid-afternoon snack…or at any time of the day!

3. Lower Cholesterol

We hear about cholesterol all the time, and most of us only know that Cheerios lower it because of the commercial. But blueberries are also a good choice if you want to lower your cholesterol!

A study conducted on both healthy people and those with existing metabolic problems examined if the polyphenols in blueberries had positive effects on lowering cardiovascular risk. They found that eating this fruit, among others, led to significant improvements in LDL “bad” cholesterol oxidation. Oxidative stress means there’s an excess of free radicals, which can damage cells. By preventing this in LDL “bad” cholesterol, it lowers one’s risk of heart disease.

Protect your cholesterol not with Cheerios, but with heart-healthy blueberries!

2. Anti-Inflammatory

Blueberries are an anti-inflammatory because they contain flavonoids, which can mean a lot of different (but good) things.

First, it means that blueberries can help boost our immune system. It’s important to note that we need some inflammation to protect ourselves from injury and infection. However, too much is not a good thing. Blueberries allow our bodies to fight against infection by lowering the excess inflammation that leads to poor blood circulation and other negative consequences.

Second, it means blueberries lower our risk of diet-related illnesses, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. When our bodies consume a lot of fat, our arteries run the risk of becoming inflamed, which inhibits good blood circulation. We need good blood circulation, especially to our brain and heart. Because blueberries are anti-inflammatory, they protect us against the diseases that come from a bad diet.

Third, it means blueberries are good for our brains! The same flavonoids that are anti-inflammatory are also needed for healthy brain function. In the brain, flavonoids help strengthen neuron connections, promoting healthy communication.

If you are at risk of developing a diet-related illness or Alzheimer’s, adding blueberries to your diet is one way to help protect yourself!

1. Antioxidants

Everything we’ve talked about above all comes down to the fact that blueberries are indeed an Antioxidant Superfood!

We learned above that free radicals can be potentially harmful to our bodies, leading to oxidative stress and an increase in LDL “bad” cholesterol. But, in a study done by Ronald Prior, they measured the plasma antioxidant capacity (AOC) of volunteers to see if foods with rich antioxidant properties were able to lower the level of free radicals in the body.

They found that when volunteers consumed a half-cup of berries, including blueberries, there was a distinct climb in AOC. There have been a few studies in animals that show the consumption of antioxidants can lower the amount of free radicals in the bodies, but less have been done on humans.

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5G’s Revolution: Will Ag be Ready?

Cropduster airplanes are a familiar sight in the skies over farms worldwide — spreading fertilizers, surveying crops, and keeping an eye on cattle herds. But, as drones and other unmanned aerial systems have grown in popularity, innovative companies have begun finding new uses for these “eyes in the sky.”

One example is SlantRange, a company based in San Diego that is working to improve agricultural efficiency and productivity by flying drones over farms and using remote sensing and analytics to provide on-demand crop performance data and real-time insights. Agriculture producers are using its platform to better target their precision ag efforts, doing everything from measuring stress conditions across fields, determining plant sizes, surveying infestations, and more.

It’s a powerful tool, but it’s facing one significant challenge: connectivity.

“At a bare minimum, we’re using imagery that can distinguish individual leaves in the field,” explains SlantRange CEO and co-founder Michael Ritter. “To do that, we’re talking about a resolution on the order of a centimeter or smaller, and that translates into several gigabytes of raw data per acre.”

Many farms, especially those in remote agricultural regions with poor internet service, just aren’t yet ready to handle this type of network load. To date, SlantRange has used mobile computing solutions – effectively setting up a local network in a truck and parking it near the field while its drone works to support the connection – but there is a better solution on the horizon that could throw open the doors to advanced new applications for agriculture: 5G.

With this next-generation technology, the company hopes to make “digital farming” a reality, implementing state-of-the-art cost and time-saving solutions, like:

  • Cameras capable of up to 5x the resolution of today’s hardware
  • Sensors that gather spectral band information to isolate key markers of plant health
  • Imagery that adapts to sunlight and weather conditions to ensure accurate prescription management and forecasting

All these benefits will make farming much more efficient. Less chemical applications, better crop knowledge, more efficient water usage, better crop breeding information.

What is 5G?

There has been a lot of talk around 5G in the news lately, but little discussion of the actual definition. Right now, your voice, the photos you share, and all data that leaves your computer travels through the atmosphere. It is all in one piece when it leaves your phone and computer – but then travels in a disarray of atoms through the air. It must come together in a readable or listable form at the receiving end.

The best way to explain this technology is to think of Legos. Legos, you say? Yes. Visualize 4G as a simple Lego airplane. It leaves intact, the parts fly through the air separately, and then must be put together right before it lands. Now take a table-sized Lego spaceship. 5G will allow this complex structure to leave, disassemble, fly through the air, and come together much faster than the airplane. The real value of 5G is that massive amounts of data will be transmitted through the air and at faster speeds.

At the most basic level, 5G is the fifth-generation mobile network that debuted in 2019, replacing the 4G networks that provide data connectivity to most current smartphones and mobile devices. Its big selling point is capacity and speed. 5G will extend high-speed mobile service into new areas, effectively bringing full, uninterrupted internet experiences to every customer – regardless of the rural destination. Farmers will be able to have instant access to all the crop, soil, and weather information on their fields.

Think of 5G like Wi-Fi, but instead of being tethered to your home or office, it’s available everywhere – all the time.

5G is expected to positively affect all industries, but may have a greater impact on the food industry, in particular. Logistics can finally go digital, supply chain tracking can be fully realized, energy companies will have better insights into the grid, and much more. 

5G on the farm

5G will be especially groundbreaking on the farm. “5G technology will allow farmers to cultivate their crops in a more ecologically responsible manner,” says Ryan Douglas, a cultivation consultant who works with cannabis companies. Access to this type of connectivity will greatly improve producers’ ability to track inventory, which is of particular concern for cannabis companies that need to keep up with regulatory tracking demands.”

But regulatory tracking is just the beginning. Douglas continues, “Drones equipped with 5G technology can be used to monitor large outdoor crops for nutrient deficiencies, pest infestations, and disease outbreaks. Problem areas can then be spot-treated, instead of applying fertilizer or pesticides to the entire crop.”

It will also enable 24/7 drone monitoring of fields, allowing farmers to pinpoint the exact moment to harvest based on supply chain needs and adjust fertilizer and irrigation needs on a plant-by-plant basis to maximize yields. Real-time soil analysis can help producers decide where and when to plant to ensure the best possible crop for their current and expected conditions, while autonomous tractors can manage the harvest themselves, circling the fields while the farmer sleeps based on data being gathered and analyzed by remote sensors.

Implementation in the Field

While the agriculture industry has been slow to adopt other new technologies, 5G is coming along at a good time, after many farmers have adopted farm management software, 4G sensors, and other new tools. They’ve seen the power of these platforms; the expanded bandwidth of 5G will only make them better.

Dr. Kuang-Ching Wang, a professor of engineering at Clemson University who was involved in the development of the first-generation Internet, explains, “we have been working closely with agriculture to push a vision of the future of food production, all the way from building smart farms, to connecting them through these new networking technologies, to all the other systems technologies that will be built on top of these network capabilities. Our goal is to make agricultural production much more efficient and also to integrate artificial intelligence into this whole picture.”

5G can bring a lot of promising applications to life, he says, by focusing on data-enabled systems to help make agriculture more efficient. For example, when developing smart farms, it’s one thing to invest in farm robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT). But, how do you deploy massive numbers of sensors into your environment and then consume the data that they collect right there? Not in an office somewhere, but right in the field. You need a powerful remote connection to make that happen.

It’s the same with automated agriculture. The technology exists to gather sensor data and manage automated harvesting systems, but it will take 5G coverage to get those robots all talking to each other and the farmer.

A number of startups are working to solve this problem, and legacy brands like John Deere are on board, as well, partnering last year with Verizon to expand the 5G use cases for agriculture. This built on John Deere’s 2017 acquisition of Blue River, an artificial intelligence company that is now developing new machine learning, deep learning, and robotics tools for the company’s farm equipment.

Challenges remain

There’s a lot of promise here, but another problem exists: 5G is just part of the puzzle. To get these new ag applications off the ground, the underlying fiber optic networks will have to be extended out to rural areas, as well. In addition, all the sensors that capture the data will have to be upgraded to handle the speed and data capacity.

“It’s a whole ecosystem that has to be transformed,” says Dr. Wang. “But the promising note is that we do see these efforts happening, not just driven by the 5G industry but rather by this new global awareness of the data-driven future of agriculture.

Getting the fiber to the farms is difficult, but there are some projects underway to make it happen.”

This includes the National Science Foundations’ Broadband 2021 effort to boost broadband infrastructure, as well as the $400 million the organization committed in 2016 in support of the White House’s Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, which continues to fund new wireless technologies and applications to support widespread adoption and more robust networks for commercial use. And in December 2019, the United States Department of Agriculture made $550 million in funding available to deploy high-speed broadband internet infrastructure in rural areas across the country. Just this month, the Federal Communications Commission voted to offer $16 billion in subsidies for rural broadband buildouts this year as part of its Rural Digital Opportunities Fund.

“There is a clear consensus that, for us, the next challenge is really not about just pushing a faster network or cooler applications in the cities,” Dr. Wang says, “but rather how you bring together complete broadband capabilities, including the rural communities.”

But is 5G Safe?

Further challenges exist within the field of personal safety.  Because the emerging 5G technology is essentially packed with higher levels of energy radiation than 4G, the major fear is the potentially adverse health effects on humans and animals.

The most pressing question that scientific and health organizations, like the World Health Organization, are currently exploring is finding out if the type of radiation emitted by 5G is safe non-ionizing waves, like radio waves and infrared, or harmful ionizing waves, like x-rays and gamma rays. Current studies on 5G’s radiation type are not clear cut.

Even if 5G emits non-ionizing radiation, we still have to consider how much more radiation we’ll be exposed to. The Environmental Health Trust believes that currently, “5G will require the buildout of literally hundreds of thousands of new wireless antennas in neighborhoods, cities and towns.” However, according to Dr. Steve Novella, a professor at Yale, and editor of Science Based Medicine, the amount of radiation we are talking about is a frequency less than light. “You go out in the sun, and you’re bathed in electromagnetic radiation that’s far greater than these 5G cell towers.”

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Roasted Broccoli

Looking for something YUM for dinner, a side dish to elevate your entrée, or healthfully satisfy your sweet tooth? Check out our list of tried and true recipes  – you won’t be disappointed 😉

Want some free D2D stuff? Post a photo of your creation on instagram or twitter!

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Homemade Pizza

Looking for something YUM for dinner, a side dish to elevate your entrée, or healthfully satisfy your sweet tooth? Check out our list of tried and true recipes  – you won’t be disappointed 😉

Want some free D2D stuff? Post a photo of your creation on instagram or twitter!

pizza

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5 Sunscreen Ingredients to Avoid

 

Whether you’re looking for quick information, or want something to impress your friends at dinner, here’s our Featured 5 of the Week!

We all love to spend time outdoors during the summer, which is why it’s always a good idea to have sunscreen on hand and ready to go. However, did you know that there are ingredients used in some sunscreens that may be more harmful than they are beneficial? We’re here to tell you which ones to avoid!

5. Homosalate

Homosalate is a chemical used in sunscreen in order to help the body absorb it. This is due to the fact that avobenzone, the main ingredient in sunscreen, can’t protect our skin on its own.

Some negative effects that studies have found is that, since homosalate is absorbed into the skin, overuse can cause it to become toxic because our bodies can’t get rid of it faster than it accumulates. Homosalate has also been shown in some studies to negatively impact reproductive hormones in both men and women.

Many added chemicals in sunscreens are seen as endocrine disruptors, however, sunscreen advocates say this only happens when it is excessively used.

4. Octinoxate

Octinoxate is a chemical that is commonly used in sunscreen. Although we do not know the exact effects this ingredient could have, it’s been shown to have some harmful effects.

Octinoxate was created in the 1950s as a way to protect skin from UV rays. It comes in many different names, such as octyl methoxycinnamate, escalol, and neo heliopan. The FDA placed a restriction on the amount of octinoxate that’s allowed, which is a 7.5% at max.

Probably the most harmful effect that octinoxate has been seen to have is on reproductive organs. This includes causing a lower sperm count and changing the size of the uterus. It’s also been found to be an endocrine disruptor, which means that it can disrupt hormones and threaten a fetus in a pregnant woman or a newborn baby.

It’s good to note that these studies have mainly been conducted on animals. Effects could be different on humans, however, it’s better to be safe than sorry!

3. Octocrylene

Octocrylene is most beneficial when used with other UV-ray protectants.

Studies have been conducted to see if octocrylene is an endocrine disruptor, like octinoxate. Researchers have found that, if the concentration of octocrylene does not exceed 10%, it should not cause any harmful effects in humans. However, it is still a photosensitizer, which means that it increases free radical production in our skin, which could increase our risk of skin cancer and premature aging.

The real concern with octocrylene is associated with our aquatic life. In fish and other aquatic life, octocrylene can cause problems with development, damage to DNA, and negative effects on the reproductive system. Higher than normal amounts of octocrylene have even been found in seafood that we consume.

2. Avobenzone

Avobenzone is the main active ingredient in sunscreens, however, it’s broken down in the sun in about 30 minutes, making its effectiveness seem questionable.

Avobenzone wouldn’t be able to protect us as well if it weren’t for the added chemicals we’ve listed in this article. These chemicals put together create the UV-ray skin protectant we want and need. However, it’s hard to believe that overuse of any chemicals on our bodies is a good thing.

The Journal of the American Medical Association found in their study that avobenzone, along with other chemicals in sunscreens, absorbs in the body through the skin. However, they said more research is needed to make any conclusions and that people should continue to use sunscreen.

Other studies have shown that avobenzone could turn toxic when it comes in contact with chlorine, but no conclusions have been made.

1. Oxybenzone

Oxybenzone is another commonly used ingredient in many sunscreens, and it is the one most investigated by the FDA for having potential negative side effects in humans.

In their fourth national report, the CDC found that 97% of people they tested had oxybenzone in their urine. It’s been found in some studies that oxybenzone can cause contact and photocontact allergic reactions, meaning an allergic reaction upon contact to skin and also when exposed to the sun, hormone disruptions, and has also been linked to Hirschsprung’s disease, which is a disease in the colon.

Other problems are with oxybenzone in water. It is not easily removed from the water, even by normal wastewater treatment plants. It’s also been linked to coral reef bleaching, and has even been banned in Hawaii, along with octoinxate, for causing hormone disruption, coral bleaching, and coral death.

For more information on sunscreen and healthy sunlight exposure, read our article here.

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Demanding Health: A Federal Call to Action

The blunt warning contained within a recent research report from Tufts University’s Federal Nutrition Research Advisory Group on the rising health issues among Americans today is simple: we need change! The advisory group recommends a more coordinated approach among the diet and health-related agencies on Capitol Hill. The paper, “Strengthening national nutrition research: rationale and options for a new coordinated federal research effort and authority”, was published in July’s issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Finding ways to better coordinate and direct research could help us make improved lifestyle choices to combat heart disease and other diet-related threats to human health. It’s time to take the necessary steps to not just manage our health, but dramatically improve our government’s efforts to provide the information and advice we need to make the smart dietary decisions best for our entire family. And it all begins in Washington, D.C.

The Problem

Over 10 different federal agencies in the U.S. are researching health and nutrition while trying to identify ways to make Americans healthier by decreasing obesity, diabetes, and heart disease – ultimately lowering death rates. The problem is not a lack of research, but a lack of collaboration among all agencies.

Numerous U.S. federal agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control, National Institute of Health (NIH), Food & Drug Administration, Agency for International Development, Veterans Affairs, NASA, Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Health & Human Services, Department of Defense, and the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, unanimously agree: we Americans need to improve our health…and quickly.

But what is being done?

There’s no governing unit at the federal level that oversees what research is being done and how to most efficiently come up with solutions for consumers to understand and put in place while grocery shopping. What’s mind-boggling is that these agencies have conducted similar studies without coordinating their efforts to just do one comprehensive study, showcasing an ineffectiveness in resources, time management, and tax dollars.

Because of these inefficiencies, Americans are more perplexed about their health and nutrition than ever. What should I be eating? And how much? Additionally, there are so many terms and trendy diets popping up, it is hard to know which are nutritionally sound. Low-fat vs. whole fat, paleo vs. keto, intermittent fasting, even coconut oil and celery juice – all of these diets create controversy about optimal health. Even though awareness is increasing about sugars and unhealthy fats, the switch to healthy foods such as vegetables and fruits has not been made.

COVID only amplified these existing issues. One researcher of the study, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, explained it as:

“COVID was a fast pandemic that made the slow pandemic of poor nutrition and diet-related illnesses come to life.”

COVID also accelerated many underlying nutritional problems that the “slow pandemic” was causing. This includes complications from major diet-related illnesses (obesity, hypertension, diabetes, etc.) when paired with COVID.

Results of the Study

 The white paper outlines the four most important issues that prevent us from being healthy:

  • How do diet-related health issues affect our economy, our health, our national security, and sustainability?
  • How do cross-governmental organizations that compile research coordinate and share their information?
  • What are the opportunities for nutrition-related discoveries in fundamental, clinical, public health, food and agricultural, and transnational scientific research?
  • What are the best practices to strategically coordinate federal nutrition research going forward?

Through their study, researchers found that more Americans are sick than healthy due to diet-related illnesses. When our nation’s health is this poor, it causes many other problems, including:

  • Issues with productivity
  • Increase in health-care costs
  • Health disparities among race and gender
  • Government budget issues
  • Economic competitiveness
  • Lack of military readiness

Real change can only occur with coordination and with consolidated goals around nutrition research, budget planning, and federal investment. But it starts with us: there needs to be a greater say from the consumer as to what we need, and really what we should demand from our government.

The paper relayed that, over the last 50 years, federal healthcare spending has risen from 5% of the budget to a current level of 28%, with 85% of the spend going towards diet-related chronic diseases. In the same time frame, U.S. business spending on healthcare has increased from $79 billion to $1.2 TRILLION.

Imagine how effective those funds could be if they were redirected toward preventing diseases instead of treating them.

Researchers found that we need more funding toward health and nutrition research than there is today. The USDA and the NIH are the largest funders of federal nutrition research. However, there is still not enough funding to support the myriad ways of how and what we eat affecting our overall health.

Research in nutrition is critical…and complicated. An example provided by the paper is the molecular basis of nutritional needs based on your age and lifestyle. Or what foods are critical in the first 1,000 days of life to prevent diseases later in life. And investigating which foods help prevent food allergies.

Tufts’ Conclusions

Researchers pulled no punches in citing the federal government’s role in creating such a crisis. Finding that greater consensus is needed on matters of diet and obesity, with coordination as a key first step in what will admittedly be a very tough process.

Real change will only take place with greater coordination between agencies, and with management that aspires to dramatically improve American lives. This includes:

  • One leadership at the federal level with a national director
  • Advancement of federal investment and funding
  • Continuing agency autonomy, but with a coordinated and harmonized system implemented from above and budget split between agencies

Executing these recommendations into a unified approach would make it far easier to do such things as identify national dietary goals, establish research needs and priorities, recommend optimal use of financial and resources, deliver a consistent message to consumers, implement educational programs into schools and universities, and so much more.

Getting the Message Across

As reasonable as the messages within the research may seem, the idea of greater coordination on this important public health issue nonetheless faces a long road to action by Washington.

Changing how Washington shares power and responsibility is a difficult task, even amid clear and present needs. That task grows even tougher when it faces enormous competition for time and energy from an administration and a Congress already overwhelmed by COVID and other pressing national issues. Politicians aren’t very likely to see this as a priority – unless we tell them otherwise.

How do we create that political pressure? What does it take to make the messages within the Tufts paper more than an academic exercise? And what can we do to bring about the changes needed to begin a process of coordination and cooperation that will lead to structural improvements?

We may not spark a revolution on making a coordinated approach to diet and health a national priority…but together we can begin an evolution.  

It begins with the consumer. Calls and letters to elected officials are one traditional avenue of action. But in today’s digital age, social media has become a powerful tool for building coalitions of concerned citizens – politicians call them voters – that drive action.

Share your questions about health and nutrition with others. Describe the challenges you face in finding the relevant, credible information you need to make smart decisions about what to feed your family. Point to examples of food products, package labels, and other examples of companies that do a good job of addressing your concerns and questions. Share all that and more on whatever social media you use – and make sure you add your elected national officials to your distribution lists.

If nothing else, share them with Dirt-to-Dinner, and we’ll collect and report on them on your behalf. This is about your health and your family’s well-being, not just a Washington Beltway tussle among faceless bureaucrats. 

Do you have thoughts of your own on this matter? Email us at info@dirt-to-dinner.com.

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Are We Eating Away our Covid Fears?

As you read this post, are you snacking on something? If so, you’re not alone. Because of Covid, we are spending about 10 more hours each day at home, which means we’re closer than ever to our kitchens. Making thing worse is that we’re feeling more vulnerable and stressed than in pre-Covid times. And many of us now regularly seek alternative methods of food shopping, causing a spike in at-home grocery delivery and shelf-stable food purchases. This has ultimately shifted how frequently we are eating and what our food choices look like.

A full-fledged snack attack

With shelf-stability and comfort-eating a priority for most consumers right now, snack foods are tempting options. However, this innate draw toward comfort foods is being fueled by convenience, emotion, and nostalgia, and at the cost of choosing nutrient-rich foods and their inarguable health considerations.

According to Statista, the snack food industry has been bustling lately. Even more surprising is the sales growth from Q1 of this year, with mac & cheese sales increasing by over 175%, lasagne & pizza sales up 125%, ramen 117%, and baking mixes up over 150% with the accompanying frosting at 125%. Furthermore, coffee cakes, blueberry muffins, donuts, and cookies were all in the top 10 growth items between January 20th and March 21st, according to Nielsen AOD.

Of Nielsen Data’s Top 10 Food and Beverages for the first quarter of the year, beer makes it into the top three growth items, with soft drinks, energy drinks, chocolate, cheese, and cereal making it onto the list with sales trending upwards month over month at an increasing rate.

Why are we trending this way? Emotion & availability.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the world is likely to enter its worst recession since the 1930s. In the U.S., as of July 24, approximately 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the past five weeks. This social and political climate is unsettling, stressful, and has spurred insecurities both financially and emotionally.

There is no wonder our snacking habits are changing – the world is changing. This situation has reminded us of the intense connection our emotions have with food. Food, especially comfort food, can provide a sense of security, familiarity, and nostalgia – things that we can all agree would be nice to have a bit of right now. But at what cost?

Food companies have identified this emotional insecurity and are working to profit from it — both in-store and online. Online grocery delivery has, for the most part, served us well in the past few months — allowing us to cut down on trips to the store and remain socially distant. However, now the snack food market has joined the at-home-delivery bandwagon, making your favorite snacks now available for in-home delivery at the click of a button.

Why is this an issue and grocery delivery is not? Aside from the clear difference in nutritional value between essential foods and these salty, sugary treats, is the alarming fact that you can now just order your chips and donuts from your sofa.

According to the Consumer Trust Insights Council, the purchasing of snack foods, by and large, is a last-minute or spontaneous addition to most of our grocery carts.

This is manipulated by clever marketing with product placement and enticing labels, often begging us at the last minute to toss that bag of chips into our carts, even though it’s never on the top of the grocery list.

With the online snack delivery trend increasing, consumers are now planning out their snacking, spending $5 to $100 per month for these subscriptions, and making sure that these comfort foods are delivered to their doors and fully stocked in their pantries.

Risks with increased snacking

While it is part of human nature to want to soothe our stress and decrease our anxieties, our snacking habits demand a watchful eye. With our recommended daily intake of less than 25 grams of added sugar and 13 grams of saturated fats per day (based on a 2,000 calorie diet), we need to be mindful of our consumption.

When you consider that one 8oz bag of chips contains 80 grams of  fats, and a small chocolate bar contains over 35 grams of sugar, mindless eating can put you over the limit all too easily.

Consumers whose diets have shifted to include more of these prepackaged foods high in fat, sugar, and salt are risking their metabolic health. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, the Dean of the Freidman School of Nutrition, Science, and Policy at Tufts University, cited through his research, a recent national report that as of March 2020, poor diet is now the leading cause of poor health in the U.S., and has caused more than half a million deaths per year.

Dr. Mozaffarian goes on to explain that poor metabolic health, caused by diets high in saturated fats and added sugars, as well as high caloric intake, is the cause of immunity-impairing factors tin millions of Americans, including metabolic syndrome. The characteristics of metabolic syndrome include excess fat around the middle, hypertension, high blood sugar, and a poor cholesterol profile.

These types of symptoms suppress the immune system and ultimately lead to cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity-related cancers that have left many people nutritionally deficient and thus immuno-compromised, putting them at a greater risk of contracting and combating Covid.

The statistics are terrifying — of the U.S. population age 18 and up, only 12% of Americans are without high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, or pre-diabetes.

For those under the age of 65, these exact illnesses are the biggest risk factors associated with having a fatal reaction to Covid.

For the health and well-being of our families and our country, the time to take action is now…

Taking back control

So how can we rein in our anxieties right now without stressing ourselves out more? First, we must acknowledge our emotions. Penn Medical explains that identifying the fact that you are stressed and working to channel those feelings into an activity is a much more productive way of managing anxieties. They go on to suggest that healthy eating is more difficult without a routine. Plan your meals, and eat them at a designated spot in the house. This will help to make eating purposeful and not mindless, which can cause spontaneous overeating.

U.C. Davis Health echoes these sentiments but goes on to highlight the importance of understanding hunger cues. This helps avoid what they call “autopilot” snacking. If you are sad, anxious, mad, or bored, it is natural for your body to release cortisol, which signals the need to eat. Try to recognize your physical need for food – if you don’t feel hungry, don’t let your emotions trick you into thinking that you are. And reach for a glass of water instead.

When you want a snack to hold you over between meals, try snacking on fruit and adding a scoop of peanut butter for protein on the side, or having crackers with cheese and meat. Even veggies dipped in hummus or Greek yogurt are all healthy, filling, and yummy options.

University Hospitals also points to the need now more than ever to focus our nutrition on fortifying our immune system. It is not just about not snacking, but about making our meals meaningful and immunity enhancing. One way to help our decision-making is to make sure our healthy options are the first thing we see in the refrigerator or pantry. Research suggests that we are 30% more likely to choose the items that we see first – so keep a bowl of fruits cut up in the front of the fridge, or consider putting your fruits & veggies in a bowl on the counter.

The Mayo Clinic also recommends tracking your food. This serves to not only keep us “eating mindfully” and accountable for our calories, but also aid in identifying changes or lapses in our healthy eating habits.

But what all this research doesn’t say is that change is hard. So, during this time as we try to find a new normal, it’s important to not be too hard on ourselves…this is a difficult time for us all. If you slip, no big deal – we all do it.

But the important thing is to think long-term, as this situation will pass. And try to save those treats to make new memories with your friends and family, like making socially-distant s’mores with a backyard bonfire or having a popsicle on a hot day. We all have to treat ourselves and enjoy these special moments.

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Cortisol: Our Body’s Stress Response

Our mundane tasks throughout the day have all of a sudden become fraught with stress. It used to be fun to pick up groceries, get a package in the mail, see a friend or go shopping.  Now our anxiety rises: did we touch anything? Has anyone sneezed recently? Were they wearing a mask? Should I take a shower when I get home? Did I clean the mail well enough? What about the package my son touched? Did he wash his hands? Are my family members not in my household okay? The list seems to grow and grow. And each worry brings on stress, and stress brings – you guessed it – cortisol.

What is cortisol, exactly?

Cortisol, often called “the stress hormone,” is released by our adrenal glands, which are located right above our kidneys. Although its nickname may infer that it’s a negative hormone, cortisol is not always bad. It functions to control your fear, motivation, and mood. It also triggers our “fight or flight” response or as a signal to when your brain should be on high alert — a function that serves to protect us. Cortisol also helps manage how our body uses carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, regulates inflammation and blood sugar levels, as well as controls our wake and sleep cycles.

Cortisol is activated when there is an outside threat or stressor. Once the threat is gone, your body will naturally lower your cortisol levels and assume regular processes and activities. Or at least we hope that is what occurs.

But what happens if regulation doesn’t occur and cortisol levels remain high? Sometimes, when cortisol is activated too frequently for too long, it can create a long-term stress response that perpetually disrupts bodily functions and puts you at risk for many other health problems.

To illustrate cortisol’s benefits, let’s consider a parallel to inflammation. Anyone who has broken a bone or sprained an ankle knows that feeling when our bodies immediately become inflamed or swollen around the affected area. This occurs as a protective mechanism, or otherwise known as acute inflammation to protect the area and signal to the body that something is wrong and to be on high alert.

Similarly, the body releases cortisol during a stressful situation to help the body handle an issue in the short term. For instance, if a spider drops down onto your shoulder, your body signals your heart to beat faster, and you quickly shoo it off of you. Once the bone has healed, the swelling goes down – once the spider is gone, the cortisol levels decrease and your heart rate slows back to a normal pace.

Alternatively, chronic inflammation, or inflammation that lasts for too long like heart disease, and obesity, can be harmful. Cortisol works the same way! When the levels of your stress hormone do not regulate, and don’t decrease after a stressful event has occurred, they remain too high.  And if this happens for too long, it can be damaging and stressful on the body.

But you are not a victim to cortisol.

While it is challenging to regulate during stressful periods or when anxiety rises, you can take charge of your body by how you fortify it. Eating the right foods can help protect you from hypercortisolism (too much cortisol) and the negative effects that it brings, while mitigating potential long-term damage.

How does Cortisol work?

While the adrenal gland releases cortisol, it first “talks” to the pituitary gland. This is a tiny, pea-sized gland located at the base of your brain that reacts to your bodies’ actions. It will send signals to the adrenal gland to release more or less cortisol, based on what you are experiencing at the time.

Once the pituitary gland signals the adrenal gland to release cortisol, your cells get to work! There are cortisol receptors in almost all of our body’s cells, but each cell will use the hormone differently. For example, have you ever had a stomachache right before a public speaking engagement or that cold sweat feeling when you see that huge spider? This visceral feeling is called a “gut reaction” for a reason. Ingrid Kohlstadt, President and Founder of Ingredients, Inc., Associate at Johns Hopkins University, and Former Medical Officer and Commissioner at the FDA, explains:

“Have you ever heard of the term, ‘gut-reaction’? That’s referring to the feeling of raised cortisol levels in the gut. However, the ‘reaction’ portion of that phrase is indicating the inability of the body to regulate its basic digestive and bowel functions because it is overcome with the stress-hormone cortisol, which has taken your body’s attention elsewhere.”

Health problems from raised cortisol levels

For over a decade, studies have shown that moderately high cortisol levels can cause health issues. High blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and osteoporosis are all chronic health symptoms that can be a result of cortisol levels being too high. Furthermore, hypercortisolism can increase ones’ appetite via a hormone called ghrelin. This can cause you to seek comfort foods, like sugary, salty and fatty foods that trick your body into thinking it will help calm you. But instead, your metabolism slows, fat storage begins to occur, and eventually you gain weight.

Chronic tiredness and lethargy are also side effects of hypercortisolism. Your body is unable to regulate its sleep-wake patterns due to the hormone disruption. Lack of sleep can cause impaired brain function and memory.

Chronically high cortisol levels also have a direct effect on our gut microbiome. When digestive and endocrine processes are disrupted, so is our microbiota. Furthermore, cortisol and insulin have an inverse relationship – when there is more cortisol, there is less insulin, which means too much cortisol for too long can negatively impact your blood sugar levels.

All of these things contribute to a weakened immune system, and greater risk of infection – something that a lot of us cannot afford to have right now in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

But what do we do? We cannot just tell our bodies to stop secreting cortisol. In the same way, we cannot tell our hearts to beat slower when giving a speech, or not to perspire when a large spider crawls on our arm.

What we can control are the foods we put in our bodies and how we fortify our system to support the glands regulating our stress hormones.

How to aid cortisol regulation

A combination of sleep, exercise, and diet all play a role in regulating hormonal patterns, including cortisol. These are luckily all things that we can consciously control. Specifically, our nutrition plays a lead role in supporting or hindering our triggers for cortisol release.

Things to limit:

Sugar. Sugar intake is a primary trigger for cortisol release. Excessive sugar intake can cause an increase in cortisol secretions and alter the bodies’ ability to properly respond to stress. This inhibits the body from reacting “normally” to stress. According to one animal study, sugar acts in the periphery to negatively-activate the metabolic-brain feedback pathway:

“In rodents, drinking sucrose beverages were shown to inhibit stress-induced CRF mRNA and peptide expression in the brain. These inhibitory effects of sugar on CRF and HPA reactivity may be linked to sugar-induced increases in central opioidergic activity. Sugar consumption promotes elevated opioidergic tone in the brain, and opioids inhibit synthesis and release of CRF and stress-induced HPA reactivity.”

In other words: sugar inhibits the brain from receiving cortisol, and expressly it properly.

Caffeine. Studies have shown that caffeine consumption can stimulate cortisol secretions, as well. With this increase of cortisol secretions, correlated to caffeine intake, your body can begin to develop a tolerance for cortisol response. It can inhibit the absorption of iron which is a key mineral in the synthesis of hormones in the body. Furthermore, caffeine can ultimately recreate stress conditions in the body. As put by Precision Nutrition:

“Caffeine impacts whether certain chemicals are available; how receptive our brains are to them; and whether we’re even making those chemicals in the first place.”

Try to keep your caffeine intake to under four cups a day, to avoid any negative effects.

Alcohol. Much like the ghrelin hormone that can trick our bodies into thinking that foods high in fat and sugars will decrease the stress effects of cortisol, alcohol plays tricks in our bodies, too. Many people seek alcohol as a way to relax or blow off steam. However, chronic alcohol consumption can actually increase cortisol production, and thus is counterproductive in the relaxation process.

It is recommended that women attempt to keep consumption to 1 drink a day and up to 2 drinks per day for men. So don’t feel like you have to give up that end of the day glass of chardonnay — just enjoy in moderation!

Things to regularly consume:

Fruits! Blueberries, kiwis, oranges, pears, and bananas have been shown to reduce cortisol levels, especially in athletes. You can use these as a way to self-regulate. Because these are high in vitamin C, research has shown that these may help slow the production of cortisol.

Omega-3s! Fatty acids, especially DHA and EPA from fish oils, have been shown to counteract inflammatory stress effects.  Not to mention, fermented foods containing fatty acids, such as yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi, all offer probiotics and prebiotics that help offset any gut microbial disruptions caused by cortisol increases. Other prebiotic rich foods include onions, garlic, leeks, asparagus, apples, and bananas. These prebiotic foods provide fuel for your probiotic bacteria.

“Cortisol is real and present during stressful times as these. The foods we eat can change how our bodies react to raised levels of cortisol. Chronically raised levels of cortisol can damage your gut microbiome. Consider fiber as a way to offset negative effects of cortisol on the microbiome. Not to mention Americans are only getting about 10% of the fiber they need daily, so any increase would be beneficial.”

– Ingrid Kohlstadt, President and Founder of Ingredients, Inc.

Good carbs! As mentioned earlier, cortisol and insulin have an inverse relationship. When cortisol is high, insulin is low. Carbs, however, prompt our brain to secrete more of a hormone called serotonin, which is often stunted by high levels of cortisol. Complex carbohydrates like oatmeal, beans, whole grains, starchy veggies, and lentils, can support and stabilize blood sugar levels that can be lowered by the presence of cortisol.

Beans and barley! Beans are doubly helpful! They are complex carbohydrates and aid in blood sugar regulation, but they also contain phosphatidylserine. This is located in the cell membrane and helps to counteract cortisol. White beans and barley are two of the best options.

Avocados! Who doesn’t like avocados? In addition to being delicious, avocados, like tomatoes and leafy greens, are high in potassium. Potassium helps to keep our blood pressure in check. This is great for when cortisol causes increased heart rate due to hormone spikes.

Spinach & cruciferous vegetables! Rich in magnesium, spinach and broccoli are known to help our bodies regulate the production of cortisol. Microgreens, or immature greens, are also known to have high concentrations of various beneficial nutrients and tend to be denser in vitamin C than their mature counterparts.

Nuts! Almonds, cashews and pistachios contain selenium, which is a mineral that can help elevate mood. While it may not have a direct effect on cortisol it can help combat the effects of too much cortisol. It helps to strengthen your immune system in times of stress, when the body may be depleted or weakened.

Dark chocolate! Naturally-occurring antioxidants in dark chocolate can aid in decreasing inflammation and slow the production of the cortisol hormone. The result of one study indicated that about 40 grams per day of dark chocolate can help, so don’t feel bad about having a piece or two! Just aim for a dark chocolate with a high cocoa content, like 85% or higher, for best results and lower added sugar.

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How to Lend Your Support During COVID

Below are some of our favorite ways to help those in need right now. From Relief Funds and Volunteer Programs, to making Small Gestures While You Shop, Dine, and Post on Social Media – we can all contribute to making things better for those who have lost their jobs, loved ones, and all those experiencing hardships during this pandemic.

Though this list mostly focuses on workers in the restaurant industry, we also encourage finding ways to help local operations and industries near and dear to you. For instance, if you’d like to help a farmer you know by connecting them to business-saving resources, take a look at the USDA’s Farmer Funds page and read our post about FarmLink, an organization connecting farmers to food banks. By extending our hand to those in need, we find connection and fulfillment in surprising ways.  

Relief Funds

Restaurants and Restaurant Workers

Relief Funds are being set up for various efforts, such as direct donations to unemployed restaurant workers and independent restaurants. Inevitably, the economic burden from this health crisis most directly affects those workers who are in the most vulnerable financial situations, as they are not considered essential workers and are at the greatest risk of being laid off. Here is a list of funds to consider that particularly resonated with us.

The James Beard Foundation is a foundation that celebrates, nurtures, and honors chefs to make America’s food culture more delicious, diverse, and sustainable for everyone.

The Open for Good campaign, set up by JBF, is designed to help independent restaurants survive this crisis and help them thrive long-term by providing financial assistance.  (@beardfoundation)

One Fair Wage Emergency Coronavirus Tipped and Service Worker Support Fund puts cash in the pockets of impacted restaurant workers, car service drivers, delivery workers, and personal service workers. Specifically targeting hourly workers facing unprecedented economic hardships, this fund provides direct, urgent financial assistance to those most directly impacted by food industry closures. (@1fairwage_official)

Another Round Another Rally is a fund set up to offer relief grants of $500 to food hospitality workers, ranging from dishwashers, busboys, chefs, and sommeliers who lost their jobs or had their hours cut because of COVID-19. They are offering a range of ways to tailor your financial support, either by scholarship opportunities, direct financial assistance from the grants, or emergency help. (@anotherroundanotherrally)

Independent Restaurant Coalition is a way to make a difference at the local level. This coalition is designed to provide supporters a way to donate directly to their local restaurants and restaurant workers. They do this by connecting you to your local community and uniting voices to speak directly to lawmakers about decisions regarding industry policy—what they are calling critical investments to bring our economy back. (@indprestaurants)

Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund is created by and for restaurant workers. Their mission is to support hospitality workers who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Before COVID, over 40% of this workforce was living on poverty-level wages, and now, many are unemployed—exacerbating an already challenging financial plight in an industry fraught with high turnover and poor job mobility. This underserved and vulnerable population needs our help now more than ever. (@rwcfusa)

Communities and Families Most Vulnerable

Poverty-stricken communities that relied heavily on aid and resources before COVID-19 are feeling the effects of this pandemic ten-fold. Many families, children, and the elderly who cannot work or rely on schools or organizations for meals and support are in great need of additional assistance. Here are a few organizations that are doing their part to help both locally and globally to assist these communities in need.

Dream Center is a Los Angeles-based outreach program that was suggested to us by our readers. This program offers free assistance to communities struggling with basic needs, including food and clothing donations. Dream Center also uniquely allows you to “Adopt a Block”, which provides the opportunity to directly help 23 underserved communities that have been identified as highest risk. (@ladreamcenter)

Midwest Food Bank is one of hundreds of food banks throughout the nation helping to fight hunger. This faith-based organization’s goal is to alleviate malnutrition and starvation locally by providing food relief to those in need.

This national food bank has over 32,000 volunteers who collect, pack, and distribute food. You can consider donating food, funds, or if local, your time. (@midwestfoodbank)

Feeding America is a larger, more global foundation that bases its work on the statistic that 1 in 9 people in the U.S. struggle with hunger, equating to over 37 million people. To combat this, Feeding America is creating the nation’s largest network to connect people in need of food. Target is a major supporter and partner of the foundation, helping to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of families. (@feedingamerica)

No Kid Hungry focuses on children at risk of losing healthy, balanced meals otherwise provided through their local school system. The organization estimates that over 438 million school meals have been missed because of the pandemic, making it more important than ever to provide families the meals that they need, as well as emergency grants to food banks and community groups. (@feedingamerica)

Meals on Wheels delivers so much more than just food. Founded by a small group of Philadelphia citizens in 1954, the organization supports senior citizens by extending independence and health as they age through food provisions. This has been hailed as one of the most effective social movements in America. Currently, MOW provides meals to over 2.4 million seniors annually in almost every community around the country. (@mealsonwheelsamerica)

Volunteer & Connect

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Volunteering is so much more than just providing help and support. Volunteering is good for the soul. Not only are we helping those less fortunate, but our role as volunteers provides a sense of pride and accomplishment. There is nothing like the feeling of giving back to others.

Here are some great resources for those of us looking to get involved by lending their time or expertise.

National Service is an incredible resource that provides ideas on how to serve your community based on your ability. They provide links to various food banks and food pantries that require volunteers to assist with food sorting and delivery.

They help guide you to your local school systems that may require a helping hand. Furthermore, they bring to light the need for blood donations for those hospitalized. Outside of donating time and blood, they also provide ideas for those who wish to stay home but also help, such as: donating medical supplies and equipment, donating clothes to local charities, and reaching out to loved ones who need added emotional support.

All for Good is another wonderful platform that aggregates how and where to get started with volunteering, both out of the home and at home. They recognize that there is a desire to help others and give back, while also prioritizing safety – they provide a comprehensive list of ways you can help your community without leaving the house.

They have also created a search function that allows you to search locally within your zip code for projects and connections. Furthermore, their platform is also designed to help startup projects and missions by providing a launch point to get their philanthropy off the ground.

Shopping Habits

Hard to imagine that ordering your favorite sushi rolls for delivery or picking up a meal at your local pizzeria could make any sort of real impact, right? Wrong! Small acts of changing the way we spend money and being deliberate in our spending can offer support for local eateries and make a huge difference in the lives of those food-industry workers impacted by COVID-19. Here are a few ways the Dirt to Dinner team has changed the way we shop for food, in hopes of providing monetary support to our favorite restaurants and their employees.  

Consider Take-Out

Do some research into your local eateries! Check out who is open for delivery or curbside pick-up and order from them. 

The best way to directly support your local community is to keep the economy thriving by meaningful spending.

Some restaurants have come up with creative ways to serve their loyal customers and entice spending. For example, see if your local pizza joint is offering an at-home pizza-making kit that you could pick up and enjoy preparing with the whole family. Or see if your favorite weekend spot is providing food plus a wine pairing, for a special at-home dining experience.

Considering take-out goes beyond just the restaurant, as some businesses are partnering with various delivery services to help keep both the storefront and the drivers employed. A delicious win-win if you ask us!

And if you were worried about whether take-out is safe, it is! According to the FDA: “ There is currently no evidence of food, food containers, or food packaging being associated with the transmission of COVID-19.” They recommend that if you are concerned, the best thing to do is to wash your hands after removing food from packaging and before meals. The CDC echoes these sentiments.

Purchase Gift Cards

As we look to the future of what life will look like after COVID-19, we can’t wait to get back to our favorite corner bistro to get our hands on that famous burger or specialty dessert that we have been missing for months.

Buying gift cards from a restaurant is a wonderful way to support businesses now and also to give you an outing to look forward to later– talk about a silver lining! It also puts much-needed cash in the hands of struggling food service employees.

You can also consider gifting gift cards. Right now, buying a birthday gift that consists of clothes, or something for the home seems meaningless, as we likely have no outings to attend or dinners to host—why not buy a gift card to a favorite restaurant to celebrate the occasion at a later date?

Tip Generously, When You Can

Tips, especially cash tips, are a sincere and actionable way to say “thank you!”, not just for service, but also for the workers’ decision to put their health and that of their family members at risk so we can enjoy a delicious meal. Consider bumping up your tip to 25% or 30%. We promise you, a little bit goes a long way.

Use your platforms to raise awareness

Restaurants and food services that can open are doing their best to stay that way! This means that their budgets for marketing are nonexistent – but you can help. Take a photo of your favorite eatery and post it to your social pages. Give the restaurant a great review on Yelp or Google. Tweet a photo of your delicious meal and tell your followers to try it for themselves! If you see a restaurant trying to promote a new item or a special deal, help them out by re-posting or sharing their story.

Helping to mobilize the community is a simple, effective way to show your support for restaurants outside of donations. If you are financially struggling, this is a costless way to lend a hand! Something you can do right now is to take a look at the handles we have included above in our Relief Funds section and consider following these organizations. That way, you can show your support by raising awareness and stay up-to-date with initiatives and efforts they are working on.

Actionable Change

While a $5 donation, buying a large pizza, or sending a tweet might seem like nominal actions, they add up and become greater than the sum of their parts. Do what you can with what you have. When made by the collective, these small gestures can change lives.

If you have a foundation or a relief fund that is near and dear to you, please email us at connect@dirt-to-dinner.com and we will include it in our list.

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China Assumes Central Role in Global Trade Picture

Trade with China is here to stay. However, this sentence may make you hesitate given all the current geopolitical issues. We have every right to be wary of China: TikTok, Hong Kong, cybersecurity, science & technology theft, Japan/China tensions in East China Sea, China/India border dispute, Huawei. And, not to mention, global GDP is dropping and we are all wearing masks and socially distancing because of a Chinese bat. It is all about a modern-day version of conflict between two political systems: communism and democracy vying for supremacy.

COVID’s effect on global trade

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a massive chill to global trade, with significant declines in the movement of minerals, metals, petroleum, and many other materials and products playing key roles in our modern lifestyle. But even so, China remains a vibrant participant in the global markets – and none more so than in food and agricultural products.

Rising economic power makes China a major supplier to the world for a wide range of goods – and a major customer for agricultural producers.

Despite these unwanted tensions – and the COVID economic downturn – China is a major import and export market for our farmers and our food. China remains a significant source of many products bought by U.S. consumers, including a range of the foods we consume every day. Just as important, China remains a major market for a long list of commodities and food products grown and processed here in the U.S. that support our domestic farm and rural economies.

China has increased their agricultural imports as they come out of COVID. For the first six months of 2020, year-over-year imports of meat, cereals, and soybeans were up 73%, 9%, and 13%, respectively.

In part, this is because of the U.S.-China Phase I Trade Deal, where China committed to $36.6 billion of agricultural imports which would provide income for our farmers and ranchers. While they are not on target, there is still some optimism it will be close to budget.

Why should I care about trade at all? 

Even though you may have read about the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the U.S.- China Trade Agreement, these pacts are not always the first thing on one’s mind when going to the grocery store. But trade is the lifeblood for both our financial health and our dietary well-being. Just about 80% of the calories eaten around the world come in part from another country. When trade lags, our economic interests are at risk, too.

Economists tell us that global trade is 60% of global gross domestic product, or “GDP.” When the GDP rises, it’s a good sign of economic prosperity. When it falls, the news is not so good.

Global food trade is estimated to exceed $1.2 trillion each year. Yes, that is trillion, with a T.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a massive downturn in global trade – and projected GDP. The World Bank says the pandemic may create as much as an 8% decline in global GDP – this is of historic proportions. The chart below shows the effect on GDP on the countries hardest hit – those depending on trade.

How important is China in global trade?

China’s role in the international trade picture is enormous, even if it isn’t always recognized by the average person. Since joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China has grown steadily to become the world’s largest trading nation.

In 2018, China’s combined exports and imports reached $5 trillion, eclipsing the U.S. for the #1 position, further proving their global trading power. Indeed, China is America’s 3rd largest trading partner. As of May 2020, the U.S. exported $40 billion worth of goods to China and imported $144 billion.

It is hard to imagine, but it might be communist China that helps to pull the global economy out of the COVID recession.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have slowed the pace of growth in bilateral and multilateral trade, but it hasn’t completely derailed it.

While the International Monetary Fund predicts a 5% global decrease in GDP, China may be harmed far less than some, at just a 1% projected increase compared to the U.S. at -8% and the EU at a drastic -10%. In 2021, forecasts look brighter, with an 8% spike for China, 6% for the EU, and just 5% in the U.S. once COVID is over.

But can China feed itself?

Geopolitical issues aside, the one conversation that keeps the leaders of the Chinese Communist party awake at night is food insecurity. How will they feed a growing population that is moving from the agrarian lifestyle to the cities and suburbs? The U.S. has sold aircrafts, machinery, electronics, optical and medical equipment, and vehicles to China – most of which they can probably make on their own now. But what China does not have is enough arable land.

China has 10% of the arable land, but 20% of the world’s population. Their arable land is 13% of their total land compared to the U.S. at 17%. And, let’s not forget that they have a billion more mouths to feed. This is not to mention that their farming practices are no match for the U.S., as evidenced by their yield per acre and farming efficiency.

Take corn for example: the average Chinese corn producer operates on just a couple of acres or less, with yields of only 90 bushels per acre. Compare that to the average U.S. corn farmer who plants on more than 400 acres and yields about 170 bushels per acre. Some larger, more efficient U.S. commercial corn farms have thousands of acres that hit yields closer to 250 per acre. At this rate, China’s farming efficiency cannot match their population growth.

Agricultural exports to China totaled $25 billion, led by sales of soybeans, cotton, hides and skins, pork, and feed grains. In turn the United States imported almost $5 billion in agricultural products to the United States in 2018, making it the third-largest foreign provider of food and agricultural products. In this case, the trade imbalance is on the side of the United States. Yet we still buy some grocery staples like seafood, juices, garlic, and pet food from China.

So far in 2020, despite the geopolitical issues, China seems prepared to act on that more optimistic economic outlook. But let’s not forget that China has a choice. They do not have to import from the U.S.; they can pivot their soybean, corn, and beef imports over to Brazil and other parts of South America. As you can see, in 2017, China imported more from Brazil than the U.S.

Imports of food and feedstuffs remain a significant factor in global trade, despite the continuing trade bickering between China and the U.S. From a historical perspective, tensions between nations for various forms of superiority and security are nothing new. But tensions between the U.S. and China have serious implications; there’s a great deal at stake for both sides.

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If You Can’t Say Anything Nice…

 

My mom always told me it wasn’t nice to make fun of people, even when they did things that I thought were incredibly stupid. You know, the old “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” mantra. She had a point, since she could (and repeatedly would) recite the long list of Olympic-caliber dumb things I’ve done over the years. Glass houses, I suppose.

But forgive me, mom.

I can’t help but think that some things I see around me in the world today are undeniably foolhardy… reckless… senseless… and sometimes, just plain funny. Maybe it’s the effects of being locked away from normal human contact for too long. Maybe it’s the stress created by the undeniably tragic results of a global pandemic, and the lack of control we feel over our own fate. Maybe it’s just humans being – well, human beings.

But consider some of the news reports about how we’re responding in this stressful age, including the ridiculous things some people will do. Some are understandable reactions of people under stress. And forgive me again, mom, I just can’t help but think at least some of these people are idiots. Maybe that’s why so many people are talking about “COVIDIOTS.”

Below are some of our favorite stories that make our official “Covidiot” list. We advise you not to try any of these at home – we don’t want to add any more shockingly silly actions to our expertly refined list of absurdity.

The Runners Up are…

How NOT to make your own mask.

A Kentucky convenience store worker reports serving a customer who obligingly wore a face mask…with a giant hole cut out for her nose and mouth. “It makes it easier to breathe,’ the customer explained. Video of the incident has become a hit, with more than 4 million views. Most of us like to see people try, even if they wind up failing.

 

Please don’t reuse these masks.

Patrons at a popular big-box store were used to the unusual. But when a couple entered wearing absorbent protective under-garments as face masks – well, that did stand out a little bit.

Their approach may or may not have been effective in preventing transmission of COVID, but it sure made for a lot of elbow room in the check-out line. So let’s be generous and say they may not qualify as full-on Covidiots since it’s a step up from purposely putting a hole in your mask. But they are getting awfully close.

 

It’s called “hand sanitizer” for a reason.

The FDA reports incidents of blindness, hospitalization and even death from an increase in drinking hand sanitizers, notably those containing methanol, a poison usually associated with bad liquor. FDA suggests avoiding sanitizers with the dangerous chemical – and by the way, to avoid ingesting it. That’s your tax dollars hard at work there.

 

And we thought apple cider vinegar tasted bad.

In June, the CDC issued a study that found 39% of those surveyed were engaged in “high-risk practices” in order to avoid contracting the COVID-19 virus. What kind of high-risk practices do you ask? “Washing food products with bleach, applying household cleaning or disinfectant products to bare skin, and intentionally inhaling or ingesting these products,” CDC reported. Four in every 10 people did stuff like this? This does not bode well for humanity.

 

Hi-yo, Silver!

Certain minerals – zinc, for example — can have beneficial health effects. But silver ain’t necessarily one of them. In fact, silver can be dangerous to health, experts agree. Amid all its COVID-related advice, the FDA has issued yet another warning against purchasing products sold as “colloidal silver” or “silver solution” as a protection against COVID – despite some fraudulent claims to the contrary. Silver might kill werewolves and other fictitious beasts and villains, but not the coronavirus. The virus is tougher, meaner, and more dangerous. So, in this case, the bite is worse than the bark!

 

Take me to the (chlorine) river.

International news reports tell of local authorities in India spraying huge crowds with a mixture of chlorine and water. Disinfectants are an important tool in the fight against the coronavirus when used on surfaces. But sprays like this won’t do anything to deal with the virus if you have already been exposed or once it already has entered the body.  It might help prevent, but it won’t cure. But whatever the intention, this practice seems downright demeaning.

 

Leave the eucalyptus for the koalas.

Indonesian government officials have been forced to refute claims that eucalyptus can help prevent the coronavirus after their very own agriculture minister had claimed that wearing a necklace made of eucalyptus for 30 minutes – as he was doing – could prevent transmission of the virus. “We know that the world has not yet found a cure for the disease,” a leading Indonesian scientist observed. “I think it would be wise for us not to spread further claims to a panicked society.” Sounds good to me.

 

Let’s think about this over a drink.

A South African woman claimed she had found an answer for COVID-19 when a thoughtful uncle brought his hospitalized nephew a small bottle of brown sherry, which seemed to cure the poor lad the very next day. Manufacturers of the supposed magic tonic quickly issued a statement denying any link between their product and a miracle cure, despite numerous claims to the contrary on social media. But bottles of the stuff reportedly have been flying off store shelves anyway. This stuff might not cure you, but maybe it’ll make you forget you ever had it!

 

And, without further ado, our winners:  

It must be true. It’s on the internet.

Social media is a powerful new communication tool. But we’ve already seen that it can sometimes go rogue and drive health experts crazy. Consider recent reports across multiple apps that, by holding your breath for 10 seconds every day, you can test yourself for COVID. As one post explained: “If you complete it successfully without coughing, without discomfort, stiffness or tightness, etc., it proves there is no (COVID-19 caused) fibrosis in the lungs, basically indicates no infection.” I’m tempted to add my own post: And if you stop breathing altogether, you’re probably dead.

 

A punch a day keeps the COVID away. An 81-year-old restaurant owner in Massachusetts refused medical treatment after a customer slugged him during a dispute over the patron’s lack of a face mask. Bistro employees followed the attacker out of the restaurant and continued the (not very socially-distant) physical altercation before police arrived. “I don’t think the cops handled the situation very well,” the attacker said later. Hmmm…perhaps you should take a look in the mirror? Hope you’re wearing a mask when you do. Or don’t.

 

Get a free microchip with every vaccine.

A May survey by Yahoo News/YouGov found that as many as 28% of people believed a rumor that the push for a COVID vaccine was actually part of a plot by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates to implant monitoring and tracking microchips in billions of people worldwide.

Gates called the survey results “a little bit concerning.” A little bit concerning?

Spot the 28% by looking for the tin foil hats they wear to protect against alien brain scans.

 

I’m majoring in stupidity. Or maybe it’s death, I haven’t decided.

Alabama authorities are asking for help in dealing with “COVID parties” arranged by various groups of young people, especially students at the State University in Tuscaloosa. Attendees put money in a pot – and then intentionally try to infect one another with the virus, using people known to have the virus. Whoever gets COVID first wins the pot.

“It makes no sense,” a Tuscaloosa city councilor observed. What an understatement – considering the Alabama death total from COVID-19 is approaching 1,000, with more than 10,000 reported cases of infection in less than the past month.

 

Dishonorable Mention:

I don’t always socially distance, but when I do…

It probably doesn’t qualify as stupid. But it made me shake my head anyway. Dos Equis beer is doing its part to help all of us maintain social distancing with a new six-foot beer cooler, appropriately and imaginatively named the “Seis-foot cooler” by an undoubtedly overpaid marketing guru somewhere. This triumph of making marketing hay out of national crisis allows “you to theoretically share the cooler with a pal while also simultaneously sitting six feet apart.” Or you could just lay about a dozen empties end-to-end. 

Try not to earn your place at the 2020 Darwin Awards by following official health guidelines and common sense. But if you know of any particularly absurd Covidiot stories lately, let us know and see if your nominee ends up here!

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D2D’s Avocado Toast

Looking for something YUM for dinner, a side dish to elevate your entrée, or healthfully satisfy your sweet tooth? Check out our list of tried and true recipes  – you won’t be disappointed 😉

Want some free D2D stuff? Post a photo of your creation on instagram or twitter!

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Does Red Meat Cause Cancer?

We enjoy a perfectly-cooked steak and a juicy hamburger on occasion. But hearing about the perils of consuming red meat on various podcasts, websites, and interviews quickly detracted from its home-cooked deliciousness. What is the truth when it comes to red meat and cancer? And how do we wade through all this information?

Spurring many of the articles we read today on this topic is from a 2015 study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which stated that if you ate a lot of meat, your chances of getting cancer increased by 18%. The IARC deemed red meat ‘probably carcinogenic to humans based on limited evidence’ and that processed meat is ‘carcinogenic to humans based on sufficient evidence’. Colorectal cancer was the most noted type, but they indicated that processed meat also triggers pancreatic and prostate cancers.

The Global Burden of Disease Project, funded by the World Health Organization (WHO), is cited in the IARC report stating that 34,000 deaths per year are attributable to diets high in processed meat and 50,000 to red meat. Compared with 1,000,000 deaths due to tobacco; 600,000 to alcohol; and 200,000 to air pollution, it’s hard to determine the urgency of the situation.

Meat is Meat is Meat…Right?

First, let’s put this in perspective. The average person whose diet includes red meat, fish, chicken and other protein sources has a 1% chance of getting pancreatic cancer, 4% chance of colorectal cancer, and 9% of prostate cancer. If you eat a diet high in red and processed meats, the IARC reports that your chances of getting these cancers would increase by 18%. While it is still not great, it brings the risk to 1.2%, 5%, and 11%, respectively.

How did the IARC come to this conclusion? It is a bit of a mystery. The America Institute for Cancer Research does not know, either:

“It’s not yet clear exactly why these meats increase risk for colorectal cancer. It may be the added nitrites and nitrates, the smoking and/or high temperatures used in some processing, or the heme iron in red meat.”

We first need to distinguish processed meat, such as hot dogs and bacon, from non-processed meat like flank steak or tenderloin. Each one digests differently and thus has different effects on the body.

The culprits are nitrates and nitrites – both are found in red meat and both are compounds with nitrogen and oxygen structures. Nitrates are found in the soil and help plants absorb nitrogen, which is essential for plant growth. Interestingly, vegetables are the biggest source of nitrates in the human diet, accounting for at least 85% of our nitrate consumption. Compare this to processed meats that account for only about 6% of nitrate consumption.

Nitrates vs. Nitrites

Wait…if vegetables are good for us, then how are nitrates harmful in processed meats? The conversion happens when the bacteria in your mouth and enzymes in your body convert nitrates into nitrites, which has one less oxygen atom. Although this seems like a very small difference, it can lead to completely different effects.

That one less oxygen atom turns nitrates into nitric oxide, which is essential for our bodies. But nitrites turn into nitrosamines in our bodies, which can be harmful. There are many kinds of nitrosamines, and some of them can increase cancer risk. For example, nitrosamines are some of the main carcinogens in tobacco. But can these cancerous types be formed in our food, and if so, how?

The reason we eat red meat, besides its taste, is that it’s full of amino acids – in other words, protein. But when there is exposure to high heat through cooking, the amino acids combine with the nitrites and create the perfect condition for nitrosamines to form.

“It’s not so much nitrates/nitrites per se [that are carcinogenic], but the way they are cooked and their local environment that is an important factor”, says Kate Allen, Executive Director of Science and Public Affairs at the World Cancer Research Fund. She says that we need to consider how we are cooking these meats because that could manipulate their carcinogenic properties. “Nitrites in processed meats are in close proximity with proteins, specifically amino acids. When cooked at high temperatures, this allows them to form nitrosamines more easily, the cancer-causing compound.”

Nitrosamines = Bad?

This could be why we don’t see these same carcinogens in vegetables, even though they also contain both nitrates and nitrites. Vegetables are undeniably good for us, and are typically not cooked at the same high temperatures or for as long as meat is, making nitrosamines less likely to form. Plus, vegetables do not contain the same amount of amino acids, making the formation of nitrosamines less likely to occur.

However, nitrosamines are not inherently carcinogenic. There needs to be enough of a chemical reaction to induce a mutation in DNA. Cancer ultimately forms from DNA mutations, including those caused by nitrosamines, which is why red meat is considered potentially harmful by some. But how your DNA reacts to meat also has to do with your epigenetics, which is affected by your sleep, your overall diet, and your exercise.

In addition to nitrosamines, other compounds are up for debate regarding their cancer-causing effects. Substances called heterocyclic amines form when meats are cooked at high temperatures and become blackened or charred. In animal studies, heterocyclic amines are carcinogenic. But what about human studies?

In Pursuit of a Valid Study

To complicate matters further, there is considerable disagreement about the various meta-analyses reporting on the relationship between meat consumption and cancer. Last fall, the Annals of Internal Medicine stated that “the dietary guidelines recommending limited red and processed meat was based on unclear evidence”. Harvard School of Public Health countered with a disagreement on how the Annals of Internal Medicine conducted the meta-analyses. They mentioned that the studies can be cherry-picked to obtain the desired result:

“There is a large body of evidence indicating higher consumption of red meat – especially processed red meat is associated with higher risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, and premature death.”

At D2D, we did not conduct our own meta-analysis…we just want to apply some common sense here. So, perhaps between these two studies, we can find a solution that works for most of us.

The variables associated with each human are tremendous. We know that smoking increases your chance of getting cancer and damages almost all the organs in your body. All a study must do is compare smokers with non-smokers to see the effects on one’s body.

But separating out one specific food and studying its effects on the human body is almost impossible. The only way would be to put two separate groups in the exact same living conditions. They would have to follow the exact protocol with exercise, stress levels, living conditions, family life, and diet and then give one red and processed meat and none to the other group. Since cancer takes years to develop, the isolation would have to be for at least 20 years. Honestly, this does not sound very feasible.

The IARC deemed the link between red meat and cancer as having limited evidence so they understood that “other explanations for the observations (chance, bias, or confounding) could not be ruled out.”

So, what is the answer?

The two leading causes of death are heart disease and cancer. It is well understood that the leading cause of these diseases is diet. We have written extensively about the importance of diet, exercise, sleep, and stress management to maintain a healthy life. At this point, we are aware that eating a diet low in saturated fat, trans fats, sodium, and sugar improves our overall health. Furthermore, including 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, and nuts every day will make a considerable difference in your life.

fruit vegetable dna

Red meat includes important nutrients. A lean piece of red meat has protein, niacin, vitamin B6, B12, phosphorus, zinc, iron, and vitamin D and must be consumed as part of a balanced diet to reap its benefits.

Like everything we discuss at D2D, eat in moderation. Will bacon on a Sunday morning and a hot dog at a baseball game give you cancer? No. Would you really want to eat bacon and hot dogs every single day? Probably not. Would you eat a steak every day? Not if you are eating a diet with lots of variety.

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FarmLink: Connecting Food Waste to Food Security

Going to the grocery store is suddenly accompanied by a strange anxiety – do I have my mask? My sanitizer? Will they have what I need? What if I can’t find any milk or meat? In the midst of all of this stress and chaos, very few of us have stopped to think about the people less fortunate: those who can’t even afford to shop at the grocery store. Where will they get their food?

Food Problems in the U.S. Existed before COVID

Food insecurity is an increasingly large problem in the United States, even when we are not dealing with a pandemic. We’ve always faced challenges with feeding our entire nation, especially in low-income and food desert communities. In 2018, 10 million adults in the U.S. used food pantries – that’s 5% of the population. Since COVID, Feeding America gave out 20% more food in March than the average month and estimates that 1 in 6 Americans could face hunger.

Now, this does not mean that we don’t have enough food to feed our people. In fact, we have more than enough. The COVID economy is not helping. In addition, the problem currently lies with how much food we waste, how much goes uneaten, and how much food we lose along the food production chain. In fact, the FDA estimates that between 30 to 40% of the food supply in the United States is wasted and lost every year. Each year, it’s estimated we waste about 140 billion pounds of food, with produce on farms accounting for 20 billion pounds. How is this possible when so many people are going hungry?

It is a perfect storm: food is being wasted and food banks need food. Seems counterintuitive, right? With unemployment at 13.3% due to businesses closing and workers being let go by their companies, people suddenly find themselves in a position where putting food on the table is no longer a simple task. Lines outside of food pantries run for miles long, but because of the disturbance in the food supply chain, many return home hungry and empty-handed.

Then came FarmLink…

FarmLink is an organization that started about 2 months ago by some pretty incredible young people: Will Collier, a Brown University graduate; James Kanoff at Stanford University; and Aidan Reilly, Ben Collier, and Max Goldman at Brown University. They came up with the idea after reading about the lines at food banks and the amount of food being wasted in the country. From there, they connected the dots, or linked them, if you will. Aidan Reilly and James Kanoff, who volunteered at their local food bank in Los Angeles in earlier years, saw the effects COVID was having close to home.

“COVID spurred our creation of FarmLink because of the unprecedented amount of food waste in the system and demand at food banks. Food bank lines were miles long. There’s more demand than in the Great Depression. Seeing food waste and food security, we wanted to attack both and combine two pieces of the process.”

– Will Collier, co-founder

The goal of FarmLink was simple: to rescue wasted and surplus food from farms and connect them with food banks around the country in need of food during COVID. The first transfer they made was with an onion farm in Idaho, Owhyhee Farms. At Owhyhee, there were millions of pounds of surplus onions going straight to the dump because they had nowhere to go. FarmLink called the farm and inquired about rerouting the onion truck to a foodbank in L.A. instead of the dump. They successfully transferred the onions, and FarmLink took off from there.

How It Works

FarmLink, though early in its inception, launched with what has proven so far to be a well-oiled transfer system from farms to food banks. With efficiency top of mind at every step, they get in touch with farmers and food banks with the use of research teams. The researchers figure out where to find surplus and what farms are in surplus of what items, depending on which items are in harvest. They then look to see what counties around those farms are underserved and in need of food.

The method is not to move food more easily, but rather to fill in the gaps and get food to communities truly in need. Some places where FarmLink has already provided food are the Navaho Nation in southwestern U.S., New York City, Detroit, Chicago, L.A., and Siskiyou County in Northern California, which was labeled the hungriest county in California in 2017.

FarmLink is 100% volunteer-operated and all proceeds go to the purchasing of food from farmers and transportation. They work hard to pay farmers that need compensation for pick-and-pack fees, which include harvesting, labor, and packaging, and also provide breakeven money on a crop so farmers can continue planting that crop. FarmLink also compensates truck drivers and any essential workers in the process to support the supply chain.

“The growth and support we’ve gotten and sheer volume we’ve been able to move has been completely overwhelming … we’ve been in awe with the scale we’ve been able to grow at and seeing so many people come together.” – Will Collier

FarmLink Today and Going Forward

Today, FarmLink has hundreds of volunteers all across the country and from more than 20 schools, and it’s still growing! They have a weekly newsletter to keep donors and supporters up to date on what’s going on and how they can continue to help the process. Every piece of FarmLink has been developed and continues to operate virtually, proving you can do anything you put your mind to, even with limited human contact. The founder and most volunteers are young college students or recent college graduates.

Will Collier recognizes the benefits to this: “It’s been incredible for all of us to see how interested and motivated our generation is. One thing you hear is millennials are looked at as selfish with phones, technology, social media, but I think this has been an amazing way for all of us to share that we do have interest in helping out our communities and people across the country.”

Even once COVID is no longer an issue, this will only be the beginning of FarmLink in fulfilling their continued goal of leaving no person hungry.

Will says, “the cusp of what we’re trying to get to is still undiscovered.” In May alone, FarmLink moved one million pounds of food, and in just the first half of June, they have already moved over three million. The possibilities are endless for this incredible company!

Want to be part of the change?

FarmLink is always interested in volunteers! Applications can be found on their website and donations are always welcome! You can also subscribe to their weekly newsletter, join their Facebook group, and follow them on Instagram @farmlinkproject to stay in the know!

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The Future of Food Packaging

Paper or plastic? Until COVID, cities and municipalities were banning plastic bags, plastic straws, and plastic cups.  As dutiful citizens, we brought our canvas bags to the grocery store and used paper straws to drink our iced lattes. But now, studies show that our unwashed reusable bags have a 99% chance of harboring unwanted bacteria and 8% chance of E. coli. This also increases the likelihood that we’ll transfer these pathogens to our grocery carts and refrigerators.

So what is the solution? Plastic pollutes and canvas bags are not clean. So what new technologies will help us with producing packaging that is both sanitary and sustainable?

The Movement

Until 2018 or so, the thin drinking utensils that had long been ubiquitous at restaurants all over the world were easy to overlook. They were always available if you wanted one, and few people seemed to mind, or even think twice about using them.

But that was before many realized the damage that plastic drinking straws were causing to the world’s oceans. In fact, a widely-circulated video from 2015 showing rescuers trying to save a sea turtle that had a piece of plastic straw stuck in its mouth has been credited with helping to kick off a worldwide effort to ban their use, culminating in the #stopsucking movement aimed at addressing the estimated 400+ million plastic straws that researchers say are littering the world’s coastlines.

First, the state of California banned them in restaurants.

Then, Seattle became the first major U.S. city to ban plastic straws as well as plastic utensils.

And then corporations jumped on the bandwagon, with companies like Starbucks, Aramark, and American Airlines all vowing to stop offering plastic straws to their customers.

Even then-New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady got in on the act, showing off his new, reusable metal straw. Paper alternatives popped up in restaurants all over the country.

Suddenly, avoiding plastic straws was en vogue.

Packaging in focus

But straws were just the beginning. In the years since, the debate over straws has led to additional conversations about all of the other plastic products that punctuate modern life.

In fact, plastic straws aren’t even the worst offenders in this group. Food wrappers account for about 31% of all plastic pollution, followed by plastic bottles and container caps at 15.5%, and plastic bags at 11.2%. Plastic straws and stirrers only account for 8.1%.

University of Georgia professor Dr. Jenna Jambeck has calculated that, as of 2010, nearly 8 million metric tons of plastic were ending up in the world’s oceans and coastlines each year. This is approximately 25% of the 35 million tons of plastic pollution produced globally every year.

According to a 2017 study out of the University of California, Santa Cruz, 91% of the plastic that we use – for straws, utensils, packaging and everything else – is not recycled.

As plastics break down in the ocean, they become harmful microplastics that are ingested by aquatic life, disrupting their development.

This fact is leading a number of municipalities to ban the use of disposable plastic bags outright, with the state of New York adopting such a ban this year, following a similar ban in California from 2016. That ban has resulted in a 72% decrease in the number of plastic bags being recovered during cleanup efforts in the Golden State.

Even short of outright bans, some cities are having success with tax incentives. After Chicago imposed a $0.07 fee on plastic bags in 2017, usage in the city dropped by 40%, mirroring a similar drop-off in use in Washington state following its own $0.05 fee in 2010.

Public opinion has even swung so far in favor of alternative packaging that actor Chris Pratt recently caused a stir on social media after appearing on Instagram holding a single-use plastic water bottle. The message: appearances matter when it comes to packaging these days.

Is it paper or plastic?

Plastic ends up in the ocean and is generally not recycled. But paper bags have their pros and cons, as well. While produced from a renewable source like timber, which also takes CO2 out of the air, producing paper bags generate approximately 4 times more water and take 10% more energy. Additionally, paper bags are heavier to transport –  transporting 2 million bags requires 7 trucks, while plastic bags only necessitate one truck. Clearly, this is a problem that extends throughout the food supply chain, and it’s about more than just plastic or paper.

Now with the new sanitary measures on coronavirus, cotton grocery bags can be filled with bacteria and must be washed after every use. And, because of how it’s made, it must be used 131 times to equal the environmental footprint of a plastic bag.

 It’s time for new alternatives!

The struggle for truly sustainable packaging

“When talking about sustainable packaging, it’s important to think about sourcing,” explains Nina Goodrich, Director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. “Where do the materials come from? If it’s a biopolymer, was it sustainably sourced? If it’s a fiber, is it certified or responsibly sourced? And if it’s post-consumer recycled material, that would count under sourcing, as well.”

The push right now across the industry, she says, is toward a better understanding of what’s in our packaging and the impact that it’s having on the world.

“We want products to be recyclable and recoverable, but we also want to manage the environmental carbon footprint of packaging,” Goodrich says. “So, we don’t want to over-package, but we also don’t want to under-package because food waste is such a huge contributor to climate change.” It’s really important that if we transition out of plastic into another package that we’re still taking packaging waste and food waste into consideration and not causing food waste to go up.”

According to some estimates, more than 30% of the food produced globally every year is wasted, with that figure jumping to more than 40% percent in the U.S. The World Resources Institute says that, if food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China and the U.S., and by zeroing out food waste we could theoretically reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by 11%.

This fact is driving innovations in food packaging.

“Right now we’re seeing a big movement away from single-use plastics,” explains Victor Bell, the founder of Environmental Packaging International. “Also, people are looking at more technologies to use recycled content in their materials so they close the loop.”

At the same time, reuse models are coming back in a big way, he says.

Across industries including cosmetics, the cleaning industry, food, and more, Bell is seeing more use of refillable bottles and reusable packages that go beyond the metal and other bottles that individual users have begun carrying in recent years.

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, for instance, recently pledged to reduce its reliance on single-use packaging, introducing reusable pint containers for its grocery store items. Nestlé, which is a founding partner and investor in TerraCycle’s Loop, a “subscription and home delivery service for foods and other products with reusable packaging,” later followed suit, offering Häagen-Dazs ice cream in sustainable packaging as well.

“But you’ve got to look at those supply chains carefully,” Bell says, “because the carbon footprint of any alternatives can be devastating. The problem is a lot of the big companies that are involved in these efforts – like Walmart, Stop & Shop, and Hannaford’s – are part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy, so they’ve made a commitment that everything is going to be recyclable. That means there’s got to be infrastructure for it, but in the United States we have no infrastructure for handling those kinds of materials.”

In reality, the push for more sustainable, lower-impact packaging alternatives has taken a number of different forms, embracing existing materials for new uses as well as coming up with entirely new solutions.

Paper AND Plastic

“We’re celebrating our 10th anniversary this year, so we were the first company to offer a sustainable alternative to plastic water bottles,” says Rob Koenen, chief marketing officer of Boxed Water Is Better. “And what’s funny is the name has been kind of a blessing and a curse because it challenges the consumer to ask exactly that question – ‘why is boxed water better?’”

Koenen says he focuses on three numbers: 10, 9, and 700. That is, only 10% of plastic is being recycled right now, which means that 9 million tons of plastic are being released into the environment every year and that plastic sticks around for over 700 years.

If Christopher Columbus drank a bottle of water and threw it overboard when he landed in the New World, it would still be around today.

Boxed Water’s solution has been to marry the sustainable qualities of paper with the protective properties of a thin layer of plastic on the inside of the box, layering it in rather than blow molding it to minimize the ozone depletion impact of its production process.

And it’s almost infinitely scalable.

“Just look at Europe,” Keonen says. “Europe’s a hundred years ahead of us in sustainable packaging, and even they aren’t coming close to running into issues with timber supply. Our company is at 50% capacity and we’re already going to buy a new machine in the next six months because our demand is increasing that much, and we can totally keep up with demand.”

And Boxed Water isn’t the only company in this space anymore. Actor Jaden Smith recently launched a competitor called Just Water, and fellow actor Jason Momoa is canning water for his Ever & Ever brand.

Biodegradable materials

 “So, our company started in 2016 after one of the partners worked at a commercial shoot for one of their customers, and he saw the amount of plastic that was generated from just one meal for the whole crew,” says Ricardo Mulas Ochoa with E6PR, a company that has developed eco-friendly six-pack rings made from by-product waste and other compostable materials.

“By 2018, Saltwater Brewery became the first partner to launch our rings to their market on their beer, and now we have over 90 customers all over the world.”

Targeting the craft beer market initially, E6PR’s 100% biodegradable and compostable.

Beverage rings fit on the top of canned products to keep six-packs together for transport and sale. The company says that its product will degrade completely in less than 200 days.

The rings are made from the fibrous material that is left out in wheat fields after harvest, which is typically either composted in the field, burned, or sold as cattle feed. It’s a byproduct of the food and beverage industry, that E6PR is using to develop packaging for those products down the line.

And it can be used for more than beer.

“The rings can hold pretty much any beverage that can be canned,” Ochoa says. “Right now the majority of the customers we’re working with are beer brewers, but we also have customers who make kombucha, who make wine, and more, so there is a lot of room for growth.”

And E6PR is just one example of a company pushing the boundaries of what can be used to package our foods. Potato Plastic won the James Dyson Award by eliminating food waste and providing nutrition for the soil. They mold plastic utensils out of potato starch using the unused ‘ugly’ potatoes which can biodegrade into the ground in two months.

CPG company Alter Eco recently took the step of switching out the packaging for coconut clusters from plastic laminated paper to recyclable cardboard, while Holy Lama Naturals out of the U.K. is now using palm leaves to package its soaps. Vetropack is delivering beverages in a new type of lightweight glass and Ecovative is even working on a sustainable alternative to styrofoam that’s made from mushrooms.

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SOS: Save Our Soil

As you may know, we have written about why soil is so important. We need it to grow our food, clean our water, and recycle CO2. 11% of our entire Earth is used for crop production, which we need soil to complete. Yet, we still take soil for granted. Let’s dive into why we are losing soil and how we change this trajectory.

CIA world factbook

Soil loss

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 33% of the world’s soil is moderately to highly degraded, or worn down, due to erosion by wind or water, drought, loss of soil or organic carbon, loss of biodiversity, destruction of ecosystems, habitat destruction, and pollution.

The World Wildlife Fund estimates that, because of degradation, half of the topsoil on Earth has been lost over the past 150 years. This is critically important because it threatens our ability to provide food for a growing population and jeopardizes the quality of our environment. Soil is a finite resource…its loss and degradation is not recoverable within the average human lifespan. Unless we drastically change our ways.

The USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service explains managing soil health, or improving soil function, as “mostly a matter of maintaining suitable habitat for the myriad of creatures that comprise the soil food web.”

This agency has developed four primary drivers of soil health to improve soil function:

  1. Disturb the soil as little as possible
  2. Grow as many different species of plants as you can
  3. Keep living plants in the soil as often as possible
  4. Keep the soil covered all the time

What is stopping them from achieving this state of soil health is industrial agriculture, which is cultivating crops on a large-scale by the use of intensive actions and chemical fertilizers.

Dr. Bill Robertson, an expert on soil restoration and professor of Crop, Soil, & Environmental Science at the University of Arkansas states, “soils are different everywhere you go…I grew up around Lubbock, Texas and I went to school in College Station, and the soils are different in both places.”

He says that this was even the same in 1995 when he moved to Arkansas. “That was my first experience with soils that have low organic matter and are pretty weathered. In Lubbock, when it would rain I’d sink down way past my ankles, but here in the mid-South with the types of soils we have, a lot of times after rain you don’t even leave any footprint in the soil.”

Why is this happening?

According to the FAO, there are many reasons why we are losing our soil, from erosion, poor farming practices, rain intensity, and wind. Even though we have learned a lot from the days of the Dust Bowl, we have not completely adopted best practices everywhere.

Tilling the soil with a tractor works crop residues and turns over the soil. While initially it aerates and fertilizes, in the long run it causes great damage to the soil. It changes the natural balance of the soil, leaving it dry and compacted so that it can’t support microbes like healthy soil can.

Compacted soil reduces airflow, water filtration, and impacts root growth. Remember, we need these microbes because they act like a fertilizer in the soil. No-till farming allows the crops to decompose into the soil and prevents erosion via wind or water.

Overgrazing by cattle is another reason we are losing soil because it weakens plant growth. A lack of plant growth reduces root mass in the soil, which in turn increases runoff and causes high soil temperatures.

What’s the solution?

One solution is to plant a cover crop, which is planting a particular crop specifically to improve soil quality. By doing this, the cover crop can help feed soil microbes and act as a sort of “glue” to hold them together while the soil rebuilds its microbiome. A second solution would be to introduce root systems. By doing this, the structure of the soil improves because space becomes available for air and water to regenerate the soil.

Dr. Robertson has begun to implement cover crops in some of his side-by-side fields. He says, “in fields where there are cover crops and that are fed soil microbiomes – they can hold 6-8 inches of rainwater per hour.

Conversely, bare, tilled fields only absorb ½ inches an hour.”

According to his research, for those crops that had a 1% increase in organic matter in the soil and added microbes, there is almost an extra inch of water retention per hour. This tells us that by improving the microbiome in the soil, it’s possible to reduce the need for irrigation, and, in return, build healthier, more resilient crops and boost yield without increasing cost.

It makes sense and further supports our point of why industrial agriculture is so detrimental to our soil. As natural microbes and bio-pesticides are absorbed into the soil, taking the place of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, they are better able to support robust plant growth. This leads to bigger yields, better resistance to pesticide stress, and an all-around healthier ecosystem.

“We can work against Mother Nature for a while,” he adds, “but after a while if we can just figure out how to work with the natural process, life is much simpler for everybody.” He continues with, “A lot of farmers treat their soil like they’re building a house and then tearing it down, improving soil structure but then coming in there with deep aggressive tillage and destroying all they built. You never get anywhere doing that.”

“Making” healthier soil

Farmers are also taking steps to ensure healthy soil every day. By increasing the organic matter in soil, you can improve its long-term health and performance. Similar to how you drink and eat pre- and probiotics to improve your gut health, farmers incorporate organic matter, such as crop residues, animal manure, compost, cover crops, and perennial grasses and legumes to feed the microbial community in the soil.

Soils deliver ecosystem services that enable life on earth (FAO)

Researchers also agree that soil health improves through diversified crop rotations, minimal soil disturbance (no-till and reduced tillage), and the use of cover crops. These practices are the basic principles that underpin conservation agriculture. As a result, farmers are sequestering more carbon, increasing water infiltration, improving wildlife and pollinator habitat—all while harvesting better profits and often better yields.

The good news is that there is a worldwide effort among government agencies, NGOs, and food and agricultural companies to provide education, research, and funding to farmers, ranchers, and landowners to help improve, manage, and sustain healthy soils.

Global status of human degradation of soils (FAO)

For too long, we have cared too much about what the soil can do for us, and each year it grows a little more tired, depleted, susceptible to pests, disease and water shortages, and we are all responsible. It is up to us, farmers, ranchers, soil scientists, legislators, and consumers, to invest in our soil once again.

— Soil Health Institute

How are NGOs helping?

The Nature Conservancy 

The Nature Conservancy identifies three main reasons why soil conservation is critical:

  1. Fighting climate change: Soil contributes to the recycling of CO2 in our environment because it contains double the amount of carbon than our atmosphere. Soil degradation leads to a decrease in soil maintenance of CO2, which, in turn, will act as a barrier to fighting climate change.
  2. Sustainable food production: We know that healthy soil is crucial to agriculture and crop production. When soil becomes lost, unhealthy, or eroded, this stands in the way of achieving sustainable food production.
  3. Protecting the habitat and biodiversity: We know that soil regulates water, but when erosion occurs, this can cause a loss of nutrients in the soil and an excess of nutrients in water systems. This could lead to problems in water diversity and can even negatively impact the water that we drink every day.

This is why the Nature Conservancy prides itself on being an advocate for soil and implements different practices including, restoration of biodiversity, carbon sequestration, lower sedimentation, and crop productivity.

The World Wildlife Fund

The World Wildlife Fund is known for being advocates for animals and nature, but they are also advocates for the soil, too. Soil erosion leads to an increase in infertile land. An increase in demand for food production has led to the conversion of natural vegetation in forests and grasslands to cultivating crops in man-made farm fields and pastures.

The World Wildlife Fund says this is problematic because agriculture, “often cannot hold onto the soil, and many of these plants, such as coffee, cotton, palm oil, soybean, and wheat, can increase soil erosion beyond the soil’s ability to maintain itself.”

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What is Soil?

We live in a world with a growing population where understanding the importance of vital elements has never been more necessary. Understanding all that sustains us, and keeps us healthy, is critical to our survival. At the root of that is soil. And what better time than now to appreciate the outdoors, when we’re eager to be out of our homes and in our backyards and gardens! Look out the window – plants, crops, trees, lakes, rivers, streams, gardens, grass…are all supported by the often misunderstood “skin of the earth”.

So let’s get to know our soil to make us better home gardeners and, more importantly, better stewards of healthy soil for the greater good.

What is Soil?

It is a natural body on the land surface of Earth, made up of minerals and organic matter. Soil has many jobs, including:

  • Providing our plants with the minerals and nutrients needed to give them proper nourishment which then keeps us healthy
  • Holding in moisture, preventing flooding, giving us groundwater, and keeping water intact for crops to grow
  • Modifying the atmosphere by providing a massive carbon sink for the Earth’s CO2 cycle by emitting and storing CO2, water vapor, and other gases
  • Purifying the water as it enters the ground
  • Providing a habitat for everything, from groundhogs and gophers to bacteria and fungi
  • Recycling nutrients so they can be used over and over again
  • Finally, it is also the foundation for photosynthesis, which is needed to grow our food

Soil vs. Dirt

Soil is found in layers with the “litter zone” on top. This layer is what we can see and where we find matter, like twigs and leaves. After that, there’s the topsoil, the subsoil, and rock fragments and bedrock at the bottom. That is a lot more than just a pile of dirt!

The most important layer is the topsoil, where all plant growth takes place. But it is a long, slow process. Because it is made from crushed rock and decaying plants and animals, it can take thousands of years in colder climates and hundreds of years in hot, wet climates to make just one inch of topsoil. Crushed rock is the time-consuming part.

Think of the rich, dark soil that was formed by the glaciers when they came down across North America and other parts of the world. A combination of glacial pressure, wind, rain, and basic weathering broke down the rocks into smaller fragments. As they break down, the minerals from the rocks dissolve into the earth.

Take a look at the soil in your hand, rub it between your fingers. Those shiny particles could be crushed rock from the glaciers millions of years ago.

Some Fun Topsoil Facts:

  • One earthworm can digest 36 tons of soil in one year – that is equal to five elephants!
  • There are over 70,000 kinds of soil in the U.S.
  • Five tons of topsoil spread over an acre is as thick as a dime

Soil is also formed by decaying roots, old plant material, and living organisms, which help break it down.  As dying material degrades into the soil, it provides nutrients for vegetation, as well as enriching the microbiome. These microbiomes are arguably the most important part of the soil.

The Soil Microbiome

When you hold soil in your hand, what you can’t see with the naked eye are the billions of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and other microorganisms. These are known as microbes and, this collection is commonly referred to as the soil microbiome.

When in proper balance, the microbiome stores and cycles nutrients like carbon, nitrogen, and provides stability and support for growing plants. It is truly the foundation of a natural regenerative process that has existed on Earth for millennia.

Microbes act like a fertilizer. They help plants change nitrogen from the air for growth and maturity, absorb phosphorus for health and vigor, and can protect a plant from fungal disease, like botrytis, or gray mold. This is the fungus we see most on our spoiled, inedible strawberries.

A diverse microbiome is an essential ingredient to healthy food and nutrition and is responsible for the micro and macro ingredients for our daily 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables, protein in wheat, and healthy animal feed for our protein. The more microbe diversity in your gut, the healthier your gut and overall immune system. A spoonful of soil? It is generally thought that by working in the garden, you inadvertently ingest soil – and healthy microbiomes for your gut.

Ever wonder how some plants grow in dry conditions? Microbiomes! The microbiome in and around the roots of that plant helps it survive amidst drought and heat. Scientists can isolate these microbes and apply them to crops with drought conditions. For example, the company Indigo Ag has developed microbial-treated seeds for wheat to increase plant health in the face of water stress.

Microbes perform critical functions in soil food webs, such as decomposing organic materials, cycling nutrients, and improving soil structure. (USDA NRCS)

Did you know? Penicillin, tetracycline, and streptomycin are just a few of the several hundred antibiotics originating from soil microbes.

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Combating Desertification & Land Degradation

 

We all have special days in our lives that we remember and celebrate – birthdays, anniversaries, holidays – as well as those remarkable people who always remember these special days and surprise us with a telephone call or a thoughtful card. I’ll admit I don’t routinely fill this role, but today, I’m happy to remind everyone that June 17, 2020 is indeed a day to remember: it is the United Nation’s global observance of Desertification and Drought Day.

You might be thinking, “wait, what day is that?!” Well, on June 17 each year, people around the world concerned about the scourge of desertification, land degradation, and drought work to raise awareness and promote solutions to these important issues.

Think this day may not pertain to you? Think again. These intertwined issues of desertification and drought are related to broader issues such as the food we eat, farmer livelihoods, water quality, soil health, ethnic and gender diversity, wildlife biodiversity, refugees and social migration patterns, the rate of deforestation, and the impacts of a rapidly changing climate. This topic is the fulcrum to gain leverage for many of the positive changes you’d like to see in the world.

Put simply, as our consumption increases, the health of the land on which we produce food, cloth, and other goods decreases. Severe weather patterns, such as excessive rain or drought, can quickly degrade plant growth and cause soil erosion. Farm management practices, like grazing duration, excessive tillage, poor irrigation practices or leaving the land bare of plant growth, can instigate a decline in productivity.

Once soil deterioration starts, a downward spiral can ensue, causing a once productive landscape to look more like a desert. Deserts are harsh places to live – food production is difficult and people who find themselves in these places tend to move on. Hence our deserts become deserted.

At this time, over one-half of the global agricultural lands used for food production are considered moderately to severely degraded. Furthermore, they are being abandoned at an unsustainable rate and many are challenging or impossible to restore.

soil degradation

Depending on the type and extent of degradation, the land may never be suitable again for food production or it could take several decades to rebuild the topsoil. In China, for instance, roughly 20% of the productive farmland soils are now contaminated with heavy metal pollution. A large portion of this land may never again be fit for food production, but other areas may be rehabilitated to serve as livestock feed in the future. China, India, and other countries with severe land degradation issues are increasing imports of certain food items, which in turn, drives agricultural expansion in countries such as Brazil or Indonesia. Of course, some former ag lands reverting to nature could be a benefit to biodiversity, climate, and broader ecosystem health.

But restoration work takes time, concerted effort and considerable nuance.

It is imperative that we reverse the desertification trend to avoid creating more lands in need of restoration.

The high rate of abandonment is one of the main drivers for converting existing forests or open savannahs to agriculture. Taken together, this land-use change makes up the largest portion of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the global food system. Without meaningful change to this degrade-abandon-convert trend, experts predict we will burn through another 400 million hectares – an area twice the size of Mexico – at the expense of natural ecosystems – over the next 30 years.

Surface land use chart courtesy of Growing Better Global Report, Food and Land Use Coalition (2019).

For my organization – The Nature Conservancy – the trend is deeply alarming and unacceptable. We face not only an unprecedented loss of nature, but also food security and economic challenges if we can’t reverse this trend. Consider:

  • Today, the expansion of agriculture into natural habitats is the largest driver of biodiversity loss globally.
  • Plus, after 10,000 years of agriculture, virtually none of the new land coming into production today is the highest quality land for food production.
  • In addition to the priceless loss of biodiverse species, these inefficient land-use dynamics cost the global economy several trillion dollars annually.

Thankfully, there is a business and science case for change that is gaining traction. Actors throughout the global supply chain are taking steps to slow the conversion trend and deploy a suite of regenerative management practices to restore existing agricultural areas.

Planting diverse cover crops annually to improve soil health is perhaps the one regenerative management practice that if widely adopted, could do the most to restore degraded croplands.

In the U.S., for example, the past decade has seen small but steady increases in farmers utilizing cover crops to maintain and restore croplands. While every farm has a slightly different set of circumstances to consider, most farms will start making more money by routinely using cover crops by the third year of adoption, if not sooner.

Over the next decade, our task at TNC is to assist the farmers and ranchers who have successfully restored their lands utilizing these regenerative soil health management practices to transmit this knowledge through various means to millions of their peers around the world.

We can all play a small role in this process, too. Simply by eating a more diverse diet – trying something new – we will send market signals to food producers to incorporate more diversity into our agricultural landscapes. Several thought-leading chefs are taking “farm to fork” considerations even further by using new ingredients to support the health of our soils – from dirt to dinner, if you will.

We are encouraged by the growing attention to these issues, especially among practitioners. Farmers, ranchers and pastoralists around the world are recognizing they can move beyond simply sustaining their land resources. They can adopt management practices which restore and revitalize the health of ecosystems.

Today, as we observe Desertification and Drought Day while still in the grips of a global health crisis, we do so to call attention to this important issue.

But I hope that I’ll have the occasion to remind everyone in ten years that June 17, 2030, is a day for celebration – a celebration of a decade well spent embracing the solutions to this vitally important global challenge.

Want to learn a few facts about desertification? See our infographic below to learn more:

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Does Intermittent Fasting Make Us Healthier?

Despite the re-openings of parks, beaches and restaurants, many of us find ourselves in a slump between bad news and worse news. Exacerbating our uneasy feelings is how hard it’s been for some of us to break up with hourly visits to our refrigerators and pantries.

But is there much research on the effects of not snacking all day on my long-term health? I’d like to lose my “COVID 5” around my midsection, but also do something that will make me healthier for longer, and also happens to be a sustainable way for me to eat, year after year.

It’s a lot to think about all at once, but as good ol’ Ben Franklin wisely said, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. And as this mom of two kids enters – gasp! –  middle age, I’ve gotta start getting serious about this, like, now.

So I perused our diet posts and reread our article on intermittent fasting from three years ago. More recent research released from clinical trials and academic institutions continue to tout intermittent fasting as a way to not only manage weight, but also prevent age-related diseases, like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Additional benefits include combating the age-related increase in fat tissue and decrease in muscle mass.

Though many, but not all of these studies are based on animal trials, they may hold true for us as well, as inferred from several human clinical trials.

Why Fasting?

“Fasting”…doesn’t sound very fun, does it? It makes me think of something you’re forced to do before a medical procedure – ugh. However, fasting has been practiced for millennia due to its medicinal purposes and to permit the body time to heal itself without distraction. But the thought of going days without food not only sounds daunting but unhealthy.

Another option that’s been shown to have positive results for aging? A calorie-restrictive (CR) diet. That’s when you limit the daily intake of calories to about half of what you normally consume. But this has been associated with long-term loss of lean muscle mass, immune suppression, and participant non-compliance. Ummm…no thanks. And shouldn’t we be strengthening our immunity right now?!

Meeting in the Middle

Not to fear: recent studies have shown a way for the body to reap the benefits of fasting without the daunting task of not eating (or eating enough) for days. And it’s achievable in our modern-day lifestyle.

Time-restricted feeding (TRF), a form of intermittent fasting, limits the number of continual hours you eat during the day – every day. Similar to its fasting and CR counterparts, TRF allows our bodies to have time to actively regenerate stem cells, thus positively affecting aging. But unlike CR, TRF results in a more dramatic drop in insulin levels while increasing our cells’ protection from oxidative stress. These attributes can play a role in cancer risk reduction, thus making time-restricted feeding a great consideration for long-term health.

And for women, the benefits extend even further. Analysis from Women’s Healthy Eating and Living study found that female participants in a breast cancer survivor study who didn’t eat for at least 13 hours overnight had a 36% reduction in the risk of recurrence. Furthermore, they were 21% less likely to experience breast cancer-related mortality.

Why it Works

Research shows that time-restricted feeding is a naturally efficient mechanism for eating, as it logically works with our sleep cycle to provide the digestive “break” our bodies need to regenerate cells. This “break”, ranging from 12-16 hours in length, includes overnight hours and can either start early in the evening or extend through the morning.

When you think about eating from, say, 9am to 7pm, you’re fasting for 14 continual hours. This also means you’re completely doing away with late-night eating, which is associated with a higher risk of diabetes and obesity. And you’re allowing your body to have a more restorative sleep without being distracted with digesting your late-night snacks with Seth Meyers.

Fasting 101

Much research has been conducted on the various ways of restricted feeding and fasting and its myriad benefits. The most well-known researcher, Dr. Valter Longo, discovered the foundation of a time-restricted diet with his fast-mimicking diet, which has been shown to prevent cancers, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity among its 100 participants, one of the larger human studies conducted in this field.

To understand how fasting can lead to keeping you healthy, let’s first start with a quick bio-nutrition lesson:

When fasting, the body uses its glycogen stores in the liver for energy. Once available glycogen is depleted, triglycerides are then broken down to produce fatty acids, which the liver converts to ketones for fuel. Ketone levels begin to rise after 8 to 12 hours without food.

Once our energy source switches to ketones, our bodies become better at glucose regulation, stress resistance, inflammation suppression, and restoring mitochondria health. Furthermore, in a fasted state, damaged molecules are repaired or removed. Endurance, coordination, and balance are increased and muscle mass is maintained despite the regular period of fasting.

Should you do it?

Do you want the full effects of intermittent fasting? Then be prepared to do this for the long haul. And not to binge after each fast.

Researchers, including Longo, urge us to make these intermittent fasting practices a permanent lifestyle change and not as a “diet”, per se. Many of us turn to diets for a quick way to lose weight, so avoid fasting diets where you “starve and feast”, eating whatever you want after the fast is completed. Those diets, like the Every Other Day Diet, just encourage poor eating habits with low nutritional value.

More importantly, intermittent fasting may not be appropriate for everyone, particularly if you are underweight or recovering from a long-term illness. Significant lifestyle changes like this should be conducted under the supervision of practitioners you trust.

How to do it?

Ok, so you’re ready to feel amazing for a very, very long time. But…how do you start? If you’re like me, you reallllllly look forward to your three-square meals a day, with maybe a snack or two in between. You can still have your meals – they will just be condensed in a shorter period of time.

First, let’s start with the foundation for any good diet: lots and lots of veggies and fruits. The MIND Diet serves as a helpful foundation here. It is a research-backed program that can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by half and keep the brain years younger. The diet centers on “brain-healthy food groups”, like leafy greens, vitamin-packed veggies, nuts, berries, beans, whole grains, fish, poultry, olive oil, and – wait for it – wine! By getting used to filling your plate with nutrient-dense foods, they will keep you feeling fuller for longer.

Are you a snacker? Time to elevate your game by cutting out your mid-meal snacks. Yes, I’m sorry…this includes that random bowl of cereal, too – no matter how healthy it is.

Now that your diet is on point, it’s time to start a simple form of time-restricted feeding. At first, try limiting your fast to 12 hours. Most of this time can easily be done while you sleep. Cut off your food by 8:00 pm and then have breakfast at 8:00 am. Gradually increase your fasting hours from 7:00 pm to 9:00 am. Ready to keep going? 16 hours is really the limit for most people. Some people eat all their food for the day in one sitting. We tried that once, and were left miserably hungry for 23 hours.

Whichever you choose, be sure to start your fast well before bedtime so you sleep properly and let your cells do their work!

A Few Notes…

Just like when you cut out sugar, carbs, or caffeine from your diet, there is a period of discomfort as your body adapts to this new way of eating. But with some small changes taking place over a few months, you can reduce the negative side effects and find this to not only be a manageable way of eating, but also helpful in making you feel better and have more energy.

Oh, and by the way, you can drink water, tea, and black coffee during your ‘fasting’ period. It is recommended that if you want a splash of milk, it won’t hurt to have fewer than 50 calories. Also, stevia will not trigger an insulin response, unlike some other sweeteners.

Now it’s time to let down your refrigerator gently…it’s not a full break-up, after all 😉

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Demanding Equality: Women Farmers in Africa

Editor’s Note: These days, it feels like a challenge to find stories of unity and empowerment. So we feel very honored and proud to present our readers with these uplifting stories of three African women farmers who not only challenge the status quo, but have dramatically improved the well-being of their families, their countries…and beyond.

In sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farmers make up 80% of all farms, with women comprising at least half of the work force. However, a pervasive gender imbalance exists here, with men dominating the industry and given opportunities and resources their female counterparts can only dream of. Motivated by the stories of their mothers and their own experiences in rural Africa, these three inspiring women, Ruramiso Mashumba, Slyvia Tetteh, and Sussana Phiri, have created a better life for themselves, their families, and all women farmers through their educational and empowerment efforts.

From Ghana to Zimbabwe to Zambia, here are the stories of our farmers.

These are the stories of Ruramiso Mashumba, Slyvia Tetteh, and Sussana Phiri, exemplary women who have changed the face of farming in Africa. Together, they unify their voices through their Facebook page, Women Who Farm Africa, which shares resources, experiences, and information to empower women around the world. They take pride in Africa’s culture of leaving no one behind by educating women on preventing food insecurity and encouraging their role in strengthening the local and global economies.

These women believe that “closing the access gap between men and women farmers would increase agricultural productivity by 2.5 – 4% in developing countries – thus reducing hungry people by 150 million. The result is a thriving community, country, and world.”

Ruramiso Mashumba, CEO & Founder, Mnandi Africa

I was born in the capital city of Zimbabwe, Harare. My mother worked in the rural areas. I remember when we were younger, she used to sit us down and tell us about the women she worked with in agriculture. Many of times they couldn’t afford to send their children to school if there was a drought in the country. The women worked tirelessly day in and day out to earn just a few dollars.

From that age, I made up my mind that I, too, want to work in supporting women in rural communities.

When I was 14 years old, my dad bought a farm and I was moved to a school next to the farm that had a focus on agriculture. This is where I learned about commercial agriculture and the power it had to transform the rural economy by transforming lives of farmers. I decided to further my studies at school and receive a diploma. My experience wasn’t easy. The school was not ready for women. They didn’t have a uniform for us. I had to wear khaki shorts, shirt and long knee-length socks as there was no uniform for girls.

For two years, I studied agriculture at my school. Throughout the entire time, I was bullied. They called me a boy because of my uniform. I remember the boys would pull my chair and laugh at me every day.

Despite how difficult it was, I was determined to make sure I didn’t give up. I felt I must persevere because I was an example for little girls in my school who were younger than me. I wanted to show them you can achieve anything, even when the odds are against you, if you put your mind to it. So I made sure I studied hard.

After two years, I graduated third in my class out of fifty students. I’m happy to report the two people above me were also girls.

We stuck together and yes, we did persevere.

I then went on to further my education in the UK. I remember my first day on a British farm. These farmers were so cool! They had tractors, combine harvesters – worlds apart from the women my mother described in her story who farmed with manual tools and torn clothes.

After I graduated, I decided to return to Zimbabwe. My goal was to change the face of my country’s agriculture. I was encouraged and motivated. I wrote a business plan.

I remember the day I finally got an appointment to see my bank manager. He was dressed smartly in a pin striped suit and looked very important.

I sat down anxiously and presented my proposal. After what felt like a lifetime, he inhaled and said, “Young lady how old are you?” I replied 25 years old. He said, “Hmm…do you have collateral?” I replied, “No, just my University degree.”

He replied, “Soon you will be married and what will that mean for our money? Hmmm, unfortunately, we are unable to assist you.” I went home in tears.

I sat down with my parents crying. My mother got up, got a box, and took out her savings she had put aside to buy a car and said, “My girl, you can do anything as long as you put your mind to it. Now, go and conquer the world.”

That year, I planted 1 hectare of cabbages, oilseed vegetables, and king onions. I used the knowledge I had learned at university that farming is a business and within one month, I was already selling, and my product was very successful.

The reason for my success was because of the education I gained not only in practical farming, but also business management, which included modules like how to secure markets.

As a result of my high-quality products, the next year I got my first big break. My company was contracted by a local producer to grow snap peas for them to export into the EU and became their first woman grower, as well as their first grower younger than 30 years old.

The company had seen proof from the quality of my current crop that I was competent to produce high-quality product for them to export.

I have since shared my story and inspired other young ladies in rural areas, as well as in the urban areas. I tell them that agriculture is male-dominated, but women farmers can and should stand shoulder to shoulder with men.

Together, we can do more. Together, we can change the image of the continent and we can feed the world.

Today, I am the first woman chairperson of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union youth. I have represented women in ag across the world by sharing not only my story, but also the stories of the many women food producers who need access to education in agriculture, technology, and finance.

A lot of people see me today winning awards, traveling the world, farming with tractors, working with planter and center pivots, and think I have arrived.

In many ways I have, but honestly, as a farmer I am still faced daily with army worm, increases in pests and diseases, and climate change. I understand personally how hard things are and have the education to know that there are solutions. That’s why as a farmer, I have become an advocate for women in science.

Together, men and women can feed our growing population. Science is not moving fast enough for us as farmers. We need seeds that can adapt to today’s challenges and my involvement with Cornell’s Alliance For Science is motivated by my strong belief that science needs to hurry up.

The technology is there. I conclude by this popular African saying, “alone you can go faster, but together we can go far”.

Let’s come together — farmers both men and women, scientists and innovators — to help feed the world and leave no man behind.

Slyvia Tetteh, Administrator, Chamber of Agribusiness, Ghana


My name is Slyvia Tetteh. I’m from the United States of Africa; specifically, Ghana.

Famous Ghanaian educator Dr. James Kwegyir Aggrey famously once said: “If you educate a man, you educate an individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate an entire nation”. I believe this to be true. I want to share with you why I’m dedicating my life to empowering the women farmers of Africa.

My passion for empowering women began with my mother, Lawrencia Larbi. Despite so many obstacles, my mother had a dream of completing her education. Unlike here in America where families live on farms, in Africa our farms are usually located far away from our homes, and you must travel by foot because the paths are too narrow for vehicles. My mother would wake up every day at 4am. She would do this to help her parents feed the family and to raise money for her education. After putting on her school uniform, she would walk one hour to work on our family farm.

After working for several hours, she would then walk upwards of two hours with her mother to the market. There, they would sell our farm produce, and sometimes banana leaves. My mother did this every day. Only then did she depart for school. Unfortunately, some days it took hours before she and grandma could sell any of our farm produce. Often, by the time they made enough money, morning classes had already ended. Sometimes they did not sell anything until midday. By then, it was already too late for my mother to go to school. My mother was pressed between a rock and a hard place.

She was the youngest in her family. Her brother and sisters had found this schedule impossible to maintain. She had worked so hard to try to finish school, but eventually reality hit her. It was literally and physically impossible to follow the daily routine and achieve academic success. With no other options, she had to marry early and start a family, just like generations of women before her.

While she was being educated, my mother dreamed of becoming a lawyer and eventually a Legislator who served her nation. But with no support financially, and unable to achieve an education, my mother had to give up her dream.

My mother was seventeen when she got married.

No one should give up their dream at seventeen years old. My mother was determined to give me and my sisters the opportunities she didn’t have. And she did. She didn’t always have the money to keep us in school. But despite the fact that she didn’t finish school, she remembered everything she had learned. When we couldn’t afford school, she used her knowledge to homeschool us. I believe my mother was an exceptional woman, but in terms of what she did with the education she had, she was not atypical.

In my country, if you educate a father, he is expected to take his education out of the home and into the workplace to earn money for his family. A woman’s role is to stay home with her children. When mothers are educated, they keep their education in the home and use it to educate their children. If you educate a woman, you educate her children, and by extension, her community. A nation of educated women is an educated nation.

Out of 80% of women farmers with children in the 1990s, I’m one of the lucky ones to obtain a higher education. I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Information Studies. My mother’s hard work gave me the opportunity to stand on this platform before you here today. This is why I work so hard to help other women. My mother’s unwavering dedication to educate me drives my passion.

Today, I educate women – I work with women farmers so that they can farm successfully and more easily using modern agricultural biotechnology. I do this because I believe if you educate a man you educate an individual; but if you educate a woman, you educate an entire nation. Our male counterparts also have challenges, yet the current system advances men. Men hand their farms down to their sons from generation to generation.

Therefore, only less than 20% of agricultural land in the world is owned by women farmers. Because men own their land, they have the collateral to secure loans to buy machinery, which allows them to scale their farming.

Meanwhile, so many women are still farming with manual tools.

Research has shown that women farmers produce 70% of food found on the continent, and yet 5 million people die of hunger every year. 5. Million. People. To be able to feed the continent with the expected population increase of 1 billion, things must change. Women must have the tools they need to farm more efficiently, maximizing output on every inch of farmland. Strong policies must be put in place.

The only way to bridge this vast gap of inequity is to educate women. Women Farmers Must. Be. Empowered. Equally. In order to increase yields and achieve sustainable growth, women must be educated about agricultural biotechnology and have access to other available breakthrough technology. Only then will women become productive, independent, and financially stable. Families with educated women are empowered to provide for themselves. Unlike my mother, these families can realize their dreams. There is no reason we can not empower the women of Africa to empower themselves. We. Can.

And when this day comes, we will be able to say the following: We have educated women. We have educated an entire nation. And the world IS a better place.

Sussana Phiri, Farmer & Advocate of Zambian Agriculture

I am Sussana Phiri and I am from Zambia. Chilanga is my hometown. Zambia has abundant arable land, many water bodies, and hardworking women. Zambia is home to a vibrant mix of cultures and is also widely considered to be one of the friendliest and most welcoming nations in the world.

In America, you’re either a farmer, or you’re not. It’s not that simple where I come from. In my country, we are all farmers. When I was little, my father made small farming tools for me and my siblings. They were cute. We weren’t doing much, but it was our introduction to farming being a part of the fabric of our lives. We farmed during the rainy season so we had enough maize to feed our big family through the next year.

My mother always used to say “pang’ono pang’ono ndi mtolo,” translated it means: ​bit by bit causes a heap.

Although we didn’t have endless supplies of food, we all worked together, bit by bit, to ensure we never went hungry. I am so thankful. ​No child should ​ever​ go hungry. Like many people in my country, there were early mornings, long days, and late nights. All day, every day, every year. By the time I was 22 years old, I was studying remotely to earn my degree in education, while farming my family’s land and also teaching pre-school.

Seeing children I worked with suffer because they did not have enough to eat was painful. Despite being hungry, these children worked hard and went to school every day. Theirs is a difficult yet inspiring story, but that is not the story I want to share with you.

I want to share a practice in my country which hurts me, but inspired me to make change.

I want to tell you about a practice called mashanga – a practice which taught me to question what is not right and think outside of the box for solutions. After the rainy season, we wait for the maize to dry. Once it dries, my family harvests it. Mashanga is what happens next, but it shouldn’t happen at all. ​After Harvest season, women with little babies on their backs would ask for permission to go on our land. We would grant it and they would walk through the field, looking for ​any grain we had accidentally left behind. ​They would walk our field for hours, hoping to find any scraps we left behind, and then they would go to other fields after that.

Mashanga is considered normal in my community. Mothers with little babies on their backs, looking for scraps.

This practice made me realize many things. First, in order to live in a better world you must question the world you’re in. Second, just because things have always been done one way, it does not mean they are right, fair or just. And finally, there can be better ways to do things than the way we have always done things. We must question what we think is normal to create change. And if we are to feed every hungry child, we must question what that looks like.

In Zambia, women farmers comprise over 70% of the farming labour, yet they do not have access to information on how to farm better beyond just thinking farming is a way of life.

We also do not have access to technology that would reduce labor while providing greater yields. Women’s work is not valued as it should be given the majority of labor we provide.

We can question this. It should not be normal. No. Things must change. ​Women farmers in Africa are feeding the African continent even under unfavorable conditions. But it is not enough. 1 in 4 children go undernourished everyday. Now imagine the year 2050, when Africa’s population is projected to have 2.4 billion people. ​We cannot move forward accepting things as they have always been. ​This is not sustainable.

pang’ono pang’ono ndi mtolo… bit by bit causes a heap.

I am a twenty-five year old who is working for that heap of change.

Change does not have to happen overnight, but it can and we must work bit by bit to cause a heap.

Today, I am a co-founder of the Women Who Farm Africa campaign. Women Who Farm believes that if we empower women farmers in agribusiness, agricultural technologies, and communication, we can​ feed the world in 2050.

Whether you are a business expert, scientist, communications expert, farmer, or policy maker, you can contribute a bit to create ​a heap of food for all of us. ​

Bit by bit, we can create change together. ​It’s time ​for a new normal, one that empowers women.

It’s time for a heap of change, a heap of change that feeds the world.

 

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A Farmer’s Life on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Every morning, Brandy Johnson cooks breakfast for her 6 and 3-year-olds and her husband, Russell. After kissing each other good-bye for the day, Brandy takes their children to school and Russell checks on hundreds of cattle on their family’s ranch. Before leaving the house, they each tuck a holstered 9mm pistol in their waistband.

While some Americans carry a pistol for basic protection, very few must consider defending themselves when they wake up in the morning. The Johnsons are not protecting themselves from grizzly bears, but rather the sometimes-dangerous situations that arise from those trying to cross the border right onto their backyard.

Immigrant Workers as an Essential Part of the U.S. Workforce

Many people from around the world have flocked to this country to build new and better lives for their families and future generations. They provide the labor behind countless essential job functions. Many immigrants harvest our crops and process our meat. Some maintain our households and tend to our homes and gardens. They ceaselessly study to pursue the knowledge and training that opens doors to more opportunities, better lives, and better futures. Some bring special knowledge and skills, already present yet unable to be used as productively as they should.

In total, immigrants of diverse backgrounds, capabilities, needs, and dreams provide an essential source of the energy and commitment that pushes our nation and our world forward. It is an approach to nation-building that has worked well for years. It remains a cornerstone of the traditional view of the American dream.

Many U.S. industries are reliant on this workforce. As of the most recent U.S. Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers’ survey report, almost half of farm laborers are unauthorized immigrants. And this isn’t just in the interest of labor costs…many farmers and ranchers have difficulty hiring local workers, as they just aren’t interested. As for the value of the immigrant workforce, a dairy industry study found that if the foreign-born workforce is reduced by 50%, 3,500 dairy farms would close and dairy product prices would increase by 30%. And this study was conducted before COVID-19…who knows what that figure would look like now?

But that vision of immigration as a good and positive thing is under assault. Desperate people taking desperate actions have made the question of immigration increasingly polarized. It is an unpleasant fact that Mexico and Central American countries like Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, are rife with poverty, drug cartels, and crime, forcing many citizens to leave their homes. Compassion toward those who come over to escape for a better a life is necessary – intolerance for criminals is mandatory.

Illegal immigration today produces a political and social firestorm – a polarization of opinion that can be traced to the dangerous difficulties that face people across our nation – and none more so than those at the front line of the immigration question, like those along the U.S.-Mexico border.

And how these unauthorized immigrants arrive at their destination can be a very different story…

Welcome to Cattle Ranching on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Russell is a fourth-generation rancher, grazing sometimes more than a thousand head of cattle in the rugged country of southwestern New Mexico.  His big spread abuts the U.S.-Mexico border for eight miles, marked by sparse vegetation and sparser water, protected and defined in long stretches by crude vehicle barriers or a single strand of barbed-wire fencing. The nearest city of any size is 40 miles away.  Everything here is big, and the scale of things immense.

Russell and Brandy work hard to make a go of it in the demanding world of cattle production. It’s hard work keeping tabs on the cattle 24/7, protecting them from predators, and doing it all in a way that preserves the delicate balance that protects the natural resources they and their predecessors have relied upon for more than a century. It’s a rugged life made even more so by dealing with desperate immigrants passing through.

Russell patiently paints a scary picture of how illegal immigration has changed not just the way he manages his cattle operations, but maybe more concerning, how it has changed the way he and his family go about living their day-to-day lives.

He says the core of the problem is where his ranch lies. For miles and miles of that border, on either side of his ranch, there is no substantive barrier – other than that strand of barbed wire – standing guard against those intent upon entering the U.S. There is nothing to stop individuals from coming across their land. Increasingly, these newcomers come in waves of all-terrain vehicles, rampaging across the countryside in a headlong dash for that elusive better life somewhere north of the so-called border.

“It can be individuals, or groups being taken in by somebody with a van or a panel truck,” Russell explains.  “Sometimes they may be drug runners, or smugglers bringing cheap labor into the country for whoever wants them, or just people grasping for something better, no matter the cost or the danger for them or others.”

There’s no one way to define who is coming over. And that may be the point. “There’s just more and more of them all the time,” Russell observes.

“I have no problem with people seeking a better life,” he says in the laconic western drawl. “We all want better lives for our families. I get that. But what I don’t like is what I see happening to my life because we won’t face up to the big issue – which is building a workable immigration system. I’m tired of waiting. And frustrated.”

When a western cattle rancher says he is frustrated, it’s time to pay attention.

A Dangerous Way of Life

The increasing number of undocumented immigrants entering Russell’s ranch carries with it a lot of collateral damage.

“Well, it starts with my fences being taken down,” he says. “I get a call at 2am from Border Patrol telling me somebody has run down my fence. I have to get up and fix the fence all over again. And again, and again.”

But what animates Russell is something far more frightening than the repair expense, or the inconvenience, or more hard work. As a rancher, he’s used to that.

“It bothers me when I find one of my line sheds has been broken into for shelter,” he says. “Or even burned down to keep warm.”

Or consider the situation faced by Russell’s father and uncle during one of the worst cycles of immigrant flow into his farm. “My father and uncle’s pickup was stolen at gunpoint while they were checking on the chili pepper harvest. There were young men blending into the chili picking crew, but apparently, they were actually guarding a marijuana field in Mexico that had been raided. They needed a pickup to escape, but got it stuck in the mud just before they could cross into Mexico. The young men left the truck…some fled to a village just across the border and engaged in a gunfight with Mexican law enforcement, while a few others ran back into the U.S.”

“I’m not happy about it,” Russell adds. “But there are places on my property that I won’t let my children go – at least not without me or Brandy being with them, and without at least one of us being armed. The local police can’t be of much help. They just can’t cover all this ground.”

Asking if these kinds of episodes are a frequent problem or an occasional annoyance, Russell responds, “it goes in waves. We’ll go a while with only an occasional sighting, or even nothing happening. We’ll have a single drive-through, then have three or four for about a month.  Then they’ll move on to a new spot, the point of least resistance. They’ll move to where the Border Patrol isn’t…to where they aren’t focusing their limited resources.”

Trying to get state and other federal authorities to take action hasn’t produced much to help alleviate the problem.

“We contact all the right people, and sometimes they will send somebody out from the Border office to walk around and look at things,” Russell says, choosing his words carefully. “They don’t see anything or anybody of interest at that moment. So they sorta shrug it off and go back.”

What they don’t seem to appreciate, he adds, is that the problem is like water seeking the lowest level. “There are hundreds of miles of border” in this region, he says, including lots with nothing more than the wire fences. “When the flow of illegal immigrants builds up in one spot, Border Patrol might send out what resources they have available to help. But the runners always seem to sense when that is happening, and they just shift to another weak point and make that their way in. Then the whole process repeats itself somewhere else.”

It’s not that Border Patrol doesn’t want to try to help us, he adds. “It’s just that they don’t have enough people or resources of technology to cover it all.”  Russell knows; he used to be a Border Patrol agent, covering 67 miles of territory.

What Can be Done for Farmers at the Border?

“We need to secure our border with a barrier, put Border Patrol agents in place with the proper technology, and have immigration reform for those who want to be good productive citizens of our country.” 

Russell adds, “Long-term is the real reform of immigration policy. Let’s find a way to let people in the right way so it works for them – and not the criminals.”

As it turns out, things are moving in Russell’s favor. As we prepared this post, significant progress has been made on their 3-mile stretch of unprotected border. Russell was eager to report that things have changed drastically on his ranch and, “for a change, it’s better”.  Wall construction has started on his family’s ranch and, furthermore, Russell received a status report that a contract has been in place to fortify the 3-mile stretch of barbed wire they feared was going to be left as a gap. This gives his family much relief in knowing that their property will no longer be a funneling point.

Communication here is key, as Russell had to elevate his needs to the Administration for this additional coverage. Though it’s not an answer to a much larger, pressing issue, it’s a step in a better direction that protects the Johnsons’ ranch while helping to direct flow through the proper channels.

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Dairy: An Industry in Quiet Turmoil

Dairy farmers know the story all too well. Long before COVID-19 raised its ugly head across the globe, the industry was already in the throes of major structural changes and fundamental economic shifts. Recently, Dean Foods and Borden Dairy filed for bankruptcy within months of each other.

Industry consolidation

In 1999, the U.S. had over 87,000 dairy farms spread across the country. In 2019, that number more than halved to 34,000. Over the same period, the volume of milk produced per cow has increased 32%. Surprisingly, the number of cows remains the same, hovering around 9 million.

Although smaller dairy farms with up to 30 cows still make up a larger portion of total farms in the U.S., in 2006, they produced only 1% of total dairy production. New technologies implemented by larger dairies dramatically increase production, but are just too expensive for the smaller dairies to adopt. This has prevented small dairy farms from increasing their volume, and thus, their margin. They needed to find a solution fast, and that solution was to consolidate.

So, why consolidate? Because it can mean much lowers costs. For operations of 2,000 or more cows, the small farm realizes a 12% savings in feed costs, 20% in operating costs, and 45% in overhead costs when consolidating with a larger dairy, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But a larger number of cows does not always mean a higher profit. Increases in per-cow productivity is much more important to getting a better end result, and larger farms still have the advantage here. Increases in per-cow productivity are made possible by advances in animal nutrition, health and well-being, and technological improvements. These are more financially feasible for larger operations.

Global demand shifts

The challenges facing the dairy sector didn’t end with consolidation. Today, consumers drink or eat about 160 pounds of dairy per year – a decrease from the 195 pounds in 2010. Alternative “milks”, like almond, oat, and even banana, started taking over the shelves and diets of many consumers, significantly cutting dairy demand.

Meanwhile, competition to export milk intensified: New Zealand recently ranked first with $5.5 billion of milk exports, compared to the U.S.’s $1.6B, placing us in fifth place. Also, in many rural areas, the lack of labor plus the inability to adapt rapidly to costly new technologies paints a bleak picture for many dairy farmers. For producers, prices didn’t generate the profits they needed to survive, let alone thrive.

Members of the dairy industry have wrestled with these problems for years and yet we, the consumer, didn’t notice. We still saw grocery shelves stacked with butter and cheese, and food-services ready to serve whatever dairy product we needed, so how could we know what was going on behind the scenes?

Then came COVID-19…

It wasn’t until COVID-19 cut off a huge portion of the restaurant, school, and food-service markets that we really started to notice the changes. Dairy producers were left with a significant oversupply – by some industry estimates, as much as a 10% surplus. But how?

Imagine going to a restaurant for dinner. Maybe you start with some fresh bread and it comes with butter. Your salad is topped with feta cheese. The salmon you ordered was cooked in a pan of butter and has parmesan sprinkled on top. The side order of a baked potato comes with butter and sour cream, and you order a nice slice of cheesecake topped with whipped cream for dessert. Every course in that meal included dairy in at least one way.

This is where the problem lies. These food-service markets purchase as much as half of the cheese and butter produced by the industry and school milk makes up 7% of all liquid milk sales. Without them, we see a huge decrease in demand.

The media reports a 70% overall drop in cheese sales, which – you can see in the chart – equates to a lot of milk left to waste. Leading producers of cheese, like Wisconsin, California, and New York, are facing a potentially worse supply-demand imbalance. Not coincidentally, Wisconsin and New York are where reports of milk being dumped on the ground seem most common. In April, as much as 7% of milk production wound up being poured out, rather than being shipped to processors.

Dairy processors, such as Nestle USA and the Dairy Farmers of America Inc, have rushed to adapt to the surge in demand, or ‘panic-buying’ as we’ve seen it called, for fluid milk that has emerged from the pandemic. In the first two weeks of the pandemic, fluid milk sales jumped by 55% and still remains about 35% higher than usual.

“As panic buying reached its peak, we shifted production to focus on products most in demand – whole and 2% milk for retail business – to maximize our output efficiency,” said Anne Divjak, Vice President of Government Relations and External Communications for Dean Foods. “Demand has since normalized, and we are back to normal production runs but still seeing significant declines in school milk and food-service business.”

So…why the empty dairy shelves?

If there is such a large decrease in demand and milk is being dumped, why are we still seeing empty dairy cases at the grocery store?

There’s another problem, and that lies at the retail level. There is simply not enough storage space needed to accommodate large amounts of a product to keep the shelves full, especially one that quickly goes sour like fluid milk.

This is why so many of us were perplexed by the sight of empty dairy cases we saw at our grocery store and the subsequent reports of dairy producers dumping milk on the ground. Little did we know it was because grocery stores couldn’t rely on the next link in the supply chain to have the resources needed to adapt to such a profound shift in demand “pull.”

On top of that, distributors are also overwhelmed with the endless delivering. “We’re waiting for the next truck to come in,” became a common phrase among grocers and retail workers. The pandemic has caused a shift to the entire supply chain that can’t be fixed overnight.

As you can see, there isn’t a shortage of dairy products. Our delivery and retailing systems simply need some time to adjust to the massive changes in the system.

What’s the dairy industry to do?

In the short-term, the industry must work hard to accommodate the changed demand picture. It must focus on supplying the products customers want most. It must step up efforts to augment the traditional retail sales channels with more direct sales, like direct-to-consumer opportunities, and donations to food banks and community food programs.

Our food system is nothing if not adaptive, and many dairy operators are already hard at work seeking new ways to deal with problems made so visible by COVID-19. In upstate New York, the Dairy Farmers of America bought $15,000 worth of milk to donate. This allowed dairy farmers in Tioga County to give away their milk to nearby residents to avoid dumping. Over 800 families were able to pick up free milk right from their local dairy farm.

Similarly, in Syracuse, NY, the Dairy Farmers of America hosted a “milk drive-thru,” where they gave away over 8,000 gallons of local milk to low-income families, rather than disposing of their products.

The new direct-to-consumer initiative is ground-breaking for many reasons. First, it begins building new and important channels between the producer and consumer, while also allowing the food distribution and retail sector time to adjust to the new system.

Adapting to these direct-to-consumer channels also preserves and enhances the local farmer as an essential component of the food system. Food doesn’t grow on grocery shelves… it comes from men and women who actually produce the food for us. Increased local sales and more interaction between farmers and consumers could emerge as one of the few benefits from the COVID-19 experience, and the new farmer-consumer relationship may last well beyond.

Although these efforts won’t fix the supply-demand problem completely, every initiative is crucial to its survival.

What can we do as dairy consumers?

We can do our part by looking beyond the traditional sources of supply. We can be patient as the industry adapts to a brave new world of feeding people. And, we can avoid panic-buying, which only exacerbates the supply-demand misalignment. Lastly, let’s look for opportunities to support local producers at farmer’s markets and by buying directly from responsible and reliable local producers.

And, in conjunction with getting your 5-7 servings of fruits and veggies per day, perhaps occasionally treat your family to something special by ordering in. “We have to focus on increasing demand for dairy, however we can,” explains Scott Higgins, President and CEO of the American Dairy Association, Mideast. “So, maybe order a couple of pizzas for home delivery, too. Only with double cheese.” 😉

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Why produce aisles look so barren right now…

Dirt to Dinner is pleased to have Richard Owen contribute his knowledge and expertise to our site. Richard is Vice President at the Produce Marketing Association, where he has worked since 2009. Richard’s career includes serving as Director of Agricultural Affairs at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative where his portfolio included Russia, Eastern Europe, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Israel. Richard also served as head of the Airline Passenger Experience Association, Montana Grain Growers Association, and National Association of Wheat Growers Foundation.

The Dirt

Many of us see the lack of fresh fruits and veggies in some of our supermarkets, but we hear on the news about produce wasting away in the fields. How is this happening? And will it get better?

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, you may have gone into your local grocery store and noticed that the full range of fresh produce you’re accustomed to seeing is no longer available. It could be limited supplies of some apple varieties, only one type of lettuce, or no table grapes. What you are experiencing is the disruption of a very complicated supply chain that brings a highly perishable agricultural product from all corners of the world to your local supermarket. All made much more challenging by the multi-faceted complications of COVID-19.

The issue is made more challenging when you consider that in 2018, Americans spent $678 billion on food from full-service and fast-food restaurants, compared to the roughly $628 billion spent at grocery stores, according to USDA. Furthermore, Politico reports that about 40% of fresh produce grown in the country goes to food service, and the remainder to retail.

So in reality, you have two unique supply chains: one serving retail, and one serving the food service sector.

The Produce Supply Chain

According to Nielsen, U.S. fresh produce sales at the retail level was $61 billion in 2018. The product, whether it’s fruit or vegetable, originates on a farm. That farm could be in the U.S, Mexico, Canada or another country in the world. Starting almost at the time of harvest, if not before, the product is picked and, in some cases, grown with the end destination in mind.

Take a banana for example. If it’s going straight from the farm to a restaurant, it will be picked close to ripeness. If it’s going to the grocery store, it will be picked well before ripeness so it has a chance to ripen in the home. Even the container size is different. If it’s going to a food-service distributor like Sysco, it will go in a bulk container without specialized packaging. Broccoli is a good example where it will be bagged for a restaurant and just loose for the consumer in a grocery store.

Or, for instance, the frozen blueberries used in Wyman’s brand of products are bred to be hardier to last through the freezer period. On the other side, you have a different variety of blueberries from Driscoll’s that are made to last in the clamshell packages you find at the market.

Distribution along the Chain

For retail, it’s often branded along the way, whether that be a prominent name familiar to many consumers, or a retail store brand. Retailers often have their own specs for size and quality of certain produce items. For example, Walmart might even have a different grade for different markets based on demographics. As a side note, a system for tracing the product through the supply chain for food safety purposes is similar whether it’s for retail or food service.

Large brands, such as Driscoll’s or Sunkist, typically have contracts to supply retailers and major food-service distributors with their products. They assure product supply by either operating their own farms, but often have contracts with many growers to produce and deliver specified products directly to the major brands. The specs typically include the variety and quantity to be grown, time frame for delivery, and compliance with food safety and specific Good Agricultural Practices.

Mid-size, smaller, and independent growers may sell to multiple distributors, or even directly to retailers. Local retail markets are especially important when produce is in-season. For example, locally grown tomatoes, blueberries and peaches are delivered to retailers less than 100 miles away, as is the case with Heinen’s grocery stores in the Midwest. Also, seasonally, an important outlet for produce are local farmers markets.

How has COVID-19 Impacted Produce?

The impact of COVID-19 on the procurement process is manageable. Most relationships for purchasing are grounded in contracts, along with the need to communicate by phone and e-mail, something that can easily be done from a home office or other alternative.

But a bigger challenge is the highly perishable nature of fresh produce. When a product, say tomatoes, are ripe in the field, they need to be harvested within a short window of several days. If the retailer or food-service distributor is not able to take delivery, you can’t just put the crop on hold and pick it up in a week.

The product needs to be harvested, or the entire crop will deteriorate.

It then carries over into the planting window for the next crop going on the same piece of ground.

Labor for harvesting the crop is also carefully timed to match the predicted ripening and picking date. If a crop is delayed for harvesting due processing delays or closures, the crew may already be scheduled to move to the next crop or farm.

Transportation plays a huge role in the fresh produce supply chain. In the United States, most fresh produce moves by truck. The most perishable of products, like raspberries, can move by air if the market demands it and the customer is willing to pay for it.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, trucks were in tight supply and freight prices were elevated as many industries competed for a limited number of trucks in the system. Most fresh produce requires refrigerated trailers to travel longer distances, which are always in demand. The supply and demand of trucks are now in more equilibrium as the supply shifts have become more transparent.

Directing Supply to Those in Need

The government also regularly procures fresh produce for military institutions, schools, universities, and aid agencies. With the passage of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act in mid-April, the government will play an even larger role by providing $100 million per month to fund produce distributors and growers to deliver directly to food banks, food pantries, churches, and non-profit organizations serving citizens in need.

The purpose is to provide an alternative way of getting food directly from the field to the neediest at this time of lost jobs, furloughs and disrupted economies. This is a completely new venture for the U.S. government, and everyone will be watching closely to see if this can take some pressure off the current supply chain.

And speaking of food banks, the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented demand on food donation agencies. Reports of a 70-100% increase in the number of food bank customers are common in almost all regions of the country. But many food banks have no or limited ability, if any, to store perishable fresh produce in refrigerated storage for ongoing distribution.

And food banks are now operating with fewer volunteers due to social distancing requirements intended to prevent further spread of the coronoavirus. So, this combination of lack of storage and staffing means that not all produce that is left in the field can make its way to food banks or related distribution routes. The industry has been stepping up and providing refrigerated trucks for use at food banks where possible.

Will the Waste Continue?

So, all this brings us back to a hard truth. The distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables is a complicated endeavor, made even more difficult by the many constraints added by the COVID-19 pandemic. While there are some incidences of produce going to waste in the field, these will only be temporary as the supply chain adjusts to whatever this ‘new normal’ turns out to be, similar to what the meat industry is experiencing, as well.

But our part in helping the produce industry during this time is by eating your 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Not only does this help the industry to better find its supply-demand equilibrium, but it’s unquestionably good for us, as well. Strengthening our immune systems with healthy, nutrient-dense foods is more important now as it’s ever been. Just make sure not to fall into the panic-buying trap so there’s enough for everyone in your community.

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The Meat Industry & Shifting Consumer Behavior

Remember when we all went grocery shopping in the beginning of COVID?  The grocery store shelves were practically empty. I couldn’t find black beans or even plain pasta. The milk and meat sections were bare. We certainly do not want that to happen again – going to the grocery store is stressful enough given our masks, sanitizers, and maneuvering our carts to a socially acceptable distance. Let’s not allow the news about meat plant closings force us back into ‘panic buying’ habits.

Rest assured, there is enough meat to go around…if we shop responsibly. Here’s why.

Meat Update

Due to COVID-19 among facility workers, it’s no surprise that things look a little grim. As of the week of May 4th, about 40% of hogs, 35% of beef, and 12% of chickens were not processed, which is where livestock meat is separated into cuts, and then packaged for distribution to grocery stores and food service operators.

The country’s largest meat suppliers, JBS, Hormel, Tyson, Conagra, Cargill, and Smithfield, have all suspended or shut down operations at one or more of their meat processing plants across the country. We shouldn’t worry too much because when some close, others open. All of the meat plants will not shut down at the same time.

President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act that designates chicken, pork, and beef plants as critical infrastructure under the law. This also ensures that workers are first in line for PPE (personal protective equipment). In addition, the CDC wrote general requirements for meat processing plants to operate under COVID-19.

New Meat Protocols

At the end of the day, every single meat company is working hard to keep their employees safe with appropriate distancing and PPE.

“It is a challenge and it will continue to be a challenge. We are doing a lot of investments, changing cafeterias, food separation, changing shifts, we are investing in our team members, we put a bonus out there to retain the team members and keep them working. But it is a challenge, and we will continue to face this challenge as long as this crisis continues.”

– JBS earnings call, March 26, 2020

Right now, meat facilities are taking the highest precautions. They have put up plastic barriers, given all employees enough masks, increased the cleaning and social distancing in common areas like the lunchroom and locker rooms, kept high-risk population at home, and are taking employee temperatures before they enter the facilities and during their breaks.

Smithfield Foods reported in their recent press release, “media and other reports pitting the company against its employees are flat out wrong. There is no such division. The company and its team members all want the same thing: to protect employee health and safety while also safeguarding America’s food supply.” (image to the right: Plastic shields at Smithfield Foods, the largest global pork producer)

Employers are also increasing the worker’s pay. For instance, Tyson Foods is providing $120 million in bonuses and increasing health benefits for frontline workers, and Cargill added $2.00 an hour to all jobs.

How does the meat supply work?

Our food system is a resilient, finely-tuned machine. It operates more like the SpaceX shuttle by Elon Musk than a Wilbur and Orville Wright bi-plane. On average, Americans eat 227 pounds of meat every year, or  about 9 ounces a day. Before COVID, we could plan on 120,000 cattle, 400,000 pigs, and 25 million chickens getting processed every single day to meet U.S. and export demand.  It is a tremendous system. Think about how much planning goes into creating a consistent and safe food supply for grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, schools, institutions, and fast-food franchises all across the country.

If you ate a juicy hamburger this past Saturday, the calf was conceived in July 2017 and born in April 2018. It then took approximately two years from the time it was born until it came to your plate.

The hog supplying the bacon and sausage you recently had for breakfast was bred last July and took about six months to grow.

Conversely, the chicken you ate on Sunday night was a new egg only eight weeks ago – and took six weeks to grow from an egg to a chicken. Because of these timetables, you cannot just turn on or off the spigot with cattle and pork the same way you can with poultry.

Each category has a unique supply chain that brings specific challenges to bear as we face COVID-19. There are hundreds of thousands of farmers, growers, and operators that grow the animal or bird. When the system operates smoothly, all the animals go from the processor to the food distributors and then directly to the grocery store and food service. But when disruptions like COVID hit the chain, challenges arise that our food supply has to address. In the case of meats, the bottleneck occurs at the processing level.

Slower processing: The effect on poultry, pork, and beef

When meat processing volume slows down, it creates an excess of animals on the front end.

Poultry. Chickens take such a short period of time to grow that farmers can hold off on hatching the eggs to let the chicken supply flow through before starting the next flock. But then you might end up with too many eggs.  Many breeders have euthanized some of their chickens already.

Pork. Pigs are a different story. Most of the pig farms breed and grow their pigs for the entire six months. A pig cannot just be put out to pasture to wait it out. A pig takes up room – a lot of it – and the next crop of piglets is being born every day. The only option here is for the farmer to begin euthanizing either their piglets or the mature hogs.

Beef. The beef industry can slow down the supply as the cows can remain in a holding pattern on the range, in the feedlot, or on the ranch. The feedlots can reduce the cows’ feed enough to keep them from gaining weight.

There is no doubt about it: farmers and ranchers are hurt by having to hold on and feed them – or worse – in the case of pork – euthanize them.  Until we are clear of COVID-19, the USDA announced a $19 billion relief program to help farmers, ranchers, and distributors who have been adversely affected.

But if the supply is slowing, won’t we run out of meat?

With production slowing from bottlenecking at the processing level, consumers are starting to fear that a decrease in meat production will mean a decrease in availability of meats at their grocery stores.  However, the economy is leveling out meat demand. With the U.S. GDP falling almost 5% in the first quarter, it is estimated that more drops are on the horizon, with a 30% anticipated decrease by the end of the second quarter.

The stock market is providing a very real and very scary read on the health of various industries. In the last few weeks, the S&P has seen price drops of between 8 to 25% due to decreased earnings. And at least 30 million American are applying for unemployment.

Why is this important?  As many industries get hit hard and workers get furloughed or let go, many of us are forced to adjust our spending to meet a tighter budget. Generally, when incomes drop, one of the first food-related budget cuts are expensive red meats; the second is pork, and finally chicken. For instance, we might switch from a filet to ground beef. Or, we might stretch meat to last longer by making casseroles and soups. This is why the USDA is forecasting an increase in chicken production, but a decline in beef and pork.

Prices will be higher because of the disrupted supply. At the week ending on May 1, the 85% lean hamburger you ate on Saturday night cost $3.74 a pound compared to $3.59 last year. But a much more expensive filet mignon at $12.23 a pound has experienced an 18% price increase from just last week.  Conversely, the bacon you had for breakfast is 10% cheaper than last week. But the pork tenderloin you might buy for dinner is 5% higher than the week before, and 14% higher than last year. Yet your wallet is relatively safe with the chicken breast for Sunday night’s dinner, as the value pack dropped by 5% since last week.

Retail versus Food Service

The money we spend on food in this country is allocated almost 50/50 between direct-to-consumer retailers, like the grocery store, and to food service operators, restaurants, cafeterias, and the like. Today, the food once headed to your favorite corner bistro is being rerouted to your neighborhood Stop & Shop. Yes, thankfully, our food system is flexible, and set up in a way that enables it to change allocations from food service to retail relatively quickly.

JBS indicated their flexibility:

“Very few lines, in our case, cannot be immediately used for retail. Maybe some of the lines in bacon is specific for food service, in that specific you don’t have the proper package, but it’s very small. I would say irrelevant. So in our case, we can change pretty much 100% what was done before for food service. If demand reduces in 50% for food service, we can immediately transform that to retail with very, very little impact.”

It’s unlikely that the same volume of meat purchased at food service will entirely be picked up by demand at the grocery store. America has approximately 660,000 restaurants closed or operating at limited capacity right now. Just at the end of March, the restaurant industry lost approximately $25 billion in sales and 9 million people lost their jobs. Even the top-two fast food enterprises, McDonald’s and Starbucks, are seeing a significant impact on their revenue.

Should we run and fill our freezers?

There will still be enough meat in the grocery stores for you to meet your protein requirements of 80 – 100 grams a day, depending on your activity level. Your favorite cuts might not be available, and some might be more expensive, but there will be enough. To help manage this, stores like Kroger’s and Costco are encouraging customers to limit meat purchases to 3 to 5 items per visit.

We have enough meat moving through the system and the meat supply chain is resilient and adaptable. If you run to fill your freezer for the next months’ worth of meals, you will just be putting more pressure on the grocery stores to stock their shelves and more pressure on the meat lines to increase their supply. And within your community, you’re also denying your fellow neighbor their selection.

Whether our meat turns into a toilet paper crisis – that is up to each one of us.

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Where is our Food?!

First, we walked into supermarkets and found empty shelves. The milk section is cleaned out, but we read about dairy farmers pouring milk into the ground. It was hard to find fresh fruits and veggies, like bananas and potatoes, yet we would see breathless television reporters showing us fields of produce being plowed under. And most recently, we’ve been reading about more and more meat processing plants shutting down.

The Chairman of Tyson Foods told us the meat supply chain is broken. Dire warnings of upcoming shortages of meat for supermarket shelves pop up almost every day, it seems. Experts tell us farmers, ranchers, and others across the food chain are facing losses measured in the billions of dollars.

What’s going on here? How can the world’s most advanced and productive food system have come to this situation?

Is our food system really broken?

No, it is not broken. Our food supply chain is resilient and innovative, but right now, it is being forced to make some substantial adjustments to a very changed world, and it will take some time to work out all the necessary modifications.

A Dramatic Change in Production

The heart of the matter is basic economics: the global pandemic has fundamentally changed how we buy our food. The whole system functions much like a carefully choreographed and extraordinarily complex ballet to ensure that we get the products we want at prices we can afford.

The path from dirt to dinner includes farmers, ranchers, transportation to food processors, then consumer product companies, grocery stores, restaurants, schools, hotels, and much more – all interconnected and dedicated to providing a steady stream of the food we eat every day. Much of the turmoil we see in our food system today reflects a massive disruption to the ballet’s staging.

The pandemic has skewed demand in all links of the food supply chain to make the current system look more like a square dance with tractors than Swan Lake.

Our Food Supply Channels

We sometimes forget; over the past 20 years or so, we have significantly increased the amount of food we eat outside our homes. We have two basic types of “demand” for food – one focused on the retail market, the other on the food service sector. Before the pandemic, we consume about half of our food dollars for at-home meals and the other half in restaurants, fast food outlets, specialty shops, and a burgeoning array of food providers.

The food service industry is defined as eating at restaurants ordering take-out, dining at hotels, schools, hospitals, corporate offices, the military…just to name a few. Our carefully choreographed food chain is structured to serve those two segments.

Our food system has developed the unique tools and processes needed for both at-home and food service channels. Each channel demands somewhat different tools and processes. And each reflects a massive investment in channel-specific machinery and equipment, and careful development of processing, transportation and storage systems.

The pandemic devastated the food service channel of the demand picture – not by eliminating the need for food, but by shifting more and more of it back to in-home dining.

Adjusting to a “New Normal”

When lockdowns and social distancing effectively closed the food service industry’s ability to provide dine-in eating and curtailed school lunches, hotels, and other mass feeding programs, we lost a significant portion of the “demand-pull” these food operations create. As important and valuable as home food delivery, food banks, and other charitable outlets for food are, they just can’t make up for the loss of demand from this critical food-service side of the system.

In some situations, operations didn’t have the storage capacity, processing and handling equipment, the right packaging, the right distribution systems, or some other element of the system important to handling the changed demand pattern. In some cases, the food supply simply backed up, as is the case when meat facilities began slowing down.

The disruptions to a finely-tuned system of just-in-time delivery left some producers and other parts of the food supply chain with nowhere to go. At the same time, all workers need to be kept safe, with social distancing and necessary protective equipment.

The carefully executed ballet for our pre-COVID world needed some modification and adjustments in response to our new demand patterns. But we don’t need a whole new ballet – we just need to make changes to our system and take advantage of the existing flexibility.

Americans in the food production industry are improving the food supply chain every day to make sure it gets to all of us. How much of that change remains in place in a post-COVID world is yet to be determined. But if history is any guide, the system will adapt to whatever we as consumers want.

At D2D, we are going into depth with the meat, dairy, and produce sectors to help clarify some of the misperceptions from the media and provide some context to our current food supply chain and what changes are taking place to make sure we have the food we want and in plentiful supply.

This week, we’re taking a look at how the meat industry is working to meet demand…as long as it doesn’t become fashionable to hoard it like we did with toilet paper…

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Do I Eat it if I Can’t Pronounce It?

Listen to our post from your car, while running…anywhere!

I don’t know about you, but our family has been trying to avoid the grocery store, and all other public outings for that matter, to maintain our social distance. So now, when I must head to the grocery store, I am thinking about a two-week grocery list to avoid repeated trips. Top of mind are items that will not only provide a bit of stability in my pantry, but are also healthy and affordable. As I enter the canned food aisle, I grab a soup and take a look at the nutrition label. My eyes widen… should I be afraid of all these ingredients I can’t pronounce? The answer is not so black and white.

Let’s take a look at this in a different way. Every morning, I throw some octadecenoic acid and hexadecenoic acid, along with arginine, aspartic acid, and phenylalanine onto the frying pan. When it’s properly cooked, I put it on phosphorus, potassium, and manganese. It is delicious! What am I eating? Eggs over quinoa. A healthy, good-for-you breakfast with plenty of healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals.

Is a true measure of health the ability to pronounce a food’s ingredients? The rhetoric, “If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it!” is adopted from a quote made by Michael Pollan, the author of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. His intent was to warn consumers against eating highly-processed foods and provide guidelines to identify these products so we could combat growing health epidemics, like obesity, diabetes, and chronic inflammation.

Misrepresentation of “chemical”

Unfortunately, Pollan’s statement was taken quite literally. Consumers began to question every multi-syllabic ingredient on their labels. But isn’t that a little too simplistic? Let’s get serious; most foods contain bad-for-you and good-for-you ingredients that are tongue twisters. Don’t believe me? Try this: read the list of ingredients below. It details the composition of a common breakfast and snack food.

Sound appetizing? Well, the truth is, these are simply the chemical ingredients for a banana. James Kennedy, a high school chemistry teacher in Melbourne, Australia created this list to illustrate that even completely natural, wholesome, clean foods can sound potentially unhealthy and unnatural when the mechanism for determining health is solely based on pronouncing a food’s chemicals.

“I want to erode the fear that many people have of chemicals”.

– James Kennedy, Chemistry Teacher

Our goal to eat healthier should include consuming nutrient-dense foods with low sodium, sugar, and trans & saturated fats. This means eating more fruits, veggies, and whole grains. Sounds pretty easy, right? Not always. Most of us tend to lean towards simple mantras to soothe our aversions to uncertainty and help us with quick decision making.

Perpetuating unreasonable food fears

According to Mintel, 70% of consumers don’t know what they need to eat to be healthy, but over 51% of Americans believe that additives in foods they eat pose a serious health risk. What causes this type of confusion and food fear of one of the safest food systems in the world? Misguided food dialogues may be to blame.

Pollan’s words have fueled an unreasonable fear of chemicals, toxins, and additives – and ultimately a fear of our food systems’ ability to ensure food safety. Unreliable food crusaders like the “Food Babe” have also adopted the phrase, “if you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it”, and continue to spread similar incorrect generalizations. And they ultimately exacerbate a problem that, for many, is just whether they can afford to put food on their table.

Chemists like Dorea Reeser have spoken out against these misguided stigmas stating what seems to be the obvious:

“We are chemicals. Our friends are chemicals. Our babies are chemicals. The air we breathe is chemicals. The food we consume is chemicals that are digested by chemicals that turn into more chemicals.”

So if you took Pollan’s advice to the extreme, you would literally starve.

Do Additives Have a Purpose?

In addition, reputable food scientist, Professor Robert Gravani of Cornell University, has been a leader in responsible food science to combat this faulty logic, as well.

“We want to enhance the quality and maintain the freshness of foods. We want to reduce waste. We really want to make more foods readily available to consumers. And when feeding 310 million people in the United States, we really need to think about how we can transport this food.”

– Prof. Robert Gravani, Cornell University

In the quote above from a 2012 interview with National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation, Gravani details legitimate reasons food manufacturers add chemicals to food. He identifies a myriad of other meaningful ways additives have actually helped our food system.

For instance, our table salt contains iodine, a chemical that may make some consumers wary. However, the addition of this chemical has practically eliminated goiters, a medical condition affecting the thyroid gland. Moreover, niacin, a chemical added to bread, has all but made pellagra, a severe nutritional deficiency causing inflammation throughout the body, nonexistent.

Considering the Trade-offs

Dr. Michael Holsapple and Heather Dover of the Center for Research on Ingredient Safety at Michigan State University explain that adding substances to food is a necessary, centuries-old practice. All ingredients serve a purpose, whether to add flavor, enhance appearance or texture, or preserve food against bacteria, mold, and fungi. They encourage consumers to do their research on their labels. Be informed, not scared.

“As toxicologists and food scientists, we believe that, by and large, food ingredients are safe. We encourage consumers to look at food labels, as they are an important source of information on the safety of that food, and they provide evidence to enable informed choices.”

– Dr. Michael Holsapple, Michigan State University

He went on to warn that: “You can choose to avoid foods with synthetic preservatives, like sodium benzoate or benzoic acid, but you may consequently increase the risk of you and your family being exposed to microbial pathogens because so-called ‘natural’ preservatives are not as effective.”

Foods with “clean labels” and ingredients you can readily pronounce do not necessarily equate foods with healthier nutritional profiles. Should you be concerned about a particular ingredient, do some digging and check into its applications to see if it’s acceptable to you. The reality is that a healthy diet means making the right food choices, processed or not.

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What’s happening at our local grocers during COVID-19?

These are some of the pressing questions we addressed during an interview with Jake Heinen, a fourth-generation family member of Heinen’s markets, who is helping to run a 90-year-old grocery business.

History of Heinen’s

Started in 1929 by Jake’s great grandfather, Joe Heinen, the original store was a small butcher shop on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. But Joe, who emigrated from Germany, had bigger dreams. Back then, stores were separate markets: you visited bakeries for breads and pastries, butcher shops for meats, farm stands for produce, and so on. This structure forced consumers to run all about town to get what they needed.

By 1933, Joe’s plan for a one-stop shop was in motion, carrying staples like butter, pickles, and donuts, in addition to his renowned meat selection.

Now, four generations later, Heinen’s has 23 stores in the greater Cleveland and Chicago areas and employs over 3,500 associates. One of the many things that distinguishes this business is their close relationships with suppliers and employees. Also, as a smaller independent grocer, they can quickly change direction to meet business and customer demands – a serious challenge for larger operations.

Specialty Suppliers in Produce & Meat

Heinen’s strategy is to truly ‘partner’ with their organic and conventional farmers. They are in constant communication about growing specs, pricing, and produce distribution. This assures Heinen’s of their supply while giving the farmer a reliable customer. By working directly with more than 75 Ohio and Illinois farmers who ship almost exclusively to Heinen’s own warehouses, they cut out the transportation middleman, therefore “limiting room for disruption and ensuring fresher quality,” as Jake calls it.

These relationships allow them to expand certain popular purchases, like heirloom-variety produce. In the summer they are 70% local but, to assure year-round supply, they also source from the U.S., Mexico, and Chile using large-scale suppliers, such as Western Growers and Driscoll Foods, also a family business.

Heinen’s promotes both conventional and organic foods. Entire quality control teams are dedicated to inspecting all products entering the warehouse to ensure their customers get the best products around. 

In discussing the big picture of the produce industry with a Driscoll employee, they casually mentioned Heinen’s as a grocer that focuses on freshness, consistency, and packaging. They observe that Heinen’s devotes more floor space per square foot than most retailers. Furthermore, their produce team is very well-trained on the sourcing, nutrition, and value of all produce, something that’s also shared with their customers who buy more produce than the average grocer’s customer.

Heinen’s takes pride in its specific criteria to meet beef, pork, and chicken products. The company follows Joe Heinen’s advice that “we must buy the best to sell the best”. All their suppliers follow the practice of humanely raising and handling their animals and never treating them with added hormones or antibiotics.

By working with these trusted family businesses that allow exclusivity on their goods, products get to their stores faster and fresher. Because Heinen’s is comparatively small, they must have their own supply and not ‘stand in line’ behind the bigger chains. This, Jake says, has been a critical component of Heinen’s ability to be “flexible” during uncertain times, like COVID-19.

How has the Coronavirus affected Heinen’s?

“It has flipped everything on its head!” Jake explains. “It has made us rethink the way that we distribute, how we are buying goods and how we can quickly change direction within our current supply chain. We are living one day at a time – everything is fluid.”

Jake attributes Heinen’s trusted supply chain and lean management style to provide a nimble foundation for special situations, like COVID-19. What do we mean? Let’s start with their safety at the store level, because Heinen’s believes their associates’ health and safety is top priority.

Being deemed an essential business has its pros and cons.

On the upside, the grocers continue to make a profit and keep their employees working. However, every day these employees come to work, they put their health at risk, something Heinen’s considers top-of-mind.

Because they have just 23 stores, all of which maintain a level of what Jake calls “managerial autonomy,” they can address the needs of the associates quickly and precisely. When COVID was deemed a pandemic, Heinen’s installed plexiglass shields at its registers. Recently, Heinen’s was able to purchase face shields and masks for their associates who felt they needed these to work safely.

They also gave their associates the first ‘dibs’ on Lysol, toilet paper, and hand sanitizers. Furthermore, Heinen’s is allowing its staff to take a three-week furlough or, if they need more time, to use their paid time off consecutively.

As new state laws rolled out with the evolution of the pandemic, Heinen’s quickly placed signs in their stores to remind employees about hand washing, social distancing, and to avoid touching their face. Markers on the floor remind shoppers of what a safe six-foot distance looks like when waiting at the checkout line, and signs posted on the shelves politely remind customers to limit purchases of paper goods and cleaning products.

Changes from Suppliers during COVID-19

“If we didn’t have our long-term relationships with our suppliers, we would be in trouble,” said Jake. “Large chain grocers such as Kroger’s and Costco get fed first – we would be at the bottom of the food chain in procuring some products.”

While grocers like Heinen’s make necessary changes, so do suppliers. Grocery product manufacturers are experiencing a lag in production and are unable to keep up with unruly demand during this crisis.

Major packaged goods companies are shifting their focus from 20 choices to eight. For instance, Barilla used to have around 20 types of pasta, but now they are putting all their production toward just eight varieties. But once-choosy customers are now just happy to have any kind of pasta. However, even with limited product production, companies still can’t keep up with the demand – just consider the shortages on toilet paper.

Because of this, Heinen’s previous schedule of buying products to ensure a plentiful supply to customers has gone out the window. Being nimble and patient during this time pays off when orders are finally delivered to the warehouse. And to make things a little smoother during this disruptive time, the company is loyal to its devoted brands and accepts goods as they come in, not giving a particular vendor undue priority.

Consumer Behavior Changes

But all that is behind the scenes. Once in the store, Heinen’s is known for being a bright, cheerful place with quality meats, cheeses, pre-made meals, and fresh produce. Their flagship store even has a nice bar on the second floor – a feature many patrons are eagerly awaiting during this pandemic.

The biggest shift in consumer behavior Jake has experienced thus far in the pandemic is their online delivery business. Online grocery sales typically make up 3-4% of Heinen’s overall sales, but with coronavirus, their online business has tripled. This leaves questions about consumer experience and satisfaction. Sometimes online shoppers don’t pick the right things they’re looking for…what does that do to their experience? Will they use this platform more going forward? How can we maintain that in-store connection while our customers are shopping online?

Jake’s Major Takeaways

  • Trust our food supply. This situation is unique and there are plenty of quality goods. They will continue to be available and handled in a safe way by producers and retailers. From the farm to the food manufacturers, everyone is working hard to bring quality food to the grocery store.
  • Don’t hoard. Help your community by only buying what you need. Those who buy up all the toilet paper, hand sanitizers, and paper towels when they already have enough at home are putting their community at risk.
  • Continue social distancing while shopping and take precautions. As much as we all want to get out of the house, grocery shopping should not be a family outing activity. Stay in and stay safe at this time, unless necessary.
  • If anyone at Heinen’s store were to test positive for COVID-19, know that the store would immediately close and management would take all precautions to properly decontaminate and isolate. Furthermore, a third-party cleaning company with FDA-approved products would also disinfect the stores before re-opening.

In the long run, Heinen’s believes that their consumers will appreciate transparency in all that they do, because being a boutique family business puts them in the unique position of connecting with not only their associates to address their needs, but their loyal customers, too.

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Bettering Farms in Zimbabwe…and Beyond

Dirt to Dinner is excited to introduce Nyasha Mudukuti, a science communication and network associate with the Cornell Alliance for Science, where she was a 2019 Global Leadership Fellow. Nyasha is a Mastercard Foundation scholar from Michigan State University, where she majored in plant breeding, genetics and biotechnology. She is also a BSc honors graduate in biotechnology from Chinhoyi University of Technology, Zimbabwe. Nyasha served as the 2016 AGCO Africa Ambassador, advocating for agricultural reforms across the African continent. 

Nyasha is a member of the Global Farmers Network, a proud Global Youth Ambassador fellow of the United Nations initiative, “A World at School”, and a 2016 Young African Leaders Initiative fellow as an emerging young leader.

Nyasha’s dream is to help her continent see the importance of biotechnology in agriculture and use it to improve the livelihoods of African smallholder farmers.

It’s 2 a.m. and I am sitting in my apartment in Ithaca, New York, trying to call home to check on my family in Zimbabwe. My sister picks up and says, “Let me call you back, I am in a queue.” “For what?” I ask. “Mealie meal,” she replies. “I need to send some to mum!”

Concerns amidst a Food Crisis

Our mother lives in a rural area, Chikombedzi, which is where I grew up, while my sister works in the city. It’s 8 a.m. her time and panic-shopping has started there, too. With the government’s announcement of a 21-day nationwide shutdown to contain the spread of COVID-19, basic commodities are now scarce. She hangs up and I try to get some sleep but I can’t. There is a level of comfort knowing that my family will be OK but there’s a restlessness in my mind as I wonder what the next 21 days will be like for the majority of Zimbabweans, who rely on the informal sector and feed from hand to mouth.

What will they eat? The government had announced a shutdown without providing a strategy of how to feed its struggling citizens in abject poverty. This shutdown exposes them to a silent threat, and the very real fear that hunger may kill them before the coronavirus does.

Thirty minutes later, I am still tossing and turning in my bed, contemplating how times have changed. It used to be that people in rural areas would send food to those in the city. But now, my sister has to send food to my mother, whose small piece of farmland has not been yielding much. I remember her recent calls complaining of how the fall armyworm had destroyed her maize. I would then try to put a smile on her face, laughing about how back in 2011 we used to handpick and squash stem-borers with our feet because we could not afford pesticides. Yet we still survived, even after losing almost half of our three hectares of maize and sorghum to the stem borer. “It will be OK, Mum,” I would try to assure her over the phone. But the truth is, it’s NOT going to be okay.

Farming in Chikombedzi

See, I grew up on a small farm in rural Zimbabwe. From it, we could feed ourselves, sell the surplus, and pay the fees that allowed us to attend school. But I took no pleasure in farming. I didn’t want to get up early, before school, to weed the fields. I didn’t like the long days in the hot sun. I didn’t want anything to do with agriculture. I wanted to be a doctor, a profession I thought of as “classier”.

However, everything changed in 2011 when I was admitted to study biotechnology as an undergraduate student at Chinhoyi University in Zimbabwe. That is where I started learning about the role of science in agriculture and its potential benefits, especially for African farmers like my mother, in developing drought-tolerant, insect-resistant herbicide-tolerant crops.

An Agricultural Disconnect

My journey began with a Facebook post. While scrolling through my timeline, I read an article about genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa and how some of my people were destroying the products. Reading the comment section, I realized there were a lot of misconceptions about GM food products. I decided to engage in the conversation, and of course, that didn’t come without a backlash! It didn’t make sense to me that the very same people earning less than US$2 per day, struggling with weeds and crop failures due to climate change, were the very first to object. Misconceptions fueled by fear can paralyze people, so I took on a mandate to raise awareness of ways we can leverage this technology to our benefit.

My first Facebook post on GM ultimately got the attention of Dr. C. Prakash from Tuskegee University, who later invited me to tell my story with the Global Farmers Network (GFN) at the World Food Prize in Iowa in 2014. During my time in Iowa, I got to see a GM cornfield for the first time.

By visiting farms in Iowa, I witnessed the tremendous potential of modern agriculture to help us overcome enormous challenges. I took those lessons and observations and ran with them to ensure African farmers are not left behind.

After returning to Zimbabwe, I continued to participate in GFN activities and wrote columns on my country’s anti-GMO attitudes. Our government recently relaxed and lifted the ban on the importation of GM products. However, the ban still stands on planting GM crops. Upon completing my undergraduate studies, I decided to advance my knowledge on biotechnology issues in agriculture.

Finding A Platform

In 2016, one of my articles was published in the Wall Street Journal, where it caught the eye of Robin Buell, a professor of plant biology at Michigan State. She connected me with the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program, which recognizes academic achievement and a commitment to Africa. She later served as my principal investigator in her genomics lab, where I researched dry beans. This gave me a deeper understanding of the science behind GM crops and an appreciation of the amount of work scientists put into developing new varieties.

However, knowledge of genetic engineering is just not enough to ensure that those who need this technology can benefit from it. What’s the point of making a product that the end-user doesn’t fully understand? They will eventually reject it, no matter how beneficial it may be to them. This brings me to one of my biggest challenges as a scientist: how do I communicate in ways that people like my mother, without a scientific background, can understand?

Spreading the Message with Science

Today my work with the Cornell Alliance for Science involves addressing some of these issues. One of our approaches is hosting a “seeing is believing” activity, where we bring non-scientists to the lab so they experience the extraction of DNA and realize it’s not rocket science! They even participate in a hands-on, personal DNA isolation from their cheeks. Another example is bringing media professionals to GM field trials and exposing them to peer-reviewed scientific literature so they can better report on agricultural innovations.

I might not have become a doctor but nothing gives me more fulfillment than knowing that with these modern technologies, I am helping farmers feed their families and send their children to school as they farm better and smarter.

As I finally begin to drift off to sleep, I make a silent prayer thanking the farmers for risking everything so we can have food on our tables. They are the truly essential workers! For once, it seems that no one cares whether food is organic as we hoard food like there is no tomorrow. The empty shelves should help us understand how privileged we are to be able to choose. In desperate times, food is food — it all comes down to survival.

When this pandemic is over, I hope we remember how anxious we were about stockpiling sufficient food and realize that more than 815 million people go to bed hungry every night, in desperate need of food.

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A Virtual Happy Hour with Vegan Wine

With COVID-19, we have a “new normal”, where socializing now requires a phone or laptop and a quiet corner in our homes. Many of us have even dined with family and friends, enjoying our dinner and drinks right alongside them. Certainly not the same as in-person, but not a bad hack.

An added benefit of preparing our meals at home? We know every ingredient that goes into them – something that poses a challenge for those adhering to a specific diet, like vegans, when dining out. And as we use this time to be more mindful of what we put into our bodies to keep us healthy, many of us are turning to a vegetarian or “flexitarian” diet and, sometimes, coupling our dinners with a vegan wine.

Wait…vegan wine? Yes, Nancy, there is a vegan wine. But if wine is produced from grapes, and grapes are definitely fruits, how can wine be anything but a vegan product? Well, it turns out that to many in the vegan community, our friend wine is no less subject to the debate over the mix of animals and plants in our food supply.

A Grape Is a Grape Is a Grape. Isn’t It?

Any discussion of vegan wine needs to begin with one simple fact: the key issue in the debate isn’t the grape. It’s the process used to produce wine.

Producing wine is a simple process, really. Crush some grapes, mix in some yeast, and wait for the fermentation process to work its magic. That simple formula has worked successfully for a long, long time – more than 9,000 years, in fact. Need a brief history lesson? Check this out.

The vegan question begins to emerge in what is sometimes thought of as the final stage of wine production, called clarification.

As the grape juices ferment, organic materials begin to emerge, and chemical changes take effect. Until these organic materials settle out of the wine, it will have a cloudy appearance. And that’s where the question of vegan wine begins.

Wine consumers can just learn to love the wine, clouds and all, and accept that dregs are a natural part of the process. But consumers typically don’t want cloudy wine – especially when a clear product is available.

Vintners can simply take the time needed to allow the organic materials – referred to as “particulates” — to settle out. But that takes time, and as is true in many, many commercial enterprises, time is money.

Waiting for organic materials to settle out delays the next production cycle, adds storage and handling costs, slows the time to market for the product, and makes the product that much more expensive for the customer.

Not Fine with Fining

To speed the process along, vintners use certain agents to accelerate clarification. This practice is called “fining.”

Fining involves the addition of one or more of a number of products that attract the organic particulates and make it easier to filter the product to an acceptable level of clarity. Fining agents also are used to deal with certain chemical properties of the wine that affect its taste, odor, and character. To the dismay of true vegans, some of these fining ingredients are derived from animals or come from what some critics contend is “exploitation” of animals.

What kind of fining ingredients are we talking about? High school chemistry would divide fining ingredients into two categories: organic and solid/mineral materials.

Common organic materials for fining include:

  • Gelatin – made from boiled cow or pig body parts. It clarifies and helps make wine less astringent or bitter.
  • Isinglass – a form of collagen derived from the dried swim bladders of fish, especially sturgeon. It acts to help filter out organic particulates that affect wine odor, especially in white wines. It is also used in making jellies, glues and clarification of other beverages.
  • Albumin – you know, egg whites. It helps reduce the harsh tannins – the bitter, bark-like taste — sometimes present in red wines.
  • Casein – animal milk protein. It also helps take out offensive odors in white wines.

Vegan options may be found in the solid/mineral materials category. The most notable solid or mineral fining agent is bentonite clay, which currently is most commonly used with white wines rather than reds. It has the added benefit of helping filter out certain bacteria and absorbing specific proteins. Another mineral, called sparkolloid, further clarifies the wine by neutralizing the particle charge. It is the last step in the fining process. Some activated carbons from charcoal, as well as synthetic compounds, are used to reduce undesirable odors and cut tannin levels.

Still think a grape is a grape is a grape? That glass of wine involves a lot more than grape juice and some yeast.

Which Wine is Which?

Fining is a widely used practice not just for wine-making but also production of beers and ales. But so far, the clamor for vegan wine seems to be drowning out any comparable concern from the beer-drinking community.

The discussion regarding vegan wine seems to grow most animated over the question of how wine consumers are to know what fining agents were used. Some wine-makers apparently have subscriptions to help consumers better navigate this minefield.

Some vintners have recognized the passion felt by many vegans and moved to accommodate it. For those concerned about animal products in their wine, look for the BevVeg certification, which indicates the product uses no animal ingredients of any kind in the production process. We’ve also developed a list of vegan wines, too.

The roster of wines claiming to be “vegan” or “vegan friendly” is expanding, either through a willingness to take the necessary time for the wine to clarify naturally or by using only fining agents that satisfy the demands of the vegan community. While some vegan advocates clamor for a very stringent vegan standard for wine, the mainstream participants seem to focus on the “vegan friendly” categorization as a valuable step toward their objective.

At the same time, some critics of the fining practice argue for more and better information on wine labels regarding the fining agents used in production. As the animated debates surrounding the appropriate labeling of various food products suggest, this demand is likely to generate spirited discussion in the months – and perhaps years – ahead.

For those who don’t drink wine, all the hubbub over vegan or non-vegan wine may seem a small and insignificant tempest in a wine bottle. But remember: wine sales in the United States exceed $71 billion in 2018. That’s is a sizeable market for someone to capture. And if wine consumers embrace vegan wine – as the rising number of “vegan friendly” wines seems to indicate is the case – expect to see and hear even more about vegan wines in 2020.

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A Brief History & Some Vegan Options

Thirsty for More Wine Knowledge?

Food and wine go hand in hand, not just today but throughout history, too.

The production of food from farming preceded the production of wine by several millennia – but in historical terms, not by all that much. It seems that the practice of “pairing” food with wine is nothing all that new, either.

Various sources contend evidence of wine-making dates back almost 9,000 years in China, only slightly longer than estimates for Asia and Europe. Evidence of actual wine production can be traced to Armenia in roughly 4100 BC, where archeologists found traces of a device for crushing grapes, a system for moving the crushed product to storage containers and indications of the fermentation of red wine.

Experts in such things point out that humans only began farming about 10,000 B.C., in the “Fertile Crescent” area of the Middle East – an area including parts of modern-day Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Turkey. Evidence of farming in North America, by contrast, dates back to about 5,000 BC.

 

Vegan Wines Available Today

Vegan.com is a handy reference for anyone seeking to identify true vegan wines. Another resource is Barnivore.com, which provides information on a range of vegan alcoholic beverages. Barnivore lists almost 5,500 wines available in the United States alone that qualify as “vegan friendly.”

Among those widely advertised as vegan or vegan friendly:

  • Charles Shaw (red wines only)
  • Frey Vineyards
  • Lumos Wine
  • Morgan Ridge
  • Red Truck Wines
  • Oak Grove Reserve
  • The Vegan Vine
  • Panther Creek
  • Port Gardner Bay
  • Yellowtail (red wines only; not white or rosé)
  • Priam
  • Santa Maria
  • Seven Mountains

Additional recommendations:

  • Bellissima Prosecco
  • Blossom Hill
  • Cooper’s Hawk
  • Cycles Gladiator
  • DAOU Vineyards
  • JUSTIN wines
  • Layer Cake Wines
  • Lumos Wine Company
  • Natura Wines
  • Our Daily Wines
  • Palmina Wines
  • Seghesio Family Vineyards
  • Sutter Home
  • Thumbprint Cellars
  • Union Wine Company
  • Wrights Vineyard and Winery

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Jack Bobo: How We Choose Our Food

At D2D, we find Jack’s insights on consumers interesting and unique. He brings an informative perspective about our choices in the grocery store. Jack searches into the questions that drive our decisions in the marketplace, such as:

In the following interview with Jack, we scratch the surface on some of these curious topics.

D2D: How did you shift your focus from global conservation to understanding consumer food choices?

Jack: I was stationed in Mekambo, Gabon when I worked for the Peace Corp. in Africa. As I lay awake at night listening to the rain patter on the tree canopy, I vowed to protect these beautiful forests. Fast forward to my work with the State Department, it became clear that one of the biggest impacts on our environment is agriculture. My hero is Nobel Prize Winner Norman Borlaug who started as a forester, yet he saved more forests as an agronomist.

What is your personal mission?

The agricultural system has to grow 60% more food by 2050 using less land, water, fertilizer, and pesticides. Technology is key. Unfortunately, we love innovation almost as much as we despise change. There is no place we dislike change more than in the food we eat. This has led to a polarization of understanding about the role of science and technology in sustainably feeding the world.

I would like to de-escalate the tensions in the food system to save the planet. There is not just one answer and one production method. We need diversity of thought and diversity of methods. It is also important for the farmers to have the freedom to farm the way it works best for their land.

As I learned about science, agriculture, and the potential to solve these problems at the State Department, I was taken aback by the lack of public support for agricultural technology. I went on a journey to discover how to educate consumers on food science and agricultural technology. I spoke to thousands of people in dozens of countries. What I learned was: If you lead with the science, you may lose with the science. Science tends to polarize the conversation. This led me to study behavior science, psychology, and consumer trends.

Why do we, as food consumers, not trust research and science?

The lack of experience with food production has led to a trust lost between food producers and the public. Consumers are not convinced that companies have their best interest at heart. But this is not just food companies – there is a lack of trust in many organizations across the sectors. The internet has accelerated this because we get information and answers from different places. It can be liberating – like getting a second opinion – and on the other hand, make people more skeptical on any advice they are given.

“Consumers have never cared more, nor known less, how their food was produced.”

This has led to the desire for transparency. Where does our food come from and whom do we trust? Animal welfare, the environment, production practices, and food safety are all topics that the consumers wants to understand.

How does the consumer know whom to trust?

We only ask questions if we don’t trust and never ask questions if we do trust. Most people don’t ask the necessary questions.  For instance, are you concerned about local issues, global issues, or both? Are you willing to change your mind based on new information? What makes you trust an organization? Why do you not trust the information source? These are the types of questions to ask yourself before making a decision.

In your talks, you mention the difference between Hazard and Risk. Can you explain how that applies to food?

A hazard is something that can cause harm, and risk is something that does cause harm. A shark in the water is a hazard, but not if we are standing on land. Even if you are in the water, it is a low risk (1 in 3,748,067). Most consumers are hard-wired to know hazard. If it can hurt us, we immediately believe it will hurt us. Risk is a statistical concept.

Consumers mainly perceive risk by communication through various organizations such as businesses, governments, and NGOs. Governments are good about communicating real risks – like coronavirus. They do not focus on hazards. Through marketing and the internet, consumers are flooded with information on hazards that might hurt us.

Regulators think of risk like this: “Hazard multiplied by Exposure equals Risk”. My formula is now: Hazard times Media Exposure equals Perception of Risk. Let’s take Hint water as an example. It is non-GMO, gluten free, sugar free, sweetener free, preservative free, vegan, no MSG, nuts, soy, and the bottles are BPA-free. This leads the consumer to believe these items are in most of our foods and will hurt us. And, with all these perceived ‘risks’, we grow fearful of our food.

When you say that people don’t see reality as it is, what do you mean?

Often our brain sees things as we want to see them. It uses mental shortcuts to make decisions, but often that can lead to the wrong result. Take this chart below: you automatically think there are two hues of blue, when in reality, it’s all the same hue.

Also, there is confirmation bias, which is the root of polarization. We look for information consistent with our beliefs and avoid information that is inconsistent. Our brain also uses word association as a short cut. For instance, with the word ‘natural’, we think of positive thoughts, such as fresh, home-baked bread and honey. We don’t think of Ebola and Zika viruses – which are also natural. We tend not to support man-made things because our brain wants to think of things it understands.

In general, we don’t really understand food safety additions, such as food additives and food preservatives, so we tend to avoid them. For instance, many people avoid chemicals in their foods, but what many don’t realize is that foods are made up of chemicals, whether natural or man-made.

What kind of articles can we look forward to reading?

I will be writing on subjects about consumers. For example, how decisions are made; why we fear the food we eat; and how powerful words change our feelings. There will be a series of 10 articles on the Futurity website. Some of these ideas were covered in a TED Talk I gave last year.

Click here to be directed to Futurity Food

We look forward to summarizing Jack’s concepts on Dirt to Dinner in the future.

Interested in Jack’s perspective on another topic? Email us at info@dirt-to-dinner.com!

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Why are we buying so much toilet paper?!

Such behavior has become common amid the global spread of COVID-19. The empty shelves bear witness to the fact that consumers around the world are stockpiling hand sanitizer, canned foods, toilet paper, and other goods.

The Mob Mentality

A number of books have been written about the “wisdom of crowds” and how groups of people often arrive at better decisions than individuals. Unfortunately, crowds can also become mobs. When that happens, the decisions they make generally ignore their own conscience or rational judgement – thus are not in the best interest of society or individuals.

When people are stressed, it can be difficult to think rationally. As a result, we look around to see what others are doing. When we see people scrambling for toilet paper or spaghetti, we tend to engage in similar behavior. The funny part is we may be stocking up on foods that we wouldn’t normally eat, such as lots and lots of pasta and chips. When was the last time you ate canned peaches?

For this reason, it may not be a good idea to post your photos of empty shelves on social media. If you do, you are sending signals that goods are in short supply, which could stress your friends and family and encourage panic-buying that hurts us all.

Why Are We Acting Like This?

While panic-buying may seem irrational—does anybody really need 80 rolls of toilet paper?!—it isn’t unreasonable for us to emulate the behavior of those who came before. After all, if everybody else is stocking up on toilet paper, it won’t be long before there isn’t any left for reasonable people. Better to grab the last couple packages while you can!

Behavioral economics and cognitive psychology can help us make sense of these behaviors. Information cascades and herd behavior describe how it sometimes makes sense to go along with the crowd even when you do not believe they are behaving rationally.

Understanding what is happening in the grocery store means recognizing that we do not shop simply to meet our physical needs but also to meet our emotional needs. “Retail therapy” occurs when we make purchases to manage our emotional state. Such purchases allow us to take back control in situations where we feel particularly out of control.

Where We Find Value

The coronavirus pandemic makes it particularly difficult for people to get control of their lives. It isn’t clear how long the crisis will go on or how bad things will ultimately get. In reality, sitting at home doing nothing may be the best course of action for most of us, but it does not contribute to a sense of control.

While panic buying may be irrational, other consumers behaviors make better sense. In particular, we are looking for longer term value in our purchases. This can be seen in the types of goods that consumers are buying and the shelves they are picking clean. Consumers are drawn to canned and dried goods that will keep for a long time as well as frozen foods. This was especially clear during the first couple weeks when consumers were advised to stock up.

This search for value also explains why some foods and brands remained on the shelves while seemingly similar products disappeared. In my local store, consumers focused on store brands over premium products. Pricey sauces and expensive oils remained on the shelves while lower cost versions were absent.

Planning for the Long Haul

As the coronavirus situation develops over the weeks and months ahead, we can expect to see further shifts in consumer behavior. I’ve seen some changes already at my local grocery store. While it may not reflect broader patterns, I noticed last week that the shelves of beef products were empty, while chicken remained readily available. This week, I noticed the opposite was the case. This could mean that consumers stocked up last week on beef and are now looking to do the same with chicken, or it could mean that they are shifting purchasing patterns to lower cost options in anticipation of the crisis lasting longer. Time will tell.

As time passes, economics and refrigerator space, will overtake consumer psychology in dictating purchasing behavior. Panic-buying of products with limited shelf life won’t make sense. Consumers will find a new rhythm for their purchases.

Many consumers will also begin to feel the financial pinch of lost earnings soon, if they haven’t already. Consumers unable to work will need to make their savings last longer. 27% of Americans have little or no savings, and the average American has about $183,000 in all bank and retirement accounts. Sheltering-in-place will impact tens of millions of Americans who have jobs but are not able to work, therefore not bringing home a paycheck.

Mapping the Road Ahead

Looking much further out, to a time when the worst of the crisis passes, we may see lasting changes in consumer food purchasing patterns. Consumers may find that some labels that seemed so important at the beginning of the year no longer seem quite so meaningful any longer. They may be reminded that “natural” does not guarantee safety, as the coronavirus demonstrated. On the other hand, it won’t be surprising if interest resurges in superfoods and functional foods, which can demonstrate real health benefits, perhaps helping them fend off the next COVID-19.

For now, pay attention to your behavior. Do you really need that extra roll of paper towels or toilet paper, or are you just stocking up? Pay attention to your own conscience and your own household needs rather than the frantic person pushing the grocery cart next to yours. Rest assured, the grocery stores will continue to be stocked with food and supplies.

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Coronavirus and Our Food: Should We Be Scared?

From its emergence in the food market of Wuhan, China in early 2020, the deadly COVID-19 continues to infect individuals around the world. While we all nervously monitor its spread, the global medical community is working frantically to find both a treatment and a vaccine.

As medical professionals find the answers they seek, Dirt-to-Dinner takes a look at what we already know about the coronavirus. What risks do Americans face? And what does the consumer need to know about the potential risks of going about daily life? Is our food safe? The answers we’ve found tell us to be careful – but not to panic when it comes to our food supply.

Is my food safe?

Health authorities note that it is possible to transmit the virus from a contaminated surface, such as a package or other object, if that object had been contaminated through direct contact with an infected person who had sneezed on or otherwise deposited droplets on the surface.

Current findings from the National Institutes of Health and CDC show that the virus causing COVID-19 can be stable on surfaces for up to four hours on copper, one day on cardboard, and up to three days on plastics and steel. For aerosols, the virus can be stable for up to three hours. However, bear in mind this is assessed from controlled lab conditions, making the aerosolized virus an unlikely cause for transmission, as reported by the CDC.

The most likely form of COVID-19 transmission is in droplet form, when the virus is airborne for a few seconds after someone sneezes or coughs. In this form, it can only travel a short distance before it lands on something (hence why we’re staying 6 feet away from people right now). So be mindful when you go grocery shopping and maintain a safe distance in those aisles as best you can.

As for surfaces, it’s good practice to thoroughly wash your hands after handling any items in or from public places, such as shopping carts, your mail, packages delivered to your doorstop, and – to be extra cautious – your food.

“We are not aware of any reports at this time of human illnesses that suggest COVID-19 can be transmitted by food or food packaging. However, it is always important to follow good hygiene practices…when handling or preparing foods.”

– U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

What can we do?

While coronavirus is not known to spread through our food, especially food that is cooked, it is wise to take grocery store precautions and while cooking. Here are some simple tips to keep your kitchen clean and your family healthy.

Wash your hands. Before the grocery store, when you get home, and after you have unpacked your groceries. You have heard this everywhere, but it can’t be said enough. If your hands are clean and you touch your face, you can’t contract COVID-19.

Wash your produce. You don’t know who has handled it before you brought it home. You don’t need to use soap – any virus or dirt will come off with just plain water. Don’t wait to wash your produce – wash it before you put it in your refrigerator or on your counter.

After you unpack your bags, wash your counter with soap and water.  You should probably do this anyway – but this keeps you extra vigilant. It is also wise to rinse off any containers that you are about to put in your refrigerator such as milk, yogurt, and ketchup with soap and water. If you forgot this step and are thinking about the food in your refrigerator, then wash your hands after using what was in the carton. Keep your shelves washed every once in a while, as well.

Cook your food to the appropriate temperature. Use a meat thermometer. Heat is going to quickly kill the virus.

How does coronavirus spread?

Health officials admit they have much to learn about how coronavirus COVID-19 spreads. But based upon experience with other viruses, some basic facts are known.

First and foremost, this virus is spread through direct contact with an infected person, and most often through the respiratory system. Much like the flu or a bad cold, people are contaminated by “respiratory droplets” – a polite term for being sneezed or coughed on, or being in close enough proximity to inhale the virus. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) warns that the virus is spread by “close contact” with an infected person – meaning “about six feet.”

Some health officials also warn against touching your eyes, nose or other mucous surfaces if your hands have been contaminated by droplets.

While the transmission mechanism may seem straightforward enough, it’s not always easy to spot who may be carrying the virus – and who may simply have a cold or flu. While medical experts dive deeper into transmission factors and other aspects of COVID-19, the safest course would seem to be to avoid close contact with anyone showing signs of a respiratory condition or problem. And definitely don’t shake the hand of an infected person and then touch any of your own mucous surfaces.

What happens next?

While the dangers of COVID-19 are undoubtedly real and significant to people everywhere, health experts point to a number of reasons to avoid panic.

First, there is widespread agreement among the global community for a collaborative effort to contain spread of the virus, primarily through careful control of travel from where the virus is known to exist.

Also, information about the virus is being aggressively shared across the world. One of the best tools to combat the virus is a better understanding of what to look for to spot the disease, and how to avoid risk of contamination.

And just as important, there is a concerted effort among the scientific, academic, governmental and health communities to pool knowledge and resources to combat the problem. While there is much to learn about COVID-19, painful experience with pernicious coronaviruses has helped us learn a great deal to execute an effective response. As much work as remains to be done in developing comprehensive treatment regimens and potential vaccines, we’re not starting from ground zero.

What should I do?

Practice simple but effective basic health routines.

And don’t be afraid of your food.

  • Continue to eat the foods you enjoy – and enjoy the foods you eat!
  • Thoroughly wash and cook your foods 
  • Maintain a healthy diet to keep your immune system strong

And remember, there is little to no evidence that you can get COVID-19 by eating food. It is a respiratory illness and contagion spreads through mucous droplets. 

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Boosting Your Health with Mushrooms

Mushrooms recently entered the scene as an elusive new “superfood”, and are now topping the charts for foods to watch in 2020, due to their powerful proven health benefits. And amid the current coronavirus pandemic, we’ll take whatever we can get that’s been proven to strengthen our immunity and overall health!

Don’t like eating raw mushrooms? Consider all the different ways you can reap their multitude of benefits. Take the D2D team, for example: Lucy sprinkles a few tablespoons of Laird Hamilton’s Performance Mushroom powder in her coffee each morning, Hillary enjoys dried mushrooms as an occasional mid-day snack, and I prefer sautéed mushrooms over my favorite chicken dish. 

Why Mushrooms?

Even more than just their meaty, savory flavor, mushrooms are being touted as a functional ingredient that can help boost immunity and energy, prevent cancer growth, inhibit LDL cholesterol production, and improve gut and brain health. Bonus: it has even been said to help heal the environment!

PaleoHacks.com

Breakdown of the Benefits

Boosting our Immune System

Eating mushrooms can provide a wide range of impressive immune-boosting effects due to the amount of beta-glucan in the cell walls of these fungi. A study from University of Florida’s Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition found that eating shiitake mushrooms daily improves immunity in a way that you cannot find in any currently available pharmaceutical drugs. Also, the white button mushrooms has been shown to have anti-inflammatory powers.

Mushrooms are also densely fortified with vitamin D, a proven immune booster. While other food sources like salmon, tuna, cod liver oil, and milk are great sources of the nutrient, mushrooms are the only product in the produce aisle with a significant source of vitamin D.

When it comes to the current COVID-19 virus, we are all looking to strengthen our immune systems and avoid spreading the virus, or better yet, avoid getting it at all.

According to a recent analysis of vitamin D, 25 randomized controlled trials of 11,000 patients showed that vitamin D supplementation had protective effects against acute respiratory tract infections—a primary symptom in the COVID-19 outbreak. WHO also has studies on its website that show the benefits of vitamin D to prevent respiratory illnesses. So eat your mushrooms and get out into the sunshine to boost that vitamin D!

Improving Gut Bacteria

Penn State conducted a study on mice that showed eating white button mushrooms can actually create a subtle shift in the gut’s microbial community. The study suggests that white button mushrooms can improve the regulation of glucose on the liver, serving as a prebiotic.

Another study published in the journal, Nature, showed that by using mushrooms to alter gut bacteria, they could simultaneously be used to treat obesity.

The bacteria in mushrooms, Acidophilus and Bifidobacterium, can help nourish the good bacteria in our gut, and ultimately improve digestion.

Cancer-fighting Properties

Five types of mushrooms were tested in a study published by the Journal of Experimental Biology and Medicine: white button, maitake, oyster, crimini, and portabella. They discovered these types of mushrooms “significantly suppressed” breast cancer cell growth and reproduction when eaten. The terminology specifically cited in the journal was that “both common and specialty mushrooms may be chemoprotective against breast cancer.”

Furthermore, shiitake mushrooms contain a type of sugar molecule called lentinan, which, according to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, may help to extend the life of patients with some cancers when used in conjunction with chemotherapy. By binding with abnormal cells, they can then “label” the cancer cells as ones that need to be destroyed by our immune system.

But we are not the first to make these discoveries. In Japan, shiitake mushrooms have been approved since 1985 as an adjuvant for stomach cancer because of its anti-tumor effects. The study that brought about these approvals was published in the International Journal of Cancer, which found that male participants who regularly ate mushrooms ultimately had a lower risk of developing prostate cancer. Consumption of over 3 times per week had a 17% lower risk than those who ate mushrooms less than once a week.

Enhancing Brain Function

Reishi mushrooms, as illustrated in the earlier chart, are considered a type of adaptogen. Adaptogens function in the body to regulate cortisol levels. Why should we care about cortisol levels? Well, when cortisol levels rise, it triggers our “fight or flight” responses. This, in turn, stimulates your sympathetic nervous system and adrenal glands to work on overdrive. When this process occurs, there is a decrease in your digestive secretions and an increase in your blood pressure.

You may be thinking you don’t often experience fight or flight responses. Well, you may be experiencing them without knowing. Chronic stress can cause the same process to trigger in your body, which can lead to adrenal fatigue and an inability of the body to bounce back. That is where mushrooms come in!

Cordycep, reishi, maitake and shiitake mushrooms serve as natural regulators. The root of adaptogen is “adapt”, pointing to the ability of these mushrooms to respond to harsh conditions. They function the same way in the body. They adapt to raised levels of stress, and aid in balance and restoration, mitigating the effects of stress on our adrenal glands.

Lowering Cholesterol

While mushrooms themselves contain no cholesterol, they are a good source of chitin and beta-glucan—both of which are fibers that lower cholesterol. A study in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms found that pink oyster mushrooms naturally reduced total cholesterol and LDL, or better known as the “bad” cholesterol, when tested on hypercholesterolemic rats.

Alternatively, shiitake mushrooms contain potent phytonutrients that help the liver process cholesterol and remove it from the bloodstream. How does it do this?  According to best-selling author and nutritionist Josh Axe, D.N.M., these compounds can keep cells from sticking to blood vessel walls, which helps to prevent plaque buildup, promoting circulation and improving blood pressure. Because mushrooms have sterol compounds, they interfere with the production of cholesterol in the liver as well, while simultaneously helping to raise HDL, the “good” cholesterol.

Healing the Planet

In Paul Stamets’ very popular TED talk, he cites mushrooms as a critical element in solving some pressing environmental problems. Stamets cites their ability to clean up oil spills all over the world, absorb farm pollution, fight off flu viruses and smallpox, create rich environments for new farms and forests, as well as potentially serve as a sustainable fuel source.

He points to the fact that mushrooms have long been used as a crucial part of nature’s recycling system. Without mushrooms and mycelium, plants would not exist, because rock and organic matter could not be broken down and turned into soil that provides nourishment for the growth of all plant life.

Who’s excited about Mushrooms?

The industry is looking for other ways to expand its plant-based alternative options. Mintel reports that 38% of U.S. consumers are trying to add more plant-based food to their diet, fueling demand for these products in the market.

Furthermore, according to a 2018 Gallup poll, 5% of United States citizens consider themselves to be vegetarians. A staple food group for both vegetarians and flexitarians (those who eat mostly vegetables but also some meat and fish) is mushrooms.

Statistics show that 20% of US consumers are now embracing flexitarian diets, which is directly reflected in the rise in popularity of plant-based meat and dairy products. These statistics have been driving up the prevalence, and desire for mushroom products and the market is responding.

Staying Healthy

In addition to adding mushrooms to your diet, don’t forget to add plenty of fruits and veggies to your meals, exercise regularly, and get good sleep to boost your immunity during times like these. If you are looking for more health information and recommendations for COVID-19, please refer to the CDC, WHO and NIH sites for updates.

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Cork & Cow: FFA Spotlight on Emily Matzke

The Future Farmers of America (FFA) is the premier youth organization preparing members for leadership and careers in the science, business, and technology of agriculture. In an effort to spread the word about the inspiring efforts of leading FFA members, Dirt to Dinner will be highlighting some participant stories.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we would like to introduce Emily Matzke. Her passion for ag was rediscovered in FFA and now she’s developing a business plan to tie her love of ag and local food products together to make a unique frozen treat! Here is her story told from her unique point of view.

I am Emily Matzke, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I am studying Animal Science and Life Sciences Communication with a business emphasis. I became interested in these areas of study due to my interest in agriculture from a young age.

I got my start in agriculture on my grandparents’ dairy farm in southwest Wisconsin, where I learned to find value in working the land. When I was in third grade, my grandpa passed away and my family made the ultimate decision to sell our herd of cows. At that point, my one true connection to production agriculture was lost.

Reconnecting with the farm

As I grew up, I found other ways to become involved in agriculture. I joined 4-H to participate in projects such as veterinary science, photography and showing dairy cattle. Through this, I was able to spend time on a family friend’s farm, which helped return me to my roots. Once I was old enough, I joined my local FFA chapter, which is where I like to say that I had a “light bulb” moment.

My experience in FFA made me realize that the agriculture community was where I was meant to be and where I would build a life and career.

In FFA, I participated in speaking contests, equine and poultry judging, attended numerous leadership conferences, planned field trips and much more. I felt the greatest joy when I had the opportunity to share my agriculture story with younger students. While in high school, I also began working on a farm, where I fed calves and assisted with field work.

A fine idea with wine

My experience in FFA and working on this farm is what truly sparked my idea for a future business. My goal is to produce wine ice cream from a small herd of cows using local Wisconsin wine. This business venture would allow me to stay true to my roots of involvement in the dairy industry, while also finding a unique way to stay afloat in this tough agricultural economy. I am hoping that my studies in college will provide me the necessary knowledge to be successful in this business opportunity.

Additionally, I would like to have a “side hustle”, as they call it, where I work with elementary students to educate them about agriculture, as well as blogging and speaking about agriculture with consumers.

Evaluating the specialty dairy market

I have always known that I had an interest in production agriculture, but knew that it was going to be next to impossible to find my place considering today’s economy. I have been fortunate enough to grow up in a town that has one of Wisconsin’s largest and most successful vineyards and wineries, which is where I drew my inspiration from. I knew that the wine industry was growing in Wisconsin, and with our proud dairy heritage, I decided to pursue this opportunity.

I began my research and learned that there is alcoholic ice cream on the market, but not much that is specifically made from wine. My goal is to market this product towards young millennials “foodies”, as market trends indicate this group is most interested in trying new food products. I plan to sell my products in the southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois markets, specifically in larger metropolitan areas.

My current biggest challenge is figuring out the supply chain that will help me reach my ultimate goal of bringing my product to market. I am hoping that my experience at the FFA New Century Farmer will help guide me down the right path for accomplishing these goals.

Stay tuned for more Future Farmers of America stories like this. If you would like to get involved with FFA, visit www.ffa.org. If you’re a fellow FFA and want to share your story, or tell us more about an inspiring FFA member, please email us at info@dirt-to-dinner.com – we’d love to hear your stories!

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Public Opinion: A Misguided Discussion on GMOs

rumor gossip

It all started as pleasantries in a small-town parking lot, but when GMOs came up, the conversation took a turn for the worse. What happens next is a clash between science and public opinion, and why what we think matters so much in building a sustainable food system…

In the small-town South where I live, it’s not just expected but almost obligatory that you speak to anyone who passes within 30 feet of you. It doesn’t have to be anything profound – just an acknowledgement of the importance of simple human contact as a civilizing force in our existence.

So I never gave it a second thought when I walked out of my locally-owned and operated food store and strolled past two well-dressed, well-groomed ladies of a certain age, standing between their two late-model SUVs, locked in animated discussion on some topic or another, each with one hand on the other’s arm, as all Southern belles used to be taught is only polite.

“Find something good to eat?” I asked benignly. Not a particularly creative conversational gambit, I admit. But standing outside the premier local source of organic foods, it seemed as safe and appropriate as anything else I could think of.

“Good…and healthy, too,” the one dressed in green chirped, as they both turned to me with the same beatific smiles my mother used to bestow on those who crossed her path.

Then things took a very different turn.

“And not a GMO in any of it,” the other dressed in blue added.

“Oh, you don’t like GMOs?” I decided to play this one carefully.

“Who does,” came the response. “They are the worst things in the world for you, you know.”

“And how did you learn that,” I asked.

“Oh, everyone knows that,” green lady responded with a small chuckle. “It’s all over the internet.”

I asked where on the internet such wisdom could be found, and to my surprise (maybe shock), the pair began reciting a list of websites that they assured me would set me on the path to enlightenment, and probably a lot longer and healthier life.

Now, I’ve been around the discussions and debates over which foods are healthy and which foods aren’t. There’s lots of information about that subject, and opinions will differ. You have to respect other people’s point of view, and the decisions they make about food, and pretty much everything else in life, too.

But I still pray that everyone makes informed decisions – decisions made on the basis of facts and reason, drawn from sources that have some degree of science and rationality behind them. 

What came next caused my faith in informed decision-making to shake its core…

“So I guess that means you don’t think GMOs have any place in our food system,” I observed as non-judgmentally as possible.  “Are they really that evil?”

“You have no idea how dangerous they are,” the lady in green observed.

“Or how much they have taken over our food supply,” the one in blue added.

“What do you mean?” I asked. It seemed the obvious question to ask as a follow-up.

Green lady jumped at the chance to teach: “Do you like corn?”

“Sure,” I replied. There’s nothing better, especially straight from the garden. (Hey, it’s the South. We all have gardens here.)

“Well did you know that the FDA doesn’t even define corn as a plant anymore,” she informed me authoritatively. “The FDA says it’s a pesticide.”

Wait, a crop is a pesticide? I could no longer hide my surprise. Or my suspicion, I suppose. “How is that possible,” I asked with genuine and profound interest in hearing her answer.

Here’s the answer I was given. Honestly, this is it:

“Our corn supply has all been genetically modified. It’s called ‘RoundUp Ready’ corn. It’s been modified so it produces its own RoundUp as it grows. That means all those chemicals are in the corn – just growing and growing and growing as the corn matures. No one want us to know that. But I’ve read it on some websites. Go to these sites, and you’ll see.”

At this point, my childhood lessons in southern civility kicked in, overpowering my sense of incredulity at what I had just heard. I thanked the ladies for helping me understand more about food. They beamed with satisfaction at having done their good deed for the day, and one of them actually reached out and touched my arm. That’s more of that belief in the power of actual human contact at work.

I knew the odds of having any kind of counter-argument or divergent point of view was probably a lost cause given the array of web-sourced expertise already on display. But I still thought it worthwhile to stir the pot, if only just a little.

“You know, I read a few websites about food, too,” I casually mentioned. “You gave me several to look at.  Maybe you’d like to see some of the stuff I’ve read, too.”

I mentioned a couple website I consider fairly balanced and truly credible on food, like Cornell University’s Alliance for Science, Genetic Literacy Project, The World Health Organization, and a few others that might begin to tell a different story about GMOs and the important role played by genetics in feeding our world. I doubt seriously any of them will succeed in changing the minds of these two fine ladies who crossed my path today.

But I smiled anyway and excused myself with the honest truth that my pick-up pizza was waiting for me. But as I walked to my car, something came over me. I’ve got to at least try.

I can’t let that kind of stupendous misinformation go unchallenged, or just walk away from the super-colossally wrong conclusions they can produce in the average intelligent and well-intentioned person.

I turned on my heel and called out to them, both still deep in conversation in the soft late-afternoon sunshine.

“Be sure to look at a website called Dirt to Dinner,” I said. “They write a lot about food, and GMOs. You might like it.” That last part was a stretch, I know, but it seemed the polite thing to say.

“Dirt to Dinner?” the green lady called back. “That’s easy to remember. We all need dirt, don’t we?”

They tittered at the wit of the response. Or maybe it was me they found funny. Doesn’t matter, as long as they remember the site name.

Public opinion –the level of understanding held by the average person – matters in building a sustainable food system. We just can’t afford to accept a common public dialogue on food based on this level of knowledge and opinion. There’s just too much at stake to ask the public – the voter – to help set food policy when perfectly normal people walk the streets thinking RoundUp Ready corn is a pesticide, rather than one of the bedrock crops for a global food system.

My long-suffering spouse listened patiently as a I recounted my parking-lot adventure and brought me a paper bag to breathe into. Just calm down, she advised. If you don’t like what you heard, go tell the story you think needs to be told. If you don’t, who will?

She’s no doubt right.

Long live Dirt to Dinner.

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People and Nature: Thriving Together in the African Grasslands

The Plight of the Pastoralists

Imagine an African landscape where wildlife, cattle, people, and native grasslands thrive together in harmony. North of Mt. Kenya and stretching toward the southern border of Ethiopia is an area called the Northern Rangelands of Kenya. This expansive, beautiful landscape is occupied by 26 indigenous tribes, mostly pastoralist communities who rely on cattle grazing on the grasslands for their livelihoods.

It was also once one of the most abundant wildlife areas on the continent, teeming with scores of black rhinos; however, poaching reduced the rhino population in Kenya from over 20,000 individuals in the 1960s to just over 500 in the 1980s.

The Start of Northern Rangelands Trust

My first trip to the Northern Rangelands came in 2017 while the area was in the grips of a long drought. It was desperate times with armed conflicts taking place between rival tribes trying to secure enough land to graze. Population growth and cultural traditions of managing cattle as a walking bank account led to dramatic growth in livestock numbers and overgrazing of the grassland. I had never seen a grassland in such tough condition and, given the circumstances, I was not overly optimistic on the prospects for renewal.

At the time, plans were being laid by the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), with support from The Nature Conservancy (TNC), to create a new business model with market incentives for pastoralists who follow a planned grazing approach with the goal of improved grassland condition.

I questioned how the program would work given the simple fact that tribes who did improve their local grassland condition based on an adaptive management plan of grazing and rest, would simply attract other pastoralists from neighboring tribes to opportunistically graze off their good efforts when needed.

A Hopeful Return

Just recently, I returned to the same areas I visited in 2017. Following a period of above average rainfall, the grassland was in amazing condition, demonstrating the inherent resilience of the landscape. To the eye, it was a night and day difference. The team I had met with three years ago had made great progress, starting a new business model and partnership between the pastoralists and NRT called LivestockWORKS.

This program allows pastoralists to enter their livestock in a program designed to offer better market returns for the cattle. Pastoralists access the program by investing $10 per head, which is then matched by an investment of $20 per head by NRT. Their cattle are microchipped to maintain identity and then managed in a program involving adaptive planned grazing, access to veterinary services and better cattle genetics.

The fees invested also pay for NRT to provide grazing consultants to the community of pastoralists as well as funding the removal of invasive species, which overtake the grasslands in degraded areas. The fees also help manage plots to produce and harvest perennial grass seeds for reseeding of degraded areas.

These projects provide additional sources of employment for community members and it was encouraging to witness the dividends of their hard work when aided by the recent timely rains.

Another significant benefit of enrolling in the program is the opportunity to have access to grasslands on wildlife conservancies and private ranches closer to the market. The opportunity to add weight to their cattle immediately before harvest creates a more certain profit and is starting to reverse the long-held traditions of acquiring and managing more cattle as a sign of prosperity.

Now, some pastoralists are beginning to selectively cull their herds and add back individuals with the genetic potential to maximize the benefits of the new planned grazing program. As a result, the pastoralists can be confident to receive higher profits by participating in the LivestockWORKS program.

Benefiting Pastoralists and Beyond

It is often surprising for tourists visiting the wildlife conservancies to see cattle foraging areas thought to be reserved only for wildlife. When properly managed, the timely presence of cattle grazing actually improves the rangeland condition for wildlife, owing to the fact that cattle will forage different grassland species than a cape buffalo or rhino, benefitting all. NRT has invested in a sophisticated and effective security program, which has nearly eliminated the poaching issues in the area. With a healthy grassland and greater security wildlife numbers are increasing and tourism to the region is growing.

After several years of collaborative efforts between NRT, TNC, Soils for the Future and Native Energy to build a science baseline and develop effective monitoring, NRT is eligible to start earning carbon credits for the soil carbon sequestration activities their grassland restoration efforts are beginning to deliver.

The proceeds from this new revenue source will be reinvested in the improved management activities, with the hope of growing the number of tribes and community lands which can benefit from this new community-based conservation approach.

Taken altogether, it stands as a remarkable restoration example. While the program is still early in its implementation, it shows the potential of wise management anchored by a new business model where wildlife, tourism, tribal pastoralists, and cattle grazing together can make a more resilient landscape, improving both livelihoods and nature.

Valuing Conservation in the Economy

The Northern Rangelands Trust area may be one of the more extreme examples I have witnessed on the vital importance of restoring degraded lands, but it is not unique regarding the nature of the opportunity. Globally, the estimated value of ecosystem service losses due to land degradation is $6.9 to $10.6 trillion per year.

Equipped with the right knowledge and market incentives, we can create a new conservation-oriented economy based on the life-giving value of nature.

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Personalized Nutrition & Our Unique Health Needs

We live in a world where we can submit a cheek swab to find our long-lost ancestors, test us for genetic predispositions and diseases, have customized supplements and vitamins delivered monthly to our door, and even have beauty boxes curated based on our skin type. Despite this, we also live in a time where chronic illness plagues millions of Americans. Can we prevent these diseases by targeting our individual health concerns? Personalized Nutrition may be one way to tackle this issue.

Taking Nutrition Personally

If you’ve ever taken a DNA test to find out which diseases you may genetically be more susceptible to, the results can be daunting. However, we can find relief and control of our health through epigenetics. The study of epigenetics shows how our diet and lifestyle can influence which genes are unlocked, keeping unwanted genetic predispositions at bay if we eat, sleep, and exercise well and have strong, positive relationships. Therefore, our inherited DNA doesn’t have to be our destiny. And personalized nutrition may be a way to help us take control of our well-being and longevity.

We have become increasingly aware that “healthy” does not mean the same thing to everyone. When I eat a high-carbohydrate meal before a run, I feel weighed down and groggy. But if I have fruit, I feel powered up and energetic. However, my husband must eat high-carb meals prior to a rigorous workout since his body needs those calories as an immediate fuel source. Personalized Nutrition is based on the simple truth that each person’s body responds differently to nutrients, vitamins and minerals.

Research provided by iSelect Fund illustrates chronic disease as a very real and growing health problem afflicting millions of Americans. Research institutions like the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute all highlight this growing challenge. With up to 20% of cancer-related deaths correlated to poor nutrition, and 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. suffering from obesity, there has never been a more dire need to focus on our individual nutrition.

Source: iselectfund.com

Scientific Wellness: A Basis for Personal Nutrition

Nathan Price, Institute for System Biology, addresses personalized nutrition in a clinical setting. He focuses on how our body processes and reacts to nutrition and its complex molecular intricacies. His research shows that nutrition contributes to at least 50% of our health, while genetics only accounts for 30%.

Price and other experts in the field are creating “scientific wellness” programs. These programs use massive databases to quantify wellness and predict the needs of the participants to combat the link between chronic illness and nutrition. Below are some emerging companies in the personalized nutrition space – each one based on a different set of analytics. They either measure your gut health, your DNA, your blood, and/or your personal wellness via questionnaire. Some even track your daily activity levels.

The burgeoning Personalized Nutrition space is due for continued growth as databases mature and results are achieved. Click here to download image.

What Do The Different Modalities Provide?

DNA/Cheek Swab. Each human is made up of a unique set of 23 chromosomes, otherwise known as your DNA. By swabbing your cheek, you provide a DNA sample that has information about everything, from your nutrient levels, hormones, food sensitivities, and allergies. These measurements can indicate disruption in digestion, cardiometabolic health, energy levels, sleep patterns, and much more. While DNA is considered a static measurement, unlike your weight or cholesterol levels, it is a jumping off point for a nutritional plan.

Blood Sample. Often measured in conjunction with your DNA, blood tests can measure a number of biomarkers like vitamin and mineral levels, cholesterol levels, triglyceride levels and key nutrient levels that can be leading identifiers in determining your risks of chronic illnesses—like diabetes or kidney disorders.

As Inside Tracker calls it, a blood test is a “selfie from the inside.” Blood can show a trend toward normalcy or if values are out of the clinically normal range. Interventions can then be made through nutritional recommendations and changes. This measurement, unlike DNA samples, is ever-changing and can be a good read on progress as it relates to dietary improvements.

Stool Sample. Stool primarily investigates your gastrointestinal (GI) condition, including your gut microbiome. A stool culture will check for the presence of abnormal bacteria and digestive enzyme levels.

Stool samples reveal the amount of beneficial bacteria in the GI tract, which can help diagnose intestinal dysfunction without invasive procedures. Other markers present in stool tests can identify pathogens that may indicate issues with immune function and overall intestinal health.

Any abnormal microorganisms present in the stool culture are likely causing stress to the GI tract. Research has shown that the relationship between the GI tract and neurological, hepatic and immune function is highly correlated. For instance, if your stool culture results showed excessive yeast production, a major concern is “brain fog”, a condition that occurs when excess yeast byproducts pass through the blood-brain barrier and alters your neurological function, causing learning challenges and behavioral problems.

D2D’s Personal Experiences

To better understand how these personalized nutrition programs work and given our interest in both soil microbiomes and gut microbiomes, Hillary and I decided to try DayTwo to gain some first-hand experience. We sent in our sample, then downloaded the DayTwo app on our phones and our personalized results were populated. They displayed the results of how complete meals, or the combination of foods we eat in one sitting, affect our personal health.

I found the app extremely user-friendly, and that the program was informative for my dietary decisions. Hillary, on the other hand, was more interested in an in-depth report on the types of foods best and worst for her body and how these foods will affect her energy levels and digestion, which DayTwo doesn’t really provide. But, upon request, DayTwo sent Hillary her unique microbiome report, which was full of super-helpful information on her gut’s microbiotic profile.

Lucy tried the Vitagene DNA Health Testing kit, which used saliva as a sample. Lucy said the results were interesting…at first. The Vitagene results reported her genetics as they pertain to skin, diet, exercise, and general genetic traits, such as the ability to hold onto certain micronutrients. The report even gave her a 5-day recommended meal plan that included a lot of Greek yogurt, which she assumed is because of her increased likelihood of low calcium levels. It also included a recommended supplement plan she could purchase from Vitagene.

But the information in the report also showed some inconsistencies and flawed information. For instance, Lucy read that she had the unwanted obesity gene, so she did a bit of research on the particular gene and found that it had nothing to do with obesity, but signaled potential brain disorders – not a great gene, either. So she looked up another gene that Vitagene indicated made her prone to muscle soreness, only to find out the gene actually expresses itself as diabetes. Lucy stopped reading and looking up genes. Her takeaway? If one is truly interested in a genetic profile, stay away from these ‘over the internet’ tests and go see a doctor who specializes in genetics.

Challenges to Personalized Nutrition

While this is a budding and important field for our health, it is not an exact science. Because the cost of DNA sequencing has dropped from the thousands to the hundreds of dollars, it is cheaper and easier than ever. Yet the challenge lies in what to do with all this information.

Millions of samples need to be correlated and analyzed to find out the optimal health standard and how it differs among individuals. Also, our diet’s effect on epigenetics leads us to questions about the role ancestry plays in health and how our genes work together. Complications like these make it difficult for these companies to stay at the forefront, let alone even stay afloat, as evidenced by uBiome’s bankrupty in September 2019.

We also need to recognize that blood and stool samples reflect results in just one moment in time. Because the results can sometimes take weeks, the data might be irrelevant by the time you received your customized nutrition plan. The DNA saliva sample is more a comparison of your DNA matched with what foods are good for you to eat. But again, the database needs to be in the billions to exactly correlate which foods go with which DNA.

We know there are limitations to science, and as Timothy Morck, President and Founder at Spectrum Nutrition LLC told us, we should look for companies that conduct follow-up testing. The true test of success with a personalized nutrition service is its long-term service. How do the results look three months from now, and again six months from now? Be sure the information is consistently analyzed to adapt your program to maximize your results.

“As a call to action to the scientists in this space, we must build a cause and effect database, not an association database. We must show consumers who use our products, and thus our recommendations, that we have tangible outcomes. Get some real data through real evidence.”

-Timothy Morck, President and Founder at Spectrum Nutrition LLC

Starting any diet has its considerations. If you’re looking for a first step to better your overall health, the American Heart Association provides a wealth of fundamental recommendations beneficial to everyone. And, if and when you’re ready to take the next step to a personalized nutrition program, be sure to consult your physician first.

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Epigenetics: Can We Control our Health?

Genetic testing is great. But it has also given into the fear of inheriting a disease-causing gene. I have debated the test myself. Will my health decisions be different based on the results of the test? My parents and grandparents all died prematurely. Both of my parents passed away from cancer: my mother and her mother of colon cancer, and my father of melanoma complications. Both my grandfathers died fairly early from heart disease. Am I at risk, too? What do the statistics say?

We are not victims of our DNA

Looking at the four leading health issues affecting us today, all can be influenced by how you choose to live your life.

  • Cancer: There’s close to a 40% chance of getting cancer, but only 5-10% of cancers are from an inherited genetic mutation
  • Alzheimer’s: About 10% of people over the age of 65, and 30% of those over 85 get Alzheimer’s, yet only 1% of Alzheimer’s patients get the disease from a deterministic gene
  • Diabetes: 4% of the population lives with diabetes. Type 1 and 2 are known to be both genetic and environmental, and diet can overrule the genetic, especially with type 2
  • Heart Disease: Almost 50% of people have some type of heart disease, which has several genetic implications. However the American Heart Association has a checklist called Life’s Simple 7, which can reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke so you can be proactive about your heart health.

When I heard about Epigenetics, I thought – perfect, if I eat a healthy diet, exercise, and sleep well, I will be safe. “Well, not so fast” said some of my research. While epigenetics is a promising field, there is still much to learn. However, there are still some key takeaways from scientific research on how our lifestyle can affect our DNA.

What is Epigenetics?

Epigenetics is the study of how your lifestyle can affect how your genes are expressed. ‘Epi’ literally means ‘above’ or ‘on top of’ genetics. Epigenetics has shown that our DNA is affected by the nutrients and chemicals in our food, as well as the cortisol of stress, the endorphins of exercise, and the happiness of love. Let’s focus on food and its influence on our genes.

Our DNA is not our destiny and we can certainly influence it to a large degree by our diet. There are countless studies that show certain foods positively or negatively influence our DNA.

Comparing identical twins is a great example of how the environment can affect one’s health. Even though their DNA is the same, their lifestyle can alter how their genes express themselves. Think of two different people playing the same piano piece. The notes are the same, but the sound, tune, and enjoyment can be completely different.

This was true for my stepmother’s father and uncle who were identical twins – obviously with the same DNA. Both Paul and Uncle Art have/had a gene that made them prone to heart disease. In 1998, they both had open-heart surgery. Afterwards, Paul has continued to take care of himself with diet and exercise. He also has a lot of love in his life with two adoring daughters, grandchildren, and a girlfriend (after his wife passed away). Art, on the other hand, was not quite as zealous about a healthy lifestyle. Uncle Art died in 2010. Meanwhile, Paul is steadily smiling, living, and dating his girlfriend at 101 years old!

How does DNA expression work?

Nessa Cary explains in her book, The Epigenetics Revolution, that “our DNA is smothered in special proteins and small chemicals. Adding or removing them to the DNA can change the gene expression, the function of these cells and the very nature of the cells themselves.”

Your DNA is the blueprint for your body. Each one of your cells holds this six-foot-long strand tightly wrapped and folded within the nucleus. Think of your DNA as a long ladder – each rung holds ‘letters’ or nucleotides which serve as the bases for the rungs. There are about 23,000 combinations of these rungs – which are the genes (just like the company, 23andMe!).

How a gene expresses itself is based on many factors, but it is the chemical reaction around the DNA and how tightly the DNA is wrapped that regulates the genes in our bodies. These processes are called DNA methylation and histone modification, and they are the two predominant ways our genes are expressed.

DNA methylation is the chemical reaction around a gene. For instance, sometimes there is more – or less – of the methylation chemical. This will either turn the gene off or on – like a light switch. This can be either good or bad, depending on the gene.

Methylation is a naturally-occurring and important event. Each cell has its own function, even though the entire strand of DNA is located in every single cell. In an extreme example, you certainly don’t want the hair gene turned on in your heart gene! Or, take for instance, estrogen. As a young woman, your estrogen gene is turned on to create babies and as an older woman, the estrogen is turned off as now one is now waiting for grandchildren.

But if you don’t have the right methylation, then you are subject to a variety of issues such as heart attack, stroke, dementia, cancer, and others.

The M is the methylation that attaches itself to the cytosine one of the four bases, or ‘letters’ on the DNA ladder.

The other way genes are expressed is histone modification. Very simply, think of this complicated structure as a yo-yo. If the string is wrapped too tightly, then the yo-yo doesn’t move. If it is too loose, then you can’t ‘walk the dog’ or ‘shoot the moon’. Chemical reactions alter the histone wrap in the same way. If the DNA is wrapped too tightly, then the genes cannot be expressed. If it’s too loose, then certain genes you want to remain dormant get activated.

Can you eat your way to good DNA health?

We all benefit from listening to our mothers who have told us to eat our fruits and vegetables. Various studies have shown that a diet with more than 5-7 servings a day will positively alter your gene expression and help to prevent age-related diseases.

Certain chemicals in foods (yes, all foods consist of naturally producing chemicals) can positively affect the genes. The chemicals in the food affect the chemicals around the gene, which then affects its expression.

Here are some examples of foods that positively influence your DNA:

We all know that smoking is detrimental to your health. Scientists in Norway gave 102 male smokers a diet rich in antioxidants such as green java tea, bilberry jam, blackberries, and various berry juices. They found that the gene expression in their blood changed for the better. They had improved DNA repair, removal of dead, pre-cancerous, and virus-infected cells, and their overall immune system was enhanced.

In my search for cancer prevention, I learned that nutrition is second to quitting tobacco as a means to prevent cancer. For instance, green tea can suppress tumor growth by changing the DNA of that tumor.

The vegetables that no one likes as a child – broccoli, brussels sprouts and other cruciferous vegetables – have a sulforaphane compound that helps to restore proper balance surrounding the DNA.

Research has shown it can prevent cancer and heart disease development.

Then I heard about the spice turmeric; which has curcumin as its main compound and is known to reduce inflammation. In addition to cancers, its epigenetic ability has been studied for its relation to neurological disorders, inflammation, and diabetes. It is specifically tied to the Cox-2 gene that makes inflammatory compounds. In addition, it is known to decrease tumors. By taking turmeric for the long-term, one could help ward off breast cancer, colon cancer and Alzheimer’s. Yet, it is a double-edged sword, as too much can be toxic.

The American Diabetes Association held a research symposium to understand the role of epigenetics in diabetes and obesity. There is continuing epigenetic research to understand diabetes. They are not only looking at how diet can influence diabetes in an individual but how environmental influences can pass it to the next generation.

Caution: One size does not fit all

There is still so much we don’t know about our DNA. While all DNA is 99.9% similar to each other, what is different is how we live our lives. The foods we eat determine how we methylate, how our DNA is wrapped around the histone (protein), and all the various chemical reactions that uniquely affect us. But remember, we are all unique and what might work for you might not be beneficial for me.

But what we do know is that a diet full of fruits and vegetables will help inhibit age-related diseases.

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Can Technology Save Urban Farming?

vertical urban farm farming

Population growth, more food production, loss of arable land, water resources, and CO2 emission concerns are all on the forefront of food producers.

Given the fact that the U.N. predicts that 86% of the developed world’s population will live in cities by 2050, shifting food production to urban centers would seemingly solve all of these problems. Vertical farms have begun to sprout up like skyscrapers, packing massive production scale into an area as compact as a city block. While today, they are mostly used for microgreens, optimism prevails where existing rooftops could be repurposed to grow row crops. Vacant lot spaces could find a new use feeding the population.

According to Pitchbook, about $250 million has been invested in the top 25 Indoor Farms and related technologies. Environmental sustainability is a draw for impact investors. AeroFarms has four farms in Newark, New Jersey, one of which is the largest in the world: 70,000 feet and harvests up to 2 million pounds per year using 95% less water than field farming. Another contender, Gotham Greens, supplies Whole Foods in the New York City metro area with pesticide-free produce from their rooftop greenhouses.

Consider the potential impact:

  • Urban farms can be set up next to its consumers, eliminating greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation and storage
  • They take up far less space than traditional, land-based farms, enabling them to create far more end product per acre and potentially making up for the loss of arable land
  • They can reduce the need for pesticides, eliminate the risk of extreme weather, and be built to conserve water and other traditional inputs 
  • They can be built effectively anywhere people live, bringing high-quality, nutritious food to growing communities all over the world, no matter the climate or land quality

A Promise Delayed

At least that’s the theory.

But, in reality, urban farming continues to lag behind its potential to disrupt the food system due to a range of shortcomings. Firstly, we eat more than just lettuce. Indoor farming is excellent for tasty greens, but expanding to staples in our diet, like fruits and vegetables will be tough with the technology that exists today.

And does this method actually reduce farming’s carbon footprint? Vertical farming operations might actually be more resource-intensive than outdoor production, given their reliance on artificial lights, water distribution, and climate control.

That’s on top of the fact that most urban farmers still can’t make a living at it, according to a 2016 study published in the British Food Journal.

As of today, urban farming – particularly the vertical farms that are envisioned to occupy skyscrapers and rooftops all over the world – is too expensive, too resource-intensive and too niche to truly reach its potential as a revolutionary new form of agriculture.

The Future of Food?

Could new technologies rebalance this equation and bring urban farms into wider use?

That’s the hope of a new generation of farmers and innovators working on ways to bring the power of Silicon Valley to the food we all eat, whether it is grown on an outdoor farm or in a warehouse. These efforts include everything from combining big data analytics and machine learning with genome editing to design better crops; creating robots that can pick apples, raspberries and other foods; and even using drones to gather insights that farmers and ranchers can use to more accurately plan and manage their facilities.

These new capabilities include:

Big Data Analytics: “Leaders in the agriculture industry have begun to use machine learning as a competitive advantage,” says Yochay Ettun, CEO and co-founder of cnvrg.io, a startup platform that is working to help data scientists manage and build machine learning models. For food producers, this has the potential to improve efficiency by offering everything from more accurate crop yield prediction to species recognition.

 “Machine learning has the ability to disrupt every industry, from agriculture to finance to travel. If society continues to invest and support its data science teams even in the agriculture industry there can be changes as drastic as the industrial revolution.”

– Yochay Ettun, cnvrg.io CEO & Co-Founder

The Internet of Things (IoT) is also making inroads in the controlled environment of indoor agriculture, in part because there is so much about farming that’s universal. From temperature to water, to nutrients, humidity and more, every single farm or indoor operation is managing the same seven to 10 different functions. The only difference is the scale of what they’re doing.

IoT can bring any scale down to size, adding in automation features that help small operators scale.

“Just think about how much more efficient your business can be when you can know what’s going on and be able to control your system remotely without staring at the plants all day,” says Dan Nelson, CEO and co-founder of Grow Computer, a company that is developing what it calls “an operating system for indoor agriculture” that will enable operators both large and small to harness the full potential of IoT and automation for ag applications, regardless of the hardware they’re using.

The five functions Grow Computer is providing to growers right now include monitoring, controls, automation alerts, and data, all of which can be managed from any internet-connected device. The idea is that a farmer can choose their own component tree, their own layout, their own processes, and then layer the software on top of it all, basically functioning like Microsoft Windows for everything that goes into an agriculture system.

“The biggest challenge that we see in urban farming is that, unless you have a tremendous amount of investible capital to build out your system, it’s really hard to be profitable,” Nelson explains. “You don’t get the benefit of these systems that large international agriculture companies get when you’re the small grower that’s trying to convert a small warehouse into a farm.”

“What we’re hoping for is that we’re going to help people build better vertical farming businesses at any size by helping them optimize their systems, getting them to the point that their competition is.”

– Dan Nelson, Grow Computer CEO & Co-Founder

Sustainable Lighting: According to Prof. Marc van Iersel of the Horticultural Department at University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, the typical indoor farming operation has to dedicate as much as 60% of its budget to energy costs alone, usually due to the artificial lighting that is required to support the system. As of 2019, this electricity is costing U.S. indoor farmers as much as $600 million per year.

This puts urban and vertical farmers at a disadvantage to their outdoor competitors, who get their light from the sun – for free, not to mention the substantial carbon footprint that goes into that power production.

A number of companies are currently working to address this shortcoming, building sustainable, LED-based lighting systems that are cheaper to run and designed to better support the plants they’re illuminating. New advances in LED light technology can, according to the Washington Post, do everything from change “how plants grow, when they flower, how they taste and even their levels of vitamins and antioxidants. The lights can also prolong their shelf life.”

Sananbio, the sister company of the world’s largest LED chip maker, Sanan Opto-Electronics – is bringing this promise to market with its photobiology technology, which is based on the interactions between light and living things. Its core focus is the optimization of lighting spectrums to allow plants to thrive at all stages of growth.

Per the company: “Our unique spectra has been trialed on a multitude of cultivars and our results have shown that by optimizing the spectrum based off of the cultivar we are able to increase nutritional value, drive unique genetic expression, increase active naturally occurring chemical compounds, and shorten flowering times.”

And that’s just one example of how smarter lighting can make things easier for vertical farmers.

Automated lighting systems, which can control when lights are on and off as well as optimize these cycles to maximize yield, can help operators not only cut down on management costs but prolong the life of the LED lights themselves.

The average LED lasts for about 50,000 hours, or more than 13 years if used for 10 hours per day. Optimization systems can improve the impact of these on periods to extract maximum plant benefits while extending the lives of the lights themselves.

Big Companies are Taking Notice

These innovations aren’t isolated to startups and growth companies either. Some of the largest technology providers in the world – including household names such as GE and Bayer – are also working on innovations for indoor agriculture.

Logiqs, for instance, a global logistics provider that has been designing and building warehouse automation and horticulture systems for more than 40 years, has introduced GreenCube, a modular indoor growing system that incorporates standard components from the company’s existing pallet storage systems and other growing racks. It is designed to work with the company’s automation equipment and sensors, which are also standardized, in order to keep the function of the entire system as simple as possible.

As Logiqs explains: “The goal of our design was to make a truly sustainable vertical farming system, from both an environmental point of view as well as from a financial standpoint.” And it’s worth noting that major food brands are buying in, as well.

“By partnering with urban farms, we can reduce our footprint, increase food security and livelihoods, and improve biodiversity,” says John Tran, Director of Sustainability & Responsibility at Pernod Ricard, the European alcohol conglomerate that today owns Absolut vodka, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Kahlua coffee liqueur, and other brands. The company launched its “Sustainability & Responsibility Roadmap for 2030” this past April.

“We’ve seen an increased use case for urban farming in 2019,” Tran says. “While limited space poses a challenge for high-scaled consumer products, we view it as supplementing traditional farms while also solving for some of the most pressing issues in highly dense urban areas. Urban farming provides a total value, increasing biodiversity and reducing ecological impact, which will help us improve our agricultural footprint and achieve our sustainability goals.”

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An Interview with Gabrielle Reece: Ask Yourself “Why?”

Many of you know her as a world-class beach volleyball player, but Gabrielle Reece is a champion on and off the court. She has created a life toward making the world a better place. She uses her athleticism, wisdom, life experiences, and beauty to help others, especially women, achieve peak fitness, good health, and overall well-being for themselves and their entire family.

Her list of accomplishments is long: a mother, a wife, a health and fitness expert, professional volleyball player, first female spokesperson for Nike, host for NBC’s competition series STRONG, a bestselling author, a model, and a mentor to children. Adding to this already remarkable list, she and her husband, Laird Hamilton, co-manage a training program called XPT and Laird Superfood – a product line of coffee supplements to fuel you through the day.

Gabby has become a dominant influencer in health and wellness over the years. But it is her warmth, honesty, and toughness during training that sets her apart.

I met Gabby at XPT Elite, where my son and I signed up for the Malibu training program that requires you to adapt quickly to various physical and mental situations. We were looking for a fun end of the summer adventure before he entered The Marines, The Basic School. We wanted to optimize our overall physical fitness, mental toughness, and recovery. Of course, we learned a lot more than that. We also learned more about how and why we eat and how that plays a critical role in how we function every single day.

Endurance training at Reece’s XPT Elite Program. Left: Lucy scaling the deep end with weights. Right: Reece fitting Lucy with a weighted belt for more underwater exercises.

Eating without Thinking

We all do it. I just sat down and ate a dark chocolate bar. Why? Was I bored? Was I hungry? Did I crave chocolate? Until I talked with Gabby, I never asked myself these questions. I just reached for a snack. Most of us do exactly that. We eat for all kinds of reasons besides being hungry. We stress eat. We eat to reward ourselves. We eat because it is lunch time, but not necessarily because we are hungry. We eat a snack out of boredom. We eat for comfort after a difficult conversation.

But that is just it — I wasn’t thinking. I was not asking why. What struck me as unique was Gabby’s approach to food – and to life. Gabby is very self-aware. Gabby watches the world, watches her reaction to it and doesn’t judge either herself or others. She has an uncanny ability to see and immediately understand a person. Her ability to identify someone’s reason behind an action, or non-action, was what made the greatest impression.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZR-x-a4maQ

By practicing awareness and looking within for the answers, Gabby brings mindfulness into her daily life, something we can all challenge ourselves to do if we really want to achieve whole-body health and wellness. My conversation with her forced me to look inwards at decisions I make all the time and brought a new level of understanding about my habits.

Here are some insights from our conversation…

Lucy: Let’s start with the basics. What kind of foods do you eat?

Gabby: I eat foods as close to the source as possible and avoid processed foods. If you looked at most of my meals, I have a type of vegetable, good quality protein, maybe a sweet potato. Quinoa comes in and out. Rice is rare. Our family’s dinner plate is colorful with a variety of vegetables.

“I don’t believe in any single diet – I just believe that eating a moderate amount of healthy wholesome food is good.”

Sometimes I eat popcorn with coconut oil. I manage my sugar intake. There are better kinds of sugar like coconut sugar. When I do eat sugar, I honor myself with it and don’t make it a habit. If I feel that I can eat whatever I want, then my impulses are minimized. I feel it out. I liken it to a rest day with training. The same is with food, I can occasionally splurge.

L: You see a lot of people come through your XPT program. What do you say to them about their diet?

G: I always find it fascinating that people don’t know what to eat. It is so simple yet the media and product marketing messages prop things up as healthy when in reality, they are not. The other day I was in the grocery store and I saw a very sweet couple whose daughter was friends with ours. They were picking up a vegan pizza because they were making a ‘healthy’ choice. Just because something says vegan doesn’t necessarily mean it is good for you.

L: Do you count and watch your calories?

G: I don’t. I eat and listen to my body. There are cycles when I am more hungry other times and will eat more. I stay hydrated and eat healthy fat. If I don’t, I end up having different cravings that I have to manage. For instance, I will go to sugar if I am not doing those things.

I focus on what I could eat right now that makes sense. I used to eat a lot of food when I was training all the time. But right now, my training isn’t as much so I eat when I am hungry. I might have a giant lunch and skip dinner, or a light lunch and a bigger dinner. It depends on my day.

I do pre-decide, though. For instance, before we go out to dinner, I will decide not to eat the bread that gets passed around before dinner begins. That usually works for me.

L: Besides healthy eating, what is your philosophy around food and diet?

G: When I look at food, I always look inward. I ask myself, where I am at and why I am eating it. I stay self-aware.

I tap into how I am really feeling and why I have those feelings. I try to understand the impulse of chewing. A lot of this is just biological impulses. Am I really hungry? Or do I just want to chew something? I might be hungry, but I might be bored. Am I eating because I am mad or feeling belligerent? Either one is ok. I accept where I am in the moment and I am ok.

It is important to have a truthful dialogue with yourself.

When it has moved into negative behavior – then there can be shame. We internalize that, which isn’t any good. Instead, just take ownership of it. Let me see how I can deal with these feeling to make myself feel differently. Then will the impulse to eat something diminish?

I don’t judge. I check to see if I can make myself feel differently. I will breathe, walk, or even give myself the permission to be unreasonable. Can I focus on myself and be just be grateful for something in my life?

“I believe that the only way to understand one’s self is to have that brutal honestly. The only way we can talk ourselves off that ledge is to understand how we feel. We are responding to that. That is power. And we have the power to change.” 

We need to understand we have a choice. I am choosing to go to work, to go to the grocery store. I am taking personal accountability and responsibility for my actions.

L: What are your thoughts on the challenges to maintain a healthy lifestyle as we grow older?

G: A lot of people diet and exercise and don’t lose a single pound. Even though they are moving, they are still not losing weight. It is not just about calories in and calories out.

They have to go to the next level and identify their constant level of stress. Staying up late, not hydrating, holding onto childhood trauma are reasons why weight won’t come off. People connect weight with food and exercise, but there is a lot more to it.

I see some clients who have a small accumulation of bad habits that they don’t get away with as they get older. People tend to chalk it up to age, but it is so much more. It can easily be something inside, for instance from childhood, and then you must get rid of that. The frustration of not losing weight can be related to holding onto what happened in the past.

L: What do you recommend for a healthy lifestyle?

G: Pay attention to a mind that is open and honest with yourself. You can shift negative patterns to positive: meditations, breathwork, and being kind to yourself. Think about yourself as an entire organism – your diet, your mind, your feelings, your exercise are all connected. Finally, know that you have the power to change what you want about yourself.

 

A Common Thread of Mindfulness

I was sitting out on the porch again, like usual, enjoying a chilly evening with my husband and I thought about that chocolate bar. Instead of mindlessly meandering to the kitchen to grab it, I remembered Gabby’s words — why? Why am I thinking about eating that chocolate? Am I bored? Am I stressed? No and no. I am happy. I break off a small piece and treat myself to a bite. Smiling, I am reminded to be forgiving and kind to myself.

                 

For more on Gabby, listen to Mark Devine‘s podcast.

For more on Laird’s diet, listen to Graham Bensinger interview

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Ag in the Classroom: FFA Spotlight on Lauren LaGrande

ffa lauren lagrande

The Future Farmers of America (FFA) is the premier youth organization preparing members for leadership and careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture. In an effort to spread the word about the inspiring efforts of leading FFA members, Dirt to Dinner will be highlighting some participant stories.

We would like to introduce Lauren LaGrande. Her education in ag started on her family farm and has taken her back to the classroom. Her mission is to educate future generations on something that connects all of us – where our food comes from. Here is her story told from her unique point of view.

My name is Lauren LaGrande and I am a proud fourth-generation farmer from Northern California. My family grows mostly rice, almonds, and walnuts, along with a few row crops we keep on rotation. My younger brother and I also manage a small herd of cattle between us, which has helped fund us through college.

A passion for agriculture was instilled in me at a young age and was ignited further throughout my college years. My earliest memories stem back to sitting on my dad’s lap in the harvester, watching the tines on the reel gobble up rice.  I grew up participating in 4-H and the FFA, which are two experiences I will always be grateful for. In high school for FFA, I showed livestock, competed in agricultural communications proficiency contests, job interview contests, and project competitions.

A new lens on the industry

While all this was going on, I was asked to blog for a commodity group, as they wanted a younger generation’s take on agriculture, which was where my passion for connecting people with their food sprouted. This passion took deeper roots during my time at Oregon State University, where I majored in agricultural sciences with minors in leadership, writing, and communications. I interned with commodity groups, animal agriculture alliances, conservation groups, and spent some time lobbying in Washington D.C. with a cooperative we are involved in, all of which expanded my views and perspectives on agriculture. My once narrow “production” lens of agriculture was now broadened to see the industry from a societal, regulatory, cultural, and legislative lens.

This new “ag lens” continued to expand through my college courses where I learned to appreciate agriculture beyond a production standpoint and appreciate its societal, economic, and environmental contributions. And today, I feel the same passion when I am able to help a student develop or deepen their appreciation and respect for an industry that not only feeds and clothes their hometown, their state, their country, but also the world.

I continued on to graduate school where I received my master’s degree in agricultural communications from Texas Tech University (Wreck ‘Em Tech!) and conducted research on consumer trust in the agriculture industry. I now teach agricultural communications courses at Oregon State University and am currently helping to develop a program in this concentration..

I remember getting my undergraduate degree here at Oregon State and wishing they had an agricultural communications program. I wished I knew how to talk about an industry I was so deeply rooted in to those who knew nothing about it. I am so ecstatic that Oregon State is in the works of developing an agricultural communications program. This will serve as a curriculum that I hope all students, whether within the agriculture, forestry, and natural resources fields or not, can benefit from. No matter your diet, food production preferences, or lifestyle choices, we all eat. Therefore we are all connected by agriculture.

Challenges in the education space

Many personal and professional experiences have revealed to me how little the public knows about where their food comes from, how it’s managed, and who is producing it. This lack of understanding fuels my burning desire to connect people with their food. I am very humbled and blessed to be back at my alma mater and to have the chance to help students find their agricultural voice and to help those without an agriculture background understand some of our practices.

I think one of the most significant challenges I face as a teacher and as an agriculturalist is the public’s mistrust in agriculture. Consumers not only vote on production regulations in the voting booths, but with their dollars every time they visit a grocery store, without really knowing what they are standing behind.  My master’s thesis research revealed to me that agriculture doesn’t have a “reputation issue” per se, but it has a trust issue.

Today’s consumers do not trust the agriculture industry. They are constantly bombarded with news stories and articles saying how “big ag” is pumping their foods with chemicals and destroying the environment, which are misconceptions we as an industry need to address and debunk. Agriculture has a great story to tell and we, as its  authors,  need to use our voices to help educate.

Overcoming obstacles through teaching

One of my biggest successes in this role thus far came from an email I received from a student who didn’t come from an agriculture background. She explained she took my class not knowing what agriculture really consisted of and wanted to learn more behind the “scary” articles that get blasted all over the internet. She thanked me for helping her understand agriculture, a subject that affects all of us every day.

In one of the classes I teach, students are required to do a feature story regarding an aspect of the industry of their choice. They’re also required to conduct two interviews that would add depth and credibility to the story. This assignment allowed this particular student to talk with farmers about her concerns and research her agricultural topic from both sides of the issue to come to an informed opinion. She fell so in love with her topic that she decided to pursue an internship in that same agriculture area. Although this was just one instance and just one student, I am so proud that I was able to play a small part in allowing someone who knew nothing about agriculture become passionate and informed.

Agriculture is more than just an industry; it is a lifestyle and way of life for so many. One that stems from hard work, passion, humility, craft, science, and community. It is my hope that down the road in the future, agriculture is known and trusted for all of these components and more.

A few tips on getting involved in ag

Want to know more about ag? Ask questions and make connections! Reach out to your county’s co-op extension office if you have a question about something you saw on your drive home, like an airplane flying on seed or if you want to know how to plant cherry tomatoes in your backyard.

Farmers are some of the friendliest and most passionate people I know. Talk to your local grower at your farmer’s market and ask questions about how they are growing the food you are taking home. Can’t get your “boots on the ground”? That is okay! Luckily, today’s world allows us to make connections online and globally. Reach out to agricultural professionals and organizations through their websites and social media pages.

Interested in learning directly more about agriculture? Sign up for an agricultural course or class, whether it’s at the high school or college level or joining a program such as Master Gardeners through a local co-op.

Have a giving heart? Volunteer with your local Community Supported Agriculture project, FFA chapter, community garden, extension office, etc. Get your hands in the soil and work with those who cherish the land and you’ll harvest more than just vegetables.

There are so many ways to get involved in the ag space; simply reach out and you’ll have roots planted in agriculture in no time!

Stay tuned for more Future Farmers of America stories like this. If you would like to get involved with FFA, visit www.ffa.org. If you’re a fellow FFA and want to share your story, or tell us more about an inspiring FFA member, please email us at info@dirt-to-dinner.com – we’d love to hear your stories!

 

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2 Trade Deals and Plant Food in a Pear Tree: Top News in 2019

This year’s reporting sets the stage for some tough discussions for the ag industry to what no doubt will be a series of challenges in 2020 – and beyond. Though it seems out of our hands, we as consumers have serious pull here based on our purchase decisions. And for the future of food and agriculture at large.

Overview

“Gee, that’s a tough one. So much happened it’s almost impossible to pick just a few!”

2019 has been jam-packed with news headlines affecting our choices in food, the well-being of our farmers, and how new technologies will disrupt the industry. Every day, we’ve heard and read about…

  • Throughout the year, farmers remained highly focused and surprisingly hopeful on trade issues, especially involving China and our North American trading partners
  • African swine fever is reshaping entire markets, with the virus resulting in 40% of the global pig population to be culled
  • The ongoing RoundUp trial regarding glyphosate has enormous implications for farm production, Bayer’s balance sheet, and legal stakes with human health
  • Investment in ag technology has exploded in areas such as big data, precision farming, and food supply transparency, with all sorts of new doors opening for all parts of the food system
  • And the rapid developments in genetic engineering, such as GMOs, CRISPR, and synthetic biology, have created an ongoing debate over their regulation worldwide
  • A focus on soil health and other dimensions of ‘regenerative agriculture’ has become more critical for the health of future harvests
  • Claims and counter-claims have been made about finding the right balance between a healthy diet and best use of natural resources for our global health
  • Food labeling requirements have gathered steam as consumers drive greater demand for transparency along the entire supply chain
  • Food insecurity once again is on the rise around the world, as the United Nations reports

So, how do you pick from that hefty list? Here’s my attempt to weed out the most critical issues as we come into 2020. Take a look at my countdown and let me know your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter!

#4. Food Safety.

The African Swine Flu swept through Asia and decimated the pig population. There are 770 million domestic pigs on various farms worldwide – at least 300 million have died. That is a lot of pigs to bury. China was hit the hardest as they have 440 million pigs – almost half of which have been affected. This does not only have implications for the hog farmers, but it shows how quickly a virus can spread around the world.

Food safety and animal welfare are critical components here:

  • How can we improve the quarantine process for animals and poultry?
  • Will the African Swine Flu virus spread? What are the implications?
  • Will the reduced pork supply change our buying habits? If so, what other forms of protein are we likely to eat?

This is an incredible amount to think about as we head into the new year, and we are only on the first point!

 #3. Weather alert.

When a 95-year-old corn and beans farmer in Central Illinois, who is still farming the 1,500 acres he owned since the 1920s, says he can’t remember a worse spring for planting in seven decades of farming, we all should pay attention. Add lingering wet conditions to the mix, and you have the prescription for significant harvest delays and losses – we’re talking up to half of last year’s corn and soybean crop levels in parts of the upper Midwest.

Bad weather is nothing new for farmers, of course. But the extent and severity of this year’s bad conditions caused huge damage, disrupted lives and entire communities, and only complicated the production picture for farmers already reeling from steady income declines.

Maybe more significantly, these reports may prove to be harbingers of the bigger questions yet to come for agriculture about climate change:

  • Will consumers accept seed technology and gene editing to help crops grow in wetter, cooler, drier, and/or drought conditions?
  • Can the four-row crops, canola, soybeans, cotton, and corn, be modified to grow in new climate regions?
  • Are there specialized crops that are more adaptable to varied climates?
  • What technologies and farming practices will be implemented to keep our soil secure? No-till farming and cover cropping quickly come to mind here.

And focusing on farmers is just a piece to a much larger puzzle. The right response to climate change involves all industries: from the municipalities, to the golf course, to the housing developer and homeowner, and beyond.

#2. It’s all about the trade.

I wish I had a dime for every time the word “China” appeared in a farm-related story this year. By now, we’ve all figured out just how important China is to U.S. agricultural interests – not just soybean producers, but a lot of other growers, suppliers, and people along the supply chain, too.

That political football has been kicked around all year, with a fair amount of optimism with China’s agreement to buy $50 billion in agricultural goods, up from $23.8 billion in 2017 (52% of which was comprised of soybeans). We hope to get this all sorted out so we can get back to normal in a huge and growing trade relationship.

Finalized on December 10th, the USMCA (U.S.- Mexico-Canada Agreement), formerly NAFTA, was a win for American agriculture. Canada and Mexico are integral to our trade health, as these countries are the U.S.’s first and third largest export markets for food and ag, respectively. Together, this equals about 28% of total food and ag exports in 2017. The USMCA is anticipated to increase US ag exports by $2 billion. Even though NAFTA was a free trade zone, there were still some tariffs and quotas.

The new USMCA will be a win for U.S. dairy farmers, as this agreement will open up opportunities for milk products such as cheese, cream, and yogurt. It will also expand U.S. poultry and egg market access to Canada. Mexico and the U.S. will have the same grading standards for ag products. Finally, the three countries will have the same sanitary standards, based on science as well as agricultural biotechnology and gene editing.

As Trump pushes forward with success on these fronts, it still brings forward new questions for the future:

  • What will China buy to reach $50 billion? More soybeans?
  • Will trade always be used as a leverage point between the U.S. and other countries?
  • How can we protect the U.S. while still ensuring we have global fair trade?
  • Will we have other multilateral agreements such as USMCA?
  • Will China’s theft of intellectual property continue to occur?

#1. Plant-based protein.

I used to call it “alternative meat,” but the story is a lot bigger than that now. Plant-based meats, eggs, fish, milk, leather, and even collagen for your skin, are here to stay. The speed with which companies like Beyond Meat and Memphis Meats gathered steam (and investor dollars) absolutely amazed me in 2019.

According to AgFunder, ‘The alternative meat market sales growth is expected to grow from $4.6 billion in 2018 to $140 billion ten years from now, growing to 10% of the total meat market.’

But let’s put this in perspective: the total animal products industry in 2018 was close to $2.23 trillion and is expected to grow to $3 trillion by 2025. There is plenty of opportunity for all types of protein producers. But I never would have expected to be deluged with fast-food ads on television pushing exciting new vegetable-based burgers, or to see so many people willing to give it a try.

To me, that’s surprising, but in a very good way: consumers should have a choice. They should be able to choose products that meet their tastes and align with their values.

If someone wants to eat a veggie burger or a meat product produced in a lab, for health reasons, for environmental concerns, for moral values, so be it. Just don’t tell me that I have to eat one or the other. Let me choose. But let me choose facts, not marketing. Let the markets work.

As more and more consumers indicate their preference for plant-based foods, what implications does this have?

  • Are consumers getting the facts about meat and dairy, or is it marketing?
  • As consumers move away from meat, how are they getting their daily recommended protein requirements?
  • Demand for plants and meat will rise as our population grows. How do global producers sustainably meet demand?
  • What kind of labeling information does the consumer require to make an educated choice?

This is a profoundly important story about how responsive our food system is proving to be. Consumer tastes and preferences are changing as society changes around us. That should surprise no one. But the story of how fast and how well the food system can recognize that change and accommodate it is indeed newsworthy and earns my number one spot for the Top Food and Ag story of 2019. It will be fascinating to see where the story goes from here.

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5 Surprising Facts about Our Organic Foods

Did you know that vitamin C doesn’t cure the common cold? And that Twinkies don’t last forever – they’re only fresh for around 25 days? And that gum doesn’t stay in your gut for 7 years – it passes through just like everything else? These myths have been proven false by credible institutions.

So, in this age of transparency and information, how can we still believe so many falsehoods?

There’s another big misconception in the food industry. And with two kids and a goal to prepare nutritious foods for us this holiday season, I decided to closely examine what it means when a food is labeled “organic”. Is it really worth splurging for that organic heritage turkey and finding herbs and vegetables locally grown on organic farms to prepare and season our dishes?

What I’ve found when asking what “organic” means to people is that it’s a very contentious term with very strong opinions. It means many different things to different people: pesticide-free, GMO-free, small local farms, nutrient-dense, richer soil…the list goes on.

For many, choosing organic foods is an emotional decision. Mintel reports that most of us purchasing “natural” or “organic” products don’t fully understand the nuances of these claims, but just feel better about buying them, for one reason or another. This leads to most of us purchasing these products for our family while not knowing precisely why, besides a broad feeling of moral obligation.

So, despite its perceived flexibility in definition, what makes a food officially “organic” in the U.S. is not as wholly-encompassing as many of us think it is.

So what does “organic” really mean, then?

In its simplest terms, organic foods must be produced while protecting natural resources, conserving biodiversity, and cultivated with no genetic engineering or ionizing radiation and with mostly natural pesticides and fertilizers.

For a food to be considered “organic”, it requires the approval of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS). The overarching purpose of the AMS is to create worldwide marketing opportunities for U.S. producers of food, fiber, and specialty crops while also ensuring the quality and availability of applicable food products.

In addition to the National Organic Program, the AMS oversees a variety of other programs affecting our food and ag system, including food quality protection, hemp production and country of origin labeling. With the U.S. organic industry under the scrutiny of the AMS, all such foods must be produced using their approved methods, whether it is grown in the U.S. or another country.

So now we understand that organic foods can’t be genetically engineered nor cultivated with popular synthetic pesticides, like Roundup. But what about other claims, like “pesticide-free”, “clean”, “locally-farmed”, “grass-fed”, and all those other terms that are tossed about when thinking of organic food? Let’s take a closer look.

Organic food can have pesticides?

Contrary to popular belief, organic foods have pesticides, whether used directly on the crops or not. Organic foods can be treated with pesticides from the USDA’s approved substances list, which includes products like copper sulfate and hydrogen peroxide. Though organic farmers mostly use natural pesticides on their crops, there are synthetic pesticides approved for use on organic crops, as well. Also, the USDA reports that pesticide residues are found on both organic and conventional crops alike in its Pesticide Data Program, but all crops are held to regulations governing safe consumption levels.

Aren’t organic foods locally farmed?

Just as conventional farms have larger and smaller operations throughout the country, so do organic farms. In fact, many larger farms have both organic and conventional operations. Because of this flexibility, it is awesome that we can find both conventional AND organic raspberries on our grocery shelves in the dead of winter. An amazing feat!

Organic foods are also imported into the U.S. every day from countries all over the world. All farms exporting their organic products to the U.S. must also be organically certified according to the USDA organic regulations. Though not all organic products indicate their country of origin, the products must still comply with the U.S. National Organic program.

How about only grassfed and no drugs?

Contrary to popular belief, organic livestock can indeed be raised in a feedlot; purchasing organic meat does not guarantee grass-fed or grass-finished animals. However, the USDA organic seal on meats does mean a few other things that may be important to you.

For instance, organic livestock must be raised and must have year-round access to the outdoors. They must also be fed an all-organic diet (which can include organic grains), and may not be given antibiotics or hormones. However, they can receive vaccines for disease prevention and a handful of approved drugs, like pain and deworming medications.

It’s important to note that, for the U.S., hormones are prohibited for use on all chickens, turkeys, and pigs – whether organic or not. So if you’re buying your family organic chicken tenders only to avoid added hormones, save your money and buy conventional chicken! Furthermore, almost all dairy cows, both organic and conventional, don’t receive additional hormones, like rBST.

But at the least, aren’t organic foods better for us and the environment?

Many of us assume that organic foods are better for our bodies than their conventional counterparts. However, a consensus has not been formed by the scientific community on this hypothesis, as many studies have had inconsistent research parameters, such as too small of sample size to apply to a larger population.

Of particular note, several studies have shown that those eating organic foods more frequently are less likely to be overweight and have heart disease, but it turns out they were more likely to practice healthier diet and exercise choices, in general.

But you know what’s definitely better for all of us? Eating a fresh salad instead of a bowl of Annie’s organic and grass–fed mac & cheese! No offense to Annie’s – my kids are obsessed with their shells with white cheddar 😉 But the answer is to just eat lots of veggies, no matter how they’re grown!

There’s another big issue here that’s not as black and white as “organic” or “conventional”. If nutrient-rich soil is of utmost importance for you, then you’ll need to do some research and look into the farms growing your produce. As stewards of the land, good farmers – whether of organic or conventional crops – take great care of their soil, crops and livestock, which is the most integral part in creating healthy, wholesome foods.

Thinking about it a different way, let’s say you lease a modestly-priced, mid-range SUV for your family, while your neighbors, the Joneses, purchase a top-of-the-line, luxury SUV. Darn those Joneses! Three years later, when the lease is up, you’re eager to trade in your car because you’ve taken such good care of it. However, your neighbors have significantly damaged their once-sweet ride and must suffer the consequences. It’s not the model of the car, or the type of farm, that matters…it’s the owner – the farmer.

I hope this has been enlightening for you as doing this research was for me. It’s definitely opened my eyes to how easily we make decisions based on marketing and misperceptions without thinking about what’s really important – our ongoing health and wellness that can only be achieved by making sound dietary choices.

For my family and me, that means paying less attention to gimmicky food labels and simply just eating tons more fresh fruits and veggies, organic or not.

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Soil Health: A Personal Chronology of a Global Paradigm Shift

Michael Doane is a guest columnist for Dirt to Dinner and will be sharing a series of articles on how restoring our lands is the best tool for sustainable food systems. Read his first post on Land Degradation: The History Lesson We Are Still Learning.

Michael is the Global Managing Director for Sustainable Food and Water for The Nature Conservancy. Michael started farming at a young age and is a partner in his family’s cattle and row crop farming operation located in Kansas. He combines his passion for agriculture with his love for nature in leading one of The Nature Conservancy’s top global priorities to provide food and water sustainably.

A Journey Begins

I drove my tractor and disk combination to the edge of the field and paused to survey the scene. Across a vast area was an overrun combination of weeds, large and small, and crop residues. It looked unruly, not cared for properly, and I was about to fix that. It was my first time to turn the soil on this farm and at just 18 years old, I felt a sense of energy about the task.

Having grown up on a working farm, I embraced my role as steward of the land. I didn’t know much about this particular field, but I knew the farmer managing it before me had some wild ideas on how to farm. The field always appeared overgrown; I had never seen it clean and neat, freshly turned to cleanse it from weeds and prepared for planting.

The opportunity in my mind was to make good on what I saw as neglected duties of the previous farmer to manage the field properly.

Little did I know I was about to begin a lifelong journey to understand soil health.

I pulled into the field and prepared the disk to turn the soil, anticipating a long day of working a rough, compacted field. But, as I lowered the disk into the field for the first time, I didn’t feel or hear the tractor begin to pull as I had experienced so many times before. I quickly craned my neck to inspect the situation behind me, fully expecting a breakdown – either the disk had not descended into the soil or perhaps it had somehow become unattached from the tractor. Instead, the disk was there and doing its duty, slicing through and aggressively turning the soil.

The soils in North Central Kansas are variable but mainly light brown in color. From my tractor seat, I noticed the soil in this field was much darker than any field I had ever worked. Perplexed, I stopped the tractor to get a closer look. I knelt into the soil, running my hands through it. The black, moist soil had an overpowering earthy smell of fertility and goodness, unique to anything I had experienced so far in my young farming career.

At the time, I was unable to make sense of what I experienced that day, but I was pleased with the growth of several successful crops on that wonderfully productive piece of non-tilled ground.

Fast Forward

Just a few weeks ago, I found myself in the seat of a small tractor towing a newly developed planting drill, delightfully named the Happy Seeder. I made a few passes with the drill and noticed how elegantly it mulched and placed the crop residues from the prior crop neatly between the new rows while it simultaneously opened a narrow slot to plant a new crop of wheat and place a small amount of fertilizer without turning over the soil. This no-till drill was unlike any I had seen before. The field was located in rural India, within the state of Punjab and the research complex of the Borlaug Institute of South Asia (BISA).

This region in Northwest India is in the midst of a major transition in their food production. Food security in India was achieved within a short and critical window of time, earning Dr. Norman Borlaug international fame as the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. An iconic example of the “Green Revolution,” this region increased food production as a result of advanced plant breeding of staple food crops such as wheat and rice and aided by the benefits of irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides.

But after many years of benefits, the situation has now changed. The once productive aquifer supporting the paddy rice and wheat cropping system has dwindled. In an effort to maintain paddy rice production with much less groundwater, the planting dates of the paddy rice, as a matter of public policy, have been shifted to take greater advantage of the monsoon season.

But this new cropping system is having unforeseen consequences. With a compressed window of time to harvest rice and plant their wheat crop, farmers have started burning the rice residues in the field, which allows a single pass of tillage to prepare the field for wheat planting. Tragically, the residue burning practice has caught international attention for the human health hazard it creates.

The Happy Seeder, however, offers an elegant and cost-effective solution to this problem. As documented by a recent Science article, the Happy Seeder allows the farmers to plant their wheat crop in one field pass – without burning the residue or tilling the soil. The Nature Conservancy is now cooperating with several partners to unlock the full deployment of Happy Seeders across the region with the goal of eliminating residue burning.

The Paradigm Shift

My experience of planting with the Happy Seeder in India and the curiosity sparked in me as a young, aspiring Kansas farmer were separated by 25 years and a global paradigm shift around soil health.

I now understand the farmer whom I followed into the field of my youth was on the right track – he simply didn’t have access to the knowledge, techniques, and innovations farmers now enjoy. He appreciated what I did not know at the time – tillage is devastating for soils.

Tillage destroys the biological life and functionality of a delicate living ecosystem in ways we can now comprehend and manage to avoid. While he was ultimately unable to achieve his vision in a profitable manner, what he left behind was healthy soil, full of life and highly productive. My conventional management practices at the time – which depended heavily on regular tillage – went on to extract this productivity.

Tillage is still a common management practice on nearly 90% of global croplands. As tillage continues, the life of the soil is interrupted, depriving it of plant cover and roots, making it more prone to erosion, unable to retain and cycle water and nutrients efficiently. Tillage in croplands is one of the primary drivers of land degradation, but it doesn’t need to be.

Over the past 25 years, a global movement to eliminate tillage in agricultural croplands has taken shape. My experience with the Happy Seeder convinced me we now have the technology to bring productive, zero-tillage cropping systems to farmers worldwide at any size and income level. This technology and the development of other no-till systems are also being deployed in the organic sector, whom we must thank and acknowledge for keeping attention on the priority of soil management.

When zero-tillage systems are paired with the regular planting of cover crops and more diverse crop rotations, soils currently on the slow but steady path toward degradation anywhere in the world can be restored to their prior glory as productive, living ecosystems. The paradigm shift to prioritize soil health is an ecological and human health imperative. Thankfully, our family farm made the switch to zero-tillage during my personal chronology of this movement and we are now utilizing cover crops and more diverse crop rotations. I am now confident any farmer in the world can acquire the knowledge and technology to make the paradigm shift too, reversing the looming land degradation threat one field at a time.

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The Dirt to Dinner Team: Giving Thanks

Every day, we take for granted that we can just walk into a grocery store and pick out exactly what we want to eat. Do we want chicken, beef, or tofu for dinner? All year, we can drink coconut water, count on fresh strawberries, and be assured of 20 different types of coffee. This is thanks to the entire supply chain: from farmers, farm workers, food processors, truck drivers, food companies, to our local grocery store and its employees who stock the shelves so we can find precisely what is on our shopping list, no matter the time of year.

Lucy is Thankful for the Grocery Store

In the ‘60s, my sisters and I knew exactly where our food came from. There was a very small market called Waytonka in our Minnesota town. It had wooden floors, ceiling fans, the butcher in the back, and penny candy in the front. Aside from the candy, we ate what was local: milk and eggs were delivered to the back door by Meyer Brothers Dairy, ‘Your Lake Minnetonka Neighbor’.

In Minnesota, canned vegetables were a winter staple. As a result, our parents had a large vegetable garden and our job was to plant, grow and harvest. A lot of our childhood was spent on a small family farm while our parents traveled. We would help feed the hogs, milk the cows, and ride horses. If we wanted chicken for dinner, we went to the barn, found a plump one, cut off its head, plucked it and got it ready for the oven.

Today, I am thankful for the grocery store. Though the days of trotting out to the barn are memories that will last a lifetime, I am thankful for human ingenuity that enables me to pick up my hemp hearts to put on my Greek yogurt, buy Norwegian salmon to have for dinner, and yes, boneless skinless chicken breasts that are ready to be grilled, from a store less than 5 miles down the road.

…And Concern for the Earth

I am thankful that people are starting to ask questions about our food and changing the industry for the better. Questions like ‘is the food grown sustainably?” or “are the animals treated with compassion?” and “how transparent is the company or farm to the consumer?” quickly come to mind. I am thankful that we have new technologies like smart sensors, big data, and precision farming that address these issues. Today, with new businesses like Herddogg and iDecisionSciences, and websites like Crowd Cow and McDonalds, people are learning how their food is grown.

Hayley is Thankful for Healthy Foods

I am thankful for the healing power of foods. There is no question that what we choose to eat affects our health, and researchers have provided an abundance of studies proving just that. For instance, studies have shown that foods like blueberries, broccoli, avocado and chia seeds can help reduce inflammation to combat chronic illnesses.

Of particular interest to my family and me is diet related to brain health. My grandmother battled Alzheimer’s and dementia for years, but because she adhered to the MIND diet later in life, we are confident that it brought her more years with us. And for that, we are grateful. The diet has been found to slow and potentially reverse the effects of dementia, and is something I’m already trying to implement into my daily life.

Along the lines of healthful foods, our industry is constantly creating food innovations that provide us with nutrient-rich products. Two products that quickly come to mind are Tagatose, an alternative sweetener with micronutrients, and genetically-modified Golden Rice, which has the potential to save thousands of lives.

One last consideration is plant breeding technologies as a means of healthful foods. With food technologies like GMO, CRISPR, and synthetic biology, we cannot overlook how genetic engineering can increase the healthfulness of our foods.

I am excited about the prospects of genetic engineering to make our food healthier, more nutritious, and sustainable. 

Hillary is Thankful for Choices

Before joining Dirt to Dinner, I thought I knew what “organic” meant and what GMO technology is, especially as a self-proclaimed “foodie”. But over two years later, I can say without hesitance that I knew very little about our food system and that I now choose to not be scared into buying particular products based on misinformation.

No other circumstance brought this into light for me than the birth of my daughter last September. Prior to her arrival, we were a family of three – my husband, our four-year-old son, and me. Adding a fourth into our family excited all of us, but her birth brought much fear as complications arose during delivery, leading to her immediate transfer to a large hospital via ambulance.

In her following weeks of recovery in the neonatal ICU, I was visited by nutritionists, lactation consultants, and other certified pediatric and maternity professionals. I was alarmed at the variance of information when it came to my diet as a nursing mom. My favorite recommendation was “eat non-GMO oatmeal every morning for good milk production”…as if there’s a GMO version of oats???

When I finally focused on what was best for my baby girl and me, my choices became much easier…as they were backed by science.

It’s wonderful to see options of organic and conventional produce at our market, but what matters most to me is that I buy fresh foods that will provide my family with the most nutrients. My go-to is conventional produce, but if the organic raspberries look better, or the store only has Pink Lady apples grown organically, I’m happy to get those. But it’s amazing to have a choice – and to choose healthy. Because of these choices, my one-year-old daughter is happy and thriving. And I’m grateful to always be learning more about our food system.

Garland is Thankful for Perspective

One of the benefits that comes with growing older is a richer sense of perspective on things. Despite all the problems that we deal with every day, and the clatter of so many angry and questioning voices around us from so many directions, the bigger picture starts to come into a lot sharper focus. Now don’t get me wrong…I still see all the challenges and issues that confront our modern food system. I grow annoyed and sometimes angry at the lack of vision and understanding that gets in the way of using science and technology intelligently and responsibly to solve all those problems, and more.

But when I sit with my family and celebrate the incredible bounty that nature makes available to us, all the usual worries and frustration give way to something a good deal more optimistic about the food future. I’m thankful for the people who are working every day to make that system work better.

The men and women pioneering new and better ways of growing crops and animals sustainably and in line with the values that define us all as a society.

The scientists and engineers developing technologies to deliver safer, more wholesome food, and more varieties and with greater abundance for us all. The field workers and merchants and plant workers and food technicians and dietitians and researchers and logistics experts and countless others who make an incredibly complex supply chain work, and work well, on a global scale.

You’ve made food plentiful, available and more affordable than ever before, and that is no small accomplishment. Thanks to you, as I sit at the Thanksgiving table this year, I can celebrate not just the bounty on the table before the four generations of the West family seated around me. I can sleep well this night no doubt having eaten far too much, and talked and laughed and remembered far more than I probably ever have before. I can be thankful because I have faith that our food system will rise to whatever challenge is put before it. That future West generations will have the ability to enjoy what I’m enjoying today.

Now if you could only help me figure out a way to do something about the belly that seems to grow larger every year…

D2D is Thankful for our Dinner Plates

The Dirt to Dinner team is thankful for each and every piece of food on our plates and the journey it took to get there. While we all eat multiple times a day, we rarely stop and think about just how it got there. We take this convenience for granted and expect it without question every time we go food shopping.

But this way of thinking often causes distance from the growers and producers – creating a food disconnect. It is not anyone’s fault by any means; it is simply far too easy to overlook the time, resources and love that goes into growing the food that sustains us. So now we can take the time to be thankful for all the men and women who are a part of our global food system.

From the seeds cultivated over hundreds of years to produce our crops, to the farmers who plant and plan and harvest, to the animals providing our nutrition, for the packers at the processing plants who prepare the food for our purchase, to the drivers who take the food to the store, and the grocery staff who helps to close the supply chain loop for us…we thank you all this Thanksgiving for your hard work and dedication to our health.

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Our Agricultural Extension Service: From Gardening to Food Safety

Have you ever visited, or even heard of your local agriculture extension program? Extension services provide an amazing array of resources, instruction, and assistance to people everywhere – from those living in the inner city to the most rural locale –to educate about food and farming and to help bridge the distance between dirt and dinner.

The United States’ Cooperative Extension system is a vast network of offices and resources specializing in all things ag, from helping you plan your seasonal veggie garden to providing assistance to large farm producers. These services are available nationwide at the county level and you can find your local office here. What’s remarkable about the system is that it’s backed by local colleges and universities to provide current information and in-depth research for the county’s specific location.

In this post, we take a look at how one state’s extension service works to fulfill the ambitions laid out in legislation dating back more than a full century. We spoke with Dr. Gary Bates, director of the The University of Tennessee’s Beef and Forage Center and professor of plant sciences at the UT Institute of Agriculture in Knoxville.

The program is a huge undertaking

Over 400 agents, working in offices, fields, and homes across Tennessee’s 95 counties, backed by university researchers, scientists and scholars. Education and support to 71,000 families, over 200,000 children and nearly a quarter-million people engaged in farming and food production. Practical help and instruction for more than a half-million state citizens, to the benefit of all 4.3 million Tennesseans.

In this case, the “undertaking” is the University of Tennessee’s Extension Services program – the outreach program of the school’s Institute of Agriculture. Its mission: to improve people’s quality of life and solve problems through the application of research and evidence-based knowledge about agriculture and natural resources, family and consumer sciences, 4-H youth development, and community development.

Behind the somewhat cool institutional language, the real message is far more compelling.

“Our extension services seek to answer real-life questions,” according to Dr. Gary Bates, director of the University’s Beef and Forage Center and associate professor of plant and soil science. It’s learning for the real world, not just a classroom or a course exam or even a dinner-table discussion.

“Our approach is to look at three sectors in what we do,” Dr. Bates explains. “There’s the ag side – the producers. Then there is the average person, the homeowner, and consumer — urban, suburban and rural. Then there is the 4-H.”

Why does the 4-H get such special attention?  “Here in Tennessee, we have one of the larger 4-H groups in the country, roughly 180,000 kids. Sustainability is all about the future, and those kids are our future.”

Through the extension program, young people learn not just basic agronomics or animal husbandry or sustainable farming practices but also a host of other demanding subjects. “A lot of science goes into feeding the world,” Dr. Bates says.

“Just look at what science has done in our lifetime to boost corn yields. We’re feeding a bigger, hungrier world thanks to science. Think about the importance of plant breeding, how we can use drones to be more productive, how to turn precision agriculture and big data into practical improvements in how we farm. We help kids understand all that, and how important and exciting career in agriculture and food can be for them.”

“Farming isn’t Jim-Bob in a pair of overalls today, if it ever really was,” Dr. Bates notes. “If you are interested in science, agriculture is one of the best fields you can go into. What we do helps kids see that.”

Teaching Life Skills

But that is far from the sole focus of the extension service, he adds quickly.

“Our programs help develop those young people, and not just to farm. We want people to know that their food didn’t just spring up magically from the ground, or just appear on a grocery shelf or a restaurant plate from thin air,” Bates says. “But we use agriculture to teach life skills. How to care for animals and plants and other living things. How to be responsible.  How to work with others, and to listen and communicate with people, including public speaking. And a whole lot more.”

That philosophy is nothing new. It’s been part of the extension service program since the passage of the Smith-Lever Act of 1914.  Even then, the Act’s objectives went beyond education for rural Americans in agricultural production to home economics, leadership and other skills contributing to an improved quality of life.

Dr. Bates notes that commercial producers represent only about 2 percent of the state population.

“You would be surprised at how many other kinds of agriculture are out there – home gardens and small part-time operations, local food businesses like restaurants and sidewalk markets, and that kind of thing,” he says. “And beyond that, there’s one really important thing to keep in mind: everybody eats.”

Dr. Bates also emphasizes the importance of extension services to people in making the best use of food, not just producing it.

“We help people learn how to set up and manage a home budget, how to prepare food safely, how to plan out a wholesome, nutritious meals for the whole family, how to manage your time wisely… pretty much anything we can think of that will help people and families live better lives.” 

Through the extension services, local operations offer instruction in small-acreage agricultural production for home gardeners and part-time producers.  They sponsor farmers’ markets and local community gardens. They provide courses in food preparation and nutrition, and even advice on budgeting and managing small business operations.

“It’s a continuous education process,” Dr. Bates explains. “It can’t stand still, or stop thinking about new ways to help people.  We’re constantly evaluating what we do and how effective it is, and how we can do it better. Above all, what we are doing is helping the entire local community to have locally produced food and to use it safely and wisely.”

What Lies Ahead

What are the biggest challenges? What issues are you wrestling with today?

As with every industry, keeping pace with technology presents its issues. “There are new systems, new equipment, new management programs, new everything, it seems some days. We have to stay on top of all that, and be prepared to help people understand it and what it can do for them as producers –and consumers.”

The fast pace can create a new sense of urgency, too, Dr. Bates notes. “People want answers faster. They want help faster. They want results faster. That keeps us on our toes, to say the least. We have to be responsive, and we work really hard to do that.”

He also points to complications arising from the cyber age. “There’s tons of data out there. We want to use the science and research generated by the University to accomplish something in the real world, to make things actually work better or deliver more.”

Then there is social media, he adds. “How do we use it to help consumers learn about food and where to find it and how to prepare it and so on. Our extension agents are clamoring for help in understanding how to make the best use of social media.”

Healthy Ag, Healthy Economy

Why is that ambitious goal of promoting the general welfare of the state population the role of the extension services?

Dr. Bates has a quick answer to the question: “Why shouldn’t it be?”

“We’ve built our programs around the simple idea that if our state economy is going to be healthy, we have to have a healthy agricultural sector…we want everybody in the state to be able to benefit from that.  Not just the men and women who produce agricultural products…we teach people how to get the most from that system, in how they choose the right foods, how they preserve food and avoid waste, how they prepare safe meals for their families, and on and on and on. We teach everyone how important it is to make the system truly sustainable.”

So extension services are about far more than helping farmers make more money?

‘We’re working to make sure our ag sector thrives, and that it is profitable, sure, but also that it is sustainable,” he adds. “When we do that, we give our agricultural system real stability – and make sure it stays a cornerstone of a healthy state economy.  Those aren’t just words we say, either.  We’ve got people in 95 counties working to make sure it’s a lot more than just talk.”

Thoughts from a Bystander

Whether we’re a farmer, manufacturer, or consumer, extension programs, like the University of Tennessee’s, help us produce more of the food people need and want, profitably and sustainably. They help us develop new and better crops and more alternatives for meeting our food needs. They help us feed our families with better, safer, more nutritious foods. And they help us waste less. They help us make the best use of our natural resources, and preserves and protect them for future generations.

Like they say again and again across the extension service network, we’re all in this together.

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Land Degradation: The History Lesson We Are Still Learning

Michael Doane is a guest columnist for Dirt to Dinner and will be sharing a series of articles on how restoring our lands is the best tool for sustainable food systems.

Michael is the Global Managing Director for Sustainable Food and Water for The Nature Conservancy. Michael started farming at a young age and is a partner in his family’s cattle and row crop farming operation located in Kansas. He combines his passion for agriculture with his love for nature in leading one of The Nature Conservancy’s top global priorities to provide food and water sustainably.

A Step Back in Time

After a recent day of working on our family farm in Kansas, I sat down with my grandmother for a visit. I asked her to recount the days of her youth, coming of age in the same rural setting we still call home. She shared several stories, but one included imagery still so clear for her that it brought a history lesson to life for me. She told me of how her mother would hang wet bedsheets up in one room of the house where the family would huddle to protect themselves from the dust storms severe enough to penetrate the dwelling as well as their lungs.

During Grandma’s childhood, farmers and communities across the U.S. plains discovered that just one generation of soil mismanagement could ruin a landscape and destroy livelihoods.

History Repeats Itself

While the Dust Bowl era is often seen as an anomalous, historical and uniquely American experience, the reality is unfortunately different. Agricultural lands around the world continue to slowly degrade. In fact, by the most credible estimates, up to 52% of global agricultural lands are now moderately to severely degraded, with 12 million hectares (30 million acres) per year degrading to the point they are abandoned by the land manager. To put this in context, the global area of abandoned land considered unworthy of the investments required to keep them productive is roughly equivalent to the total cropland under cultivation by farmers in Iowa.

This destruction of productive land is what pushes agriculture to convert additional native habitats at an alarming rate and the pressures are only increasing as we grapple with the task of ensuring ample food supplies for the next generation.

Perhaps the most important factor in biodiversity conservation worldwide is rooted in addressing the land degradation and abandonment problem.

Soil as a Living Ecosystem

This deterioration of previously healthy soils is often subtle and, while the biology can be complex, the concept is simple: soils are living ecosystems and the way we manage the soils can increase or decrease their health and home. For an official definition and glossary of terms on land degradation, read through this helpful Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) website. In short, the most valuable element of land is the topsoil – the top layer of land that supports the growth of biological life – plants, animals, insects and microbes. Land becomes “degraded” when the functional condition of the topsoil is compromised.

This can happen in different ways. The topsoil can erode, which means it is physically removed from the land by wind or water. Just as importantly, the topsoil can die, which implies it was or is alive. It happens somewhat slowly but, as soils lose their health, plant productivity declines and they are considered degraded. Plant growth and vigor is easily observable and hence it can be a good proxy for soil health. As plant biomass declines, especially when droughts or floods occur, the topsoil can spiral down quickly – losing both its structure and life. This rapid deterioration is what resulted in the Dust Bowl history my grandmother recalls so clearly.

Learning from the Past

But it wasn’t always this way. Prior to this trying time in U.S. history, the landscape across Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and Nebraska had formed rich, biodiverse and healthy grasslands in a semi-arid landscape. Nature worked its magic over thousands of years with diverse plants occupying the land, grazed by enormous bison herds with the intermittent presence of naturally occurring fires and droughts. Despite dry conditions, the continuous plant cover of the grasslands created healthy soils that sustained the landscape during droughts. In fact, the soil became so healthy it soaked up the limited rainfall provided, maintained the grassland and still managed to store the rest deep underground in the immense Ogallala aquifer.

As the United States government sought to expand food production with the onset of World War I, they enticed pioneering farmers to convert the grassland to croplands for the first time in their history, tilling them to produce wheat with initially positive results. The crops were productive, booming demand kept wheat prices high through the 1920s and early success incentivized more entrepreneurial farmers to move west and convert yet more prairie into tilled croplands.

But after several very good years, the yields started to decline. Then an epic drought set in. Farmers tilled and planted as they had before; however, the soils slowly lost their health and biological function. In these dying soils, the wheat followed course, leaving the soil fully exposed with no plant cover to protect it. Year after year, dust storms ravaged the soil, lifting and transporting precious topsoil miles away. Over the course of a decade, a vast landscape became severely degraded, threatening to turn the whole region into a desert.

The U.S. government eventually took decisive action, creating a public agency with a mandate to tackle the problem. But this history lesson is still being learned in regions all over the world where many of the same management practices have continued for a nearly a century, creating mini Dust Bowl experiences along the way.

I am now confident the imagery emblazoned in my grandmother’s memory will not sting the cheeks of future generations as we know the solution: agriculture is its own solution.

Planning the Future with Regenerative Ag

The restoration of degraded lands around the world through regenerative agriculture management practices which prioritize the health of the soil is a solution that not only offers more productivity for our global food system, but also generates innumerable environmental benefits. And the time is now. We have the knowledge to make this transition and are seeing a wide range of new innovations under development that will allow us to accelerate and scale it to benefit those on the land – and ultimately consumers – around the globe.

In the coming articles, I will share examples of how farmers, ranchers and foresters are taking their role as land stewards to the next level by prioritizing the health of their soils.

The next time I visit my Grandma, these are the stories I will share with her, too.

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Superfoods: Super Healthy or Super Hype?

superfoods
Listen to our post from your car, while running…anywhere!

Walking through the grocery aisle, there is an overwhelming number of new superfoods to choose from. Hemp hearts are full of alpha linolenic acid, an anti-inflammatory that can reduce heart disease and cholesterol. You can run for miles fueled only on chia seeds, which are also rich in antioxidants, fiber, iron, and calcium. Acai and goji berries are high in amino acids, antioxidants, and vitamins C, A, B1, B2, and E, all of which damage free radicals, boost your energy and support overall immunity. So I dutifully include all of these to my morning oatmeal and I feel energetic and ready to tackle the day!

But, with all this effort, I still don’t really know what a superfood is…

“Superfood” is not defined

The actual term, “superfood”, is not a term regulated by the FDA. While these foods are thought to be exceptionally dense in nutrition, they do not actually have their own food group. They are called ‘super’ because they contain superior nutritional benefits for the amount of calories they contain. Basically, more bang for your buck, but there is more to the story as it relates to its terminology.

The American Heart Association defines superfoods as “nutritious foods that, when added to an already balanced diet, can bring health benefits.” They reference Beans and Legumes, Berries, Dark Leafy Greens, Nuts and Seeds, Oats, Pumpkin, Salmon, Skinless Poultry, and Yogurt. Sounds a lot like the makings of the Mediterranean or MIND diet to me.

One thing the AHA states right off the bat, even before addressing specific foods, is that superfoods alone will not make you healthier.

Superfoods alone will not make you healthier? I thought that was the point of a Superfoods – they could do it all!

Unfortunately, no. So don’t throw out your groceries and stock the fridge only with hemp hearts, beans, and berries.

While they won’t turn you into a superhero, so-called superfoods are packed with nutrients with protective and combatant properties. What has become evident is that the foods labeled as superfoods are the ones that have ‘more’ nutrition. For instance, 2 tablespoons of hemp hearts have a bit more protein than an egg. Blueberries and blackberries have more antioxidants than pineapples and may help ward off cancer. Salmon has more omega-3 healthy fats and can help prevent heart disease. And, yes, dark leafy greens are healthier than iceberg lettuce. But that’s not all that’s happening here.

“Superfood” as a lucrative marketing term

The term “superfood” is an attractive word, no doubt an eye-catching phrase in your google search.

Ultimately, these super-terminologies really just mean super-sales. Marketing companies have taken note and capitalized on the viral effects of such catchphrases. According to a Nielsen survey, consumers are willing to pay more for foods perceived as healthy, and health claims on labels seem to help. Unsurprisingly, foods that already carry a “healthy” perception and carry certain beneficial claims on labels have shown the greatest sales.

The incentive to market superfoods as such has not been missed by the food industry. They know the term has no concrete meaning, but they know it will boost sales. According to Mintel‘s research, there was a 36% increase in the number of foods and beverages that were marketed with the “superfood”, “super-grain” or “superfruit” label since 2015. The U.S. was the leader in these product launches.

Beneath the comforting concept lies a disappointing reality of industry bias

Dr. Marion Nestle, nutrition and public health professor emerita at New York University, details the gimmick in her new book, “Unsavory Truth”. She uncovers the role of marketing and how highlighting special health benefits makes the products more appealing to customers.

“When marketing imperatives are at work, sellers want research to claim that their products are ‘superfoods,’ a nutritionally meaningless term,” she wrote.

“One of the things I noticed was that there were [studies on] all these foods that are demonstrably healthy. Why would you need to do research to prove that blueberries or raspberries or pomegranates or grapes are healthy? Of course they’re healthy. So the only reason they are doing it is because they’re trying to increase market share.”

– Dr. Marion Nestle

She calls out the fact that the U.S. Department of Health and USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans does not recommend focusing on a singular food or food group for better health, but instead calls for a variety of “healthy eating patterns” of various fruits, vegetables, grains and more. The inverse of how singular “superfoods” are marketed.

What we are suggesting is that the term is useful as a sales driver as well as an identifier of health. We simply would warn that the term can blind consumers to equally nutritious options that are not as hyped-up, thus depriving us of other nutritious choices.

How do we determine truth from hype? 

The answer is in the whole picture! We are all fairly well acquainted with blueberries as a popular superfood. They are high in antioxidants, specifically anthocyanins, that have been reported to inhibit the growth of cancerous human colon cells, and they aid in protecting the body from free-radicals.

But the human body is complex. To truly examine the effect a food has on our body, we must consider not only our diet but our genetics, our lifestyle, our activity level—things that vary greatly from person to person. What might have super-effects on you might have inverse effects on me. Not from the food alone necessarily, but from the combination of our genes and other lifestyle factors such as sleep, stress, and love.

What’s a person to do about this super-vague label?

Each day, eat 5 to 7 servings of vegetables and 3 to 5 servings of fruit – whether they are ‘super’ or not. We need to ensure we have a balanced diet. And that means increasing our range of nutritious foods in our diets, rather than focusing on a handful of foods that claim to be ‘better’.

Carrots, apples, and onions, for example, have not been touted yet as a “superfoods”, however they contain beta-carotene, flavonoids, and fiber that we need. Whole grains found in cereals, bread, rice, and pasta are also high in fiber and fortified with vitamins and minerals, making it easy for many to consume to achieve recommended daily intake.

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Are GMOs Bad for the Environment?

pesticides

I have a lovely, peaceful vegetable garden in our backyard. Though I spend a lot of time weeding and watering, my very small garden is only for our friends and family to enjoy. If my tomatoes or peppers fail, then my back-up plan is to run to the grocery store or the farmers’ market. The entire vegetable garden experience is for fun, and also a lesson in patience for my children. I don’t depend on the food in my backyard to feed my family of five.

However, for those farmers whom we depend on to feed all 7.9 billion of us, there is no back-up plan when weeds and pests destroy their crop. Weeds strangle plant growth by stealing water, sunlight, and soil nutrients that crops need. Insects defoliate young shoots and leaves faster than you can say “pesticide.”

As a result, farmers must constantly manage the economic and environmental balance between overspending and over-spraying pesticides on crops. Fewer passes through the fields with sprayer equipment means burning less fuel, fewer carbon emissions, and less compaction of the soil. A win-win-win!

So, how does genetic engineering play a role on the farm? These technologies help farmers use less pesticide, less water and less land. Matin Qaim and Wilhelm Klumper at the University of Goettingen, Germany completed a 2014 meta-analysis on the global impacts of GMOs.

  • They discovered that GMOs have made incredible changes to our agricultural performance:
    • Reduced agricultural chemical use by 37%
    • Increased crop yields by 22%
    • Increased farmer profits by 68%

Additionally, a 2017 report, Environmental impacts of genetically modified (GM) crop use 1996-2016, focused on the pesticide and greenhouse gas emission reduction from genetic engineering, primarily with canola, corn, cotton, and soybeans. Using these GM crops reduced the Environmental Impact Quotient by 18.4%. It also cut down on farm equipment fuel usage via fewer pesticide sprays and no-till farming practices. In 2016, this decrease was equivalent to removing 16.7 million cars off the road. To put this in perspective, this is more than all the cars registered in California!

Less Pesticides

In Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, 80% of the food supply is produced by small-holder farmers – farms with 25 acres or less. Plant biotechnology is finally making it possible for them to feed their families and communities, improve profits and dramatically reduce pesticide use.

In India, farmers depend on brinjal, or eggplant, as a significant source of food and income, but it comes with a cost. A small-holder farmer growing brinjal needs 85-120 insecticide sprays during a growing season, harming both the farmer and the environment. Despite all this effort, the eggplant fruit and shoot borer insect can still destroy up to 80% of the crop.

Feed the Future, a global partnership of research and educational institutions, introduced the Bt eggplant by genetically-engineering four different eggplant varieties to produce a protein from an organic pesticide that targets the pests.

According to Tony Shelton, Cornell professor of entomology and director of the Bt Brinjal Project, these new varieties of GMO eggplant now only need about seven sprays a season to control the insects, resulting in pesticide reduction of 92%!

The engineered eggplant is no longer desirable to the pest, thus stopping crop loss. Even more important, the protein does not damage or kill the beneficial insects in the farmer’s field.

In Uganda, 300 small-holder farmers recently grew GMO blight-resistant potatoes for the first time in 2017. Without this technology, they would spend about 15% of their income to spray their crops up to 15 times a season with insecticides, while still losing close to 60% of their crop. Now these potato farmers can increase their income and put less insecticide in the air, soil and their clothing and skin – an environmental triumph.

Nigeria. After almost 10 years of study, Nigeria has approved its first genetically-engineered crop. Black-eyed peas, otherwise known as cowpeas, are an important source of energy, protein and fiber. Nigeria’s small-holder farmers grow about 58% of the world’s supply. Growing cowpea is not easy, as it is susceptible to multiple insects, fungi, bacteria, and viruses, which can cause as much as 90% crop loss. The Institute for Agricultural Research in Zaria, in collaboration with a world-renowned institute in Australia, found that a protein from the soil bacterium can control the pest. This genetically-engineered crop reduced pesticide use and increased yields by about 20%.

Less Pesticides and Healthier Soil

What is often overlooked in the GMO debate is that genetic engineering can create healthier soil and a cleaner watershed next to the farms. How? Let’s go back to my home garden. When I have weeds surrounding my tomatoes, I can just pull them up or hoe them back into the soil. In a small garden, this works perfectly. On acres of land, when farmers till the soil, the water evaporates more quickly, and the soil can blow away.

When a farmer uses Roundup Ready crops, i.e., crops that are tolerant to Roundup herbicide, they can practice no-till farming. No-till farming means farmers do not have to turn over soil to rid it of weeds. This prevents the soil from water evaporation, puts nutrients back into the soil, and keeps the soil dense with organic matter to avoid the soil blowing away. Finally, fewer emissions are released since a tractor doesn’t need to drive back and forth to turn over the soil.

Source: www.GMOAnswers.com

Despite recent controversies regarding Roundup or glyphosate, it has been proven effective to dramatically reduce pesticide applications. Read here for more information on glyphosate safety.

Less Water

Globally, food and agriculture use about 70% of our fresh water supply. While there is the same amount of water today as there was millions of years ago, clean and usable water is not always available to grow crops. According to the FAO, droughts have affected more people worldwide in the last 40 years than any other natural hazard.

Certain GMO seeds can help agriculture use less water and grow more drought-tolerant crops. Scientists believe wheat, corn and soybeans can be genetically modified to require less water. For instance, by altering a plant’s stoma – the microscopic pores in leaves and stems – to save water, these food crops could be extremely resourceful as we attempt to feed our rapidly growing population.

Let’s illustrate this using rice, a vital crop for much of the world, particularly in Asia and Africa. Scientists have taken a gene related to cabbage and mustard and inserted it into rice as a strategy for plant improvement. Why? Inserting this gene allows for drought resistance, salt tolerance and thicker leaf production, which then increases photosynthesis.

For corn, Monsanto has created a DroughtGard variety to help the plant resist drought stress. This allows the corn to maintain some water without needing to draw as much up from the root system. Drought-resistant corn could increase harvests in Africa by an average of 20%.

Just like my own garden, whether it is vegetables or flowers, it is much more cost-effective and less toxic to my watershed when I grow tomatoes or roses without chemicals. Genetic engineering helps large and small holder farmers around the world do just that.

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The African Swine Fever Epidemic: Are We at Risk?

asf pig

Pigs are dying all across Asia. It is estimated that by the end of 2019, over 200 million pigs will have fallen prey to the African Swine Flu — that’s over 25% of the global pig population. Will the African Swine Flu (ASF) virus hit the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom? Millions of pigs in Asia have died from ASF within the past year – and scientists and animal health experts warn of the need to pay close attention to the pernicious effects of this disease and its potential to spread to even more parts of the global food system.

Contending with disease is nothing new for anyone in animal agriculture. Modern medical and veterinary science has made remarkable progress in understanding many of the major health challenges to beef, pork, poultry and other forms of animal protein. Vaccines and treatment techniques have helped make diseases a difficult – but largely manageable – element of animal husbandry, thus providing the world a remarkably safe supply of wholesome foods.

But the specter of disease isn’t completely gone, as the current attention to a potentially devastating disease has made abundantly clear. Helping put an end to the threat posed by ASF will require a concerted effort by everyone in the pork industry – from producer to processor to marketer – with a bit of understanding and support from the consumer to boot.

What is African Swine Fever?

ASF is an especially vicious disease affecting only pigs and wild boars and is very similar to hog cholera. It’s caused by a virus in the Asfarviridae family and is characterized by a long list of very ugly symptoms and, within a few days, almost always death. The virus spreads very easily from pig to pig through direct contact or through contaminated fluids and food. Ticks, fleas and other pests can also transmit the disease by biting an infected pig and subsequently a new host.

As its name suggests, the disease was first identified in Kenya in 1921 and has been recognized in various parts of Africa for some time. It spread rapidly through Asia as agriculture moved from farmers with a couple backyard pigs to larger-scale hog farms.

As of today, there is no vaccine or cure. The only management tool is the quick identification of infected pigs and immediate isolation and euthanization. Even if a carcass of an infected animal is processed, the virus can survive for months in infected tissue – it’s simply too tough to be easily destroyed.

If there is any good news in this, it’s that the virus doesn’t transmit to other animals or to humans. The virus has no effect on people – or cows, or chickens, or pets, or fish, or any other animal species or component of our global food supply.

While humans may not contract the disease, we can play an inadvertent but critical role in its transmission. Given the long life of the virus, any direct contact with an infected animal – even one not yet displaying symptoms – can make the human a carrier of the virus. The virus may quite literally travel around the world on a human host, especially those visiting farms, if proper hygiene/sanitary and biosecurity protocols aren’t followed.

ASF and the China connection

ASF is most pronounced in Asia, especially China. China produces about half of the world’s pork and constitutes 60% of their consumed animal protein, and imports still more to meet a steady expansion of demand for animal protein by the economically growing nation.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture pegged China’s 2019 pork production at more than 55 million tons. China is expected to import another 2 million tons of pork, the majority from the European Union. And with the highest headcount of almost 450 million pigs, triple the headcount of the next leading country, Chinese consumers clearly like pork.

But since ASF was first reported in China in August 2018, Chinese officials have been circumspect in estimating the total number of pigs dead as a result of the disease. But some reports place the figure as high as 40 million, with media reports of reductions in the sow breeding herd of as much as one third. And regenerating pork productive capacity after such devastating animal losses could take two to three years.

ASF is not just affecting hogs…

The disease also has magnified the stakes involved in the lingering trade dispute between China and the United States, with America soybean and feed grain exports to China rising in parallel with the expansion of the Chinese pork industry.

Pigs are fed mostly soybeans, corn, and micronutrients. Trade patterns undoubtedly will shift as pork-producing nations jockey for the opportunity to meet China’s import needs, and as oilseed and feed grain markets adjust to find a new home for products displaced by lower animal numbers in Asia.

In fact, China’s hog feed consumption is expected to drop by 40% in 2019, according to Rabobank’s ASF report.

The effects of ASF will ripple throughout large parts of the entire global food system for some time.

So how big is the ASF problem?

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations estimates that as many as 5 million pigs already may have died or have been culled as a result of ASF. Cases of ASF have also been detected in such countries as Vietnam, Cambodia, North Korea, Mongolia, and Laos, representing more than 10 percent of their pig population.

In recent weeks, reports of ASF also have surfaced in Thailand and as far away as South Africa, Russia, and several locations in eastern Europe among wild pig populations. In the United Kingdom, Farming Minister George Eustice prompted a great deal of attention when he urged an even more aggressive approach to prevention and warned that ASF could be expected in the UK “within a year.”

Eustice’s warning comes after authorities in Northern Ireland in June identified meat products contaminated with ASF from the luggage of international travelers. That single report shows the ease with which the disease can rapidly spread to distant parts of the world. It also explains the extraordinary international effort underway to educate people about the risks posed by ASF to agricultural interests everywhere.

“If infected meat got past the authorities and into the pig herd in Northern Ireland, or anywhere else in the UK, it would have devastating implications,” said Alistair Driver, editor of Pig World. Northern Ireland isn’t the only country facing such devastation.

Dirk Pfeiffer, a veterinary epidemiologist at City University of Hong Kong and an ASF expert quoted by the UK’s Guardian, described the epidemic as “probably the most serious animal health disease [the world has] had for a long time, if not ever.”

What is to be done?

Where ASF has been detected, efforts center on containment and eradication. Herds are being culled, and efforts made to reach into the countryside to educate and assure the proper action by smaller pork producers, often located in the countryside. Commercial operations in China and throughout Asia are acting aggressively to identify sick animals and take the necessary steps to stop the spread of ASF. Commercial operators in the United States and other markets also are taking extraordinary steps and investing large amounts of money, time and work to guard against the introduction of ASF into their operations.

International health officials are stepping up biosecurity efforts, centering on import prohibitions from products originating in areas where ASF is known to be present.

USDA has increased the number of health inspectors by 179 at key sea and air entry points, augmented by specially trained beagles focused on sniffing out imported meat products like those detected in Northern Ireland. Efforts to educate people within agriculture on how to identify infected animals also have increased, and advisories issued to reassure consumers of the safety of the nation’s pork supplies. Officials acknowledge the enormity of the challenge but say they have no choice but to act aggressively. There is just too much at stake.

Should U.S. consumers be worried?

Unwarranted fear of U. S. pork – and a reluctance to make pork part of a sensible family diet – can adversely affect the 60,000 pork producers in the United States and the 550,000 jobs that the pork industry helps create. There are 73 million pigs in the United States. While there is ample evidence of the need for everyone to be vigilant in the fight against ASF and the prevention of its entry into the U.S. food system, there’s equally ample evidence that there is nothing to fear in the U.S. food supply.

 

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The Case for New Breeding Technologies

dna corn gmo

Joan Conrow is a longtime journalist, editor and communications consultant specializing in agriculture and biotechnology. Her clients include the Cornell Alliance for Science. She resides in Santa Fe, NM, with her two rescue dogs.

With the global population expected to top 9 billion by 2050, and climate change impacts likely to reduce crop yields 25-30% in that time, the question increasingly becomes how to keep everyone fed.

That query assumes particular urgency in light of a new global report that calls for revolutionary changes in agriculture and other key areas to ensure that people aren’t pushed further into hunger and poverty, leading to increased conflict and political instability.

The Time is Now

The report by the Global Commission on Adaptation noted that climate change is already worsening food insecurity, and urged governments to promote “climate-smart” interventions to boost agricultural productivity.

Technological innovations, such as gene editing and synthetic biology, offer tools for developing crops that can withstand climate change impacts, such as drought, heat, intense rainfall and plant diseases — if they are allowed to move forward.

“Food production today continues to face old and new threats in ways that are more complex than ever imagined,” said Nassib Mugwanya, an agricultural communications expert from Uganda who is now pursuing a doctorate at North Carolina State University. “The situation gets even worse in developing countries, where much of the food production is reliant on an increasingly changing climate and less productive farming practices. The urgency needed to address these threats requires opening doors to all options that can be of help.”

Bill Gates, the co-chair of both the Global Commission on Adaption and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, expressed similar views in a statement that accompanied the release of the report.

“People everywhere are experiencing the devastating impacts of climate change. Those most impacted are the millions of smallholder farmers and their families in developing countries, who are struggling with poverty and hunger due to low crop yields caused by extreme changes in temperature and rainfall. With greater support for innovation, we can unlock new opportunities and spur change across the global ecosystem.”

– Bill Gates, co-chair of Global Commission on Adaption

Though Gates and the Global Commission outlined specific steps for achieving these revolutionary changes, such as investing in crop research, the call for using new breeding technologies (NBTs) to help agriculture adapt to climate change is not new.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a similar endorsement in its 2016 report: “Biotechnologies, both low- and high-tech, can help small-scale producers, in particular, to be more resilient and to adapt better to climate change.”

More recently, Petra Jorasch of the International Seed Federation published a study that underscored the need for plant breeding innovations to effectively address challenges associated with climate change and a growing population.

Improved plant varieties developed through NBTs have a better capacity to withstand pests and diseases while using fewer resources, her report noted. They also offer stable yields in an unstable climate.

“The new tools of breeding, such as oligonucleotide mutagenesis or CRISPR-Cas9 are more helpful than the previous techniques because these tools allow breeders to do their job in an even more precise and efficient manner,” Jorasch wrote.

 “New breeding technologies have a great potential in tackling major threats to food security in more promising ways than old technologies. Closing doors to these new breeding technologies is like stopping a major required ‘software upgrade’ in food production, which may lead to a ‘freeze’ or serious crash in the system.”

– Nassib Mugwanya, Ugandan agricultural communications expert

A Global Front for NBT Innovations

Innovations in plant breeding can also help agriculture shrink its sizable environmental footprint by making more efficient use of limited resources, such as freshwater, and reducing the need for nitrogen fertilizers, the manufacture of which results in substantial carbon emissions. Equally important, these crops have the potential to deliver good harvests by improving the efficiency of photosynthesis, as an example. Achieving better yields on existing acreage can reduce the pressure to bring wildlands, such as the Amazon rainforest, into production.

The United States, Japan, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, and other countries have streamlined the regulatory process for these new breeding techniques, and China is investing heavily in gene-edited crops in a bid to feed its 1.4 billion citizens.

However, the European Union and some developing nations in Africa and Asia are lagging behind, in part because they either have a regulatory system that is cumbersome or none at all. In an effort to support gene editing, the African Union recently began exploring ways to harmonize the biosafety regulatory framework among its 55 member nations.

Elizabeth Wangeci Njuguna, a plant molecular biologist who is currently pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Cape Town, South Africa, sees that as a positive step toward embracing NBTs.

“If Africa does not adopt new breeding technologies, I think it will lose a great opportunity to improve its agricultural production system to ensure food security and the general wellbeing of its people,” Njuguna said. “Economically, this will be a poor decision since an enhanced agricultural production system, coupled with vast land and favorable climatic conditions throughout the year, would not only ensure a thriving local food market and employment for Africa’s people but would also give individual countries a competitive edge in the world food export market, making the continent the world’s breadbasket.”

Gene editing also can make a significant contribution to food security, in part by improving the so-called “orphan crops,” like cowpea, pulses, and cassava, that are nutritious staple foods in developing nations, seven international researchers wrote in a recent article in Science. These crops also represent an important source of income for smallholder farmers, thus helping to alleviate poverty, the article noted.

Supporting Innovations for Generations to Come

Albert Caraan, a pioneer member of UP Grains, an organization that offers informational workshops on biotechnology concepts to high school students in far-flung agricultural communities in the Philippines, sees other potential benefits.

“Adoption of NBTs could, in some way, entice the youth to be involved in agricultural research,” he observed. “Gen Z has more affinity for new technologies, thus giving them the chance to get hands-on experience in this field and possibly bringing more young people to agriculture.”

This is important, since many of the world’s farmers are over the age of 60, and young people, including Gen Zers, have been reluctant to pursue the economic uncertainty and hard physical labor that often accompanies farming.

Njuguna also believes that people will welcome NBTs — provided they are accompanied by adequate public education. This includes information about how the science works, safety procedures that are in place and the various benefits that these breeding technologies hope to confer.

“I think that there will be great expectations among the people since this touches on their food and livelihood,” Njuguna said.

“In my opinion, people will expect that the new technology will be a game-changer and solve a good number of challenges that they are currently facing. For instance, farmers will expect most pests and diseases that affect their crops and livestock will be eradicated for good and they can also grow plants that survive drought and salinity. Pastoralists will expect that they don’t have to walk miles to find fodder for their livestock. I also think that most end-product consumers will expect that the technology will result in higher amounts of foodstuffs available throughout the year at affordable prices. For the growing middle class that is more aware and cautious with their food, they will expect that the new breeding technology will result in food produced safely for consumption, with higher nutrient content and more variety at fair prices.”

– Elizabeth Wangeci Njuguna, plant molecular biologist, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Cape Town

Ultimately, Caraan said, NBTs likely hold the key to preventing the “push into poverty” that the Global Commission on Adaption hopes to avoid.

“I believe that the adoption of new breeding technologies in agriculture will boost global efforts to eliminate poverty and hunger,” Caraan said. “Embracing NBTs will provide a powerful tool in our arsenal to combat the negative effects of climate change by expediting the breeding processes. However, strict and stringent regulations will hamper our chances in achieving global goals, most importantly, no poverty and zero hunger.”

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Solein: A Space-Age Protein

Wait, what is Solein, you may ask? Well, to put it in its most basic terms, it’s a protein-rich powder made from carbon dioxide-eating bacteria, and with just a touch of space dust. Put it all together, and poof, you have a bland compound that can be mixed with practically anything to give it substantive nutritional value – and with all essential amino acids, to boot! But that’s just the beginning.

A Stellar Feat for Protein

We know most good things come from the land, but the idea for this protein began in space! Based in Finland and founded by CEO, Dr. Pasi Vainikka and his colleagues, Solar Foods got its start in 2017 from VTT, a Finnish research institute.

The original intent of the project was to provide a continuous supply of protein for astronauts en route to Mars in the NASA space program. From there, the founders further refined their process at VTT and the Lappeenranta University of Technology.

Completely disconnected from agriculture, Solar Foods plans to feed the world while also reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

What is Solein?

Solar Foods has a vision to solve the world’s food crisis beyond agricultural limitations. Dr. Vainikka and his team found a way for bacteria to eat CO2 instead of sugar, thus completely changing the dynamic of protein conversion. Another factor that makes Solein wholly unique? This protein source is devoid of any agriculture involvement – no arable land, no irrigation…no problem!

Solein, a complete protein, is created from the combination of a proprietary bacteria, CO2, water, and electricity. The fermentation process is entirely natural and similar to the production of yeast. But instead of sugars, their unique microbes consume CO2 and hydrogen for energy via water electrolysis, a process of splitting water cells using electricity. Other nutrients are added, too, such as potassium, sodium, and phosphorus.

All this occurs in a bioreactor, from which the team must continually remove the liquid that the process creates. Once the liquid dries, what remains is the elusive Solein powder. Currently, Solar Foods produces about one kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of Solein per day.

Solein Applications

You may be wondering what this airy powder might look like. Well, it looks like wheat flour – quite a nondescript ingredient. But with its nutritional profile of 50% protein, 20-25% carbs, and 5-10% fat, it has a slightly savory taste that’s similar to eggs. Despite this unctuousness, the product is also vegan.

With a versatile texture and profile, you can expect this product to be in almost anything and everything, from shakes to cultured meat in the coming years. Given its malleable consistency, Solein protein powder can be used as an added ingredient in yogurts, breads, drinks, and pasta. Not much different than a protein powder we may use in our shakes, but with fewer ingredients and demanding fewer natural resources.

Solein can also contribute to the dizzying array of alternative meats, making these products even more protein-dense while keeping the mouthfeel intact. It can even be 3D-printed to give it a more textured look and feel. And because Solein has all of the essential amino acids, it can feed cultured meat cells in lab-grown environments.

Sustainability with Solein

Perhaps the most compelling part of Solein is that there’s no limit to the supply. Solein can even be produced anywhere a lab can be sustainably built, including on land where conventional protein production has never been possible – like deserts and the Arctic.

Also compelling? Instead of adding to greenhouse gases, Solein actually consumes carbon dioxide. Moreover, Solein is produced by using renewable electricity such as hydropower. And given its lower energy demand, this process can be adapted for other alternative energy sources, such as solar or wind power.

And there’s no need for arable land or irrigation, either. Dr. Vannika states that Solein is “completely” disconnected from agriculture. The soil microbes used for their proprietary bacteria only require collection from natural land just once. From there, the microbes are grown in a lab, and the inorganic nutrients they use are obtained from mineral deposits that don’t require the use of fertile land.

Production metrics show Solein’s substantial impact, or lack thereof, on natural resources. Solar Foods conducted research at its lab and reported the following findings:

Solein is reported to be at least 100 times more climate-friendly than any animal or plant-based alternative. And unlike conventional protein production, which can use over 2,000 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, Solein only needs just over a gallon of water. 

Furthermore, Solein is 10 times more efficient than soy when measured by protein yield per acre.

Plans for Growth

With a pilot lab already underway, Solar Foods appears to have an aggressive roadmap for their planned global commercial launch in 2021. The first factory producing Solein is scheduled to open at the end of 2021, producing 50 million meals per year, scaling up to two billion meals by the end of 2022.  Their picture on their slide show would be good here.

Solar Foods plans to price Solein powder between $8 and $11 per kilogram, which Dr. Vainikka hopes will compete with current plant- and animal-based proteins. Though this price seems reasonable to us consumers, keep in mind this pricing is for food producers that will integrate Solein into their product line. They will then sell their end product to consumers, so the price by that point will most likely be higher than conventional protein sources, or at least initially.

Can this really work?

But our tastes and purchase patterns have everything to do with the long-term success of a product like this. With all the hype and media attention, it’s easy to see Solein as an answer to many of our global woes. But some consumers may have a hard time eating a lab-grown protein like this, as we don’t like the thought of our food coming from anything other than a farm or garden, no matter how eco-friendly the product.

And some critics find the scalability of this powder unachievable:

“This is a technological marvel, perhaps, but it’s not a food system,”

– Peter Tyedmers, Dalhousie University

At one kilogram per day, Solar Foods’ low production yield concerns food expert Peter Tyedmers, a professor in the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. He doesn’t believe Solar Foods can even begin to dent the production yields of our current agricultural system. And even if yields were impactful, the price for Solein would still be too high to decrease global hunger levels.

But should large-scale production be feasible, a product like Solein would be a feat for humankind. And it will take all kinds of protein sources to feed our growing population: plant, cell-based, air-based and animal proteins alike. Ingenuity, technology, and innovation are the key to our future. The key component will be getting consumers on board with eating alternative protein whether it is made in a lab or grow in a feedlot.

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How Blockchain is Disrupting the Ag Supply Chain

Consider the lone chicken.

The modern poultry farm is a vast and complex place, a maze of houses, yards and transportation centers that can easily support more than 14,000 animals at a time. All part of an industry that raises more than 50 billion chickens annually.

But, even in such a large space, there are reasons to pay attention to each individual chicken. Maybe we want to keep track of what that bird was fed over the course of its lifetime. Maybe we need to maintain a record of the antibiotics it was given (or not given) and its associated disease history. Maybe we simply want to prove to the end consumer exactly where that chicken came from and how it was raised.

Because the path from farm to plate today is far from a straight line.

The poultry supply chain starts in the coop: when that chicken is hatched it begins its life on the farm. Then, over the course of the next three to five months, it grows into a mature bird, packing on several pounds of new weight and prepares for harvesting.

At that point, its time on the farm is over and it enters the production chain. Depending on what it will eventually be used for – maybe it will be sold as a whole broiler, or maybe it will be broken up into individual parts, or maybe it will be turned into something entirely different – the chicken is sent to a production facility, processed and sent on its way to the retailer. That retailer, also known as your local grocer, is the last step in the chain, finally delivering that chicken to the end consumer.

That’s a very high-level overview, and even at that level, there are a lot of moving pieces in the process that can cause problems.

Maybe that chicken was not raised in an organic manner but ends up on the wrong truck to be sold as an organic broiler.

Maybe it was fed a high-quality, low-grain diet that cost the poultry farmer extra, but that fact didn’t earn them anything extra at the sale because they couldn’t prove it to the wholesaler.

Or maybe that chicken contracted a disease somewhere along the way that went unnoticed, and it ended up being combined with healthy chickens from elsewhere and contaminating them as well.

Whatever the case, the industry has a problem. It needs a way to accurately and securely track and monitor the entire supply chain, and it needs to be scalable to handle the needs of one of the largest logistical operations in the world. After all, agriculture, on the whole, is a massive industry worth $1 trillion and accounting for 5.4% of U.S. GDP in 2017.

The solution is waiting in a somewhat unlikely place.

A new frontier for technology

The last few years might as well be renamed “the age of blockchain.”

What was, until fairly recently, a subject only well known among tech enthusiasts and cryptocurrency buffs burst into the mainstream in the fall of 2017, during Bitcoin’s epic run-up to $19,000 and beyond.

Seemingly overnight, everyone suddenly had an opinion on cryptocurrencies and the obscure technology underpinning them. Because that’s how blockchain technology got its start in 2009: as the fundamental technology on which the cryptocurrency market is built. Blockchain is defined as: “a digital database containing information (such as records of financial transactions) that can be simultaneously used and shared within a large decentralized, publicly accessible network.”

Essentially, it’s a way to digitally prove who you are and what you have that’s permanent and cannot be altered or forged. The information is recorded on a public ledger to ensure transparency.

When applied to cryptocurrencies, this functionality is very straightforward. Blockchain is a way for me to prove to you that I have the coins I say I do and, when I send them to you, is a verifiable way for you to prove that value has been transferred to you.

But blockchain has other applications across industries that are just starting to come to the surface.

For example, banks are using the technology to better facilitate cross-border financial transfers and speed up digital transactions. Western Union, for instance, has been using blockchain to power its money transfers for more than a year.

IBM is using it to create iron-clad “digital identities” and prevent identify theft.

And governments are even using it to improve public services and crackdown on crime.

But it’s in agriculture that the true power of blockchain technology might fully come to life, enabling all of the tracking and security measures that the industry has been working on for years while simultaneously stepping up to meet today’s consumer demands.

Adapting to a more engaged consumer

“The industry has been moving toward traceability for years, with the advent of natural and organic and so on and so forth,” explains Steve Sands, VP of Protein at Performance Food Group (PFG), one of the largest food distributors in the U.S. “But most of those systems were affidavit based, so they were only as good as the guy who signed the piece of paper saying, ‘I raised my animal this way.’”

That worked for a while, but in the face of new customer expectations and tastes, it just wasn’t enough.

“For us as a food distributor, we want to make sure that the brands that we own are infallible in those claims,” Sands says, “and that led us to introduce an extra layer of infallibility, or auditability, to ensure that we weren’t making claims that we couldn’t back up. In a $20-billion company like PFG, you better be doing what you say you’re doing.”

– Steve Sands, VP of Protein at Performance Food Group

Over the years, PFG has developed a number of processes to help make this a reality, establishing verifiable standards for the farmers it worked with, auditing the records, tracking the DNA of the animals it was purchasing and more. Blockchain is a natural evolution of these efforts.

“I think [blockchain] has different applications for different food products,” he explains, “so it might be better suited to things like produce that travel through the supply chain largely intact but may go through many different hands before ending up at a restaurant.”

That’s opposed to something like a 550-pound animal carcass that will be cut up into hundreds of different products and then combined with hundreds of other products before being shipped out. In those cases, DNA might be a better tool, but blockchain still addresses a need.

“Where blockchain would come in handy is on the live side, because that live animal may trade several times before it gets to the point of slaughter,” Sands says. “Typically, a cow-calf operation is going to try to sell that animal once it’s weaned, and off to a rancher who will put it on grass and let it grow for a year before selling it off to a feedlot. Every time that animal changes hands, blockchain would be very useful because it would be a way to maintain that chain of custody without having to go to the expense of DNA at every step, which you really can’t do.”

And PFG is far from alone in this.

IBM has teamed up with companies including Dole, Driscoll’s, Kroger, Nestle, Tyson, and Unilever on the so-called IBM Food Trust, which is leveraging IBM’s computing platform to improve data traceability and speed up results for all involved. According to reports, the time it takes to trace an individual item from a grocer’s shelf to the field where it was produced has been trimmed from seven days to as little as 2.2 seconds, enabling companies to quickly identify and isolate contaminated supply chains and issue recalls in real-time.

Starbucks is working on a new “bean to cup” program that’s built on the blockchain to promote ethical sourcing in the coffee industry.

French retail chain Carrefour in 2018 launched what it called Europe’s first food blockchain in order to track the one million-plus free-range chickens it sells in its stores every year, with plans to extend the technology to 8 more animal and vegetable product lines in the coming year.

And last Thanksgiving, Cargill expanded its popular “blockchain for turkeys” program to 30 states, offering consumers direct access to information about 200,000 turkeys from 70 farms under its Honeysuckle White brand.

What’s next?

If that is any indication, the potential applications of blockchain technology are broad and the industry is just beginning to scratch the surface. From traceability to verification, to sourcing, quality and more, blockchain stands to revolutionize not only the agriculture supply chain, but what consumers can expect from it going forward.

But questions remain, according to Christophe Uzureau, a blockchain and token analyst with Gartner and the co-author, along with Gartner colleague David Furlonger, of the book “The Real Business of Blockchain: How Leaders Can Create Value in a New Digital Age,” which discusses the pitfalls and possibilities of the technology for businesses.

“Today we’re at the stage of adoption where we’re reaching critical mass,” he says, “so now we need to complete the blockchain in order for it to reach its full potential. We’re moving in that direction, but we’re still only likely to see maturity post-2020, or more likely 2023.”

– Christophe Uzureau, Gartner analyst

In Uzureau’s view, there are five elements that need to be in place before blockchain can truly revolutionize the ag supply chain: trust, distribution, encryption, tokenization, and specialization, all of which the industry has up and running in at least their early stages. The next step, then, is what he calls the “enhanced blockchain,” which is when the technology gets fully integrated with existing ag system, including Internet of Thing (IoT) sensors, artificial intelligence and more.

“That’s the fundamental next step,” he says, “and it’s clearly a challenge, but the potential for what it could mean for the supply chain could be very big. Farmers today have many different sensors and capture lots of data. By bringing all of that information today and using it to make better decisions about the supply chain, even the smallest players in the market could contribute directly to the whole system. It would revolutionize what the supply chain can do.”

Now imagine reconnecting with that lone chicken in your grocery store. On its packaging label, you see a QR code. With your phone, you scan the code and immediately see the chicken’s farm, feed and medical information – the power of blockchain demonstrated for consumers and processors alike.

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Comparing Traditional & Alternative Burgers

Plant-based burgers have taken the media and our menus by storm. Fast-food establishments like Carl’s Jr., Burger King, White Castle, Red Robin and TGI Friday’s have all added the alternative burgers to their protein offerings – and even more restaurants are following suit. We even saw the Beyond Burger in the wilds of the Pennsylvania countryside this summer.

Comparison of popular meat and meat alternatives

They may look, taste and even ‘bleed’ like real meat, but how do the nutritional profiles of these plant-based alternative burgers compare to more traditional options? Let’s take a look!

Sources: ImpossibleFoods.com, BeyondMeat.com, Kelloggs.com, Instacart.com, BK.com, Walmart.com

Key nutritional differences

From the chart above, you can easily identify some similarities, but also some obvious differences. The most glaring difference? The number of ingredients. Traditional meat products typically have one ingredient: meat. These meat-like products, however, are more complicated! Comprised of a variety of ingredients, Beyond Burger has 18, while Impossible burger has 21.

These meatless alternatives have a similar amount of protein as traditional burgers, but how? The Beyond Burger lists pea isolate, a plant-derived protein, as its second ingredient after water. Alternatively, Impossible Burger credits soy and potato isolates for their main sources of protein.

While the primary protein source is not made from whole foods, they do contain a healthy amount of nutrients such as iron, calcium and in the case of Impossible burger, high amounts of B12, an important ingredient for those not eating meat.

Veggie burgers sold from consumer product companies, like MorningStar Farms and Kraft Heinz, are also non-whole-food based, deriving their protein from soy. These products lack the complex nutrient profile that the plant-based alternatives contain.

So, what is a whole-food-based option? A good example of a whole-food-based burger is Kellogg’s Gardenburger, which contains rolled oats, mushrooms, and brown rice as its first three ingredients. While the protein makeup is only 8.5 grams per 4 ounce burger, this alternative is a great source of fiber at 12% DV, and contains moderate levels of Vitamin A, C, calcium, and iron.

How are these meatish products made?

It is pretty obvious how a cow becomes a hamburger, but Beyond and Impossible consider the production of their products as proprietary information. With the Impossible Burger, however, we know it is made with genetically-modified heme. In order to make their ‘meat’ look ‘blood-red’, they use an iron-containing molecule found in the root nodules of soy. They then take the DNA for soy leghemoglobin, insert it into yeast, and ferment the yeast.

Impossible Foods also proudly embraces GMO soy to ‘solve critical environmental, health, safety, and food security problems’ and have long advocated for responsible use of this technology in the food system.

So should I be eating Beyond and Impossible burgers or traditional beef?

The answer depends on your dietary needs. While the Impossible and Beyond burgers are not necessarily unhealthy, they are not the healthier choice over traditional beef or veggie burgers either. It has been reported that we Americans tend to eat too much red meat, so making room for more vegetables in our diets can only improve our health. So how can I get more veggies?

Well, a common misconception is that these new plant-based options are like the V-8 of burgers. The fact is that eating less red meat and more vegetables does not mean substituting traditional meats for these meatless options. You are not eating whole vegetables when you eat a Beyond or Impossible burger; to achieve that, you would need whole vegetables or burgers made from them.

Here are some great burger recipes we love – all with good amounts of protein, whole vegetables and a nice amount of fiber: Homemade Black Bean Veggie Burger, Sweet Potato Burger, and High Fiber Veggie Burger.

Alternative meat burgers are just another choice in the grocery store. Everyone has different preferences and dietary guidelines. While we are optimistic about the emerging environmentally-friendly food technologies, the biggest challenge still left to face is the nutrition of these products. These are exciting options for those who don’t eat meat. And in the future, it will be great to see protein sources with more whole-food-based options and less sodium.

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Back to Business: D2D News Recap

Glyphosate Wars Continue to Rage

The battle over the potential health risks of glyphosate – the key ingredient of the popular weed killer, Roundup – saw new developments that seemed helpful to both sides in the debate. The number of U.S. civil lawsuits against Roundup’s parent company (Monsanto, later acquired by Bayer AG) has grown to 18,400 – a number prompting courts in California to consolidate various actions into class-action suits and multi-court district litigation. Initial jury awards in the hundreds of millions of dollars have been lowered afterward by judges reviewing the cases. But Bayer reportedly has offered to pay as much as $8 billion to settle the outstanding claims. The company also welcomed the Environmental Protection Agency’s following announcement:

“It is irresponsible to require labels on products that are inaccurate when the EPA knows the product does not pose a cancer risk,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “It is critical that federal regulatory agencies like EPA relay to consumers accurate, scientific-based information about risks that pesticides may pose to them.”

However, California officials said they will maintain their labeling requirement.

FAO Food Security Report Offers Grim News

The Food and Agriculture Organization at the United Nations released its annual assessment of global food security, highlighted by the grim news that the number of people facing food insecurity rose again for the third straight year. For more than a decade, the number had been declining amid a collective effort to deal with the problem by member nations. But the 2019 FAO report estimates the number of people without enough nutrition rose to 822 million – over 10% of the planet.

Poor economic conditions attracted much of the blame, but continuing episodes of natural disaster and disruption to local food production, political instability, outright conflict, and displaced populations also drew attention. In contrast, the report also noted the still-significant role played by obesity in contributing to global malnutrition.

Further Evidence of Weather Woes

The lingering effects of wet weather in key U.S. agricultural areas resulted in almost 20 million acres of cropland going unplanted this spring, according to reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). That’s the largest “prevented planting” area since the USDA began collecting such data back in 2007. Despite this, other USDA crop production estimates point to robust crops this year for most major commodities. Soybean farmers, beset by the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China, are expected to cut production by a whopping 19% as they shift to planting more of other crops, notably corn. USDA continues to predict modest overall food price increases for the year.

FDA Cautions Against Certain Pet Foods

As Dirt to Dinner previously reported, growing concerns with the adverse health effects of certain pet foods have attracted the attention of the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has now issued a consumer advisory on the issue, naming several specific dry dog food products and launching a recall of products found to have toxic levels of vitamin D. To see the complete list of products covered by the alert, please visit this site.

Like We Also Said….

Following our recent post on the emergence of aquatic dead zones in the U.S. Gulf and other locations, the Trump Administration has spoken out about plans to use $100 million already authorized by Congress to fight “red tide” – the toxic algae bloom blamed for damage to fishing, recreational activities, and aquatic wildlife, notably in many Florida waters. Local authorities and water-related interests welcomed the attention called to the issue, despite the political overtones of the discussion. Red tide has played havoc with commercial and recreational fishing in some areas and made swimming in contaminated areas a very risky proposition.

Brexit Prompts Another Salvo in Debate over Genetic Engineering

British and European officials continue to trade barbs as the Oct. 31 deadline approaches for the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. New UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson added to the fun by distancing his government from last summer’s gene-editing ruling by the European Court of Justice imposing stringent regulatory requirements. Many believe this “CRISPR” approach to genetics holds the key to the rapid development of better plant varieties that will increase food production and enhance food security.

Johnson recently promised “…to liberate the UK’s extraordinary bio-science sector from anti-genetic modification rules and…develop the blight-resistant crops that will feed the world.”

UN Climate Report Urges Attention to Ag Production

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has jumped on the growing effort to curtail the role of modern eating habits and the global agricultural production system in contributing to what it warned could be “climate change-induced environmental catastrophe.”

In a report issued this summer, the panel of international scientists observed that “Earth’s climate is entering a qualitatively different stage.” Adding insult to injury, the IPCC claims that current ag practices misuse resources and actually make global warming worse, creating a “vicious cycle” that makes food more expensive, scarcer and less nutritious. So far leaders of major farm and food organizations have avoided substantive public comment on the report.

So what solutions does the report offer? One big idea: consuming less meat (especially red meats) and more plant-based foods. Other suggestions include more environmentally-friendly tillage techniques and more targeted use of fertilizers, coupled with serious efforts to reduce food waste. Such efforts would cut greenhouse gas emissions and make better use of precious natural resources, the experts concluded.

A Tax on Traditional Meats?

The broad subject of meat alternatives – both plant-based and cultured cell products – doesn’t seem to be losing any steam across the news media. Stories abound of efforts by fast-food chains and independent restaurants to add meat alternatives to their menus, including novel new offerings such as an “Impossible Burger” and a “Beyond Meatball Marinara.” Who would have thought these products would push us toward meat taxation?

A sign of the economic steam behind this emerging food product category might be in comments from government officials about the need to add taxes to the competitive mix. A study lead by Dr. Marco Springmann of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food estimated there will be 2.4 million deaths due to red and processed meat consumption by 2020.

Governments with socialized medicine might also be licking their chops to recoup the estimated $285 billion in health care costs. German politicians have suggested an increase in taxes on traditional meats, from today’s 7% to upwards of 19%, with Sweden, The Netherlands and Denmark considering similar taxation practices.

And to Wash It Down…

The Natural Hemp Company has announced launch of a CBD-infused sparkling water for people with an active lifestyle, creatively positioned as “the Gatorade of CBD beverages.” The product is called Day One CBD Sparkling Water and claims to have no sugars, calories or carbohydrates. The company didn’t elaborate on what constitutes an appropriate “active lifestyle.”

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Packing Social Concerns in the Lunchbox

Dirt to Dinner is excited to feature Dr. Sarah Evanega’s post on our site. Dr. Evanega earned her PhD in plant biology and science communications from Cornell University, where she now directs the Alliance for Science and serves as Senior Associate Director of International Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She resides in Ithaca with her husband and three young children.

The Cornell Alliance for Science works to ensure global access to life-improving agricultural innovations that can shrink farming’s footprint, deliver food security, reduce the drudgery of field work that often falls on women and children, provide rural families with sufficient income to educate their children, and inspire young people to pursue a career in agriculture and science.

As a child, I highly anticipated the return to school, the thrilling day when my siblings and I headed over to campus to pay our fee and look on the bulletin board to see which teacher we were assigned to and which of our friends would join us in class. The hallways had a distinct smell that we barely noticed during the school year and nearly forgot over the summer break, which meant the odor of paper and gymnasium hit us hard as we walked in the front door after months away. Back to school meant buying supplies, the hope of getting a Trapper Keeper with a cool design, and maybe even a new pair of jeans or shoes.

Today, as a mom of three young kids, back to school means shifting from the laid-back rhythm of summer to a tightly tuned schedule of early-to-bed, early-to-rise, the regularity of dinner, bath and bedtime books, and early mornings. After the coffee is on, I pull out three lunch boxes and face the challenge of packing lunches that will both appeal to my kids and my sense of what’s healthy and socially just.

As I pull together sandwich fixings, carrot sticks and fruit, I’m aware that our well-stocked refrigerator and cupboards are a luxury that many families throughout the world do not share: that my choice of what to pack, and what to leave out, is not available to the millions who struggle with the hunger and poverty that accompanies failed crops. I know my children won’t have to skip school to hand-weed the family’s fields or miss class entirely because a miserable harvest left no extra money to pay tuition.

As a plant scientist who works in international programs at Cornell University, I’m fully aware that fussing over the ever-growing list of food items restricted in schools is very much a “first-world” problem, as are the half-eaten apples and the sandwich crusts my kids bring back home at the end of the day. Hunger, the frequent companion of far too many children in developing nations, always trumps the pickiness that leads to food waste.

I know that many other American parents share my concern about hungry children, others and our own, and that they want to see a world that’s just. But because of my job, I know something they may not—that technology exists to solve some of the problems that face us all…

I’m talking about using genetic engineering to improve crops, boost the livelihoods of smallholder farm families, enhance nutrition, reduce climate change impacts, even remove the pesky protein that makes the classic PB&J sandwich an unwelcome allergenic addition to lunch boxes across the country.

Yes, the same technology that can reduce the use of pesticides in crops can also render peanuts hypoallergenic. The same technology that can eliminate the need for nitrogen fertilizers that generate greenhouse gases can keep cut apples from browning. The same technology that can add essential nutrients like vitamin A to staple foods like bananas and rice can silence the gluten proteins that make life miserable for those with celiac disease.

Sadly, this technology has been pushed to the sidelines, dismissed as a dirty three-letter word: GMO. Never has a plant breeding technique been so reviled, so falsely accused of everything from solidifying corporate control over the food supply to making people sick. The demonization of this technology funds numerous NGOs and has even become a cottage industry of sorts. American supermarkets are filled with products that bear the badge of misinformation—the trademark butterfly of the “non-GMO verified” label. This marketing ploy tricks consumers into believing GMOs are somehow bad, and so they should pay more for products without them — even products like salt and water, for which there is no GM equivalent. Sorry—those tricks don’t work on scientist moms like me. And they shouldn’t work on you.

As Americans, our ideologies and shopping habits reverberate around the world. And when we say no to GMO, we’re simultaneously depriving smallholder farmers and consumers in developing nations from exercising choice about what to grow, what to eat. Or in too many cases, about whether they will eat.

Would you say no to GMO if you knew it could save orange trees from the devastation of citrus greening disease, bananas from the scourge of wilt, crops from succumbing to drought or cattle to heat? Would you push it away if you knew this technology could help keep cacao, the primary ingredient in chocolate, from going extinct?  Would you get on board if you knew it meant that kids could safely munch a bag of peanuts without risking anaphylactic shock, be spared the blindness of vitamin A deficiency? Would you have a change of heart if you knew that biotechnology could increase the income of a smallholder farmer in Bangladesh six-fold — enough to send his children to school, buy a propane stove so his wife didn’t have to prepare food over a cow dung or charcoal fire?

Or to bring it back home, would you embrace this technology if you knew it meant the daily challenge of packing a school lunch could be immensely simplified with hypoallergenic peanut butter spread on gluten-free wheat bread and accompanied by an apple that retained its fresh, white flesh, even hours after slicing?

Some of these products, like the Arctic Apple, are already available. Others are moving forward and many more are in the works, ready and able to do their part to end hunger, shrink agriculture’s outsized environmental footprint, increase crop yields, reduce pesticide use, withstand the temperamental and often extreme growing conditions that characterize climate change, and curb food waste. Even more products are likely now that the science has advanced through the precise, predictable use of gene editing tools like CRISPR.

But these new plant varieties, created by scientists working in public institutions like me, won’t advance without our support, our recognition that they have a role, just like organics and conventional and natural, in keeping our planet healthy and our kids fed. They aren’t backed by the multinational corporations that can pay $100 million to move a genetically-engineered crop through an unreasonably onerous regulatory process. They need consumers, people like you and me, to say that we want scientific evidence, not ideology, to determine what enters the food supply.

These are the thoughts that enter my mind as I sip coffee, pack lunches, prepare my children for another day in the school environment that I loved. I want them to have the same opportunities that I enjoyed, and I want those opportunities extended to kids across the globe. And from where I sit, access to the healthy, affordable food that genetic engineering can provide is a huge part of that.

As we bid farewell to the unstructured days of summer and re-enter the school year routine, let’s remember that the decisions we make each day in the grocery store reverberate not only in our children’s lunch boxes, but all around the world.