Green Mothers Digest

Apparently all is not well on the environmental front in California.  I had been impressed with Governor Schwarzeneger’s lead in several issues dear to our heart – banning BPA baby products, capping emission standards, and recently, a moratorium on off-shore drilling.  But apparently he has no say over strawberry farmers – how come?

The growers are moving on to a different type of fumigant, phasing out methyl bromide because it damages the ozone layer.  Now they are poised to use methyl iodide which is highly toxic due to its different chemical structure. Naturally, there is disagreement on how much exposure is too much – does anything ever change?

For bystanders, 32 parts per billion are safe according to the Department for Pesticide Regulation.

Not so, say scientists.  They say for bystanders, 0.9 parts per billion are safe.

Huh??

How do they get from 0.9 parts/billion to 32 parts/billion?  You can read the story here. I have always been strict about buying organic berries, including strawberries, and now more than ever. Still, it is sad that common sense and caution is taking a back seat again.

I used to have this fantasy about country life, living on a farm, being healthy, living off the land, you get the point.  I never realized what a hazardous occupation farming is, unless you do it organically.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof had a scare recently with a growth in his kidney that they thought for a moment was cancerous. (Luckily, it wasn’t).  While he was waiting for the report from his doctor, he reflected back on his childhood:

“As regular readers know, I’ve written frequently about suspected links between chemicals and health. In my own case, I can’t help wondering if there might not be a connection as well. I grew up on a sheep and cherry farm in Oregon, and as a kid I helped mix the pesticides in the sprayer. Dogs on the farm have often died from cancer, and some have had unusual kidney cysts and deformities. Could the orchard pesticides perhaps have some impact on kidneys? Nobody knows.”

Why do administrative blockheads get to play Russian roulette with citizen’s lives? I am eerily reminded of this scene in Erin Brokovich

The air we breathe enters the womb just like the foods we eat.  Dr. Fredirika Perera is 12 years into a study of how the environment impacts the fetus inside the womb.  Please watch this video, but be prepared to get upset if you are pregnant right now.

I always suspected this, and my heart was heavy with worry while I carried three pregnancies to term in New York.  The troubling part is, even if you are completely cognizant of these dangers, it is still impossible to avoid all of them.

I am increasingly doubtful that breast-feeding is such a great idea.  I know that pediatricians preach that the benefits of breast-feeding outweigh the risks of chemical exposure, but after the research that has been coming in lately, I have serious reservations.  I don’t know if the AMA has made any new pronouncements yet.  The establishment always tends to tow the line way beyond what is conscionable in the mind of a person even of average intelligence.

According to the Environmental Working Group, the so-called dirty dozen of produce that experts recommend we buy organic, are indeed dirty: they contain between 47 and 67% of pesticides, a report showed that was aired on CNN today.  The reason for their toxicity is their soft skin which makes them penetrable to the chemicals.

The most vulnerable to pesticides are of course children, not only because they consume the most in relation to their body weight, but also because their brains are still growing.  According to the article on CNN, Dr. Philip Landrigan, chairman of the department of preventative medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said: “A kid’s brain goes through extraordinary development, and if pesticides get into the brain, it can cause damage.”

And by the way, all the testing was conducted after the produce had been washed with high-pressure water.

Here are the lists:

The Dirty Dozen

Celery
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Domestic blueberries
Nectarines
Sweet bell peppers
Spinach, kale and collard greens
Cherries
Potatoes
Imported grapes
Lettuce

The Clean 15

Onions
Avocados
Sweet corn
Pineapples
Mango
Sweet peas
Asparagus
Cabbage
Eggplant
Watermelon
Grapefruit
Sweet potatoes
Sweet onions
Kiwi

Well, my kids’ anyway…

Many things have happened since I last posted here, but a lot of things haven’t changed at all, unfortunately.  We are still fouling up our environment – the only one we’ve got – (see Gulf of Mexico), and, surprise, surprise, we are still teasing out the influence pesticides and other chemicals have on our children’s bodies and brains, as evidenced by a report last week that indicates what many parents have suspected for a long time: that pesticides may be partly reponsible for ADHD in kids. ” Children with higher-than-average levels of the most commonly detected byproduct — found in roughly 6 in 10 kids — were nearly twice as likely to have ADHD.” If  you bother to watch the video – the level of ignorance of the talking heads is a little depressing, I am sorry to say.  One of them calls the offending compound “organic phosphate.” Oy vey!  Also, don’t kid yourself – rinsing vegetables under running water, or brushing them without a cleaning product – does pretty much nothing.

The safest bet is still to buy organic.  Or should I say organo?  Phew….

Monsanto is at it again. Yesterday I heard in the news that this industrial giant decided to sue South Florida’s supermarket chain Publix because they are now keeping their store brand milk rbST-free, the bovine grown hormone which Monsanto invented and which is now practically ubiquitous in our food chain, and are going to advertise this milk (normal milk!! finally available again) as rbST-free!  The nerve Publix has.. Monsanto of course can’t take this sitting down and is suing this truth in advertising exercise because labeling a milk rbST-free suggests that there is something wrong with rbST.  Is there ever! 

You can read about Publix milk here, along with some other interesting facts about milk.  I don’t know who owns this supermarket chain, but they are doing something really terrific here.  (They also carry increasingly more organics, including their own brand “Green Wise.”)

I recall when my first daughter was born back in 1996 Monsanto had just announced that soybeans were going to be doused with Roundup Ready, an extreme pesticide.  This immediately made me switch from Isomil to Similac, but — what do you know – there was probably rbST in that formula.  Back then I didn’t worry about hormones too much yet, (out of ignorance, no doubt) but now I do…. 

In fact, it’s possible that rbST here, there, and everywhere might be at least partially responsible for the ever more premature eh, — maturity, by that I mean little girls sprouting breasts and menstruating at an increasingly early age.