Conversations… | with Dr. Greene

There is an intense ongoing debate about the safety of bisphenol –A, or BPA, an ingredient found in many plastic products including many baby bottles and reusable water bottles. BPA acts like a hormone in the human body. More than 90 percent of us do have small amounts of BPA in our bodies. On the one hand, the plastics industry and the FDA assure parents that BPA is safe. They have no concern, even for babies, at the doses we are commonly exposed to. Meanwhile, scientists in another part of the federal government, NIH’s National Toxicology Program and the Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, do have some concern that these low doses affect “the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and children at current human expo¬sures to bisphenol A.” They also think it possible that BPA is causing lasting changes in girls’ breasts and that it is causing an earlier age of puberty for girls who are exposed as fetuses, babies, or children “at current human exposures to bisphenol A.” Many scientists and  Continue reading »

Helping our children to build stronger bones is a gift we can give now that can keep protecting them long after we are gone. What, exactly, does it take to make a difference? Fragile bones are something we link to the elderly, to an age when hip fractures and osteoporosis are major threats. But it’s during the childhood years and teen years when we approach our peak bone strength for the rest of our lives. Our bones will then weaken over time, no matter what we do. Children, teens, and young adults, can increase peak bone strength through what they eat and drink, through getting plenty of vitamin D (from sunshine or other sources), and from weight-bearing physical activity – where they are up on their legs dancing, jumping, running, kicking, playing ultimate Frisbee, etc.

Recently researchers tried to measure how much activity makes how much real difference in bone strength. They focused on a narrow, vulnerable area of bone called the femoral neck. Femoral neck fractures are common hip fractures later in  Continue reading »

Eczema is a common skin condition in children, and has been getting more common in recent decades, now affecting as many as 1 in 3 babies in some parts of the world. We know that heredity plays a big role in a child’s odds of getting eczema, but the recent rapid rise of eczema suggests that something in the environment can trigger eczema or protect from eczema. What role does food play? Many people still suggest delaying introducing eggs, milk, or fish to babies in an attempt to prevent eczema or other allergies – even though there is not good evidence to support this approach for otherwise healthy children born on time. Now, researchers in Sweden have followed more than 8000 families to see if there was a correlation between the timing of certain foods and eczema. As expected, they found that having a family member with eczema raises the odds considerably, especially if it is a sibling (up 87 percent) or a mom (up 40 percent). Starting fish before 9 months cut the  Continue reading »

Transitioning a conventional dairy farm to become an organic dairy farm is quite a journey. The cows must be raised without the use of toxic synthetic pesticides, antibiotics, added growth hormones, cloning, genetically modified animals, or genetically modified feed. The cows must be allowed to graze on pasture throughout the growing season, and the pasture itself must be certified organic. The farmers’ costs go up for years before they can start selling certified organic milk.

Each year at Farm Aid, Horizon Organic presents the HOPE award to one of their more than 500 family farms that has successfully navigated the transition to organic, with farmers that have demonstrated notable strength of character, hard work, and resiliency, all of which are required to own and operate a family-run organic dairy farm.

This year the HOPE award went to Hans and Lynn Kroll. Hans and Lynn live in Long Prairie, Minnesota on a 380-acre farm that has been in continuous production for over 100 years. They have 35 organic cows. Hans is the 5th generation in his family to own and work this land. Because of their successful transition to organic, the farm is once again thriving, and their daughter and her family have moved back to the farm to work, becoming the 6th generation on the land.

How inspiring! See the Kroll’s and 4 of their children for 80 seconds here:

Since its founding in 1985, Farm Aid has raised more than $30 million to support our family farmers. This year, Horizon Organic and Whole Foods Market were the two largest contributors to Farm Aid.

In addition, Horizon Organic and Silk joined together to help reduce the environmental impact of the concert itself by purchasing enough wind energy from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation to power the entire concert, as well as to offset the energy used for more than 20,000 attendees to drive to the event, and for all of the musicians, their crews, and those of us who came from out of town to travel to Massachusetts.  Wind energy is an affordable and renewable energy source that does not pollute, generate waste, or use up our natural resources.

They also sponsored composting and recycling at the event, to help Farm Aid move toward zero waste status.

Each year at Farm Aid, Horizon Organic presents a Quality Award to whichever of their more than 500 family farms produces the very highest quality organic milk. This year the award went to a grass-based dairy in Oregon called Poland Farms. The dairyman, Jaas Poland, grew up in Holland. He came to the US to farm in 1993, and settled in Madras, Oregon. Today, he and his wife Deanna have 220 pasture-fed organic Holstein cows.

I had a chance to talk with them this morning before the award - and to appreciate the joy and vibrancy of their three wonderful kids (whose voices you can hear in the background on some of my earlier videos :^)).

Meet the family in this 2 minute video of the award presentation:

Neil Young got involved in Farm Aid at the very beginning, just to try to save family farms because, "they were dying on the vine." Today Farm Aid is far more than a benefit concert. And it is far more than its important Suicide Hotline for farm families. Today it is a grassroots resource network providing the tools, information, practical tips, and support we need to help family farms thrive — and to help any of us learn to grow some of our own food.  

You’ll be able to watch his musical performance, and all of the others, at http://www.farmaid.org/, including his dramatic closing guitar solo where he dismantles his guitar to express his point. Here you can watch 2 minutes about the bright future of food.

"Our planet will not sustain us if we continue living the way we are. It cannot." "People often say we must save the planet. The planet, in my opinion, will be fine. What we want to do is work with the planet so that we can make it too."  

Dave spoke today about the how fundamental incentives affect outcomes. For a typical large corporation, the final goal is the bottom line. Because it doesn’t fundamentally care about us or our children, by its very nature it will engage in unhealthy practices. And for large corporate farms, the questions are, how do we make food the cheapest way that we can, and use the land as recklessly as we can, taking the most from it, producing as much "food" as we can — regardless of how good it is, regardless of what it tastes like, regardless of what it does to our children — so that we can enhance the bottom line. Factory farming is destructive by nature.  

Replacing individuals in this type of large corporation doesn’t have a lasting impact, because the incentives are built into the system (though I say that we can make these incentives work by choosing to buy, not the cheapest food, but the best — for our families, the farm workers, and for the planet).  

Dave then turned our attention to an entirely different mentality in someone who wakes up before the sun comes up, who cares for the land so that the land will care for them, who hugs their children when they come in from the field, who feeds their own children that food in the morning, and at lunch, and in the evening, who takes care of their neighbors with that food, who make an honest living from the land. These people want to save the planet just because of the nature of what they do.  

Here’s 3 minutes of Dave Matthews speaking directly from the heart. And listen to his performance at http://www.farmaid.org/.

Earlier this year, John Mellencamp was inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, alongside Leonard Cohen and Madonna. He’d earlier won a Grammy for Best Male Rock Performer.

I bet he’ll rock the place tonight. I hope he sings Small Town. When I’ve heard him do it before, he customized the song for right there, right then.

Today he spoke to us about Earl Butz, the man whom Richard Nixon put in charge of Agriculture in the US. His slogan was, "Get Big or Go Home." Since then, an average of about 10,000 family farms have gone out of business each year. And we have been losing about 1 million rural acres a year at the same time. Agribusiness is eroding the soil and polluting the water on many of our remaining farm acres.

Suicide has replaced equipment-related death as the number one cause of farm deaths. Listen to John tell us for 2 1/2 minutes why he is still doing Farm Aid after 23 years.

Frankie Moore Lappe is a dear friend and one of my heroes. Her groundbreaking book Diet for a Small Planet has been called "the blueprint for eating with a small carbon footprint since long before the term was coined." I also love her book Hope’s Edge that she wrote with her daughter Anna Lappe, whom I really enjoyed meeting at the IFOAM World Congress earlier this year.

Her newest book, Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad was awarded the Nautilus Gold Award for best book from a small press (very cool for me, because Raising Baby Green also won a Nautilus Gold Award — for best parenting book).

Both Frankie’s first book and her most recent were called must-reads for the next president of the United States in the New York Times. And I agree.

Continue reading »

"The Farmer is the backbone of our economy. If the bottom rung of the economic ladder is agriculture, and it falls in, everything else falls down. And that’s where we are. Thank you for helping us put the steps back together."

In a couple of hours the crowds will arrive. Then, after we are all wonderfully full from 10 hours of music, celebration, and great food, I expect Willie will do what he has done before — call all of the musicians back on stage as we all sing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"

Everything is connected.

Video is 1 minute, 26 seconds 

Willie has been doing Farm Aid for 23 years. This year the concert falls in the shadow of the great Wall Street upheaval of this week. This is the week of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and AIG — the week we saw the Dow plummet 500 points in a day. With this in mind, Willie welcomed a small group of farmers, Farm Aid supporters, and press before the event began:

Not only do all of the musicians donate their time to play at FarmAid, but they also pay all of their own expenses to get here and play. With their passion and commitment, mixed with a crowd of like-minded people, a gorgeous location in the trees, near perfect weather, great music, and the best food I’ve ever had at a concert — it’s no wonder there is magic in the air. The food is local and organic, the conversation is political and economic, and the dancing is contagious. Saturday in the park. People laughing; people talking, a man telling nice dream. An achievable dream.

The family farm is the foundation of our health and security. Farm Aid started in 1985 when America’s farmers found themselves in a fight for their farming lives. Today, on a perfect fall day at the Comcast Center outside of Boston, more than 20,000 people are gathered to hear a day of great music, to learn, and to support family farms.

Farm Aid 2008 is presented by Whole Foods Market and Horizon Organic. Musicians this year include Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews; as well as Kenny Chesney,  The Pretenders, moe., Arlo Guthrie, Jerry Lee Lewis, Steve Earle, Nation Beat, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Jakob Dylan and The Gold Mountain Rebels, Danielle Evin, Jamey Johnson, Jesse Lenat, Will Dailey, One Flew South and The Elms.

Starting in about 15 minutes (4pm ET), the rest of the concert will be broadcast live on the DIRECTV’s 101 Network, with hosts Carson Daly and Bob Costas. You can also watch and listen at www.farmaid.org. If you miss it live, it will be edited for shorter tv specials to air later this fall.

I’m not against big farms, but we also need a vibrant family farm system of agriculture to address the challenges of the future.

If you want to bring down a fever in a child, is it better to use acetaminophen, ibuprofen, a combination of both, or neither? Acetaminophen works by turning down the body’s thermostat; ibuprofen works to reduce inflammation at its source. Given that they each do different things, might they work better together? Some doctors have been recommending this for at least a decade, but there has been scant research about this idea. Now, researchers at the University of Bristol have randomly treated 156 febrile children aged 6 months through 6 years either with a combination of acetaminophen and ibuprofen or with one of the two medicines alone. (This was all disguised: all of the children appeared to receive both of the two medicines, but for some of the children one “medicine” or the other was actually a placebo). What did the researchers learn? Continue reading »