Dr. Alan Greene at the Organic Farming Conference (Part 3)

"Good food, grown right is at the core of human health."

The folks at MOSES (that’s the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service) were kind enough to allow me to reprint this summary of Dr. Alan Greene’s keynote at the 2009 Organic Farming Conference, written by colleague and friend Bridget O’Meara; this is part two.

National Crisis: Childhood Obesity
Greene then changes tack and focuses on the crisis that is taking place on a national scale: childhood obesity. In the last 30 years, childhood obesity has increased to the point where 1 in 3 kids is already overweight or obese--and, by the end of next year, the numbers will reach 40%. Problems that used to be rare are becoming increasingly common in children: high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, abnormal triglycerides, abnormal blood sugars, Type II diabetes (formerly known as "adult onset diabetes") and/ or a waist-size over 40 inches.

"Obesity is just a visible sign that the way we are feeding kids today is failing, utterly. But, the good news," according to Greene, "is that organic food can prevent and reverse these trends and set our metabolism right, especially in early childhood." Organic food is more satiating because it's more nutritious. It has more antioxidants that prevent and repair damage and more micro-agents that slow the aging process. It is also grown without the use of pesticides that contain endocrine disruptors, which are linked to diabetes and to which the typical American consumer is exposed daily through diet. Investing in organic foods now will save not only health-care costs but also, literally, the lives of today's children.

Some people say organic food is too expensive. But, as Green points outs, a diagnosis of Type II diabetes will reduce a child's life expectancy by 10-20 years; it will cost more than $3 million and will be a chronic problem for the rest of a his or her life. "If we spent $100 million to provide good organic food to kids in schools and we could just stop 33 kids from getting diabetes, it would pay for itself-- and we would get delicious organic food to enjoy and we would save 300 to 600 years of those kids' lives to have relationships and love and family and work. We would save so much… What a bargain organic food is!"

"When I was growing up, doctors were my heroes because they could help people who are sick. But, today, farmers are my heroes because you can prevent people from ever getting sick AND can help them when they are." The body sources food for all the good things it needs to keep us from getting sick as well as what it needs to heal when we do get sick or injured. We are what we eat in a profound way. We are built entirely from food. As Greene says, "When we feed a child, every bite is either an investment in a child's body or it's a debt you're taking out that you're going to have to pay back somehow, some way. How much better to invest than to take out new debt--especially in a tough economy."

Too Much Food, Not Enough Nutrition
Greene addresses a fundamental irony in the United States. At the same time that childhood obesity rates rise exponentially, kids in this country are suffering from malnutrition. Of the 40 known essential nutrients, kids typically get 13 at sub-optimal levels--levels low enough "to affect their intelligence, to affect their behavior, to make them get sick more often, and to accelerate the diseases of middle age."

Changing what kids eats can change their health. Exzema in kids, for example, can by reduced by a third by just switching from conventional to organic milk. "Autism, ADHD, food allergies... all are nutrition problems with food answers. The answers to all of the most pressing problems in kids health and in our health are in this room--this is the answer, this is the core, this is central."

But conventional medicine has under-valued food as a source of health and has even downplayed the importance of food as a source of nutrition. Fortunately, new scientific studies contradict conventional wisdom. The potato, for example, long maligned as a "junk vegetable," contains not only fiber, vitamins, and minerals but also medicinal levels of coco amines, which have been proven effective against high blood pressure and cancer. In Greene's words, "The least of our vegetables is filled with things that we didn't even know existed that are so good for us."

And apples, similarly derided as nature's junk fruit by Western medicine, have an unprecedented ability to fight breast cancer and can lower cholesterol. The effectiveness of eating one apple a day against these conditions is as dramatic as taking a statin drug. "Apples taste better, especially organic apples, without all the side effects. Lipitor costs $4 per day--the apple is worth every bit as much and more."

"Healthy food is the best answer to all of our health problems--and the research backs that up."

Greene cites an Organic Center study that compares organic and conventional produce. ORAC units (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity ) measure the affects of food on health. 3000 units a day are needed to maintain health; 5000 units a day improve health. Most serving of fruits and vegetables have about 1000 units. But most adults get 1200-1600 a day, a third of what they need for optimal health. Organic food on average across the board has 30% more ORAC units than its conventional counter part. Millions of people at the cusp between health and sickness could get 30 percent of what they need if we just switched to organic food. "In this room is the answer to our health care crisis," Greene claims, pointing to his audience of organic farmers.

A russet potato has 5000 ORAC units, but what happens when the potato is submerged in boiling grease and turned into a French fry? According to Greene, "It destroys coco amines, greatly reduces ORAC values, and adds calories, fats, and carcinogens called acrylomides. It takes something that's beautiful from nature and destroys it."

Farm Happenings

Weather: We had weird weather over the last week. Several rainy days yield a total of about one inch of much-needed rain, but made working in the fields just muddy and cold enough to be worth complaining about. Still, weather breaks on Monday and Tuesday afternoons let us get some in some seeding and one easy harvest.

What We Did: Almost everybody worked together to remove the row cover that has been keeping bugs off of the melon crop. Now that the melon crop has begun to flower, we have to allow bees to have access; it also means letting the nasty little cucumber beetles in. Cucumber beetles carry nasty plant diseases that can devastate young melon plantings, so we use an air-, light-, and water-permeable cover to keep the little buggers off. The same crew hand-hoed all of the rows of black plastic on the farm; we have pretty good weed control, but needed to clean up the rest, and it was no small task. We did a bunch of additional handweeding and hoeing around the farm, as well. Zane and Chris did a one-two punch cultivating the winter squash. Chris seeded the fall storage beets and Big Ben stayed late on Monday to roll the beds flat, ensuring good seed-to-soil contact. Big Ben and Little Ben worked together to bring further order to the shop, which seems to be an ongoing nightmare. Bekah and Sanna pruned and clipped the greenhouse tomatoes. Sanna and Ryan weeded the rosemary pots. Zach and Ryan hoed another crop of weeds in the greenhouse. Sarah picked the very first of the cucumbers from the greenhous.

Comings and Goings: We had a visit on Friday from two long-time CSA members who were camping in the area, and it was fun to show them around. Chris’ mom came to visit on Monday night from Seattle, bringing son Oliver back home from a visit. She’ll stay through Sunday and help with the bookkeeping (she’s a world-class bookkeeper) and budgeting through the end of the year.

In the Kitchen

When you get this box home, put it all in the refrigerator, in plastic bags. Bag the rosemary separately; sometimes I see suggestions to put it stem down in a cup of water, but I’ve never found this to be necessary. I might cut the tops off the fennel to make the bulbs easier to store.

As our Round Red Tomatoes, Sungold Cherry Tomatoes, and Greenhouse Cucumbers slowly edge into production, we are trying to get our boxes populated with as many of these treats as possible. If you are one of the luck ones, leave the tomatoes out of the refrigerator, and store out of the sun. Cucumbers like it a little warmer than other vegetables, so I might put them in a paper bag (for a bit of insulation) in a warmer part of the refrigerator, like up at the top.

We continue to work with our simple salad mix, although we did add in some spicier greens this week. Enjoy with a light vinaigrette dressing.

I’m not sure of how we came up with such an abundance of Escarole this year, but I have to take responsibility since I made the crop plan. This will be the last of it until fall. I really enjoy this sliced into ribbons for salad, or sautéed as follows.

Sautéed Escarole

1 head escarole
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried hot red pepper flakes
1 tsp anchovy paste

Separate the leaves of the escarole, and slice into coarse ribbons. Heat the oil in wide skillet over medium-high heat until just before smoking, then add the escarole, pepper flakes, and anchovy paste. Reduce heat after an initial sear to moderate, and cook, stirring occasionally until the escarole is tender and any liquid is evaporated, about 15 minutes.

We are having quite the Beet year this year. I think the highest use for beets is to roast them in the oven, a technique that seems to enrich the flavor instead of watering it down. The piney-ness of the Rosemary complements the sweet, earthy flavor of the beets.

Baked Beets in Rosemary Butter

1 lb beets
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp chopped rosemary

Preheat oven to 400. Halve beets if they are large, otherwise use them whole. Place them in a covered baking dish with a little bit of water, and bake for one hour or until tender. Meanwhile, melt the butter and olive oil together with the rosemary, infusing the flavors over very low heat for about five minutes. When they are fork tender, hold the beets under cold running water to slip the skins off. Place in a serving dish and pour the butter-olive oil mixture over the beets. Serve warm.

Rainbow Swiss Chard, like all of the chards, is also known as a leaf beet, since they share a species designation and intermate freely. Known also as silverbeet and perpetual spinach, Swiss chard can be used in much the same way as spinach. I like to strip the leaves off of the stems (botanically speaking, they’re petioles), then chop and cook the stems until softened before adding the leaves. Sautéed thoroughly and topped with a little bit of butter and salt, Swiss chard is delicious.

Some of the scallions got a little large on us, but the flavor is still quite nice. Slice thinly for salads, use them in place of onions, or, big Ben says, put them on the grill.

Grilled Scallions

Scallions
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Lemon Juice

Toss the scallions with olive oil, and add salt and pepper to taste. Place on a hot grill, using tongs to roll them once or twice (you could also run several skewers crosswise through the scallions to form a solid grid). Cook until softened and charred in places, about 5 minutes total, depending on the size. Remove from the grill and sprinkle with lemon juice.

We harvested the last of the spring fennel this week. The beautiful, fat bulbs just have a fantastic flavor, and the fronds can be fun and tasty as well. The hollow stems make a nice crudite, or you can chop them up and use as the base for a bed of steamed fish. The fine leaves can be used in the same way – and in many of the same recipes – as you would dill leaves. For the annual Fourth of July pig roast and pot luck at my neighbors, I took a bowl full of the following grilled fennel, which was met with surprising enthusiasm for this semi-exotic vegetable.

Grilled Fennel

Put a pot of water on to boil, and start heating the grill. Cut off the fronds, slice fennel bulbs in half lengthwise, then cut the halves again into halves or thirds. Add the fennel to the boiling water, and cook for about ten minutes, until just tender. Drain and cool, until cool enough to handle. Skewer the fennel with metal or soaked-wood skewers (work the skewer through the center stalk and everything will stay together). Brush with olive oil, and add salt and pepper to taste. Grill, turning occasionally, until lightly browned. Sprinkle with lemon juice and serve.

Dr. Alan Greene at the Organic Farming Conference (Part 2)

"Good food, grown right is at the core of human health."

The folks at MOSES (that's the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service) were kind enough to allow me to reprint this summary of Dr. Alan Greene's keynote at the 2009 Organic Farming Conference, written by colleague and friend Bridget O'Meara; this is part two.

Crisis and Transformation 
Dr. Greene did not always understand the link between farming practices and human health, however. In fact, although he has long had a keen interest in nutrition, his pediatric medical training and his early years in practice were very conventional--until an unforeseen series of events changed the course of his life.

As pediatrician in the 1990s, Greene enjoyed his relationship with families in his care. Then the payment system changed and, in a year and a half, he went from seeing 3 families an hour to 8 families an hour; visits went from 20 minutes to 7 minutes. This changed quality of healthcare he could provide. He and his wife Cheryl started Dr. Greene's website (www.drgreene.com), the first of its kind, to stay connected and make health information available to families. The response was enormous, as more and more people sought out information online.

It was during this time that a lump was found in Cheryl's breast. Greene pauses and, with his voice full of emotion, recalls that Cheryl's primary concern was what to feed Austin, their nine-month old son. "There is this deep instinct in all of us to feed our kids the best.  Sometimes we run into obstacles and it might be something like cancer or it might be school lunch program or TV advertising or fast food, but the instinct is there, in all of us, to feed our kids great stuff." The crisis led Greene to explore more deeply the questions of "What is best?" and "What are real differences in the quality of food we feed our children?" He could no longer say it was all the same. "How we feed babies and all of us changes us--it changes our minds, how we think; it changes our immune system; it changes how we grow; it changes our mood, our behavior, our attention. It changes so much about our lives." He began to realize that conventional medicine had significant gaps regarding the relationship between nutrition and health.

Further research into causes of breast cancer revealed direct and well-substantiated links between pesticide use and cancer rates in agricultural communities. Cheryl had grown up on a seedless-grape farm in central California and had been exposed to pesticides throughout her childhood. The pesticides used on her farm when she was girl had already been linked to breast cancer. "In fact," as Greene notes, "the closer that a woman's room is to the field the higher the risk of breast cancer--you can measure it in feet." He had learned nothing in his conventional training about this research... it was outside the vision of medicine.

"It was then I really got it: Good food, grown right is not just some optional nice little side-dish but it is actually the core issue of human health."

(Cheryl survived and is healthy today, thirteen years later, in large part to good food.)

In the Kitchen

When you get this box home, you'll want to put it all in the refrigerator. Remove the beets from the greens first. Everything goes in plastic bags in the crisper drawer.

Bunched Mini Red Onions are basically what the name implies, small red onions that you can use just like a large red onion. In general onion terms, these have a milder flavor than a standard yellow onion. The greens have a nice flavor as well, although they lack the tenderness of a scallion.

The earthy flavor of beets comes from the same chemical compound that soil organisms secrete to make the characteristic smell of freshly-tilled soil. If you are reluctant to try beets because of some leftover trepidation resulting from canned and boiled conventional beets from you childhood, then please try our beets. The best simple preparation is to bake them in a covered baking dish at 425 for about an hour, although these quick beets are a household favorite, as well.

Quick Beets

1 1/2 lbs Beets, julienned
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 fresh squeezed lemon
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon fresh chopped dill

Heat a medium pan and add olive oil and beets. Cover for 5 minutes to lightly steam in own moisture. Uncover and saute (you may need to add a tich more oil) until lightly browned. Toss the beets with lemon juice, salt and pepper, and dill. Serve.

Beet greens are awfully good, too. Use them just like you would spinach, especially cooked.

While peas have been cultivated for some 8,000 years, Snap Peas only became popular in the late 1970's. This is our last picking for 2009, in a significantly smaller quantity than last week. Don't forget to take the strings out by pulling on the peduncle.

I've never understood why Red Russian Kale is called a kale, since it's the same species as turnips. The flavor and texture lack traditional green kale's hearty overtones, as well as the spicy flavor and almost ethereal texture of turnip greens. Cut into thin ribbons, you can serve it as a salad. I like it best with strong flavors of soy sauce or red pepper flakes.

Red Russian Kale with Pancetta

2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup diced pancetta
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bunch Red Russian kale, stemmed and chopped into 1-inch ribbons
1-1/2 cups chicken broth

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Sauté the onion and pancetta until the onion is translucent and the fat has rendered from the pancetta. Add the kale and toss to coat the leaves with oil. Add the broth and bring to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat, and simmer until the leaves are tender, about 8 minutes. Raise the heat and boil, uncovered, until the pan is dry. Season with fresh ground pepper and serve.

Sweetly pungent and sharp tasting, fern-y Dill Leaf is used as a seasoning in everything from green salads to fish dishes.

Yogurt-Dill Sauce

1 cup plain yogurt
3 Tbsp fresh dill leaf
1/2 cup chopped onions or scallions (mini-onions work great!)
1/2 tsp salt

Mix ingredients together to make a sauce for fish or raw vegetables.

We grow Baby Bok Choy because I am slightly afraid of the huge size of the regular-old bok choy. The vase-like shape is very appealing, and the stems have a delightful raw crunch, while the leaves have a contrasting mild tang to them. One of my favorite treatments here is to use the spoon-shaped ends to hold a dollop of something delicious, like a thick red-pepper sauce or spicy tuna salad. On the other hand, I have been loving the grill this spring, and bok choy responds quite nicely to the smoky flavor it adds.

Grilled Baby Bok Choy

Slice the bok choy head in half lengthwise (it will still look like a vase.). Soak in cool water for ten minutes and rinse vigorously, then shake and pat to dry. Slice off the tender leaves and set aside. Brush bok choy heads with oil, sprinkle the cut sides with lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and place cut side down on a heated grill for about 8 minutes. Turn the heads when they have have begun to show a golden color, and drizzle a little soy sauce over the cut side. Cook for a few minutes before turning again. Remove from grill when fork-tender. If desired, chop and sauté the leaves and serve over the grilled stems.

Dr. Alan Greene at the Organic Farming Conference

"Good food, grown right is at the core of human health."

In my other life, I co-coordinate the MOSES Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, Wisconsin, which happens in late February every year. I’ve done this for as long as Rock Spring Farm, having fallen into the position as an over-enthusiastic volunteer in the summer of 1999. The folks at MOSES (that’s the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service) were kind enough to allow me to reprint this summary of Dr. Alan Greene’s keynote at the 2009 conference, written by colleague and friend Bridget O’Meara; I’ll serialize it here over the next several weeks.

The South Hall Ballroom at the La Crosse Center is filled to capacity at the 20th annual Organic Farming Conference in February. Participants pack the seats, stand in doorways, and gather in a nearby lobby to hear Dr. Alan Greene deliver his Friday morning keynote address, entitled "Why Farmers Are My Heroes." After a rousing introduction by MOSES Board member Atina Diffley, Greene walks onto the stage, grateful to Diffley, impressed by the magnitude of the event, and genuinely honored to have been asked to speak. He opens with a story about sitting next to a pregnant woman on the plane and reflects on how the present is part of the future as well as the past.

"Sitting next to this woman, I began to think about how the egg that's becoming her daughter was in her before she got pregnant. . . . It was in her before she knew how to walk, when she was a little girl, before she was even born, that egg was there already. . . When she was there inside her mom and her mom felt her kick, that egg was in her fully formed and waiting. So that means that this woman had been carried in her mom and in her grandmother and that the little girl she was carrying had in her already not only her baby but her grandkids as well. I sat next to five generations of women on that plane!"

While audience members laugh and try to wrap their minds around this extraordinary idea, Greene continues, "Here, today, this event represents our past, our present, and our future. We celebrate not only 20 years of the Organic Farming Conference, as amazing as it is, but also the fact that organic farming has been central to human life since the dawn of civilization. And, in the present moment, there is nothing more important. And, in the future, organic farming is the best hope for our environment, the best hope for our culture, the best hope for our economy, and, certainly, the best hope for our health."

"As a physician," he adds, "everything I do depends on what you do. In fact, what I do is the topping--what you do as farmer is the main course of health."