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.