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©2008 Organic Connections Magazine
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Web-only Stories Traffic Problems? Try a Flying Motorcycle: Imagine this: You’re running late for a meeting in another town, you’ve just heard that the expressway you need to take is jammed to parking-lot status, and you know that surface streets are simply not an option for such a long trip. 135 Miles of Death Valley: Ultramarathon runner John Radich has just completed his ninth running of the treacherous Badwater Ultramarathon. Remineralize the Earth: Nonprofit organization Remineralize the Earth, in partnership with Ocean Arks International, is engaged in a fascinating project to reforest previously devastated, overgrazed grasslands in Costa Rica. |
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In Our Current Issue Daniella Chace: Nutrition therapist and author Daniella Chace looks at the nutritional challenges facing us, talks about her Nutritionist Approved program, and offers some healthy recipes.. Page 4 Stephanie Vance: The Advocacy Guru, Stephanie Vance, gives surprising insights into how the legislative branch works, along with practical tips on how you can make your voice heard on Capitol Hill. Page 7 Quillisascut Farm: Lora Lea Misterly, co-founder of the Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts in Washington State, has a mission to connect field to table and does this by bringing chefs, students, nutritionists and others out to the farm for education, hands-on farm work, cooking and, of course, eating. Page 11 |
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Publisher's Corner |
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Celebrate diversity or mandate uniformity
Life isn’t always neat. Just ask any parents with young children. But there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Nature doesn’t come in just one size or one color. Neither do people. English poet William Cowper once said, “Variety’s the very spice of life.” Do we want to revel in nature’s bounty or see Earth become one giant clean room?
We’ve been heading down the clean-room path for many years. The supermarket brought us widely distributed produce. The trade-off was limited variety, chemical sprays and lack of taste. If our health suffered due to nutrient loss and highly processed foods, the doctor and drugstore were close by to give us a chemical prescription for our pains. But apparently that’s not enough. We are now facing genetically engineered and irradiated foods grown from genetically engineered seeds on farms worked by machines and agri-industry “farmers.”
What will our collective future be? Will man or machines (and those who run them) have the upper hand?
At halftime, it seems the game could go either way. A large percentage of the population are dutifully watching their TV news and taking prescription medications. On the other hand, boutique wineries and artisan cheeses are increasing in popularity, farmers’ markets are appearing in more and more cities, sales of natural and organic products continue to grow, and people are turning to “alternative” natural health practitioners in greater numbers than ever.
Who wins pretty much depends on which side is more determined and invests more energy. Certainly the chemical, agricultural and pharmaceutical industries are putting in overtime (the pharmaceutical industry alone has about 2,500 lobbyists working Capitol Hill). Back in 1994, a million citizens bombarded Congress with communications to secure the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). This secured our free access to vitamins and minerals. Congress stated that “there may be a positive relationship between sound dietary practice and good health, and that, although further scientific research is needed, there may be a connection between dietary supplement use, reduced health-care expenses, and disease prevention.”
Fifteen years later, DSHEA is under attack with media articles appearing almost every day. Appropriately, in this issue, we feature citizen advocate Stephanie Vance with data about how to get your voice heard in Washington, DC. The world we and our children will live in will be determined by what we do now.
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