Shachar Erez
While in Thailand I was learning that local self-sufficiency is one of the most important antidotes to the problems caused by globalized consumer culture, which the Buddhists and now the Thai government is resisting. Local sustainability weaves together the local community, therefore making it stronger, while providing far more nutritious fresh foods rather than cash cropping and importing starches and protein. I began to look into whether Fair Trade answers this call. I found that Fair Trade certification has some standards that must be met from the beginning (such as workplace democracy) and some that producers meet step by step, over a few years. These include that farmers diversify their crops and transition out of dependence on industrial chemical agriculture, towards organic agriculture. Fair Trade certification also protects delicate parts of the ecosystems, such as watersheds and endangered species.
So, we can see that Fair Trade gives people an opportunity to improve their quality of life, both economically and socially as well as with health concerns. All this, and it tastes better.
While traveling to and working on various organic farms, I decided to look deeper into the health effects of industrial chemical agriculture. Many of us know intuitively that we are better off in the long run when we choose organic. For the unconvinced, I offer these bits of research.
Here is a review of a book called Living Downstream – An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment that gives a strong case that cancer is increased in areas with environmental contaminants. She writes, “I had bladder cancer as a young adult. If I tell people this fact, they usually shake their heads. If I go on to mention that cancer runs in my family, they usually start to nod. SHE IS FROM ONE OF THOSE CANCER FAMILIES, I can almost hear them thinking. Sometimes I just leave it at that. But, if I am up for blank stares, I add that I am adopted and go on to describe a study of cancer among adoptees that found correlations within their adoptive families but not within their biological ones…. At this point, most people become very quiet.”
In the book, Sandra Steingraber offers evidence such as:
** cancer in immigrants who soon exhibit the cancer rates of their adopted countries, rather than the cancer rates of the place where they were born;
** maps showing more cancers in urban areas than in rural;
** maps showing more cancers in rural counties with heavy pesticide use vs. rural counties with low pesticide use;
** individual studies revealing cancer clusters near chemical factories and near particularly-polluted rivers, valleys, and dumps;
** rising rates of childhood cancer. The lifestyles of children have not changed much in 50 years; they do not smoke, drink alcohol, or hold stressful jobs, yet childhood cancers are steadily rising;
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Here are the transcripts for a news show by Bill Moyers and his wife titled Are We Poisoning Our Children?
While the magazine Utne Reader published an article suggesting that we should require industries to go through years of environmental/health impact testing before they are able to sell their products, Bill Moyers was investigating the effects of industrial chemicals. He included himself in the study…
As he took a blood sample, Dr. Michael McCally of Mount Sinai explained to Moyers:
We’re looking for industrial chemicals, things that were not around 100 years ago, that your grandfather didn’t have in his blood or fat. We’re looking for those chemicals that have been put into the environment, and through environmental exposures — things we eat, things we breathe, water we drink — are now incorporated in our bodies that just weren’t there.
The companion web site to the PBS broadcast Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report
explains chemical body burden, reports, Moyers’ test results, includes a chart which lists the broad groups of chemicals detected, and discusses the potential health effects of these chemicals.
Finally, in this article called “A Question for Journalists: How Do We Cover Penguins and the Politics of Denial?” Bill Moyers discusses the struggles of Environmental Journalism in a political environment financed and controlled by the industries that the government is supposed to be protecting us from.
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ORGANICIZE YOUR LIFE
