Natural Solutions Foundation
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.NaturalSolutionsEurope.org
Once again, the Natural Solutions Foundation wants to thank the Environmental Working Group for their outstanding work. For 5 years the EWG has published a list of the safest, and most dangerous, types of produce, focusing on pesticide levels.
Here is this year’s list. Numbers in front of the item indicate how bad it is (higher is worse), numbers after the item indicate its pesticide load. So eat from the bottom of the list if you are not buying organic. If you are eating organic, you can enjoy the whole bounty of spring’s harvest.
But think for a moment, before you begin to plan your shopping this season, what it means to have foods like peaches, apples and sweet peppers so contaminated that eating them is, quite literally, taking your life onto your fork and into your hands.
That is what the industrialized food producers have done so far: introduced, with the blessings of our weak and dangerous government regulators who allegedly are keeping our food safe, chemicals and genetic alterations, irradiation and other degredations which have made our food not only unwholesome, but downright dangerous.
But WAIT!! There’s more. HR 875, S 425 and the associated bills working their way rapidly through our clueless (or worse!!!) Congress are fixing to make the current level of contamination look like Grandma’s home grown goodies. Click here to tell Congress in no uncertain terms that this set of bills must not pass and, if pass, MUST be ammended to protect home and organic food production, growing and farming.
HR 875 and S 425 (and their associated bills) provide for a level of industrial control of our food supply that will, not might, may, could or can, but WILL guarantee that you and your family WILL get sick from even more poisoned food. Maybe not this week, maybe not until a few years down the road, but nutritional under supply (from foods grown in soil fertilized with synthetic fertilizers and depleted from de mineralization never really corrected) and toxic overload WILL weaken your immune system, divert you from your life pursuits with chronic and often lethal illness. Freedom? You’ll be too sick to care.
Your food WILL be genetically modified. GMO crops require 4 times more pesticide than conventional ones and a great many of them require huge amounts of herbicides (like glyphosate or Roundup(C), a wildly dangerous chemical which is associated with cancer, infertility, auto immune diseases and more.
Roundup(C) is, of course, just one of a wide variety of horrifically toxic chemicals whose regulation these new laws put into the hands of unelected bureaucrats whose discretion is breathtaking. Their interest is not in food safety. Their interest is in serving the needs of their corporate masters, and their corporate masters’ masters.
If that does not ring right with you, take a look at the lethal mess our food supply is in today. And then consider that it is the US FDA and USDA, again serving their corporate masters, who run the show at Codex Alimentarius, bringing us horrific standards and guidelines which have the potential to degrade the health, and shorten the life, of every man, woman and child on the planet who eats food grown inside the corporate corral. Of course, for you and me, NOT doing so will be a crime. Saving seeds will be a crime. Growing pristine organic food (or better) will, if the laws currently under consideration are implemented, quickly become a criminal act. The SWAT teams who raided the Ohio family organic cooperative a couple of months ago, the raw milk farmer in Pennsylvania who was taken to jail for selling his clean product and a host of other food atrocities will look, I am afraid, like the “Good Old Days” should these laws reach their logical – and lethal – consequences.
Remember, the law is one thing. Contaminated food is quite another.
Government regulatory agencies regulate for the sake of corporate interests. Yours are nowhere to be seen, unless, of course, you are Monsanto. In fact, the Representative who introduced HR 875 is married, as was a previous, and deeply destructive long-time US Codex delegate, to a Monsanto lawyer. No accident.
The proposed new food agency and the new food powers (under these laws) are nothing short of cataclysmic and over the line insane from a health perspective. The Natural Solutions Foundation proposes removing ALL food regulatory power from the federal government which has, for about 80 years now, proven itself to be increasingly unable to push back the demands of industry, whether Big Pharma, Big Agribiz or Big Chema (or Big Medica, for that matter) weighed against the public good. Deadly drugs, deadly food, deadly environmental contamination and an unrelenting, accelerating assault on health aids like supplements and Nano silver are the result.
Click the link below to tell Congress that, while you want the FDA, USDA, EPA and other inept and dangerous government agencies stripped of their food regulatory powers and those powers returned to newly constructed agencies at the State level controlled by consumers, statutorily devoid of corporate impact or connection, with harsh penalties for any breech of the perimeter keeping industry out of food regulation, we oppose the pending bills, HR875 and S425 which do not contain language to protect family farms and ranches; organic and natural products.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714
More about this at: http://drrimatruthreports.com/?p=2287
When an agency or program has failed, the typical political situation is to throw money at it to “reform it”, making it bigger, giving it more powers and then watch it fail worse – followed by more money and more power.
This is precisely what has happened with the latest FDA modernization and revitalization bills. More money, more power, more curruption, less safety of either food or drugs.
Drugs you can avoid voluntarily. Food you cannot.
The Natural Solutions Foundation has been warning for several years that home grown and produced food, and organic food, would be coming under sustained and terminal attack. Unfortunately, we were right and that attack is being mounted now. Therefore, the counter thrust must be mounted now, and it must be swift, effective and decisive.
Food MUST be taken out of the hands of the corrupt federal agencies and given back to the people. And saved seed, a corner stone of liberty, along with clean, unadulterated food, MUST not be taken out of your hands and mine.
If you love fascism, sit back and do nothing. If you want to see farmers forced to leave their land and their livlihoods, unable to produce clean food for you, sit back and do nothing. If you want to be forbidden to grow, can, preserver or share your own good food in the US of farmland from sea to shining sea, sit back and do nothing.
If you want the laws of the US “HARMonized” with the draconian food laws of Europe, where a cucumber cannot be sold unless its curvature is correct and where the hundreds of seed companies that once flourished have been reduced to a rapidly dwindling handful, please, sit back and do nothing.
But if you, like me, are aghast at these options, then stand up and be counted. Start disseminating and rousing support for the following action items as if your very life (and that of your children and grandchildren) deepened upon it. Your life and their does depend upon it.
Click below to read a detailed analysis of HR 875 and S 425 and their frighteningly (and absurdly) vague permissiveness giving industry full reign over your food and therefore, your health.
Alarm Bells Ringing in Europe and the US – http://drrimatruthreports.com/?p=2349
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org
www.Organics4U.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org
The Full List: 47 Fruits & Veggies
RANK Lower numbers are worse
SCORE Higher numbers are worse
1 (worst) Peach 100 (highest pesticide load)
2 Apple 93
3 Sweet Bell Pepper 83
4 Celery 82
5 Nectarine 81
6 Strawberries 80
7 Cherries 73
8 Kale 69
9 Lettuce 67
10 Grapes – Imported 66
11 Carrot 63
12 Pear 63
13 Collard Greens 60
14 Spinach 58
15 Potato 56
16 Green Beans 53
17 Summer Squash 53
18 Pepper 51
19 Cucumber 50
20 Raspberries 46
21 Grapes – Domestic 44
22 Plum 44
23 Orange 44
24 Cauliflower 39
25 Tangerine 37
26 Mushrooms 36
27 Banana 34
28 Winter Squash 34
29 Cantaloupe 33
30 Cranberries 33
31 Honeydew Melon 30
32 Grapefruit 29
33 Sweet Potato 29
34 Tomato 29
35 Broccoli 28
36 Watermelon 26
37 Papaya 20
38 Eggplant 20
39 Cabbage 17
40 Kiwi 13
41 Sweet Peas – Frozen 10
42 Asparagus 10
43 Mango 9
44 Pineapple 7
45 Sweet Corn – Frozen 2
46 Avocado 1
47 (best) Onion 1 (lowest pesticide load)
As a physician I was trained to understand that there is a physicial underpinning to the function – or dis function- of any biological creature. It’s name? Biochemistry. Molecules support, or prevent, poison or allow all chemical reactions in the body. And there are lots of them. Every one of our trillions upon trillions of cells is carrying out about 35,000 enzymatic reactions at any moment and each of them is part of a chain of reactions that allow – or prevent – events “downstream” from that particular enzyme and its tasks.
Enzymes are robots. They are complexes of proteins (made up of chains of amino acids) and “nutritional metals” like magnesium, zinc, manganese, copper, and others). They have sulfur and other non metals and they are very, very precise.
After an enzyme does what it is there to day (for example, transferring a molecule from one side of a membrane to another) its shape has changed so it can no longer function, like a fork lift truck with its blades on backwards. Then another enzyme comes along and returns it to its origianl shape so that it can do the same job over again. The helper enzyme is now literally “bent out of shape” and ANOTHER enzymes comes along and fixes the fixer enzyme and then, you guessed it! Yet another enzyme fixes the fixer of the fixer. On and on it goes, one enzyme performing its job, then unable to perform again until another enzyme resets it, then needing to be reset itself.
If one step in this astonishing molecular dance is missed, there are consequences. If the cause of the mis-step is a drug, the consequences have a special name, “Side effects”. If the cause is the chronic lack of nutrients, only a few doctors understand that the disease which is identified is, in fact, chronic under nourishment. The treatment for most doctors trained in allopathic medicine is exactly wrong almost all of the time: they give drugs to poison more enzyme systems.
WHAT? That is, in a nut shell, the entire basis of pharmaceutical medicine. The only time I can see that it is justified, the ONLY time, is in the Emergency Room. Other than that, it has no place.
But for a few doctors, and many non-doctors, the treatment is obvious: if there is a deficiency not of a drug, but of a nutrient, or many, give the nutrient and its companion nutrients. Give it in a high enough dose that even starving cells and membranes can find the energy to absorb and begin to use the nutrients. And, Voila! people get better. Pretty much, in my experience, every single time.
This simple, intuitive and obvious fact is not at all obvious to those whose minds have been altered by drugs, either by the “education” shaped by the interests of the drugs (often referred to by its short hand name, “Medical School”) or drug regulators and others whose ability to think have been poisoned by the money involved in the drug system – more than all other industries when taken in the aggregate!
Science is often the last to know, like the girl whose boy friend is dating her best friend. Science has taken this long to notice that if you give children nutrients their brains function better. The article below, from the British Journal of Nutrition says that the paper published below is breaking new ground since this is the first time that the positive impact of nutrients on children’s capacity to carry out tasks has been shown to be impacted by supplements.
Or is it just that selective science is the last to know?
Consider:
Benton D; ILSI Europe a.i.s.b.l., The influence of children’s diet on their cognition and behavior., “… there is a growing body of evidence that diet can influence the development and functioning of the brain. Several lines of evidence support the view that the diet of the mother during pregnancy, and the diet of the infant in the perinatal period, have long-term consequences…”, Eur J Nutr. 2008 Aug;47 Suppl 3:25-37.
or
Gajre NS, Fernandez S, Balakrishna N, Vazir S., Breakfast Eating Habit and its Influence on Attention-concentration, Immediate Memory and School Achievement., “RESULTS: Comparison between groups indicated significant differences in the letter cancellation (LC) total scores with the regular breakfast group achieving the highest mean scores compared to the no breakfast group (P< 0.05). Marks scored by the regular breakfast group in subjects - Science, English and total Percentage were significantly higher compared to those scored by the children in the no breakfast group. Regular breakfast eating habit and weight for age percent were significantly (P< 0.001) associated with immediate recall memory score explaining 4.3 percent variation. CONCLUSIONS: Regular habit of eating breakfast as opposed to irregular consumption or skipping breakfast altogether had beneficial influence on attention-concentration, memory and school achievement.", Indian Pediatr. 2008 Oct;45(10):824-8.
or about a zillion other articles, books and studies showing the same thing. So why is this "news" rediscovered with wonder and astonishment over and over and over and over and over and....?
Because supplements are cheap and safe. And because doctors - and patients and parents - have been trained to discount this reality, provide garbage to their children and themselves which they mistakenly designate as "food" and then scurry to the nearest prescription pad when the "side effects" of malnourishment come piling up.
So while I am pleased to see this article, I am not pleased that the same findings continue to be "news" when the news is that real, appropriate, healthful, non GMO, chemical free food cures and lack of that kind of food creates illness, both behavioral and organ based illness.
Are there other causes of illness? Sure. But the major killers (and economic producers for the illness care industry, cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke, diabetes, obesity and obesity, are specifically identified as the "non communicable epidemic diseases of under nutrition by the World Health organization, WHO.
Ah, yes! Killer disease of under nutrition creating a vast and wildly profitable market for dangerous drugs which kill people in greater numbers than the drugs themselves do! Can't make safe, cheap, effective nutrients available, now can we? Be serious. Instead, let's get Codex Alimentarius up and going and make sure that the food produced under its "Voluntary" Standards and Guidelines are as health hostile, chemical and industry friendly (including its beloved Biotech Industry) get as much support as possible.
Codex, you will recall, is the product of the mad -but very clever - mind of Fritz ter Meer, a Bayer Drug Company Executive who become the head of IG Farben, the civilian organization that made the German's participation in the Second World War a near-success. He was also a convicted criminal following his trial at the Nuremberg War Tribunals for his success and enthusiastic participation in creating the German Death Machine.
After he, and the 26 other IG Farben executives (many of them drug company executives) got out of jail a scant less-than-4-years after they entered, ter Meer was hard at work as the head of Bayer Pharmaceutical once again. His creativity was focused this time not on the slogan above the front gate of the Auswitz death camp ("Arbeit Macht Frei", or, in English, "work brings freedom") but to the creation of the concept of Codex Alimentarius. Subsequent events show that the idea of creating contaminated, poisoned food, full of chemicals, GMO adulteration, irradiation by products (like free radicals and dead bacteria and their spilled-out insides in "cold sterilization" processes), hormones, antibiotics, etc., etc. was a wonderful business decision for the pharmaceutical industry. Health people, after all, are generally eating healthy food. Take the healthy food, and the supplements that enhance nutrition, away and you have sick people who got that way from eating sick food. In short, you have the US "Food" Supply (more than 80% GMO, by the way) as the primary feeder (!) sending people into the illness care system - where they stay, literally until they die.
If that is NOT what you want for your food, then get even more active than you are in letting everyone on your list know that you are a Natural Solutions Foundation Health Freedom Advocate and that you need them to be a Health Freedom Advocate, too. Here's how"
1. Join the free Natural Solutions Health Freedom eAlert (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=187) distribution list and take every action step in the Newsletter, each time it comes to your email box. Then send it along to your email list and other contacts asking them to do the same. If you voice is not raised loud and clear, speaking truth to power, how will we protect your health and health freedom?
2. Donate to the Natural Solutions Foundation (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189). Your 100% tax deductible donations make it possible for the largest, most active and most effective health freedom organization in the world to protect your interests.
3. Change your buying habits so that you are ONLY purchasing GMO free foods. Look for labels that say “GMO-Free” or “Contains No GMOs” or “Organic”. Even though the outlay appears higher, how expensive is cancer? diabetes? heart disease? stroke? For organic supplements (not sourced from genetically modified plants, viruses and animals, free of pesticides and other dangerous contaminants, visit www.Organics4U.org. And for helpful guides click here (http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.40991bfe-ae98-4e5b-b5d6-25e09b923db9) for a short version and here (http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.a9a511b9-bfd2-4199-80ad-44f8818c8831) for a more detailed one.
4. If you are a lucky enough to be a coffee drinker (or detox person), or know people who are, we have a wonderful way to combine health freedom donation and the purchase of wholesome food! Coffee is the second most heavily chemically sprayed substance consumed by humans, running a close second to tobacco. So brewing coffee makes a water extract of God-Alone-Knows-What. Toxins too dangerous for use in US agriculture are made by US companies and sold in high volume in the coffee producing regions of the world where workers, often illiterate, spray huge quantities of deadly poisons on the theory that “more is better”. And you drink it.
Not any more! The Natural Solutions Foundation is now producing delicious, smooth and flavorful chemical free, Shade Grown, 100% Hard Bean Specialty Valley of the Moon(TM) Coffee (http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=1130) as part of its Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project (http://www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org) in the highlands of Panama. In appreciation of your $25 dollar donation, we’ll send you a bag of the best coffee you have ever had. Remember to give some to your friends, (http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=1130) and you will see why we say Valley of the Moon(TM) Coffee is “A Little Bit of Heaven in a Cup(C)” What a delicious way to donate to the Natural Solutions Foundation!
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.Organics4U.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMedia.tv
Nutritional and dietary influences on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Sinn N.
Nutritional Physiology Research Centre, School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia 5001, Australia. natalie.sinn@unisa.edu.au
The influence of children’s diet on their cognition and behavior.
Multivitamins and minerals help children’s brain function: study
By Stephen Daniells, 05-Nov-2008
Daily supplements of multivitamins and minerals may improve the brain function of children, says a new study from British and Australian researchers.
Twelve weeks of supplementation with vitamins and minerals was found to boost the attention scores of children, according to results published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
“This represents the first observation of acute behavioural effects of vitamins/minerals in human subjects,†wrote the researchers, led by Professor David Kennedy from Northumbria University in Newcastle.
“Naturally, these observations require replication in larger cohorts, but they do suggest that this matter should be given some priority,†cautioned the researchers.
Study details
The Newcastle-based researchers, in collaboration with scientists from Swinburne University in Australia, and the University of Westminster in London, recruited 81 children (average age 11) to participate in the randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel groups investigation.
The children were reportedly all healthy and free from food allergy. In addition, none of the children used other dietary supplements during the three months prior to the study. Participants were randomly assigned to daily multivitamin and mineral supplements or placebo for 12 weeks. The study used Pharmaton SA’s Pharmaton Kiddi blend of multivitamins and minerals. The Swiss company also provided funding for the study.
Cognitive performance was measured using a battery of laboratory assessments. Measures were taken before the study, after one and three hours after the first dose, and after 12 weeks.
Kennedy and his co-workers report that the children in the vitamin/mineral group performed more accurately on two tests of attention. Indeed, the researchers noted the first signs of improvement only three hours after the first dose on the first day.
“The most surprising facet of the improvement in attention task performance seen here is that it became evident by three hours post-dose on the first day,†they wrote.
“To the best of our knowledge, the possibility that vitamins or minerals could exert behavioural effects after a single dose has not been explored,†they added.
However, no effects were observed on measures of the children’s mood, they added.
Science behind the claims?
The researchers noted that the study was aimed at testing the claims of the manufacturer that the multivitamin and mineral could improve the physical development and neural performance of the children.
“The combination of vitamins, minerals and amino acids present… in the present study does not allow the results presented to be attributed to any one component,†wrote the researchers.
“Further work in this area could examine the constituent parts of this treatment in more detail, perhaps focusing on attentional measures and including acute, as well as chronic, assessment,†they added.
Source: British Journal of Nutrition
November 2008, Volume 100, Pages 1086-1096, doi:10.1017/S0007114508959213
“Cognitive and mood effects in healthy children during 12 weeks’ supplementation with multi-vitamin/mineralsâ€
Authors: C.F. Haskell, A.B. Scholey, P.A. Jackson, J.M. Elliott, M.A. Defeyter, J. Greer, B.C. Robertson, T. Buchanan, B. Tiplady, D.O. Kennedy
http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Publications/Food-Beverage-Nutrition/NutraIngredients/Research/Multivitamins-and-minerals-help-children-s-brain-function-study
Click here (http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=1130) to donate to Natural Solutions Foundation and receive a half pound of Shade Grown, Chemical Free Specialty Coffee, “A Little Bit of Heaven in a Cup(C)”
Drinking Shade Grown Coffee is important to your health and to the eco system. As part of the Natural Solutions Foundation’s International Decade of Nutrition, www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org, the ecologically and socially responsible production of Panama’s “Black Gold†is part of taking reclaiming clean, safe food for ourselves and food producers. Our extraordinary Valley of the Moon(TM) Shade Grown Coffee is an certified as a Friendly Food. That means that it is friendly to you, your health, then workers and the environment.
Part of the reason this coffee, available in sharply limited supply, is so exceptional is that it is strictly Shade Grown and chemical free.
You can taste it for yourself by clicking here (http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=1130) and seeing for yourself what A Little Taste of Heaven in a Cup(c) is like.
But part of the Valley of the Moon(TM) magic comes from the fact that the coffee trees are carefully protected from the full intensity of the sun by a forest canopy of carefully tended trees producing the perfect combination of light and shade for the most exceptional coffee flavors.
Your understanding of what Shade Grown means will bring Shade Growing back to the coffee growers of the world. The only way to encourage shade grown coffee farming is to buy the product. Production follows demand, and many farmers are switching back to shade grown methods as consumer awareness increases.
Natural Solutions Foundation’s Valley of the Moon™ Coffee is not only shade grown, but has been the “test bed†for an all exceptional natural, safe and chemical free method of protecting crops and coffee trees from the devastating fungus, “Ojo de Gallo†without chemicals. Conventional fungicides poison workers, waters and consumers. Our novel system protects us all – and the Natural Solutions Foundation will be manufacturing it so that coffee growers across Central America can use it, too.
Because our coffee is friendly to the environment, the workers and your health, it is the first product to be awarded Friendly Food Certification by the Natural Solutions Foundation.
What Difference Does “ Shade Grown†Make?
Conventional, “modern” chemical-using coffee plantations are replacing wildlife habitat at an alarming rate because they require less care, less manpower and allow mass production of coffee.
As a result of the growth of industrial coffee growing, the population of songbirds across North and South America is in significant decline. “Shade grown” coffee, the traditional method of coffee farming, offers a promising alternative.
Benefits
* Taste. As the coffee beans mature more slowly in the shade, natural sugars increase and enhance the flavor of the coffee. Shade grown coffee tastes better!
*Biodiversity Protection Chemicals like 2-4-D (similar to Dixoin) are used on conventional coffee farms. The result is dead soil without bacteria, worms, insects, birds, snakes, frogs or life. And you drink these chemicals when you brew your java.
* Health. Coffee is second only to tobacco in the amount of chemical treatment sprayed on it. In fact, coffee is sprayed with more chemicals than any other product consumed by humans. Workers on conventional coffee plantations are chronically ill and experience serious diseases, infertility, birth defects in their children and other major problems because of the toxic chemicals they spray on the coffee. The cultivation of Shade Grown coffee generally uses organic techniques and is free of chemical use: Valley of the Moonâ„¢ is absolutely free of chemicals. We promise.
* Environment. Shade Grown coffee requires little or no chemical fertilizer, pesticides or herbicides so it promotes a healthy environment. Valley of the Moonâ„¢ Coffee uses no synthetic chemicals of any kind. The shade trees above the coffee plants filter carbon dioxide (a cause of global warming), and aid in soil moisture retention, minimizing erosion.
*Recycling. All coffee remnants from production are used in the continuing enrichment of the soil and habitat protection for the farm. The second skin of the coffee is used as fuel to dry the beans, avoiding cutting down trees to provide that fuel.
* Habitat. Shade Grown coffee provides important bird habitat and supports greater biodiversity. Migrating bird populations have been in rapid decline since the relatively recent introduction of “sun” coffee and the consequent destruction of rainforest for more coffee plantations. Our coffee collaborators, the Hartmann Family, have had more birds identified on their Shade Grown coffee finca than on any other finca in the world: 173 species, according to the Smithsonian Institute!
* Rain forest Preservation. Shade Grown coffee plantations help sustain rain forests. Chemically dependent coffee plantations suffer from soil depletion and increased erosion. Rain forest is stripped to provide fresh growing ground. Shade coffee farms are, for the most part, organic and sustainable. Valley of the Moonâ„¢ Coffee finca is 50% shade grown coffee plantation and 50% untouched mountain rain forest. Without this tree cover, the heavy rains in the Panamanian Highlands will rapidly denude the hills of their soil cover.
* Preserves Soil Vitality. Chemical coffee farming, dependent on synthetic fertilizer, damages the micro organism web of life which makes soil viable and healthy. Shade Grown, chemical free coffee growing reverses the trend towards chemicals and dependence on them induced by the progressive death of the soil. Since the soil in a chemical coffee finca is devitalized, more chemicals must be used to keep it producing, further polluting both the coffee and the environment. Shade coffee farms traditionally use little or no chemical fertilizer. And Valley of the Moonâ„¢ uses none.
History
Before the advent of “modern†coffee varieties, all coffee was Shade Grown. Traditional coffee varieties are naturally intolerant of direct sunlight, prefering a canopy of sun-filtering shade trees to thrive. The trees not only protect the coffee from direct sun, they also mulch the soil with their fallen leaves which helps retain soil moisturel, shelter birds, insects and pollinators and offer habitat protection for a wide variety of organisms and animals. The shade trees enhance the soil, provide all-important nitrogen fixation and offer vitally needed habitat for birds. The birds in turn provide natural insect control with their constant foraging and fertilization with their droppings. This sustainable method of farming typically uses little or no chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. Valley of the Moon™ never uses any.
In 1972, new hybrid varieties of coffee (non GMO varieties) were developed to increase production of the valuable coffee crop. These new varieties produced significantly more coffee beans which were larger and easier to harvest, and produced best in direct sunlight.
Many growers cut their shade trees and switched to the new varieties. Of the 6 million acres of coffee lands, 60% have been completely stripped of shade trees since 1972. Only the small, low-tech farms, often too poor to afford chemicals, preserved their shade trees. Valley of the Moon™’s shade trees are visually and environmentally breathtaking.
Tragically, the new varieties of “sun” coffee carried an additional cost as well: the new hybrids were dependent on high doses of pesticides and chemical fertilizers because they were neither hardy nor naturally resistant to pests, fungus and disease. Soil erosion, water runoff and soil depletion as a result of chemical use and poor agricultural management induced producers to clear vast tracts of rain forest for new soil to plant. It rapidly became apparent that this new method of growing coffee was unsustainable.
The loss of the shade trees on such a large scale also caused an estimated 20% decline in migratory bird populations in the last ten years, due to habitat loss. The diminished songbird population is apparent as far as 1500 miles away from the coffee growing regions in North America and Europe.
In 1996, the movement to support Shade Grown coffee was sparked by the Smithsonian Institute’s Migratory Bird Center, which gathered environmentalists, farmers and coffee companies to address the problem and promote awareness of shade coffee. Today, sales of organically grown, shade coffee represent about 1%, or $30 million, of the U.S. market for coffee beans.
Cost and Selection
How do I know if my coffee is shade grown?
~ Make sure your coffee is Valley of the Moonâ„¢ Friendly Food Certified Coffee
~ Look for coffee which, like Valley of the Moonâ„¢ Coffee states on its literature, packaging or website, that it is “Shade Grown” coffee and uses no pesticides or herbicides.
~ Country of origin is an indicator. While there are exceptions, coffee produced from southern Mexico, El Salvador, Peru, Panama, Nicaragua and Guatemala are primarily shade grown. Also, coffee from Sumatra, Timor, New Guinea and Ethiopia are mostly shade grown. Coffees from Colombia, Brazil and Costa Rica are more likely to be “sun” coffees, although there are some shade producers from these regions.
Panama, the home of Valley of the Moon(TM) is one of the world’s smallest coffee producers but is recognized world-wide as the home of some of the world’s best coffees because Panamaninan Specialty Coffee Growers set their collective goal as the production of the world’s finest coffee. Valley of the Moon(TM) is proud to be part of the quality tradition of Panama.
Cost
Although Shade Grown coffee may be more expensive than pesticide-grown industrial coffee, there is far less cost to the environment and it is far less costly to your health.
Natural Solutions Foundation want to thank Eartheasy for this information on Shade Grown vs. industrial coffee.
And thank you for supporting health freedom, the International Decade of Nutrition and the Valley of the Moon(TM) Eco Demonstration Community with its farm, farm school, natural medical center, housing, community center and more. Visit us at www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org and visit us in person in the temperate, magnificent Highlands of Chiriqui, Panama.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.Organics4U.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMedia.tv
Neither Candidate for the office of President of the US is committed to controlling, labeling and eliminating GMOs.
That’s bad news for the environment and bad news for us.
But the situation is not hopeless. Take South Africa, for example.
Despite years of force feeding GMO staple foods, including white corn, which most of South Africa’s poor population lives on, the South African Government, despite a great deal of backing and filling, has finally made mandatory labeling of all GMO food and ingredients mandatory.
Why can’t we do the same? Why can’t we rouse enough outrage and pressure to force the US to retreat from its 1992 position, instituted upon the signing of an Executive Order by then-President George Bush Sr., making GMOs administratively (and pseudo-scientifically) “substantially equivalent” to non modified foods.
Science, on the other hand, makes it clear that nothing could be further from the truth. If you check out the GMO Files in this blog, you will find abundant – and very scary – data that makes it clear that these “foods” are not food at all, but industrial toxins.
Right now there are three laws before the US House of Representatives, sponsored by Rep. Denis Kuchinch (D, OH) which would require safety testing, labeling and scientific evaluation of all GMO crops and products.
Click here (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25920) to support those bills and ask your Congressional members to become both supporters and co-sponsors of this vitally important legislation.
In the meantime, I hope you will join the Natural Solutions Foundation’s vigorous and active No-GMO-Forum (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/no-genetically-modified-foods/join) and become part of the community of action to stop being fed industrial toxins instead of food, all with the connivance of the next POTUS (President of the United States).
And don’t forget to give generously to support the Natural Solutions Foundation as we keep health freedom free! Click here (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189) to make your recurring, tax exempt donation and here (http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=1130) to order the best coffee in the world, our Valley of the Moon(TM) shade grown, chemical free coffee – ground or whole bean ~ A Little Bit of (NON GMO) Heaven in a Cup(TM) ~ while you support health freedom.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
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US election impact on GM food
By Sarah Hills, 31-Oct-2008 [www.nutraingredients-usa.com]
Genetically modified food companies should be paying particular attention to the results of next week’s presidential election as they could face tough times ahead, according to a Soil Association report. Click here () to read more.
Consumers, food manufacturers and farmers are increasingly moving away from GM products, the new study called Land of the GM-Free? How the American public are starting to turn against GM food, claimed.
At the same time the UK environmental charity said 87 percent of Americans want labels on food telling them whether Genetically Modified (GM) products have been used or not.
The SA added: “These developments, combined with the possibility of Democrat Presidential Candidate Barack Obama’s pledge to support legislation to label GM food if he should get elected, suggest that GM companies are in for a difficult few years in the USA.”