Humanure

[Ecofarm]

There are additional phytochemicals and vitamin building-blocks in organic fruit. There is a nutritional difference; however, this might be mostly because conventional fruit has been selected for shelf-resiliance and uniformity - not nutrition and flavor.

When we look at the animal part of the comparison, there is a significant reduction in personal health risks and improvement in food quality with organic products. I recommend people put their organic dollars into animal products when funds are limited, for maximizing both personal and environmental impact.

[MikeH]

There are additional phytochemicals and vitamin building-blocks in organic fruit. There is a nutritional difference; however, this might be mostly because conventional fruit has been selected for shelf-resiliance and uniformity - not nutrition and flavor..

If the same fruit variety is grown organically or non-organically, there's no difference.

[MikeH]

It's not my field, but a quick google suggests there is some scientific evidence.

For example:

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/12.07/11-dairy.html

http://www.health101.org/art_Milk_and_Girls.htm

http://www.preventcancer.com/consumers/general/milk.htm

JM

Enough that eg. BST is banned in the EU (and elsewhere)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_somatotropin

[MrFun]

Seems like Spaced Cowboy and JM has provided some information that contradicts Drake's sources.

[Ecofarm]

If the same fruit variety is grown organically or non-organically, there's no difference.

That is incorrect.

Figure 4: Total phenolics in frozen, freeze-dried, and air-dried (A) marionberries, (B) strawberries, and (C) corn grown by conventional (gray bars), organic (white bars), and sustainable (black bars) agricultural practices. Source: Asami et al, 2003.

Asami, D., Y. Hong, D. Barrett, and A. Mitchell. (2003) “Comparison of the Total Phenolic and Ascorbic Acid Content of Freeze-Dried and Air-Dried Marionberry, Strawberry, and Corn Grown Using Conventional, Organic, and Sustainable Agricultural Practices”. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 51. 1237.

[MikeH]

Interesting. Would like to read the methodology. If you have the paper, does it say they are using the same variety/growing conditions and site in each case?

[Ecofarm]

If they are not, I would expect a noted Journal to reject the article. Any University or even HS journal search engine linked to major e-publishers should have it.

[Dinner]

BST is an excellent example of things which shouldn't be used. Of course this isn't a knock on traditionally grown foodstuffs so much as an example of corporate greed without regard for the health of citizens & consumers.

[Ecofarm]

If consumers cannot be responsible for their health, we're screwed anyway. The most often overlooked aspect of the free market... the informed consumer.

If people wanna be dumb and eat crap, then that's what we do for a bit. Perhaps it is best.

[Jon Miller]

Sometimes it is hard to find non-crap

JM

[Ben Kenobi]

If they are not, I would expect a noted Journal to reject the article. Any University or even HS journal search engine linked to major e-publishers should have it.

Dubious reasoning. Hasn't happened with global warming, has it?

[Ben Kenobi]

The levels of flavonoids increased over time in samples from organic treatments, whereas the levels of flavonoids did not vary significantly in conventional treatments. This increase corresponds not only with increasing amounts of soil organic matter accumulating in organic plots but also with reduced manure application rates once soils in the organic systems had reached equilibrium levels of organic matter. Well-quantified changes in tomato nutrients over years in organic farming systems have not been reported previously.

IOW, they added crap to the organic plots. This study is garbage, you cannot treat each plot in a different manner.

[Dinner]

If consumers cannot be responsible for their health, we're screwed anyway.

I agree but that isn't an excuse for allowing a known cancer causing substance to put in food. There is a reason BST is banned in virtually every country but the US.

[hshields]

infectious human & animal prions in sewage sludge "biosolids"

Do not spread Class A sewage sludge "biosolids" in your home flower and vegetable gardens.

The US EPA and waste industry are promoting the landspreading of Class B sewage sludge containing infectious human and animal prions on grazing lands, hay fields, and dairy pastures. This puts livestock and wildlife at risk of infection. They ingest large quantities of dirt and top dressed sludge with their fodder.

Prion infected Class A sludge "biosolids" compost is spread in parks, playgrounds, home lawns, flower and vegetable gardens - putting humans, family pets, and children with their undeveloped immune systems and hand-to-mouth "eat dirt" behavior at risk. University of Wisconsin prion researchers, working with $100,000 EPA grant and a $5 million Dept. of Defense grant, have found that prions become 680 times more infectious in certain types of soil. Prions can survive for over 3 years in soils. And human prions are 100,000 times more difficult to inactivate than animal prions

Recently, researchers at UC Santa Cruz, and elsewhere, announced that Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a prion disease. "Prion" = proteinaceous infectious particle which causes always fatal TSEs (Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies) in humans and animals including BSE (Mad Cow Disease), scrapie in sheep and goats, and Chronic Wasting Disease in deer, elk and moose. Human prion diseases are AD and CJD (Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease,) and other rarer maladies. Infectious prions have been found in human and animal muscle tissue including heart, saliva, blood, urine, feces and many other organs.

Alzheimer's rates are soaring as Babyboomers age - there are now over 5.3 million AD victims in US shedding infectious prions in their blood, urine and feces, into public sewers. This Alzheimer's epidemic has almost 500,000 new victims each year. No sewage treatment process inactivates prions - they are practically indestructible. The wastewater treatment process reconcentrates the infectious prions in the sewage sludge.

Quotes from Dr. Joel Pedersen, Univ. of Wisconsin, on his prion research:

"
Our results suggest that if prions were to enter municipal waste water treatment systems, most of the agent would partition to activated sludge solids, survive mesophilic anaerobic digestion, and be present in
treated biosolids. Land application of biosolids containing prions could represent a route for their unintentional introduction into the environment. Our results argue for excluding inputs of prions to municipal wastewater treatment."



"Prions could end up in wastewater treatment plants via slaughterhouse drains, hunted game cleaned in a sink, or humans with vCJD shedding prions in their urine or faeces, Pedersen says"


(Note - This UW research was conducted BEFORE UCSC scientists determined that Alzheimer's Disease is another prion disease which may be shedding infectious prions into public sewers and Class B and Class A sludge "biosolids.)



Helane Shields, Alton, NH 03809

https://www.sludgevictims.com/pathogens/ALZHEIMERS-CJD-samepriondisease.doc

https://www.sludgevictims.com/pathgens/prions-composting.html

https://www.sludgevictims.com/pathogens/prion.html

[Ecofarm]

IOW, they added crap to the organic plots. This study is garbage, you cannot treat each plot in a different manner.

Sure. All plots should be completely identical. That would prove something.


"Our study found that all plots being identical produced identical results". Fantastic. Science marches on.

Of course the plots were treated differently. WTF would be the point if they were not. God damn. What kind of scientific method do they teach in Canada?