Twenty Five Short Insights On Food, Health and the Environment

These short points can be found in the newsletter "Swedish Doctors for the Environment (LfM)" nr. 2-3 2006 and are comprehensive for what was said during a lecture on toxics in our food.

Consumers

• It was members of the consumer's co-operative society who pushed the ecological trade forward.

Society

• It was those cultures who chose agriculture which have moved on towards the modern civilisation with its culture and technology. Everyone did not have to be involved in finding food for the day, some could be creative in other fields.

• Princes had it easier to rule if they controlled corn stock instead of root vegetable stock.

Substances

• We (Swedes) had a widespread lack of nourishment during the later part of the 18th century. There was especially less iron and vitamin c in Norrland.

• We have forgotten about the berries and their valuable contents.

• We have methods such as preservation which makes it possible to get a hold of locally produced vegetables and fruit all year round.

• When we start to cultivate wild variations of vegetables and berries they will lose parts of their valuable content, which normally can be found in the wild kinds.

• We do not know enough about the valuable content of fruit and vegetables.

Energy

• We can be net producers of energy once again, like the agriculture was before the oil period.

• Physical activity is very important for our health. It is good that we have to use more physical activity during the production of provisions.

Areas

• Grazing-grounds, pastures or rice constitutes more than ninety percent of the production in the world.

• When eat S.M.A.R.T. was used as a platform to calculate how much area it takes to produced food and oil for one person, it amounted to about 1250 M2.

• If you eat ecologically produced meat then it takes larger areas due to the forage, but parts do come from pastures which otherwise would not be used. It takes far less areas if you eat less meat and that the meat is ecological.

Livestock

• The animals are an ecological resource which maintains the ecological balance.

• Lacto-vegetarians live in symbiosis with the meat eaters.

• The animals give warmth which can be good during oil shortage.

Toxics

• To develop variations which are more resistant to diseases means that one develops variations with a higher concentration of toxics.

• When we look the use of chemicals we do not think about the non active substances in a product.

• A Danish study showed that better sperm quality could be linked to ecological farmers rather than traditional farmers.

• We are dependent of the long fatty acids in fish. However, we have polluted fish with chemical toxics.

Local Production

• It is not entirely accurate that food that has been shipped from far away has contributed to more carbon dioxide than locally produced food from greenhouses.

• Locally produced food is the way to go. But we have to gain knowledge how we can adapt to our variable climate.

• Social relations and to feel part of something benefit from the responsibility within the local ecological community.

Conclusions

• Eat S.M.A.R.T. is a good start when discussing eating habits from a global and health perspective.

• We have to change our agriculture to ecocycle agriculture.