September 15, 2007
Contents:
- EDITORIAL: Autism, Raw Milk and Pushing the Envelope
- FEATURE: Why Raw Milk is Important to Canadians
- UPDATE: Support Online Petition to End Fluoridation and Call for a Congressional Hearing
- UPDATE: Stop Genetically Engineered Sugar Beets Before 2008
- UPDATE: Accessible Education in Organic Land Care
- Second Annual Organic Okanagan Festival
- Heavy Fuel Oil Consumption in Canada 1990 to 2005
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EDITORIAL: Autism, Raw Milk and Pushing the Envelope
Dear HANS Members and Friends;
After our last e-News, one of our subscribers raised a very important point. Jenise wrote in her e-mail, `I am concerned that some readers might not realize that the story on fad treatments for autism (
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/0708201...) is extremely biased against natural health solutions in any form. Reading it nearly made me puke. Even the claim that implied actual cases of autism haven`t really increased, it is just that we as a society are better at diagnosing and are now calling autism `autism` left an extremely bad taste in my mouth.`
Well, it left a bad taste in mine as well. And that`s one of the reasons we included it: to encourage our e-subscribers to react, and act.
As an organization, Health Action Network Society has always tried to represent freedom of choice, freedom of thought. Is that sitting on the fence? Personally, I believe it respects individuals more than news censorship would. I definitely don`t agree with the news bias in all of the links in our Media Watch section, but if we only send links to stories we agree with, is that not just as bad as the blind eye that mainstream media are often accused of having towards natural news? There no easy answer to this one. What do you think?
But back to that story on autism, thanks for writing, Jenise. And if you agree with her, here`s the e-mail for the editor of that media outlet: editor@sciencedaily.com. A quick response might make a difference. Here`s another link you also might find interesting. It`s from a back issue of our e-News where we featured `Autism, There`s Hope Out There` by Lawrie Mawlam, Executive Director of the Autism Canada Foundation.
http://www.hans.org/enews/issue/27
And while we`re on the subject of pushing the conventional envelope, let`s talk about raw milk. Yes, raw, unpasteurized milk, and I can just hear the gasps. But actually, the issue has recently made it to the pages of the New York Times and The Washington Post, as enthusiasm for raw milk has taken off.
On Thursday, October 25, HANS is hosting `Want Real Milk? Get RAW Milk` at Burnaby`s Firefighters Banquet and Conference Centre (full details and map at www.hans.org). Our speaker is Mark McAfee, who was featured in that New York Times article and was also recently interviewed by Katie Couric of the CBS Evening News. Mark founded and runs the Organic Pastures Dairy Company in Fresno County, the only retail-approved, raw organic dairy products producer in North America. He`s going to discuss the myths surrounding raw milk production.
`The greatest challenge to the growth of the raw milk market is condemnation by government and regulatory agencies of the facts surrounding effective, safe, raw milk production,` he says.
Our feature article in this issue is on raw milk by a raw milk enthusiast. Happy reading (and gasping). And if you`re free on October 25, please join us for a thoughtful lecture and in questioning a little more conventional wisdom.
Warm regards,
Lorna Hancock
Founding member and Executive Director
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FEATURE: Why Raw Milk is Important to Canadians
by Nielsen RandCanadians have always prided themselves on choice. One of the primary/fundamental ways we do this is by owning our diet. Knowing how, where and by whom our foods are produced, become indicators to the quality and nutrient density of our food.
Raw unprocessed milk is one of nature`s superfoods. Loaded with vitamins, enzymes, minerals and proteins, this substance in its natural unprocessed state offers health, healing and satisfaction. Many people with asthma and allergies that have switched to raw milk have noted that their ailments have cleared up. However, when subjected to pasteurization, the heat sensitive vitamins and minerals of raw milk get destroyed, the enzymes are rendered impotent and the proteins denatured. This once living and life-giving food becomes a shadow of what it was - albeit with a longer shelf life.
Two kinds of milk
When healthy animals are raised the way nature intended - outside with a grass-based diet - real milk in its natural state is one of nature`s most healing whole foods. A grass-based diet provides for significantly higher levels of vitamins in the milk and a much healthier ratio of healthy omega-3 to omega-6 essential fatty acids. Research shows that vitamin E along with cancer-fighting fats are 300 to 500 percent higher in animals or their milk products, when animals are raised on grass. In contrast to this natural production paradigm is the industrial agribusiness system that much of our milk is currently produced in. These industrialized confinement operations have been designed to maximize efficiencies and production quantities while limiting costs - feed and otherwise - all at the expense of the quality of the milk. Commodity milk produced in this manner without regard to nature`s intention provides a case for pasteurization.
Environmental impact
Apart from beautifying rural landscapes, grass-based animal production also has a net-reducing effect on green house gasses in the atmosphere. When grasslands are nurtured intentionally through holistic grazing management, the total net atmospheric carbon load is reduced - animal emissions included. This process of absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and adding it to the soil raises the soil`s organic matter, heightens the biological activity in the soil, increases moisture absorption and retention while reducing the incidence of erosion.
Currently in Canada, it`s illegal to purchase unprocessed raw milk. Hopefully, this will change. As our society strengthens its focus in selecting invigorating foods, real unprocessed milk offers unequalled possibilities for vitality and health fulfillment.
Nielsen Rand has an imagination that`s been captivated by the benefits grass-based farming provides to the health and vitality of soils, animals, the environment, and people. Raised a farm boy who milked the family cow, he believes it`s every Canadians choice whether they consume raw milk. www.realmilkcanada.com
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UPDATE: Support Online Petition to End Fluoridation and Call for a Congressional Hearing
On August 9, 2007, the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) released a statement signed by over 600 professionals calling for an end to fluoridation. The signers include a Nobel Prize winner, three members of the landmark 2006 National Research Council report on fluoride`s toxicology, three officers in the Union representing professionals at EPA headquarters, the Executive Board of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, leading fluoride researchers, and hundreds of medical, dental, scientific and environmental professionals from around the world.
More than 4,000 signers has joined this petition as of September 15, 2007. Join it yourself at
http://www.actionstudio.org/public/page_view_all.cfm...
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UPDATE: Stop Genetically Engineered Sugar Beets Before 2008
American Crystal, a large Wyoming-based sugar company, who ironically have launched an `organic` line of their sugar, and several other leading American sugar providers have announced they will be sourcing their sugar from genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets beginning this year and arriving in stores in 2008. Like GE corn and GE soy, products containing GE sugar will not be labeled as such.
Since half of the granulated sugar in the US comes from sugar beets, a move towards biotech beets marks a dramatic alteration of the US food supply. These sugars, along with GE corn and soy, are found in many conventional food products, so consumers will be exposed to genetically engineered ingredients in just about every non-organic multiple-ingredient product they purchase.
More at
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsOR...
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UPDATE: Accessible Education in Organic Land Care
Organic land care is the design, installation and maintenance of landscapes to promote and preserve environmental health both above and below ground. These practices arise from the understanding that all organisms in nature are interdependent, and in order to have healthy plants we must foster the health of their entire ecosystem.
Organic land care practices go beyond integrated pest management, beyond the use of so-called organic fertilizers and pesticides. They acknowledge the concept of intrinsic health, and seek to create environments that cater to the well-being of all their inhabitants.
Organic land care professionals know that they are but stewards of the land, and can at best hope to work WITH nature, never to dominate it.
Please check out at this website:
http://www.gaiacollege.ca/public/programs/index-clas... for information on upcoming courses in organic gardening for home gardeners and landscape professionals.
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Second Annual Organic Okanagan Festival
On Sunday, September 23, 2007, the Okanagan Greens invite you and your family to join us at the 2nd Annual Organic Okanagan Festival! The Organic Okanagan Festival is hosted by the Okanagan Greens - a local action group focused on Working together with the Okanagan community for a healthy environment, happy people and a sustainable local economy.
Last year`s festival was well attended by over 300 people and raised funds for the Okanagan Greens Local Food for Local Schools program, as well as $500 in food donations for the Kelowna Food Bank.
The focus of the festival is bringing together like-minded green businesses and organizations in the Central Okanagan (and in all sectors), and introducing our community to them in a dynamic, educational, beautiful and fun environment.
When: Sunday September 23, 2007 - autumn equinox!
Time: 11 am - 4 pm
Where: Summerhill Pyramid Winery
4870 Chute Lake Road - on the Sunset Veranda
Admission: $5 + a non-perishable food donation
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Heavy Fuel Oil Consumption in Canada 1990 to 2005
While not one of the main energy sources nationally, heavy fuel oil is still an important fuel source for some industries in Canada, according to a new study by Statistics Canada.
In Canada, no significant shift from the combustion of hydrocarbons toward more benign and renewable energy sources, such as hydro-electricity, has occurred during the past 15 years. However, some progress has been made in the case of heavy fuel oil, a highly polluting, low-grade fuel of tar-like consistency composed mostly of carbon, hydrogen, sulphur and other impurities such as ash. There has been a small decline in its overall use as an energy source, according to this study in the Analysis in Brief series.
In 1990, heavy fuel oil was used to produce an estimated 419.5 petajoules of energy. By 2005, this production had declined to 387.3 petajoules. (One petajoule contains energy equivalent to about 30 million litres of gasoline, enough to power Canada from all sources for a little more than an hour.)
More at
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/070906/d070906b....