Organic Bytes
Newsletter #943: The Food System Built on Fossil Fuels Is Breaking Down

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The Solution Is Organic

The U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran has choked off the Strait of Hormuz, and with it, the supply of fossil-fuel-derived synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. Prices are spiking, and the UN’s  Food and Agriculture Organization is warning of a potential global food crisis.

But the farmers who actually feed most of the world, small-scale family farmers, don’t rely heavily on the fertilizers caught up in this conflict. It’s industrial agriculture that built itself on synthetic inputs, routinely applying more fertilizer than crops can use and sending the rest into rivers, aquifers, and coastal dead zones.

This crisis was avoidable, and the people who will feel it most are the ones who always do. Short of actual food shortages, the biggest drivers of hunger are poverty, inequality, and conflict. Grocery prices are already climbing and that’s hurting working families. The people who depend on food aid and live in conflict zones are hit the hardest.

For people already buying directly from local regenerative organic farmers, not much will change. Those relationships with real farmers and short supply chains have always offered something industrial agriculture never could: a way to nourish communities, build a healthier food supply, local economy, and biodiverse environment, as well as offer insulation from the chaos of global commodity markets.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress: Stop Tying Our Food Supply to Fossil Fuels. Fund Organic and Regenerative Farming in the Farm Bill!

Learn more: Regenerative Organic Solutions to the Fertilizer-Shortage Food Crisis

Find farms around the world that are working toward a regenerative future on our Regenerative Farm Map.

SOIL FERTILITY

Healthy Soil, Healthy Brain: What a New Global Study Found

by Eric W. Dolan, PsyPost – Psychology News:

“A recent study published in Scientific Reports suggests a notable geographical link between global soil fertility and the average intelligence quotient of nations. The findings provide evidence that the nutritional quality of local soils might play an indirect role in shaping human cognitive development on a worldwide scale.

Human brain development relies heavily on adequate nutrition, particularly the intake of essential minerals and vitamins. Plants and animals absorb these nutrients from the earth, meaning human diets are deeply connected to the health of the ground beneath their feet. When soil lacks vital elements like iron, zinc, or iodine, the food grown in it tends to be nutritionally deficient. Deficiencies in these specific nutrients are known to negatively affect cognitive growth, especially in young children.

Zinc and iron are necessary for the central nervous system to build physical structures and produce the chemicals that allow brain cells to communicate. Severe or long-lasting dietary shortages can lead to persistent cognitive impairments and learning difficulties.”

The results should be interpreted as evidence that soil fertility is one potentially important environmental correlate of human intelligence rather than a dominant or exclusive determinant. Read more about this fascinating study.

REAL ORGANIC PROJECT

The New Food Barons: Austin Frerick on Power, Consolidation, and the Fight for American Farming

Real Organic Podcast:

“Austin Frerick takes the stage at our annual The Real Organic Churchtown Dairy event to explain why today’s food economy looks less like a functioning market that benefits farmers and eaters, and more like a new Gilded Age. He traces how a handful of Big Food ‘barons’ have consolidated power over grain, meat, dairy, coffee, and distribution, often using tactics that average humans would just never consider. He then lays out a practical reform agenda built around antitrust enforcement, institutional buying, farm-bill redesign, and stronger journalism to yield a more positive vision for rural America and the future of food and farming.

The Real Organic Podcast is hosted by Dave Chapman and Linley Dixon, engineered by Brandon StCyr, and edited and produced by Jenny Prince. The Real Organic Project is a farmer-led movement working towards certifying 1,000 farms across the United States. Our add-on food label distinguishes soil-grown fruits and vegetables from hydroponically-raised produce, and pasture-raised meat, milk, and eggs from products harvested from animals in horrific confinement (CAFOs – confined animal feeding operations).

To find a Real Organic farm near you, please visit our Farmer Directory. To read our weekly newsletter and get firsthand news about what’s happening with organic food, farming and policy, please subscribe here.”

HEALTH

Defending Our Consciousness Against the Algorithms

by Michael Pollan, Nautilus:

“Worried that the age-old experience of boredom is at risk of extinction at the hands of technology, a group of young influencers on—irony alert—social media are recommending we nurture and celebrate this underappreciated state of mind. To people of a certain age, boredom has evidently become exotic.

These influencers have launched a ‘viral challenge’ on Instagram urging us to try to do absolutely nothing for as long as we possibly can. They claim some scientific backing for the exercise, suggesting that a sustained period of doing nothing will benefit one’s brain and mental health. It increases activity in the ‘default mode network,’ which generates what psychologists call ‘spontaneous thought’—mental activities such as mind-wondering and day-dreaming.

The voices being raised in defense of boredom are onto something, I think, something we would do well to heed before we throw open our lives and minds to artificial intelligence more than we already have.”

For boredom is not the only domain of our consciousness that the algorithms have designs on; it’s just the first to fall.

HEALTHY LIVING

The Brilliant Reverse Salad Trick I Learned 20 Years Ago in France

Christine Gallary, the kitchn:

“When I was a young culinary student over 20 years ago in France, absorbing as much cooking knowledge as I could and also traveling when my student budget allowed. My classmate and friend Sarah invited a group of us down to her house in Provence one weekend, and of course we couldn’t say no. Sarah was American but practically French — she had married someone French, had two kids, and lived in Paris for over two decades. Being a group of culinary students, we of course grocery shopped and cooked together, and Sarah taught me a salad trick I still use today.

Her method, which she said she picked up from someone else in France, was to make the dressing, then layer the other salad ingredients from heaviest to lightest or most delicate on top. For example: dressing, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, lettuce, and herbs. That way the tender greens on the top wouldn’t get crushed or bruised. She tossed everything together with the dressing at the last minute when it was time to serve.

It’s also a great way to travel with a salad — just put a cover on and bring some tongs to do the last-minute toss. You honestly could probably even assemble it in the morning before you go to work and stash the salad in the fridge.”

She was actually making what I now dub a reverse salad, here is how to make it.

SUPPORT OCA & RI

Help Us Turn This Crisis Into Something Better

The fertilizer crisis unfolding right now is not an accident. It is the direct result of decades of policy choices that tied the global food supply to fossil fuels, rewarded industrial agriculture over family farmers, and left communities with no fallback when the system breaks down.

With farmers and policymakers looking for fertilizer alternatives, this crisis may be the opening we need to help move food and farming away from fossil fuel dependence and toward more organic and regenerative food production.

OCA has been making the case for a different kind of food system for over 25 years. If you are reading this, you probably know we work to support organic and regenerative farmers, hold corporations like Bayer accountable, fight for a Farm Bill that serves people rather than commodity giants, and keep you informed about and give you the opportunity to take action on what is really happening in food, farming, and public health.

Please make a donation today and help us keep doing it. With more eyes turning toward what organic farming can actually deliver, help us keep spreading that news and building the vibrant movement behind it.

Make a tax-deductible donation to Organic Consumers Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Make a tax-deductible donation to Regeneration International, our international sister organization

Have you considered making a gift from your IRA?

FOOD INSECURITY

USDA Official Tells Millions Kicked Off Food Aid That They’re ‘Moving Into the American Dream’

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams:

“The head of the US Agriculture Department on Thursday celebrated that millions of people have lost federal nutrition assistance under the second Trump administration, declaring that families who have seen their modest aid disappear are closer to realizing ‘the American dream.’

Speaking at an event in Arizona, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins—who has an estimated net worth of around $15 million—said that the Trump administration has ‘moved about 4 million off of SNAP,’ referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Rollins suggested, without evidence, that some of those who have lost SNAP benefits were receiving them fraudulently. But others, claimed Rollins, are ‘moving into the American dream and off of welfare.’

Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), wrote in response that ‘unless the Trump administration has redefined ‘the American dream’ to mean ‘losing the help your family needs to afford groceries because of federal cuts,’ I have some bad news for Secretary Rollins.’”

The Federal Reserve just weighed in on what’s actually happening to food security under Trump — and it’s not pretty.

NEW STUDY

Scientists Discover Gut Bacteria That May Help Protect Against Autism and ADHD

Cell Press, Science Daily:

“Scientists have uncovered a surprising connection between a baby’s earliest biological programming, the gut microbiome, and later brain development. The findings, published in Cell Press Blue, suggest that epigenetic changes present at birth can influence how gut bacteria develop during infancy. The study also found links between specific epigenetic patterns, certain gut microbes, and signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by age three.

‘Certain bacteria seem to offer protection, which is exciting because it suggests there could be ways to support a child’s development through diet or probiotics in the future,’ says senior author and gastroenterologist Francis Ka Leung Chan of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.”

The ultimate goal is to develop safe, non-intrusive early interventions such as specific probiotics or live biotherapeutics, that could help nurture a healthy gut microbiome and potentially reduce the risk of neurodevelopmental challenges.

Editors Note: The researchers are careful to note that the probiotics they envision are targeted therapeutic strains specific to infant gut development, not the commercial supplements you find on pharmacy shelves.

EATING WITH CONSCIENCE

Make Sure Your Strawberries Are Organic

It’s the time of year many of us are buying berries, so it’s worth knowing what can come with non-organic strawberries. They consistently top the dirty dozen list for good reason. Of the 72 pesticides with established tolerances for the crop, 65 are linked to chronic health problems including cancer, 29 are acutely toxic to farmworkers, and 28 are toxic to bees, which strawberries depend on for pollination.

Between 1992 and 2010, California alone recorded 237 farmworker poisoning incidents tied to strawberry production, and pesticide illness is widely underreported, so that number is almost certainly low.

There’s no way to know which of those 72 pesticides were used to grow any given container of berries unless you know your farmer personally. Your local farmers market is a good place to start, though it’s worth asking them directly. The USDA organic label isn’t perfect, but you can at least know those 72 pesticides aren’t part of the picture.

Beyond Pesticides has a full breakdown of what’s actually on your strawberries at Eating with Conscience.

NATURAL HEALTH

Antibiotic Recovery: The Case for Eating Real Fermented Foods Rather Than Reaching for a Supplement Has Never Been Stronger

The advice has been the same for years. Finish your antibiotics, take a probiotic, move on. Doctors say it, pharmacists say it, and it’s practically printed on the packaging. But a closer look at what actually happens inside the gut tells a different story.

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute found that commercially available multi-strain probiotic supplements didn’t help the gut recover after antibiotics so much as get in the way, with probiotic strains taking up space in the disrupted gut lining and crowding out the native bacteria trying to come back.

Fermented foods like kefir, kimchi, and live-culture yogurt work differently, delivering more diverse strains at lower concentrations that are easier for the gut’s own recovery process to work alongside.

The piece from Pinch of Health breaks down which antibiotics cause the most lasting damage, how long real recovery actually takes, and why dietary fiber matters more than most people realize.