Gardening for the Prime of Your Life
This blog entry is dedicated to Nicole Fournier and all the eco artists who integrate food production into their art practice.
Recent reports about food and health confirm the optimist's gratitude to be alive in the 21st century AND the pessimist's anxiety and despair.
Optimism was confirmed by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany who reported that human life expectancy has risen faster than it did in the previous 200 millennia since modern man began to evolve from hominid species.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, announced that primitive hunter gatherers, at age 30, had the same odds of dying as a modern Swedish or Japanese man face today at 72. The rate of increase in human life expectancy is rising is faster than scientists have managed to increase longevity by genetically engineering species such as fruit flies.
Pessimists may be surprised to learn that increased agricultural productivity was cited as one reason for this extension (in addition to antibiotics, vaccines, and sanitation). Despite the persistence of hunger, it seems more people have access to more food than in previous eras.
Does this study undermine the pessimists’ bleak assessment of the contemporary state of food security?
Not at all.
The quality of food is declining. Between 1975 and 2010, vitamin C in broccoli down 75.1%, calcium is down 54.4%. iron in kale down 22.7%, vitamin A in carrots is down 24.6%, vitamin C in cabbage is down 22.1%. In 2004, the Journal of the Ameican College of Nutrition confirmed declines in all six major nutrients: protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin, and ascorbic acid. The reason, it suggested, was the new strains of food that are designed to produce higher yields, faster growth, stronger colors, greater uniformity, and better pest resistance. Lower levels of nutrients were compounded by the decline in seed quality, loss of topsoil, decline in air, soil, and water quality, pesticides and chemicals on farms, thinning of ozone, and pollution. Anotoher nutrient-draining factor is electric and microwave cooking, food irradiation, and corporate food processing. The ‘ki’ (life energy) is being drained, smothered, poisoned, and starved out of our foods – including organically grown fruits and vegetables.
The moral of this tale is GROW YOUR OWN in order to remain healthy throughout the long life we 21st century folks have been granted.