Cohousing-L Mailing List: Organic Food and science

[sga1 (sga1]

Hi all,

I'm surprised that the conversation has gotten this far without anyone
challenging the basic assumption that there isn't sound, accepted science
concerning health risks and conventional food.

Look no further than farm worker communities who suffer elevated cancer
and infertility rates. My own brother nearly died of testicular cancer at
21, a type of cancer that is causally linked to exposure to xenoestrogens
in the womb, such as pesticides and PCBs.

Of course, for those people who think the only important part of the food
chain is themselves, ourstolenfuture.com has exhaustive data on how
different cancers result from exposure to minute amounts of pesticides,
such as those found residually in conventional food. The articles are
published in peer-reviewed, scientific journals--no new age "it's all
about how I FEEL" articles there.

Pesticides risks go far beyond the back-and-forth around trans fats.
They've been documented thousands and thousands of times since the
publication of Silent Spring four decades ago. The fact that they're not
well know simply speaks to the size and power of Monsanto and Dow's PR
budget, not their basis in science.


Yours,
Sean Armstrong
Marsh Commons
Arcata, CA


> Hi Racheli,
>
> No, sustainability is not a fad, it's a pretty reasonable goal, but only
> one facet of organic foods, probably one of the better reasons for
> favoring
> organics.  And sustainability is only one facet of cohousing, though a
> major facet for the eco-village wing of the movement.  I think the core
> value in cohousing is community and connection between people (and of
> course there are a lot of other communities that go after this in a
> different way  - communal groups, for one).  Anyway, if we favor the "fad"
> at the expense of community, we lose in the long run.  Food, and eating
> together, is a key way for people to interact within cohousing, and if
> food
> politics is a wedge driving people apart it's not good for community.  I
> submit that one measure of a cohousing community's success (but only one
> of
> many) might be the frequency of and attendance at community meals. Every
> community has to tackle the barriers to making meals work in its own way,
> since every bunch of folks is different.  I like a lot of the responses to
> this thread and agree with some of what TR said.
>
> Cheers
>
> John Beutler (aka JAB)
>
>
> At 07:36 AM 6/5/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>>Hi JAB,
>>It's interesting to me that you put "organic" and "low trans" in the same
>>basket...
>>They are, of course, comparable in a certain way, since they're both seen
>>as connected to the wish
>>(on the part of some) to eat healthy food.  However, the issue of buying
>>organic has a lot to do
>>with a viewpoint which places high priority on creating a sustainable way
>>of life.  Is that a "fad"?
>>And isn't deciding what's "reasonable", as opposed to what is merely a
>>"fad" as politically motivated
>>as the decision to support organic/local/etc.?
>>
>>On a more general level, I'm finding (after nearly 5 years in my
>> cohousing
>>community), that the
>>idea that people of all ideologies can live side by side happily is truly
>>NOT a viable one, partly because
>>of the close proximity in which we reside:  Someone who wants an
>> "organic"
>>neighborhood, finds it hard
>>to live in close proximity to someone who thinks that using pesticides is
>>a viable option (and vice
>>versa);  If I want to put solar panels on my roof, and some of my
>>community members object because
>>the panels are not aesthetically pleasing to them, how exactly do we come
>>to a mutually satisfactory
>>resoltion? (There aren't many options regarding how the panels will look
>>on the roof);  and yes, someone
>>who would like to eat organic common meals is, in fact, being left out by
>>a community who doesn't
>>choose to pursue that route (because I can choose to participate in the
>>system and cook organically for everyone
>>else.  But if most other people don't choose to cook organic, what's in
>> it
>>for me?)
>>I could give many other examples, but perhaps these are sufficient to
>>establish
>>my point that insisting on keeping things "mainstream" isn't often
>>workable for those of us who
>>aren't, and the other way around.  And it's a type of pigeonholing, too,
>> -
>>just a different one...
>>My opinion is that it's truly important for communities to establish in
>>unambiguous way what they believe
>>in.  The less ambiguity, the better chance to avoid some types of
>> problems
>>in the future.
>>The ambiguity serves the initial and paramount need of selling units, but
>>really sets things up for trouble in
>>the long run, because it creates a great likelihood that people with
>>potentially incompatible sets of values end
>>up living next to each other.
>>
>>Best,
>>Racheli.
>>
>>
>>
>>On Jun 5, 2005, at 6:34 AM, John Beutler wrote:
>>
>>>I have a philosophical point I want to make about the drift of the
>>>discussion, and that is, I think we want to be careful to not make the
>>>cohousing movement an incubator for every [nutritional] fad that comes
>>>down the pike.  I have no particular bone to pick with organic veggies,
>>>or trans fats or seafood contamination, but I think institutionalizing
>>>such points of view will marginalize the cohoousing movement.
>>>
>>>At Liberty Village, we try to respect vegetarians by providing a
>>>reasonable alternative at community meals.  With a larger community,
>>> this
>>>is not so hard to do.  We recently had a wonderful person move in who
>>> has
>>>difficulty with both gluten and dairy - this is going to be much more
>>>difficult to deal with in group cooking.  But these are actual
>>>demonstrable needs, as opposed to opinions of what people ought to
>>>eat.  I say that if you are the cook, show us how wholesome and tasty
>>>your particular type of food is, and we'll all happily eat it, but don't
>>>ask someone else who's cooking to hew to your perspective of how it
>>>should be done, whether that's organic or low trans or whatever.  And
>>>label the food so people know what you've made.
>>>
>>>My point extends to other areas of community life.  We don't want to be
>>>pigeonholed as lefties, though many of us are.  We don't want to be
>>>viewed as retirement communities unless that's the goal.  The appearance
>>>of normalcy is important for cohousing to grow and thrive.
>>>
>>>Cheers
>>>
>>>JAB
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>At 12:24 PM 6/4/2005 -0700, Deborah Mensch wrote:
>>>>At communities where there is not an agreement from the get-go to
>>>>purchase organic when possible, have there been any evolutionary
>>>>changes toward organic? If so, how have these occurred?
>>>>
>>>>I could ask the same question about other current changes in
>>>>nutritional awareness, such as avoiding trans fats or avoiding seafood
>>>>that is commonly contaminated or environmentally damaging.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks,
>>>>Deborah Mensch
>>>>Pleasant Hill Cohousing
>>>>
>>>>On 6/4/05, Mary Ruthsdotter <maryru [at] sonic.net> wrote:
>>>> > Two Acre Wood makes a point of buying organic whenever possible.
>>>>The
>>>> > incremental cost increase seems small in life's long run.
>>>> >
>>>> > Mary Ruthsdotter
>>>> > 660 Robinson Road
>>>> > Sebastopol, CA  95472
>>>> > (707) 824-6844
>>>> >
>>>> > -----Original Message-----
>>>> > From: Chris ScottHanson [mailto:chris [at] cohousingresources.com]
>>>> > Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2005 7:45 AM
>>>> > To: Cohousing-l
>>>> > Subject: [C-L]_ Organic Food and cohousing
>>>> >
>>>> > Would I be correct in assuming that virtually ALL cohousers support,
>>>> > and even possibly promote the organic food movement?  That some of
>>>> us
>>>> > can't afford to always eat organic, but that most if not all of us
>>>> > try to do so?
>>>> >
>>>> > Just wondering, because I thought the recent Store Wars movie was a
>>>> > great educational and fun piece promoting the use off organic foods.
>>>> >
>>>> > What are your thoughts, cohousers?  Oh!  And please let me knot if
>>>> > you think this is off topic.  A cohouser sent me this link, below
>>>> and
>>>> > we agreed it would be good to circulate widely, especially to
>>>> > cohousers with kids.
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > Chris ScottHanson
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > On Jun 3, 2005, at 12:55 PM, Fred H Olson wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> > > On Fri, 3 Jun 2005, Chris ScottHanson wrote:
>>>> > >
>>>> > >
>>>> > >>   http://www.storewars.org/flash/index.html
>>>> > >>
>>>> > >>
>>>> > >
>>>> > > Is this really related to cohousing?
>>>> > > If so why not a few words of explanation?
>>>> > >
>>>> > > Fred
>>>> > _________________________________________________________________
>>>> > Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
>>>> > http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>>>> >
>>>
>>>John Beutler
>>>Liberty Village, MD
>>>jbeutler [at] adelphia.net
>>>http://www.libertyvillage.com/
>>>_________________________________________________________________
>>>Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
>>>http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>>>
>>
>>_________________________________________________________________
>>Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
>>http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>>
>
> John Beutler
> Liberty Village, MD
> jbeutler [at] adelphia.net
> http://www.libertyvillage.com/
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>
>


Sean Armstrong


Project Administrator
31 South G Street
Arcata, CA 95521
707.826.1450
sga1 [at] humboldt.edu