Here We Go Again: The (Wrong) Egg and Health Debate
Apr/083
The popular press is atwitter with the latest study on whether eggs are good for you or not, this one from
The study would seem to suggest that, for middle-aged men at least, eating more than 6 eggs a week will increase your chances of death. Which is in itself a strange proposition, in that any human being’s chance of death is 100%, and if you’re gonna die, why not enjoy as many eggs as you like…Â but I digress.
Here’s the thing that the sustainable food community needs to talk about: Like most longitudinal health studies, this research doesn’t distinguish the quality of the foods study participants ate. We know that factory farmed eggs are lower in omega-3 fatty acids than eggs from pasture-raised fowl (http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm), and that omega-3 fatty acids are actually good for you and play a vital role in every cell and system in your body. Consuming ample amounts of omega-3s in your diet makes you less likely to have high blood pressure or an irregular heartbeat, and 50 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack. People with a diet rich in omega-3s are less likely to suffer from depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder (hyperactivity), and Alzheimer’s disease.
And omega-3s are just one of the nutritional superiorities of pastured eggs over factory farmed eggs. We can reasonably assume that the massive, overwhelming percentage (90? 95? 99.9?) of eggs consumed by the participants in the Harvard/Brigham study were conventional, factory farm eggs. After all, in a study period covering the 20-plus-year heyday of industrial ag (1980 to 200?), how much chance did those people have to get organic, pasture-raised eggs? Quality, not quantity, is what we should be demanding health researchers to investigate. Given the role of sustainably-produced eggs as a low cost-to-consume, (relatively) low cost-to-produce, low environmental-impact source of protein, they are very likely to play a critical part in a future food system that is more in synch with nature. Increasing the supply of that pasture-raised product will improve our nation’s health and well-being, and that’s what the public discourse about eggs (and ag) and health should be addressing.
Organic Dairying: Up-Close and Personal
Apr/080
This year’s Piedmont Farm Tour, April 19-20, features one of those organic dairying success stories that NCDA and Farm Bureau seem to have missed (http://www.carolinafarmstewards.org/blog/?p=7). Lindale Organic Dairy in Snow Camp is the first organic dairy in Chatham County and you can see first hand the incredible work and dedication that Neill and Cori Lindley have put in to convert their formerly conventional operation to organic by visiting them during the tour. The Lindleys have become incredible ambassadors for this kind of dairying and it’s positive impacts on their animals, their pastures, and the families they serve with their milk.
The farm is a member of the Organic Valley CROPP cooperative (http://www.organicvalley.coop/), and Organic Valley is so impressed with the operation that the company is bringing its chain grocery customers to the farm later in April. (CFSA will be taking advantage of the opportunity to present Organic Valley with our 2007 Business of the Year award, http://chatham.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=news&ci=EXCE+2.)
Piedmont Farm Tour visitors will get a unique opportunity–first of it’s kind in the entire Southeast–to see an organic dairy in operation and learn how the Lindleys cope with the challenges of our climate to manage a dairy herd without antibiotics or hormones, while adhering to Organic Valley’s strict pasture requirements (more strict than the USDA’s). Please, when you visit, make sure to pay attention to biosecurity measures we’ll have in place and do your part to help protect the Lindale herd and our food supply!
It looks to be another great tour. Hope you can join us.