Good gluten free cooking demands comparable alternatives for traditional flour and breadcrumbs for a wide range of holiday favorites, so we’ve put together a list of simple, delicious ideas to help you keep on track for a happy, healthy gluten-free holiday.

All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour and Baking Mixes

Gluten helps provide texture to baked goods, making them light and airy. Natural alternatives such as xantham and guar gums are often used to achieve similar results. Many gluten-free baking mixes contain these natural additives, and are designed for you to use in your favorite recipes as a replacement for flour. Check package labels and instructions for best results.

Thickening
Flour is commonly used to thicken pie fillings, sauces and gravy, and sometimes soups and stews. Here are some tasty alternatives:

• Arrowroot or cornstarch – perfect for pie fillings and gravies. Our gluten free Foolproof Turkey Gravy is thickened with cornstarch.
• Rice flour and pureed potatoes, or all-natural potato flakes from a box of instant mashed potatoes can also be used to thicken gravies and sauces.
• Thicken soups with mashed or pureed potatoes or beans such as white beans.
• Gluten-free oats can be used to thicken pureed creamy soups. Simply throw in a handful, simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, puree and serve.

Coating

Breadcrumbs have traditionally been used for coating fish, chicken or pork chops and for topping savory casseroles.

• Gluten-free breadcrumbs are available for purchase, or you can easily make your own by gently toasting your favorite gluten-free bread and then processing to crumbs.
• To bake or pan sauté, coat meats, tofu or tempeh with cornmeal, rice flour, ground nuts such as almonds or pecans, and a blend of spices such as cumin, coriander, garlic and onion granules, dried herbs, salt and pepper for extra flavoring.
• Potato flakes from a package of all-natural mashed potato mix makes a great coating, too!

Stuffing

Traditionally made from bread or cornbread, gluten-free options include cornbread made with gluten-free flour, homemade or from a ready-to-prepare package. Bread stuffing is best made using gluten-free bread and following a favorite recipe as directed.

• Our Gluten-Free Bread Stuffing is a wonderful rendition of traditional stuffing.
• This Gluten-Free Cornbread can be used in your favorite cornbread stuffing recipe.

Alternatives to the traditional stuffing include wild and brown rice stuffing, potato stuffing, or stuffing made from cubed winter squash. A gorgeous side-dish is winter squash stuffed with wild or brown rice, or gluten-free bread stuffing.

• This Quinoa Pilaf makes delicious stuffing.
• Here’s a colorful Wild Rice Stuffed Mini Pumpkins recipe.
• For a hearty wonderful stuffing, try this Brown Rice Pilaf with Mushrooms and Apricots.

Baking
Baking cookies, breads, muffins, and pies? We have a plethora of gluten-free options available that substitute wonderfully for traditional flour, including brown and white rice flour, corn meal, coconut flour and ground almond flour.

• This Gluten-Free Fruitcake is made with dried fruits and pecans.
• For absolute joy and decadence, our version of a Flourless Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Glaze can’t be beat.
• If you are baking pies this season, here’s an All Nut Crumb Crust that’s perfect for pumpkin pie, chocolate pie and banana cream pie.
• Baking Flourless Brownies is fun and hardly anyone will know the secret ingredient. 
• Gluten-Free Morning Glory Muffins are wonderful and these Gluten-Free Carrot Date Muffins are equally delicious.
• For breakfast, you might really enjoy this gluten-free variation of Irish Soda Bread.

These days eating gluten free doesn’t mean giving up holiday favorites! Here’s our gastronomic guide to fabulous gluten-free holiday recipes.

Are you planning a gluten-free holiday? Got a favorite tip or trick? We’d love to know!

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Michael Pollan in his garden

From MICHAEL POLLAN
Author, In Defense Of Food
NYT Magazine

There are several reasons organic food costs more than conventional food. First, the demand for it exceeds the supply, and presumably, as more farmers transition to organic, the price will fall, though it will never match conventional prices. For one thing, organic farmers receive virtually no subsidies from the government. (European governments significantly subsidize the transition to organic; ours doesn’t.) But even on a level playing field, farming organically would probably remain more expensive. Farming without chemicals is inherently more labor-intensive, especially when it comes to weeding. In animal agriculture, raising animals less intensively is always going to cost more.

Think about it this way: The “high” price of organic food comes a lot closer to the true price of producing that food — a price we seldom pay at the checkout. It’s important to remember that when you buy conventional food, many costs have been shifted — to the taxpayer in the form of crop subsidies, to the farmworker in the form of health problems and to the environment in the form of water and air pollution.

O.K., apart from a clearer conscience, what does the premium paid for organic food get you as a consumer? Organic food has little or no pesticide residues, and especially for parents of young children, this is a big deal. There is also a body of evidence that produce grown in organic soils often has higher levels of various nutrients. (But whether these are enough to justify the higher price is questionable.) Probably for the same reason, organic produce often tastes better than conventional (though a cross-country truck ride can obviate this edge).

So it’s possible to make a case to the consumer for the superiority of organic food — but the stronger case is to the citizen. Farming without synthetic pesticides is better for the soil, for the water and for the air — which is to say, for the commons. It is also better for the people who grow and harvest our food, who would much rather not breathe pesticides. Producing meat without antibiotics will also help stave off antibiotic-resistance. If you care about these things, then the premium paid for organic food is money well spent.
~~

Seattle Local Organic Food Market, Shop Local, Recipes, Small Farms, Family Farms, Bellevue, Blog

From GENE LOGSDON

All the talk about creating jobs strikes me as another example of how so many of us sneakily drink one way and piously vote another. Oh how we voice our concern, how much we pretend to support more jobs but we go right on conducting real business on the basis of replacing human workers with machines whenever possible. All the ways being proposed to increase jobs right now are the same old methods that do not face the real cause of the dilemma. The awful truth is that we have created an economy that can’t afford people to do the work and so every year there are fewer meaningful jobs and more pretend jobs. Pretend jobs require pretend money. We are capitalizing costs on money interest not on human interest.

No where is this truer than in farming. We boast about how many people one farmer feeds—155 is the latest number I think— as if that kind of efficiency is a sign of progress. I don’t hear a single business person or government official pointing out that if the whole economy of the common good is considered, one farmer feeding 155 people is not a sign of true profitability but of gross and unsustainable inefficiency. So gross in fact that while the 155 are getting fed, others are going hungry.

It is fairly easy, I think, to demonstrate the inefficiency of one person feeding a hundred and fifty five especially when some of the hundred and fifty five are having a hard time earning enough to buy their food. You can quibble with me on exact numbers, but modern machinery and technology makes it possible for one farmer to grow about 5000 acres of corn with one employee. One almost humorous example of this is how tractors can now guide themselves across unbroken acres of land without human help although a driver is still necessary to turn the tractor at the end of the field. That will soon not be necessary either, I’m told, and so one more “problem” will be avoided: how to stay awake in the tractor. One tractor driver advocates a stack of magazines, not necessarily the kind you leave out on your coffee table.

You can say that manufacturing high tech farm machinery creates jobs, but more and more of the manufacturing is also being done by robotic technology. The robots can even manufacture themselves now with less and less human input.

Let us say that the 5000 acre corn farmer must spend 0 an acre to put that crop out. Again you can quibble over the exact numbers but he has about four million dollars tied up in the crop before he harvests one ear of corn. The cost could be more or less than that depending on what he paid for fertilizer or what he pays his employee or what he pays in rent or interest on investment. But four million is close enough and by the time that corn is dried, stored and transported half way across the country to feed factory hogs and chickens, who knows how much more cost is involved including the attendant pollution and road degradation that the animal factories far out in the country must deal with. And industrial farmers are being subsidized heftily. If the corn is used to make ethanol, which is subsidized to high heaven too, and then fed to cars while poor people go hungry, the true cost to society becomes incalculable.

On the other hand, it is still quite possible for a small traditional farmer to make a living on 300 acres of land, of which about 30 acres will go to corn to feed livestock. A generation or two ago, corn could be planted with rather primitive machinery and harvested mostly by hand. My father did it with family help and we certainly didn’t think we were slaves. Corn on such farms is fed right there to make milk, meat, and eggs. No transportation costs except from the back forty to the barn are involved. Or let the pigs “hog off” the corn for zero harvest and transportation costs.

You get the point even if my figures aren’t perfectly accurate. The 5000 acres of industrial corn, which is employing two people, could be providing jobs and homes for about 17 family farmers and their wives and children. Run all the figures and all the farmland out to a logical mathematical conclusion and the number of new jobs created by restructuring agriculture is unbelievably awesome. There are about 90 million acres in corn this year. That would make 300,000 family farms of 300 acres each. That means 600,000 parents would be fully employed and let us say two teenagers who are trying desperately right now to find part time jobs,— a total of 1,200,000 new jobs. If we take into account industrial soybean, wheat, and cotton acreages as well and divide all that land  into 300 acre family farms, the number of new jobs created rockets to somewhere in the three to five million range.

If you say that a family can’t make a living on 300 acres, I beg to differ. I have lots of friends who do it. Steve and Pat Gamby do it with an organic dairy farm and they are far from Amish. Bob Kidwell does it on 120 acres farming with horses and he’s not Amish either. Andy Reinhart and Jan Dawson do it on about two acres with organic vegetables, fruit and flowers.

Part of the reason, maybe most of the reason, why farmers’ markets and local foods are enjoying such a renaissance is because they are creating new jobs the right way. All government really has to do is provide a level playing field where small intensive farming can compete fairly with large, heavily-subsidized, industrial farming and then stand back. A revolution will take place in new job creation and it will be in the right direction: more good food and a more stable society at a lesser overall cost. Right now, big business and big government like to talk earnestly about more jobs, but oh my, not in areas where new jobs might threaten big industry.
~~

Organic Recipes, Organic Food, Local Food, Small Farms, Family Farms, Edible Landscapes, Shop Local – OrganicToBe.org

Last September, we unveiled our color-coded, science-based sustainability ratings for wild-caught seafood created by our partners, Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquarium. At the time, we said that we would seek out ways to source swordfish and tuna more sustainably as part of a larger initiative to move toward fully sustainable seafood departments — and we have!

Whole Foods Market’s skilled seafood buyers source tuna and swordfish from green- and yellow-rated fisheries such as those using handlines (a fishing method that uses a single baited line to catch one fish at a time), which have low to no bycatch.

One of the new sources of green- and yellow-rated tuna comes from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean where fishermen catch tuna traditionally using a low-impact pole and line. Elsewhere, most tuna is caught with nets or longlines, which can capture not only the targeted catch, but also juvenile tuna and large amounts of bycatch, including threatened or endangered species such as sea turtles, sharks and seabirds, earning some of these fisheries a red-rating.

Whole Foods Market buyers have also formed partnerships with a variety of small green-rated swordfish fisheries in the United States — in Florida, for example — and are looking for more. These U.S. day boats also use low-impact handline fishing gear. Scott Taylor, co-owner of Florida-based Day Boat Seafood, one of our suppliers, puts it like this:

“We are not only committed to amazingly fresh seafood but to making sure that fish stocks can be replenished so that we can keep fishing responsibly for many years to come. We truly value our partnership with Whole Foods Market because the company has demonstrated a loyalty and genuine commitment to our fishermen, this process and the environment.”

The color-coded ratings in our seafood department make it easy for our customers informed choices. Green or “best choice” ratings indicate a species is relatively abundant and is caught in environmentally-friendly ways; yellow or “good alternative” ratings mean some concerns exist with the species’ status or catch methods; and red or “avoid” ratings mean that for now the species is suffering from overfishing, or that current fishing methods harm other marine life or habitats. The ratings supplement the sustainable seafood partnership that Whole Foods Market has had with the Marine Stewardship Council since 1999.

We love how our customers flex their buying power to prompt change and help reverse trends of overfishing, exploitation and depletion in so many fisheries. Whole Foods Market is proud of our partnerships with Blue Ocean Institute, Monterey Bay Aquarium, MSC and with our buyers, fishermen and fishery managers. We are thrilled to have found fisheries that can provide better environmental choices to support the ecological health of our oceans and the abundance of marine life for generations to come.

And, we will continue to seek out more sustainable sources of all red-rated wild-caught seafood, which will be phased out of our stores by Earth Day 2012 (with the exception of Atlantic cod and sole that are slated for phase out by Earth Day 2013). This timing gives us the opportunity to evaluate the red-rated fisheries to see if changes can be made to improve fishing practices. Some fishermen have worked with us for many years so it’s a partnership and a process that takes a little time to change.

Whole Foods Market’s wild-caught seafood rating program and partnerships complement its existing farmed seafood standards, which remain the highest in the industry. The company requires third-party audits and traceability from farm to market and prohibits use of antibiotics, added growth hormones, added preservatives like sulfites and phosphates, genetically-modified seafood and land animal by-products in feed. Farmed seafood at Whole Foods Market carries the “Responsibly Farmed” logo to indicate it meets these high standards.

Curious about handline fishing? Watch this video.

Tell us what you think! Is sustainability important to you when it comes to your seafood purchases?

Whole Story

Often hidden in a mix of onions and celery, carrots are one of the most popular building blocks of the recipes we make (and enjoy) each day. Shine a spotlight on carrots with some of the ideas below and enjoy a healthy dose of flavor, color and sweetness. Carrots last a long time in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator, so buy a big bag and cook with them for weeks. If you purchase carrots with the leafy green tops, make sure to trim off the greens before storing so they don’t draw any of the moisture away from the carrots.

1. Steam peeled and sliced carrots and toss with a mixture of freshly grated lime zest, chopped cilantro and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

2. Add a cup of chopped carrots to your favorite rice pilaf mix about 5 minutes before it’s done. The  steam will cook the carrots as the rice finishes.

3. Add chopped carrots to your favorite soup recipes (or a can of low-sodium soup) and simmer until tender.

4. Pick up some chicken or potato salad from prepared foods and add shredded carrots for color and flavor.

5. Toss shredded carrots with non-fat Greek yogurt, lemon juice, minced garlic and parsley, and use as a topping for grilled meats or fish.

6. Use a vegetable peeler lengthwise along the carrots to make carrot “ribbons” and cook in a skillet just until tender (add zucchini too!).

7. Toss chunks of carrots and parsnips with a little olive oil or vegetable broth, salt and pepper and roast in a 400°F oven until browned and fork-tender. Sprinkle with freshly chopped herbs and serve as a side dish with a rotisserie chicken.

8. Cook soba noodles in boiling water, adding shredded carrots and small broccoli florets to the cooking water 2 minutes before the noodles are done. Drain and toss with peanut sauce and chopped cilantro.

9. Make a dip. Simmer carrots until tender, then puree with some of the cooking water and other ingredients like in this Carrot Cashew Spread.

10. Add some shredded carrots to the batter for your baked goods. Carrot-Oat Cake and Morning Glory Muffins are two of our favorites featuring carrots.

What’s your favorite way to enjoy carrots?

Whole Story

I begin with one bag (2 cups) of organic peas and I place them in boiling water for two minutes. I strain the peas and puree them in my super speedy blender until smooth. I pour half of the mixture into a baby food tray and leave the other half (approximately 1 cup) in the blender. You’ll see why in a second.

Now I size-up the bright green slop. How am I going to turn these pureed peas into a delicious meal for my husband and me? Perhaps, a healthy vegetable soup using the following ingredients:

• 1 cup of organic peas (mashed)
• 3 large organic tomatoes
• ½ large organic onion
• 4 cloves organic garlic
• 1 large bunch fresh basil
• ½ cup low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
• Red pepper flakes to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

Let’s give it a whirl! Simply chop the tomatoes, onion and garlic and then sauté them until they are soft (about 5-7 minutes). Then, add the basil, broth and other spices to the vegetable mixture and let the ingredients simmer for an additional two minutes. At this point, add the entire mixture to the blender, combining it with the pea base.

Puree for 30 seconds and, like magic, those mashed-up peas are transformed into a delectable dinner. Or are they? As our little family sits down to eat, I serve the soup with whole wheat bread and a salad for my husband and me – the perfect winter meal. My husband tastes the soup and he is very impressed. In fact, he says that he loves it so much that he would like it again for dinner tomorrow. So, that’s a big win!

But now, the real test is the happy, smiling baby staring at me. He gets ¼ cup of peas, served at room temperature. I am very excited! This is his first time eating peas and I cannot wait to see his reaction. I proudly feed him a big spoonful. And, to my dismay, my baby makes a horrible face as if to say, “Yuck, Mommy! What are you trying to do to me?” and he spits out the peas.

I feel totally defeated. Help! My mind flashes forward to my son at age 5 and I imagine myself saying, “He won’t eat anything except peanut butter. He just doesn’t like vegetables.” Yikes! I have to do something here and it better be good! Then it dawns on me. I recall some advice from a good friend who told me to try adding a little lemon juice to the baby’s vegetables. So I tried it. Strike two! Too sour for my baby boy.

Then, I peer at the batch of brown rice cereal that is cooking on the stove. (By the way, did you know that you can cook your own rice cereal at home? Just take 1/8 cup uncooked brown rice and run it through the blender until it turns into a powder and cook it in ½ cup of water for 6 minutes.) I feed my baby a few spoonfuls of rice cereal and he likes it, as expected. Then, I devilishly mix in some of the pureed peas. I slowly feed him a bite, and…success! He eats it with a smile on his face. I couldn’t be happier!

It took trial and error, and a little trickery, but I was able to get my baby to eat those peas. Now he gets the benefit of the Vitamin A, Vitamin C, fiber, protein and iron. And I can be the Mom at the dinner table where everyone says, “More peas, please!”

Whole Story

From JEFF COX

The conventional food companies still claim that there’s no difference between organic and conventional food regarding nutritional content. The way they put it is: organic food is no better for you than conventional and in fact, could make you sick. They claim that there are absolutely no scientific studies that show organic food to be nutritionally superior.

All of this is, of course, lies. (Yes, lies. It’s one thing to get your facts wrong by mistake, and it’s quite another to get them wrong on purpose. The latter is called lying, and Big Ag has been doing it for decades.) The evidence for organic superiority has been shown over and over again for many years. But now new studies are making it more and more obvious that the old canards against organic food are baseless. To wit:
~

A multi-disciplinary research team from Washington State University conducted a two-year study that made side-by-side comparisons of 13 conventional and 13 organic strawberry farms in California. The study analyzed 31 chemical and biological soil properties and the taste, nutrition, and quality of berries from each farm. Researchers in the fields of agroecology, soil science, microbial ecology, genetics, pomology, food science, sensory science, and statistics comprised the study team. The findings included

• Organic strawberries had significantly higher antioxidant activity.
• Organic strawberries had significantly more vitamin C.
• Organic strawberries had significantly higher phenolic levels.
• Organic strawberries showed longer shelf life.
• Organic strawberries contained more dry matter.
• Organic soils excelled in carbon sequestration.
• Organic soils contained more nitrogen in their carbon cycles.
• Organic soils contained more microbial biomass.
• Organic soils showed more enzyme activity.
• Organic soils contained more micronutrients.

The results were published September 1, 2010, in the peer-reviewed online journal, PLoS One. (http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0012346).
~

Scientists from the USDA’s Beltsville, MD, facility and Rutgers University in New Jersey studied conventional and organic high-bush blueberries. They found that compared with conventional blueberries:

• Organic blueberries contained significantly higher sugar levels.
• Organic blueberries had significantly more malic acid.
• Organic blueberries contained more phenolic compounds.
• Organic blueberries had significantly more total anthocyanins.
• Organic blueberries had significantly more antioxidant activity.

Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, vol. 56, pp. 5788-5794 (2008).
~

Scientists from the University of Florida Department of Horticulture and Washington State University compared 236 organically and conventionally grown foods. They concluded that “organic foods contain, on average, 25 percent higher concentrations of 11 nutrients than their conventional counterparts. Source: www.organic-center.org/reportfiles/5367_Nutrient_Content_SSR_FINAL_V2.pdf
~

Scientists at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and the University of Strathclyde in Scotland analyzed 11 brands of organic soup and compared their levels of salicylic acid—known to help prevent hardening of the arteries and bowel cancer—to brands of conventional soup. They found the average level of salicylic acid in organic vegetable soups was 117 nanograms per gram, compared with 20 nanograms per gram in 24 conventional soups. The highest level (1,040 nanograms per gram) was found in an organic carrot and coriander soup. Four of the conventional soups had no detectable levels of salicylic acid. Source: European Journal of Nutrition, Vol. 40, p. 289.
~

A professor of chemistry and an undergraduate student team at Truman State University in Missouri found that organic oranges contained 30 percent more vitamin C than conventionally grown oranges, even though the conventional oranges were twice as large as the organic ones. They combined nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and chemical isolation to measure the vitamin C content. Source: Science Daily Magazine, June 2, 2002.
~

It’s not only what you get in organic food that’s good for you, it’s also what you don’t get:

Researchers at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, tested the urine of two groups of children for the presence of organophosphorus pesticide metabolites. One group ate primarily organic food, the other ate conventional food. The group who ate conventional food had six times the amount of pesticide metabolites as the children who ate primarily organic foods. In an earlier study, one child who ate only organic food had no measurable amount of pesticide metabolite in his urine at all. Source: Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 109, No. 3, pp. 299-303.
~

To sum up a few other studies:

Reviewing 41 published studies comparing organic and conventional fruits, vegetables, and grains, certified nutrition specialist Virginia Worthington concluded that organic produce contained, on average, 27 percent more vitamin C, 21.1 percent more iron, 29.3 percent more magnesium, and 13.6 percent more phosphorus.

Swiss researchers found that organic apples are of higher quality than conventional apples in regards to taste scores, sugar-acidity-firmness index, nutritional fiber content, phenolic compounds content (antioxidants), and something they called vitality index than a glass of its conventional counterpart, according to a recent study at Washington State University.

Research at the University of California at Davis showed that beneficial flavonoid content of tomatoes increased over time as farm fields were kept under organic cultivation, compared to conventional fields where flavonoid concentrations stayed the same from year to year. And the amounts of two flavonoids were 79 percent and 97 percent greater in the organic tomatoes.

Another research team at UC Davis found that organic kiwifruit had much higher levels of total polyphenol content (antioxidants) and vitamin C than their conventional counterparts.

A researcher at Newcastle University in England reported higher levels of antioxidants and lower levels of fungal toxins in organic milk compared to conventional milk. A three-year study in the United Kingdom found that organic milk contained 68 percent more omega-3 essential fatty acid than conventional milk. A Swiss scientists found that lactating mothers who ate organic had 50 percent more beneficial conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in their breast milk than mothers who ate conventional food. An Italian study found that organic pears, peaches, and oranges contain more antioxidants.

The list of studies goes on and on.
~~

Organic Recipes, Organic Food, Local Food, Small Farms, Family Farms, Edible Landscapes, Shop Local – OrganicToBe.org

From ALTERNET

Growing a Garden City: How Farmers, First Graders, Counselors, Troubled Teens, Foodies, a Homeless Shelter Chef, Single Mothers, and More are Transforming Themselves and Their Neighborhood Through the Intersection of Local Agriculture and Community… and How You Can, Too

Special powers have long been ascribed to farms, for good reason. A special conversation takes place there in the dirt and rain and sun, a dialogue between people and nature. The people talk and listen, while nature mostly talks, and if everyone cooperates you get a supply of food. This, arguably, is how civilization began.

If you talk to people who grew up on farms you might hear more about what the experience did to their characters than about what kind of food they raised. Some will rave about the aphrodisiac properties of farms. The therapeutic possibilities are even more rigorously documented. And the educational opportunities are off the charts. That’s why gardens and farm programs have been sprouting like dandelions in schools, prisons, hospitals, houses of government, and other places whose occupants could use some illumination and direction.

A new book by Jeremy Smith, with a forward by Bill McKibben, traces the history of Garden City Harvest, a community farm and garden organization in Missoula, Montana that seems to manifest all of the community goodness that agriculture could possibly offer. The operation includes a nine-acre farm, several community gardens scattered around town, and three two-acre neighborhood farms. Growing a Garden City (Skyhorse Publishing, 2010) is a beautifully photo-illustrated manual for how to create an organization like this in your town…

Go to article here
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Organic Recipes, Organic Food, Local Food, Small Farms, Family Farms, Edible Landscapes, Shop Local – OrganicToBe.org

From RALPH VOSS
ACRES USA

Newspapers, magazines and electronic media outlets all over the world recently announced a break-through vaccine that will hopefully protect women against breast cancer.

The following report — from CBS — is typical of what was said by numerous sources: “In the current study, genetically cancer-prone mice were vaccinated — half with a vaccine containing the antigen and half with a vaccine that did not contain the antigen. None of the mice vaccinated with the antigen developed breast cancer, while all the other mice did.”

Dr. Vincent Tuohy, Ph.D., the principal investigator on the project to create the vaccine, sums up the impact: “We believe this vaccine will some day be used to prevent breast cancer in adult women in the same way that vaccines prevent polio and measles in children. If it works in humans the way it works in mice, this will be monumental.”

We agree with Dr. Tuohy, who performed his research at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. If this vaccine works in humans, it will truly by monumental.

Let’s turn the clock back more than 60 years and look at remarkably similar research conducted by another man with ties to the Buckeye State. Dr. Maynard Murray completed medical school at the University of Cincinnati in the early 1930s and from 1938 through the 1950s conducted tests showing that vegetables, fruits and grains fertilized with sea minerals grew stronger and were more resistant to disease. Murray’s research also showed that mammals that consumed these vegetables, fruits and grains were healthier.

In his book Sea Energy Agriculture, Murray discussed experiments conducted by the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University in Chicago. Murray had an Illinois farmer, Ray Heine, grow oats, corn and soybeans on land that had been fertilized with 2,200 pounds of sea solids (sea salt) per acre. Researchers at Stritch fed the grain to numerous kinds of animals. Let’s look at one of those tests.

“C3H mice were obtained for this feeding experiment,” Murray wrote in his book. “This strain of mice has been bred so all the females develop breast cancer which causes their demise. The mice were two months of age when received and started on the feeding experiments. The life expectancy of this strain for females is no more than nine months, which includes the production of two or three litters. The experimental and control groups both consisted of 200 C3H mice and those fed on control food were all dead within eight months, seven days. The experimental mice that were fed food grown on the sea solids fertilized soil lived until they were sacrificed at 16 months; definitive examination revealed no cancerous tissue. The experimental group produced 10 litters compared to the usual two to three litters and none developed breast cancer.”

If the breast cancer vaccine story released last week was cause for celebrations, wouldn’t Murray’s story also be cause for celebration? One would certainly think so. But dig into Murray’s work a little deeper and there is much more to consider.

Murray’s experiments did not stop with the mice. He had rats injected with cancer. Those rats that ate his grain survived. Those that ate conventional grain died. Rats were obtained that normally develop eye disease. Those rats that ate conventional grain developed the eye disease. Those that ate Murray’s grain did not. Rabbits on a high cholesterol diet of food produced conventionally all developed hardening of the arteries. A dairyman whose newborn calves could not get up to nurse solved his problem by feeding grain fortified with sea minerals. In some instances where the health problems were not completely eliminated in the first generation, the problem was normally eliminated in the second or third generation.

The list goes on for pages and includes not only diseases of mammals, but also diseases of crops.

If we conclude that the recent story about the breast cancer vaccine is “monumental,” as Dr. Tuohy says, then how do we describe Dr. Murray’s “vaccine” that can conceivably protect against many, if not all, forms of cancer, as well as heart disease and numerous other diseases, ailments and afflictions?

Why has Murray’s story for the most part gone unnoted? Is it possible Murray was less adept at public relations than scientific research? Is it more likely that medical companies — with strong financial incentive in bringing their products to market — have developed a way to create public interest in new medical developments? Is it possible the media is not willing to consider that something as simple as sea minerals can conceivably be more effective than all the high-tech drugs and vaccines?

Maynard Murray’s story is a very interesting one. He more or less stumbled onto sea minerals while talking to fishermen, who told him fish and animals living in the ocean never developed cancer or ulcers. He had to see this for himself and worked on a fishing trawler for eight months. This convinced him the fishermen were correct. Among many things he learned that creatures living in the ocean do not age the same as identical creatures living in fresh water. A salmon living in fresh water will die of cancer by the age of five and one-half years. The same fish in the ocean will not only be larger and stronger, but will not get cancer. Creatures in the ocean can live many years without noticeable aging. When the vital organs of a baby whale are compared to those of a whale of 80 years of age, there is no discernible difference.

Much of Murray’s work went to the grave with him when he died in 1983. Fortunately there was a man who knew Murray and his work and was unwilling to let all of those ideas die. The late Charles Walters, founder of Acres USA, reprinted Murray’s original 1976 book and then did considerable research — including talking to those who worked with Murray — and wrote his own book entitled Fertility from the Ocean Deep.

These two books are creating a stir. They are not on the radar of the mainstream media, but I suspect that might not be too far off. Hundreds — and probably even thousands — of farmers are using sea minerals in one form or another. The most common use involves spraying sea salt on pasture and crops while applying something like compost tea, liquid fish and molasses or sugar. Those who have learned about the benefits of raw milk are certainly interested in combining sea minerals with the milk.

Mennonite farmers in central Kentucky have gone together to purchase sea salt by the tractor-trailor load from the Baja Peninsula of Mexico and are applying it to land where they are growing produce. One of the results is a great-tasting watermelon with a high sugar content. Amish farmers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, are also buying sea salt from the same place and in the same quantities.

Agriculture is in the midst of a revolution. The family farmer currently has great difficulty competing in the production of pork and milk. Beef and produce may be another matter. Murray made the observation that our soils have been depleted of vital minerals due to being leached of these minerals by the forces of nature, primarily in the form of rain. I sustpect when consumers realize their health may rest on the restoration of these minerals to the soils where their food is grown, the family farmer will have an edge because he will have a product the consumer wants and will be willing to pay for. The family farmer will rarely get rich, but it would certainly be nice to see him receive reasonable compensation for his labor and investment.

One passing thought. The people that bring us food are frequently demonized for what they have used to produce that food — whether it be genetically-modified grain, herbicides, insecticides, growth hormones, antibiotics and the list goes on. Could it be that the problem with our food supply is not so much what is in the food but what is not in the food? If our food supply were to contain the sea minerals that Maynard Murray and Charles Walters so strongly advocated, wouldn’t this do more for our nation’s health than all of the drugs and vaccines that are now on the market and will come onto the market in the future?
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See also How To Make Sea Salt
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Organic Recipes, Organic Food, Local Food, Small Farms, Family Farms, Edible Landscapes, Shop Local – OrganicToBe.org

When our Upper West Side store was built at 97th and Columbus–on the very corner where the highly revered New York jazz venue, Mikell’s Jazz Club, once stood–some of the eclectic neighborhood’s long-time residents were concerned about how this new store would change their neighborhood. To demonstrate its commitment to honoring the neighborhood’s heritage, Whole Foods Market Team Members partnered with the Jazz Foundation of America, Sugar Hill Brewery in Harlem, and community activists and organizations to create the Jazz Legend Series. This series–which kicked off shortly after Upper West Side opened in 2009– recently began its second fall run. Each Friday evening during the series, the store is filled with the sounds of true, high-quality jazz performances. And due to its efforts to become a true part of its community, the Upper West Side store has not only been embraced by once-skeptical local residents, but has also become a unique gathering place where neighbors come to shop, eat, and be with each other while enjoying some amazing music.

Check out the Upper West Side’s store page to learn more about upcoming performances in the series.

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