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"All natural" E. coli and aflatoxinI am writing this piece from the mental gymnastics playground at 34,000 feet above the earth's surface. Currently, I am returning home from California and a tremendous week with Foster Farms and the feed industry individuals who attended the California Animal nutrition Conference. Ironically, it is my flight out of the Golden State that created one of the most lasting memories. I flew through Las Vegas on my way west and the Country Music Awards were taking place. In the airport, I met the lovely, young lady who called herself "Ginger" and we happened to sit together on the flight from Las Vegas to Sacramento. Ginger was in Vegas with a client. She is in the business of personal consulting. She assists people in making the proper fashion choices to compliment their body shape and she does hair work. In fact, her client in Vegas was a lady who had always wanted to attend the CMA awards and she was going to go in style. Ginger had given her hair extensions, a clothing consult and the full make-up makeover. Now, mind you, this is not a performer, a nominee or even a presenter but just a country music fan who wanted to look good sitting in the nose-bleed seats. I was curious because I had no idea what something like that would cost; so I asked. Ginger told me they made the client a really good deal and did it for $2800 including all expenses. Wow! I wonder how much a bad deal would cost? It wasn't long and we began discussing food choices. Ginger refrains from dairy products. She does eat egg whites but replaces the natural nutrition of the egg yolk with olive oil. She eats very little "red meat," some pork but most of her protein is from fish or chicken and she wants everything to be natural or organic, because it is healthier for you. A tremendous conversation ensued about hormones. I believe Ginger is typical in this regard and she simply is following the information she has had the easiest access to. She doesn't want to be wrong; she just doesn't know what she doesn't know. But trust me, she now knows that every time she consumes soy-based products or leafy greens, her estrogen consumption is far above anything she could get from her protein source. I shared this with you before but, with all the buzz about hormones, here is a little refresher course about estrogen availability. A single three-ounce serving of natural/organic beef contains 1.39 nanograms of estrogen. The same size serving of beef from conventionally finished animals contains 1.89 nanograms. Compare that to the average garden salad at 1,200 nanograms, one cabbage leaf at 2,000 nanograms, a tablespoon of soybean oil with 28,000 nanograms or birth control pills that contain an average of 34,000 nanograms of estrogen. Despite these figures, we have the majority of our customers concerned about hormones in meats. Yet, when you ask them what hormone it is or how much a nanogram is, they don't have the slightest clue. Incidentally, a nanogram is equivalent to one blade of grass in two football fields. Back to my conversation with Ginger, after the whole "hormones in foods 101" lecture, our conversation gravitated into a discussion about her personal hair care regimen. After giving me a glimpse of what her weekly hair treatments were like, I simply asked, "Do you give the same scrutiny to the chemicals you put on your head that you do to those you put in your mouth?" She told me that she didn't because she had to draw the line somewhere. I did remind her the largest organ of her body was her skin and that it seemed somewhat hypocritical that she didn't believe modern technology should be used in food production but she only used the latest discoveries in hair care. She admitted that she had never really looked at it that way. Here is the biggest deal for me. We are flying in a metal box 34,000 feet above the dirt. She is returning home after dolling up someone with artificial hair extensions and makeup (most likely made from by-products of the beef industry), yet insists that I, as a food producer, should pass on technology and maintain a "natural" food supply. There is nothing natural about anything she did on this trip. Actually it was Dr. Alfonso Mireles from Foster Farms who brought up an interesting point when I shared this ironic story with him en route to his company meeting. He said, "You should have told her that aflatoxin is natural, even an organic substance, that foods can contain. However, we prefer to use the latest technologies in order to remove it from her food so that she doesn't get sick or even die from it." Come to think of it, we have really dropped the ball in that regard. All bacteria, E. coli O157:H7, etc., are naturally occurring substances. I simply want to be able to use the latest and greatest methods available to kill them in order to protect the food supply for myself and my family. Finally, and most importantly, it is not Ginger's fault she has had easy access to incorrect information; it is our fault for not doing a better job of getting the facts out there. Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com. 6/2/08 Date: 5/29/08 Advertisement
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