Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Prez's Cancer Panel shifts food wisdoms
President?s Cancer Panel Sets the Stage for Historic Shift in ?Conventional Wisdom?
Charles ?Chuck? Benbrook, Ph.D. - Chief Scientist, The Organic Center
A key epidemiological study was done in the late 1970s and published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 1981 by two scientists, Dr's. Doll and Peto. Their research suggested that less than 10% of human cancers were caused by exposures to environmental carcinogens. Their finding suited the bias of many powerful interests, who did everything possible to solidify and sustain this finding as a pillar of ?conventional scientific wisdom.? The pillar has stood essentially unchallenged for 30 years.
Now, the new report issued by the President?s Cancer Panel shatters the myth built upon the foundation of Doll and Peto?s work. In the May 6, 2010 ?Environmental Health News,? Marla Cone summarizes the 240-page government report just delivered to the President. The key conclusions in the Cancer Panel report include:
-
?The true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated...[the President should] use the power of your office to remove carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air...?
-
?The American people ? even before they are born ? are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures.?
-
Consumers should seek out food grown without chemicals, including organic food.
In his May 6, 2010 Op-Ed column in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof begins by saying
?The President?s Cancer Panel is the Mount Everest of the medical mainstream, so it is astonishing to learn that it is poised to join ranks with the organic movement and declare: chemicals threaten our bodies.?
Get the Report
REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL CANCER RISK: What We Can Do Now
President?s Cancer Panel 2008?2009 Annual Report
Download full report
Charles Benbrook is Chief Scientist for The Organic Center. Since 1979 he has worked on the science of cancer risk assessment and issues of regulatory policy impacting cancer-causing pesticides. bio
Re: Prez's Cancer Panel shifts food wisdoms
I wish the President's Cancer Panel could get him to stop smoking!
Me too, it's getting really old. That and the argument that "organic/local food is soooooo expensive so I don't bother." U-G-H on both counts.
I'm glad for this report too, but you know what's gonna happen. He'll acknowledge it, thank the panel for their efforts, and then approve some new type of GMO food or allow another chemical into organic production the next day. All hail Obama's schizophrenic approach to agriculture policy. Experts can come out with all the conclusive evidence they want, from cancer links of conventional food, to linking health outbreaks to CAFOs, to climate change, and it all doesn't matter one flucking bit as long as those respective industries still control the government. Like the head of TransOcean petitioning for the 6-month ban on offshore drilling to be lifted, even while the oil spill hasn't been stopped. I heard on the radio today that some judge is considering lifting the presidential ban.
How do these people sleep and night?
Oh right, on piles and piles of money.
So true. Supporting local foods and healthier diets, appointing Vilsack... not changing subsidies...
but its a start, at least.
That, and so long as people feel like cheap food is right.
So true.