The elephant in the health room
During a two year job in Malaysia I observed the annihilation of large areas of 2000 year old productive rice fields, due to the combination of the green revolution (modified seeds, artificial fertilizers and tractors), flood protection and modern sewerage disposal. The results led to the sad dislocation of many families.
Struck by the destruction caused by this lurch into modern farming, I returned to New Zealand and converted my farm to an organic unit. The resulting improvements in soil microbes’ population and health and livestock health were spectacular.
However I soon discovered the wrath of the ‘priests’ of a belief system who feel themselves challenged. In this case it was the belief that modern farming systems were pre-eminent. I learned that this belief, while based on science, is held together by the economic incest between researchers and their prime funders - those who profit from the sale of goods to farmers; whereas organic farmers buying very little to sustain their production, turn their back on a vast army of manufacturers, distributors and sellers.
While priests may have shown a way to much higher production, the belief system ignores the costs of poor health, soil depletion, pollution and the high risks of mono-cultural agriculture. As time goes by these cost are becoming more obvious; health costs are rising, soil is being heavily depleted and agricultural pollution is producing vast amounts of global warming gasses. The system is unsustainable.
I now see the same paradigm in the world of food and health. Here the pharmaceutical companies aid and abet the medical profession to promote their goods and services. Once again the economic incest, between pharmaceutical, medical and food industries, promotes a belief system which denies the existence of any viable alternative to expensive medical intervention. I now know that medical intervention in chronic conditions seldom cures the condition, nor can statistical benefits be shown from such intervention, whereas there is ample evidence of diet alleviating and curing chronic illnesses.
The analogy of an elephant in the room fits perfectly to this problem. Endless peer reviewed papers are produced, books published and web sites created, but the power of the priests of the pharma-medical belief system continue to ensure that the facts will never get in the way of a good profit. Thus in any discussion of health, the relevance of diet, or the damage that improper diet can work on us, is never countenanced. It was a long time ago that Hippocrates declared “Let food be thy medicine”, but we have forgotten that.
It is time for us all to see the elephant in the room, to start questioning the priests and their motives and to take back, into our own hands, the control of our health.
Struck by the destruction caused by this lurch into modern farming, I returned to New Zealand and converted my farm to an organic unit. The resulting improvements in soil microbes’ population and health and livestock health were spectacular.
However I soon discovered the wrath of the ‘priests’ of a belief system who feel themselves challenged. In this case it was the belief that modern farming systems were pre-eminent. I learned that this belief, while based on science, is held together by the economic incest between researchers and their prime funders - those who profit from the sale of goods to farmers; whereas organic farmers buying very little to sustain their production, turn their back on a vast army of manufacturers, distributors and sellers.
While priests may have shown a way to much higher production, the belief system ignores the costs of poor health, soil depletion, pollution and the high risks of mono-cultural agriculture. As time goes by these cost are becoming more obvious; health costs are rising, soil is being heavily depleted and agricultural pollution is producing vast amounts of global warming gasses. The system is unsustainable.
I now see the same paradigm in the world of food and health. Here the pharmaceutical companies aid and abet the medical profession to promote their goods and services. Once again the economic incest, between pharmaceutical, medical and food industries, promotes a belief system which denies the existence of any viable alternative to expensive medical intervention. I now know that medical intervention in chronic conditions seldom cures the condition, nor can statistical benefits be shown from such intervention, whereas there is ample evidence of diet alleviating and curing chronic illnesses.
The analogy of an elephant in the room fits perfectly to this problem. Endless peer reviewed papers are produced, books published and web sites created, but the power of the priests of the pharma-medical belief system continue to ensure that the facts will never get in the way of a good profit. Thus in any discussion of health, the relevance of diet, or the damage that improper diet can work on us, is never countenanced. It was a long time ago that Hippocrates declared “Let food be thy medicine”, but we have forgotten that.
It is time for us all to see the elephant in the room, to start questioning the priests and their motives and to take back, into our own hands, the control of our health.
“A quarter of what you eat, keeps you alive. The other three quarters keeps the doctors alive.”
