Organic Connections June 2007 by Natural Vitality

Organic

Connections JUNE 2007

The magazine of Peter Gillhamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Natural Vitality

MSM Severe pain relief and much more How to Remineralize the Earth We really can regain nutritious food and improve our planet

What the world needs now is a good-tasting (light organic fruit flavor) liquid multinutrient that provides both energy and stamina— without all of those pills, tablets and capsules to swallow. Introducing OLV—Organic Life Vitamins™. Your simple solution to optimum nutrition.

Food-based nutrition Liquid (for better absorption) Essential vitamins Organic ACTIValoe™ Organic noni juice ConcenTrace® trace minerals Amino acid complex OptiMSM® Antioxidants

Organic Life Vitamins is available through Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality 800.446.7462 Visit www.petergillham.com for additional product information.

The growing organic market

t probably doesn’t come as much of a shock that the market for organic produce is growing—estimated by various sources at about 20 percent a year. What may be surprising is that the organic food market, which generated about $13.8 billion last year, represents only about 2.5 percent of the total U.S. food consumption. While those of us involved in the natural products industry or natural healthcare take for granted the advantages of organic products over “traditional” ones, there is a pressing need to mobilize resources in order to meet the consumer demand for pesticide-free food. Currently, only 0.2 percent of U.S. farmland is organic. The other 99.8 percent produces food utilizing the high-production, low-nutrient and flavor-lacking industrial-chemical methods we grew up with—the same tradition that drove consumers to seek out organic produce in the first place. The picture isn’t any better in Canada, according to the Canadian Organic Growers Association, where only 1 percent of the food grown there is organic. This of course raises the question as to how we are going to satisfy this increasing consumer demand. In a word: imports. We already import more than 10 percent of the organic food we eat. But perhaps the figure of greater interest is that we consume 42 percent of the worldwide organic food supply, leaving only 58 percent for the world’s non-U.S. residents. In this enlightened era in which we understand the downside of processed foods, chemical residues and the portent of global warming, it’s hard to understand why we don’t muster our great resources and legendary spirit to launch a program to address these issues—like JFK’s Apollo Project, which put a man on the moon in under a decade using computers less powerful than are commonly found on our desktops today. While we ponder that question, there are people of goodwill and strong conviction who are working, albeit with limited resources, to do something about it. One of these groups is Remineralize the Earth, whom you will read about in this issue. We are proud to be a supporter and friend and we think you will find their concept as exciting as we do.

In this issue

or•gan•ic |ôr ganʹik| denoting a relation between elements of something such that they fit together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole: the organic unity of the integral work of art. • characterized by continuous or natural development: companies expand as much by acquisition as by organic growth.

4 spotlight

Nature’s Food Patch, a leading organic food store on Florida’s west coast, helps customers understand the need to balance calcium with magnesium.

5 feature MSM is a unique nutrient providing pain relief and much more. We talk to Bergstrom Nutrition, makers of OptiMSM—the purest MSM.

6 environment Remineralize the Earth takes the lead in showing not only the way to make our fruits and vegetables more nutritious but also a unique way to combat global warming.

—Editor Organic Connections is published by Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality 2530 N. Ontario Street, Burbank, CA 91504-2512 National Office (800) 446-7462 www.petergillham.com info@petergillham.com

A portion of the profits from the sale of

Natural Calm ® and Organic Life Vitamins™ goes to our Natural Revitalization environmental action initiative addressing global warming, which helps fund Conservation International (www.conservation.org) and Remineralize the Earth (www.remineralize.org).

spotlight

Nature’s Food Patch contributing to personal well-being

Nature’s Food Patch is a 14,000-square-foot natural products retailer in Clearwater, Florida, the leading organic food store on Florida’s west coast. And when it comes to bringing natural health to the population at large, they take their jobs seriously. Their mission statement reads, in part: “Through teaching about natural lifestyle and holistic health, we help to contribute to your personal well-being and, ultimately, to planetary healing.” As one might expect from reading the above statement, this store has found customer education in nutritional supplements to be vital. “It’s very important,” says general manager Rich Packman. “The more customers understand their own bodies, the more they know what it is they need in the way of supplements. Everyone has their own particular needs, and our staff can be expert on products or a range of products, but my personal take on it is that we’re all our own primary medical practitioners. Nobody knows better than me what my body needs; and I consult with medical professionals, I consult with nutritional experts, but ultimately it’s my body and I’ve got to be the gatekeeper here.” In educating customers, Nature’s Food Patch has found that over 50 percent of their patrons do not know that calcium, in order to be absorbed by the body, must be properly balanced with magnesium. “People hear that calcium is the bone builder,” Packman says.

4 organic connections

“They need calcium to prevent osteoporosis. But largely they’re not familiar with the required balance needed between calcium and magnesium.” It comes as no surprise, then, that a highly recommended product at Nature’s Food Patch—and one of their best-selling

And the word has spread far and wide. “We have customers coming in all the time looking for it,” says Beryl Rose, vitamin manager at the store. “They hear that there’s something that can help them sleep, called Natural Calm. And then they keep coming back. It also helps with constipation.”

supplements—is Natural Calm® from Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality. The store reports that it not only sells quickly but generates repeat customers along with word-ofmouth advertising.

Beryl points out to customers the vital need for magnesium in their bodies. “We’re so depleted of magnesium because we just don’t get it from our foods,” she says. Beryl has heard a great deal from customers about Natural Calm. In one example, a store team member had someone come in who was suffering from severe muscle contractions caused by multiple sclerosis (MS). The customer reported becoming greatly relaxed with Natural Calm and has been a repeat customer ever since. A woman came in who was having trouble with nervousness and, as a result, with sleeping. Beryl recommended Natural Calm and she returned a short time later, saying that it had “just worked beautifully.” Another repeat customer. “But,” Beryl laughs, “the best customer feedback I get about Natural Calm is the shelves are empty!”

They need calcium to prevent osteoporosis. But largely they’re not familiar with the required balance needed between calcium and magnesium.

Feature story

MSM—severe pain relief and much more

Eighty percent of Americans over 50 years old suffer from some form of degenerative joint disease, and many others suffer from sports injuries, tennis elbow and tendonitis, which can result in symptoms not unlike arthritis— soreness, stiffness, and general pain in the region. An ever widening number of people are newly discovering a well-established natural remedy for these symptoms—and numerous others—with MSM. Methylsulfonylmethane (meth-l-sul-fonil-meth-ane), or MSM, is a natural nutrient found in many foods and is a vital building block of joints, cartilage, skin, hair and nails. It also supports a wide number of biochemical processes in the body, including energy production. Due to the demineralization of the earth over time, many naturally occurring elements—including MSM—are not available in foods in high enough quantities to deliver therapeutic value. As a dietary supplement, MSM must be synthesized. When made

correctly, it is identical to what is found in nature, and can be taken alone or in combination with other health supplements. According to Stanley W. Jacob, MD, Ronald M. Lawrence, MD, PhD, and Martin Zucker, authors of The Miracle of MSM, MSM is “rapidly establishing a reputation as a safe, natural and effective solution for many types of pain and inflammatory conditions, including degenerative wear-and-tear arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic back pain, chronic headaches, muscle pain, fibromyalgia, tendonitis and bursitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, TMJ, post-traumatic pain and inflammation, and heartburn.” MSM also has benefits for allergy sufferers. According to Jacob, Lawrence and Zucker, “After many years of treating pain patients with MSM, it has become clear that perhaps the single most powerful benefit it offers is quick relief of the symptoms of common allergies. In hundreds of cases, this nutritional supplement has proved highly effective.” The primary reason for MSM’s value is its high sulfur content. MSM contains 34 percent sulfur—the fourth most abundant mineral in the human body and one critical to making collagen, the primary constituent

half thick. I gave her a sample of MSM, then ran into her about six days later. She came up, threw her arms around my neck and took her gloves off, and the thickness of her knuckles had reduced to almost normal. All the swelling was gone.” The leading MSM product, manufactured

“Microprills” are very small spherical pellets formed by spraying droplets of molten MSM into a spray chamber where they solidify to become OptiMSM.

to the most stringent product specifications available, is OptiMSM®, made by Bergstrom Nutrition. The crucial step that makes OptiMSM of such high quality is its distillation process, in which heat is used

OptiMSM—the purest MSM available of cartilage and connective tissue. MSM is thought to deliver sulfur to the body in a usable way so it can be incorporated into these tissues. Many people using MSM as a dietary supplement have attested to its effectiveness. “I was acquainted with an elderly woman who had been on Prednisone for severe arthritis for a number of years,” says Rod Benjamin, director of quality control for Bergstrom Nutrition in Vancouver, Washington. “Her doctor had to take her off of it because of what it was doing to her kidneys. Her knuckle joints were about an inch and a

to separate pure MSM from impurities and the by-products of manufacturing. The company has evolved the exact boiling points that allow MSM to be isolated, consistently producing the purest MSM available. “Our methods are more expensive and more energy intensive,” says Benjamin. “But our prime concern is delivering the purest product available.” Peter Gilliam’s Natural Vitality is proud to include OptiMSM in its daily multinutrient Organic Life Vitamins (OLV).

Finished OptiMSM “microprills” organic connections 5

How to Remineralize the Earth Getting vital nutrients back into our soil Joanna Campe, president of Remineralize the Earth

We know that “traditionally grown” fruits and vegetables we see in supermarkets are both lacking in vitamins and minerals and have added chemicals from fertilizers and pesticides. These toxic additions in particular fueled the demand for organic produce but did not completely address the lack of nutrients. Going back in time, our soil was rich with minerals, which found their way into our foods in healthy doses. Mineralized soil grew healthier crops providing the vitamins and minerals we now need to take as supplements. Additionally, hardier plants were capable of repelling insects and other pests that are now a constant and costly threat to growers. Over the years (and accelerated with the advent of modern industrialized farming), soil all over the planet has become depleted of minerals, resulting in crops and forests that struggle to perform their parts in our ecology—either providing nutrition or, in the case of trees, putting vital oxygen back into our atmosphere. It’s a serious problem. A recent report based on U.S. agricultural records has found that the nutrient content of fruits and vegetables has been dropping since these records were first taken in the early 1960s—just over 40 years ago. To illustrate the point, you would need to be eating five apples today just to get the same nutrients you would have found in one apple in 1965.

that add minerals to the soil. We can add these minerals back ourselves and create fertile soils.” Remineralized soils can provide two to four times the yield of current unhealthy soils, and greatly increase the health of plant biomass—a well-validated fact that even amazed a group of Missouri high-school students who, in conducting experiments with remineralization, watched pecan plants germinate 7–9 days earlier and grow consistently faster than non-remineralized plants. Remineralization is also fundamental in solving global warming. “When forests are unhealthy and dying off, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” Campe says. “When they’re healthy, they store carbon.” And remineralization’s effects are already being felt in this area. Highly successful remineralization on trees has been done by Dr. Lee Klinger, an independent northern California scientist. In the last three years his methods have been used on more than 5,000 Californian oak trees afflicted with malnutrition and other disease conditions, with all but a handful responding with a flush of healthy canopy growth (see www.suddenoaklife.org). Additionally, there are early-stage studies indicating that spreading rock dust can help bind up atmospheric carbon in the soil and counteract global warming.

to chemical fertilizers, which cost over $400 per ton and need to be applied at least once each season.

A simple solution

What can we do about it?

Remineralization is a straightforward procedure. Simply apply a specific fine rock dust (called glacial gravel) to a field, garden, forest, or even a planter. This type of dust creates a broad spectrum of minerals in the soil in a natural balance. Local sources of rock dust are available as well as products that can be purchased (see www.remineralize.org). Remineralization is also far less expensive and labor-intensive than traditional fertilizing and pest control. A ton of rock dust costs anywhere between nothing at all and $8.00 and only needs to be applied every 1–10 years, depending on the application. Compare this

When you examine the minerals involved, it is not surprising that remineralization is so much more effective for healthy plants than current methods. “Agriculture in the last several decades has mainly relied on three minerals—nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, known as NPK,” says Joanna Campe. “Lately they’ve begun to add more minerals, maybe up to twelve, but that’s still nothing compared to the broad spectrum of a hundred or so minerals provided naturally by remineralized soil.” Another great aspect to remineralization is that it can help eliminate our heavy reliance on petrochemicals (oil-based products). Modern farming relies on chemical

The answer to this problem is amazingly simple. It’s called remineralization. “Remineralization is important because we are missing the minerals and trace elements in our food that should be there,” says Joanna Campe, president of a non-profit organization called Remineralize the Earth. “We can address this by returning minerals to the soil just as the earth does. The natural formation of soil occurs through the recycling of organic matter, the crushing of rocks onto the earth’s soil mantle by glaciers, and volcanic eruptions 6 organic connections

An organic farmer’s perspective How effective can remineralization be? Just ask Dan Kittredge, executive director of Remineralize the Earth, who is also an organic farmer. Prior to remineralizing his farm, he had weaker crops and a horrendous insect problem. “I put in two greenhouses a year and a half ago and planted Asian greens in them. Last spring, all the plants were inundated with tiny holes made by insects. Unless you are extremely diligent, it happens to all of a particular family of crops around here, including broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.” This year, however, he had remineralized. “Under the exact same growing conditions and locations, with the exception of adding rock dust last year, the crops are now growing virtually insect free,” he reports. The crops themselves are extraordinary. “They have this incredible sheen,” Kittredge says. “The flavor is far, far better, and they last longer. We were harvesting broccoli all the way into December, which is pretty amazing, especially for Massachusetts.” The next logical step

Remineralization is important because we are missing the minerals and trace elements in our food that should be there. We can address this by returning minerals to the soil just as the earth does. —Joanna Campe fertilizers that are petrochemical based. “We can shift from an economics of scarcity to an economics of abundance by switching from reliance on chemical fertilizers to remineralization,” Campe says. “Fossil fuels are quickly disappearing, and rocks are the most abundant resource on earth.” This kind of economic effectiveness should come as great news to the organic food industry. According to current statistics, the U.S. buys nearly half of all the organic food produced in the world, and only 0.2 percent of its farmland is dedicated to organic growing. Much of the food produced is also of suspect quality. The reasons for this scarcity and lack of quality lie partially in the expense and difficulty of growing organic food due to the poor soil. Such problems would be easily remedied by the next logical step in natural food production—remineralization—making it possible for farms everywhere to grow natural food easily and within economic boundaries. Organic growers are starting to take notice and participate in remineralization. For example, the largest carrot farmer in the world is turning over his acreage to remineralization, and remineralized carrots can now be purchased from Cal-Organic at Whole Foods Markets. World-renowned chef Alice Waters, inventor of what has become known as California Cuisine, is also an advocate of remineralization and has up to 70 remineralized fruits and vegetables grown for her famous restaurant, Chez Panisse, by Bob Cannard. Do it yourself You, too, can take part in this vital movement, starting right in your own backyard. First, get some education on remineralizing and the kind of rock dust you need by visiting Remineralize the Earth’s website at www.remineralize.org. Then, discover how easy it really is—with the astounding results nutritionally and otherwise—to remineralize your own area. You can also become

a contributor to Remineralize the Earth and assist in their upcoming campaigns and remineralization projects worldwide. Check www.remineralize.org for the many efforts they are making to spread this vital word. Organic farmer and Remineralize the Earth executive director Dan Kittredge