Learn the ins and outs of various popular diets, including Atkins, South Beach, Zone, and Ornish. What is their rationale? How do they work? Are they safe? Natalie Ledesma presents an evidenced-based healthy diet that provides optimal nutrition. Presented by the Center for Gender Equity at UC San Francisco. Series: Womens Health Today [1/2005] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 9022]

Alan R. Kristal, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington and associate head of the Cancer Prevention Research Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, present on food, fitness and Prostate Cancer for mens health. Series: U.C. Wellness Lecture Series [5/2004] [Health and Medicine] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 8608]

 Introduction to Seagate health foods. Seagate is the only health food company in the world that is a fishing company, organic farmer and health foods processor. Learn more about their operations and production of supplements, homeopathic medicines, topicals and even organic fertilizer. For more information, samples and catalogs call 1-888-505-4283. (Organic farming, fishing, health foods manufacturing, natural homeopathic remedies, extracts, antioxidants, fertilizer, proteins, skin remedies).

Nutritionist Amyjo Johnson speaks to Googlers about organinc farming.

What if plants could grow with less water, in poor soil, using less fertilizer or toxic chemical pesticides to produce food for a hungry world? Or what if plants could remove toxic substances from the environment? UCSD plant biologist Julian Schroeder takes you on an exploration of how genetic modification of plants may be able to achieve these goals and address environmental challenges that are in our future. Series: “Science Matters” [8/2001] [Science] [Agriculture] [Show ID: 5580]

Learn more about the facts and the fiction about genetically modified food with UCSD’s Maarten Chrispeels. Series: “Frontiers of Knowledge” [1/2005] [Science] [Show ID: 8709]

Organic Farming: Can It Feed Us ? (part 2)

VVH-TV News Special
Organic Farming: Can It Feed Us? Part 1 & 2

Karl Grossman Chief Investigative Reporter examines Organic Farming on Eastern Long Island.

What is organic farming?
Organic farming can be defined as an approach to agriculture where the aim is to create integrated, humane, environmentally and economically sustainable agricultural production systems. Maximum reliance is placed on locally or farm-derived renewable resources and the management of self-regulating ecological and biological processes and interactions in order to provide acceptable levels of crop, livestock and human nutrition, protection from pests and diseases, and an appropriate return to the human and other resources employed. Reliance on external inputs, whether chemical or organic, is reduced as far as possible. In many European countries, organic agriculture is known as ecological agriculture, reflecting this reliance on ecosystem management rather than external inputs.

The objective of sustainability lies at the heart of organic farming and is one of the major factors determining the acceptability or otherwise of specific production practices. The term ’sustainable’ is used in its widest sense, to encompass not just conservation of non-renewable resources (soil, energy, minerals) but also issues of environmental, economic and social sustainability. The term ‘organic’ is best thought of as referring to the concept of the farm as an organism, in which all the component parts – the soil minerals, organic matter, micro-organisms, insects, plants, animals and humans – interact to create a coherent and stable whole.

The key characteristics of organic farming include:

• protecting the long term fertility of soils by maintaining organic matter levels, encouraging soil biological activity, and careful mechanical intervention;
• providing crop nutrients indirectly using relatively insoluble nutrient sources which are made available to the plant by the action of soil micro-organisms;
• nitrogen self-sufficiency through the use of legumes and biological nitrogen fixation, as well as effective recycling of organic materials including crop residues and livestock manures;
• weed, disease and pest control relying primarily on crop rotations, natural predators, diversity, organic manuring, resistant varieties and limited (preferably minimal) thermal, biological and chemical intervention;
• the extensive management of livestock, paying full regard to their evolutionary adaptations, behavioural needs and animal welfare issues with respect to nutrition, housing, health, breeding and rearing;
• careful attention to the impact of the farming system on the wider environment and the conservation of wildlife and natural habitats.

(c) WVVH-TV 2007 all rights reserved

Milk as natural and wholesome as motherhood, packed with proteins, vitamins and minerals. A great healthy drink for the whole family. But is it really so beneficial? This weeks offering puts the startling claim that the type of milk most of us drink should carry a health warning. Instead of helping us grow strong, A1 milk could help trigger diabetes, heart disease, autism and schizophrenia. This high quality documentary tells a tale of cutting edge research and the corporate power games that blur the truth about a product we all know and love.

Its every parents worst nightmare. One moment their child is perfectly healthy. The next, theyve stopped breathing and are turning blue. For many children, the merest hint of nut is all it takes to send them into anaphylactic shock. Food allergies are on the increase and the number of children affected has more than doubled in the past ten years. Yet simple precautions could significantly cut the death rate. This documentary is a wake up call to the rising danger of food allergies.

The artificial sweetener, aspartame, is the bedrock of the diet industry. Found in everything from fizzy drinks to vitamin pills and marketed under a variety of different names, it is difficult to detect and even harder to avoid. But how safe is it? Does it really cause brain tumors, blindness and other serious illnesses? This shocking documentary investigates how the FDA came to approve such a potentially dangerous product.