Welcome to the first 2012 monthly newsletter of the Bionutrient Food Association/Real Food Campaign. We have a full issue this month. We start out with a reminder of the upcoming courses starting across the northeast next month, and then to an outline of the Soil and Nutrition conference that BFA/RFC is co-sponsoring with NOFA/Mass.  Next we have an article explaing the new term "Bionutrient", and our rationale for changing our organizational name.  After a quick update on the IRS status of our new org, we have a link to recent articles in Mother Earth News by the editors calling for more awareness about mineral decreases in the food supply and its effect on human health. Next is a link to a radio interview I gave recently, an announcement of a brix contest on butternut squash sponsored by International Ag Labs, and a job opening at one of our host farms.

I hope this warm winter weather is treating everyone well, the days are certainly longer, the sun is stronger and the birds are singing more. Enjoy the solar storms and Chinese new year :)
Dan

FEBRUARY 2012 COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT

ATTENTION ALL GROWERS!

The Real Food Campaign is announcing six two-session courses, presented by Dan Kittredge, to be offered at six different locations throughout the northeast region, beginning in mid-February and ending in early May. The courses will be held on weekend days, from 9:30am–4:30pm and will generally feature a potluck lunch at midday.

These courses are designed for area farmers and gardeners who want to learn before the coming growing season how to grow more bionutrient rich food, so they and others can start to live healthier lives. They can also serve as an update or refresher for those who have attended previous courses who want to revisit these principles & practices and to experience what's new while renewing what they've forgotten or never quite understood. There are discount rates for returnees.

For further information or to register, visit www.realfoodcampaign.org/workshop-series-2011-2012, or contact Douglas Williams, Course Administrator, at doug@realfoodcampaign.org or 603-924-7008.

The course sites and dates are as follows:

INFORMATION FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO DIG DEEPER & THINK FURTHER

Bionutrient rich crop production is a form of biological farming that works to balance and enliven the soil so that the crops growing in it provide all the necessary minerals, phytonutrients, anti-oxidants and enzymes that humans and animals need in their bodies. The soil is stimulated by adding amendments containing the minerals in which the soil is deficient. Then, with close observation of the plants as they grow and by providing nutritional support with regularly applied drenches and foliar sprays, the vitality and energy of the soil and plants are enhanced to produce healthier crops, greater yields, extended seasons and longer shelf life. Insects cannot digest the complex compounds developed in healthier plants, and healthy plants are not as vulnerable to disease. As a result insect and disease problems diminish and can entirely disappear.

Those who attend these courses will learn many useful things:

• to obtain and use a soil test to tell what is in your soil and what is missing that it needs
• to locate and utilize the right amendments and materials to nurture your soil and crops
• to choose better quality seed and inoculate it when you plant it to give it the best start
• to measure the energetic vitality in your soil and to monitor and maintain that effectively throughout the growing season
• to support your plants through the various stages of their growth, feeding them in ways to sustain their full development
• to observe the growth process of your plants and to recognize signs of potential weakness and disease
• to know the right amount and best ways to supply water to your plants and soil
• to become acquainted with helpful resources to foster and support your own learning process

The cost of each course is $150, and substantial financial aid is available for farmers who wish to attend, thanks to a generous grant from the Lattner Foundation. It is possible to register for the full amount online with a credit card at www.realfoodcampaign.org/workshop-series-2011-2012. For further information and to apply for aid or to register by check or in installments, please contact Douglas Williams, Course Administrator, at doug@realfoodcampaign.org or 603-924-7008.

In addition, RFC will be offering a course for farmers and gardeners in Saratoga Springs NY on Thursday & Friday, February 23 & 24 at the United Methodist Church. For further information, and to register for this special two-day event, contact Douglas Williams.

Soil and Nutrition

February 9-11, 2012 (Thursday to Saturday)
First Churches, 129 Main St, Northampton, MA

An important and exciting learning opportunity is being presented in Northampton MA on February 9-11, co-sponsored by NOFA/Mass and the BFA. If you want to understand better the nature and processes of the soil and how to work more effectively with your own soil, you should hear John Kempf speak, knowledgeably and clearly at an all-day seminar on Thursday. That evening there will be a public dialogue between John and Dan Kittredge, followed on Friday by a series of panel discussions featuring local practitioners and experts on different topics, Saturday will be a time to discover and determine strategies and approaches for ongoing discussion and work in our region. This is a unique opportunity. Check the details below and plan to attend!

John Kempf will be giving a one-day seminar on achieving high levels of crop health through soil building and nutrition as part of this three-day conference. To get a preview of some of his work, which gives practical tools for farmers, see the following information.

ARTICLES
Read a full outline of John's Seminar here..
Read John's article in Acres, "Carbon Building, Carbon Cycling".
Read John's article from his newsletter, "Crop HEALTH Transitions".
Read the education page on John's Website.

CONFERENCE CALLS
John runs regular educational conference calls for growers. Here are some of the past conference calls, which you can listen to via phone. To listen, dial 712-432-8788, enter the access code, 91847#, and then enter one of the following sharing ID numbers:
Blueberries ~ 3658#
Tree fruit and orchards ~ 3759#
Fall cover cropping ~ 3806#
Garlic and onions ~3895#

REGISTRATION COST
The registration cost for the seminar is $85 for Thursday, February 9.  It is $60 to register for the other two days: Friday, February 10 and Saturday, February 11. You receive a $10 early bird discount if registered for all three days if registering by January 26, 2012.  Members of Real Food Campaign, any NOFA chapter, or MOFGA receive a membership discount of $10.

Registration info and more Conference details at:
http://www.nofamass.org/seminars/winterseminar.php

SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS
NOFA/Mass is a community of farmers, gardeners, landscapers and consumers. We are working educate our members and the general public about the benefits of local organic systems based on complete cycles, natural materials and minimal waste for the health of individual beings, communities and the living planet.

The Bionutrient Food Association (BFA) (parent organization of Real Food Campaign) is a nonprofit research, education and advocacy organization whose objective is to improve quality in the food supply. BFA identifies interdisciplinary parameters that result in optimum soil vitality; educates growers on the principles necessary to achieve this result in the field; and advocates for and facilitates the mainstream availability and consumption of bionutrient food.

The Real Food Campaign works directly with Farmers in the field – discovering, uncovering and sharing information that can improve farm operations, and ultimately lead to greater crop quality and improve the health of those who eat it.

The Bionutrient Food Association

About March 1, 2012 the Bionutrient Food Association will be formally established as a tax exempt 501c3 non-profit organization focused on the strategic steps necessary to raise quality in the food supply.

The organization has evolved out of the Real Food Campaign, itself a project of Remineralize the Earth. The Real Food Campaign has been working for three and a half years to raise awareness about nutritional disparities and deficiencies in the food supply, and has trained 700+ growers in the Northeast US in year-long courses in practical steps, critical materials, and the underlying science behind producing "Nutrient Dense" crops.

The term "Nutrient Dense" has been popularized by the Real Food Campaign as a means to convey the relative nutritional superiority of some crops in relation to others, and has begun to catch hold among many paying attention to evolving trends in the food movement. The concept is simple: some blueberries for example will have 1000% more antioxidants than other blueberries. These high antioxidant level blueberries, have exceptional flavor, consistency and nutritional profile, and there is currently no way in the marketplace for the consumer to discern the quality and effectively which blueberries they are getting before purchase. These types of attributes are relevant across the food supply. Some carrots are sweet and aromatic, other are bitter or soapy. Some tomatoes make the mouth water, and others have the consistency and flavor of a cucumber. Some corn will weigh 48 pounds per bushel and is likely susceptible to myco-toxin, and other corn is 62 pounds per bushel and will be chosen over any other by any animal given a choice.

These higher quality blueberries would be referred to as "Nutrient Dense" in an effort to name the relative level of nutrition they contain in relation to their counterparts. There are two significant problems with using this term in this evolving context. One is technical - this is a term that already has a meaning in the scientific literature. In food science "nutrient density" is an established reference to the ratio of the relative average nutritional content to the caloric content of a food. For instance kale on average has a high level of nutrients in relation to the amount of calories it has and is therefore considered to be a "nutrient dense" food. Potatoes, on the other hand, on average have a relatively low level of nutrients in relation to the calories they contain and so are considered not to be a "nutrient dense" food. Soda, for instance, with high levels of calories and almost no nutrition is at the bottom of the list of nutrient dense foods.

This is the current scientific definition of nutrient density and for growers and food movement leaders to be using this term without knowledge of its established meaning will certainly lead to miscommunication, false advertising and other unnecessary hurdles in the future. Whole Foods for instance uses the ANDI scale popularized by Dr. Joel Fuhrman in their sales and marketing materials. ANDI stand for Aggregate Nutrient Density Index, and has attached a score of 1000 to kale and 1 to soda. This is in line with the Food Science definition of the term.

More importantly, the second problem with using a term like "Nutrient Dense" in relation to high quality crops is that it leads to a polarizing effect. This crop would be said to be "Nutrient Dense" and some other crop not. Crop A may be superior to crop B, but where exactly is the dividing line between the two, and what would one call crop C which may be far superior to either of the first two?

We have a bad habit of attaching labels to things instead of seeing them as the gradations that they actually are. Vegetables are either organic or not, and if one is selling into a wholesale market a premium is given for the organic crop. This is by no means necessarily connected with the underlying nutritional value of the crop, and in many cases growers that are either not certified organic or not certifiably organic practice superior management and produce nutritionally superior crops. The same can be said for the local food movement. Just because something is locally grown does not mean it was grown in a manner stimulative to soil life and vitality, or that it is even close to the nutritional profile of a crop grown out of state.

If quality is the objective then perhaps it would be best to see crops where they belong on the spectrum, as opposed to either there or not. Anyone who has honestly attempted to grow the highest quality crops they can and been empirical about their results is probably familiar with the humbling experience of knowing that much better is possible.

Helping to guide this process of growing the best possible crops and coming up with the metrics and terms to identify them is part of the work that the Real Food Campaign has been engaged in over the past three and a half years, and that process has culminated in the establishment of the Bionutrient Food Association (BFA).

The BFA presumes to coin a new term – Bionutrient – thus far not having any meaning. We propose that those beneficial attributes of food, viewed from the perspective of living organisms, specifically humans, are in relatively greater and lesser levels in crops and it could be said that these blueberries have a higher overall level of Bionutrients than those blueberries. All blueberries are on a spectrum, so there could never be a certified Bionutrient blueberry, or a non-Bionutrient blueberry. There are just some that are better than others, and most importantly when a mother wants to buy blueberries for her children, she would like to know which ones are better than the others.

The exciting fact is that with advances in technology, near infrared spectroscopy among other fields has now given us the capacity to flash a light at a crop from a hand-held device, and in real time discern sophisticated nutritional profiles of that crop in the real world. Proper research, calibration and mass production of hand-held devices of this type could significantly shift the economic leverage in the food industry, giving consumers the ability to make purchasing decisions based on quality, not label, and through basic supply and demand incentivize growers to shift their production methodologies toward the better soil management protocols necessary for producing high quality crops.

This is one key project that the Bionutrient Food Association (BFA) is working to implement. We are currently working with industry leaders to test Near Infrared Spectroscopy or NIR techniques among others with crops, to develop data sets, to work on calibrations and move toward the mass production of consumer priced tools that should effect this shift in the food supply.

Other projects the BFA is currently engaged in are:

• Our Real Food Campaign educational courses that teach growers to identify and address limiting factors in the biological system of their soil and to carefully monitor the growth stages of their crops throughout the growing season.
• We are preparing a set of informative articles raising these key points to be published in food movement journals.
• In addition, we are developing our network hub website (bionutrient.org) designed to provide comprehensive explanations of the role of different pieces of the biological system in soil vitality, and linkages to all those involved in high quality crop production, from mineral distributors to retail outlets.

This is an exciting time for our newly established organization, and we invite all those who feel inspired to join in this work to attend a course, to sign on as participating members, or offer personal or financial assistance in accordance with their ability, and to help us find the substantial amount of funding which will be required to achieve the goals we seek to accomplish.

Dan Kittredge
Founder
dan@realfoodcampaign.org
978 257 2627

The Real Food Campaign is formally shifting into a new organization which is called the Bionutrient Food Association. Details on the rationale for the new name are in the previous article. After incorporating the new organization in late 2010, we applied for IRS 501c3 or tax exempt charitable educational organization status in May 2011. After receiving word back in December from the IRS that a few minor details were needed for the proposal to be complete, we have now submitted all data and are expecting a positive response in the next couple of weeks. Our plan is to roll out the new bionutrient.org website by March 1, 2012.

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE FIELD?

Suggested by Jon Frank at International Ag Labs

You are invited to participate in a squash growing competition!

You've heard the term 'nutrient dense'- it's everywhere. But what does it really mean? We would like to find out, and with your help we will.

The USDA has compiled an extensive food nutrient database at http://www.ars.usda.gov/nutrientdata. This information allows you to quickly determine what nutrient levels are typically found in many different fruits and vegetables such as strawberries, green beans, etc. The database is useful except for one missing piece. It does not ask the most important question--how much nutrition should these foods contain? Many researchers and nutritionists are deeply concerned that nutrients in today's fruit and vegetables are on a steep decline.

This competition aims to answer the question: "How much mineral nutrition should butternut squash contain?" We also want to highlight the best genetics in order to help growers achieve higher nutrient density.

Think you have butternut squash worthy of bragging rights?

To determine the nutrient density of your squash, a lab analysis is required. Here is how to get started:

• Sign up for a free information pack at www.marketgardens.com/squash. This package contains a detailed explanation of the process, a submittal form, and goes over the basics of how the lab analysis will be used to compute the nutrient density score.
• Grow the very best quality squash you can any way you wish; organic, biological, conventional, etc. Submit your squash with the submittal form before November 1, 2012.
• All participants will receive a copy of the results, statistical analysis, and conclusions derived from the squash competition.
• Prize winning growers and representatives from the seed companies will be highlighted on a free teleseminar mid-November 2012. Prize money will be paid before Thanksgiving 2012.

Sign up now!

Or if the internet is not your thing, call 507.235.6909. Who knows, it might earn you an extra $1000 just in time for Christmas!

Jon Frank
International Ag Labs
(507) 235-6909
Jon@aglabs.com
www.aglabs.com

Evidence Continues to Accumulate

Evidence continues to accumulate that our industrial food system is not serving us well when it comes to the nutrient value of food. True, American agribusiness has given us one of the cheapest food supplies in the world, but science reveals this food is “cheap” in more ways than one. Here are some of the things we know at this point:

Over the last 50 years, the amounts of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin and vitamin C in conventionally grown fresh fruits and vegetables have declined significantly. We know this thanks to rigorous analysis of USDA nutrient data by biochemist Donald Davis of the University of Texas. Similar trends have been discovered in the United Kingdom.

Read more

American agribusiness is producing more food than ever before, but the evidence is building that that the vitamins and minerals in that food are declining. For example... Eggs from free-range hens contain up to 30 percent more vitamin E, 50 percent more folic acid and 30 percent more vitamin B-12 than factory eggs. And the bright orange color of the yolk shows higher levels of antioxidant carotenes. (Many factory-farm eggs are so pale that producers feed the hens expensive marigold flowers to make the yolks brighter in color.)

Read more

Last, but not least: a request from one of our workshop site hosts

White Gate Farm, located on 100 picturesque acres in East Lyme CT, is seeking a full-time farmer to head up crop production and participate in other aspects of this certified organic farm. We have 3.5 acres under cultivation plus 2 large hoop houses where we produce vegetables year round. We grow many varieties of vegetables, berries, and flowers, and raise poultry and lamb, which we mainly market at our on-site farm stand, open two days a week. We also sell to restaurants and to Dinners at the Farm, hosted by us each summer. We are expanding our operation to include a new commercial kitchen where we will make value-added products and offer cooking classes.

Job description: This is a full-time, live-in position. We will take special interest in a career-minded couple looking for a multi-year commitment. The normal work week for the head farmer is Tuesday through Saturday with one evening, when the farm stand is open. If head farmer and partner have all required skills and experience and can divide work to meet farm operational needs, two full time positions are available.

To apply, please submit cover letter and resumé by February 15 to Pauline Lord at info@whitegatefarm.net.