You are what you eat: The danger’s of eating out of season

Eating out of season has been something we never questioned, fresh salad in winter, spinach and fresh strawberries during x’mas. In the northern hemisphere this equates to the unnecessary luxury of imports, science and fossil fuel has also enabled us to grow vegetables in a heated greenhouse out of season for businesses to reap the benefits of economic value from these vegetables when supplies are low and demands is at it’s peak; carbon emission aside what is the true cost of eating food that are grown out of season?

To understand this we need to look at how a plant works. The plant extracts nutrients such as nitrates from the soil and stores this within the plant turning this into protein and sugar used by the plant for growth. For this to happen it requires sunlight for photosynthesis and in winter the hours of sunlight will decrease significantly.

Scientific research carried out in the 60s on spinach and lettuce (Spinach and lettuce are two of the vegetables that has the tendency to hold on to nitrates) has shown that these vegetables while grown in shade contain a higher level of nitrates than those grown in full sun. Imagine the growth of vegetable out of season in a heated greenhouse in just 6 hours of sunlight? The amount of nitrates in the spinach of lettuce may far exceed what has been deemed safe.

The truth to the matter is, consuming excessive amounts of nitrates have been scientifically proven to be one of the major factors that cause cancer; this has also been a huge topic of debate within the EU on the level of nitrates being discharged by the conventional agriculture industry into the water tables of Europe.

We cannot fool nature, trying to grow something that is out of season in a heated greenhouse powered by fossil fuel is a sign of humans excessive demand, we need to respect the forces of nature and live within the seasons and with this understanding and respect we may be duly rewarded by her.

You are what you eat: The Adam's Apple

How many of us actually understand the food that we eat? Where it comes from? How it is grown and what quality they possess? Many of what we know are passed down by our parents, Television and now the internet and many a time we blindly fall into a cycle of blind faith and believing that something is actually good and safe for us!

We all love a good salad with fresh cherry tomatoes or perhaps a potato salad and this is more so in the west, whilst in tropical south east asia eggplant and chilli dominate many of our local dishes but what value do these vegetables bring to our health and are we actually eating the right stuff or are we slowly poisoning ourselves?

Potatoes, Tomatoes, Chili, Peppers, eggplants are all part of the nightshade family, infamous for it’s poisonous quality. They contain solanine a neurotoxic chemical used as a sedative that has varying effects on the human health. Try eating a whole bunch of potatoes for 3 meals a day 7 days a week, and you may start to feel sluggish, tired, a headache will set in, and as you increase the solanine levels in your bloodstream you will start to feel ill or depressed and hitting a few hundred milligrams can kill you in less than 30 mintues. But that’s not it, other chemicals are also present in potatoes such as scopolamine ,atropine and nicotine. Scopolamine has been used as a "truth drug"; atropine is a hallucinogenic drug also used to treat cardiac arrest; and nicotine of course is an addictive insecticide

Stenier through his study and his connection of the spiritual realm has classified potatoes with an intrinsic quality of causing general heaviness to the body creating a levity effect to the mental body and bringing it down to earth, the mental body enters a state of unconsciousness and drive people towards a false sense of security.

The tomato plant, a gorgeous vegetable producing sweet fruits high in vitamin C and other goodness. Again part of the nightshade family it contains most of the chemicals mentioned above. Stenier through his observation of the tomato plant realised that it is a self content plant that pulls itself away from the environment, it didn’t need to be rotated like other vegetable and can live in the same spot for many years without any degeneration of the crop. And if you were to use compost made from tomato plants, that is, if you were to let the tomatoes grow in their own compost, they would grow even better. Tomatoes have no desire to step outside of themselves, no desire to step outside the realm of strong vitality. That’s where they want to stay. They are the least social beings in the entire plant kingdom. They do not want anything from strangers, and above all, they do not want any fertilizer that has gone through a composting process; they reject all that. This is the reason that they can influence what works independently within the human or animal organism.” And because of this Stenier has said:’ people diagnosed as having cancer should immediately be forbidden to eat tomatoes, because cancer from its very inception makes a certain part of the human or animal body independent of the rest of the organism.”

Please don’t be alarmed with what I’ve shared here, life has to go on and a lot of the time these vegetables bring more goodness to our life than the poison within them, awareness is your best weapon and remember to always do things in moderation.

There is more than meets the eye

It is strange returning to college again after being away from the classrooms for so many years. Being here at Emerson College where the Biodynamic agriculture college sits has been nothing but positive. The vibe of the college is something I can't explain with words, there is a distinct flow of energy and a buzz that you probably would never find in a typical school or educational institution, this is contributed mainly by the diverse and unique set of students doing courses from the visual arts to storytelling which is one of the most amazing and unique course I’ve come across.

Set in the idyllic countryside town of forest row, which incidentally is also a transition town the college is bordered by 2 community supported biodynamic farms, Tablehurst farm produces most of the meat that is sold to the local community, chickens, lamb, beef, pigs and turkeys which are fattening up for Christmas as we speak. Plaw Hatch farm which is more like a mixed farm with vegetable production as it's main focus. Walking through the farms today gave me a mere glimpse of the beauty of Stenier’s philosophy and how the farms are not only a place for honest food production but also a place where communities are fostered. The farm provides a space where they include community members with learning disability, adults with various aliments such as autism, down syndrome live and work on the farm giving them a purpose in life, a sense of belonging and defiantly works at integrating them into the larger community. This is truly a very special and unique trait of many biodynamic farms, just imagine the good it can do for society and it’s most neglected members!!

I’m truly excited to what will happen next, being around and studying with people that have similar interest in nature plants and animals, talking to the storytelling students and being amazed at how they structure their thoughts and speeches and mingling among the visual artists who views the world in shapes and forms;

I just have a feeling that this would be an experience that would change me forever!

The start of my new journey..

So we’ve come to the end of phase 1 of the pathlight food garden project. We’ve now a functional food garden with 6 vegetable beds, a keyhole garden a clover shaped garden which was originally a pond, a zig zag border, a tepee trellis, a very rustic fence, an innovative door, composting set-up, the mighty worm farm and module 1 of the farming curriculum.

Throughout the project duration we constantly discover something new about our bodies and realised our threshold point for hard physical labour, working in the epic enter of the tropics has also been a real test at times when the sun refuse to budge. Hard labour has always been something I feel that many Singaporeans would out rightly shun. But I was proved wrong when we were able to assemble a team of passionate Singaporeans, together we planned, we designed, and we laboured and I’m mightily proud that this food garden has been built from the ground up with the help of the wider community.

So the time has come when I have to bid farewell, phase 1 has been a very fruitful journey for me!! I’ve learnt a lot from so many people and most of all I’ve learnt a lot about myself. Nature is a good teacher and has taught me: patience, respect and balance working on the land have brought me to understand life a lot more. This has made me realise that I now need to return to England and bring back a sustainable farming model; Biodynamic farming may perhaps be the key to a successful organic system.So I go back to school for a year and a half in the south of England where I will pursue my Biodynamic agriculture diploma.

I leave you now with a video i made that charts the progress of our unfinished journey: