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Speech on Milk, Butter, Pesticides, Herbicides
Speech given in Oklahoma City in 1949.
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The relationship of healthy livestock and healthy plants to the health of man has been taken for granted. Very little study on these very points has entered into the consideration of food. The first principle in selecting a dietary, however, should be how healthy was the plant? How healthy was the animal? When infant formulae are being computed and whole milk is to be used, little consideration is given to the adequacy of that milk. Whether or not the dairyman can raise his own calves is of little consideration, for we are led to believe that a bottle of milk is a bottle of milk, and we are much more concerned with bacterial count and butter fat content than with its reproductive efficiency.
During my current experiments, because of limited resources, I have not been able to obtain the high grade milk which we used in previous experiments. The results obtained in the current experiments utilizing ordinary commercial raw milk are not comparable to those obtained with a high grade raw milk of certified grade that we previously used, in which the cattle were fed large quantities of fresh cut green feed. The present animals do not show the fine coats, the integrity of membrane about the teeth or the homogeneity of reproduction we observed in our past experiments.
Likewise, we have used a cheaper meat supply for the same reasons. These experiments, however, are as important to me in showing the value of healthy cattle and good meat products as though I had had the finest material to utilize. In my talk before the joint meeting on Thursday evening, I attempted to emphasize some of the important mal nutritions that are practiced for the purpose of producing commercial animal products. I did not go into the same practices which are practiced by the farmer. If the farmer is interested in the problems of producing seed for the seedmarket, he chooses entirely different lands from those that he chooses for the purpose of producing feeds and foodstuffs. He chooses the soil that contains the factors of maximum maturation, and the reproductive efficiency in order that the sprouting capacity of his seeds will reach at least the minimum requirements of his association or the state codes under which he operates.
The horticulturist on the other hand, who produces vegetables for the market, usually attempts to produce the most eye-appealing product and because many of our fruits and vegetables that have reached the ripened stage do not lend themselves to easy transportation, he picks them green before the enzymes and vitamins have reached their maximum maturity. He uses pesticides and herbicides under the conviction that modern man is not subject to the toxic elements of these products. Yet malnutrition resulting from the detrimental effects of lead and arsenic and the more potent synthetic organics increases from day to day. The freshness of our fruits and vegetables can be readily questioned, and the modern methods of packaging and distribution waste a large share of the consumer’s food dollar.