News for Now Update: Week ending February 26, 2022

RIP Paul Farmer
Dr. Paul Farmer, who single-handedly brought attention to the health plight of Haitians as a volunteer in the early 1980s, and founded a network of 15 clinics and hospitals serving people in the most remote reaches of the country, died on Monday at 62. Today, the organization he founded, Partners In Health, works in Africa, Central Asia, Latin America and most recently, the United States. Dr. Farmer is “credited with improving if not saving millions of lives, according to the Washington Post. (Image: John Ra/Partners In Health). Find out more in the Washington Post.

Russia’s Attack on Ukraine and Food Security
Russia’s attack on Ukraine will have food security implications in the European Union, the Middle East, Africa and beyond. Known as the breadbasket of Europe, when it’s time to harvest Ukraine’s wheat, barley, rye, and corn fields, the country’s ability to bring its bounty to market to feed its citizens and others in a time of war is of concern to us all. Read this and more at CNBC.

Destructive Effects of Neonicotinoids on Nature
In this update to an article published in 2018, The Conversation US reports that farmers are now overwhelmingly using insecticide-coated corn + soy seeds, with destructive effects on nature, insect populations, and pollinators like bees. Neonicotinoids kill! Learn more in The Conversation US.

New Research on Calories and Energy Use
We have been led to believe that calories are the currency for energy production. Physicians, fitness gurus and the media have advised and sometimes derided us, ad nauseam, about how diet and exercise are the keys to weight loss. What if that was simply wrong? In the Pontzer Evolutionary Energetics and Ecology Lab at Duke University researchers collect data on total energy used per day by people in various walks of life, supporting a paradigm-shifting theory that makes this article a must read. Read more in Science.

Pioneer Archives Post: Dr. Weston A. Price’s Field Study of Isolated Indians in British Columbia and Yukon Territory, Published in 1934
In this extraordinary travelogue to northernmost regions of North America, read what Dr. Price discovered about the diet and lifestyle practices that provided isolated British Columbia and Yukon Territory Indians with such excellent health—and why tribal members with regular access to trading post goods in the same area suffered from modern degenerative diseases.
In this ninth in a series of field studies, published in The Dental Digest in 1934, Dr. Price observes the relationship between physical development of the face, dental arches, and dental caries, and occurrences of modern diseases, with the use of ancestral foods versus those of modern civilization: Read more in our Pioneer Archives Post.