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him, and put his check on the box. The problem is that when we go with sensitization. So we need to be very aggressive
the lethal dose idea, it often can’t be measured in any meaningful way. about saying that some bacteria are good for you,
What the industrial food system gives us is not a lethal dose but a because bacteria exercise the immune system.
long, slow death. As long as the food doesn’t make you drop dead right Every child should eat a pound of dirt before he’s
now, then it’s safe. And so our culture measures safety as the absence of twelve. We should not be embarrassed to assert
a toxic reaction, and as a result we worship at the altar of sterility and that our food should not be sterile. The only place
antiseptic standards. This creates a food system that’s actually deadly we want sterile is in a surgery.
for our three trillion-member internal community. Living food is full of
bacteria. Cheese, sauerkraut, yeast, mold and living material: real food is NUMBER FIVE: FOOD GETS SAFER
biological. THE FARTHER IT GETS REMOVED
Let me describe the results of a food safety research project of the FROM THE FARM
USDA Agricultural Research Service at College Station, Texas. The hy- “Farms are dirty.” We encountered this
giene hypothesis was first publicized in the early 1990s and has slowly attitude when we started selling pork to Chipo-
gained currency among medical doctors, researchers and public health tle Mexican Grill, and their quality assurance
officials. This hypothesis states that the lack of exposure of children, as people found out that we were going to take the
well as adults, to dirt, bacteria, and low levels of pathogens results in an pigs to the slaughterhouse, bring the meat back
immune system that does not function normally. The lack of antibodies in vacuum baggies, put it in the refrigerator
to true pathogens has resulted in the dramatic increase in allergies and overnight, put it on the bus the next morning
asthma in developed countries over the past twenty years. The American and send it to Chipotle. Their quality assurance
Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology estimates that the number people went nuts because “farms are dirty.” We
of people with some form of allergy has more than doubled over the last couldn’t have that meat going back to our walk-
two decades. This trend has been largely attributed to the lack of true im- in cooler because, you know, a farm is dirty. I
munity. Because we are too sanitary, the human immune system becomes guess they’ve never had a picnic on a farm. It’s
bored or over sensitized to any perceived threat and hyper-responds to as though the farther away that food gets from
non-threats like dust and pollen. We have run into the law of unintended the farm, the cleaner it’ll get. If it’s dirty on the
consequences. We have never questioned whether the removal of all bac- farm, so the thinking goes, the farther it gets
teria from all foods is actually beneficial to the consumer. away from the farm, the cleaner it gets. Cities are
The crux of the hygiene hypothesis is that the immune system needs much cleaner than farms. This notion has been
a low level of challenge stimulation to prevent immune system over- created by industrial farming.

WISE TRADITIONS 2010 - IT’S ALL ABOUT THE FOOD

Sandrine Hahn, creator of the
John Woods of U.S. Wellness Meats, Amanda Love, Nourishing Our Children PowerPoint
WAPF Chef and Advisor, Carlos Gomez, Executive Chef introduces a beautiful DVD version of the
and Randy Hartnell of Vital Choice Seafood. presentation at the conference. For details,
Attendees enjoyed five delicious meals thanks to the visit nourishingourchildren.org.
talent of Amanda and Carlos, and the generous
donations of meat and seafood from John and Randy.

WINTER 2010 Wise Traditions 21

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