Harlem Word: Maudene Nelson talks about organic food and "factory farming"

Maudene Nelson, RD, CDE has been a nutrition educator at the Columbia University Institute of Human Nutrition for the past thirty years. She is also a diabetes educator at the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center [1]. She talks about how meat is processed in the United States and what it means to eat organic food.

Q: What is meant by "factory farming?" 

A:  Consider the fact that almost everything we use from day to day is made in a factory - appliances, clothing, office supplies.  That is because factories are efficient at producing everything fast, in large quantities, and at pretty affordable prices.  Imagine trying to make all of your own furniture, clothing, TV sets, etc.  It would take forever and cost a lot!

Well, our food supply is produced with the same goals: we need large amounts and varieties of foods produced fast and efficiently so that we can afford to buy it!  Practically no one living in the city or suburbs has a garden, henhouse, orchard, or cow pasture in their apartment, so we rely on the people who do have farms to produce enough food for us all to eat on any given day of the week.  The mass processing of foods such as vegetables, chickens, eggs, milk, cheese, meat, is done in large facilities (or factories).

It is easy to imagine that cans, bottles, and boxes are made in factories.  But, the food inside of those containers (and even the food that is not in containers!) is also made in factories.  If food was not produced in this factory style we wouldn't be able to eat a perfect chicken breast or beef steak every day of the week all over the country.

Q: What does it mean to "factory farm" animals?

A: We all have these very romantic pictures of cows in green pastures and chickens scurrying across a barnyard, but that's not how it works in most cases.  "Factory farming" produces large quantities of inexpensive meat.  In order to do this, the animals must live very close together while they are being raised.  Because they're so close together, they can easily transmit diseases to each other.  To prevent the animals from getting sick all the time, they are given antibiotics [2].  Often they are given hormones to speed up their growth.  They may also be raised to grow larger amounts of meat on their frames.

Because these animals are given antibiotics and hormones, there is always a small amount of antibiotics and hormones remaining in the meat when we eat it.  Because of this, our bodies can build up a "resistance" to the effects of the antibiotic, which puts us at risk of getting infections that cannot be treated with antibiotics [2] that are prescribed by our doctors.

Q: What does it mean to "factory farm" vegetables, fruits and grains?

A: "Factory farmed" vegetables, fruits, and grains (corn, oats, rice, wheat, and rye) are often varieties of these plants that can hold up to heavy use of weed killers, large machinery used for harvesting, and the stages of processing that they undergo and still taste good.  "Factory farming" produce has made it necessary to enhance the taste of many foods by adding extra salt-, fat-, and sugar-rich seasonings.

Most people are not aware of the extent of these food processes.  We are just happy that when we walk in the grocery store there is lots of food in each aisle.  However, advocates [3] for simpler, more whole foods that aren't "factory farmed" have shown how antibiotics, hormone residues, excess salt, fat, and sugar can affect our health.  Their efforts are resulting in good changes.  Nowadays, if you don't want to eat "factory farmed" foods, you can shop at farmer's markets, which are more available, or you can purchase organic foods.  Although organic foods can be more expensive than standard food, they are becoming more affordable.  

Q: What does it mean for a food to be organic?

A: It means that the animal/plant food has been grown without adding anything fake.  In the case of plants (nuts, beans, grains, vegetables, and fruits) this means that no pesticides were used to control for insects, no herbicides were used to control for weeds, and any fertilizer that was used was made out of natural substances.  For animal foods (meat, chicken, pork, lamb, eggs, milk, cheese, etc.) it means that animals were fed a diet of organic food and that only government-approved medicines were given to treat the animals.

If you are interested in working with Maudene Nelson and bringing nutrition into your community, please e-mail her at mln2@columbia.edu.

Harlem Word is a series of interviews with community health experts written by HHPC and reviewed by our Health Advisory Board.