At Thursday’s meeting of the Carmi Rotary club, Loyal Knight was the guest speaker, and he shared a wealth of information on organic farming with the large crowd.
Loyal told the club that he started organic farming in 1978, after a sickness in his family led him to research that convinced him how important it could be. Some of his research showed that modern pesticides and chemicals are destroying the para-thyroid, the gland that feeds the thyroid. This is a contributing factor in the rise of obesity in America today.
He also discovered that the chemical Aspartame, which is a common sweetener today, has been linked to the rise of such nervous system illnesses as MS, Lupus, and Parkinson’s.
He told the Rotarians he also learned that today’s commercially grown turkeys are fed small amounts of Arsenic, which is proven to make the turkey breast grow larger. However, as most people know, Arsenic is one of the oldest and deadliest poisons around also, and humans are consuming it without knowing it.
This all goes back to the way farming is done today, with massive amounts of chemicals put down on crops. These chemicals can be either outright dangerous, or at the very least, can inhibit good nutrients from being left in the foods. As an example, Loyal told the group about a study done by a college in Pennsylvania. This study looked at foods grown on Amish farms versus commercially grown foods. The results showed that the enzymes needed by humans were plentiful in the Amish grown food, but only small trace amounts could be found in the commercially grown products.
Loyal firmly believes that if changes are not made to the way farms are operated in the United States that we as a nation are in serious health trouble within the very near future. He also believes though, that due to the massive amounts of money spent on lobbying and behind the scenes that changes will be very hard to come by. He shared a quote from a letter he received from then Texas Senator Ron Paul. The letter, from 1995, told Loyal that in 1993, farmers received 90 billion dollars for their foods. That same year, the processors and manufacturers received 180 billion dollars for that same product. However, that year the pharmaceutical companies made over 800 billion dollars. With those type of numbers, it is not easy to see who has the most to lose if Americans suddenly shifted to a healthier diet and lifestyle.
In club business, Cindy Conley won the day’s 50/50 drawing and did manage to claim the day’s cash prize. Lyn Stephens was named the phantom for the day.
Cindy Conley reminded the club about the upcoming fried chicken dinner, which will be held this Sunday at the Senior Center from 11:00am until 2:00pm. The cost per ticket is only ten dollars.
The Carmi Rotary club meets every Thursday at noon at the First United Methodist Church in Carmi. Anyone wishing to learn more about this worldwide civic club is more than welcome to attend a meeting or speak with any Carmi Rotarian.
