Modern Agriculture and Health

There appears to be an unholy alliance between ‘Big Ag and Big Pharma’ that ensures they grow their profits at the expense of public health. Our agriculture has become dependent on monoculture and chemical treatments resulting in depleted nutrition and weakened human immune systems. In particular the expanded use of herbicides such as Roundup is leading to a rapid expansion of ‘leaky-gut’ syndrome and autoimmune diseases. The newly confirmed ‘Brexit’ raises a potential threat to Irish agriculture through the introduction of GMO foods into Northern Ireland. The ‘Roundup Ready’ varieties are often sprayed with herbicides many more times during production leaving extremely high residues at harvest, which then enter the food chain. Other variants produce toxins in every cell that kill off any insects that attempt to eat them. What makes it safe for humans to eat anything that causes insects to die? What effects do these GMO foods have on our building of our own DNA? ’You are what you eat’ after all. The Pharmaceutical industry seeks to mask the symptoms of disease without addressing the causes of the problem. It is not in their interests to lose a customer by curing her. With a pill for every ill approach to medicine, patients inevitably suffer unwanted side effects from multiple assaults for which the usual ‘solution’ is to add another pill to the patient’s medication list. This is a grossly immoral self-sustaining death spiral. Let us now acknowledge the bankruptcy of this approach and instead engage in regenerative methods that aim to heal the soil, enhance nutrition and restore public health. Initially this may look like a rejection of all that is progressive and good about modern agriculture but it is actually a systemic vision of a sustainable approach that aims for the highest quality food production. Do not be gulled by those who would tell you that only chemically driven or GMO methods can provide the volume of food needed for the planet’s 7.5 billion inhabitants. It is not, and never was, true. The problems of hunger are due to poor distribution, not poor production. Throughout the ages famine has been used as an act of suppression or war. Even today the scourge of hunger could be eliminated if sufficient efforts were made to distribute food fairly. During the second world war America produced some 40% of its food in home gardens. In Europe the rate was 50% or higher. The nutritive quality of the food was high and endowed the population with strength and longevity. The sparsity of food also allowed human GI tracts to rest so that the liver could concentrate on ‘housekeeping duties’ like enzyme production and toxin elimination. The narrative of industrial agriculture is largely false and is maintained by a monetary system that commoditises food rather than relating to it with reverence and appreciation. On this Christmas Day may we allow light to shine away the darkness that would enslave us to the status quo. Let us share freely in the abundance of nature and now set about its restoration so that we can all enjoy this Garden of Eden.

Compassionate Accountability

From those to whom much has been given, much will be expected - Anon The story is told of a zealous young IBM sales executive who overcommitted the organisation and signed a contract with a customer that ultimately cost IBM $1M. Realising the enormity of his error, he brought his letter of resignation to the CEO. The CEO read it then threw it back saying ‘I’m not going to let you resign when we’ve just invested $1M in your education.’ Which of us would not respond to such forgiveness with gratitude and resolve? Yet how likely is it that any of us would encounter this level of compassion in the workplace? The sad truth is that it is not the norm. The consequences of failure can be deadly for our careers – both in the eyes of the organisation and through a lack of adventure due to having clipped our own wings. We may continue for years in a state of presenteeism lacking the courage to try again. Perhaps the CEO recognised the latent talent of this salesman and his ability to learn through self-reflection? A more common, even stereotypical response, on the part of the salesman might have been to shrug it off, blaming the losses on tough market conditions, extreme competition or even the incompetence of his colleagues to deliver against his promises. Without being able to face his own faults his career could be a litany of disasters. Conventional wisdom might require that anyone responsible for $1M losses be summarily sacked, but for a CEO to extend such compassion illustrates that he / she recognises their role as Chief Culture Officer. The ‘CCO’ understands that they model the behaviour expected throughout the organisation. No organisational leader can expect to ‘be in the trenches’ with her staff, but they look to her for an example of moral leadership and use it to direct their own work and decision making. Here the focus is on learning from one’s mistakes. As the saying goes – “I’m either winning or learning; I never lose.” As we enter a period of awakening for humanity, where we are facing the consequences of the ecoside over which we have presided, it is more important than ever that we learn from our mistakes and that we show ourselves some compassion. Now is not the time to blame others, to continue with business as usual or to wring our hands and give up. Instead we must collectively rise to the challenge of reversing our excesses and restoring our planet. Our grandchildren will hold us accountable. Now we must earn their compassion.

Holiday Season

Summer arrived in Northern Ireland last week causing many white legs to come out of hiding for the first time this year. As a friend often says of our beautiful home in Castlewellan – ‘God was showing off when he made this place’. The schools have just finished for the long summer holiday and ice-cream vans cruise the housing estates hunting for victims. In the cold waters of Dundrum Bay jelly-fish lie in wait for the same white legs and the even whiter torsos of brave seasonal bathers. With sunshine of the Mournes as a backdrop it’s a perfect summer scene. Generations of schoolchildren have looked forward to the long holidays and light evenings. In early July the festive bunting announces ‘the marching season’. For some this marks a celebration of a glorious past. For others it’s a provocative gesture of domination and defiance. Despite the outstanding beauty of this place the old maxim reminds us ‘Every silver lining has a dark cloud’. Yet perhaps we can look at this situation in a more useful, and dare I say it, ‘Green’ way? Never before has it been more important to awaken to the mortal dangers that threaten our planet. We need to both appreciate our heritage and to protect it. This is the time to declare ‘No Surrender’ to the corporatist forces of greed that exploit the world’s resources and destroy the habitats of all sentient beings. It is often when we are on holiday that we can gain the necessary perspective to make major changes in our lives. Let us use this holiday period to call to mind what’s really important; what unites rather than divides us. May we now engage in the corrective activities that will protect our environment and allow future generations to bring white legs safely out of hiding.

CoeurAge

Humanity has reached a point where changing how we live is essential for our survival. The writing’s been on the wall for decades but we’re close enough now that even short-sighted guys like me can see the letters clearly – ‘Change or Die’. After years of living out of our heads – using science to do things simply because they’re possible or profitable, we must now focus our scientific knowledge onto the tasks that meet basic ethical criteria – • Does Humanity really need this or do we just want it? • Are we working with nature or against it? • Will our efforts help all of humanity to grow together or apart? • Do our actions respect all life on earth or are we undermining the life-support systems and habitats of our own or that of other species? In short, we need to enter an age where we live from the heart. Perhaps the greatest Hot-Button issue of our time is Global Warming and our continued reluctance to address our use of fossil fuels. For years we have extolled the virtues of electric cars and most recently we’ve developed a prototype train running on Hydrogen. Unfortunately clean inner city air is made possible at the expense of those remote communities, near conventional power stations, where electricity for these innovations is generated by burning more fossil fuels. Never are we presented with an end-to-end power budget. But it is possible to end our dependence on fossil fuels. Though I am opposed to the building of any more uranium based nuclear reactors, with their 100,000 year toxic waste products and very low efficiency (<1%), there is a much better alternative that we should be pursuing. A reactor using Thorium as a fuel was built in Tennessee over 50 years ago, where it ran continuously for almost 5 years. The so-called LFTR – Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor produces waste with a 300 year toxicity and because the fuel is in liquid form it runs at 50% efficiency. Copenhagen Atomics in Denmark believe they can even use LFTR technology for ‘Energy Recycling’ – the conversion of spent fuel rods to reduce their toxicity and the recovery of their unused power. So why are we not already doing this? Possibly because the Thorium fuel cycle does not produce Plutonium for bombs and it runs too hot to be used in nuclear submarines. So, despite its superiority for civilian power generation, it was of no interest to the US Navy who were funding the research. The rest is history. It’s long past time to put this right. We must demand that governments of the world commit the necessary resources to engineer a Thorium based solution to our energy needs. Scientists believe that Thorium reactions maintain the earth’s core in a molten state and hence the earth’s magnetic field that protects us from radiation. So Thorium power is not new technology; it’s totally natural and literally billions of years old! LFTR technology can make hydrogen-powered vehicles possible without increasing our use of fossil fuels. We can provide clean air and reduce respiratory disease. We can recycle and sanitise the waste legacy of existing reactors. We may even be able to usefully and safely decommission nuclear weapons. We can create a vibrant zero-carbon economy by 2030. We can stop the Global Warming juggernaut and leave a habitable planet for future generations.

Wake up and Smell the Coffee!

At ‘Stupid o’clock’ this morning I heard a commentator on the BBC World Service say that, instead of the predicted 0.8m sea level rise expected by 2100, it’s likely to be closer to 2.0m. The next programme examined the plight of cattle farmers in Colombia where forest has been cleared on the foothills of the Andes to provide land for grazing. But the resulting erosion has greatly depleted soil nutrition and increased topsoil runoff. Most of the cattle raised here are emaciated and sick. What a dreadful start to a day to be poisoned by ‘Fear Porn’ before breakfast! I returned to bed, not just to ignore this nightmare scenario, but genuinely hoping to get some more sleep. But as I lay there it occurred to me that there are strong parallels between agricultural practice in Colombia and everyday life in the UK. – Let me explain. Not long ago the standard of care within the UK’s NHS would have been to prescribe an antibiotic to reduce the inflammation and pain from an infant’s ear infection. I remember as a young parent frequently seeking such relief so that the household could sleep. The short term expedient ignored the long term consequences, which are now coming home to roost. Around the world all types of chronic disease have been growing rapidly as the human immune system weakens. Our monoculture approach to food production, and modern agricultural methods in general, are largely to blame. Most of the human immune system is due to the microbiome in the gut so that anything that weakens the microbiome wreaks havoc on our health. Antibiotics are weapons of mass destruction to the microbiome and herbicides used to ease harvesting, such as glyphosate - a patented antibiotic, also attack the microbiome through the Shikimate Pathway. The loss of millions of bacterial species from the microbiome prevents the production and absorption of many of the nutrients necessary for our immune system to function. So residues of agricultural chemicals on our food are slowly poisoning us. Just as the deforested Andean foothills are disfigured with rainwater gullies, our intestinal linings get damaged by gluten so that undigested food molecules enter our bloodstream stimulating an immune response. It seems that on all fronts we are attacking ourselves, from our unique gut microbiomes to the very fabric of the planet that sustains us. This is a very poor bedtime story; I’ve just produced some Fear Porn of my own. But surely it’s better to face the truth and to change course than to keep taking Soma tablets and distracting ourselves? It’s unlikely to be my problem in 50 years but at least it’s easier to be dead and 2m underground than trying to live 2m underwater.

Vaccines are Safe and Effective - Really?

On the BBC Today Programme this morning I heard that internet based social media platforms are to be required to stop anyone from proliferating false information suggesting that vaccines are dangerous. The news report said that medical professionals are concerned that a growing number of people are deciding not to have their children vaccinated and as a result there has been an outbreak of measles, a very contagious disease. It concerns me greatly that a country that claims to believe in free speech should be taking steps to stop it. How else are people to share their findings and doubts? This is very different from stopping the worst abuses of the internet by extremist organisations who want to propagate messages of hate and violence. I want to know that the internet is protected from abuses by anyone, whether private individuals or state government puppets being pulled by corporate strings. While constantly being bombarded with the mantra ‘Vaccines are safe and effective’ corroborating evidence is not presented – • There has never been a comparative study of health outcomes in vaccinated Vs unvaccinated populations. • If the ‘Herd Immunity’ concept is true then it would not matter that little Jonny’s school-friends have not been vaccinated. As long as he is then he is safe. That should convince anyone that a choice whether or not to vaccinate belongs entirely with the parents. • Andrew Wakefield’s career was destroyed when his research team published evidence that autistic children also suffered from gastrointestinal problems. Calling for more research into this phenomenon sealed his fate; any association between the MMR vaccine and autism had to be stamped out immediately and an example made of anyone willing to ask questions. • Thimerosol is a mercury based preservative widely used in multiple dose vaccines. Mercury is known to be extremely toxic; how can it be safe to allow this deadly poison to be injected into anyone? I believe that our vaccination schedule has been hijacked by pharmaceutical industries that put profit before health. Radio statements like –“Ministers (or medical professionals) are concerned that growing numbers of people are choosing not to vaccinate” are deeply worrying. How can ministers know any more than concerned citizens who make it their business to protect their children? Who provides the evidence to ministers to direct the National Institute of Clinical Evidence (NICE) to determine policy? What are the career prospects of any doctor who is prepared to listen to her own patients’ experiences and advise caution or departure from NICE guidelines? As Upton Sinclair said: “It’s hard to understand something when your livelihood depends on your not understanding it” We cannot protect the health of our communities by accepting, unchallenged, outdated dogma that serves to undermine the human immune system, our only true defence against disease. In the history of the world no child has ever been born suffering from a lack of Thimersol.

Think Global, Act Local

What are the biggest threats facing Humanity today? - Nuclear War - Global Warming - World Hunger - Toxic Foods and Malnutrition Unfortunately the list goes on making the extinction of the human species an ever-present danger. With the threats so severe, why do we continue living as though it’s someone else’s problem? As a Health Coach I know that real change happens when individuals take responsibility for their circumstances. They understand that no matter what happened before, or how we got here, it’s our problem now. The stage has been set on which we play out our lives. It is said that there is a solution for every problem and we see examples everywhere – Nettles and Doc Leaves, Flies and Spiders, Slavery and Abolition etc. What if there is a solution to global problems locally on our doorstep? A little known technology may be a key factor. In the 1960s the US Navy funded nuclear research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Two fuel types were considered, Uranium and Thorium, each requiring its own reactor design. The uranium fuel type provided the US Navy with a propulsion system for its submarines and Plutonium for nuclear weapons. ‘Job’s done, thanks lads; close up the site and go home’ The team of scientists investigating the Thorium option was disbanded; their protests went unheard. They had designed and built a reactor that ran fault free for five years. Even then it was well understood that the Thorium solution was far superior to Uranium for civil use –  50 times more efficient  Much more plentiful ore – Five times more Thorium than Uranium on earth  Shorter half-life waste products – 300 years instead of 100,000 years  ‘Walk Away Safe’ – these reactors cannot melt down or explode. At worst they cool down and stop. The US Navy had no interest in a reactor that ran at 700 degrees and didn’t provide bomb making material so for over 50 years we have ignored a technology that holds real promise for solving the world’s energy problems and for realising the original dream of nuclear to provide energy that’s ‘too cheap to meter’. A few years ago the original laboratory manuals from the Oak Ridge facility were found in a nearby children’s library. A nuclear physicist, Kirk Sorensen, photographed them meticulously and distributed DVDs to the physics departments of every university in America. He has been racing ever since to develop a Thorium reactor for commercial use. Such is the demand for nuclear isotopes for medical applications that Sorensen looks upon the generation of electricity from the Thorium reactor as a low value by-product. In Europe, Copenhagen Atomics formed by Thomas Pedersen et al, is positioning its Thorium venture as ‘Energy Recycling’. Spent fuel rods from conventional reactors can be processed into pellets and re-burned in the reactor to release their unused energy. The fuel is changed such that waste products then have a much shorter half life. Around the world the race is on to realise the promise of this technology. The Chinese want to improve the air quality in their major cities and the Singaporeans want to achieve independence from fossil fuels while accommodating a reactor, which is expected to have the real-estate footprint of two shipping containers. – Land is expensive in Singapore. So does Thorium have a role to play in Northern Ireland and the UK Brexit negotiations? Might Copenhagen Atomics enter into collaboration with QUB and Irish universities in a UK funded project to not only realise Pedersen’s dream but to provide free electricity on the island of Ireland? Might Northern Ireland emerge as a world leader in the manufacture and export of Thorium reactor sub-assemblies? The same technology holds the promise for decommissioning the world’s nuclear weapons – a peace-dividend indeed! Safe, clean and cheap electricity – what’s not to like? See ‘Superfuel’ by Richard Martin and YouTube presentations by Thomas Jam Pedersen at TEAC 7.

Cultural Chiropractic

A skilful chiropractor ‘cuts to the chase’ and converses directly with the body’s innate intelligence through the mechanical ‘Snap, Crackle and Pop’ adjustment process. Many people misinterpret these spinal adjustments as allowing the nerves from the spinal column to be released from entrapment so that the internal organs are fully connected and the body can function as intended. In reality, the adjustment releases the spine from the restricted movement range it has settled into and signals the brain that ‘anything is possible’. It is an invitation to the brain to expand its repertoire of movement and thereby rebuild long abandoned functionality by encouraging the muscular control that can hold the vertebra of the spine in right relationship. Within organisations we can similarly slide into sub-optimum behaviour patterns, which after a while become the culture – the way we do things ‘round here’. A Health Coach does not solve the organisation’s problems; rather he engages with the grass-roots – the workforce as a whole, to gain an appreciation of how it ticks. Ordinary workers feel listened to and hope is awakened that ‘we can do things in a better way’. The process may be unseen by the management structure but their participation is essential to allow change to happen. This is not an abdication of responsibility to control the organisation and ‘run a tight ship’ but to recognise that the successful, adaptable organisation is one that fully trusts and engages its staff. When the decision is taken to open up to a process of organisational development based on Appreciative Inquiry the organisation can change rapidly. Care is needed to keep the organisation’s purpose in focus but management must avoid stifling creative initiatives offered by its staff. There are no sacred cows, or at least if they can be kept to a minimum, greater progress can be made. When all staff feel heard they naturally feel moved to participate and contribute their discretionary effort. Working collaboratively together transforms the collective into a ‘Leaderful Organisation’. Prescribed exercises ensure that a chiropractic patient maintains the full range of movement options between sessions. Encouraging full flexibility speeds the adoption of muscular adjustment and optimum functionality. An important support for the work is the provision of appropriate nutrition that can be deployed to build the muscular structures that embed physical changes. This is mirrored in an organisation where reins need to be relaxed sufficiently to allow staff initiatives to take root. A seeming loss of control can be deeply unsettling to entrenched systems of micro-management where the choice of the ‘no-money card’ is often used to block progress. Such a reaction can result in staff cynicism and alienation. Tensions may then lead to ‘industrial inflammation’ and apathy. In the worst case this may degenerate into intransigence and ‘work to rule’ situations. Under stress we regress. The human body becomes stupid when stressed as the autonomic nervous system disables the brain’s rational frontal cortex and activates the reptilian amygdala in a fight or flight response. It’s a foolish patient indeed who uses muscle to resist a chiropractic adjustment. Pain is never far away!

Best Self

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. – Anon A Holistic approach to Health Coaching, whether for the individual or in the organisational setting, requires a multi-dimensional engagement. It’s much bigger than using the New Year to install a change of diet or way of thinking. The aim is to increase self-knowledge and to adopt / develop a way of life that sustains you. From this position you are best placed to contribute your uniqueness to your community. The goal is service in the common interest. Instead of a ‘Me Centred’ resource-grabbing isolationist you look for win-win opportunities that develop interdependence. The human body has evolved a complex system of intercommunication between human cells and the bacterial cells we host that outnumber our own 10:1. This situation gave rise to the idea that ‘We are bacteria having a human experience’. Many food cravings are now understood to be initiated by an imbalance in the gut microbiome. Gut bacteria signal the brain to provide them the food they want and typically provide four times the data to the brain than they receive from it. When an imbalance develops in the microbiome, the bacteria with the loudest voice influence the brain more effectively. This may result in consumption of edible products we want but don’t need. In turn, the over-nourished bacteria reproduce and continue to crowd out the balancing gut flora. In a well regulated gut however, where the bacterial families are balanced and no one species dominates, the signals to the brain are based on need rather than desire. Food cravings are replaced with genuine hunger signals and the individual can make sensible choices based on the needs of the whole body. In this situation the Mental components of health are liberated. The individual takes on personal responsibility for the decisions affecting her health and she is now free to experiment with behaviours that might better protect it. From here she can awaken to the spiritual drivers of her health and start to ‘think big thoughts’ like identifying her true vocation and how best to serve her community. She now knows where she’s going and can choose the road for her journey. Picture then an organisational equivalent. In an autocratic structure poor labour relations may develop that can bring the organisation to a standstill. As polarised factions become more entrenched, communications degrade and the blame game reaches new heights. This is the organisational equivalent of chronic inflammation, which is the foundation of disease. Imagine instead how healthy, staff-centric operations provide a steady throughput of goods and services. When the operations staff know and trust that the system serves their best interests, and that they can self-organise around shared goals, the task of management moves from ‘fire fighting to fire prevention’. Management attention then shifts towards planning for change and experimenting with new methods and structures to support operations. In this traditional view of the utopian organisation, Leadership involves itself with strategic marketing to open up new business opportunities. Effort is given to networking, both internally and externally, and customer satisfaction ensures repeat business. This is good, of course, and there is more. Best-Self organisations of the 21st century will be more integrated than ever before. They will be places where all staff are ‘Leaderful’ and motivated, by both macro and micro environments, toward the achievement of collective harmony. We will think of collaborative advantage as the norm rather than the competitive advantage paradigm of the 20th century. Join me and billions of others on the journey of transformation that will make it possible.