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July 27, 2007
· Tomato research spawns seeds of misunderstanding
·
The Americas weren’t farming laggards after all
·
Food fears spur rush to organics, veggie tracking
·
Syngenta earnings sprout seeds of doubt
· Commentary: Fruit, veggie promo will crash and burn
Tomato research spawns seeds of misunderstanding
(baltimoresun.com) – This just in: Organic tomatoes have
more lycopene than conventionally farmed tomatoes. This also just in: Lycopene
may not be as healthful as we thought. So goes the bold field of tomato
research.
As the most frequently consumed produce in
But even as new research identifies which growing methods produce the most
lycopene-rich tomatoes, the Food and Drug Administration has said the fruit's
health-boosting powers can't be proved.
In a review published in the July 18 issue of the Journal of the National
Cancer Institute, researchers at the FDA explain the agency's 2005 decision not
to allow beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt health claims for tomatoes.
The FDA looked at 64 studies of tomatoes and cancer, and 81 studies of lycopene
and cancer, and found the majority didn't make a convincing case either way.
The agency can ban a claim when there is "no credible evidence"
published to support it or when stronger evidence contradicts those findings.
But it has strict requirements for what constitutes "credible"
evidence, and only a small percentage of the studies fits
that description.
None of the 81 lycopene studies was judged by the FDA to support the cancer
prevention claims. The studies either used tomato consumption instead of blood
lycopene levels, or they measured these levels only once. Tomato intake can't
be used to infer lycopene intake, because the amount in every tomato varies
widely, depending on how the food has been stored, prepared and consumed.
For starters, different strains of a vegetable or fruit produce different
amounts of antioxidants. Lycopene, for example, is not present in green or
yellow tomatoes. And if a tomato is cooked and mashed, lycopene is absorbed by
the body more readily than if it's eaten raw and whole. Absorption also
improves when the chemical is consumed with fats.
How the tomatoes are grown may also matter. A study published June 23 in the
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that tomatoes grown using
organic farming techniques produce more flavonoids, which
have similar antioxidant properties to lycopene (lycopene is technically a carotenoid, not flavonoid) than
do conventionally farmed tomatoes. Organic tomatoes expend less energy
metabolizing nitrogen from fertilizer, and more on making antioxidants, than
their conventional counterparts, the researchers said.
Regina Ziegler, a senior investigator in the division of cancer epidemiology
and genetics at the National Cancer Institute, says a study of a lycopene
supplement could prove the chemical's health benefit. But the National
Institutes of Health, which funds such research, would need strong evidence
from small studies before launching such a project, she said.
"You can't argue that there are things other than tomatoes in
tomatoes," Ziegler says.
If lycopene is just one of several compounds in tomatoes that reduce cancer
risk, studies of the fruit itself should be more promising. But of the 64
tomato studies, 25 were rejected by the FDA because they reanalyzed old data or
measured chemical biomarkers rather than actual cancer incidence.
The remaining 39 studies looked at nine cancer types, including 13 on prostate
cancer, the type for which the lycopene link was first hypothesized. Even for
this most well-studied cancer type, only two of the 13 showed a strong
preventive effect from tomatoes.
None of the few studies on endometrial, cervical and colorectal cancer
indicated a preventive effect for tomatoes. In gastric, pancreatic, prostate
and ovarian cancer studies, subjects who ate tomatoes showed slightly lower
incidences of cancer recurrence but not in great enough numbers to gain any but
the lowest of the FDA's four strength-of-evidence ratings. "The FDA,"
Ziegler says, "is setting the bar very high, and maybe that's not
incorrect."
Perhaps studying tomatoes alone narrows the dietary focus too much. "Why
is it that men who eat more tomato sauce get prostate cancer less often -- is
it that they eat more pasta than they do big slabs of meat?" asks Cheryl
Rock, a professor at the UC San Diego Moores Cancer
Center. "It could be that lycopene [or tomatoes are] a surrogate for
something else."
John Pierce, also a professor at
The official FDA verdict on tomatoes? The most
enthusiastic wording allowed comments such as this: "Very limited and
preliminary scientific research suggests that eating one-half to one cup of
tomatoes and/or tomato sauce a week may reduce the risk of prostate cancer. FDA
concludes that there is little scientific evidence supporting this claim."
The mystery of whether tomatoes prevent any type of cancer is not completely
solved -- but that's no reason to cut them out.
The Americas
(CSMonitor.com) – Archaeologists writing
agriculture's history are gaining new insight from ancient food remains. They
are tracing the progress of crop domestication through genetic changes recorded
in DNA samples. This new perspective has already punctured the notion that
agriculture was slow off the mark in the
Meanwhile, studies of DNA from ancient and
modern cultivated wheats and their wild relatives
trace the domestication of this wonder plant over thousands of years. They
reveal how wheat's genetic nimbleness allowed breeders to adapt it to a variety
of environments to the point where it now supplies 20 percent of humanity's
food calories.
The impression that the
The researchers conclude that their findings
in Peru "provide evidence for early use of peanut and squash in the human
diet and of cotton for industrial purposes and indicate that horticultural
economies in parts of the Andes took root about 10,000 years ago." The
researchers add that the evidence of trade and social complexity they are
finding show that this also developed "in the
Botanists distinguish between cultivating
wild plants and domesticating them. You can cultivate wildflowers in your
garden. But they won't be domesticated until breeders change their physical
characteristics. Ancient farmers cultivated wild wheat.
Then they began selecting plants for
characteristics they valued. Stronger stalks made harvesting easier. An ability
to hold on to seeds so the wind did not disperse them made for higher yields.
Jorge Dubcovsky and
Jan Dvorak at the
It's all too easy to breed the original
genetic diversity out of a wild plant to the point where it's hard for breeders
to adapt their favorite crop variety to a changing environment. A new insect
pest or a shift from a wet to a dry climate can make a particular variety
useless. The DNA record shows that wheat has overcome such so-called genetic
bottlenecks by easily reincorporating some of the genetic diversity of its wild
ancestors by interbreeding. It also can quickly rewrite its own genome.
The story of humanity's shift from
hunter/gatherer to farmer is a tapestry of interwoven threads representing
environmental, social, and botanical changes. Scientists are beginning to trace
the botanical thread in unprecedented detail.
Food fears spur rush to organics, veggie tracking
(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong consumers are
demanding more organic goods after a series of food scandals in
Park'n Shop, the grocery-store unit of billionaire Li Ka- shing's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., this month started a system
of monitoring vegetables imported from
``Local supermarkets are looking to step up
resources to protect consumers,'' said Hui, an
analyst at DBS Vickers Hong Kong Ltd. ``This is an
ongoing effort that will last through more inevitable food scandals.''
One of the two biggest supermarket chains in
Supermarket CitySuper
saw 60 percent growth in organic fruit and vegetables in the year, according to
spokeswoman Emily Wong.
Digital Trace
Park'n Shop's digital system is used to trace vegetables to
their mainland farms. The company took out a full-page newspaper advertisement
tagged ``Totally Traceable Total Peace of Mind'' to highlight the move to
``Over 80 percent of our vegetables are
coming from
Park'n Shop began a paper-tracking record in 2000 after
finding chemicals on green, leafy vegetables from
DBS Vickers's Hui
said measures such as the barcode tracking system are ``comfort campaigns'' to
help shoppers feel safer when buying food imported from the mainland. Safety
measures have little impact on supermarket sales and performance, Hui said.
Officials Meet
Officials from
Food Is Safe
``Our Food Safety Department collects 70,000
samples per year to check for food additives. There have not been many that
have come out with additives,'' Cheung said.
Activists at environmental group Greenpeace
disagree. They have accused the government of lacking the checks necessary to
keep contaminated food out of the city.
``Inspections are few and far between and
just a small percentage of the total volume of food brought in is checked,''
said Greenpeace food campaign co-ordinator Angus Lam.
``The system needs changing.''
Greenpeace hired an independent laboratory to
test samples of vegetables taken from the shelves of the city's supermarkets.
The results showed banned pesticides on many samples.
The government has pledged to tighten its
food-surveillance code. Opposition pro-democracy lawmakers have also urged
legislation to safeguard food safety.
Independent outlets have also seen a boom in
business.
TC Deli, a butcher that specializes in
Australian meat, has had a 10 percent sales gain in the past three months as
food scares emerged, said store manager JoJo Tsang.
Organic grocery store Green Concept is expanding to three stores from one,
spokeswoman Della Mak said.
``There's been a mushrooming of demand for
chemical-free products,'' said Simon Chau, founder of
Hong Kong's first organic farm in Hok Fau, and chairman of Produce Green, a non-profit group
aimed at organic food education. ``Even the mainstream supermarkets are moving
to organic.''
Syngenta earnings sprout seeds of doubt
(biz.yahoo.com) – Swiss
agribusiness firm Syngenta grew net income 27 percent in the first half of
2007, but the company's shares were down Thursday on a weak performance in the
company's seeds division.
Syngenta, which has a research and
development arm in
Revenue was up 9 percent to $5.69 billion
from $5.20 billion, the company said Thursday. Sales of the company's
crop-protection products, which account for three-quarters of Syngenta's revenue, were up 7 percent year-over-year to
$4.3 billion.
The company also said it now projects
earnings per share growth in the mid-teens for 2007, up from previous estimates
of 10 percent to 11 percent.
But profit margins in its seeds business were
down. Syngenta said the division had an EBITDA margin of 14.3 percent in the
first half, down from 20.9 percent in the first half of 2006.
Shares responded accordingly. American shares
of Syngenta (NYSE: SYT -
News) were down 4.5 percent to
$36.05 in midday trading.
Commentary: Fruit, veggie promo will crash and burn
(OrlandoSentinel.com) By George Diaz – Back in the days when
NASCAR's Mark Martin used to zoom around in his Viagra-sponsored Ford, I never
had a sudden urge to pop that magic blue party pill. Nor did I run to Home
Depot to buy power tools whenever I saw Tony Stewart spin circles in his Home
Depot Chevrolet.
And I'm not going to rush to the produce department to buy fruits and veggies
just because the "Fresh from
In another curious example of Your Tax Dollars at Work, $1 million in tax money
and another $700,000 from
Although spin doctors will gladly tell you about the wonderful marketing
outreach of sports-related advertising, I'd be suspicious of a sport in which
the general concept is to drive as fast as possible. How do your eyes lock in on
a moving target that can go as fast as 170 mph?
Not to mention the downside of a horrific crash in which a car can burst into
flames. Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, there go your advertising
dollars.
The intent is to connect the dots between peak performance in racing and
Promoters of this racing series claim to have reached 27 million people in
2006, mostly through television exposure. Seven of the races will be nationally
televised this season.
But even with NASCAR -- the Big Brother of auto racing where the potential
outreach is significantly greater -- the advertising impact is shaky.
Nielsen Media Research, which tracks such things, credited 174 million "household
impressions" of the U.S. Army logo during February's Daytona 500. But it's
not like there has been a sudden surge to join the Army.
"It's a roll of the dice because your brand is contingent on the car's
success or failure on the track," Eric Wright, vice president of research
and development for Joyce Julius and Associates, said in an interview with the
Las Vegas Review-Journal last year. The firm specializes in measuring the media
impact of sponsorships.
"If the car doesn't do well, it really doesn't do much for the
brand."
A more efficient approach would be a media blitz on the benefits of fruits and
vegetables. At the risk of sounding like a nagging mom or wife, here's the
upside:
Fruits and vegetables are low in calories, fat and sodium. They are good
sources of fiber and potassium, and give you a natural jolt of vitamin A and
vitamin C.
Eating five servings a day reduces the risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke,
Type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease and blindness.
But most of us prefer the quick, sugary fix of the vending machine. Studies
show that Americans are four times more likely to go for a processed snack over
a fruit or vegetable. They are 10 times more likely to gulp down a carbonated
soft drink instead of fruit juice.
And only one in four Americans eats the suggested five or more servings of
fruits and vegetables a day.
I would plaster that information all over billboards and newspapers, and scream
it loudly on the radio.
People with lousy eating habits won't suddenly become fit-for-life disciples,
but maybe they will tweak their eating habits by going for an orange instead of
the Oreos occasionally.
There's a lot of good information out there. But you won't be reading most of
it in the blur of a stock car zipping by at 170 mph.
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