Alcohol and Your Health

A closer look at the recently published NASEM study and the accompanying press blitz.

Some Context

Alcohol has been consumed by humans medicinally, spiritually, and recreationally for many thousands of years. We have come to better understand its effects on the body and mind in recent years. Everyone can agree that alcohol is not a health food, but that does not preclude it from being thoughtfully included in an otherwise healthy lifestyle, much like cured meat or sun exposure.

Recent Developments

In 2023, the World Health Organization released a report In the Lancet stating there is “no safe amount” of alcohol consumption. This report has been questioned in its methodology, funding, and results, even within later reports in the Lancet itself, and has ties to questionable neo-prohibitionist groups such as Movendi International.

The Latest Report

The most recent report generating a press frenzy was requested of NASEM by Congress to help set alcohol policy in the US moving forward. The articles we have seen covering this report focus on the increased breast cancer incidence in moderate drinkers. But the results of the study are much broader than that, including lower instances of all-cause mortality and all heart disease related issues.

Below is a breakdown of the report summaries.

Green = Lower Risk
Red = Higher Risk
Darker Shading Indicates Greater Certainty

Doing the Math

In the US, the NCI estimated around 2 million cancer cases in 2024. Of those, 466,320 were due to the two cancer types connected in the NASEM study. Current estimates put the 21+ US population at about 242 million, meaning there is approximately a 0.19% chance of developing one of these alcohol-related cancers in the drinking-age population.

The AACR estimates that, of the 40% of cancer cases with modifiable risk factors, 5.4% can be attributed to alcohol use of any volume. 5.4% of 0.19% is 0.01%.

According to the NASEM study, then, 0.01% is the increase in risk factor for associated cancers from any alcohol use.

Even if the results aren’t as damning as they’re being presented, any increased incidence of disease should be examined. What is not completely clear is exactly how much of an increase in cancer rates is attributable sprcifically to alcohol consumption. Additionally, Headlines have focused on increased cancer risks with very little mention of the incidence of other types of disease potentially being reduced.

For example, Heart Disease and Stroke accounted for 866,273 fatalities in the US in 2022, and Cancer accounted for 608,371. Thus, Americans are 42.4% more likely to die from Heart Disease or Stroke than Cancer. According to this report, then, wouldn’t decreasing the risk of a more likely outcome by 2 to 4 times greater a percentage be something worth reporting on?

Conclusion

Any increase in mortality due to drinking should indeed be studied; an informed consumer is an empowered consumer.

We would also hope that the press, in this era where clickbait seems the only way for them to survive, is actually painting a clear picture of the risks as we know them currently and not leaning on alarmism.

Drinking should always be done with mindfulness and moderation, and we encourage an open dialog and additional research to help us all make decisions on how to best and most safely continue to incorporate it in our lives.

Suport Farm Labor in New York State

Background

When the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed as a part of the New Deal in 1938, domestic and farm laborers were excluded from its protections as a concession to Southern Democrats who, informed by racism and protectionism, were increasingly shifting towards voting more in line with Republicans in Congress.

It wasn’t until 1983 that farm workers started to see some national protection with the 1983 Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. More recently, states have started to afford some additional protections, and in 2019, NY enacted a mandatory rest day, overtime pay over 60 hours per week, and the right to organize, among other protections.

Now

Farm labor is physically taxing, seemingly non-stop, and it doesn’t allow for breaks due to inclement weather. As farmers ourselves, we understand this very well. There is absolutely no reason that farm workers deserve less overtime protections than other workers in New York. The NY Farm Labor Wage board recently held a number of open hearings to decide whether to lower the threshold for farm workers to 40 hours in line with the rest of the workforce.

Action

While the labor board voted in favor of slowly phasing in a fair and equitable 40 hour overtime threshold for Farm Workers in the state, the proposal still has to be approved, and conservative forces across the state are rallying anti-labor sentiment. Please reach out to Governor Hochul and NYS DOL Commissioner Roberta Reardon to let them know that you SUPPORT the resolution to change the overtime threshold:

https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form

https://dol.ny.gov/contact-department-labor-1

https://twitter.com/nysdolcommish

https://twitter.com/GovKathyHochul

Here is a template you can copy/paste/edit if you like:

Greetings Governor Hochul / Commissioner Reardon,

I am a New York State Resident who strongly believes in labor equity and fair wages, and I am reaching out to let you know that I unequivocally support the Wage Board’s proposal to decrease the overtime threshold for farm workers in the state to 40 hours, in line with the protection afforded to the rest of the labor force. Thank you for your consideration.

Regards,

NAME HERE

Antiracist Reading

If you are a white person interested in learning more about racial justice, we are trying to compile a list of reading materials we have found helpful or have been recommended. We were also lucky to have had an early introduction to the works of Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou thanks to a progressive English department at our small public high school. We’ve included some fiction works also.

This list is by no means exhaustive, we are starting with works that have impacted us or that are on our current reading list. Feel free to send us any additional recommendations.

Please buy any books from local (and Black-owned) bookshops if at all possible, or try indiebound.org otherwise.

Non-Fiction

Me and White Supremacy - Layla Saad
Farming While Black - Leah Penniman
The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander
Blues People - Amiri Baraka (as LeRoi Jones)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

Fiction

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
Beloved - Toni Morrison

Journalism

The 1619 Project - Nikole Hannah-Jones

Additionally, many people have done this work previously, and their exhaustive lists are readily available online. Here are a few more:

An Antiracist Reading List - Ibram X. Kendi
Antiracist Books - Word Up Community Bookshop
Understanding and Dismantling Racism - Charis Books and More

Fight for Racial Justice

Here is a short list of organizations and people we feel are doing good work. We will be updating this regularly, please contact us if you know of other organizations or people that you’d like to be included.

Local

Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson
Rise Up Kingston

Minnesota

Take Action Minnesota
Minnesota Freedom Fund

National

Black Lives Matter

Individuals to Follow and Support

IG: @thecollectress
IG: @rachel.cargle
IG: @laylafsaad

Piquette!

We wanted to create the perfect summer sipper, and our friend Tristen at Kingston Wine Co. clued us in on a chapter in an old book he had on the history of French wine about Piquette. There are a few accounts of how it traditionally worked in the old world. In some, field-workers were allowed to take the pomace after pressing, and they added water and repressed it at home to make a low-alcohol second wine. In other accounts, the second wine was made by the winery and used as payment to the workers the following season, something they could drink during harvest with the low-alcohol keeping them from slowing down after lunch.

We liked the idea of extending the use of our local fruit, and also the ability to provide an exciting new (old) beverage at a reasonable price point. So we took the natively fermented pomace from our wines and individually soaked them with well water for 48 hours, and then we direct pressed them to tanks to finish fermenting and aging. We blended back 15% of the actual wine to increase the alcohol content and acidity for stability, and refermented it in the bottle with local wildflower honey to add bubbles. 

Think of it like a natural wine-cooler, perfect for porch sipping all summer.

We will be releasing all three versions very soon! Luca Approves:

Nocino!

One of the things we were excited about when moving to Wild Arc Farm was the opportunity to make Nocino from the many black walnuts produced by the trees surrounding the property. Nocino is one of many traditional "digestivo" liqueurs consumed throughout Italy to help with digestion after a meal. Some that you may be more familiar with are Amaro, Limoncello, and Sambuca.

We've been waiting patiently to harvest the green walnuts on the traditional day, June 24th, which is celebrated as the Feast of St. John the Baptist in Italy, and has been the harvest date for green walnuts for Nocino for almost two thousand years. This Italian tradition is said to have been "borrowed" from a Druid Midsummer ceremony by the Romans after adopting Christianity, however. It was said that the Druids would celebrate the summer solstice by concocting a brew from the unripe walnuts that would allow them to commune with goblins, elves, and faeries. Fingers crossed on that front.

Interestingly enough, when we went out to harvest, we had a hard time finding enough nuts this year, even though last year's crop was so abundant that the incessant thud of the mature walnuts falling to the ground became a part of the aural tapestry of autumnal farm life. It turns out that walnuts, like many fruit and nut trees, can become alternate bearing or "biennial producers" after certain stressful situations, and may continue to bear larger crops one year and smaller the next for quite some time. While that means a smaller batch of Nocino this year, it also means less of a mess from the husks in the fall.

We have seen a multitude of different recipes, but we opted to go with 31 walntus (never even numbers!) in about a liter of alcohol for the initial extraction. The traditional Tuscan version has no added flavorings, but in Naples they add some combination of lemon zest, cinnamon, anise, and coffee beans, so we may try two different versions.

Ultimately, when we get our farm distillery license, the goal is to tap black walnut trees for sap in late winter (check out farm brother Craig Cavallo's article on sugars of the world, where we first learned we could do that), ferment the walnut syrup, and distill it for the base of future Nocinos. For now we are just using commercial neutral grain spirits. Watch this space for updates!