I had a friend in college who felt lethargic and fatigued. She went to the voodoo village, which was our nickname for the student health center, and the “doctor” diagnosed a vitamin C deficiency.

“How does a doctor treat a vitamin C deficiency?” I asked.

“The doctor told me to drink more margaritas,” my friend replied.

“Is that prescription from your doctor or your bartender?” I wondered aloud.

It turns out margarita mix contains a high concentration of vitamin C, but surely there’s a healthier way to take your medicine.

About a decade later, I had a niece with a tumor-shaped lump under her tongue. Like any parent, the initial fear is cancer. After a thorough examination from her doctor, the diagnosis was not a cancerous tumor but a plugged salivary gland. The doctor prescribed sour hard candy. After the initial relief of noncancerous wore off, my sister-in-law was annoyed that she paid $180 for a hard candy treatment.

The distinction between food and medicine is clearer than ever. There are six federal agencies plus hundreds of state and local bureaucracies that enforce statutes regulating food and drugs. From a legal perspective, there is a line between food and medicine. From a practical standpoint, the line is a little fuzzier.

Have you ever considered all of the possible uses of plants? I didn’t until a trip to New Mexico to experience some Pueblo cultural sites. At an interpretive center, I learned the Puebloans farmed corn and viewed corn as a versatile plant. Corn provides food, which is obvious, but the husks provide fiber for textiles and the cobs and stalks were used for fuel. The corn silks were then boiled and used as medicine. Food, fiber, fuel and medicine from one plant.

The job of a prehistoric botanist was determining if a plant is food, fiber, feed, poisonous, noxious or medicinal. The last category fascinates me. When I learned the art of range plant identification, medicinal uses was one trick I used to memorize. Yarrow could be used as an anti-inflammatory. Willow bark contains carboxylic acid, the same compound found in aspirin. Wild mint will alleviate indigestion; burdock root was used by indigenous tribes to treat cancer. Sagebrush leaves were said to cure baldness (this is anecdotal, but I tried a sagebrush tincture on my scalp and the hairs on my head doubled … from five to 10.)

In modern society, it’s no longer botanists but rather nutritionists who determine food versus poison. Some foods are designated “superfoods,” like kale or spinach. Beef is not a superfood because it’s actually palatable … if beef were bitter, it would be a superfood.

Some foods tout their medicinal capabilities. Reducing inflammation is the most common cure. Ginger, cherries and orange peel all make this claim. Bananas cure nausea, tea reduces blood pressure, coffee prevents dementia, and beans curb politeness in civil society. Food not only cures hunger; food cures other ailments.

Let’s explore the flip side of food as medicine. What foods contain poisons? Did you know that corn contains fumonisin, a toxin that harms the liver and kidney? Back to my New Mexico trip: The Puebloan people developed a process called nixtamalization that soaks corn in an alkaline solution. The toxin is neutralized and nutrients like niacin, calcium, zinc and iron are made bioavailable. Is your corn tortilla or corn chips nixtamalized? Are there other processes that can make food more nutrient-dense or does modern processing make our foods less nutritious?

There is a debate in America over the toxicity of the additives in the food supply. The FDA is imposing a voluntary ban on artificial food dyes. Artificial food dyes derive from petroleum and are linked to neurobehavioral issues, cancer, developmental impairment and allergies. Where do we in agriculture stand on this debate? Do we defend artificial food dyes or do we leave it to chemical companies and food processors to sort it out?

Some additives preserve foods. The most common are sulfites, nitrates, nitrites and borates. These preservatives are under renewed scrutiny. The side effects of preservatives are inconclusive, but the toll of mold, botulism, salmonella and a variety of other food-borne illnesses can be more deadly than a preservative and often prevented by the preservative in question.

As advocates for agriculture, are we obligated to side with the miners, drillers and chemical companies? The most ubiquitous and popular flavoring in the United States is not farmed but mined … in salt mines. What about glyphosate or any number of herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers? Do we support the miners of these products? As usual, I don’t have the answers, but the debate over the health effects of food is ongoing. Are we in agriculture participating in the discussion? Is it in a meaningful way? If we tell the public that banning a product will lower yields, why should I care? I don’t eat yields, I eat food.

In agriculture, the fruits of our labor should be nutritious and flavorful. What other expectations are reasonable from the food-eating public? Our consumers are looking for answers to a multitude of health questions; do we have those answers? Is our food system part of the problem? Or can we claim that modern food is medicine? The prescription … take a margarita and a hard candy and call me in the morning.