Soil retrogression and degradation Soil retrogression and degradation are two regressive evolution processes associated with the loss of equilibrium of a stable soil. Retrogression is primarily due to erosion and corresponds to a phenomenon where succession reverts to pioneer conditions (such as bare ground). Degradation is an evolution, different from natural evolution, related to the local climate and vegetation. At the beginning of soil formation, the bare rock out crops is gradually colonized by pioneer species (lichens and mosses). The cycles of evolution of soils have very variable durations, between tens, hundreds, or thousands of years for quickly evolving soils (A horizon only) to more than a million years for slowly developing soils. Ecological factors influencing soil formation[edit] There are two types of ecological factors influencing the evolution of a soil (through alteration and humification). Biorhexistasy theory[edit] Perturbations of the balance of a soil[edit] Influence of human activity[edit]
What Pesticides Are on Your Food? Dear EarthTalk: How do I learn about what pesticides may be on the food I eat?— Beatrice Olson, Cleveland, OH Along with the rise in the popularity of organic food has come an increased awareness about the dangers lurking on so-called “conventionally produced” (that is, with chemical pesticides and fertilizers) foods. “There is a growing consensus in the scientific community that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can have adverse effects on health, especially during vulnerable periods such as fetal development and childhood,” reports author and physician Andrew Weil, a leading voice for so-called integrative medicine combining conventional and alternative medical practices. In general, fruits and vegetables with an outer layer of skin or rind that can be peeled and discarded are the safest in terms of pesticide residues. Another non-profit working hard to raise awareness about pesticide residues on foods is the Pesticide Action Network (PAN).
» Bee-Harming Pesticides Banned In Europe By Damian Carrington, The Guardian Europe will enforce the world’s first continent-wide ban on widely used insecticides alleged to cause serious harm to bees, after a European commission vote on Monday. The suspension is a landmark victory for millions of environmental campaigners, backed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), concerned about a dramatic decline in the bee population. The vote also represents a serious setback for the chemical producers who make billions each year from the products and also UK ministers, who voted against the ban. Although the vote by the 27 EU member states on whether to suspend the insect nerve agents was supported by 15 nations, but did not reach the required majority under voting rules. Tonio Borg, health and consumer commissioner, said: “Our proposal is based on a number of risks to bee health identified by the EFSA, [so] the European commission will go ahead with its plan in coming weeks.”
What’s in Your Food? Michael Moss Reveals the Food Industry’s Secrets Americans tell themselves that anything is possible when it comes to self-improvement, obscuring the truth that the privileged benefit from parental investment, strategic behavior, and simple capture of the institutions, like corporate boards, that hand out the money. This country needs some good class treason. Our meritocracy is doing more harm than good, and its members—and everyone else—need to start questioning it. I am a product of that meritocracy. Born and raised in West Virginia, way out in the country, I tested and wrote my way into elite schools, and now I teach at one. It’s a meritocratic age. So I pulled up hard last week reading economist Thomas Piketty’s ground-breaking study of inequality, Capital in the 21st Century. We need a foundation of political equality and social guarantees: education, personal security, health care for those who need it, and the expectation of a fair retirement. The way we pick “winners” in this country is a hybrid. Market meritocracy is worse.
Let’s Ask Marion: What’s The Recommended Daily Allowance of Sugar? Here’s another one of those occasional queries from Kerry Trueman. This one, posted at Huffington, is about FDA regulations for labeling sugars. Trueman: I’ve just begun to sink my teeth into Michael Moss’s extraordinary food industry exposé, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, a book you’ve rightly lauded as a “breathtaking feat of reporting.” As Moss points out, the FDA is happy to give us guidelines on how much salt and fat to include in our daily diets, but–as a glance at any nutritional label shows–they’ve declined to make any recommendation at all about sugar.Does this mean that:(a) It’s OK to eat as much sugar as you like, or:(b) There may be an unsafe level of sugar consumption, but the FDA just doesn’t have the resources to figure out what that level is, or:(c) The FDA knows how much sugar we can eat without harming our health, but the food industry won’t let them tell us.How is the average American supposed to interpret this absence of information? Nestle: Whoa. 1.
Promotional material for specific audiences Promotional material for specific audiences Culturally Adapted Diabetes Brochures Download a culturally adapted brochure that describes EatRight Ontario’s diabetes services. The brochure is available in various languages. Each brochure includes a culturally specific, diabetes friendly recipe. African Caribbean Brochure (English and French) Chinese Brochure (English and Chinese) Gujarati Brochure (English and Gujarati) Hindi Brochure (English and Hindi) Latin Hispanic Brochure (English and Spanish) Punjabi Brochure (English and Punjabi) Tamil Brochure (English and Tamil) Urdu Brochure (English and Urdu) Culturally Adapted General Healthy Eating Brochures Download a culturally adapted healthy eating brochure that describes EatRight Ontario’s services. Order hard copies: - Call 1-877-510-510-2 or send an email . - Maximum hard copy order: 50 each* - 2 to 3 weeks for delivery. Budget-Friendly Recipe Cards All about Beans (PDF) All about Carrots (PDF) All about Potatoes (PDF) Order hard copies:
Reasons Not to Stretch Brook Pifer/Getty Images Most of us grew up hearing that we should warm up with a stretch. Strike and hold a pose, such as touching your toes, for 30 seconds or more, we were told, and you’ll be looser, stronger and injury-proof. Phys Ed Gretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness. Fitness Tracker Marathon, half-marathon, 10K and 5K training plans to get you race ready. But anyone who follows fitness science — or this column — knows that in recent years a variety of experiments have undermined that idea. Now, two new studies are giving us additional reasons not to stretch. One, a study being published this month in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, concluded that if you stretch before you lift weights, you may find yourself feeling weaker and wobblier than you expect during your workout. Many issues related to exercise and stretching have remained unresolved. The scientists wound up with 104 past studies that met their criteria.
Food Forest Comes to Life in Seattle Seattle’s vision of an urban food oasis is going forward. A seven-acre plot of land in the city’s Beacon Hill neighborhood will be planted with hundreds of different kinds of edibles: walnut and chestnut trees; blueberry and raspberry bushes; fruit trees, including apples and pears; exotics like pineapple, yuzu citrus, guava, persimmons, honeyberries, and lingonberries; herbs; and more. All will be available for public plucking to anyone who wanders into the city’s first food forest. “This is totally innovative, and has never been done before in a public park,” Margarett Harrison, lead landscape architect for the Beacon Food Forest project, tells TakePart. Harrison is working on construction and permit drawings now and expects to break ground this summer. The concept of a food forest certainly pushes the envelope on urban agriculture and is grounded in the concept of permaculture, which means it will be perennial and self-sustaining, like a forest is in the wild.
Pepsi's Bizarro World: Boycotted Over Embryonic Cells Linked to Lo-Cal Soda Last Updated Jun 3, 2011 10:11 AM EDT A bizarre controversy is unfolding over an impending low-calorie soda from Pepsi (PEP), which the company is creating with the help of the biotech company Senomyx (SNMX). Numerous anti-abortion groups have started a boycott of Pepsi products because they say Senomyx, which develops new ingredients intended to enhance sweetness and other flavors, has done so using embryonic kidney cells that were originally taken from an aborted baby. This accusation presents a two-fold problem for Pepsi. What Senomyx is up to Is this claim true? The company appears to be engineering HEK cells to function like the taste-receptor cells we have in our mouth. To non-scientists this may sound a bit strange, but the reality is that HEK 293 cells are widely used in pharmaceutical research, helping scientists create vaccines as well as drugs like those for rheumatoid arthritis. Pepsi is not alone Pepsi is hardly the only company working with Senomyx.
flavor technology. regulations. Senomyx Provides Additional Information Regarding Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) Determination for Sweetmyx S617 On March 11, 2014 Senomyx, Inc. issued a press release announcing the Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) determination for its new Sweetmyx S617 flavor ingredient. The press release was accurate; however, one of the statements in the release was misinterpreted by some members of the media, who reported that FDA made the GRAS determination and/or approved its use. To clarify, the GRAS designation for Sweetmyx S617 was determined by the Expert Panel of the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States (FEMA). The FEMA Expert Panel is comprised of independent experts in the fields of chemistry, toxicology, pharmacology, medicine, pathology, and statistics; all are also experts in flavor safety assessment. FEMA has a website, Flavorfacts.org, which is a resource for information about flavors, flavor ingredients, and their safety.
An Experiment Designed to Kill Babies Is it progress when US government sponsored medical research moves from deliberately infecting Guatemalan men with syphylis to designing experiments that kill premature babies? Ten years ago, the Office of Human Research Protection (OHRP) found that two federally sponsored lung experiments conducted by the ARDS Network at 12 major academic centers , had violated medical ethics standards by exposing non-consenting critically ill patients to increased risk of death, and had failed to comply with legal informed consent requirements. Today we learn that the National Institute of Health (NIH) sponsored the so-called SUPPORT experiment conducted on 1,316 extremely prematurebabies at 23 prominent academic medical research centers. These include: Stanford University, Yale University, Brown University, Duke University, Wake Forest, and University of Alabama at Birmingham (a complete list is at the end). Two of the medical centers--Duke and Wake Forest--were also involved in the ARDS experiments.
The 10 Worst Food Ingredients You Should Avoid Like the Plague Food companies use lots of unhealthful and dodgy ingredients to extend shelf life, add gaudy colors, and make us crave their products. You can (and should!) steer clear of these toxic, tacky ingredients to protect your family’s health. When enough of us say “no way,” these food companies will get the message and clean up their act. Here are the top 10 “worst of the worst” in our opinion (not necessarily ranked in order of the harm they do)… 1. What it is: MSG is an amino acid used as a flavor-enhancer in processed foods (one of the most common food additives). Why It’s Bad: It’s an known excitotoxin, which is a neurotoxic chemical additive shown to harm nerve cells— overexciting them, sometimes to the point of cell death. AKA: MSG goes by several aliases, such as Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, Hydrolyzed Plant Protein, Vegetable Protein Extract, Yeast Extract, Glutamate, Glutamic Acid, Sodium Caseinate, Textured Protein, Soy Protein Isolates, Barley Malt, Calcium Caseinate and Malt Extract.