Small Farms Fight Back: Food and Community Self-Governance (Image: Small farmers via Shutterstock)Heather Retberg stood on the steps of the Blue Hill, Maine town hall surrounded by 200 people. “We are farmers,” she told the crowd, “who are supported by our friends and our neighbors who know us and trust us, and want to ensure that they maintain access to their chosen food supply.” Blue Hill is one of a handful of small Maine towns that have been taking bold steps to protect their local food system. In 2011, they passed an ordinance exempting their local farmers and food producers from federal and state licensure requirements when these farmers sell directly to customers. The federal government has stiffened national food-safety regulations in order to address the health risks associated with industrial-scale farming. Recent widespread recalls of contaminated ground turkey, cantaloupe, eggs, and a host of other foods illustrate the serious problems at hand. Small-scale farming, however, doesn’t spark the same safety risks.
GMO Myths and Truths Genetically modified (GM) crops are promoted on the basis of a range of far-reaching claims from the GM crop industry and its supporters. They say that GM crops: Are an extension of natural breeding and do not pose different risks from naturally bred crops Are safe to eat and can be more nutritious than naturally bred crops Are strictly regulated for safety Increase crop yields Reduce pesticide use Benefit farmers and make their lives easier Bring economic benefits Benefit the environment Can help solve problems caused by climate change Reduce energy use Will help feed the world. However, a large and growing body of scientific and other authoritative evidence shows that these claims are not true. On the contrary, evidence presented in this report indicates that GM crops: Download a PDF of the full GMO Myths and Truths report
How Chemicals Change Us A widely used herbicide acts as a female hormone and feminizes male animals in the wild. Thus male frogs can have female organs, and some male fish actually produce eggs. In a Florida lake contaminated by these chemicals, male alligators have tiny penises. These days there is also growing evidence linking this class of chemicals to problems in humans. Philip Landrigan, a professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, says that a congenital defect called hypospadias — a misplacement of the urethra — is now twice as common among newborn boys as it used to be. Endocrine disruptors are everywhere. In this campaign year, we are bound to hear endless complaints about excessive government regulation. Last month, the Endocrine Society, the leading association of hormone experts, scolded the Food and Drug Administration for its failure to ban bisphenol-A, a common endocrine disruptor known as BPA, from food packaging. Big Chem says all this is sensationalist science.
Labeling Issues, Revolving Doors, rBGH, Bribery and Monsanto Monsanto, For Labeling Before They Were Against It An issue of growing concern is the Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods [1]. Many have questioned why it is that while consumers in all of Europe and fifty other countries around the world including including Japan, India and even China have the right to know through strict labeling which foods contain GM ingredients and thus to make an informed choice [2] yet consumers in the United States, purportedly the bastion of freedom, democracy and the "free market" in the world are denied this same right. Polls indicate that the great majority of Americans who are aware of the issue want labels [3][4]. Interestingly, Former Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro, in a 1998 interview with the State of the World Forum, asserted unequivocally (in answer to a question about the labeling of GM foods) that: "One can make a reasonable argument that consumers and citizens have a right to know anything they wish to know. For more on the Act see [20][21]
10 reasons why we don’t need GM foods Monsanto: herbicide powerhouse Tom Philpott GRIST, 16 Sep 2008 *The GMO seed giant expects Roundup to generate $1.8 billion in profits in 2008 Monsanto positions itself as a green company. "Using the tools of modern biology," its website informs us, "we help farmers grow more yield sustainably so they can produce more and conserve more." Compare that twaddle to this bit from Monsanto's announcement on Tuesday: "[Monsanto's Chief Financial Officer Terry] Crews will indicate that Monsanto's Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides business is on track to be above $1.9 billion of gross profit for the 2008 fiscal year, ahead of the previous forecast." Wow. But the company isn't just churning out profit by peddling weed-killer. "Crews will also note that for the 2008 fiscal year, the company's corn business should exceed $2 billion in gross-profit generation for the first time." Interesting.
What's really in the food? The A to Z of the food industry's most evil ingredients (NaturalNews) Ever wonder what's really in the food sold at grocery stores around the world? People keep asking me, "What ingredients should I avoid?" So I put together a short list that covers all the most toxic and disease-promoting ingredients in the food supply. These are the substances causing cancer, diabetes, heart disease and leading to tens of billions of dollars in unnecessary health care costs across America (and around the world). If you want to stay healthy and out of the hospital, read ingredients labels and make sure you avoid all these ingredients: Acrylamides - Toxic, cancer-causing chemicals formed in foods when carbohydrates are exposed to high heat (baking, frying, grilling). Aspartame - Chemical sweetener that causes neurological disorders, seizures, blurred vision and migraine headaches. Autolyzed Proteins - Highly processed form of protein containing free glutamate and used to mimic the taste-enhancer chemical MSG. Casein - Milk proteins. Read NaturalNews.
Big Sugar's Sweet Little Lies Chris Buzelli On a brisk spring Tuesday in 1976, a pair of executives from the Sugar Association stepped up to the podium of a Chicago ballroom to accept the Oscar of the public relations world, the Silver Anvil award for excellence in "the forging of public opinion." The trade group had recently pulled off one of the greatest turnarounds in PR history. For nearly a decade, the sugar industry had been buffeted by crisis after crisis as the media and the public soured on sugar and scientists began to view it as a likely cause of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Their winning campaign, crafted with the help of the prestigious public relations firm Carl Byoir & Associates, had been prompted by a poll showing that consumers had come to see sugar as fattening, and that most doctors suspected it might exacerbate, if not cause, heart disease and diabetes. Precisely how did the sugar industry engineer its turnaround? The industry followed a similar strategy when it came to diabetes.
ngin: FARMING NEWS New U.S. Wheat Associates' Report A new U.S. Wheat Associates' report found that all representatives for Chinese, Korean and Japanese wheat buyers surveyed would not buy or use [GM] Roundup Ready wheat and that 82% of buyers from Taiwan and 78% of buyers from South Asia said they would reject the wheat that Monsanto has developed. 100 per cent of the Japanese buyers indicated that "regardless of government approval, contracts will stipulate no adventitious presence of GM wheat." Japan is the largest buyer of US wheat. For more on the report "Trusting Monsanto to decide when there's enough acceptance out there would be a foolish mistake. "I am going to ask you not to grow genetically modified wheat until we are able to sell the bread made from that wheat... if you do grow genetically modified or enhanced wheat, we will not be able to buy any of your wheat -neither the GM nor the conventional." - Rank Hovis, in the North Dakota Wheat Commission's newsletter. GM crop data was not so rosy