Do Seed Companies Control GM Crop Research?

By Matt Collins

By Scientific American

It is impossible to verify that genetically modified crops perform as advertised. That is because agritech companies have given themselves veto power over the work of independent researchers. Scientists must ask corporations for permission before publishing independent research on genetically modified crops. That restriction must end.

Young organic farmers, local food systems and urban beekeeping

By MADGE

A new young and vibrant group of farmers is emerging in the US. Just in time as the average age of US farmers is 57 and more than 25% are 65 or older.

More Unknowns than Knowns with GM Crops

By Michelle Pressend

Genetically modified (GMO) crops have more unknowns than knowns. Yet the South African government whole-heartily embraces this technology in the production of food crops, particularly maize, a staple food in South Africa.

The South African pro-GMO lobby is very proud of the fact that South Africa is the eighth biggest GMO producer in the world among the 13 largest biotechnology-producing countries. They also make claims that this technology is accepted worldwide, however many African countries have put a ban on GMO foods and in Europe, countries like Switzerland have put a moratorium on GMOs.

How Organic is Organic? Codex Alimentarius Cohorts Wage War Against Food

By Megan ‘Verb’ Kargher

For those of us committed to improving or maintaining our health by eating a balanced organic diet, the agenda of corporate farming and governmental regulations complying with the Codex Alimentarius proposals spell disaster. This not only affects our access and right to additive-free, pesticide-free, industrially produced chemical-fertilizer-free and non-genetically-modified organic foods, it also threatens every participating country’s rights of national sovereignty. In the United States of America the new federal food bills also threaten the constitutional sovereignty of the states.

Infectious Diseases Study Site Questioned

By Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post

The Department of Homeland Security relied on a rushed, flawed study to justify its decision to locate a $700 million research facility for highly infectious pathogens in a tornado-prone section of Kansas, according to a government report.

The department’s analysis was not “scientifically defensible” in concluding that it could safely handle dangerous animal diseases in Kansas — or any other location on the U.S. mainland, according to a Government Accountability Office draft report obtained by The Washington Post. The GAO said DHS greatly underestimated the chance of accidental release and major contamination from such research, which has been conducted only on a remote island off the United States.

Convenience vs. ethics in food choices

By Megan Nix
Denver Post

My grandpa’s dog Gretchen was for hunting, not for loving. She spent more time outside than she did with humans, and I had to trap her in the closet to pet her.

I’d roll my knuckles down her ridged spine and whisper nice things to her, but she would just stare out the yellow crack in the closet, indifferent and distanced. She didn’t seem to mind her relegation to the animal world. It was around then that I decided not to mind my place in the food chain, either.

The Battle for Bacteria

By the Writers Collective and Friends of American Farmers

If you have ever been in a heated discussion with friends over orthodox medicine as opposed to alternative medicine, or supplements versus drugs, or the necessity to vaccinate versus the danger of vaccination, or over whether raw milk is safe or not, perhaps you have experienced the formidable wall that exists between two worlds. Strong beliefs on both sides seem irreconcilable.  

The struggle is actually over bacteria.

You’re Appointing Who? Please Obama, Say It’s Not So!

By Jeffrey M. Smith

The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US food safety czar. This is no joke.

Here’s the back story.

When FDA scientists were asked to weigh in on what was to become the most radical and potentially dangerous change in our food supply — the introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods — secret documents now reveal that the experts were very concerned.  

Goats Sheep Surfing

And now for a little video amusement:

Shock doctrine vs organic agriculture

Image at greenprophet.com

By MADGE

The whole world is facing challenges of an enormous scale, complexity and depth. Unfortunately, as Naomi Klein set out so clearly in “The Shock Doctrine,” disaster can be very profitable for those willing to take advantage.

What the right hook-up can get you

Shopping for duck eggs, raw-milk cream and summer sausage on the foodie black market

By Sarah Elton
Macleans.ca

The customers arrived one by one on a rainy Saturday morning at the secret meeting spot, a parking lot tucked behind a video store in a suburb of Toronto. There were 30 families in all: the mother of six, wearing a hijab, who made the three-hour round trip in her minivan to collect 30 litres of milk ($60 plus $20 for delivery), the middle-aged man in a red Nissan Versa, a couple of young urbanites who rose at 7:30 to get there in time. They’d made the trek, as they do every other week, for the big glass jars of raw milk—and whatever other illegal treats their supplier might have for them that day.

Codex and ‘the Face of Controlled Opposition’

Two free videos on Codex, which is set to go into effect Dec. 31, 2009.

We Become Silent: The Last Days of Health Freedom (29 mins, 2005), a film by Kevin P. Miller, narrated by Judi Dench (pictured left), covering Codex Alimentarius, which seeks to criminalize nutrients and dietary supplements.

Senator calls for investigation into Dean Foods

By Guy Montague-Jones
Baker and Snacks

Dean Foods is one of the largest dairy processing firms in the US, and according to Sanders, the Justice Department should investigate whether the company has a monopoly grip on the market.

Controlling the Food Supply: Two new federal reports released

CIFOR Releases Guidelines to Foodborne Outbreak Response; FSWG Issues Key Control Findings

By Rady Ananda

The Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response just released its Guidelines for Foodborne Outbreak Response. Earlier this month, Obama’s new Food Safety Working Group, headed by Monsanto executive Michael Taylor, released its Key Control Findings. Decentralizing the food supply would provide the greatest food security. Instead the Administration seeks omnipotent control.

HR 2749 and shades of Hitler

By The Writers Collective and Friends of Farmers

Cherry growers face ten years in prison and/or $7.5 million in penalties for citing scientific studies.

Why?

Small Towns vs. Nestlé

Terry Swier demonstrates outside Nestle Waters North America headquarters in Greenwich, CT

By Jenny Tomkins
In These Times

When Nestlé Waters North America, the world’s largest bottler of water, comes a-courting, promising jobs and increased tax revenues in exchange for local water rights, many small, rural towns get nervous.

National animal ID plan stumbles

PROGRAM ON HOLD: House bill cuts off spending for system

By MARC HELLER,
Watertown Daily Times

WASHINGTON — Congress is on the verge of putting on hold a national system to track livestock, telling the Obama administration it will not fund the effort until the U.S. Department of Agriculture does a better job implementing it.

Federal Court Upholds Ban on Genetically Engineered Alfalfa

GE alfalfa at USDA

Appeals Court Rules Planting of Biotech Crop Can Cause Irreversible Harm to Organic and Conventional Crops, Farmers, and the Environment.

Monsanto’s Petition to Rehear Denied in Full

The Center for Food Safety

In a decision handed down here today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has re-affirmed its previous decision upholding a nationwide ban on the planting of genetically-engineered (GE) Roundup Ready alfalfa pending a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The Court determined that the planting of genetically modified alfalfa can result in potentially irreversible harm to organic and conventional varieties of crops, damage to the environment, and economic harm to farmers.

NAIS Listening Sessions: Can a Monsanto Administration Really Hear?

Image at www.batag.com

By Rady Ananda

Scrap NAIS; decentralize the food industry

The hottest topic in agriculture is NAIS – the proposed National Animal Identification System. Using embedded microchips and mountains of paperwork, the federal government plans to create a database that tracks every animal in the nation. Independent producers and privacy advocates adamantly oppose the plan.

A Stormy Time for Indigenous Wisdom

PERU farmers in Paru Paru Parque de la Papa (Potato Park) by Milagros Salazar, IPS

By Stephen Leahy
IPS

VIENNA, Jul 6 (Tierramérica) - Indigenous peoples risk losing control over their traditional knowledge if the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) insists on strict standards for managing access to information.

Patents and other forms of restricting access to knowledge are very worrisome in a time of climate change, says a new report by the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).