Greenpeace India demands Minister’s arrest for biotech bill

By Usha Saxena
Public Engagement Campaigner
Greenpeace India

Last week, I joined several other citizens in climbing the office roof of the science and technology minister, Prithviraj Chavan. We unfurled a banner demanding that he withdraw his oppressive genetic modification legislation—the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) bill[1].

I got arrested, but it was worth it. Check out this video to see how we’re trying to stop this bill:

The Dinner Garden: Free Seeds, Tips & Tools

By Holly & Sean Hirshberg
Dinner Garden
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End Hunger through Gardening!

The Dinner Garden is working to end hunger in the United States through home and community gardening. We are striving to create one garden for every six Americans.

Supreme Court Hears Arguments over Genetically Modified Seed Sales

Oaxaca gm corn mural; photo by Chris Stowers at oaxacanyear.blogspot dotcom

By Jay Goodman Tamboli
Talk Radio News Service

Seed giant Monsanto argued in the Supreme Court today against a lower court’s injunction stopping sales of its “Roundup Ready” alfalfa nationwide. The injunction had been issued by the lower court after it found that the Department of Agriculture had failed to create an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the effects of Monsanto’s alfalfa on natural alfalfa crops.

In Court, Monsanto argued that the lower court had exceeded its authority and should have sent the case back to the USDA for the environmental study instead of making a judgment on the issue itself.

Seeds under siege: Iraq Order 81

By Pandurang Hegde
d-Sector.org

The invasion of Iraq is unique because it has led to an order to terminate the life from seed, taking away farmers’ freedom to grow what they want to grow.

Following on the heels of Earth Day (April 22) comes International Seed Day (April 26). But there is no doubt that it will not be celebrated in the United States and many countries in Europe. Neither will this be endorsed by the United Nations or Food and Agricultural Organisation. The reason is obvious; it is launched by common people, especially by the ordinary farmers in Iraq who lost the sovereignty not only of their country, but of their seeds. It was on April 26, 2004 that Order 81 was passed by the Coalition Authority prohibiting Iraqi farmers from using their own seeds and forcing them to buy seeds from multinational seed corporations from the US and Europe.

Oppose S 384: Genetically modified crops are not the answer

By Dr. Hans Herren and Dr. Marcia Ishii-Eiteman
The Hill

The Senate is considering a bill that would overhaul the way Americans deliver foreign aid. With more people going hungry than ever before, the bill’s attention to global hunger could not come at a better time. The Global Food Security Act [S. 384] would streamline the aid process and focus on long-term agricultural development. But something has gone awry inside the bill. A closer look reveals that its otherwise commendable focus may be seriously undermined by a new clause lobbied for by one of America’s largest seed and chemical companies.

This bill includes a mandate that we spend foreign aid dollars developing genetically modified (GM) crops. No other kind of agricultural technology is mentioned. Unsurprisingly, Monsanto has lobbied more frequently on this bill than any other entity.

One farmer acts to save environment from factory farms

Lynn Henning of rural Michigan won a prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize this year for her work monitoring concentrated animal-feeding operations. It's part of her effort to protect the environment from the effects of factory farms. Photo by Tom Dusenbery/Goldman Environmental Prize

By Yvonne Zipp
Christian Science Monitor

When farmer and environmentalist Lynn Henning saw what factory farms were doing to the land and water, she had to act.

Clayton, Mich. Lynn Henning doesn’t look much like the stereotypical environmental activist. She has no visible piercings, and neither hemp nor Birkenstocks feature heavily in her wardrobe. In fact, the white-haired Michigan woman looks very much what she is: a grandmother and farmer’s wife.

But on April 19, Henning became one of the 2010 winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, sometimes called the Green Nobel, the largest prize in the world given to grass-roots environmentalists.

Food Freedom sees 100,000 visitors

By Rady Ananda

Today, Food Freedom received its 100,000^th visitor. I started this blog in June 2009 — on a resentment that has turned into a labor of love. In the past ten months, we’ve had three major hits – pieces that received thousands of views in a single day. Today is one of those days.

Why, oh why is there plastic in my aluminum water bottle?

By Lisa Frack
EWG EnviroBlog

Until, that is, we learned that Sigg and Gaiam bottles weren’t exactly the BPA-free solution we had spent all that money on.

Naturally we rushed to dump them, exchange them, find something safer (and preferably cheaper!). And we heard the understandable question that rang throughout consumerland:

Why, oh why is there plastic in my aluminum water bottle?

Co-op Proves that the Poor Can Eat Organic, Too

By Gonzalo Ortiz
IPS

“There is no reason why we poor people have to eat badly,” says Ecuadorian farmer Juan Anguisaca. “It’s not true that organic products have to be expensive. They can be profitable and within the reach of the poor,” Rodrigo Aucay adds.

Anguisaca and Aucay are both members of Coopera (Cooperate), an agricultural services cooperative based in San Joaquín, a rural parish with a population of 5,000 on the outskirts of the city of Cuenca, located in the Andean mountains 440 km south of Quito.

S 510 is hissing in the grass

Jan. 5, 2011 UPDATE: Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act.

By Steve Green

S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act*, may be the most dangerous bill in the history of the US.  It is to our food what the bailout was to our economy, only we can live without money.

“If accepted [S 510] would preclude the public’s right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature makes.  It will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade and consumption of food and agricultural products of one’s choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary to natural law or, if you like, the will of God.”  ~Dr. Shiv Chopra, Canada Health whistleblower

SCOTUS may gut NEPA in GMO case Monsanto v Geertson Seed

Supreme Court to Take First Look at Genetically Modified Crops in Case with NEPA Implications

By Gabriel Nelson
New York Times

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday involving a federal judge’s temporary ban on a breed of pesticide-resistant alfalfa, setting the stage for the court’s first-ever ruling on genetically modified crops.

Legal experts do not expect a blockbuster decision on the merits of regulating modified plants such as Monsanto Co.’s Roundup Ready alfalfa, but the case, Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms, has drawn widespread interest because the justices could issue a ruling that would raise or lower the threshold for challenges under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Lessons from the Earth

By Harvard Gazette

Harvests ahead, edible and intellectual, from a Harvard garden

Harvard, Harvard, how does your garden grow?

With plenty of rain.

At the dedication of the Harvard Community Garden on Mt. Auburn Street on Sunday (April 18), well-wishers huddled gratefully under a blue tarp noisy with rain. Nearby, green lawn chairs sat empty.

But the garden at 27 Holyoke Place offers sunny messages: that food can grow in an urban backyard; that a garden is a living laboratory for diverse academic pursuits; and that an open garden encourages community.

Food, Inc. Broadcast Premier on POV PBS Tonite, April 21st

Food Inc. Airs on PBS April 21 thru May 3

By True Food Network

The Academy Award nominated documentary film, Food, Inc. premiers on PBS’s POV April 21st! Watch the trailer and tell your friends. Check your local listings for the broadcast schedule, and visit the POV website to download materials and posters to host a viewing party or potluck.

Heal Yourself in 15 Days – the series

By Mike Adams
Natural News

This 15-part article series by the Health Ranger, published at NaturalNews, isn’t a rehash of the health tips you already know — eat right, exercise more, hydrate yourself, and so on — it’s a completely new way to look at how to unleash the healing potential you already possess.

Shift in Tactics by Government in War on Raw Milk

By David Gumpert
Grist

When the current phase of a nearly century-long government campaign to convince American consumers to abandon raw milk launched in 2006, heavy-handed intimidation tactics were the order of the day.

Kentucky farmer Gary Oakes was questioned so intensively by agents from the Ohio Department of Agriculture and U.S. Food and Drug Administration while delivering milk to consumers in a Cinciannati parking lot that spring that he was hospitalized three times for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Michigan farmer Richard Hebron had more than $8,000 of dairy products confiscated in a “sting” operation outside Ann Arbor on Columbus Day weekend of 2006; for five months afterwards, he was threatened with criminal prosecution that might have landed him in jail, before finally being let off with a small fine. And Mennonite farmer Mark Nolt endured three raids on his raw dairy — including confiscation of expensive milk and cheese-making equipment — by state police, FDA, and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture agents during 2007 and 2008.

Meat exposé on Law and Order SVU this Wednesday, 4/21/10

By Karen Dawn
DawnWatch

Many of you have been asking what has happened to DawnWatch. After ten years of regular coverage DawnWatch alerts were indeed sparse during the second half of last year, when I was losing Buster Dawn and focused on little else. Then the excitement around The Cove, culminating in the Oscar going to that extraordinary film about the horrors behind dolphin abusement parks (to coin Ric O’Barry’s perfect phrase) took all of my attention for a while early this year. Now I am writing a new book, and am also working on rearranging Dawnwatch to make the site more interactive, so that other people can post. But I have missed working on it, and have appreciated hearing from those of you who have missed getting it, so I am going to get back to it on a more regular basis.

And boy to have a great excuse to come back: This week a hit prime time dram, Law & Order SVU, will be airing an episode that focuses on the meat industry.

The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming

Masanobu Fukuoka

By Masanobu Fukuoka
Culinate

From “Four Principles of Natural Farming”

Make your way carefully through these fields. Dragonflies and moths fly up in a flurry. Honeybees buzz from blossom to blossom. Part the leaves and you will see insects, spiders, frogs, lizards, and many other small animals bustling about in the cool shade. Moles and earthworms burrow beneath the surface.

This is a balanced rice-field ecosystem. Insect and plant communities maintain a stable relationship here. It is not uncommon for a plant disease to sweep through this area, leaving the crops in these fields unaffected.

Wisconsin ups its attacks on raw milk dairy farmers: The Max Kane case

By Max Kane
Raw Milk Party

4/20 UPDATE: Kane Wins (See hartkeonline)

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Junk vitamins vs. good ones

Beyond junk vitamins: Secrets the public isn’t supposed to know about the vitamin industry – An exclusive interview with Greg Kunin from Ola Loa

By Mike Adams
Natural News

Ever take a vitamin and actually feel your energy drop? There could be a reason for that: Some vitamins literally steal energy from your body’s cells, while other vitamins delivered in a more natural chemical configuration actually donate energy to your cells! In terms of nutrition, there’s a huge difference between “junk” vitamins and higher end vitamins — called “premethylated” vitamins. 

HR 4733 – for the Farm Animals

By Suzana Megles

Today I read something from Deepak Chopra on Care2 which I liked very much. For me the salient point he made in this spiritual post was that we shouldn’t spend too much time basking in our successes or contrary-wise, bewailing our failures. They are both temporary conditions.

However, regarding the successes we realize in our efforts to alleviate suffering to either humans or animals, it is a very different scenerio, for often times these are not temporay conditions which we can forget. I speak especially in regards to the inhumane treatment we accord our farm animals in the cruel CAFOs — Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, and HR 4733 which addresses it. This failure of our country to correct this indescribable cruelty to the animals who are limited in movement, crammed in tight places, and denied even the simplest of pleasures is of course not a “temporary” failure of countries who use them.