Local food sovereignty leads to a sustainable future

(David Patriquin, Dalhousie University)

N.B. must revive rural communities, expert says
By Daniel McHardie
CBC News

Writing about the rural communities of New Brunswick, Canada, Daniel McHardie nevertheless highlights key wisdom that experts also support. If we do not act to protect rural natural resources and the knowledge to live from our own land, our future will be bleak.

Is Genetic Engineering Liberating Women (by killing their husbands)?

By Dr. Vandana Shiva
GM Watch

More Desperate Science from Monsanto & Co. about Bt. Cotton in India Empowering Women

In yet another example of the desperate “science” of Monsanto and company, it is now being argued that Bt. cotton has liberated Indian women in the region of Vidharbha, Maharashtra which records the largest acreage under Bt. cotton and highest rate of farmer suicides. High costs of GM seeds and pesticides lead to debt, debt leads to suicides, creating Bt. cotton widows, not liberated “housewives,” writes Vandana Shiva.

Hope for the Bees in Breeding Parasite Resistant Groomers

By New Tang Dynasty Television
Watch 2-min news video at Sign of the Times

A British beekeeper says he may have discovered a strain of honey bee immune to a parasite that has been gradually wiping out populations of the vital insect worldwide. Scientists have been trying to find a way to fight the pesticide-resistant Varroa mite. But now a retired heating engineer who spent 18 years searching for a mite-resistant breed may have found a breakthrough.

Natural health movement achieving key victories over HFCS, MSG, GMOs and more

By Mike Adams
Natural News

It’s hard to see it sometimes, but the natural health community has achieved many important victories over the last few years in exposing the truth about dangerous chemicals and food ingredients. Here are some of the major victories we’ve collectively achieved:

Two Non-GMO farming innovations that show great promise: Farmscrapers and aquaponics

Michael Edwards & Jeffrey Green
Activist Post (image)

There is an Organic Revolution taking place that is focused on self-sufficiency as the primary goal. Two new farming methods show great promise for growing an abundance of healthy food on a small footprint of land, and may be instrumental in feeding a growing world population, write Edwards and Green.

Hitting the wall with the industrialized food system

Veils, Boomerangs, and Goldilocks

By Asher Miller
Postcarbon.org

There’s a lot to digest in Michael Lewis’ The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine but I was particularly struck by a passage at the very end of the book, which I think aptly describes one of the major obstacles to properly understanding the costs and consequences of our globalized, industrial way of life — distance.

Cage-Free? Free-Range? How Egg Carton Claims Relate to Salmonella Risks

By Leah Zerbe
Rodale Institute

Free-range hens might not be as free as you think, but their eggs are a better choice than battery-cage eggs, the type implicated in the massive egg recall. In light of that ongoing egg recall, you’re probably checking your egg cartons more carefully, or at least you should be. Egg recall numbers all seem to point back to an egg producer in Iowa with a history of cruel production practices and violations. But did you know that 95 percent of eggs in this country come from hens confined to cages so tiny they can’t even spread their wings? And scientists have found that these factory-farm conditions cause the risk of salmonella to skyrocket.

Organic Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe

By Maria Rodale
PCC Natural Markets

You probably buy organic food because you believe it’s better for your health and the environment but you also may have heard criticism that “organic cannot feed the world.” Biotech and chemical companies have spent billions of dollars trying to make us think that synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are necessary to feed a growing population. But science indicates otherwise.

Death of the Lakes: The Spreading of Toxic and Infectious Wastes and Disease

By David Michael
Journal of Living Food & Healing

David Michael has posted this expose on the appalling situation at Ohio’s largest inland lake, Grand Lake-St. Mary’s. David Michael has spent over 30 years in the environmental control field (air, water, waste, land). Ohio farmers are good people and sacrifice much to produce food for everyone. I do not believe this is all their fault at all—but much of the blame should be placed on EPA and USDA—and the big food and agriculture corporations all working together. ~Augie

Ed. Note: Also see Food & Water Watch campaign to Save Ohio’s Lakes.

Cancer’s Favorite Food – Found in Everything You Eat?

By Dr Mercola

Pancreatic tumor cells use fructose to divide and proliferate, according to a study that challenges the notion that all sugars are the same. Tumor cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways. This could explain why other studies have previously linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancer types.

Coalition Demands FDA Deny Approval of Controversial Genetically Engineered Fish

By True Food Now

FDA Considers Approval of GE Salmon–the First GE Food Animal–Yet Fails to Inform the Public of Environmental and Economic Risks

A coalition of 31 consumer, animal welfare and environmental groups, along with commercial and recreational fisheries associations and food retailers submitted a joint statement criticizing an announcement this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that it will potentially approve the long-shelved AquAdvantage transgenic salmon as the first genetically engineered (GE) animal intended for human consumption.

Who dares to speak: Riding the tiger

By Alex Roslin
Montreal Gazette

In a growing shroud of secrecy, governments fail whistleblowers who often lose their careers, their marriages and their health after exposing corruption. Alex Roslin explores Canada and the US, focusing on Dr Shiv Chopra who tried to protect Canadians from dangerous drugs, agricultural practices, and carcinogenic pesticides from entering the food supply.

New Dolphin-Saving TV Series

By Ric O’Barry
Save the Dolphins

Animal Planet channel will be broadcasting the Oscar-winning movie, “The Cove”, this Sunday August 29th at 9 PM ET/PT. This is the US television premiere and the first chance for many to see “The Cove” and learn of its important message.  And the story doesn’t end there.  Animal Planet will also be premiering a new mini-series, “Blood Dolphin$”, that picks up where “The Cove” leaves off, following me, my son Lincoln, and the Earth Island Institute team on quests to save dolphins around the world.

‘Real Avatar tribe’ wins stunning victory over mining giant

By Survival International

A tribe in India has won a stunning victory over one of the world’s biggest mining companies. In an extraordinary move, India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has blocked Vedanta Resources‘ controversial plan to mine bauxite on the sacred hills of the Dongria Kondh tribe.



Mr Ramesh said Vedanta has shown a ‘shocking’ and ‘blatant disregard for the rights of the tribal groups’. The Minister has also questioned the legality of the massive refinery Vedanta has already built below the hills.

Gates Foundation Invests in Monsanto

By Travis English
AGRA Watch

Farmers and civil society organizations around the world are outraged by the recent discovery of further connections between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and agrichemical titan Monsanto. Last week, a financial website published the Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio, including 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock with an estimated worth of $23.1 million purchased in the second quarter of 2010 (see the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission). This marks a substantial increase from its previous holdings, valued at just over $360,000 (see the Foundation’s 2008 990 Form).

BRAI biotech bill restructures Republic of India

By Mahim Pratap Singh
The Hindu

BRAI Bill will override State regulations, leaving States with an advisory role.

The BRAI bill “ignores the constitutional powers that State governments have over their agriculture and health, and goes against the federal structure of the republic.” ~ Dr. Ramakrishna Kusumaria, State Agriculture Minister of Madhya Pradesh

The Madhya Pradesh government has reacted strongly to the setting up of the proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI), accusing the Centre of attempting to impinge upon the autonomy of the State. The BRAI Bill was approved by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and is expected to be tabled in the current session of Parliament.

State Rep. Sue Wallis on Wyoming Food Freedom

By Sue Wallis
Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund

Long before the advent of mass production, multi-national corporations, protectionist unions, and overzealous bureaucrats, the Good Lord and Mother Nature created human beings dependent on food harvested from living plants and living animals. This is one of the most intrinsic facts of life without which we cannot survive.  As living plant and animal tissue, everything we consume to sustain life, also carries with it the possibility of disease and decay.  If our prehistoric ancestors had not figured out how to handle, prepare and store these foods safely, none of us would be alive today.

What’s ‘around’ S 510?

By Meryl Williamson

Vandana Shiva calls “food safety” the Law of Food Fascism and says it’s never about what’s in the food (whether it is actually safe) but always about what’s around it (how big is the oven, what material is used for flooring the kitchen, what paperwork has been filled out…). Why not apply the same to S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act? Rather than ask what is in S 510, why not ask what is “around” it?

FDA, industry at odds over egg-recall response

By Joseph Weber
Washington Times

Agency not doing job with power already available, says key critic.  ”Instead of asking for support to do the job they are already authorized to do, [FDA officials] are demanding more authority to create more layers of bureaucracy that will increase the problem instead of solving it and destroy small farms in the process.” ~ Deborah Stockton, NICFA

In the face of a nationwide scare involving contaminated eggs, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner said Monday the agency needs more resources to hunt down the sources of contaminated food and hold commercial farmers and others accountable.

Is Gulf Seafood Really Safe?

By Kate Sheppard
Mother Jones

In addition to efforts to convince us that the oil is all gone in the Gulf (it’s not), the government has been promoting the idea that seafood from the region is totally safe. Obama himself has been banging this drum, noshing on plenty of seafood during his trip to the region last week, serving it up at his birthday bash, and of course, taking a dip in the Gulf with his daughter.

But how safe is it really? A study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that there may be good reason to be concerned about the long-term impacts, even if the seafood is safe for most people to eat right now.