October 16 International Day of Action against Agribusiness

By La Via Campesina

On the occasion of the meeting of the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, and to mark World Food Day on October 16, 2010, La Via Campesina calls for actions around the world to denounce the role of agribusinesses such as Monsanto and their destruction and corporatization of biodiversity and life.
 

Safety Last—Corporate Profits First

By Stephen H. Unger

Can BPA (Bisphenol A) on cash-register receipts printed on thermal paper harm people? We are all subjects of a massive experiment to help answer that question definitively. Small-scale investigations suggest that there are serious problems, but no regulations or laws restrict the use of such paper or other uses of BPA that probably expose us even more to this hormone disrupter. This is only one example of our exciting role in which we compete with lab rats to ascertain the safety of thousands of products and materials, few of which have been properly tested before being injected into the marketplace and our environment.

S. 510: 12 Reasons Why the Food Safety Bill from Hell Could Be Very Dangerous for the US Economy

By Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse

As you read this, there is a bill before the U.S. Senate that has the potential to change the U.S. food industry more than any other law ever passed by the U.S. Congress. In the name of “food safety”, the U.S. government would be given an iron grip over the production, transportation and sale of all food in the United States. Hordes of small food producers and organic farmers could potentially be put out of business.  If this bill becomes law, the freedom to grow what you want, eat what you want and to share food from your gardens with your neighbors could be greatly curtailed.  It would give the FDA unprecedented discretion to regulate U.S. food production.

Meat tainted with deadly bacteria is being sold to consumers

By Gergana Koleva
Wallet Pop

Meat contaminated by a potentially lethal infection is being sold to consumers — creating a public health threat that has largely flown under the the radar due to powerful industry interests and lax accountability at the federal agency in charge of ensuring food safety, according to recent studies and a prominent investigative journalist.

It’s Time to Ban Factory Farm Ghost Ships

By Erik Marcus
Vegan.com

Sixty thousand chickens were found dead this week at a North Carolina factory farm, a result of a failed generator powering the facility’s ventilation system. This sort of tragedy is totally preventable, and, as we’ll see, the owners of this farm ought to be criminally prosecuted.

Is The Food Network about to Go Locavore?

By Adriana Velez
Civil Eats

What if you were watching Chopped and you saw Ted Allen unload a bushel of Kiwi Berries from Kiwi Korners Farm in Danville, PA? Or if Ina Garten featured Lola ducks on her show and started raving about Hudson Valley Duck Farm? Don’t hold your breath quite yet, but executives at Food Network are pondering the prospect of sourcing from local, mid-sized farms for their studio kitchens and events. For such a high-profile entity, this move could help bring the sustainable food movement to the tipping point–depending on how Food Network spins it.

Survey finds many non-GMO soybean breeding programs

By Ken Roseboro
Organic & Non GMO Report

Recent US Department of Agriculture figures show that 93% of soybeans grown in the US are genetically modified. A recent survey found many programs in the US are actively committed to developing new non-GMO food soybeans at public universities and small private seed companies, writes KenRoseboro.

A Nutrition Course that Gets It Right: Online Oct. 1

By Food Renegade

Apalled by the sub-par Nutrition standards of the USDA? Sickened by the incomplete and industry-funded guidelines of the typical Nutrition course? The Real Food Nutrition & Health E-Course is for you!

Greenwash of the Week: The Nature Conservancy and Corporate Donors

By The Good Human

I am working, along with some members of the “bigger than myself” media, on a much larger story about this, but wanted to give you all a peek at what we have been working on. Seems The Nature Conservancy, an “enviro” org with billions of dollars in assets, has some very good rich friends who spend their days destroying the environment and our food supply.

Urban Gardeners Beware: There May Be Lead in Your Soil and Food

Cindy Fox Aisen
Science Daily

Not since victory gardens helped World War II era Americans on the home front survive food shortages have urban gardens been as necessary and popular as they are today. With more food production in cities, the safety of the produce grown there becomes increasingly important.

How Slop from Natural Gas Fracking Could End up in Your Food

Food that's not grown with organic methods may be sprayed with toxic sludge.

By Leah Zerbe
Rodale Institute

Sewage sludge, a common farm fertilizer banned in organic farming, could be laced with toxic chemicals from natural gas drilling

In the immediate, buy organic. Beyond that, push your reps to support the FRAC Act and a moratorium until hydraulic fracturing is proven safe.

Are Genetically Engineered Foods (Including Salmon) More Allergenic?

By Kiera Butler
Mother Jones

Should people with food allergies be scared of Frankenfish? And are genetically engineered foods more likely to cause allergic reactions than regular food?

Banksters Inflate Speculative Food Bubble, U.N. Offers Global Governance Solution

By Eric Blair
Activist Post

Never let a good crisis go to waste. The international bankers are taking advantage of the “food crisis” by driving up food prices in what is shaping up to be a classic case of a manufactured bubble. It is also looking like a clear model of Problem-Reaction-Solution methodology. Create the food inflation problem (of course profiting all the way up), force an enraged reaction among the public, and take more sovereignty away with the solution of global food regulation.

Time to plant tomatoes in South Florida

By Christine Winter Juneau
Sun Sentinel

It’s that time of year again, when South Florida gardeners can start thinking about luscious home-grown tomatoes. If you are not from around these parts, it takes awhile to shift your mindset. What used to be harvest time back north is now planting time.

Here are some random tips about tomato growing that I have garnered from Master Gardener classes, talks by Elaine Farquharson, who is otherwise known as The Tomato Lady, publications from the University of Florida and a seminar at Mounts Botanical Gardens on vegetable growing in South Florida. Plus a few hard-earned tips from my own experience.

Waiter, There’s BPA in My Soup

By Kiera Butler
Mother Jones

Plastic liners leach BPA into our food. So why have manufacturers and the FDA failed to act?

I’m too lazy a cook not to love cans. Quick, cheap, and recyclable, they’ve gotten me through many a long, tomatoless winter. Besides, I inherited a kind of a feminist reverence for them—didn’t packaged foods help women cast off their domestic chains and all that? But recent research suggests that modern feminists, especially those inclined toward motherhood, might want to think twice before stocking up on Progresso soup.

Clock Is Ticking on Cleaning up Coal Ash

By Locust Fork News Journal

Coal ash is contaminating drinking water supplies in the U.S., and it is only getting worse as the waste stream grows in volume and toxicity. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made it official on June 21, giving the public only a short period to comment on the first-ever federal rule for coal ash disposal at hundreds of dumps and landfills across the country.

The environmental group Earth Justice is trying to get 50,000 emails sent to the EPA telling them to set strong, federally enforceable safeguards against this hazardous waste.

Help end criminalization of vitamin, supplement makers

By Mike Adams
Natural News

Telling the truth in America is currently illegal… at least as far as food and supplements are concerned. You see, for decades the federal government has suppressed the free speech rights of food and supplement manufacturers, preventing them from telling the truth about how their products improve health and prevent disease — even when that information is based on peer-reviewed scientific studies published in scientific journals.

But right now, three vital pieces of legislation hold the potential to end the era of censorship in America and once again restore freedom of speech to the health industry. And your help is needed to make this a reality.

Birke Baehr: ‘What’s Wrong with Our Food System’

Eleven-year-old Birke Baehr gives a five-minute TED Talk, promoting a decentralized food system.

Survival Gardening video series

By Survival Report

“If something happens” is the driving motivation behind this series of videos on survival gardening. Survivalists reveal nitty gritty details like maintaining 4-5 pounds of seeds per person each year, soil preparation, and the need for animals. Begin now, they assert, because inexperience is a limiting factor, just like adequate water and healthy soil.

‘Troubled Waters’ overcomes censor troubles; more must-see Ag films

By Rady Ananda

After controversy erupted when the University of Minnesota yanked the opening of Larkin McPhee’s new film, Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story, U of M officials gave the go-ahead for the October 3rd screening. The film explores agrochemical runoff and growing dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico.