Tell Gov to ban Nanoparticles in food and pesticides

Nanoparticles cross the blood-brain barrier, posing a significant threat to human DNA and that of other life forms. Currently, the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Environmental Protection Agency allow nanoparticles in pesticides and in the food supply, with no regulation whatsoever.

Tell the federal government to ban these particles under the precautionary principle until they are proven safe:  http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2010-0197-0031

Goats for Rent

By Voice of America

With their four-chambered stomachs and insatiable desire to nibble on anything even resembling a plant, goats are gaining credibility as land clearers. As a result, the U.S. environmental movement has come up with a novel way to destroy large extensions of invasive weeds and grasses: Rent a Goat.

The Great Seed Robbery

By Vandana Shiva
ZNet

The seed, the source of life, the embodiment of our biological and cultural diversity, the link between the past and the future of evolution, the common property of past, present and future generations of farming communities who have been seed breeders is today being stolen from the farmers and being sold back to us as “propriety” seed, owned by corporations like Monsanto.

Under pressure of India’s Prime Minister’s Office (which in turn is under the pressure of the White House because of signing the U.S–India Agriculture Agreement) the States are signing MOU’s with seed corporations to privatise our rich and diverse genetic heritage. The Government of Rajasthan has signed seven MOU’s with Monsanto, Advanta, DCM-Sriram, Kanchan Jyoti Agro Industries, PHI Seeds Pvt. Ltd, Krishidhan Seeds and J.K. Agri Genetics.

The Permaculture Movement Grows From Underground

Claudia Joseph's Brooklyn classrom Credit: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

By Michael Tortorello
New York Times

As a way to save the world, digging a ditch next to a hillock of sheep dung would seem to be a modest start. Granted, the ditch was not just a ditch. It was meant to be a “swale,” an earthwork for slowing the flow of water down a slope on a hobby farm in western Wisconsin.

And the trenchers, far from being day laborers, had paid $1,300 to $1,500 for the privilege of working their spades on a cement-skied Tuesday morning in late June.

Fourteen of us had assembled to learn permaculture, a simple system for designing sustainable human settlements, restoring soil, planting year-round food landscapes, conserving water, redirecting the waste stream, forming more companionable communities and, if everything went according to plan, turning the earth’s looming resource crisis into a new age of happiness.

It was going to have to be a pretty awesome ditch.

Save Your Supplements: Write the FDA Now – Here’s Why & How

By Scott Tipps
National Health Federation

Everyone with even an ounce of common sense has grave concerns about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recently released “Draft Guidance for Industry: Dietary Supplements: New Dietary Ingredient Notifications and Related Issues.”  This Agency sprang this trap on both industry and consumers without seeking any prior input from us at all.  It had almost 17 years to seek our opinion before coming out with this document, and now they are giving us a miserly 90 days to respond with our comments.

Please mail, fax, or e-mail your protest letter (Click Here for Sample Letter) to the FDA, and watch Kevin Miller’s “Shadows of the Future,” a 10-minute film on market control of the food and medicine supply. And listen to this Power Hour interview of Scott Tipps July 25, 2011 (hour 3).

Why is this issue so important?

Radiation Gardening

Dr. Ilya Perlingieri recommends we garden indoors this year, to avoid as much radiation contamination as possible. Another alternative is to dome garden. She also mentions several foods and supplements to lessen the impact of radiation exposure. (Also see Additional Support for Your Immune System)

The Urban Food Revolution: Peter Ladner’s pragmatic new book

Ladner’s new book offers advice to people and policy-makers keen to reassert their food sovereignty

By Randy Shore
Vancouver Sun

Peter Ladner has just written a book entitled the Urban Food Revolution which details the changes people and policy makers in Vancouver and the rest of Canada are making to regain control of our food sovereignty. He is pictured here in his yard that he has converted into a food garden.

What would a city approaching food self-sufficiency look like?

Peter Ladner’s soon-to-be released book The Urban Food Revolution offers tantalizing glimpses of urban environments that successfully integrate commercial enterprise, low-impact living spaces and agricultural productivity.

Tim DeChristopher’s Court Speech: ‘This Is What Patriotism Looks Like’

Tim DeChristopher, whose act of civil disobedience stopped the illegal auction of oil and gas leases on thousands of acres of public land, was sentenced yesterday to two years in federal prison for fraudulently halting illegal government actions. This was his statement to the court.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak before the court. When I first met Mr. Manross, the sentencing officer who prepared the pre-sentence report, he explained that it was essentially his job to “get to know me.” He said he had to get to know who I really was and why I did what I did in order to decide what kind of sentence was appropriate. I was struck by the fact that he was the first person in this courthouse to call me by my first name, or even really look me in the eye. I appreciate this opportunity to speak openly to you for the first time. I’m not here asking for your mercy, but I am here asking that you know me.

Canary Party Convention: Watch Cut Poison Burn

By Ginger Taylor
The Canary Party

As you may know, last weekend we held the first Canary Party Convention to agree on a set of principles on which the party will be based, to set our direction and to begin projects to bring greater accountability in medical corruption and greater freedom in medical treatment. I think that it is safe to say that everyone who attended agreed that the meeting was a resounding success.

Cut Poison Burn

One of the truly powerful experiences of our time together in Minneapolis was when we had the honor of screening Cut Poison Burn, the new cancer documentary featuring Jim Navarro and his family. You can watch it for a donation amount of your choice.

Feds silence scientist over study discovering salmon leukemia

By Margaret Munro
Postmedia News
………………………………….. Federal fisheries biologist Kristi Miller

VANCOUVER — Top bureaucrats in Ottawa have muzzled a leading fisheries scientist whose discovery could help explain why salmon stocks have been crashing off Canada’s West Coast, according to documents obtained by Postmedia News.

The documents show the Privy Council Office, which supports the Prime Minister’s Office, stopped Kristi Miller from talking about one of the most significant discoveries to come out of a federal fisheries lab in years.

11 Herbs for Strong Bones

Preventing Osteoporosis with Better Bone Health

Instead of milk, green leafy vegetables, such as kale, are key to building stronger bones.

By Linda B. White, M.D.
The Herb Companion

Our bones define us, make us beautiful, provide leverage for movement and allow us to stand upright. We build bone until our third decade. After that, a steady loss begins, like sand slipping through an hourglass. Nevertheless, while osteoporosis has become a major public health problem, it is not inevitable. A number of strategies will keep your bones strong—and some of them run counter to the party line on osteoporosis prevention.

• Try This: Bone-Building Tea

Granted, some of the osteoporosis risk factors are outside of your control—namely being older, female, menopausal or white. Happily, you have some control over a fleet of bone-robbers: inactivity; stress overload; malnutrition; cigarette smoking; being excessively thin; hiding from the sun; and excessive consumption of caffeine, alcohol, sodas, salt and acidifying foods. (More on acidifying diets in a minute.) The point is that you can put the brakes on bone loss. Here’s how.

John Pinette on All You Can Eat Buffets (video humor)

Okay, now… just enjoy

Colorado town considers food sovereignty while promoting its reality

By John Colson
Post Independent

Summertime visitors to Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale will likely see at least one of these four working in the school’s gardens. The gardeners, from left, are Bryan Cronan of Atlanta, Casey Bowen of Littleton, CRMS garden program director Linda Halloran of Carbondale, and Katherine Johnson of Oakland, Calif. They expect to grow about 12,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables this year. (Kelley Cox / Post Independent)

CARBONDALE, Colorado — Some healthy-food activists in the area believe the time is right for local communities to declare their “food sovereignty” from federal food safety regulations and corporate food production and marketing.

They see it as a way of encouraging the production and consumption of locally grown produce, dairy products, meats and more, which advocates say is critical to the survival of individual humans and society at large.

Who owns our health? Building a medicinal garden

By Dr Vivienne Lo

This medicinal herb spiral garden in central London was designed and built to provide herbs as medicine in everyday home remedies.

6 Ways Food is Being Used as a Weapon

Dees Illustration

ByActivist Post
[Slightly edited by Rady Ananda]

Hungry people will do anything for food, which means that those who have control over food can use it as leverage. In 1974, Henry Kissinger suggested using food as a weapon to induce targeted population reduction in a previously classified 200-page report, National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.  The primary tactic to be applied is that food aid would be withheld from developing nations until they submitted to birth control policies:

Ethiopia Gov seizes prime ag land; leases it to multinationals for export

Tribal peoples will be devastated by the current boom in dam-building. © E. Lafforgue/Survival

Ethiopia gives farmland to foreigners while thousands starve

By Survival International

A Survival investigation has uncovered alarming evidence that some of Ethiopia’s most productive farmland is being stolen from local tribes and leased to foreign companies to grow and export food – while thousands of its citizens starve during the devastating drought.

Wall Street food analyst connects GMOs with food allergies

From 1997 to 2002, peanut allergies doubled in the U.S. and there has been a 265% increase in rate of hospitalizations related to food allergies. One in 17 kids under age 3 now has a food allergy. Robyn McCord O’Brien discovered all this after her own child suffered a food allergy at breakfast one day. Here’s her Ted Talk:

This Almost Perfect Food Gobbles Up Your Body’s Toxins

By Dr. Mercola

The website Green Med Info has assembled a list of studies that found evidence of over 40 conditions that chlorella can help to prevent or ease.

The conditions include: hypertension, anemia, diabetes, acute stress, fibromyalgia, and liver cancer.  According to one of the studies on the subject:

“Chlorella vulgaris (CV) has been reported to have antioxidant and anticancer properties … Our study shows that CV has definite chemopreventive effect by inducing apoptosis … in hepatocarcinogenesis [liver cancer] induced rats”.

Chlorella, a single-celled fresh-water algae, is one of the most heavily researched algae in the world. It’s often referred to as a near-perfect food as research through the years have identified an astounding range of health benefits.  While being well known for its ability to detoxify your body by binding to toxins and carrying them out of your system, that’s certainly not all it’s good for.

Not All Meat Is Created Equal

The “Golden Beef” that Contains 3 to 5 Times More of This Cancer-Fighting Substance

By Dr. Mercola

A study done a few years ago found that ex-vegetarians outnumber current vegetarians by a ratio of three to one. This suggests that 75 percent of vegetarians lapse.

A survey shows that most former vegetarians are women (as many vegetarians are) who had been vegetarians for an average of nine years when they reverted. Most originally went vegetarian due to concerns about the treatment of animals, and most returned to meat because of reasons such as declining health, logistical hassles, social stigmas, and meat cravings.

Food Sovereignty Principles

Presented by Farm Together Now and National Family Farm Coalition
Produced by Daniel Tucker, supported by the Headlands Center for the Arts