Commentary by The Cornucopia Institute
With the FDA’s decision (see FDA: Irradiating Spinach, Lettuce OK To Kill Germs) endorsing the use of radiation as a way to zap E. coli and other dangerous germs on fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce, consumers should know that federal organic standards explicitly prohibit irradiation of organic food. Read the rest of this entry »
NaturalNews
Mike Adams
Watching the FDA trip over its own clumsy self while groping for answers on Salmonella is a sad affair. Following the FDA-encouraged destruction of tens of millions of dollars of perfectly good tomatoes, this confused, bewildered agency admits that tomatoes may not have been the problem after all, and it has now set its sights on destroying the peppers industry. Is there no vegetable safe from the destruction of the FDA?
Tomatoes don’t harbor salmonella, by the way. Neither do peppers, onions, cilantro or spinach. Salmonella only festers in factory-farmed animals, folks, and that means the real source of contamination is no doubt some animal factory upstream from the vegetable processing centers. So why isn’t the FDA going after the animal factories that likely caused this whole fiasco? Read the rest of this entry »
OpEd News
By Jim Goodman
Because we have a globalized food system, we have a food crisis. Food is shipped all over the world, poor countries are not allowed to feed themselves and the industrialized world depends on food grown “somewhere else”. We need to end this nonsense and get back to local and regional food production world-wide.
We often think that farmers markets are a product of our times as they spring up in cities and small towns across the country. Truth is, farmers markets are the traditional way of selling agricultural produce around the world.
The really nice aspect of this transaction is that the farmer receives just compensation for his product and the eater can be assured the product is fresh, local and grown in a manner that is acceptable to all. If these criteria are not met, the consumer can look for another farmer whose products better suit his or her needs. Read the rest of this entry »
As the ground shifts under their feet, food giants experiment with new strategies
Grist
Tom Philipott
For more than a generation, the major corporations that process and sell the vast bulk of our food have had it pretty easy.
They’ve had access to cheap energy to ship food over globe-spanning distances and run giant food-processing plants; reveled in cheap inputs like corn and soy, transforming them into everything from breakfast cereal to chicken nuggets; and relied on low-paid, abundant, and politically disenfranchised workers to do the dirty jobs. Together, these elements formed a kind of tripod propping up the industry’s enormous profits even as food’s retail price barely budged.
These companies fattened themselves on what economists call “monopsony” — monopoly’s shy but cunning cousin. When a few companies dominate a market and collude to jack up prices for their customers, they boldly risk incurring punishment by antitrust authorities. But when they quietly perform the opposite dirty trick on their suppliers and workers — use their market power to force down prices and wages — federal authorities tend to look the other way, as Barry C. Lynn showed in an important 2006 Harper’s essay. Read the rest of this entry »