October 2015 Choosing Organic Food to Avoid GMOs and Agricultural Chemicals Conventional foods commonly contain residues of pesticides that may cause cancer, damage the nervous system and cognitive development, or disrupt hormone functions in humans. Genetically engineered (GE) foods are allowed in our food supply, without labeling, and have been introduced without adequate testing as… Read more »
NPR – The Salt by Dan Charles Some people have had it with “natural” food. For fifteen years, Urvashi Rangan, director of consumer safety and sustainability for Consumer Reports, has been pointing out that “natural” is just about the most misleading label that you’ll ever see on a food package. Yet consumers still look for that word, food… Read more »
PAN North America by Paul Towers Last week, Swiss-based pesticide corporation Syngenta dumped tens of thousands of dollars into a county election in Southern Oregon. Sound familiar? It should. Still reeling from their recent defeat in Kaua’i, Syngenta and the rest of the “Big 6” don’t want to lose any more fights around pesticides and GMOs. But Oregononians are… Read more »
High Plains Journal By Jennifer M. Latzke Jimmy and Susan Wedel don’t consider themselves “radical environmentalists.” “I’m not a radical environmentalist, I’m a reasonable environmentalist,” Jimmy Wedel said. It’s that “reasonable environmentalism” that has the Wedels farming 3,700 acres of organic crops–including forage corn–near the Texas-New Mexico border in the southern Texas Panhandle. A change… Read more »
NPR – The Salt by Kristofor Husted Source: andyabides When it comes to organic certification, food producers must follow strict guidelines. For an organic steak, for instance, the cow it came from has to be raised on organic feed, and the feed mix can’t be produced with pesticides, chemical fertilizers or genetic engineering. Now, the U.S…. Read more »
GreenMoneyJournal.com By Bob Scowcroft Consider the word “organic.” I suspect that readers of this journal would conjure up an incredibly wide range of images. Maybe it was the restaurant patronized last night. How about nutritionally superior and locally farmed produce? Others might find themselves going right to what their youthful consumption of heavily processed, pesticide… Read more »
Unwrap the world of chocolate and things aren’t always sweet. The cacao plant’s legacy is ancient and complex, while the business surrounding it is bitter, messy, and even ruthless. Its future, meanwhile, is both exciting and uncertain. honeycolony.com By Maryam Henein Back in the Mayan age, around 1100 BCE, cacao was recognized as a “super”… Read more »
A Threat to Scientific Integrity JAMA Internal Medicine By Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH Conflicts of interest in medical research, education, and practice are well known to increase the risk of undue influence by corporate sponsors. Because conflicts of interest are so prevalent and troublesome, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) was asked to develop guidelines for… Read more »
Rulemaking Could Institutionalize Conventional Livestock on Organic Farms One of Aurora’s “organic” dairies, each managing many thousands of cows (producing private label milk for Walmart, Costco, Target and others) Advocates for organic food and farming are encouraging industry stakeholders to send comments to the USDA, by July 27, rejecting a proposal that would facilitate conventional… Read more »
