Why Socialism?
by Albert Einstein
This essay was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review (May 1949).
Is it advisable for one who is not an expert on economic and social issues to express views on the subject of socialism? I believe for a number of reasons that it is.
Let us first consider the question from the point of view of scientific knowledge. It might appear that there are no essential methodological differences between astronomy and economics: scientists in both fields attempt to discover laws of general acceptability for a circumscribed group of phenomena in order to make the interconnection of these phenomena as clearly understandable as possible. But in reality such methodological differences do exist. The discovery of general laws in the field of economics is made difficult by the circumstance that observed economic phenomena are often affected by many factors which are very hard to evaluate separately. In addition, the experience which has accumulated since the beginning of the so-called civilized period of human history has—as is well known—been largely influenced and limited by causes which are by no means exclusively economic in nature. For example, most of the major states of history owed their existence to conquest. The conquering peoples established themselves, legally and economically, as the privileged class of the conquered country. They seized for themselves a monopoly of the land ownership and appointed a priesthood from among their own ranks. The priests, in control of education, made the class division of society into a permanent institution and created a system of values by which the people were thenceforth, to a large extent unconsciously, guided in their social behavior.
LINK TO CON
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Pollan: Nutrition "Science" Has Hijacked Our Meals -- and Our Health
By Terrence McNally, AlterNet.
Why would anyone need to write a book called In Defense of Food? If we can afford it and can get our hands on it, we eat food several times a day. Or do we?
According to Michael Pollan, most of what Americans consume isn't food. He calls it "edible foodlike substances." He also says that the way we consume it is not really eating. It's something we do pretty unconsciously as we work or drive or watch TV.
We all know about the US epidemic of obesity and diabetes over the past 25 years, top of the steady rise of chronic diseases over the past 100. Paradoxically, this happens just as Americans and the food industry are ever more aware of nutrition. What's going on here?
Pollan claims that in the Western Diet, good old food has been replaced by nutrients, mom's good advice by nutritional experts, common sense by confusion, and for most, a relatively good diet by a bad and dangerous one. The book in which he makes all these claims and advises us simply to "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants," has topped the New York Times best-seller list.
LINK TO CON
By Terrence McNally, AlterNet.
Why would anyone need to write a book called In Defense of Food? If we can afford it and can get our hands on it, we eat food several times a day. Or do we?
According to Michael Pollan, most of what Americans consume isn't food. He calls it "edible foodlike substances." He also says that the way we consume it is not really eating. It's something we do pretty unconsciously as we work or drive or watch TV.
We all know about the US epidemic of obesity and diabetes over the past 25 years, top of the steady rise of chronic diseases over the past 100. Paradoxically, this happens just as Americans and the food industry are ever more aware of nutrition. What's going on here?
Pollan claims that in the Western Diet, good old food has been replaced by nutrients, mom's good advice by nutritional experts, common sense by confusion, and for most, a relatively good diet by a bad and dangerous one. The book in which he makes all these claims and advises us simply to "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants," has topped the New York Times best-seller list.
LINK TO CON
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear
Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.
by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele May 2008
Gary Rinehart clearly remembers the summer day in 2002 when the stranger walked in and issued his threat. Rinehart was behind the counter of the Square Deal, his “old-time country store,” as he calls it, on the fading town square of Eagleville, Missouri, a tiny farm community 100 miles north of Kansas City.
The Square Deal is a fixture in Eagleville, a place where farmers and townspeople can go for lightbulbs, greeting cards, hunting gear, ice cream, aspirin, and dozens of other small items without having to drive to a big-box store in Bethany, the county seat, 15 miles down Interstate 35.
Everyone knows Rinehart, who was born and raised in the area and runs one of Eagleville’s few surviving businesses. The stranger came up to the counter and asked for him by name.
“Well, that’s me,” said Rinehart.
As Rinehart would recall, the man began verbally attacking him, saying he had proof that Rinehart had planted Monsanto’s genetically modified (G.M.) soybeans in violation of the company’s patent. Better come clean and settle with Monsanto, Rinehart says the man told him—or face the consequences.
LINK TO CON
Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.
by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele May 2008
Gary Rinehart clearly remembers the summer day in 2002 when the stranger walked in and issued his threat. Rinehart was behind the counter of the Square Deal, his “old-time country store,” as he calls it, on the fading town square of Eagleville, Missouri, a tiny farm community 100 miles north of Kansas City.
The Square Deal is a fixture in Eagleville, a place where farmers and townspeople can go for lightbulbs, greeting cards, hunting gear, ice cream, aspirin, and dozens of other small items without having to drive to a big-box store in Bethany, the county seat, 15 miles down Interstate 35.
Everyone knows Rinehart, who was born and raised in the area and runs one of Eagleville’s few surviving businesses. The stranger came up to the counter and asked for him by name.
“Well, that’s me,” said Rinehart.
As Rinehart would recall, the man began verbally attacking him, saying he had proof that Rinehart had planted Monsanto’s genetically modified (G.M.) soybeans in violation of the company’s patent. Better come clean and settle with Monsanto, Rinehart says the man told him—or face the consequences.
LINK TO CON
Rise in food prices sparks unrest
Sub-Saharan Africa has been particularly hard hit by the rising global food costs.
By JULIEN SPENCER
As international food prices have shot skyward, impoverished nations in Africa have been particularly hard hit. If the situation continues to deteriorate amid political turmoil and sharp inflation, unrest could deepen.
The World Food Program (WFP) says staple food prices have risen by as much as 40 percent in six months across parts of Africa. The Associated Press reports on the popular unrest in reaction to the increase:
The need for stable food supplies in Africa is especially serious, as lack of food in urban centers has driven hungry populations to riot. In February, riots hit Burkina Faso. Riots over food and fuel prices have also hit Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal in the past few months.
LINK TO CON
Sub-Saharan Africa has been particularly hard hit by the rising global food costs.
By JULIEN SPENCER
As international food prices have shot skyward, impoverished nations in Africa have been particularly hard hit. If the situation continues to deteriorate amid political turmoil and sharp inflation, unrest could deepen.
The World Food Program (WFP) says staple food prices have risen by as much as 40 percent in six months across parts of Africa. The Associated Press reports on the popular unrest in reaction to the increase:
The need for stable food supplies in Africa is especially serious, as lack of food in urban centers has driven hungry populations to riot. In February, riots hit Burkina Faso. Riots over food and fuel prices have also hit Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal in the past few months.
LINK TO CON
Rapists in the Ranks
By Jane Harman , Los Angeles Times.
The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.
These are true stories, and, sadly, not isolated incidents. Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.
The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus for me during a visit to the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center, where I met with female veterans and their doctors. My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41% of female veterans seen at the clinic say they were victims of sexual assault while in the military, and 29% report being raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and the downward spirals many of their lives have since taken.
CLICK TO CON
By Jane Harman , Los Angeles Times.
The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.
These are true stories, and, sadly, not isolated incidents. Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.
The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus for me during a visit to the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center, where I met with female veterans and their doctors. My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41% of female veterans seen at the clinic say they were victims of sexual assault while in the military, and 29% report being raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and the downward spirals many of their lives have since taken.
CLICK TO CON
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Brewing Trouble: How to Drink Beer and Save the World
By Benjamin Dangl, AlterNet.
Beer, like so many other products, is largely in the hands of giant corporations. Therefore, drinking beer can often enrich the same systems of power we as activists are fighting against. Fermenting Revolution: How To Drink Beer and Save the World by Christopher O'Brien is a book about how the people can take back the brew and join together in saying, "If I can't drink good beer, it's not my revolution."
It is satisfying and rebellious in this increasingly corporate world to make your own beer. In Vermont, homebrewing and microbrewing is a state-wide past time; a 2005 census shows that there is one microbrewery for every 32,792 people in the state, which is the highest number of microbreweries per capita in the country. As many people know, beer drinkers can be activists in how they choose and make their own beer. Interested in changing the world through drinking?Fermenting Revolution can serve as a kind of bible for the beer activist that's bubbling inside each and every one of us.
LINK TO CON
By Benjamin Dangl, AlterNet.
Beer, like so many other products, is largely in the hands of giant corporations. Therefore, drinking beer can often enrich the same systems of power we as activists are fighting against. Fermenting Revolution: How To Drink Beer and Save the World by Christopher O'Brien is a book about how the people can take back the brew and join together in saying, "If I can't drink good beer, it's not my revolution."
It is satisfying and rebellious in this increasingly corporate world to make your own beer. In Vermont, homebrewing and microbrewing is a state-wide past time; a 2005 census shows that there is one microbrewery for every 32,792 people in the state, which is the highest number of microbreweries per capita in the country. As many people know, beer drinkers can be activists in how they choose and make their own beer. Interested in changing the world through drinking?Fermenting Revolution can serve as a kind of bible for the beer activist that's bubbling inside each and every one of us.
LINK TO CON
Patagonia Without Dams
Published: April 1, 2008
Recently, environmental activists and local residents gathered near the small Chilean town of Cochrane to protest a plan to build a series of hydroelectrical dams. Cochrane is part of Chilean Patagonia, and it would be transformed beyond recognition if the project goes ahead. But the change in Cochrane would be nothing compared with the change in Patagonia.
The dams — two on the Baker River and three on the Pascua — would irretrievably damage one of the wildest and most beautiful places on earth. Building the dams would also mean building a thousand-mile power-line corridor northward toward the Chilean capital, Santiago — the longest clear-cut on the planet and a scar across some of Chile’s most alluring landscape. Most of the electricity generated by the project would go not to residential use but to mining and industry.
In a sense, the proposed dams are a relic of the Pinochet government, which privatized water rights in Chile. The Chilean subsidiary of a Spanish company, Endesa, now owns the rights and is pressing the project. Chile’s democratically elected government is allowing it to move forward. The government has postponed the release of an environmental assessment until June. It needs to reconsider the project entirely.
LINK TO CON
Published: April 1, 2008
Recently, environmental activists and local residents gathered near the small Chilean town of Cochrane to protest a plan to build a series of hydroelectrical dams. Cochrane is part of Chilean Patagonia, and it would be transformed beyond recognition if the project goes ahead. But the change in Cochrane would be nothing compared with the change in Patagonia.
The dams — two on the Baker River and three on the Pascua — would irretrievably damage one of the wildest and most beautiful places on earth. Building the dams would also mean building a thousand-mile power-line corridor northward toward the Chilean capital, Santiago — the longest clear-cut on the planet and a scar across some of Chile’s most alluring landscape. Most of the electricity generated by the project would go not to residential use but to mining and industry.
In a sense, the proposed dams are a relic of the Pinochet government, which privatized water rights in Chile. The Chilean subsidiary of a Spanish company, Endesa, now owns the rights and is pressing the project. Chile’s democratically elected government is allowing it to move forward. The government has postponed the release of an environmental assessment until June. It needs to reconsider the project entirely.
LINK TO CON
Analyst Predicts Corn Rationing in 2008
© 2008 The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A BB&T Capital Markets analyst said Monday corn rationing may be necessary this year, following a U.S. Department of Agriculture report predicting farmers would plant far fewer acres of corn in 2008.
According to the March Prospective Plantings Report, farmers intend to plant about 86 million acres of corn this year, down 8 percent from 2007, when the amount of corn planted was the highest since World War II.
Analyst Heather L. Jones said in a note to investors if the USDA estimate proves accurate, the year may produce just 200 million bushels of corn. That, she said, wouldn't be enough to meet demand, given current export and feed demand trends and higher ethanol demand. Both ethanol and animal feed are made with corn.
CLICK TO CON
© 2008 The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A BB&T Capital Markets analyst said Monday corn rationing may be necessary this year, following a U.S. Department of Agriculture report predicting farmers would plant far fewer acres of corn in 2008.
According to the March Prospective Plantings Report, farmers intend to plant about 86 million acres of corn this year, down 8 percent from 2007, when the amount of corn planted was the highest since World War II.
Analyst Heather L. Jones said in a note to investors if the USDA estimate proves accurate, the year may produce just 200 million bushels of corn. That, she said, wouldn't be enough to meet demand, given current export and feed demand trends and higher ethanol demand. Both ethanol and animal feed are made with corn.
CLICK TO CON
Monday, March 31, 2008
Tensions rise as world faces short rations
By Russell Blinch and Brian Love
WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - Food prices are soaring, a wealthier Asia is demanding better food and farmers can't keep up. In short, the world faces a food crisis and in some places it's already boiling over.
Around the globe, people are protesting and governments are responding with often counterproductive controls on prices and exports -- a new politics of scarcity in which ensuring food supplies is becoming a major challenge for the 21st century.
Plundered by severe weather in producing countries and by a boom in demand from fast-developing nations, the world's wheat stocks are at 30-year lows. Grain prices have been on the rise for five years, ending decades of cheap food.
Drought, a declining dollar, a shift of investment money into commodities and use of farm land to grow fuel have all contributed to food woes. But population growth and the growing wealth of China and other emerging countries are likely to be more enduring factors.
CLICK TO CON
By Russell Blinch and Brian Love
WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - Food prices are soaring, a wealthier Asia is demanding better food and farmers can't keep up. In short, the world faces a food crisis and in some places it's already boiling over.
Around the globe, people are protesting and governments are responding with often counterproductive controls on prices and exports -- a new politics of scarcity in which ensuring food supplies is becoming a major challenge for the 21st century.
Plundered by severe weather in producing countries and by a boom in demand from fast-developing nations, the world's wheat stocks are at 30-year lows. Grain prices have been on the rise for five years, ending decades of cheap food.
Drought, a declining dollar, a shift of investment money into commodities and use of farm land to grow fuel have all contributed to food woes. But population growth and the growing wealth of China and other emerging countries are likely to be more enduring factors.
CLICK TO CON
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Argentine farm strike enters 13th day
By BILL CORMIER, Associated Press Writer
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - President Cristina Fernandez refused to ease tax hikes on agricultural exports Tuesday, facing down angry farmers embroiled a nationwide strike that has all but halted production in one of the world's biggest beef-eating and beef-exporting nations.
At least 9,000 cattle normally enter this capital's sprawling stockyard each day for slaughter, yet not a single animal arrived this week due to the biggest farm and ranch strike in decades.
Scattered shops began emptying of beef, milk, chicken and cooking oil Tuesday as farmworkers mounted the most serious challenge yet to Fernandez's fledgling government.
South America's second-largest economy — a leading exporter of soybeans, beef and wheat — is in full farmbelt rebellion over a new sliding-scale increase in export taxes. Soybean taxes are being hiked from 35 percent to 45 percent, with smaller increases on corn and other farm products.
LINK TO CON
By BILL CORMIER, Associated Press Writer
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - President Cristina Fernandez refused to ease tax hikes on agricultural exports Tuesday, facing down angry farmers embroiled a nationwide strike that has all but halted production in one of the world's biggest beef-eating and beef-exporting nations.
At least 9,000 cattle normally enter this capital's sprawling stockyard each day for slaughter, yet not a single animal arrived this week due to the biggest farm and ranch strike in decades.
Scattered shops began emptying of beef, milk, chicken and cooking oil Tuesday as farmworkers mounted the most serious challenge yet to Fernandez's fledgling government.
South America's second-largest economy — a leading exporter of soybeans, beef and wheat — is in full farmbelt rebellion over a new sliding-scale increase in export taxes. Soybean taxes are being hiked from 35 percent to 45 percent, with smaller increases on corn and other farm products.
LINK TO CON
Grain prices soar globally
Rice shortages are appearing across Asia. In Egypt, the Army is now baking bread to curb food riots.
By Daniel Ten Kate
Bangkok, Thailand - - Rice farmers here are staying awake in shifts at night to guard their fields from thieves. In Peru, shortages of wheat flour are prompting the military to make bread with potato flour, a native crop. In Egypt, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso food riots have broken out in the past week.
Around the world, governments and aid groups are grappling with the escalating cost of basic grains. In December, 37 countries faced a food crisis, reports the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and 20 nations had imposed some form of food-price controls.
In Asia, where rice is on every plate, prices are shooting up almost daily. Premium Thai fragrant rice now costs $900 per ton, a nearly 30 percent rise from a month ago.
Exporters say the price could eclipse $1,000 per ton by June. Similarly, prices of white rice have climbed about 50 percent since January to $600 per ton and are projected to jump another 40 percent to $800 per ton in April.
LINK TO CON
Rice shortages are appearing across Asia. In Egypt, the Army is now baking bread to curb food riots.
By Daniel Ten Kate
Bangkok, Thailand - - Rice farmers here are staying awake in shifts at night to guard their fields from thieves. In Peru, shortages of wheat flour are prompting the military to make bread with potato flour, a native crop. In Egypt, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso food riots have broken out in the past week.
Around the world, governments and aid groups are grappling with the escalating cost of basic grains. In December, 37 countries faced a food crisis, reports the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and 20 nations had imposed some form of food-price controls.
In Asia, where rice is on every plate, prices are shooting up almost daily. Premium Thai fragrant rice now costs $900 per ton, a nearly 30 percent rise from a month ago.
Exporters say the price could eclipse $1,000 per ton by June. Similarly, prices of white rice have climbed about 50 percent since January to $600 per ton and are projected to jump another 40 percent to $800 per ton in April.
LINK TO CON
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Wind power breaks records in Spain (AFP)
MADRID (AFP) — Wind power is breaking new records in Spain, accounting for just over 40 percent of all electricity consumed during a brief period last weekend, the country's wind power association said Tuesday.
As heavy winds lashed Spain on Saturday evening wind parks generated 9,862 megawatts of power which translated to 40.8 percent of total consumption due to low demand during the Easter holiday weekend, AEE said.
Between Friday and Sunday wind power accounted for an average of 28 percent of all electricity demand in Spain, which is a leading world producer of such energy, a statement from the association said.
LINK TO CON
MADRID (AFP) — Wind power is breaking new records in Spain, accounting for just over 40 percent of all electricity consumed during a brief period last weekend, the country's wind power association said Tuesday.
As heavy winds lashed Spain on Saturday evening wind parks generated 9,862 megawatts of power which translated to 40.8 percent of total consumption due to low demand during the Easter holiday weekend, AEE said.
Between Friday and Sunday wind power accounted for an average of 28 percent of all electricity demand in Spain, which is a leading world producer of such energy, a statement from the association said.
LINK TO CON
Meat wagon: pork superbug!
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria thrives in CAFO pork, and Wall Street gobbles up Big Meat shares
Posted by Tom Philpott
Back in December, Michael Pollan wrote a important article about the antibiotic resistant bacteria MSRA, which Pollan decsribed like this:
... the very scary antibiotic-resistant strain of Staphylococcus bacteria that is now killing more Americans each year than AIDS -- 100,000 infections leading to 19,000 deaths in 2005, according to estimates in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Pollan writes that such strains have been around for a while, emanating from hospitals, where our medical experts quixotically drench patients with antibiotics, inevitably incubating resistant -- and virulent, for those of us who avoid antibiotics -- bacterial strains.
Now, Pollan reports, "a new and even more virulent strain -- called 'community-acquired MRSA' -- is ... killing young and otherwise healthy people who have not set foot in a hospital." Evidence is mounting that the source is that other great center of antibiotic reliance: the concentrated-animal feedlot operation, or CAFO.
LINK TO CON
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria thrives in CAFO pork, and Wall Street gobbles up Big Meat shares
Posted by Tom Philpott
Back in December, Michael Pollan wrote a important article about the antibiotic resistant bacteria MSRA, which Pollan decsribed like this:
... the very scary antibiotic-resistant strain of Staphylococcus bacteria that is now killing more Americans each year than AIDS -- 100,000 infections leading to 19,000 deaths in 2005, according to estimates in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Pollan writes that such strains have been around for a while, emanating from hospitals, where our medical experts quixotically drench patients with antibiotics, inevitably incubating resistant -- and virulent, for those of us who avoid antibiotics -- bacterial strains.
Now, Pollan reports, "a new and even more virulent strain -- called 'community-acquired MRSA' -- is ... killing young and otherwise healthy people who have not set foot in a hospital." Evidence is mounting that the source is that other great center of antibiotic reliance: the concentrated-animal feedlot operation, or CAFO.
LINK TO CON
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Leftwing activists flock to Venezuela to soak up the socialist 'revolution'
Like Havana, Cuba, and Chiapas, Mexico, before it, Caracas draws liberals from around the world who want to experience Hugo Chavez's experiment in socialism.
By Sara Miller Llana
Caracas, VENEZUELA - The "hot corner" stands in the center of Caracas, in Plaza Bolívar. It's a makeshift booth papered with fliers that marks itself as the "launching point to the revolution." There militants rail against imperialism and greedy Yankees all day.
But this is not the excesses and exuberance of a few hometown activists. Across Caracas, appeals for social revolt are the city's constant background music. No matter what you do during the day – jog, ride the subway, simply cross the street – it's there. The murals and banners that drape the city – of revolutionaries "Che" Guevara and Simón Bolívar, of Fidel Castro, and now, of course, of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez – are the curtains onto the hottest stage along the "revolutionary circuit" in the world today. And leftists from everywhere are swarming in to see the show.
LINK TO CON
Like Havana, Cuba, and Chiapas, Mexico, before it, Caracas draws liberals from around the world who want to experience Hugo Chavez's experiment in socialism.
By Sara Miller Llana
Caracas, VENEZUELA - The "hot corner" stands in the center of Caracas, in Plaza Bolívar. It's a makeshift booth papered with fliers that marks itself as the "launching point to the revolution." There militants rail against imperialism and greedy Yankees all day.
But this is not the excesses and exuberance of a few hometown activists. Across Caracas, appeals for social revolt are the city's constant background music. No matter what you do during the day – jog, ride the subway, simply cross the street – it's there. The murals and banners that drape the city – of revolutionaries "Che" Guevara and Simón Bolívar, of Fidel Castro, and now, of course, of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez – are the curtains onto the hottest stage along the "revolutionary circuit" in the world today. And leftists from everywhere are swarming in to see the show.
LINK TO CON
Monday, March 24, 2008
GMO and Morgellons Disease
by Barbara Peterson
I am currently reading William Engdahl's Seeds of Destruction, which documents the takeover of our global food chain by giant transnational agri-business concerns intent on enslaving the population through GMO technology. I am having difficulty reading this book because after a few pages, I become enraged at the colossal greed and corruption that exists in our corporate government, which has no problem murdering whole populations and eco-systems, and reducing the survivors to a life of abject misery and poverty. I find that after reading just a few pages, I have to put the book down, cool off, then pick it up again and read a few more pages before going through the cycle again. Anyway, as I was going through this cycle of reading, fuming, cooling off, then reading again, a thought occurred to me. What if the advent of Morgellons Disease has something to do with the ingestion of GMO foods? The timing seems to be rather coincidental, so I did some web research, and here is what I found.
Morgellons Disease – What is it?
LINK TO CON
by Barbara Peterson
I am currently reading William Engdahl's Seeds of Destruction, which documents the takeover of our global food chain by giant transnational agri-business concerns intent on enslaving the population through GMO technology. I am having difficulty reading this book because after a few pages, I become enraged at the colossal greed and corruption that exists in our corporate government, which has no problem murdering whole populations and eco-systems, and reducing the survivors to a life of abject misery and poverty. I find that after reading just a few pages, I have to put the book down, cool off, then pick it up again and read a few more pages before going through the cycle again. Anyway, as I was going through this cycle of reading, fuming, cooling off, then reading again, a thought occurred to me. What if the advent of Morgellons Disease has something to do with the ingestion of GMO foods? The timing seems to be rather coincidental, so I did some web research, and here is what I found.
Morgellons Disease – What is it?
LINK TO CON
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Mexico approves rules to begin planting GM corn
By Mica Rosenberg
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico, widely thought to be the birthplace of corn, said on Wednesday it will begin allowing experimental planting of genetically modified crops, despite resistance from some farmers who question their safety.
The regulations published in the official gazette are the last step needed to implement a law passed by Mexico's Congress in December 2004 that authorizes controlled GMO plantings.
Supporters of GMO foods, whose DNA is altered to be resistant to pests, say they are a way to boost world food supplies. But farmers in Mexico's rural south, where corn has been grown for thousands of years, worry GM corn will cross-pollinate with native species and alter their genetic content.
LINK TO CON
By Mica Rosenberg
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico, widely thought to be the birthplace of corn, said on Wednesday it will begin allowing experimental planting of genetically modified crops, despite resistance from some farmers who question their safety.
The regulations published in the official gazette are the last step needed to implement a law passed by Mexico's Congress in December 2004 that authorizes controlled GMO plantings.
Supporters of GMO foods, whose DNA is altered to be resistant to pests, say they are a way to boost world food supplies. But farmers in Mexico's rural south, where corn has been grown for thousands of years, worry GM corn will cross-pollinate with native species and alter their genetic content.
LINK TO CON
The Return of Sail, and Hemp?
By Andrew C. Revkin
It seems there’s a push toward the future through the past (pedicabs in Manhattan being just one example). Here are two more examples, involving sails on cargo ships and a proposal to legalize farming of hemp, a plant that was once a big crop in the United States, was banned because the industrial variety (very different than the plants grown to smoke) still has a trace of the compounds that give marijuana its punch.
The New Age of Sail
A new age of sail may be a bit closer to reality. The MV Beluga SkySails, the first freighter in the modern era using a kite-like sail along with its conventional engine when the winds are right, completed a transatlantic passage and the owners report that the sail cut fuel burning around 20 percent on days when conditions were right.
On the next trip, a sail twice the 1,700 square feet of the prototype will be used, and the owners say they will encourage the crew to deploy the sail as much as possible by offering 20 percent of saved fuel costs as a bonus. The company, Beluga Shipping GmbH of Bremen, Germany, said it expects to save about $2,000 a day when the sail is deployed. The project is partly underwritten by the European Union.
LINK TO CON
By Andrew C. Revkin
It seems there’s a push toward the future through the past (pedicabs in Manhattan being just one example). Here are two more examples, involving sails on cargo ships and a proposal to legalize farming of hemp, a plant that was once a big crop in the United States, was banned because the industrial variety (very different than the plants grown to smoke) still has a trace of the compounds that give marijuana its punch.
The New Age of Sail
A new age of sail may be a bit closer to reality. The MV Beluga SkySails, the first freighter in the modern era using a kite-like sail along with its conventional engine when the winds are right, completed a transatlantic passage and the owners report that the sail cut fuel burning around 20 percent on days when conditions were right.
On the next trip, a sail twice the 1,700 square feet of the prototype will be used, and the owners say they will encourage the crew to deploy the sail as much as possible by offering 20 percent of saved fuel costs as a bonus. The company, Beluga Shipping GmbH of Bremen, Germany, said it expects to save about $2,000 a day when the sail is deployed. The project is partly underwritten by the European Union.
LINK TO CON
VIA TRex
Dear John McCain,
Repeatedly over the last few days you have made what your fluffers call a “gaffe” in describing the current situation in Iraq. You keep trying to tell people that Iran is sponsoring al Qaeda in Iraq, which is absurd on its face, and in a moment I will explain to you why. But I would like to begin by saying that your repeated flub indicates one of two things, neither of which is just that you’re an easily confused but lovable “cranky old man” as Ana Marie Cox sighingly described you to Howard Kurtz on CNN.
Either you honestly don’t understand what’s happening in the region and that ignorance is showing, in spite of the press establishment’s (and wifey Joe Lieberman’s) feverish efforts to prop you up, or you are deliberately lying to bolster the case for a military strike against Iran, neither of which is an acceptable option for a man with his sights set on the highest office in the land. If you had made the mistake once or even twice, perhaps it would be a different matter, an honest error made by a doddering old fool who can’t keep his index cards straight. (That would be fine if we were casting a sequel to Cocoon, by the way, but not at all okay in terms of choosing a president.) But you have kept saying it again and again, which leads me to believe that you honestly don’t understand the basic facts of the war on the ground in Iraq or that you’re willing to openly lie about it to trick the American people into following you into another ridiculous, pointless, expensive war.
CLICK TO CON
Dear John McCain,
Repeatedly over the last few days you have made what your fluffers call a “gaffe” in describing the current situation in Iraq. You keep trying to tell people that Iran is sponsoring al Qaeda in Iraq, which is absurd on its face, and in a moment I will explain to you why. But I would like to begin by saying that your repeated flub indicates one of two things, neither of which is just that you’re an easily confused but lovable “cranky old man” as Ana Marie Cox sighingly described you to Howard Kurtz on CNN.
Either you honestly don’t understand what’s happening in the region and that ignorance is showing, in spite of the press establishment’s (and wifey Joe Lieberman’s) feverish efforts to prop you up, or you are deliberately lying to bolster the case for a military strike against Iran, neither of which is an acceptable option for a man with his sights set on the highest office in the land. If you had made the mistake once or even twice, perhaps it would be a different matter, an honest error made by a doddering old fool who can’t keep his index cards straight. (That would be fine if we were casting a sequel to Cocoon, by the way, but not at all okay in terms of choosing a president.) But you have kept saying it again and again, which leads me to believe that you honestly don’t understand the basic facts of the war on the ground in Iraq or that you’re willing to openly lie about it to trick the American people into following you into another ridiculous, pointless, expensive war.
CLICK TO CON
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Cows Grazing in the Rumpus Room
Allison Arieff, NY TIMES
O.K., the planet is officially out of (or back in?) alignment: American farmers are making money hand over fist while the hedge fund guys are wishing they’d put a little more cash under the mattress. Corn growers in the United States can no longer keep pace with the staggering global demand for the raw material of corn syrup and ethanol and so, seemingly out of nowhere, there’s a demand for more farmland.
That just looks wrong on the page!
But it’s true. We are running out of farmland and some people, like finance guru James Cramer in his recent column for New York magazine urging readers to invest in farm supply equipment, are suggesting — only a little facetiously — that housing developments may need to be razed to clear the way for more farmland.
LINK TO CON
Allison Arieff, NY TIMES
O.K., the planet is officially out of (or back in?) alignment: American farmers are making money hand over fist while the hedge fund guys are wishing they’d put a little more cash under the mattress. Corn growers in the United States can no longer keep pace with the staggering global demand for the raw material of corn syrup and ethanol and so, seemingly out of nowhere, there’s a demand for more farmland.
That just looks wrong on the page!
But it’s true. We are running out of farmland and some people, like finance guru James Cramer in his recent column for New York magazine urging readers to invest in farm supply equipment, are suggesting — only a little facetiously — that housing developments may need to be razed to clear the way for more farmland.
LINK TO CON
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The Genetic Food Gamble
Heads Monsanto Wins, Tails We Lose
By ROBERT WEISSMAN
There have been few experiments as reckless, overhyped and with as little potential upside as the rapid rollout of genetically modified crops.
Last month, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a pro-biotech nonprofit, released a report highlighting the proliferation of genetically modified crops. According to ISAAA, biotech crop area grew 12 percent, or 12.3 million hectares, to reach 114.3 million hectares in 2007, the second highest area increase in the past five years.
For the biotech backers, this is cause to celebrate. They claim that biotech helps farmers. They say it promises to reduce hunger and poverty in developing countries. "If we are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of cutting hunger and poverty in half by 2015," says Clive James, ISAAA founder and the author the just-released report, "biotech crops must play an even bigger role in the next decade."
LINK TO CON
Heads Monsanto Wins, Tails We Lose
By ROBERT WEISSMAN
There have been few experiments as reckless, overhyped and with as little potential upside as the rapid rollout of genetically modified crops.
Last month, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a pro-biotech nonprofit, released a report highlighting the proliferation of genetically modified crops. According to ISAAA, biotech crop area grew 12 percent, or 12.3 million hectares, to reach 114.3 million hectares in 2007, the second highest area increase in the past five years.
For the biotech backers, this is cause to celebrate. They claim that biotech helps farmers. They say it promises to reduce hunger and poverty in developing countries. "If we are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of cutting hunger and poverty in half by 2015," says Clive James, ISAAA founder and the author the just-released report, "biotech crops must play an even bigger role in the next decade."
LINK TO CON
Coke and Pepsi's New Marketing Strategy: Pull at Your Heart Strings
By Richard Girard, Polaris Institute.
World Water Day 2008 (March 22) will see a flurry of announcements from bottled water companies who claim to be helping solve the globe's water crisis. The catch is that these altruistic claims are intimately tied to major advertising campaigns designed to convince the public to buy their products.
Numerous media and industry reports are saying that sales of bottled water are slowing as a result of campaigns targeting the product's environmental and social impact. In a recent article, Brandweek declared that Pepsi and Coke are facing "evaporating sales growth for bottled water and increased concerns about their products' impact on the environment."
Another report, from industry publication Beverage Digest, said that sales and growth of the bottled water industry in 2007 was about half of what it was in 2006. Recently reported annual results from the world's largest bottled water company Nestlé show a slowdown in growth in its bottled water sector from 2006. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, global sales growth has consistently dropped since 2003.
How will the BW giants fight the backlash?
LINK TO CON
By Richard Girard, Polaris Institute.
World Water Day 2008 (March 22) will see a flurry of announcements from bottled water companies who claim to be helping solve the globe's water crisis. The catch is that these altruistic claims are intimately tied to major advertising campaigns designed to convince the public to buy their products.
Numerous media and industry reports are saying that sales of bottled water are slowing as a result of campaigns targeting the product's environmental and social impact. In a recent article, Brandweek declared that Pepsi and Coke are facing "evaporating sales growth for bottled water and increased concerns about their products' impact on the environment."
Another report, from industry publication Beverage Digest, said that sales and growth of the bottled water industry in 2007 was about half of what it was in 2006. Recently reported annual results from the world's largest bottled water company Nestlé show a slowdown in growth in its bottled water sector from 2006. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, global sales growth has consistently dropped since 2003.
How will the BW giants fight the backlash?
LINK TO CON
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Corn Ethanol is Killing the Gulf of Mexico, Too
by Stacy Feldman
Each summer an oxygen-starved, lifeless “dead zone” swells in the Gulf of Mexico from the toxic nitrogen fertilizer that runs off farms in Midwestern corn country.
But now that dead zone is expanding -- dangerously. And it’s starting to put the health of a nearly $3 billion fishing industry and an entire ecosystem of aquatic life at risk.
Last year the dead zone covered an area the size of New Jersey -- 7,700 square miles.
The culprit? The USA’s corn ethanol boom. That’s the conclusion of new research published in the Proceedings of the National Journal of Sciences.
It was carried out by two professors, geographer Simon Donner of the University of British Columbia and atmospheric scientist Christopher Kucharik of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
LINK TO CON.
by Stacy Feldman
Each summer an oxygen-starved, lifeless “dead zone” swells in the Gulf of Mexico from the toxic nitrogen fertilizer that runs off farms in Midwestern corn country.
But now that dead zone is expanding -- dangerously. And it’s starting to put the health of a nearly $3 billion fishing industry and an entire ecosystem of aquatic life at risk.
Last year the dead zone covered an area the size of New Jersey -- 7,700 square miles.
The culprit? The USA’s corn ethanol boom. That’s the conclusion of new research published in the Proceedings of the National Journal of Sciences.
It was carried out by two professors, geographer Simon Donner of the University of British Columbia and atmospheric scientist Christopher Kucharik of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
LINK TO CON.
New Carbon Calculus: What's Our Meatprint?
by Sangamithra Iyer
B.Y.O.M—bring your own meat—is the strategy the U.S. Olympic committee plans to implement this summer in Beijing. Wary of steroid-laden proteins from China, U.S. Olympians are relying on Tyson Foods to send them 25,000 pounds of American meat—beef, chicken and pork—for the summer games.
Meat produced in the U.S. won’t fully alleviate their concerns. Remember the recent massive beef recall? And let’s not ignore the carbon footprint of this Olympic strategy, which is not limited to the gas-guzzling transport of goods across the globe. The other downer—the inconvenient truth the other Nobel Laureate spoke—is that “meat is a very carbon intensive commodity.” Even before you fly it across an ocean.
Meat generates greenhouse gases in every aspect of its production. Clearing land, growing grain, transporting feed and processing meat all produce carbon dioxide. And as animals are fattened for slaughter, their digestive processes and waste produce methane and nitrous oxide emissions, which are far more potent global warming pollutants than CO2.
LINK TO CON
by Sangamithra Iyer
B.Y.O.M—bring your own meat—is the strategy the U.S. Olympic committee plans to implement this summer in Beijing. Wary of steroid-laden proteins from China, U.S. Olympians are relying on Tyson Foods to send them 25,000 pounds of American meat—beef, chicken and pork—for the summer games.
Meat produced in the U.S. won’t fully alleviate their concerns. Remember the recent massive beef recall? And let’s not ignore the carbon footprint of this Olympic strategy, which is not limited to the gas-guzzling transport of goods across the globe. The other downer—the inconvenient truth the other Nobel Laureate spoke—is that “meat is a very carbon intensive commodity.” Even before you fly it across an ocean.
Meat generates greenhouse gases in every aspect of its production. Clearing land, growing grain, transporting feed and processing meat all produce carbon dioxide. And as animals are fattened for slaughter, their digestive processes and waste produce methane and nitrous oxide emissions, which are far more potent global warming pollutants than CO2.
LINK TO CON
(Good article covering spices that are benefical to your health)
The Best Home Remedies May Be Sitting in Your Spice Cabinet
By Kim Ridley, Ode.
By the middle of the afternoon, Ellen Ryan was out of steam. A community organizer in central Maine, Ryan says her energy crashed every afternoon. To get through the rest of the day, she'd grab a chocolate bar or a handful of candy kisses. "But I'm 52," Ryan says, "and those explosions of calories are becoming harder to work off."
When a friend said cinnamon helped alleviate another health problem, Ryan decided to give it a try by taking two 500-milligram capsules in the morning. "I immediately noticed a difference," Ryan says. "My chocolate cravings went away and I no longer have that crashing feeling in the afternoon. I haven't talked to a doctor; all I know is that cinnamon is inexpensive, easy to take and it stops the crash."
Clinical studies support Ryan's experience. Just half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day lowered blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes, according to a study of 60 subjects carried out at NWFP Agricultural University in Peshawar, Pakistan, and published in Diabetes Care in 2003. The same study found that cinnamon also lowered cholesterol.
LINK TO CON
The Best Home Remedies May Be Sitting in Your Spice Cabinet
By Kim Ridley, Ode.
By the middle of the afternoon, Ellen Ryan was out of steam. A community organizer in central Maine, Ryan says her energy crashed every afternoon. To get through the rest of the day, she'd grab a chocolate bar or a handful of candy kisses. "But I'm 52," Ryan says, "and those explosions of calories are becoming harder to work off."
When a friend said cinnamon helped alleviate another health problem, Ryan decided to give it a try by taking two 500-milligram capsules in the morning. "I immediately noticed a difference," Ryan says. "My chocolate cravings went away and I no longer have that crashing feeling in the afternoon. I haven't talked to a doctor; all I know is that cinnamon is inexpensive, easy to take and it stops the crash."
Clinical studies support Ryan's experience. Just half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day lowered blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes, according to a study of 60 subjects carried out at NWFP Agricultural University in Peshawar, Pakistan, and published in Diabetes Care in 2003. The same study found that cinnamon also lowered cholesterol.
LINK TO CON
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Here is a list of some cool ag/food related sites. Ranging from general information, resource information, to work opportunities
http://thegreenhorns.wordpress.com/essays/
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/work/shortterm/farm_jobs_agriculture.shtml
http://www.localharvest.org/
http://www.backdoorjobs.com/farming.html
http://www.newfarm.org/depts/student-farm/index.shtml
http://thegreenhorns.wordpress.com/essays/
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/work/shortterm/farm_jobs_agriculture.shtml
http://www.localharvest.org/
http://www.backdoorjobs.com/farming.html
http://www.newfarm.org/depts/student-farm/index.shtml
Spain’s Many Muslims Face Dearth of Mosques
By VICTORIA BURNETT, NY TIMES
LLEIDA, Spain — As prayer time approached on a chilly Friday afternoon and men drifted toward the mosque on North Street, Hocine Kouitene hauled open its huge steel doors.
As places of worship go, the crudely converted garage leaves much to be desired, said Mr. Kouitene, vice president of the Islamic Association for Union and Cooperation in Lleida, a prosperous medieval town in northeastern Spain surrounded by fruit farms that are a magnet for immigrant workers. Freezing in winter and stifling in summer, the prayer hall is so cramped that the congregation, swollen to 1,000 from 50 over the past five years, sometimes spills onto the street.
“It’s just not the same to pray in a garage as it is to pray in a proper mosque,” said Mr. Kouitene, an imposing Algerian in a long, black coat and white head scarf. “We want a place where we can pray comfortably, without bothering anybody.”
Although Spain is peppered with the remnants of ancient mosques, most Muslims gather in dingy apartments, warehouses and garages like the one on North Street, pressed into service as prayer halls to accommodate a ballooning population.
LINK TO CON.
By VICTORIA BURNETT, NY TIMES
LLEIDA, Spain — As prayer time approached on a chilly Friday afternoon and men drifted toward the mosque on North Street, Hocine Kouitene hauled open its huge steel doors.
As places of worship go, the crudely converted garage leaves much to be desired, said Mr. Kouitene, vice president of the Islamic Association for Union and Cooperation in Lleida, a prosperous medieval town in northeastern Spain surrounded by fruit farms that are a magnet for immigrant workers. Freezing in winter and stifling in summer, the prayer hall is so cramped that the congregation, swollen to 1,000 from 50 over the past five years, sometimes spills onto the street.
“It’s just not the same to pray in a garage as it is to pray in a proper mosque,” said Mr. Kouitene, an imposing Algerian in a long, black coat and white head scarf. “We want a place where we can pray comfortably, without bothering anybody.”
Although Spain is peppered with the remnants of ancient mosques, most Muslims gather in dingy apartments, warehouses and garages like the one on North Street, pressed into service as prayer halls to accommodate a ballooning population.
LINK TO CON.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Superweeds on the march
In Arkansas, state ag officials turn to Syngenta to solve problems caused by Monsanto
Posted by Tom Philpott
In the late 1990s, farmers in the Southeast began planting Roundup Ready cotton -- genetically engineered by Monsanto to withstand heavy doses of Roundup, the seed giant's own blockbuster herbicide. As a result, use of Roundup exploded -- and the farmers enjoyed "clean" (i.e., weedless) fields of monocropped cotton. But after a point, something funny happened -- certain weeds began to survive the Roundup dousings.
These "superweeds" had somehow gained Roundup resistance themselves, much to the vexation of the farmers. Things have gotten so grim that the Arkansas Agricultural Extension Service called in a scientist from the U.K. to study the matter, according to Delta Farm Press. He brought grave tidings: "We may expect the current weed resistance problems could be the tip of the iceberg," he declared.
The problem stems from planting the same crops year after year in the same field, and dousing those fields several times each year with the same herbicide. As Delta Farm Press reports:
LINK TO CON.
In Arkansas, state ag officials turn to Syngenta to solve problems caused by Monsanto
Posted by Tom Philpott
In the late 1990s, farmers in the Southeast began planting Roundup Ready cotton -- genetically engineered by Monsanto to withstand heavy doses of Roundup, the seed giant's own blockbuster herbicide. As a result, use of Roundup exploded -- and the farmers enjoyed "clean" (i.e., weedless) fields of monocropped cotton. But after a point, something funny happened -- certain weeds began to survive the Roundup dousings.
These "superweeds" had somehow gained Roundup resistance themselves, much to the vexation of the farmers. Things have gotten so grim that the Arkansas Agricultural Extension Service called in a scientist from the U.K. to study the matter, according to Delta Farm Press. He brought grave tidings: "We may expect the current weed resistance problems could be the tip of the iceberg," he declared.
The problem stems from planting the same crops year after year in the same field, and dousing those fields several times each year with the same herbicide. As Delta Farm Press reports:
LINK TO CON.
Coke and Pepsi's New Marketing Strategy: Pull at Your Heart Strings
By Richard Girard, Polaris Institute.
The big bottled water companies are trying to counter negative press by tying their products to charitable causes.
World Water Day 2008 (March 22) will see a flurry of announcements from bottled water companies who claim to be helping solve the globe's water crisis. The catch is that these altruistic claims are intimately tied to major advertising campaigns designed to convince the public to buy their products.
Numerous media and industry reports are saying that sales of bottled water are slowing as a result of campaigns targeting the product's environmental and social impact. In a recent article, Brandweek declared that Pepsi and Coke are facing "evaporating sales growth for bottled water and increased concerns about their products' impact on the environment."
Another report, from industry publication Beverage Digest, said that sales and growth of the bottled water industry in 2007 was about half of what it was in 2006. Recently reported annual results from the world's largest bottled water company Nestlé show a slowdown in growth in its bottled water sector from 2006. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, global sales growth has consistently dropped since 2003.
LINK TO CON.
By Richard Girard, Polaris Institute.
The big bottled water companies are trying to counter negative press by tying their products to charitable causes.
World Water Day 2008 (March 22) will see a flurry of announcements from bottled water companies who claim to be helping solve the globe's water crisis. The catch is that these altruistic claims are intimately tied to major advertising campaigns designed to convince the public to buy their products.
Numerous media and industry reports are saying that sales of bottled water are slowing as a result of campaigns targeting the product's environmental and social impact. In a recent article, Brandweek declared that Pepsi and Coke are facing "evaporating sales growth for bottled water and increased concerns about their products' impact on the environment."
Another report, from industry publication Beverage Digest, said that sales and growth of the bottled water industry in 2007 was about half of what it was in 2006. Recently reported annual results from the world's largest bottled water company Nestlé show a slowdown in growth in its bottled water sector from 2006. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, global sales growth has consistently dropped since 2003.
LINK TO CON.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Got chemical and pesticide residues in your milk?
Conventional milk contains toxics, says the USDA
Posted by Tom Philpott
The Organic Center acts as a kind of shadow USDA, digesting the latest peer-reviewed research on organic food, translating it into English, and issuing summary reports.
Consumers won't want to miss the center's newest one on pesticide residues [PDF]. It contains one of those handy guides on which conventional fruits and veggies convey the most toxic traces to eaters (here's a handy two-pager [PDF] for the fridge), as well as a blunt and important discussion of the plant- and mineral-based pesticides allowed in organic production.
But what really caught my eye was the bit about milk -- and how it brims with industrial-chemical and pesticide residues.
The Organic Center points us to 2004 testing of 739 samples of conventional milk, performed by the USDA's Pesticide Data Program. Here's what they found.
LINK TO CON.
Conventional milk contains toxics, says the USDA
Posted by Tom Philpott
The Organic Center acts as a kind of shadow USDA, digesting the latest peer-reviewed research on organic food, translating it into English, and issuing summary reports.
Consumers won't want to miss the center's newest one on pesticide residues [PDF]. It contains one of those handy guides on which conventional fruits and veggies convey the most toxic traces to eaters (here's a handy two-pager [PDF] for the fridge), as well as a blunt and important discussion of the plant- and mineral-based pesticides allowed in organic production.
But what really caught my eye was the bit about milk -- and how it brims with industrial-chemical and pesticide residues.
The Organic Center points us to 2004 testing of 739 samples of conventional milk, performed by the USDA's Pesticide Data Program. Here's what they found.
LINK TO CON.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
The Fall of the American Consumer
by Barbara Ehrenreich
How much lower can consumer spending go? The malls are like mausoleums, retail clerks are getting laid off and AOL recently featured on its welcome page the story of a man so cheap that he recycles his dental floss — hanging it from a nail in his garage until it dries out.
It could go a lot lower of course. This guy could start saving the little morsels he flosses out and boil them up to augment the children’s breakfast gruel. Already, as the recession — or whatever it is — closes in, people have stopped buying homes and cars, and cut way back on restaurant meals. They don’t have the money; they don’t have the credit; and increasingly, they’re finding that no one wants their money anyway. NPR reported on February 28, that more and more Manhattan stores are accepting Euros and at least one has gone Euros-only.
LINK TO CON.
by Barbara Ehrenreich
How much lower can consumer spending go? The malls are like mausoleums, retail clerks are getting laid off and AOL recently featured on its welcome page the story of a man so cheap that he recycles his dental floss — hanging it from a nail in his garage until it dries out.
It could go a lot lower of course. This guy could start saving the little morsels he flosses out and boil them up to augment the children’s breakfast gruel. Already, as the recession — or whatever it is — closes in, people have stopped buying homes and cars, and cut way back on restaurant meals. They don’t have the money; they don’t have the credit; and increasingly, they’re finding that no one wants their money anyway. NPR reported on February 28, that more and more Manhattan stores are accepting Euros and at least one has gone Euros-only.
LINK TO CON.
The Coming Economic Catastrophe
by max blunt
American Capitalism: Cracks in the Pyramid
Now that the economic crunch is reaching those near the top of the pyramid, there is finally a sense that the U.S. is facing a real crisis.
Forget about a soft landing. The subprime mortgage debacle has morphed into a full-fledged panic. And Joe Stiglitz is telling us the war in Iraq will cost $3 trillion.
Maybe now we can stop listening to the geniuses who insisted that the way to nirvana was to ignore the broad national interest while catering to the desires of those who were already the wealthiest among us.
We have always gotten a distorted picture of how well Americans were doing from politicians and the media.
The U.S. has a population of 300 million. Thirty-seven million, many of them children, live in poverty.
Close to 60 million are just one notch above the official poverty line. These near-poor Americans live in households with annual incomes that range from $20,000 to $40,000 for a family of four.
It is disgraceful that in a nation as wealthy as the United States, nearly a third of the people are poor or near-poor.
Former Senator John Edwards touched on the quality of the lives of those perched precariously above the abyss of poverty in his foreword to the book, “The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near-Poor in America,” by Katherine S. Newman and Victor Tan Chen. Mr. Edwards wrote:
LINK TO CON.
by max blunt
American Capitalism: Cracks in the Pyramid
Now that the economic crunch is reaching those near the top of the pyramid, there is finally a sense that the U.S. is facing a real crisis.
Forget about a soft landing. The subprime mortgage debacle has morphed into a full-fledged panic. And Joe Stiglitz is telling us the war in Iraq will cost $3 trillion.
Maybe now we can stop listening to the geniuses who insisted that the way to nirvana was to ignore the broad national interest while catering to the desires of those who were already the wealthiest among us.
We have always gotten a distorted picture of how well Americans were doing from politicians and the media.
The U.S. has a population of 300 million. Thirty-seven million, many of them children, live in poverty.
Close to 60 million are just one notch above the official poverty line. These near-poor Americans live in households with annual incomes that range from $20,000 to $40,000 for a family of four.
It is disgraceful that in a nation as wealthy as the United States, nearly a third of the people are poor or near-poor.
Former Senator John Edwards touched on the quality of the lives of those perched precariously above the abyss of poverty in his foreword to the book, “The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near-Poor in America,” by Katherine S. Newman and Victor Tan Chen. Mr. Edwards wrote:
LINK TO CON.
Public, media losing sight of Iraq, study finds
Only 28 percent know that nearly 4,000 U.S. troops have been killed
By Karen DeYoung
Twenty-eight percent of the public is aware that nearly 4,000 U.S. personnel have died in Iraq over the past five years, while nearly half thinks the death tally is 3,000 or fewer and 23 percent think it is higher, according to an opinion survey released yesterday.
The survey, by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, found that public awareness of developments in the Iraq war has dropped precipitously since last summer, as the news media have paid less attention to the conflict. In earlier surveys, about half of those asked about the death tally responded correctly.
Related Pew surveys have found that the number of news stories devoted to the war has sharply declined this year, along with professed public interest. "Coverage of the war has been virtually absent," said Pew survey research director Scott Keeter, totaling about 1 percent of the news hole between Feb. 17 and 23.
LINK TO CON.
Only 28 percent know that nearly 4,000 U.S. troops have been killed
By Karen DeYoung
Twenty-eight percent of the public is aware that nearly 4,000 U.S. personnel have died in Iraq over the past five years, while nearly half thinks the death tally is 3,000 or fewer and 23 percent think it is higher, according to an opinion survey released yesterday.
The survey, by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, found that public awareness of developments in the Iraq war has dropped precipitously since last summer, as the news media have paid less attention to the conflict. In earlier surveys, about half of those asked about the death tally responded correctly.
Related Pew surveys have found that the number of news stories devoted to the war has sharply declined this year, along with professed public interest. "Coverage of the war has been virtually absent," said Pew survey research director Scott Keeter, totaling about 1 percent of the news hole between Feb. 17 and 23.
LINK TO CON.
Collapse of Salmon Stocks Endangers Pacific Fishery
By FELICITY BARRINGER, NY TIMES
Federal officials have indicated that they are likely to close the Pacific salmon fishery from northern Oregon to the Mexican border because of the collapse of crucial stocks in California’s major watershed.
That would be the most extensive closing on the West Coast since the federal government started regulating fisheries.
“By far the biggest,” said Dave Bitts, a commercial fisherman from Eureka, Calif., who is at a weeklong meeting of the Pacific Coast Fisheries Management Council in Sacramento.
“The Central Valley fall Chinook salmon are in the worst condition since records began to be kept,” Robert Lohn, regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Portland, Ore., said Wednesday in an interview. “This is the largest collapse of salmon stocks in 40 years.”
LINK TO CON.
By FELICITY BARRINGER, NY TIMES
Federal officials have indicated that they are likely to close the Pacific salmon fishery from northern Oregon to the Mexican border because of the collapse of crucial stocks in California’s major watershed.
That would be the most extensive closing on the West Coast since the federal government started regulating fisheries.
“By far the biggest,” said Dave Bitts, a commercial fisherman from Eureka, Calif., who is at a weeklong meeting of the Pacific Coast Fisheries Management Council in Sacramento.
“The Central Valley fall Chinook salmon are in the worst condition since records began to be kept,” Robert Lohn, regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Portland, Ore., said Wednesday in an interview. “This is the largest collapse of salmon stocks in 40 years.”
LINK TO CON.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Ethanol: By the Way, You'll Need Water
by David Sassoon - Mar 11th, 2008
It's a longstanding joke among people who sell land. The closing is over, signatures secured, the deed transferred, and after a final handshake, this offhand comment is delivered over-the-shoulder: By the way, you'll need water.
That's become the story of corn ethanol in the US, and it's no laughing matter.
Last year's energy bill requires 36 billion gallons of annual biofuels production by 2022 -- probably about half of them from corn. The measure, largely a giant gift to agribusiness interests, appeared to address both environmental and energy security issues, while really doing neither. And now what's surfacing is a threat to the nation's water security.
The question of water, like oil supply, takes us deep underground, where deposits of sand, gravel and silt store water in ancient aquifers. This supply of groundwater, which is what half of the nation relies on for drinking, is not inexhaustible.
LINK TO CON.
by David Sassoon - Mar 11th, 2008
It's a longstanding joke among people who sell land. The closing is over, signatures secured, the deed transferred, and after a final handshake, this offhand comment is delivered over-the-shoulder: By the way, you'll need water.
That's become the story of corn ethanol in the US, and it's no laughing matter.
Last year's energy bill requires 36 billion gallons of annual biofuels production by 2022 -- probably about half of them from corn. The measure, largely a giant gift to agribusiness interests, appeared to address both environmental and energy security issues, while really doing neither. And now what's surfacing is a threat to the nation's water security.
The question of water, like oil supply, takes us deep underground, where deposits of sand, gravel and silt store water in ancient aquifers. This supply of groundwater, which is what half of the nation relies on for drinking, is not inexhaustible.
LINK TO CON.
(Something I have been thinking the last couple of years. In addition to the arguments below, here is one of my own...think about professional sports in the USA and its resemblance to roman gladiator fighting. The mostly rich pay athletes to play for their team, while the common worker pays the rich to watch the athletes play...not quite the same, but switched into a modern context in the era we live in, the similarities are there).
Is America the new Rome?
By Noel Malcolm
The American edition of this book, which came out a few months ago, bore the title Are We Rome? Apparently that was the sort of question for which ancient Romans would have used the word ‘nonne’, expecting the answer ‘yes’; for the British edition is baldly entitled The New Rome. Sidney and Beatrice Webb did something similar when they dropped the question mark from their Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? - but at least they waited a couple of years before they did so.
Cullen Murphy, an author of stylish think-pieces in Atlantic Monthly and Vanity Fair, has become obsessed with the resemblances between the present-day US and ancient Rome. The big similarity, of course, is in geopolitics: at its height, the Roman Empire was a military superpower which dominated much of what is tendentiously called ‘the known world’ (known by whom? - answer: by people in the Roman Empire). Rome’s imprint on that large part of the world was not just military. The material culture of Roman life - art and architecture, clothes and food, even including the Romans’ disgusting fermented fish sauce - had an overwhelming allure for almost everyone who became part of the empire, or was in regular contact with it. And for those brought into the empire, Roman law and Roman moral values were powerful influences, often superseding the value-systems they had lived by before. For fish sauce, read McDonald’s; for Roman values, liberal democracy (or neo-con dogma, according to taste).
LINK TO CON.
Is America the new Rome?
By Noel Malcolm
The American edition of this book, which came out a few months ago, bore the title Are We Rome? Apparently that was the sort of question for which ancient Romans would have used the word ‘nonne’, expecting the answer ‘yes’; for the British edition is baldly entitled The New Rome. Sidney and Beatrice Webb did something similar when they dropped the question mark from their Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? - but at least they waited a couple of years before they did so.
Cullen Murphy, an author of stylish think-pieces in Atlantic Monthly and Vanity Fair, has become obsessed with the resemblances between the present-day US and ancient Rome. The big similarity, of course, is in geopolitics: at its height, the Roman Empire was a military superpower which dominated much of what is tendentiously called ‘the known world’ (known by whom? - answer: by people in the Roman Empire). Rome’s imprint on that large part of the world was not just military. The material culture of Roman life - art and architecture, clothes and food, even including the Romans’ disgusting fermented fish sauce - had an overwhelming allure for almost everyone who became part of the empire, or was in regular contact with it. And for those brought into the empire, Roman law and Roman moral values were powerful influences, often superseding the value-systems they had lived by before. For fish sauce, read McDonald’s; for Roman values, liberal democracy (or neo-con dogma, according to taste).
LINK TO CON.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Today's Must Read
By Paul Kiel - March 10, 2008, 9:45AM
It is the closest thing I've seen to a complete explanation of the surveillance program the Bush Administration has assembled.
Siobhan Gorman of The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the National Security Agency has assembled what some intelligence officials admit is a driftnet for domestic and foreign communications.
Here's the way the whole thing works, according to Gorman: into the NSA's massive database goes data collected by the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Treasury. This information includes data about email (recipient and sender address, subject, time sent), internet searches (sites visited and searches conducted), phone calls (incoming and outgoing numbers, length of call, location), financial information (wire transfers, credit-card use, information about bank accounts), and information from the DHS about airline passengers.
LINK TO CON.
By Paul Kiel - March 10, 2008, 9:45AM
It is the closest thing I've seen to a complete explanation of the surveillance program the Bush Administration has assembled.
Siobhan Gorman of The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the National Security Agency has assembled what some intelligence officials admit is a driftnet for domestic and foreign communications.
Here's the way the whole thing works, according to Gorman: into the NSA's massive database goes data collected by the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Treasury. This information includes data about email (recipient and sender address, subject, time sent), internet searches (sites visited and searches conducted), phone calls (incoming and outgoing numbers, length of call, location), financial information (wire transfers, credit-card use, information about bank accounts), and information from the DHS about airline passengers.
LINK TO CON.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Michael Pollan: Don't Eat Anything That Doesn't Rot
By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!.
Amy Goodman:"You are what to eat." Or so the saying goes. In American culture, healthy food is a national preoccupation. But then, why are Americans becoming less healthy and more overweight?
Michael Pollan: Food's under attack from two quarters. It's under attack from the food industry, which is taking, you know, perfectly good whole foods and tricking them up into highly processed edible foodlike substances, and from nutritional science, which has over the years convinced us that we shouldn't be paying attention to food, it's really the nutrients that matter. And they're trying to replace foods with antioxidants, you know, cholesterol, saturated fat, omega-3s, and that whole way of looking at food as a collection of nutrients, I think, is very destructive.
Goodman: Shouldn't people be concerned, for example, about cholesterol?
Pollan: No. Cholesterol in the diet is actually only very mildly related to cholesterol in the blood. It was a -- that was a scientific error, basically. We were sold a bill of goods that we should really worry about the cholesterol in our food, basically because cholesterol is one of the few things we could measure that was linked to heart disease, so there was this kind of obsessive focus on cholesterol. But, you know, the egg has been rehabilitated. You know, the egg is very high in cholesterol, and now we're told it's actually a perfectly good, healthy food. So there's only a very tangential relationship between the cholesterol you eat and the cholesterol levels in your blood.
Goodman: How is it that the food we eat now, it takes time to read the ingredients?
Pollan: Yeah.
LINK TO CON INTERVIEW
By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!.
Amy Goodman:"You are what to eat." Or so the saying goes. In American culture, healthy food is a national preoccupation. But then, why are Americans becoming less healthy and more overweight?
Michael Pollan: Food's under attack from two quarters. It's under attack from the food industry, which is taking, you know, perfectly good whole foods and tricking them up into highly processed edible foodlike substances, and from nutritional science, which has over the years convinced us that we shouldn't be paying attention to food, it's really the nutrients that matter. And they're trying to replace foods with antioxidants, you know, cholesterol, saturated fat, omega-3s, and that whole way of looking at food as a collection of nutrients, I think, is very destructive.
Goodman: Shouldn't people be concerned, for example, about cholesterol?
Pollan: No. Cholesterol in the diet is actually only very mildly related to cholesterol in the blood. It was a -- that was a scientific error, basically. We were sold a bill of goods that we should really worry about the cholesterol in our food, basically because cholesterol is one of the few things we could measure that was linked to heart disease, so there was this kind of obsessive focus on cholesterol. But, you know, the egg has been rehabilitated. You know, the egg is very high in cholesterol, and now we're told it's actually a perfectly good, healthy food. So there's only a very tangential relationship between the cholesterol you eat and the cholesterol levels in your blood.
Goodman: How is it that the food we eat now, it takes time to read the ingredients?
Pollan: Yeah.
LINK TO CON INTERVIEW
Fighting on a Battlefield the Size of a Milk Label
By ANDREW MARTIN, NY TIMES
Published: March 9, 2008
IT may be the last stand of Posilac.
A new advocacy group closely tied to Monsanto has started a counteroffensive to stop the proliferation of milk that comes from cows that aren’t treated with synthetic bovine growth hormone.
The group, called American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology, or Afact, says it is a grass-roots organization that came together to defend members’ right to use recombinant bovine somatotropin, also known as rBST or rBGH, an artificial hormone that stimulates milk production. It is sold by Monsanto under the brand name Posilac.
Dairy farmers are indeed part of the organization. But Afact was organized in part by Monsanto and a Colorado consultant who lists Monsanto as a client.
LINK TO CON>
By ANDREW MARTIN, NY TIMES
Published: March 9, 2008
IT may be the last stand of Posilac.
A new advocacy group closely tied to Monsanto has started a counteroffensive to stop the proliferation of milk that comes from cows that aren’t treated with synthetic bovine growth hormone.
The group, called American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology, or Afact, says it is a grass-roots organization that came together to defend members’ right to use recombinant bovine somatotropin, also known as rBST or rBGH, an artificial hormone that stimulates milk production. It is sold by Monsanto under the brand name Posilac.
Dairy farmers are indeed part of the organization. But Afact was organized in part by Monsanto and a Colorado consultant who lists Monsanto as a client.
LINK TO CON>
A Global Need for Grain That Farms Can’t Fill
By DAVID STREITFELD, NY TIMES
Published: March 9, 2008
LAWTON, N.D. — Whatever Dennis Miller decides to plant this year on his 2,760-acre farm, the world needs. Wheat prices have doubled in the last six months. Corn is on a tear. Barley, sunflower seeds, canola and soybeans are all up sharply.
“For once, there’s great reason to be optimistic,” Mr. Miller said.
But the prices that have renewed Mr. Miller’s faith in farming are causing pain far and wide. A tailor in Lagos, Nigeria, named Abel Ojuku said recently that he had been forced to cut back on the bread he and his family love.
“If you wanted to buy three loaves, now you buy one,” Mr. Ojuku said.
Everywhere, the cost of food is rising sharply. Whether the world is in for a long period of continued increases has become one of the most urgent issues in economics.
LINK TO CON>
By DAVID STREITFELD, NY TIMES
Published: March 9, 2008
LAWTON, N.D. — Whatever Dennis Miller decides to plant this year on his 2,760-acre farm, the world needs. Wheat prices have doubled in the last six months. Corn is on a tear. Barley, sunflower seeds, canola and soybeans are all up sharply.
“For once, there’s great reason to be optimistic,” Mr. Miller said.
But the prices that have renewed Mr. Miller’s faith in farming are causing pain far and wide. A tailor in Lagos, Nigeria, named Abel Ojuku said recently that he had been forced to cut back on the bread he and his family love.
“If you wanted to buy three loaves, now you buy one,” Mr. Ojuku said.
Everywhere, the cost of food is rising sharply. Whether the world is in for a long period of continued increases has become one of the most urgent issues in economics.
LINK TO CON>
Friday, March 07, 2008
Brazil activists vandalize Monsanto farm
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Activists opposed to genetically modified crops invaded an experimental farm owned by Monsanto Co. on Friday, destroying a greenhouse and a field of corn.
About 300 members of the Via Campesina rural farm workers group vandalized the company's property before dawn and then left the premises, the group said in a statement.
Monsanto, a worldwide leader in genetically modified seed development, denounced the invasion and vandalism as "illegal acts."
Differences of opinion over genetically modified crops "should be expressed through legal means and freedom of expression, not by attacks against people and individuals," Monsanto said in a statement. The company did not immediately disclose the cost of the vandalism.
LINK TO CON>
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Activists opposed to genetically modified crops invaded an experimental farm owned by Monsanto Co. on Friday, destroying a greenhouse and a field of corn.
About 300 members of the Via Campesina rural farm workers group vandalized the company's property before dawn and then left the premises, the group said in a statement.
Monsanto, a worldwide leader in genetically modified seed development, denounced the invasion and vandalism as "illegal acts."
Differences of opinion over genetically modified crops "should be expressed through legal means and freedom of expression, not by attacks against people and individuals," Monsanto said in a statement. The company did not immediately disclose the cost of the vandalism.
LINK TO CON>
Thursday, March 06, 2008
(Here are a couple of news events not covered in the main media!)
Vigilante justice rocks once quiet Mozambique
Lynchings of suspected thieves – and riots over lack of police protection – have shaken the southern African donor darling.
By Stephanie Hanes | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Chimoio, Mozambique - The robbers struck again during the early morning hours of Feb. 23 – the latest in a string of violent home invasions in this normally calm city.
Within days, at least two suspected bandits had been lynched, the police station had been damaged, a child had been shot, and Chimoio was added to the list of Mozambican cities that have been rocked by riots in recent weeks.
In early February, more than 250 people were injured and at least four killed during riots in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, after the government upped the cost of the minibus taxis that many rely upon for transportation.
LINK TO CON>
In Tijuana, police battle drug cartels after targeting safe house
Rival drug cartels suspected in the latest confrontation in the Mexican border town.
The Washington Post
mexico City - Mexican soldiers and federal police fought a five-hour gun battle with suspected drug gang hitmen late Sunday and early Monday in a residential area of Tijuana. At least one of the heavily armed suspects was killed and two were injured, authorities said.
The confrontation was the latest in a series of street battles that have terrorized the border city, where rival drug cartels also turn their weapons on each other.
Monday's battle took place in Tijuana's La Mesa neighborhood, a troubled area where the police commander was killed in January, a spokesman for the Baja California public safety agency told reporters. Federal police and soldiers were conducting an operation to shut down a suspected cartel safe house. Local police, many of whom are suspected of helping cartels, did not take part.
LINK TO CON>
Vigilante justice rocks once quiet Mozambique
Lynchings of suspected thieves – and riots over lack of police protection – have shaken the southern African donor darling.
By Stephanie Hanes | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Chimoio, Mozambique - The robbers struck again during the early morning hours of Feb. 23 – the latest in a string of violent home invasions in this normally calm city.
Within days, at least two suspected bandits had been lynched, the police station had been damaged, a child had been shot, and Chimoio was added to the list of Mozambican cities that have been rocked by riots in recent weeks.
In early February, more than 250 people were injured and at least four killed during riots in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, after the government upped the cost of the minibus taxis that many rely upon for transportation.
LINK TO CON>
In Tijuana, police battle drug cartels after targeting safe house
Rival drug cartels suspected in the latest confrontation in the Mexican border town.
The Washington Post
mexico City - Mexican soldiers and federal police fought a five-hour gun battle with suspected drug gang hitmen late Sunday and early Monday in a residential area of Tijuana. At least one of the heavily armed suspects was killed and two were injured, authorities said.
The confrontation was the latest in a series of street battles that have terrorized the border city, where rival drug cartels also turn their weapons on each other.
Monday's battle took place in Tijuana's La Mesa neighborhood, a troubled area where the police commander was killed in January, a spokesman for the Baja California public safety agency told reporters. Federal police and soldiers were conducting an operation to shut down a suspected cartel safe house. Local police, many of whom are suspected of helping cartels, did not take part.
LINK TO CON>
'Frankenfoods' Giant Monsanto Plays Bully Over Consumer Labeling
By Scott Thill, AlterNet.
Since 1901, Monsanto has brought us Agent Orange, PCBs, Terminator seeds and recombined milk, among other infamous products. But it's currently obsessed with the milk, or, more importantly, the milk labels, particularly those that read "rBST-free" or "rBGH-free." It's not the "BST" or "BGH" that bothers them so much; after all, bovine somatrophin, also known as bovine growth hormone, isn't exactly what the company is known for. Which is to say, it's naturally occurring. No, the problem is the "r" denoting "recombined." There's nothing natural about it. In fact, the science is increasingly pointing to the possibility that recombined milk is -- surprise! -- not as good for you as the real thing.
"Consumption of dairy products from cows treated with rbGH raise a number of health issues," explained Michael Hansen, a senior scientist for Consumers Union. "That includes increased antibiotic resistance, due to use of antibiotics to treat mastitis and other health problems, as well as increased levels of IGF-1, which has been linked to a range of cancers."
LINK TO CON>
By Scott Thill, AlterNet.
Since 1901, Monsanto has brought us Agent Orange, PCBs, Terminator seeds and recombined milk, among other infamous products. But it's currently obsessed with the milk, or, more importantly, the milk labels, particularly those that read "rBST-free" or "rBGH-free." It's not the "BST" or "BGH" that bothers them so much; after all, bovine somatrophin, also known as bovine growth hormone, isn't exactly what the company is known for. Which is to say, it's naturally occurring. No, the problem is the "r" denoting "recombined." There's nothing natural about it. In fact, the science is increasingly pointing to the possibility that recombined milk is -- surprise! -- not as good for you as the real thing.
"Consumption of dairy products from cows treated with rbGH raise a number of health issues," explained Michael Hansen, a senior scientist for Consumers Union. "That includes increased antibiotic resistance, due to use of antibiotics to treat mastitis and other health problems, as well as increased levels of IGF-1, which has been linked to a range of cancers."
LINK TO CON>
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
What It Will Take to Save the Wild Salmon
By Joseph Friedrichs, Plenty Magazine.
Each spring tribal communities in the Columbia River basin in the Pacific Northwest host a salmon feast honoring the sacrifices the fish make for the welfare of the Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Warm Springs tribes. The fishing communities rely on the once-bountiful salmon to support their livelihood. But several years, ago salmon runs were so low that they had to buy the fish in order to have enough for the feast.
The scarcity of salmon is not new. For hundreds of years the fish have been vital to the culture, economy, diet, and religion of the four tribes. But last century, America's charge for hydroelectric power traveled west, and dam construction radically altered the mighty Columbia River and its tributaries. The Dalles Dam, built in 1957, drowned Celilo Falls, a stretch of river once heralded as "the Wall Street of the West" because of its supreme fishing. One of the most notorious fisheries of the West vanished, and energy development continued at the expense of tribal communities.
"We rely on the salmon for our ceremonies, subsistence, and livelihood," says Fidelia Andy, chairwoman of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, a nonprofit created by members of the four tribes. Because of their inherent sovereignty, like federal agencies, Columbia Basin tribes are responsible for protecting the fish.
LINK TO CON>
By Joseph Friedrichs, Plenty Magazine.
Each spring tribal communities in the Columbia River basin in the Pacific Northwest host a salmon feast honoring the sacrifices the fish make for the welfare of the Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Warm Springs tribes. The fishing communities rely on the once-bountiful salmon to support their livelihood. But several years, ago salmon runs were so low that they had to buy the fish in order to have enough for the feast.
The scarcity of salmon is not new. For hundreds of years the fish have been vital to the culture, economy, diet, and religion of the four tribes. But last century, America's charge for hydroelectric power traveled west, and dam construction radically altered the mighty Columbia River and its tributaries. The Dalles Dam, built in 1957, drowned Celilo Falls, a stretch of river once heralded as "the Wall Street of the West" because of its supreme fishing. One of the most notorious fisheries of the West vanished, and energy development continued at the expense of tribal communities.
"We rely on the salmon for our ceremonies, subsistence, and livelihood," says Fidelia Andy, chairwoman of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, a nonprofit created by members of the four tribes. Because of their inherent sovereignty, like federal agencies, Columbia Basin tribes are responsible for protecting the fish.
LINK TO CON>
Monday, March 03, 2008
The next green revolution
From The Economist print edition
Europe may not like it, but genetic modification is transforming agriculture
FOR a decade Europe has rebuffed efforts by biotechnology firms such as America's Monsanto to promote genetically modified crops. Despite scientific assurances that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are safe for human consumption, and a ruling by the World Trade Organisation against national import bans in the European Union, many Europeans have yet to touch or taste them. But that may soon change, according to Iain Ferguson, boss of Tate & Lyle, a British food giant. “We sit at a moment of history when GM technology...is a fact of life,” he said this week.
Mr Ferguson, who is also the head of Britain's Food and Drink Federation, argues that because many large agricultural exporters have adopted GMOs, it is becoming expensive to avoid them. Copa-Cogeca, a farmers' lobby, this week warned that the rising cost of feed could wipe out Europe's livestock industry unless bans on GMOs are lifted. Meanwhile, European agriculture ministers failed to agree on whether to allow imports of GM maize and potatoes; the decision will now be made by the European Commission, which is likely to say yes.
LINK TO CON>
From The Economist print edition
Europe may not like it, but genetic modification is transforming agriculture
FOR a decade Europe has rebuffed efforts by biotechnology firms such as America's Monsanto to promote genetically modified crops. Despite scientific assurances that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are safe for human consumption, and a ruling by the World Trade Organisation against national import bans in the European Union, many Europeans have yet to touch or taste them. But that may soon change, according to Iain Ferguson, boss of Tate & Lyle, a British food giant. “We sit at a moment of history when GM technology...is a fact of life,” he said this week.
Mr Ferguson, who is also the head of Britain's Food and Drink Federation, argues that because many large agricultural exporters have adopted GMOs, it is becoming expensive to avoid them. Copa-Cogeca, a farmers' lobby, this week warned that the rising cost of feed could wipe out Europe's livestock industry unless bans on GMOs are lifted. Meanwhile, European agriculture ministers failed to agree on whether to allow imports of GM maize and potatoes; the decision will now be made by the European Commission, which is likely to say yes.
LINK TO CON>
'Superchile' a source of hope, concern
Scientists aim to use genetic engineering to create a wilt-resistant plant, but some growers say biotechnology could backfire
Staci Matlock | The New Mexican
New Mexico's spicy chiles can make grown men cry and ease the common cold, but they haven't fared well against root-rotting organisms known as Phytophthora.
Decades-long efforts by New Mexico State University researchers to grow a Phytophthora-fighting chile have proven largely futile. But scientists are now hoping that biotechnology and genetic research will help them create a new version lacking none of its ancestor's spice — and the state Legislature is providing some help.
Lawmakers recently approved a $250,000 annual appropriation to New Mexico State University for both genetic-engineering research and mechanical harvesting. Both are key to the industry's survival, say commercial chile growers.
"A lot of problems are solvable through conventional breeding," said Steve Hanson, assistant professor in NMSU's Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology and Weed Science. "Unfortunately, there are a couple of problems conventional breeding hasn't solved, like chile wilt."
LINK TO CON>
Scientists aim to use genetic engineering to create a wilt-resistant plant, but some growers say biotechnology could backfire
Staci Matlock | The New Mexican
New Mexico's spicy chiles can make grown men cry and ease the common cold, but they haven't fared well against root-rotting organisms known as Phytophthora.
Decades-long efforts by New Mexico State University researchers to grow a Phytophthora-fighting chile have proven largely futile. But scientists are now hoping that biotechnology and genetic research will help them create a new version lacking none of its ancestor's spice — and the state Legislature is providing some help.
Lawmakers recently approved a $250,000 annual appropriation to New Mexico State University for both genetic-engineering research and mechanical harvesting. Both are key to the industry's survival, say commercial chile growers.
"A lot of problems are solvable through conventional breeding," said Steve Hanson, assistant professor in NMSU's Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology and Weed Science. "Unfortunately, there are a couple of problems conventional breeding hasn't solved, like chile wilt."
LINK TO CON>
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Spain's Reconquest of Mexico Through Deep Pocket Investments and High Fashion Clothing Lines
The New Conquistadores
By JOHN ROSS
When Christopher Columbus sailed out of the port of Huelva on Spain's Atlantic coast in 1492, heading east towards the Mysterious Orient to conquer new markets for his king and queen, the business of his mission was business, and, after accidentally bumping into the New World en route, Columbus and his bosses did exactly what any average avaricious businessperson would do - they set up shop on American shores, stole the gold, slaughtered the Indians, and converted those who remained to the Spaniards' brand of God.
By 1519, on the Good Friday morning that Hernan Cortez dropped anchor off Veracruz, that business had flourished into an empire. Cortez, a private entrepreneur, set out to conquer Mexico in a prototypical hostile takeover. His weapons were the Cross and the Cannon and the Plague, his horses, bristly beards, and clunky suits of armor - and the treachery of those native peoples who had grown disaffected with Aztec domination, and, in the end, he toppled Moctezuma's dynasty, took over the franchise, and re-named the place, what else? New Spain.
500 years down history's highway, the Conquistadores have returned to the New World. From Tijuana to Tierra del Fuego, the "Reconquista" is in full swing:
LINK TO CON>
The New Conquistadores
By JOHN ROSS
When Christopher Columbus sailed out of the port of Huelva on Spain's Atlantic coast in 1492, heading east towards the Mysterious Orient to conquer new markets for his king and queen, the business of his mission was business, and, after accidentally bumping into the New World en route, Columbus and his bosses did exactly what any average avaricious businessperson would do - they set up shop on American shores, stole the gold, slaughtered the Indians, and converted those who remained to the Spaniards' brand of God.
By 1519, on the Good Friday morning that Hernan Cortez dropped anchor off Veracruz, that business had flourished into an empire. Cortez, a private entrepreneur, set out to conquer Mexico in a prototypical hostile takeover. His weapons were the Cross and the Cannon and the Plague, his horses, bristly beards, and clunky suits of armor - and the treachery of those native peoples who had grown disaffected with Aztec domination, and, in the end, he toppled Moctezuma's dynasty, took over the franchise, and re-named the place, what else? New Spain.
500 years down history's highway, the Conquistadores have returned to the New World. From Tijuana to Tierra del Fuego, the "Reconquista" is in full swing:
LINK TO CON>
Soaring food prices imperil U.S. emergency aid
Government to scale back donations, reduce number of recipient nations
By Anthony Faiola
WASHINGTON - The U.S. government's humanitarian relief agency will significantly scale back emergency food aid to some of the world's poorest countries this year because of soaring global food prices, and the U.S. Agency for International Development is drafting plans to reduce the number of recipient nations, the amount of food provided to them, or both, officials at the agency said.
USAID officials said that a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120 million budget shortfall that will force the agency to reduce emergency operations. That deficit is projected to rise to $200 million by year's end. Prices have skyrocketed as more grains go to biofuel production or are consumed by such fast-emerging markets as China and India.
LINK TO CON>
Government to scale back donations, reduce number of recipient nations
By Anthony Faiola
WASHINGTON - The U.S. government's humanitarian relief agency will significantly scale back emergency food aid to some of the world's poorest countries this year because of soaring global food prices, and the U.S. Agency for International Development is drafting plans to reduce the number of recipient nations, the amount of food provided to them, or both, officials at the agency said.
USAID officials said that a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120 million budget shortfall that will force the agency to reduce emergency operations. That deficit is projected to rise to $200 million by year's end. Prices have skyrocketed as more grains go to biofuel production or are consumed by such fast-emerging markets as China and India.
LINK TO CON>
Saturday, March 01, 2008
My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)
By JACK HEDIN, NY Times
IF you’ve stood in line at a farmers’ market recently, you know that the local food movement is thriving, to the point that small farmers are having a tough time keeping up with the demand.
But consumers who would like to be able to buy local fruits and vegetables not just at farmers’ markets, but also in the produce aisle of their supermarket, will be dismayed to learn that the federal government works deliberately and forcefully to prevent the local food movement from expanding. And the barriers that the United States Department of Agriculture has put in place will be extended when the farm bill that House and Senate negotiators are working on now goes into effect.
As a small organic vegetable producer in southern Minnesota, I know this because my efforts to expand production to meet regional demand have been severely hampered by the Agriculture Department’s commodity farm program. As I’ve looked into the politics behind those restrictions, I’ve come to understand that this is precisely the outcome that the program’s backers in California and Florida have in mind: they want to snuff out the local competition before it even gets started.
LINK TO CON>
By JACK HEDIN, NY Times
IF you’ve stood in line at a farmers’ market recently, you know that the local food movement is thriving, to the point that small farmers are having a tough time keeping up with the demand.
But consumers who would like to be able to buy local fruits and vegetables not just at farmers’ markets, but also in the produce aisle of their supermarket, will be dismayed to learn that the federal government works deliberately and forcefully to prevent the local food movement from expanding. And the barriers that the United States Department of Agriculture has put in place will be extended when the farm bill that House and Senate negotiators are working on now goes into effect.
As a small organic vegetable producer in southern Minnesota, I know this because my efforts to expand production to meet regional demand have been severely hampered by the Agriculture Department’s commodity farm program. As I’ve looked into the politics behind those restrictions, I’ve come to understand that this is precisely the outcome that the program’s backers in California and Florida have in mind: they want to snuff out the local competition before it even gets started.
LINK TO CON>
Friday, February 29, 2008
Pizza and beer now cost an arm and a leg
Sure sign we're heading for a recession: Even cheap eats are hard to find
By Al Olson
If you’re looking for a sure sign the U.S. economy is headed for a recession, all you need to do is look at the skyrocketing price of “recession-proof” foods: pizza, hot dogs, bagels and beer.
For many Americans, the credit crunch and the mortgage mess have left their pocketbooks – and their cupboards – bare. These same consumers, many living paycheck to paycheck, have relied on these cheaper foods to keep their expenditures down. Not anymore.
In the past few months, the news has gone from bad to worse:
LINK TO CON>
Sure sign we're heading for a recession: Even cheap eats are hard to find
By Al Olson
If you’re looking for a sure sign the U.S. economy is headed for a recession, all you need to do is look at the skyrocketing price of “recession-proof” foods: pizza, hot dogs, bagels and beer.
For many Americans, the credit crunch and the mortgage mess have left their pocketbooks – and their cupboards – bare. These same consumers, many living paycheck to paycheck, have relied on these cheaper foods to keep their expenditures down. Not anymore.
In the past few months, the news has gone from bad to worse:
LINK TO CON>
Crunch Time on the Bread Line
by Michael Fox
Where will you be in the line? In a column last week, I discussed the forthcoming risk of global famine. Now the evidence is piling on, and there is every reason to expect - at the very least - astronomical inflation in food prices within the next year. Most significantly, this problem is not confined to any one region of the world, and the ripple effect is mind-boggling. Keep in mind that the dollar is falling on the world exchanges, and the food you buy is subject to the fluctuations of the currency exchanges. Why? Well, simply because it may be more lucrative for global agricultural corporations to sell to the highest bidder – no matter where they may be.
Think about the grocery products you buy that involve grains - and then think again. Naturally, the first thing that comes to mind is bread (which, by the way, keeps nicely in the freezer, but never the fridge!). In the United States and Europe, we eat bread from wheat, but in Mexico, the more common equivalent is corn tortillas, and corn is already running short due in a large part to its (mis-) use for E-85 Ethanol production. Consequently, the Mexican tortilla market is running short and prices are rising for that most basic staple – because American conglomerates are buying up too much of the corn for Ethanol. The corn shortage is also causing the rapidly increasing prices for eggs and chickens, as they are, traditionally, corn-fed.
LINK TO CON>
by Michael Fox
Where will you be in the line? In a column last week, I discussed the forthcoming risk of global famine. Now the evidence is piling on, and there is every reason to expect - at the very least - astronomical inflation in food prices within the next year. Most significantly, this problem is not confined to any one region of the world, and the ripple effect is mind-boggling. Keep in mind that the dollar is falling on the world exchanges, and the food you buy is subject to the fluctuations of the currency exchanges. Why? Well, simply because it may be more lucrative for global agricultural corporations to sell to the highest bidder – no matter where they may be.
Think about the grocery products you buy that involve grains - and then think again. Naturally, the first thing that comes to mind is bread (which, by the way, keeps nicely in the freezer, but never the fridge!). In the United States and Europe, we eat bread from wheat, but in Mexico, the more common equivalent is corn tortillas, and corn is already running short due in a large part to its (mis-) use for E-85 Ethanol production. Consequently, the Mexican tortilla market is running short and prices are rising for that most basic staple – because American conglomerates are buying up too much of the corn for Ethanol. The corn shortage is also causing the rapidly increasing prices for eggs and chickens, as they are, traditionally, corn-fed.
LINK TO CON>
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Congress Deaf to US Opinion on Farm Bill
by Sangamithra Iyer
For more than 15 years, the Environmental Working Group has been active protecting public health and the environment with public information. Their latest tool: an interactive map of editorials from newspapers around the country demanding reform of the Farm Bill that Congress is fixing to reauthorize without much change.
The editorials unmask the economic unfairness of the farm bill and show a nation ready for a break from record-high commodity prices, rising rates of obesity and diabetes, and growing concern about industrial agriculture’s contribution to global warming and other environmental perils.
The editorials reveal a people ready for a paradigm shift all over the U.S. and particularly in the agricultural heartland, but neither the House or Senate versions of the subsidy-laden 2007 Farm Bill come close to making the needed fixes.
LINK TO CON>
by Sangamithra Iyer
For more than 15 years, the Environmental Working Group has been active protecting public health and the environment with public information. Their latest tool: an interactive map of editorials from newspapers around the country demanding reform of the Farm Bill that Congress is fixing to reauthorize without much change.
The editorials unmask the economic unfairness of the farm bill and show a nation ready for a break from record-high commodity prices, rising rates of obesity and diabetes, and growing concern about industrial agriculture’s contribution to global warming and other environmental perils.
The editorials reveal a people ready for a paradigm shift all over the U.S. and particularly in the agricultural heartland, but neither the House or Senate versions of the subsidy-laden 2007 Farm Bill come close to making the needed fixes.
LINK TO CON>
No Arms! No Transfers! No Military Aid! It's Time To Demilitarize US Policy in Africa
by BAR managing editor Bruce Dixon
Since the end of the Cold War, under Democrats and Republicans alike, the US has provided tens of billions of dollars worth of military aid, military training and arms transfers to 50 of the 54 nations in Africa. America's militarized foreign policy has transformed Africa into the poorest and most war-ravaged continent on earth, with several armed conflicts raging at any one time over the last two decades, and American arms and training a factor in at least one of each. It is the militarization of US policy toward Africa that has manufactured the "failed states" which, like the Congo are ideal for the extraction of African resources, as well as the desired excuses for further military intervention.
The only solution is the complete de-militarization of all US foreign policy on the African continent, and the withdrawal of all US bases and troops from Africa.
LINK TO CON>
by BAR managing editor Bruce Dixon
Since the end of the Cold War, under Democrats and Republicans alike, the US has provided tens of billions of dollars worth of military aid, military training and arms transfers to 50 of the 54 nations in Africa. America's militarized foreign policy has transformed Africa into the poorest and most war-ravaged continent on earth, with several armed conflicts raging at any one time over the last two decades, and American arms and training a factor in at least one of each. It is the militarization of US policy toward Africa that has manufactured the "failed states" which, like the Congo are ideal for the extraction of African resources, as well as the desired excuses for further military intervention.
The only solution is the complete de-militarization of all US foreign policy on the African continent, and the withdrawal of all US bases and troops from Africa.
LINK TO CON>
God Bless Ralph Nader
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Because he wants to salvage American democracy and help Americans, Ralph Nader is running for president again. He deserves the support of all Americans that see themselves as progressives, dissidents, independents, and patriots who want to remove the stranglehold of the two-party plutocracy on our political system.
When it comes to being an honest, proven and trustworthy change agent, Nader is the gold standard. So why are so many Democrats going ballistic and spewing hate towards Nader?
They are in denial about both Obama and Clinton. Both owe much to the corporate and business world that Nader has waged war against for decades. Like Clinton, Obama has taken huge amounts of money from several business sectors. Both refuse to advocate a single payer universal health care system that Nader champions; this protects the enormously profitable health insurance industry.
They are crazy-glued to their misplaced blame of Nader for the Bush victory in 2000, even though several other indisputable factors also explain Gore's loss, including his poor campaign that was unable to deliver his home state of Tennessee, the incompetence of the Democratic Party to stop the Supreme Court's disgraceful action, and the cowardly behavior of the Democratic Party over many decades that kept them from working to replace the Electoral College with the popular vote. And rather than blame Nader for the Iraq war, the Democrats have only themselves to blame, not only for authorizing the war but for many assaults on the Constitution that Bush has gotten away with.
LINK TO CON>
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Because he wants to salvage American democracy and help Americans, Ralph Nader is running for president again. He deserves the support of all Americans that see themselves as progressives, dissidents, independents, and patriots who want to remove the stranglehold of the two-party plutocracy on our political system.
When it comes to being an honest, proven and trustworthy change agent, Nader is the gold standard. So why are so many Democrats going ballistic and spewing hate towards Nader?
They are in denial about both Obama and Clinton. Both owe much to the corporate and business world that Nader has waged war against for decades. Like Clinton, Obama has taken huge amounts of money from several business sectors. Both refuse to advocate a single payer universal health care system that Nader champions; this protects the enormously profitable health insurance industry.
They are crazy-glued to their misplaced blame of Nader for the Bush victory in 2000, even though several other indisputable factors also explain Gore's loss, including his poor campaign that was unable to deliver his home state of Tennessee, the incompetence of the Democratic Party to stop the Supreme Court's disgraceful action, and the cowardly behavior of the Democratic Party over many decades that kept them from working to replace the Electoral College with the popular vote. And rather than blame Nader for the Iraq war, the Democrats have only themselves to blame, not only for authorizing the war but for many assaults on the Constitution that Bush has gotten away with.
LINK TO CON>
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Air Force Blocks Access to Many Blogs
By Noah Shachtman
The Air Force is tightening restrictions on which blogs its troops can read, cutting off access to just about any independent site with the word "blog" in its web address. It's the latest move in a larger struggle within the military over the value -- and hazards -- of the sites. At least one senior Air Force official calls the squeeze so "utterly stupid, it makes me want to scream."
Until recently, each major command of the Air Force had some control over what sites their troops could visit, the Air Force Times reports. Then the Air Force Network Operations Center, under the service's new "Cyber Command," took over.
LINK TO CON>
By Noah Shachtman
The Air Force is tightening restrictions on which blogs its troops can read, cutting off access to just about any independent site with the word "blog" in its web address. It's the latest move in a larger struggle within the military over the value -- and hazards -- of the sites. At least one senior Air Force official calls the squeeze so "utterly stupid, it makes me want to scream."
Until recently, each major command of the Air Force had some control over what sites their troops could visit, the Air Force Times reports. Then the Air Force Network Operations Center, under the service's new "Cyber Command," took over.
LINK TO CON>
Wheat prices hit record high
The cost of March spring wheat hit $24 a bushel Monday, double its cost two months ago.
By Ron Scherer
New York - Dressed in his white apron and baker's hat, Jose Espinal puts the finishing touches on a chicken pot pie that will be sold to customers of Cucina & Co. later in the day. He carefully places a crust on the pie and crimps the top and bottom together.
But to make the dough for about 300 pies, Mr. Espinal, the pastry chef, used 22 pounds of flour – an item that the store knows will soon be rising in price.
"I'm expecting it this week," says Michael Salmon, director of operations of Cucina, which is in Macy's in Manhattan. "Maybe 20 or 30 percent."
Why the increase? The prime ingredient in flour is wheat, which these days is acting more like oil – rising sharply on commodities exchanges. On Monday, the price of March spring wheat on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange shot up to $24 a bushel, the highest price ever. Within the past month, the price of some types of wheat has risen over 90 percent. Already, agricultural experts say, it's getting hard to find the type of wheat used to make pasta, noodles, pizza, and bagels.
LINK TO CON>
The cost of March spring wheat hit $24 a bushel Monday, double its cost two months ago.
By Ron Scherer
New York - Dressed in his white apron and baker's hat, Jose Espinal puts the finishing touches on a chicken pot pie that will be sold to customers of Cucina & Co. later in the day. He carefully places a crust on the pie and crimps the top and bottom together.
But to make the dough for about 300 pies, Mr. Espinal, the pastry chef, used 22 pounds of flour – an item that the store knows will soon be rising in price.
"I'm expecting it this week," says Michael Salmon, director of operations of Cucina, which is in Macy's in Manhattan. "Maybe 20 or 30 percent."
Why the increase? The prime ingredient in flour is wheat, which these days is acting more like oil – rising sharply on commodities exchanges. On Monday, the price of March spring wheat on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange shot up to $24 a bushel, the highest price ever. Within the past month, the price of some types of wheat has risen over 90 percent. Already, agricultural experts say, it's getting hard to find the type of wheat used to make pasta, noodles, pizza, and bagels.
LINK TO CON>
If It's African, It's TRIBAL by Mumia Abu-Jamal
With the ignition of post-election violence in Kenya, came the traditional themes from the Western press: tribal hatreds, ethnic enmity, and almost joyous reporting of the spasms of violence wracking the country.
Joyous, because such violence was useful in convincing Western readers, viewers and listeners of the inherent wildness of foreign lands, and by implication, the peaceful and civil nature of the West. Tribal has become a kind of journalistic shorthand for Black or brown people.
As usual, the real story is a bit more complex. And Americans don't really do complex very well.
The violence, while admittedly breathtaking, is (as most mass violence is), the result of political elites directing the poor and the young to stir the cauldron of conflict, for their political ends.
Kenya, like most post-colonial states, was saddled at the dawn of independence with pressures from colonial powers to keep economic systems essentially unchanged. Thus, many independence leaders became junior partners with international capital, and therefore became individually wealthy, while the poor and working classes of their countries became more ruthlessly exploited.
LINK TO CON>
With the ignition of post-election violence in Kenya, came the traditional themes from the Western press: tribal hatreds, ethnic enmity, and almost joyous reporting of the spasms of violence wracking the country.
Joyous, because such violence was useful in convincing Western readers, viewers and listeners of the inherent wildness of foreign lands, and by implication, the peaceful and civil nature of the West. Tribal has become a kind of journalistic shorthand for Black or brown people.
As usual, the real story is a bit more complex. And Americans don't really do complex very well.
The violence, while admittedly breathtaking, is (as most mass violence is), the result of political elites directing the poor and the young to stir the cauldron of conflict, for their political ends.
Kenya, like most post-colonial states, was saddled at the dawn of independence with pressures from colonial powers to keep economic systems essentially unchanged. Thus, many independence leaders became junior partners with international capital, and therefore became individually wealthy, while the poor and working classes of their countries became more ruthlessly exploited.
LINK TO CON>
Feed The World? We Are Fighting a Losing Battle, UN Admits
by Julian Borger
The United Nations warned yesterday that it no longer has enough money to keep global malnutrition at bay this year in the face of a dramatic upward surge in world commodity prices, which have created a “new face of hunger”.
“We will have a problem in coming months,” said Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP). “We will have a significant gap if commodity prices remain this high, and we will need an extra half billion dollars just to meet existing assessed needs.”
With voluntary contributions from the world’s wealthy nations, the WFP feeds 73 million people in 78 countries, less than a 10th of the total number of the world’s undernourished. Its agreed budget for 2008 was $2.9bn (£1.5bn). But with annual food price increases around the world of up to 40% and dramatic hikes in fuel costs, that budget is no longer enough even to maintain current food deliveries.
The shortfall is all the more worrying as it comes at a time when populations, many in urban areas, who had thought themselves secure in their food supply are now unable to afford basic foodstuffs. Afghanistan has recently added an extra 2.5 million people to the number it says are at risk of malnutrition
LINK TO CON>
by Julian Borger
The United Nations warned yesterday that it no longer has enough money to keep global malnutrition at bay this year in the face of a dramatic upward surge in world commodity prices, which have created a “new face of hunger”.
“We will have a problem in coming months,” said Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP). “We will have a significant gap if commodity prices remain this high, and we will need an extra half billion dollars just to meet existing assessed needs.”
With voluntary contributions from the world’s wealthy nations, the WFP feeds 73 million people in 78 countries, less than a 10th of the total number of the world’s undernourished. Its agreed budget for 2008 was $2.9bn (£1.5bn). But with annual food price increases around the world of up to 40% and dramatic hikes in fuel costs, that budget is no longer enough even to maintain current food deliveries.
The shortfall is all the more worrying as it comes at a time when populations, many in urban areas, who had thought themselves secure in their food supply are now unable to afford basic foodstuffs. Afghanistan has recently added an extra 2.5 million people to the number it says are at risk of malnutrition
LINK TO CON>
Arctic seed vault opens doors for 100 million seeds
LONGYEARBYEN, NORWAY (26 FEBRUARY 2008) — The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world.
At the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, unlocked the vault and, together with the African Nobel Peace Prize-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai, he placed the first seeds in the vault. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and a host of dignitaries and agriculture experts from around the globe deposited seeds during the ceremony. A variety of Norwegian musicians and choirs also performed in the opening ceremony held 130 metres deep inside the frozen mountain.
Built near the village of Longyearbyen on the island of Spitsbergen, the vault at its inception contains 268,000 distinct samples of seeds—each one originating from a different farm or field in the world. Each sample may contain hundreds of seeds or more. In all, the shipments of seeds secured in the vault today weighed approximately 10 tonnes, filling 676 boxes.
LINK TO CON>
LONGYEARBYEN, NORWAY (26 FEBRUARY 2008) — The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world.
At the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, unlocked the vault and, together with the African Nobel Peace Prize-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai, he placed the first seeds in the vault. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and a host of dignitaries and agriculture experts from around the globe deposited seeds during the ceremony. A variety of Norwegian musicians and choirs also performed in the opening ceremony held 130 metres deep inside the frozen mountain.
Built near the village of Longyearbyen on the island of Spitsbergen, the vault at its inception contains 268,000 distinct samples of seeds—each one originating from a different farm or field in the world. Each sample may contain hundreds of seeds or more. In all, the shipments of seeds secured in the vault today weighed approximately 10 tonnes, filling 676 boxes.
LINK TO CON>
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Human Shadows on the Seas
By ANDREW C. REVKIN, NY TIMES
In 1980, after college, I joined the crew of a sailboat partway through a circumnavigation of the globe. Becalmed and roasting one day during a 21-day crossing of the western Indian Ocean, several of us dived over the side. Within a few swimming strokes, the bobbing hull seemed a toy over my shoulder as I glanced back through my diving mask. Below me, my shadow and the boat’s dwindled to the vanishing point in the two-mile-deep water. Human activity seemed nothing when set against the sea itself.
Just a few weeks later, on an uninhabited island in a remote part of the Red Sea, I was proved wrong. The shore above the tide line was covered with old light bulbs, apparently tossed from the endless parade of ships over the years.
Now scientists are building the first worldwide portrait of such dispersed human impacts on the oceans, revealing a planet-spanning mix of depleted resources, degraded ecosystems and disruptive biological blending as species are moved around the globe by accident and intent.
LINK TO CON>
By ANDREW C. REVKIN, NY TIMES
In 1980, after college, I joined the crew of a sailboat partway through a circumnavigation of the globe. Becalmed and roasting one day during a 21-day crossing of the western Indian Ocean, several of us dived over the side. Within a few swimming strokes, the bobbing hull seemed a toy over my shoulder as I glanced back through my diving mask. Below me, my shadow and the boat’s dwindled to the vanishing point in the two-mile-deep water. Human activity seemed nothing when set against the sea itself.
Just a few weeks later, on an uninhabited island in a remote part of the Red Sea, I was proved wrong. The shore above the tide line was covered with old light bulbs, apparently tossed from the endless parade of ships over the years.
Now scientists are building the first worldwide portrait of such dispersed human impacts on the oceans, revealing a planet-spanning mix of depleted resources, degraded ecosystems and disruptive biological blending as species are moved around the globe by accident and intent.
LINK TO CON>
The Calm Before the Conflagration
By Chris Hedges
The United States is funding and in many cases arming the three ethnic factions in Iraq—the Kurds, the Shiites and the Sunni Arabs. These factions rule over partitioned patches of Iraqi territory and brutally purge rival ethnic groups from their midst. Iraq no longer exists as a unified state. It is a series of heavily armed fiefdoms run by thugs, gangs, militias, radical Islamists and warlords who are often paid wages of $300 a month by the U.S. military. Iraq is Yugoslavia before the storm. It is a caldron of weapons, lawlessness, hate and criminality that is destined to implode. And the current U.S. policy, born of desperation and defeat, means that when Iraq goes up, the U.S. military will have to scurry like rats for cover.
The supporters of the war, from the Bush White House to Sen. John McCain, tout the surge as the magic solution. But the surge, which primarily deployed 30,000 troops in and around Baghdad, did little to thwart the sectarian violence. The decline in attacks began only when we bought off the Sunni Arabs. U.S. commanders in the bleak fall of 2006 had little choice. It was that or defeat. The steady rise in U.S. casualties, the massive car bombs that tore apart city squares in Baghdad and left hundreds dead, the brutal ethnic cleansing that was creating independent ethnic enclaves beyond our control throughout Iraq, the death squads that carried out mass executions and a central government that was as corrupt as it was impotent signaled catastrophic failure.
The United States cut a deal with its Sunni Arab enemies. It would pay the former insurgents. It would allow them to arm and form military units and give them control of their ethnic enclaves. The Sunni Arabs, in exchange, would halt attacks on U.S. troops. The Sunni Arabs agreed.
LINK TO CON>
By Chris Hedges
The United States is funding and in many cases arming the three ethnic factions in Iraq—the Kurds, the Shiites and the Sunni Arabs. These factions rule over partitioned patches of Iraqi territory and brutally purge rival ethnic groups from their midst. Iraq no longer exists as a unified state. It is a series of heavily armed fiefdoms run by thugs, gangs, militias, radical Islamists and warlords who are often paid wages of $300 a month by the U.S. military. Iraq is Yugoslavia before the storm. It is a caldron of weapons, lawlessness, hate and criminality that is destined to implode. And the current U.S. policy, born of desperation and defeat, means that when Iraq goes up, the U.S. military will have to scurry like rats for cover.
The supporters of the war, from the Bush White House to Sen. John McCain, tout the surge as the magic solution. But the surge, which primarily deployed 30,000 troops in and around Baghdad, did little to thwart the sectarian violence. The decline in attacks began only when we bought off the Sunni Arabs. U.S. commanders in the bleak fall of 2006 had little choice. It was that or defeat. The steady rise in U.S. casualties, the massive car bombs that tore apart city squares in Baghdad and left hundreds dead, the brutal ethnic cleansing that was creating independent ethnic enclaves beyond our control throughout Iraq, the death squads that carried out mass executions and a central government that was as corrupt as it was impotent signaled catastrophic failure.
The United States cut a deal with its Sunni Arab enemies. It would pay the former insurgents. It would allow them to arm and form military units and give them control of their ethnic enclaves. The Sunni Arabs, in exchange, would halt attacks on U.S. troops. The Sunni Arabs agreed.
LINK TO CON>
The Myth of the Surge
Hoping to turn enemies into allies, U.S. forces are arming Iraqis who fought with the insurgents. But it's already starting to backfire. A report from the front lines of the new Iraq
NIR ROSEN, Rolling Stone
It's a cold, gray day in December, and I'm walking down Sixtieth Street in the Dora district of Baghdad, one of the most violent and fearsome of the city's no-go zones. Devastated by five years of clashes between American forces, Shiite militias, Sunni resistance groups and Al Qaeda, much of Dora is now a ghost town. This is what "victory" looks like in a once upscale neighborhood of Iraq: Lakes of mud and sewage fill the streets. Mountains of trash stagnate in the pungent liquid. Most of the windows in the sand-colored homes are broken, and the wind blows through them, whistling eerily. House after house is deserted, bullet holes pockmarking their walls, their doors open and unguarded, many emptied of furniture. What few furnishings remain are covered by a thick layer of the fine dust that invades every space in Iraq. Looming over the homes are twelve-foot-high security walls built by the Americans to separate warring factions and confine people to their own neighborhood. Emptied and destroyed by civil war, walled off by President Bush's much-heralded "surge," Dora feels more like a desolate, post-apocalyptic maze of concrete tunnels than a living, inhabited neighborhood. Apart from our footsteps, there is complete silence.
My guide, a thirty-one-year-old named Osama who grew up in Dora, points to shops he used to go to, now abandoned or destroyed: a barbershop, a hardware store. Since the U.S. occupation began, Osama has watched civil war turn the streets where he grew up into an ethnic killing field. After the fall of Saddam, the Americans allowed looters and gangs to take over the streets, and Iraqi security forces were stripped of their jobs. The Mahdi Army, the powerful Shiite paramilitary force led by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, took advantage of the power shift to retaliate in areas such as Dora, where Shiites had been driven from their homes. Shiite forces tried to cleanse the district of Sunni families like Osama's, burning or confiscating their homes and torturing or killing those who refused to leave.
LINK TO CON>
Hoping to turn enemies into allies, U.S. forces are arming Iraqis who fought with the insurgents. But it's already starting to backfire. A report from the front lines of the new Iraq
NIR ROSEN, Rolling Stone
It's a cold, gray day in December, and I'm walking down Sixtieth Street in the Dora district of Baghdad, one of the most violent and fearsome of the city's no-go zones. Devastated by five years of clashes between American forces, Shiite militias, Sunni resistance groups and Al Qaeda, much of Dora is now a ghost town. This is what "victory" looks like in a once upscale neighborhood of Iraq: Lakes of mud and sewage fill the streets. Mountains of trash stagnate in the pungent liquid. Most of the windows in the sand-colored homes are broken, and the wind blows through them, whistling eerily. House after house is deserted, bullet holes pockmarking their walls, their doors open and unguarded, many emptied of furniture. What few furnishings remain are covered by a thick layer of the fine dust that invades every space in Iraq. Looming over the homes are twelve-foot-high security walls built by the Americans to separate warring factions and confine people to their own neighborhood. Emptied and destroyed by civil war, walled off by President Bush's much-heralded "surge," Dora feels more like a desolate, post-apocalyptic maze of concrete tunnels than a living, inhabited neighborhood. Apart from our footsteps, there is complete silence.
My guide, a thirty-one-year-old named Osama who grew up in Dora, points to shops he used to go to, now abandoned or destroyed: a barbershop, a hardware store. Since the U.S. occupation began, Osama has watched civil war turn the streets where he grew up into an ethnic killing field. After the fall of Saddam, the Americans allowed looters and gangs to take over the streets, and Iraqi security forces were stripped of their jobs. The Mahdi Army, the powerful Shiite paramilitary force led by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, took advantage of the power shift to retaliate in areas such as Dora, where Shiites had been driven from their homes. Shiite forces tried to cleanse the district of Sunni families like Osama's, burning or confiscating their homes and torturing or killing those who refused to leave.
LINK TO CON>
Monday, February 25, 2008
143 Million Pounds of Beef Recalled -- Will the Industry Finally Change?
By Anna Lappé, Huffington Post.
Maybe you're one of the more than 200,000 people who have seen this disturbing video revealing the animal cruelty caught on tape by a Humane Society investigation at a California slaughterhouse. (I, personally, couldn't stomach to watch it).
Whether you saw the video or not, you most certainly have heard the response: Prompted by public outcry, the company that processed meat from this slaughterhouse issued the largest beef recall in U.S. history even though -- oops -- much of the 143 million pounds recalled has already been eaten, including possibly by children in school lunches.
The animal cruelty was disturbing enough, what it revealed about possible threats to human health adds even more reason to be wary of the burger. The Humane Society investigation proved --they've got it on tape -- what many have been saying for years: that a loophole in federal legislation was being used to feed slaughtered "downer" cows into the food supply. Now, downer cows -- those too old or sick to walk or produce milk --are not supposed to find their way into our food. Why not? Because the symptoms of downer cows are the same as other diseases, including mad cow disease. And those slaughtered downers in the video were destined for a processing facility that provides meat not just for average Joe, but for other customers, like the National School Lunch Program. Sloppy Joe's just got that much less appealing.
LINK TO CON>
By Anna Lappé, Huffington Post.
Maybe you're one of the more than 200,000 people who have seen this disturbing video revealing the animal cruelty caught on tape by a Humane Society investigation at a California slaughterhouse. (I, personally, couldn't stomach to watch it).
Whether you saw the video or not, you most certainly have heard the response: Prompted by public outcry, the company that processed meat from this slaughterhouse issued the largest beef recall in U.S. history even though -- oops -- much of the 143 million pounds recalled has already been eaten, including possibly by children in school lunches.
The animal cruelty was disturbing enough, what it revealed about possible threats to human health adds even more reason to be wary of the burger. The Humane Society investigation proved --they've got it on tape -- what many have been saying for years: that a loophole in federal legislation was being used to feed slaughtered "downer" cows into the food supply. Now, downer cows -- those too old or sick to walk or produce milk --are not supposed to find their way into our food. Why not? Because the symptoms of downer cows are the same as other diseases, including mad cow disease. And those slaughtered downers in the video were destined for a processing facility that provides meat not just for average Joe, but for other customers, like the National School Lunch Program. Sloppy Joe's just got that much less appealing.
LINK TO CON>
Sunday, February 24, 2008
The Last, Best Hope for the Northern Rockies
By MICHAEL GARRITY
The U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on October 18, 2007 on the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) H.R. 1975, sponsored by Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) and 125 other Representatives. NREPA currently is the only wilderness bill that would affect Montana that has been introduced in Congress. NREPA will designate all of the inventoried roadless areas in the Northern Rockies as wilderness; protect some of America's most beautiful and ecologically important lands while saving taxpayers money and creating jobs.
To preserve the biological integrity of the Northern Rockies ecosystem, NREPA will designate as wilderness nearly 7 million acres of wilderness in Montana, 9.5 million acres of wilderness in Idaho, 5 million acres of wilderness in Wyoming, 750,000 acres in eastern Oregon, and 500,000 acres in eastern Washington on federal public land. Included in this total is over 3 million acres in Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Teton National Parks.
The Northern Rockies is the only place in the lower 48 states where native species and wildlife are protected on lands that are virtually unchanged since Lewis and Clark saw them. This is public land belonging to all Americans.
LINK TO CON>
By MICHAEL GARRITY
The U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on October 18, 2007 on the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) H.R. 1975, sponsored by Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) and 125 other Representatives. NREPA currently is the only wilderness bill that would affect Montana that has been introduced in Congress. NREPA will designate all of the inventoried roadless areas in the Northern Rockies as wilderness; protect some of America's most beautiful and ecologically important lands while saving taxpayers money and creating jobs.
To preserve the biological integrity of the Northern Rockies ecosystem, NREPA will designate as wilderness nearly 7 million acres of wilderness in Montana, 9.5 million acres of wilderness in Idaho, 5 million acres of wilderness in Wyoming, 750,000 acres in eastern Oregon, and 500,000 acres in eastern Washington on federal public land. Included in this total is over 3 million acres in Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Teton National Parks.
The Northern Rockies is the only place in the lower 48 states where native species and wildlife are protected on lands that are virtually unchanged since Lewis and Clark saw them. This is public land belonging to all Americans.
LINK TO CON>
Neutering the FDA
By RALPH NADER
Like other families, the Bush family eats, uses medicines, and relies on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to assure the safety of vast amounts of both products.
Like other families, more and more of the food and medicine you consume is coming from other countries where the FDA has very little inspection authority. Nearly 80 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients are imported from foreign countries.
Hardly a day goes by without a news story recounting or disclosing casualties or serious perils from contaminated food and medicines. Many of these and other medicines have seriously harmful side-effects or lack of efficacy.
President Bush is the leading authority in the country when it comes to making FDA an adequately funded, staffed, and empowered agency to urgently fulfill what he says repeatedly is his top priority-to protect the safety of the American people.
LINK TO CON>
By RALPH NADER
Like other families, the Bush family eats, uses medicines, and relies on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to assure the safety of vast amounts of both products.
Like other families, more and more of the food and medicine you consume is coming from other countries where the FDA has very little inspection authority. Nearly 80 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients are imported from foreign countries.
Hardly a day goes by without a news story recounting or disclosing casualties or serious perils from contaminated food and medicines. Many of these and other medicines have seriously harmful side-effects or lack of efficacy.
President Bush is the leading authority in the country when it comes to making FDA an adequately funded, staffed, and empowered agency to urgently fulfill what he says repeatedly is his top priority-to protect the safety of the American people.
LINK TO CON>
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Move Over, Oil, There’s Money in Texas Wind
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS, NY Times
SWEETWATER, Tex. — The wind turbines that recently went up on Louis Brooks’s ranch are twice as high as the Statue of Liberty, with blades as wide as the wingspan of a jumbo jet. More important from his point of view, he is paid $500 a month apiece to permit 78 of them on his land, with 76 more on the way.
“That’s just money you’re hearing,” he said as they hummed in a brisk breeze recently.
Texas, once the oil capital of North America, is rapidly turning into the capital of wind power. After breakneck growth the last three years, Texas has reached the point that more than 3 percent of its electricity, enough to supply power to one million homes, comes from wind turbines.
Texans are even turning tapped-out oil fields into wind farms, and no less an oilman than Boone Pickens is getting into alternative energy.
“I have the same feelings about wind,” Mr. Pickens said in an interview, “as I had about the best oil field I ever found.” He is planning to build the biggest wind farm in the world, a $10 billion behemoth that could power a small city by itself.
LINK TO CON>
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS, NY Times
SWEETWATER, Tex. — The wind turbines that recently went up on Louis Brooks’s ranch are twice as high as the Statue of Liberty, with blades as wide as the wingspan of a jumbo jet. More important from his point of view, he is paid $500 a month apiece to permit 78 of them on his land, with 76 more on the way.
“That’s just money you’re hearing,” he said as they hummed in a brisk breeze recently.
Texas, once the oil capital of North America, is rapidly turning into the capital of wind power. After breakneck growth the last three years, Texas has reached the point that more than 3 percent of its electricity, enough to supply power to one million homes, comes from wind turbines.
Texans are even turning tapped-out oil fields into wind farms, and no less an oilman than Boone Pickens is getting into alternative energy.
“I have the same feelings about wind,” Mr. Pickens said in an interview, “as I had about the best oil field I ever found.” He is planning to build the biggest wind farm in the world, a $10 billion behemoth that could power a small city by itself.
LINK TO CON>
Friday, February 22, 2008
Potential Health Hazards of Genetically Engineered Foods
by Stephen Lendman
Genetically engineered foods saturate our diet today. In the US alone, over 80% of all processed foods contain them. Others include grains like rice, corn and wheat; legumes like soybeans and soy products; vegetable oils, soft drinks; salad dressings; vegetables and fruits; dairy products including eggs; meat, chicken, pork and other animal products; and even infant formula plus a vast array of hidden additives and ingredients in processed foods (like in tomato sauce, ice cream, margarine and peanut butter). Consumers don't know what they're eating because labeling is prohibited, yet the danger is clear. Independently conducted studies show the more of these foods we eat, the greater the potential harm to our health.
Today, consumers are kept in the dark and are part of an uncontrolled, unregulated mass human experiment the results of which are unknown. Yet, the risks are enormous, it will take years to learn them, and when we finally know it'll be too late to reverse the damage if it's proved conclusively that genetically engineered foods harm human health as growing numbers of independent experts believe. Once GM seeds are introduced to an area, the genie is out of the bottle for keeps. There is nothing known to science today to reverse the contamination already spread over two-thirds of arable US farmland and heading everywhere unless checked.
This is happening in spite of the risk because of what F. William Engdahl revealed in his powerfully important, well documented book titled "Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation." It's the diabolical story of how Washington and four Anglo-American agribusiness giants plan world domination by patenting animal and vegetable life forms to gain worldwide control of our food supply, make it all genetically engineered, and use it as a weapon to reward friends and punish enemies....LINK TO CON>
by Stephen Lendman
Genetically engineered foods saturate our diet today. In the US alone, over 80% of all processed foods contain them. Others include grains like rice, corn and wheat; legumes like soybeans and soy products; vegetable oils, soft drinks; salad dressings; vegetables and fruits; dairy products including eggs; meat, chicken, pork and other animal products; and even infant formula plus a vast array of hidden additives and ingredients in processed foods (like in tomato sauce, ice cream, margarine and peanut butter). Consumers don't know what they're eating because labeling is prohibited, yet the danger is clear. Independently conducted studies show the more of these foods we eat, the greater the potential harm to our health.
Today, consumers are kept in the dark and are part of an uncontrolled, unregulated mass human experiment the results of which are unknown. Yet, the risks are enormous, it will take years to learn them, and when we finally know it'll be too late to reverse the damage if it's proved conclusively that genetically engineered foods harm human health as growing numbers of independent experts believe. Once GM seeds are introduced to an area, the genie is out of the bottle for keeps. There is nothing known to science today to reverse the contamination already spread over two-thirds of arable US farmland and heading everywhere unless checked.
This is happening in spite of the risk because of what F. William Engdahl revealed in his powerfully important, well documented book titled "Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation." It's the diabolical story of how Washington and four Anglo-American agribusiness giants plan world domination by patenting animal and vegetable life forms to gain worldwide control of our food supply, make it all genetically engineered, and use it as a weapon to reward friends and punish enemies....LINK TO CON>
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Kucinich says he faces "swiftboat" attack
Posted by Molly Kavanaugh
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich said he is facing a "swiftboat" attack in the March 4
Democratic primary and if he is reelected to the 10th Congressional district
he will continue to govern as he has for 12 years.
"I'm going to keep on working for the people," he said during an interview on this morning's "Sound of Ideas" on WCPN 90.3. "You have to build consensus.
That's what I do."
Swiftboating refers to an attack that is unfair or untrue. The term comes from the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth (formerly "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth") and their widely-publicized campaign against 2004 Presidential candidate John Kerry.
While not calling him by name, Kucinich was referring to candidate Joe
Cimperman, who has been hammering away at his failed presidential bid and
his record, which includes passage of one bill..
LINK TO CON>
Posted by Molly Kavanaugh
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich said he is facing a "swiftboat" attack in the March 4
Democratic primary and if he is reelected to the 10th Congressional district
he will continue to govern as he has for 12 years.
"I'm going to keep on working for the people," he said during an interview on this morning's "Sound of Ideas" on WCPN 90.3. "You have to build consensus.
That's what I do."
Swiftboating refers to an attack that is unfair or untrue. The term comes from the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth (formerly "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth") and their widely-publicized campaign against 2004 Presidential candidate John Kerry.
While not calling him by name, Kucinich was referring to candidate Joe
Cimperman, who has been hammering away at his failed presidential bid and
his record, which includes passage of one bill..
LINK TO CON>
Delusional Hope: The Obama Rapture
By Joel Hirschhorn
.....pulsating platitudes. A tsunami of hope has plunged America into electoral euphoria. In its path is the wreckage of critical thinking about what ails the US and what bold, revolutionary actions are needed. Barry Obama has accomplished semantic alchemy, turning justified but grim distrust and outrage with government and politics into hallelujah hope. But most hope never materializes and is a terrible predictor of reality.
Think about the prevalence of hope: sports teams heading into a championship game, research scientists envisioning a Nobel Prize, people in the criminal justice system awaiting trial, entrepreneurs starting a new business, people starting off on a long-awaited vacation, American Idol contestants, college seniors dreaming of becoming superrich, and all those supporters of Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, and other presidential candidates that will not reach the White House.
Hope produces far more losers than winners. Hope is enjoyable until failure hits. But most people do not give up on hope, just move on to the next hope.
Obama hoped that he could tap into the national desire for change from the awful conditions produced by the Bush administration by selling hope to voters rather than his experience and accomplishments. Like a political medicine-man he has succeeded as a compelling seller of hope, better than the best infomercial charlatan....
LINK TO CON>
By Joel Hirschhorn
.....pulsating platitudes. A tsunami of hope has plunged America into electoral euphoria. In its path is the wreckage of critical thinking about what ails the US and what bold, revolutionary actions are needed. Barry Obama has accomplished semantic alchemy, turning justified but grim distrust and outrage with government and politics into hallelujah hope. But most hope never materializes and is a terrible predictor of reality.
Think about the prevalence of hope: sports teams heading into a championship game, research scientists envisioning a Nobel Prize, people in the criminal justice system awaiting trial, entrepreneurs starting a new business, people starting off on a long-awaited vacation, American Idol contestants, college seniors dreaming of becoming superrich, and all those supporters of Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, and other presidential candidates that will not reach the White House.
Hope produces far more losers than winners. Hope is enjoyable until failure hits. But most people do not give up on hope, just move on to the next hope.
Obama hoped that he could tap into the national desire for change from the awful conditions produced by the Bush administration by selling hope to voters rather than his experience and accomplishments. Like a political medicine-man he has succeeded as a compelling seller of hope, better than the best infomercial charlatan....
LINK TO CON>
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tanzania: Dar Bank And Agra Unveil $6.1 Million Credit Scheme for Poor Farmers
Christine Afandi
Dar es Salaam
The Tanzania National Microfinance Bank (NMB) in partnership with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) has unveiled a $6.1 million farm input credit scheme to benefit poor Tanzanian farmers and improve the country's network of rural agro-dealers.
A memorandum of understanding signed in Dodoma between the two institutions spells out that the financial scheme will boost subsistence farmers in five pilot districts to access farm inputs.
NMB will provide a total of $5 million for loans to be made available to agro-dealers in five pilot districts while Agra and the Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT), a Tanzanian government finance initiative, will provide $1.1 million in a guarantee fund to help reduce the risk of lending by NMB to agro-dealers.
LINK TO CON>
Christine Afandi
Dar es Salaam
The Tanzania National Microfinance Bank (NMB) in partnership with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) has unveiled a $6.1 million farm input credit scheme to benefit poor Tanzanian farmers and improve the country's network of rural agro-dealers.
A memorandum of understanding signed in Dodoma between the two institutions spells out that the financial scheme will boost subsistence farmers in five pilot districts to access farm inputs.
NMB will provide a total of $5 million for loans to be made available to agro-dealers in five pilot districts while Agra and the Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT), a Tanzanian government finance initiative, will provide $1.1 million in a guarantee fund to help reduce the risk of lending by NMB to agro-dealers.
LINK TO CON>
Carton vs. Canister
Is frozen orange juice concentrate better for the environment?
By Brendan I. Koerner
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let's address the inevitable objection to questions of this sort: No, changing your mode of orange juice intake isn't going to save the planet, especially since—as we'll soon see—concentrate-filled canisters are hardly an environmental boon. But your OJ quandary provides an excellent opportunity to peek behind the food industry curtain and better grasp the vast amounts of energy that go into everyday luxuries.
The fact that orange juice is so prevalent on America's breakfast tables is something of a modern marvel. Virtually all of the OJ consumed in the United States contains oranges produced in Florida and Brazil; these two industry players produce half of the world's oranges, and 95 percent of that fruit ends up as juice. Environmentalists have long decried the recent proliferation of orange groves in Brazil, citing the crop's insatiable thirst (up to 129,000 cubic feet of water per acre annually) and the heavy use of pesticides (though juice oranges require less spraying than those intended for direct consumption).
LINK TO CON>
Is frozen orange juice concentrate better for the environment?
By Brendan I. Koerner
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let's address the inevitable objection to questions of this sort: No, changing your mode of orange juice intake isn't going to save the planet, especially since—as we'll soon see—concentrate-filled canisters are hardly an environmental boon. But your OJ quandary provides an excellent opportunity to peek behind the food industry curtain and better grasp the vast amounts of energy that go into everyday luxuries.
The fact that orange juice is so prevalent on America's breakfast tables is something of a modern marvel. Virtually all of the OJ consumed in the United States contains oranges produced in Florida and Brazil; these two industry players produce half of the world's oranges, and 95 percent of that fruit ends up as juice. Environmentalists have long decried the recent proliferation of orange groves in Brazil, citing the crop's insatiable thirst (up to 129,000 cubic feet of water per acre annually) and the heavy use of pesticides (though juice oranges require less spraying than those intended for direct consumption).
LINK TO CON>
Michael Pollan Debunks Food Myths
By Onnesha Roychoudhuri, AlterNet.
The human digestive tract has about the same number of neurons as the spinal column. What are they there for? The final word isn't in yet, but Michael Pollan thinks their existence suggests that digestion may be more than the rather mundane process of breaking down food into chemicals. And, keeping those numerous digestive neurons in mind, Pollan's new book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto entreaties us to follow our knowledgeable guts when it comes to figuring out what to eat.
Nutrition science and the food industry have been changing their minds about what Americans should eat for years. Low fat, no fat, low carb, high protein. In In Defense of Food, Pollan argues that all of these fixations amount to a uniquely American disease: orthorexia -- an unhealthy obsession with eating. And as statistics on diabetes and obesity can attest, obsessing doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere. Pollan takes the reader on a journey through the science of food and reveals how it is that we've ignored our guts and followed the ever-changing tune of food science. At once a scathing indictment of the food industry, and a call for a return to real food, Pollan's latest book reveals how Americans have been dangerously misled into adopting "low fat" as a fundamental food mantra, and how most of the products on our supermarket shelves should be called "imitation."
Pollan recently sat down with AlterNet to explain why cooking from scratch has become a subversive act, and to tell us things our guts probably already knew.
LINK TO INTERVIEW..
By Onnesha Roychoudhuri, AlterNet.
The human digestive tract has about the same number of neurons as the spinal column. What are they there for? The final word isn't in yet, but Michael Pollan thinks their existence suggests that digestion may be more than the rather mundane process of breaking down food into chemicals. And, keeping those numerous digestive neurons in mind, Pollan's new book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto entreaties us to follow our knowledgeable guts when it comes to figuring out what to eat.
Nutrition science and the food industry have been changing their minds about what Americans should eat for years. Low fat, no fat, low carb, high protein. In In Defense of Food, Pollan argues that all of these fixations amount to a uniquely American disease: orthorexia -- an unhealthy obsession with eating. And as statistics on diabetes and obesity can attest, obsessing doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere. Pollan takes the reader on a journey through the science of food and reveals how it is that we've ignored our guts and followed the ever-changing tune of food science. At once a scathing indictment of the food industry, and a call for a return to real food, Pollan's latest book reveals how Americans have been dangerously misled into adopting "low fat" as a fundamental food mantra, and how most of the products on our supermarket shelves should be called "imitation."
Pollan recently sat down with AlterNet to explain why cooking from scratch has become a subversive act, and to tell us things our guts probably already knew.
LINK TO INTERVIEW..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
