GMO television ad airs in Australia

It’s the first of its kind in the world. A short but graphic TV ad is airing in western Australia. It exposes the  public to the 2012 Séralini research study, published in the US science journal Food and Chemical Toxicology,. This important study links consumption of Genetically Modified (GM) food to cancer, liver and kidney damage. This raises serious questions about the Barnett Government’s promotion of GM farming in Western Australia.

Voluntary recall for Annie’s Pizza

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that Annie’s Inc. has initiated a recall of all varieties of their ”Annie’s Homegrown Rising Crust” pizzas.

Mushrooms can be green too!

Premier Mushrooms, one of the top growers in the country, incorporates environmental practices

Once considered “food for the gods” by the Romans. Egyptian Pharaohs forbid commoners to eat mushrooms, saving these delicacies for themselves. By the late 1800’s, mushrooms were being cultivated in the United States, in Pennsylvania, as a side crop.

Today, Americans enjoy over 750 million pounds of mushrooms each year. Northern California is home to one of the countries top growers, Premier Mushrooms, a five-year old company based in Colusa, California, that produces close to 11 million pounds of white, crimini and portobello mushrooms annually.

That “natural” cereal comes with unwelcome extras

Kashi cereals, like many major brands, have switched from organic to GMO ingredients

Business is business and corporations are in it for the big bucks. Creating healthy food products is a popular idea but weighed against high profits and cost margins, consumer seem to be on the short end of the stick.

Such is the case with a large number of our favorite breakfast cereals – and that includes those old faithfuls that many of us have counted on to be organic for years.

Apples contain more pesticides than any other produce

A new report released today by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) for the first time listed apples as #1 on its “Dirty Dozen” list of fruits and veggies tainted with pesticide residue.

Organic farmers, asociations & seed sellers sue Monsanto

Farmers can find their crops contaminated by Monsanto's transgenic seeds

I’ve posted a few stories about Monsanto and its stronghold tactics in regards to genetically engineered – or transgenic – seeds. There has been much media attention on how the corporate giant has gone after small farmers who inadvertently found themselves growing the contaminated seeds mixed in their otherwise traditional or organic fields.

 

Now a broad coalition of organic farmers, associations, seed businesses and traditional farmers - who represent over 270,000 individuals from across the US and Canada - have filed a lawsuit against Monsanto to protect themselves from being accused of infringing the chemical company’s 52 patents.

Consumers unconvinced of safety of genetically modified fish

A genetically engineered salmon behind a non-transgenic Atlantic salmon sibling of the same age Courtesy of AquaBounty Technologies

According to a recent survey, Americans aren’t convinced that genetically modified fish is a safe bet.

Will Mexico's new planned wastewater plant harm lush farmland?

the lush Mezquital Valley, Mexico

Sewers of Mexico city  have been spewing “black water” 60 miles downhill to irrigate what is now lush farmland in the Mezquital Valley, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. Though the stench belies the bucolic view of corn and alfalfa fields, the water is filled with toxins, including chemicals dumped by factories.

Mexico City has flushed its wastewater for the past 100 years to help irrigate this farmland through a series of canals that then trickle out onto the fields. The government recently announced plans to build a giant wastewater treatment plant, the first proactive measure it’s taken to manage flooding wastewater in almost 40 years.

Budgeted to cost $1 billion, the plant will begin operating in 2012 and will clean 60 percent of the city’s wastewater.

Farmers fear the new treatment plant will take away not only the harmful chemicals but also the natural fertilizers thy count on for their crops. Currently, the black water irrigates 350 square miles of the Valley. Because of the toxic brew, government officials direct farmers not to grow crops where the edible part comes into contact with the irrigation water and is eaten raw. This covers vegetables like lettuce, carrots or beets. Spotty enforcement and a flexible interpretation of the regulations often has farmers circumventing these rules.

This leads me to wonder. Having grown up near the southern border of Texas, we were always warned not to eat food from street vendors or risk severe stomach problems – “Pancho Villa’s Revenge”. In light of these farming practices,  the pieces of the puzzle finally fall into place. It’s easy to understand how food there can become contaminated.

Yet long-held beliefs are hard to shake.

A  75-year-old, fifth-generation farmer, Jesús Aldana Ángeles, says “Bad water would never make anything green,” he said. “But here the black waters turn everything green.”

Conventional celery highest in hidden pesticides

Diet-conscious folks have relied on celery for no-calorie munchies. But doing so has now been shown to have a serious negative side.

Conventional celery have now topped the soon-to-be released updated Dirty Dozen’s” list for having the highest amount of pesticide residue, according to green nonprofit Environmental Working Group’s latest Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides.

Dr. Andrew Weil, renowned author and integrative medicine guru, is straightforward about non-organic produce. “If I can’t get organic versions of those, I’m not gonna eat them.”

 So consumer beware. Shop smart and avoid the known hidden pesticides.Making a few small buying changes can make a big difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

7 states investigate Monsanto for unfair marketing practices

According to a report by the Organic Consumers Association (OCA),  U.S. Attorneys General from at least seven states are invetigating Monsanto for what amounts to marketing pracitces that would quash their competition and promoting their own genetically modified seeds.

For more on this report, see http://bit.ly/crVSRA.