News regarding the dangers of GMOs and biotech, and the advantages of organic sustainable agriculture.
Oregon Department of Agriculture demands eradication of escaped GMO bentgrass
By MITCH LIES
Capital Press
SALEM — Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba has asked The Scotts Co. and USDA to reveal their plans for eradicating genetically modified bentgrass that escaped several years ago from Idaho trials sites into Eastern Oregon.
Read the Full Article Here: http://www.capitalpress.com/oregon/ml-coba-letter-021111
GMO Crops: Biotech Companies Block Independent Research
Health Impact News Editor Comments:
The Los Angeles Times has printed a very good op-ed article today by Doug Gurian-Sherman, a plant pathologist and senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington. He correctly points out how biotech companies can legally block independent research on the safety and efficacy of genetically modified seeds, […]
Vilsack clears industrial biotech corn for ethanol – Angers food companies
by Philip Brasher
DesMoinesRegister.com
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today approved a biotech corn variety that was engineered solely for producing fuel ethanol. Companies that mill corn for breakfast cereals and other foods have been fighting the move for fear the grain will contaminate their supplies.
Read the Full Article here: http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/02/11/vilsack-clears-industrial-biotech-corn/
Raging Debate in Australia as Monsanto’s GE Crops Contaminate Organic Farms
Illustration: Harry Afentoglou
by Elizabeth Farrelly
The Sydney Morning Herald
The West Australian Minister for Agriculture, Terry Redman, wants to redefine “organic” to accommodate genetic engineering. Well he might wish it, since the legal battle brewing there over contamination of organic crops by genetically modified ones could easily blow right back onto his turf. Far scarier, […]
STOP GMO Campaign – BILL C-474 in Canada
by CitizensForRealFood
About 30 people, comprised of a few families and friends from an elementary school in Toronto, gave their time and skills to this project with the goal of informing Canadians of the growing prevalence of GMO’s in Canada. Bill C-474 proposes to create a regulatory obstacle to any futher approval of GMO seeds […]
Seventeen Agrifood Giants and Bill Gates Want to End Poverty: What’s Their Motive?
Onward Corporate Food Crusaders!
by Eric Holt Gimenez
Huffington Post
Excerpt from this article:
Seventeen agrifood monopolies (ADM, BASF, Bunge, Cargill, The Coca-Cola Company, DuPont, General Mills, Kraft Foods, Metro, Monsanto Company, Nestlé, PepsiCo, SABMiller, Syngenta, Unilever, Wal-Mart Stores and Yara International) rolled out a new report financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation […]
Monsanto Linked Seed Companies to Avoid
by FarmerCathy
Mothering.com Forums
I was thinking we should make a list and have it as a sticky so we could make it easier to avoid these seed companies if you so desire.
To give a little background about Monsanto if you don’t already know. They develop and sell GMO (genetically modified organisms) seeds. Seeds that […]
Friends of Family Farmers Introduce Food Bill in Oregon
by Taylor Leake
As anyone who frequents this site knows, our food system is becoming increasingly industrialized, with factory farms quickly replacing family and small-scale farms at a frighteningly fast pace. Using cheap and environmentally harmful farming practices and friendly government policies, massive corporate farming operations are wiping thousands of small farmers off the map (just like Walmart […]
The USDA’s Organic Deception
by Barbara H. Peterson
Farm Wars
Organic is organic, or is it? It would seem that it is all a matter of perspective when one takes a stroll through the mountains of documents on the FDA and USDA websites.
The word “organic” is fast becoming a high-dollar money-maker for corporations smart enough to jump on the bandwagon […]
A Conversation with Dan Imhoff: An Introduction to the Farm Bill
by Cooking Up a Story
In part 1, Daniel Imhoff explains the historical roots of the federal Farm Bill, arguably the single, biggest piece of legislation that effects land use in the U.S., and as he himself notes, most average citizens know little about this important bill.
The current farm bill is […]
GMO mosquitoes may be a catastrophic mistake
by Humayun Kabir
Free Malaysia Today
SUNGAI SIPUT: The use of laboratory mosquitoes to fight dengue may turn out to be a catastrophic mistake, according to Sungai Siput MP Dr D Jeyakumar, who is a respiratory physician.
The biggest danger, he said, was that the release of large numbers of genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes into the environment […]
Tell Obama to say NO to GMOs
by Food Democracy Now
Over the past 12 days, the Obama administration has unbelievably chosen to approve two biotech crops, Roundup Ready genetically modified (GMO) alfalfa and Roundup Ready genetically modified (GMO) sugar beets. While the planting of both crops had been temporarily halted due to court decisions, Obama’s recent approval of them will allow […]
Couple turns swimming pool into aquaponics system to feed family of four: Now 100% self sufficient
We created GardenPool.org to document our journey of converting an old backyard swimming pool in to a way to feed our family and live more self-sufficiently. When we purchased our first home in Mesa, AZ on October of 2009, it came with a large, empty, and run-down pool. Rather than spending […]
The Last Thing our Hungry World Needs is More Food
Comment from Health Impact News editor: Fred Pearce of MailOnline in the UK has written an excellent piece today looking at the current food crisis. He makes a good claim that the last thing we need is more food. His article does a good job of pitting the biotech solution to world hunger against small-scale […]
USDA Approves Genetically Engineered Sugar Beets Without Ample Review
Without issuing an environmental impact study, the USDA is going to allow permitting that would allow some farmers to grow genetically engineered sugar beets this spring.
By Leah Zerbe and Emily Main
Rodale
RODALE NEWS, STATE COLLEGE, PA—In an unprecedented, and what some food safety groups call an illegal move, the United States Department […]
Mexico, Cradle of Corn, Finds its Noble Grain Under Assault from GM Contamination
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
GUELATAO, Mexico — Yank the husks off ears of corn grown in the mountains of southern Mexico, and you may find kernels that are red, yellow, white, blue, black or even variegated.
It’s only one measure of the diversity of the 60 or so native varieties of […]
Philippine Agencies, State Schools That Promote GMOs Are Violating the Law — Casiño
An anti-GMO poster from Bayan Muna
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Government agencies and institutions that are supposed to promote organic agriculture in the Philippines are violating the law because these, too, are proponents of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said this week.
Casiño said Congress should […]
Farmers And Conservationists Challenge Latest Federal Approval Of Genetically Engineered Sugar Beets
by Paul Achitoff
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – February 4, 2011 – In defiance of earlier court ruling, USDA allows continued growing of controversial, illegally planted crop
Today the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a new decision to allow the U.S. sugar beet industry to continue growing Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready,” genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets. The […]
U.S. Looks to Monsanto to Feed the World
by Marcia Ishii-Eiteman
At the annual World Economic Forum this past weekend in Davos, Switzerland, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Director Rajiv Shah stood beside CEOs from Monsanto and other infamous giant corporations, and announced U.S. support for a “New Vision for Agriculture.”
Yes, you should be worried.
Claiming that “large-scale private sector partnerships [can] achieve significant […]
Organic Food: USDA Asked To Decide If Organic Means Outdoor
by DAVID MERCER
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When the doors to the hen house open, the 14,000 chickens on Edwin Blosser’s organic egg farm make a mad dash for the pasture outside, where they can scratch and peck in the dirt.
“It’s just like an ocean of birds going out the doors – zoom!” Blosser said.
Greg Herbruck […]