The landscape of health has changed. No longer are our families
guaranteed a healthy livelihood, not in the face of the current rates
of cancer, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer's and allergies. In the words of Elizabeth Warren,
Harvard University law professor who is head of the Congressional
Oversight Panel, "We need a new model," and we need a new food system.
It's our health on the line.
8 Steps Obama Could Take to Save Food:
KANSAS CITY - The rapid adoption by U.S. farmers of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton has promoted increased use of pesticides, an epidemic of herbicide-resistant weeds and more chemical residues in foods, according to a report issued Tuesday by health and environmental protection groups.
The groups said research showed that herbicide use grew by 383 million pounds from 1996 to 2008, with 46 percent of the total increase occurring in 2007 and 2008.
There is an old
African saying "Whether elephants make love or war, the grass suffers."
The two elephants in the agricultural seed business are now making real
war, although they have been wary of each other for years. Monsanto,
a relatively recent entry into the business, has become the "dominant
male" in the battle after moving to acquire a large number of formerly
independent seed companies. Pioneer,
content for years to be the premiere corn breeder in the world, has
Whether it's the surplus chicken from a factory farm snuck into your kids meal in the form of chicken nuggets or the cheese made from hormone-laden milk made acceptable on WIC food lists, it's really no secret: the role of the USDA's Food Distribution Programs (FDPs) since the Great Depression has been to get rid of surplus agricultural commodities by passing them on to those who need nutritional foods the most.
Last month, the world lost a Nobel laureate. In the many tributes following his death, Norman Borlaug was credited with saving more lives than any man in history. Borlaug’s legacy was the Green Revolution – bringing industrial agriculture to Mexico, India, and Pakistan. Pesticides, ammonia fertilizer, irrigation, and hybrid seeds resulted in a predictable outcome: lush green fields full of high-yielding crops. At last, mankind had the tools at its fingertips to overcome hunger.
MADRID — Environmentalists dressed as giant ears of corn Tuesday
asked for "agricultural asylum" in the French embassy in Madrid in a
protest over genetically modified crops.
The environmental
organisation Friends of the Earth organised the symbolic act to protest
Spain's "large-scale" production of genetically modified corn, which is
banned in France.
Around 20 protesters from several European
countries and dressed as corn cobs demonstrated outside the French
embassy in central Madrid.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The government illegally approved a genetically modified, herbicide-resistant strain of sugar beets without adequately considering the chance they will contaminate other beet crops, a federal judge in San Francisco has ruled.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White rejected the U.S. Department of Agriculture's decision in 2005 to allow Monsanto Co. to sell the sugar beets, known as "Roundup-Ready" because they are engineered to coexist with Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.
The Global Harvest Initiative, founded by agribusiness interests DuPont, Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland, and John Deere, will meet today
beginning at 9:00 am for a daylong symposium at which the focus is said
to be on finding “ways to sustainably double agricultural output to
meet rapidly growing global demand as anticipated by the United
Nations.” Are big corporations finally seeking to do what is right by
the nearly billion p
For the past dozen years, I've been writing editorials opposing the
introduction of genetically modified crops. When I began, genetically
modified corn and soybeans were still just getting a foothold in
American fields. Now, of course, hundreds of millions of acres here and
abroad have been planted to these new varieties, which are usually
engineered to withstand the application of pesticides - pesticides
usually made by the same companies that engineer the seeds. Even wheat
and rice producers, latecomers to the genetically modified table, are
feeling the pressure to convert.
