Friday, June 8, 2012

CHICKEN INSPECTION - PRIVATIZED? USDA - OBAMA SAYS TO PRODUCERS - DO IT YOURSELF



BEE COLLAPSE: -DWV- DEFORMED WING VIRUS + VARROA DESTRUCTOR VIRUS...& PESTICIDES

Killer Insect Virus Helping to Decimate World's Bee Population

Weakened by habitat loss and chemical pesticides, bloodsucking parasite wreaking havoc on vital pollinators

- Common Dreams staff
A new study published in the journal Science has revealed that, in addition to the destruction of natural habitats and the widespread use of industrial chemical pesticides, the global bee die-off witnessed in recent years is also caused by a deadly virus carried by bloodsucking parasitic mites.
Varroa destructor is a bloodsucking parasite that feeds on honeybees and has spread globally, destroying colonies worldwide. (Photograph: Alamy) The report in Science is available to subscribers only, but according to The Guardian's Damian Carrington, the researchers who conducted the study warn that the virus, called Varroa destructor and carried by the varroa mite, is now one of the "most widely distributed and contagious insect viruses on the planet." Equally troubling, the new dominance of the killer virus poses an ongoing threat to colonies even after beekeepers have eradicated the mites from hives.
The research team, led by Stephen Martin of Britain's University of Sheffield studied the impact of Varroa in Hawaii, which the mites have only recently invaded.
"This data provides clear evidence that, of all the suggested mechanisms of honey bee loss, virus infection brought in by mite infestation is a major player in the decline," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
*  *  *
Bee populations have been falling rapidly in many countries, fuelled by a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder. Its cause is unclear but the Varroa mite is a prime suspect, since it spreads viruses while feeding on hemolymph, or bee's "blood".
To clarify the link between mites and viruses, a team led by Stephen Martin of Britain's University of Sheffield studied the impact of Varroa in Hawaii, which the mites have only recently invaded.
They found the arrival of Varroa increased the prevalence of a single type of virus, deformed wing virus (DWV), in honey bees from around 10 percent to 100 percent.
At the same time the amount of DWV virus in the bees' bodies rocketed by a millionfold and there was a huge reduction in virus diversity, with a single strain of DWV crowding out others.
"It is that strain that is now dominant around the world and seems to be killing bees," Martin said in a telephone interview. "My money would be on this virus as being key."
*  *  *
Martin noted that the weakening of colonies through lack of food or the presence of damaging pesticides would make them more vulnerable to infestation.
The varroa mite's role means the virus is now one of the "most widely distributed and contagious insect viruses on the planet", the researchers warned. Furthermore, the new dominance of the killer virus poses an ongoing threat to colonies even after beekeepers have eradicated the mites from hives.
Varroa destructor has spread from Asia across the entire world over the past 50 years. It arrived in the UK in 1990 and has been implicated in the halving of bee numbers since then, alongside other factors including the destruction of flowery habitats in which bees feed and the widespread use of pesticides on crops. Bees and other pollinators are vital in the production in up to a third of all the food we eat, but the role the mites played was unclear, as bacteria and fungi are also found in colonies along with the viruses.
But the mite's arrival in Hawaii in 2007 gave scientists a unique opportunity to track its deadly spread. "We were able to watch the emergence of the disease for the first time ever," said Stephen Martin, at the University of Sheffield, who led the new research published in the journal Science. Within a year of varroa arrival, 274 of 419 colonies on Oahu island (65%) were wiped out, with the mites going on to wreak destruction across Big Island the following year.
A particular virus, called deformed wing virus (DWV), was present in low and apparently harmless levels in colonies before the mites arrived, the scientists found. Even when the mites first invaded hives, the virus levels remained low. "But the following year the virus levels had gone through the roof." said Martin. "It was a millionfold increase – it was staggering."
The other key finding was that one DWV strain had gone from making up 10% of the virus population to making up 100%. "The viral landscape had changed and to one that happened to be deadly to bees," Martin said, noting the DWV strain was the same one found around the world. "There is a very strong correlation between where you get this DWV strain and where you get huge amounts of colony losses. We are almost certain this study seals the link between the two." [...]
Martin noted that the weakening of colonies through lack of food or the presence of damaging pesticides would make them more vulnerable to infestation.
#  #  #

Thursday, June 7, 2012

IS $47.7 BILLION SUIT A DROP IN FRANKENFOOD BUCKET?

eurocoins 235x147 5 Million Farmers Sue Monsanto for $7.7 Billion5 Million Farmers Sue Monsanto for $7.7 Billion


Anthony Gucciardi
NaturalSociety
June 5, 2012
Launching a lawsuit against the very company that is responsible for a farmer suicide every 30 minutes, 5 million farmers are now suing Monsanto for as much as 6.2 billion euros (around 7.7 billion US dollars). The reason? As with many other cases, such as the ones that led certain farming regions to be known as the ‘suicide belt’, Monsanto has been reportedly taxing the farmers to financial shambles with ridiculous royalty charges. The farmers state that Monsanto has been unfairly gathering exorbitant profits each year on a global scale from “renewal” seed harvests, which are crops planted using seed from the previous year’s harvest.
The practice of using renewal seeds dates back to ancient times, but Monsanto seeks to collect massive royalties and put an end to the practice. Why? Because Monsanto owns the very patent to the genetically modified seed, and is charging the farmers not only for the original crops, but the later harvests as well. Eventually, the royalties compound and many farmers begin to struggle with even keeping their farm afloat. It is for this reason that India slammed Monsanto with groundbreaking ‘biopiracy’ charges in an effort to stop Monsanto from ‘patenting life’.
Jane Berwanger, a lawyer for the farmers who went on record regarding the case, told the Associted Press:
“Monsanto gets paid when it sell the seeds. The law gives producers the right to multiply the seeds they buy and nowhere in the world is there a requirement to pay (again). Producers are in effect paying a private tax on production.”
The findings echo what thousands of farmers have experienced in particularly poor nations, where many of the farmers are unable to stand up to Monsanto. Back in 2008, the Daily Mail covered what is known as the ‘GM Genocide’, which is responsible for taking the lives of over 17,683 Indian farmers in 2009 alone. After finding that their harvests were failing and they started to enter economic turmoil, the farmers began ending their own lives — oftentimes drinking the very same insecticide that Monsanto provided them with.
As the information continues to surface on Monsanto’s crimes, further lawsuits will begin to take effect. After it was ousted in January that Monsanto was running illegal ‘slave-like’ working rings, more individuals became aware of just how seriously Monsanto seems to disregard their workers — so why would they care for the health of their consumers? In April, another group of farmers sued Monsanto for ‘knowingly poisoning’ workers and causing ‘devastating birth defects’.
Will endless lawsuits from millions of seriously affected individuals be the end of Monsanto?

Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/5-million-farmers-sue-monsanto-for-7-billion/#ixzz1x7GjxvQB
SOURCE:  http://naturalsociety.com/5-million-farmers-sue-monsanto-for-7-billion/#ixzz1ww5EwAwk

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

100% GROSS - THINK ABOUT THIS WHEN YOU ORDER THAT STEAK

'Transglutaminase' and Other Fun New Foods

Forget organic, locavore, omega3, umami, artisanal and all the other signposts of the healthy, ethical and refined "good food" movement, there are important advances in CuisineWorld that are going 180 degrees in the opposite direction — advances that literally are reshaping what we eat (while also reshaping us).A beef and chicken log. What can't you do with transglutaminase?
Let's start with red meat. Perhaps you're one who enjoys a steak dinner now and again. If so, let me ask this question: Do you prefer it with a nice Bernaise sauce, a side of garlicky spinach — or maybe some transglutaminase?
Trans-what-did-he-say?
Transglutaminase is an enzyme made by the fermentation of bacteria and added to meat pieces to make them stick together. Yes, "meat glue" — it's what's for dinner!
This is yet another dandy product from industrialized food purveyors that keep inventing new ways to mess with our dinner for their own fun and profit. Right about now, you're probably asking yourself, "Why do they need to glue meat together?"
Glad you asked. It's so the industry can take cheap chunks of beef and form them into what appears to be a pricey steak.
For example, that filet mignon you ordered at the Slaphappy Steakhouse chain recently — was it steak ... or transglutaminase? By liberally dusting meat pieces with transglutaminase powder, squishing them into filet mignon-shaped molds, adding a bit of pressure to bond the pieces and chilling them — voila, four-bucks-a-pound stew meat looks like a $25-a-pound filet mignon!
While glued-together, steak-like meat is surprisingly common in the food service industry, the corporations peddling it are not eager to let us consumers in on their little secret.
While glued-together, steak-like meat is surprisingly common in the food service industry, the corporations peddling it are not eager to let us consumers in on their little secret.
Well, sniffs the meat industry's lobbying group, it's not like the companies are deceiving eaters — those that use the process have to list transglutaminase on the ingredient label and stamp the package as "formed" or "reformed" meat. How honest! Except that most of these molded "filet mignon" are sold through high-volume chain restaurants, hotels, cafeterias and banquet halls — where unwitting customers never see the package or ingredient label.
This is why we should support truth-in-menu laws. Make them say "reformed and glued" filet mignon right on the menu. That simple step lets us decide if we really want to eat the stuff. Consumers should have the right to know ... and choose.A pizza with a hot dog crust. Delish.
Next on the menu: extra fat! While many cafes, bistros and even diners these days have moved to such healthy edibles as locally sourced beets and jicama on sustainably raised arugula dressed with small-batch artisan balsamic vinegar, Pizza Hut is proudly going for the hardy eater, shouting, "Let's get stuffed."
The chain has enhanced its belt-busting pepperoni and gooey cheese pizza by (get this) stuffing a long, looping hot dog right into the crust! But, if that's not caloric enough for you, Pizza Hut has also designed a pizza that is ringed by a dozen mini cheeseburgers baked directly onto the crust.
Hey, some might see obesity as a crisis, but YUM! Brands Inc., the conglomerate that owns Pizza Hut, sees it as a moneymaking opportunity. Don't fight it, feed it!
Not to be outdone, the Burger King chain is test-marketing a stunning advance in fusion cuisine at one of its Nashville outlets. It marries two essential food groups together: ice cream and pork. Yes, America, get ready for the Bacon Sundae! Topped off with caramel and chocolate syrup.
The pioneering innovator in obesity grub, however, comes from the city where anything goes and "too much" is never enough: Las Vegas. Many top chefs have opened four-star restaurants along the Las Vegas strip, but none can outstrip a local diner when it comes to extravagant excess. Unabashedly named the "Heart Attack Grill," this place takes pride in deep-fried, and its menu is filled with unhealthy eats. Renown for its Quadruple Bypass Burger, Butter Fat Shakes and Flatliner Fries cooked in pure lard, the grill brags that it serves food with "Taste Worth Dying For."
Indeed, two diners have collapsed so far this year while pounding down Bypass Burgers. To add to the charm, the grill offers a special deal for truly hefty eaters: If you weigh over 350 pounds, you can eat for free. So weigh in, tuck in — and bon appetite.
Jim Hightower
National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
Source:   http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/06-1

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

OPEN LETTER OPPOSING BIG AG SUBSIDIES

Experts Tell Congress: Support Healthy Food System, Not Big Ag

Ahead of 2012 Farm Bill, food and health experts send open letter to Congress blasting subsidies for 'big agriculture'

- Common Dreams staff
Seventy leading chefs, authors, food policy experts, nutritionists, CEOs, and environment and health organizations sent an open letter to Members of Congress today urging lawmakers to reinvest federal farm and crop insurance subsidy dollars into programs that feed the hungry, protect the environment and promote the consumption of local, organic and healthy food. Seventy leading chefs, authors, food policy experts, nutritionists, CEOs, and environment and health organizations have sent an open letter to Members of Congress urging lawmakers to reinvest federal farm and crop insurance subsidy dollars into programs that feed the hungry, protect the environment and promote the consumption of local, organic and healthy food.
The letter comes just days ahead of an expected Senate vote on the 2012 Farm Bill and was initiated by the Environmental Working Group's Kari Hamerschlag and authors Anna Lappé and Dan Imhoff. All the signatories expressed frustration with the draft of the bill that came out of the Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this year. It says the committee’s proposal is “seriously out of step with the nation’s priorities and what the American public expects and wants from our food and farm policy.”
"Investing in healthy food, healthy diets and critical nutrition programs for millions of struggling families across the country should be the priority as Congress writes the next farm bill," said Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition at New York University. "Not more subsidies that send billions of scarce federal funds to the bank accounts of Big Food producers."
"We need a farm bill that supports farmers, rural communities, and those who are hungry, not a bill that gives unlimited subsidies to the biggest commodity producers while at the same time cutting programs for the neediest among us." --Anne Lappé
"We need a farm bill that supports farmers, rural communities, and those who are hungry, not a bill that gives unlimited subsidies to the biggest commodity producers while at the same time cutting programs for the neediest among us," said Lappé, author of Diet for a Hot Planet and cofounder of the Small Planet Institute. "We stand with the millions of Americans who share this common sense perspective."
The full letter follows:
Dear Member of Congress,
With the 2008 farm bill due to expire in a matter of months, the Senate Agriculture Committee approved legislation in April to steer the next five years of national food and agriculture policy. We applaud the positive steps that the proposed bill takes under Senator Debbie Stabenow’s leadership, including incentives for fruit and vegetable purchases, scaling up local production and distribution of healthy foods and bolstering marketing and research support for fruit, nut and vegetable farmers.
Unfortunately, the Senate bill falls far short of the reforms needed to come to grips with the nation’s critical food and farming challenges. It is also seriously out of step with the nation’s priorities and what the American public expects and wants from our food and farm policy. In a national poll last year, 78 percent said making nutritious and healthy foods more affordable and accessible should be a top priority in the farm bill. Members of the U.S. Council of Mayors and the National League of Cities have both echoed this sentiment in recent statements calling for a healthy food and farm bill.
Although the committee proposal includes important reforms to the commodity title, we are deeply concerned that it would continue to give away subsidies worth tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to the largest commodity crop growers, insurance companies, and agribusinesses even as it drastically underfunds programs to promote the health and food security of all Americans, invest in beginning and disadvantaged farmers, revitalize local food economies and protect natural resources. We strongly object to any cuts in food assistance during such dire times for so many Americans. These critical shortcomings must be addressed when the bill goes to the Senate floor.
As written, the bill would spend billions to guarantee income for the most profitable farm businesses in the country. This would come primarily in the form of unlimited crop insurance premium subsidies to industrial-scale growers who can well afford to pay more of their risk management costs. Crop insurance programs must be reformed to work better for diversified and organic farmers and to ensure comprehensive payment caps or income eligibility requirements. Otherwise, this so called “safety net” becomes an extravagant entitlement for affluent landowners and insurance companies.
In addition, the proposed $9 billion-a-year crop insurance program comes with minimal societal obligations. Growers collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance premium subsidies should at least be required to take simple measures to protect wetlands, grassland and soil. Instead, the unlimited subsidies will encourage growers to plow up fragile areas and intensify fencerow-to-fencerow cultivation of environmentally sensitive land, erasing decades of conservation gains.
Most of the benefits from these programs would flow to the producers of five big commodity crops (corn, soy, cotton, rice and wheat). Meanwhile, millions of consumers lack access to affordable fruits and vegetables, with the result that the diets of fewer than five percent of adults meet the USDA’s daily nutrition guidelines. Partly as a result, one in three young people is expected to develop diabetes and the diet-related health care costs of diabetes, cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke are rising precipitously, reaching an estimated $70 billion a year.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The Government Accountability Office has identified modest reforms to crop insurance subsidies that could save as much as $2 billion a year. Half could come from payment limits that affect just four percent of the growers in the program. Congress should use these savings to provide full funding for conservation and nutrition assistance programs and strengthen initiatives that support local and healthy food, organic agriculture and beginning and disadvantaged farmers. These investments could save billions in the long run by protecting valuable water and soil resources, creating jobs and supporting foods necessary for a healthy and balanced diet.
When it is your turn to vote, we urge you to stand up for local and healthy food and nutrition programs and to support equitable and fiscally responsible amendments that will protect and enhance public health and the environment while maintaining a reasonable safety net for the farmers who grow our food. More than ever before, the public demands this. Come November, they will be giving their votes to members of Congress who supported a healthy food and farm bill that puts the interests of taxpayers, citizens and the vast majority of America’s farmers first and foremost.
Our nation was built on the principles of protecting our greatest legacy: the land on which we grow our food and feed our families. Stand with us to protect not only farmers, without whom we would all go hungry, but to enact a food and farm bill that fairly and judiciously serves the interests of all Americans.
Sincerely,
Leigh Adcock Executive Director, Women, Food and Agriculture Network
Will Allen Farmer, Founder, CEO of Growing Power
Dan Barber Executive Chef and Co-owner Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns
Neal D. Barnard, MD President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Sung e Bai Director of National Programs, Slow Food USA
Mario Batali Chef, Author, Entrepreneur
Fedele Bauccio CEO, Bon Appetit Management Company
Jo Ann Baumgartner Wild Farm Alliance
Rick Bayless Chef, Frontera Grill and Topolobampo
David Beckmann President, Bread for the World
Andy Bellatti
Andy Bellatti, MS, RD, Andy Bellatti Nutrition
Wendell Berry Lane's Landing Farm
Haven Bourque Founder, HavenBMedia
Tom Colicchio   Craft Restaurants
Christopher Cook Author of Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis
Ken Cook President, Environmental Working Group
Ann Cooper Chef and Founder, Food Family Farming Foundation
Ronnie Cummins Organic Consumers Association
Laurie David Author, Family Dinner
Michael R. Dimock President, Roots of Change
Christopher Elam Executive Director, INFORM
Maria Echeveste Senior fellow, Center for American Progress (for affiliation purposes only)
Andy Fisher Co-founder and founding Executive Director, Community Food Security Coalition
Chef Kurt Michael Friese Owner, Devotay Restaurant & Bar and Publisher, Edible Iowa River Valley 
Joan Dye Gussow Grower, Author, Professor Emerita Teachers College, Columbia University
Melinda Hemmelgarn, MS, RD Food Sleuth Radio
Gary Hirshberg Co-founder and Chairman, Stonyfield
Mark Hyman, MD Chairman, The Institute for Functional Medicine
John Ikerd Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics
Dan Imhoff Author, Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to the Next Food and Farm Bill
Wes Jackson President, The Land Institute
Kristi Jacobson Catalyst Films
Michael Jacobson Executive Director, Center for Science in the Public Interest
Robert Kenner Director, Food Inc.
Navina Khanna Co-Founder and Field Director, Live Real
Andrew Kimbrell Executive Director, Center for Food Safety
Fred Kirschenmann Author, Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays From a Farmer Philosopher
Melissa Kogut Executive Director, Chefs Collaborative
Anna Lappé Author, Diet for a Hot Planet, Cofounder, Small Planet Institute
Robert S. Lawrence, MD Center for a Livable Future, Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Kelle Louaillier Executive Director, Corporate Accountability International
Bill McKibben Author, Deep Economy
Liz McMullan Executive Director, Jamie Oliver Food Foundation
Craig McNamara President Sierra Orchards and Center for Land-Based Learning
Carolyn Mugar Founder and Director of Farm Aid
Frances Moore Lappé Cofounder, Small Planet Institute
Dave Murphy and Lisa Stokke Food Democracy Now!
Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, II Director for Public Witness, Presbyterian Church
Marion Nestle Professor, NYU and Author, Food Politics
Y. Armando Nieto Executive Director, California Food and Justice Coalition
Nicolette Hahn Niman Rancher, Author, Attorney
Denise O'Brien Co-founder, Women, Food and Agriculture Network; organic farmer
Robyn O'Brien Executive Director, AllergyKids Foundation
Michael Pollan Professor, UC Berkeley School of Journalism
Nora Pouillon Chef, Author, Owner of Restaurant Nora
LaDonna Redmond Food Justice Advocate and Food and Community Fellow
John Robbins Author, Diet For A New America, The Food Revolution, and No Happy Cows
Ocean Robbins Host, Food Revolution Network
Ricardo Salvador Union of Concerned Scientists
Eric Schlosser Author, Fast Food Nation
Lori Silverbush Silverbush Productions
Matthew Scully Author, Dominion
George L. Siemon CEO, Organic Valley
Michele Simon President, Eat Drink Politics
Jim Slama President, FamilyFarmed.org
Naomi Starkman Founder, Editor-in-chief, Civil Eats
Anim Steel Real Food Challenge
Josh Viertel Former President, Slow Food USA
David Wallinga, MD Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Alice Waters Owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant
Andrew Weil, MD Founder and Director, Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine
Tom and Denesse Willey T&D Willey Farms
Paul Willis Founder/Manager Niman Ranch Pork Company
Mark Winne Mark Winne Associates