Monsanto lost its bid to overturn Arkansas’ ban on dicamba, a controversial weedkiller linked to extensive damage to famers’ crops in the state as well as several other states.
The agribusiness giant makes a version of the herbicide called XtendiMax that’s paired with its seeds that are genetically engineered to resist the product. DuPont Co. and BASF SE also sell their own dicamba-based formulations.
https://www.ecowatch.com/monsanto-arkansas-herbicide-ban-2536779947.html
“Ultra-processed” foods, made in factories with ingredients unknown to the domestic kitchen, may be linked to cancer, according to a large and groundbreaking study.
Ultra-processed foods include pot noodles, shelf-stable ready meals, cakes and confectionery which contain long lists of additives, preservatives, flavourings and colourings – as well as often high levels of sugar, fat and salt. They now account for half of all the food bought by families eating at home in the UK, as the Guardian recently revealed.
A team, led by researchers based at the Sorbonne in Paris, looked at the medical records and eating habits of nearly 105,000 adults who are part of the French NutriNet-Santé cohort study, registering their usual intake of 3,300 different food items.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/14/ultra-processed-foods-may-be-linked-to-cancer-says-study
On Friday, public interest organizations representing farmers and conservationists made their legal case in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Monsanto Company, challenging EPA’s approval of Monsanto’s new “XtendiMax” pesticide. XtendiMax is Monsanto’s version of dicamba, an old and highly drift-prone weed-killer. EPA’s approval permitted XtendiMax to be sprayed for the first time on growing soybeans and cotton that Monsanto has genetically engineered (GE) to be resistant to dicamba.
The papers filed in court tell the story of how EPA should have known this would occur, yet instead was pressured by Monsanto into approving the pesticide without any measures to prevent vapor drift. The evidence in the case also shows that in late 2017, under pressure to take some action, EPA adopted revised instructions for use Monsanto proposed and approved—measures that agronomists believe will again be ineffective.
https://www.ecowatch.com/pesticide-drift-lawsuit-xtendimax-2534117304.html
A Garden’s Glory became the first Certified Naturally Grown farm in eastern Florida in November, and they’re gearing up for a season of events and markets this winter.
Farmer Ann Nyhuis received certification for her tender microgreens and sustainable growing practices.
Certified Naturally Grown (CNG) is a certification program for farmers and beekeepers who use natural practices, without any synthetic chemicals or GMOs, to produce food for their local communities.
Nyhuis decided to seek Certified Naturally Grown’s grassroots certification because CNG’s commitment to non-GMO, real food, grown in harmony with nature matched her farming philosophy.
You can find her Piatto Fresco takeaway microgreen plate at the Stuart Green Market or at www.agardensglory.com.
https://www.tcpalm.com/story/specialty-publications/your-news/martin-county/reader-submitted/2018/01/19/gardens-glory-brings-healthy-food-community/1046376001/
There are plenty of ways humans can be exposed to toxins like endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), carcinogenic and mutagenic pollutants, and harmful chemicals in personal care products and pharmaceuticals.
Regulation is in place to prevent, control, and mitigate the presence and the effects of these pollutants. But the chemical universe is large, and it’s unclear how much governmental regulatory bodies can protect us from potentially damaging exposures, so it’s important to recognize where we can take more control of our exposures and where we can’t.
These days, there is a lot of talk about “nontoxic living,” but it’s virtually impossible to live in a world that is totally free of toxins. Chemicals and other toxins are ubiquitous in our air, soil, water, and homes. Trying to be completely pure in what we do, eat, buy, and see can will just stress us out. With that being said, here are some action steps we can take that are within our control:
https://amp.mindbodygreen.com/articles/how-much-to-actually-avoid-toxins
Americans are expected to eat a record-breaking amount of meat and poultry this year: more than 220 pounds per person, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
That’s about three pounds more per person than last year, and about 50 pounds more per person than was consumed by Americans in 1960. Another number that is on the rise, according to Maine farmers, merchants and a Consumer Reports 2015 survey, is the number of consumers who want to know that the animals they are eating were raised in an ethical manner. But, short of visiting the farms and seeing how the cows, pigs and poultry actually live, it is not always easy to know for sure. Labels can help with that, but are not a panacea. And supermarket packaging that touts words such as “local,” “family farms” and “naturally raised” do not always mean what consumers think they do.
For Clark, who also has certifications for his farm through the Non-GMO Project and Where Food Comes From, Inc., labels help prove that farmers do what they say they are doing. And that is important to him.
https://amp.bangordailynews.com/2018/01/12/homestead/you-want-to-eat-meat-thats-been-ethically-raised-but-how-can-you-know-for-sure/
MONROE, MAINE 01/10/2018 Heide Purinton-Brown pets the pigs at Toddy Pond Farm in Monroe Wednesday. Heide and her husband Greg Purinton-Brown pride themselves on the ethical and humane treatment of their farm animals. Although their primary focus is dairy they also raise one or two steers, several pigs and chickens every year to sell as meat.
Gabor Degre | BDN
Chickens for sale in Britain’s supermarkets are showing record levels of superbugsresistant to some of the strongest antibiotics, new research from the governmenthas found.
The results are concerning because resistance to antibiotics among livestock can easily affect resistance among humans, rendering vital medicines ineffective against serious diseases.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/15/british-supermarket-chickens-show-record-levels-of-antibiotic-resistant-superbugs
People yearn for alternatives to industrial agriculture, but they are worried. They see large-scale operations relying on corporate-supplied chemical inputs as the only high-productivity farming model. Another approach might be kinder to the environment and less risky for consumers, but, they assume, it would not be up to the task of providing all the food needed by our still-growing global population.
Contrary to such assumptions, there is ample evidence that an alternative approach—organic agriculture, or more broadly “agroecology”—is actually the only way to ensure that all people have access to sufficient, healthful food. Inefficiency and ecological destruction are built into the industrial model.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/01/12/farming-small-planet
One of the myths perpetuated by the pro-GMO (genetically modified organisms) lobby is that critics of GMOs in agriculture are denying choice to farmers and have an ideological agenda. The narrative is that farmers should have access to a range of tools and technologies, including GM crops.
Before addressing this issue, we should remind ourselves that GMOs have been illegitimately placed on the commercial market due to the bypassing of regulations. Steven Druker’s book Altered Genes, Twisted Truths (2015) indicates that the commercialisation of GM food in the US was based on a massive fraud. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) files revealed that GM foods first achieved commercialisation in 1992 but only because the FDA covered up the extensive warnings of its own scientists about their dangers, lied about the facts and then violated federal food safety law by permitting GM food to be marketed without having been proven safe through standard testing.
The rapid growth of Monsanto’s new GMO seeds resistant to the controversial herbicide dicamba has revived worries about the company’s stranglehold over farming during a period of industry consolidation.
Long a producer of dicamba, Monsanto last year introduced genetically-modified cotton and soybean seeds that can resist the weed killer.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/consumer/latest-monsanto-gmo-seeds-raises-worries-of-monopoly