Sustainability

Tag Archives: certified organic

Agroecology is Advancing Around the Globe. Will the U.S. Take Part?

With its strong focus on social change for small farmers, agroecology is going mainstream worldwide, but the American food movement has yet to catch up.

Earlier this month, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) held the 2nd International Symposium on Agroecology at its headquarters in Rome. The gathering attracted almost 800 participants, with representatives from 72 governments and 350 “non-state actors,” including civil society, academia, and the private sector. Farmers from Senegal, academics from the U.S., French parliamentarians, and staff of CropLife International, among others, gathered to debate the FAO’s claim of the urgent need to “scale up” agroecology as a means of achieving a more sustainable food system.

The symposium, hosted by the preeminent global institution on food issues, suggests that agroecology may finally be moving out of the margins. And it’s in the process of being mainstreamed.

Yet here in the U.S., it’s a different story. In fact, the word is rarely heard, even among people concerned with both agriculture and ecology. Instead, advocates—and the food industry—use the words organic, sustainable, and regenerative. And while some seem to use agroecology as an umbrella term that encompasses all of these practices, it’s more complex than that.

Shifting Language

All the above-mentioned terms share a commitment to food production without negative impacts on the environment. What makes agroecology different, potentially, is the combination of its scientific bona fides and its rootedness in the practices and political organization of small-scale food producers from across the globe. The former—as seen in multiple scientific elaborations of agroecology’s principles, like improved soil health, crop rotation, and diversification—is complemented by the latter, which gives agroecology meaning beyond the combination of “ecological” and “agriculture.”

Agroecology is Advancing Around the Globe. Will the U.S. Take Part?

Pesticides Are Making Children Aggressive

“Pesticides cause a multitude of adverse effects on humans. However, they are especially harmful to children.”

Pesticides cause a multitude of adverse effects  on humans. However, they are especially harmful to children. They may have something to do with the mass-shootings in schools all over America because some of them are neurotoxins. This means they affect and damage the central nervous system and the brain – of all animals, including humans.

Warren Porter, professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Wisconsin, conducted experiments with ground water – water drawn from the ground of farms with typical levels of pesticides and fertilizers. He chose farm water contaminated with the insecticide aldicarb, the herbicide atrazine, and nitrogen fertilizer. He tested that mixture on white mice and deer mice.

The concentrations of the fertilizer with each of the pesticides (aldicarb and atrazine) in the ground water were of the order of magnitude the Environmental Protection Agency says the chemicals cause “no unreasonable harm to man and the environment.” In other words, Porter put to the ultimate test the assurances of EPA and the chemical industry about the toxins EPA registers (approves) – that they are safe and farmers may spray on crops Americans eat.

Porter discovered the mixture of common ground water and farm chemicals had detrimental effects on the animals’ nervous, immune, and endocrine systems. The mice became aggressive and had problems with their thyroid hormones. Their immune system was also compromised in its ability to make antibodies against foreign proteins.

Organic food means food without farm sprays, sludge, radiation, and genetic engineering. This healthy food is also political food: helping us to fight pollution and control by the agrochemical-industrial-political complex.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/04/14/pesticides-are-making-children-aggressive

6 Ways To Reduce Your Exposure To Toxins, Without Driving Yourself Crazy

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

British supermarket chickens show record levels of antibiotic-resistant superbugs

Food Standards Agency reports ‘significant increase’ of harmful pathogen campylobacter in British-farmed chickens.

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

Animal welfare groups call for higher standards for farmed chickens

Retailers and restaurants urged to sign up to new cross-European guidelines amid growing concerns over cruelty in intensive meat production.

New welfare standards for farmed chickens have been demanded by a large coalition of European animal protection groups, including the RSPCA, in a bid to address growing concerns about inhumane conditions in the intensive and large-scale production of meat.

Supermarkets and restaurants are being urged to sign up to the new blueprint, which represents the first time a single set of requirements has been agreed on across the continent.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/13/animal-welfare-groups-call-for-higher-standards-for-farmed-chickens

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