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A split in the ranks….
….the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) is a major voice in the field and, through the efforts of its executive director Brian Snyder, increasingly a voice in Washington on national farm policy. We haven’t been entirely enthusiastic about the way our representative has represented those of us in the field but, since starting this blog, we’ve mostly stayed away from politics. However, it has seemed to us that Brian has been too willing to compromise on some important issues, such as the animal identification system, and we’ve wondered if he has succumbed to what we used to call “Potomac fever”. That is, whether he has been carried away with the excitement over…
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Why am I not surprised….
….that food labels don’t necessarily tell the whole truth. “Food fraud” has become big business, and bigger with the introduction of what we’d like to believe is healthier foods. Big Ag, of course, has moved in to corrupt labels such as “natural” and “organic” and just about every box or bag of processed foods contains stuff that’s not on the label and is not good for you. Food blogger Dr. Joseph Mercola has the story here. Important reading but I’m at a loss as to how to protect ourselves. Oh, right. Buy from a local farmer you know. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/05/04/food-fraud.aspx Anyone who still believes the government is protecting you from this…
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To the barricades….
….there are times when I think I could be a revolutionary. Mostly those are times when I hear about the latest outrage perpetrated by chemical giant, Monsanto. It’s hard to imagine a more powerful, more destructive company on the planet. Their genetic engineering—all government-sanctioned—and their ability to skirt any real scientific review is without parallel. We’ve detailed many times their influence in Washington (and it has made no difference whether a Republican or Democrat is in charge). While other countries have been careful to keep a lid on genetically engineered foods, Monsanto has had free reign with its willing accomplices in the government and universities. One of the articles of…
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A light at the end of the tunnel….
….signaling the demise of ethanol? The corn-based product has been probably the worst fraud environmentalists have inflicted on us. Ethanol is more of a pollutant than the gasoline it’s supposed to help clean up. And meeting the so-called “demand” has driven up the price of corn to the point where it’s caused starvation in the rest of the world…and food riots. I put the word “demand” in quotes because there’s no real demand….just a government mandate. Fuel companies have been ordered to use more ethanol than they need or buy “ethanol credits”. (A Texas sharpie was recently convicted of selling credits for an ethanol plant that existed only in his imagination. Bilked…
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Our government, here to protect us….
….The New York Times discovers the antibiotic menace. Of course, years after the problem first surfaced. This article is revealing on several accounts: First, the most recent warning from the FDA was published in February but no one noticed until a public service group publicized it. The government didn’t do much to spread the word. Second, the inevitable professor of agriculture at a major university—Minnesota—jumps in to defend Big Ag. Third, the prof lets the cat out of the bag. The antibiotics are used to “keep cows healthy”…not to cure a sick cow. A cow on pasture is as healthy a creature as there is. It is only when you feed…
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The antibiotic menace….
….is real and growing. Antibiotics are not used primarily to treat sick animals, but as a weight enhancer. They’re at least as effective as growth hormones but, just to be sure, commercial producers of meat use both. In fact, antibiotics are used more in farming than among humans. Dr. David Kessler, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, recently said this about the practice. “While the F.D.A. can see what kinds of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are coming out of livestock facilities, the agency doesn’t know enough about the antibiotics that are being fed to these animals,” he writes. “This is a major public health problem, because giving healthy livestock…
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More reverberations….
….from the “Monsanto protection act”. Increasingly, Congress has moved away from regular order in handling potentially controversial issues. Like genetically modified crops. It’s common now to simply skip committee hearings and floor votes. Just find a complicated bill and slip in some extra language nobody will notice….until it’s too late. You almost get the feeling they really don’t care what we think. http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/Monsanto-bill-protection-food/2013/04/01/id/497254?promo_code=EB8D-1&utm_source=National_Review&utm_medium=nmwidget&utm_campaign=widgetphase1
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It’s about time….
….safe food advocates are turning their fire on President Obama and Congressional Democrats for their “patty cake” deal with Monsanto. With all the talk about sequestration, the powers-that-be made sure last week that the dollars keep rolling to the chemical giant. Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski snuck the pro-genetically engineered language into a massive continuing resolution and it sailed through, apparently without anyone noticing the amendment. At least, that’s what they’re all saying on Capitol Hill. http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Critics-slam-Obama-for-protecting-Monsanto-200599011.html We note that while Monsanto’s relationship with the Obama Administration could be described as “incestuous”, it’s only closer in degree from past Republican administrations. Last we knew, at least three former Monsanto executives are…
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You’ll have to decide…
…whom to believe. The government and scientific establishment, of course, says “eat less red meat”. There are many dissenters though, and we’re in that camp, who think we should eat all the red meat we can. And all the fat, too! What’s strange is that just about all the research demonstrates that it’s sugar, which is linked to most of our health problems. And nothing pumps sugar into our cells more efficiently than carbohydrates. We worry constantly about air quality but reducing pollution has had no appreciable effect on cancer rates and heart disease. Sugar consumption, meanwhile, has soared in recent decades while the FDA and its pals in Big Food keep pointing our…
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Goodby grass; hello corn…
A college study indicates the high price of corn and soybeans, thanks to the bio-fuel demand, is robbing us of grass and wetlands at an alarming rate. The research was by a team from South Dakota State University and it says we’re losing grasslands at the rate of five per cent a year. That is a major ecological threat and, according to the scientists, it would take us decades to recover from the setback to natural carbon sequestration, even if we wanted to. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/13/1215404110.short?rss=1 This is all the handiwork of Big Government and Big Ag, of course. As a blogger often puts it: “the country is in the very best…