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Canada 
Mon Feb 07, 2011 at 09:19:39 AM PST
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Premable to the US version: I am a Canadian food writer. For too long, there has been little focus on the GE and GMO products created in Canada and entering the US market. We're the ones who created the GE salmon that your USDA approved FDA declared safe to eat and unlikely to harm the environment recently. We've also got a GE pig ready to roll for you. It is called the Enviropig. You see, we are shipping these things to you because there is finally acknowlegement in the Canadian farming community that the twenty-year GMO crop experiment has been a dismal failure for the individual farmers, and only a major advance for Big Ag companies. More to the point, you are the target market because we have 33 million people, we're one-tenth of the potential economic market. An important debate will happen in Canada's national parliament this week that might actually put the brakes on the commercial viability of GE foods in Canada...but of course, we're just a testing ground used by Big Ag. They really want to get into YOUR market. We're just gettig tired of being the guinea pigs, and that might be good news for you.
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Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 11:24:04 AM PST
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When I'm up near Union Station here in Portland, I can't help but think there's gotta be a better use for many of the empty, eyesore surface parking lots than the current service they provide, which is apparently to hold extinguished cigarette butts and broken glass, while blades of grass pop up through the cracks here and there to admire their unparalleled view of the Steel Bridge.
A few hundred miles north of us, local charities are teaming up with businesses to turn those places in the city of Vancouver, B.C.'s Downtown Eastside into gardens with work opportunities for those who need them most -
About 50 volunteers took to wheelbarrows, shovels, and drills Saturday to begin construction of a new community garden in the Downtown Eastside.
The half-acre garden, located on East Hastings Street at Hawk Avenue, will provide food, job training, and education on urban agriculture for local residents, businesses, and community organizations starting next year.
This neighborhood is said to be Canada's poorest. Some food from the garden will be sold at farmers' markets and to local restaurants to support worker's salaries, while some will be donated to meal centers in the neighborhood.
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Tue May 19, 2009 at 16:36:04 PM PDT
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I rely on Canada to be our better, smarter neighbors to the north. They have some of the same problems as the U.S. - they are no Norway or Denmark - but they can occasionally be counted upon to say no to bad ideas when the U.S. says yes. Not in this case. Canada has approved high oleic acid GM soybeans. Here's what the article says, then I'll tell you why this is a bad idea:
The high oleic trait, developed by DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred unit, means the resultant soybean oil consists of 80 percent oleic acid, more than three times the amount present in ordinary soybean oil. High levels of oleic acid have been shown to remove the need for hydrogenation, a process that increases stability and shelf life, but results in the creation of harmful trans fats.
Pioneer president and DuPont vice president and general manager Paul Schickler said: "This is a significant milestone in our effort to bring the high oleic soybean trait to market. We're seeing strong results in field testing of soybeans with the high oleic trait and strong interest from food companies looking for a new oil product with improved nutritional qualities and performance characteristics."
In the US, the trait is still being reviewed by the US Department of Agriculture but the variety will be field tested in Canada this year, with the potential for products containing the soybean oil to be released on the market from next year.
What's oleic acid? It's an omega-9 essential fatty acid (EFA). Unlike omega-3 and omega-6 EFA's, we can actually make oleic acid ourselves. But it's not really a good thing. We get sick when we are deprived of omega-3 and omega-6s, and that's when our bodies make omega-9s. And even though our bodies are making oleic acid, they still don't really do the trick. Which isn't to say that they are bad for us - I don't know - they just aren't a substitute for omega-3's or 6's.
Soybean oil, pre-genetic modification, has about 7 times as much omega-6 EFAs as omega-3 EFAs. This ratio is important. As I wrote about recently, the omega-6:omega-3 ratio in our bodies shows links to heart disease and other health issues. Western diets contain too much omega-6's in relation to omega-3's. One of the reason why we've reduced omega-3's is because they go rancid quickly and we like our foods to have long shelflives. The optimal ratio is somewhere between two to four times as much omega-6 compared to omega-3, from what I've read and heard.
So how about this soy? It's more of the same - another move in the wrong direction. Sure they reduce the need to partially hydrogenate the soybeans (i.e. create trans fats and simultaneously remove omega-3s while leaving omega-6s intact), but the article says that the soy has a longer shelf-life than unmodified soy. Translation: Less omega-3s. They are taking out the omega-3s and replacing them with omega-9s. That's a dumb idea.
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Sun May 17, 2009 at 17:02:09 PM PDT
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How's this for bad news? The Axis of GMO Evil wants to make GMO wheat. Let me remind you that when the World Bank and the UN came together with 400 scientists and 30 governments from around the world to put together an assessment of agriculture in each region of the world, these were the three countries that refused to approve the report. The report - based in science and facts - called for sustainability, not biotech, as THE solution to the world's agricultural problems. But these three countries - the US, Australia, and Canada - or the multinational corporations that control them - would rather disregard any science that doesn't serve their interests.
The wheat industry trade groups from these countries have joined together to "work toward the goal of synchronized commercialization of biotech traits in our wheat crops." Their statement basically says that GM crops are more desirable to farmers than non-GM crops, and therefore farmers will switch away from wheat unless a GM wheat variety is available. That sounds totally bogus to me for a number of reasons - one of which would be the recent finding in the report Failure to Yield by the Union of Concerned Scientists that biotech crops do NOT give you increased yields.
GMO Wheat would be bad news. Wheat is a grass. Once the GMO genes get out, they'll be everywhere. We've already seen contamination of corn, soy, canola, and cotton with GMO genes. Why would anyone want to contaminate other crops too?
(By the way, another Canadian group that didn't sign the agreement, the Canadian Wheat Board is not in such a hurry for GM wheat.)
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Thu May 07, 2009 at 14:00:00 PM PDT
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- A friend of mine has just launched a new project, OrganicNation.tv. She'll be traveling the U.S. and documenting sustainable food and agriculture and you'll be able to see her footage on the site. (For full disclosure, I'm one of the project's advisors.)
- Organic sales grew by 17.1% in 2008, according to a new report by the Organic Trade Association.
See below for more...
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Thu May 07, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT
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Mendocino County, CA broke new ground when it banned GMOs in its county. Since then other cities and counties in the U.S. and Canada have followed suit. GMOs aren't just an environmental issue. They also foster suspicion among neighbors for three good reasons:
1. Biotech companies offer rewards for anyone who reports his or her neighbors for illegally growing GMOs.
2. A farmer who uses GMOs may fear being sued for contaminating his or her neighbors' property.
3. Biotech companies get farmers caught with GMO crops they did not purchase (i.e. crops grown from seeds blown in the wind or via cross-pollination) to sign gag orders. This means that a farmer found contaminated with GMOs cannot discuss it with their neighbors (like, to find out where the GMOs came from or to compare notes on how to deal with Monsanto in such a case) after signing such an agreement.
In other words, as Schmeiser infers, GMOs contribute to the breakdown of community in rural areas.
Well, these local GMO bans are making some in Nebraska nervous. With its bill LB263, Nebraska stands poised to forbid cities and counties from regulating seeds, including GMOs, and fertilizer. It would become the 19th state to pass a pre-emptive seed law, according to the article, and the 14th to pass a law on fertilizer. This was put forward by Nebraska Sen. Kent Roberts. Please note that Nebraska has a unicameral (one house) legislature, so if the bill passes its one house, it goes to the governor - there's no second house that it has to pass. The Center for Rural Affairs calls the bill "a solution in search of a problem."
As you can see below, Sen. Carlson, who chairs the Ag committee, fully buys into the myth that the U.S. needs to boost production to feed the world - an argument often made to force those who might otherwise oppose GMOs to support them.
Nebraska needs to double its food production in the next 20 years to help feed the world, said Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege, chairman of the Agriculture Committee.
Genetically modified seeds will allow this to happen, he said.
"I think we are taking a proactive step," he said.
Several senators said they were uncomfortable approving a bill without clear problems, but the measure gained 35-2 first-round approval.
It seems that the only roadblock to this bill passing might be the provisions pre-empting local control of fertilizer. My hope is that the fertilizer issue is big enough to sink the bill, even though it could easily be amended to just cover seeds and then passed. Fertilizer runoff is a major environmental problem and local areas should have the ability to regulate it to keep their drinking water clean and their waterways healthy. As for the GMO part of the bill that seems inevitable? Well... write your Senators if you're in Nebraska, but it seems like it's too late.
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Sun Mar 15, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM PDT
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- Although no meat packers or producers will admit to being a part of them, tests have already been carried out at commercial feedlots and USDA has just approved an E. Coli vaccine for use on cattle. This is "a new weapon against a foodborne disease that
wouldn't be a problem in the first place if cows were raised properly can cause serious illness in people and even death."
- Eat Well Guide is holding a contest and offering prizes to Spring Breakers who choose to "Eat Well Everywhere" this month. Which is a prize in itself, of course. Oh, do I have stories on top of stories about awful road food...
- The new and updated edition of the Environmental Working Group's "Shopper's Guide to Pesticides" is online, offering a list of which foods are the best and worst in terms of pesticide residue levels when grown 'conventionally'.
- A program being offered by Cornell University's Cooperative Extension of Wyoming and Cattaraugus/Allegany Counties (NY) on beginning a successful small farm begins this week. The course for prospective new farmers is now open for registration, and can be attended for the entire series or by the individual session.
- Stephanie P. at The Ethicurean lets us know that not everything sleeps when the ground freezes, telling us of some growers she's met since arriving in Vermont and their many methods.
- Twenty-seven Canadian municipalities have already disallowed the sale of bottled water on and in municipal property and buildings, and in a vote last week the Federation of Canadian Municipalities passed a resolution asking all other cities and towns throughout Canada to do the same.
- A British company will soon be building a giant microwave oven to cook wood into charcoal, in the next step towards industrializing 'biochar'.
- Researchers affiliated with the University of Missouri-Columbia are looking for participants in a survey "to learn more about people's attitudes about and practices of food preservation".
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Tue Feb 24, 2009 at 13:15:00 PM PST
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Maple Leaf Foods, again. Listeria, again -
Maple Leaf Foods has voluntarily recalled hundreds of cases of wieners that had not completed tests for the listeria bacteria species.
[...]
Smith said 1,100 cases of wieners were quarantined for a second round of testing at a plant in Hamilton, Ont., but they were mistakenly shipped out prematurely. Initial testing revealed a partial positive result for a the listeria species, Smith said. Maple Leaf says it tests for all six listeria species, not just Listeria monocytogenes.
It is not known whether the recalled wieners have tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes, a species that can be fatal in humans and was blamed for last year's deadly listeriosis outbreak.
A bit more, and the list of recalled products below the fold...
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Wed Jan 28, 2009 at 14:22:09 PM PST
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With all of the bad news going around, I've decided to post a bit of good news. So enjoy your afternoon tea (if you're feeling a little British today, as I am) and check out the good news!
- FarmFoody.org launches, providing foodies, farmers, and chefs with a new, interactive social networking (or should we call it edible networking?) tool. The site reminds me of Eat Well Guide but allows users to upload videos or receive bulletins from their favorite farms.
- The EU Parliament Voted by a Large Majority to ban 22 pesticides and tighten when and where the others can be used.
- The Center for a Livable Future proposes a solution to contaminated food: local, sustainable agriculture.
- Canadians are ahead of their time, apparently. On January 23, Liberal Members of Parliament hosted community meetings about food policy. They hope to create a comprehensive food policy for Canada. (There is no place that I know of that has a comprehensive food policy, so this is HUGE if they can pull it off.)
- We've been able to buy foreign Fair Trade products for years, but we now have domestic fair trade too! From the group's press release:
DFTA is a coalition of 35 businesses, including marketing and retail coops, farmer, farmworker and indigenous peoples associations, and civil society organizations devoted to organic agriculture and coop development. In addition to Organic Valley, DFTA counts among its members the Northeast Organic Farming Association, Equal Exchange, the White Earth Land Recovery Project, Centro Campesino, CATA, the Rural Advancement Foundation International, the Organic Consumers Association, the Farmer Direct Coop, and the National Cooperative Grocers Association.
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Tue Nov 18, 2008 at 05:00:00 AM PST
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I stumbled across an article about mad cow in Canada that I find very worrying: Canada mad cow case blamed on feed manufacturer. In the case of the 2007 pet food crisis in which hundreds of pets died from melamine and cyanuric acid contamination, the food came from a Canadian supplier. I'm not saying that Canadians are suspect... I'm saying that America and Canada trade. What happens in Canada can easily happen here.
One of our major mad cow preventative measures is a ban on feeding ruminents to ruminents. No feeding cows to cows. But you can feed cow to pig and pig to cow. And you can feed cow to chicken and chicken litter (including dropped chicken feed) to cows. Despite these rules being on the books:
Dr. Connie Argue of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said this week that one of the most recent cases of BSE and all 12 previous cases likely came "through incidents of accidental cross-contamination, which may occur in the complex feed and manufacturing system."
The food source was narrowed down to an unnamed food supplier of heifer ration that also manufactured food for other, non-ruminant animals that contained material prohibited from cattle, sheep and goat feed.
Two other unnamed feed manufacturers where prohibited material was handled were also mentioned in the report as potential areas for cross-contamination. The report said the feed did not contained banned protein on purpose, but may have been contaminated by equipment used to process non-ruminant feed.
In other words, when we're in the business of feeding rendered animals to animals in a highly centralized manufacturing system, mistakes happen.
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Tue Sep 30, 2008 at 12:00:00 PM PDT
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File this one under the category of "Duh." Companies that seek cheaper ingredients often land in China. Ya think? The article says that China is Canada's 3rd largest food supplier. No doubt they are a large supplier to the U.S. too.
I can't speak to the prices in China today, but I would find it hard to believe that things have changed too drastically from when I lived there in 2000. I lived in Beijing, a city that is seen as expensive within China. It's their Washington, D.C. Yet for me it was cheap beyond belief. Usually prices were 1/8 the cost of a similar item in the U.S.
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