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pesticides 
Sun Nov 01, 2009 at 17:52:33 PM PST
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Here's more bad news about methyl iodide, the proposed replacement for ozone depleting methyl bromide. This will be used on California strawberries, and I say not in MY backyard!!!
The scientific evidence of potential harm from exposure to methyl iodide is overwhelming. It is heavily linked to miscarriages late in pregnancy, and low survival rates in baby animals exposed in utero and after birth.
Methyl iodide also causes cancer, thyroid disease, and nervous system poisoning. Methyl iodide is considerably more toxic than methyl bromide and also considerably heavier.
It therefore contaminates the ground level air for much longer, rather than dissipating rapidly into the upper atmosphere. Finally, methyl iodide is a very persistent contaminant of both soil and ground water, remaining present in significant amounts for many months.
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Mon Jul 27, 2009 at 17:35:03 PM PDT
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- Marion Nestle takes on 'better' junk food marketing efforts, and also brings us a recap of her recent trip to Fairbanks, Alaska.
- Michigan farm families are having success in going farm-to-door, as more and more Michiganders are eating closer to home.
- School Lunch Talk brings us some info on fast food in schools, and other statistics from America's cafeterias.
- A group of Lane County, Oregon residents seeking to create a pesticide buffer zone around their homes to protect their farms and families from aerial spraying of nearby commercial forest land by helicopters, are gaining traction with their county commissioners.
- Over 100 farmers, entrepeneurs and investors at a "slow money" conference in Madison, Wisconsin today discussed how to finance and rebuild local food systems and infrastructure.
- According to researchers, 90 percent of television food advertisements aimed at American children are for junk foods. That number is also the same in Germany, while the "lowest" percentage of the 11 countries studied was 50% in Britain and Australia.
- The City of Seattle is making it easier for residents to turn parking strips into gardens.
- Hamburgers are for imperialists, comrade! North Korea's first fast food restaurant serves "minced beef and bread", instead.
- An "etiquette" question - is it rude to take pictures of your food in a restaurant? I've done it a few times myself, but I snap my shots quick and low, and preferably when nobody else is around.
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Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 07:00:00 AM PDT
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The 2009 session of the 75th Oregon Legislative Assembly came to an end Monday night, and I thought I'd just do a brief wrap-up of food, farming and environmental measures that passed out of the Oregon State Legislature this session. I'm not intimately familiar with all of these bills, just gathering them here in one place for informational purposes right now. I'll look deeper at many of them soon. Inclusion in the wrap-up below does not necessarily equate to an endorsement.
With an efficiency rarely seen in Oregon politics, Democrats took advantage of supermajorities in the House and Senate to push an aggressive agenda, rolling through Republican resistance and facing down Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
Looking back, the 2009 session, the shortest since 1995, will be remembered largely as a fight against the economic tornado that ripped billions of dollars and thousands of jobs from the state. Despite the hard times, lawmakers approved more than $1 billion in new taxes, vastly expanded health care programs and signed off on some of the most expensive transportation and capital construction plans in state history.
Specifically, lawmakers approved higher taxes on upper-income earners, on corporations, on hospitals and health insurance providers and on gasoline. Combining the tax increases with federal stimulus dollars, lawmakers staved off what might have been crippling cuts to public schools, prisons and programs that help the poor, elderly and disabled.
Some bills I really would have liked to have seen passed - specifically HB 2800, the Oregon Farm to School bill, and HB 2995, which would have created an Oregon Food Policy Council - stalled in Salem (again, in the farm-to-school bill's case) for now. We may have another chance when the Oregon Legislature convenes for a brief session early in 2010.
Below the fold is a list of what will now be (or in some cases, already has been) sent on to Governor Ted Kulongoski (D) for his signature...
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Fri May 29, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT
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In "Exposed", Mark Schapiro, Editorial Director of the Center for Investigative Reporting, tells the tale of two continents and their approaches towards environmental regulation, and what that means for our health, American business and even relative global power.
Schapiro takes a look at each of the regulatory approaches favored by both the European Union and the United States when it comes to substances ranging from BPA to GMOs to the chemicals in children's toys and cosmetics and beyond, and concludes that, like it or not, product innovation necessitated by Europe's adoption of the precautionary principle leads to not only safer products for people in the European Union, but is also creating a significant competitive advantage for companies overseas over their American competitors, as more and more of the world simply refuses to take the same leap of faith Americans must unfortunately currently take when it comes to new chemicals and substances being rushed onto the market and introduced into our bodies without sufficient prior testing to ensure they won't harm us. For just one recent example, as we're all seeing with BPA now, it's becoming clearer by the day that the current American laissez-faire approach to environmental regulation does not, and will not, work.
More below the fold...
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Wed May 13, 2009 at 15:15:00 PM PDT
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- The FDA has sent a warning letter to General Mills, telling the company to stop promoting Cheerios as a health food. (For a funny take on the Right Wing blogosphere's outrage (grrrr!) at FDA's "attack" on
America cereal, see here.) Meanwhile, Health Canada unfortunately seems to want to make it easier for food manufacturers to be able to market junk as "health food" in their country...
- Elementary school students are snacking on (and learning about) healthy local produce in Madison, Wisconsin.
- Can't say this is really a surprise - from Grist, Monsanto is now firing off their propaganda on National Petrol, errrrr, National Public Radio. Great article debunking Monsanto's claims, but it's not like the oil companies, ADM and other corporate interests haven't already been scrubbing themselves "clean" in their own greenshowers over the airwaves of NPR for years and years and years...
- Fantastic article from Ken Olsen at High Country News on the intersection of agriculture, business, politics, power and salmon - and what government ultimately needs to do to help restore wild salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest.
More below the fold...
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Wed May 13, 2009 at 07:58:07 AM PDT
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In Punjab, India, cancer rates are worse in farming villages that use more pesticides, researchers found. This is according to NPR's fantastic continuing coverage of the failure of the Green Revolution (the introduction of industrial ag around the world).
A farmer named Jarnail Singh noticed a connection between pesticides and cancer and he got a university to research the issue:
Singh says he noticed one of the first troubling clues in the late 1980s and early '90s: Peacocks - India's national bird - disappeared from the fields. Over the years, seven people in his family got cancer - and three of them died. People in Jajjal and surrounding villages got cancer, too.
The researchers confirmed his hunch. Areas with heavy pesticide use have significantly higher rates of cancer. That does not yet prove that the pesticides are to blame, but it is enough of a link to make you worry. In the meantime, the rural Punjab population continues to line up to ride the "cancer train" - the train that takes them to the area's regional cancer center.
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Mon May 11, 2009 at 22:00:12 PM PDT
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15 years after originally banning the granular form of carbofuran, an insecticide sold under the brand name Furadan, which was so toxic that just one grain was enough to kill a bird - USEPA on Monday finally officially banned use of the chemical in any form on food crops meant for human consumption -
FMC Corp. officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The company said on its Web site that Furadan "remains a useful product, vital to the sustainability of agriculture" and that its proper use "does not create a risk to human health, wildlife or the environment."
It's always great to see corporations attempt to pass of their deadly chemicals as a "sustainable solution", isn't it? While they're at it, maybe FMC Corporation can explain why a google search for 'FMC EPA investigation' brings up 18,500 hits, or why I spent a large percentage of my working life in environmental remediation back in New Jersey at their West Windsor chemical plant?
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Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 15:00:00 PM PDT
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It seems that the news today is all swine flu, all the time. Well, here are a few other things going on, besides swine flu. But if you DO want a swine flu update, do not miss Tom Philpott's piece on Grist. He says it better than anyone else I've read so far, condemning industrial agriculture and the filthy and risky conditions that we all consider acceptable in order to produce and eat cheap meat.
- Tom Laskawy comments on the reports that phthalates make us fat(ter). Here are my two cents: The focus on food should continue because crap eating is crap eating whether or not you get fat from it, and the focus on eliminating phthalates (used in PVC plastic) should ALSO continue because we know they do bad things OTHER THAN make us fat.
- Mark Bittman tells how to make sunchoke fritters. I'm a fan of sunchokes, but I've never tried them as fritters. (In fact, being raised in a fat-phobic Jewish family, the only time a year I got anything that remotely resembled a "fritter" was Hanukkah.)
- Alternet takes on marijuana legalization. They say 4 in 10 have smoked it, yet millions still get busted. And among those millions are my own friends and family, and perhaps yours too. The ridiculous war on pot hurts all of us. It's time to call a truce, or maybe even just wave a white flag and admit that pot is the rightful winner.
- This idea of highrise farms gets trotted out every so often as the possible silver bullet to solve all of our problems. I'm a skeptic. What do you think?
- No patents on seeds? Marion Nestle recommends we check out a report that calls for just that.
- Marion Nestle also shares info on banned pesticides in Chilean farmed salmon. One more good reason to say no to farmed fish. Particularly farmed carnivorous fish.
- Good things come in threes, right? I've got a third good one from Marion Nestle. The title is Who needs bioterrorism when we've got manure lagoons. I soooo agree. Osama doesn't need to make us sick from our food supply because we do that all by ourselves.
- Consumers Union speaks up about an issue I've been yelling about on this site - the FDA wants to delay a new "feed ban" rule by 60 days, leaving us open to increased risk of mad cow disease for an additional two months.
- Scary news from Environmental Health News (although not surprising at all): Together, two common pesticides may increase risk of Parkinson's disease.
- And now for some good news: The LA Times reports on hospitals adding fresh, organic foods to their menus. Yay!
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Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 13:59:55 PM PDT
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I feel like I'm on AAF's turf here, but I've found quite a few fish & water related articles over the past few days that deserve a mention here...
- The American pharmaceutical industry is still dumping hundreds of millions of pounds of drug residues into our water supplies.
- Two California-based environmentalists and researchers are cycling 2,000 miles down the Pacific Coast to raise awareness about the massive plastic soup in the North Pacific. I can't even come up with the words to describe how angry the picture with this article makes me - an adult turtle who was grossly deformed by crawling into a plastic ring while young, and whose body grew around it.
- And also (we all saw this one coming), the plastic-bag industry and the American Chemistry Council are kicking up the greenwashing a few notches.
- An article from Canada looks at the ongoing attempts at sustainability in sushi restaurants.
- A commonly used home garden pesticide, carbaryl, which is sold under the brand name "Sevin" (which has also been classified by EPA as a likely human carcinogen and is banned in the UK, Germany and several other countries...), has been identified as a threat to salmon and steelhead populations throughout the Northwest.
- The National Marine Fisheries Service is seeking our input as to how to form the rules protecting the now-endangered Cook Inlet (Alaska) beluga whales.
- A new study finds that the world's major rivers are drying up, and the Christian Science Monitor takes a look at how things might play out along the Colorado River for the Southwestern United States and Mexico.
- The European Union on Wednesday called for major cuts in the European commercial fishing fleet, and is cracking down on illegal fishing, to help overfished stocks recover. 88% of EU stocks are overfished, according to the commission.
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Sat Apr 18, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM PDT
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When talking about food safety in the U.S. versus Europe, we often mention how Europe uses the "Precautionary Principle" - an idea that basically means "let's make sure something's safe before we use it." Seems sensible, right? In fact, you'd HOPE we're doing something rather similar to that here. But we're not. In a rather EXTREME sort of way. Check THIS out:
The Environmental Protection Agency said it would order the manufacturers of 67 pesticides to test whether their products disrupt the hormonal system of humans or animals. Congress passed a bill mandating such tests in 1996, but the agency took years to develop them and ensure their validity, officials said. The agency said that the 67 pesticides were chosen because humans and animals are widely exposed to them, not because they are necessarily the most likely disruptors of endocrinal functions. About 1,000 substances will eventually be tested, said James J. Jones, acting assistant administrator for prevention, pesticides and toxic substances. The results are due back from manufacturers around the end of next year.
Really? This stuff's never been tested? Yet we've been using it anyway? Let me tell you a little secret. The pesticide industry was born out of the chemical weapons industry. They used to test war gases on bugs to see if they would be effective on humans. After WWI, when the U.S. wanted to get rid of its Chemical Warfare Service, those who researched war gasses advertised "peaceful" uses of gas as a means of keeping themselves employed. One such peaceful use was making pesticides. In other words, if a chemical is deadly to bugs, there's a REALLY GOOD CHANCE it's not good for people. And we didn't even TEST to see if perhaps that was the case???
And now we are testing, but we're letting the manufacturers do it? I don't mind making them pay for it, but - would I be crazy to suggest that perhaps they might not be very independent and that the results might be skewed in their favors?
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Tue Apr 14, 2009 at 23:31:55 PM PDT
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Africans spoke out about the G20 and they make a damn good point:
What a farce? That an elite group of leaders of 20 countries that control an estimated 85 percent of the world's economy should seek celebration of their minstrel shows by the millions of peoples of the world - most particularly in the underdeveloped countries - who live in conditions of staggering poverty at less than US$2 or P10 a day!
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Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 15:16:57 PM PDT
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Here's a story to will chill your heart. With the dust - and court cases - seemingly settled on the deadly melamine/baby milk powder scandal from late 2008, Shanghai Daily today reports that fruits and vegetables tested in cities across China were found to be: "laced with pesticides."
How's that again? Pesticides in vegetables? And all along Monsanto & all have been telling us that pesticides are safe.
The incredible thing is that the article in question was posted on the staid Chinese state media! The story pulled quite a few punches. Admitting that the Greenpeace China report had found "widespread traces of pesticides - including some that are banned" on fruits and vegetables tested in stores in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, it added - even more scarily - that "the key source of the problem may be produce coming in from outside the city, which is hard to regulate."
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Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM PDT
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Under the Clean Water Act, farmers are required to seek permits to apply pesticides near waterways. Bush overturned that, saying that permits are NOT necessary. The case went to court and in January the Sixth Court of Appeals overturned Bush's decision (which means we're right back where we started, with farmers being required to seek permits to apply pesticides near waterways). The Farm Bureau and Tom Vilsack both opposed the court's decision.
The latest part of the saga happened last week. Obama's Justice Dept is going to let the 6th court of appeals' ruling stand. In other words: No change. Sort of. Because the EPA wants to let the Bush rule stand for 2 years. Nobody knows yet whether that will be allowed or not.
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