Missouri Resident Wins Fight For Front Yard Vegetable Garden

The board felt that, technically, he had the law in his favor,” Schroeder said. “But I think that all of us on the board agreed that the garden is an eyesore. It goes against common sense, really, to put a garden in the front yard instead of the back.”

Personally, I think this Schroeder dude is a moron…what standard of “common sense” are we using here? The ‘socially acceptable’ common sense standard that we have all the water in the world to waste growing lawns that serve no purpose other than to look pretty?

In spite of the lone hold-out voter, at least this family has retained the right to use their property resourcefully…score one for liberty, eh? 

via Real Farmacy – “The resident, Karl Tricamo, had been feuding with the city for months over the vegetable garden he had planted in front of his house in the 300 block of Louisa Avenue.

The city saw the garden as a blot on the landscape and issued Tricamo a citation demanding he uproot the corn, tomatoes, sorghum, peppers and other crops sprouting there and, instead, seed the yard for grass. The garden measures 35 feet by 25 feet.

With the help of an attorney from the Libertarian group Freedom Center of Missouri, Tricamo emerged victorious on Wednesday night when the city’s Board of Adjustment voted to throw out the citation against him.

“We felt vindicated,” said Tricamo, 29. “I had taken steps from day one that everything would be within ordinance. They just tried to throw everything at us and hoped something would stick.”

Tricamo’s attorney, Dave Roland, cast the issue as a blow against petty city tyranny.

“Gardening is part of the basis of human civilization,” Roland said. “Is it unusual to have a garden in your front yard? Yes. But the city had no right to demand he remove it.”

…Though the citation has been thrown out, the couple has grown weary of repeated interactions with City Hall and visits and drive-bys by code enforcement officers. Tricamo logged his dealings with City Hall and the garden in a blog, vegetableyarden.wordpress.com.”

Full Story on Real Farmacy

Related articles

Container Gardening with Flowers, Annuals, Perennials and Herbs (familysurvivalprotocol.com)
Indoor Vegetable Gardening (veggardening.wordpress.com)
4 Home Vegetable Garden Ideas (owfotografik.wordpress.com)
Urban Vegetable Garden for Small Spaces & Balconies (2012indyinfo.com)

FDA Requests $300 Million To Implement Food Safety Modernization Act

“Apart from a full-fledged revolution initiated by the people against the corrupt federal government, it is highly likely that Congress will grant the FDA its funding increase, which will effectively turn up the heat of police state tyranny against American farmers and food growers. But the people can still make their voices heard by contacting their representatives and demanding that the FDA not receiving funding to implement the onerous provisions of FSMA.”

(NaturalNews) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has requested nearly $300 million in additional agency funding from Congress in order to implement the oppressive tenets of the so-called Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which will stifle American farmers and commercial food growers and potentially put many of them out of business. The FDA claims it is having to struggle through “tight budget times,” and insists that a roughly 17 percent budget increase over its 2013 budget will be needed for 2014.

If granted by Congress, the requested funding increase will bring the FDA’s overall operating budget to a massive $4.7 billion for the 2014 fiscal year, which is the highest it has ever been. This is in spite of the fact that FSMA is completely despotic, granting the FDA sweeping new authority over the cultivation, transport, and sale of food, particularly at the local level. As we covered many times in the past, FSMA will allow the FDA to preemptively regulate and control farmers and commercial food growers.” Full Story on Natural News

You can contact your Congressmen by visiting:
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Related articles

Food Safety Modernization Act Far More Costly Than Supporters Claimed (openmarket.org)
FDA requests $4.7 billion to implement food safety law (vitals.nbcnews.com)
Obama Administration Seeks FDA Funding Increase for FSMA Implementation (trackmycrop.wordpress.com)
Food Companies Must Prep For FDA & FSMA (drughealth.blogspot.com)
Q&A With Michael Taylor, Part I: The Next FSMA Rules and Imports (trackmycrop.wordpress.com)
White House Guts Food Safety Modernization Act, Testing Nixed (poisonedpets.com)

Genetic Roulette: The Gamble Of Our Lives

“Eating genetically modified food is gambling with every bite.”

RawForBeauty.com

“Never-Before-Seen-Evidence points to genetically engineered foods as a major contributor to rising disease rates in the US population, especially among children. Gastrointestinal disorders, allergies, inflammatory diseases, and infertility are just some of the problems implicated in humans, pets, livestock, and lab animals that eat genetically modified soybeans and corn.”

‘Pasture-Raised’: Can This Under-the-Radar Food Label Go Legit?

“When I look at this as a consumer, I don’t want to just see a pretty pictures of pastures. I want to know how the animals are actually are raised. So if there was a way to incorporate the terminology around pasture into some kind of official labeling, it would help consumers a lot.”

TakePart – “Pasture-raised.” In recent years these descriptive, evocative words have become synonymous with the real thing: Meat and eggs produced on open fields, generally at a scale that is both humane and ecologically friendly. In other words, it has become the anti-factory-farming label, more likely to show up in places like farmers markets and websites advertising animal shares and meat CSAs.

And when it comes to meat, some producers (and their customers) see “pasture-raised” as a step beyond organic. That designation has some standards in place for the animals’ access to the outdoors, but organically raised livestock still often relies heavily on grain-based feed rather than grass and the other wild foods (and bugs) found on open pasture.

Pasture-raised has gone hand-in-hand with practices that are transparent and integrity-filled since 1996, when Joel Salatin used the term in his book Pastured Poultry Profits. But here’s the catch: it may not always. “Pasture-raised” has no rules, no formal definition, no regulation, and therefore no enforcement behind it. And just like “free range,” a term which likely started out as a legitimate claim and now has come to mean very little, “pasture-raised” may be on the verge of mass appeal—and the eventual dilution that comes with it.

In fact, as “pasture-raised” and its cousin “pastured” begin appearing in big grocery stores, on everything from meat to milk and egg cartons, it’s already beginning to raise a number of complicated questions.

Marilyn Noble at the American Grassfed Association admits that a great deal of the meat she buys directly from the local farmers in her area is labeled “pasture-raised” —especially if it’s chicken or pork, which cannot technically be grassfed (a term that only applies to ruminant animals, such as cows, sheep, and bison). But it’s the relationships she has with farmers—and the transparency that allows—rather than the label that keeps her coming back.

“If you see grassfed on a label,” she adds, “it means that the animals were fed nothing but grass and forage from weaning to harvest. And usually there’s been no confinement at any point during their lives. It’s a very broad definition, but if you see it on a label, you know it’s been approved by TheFood Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and has meaning behind it. Pasture-raised means whatever the person using it wants it to mean.”

Andrew Gunther, Program Director of the third-party certifier Animal Welfare Approved, agrees.

“The problem with ‘pastured’ and ‘pasture-raised’ is that they’re very bucolic. Someone comes up with a nice phrase to evoke a feeling in their production system, and someone else will come along and steal it.” Full Story on TakePart

Seed, Sun, Real Dirt & Bees

Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us? 

 ”QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us? is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis from Taggart Siegel, director of THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN. Taking us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, this engaging and ultimately uplifting film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva. Together they reveal both the problems and the solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature.”

~~~

~~~

Official Film Website: Queen Of The Sun

—

“Our experience filming honeybees, pollinators and the incredible beings who care for them has led us on a new odyssey to investigate where it all begins: the seed. SEED will be the final film in a trilogy that began with the Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us? and Real Dirt on Farmer John. SEED will investigate the dramatic story of seeds, the basis of life on earth. The film will unveil a David and Goliath battle for the future of our seeds. As many irreplaceable seeds are nearing extinction, SEED follows heroic biodynamic farmers, scientists and seed collectors, who are working tirelessly to preserve agricultural security and seed diversity in an uphill battle against high-tech industrial seed companies and an impending global food crisis.”

“SEED will reveal the awe, wonder and hidden beauty of seeds. We will unearth the resilience and power that all seeds have to sustain, enliven and enrich our humanity. We hope SEED will ignite the imagination of audiences, inspiring them to be part of a new movement to help sustain seed diversity.”

I am not able to find a trailer for SEED that I can embed here so if you’d like to check it out, you can do so Here.

Shellfish Coated Bananas?

I cannot believe we’re considering mucking up bananas…is it possible for us to leave anything alone and just appreciate it the way it is?? Are we really going to rely on those slippery little labels (you know, the ones that fall off all over the place) to warn people with seafood/shellfish allergies that the banana they’re about to eat may harm them – or at the very least, cause them to eat fruit coated with something they may well have a religious or ethical objection to?

Excerpt, Take Part – “The food-industrial complex may have made it increasingly difficult to determine what, exactly, we’re eating: Your soy sauce may contain gluten; your ice cream may have tree nuts in it; your salad mix may be tainted with E. coli. But there are some foods that are so blessedly unprocessed, so uncomplicated, that they are just what they are, right?

Like bananas.

Or not. As Science Daily reports, scientists have come up with a new spray they say will prevent bananas from ripening into brown mush for almost two extra weeks. The downside? The spray is made from chitosan, which is derived from the shells of shrimp and crabs.

Currently, the chitosan-based spray is not available commercially, so no bananas are being treated. But as Science Daily notes, the bacteria-fighting prowess of the shellfish-derivative “is attracting considerable attention in efforts to keep fruits and vegetables fresher longer.” Article

—

Science Daily Excerpt - ”Scientists speaking on August 22 in Philadelphia at the 244^th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society described efforts to develop a spray-on coating that consumers could use to delay the ripening of those 6.4 billion pounds of bananas that people in the U.S. eat every year.

The coating is a so-called “hydrogel,” a superabsorbent material like those with many medical and commercial uses, made from chitosan, a substance derived from shrimp and crab shells. Xihong Li, Ph.D., who presented the report, noted that chitosan is attracting considerable attention in efforts to keep fruits and vegetables fresher longer due to its action in killing bacteria that cause produce to rot, low cost and other properties. Until now, however, it has not been used to slow the ripening of bananas.

“We found that by spraying green bananas with a chitosan aerogel, we can keep bananas fresh for up to 12 days,” said Li, who is the study’s leader. “Once bananas begin to mature, they quickly become yellow and soft, and then they rot. We have developed a way to keep bananas green for a longer time and inhibit the rapid ripening that occurs. Such a coating could be used at home by consumers, in supermarkets or during shipment of bananas.” Full Article on Science Daily

A Call To Action: Join The Fight For Food Freedom

Last week, I shared a story about the Levesque family in Terra Haute, Indiana who were forced to give up their pet chickens after the city abruptly decided that chickens are farm animals, not pets. Their story is both heartbreaking and infuriating and I’d like to ask the WordPress community to please support the Levesque’s as they fight to stop something like this from happening to other families – and to preserve their right to provide food (and education!) to their kids. Please take a moment to sign the petition below and then pass it around, email it, link it and share it as much as possible…

SIGN PETITION HERE

Connect With Simpler Times Homestead on Facebook

This fight isn’t just about one family in one city…laws and ordinances that restrict our ability to produce/grow our own food supply are popping up all over the place. If we do not fight them now, we will all pay the price (literally, at grocery stores when they are the only food source left) if we don’t stand up for ourselves – and each other – NOW.

Thanks in advance for any and all help you can give! 

Related Content -

Belle Plaine Discussing Urban Chickens (kcrg.com)
Connellsville Health Board cries foul to chicken farms in city (triblive.com)

More chickens allowed in Orlando (clickorlando.com)
Urban Chicken Bi-Laws in Winnipeg: What the CLUCK?! (mbfoodgeographies.wordpress.com)
Virginia government prosecutes homeowner with criminal charges for backyard chickens (secretsofthefed.com)
Hopewell’s growing backyard chicken business spurs “chicken chat” gatherings (nj.com)
Young Girl Rescues Family By Farming Chickens (nextworldtv.com)
Terra Haute Officials Force Family To Give Up Pet Chickens (misbehavedwoman.wordpress.com)
Is it cheaper to keep chickens or buy eggs? (chickentales.wordpress.com)

Joel Salatin: “What You Can Do”

Excerpt, Wanderlust Festival – (Emphasis mine) “What do you mean, “what can I do?”  You can participate.  You can connect.  You can get actively involved in the process of turning that beet into Harvard beets.  Yum.  You can turn off the TV.  You can cancel the Disney vacation and buy bushels of tomatoes to can or turn into salsa.  You can get some pots and grow a pot garden . . . of vegetables.  You can put a beehive on the roof of your house, two chickens in the foyer instead of that aquarium or parakeet cage.

Just like today–whatever today looks like–is the manifestation of billions of individual decisions accumulated over time, tomorrow will be too.  And if you, I, we don’t start making different decisions we will end up where we’re headed, only it may be worse because we’ll be farther down the wrong road.

We must stop this incessant victimhood mentality.  Somebody else will not fix things.  Somebody else will not make me healthy;  somebody else will not make me happy.  These things are my responsibility. Not the neighbor’s, not the government’s, not the church or civic club.  If I don’t know what to do with a beet, I need to find out.  Knowing what to do with a beet begins a long chain of events that ends up creating a soil in which earthworms happily procreate.  And that is a good thing…” Full Article Here On Wanderlust Festival

Joel Speaking at Wanderlust Festival 2012 -

Want to hear more from Joel Salatin? Joel himself hosting a Q&A right here on this Wanderlust Journal blog page on Wednesday, April 10 at 1pm EST. Post your questions for him at that time and the man himself will answer your questions!

Related articles

Final Project: Joel Salatin, A Local Hero (grantklover.wordpress.com)
Joel Salatin On “Illegal Everything” (familysurvivalprotocol.com)
Joel Salatin Workshops In Kiama! (green-change.com)

Joel Salatin On “Illegal Everything”

An ‘oldie but goodie’ video…well worth the watch time for those not already familiar with the ever-expanding laws that restrict our freedom to decide what foods we can put in our bodies.

Joel Salatin speaks on John Stossel’s segment, “Illegal Everything,” about raw milk, farms, and food freedom. Interview is from 2012.

Related articles

Raw Milk Sold Legally In Arkansas…Maybe? (roninsjourney.wordpress.com)

Iowa on Verge of Legalizing Raw Milk; Resistance to Food Tyranny is Rising (theintelhub.com)
Final Project: Joel Salatin, A Local Hero (grantklover.wordpress.com)
Jury Nullification: Farmer Found Not Guilty in Raw Milk Case (silverunderground.com)
Flawed Government Report Used to Block State Raw Milk Freedom (secretsofthefed.com)
‘Acute’ retail pressure hurts food producers: Salatin (smh.com.au)

 

Terra Haute Officials Force Family To Give Up Pet Chickens

I must confess that I never bothered to even look and see if our city has an ordinance against having hens before getting our girls a few weeks ago…I honestly don’t care what officials have to say about it; they have no right to dictate what I do in my yard s’long as I am not bothering or harming anyone… and should a problem arise, I will fight to keep my hens…and my personal freedom. 

My happy girls, Radley & Boo taking a break on my lap…

(WTHI) – “When you think of family pets, usually a dog or cat comes to mind, but for one Terre Haute family they say their life isn’t complete without the family hens. The only problem is their pets are a violation of city code.

It’s the kind of after school activity you see on a farm, collecting the eggs from the hen house.

“The prices (of eggs) in the store are almost two dollars a dozen with the exception of the holiday,” Kevin Levesque of Terre Haute said.

But the hen house we encountered is located on a backyard farm. Kevin Levesque’s in the city of Terre Haute.

“That was the baseline for it pretty much for more eggs and to teach the kids a little more than just a dog and a cat,” Levesque said.

But a few weeks ago the Levesques were told their hen house pets are a violation of city code; for having farm animals in a residential zone.

“If you look up the definition of farm animal at USLAW.org it doesn’t include chickens,” Kevin said.” Full Story Here

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Excerpt from the Change.org Petition to help the Levesque’s in the fight for food freedom:

“For two years, Various city officials would tell people that as long as no neighbors complained, there was no ordinance against it. Now in 2013, we are suddenly being told that there are such ordinances disallowing chickens and that after 2 years we must now find another place for them. Meaning we must get rid of our family pets that our children have raised from 2 days old and grown to love.

We want the government to realize that chickens are important many citizens of Terre Haute. Major cities across the United States are coming to realize that chickens bring a Green initiative to their cities. Raising local chickens increase food awareness, reduce transportation cost, and supply the community with a level of sustainability. One example of this would be during emergency situations where government assistance can focus on other pressing issues as was the case in 2005 with the massive flooding that decimated so much farm land along the Wabash River and dislodged so many local citizens.

Chickens aren’t farm animals they are beautiful and entertaining pets that provide many benefits. Homegrown eggs are without hormones or chemicals, are higher in nutrients, lower in cholesterol, and taste 10 times better that store-bought. Chickens will eat anything that moves, meaning they eat ticks (that carry lyme disease), fleas, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, stink bugs, slugs, and even mice, baby rats, and small snakes. Chickens are fun, loving, and really should be considered domestic pets…”

Read More & Sign The Petition

How Monsanto Gained Power Over All 3 Branches Of Government

Monsanto has successfully made themselves invincible in each different branch of government.

*As always, foul language warning with Lee Camp’s Moment of Clarity*

After you’ve watched the video, learn more about Monsanto at these links:

http://bit.ly/YOlEHr 
http://huff.to/LJGQ0
http://huff.to/ThGOfB
http://bit.ly/ZJLZWO

Monsanto Madness

Monstrous Monsanto

If you haven’t already watched it, here’s  ”The World According To Monsanto” – it is WELL worth the watch time for anyone wanting to know more about Monsanto and their dangerous influence on our world…

Related Content:

GMO Food – Biggest Lie & Scary – What Monsanto Doesn’t Want People to See (secretsofthefed.com)
Monsanto More Powerful Than The U.S. Government (dprogram.net)
US government signs “Monsanto Protection Act” written by Monsanto-sponsored senator (seeker401.wordpress.com)
Surprised? Monsanto Openly Wrote Own Monsanto Protection Act (princevega.com)
New Legislation Would Push Genetically Modified Foods Onto Our Plates (aworldchaos.wordpress.com)

Human Tissue Found in Meats

 - But Eating It Is “No Threat”

Yegads…is there ANYTHING left in our world that is safe to consume, I wonder? Most of our veggies are now genetically altered and filled with pesticides….milk is full of steroids and soon, aspertame…and almost all of our meat is either contaminated in one form or another…or on its way to being as genetically modified as our crops. What in the HELL are we doing to ourselves…to our children…to the entire planet???

“The horse meat fiasco in Europe has prodded scientists to look a bit deeper into what else we might be consuming. A team of South African scientists have just found traces of human tissue in meat meant for public consumption from 9 provinces.”

Activist Post - “The horse meat fiasco in Europe has prodded scientists to look a bit deeper into what else we might be consuming. A team of South African scientists have just found traces of human tissue in meat meant for public consumption from 9 provinces.

The issue was revealed to parliament, almost as a side note, during meat inspection briefings on Tuesday.

A University of Stellenbosch scientist and his team conducted a microbial analysis that revealed traces of human elements, but said that slaughterhouse workers sometimes cut themselves . . . or other things . . . which could lead to the findings.

If I walked into a factory and the sample I randomly selected to test was a meat sample of which the person de-boning the meat had just picked his nose and then touched the meat, I would get a totally different microbial reading,” he said.

Delicious. Beyond the findings themselves, it brings up the global hot-button topic of the moment: food labeling. How much should we know about what we are consuming?

In addition to the troubling statements above, scientist Louw Hoffman noted that only 15% of the meat being sold in South Africa is correctly labeled, revealing other potentially harmful attributes of which consumers are currently unaware:

“In the labelling regulations it clearly states that allergens have to be mentioned and noted,” said Hoffman.

Allergens like . . . other people’s genetic signature?

Yet, Hoffman and his team of scientists concluded that the incorrect labeling poses “no threat” to the consumers who eat it, despite some more gems uncovered:

Meat Musical Chairs

Briefing parliament’s portfolio committee on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, University of Western Cape forensic scientist Dr Eugenia D’Amato said nearly 43% of samples she had tested which were labelled as game, were, in fact, beef. 

D’Amato said horse meat had also been used as a substitute for springbok in biltong, and pork was found in ostrich sausages. 

There was also a smaller proportion of kangaroo in samples.

Despite the overall findings that consumers have absolutely no idea what they are eating – including human remnants – in 85% of the products, SA’s Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries deputy director-general downplayed it by asserting that we are not becoming unwitting cannibals:

It is possible that (if tested) we could find traces of human DNA in meat. However, even if we do find human DNA, it does not mean we are eating human flesh.

Great. Unfortunately, we are evidently eliminating healthy microorganisms in the processing of foods, but since there is an acceptable standard of nasty foreign entities, thanks to our regulatory agencies – we have introduced a variety of contaminants into now weakened guts and immune systems.

We’d like to think that these food scandals are safe from us – overseas, it’s their problem. But, big problems are usually systemic and many of the developed nations are on the same platform. As with most food scandals, they go on for years unnoticed before the beans are spilled.

It doesn’t sound like anyone’s literally being run through the meat grinder just yet, but it’s a startling fact that we don’t know much about what our food comes into contact with. And we have scientists and regulatory agencies continually asserting how safe our food supply is.

Are you unsettled at the prospect of ingesting someone else’s particles and blood? Do you wonder what else will be found when the next scientific investigation is conducted in your country?

Perhaps we should be asking ourselves before each meal, “Hey, who’s in there? How’d they get in there? Anyone missing?”

Sources:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/03/27/human-tissue-in-my-beef-stew
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/387383/Could-HUMAN-DNA-be-in-our-food-Quite-likely-claim-experts
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/525/91240.html

Busy Bee News

With our schools all on spring break here, I’ve had a revolving door of bored children passing  through the house all week so I am a bit behind in posts that I’d planned to get done. Maybe it has all worked out for the best as articles have piled up, I now have three slightly conflicting and very interesting news stories about pesticides and the potential harm they cause (or don’t?) our bee colonies…

Pesticide makes bees forget the scent for food, new study finds

“Neocotinoids block part of brain bees use for learning, leaving them unable to make link between floral scents and nectar.”

Bees exposed to widely-used pesticides were slow to make or forgot completely the link between floral scents and food. Photograph: C.N.Connolly/PA

The Guardian – “Widely used pesticides have been found in new research to block a part of the brain that bees use for learning, rendering some of them unable to perform the essential task of associating scents with food. Bees exposed to two kinds of pesticide were slower to learn or completely forgot links between floral scents and nectar.

These effects could make it harder for bees to forage among flowers for food, thereby threatening their survival and reducing the pollination of crops and wild plants.

The findings add to existing research that neonicotinoid pesticides are contributing to the decline in bee populations.

It has also been revealed that a separate government field study on the impact of the pesticides on bees was seriously compromised by contamination because the chemicals are so widespread in the environment.

The government put the field study at the heart of the UK’s resistance to a Europe-wide ban on the controversial pesticides earlier this month. The UK was one of nine out of 27 member states that opposed suspending some uses of the insecticides across the EU, after environment secretary Owen Paterson said, “I have asked the EC to wait for the results of our field trials, rather than rushing to a decision”. On Wednesday, his department said more field research was needed.

The new findings on the effect of pesticides on bee brains showed that within 20 minutes of exposure to neonicotinoids the neurons in the major learning centre of the brain stopped firing. Christopher Connolly at the University of Dundee, who led the peer-reviewed work published in the online journal Nature Communications, said it was the first to show the pesticides had a direct impact on pollinator brain physiology.

A parallel peer-reviewed study on the behaviour of bees subjected to the same insecticides found the bees were slower to learn or completely forgot important associations between floral scent and food rewards. “Disruption in this important function has profound implications for honeybee colony survival, because bees that cannot learn will not be able to find food,” said Dr Geraldine Wright, at Newcastle University, who led the work.

The scientists who carried out the separate field study for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs admitted it was “not a statistically robust study” because of the contamination issues. The trial results (pdf), which have not been peer-reviewed, showed that 20 hives of bumblebees meant to act as pesticide-free controls in the experiments were significantly contaminated owing to the widespread presence of the chemicals in the environment. Neonicotinoids are near ubiquitous in modern agriculture and earn billions a year for their manufacturers. But a series of high-profile scientific studies in the last year has increasingly linked them to harmful effects in bees. Declines in bees and other pollinators, which fertilise three-quarters of the world’s food crops, have been linked to habitat loss and disease as well as pesticides.

Julian Little of Bayer, which makes one of the neonicotinoids tested in the government study, said: “We welcome field studies and once again, when such studies are carried out, there does not appear to be a link between neonicotinoid seed treatment use and poor bee health.” Full Article

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Neonicotinoids pose ‘low’ risk to bees, Defra studies show

“The two pieces of research, including a field trial from the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera), contradict the findings of an EU risk assessment and are likely to reinforce the UK’s opposition to a proposed EU ban.”

DEFRA has published two pieces of research suggesting the risk of neonicotinoids seed treatments to bee populations in the field is low.

The Farmer’s Guardian – “The European Commission is planning to suspend the use of three neonicotinoid products - imidacloprid, thiamethoxam and clothianidin – for two years from as soon as this July.

The proposal is based on the findings of a risk assessment by the European Food Safety Agency (Efsa), which  found the chemicals, which are used to treat seeds prior to sowing to protect against insects like aphids, pose a ‘high risk’ to honey bees from crops producing nectar and pollen.

Monsanto’s Poisonous Seeds In The White House

So, folks still think we have two major political parties who are quite different from one another, eh? People think the world would be a much different or better place “If Only…” their candidate and party of choice had won the election of 2012…or 2008…or well, you get the point. Hell, even thought I had found a “purist” party this time around when I jumped on the Libertarian train. Figures that I’d find out only a few short weeks after the election that my beloved Savior Party has been working with the corpo-legislative whores known as The American Legislative Exchange Council…ALEC. There is no place, no party and no politician that the huge agra-giants like Monsanto cannot sink their poisonous roots into…

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CLN  “The roots of the relationship between Monsanto and the White House go back for decades. Bush senior’s administration was responsible for deeming GMO crops substantially equivalent to non-GMO crops, opening the flood gates for the industry to take over the food supply with little room for the opposition.

Mitt Romney was intimately involved with Monsanto’s transition into biotechnology.  During the presidential primaries, Romney named an 11-member agricultural advisory committee that was full of Monsanto connections.”

After promising to label GMO’s during his 2008 campaign, President Obama has opened the doors for the following GM crops during his administration:

Monsanto GMO alfalfa
Monsanto GMO sugar beets
Monsanto GMO BT soybean
Syngenta GMO corn for ethanol
Pioneer GMO soybean
Syngenta GMO BT cotton
Bayer GMO cotton
GMO papaya strain

This is not surprising given the fact that Obama has appointed the following people to regulatory bodies that are supposed to be responsible for the safety of our food (click on the links to see the announcements of Obama’s appointments):

Roger Beachy, director of the USDA, is a former director of Monsanto
Michael Taylor, the USDA food safe czar, is a former VP of Monsanto
Ramona Romero, a USDA council, was previously on Dupont’s corporate council.
Islam Siddiqui, the US agriculture trade representative, who pushes GM exports to other countries, is a former Monsanto lobbyist.” Full Story Here

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By Connor Adams Sheets | March 27 2013 3:03 PM

International Business Times – “The “Monsanto Protection Act” is the name opponents of the Farmer Assurance Provision have given to this terrifying piece of policy, and it’s a fitting moniker given its shocking content.

President Barack Obama signed a spending bill, HR 933, into law on Tuesday that includes language that has food and consumer advocates and organic farmers up in arms over their contention that the so-called “Monsanto Protection Act” is a giveaway to corporations that was passed under the cover of darkness.

There’s a lot being said about it, but here are five terrifying facts about the Farmer Assurance Provision — Section 735 of the spending bill — to get you acquainted with the reasons behind the ongoing uproar:

1.) The “Monsanto Protection Act” effectively bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of controversial genetically modified (aka GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) seeds, no matter what health issues may arise concerning GMOs in the future. The advent of genetically modified seeds — which has been driven by the massive Monsanto Company – and their exploding use in farms across America came on fast and has proved a huge boon for Monsanto’s profits.

But many anti-GMO folks argue there have not been enough studies into the potential health risks of this new class of crop. Well, now it appears that even if those studies are completed and they end up revealing severe adverse health effects related to the consumption of genetically modified foods, the courts will have no ability to stop the spread of the seeds and the crops they bear.

2.) The provision’s language was apparently written in collusion with Monsanto. Lawmakers and companies working together to craft legislation is by no means a rare occurrence in this day and age. But the fact that Sen. Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, actually worked with Monsanto on a provision that in effect allows them to keep selling seeds, which can then go on to be planted, even if it is found to be harmful to consumers, is stunning. It’s just another example of corporations bending Congress to their will, and it’s one that could have dire risks for public health in America.

3.) Many members of Congress were apparently unaware that the “Monsanto Protection Act” even existed within the bill they were voting on. HR 933 was a spending bill aimed at averting a government shutdown and ensuring that the federal government would continue to be able to pay its bills. But the Center for Food Safety maintains that many Democrats in Congress were not even aware that the provision was in the legislation:

“In this hidden backroom deal, Sen. [Barbara] Mikulski turned her back on consumer, environmental and farmer protection in favor of corporate welfare for biotech companies such as Monsanto,” Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, said in a statement. “This abuse of power is not the kind of leadership the public has come to expect from Sen. Mikulski or the Democrat Majority in the Senate.”

4.) The President did nothing to stop it, either. On Tuesday, Obama signed HR 933 while the rest of the nation was fixated on gay marriage, as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument concerning California’s Proposition 8. But just because most of the nation and the media were paying attention to gay marriage doesn’t mean that others were not doing their best to express their opposition to the “Monsanto Protection Act.” In fact, more than 250,000 voters signed a petition opposing the provision. And Food Democracy Now protesters even took their fight straight to Obama, protesting in front of the White House against Section 735 of the bill. He signed it anyway.

5.) It sets a terrible precedent. Though it will only remain in effect for six months until the government finds another way to fund its operations, the message it sends is that corporations can get around consumer safety protections if they get Congress on their side. Furthermore, it sets a precedent that suggests that court challenges are a privilege, not a right.” Full Article Here on IBT

Related Articles:

Top 10 excuses for Obama signing the Monsanto Protection Act (thesurvivalplaceblog.com)
Obama Signs Monsanto Protection Act Into Law After Promising GMO Labeling in 2007 (naturalsociety.com)
Top 10 excuses for Obama signing the Monsanto Protection Act (jonrappoport.wordpress.com)
FOCUS | Monsanto and the Seeds of Suicide (readersupportednews.org)
Farmers and food safety advocates lead Monsanto backlash (salon.com)
‘Monsanto Protection Act’ slips silently through US Congress (rt.com)
Monsanto Required (Nutrition Optional) (factgammon.wordpress.com)
Obama Betrays Americans Again…with the “Monsanto Protection Act” (thedailysheeple.com)
Monsanto, DuPont bury the lawsuit hatchet, set to make more GMO (EndtheLie.com)
Monsanto is up to no good… AGAIN! (thebubbaeffect.wordpress.com)

The Story Of An Egg

Can learning the meaning of a single term actually help change the food system? David Evans and Alexis Koefoed think so. These poultry farmers explain the real story behind such terms as cage free, free range, and pasture raised so that consumers can make informed decisions when they go to their local supermarket.

The International “Honey Laundering” Scandal

Some days I really just feel like ranting and raving and howling in pure frustration until all the world stops in its tracks at the sound of my voice. Beneath the raging fury though is a real sadness…how has it come to pass that humans have lost their way to such a degree? Nothing pure or real is valued; nothing but money is considered sacred, it seems. Food…one of the most natural & basic of necessities…we’ve twisted and bastardized it to the point that it is no longer safe or even recognizable sometimes. We are so damned lost that we cannot even appreciate the value of such a simple thing as pure honey anymore…

Live Science – There might be something funny in your honey…

“Food-safety experts have found that much of the honey sold in the United States isn’t actually honey, but a concoction of corn or rice syrup, malt sweeteners or “jiggery” (cheap, unrefined sugar), plus a small amount of genuine honey, according toWired UK.

Worse, some honey — much of which is imported from Asia — has been found to contain toxins like lead and other heavy metals, as well as drugs like chloramphenicol, an antibiotic, according to a Department of Justice news release.

This international “honey-laundering” scandal has now resulted in a Justice Department indictment of two U.S. companies and the charging of five people with selling mislabeled honey that also contained chloramphenicol.

Honey Solutions of Baytown, Texas, and Groeb Farms of Onsted, Mich., have agreed to pay millions of dollars in fines and implement corporate compliance measures following a lengthy Justice Department investigation.” Full Story Here

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And now I think the only way to restore a measure of peace to my brain is to go outside, water my flowers, plant more seeds and try to apologize to the bees for our careless desecration of  their lovely gift of honey..!

Top Grocery Stores Refuse To Sell Genetically Modified Salmon

“The FDA has stated it will likely not label genetically engineered salmon, providing consumers no way of knowing if the fish they are feeding their families is genetically engineered. At least 35 other species of genetically engineered fish are currently under development, and the FDA’s decision on this genetically engineered salmon application will set a precedent for other genetically engineered fish and animals (including cows, chickens and pigs) to enter the global food market.”

Common Dreams – March 20 – “A coalition of consumer, health, food safety and fishing groups today launched the “Campaign for Genetically Engineered (GE)-Free Seafood” by announcing that several major grocery retailers representing more than 2,000 stores across the United States have already committed not to sell genetically engineered seafood if it is allowed onto the market.

The growing market rejection of GE fish comes as the FDA conducts its final review of a genetically engineered salmon. If approved, the salmon would be the first-ever genetically engineered animal allowed to enter the human food supply.

Stores that have committed to not offer the salmon or other genetically engineered seafood include the national retailers Trader Joe’s (367 stores), Aldi (1,230 stores), Whole Foods (325 stores in US); regional chains such as Marsh Supermarkets (93 stores in Indiana and Ohio), PCC Natural Markets (9 stores in Washington State); and co-ops in Minnesota, New York, California and Kansas.

“We applaud these retailers for listening to the vast majority of their customers who want sustainable, natural seafood for their families. Now it’s time for other food retailers, including Walmart, Costco and Safeway, to follow suit and let their customers know they will not be selling unlabeled, poorly studied genetically engineered seafood,” said Eric Hoffman, food & technology policy campaigner with Friends of the Earth…”

Full Story on Common Dreams

 

ALEC Pushes “Ag-Gag” Laws To Silence Whistleblowers

Anti-whistleblower bills supported by the animal agriculture lobby would criminalize essentially anyone who tries to expose the conditions at factory farms and slaughter plants. The goal: to keep Americans in the dark about the rampant animal abuse in the world of factory farming.

Excerpts, The Raw Story “Bills being shopped in six states by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) would make it a crime to film animal abuse at factory farms or lie on job applications, in hopes of shutting down animal rights activists who infiltrate slaughterhouses to expose ghastly conditions.

“The meat industry’s response to these exposes has not been to try to prevent these abuses from taking place, but rather it’s really just been to prevent Americans from finding out about those abuses in the first place,” Paul Shapiro, spokesperson for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), told Raw Story. “What they’re doing is trying to pass laws throughout the country that don’t just shoot the messenger, they seek to imprison the messenger.”

The proposals mandate that evidence of animal abuse be turned over to law enforcement within 48 hours, or face a financial penalty. Several of the bills bills also make it a crime to lie on slaughterhouse job applications, which activists commonly do in order to get footage like the content of a video published by the HSUS, embedded below…”

“Those bills appear to be spreading with the help of ALEC, a conservative business advocacy group that encourages lawmakers to “exchange” legislative ideas from state to state…”

“…The bills to block animal rights activists are in California, Nebraska, Tennessee, Indiana, Arkansas and Pennsylvania, according to The Associated Press. Three other states — New Mexico, Wyoming and New Hampshire — have already rejected similar bills this year, and HSUS told Raw Story that three more — Minnesota, Vermont and North Carolina — are yet expected to take them up.

Several states already have laws similar to what ALEC is pushing, and virtually all of them were triggered in response to shocking videos produced by animal rights activists, who some critics have taken to calling propagandists.

In one such recent case, undercover video from an Iowa factory farm produced by a group called Mercy for Animals caused the Iowa legislature to support a so-called “Ag-Gag” law that makes it a crime to lie in order to infiltrate a farm’s staff. That act is now a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of $1,500. Lawmakers in Utah passed a similar law in 2012 that bans unauthorized photography in farms. Missouri also has an older law that accomplishes effectively the same thing…” Full Story The Raw Story

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Not familiar with ALEC, yet? Here’s a 5 minute clip that explains who and what they are…

Food Fight: Saving Kids From Processed Junk

“What’s Beef?

Beef is when you’re 12 years old and obese

clogged arteries, can’t see your own feet

until you’re up in ICU, guaranteed to be an ‘I see you”

From that processed food.

Suicide. It’s a suicide.

Don’t want no microwaves, no pesticides.

Fast food’s a slow death in disguise.

It’s the wild wild westernized world of deception and lies.

What’s Beef?

Beef is when you starve in a famine.

Nothing won’t grow and the land stays barren.

Pollution in the river, mercury in the salmon.

What sense do it make, being at war with the planet?

We’re at war for the mind so impressionable.

Instead of vegetables,

we reach for Red Bulls.

Poor diets kill more brothers than pistols.

We’re fighting for our lives like Michael Vic’s pit bulls.

Dog eat dog, America eats the young,

We die from beef, but more from meat than the gun.

Bullets for breakfast and mass murder meals.

Enemy of the state, and your plate is the battlefield

in this FOOD FIGHT!”

“A boy must escape a world where the processed food is killing his neighborhood — literally.

SHARE to teach kids who is behind it, and how to escape.”

Song Produced & Mixed by J.Bless & Golden Horns
Outro song “On the Way”: produced by J.Bless from the album “Earth Amplified”

Visit http://SOSjuice.com/foodfight For More Information & Song Download

RoboBees…The Answer To Dying Bee Colonies?

By coordinating large numbers of small, agile robots to mimic the physical and behavioral robustness of insect groups, the program could direct a swarm of robots to accomplish tasks faster more reliably, and more efficiently than a single unit.

Scientific American “Honey bee populations around the world are in decline due to causes ranging from ‘super mites‘ to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and even cell phones – and if the insects disappear completely the planet’s ecosystems would be in peril. The issue has become so dire that now a team of Harvard and Northeastern University scientists are working on a swarm of miniature Robobee robots that could pollinate flowers and do the job of real bees if required.

Speaking to Scientific American, the team leaders said: “In 2009 the three of us began to seriously consider what it would take to create a robotic bee colony. We wondered if mechanical bees could replicate not just an individual’s behavior but the unique behavior that emerges out of interactions among thousands of bees. We have now created the first RoboBees—flying bee-size robots—and are working on methods to make thousands of them cooperate like a real hive.” Full Article Here