The FDA is eerily close to approving genetically modified salmon for human consumption. These “AquAdvantage” fish, as the company that created them calls them, are Atlantic salmon that are genetically altered to contain a growth hormone gene from a Chinook salmon as well as a genetic “on-switch” from the ocean pout, a distant relative of the …
Jun
30
May
12
The Politics Of Organics
Food corporations are just like all other corporations, their goals are profit and growth. The reason food corporations are interested in organics is because it means growth. For conventionally raised foods, the growth rate is 1-2% per year, but since 1990, organics have grown 20% annually. And even more attractive than the growth opportunity is …
Mar
25
Free Range: Not As Free As You Think
Anyone that thinks the 285 million caged hens in America are experiencing anything less than torture is fooling themselves. After learning about the cruelty and destruction caused by the egg industry, many people think that free-range, cage-free, or organic are the solution to the problem, but free-range isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Each …
Mar
12
The Clean 15: Foods You Don’t Have To Buy Organic
To follow up on the The Dirty Dozen, here is The Clean 15: The top 15 foods you don’t need to buy organic. There are many reasons to buy organic foods. The USDA Organic label tells you that fruits and veggies weren’t raised using manmade chemical pesticides, fossil fuel- or sewage-based fertilizers, or genetically modified seeds. …
Feb
09
The Dirty Dozen: Top 12 Foods To Eat Organic
Organic is important for both your health and the Earth, and organic is about much more than just food. But organic is more expensive. To help maximize your buck, you can focus your organic shopping on the foods that have the heaviest levels of pesticides. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), consumers can reduce …
Dec
10
A Tale of Two Cattle
From Time Magazine: How did your hamburger get to your plate — and what did it eat along the way? The journey of beef illustrates the great American food chain ORGANIC (1% of all cattle) This is the way all beef used to be raised — and how some people still imagine it is. Bill …
Oct
16
Pesticide Facts
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Academy of Sciences standard chemicals are up to ten times more toxic to children than to adults, depending on body weight. This is due to the fact that children take in more toxic chemicals relative to body weight than adults and have developing organ systems …
Aug
27
Organic: So much more than healthy
Organic is not just about food. It’s a much more expansive way of thinking that embraces cyclical resource use, where waste from one source becomes food for another. It honors natural laws and detests mindless waste, dispersal of toxic chemicals, cheap substitutes, and depleted soil. All of humanity ate organic food until the twentieth century. …
Aug
25
Time Magazine on "The High Price of Cheap Food"
Time Magazine has an excellent article this week about America’s food crisis. Here are a few excerpts, but be sure to read the full article here. “Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they …
Aug
11
Growing Local Farm Movement
Last week, CNN reported on the growing local food movement, or Community Supported Agricurture (CSAs). From the article: [The farmers] describe their farming technique as “beyond organic,” saying they use no artificial fertilizers, growth hormones or antibiotics and don’t keep their animals penned up. Life on their property — where cattle and sheep graze in …
