Foods that Contain the Highest Amount of Pesticides

March 31, 2012 at 11:00 pm (Food and drink, Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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Foods that Contain the Highest Amount of Pesticides

March 31, 2012

Foods that Contain the Highest Amount of Pesticides Much of the produce that is sold today in supermarkets is supplied from farmers who practice conventional farming methods. In other words, the produce has been grown using chemical fertilizers as well as pesticides and herbicides. Many scientific studies suggest that the effects of synthetic pesticides can be detrimental to our health; one study suggests that the consumption of pesticides may lead to ADHD in children; in some other cases, exposure can lead to many forms of cancers, infertility problems and birth defects. Along with the many other poor ‘food like’ products we are eating, there is an array of foreign substances that are entering our bodies.  As we expose ourselves to these synthetic substances over the years, our bodies become overloaded, and our ‘cleaning’ mechanisms fail to work. As a result, many of us develop sickness and disease because our bodies cannot efficiently remove these toxins anymore. In order to help give your body a break from this chemical onslaught, we have suggested what foods should be eaten organically.

The foods listed below are some of the most toxic to our bodies if eaten from conventional sources. Based on the Environment Working Group (EWG), they contain the most pesticides, both on and within them, compared to other foods; so, if you are considering switching to organic, we would suggest taking account of the foods below as a first propriety in your transition.
Top 12 Foods You Should Eat Organically (From lowest to highest amount of pesticides)

1. Apples: They contain 42 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 42 pesticide residues, there are 7 known carcinogens, 19 suspected hormone disruptors, 10 neurotoxins, 6 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 17 honeybee toxins.

2. Cherries: They contain 42 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 42 pesticide residues, 7 known or probable carcinogens, 22 suspected hormone disruptors, 7 neurotoxins, 8 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 18 honeybee toxins.

3. Green Beans:  They contain 44 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 44 pesticide residues, there are 8 known carcinogens, 22 suspected hormone disruptors, 11 neurotoxins, 8 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 18 honeybee toxins.

4. Collard Greens:  They contain 46 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 46 pesticide residues, there are 9 known carcinogens, 25 suspected hormone disruptors, 10 neurotoxins, 8 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 25 honeybee toxins.

5. Spinach:  It contains 48 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 48 pesticide residues, there are 8 known carcinogens, 25 suspected hormone disruptors, 8 neurotoxins, 6 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 23 honeybee toxins.

6. Sweet Bell Peppers:  They contain 49 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 49 pesticide residues, there are 11 known carcinogens, 26 suspected hormone disruptors, 13 neurotoxins, 10 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 19 honeybee toxins.

7. Lettuce:  It contains 51 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 51 pesticide residues, there are 12 known carcinogens, 29 suspected hormone disruptors, 9 neurotoxins, 10 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 21 honeybee toxins.

8. Blueberries:  They contain 52 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 52 pesticide residues, there are 8 known carcinogens, 24 suspected hormone disruptors, 14 neurotoxins, 7 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 21 honeybee toxins.

9. Strawberries:  They contain 54 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 54 pesticide residues, there are 9 known carcinogens, 24 suspected hormone disruptors,11 neurotoxins, 12 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 19 honeybee toxins.

10. Kale:  It contains 55 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 55 pesticide residues, there are 9 known carcinogens, 27 suspected hormone disruptors, 10 neurotoxins, 10 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 23 honeybee toxins.

11. Peaches:  They contain 62 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 62 pesticide residues, there are 10 known carcinogens, 29 suspected hormone disruptors, 12 neurotoxins, 11 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 25 honeybee toxins.

12. Celery:  It contains the most at 64 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 64 pesticide residues, there are 13 known carcinogens, 31 suspected hormone disruptors, 12 neurotoxins, 14 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 20 honeybee toxins.

Honourable Mentions

- Broccoli: It contains 33 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program.

- Cucumbers: They contain 35 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program.

- Grapes: They contain 34 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program.

- Potatoes: They contain 37 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program.

- Tomatoes: They contain 35 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program.
5 Foods that Contain the Lowest Pesticide Residues

Bananas: They contain 12 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 12 pesticide residues, there are 4 known carcinogens, 7 suspected hormone disruptors, 2 neurotoxins, 5 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 2 honeybee toxins.

Grapefruit: It contains 11 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 11 pesticide residues, there are 4 known carcinogens, 4 suspected hormone disruptors, 4 neurotoxins, 4 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 2 honeybee toxins.

Almonds: They contain 9 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 9 pesticide residues, there are 1 known carcinogens, 4 suspected hormone disruptors, 3 neurotoxins, 0 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 4 honeybee toxins.

Asparagus: It contains 9 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 9 pesticide residues, there are 1 known carcinogens, 7 suspected hormone disruptors, 4 neurotoxins, 3 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 5 honeybee toxins.

Onion: It contains 1 known pesticide residues found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program. Out of the 9 pesticide residues, there are 0 known carcinogens, 0 suspected hormone disruptors, 0 neurotoxins, 0 developmental or reproductive toxins, and 0 honeybee toxins.
When buying produce always consider buying organic. Better yet, to ensure freshness, buy local as much as you can. When you can buy both local and organic, you can guarantee that the product is both free of pesticides, and full of nutrients. Further to this, you will also avoid any potential foods that may have been genetically modified. To check out pesticide residues on other sources of food, you may visit: http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/index.jsp. By substituting the top 12 pesticide laden foods with organic, you can eliminate up to 80% of pesticides from your diet.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.

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FDA Rejects Monumental BPA Ban

March 31, 2012 at 10:15 pm (Food and drink, Global Events, Health and wellness)
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FDA Rejects Monumental BPA Ban | NationofChange.

FDA Rejects Monumental BPA Ban

By Mike Barrett

It was reported not too long ago that the Food and Drug Administration would make a decision on the banning of the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol-A (BPA). Now, the agency has finally come to a decision, and unsurprisingly, it has decided that there is not enough scientific evidence supporting for the ban of BPA – that is to say, BPA will not be banned from use in food products, plastic packaging, and personal care products.

On Friday the agency made the decision due to lack of scientific evidence to justify the new restrictions, despite tons of evidence showcasing BPAs dangers. The FDA’s problem? Much of the research was performed using mice, and so they claimed that the findings don’t relate to humans.

“While evidence from some studies have raised questions as to whether BPA may be associated with a variety of health effects, there remain serious questions about these studies, particularly as they relate to humans,” the FDA says.

But it seems that many other nations and companies seem to disagree with the FDA, in that they have already taken action in banning or removing the chemical from use. Canada banned BPA from baby bottles in 2007, while the European Union, Turkey, and other countries banned BPA from baby bottled in 2008. What’s more, various companies such as Toys “R” Us and even Walmart claimed to have discontinued use of BPA in children’s items.

While the FDA continues to fall behind many nations in the ban due to ‘lack of scientific evidence’, it seems that the agency secretly doesn’t want the ban altogether. The recent decision made by the FDA was prompted only due to a lawsuit against it after they failed to respond to petition requesting the ban. It took the FDA more than 180 days to respond to the National Resources Defense Council’s petition, which is surpassing a deadline it must reach regarding response to petitions.

BPA has been shown to prompt hyperactivity and depression in young girls, while also being linked to breast cancer in more than 130 studies. Infertility and fertility defects are also caused by BPA exposure. The chemical is used so widely that it has been found in the urine of nearly 93 percent of Americans, with one study finding that eating canned soup can spike urinary bisphenol-A levels by 1,200 percent compared to fresh soup.

This article was published at NationofChange at:
 http://www.nationofchange.org/fda-rejects-monumental-bpa-ban-1333204316
. All rights are reserved.

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Occasional Fasting Boosts Mental Health & Longevity

March 29, 2012 at 1:03 am (Food and drink, Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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Health Freedom Alliance » Occasional Fasting Offers Boost in Mental Health and Longevity.

Occasional Fasting Offers Boost in Mental Health and Longevity

March 29, 2012

Longevity is not only rooted in what we put in our bodies but also how we regulate our intake.  There is a Japanese proverb, “hara hachi bunme” or “Stop eating when you are 80% full”.  It has certainly benefited the people of Japan who have a life expectancy of 86 years for women and 79 for men versus 80 and 75 respective years for American.

Taking this a step further and fasting occasionally is recently been shown to offer benefits of not only longevity, but also boost the health of your brain according to a group of American scientists. -Intelligentactile

Starving* yourself on alternate days can make you live longer, according to scientists.

A group of Americans have said that fasting on and off can boost brain power and help to lose weight at the same time.

The National Institutes for Aging said their research was based on giving animals the bare minimum of calories required to keep them alive and results showed they lived up to twice as long.

The diet has since been tested on humans and appears to protect the heart, circulatory system and brain against age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s.

‘Dietery energy restriction extends lifespan and protects the brain and cardiovascular system against age-related disease,’ said Mark Mattson, head of the laboratory of neurosciences at the NIA and professor of neuroscience at John Hopkins University in Baltimore.

‘We have found that dietary energy restriction, particularly when administered in intermittent bouts of major caloric restriction, such as alternative day fasting, activates cellular stress response pathways in neurones,’ he said to the Sunday Times.

In one set of experiments, a group of mice were only fed on alternate days while others were allowed to eat daily.

Both groups were given unlimited access to food on the days they were allowed to eat and eventually consumed the same amount of calories.

Professor Mattson said he found the mice fed on alternate days were more sensitive to insulin and needed to produce less of it.

High levels of the hormone, which is produced to control sugar levels after a meal or snack, are usually associated with lower brain power and are at a higher risk of diabetes.

The brains from both sets of rodents were then examined and Professor Mattson said he found the calorie restricted diets appeared to improve the function of brain synapses.

These are the junctions between brain cells which promote the generation of new cells and make them more resistant to stress.

Previous research has found that starving* yourself for a few days can help in the fight against cancer.

Scientists found that depriving healthy cells of the food they need sends them into a survival mode, making them highly resistant to stress and damage caused from chemotherapy.

Experts have described the behaviour similar to animals waiting out the winter by hibernating.

*(resting the gut)

Link: http://healthfreedoms.org/2012/02/24/occasional-fasting-offers-boost-in-mental-health-and-longevity/

By PAMELA OWEN

Source:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2103286/The-secret-long-life-Starve-alternate-days-boost-brain-power-shed-weight.html#ixzz1mzNxCADA

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March 28, 2012 at 1:51 pm (Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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Licorice Shown To Kill SARS And Other Lethal Viruses

March 28, 2012

Could This Plant Save The World From The Next Pandemic Infection?

Licorice has a rich and ancient history of use as a medicine, being rooted in Indian, Chinese, Greek and Egyptian traditions, alike. Technically a legume, related to beans and peas, its sweetness results from the presence of glycyrrhizin, a compound 30-50 times sweeter than sugar. This compound is what gave licorice its name, which derives from the Greek word γλυκύρριζα (glukurrhiza), meaning “sweet” (gluku)  “root” (rrhiza). But glycyrrhizin’s properties don’t end with its sweetness; it is also one of the most powerful antiviral compounds ever studied.

A study on glycyrrhizin’s inhibitory activity against SARS-associated coronovirus published in Lancet in June of 2003, received little mainstream media coverage, despite its profound importance to human health.  Mind you, only a few months before this the World Health Organization issued a press release (April 16, 2003) stating the recent outbreak of lethal Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Asia was caused by the same coronoviruses used in this study. With the world still reeling from global SARS hysteria and “preparedness,” i.e. stockpiling pharmaceuticals like Ribavirin despite their well-known lack of effectiveness, you would think more attention would have been paid to promising research of this kind…

In the groundbreaking Lancet study, titled “Glycyrrhizin, an active component of liquorice roots, and replication of SARS-associated coronavirus,” German researchers summarized their intention in the following manner:
“The [recent] outbreak of SARS warrants the search for antiviral compounds to treat the disease.  At present time, no specific treatment has been identified for SARS-associated coronavirus infection.“ (Read Full Article)

 

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Shocking: Mother Who Questions Vax at Hospital Has Newborn Taken Away

March 28, 2012 at 12:27 pm (Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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Mother Who Questions Vax at Hospital Has Newborn Taken AwayPosted: 28 Mar 2012 06:22 AM PDT

I am having a great deal of trouble typing this post.  I am so upset and outraged over what was done to this mother and baby at the Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania shortly after she gave birth that I am having difficulty staying composed enough to write a coherent story.

Hershey, Pennsylvania, if you recall, is the same place where officials allow child molesters like Jerry Sandusky, former Penn State assistant football coach, to go free for decades and continue to abuse children unfortunate enough to come across his lecherous path while a mother who gives birth in a government hospital has her baby taken away for questioning whether vaccination with Hep B is truly necessary.

Does something seem very very wrong with this picture?
Read the rest of Mother Who Questions Vax at Hospital Has Newborn Taken Away (1,227 words)

© Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist for The Healthy Home Economist, 2012.
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Label It Yourself Campaign: Citizen Action to Label GMOs

March 28, 2012 at 12:03 am (Health and wellness, News and politics, Food and drink, Global Events)
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NATION OF  CHANGE.org

Label It Yourself Campaign: Citizen Action to Label GMOs

Citizens from across the country, concerned by the increasing scientific data indicating serious economic, environmental and public health risks associated with GMOs (genetically modified organisms), have taken matters into their own hands, labeling foods that may contain GMOs in a nationwide campaign to “Label It Yourself” (#LIY).

Polls have consistently demonstrated that a vast majority of Americans want to know if food they are purchasing contains GMOs.  While more than 40 countries around the world require labeling of genetically engineered food, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has refused to require mandatory labeling, citing industry claims that genetically engineered food is equivalent to conventional food. But with an estimated 80% percent of processed food in the USA containing GMOs, Label It Yourself asks: “If there’s nothing to hide, why hide it?”

GMOs, also known as transgenics,  are plants or animals that have been created by splicing DNA into them from other plants, animals, bacteria, or viruses to create an organism that would not otherwise occur in nature.  Most GMOs on the market have been created to tolerate herbicides and pesticides applied to crops, in many cases incorporating the pesticide into the plant itself. While the long-term impacts of GMOs on humans are unknown, increasing evidence connects them with potential health problems (including infertility, birth defects, allergies, and digestive problems), environmental damage (including degraded soil health, and biological pollution) and violation of farmers’ and consumers’ rights.

As like-minded citizens across the country advocate for mandatory labeling, Label It Yourself offers shoppers tools to know what products are most likely to contain GMOs as well as open source labels that can be downloaded to create stickers for people to do their own labeling of GMO food products in stores. Photos of citizen-labeled products uploaded by users to the Label It Yourself website show non-organic meats and dairy, soft drinks, breakfast cereals, granola bars, fast food, soy milk, pancake mix and corn chips, among others as potentially containing GMOs.

A 2010 Thomson Reuters PULSE™ Healthcare Survey poll found that 93% of US consumers support the labeling of GMOs. Despite these findings, and President Obama’s promise during his presidential campaign to push for labeling, the US government has refused to allow labels for GMO food to appear on grocery shelves in America.

“Human beings are not just consumers or voters as the corporate and political advertising industry likes to believe. People are free, and they want the truth, which, if you think about it, is the only thing worth advertising.” says a member of the Occupy Wall Street Food Justice Working group,  “Label It Yourself  is a citizen’s campaign to empower people to make informed decisions about the food they buy, without waiting for government or corporations to do it for them.”

To read more about the campaign please visit them on the Web:
www.labelityourself.org
www.labelityourself.tumblr.com
www.facebook.com/labelityourself
www.twitter.com/labelityourself

This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/label-it-yourself-campaign-citizen-action-label-gmos-1332862035. All rights are reserved.

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The Dangers Of…Lipstick?

March 22, 2012 at 2:20 am (Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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 The Dangers Of…Lipstick?

(BlackDoctor.org) — Could a pretty pucker be the kiss of death? According to Reuters, about 400 lipsticks recently tested by the FDA contain traces of lead. In 2007, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics ran its own tests on 33 red lipsticks and found that one-third exceeded the FDA’s limit for lead in candy.

The FDA pushed back in its latest report stating that: “Lipstick, as a product intended for topical use with limited absorption, is ingested only in very small quantities. We do not consider the lead levels we found in the lipsticks to be a safety concern.” However, Stacy Malkan, of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics disagrees. “We know that ingestion of lipstick happens,” she told Reuters. She also points out that lead accumulates in the body over time.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is particularly concerned about lead exposure for children and pregnant women. The CDC’s Advisory Committee for Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention recently stated that there is no safe lead level for children. Lead poisoning causes a wide range of problems from low IQ and slowed grown in children to memory loss, mood disorders, and miscarriage in adults.

The FDA found the highest levels in lipsticks made by Procter & Gamble (Cover Girl brand), L’Oreal (L’Oreal, Body Shop and Maybelline brands), and Revlon. The lipsticks containing the most lead (measured in parts per million) are:

1. Maybelline Color Sensational, Pink Petal (7.9 ppm)
2. L’Oreal Colour Riche, Volcanic, (7.0 ppm)

3. NARS Semi-Matte, Red Lizard (4.93 ppm)
4. Cover Girl Queen Collection, Ruby Remix, (4.92 ppm)

5. Nars Semi-Matte, Funny Face (4.89 ppm)
6. L’Oreal Colour Riche, Tickled Pink (4.45 ppm)

7. L’Oreal Intensely Moisturizing Lipcolor, Heroic (4.41 ppm)
8. Cover Girl Continuous Color, Warm Brick (4.28 ppm)
9. Maybelline Color Sensational, Mauve Me (4.23 ppm)
10. Stargazer Lipstick, #103 (4.12 ppm)

California, which has the nation’s most stringent laws about lead in consumer products, has imposed a safety limit of 5.0 ppm for lipstick. If you are concerned about contaminants in your lipstick or other cosmetics, the Environmental Working Group rates over 1000 cosmetic lip products on its searchable database. Because there are thousands of lipsticks on the market, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics says its impossible to test every one and the best thing you can do is support an outright ban on lead.   (Link:  http://blackdoctor.org/news/article/Skin_and_Beauty/The_Dangers_Of_Lipstick.aspx

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5 Deadly Threats to Our Precious Drinking Water Supply

March 22, 2012 at 1:57 am (Food and drink, Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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5 Deadly Threats to Our Precious Drinking Water Supply | | AlterNet.   

AlterNet / By Tara Lohan

5 Deadly Threats to Our Precious Drinking Water Supply

World Water Day is a chance to stop and realize that humanity is facing a frightening water crisis.
March 21, 2012  |

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/Dragana Gerasimoski

If you brushed your teeth this morning or flushed the toilet or had a cup of coffee, consider yourself lucky. Actually, if you turned on your tap and potable water freely came out, consider yourself truly blessed. Because so many of us in the United States are in this situation it can be easy to forget that nearly 900 million other people aren’t so lucky. It can be easy to forget that globally we face a frightening water crisis. And it can be hard to notice that even here in the US there are dire threats to our water supply right now.

The people hardest hit by the water crisis are in developing countries — places it is easy for many world leaders (and the rest of us) to overlook. And even the number of those without clean water — last tallied at 884 million — can be hard to grasp. Here’s another way of looking at it: if you take that number and translate it into the population of developed countries, the people living in the world today without access to clean drinking water would equal all the people living in the US, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, England, Italy, Spain, Japan, Australia and Norway.

Like our economic, food, health and climate crises, if you’re a person of color and/or poor, you’ll be hardest hit. According to the United Nations, if you are a poor person living in a slum you’re likely to pay five to 10 times more for water than wealthy people living in the same city. And so too, are women disproportionately affected because they are the ones responsible for getting water each day in most developing countries — work that often means hours of difficult labor under dangerous conditions.

In a story for National Geographic, Tina Rosenberg writes about Aylito, a 25-year-old woman who has to walk an hour each way to a dirty stream to collect water for her family — three times a day. Seventy percent of the people in her community have a waterborne disease and even the nearest health center often lacks clean water. When an NGO proposes a project that could bring clean water and sanitation to within steps of her home, Aylito’s response is heartbreaking. Rosenberg writes, “She has never dared to think that someday life could change for the better — that there could arrive a metal spigot, with dignity gushing out the end.”

With that sentence, Rosenberg captures the essence of the water crisis; it is about life and death, but it is also about the quality of our lives and our human dignity. Who we are as people is tied to our access to water throughout our lives. From our birth to our breakfast this morning, our lives have been shaped by how much water we have, where we got it from, and how clean it is. And depending on where we live, the water problems we may face will look vastly different — from drought to pollution to poor management. (Read more)

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USDA Green-Lights Field Trials of Monsanto Drought-Resistant Corn

March 20, 2012 at 10:04 pm (Global Events, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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USDA Green-Lights Field Trials of Monsanto Drought-Resistant Corn After Admitting it Performs No Better Than Natural Corn

By Ethan A. Huff

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) does not even pretend to legitimately evaluate genetically-modified organisms (GMO) before approving them anymore, having recently green-lighted approval for a new variety of “drought-resistant” GM corn produced by Monsanto that admittedly grows no better under drought conditions than natural varieties do.

According to the Washington Post, APHIS fast-tracked the corn, known as MON87460, without ever conducting an appropriate environmental risk analysis on the crop’s efficacy, which includes determining whether or not the crop is even safe for humans or the environment. In fact, in accordance with the Obama Administration’s new hands-off approach to regulating GMOs, APHIS decided to actually approve MON87460 even after a cursory evaluation of the data exposed it as a complete failure.

“The reduced yield [trait] does not exceed the natural variation observed in regionally-adapted varieties of conventional corn,” wrote the USDA in an earlier report on the crop published last fall. “Equally comparable varieties produced through conventional breeding techniques are readily available in irrigated corn production regions” (http://www.naturalnews.com/032453_GM_corn_USDA.html).

MON87460 is the first GMO to be approved with resistance to drought, as opposed to a pesticide or herbicide. And even though many drought-adaptive varieties of natural or hybrid corn already exist, Monsanto is pushing MON87460 on farmers all across the Midwest, and primarily in the Western plains where drought conditions are still severe, with promises that it will translate into increased yields.

Based on its initial findings, however, as well as the fact that GM crops are known to contaminate nearby conventional and organic crops, APHIS should have wholly rejected MON87460 and told Monsanto to hit the road. Instead, thanks to embedded special interests throughout the USDA and the highest levels of the federal government, this former regulatory body has become nothing more than a bureaucratic rubber stamp for the biotechnology industry.

“[Bio]technology has been spectacularly unsuccessful at delivering complex traits such as drought tolerance, which involve multiple genes and complex interaction with the plant’s environment,” wrote Dr. Helen Wallace, director of GeneWatch U.K., in a piece last year on so-called drought-tolerant GM crops. “Meanwhile, conventional breeding and new techniques such as marker-assisted selection — which uses knowledge of the plant’s genome to inform breeding, without engineering the plant, have produced a long string of successes.”

This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/usda-green-lights-field-trials-monsanto-drought-resistant-corn-after-admitting-it-performs-no-bett-0.

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Eat Healthy to Defend Against Toxics

March 20, 2012 at 1:51 am (Food and drink, Health and wellness, News and politics)
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Eat Healthy to Defend Against Toxics.

Eat Healthy to Defend Against Toxics

Okay – we know you’ve heard this one before. The benefits of a healthy diet are well known: good nutrition and reducing your weight are so important for the prevention of heart disease, diabetes and numerous other conditions.

But there’s another benefit too!  There is emerging research to show that good nutrition can also improve your body’s ability to defend against the effects of toxic chemicals, and actually reduce your body’s vulnerability to the toxic assault we all experience. So, if you get stressed about being exposed to toxic chemicals in your everyday life, especially when some of these exposures are out of your control, you can take the reins back by eating healthy and improving your defenses.

As we mentioned, the science is still emerging – so, unfortunately, we won’t be prescribing a new WVE diet for you! For now, here are some (familiar) good eating tips you can use as a guideline:

  • Reduce consumption of processed foods
  • Increase consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains
  • Avoid foods with saturated fats

And now you’ve got even more reasons to stick with it!

Check out this recent article from Environmental Health Perspectives for more information on the benefits of good nutrition to counteract the effects of environmental pollutants.

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