NewsTrust - Food - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Antibiotics in your meat? The ethanol industry might be partly to blame

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:54:00 -0700

Grist - Apr. 11 - Last year, while touring a fairly small, pasture-based farmstead cheese company, I found myself in a giant feed barn with a group of curious foodies. It was one of the last stops before the cheese tasting, so no one wanted to linger. But I have a distinc

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Green Politics

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Green Party Newsletter - Mar. 09 (Opinion) - The article on the Riverview Gardens School District in St. Louis, along with the discussion of recent events in Wisconsin, form a pattern on how public employees are scapegoats for the ills of the present economic system. Unions are notably pressured to give up more of workers' benefits and rights. This is discussed in the interview with Paul Pechter, where he feared that the attacks on unions would be successful, and lamented the failed strategy and tactics of the unions in the past.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Climate Change: Crisis and Challenge

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

resistinc.org - By Orin Langelle, Anne Petermann - Jul. 01 (Opinion) - There is no better example of the interconnection of the root causes of social injustice, ecological destruction and economic domination than climate change. Climate change may well be humanity’s greatest challenge. It is a crisis that must be rapidly addressed if catastrophe is to be averted.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Pollinator decline & pesticides

Tue, 24 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

panna.org - May. 24 (Advocacy) - While wild pollinators like bats and bumble bees are also facing catastrophic declines, managed honey bees are the most economically important pollinators in the world. According to a recent U.N. report, of the 100 crops that provide 90% of the world's food, over 70 are pollinated by bees. In the U.S. alone, honey bees’ economic contribution is valued at over $15 billion

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

It’s time to stop eating endangered animals

Wed, 18 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

cnews.canoe.ca - By David Suzuki - May. 18 (Opinion) - The bluefin tuna is large, fast, tasty, and rare. For those reasons, it’s highly prized by both commercial and sports fishers. The Atlantic bluefin often sells for more than $1,000 a kilogram. That’s pushed the fish even closer to the brink of extinction.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Impact of Gulf Spill Persists

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Redford - Apr. 23 (Opinion) - 'In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon blowout last year, BP repeatedly misled the public about how much oil was spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. Now, as we mark the one-year anniversary of the blowout, company executives would like us to believe that the spill has been cleaned up and the Gulf of Mexico is back to normal. The people who actually live along the Gulf Coast tell us something different. In a powerful new documentary airing on Saturday on Planet Green called 'Stories From the Gulf,' residents make it clear they are still suffering the aftermath of the largest oil spill in American history.' Robert Redford, Reader Supported News

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Great Unravelling: Tunisia, Egypt and the Protracted Collapse of the American Empire

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

nafeez.blogspot.com - By Nafeez Ahmed - Feb. 04 (Opinion) - Egypt, as with many of the MENA countries, now lies on the fault-lines of the convergence of global ecological, energy and economic crises – and thus, on the frontlines of deepening global system failure. The Empire is crumbling. The guarded official statements put out by the Obama administration only illustrate the disingenuous impotence of the U.S. position.

NewsTrust Rating: 1.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Spilled Milk

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Town Hall - By Thomas Sowell - Feb. 01 (Opinion) - In a classic example of this process, the EPA has decided that, since milk contains oil, it has the authority to force farmers to comply with new regulations to file "emergency management" plans to show how they will cope with spilled milk, how farmers will train "first responders" and build "containment facilities" if there is a flood of spilled milk. Since there is no free lunch, all of this is going to cost the farmers both money and time that could be going into farming-- and is likely to end up costing consumers higher prices for farm products.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Darrell Issa, Step Away From the Corporations

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 05 (Opinion) - Darrell Issa sent letters to 150 trade associations, companies and think tanks, seeking advice on which regulations to investigate. An excerpt of the letter, posted by NBC News, read: "I ask for your assistance in identifying existing and proposed regulations that have negatively impacted job growth in your members' industry. Additionally, suggestions on reforming identified regulations and the rulemaking process would be appreciated."

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

WikiLeaks Cables Reveal U.S. Sought to Retaliate Against Europe Over Monsanto GM Crops

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Jeffrey Smith,JUAN GONZALEZ - Dec. 24 (Interview) - U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveal the Bush administration drew up ways to retaliate against Europe for refusing to use genetically modified seeds. In 2007, then-U.S. ambassador to France Craig Stapleton was concerned about France’s decision to ban cultivation of genetically modified corn produced by biotech giant Monsanto. He also warned that a new French environmental review standard could spread anti-biotech policy across Europe. We speak with Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for Responsible Technology

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Food safety bill a corporate welfare program?

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Hot Air - By Ed Morrissey - Dec. 02 (Opinion) - Regulatory regimes in a free market require balance to protect consumers while encouraging production, and should not put government in the position of skewing markets to pick winners and losers. This new bill upends a balance that is already working well and threatens to punish smaller players disproportionately. This debate should be extended instead of rushed through a lame-duck session, especially when higher priorities like passing a budget need more attention

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Potential Immigrant Whistleblowers Face Hostile Environment

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New America Media - By Sarah Damian - Oct. 08 (Opinion) - The role of a whistleblower already brings with it many intense challenges: possible job loss, drop in income, broken relationships, etc. But what if these brave souls were also seen as criminals in the eyes of many? To have a voice at all is a potential risk – let alone speaking out against the system that employs you. This is the conundrum confronting many immigrant workers in the country -- particularly in the agriculture and food industries.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Corn subsidies make unhealthy food choices the rational ones

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Donald Carr. - Sep. 21 (Opinion) - A big reason that food products derived from corn are so pervasive in America’s diet today is that for decades taxpayers have given corn growers incentives to grow as much as possible through the skewed federal farm subsidy system. The $73.8 billion lavished on corn since 1995 has helped to churn out a host of cheap and unhealthy foods—from chips to sugary sodas to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Hold on: Make that “corn sugar.” With consumers souring on HFCS, the Corn Refiners Association has embarked on a re-branding effort, as Tom Laskawy mocked, to prop up the lagging sales of the calorie-laden sweetener that’s found in nearly all cheap processed foods. Many of the factors that contribute to the nation’s broken food and farm system, like perverse subsidies for commodity grain growers, were exposed in a September 5 Denver Post article. In “Spoiled system: Eating healthier comes with a price for families,” reporter Karen Auge explored the factors that make fresh fruits and vegetables costlier than highly subsidized and less healthy foods based on corn and soy: The reasons fresh fruits and vegetables are so pricey compared with processed food in a carton are a complicated stew of government subsidies, politics and the whims of Mother Nature. But their combined might, say critics pushing for a change in the way money is doled out, moves us away from fruits and vegetables and toward meat, dairy products and the sugar- and sodium-loaded processed foods for which crops like corn and wheat serve as the raw ingredients. “We’ve made the unhealthy choice the rational choice,” said Merrick Weaver, who, as executive director of Partnership for Healthy Communities, works to improve nutrition among lower-income families in Commerce City [Colo.]. Weaver was echoing Michael Pollan, whose book The Omnivore’s Dilemma has become a manifesto for those trying to shift discussion about the country’s obesity epidemic to include the food-production infrastructure. In short, “You can buy more calories for your dollar if you buy bad foods,” Weaver said. There is no denying that America faces a health crisis with its simultaneous obesity and hunger epidemics. And right now is an especially good time to confront the issue. The law that guides federal food and agriculture policy—the Farm Bill—comes up for debate again in 2012, and deliberations have already begun. The corn refiners’ push to re-brand corn syrup is a clear response to the growing awareness among consumers not only of the environmental perils of modern industrial agriculture, but the heavy toll of our current food and farm system on the health of families and kids. If the death grip that agribusiness and its powerful lobby have had on the food and farm status quo is to be loosened, subsidy-friendly members of Congress must hear from people who want a system that serves them and their families. One important thing for consumers to note is that in 2009, $15.4 billion in subsidies were lavished on the growers of corn, cotton, rice, wheat, and soybeans.?In that same year, fruits, vegetables and organics received only $825 million in support from the federal government. And that money doesn’t go directly into fruit and vegetable growers’ pockets, but mostly goes toward procurement for schools, research and market promotion programs. We can agree with the subsidy lobby that eliminating the billions in grain subsidies tomorrow wouldn’t make much of a dent in the widespread availability of cheap chips and soda. What our maze of farm and risk management subsidies do is facilitate a highly risky agricultural business model that makes our industrial food system overly dependent on one or two grain crops. In the end, these? subsidies are not about producing food at all. They are about taking the financial risk out of a system that encourages fencerow-to-fencerow production of raw material for highly processed food—with deleterious effects on the environment and human health. A slick re-branding campaign for high-fructose corn syrup can’t obscure the reality that the commodity growers trot out contradictory messages as they fight to keep the subsidy spigot open: When crop subsidies are criticized for lavishing the bulk of their largesse on the largest and wealthiest farm operations, taxpayers are told by the agri-lobby? that those payments are critical to preserving the cheapest and most abundant food supply in the world. But when they’re challenged with the reality that subsidized corn, soybeans and wheat dump a glut of cheap, unhealthy calories on the market, agribusiness objects that “it’s desperately a myth in need of correction.” So which is it? Do subsidies make unhealthy food cheaper, or don’t they? Related Links: Carrot vending machines a surprise success Why is the FDA about to rubber-stamp GE salmon? Will the real conservatives please stand up?

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 9 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why Animal Foods and Raw Meat Are Not the Answer to Health

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Margot's News & Views - By Margot B. - Sep. 11 (Opinion) - Recently, a book was published called “The Vegetarian Myth” by Lierre Keith, a former vegan who attempts to make a case against the vegetarian diet. After over a decade on a vegan diet, she’s fallen off the wagon and is back on meat, but not because she was craving a juicy steak, but because she’s now convinced that the vegan diet destroyed her health. Another former raw vegan who enjoys a certain popularity recently published a pamphlet on why he’s now eating meat, and was seen recently up North in my home country converting other vegans into eating meat. If you’ve been mostly vegetarian or vegan for long enough, I’m sure you’ve stumbled into former vegans who are back on meat because they think it’s part of the answer to their health problems. You may even meet many former veggie-heads who also, like the author of “Vegetarian Myth”, think that the vegan diet made them sick and weak. I’ve been around long enough in this movement, having bought and read with enthusiasm Diet for a New America (the “Bible” for many vegetarians) in 1995, when I was just 19.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

David Kirby on "The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms on Humans and the Environment"

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Aug. 24 (Interview) - We speak with David Kirby about his book Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms on Humans and the Environment. "We need more regulations, and we need enforcement of the regulations," Kirby says. "These [food] companies are self-policing, and they are operating on the honor system. And consumers are obviously paying the price."

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Cholesterol Myth That Is Harming Your Health

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Dr. Joseph Mercola - Aug. 12 (Opinion) - "Notice please that LDL and HDL are lipoproteins -- fats combined with proteins. There is only one cholesterol. There is no such thing as "good" or "bad" cholesterol. "First and foremost," Dr. Rosedale points out, "cholesterol is a vital component of

NewsTrust Rating: 2.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

US food aid policies create 561 jobs in Kansas, risk millions of lives around the world

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

aidwatchers.com - By Laura Freschi - Jun. 28 (Opinion) - ... current US food aid policies are NOT an effective or efficient way for the US to achieve what should rightly be the primary objective for food aid. According to the government’s own accountability office, buying food locally in sub-Saharan Africa (which is where the majority of US food aid goes) costs 34 percent less than shipping it from the US, AND gets there on average more than 100 days more quickly, AND is more likely to be the kind of food people are used to eating. I am not arguing that cash aid is ALWAYS better than food aid, only that any reasonable food aid policy would allow aid agencies the flexibility to determine what kind of assistance works best in each situation.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Monsanto, Big Brother of the New World Agricultural Order

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Mickey Z. - Jun. 27 (Interview) - In a review of these two projects, Leslie Thatcher writes: "What Marie-Monique Robin most effectively documents are the perverse effects - the moral, social, technological, economic and market failures - of Western society's economic organization, most specifically with respect to science and the products of science and, ultimately, with respect to the preservation of the public commons and human life on the planet."

NewsTrust Rating: 4.6 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A high-fructose corn syrup researcher answers his critics

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Tom Laskawy - Apr. 13 (Interview) - I have to admit that I was fascinated to watch the fallout over the Princeton HFCS study. What I thought would generate a "oh, look, another great reason to avoid HFCS!" reaction swiftly turned into "that study doesn't prove a thing!!" -- a sentiment that nutritionists, food business columnists and the Corn Refiners Association all, remarkably, shared.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Dr. Paul Farmer, UN Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti, on Haiti's Challenges Following Catastrophic Earthquake and Years of Western Domination

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Paul Farmer - Apr. 01 (Interview) - Last year, the well-known activist medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer was appointed the UN Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti. Farmer is founder of the charity Partners in Health, which provides healthcare for people with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other conditions in Haiti, as well as more than eight other countries around the world. He has vocally criticized US destabilization efforts in Haiti as well as major US corporations that have pursued profit at the expense of global health. Democracy Now! caught up with Dr. Farmer on Wednesday at the UN donors conference.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Obama Puts Pesticide Pusher in Charge of Agricultural Trade Relations

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

biologicaldiversity.org - Mar. 29 (Press Release) - Sidestepping a stalled Senate confirmation vote, yesterday President Obama recess-appointed Islam Siddiqui to be chief agricultural negotiator in the office of the U.S. trade representative. Dr. Siddiqui's nomination was held up in the Senate and was opposed by the Center for Biological Diversity and more than 80 other environmental, small-farm, and consumer groups. More than 90,000 concerned citizens contacted the White House and Senate to oppose the nomination.read more

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Obama's Monsanto Man, GMO Alfalfa, & Toxic Sludge -

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

yahoo.com - By Oganic Bites editor - Feb. 25 (Advocacy) - Organic Consumers Association is part of a 98-organization coalition formed by the Pesticide Action Network and the National Family Farm Coalition to block the Senate confirmation of President Obama's nominee for US Agricultural Trade Negotiator, CropLife pesticide lobbyist Islam Siddiqui.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Michael Pollan on "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual"

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Feb. 08 (Interview) - Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, discusses the link between healthcare and diet, the dangers of processed foods, the power of the meat industry lobby, the “nutritional-industrial complex,” the impact industrial agriculture has on global warming, and his sixty-four rules for eating. "The markets are full of what I call edible food-like substances that you have to avoid," says Michael Pollan. "So a lot of the rules are to help you, you know, navigate that now very treacherous landscape of the American supermarket." Today we air an excerpt of the Oscar-nominated documentary Food, Inc. and then spend the rest of the show with Michael Pollan.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Sick of Corporate Control Over Your Food?

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Firedoglake - By Jill Richardson - Dec. 28 (Opinion) - When a market is competitive, everyone wins. Businesses that can innovate or grow more efficient rise to the top while consumers get the best products for the best price. However, when one (or a few) corporations gain too much power over the market, those benefits go away. Think about it – if there was only one company out there selling something essential for life (for example, seeds for all of our major food crops) – they could charge whatever they wanted and we’d have to pay it. Especially if they figured out a clever way to keep new companies from emerging and gaining any share of the market.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Climate Change Undermining Human Rights on an Unprecedented Scale

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Common Dreams - Dec. 15 (Press Release) - Joined by climate-affected people from Bangladesh, Peru, Uganda and the USA, Robinson announced that climate change was "undermining human rights on an unprecedented scale." "International human rights law says that ‘in no case may a people be deprived of its means of subsistence'. Yet because of excessive carbon emissions, produced primarily by industrialised countries, millions of the world's poorest people's rights are being violated every day. This is a deep and global injustice," said Robinson.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer