For anyone unsure Congress protects profits over lives, human health and the environemt, take a look at the move to stop tracking toxins in our water!!

From OpenCongress.org...

Just as new revelations are emerging about the possible link between the most widely-used pesticide in the U.S. and human birth defects, Congress is working to liberalize pesticide-use policy to allow farmers and local governments to spray near public waterways without having to seek special permission under the Clean Water Act.

On Tuesday, the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee unanimously approved H.R 872, a bill “to amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to clarify Congressional intent regarding the regulation of the use of pesticides in or near navigable waters, and for other purposes.” The House of Representatives passed the bill on March 31st by a vote of 292-130.

The bill would override a 2009 federal court ruling that agricultural chemicals, even those approved for use by the EPA, qualify as “chemical waste” under the Clean Water Act and, therefore, should require a special permit and set of guidelines to be sprayed in, around, and over bodies of water. The bill’s supporters argue that the special permits for use near water constitute duplicative regulation since the chemicals have already approved for general use by one government agency. Opponents argue that applying the Clean Water Act’s guidelines for minimizing how much chemical makes it into our water supply is good because, well, minimizing the amount of chemicals in our water is good.

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pancreatic tumor cells use fructose to divide and proliferate, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a study that challenges the common wisdom that all sugars are the same.

Tumor cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways, the team at the University of California Los Angeles found.

They said their finding, published in the journal Cancer Research, may help explain other studies that have linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancer types.

"These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation," Dr. Anthony Heaney of UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center and colleagues wrote.

Monsanto-Funded Research Echoes Organic Center's "Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use …" Report, Concluding that Glyphosate-Resistant Weeds Threaten Future of Herbicide-Tolerant, Genetically Engineered Crops
January 18, 2010

BOULDER, CO (January 18, 2010) – A new study entitled "Gene amplification confers glyphosate resistance in Amaranthus palmeri" from a research team including Monsanto scientists Dafu Wang and Douglas Sammons echoes conclusions from The Organic Center (TOC) report "Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the United States: The First Thirteen Years". Published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in December 2009, the Monsanto-funded research states that "evolution of resistance to the widely used, nonselective herbicide glyphosate in weedy species endangers the continued success of transgenic glyphosate-resistant crops and the sustainability of glyphosate as the world's most important herbicide."

Similarly, TOC's report demonstrates compelling evidence linking the increase in herbicide use on GE, herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops to the emergence and spread of glyphosate-resistant weeds including Amaranthus palmeri. Based upon data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), report author Dr. Charles Benbrook shows that glyphosate-based, HT corn, soybeans and cotton have increased herbicide use by 383 million pounds in the U.S. from 1996 to 2008 with 46 percent of the total increase occurring in 2007 and 2008.

Eight years ago, federal officials were struggling to remove potentially deadly E. coli from hamburgers when an entrepreneurial company from South Dakota came up with a novel idea: injecting beef with ammonia.

The company, Beef Products Inc., had been looking to expand into the hamburger business with a product made from beef that included fatty trimmings the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil. The trimmings were particularly susceptible to contamination, but a study commissioned by the company showed that the ammonia process would kill E. coli as well as salmonella.

Officials at the United States Department of Agriculture endorsed the company's ammonia treatment, and have said it destroys E. coli "to an undetectable level." They decided it was so effective that in 2007, when the department began routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public, they exempted Beef Products.

With the U.S.D.A.'s stamp of approval, the company's processed beef has become a mainstay in America's hamburgers. McDonald's, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone.

But government and industry records obtained by The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays.

There is a world-wide debate concerning the safety and regulatory approval process of genetically modified (GM) crops and foods [1, 2]. In order to scientifically address this issue, it is necessary to have access to toxicological tests, preferably on mammals, performed over the longest time-scales involving detailed blood and organ system analyses. Furthermore, these tests should, if possible, be in accordance with OECD guidelines. Unfortunately, this has been a challenge since usually these are regulatory tests performed confidentially by industry prior to commercialization of their GM crops, pesticides, drugs or chemicals. As a result, it is more instructive to investigate the available data that allows comparisons of several GMOs consumptions on health effects. This will allow the most appropriate statistical analyses to be performed in order to avoid possible false positive as well as false negative results. The physiological criteria used to either accept or reject any GM significant effect as relevant should be made clear. Here we discuss sex-related, temporal, linear and non-linear dose effects which are often involved in the establishment of chronic and endocrine diseases.

We investigated three different GM corn namely NK 603, MON 810 and MON 863, which were fed to rats for 90 days. The raw data have been obtained by European governments and made publically available for scrutiny and counter-evaluation. These studies constitute a model to investigate possible subchronic toxicological effects of these GM cereals in mammals and humans. These are the longest in vivo tests performed with mammals consuming these GMOs. The animals were monitored for numerous blood and organ parameters. One corn (NK 603) has been genetically engineered to tolerate the broad spectrum herbicide Roundup and thus contains residues of this formulation. The two other types of GM maize studied produce two different new insecticides namely modified versions of Cry1Ab (MON 810) and Cry3Bb1 (MON 863) Bacillus thuringiensis-derived proteins. Therefore, all these three GM maize contain novel pesticide residues that will be present in food and feed. As a result, the potential effects on physiological parameters, due either to the recognized mutagenic effects of the GM transformation process or to the presence of the above mentioned novel pesticides within these plants can be evaluated in animal feeding studies.

New studies debunk Industry claims that horizontal gene transfer is not a problem. It found evidence for large concentrations of transgenic DNA in animals from the food web associated with RoundUp Ready corn.

This indicates that the transgene does not significantly degrade within the food web. Further, the guts of these animals may provide opportunity for genetic transformation into native soil bacteria.

ABSTRACT - The persistence and movement of transgenic DNA in agricultural and natural systems is largely unknown. This movement poses a threat of horizontal gene transfer and possible proliferation of genetically modified DNA into the general environment. To assess the persistence of transgenic DNA in a field of Roundup Ready corn, we quantified the presence of the transgene for glyphosate tolerance within a soil food web. Using quantitative real-time PCR, we identified the cp4 epsps transgene in bulk soil microarthropods, nematodes, macroarthropods and earthworms sampled within the corn cropping system. We found evidence of the transgene at all dates and in all animal groups. Transgenic DNA concentration in animal was significantly higher than that of background soil, suggesting the animals were feeding directly on transgenic plant material. It remains to be tested whether this DNA was still within the plant residues, present as free, extracellular DNA or had already undergone
genetic transformation into competent bacterial cells. These results are the first to demonstrate the persistence of transgenic crop DNA residues within a food web.

Have no fear! Help is here! After scouring the web for the best toys for kids that don't contain questionable chemicals like phthalates and BPA or heavy metals like lead, I present you with the ultimate gift: a guide to save you tons of time this holiday season. Forget paging through catalogues (do people still do that in the digital age?) or spending hours traipsing from store to store. You will find everything you need for everyone on your shopping list right here. So, bookmark this page and start amassing the amazing gifts that will light up your child's eyes this season (with the durability to last for many more).

The New England Journal of Medicine article confirms as fact that this virus (H1N1) reappeared in 1977 "because it had been re-synthesized in a lab. Therefore, it came from a lab."

"This year's viral strain (S-OIV) is a strain unknown until now. From April to September 2009 137 deaths in Europe, 3, 559 worldwide. This new virus has a lower mortality rate than the common flu."

At the end of January 2009 and so before this new flu was newly discovered Baxter Pharmaceutical (USA) proceeded to distribute from the Austrian subsidiary to 16 different laboratories vaccination material for the flu, for the seasonal flu virus vaccine. This material weighed 72 kg. This means thousands and thousands of doses. So this was distributed. The Czech Republic Company Bio Test, one of their lab techs decoded through his own initiative to carry out extra security test with the vaccination material. What he did was to inoculate this vaccine to ferrets and all of them died. He immediately raised the alarm. Tests established that the material contained live bird flu virus mixed with a seasonal flu virus.

This is a fact that has been admitted by Baxter.

If you mix these two viruses and distribute it to thousands of people, what you are doing is you're maximizing the probabilities for these two viruses to merge, to recombine to be both very lethal and highly contagious.

Could this have happened by chance? It is extremely unlikely. I say this because i science the word 'impossible' is something we never say. Laboratories handling this kind of viruses have Bio Security Levels in place with Level 3 being the highest, which is what Baxter has. The probability that this may have happened by chance is extremely low.

How do we explain the mixing of two different (unattenuated, as they normally are) live viruses? Therefore, the odds of it happening by chance, well...how unlikely it is for an accident to occur under these circumstances.

Thanks to Jane Burgermeister, this case is under investigation.

Here's something rather rotten from the State of Denmark. Its government yesterday unveiled official research showing that two-year-old children are at risk from a bewildering array of gender-bending chemicals in such everyday items as waterproof clothes, rubber boots, bed linen, food, nappies, sunscreen lotion and moisturising cream.
The 326-page report, published by the environment protection agency, is the latest piece in an increasingly alarming jigsaw. A picture is emerging of ubiquitous chemical contamination driving down sperm counts and feminising male children all over the developed world. And anti-pollution measures and regulations are falling far short of getting to grips with it.

Sperm counts are falling so fast that young men are less fertile than their fathers and produce only a third as much, proportionately, as hamsters. And gender-bending chemicals are increasingly being blamed for the mystery of the "lost boys": babies who should normally be male who have been born as girls instead.
The Danish government set out to find out how much contamination from gender-bending chemicals a two-year-old child was exposed to every day. It concluded that a child could be "at critical risk" from just a few exposures to high levels of the substances, such as from rubber clogs, and imperilled by the amount it absorbed from sources ranging from food to sunscreens.

"By 1853, Parliament began passing laws to make the untested vaccine compulsory
throughout the British Empire. Other countries of Europe followed suit. Once the
economic implications of compulsory vaccinations were realized, few dared to
disagree. Then, as now, the media were controlled by the vaccine manufacturers
and the government, who stood to make huge money from the sale of these spurious
vaccines."... Tim O'Shea, D.C.

1. What's in the regular flu shot?

--Egg proteins: including avian contaminant viruses

--Gelatin: known to cause allergic reactions and anaphylaxis are usually
associated with sensitivity to egg or gelatin

--Polysorbate 80 (Tween80TM): can cause severe allergic reactions,
including anaphylaxis

--Formaldehyde: known carcinogen

--Triton X100: a strong detergent

--Sucrose: table sugar

--Resin: known to cause allergic reactions

--Gentamycin: an antibiotic

--Thimerosal: mercury is still in multidose vials

2. Do flu shots work?

--Not in babies: In a review of more than 51 studies involving more than
294,000 children it was found there was "no evidence that injecting
children 6-24 months of age with a flu shotwas any more effective than
placebo. In children over 2 yrs, it was only effective 33% of the time in
preventing the flu. Reference: Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy
children." The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2 (2008).

--Not in children with asthma: A study 800 children with asthma,
where one half were vaccinated and the other half did not receive the
influenza vaccine. The two groups were compared with respect to
clinic visits, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations
for asthma. CONCLUSION: This study failed to provide evidence that
the influenza vaccine prevents pediatric asthma exacerbations.

Reference: "Effectiveness of influenza vaccine for the prevention of asthma
exacerbations." Christly, C. et al. Arch Dis Child. 2004 Aug;89(8):734-5.

--Not in children with asthma (2): "The inactivated flu vaccine,
Flumist, does not prevent influenza-related hospitalizations in
children, especially the ones with asthma...In fact, children who get
the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than children who
do not get the vaccine." Reference: The American Thoracic Society's 105th
International Conference, May 15-20, 2009, San Diego.

--Not in adults: In a review of 48 reports including more than 66,000
adults, "Vaccination of healthy adults only reduced risk of influenza
by 6% and reduced the number of missed work days by less than one
day (0.16) days. It did not change the number of people needing to go
to hospital or take time off work." Reference: "Vaccines for preventing
influenza in healthy adults." The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
1(2006).

--Not in the Elderly: In a review of 64 studies in 98 flu seasons, For
elderly living in nursing homes, flu shots were non-significant for
preventing the flu. For elderly living in the community, vaccines were
not (significantly) effective against influenza, ILI or pneumonia.
Reference: "Vaccines for preventing influenza in the elderly." The Cochrane
Database of Systematic Reviews. 3(2006).

3. What about the new Swine Flu shot?

--A new report from a WHO advisory group predicts that global
production of vaccine for the novel H1N1 influenza virus could be as
much as 4.9 billon doses a year, far higher than previous estimates.

-- The report says that vaccine makers are expected to produce
about 780 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine for the northern
hemisphere's 2008-09 flu season.

--June 12 Announcement:

--The new H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine is going to be made by
Novartis. It will probably be made in PER.C6 cells (human
retina cells) and contain MF59, a potentially debilitating
adjuvant.

--MF-59 is an oil-based adjuvant primarily composed of
squalene, Tween 80 and Span85.

--All oil adjuvants injected into rats were found toxic. All rats
developed an MS-like disease that left them crippled, dragging
their paralyzed hindquarters across their cages.

--Squalene caused severe arthritis (3 on scale of 4). Squalene in
humans at 10-20 ppb (parts per billion) lead to severe immune
responses, such as autoimmune arthritis and lupus.
Reference: Kenney, RT. Edleman, R. "Survey of human-use adjuvants."
Expert Review of Vaccines. 2 (2003) p171.
Reference: Matsumoto, Gary. Vaccine A: The Covert Government
Experiment That's Killing Our Soldiers and Why GI's Are Only the First
Victims of this Vaccine. New York: Basic Books. p54.

--Federal health officials will probably recommend that most
Americans get three flu shots this fall: one regular flu shot and
two doses of any vaccine made against the new swine flu strain.
Reference: Washington Post, Wednesday, May 6, 2009

--HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is talking to school
superintendents around the country, urging them to spend the
summer planning what to do if the government decides it needs
their buildings for mass vaccinations and vaccinating kids first.
Reference: CBS News, June 12, 2009.

4. Is Mandatory Vaccination Possible?

--1946: US Public Health Service was established and EO 9708 (Executive
Order) was signed, listing the communicable diseases where quarantines
could be used. 1946 and 2003, cholera, diphtheria, TB, typhoid,
smallpox, yellow fever, & viral hemorrhagic fevers were added.

--April 4, 2003: EO 13295 added SARS to the list.

--April 1, 2005: EO 13295 added "Influenza caused by novel or re-emergent
influenza viruses that are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic."
EO 13295 also:

--The president gave the Sec. of HHS the power to quarantine, his or
her discretion.

--Sec of HHS has the power to arrange for the "apprehension and
examination of persons reasonably thought to be infected." A cough
or a fever could put a person at risk for being quarantined for an
extended period of time without recourse.

--January 28, 2003: Project BioShield was introduced during Bush's State of the
Union Address. This created permanent and indefinite funding authority to
develop "medical countermeasures."

--The NIH was given authority to speed approval of drugs and vaccines.
Emergency approval of a "fast tracked" drug and vaccine can be
given without the regular course of safety testing.

--December 17, 2006: Division E: The Public Readiness and Emergency
Preparedness Act was added as an addendum to Defense Appropriations Bill
HR 2863 at 11:20p on Saturday night, long after House Committee members
had signed off on the bill and gone home for the holidays. Section (b)(1)
states:

--The Sec of HHS can make a determination that a "disease, health
condition or threat" constitutes a public health emergency. He or she
may then recommend "the manufacture, testing, development,
administration, or use of one or more covered counter measures..."
A covered countermeasure defined as a "pandemic product, vaccine
or drug."

--Division E also provides complete liability protection for all drugs,
vaccines or biological products deemed a "covered countermeasure"
and used for an outbreak of any kind.

--Complete liability protection has been given to drug companies for
any product used for any public health emergency declared by Sec of
HHS.

--Pharma is now protected from all accountability, unless "criminal
intent to do harm" can be proven by the injured party. They are
protected from liability even if they know the drug will be harmful.

5. What can I do?

These are just a few suggestions; please come up with more of your own! Add to this list and spread the word.

--Give this information to everyone you know and love.

--Contact local first responders (EMTs, Paramedics, Fireman, etc). Tell
them what is will be in the flu shots and that *they* will be the first
ones to get it.

--Contact local police and discuss concerns about mandatory
vaccination. You go to church and to the grocery store with these
folks and their kids play with your kids. They are not "scary" people.
Take them coffee and a treat to get in the door...

--Contact local city council members about your liberties. You need
their support to maintain your right to refuse.

--Write a small article for LOCAL, community newspapers. Watch for
samples on www.DrTenpenny.com

--Have at least 3 weeks of food and water at your house and be
prepared to voluntarily self-quarantine of given no other options.

--Stock up on Vitamin D3 (3000IU per person), Vitamin A, Vitamin
C, etc and homeopathics for the flu

--Someone told me if you had to get the shot, *immediately* afterward,
rub the area hard and brisk with 1/2 of a freshly cut lemon. I don't
know if that will help, but it certainly can't hurt.

-- Check out www.oath-keepers.org . A pdf of their oath for easy
printing will be on www.DrTenpenny.com I am sharing this with
local military recruitment office, reservists and retired military people
we know.

-- Connect with other activist organizations – those who support 2nd
amendment issues, the environmental and animal rights. Help spread
the word about their passion and get them involved with yours.

You can't do it all,
but you can do something!

*As stated years ago by Margaret Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has."

For more information go to www.SayingNoToVaccines.com or www.DrTenpenny.com 440-239-1878

*

One hard lesson we should have learned after Wall Street's collapse and the government's handling of the bailout is that there is no reason, whatsoever, for us to sacrifice our good faith and trust in former bankers who now run the Treasury and Federal Reserve. And now as the flu season gets ready to kick off amidst much fanfare and predictions of doom due to a new H1N1 influenza virus, there is emerging sufficient information to raise very serious doubts whether our nation's health authorities are truly serving the public health instead of commercial interests.

If the flu season goes according to schedule, the vaccine industrial complex will be poised to join Wall Street for record year rip-off profits. We will also likely witness huge Pharma executive bonuses and perhaps gold-plated toilets. Even if the CDC statisticians' crystal ball used to forecast rampant swine flu infections turns into a complete bust—which would only be one more added to many other failed flu predictions back to 1976—it will nevertheless be a very profitable failure as was the economic collapse for the banking cartel. The vaccine industry has now received orders in the range of 3 billion doses during the course of the coming flu season. The World Health Organization would like to vaccinate two thirds (4 billion) of the global community, and the US alone is spending $2 billion to stockpile the nation with upwards to 250 million doses.

In the US, such profits could never be accomplished without a dynamic, marketing initiative to convince Americans that vaccines will keep them protected and alive. And what better public relations machine for the vaccine complex, and all its supporters in health insurance and professional medical institutions, than our very own Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services. Even better, our tax dollars are there to pay for it all. We pay for the comfort in knowing that the CDC's disinformation campaign will continue to scare us over the major networks and the New York Times. We can also assure vaccine makers that once and for all they are protected from liability in the event of serious flu vaccine injuries.

Nevertheless, the government has a lot of vaccine vials to distribute, therefore, the CDC needs to sustain the fiction of numerous elderly dying in nursing homes, unvaccinated pregnant moms and children facing life threatening complications, and scores of sick and dead burnt into our national subconscious. It is all part of the CDC's script to get citizens rushing to their doctors and Wal-Marts to be vaccinated.

Peter Doshi, while at Harvard in the mid-2000s, published a devastating study in the British Medical Journal that systematically unveils the flawed predictive science used to publicize our health agencies' influenza statistics and mortality rates. His analysis shook up enough health authorities to warrant twelve scientists from the CDC and National Institutes of Health to unsuccessfully take him on. Now at MIT, Doshi continues his analysis of a century's worth of influenza mortality data and government manipulation of influenza data, such as the annual figure of 36,000 influenza deaths we hear and read repeatedly.[1] Although this magical number was for all practical purposes alchemically conjured up via mathematical modeling back in 2003, it continues to be the most holy number in the CDC's PR vocabulary every flu season. Doshi draws the conclusion, published in the American Journal of Public Health, that commercial interests are playing the role of science in both industry and government.

French scientist Gilles-Eric Séralini unmasked the dangers of genetically modified brinjal, almost approved for commercial production in India. He shared with Savvy Soumya Misra his findings on Bt brinjal and Roundup Ready soybean

On the data submitted on Bt brinjal by Mahyco for approval from the Indian government

The data submitted to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of the Union environment ministry is not valid; it has not been signed by the scientist who conducted the tests. What is more scandalous is that the studies on the effects of Bt brinjal were conducted for just three months.

If the product is to be consumed by humans, the tests should have been for a period of at least two years—the lifespan of a rodent.

Worse, Mahyco tried to cover up the side-effects by jumbling data on various types of brinjal in a way that it was hard to compare Bt brinjal with normal brinjal. I am sorry to say people in the GEAC did not carefully assess the data. It is also not clear how the GEAC overlooked the fact that Bt brinjal has a protein that induces resistance to antibiotics. Mahyco has not studied hormonal impacts of Bt brinjal—Bt toxin found in it could lead to reproductive health problems.

On his findings on Roundup Ready soybean that tolerates herbicides

Our study found that even minute doses of Roundup (a natural herbicide) disrupt sex hormones like androgen and estrogen. The inert ingredients in Roundup Ready (RR) soybean like polyethoxylated tallowamine kill human cells and disrupt the synthesis and action of human sex hormones. The research was published in this year's July edition of the journal Toxicology. Some pregnant women who consumed RR soybean developed disorders. This combined with certain studies on animals in labs (conducted by others) made us conclude that Roundup is an endocrine disruptor.

The devastation of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic is well known, but a new article suggests a surprising factor in the high death toll: the misuse of aspirin. Appearing in the November 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online now, the article sounds a cautionary note as present day concerns about the novel H1N1 virus run high.

High aspirin dosing levels used to treat patients during the 1918-1919 pandemic are now known to cause, in some cases, toxicity and a dangerous build up of fluid in the lungs, which may have contributed to the incidence and severity of symptoms, bacterial infections, and mortality. Additionally, autopsy reports from 1918 are consistent with what we know today about the dangers of aspirin toxicity, as well as the expected viral causes of death.
The motivation behind the improper use of aspirin is a cautionary tale, said author Karen Starko, MD. In 1918, physicians did not fully understand either the dosing or pharmacology of aspirin, yet they were willing to recommend it. Its use was promoted by the drug industry, endorsed by doctors wanting to "do something," and accepted by families and institutions desperate for hope.

The agribusiness news is an endless saga of disease and drugs, but to see "Cargill Organic" is not what most organic shoppers are aiming for.

The J.F. O'Neill tongues were produced between July 1 and Oct. 8, and sold under the following brand names: J.F. O'Neill Packing Co., Whole Foods Natural, Whole Foods Organic, Premier Protein Partners, Montana Ranch Brand, Grassland Beef, Austin Meats, Morgan Ranch, Kobe Beef America, Imperial Wagyu Beef, Brand Advantage Wagyu, Brand Advantage Partners, Yamaya U.S.A. and A.D. Rosenblatt.

According to the FSIS, the J.F. O'Neill recall stemmed from a food safety assessment that the federal agency conducted at the company's processing establishment. The Cargill recall stemmed from FSIS inspection activities, the agency added.

More information about the Cargill recall is available at the FSIS website...

Every time I see that damn commercial featuring the redheaded lady unloading groceries and literally bitching to me about a soda tax making it too expensive to feed it to her family

Years ago, an owner of a glass company was arrested for throwing bricks through store windows in his town. What a way to increase business! Has Eli Lilly figured out the drug equivalent of breaking, then fixing our windows?
In August 2008, the huge drug company agreed to buy Monsanto's bovine growth hormone (rbST or rbGH), which is injected into cows in the US to increase milk supply. It was an odd choice at the time. A reporter asked Lilly's representative why on earth his veterinary division Elanco just paid $300 million for a drug that other companies wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. The drug's days were obviously numbered. The former head of the American Medical Association has urged hospitals to stop using dairy products from rbGH-injected cows, the American Nurses Association came out against it, even Wal-Mart has joined the ranks of numerous retailers and dairies loudly proclaiming their cows are rbGH-free. In fact, Monsanto's stock rose by almost 5% when the sale was announced, and Eli Lilly's dropped by nearly 1%.
The main reason for the unpopularity of this hormone, which is banned in most other industrialized countries, is the danger of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Dozens of studies confirm that IGF-1, which accelerates cell division, substantially increases the risk of breast, prostate, colon, lung, and other cancers. Normal milk contains IGF-1, milk drinkers have higher levels of IGF-1, and the milk from cows injected with Eli Lilly's drug has much greater amounts of IGF-1. You can connect the dots.
Would it be too crass to point out the obvious conflict-of-the-public's-interest that Eli Lilly also markets cancer drugs? In fact their drug Evista, which might help reduce the risk of breast cancer, may lower IGF-1 (according to one small study). So on the one hand, Eli Lilly pushes a milk drug that might increase cancer, and on the other, it comes to the rescue with drugs to treat or "prevent" cancer. Call it the perfect cancer profit cycle.
It gets better.
Cows treated with rbGH have much higher incidence of mastitis, a painful infection of the udder. This results in more pus in the milk (yuck). But don't worry. It's Eli Lilly to the rescue again. They are one of the companies happy to sell antibiotics to dairy farmers to treat the infection--which can't help but increase antibiotic resistance in humans (double yuck).
History of Lawsuits and Criminal Charges
But would Eli Lilly consciously risk our health just to increase their profit? What kind of company are they and can we trust them with our food? If recent events are any indication, you better look for rbGH-free labels.
A December 17, 2006 New York Times article revealed that according to hundreds of internal documents and emails,
Eli Lilly has engaged in a decade-long effort to play down the health risks of Zyprexa. ... Lilly executives kept important information from doctors about Zyprexa's links to obesity and its tendency to raise blood sugar -- both known risk factors for diabetes. ... Lilly was concerned that Zyprexa's sales would be hurt if the company was more forthright about the fact that the drug might cause unmanageable weight gain or diabetes.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/is-eli-lilly-milking-canc_b_312754.htmlzyprexia

Fewer U.S. high schools and middle schools are selling candy and salty snacks to students, the federal government said in a report released Monday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report was based on a survey of public schools in 34 states that compared results from 2006 to 2008. The study did not report the total number of schools that have changed. Instead, it looked at the proportion of schools in each state.

It found that the median proportion of high schools and middle schools that sell the sugary or salty snacks dropped from 54 percent to 36 percent.

The share of schools that sell soda and artificial fruit drinks dropped from 62 percent to 37 percent.

The improvements were most dramatic in some Southern states. In Mississippi, the proportion selling soda dropped from 78 percent to 25 percent. In Tennessee, it dropped from 73 percent to 26 percent. Those two states also saw dramatic reductions in sales of candy and salty snacks.

The report marked a continued effort by health officials to combat childhood obesity.

"Efforts to improve the school nutrition environment are working and Mississippi and Tennessee are excellent examples of this progress," Howell Wechsler, director of CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health, said in a statement.

American Heart Association officials celebrated the progress, attributing it to aggressive legislation and school policy changes in some states that they hope will get children and teens accustomed to healthier eating.

"What kids do in school in large measure dictates what they do away from school," said Dr. Clyde Yancy, the association's president.

___

On the Net:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/schoolhealthprofiles

A new study on the level of "autism spectrum disorders" in the United States is sober and circumspect. Some of today's reporting about it has been less so.

... Unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way of ingredient testing. Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies. Slaughterhouses fear that one grinder's discovery of E. coli will set off a recall of ingredients they sold to others.

...The meat industry treats much of its practices and the ingredients in ground beef as trade secrets. While the Department of Agriculture has inspectors posted in plants and has access to production records, it also guards those secrets. Federal records released by the department through the Freedom of Information Act blacked out details of Cargill's grinding operation that could be learned only through copies of the documents obtained from other sources. Those documents illustrate the restrained approach to enforcement by a department whose missions include ensuring meat safety and promoting agriculture markets.

Jill Richardson :: Today I posted a piece on the food blog Zester Daily called "Trained to Get Fat." In it, I focused quite a bit on David Kessler's new book The End of Overeating. Kessler goes through the biological reasons WHY humans overeat, and then explains precisely how food companies and marketers exploit that tendency to ensure that we frequently DO overeat.

The End of Overeating
Kessler begins with the introduction of the term "hyperpalatable foods" - foods that are tastier and more irresistible than anything found in nature. In fact, I found that there's a stark difference between foraged foods and domesticated foods (for example, Bing or Rainier cherries are MUCH bigger and sweeter than wild black cherries). But when we're dealing with domesticated foods, we're still dealing with something that evolved in nature in its unrefined form.
The problem is when you go from sweet corn to high fructose corn syrup: from a natural form of food to something that never existed in nature. Our bodies are programmed to favor sweet, salty, and fatty foods due to an evolutionary need to pile on the calories when they were available to avoid starvation. But just because the highly refined junk that's available (and ubiquitous!) today never existed in nature doesn't mean that our evolved favoring of sugar, salt, and fat turns off when we eat those "hyperpalatable" foods. We just keep eating and eating and eating.

What happens to those who overeat (which is a large percentage of us - myself included!) is that we get conditioned to overeat these hyperpalatable foods. Kessler calls it conditioned hypereating. Maybe the first time you saw the Golden Arches, you thought, "Hmm, am I hungry today? Yes! I am. I'll get a burger." Over time, you become conditioned to cues - the sight of the Golden Arches, the smell of McDonald's fries, etc. At a certain point it becomes automatic. See McDonalds, eat a burger. Or eat an entire supersized value meal. You don't even wonder if you're hungry before doing it. You just act automatically as you are conditioned to do by those cues.

For a technology that has sucked up billions of research dollars and prolonged agriculture's dependence on chemical inputs, GMOs (genetically modified organisms) have yet to justify their role in a world desperate for more sustainable ways to produce healthier food for more people. In a recent report by the Union of Concerned Scientists entitled "Failure to Yield," a summary of on-farm production levels of genetically modified crops showed less than marginal gains in actual yield. In fact, the review concluded that "no currently available transgenic varieties enhance the intrinsic yield of any crops."

Let's Put GMO Food on the Shelf
Such findings beg the question: Who needs GMO food anyway? If GMOs are developed to increase yields, then they have failed. If they are marketed to reduce costs for farmers, and the price of GMO corn seed is now three times greater than it was just a few years ago, they have failed yet again. If these seeds are engineered to use less herbicides when, according to recent indications, many weeds are becoming Roundup-resistant, requiring a cocktail of herbicide applications in certain farming areas while crop land is just being abandoned in others, they have most certainly failed!

GMO defenders cite net yield increases per acre due to weed and pest management traits, apparently comparing GMO-chemical regimes with non-GMO-chemical regimes in traditional intensive corn-soy production systems. They don't compare the genetically modified pest-management results with non-chemical systems where organic corn tolerates higher weed populations without yield loss, and where insect damage becomes insignificant in most years once basic crop rotations are established and soil health improves. It seems GMO defenders have failed to take the varying approaches of these two systems into account, which leaves us with only a chapter of the whole story.

The LIA Foundation position paper calls for:

· A moratorium on all genetically modified foods

· Research to evaluate the role of GM foods on autism, Lyme disease, and related conditions

· Physician and patient advocacy groups to advise patients on the role of GM foods in disease processes

· Health practitioners to distribute non-GMO educational materials (www.nonGMOGuide.com )

"It is well-known that the rapid increase in multifaceted, chronic illnesses such as autism and Lyme disease are costly, both to the patients and to society as a whole. Children with autism often have compromised digestion, immunity, and toxin-clearing abilities. We must fully evaluate the role that GM foods may play in this alarming increase," said Tami Duncan, Co-founder, President, LIA Foundation.

Children with autism often develop allergies to corn, soy, and dairy by the time they are tested and diagnosed. Since most soy and corn are genetically modified, and dairy cows are usually fed GM feed and sometimes injected with GM bovine growth hormone, the LIA Foundation also wants studies to investigate a possible connection.

From heart-friendly margarines to sugary cereals that strengthen bones, once-demonized foods are being spiked with nutrients to give them a healthier glow — and consumers are biting, even on some that are little more than dressed-up junk food.

A report released Thursday finds that even in a weak economy, people will pay a premium for products seen as preventing a health problem or providing a good alternative to sodas and empty-calorie snacks. The report is from research firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

These products include winners and sinners: juices that supply kids with needed calcium, but also candy disguised as granola bars with just a smidgeon of much-ballyhooed nutrients.

The industry calls these products "nutraceuticals" or "functional foods." Critics say they could lead people to consume too much of certain nutrients, plus too many calories and fats.

New York University food scientist Marion Nestle calls them "calorie distractors."

"Functional foods are about marketing, not health," she said. "They delude people into thinking that these things are healthy," and they often eat more than is wise, she said.

Her shame list includes a candy bar pumped with caffeine and B vitamins, marketed as an "energy boost," and fattening ice creams enriched with calcium and helpful bacteria called probiotics.

Other nutrition experts worry about too much of a good thing. The studies are far from definitive, but some suggest that too much of vitamins A, C, E and folic acid can be risky for some people.

Folic acid, for example, is "uncharted territory" because so many foods now are fortified with it, said Tufts University nutrition expert Alice Lichtenstein. "We don't actually know how high you can go" and be safe, she said.

Americans have a big appetite for these products.

Functional foods account for more than $27 billion in sales a year — about 5 percent of the U.S. food market, the Pricewaterhouse report says. Estimates of future growth range from 8.5 to 20 percent per year, far more than the 1 to 4 percent forecast for the food industry as a whole.

Fiber, for digestive health, has been a big draw. In 2007, General Mills expanded its Fiber One brand into bars with appealing flavors such as Oat & Caramel and Chocolate Mocha. Sales exceeded $100 million in the first year.

In 2004, the company added whole grain to its entire Big G cereal line — 50 to 60 brands. Kathy Wiemer, a company dietitian, argues that a cereal such as Lucky Charms, made from whole grain oats and containing less sugar than many yogurts, is a healthy breakfast choice.

"There are some misperceptions around foods that contain sugar," she said. "And we know that consumers are far below the recommended intakes" for fibers and whole grains.

Among beverages, vitamin-enhanced versions of Tropicana Pure Premium juices now account for 40 percent of Tropicana sales and the share is growing, said Dave DeCecco, a spokesman for Tropicana's maker, PepsiCo Inc. A kids' version has added vitamins A, C, D and E plus folic acid, potassium and calcium.

Coca-Cola Inc. makes an enhanced Minute Maid orange juice with a host of vitamins plus zinc, and an apple juice marketed for kids with multiple vitamins and calcium. Kraft Foods Inc. sells a version of Capri Sun drinks with added antioxidant vitamins.

Soft drinks, including vitamin waters and sports beverages, now claim a third of the nutraceutical market, according to the Pricewaterhouse report. They have gained as carbonated soft drink sales have declined.

Dairy products, led by yogurts such as Yoplait and Dannon's Activia line, accounted for nearly $7 billion in sales in 2007, just behind the beverage category, the Pricewaterhouse report says.

However, "plus" products can have minuses, such as sweetened "silly beverages that cost $2 and $3 apiece with added ginkgo or caffeine or chromium, a supposed appetite suppressant," said David Schardt, senior nutritionist for the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest.

"It's really a junk food dressed up to look prettier than it is," he said. "People are going to be deceived into thinking a lot of these products are especially healthy for them when there's little evidence they are. There's more hype to these products than there is reality."

Some consumers agree.

Ahna Deverey, shopping at a grocery store in suburban Milwaukee, shook her head at milk with added DHA/omega-3 fatty acid. The label said it "helps support a healthy brain."

"I sometimes think it's overkill," she said. "I try to avoid as many additives as possible, and when it says 'doctor-recommended,' you know damned well you don't need it."

The federal Food and Drug Administration is paying more attention to health claims on functional foods. The FDA recently sent General Mills a letter saying that Cheerios was being "promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug" — lowering cholesterol 4 percent in six weeks.

General Mills says it is working with the FDA, that its fiber health claim "has been FDA-approved for 12 years," and that the cholesterol claim has been on Cheerios boxes for more than two years.

Several nutrition scientists say they hope the agency will go after hyped claims of foods and ingredients that can "boost immunity" — a vague concept with little hard science to back it up, Schardt said.

Omega-3 fatty acids also are drawing more attention. The ones that some studies have linked to heart benefits are derived from marine sources, such as fish oil, but many foods touting omega-3 use plant sources, Lichtenstein said.

The biggest worry is that adding a nutrient will give "a health halo" to foods and lead to overconsumption, she said.

"The biggest problem we have in the United States is overnutrition — too much calories," Lichtenstein said.

Brian Wansink, a food marketing expert at Cornell University, sees another risk. Health benefits come from eating the entire food, not just a single nutrient inside it, he said.

"People are sort of losing the point of why they're eating certain foods," Wansink said. With functional foods, "we end up eating it like it is medicine, so we end up eating too much of it."

___

On the Net:

Pricewaterhouse report: http://tinyurl.com/oflomp

Food Information Council: http://www.ific.org/nutrition/functional/

Organic agriculture's recently recognized benefits for improving food security don't depend on a boost from genetically modified (GM) technology. While the chemically-based systems that GM requires could be cleaned up with organic techniques, there's no clear reason to degrade organic standards to accept the downsides that come with biotech-produced crops as they are currently managed.

Recently, there have been renewed efforts to pressure organic agriculture to abandon one of its foundational principles and accept genetically modified crops. While there may be nothing inherently wrong with contemplating a theoretical overlap between biotech crop genetics and organic farming systems, there's not a compelling set of reasons to do so, either.

Alleging the principled barrier between the two is merely a quirky philosophical sticking point of "hard core resistance" within the organic community diverts attention from real questions as to the net value of this pairing.

Real question #1: Why bother?

To this point, biotech crops have not produced the yield advantages or biological resilience to multiple stressors. If we're looking for reliable, multi-benefit, future-oriented farming options in an input-limited world, biotech is not a player.

On May 19th, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) called on "Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid GM (genetically modified) foods when possible and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks." 1) They called for a moratorium on GM foods, long-term independent studies, and labeling. AAEM's position paper stated, "Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food," including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system. They conclude, "There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation," as defined by recognized scientific criteria. "The strength of association and consistency between GM foods and disease is confirmed in several animal studies."

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria persist in chicken manure.
Aug 07, 2009

Graham, JP, SL Evans, LB Price, and EK Silbergeld. 2009. Fate of antimicrobial-resistant enterococci and staphylococci and resistance determinants in stored poultry litter. Environmental Research. 109:682-689.
Synopsis by Paul Eubig, DVM

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria can persist in chicken manure that is intended for use as a fertilizer on farm fields.

Large piles of aging chicken manure to be used as fertilizer on farm crops can house bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, finds a study from Johns Hopkins University.
The results raise concern that typical storage conditions may fail to keep the microbes from reaching people through contaminated food or drinking water. Poultry manure is not required to be treated before it is applied to farm fields.
Poultry producers commonly use antibiotics to promote growth of the chickens. This can lead to bacteria in the chickens' digestive system becoming resistant to antibiotics. The antibiotic-resistant bacteria are excreted and wind up in the manure – or poultry litter.
The poultry industry in the United States produces an estimated 13 to 26 million metric tons of manure each year. Much of the litter is used as a fertilizer. It is stored in huge piles until it is ready to be spread onto farm fields. Rich in nitrogen, it is also fed to beef cattle and farmed fish.
The study's researchers examined the survival and the antibiotic-resistance pattern of two different types of bacteria, staphylococci and enterococci, in chicken litter. These bacteria are found in the digestive systems of both chickens and people.
Although the bacteria numbers initially declined in the manure piles, some survived and increased in numbers again over the course of the four-month survey.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria were found throughout the entire four months of monitoring. The resistant bacteria ranged from 0 to 69 percent of the total bacteria, depending on the strain and the type of antibiotic against which the bacteria were tested for resistance.

WASHINGTON, -- Large plastic pallets used to ship, cool and store produce contain decabromodiphenyl ether (Deca), a flame retardant chemical and known neurotoxin that may leach onto the fruits and vegetables inside.
In a letter sent today, Richard Wiles, senior Vice President and for Policy and Communications of Environmental Working Group (EWG), urged Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the federal Food and Drug Administration, to order the food industry to stop using plastic pallets made with Deca.
Wiles pointed out that significant levels of Deca could accumulate during the standard food industry practice of "hydro-cooling" produce by submerging stacked pallets filled with fruits or vegetables in water or by dripping water over the pallets. As the water is recycled, its Deca concentration intensifies and leaves Deca residues on the produce.
Citing concerns that this practice could lead to Deca contamination of food, on April 29, 2009 Dr. Elizabeth Sánchez of the FDA'S Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition advised a Washington, D.C.-area consulting firm that Deca is "not authorized" as a component of plastic pallets used in the hydro-cooling produce. She said that FDA required pre-market approval for the chemical "to be used in contact with food."

Used in gardens, farms, and parks around the world, the weed killer Roundup contains an ingredient that can suffocate human cells in a laboratory, researchers say

Used in yards, farms and parks throughout the world, Roundup has long been a top-selling weed killer. But now researchers have found that one of Roundup's inert ingredients can kill human cells, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells.

The new findings intensify a debate about so-called "inerts" — the solvents, preservatives, surfactants and other substances that manufacturers add to pesticides. Nearly 4,000 inert ingredients are approved for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Federal authorities are investigating Nestle's Danville, Va., plant that makes refrigerated cookie dough which is believed to be related to a new national outbreak of a bacteria-triggered illness, according to media reports on Monday.

Federal microbiologists and food safety investigators have descended on the Danville plant, trying to crack a scientific mystery surrounding a national outbreak of illness from bacteria E. coli, a deadly strain of bacteria, which has been linked to the product.

Nestle USA Friday recalled its refrigerated cookies, one kind of Nestle's famous Toll House products, after federal health officials linked the dough to infections from the bacteria in 66 people in 29 states, including five in Washington. The recall does not affect other Toll House products, including ice cream that contains raw Toll House dough.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) today released its position paper on Genetically Modified foods stating that "GM foods pose a serious health risk" and calling for a moratorium on GM foods. Citing several animal studies, the AAEM concludes "there is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects" and that "GM foods pose a serious health risk in the areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, and metabolic, physiologic and genetic health."

Powdered Cow's Milk Formula Contains Thyroid Toxin
By Anila Jacob, M.D., M.P.H., April 2009

Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported that 15 brands of powdered infant formula are contaminated with perchlorate, a rocket fuel component detected in drinking water in 28 states and territories.
The two most contaminated brands, made from cow's milk, accounted for 87 percent of the U.S. powdered formula market in 2000, the scientists said.
The CDC scientists did not identify the formula brands they tested.
The little-noticed CDC findings, published in the March 2009 edition of the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, raise new concerns about perchlorate pollution, a legacy of Cold War rocket and missile tests. Studies have established that the chemical is a potent thyroid toxin that may interfere with fetal and infant brain development (Kirk 2006).
The CDC team warned that mixing perchlorate-tainted formula powder with tap water containing "even minimal amounts" of the chemical could boost the resulting mixture's toxin content above the level the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers safe. Many scientists contend that the EPA "safe" level is too high to protect public health.

The glyphosate or patented herbicide sold by Monsanto as Roundup is the number one selling herbicide in the world. This is the formulation used with patented Roundup Ready gmo crops that cover the bulk of America's commodity crop acreage.

Glyphosate Formulations Induce Apoptosis and Necrosis in Human Umbilical, Embryonic, and Placental Cells

Nora Benachour and Gilles-Eric Sralini*
University of Caen, Laboratory Estrogens and Reproduction, UPRES EA 2608, Institute of Biology, Caen 14032, France
Chem. Res. Toxicol., 2009, 22 (1), pp 97–105
DOI: 10.1021/tx800218n
Publication Date (Web): December 23, 2008
Copyright © 2008 American Chemical Society

We have evaluated the toxicity of four glyphosate (G)-based herbicides in Roundup (R) formulations, from 105 times dilutions, on three different human cell types. This dilution level is far below agricultural recommendations and corresponds to low levels of residues in food or feed. The formulations have been compared to G alone and with its main metabolite AMPA or with one known adjuvant of R formulations, POEA. HUVEC primary neonate umbilical cord vein cells have been tested with 293 embryonic kidney and JEG3 placental cell lines. All R formulations cause total cell death within 24 h, through an inhibition of the mitochondrial succinate dehydrogenase activity, and necrosis, by release of cytosolic adenylate kinase measuring membrane damage.

Current methods of raising livestock are encouraging the development of new antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, including salmonella.

You may be familiar with many of the problems associated with concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. These "factory farm" operations are often criticized for the smell and water pollution caused by all that concentrated manure; the unnatural, grain-heavy diets the animals consume; and the stressful, unhealthy conditions in which the animals live. You may not be aware, however, of the threat such facilities hold for you and your family's health — even if you never buy any of the meat produced in this manner.

Factory farms are breeding grounds for virulent disease, which can then spread to the wider community via many routes — not just in food, but also in water, the air, and the bodies of farmers, farm workers and their families. Once those microbes become widespread in the environment, it's very difficult to get rid of them.

A 2008 report from the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, a joint project of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, underscores those risks. The 111-page report, two years in the making, outlines the public health, environmental, animal welfare and rural livelihood consequences of what they call "industrial farm animal production." Its conclusions couldn't be clearer. Factory farm production is intensifying worldwide, and rates of new infectious diseases are rising. Of particular concern is the rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant microbes, an inevitable consequence of the widespread use of antibiotics as feed additives in industrial livestock operations.

Sugar, the nutritional pariah that dentists and dietitians have long reviled, is enjoying a second act, dressed up as a natural, healthful ingredient.

From the tomato sauce on a Pizza Hut pie called "The Natural," to the just-released soda Pepsi Natural, some of the biggest players in the American food business have started, in the last few months, replacing high-fructose corn syrup with old-fashioned sugar...

See more irresistible headlines

France 24 Television, Environment, week of 3 February 2009.

[Transcript and translation from the original French TV broadcast by GM-free Ireland]

Herbicides, fungicides, pesticides: so many products used daily by farmers. Gloves, a mask, totally waterproof clothing: this is the new outfit for farmers today. Safety instructions are to be taken seriously, whether the use is in the air on on the soil. As for the consumers, they're demanding more and more information on the quality of the fruit and vegetables they eat.

This is the fight of many scientists, who are trying to show the toxicity of these products.

With nine million litres of Roundup sold each year all over the world, the American agrochemical group Monsanto holds a world record.

For the first time, a study led by Gilles-Eric Séralini from the French Committee of Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering, shows that the active principles of Roundup - one of the leading products of this company - could kill human cells, even at infinitesimal doses.

The agrochemical group reacted by means of a communiqué: it considers the French researcher "intentionally misappropriates the normal use of Roundup in order to denigrate the product, even though it's been shown to be safe for 35 years all over the world."

The scientist agreed to reply to our questions:

What is the impact on the environment?

Séralini: "There are several formulae of Roundup which have been classified dangerous for the environment, especially for aquatic life. Quite a lot of it is diffused in the waterways, the rivers, surface water.

When you go further and look at the effects in a test tube, the effects on the cells, effects on laboratory animals, effects on wild animals, effects on farm animals, effects on humans where accidents have occurred, there is no doubt about it.

We don't have to wait thirty years for epidemiological studies in the society to understand that there really is an impact."

What was the company's answer?

Federal officials yesterday approved for the first time the sale of a drug made in animals genetically modified to secrete the compound in their milk.

More Articles

Fizzy drinks sold by Coca-Cola in Britain have been found to contain pesticides at up to 300 times the level allowed in tap or bottled water.

A worldwide study found pesticide levels in orange and lemon drinks sold under the Fanta brand, which is popular with children, were at their highest in the UK.

The research team called on the Government, the industry and the company to act to remove the chemicals and called for new safety standards to regulate the soft drinks market.

The results of a new study suggest that silicone breast prostheses may increase the risk of developing a rare form of lymphoma - cancer of the lymph system. However, the authors emphasize that because anaplastic large T-cell lymphoma (ALCL) of the breast is so rare, the absolute risk is still very low.

Dr. Daphne de Jong, from The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, and colleagues evaluated the association between silicone implants and this cancer after identifying two patients who had ALCL in the fibrous capsule surrounding their silicone breast implants.

Scientists at Cambridge University have made a major breakthrough researching brain tumours in children.

For the first time a sequence of DNA present in around two-thirds of the most common tumour has been pinpointed.

Pilocytic astrocytomas is diagnosed in 145 children from five to 19 every year, with nearly 40 cases untreatable.

As little is known about the causes and genetics of brain tumours, it is hoped the findings could lead to better treatment.

Genetically Engineered Food Hotly Debated

BOSTON (WBZ) ― Genetically engineered food: It's either a great scientific leap forward, or a potentially dangerous experiment. And for the first time, the door is open to the possibility of genetically engineered meat and fish on grocery shelves.

The idea is hotly debated. One of the first companies trying to bring this new food to the market is headquartered in Massachusetts. Aqua Bounty Technologies, based in Waltham, has created genetically engineered salmon.

"It looks like a salmon, it acts like a salmon," says Aqua Bounty CEO Ron Stotish. "All attributes of the fish are the same as normal Atlantic salmon."

But there's one big difference. The Aqua Bounty salmon grow really fast.

"We can get from fish egg to a 3 to 4 kilo salmon in a little over a year. Now by comparison, the normal Atlantic salmon would take 4 or 5 years to reach that size," says Stotish.

Genetic engineering is a process where genes are manipulated to give new characteristics to, in this case, fish or animals.

The obvious follow up question is how the shoppers would feel if they discovered their corn and soy has been gmo for a decade.

The pain is debilitating. The only option: smoking medical marijuana. That's the reality for many hepatitis C patients whose road to health includes a liver transplant. Although Canadian transplant centres are more willing than those in the United States, not everyone says yes to liver patients who smoke marijuana, and a University of Alberta researcher says that decision-making process is unacceptable

About half of American doctors in a new survey say they regularly give patients placebo treatments — usually drugs or vitamins that won't really help their condition. And many of these doctors are not honest with their patients about what they are doing, the survey found.

That contradicts advice from the American Medical Association, which recommends doctors use treatments with the full knowledge of their patients.

"It's a disturbing finding," said Franklin G. Miller, director of the research ethics program at the U.S. National Institutes Health and one of the study authors. "There is an element of deception here which is contrary to the principle of informed consent."

The study was being published online in Friday's issue of BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal.

Placebos as defined in the survey went beyond the typical sugar pill commonly used in medical studies. A placebo was any treatment that wouldn't necessarily help the patient.

Scientists have long known of the "placebo effect," in which patients given a fake or ineffective treatment often improve anyway, simply because they expected to get better.

"Doctors may be under a lot of pressure to help their patients, but this is not an acceptable shortcut," said Irving Kirsch, a professor of psychology at the University of Hull in Britain who has studied the use of placebos.

Researchers at the NIH sent surveys to a random sample of 1,200 internists and rheumatologists — doctors who treat arthritis and other joint problems. They received 679 responses. Of those doctors, 62 percent believed that using a placebo treatment was ethically acceptable.

Half the doctors reported using placebos several times a month, nearly 70 percent of those described the treatment to their patients as "a potentially beneficial medicine not typically used for your condition." Only 5 percent of doctors explicitly called it a placebo treatment.

Most doctors used actual medicines as a placebo treatment: 41 percent used painkillers, 38 percent used vitamins, 13 percent used antibiotics, 13 percent used sedatives, 3 percent used saline injections, and 2 percent used sugar pills.

In the survey, doctors were asked if they would recommend a sugar pill for patients with chronic pain if it had been shown to be more effective than no treatment. Nearly 60 percent said they would.

Smaller studies done elsewhere, including Britain, Denmark and Sweden, have found similar results.

Jon Tilburt, the lead author of the U.S. study, who is with NIH's bioethics department, said he believes the doctors surveyed were representative of internists and rheumatologists across the U.S. No statistical work was done to establish whether the survey results would apply to other medical specialists, such as pediatricians or surgeons.

The research was paid for by NIH's bioethics department and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

The authors said most doctors probably reasoned that doing something was better than doing nothing.

In some cases, placebos were given to patients with conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome. Doctors also gave antibiotics to patients with viral bronchitis, knowing full well that a virus is impervious to antibiotics, which fight bacteria. Experts believe overuse of antibiotics promotes the development of drug-resistant strains of bacteria.

Some doctors believe placebos are a good treatment in certain situations, as long as patients are told what they are being given. Dr. Walter Brown, a professor of psychiatry at Brown and Tufts universities, said people with insomnia, depression or high blood pressure often respond well to placebo treatments.

"You could tell those patients that this is something that doesn't have any medicine in it but has been shown to work in people with your condition," he suggested.

However, experts don't know if the placebo effect would be undermined if patients were explicitly told they were getting a dummy pill.

Brown said that while he hasn't prescribed sugar pills, he has given people with anxiety problems pills that had extremely low doses of medication. "The dose was so low that whatever effect the patients were getting was probably a placebo effect," he said.

Kirsch, the psychologist, said it might be possible to get the psychological impact without using a fake pill. "If doctors just spent more time with their patients so they felt more reassured, that might help," he said.

Some patients who had just seen their doctors at a clinic in London said the truth was paramount.

"I would feel very cheated if I was given a placebo," said Ruth Schachter, an 86-year-old Londoner with skin cancer. "I like to have my eyes wide open, even if it's bad news," she said. "If I'm given something without being warned what it is, I certainly would not trust the doctor again."

___

On the Net:

http://www.bmj.com

Researchers at the University of Cambridge said Thursday they have found that a drug originally developed to treat leukaemia can halt and even reverse the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis (MS).
In trials, alemtuzumab reduced the number of attacks in sufferers and also helped them recover lost functions, apparently allowing damaged brain tissue to repair so that individuals were less disabled than at the start of the study.

"The ability of an MS drug to promote brain repair is unprecedented," said Dr Alasdair Coles, a lecturer at Cambridge university's department of clinical neurosciences, who coordinated many aspects of the study.

"We are witnessing a drug which, if given early enough, might effectively stop the advancement of the disease and also restore lost function by promoting repair of the damaged brain tissue."

The MS Society, Britain's largest support charity for those affected by the condition, said it was "delighted" at the trial's results, which must be followed up with more research before the drug can be licensed.

"This is the first drug that has shown the potential to halt and even reverse the debilitating effects of MS and this news will rightly bring hope to people living with the condition day in, day out," said head of research Lee Dunster.

MS is an auto-immune disease that affects millions of people worldwide, including almost 100,000 in Britain and 400,000 in the United States.

It is caused by the body's immune system attacking nerve fibres in the central nervous system, and can lead to loss of sight and mobility, depression, fatigue and cognitive problems. There is no cure, and few effective treatments.

We, coffee farmers, fought the fight and won for a change! Please support the farmers in your local area that try to do the right thing.

The genetic modification of taro and coffee on the Big Island is now a banned practice.

The Hawaii County Council voted 9-0 Wednesday in favor of a bill from North Kona Councilman Angel Pilago on its second reading to ban genetically modified taro and coffee.

The stories of the medicinal properties of pot will blow you away.

Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine is an important and accessible book -- not heavy on academic jargon, but rather lively and engaging, like a true detective novel -- with a broad appeal to those interested in the medical potential of cannabis, an end to the drug war and grass roots activism. I asked the co-authors, Wendy Chapkis and Richard Webb, how working on the book changed them.

The main argument of defenders of products derived from genetically modified organisms (GMO's) is that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined in 1992 that they are safe and therefore need no further safety testing.

The FDA refused to allow the public to view the internal documents related to these tests, which caused in 1998 a lawsuit by a coalition of civil society and public interest groups headed by the Alliance for Biointegrity demanding that these be made public. The judge ruled in the plaintiffs' favor, resulting in the release of over 44,000 pages of documents. These show that contrary to the agency's top officials' assurances, staff scientists had major misgivings about the safety of GM foods.

The declassified documents are revealing and extremely interesting. In one of them, dated March 6 1992, microbiologist Louis Pribyl says that "The unintended effects cannot be written off so easily by just implying that they too occur in traditional breeding. There is a profound difference between the types of unintended effects of traditional breeding and genetic engineering."
Compliance officer Linda Kahl warned in a memo dated January 8 1992 that by "trying to force an ultimate conclusion that there is no difference between foods modified by genetic engineering and foods modified by traditional breeding practices" the FDA was "trying to fit a square peg into a round hole... The processes of genetic engineering and traditional breeding are different and according to the technical experts in the agency, they lead to different risks."

The man put in charge of overseeing the GMO evaluations at the FDA, Michael Taylor, was not a scientist but a lawyer. He had previously represented US biotechnology giant Monsanto. After leaving the FDA he went back to his private practice, eventually becoming Monsanto's vice president. This is a classic case of the revolving door syndrome, the conflict of interest caused by the constant movement of professionals back and forth between the private and public sectors.

Reposted Press Release

Vermont AG Calls Heavy Weight of Drug Money Towards Psychiatrists "Troubling"
Thursday, September 11, 2008

The psychiatric watchdog, Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), says the July 2008 Vermont Attorney General report revealing psychiatrists again top the list of doctors receiving Pharma payments, coupled with recent investigations into Pharma funds influencing psychiatric drug studies, prescribing patterns and the creation of new mental "disorders," merits a federal investigation for conflicts of interest that is long overdue. The organization created a new website containing recent reports, disclosures, documents and videos exposing the major conflicts of interest between psychiatry and the Pharmaceutical industry called PsychConflicts.org, The Unholy Alliance.

The Vermont Attorney General report on Pharmaceutical marketing disclosures revealed that $3 million was spent on drug promotions in Vermont in 2007, with 11 psychiatrists receiving 20% of the total amount, $630,000, a 25% increase from what psychiatrists were paid in 2006. The report also reveals that 7 of the top 10 drugs that companies paid prescribing fees for were psychiatric drugs. An article in the Vermont Rutland Herald, quoted Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell, "It is particularly troubling that the industry is paying large sums of money to influence prescribing practices involving psychiatric drugs." This is the second consecutive year in which Vermont psychiatrists have topped the list. The only other state that requires Pharmaceutical companies to disclose payments to doctors, Minnesota, had identical results; psychiatrists received the most Pharma funding over all other doctors.

On the federal level, Senate investigators uncovered three industry-shaping psychiatrists who failed to report a combined total of about $7.9 million, two of which were psychiatrists attributed with fuelling widespread child psychiatric drugging. First was Maria DelBello, a child psychiatrist at the Cincinnati Children's hospital, who failed to report being paid $180,000 from AstraZeneca, manufacturer of the antipsychotic drug Seroquel. According to the New York Times, "Dr. DelBello's studies of Seroquel in children have helped to fuel the widespread pediatric use of antipsychotic medicines. Those studies were inconclusive, but she has described them as demonstrating that Seroquel is effective in some children." Second is Dr. Joseph Biederman, a child psychiatrist who also fuelled an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic drugs in children, who failed to report $1.6 million in consulting fees he earned from drug makers between 2000 and 2007. The third is Alan Schatzberg, who failed to report over $6 million in Pharmaceutical stocks and income. Schatzberg is not only chairman of the psychiatry department at Stanford University, but President Elect of the APA, which publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), also known as the "billing bible" of mental disorders for which the drugs are being prescribed.

Unlike medical diseases, which are discovered through verifiable physical conditions or abnormalities, DSM disorders are invented by codifying key behaviors and repackaging them as diseases, literally voting them into existence by a show of hands from DSM task members. The influence of Pharmaceutical funding over these task members in "creating" the disorders was exposed in a 2006 study — 56% of those participating in revising the 1994 DSM had undisclosed financial ties to drug companies. Researchers also found that 100% of the psychiatrists on panels overseeing so-called "mood disorders" (which includes the lucrative "bipolar disorder") were financially involved with drug companies that manufacture the drugs prescribed for these conditions, the sales of which are around $40 billion a year worldwide. About 30% of the APA income comes from Pharmaceutical industry advertising, which has earned over $10 million a year from conflicts within the APA and the Pharmaceutical industry. The Washington Post reported that "Last year's meeting of the American Psychiatric Association…reflects the extent of corporate sponsorships…. Some instructors were sponsored by at least a dozen companies."

With Pharmaceutical conflicts of interest garnering increasing scrutiny, both in the press and in federal investigations, the DSM is increasingly coming under fire. A New York Times article, "Psychiatry Handbook Linked to Drug Industry" reported in March this year that "More than half of the task force members who will oversee the next edition of the American Psychiatric Association's most important diagnostic handbook have ties to the drug industry." These ties have created a skyrocketing prescribing rate for psychiatric diagnoses, including a sevenfold increase in "bipolar" diagnoses in the past 13 years, according to a 2007 study.

With federal investigations currently focused on Pharmaceutical funds influencing drug approval, drug safety and prescribing habits, CCHR says that psychiatrists creating mental disorders or approving them into psychiatry's billing bible, the DSM, must be fully investigated for being funded by the drug companies that rely on new mental "disorders" to sell more drugs. CCHR was co-founded by the Church of Scientology and Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, Dr. Thomas Szasz to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.

For more information onCCHR: http://www.cchr.org On psychiatry's unholy alliance: http://www.psychconflicts.org

CCHR International · 6616 Sunset Blvd · Los Angeles, CA · 90028

As the biotech companies take greater liberties with human health and consumer choice, the mainstream parroted the USDA's claim that it doesn't matter if we "might" have cloned food in the stores, it's almost identical. Where's the consumer rights? Don't look to the networks to stand up for you, too many ad dollars on the table.

WASHINGTON - Food and milk from the offspring of cloned animals may already have entered the U.S. food supply, the Food and Drug Administration said on Monday, but it would be impossible to know because there is no difference between cloned and conventional products.

The FDA said in January meat and milk from cloned cattle, swine and goats and their offspring were as safe to eat as products obtained from traditional animals. Before then, farmers and ranchers had followed a voluntary moratorium that prevented the sale of clones and their offspring.

"It is theoretically possible" offspring from clones are in the food supply, said Siobhan DeLancey, an FDA spokeswoman. "I don't know whether they are or not. I could imagine there are not very many of them."

They imagine there are not many, nice food safety system!!

Notice that the announcement is covered in the Wall Street news of business events, despite the fact that discussion of dairy products from treated cows has been banned from any news American consumers watch for a decade. The mention of Monsanto's focus on it's seed business is the second tier of Monsanto business kept from consumers.

The announcement comes hand in hand with a NY Times Science interview which promotes biotech with so much propaganda the idea of classifying it as science is laughable, but par for the course for the petrochemical companies who now call themselves biotech.

Eli Lilly agrees to buy Monsanto's brand of milk-boosting hormones for $300 million

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Monsanto Co. said Wednesday it agreed to sell its Posilac brand of cow hormones to drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. for at least $300 million.

Indianapolis-based Lilly may also make additional payments to Monsanto, an agricultural chemical company, contingent on the results of the deal. The sale will be completed "as soon as practical," Monsanto said in a statement.

The Posilac brand will become part of Lilly's Elanco animal health unit.

Posilac is recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST, a hormone that increases milk production in cows. Monsanto described it as the leading dairy animal supplement in the U.S., with more than half a billion units sold since the product was approved in 1994.

Monsanto described Elanco as the seventh-largest animal health company in the world. It has been marketing rBST for Monsanto outside the U.S. for 10 years.

St. Louis-based Monsanto said earlier in August that it was looking to sell the Posilac business so it could focus on its seeds and traits business.

Hi, I'm reporter JoNel Aleccia and I write about health for msnbc.com. Please join me for a Q&A session here on Newsvine on Monday, August 25 starting at 10:30 a.m. PT for an hour-long discussion of the decision parents face on whether to vaccinate their children and the impact on that choice on individuals and the public. Feel free to post your questions here in advance, and please remember to vote for your favorite questions by clicking the small arrow in each comment box.

For those of you visiting us here for the first time, please know that Newsvine is an interactive web site designed for members to participate in thoughtful discussions about news-related topics. Feel free to take a look at the Newsvine Code of Honor; it's a short list of standards that existing members hold themselves to here.

In this age of corporate government and media driven by sensitivity to corporate advertisers hides the deadliest betrayal of the public trust. Our food and drugs are no longer weighed for public health effects, but fast tracked for profits.

The dangers associated with this genetically altered vaccine were ignored as the limited risk of a small number of cervical cancers was put behind the potential of the most profitable vaccine in pharmaceutical history.

Dying for profits is acceptable to the lobbyist driven Congress and appointee headed agencies. As horrific as these early findings are; this is the tip of the iceberg as the results secured by FOIA filings are beginning to reveal.

The vaccine reaction reports keep coming into the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) from mothers describing how they took their healthy teenage girls into a pediatrician or gynecologist's office where they were given a GARDASIL shot and, then, nothing was ever the same again. The reports of HPV vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths continue to roll in, not only to NVIC but also to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (Search HPV4 at http://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/index.html) newspapers, and television stations. And the only response that comes from officials at the CDC, FDA and drug companies when perfectly healthy teenage girls collapse into unconsciousness, suffer a massive seizure, get paralyzed or die suddenly after being injected with GARDASIL is the zombie mantra: "It is a coincidence."

Last week a nurse who is an administrator in the outpatient department for a group of hospitals in California called and asked if NVIC had been getting reports of unusual collapse after GARDASIL vaccination. I said, yes, we are getting those reports and she said "A lot of our patients are collapsing after the shot is given. It happens with GARDASIL more frequently than with any other vaccine we give." That same week, NVIC received a report from the mother of a 15 year old daughter who got her first GARDASIIL shot last month. Within 10 minutes of being injected, she collapsed and had her first grand mal seizure, became incontinent, temporarily lost vision in her right eye, suffered uncontrolled vomiting and had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. Another report to NVIC that week also involved first-time seizures in a 15 year old girl after she got a GARDASIL shot.

As we see food prices rise it is important for our health and the health of our economy to understand where we can best allocate those food dollars. This is a wonderfully researched piece with lots of helpful links.

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization that advocates for policies that protect global and individual health, produces the Shoppers' Guide to Pesticides in Produce. It is based on the results of nearly 43,000 pesticide tests.

Organic fruits and vegetables are by definition grown without the use of pesticides. But some find the expense of organic foods prohibitive.

Of the 43 different fruit and vegetable categories in the Guide to Pesticides, the following twelve foods had the lowest pesticide load when conventionally grown. Consequently, they are the safest conventionally grown crops to consume:

Welcome to the Brave New World, not only are drugs being grown in the food crops, taxpayers are helping to fund fields of foods that produce drugs. Looks like we the people will swallow anything!

Ventria Bioscience has received nearly $4 million from the Kansas Bioscience Authority to help advance the human health and biomaterials sectors in Kansas.

Ventria grows and processes a bioengineered rice that yields a protein that can be refined and used as an additive to oral rehydration solutions to decrease the severity and duration of infant and childhood diarrhea.

It has rice-growing operations in Kansas, North Carolina and South America. Processing has been consolidated into its manufacturing facility in Junction City.

Ventria was awarded a $3.75 million convertible loan as part of a $7.5 million financing plan that will help it expand operations, increase employment, expand production and prepare for the commercial launch of its product.

The Kansas Bioscience Authority was created in 2004 to foster the development of the bioscience industry in Kansas.

It really shouldn't come as a shock to learn that the byproduct of industrial weapons development and animal feed would some day be found to have greater benefits to corporate profits than human health.

This article in Science deals with some of the dangers of soy and it doesn't even touch on the incrementally, more serious effects of the gmo forms that the Agent Orange gang now grow as more than 90% of the American crops. Wall Street's measures are healthy!

ScienceDaily (Aug. 1, 2008) — Two hormone-like compounds linked to the consumption of soy-based foods can cause irreversible changes in the structure of the brain, resulting in early-onset puberty and symptoms of advanced menopause in research animals, according to a new study by researchers at North Carolina State University.

The study is a breakthrough in determining how these compounds can cause reproductive health problems, as well as in providing a key building block for how to treat these problems.
The study is the first to show that the actual physical organization of a region of the brain that is important for female reproduction can be significantly altered by exposure to phytoestrogens – or plant-produced chemicals that mimic hormones – during development. Specifically, the study finds that the compounds alter the sex-specific organization of the hypothalamus – a brain region that is essential to the regulation of puberty and ovulation. The study also shows that the phytoestrogens could cause long-term effects on the female reproductive system.

Americans have lost their collective minds. That's all I can figure on the heels of the announcement that children as young as eight are now being prescribed dangerous cholesterol lowering drugs to combat heart disease.

There is no doubt that we have a generation ravaged by diabetes and obesity. but these drugs have never been tested for long term effects on children.

Children are not small adults and the long term implications of treatments won't be known for years, even decades.

What's more this is a classic, short term reaction in our society; when in doubt offer some pharma remedy to treat the symptoms rather than address the underlying problem.

The real problem is that we have had agribusiness and petrochemical companies controlling the food supply for more than a decade.

Our food has been transformed by a partnering of the Agent Orange makers of Dow, Dupont and Monsanto who have been feeding Americans untested, genetically altered forms of foods in conjunction with the processing by big tobacco, Phillip Morris who owns Nabisco, Kraft and dozens more trusted brands under the new name Altria Group.

Is it really any surprise that the companies responsible for products that have serious adverse health effects or slow death would make a food system that creates a population of sick people?

Americans better start demanding to know what we are swallowing because the handwriting is on the wall. It is a simple fact that you are what you eat. Thanks to a corrupt and spineless Congress, a system of industry controlled government has fed profits at the expense of human health and the environment.

For nearly a decade I have tracked the legislation, politics, science and spin surrounding the genetically altered foods. My research has braqnched off into other areas of the FDA and USDA policy and the truth is an ugly picture of a Nation that is dying for profits.

The Congress has destroyed the economy and Iraq, but the oil companies and contractors are flourishing. So too it the identical picture in the food and drug business. Corporate profits are at the expense of the trusting public.

Anyone who believes that the unseen hand of Congress is manifesting any better results is sadly mistaken. We are being fed a boatload of %$#@ no matter what measure you use.

Nature will not bend to the will of Congress. As rates of illness soar and food allergies skyrocket, I continue to wonder how long it will be before the American media begins to talk about what has been done to our food! We are a Nation dying for profits and children on statins is a symptom that should serve as a wake up call.

Eating high levels of some soy products - including tofu - may raise the risk of memory loss, research suggests. The study focused on 719 elderly Indonesians living in urban and rural regions of Java.

The researchers found high tofu consumption - at least once a day - was associated with worse memory, particularly among the over-68s.

The Loughborough University-led study features in the journal Dementias and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders.

Soy products are rich in micronutrients called phytoestrogens, which mimic the impact of the female sex hormone oestrogen. The latest study suggests phytoestrogens - in high quantity - may actually heighten the risk of dementia.

NEW YORK STATE — Richard Williams smokes marijuana regularly.
But he doesn't consider himself a criminal, and doesn't think he should be treated like one.
The 46-year-old Richmondville resident has been HIV positive for two decades. Smoking marijuana, he said, relieves the pain in his joints and helps him cope with persistent bouts of nausea. He has hepatitis C and a damaged liver, so he doesn't want to take pain medication, which is processed by the liver.
Williams supports legalizing the use of medical marijuana in New York. He's hoping the state Legislature will pass a law that does so before adjourning later this month.
"I don't use other drugs," Williams said. "I'm not a drug addict. … I'm speaking out because someone has to stand up for what's right."

About the Big Expedition for Cancer Research

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center launched the Big Expedition last fall to create public awareness around the monumental task of eliminating cancer. "The scaling of an unclimbed mountain is a good metaphor for cancer
research because the challenges are unknown until you are in the middle of it and no one wants to turn back," said Nobel laureate Lee Hartwell, Ph.D., president and director of the Hutchinson Center. "Through the efforts of these professional mountaineers, we hope to build awareness for the critical need to support cancer research."

The number of people in this country who have health insurance but not the ability to afford adequate medical care continues to climb.

About 25 million Americans — or approximately one of every five adults younger than age 65 with health insurance — did not have sufficient coverage last year to shield them from financial hardship if they ended up in the emergency room or were seriously ill, according to a new study to be released on Tuesday by the Commonwealth Fund.

Salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has spread to 16 states, federal health officials said Saturday.

Investigations by the Texas and New Mexico Departments of Health and the U.S. Indian Health Service have tied 56 cases in Texas and 55 in New Mexico to raw, uncooked, tomatoes.

"We're seeing a steady increase," Deborah Busemeyer, New Mexico Department of Health communications director, said Saturday.

An additional 50 people have been sickened by the same Salmonella "Saintpaul" infection in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

Investigators are trying to determine if raw tomatoes also are responsible for the illnesses in those states, said Arleen Porcell, a CDC spokeswoman.

The source of the tomatoes responsible for the illnesses has not been pinpointed, but health officials in Texas and New Mexico said none of them was grown in those two states.

At least 23 people have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported, she said. Patients ranged in age from 1 to 82.

The rarity of the Saintpaul strain and the number of illnesses "suggest that implicated tomatoes are distributed throughout the country," she said.

Interviews conducted with 73 people found the illnesses began between April 16 and May 27, Porcell said.

Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with the vine still attached and homegrown tomatoes are likely not the source of the outbreak, Busemeyer said.

Also not associated with the outbreak are raw Roma, red plum and round red tomatoes from Arkansas, California, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Belgium, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, Netherlands and Puerto Rico, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Association.

Salmonella is a bacteria that lives in the intestinal tracts of humans and other animals. It usually is transmitted to humans by eating food contaminated with animal feces.

Most infected people suffer fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps starting 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness tends to last four to seven days. Many people recover without treatment, but severe infection and death is possible.

___

On the Net:

CDC salmonella: http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/saintpaul/

It named VitaminWater from Glaceua as the worst supposedly healthy drink. A 20-ounce bottle contains 130 calories and 33 grams of sugar. In a typical 2,000-calorie diet, that would be about 6.5 percent of the recommended amount.

The drink contains as much sugar and calories as a can of Coke.

Arizona Kiwi Strawberry was called the worst juice imposter, with 360 calories and 84 grams of sugar. At 99 cents for a 23.5-ounce can, it was called the cheapest source of empty calories in the country.

See more irresistible headlines

As corporate interests have overtaken the University research networks the standards for public safety have been bent and broken to improve profits. This is hardly a first at UofTexas.

By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News
eramshaw@dallasnews.com
AUSTIN – A veteran national security expert hired to make safety improvements in University of Texas research labs has been fired, less than a year after he took the job.

Dr. Harold "Woody" Davis said he's being forced out because university scientists, some of them working with infectious agents and toxic chemicals, complained he was overzealous with his safety measures.

Though he was brought on to oversee compliance in UT's research program, he said, university officials resented him for what he found: badly monitored experiments, disregard for federal reporting rules, and under-trained students working with dangerous agents.

"If I had a kid here, he or she would not be working in these labs," said Dr. Davis, who is returning to a job at a government agency in Washington. "There were serious concerns they asked me to address. But ultimately, they didn't want to address them."

Campus officials say Dr. Davis, a physician, attorney and civil servant whose career spans several federal security agencies, is being terminated for "performance, communication and personnel issues" – not for being a safety watchdog.

Links below to the last round of accidents that weren't a U of T coverup and the critics and charges that were squelched then.

As the food supply grows into an assortment of patented new life forms the drive to create more crop based drugs as fields of plant based pharma factories is exploding. How about some HIV drugs with those corn flakes?

GM maize to tackle HIV

By Nick Taylor

29-May-2008 - Genetically modified (GM) maize is the most effective biomanufacturing platform for the production of monoclonal antibodies to combat HIV, according to research published in PNAS.

The research concludes that GM maize is the most economically viable manufacturing facility for producing the large quantities of monoclonal antibodies needed to combat HIV.

Previous efforts have centred upon production in mammalian cells but the lack of fermenter capacity or a cold chain in HIV-endemic areas means those most at need are likely to be excluded on economic grounds.

Maize based production does not suffer from these shortcomings according to the researchers at Universitat de Lleida in Spain. Consequently they believe that transgenic maize could have a profound impact on the availability of therapeutic proteins in the developing world.

The publication found maize "represents a remarkable opportunity to produce therapeutic antibodies inexpensively and on a massive scale, making it much more likely that antibody-based therapeutics could be made more widely available at a much lower cost than currently possible."

The question that no one asks is whether these results are tied to the viral and bacterial promoters in the gmo foods or the antibiotic marker genes added to track insertion locations.

The US has a don't look-don't find policy and no one is tracking the diets of the individuals afflicted. Claims that gmo foods have never shown a problem continue to be promoted as possible connections to negative health effects go unexamined!

ATLANTA - The number of people hospitalized with a dangerous intestinal superbug has been growing by more than 10,000 cases a year, according to a new study.

The germ, resistant to some antibiotics, has become a regular menace in hospitals and nursing homes. The study found it played a role in nearly 300,000 hospitalizations in 2005, more than double the number in 2000.

The ongoing phenomenon of mysterious honeybee deaths is starting to raise alarm in the food industry, which depends heavily on bees to pollinate many critical crops. "Honeybee health and sustainable pollination is a major issue facing American agriculture that is threatening our food supply and endangering our natural environment,"

What would happen if bees died out ?

Some interesting news items to help us all..but first an insight into something not so good ..... .
Nutrasweet - A Look at the History of Deception Behind Its Marketing

In the study conducted by Dr. Waisman, seven infant monkeys were given aspartame with milk. One died after 300 days. Five others experienced grand mal seizures.

Perhaps, this is better news.
Green Tea Shown to Reduce Risk of Ovarian and Colorectal Cancers

The March, 2008 issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, contains a study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. In a population based study in Washington state, 781 women with epithelial ovarian cancer diagnosed between 2002 and 2005, and 1,263 controls completed self-administered questionnaires detailing consumption of caffeinated and non-caffeinated coffee, teas, and colas. They also completed in-person interviews regarding reproductive and hormonal exposures.

Interesting one here ...
Edible Plastic Wrap for Food Kills Bacteria While It Flavors Your Burger

The demand for non-animal based capsules on the part of vegetarians prompted companies such as Pfizer to explore vegetarian capsules about ten years ago. Since then, they and other companies have produced capsules made out of carrageenan, a seaweed extract; pineapple, red grapevine and wheat germ; fish gelatin mixed with plant extracts; and a non-gelatin, vegetarian-approved, beta-carotene beadlet.

As for this item...we should know better by now...
Statin Drugs Found to Cause Liver Damage

The researchers found that high-dose statins caused 2.4 times as many cases of liver damage as low-dose statins, or 271 cases per 100,000 patients. When the researchers looked at individual statin drugs, they found that Zocor (simvastatin) was 1.6 more dangerous in high doses than low doses, and Lipitor (atorvastatin) was 4.0 times more dangerous.

Ronald M. Davis, MD, President of the American Medical Association writes a weekly column for the Nation's health care industry. This week he encouraged hospitals and medical care providers to go green, employ more healthful, ecofriendly practices and reduce the toxins that have negative impacts to human health and the environment.

Hospitals should buy meat and poultry raised without non-therapeutic antibiotics, use milk produced without recombinant bovine growth hormone, and replace unhealthy snacks found in many vending machines with healthy choices. Hosting farmers markets, either on hospital grounds or nearby, is another appealing option.

Certain plastics used to make reusable water bottles leak a chemical into drinking water that may pose a risk, especially to children and pregnant women.

Ration cards. Genetically modified crops. The end of pile-it-high, sell-it-cheap supermarkets.

These possible solutions to the first global food crisis since World War II — which the World Food Program says already threatens 20 million of the poorest children — are complex and controversial. And they may not even solve the problem as demand continues to soar.

A "silent tsunami" of hunger is sweeping the world's most desperate nations, said Josette Sheeran, the WFP's executive director, speaking Tuesday at a London summit on the crisis.

The skyrocketing cost of food staples, stoked by rising fuel prices, unpredictable weather and demand from India and China, has already sparked sometimes violent protests across the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

The price of rice has more than doubled in the last five weeks, she said. The World Bank estimates food prices have risen by 83 percent in three years.

"What we are seeing now is affecting more people on every continent," Sheeran told a news conference.

Hosting talks with Sheeran, lawmakers and experts, British Prime Gordon Brown said the spiraling prices threaten to plunge millions back into poverty and reverse progress on alleviating misery in the developing world.

"Tackling hunger is a moral challenge to each of us and it is also a threat to the political and economic stability of nations," Brown said.

Malaysia's embattled prime minister is already under pressure over the price increases and has launched a major rice-growing project. Indonesia's government needed to revise its annual budget to respond.

Unrest over the food crisis has led to deaths in Cameroon and Haiti, cost Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis his job, and caused hungry textile workers to clash with police in Bangladesh.

Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said more protests in other developing nations appear likely. "We are going through a very serious crisis and we are going to see lots of food strikes and demonstrations," Annan told reporters in Geneva.

At streetside restaurants in Lome, Togo, even the traditional balls of corn meal or corn dough served with vegetable soup are shrinking. Once as big as a boxer's fist, the dumplings are now the size of a tennis ball — but cost twice as much.

In Yaounde, Cameroon, civil servant Samuel Ebwelle, 51, said he fears food prices will rise further.

"We are getting to the worst period of our life," he said. "We've had to reduce the number of meals we take a day from three to two. Breakfast no longer exists on our menu."

Even if her call for $500 million in emergency funding is met, food aid programs — including work to feed 20 million poor children — will be hit this year, Sheeran said.

President Bush has released $200 million in urgent aid. Britain pledged an immediate $59.7 million on Tuesday.

Even so, school feeding projects in Kenya and Cambodia have been scaled back and food aid has been cut in half in Tajikistan, Sheeran said.

Yet while angry street protesters call for immediate action, long term solutions are likely to be slow, costly and complicated, experts warn.

And evolving diets among burgeoning middle classes in India and China will help double the demand for food — particularly grain intensive meat and dairy products — by 2030, the World Bank says.

Robert Zoellick, the bank's head, claims as many as 100 million people could be forced deeper into poverty. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said rising food costs threaten to cancel strides made toward the goal of cutting world poverty in half by 2015.

"Now is not too soon to be thinking about the longer-term solutions," said Alex Evans, a former adviser to Britain's Environment Secretary Hilary Benn.

He said world leaders must help increase food production, rethink their push on biofuels — which many blame for pushing up food prices — and consider anew the once taboo topic of growing genetically modified crops.

But Evans, now a visiting fellow at New York University's Center on International Cooperation, said increasing the amount of land that can be farmed in the developing world will be arduous.

"It's almost like new oil or gas fields; they'll tend to be the hardest to reach places, that need new roads and new infrastructure to be viable," he said.

The will to increase food production exists, as does most of the necessary skills, but there are major obstacles, including a lack of government investment in agriculture and — in Africa particularly — a scarcity of fertilizers, good irrigation and access to markets.

"Many African farmers are very entrepreneurial, but they simply aren't connected to markets," said Lawrence Haddad, an economist and director of Britain's Institute of Development Studies. "They find there are no chilling plants for milk and no grinding mills for coffee."

Haddad said the likely impact of food price increases should have been anticipated. "The fact no one has previously made the link between agriculture and poverty is quite incredible," he said.

Just as new land for farming is available in Russia and Brazil, new genetically modified crops resistant to drought, or which deliver additional nutrients, could be better targeted to different regions of the developing world, Evans said. "The solutions are more nuanced than we previously thought," he added.

Sheeran said developing world governments, particularly in Africa, will need to dedicate at least 10 percent of future budgets to agriculture to boost global production.

Some experts predict other countries could follow the example of Pakistan, which has revived the use of ration cards for subsidized wheat.

The production of biofuels also needs to be urgently re-examined, Brown said.

He acknowledged that Britain this month introduced targets aimed at producing 5 percent of transport fuel from biofuels by 2010, but said his government and others should review their policies.

Production of biofuel leads to the destruction of forests and takes up land available to grow crops for food.

Brown said the impact of the food crisis won't just be felt in the developing world, but also in the checkout lane of Western supermarkets. "It it is not surprising that we see our shopping bills go up," Brown said.

Many analysts, including Britain's opposition leader David Cameron, claim that people in the West will need to eat less meat — and consume, or waste, less food in general. Some expect the shift in attitudes to herald the end of supermarket giveaways and cost-cutting grocery stores that stack goods to the ceiling and sell in bulk.

Citizens in the West, China and India must realize that the meat on their plate and biofuels in their expensive cars carry a cost for those in the developing world, Evans said.

Sheeran believes many already understand the impact. "Much of the world is waking up to the fact that food does not spontaneously appear on grocery store shelves," she said.

___

AP writers Ebow Godwin in Lome, Togo; Emmanuel Tumanjong in Yaounde, Cameroon; Anita Powell in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Eliane Engeler in Geneva contributed to this report.

Because I'm plugged in to the world of pure food advocates, the raw food movement has landed me with raw chefs and specialties served at the events and gatherings.

Mixing ingredients when heat is an option never has good results for me. Except for cookies, thank goodness for one. The idea of making raw anything taste fabulous escapes me, but it can be done.

Rhio is one of the best and she just f I like it your average kid will like it. It's unbelievable, the whole raw thing has gone toward mainstream gourmet. But this video is just a fun and novel way to go nuts with the blender. Even I can probably get it right!

I was having a hard time finding something to write about last night.
This morning I was too busy to get anything down because I had an appointment at the hospital for tests.
The consultant at the hospital cured my writers block with one short sentence.
" You have cancer"
Let me see, I've known now for around 4 hours.
I don't feel any different, but I've seen it, on the screen.
It's my new enemy!
I can forget about Iran, forget about Iraq from now on.
I have a new enemy!
It seems that I have a rather nasty cancer, it lives inside my bladder, though it is going to try to invade other organs.
I'm on the short list for some serious defence tactics, which will commence in the coming weeks.
Of course, the doctors will do their best to control this insurgency but the main combatants are me and it
I have no intention of letting this thing get the better of me.
I am going to win this one, I've never felt more alive than I have in the past hours.
There is a lot more to write about. I have my family to consider, and a host of other first feelings which I have to get in order.
This though, is by far the strongest feeling I have right now, and I just had to get it out and down.
Perhaps more later, when the initial anger has turned to determination.

Much of the public debate concerning genetically modified organisms, their widespread use in animal and human food, and their impact upon the environment could be raised to an entirely new and more productive level if certain undisputed facts were more widely known. The facts at issue have to do with the unintended and systemic consequences of genetic manipulations, as revealed in one research report after another.

Many Nalgene water bottles and other hard plastic sport water bottles are made of polycarbonate (#7 on the bottom) , which may leach Bisphenol A, an estrogen-like chemical. Canada is considering a ban of products containing Bisphenol A (BPA) and a new American study links it to breast cancer and early puberty, and is particularly concerned about the effect on babies. Others have raised concerns about the effect of feminizing hormones on men, such as breast enlargement or dropping semen counts. At the same time, sport water bottles are ubiquitous and we don't want people going back to buying bottled water. What should you do? Time to nix the Nalgene? We looked at our past posts and the latest reports, and suggest the following.

Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests.

The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer's Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why.

Now it appears that the increasingly prevalent nightmare of a disease called "Morgellon's Disease" may be a result of GM crops and food.

Morgellon's Disease was first described when a woman's 3 year old son developed rashes and intensely itchy sores which produced weird multicolor fibers emerging from his skin. She put up a website about the condition in 2001 and named it "Morgellons Disease" after a 17th century report of a similar affliction.

BOULDER, Colo., March 11, 2008 /Natural Newswire/ – The Organic Center today releases an historic report that concludes converting the nation's eight million acres of produce farms to organic would reduce pesticide dietary risks by about 97 percent.

The Organic Center provides the first-ever quantitative estimate of the degree to which pesticide risks from food can be eliminated through adoption of organic farming methods in "Simplifying the Pesticide Risk Equation: The Organic Option," a new State of Science Review by Dr. Charles Benbrook, the Organic Center's chief scientist.

Less than three percent of the nation's cropland produces fruits and vegetables. Yet, according to The Organic Center, these crops account for most of the pesticide risks from dietary exposure in domestically produced foods. The 97 percent risk reduction can only be achieved if converting domestic cropland of organic is coupled with consumers choosing only imported produce that is certified organic.

The estimates are based on up-to-date pesticide residue data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency's current methods for estimating pesticide dietary risks.

Founded in 2002, The Organic Center is a non-profit devoted to presenting and providing peer-reviewed scientific evidence on how organic products benefit human health and environmental quality.

Other findings and information shared in the report include:

Nevermind the threat from Saddam's chemical weapons, we have our children poisoned for profits by corruption and it's not a problem for Washington, its the new American way.

By SUSANNE RUST
srust@journalsentinel.com

Posted: March 21, 2008

Ignoring hundreds of government and academic studies showing a chemical commonly found in plastic can be harmful to lab animals at low doses, the Food and Drug Administration determined the chemical was safe based on just two industry-funded studies that didn't find harm.

In response to a congressional inquiry, Stephen Mason, the FDA's acting assistant commissioner for legislation, wrote in a letter that his agency's claim relied on two pivotal studies sponsored by the Society of the Plastics Industry, a subsidiary of the American Chemistry Council.

One of the studies has never been published, and therefore never subjected to peer review; the second has been heavily criticized by researchers who say the results are inconclusive because of flawed experimental methods.

"The FDA is really going to have problems over this," said Frederick vom Saal, a bisphenol A researcher at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

In January, Michigan Democrats Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Rep. Bart Stupak, who leads a subcommittee, launched an investigation into the use of bisphenol A in cans containing baby formula and other products aimed at infants and toddlers.

Studies have shown that bisphenol A causes breast cancer, testicular cancer, diabetes and hyperactivity in laboratory animals. Two government panels, including one that has come under fire as being biased in favor of chemical-makers, have warned that bisphenol A might be dangerous to developing fetuses and children younger than 3.

ANAHEIM, CA - A newly released study commissioned by the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), a watchdog group with over 500,000 members, and overseen by environmental health consumer advocate David Steinman (author of The Safe Shopper's Bible), analyzes leading "natural" and "organic" brand shampoos, body washes, lotions and other personal care products for the presence of the undisclosed carcinogenic contaminant 1,4-Dioxane. A reputable third-party laboratory known for rigorous testing and chain-of-custody protocols, performed all testing.

Ethoxylation, a cheap short-cut companies use to provide mildness to harsh ingredients, requires the use of the cancer-causing petrochemical Ethylene Oxide, which generates 1,4-Dioxane as a by-product. 1,4-Dioxane is considered a chemical "known to the State of California to cause cancer" under proposition 65, and has no place in "natural" or "organic" branded personal care products. 1,4-dioxane is also suspected as a kidney toxicant, neurotoxicant and respiratory toxicant, among others, according to the California EPA, and is a leading groundwater contaminant. Although previous studies have revealed 1,4-Dioxane is often present in conventional personal care products, this new study indicates the toxin is also present in leading "natural" and "organic" branded products, none of which are certified under the USDA National Organic Program. The products/brands tested are listed on the attached page with the level of 1,4-Dioxane detected, if any, along with ethoxylated ingredients listed on the label.
Some of the Leading Brands Found to Contain 1,4-Dioxane:

It may be the last stand of Posilac. A new advocacy group closely tied to Monsanto has started a counteroffensive to stop the proliferation of milk that comes from cows that aren't treated with synthetic bovine growth hormone.

The group, called American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology, or Afact, says it is a grass-roots organization that came together to defend members' right to use recombinant bovine somatotropin, also known as rBST or rBGH, an artificial hormone that stimulates milk production. It is sold by Monsanto under the brand name Posilac.

Dairy farmers are indeed part of the organization. But Afact was organized in part by Monsanto and a Colorado consultant who lists Monsanto as a client.

Afact has also received help from Osborn & Barr, a marketing firm whose founders include a former Monsanto executive. The firm received a contract in 2006 to help with the Posilac campaign.

Last week, three natural foods retailers implemented food safety measures, including requiring suppliers to fully disclose product ingredients, banning some Chinese imports and conducting mercury testing in tuna.

PCC Natural Markets, a co-op with eight stores in the Seattle area, notified all its brokers, vendors and manufacturers on Feb. 11 that they must trace and disclose all of the ingredients in the products they carry. In addition, they must provide signed statements that any products they sell to PCC are free of ingredients from cloned animals or their offspring.

PCC CEO Tracy Wolpert said the co-op is concerned that federal laws don't require disclosure or identification of certain ingredients, including some oils and spices, along with the sources of colors and flavors, in food products. She also noted that food manufacturers can reformulate their products without notice to retailers or consumers.

As a result, Wolpert said in a statement, it's "incumbent on leaders in the natural foods industry to step forward and provide [the traceability] our consumers want."

ATLANTA — A nationwide study has found that the uninsured and those covered by Medicaid are more likely than those with private insurance to receive a diagnosis of cancer in late stages, often diminishing their chances of survival.

A funny thing is happening in the American food supply and while it affects everyone there's surprisingly little discussion of what's going on. There is almost daily coverage about the threats to our security from terrorists but only the calmest reaction to what's being carried out by corporate activity that threatens us right here at home.

Yesterday the FDA food inspection service announced a recall of 143 million pounds of ground beef.

February 17, 2008

"Today, USDA is announcing additional actions as a result of the ongoing investigation at Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company. USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has evidence that Hallmark/Westland did not consistently contact the FSIS public health veterinarian in situations in which cattle became non-ambulatory after passing ante-mortem inspection, which is not compliant with FSIS regulations. Because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection FSIS has determined them to be unfit for human food and the company is conducting a recall.

Some of the affected beef goes back as far as two years. Considering that much of the meat sold by the Hallmark/Westland company was provided to schools for their lunch programs, there's every reason to believe that the meat has been consumed by our children over the two year period.

In October there was a similar recall affecting over 41 million pounds of beef. That's about one third of the quantity affected now and the delayed response by the FDA was classic. This is that recall reported by ABC News.

The meat in question was made in late June and July. The E. coli in the hamburger beef began sickening people in August. It took nearly six weeks before the first recall was issued.

"We don't understand why it took so long to recall this meat. If there was a victim in August, it should have been revealed weeks ago," said Jean Halloran of the Consumers Union.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the industry, said there were no recall delays. However, when the first recall went out Tuesday, only a small amount was recalled. By the weekend, the recall was expanded by more than 600 times.

Once again the statement by the FDA regarding the food supply safety was the same. The FDA states that there are policies in place that protect consumers.

The United States enjoys one of the safest food supplies in the world. To help ensure the safety of the food supply, we implement a series of safeguards to protect against foodborne disease. These safeguards include in-plant procedures to reduce dangerous foodborne pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. It also includes the removal of specified risk materials-those tissues demonstrated to contain the bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent in infected cattle-from the human food chain, along with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 1997 ruminant to ruminant feed ban. The prohibition of non-ambulatory cattle from the food supply is an additional safeguard against bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

One problem is that they do not have enough inspectors and there is little punishment for toxic corporate action. This is true across all the products that the FDA is supposedly regulating. In this most recent case,the problems with the meat was flagged not by the FDA inspection service, but instead by the often maligned activists at PETA who filmed the abuse of the cattle.

This is a story that I reported weeks ago though there was no recall announced at that time. There have been quite a few articles that deal with the The FDA in Crisis and the confidential report, which I wrote about months ago and the New York Times reported on weeks ago, that goes into great detail about how serious the situation at the FDA is.

The risk with the recalled meat relates to what are known as downers, cattle who have trouble walking. That is a sign they may be carriers of Mad Cow disease. The problem with Mad Cow is when these animals are consumed and then the disease enters the human body. Once inside our bodies, years or even decades may pass before life threatening illness appears as CJ disease or other neurological and muscle wasting diseases.

It isn't a disease that cattle would get if they were on vegetarian diets as nature intended. This is the creation of modern agribusiness policies; it is from feeding blood and body parts to ruminants to squeeze extra profits from the waste of the slaughterhouse. There is grave danger in illness that can be removed by decades by the event that inspire it. There is little that is more serious to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness than a life threatening disease lurking in your food.

While great attention and vast sums are being devoted to the scam of Homeland Security, the public is subjected to deadly risks in the interests of Wall Street and somehow the difference between having our lives destroyed by a money making institution is all right. The reaction in Congress sounds reasonable as reported by the Associated Press

"Today marks the largest beef recall in U.S. history, and it involves the national school lunch program and other federal food and nutrition programs," said U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. "This begs the question: how much longer will we continue to test our luck with weak enforcement of federal food safety regulations?"

The bigger question for me is how long will the Congressional Committee deny consumers the right to determine whether they want to trust the gmo foods which have never been subjected to human safety testing.

The Congress gives great sound bites when it is asked about consumer rights and protections but when it hits the bottom line they sell out to agribusiness so whether its E-coli, or Mad Cow, or gmo ingredients don't expect that there will be anything but lip service from Washington.

The bottom line seems to be that if you worship the almighty dollar there's no problem in the eyes of Uncle Sam with the death that results. Its only a different God that counts as a threat worth challenging with funded policies and when we're dying for profits its as Patriotic as an sacrifice the rulers of the currency could ask for.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Uh-oh. Things are suddenly sounding a little more complicated, aren't they? Sorry. But that's how it goes as soon as you try to get to the bottom of the whole vexing question of food and health. Before long, a dense cloud bank of confusion moves in. Sooner or later, everything solid you thought you knew about the links between diet and health gets blown away in the gust of the latest study.

A horrifying analysis by a surgeon of what aspartame/methanol/diketopiperazine did to him, as well as the entirely fraudulent "research" and so called testing that went before its being forced through the FDA by Donald Rumsfeld, then CEO of the patent holder, G.D. Searle. Stop using aspartame until legislators and regulators everywhere get their act together and stop being so pusillanimous about "protecting the public's health."

Walk down the aisle of your favorite health food store and what do you see? Mostly a whole lot of food packaging garbage. No matter how healthy the food is for you, most name-brand manufactured food products are packaged in a combination of plastics, metal, or cardboard packaging that at best, is recyclable.

IgnaFire Chocolates, a new company in Austin, Texas, now provides healthy chocolates in environmentally-friendly packaging.

People interested in both a healthy body and a healthy planet are increasingly paying attention to the full life cycle of their food choices, and also the packaging surrounding that food. These plastics, metals and cardboard required some of the earth's resources to produce and require even more resources to recycle. Glass packaging is better, as it is often re-usable for storing bulk food items.

Via Junkfood Science and Feministe, a few Mississippi legislators have proposed the following law:

Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies.

I've been writing about genetically modified food since I first took up food-politics writing back in 2005. My lens has always been corporate power and biodiversity. I saw GM seeds as yet one more way corporations siphon profit out of the food system, brazenly claiming ownership of a broad chunk of humanity's seed heritage.

I also saw the explosion of a few GM seed varieties -- particularly for cotton, corn and soy -- as a reckless narrowing of the already razor-thin genetic basis of modern agriculture.

In short, I've been portraying the GM phenomenon as an intensification of an industrialization process that began a century or so ago; but I haven't written much about the radical break with the past the technology represents -- and in particular, its health implications.

Epilepsy drugs used by millions of people may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior, the Food and Drug Administration warned Thursday in an alert to doctors.

The FDA analyzed almost 200 studies of 11 anti-seizure drugs, some that have been on the market for decades. The studies tracked almost 28,000 people given the medications and another 16,000 given dummy pills.

Very rarely were suicidal thoughts or behavior reported. Still, the FDA found drug-treated patients did face about twice the risk: 0.43 percent of drug-treated patients experienced suicidal thoughts or behavior, compared with 0.22 percent of placebo-takers.

Overall, four people in the drug-treated groups committed suicide, and none in the placebo groups.

What that means: For every 1,000 patients, about two more drug-treated patients experienced suicidal thoughts than placebo-takers, FDA concluded.

Anti-seizure drugs are used for a variety of illnesses in addition to epilepsy, including migraines, certain nerve-pain disorders, and psychiatric diseases such as bipolar disorder that themselves carry a risk of suicide.

The FDA found drug-treated patients were at increased risk no matter their diagnosis, but that the risk was highest for epilepsy sufferers.

The FDA began investigating if epilepsy drugs pose any suicide risk in 2005. It analyzed data from 11 well-known anti-seizure drugs including Pfizer Inc.'s Neurontin, Novartis AG's Tegretol and Abbott Laboratories' Depakote — but the FDA said it expected the risk applied to every epilepsy drug. The FDA said it would work with manufacturers to add the warning to product labels.

Skipping epilepsy medication can result in seizures. An FDA spokeswoman said only that patients should ask a doctor before making medication changes.

But the agency's letter to doctors advised them to:

_Balance the risk with the patients' need for the drug.

_Tell patients and their families about the risk so they can be aware of changes in mood.

_Make sure patients and families know to contact a doctor if someone experiences common suicide warning signs, such as talking or thinking about hurting yourself, becoming preoccupied with death, withdrawal, becoming depressed or worsening depression, and giving away prized possessions.

___

On the Net:

Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov

A hidden camera investigation by an animal rights group has uncovered disturbing treatment of ailing cows at a California slaughterhouse that provides meat for school lunches.

The video, obtained during what the Humane Society of the United States said was a six-week undercover investigation, shows a sickly cow being dragged by a chain before being poked, prodded, rolled and lifted with a forklift. Workers also are seen hosing the faces of cows in a manner that HSUS described as "torture, right out of a waterboarding manual."

Americans better get with the program before these self proclaimed "Life Sciences" companies make the Superfund sites look like our better legacy.

Without edible food we have little else and unlike the toxic waste that stays as a constant volume, these go forth and multiply!

The Salinas Californian recently reported on a talk by Professor Henry Daniell, who was here to promote cultivation of drug-producing lettuce.

The biotechnology industry has long hoped to use plants, including common food crops, to produce high-profit new drugs. It is worth noting that Daniell is not only an academic; he is also the founder of Chlorogen, Inc., a company that hopes to profit from these so-called "pharm" crops.

This is the abstract of the article available by paid subscription but the bottom line is that doctors are starting to see how biased the publication and approval of FDA drugs is.

We obtained reviews from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for studies of 12 antidepressant agents involving 12,564 patients. We conducted a systematic literature search to identify matching publications. For trials that were reported in the literature, we compared the published outcomes with the FDA outcomes. We also compared the effect size derived from the published reports with the effect size derived from the entire FDA data set.

Results Among 74 FDA-registered studies, 31%, accounting for 3449 study participants, were not published. Whether and how the studies were published were associated with the study outcome. A total of 37 studies viewed by the FDA as having positive results were published; 1 study viewed as positive was not published. Studies viewed by the FDA as having negative or questionable results were, with 3 exceptions, either not published (22 studies) or published in a way that, in our opinion, conveyed a positive outcome (11 studies). According to the published literature, it appeared that 94% of the trials conducted were positive. By contrast, the FDA analysis showed that 51% were positive. Separate meta-analyses of the FDA and journal data sets showed that the increase in effect size ranged from 11 to 69% for individual drugs and was 32% overall.

Conclusions We cannot determine whether the bias observed resulted from a failure to submit manuscripts on the part of authors and sponsors, from decisions by journal editors and reviewers not to publish, or both. Selective reporting of clinical trial results may have adverse consequences for researchers, study participants, health care professionals, and patients.

Consumer polls indicate the average person imagines meat labeled "Naturally Raised" comes from animals that spent their drug-free lives freely roaming the fields of a family farmer, eating wild flora and fauna, and being (at least somewhat) humanely slaughtered. In fact a 2007 Consumer Reports survey shows 83% of consumers assume such labeling means "it came from an animal raised in a natural environment." In stark contrast, the USDA, under pressure from big agribusiness, has released a standard for "Naturally Raised" meats that is so weak it would apply to a cloned animal raised in the confines of a factory farm. The public comment period on this labeling standard only lasts until January 28, so take action now before this type of labeling becomes as ubiquitous as corporate lobbyists on Capitol Hill. To read the full proposed standard, go to the AMS web site at http://www.regulations.gov/ (insert "naturally raised" in the search box provided on the site).

The makers of antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil never published the results of about a third of the drug trials that they conducted to win government approval, misleading doctors and consumers about the drugs' true effectiveness, a new analysis has found.
...
Previous research had found a similar bias toward reporting positive results for a variety of medications; and many researchers have questioned the reported effectiveness of antidepressants. But the new analysis, reviewing data from 74 trials involving 12 drugs, is the most thorough to date. And it documents a large difference: while 94 percent of the positive studies found their way into print, just 14 percent of those with disappointing or uncertain results did.