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Posts Tagged ‘food’

Big Food Wants to Label GMO Foods ‘Natural’ in Outrageous Request

December 23, 2013 Comments off

onegreenplanet.org

As if the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (GMA) didn’t do enough to help propagate the corruption of the U.S. food system this year (the GMA was recently accused of improperly collecting millions of dollars of funding against GMO labeling for the Washington state anti-GMO labeling campaign), it was reported last week that the organization will submit a petition to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting that genetically modified foods be labeled as “natural.”

Say, what?!

It was in a Dec. 5 letter that the GMA announced its charge and plans to petition the FDA by the end of the year. According to the FDA’s priority list, the agency will seek to create voluntary guidelines for the labeling of GMO food products at this time.

Use of the term “natural” has been a hotly-debated topic as of late; companies from Kellogg to Chobani to Naked Juice have faced lawsuits for their use of the term on its labels. And, according to a New York Times report, GMA has noted that there are 65 other pending class-action suits around the U.S.

Perhaps this has to do with the fact that the term “natural” has yet to be

Full Article Here

Categories: Food, Genetically modified Tags: , , ,

World’s First GMO Apple Easy to Spot … Or Not

December 20, 2013 Comments off

theepochtimes.com

Unlike conventional apples, the world’s first GMO apple won’t brown when bruised or sliced. (Photo courtesy of Okanagan Specialty Fruits)

In a few months regulators are poised to approve the first genetically modified apple. The new fruit is expected in grocery stores as early as 2014.

Made by Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF), the Arctic Apple comes in Golden and Granny Smith varieties, with Fuji, Gala, and others to follow. Unlike conventional apples, Arctic does not brown when sliced or bruised.

The Arctic Apple differs from other genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in a very important way: consumers will be able to identify it.

All fresh fruit will be labeled with an Arctic sticker, and processed foods containing more than 5 percent of Arctic Apples will bear the Arctic logo. Only pasteurized products such as juice and sauce will not be labeled.

As big food manufacturers and bioengineering companies spend millions to squash campaigns aimed at identifying GMOs, Okanagan wants its product to stand out in the marketplace.

In a series of videos addressing questions of safety and science, OSF owner, orchardist, and bioresource engineer Neal Carter said that unlike other GMO crops that are designed with traits that only benefit the farmer such as built-in pest control or pesticide resistance, Arctic Apples are designed with the consumer in mind.

Flavr Savr a Failure

OSF is not the first to try this business model. The Flavr Savr tomato, introduced in 1994, was the first commercialized GMO. Initially Full Article Here

Categories: Genetically modified Tags: , ,

Farmers To Face Fines Or Prison Sentences For Selling Food Directly To Customers

August 15, 2013 1 comment

govtslaves

(David Gumpert)   This would seem to embody the USDA’s advisory, “Know your farmer, know your food,” right? Not exactly.

For the USDA and its sister food regulator, the FDA, there’s a problem: many of the farmers are distributing the food via private contracts like herd shares and leasing arrangements, which fall outside the regulatory system of state and local retail licenses and inspections that govern public food sales.

In response, federal and state regulators are seeking legal sanctions against farmers in Maine, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California, among others. These sanctions include injunctions, fines, and even prison sentences.

Food sold by unlicensed and uninspected farmers is potentially Read more…

Categories: Food Tags: , ,

Nearly all conventional food crops grown with fluoride-laced water, then sprayed with more fluoride

September 10, 2012 1 comment

naturalnews

(NaturalNews) The average American today is exposed to a whole lot more fluoride  than he or she is probably aware. Conventional produce, it turns out, is one of  the most prevalent sources of fluoride exposure besides fluoridated water, as  conventional crops are not only irrigated with fluoride-laced water in many  cases, but also sprayed with pesticide and herbicide chemicals that have been  blended with fluoride, and later processed once again with fluoridated  water.
This fact may come as a surprise to many who have bought into the  idea that eating more fresh produce is automatically beneficial for health,  regardless of how that produce was grown. Thinking that they are doing their  bodies a favor, millions of Americans have incorporated conventional fruits and  vegetables into their everyday diets, not realizing that the resulting  cumulative effect of fluoride exposure from these foods could be harming their  health.

Many food crops uptake fluoride chemicals from water, soil

According to  the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 75  percent of the U.S. population is being forcibly medicated with fluoride  chemicals via
Full Article

Categories: Fluoride, water Tags: , ,

EPA changes rules to allow more toxic cleaning chemicals in mainstream food

September 3, 2012 Comments off

naturalnews.com

(NaturalNews) Just in case you’ve forgotten, EPA stands for Environmental Protection Agency. That was sarcasm. You haven’t forgotten. But it appears the EPA has.

Reading alphabet soup can be confusing. The FDA, USDA and EPA all seem to cross over each other when it comes to what happens with food.

Recently, the EPA made a ruling on the use of a chemical that’s used for a variety of products, including sanitizing cleaners for facilities of food industry providers and restaurants. The chemical will show up in processed foods.

An August 22, 2012 Courthouse News edition contained a short article entitled “More Ammonia Now Allowed in Processed Food.” It was a reference to the EPA’s latest revision for limits using Didecyl Dimethyl Ammonium in the carbonate or bicarbonate form (DDACB). Focus on ammonia.

The former limit of 240 ppm (parts per million) was raised to 400 ppm. A petition to raise the allowed limit was issued to the EPA by a principle provider of Read more…

Categories: EPA, Food Tags: , , ,

World food prices keep on rising — UN

April 9, 2012 Comments off

newsday

MILAN — Global food prices rose in March for a third successive month, driven by gains in grains and vegetable oils, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Thursday, putting food inflation firmly back on the economic agenda.

Food prices hit record highs in February 2011 and stoked protests connected to the Arab Spring wave of civil unrest in some North African and Middle Eastern countries. They then receded, but started to grow again in January.

The index, which measures monthly price changes for a food basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 215,9 points in March, up from a revised 215,4 points in February, FAO data showed.

Its cereal price index averaged 227 points in March, up from February, with maize prices showing gains, supported by low inventories and a strong soybean market, the FAO said.

“You can see prices in the near term rising even further,” FAO’s senior economist and grain analyst Abdolreza Abbassian said before the index update.

The FAO also confirmed its earlier forecast for world wheat output to fall 1,4% from Read more…

Categories: Food, Food Crisis, world Tags: , , ,

China overtakes US as world’s biggest grocery market

April 4, 2012 Comments off

guardian

Chinese women shop at Wal-Mart Supercenter in Jinan

Wal-Mart Supercentre in Jinan, Shandong province. IGD estimates that international grocery retailers could open more than 2,700 stores in China over the next four years. Photograph: Claro Cortes Iv/Reuters/Corbis

China has overtaken the United States to become the world’s biggest market for grocery shopping, according to the latest report to underscore the country’s growing global economic dominance.

The Chinese grocery sector will continue its fast growth over the next few years to hit almost £1tn by 2015, according to grocery industry researchers IGD. That trend brings opportunities for both Chinese and international retailers, but economists warn it will also put upward pressure on already high food prices.

Driven by a growing population, a move to more expensive foods and robust economic growth, the Chinese grocery sector was worth £607bn at the end of 2011, while the US market slipped to second place at £572bn, IGD says in a report on Wednesday . The UK was the world’s ninth largest grocery market.

The researchers forecast that China’s market will grow at twice the pace of the US to be worth £918bn by 2015.

“China’s grocery growth story is phenomenal,” said IGD’s chief executive, Joanne Denney-Finch.

“Despite its various logistical and bureaucratic challenges, China is a crucial growth market for Read more…

Categories: China Tags: ,

No Country For Thin Men: 75% Of Americans To Be Obese By 2020

March 28, 2012 Comments off

zerohedge.com

chronic pain obesity

While much heart palpitations are generated every month based on how much of a seasonal adjustment factor is used to fudge US employment, many forget that a much more serious long term issue for the US (assuming anyone cares what happens in the long run) is a far more ominous secular shift in US population – namely the fact that everyone is getting fatter fast, aka America’s “obesity epidemic.” And according to a just released analysis by BNY ConvergEx’ Nicholas Colas, things are about to get much worse, because as the OECD predicts, by 2020 75% of US the population will be obese. What this implies for the tens of trillions in underfunded healthcare “benefits” in the future is all too clear. In the meantime, thanks to today’s economic “news”, fat people everywhere can get even fatter courtesy of ever freer money from the Chairman, about to be paradropped once more to keep nominal prices high and devalue the dollar even more in the great “race to debase”. Our advices – just Read more…

Categories: Coming Events, United States Tags: , ,

USDA plans to keep feeding ‘pink slime’ to your kids

March 16, 2012 Comments off

naturalnews.com

(NaturalNews) After garnering nationwide attention for being secretly added to processed hamburgers and beef products, including those served in school lunchrooms, “lean finely textured beef,” aka “pink slime,” is reportedly on its way out from the menu offerings of McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King. But according to Mother Jones, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to keep ordering this imitation, ammonia-laced product for use in its National School Lunch Program (NSLP), a taxpayer-funded government food program that serves low-income students.

Pink slime gained much notoriety after being featured in the acclaimed 2008 documentary Food Inc.. Robert Kenner, the film’s director, revealed an inside look into Beef Products International (BPI), a South Sioux City, Neb.-based processing plant that produces most of the nation’s supply of pink slime. The product, which is composed of bovine connective tissue and random beef scraps doused in ammonia and formed into a paste, is commonly used as a beef filler because it is low-cost and supposedly less risky compared to conventional ground beef.

You can watch a disturbing clip from Food Inc. featuring footage from the BPI plant and commentary by BPI founder Eldon Roth at the following link:

Read more…

Categories: Food Tags: , , , , ,

Scientists working on $330,000 test-tube-meat burger

February 21, 2012 Comments off

latimes.com

Test-tube meat

A strip of muscle tissue produced in a test tube in a Maastricht University lab. (Maastricht University)

Would you eat mystery meat grown in a lab if doing so was better for the environment? The debate may seem abstract, but scientists could turn a test-tube burger into reality by October.

The $330,000 project being conducted by Mark Post, chairman of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, involves a cow’s stem cells and funds from an anonymous private investor.

Post has already created several small strips of muscle tissue that, once he makes thousands more, will be mashed together to create a burger patty. The first sandwich could be ready this fall, he said during a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver, Canada.

Though companies such as Tyson Foods and JBS have asked about possible meat substitutes, much of the

Read more…

Categories: Food, MAD scientists Tags: , , , ,