• We’re in the best of hands….2 & 3…

    ….two more articles from our old friend Dr. Joseph Mercola (well, I don’t know him but he’s never complained about all the stuff I steal from him so he must be a friend).  Starting again: to follow up two current threads:  can we trust Big Government and the people who supply our food and can we work with Europe to help protect us. First, when it comes to Europe, guess who’s gotten there before us?  Oh, you must have been paying attention.  There’s now an international do-gooder association that is going to protect us.  Hard to find just who’s behind this group but Dr. Mercola did the digging and they include (surprise!)…

  • Can we learn from the Europeans….

    ….one of our readers thinks so, though he asks to remain anonymous because he works for you-know-who.    Here’s the link: http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Regulation/US-review-gleans-ideas-from-European-food-safety-reforms My own jaded view is that this becomes one more weapon to beat up on the little guy. If Europeans experience fewer food-related illnesses, I suspect it’s not because of bureaucratic efficiency.  Everything there, from farms to processing, operates on a much smaller scale.  It’s the huge packing houses and the factory farms in the United States that cause our problems. And a corrupt system that keeps us looking the “other” way. Further,  one-size agricultural rules are too often written in the bowels of Big Ag and Big…

  • The Monsanto Story….

    …though I really can’t vouch for it.  Found this on the internet while reading about the demonstrations against Monsanto yesterday in 400 cities around the world.  The protest was aimed at Genetically Modified food but one commentor filled in some history on Monsanto I didn’t know. A link to one story about the demonstrations follows, but first this: John F Queeny started Monsanto in 1901 – with a chemical byproduct from COAL TAR that tasted sweet.  They had only one customer – Coca Cola.  Doctors prescribed the cocaine beverage to many… and this coal tar sweetener is called saccharin.  An early user was Pres. Ted Roosevelt – diabetic and overweight.  A…

  • To the barricades….

    ….there are times when I think I could be a revolutionary.  Mostly those are times when I hear about the latest outrage perpetrated by chemical giant, Monsanto. It’s hard to imagine a more powerful, more destructive company on the planet.  Their genetic engineering—all government-sanctioned—and their ability to skirt any real scientific review is without parallel. We’ve detailed many times their influence in Washington (and it has made no difference whether a Republican or Democrat is in charge).  While other countries have been careful to keep a lid on genetically engineered foods, Monsanto has had free reign with its willing accomplices in the government and universities. One of the articles of…

  • Do we know what we’re doing….

    ….from our unintended (and intended) consequences file.  The mad scientists experimenting with gene modification have come up with the next generation: changing the molecules in wheat to change it’s carbohydrate content. The process is called “silencing” the genes but it apparently not only silences wheat genes but may match human genes and silence them, too.  That could be potentially deadly for children and lead to serious illness in some adults. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/04/23/gm-wheat.aspx      

  • The antibiotic menace….

    ….is real and growing.  Antibiotics are not used primarily to treat sick animals, but as a weight enhancer.  They’re at least as effective as growth hormones but, just to be sure, commercial producers of meat use both.  In fact, antibiotics are used more in farming than among humans. Dr. David Kessler, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, recently said this about the practice. “While the F.D.A. can see what kinds of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are coming out of livestock facilities, the agency doesn’t know enough about the antibiotics that are being fed to these animals,” he writes. “This is a major public health problem, because giving healthy livestock…

  • It’s about time….

    ….safe food advocates are turning their fire on President Obama and Congressional Democrats for their “patty cake” deal with Monsanto.  With all the talk about sequestration, the powers-that-be made sure last week that the dollars keep rolling to the chemical giant. Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski snuck the pro-genetically engineered language into a massive continuing resolution and it sailed through, apparently without anyone noticing the amendment.  At least, that’s what they’re all saying on Capitol Hill. http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Critics-slam-Obama-for-protecting-Monsanto-200599011.html We note that while Monsanto’s relationship with the Obama Administration could be described as “incestuous”, it’s only closer in degree from past Republican administrations.  Last we knew, at least three former Monsanto executives are…

  • Can’t forget the pigs…

    ….they seem to do just fine in the snow and cold despite very short hair. We do give them an extra ration in bad weather.  And this is a good time to note that we now are giving them non-GMO feed.  It’s always bothered us that the one weak link in our “doing things naturally” process was that we were forced to feed regular grain. Recently we found a source down in the Shenandoah Valley that grows non-GMO feed and, better yet, sells it at a reasonable price.  We’ve made the switch without increasing costs. Best of all, like our cows, our pigs are now truly “doing what comes naturally”.

  • A victory for the pure food movement….

    ….and unexpectedly. Whole Foods has just announced it will begin labeling all its products that are genetically modified.  With four-fifths of the worlds corn and soybeans now GMO, we trust the company has budgeted enough for new labels.  Just about any box on the shelf will need the alert, as well as most of the produce. We wonder if they’ll go so far as to put notices on their meat, too.  The biggest consumers of genetically modified corn are cows. There’s a lot of Big Ag propaganda in the article (Monsanto never sleeps) but still the basic story is a major setback for the “don’t ask what it is, just…