Monday Moaning

This is about Hawaii.

But it’s also about the rest of the world.

The Ghost in the GMO Machine

While independent research shows that Chlorpyrifos, a Dow Chemical insecticide used in Kaua‘i’s GMO fields, can cause significant harm to children nearby, Dow is intent on convincing the EPA otherwise.

The bodies and minds of children living on the Hawaiian island of Kaua‘i are being threatened by exposure to chlorpyrifos, a synthetic insecticide that is heavily sprayed on fields located near their homes and schools.

For decades, researchers have been publishing reports about children who died or were maimed after exposure to chlorpyrifos, either in the womb or after birth. While chlorpyrifos can no longer legally be used around the house or in the garden, it is still legal to use on the farm. But researchers are finding that children aren’t safe when the insecticide is applied to nearby fields.

Like a ghost drifting through a child’s bedroom window, the airborne insecticide can settle on children’s skin, clothes, toys, rugs, and furnishings.

In fact, it’s likely that the only people who needn’t worry about exposure to chlorpyrifos are adults living far from the fields in which it is sprayed. That includes civil servants who work for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which regulates the stuff, and executives with Dow Chemical, the company that manufactures it.

In a regulatory process known as re-registration, the EPA will decide in 2015 whether it still agrees that chlorpyrifos is safe for farming, or whether it will order a complete ban, as Earthjustice, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Pesticide Action Network have demanded in lawsuits filed in 2007 and in 2014.

Dow has long insisted that its chlorpyrifos products are safe, despite tens of thousands of reports of acute poisoning and multiple studies linking low-level exposures to children with lower IQ. The company also has a long history—going back decades—of concealing from the public the many health problems it knew were linked to chlorpyrifos.

In 1995, the EPA found that Dow had violated federal law by covering up its knowledge of these health problems for years. In 2004, then-New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer found that Dow had been lying about the known dangers of the pesticide in its advertising for nearly as long. Together, the EPA and the State of New York have levied fines against the company approaching $3 million.

On Kaua‘i, subsidiaries of four transnational chemical companies—Dow Chemical, DuPont, Syngenta, and BASF—spray chlorpyrifos and several other potent pesticides to protect their experimental genetically engineered crops (GMOs) against a wide variety of bugs and weeds. Because of the heavy pesticide use, Kaua‘i’s GMO testing fields are among the most toxic chemical environments in all of American agriculture. The island, with its precious ecosystems and diverse wildlife, seems particularly ill-suited to be a laboratory for such experiments.

Source: Cascadia Times Read more

Opinion:

Makes me sick that these companies are allowed to continue to manipulate and thwart the regulatory system.

Sure they are censored and fined… But how about some of these decision makers going to bloody jail?

When are the government going to start protecting the people?

Make you Fink on Friday

This is about a subject that I have often espoused as ‘bullshit’.

Literally, the crap that we have been led to believe comes from manufacturers that want to sell you another product.

It’s the old butter vs margarine debate again; which is healthier for you?

Basically, you have been fed manufacturers crap for so long it’s taken as gospel.

Now it appears as though the truth is coming out.

Why almost everything you’ve been told about unhealthy foods is wrong

Eggs and red meat have both been on the nutritional hit list – but after a major study last week dismissed a link between fats and heart disease, is it time for a complete rethink?

The evidence that appears to implicate red meat does not separate well-reared, unprocessed meat from its factory farmed, heavily processed equivalent.’ Photograph: Mike Kemp/Getty Images/Rubberball

Could eating too much margarine be bad for your critical faculties? The “experts” who so confidently advised us to replace saturated fats, such as butter, with polyunsaturated spreads, people who presumably practise what they preach, have suddenly come over all uncertain and seem to be struggling through a mental fog to reformulate their script.

Last week it fell to a floundering professor, Jeremy Pearson, from the British Heart Foundation to explain why it still adheres to the nutrition establishment’s anti-saturated fat doctrine when evidence is stacking up to refute it. After examining 72 academic studies involving more than 600,000 participants, the study, funded by the foundation, found that saturated fat consumption was not associated with coronary disease risk. This assessment echoed a review in 2010 that concluded “there is no convincing evidence that saturated fat causes heart disease”.

Neither could the foundation’s research team find any evidence for the familiar assertion that trips off the tongue of margarine manufacturers and apostles of government health advice, that eating polyunsaturated fat offers heart protection. In fact, lead researcher Dr Rajiv Chowdhury spoke of the need for an urgent health check on the standard healthy eating script. “These are interesting results that potentially stimulate new lines of scientific inquiry and encourage careful reappraisal of our current nutritional guidelines,” he said.

Chowdhury went on to warn that replacing saturated fats with excess carbohydrates – such as white bread, white rice and potatoes – or with refined sugar and salts in processed foods, should be discouraged. Current healthy eating advice is to “base your meals on starchy foods”, so if you have been diligently following that dietetic gospel, then the professor’s advice is troubling.

Confused? Even borderline frustrated and beginning to run out of patience? So was the BBC presenter tasked with getting clarity from the British Heart Foundation. Yes, Pearson conceded, “there is not enough evidence to be firm about [healthy eating] guidelines”, but no, the findings “did not change the advice that eating too much fat is harmful for the heart”. Saturated fat reduction, he said, was just one factor we should consider as part of a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. Can you hear a drip, drip in the background as officially endorsed diet advice goes into meltdown?

Of course, we have already had a bitter taste of how hopelessly misleading nutritional orthodoxy can be. It wasn’t so long ago that we were spoon-fed the unimpeachable “fact” that we should eat no more than two eggs a week because they contained heart-stopping cholesterol, but that gem of nutritional wisdom had to be quietly erased from history when research showing that cholesterol in eggs had almost no effect on blood cholesterol became too glaringly obvious to ignore.

The consequences of this egg restriction nostrum were wholly negative: egg producers went out of business and the population missed out on an affordable, natural, nutrient-packed food as it mounded up its breakfast bowl with industrially processed cereals sold in cardboard boxes. But this damage was certainly less grave than that caused by the guidance to abandon saturated fats such as butter, dripping and lard, and choose instead spreads and highly refined liquid oils.

Despite repeated challenges from health advocacy groups, it wasn’t until 2010, when US dietary guidelines were amended, that public health advisers on both sides of the Atlantic acknowledged that the chemical process for hardening polyunsaturated oils in margarines and spreads created artery-clogging trans-fats.

Manufacturers have now reformulated their spreads, hardening them by chemical methods which they assure us are more benign. But throughout the 20th century, as we were breezily encouraged to embrace supposedly heart-healthy spreads, the prescription was killing us. Those who dutifully swallowed the bitter pill, reluctantly replacing delicious butter with dreary marge, have yet to hear the nutrition establishment recanting. Government evangelists of duff diet advice aren’t keen on eating humble pie.

But what lesson can we draw from the cautionary tales of eggs and trans fats? We would surely be slow learners if we didn’t approach other well-established, oft-repeated, endlessly recycled nuggets of nutritional correctness with a rather jaundiced eye. Let’s start with calories. After all, we’ve been told that counting them is the foundation for dietetic rectitude, but it’s beginning to look like a monumental waste of time. Slowly but surely, nutrition researchers are shifting their focus to the concept of “satiety”, that is, how well certain foods satisfy our appetites. In this regard, protein and fat are emerging as the two most useful macronutrients. The penny has dropped that starving yourself on a calorie-restricted diet of crackers and crudités isn’t any answer to the obesity epidemic.

Read more

Opinion:

Take the egg problem, speaking from personal experience. I eat between six and a dozen eggs per week… my cholesterol is just great, perhaps a little on the low side. I also eat the fat on meat, I use lard for cooking and I don’t have margarine in the house and I don’t buy products made with it. I don’t drink soda, but sparkling mineral water, often with fresh juices added.

So, more than two years ago, I bucked the system and stopped believing manufacturers’ claims.

My advice, stop being a sheep and following the herd, think for yourself.

Make you Fink on Friday

Anti-bacterial soaps may not prevent the spread of germs, FDA claims

FDA said it is reviewing research suggesting chemicals used in common soaps and body washes may pose health risks

FDA is reviewing claims in response to concerns that widespread use of antibacterial soaps may be fueling a rise in superbugs. Photo: Mandel Ngan /AFP /Getty Images

After more than 40 years of study, the US government said Monday it has no evidence that the anti-bacterial chemicals used in countless common soaps and washes help prevent the spread of germs, and it is reviewing research suggesting they may pose health risks.

Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration said they are revisiting the safety of chemicals such as triclosan in light of recent studies that suggest the substances can interfere with hormone levels and spur the growth of drug-resistant bacteria.

The government’s preliminary ruling lends new support to outside researchers who have long argued that the chemicals are, at best, ineffective and at worst, a threat to public health.

“The FDA is finally making a judgment call here and asking the industry to show us that these products are better than soap and water, and the data don’t substantiate that,” said Stuart Levy of Tufts University School of Medicine.

Under a proposed rule released Monday, the agency will require manufacturers to prove that anti-bacterial soaps and body washes are safe and more effective than plain soap and water. Products that are not shown to be safe and effective by late 2016 would have to be reformulated, relabeled or removed from the market.

“I suspect there are a lot of consumers who assume that by using an anti-bacterial soap product they are protecting themselves from illness, protecting their families,” said Sandra Kweder, deputy director in the FDA’s drug center. “But we don’t have any evidence that that is really the case over simple soap and water.”

A spokesman for the cleaning product industry said the FDA already has “a wealth of data” showing the benefits of its products.

An FDA analysis estimates it will cost companies $112.2m to $368.8m to comply with the new regulations, including reformulating some products and removing marketing claims from others.

The rule does not apply to hand sanitizers, most of which use alcohol rather than anti-bacterial chemicals.

Read more

Opinion:

It’s taken 40 years to get to this. The FDA must have had some heavy pressure to get to this. Which means that there is some valid evidence.

At last!

“a wealth of data” showing the benefits of its products. What a lot of corporate bullshit. You can guarantee that 100% of that evidence is from industry biased or related sources.

Triclosan has been used since 1972, and it is present in soaps (0.10-1.00%), shampoos, deodorants, toothpastes, mouth washes, and cleaning supplies, and is incorporated into an increasing number of consumer products, such as kitchen utensils, toys, bedding, socks, and trash bags. It is also found in health care settings in surgical scrubs and personnel hand washes. – Wikipedia

And they don’t really know if it’s safe or not!

 

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Monday Moaning

Yes, I know it’s Tuesday, I’m running a little behind this week already.

Here’s something to think about.

If your pantry or larder doesn’t look like this, then you are not caring for your family.

90% of the groceries that you buy in the supermarket are CRAP!

They contain preservatives and poisons, and they are contaminated with farm chemicals and hormones that attack every organ in your body and diminish the mental faculties.

The only way to ensure that your family is eating healthy is to grow your own and preserve.

Too many people have abdicated their responsibilities and followed the corporate bullshit to an easy life.

The human race is not going to survive if we don’t get back to the old ways.

Monday Moaning

We’ve screwed up big time!

Drugs, chemicals, additives to food, cosmetics and medicines are all fine when they go ‘in’, but what happens when they go ‘out’?

Anxiety drug found in rivers changes fish behaviour

Normally shy perch became bolder and more independent when exposed to a drug called oxazepam for treating anxiety

The effect of the drug on European perch (above) was similar to its effect on people, with potential evolutionary and ecological impacts. Photograph: Alamy

Drugs to treat anxiety in people may alter the behaviour of fish when the chemicals are flushed into rivers, according to scientists. Swedish researchers found that European perch exposed to tiny concentrations of a drug became less sociable, ate more and became more adventurous – all changes in behaviour that could have unexpected ecological impacts on fish populations.

When scientists at Umeå University in Sweden screened rivers for pharmaceuticals they found that a drug for treating anxiety, called oxazepam, was accumulating in fish. Many drugs and other synthetic chemicals used by humans in everything from pesticides to cosmetics can pass through waste water treatment and end up in wildlife, potentially accumulating to toxic levels.

But until now scientists had never studied the behavioural impacts of small quantities of contaminants. Tomas Brodin led a team that mimicked in the lab the concentrations of oxazepam found in the wild – around a microgram per kilogram of fish body weight – and watched for changes in how bold, sociable and active the fish were.

“Normally, perch are shy and hunt in schools,” said Brodin. “This is a known strategy for survival and growth. But those who swim in oxazepam became considerably bolder.”

The results are published this week in Science and were announced at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston.

Jonatan Klaminder, an ecologist at Umeå University and an author of the paper, said the effect of the drug on fish was similar to its effect on people. “What the drug does is remove some of the fear that the very small fish experience,” he said. “[They] become less interested in staying close with others – staying close to others is a well-known defence system to avoid predators. They become less afraid of exploring new areas, so they just go out to search for food and become more effective in finding and consuming food.”

This change in behaviour could have evolutionary consequences. Adventurous or antisocial fish are more likely to be eaten by larger fishes but are also the ones that will explore new areas and, over time, alter the genetic diversity of future populations.

The solution, according to the researchers, is not to stop medicating people who need drugs such as oxazepam but to improve sewage treatment plants to capture the drugs and reduce their contamination of water systems in the wild.

The research also has implications for the way ecologists monitor pollutants in the environment, said Klaminder. “We’re still deeply rooted in what a pollutant is and it goes back to the 1970s and 1980s where we had heavy rain, acid rain, organic pollutants that definitely cause harm and physiological effects. When it comes to drugs, there is a new area of contamination research that doesn’t really fit with this old conceptual view.” Focusing on the potential negative physiological impacts of an environmental contaminant could miss the subtle behavioural changes that may also occur.

He added: “Hopefully it will make researchers rethink what they are looking for.”

Check the links here

Opinion:

How much of this drug is being passed on to humans? Will we too become emboldened, will our behaviours change? Have our behaviours already changed?

What goes in, must comes out… and not all of it is treated; as a result we are polluting the waterways of the world worse than we thought.

Every time you pee or crap, the chemicals that you have used/consumed are passing directly into the planetary water system.

So you may think you are buying or eating organic, but the reality is that your precious organic products are tainted and poisoned by the very water that you think makes them organic.

What other chemicals are we passing on to people through the food chain?

Just think, every time you clean your face after you’ve used makeup, the gunk goes down the drain… and into the sewerage system… Is it treated, or does it just pass right on into the rivers and estuaries? We already know that many cosmetic products have harmful chemicals.

We’ve screwed up big time!

 

Saturday Satire on Eco-Crap

“I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry. That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste.”

— David Bissonette

 

Chemicals, n: Noxious substances from which modern foods are made.

— Unknown

 

“‘Growth’ and ‘progress’ are among the key words in our national vocabulary. But modern man now carries Strontium 90 in his bones … DDT in his fat, asbestos in his lungs. A little more of this ‘progress’ and ‘growth,’ and this man will be dead.”

— Morris K. “Mo” Udall

Source: Funny Quotes

Change the World Wednesday – 29th Aug

I have never done this before, honest.

It wasn’t until I opened Eco to follow my link to Reduce Footprints that I realised I have not posted here for a whole week.

I have never done that before, I have never been so lazy, forgetful, inconsiderate, etc before (despite what my ex-wife says).

Now I am on my first coffee of the morning, but I still feel mortified that I had nothing to Fink about on Friday, no Saturday Satire, nothing to moan about on Monday. It’s not at all like me. And, to top it all off, I had my best day ever on the blog, 144 visitors; I’ve never broken 100 before and I did it in style.

Enough of the self-flagellation, today is my birthday, and I get to share it with you nice people. Sixty-one today; you can read my thoughts about it on Closer to Extinction, yesterday’s late night post on Life is a Labyrinth.

Last week’s CTWW post was an eye-opener. I was fully aware that we are often conned by the labels and ingredients on food, but to find the list of ingredients on a simple deodorant spray so extensive, did shock me; especially when I took up the Up the Ante and explored them.

Acerola berries – Crapemyrtle

A little side trip. Here I go off on my tangent. A couple of weeks ago, I was in my ‘new’ supermarket (I have changed for the bulk of my buying) and I spied a bottle of Orange & Acerola syrup, now I love Orange & Acerola combination. So a quick scan to make sure it didn’t have aspartame, and into the trolly. I might add that the label was surprisingly like another brand that I buy and trust; it wasn’t that brand on closer inspection at home. I made a jug. OMG, it was disgusting. It was only then that I put my glasses on and inspected the ingredients. Colour this, flavour that, preservatives, stabilisers… there wasn’t a single natural ingredient, it was just a chemical cocktail. Result, down the drain; lesson learned.

I used to have a large acerola bush in my yard producing fruit year-round, but I changed yards. I now have a small sprout growing from a seed that I found on the street.

On with this weeks CTWW:

This week share ideas on eating locally during the winter months. While “eating locally” may include meats, dairy, etc., for the purposes of this challenge we’re primarily talking about plant-based foods.

 

And then …

Come up with a plan, for your household, to eat locally throughout the year. This might include preserving produce which is currently available in your area, talking to farmers to see if they offer (or would be willing to offer) items during the winter, or growing a winter garden of your own.

This has always been a problem for me. Mainly because of the cost of getting to places where I can buy local produce. One of the very few times I miss having a car.

To top it off, my efforts to produce my own in my little backyard this year have not been as successful as the last season. However, I do have some little green tomatoes ripening, which is good because tomatoes are more than R$6 a kilo at the moment. So expensive, they have simply been off the menu. Now, USD1.50/lb may not sound expensive to you guys, but the normal price is USD0.25 – 0.40/lb. So I will have tomatoes in about two weeks. I still have dried cayenne peppers from my good year, and I have mint and ginger growing as well. Passionfruit will be good this coming year, a dead loss last year. My mamão trees (papaya) died.

So that’s it for this week. I am off to work, then I have a BBQ to prepare.

 

 

Change the World Wednesday – 22nd Aug

I’m a day late. Not a case of procrastination, although I suppose there well may be elements of the same, rather I have been thinking.

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, the driest desert in the world

We have also had some very dry weather, too dry. The humidity here has been terribly low this week, 20% yesterday. Tuesday was even worse, it gave me such a headache that I missed work; and I am usually one of those who have to be dying before I’ll do that. Been drinking water like it’s going out of fashion in order to stay hydrated. São Paulo was worse off yesterday, humidity there struck a 30 year low, 10%; that’s worse than some deserts.

This week’s challenge is a doozy. It was the ‘dooziness‘ that lead to what appeared to be procrastination on my part, but really it was thinking.

This week refuse to put chemicals on your body. Read the labels on everything which comes in contact with your skin and only use it if it’s chemical free.

 

Or … If your skin is already glowing with chemical-free happiness, please share tips and ideas. Feel free to suggest products or share recipes for homemade items … tell us about how you transitioned from toxic ingredients to healthy ones … or share the differences you’ve experienced since switching over. We’d like to know about anything which will help us eliminate chemicals from our body care products.

Well, ‘skin glowing with chemical-free happiness’… nope, that’s not me.

Refuse to put chemicals on my body. I am a man of simple means, I don’t go into toiletries much. I use soap, I don’t use shampoo, haven’t for years. I use a simple spray deodorant, the temperature here in summer dictates an additional measure besides soap to stop one reeking of sweat on the bus. I use a plain toothpaste, no flavours or fancy gels. And that sums it up.

Now, let’s look at what’s in the stuff I use:

Deodorant, Senador Platinum.

Ingredients: Alcohol, water, glycerine, perfume, benzalkonium chloride, alph-isomethyl ionone, benzyl alcohol, citrôl, citronella, coumarin, d-Lemonene, eugenol, geraniol, butylphenyl methylpropional, benzyl salicylate, hexyl cinnamal, linalool.

Well, that’s a lot of chemicals. Are they good or bad?

benzalkonium chloride – highly toxic to fish. Toxic to humans at 10%, most applications use 0.001 – 0.002% or 10,000 times less than a toxic dose.

alph-isomethyl ionone – Widely used as a fragrance in the formulation of aftershave lotions, bath products, bubble baths, hair care products, moisturizers, perfumes and colognes, shampoos and skin care products. Known to irritate the skin and trigger allergic reactions for some people.

citrol – a biodegradable, environmentally safe, water soluble, heavy duty, organic citrus base, solvent cleaner and degreaser, related to lemonine. Can cause skin irritation in some people.

citronella  – no info as an ingredient.

coumarin – rat poison in high dosages. Found in camomile tea, synthetic vanilla substitutes, tobacco products. Some people can become sensitised to it.

d-Lemonene – can be a skin irritant wit prolonged exposure. Distilled from lemon rind.

eugenol– cloves, the agent that gives cloves their distinctive smell. Some people may become sensitised to it.

geramiol – a type of alcohol, mosquito repellent, but attracts bees.  Geraniol should be avoided by people with perfume allergy.

butylphenyl methylpropional – synthetic fragrance, some people may become sensitised to it, therefore it is mandatory to be listed as an ingredient in Europe.

benzyl salicylate –  occurs naturally in a variety of plants and plant extracts and is widely used in blends of fragrance materials. Sensitisation is possible.

hexyl cinnamal – Hexyl cinnamaldehyde is a class B allergen according to DIMDI classification. It is also an irritant in concentrations higher than recommended.

Linalool – Over 200 species of plants produce linalool. Linalool gradually breaks down when in contact with oxygen, forming an oxidized by-product that may cause allergic reactions such as eczema in susceptible individuals (5-7%).

So basically, none of that is very good.

I use it once a day when I am working,or when I go out in public. I wouldn’t say that I was a heavy user, but nevertheless, it is surprising what it contains and that almost all of it is not good for the skin.

They warn on the bottle to keep away from children, because some of those ingredients can cause renal failure in high dosages.

I am not going to do the same with the soap and toothpaste I use; firstly, that took a lot of time, and secondly… I’m too scared. I don’t want to know. I have been shaken from the comfort of my little world.

UPDATE

You’ll notice on the image, a vertical line on the left; that is the list of ingredients and warning. It is so small, that I had to use my glasses and use the reflection of the daylight to make out the list in black on a sliver label. It was very difficult t read.

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Monday Moaning

This is a general moan, not a specific one. It involves some of the hidden practices in the world’s agricultural sectors from a post I read last night on: Running ‘Cause I Can’t Fly

“Arsenic in Our Chicken?”

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by Nicholas D. Kristof, NY Times

“Let’s hope you’re not reading this column while munching on a chicken sandwich. That’s because my topic today is a pair of new scientific studies suggesting that poultry on factory farms are routinely fed caffeine, active ingredients of Tylenol and Benadryl, banned antibiotics and even arsenic. “We were kind of floored,” said Keeve E. Nachman, a co-author of both studies and a scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future. “It’s unbelievable what we found.” He said that the researchers had intended to test only for antibiotics. But assays for other chemicals and pharmaceuticals didn’t cost extra, so researchers asked for those results as well. “We haven’t found anything that is an immediate health concern,” Nachman added. “But it makes me question how comfortable we are feeding a number of these things to animals that we’re eating. It bewilders me.”Likewise, I grew up on a farm, and thought I knew what to expect in my food. But Benadryl? Arsenic? These studies don’t mean that you should dump the contents of your refrigerator, but they do raise serious questions about the food we eat and how we should shop. It turns out that arsenic has routinely been fed to poultry (and sometimes hogs) because it reduces infections and makes flesh an appetizing shade of pink. There’s no evidence that such low levels of arsenic harm either chickens or the people eating them, but still…

Big Ag doesn’t advertise the chemicals it stuffs into animals, so the scientists conducting these studies figured out a clever way to detect them. Bird feathers, like human fingernails, accumulate chemicals and drugs that an animal is exposed to. So scientists from Johns Hopkins University and Arizona State University examined feather meal – a poultry byproduct made of feathers. One study, just published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, Environmental Science & Technology, found that feather meal[*] routinely contained a banned class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. These antibiotics (such as Cipro), are illegal in poultry production because they can breed antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” that harm humans. Already, antibiotic-resistant infections kill more Americans annually than AIDS, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

The same study also found that one-third of feather-meal samples contained an antihistamine that is the active ingredient of Benadryl. The great majority of feather meal contained acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. And feather-meal samples from China contained an antidepressant that is the active ingredient in Prozac. Poultry-growing literature has recommended Benadryl to reduce anxiety among chickens, apparently because stressed chickens have tougher meat and grow more slowly. Tylenol and Prozac presumably serve the same purpose. Researchers found that most feather-meal samples contained caffeine. It turns out that chickens are sometimes fed coffee pulp and green tea powder to keep them awake so that they can spend more time eating. (Is that why they need the Benadryl, to calm them down?)

The other peer-reviewed study, reported in a journal called “Science of the Total Environment, “found arsenic in every sample of feather meal tested. Almost 9 in 10 broiler chickens in the United States had been fed arsenic, according to a 2011 industry estimate. These findings will surprise some poultry farmers because even they often don’t know what chemicals they feed their birds. Huge food companies require farmers to use a proprietary food mix, and the farmer typically doesn’t know exactly what is in it. I asked the United States Poultry and Egg Association for comment, but it said that it had not seen the studies and had nothing more to say.

What does all this mean for consumers? The study looked only at feathers, not meat, so we don’t know exactly what chemicals reach the plate, or at what levels. The uncertainties are enormous, but I asked Nachman about the food he buys for his own family. “I’ve been studying food-animal production for some time, and the more I study, the more I’m drawn to organic,” he said. “We buy organic.” I’m the same. I used to be skeptical of organic, but the more reporting I do on our food supply, the more I want my own family eating organic – just to be safe.

To me, this underscores the pitfalls of industrial farming. When I was growing up on our hopelessly inefficient family farm, we didn’t routinely drug animals. If our chickens grew anxious, the reason was perhaps a fox – and we never tried to resolve the problem with Benadryl. My take is that the business model of industrial agriculture has some stunning accomplishments, such as producing cheap food that saves us money at the grocery store. But we all may pay more in medical costs because of antibiotic-resistant infections. Frankly, after reading these studies, I’m so depressed about what has happened to farming that I wonder: Could a Prozac-laced chicken nugget help?”

– http://www.sott.net/

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*Feather meal is made from poultry feathers by partially hydrolyzing under elevated heat and pressure and then grinding. Although total nitrogen levels are fairly high, the bioavailability of this nitrogen may be low. Feathermeal is used in formulated animal feed and in organic fertilizer. – Wikipedia

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Opinion:

It’s time we brought back direct-from-the-farm meat products But, of course, that is illegal. The industry have got the government so tied up in knots that the law states that meat products can only be bought from the industry and the industry does what it likes.

It’s the same with milk. Today you cannot buy milk, only a poor white liquid substitute that the industry has already raped for profits. There have been many cases where farmers selling milk at-the-gate have been closed down by heavily armed law enforcement.

The same is about to happen to fruit and veges and the control of seeds. Backyard gardens and Farmer’s Markets would become illegal.

All this is bought about by ‘lobbying’.

It is only the voter that can stop this. If you vote Repugnican or Democrap you are supporting these laws. It’s time you, the people spring cleaned the senatorial closet and swept out the shit that is destroying America.

I know it’s difficult to throw away the old shoes, because they are soooo comfortable, but it’s time they went to make room for shoes that do the job.

Any candidate who is prepared to buck the status quo is worth your vote. As for the presidential candidate, Romney, Gringich or Santorum will all foster the American oligarchy. America needs a president who will return to the Constitution, so that wipes out Obama.

If you really want fresh meat, milk, eggs, fruit and veges…

Use your vote!

Change the World Wednesday – Special V

Chimarrão

Another split day…

But they are numbered.

Relaxing with my chimarrão, sipping erva mate.

Erva mate is a sort of herbal tea. You pack the chimarrão, add water let it infuse and sip. You can sweeten it, but I prefer the bitterness of tea. Drinking erva mate is more prevalent in the south of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.

Our Lenten CTWWs on Reduce Footprints are drawing nigh. So, what have I been up to this week?

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CTWW Daily Challenge –  15th March

A brand new study shows that 4 out of 5 Americans have been affected by weather-related disasters. It’s time for people to learn the new reality that increasingly, weather is related to climate change.

Of this I have no doubt, although my consideration has been more global than just America. I need no convincing.

CTWW Daily Challenge –  16th March

Environmental justice emerged as a concept in the United States in the early 1980s. Read more about it HERE and HERE.

The first link, I guess is the reason for this blog. The second link is somewhat disturbing. Given in this day and age we are still subjected by race and colour. We call ourselves ‘civilised’ but I think we have a long road ahead until that is true.

CTWW Daily Challenge –  17th March

Think about your children, grandchildren or children to be in the context of climate change. Learn more about the effects of climate change on children and what you can do about it.

Indeed a constant worry. Climate change must have an adverse effect on future generations as we subject them to an environment they were not born for; sunburn is now much more prevalent in the hotter summers and respiratory infections in the colder winters. You must also include the problems with food production as weather and geographic changes come into play and ask yourself, “Are we dooming future generations to go hungry?”

CTWW Daily Challenge – 18th March

Climate change causes deserts that take away arable land for agriculture.

This one goes hand in hand with the previous

CTWW Daily Challenge – 19th March

Reuse and recycle waste, and compost food waste to reduce the rubbish destined for landfill sites.

I am pretty much in line with this one and have been for some time. It’s not always possible, but one does the best one can given the circumstances. My biggest enemy, as I suspect most of you too, is plastic wrappings.

CTWW Daily Challenge – 20th March

Reduce water usage in your home by fixing leaky faucets, which can waste up to 50 gallons a day. Turn the tap off and on during shaving, washing hands and brushing teeth.

Pretty much on top of this one too. I also save rainwater and grey water for the garden.

Ellen & Emmylee on the lawn

CTWW Daily Challenge – 21st March

Have a truly “Green” lawn and garden by avoiding use of toxic chemicals. Visit the National Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns website for more information.

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The last lawn I created and grew was entirely chemical free. I didn’t even buy grass seed which is usually covered in chemicals, instead I collected tufts of wild grass along the road sides and replanted them. They spread into a beautiful lawn for the kids to play on.

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The only chemical involved was the sweat from my labours.

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There you have it. My round up for the week.