By Michele Simon
If you use Wesson brand cooking oils, you may be able to join a class action against food giant ConAgra for deceptively marketing the products as natural.
These days it's hard to walk down a supermarket aisle without bumping into a food product that claims to be "all-natural." If you've ever wondered how even some junk food products can claim this moniker (witness: Cheetos Natural Puff White Cheddar Cheese Flavored Snacks - doesn't that sound like it came straight from your garden?) the answer is simple if illogical: the Food and Drug Administration has not defined the term natural.
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Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Nurses Union Calls for Nationwide Action September 1 to Rebuild Main Street
By Donna Smith
Main Street, USA - Nurses call their neighbors and their elected officials to come to Main Street on September 1, even as many of the elected officials continue chiding one another about returning to DC.
Main Street is where the damage has been done and is being felt most deeply; DC is where deals are cut to protect Wall Street with breath-taking regularity. This is not a time when political posturing for some distant election cycle by those largely insulated from the harsh financial realities they helped create ought to take precedence over the real-time, real-life needs of millions.
Lives depend on it; jobs depend on it; communities depend on it. 170,000 Registered Nurse members of National Nurses United throughout America have come together to re-build Main Street. We need you on our side. So, on Thursday, September 1, the nurses of National Nurses United will gather in more than 60 communities from Maine to Texas, and Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,Minnesota, Michigan, Florida, Illinois, California and beyond to call on the nation's elected officials to chose to protect and repair Main Street and stop cow-towing to Wall Street. Find an action on a Main Street near you and join in.
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Main Street, USA - Nurses call their neighbors and their elected officials to come to Main Street on September 1, even as many of the elected officials continue chiding one another about returning to DC.
Main Street is where the damage has been done and is being felt most deeply; DC is where deals are cut to protect Wall Street with breath-taking regularity. This is not a time when political posturing for some distant election cycle by those largely insulated from the harsh financial realities they helped create ought to take precedence over the real-time, real-life needs of millions.
Lives depend on it; jobs depend on it; communities depend on it. 170,000 Registered Nurse members of National Nurses United throughout America have come together to re-build Main Street. We need you on our side. So, on Thursday, September 1, the nurses of National Nurses United will gather in more than 60 communities from Maine to Texas, and Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,Minnesota, Michigan, Florida, Illinois, California and beyond to call on the nation's elected officials to chose to protect and repair Main Street and stop cow-towing to Wall Street. Find an action on a Main Street near you and join in.
View the Original article
Monday, 5 September 2011
US Food Supply in Serious Jeopardy after Obama's Decision
By Merlyn Seeley
According to Jeffrey Smith, The leading consumer advocate promoting healthier, non-GMO choices, "The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US food safety czar. This is no joke." Michael Taylor, the man that was once Monsanto's lawyer then became part of Monsanto and headed up the "GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) movement" has just been basically appointed over your food.
Obama has done it again, he appointed this man to be senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA. That means the same company that produces the world's most deadly substance (Round-up) and the man that is behind getting GMO foods on the market shelves is now in charge of the US's food production. You will be eating this man's creation instead of nature's creation. Think obesity, food allergens, allergies, incurable diseases, sugar diabetes, cancer and unheard of diseases are bad now?
Just wait till this man steps up and makes your entire table of food genetically modified. Already there is un-tested corn, soy beans, rapeseed, honey, cotton, rice sugar cane, tomatoes, canola, potatoes, flax, papaya, squash, tobacco, meat, peas, sugar beets, vegetable oil, and dairy products just to name a few on the shelves that are all genetically modified. That means if you are eating the GMO versions of those listed there, you are not eating real food people.
You are eating chemicals, man-made crap that is destroying the earth and your body slowly. GMO's are responsible for cancer, obesity where the numbers are not in the 70 percent range for the whole US, and other incurable diseases just to name a few cons. There are no pros to mention, only the FDA and Monsanto can name their pros, that is money, money, money. Why did our president that is appointed to protect the US from harm and make good decisions for our country just appoint the devil to be in charge of your food?
View the Original article
According to Jeffrey Smith, The leading consumer advocate promoting healthier, non-GMO choices, "The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US food safety czar. This is no joke." Michael Taylor, the man that was once Monsanto's lawyer then became part of Monsanto and headed up the "GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) movement" has just been basically appointed over your food.
Obama has done it again, he appointed this man to be senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA. That means the same company that produces the world's most deadly substance (Round-up) and the man that is behind getting GMO foods on the market shelves is now in charge of the US's food production. You will be eating this man's creation instead of nature's creation. Think obesity, food allergens, allergies, incurable diseases, sugar diabetes, cancer and unheard of diseases are bad now?
Just wait till this man steps up and makes your entire table of food genetically modified. Already there is un-tested corn, soy beans, rapeseed, honey, cotton, rice sugar cane, tomatoes, canola, potatoes, flax, papaya, squash, tobacco, meat, peas, sugar beets, vegetable oil, and dairy products just to name a few on the shelves that are all genetically modified. That means if you are eating the GMO versions of those listed there, you are not eating real food people.
You are eating chemicals, man-made crap that is destroying the earth and your body slowly. GMO's are responsible for cancer, obesity where the numbers are not in the 70 percent range for the whole US, and other incurable diseases just to name a few cons. There are no pros to mention, only the FDA and Monsanto can name their pros, that is money, money, money. Why did our president that is appointed to protect the US from harm and make good decisions for our country just appoint the devil to be in charge of your food?
View the Original article
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Fukushima Radiation Alarms Doctors
By Dahr Jamail
Scientists and doctors are calling for a new national policy in Japan that mandates the testing of food, soil, water, and the air for radioactivity still being emitted from Fukushima's heavily damaged Daiichi nuclear power plant.
"How much radioactive materials have been released from the plant?" asked Dr Tatsuhiko Kodama, a professor at the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology and Director of the University of Tokyo's Radioisotope Centre, in a July 27 speech to the Committee of Health, Labour and Welfare at Japan's House of Representatives.
"The government and TEPCO have not reported the total amount of the released radioactivity yet," said Kodama, who believes things are far worse than even the recent detection of extremely high radiation levels at the plant.
There is widespread concern in Japan about a general lack of government monitoring for radiation, which has caused people to begin their own independent monitoring, which are also finding disturbingly high levels of radiation.
Kodama's centre, using 27 facilities to measure radiation across the country, has been closely monitoring the situation at Fukushima - and their findings are alarming.
According to Dr Kodama, the total amount of radiation released over a period of more than five months from the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster is the equivalent to more than 29 "Hiroshima-type atomic bombs" and the amount of uranium released "is equivalent to 20" Hiroshima bombs.
Kodama, along with other scientists, is concerned about the ongoing crisis resulting from the Fukushima situation, as well as what he believes to be inadequate government reaction, and believes the government needs to begin a large-scale response in order to begin decontaminating affected areas.
View the Original article
Scientists and doctors are calling for a new national policy in Japan that mandates the testing of food, soil, water, and the air for radioactivity still being emitted from Fukushima's heavily damaged Daiichi nuclear power plant.
"How much radioactive materials have been released from the plant?" asked Dr Tatsuhiko Kodama, a professor at the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology and Director of the University of Tokyo's Radioisotope Centre, in a July 27 speech to the Committee of Health, Labour and Welfare at Japan's House of Representatives.
"The government and TEPCO have not reported the total amount of the released radioactivity yet," said Kodama, who believes things are far worse than even the recent detection of extremely high radiation levels at the plant.
There is widespread concern in Japan about a general lack of government monitoring for radiation, which has caused people to begin their own independent monitoring, which are also finding disturbingly high levels of radiation.
Kodama's centre, using 27 facilities to measure radiation across the country, has been closely monitoring the situation at Fukushima - and their findings are alarming.
According to Dr Kodama, the total amount of radiation released over a period of more than five months from the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster is the equivalent to more than 29 "Hiroshima-type atomic bombs" and the amount of uranium released "is equivalent to 20" Hiroshima bombs.
Kodama, along with other scientists, is concerned about the ongoing crisis resulting from the Fukushima situation, as well as what he believes to be inadequate government reaction, and believes the government needs to begin a large-scale response in order to begin decontaminating affected areas.
View the Original article
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Why Music Needs to Get Political Again
By Billy Bragg
How ironic that The Clash should be on the cover of the NME in the week that London was burning, that their faces should be staring out from the shelves as newsagents were ransacked and robbed by looters intent on anarchy in the UK. Touching too, that the picture should be from very early in their career - Joe with curly blond hair - for The Clash were formed in the wake of a London riot: the disturbances that broke out at the end of the Notting Hill Carnival of 1976.
At the time, the press reported it as the mindless violence of black youth intent on causing trouble; now we look back and recognise that it was the stirrings of what became our multicultural society - the moment when the first generation of black Britons declared that these streets belonged to them too.
The Notting Hill Riots of 35 years ago created a genuine 'What The Fuck?' moment - the first in Britain since the violent clashes between mods and rockers in the early 60s. While west London burned, the rest of society recoiled in terror at the anger they saw manifested on the streets of England. In the aftermath, severe jail sentences were handed down and police patrols stepped up in areas where there was a large immigrant population. Sound familiar?
But something else happened too - in the months that followed, bands appeared that sought to make sense of what went down on that hot August night. Aswad, Steel Pulse and Misty in Roots were among the reggae bands that stepped forward to speak for the black community.
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How ironic that The Clash should be on the cover of the NME in the week that London was burning, that their faces should be staring out from the shelves as newsagents were ransacked and robbed by looters intent on anarchy in the UK. Touching too, that the picture should be from very early in their career - Joe with curly blond hair - for The Clash were formed in the wake of a London riot: the disturbances that broke out at the end of the Notting Hill Carnival of 1976.
At the time, the press reported it as the mindless violence of black youth intent on causing trouble; now we look back and recognise that it was the stirrings of what became our multicultural society - the moment when the first generation of black Britons declared that these streets belonged to them too.
The Notting Hill Riots of 35 years ago created a genuine 'What The Fuck?' moment - the first in Britain since the violent clashes between mods and rockers in the early 60s. While west London burned, the rest of society recoiled in terror at the anger they saw manifested on the streets of England. In the aftermath, severe jail sentences were handed down and police patrols stepped up in areas where there was a large immigrant population. Sound familiar?
But something else happened too - in the months that followed, bands appeared that sought to make sense of what went down on that hot August night. Aswad, Steel Pulse and Misty in Roots were among the reggae bands that stepped forward to speak for the black community.
View the Original article
Friday, 2 September 2011
Forget Potatoes: Idaho Now Grows CAFOs
By Twilight Greenaway
When the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act (Proposition 2) passed in California in 2008, it granted laying hens nominally more space in their cages.
Proponents of humane animal husbandry cheered the fact that these birds would now have a little more room to stretch their wings. But industrial egg producers -- claiming their costs would go up -- threatened to leave the state before 2015, when key portions of the law go into effect.
Hope those disgruntled egg producers like potatoes. Perhaps sensing an opportunity, Idaho lawmakers passed a series of laws more or less inviting the poultry industry to their state. In this High Country News article (subs. req'd), Grist contributor Stephanie Ogburn tracks the state's Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) laws and their repercussions throughout the state, and asks: Is Idaho a new haven for CAFOs?
Idaho's dairy industry (which surpassed potato production in 1997) has already ballooned out of control: In 1991, 2,000 dairies produced 3 billion pounds of milk; now a mere 650 dairies produce 11 billion pounds of milk.
How exactly did they usher in so many changes so fast? According to Ogburn, Idaho lawmakers started out by restricting public comment on CAFOS in 2000. They followed that by altering water rights laws, passing legislation ominously nicknamed the "CAFO Secrecy Bill" (which blocked oversight of CAFO manure-management plans by making them "proprietary"), and amending the state's Right to Farm law to prohibit local governments from regulating agricultural facilities as nuisances. The latter also barred neighbors from filing complaints using the nuisance law.
View the Original article
When the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act (Proposition 2) passed in California in 2008, it granted laying hens nominally more space in their cages.
Proponents of humane animal husbandry cheered the fact that these birds would now have a little more room to stretch their wings. But industrial egg producers -- claiming their costs would go up -- threatened to leave the state before 2015, when key portions of the law go into effect.
Hope those disgruntled egg producers like potatoes. Perhaps sensing an opportunity, Idaho lawmakers passed a series of laws more or less inviting the poultry industry to their state. In this High Country News article (subs. req'd), Grist contributor Stephanie Ogburn tracks the state's Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) laws and their repercussions throughout the state, and asks: Is Idaho a new haven for CAFOs?
Idaho's dairy industry (which surpassed potato production in 1997) has already ballooned out of control: In 1991, 2,000 dairies produced 3 billion pounds of milk; now a mere 650 dairies produce 11 billion pounds of milk.
How exactly did they usher in so many changes so fast? According to Ogburn, Idaho lawmakers started out by restricting public comment on CAFOS in 2000. They followed that by altering water rights laws, passing legislation ominously nicknamed the "CAFO Secrecy Bill" (which blocked oversight of CAFO manure-management plans by making them "proprietary"), and amending the state's Right to Farm law to prohibit local governments from regulating agricultural facilities as nuisances. The latter also barred neighbors from filing complaints using the nuisance law.
View the Original article
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Dramatizing Obama's Climate Dilemma
By Mark Engler
President Obama now has a clear choice on climate change. Major energy corporations are seeking to build a 1700-mile oil pipeline from Canada's tar sands to refineries in Texas. The Keystone XL Pipeline would itself carry social and environmental costs: cutting through fragile ecosystems, creating risk of spills, and negatively affecting indigenous communities. But, most significantly, it would be a boon to efforts to exploit the tar sands.
The Canadian tar sands are a particularly dirty source of fossil fuels that could produce egregious carbon emissions. As Elizabeth Kolbert reported at the New Yorker:
Because tar-sands oil is so heavy, it has to be very heavily processed, which requires tremendous amounts of energy, usually in the form of natural gas. It's been estimated that, on what's known as a well-to-tank basis, tar-sands oil is responsible for eighty percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than ordinary crude.
Prominent climate scientist James Hansen has argued (in a now oft-quoted statement) that "if the tar sands are thrown into the mix, it is essentially game over" for the climate.
Before the end of the year, Obama's State Department must choose whether to approve or deny the pipeline project. To dramatize the president's choice, environmentalists have commenced two weeks of civil disobedience. On August 20 they began daily waves of sit-ins in front of the White House. As of this writing, near the end of week one, 322 people have been arrested.
Billed as the "biggest civil disobedience action in the environmental movement for many years," the two weeks of sit-ins and arrests in summer-recessed Washington, D.C., have thus far had difficulty in creating the tension that, at times, allows acts of civil disobedience to explode into mass public spectacles. The protests have not had a single, climactic date around which many thousands might mobilize. And since the deadline by which Obama must make his call is months away, administration officials have been able to drag their feet.
View the Original article
President Obama now has a clear choice on climate change. Major energy corporations are seeking to build a 1700-mile oil pipeline from Canada's tar sands to refineries in Texas. The Keystone XL Pipeline would itself carry social and environmental costs: cutting through fragile ecosystems, creating risk of spills, and negatively affecting indigenous communities. But, most significantly, it would be a boon to efforts to exploit the tar sands.
The Canadian tar sands are a particularly dirty source of fossil fuels that could produce egregious carbon emissions. As Elizabeth Kolbert reported at the New Yorker:
Because tar-sands oil is so heavy, it has to be very heavily processed, which requires tremendous amounts of energy, usually in the form of natural gas. It's been estimated that, on what's known as a well-to-tank basis, tar-sands oil is responsible for eighty percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than ordinary crude.
Prominent climate scientist James Hansen has argued (in a now oft-quoted statement) that "if the tar sands are thrown into the mix, it is essentially game over" for the climate.
Before the end of the year, Obama's State Department must choose whether to approve or deny the pipeline project. To dramatize the president's choice, environmentalists have commenced two weeks of civil disobedience. On August 20 they began daily waves of sit-ins in front of the White House. As of this writing, near the end of week one, 322 people have been arrested.
Billed as the "biggest civil disobedience action in the environmental movement for many years," the two weeks of sit-ins and arrests in summer-recessed Washington, D.C., have thus far had difficulty in creating the tension that, at times, allows acts of civil disobedience to explode into mass public spectacles. The protests have not had a single, climactic date around which many thousands might mobilize. And since the deadline by which Obama must make his call is months away, administration officials have been able to drag their feet.
View the Original article
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