FOOD
What are Roundup Ready & Bt Pesticide GMO crops?
Elmwood - Canada - After planting large GMO corn field treated with neonicotinoid class of pesticides, millions of bees dropped dead after GMO corn was planted few weeks ago in Ontario, Canada. The local bee keeper, Dave Schuit who produces honey in Elmwood lost about 37 million bees which comprise about 600 hives. “Once the corn started to get planted our bees died by the millions,” Schuit said. While many bee keepers blame neonicotinoids for colony collapse of bees,
the American Department of Agriculture aka the USDA, continues to allow insecticides to be sprayed on our food supply.
While many bee keepers blame neonicotinoids, or "neonics." for colony collapse of bees and many countries in EU have banned neonicotinoid class of pesticides, the US Department of Agriculture fails to ban insecticides known as neonicotinoids, manufactured by Bayer CropScience Inc.
Nathan Carey another local farmer says that this spring he noticed that there were not enough bees on his farm and he believes that there is a strong correlation between the disappearance of bees and insecticide use.
New research shows that neonicotinoid pesticides kill honeybees by damaging their immune system. A new study published
in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that neonicotinoid pesticides kill honeybees by damaging their immune system and making them unable to fight diseases and bacteria.
The research team in Italy suggests that exposure to neonicotinoid pesticides results in increased levels of a protein in bees that prevents an important molecule involved in the immune system respond making bees more susceptible to be attacked by harmful viruses.
The findings of the leading author of the study, Francesco Pennacchio, and his colleagues show that millions of bees are dying because insecticides like neonicotinoid pesticides that are mainly suppressing the immune system of bees.
In fact, the research team discovered that a protein family similar to what is found in other animals is responsible for regulating the immune response in bees. The researchers found that once bees are exposed to lethal doses of the neonicotinoid clothianidin, the leucine-rich repeat protein family (known as LRR) can suppress the activity of a key protein involved in immune signalling, called NF-κB.
When the researchers infected bees (who were exposed to neonicotinoid pesticides) with a common pathogen known as deformed wing virus, there was a significant increase in replication of the virus. The virus is known to be common in bees but it’s kept under control by the bees’ immune system. However, the bees exposed to neonicotinoid pesticides have a little chance of survival since the insecticide suppresses the immune system of the bees.
“The reported effect on immunity exerted by neonicotinoids will allow additional toxicological tests to be defined to assess if chronic exposure of bees to sub-lethal doses of agrochemicals can adversely affect their immune system and health conditions,” says team member Francesco Nazzi of the University of Udine. “Moreover, our data indicates the possible occurrence in insects,
as in vertebrates, of a neural modulation of the immune response. This sets the stage for future studies in this research area, and poses the question on how neurotoxic substances may affect the immune response.”
As much as biotech companies and their financial beneficiaries want to pretend that the problem has absolutely nothing to do with GMOs at all, but rather the pesticides, the fact is that 94% of GMO corn are treated with neonicotinoids and since the introduction of GMOs, the use of pesticides has increased by 500 million pounds:
Millions of bees die because of Neonicotinoid pesticides manufactured by Bayer and Syngenta and 94% of GMO corn in America
is treated with either imidacloprid or clothianidin pesticides. As a matter of fact, the majority of GM corn and soy is treated with neonicotinoid pesticides. Also, despite the false promises of biotech that GM crops will reduce the use of pesticides, the truth is that since introduction of GMOs, the use of pesticides has increased by 500 million pounds. In fact, according to the Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA), 94 percent of U.S. corn seeds are treated with either imidacloprid or clothianidin
and as a result, honey bees are subjected to increasingly toxic load of neonicotinoids in corn fields.
http://seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/gmo-corn-treated-with-neonicotinoids-pesticides-manufactured-by-Bayer-Syngenta-kill-honeybees.php
While EU countries implant a two-year ban on the use of toxic neonicotinoid insecticides – clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam – USDA once again fails to ban these toxic insecticides:
More and more evidence is emerging that neonicotinoid insecticides have an important role in decline of bees’ population.
Besides harming bees, the new studies suggest that neonicotinoid pesticides can also be harmful to human’s health.
Neonicotinoid pesticides remain in every part of the plant including roots, pollen and leaves and if bees, pests or bugs drink water from the plants’ droplets, the neurotoxin kills them right away.
http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/systemic-pesticides-nitroguanidine.php
The genetic engineering has failed to keep its promise of using fewer pesticides and insecticides:
A report by Charles Benbrook (a research professor at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University) shows that since the introduction of GMOs, the use of chemicals have increased by 500 million pounds.
http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/GMOs-increase-pesticides-herbecides-use.php
Didn’t biotech promise that GMOs would be helping the environment while feeding the poor and hungry? Well, GMOs have had the opposite results and have led to many problems in US and the world agriculture (from superweeds and superpests to spread of new diseases in the soil) and environment. While neonicotinoid class of pesticides destroys and damages the immune system of bees, Monsanto’s best herbicide weed killer continues to weaken the immune system in human beings.
However, US regulatory agencies including USDA and FDA fail to simply ban these toxic chemicals that are contaminating our air, water and food supply.
Sources:
http://livefreelivenatural.com/37-million-bees-found-dead-elmwood-ontario-canada-large-planting-gmo-corn-seed-treated-neonicotinoid-pesticides/#prettyPhoto
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/10/neonicotinoids-let-virus-thrive-bees-colony-collapse-disorder
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/10/18/1314923110#aff-1
- See more at: http://seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/neonicotinoids-pesticides-colony-collapse-of-honeybees-suppressing-immune-system.php#sthash.4o3NhUYz.dpuf
the American Department of Agriculture aka the USDA, continues to allow insecticides to be sprayed on our food supply.
While many bee keepers blame neonicotinoids, or "neonics." for colony collapse of bees and many countries in EU have banned neonicotinoid class of pesticides, the US Department of Agriculture fails to ban insecticides known as neonicotinoids, manufactured by Bayer CropScience Inc.
Nathan Carey another local farmer says that this spring he noticed that there were not enough bees on his farm and he believes that there is a strong correlation between the disappearance of bees and insecticide use.
New research shows that neonicotinoid pesticides kill honeybees by damaging their immune system. A new study published
in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that neonicotinoid pesticides kill honeybees by damaging their immune system and making them unable to fight diseases and bacteria.
The research team in Italy suggests that exposure to neonicotinoid pesticides results in increased levels of a protein in bees that prevents an important molecule involved in the immune system respond making bees more susceptible to be attacked by harmful viruses.
The findings of the leading author of the study, Francesco Pennacchio, and his colleagues show that millions of bees are dying because insecticides like neonicotinoid pesticides that are mainly suppressing the immune system of bees.
In fact, the research team discovered that a protein family similar to what is found in other animals is responsible for regulating the immune response in bees. The researchers found that once bees are exposed to lethal doses of the neonicotinoid clothianidin, the leucine-rich repeat protein family (known as LRR) can suppress the activity of a key protein involved in immune signalling, called NF-κB.
When the researchers infected bees (who were exposed to neonicotinoid pesticides) with a common pathogen known as deformed wing virus, there was a significant increase in replication of the virus. The virus is known to be common in bees but it’s kept under control by the bees’ immune system. However, the bees exposed to neonicotinoid pesticides have a little chance of survival since the insecticide suppresses the immune system of the bees.
“The reported effect on immunity exerted by neonicotinoids will allow additional toxicological tests to be defined to assess if chronic exposure of bees to sub-lethal doses of agrochemicals can adversely affect their immune system and health conditions,” says team member Francesco Nazzi of the University of Udine. “Moreover, our data indicates the possible occurrence in insects,
as in vertebrates, of a neural modulation of the immune response. This sets the stage for future studies in this research area, and poses the question on how neurotoxic substances may affect the immune response.”
As much as biotech companies and their financial beneficiaries want to pretend that the problem has absolutely nothing to do with GMOs at all, but rather the pesticides, the fact is that 94% of GMO corn are treated with neonicotinoids and since the introduction of GMOs, the use of pesticides has increased by 500 million pounds:
Millions of bees die because of Neonicotinoid pesticides manufactured by Bayer and Syngenta and 94% of GMO corn in America
is treated with either imidacloprid or clothianidin pesticides. As a matter of fact, the majority of GM corn and soy is treated with neonicotinoid pesticides. Also, despite the false promises of biotech that GM crops will reduce the use of pesticides, the truth is that since introduction of GMOs, the use of pesticides has increased by 500 million pounds. In fact, according to the Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA), 94 percent of U.S. corn seeds are treated with either imidacloprid or clothianidin
and as a result, honey bees are subjected to increasingly toxic load of neonicotinoids in corn fields.
http://seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/gmo-corn-treated-with-neonicotinoids-pesticides-manufactured-by-Bayer-Syngenta-kill-honeybees.php
While EU countries implant a two-year ban on the use of toxic neonicotinoid insecticides – clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam – USDA once again fails to ban these toxic insecticides:
More and more evidence is emerging that neonicotinoid insecticides have an important role in decline of bees’ population.
Besides harming bees, the new studies suggest that neonicotinoid pesticides can also be harmful to human’s health.
Neonicotinoid pesticides remain in every part of the plant including roots, pollen and leaves and if bees, pests or bugs drink water from the plants’ droplets, the neurotoxin kills them right away.
http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/systemic-pesticides-nitroguanidine.php
The genetic engineering has failed to keep its promise of using fewer pesticides and insecticides:
A report by Charles Benbrook (a research professor at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University) shows that since the introduction of GMOs, the use of chemicals have increased by 500 million pounds.
http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/GMOs-increase-pesticides-herbecides-use.php
Didn’t biotech promise that GMOs would be helping the environment while feeding the poor and hungry? Well, GMOs have had the opposite results and have led to many problems in US and the world agriculture (from superweeds and superpests to spread of new diseases in the soil) and environment. While neonicotinoid class of pesticides destroys and damages the immune system of bees, Monsanto’s best herbicide weed killer continues to weaken the immune system in human beings.
However, US regulatory agencies including USDA and FDA fail to simply ban these toxic chemicals that are contaminating our air, water and food supply.
Sources:
http://livefreelivenatural.com/37-million-bees-found-dead-elmwood-ontario-canada-large-planting-gmo-corn-seed-treated-neonicotinoid-pesticides/#prettyPhoto
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/10/neonicotinoids-let-virus-thrive-bees-colony-collapse-disorder
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/10/18/1314923110#aff-1
- See more at: http://seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/neonicotinoids-pesticides-colony-collapse-of-honeybees-suppressing-immune-system.php#sthash.4o3NhUYz.dpuf
China meat scandal hits McDonald's, Starbucks, Burger King
Beijing - China - A suspect meat scandal in China engulfed Starbucks and Burger King on Tuesday and spread to Japan where McDonald's said the Chinese supplier accused of selling expired beef and chicken had provided 20 per cent of the meat for its chicken nuggets.
Chinese authorities expanded their investigation of the meat supplier, Shanghai company Husi Food Co. A day after Husi's food processing plant in Shanghai was sealed by the China Food and Drug Administration, the agency said Tuesday that inspectors
also will look at its facilities and meat sources in five provinces in central, eastern and southern China.
The scandal surrounding Husi Food, which is owned by OSI Group of Aurora, Illinois, has added to a string of safety scares in China over milk, medicines and other goods that have left the public wary of dairies, restaurants and other suppliers.
Food safety violations will be "severely punished," the food agency said on its website.
Starbucks Corp. on Tuesday said it removed from its shelves sandwiches made with chicken that originated at Husi. Burger King Corp. said it stopped using hamburger it received from a supplier that used product from Husi. Pizza restaurant chain Papa John's International Inc. announced it stopped using meat from Husi.
In Japan, McDonald's Corp. said it stopped selling McNuggets at more than 1,300 outlets that used chicken supplied by Husi.
It said the Shanghai company had been supplying chicken to it since 2002.
A Shanghai broadcaster, Dragon TV, reported Sunday that Husi repackaged old beef and chicken and put new expiration dates
on them. It said they were sold to McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants.
McDonald's and Yum Brands Inc., which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, said they immediately stopped using meat from Husi.
A third restaurant chain, Taiwanese-owned Dicos, also said Monday it stopped using meat from Husi.
In a statement, Husi said it was "appalled by the report" and would co-operate with the investigation. It promised to share the results with the public.
"Our company management believes this to be an isolated event, but takes full responsibility for the situation and will take appropriate actions swiftly and comprehensively," Husi said.
Some companies said they didn't deal with Husi but had discovered their suppliers bought meat from that company.
Food and drug safety is an unusually sensitive issue in China following scandals over the past decade in which infants, hospital patients and others have been killed or sickened by phoney or adulterated milk powder, drugs and other goods.
Foreign fast food brands are seen as more reliable than Chinese competitors, though local brands have made big improvements in quality.
"If confirmed, the practices outlined in the report are completely unacceptable to McDonald's," the company's Chinese business said in a statement.
Yum's KFC is China's biggest restaurant chain, with more than 4,000 outlets and plans to open 700 more this year.
The company, based in Louisville, Kentucky, said in a statement that "food safety is the most important priority for us."
"We will not tolerate any violations of government laws and regulations from our suppliers," it said.
KFC sales in China plunged after state television reported in December 2013 some poultry suppliers violated rules on drug use in chickens. KFC overhauled quality controls and eliminated more than 1,000 small poultry producers from its supply network.
In Japan, McDonald's spokesman Kenji Kaniya said the affected stores are in Tokyo area and the cities of Nagano and Shizuoka.
Other chicken used by McDonald's in Japan comes from suppliers in Thailand and China, Kaniya said.
Associated Press researcher Fu Ting in Shanghai and AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Chinese authorities expanded their investigation of the meat supplier, Shanghai company Husi Food Co. A day after Husi's food processing plant in Shanghai was sealed by the China Food and Drug Administration, the agency said Tuesday that inspectors
also will look at its facilities and meat sources in five provinces in central, eastern and southern China.
The scandal surrounding Husi Food, which is owned by OSI Group of Aurora, Illinois, has added to a string of safety scares in China over milk, medicines and other goods that have left the public wary of dairies, restaurants and other suppliers.
Food safety violations will be "severely punished," the food agency said on its website.
Starbucks Corp. on Tuesday said it removed from its shelves sandwiches made with chicken that originated at Husi. Burger King Corp. said it stopped using hamburger it received from a supplier that used product from Husi. Pizza restaurant chain Papa John's International Inc. announced it stopped using meat from Husi.
In Japan, McDonald's Corp. said it stopped selling McNuggets at more than 1,300 outlets that used chicken supplied by Husi.
It said the Shanghai company had been supplying chicken to it since 2002.
A Shanghai broadcaster, Dragon TV, reported Sunday that Husi repackaged old beef and chicken and put new expiration dates
on them. It said they were sold to McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants.
McDonald's and Yum Brands Inc., which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, said they immediately stopped using meat from Husi.
A third restaurant chain, Taiwanese-owned Dicos, also said Monday it stopped using meat from Husi.
In a statement, Husi said it was "appalled by the report" and would co-operate with the investigation. It promised to share the results with the public.
"Our company management believes this to be an isolated event, but takes full responsibility for the situation and will take appropriate actions swiftly and comprehensively," Husi said.
Some companies said they didn't deal with Husi but had discovered their suppliers bought meat from that company.
Food and drug safety is an unusually sensitive issue in China following scandals over the past decade in which infants, hospital patients and others have been killed or sickened by phoney or adulterated milk powder, drugs and other goods.
Foreign fast food brands are seen as more reliable than Chinese competitors, though local brands have made big improvements in quality.
"If confirmed, the practices outlined in the report are completely unacceptable to McDonald's," the company's Chinese business said in a statement.
Yum's KFC is China's biggest restaurant chain, with more than 4,000 outlets and plans to open 700 more this year.
The company, based in Louisville, Kentucky, said in a statement that "food safety is the most important priority for us."
"We will not tolerate any violations of government laws and regulations from our suppliers," it said.
KFC sales in China plunged after state television reported in December 2013 some poultry suppliers violated rules on drug use in chickens. KFC overhauled quality controls and eliminated more than 1,000 small poultry producers from its supply network.
In Japan, McDonald's spokesman Kenji Kaniya said the affected stores are in Tokyo area and the cities of Nagano and Shizuoka.
Other chicken used by McDonald's in Japan comes from suppliers in Thailand and China, Kaniya said.
Associated Press researcher Fu Ting in Shanghai and AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Maple Leaf Foods (TSX:MFI) profits down due to hog virus
Toronto - Canada - Canadian shoppers will face another hike in meat prices this month as Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (TSX:MFI) responds to the widespread impact of a virus in the American hog industry. The Toronto-based meat processor,
which makes bacon, hot dogs and deli meats, said Thursday that rising costs have forced it to act quickly to improve its margins.
"We are reasonably confident that the entire market will react in similar ways, in the first instance, because the cost increases
are an industry-wide issue," president and CEO Michael McCain said in a conference call with analysts, noting that hog costs spiked 60 per cent in the quarter.
Related Stories
It will be the second price increase Maple Leaf has put through in response to the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus, which has killed millions of piglets since it was discovered last year.
The virus does not affect humans or the food they consume, but is estimated to have wiped out about 10 per cent of the American pig population. The virus has also been blamed for recent increases in bacon and pork prices. Farmers have struggled to control the virus, because little is known about how it spreads and there is not yet a federally approved vaccine in the U.S.
McCain, 55, said the widespread effect is unlike anything he has seen before.
He cautioned about the impact on shoppers' habits and the possibility that people could buy bacon and other pork products less frequently over the longer term.
"What we don't know, and becomes highly unpredictable, is what the demand response will be from that new higher pricing," he said, after the company reported its latest financial results.
which makes bacon, hot dogs and deli meats, said Thursday that rising costs have forced it to act quickly to improve its margins.
"We are reasonably confident that the entire market will react in similar ways, in the first instance, because the cost increases
are an industry-wide issue," president and CEO Michael McCain said in a conference call with analysts, noting that hog costs spiked 60 per cent in the quarter.
Related Stories
- Maple Leaf Foods blames 'tremendous costs' for 4Q loss
- Executive suite shakeup at Maple Leaf Foods
- Maple Leaf shutters wiener facility, shifts production within Hamilton
It will be the second price increase Maple Leaf has put through in response to the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus, which has killed millions of piglets since it was discovered last year.
The virus does not affect humans or the food they consume, but is estimated to have wiped out about 10 per cent of the American pig population. The virus has also been blamed for recent increases in bacon and pork prices. Farmers have struggled to control the virus, because little is known about how it spreads and there is not yet a federally approved vaccine in the U.S.
McCain, 55, said the widespread effect is unlike anything he has seen before.
He cautioned about the impact on shoppers' habits and the possibility that people could buy bacon and other pork products less frequently over the longer term.
"What we don't know, and becomes highly unpredictable, is what the demand response will be from that new higher pricing," he said, after the company reported its latest financial results.
The company announced the price increases as it reported a loss of $124.6 million in the first quarter, or 89 cents per share, as it dealt with costs from a massive seven-year revamp of its operations. That compared with a loss of $30.6 million, or 22 cents per share.
Sales rose more than three per cent to $711.3 million from $689.4 million.
On an adjusted basis, the losses were 24 cents per share, deeper than the expected loss of 17 cents from analysts, according to the average compiled by Thomson Reuters.
Costs from moving its operations into new locations have been higher than initially forecast, McCain said, because the company required extra weeks of production at the older facilities during the transition period. The costs to close the old plants were also higher, he added.
Maple Leaf announced last month that it has closed its wiener production plant in Hamilton as part of a broader plan to move the operations to a bigger plant in the same city. It plans to close four other meat plants by the end of the year.
The company has said once its restructuring plan is finished, it will operate 13 meat plants instead of 22, and two distribution centres instead of 19.
"We do not expect a material decrease in transition costs until the third quarter, followed by a further substantial decline in the fourth quarter," he said.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Irene Nattel said Maple Leaf still faces uncertainty that could affect its share price this year, as it works to get its new facilities up and running in time. "In the interim, investors should expect messy financial results and likely ongoing operating losses," she wrote in a note.
In February, Maple Leaf agreed to sell its 90 per cent stake in Canada Bread to Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican company that is offering about $1.83 billion to buy out Maple Leaf and minority shareholders.
Maple Leaf also sold its Rothsay rendering business, which had operations in several provinces, to Texas-based Darling International, and found buyers in Ontario for its commercial turkey farms, hatchery operation and breeding farms.
The company has about 18,000 employees across North America, the United Kingdom, and Asia.
Sales rose more than three per cent to $711.3 million from $689.4 million.
On an adjusted basis, the losses were 24 cents per share, deeper than the expected loss of 17 cents from analysts, according to the average compiled by Thomson Reuters.
Costs from moving its operations into new locations have been higher than initially forecast, McCain said, because the company required extra weeks of production at the older facilities during the transition period. The costs to close the old plants were also higher, he added.
Maple Leaf announced last month that it has closed its wiener production plant in Hamilton as part of a broader plan to move the operations to a bigger plant in the same city. It plans to close four other meat plants by the end of the year.
The company has said once its restructuring plan is finished, it will operate 13 meat plants instead of 22, and two distribution centres instead of 19.
"We do not expect a material decrease in transition costs until the third quarter, followed by a further substantial decline in the fourth quarter," he said.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Irene Nattel said Maple Leaf still faces uncertainty that could affect its share price this year, as it works to get its new facilities up and running in time. "In the interim, investors should expect messy financial results and likely ongoing operating losses," she wrote in a note.
In February, Maple Leaf agreed to sell its 90 per cent stake in Canada Bread to Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican company that is offering about $1.83 billion to buy out Maple Leaf and minority shareholders.
Maple Leaf also sold its Rothsay rendering business, which had operations in several provinces, to Texas-based Darling International, and found buyers in Ontario for its commercial turkey farms, hatchery operation and breeding farms.
The company has about 18,000 employees across North America, the United Kingdom, and Asia.
Food CONglomerates reduce package size without raising the price
When food becomes more costly to produce, more companies re-do the packaging to offer consumers less product for the same price. Your hand is not getting bigger. That same candy bar you've been eating since you were a kid really has shrunk in size. Rather than increase a product's price and hope the consumer remains loyal, some companies have tried size reductions to keep competitive.
Rob Dickerson, senior global packaged food analyst at Consumer Edge Research told CNBC that he's seen a growing trend of these cutbacks in package size. Poor harvests in America, rising supplier costs, growing demand from China and the general fallout from the economic crisis are just some of the reasons Dickerson gives for the squeeze.
"Shrinking" has been escalating for the past 6-8 years and not a real peep from the mass media. Now why exactly would the bought and paid for media not cover a story this big? Answer: Inflation is bad for politics and the party who's been telling you how wonderful everything is and how you're just not seeing things clearly as they blow smoke into your eyes. Fact is, inflation has been skyrocketing recently. Its taken the form of smaller sizes, lower quality, fillers, byproducts, reducing key ingredients down to their bare minimum label requirements, moving production overseas, etc. I'm in a position to know. I've consulted for many major brands these past years and that is how they are "maintaining profits" as their sales numbers plummet. And why exactly is the market still up? Con #2.
Boils down to this: its all one big con being played on the multitude of American zombies who believe anything their "elected" officials say, via the bought and paid for media who tell them what to believe. Americans have lost the ability to call BS, BS and act.
Need another example? Gasoline is up $.80/gallon in just 3 weeks and not a peep from the media. Remember the negative press the previous administration received when gas went up $.25/gallon in a month? It was a conspiracy by those evil republicans to keep energy prices high. Too bad the media couldn't continue their resolve under this administration that's seen dollars added to the price of a gallon of gas.
It's all one big con and you people are the patsies. It ends when you grow some balls and fight back.
Bacon is now sold in 12 oz packages, instead of 16 oz. Same with pre-packaged deli meat, hot dogs and blocks of cheese. Ice cream used to be 1/2 gallon, then it went to 1.75 quarts and now many dairies have gone to 1.5 quart containers. Ounces are disappearing from boxes of oatmeal, frozen vegetables, condiments, marshmallows and yogurt. I used to buy 50# bags of Purina dog food, then they went to 44# bags, then 40#. Less toothpaste comes in a tube now, and you get less shaving cream in a can. Regardless of manipulated data and metrics from the government, the cost of living is going through the roof.
And they say the recession is over. No it's not. Not when you pay more for smaller quantities. Inflation is part of recession. The dollar has recessed to almost nothing in value.
The biggest one they didn't mention is cereal. A 24oz box of cereal, (Captain Crunch for example) went down to 18 ounces but the price didn't move a penny. Another big one is Maxwell house "blue" containers of coffee which lost 11 ounces in 1 year! They billed the smaller container as "easier to handle" because the back of the container is now a handle instead of being part of the container. It's all greed and these companies are relying on people not to notice.
This kind of thing has been going on for much longer than this article acknowledges! Consumer Reports magazine used to have a monthly feature about "incredible shrinking products." I think that was about 20 years ago. It's just gotten more prevalent and much more blatant. Corporate Foods knows that the American government is not going to do anything to slow them down because they own the government too.
Everything has gone this way. Apples use to come in 5 to 10 lb bags. No they weigh 3 lbs to 8 lbs. All types of meats went from 16 oz to 9 to 12 oz with a 12oz package becoming the new lb. It seems like every time something is labeled "New and Improved" it just means now its smaller and tastes like crap. Even toilet paper and facial tissues are much narrower than they use to be.
Not just those products, how about eggs: New Small=Bantam size, New Medium=Small, Large=Medium, Jumbo=Extra Large. Just put smaller stuff in the same packaging and sell with the old labels. When shopping today, all the packaging and labels are uniform with one size down and the prices were higher. A short conversation with the Cold Case/Dairy Manager told me suppliers are blaming prices and downsizing on the floods, feed, drought, blizzards, fuel, and greed.
Lie, cheat and steal is the American Way today. The same container half full is theft and misrepresentation of amount of the product. Who knows what by-products have been added to the half full container. Throw God out the window and live in the world of fraud seems to be the case for great dividends for the stock gods who care only about profits at the expense of others. Seniors who worked all their life are being cheated while welfare bums become fat and too lazy to do anything.
It's not just the size that is changing. The toothpaste we were using had so much water added that the toothpaste would only stay on the brush for a few seconds before dripping off. When we changed brands, I called the 800 number on the package. The rep denied that the toothpaste was watered down.
Any time the package gets a major change, you can be sure of one thing. You are getting less product. Zest soap made a major change in the soap bar design, which reduced the volume of product by about 40%. And they added so much more inert filler that when I dropped the soap in the bathtub, instead of mooshing over, the bar broke. Meaning that there wasn't enough soap in the bar to hold it together.
Shall I name a few companies who are stealing from you?
Kelloggs
Nestle
Unilver
Proctor and Gamble
The list goes on and on.
By Matt Clinch, CNBC
Rob Dickerson, senior global packaged food analyst at Consumer Edge Research told CNBC that he's seen a growing trend of these cutbacks in package size. Poor harvests in America, rising supplier costs, growing demand from China and the general fallout from the economic crisis are just some of the reasons Dickerson gives for the squeeze.
"Shrinking" has been escalating for the past 6-8 years and not a real peep from the mass media. Now why exactly would the bought and paid for media not cover a story this big? Answer: Inflation is bad for politics and the party who's been telling you how wonderful everything is and how you're just not seeing things clearly as they blow smoke into your eyes. Fact is, inflation has been skyrocketing recently. Its taken the form of smaller sizes, lower quality, fillers, byproducts, reducing key ingredients down to their bare minimum label requirements, moving production overseas, etc. I'm in a position to know. I've consulted for many major brands these past years and that is how they are "maintaining profits" as their sales numbers plummet. And why exactly is the market still up? Con #2.
Boils down to this: its all one big con being played on the multitude of American zombies who believe anything their "elected" officials say, via the bought and paid for media who tell them what to believe. Americans have lost the ability to call BS, BS and act.
Need another example? Gasoline is up $.80/gallon in just 3 weeks and not a peep from the media. Remember the negative press the previous administration received when gas went up $.25/gallon in a month? It was a conspiracy by those evil republicans to keep energy prices high. Too bad the media couldn't continue their resolve under this administration that's seen dollars added to the price of a gallon of gas.
It's all one big con and you people are the patsies. It ends when you grow some balls and fight back.
Bacon is now sold in 12 oz packages, instead of 16 oz. Same with pre-packaged deli meat, hot dogs and blocks of cheese. Ice cream used to be 1/2 gallon, then it went to 1.75 quarts and now many dairies have gone to 1.5 quart containers. Ounces are disappearing from boxes of oatmeal, frozen vegetables, condiments, marshmallows and yogurt. I used to buy 50# bags of Purina dog food, then they went to 44# bags, then 40#. Less toothpaste comes in a tube now, and you get less shaving cream in a can. Regardless of manipulated data and metrics from the government, the cost of living is going through the roof.
And they say the recession is over. No it's not. Not when you pay more for smaller quantities. Inflation is part of recession. The dollar has recessed to almost nothing in value.
The biggest one they didn't mention is cereal. A 24oz box of cereal, (Captain Crunch for example) went down to 18 ounces but the price didn't move a penny. Another big one is Maxwell house "blue" containers of coffee which lost 11 ounces in 1 year! They billed the smaller container as "easier to handle" because the back of the container is now a handle instead of being part of the container. It's all greed and these companies are relying on people not to notice.
This kind of thing has been going on for much longer than this article acknowledges! Consumer Reports magazine used to have a monthly feature about "incredible shrinking products." I think that was about 20 years ago. It's just gotten more prevalent and much more blatant. Corporate Foods knows that the American government is not going to do anything to slow them down because they own the government too.
Everything has gone this way. Apples use to come in 5 to 10 lb bags. No they weigh 3 lbs to 8 lbs. All types of meats went from 16 oz to 9 to 12 oz with a 12oz package becoming the new lb. It seems like every time something is labeled "New and Improved" it just means now its smaller and tastes like crap. Even toilet paper and facial tissues are much narrower than they use to be.
Not just those products, how about eggs: New Small=Bantam size, New Medium=Small, Large=Medium, Jumbo=Extra Large. Just put smaller stuff in the same packaging and sell with the old labels. When shopping today, all the packaging and labels are uniform with one size down and the prices were higher. A short conversation with the Cold Case/Dairy Manager told me suppliers are blaming prices and downsizing on the floods, feed, drought, blizzards, fuel, and greed.
Lie, cheat and steal is the American Way today. The same container half full is theft and misrepresentation of amount of the product. Who knows what by-products have been added to the half full container. Throw God out the window and live in the world of fraud seems to be the case for great dividends for the stock gods who care only about profits at the expense of others. Seniors who worked all their life are being cheated while welfare bums become fat and too lazy to do anything.
It's not just the size that is changing. The toothpaste we were using had so much water added that the toothpaste would only stay on the brush for a few seconds before dripping off. When we changed brands, I called the 800 number on the package. The rep denied that the toothpaste was watered down.
Any time the package gets a major change, you can be sure of one thing. You are getting less product. Zest soap made a major change in the soap bar design, which reduced the volume of product by about 40%. And they added so much more inert filler that when I dropped the soap in the bathtub, instead of mooshing over, the bar broke. Meaning that there wasn't enough soap in the bar to hold it together.
Shall I name a few companies who are stealing from you?
Kelloggs
Nestle
Unilver
Proctor and Gamble
The list goes on and on.
By Matt Clinch, CNBC
Genetically Modified Organisms: Killing The Natural World
Golden - Colorado - “The introduction of genetically modified foods (GMO) tampers with the essence of life in an experiment with an unknown outcome and no real way to undue the damage. The FDA purposely does not require labeling of GMO food, since no one who understands the issue would ever purchase it. This makes it all the more difficult to locate healthful food.” Byron J. Richards, The Leptin Diet: How Fit Is Your Fat?
This series exposes the outright fraud against peoples’ lives and the contempt for American citizens and citizens of the world who eat our grains, with the injection of Genetically Modified Organism foods by the highest representatives in our U.S. Congress.
Call it a “financial cartel” that allows GMOs to be fed to our citizenry. But worse, for the love of money, those power elites accelerate the destruction of our Natural World.
We humans grow too clever and too arrogant to understand the long-term penalties we heap on Mother Nature until she finds no other answers but to claw back at us with cancers, disease and more aberrant environmental disasters to come.
Every crop in America, Canada, Australia and much of the third world where GMO advocates like ADM and Monsanto can force their “Frankensteinization” on farmers—they push it.
Even with all the evidence piling up, those same elites hammer any opposition into the ground. They “bribe” the FDA officials to not label any GMO foods so you don’t know what you’re eating.
We destroy our own bodies by our actions, but we also obliterate the Natural World and its inhabitants.
Today around the world, trillions of bees suffer “colony collapse” via GMO crops. Nature cannot figure out how to deal with plants that suffer genetic modification or DNA change-ups.
GMO foods represent a pitcher throwing an orange to the catcher in a Major League Baseball game. Within several pitches, the orange wouldn’t hold its form from the violent treatment. If the batter connected with the orange, it would splatter all over the field. Result: the game couldn’t continue. The players could not play and the spectators would go home.
But in GMO production, the consequences cannot be seen as quickly, however those “errors” against Mother Nature will surface well into the future.
Ethan Huff, science writer for Natural News said, “A pair of studies recently published in the journal Science raises dire warnings about the continued decline of crop-pollinating insects all over the world, and what this means for the future of the world’s food supply. Both studies highlight the fact that wild pollinators like bumblebees, butterflies, and beetles are basically disappearing, and that industrial agriculture, which includes genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), are a major factor causing this insect genocide.
“At least half a dozen other studies published in the last couple of years have arrived at similarly disturbing findings. They do, however, shed further light on how the situation has progressed throughout the decades, pointing to corporate monoculture practices, shrinking forests and wild lands, and general changes in physical landscapes as some of the primary culprits in promoting this ruinous trend.”
We not only change the DNA of our fellow planetary travelers, but we destroy their habitat. We seem to think no consequences will befall us.
As Chief Seattle says, “The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
Last week, I interviewed with Ross Kaminsky at www.KOA.com in Denver, Colorado. Mind you, this young man, about 30, sounded brilliant and highly articulate. I liked him. I spoke about America adding 100 million immigrants and a total of 138 million people by 2050—a scant 36 years from now. I brought facts and compelling information to the show. I attempted to show him and the public the ramifications of adding 138 million people—and that, we could not sustain such numbers and our environment.
He sat across from me saying, “We don’t have a population problem. We have plenty of water and oil. The oceans can absorb all our carbon footprint.”
I said, “You’re speaking with assumptions as if they were facts. You make statements based on belief where I make them based on facts from my research.”
He dumbfounded me with his arrogance that we can keep adding endless people with no consequences. He wanted everyone to live a free life. I countered with the fact that as our population numbers rise, our freedoms decline along with balance in our Natural World. That fact cannot be disputed.
I explained how our oceans suffer acidification and that reefs die with carbon footprint and how marine life cannot endure the onslaught.
He wouldn’t hear of it. Mind you, this young man, traveled on six continents like I have traveled. He lives in denial and defends it. Along with him, the majority of the American public feels the same.
We see the same denial with our leaders who advocate for GMOs in plants and fish—in the face of facts.
“In one of the studies, researchers from Montana State University (MSU) compared insect data collected in the late 1800s to similar data collected in the same test location in the 1970s,” said Huff. “They then compiled current data from the same area to compare to both of these other two data sets, upon which they discovered that the number of unique wild bee species had dropped by nearly half.
“What is perhaps more disturbing, however, is the fact that researchers observed modern bees to be generally interacting less with plants than they did in previous generations. According to the data, the overall number of interactions between bees and plants has also dropped by roughly half, indicating a serious problem as far as the general food supply is concerned, since 75 percent of global food crops rely on pollination by animals.”
Managed honeybees do not pollinate crops as well as wild honeybees.
The second study troubles me further: Having found that pollinating insects in general, which include a wide range of insects and other animals, continue vanishing from their normal habitats and foraging areas.“Based on field trials conducted in 20 different countries, wild insects are clearly on the decline everywhere, and managed honeybee colonies established to replace them in many areas are failing to pick up where the wild honeybees left off,” said Huff.
“In landscapes with lower diversity and lower abundance of wild insects, the crops had fewer fruits,” explains Lucas Garibaldi, author of the second study. “Wild insects pollinated way more efficiently: Flowers produced twice as many fruits after being visited by wild insects and the flowers were more consistent in their production than when visited by honeybees.”
“Some “leaders” blame climate destabilization and other outside factors for this mysterious decline in crop pollinators,” said Huff. “But the major elephant in the room, and the one that the mainstream media is desperately trying to avoid, is GMOs and the chemical-based technologies used to grow them. As we have covered time and time again, neonicotinoids and other pesticide and herbicide products are responsible for weakening and killing off bees and other crop pollinators, particularly in North America where GMOs are most widely cultivated.”
“The proof is obvious that one of the major reasons of the bees’ decline is by the ingestion of GMO proteins,” explains a report by Brit Amos from Global Research about the decline of bee colonies. “The truth is that organic farming is relatively untouched as the bee crisis is concerned. Organic farming maintains the diversity of the eco-system and preserves the quality of the foods produced.”
The more I research into what we and our children face with our “disfiguring” the Natural World with our poisons and GMO assault, the more sickened I am in my mind and heart. Since I lack any power or influence, someone like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet needs to fund campaigns to stop GMO production. After all, it’s their kids, too, who must live in this world.
All of this GMO nightmare stems from too many people needing food for survival with too many elites willing to sacrifice the Natural World in order to make endless billions of dollars to live in big homes, drive expensive cars and fly Lear Jets.
You can learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com
Go to www.responsibletechnology.org to get involved and learn how to avoid GMOs. Look for the Non-GMO Shopping Guide.
Start buying non-GMO today and help stop the genetic engineering of our food supply.
You may become involved:
By mail: Institute For Responsible Technology, P.O. Box 469, Fairfield, IA 52556
Online: www.responsibletechnology.org by phone: (641) 209-1765
Read the book—Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risk of Genetically Engineered Foods by Jeffrey M. Smith.
The above story by Frosty Wooldridge who lives in Golden - Colorado
This series exposes the outright fraud against peoples’ lives and the contempt for American citizens and citizens of the world who eat our grains, with the injection of Genetically Modified Organism foods by the highest representatives in our U.S. Congress.
Call it a “financial cartel” that allows GMOs to be fed to our citizenry. But worse, for the love of money, those power elites accelerate the destruction of our Natural World.
We humans grow too clever and too arrogant to understand the long-term penalties we heap on Mother Nature until she finds no other answers but to claw back at us with cancers, disease and more aberrant environmental disasters to come.
Every crop in America, Canada, Australia and much of the third world where GMO advocates like ADM and Monsanto can force their “Frankensteinization” on farmers—they push it.
Even with all the evidence piling up, those same elites hammer any opposition into the ground. They “bribe” the FDA officials to not label any GMO foods so you don’t know what you’re eating.
We destroy our own bodies by our actions, but we also obliterate the Natural World and its inhabitants.
Today around the world, trillions of bees suffer “colony collapse” via GMO crops. Nature cannot figure out how to deal with plants that suffer genetic modification or DNA change-ups.
GMO foods represent a pitcher throwing an orange to the catcher in a Major League Baseball game. Within several pitches, the orange wouldn’t hold its form from the violent treatment. If the batter connected with the orange, it would splatter all over the field. Result: the game couldn’t continue. The players could not play and the spectators would go home.
But in GMO production, the consequences cannot be seen as quickly, however those “errors” against Mother Nature will surface well into the future.
Ethan Huff, science writer for Natural News said, “A pair of studies recently published in the journal Science raises dire warnings about the continued decline of crop-pollinating insects all over the world, and what this means for the future of the world’s food supply. Both studies highlight the fact that wild pollinators like bumblebees, butterflies, and beetles are basically disappearing, and that industrial agriculture, which includes genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), are a major factor causing this insect genocide.
“At least half a dozen other studies published in the last couple of years have arrived at similarly disturbing findings. They do, however, shed further light on how the situation has progressed throughout the decades, pointing to corporate monoculture practices, shrinking forests and wild lands, and general changes in physical landscapes as some of the primary culprits in promoting this ruinous trend.”
We not only change the DNA of our fellow planetary travelers, but we destroy their habitat. We seem to think no consequences will befall us.
As Chief Seattle says, “The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
Last week, I interviewed with Ross Kaminsky at www.KOA.com in Denver, Colorado. Mind you, this young man, about 30, sounded brilliant and highly articulate. I liked him. I spoke about America adding 100 million immigrants and a total of 138 million people by 2050—a scant 36 years from now. I brought facts and compelling information to the show. I attempted to show him and the public the ramifications of adding 138 million people—and that, we could not sustain such numbers and our environment.
He sat across from me saying, “We don’t have a population problem. We have plenty of water and oil. The oceans can absorb all our carbon footprint.”
I said, “You’re speaking with assumptions as if they were facts. You make statements based on belief where I make them based on facts from my research.”
He dumbfounded me with his arrogance that we can keep adding endless people with no consequences. He wanted everyone to live a free life. I countered with the fact that as our population numbers rise, our freedoms decline along with balance in our Natural World. That fact cannot be disputed.
I explained how our oceans suffer acidification and that reefs die with carbon footprint and how marine life cannot endure the onslaught.
He wouldn’t hear of it. Mind you, this young man, traveled on six continents like I have traveled. He lives in denial and defends it. Along with him, the majority of the American public feels the same.
We see the same denial with our leaders who advocate for GMOs in plants and fish—in the face of facts.
“In one of the studies, researchers from Montana State University (MSU) compared insect data collected in the late 1800s to similar data collected in the same test location in the 1970s,” said Huff. “They then compiled current data from the same area to compare to both of these other two data sets, upon which they discovered that the number of unique wild bee species had dropped by nearly half.
“What is perhaps more disturbing, however, is the fact that researchers observed modern bees to be generally interacting less with plants than they did in previous generations. According to the data, the overall number of interactions between bees and plants has also dropped by roughly half, indicating a serious problem as far as the general food supply is concerned, since 75 percent of global food crops rely on pollination by animals.”
Managed honeybees do not pollinate crops as well as wild honeybees.
The second study troubles me further: Having found that pollinating insects in general, which include a wide range of insects and other animals, continue vanishing from their normal habitats and foraging areas.“Based on field trials conducted in 20 different countries, wild insects are clearly on the decline everywhere, and managed honeybee colonies established to replace them in many areas are failing to pick up where the wild honeybees left off,” said Huff.
“In landscapes with lower diversity and lower abundance of wild insects, the crops had fewer fruits,” explains Lucas Garibaldi, author of the second study. “Wild insects pollinated way more efficiently: Flowers produced twice as many fruits after being visited by wild insects and the flowers were more consistent in their production than when visited by honeybees.”
“Some “leaders” blame climate destabilization and other outside factors for this mysterious decline in crop pollinators,” said Huff. “But the major elephant in the room, and the one that the mainstream media is desperately trying to avoid, is GMOs and the chemical-based technologies used to grow them. As we have covered time and time again, neonicotinoids and other pesticide and herbicide products are responsible for weakening and killing off bees and other crop pollinators, particularly in North America where GMOs are most widely cultivated.”
“The proof is obvious that one of the major reasons of the bees’ decline is by the ingestion of GMO proteins,” explains a report by Brit Amos from Global Research about the decline of bee colonies. “The truth is that organic farming is relatively untouched as the bee crisis is concerned. Organic farming maintains the diversity of the eco-system and preserves the quality of the foods produced.”
The more I research into what we and our children face with our “disfiguring” the Natural World with our poisons and GMO assault, the more sickened I am in my mind and heart. Since I lack any power or influence, someone like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet needs to fund campaigns to stop GMO production. After all, it’s their kids, too, who must live in this world.
All of this GMO nightmare stems from too many people needing food for survival with too many elites willing to sacrifice the Natural World in order to make endless billions of dollars to live in big homes, drive expensive cars and fly Lear Jets.
You can learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com
Go to www.responsibletechnology.org to get involved and learn how to avoid GMOs. Look for the Non-GMO Shopping Guide.
Start buying non-GMO today and help stop the genetic engineering of our food supply.
You may become involved:
By mail: Institute For Responsible Technology, P.O. Box 469, Fairfield, IA 52556
Online: www.responsibletechnology.org by phone: (641) 209-1765
Read the book—Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risk of Genetically Engineered Foods by Jeffrey M. Smith.
The above story by Frosty Wooldridge who lives in Golden - Colorado
Support for the labeling of genetically modified food is growing
April 21 - 2022 - This week U.S. and European negotiators will begin secret talks in a secret location that could bargain away a key element in American resistance to GMO foods. The proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), also referred to as a Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA), will focus on "normalizing" regulatory practices that business interests deem limit trade, including the European approach to genetically modified foods. Americans who favor allowing consumers to decide for themselves whether to purchase foods containing GMOs should pay close attention as discussions get under way.
A strong majority of Americans favor labeling of genetically modified (GM) foods, and support for labeling is growing. In recent weeks the Connecticut and Maine legislatures, and the lower house in Vermont, voted for GMO labeling, and a dozen or more state legislatures are considering similar actions. At the national level 30 Senators and House members this year co-sponsored Sen. Barbara Boxer’s bill to require GMO labeling. When she first introduced the legislation 13 years ago, she was a lone voice on the issue.
An increasing number of Americans want to have a say in whether they approve of the transformation of the food supply. Labeling foods containing GMOs has become an issue for American consumers because over 90 percent of the soybeans and rapeseed (the basis for Canola oil), and much of the corn, is now genetically modified. Foods containing these ingredients, including the ubiquitous high fructose corn syrup, are likely to contain GMOs.
It’s true that some American farmers freely purchased GMO seeds and agreed to the patent requirements of Monsanto and the other agrochemical companies. However, unlike the switch to automatic transmissions in cars, cell phones, and Wi-Fi, American consumers never had a chance to weigh in on whether they wanted to consume genetically modified foods. Labeling would provide such a choice.
Some, but not all, supporters of labeling are convinced that GMO foods are unhealthy, despite government assurances to the contrary. But supporters of labeling generally agree that the nation should move much more slowly in authorizing GMO crops because the long-run health effects of consuming GMO foods has not been adequately assessed.
In addition, supporters of labeling are concerned that the unregulated adoption of GMO seeds is forcing the rapid evolution of weeds and insects. The creation of "super-pests" has potentially severe environmental consequences, among other things requiring ever more potent chemicals to control them. Since the GMO era began over 20 years ago, agricultural chemical use in the United States has increased, despite claims by the other agro-chemical companies that farmers’ adoption of GMO seeds would reduce dependence on chemicals.
In any event, there are strong reasons to believe that GMO crops are inconsistent with building long-term sustainable agriculture. Labeling would allow consumers to register their views on the environmental consequences of GMO foods in the marketplace.
Beyond these concerns, widespread support for labeling GMO foods is based on simple assumptions about transparency.
We don’t need to come to a final conclusion on the health or environmental effects of GMOs to agree that if a large proportion
of the population strongly believes it is important to know whether their food contains GMOs they should be able to do so through reasonable requirements of food producers.
The Europeans offer a very different perspective from the one adopted by American authorities. The Europeans take what has been called the "precautionary" approach, an approach that strongly resembles American views on licensing new drugs and medical treatments. As a thoughtful summary of these issues put it in a recent Washington Post piece: "...U.S. regulators tend to rely on short-term scientific studies about safety to give new technologies a green light. European regulators tend to be far more cautious, focusing more on what they might not know than on what they do know." Most E.U. countries ban GMO crops, and all require labeling.
For Americans who believe that people should be able to know whether their food has been genetically modified, the European experience is a critical reference point. The cautionary European policies toward GMO foods represent clear and tested alternative approaches to bio-engineering the food supply. It is difficult for opponents of GMO food labeling to marginalize their opponents when virtually every advanced industrial country except the United States (64 according by a recent count) requires labeling and subscribes to restrictive GMO policies.
Will U.S. trade negotiators seek the elimination of GMO restrictions in Europe? On the announcement of the new trade talks Max Baucus, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Orrin Hatch, the ranking minority member of the Committee, wrote a preemptive letter to the U.S. Trade Representative in which they insisted that a precondition for American involvement in the talks should be gaining acceptance of the less restrictive American food policies toward sales and processing of GMO foods. American farm lobby groups have expressed their displeasure with a European resolution that would protect the E.U. ban on genetically modified crops grown in the United States. On both sides of the Atlantic, international food manufacturers such as Nestle and Kraft, and giant grain traders such as ADM and Cargill, are supporting the negotiations as a way to loosen European restrictions.
Generating considerable apprehension among consumer groups is the super-secrecy of the negotiations and the utter lack of transparency that typifies international trade negotiations. Consider recent revelations on the secrecy surrounding the 10-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, currently under review. Members of Congress and others with interests in the details of these negotiations have been unable to obtain access to the text.
Moreover, if a draft treaty is finalized, Congress will only be able to vote the new treaty up or down. Whatever their possible merits, trade agreements are typically negotiated in secret and kept secret in order to minimize the chances that those likely to be harmed by treaty provisions will be able to mount effective opposition. Secrecy and restrictions on debate favor the big corporations whose influence is based on lobbying, campaign contributions, and insider conversations. They minimize the strengths of organized mass publics which depend for influence on their voice and their ability to mobilize voters.
In international trade negotiations, most often Americans worry that domestic regulatory protections or special tariffs will be bargained away in the interests of increasing trade overall. In the case of GMO foods, many Americans have exactly the opposite interest—maintaining the regulatory protections of foreign trade partners so that the precautionary approach to GMO foods practiced by Europeans remains intact.
Story by Michael Lipsky
keywords : GMOs • TTIP source : Huffington Post
See more at: http://www.bilaterals.org
A strong majority of Americans favor labeling of genetically modified (GM) foods, and support for labeling is growing. In recent weeks the Connecticut and Maine legislatures, and the lower house in Vermont, voted for GMO labeling, and a dozen or more state legislatures are considering similar actions. At the national level 30 Senators and House members this year co-sponsored Sen. Barbara Boxer’s bill to require GMO labeling. When she first introduced the legislation 13 years ago, she was a lone voice on the issue.
An increasing number of Americans want to have a say in whether they approve of the transformation of the food supply. Labeling foods containing GMOs has become an issue for American consumers because over 90 percent of the soybeans and rapeseed (the basis for Canola oil), and much of the corn, is now genetically modified. Foods containing these ingredients, including the ubiquitous high fructose corn syrup, are likely to contain GMOs.
It’s true that some American farmers freely purchased GMO seeds and agreed to the patent requirements of Monsanto and the other agrochemical companies. However, unlike the switch to automatic transmissions in cars, cell phones, and Wi-Fi, American consumers never had a chance to weigh in on whether they wanted to consume genetically modified foods. Labeling would provide such a choice.
Some, but not all, supporters of labeling are convinced that GMO foods are unhealthy, despite government assurances to the contrary. But supporters of labeling generally agree that the nation should move much more slowly in authorizing GMO crops because the long-run health effects of consuming GMO foods has not been adequately assessed.
In addition, supporters of labeling are concerned that the unregulated adoption of GMO seeds is forcing the rapid evolution of weeds and insects. The creation of "super-pests" has potentially severe environmental consequences, among other things requiring ever more potent chemicals to control them. Since the GMO era began over 20 years ago, agricultural chemical use in the United States has increased, despite claims by the other agro-chemical companies that farmers’ adoption of GMO seeds would reduce dependence on chemicals.
In any event, there are strong reasons to believe that GMO crops are inconsistent with building long-term sustainable agriculture. Labeling would allow consumers to register their views on the environmental consequences of GMO foods in the marketplace.
Beyond these concerns, widespread support for labeling GMO foods is based on simple assumptions about transparency.
We don’t need to come to a final conclusion on the health or environmental effects of GMOs to agree that if a large proportion
of the population strongly believes it is important to know whether their food contains GMOs they should be able to do so through reasonable requirements of food producers.
The Europeans offer a very different perspective from the one adopted by American authorities. The Europeans take what has been called the "precautionary" approach, an approach that strongly resembles American views on licensing new drugs and medical treatments. As a thoughtful summary of these issues put it in a recent Washington Post piece: "...U.S. regulators tend to rely on short-term scientific studies about safety to give new technologies a green light. European regulators tend to be far more cautious, focusing more on what they might not know than on what they do know." Most E.U. countries ban GMO crops, and all require labeling.
For Americans who believe that people should be able to know whether their food has been genetically modified, the European experience is a critical reference point. The cautionary European policies toward GMO foods represent clear and tested alternative approaches to bio-engineering the food supply. It is difficult for opponents of GMO food labeling to marginalize their opponents when virtually every advanced industrial country except the United States (64 according by a recent count) requires labeling and subscribes to restrictive GMO policies.
Will U.S. trade negotiators seek the elimination of GMO restrictions in Europe? On the announcement of the new trade talks Max Baucus, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Orrin Hatch, the ranking minority member of the Committee, wrote a preemptive letter to the U.S. Trade Representative in which they insisted that a precondition for American involvement in the talks should be gaining acceptance of the less restrictive American food policies toward sales and processing of GMO foods. American farm lobby groups have expressed their displeasure with a European resolution that would protect the E.U. ban on genetically modified crops grown in the United States. On both sides of the Atlantic, international food manufacturers such as Nestle and Kraft, and giant grain traders such as ADM and Cargill, are supporting the negotiations as a way to loosen European restrictions.
Generating considerable apprehension among consumer groups is the super-secrecy of the negotiations and the utter lack of transparency that typifies international trade negotiations. Consider recent revelations on the secrecy surrounding the 10-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, currently under review. Members of Congress and others with interests in the details of these negotiations have been unable to obtain access to the text.
Moreover, if a draft treaty is finalized, Congress will only be able to vote the new treaty up or down. Whatever their possible merits, trade agreements are typically negotiated in secret and kept secret in order to minimize the chances that those likely to be harmed by treaty provisions will be able to mount effective opposition. Secrecy and restrictions on debate favor the big corporations whose influence is based on lobbying, campaign contributions, and insider conversations. They minimize the strengths of organized mass publics which depend for influence on their voice and their ability to mobilize voters.
In international trade negotiations, most often Americans worry that domestic regulatory protections or special tariffs will be bargained away in the interests of increasing trade overall. In the case of GMO foods, many Americans have exactly the opposite interest—maintaining the regulatory protections of foreign trade partners so that the precautionary approach to GMO foods practiced by Europeans remains intact.
Story by Michael Lipsky
keywords : GMOs • TTIP source : Huffington Post
See more at: http://www.bilaterals.org
Horses used in labs end up on French dinner tables
Narbonne - France - December 16 - 2022 - Three horses' heads are displayed above a horse meat butcher shop in Paris. French law enforcement officials say Monday, Dec. 16, 2013 that 21 people have been arrested in raids across the south of France targeting the trafficking of horse meat was used in laboratory procedures and wasn't fit for human consumption. Officers from France’s National Gendarmerie, accompanied by food safety and veterinary investigators, carried out raids in 11 regions in southern France before dawn, arresting 21 people, according to a statement.
Meat from horses used in laboratory procedures was illegally sold as fit for human consumption and landed on French dinner tables, authorities said Monday. Police, food safety and veterinary investigators carried out pre-dawn raids in 11 regions around southern France, arresting 21 people. The complex case raised new concerns about how this country, with its rich culinary reputation, polices its food supply.
Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin said the animals had been used in laboratories — including that of drugmaker Sanofi-Pasteur — and then, instead of being destroyed, ended up in the food chain. He said Sanofi-Pasteur correctly labeled its meat, and "considers itself a victim" in the case.
The prosecutor said he has no proof so far that the horsemeat was toxic, just that it wasn't supposed to be sold as meat at all. He described a network of veterinarians, computer experts and others who allegedly worked together to falsify documents. He said investigators have identified at least 100 horses that had been certified as "unfit for consumption" after the lab work, but whose papers were doctored to read "fit for consumption" instead.
The horses were exported to Spain among other countries, the prosecutor said, without naming the others. Sanofi told Le Parisien newspaper on Monday that the horses were used to create antibodies against rabies and tetanus among others. The company, which said it cooperated in the investigation, said it has resold about 200 horses in the past three years to vet schools, individuals and professionals.
The company said the lab uses horses for about three years before re-selling them, tagged and certified. It said it does not carry out testing on the animals, only makes lifesaving medicines. Benoit Hamon, France's consumer affairs minister, told RTL radio, "These were horses that should have ended up at the slaughterhouse, and instead they ended up at the butcher."
He drew a sharp distinction between Monday's raids and a scandal earlier this year in which inexpensive — but edible — horse meat was passed off as beef and sold in supermarkets and restaurants around Europe. "There are horses that should end up neither on your plate nor at the butcher, and that's the work of this investigation," he said.
Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
Follow Lori Hinnant at https://twitter.com/lhinnant
Meat from horses used in laboratory procedures was illegally sold as fit for human consumption and landed on French dinner tables, authorities said Monday. Police, food safety and veterinary investigators carried out pre-dawn raids in 11 regions around southern France, arresting 21 people. The complex case raised new concerns about how this country, with its rich culinary reputation, polices its food supply.
Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin said the animals had been used in laboratories — including that of drugmaker Sanofi-Pasteur — and then, instead of being destroyed, ended up in the food chain. He said Sanofi-Pasteur correctly labeled its meat, and "considers itself a victim" in the case.
The prosecutor said he has no proof so far that the horsemeat was toxic, just that it wasn't supposed to be sold as meat at all. He described a network of veterinarians, computer experts and others who allegedly worked together to falsify documents. He said investigators have identified at least 100 horses that had been certified as "unfit for consumption" after the lab work, but whose papers were doctored to read "fit for consumption" instead.
The horses were exported to Spain among other countries, the prosecutor said, without naming the others. Sanofi told Le Parisien newspaper on Monday that the horses were used to create antibodies against rabies and tetanus among others. The company, which said it cooperated in the investigation, said it has resold about 200 horses in the past three years to vet schools, individuals and professionals.
The company said the lab uses horses for about three years before re-selling them, tagged and certified. It said it does not carry out testing on the animals, only makes lifesaving medicines. Benoit Hamon, France's consumer affairs minister, told RTL radio, "These were horses that should have ended up at the slaughterhouse, and instead they ended up at the butcher."
He drew a sharp distinction between Monday's raids and a scandal earlier this year in which inexpensive — but edible — horse meat was passed off as beef and sold in supermarkets and restaurants around Europe. "There are horses that should end up neither on your plate nor at the butcher, and that's the work of this investigation," he said.
Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
Follow Lori Hinnant at https://twitter.com/lhinnant
Canada is a world leader in horse meat production
Toronto - Canada - May 2022 - Canada is a world leader in the production of horse meat which is a specialty product processed at five plants in Quebec and Alberta.The federal government says 67,979 horses were slaughtered in Canada last year and plated as far away as Japan and Switzerland. Sources say more than half of the horses come from the U.S., where the animals can no longer be killed for food. Some horse meat is consumed in Canada, mostly in Quebec, but much of it is exported. It’s served up as burgers, steaks, smoked deli meat, and even raw as sashimi.
Horse meat exports raked in about $85 million last year, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada spokesman Patrick Girard said, adding more than 12 million kilograms of the product was shipped. “In 2015, France and Japan together accounted for over 48% of total exports of Canadian horse meat,” he said. “Other key markets include Belgium, Switzerland, and the United States.”
Horse meat is typically sold in European delis, but some of the animals are exported live to Japan, where they’re slaughtered, butchered and served raw as sashimi.
The Canadian Horse Defence Coalition says it has serious concerns about the industry, particularly how the horses are treated.
But spokesman Shelley Grainger said “food safety” is equally troubling.“Horses aren’t raised as food-producing animals,” she said, explaining those sold for slaughter are often retired racing horses and pets that owners can no longer keep.
Grainger said just about every horse at some point in its life receives drugs that are harmful to humans. Most drugs clear out of a horse’s system within six months, but some remain a permanent danger to humans, she said. Phenylbutazone, aka bute, an anti-inflammatory and pain reliever commonly given to horses, is one such drug. Regulations prohibit horses that receive the medication to be processed for food. Despite Canadian Food Inspection Agency efforts in recent years to stop tainted horse meat from entering the food chain, the European Union remains concerned.
Grainger noted the European Commission recently announced that as of March 2017, horse meat can only be exported to Europe if the animals reside in one place for six months before being slaughtered.
Horses are usually “sourced by kill buyers, bought at auction and quickly flipped” to a slaughterhouse, Grainger said, adding the European Commission’s new regulation will likely put a lot of buyers out of business.
Have you seen these horses?
Sargon: This 11-year-old thoroughbred, a former racehorse, pictured above, is 17 hands tall, dark bay (brown), with a small white patch on his forehead, a club front left foot, five white dots tattooed on the inside of his front right leg, and J33907 tattooed inside his upper lip. He was last seen Sept. 2.
Apollo: This 14-year-old gelding is a bay and white pinto, just over 15 hands tall, with a large white patch on his left shoulder, black mane and tail, noticeably bent front knees, particularly his left, and a broken or missing front tooth. He was last seen Sept. 24.
Sargon and Apollo vanished last month from a Clarington farm where they were being boarded. Their owners, Kim Wilson, of Lindsay, and Kayla Whatling, of Welland, fear their beloved companions have been slaughtered for meat without their consent.
[email protected]
Horse meat exports raked in about $85 million last year, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada spokesman Patrick Girard said, adding more than 12 million kilograms of the product was shipped. “In 2015, France and Japan together accounted for over 48% of total exports of Canadian horse meat,” he said. “Other key markets include Belgium, Switzerland, and the United States.”
Horse meat is typically sold in European delis, but some of the animals are exported live to Japan, where they’re slaughtered, butchered and served raw as sashimi.
The Canadian Horse Defence Coalition says it has serious concerns about the industry, particularly how the horses are treated.
But spokesman Shelley Grainger said “food safety” is equally troubling.“Horses aren’t raised as food-producing animals,” she said, explaining those sold for slaughter are often retired racing horses and pets that owners can no longer keep.
Grainger said just about every horse at some point in its life receives drugs that are harmful to humans. Most drugs clear out of a horse’s system within six months, but some remain a permanent danger to humans, she said. Phenylbutazone, aka bute, an anti-inflammatory and pain reliever commonly given to horses, is one such drug. Regulations prohibit horses that receive the medication to be processed for food. Despite Canadian Food Inspection Agency efforts in recent years to stop tainted horse meat from entering the food chain, the European Union remains concerned.
Grainger noted the European Commission recently announced that as of March 2017, horse meat can only be exported to Europe if the animals reside in one place for six months before being slaughtered.
Horses are usually “sourced by kill buyers, bought at auction and quickly flipped” to a slaughterhouse, Grainger said, adding the European Commission’s new regulation will likely put a lot of buyers out of business.
Have you seen these horses?
Sargon: This 11-year-old thoroughbred, a former racehorse, pictured above, is 17 hands tall, dark bay (brown), with a small white patch on his forehead, a club front left foot, five white dots tattooed on the inside of his front right leg, and J33907 tattooed inside his upper lip. He was last seen Sept. 2.
Apollo: This 14-year-old gelding is a bay and white pinto, just over 15 hands tall, with a large white patch on his left shoulder, black mane and tail, noticeably bent front knees, particularly his left, and a broken or missing front tooth. He was last seen Sept. 24.
Sargon and Apollo vanished last month from a Clarington farm where they were being boarded. Their owners, Kim Wilson, of Lindsay, and Kayla Whatling, of Welland, fear their beloved companions have been slaughtered for meat without their consent.
[email protected]
Criminals in China sell rat and fox meat to unsuspecting retailers
Beijing - China - April 2022 - Chinese police have broken up a criminal ring accused of taking meat from rats and foxes and selling it as lamb in the country's latest food safety scandal. The Ministry of Public Security released results of a three-month crackdown on food safety violators, saying in a statement that authorities investigated more than 380 cases and arrested 904 suspects. Among those arrested were 63 people who allegedly ran an operation in Shanghai and the coastal city of Wuxi that bought fox, mink, rat and other meat that had not been tested for quality and safety, processed it with additives like gelatin and passed it off as lamb.
The meat was sold to farmers' markets in Jiangsu province and Shanghai, it said.
Despite years of food scandals — from milk contaminated with an industrial chemical to the use of industrial dyes in eggs ,
China has been unable to clean up its food supply chain. The announcement came as China's top court on Friday issued guidelines calling for harsher punishment for making and selling unsafe food products in the latest response to tainted food scandals that have angered the public.
The Supreme People's Court said the guidelines will list as crimes specific acts such as the sale of food excessively laced with chemicals or made from animals that have died from disease or unknown causes. China's penal code, which forbids unsafe and poisonous food, does not specify what acts are considered in violation of the law.
Adulterating baby food so that it severely lacks nutrition is also punishable as a crime under the guidelines. Negligent government food inspectors are also targeted for criminal punishment. The supreme court said 2,088 people have been prosecuted in 2010-2012 in 1,533 food safety cases. It said the number of such cases has grown exponentially in the past several years. For example, Chinese courts prosecuted 861 cases of poisonous food in 2012, compared to 80 cases in 2010.
"The situation is really grave and has caused great harm to the people," Pei Xianding, a supreme court judge, told a news conference. "We cannot tolerate it any longer. We must punish the criminals severely, or we cannot answer to our people," Pei said.
The meat was sold to farmers' markets in Jiangsu province and Shanghai, it said.
Despite years of food scandals — from milk contaminated with an industrial chemical to the use of industrial dyes in eggs ,
China has been unable to clean up its food supply chain. The announcement came as China's top court on Friday issued guidelines calling for harsher punishment for making and selling unsafe food products in the latest response to tainted food scandals that have angered the public.
The Supreme People's Court said the guidelines will list as crimes specific acts such as the sale of food excessively laced with chemicals or made from animals that have died from disease or unknown causes. China's penal code, which forbids unsafe and poisonous food, does not specify what acts are considered in violation of the law.
Adulterating baby food so that it severely lacks nutrition is also punishable as a crime under the guidelines. Negligent government food inspectors are also targeted for criminal punishment. The supreme court said 2,088 people have been prosecuted in 2010-2012 in 1,533 food safety cases. It said the number of such cases has grown exponentially in the past several years. For example, Chinese courts prosecuted 861 cases of poisonous food in 2012, compared to 80 cases in 2010.
"The situation is really grave and has caused great harm to the people," Pei Xianding, a supreme court judge, told a news conference. "We cannot tolerate it any longer. We must punish the criminals severely, or we cannot answer to our people," Pei said.
Nestle, a global food processor recalls Buitoni frozen dinners containing horsemeat
Zurich - Switzerland -December 12 - 2021 - Nestle has removed beef pasta meals sold under its Buitoni brand from sale in Italy and Spain after finding traces of horsemeat, becoming the latest victim of a food scandal still spreading across Europe.
The world's biggest food company, which said as recently as last week its products had not been affected by the scare, said the decision to withdraw the products came after tests over the weekend showed traces of horse DNA in batches of meat used to prepare the meals.
Nestle spokesman Chris Hogg said on Tuesday the withdrawals would have no material financial impact on the company.
"These are chilled pasta products that do not have a long shelf life so there are very low levels of inventory," he said.
Hogg said Nestle was not attempting to estimate the level of impact the recall would have on the reputation of its brand.
The scandal of horsemeat in products labeled as beef has spread across Europe since last month, prompting product withdrawals, consumer concerns and government investigations into the continent's complex food-processing chains.
A fifth of adults said they had been buying less meat as a result of the discovery, according to a poll conducted by research company Consumer Intelligence and published on Monday.
Swiss-based Nestle withdrew two chilled pasta products, Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini, in Italy and Spain.
Lasagnes à la Bolognaise Gourmandes, a frozen product for catering businesses produced in France, will also be pulled, it said.
The group said tests had found more than 1 percent horse DNA in the products. It was not immediately clear whether the tests
had been carried out by Nestle or by a third party.
"We have informed the authorities accordingly," Nestle said in a statement. "There is no food safety issue."
(Reuters)
The world's biggest food company, which said as recently as last week its products had not been affected by the scare, said the decision to withdraw the products came after tests over the weekend showed traces of horse DNA in batches of meat used to prepare the meals.
Nestle spokesman Chris Hogg said on Tuesday the withdrawals would have no material financial impact on the company.
"These are chilled pasta products that do not have a long shelf life so there are very low levels of inventory," he said.
Hogg said Nestle was not attempting to estimate the level of impact the recall would have on the reputation of its brand.
The scandal of horsemeat in products labeled as beef has spread across Europe since last month, prompting product withdrawals, consumer concerns and government investigations into the continent's complex food-processing chains.
A fifth of adults said they had been buying less meat as a result of the discovery, according to a poll conducted by research company Consumer Intelligence and published on Monday.
Swiss-based Nestle withdrew two chilled pasta products, Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini, in Italy and Spain.
Lasagnes à la Bolognaise Gourmandes, a frozen product for catering businesses produced in France, will also be pulled, it said.
The group said tests had found more than 1 percent horse DNA in the products. It was not immediately clear whether the tests
had been carried out by Nestle or by a third party.
"We have informed the authorities accordingly," Nestle said in a statement. "There is no food safety issue."
(Reuters)
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More of us are eating less meat or going vegetarian altogether
FOOD
