Food Safety // Current TV

Edible Cities: Havana

For many Cubans, the global food crisis arrived two-decades ago. Facing an economic... more

wholefreespirit
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3 years ago
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9 comments

Hot Pockets recall- May Contain Foreign Materials

Nestlé Prepared Foods Company, is recalling approximately 215,660 pounds of... more

wholefreespirit
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3 years ago
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0 comments

GM sugarbeets not a sweet proposition, and citizens are fighting back

Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-- Anthropologist Margaret Mead

Even if you've heard the above quote many times before, the sentiment expressed is so powerful that I think it's worth repeating. All around the world, small groups of people are organizing public support for improved food safety and successfully challenging large corporations to change their behavior.

That's exactly what Flint Michigan residents Kathleen Kirby and Mark Fisher are banking on: their power to influence change. They're participating in a nationwide consumer boycott of Kellogg's Co. instigated by the Organic Consumers Association. By boycotting the world's largest cereal company, they hope to pressure Kellogg's into rejecting the use of sugar from genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets and to spark widespread market rejection in products ranging from cereal to baby food to candy.

As you may know, Roundup Ready sugar beets are genetically altered to resist Monsanto's toxic weed killer, Roundup, and its active ingredient, glyphosate. But here's the scary truth about these beets:

When the USDA first approved GE sugar beets for commercial planting in 1998, the EPA also increased the maximum allowable residues of glyphosate on sugar beet roots from just 0.2 parts per million to 10ppm. That's a staggering 5,000 percent increase of allowable toxins on beet roots. And, it's little surprise that EPA made this policy change at the request of Monsanto.

Sugar beet roots contain sucrose that's extracted, refined, and processed into the sugar used in the foods we eat. What this means is that the more GE ingredients that find their way into our food, the greater the likelihood that we are ingesting more toxic chemicals.

Thankfully, GE sugar beets have never been grown in the U.S. for sale to food manufacturers -- that is, until this year, when Western farmers planted their first crop of Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beets. Right now, over half of the sugar used in U.S. processed foods comes from sugar beets, with beet and cane sugars combined in those products. What's most disturbing is that once GE sugar beets hit the market, which could be as early as next year, there will be no way to know if we're eating GE sugar because GE ingredients are not labeled.

Currently, only four major GE crops are sold commercially -- corn, cotton, soy, and canola. Most of these are engineered to withstand repeated, large doses of herbicides. For the most part, these crops and their byproducts are largely fed to animals with the exception of some minor food ingredients and oils. GE beet sugar breaks with this tradition in that it could become the first major GE ingredient added to almost all processed foods on our grocery store shelves.
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Our food supply is systematically being taken over and poisoned by Monsanto.There is no other way to state it now. If sugarbeets are allowed to continue to become a part of our food supply, then you can expect that EVERYTHING you touch will be genetically modified, and it has NOT been proven to be safe for human consumption or our environment. Please, I have been writing on this for months along with others who have been trying to make people understand how URGENT it is that you get involved in pushing state legislatures to require proper labelling of GM sources in foods. Read up on this at the Monsanto tag and take action.

Citizen activism is the only way to make companies like Monsanto back down. Consumers did it regarding POSILAC, and we can do it with this. Current TV is the only place I have been able to get exposure to this so far aside from my own blog, and it is also because of people here voting the information up so more can see it. So thank you to those who fight the good fight here everyday over those who would do anything in their power to keep this down.
Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed,... more

JanforGore
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3 years ago
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19 comments

E. coli cases traced to Whole Foods beef

Massachusetts health authorities are warning consumers not to eat ground beef bought... more

huffamoose2k
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3 years ago
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5 comments

Monsanto, Dow, Dupont... Genetically Engineering crops to handle more pesticide: BAD FOR US

[1] Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey, AGAINST THE GRAIN; BIOTECHNOLOGY AND THE CORPORATE... more

jjmaster
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3 years ago
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0 comments

- Google - Mansantoism's

Where are they today... What belongs to them? The Monsanto companies and affiliates?

jjmaster
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Campaign for genetically modified free schools

Children face the greatest risk from the potential dangers of GM foods: Young,... more

JanforGore
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3 years ago
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21 comments

EU food safety experts say no to cloned meat

Selling meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring is expected to be... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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5 comments

Memories of Consumer Choice™ | Naomi Klein

Well, Naomi Klein wrote this article regarding genetically modified foods in 2001. I... more

jjmaster
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3 years ago
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1 comment

"Significant Break" in FDA Salmonella Outbreak Investigation

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Investigators had a "significant break" in... more

IndieArtist
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3 years ago
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2 comments

Hijacked Future

SEEDS - WHITE GOLD! Eating breakfast toast: a simple ritual to start the day. The... more

jjmaster
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3 years ago
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2 comments

Futuristic coversation: "Are you kidding me?" I'm not lying; $25.00 for that red apple!

Is your food genetically engineered? You should know who owns the seed for your food... more

jjmaster
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3 years ago
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8 comments

Where there's muck... | Society | The Guardian

Rich Cookson and Andy Rowell on how the organic movement is being hijacked by... more

jjmaster
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3 years ago
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0 comments

COOL! Country of Origin Labeling is on the way

On Sept. 30, mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) will be enforced for beef,... more

edmubnd
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3 years ago
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5 comments

Does US Beef Have Mad Cow Disease? Yes, According to South Koreans

About 80,000 people demonstrated into the early hours of the morning in Seoul in the... more

jhaber
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Government slashes pesticide reporting laws

Bowing to pressure from Monsanto and the agro-toxics industry, the U.S. Department of... more

uroborus8
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3 years ago
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31 comments

Bush Proposes $275MM Budget Increase for FDA

This has been a long time coming. It is not clear exactly how the money will be used,... more

edmubnd
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3 years ago
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2 comments

Poison chicken?

I'm only posting this for other peoples' health (I'm vegetarian).

onechance
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3 years ago
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8 comments

outbreak of salmonella in tomatoes-- now in 9 states

An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has now been reported in nine states, U.S. health officials said Tuesday.

A salmonell outbreak in the Southwestern U.S. has been tied to large varieties of tomatoes.

Lab tests have confirmed 40 illnesses in Texas and New Mexico as the same type of salmonella, right down to the genetic fingerprint.

An investigation by Texas and New Mexico health authorities and the Indian Health Service tied those cases to uncooked large tomatoes.

At least 17 people in Texas and New Mexico have been hospitalized. None have died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thirty people have become sick with the same Salmonella Saintpaul infection in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Idaho, Illinois and Indiana. CDC investigators are looking into whether tomatoes were culprits there, too.

In Texas and New Mexico, raw large tomatoes -- including Roma and red round tomatoes -- were found to be a common factor in the 40 illnesses. But no farm, distributor or grocery chain has been identified as the main source, said Casey Barton Behravesh, a CDC epidemiologist working on the investigation.

"The specific type and source of tomatoes is under investigation," she said.

Salmonella is a bacterial infection that lives in the intestinal tracts of humans and other animals. The bacteria are usually transmitted to humans by eating foods contaminated with animal feces.

Most infected people suffer fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps starting 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness tends to last four to seven days.

Many people recover without treatment. However, severe infection and even death are possible. Infants, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are at greatest risk for severe infections.

In Texas and New Mexico, the patients ranged in age from 3 to 82. Of the 40 patients, 38 were interviewed. Most said they ate raw tomatoes from either stores or restaurants before becoming ill between April 23 and May 27.

Another 17 cases are under investigation in New Mexico, CDC officials said. An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has now... more

joshzimmerman
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Table of Condiments

If the bleu cheese on your salad last night was more a lighter shade of grey ... you... more

khsing
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4 years ago
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1 comment

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