Ruminations

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, criticized the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Environmental Protection Agency for allowing unapproved GE crops to enter the food supply. … However, the agencies rejected the GAO’s most important recommendation—to monitor GE crops after they are approved for commercial production. Unapproved GE crops are known to have contaminated the food supply six times since 2000, not counting the most recent incident in which an experimental GE variety of cottonseed was allowed to contaminate animal feed.”

Read the GAO report.

Filed by admin at 5:21 am under GMO Issues
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Finally, some good news on the NAIS front, and a significant victory for those farmers advocating the freedom to farm. The USDA has canceled the mandatory premises registration directive. However, states like Michigan and Wisconsin still need to rescind their mandatory NAIS regulations in order to be in agreement with federal requirements.

NAIS was promised to be a completely voluntary animal identification system but it was changed into a mandatory NAIS for producers who engage in interstate commerce and who participate in any one of the dozen or more federally regulated disease programs. Needless to say, this alarmed farmers across the country.

NoNAIS.org has led the effort to overturn this ruling, and you can read more here: http://nonais.org/2008/12/31/r-calf-nais-usda-cancels-mandatory-premises-registration-directive/

Filed by admin at 5:08 am under National Animal ID System, Nutrition, Diet & Food Politics
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The Union of Concerned Scientists is warning that in the waning days of the Bush Administration, the USDA continued its policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” regarding biotech regulations. In December the USDA announced that Monsanto harvested an unapproved variety of genetically engineered (GE) cottonseed and allowed it to contaminate crops, which were then fed to food animals. This event is the latest in a string of contamination incidents demonstrating the USDA’s inability to contain GE crops.

In addition, they warn that the FDA reversed itself on banning  the use of cephalosporin antibiotics in food animals. An organization called Keep Antibiotics Working has more information here: http://www.keepantibioticsworking.com/new/resources_library.cfm?RefID=104544

The full press release of the Union of Concerned Citizens is here: http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/GE-contamination-as-USDA-weakens-rules-0166.html

Filed by admin at 4:54 am under GMO Issues
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In December, Michael Pollan wrote about the antibiotic resistant bacteria MSRA, and links its spread to concentrated-animal feedlot operation, or CAFO.:

… the very scary antibiotic-resistant strain of Staphylococcus bacteria that is now killing more Americans each year than AIDS — 100,000 infections leading to 19,000 deaths in 2005, according to estimates in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Pollan writes that such strains have been around for a while, emanating from hospitals, where our medical experts quixotically drench patients with antibiotics, inevitably incubating resistant — and virulent, for us non-antibiotic users — bacterial strains. …In CAFOs, conditions are so wretched that operators drench animals with antibiotics as a matter of course — the unfortunate beasts’ immune systems are so compromised that they’d likely die otherwise.

To keep informed of the latest news about feedlot operations, be sure to check out Gristmill: The environmental news blog. Read the full report here: http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/3/21/133719/587

Filed by admin at 4:26 am under Food Safety
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University of Hawaii researcher Hope Jahren is the co-author of a study that sampled almost 500 fast food items from McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King and has shown that on a chemical level, the vast majority of fast food meat derives from a single source: corn. Time magazine interviewed her and asked her about the American diet.

To read the interview, click here. Don’t blame us if it makes you feel sick.

<h3>Scientific American Agrees</h3>

In addition, the Nov. 12 issue of Scientific American published an article entitled “That Burger You’re Eating Is Mostly Corn,”  by David Bielo. The author writes:

The bulk of a fast-food hamburger from McDonald’s, Burger King or Wendy’s is made from cows that eat primarily corn, or so says a new study of the chemical composition of more than 480 fast-food burgers from across the nation.

And it isn’t only cows that are eating corn. There is also evidence of a corn diet in chicken sandwiches, and even French fries get a good slathering of the fat that makes them so tasty from being fried in corn oil.

Here’s the link to the online article: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=that-burger-youre-eating-is-mostly-corn

Filed by admin at 4:07 am under Nutrition, Diet & Food Politics
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Consumer Reports, last November, released a poll that indicates Americans feel uneasy about the safety of the food they eat, and they worry about imported food products. Although the majority want to believe that what they consume is safe to their health, an overwhelming majority want specialty meat and fish stores to label their products by country of origin.

Here’s a link to more information about the poll: http://blogs.consumerreports.org/health/2008/11/food-safety-lab.html

Filed by admin at 4:02 am under Food Safety
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