A victory for anyone who likes healthy food, soil, and water! Monsanto’s sour plans for the sweet beet were spoiled as a federal judge banned genetically modified sugar beets.
Monsanto Gets Beat, May Lose Beets (cartoon) Read More 👉
Wasted food energy in the U.S. totals some 2150 trillion kilojoules per year–more than the U.S. could produce in ethanol (grain) biofuels. Further, an article in the New Scientist asserts that this amount is greater than the energy produced annually from all the oil and gas extracted from the Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. Wastes More Food Energy than Gained from Gulf Oil & Gas Read More 👉
Costco has responded positively to its shareholders’ suggestions in a letter posted on its website last month. Costco has, as of 2009, voluntarily disclosed more information about its seafood suppliers.
Additionally, Costco has begun working with suppliers of farmed salmon to insure compliance with the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue and will partner with the World Wildlife Fund to monitor Thailand’s compliance with the Shrimp Aquaculture Dialogue.
Costco Adopts Sustainable Seafood Policy (correction) Read More 👉
Chemicals in food and obesity are causing babies to grow breasts. Great cartoon on this matter from Joe Mohr.
Chemicals and Obesity Speeding up Puberty in Girls (cartoon) Read More 👉
Bicycle composting service picks up your compostable goods in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Bicycle Composting Service — Eureka Recycling! Read More 👉
Greenpeace recently found genetically engineered maize from Monsanto, MON810, illegally growing in Italy. Now, activists from Italy, Austria, Germany and Hungary are quarantining this GE maize. “Greenpeace has taken action today to prevent any further contamination from these hazardous and illegal GE crops,” said Federica Ferrario, Greenpeace Italy Agriculture campaigner. “For days these crops will
Greenpeace Activists Quarantine Illegal GE Crops Read More 👉
Lester R. Brown A dangerous geopolitics of food scarcity is emerging in which individual countries, acting in their narrowly defined self-interest, reinforce the trends causing global food security to deteriorate. This began in late 2007 when wheat-exporting countries, like Russia and Argentina, attempted to counter domestic food price rises by limiting or banning exports. Viet
The Emerging Politics of Food Scarcity Read More 👉
In this Earth Policy Institute post, Lester R. Brown discusses the problem of water shortages across the world and potential solutions to this problem. Lester R. Brown With water shortages constraining food production growth, the world needs an effort to raise water productivity similar to the one that nearly tripled land productivity over the last
Raising Water Productivity to Increase Food Security Read More 👉
In a recent paper published on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences website (Greenhouse gas mitigation by agricultural intensification, by Jennifer A. Burney, Steven J. Davis, and
David B. Lobell), the authors estimated the GHG emissions from U.S. agriculture for the period from 1961 through 2005–a period of great agricultural intensification–and show a massive decrease in GHG emissions as a result of this intensification.
Question: How to Curb CO2 Emissions and Feed the World? Read More 👉
The National Research Council reports that the use of genetically engineered crops results in less harm to wild life, less soil erosion, and greater cost savings. Its findings could impact agricultural practices in other nations.
Biotech Crops Benefit Environment & Farmers, Research Group Finds Read More 👉
The UN’s Millennium Development Goal of ending global under-nourishment by 2015 will not be met, but a new set of “mega” initiatives are being implemented to achieve more efficient delivery of “research outputs” to speed agricultural development.
'Millennium Goal' to End World Hunger Will Not Be Met Read More 👉
The first restaurant chain to show carbon footprints of its menu items, Otarian, just opened its first store in New York. [social_buttons] The first restaurant chain in the world to show the carbon footprint of its menu items, believe it or not, is not McDonald’s. It is vegetarian restaurant chain Otarian. Otarian debuted this innovative
1st Restaurant Menu to Show Carbon Footprints Read More 👉
At least a dozen global food companies collaborate toward practical, cost effective solutions to reduce the climate impact of specific farming systems. [social_buttons] I happen to be a fan of the Sustainable Food Lab, which is a group of businesses, NGOs and academic institutions working together to accelerate the shift toward sustainable agriculture. I respect
Sustainable Food Lab and SAI Platform Launch Global Climate Project with Farmers Read More 👉
Sea turtles are getting killed in the millions from large-scale fisheries. See how this happens, potential solutions to the problem, and what you can do below. [social_buttons] A new report published in the journal Conservation Letters shows the results of the first global assessment of turtle “bycatch” by longline, gillnet and trawl fisheries. Basically, bycatch
Millions of Endangered Sea Turtles Killed by Fisheries Read More 👉
Greenpeace successfully targets Trader Joe’s and convinces the supermarket chain to adopt sustainable seafood practices by the end of 2012. [social_buttons] I have to admit the folks at Greenpeace are quite effective, resourceful, and clever. Most recently, the NGO challenged a popular supermarket chain known for its organic, healthy food offerings. Trader Joe’s has positioned
Trader Joe's Offers Sustainable Seafood Thanks to Greenpeace Read More 👉
[social_buttons] New findings, published in the October issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, indicate early Europeans enjoyed a much broader diet than first suspected. We have known for a long while that early man hunted big game such as mastodons, now prehistoric bone findings show that early man also hunted and cooked game fowl. The
Caveman Thanksgiving: Prehistoric Man Roasted Birds Too Read More 👉
[social_buttons] Whether you are eating turkey or tofurkey this Thanksgiving, you cannot deny the great sacrifice that turkeys are making to fill dinner plates across the nation. I figured I would honor their sacrifice here on the eve of thanksgiving, with some fun turkey facts. More than 45 million turkeys are eaten in the U.S. at Thanksgiving (one sixth
Americans eat lots of meat. So much so that livestock is now one of the leading contributors to global warming, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions as measured in a carbon dioxide equivalent. A recent United Nations report concluded that the meat industry causes almost 40% more greenhouse gas emissions than all the
Why Going Vegetarian For One Day Will Help Stop Global Warming Read More 👉
Greenpeace Brazil has released a report at the World Social Forum in Belém showing that up to 80 percent of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is due to an increase in raising cattle for human consumption. Brazil has quickly become the largest exporter of beef in the world, but they are not satisfied with
80% of Amazon Deforestation Stems from Cattle Ranching Read More 👉
Will Allen, former pro basketball player, founded Growing Power to help low-income people in Milwaukee and Chicago grow their own food locally. He will now have an extra $500,000 to help his efforts. The MacArthur Foundation announced yesterday that they will honor his work with one of their 25 annual ‘genius’ grants–a five-year grant
Urban Farmer Wins MacArthur Genius Grant Read More 👉
Any time you eat non-organic food, there is a 70 percent chance you are ingesting genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Modern genetic modification is different from historical alterations–such as plant breeding–because today, genes are transferred from one species to another. For instance, when you eat GM food, there is a good chance it has been injected with genes from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)—hence Bt Corn.
Are these GM foods a path to end world hunger and ensure a robust harvest in the face of possible harsh future climates? Or, is it a way for corporations to gain global control over agriculture for profit, releasing organisms that have unknown effects on the environment and human health?
According to the USDA, in 1996, less than 5 percent of soy products were genetically modified. Within 12 years, that amount increased to 90 percent. These have been in our foods for over a decade and as far as we can tell, nothing has really gone wrong. Is that why most Americans are not hearing about GMOs?
You Are Eating GMOs, Should You Care? Read More 👉
