Here’s what we are reading this weekend as we wonder how high Floyd Landis’ testosterone levels really are.
AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Wear your GMO corn? NatureWorks, a Nebraska-based subsidiary of Cargill, is making corn (both conventional and GMO) into a fiber called Ingeo which can be woven into clothing. They do not separate the conventional and GMO corn, which should prove interesting when they try to sell the fibers to anti-GMO Europe. The fiber is intended to replace petroleum-based synthetic fibers. I guess we’ll need to add a category above “food as fuel” called “food as clothing”. What.The.Fuck?
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Melons aren’t just good for picnics. They contain lycopene, which protects against prostate cancer, and anti-oxidants. Researchers found that refrigerating melons reduces their health benefits, so get melons at the farmer’s market if you can.
Independent UK/Common Dreams News Center: A recent study shows that farmers use as much pesticide to raise GMO crops as conventional crops, contrary to the claims of GMO supporters.
San Francisco Chronicle: After much criticism, Whole Foods is taking a number of meaningful measures to support local producers, including $10 million a year in low interest loans.
The Non-GMO Project: Natural foods grocery stores from the U.S> and Canada have banded together to request that the manufacturers of their food and supplements certify that their products do not contain GMOs. There are 50 members as of this writing (including my favorite co-op in Boise but, disappointingly, not New Seasons, the successor to Portland’s Nature’s).
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