CheckBiotech.org: Europe’s Food Safety Authority has ruled that a genetically-modified cotton plant, which can be used in food as cottonseed oil, presents no cause for concern. No word on whether the EU will require such derived ingredients to be labeled as GM and let consumers decide whether they want to take the risk.
Access North Georgia (via AP): Genetically engineered peanuts have gotten the regulatory go-ahead. They “could be safer, more nutritious and easier to grow than their conventional version,” as promised, but with built-in herbicide and pest resistance, we’ll be entertaining doubts.
Reason Online: Magician Penn Gillette (the lowbrow Christopher Hitchens?) names biotech godfather Norman Borlaug as his choice for man of the year. Gag.
San Francisco Chronicle: Charles Allen Waters, who mortgaged the family home to lend daughter Alice Waters the money to start Chez Panisse — then helped her make it profitable — has died at 91.
Reuters: Wild Oats Markets has pulled bottles of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice from shelves because an animal-rights group has claimed — falsely, it appears — that it tampered with bottles to protest needless nutritional testing.
Seattle P-I: An editorial underscores the need for Seattle and Washington state to jump on the national bandwagon and set up local and/or state councils on food policy, and not let the federal Farm Bill have the last word on access and distribution.
Treehugger.com: Bummer of the day — turns out the massive production of cashmere, which should be a nice, humane sustainable fiber, is causing great ecological harm and quite a lot of animal suffering as well. Not convinced? Read the Chicago Tribune’s investigative feature.[Dairy Queen says: “From now on, only secondhand cashmere for me…Thanks — sorta — Jack!]
Food, Farming, & Food Politics events calendar
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