An environmental lawyer for 20 years, including four spent with the USDA, Claire Hope Cummings reports regularly on agriculture and the environment; she has also farmed in California and in Vietnam. She chatted recently with the Ethicurean about her new book, “Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds.”
archive for the 'GMOs' Category
Mini-Digest: Monsanto wants to “save” the world, Kill Bill Vol. 247, SOLE research in the pipeline
Monsanto to double yields, Farm Bill in peril again, chickens slaughtered, more.
“Climate-ready” seeds: Every cloud has a golden lining for these profiteers
The ETC Group , a Canadian organization that has been following the worldwide corporate concentration of seed ownership for decades, says the biotech industry has begun patenting genes that give plants the ability to respond to drought, heat, cold, abiotic stress, and salt resistance, called “climate-ready” genes. … My Irish ancestors understood all too well that if you give the King power over the fertility of the land, and if you make the farmers serfs to the ruling class, when something like a disease or a drought comes along, there will be famine.
Everything looks better when your head’s in the sand: The USDA stops tracking pesticide use
The USDA stops collecting data on pesticide use. Meanwhile, researchers in India link pesticides to altered DNA and the German government blames pesticides for bee colony collapse. But no worries — just don’t think about it.
Digest - News: GM soy underperforms conventional, food riots, raw-milk development
Breaking news and developments, such as contaminated-food outbreaks, Farm Bill milestones, and how the farming community is faring around the world.
Postcard from Orlando II: Look Closer … at the Farm Bureau
Although I’m no longer standing at the Farm Bureau-sponsored exhibit, The Great American Farm, at Disney’s Epcot Center, I can’t seem to shake the creepy feeling it gave me. One of the most visible parts of the exhibit are the Look Closer screens, which invite attendees to Look Closer at biotechnology:
Prominently placed next to the […]
Mini-Digest: New transgenic pigs, Wendy’s bird burgers, sodas with gas
Stop busting my chops: Researchers at Texas A&M have introduced a genetically modified hog that has a pair of succulent jowls at each end. Targeted at the “foodie” market, the new animal provides twice the usual amount of the cut used to make gourmet guanciale. (Charcuterie Today)
Sing for your supper: Responding to studies linking the beef-cattle industry with deforestation, Wendy’s plans to test-market a burger made of starlings. (News on the Wing)
Digest - News: So Monsanto, going to take on Wal-Mart? Meanwhile, raw milk’s losing
Breaking news and developments, such as contaminated-food outbreaks, Farm Bill milestones, and how the farming community is faring around the world.
Digest - Commentary & Blogs: Organic+GM0s=win-win?; Swim with Jim; PB & Jeffries
Posts by bloggers at both personal and nonprofit sites that you won’t want to miss.
Digest - Blogs: Obama comes to black farmers’ defense
Posts by bloggers at both personal and nonprofit sites that you won’t want to miss.
Digest - Features: Raw-milk wars, young beekeeper, transgenic pigs
In-depth, offbeat, or thought-provoking features about aspects of SOLE food, from eating locally to farms marketing to methods of food preservation.
Digest - Blogs: Biotech & veggie protectionism, revenge of spent cows
Posts by bloggers at both personal and nonprofit sites that you won’t want to miss.
Digest - News: EPA rolls over and smells the ammonia, corn contamination, Farm Bill stalled
News about sustainable, organic, local and ethical food and farming from around the web, as well as about the icky stuff.
The spread of transgenic corn, soybeans and cotton
As a follow-up to Tom Philpott’s post about genetically modified crops (also known as transgenic or genetically engineered crops), I thought I’d post some data on transgenic crop adoption in the United States. Because products made from transgenic crops are never labeled, it is probably not well known that over 70 percent of […]
Some good news from California on raw milk — and genetically modified crops
Bills to support raw-milk production and to protect farmers from GMO patent-holders are on their way to the California legislature.
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most recent features & snacks
• Defender of the seeds: Q&A with Claire Hope Cummings, author of “Uncertain Peril”
• Salon.com plays the locavoreanism-debunking game
• I can read you like a cook: A review of “Kitchen Literacy”
• The slippery slope of banana disasters
• The banana situation in Montreal
• Fighting climate change: Food miles vs. food choices
• Review: Carolyn Steel’s “Hungry City”
• Donate to Iowa Farm Aid fund, including via Edible San Francisco
• Rebuilding itself, New Orleans is reconstructing food community
• One nation, underinformed (and one state underwater)
• Salon.com plays the locavoreanism-debunking game
• I can read you like a cook: A review of “Kitchen Literacy”
• The slippery slope of banana disasters
• The banana situation in Montreal
• Fighting climate change: Food miles vs. food choices
• Review: Carolyn Steel’s “Hungry City”
• Donate to Iowa Farm Aid fund, including via Edible San Francisco
• Rebuilding itself, New Orleans is reconstructing food community
• One nation, underinformed (and one state underwater)
most recent Digests
• Bill Moyers Journal looks at worker safety in the poultry industry
• Salmonella in tomatoes: Know your grower so you can pick your packer
• Tom Philpott issues a composting call to farms
• Brazil prepares to retaliate against U.S. cotton subsidies
• Bioplastics need time to grow up
• New European chemical safety regulations reach around the world
• How LOHAS can you go? Sales of organic processed food soar
• Salmonella in tomatoes: Know your grower so you can pick your packer
• Tom Philpott issues a composting call to farms
• Brazil prepares to retaliate against U.S. cotton subsidies
• Bioplastics need time to grow up
• New European chemical safety regulations reach around the world
• How LOHAS can you go? Sales of organic processed food soar
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Humor:- • Innovative process turns any vegetable organic in seconds
- • Open letter to Monsanto
- • Adventures with live tortillas
- • Locavore family goes to extremes
- • Absencia Grassosis fells organic dairy
- Rants:
- • Smells like a free ride: The EPA, CAFOs, and emissions
- • Downer and out: The U.S. beef industry
- • FDA approves food from clones
- • Why is Alice Waters involved with the Ameya Preserve?
- First person:
- • How I taught my kid to curse
- • Growing into a farmer
- • What's in a Montana freezer?
- Wonky:
- • Why school lunches fail
- • Non-total recall: The USDA's lack of authority
- • Shocking! USDA limits 'grass fed' label to meat that actually is
- • Getting to the heart of state meat inspection law
- • The blame frame and corn
- How-tos:
- • Exploring the pastabilities
- • Plotting our Victory Gardens
- • Bake on the wild side
- • Build a solar oven
- In the field:
- • Maryland's Springfield Farm
- • Eating local in Tucson
- • Winter on a New Hampshire farm
- • Local Burger in Kansas
- • Washington's Estrella Family Creamery
- • The Children's Studio School Garden in DC
- • Searching for raw milk in Vermont
- Reviews:
- • Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food"
- • Finding common grounds: "Black Gold"
- • Good cob, bad cob: "King Corn"
- Most inexplicably trafficked:
- • Lard
- • Smithfield's in deep shit
- • Dave Reichert on global warming
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