Fantastic Site: Sustainable Table

I think we have blogged about this before, but I want to draw your attention to it once again.

THE SUSTAINABLE TABLE

Sustainable Table was created in 2003 by the nonprofit organization GRACE to help consumers understand the problems with our food supply and offer viable solutions and alternatives. Rather than be overwhelmed by the problems created by our industrial agricultural system, Sustainable Table celebrates the joy of food and eating.

Today’s dominant form of agriculture relies on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, large amounts of water, major transportation systems and factory-style practices for raising livestock. Industrial farming creates over-processed, over-traveled, and under-nourishing food that may contribute to health problems like obesity, diabetes and heart disease. This type of food production causes pollution and creates environmental and public health problems that cost taxpayers both money and quality of life. Sustainable Table was launched to offer consumers a choice and to show that fresh food from small, independent family farmers is still available.

I have been following them for quite a while and had the pleasure to meet Diane Hatz, the founder and Exec. Producer of the Meatrix video series.  (check out the video on the sidebar if you don’t know what this is).  Just recently, I started following them on Twitter, which introduced me to their blog: The Daily Table.  This has fantastic information about recommended summer reads and movies about food, information on school lunch programs, genetically modified foods and much, much more.

You can follow them on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/eatsustainable

food imports

Unapproved genetically modified (GMO) food may find its way into the country due to a weak import control policy, finds the USDA in an internal audit, according to Reuters UK.

The audit found that the USDA needs to develop screening measures to weed out undeclared GMO crops and livestock. The department currently has no measures in place to identify a shipment of unapproved GMO imports unknown to the U.S. regulatory system, the report said.

Sadly, the USDA is more concerned with how it will affect commerce than how it will affect consumers. This has not been a concern in the past, as the U.S. has been the leader in GMO food, until now. However, countries have decided to invest millions into their own development programs. For example, China just dedicated $500 million to its GMO program, and has already developed a new form of rice.

The USDA has given itself until November 30th to finalize a policy for approval of imported GMO agriculture and meat.

news in food

Here are a handful of interesting links in food news for this week

Growing More Corn for Ethanol Makes Pest Control Harder, via the NY Times

Critics say turning more acreage over to corn to make fuel can lead to higher prices for other crops, increased soil erosion and other negative effects.

In a report in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Douglas A. Landis of Michigan State University and colleagues show that increasing the corn acreage can reduce the abundance of insect predators that control aphids, the most significant soybean pest in the United States.

Let’s Ask Marion Nestle: Are The USDA’s Organic Standards A Sham?, via Huffington Post

Cheating is the Achilles’ heel of organics. The entire organic certification system is based on trust. If trust goes, the organic industry collapses like a house of cards. Organics means two quite different things. To people who care about the food system, organics is about growing crops and raising animals using methods that are good (for the health of people and animals), clean (for the environment), fair (to the people who produce the food), and sustainable (meaning renewing–not wasting or destroying–the earth’s natural resources).

To everyone involved in raising and selling organic foods, organics is a business. This business commands higher prices if–and only if–buyers believe that the food is produced according to those criteria and is better for their health and that of the planet.

(edit. note: really good article)

Will Obama Integrate Food, Farming & Health Policies?, via ENN

Diet-related diseases continue to escalate – specifically in our children. Researchers predict that as a result of the continued rise in overweight, the children of today will have a shorter lifespan than their parents. Overweight and obesity alone have translated into skyrocketing health care costs which are bankrupting families and the health care system.

Likewise, the number of family farms and acres used for growing food is falling, while the cost of farm inputs are increasing. Subsidized crops such as corn, soybeans and wheat have flooded supermarkets with more processed, packaged “food-like” substances. Often, these foods are of low nutritional value and high in sugar, fat and salt.

A dichotomy exists between agriculture policies and Dietary Guidelines for Americans – yet, ironically, both are overseen by the USDA. Current food and farm policies stand in the way of making healthy food the easiest choice.

what’s on your plate?

There is a very interesting article from a St. Louis website about food labeling and the many changes that happened over the past year.

“There have been a lot of big decisions this year,” said Chris Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America. “But,” he stressed, “not all of them resulted in actual labeling.”

CLONED ANIMALS

After years of debate, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in January announced that meat and milk from cloned cattle, swine and goats are as safe as products from conventional animals.

At the time, regulators also said they would not require clones or their offspring to be labeled as such. The agency had determined there was no difference between cloned and non-cloned meat or dairy products, and cited a law that requires labeling only if food is significantly changed from conventional food.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN – COOL

A big chunk of the food Americans eat comes from overseas — more than 70 percent of seafood, 90 percent of lamb and mutton, nearly 30 percent of fresh fruit overall and nearly all bananas.

But until recently there was no law requiring labels to tell consumers where the food was grown or raised.

Although consumer groups say the new requirements are a good step, they point out several loopholes. Anything processed — such as roasted nuts, bacon and combined vegetables, such as peas and carrots — will not require a label. And fish processed with other ingredients, such as breaded shrimp or fish sticks, is exempt.

GENETIC ENGINEERING

By some estimates, as much as 70 percent of what Americans buy in the grocery store contains genetically modified plant-based ingredients, but those don’t require a label saying so. And this year, regulators said they would not require labels for genetically engineered meat or seafood, though none has yet been approved for the market.

ORGANIC OR CLOSE?

In 2002, the Department of Agriculture launched the National Organic Program, establishing strict standards for anything labeled “USDA Organic.” Although it was conceived as a marketing program, some consumers view it as the gold standard for food purity and safety.

But last month, an advisory group suggested that fish fed non-organic food could earn the organic label — a direct violation of the standards.

The article goes on to mention flaws with “grass fed”, “free range”, and “naturally raised”.

Very interesting and worth the time, found HERE. And, if you don’t want to worry about such labels… do what I do… go to the Farmer’s Market where you can ask the actual farmer how it was raised, what kind of seeds were used, and all that jazz.

food, glorious food

There have been quite a few articles in recent weeks about our food supply. It is hard to write about each one and not have you feel bombarded with information, so I thought what would be best was to post links to each with blurbs about the importance of this information.

Lula’s Green Light for Monsanto Has Flooded Brazil with GMO Soya & Increased Amazon Deforestation, via Environmental News Network

Lula’s government promotes genetically-modified organisms despite social opposition.

Brazil is home to one of the world’s largest areas of genetically-modified seed cultivations with 15 million hectares in 2007. The greatest increase of these crops occurred under the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, despite growing opposition from Brazilian farmers and environmentalists.

Most of the concern centers around the reorganization of the National Biosafety Technical Commission or CTNBio, under Lula’s Administration. The group used to be a heavy critic of genetically modified agriculture, but has moved towards a favorable voice under new appointments. For example, the approval for use of MON810. Critics argued that the approval of MON810 for commercial use in Spain, Argentina and the United States, and other countries, had caused the contamination of conventional corn varieties with genetically-modified corn and led to social and economic problems. “The lack of segregation, identification and effective procedures led to the contamination of conventional varieties with transgenic varieties,” they said. These warnings were ignored by the committee.

In this same article, is the information that deforestation of the Amazon has increased by 4% due to encroaching farm exploitation. Many of the suspecting farms produce GMO soy.

All in all, Brazil has two factions; one that is strongly fighting global warming and the deforestation of the Amazon and the other that is enacting policy that encourages farming using GMO seeds. We have seen in the United States that farmers need to grow mass acreage of GMO seeds to not only counter the cost of the seeds, but also because these crops are commodity crops, which require larger volume.

It will be interesting to see how this progresses.

Food crunch opens doors to bioengineered crops, via wibw.com

Surging costs, population growth, and drought and other setbacks linked to global climate change are pressuring world food supplies, while soaring prices on the street have triggered riots and raised the number of people going hungry to more than 923 million, according to U.N. estimates.

With food demand forecast to increase by half by 2030, the incentive to use genetic engineering to boost harvests and protect precious crops from insects and other damage has never been greater.

The article goes on to discuss all the various areas where GM food is being embraced as a fix to the food crisis caused by global warming. What the article does not address is the criticism of using GM seeds for crops; primarily the affect on human health (due to the overuse of antibiotics) and the possibility of plant extinction (due to a bacteria wiping out the entire plant population). There are many other reasons why GMO is seen, by many food educators and policy makers, as a bad answer to the growing food concern. You can flip through this site to find many links, or do a simple google search.

EU approves genetically modified soybean for import, via ENN.

The European Union has authorized imports of a genetically modified (GM) soybean type for sale across its 27 national markets for the next 10 years, the European Commission said on Thursday.

Developed and marketed by Monsanto, the soybean is destined for use in food and animal feed, not for growing. It is a second-generation GM product known by its code number MON 89788 and commercially as Roundup RReady2Yield.

The reason this article is worthy of attention is because of how the soy is going to be used: animal feed. It is important to understand that animals evolved eating grasses. Like humans, they are designed to digest food that they are genetically built to eat. As an example, cows became ruminants because they are supposed to digest grass and by eating grain they become sick and require more antibiotics than necessary. In other words, when animals eat grains like corn and soy they are sick and that sickness is transferred to you when you eat them.

The EU has long fought the dominance of GM food in their society. I am curious as to what changed.

how does one say “I told you so” without sounding like a jerk?

and maybe I just don’t care….

Why eating GM food could lower your fertility, via Daily Mail, UK.

In an article published today, something I knew all along was verified: GM food affects us.

Professor Dr Jurgen Zentek, Professor for Veterinary Medicine at the University of Vienna and lead author of the study, said a GM diet effected the fertility of mice.

GM expert at Greenpeace International, Dr Jan van Aken, said: ‘Genetically Engineered food appears to be acting as a birth control agent, potentially leading to infertility.

‘If this is not reason enough to close down the whole biotech industry once and for all, I am not sure what kind of disaster we are waiting for.

‘Playing genetic roulette with our food crops is like playing Russian roulette with consumers and public health.’

In the article they state something that I think should make everyone open their ears and eyes: Most studies of GM food has been done in the Biotech industry and with mega-corporations like Monsanto. This is the one of the first, allowed, studies from an independent laboratory. I think as we see more labs providing scientifically backed research, we will start to see the truth. Remember, if the truth will effect the bottom line of a corporation, why in the world would they want you to know it?

Also, in the country, labels are not required to state whether the food you eat is GM. Therefore, farmer’s markets, organic, CSA’s, grow your own… those are the best options. Most of all, try not to eat prepackaged food. I know it is difficult but these are your children and your children’s children we are talking about.

move over HFCS, there’s a new kid in town

I don’t really think that is true. The corn industry is way to big to fall off the face of the Earth. However, there is a new sweetener making a prolific rise to the top of the food chain.

Sugar Beets. A new player on the GMO scene and currently accounts for 30% of the world’s sugar consumption.

It is genetically modified by Monsanto and requires FOUR TIMES the space of a typical cane field. And, this shouldn’t surprise you, but the EPA just changed the requirements for sugar beets, by allowing a 5000% increase in the amount of pesticide allowed to remain on the beet prior to processing. Yum… sugar pesticide! Also remember that the FDA has allowed for legislation absolutely no labeling requirements of GMO products. So, you have no idea what you might be ingesting.

This is always a nice follow-up to their mess of the whole Bisphenol A situation:

In fact, FDA took no substantive action to study the food safety risks of GM food even after it concluded that the GM supplement, L-tryptophan, was the possible cause of 37 deaths and 1,500 disabling illnesses from a rare condition known as eosinophilia myalgia syndrome.

Hershey’s and Mars (yes, Mom, your M&M’s) are slated to switch over this year, if not already.

Look for products labeled: made with sugar cane, cane juice or certified organic.

the seeds of change

YAY!!! Seems like something is changing and it feels so, so good.

Japan’s Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Cooperative (SCCC) have been meeting with farmer’s in the midwest to attain non-GMO seeds to bring back to their country. It has been getting more and more diffucult to get non-GMP seeds, while the demand for non-GMO raised animals and crops has been growing.

This is good for us, because it is nearly impossible to get non-GMO outside of the US, therefore causing our desire to continue down this path.

“Consumer rejection of GM foods overseas continues to galvanize non-GM markets. And since most countries, Japan included, do not grow GM crops domestically, consumers in those countries know that their preferences can influence market supply. That’s why SCCC representatives brought to the U.S. a statement from the “No! GMO Campaign,” comprised of 53 farmer, consumer, and public interest groups opposing the U.S. cultivation of GM sugar beets and the import of its byproduct, beet pulp, for livestock feed. Their message to U.S. food and feed producers is clear: Beware of international market losses.”

Click HERE for the whole article.

Also, I found a website that is listing products that are certified as non-GMO. Check it out. It may be useful if you want to ensure what you are putting in that body of yours. Go HERE.

*And, fyi, there is a comment in the article about the growth of GMO sugar beets. I do not have much information on this, but will research and share what I find out.