Category: Activism

ConAgra: Bad Food, Bad Policies

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ConAgra is one of the most irresponsible companies that one can find on Wall St. From fighting GMO labeling to abusing labor and the environment they have done it all. But now ConAgra is on the ropes. They have stretched themselves thin and they are weak with debt and shrinking sales.

Now is the time to organize an all out boycott, not just from those of us that call ourselves environmentalists, but from everyone who will listen.

In 2002, ConAgra, together with other major food and beverage companies including PepsiCo, General Mills, Kelloggs, Sara Lee, and H. J. Heinz Co., spent millions to defeat Oregon Ballot Measure 27, which would have required food companies to label products that contain genetically modified ingredients.

A 2006 report by CERES, a non-profit organization that works to address global climate change and other sustainability issues, titled “Corporate Governance and Climate Change: Making the Connection,” measures how 100 leading global companies are responding to global warming. Companies in the report were evaluated on a 0 to 100 scale. ConAgra scored a total of 4 points, the lowest of any of the food companies rated.

And that’s not all ConAgra does with major labor and safety violations over the years, and of course corruption. Multinational Monitor, a corporate watchdog organization, named ConAgra one of the ‘Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s’.

So as you can see they are not a responsible company and are actively contributing to slowing or stopping agriculture reforms.

ConAgra brands to avoid:

Act II – Microwave Popcorn
Alexia – Appetizers, Artisan Breads, and Potato Products
Andy Capp’s fries – flavoured corn and potato snack made to look like French fries.
Angela Mia – Tomato products and authentic Italian specialties
Award Cuisine – Foodservice specialties that cross dayparts and temperature classes

Banquet – Frozen chicken and ready-to-heat meals
Big Mama Sausage – Snack-sized preserved sausages
Blue Bonnet – Margarine and bread spreads
Chef Boyardee – Ready-to-eat pasta meals
Chiffon margarine – Tubbed soft-margarine brand purchased from Kraft and later discontinued
Chun King – Chinese-style foods and meal packages
ConAgra Mills – Multi-use flours
Crunch ‘n Munch – Glazed popcorn/nut mixture
David Sunflower Seeds – Sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds
Dennison’s – Chili
Eagle Mills with Ultragrain – All-Purpose Flour made with Ultragrain
Egg Beaters – Processed egg product
Fernando’s – Mexican entrees and appetizers
Fiddle Faddle – Glazed popcorn/nut mixture
Fleischmann’s – Bread spreads
Gebhardt – Tex-Mex style foods
Golden Cuisine – Ready-made food for seniors
Gulden’s – Mustard
Healthy Choice – Ready-to-eat and prepared foods
Hebrew National – Kosher sausages, cold cuts and condiments
Hunt’s – Canned tomato products, ketchup and barbecue sauce
Hunt’s Snack Pack – Shelf-stable pudding
J. Hungerford Smith – Dessert ingredients for restaurants
J.M. Swank – Food ingredient distributor
Jiffy Pop – Popcorn
Kid Cuisine – Prepared foods for children
La Choy – Chinese-style foods
Lamb Weston – Potato products
Lamb Weston Inland Valley – Consumer sales of frozen potato products
Luck’s Incorporated – Canned baked beans
Manwich – Canned sloppy Joe mix
Margherita – Italian-style processed meats
Marie Callender’s – Frozen meals
Move Over Butter – Margarine
Orville Redenbacher’s – Popcorn and Poppycock
PAM – Spray cooking oils
Parkay – Bread spreads
Patio – Tex-Mex-style frozen meals
Pemmican – Beef and turkey jerky
Penrose – Pickled sausages
Peter Pan – Peanut butter
Pogo – Corndogs
Poppycock – Premium Glazed popcorn/nut mixture
Ranch Style – Baked and Refried beans
Reddi-wip – Whipped cream
Ro-Tel – Canned tomato sauce
Rosarita – Mexican – style foods
Screaming Yellow Zonkers – Glazed popcorn (Discontinued)
Slim Jim – Meat snacks
Swiss Miss -Powdered cocoa for hot chocolate and pudding
Squeez ‘N Go – Prepared pudding
The MAX – Pizzeria quality products for foodservice operators
Van Camp’s – Canned beans
VH – Sauces and frozen foods (Available in Canada only)
Vogel Popcorn – Popcorn
Wesson – Cooking oils
Wolf Brand Chili – Chili

Tags conagra

Activism Agriculture Consuming Less Environmentalism Sustainability

6 Green Living Principles Every Household Should Learn (The Basics)

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By: Guest Contributor, Jonathan James More

Sometimes, you are presented with too many ideas on how to maintain sustainability in your living space and are unsure which ones are the most effective. The challenge is to put those concepts together and come up with the best game plan for a greener living.

Here are 6 green living principles your household should learn and live by.

1. Your Electricity Bill Tells a Lot

You can start at home. Try to consume less energy and you’ll realize that it will not only benefit the environment, but it would also yield higher savings for your family. Use natural sunlight rather than electricity during the day. Sunlight is a great source of vitamin D and can boost your mood.

2. Meals Should Be Well-planned

Obesity rate among children ages 2-5 decreased 43% in the past 10 years, based on a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February 2014. This means that healthier habits are being practiced by more Americans. Do your part by preparing healthy and delicious organic food that your kids would like. As much as possible, have a good estimate of the food you will prepare for your family to avoid throwing away leftovers.

3. Make Play Time More Fun

Aside from preparing healthier meals on the table, you should also be concerned about your kids’ physical and mental development. Being active in the playground allows children to run around freely with other kids. Having fun playground time is one great trick that can prevent your children from watching too much TV, or playing too often using electronic gadgets, or spending too much time in front of the computer. Allow them to exercise at the playground with other kids in your community to make play time more enjoyable for them. Look for commercial playground equipment that would not only address their playground fitness, but also develop their cognitive and social skills.

4. Reduce Waste

Do your share by purchasing items in bulk to reduce the amount of packaging. Buying reusable items rather than disposable single-use products can also help in avoiding waste. And when doing the groceries, bring tote bags to avoid the use of plastic bags.

5. Transform Waste into Treasure

Look for second-hand furniture or previously-owned home pieces that are useful and in great condition. If there are unused toys or old clothes that do not fit anymore, hand them down to other people in need. Donating them to the less fortunate is better than just throwing them away. Glass and plastic bottles are good for decorating the house. Use your creativity and give the house a makeover.

6. Grow Greens

If you have a spacious backyard, consider growing various vegetables in it. This can be a source of food available for your household, so you don’t need to buy them when you do your grocery shopping. If you do not have a yard where you can plant a fruit tree, you can still create a small herb garden. Grow them in a pot and place it on the front porch or windowsill. It’ll be a fun learning experience for the kids to watch the plants grow as well.

Jonathan James More is a medical writer. Connect with him via @JJMore022.

Activism Agriculture Anti-Monsanto Environmentalism GMO crops Real Food vs. Fake Food

Monsanto Exec. Wins World Food Prize For Creating GMO's

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In a seemingly crazy decision, a Monsanto executive is winning this year’s “Nobel Prize of agriculture” the formerly prestigious World Food Prize, and he is getting it basically for creating GMOs. Awarding it for this harmful science legitimizes the sort of rampant genetic modification Monsanto pioneered, and helps validate a ruthless business model that impoverishes farmers and monopolizes our food.

Often hailed as the Nobel Prize of food, the World Food Prize has received as much attention this week for its ties to industrial agriculture and genetically modified (GM) crops as it has for honoring those who feed the poor. The WFP has been a magnet for worldwide criticism since June, when it announced its laureates.One of them was Robert Fraley, an executive at the biotech corporation Monsanto, which has been at the center of a number of controversies over GM crops. Fraley shared the honor with Syngenta scientist Mary-Bell Chilton and Plant Genetic Systems co-founder Marc Van Montagu, fellow pioneers in the development of high-yield GM crops resistant to disease, pests and harsh climates.

Oh but we are not done yet! The founder of Syngenta, the same biotech giant joining Bayer in suing Europe to keep selling bee-killing pesticides, will also win the prize,and with it, a share of the $250,000 prize money. This prize has legitimized GMO’s and bee killers.

Winning this prize will encourage the wider use of genetically engineered crops and be a huge obstacle to those fighting to investigate the long-term effects of its GMO’s, which is exactly what Monsanto wants.

From 1999 to 2011, Monsanto donated $380,000 (PDF) to the World Food Prize Foundation in addition to a $5 million contribution in 2008 to help renovate the Hall of Laureates, a public museum honoring Borlaug. The donations have prompted accusations that Monsanto essentially bought Fraley’s award — a charge denied by the foundation.

The picture above is from a study that was published in The Food & Chemical Toxicology Journal.

The study was led by a man named Gilles-Eric Seralini from the University of Caen and it was the first ever study to examine the long-term effects of eating GMOs.

Some quotes from the report:

“The animals on the GM diet suffered mammary tumors, as well as severe liver and kidney damage. The researchers said 50 percent of males and 70 percent of females died prematurely, compared with only 30 percent and 20 percent in the control group.”

“Scientists found that rats exposed to even the smallest amounts, developed mammary tumors and severe liver and kidney damage as early as four months in males, and seven months for females.”

You might want to think twice when choosing food and seeds, and also before trusting the World food prize.

Does it sound like this man deserves an award?

Some more sources to check out.

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/topics/technology-and-supply-chain/monsanto-weedkiller-and-gm-maize-in-shocking-cancer-study/232603.article

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2205509/Fresh-fears-GM-foods-French-study-finds-rats-fed-controversial-crops-suffered-tumours-multiple-organ-failure.html

The international journal of biological sciences:

http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm

And if you live in California – Prop 37 is still pushing to label these foods:

http://www.carighttoknow.org/

Tags bayer, frankenfood, gmo, gmos, Marc Van Montagu, Mary-Bell Chilton, Monsanto, Plant Genetic Systems, Robert Fraley, seralini, Syngenta

Activism Environmentalism GMO crops Real Food vs. Fake Food

March Against Monsanto Planned Worldwide 10/12/13

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March Against Monsanto.

Today I talked to Jenn a co-organizer of March Against Monsanto, a grassroots action group based in St. Louis Missouri, but with chapters and solidarity marches in cities from Boston to LA, Minneapolis to Miami and all over the world. Monsanto’s US headquarters is based in St. Louis, In fact more than 400 marches will take place on Saturday October 12^th, with future marches planned in the spring. The last march in spring of 2013 millions of people all around the world took part.

So why are so many people marching against Monsanto? My personal reasons are clear, after our dog recently died due to Roundup exposure, but why would millions march against this company?

According to Jenn; “Our big goal is to raise awareness of GMO’s and Monsanto’s crimes”

“Our biggest problem is industry funded Monsanto science. There is a ton of science that proves how dangerous GMO’s and Monsanto’s products are.”
In 1996 the New York Attorney General fined Monsanto $50,000 for false claims and extracted a promise from Monsanto to never again advertise in the state that Roundup is safe. This is just one example in the last 20+ years where deceptive advertising and lobbyists smear and stretch the truth until forced to do otherwise. In addition to this the EPA has thrown out several studies over the years finding them flawed. While that is a good thing the time it take to form and start a new study can be long, and the companies involved are allowed to use and sell their products in the meantime.

As the sign in the picture shows, Monsanto has been victimizing America for profits for a LONG time.
We need a Rachel Carson “Silent Spring” moment here, she fought against DDT, now it’s time for us to pick up the mantle and March Against Monsanto and their proven poisons.

Tags gmo, gmos, March Against Monsanto, Monsanto, Roundup

Activism Agriculture Animal Rights Anti-Monsanto Environmentalism GMO crops Sustainability

The Scourge Of Monsanto Roundup Strikes My Family

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Well, where to begin, everything seems like a haze right now.

On October the 6th 2013 our long time companion and best friend Sappho died. LITERALLY the reason that FutureFarming.org exists was to provide a safe farm environment for our dog, all of the rest was born from that single idea.

Sappho was only 9 years old and perfectly healthy last summer. Early in the fall of 2012 a nearby farmer made a HUGE “mistake” and sprayed many acres of our land. Sappho then was exposed to the Monsanto product Roundup.

It was nearly a week before we found out that she had been exposed, we had caught the farmer in the act and stopped him immediately, but not soon enough. The symptoms began to manifest as the Roundup caused our dogs body to attack itself.

The larger battle was yet to come. Three different veterinarians could not explain her illness, but also refused to concede that Roundup could do this. In fact on our last visit to the vet in August, there was a landscaping crew using Roundup right outside of the vets windows and doors.

The vets would say that the American studies here at Cornell and other places have shown how safe glyophosate is. We would point them at other studies in Europe and other places that would show her exact symptoms with Roundup exposure in both the real world and the laboratory.

William Meggs, M.D., Ph.D., School of Medicine, East Carolina University has done extensive research on Roundup and similar chemicals.

In patients who have been chemically injured by Roundup, Meggs has noted significant lymphatic hyperplasia, lymphatic tissue that is swollen and engorged. He has also found significant cobblestoning in upper airway passages. This represents chronic inflammation caused by lymphocytes migrating out of the blood stream and seeping into the tissues. Meggs has also noted thickening of the structure called the basement membrane, the structure on which the lining of cells that lines the interior of the nose sits. Meggs’ study also found a defect in the tight junctions (the joining of cells together) and a proliferation of nerve fibers.

“Chemicals bind to receptors on nerve fibers and produce something called neurogenic inflammation. These chemicals bind to these receptors and cause the release of potent substances that produce inflammation in tissue.

When chemicals bind to nerve fibers, they can produce inflammation. Inflammation, in turn, produces other changes in the tissue, and it brings in these lymphocytes. We believe that inflammation causes these barrier cells to open up and sometimes even come off the basement membrane. Below the basement membrane is the nerve fibers, so we have a process whereby a chemical exposure will damage the lining of the nose.

What happens is people have a large chemical exposure, they breathe in noxious chemicals, and this damages the epithelium. This huge exposure is able to penetrate this barrier we have between the chemicals we breathe in and these nerve cells beneath the lining layer that react to chemicals by producing inflammation. The inflammation, in turn, produces substances that cause further damage to the lining cell, and actually produce the substances which cause the tight junctions between these cells to open up. In some cases the cells actually come off and just leave these bare nerves exposed. Once you have the bare nerves exposed, low levels of chemicals that we all experience every day are enough to produce inflammation which in turn keeps the epithelium damaged.”

These were the exact symptoms Sappho was experiencing, but NO ONE would listen and treat the problem, even though they had no viable explanation and we were giving them one.
Instead the gave us pills and no answers, but that is a whole other issue.

The bigger problem was the denial of the danger in Roundup, it is much more dangerous than just glyphosate. We need to change these ideas!

Although its active ingredient is glyphosate, an organic phosphate, this is combined with other ingredients including a surfactant called polyethoxylated tallowamine that helps the product penetrate plant surfaces. Glyphosate has been used as an herbicide since the 1970s and is hailed as non-toxic and environmentally safe. But recent studies show glyphosate herbicides and Roundup in particular are more dangerous for people, animals, and the environment than previously believed, especially the combination of glyphosate and polyethoxylated tallowamin.

Critics have argued for decades that glyphosate, Roundup and other herbicides used around the globe, pose a serious threat to public health. Industry regulators, however, appear to have consistently overlooked their concerns with the help of lobbyists.
The government of El Salvador in Central America has banned the use of Glyphosate (Roundup) and 52 other dangerous chemicals. The Dutch city Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands, has also banned it. Someday Roundup will be seen as out generations DDt.

On Saturday October the 12th all over America there will be March Against Monsanto events. I strongly suggest you go if you care about food security, animals, kids or the environment. You never know when your neighbor may go crazy and spray this all over a driveway, you can get it in an department store.

There are studies over 30 years old that show how dangerous this is, the effects on the environment, people, animals and the entire planet. If we dont stop this now, there wont be a planet. Please dont let another dog, another person or even another frog die because of Monsanto Roundup and their lobbyists.

RESOURCES and STUDIES on ROUNDUP

(and other herbicides).

Glyphosate (Roundup) is one of the most toxic herbicides, and is the third most commonly reported cause of pesticide related illness among agricultural workers. Products containing glyphosate also contain other compounds, which can be toxic. Glyphosate is technically extremely difficult to measure in environmental samples, which means that data is often lacking on residue levels in food and the environment, and existent data may not be reliable.
(“Greenpeace Report – Not ready for Roundup: Glyphosate Fact Sheet,” greenpeace.org – April 1997)

Glyphosate is found in weed killers and may cause cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, nerve, and respiratory damage.
(“Special Report: what you need to know about pest control,” Natural Health Magazine, May/June 2001)

“RoundUp was found to cause significant DNA damage to erythrocytes (red blood cells) in a study done in 1997 by Clements, Ralph and Petras. RoundUp’s surfactant, POEA, is known to cause haemolysis.”
(In haemolysis, hemoglobin leaks from the red blood cells, leaving them unable to transport sufficient supplies of oxygen to the body’s tissues.)
(Clements C, Ralph S, Pertas M, 1997. Genotoxicity of select herbicides in Rana catesbeiana tadpoles using the alkaline single-cell gel DNA electrophoresis (comet) assay. Environ Mol Mutagen 1997; 29(3):277-288.)

One of the older studies I mentioned.
(Sawada Y, Nagai Y, Ueyama M, Yamamoto I, 1988. Probable toxicity of surface-active agent in commercial herbicide containing glyphosate. Lancet. 1988 Feb 6;1(8580):299.)

These are just a sample of HUNDREDS I have, if you need more feel free to write us on our contact page.
Sappho 2004 – 2013

Tags animal poisoning Roundup, glyphosate, herbicides, March Against Monsanto, Monsanto, polyethoxylated tallowamin, RESOURCES and STUDIES on ROUNDUP, Roundup

Activism Environmentalism Sustainability

What Does The Public Think Of Environmental Concerns?

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By: Keith Barrett

Environmental concerns are often in the news and often aired by celebrities and the public. However, the environment is a broad term and covers everything from global warming through to the quality of the air that we breathe, so what exactly does the term “environmental concerns” mean to people.

A Gallup poll in America addressed this in order to find out what was most the most pressing and worrying issue when it came to their environmental concerns. The study, which had also run in a previous year, actually showed that all environmental issues had actually dropped, with American citizens putting more importance on other points of concern such as fuel costs and terrorism. However, of the environmental concerns stated, the largest concern was the pollution of drinking water, with over 50% of those surveyed citing it as a particular worry.

Fears about water pollution

Second in the list, at 46%, was the pollution of rivers, lakes and of reservoirs, again hinting at the concern of the health and safety of drinking water.

Further down the list was the contamination of soil. Contamination of soil could lead to toxic products or toxins getting into the food chain through the indigestion of contaminated product through animals.

This quickly shows that the environmental concerns on the mind of Americans are those that could directly affect them and their health. This was backed up further with the next most common environmental concern being air pollution. Air pollution has been linked to increased cases of asthma and other respiratory problems as well as allergies.

Towards the bottom of the list of environmental issues was the loss of tropical rain forests, followed by the extinction of plant and animal species. Surprisingly, at the very bottom of the list was global warming with just 28% of people volunteering it as an environmental concern on their mind.

These figures definitely show that environmental concerns seem to be driven by how they could directly affect people and their families rather than how it could affect other countries or the World in general. This is a worrying environmental issue in its own right considering that some of the most pressing issues are indeed global warming and rising sea levels all of which need to be tackled sooner rather than later.

Policy impacts

Looking at this evidence of views in the United States, it seems that there must be an impact here for policy makers. In order to really get the message across on a range of green topics, it appears to be clear that there’s a real need to get the public engaged.

At present, this evidence suggests that there is a real lack of dynamic energy when observing the way that such issues are being handled. Media stories often surround extreme cases, but the public want a more reasoned debate, with informative discussion of the key problems that are being faced.

Keith Barrett writes about environmental news and on varied topics relating to environmental issues. He believes that awareness of these issues is enlightening.

Tags environment, environmental activism, Environmentalism, Green, pollution

Activism Agriculture Animal Rights Nature pestecide

A New Purdue University Study Reconfirms: Pesticides Kill Bees!

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A new USDA funded study performed by Purdue University verifies what many environmentalists have long alleged and several groups of scientists have proven. The massive beehive die-offs known as Colony Collapse Disorder are linked to factory farms and pesticides. In particular, researchers are pointing to a category of pesticides sold by the German company Bayer.

The Perfect Specicide System For Bees (brought to you by Bayer©)

According to this study , the bee deaths are connected to neonicotinoid class of pesticides, which use a synthetic derivative of nicotine. These chemicals are applied as a glaze to corn and soybean seeds prior to planting. They are then absorbed by the plant’s vascular system and the appear in pollen and nectar. Factory farms have planted MILLIONS of acres of farmland with neonicotinoid treated seeds since 2003, and this is not the first time danger has been shown. On July 23, 2010, Dutch toxicologist, Dr Henk Tennekes had a scientific paper published in the journal, Toxicology (online) titled, “Druckrey-Küpfmüller Equation For Risk Assessment” He then authored and published a book in regards to his research called “A Disaster in the Making”. The book explores the impact of neonicotinoids on the immune system of bees.

The newer Purdue study shows that Bayer’s products are far more poisonous to bees than the company wants the Government and people to think. The researchers found that “maize pollen was frequently collected by foraging honey bees while it was available: maize pollen comprised over 50% of the pollen collected by bees, by volume, in 10 of 20 samples.”
Bayer denies its pesticide has contributed to bee die-offs. (Bayer also continued to sell contaminated blood plasma causing thousands of hemophiliac patients to be infected with AIDS, as reported in the NY Times 22 May 2003, but thats another story of this evil and old company). The company says that bees do not seek corn and therefore only trace amounts of neonicotinoid containing pollen will return to hives. And to date, the EPA has propped up Bayer’s claims.

There are also some unanticipated means by which bees are exposed to the pesticides, largely caused by hefty sized commercial “factory farmers”. The highly automated world of automatic monoculture uses giant mechanical seed planters. The seeders need a powder applied to prevent the polymers used to bond the chemicals to the seeds from clogging up seed coating machine and the seed planters. This powder, along with small amount of pesticides collect in and on the seed bins. As the tractor does its rounds these bins shed a powdery waste of pure poison. This waste is dangerous to bees. The powder can contain up to 700,000 times the bee’s lethal dosage of neonicotinoid, and so of course any bees that come into make contact with it are killed. These initial population losses begin to weaken the hives.

As the pesticide cloud comes to rest on plants in close proximity to the fields and into the soil and water, there is lasting danger to bees as the pesticides are persistent in the foodchain. An dif these chemicals hurt bees, you can be sure humans, plants and other animals in the area are at risk. Any flowers or even your own home garden near treated crop fields can harbor the poison. Bees gather nectar and pollen from the flowers and other plants and will bring the neonicotinoids back to the hive. Although these small levels of the pesticide do not kill the bees, their immune systems become compromised, leaving hives vulnerable to other pressures. Also, newly developing larvae are affected by exposure to pesticides through the stored pollen, bees only source of protein. The cascading effects of these small but continuous doses can potentially devastate an entire hive. Scientists found neonicotinoid pesticides in every sample of dead and dying bees as well as in pollen the bees collected and brought back to the hives, not only in this study, but in several studies now.

The Human Hive Mind

US regulatory agencies follow a policy of relying on manufacturer funded and provided data to conclude the safety of pesticides and herbicides. Although a leaked document in 2010 revealed that EPA scientists found Bayer’s research on its neonic pesticides to be suspect, the agency has not acted to stop the sale or use of these products.

Bayer has profited over one billion dollars from its two neonic products imidacloprid and clothianidin. Given Bayer’s immense wealth and power, it seems unlikely the EPA will take action, particularly in a presidential election year. This means Colony Collapse Disorder is likely to continue to devastate bee populations, leaving reverberating effects on the environment for generations to come. Honeybees are responsible for 80 per cent of all pollination as they collect nectar for the hive, t The mortality rate is the highest in living memory

This type of insecticide was banned in France, Slovenia and Germany after this step the bee populations began to rise again.

Tell the EPA and the US President to take action BAN neonic products like imidacloprid and clothianidin.

Sources:

http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/01/purdue-study-implicates-bayer-insecticide-bee-die-offs

http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120111KrupkeBees.html

http://www.panna.org/blog/banner-week-bee-science-zombie-flies-poisonous-planter-exhaust

Tags activism, bayer, bee, bees, environment, environmental activism, Environmentalism, Food saftey, Green, nature, pestecide, pollen, purdue, study, Sustainability, USDA

Activism Environmentalism Fracking Green Energy Nature Solar Sustainability Wind

Is Obama Set To Be The Worst Environmental President Ever?

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As pressure mounts with the upcoming election season is President Obama on track to be the worst environmental President ever? And why are more people not talking about it?

President Obama made many promises that captured the imagination of young and old liberal Americans, now some years later we see he is just a politician like all the others. He will make “pie in the sky” promises to get elected, but when its time deliver you get only excuses about how hard it is, or how his former position is somehow no longer valid. It is ok to change one’s position on an issue as new information becomes available, this is rational I will agree. But how can continuing, escalating and adding to Americas wars in any way be good? He promised to close Guantanamo Bay, immigration reform, create green jobs, take action on climate change, reform healthcare etc, etc. You could argue he has done what he can, but I do not believe that. So here are some of the bigger fails of the Obama environmental policy.

Tar Sands and Pipelines.

Recently tarsandsaction.org held a two week sit in, the White House’s response to this peaceful protest? The Park Police/ D.C SWAT team arrested 1,252 people, even a few famous ones. The Keystone XL pipeline is a danger to eco-systems from Alberta, Canada to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and even as far east as Patoka, Illinois. The Keystone XL has been and is being built in phases. Phase one is from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Kansas then on to Patoka, Illinois, with a stop off in Wood River Il, this was 1853 miles of pipe completed in June of 2010. Phase 2 was from Steele City to Cushing Ok, another 300 miles of pipe that was completed in Feb. 2011. Proposed by 2013 is a 435 mile extension from Cushing to Port Arthur and Houston Texas, AND another 1,179 miles in a second pipeline from Hardisty to Steele City. The second pipeline is to cross the Bakken formation, to tap domestic oil in pristine lands in Montana and North Dakota, yet another amazing violation of nature for only about a one year supply of oil in the Bakken formation, and oil in the tar sands that takes 10 calories of energy to produce one calorie of oil, that’s a major energy loss.

Air Pollution

Recently a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, author and scientist named Joe Romm said that allowing Presidents Bush’s proposed smog regulations to be realized would have been better than President Obama’s recent decision to eliminate regulations all together. He did so after asking the environmental organizations to drop pending lawsuits, then he did the opposite of what was promised.

Joe Romm on Countdown

Oil Drilling

Under President Obama we had the worlds largest environmental disaster in world history. Of course the Gulf of Mexico/ Deepwater Horizon oil spill was not Obama’s fault, but how he and his team handled it IS his fault. And immediately following the final plugging of this well, the President almost immediately allowed drilling permits again, even with no revision of safety and drilling procedures, AND without Haliburton going out of business for their millionth deadly mistake. And while he was at it, the President recently added exploration in Alaska, even more than President Bush had proposed.

Coal

As Appalachian communities suffer from disease, environmental devastation, excessive flooding and water contamination caused by mountaintop coal removal, the President still has not reduced coal usage, or even tried. . The President has had ample time and backing from the Environmental Protection Agency, Army corps of Engineers and the Dept. of Interior, and yet he supported scams like cap and trade and “clean coal”. First of all I think most of us know the pitfalls of cap and trade, but something that I want Americans to know is that there is no such thing as clean coal. From harvest to burn its dirty EVERY step of the way.

Nuclear Power

Nuclear power is often said to be the “clean” alternative, and though it may “burn” more cleanly than coal or oil, it produces waste that cannot be disposed of. On top of this the tsunami in Japan recently pointed out how easy it is to have an accidental meltdown as we do somewhere in the world every decade or so.

C.A.F.O. Closed Animal Feeding Operations and Factory Farms

Though seldom discussed, a lot of pollution, greenhouse gasses and water waste are in the agricultural field. I have never hear the words “factory farm” or CAFO from any Presidents mouth, let alone the “environmental President” which Obama had been labeled when he was elected.

——————————————————————————————-

These are only a few of the lies and short sighted policies that Obama has furthered and that our former leaders used to get us where we are. A lot of promises have fallen to the altar of jobs, I hope all those who want oil drilling or coal mining jobs know they are not providing for their children, but killing them. Obama is sending us up the river with no paddle, and water so polluted that the boat will soon begin to melt…we are sinking…hope you can all swim in coal sludge and nitrates.

Or maybe you can all just vote for a better candidate, like our FutureFarming.org family dog Sappho

Tags clean coal, coal, drill, keystone XL, Obama, oil, Tar Sands

Activism Agriculture Environmentalism Self-Reliability Sustainability Urban Gardening

Book Review: Omnivore's Dilemma

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If you need a good starting point in your quest to understand our food system and how it relates to everything else in our history and culture, this would be a good read for you.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Now here is a book that I would recommend as a ‘must-read’ for everyone. There are many excellent books that focus on our present food issues, but Michael Pollan has clarity and a straightforward personality that will reach all audiences. Pollan writes about the concerns we are all starting to have, but remains extremely real and grounded. He is someone who you could imagine hanging out and having a beer with. He isn’t going to look down his nose at you for eating a hamburger, or lecture you about the evils of the banana you are putting into your mouth. Instead, he’ll sip his beer and tell his fascinating stories of his own discoveries; the journeys he has embarked on to find answers to those gnawing questions we have about our food. He’ll make you think a little, and perhaps change your mind about some of the ways that you eat.

I have to admit, I’d been putting off reading any of Michael Pollan’s book for awhile. Maybe I felt there was too much hype about them and was afraid I’d be disappointed if they weren’t as good as everyone claimed. Or maybe I didn’t want to read the awful truths I knew he’d be revealing. Now I realize what I have been missing. Omnivore’s Dilemma gives a lot of detail about the bits and pieces I already have learned about our food system—that part I was expecting. What I wasn’t expecting was his humor … and his humanness. Unlike some others who write about food and our culture, he never once ‘talks down’ to the reader, nor does he seem to live an unrealistic, purist lifestyle. He simply takes a long, hard look at the ways we, as a species, eat, and puts into words all the things we wonder about as human beings when we really begin to contemplate our food. Most amazingly, he finally admits that with everything having been said, he might still once in a while happen to eat a McDonald’s hamburger. Even though, he says, he is losing his taste and appetite for industrial food, just like so many of us are.

I love the 4 parts of the book and their focus on different types of meals: The Industrial Food Chain, The Big Organic Food Chain, The Local and Sustainable Meal, and the Foraged/Gardened/Hunted Meal.

The history of our Industrial Food chain didn’t provide me any huge surprises, since I have read so much about it already, but the history of corn was nice. I was amused by Pollan’s viewpoint of corn’s success as a species, and how the plant itself is, evolutionarily speaking, the winner in the whole deal.

I have been a little suspicious of Big Organic for quite some time, so it’s nice to have an author address the issue. Yes, Pollan writes, it’s good to avoid pouring chemicals into our earth and water…but growing organic food on a big scale to meet the demands of a national market has huge drawbacks. The techniques of cultivating the land, bringing in compost/manure if it’s not made onsite, and storing and shipping the harvested food turns out to be just as fuel-burning as conventional food production. Pollan claims that going organic on a big scale is an improvement, and gives us more choices…but that we can do better.

His chapters covering the Local, Sustainable food chain really had me sitting up in my chair, because it’s something I believe in. He spent some time living at and helping with Polyface Farm (a ‘grass farm’ in Virginia that produces sustainable chicken, pork, beef, eggs and produce) and goes into great detail describing the amazing ways this farm operates. Polyface Farm is the kind of agricultural operation that I imagine when I think of a future of sustainable agriculture. Joel Salatin, the owner, has incredible wisdom about what he is doing, and farms like his are quietly spreading the idea that we, as eaters and consumers, do not have to settle for the Industrial Agricultural system.

I’ll never view hunting in quite the same way after reading about his Gathered/Gardened/Hunted meal. Pollan really put into perspective some of the struggles I’ve had about eating meat in these chapters. I’ve been ‘almost a vegetarian’ for years…the key word being ‘almost’. Pollan brought a lot of issues up that resonated with me and my still-wanting-to-have-meat-sometimes struggles. He gives a lot of thought to what a person needs to be responsible for and have knowledge about if they are going to eat meat. What if the walls of our CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) were completely transparent? What if everyone knew exactly what was involved in getting that ‘inexpensive’ meat all the way to their plate? Pollan believes, and I full-heartedly agree, that if the business of meat processing were not ‘out of the way and out of view’, many more of us would completely lose our taste for meat.

My favorite part of Omnivore’s Dilemma is Pollan’s enthusiasm for the ability each one of us has to make choices and changes. In his Young Reader’s Edition of the book (which is highly valuable in its own right), aimed at middle/high school students, he includes an afterword called “Vote with Your Fork”. He states that “It’s an exciting time to be an eater in America. You have choices today that your parents couldn’t have dreamed of: organic, local, CSAs, humanely raised milk and meat. When they were your age, there was basically only one way to feed yourself: from the industrial food chain. You have the option of eating from a very different food chain—you can vote with your fork for a better world, one delicious bite at a time.” Indeed!

I highly recommend this book by Michael Pollan, and actually, I recommend reading the Young Reader’s Edition as well.

Tags kids, Urban Gardening

Activism Agriculture Sustainability

Feeding People is Easy- A Book Review

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Colin Tudge’s Book lays out a plan for ‘fixing’ our current food economy.

This is a quick read (maybe a few hours), but it is pretty packed with ideas. In some ways, Colin Tudge seemed to oversimplify some political and social issues, but in all, this is a valuable book if you want to start thinking about how it’s possible to make changes in our current agricultural system.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Colin Tudge, a British scientist, lays out a plan for ‘fixing’ our current food economy. He explores the question “WHY? Why are we failing so miserably at feeding ourselves properly?” In a world of extremes, where millions of children go blind from, and die of, starvation–and millions more children are obese and developing diseases related to that obesity–how do we go about fixing the problems we face? Not only that, how do we develop an agricultural system that will sustain our species not only for our children, but indefinitely?

He puts to paper some key ideas that make absolute sense. He emphasizes more than once that ‘taking on’ the power structure simply won’t work. A couple of chapters are devoted to the history of the corporation and why our global economy currently runs on the wheels of governments and corporations whose prime goal is to keep the cash flowing. Reform simply will not work, he claims, when there is so much to change and when the ‘powers-that-be’ perceive there is too much to lose. Flabbergasted by the apparent lack of concern for our obviously faulty agricultural system, and realizing that many of the world’s injustices are tied to this failing system, he says that if we can get agriculture right, everything else will start to fall into place.

He eschews the idea of a revolution on the principle that the outcome can be totally unpredictable. Instead of reform or revolution, he describes a renaissance. In this renaissance of “Enlightened Agriculture”, many groups with like minded ideas of preserving the planet, avoiding cruelty to humans and animals, and creating a sustainable life for everyone on the planet will come together and just start LIVING that life. They will be part of a “Worldwide Food Club” of growers, bakers, cooks, craftspeople, and consumers, all who ‘give a damn’ about quality food and life. If enough people catch on and opt out of mass merchandising and junk food, the status quo may be forced to adjust accordingly.

Tudge spends some time describing what constitutes nutrition for human beings, and how we have plenty of farmland to keep everyone in the world fed according to those basic nutritional tenets. He goes further than just making sure we are ‘efficiently’ and ‘adequately’ fed. He admits that for humans, nutrition is about much more than just being sustained–we love our food, we care about variety and texture and taste. He claims that part of the beauty of his plan is that we can get back to traditional cooking, and real food, and that we will never feel deprived. Everyone needs to know how to cook, at least in the most basic ways. Every country needs to get back to having a food culture that revolves around what can be grown, what is in season. Self-reliance is the most important thing for each country of the world if we are to fix our food problems(not necessarily self-sufficience, because some trading, within the guidelines of common sense, will go a long way to enhance life).

He discusses the current organic movement and says that many of its practices can be a model for how we need to farm. However, the monocultures that exist today, even in organic farming, need to be replaced with many mini-farms, similar to the family farms thatexisted in our past; farms run by good farmers and that produce a huge variety of foods and a small amount of livestock. He welcomes technology to the extent that it enhances agriculture without overtaking it or without harming the environment.

Tudge imagines an agrarian economy, where 20 to 50 percent of the population are farmers. These farmers will help ensure that our food supply is stable, and the rest of the population will have various livelihoods much like they already do, while supporting the farms. Just this ‘simple’ idea, to me, brings up a host of challenges and problems, for it would force a lot of our current economy to restructure. Tudge admits this is true and discusses some of those challenges. He suggests the idea of The College for Enlightened Agriculture, filled with sociologists, scientists, moral philosophers, and yes, politicians, who will work through the issues and find ways to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes in the future. He claims that his ideas follow capitalism in its purest form, and he believes that capitalism could have worked beautifully if corporations had been kept in check, but I admit I was a little unclear on how everything could fit together when so much of the world still firmly believes in the ‘bottom line’ and making as much cash as possible. His vision is somewhat utopian in that he believes so many people will appreciate getting by comfortably without needing to get filthy rich. I personally feel this way–I’ve never been driven by greed or money–but I am skeptical when I’m surrounded by so many who are. Still, the idea that a new agrarian society could work, and that we could just ease right into it with enough people wanting that change, is extremely appealing.

It sounds like a revolutionary new world order to me, but Tudge seems certain that it’s attainable with few ‘growing pains’. In fact, he says that not only is this new approach to agriculture possible, it’s absolutely necessary, or we are all dead. Most people today are becoming very aware that the way we currently approach agriculture is completely unsustainable. He welcomes technology to the extent that it enhances agriculture without overtaking it or without harming the environment.

What things can each person do right now? Find those farmer’s markets and support them. Learn the lost art of cooking. Treat food like it’s important. Start learning about groups that, in Tudge’s words “give a damn”, like those who support fair trade, organic farming, non-cruelty to livestock. Live life happily and as an example, and spread the word that we don’t have to continue eating junk and perpetuating a world of injustice. If enough people make their own changes, and start networking together, we can make the necessary changes without an uproarious revolution. Possible? Maybe. Reading books like this one is a start.

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Tags food crisis, food security, nature, Urban Gardening