Fwd: [Biodemocracy]Organic Bytes #15

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Wed, 11 Jun 2003 15:35:14 -0500

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[biodemocracy]Organic Bytes #15

 

 

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ORGANIC BYTES ~~~ Organic news tidbits with an edge!

 

 

 

Issue 15: June 11, 2003 By Organic Consumers Association

 

 

 

IN THIS ISSUE:

BIOPIRATE BOOTY & FRANKENFOODS FOR ALL

 

QUICK QUIRKY QUOTE

 

HUMAN CHILDREN ARE ACTUALLY GUINEA PIGS!

 

CRITICS SHOULDN'T BE SO CRITICAL

 

FORCE FED FUNKY FODDER

 

WEIRD FOOD NEWS TIDBIT OF THE WEEK

 

MEAT-EATERS: GO ORGANIC OR GO MAD

 

STARBUCKS BULLIES ABORIGINAL TRIBE

 

ALL WE ARE IS WHEAT IN THE WIND

 

 

 

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BIOPIRATE BOOTY & FRANKENFOODS FOR ALL

 

Thanks to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and a host of " free trade "

agreements, it is completely legal for a large corporation to patent and own

the genes of individual plants, animals, indigenous medicines and even

humans. The WTO states that all member countries must honor all patents

filed in the U.S. or face economic sanctions, also known as cross

retaliation. In other words, the U.S. can legally impose economic sanctions

on Mexico if the Mayan people use their traditional herbal medicines without

paying royalties to transnational corporations like Dow Chemical, which now

owns patents on some of these thousand- year- old remedies. Heck, it's even

legal to patent the genes of the shaman who gives you that medicine. Since

the mid-90s, there has been a deluge of U.S. patent applications on human

genes of tribal peoples all over the world. Thanks to the WTO, even your

genes can be legally owned by corporations or individuals. And now the Bush

Administration plans to use a secret trade tribunal of the WTO to force

Frankenfoods down the throats of Europeans and consumers worldwide. Ticked

off? Do something about it:

 

 

 

Join the OCA and other public interest groups protesting against the WTO and

Frankencrops in Sacramento, California (June 20-25) and/or travel on an

escorted OCA delegation to attend the historic teach-ins and protests at the

next international WTO Ministerial meeting in Cancun Mexico (Sept. 4-11)

http://www.organicconsumers.org/wto_cancun.htm

 

 

 

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QUICK QUIRKY QUOTE

 

" If all the rich people in the world divided up their money among themselves

there wouldn't be enough to go around. "

 

Christina Stead (1903 - 1983), House of All Nations (1938) " Credo "

 

 

 

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HUMAN CHILDREN ARE ACTUALLY GUINEA PIGS!

 

Despite a landslide of public comments opposing the idea, the USDA has

decided to begin bombarding school lunches with massive doses of radiation.

Food safety groups slammed the decision, saying the action turns schools

into the world's foremost purveyors of inadequately tested irradiated food,

forcing millions of children to serve as guinea pigs. Countless studies have

shown that irradiated foods lose nutrients, acquire known carcinogens, and

contain new chemical compounds unique to irradiated foods. Local school

boards will have the choice of refusing this dubious gift-which is actually

more expensive. Spread the word and call your school board members now!

 

Take Action -- http://www.organicconsumers.org/irradlink.html

 

 

 

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CRITICS SHOULDN'T BE SO CRITICAL

 

Writers, musicians, artists.even restaurateurs have to learn to accept both

good and bad reviews, as it's all just part of the business. But when one of

Italy's top food critics recently wrote that McDonald's hamburgers tasted

like rubber and the French fries like cardboard, the fast food chain decided

they shouldn't have to put up with a bad review. So they're suing the

critic. McDonald's has actually done this in the past and somehow won, but

critic Edoardo Raspelli says he's not backing down, and he still thinks

their food is nasty.

 

Full story -- http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/mcdonalds060503.cfm

 

 

 

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FORCE FED FUNKY FODDER

 

The last issue of Organic Bytes (#14) took a good look at President Bush's

recent decision to file a complaint to the World Trade Organization against

the EU, based on the " problem " that European consumers are freely able to

choose not to eat genetically mutated foods. The U.S. filed the complaint

and was only able to whip four other nations of the world into supporting

it: Argentina, Australia, Egypt and Canada. Unfortunately for G.W., Egypt

has now withdrawn its support of Bush's aggressive stance against the EU,

citing " the need to preserve adequate and effective consumer and

environmental protection. " Bush added fuel to the fire by blaming world

hunger on the European decision not to import GE foods. European leaders are

downright confused by this accusation, pointing out that the US currently

ranks 22nd in the percentage of its gross national income devoted to foreign

aid - the lowest of any industrial nation.

 

Learn more -- http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/rifkin060203.cfm

 

 

 

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WEIRD FOOD NEWS TIDBIT OF THE WEEK

 

Arlington Massachusetts is currently home to the world's only " Burnt Food

Museum " . The museum's art pieces range from a ten year old burnt apple cake

to permanently preserved burned shrimp kabobs. Although the museum normally

pulls in over 25,000 visitors every year, it is currently closed.due to fire

damage.

 

http://www.burntfoodmuseum.com/.

 

 

 

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MEAT-EATERS: GO ORGANIC OR GO MAD

 

Some cattle ranchers are actually profiting from the new Canadian

occurrences of Mad Cow Disease, which can be fatal to humans, once they have

eaten the meat. The organic beef market is enjoying a tasty little boom, as

consumers are salivating for safe and humanely raised meats. This is

catching many leading food-industry economists off-guard. They can't figure

out why consumers are showing a preference for pure, free-range organics

over factory farmed meats that are laden with toxic pesticides, growth

hormones, antibiotics, radiation and potentially fatal diseases. It may take

hundreds of thousands of dollars before these economists finally have to

file this one as an " unsolved mystery " .

 

Read all about it -- http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/oca060503.cfm

 

 

 

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STARBUCKS BULLIES ABORIGINAL TRIBE

 

Starbucks, a self-proclaimed promoter of fair trade, is suing an indigenous

owned cafe in a tiny B.C. town over the restaurant's name " Haida Bucks " .

According to Darren Swanson, the store owner, " Aboriginal men are called

bucks. The three aboriginal partners are all Haidas. That's how we came up

with the name. " Swanson said that as a matter of principle, instead of

changing the restaurant name, he'd rather use the little money he has left

over to fight Starbucks, which raked in $3.3 billion dollars in revenue last

year.

 

Get involved -- http://www.organicconsumers.org/starbucks/

 

 

 

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ALL WE ARE IS WHEAT IN THE WIND

 

Farmers all over North America are worried about what will happen if

Monsanto's application for genetically engineered wheat is approved. Since

wheat pollen travels on the wind, the engineered genes are certain to

eventually spread throughout the wheat growing region, thus closing many

foreign markets--even to farmers who choose to grow conventional or organic

wheat. In fact, tests are showing that the US wheat supply is already

contaminated. Genes from GE corn and soybeans that have passed through the

same grain-handling facilities are showing up in unmilled wheat and in

flour. " We've already got GM contamination in wheat in small levels from

non-GM sources, " said one U.S. milling source. " If we can't keep the corn

and soybeans out of the wheat, how are we going to keep the GM wheat out of

the wheat? "

Full story -- http://www.organicconsumers.org/wheat

 

 

 

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FOR MANY MORE FOOD ISSUE DAILY HEADLINES:

 

 

 

 

ORGANIC BYTES is a publication of:

 

ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION

 

6101 Cliff Estate Road Little Marais, MN 55614

 

Phone: (218) 226-4164, Fax: (218) 353-7652

 

 

 

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NOTE TO CO-OP AND NATURAL FOOD STORE SUBSCRIBERS:

 

Organic Bytes is a great tool for keeping you staff and customers up to date

on the latest issues. Feel free to forward this email to your staff and

print for posting on bulletin boards and staff break tables. You are also

welcome to use this material for your newsletters. There's a super pretty

print-friendly PDF version of this available for free download

 

 

 

 

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