Fw: Organic Bytes: Crises, Standards, & Solutions

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Organic Consumers Association

Thursday, May 07, 2009 8:07 AM

Organic Bytes: Crises, Standards, & Solutions

 

Welcome to another exciting issue of Organic Bytes: Health, Justice and

Sustainability News

 

May 7, 2009

Organic Bytes #172

Health, Justice and Sustainability News

 

from the Organic Consumers Association

http://www.organicconsumers.org

 

 

 

In This Issue

 

In This Issue:

-Quotes of the Week: On the Contemporary Crisis

-Alert Update of the Week: Swine Flu: Reprieve or Lull Before the Storm?

-Health Tip of the Week: Swine Flu and the Pandemic of 1918 -- How Homeopathy

Cured Flu Victims

-Alert of the Week: Safeguard Organic Standards

-Consumer Tip of the Week: Organic & Sustainable on a Food Stamp Budget

-Web Video of the Week: Pete Seeger at 90

-Headlines and Articles of the Week

 

 

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Alert Update of the Week: Swine Flu:

Reprieve or Lull Before the Storm?

 

Scientists and health officials, who scared the wits out of us last week, are

today trying to reassure us that the first wave of the Swine Flu--now spreading

across the Northern Hemisphere--is apparently not as virulent and

life-threatening as future mutated waves of this H1N1 virus might be in the

fall. Mexican health officials and the Wall Street Journal also revealed a few

days ago that the pigs in Mexico that likely set off the epidemic are not native

Mexican pigs, but rather pigs from Smithfield Foods' factory farms in the U.S.

that were shipped to Mexico.

 

The rather alarming bottom line, however, is that CAFOs (Concentrated Animal

Feeding Operations) pose a deadly threat to our health.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17763.cfm

 

Swine CAFOs, such as Smithfield, as well as giant poultry operations, such as

those operated by Tyson Foods and Perdue, produce cheap food by cramming

thousands of animals together inside hellish disease-ridden factory farms,

injecting pigs and chickens with powerful vaccines and antibiotics to keep them

alive, thereby putting enormous pressure on swine and bird viruses and pathogens

like MRSA to evolve into dangerous killers. Filthy and disease-ridden factory

farms for pigs and chickens, maintained by exploited and often unhealthy farm

workers, kept in operation only with massive injections of animal drugs, are a

biological time bomb set to explode. Hopefully a mutated H1N1 Swine/Bird Flu

virus will not kill millions of us when it returns to the Northern Hemisphere in

the fall. Unfortunately many scientists warn us that it is not a question of if,

but rather when, a future swine/bird/human virus will kill millions--unless we

shut down the CAFOs and transform the current insane global industrial/factory

farm agriculture system into a chemical and drug-free organic system, whereby

local and regional organic farms produce healthy food for local and regional

markets.

 

Tell President Obama to shut down factory farms now, before it's too late:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27144

 

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Health Tip of the Week:

Swine Flu and the Pandemic of 1918 --- How Homeopathy Cured Flu Victims

 

A recent comprehensive epidemiological study of some 61,000 confirmed cases of

Spanish Flu from 1918-19 by Canadian physician, Dr. Andre Saine, shows that

patients treated with a form of alternative medicine called homeopathy had death

rates of 0.7 percent compared to death rates in the untreated and from

conventional care of 30 percent or more. Is homeopathy something that we should

be looking into as a possible source of prevention and cure for the H1N1 virus?

 

Learn more:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17822.cfm

 

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Alert of the Week:

Safeguard Organic Standards

 

The National Organic Standards Board is supposed to serve as the organic

community's watchdog on organic standards. Twice yearly, the NOSB holds public

meetings. The Organic Consumers Fund, the voice of organic consumers in the

nation's Capitol, has already submitted written comments, and we will also

present testimony in person at the May 4-6 meeting, in Washington, DC. Our

comments cover several topics the NOSB will be discussing and voting on in May,

including:

 

* biodiversity * modified atmospheric packaging that creates an appearance of

freshness even after food has spoiled * organic fraud in the personal care

products market * needed oversight of the UDSA NOP by a peer review panel *

nanotechnology * phasing out non-organic versions of ingredients when organic

becomes available * on-farm burning of elemental sulfur (and the resulting

emission of sulfur dioxide, a source of acid rain) to create sulfurous acid for

crops like wine grapes that like acidified soil

 

Please endorse OCF's comments and add your own:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17780.cfm

 

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Consumer Tip of the Week:

Organic & Sustainable on a Food Stamp Budget

 

Although the organic food movement has been criticized for being elitist,

organic sales are still increasing, despite the economic crisis. A surprisingly

large percentage of organic enthusiasts are low to middle-income consumers who

were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Documenting how this can be

done, Siobhan Phillips and her husband embarked on an experiment to eat only

SOLE foods - sustainable, organic, local or ethical foods - on the

government-defined, food-stamp minimum: $248 per month for two people.

 

Read their story here:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17726.cfm

 

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Web Video of the Week:

The Power of Music--Pete Seeger at 90

 

Watch this American Masters piece from PBS on Pete Seeger, who is celebrating

his 90th brithday this week. Seeger has spent his lifetime and his musical

career focusing on issues of peace, social justice and the environment. His

birthday serves as a good opportunity to showcase how this individual has used

the power of music to affect millions for a better future.

 

Watch: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17803.cfm

 

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Articles and Headlines of the Week:

 

1) Putting Organic Baby Food to the Test

Grist Magazine compares popular organic baby food brands' prices, packaging and

corporate practices.

Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17769.cfm

 

2) Parabens Hidden on Product Ingredients Labels as 'Honeysuckle Extract'

Some companies are tricking consumers into thinking their products do not have

Parabens, but the potential toxin is actually present and hidden in the

ingredients list as " Japanese Honeysuckle " , a natural source of Parabens but

chemically identical to the synthetic variety.

Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17679.cfm

 

3) Study Finds Food-Wrapper Chemicals in Blood

" A new scientific study has for the first time found a new group of chemicals

used in coatings on food wrappers in human blood... "

Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17767.cfm

 

4) Honeybee Collapse Strikes Japan

Up to Fifty Percent of Honeybees Gone The phenomenon is known as colony collapse

disorder, in which large numbers of worker bees simply vanish. This wide scale

collapse of bee populations could mean food shortages...

Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17704.cfm

 

5) When Big Business and Academia Mix, Where is the Line?

Monsanto has appointed a new member to its board of directors. David Chicoine

will receive nearly a half million dollars for his new position with Monsanto,

and, at the same time, he will continue to serve as the Land Grant president

with the University of South Dakota, overseeing academic ag research funded, in

part, by Monsanto. Is it enough for him to claim there will be no bias?

Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17823.cfm

 

For an Overview of Monsanto's Greenwashing efforts see: Blood Money: Monsanto

and Its Philanthropy http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17815.cfm

 

 

 

 

 

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