Food News You Can Use

September 9, 2011

  • Pests Evolve Resistance to Monsanto’s Bt Corn: First confirmed in Iowa in July of this year, corn pests have now evolved resistance to Monsanto’s genetically engineered Bt Corn. The resistance appears to have spread to Illinois. This is not just bad news for Monsanto, it’s also bad news for organic farming and gardening, which uses the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) as an organic insecticide. Bt produces a crystal protein that is toxic to many pest insects. Monsanto’s Bt crops are engineered to produce the same protein in every cell of the plant. Once pests evolve resistance to Bt, all farmers will lose Bt as a tool.
  • Food Emergency: How the World Bank and IMF Have Made African Famine Inevitable: An excellent piece on Alternet shows how the World Bank & IMF lending policies contributed to the current devastating famine in the Horn of Africa.
  • It’s Raining Chemicals: Small farmer Steph Larsen tells how it feels when her neighbors spray fungicides from a crop duster plane next door.
  • California Might Ban The Sale of Shark Fins: Fish expert Clare Leschin-Hoar tells how the shark fin ban that just passed the California State Senate will impact sharks – and fisherfolk – should the Governor sign it.
  • Back to School and Back to School Lunch: If you are one of the many parents who are horrified at what the school serves your kids for lunch, Marion Nestle serves up an array of resources to help you take action.
  • Strawberries Con Cancer, A California Specialty: California, the state that produces the vast majority of strawberries sold in the US, is still under fire for its controversial decision to legalize methyl iodide, a potent carcinogen, for use on strawberries. As it turns out, California ignored its own scientists when making this decision.
  • USDA Warns Industry of Another Fake Organic Certificate from China: French certifier Ecocert alerted theĀ National Organic Program to the circulation of the secondĀ fraudulent organic certificate produced by an uncertified operation in China this year. The USDA said that the certificate “falsely represents three food ingredient products– organic hibiscus, jasmine and beet root powder– as certified organic under National Organic Program (NOP) regulations.”

Filed under: GMOs,In the News

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