Food & Health

Cash Mob Flyer full-size

Cash Mob @Farmer’s Market!

Cash Mob!Our goal is to support local family farmers by each spending $20 at the Alachua County 441 Farmers Market. Come check it out Saturday, February 4th 8:30AM to 1:00PM. Click here to see the flyer.

via Florida Organic Growers.

Read more »

Recent Posts

Enjoying a home fire leads to serious pollution problems

Lighting coal and wood fires will lead to hefty fines under a town hall’s plans to avoid a return to the “pea-souper” smogs of yesteryear.
Tory-run Wandsworth council plans to introduce a borough-wide “smoke control area” to stop residents lighting fires in homes. A town hall report said the move was based on the “growing contribution [...]

Read more »

Top BPA sources | cleveland.com

A growing body of research suggests that exposure to BPA, or bisphenol-A, a synthetic chemical found in plastic, is more dangerous than previously thought.
The American Chemistry Council has defended the wide use of BPA and said that low doses of the chemical pose no human health risks. Still, the National Institutes of Health noted [...]

Read more »

Monsanto takes GMOs further to 2,4-D

Tom Laskawy writes for Grist:
When I wrote recently about the next generation of genetically engineered seeds, I was in truth referring to the next next generation. The fact is that the next actual generation of seeds is already out of the lab and poised for approval by the USDA.
And I’m not talking about Monsanto’s recently approved [...]

Read more »

Green Drinks Feb. 1!

Greetings, Green Drinkers and Cinema Verde Fans!

We had a great January candidates forum at Blue Water Bay – thanks to Shawn Sheppard and Jason Fults, as well to all of you who joined us! And now it’s time for some more fun next week…

Green Drinks (www.gogreennation.org/category/green-drinks/) will be held 6 – [...]

Read more »

Cinema Verde Sponsor Reception

CCBLogo

Greetings, Green Drinkers and Cinema Verde Fans!

We had a great January candidates forum at Blue Water Bay – thanks to Shawn Sheppard and Jason Fults, as well to all of you who joined us! And now it’s time for some more fun next week…

Jan. 30 Sponsor Reception: Don Davis will host a reception to thank [...]

Read more »

Fracking chemicals spill into Texas creeks

Fracking Denton Creek Txsharon

Sharon Wilson in Texas reports:
Huge thanks go to Brett Shipp for staying on this story. To recap:

A chemical plant blew up and I knew right away that fracking was involved.
Chemical fire spawns fish kill, criminal investigation
Waxahachie chemical firm cited for environmental violations
Chemical plant relocation upsetting Ellis County residents
Ellis County Commissioners catch heat from chemical plant [...]

Read more »

Monsanto biopiracy

India’s Environmental Support Group on Monsanto:
If you missed watching Al Jazeera’s The Stream special on Monsanto’s biopiracy in India while advancing Bt Brinjal, and its implications, you can catch it on You Tube. Its about 45 mins. long).  The programme covers many diverse issues, in addition to biopiracy.
The programme was hosted by Derrick Ashong, musician [...]

Read more »

Study Finds Mercury in More Northeastern Bird Species – NYTimes.com

mercury bird

The strict new federal standards limiting pollution from power plants are meant to safeguard human health. But they should have an important side benefit, according to a study being released on Tuesday: protecting a broad array of wildlife that has been harmed by mercury emissions. Songbirds and bats suffer some of the same types of [...]

Read more »

Pollinators play a critical role

bee-flickr-panna

Grist reports:
Anyone who’s been stung by a bee knows they can inflict an outsized pain for such tiny insects. It makes a strange kind of sense, then, that their demise would create an outsized problem for the food system by placing the more than 70 cropsthey pollinate — from almonds to apples to blueberries — [...]

Read more »

GMO corn leading to pesticide resistant bugs

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) – Monsanto Co. corn that is genetically engineered to kill insects may be losing effectiveness against rootworms in four states, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.
Rootworms in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska are suspected of developing tolerance of the plants’ insecticide, based on documented cases of severe crop damage and reports from [...]

Read more »

Solving climate change reduces health care costs

Lauren Simenauer writes in Science Progress:
Delegates from 194 parties are meeting in Durban, South Africa, for the annual U.N. Conference of Parties, or COP, climate change conference. Among topics being addressed is the reduction of carbon emissions worldwide, clean energy funding in lower-income nations, and the future of the Kyoto Protocol. One lesser-discussed issue that [...]

Read more »

Get your fresh eggs from free hens

Blogger Happy Homesteader writes:
If you are of a certain age, you will remember the 1980’s anti-drug advertisement where they fry the egg and opine “This is your brain on drugs”.  Well folks this yolk is your body on drugs.  It comes from a chicken that eats sub-standard food and a pharmaceutical soup of antibiotics and [...]

Read more »

Occupy the Food System

Willie Nelson appeals to everyone who eats to support small farmers and save the food system:
Thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement, there’s a deeper understanding about the power that corporations wield over the great majority of us. It’s not just in the financial sector, but in all facets of our lives. The disparity between [...]

Read more »

Major retailers capitulate to Monsanto

Ronnie Cummins of Organic Consumers Association takes the issue on:
“The policy set for GE alfalfa will most likely guide policies for other GE crops as well. True coexistence is a must.”   -  Whole Foods Market, Jan. 21, 2011
In the wake of a 12-year battle to keep Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation’s [...]

Read more »

Can air fresheners make you sick? | Grist

air-fresheners2

Let’s get the New Year off to a fresh start by tackling this sickening situation. In public spaces across the country, including offices, stores, restaurants, airports, and schools, air "freshener" is being forced upon us. Daily we are subjected to known carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and other toxic substances. Sounds like a horror film, but it [...]

Read more »

Building The Midnight’s New Edible Wall Garden | Gainesville Compost

midnight-garden-lights

By Chris Cano
Check out the Midnight garden, a canvas of “living art” powered by compost produced from the food waste of the Gainesville local restaurant community, including The Midnight’s fruit and vegetable scraps which we collect each week via bicycle.
via Building The Midnight’s New Edible Wall Garden [Photo Story] | Gainesville Compost.

Read more »

U.S. sets limits on fisheries

By Juliet Eilperin, Published: January 8, Washington Post

In an effort to sustain commercial and recreational fishing for the next several decades, the United States this year will become the first country to impose catch limits for every species it manages, from Alaskan pollock to Caribbean queen conch.
Although the policy has attracted scant attention outside the community [...]

Read more »

Antibiotic restriction is a first step

Tom Philpott of Mother Jones looks at the numbers:
For a few months now, President Obama’s FDA has been showing zero appetite for standing up to the meat industry on factory-farm livestock use. In two key decisions (here and here), the agency declined to impose real restrictions on farm drug use, promoting a “voluntary” approach instead.
But [...]

Read more »

FDA restricts anitibiotic use in farm animals

The New York Times reports:
WASHINGTON — Federal drug regulators announced on Wednesday that farmers and ranchers must restrict their use of a critical class of antibioticsin cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys because such practices may have contributed to the growing threat in people of bacterial infections that are resistant to treatment.

Enlarge This Image

Veronica [...]

Read more »