Mexico’s Corn Defenders Honored with Environmental Prize

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When I arrived in Mexico City nine years ago to research the effort by citizen groups to stop multinational seed companies from planting genetically modified corn in Mexico, the groups had just won an injunction to suspend planting permits. Monsanto and the other companies, supported by the Mexican government at the time, appealed and the farmer, consumer and environmental groups were awaiting a judicial ruling.

I asked their lead lawyer, Rene Sánchez Galindo, how he thought they could hope to overcome the massive economic and legal power of the companies and government. He said with a smile, “The judge surely eats tacos. Everyone here eats tacos. They know maize is different.”

He was right. The next day the judge upheld the precautionary injunction. And he is still right: Ten years after the Demanda Colectiva, a collective of 53 people from 22 organizations, filed their class-action suit to stop GM corn, the precautionary injunction remains in effect despite some 130 company appeals.

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The New Colonialist Food Economy

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This past summer, the global trade regime finalized details for a revolution in African agriculture. Under a pending draft protocol on intellectual property rights, the trade bodies sponsoring the African Continental Free Trade Area seek to lock all 54 African nations into a proprietary and punitive model of food cultivation, one that aims to supplant farmer traditions and practices that have endured on the continent for millennia.

A primary target is the farmers’ recognized human right to save, share, and cultivate seeds and crops according to personal and community needs. By allowing corporate property rights to supersede local seed management, the protocol is the latest front in a global battle over the future of food. Based on draft laws written more than three decades ago in Geneva by Western seed companies, the new generation of agricultural reforms seeks to institute legal and financial penalties throughout the African Union for farmers who fail to adopt foreign-engineered seeds protected by patents, including genetically modified versions of native seeds.

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Regenerative Agriculture Is the New Farming Buzzword, but Few Can Agree on What It Means

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Earlier this year, NSW wine and olive oil producer Sam Statham recieved a phone call from a committed vegan.

The caller was seeking an assurance that animals weren’t used to graze the olive grove and vineyard. But the Stathams regularly agist sheep for exactly that purpose, and as a natural source of fertiliser.

“I had a sudden realisation that some people, not only do they not understand where their food comes from, they also might not understand what an ecosystem is or how nature actually works,” says Statham, who runs the family farm Rosnay Organic near Canowindra in the state’s central west.

It’s the main reason Statham now offers farm tours at Rosnay, which is certified to Australia’s national organic standard. He tries to provide clarity to visitors around the meaning of terms such as organic and regenerative, which are increasingly used to promote supermarket products.

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Exploring the connections between Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture

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Food security is one of a human being’s most basic needs, and the threat of food insecurity causes primal anxiety. Food insecurity is among the main causes of climate-related migration and, in turn, one of the main causes of the growing insecurity of nations.

With these vulnerabilities so raw, it’s no wonder people worldwide are questioning their food supply or that worldwide concern is surging about an industrial food system that feeds climate change and causes political instability – not to mention a system that weakens our immune systems and Nucauses serious nutrition-related health conditions and diseases.

It should also be no surprise that there is rapidly scaling curiosity about alternative food systems that don’t ride roughshod over human rights; about systems that keep people and the planet safe and healthy. And yet it can be confusing to understand the similarities and differences between these alternative systems. Let’s take a look at two approaches: Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture.

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Unlocking the True Potential of Vegetables

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Want to boost your immune system, increase the nutrient content in your food, improve your mental health and detox your body? Fermented vegetables are for you!

Fermentation is the process that occurs when the natural bacteria in a vegetable break down the food’s complex elements into more digestible forms. When fermentation occurs, vegetables become easier to digest, allowing your body to work less, while reaping more benefits. And those benefits include higher levels of available nutrients, and live cultures of pro-biotic bacteria (kind of like the good stuff in yogurt). These pro-biotic bacteria can improve your digestion, boost your immune system, improve your mental health, and detox your body.

Worried that fermenting is risky? No need! Fermented veggies are actually safer than raw vegetables, because the fermentation process actually kills off any unwanted or dangerous bacteria that may exist on the food prior to fermentation. According to the USDA, there has “never been a single case of food poisoning reported from fermented vegetables.”

Fermented foods have been around for eons. Fermentation is an ancient art that pre-dates writing and agriculture.  It’s often considered to be the practice that first ushered our ancient relatives from the natural world, into a culturally driven world. In fact, the word ‘culture’ is another word for fermentation. Sandor Katz, who has written several books on the subject, calls it “a health regimen, a gourmet art, a multicultural adventure, a form of activism, and a spiritual path, all rolled into one.”

KEEP READING ON ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION

Prime, grass fed — bird friendly? Audubon Society label coming to a meat aisle near you

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Labels that read “prime” or “grass fed” are likely to catch your eye in the meat aisle. What about “bird friendly?”

Beginning this winter, some Minnesota-raised beef will begin featuring a green and white label from the Audubon Society that says just that.

The bird conservation group is expanding a ranch certification program it started in the West in 2017 to the Midwest. It hopes to create consumer demand for bird-friendly ranching practices and, in turn, incentivize ranchers to maintain bird habitats.

Matt Maier was one of the first Minnesota farmers to sign up. He said the conservation ranching program aligns with what he’s already doing with his land in Clearwater, Minn.

When a lot adjacent to his boyhood farm went up for sale, Maier said he jumped at the opportunity to give his kids the kind of childhood memories he cherished.

“And what I witnessed when I moved back to the land [was] insects and birds and butterflies and frogs were non-existent. All the things that I wanted them to experience were not there,” Maier said. “So I’m like, OK, I want to do something about this.”

That something is Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed, a cattle ranch that taps 1,000 acres of grazing land — 120 of it Maier’s own — to raise cattle in a way that mimics roaming bison.


CONTINUE READING ON MPR NEWS

Phytonutrients in Meat and the Nutritional Difference Between Grass-Fed vs Grain-Fed

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Dr. Stephan van Vliet joins Chris on Revolution Health Radio to discuss his emerging research on the nutrient profiles of beef raised by various farming methods, including grass-fed grazing, grain-fed, and grain-finished. Dr. van Vliet explains how the nutrient profiles differ between grass-fed and grain-fed cattle, particularly with regard to omega-6 to omega-3 ratios and phytonutrients, what this cutting-edge research means for human health and nutrient density, and how this emerging evidence supports a shift toward more sustainable agriculture.

In this episode, we discuss:

How different grazing practices affect the nutritional composition of meat

The relationship between agricultural sustainability and the nutrient density of meats

The results of Dr. van Vliet’s work in the Beef Nutrient Density Project, which studies the relationship between farming methods and the omega-6 to omega-3 ratios of meat

The types of nutrients that are diminished in feedlot beef vs. grass-fed beef

Whether it is possible to consume phytonutrients, secondary plant compounds, in any significant amount from beef

Factors affecting the ability of the body to absorb phytonutrients from animal sources and what that means for people on carnivorous or vegan diets

How the principles of food synergy and nutritionism demonstrate the body’s preference for nutrients from whole foods

The state of Dr. van Vliet’s research in this field and where it is headed

LISTEN ON KRISSKRESSER.COM

 

Atrazine, an Endocrine-disrupting Herbicide Banned in Europe, Is Widely Used in the U.S.

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Atrazine is the second-most widely used weed killer in the United States, with more than 70 million pounds are applied across the nation each year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It is an endocrine disruptor and also linked to various cancers, premature birth and birth defects.

The herbicide has been banned for use in the European Union since 2004. In the U.S., it is one of the most commonly reported contaminants in groundwater and public drinking water, according to the EPA.

While atrazine is applied to a wide range of crops, it is primarily used on sugarcane, soy, sorghum, and corn; the USDA notes that more than 65 percent of all corn crops in the U.S. have been treated with the herbicide. It is also a weed killer for golf courses, fields, and residential and commercial lawn spaces across the United States.

Atrazine is among the most prevalent herbicides used in Canada and Australia, as well.

The primary manufacturer of atrazine is Syngenta, a Swiss-based corporation owned by the Chinese state-owned company ChemChina.

KEEP READING ON U.S. RIGHT TO KNOW

A 4th-Generation Farmer’s 3 Tips For A Farm-Like Lifestyle Wherever You Live

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While growing your own produce and raising livestock surrounded by fresh air and acres of open space sounds like a dream, it’s not a reality for many of us. But according to Will Harris, a fourth-generation farmer and owner of White Oak Pastures—a family farm utilizing regenerative agriculture and humane animal husbandry practices—it is possible to follow a farm-like lifestyle wherever you reside.

City dwellers, take note! On this episode of the mindbodygreen podcast, Harris shares helpful tips to take ownership of your personal food system and live a healthier life. (As a result, we may even shift the future of agriculture.)

1. Choose grass-fed meat, if you’re able

If you can, Harris recommends always opting for grass-fed meat. Now, grass-fed has become a bit of a buzzword in health and well-being conversations, but Harris provides some thought-provoking insight into the cattle-raising process: On Harris’ farm, it takes cows about two years on the pasture to reach what he calls their “slaughter weight,” which is about 1,200 pounds.

“The life of an industrial creature is very, very different,” he explains. “It is all about how fast you can grow the animal and how cheaply you can do it.” In the industrial model, he says it takes around 18 months for the cow to reach 1,500 or 1,600 pounds. “It produces an unnaturally obese creature that would never occur in nature,” he explains.

And unnaturally obese creatures have a much shorter life expectancy: Says Harris, the average natural life span of a cow is around 20 to 24 years, but if you left an industrial cow to live out its days in that feedlot, “[it] wouldn’t live to be much older than that 24 months old,” Harris notes. “The creature is dying of all the diseases [from] obesity and lack of exercise that kill most of us.”

 

CONTINUE READING ON MINDBODYGREEN.COM

Genetically Engineered Soil Microbes: Risks and Concerns

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Biotech companies are developing genetically engineered microbes for use in agriculture, including the largest agrichemical corporations — Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta, and BASF. The first of these products are already being used across millions of acres of U.S. farmland.   

The release of live genetically engineered microbes in agriculture represents an unprecedented open-air genetic experiment. The scale of release is far larger and the odds of containment far smaller than for genetically engineered crops. 

This report provides historical context for this novel technology, insight into future trends, a summary of potential risks, and policy recommendations that would ensure robust assessment and oversight as more genetically engineered microbes move from the lab to the field.  

What types of microbes are being genetically engineered for agriculture?  

Bacteria, viruses and fungi are being genetically engineered for agricultural uses with bacteria being the most common.   

KEEP READING ON FRIENDS OF THE EARTH