Oops . . .

— Hybrid Sons of Tifton 85 —

THE INQUISITR has an article you should check out: “Genetically Modified Grass Begins Releasing Cyanide, Kills Texas Cattle”. Really.  That bears repeating,

“Genetically Modified Grass
   Begins Releasing Cyanide,
   Kills Texas Cattle”

Swine Flu Terror Advisory Scale

Currently we are on uh-oh.

Cross-posted at Creekside

Gimme some of that ole time "crop protection product"

So, Michelle Obama decides to grow a vegetable garden. On almost any plane one views it from, it makes sense, not the least of which is that it sets a good example, particularly since every effort is going to be made to grow the produce without the aid of unnecessary chemical crap.

But as Sabina points out, there ain't no tyranny like that of a good example, and now Michelle Obama has come into the sights of the pesticide and agro-chemical lobby.

In fact, the idea of the US First Lady engaging in organic gardening has the US big-agro lobby in a flat spin. The idea of encouraging people to grow their own food is abhorrent enough, (it will chew through their bottom line like a slug on a lettuce leaf), but to suggest that they do it without a bottle of domesticated agent orange?! Well, they're just not going to stand for it.

So... the Mid America CropLife Association sent Michelle Obama a letter. (Actually they sent it to Mrs. Barack Obama, as though she had somehow surrendered her first name in a convention which died in the latter half of the last century.) Amazingly, the contents of one of the most condescending letters you may ever read made it into the hands of Jill Richardson at La Vida Locavore. You have to read the whole thing, but here's a sample:

As you go about planning and planting the White House garden, we respectfully encourage you to recognize the role conventional agriculture plays in the U.S in feeding the ever-increasing population, contributing to the U.S. economy and providing a safe and economical food supply. America's farmers understand crop protection technologies are supported by sound scientific research and innovation.

Conventional agriculture?! Safe and economical?! Sound scientific research and innovation?! Who are these clowns trying to have on? Not even to mention the newest set of buzzwords designed to camouflage known carcinogens - "crop protection products".

After reading Jill's post, do check out the first comment where one of MACA's obfuscations is thoroughly dispatched.

After that, take the time to check out the officers and board of directors of Mid America CropLife Association. Chemicals anyone?

Genetically modified genocide

DailyMail : GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops

Here's how that works.
India gets IMF loans in exchange for allowing western companies like Monsanto access to the billion-strong Indian markets.
Government seed banks ban traditional seeds to promote uptake of GM seeds.
Farmers are pitched the very expensive "magic seeds", Monsanto's BT Cotton.
Farmers take out loans to buy them.
Drought. Too bad because GM seeds require twice the water of traditional seeds.
Crops die and farmers are unable to save seeds to plant next year because of course there are no seeds.
Farmers takes out additional loans to buy more seeds.
More drought plus parasitic bollworms. Crop failure.
Farmers can't pay off loans. Lose land. Suicide.

Monsanto official : "Suicides have always been part of rural Indian life."

Nice. And for what? Are more people fed?
No, because GM crops produce lower yields than traditional plantings.
So the entire purpose of GM is so that a few multinat corpses can own the entire food chain.

Prince Charles is on the case "setting up a charity, the Bhumi Vardaan Foundation, to help those affected and promote organic Indian crops instead of GM."
But Prince Charles has his own problems at home :

Independent : Europe's secret plan to boost GM crop production

"Gordon Brown and other European leaders are secretly preparing an unprecedented campaign to spread GM crops and foods in Britain and throughout the continent, confidential documents obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal.
The documents – minutes of a series of private meetings of representatives of 27 governments – disclose plans to "speed up" the introduction of the modified crops and foods and to "deal with" public resistance to them.
And they show that the leaders want "agricultural representatives" and "industry" – presumably including giant biotech firms such as Monsanto – to be more vocal to counteract the "vested interests" of environmentalists"

Currently GM is only grown on .1% - that's point one percent - of agricultural land in Europe : none in Britain, France has suspended cultivation, and resistance is growing in Spain and Portugal.

And Canada? Well, we're riddled with the stuff - one of the world's largest producers of GMs.
A seldom mentioned aspect of the recent listeriosis story was the Ministry of Trade's decision to allow industry to oversee its own product labelling, meaning we're unlikely to become better informed of which foods are GM any time soon.
At present GM food labelling in Canada is voluntary.
In the absence of any other, I'd like to propose a genocide label.

Cross-posted at Creekside

Yeah, Eileen, but it's still shit

First it was called "sewage sludge", then "biofuel", and now Eileen Smith of the Ministry of the Environment informs us that henceforth it will be called "non-agricultural source materials."

Sure, Eileen, but it's still shit.
The Star has been running a series on sewage sludge and the controversy regarding the safety of spreading it on farmland and growing our food in it. A program born purely of the need to get rid of the stuff is surely not the most auspicious beginning for disposing of solid waste left over from the treatment of human, commercial, hospital and industrial waste :

"Diverting some of it to fields began in the 1970s. Then in 1996, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement stiffened sewage treatment guidelines. This created more sludge and Ontario started recommending it for use as fertilizer for farm crops. Faced with fast-filling landfills and a U.S. border slowly closing to Ontario's waste, many municipalities accepted."

Why am I suddenly reminded of the spinach and tomato recalls last year due to salmonella and e coli?
Possibly because "local officials who investigate health complaints are not required to report their findings to the province."

Well, there's that and the fact that according to Eileen "sludge will be the joint responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the environment ministry".
What happened to oversight from the Ministry of Health?
Nope, they're out of the picture now. Also :

"In a move that Eileen Smith says will raise safety, odour and application standards, the government is introducing changes that will drop the requirement for a certificate of approval for sludge spreading and allow it to be handled by farmers as part of the Nutrient Management Act."

In other words, certificates will no longer be publicly available to tell us what's being spread and who is spreading it.
This is the second case of the Cons deregulating food safety this week : see SPP and Mad Cow. and SPP : Outsourcing food safety to industry

Here's one of those anecdote-is-not-data stories.
Many years ago, having heard about the Chinese use of "night soil", I called around and left messages trying to get advice on how I could safely compost my own for the rose beds. I came home from work that night to an answering machine full of alarmed responses from various health officials asking questions like "How many of you are doing this?"
A guy from UBC Soil Sciences was the most informative.
Even in the unlikely case you get the temperature high enough to kill most of the pathogens, he explained, you'd still be introducing a new concentration of heavy metals into the soil.
Heavy metals?
Human waste has a very high concentration of them, he said.
Well what about China?
Yeah, it's a big problem there and in South America, he replied, proceeding to tell me about dioxins and various unattractive soil-born diseases.

And that was just my shit, never mind the pesticides and drugs and bacteria and hormones that are in the industrial and hospital stuff.

The American Society of Agronomy would seem to agree.

Now obviously a safe system of "nutrient recycling" is a great idea. But if what farmers are spreading on their crops in Ontario is as safe as Eileen says it is, why has Health Canada been dropped as a regulating body and why will certificates no longer be available to tell us who is using the stuff?

As usual, the handy Security and Prosperity Partnership is always there to answer all your questions :
SPP : Prosperity Pillar Working Groups :
"The Food and Agricultural Group will work towards creating a safer and more reliable food supply while facilitating agricultural trade by pursuing common approaches to enhanced food safety, and increasing cooperation in the development of regulatory policy."

Cross-posted at Creekside