Food Supply

WWII poster from the US Department of Agriculture

From the US National Agricultural Library

July 7, 2010 – Here’s what ties our articles together today

Here’s a presentation of articles on stereotyping, immigrants’ rights, employment, military spending, media, and social media – one big bowl of societal change, cultural change, and the coming counter culture.

Piece by piece here’s what it says… for all our talk about freedom for all, it’s too obvious that we are judgmental.  And now, damn both the principle and the law, we are going to separate those whom we judge from what we would believe, for ourselves, to be inalienable rights.  (Of course I’m serious, it’s just that pun was awaitin’.  And the next article is serious, too.  It’s an application for an immigrant’s job.   Are we really ready to face the consequences of our actions?)

Then a look beyond our borders – but at our military – even beyond the issue of actual war.  Can we afford to have them posted away.  Should we be the world’s ‘peace-keeper’?  Have those days – for all kinds of reasons – gone by?  Is it time to re-think our role, and what will happen if we make this change?  To societies around the world, and to ours here at home?

Finally, the changes here and coming to the media, and the social media – and why ARE these different?  Followed by a look at the incredibly large impact that has already taken place.

Take our Jobs

TAKE OUR JOBS There are two issues facing our nation–high unemployment and undocumented people in the workforce–that many Americans believe are related. Missing from the debate on both issues is an honest recognition that the food we all eat – at home, in restaurants and workplace cafeterias (including those in the Capitol) – comes to us from the labor of undocumented farm workers. Agriculture in the United States is dependent on an immigrant workforce. Three-quarters of all crop workers working in American agriculture were born outside the United States. According to government statistics, since the late 1990s, at least 50% of the crop workers have not been authorized to work legally in the United States. We are a nation in denial about our food supply. As a result the UFW has initiated the “Take Our Jobs” campaign. Farm workers are ready to welcome citizens and legal residents who wish to replace them in the field, we will use our knowledge and staff to help connect the unemployed with farm employers. Just fill out the form to the right and continue on to the request for job application.

Monsanto, Big Brother of the New World Agricultural Order: An Interview With Marie-Monique Robin

Report: Toxins found in whales bode ill for humans

This undated file photo provided by by Michael Moore of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution …

By ARTHUR MAX

AGADIR, Morocco – Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of Earth’s oceans have built up stunningly high levels of toxic and heavy metals, according to American scientists who say the findings spell danger not only for marine life but for the millions of humans who depend on seafood.

A report released Thursday noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from nearly 1,000 whales over five years. From polar areas to equatorial waters, the whales ingested pollutants that may have been produced by humans thousands of miles away, the researchers said.

“These contaminants, I think, are threatening the human food supply. They certainly are threatening the whales and the other animals that live in the ocean,” said biologist Roger Payne, founder and president of Ocean Alliance, the research and conservation group that produced the report.

The researchers found mercury as high as 16 parts per million in the whales. Fish high in mercury such as shark and swordfish — the types health experts warn children and pregnant women to avoid — typically have levels of about 1 part per million.

The whales studied averaged 2.4 parts of mercury per million, but the report’s authors said their internal organs probably had much higher levels than the skin samples contained.

“The entire ocean life is just loaded with a series of contaminants, most of which have been released by human beings,” Payne said in an interview on the sidelines of the International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting.

Payne said sperm whales, which occupy the top of the food chain, absorb the contaminants and pass them on to the next generation when a female nurses her calf. “What she’s actually doing is dumping her lifetime accumulation of that fat-soluble stuff into her baby,” he said, and each generation passes on more to the next.

Ultimately, he said, the contaminants could jeopardize seafood, a primary source of animal protein for 1 billion people.

“You could make a fairly tight argument to say that it is the single greatest health threat that has ever faced the human species.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100624/ap_on_sc/whaling

Supreme Court lifts partial ban on GM alfalfa in Monsanto v Geertson Seed

By Rady Ananda
On June 21, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) released its long awaited decision on the first case involving genetically modified crops, allowing the USDA to impose a partial deregulation, should it so choose. This would permit the sale of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa (RRA). However, in its 7-1 ruling, the court also upheld the lower decision to ban complete deregulation.
SCOTUS found that the “District Court abused its discretion when banning a partial deregulation and in prohibiting the planting of RRA pending completion of a detailed environmental review,” known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
The decision flies in the face of the facts in this case, and subjects us to further contamination of our food supply.
Monsanto expressed glee: “We have Roundup Ready alfalfa seed ready to deliver and await USDA guidance on its release. Our goal is to have everything in place for growers to plant in fall 2010."
Adversarial party Center for Food Safety also expressed delight in the decision, calling it a “Victory for Center for Food Safety, Farmers.” In its release, CFS asserts:
“The Justices’ decision today means that the selling and planting of Roundup Ready Alfalfa is illegal. The ban on the crop will remain in place until a full and adequate EIS is prepared by USDA and they officially deregulate the crop. This is a year or more away according to the agency, and even then, a deregulation move may be subject to further litigation if the agency’s analysis is not adequate.”
CFS is happy because, as the Court pointed out, “we do know that the vacatur of APHIS’s deregulation decision means that virtually no RRA can be grown or sold until such time as a new deregulation decision is in place, and we also know that any party aggrieved by a hypothetical future deregulation decision will have ample opportunity to challenge it, and to seek appropriate preliminary relief, if and when such a decision is made.”
Dissenting Justice John Paul Stevens clarifies the convoluted decision:
“In this case, the agency

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