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vegan-commie · 3 years

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PRESSURE CAMPAIGNS

I saw a desire and need for alternatives to consumer-focused activism in the animal rights community and so I made a list of resources about pressure campaigning.

Why pressure campaigns?

The plant-based alternative food industry has been increasingly profitable over recent years. However, the number of animals we slaughter has been increasing every year, at a rate disproportionate to population growth. Some people claim that veganism has grown exponentially in the last 25 years. Yet, meta-analyses of surveys reveal we can’t say for certain that it has grown. Our current rate of progress suggests that mainstream veganism’s consumer-focused advocacy method has not been effective.

Fewer animal products being purchased may not actually result in less animal suffering. In the US, farms receive government subsidies to maintain profit margins and increase production every year. The food they can’t sell is stored, and if this food never gets sold, it rots. For example, 2018 marked the highest production of animal products ever, despite also having the largest stockpile of surplus in history. Focusing solely on the demand side of things is an ineffective strategy to reduce animal suffering. Since there doesn’t seem to be a definitive answer to whether or not individual consumption changes result in reduced animal suffering, it is best to err on the side of caution and assume our choices do impact animal lives.

More on animal agriculture subsidies: (extrapolated from Vegan Justice League)

The Meatonomics Index: Amount US taxpayers spend yearly to subsidize meat and dairy: $38 billion

Where’s the beef? When meat’s in trouble, lobbying expands

Farm Bill 101

Trump’s farmer bailout begins. USDA spends $1.2 billion to buy surplus food

Agricultural Subsidies (CATO)

The US is sitting on 2.6 billion tacos worth of meat and cheese

What are pressure campaigns?

Targeted Pressure Campaigns: A Manual for Grassroots Activists – South Florida Smash HLS

“Targeted Pressure Campaigns are strategically focused efforts intended to obtain measurable outcomes from a specific entity by influencing such entities with impactful actions from every possible angle with the intention to shut them down.”

Start Pressure Campaigning // S03 E02 // Are We Winning - YouTube

Multi-billion-dollar industries are made up of many different domains that keep them afloat. “Demand” is only one of these domains. Other domains include finances, insurance, distribution, transportation, permits, directors, and marketing.

Disrupt These Points // S03 E05 // Are We Winning - YouTube

In the context of animal agriculture, domains can be further simplified into five main locales:

Point of production: processing facilities for animal products

Point of destruction: slaughterhouses, laboratories, fur farms.

Point of consumption: consumers purchasing and consuming.

Point of decision: board of directors, CEOs, management, offices where contracts are signed. Places upper management frequent.

Point of assumption: ideological forces like carnism and speciesism pushed by media.

Instead of having an even distribution of focus across all these points, the animal rights community tends to focus mostly on the points of consumption and assumption. We need a more well-rounded approach, including all points, in order to be successful.

Does pressure campaigning work? Here are some case studies:

Consort Beagle Breeder Campaign

Hillgrove Cat Farm Campaign

Shamrock Primate Farm Campaign

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC)

Oakland Elephant Bull-hook Ban

Djurrattsalliansen

Hof Narr

Hof Narr Interview

KFCs Shut Around Britain After Chicken Shortage (Bloomberg): Not a pressure campaign but showcases how “even a short-term supply disruption can have deep impacts on operating margins.”

Misc. helpful links

Beyond Vegan Outreach: An Interview with Smash HLS Founder Gary Serignese – South Florida Smash HLS

*I’m hoping to add more resources to this post as I do more research. Refer to the original post for updates.*

#vegan #animal rights #my own posts

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rcardamone · 4 years

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Final Part 2: Paradigm Shifts and Pragmatism

As the documentary Food Inc. points out in its opening lines, the image of agrarian America (of family farms with picturesque red barns and animals grazing in open fields) used to sell food is a “pastoral fantasy.” 1 Though this image was once much closer to reality, the industrialized agriculture that has rapidly grown and cemented its dominance of the American food system has driven American family farms to the brink of extinction. Now, they hide appalling practices behind the image of what they destroyed.

Industrial agriculture was designed to achieve a simple aim: producing as much food as possible as inexpensively as possible. As one industrial agriculture executive in the food exclaims, “what’s wrong with that?” 2 From the perspective of pure profit, absolutely nothing. From any other perspective, almost everything

As one farmer who dared to be interviewed for the documentary put it, the system, “isn’t farming [but rather] like mass production in a factory.”3 Indeed, the animals are treated much more like technology than living beings. Chickens have been engineered to grow to their full size in around forty-eight days, rather than the typical three months and that full size is significantly larger than that of an unmodified chicken. The chickens grow so large that, according to that same farmer, they cannot take more than a few steps before falling over under their own weight. 4 If one is willing to acknowledge that a chicken (or a cow or a pig) is a living being that experiences suffering and it is certain that many in industrial agriculture do not, the idea of intentionally modifying them in a way that dramatically increases that suffering is disturbing and fraught with ethical questions. However, one need not concern themselves with the wellbeing of chickens to find casualties of industrial agriculture.

Figure 1, The Inside of a Chicken Farm 5

The farmer being interviewed also stated that due to her work with the chickens, she had become entirely allergic to antibiotics. Additionally, farmers find themselves trapped by their contracts with large agricultural companies. The reason for this is that the chicken houses they must build in order to get contracts in the first place cost around 280 to 300 thousand dollars each. Additionally, the companies demand frequent updates to the facilities on farms. The average chicken farmer earns around 18,000 dollars a year. Thus, they must take on enormous debt in order to continue to fulfill the demands of their contract, leaving them with virtually no bargaining power.6 That is far from the only nefarious scheme agricultural companies engage in.

A job in the meat packing industry used to be one of the best in industrial America. In the 1950′s, workers were guaranteed a decent wage and pension, and had a relatively strong union. However, as the meat packing industry grew to meet the demands of fast food, unions were crushed and worker protections destroyed. Furthermore, the industry now exploits illegal immigrant labor. Because of their illegal status, these workers have virtually no lines of defense between themselves and what has now become one of the most dangerous lines of work in America. Additionally, companies make deals with immigration authorities. For example, one company allowed around fifteen of their workers to be arrested and (presumably) deported on a consistent basis. This was an easily replaceable number and avoided the disruption that would come with a mass raid. Furthermore, nobody in the company was forced to answer for their use and exploitation of illegal immigrant labor. 7

As evidenced by this example, which is but one among many, industrial agriculture holds immense power within the United States government. Their stranglehold on the American political system to leads to blatant, intentional failures of regulation. In one instance, the USDA attempted to create a regulation that required that meat processing plants which repeatedly failed E Coli tests be shut down. The case was taken to court, and, shockingly, the court ruled that the USDA held no power to create such a regulation. An attempt to pass a law to give that power back to the USDA, nicknamed “Kevin’s Law” after a young child who died from E Coli, repeatedly failed to pass Congress. 8

Based on the facts, it is clear that the behavior of industrial agriculture corporations in America has caused tremendous harm not only to farmers but to millions of citizens. It is in many ways a perfect example of how pursuit of maximal profit combined with lack of effective oversight, both by consumers and government, can have disastrous consequences. The case for both these truths laid out in “Food Inc.” is damning and conclusive. How to engage with the behemoth remains an open question.

First, it is important to acknowledge that there are farmers who operate within an entirely different paradigm. One such farmer is Joel Salatin, who runs Polyface Farms in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. He is committed to sustainable agriculture, and growing food in a way that supplements the health of its consumers as well as the ecological system. His business model is in stark opposition to that of industrial agriculture. At one point he states, “I have no desire to get bigger, my desire is to produce the best food in the world and heal. And if in doing so, more people come to our corner and want stuff, heaven help me meet the need without compromising our integrity.” 9

At another point he posits, “imagine what it would be...if as a national policy we said we would only be successful if we had fewer people going to the hospital next year than last year.”10 Implicit in this is an acknowledgment that our health and the food we eat are profoundly connected. As is made clear in Food Inc., the consumption of fast food and heavily processed food is causing a tremendous public health problem. One manifestation of this is that one in three Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes. The brunt of the crisis is borne by lower income Americans. As Michael Pollan says, “it is extraordinarily difficult for Americans with limited incomes to survive on good food.” He goes on to point out that unhealthy calories are cheaper largely because they are the ones subsidized by the government.11 The cost of such a public health crisis, both in dollars and in human suffering, is immense. Unfortunately, it is not paid by the agricultural industry, but by the American people. The frustration here is that Joel Salatin is obviously correct in pointing out that there are standards other than profitability by which the success of food production should be measured. However, while it may easy to imagine a reality where most Americans get their food from farmers like Salatin as an ideal, it is harder to have confidence in a path towards such a reality in the near future. The size, legal power and government influence of agricultural corporations is formidable. As mentioned in the previous post, overcoming them requires the will to do so. There may come a day when a critical mass of consumer-citizens decide they will no longer tolerate the side-effects of “cheap” food. However, it does not appear that day will be tomorrow. Still, farmers like Salatin are crucially important as reminders that a different paradigm of farming (and of measuring success by more than profitability) is no pipe dream and has already been realized in some markets.

Also interviewed is a founder of Stonyfield Farms, one of the nation’s largest organic dairy farming operations, who takes an entirely different approach to improving the quality of food: pragmatism. Unlike Salatin who speaks out against measuring success by growth and having products sold in Walmart, Stonyfield has decided to play by the rules of corporate agriculture in order to maximize their reach and, at least in the mind of its founder, ability to do good. The founder started his agriculture career in a similar ideological camp as Salatin, but found himself “preaching to the convinced” and realized that in order to put organic food on the tables of a much larger swath of America, the operation, “didn’t need to be David going up against Goliath, they needed to be Goliath.” His justification for becoming “Goliath,” and differing worldview from Salatin is well summarized by his statement that, “we’re not gonna get rid of capitalism. Certainly we’re not gonna get rid of capitalism in the time we need to reverse global warming and address the toxification of our air, our food, and our water...and if we attempt to make the perfect the enemy of the good and say we’re only gonna buy food from the most perfect system within a hundred miles of us, we’re never gonna get there.”12

While there is always some degree of uncertainty when it comes to the future, he seems likely to be correct in his assessment that capitalism and, presumptively, dominance of markets by large growth oriented operations, is not going anywhere in the near term. Given that, he has taken a utilitarian approach in trying to do what he believes to be the most good for the most people by dramatically increasing the reach of healthy food, even if it means doing business with “evil empire” type companies like Walmart. By his own definition of good, he has done much more than someone like Salatin can simply due to the size of his company.

There are, however, problems with this type of thinking. His statement on the certainty of continued capitalism in the short term and his willingness to work within that system seem to imply that he believes capitalism is a system that can “reverse global warming and address the toxification of our air, our food, and our water.” There are good reasons to doubt that. The first is well illustrated by a scene in Food Inc. in which the filmmakers tour an organic food convention and it is pointed out that most of the “organic” companies have been bought out by larger agricultural conglomerates. 13 This seems to suggest that an idea of organic companies as disruptors of the status quo in industrial agriculture is misguided. Rather, once bought out, organic companies merely become a way for agricultural conglomerates to profit within the growing organic portion of the market. Thus, the larger segment of agriculture which engages in highly unsustainable practice, while perhaps shrinking slightly as a percentage of all agriculture, is not in danger of being out competed anytime soon. Furthermore, even for those companies that are not bought out like Stonyfield, there is always the question of whether at some point the integrity of the mission to do more good than harm is compromised by growth. For instance, even assuming that the food may perhaps still be produced sustainably on a large scale, at what point is that sustainability negated by the ecological costs of transporting the food across large distances?

Figure 2, Joel Salatin Holds a Chicken

There are, of course, many instances when pragmatism is necessary, and it is worth entertaining the argument that there is more net good done by larger organic companies like Stonyfield from some perspectives (for instance that of making organics accessible to many more consumers) than by smaller farms that put principle before growth. However, the question becomes hazier from other perspectives, such as that of ecological harm caused by transportation of “sustainable” food. As Salatin states, “as soon as you grasp for...growth, you’re gonna view your customer differently, you’re gonna view your product differently, you’re gonna view your business differently, you’re gonna view everything that’s the most important...differently.”15 That change of view is of no small consequence. It is true that a world where the majority of food supply chains are localized and rely on farmers like Salatin may not be around the corner. It is also true that attempts to make it a reality will encounter serious resistance. However, pragmatism alone won’t make that world a reality and settling for less will have a serious cost.

Question:

How much lower is the ecological impact of large organic companies versus non-organic ones once all costs (such as transport) are factored in?

Word Count: 1918

1Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020.

2Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

3Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020.

4Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

5https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/24/463976110/when-a-chicken-farm-moves-next-door-odor-may-not-be-the-only-problem

6Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

7Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

8Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

9Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

10Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

11Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

12Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

13 Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

14https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Salatin

15 Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

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newstfionline · 7 years

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Venezuela’s paradox: People are hungry, but farmers can’t feed them

By Mariana Zuñiga and Nick Miroff, Washington Post, May 22, 2017

YUMA, Venezuela--With cash running low and debts piling up, Venezuela’s socialist government has cut back sharply on food imports. And for farmers in most countries, that would present an opportunity.

But this is Venezuela, whose economy operates on its own special plane of dysfunction. At a time of empty supermarkets and spreading hunger, the country’s farms are producing less and less, not more, making the caloric deficit even worse.

Drive around the countryside outside the capital, Caracas, and there’s everything a farmer needs: fertile land, water, sunshine and gasoline at 4 cents a gallon, cheapest in the world. Yet somehow families here are just as scrawny-looking as the city-dwelling Venezuelans waiting in bread lines or picking through garbage for scraps.

Having attempted for years to defy conventional economics, the country now faces a painful reckoning with basic arithmetic.

“Last year I had 200,000 hens,” said Saulo Escobar, who runs a poultry and hog farm here in the state of Aragua, an hour outside Caracas. “Now I have 70,000.”

Several of his cavernous henhouses sit empty because, Escobar said, he can’t afford to buy more feed. Government price controls have made his business unprofitable, and armed gangs have been squeezing him for extortion payments and stealing his eggs.

Venezuela’s latest public health indicators confirm that the country is facing a dietary calamity. With medicines scarce and malnutrition cases soaring, more than 11,000 babies died last year, sending the infant mortality rate up 30 percent, according to Venezuela’s Health Ministry. The head of the ministry was fired by President Nicolás Maduro two days after she released those statistics.

Child hunger in parts of Venezuela is a “humanitarian crisis,” according to a new report by the Catholic relief organization Caritas, which found 11.4 percent of children under the age of five suffering from moderate to severe malnutrition, and 48 percent “at risk” of going hungry.

The protesters who have been marching in the streets against Maduro for the past seven weeks scream, “We’re hungry!” as riot police blast them with water cannons and tear gas.

In a recent survey of 6,500 Venezuelan families by the country’s leading universities, three-quarters of adults said they lost weight in 2016--an average of 19 pounds. This collective emaciation is referred to dryly here as “the Maduro diet,” but it’s a level of hunger almost unheard-of outside war zones or areas ravaged by hurricane, drought or plague.

Venezuela’s disaster is man-made, economists point out--the result of farm nationalizations, currency distortions and a government takeover of food distribution. While millions of Venezuelans can’t get enough to eat, officials have refused to allow international aid groups to deliver food, accustomed to viewing their oil-rich country as the benefactor of poorer nations, not a charity case.

“It’s not only the nationalization of land,” said Carlos Machado, an expert on Venezuelan agriculture. “The government has made the decision to be the producer, processor and distributor, so the entire chain of food production suffers from an inefficient agricultural bureaucracy.”

With Venezuela’s industrial output crashing, farmers are forced to import feed, fertilizer and spare parts, but they can’t do so without hard currency. And the government has been hoarding the dollars it earns from oil exports to pay back high-interest loans from Wall Street and other foreign creditors.

Escobar said he needs 400 tons of high-protein imported animal feed every three months to keep his operation running, but he’s able to get only 100 tons. So, like many others, he’s turned to the black market. But he can only afford a cheaper, less nutritious feed, meaning that his hens are smaller than they used to be--and so are their eggs.

“My quality went down, so my production went down, too,” he said.

Escobar’s hogs also are skinnier. An average full-size pig weighed 242 pounds two years ago, he said. “Now they weigh 176.” Last year, he lost 2,000 hogs in three months when the animals got sick and he couldn’t find vaccines.

The piglets born since then are undersized. Many have bloody wounds at the tips of their ears. “When an animal has a poor diet, it looks for nourishment elsewhere,” explained Maria Arias, a veterinarian at the farm. “So they end up chewing off the ears of other pigs.”

Venezuela has long relied on imports of certain foodstuffs, such as wheat, that can’t be grown on a large scale in the country’s tropical climate. But trade statistics show that the land reform policies of the late Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s predecessor, made Venezuela more dependent on imported food than ever.

When oil prices were high, that wasn’t a big problem. Now Venezuela’s blend of heavy crude is worth barely $40 a barrel and the country’s petroleum output is at a 23-year low, in part because refineries and pipelines are breaking down and investment in new infrastructure isn’t keeping pace.

The government hasn’t published farming data in years. But Machado, the agriculture expert, said annual food imports averaged about $75 per person until 2004, then soared after Chávez accelerated the nationalization of farms, eventually seizing more than 10 million acres. The government expropriated factories, too, and Venezuela’s domestic food production plummeted.

By 2012, annual per capita food imports had increased to $370, but since then, oil prices have slumped and imports have dropped 73 percent.

Instead of spurring growth in domestic agriculture, the government has strangled it, farmers say. Domestic production of rice, corn and coffee has declined by 60 percent or more in the past decade, according to Venezuela’s Confederation of Farmer Associations (Fedeagro), a trade group. Nearly all of the sugar mills nationalized by the government since 2005 are paralyzed or producing below capacity.

Only a small, well-off minority of Venezuelans can afford to buy much food on the black market, where a pound of rice imported from Brazil or Colombia sells for about 6,000 bolivars. That’s roughly $1 at the black-market exchange rate, but for an ordinary Venezuelan worker it’s an entire day’s wage, because the bolivar has lost 99 percent of its value in the past five years.

Venezuelans who don’t have access to hard currency depend on government-subsidized groceries doled out by pro-Maduro neighborhood groups, or wait in supermarket lines for rationed, price-capped items. Those who join anti-government protests have been threatened with losing their food supplies.

The price controls have become a powerful disincentive in rural Venezuela. “There are no profits, so we produce at a loss,” said one dairy farmer in the state of Guarico, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation from authorities. To get a new tractor, he said, he would have to spend all the money he earns in a year. “It’s a miracle that the industry is still alive,” he said.

Four of his cows were stolen this month, probably by hungry families in the nearby village, he said.

According to Vicente Carrillo, the former president of Venezuela’s cattle ranchers’ association, the overall size of the country’s herd has dropped in the past five years from 13 million head to about 8 million.

Carrillo sold his ranch more than a decade ago, tired of threats from squatters and rural activists who accused him of being an exploitative rural capitalist. His family had owned the land for more than a century. “I dedicated more than 30 years of my life to this business, but I had to leave everything behind,” he said.

Escobar, the chicken and hog farmer, said the only way for farmers to remain in business today is to break the law and sell at market prices, hoping authorities look the other way.

“If I sold at regulated prices, I wouldn’t even be able to afford a single kilogram of chicken feed,” he said.

If it’s not a fear of the government that keeps Escobar awake at night, it’s criminal gangs. Since one of his delivery trucks was robbed in December, he has been forced to make “protection” payments to a mafia boss operating out of the local prison. Every Friday, three motorcycles stop by the farm to pick up an envelope of cash, he said. Calling the police would only escalate the danger.

“I know how to deal with chickens and pigs,” Escobar said, “but not criminals.”

#Venezuela #Venezuelan farmers #Venezuelan economy

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themanuelruello · 4 years

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How to Start Buying Local Food

I’ve become lazy.

I’ve been an advocate for local and small businesses for a loooong time, but to be honest?

Even with my commitment, I’ve been seduced by cheap, easy food.

(And Amazon…)

Now, to be fair, we still grow a LOT. We raise all of our own beef and chicken (and usually pork), keep milk cows, and grow as many veggies as our Wyoming climate will allow.

But convenience is enticing.

And I realize I’ve become more slack than I’d like to be with my food buying.

I feel like many of us start out with good intention. But it’s easy for willpower to fade when we just don’t have the energy one afternoon to drive to yet another location to pick up that last thing… Or it feels uncomfortable to pay an extra couple dollars for that local beef versus the $10 tubes of who-knows-what beef at the discount grocery store.

And so we fall back into our cheap, easy, fast grocery store routine.

Which works great– until it doesn’t.

Until one day we wake up and see that our addiction to a flawed, centralized, industrial food system with its artificially cheap, subsidized components has resulted in farmers being forced to euthanized THOUSANDS of chickens and hogs, milk being poured down the drain, and vegetables being plowed under.

And the empty shelves glare at us at the grocery store, or we find ourselves rationing meat because you can no longer buy whatever you want at the supermarket and the prices are skyrocketing.

No more, friends.

I’m done.

I don’t care if it’s inconvenient. Or if it costs a little more. Or if I have to get better at scheduling my trips to town to hit the mid-week Farmer’s Market…

I don’t want any more of my dollars to go to supporting this system that doesn’t work. It’s not good for the farmers. It’s not good for the animals. And it’s not good for us.

The Silver Lining

As nauseated as I have felt as I have watched the new stories about the recent food waste, I feel a glimmer of hope.

Because I know many of you are feeling the EXACT same way I am.

This is what it takes to ignite a movement.

Does it feel formidable?

You bet.

There is no easy solution. And I realize this is a complex issue with many nuances…

But all revolutions start small. One person at a time.

And this just may be the motivation that we all needed.

The Problem with Local Food

As glorious as local food is, buying (or even finding it) doesn’t always feel intuitive– especially if we’ve only ever purchased everything we need at the grocery store.

Therefore, I wanted to help you create a gameplan today if you’re wanting to buy more local food items, but feel a little stuck on exactly how to do so.

Why Bother with Buying Local?

The reasons are many. Here are a few:

Local farmers and small businesses need our support and it makes a difference between staying open and closing down (unlike chain stores and mega companies who won’t even notice you’re missing). Here my podcast episode where I discuss why I’m ditching Amazon)

Buying local means less energy and fossil fuels are required to get the food to your door, which makes the entire system generally more sustainable

Local food sources help you develop a better connection with your food, especially an appreciation for seasonal eating, which can help you be more aware of what you’re eating and in turn leads to better health and positive lifestyle changes.

When you support your local growers and producers, you are investing in your local economy. These local businesses are the ones who are providing jobs and pouring back into your community as well.

Fresh local food almost always tastes better (have you ever compared the taste of a local strawberry to the ones from the generic grocery store?). Trucking our food miles and miles costs us in flavor and nutrition.

Small local farms often have a wider variety of food. Often, generic grocery stores only offer the same produce due to their dependance on an industrialized, monocrop system. For example: while you might only get standard green beans at the grocery store, you can often find yellow beans, purple beans, and other fun colors/textures/tastes for beans at your local farm.

In a nutshell? Buying from local food sources is better for our economy, better for our health, better for the animals, and better for the environment.

That’s a win-win if I ever saw one.

Roadblocks to Buying Local Food

Though we sing the praises of buying local, but sometimes it’s easier said than done.

Some roadblocks to buying local food sources include:

Living in a Rural Location:

Yep– you read that right. You’d think it’d be the opposite– that small rural communities would have MORE local options, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes farming and ranching communities can be the most challenging, as the producers are focused on producing industrialized crops that are shipped off into the system, and they aren’t set-up to provide local options.

Hassle:

It can be a challenge to drive all over to get your groceries instead of one main grocery store. And I totally understand; even I am guilty of finding local food sources as a hassle from time to time.

Cost:

Yep. Local food can sometimes cost more, for a variety of reasons.

The biggest driver in the artificially-low food prices we are accustomed to at the grocery store is the fact that much of the food is subsidized by the government. Local food producers are not, so they price their eggs, milk, or meat at what it actually costs to produce it.

Additionally, grassfed or pastured meats take longer to grow out than corn or grain fed animals. The longer the producer retains an animal, the more it costs.

Therefore, we MUST remember that as seductive as cheap food from big companies is, it has a very real long term cost. Our culture’s obsession with cheap food is paid for with resulting health issues, impact to the environment, and damage to our local economies that leave as sitting ducks with the industrialized system fails us.

In my Modern Homesteading Manifesto, I introduced the idea of HARD but GOOD. We live in a culture that is so infatuated with EASY, and that’s okay sometimes, but not when it comes at the expense of our health and our economy.

Choosing to buy more local food can be a harder choice, but it’s a good one.

How do you find Local Food Farmers & Producers?

I get a lot of emails from readers who don’t know how to find local food sources, so I did some heavy research to come up with a bunch of different options for ways to locate good-quality local food sources.

Sometimes it takes a little bit of creativity and persistence to hunt down local food options in your area, but I’m willing to bet they are there and they’ll be thrilled to have you as a customer.

Here are a few places where you can begin your search:

1) Start with the United States Department of Agriculture

The USDA website has tons of helpful resources that can help you find local food and farms. Here are a few helpful links on their website:

On-Farm Market Directory (farmers that sell directly to the consumers from the farm)

Farmer’s Market Directory (public spaces with farmer-vendors from the region)

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Directory (subscription or membership-based relationships with local farms)

2) Contact your Local Extension Office

Each state has an extension office, which are fabulous resources for anything related to agriculture, gardening, or farming in your area. (Local extension offices are also your best option for getting your soil tested).

Here’s where you can find your state’s local extension office to ask them about local food sources. You can learn great pest control tips and about the best varieties of plants for your home as well as plant sales, local gardens, Master Gardener classes, and more.

3) Search online for a local food directory

Besides the USDA website and local extension offices, you can also find more community-run websites with helpful links for finding local food sources, including farms, CSA’s, u-pick options, and farmer’s markets.

Here are a few of the most popular online local food directories:

Local Harvest

The Local Harvest directory lists over 40,000 family farms and farmers markets, as well as restaurants and grocery stores that feature local food. It’s a great way to figure out how to support local agriculture even when you want to eat out.

Eat Wild

Eat Wild focuses on pasture-raised or grass-fed meat and dairy options. They include some Canadian and international options as well as links for small farms that will ship their products to you.

Locally Grown

Locally Grown provides a simple system for farmers’ markets to move from a traditional setup to a modern online ordering system. Just like at traditional farmers’ markets, growers can fully display all of their goods and set their own prices. And also just like at traditional farmers’ markets, customers can browse through the products and buy from all or just one of the growers. This is a great option for people who love the idea of supporting local food but don’t want to spend their Saturday browsing in a public space at the local farmer’s market.

4) Social media (and Google!) is your BFF

I have noticed that Facebook in particular has exploded with local food buying groups. It’s a fabulous place to crowdsource recommendations. Start out with a group like this one, or even just post on your personal Facebook wall and ask your friends for their best recommendations for local eggs, milk, meat, or produce.

5) Contact your local 4-H club

I’ve talked before about my recent experiences as a new 4-H mom in my podcast. Your local 4-H club (find your local 4-H club here) could help connect you with local food sources and each county generally has a livestock sale each year where you can purchase project animals and support local kids.

6) Connect with a local food co-op or CSA

A food co-op can vary drastically from one town to another. They are usually small stores that stock natural and organic foods and other grocery items. Like large bulk-food stores, you often pay a membership fee to help support the storefront.

Good-quality local food co-ops will connect with local farmers and sell seasonal local foods whenever possible. They could be an excellent source for local food or at least be able to help connect you with local food source options.

This Co-op Directory List is a great place to try to find a food co-op near you.

A Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) is another option. According to local harvest.org, a CSA works like this:

“A farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a “membership” or a “subscription”) and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.”

7) Contact your Weston A. Price Foundation Local Chapter

If you’re a fan of the Weston A. Price Foundation, they have local chapters (find your local chapter here) that can help you find local organic food. According to their website, local chapters often hold local potlucks and other connections to help you learn more about nutrition and healthy food.

What questions should we ask to local farmers and producers?

One of the very best parts of shopping local? You can actually communicate with the producers of your food. Sometimes farms are even open to the public, so you can actually visit the farms to see how your food is produced (just make sure you contact the farm and make an appointment first).

Local farmers are usually quite proud of their life’s work and will gladly talk to you about how they produce your food.

Note: Please be respectful as you ask questions of your farmer and remember that everything you read on a blog or website isn’t always reality (yes, I realize the irony of that statement, haha).

As we’ve sold our grassfed beef publicly, there have been once or twice that someone has come to us very aggressively determined to find what we were “hiding” in our processes (spoiler alert: nothing)… This sort of attitude will not only put the producer on the defensive, it’s also inconsiderate of their profession as someone who is IN the field usually knows more that someone who has read a few internet articles.

So YES– ask questions. Expect for transparency. Reserve your right to select a different farmer if something doesn’t feel right. But also be respectful.

If you’re wondering what sort of questions you should ask local food producers, here are some ideas to inspire you:

Do you have any certifications (certified organic, etc.)? (Personally? I will ALWAYS choose a local producer who may not be able to afford certification, over a giant company with the token organic label.

What sort of pest control do you use? Do you use herbicides/pesticides/commercial sprays?

What types of soil amendments and fertilizers do you use?

What type of seeds do you grow (GMO, hybrids, heirlooms, etc.)?

What do you feed your livestock?

Do you raise your animals on 100% grass or do you also use grain? (Keep in mind– pigs and chickens are omnivores and don’t do well exclusively on grass– they generally need some sort of grain or other supplementation)

Do you have a CSA program?

How do you prepare ____ food from your farm? (most farmers have family favorite recipes they are happy to share)

Feeling Overwhelmed?

Buying local is a process. Don’t expect to have a 100%-locally grown pantry in a week. Pick one food item that is impactful to your diet and start with that. (Meat is a fabulous place to start.)

This won’t be an overnight process, and I’m not naive enough to think that changing our food system is as simple as pounding out my thoughts on my well-worn keyboard, but I wholeheartedly believe in helping folks become more informed so they can one by one, opt out of a flawed and even dangerous system.

“We don’t need a law against McDonald’s or a law against slaughterhouse abuse–we ask for too much salvation by legislation. All we need to do is empower individuals with the right philosophy and the right information to opt out en masse.” — Joel Salatin

My One Wish

Friends, let’s commit to sticking with this.

Even when the pandemic madness dies down.

Even with the meat coolers fill back up.

Even if the grocery store once again feels “normal”.

Remember how you’re feeling right now. Remember that buying local will not only empower YOU, but also your community.

And let’s shift our food system, together. Once and for all.

How to Learn More:

Here are the podcast episodes in case you’d like to listen:

Episode 120 talks about why I’m ditching Amazon once and for all

Episode 104 is all about how you can boost your food security (even if you don’t have a homestead)

And Episode 103 shares how we’re ramping up our own food production this year

The post How to Start Buying Local Food appeared first on The Prairie Homestead.

from Gardening https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2020/05/start-buying-local-food.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

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paullassiterca · 5 years

Text

Has Chronic Wasting Spread to Humans?

At least 26 U.S. states,1 three Canadian provinces and countries including South Korea, Finland, Sweden and Norway have been affected by chronic wasting disease (CWD), a contagious neurological disease that affects deer, elk, reindeer and moose.

Experts are racing to understand and contain this deadly condition before it wipes out entire herds or, worse, spreads to humans — a possibility that’s been raised by a number of studies. CWD is part of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) disease family — the most notable member of which is bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, a condition that affects cattle.

A human version of mad cow disease, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), also exists and made headlines when it was discovered that it can be caused by eating beef contaminated with brain, spinal cord or other central nervous system tissue from infected cattle.2

Given the rising prevalence of CWD, experts are now asking whether the disease poses a risk to humans, especially since it has elements that make it fit for a horror movie. Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm said, speaking to Minnesota lawmakers, “This is kind of a worst-case nightmare … If Stephen King could write an infectious disease novel, he’d write it about prions.”3

What Are Prions, the Cause of CWD?

CWD is thought to be caused by prions, which are quite different from “ordinary” pathogens of the bacterial, viral or fungal nature. Colorado State University’s Prion Research Center calls prions “unprecedented infectious agents,”4 in part because they do not have a nucleic acid genome, such as DNA.

While viruses and bacteria need DNA or RNA to replicate, prions can do so even in its absence. Further, as noted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), “[P]rions exhibit an extraordinary resistance to common treatments used to stop other infectious agents, such as ultraviolet and ionizing radiation, exposure to chemical disinfectants, and heat treatments.”5

Prions can be transferred not only via direct transmission but also indirectly, via exposure to contaminated materials in the environment. The infectious agents in CWD persist in the environment, which is why deer and elk raised in captivity (or concentrated via artificial feeding) have an increased likelihood of transmitting the disease among them.

In fact, even plants may harbor infectious prions, as research shows they can bind to plant roots and leaves. In one study, hamsters were infected by eating prion-contaminated plants, and the infectious prions remained on the plants for several weeks. Plants can also uptake prions from contaminated soil,6 and prions are believed to persist in the environment for decades.

It’s possible then, though not proven, that CWD could even spread via agricultural crops, as wild deer defecate in the fields and the feces contaminate the crops or the infectious proteins are taken up by plants, such as wheat.

Further, it’s common practice for manure from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to be spread over agricultural land, where it often runs off into waterways. If CWD mutates into a form that can infect cattle, this could have major implications for its spread.

To be clear, not all prions are problematic. We all have these proteins in our bodies. It’s when they become distorted, or misfolded, that they begin to damage brain cells, in a way similar to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

What Is CWD?

CWD causes progressive, neurological degeneration that leads to physiological and behavioral changes, including increased drinking and urination, weight loss, lowering of the head, listlessness, drooling, stumbling and death. Animals may be infected for a long period and show no symptoms, only to suddenly succumb to the disease.

“Through time [CWD] degrades, essentially, their brain tissue,” ecologist Heather Swanson told High Country News. “That seems to happen pretty rapidly. To our eyes, they look fairly healthy, and within a number of weeks they reach that point — and then they’re gone.”7

Research by Swanson and colleagues found that mountain lions preyed on CWD-infected deer nearly four times more than noninfected deer,8 perhaps because they could sense that the deer were unwell — even though they appeared otherwise normal.

Despite the intense predation, “remarkably high infection rates sustained,” with about one-fourth of the deer sampled in the study infected.9 CWD was first identified in 1967 and is on the rise with new and ongoing outbreaks.

In Iowa County, Wisconsin, for instance, the proportion of adult white-tailed deer infected more than doubled over a six-year period, and as of 2016 approximately 40% to 50% of males and 20% to 30% of females were infected.10 Overall, in the U.S., the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated:11

“Nationwide, the overall occurrence of CWD in free-ranging deer and elk is relatively low. However, in several locations where the disease is established, infection rates may exceed 10 percent (1 in 10), and localized infection rates of more than 25 percent (1 in 4) have been reported.

The infection rates among some captive deer can be much higher, with a rate of 79% (nearly 4 in 5) reported from at least one captive herd.”

Subsidizing the Source

CWD was first identified in captive deer in Colorado and wasn’t found in wild deer until 1981.12 The transport of captive deer is thought to have contributed to the spread of CWD throughout the U.S. Today, deer farms persist across the U.S., including in Wisconsin, one of the states hardest hit by CWD.

The state has 380 deer or elk farms, 23 of which have tested positive for CWD. Fourteen of the facilities have been depopulated as a result,13 but some are allowed to stay open, despite the known presence of the disease. What’s more, when a deer farm tests positive for CWD and is depopulated, the business owner receives a subsidy or bailout from the government.

It may seem strange that a business such as a captive deer farm, which promotes the spread of CWD by raising animals in close quarters, would receive government subsidies. It occurs because captive deer are considered livestock and as a result are covered under the Condemnation of Diseased Animals statute, which was enacted in 1977.

In Wisconsin alone, deer farmers have received more than $330,000 in compensation from state and federal officials after their animals were killed over CWD fears.14 The money to bail out the diseased farms comes either from tax revenues paid by Wisconsin residents or, if there’s not enough available, from federal funds also generated by taxpayers.

In May 2018, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced new rules for deer farmers operating in counties affected by CWD, effective via an emergency order. Both captive deer breeding and hunting facilities were supposed to be required to install additional barriers around their facilities, while hunters would be required to cut hunted deer into quarters and leave the spinal cord, where the disease may concentrate, behind.15

Deer farmers in the state opposed the new measures, with some saying the requirements would put them out of business. The rule was amended, giving deer farmers a year to comply, but it expired in February 2019 — before it ever took effect.16 Further, in October 2018, lawmakers rejected the emergency rule’s limit on hunters moving deer carcasses from CWD-affected counties.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection has allowed some deer farms with CWD-positive animals to continue operating, including Wilderness Game Farm Inc., which has had 84 known CWD cases and still sells hunts that cost up to $9,000.17 As prion disease continue to rise in animals, Alzheimer’s continues to rise in humans — a connection that deserves a much closer look.18

The Alzheimer’s Connection

The Prion Research Center regards other diseases that involve misfolding proteins, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s and Huntington’s diseases, as prion diseases, much like CWD.19 And there is reason to believe, according to a review in Medical Hypotheses, that Alzheimer’s may develop similarly to mad cow disease and other spongiform encephalopathies.

“In fact, Creutzfeldt-Jakob and Alzheimer’s often coexist and at this point are thought to differ merely by time-dependent physical changes,” the researcher stated. “A recent study links up to 13% of all “Alzheimer’s” victims as really having Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease … All of this brings up the unthinkable: that Alzheimer’s, Cruetzfeldt-Jackob, and Mad Cow Disease might just be caused by eating the meat or dairy in consumer products or feed.”20

Another concern is antler velvet from elk, which is sometimes taken in supplement form. Prions have been detected in elk antler velvet, which suggests it plays a role in disease transmission among elk and “humans who consume antler velvet as a nutritional supplement are at risk for exposure to prions.”21

There is also growing suspicion that Alzheimer’s may have an infectious component capable of human-to-human transmission. More than 200 people are known to have developed CJD as the result of receiving growth hormone contaminated with prions that came from human cadavers.

When eight of them later were autopsied, four of them had buildups in the brain characteristic of early Alzheimer’s disease, with the researchers suggesting misfolded amyloid beta protein, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s, may be transmittable similar to other prions.22

Further, because prions aren’t killed by ordinary sterilization methods, it’s possible they could be transmitted during common medical procedures, including dental work and colonoscopies. Meanwhile, prions may be spread via contaminated feces, saliva, blood or urine, as well as via contact with contaminated soil, food or water.

Can CWD Be Transmitted to Humans?

The burning question is whether or not CWD can be transmitted to humans, and while hard data aren’t yet available, there are some concerning signs that the answer could be yes. In a study on macaques, monkeys that share genetic similarities with humans, the animals developed CWD after eating CWD-infected meat or brain tissue.23

Some of the meat came from deer that had CWD but showed no symptoms of the disease, yet was still able to spread the infection to monkeys.24 Studies are currently underway to determine if people in contact with CWD-infected animals or meat are at increased risk of prion diseases, but results won’t be available for some time.

The World Health Organization recommends products that could be contaminated with CWD or any related disease should be kept out of the human food chain.25

Some experts, including Osterholm, who serves as director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Prevention, tracked the ability of BSE to be transmitted to humans decades ago, however, and have already sounded the alarm. Many believed that mad cow disease couldn’t infect people — until it did. Osterholm believes the same fate will become of CWD:26

“It is my best professional judgment based on my public health experience and the risk of BSE transmission to humans in the 1980s and 1990s and my extensive review and evaluation of laboratory research studies … that it is probable that human cases of CWD associated with the consumption of contaminated meat will be documented in the years ahead. It is possible that number of human cases will be substantial and will not be isolated events.”

If You Eat Venison, Be Sure It’s Not Infected

If you’re a hunter or consume meat from elk or deer, you should ensure the meat is tested for CWD before it’s consumed. While some states require testing of deer from high-CWD areas, others do not, and some areas offer free testing while in others it must be done at the hunter’s expense.

If you’ve obtained a deer from a captive farm, which isn’t recommended, it’s especially important to have the animal tested, as the farms are high-risk zones for CWD. It’s important to understand that you cannot judge whether an animal has CWD by symptoms alone. It can be years before symptoms develop, and a healthy-looking animal may still be infected and capable of transmitting the disease.

In addition, the CDC recommends hunters use caution when handling a deer in the field, including wearing latex or rubber gloves when handling the meat and minimizing contact with the organs, especially the brain and spinal cord.

If CWD disease has already mutated into a form that could infect humans, symptoms may not be seen for years or decades, and they may appear similar to other prion diseases like vCJD, making the diseases virtually indistinguishable.

from Articles http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/04/23/has-chronic-wasting-spread-to-humans.aspx source https://niapurenaturecom.tumblr.com/post/184382312016

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jerrytackettca · 5 years

Text

Has Chronic Wasting Spread to Humans?

What Are Prions, the Cause of CWD?

What Is CWD?

The infection rates among some captive deer can be much higher, with a rate of 79% (nearly 4 in 5) reported from at least one captive herd.”

Subsidizing the Source

The Alzheimer’s Connection

The Prion Research Center regards other diseases that involve misfolding proteins, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig's and Huntington’s diseases, as prion diseases, much like CWD.19 And there is reason to believe, according to a review in Medical Hypotheses, that Alzheimer’s may develop similarly to mad cow disease and other spongiform encephalopathies.

“In fact, Creutzfeldt-Jakob and Alzheimer's often coexist and at this point are thought to differ merely by time-dependent physical changes,” the researcher stated. “A recent study links up to 13% of all "Alzheimer's" victims as really having Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease … All of this brings up the unthinkable: that Alzheimer's, Cruetzfeldt-Jackob, and Mad Cow Disease might just be caused by eating the meat or dairy in consumer products or feed.”20

Can CWD Be Transmitted to Humans?

The World Health Organization recommends products that could be contaminated with CWD or any related disease should be kept out of the human food chain.25

If You Eat Venison, Be Sure It’s Not Infected

from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/04/23/has-chronic-wasting-spread-to-humans.aspx

source http://niapurenaturecom.weebly.com/blog/has-chronic-wasting-spread-to-humans

0 notes

battybat-boss · 6 years

Text

Private Minneapolis Food Club Offering Direct-from-Farm Fresh Food Shut Down by Health Department

Image from ABC 5 KSTP.com

by Brian Shilhavy Editor, Health Impact News

A local private buying club in Minneapolis, known as Uptown Locavore, was raided and shut down by the Health Department earlier this month (May, 2018).

Even though there were apparently no complaints, and no one reporting any illness due to the food being sold in this private market, the city of Minneapolis decided to shut them down, stating that they did not have proper retail licenses, and that some of their food was “dangerous,” because they were selling fresh raw milk and meat that had not been USDA inspected, according to ABC 5 KSTP.

Will Winter, the owner of the market, links members of his buyer's club with up to 50 different farmers.

He disagrees that the club was operating illegally without licenses, because it is not a retail store, but a private club.

The reason this is legal is it's a private transaction between consenting adults… Never a complaint, never made anyone sick, never had any questions about our food.

Minnesota's History of Attacking Private Food Clubs

Food rights activist and journalist David Gumpert sees a similar pattern in Minnesota with its history of attacking private food clubs and working together with the FDA.

Eight years ago, a private Minneapolis food market known as Traditional Foods was shut down by local public health officials for not being properly licensed. A few days ago, a private market meant to replace Traditional Foods was shut down in much the same manner, just days after it proudly opened in spanking new quarters.

Eight years ago, the owners of Traditional Foods claimed they would fight the food police and prevail. So it is today, as Will Winter, the owner, has expressed confidence that lawyers from Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund will find a way to allow the new market, known as Uptown Locavore, to reopen.

If you examine history, though, the odds aren't great for the new market. Traditional Foods never reopened at its old location after the owner was jerked around for many months by evasive local bureaucrats. Mind you, neither market was involved in selling raw milk, but rather focused on fresh meats and fish, along with other delicacies like quail eggs.

History has shown that the only way to make it as a private market in Minnesota is to defy the officials, as Alvin Schlangen did after Traditional Foods was shuttered. He continued to provide raw milk and farm-slaughtered meats to members of his food club, even after his delivery van was raided and food confiscated. His defiance led to heavy-duty pressure by the powers that be, including criminal charges and a trial. In the end, he prevailed, and continues in business today. (Source.)

Gumpert reports on Will Winter's statement to supporters and members of the food club:

The policy at these agencies is clearly against small enterprise. Even without complaints we are GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT! They want to shut down anything except the big box stores that, in this case, support Big Ag. They are bullies (in general) and seem to want to feel BIG by crushing the little man. They are riding the clock anyway, so they can do this forever, knowing that eventually they can deplete our tiny resources, grind us down, and eventually destroy us. Instead of using their resources to pursue real criminals and real crime, they waste their day trying to destroy people they don't understand, and then seem to hate.

This means, to them, that we will now need to 'play hardball' with the city. We have had ZERO COMPLAINTS and there are absolutely no health problems from the operation of our private buying club. The “food police” has absolutely no jurisdiction over PRIVATE TRANSACTIONS. If I sold you a used car, that is between me and you, it doesn't make me a car dealer nor do I need a license to do it. It is PRIVATE, not public. The city officials do not understand what is our protected American right to make our own choices in private dealings. I am absolutely fine with public stores, shops and services being licensed. That has value. But, this unjustified persecution of people doing the right thing makes me very unhappy to be American.

As we have reported many times over the years here at Health Impact News, direct-from-farm-to-consumer sales is a direct threat to the industrial agricultural industry, especially with the sale of farm fresh raw milk. Corporate dairy brokers depend upon cheap, subsidized fluid milk to contribute to their milk pools to produce commercial dairy products.

As soon as farmers opt out of the corporate system and sell their high-end products directly to consumers for a larger profit, they are seen as a threat, and government regulatory agencies will take action to stop the competition.

Gumpert wrote how the FDA, using taxpayer funds, works with local agencies in states like Minnesota to go after private buying clubs:

When writing my book about food rights (“Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Food Rights”) a few years back, I investigated closely the FDA's relationship with Minnesota food safety officials. Here is some of what I discovered, from the book: “The Minnesota health and agriculture agencies are known to be close to the FDA. A little over a year after the MDA's crackdown (on the Traditional Foods private market in 2010), it issued a press release saying it had received a one million dollar grant from the FDA 'to strengthen its capacity to respond to food-borne outbreaks and other food safety events.' A year later, the MDA was awarded six hundred thousand dollars in FDA grants 'to enhance the state's food safety capabilities.'

In its report to Congress covering 2011 activities in various states, the FDA said it had seventy-four employees in Minnesota, along with contracts and grants with the MDA. The report alluded to a contract with the MDA to 'conduct food safety inspections' as well as a grant that was for a 'Food Safety Task Force to coordinate and address food safety and defense issues among regulated industry and regulators within the state.'

The FDA's ties to Minnesota agencies are representative of a national campaign to strengthen the relationship between states and the FDA. In its messages to Congress and the public, the FDA communicates the sense that it cooperates closely with state public health and agriculture agencies. It even has a Division of Federal-State Relations, and in a Year in Review report recapping its activities, its director, Joseph Reardon, stated that the FDA handed out to states more than forty-one million dollars in grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements in 2010. Moreover, the FDA 'commissioned 1,346 State and Local officials to assist FDA in traditional program areas such as foods and animal feeds.' According to Reardon, 'the FDA and the States can equally benefit from the goal of a national food safety system.' (Source.)

0 notes

lopezdorothy70-blog · 6 years

Text

Private Minneapolis Food Club Offering Direct-from-Farm Fresh Food Shut Down by Health Department

Image from ABC 5 KSTP.com

by Brian Shilhavy Editor, Health Impact News

A local private buying club in Minneapolis, known as Uptown Locavore, was raided and shut down by the Health Department earlier this month (May, 2018).

Will Winter, the owner of the market, links members of his buyer's club with up to 50 different farmers.

He disagrees that the club was operating illegally without licenses, because it is not a retail store, but a private club.

The reason this is legal is it's a private transaction between consenting adults… Never a complaint, never made anyone sick, never had any questions about our food.

Minnesota's History of Attacking Private Food Clubs

Food rights activist and journalist David Gumpert sees a similar pattern in Minnesota with its history of attacking private food clubs and working together with the FDA.

Gumpert reports on Will Winter's statement to supporters and members of the food club:

Gumpert wrote how the FDA, using taxpayer funds, works with local agencies in states like Minnesota to go after private buying clubs:

0 notes

sherristockman · 6 years

Link

Beyond GMOs and Fast Food Nation: Regenerating Public Health none By Ronnie Cummins Organic Consumers Association After decades of chemical-intensive agriculture, factory farms and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food, and an ongoing war against natural systems and traditional knowledge, America's rural communities, environment and public health are rapidly deteriorating. The fatal harvest of Big Food Inc. includes rural economic decline and depopulation throughout the Americas, forced migration from Mexico and Central America, water and air pollution, aquifer depletion, pollinator and biodiversity destruction, soil erosion and fertility loss, climate destabilization, food contamination and nutrient degradation, and deteriorating public health. Unfortunately, the U.S. Congress and the White House, aided and abetted by collaborators north and south of the border, are still dishing out their standard culinary message: Shut up and eat your GMOs. Don't worry about toxic food and obesity, heart disease, learning and behavioral disorders, the cancer epidemic, food allergies, asthma and other chronic diseases. Forget about mutant genes, pesticide residues, antibiotics, hormone-disruptors, saturated fat, refined carbs, salmonella, campylobacter, listeria, e-coli, slaughterhouse waste, added sugar and a growing list of other horrors in your food, food packaging and drinking water. Agribusiness, the Farm Bureau, and an army of public relations flacks want us to stop complaining. They want you to believe that if we work together — farmers and consumers — we can make Fast Food Nation great again. Just follow the example of our corpulent commander in chief in the White House: Chow down on a juicy Big Mac today, and every day. Keep the faith in America's industrial food system and Monsanto's minions — indentured scientists, politicians, dieticians, regulatory agencies and the mass media. Factory Farmed GMO Food Is a Public Health Disaster Without going into the alarming damage of industrial agriculture to our environment, climate and social fabric, which you can read about in the essay "Degeneration Nation 2018: The Darkest Hour," let's focus on the impact of America's degenerative food and farming system on public health. The U.S. now spends more money on so-called health care than any other nation on Earth — $3.5 trillion a year. Yet, public health continues to deteriorate. This degeneration arises not only from an increasingly toxic environment laced with 84,000 industrial and agricultural chemicals, but via the cheap, unhealthy grub featured in supermarkets and dished up in restaurants, schools and institutional settings. Even the government admits that:1 "About half of all American adults — 117 million individuals — have one or more preventable chronic diseases, many of which are related to poor quality eating patterns …" Approximately 85 percent of Americans do not consume the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recommended intakes of the most important vitamins and minerals necessary for proper physical and mental development.2 In this "Fast Food Nation," the conventional (i.e., chemical-tainted, genetically engineered, factory-farmed) U.S. diet is made up primarily of highly-processed packaged foods, garnished with small amounts of low-grade produce (fried potatoes, iceberg lettuce and tomatoes), with a typical supersized main course of factory-farm meat, eggs and dairy. The vitamin and nutritional composition of these conventional foods and food-like substances is typically far below the nutritional density of fresh organic whole foods (organic produce and grains) grown on fertile soil, and 100 percent organic grass fed or pastured meat, eggs and dairy. Research3 consistently shows that organic foods are significantly higher in vitamin C, vitamin E, polyphenols and total antioxidants, especially in no-till regenerative organic systems.4 Poor Nutrition and Disease Go Hand in Hand The fact that organic produce contains significantly more antioxidants than chemical food5 is especially important given that higher levels of antioxidants are associated with reduced risks for chronic diseases, including heart and brain disease and certain cancers. Since the advent of industrial agriculture and GMOs, the nutritional value of foods, including important trace minerals and micronutrients, has dramatically declined, in large part due to the degradation of the soil from heavy tillage, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In contrast, healthy microbe-rich soil associated with regenerative (soil-centered) organic practices, produces crops with higher levels of nutrients. As Dr. Mercola has previously pointed out: "The sad fact is, most of the food consumed by Americans today is not real food — it's genetically engineered, saturated with pesticides and added chemicals, and processed in a number of different ways. Many are so used to prepackaged foods, they struggle to understand what real food is." According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 87 percent of Americans don't eat the USDA-recommended 1.5 to 2 cups of fruit per day; 91 percent do not consume the recommended 2 to 3 cups of vegetables per day. And, assuming the average person did consume these recommended amounts, unless these fruits and vegetables are organic — or better yet organic and regenerative — even the USDA admits that conventionally grown (i.e., nonorganic) vegetables and fruits contain far less nutrition than their counterparts 50 years ago. National Public Radio cited a nutrition expert:6 "'We have a serious disconnect between agriculture and health policy in our country,' said Marion Nestle,7 a leading nutrition researcher and author at New York University. 'The USDA does not support 'specialty crops' [like vegetables] to any appreciable extent and the Department of Commerce' figures show that the relative price of fruits and vegetables has gone up much faster than that of fast food or sodas.' So while Americans are told to eat fruits and vegetables for their health, the government has meanwhile mostly just subsidized other crops that end up in cheaper, less healthy processed food. 'Price has a lot to do with this,' she adds.'" Factory Farms Are Major Sources of Environmental Pollution America's appetite for cheap meat and animal products has spawned an intensive confinement, factory farm system of production that not only makes us sick, but pollutes our water8 and air,9 exploits workers,10 is causing an antibiotic resistance crisis11 and is unconscionably inhumane.12 Factory-farm (GMO grain-fed) meat, eggs and dairy, compared with 100 percent grass fed and organic pastured products, are lower in omega-3 fatty-acids and typically contain less vitamin E, beta-carotene, antioxidants and conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA. The public health and economic consequences of our degraded environment and food system are alarming. A recent Rand Corporation study13 found that 60 percent of Americans are now suffering from at least one chronic health condition such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and arthritis; 42 percent have two or more, and that these chronic diseases now account for more than 40 percent of the entire U.S. health care spending of $3.5 trillion. As indicated earlier, most of these chronic diseases are attributable to toxic food or other contaminants in our environment. One of every 2 Americans are now expected to come down with cancer in their lifetime. According to recent research, U.S. men born in 1960 have a lifetime cancer risk of 53.5 percent. For women, it's 47.5 percent.14 Seventy percent of U.S. drinking water15 is now contaminated with Monsanto's top-selling herbicide, Roundup, and 93 percent of consumers have traces of this toxic poison (active ingredient glyphosate) in our urine.16 Today in the U.S., 1 in 13 children has a serious food allergy; 6 to 24 percent have serious intestinal problems; 20 percent are obese; 60 percent have chronic headaches; 20 percent suffer from mental disorders and depression; while 1 in every 41 boys and 1 in every 68 girls are diagnosed with autism.17 A New Recipe The movement for healthy, eco-friendly and humane food that many of us are now calling the "organic and regenerative food and farming movement,"18 has made huge strides in the past several decades in the U.S. and worldwide, fighting GMOs and industrial agriculture and promoting organic and regenerative food and farming.19 But now is not the time to sit back and just be satisfied with what we've accomplished. We must build on our success and ride our momentum to a future where organic and regenerative food and farming are the norm, not just the alternative. Here's what we need to do next: Boycott GMOs, including every nonorganic packaged food product that displays a QR code. Since Congress stabbed us in the back in 2016, killing mandatory GMO labeling and substituting new federal regulations that will replace Vermont's on-package mandatory GMO labels with QR Codes and 1-800 numbers, these QR Codes must become a veritable "skull and crossbones" symbol on food and beverage containers, helping us launch the largest boycott in modern history. The easiest way, of course, to avoid GMOs is to buy organic, today and every day, or else look for the "Non-GMO Project" seal on food products. Keep in mind, however, that many "Non-GMO Project" labeled foods (unless they are also labeled organic) are produced using pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Boycott factory-farmed meat, dairy and poultry, i.e., everything that isn't labeled or marketed as organic or 100 percent grass fed or pastured. Factory farms are the lynchpin of GMOs, industrial agriculture and fast-food restaurants. The U.S. factory farmed meat, dairy and poultry cartel is an out-of-control, trillion-dollar industry based on cruel, filthy, disease-ridden and environmentally destructive animal prisons (euphemistically called concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs). Factory farm production is characterized by GMO- and pesticide-tainted animal feeds, labor exploitation, false advertising, corporate corruption of government, and the use of massive amounts of dangerous pesticides, chemical fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones and growth promoters. Factory-farmed meat, dairy, poultry and fish are the No. 1 cause of water pollution, soil degradation, food system greenhouse gas emissions and human diet-related diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. We will never get rid of GMOs, chemical-intensive monocrops, antibiotic resistance, animal cruelty and agriculturally derived greenhouse gas emissions until we eliminate factory farms, which now imprison 95 percent of farm animals in the U.S., and 70 percent of all farm animals in the world. Right now, the overwhelming majority of U.S. farmland is used to raise factory farm-destined animals before they are sent to the feedlots, or to grow GMO- and chemical-intensive grains to feed them. We need to stop feeding herbivores (cattle, sheep, goats) GMO- and pesticide-contaminated grain, and instead put the world's billions of farm animals back onto the pastures, rangelands and agro-forestry paddocks where they belong. Make organic, grass fed and regenerative food and farming the dominant force in the market by 2025. We need to educate consumers and change public policy so as to make organic and regenerative food at least 50 percent of the market by 2025, just as France and other nations are starting to do. To do this, we will need to eliminate the multibillion-dollar taxpayer subsidies for industrial agriculture and GMOs that make chemical food seem inexpensive compared to organic and grass fed food, despite industrial food's massive and costly damage to the environment, public health and the climate. Pressure investors, universities, municipalities, states and pension funds to divest, not only from fossil fuel companies, but also from industrial agriculture corporations, and reinvest in organic and regenerative agriculture, to reach our goal of 50 percent organic and regenerative by 2025. Lobby governments — local, state and federal — to move to zero fossil fuel emissions and support the International 4/1000 Initiative20 to sequester as much carbon in our soils and forests through regenerative farming, grazing and land use as humans are currently emitting. Move beyond single-issue thinking ("my issue is more important than your issue") and silos and "connect the dots" between food and farming and all the burning issues: health, justice, poverty, climate change, environment, peace, forced migration, humane treatment of farm animals and democracy. Work together to build a Movement of Movements powerful enough to bring about a revolution in food, farming and land use, not just in the U.S. but in all the nations of the world. Subscribe to the weekly online newsletter of the Organic Consumers Association by clicking here: Subscribe to Organic Bytes. About the Author Ronnie Cummins is co-founder and International Director of the Organic Consumers Association and a member of the Regeneration International steering committee. Ronnie has been active as a writer and activist since the 1960s, with extensive experience in public education, grassroots mobilization, and marketplace pressure campaigns. Over the past two decades he has served as director of US and international campaigns dealing with sustainable agriculture issues including food safety, genetic engineering, factory farming, and global warming.

#VitalityPath

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sublimotion · 6 years

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Are you confused about what to eat? Here’s why…..

http://drhyman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Screen-Shot-2018-01-24-at-11.14.46-AM.png?v=1.1

I have a question for you….

Are you confused about what to eat?

Let’s do a pop quiz, keep a mental note as you read this. Are these statements true or false:

Oatmeal is a healthy breakfast and prevents heart disease.

Butter causes heart disease.

Egg whites are healthier than whole eggs because they don’t contain cholesterol.

Red meat causes cancer.

Gluten free food is healthy.

Dairy is necessary for kids to grow, and to prevent broken bones as we age.

Vegetable oils prevent heart disease and are better for you than saturated fats.

Yogurt is a healthy breakfast.

Zero-calorie sweeteners help you lose weight by cutting calories from your diet.

Well guess what, every single one of those statements is WRONG! But don’t feel bad. The most common question I get is “Dr. Hyman, what the heck should I eat?”

I have written a new book, Food: What the Heck Should I Eat? that will help you cut through the headlines and take you between the lines. I promise this book will fix your nutrition whiplash and provide a clear roadmap for the nutritionally confused. It is a sane, scientifically balanced answer to the question, “What the heck should I eat?”

Eating the right food is also the single biggest thing you can do to prevent heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, dementia, autoimmune disease, allergies, digestive problems, AND it can make you feel better RIGHT NOW. It can even give you better skin, help you live longer, and have better sex!

In fact, the foods we DO eat (bad stuff) and the foods we DON’T eat (good stuff) are the reason we are one of the fattest countries in the world—with 70% of us overweight. It is why 84% of our $3.2 trillion in health care costs are spent on chronic disease that is preventable by DIET.

Okay, so if eating the right food is so important, then what the heck IS the right food? You think it would be easy to answer that question, right?

But it is not.The most common question I get from patients and just about EVERYBODY is WHAT SHOULD I EAT? Even if we want to eat right, most of us are still so confused.

So why are we all so confused?

It’s not your fault. In fact, it is by DESIGN—the food industry, our government, and the media are all sending us conflicting messages. And all the contradictory science doesn’t help either!

Should you be vegan and eat like a gorilla, or paleo and eat like a hunter gatherer?

Should you eat a low-fat diet to prevent heart disease, or a high-fat ketogenic diet?

Should you be gluten free?

Should you eat lots of grains and beans, or cut out all grains and beans and eat like a caveman?

Should you eat coconut oil because it is good for your brain? Or does it cause heart disease like the American Heart Association tells us?

Should you drink three glasses of milk a day like the government tells us to do, or should we avoid ALL dairy because it causes cancer, autoimmune disease, and actually increases your chance of fractures?

I mean, with all the conflicting advice and nutrition whiplash it’s enough to say ”The heck with it!” No wonder you are left with the feeling “I am just going to eat what I want because nobody can agree on anything.” There IS a reason we are all confused and it is NOT an accident. And, most importantly, it’s not your fault! It’s not quite a conspiracy, but close.

How the Food Industry Corrupts the Government Policies and Harms Our Health, The Planet, and Society

Here’s the bottom line. Money is corrupting science, our government’s food policies, and the media.

Where’s the money coming from?

There is a multi-trillion dollar global food industry that is growing, processing, manufacturing, marketing, and serving food like substances that are making us sick and fat. They are cheap to make and rake in big profits for ”Big Food”.

They put private profit over public good, harming us all. They privatize profits and socialize costs. We taxpayers are footing the bill for the growing of processed foods (through agricultural subsidies for the raw materials of processed food—namely wheat, corn, and soy), and for providing the poor quality processed food and soda to the poor (through our food stamps program).

Then, we also pay for the costs of obesity and chronic disease caused by that food through Medicaid and Medicare. Not to mention the costs of soil degradation, depletion of our water supplies, climate change, and the widespread damage to humans and ecosystems from pesticides.

This is because the food industry lobbyists push policies that use our tax dollars AGAINST us. We subsidize the growing and selling of processed foods that make us sick and fat.

Then of course there’s the media which is all about headlines and sound bites. AND they receive a big portion of their ad revenue from the food industry.

Let’s first look at the role of the food industry. This includes the seed producers, factory farmers, food growers, and the processed food and fast food industries.

These organizations spend millions of dollars each year to influence our Department of Agriculture with heavy lobbying. And there’s a huge problem with this…

Do you ever wonder who creates our dietary guidelines? It’s actually the Department of Agriculture, the same agency that is in charge of deciding which crops our tax dollars subsidize!

So, let’s get this straight—the government agency created to support our industrial agriculture system is making our dietary guidelines and food policies? Seems like a big conflict of interest. In fact, in 2017 the National Academy of Science report found that the process for coming up with the dietary guidelines was corrupt and unduly influenced by industry while ignoring big swaths of relevant research.

This results in subsidies that support commodity crops—corn, wheat, and soy—which get turned into high-fructose corn syrup, white flour, and refined soybean oil.

So let me clarify. Even though more than half our diet comes from these three crops which are the building blocks of sugar sweetened drinks and processed foods, they are definitely NOT what we should be eating.

Yet 99% of the government’s food subsidies go to support these crops. Only 1% goes for “specialty” crops—fruits and veggies. Really, vegetables are “specialty crops”? Then why does the government tell us to eat 5-9 servings a day?

If we actually followed that advice, there would only be enough veggies and fruits to feed 2% of the population. Seems like a lot of lip service without the policies in place to make it happen.

Now you know why it is CHEAPER to buy a fast food burger, fries, and soda than it is to buy a healthy, delicious salad. In fact, since the 1970’s the price of soda has gone down 40% while the price of veggies has gone up 40%.

56% of our calories come from these three commodity crops in the form of processed foods. And people who eat these foods are more obese and are at higher risk for heart disease and diabetes. So now you know the truth. Our government is funding our chronic disease epidemic.

And it gets much worse. Our food stamp program, which should be protecting at risk families, actually supports the sale of sugary drinks and processed food. The number one item purchased with food stamps is soda at a cost to taxpayers of $7 billion a year (or 20 billion servings of soda year for the poor). You can buy a 2-liter bottle of soda with food stamps, but not a rotisserie chicken.

How does that make any sense?

The government’s dietary guidelines tell us to cut sugar on one hand, but the same agency allows food stamps to be used to buy soda.

How does that many any sense?

And the crazy thing is we pay for chronic disease caused by sugar and processed foods with Medicaid and Medicare.

By 2040 100% of our federal tax revenue will be needed to pay for chronic disease caused by our policies and food system.

How does THAT make any sense?

It’s time to END government subsidies for high-fructose corn syrup, white flour, and soybean oil.

Let’s stop supporting soda and junk food companies with food stamp payments.

We have to ask ourselves what is the REAL cost of a soda or cheap processed food?

If you included the cost of industrial agriculture and factory farming’s impact on climate change and the destruction of the environment from fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide use, and the cost of chronic diseasem the real cost of a soda might be $50 a can.

Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, we allow unrestricted junk food marketing to kids—where they see over 6,000 ads for junk food every year on TV and thousands more on social media and from stealth marketing. Every other developed country restricts these ads. We don’t.

Do you really think it is an accident that Paula Abdul drank a big container of Coke on American Idol?

THEN we have to deal with food labels. These are super confusing and misleading. We can’t change them because of the food industry. I talked to the head of the FDA who told me that Congress threatens to cut funding for the FDA if they try to change policies like food labels. The labels should be clear. You shouldn’t need a PhD in nutrition to understand a food label. It should work like the stoplight system they have in Europe.

Green is good for you, yellow eat with caution, and red—this could kill you.

And what about all the health claims we’re seeing on labels? Health claims on labels almost always indicate that a food is bad for you and is selling you a lie. Whole Grain Cookie Crisp Cereal with 6 teaspoons of sugar. Really?

All natural.Well natural vanilla flavor is made from beaver’s anal glands. It may be natural, but is that what you really want to be eating?

And sugar free—that comes with artificial sweeteners that make you fat and diabetic.

How about fat-free salad dressing loaded with sugar? Or fat-free yogurt that has more sugar than a soda!? Or zero trans fat products like Cool Whip? The second ingredient after water is trans fats! Its legalized lying sanctioned by the FDA.

So, is it any wonder we are confused about what we should be eating?

Sadly, the reasons we are confused don’t stop there.

How the Food Industry Corrupts Science and Public Health Organizations

The food industry funds research and corruptsscientists. If a food industry company sponsors a study, that study is 8 to 50 times more likely to show benefit for their product or ingredient.

Dairy industry studies find that milk is good for you. Studies funded by the American Beverage Association prove that soda has no link to obesity.

There is only one problem—studies from independent researchers prove that soda and sugar sweetened beverages are the number ONE cause of obesity and account for 184,000 deaths a year. The food industry (not to mention the government, our public health associations, and doctors and dietitians)claim that 1,800 calories of soda is the same as 1,800 calories of broccoli.

Really? We KNOW that all calories are NOT the same.

Even worse is how the food industry corrupts and influences public advocacy groups like the NAACP and public health organizations like the American Heart Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (which gets 40% of its funding from the food industry).

The American Beverage Association funds the NAACP, which came out against the soda tax even though almost half of African Americans are obese and drink twice as much soda as white Americans.

On top of it all—the food industry has figured out how to hack the American mind and body, designing (on purpose) food that is highly addictive—sugary and processed foods to be exact.

Remember that ad for potato chips,“I bet you can’t eat just one”. That’s not an accident. Why is it you can binge on a bag of cookies but no one binges on a bag of avocados?

So, if you think you are getting fair and unbiased scientific recommendations from our government or public health organizations, think again.

The good news is that the truth about nutrition, the basic guiding principles of how and what to eat to promote health, weight loss, and longevity—AND to prevent, treat and reverse most chronic disease—is pretty simple.

I have read thousands of papers on nutrition and tried and recommended various ways of eating with tens of thousands of patients over 20 years. And I’ve seen the effects of food on weight, health, diabetes, gut issues, autoimmune disease, and lots more.

In my book, Food: What the Heck Should I Eat? (out February 27, 2018) I uncover the truth about the food we actually eat—what is healthy and not in each group of foods we eat—meat, poultry and eggs, dairy, beans, grains, veggies, fruit, nuts and seeds, beverages, and more—and guide you to a science based, sensible way of eating for life that keeps you, our planet, and our society healthy. I also address the environmental and social impact of the food we eat.

If you have ever woken up wondering the heck you should eat, this book is for you. Check out the trailer and order it at Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, or get it at your local bookstore.

Wishing you health & happiness,

Mark Hyman, MD

[Read More ...] http://drhyman.com/blog/2018/01/24/confused-eat-heres/

#infrared sauna #health

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rcardamone · 4 years

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Paradigm Shifts and Pragmatism

Figure 1, The Inside of a Chicken Farm 5

Figure 2, Joel Salatin Holds a Chicken 14

There are, of course, many instances is pragmatism is necessary, and it is worth entertaining the argument that there is more net good done by larger organic companies like Stonyfield from some perspectives (for instance that of making organics accessible to many more consumers) than by smaller farms that put principle before growth. However, the question becomes hazier from other perspectives, such as that of ecological harm caused by transportation of “sustainable” food. As Salatin states, “as soon as you grasp for...growth, you’re gonna view your customer differently, you’re gonna view your product differently, you’re gonna view your business differently, you’re gonna view everything that’s the most important...differently.”15 That change of view is of no small consequence. It is true that a world where the majority of food supply chains are localized and rely on farmers like Salatin may not be around the corner. It is also true that attempts to make it a reality will encounter serious resistance. However, pragmatism alone won’t make that world a reality and settling for less will have a serious cost.

Question:

How much lower is the ecological impact of large organic companies versus non-organic ones once all costs (such as transport) are factored in?

Word Count: 1918

1Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020.

2Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

3Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020.

4Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

5https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/24/463976110/when-a-chicken-farm-moves-next-door-odor-may-not-be-the-only-problem

6Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

7Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

8Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

9Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

10Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

11Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

12Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

13 Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

14https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Salatin

15 Food, Inc., n.d. Accessed March 28, 2020

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melissawsr · 6 years