From Eatwild:
Eatwild’s Directory of Farms lists more than 1,300 pasture-based farms, with more farms being added each week. It is the most comprehensive source for grass-fed meat and dairy products in the United States and Canada. To find pastured products near you, click on your state in the map below or from the alphabetical state list at the bottom of this page. Or choose Canada or Outside the US & Canada.
Occupy the food supply.
Provided there is water, the average human could survive a month to two months without food depending on their body fat and other factors
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are transgenic organisms that are derivatives of genotypic manipulation that does not normally occur in nature. Meaning, GMOs are not the product of conventional mating, recombination or other natural phenomena that occur fairly frequently and provide a species with genetic alterations. Whether a crop is genetically modified depends on the breeding strategy used to produce it. Plant breeding strategies are divided into two general categories: classical breeding and genetic modification.
The main goal of classical breeding is to obtain the desired trait(s) in an organism while maintaining or increasing the genetic diversity in the mean time. Typical desired traits usually have to do with increased crop yield, insect and drought tolerance and increased nutritional benefits. An increase in genetic diversity would allow the organism to be more resilient; in turn, this would allow it to be able to bounce back faster from various unexpected events such as wildfires, floods or a disease outbreak. Improved plant varieties can be obtained by breeding well performing lines with a line containing the desired trait. Cell culture techniques can be used to induce fertility in a normally sterile offspring of two related species if the desired trait is not found in the respective species. Finally, chemical mutagenesis can be performed to obtain a mutant line with the desired characteristic(s); that is, if the preferred trait is not found in the original species or any related species. There are many ways to chemically mutate an organism’s DNA including irradiation, naturally occurring genetic elements and alkylating agents.
GMO crops are crafted by the use of biotechnological methods, but have similar aims as the classically breed varieties. Both methods seek to obtain the “best” crop, which ideally contains the desired qualities (such as increased nutritional value and ecological plasticity). Methods that are labeled as “unnatural” and are classified under this category are: cell/protoplast fusion techniques, recombinant DNA techniques and methods of direct DNA introduction among others. These methods of genotypic alteration are limited to a single gene at a time. To obtain a genetically modified line of more than one gene introduction or alteration, two single gene mutant lines must be crossed. This however, is much more complex to execute due to the potential implications of altering or introducing two genes and the ability to predict what this might do the viability, crop yield and overall performance among other potential phenotypic modifications that might negatively impact the crop.
GMO seeds and crops have been in use throughout the world for over several decades now. They began to be widely employed as pragmatic and alternative choices to their traditional counterparts since the mid-1990s. Since then, the safety and ethics of GMOs and GMO-derived products have come into serious question. Strict regulations dealing with novel foods and food ingredients (which included GMOs) were adopted in May of 1997 by the fifteen states that make up the European Union (EU). These novel food regulations assess the overall safety of genetically modified organisms. For a genetically modified organism to be approved for public consumption, it must be approved under the set regulations, which have three safety criteria: the GMO must be safe, nutritionally adequate, and must not mislead the consumer. The novel food regulations split novel foods into six categories and two of them are dedicated to novel foods that are derived from/are obtained via genetic modification. These two categories are: foods or ingredients made from GMOs and ones that are produced from GMOs but don’t contain GMOs (for example, various types of oils). A safety assessment can be carried out by the proposing state (member of the EU) over a period of 90 days. Once that is complete, the assessment must be given to the deciding commission, which has 60 days to agree or disagree with the findings. If the product is ruled to be safe and comparable to its conventional variety, then it becomes available for public distribution and consumption, but labeling it as “genetically modified” is required. This gives the consumer a choice between purchasing products that are genetically modified or the conventional varieties.
The United States government introduced rules and regulations for GMOs in 1992. Three different government agencies carry out these functions: the food and drug administration (FDA), the U.S. department of agriculture (USDA) and the environmental protection agency (EPA). The USDA ensures that the products are safe to grow, the FDA ensures that they are safe to eat and the EPA ensures that the products are safe for the environment. Not only do these agencies look at overall safety of the product, but they also investigate the GM crops compared to the conventional varieties with regards to nutritional values, natural toxins and allergenicity potential. If a GMO crop is found to be fairly equivalent to the normal crop, it is allowed to be placed on the market for consumption. US GMO products that are available for purchase are not required to be labeled, while EU GMO product labeling is mandatory. GMO-derived ingredients are not labeled as well in the US, because the GMO crops they are synthesized from abide by the regulations are equivalent to conventional crops.
The US does not require the labeling of GMO crops and other products, but some companies have chosen to label their non-GM products as “nongenetically modified” or something to that end. Of course, the company must substantiate this labeling because the consumers must not be misled. The companies that choose to label their products must guarantee that their crops are GM-free to justify the differential labeling. The company must then establish agreements with suppliers that they will only provide non-GM products. This, in turn, requires the farmers and processors to maintain separation between the conventional crops and their GM counterparts. The identity of each line must be maintained and kept as homogenous as possible throughout the complete process from farmer to packaging and labeling. For companies choosing to label voluntarily, the FDA has required data to substantiate the claims of the label; that is, the label must be truthful and not mislead the consumer. Consequently, this is a very difficult status to maintain because it is difficult to keep crops from cross contaminating each other. This is especially true for processed foods that contain many ingredients and all of them have to be maintained as GMO crop free for the processed food itself to also be labeled “nongenetically modified.” The use of GMOs has now created a demand to potentially track the genes that were introduced or modified in the genetically manipulated crop; that is, tracking gene flow. As GMOs evolve and become more complex, more elaborate techniques will have to be developed to track the gene flow of these products.
NOTE: a short background introduction that I feel will be very helpful to understanding GMOs, biotechnology, and the policies that are entail. I’m tired or seeing ignorant comments and reblogs regarding this topic, so I thought I’d dig this up and provide some basic background about genetically modified organisms, how they are genetically engineered, and the regulations behind such products. please read thoroughly, and ask away if you have any questions.
Okay, so you are correct in the basic facts but neglecting the realities. Plants are being modified with genes from insects, bacteria, and even fungi - not crossing of their genes with the genes of another plant. When a plant produces a toxin that will kill insects, I have a hard time believing that it’s a good idea for us to be eating it. As for FDA rules, please don’t act like they are helpful. The rules were created by the FDA (which is run by former heads of the gmo producing companies) along with the companies so they are not made to protect citizens, they are there to protect company profits.
Peru’s Congress approves 10-year GMO ban
November 13, 2012Peru’s Congress announced Friday it overwhelmingly approved a 10-year moratorium on imports of genetically modified organisms in order to safeguard the country’s biodiversity.
The measure bars GMOs — including seeds, livestock, and fish — from being imported for cultivation or to be raised locally.
Exceptions include the use of GMO products for research purposes in a closed environment, but those will be closely monitored, the legislature’s official news service said.
The bill, approved late Thursday, now goes to President Ollanta Humala to be signed into law. Humala, who has been in power since late July, has repeatedly said he opposes GM programs.
According to the Agriculture Ministry, Peru is one of the world’s leading exporters of organic food, including coffee and cocoa, with $3 billion a year in revenues and 40,000 certified producers.
Congress approved a similar 10-year moratorium in June, but outgoing president Alan Garcia, who was seen as being favorable to GM, did not ratify the ban.
There was friction over GM in the previous government’s ministries of agriculture and environment.
The head of Peru’s Consumer Agency, Jaime Delgado, said the moratorium is long enough to learn from scientific studies that will emerge on the effects of GMO products.
The country’s leading group representing farmers and ranchers, the National Agrarian Convention, said that by this measure Peru “defends its biodiversity, its agriculture, its gastronomy and its health.”
Meanwhile in the US, GMO labeling alone has not even been enacted at the national, state or local levels.
Wealthy privilege is never feeling that stab of guilt when you can’t spare a dollar for cancer research in the checkout line. It’s never declining to donate because you’re using food stamps to pay for your groceries and you would have to put the $1 donation on you credit card, admitting to the world that you’re too poor to afford groceries on your own.
Blue Velvet Cake
Wealthy privilege is not knowing what it’s like to be starving for (at least) 4 days in a row and thus having no energy to endure college all day long and not being afraid that you can’t make up another excuse because you’ve already had so much negative comments and weird/dirty looks from fellow students the last time this happened.
Wealthy privilege is also not knowing how it feels like to see your cat suffering from starvation with you and trying to comfort her all day long, because you couldn’t afford to feed her.
The Beauty + Biology of our Food by Caren Alpert
Terra Cibus: Food Photographed with A Scanning Electron Microscope
Click over the images for captions.
Dislike of herb traced to genes encoding odour and taste receptors.
Some people love fresh coriander - but a vocal minority hate the taste.
S. HAROLIKAR/GETTY IMAGES
12 September 2012Julia Child loathed the stuff, one in six Nature staff (informally surveyed) says it tastes of soap, and a popular website collects haiku poems denouncing it. Now, researchers are beginning to identify genetic variants behind the mixed reception for the herb Coriandrum sativum, which North American cooks know as cilantro, and their British counterparts call coriander.
A genetic survey of nearly 30,000 people posted to the preprint server arXiv.org this week has identified two genetic variants linked to perception of coriander, the most common of which is in a gene involved in sensing smells1. Two unpublished studies also link several other variants in genes involved in taste and smell to the preference2, 3.
“O soapy flavour / Why pollutest thou my food? / Thou me makest retch,” reads one of the hundreds of haikus posted to the website IHateCilantro.com. There is clearly sympathy for this stance — 21% of east Asians, 17% of people of European ancestry and 14% of people of African descent say they dislike the stuff, according to a paper published this year in the journal Flavour4. By contrast, 3–7% of south Asians, Latin Americans and Middle Eastern subjects disapproved of the herb, which is more common in their native cuisines.
Click title to read more.
It makes sense for early childhood interventions to focus specifically on caloric intake, while for those in later childhood or adolescence the focus should instead be on increasing physical activity, since overweight children tend to be less active,” says pediatrician Asheley Cockrell Skinner. (Credit: “child holding sandwich” via Shutterstock)
UNC-CHAPEL HILL (US) — Obesity may begin by eating more in early childhood, but by adolescence, overweight kids may actually take in fewer calories than their peers.
Children younger than 9 who are overweight or obese consume more calories per day than their healthy weight peers—but among overweight adolescents between the ages of 9 and 17, the pattern is reversed, according to a new study published online September 10 in the journal Pediatrics.
How to explain such a seemingly counterintuitive finding?
“Children who are overweight tend to remain overweight,” says lead author Asheley Cockrell Skinner, assistant professor of pediatrics at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
So, for many children, obesity may begin by eating more in early childhood. Then as they get older, they continue to be obese without eating any more than their healthy weight peers,” she says. “One reason this makes sense is because we know overweight children are less active than healthy weight kids.
“Additionally, this is in line with other research that obesity is not a simple matter of overweight people eating more—the body is complex in how it reacts to amount of food eaten and amount of activity.”
Click title to read more.
>
