Food

1. Only 1% of imported food is inspected. Because the federal government refuses to implement a country-of-origin labeling program for meat and produce, consumers don’t have the facts they need to avoid low-quality food from overseas.

2. Despite new research that shows that artificial hormones may contribute to a five-fold increase in twin pregnancies for American women, the federal government still allows them in dairy products. They are banned in Canada and Europe.

3. Instead of forcing meat producers to fix serious sanitation problems at factory farms and slaughterhouses, the federal government allows them to take dangerous shortcuts like pumping livestock full of antibiotics, dipping carcasses in toxic disinfectants, and irradiating meat.

4. Although mad cow disease presents a lethal threat to public health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has blocked meatpackers from implementing their own mad cow testing programs.

5. The Bush Administration and its allies in Congress want to weaken the Safe Water Drinking Act, which may lead to more cancer and disease-causing contaminants in the tap water of millions of Americans.

Beware Food Imports From China

Milk products manufactured in China and tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical, killed and injured thousands of children this year.

If you live in the US, you need to know that your government is not protecting you from these products.

Policy

The New York Times | Politics and Hunger
http://www.truthout.org/article/politics-and-hunger
The New York Times writes, "One might expect that food riots in Egypt and Haiti would convince the world's wealthy nations of the need to do more to feed the world's poorest. If not, maybe the threat of 100 million more people falling into poverty due to soaring food prices would spur them to help. Yet at last week's United Nations food summit, the world's more-developed nations proved, once again, that domestic politics trumps both humanitarian concerns and sound strategic calculations."

Study of GM foods indicates danger.

Hidden, Deadly Viral Gene Found In GMO Crops (2/7/2013)

Against the grain: 'Economics, not common sense, drives GM crops'

Monsanto's Harvest of Fear Vanity Fair 5/2008
Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele write for Vanity Fair, "Monsanto already dominates America's food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation's tactics - ruthless legal battles against small farmers - is its decades-long history of toxic contamination."

Dr Michael Antoniou argues that genetically modified crops are dangerous and unnecessary
Interview by Nick Jackson The Independent, 27 September 2007 _http://news.independent.co.uk/education/higher/article2999527.ece_
(http://news.independent.co.uk/education/higher/article2999527.ece)

References from: Monsanto: Visionary or Architect of Bioserfdom? A Global Socio-Economic Examination of Genetically Modified Organisms - Andrew Hund 10dec99

Frankenwine? Wines made with GMO yeast hit the market this year 20 Dec 2006 The United States' first wines made using a genetically modified wine yeast will be released this year, but critics say the GM yeast has not been properly safety tested and could contaminate non-GM wine crops.

Food

Trump’s policies ‘should be turning off farmers’ – why did so many vote for him? (12/7/2024)

The US should join other nations in giving public schoolkids free breakfast and lunch (9/12/2024)

Links

‘Fishless fish’: the next big trend in the seafood industry (10/22/2022)

Global soils underpin life but future looks ‘bleak’, warns UN report (12/4/2020)

Ricardo Salvador on US’s Dysfunctional Food System (11/27/2020)

Cutting Greenhouse Gases From Food Production Is Urgent, Scientists Say (11/5/2020)

Cornell University program aims to end world hunger in 10 years (10/16/2020)

With Trump Executive Order, Are Meat and Poultry Plants a COVID-19 Ticking Time Bomb? (5/20/2020)

Climate Change Threatens the World’s Food Supply, United Nations Warns

People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty: Nine Demands for Food and Rights

SNAP rule change would cut food stamp benefits to 700,000 recipients (12/4/2019)

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World

Hundreds of Thousands Are Losing Access to Food Stamps (12/4/2019)

Trick or Treat? 5 Ways the USDA Secretary Has Pranked Us (10/30/2019)

Trump Administration Unveils More Cuts to Food Stamp Program (10/4/2019)

The Frauding of America’s Farmers, Trump’s biggest supporters are his biggest victims. (8/29/2019)

Crackdown on food stamps could worsen hunger, USDA acknowledges (7/23/2018)

Agriculture Department Suspends Critical Tracking Of Plunging Honey Bee Population (7/8/2019)

Agriculture Department buries studies showing dangers of climate change (6/23/2019)

Trump Is Terrible for Rural America (5/9/2019)

Trump's trade war leads to the lowest income for American farmers in years (4/29/2019)

Food Shocks and Mass Famine Are Our Shared Future (2/3/2019)

Trump Administration Moves to Restrict Food Stamp Access (12/20/2018)

2018 Global Report on Food Crises

Global food system is broken, say world’s science academies (11/28/2018)

An Electrifying Idea (11/6/2018)

If Congress Changes Food Stamp Requirements, Kids Will Go Hungry (7/1/2018)

Big Food and Public Health Don’t Mix

Inside Trump’s Cruel Campaign Against the U.S.D.A.’s Scientists (11/2/2017)

How institutional "good food" procurement policies can shape a food system that's better for people and our planet (2017)

Trump at 6 Months: An Unprecedented Assault on Children’s Health (7/18/2017)

There's a Fascist in the White House. Time to Grow Your Own Food. (7/11/2017)

Michelle Obama Asks Why Trump Administration Is OK With Kids Eating Crap In Schools (5/12/2017)

The future of food production in 12 charts (5/1/2017)

The World Is Headed for a Food Security Crisis. Here's How We Can Avert It (3/28/2018)

GOP Budget to cut food stamps by more than $150 Billion (3/21/2016)

Report: food production must rise 100% by 2050 (3/10/2016)

Congress Is About to Take Food Away From the Poorest People in America (3/9/2016)

Lethal threat of lower fruit and vegetable yields (3/3/2016)

Unless It Changes, Capitalism Will Starve Humanity By 2050 (2/9/2016)

One Million Americans Are About to Lose Their Food Stamp Benefits (1/6/2016)

Most Food Workers Go To Work Even If They’re Ill (10/26/2015)

It’s not science fiction anymore: Monsanto seeks to control world’s food (6/27/2015)

UK Government-backed Scientific Model Flags Risk of Civilisation’s Collapse by 2040 (6/2015)

Food System Shocks, The insurance impacts of acute disruption of the food supply (Lloyd's Emerging Risk Report 2015)

International Doctors Demand Immediate Ban on Glyphosate Herbicides (5/17/2015)

California Farmers Are Watering Their Crops With Oil Wastewater, And No One Knows What’s In It (5/5/2015)

Peak Food is Here. Peak People Next. (2/3/2015)

Have we reached 'peak food'? Shortages loom as global production rates slow (1/28/2015)

5 Ways to Avoid Seafood's Dirty Secrets (8/18/2014)

The F.D.A.’s Blatant Failure on Food (7/30/2014)

Roundup Ready Corn Safe ? (5/14/2014)

Our Alarming Food Future (5/7/2014)

Peak Food. It's Here (4/30/2014)

Where Does Your Food Come From ? (2/24/2014)

Fast Food CEOs Rake in Taxpayer-Subsidized Pay (12/2/2013)

Republicans vote to cut food stamps by $39 Billion (9/19/2013)

Big Ag Spoiling our Topsoil (7/13/2013)

Connecticut And Maine Pass GMO Law (6/12/2013)

GOP's Effort to Cut Food Stamps (5/28/2013)

Monsanto Has Taken Over the USDA (5/11/2013)

Monsanto and the seeds of Suicide (3/27/2013)

Obesity explored through science, the Arts (1/28/2013)

The Food Squeeze is Tightening all Around Us (10/19/2012)

Conservatives bravely Defend Kids' Right To Junky Lunch (10/17/2012)

Study Linking Monsanto Corn to Cancer (9/29/2012)

Meet the corporate front groups Fighting to make sure you can't know what's in your food (5/31/2012)

France Bans GM Corn (3/18/2012)

US Congress Seeks To Cut Food Stamp Program (11/24/2011)

Congress Protects Pizza As a Vegetable In School Lunches (11/15/2011)

Who Says Food is a Human Right (10/2011)

Death of the Bees, Genetically Modified Crops And the Decline of Bee Colonies in North America (8/9/2011)

Seeing a Time (Soon) When We’ll All Be Dieting (8/24/2010)

The Global Food Crisis (6/2009)

The recent conflict over what America eats is an example of how in Bush's America corporate interests trump public health. (8/11/2005)

Recipes

The Food Crisis

Michael Pollan on Food