ANIMAL ANTIBIOTICS DISCOVERED IN COMMON VEGETABLES Researchers at the University of Minnesota have found residues from animal antibiotics in common produce, says a new study. Spreading raw manure on fields from animals treated with antibiotics is a common practice on conventional farms. Unfortunately scientists have now discovered that vegetables like corn, cabbage and green onions absorb those antibiotics, which are then ingested by consumers. "Vegetarians may think the huge overuse of antibiotics in livestock and poultry will not affect them, but that's not true," stated Margaret Mellon, the director of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Consumers eating vegetables grown on soil fertilized with manure may be unknowingly ingesting antibiotics." Regular consumption of these antibiotics can then cause bacteria in the body to become resistant. http://www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/antibiotics112305.cfm

Action for people in US

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) needs your immediate help to stop Congress and the Bush administration from seriously degrading organic standards. After 35 years of hard work, the U.S. organic community has built up a multi-billion dollar alternative to industrial agriculture, based upon strict organic standards and organic community control over modification to these standards.

Now, large corporations such as Kraft, Wal-Mart, & Dean Foods--aided and abetted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are moving to lower organic standards by allowing a Bush appointee to create a list of synthetic ingredients that would be allowed organic production. Even worse these proposed regulatory changes will reduce future public discussion and input and take away the National Organic Standards Board’s (NOSB) traditional lead jurisdiction in setting standards. What this means, in blunt terms. is that USDA bureaucrats and industry lobbyists, not consumers, will now have more control over what can go into organic foods and products. (Send a quick letter to your Congressperson online here: )

Tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 20, acting in haste and near-total secrecy, the U.S. Senate will vote on a "rider" to the 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that will reduce control over organic standards from the National Standards Board and put this control in the hands of federal bureaucrats in the USDA (remember the USDA proposal in 1997-98 that said that genetic engineering, toxic sludge, and food irradiation would be OK on organic farms, or USDA suggestions in 2004 that heretofore banned pesticides, hormones, tainted feeds, and animal drugs would be OK?).

For the past week in Washington, OCA has been urging members of the Senate not to reopen and subvert the federal statute that governs U.S. Organic standards (the Organic Food Production Act—OFPA), but rather to let the organic community and the National Organic Standards resolve our differences over issues like synthetics and animal feed internally, and then proceed to a open public comment period. Unfortunately most Senators seem to be listening to industry lobbyists more closely than to us. We need to raise our voices. (Send a quick letter to your Congressperson online here: )

In the past, grassroots mobilization and mass pressure by organic consumers have been able to stop the USDA and Congress from degrading organic standards. This time Washington insiders tell us that the "fix is already in." So we must take decisive action now. We need you to call your U.S. Senators today. We need you to sign the following petition and send it to everyone you know. We also desperately need funds to head off this attack in the weeks and months to come. Thank you for your support. Together we will take back citizen control over organic standards and preserve organic integrity.

For more information go to the SOS section on our website
Click here to donate money to OCA’s SOS—Save Organic Standards—Campaign
Call the Capital Switchboard here: 877-762-8762
Send a quick letter to your Congressperson online here:

Thanks,

ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION
6771 South Silver Hill Drive
Finland, MN 55603
Phone: (218)-353-7454 Fax: (218) 353-7652

1. Overuse leaves drug useless against avian influenza
Farmers in China have been using an antiviral drug meant for humans to control avian influenza in their chickens since the late 1990s. As a result, the subtype of avian influenza that is considered most likely to trigger a human pandemic has developed resistance to the drug. It’s the first time overuse in animal agriculture of an antiviral, rather than an antibiotic, has compromised the efficacy of a human drug in a major way. The Chinese government encouraged farmers to use the drug, called amantadine, although such use is banned in the United States and many other countries. The only remaining drug that could be used to treat humans, oseltamivir, is prohibitively expensive and difficult to obtain. The situation is a dramatic example of why UCS advocates against the inappropriate use in animal agriculture of drugs that are valuable in human medicine. Read the Washington Post article about the story.

2. USDA criticized on mad cow investigation
The second case of mad cow disease in the U.S. – the first in a U.S.-born cow – was confirmed in June. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been criticized for: not releasing the news until last month, although initial tests were done last November; mislabeling the sample; and not running a confirmatory test sooner after one test was positive and another produced an inconclusive result. The positive reading of mad cow was finally confirmed by a laboratory in England. The USDA screens only one cow in 90 for mad cow disease, while Europe screens one cow in four and Japan screens every cow it slaughters. The USDA also allows risky practices to continue, such as feeding chicken litter that may contain cow parts back to cattle. Read the New York Times article about the case here.

3. House acts to ban fluoroquinolone-treated chicken in school lunches
The House of Representatives passed a measure in June intended to prevent the federal school lunch program from buying chicken treated with fluoroquinolones, a class of antibiotics that includes Cipro and other vital drugs for humans. The measure, an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2006 agriculture appropriations bill, was sponsored by Representative Sherrod Brown (D-13th/OH). Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) will offer a similar amendment in the Senate. Routine treatment of farm animals with antibiotics spurs the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can infect humans. The Food and Drug Administration has been trying to end the use of fluoroquinolones in chickens since 2000, but has been blocked by legal appeals by manufacturer Bayer Corporation. To read more, visit http://press.arrivenet.com/pol/article.php/651092.html.

 4. Whole Foods will label food GE-free
Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats grocery stores both committed in 2001 to using only non-genetically engineered (GE) ingredients in their company brand products. Now Whole Foods, the world’s largest supplier of natural and organic foods, has announced it will label its products, including all organic food, GE-free. Growers and producers who sell to Whole Foods will have to substantiate their non-GE practices through documentation and independent laboratory tests. Read Whole Foods' policy.

5. What you can do (1): Participate in a Farm Bill forum
Members of the public are invited to give input on the 2007 Farm Bill at a series of forums hosted by Mike Johanns, the Secretary of Agriculture. This is a great opportunity for you to tell Secretary Johanns what you want U.S. agriculture to look like and what role the USDA should play. For example, you might want to tell him you want the USDA to assist farmers in making the transition to organic, to encourage farmers to act as environmental stewards, and to establish programs reducing the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture. Remind him that agribusiness is not his only constituent. It’s our USDA too.
Farm Bill sessions that have been scheduled so far:
· July 26, noon-3 pm (CST) – North Dakota State Fair, Minot, ND
· August 3, 4-7 pm – Minnesota Farm Fest, Redwood County, MN
· August 4, 11 am-2 pm – Wisconsin State Fair, West Allis, WI
More forums will be scheduled at sites around the country. You can also submit comments at http://www.usda.gov/farmbill.

6. What you can do (2): Help save the Conservation Security Program
The USDA is requesting public comments on the Revised Interim Final Rule for the Conservation Security Program, a voluntary stewardship incentives program that rewards farmers for conservation practices that protect water and soil, improve habitat, and increase energy efficiency. USDA is hobbling the program by funding too few farmers in too few areas of the country. This innovative program needs your support. Comments are due by July 25, 2005. For detailed information about the program and suggestions for writing effective comments on this rule, visit http://www.msawg.org/sac/csp/alert_csp_ifr2.shtml.

Monsanto Corn Study raises safety questions: According to the study, rats that were fed MON 863 had smaller kidneys and elevated levels of white blood cells and lymphocytes compared to those that were fed conventional corn. In the United States and Canada, farmers have been growing MON 863 corn since 2003. (Also Check Dangerous Chemicals for more information)

Also, ¾ way down page is info on MSG.

FDA Lists 92 Symptoms from Nutrasweet (Aspartame)
(including Death!)

Many links to aspartame info.

Support group for aspartame victims.

The information on msgtruth.org is a culmination of the important independent research regarding the food additive Monosodium Glutamate. msgtruth.org is a not-for-profit site created by scientific, caring citizens trained in food science, food processing, and biology, who no longer work for the food industry.

You or someone you care about is suffering from puzzling chronic conditions such as headaches, stomach disorders, fatigue, depression, and many other problems. Tests have come up negative and you want answers.

Definitions & links.

This Web site contains a great deal of information that those who are sensitive to processed free glutamic acid (MSG), or people who simply want to avoid the substance, will find useful. It also contains information about the glutamate industry's infrastructure, their stable of industry sponsored scientists, their public relations firms, and some of the methods they use to convince the public that neurotoxic MSG is "safe."

(Splenda) Sucralose Toxicity Info Center

Splenda, or Sucralose, is a chlorocarbon. The chlorocarbons have long been famous for causing organ, genetic, and reproductive damage.

Articles on many things that we are told are "safe".

Iowa, North Carolina are top users of antibiotics in livestock
A new report by Environmental Defense ranks antibiotic use in animal agriculture by state. Iowa ranks highest in antibiotic use, with 2.2 million pounds of medically important antibiotics fed to livestock annually, followed by North Carolina with 1.7 million pounds. Delaware is the most intensive user, with 187,000 pounds of antibiotics per thousand square miles. People living in areas with intensive use of antibiotics as feed additives may be at greater risk of contracting antibiotic-resistant infections. The rankings were based on data taken from UCS’s report (2000). Read the new report, Resistant Bugs and Antibiotic Drugs (PDF).

The results of our study indicate the following:Tetracycline, penicillin, erythromycin, and other antimicrobials that are important in human use are used extensively in the absence of disease for nontherapeutic purposes in today's livestock production.

Cattle, swine, and poultry are routinely given antimicrobials throughout their lives. Many of the antimicrobials given to livestock are important in human medicine.

The overall quantity of antimicrobials used in agriculture is enormous.Many consumers will be surprised to find that tens of millions of pounds of antimicrobials are used in livestock systems. We estimate that every year livestock producers in the United States use 24.6 million pounds of antimicrobials in the absence of disease for nontherapeutic purposes: approximately 10.3 million pounds in hogs, 10.5 million pounds in poultry, and 3.7 million pounds in cattle. The tonnage would be even higher if antimicrobials used therapeutically for animals were included.

GM soy hit harder by Brazil's drought than conventional varieties

Date Posted: 4/4/2005

English IPS News via NewsEdge Corporation : RIO DE JANEIRO -- Drought in southern Brazil has reduced this year's important soybean harvest dramatically in Rio Grande do Sul state -- and added fuel to the heated national debate about transgenic crops.

Genetically modified (GM) soy, which accounts for the majority of soybean production in the southern state, suffered greater losses than conventional soy varieties, according to reports by local growers.

NEW LAW FORCES GENETIC POLLUTERS TO PAY
Following the example of Germany, Denmark has passed a law that will punish farmers planting genetically engineered (GE) crops if they contaminate the crops or fields of organic or non-GE farmers. Because GE crops sell for less than organic or conventional crops, farmers whose fields are contaminated by drifting GE pollen undergo major financial losses. Under the new law, if a farmer is growing conventional or organic crops, and their field is contaminated by drifting GE pollen, the farmer will be compensated for their losses by the government. The Denmark government will then recoup those costs from the farmer whose field the GE pollen originated in. http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/denmark112805.cfm