Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise

2023-08-16T14:07:00.003-07:00

August, 2023.

I’ve spent a couple of hours on the phone today, yesterday, as well as other days, sorting out health insurance.

My family has genes for something that is fairly common in Northern Europeans. It’s a mis-spelling at a particular point in our DNA that can make a body hold on to excessive amounts of iron.

Iron overload can cause a lot of damage to a human body. In males, the symptoms begin to show up in their later 20s to early forties. In women, it takes 10 or so years after menopause. Heart disease, diabetes, liver damage, joint damage, and dementia are common.

People need iron to do important jobs at a cellular level. Too little is called anemia, and leaves people tired, weak, and pale.

When a body has too much iron, and cannot get rid of it, a complex set of symptoms begin to show up. Excess iron gets deposited in joints and soft tissues. Knee joints and hip joints begin to degrade = rust. - from the iron. Liver, pancreas, and heart suffer damage as iron builds up in those organs. My uncle experienced a sudden deafness in one ear from a tiny bleed in his brain. The iron from the blood took a long time to work its way out, with a gradual improvement in his hearing.

There’s a really interesting factor that started to make some sense, with active, slender people with moderate diets developing diabetes with no clear reason. In some of those folks, a surgery that by-passes part of the stomach and the first section of the small intestine caused immediate reversal of their diabetes. Various methods of bypass include putting in a sleeve to block the stomach contents from touching the intestinal wall in that short section, with the same result. Humans absorb iron in the first few inches of the small intestine. Most people who have stomach by-pass typically need an infusion of iron into their blood every few months.

When one of my siblings turned up with this condition, he was tested and found to have 2 genes for it. The other siblings went out to get tested right away. So far, only one of us has 2 genes for it. 3 have one gene, I have zero. The way genetics for conditions like this typically work is pretty straight forward. Humans pass along one set of genes from each parent. Because our genetics are recorded in a double-strand of DNA, one strand is in the egg, the other in the sperm. Put together, this makes a recipe for a new person. If, in the case of my family, each parent has one gene for the condition, then it’s a little like rolling 2 dice with equal numbers of YES or NO sides. Each child has four things that could come up.

Yes, Yes Yes, No No, Yes No, No

Each of us had 1/4 chance at 2 Yeses, 1/4 chance of 2 Nos, and 2/4 chances at 1 Yes and 1 No.

My brother got 2 Yeses, I got 2 Nos. Three others in my family got 1 Yes/ 1 No, and one hadn’t tested but has knee problems and diabetes.

This is a very common gene in people of Northern European, Irish, and Scottish ethnicities. I have 99.7% of my genes from Europeans, and 29% from Ireland and Britain. Ireland has the highest rate of Hemochromatosis on the globe. Second place goes to Norway I’ve got ancestors all over the place over there.

Moving on in History

2016-12-01T16:10:00.002-08:00

We're just past the election, enough that the results seem clear. I had been reading old novels from a previous century, just to settle my mind. Now I'm reading speculative fiction about the future. Even reading a Reader's Digest can seem overwhelming, because it is about the current times. The future is well out of my reach, and the past can be chewed over and evaluated for hits of what our species (OK, I'm actually talking about myself) can do to take some measure of control out of the maelstrom.

Some people feel compelled to make public demonstrations in large groups. Some people are looking into leaving the country for a few years. Some people think they are bound to do better under a new leader, others fear the future.

Reading history is very instructive, even when it is in a novel, and one thing that surfaces with regularity is that we are not seeing anything new right now. People are constantly thinking they are more advanced than their deceased predecessors, and thusly will not make the subtle but defining mistakes made in the past.

Wherever you go, people will find things to fight over.
People will find ways to take power from others.
People fall in and out of love.
People will claim a spiritual being (benign or evil) compelled their behavior.

Being old enough to inspire a little awe in my teen child (You lived through the cold war and Vietnam? ) as a balance for standard teen derision of all things extant does not make me wise. It makes me cautious and willing to give humanity a fighting chance to be humane.

What I can do as an individual is make an effort to be kind, spend what money I have where it supports the society in which I want to keep living, and find spots of joy every day to share.

It is not much, but in this current environment, now that I can get my head out of a novel, it is what I can handle.

What can you do?

Walk Like an Italian 1

2016-05-17T19:44:00.002-07:00

passeggiata

ˌpasəˈjädə/

Walk Like an Italian

Our friends tell us they walk after dinner, and dinner ends with chocolate. They walk slowly, strolling, and talking, sometimes not even talking. Their kids are either in bed or reading quietly, and the walk takes them just around their block.

It is part of a way of living which includes some changes in food and exercise, but isn't a "diet" or "exercise" program.

Beguiled by the image of my two driven friends holding themselves back to a pedestrian pace, my husband and I have taken a few after-dinner strolls through the neighborhood, frequently reminding one another to stroll, not stride. At a stroll, the scenery seems sharper, the flowers more full, and the opportunity to greet neighbors is more than a nod one gives to a jogger sporting earbuds.

We noticed a pair of ducks dabbling on Sunday, slipping in and out of the roots on the creek banks, nosing upstream for dinner. A drake seem to stay behind the duck, keeping her in his watchful gaze. Just past the ducks, the neighbor who hosts my chorus rehearsals greets us with his new puppy, and we chat about the concert coming up and how the soloists sounded. He's just retired, and is as happy as a person might wish to be. The puppy leans agains my ankle and keeps guard on the action across the creek. His fur is as soft as baby's hair, and I can't help but adore his childish joy.

We stop at the middle of the bridge over the creek to watch for fish and for swallows which swoop in arcs under the bridge as they hunt for insects. How the world must look to their eyes! They move so fast it is hard to track their actions, and I've never seen one crash. The water shifts the long green strands that anchor in the creek bed, but the surface is smooth. I know the lake that empties into this stream, and have seen its waters roaring at the underside of the bridge, and seen stranded fish dead in muddy holes in the dry years. Sometimes the nearby houses are sandbagged to keep the flood at bay, and sometimes we can walk across the parched sands. Every year is different, and every walk shows something new.

The stroll takes us by several Free Little Libraries, a bit of joy in the city. These little boxes share books all around the neighborhoods, and we stop at each one, sometimes just looking, sometimes leaving a book we're ready to send along, and sometimes taking one home. The rules are simple: Be kind, share. Take a book you like, leave one if you wish. There is a story somewhere about the originator of the idea, but the boxes are legion now, and well past the first wave of the initiator's plan.

We get home, and sip a bit of wine, our choice in place of chocolate. A smile, a squeeze of our hands, and we're ready to close the day. It is good.

Ciao

Autumn: River of Birds

2013-11-17T17:24:00.002-08:00

To do the tidy thing for the winter town yard, I must trim back the tops of all my plants, pull out the annuals and leave the garden beds naked in their dirt-skins. The grass is expected to lie naked of leaves. For this we will not remove them as much as chop finely with our lawn mower.

The leaves are not raked. The gardens stand waiting for a healthy cleansing of this past summer's growth. The hard freeze came. There is no more hope for keeping on the few hardy marigolds and mums. Petunias of unusual vigor held out in defiant blooms against the frosty background of fallen leaves. The leaves I have not raked. How can I rake away the leaves which kept the last few flowers bright for my pleasure?

I'm pleased, perhaps somewhat perversely, by how well our gardens grew with very little effort. The neighbor with the "perfect," lawn works like a fiend; mowing and watering daily, fertilizing, spraying chemicals, pulling weeds, planting annuals, trimming back tops. He is never smiling or satisfied at his work. For me it is an effort of joy, the blossoms sharing their secret smiles with me as we look into the sun.

Now it is cold, and the sun warms my face and the earth a little, enough only to melt the water in the bird's bath. Under those leaves in the garden lies the sleeping joy of next spring's bright green and rainbow of flowers. The chill wind pushes at me as I think, bear-like, of a warm den and a long nap. Clouds scuttle overhead, blocking my sun, and out of the north comes a river of black birds, screaming their irritation as they pass southward. I feel a wild flush, and wish to join them, running as they fly, over land, across water, on and on until we come to summer again. The wind pushes them on, and me back, as the den and the nap remind me that I cannot fly, nor run over rivers and across cities and mountains and plains. A ragged gasp of disappointment shudders my frame as the river of birds stretches from horizon to horizon. Cannot an adult spin and laugh out loud for amazement and joy at the wonders? The solemn square houses and church face me in stern reproach, as I run my small yard's length, then sit in the leaves and laugh at the river in the sky, and the bear in me.

Your Head on Lead

2013-03-08T11:18:00.001-08:00

Why Gas changed the world, and how we can take it back.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria

2012-10-20T15:41:00.002-07:00

Miracle Drugs

When my son was 2 years old, my wife caught a cold which took a turn for the worse. Eventually, she was coughing every minute and was unable to sleep at all. After a couple of trips to the doctor, it was determined she had pneumonia, and was given a powerful antibiotic. After just a few days on the antibiotic, she was much improved, and able to sleep and recuperate. In the days before antibiotics, I may have become a widower. They truly are miracle drugs.

Unfortunately, there are bacteria which have become adapted and can survive the most powerful antibiotic drugs we have. These are the so-called superbugs. We have created these superbugs through overuse of antibiotics.

Infections of the ear, urinary tract, skin and lungs are increasingly taking stubborn forms requiring more antibiotics or combinations to cure. New strains of age-old infectious bacteria are getting harder and harder to treat.

Superbugs

MRSA -- methicillin-resistant (or multi-drug-resistant) Staphylococcus aureus -- is increasingly attacking healthy people, mostly as nasty, invasive skin infections, but also as aggressive pneumonias. Staphylococcus aureus ("staph") is a very common bacteria, and is part of the normal flora found on the skin and in nasal passages. MRSA is sometimes known as the "flesh eating" bacteria, and has made the news frequently, such as this young women who recently survived her battle with this antibiotic-resistant bacteria after cutting her leg on a tree.

Meanwhile, certain other bacteria like Acinetobacter baumannii and Klebsiella pneumonia are becoming more lethal, attacking vulnerable hospitalized patients. Sometimes, they are unaffected by most or all antibiotics available to physicians. Such bacteria are still the exception, but they illustrate the importance of attempts to stem the proliferation of drug-resistant bacteria.

In 2010, just one of these superbugs, MRSA, caused serious infections in some 80,042 Americans, and killed 11,478. [1]

Antibiotic overuse and abuse

How have these superbugs come about? We have saturated our environment with antibiotics, drugs we created to fight bacterial infections. Some 7 million pounds of antibiotics are sold for human use each year, while 29 million pounds are sold for use in animals, mostly food animals. This represents a gross overuse of the drugs, and makes it less likely they will work for fighting infections when we need them.

Bacteria exist in teeming numbers -- in fact, our own resident bacteria, mostly good helpful bacteria aiding our digestion, outnumber our own body's cells, although much smaller in size. They reproduce rapidly and can pass on genetic traits including resistance to antibiotics not just to succeeding generations but also to other, different strains of bacteria. The more often they encounter antibiotics, the more quickly they adapt to them, becoming resistant and hardier.

Respiratory infections such as coughs and colds account for 60 to 70 percent of all antibiotics prescribed in doctors' offices, but only one in five of those infections really need antiobiotics. [2] The greatest majority of those illnesses are due to viruses, not bacteria. Antibiotics have no effect at all on viruses. Some patients want an antibiotic even if there's only a small chance it will help, and doctors often go along with them. Instead, make sure your doctor knows you want an antibiotic only if it's absolutely necessary.

Some patients also fail to take the entire course of antibiotics as prescribed, or even save pills for later use or to share. This allows germs to persist, develop resistance and may allow them to come roaring back causing an even more serious illness. The U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that in hospitals, nearly half of all antibiotic prescriptions are inappropriate.

Don't take antibiotics without a physician's advice, and only when necessary. Don't take antibiotics for the common cold. Be sure to take antibiotics exactly as prescribed, completing the entire course unless otherwise advised by a doctor.

Effect on the Individual and the Community

Antibiotic use affects the individual and the community. It changes the mix of bacteria living in the gut and on the skin, killing weak bacteria and giving drug-resistant bacteria a chance to take hold. Research suggests taking commonly prescribed antibiotics increases one's own risk of being infected with MRSA. Recent or current treatment with antibiotics is the single biggest risk factor for infection with Clostridium difficile ("C.diff"), a drug-resistant bacteria that can cause severe diarrhea. Found most commonly in health care facilities, this bacteria is estimated in being linked with 14,000 American deaths per year.

Resistant bugs can also be passed to household members, like any bacteria. One study found that family members of a person taking antibiotics for acne were more likely to have drug-resistant acne germs on their skin.

According to the CDC (April 2011), antibiotic resistance in the United States costs an estimated $20 billion a year in excess health care costs, $35 billion in other societal costs and more than 8 million additional days that people spend in the hospital.

Not Just People

Human medicine isn't the only place where antibiotics are used too frequently. Most cattle, pigs and poultry are given antibiotics, not just to treat illnesses or to prevent the spread of disease, but also to promote faster growth. These drugs are often the same as or very similar to drugs used to treat people.

Eating contaminated meat transmits superbugs created in animal use of antibiotics to humans. In 2011, 136 people in 34 states got sick and one person died after eating ground turkey carrying a strain of salmonella resistant to multiple antibiotics. Farms also spread the bacteria. Most of the bacteria end up outside the animal, as fecal matter. Where does the fecal matter go? Into the water and into the soil. The soil dries and gets broken into dust. Everybody is downwind or downstream from someone else.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued new guidelines that call for a halt to the usage of antibiotics to enhance growth in animals. One wonders where the U.S. Department of Agriculture is on this issue.

The Future?

Antibiotic resistance is a complex, global and growing problem. Resistance is produced by the misuse of antibiotics. Lives are already being lost to antibiotic resistance. We need to get antibiotics out of the environment as best we can.

(*) The Rise of Resistance -- reference
[1] U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
[2] Ralph Gonzales, M.D., University of California, San Francisco

Crawling Like a Baby

2012-05-20T18:13:00.002-07:00

My son is working through a therapy called, "Neurological Reorganization." When I was in elementary school, the whole school did some of the same stuff, and the program had been around since the 1940s. To get him to be more motivated, I did everything with him, including lying on my belly on the kitchen floor, and crawling. We began the program when I'd been having a lot of low back pain, and even rolling over in bed was agony. Getting down on my front on the kitchen floor looked like a huge sacrifice of my dignity, as well as a lot more pain. For the first week, my knees and elbows grew bruises and (when I crawled on the carpet) blisters. Then I got smarter, and put on knee and elbow pads.

One morning found myself without back pain - and rejoiced that I had found something I could do with my son that helped me out, as well. We laughed at one another, listened to goofy CDs of Bill Cosby, Terry Foy, and others, and played games of hiding small cat toys around the house. I felt my waistline beginning to come back into the shape I remembered fondly from photographs...but had not seen for four or five years.

As we crawled on the wooden floor of the kitchen, I thought about the motions my body made, and how the core muscles were being used to slide, lift and propel my body forward, but without much weight resting on my spine. The twisting of the torso and the alternating arm/leg movements were a decent workout, and I worked up a sweat. If nothing else, it was 40 minutes of exercise I could get at home, while doing things with my child. The mouse-eye perspective of my cabinets and floor gave me some inspiration to collect the pet fur and drips more often.

For about a week, our schedule seemed way too hectic for me to get my crawling in before breakfast, and with my 51-year-old body, I just don't want to lie on my tummy after eating. One weekend vigorous gardening and the next Monday morning, I woke up with a sore back again.

I'm back at crawling again, even with my nearing-teen-age child asking me to not be in the same room, or not do my work-out at the same time he does. (Sigh. He's getting to THAT age.) I miss a day now and then, but getting my old bones down on the floor looks a lot better after knowing what it does for me. This core-body work-out needs no special equipment and you don't need to leave home. For us, NR is now a family exercise.

Ethanol in gasoline, not such a hot idea?

2012-05-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

I'm all in favor of weaning America off foreign petroleum, but the following is not the way to do it. The EPA and the state of Minnesota in separate but related stupidities have decreed we will have 15% Ethanol (E15) in our gasoline (EPA) and 20% Ethanol (E20) in our gasoline (Minnesota, starting August 2013) -- both before the testing results of what that would do to automobiles came in.

Well, the test results are now in, and it's a crap shoot for car owners -- CRC final report for project CM-136-09-1B, Intermediate-Level Ethanol Blends Engine Durability Study (PDF).

Those cars older than 2001 stand a good chance of fuel system damage from the lower 15% version. We here in Minnesota will be seeing this version in our pumps very soon, if I understand the Minnesota statute correctly (I may not, since it's very obtuse: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=239.791). The rest of the country is likely to see E15 as a result of the EPA ruling, as well.

For cars newer than 2001, some may be ok with 15%, while others the manufacturers (e.g. Ford) specifically disclaim warranty if used with 15%, while others specifically label their gasoline caps to say NO gasoline with more than 10% ethanol.

20% ethanol is, of course, even worse than 15% as far as risk of damage to fuel systems and engine metals (CRC testing showed damaged valves, for example).

While the Minnesota statute is obtuse in its many subdivisions and references to federal law, and numerous special interest exceptions (ATVs, airplanes, boats, etc.), one thing is clear. The law was not written using science, engineering, or with the purpose of reducing air pollution or dependence on foreign oil. It was instead written with one purpose, political payback. It benefits Minnesota corn growers and ethanol industry members who helped elect former governor Tim Pawlenty and the legislators who pushed the law. This is made obvious in that decisions regarding expiration of the law are based on determinations made by the commissioner of agriculture.

Ed Welsh, Oneida County Legislator (New York) and Central Region General Manager for AAA New York, has written a good editorial about the ethanol situation and the CRC study results. It's very worth reading. My favorite passage says:

If we examine how the federal government mandates certain products we would find that it occurs in one of three ways. In no particular order, the first is to subsidize it , the second is to protect it from competition and third is to require its use. Corn Ethanol as used in our gasoline has the remarkable distinction as perhaps the only product that enjoys all three.

Ask yourself, who would purposely buy fuel that’s more costly, gets worse mileage and increases carbon emissions? Due to government mandate, the answer is: All of us!

Start saving money for car repairs now, folks.

The real reason gasoline is so expensive

2012-05-17T19:14:00.001-07:00

This article was eye opening for me. I knew there were a number of reasons our gasoline was nearly $4 a gallon, and always seeming to get more expensive over the years. But I had forgotten that "[c]artels, by definition, exist to maximize the profits of their members." And OPEC members are exactly that, a cartel. For the most part, OPEC countries don't export anything of significance, other than oil. According to the linked article, every time we fill up, we are sending 35 cents per gallon to the "fund" to save the Saudi Arabian king from having unhappy citizens storm the palace -- that is, he is using the "extra" money to pay them off through billions of dollars of spending since the Arab Spring got his attention.

The only way around this is to stop using so much petroleum. OPEC sits on 80% of the world's reserves. As long as we keep using petroleum, we will keep paying oil monarchs to stay on their thrones.

Big Ag redefines feral, criminalizes Michigan pig owners

2012-03-31T19:01:00.000-07:00

Always follow the money, and always follow the greed, it seems. Big, industrial pork producers and their industry have managed to lobby, cajole, bribe, or do whatever it takes to get a new Michigan law passed which essentially redefines the word feral when used with pigs.

The commonly understood meanings are in a wild state and resembling a wild animal especially when referring to a domesticated animal having escaped from captivity or domestication, e.g. a feral cat. But now in Michigan, it apparently will mean any pig not raised on an industrial hog farm.

Small farmers, raising pigs of other breeds than those used on industrial hog farms, will become felons under the new law, passed in 2010 and scheduled to take effect April 1, 2012.

Here's a good article describing the situation in detail: http://www.alternet.org/story/154752/

Where did that food come from?

2011-09-01T18:46:00.000-07:00

While traveling, eating healthy, good-tasting food is harder than at home. Even when you buy something that should just be reasonably safe and normal, it can be fraught with peril.

At one gas stop, we bought some apple juice. The front label said "all juice". But reading the fine print written sideways on the rear, it turned out that it was not all apple juice. Filtered water, malic acid, ascorbic acid and of course, apple juice concentrate were the actual ingredients. This erosion and perversion of names allowed by federal regulators has spread far and wide. Standard names like "apple juice," "chocolate," "milk," and "meat" no longer mean what they once did, nor what the consumer often expects them to be. When a container says "all juice" a reasonable person, perhaps even most people, would tend to imagine juice produced from the fruits in question ("juiced"!) was what was bottled.

Additionally in the above product, the apples from which the apple juice concentrate was made were potentially from Austria, Germany, Spain, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina and America. Now, it's likely that there are growers in all of those countries who grow good quality, even organic, apples. But those are not likely the apples bought be some multi-national company looking for the cheapest apples it can find from a dozen different countries to make its juice.

This was really an industrial beverage, containing some small amounts of real apple juice from locations unknown. I don't object to such products being available. I do object to regulators allowing manufactures to cheapen, distort and abuse the language in order to trick consumers into buying something other than what they imagine. Pink slime, anyone?

Some legal success for organic farmers

2011-07-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

"Wafting poison makes fertile ground for suit in Stearns County" reads the Minneapolis - St. Paul newspaper's headline. Despite the bad pun, the article reports some good news for organic farmers in Minnesota, as well as in other states around the country. From the article:

Oluf Johnson's 1,500-acre farm in Stearns County is an organic island in a sea of chemically treated corn and soybeans.
Improperly applied pesticides repeatedly drift over from neighboring farms, often with dire consequences for Johnson. But now, thanks to a new court ruling, he and other farmers can sue to recover their losses.

Since the pesticides make Johnson's crop unsalable in the organic market, he is entitled to damages from the company responsible for the pesticide application.

Recently a similar damage award was made in California, where an organic farmer won $1 million in damages. According to Alexadra Klass, a professor of environmental law at the University of Minnesota, this Minnesota ruling puts the state in line with the majority of jurisdictions around the USA in finding that pesticide drift is a trespass.

This is good news for organic farmers and consumers. In the bigger scheme of things, it should mean the price of conventional, pesticide-sprayed produce will go up, and organic producers will have an easier time of maintaining their organic status and economic viability. I say "hooray" for this ruling.

Goiter, Water, and Dew

2011-06-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

Just the other day, one of my sisters was diagnosed with goiter. This seemed pretty strange, because she has always lived in Minnesota, not in a "developing" country. Her doctor advised her that goiter can run in families, so I started researching.

Goiter is a swollen thyroid gland. Generally, goiter is caused by too little iodine in the diet; the thyroid gland grows larger, trying to do its job, making sufficient thyroid hormones to keep the body running smoothly. But, you may say, "Our salt is iodized!" So it is. Digging further, I learned that in the periodic table of elements, iodine sits on the same column as fluorine, chlorine, and bromine. These are called the Halogen Family, and all have similar chemical characteristics. The human body gets fooled, and fluorine, chlorine and bromine can slip like skeleton keys into the locks made for iodine. Once the lock is filled up, the iodine can't get in, and passes out of the body.

So, how does a thyroid get locked up with weird chemicals we don't need?

The first question the doctor asked my sister was, "Do you drink a lot of Mountain Dew?" She thought the doctor was being silly, but answered truthfully that, yes, she had until a few weeks before. Mountain Dew is one of many citrus beverages with bromine (it stabilizes the color). Bromine is also used in flour ("bromated"), and can be found in many processed foods. Bromine is used in pesticides, flame retardants, gasoline additives, swimming pools and hot tubs.

Fluorine/fluoride is put into our drinking water and toothpaste, to prevent cavities. Almost all processed foods use fluoridated water in manufacturing - juices, soups, jam, pasta sauce, etc...

Chlorine is used in sanitizing food preparation surfaces, in drinking water, and in many cleaning supplies.

We are surrounded by chemicals ready to displace the iodine our bodies need. We eat them, drink them, bath in them, and breathe them, and we are not warned of their effects.

I've switched to drinking spring water, and have begun taking iodine drops.

Because almost all processed foods contain fluoridated water and some form of bromine as an additive, it is important to read labels. Just about any food with "water" on the ingredient list has fluoride. My family drinks raw, unprocessed milk from a tiny farm, so we are not getting milk tainted with fluoride.

My sister has begun to really work on her diet. She and her kids are really becoming thoughtful about what they eat and how their food is prepared. Where once she let her kids drink lots of soda pop, they now drink milk and water - spring water. She's hoping her symptoms will begin to resolve, and in a year at her follow-up appointment, she can show a smaller thyroid gland and a healthier body to her doctor. I hope she makes it.

I hope to make enough changes in my life that I won't need to meet her doctor!

Acrylamides in Food

2011-04-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, the popular press began reporting on a new danger in some foods. The danger was a chemical named acrylamide. The initial theory was that it was caused to form in food by high temperature cooking of foods high in carbohydrates and containing certain amino acids. A negative opinion formed against fried, roasted and baked foods, especially things like French fries.

This chemical was first observed in foods in April, 2002, although it's probably been present a lot longer. "Acrylamide belongs to the group of chemicals thought to have no reliably identifiable ‘threshold’ of effects, meaning that very low concentrations will also result in very low risks, but not in zero risk: some risk is always present when the chemical is ingested. However, for these carcinogens, risk is thought to increase with increasing exposure," according to the World Health Organization.

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not think there is any danger, the U.S. National Institutes of Health sees things a bit differently, stating "high levels of acrylamide in the workplace have been shown to cause neurological damage, e.g., among workers using acrylamide polymers to clarify water in coal preparation plants" and "consider acrylamide to be a 'probable human carcinogen.' "

In January, 2008, Science Daily reported the following breast cancer link to acrylamide in food:

“Animal tests have shown acrylamide to be a carcinogen, but until recently no studies have demonstrated a link between acrylamide in foods and cancer in humans. Ours is the first epidemiological study using biological markers for measuring acrylamide exposure, and the first to report a positive association between acrylamide and breast cancer,” says Henrik Frandsen, senior scientist at the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark.

The Danish study found that "[t]he findings show a positive association between an increased acrylamide-haemoglobin level and the development of breast cancer after adjustment for smoking behaviour. The risk of breast cancer doubles with a tenfold increase in the acrylamide-haemoglobin level. A tenfold increase in the acrylamide-haemoglobin level corresponds more or less to the difference measured between the women with the lowest and highest exposure."

Nine years later, the FDA and Health Canada are still assessing the danger of acrylamide in foods, and whether they will then make the political decision to actually label it as a health hazard and take some regulatory action. Meanwhile in 2010 the European Chemical Agency added acrylamide to the list of substances of very high concern.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is somewhat less optimistic. The WHO notes in their extensive FAQ on acrylamide in food, that it's not known for sure how acrylamide is being formed in foods. They are likewise cautious about the danger of cancer or other harm.

As is often the case, the picture becomes clearer with time and better research. Unfortunately, the picture has gotten considerably worse.

As if the herbicide Roundup were not bad enough by itself, Roundup and other herbicides contain polyacrylamide, which breaks down into acrylamide when exposed to heat and light -- say, crops in field on a warm, sunny day. Professor Joe Cummings points out this problem in a report at the Institute of Science in Society.

It looks suspiciously like Roundup and similar herbicides which use polyacrylamide may well be the primary source of cancer-causing and otherwise toxic acrylamides in food.

Creativity and "ADHD"

2011-04-04T21:26:00.000-07:00

Scientists studied "ADHD" people, finding that "ADHD" and highly distractable people were better at creative problem solving, even when they were being distracted. Oh, and they were smarter, too.

"According to the scientists, the inability to focus helps ensure a richer mixture of thoughts in consciousness. Because these people struggled to filter the world, they ended up letting everything in. They couldn't help but be open-minded."

Meat-glue, get a clue!

2011-04-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

No longer just the realm of chicken nuggets, glued together chunks of meat are being sold as prime steaks and roasts. The meat-glue used is made of elements of pork or beef blood, Thrombian, or Transglutaminase. Not only is this shoddy and misleading, but bacteria love to grow inside a moist, meaty package. Much like hamburger, which we all know can be contaminated when thousands of cattle's meat get mixed in giant vats, glued-together "steaks" are combinations of many animals, and harbor generous colonies of bacteria inside. In a rare-cooked steak, normally you don't need to worry that bacteria have infiltrated the middle of the meat, but in glued meat, you do.

Be wise, avoid spending your cash on glued-together meats that are just over-large hamburger chunks.

Food-Wise: pesticide alerts for shoppers

2011-03-31T19:18:00.000-07:00

Food can be expensive. For many of us, budgets are stretched. When you want to eat a healthier diet, but can't afford to buy only organic foods, what can you do? Environmental Working Group has developed a list of conventionally grown foods highest in pesticides.

To help with your decisions, here is a list of foods most affected by pesticides, followed by a list of those least affected.

The Dirty Dozen (most contaminated with pesticides):

Grapes (Imported)
Potatoes
Kale/Collard Greens
Cherries
Spinach
Sweet Bell Peppers
Nectarines
Blueberries (Domestic)
Apples
Strawberries
Peaches
Celery

The Clean Fifteen (least contaminated by pesticides):

Onions
Avocado
Sweet Corn (Frozen)
Pineapples
Mango (Subtropical and Tropical)
Sweet Peas (Frozen)
Asparagus
Kiwi Fruit (Subtropical and Tropical)
Cabbage
Eggplant
Cantaloupe (Domestic)
Watermelon
Grapefruit
Sweet Potatoes
Honeydew Melon

Here's the full list from the Environmental Working Group.

Minnesota Mothers for Milk fair access bill

2011-03-09T20:59:00.000-08:00

Would you be willing to help with a critical step of contacting GOVERNOR DAYTON this week to voice support for the Minnesota raw milk bill?

You could take the crucial step of making our voices heard to our new governor. Governor Dayton has the power to sign or veto the bill if it makes it to his desk, so we need to let him know how important this is to us and ask for his support. Please help us put it on his radar! Take action today.

The corporate food industry has many lobbyists working hard to stop the passage of this bill, consequently each of our voices is very important. Some easy-to-follow steps are outlined below.

TAKE ACTION:

•CALL HIS OFFICE at 651-201-3400 or 800-657-3717. Tell them where you live and why his support of this bill is important to you (see talking points below).

•WRITE A BRIEF LETTER. Single page, hand-written letters get more notice, but typed letters or e-mails are fine as well. Send to:
Governor Mark Dayton
130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155
E-mail to: http://MNHLRP.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ba758759647fb4bd348f2dc85&id=efcb670188&e=cb8032bb57

In all cases, make it personal and positive for the greatest impact.

TALKING POINTS:

•State where you live, why you drink raw milk and any benefits you have noticed. Share your passionate story about how it has helped you and your loved ones.
•Ask him to support the bill and refer to the bill numbers: SF147 and HF255.
•This bill simply improves ACCESS to a food that is already legal in Minnesota by allowing farmers and consumers more freedom on delivery options. It removes the current restrictions saying you must obtain it “at the farm”, and only “occasionally”. The new bill as currently written includes milk from cows, goats and sheep, and encompasses raw dairy products including milk, cream, butter, cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt and ice cream.
•This bill makes it SAFER to obtain farm-fresh dairy foods, eliminating the need for individuals, parents and families to drive long distances to obtain the food they choose for their families. This is essentially a transportation safety issue.
•This bill makes it EASIER and MORE EFFICIENT to get raw milk by allowing farmers to deliver to various sites and homes, thereby using less gas, and saving wear and tear on roads and vehicles.
•It supports rural Minnesota economies and the urban areas they support, putting more money in the farmers’ pockets and encouraging mutually beneficial farmer-consumer relationships as promoted in the national “Know Your Farmer” campaign.
•It is less disruptive to hardworking farmers who now have to handle numerous customers’ visits.
•It reinforces sustainable farming, and since raw milk for human consumption is produced on pasture, it supports the animals, land, water and surrounding environment.
•It promotes food freedom, food choice and food security in our state.
•Also, in this time of a budget crisis, this bill does not cost anything to implement.
•Things to keep in mind: AVOID bashing Big Ag (say only positive things about raw dairy); AVOID partisan remarks; DO NOT discuss the Hartmann case which is a separate issue; DO NOT discuss federal food safety legislation S510 – this is about Minnesota only.

Please let us know if you contacted Governor Dayton in writing or by phone. If you have questions or would like additional pointers, please contact:
Gregory Schmidt, Pres. MNHLRP gregoryvschmidt@gmail.com 612-386-4908 (c)

This initiative, Food Freedom Project, is a project of the Minnesota Natural Health Legal Reform Project (MNHLRP). This effort is supported by others including volunteers and other local and national organizations. To learn more about the efforts of MNHLRP, or to donate, please go to www.mnhlrp.org.

To add yourself to our mailing list for important updates, please paste this link into your internet browser (NOTE: must be pasted with the hyphen at the end to work properly):
http://MNHLRP.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ba758759647fb4bd348f2dc85&id=6b61b2643a&e=cb8032bb57-

Thank you for your efforts to support access to farm-fresh milk and local, sustainable, wholesome foods of our choice.

Sincerely,
Food Freedom Project
A project of the Minnesota Natural Health Legal Reform Project, www.mnhlrp.org

Why Roundup is Bad

2011-02-17T13:47:00.001-08:00

Roundup is the brand name of an herbicide produced by the U.S. company Monsanto, and contains the active ingredient glyphosate. Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the USA, according to the EPA. "Today, Roundup WeatherMax, Roundup UltraMax, and other glyphosate agricultural herbicides produced by Monsanto are among the world's most widely used herbicides." -- From Monsanto's own history.

Monsanto has followed its introduction of Roundup (1974) with an increasing number of genetically modified (GM) crops that are resistant to Roundup, including: Roundup Ready Soybeans (1996), Roundup Ready Cotton (1997), Roundup Ready Canola (1997), Roundup Ready Corn (1998), Roundup Ready Corn 2 (2001), YieldGard Plus (2005), Roundup Ready Flex cotton (2006), Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans (2008), and Genuity Roundup Ready Alfala (January 27, 2011). [source: Monsanto website]

It's obvious Monsanto makes Roundup-resistant crop seeds to sell more Roundup and introduce a dependency on Monsanto for agricultural seeds, often called "vendor lock-in" in other industries. It helps guarantee their long-term profits and is good business sense.

Monsanto claims that these products provide "immense benefits to growers, the environment and consumers around the world." Do they?

Benefits to Growers?

Let's first examine the benefits glyphosate offers to growers. Farmers have always fought to control weeds in their crops, and looked for better ways to do it. Roundup promised to make that job easier. And the invention of crops that were resistant to Roundup was claimed to make it still easier, more profitable and result in greater crop yields (more food to sell -- which is a good thing in the opinion of many).

But is that all true? It seems logical that better ways of killing weeds would help. It's certainly the simple logic marketing uses to sell herbicides like Roundup.

Bad for soil

However, it's not so simple. If the herbicide used to kill weeds stays in the soil long after the harvest, or it causes damage to the fertility of the soil such that future crop yields suffer, has the grower really come out ahead? In fact, it would be pretty easy to say that repeated use, year after year, of a chemical which damages the soil this way would lead to ever increasing costs and reduced crop yields. The grower would enjoy less profit over 5 or 10 years than if he had not used the herbicide.

It turns out this is precisely the case for Roundup. Despite claims by Monsanto that Roundup breaks down rapidly, and is harmless to the soil, it is not so.

Research by Dr. Don Huber, professor emeritus of botany and plant pathology at Purdue University and Barney Gordon, agronomist at Kansas State University, have shown that plants are more vulnerable to disease and malnutrition when exposed to glyphosate (Roundup). Dr. Huber has also shown that Roundup damages the nutrient quality of the soil. Huber and Gordon also found that Roundup Ready Soybeans were more vulnerable to soil nutrient deficiencies than normal varieties of soybeans.

Planting Roundup Ready Soybeans in a field treated with Roundup is a triple whammy against healthy, high-yield plants: (1) the soil nutrient is damaged, (2) glyphosate causes plants of all kinds to be vulnerable to nutrient deficiencies, and (3) the particular genetically-modified Roundup Ready soybean is extra vulnerable to nutrient deficiencies.

Plant diseases and pathogens are also affected by Roundup. In a paper published in the European Journal of Agronomy in October 2009, Huber and co-author G.S. Johal, from Purdue’s department of botany and plant pathology, state that the widespread use of glyphosate can “significantly increase the severity of various plant diseases, impair plant defense to pathogens and diseases, and immobilize soil and plant nutrients rendering them unavailable for plant use.” Further, glyphosate stimulates the growth of fungi and enhances the virulence of pathogens such as Fusarium and “can have serious consequences for sustainable production of a wide range of susceptible crops.” Fusarium head blight is one of the most widely damaging of grain crops, such as wheat and barley.

Other research has shown that the half life of Roundup in the soil is up to 22 years, rather than the biodegradable claims Monsanto originally made before being stopped by court orders.

Bad for people

Glyphosate is the active ingredient of many of the most common herbicides used in gardening, as well. These products have been promoted as quickly biodegradable and non-toxic to humans.

It is sprayed on roadsides while people are driving by, on footpaths when people are walking and in schoolyards and sports fields, exposing children to drift and residues. People buy it from supermarkets or garden shops, and use it without any protective clothing because it is deemed safe. It is sprayed in national parks and other environmentally sensitive areas in the belief that it is not toxic and leaves no residue.

Unfortunately, the facts show this is not the case. While pure glyphosate has a low acute toxicity (the amount in one dose needed to cause death), when it is sold as a commercial herbicide it is combined with surfactants and other ingredients to make it more effective at killing plants. Studies show that the commercial products, such as Roundup, can be three times more toxic than pure glyphosate.

In California, where there is a mandatory system of reporting pesticide poisoning, glyphosate is the third most common cause of pesticide illness in farm workers. It is the most common form of reported pesticide poisoning in landscape gardeners.

A 1999 Swedish study found clear links between Roundup and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer. Another Swedish study linked glyphosate to hairy cell leukemia. Both forms of cancer are rare, but non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is the most rapidly increasing cancer in the western world. It has risen 73% in the USA since 1973.

Farmers exposed to glyphosate have an increased risk of miscarriages and premature birth, as well as lower fertility among men. Other studies have found increased incidence of Parkinson disease among farmers using herbicides.

Residues

A report from The United States Environmental Protection Agency states that Glyphosate is 'extremely persistent under typical application conditions'. It is one of the most residual herbicides, with studies in Sweden showing that one application can last up to 3 years.

In warmer climates, it can take less than a year per application for Glyphosate to degrade. However, when it breaks down it does not disappear into harmless basic elements. It degrades into an even more tenacious residual compound called aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA). While AMPA has a low acute toxicity, very few long-term health and environmental studies are conducted on the breakdown products of synthetic chemicals.

Residues of Glyphosate have been found in a variety of fruits and vegetables. This is because it readily moves into all parts of a plant. As it is inside the plant tissues, it cannot be washed off.

Residues can be detected long after glyphosate treatments have been made. One study showed that lettuces contained residues five months after the field was treated with glyphosate. The disturbing thing about this research is that the lettuce seedlings were planted four months after the field was sprayed for weeds. The seedlings absorbed the glyphosate from the soil residues. A World Health Organisation study revealed significant glyphosate residues in wheat after harvest. Milling did not remove it, as it moves into the plant and the wheat seed. The study showed that cooking does not break down glyphosate.

Environment

In addition to the above mentioned problems, there are additional environment effects to consider.

Glyphosate-based herbicides have been shown to cause a significant decline of beneficial insect species in farms. Studies by the International Organization for Biological Control and other researchers have found that between 50 to 80 percent of beneficial insects are killed from exposure to residues of a glyphosate herbicide.

Roundup is very toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms. Concentrations as low as 10 parts per million can kill fish. Daphnia, a very important part of the aquatic food chain, especially for fish, can be killed by as little as three parts per million. This is an important reason why it should not be used near waterways or in drains.

Roundup spray-drift from both ground and aerial applications has been measured from one quarter to half a mile from the target site. Studies have shown that Roundup drift will cause more severe and extensive damage than many other herbicides. This is because it is a broad spectrum, non-selective herbicide and it is transported throughout the plant causing damage to the unexposed parts. This damage, when it does not kill the plants, can last for many years.

Drift that is one thousand times less than the usual application rates has been shown to damage surrounding vegetation, including the killing of wild plants. This is an important reason why it should not be used in national parks and environmentally sensitive areas for weed control.

Glyphosate exposure damages or reduces the populations of earthworms. A New Zealand study showed that 5% of the usual application rate caused delayed development and increased death in earthworms.

Roundup reduces populations of small mammals and birds by damaging the vegetation that provides food and shelter for these animals. The populations of all of these living organisms can take years to recover due to glyphosate's persistence in the soil.

Conclusion

Roundup is widely used in the mistaken belief that it is harmless, safe and readily breaks down leaving no residues. Consequently, it is sprayed in public areas while people are present and by operators without protective clothing. These people are exposed to the drift of this herbicide. The facts show that Roundup causes a range of health problems to humans, plants and animals, it causes environmental problems and that it is highly persistent.

It is time that the widespread use of this toxic chemical on roadsides, footpaths, parks, gardens, schools, farms, forestry, national parks etc was stopped or highly restricted. It's also a very good reason for eating organic foods.

Gen-mod "organic" food

2011-02-06T09:32:00.000-08:00

OOPS! I paid too much for something today!

Organic Valley Cream Cheese is $2.99 (discount of 45 cents), but the house-brand was only $1.69. Heck, If I am going to be poisoned, I might as well save money doing it, right?

Now that Organic Valley, Stoneyfield, and Whole Foods have agreed to stop fighting Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) crops, it is only a matter of time before the GM crops will be used to feed "organic" milk and meat animals. Or, are they already there?

"A troubling trend in organics today is the calculated shift on the part of certain large, formerly-organic brands from certified organic ingredients and products to so-called "natural" ingredients. With the exception of the "grass-fed and grass-finished" meat sector, most "natural" meat, dairy, and eggs are coming from animals reared on GMO grains and drugs, and confined, entirely, or for a good portion of their lives, in CAFOs." (Organic Consumers Organization, January 27, 2011)

Okay, in reading the label on my cream cheese, packet, I see that it was, "Produced without the use of antibiotics, synthetic hormones or pesticides." Nothing about GM feed. Nothing about what the animals get fed.

With a goal of feeding my family as close to non-contaminated food as possible, I've been reading labels and choosing organic foods whenever reasonable. The FDA permits some ingredients to go unlisted on food labels, including organic foods. You can't be sure you are getting what the label indicates. Rather than selecting foods labeled "Certified Organic" for better quality, I might as well choose to buy the cheap product. It is almost certainly GM, but unlike the "USDA Certified Organic," they don't spend a lot of money pretending they are not.

This leaves me feeling uncomfortable, though, as I've lived so many years believing that what I eat matters, both to my health and the health of others.

My other choice is to buy from farmers directly. I already buy milk, eggs, cream and butter from a farm directly. I can get grains and flours from another co-op, fresh and frozen veggies, too. Oh, and they'll deliver meat, cheese, kefir, chips, soap, candles, beans, rice, coffee, tea, oils, hm... Ah, lumber and cookies and more. This farm co-op delivers to a church in my neighborhood once each month. These farmers invite their customers to their homes every summer, where they show how they work, how animals are treated, offer the visitors to a tour and a meal. When was the last time an industrial food producer invited you to their home for dinner and a tour of their production facility?

Living in Minneapolis, it can seem tough to find unadulterated foods without driving hundreds of miles. By making contacts, I have put together a pretty good network of suppliers of food which I feel good about serving to my family. I feel good about the farmers who raise that food -- I know they and I are not contributing to cancer and other illnesses. [1][2][3][4]

The challenge is planning ahead for my family's food needs, and collecting my order when the drop-sites are open. So far, it has been worth it.

Food Manifesto for the Future

2011-02-03T21:09:00.000-08:00

I suggest reading the New York Times article linked below. My major point of disagreement is on the FDA. It is my opinion that it has been corrupted and influenced to a point of uselessness for the consumers.

Click here for article

Plant a Little Information

2011-01-31T21:43:00.000-08:00

Just in case you missed the memo, most of the seed in the USA, and a large amount of seeds in the world are produced by or for Monsanto. If you work for Monsanto, don't take this personally - people need jobs. However, variety is not only the spice of life, it is what keeps us all going strong.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The first list below is a list of Safe Seed Companies- the first few listed under each region sell only organic- then those below sell some conventional seed as well, but it is noted if they sell Monsanto seed. If they do, avoid their conventional seed or check the second list, which lists Monsanto's vegetable varieties.

The second list below is a list of popular Monsanto seed. It would be very lenghty if all were included, but there are links to Monsanto's products pages so that you might do further research. Many seed re-sellers buy seed from a broker who has purchased a huge block of seed, the broker breaks up the order, and then re-sells to numerous mail-order seed companies. So, many companies carry the same seed. And unfortunately many of these seed companies then re-name the seed, adding to the further confusion as to which is a Monsanto seed. :-

NorthEast _____________

High Mowing Organic Seed www.highmowingseeds.com 100% organic certified seed: vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers. Over 450 organic heirloom, open-pollinated and organic hybrid. Vermont

Dirt Works www.dirtworks.net 100% organic vegetable seeds and hardy organic heirloom seeds. Some open pollinated. Grain, hay, forage, wildflowers, compost, organic fertilizers, pest control and accessories as well. Note there are some complaints about shipping times posted on-line. Dirt Works was hit hard during recession and we hope they can hire more help. Safe Seed Pledge. Vermont

Turtle Tree Seed www.turtletreeseed.com Vegetables, flowers, herbs, grain and cover crops. Mostly organic- clearly marked. Biodynamic, open pollinated, no hybrids. New York

Fedco www.fedcoseeds.com Untreated vegetable, tubers, herb, & flower seed. Many certified organic. Cover crops, soil amendments & supplies for organic growers. Safe Seed Pledge. No GMOs, etc. Good prices. Order early. Website a bit difficult to navigate. Maine

Heirloom Seeds www.heirloomseeds.com All seeds are open pollinated (non-hybrid) and untreated. No GMO. Many Organic. Good selection of organic. Many garden packages. Organic fertilizers. SW Pennsylvania

Harris Seeds www.harrisseeds.com 22 organic veg choices- large selection of untreated seed. Sells only large quantities. Sells Monsanto conventional seed. New York

Johnny's Seeds www.johnnyseeds.com Johnny's has 324 organic products, including 198 vegetable seed varieties. Many heirloom. Safe Seed Pledge.Still carries 40 Monsanto varieties, which is about 4% of their conventional vegetable varieties. Their intention is to replace them. See Monsanto vegetable seed list below, if you wish to avoid. Maine

Cook's Garden is owned by Burpee Seeds. www.cooksgarden.com 50 Organic Vegetables and Herbs. European and American heirlooms. Good recipes. Their conventional vegetables might be Monsanto seed. Check list below for list of Monsanto vegetable seed. Pennsylvania

Mid-Atlantic _________________

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange www.southernexposure.com Vegetables and herbs. Most certified organic, all untreated. 99% of seeds open-pollinated. No GMO. Safe Seed Pledge. Grows 40% of own seed. Also sells bulk. Nice catalog. Virginia

Sow True Seed www.sowtrue.com Vegetables, herbs and flowers. Only non-hybrid, untreated, open-pollinated, heirloom and organic seed. Safe Seed Pledge. Asheville, NC

Seeds for the South www.seedsforthesouth.com Untreated heirloom vegetable and herb seed. Very small selection of organic. Sells Monsanto seed. Georgia

Park Seed Company (bought Sow Organic Seed Co. in 2007) www.parkseed.com Flower, vegetable and herb seeds. Untreated, non-GMO, and some Certified Organic seed. Note- it is easy to go off their organic pages onto the conventional and they sell some conventional Monsanto seeds. See list of Monsanto products below. South Carolina

MidWest _____________

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds rareseeds.com Vegetables, flowers, herbs, bulk seed.

1400 heirloom varieties. Hugh selection. Good prices. Only open-pollinated seeds: pure, natural & non-GMO. Good reviews. Missouri

Botanical Interests www.botanicalinterests.com/store/index_index.php 400 untreated vegetable, flower, herb seeds. A large selection of Certified Organic. Signed Safe Seed Pledge. No-GMOs. Beautiful packets- good info. Nice website. Colorado.

Sand Hill Preservation www.sandhillpreservation.com 700 heirloom seeds- vegetable, herbs, flowers, grains. Root vegetables, poultry. Produce 90% of the seed they sell. Untreated, some certified organic. Signed Safe Seed Pledge. No GMOs. Ordering only by regular mail. Iowa

Seed Saver's Exchange www.seedsavers.org A non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of heirloom seeds. Largest non-governmental seed bank in the United States. Maintains more than 25,000 endangered vegetable varieties. Hugh selection of open pollinated vegetables, beans, potatoes, flowers and herbs. Many certified organic. Good prices. Iowa

Heirloom Acres Seeds www.heirloomacres.net 1000 varieties of open pollinated and heirloom seed. Good selection of Certified Organic. Very few seeds treated. Missouri

Nature's Crossroads www.naturescrossroads.com Seed varieties grown in Indiana for Midwestern gardeners. Vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers. Safe Seed Pledge. Most seed certified organic. Produce much of their own seed. Indiana

Grannys Heirloom Seeds www.grannysheirloomseeds.com Good selection of heirloom vegetables and gardening suplies. Strawberries, onions No organic but all open-pollinated. Signed Safe Seed Pledge. Inexpensive peat pots. Missouri

Northwest ________

Abundant Life Seeds www.abundantlifeseeds.com Certified Organic and Biodynamic vegetable, flower and herb seeds, garlic and potatoes. Garden accessories. Safe Seed Pledge, no GMOs. Oregon

Wild Garden Seed www.wildgardenseed.com Certified organic farm-original varieties of salad greens, vegetables, herbs and a few flowers. Certified Organic heirloom and other open-pollinated seed varieties adapted for the Pacific Northwest. Oregon

Victory Seed Company www.victoryseeds.com Rare and heirloom seeds. All seeds open-pollinated, non-hybrid and untreated. Signed Safe Seed Pledge. No GMOs. Good size selection. Oregon

Irish Eyes - Garden City Seeds www.irisheyesgardenseeds.com Potato, vegetable, flower and garden seeds. Most all seeds organic, many heirloom. All untreated. Washington

Territorial Seeds www.territorialseed.com Large selection of vegetable, herb, flower. Safe Seed Pledge. Sells a small amount of Monsanto's conventional seed. See list below.* Oregon

Southwest _____

Bountiful Gardens www.bountifulgardens.org A non-profit and a project of Ecology Action which does garden research and publishes books and research papers. Large selection untreated, open-pollinated, non-GMO, heirloom seed. Vegetables, herbs, flowers, grains, mushroom kits, green manures, compost and carbon crops. Good prices. Some Certified Organic and Biointensive. Willits California

Seeds of Change www.seedsofchange.com 100% organic certified seed: vegetables, flowers, and herbs. Over 1,200 varieties: many heirloom, open-pollinated, native and hard-to-find. New Mexico

Peaceful Valley www.groworganic.com Certified Organic Vegetable and Herb Seeds and much more. Packets or bulk. Sells own brand of Certified organic- plus sells Seeds of Change, Renee's Garden Seeds, Turtle Tree Organic Seeds, TomatoFest Organic Seeds, Horizon Herbs Organic Seeds. Grass Valley, California

Seeds Trust www.seedstrust.com Vegetable, wild flower, herb and grass seeds Sells only open-pollinated and untreated seed. Organic seeds are marked with an asterisk. Signed Safe Seed Pledge. Sells many of their own seeds. Website a bit challenging. Specializes in high-altitude and southwest seeds. Arizona

Sustainable Seed Company www.sustainableseedco.com Only heirloom open-pollinated seed. No hybrid, treated or gmos. 65% of all heirloom vegetable seed grown on organic farms in California. Over 100 varieties of heirloom seeds for less than $1. Petaluma, California

Native Seeds www.nativeseeds.org Non-profit. Sells 350 varieties of heirloom arid-land adapted seed.

Natural Gardening Company www.naturalgardening.com Vegetable, herb and flower seeds. Many organic and open-pollinated. Organic plants, but hybrids too. Sells some Monsanto seed. Check list below. Petaluma, California

____________________________________

Popular Monsanto (Seminis) seeds- for full listing of Seminis seeds, see the references list at the bottom of this page. To see De Ruiter varieties, see the De Ruiter link at the bottom of the page. To make things even more confusing, each mail-order seed company might resell the same seed but use a different name for it. The only way you can be 100% positive you are not buying a Monsanto seed is to check with the re-seller or buy from a company selling their own seed or organic or open-pollinated.

Beans: Brio, Eureka, EZ Gold, Goldrush, Kentucky King, Lynx, Xera...
Broccoli: Captain, Heritage, Liberty, Packman, more...
Carrot: Nutri-Red, Sweet Sunshine, Karina, Chantenay hybrids, Chantilly, Lariat
Cauliflower: Cheddar, Fremont, Minuteman, more...
Cucumber : Babylon, Dasher II, Daytona, Homemade Pickles, Speedway, Sweet Slice, Yellow Submarine, Sweeter Yet...link to De Ruiter cucumber list...
Eggplant: Black Beauty, Dancer, Fairy Tale, Gretel, Hansel, Tango, Twilight...De Ruiter Eggplants...
Lettuce: Baby Star, Blackjack, Esmeralda, Lolla Rossa, Monet, Red Butterworth, Red Sails, Red Tide, Summer time...
Melons: Alaska, Bush Whopper, Casablanca, Dixie Jumbo, Early Crisp, Stars & Stripes, Sugarnut, ...
Okra: Cajun Delight
Onion: Arsenal, Candy, Hamlet, Mars, Red Zeppelin, Superstar, many more...
Peppers: Aristotle, Biscayne, Camelot, Caribbean Red, Cherry Bomb, Dulce, Early Sunsation, Fat and Sassy, King Arthur, Northstar, Red Knight, Serrano del Sol, Sahuaro, Super Chili, Valencia, many more...De Ruiter pepper varities...
Pumpkin: Buckskin Pumpkin, Orange Smoothie, Prizewinner, more...
Spinach: Bolero, Cypress, Melody, Unipack 151, many more...
Squash: Autumn Delight, Blackjack, Bush Delicata, Butterstick, Daisy, Early Butternut, Fancycrook, Gold Rush, Latino, Lolita, Patty Green Tint, Really Big Butternut, Seneca (all), Sungreen, Sunny Delight, Table Ace...
Tomato: Baby Girl, Big Beef, Beefmaster, Beaufort, Celebrity, Favorita, First Lady I and II, Early Girl, Geronimo, Golden Girl, Maxifort, Pink Girl, Sunguard, Sun Chief Sweet, Sweet Million, Trust...link to De Ruiter tomato varieties...
Watermelon: Bambino, Crimson Glory, Royal Flush, Royal Star, Stargazer, Starbright, Stars and Stripes, Tiger Baby, Yellow Doll
______________________
As an alternative way to shop for seed, visit the non-profit Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) Organic Seeds Database- www.omri.org/seeds - lists certified "final handlers" for organic seed. List is by produce. Pick a vegetable and find a seller.
_______________________
Here are some of the brand names that Monsanto owns and 'packages' their seeds as:

American Seeds, Asgrow, Campbell, DeKalb, De Ruiter, Diener Seeds, Fielder's Choice, Fontanelle, Gold Country Seed, Hawkeye, Heartland, Heritage Seeds, Holdens, HPS Seed, Hubner Seed, icorn, Jung Seed, Kruger Seeds, Lewis Hybrids, Peotec, Poloni, Rea Hybrids, R.H. Shumway, Seeds of the World, Seminis, Seymour's Selected Seeds, Specialty, Stewart, Stone Seed,Totally Tomatoes, Trelay, Vermont Bean Seed Company, Western Seeds. ****

But remember seed companies buy Monsanto seed in bulk & then repackage it under their name as well. Always ask!

References:* www.seedalliance.org/Seed_News/SeminisMonsanto/
www.indyweek.com/indyweek/the-seeds-of-vegetable-diversity
**www.deruiterseeds.com/Corporate/Monsanto
***www.etcgroup.org/en/node/198
****www.msu.edu/~howardp/seedindustry.html
Taken from : http://inspirationgreen.com/organic-vegetables-start-out-as-seed.html

Monsanto slips us another Mickey...

2011-01-31T20:41:00.000-08:00

After divesting itself of Nutrasweet/Aspartame, Monsanto has created a replacement, called Neotame. Believe what you want about artificial sweetners, but my warning system went on alert when I learned that Neotame is not required fy the FDA to be listed as an ingredient. It is allowed to be used in "organic" foods, and not listed. ANY food that is processed could have Neotame.

I see no benefit for consumers by having any ingredient unmentioned - only to the manufacturer. Monsanto and food industries know that consumers learned to distrust Aspartame, and would at least pause before purchasing foods containing Neotame. Their solution: not even mention it.

Read more about it here

Equal-Access Rights

2011-01-31T19:11:00.000-08:00

There is a lot to say about food rights, but my focus today is access.

Here in Minnesota, it is legal to buy, sell and consume farm-fresh,
unpasteurized milk. The issue we currently face is access inequality.
Families living near farms where safe, clean milk is produced have relatively easy access, permitting them to easily visit neighboring farms and purchase fresh milk.

Not everyone lives close to a Fresh-Milk Dairy (a dairy which produces
milk intended for direct-sale to and consumption-by consumers). Some
families drive more than three hours in all seasons to reach the nearest
fresh-milk dairy.

Schools bus students miles to try to assure access equality for all students, regardless of their race, creed, color, income level, or sexual orientation. It is a no-brainer for farms to deliver directly to consumers, saving tremendous amounts of fuel and letting moms with little children pick up their food closer to home. Winters here offer treacherous driving. Is there a legislator who wants the to see the image of a car-crash, with a mother with little children, and her week's supply of milk?

Encourage your state legislators to support fair access to farm-direct foods, starting with Fresh Milk!

Video Press Conference