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Fois Gras Wars - The point in this article is well made. Instead of focusing on a small niche product, we need to be concerned about the "billions of chicken, hogs and cattle that are rushed through the industrial grinder." I'm not sure why there is such a backlash against organ meat in this country, and not just fois gras, but all of it. As the Weston A. Price Foundation promotes and teaches, organ meat is a healthy choice. Many of us have lost the appreciation for the whole animal and for responsibly raised meat.
Eyeless Seafood For Sale - The environmental hazard of the BP oil spill continues to have an effect on the environment. With a wide number of mutations still occurring it is mind boggling that these mutated shrimp, crabs, and other seafood are being sold for consumption in the grocery store.
Pesticides Scaled Up - Now that the use of Monsanto's Round Up has caused pesticide resistant weeds apparently the answer is to create a "superweed strategy" and up the chemical warfare. I do not believe this is the answer. I believe that this is absolutely the wrong path, we are poisoning our environment and destroying our eco-system by engaging in this sort of chemical warfare. Working with nature in an organic, sustainable fashion is how we achieve the aims of agriculture, not increasingly upscaled chemical attempts at dominance.
More nutri-washing - Burger King is promoting it's "cage free pork." A terminology that has a lot of people scratching their heads. Why? Because there is no such thing. Cage free poultry mean birds that are raised in a cage free (although not necessarily unconfined) environment. Pasture raised means they are free to run around at will. This is a term that Burger King has come up with to try to make themselves look good. Even if the term becomes defined in some way I strongly doubt that it will include avoidance of CAFO pork production. Any time a company touts these sorts of initiatives it is important to learn to look critically at not only what they are saying, but what they are doing.
How Chemicals Affect Us - Haya, one of my readers, brought this article to my attention. It talks about the endocrine disruptors that are all around us. It's difficult to understand how in spite of the evidence these chemicals are still allowed. BPA is one of the biggest endocrine disruptors out there. I've written about plastics before, and there are some simple things that you can do to avoid BPA however you can also change your diet. Nutritionally one big thing that you can do is to make sure you are getting enough folic acid in your diet as it appears that folic acid can switch off the genetic effects of BPA in utero. While there are no specific studies to date of folic acid helping to clear the body of BPA it makes sense that including it in the diet would be a reasonable thing to do. The best food sources of folate are: calves liver, dark leafy greens, lentils, pinto beans and chickpeas.
Round Up...I hate the word and the product. My sister and I have spent the better part of the last month digging up the grubs in our lawn by hand. A fair number of neighbors told us "just bomb the lawn with GrubX". They seem to ignore the fact we have a inland/wetland in our back yard...so it is Milky Spore now and nemotoads in the fall. When did we start to think chemicals are the answer to all perceived problems?
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