Andrew Kimbrell of the Huffington Post on Vilsack for Sec of USDA

By Andrew Kimbrell of the Huffington Post
Posted December 23, 2008 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kimbrell/obamas-choice-of-vilsack_b_153213.html
 
Subdued approval greeted President-elect Obama’s choice of Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture last week. This came from mainstream environmental groups, such as Sierra Club, and even organizations that have been critical in the past of the Iowa governor’s policies. Vilsack comes across in nearly all [...]

Multinational Monitor Releases Its 10 Worst Corporations of the Year

They include:
AIG
Cargill
Chevron
Constellation Energy
Chinese National Petroleum Company
Dole
GE
Imperial Sugar
Philip Morris International
Roche
Why? Follow this link for their reasons.

More Proof that the FDA Is a Tool of Big Corporations

By JULIE SCELFO of the New York Times
Published: December 23, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/dining/24chem.html
 
WEEKS after its own advisory board accused the Food and Drug Administration of failing to adequately consider research about the dangers of bisphenol-A, found in many plastic baby bottles, plastic food containers and metal can linings, the agency has agreed to reconsider the issue.
The F.D.A.’s draft risk assessment [...]

Bribery Is One Tool in the Chest of Many Corporations: Siemens AG in Perspective

By SIRI SCHUBERT and T. CHRISTIAN MILLER of the New York Times
Published: December 20, 2008
REINHARD SIEKACZEK was half asleep in bed when his doorbell rang here early one morning two years ago.
Still in his pajamas, he peeked out his bedroom window, hurried downstairs and flung open the front door. Standing before him in the cool, [...]

New Studies on GE Corn

Current threads on GE Corn

1. A study sponsored by the Austrian Ministries for Agriculture and Health found that mice fed a genetically engineered corn developed by Monsanto Company produced fewer offspring than those fed conventional corn.

Read the full story by Ken Roseboro, ed., the Organic and Non-GMO Report, December 2008 via the Organic [...]

A Data Based Argument for Universal Health Care, Part 3: Profiting from Life and Death

We argued in our previous two posts, found here, that people in the United States are less healthy than Japan, the social democracies in western Europe, Cuba, and Costa Rica despite the fact that Americans spend more than twice as much, on a per capita basis, on health care. The next piece of the puzzle [...]

Organic Consumers Unite: Stand Up Against Vilsack for USDA

Despite a massive public outcry, including over 20,000 emails from the Organic Consumers Association, President-Elect Obama has chosen former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to be the next Secretary of Agriculture.
Sign OCA’s Petition to the US Senate Now!
While Vilsack has promoted respectable policies with respect to restraining livestock monopolies, his overall record is one of aiding [...]

The Government of India Challenges Monsanto

By Lison Joseph and C.R. Sukumar of Live Mint/The Wall Street Journal
http://www.livemint.com/2008/10/30000949/Monsanto-battles-biopiracy-cla.html
Hyderabad: India is asking the local arm of multinational Monsanto Co. to pay a royalty for genetic information that forms the basis of a genetically modified seed sold by the firm here because it believes this information is that of a bacteria found in [...]

Childhood Obesity: Advertising Is Part of the Problem

From Dr. Mercola at
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/12/13/simple-change-could-reduce-obesity-in-u-s-by-20-percent.aspx
According to a new study, a ban on fast food advertisements in the United States could reduce the number of overweight children by as much as 18 percent. In addition, the study reports that eliminating the tax deductibility of television advertising would also result in a reduction of childhood obesity.
The study’s authors [...]

Vilsack to be named Secretary of Agriculture

It looks as if the original rumors were true. Former Iowa governor and one time presidential hopeful Tom Vilsack was reported to be named Obama’s Secretary of the USDA. It was reported earlier that Vilsack was eliminated from the short list; apparently he survived.
This, much like the newly designated Secretary of Education, may not rest [...]