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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

GMO Corn in Mexico: Another Confirmation

by: Joëlle Stolz, Le Monde
via:http://www.truthout.org/121208D
Raise the alarm for Mexican corn’s biosecurity: a molecular study conducted by Mexican, American and Dutch researchers demonstrates the presence of genes from genetically modified organisms (GMO) among the varieties of traditional corn cultivated in the remote regions of Oaxaca State in the southern part of the country, even though the [...]

Air-powered Cars Coming to the United States

posted by Kevin Spiess @ Neoseeker
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/9145-inexpensive-and-efficient-air-powered-cars-coming-to-us-in-2011/
Hydrogen powered cars might be the next big step up in commuter vehicle efficiency, but they still need a lot more work to really get things rolling. Coming sooner, the Air Car might prove to be a good cost-effective choice for folks who want to spend less on gas.
The [...]

Obama Transition and Agriculture/USDA Policy: Selling Out?

Posted by Tom Philpott at Grist
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/19/6373/9820
The transition named its “team members” looking at energy and natural resources agencies, which includes USDA. The list includes Michael R. Taylor, a man who spent his career bouncing between the employ of GMO-seed giant Monsanto and Bill Clinton’s FDA and USDA. Taylor is widely credited with ushering Monsanto’s recombinant bovine growth hormone [...]

GM Maize Found to Disrupt Immune Systems of Mice

Posted by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
at The Institute of Science in Society
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/MON810gmMaizeMiceImmuneSystem.php
The Italian government’s National Institute of Research on Food and Nutrition has just published a report online in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry documenting significant disturbances in the immune system of young and old mice that have been fed the GM maize MON 810 [1]. [...]

GM Must Re-Make the Mass Transit System it Murdered

by Harvey Wasserman
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/16-6
 
Bail out General Motors?  The people who murdered our mass transit system?
First let them remake what they destroyed.
GM responded to the 1970s gas crisis by handing over the American market to energy-efficient Toyota and Honda.
GM met the rise of the hybrids with “light trucks.”
GM built a small electric car, leased a pilot fleet [...]

Eating is a Political Act: an Interview with Michael Pollan

An Interview with Michael Pollan
11/12/08
Posted by Truth About Trade & Technology
The Progressive 
http://www.truthabouttrade.org/content/view/12729/54/
 
November 8, 2008: Michael Pollan has got people talking. His recent books, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, have captured the public imagination, setting off countless coffee shop discussions, dinnertime arguments, and oh-so-many [...]

Some Good News: AT&T to Install Energy-Saving Software

Author: Jeanette Wiemers, Climate Change Corp
http://www.climatechangecorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=5768
 
Communications provider AT&T recently launched a new programme on over 300,000 PCs within its organisation to turn the computers off during non-peak hours, saving more than 135 million kilowatt hours of electricity and 123,941 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. The power management software from 1E is called NightWatchman, [...]