tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82263631739572924632024-03-07T07:52:32.354-05:00The #EatOrganic DailyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.comBlogger234125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-48606514769387559912013-05-11T20:46:00.002-04:002013-05-11T20:51:44.183-04:00What Does A Leading Maker Of Carrageenan Say About Its Use In Organics?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Marinalg International, the organization supporting sustainable seaweed farming and the seaweed based hydrocolloid industry, agrees with the Proposed Rule by the National Organic Program (NOP) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to renew the approval of carrageenan, a common food stabilizer, as an ingredient in American organic foods. The rule would codify a recommendation by the National Organic Standards Board regarding carrageenan. </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">“Seaweed is farmed on six continents and is critical to the economic growth and stability of emerging countries”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">The basis for the NOP’s Proposed Rule to continue carrageenan use without restriction is the result of a comprehensive review of science providing strong evidence concluding that the processing and production of carrageenan from red seaweed is non-synthetic. The production of carrageenan is carefully controlled under alkaline conditions to avoid degradation or chemical changes during isolation and purification. This minimal process relies on water, heat and lye to produce the major types of naturally-occurring carrageenan that differ in structure and food-processing characteristics with a broad range of functionality that enables solutions to pressing food issues including fat and sugar reduction, expansion of protein availability and reduction in food waste through shelf life extension.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Common to other ingredients, the approval came as part of a standard five-year ingredient sunset review by the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board, established by the Organic Food Products Act of 1990 to examine ingredients allowable in foods labeled as ‘organic’. The decision to relist carrageenan as a non-synthetic ingredient for use in organic food reaffirms carrageenan as a safe food ingredient.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Carrageenan has been approved for use in food by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the World Health Organization and many other regulatory authorities throughout the world. Those organizations have examined decades of science devoted to this ingredient, relying on scientific evidence that carrageenan, when ingested with food, poses no health risk to humans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">These same organizations, particularly the FDA, have re</span><span style="line-height: 18px;">jected the conclusions of some recent experiments with isolated cells that allege adverse health effects and rely instead on well-established science that more closely mimics the way human beings consume carrageenan in foods as a natural stabilizer, gelling agent and emulsifier.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">William B. Matakas, president of Marinalg, said, “We are gratified that after thorough reviews by the FDA and the USDA, carrageenan continues to be recognized as a safe and important ingredient in organic foods in the United States. Carrageenan is consumed by millions of families throughout the world each and every day and has been for a very long time. The experience of that continued use, coupled with careful science, is clear evidence that carrageenan is worthy of its place in organic milk, ice cream and other food products.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Carrageenan is a natural soluble fiber product of red seaweed and a natural ingredient that has been used in cooking for hundreds of years throughout the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">It is currently harvested by seaweed farmers primarily in Africa, Indonesia and the Philippines, supporting more than 30,000 farming families in practices that are models of sustainable aquaculture. Seaweed production does not require fresh water, arable land or fertilizer and increasing its production does not create competition for food production any where in the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">“Seaweed is farmed on six continents and is critical to the economic growth and stability of emerging countries,” said Matakas. “Seaweed farmers want for their families the same things all of us want – economically viable opportunities to ensure the health, safety and education of their children. Seaweed farming is not only environmentally sound and sustainable, it is transforming lives and livelihoods in hundreds of coastal communities.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Carrageenan, in addition to being used as a food stabilizer, has widespread applications in pharmaceuticals, as well as personal care and dietary products. The use of carrageenan enables the export of countless products by preserving their texture, structure and stability.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Marinalg International is a global association supporting the interests of seaweed farmers and the seaweed-based hydrocolloids industry. Marinalg’s primary efforts include the delivery of sound science and technical expertise related to the safety and efficacy in the production and use of hydrocolloids from seaweed farms to family tables. Marinalg represents the regulatory interests of the seaweed-processing industry before various international bodies such as Codex Alimentarius, and national regulatory authorities including the European Food Safety Authority, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. - MarinAlg, Business Week</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-34599533769418039472013-05-11T20:28:00.003-04:002013-05-11T20:28:47.503-04:00Is The USDA Trying To Make It Easier For Farmers To Obtain Certification?<br />
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic Program’s 2012 list of certified organic operations reveals there are now nearly 25,000 certified organic operations worldwide. Those operations represent more than 100 countries and show a significant increase over the past years. Efforts are ongoing to see those numbers continue to increase.</div>
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“One of USDA’s strategic goals is to increase the number of certified organic operations in the U.S. to 20,655 by 2015, a 25% increase from the 2009 baseline of 16,564,” Sam Jones-Ellard, USDA public affairs specialist, said in an e-mail.</div>
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As part of this goal, in 2012, the USDA began its Organic Literacy Initiative, an effort to train USDA staff on how the USDA supports organic agriculture. The initiative also includes a toolkit, titled “Is Organic an Option for Me,” which is designed to help growers decide whether organic farming is an option for them.</div>
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Another aspect of the USDA’s efforts to encourage organic farming is the Sound and Sensible initiative, which is designed to streamline the organic certification process, according to Jones-Ellard.</div>
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“The Sound and Sensible initiative, which streamlines the organic certification process while maintaining high standards, ensuring compliance, and protecting organic integrity, is another important step in support of this strategic goal,” Jones-Ellard said.</div>
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The project will focus on helping growers achieve organic certification, which could in turn increase the number of certified operations in the U.S. “The goal of this initiative is to help ensure that organic certification is affordable, accessible and attainable for all operations interested in exploring the organic option,” Jones-Ellard said in an e-mail. </div>
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As part of the initiative, the National Organic Program attempted to clarify the information that USDA agents can provide to clients without being considered “consultants” by publishing new instructions for certifying inspectors, according to the April issue of Organic Integrity Quarterly, the organic program’s newsletter.</div>
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“This instruction, which will be released this spring, will outline what certifiers and inspectors can and can’t do to assist organic operations,” Jones-Ellard said.</div>
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Sound and Sensible is also set to provide an updated list of certification instructions, which will be released as they are completed. Training sessions for program auditors are scheduled for the end of April, which will teach the new Sound and Sensible principles to help increase consistency, according the newsletter. Future projects of the initiative will strive to remove barriers small businesses can encounter when striving to achieve organic certification. The “Removing Barriers” project already has considered feedback from the Accredited Certifiers Association, among others. - Melissa Shipman, The Packer</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-31129494074202857942013-05-11T20:15:00.000-04:002013-05-11T20:15:14.490-04:00Should We Be Worried About What Conventional Farming Does To Soil Biodiversity?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The world’s worrisome decline in biodiversity is well known. Some experts say we are well on our way toward the sixth great extinction and that by 2100 half of all the world’s plant and animal species may disappear. Yet one of the most important threats to biodiversity has received little attention and though it lies under our feet.</div>
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Scientists using new analytical techniques over the last decade have found that the world’s ocean of soil is one of our largest reservoirs of biodiversity. It contains almost one-third of all living organisms, according to the European Union’s Joint Research Center, but only about 1 percent of its micro-organisms have been identified, and the relationships among those myriad life-forms is poorly understood.</div>
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Soil is the foundation on which the house of terrestrial biodiversity is built. Without robust soil ecosystems, the world’s food web would be in trouble. To understand more, scientists recently embarked on what they call the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative to assess what is known about soil life, pinpoint where it is endangered and determine the health of the essential ecosystem services that soil provides.</div>
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They are not just looking at soil in remote, far-off landscapes. One of the more intensive studies is taking place in New York’s Central Park. The focus is on the life that resides in the soil, the microbes, fungi, nematodes, mites and even gophers that make up a complex web of interrelationships.</div>
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A teaspoon of soil may have billions of microbes divided among 5,000 different types, thousands of species of fungi and protozoa, nematodes, mites and a couple of termite species. How these and other pieces all fit together is still largely a mystery.</div>
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“There’s a teeming organization below ground, a factory, with soil animals and microbes, each with their own role,” said Diana H. Wall, a professor of biology at Colorado State University who has studied soil biodiversity in Antarctica and Kansas over the last two decades and who is the scientific chairwoman of the soil biodiversity initiative. “A leaf falls, and earthworms and termites are constantly ripping and tearing it apart, and microbes and fungi pass the nutrients on to plants.”</div>
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Forget the term “dumb as dirt.” The complex soil ecosystem is highly evolved and sophisticated. It processes organic waste into soil. It filters and cleans much of the water we drink and the air we breathe by retaining dust and pathogens. It plays a large role in how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere. Soil, with all of its organic matter, is second to the oceans as the largest carbon repository on the planet. Annual plowing, erosion and other mismanagement releases carbon in the form of carbon dioxide, and exacerbates climate change.</div>
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The last decade of research has overturned a key concept. For decades there was a saying among soil scientists “everything is everywhere,” which meant that soil was largely the same across the globe. That has proved to be spectacularly untrue.</div>
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A 2003 study in the journal Ecosystems estimated that the biodiversity of nearly 5 percent of the nation’s soil was “in danger of substantial loss, or complete extinction, due to agriculture and urbanization,” though that was most likely a very conservative guess, since the planet’s soil was even more unexplored then than today, and study techniques were far less developed. That means that species critical to some important functions could have already disappeared or be on their way out. That’s why the global soil assessment is a matter of some urgency.</div>
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There are numerous threats to soil life. Modern tillage agriculture is a big one, because it deprives soil life of organic matter it needs for food, allows it to dry out and adds pesticides, herbicides and synthetic nitrogen. Soil “sealing” from the asphalt and concrete of suburban sprawl destroys soil life, as do heavy machinery and pollution. Even long-ago insults like acid rain still take a toll on life in the soil by having made the soil more acidic.</div>
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The problem is global. In nearly half of Africa, for example, overgrazing and intensive agriculture has destroyed topsoil and led to desertification. Yet few things are more vital than healthy soil life. Our food supply begins in the soil. Wild plants need healthy soil to grow well, so other species can eat the leaves and seeds and fruit, and predators can eat the plant eaters.</div>
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Healthy soil can prevent human disease. Valley fever is found in the southwest United States and is caused by a fungus that becomes airborne when soil dries out and is inhaled. It is rapidly increasing. The soil system also plays what is thought to be a key, if poorly understood, role in the spread of cholera, fungal meningitis and other diseases, which live part of their life cycle in the soil.</div>
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Healthy soils also hold the cure for some diseases. Antibiotic compounds are the chemical weapons of competing soil microbes, and most of the antibiotics we use came from there. Scientists are searching soil in various places now for a new class of antibiotics to deal with antibiotic-resistant diseases. Who knows, the answer may lie underneath the fountains and sidewalks of Central Park.</div>
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New technologies that enable scientists to study the genes of soil microbes and to track microscopic amounts of carbon and nitrogen as they pass through the soil ecosystem have provided leaps in the understanding of soil ecology. But the more scientists learn, the more they realize how little they know.</div>
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Global warming will no doubt greatly compound the threats to soil biodiversity. Food security is a big concern. What will happen to crops as the earth gets warmer? Slight changes in temperatures and moisture can have profound impacts on soil, altering the composition of soil life and the types of plants that will grow. We may no longer be able, for example, to grow wheat in Kansas.</div>
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Some plants are expected to gradually migrate north to cooler climates as it warms, but others may not be able to adapt to new soil communities. “The world above ground and the world below are very tightly linked,” said Dr. Wall.</div>
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Scientists are also discovering that a healthy soil ecosystem may sustain plants naturally, without chemical inputs. “The greater the soil diversity, the fewer diseases that emerge in plants,” said Eric B. Nelson, who studies soil and disease ecology at Cornell. Insects are also deterred by plants grown in healthy soils, he said.</div>
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What can farmers and gardeners do to protect their soils? Practice no-till agriculture for one, Dr. Wall said, which means not plowing every year and allowing dead vegetation to decompose. Backyard gardeners can do the same. Avoiding synthetic chemicals is also important. Adding compost, especially worm compost, can help by making soil ecosystems more robust.</div>
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The topic is starting to get the attention it deserves. Dr. Wall was just awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, a distinguished prize that comes with $200,000 that she says plans to use for her research. “It’s showtime for soil biodiversity,” Dr. Wall said. - John Robbins, New York Times<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-84736999820239508802013-05-11T20:00:00.003-04:002013-05-11T20:00:53.071-04:00Is Chinese Organic Food Exported To The U.S. Fraudulent?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats gathered information today regarding concerns being raised about imports of food from China that are entering the U.S.</div>
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“We don’t trust, for good reason, the Chinese to supply ingredients for our dog and cat food,” said hearing witness Mark A. Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst at The Cornucopia Institute. “Why,” Kastel asked, “should we trust Chinese exporters for the food that we are feeding our children and families?”</div>
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Kastel added that the USDA and FDA are only inspecting 1%-2% of all the food that enters U.S. ports. And even with this small sample size, Kastel noted that a “disproportionate number of serious problems” are being found with Chinese exports, including “unapproved chemicals, dyes, pesticides and outright fraud (fake food).”</div>
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The Cornucopia Institute, based in Wisconsin, has been acting as an organic food and agriculture industry watchdog for the past decade. The farm policy group has been critical of fraud occurring with imports of organic commodities and finished products entering the U.S.</div>
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In February 2011, the USDA’s National Organic Program began informing the public of fraudulent organic certificates, the paperwork required for the formal sale of organic foods. Since then, the USDA has announced 22 fraudulent organic certificates, with nine of these from China.</div>
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“Because of the restricted nature of doing business in China,” Kastel told the Congressional Subcommitttee, “U.S. certifiers are unable to independently inspect farms and assure compliance to the USDA organic food and agriculture standards that are required for export to the U.S.”</div>
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“These imports should not be allowed to reach our shore until and unless we have a system in place to assure consumers they are getting what they pay for. Just like U.S. grown organic commodities, the safety of these products must be rigorously overseen by independent inspectors,” Kastel said. (The full testimony of Mark Kastel is available here.)</div>
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Patty Lovera, the Assistant Director of Washington, D.C.-based Food & Water Watch also appeared before the House subcommittee. “The U.S. imports over a billion pounds of [organic and conventional] fruits and vegetables from China every year and over a billion pounds of fish and seafood,” Lovera said. “And for some products, like apple juice and garlic, China has replaced domestic production of crops that have traditionally been grown here.”</div>
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Food and Water Watch produced a Chinese Imports Backgrounder in 2009 assessing the extent of lax inspections and breadth of scandals surrounding food imports from China that have been linked to human illnesses from eating the unsafe food.</div>
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As Lovera noted, food fraud is occurring “despite very public efforts by the Chinese government to crack down on food safety problems.” The news from China, she observed, “is a steady stream of controversies ranging from adulteration with counterfeit ingredients like melamine in dairy products, to widespread outbreaks of animal diseases like avian flu, and high levels of pesticide residues. Just last week, news reports described a Chinese government campaign to break up a fake meat operation, leading to arrests of more than 900 people accused of passing off more than $1 million of rat meat as mutton.”</div>
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Subcommittee chair Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) also voiced criticisms of Chinese regulatory controls, saying “it is beyond their ability to do a good job.” Added Rohrabacher: “The record of Chinese food plant facilities is extremely poor.”</div>
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Representative Steve Stockman (R-TX), who said he buys organic food himself, expressed his concerns about mislabeling and referred to it as “Orwellian.” Stockman mentioned that “the safety of imported food is something the media should really be spotlighting.”</div>
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In addition to discussing food, the House Subcommittee also focused on fake, counterfeit drugs coming from China. After the hearing, Cornucopia’s Kastel said that The Cornucopia Institute welcomes the increased scrutiny of how the USDA and FDA are assuring U.S. citizens that foreign organic imports are commensurate with U.S.-produced food.</div>
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“I hope that Congress will pressure our federal agencies to ensure that they do their job. And if they need additional resources to protect us from fraudulent and unsafe food imports, then I hope Congress will provide the necessary resources to get the job done.” - Cornucopia Institute<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-58378487401785357622013-04-15T20:40:00.001-04:002013-04-15T20:40:29.764-04:00Will Having Unified Organic Labeling Make Africa's Agriculture More Profitable?<br />
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The world’s leading nations are profiting from myriads of trade protectionism and marketing communication initiatives that dispose agricultural and agro-industrial produce to profitable returns. Is the African continent ready to learn or at least adapt some of such initiatives with potentials for positively impacting the socio-economic circumstances of its people?</div>
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For some time now, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Economy (DREA) of the African Union Commission has identified and has been holding consultations across the continent over one of those protectionist initiatives - Geographic Indications (GIs) which if well-articulated and exploited, would offer some elixir to the continent’s theming resource poor agricultural populace are largely peasant farmers.</div>
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Geographical Indications (GI)are signs or names conferred on products emanating from specific geographic regions or origins - e.g. a town, region, or country certifying or giving assurance that the products possess characteristics or have reputation of possessing qualities, made in consonance with the traditional skills peculiar to the geographic areas.</div>
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The DREA, African Union and the Legal experts - resource persons also explain Geographic Indications (GIs) as signs that attest that goods emanate from a geographical area and do possess characteristics, reputation or qualities that are specific to geographic regions.</div>
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GIs are aimed at conferring proprietary rights to communities that produce or add value to produce or products that are peculiar to their terrains. Much like trademarks and patents over industrial goods or technologies, GIs intend to win ownership rights for communities over their ancestral or traditional produce, skills, products and technologies that have been associated with their geographical regions.</div>
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Geographic Indications become necessary where over time, a product made in a specific place earn a unique reputation - often due to special characteristics present in the place: its people, its climate and its landscape.</div>
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Since the turn of the century, futuristic nations have been employing trade names and trademarks for identifying food products associated with particular regions, employing laws to forestall false claims or passing off, generally protecting against suggestions that a product has a certain origin, quality or association when indeed they do not. Willy-nilly, such curtailment of competitive freedoms does facilitate monopolistic employment of geographical indication which yield good dividend and consumer or producer protection.</div>
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The French are behind appellation d'originecontrôlée (AOC - Apellation of Origin), one of the first GI systems. The government issued stamps, which represented official endorsement or certification of the standard and origin of the product of the consumer. Many French wines and Gruyère cheese (from Switzerland) have such appellations.</div>
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Similarly, the European Commission has three schemes: </div>
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PDO - (protected designation of origin), </div>
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PGI - (protected geographical indication) and </div>
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TSG - (traditional speciality guaranteed) which promote and protect names of quality agricultural products and foodstuffs.</div>
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Through the schemes, the European Commission encourages diverse agricultural production, protection of product names from misuse and imitation and help consumers by giving them information concerning the specific character of the products.</div>
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According to the European Commission: </div>
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PDO - covers agricultural products and foodstuffs which are produced, processed and prepared in a given geographical area using recognised know-how.</div>
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PGI - covers agricultural products and foodstuffs closely linked to the geographical area. At least one of the stages of production, processing or preparation takes place in the area.</div>
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TSG - highlights traditional character, either in the composition or means of production</div>
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Should Africa get its acts together, the continent with untold agricultural resources and processing technologies is eminently positioned to benefit from conferring Geographic Indications on some agro-produce that are home to its peculiar endowments of soil and climatic conditions.</div>
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Commencing with a thorough grasps of GIs and implications for agro- industrial development in the continent, the DREA has strategized sub-regional enlightenment with conferences held in Abuja, Nigeria and Johannesburg, South Africa. The consultations which started two years ago, often involves academicians, legal, agro and allied experts, dissecting the issues and strategizing initiatives that would enable optimal realizations from the enormous products that deserve GI in the African continent.</div>
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Early March, it was the turn of the South African Development Community (SADC), the consultation on Geographic Indications held at the Pan African Parliament, Midrand, Johannesburg, in the South African rich Gauteng region. In attendance were participants from the sub- region viz Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi and of course the host nation, South Africa. There were also on hand participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya as resource persons or carefully selected to foster regional cross referencing. They were specialists in agriculture, organic agriculture, law, the media and government. </div>
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There are enormous potentials in Geographic Indications to positively impact the agro industrial economies of beleaguered African nations if well exploited. GIs would enable the development of several farming communities as recognition and protection on the markets of the names of these products would encourage the community of producers to invest in maintaining the specific qualities of the product on which the reputation is built. After developing the technologies of production, there can be wholesome development of markets, employing tools of marketing communication to develop several brands while promoting the reputation of the products</div>
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Geographical Indications would also facilitate the structuring of the supply chains around products which have won such renown, translating to much-needed economic enhancement for African farmers and agro-allied industries.</div>
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The potentials are enormous, a product having won renown can be so developed that it would engage streams of idle hands, allow for out grower schemes as is visible in the Nigerian tobacco industry, have a chain of services as industrial production chains, logistics support at the local and international levels, national socio – economic, preservation of the natural resources on which the product is based, agro or eco-tourism, preservation of traditions and traditional technological know-how.</div>
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Lofty as the potentials in GIs are, much wouldn’t be realizable where nations states become slip-shod in galvanizing resources towards the attainment of GIs for products and services or backing them it with political and economic will, ensuring compliance with the process of developing the geographical indications (GI), adherenceto Codes of Practice, a philosophy of engaging and enlightening industry players and quality marketing initiatives.</div>
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Expectedly, the relatively advanced nations of the globe are reaping fortunes through Geographic Indications. Through strategic protectionism, engagement of marketing communication tools and positioning in the minds of consumers, European farmers are making fortunes from the likes of Parma ham, Roquefort Cheese, Scotch whiskeys. Americanpomologists and agronomists have been reaping fortunes from Florida oranges and Idaho potatoes respectively. In the food and drinks sector there are fruits and vegetables, wines, cheeses and cured meats: Champagne; Chedder and Tipperary turnips. Manufacturers in Europe, Asia and the US are profiting much from reputations built over the ages think Persian carpets, Murano glass, Toledo steel and Japanese electronics.</div>
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Importantly, through global, regional, bi- lateral or multi-lateral agreements, nations protect consumers, ensuring that they access the true qualities they demand, thus saving their farmers and industries from competition and keeping them in business and having their economies running.</div>
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There appears to be a ray of hope on the continent though. At least one nation seems to have woken to the realisation and that is Ethiopia. The well documented handling of Ethiopian coffee by the Ethiopian government may facilitate an appreciation of the viability of GIs and trademarks. An estimated 15 million people are directly or indirectly involved in the Ethiopian coffee industry with Ethiopian coffee alone generating about 60 per cent of the country’s total export earnings. The nation enjoys a strong reputation for its heritage coffees which command a very high retail price in the international market. Ethiopia is also the origin of some of the world’s finest coffees - Harrar, Sidamo and Yirgacheffee. These coffees have unique flavors and aroma that distinguish them from coffees of other countries and even other coffees within the country.</div>
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Despite the reputation of and Ethiopian heritage of the coffees, it is claimed that barely 5 to 10 per cent of the retail price actually goes back to the Ethiopian nation; most of the profit shared by distributors and middlemen in the marketing sector. Odd too, while a cup of these high priced coffees would sell for as much as US$ 4 in advanced nations, the poor Ethiopia grower earns less than a dollar a day.</div>
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These led to farmers abandoning coffee production due to low returns and engaged in growing more profitable narcotic plants. The Ethiopian government turned the tide by strategizing through intellectual property rights to differentiate their coffee in the market place and achieve higher returns. Through the Ethiopian Coffee Trademarking and Licensing Initiative, the Ethiopian Fine Coffee Stakeholder Committee comprising a consortium of comprising cooperatives, private exporters and the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) as well as other concerned government bodies committed the nation to protecting its commercial origin through registering trademarks, steps that avoid the complexities in GIs .</div>
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This granted the government of Ethiopia the legal right to exploit, license and use the trademarked names in relation to coffee goods to the exclusion of all other traders. Unlike a GI, a trademark registration does not require a specific coffee to be produced in a specific region or have a particular quality in connection with that region. Using trademark registrations, the government of Ethiopia then produce greater quantities of specialty coffees from all over the country.</div>
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Now, producers outside the Sidamo region could grow Sidamo coffee, without necessarily having the characteristics unique to the Sidamo region. The Stakeholder Committee opted for the trademark-based solution, with the Ethiopian government as the owner of these marks. This strategy gave the Ethiopian government greater and more effective control over the distribution of its product, which ultimately increases revenue by exporting more goods, enabling a rise in prices and benefits to farmers.</div>
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What need border the African continent is the reality that there is continuous erosion of resources owing to inability to maximize or optimize potentials. Undoubtedly, more can be gained from putting some indication on a vast range of produce of the continent and employing the tools of marketing communication to draw gains from these produce. To drive the point home, imagine what losses the economy of a State like Kenya would have incurred if it hadn't showcased and built its economy on tourism and conservation of wildlife?</div>
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Africa for now is lacking compelling laws that control or protect its resources that necessitate Geographic Indication. There is the painful reality of absence or abysmal cohesion of efforts to reverse the ill-tide in the interest of millions of challenged farmers across the continent. What is needed is a development of strategies to stem further erosion of the rich array of agricultural products, handicrafts, foodstuffs, traditions and knowledge passed on over generations that are domiciled in the continent</div>
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Good enough, the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union is taking great strides at raising a crop of stakeholders that hopefully would develop strategies for wining for the continent, grounds lost by inertia and uncoordinated approaches towards GIs for agricultural goods. - Niyi Egbe, This Day Live</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-28914208747126499212013-04-15T20:10:00.002-04:002013-04-15T22:33:09.084-04:00Has The National Organic Safety Board Restricted Use Of Antibiotics On Apples and Pears?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) rejected a petition to extend the expiration date for the use of oxytetracycline to treat fire blight in apple and pear production beyond October 21, 2014. The decision is a victory for the organic standard and advances efforts to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics.</div>
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The vote came after a long and controversial debate because some apple and pear growers do not believe they have adequate alternatives to antibiotics. Consumer and environmental advocates urged them to end the use of tetracycline as soon as possible in order to meet consumer expectations and to respond to mounting evidence that antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a serious threat to public health. Antibiotics are not allowed in any other types of organic food, including production of organic livestock.</div>
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We applaud the Board for making the right decision to end the use of this antibiotic as soon as possible and we believe this timeline for ending the use of tetracycline is consistent with consumer expectations. This decision will drive the organic apple and pear market to a higher standard. </div>
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We urge the USDA to help growers continue to find workable alternative treatments for fire blight that are compatible with organic production. The Board passed a resolution to encourage the USDA to investigate a transitional option for the emergency use of tetracycline until 2017. The agency must guarantee that any emergency use is extremely limited, ends as soon as possible and, most importantly, apples and pears from treated trees cannot be sold as organic. - Center For Food Safety </div>
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Consumers Union, the policy arm of Consumer Reports, Food & Water Watch, and the Center for Food Safety are urging the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to discontinue the use of antibiotics in organic apple and pear production, citing the potential undermining of the integrity of the organic label and threats to public health and consumer expectations. The NOSB—which meets in Portland, Oregon, this week and will vote on a petition to extend the use of oxytetracyline beyond the existing expiration date of October 21, 2014.</div>
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New data from a poll commissioned by Consumer Reports confirms that most consumers do not know that the USDA organic label can be found on foods produced with antibiotics and don’t believe they should be allowed to carry that label if antibiotics were used. Specifically:</div>
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When asked whether antibiotics are used to treat disease in apple and pear trees, two-thirds (68 percent) of people said they don’t know, 17 percent said they don’t think they are, and 15 percent said that antibiotics are used.</div>
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When told that apple and pear trees can be sprayed with antibiotics to treat disease and then asked whether fruit from these trees should be allowed to have an “organic” label, more than half--54 percent--said they don’t think they should be labeled as organic. Only 11 percent of thought they should be labeled as organic, and slightly more than one-third (35 percent) answered that they don’t know if they should be labeled organic.</div>
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Some organic apple and pear producers use oxytetracycline and another antibiotic, streptomycin, to manage a disease called fire blight. Antibiotics are not allowed in other types of organic food, including production of organic livestock.</div>
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The groups submitted over 35,000 public comments to the NOSB in advance of their meeting, raising concerns about consumer expectations and the mounting evidence that the public health threat posed by antibiotic resistant bacteria make it critical that all uses of antibiotics in food production be minimized.</div>
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The use of antibiotics is allowed for organic apple and pear production through a petition process to the NOSB, which has already extended the deadlines for this loophole to close several times since the organic label was implemented in 2002. Despite these extensions, there has been limited help for apple and pear growers to find alternative treatments for fire blight, although some alternatives do exist.</div>
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For example, U.S. farmers do not apply antibiotics to the organic apples and pears they sell to Europe, where the use of antibiotics is not allowed. The groups urge the USDA to work with the organic apple and pear industry to incentivize viable alternatives for producers and uphold the integrity of the organic label by rejecting the petition to extend the expiration date for oxytetracycline. - Center Food Food Safety</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-84720674074130629342013-04-15T20:01:00.001-04:002013-04-15T20:01:09.429-04:00Has Costa Rica And Canada Agreed To Trade More Organic Produce?<br />
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Costa Rican organic producers will have increased opportunities to export their products to Canada following an arrangement reached between officials from the two governments.</div>
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A press release sent Friday by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency states the Canada-Costa Rica Organic Equivalency Arrangement is "the outcome of an extensive analysis of both countries' production and certification systems.”</div>
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The agreement will allow for easier import and export of certified organic products between the two nations without the need for additional certification, thus reducing costs and red tape for the industry.</div>
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"This arrangement with Costa Rica eliminates trade barriers to give organic producers a competitive edge," said Canada's Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. "Canadian consumers will also benefit by having increased access to organic food options."</div>
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Costa Rica and Canada have had a free trade agreement since 2002, and it was updated last September. According Costa Rican Foreign Trade Ministry data, total trade between the countries has increased from $102 million in 2002 to $273 million in 2011, a cumulative increase of 168 percent. - Canadian Food Inspection Agency </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-35050630555831947952013-04-15T19:48:00.000-04:002013-04-15T19:48:00.639-04:00Do The Majority Of American Consumer See Organic Labeling As An Excuse To Increase Prices?<br />
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Does an uptick in the economy give people more reason to care about Mother Earth? That is what a March 2013 Harris Poll of 2,276 U.S. adults (ages 18+) interviewed online set to find out as Earth Day quickly approaches (full findings and data tables available here). Turns out that concern for the current state, and future, of the environment is on the rise in 2013 (38 percent vs. 31 percent in 2012), just as economic indicators point to all time stock market highs and a solid housing market recovery. However, as Americans start to feel better about reaching into their pockets, they still may not be ready to dish out the extra green on organic items. Turns out that more than half (59%) agree that labeling food or other products as organic is just an excuse to charge more.</div>
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"What surprised us most was that while Americans are showing more concern for the environment, they aren't necessarily willing to pay more to do anything about it," said Mike de Vere , President of the Harris Poll. "While Americans feel better about the economy, many are wary of the 'greenwashing' concept that gives companies a chance to cash in on consumers who want to help the planet but are confused by all the eco-friendly jargon." </div>
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<b><u>Fact vs. Fiction</u></b></div>
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Going green continues to be a gray area, as consumers try to decide where it makes sense to incorporate it into their lives. While recent research shows that organic produce and meat typically aren't any better for you than conventional varieties when it comes to vitamin and nutrient content1, more than half of Americans </div>
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<li style="text-align: center;">(55%) believe that organic foods are healthier than non-organic. In addition:</li>
<li style="text-align: center;">41% think organic food tastes better and/or fresher than non-organic </li>
<li style="text-align: center;">Only 23% know what the term "dirty dozen" (The Environmental Working Group's annual list of foods consumers should always buy organic due to pesticide levels) means in regards to organic food</li>
<li style="text-align: center;">48% think washing dishes by hand is more environmentally friendly than using the dishwasher, though a study from Scientists at the University of Bonn in Germany found that the dishwasher uses only half the energy, one-sixth of the water, and less soap than hand-washing an identical set of dirty dishes.</li>
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<b><u>Is it Easy Being Green?</u></b></div>
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Americans are divided on how easy, or not so easy, it is to live a more environmentally conscious lifestyle, with nearly equal percentages of U.S. adults perceiving it as difficult (49%) and easy (47%). When asked about sentiments towards going green, respondents indicated the following:</div>
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<li style="text-align: center;">Eight in ten Americans (80%) say they will seek out green products, but only three in ten (30%) are willing to pay extra for them.</li>
<li style="text-align: center;">60% of Americans prefer to use environmentally friendly cleaning supplies because of the chemicals contained in traditional cleaning products.</li>
<li style="text-align: center;">As noted, the majority of Americans agree that labeling food or other products "organic" is just an excuse to charge more (59%). </li>
<li style="text-align: center;">Men are the most skeptical about organic, with 63% agreeing that the labeling of food or other products as organic is an excuse to charge more, versus 54% of women.</li>
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Overall, efforts to be green seem to have leveled off, with nearly two-thirds (63%) making the same amount of effort to be environmentally conscious as a year ago, up considerably from 2009 (51%). - Harris Interactive, PR Newswire </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-73263891071448494362013-04-15T19:31:00.000-04:002013-04-15T19:31:09.922-04:00Has The Organic Food Movement Increased Attention To Food Packaging?<br />
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Call it “greenwrapping.” From popcorn to peanut butter, from tuna to tea, the fancy food biz is increasingly looking to sustainable packaging to attract green-conscious consumers. Organic ingredients are no longer sufficient for green cred. What’s outside the product is starting to matter as much as what’s inside.</div>
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Tuna has made headlines in years past as a controversial catch, but now it’s the cans that are cause for conservationist’s contemplation. Metal cans use up more raw material than plastic pouches do, and they require more energy to transport. Now, Sea Fare Pacific is bucking tradition by packing wild-caught fish in sleek eco-friendly, BPA-free pouches.</div>
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Popcorn bags may seem inconspicuous enough, but they’re increasingly drawing scrutiny. It turns out that many commercial microwave popcorn bags are lined with PFOA, which the FDA labels a toxin. Other sketchy stuff in the bags ranges from plastics to Teflon, not to mention artificial butter substitutes. Into the breach Quinn Popcorn arrived with a Kickstarter campaign and plans to clean up the much-beloved snack.</div>
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Here’s how the Quinn founders’ site describes their mission: “First, we tackled the bag. Gone are the chemical coatings (PFOA, PFCs, Poly, etc.). We even pulled out the susceptor (gray metal/plastic patch). What’s left is a bag that’s made from paper and paper alone. Well, it is special paper that is pressed to make it grease proof. That wasn’t easy to figure out. Did we mention, it’s even compostable?”</div>
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Bags are bound for even more change. Pipcorn of Brooklyn is another new-style popcorn company selling mini popcorn made from hull-less kernels. It comes in hand-stamped, simple paper bags.</div>
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Even tea packaging can be greened-up. Numi now packs organic tea in biodegradable filter paper. And wine bottlers have gotten into the green game, too. Alternative Organic Wine commissioned a super-green wine bottle from The Creative Method, an Australian design firm. The resulting package — which won a 2012 design award from The Dieline, a leading package-design blog was organic from head to foot. It included balsa wood, organic string and wax, and even organic inks for the bottle’s images.</div>
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Creative packaging comes in myriad shapes and sizes. Morning Ritual packs its organic strained yogurt with a bamboo bowl and spoon set, while peanut butter up-and-comer Justin’s uses already-recycled plastic for its jars.</div>
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Sustainability-conscious retailers looking to deliver fresh goods outside of their local markets face another challenge: how to ship temperature-sensitive materials without compromising their green ethos. Thermopod offers a solution in the form of biodegradable, temperature-controlled packaging made of recycled textile fibers. Thermopods come in crates and envelopes of varying sizes designed to protect everything from organic foods to chilled wine.</div>
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For organic food purveyors already focused on premium consumers with a discerning eye for sustainability, the recent wave of greenwrapping is just the start. A survey last summer by research and consulting firm EcoFocus found that more than two thirds of those who shop for natural and organic foods consider it important to choose foods packaged responsibly. Whatever they’re buying, they want it green.</div>
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More from UPS:</div>
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<li>A Supply Chain for Temperature-Sensitive Pharmaceuticals Starts with Logistics</li>
<li>Sustainability: Packaging Matters</li>
<li>Sustainability Is a Key to Long-Term Success - Jeremy Caplan, Forbes </li>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-13879043438466871552013-03-10T23:11:00.002-04:002013-03-10T23:11:24.406-04:00Does Gender Play A Role In Sustainable Forestry?<br />
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While the world is coming to appreciate the unique perspective women have on forest management, researchers, conservationists and policy makers are still struggling to find ways to incorporate these views into their work. A new report by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) sets out to offer guidance.</div>
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By combing through 40 years of literature and tracking down researchers with relevant expertise, Carol Colfer and her co-author Rebakah Daro Minarchek were able to place existing methodologies to address gender and forestry research into three broad categories, each corresponding with the level of resources available.</div>
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The most optimal was the broad, multi-level participatory approach, whereby well-trained, qualified researchers, committed to being regularly involved in the lives of villagers, strive for long-term and beneficial development. In addition to significant finances and expertise, however, this requires a lot of time and sometimes decades.</div>
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“Although we recognise a number of institutional and resource constraints to doing this, we see this approach as the most likely to result in improvements, both for the environment and the welfare of both women and men,” said Colfer.</div>
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Moreover, she argued, shorter time spans supposedly required by the other two approaches are often a chimera. The systematic, academic approach (using existing documents, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and interpretive methods), is suitable to those with access to significant social science expertise. Most often these findings end up being published in peer-reviewed journals.</div>
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And, for those with very limited resources, there is the “quick (and sometimes, somewhat) dirty” approach, whereby a researcher may head into the field for a rapid-fire assessment of local people’s interests and goals. Not ideal, perhaps, but better than having no information about gender at all.</div>
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“Whichever case, though, unless you explicitly say women and men as you gather your information, people will often ignore the women,” cautioned Colfer.</div>
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“Generally, when people do address issues of people and forests, they very often see the community as a homogenous mass who all interact with the forests in the same way.”</div>
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<b><u>Not all forest users are created equal</u></b></div>
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Decades of research have consistently shown that in addition to playing important roles in forest use, women and men appreciate forests in very different ways. Rather than exploiting resources (timber, game and mineral wealth), in many areas women have long recognised the value of more sustainable activities, such as gathering edible fruits, and harvesting of medicinal plants. In some parts of the world, they also are more actively involved in the trading of non-timber forest commodities, such as nuts and shea butter.</div>
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Unfortunately, the role gender plays in forests is rarely, if ever, addressed in the political arena. This is largely due to the globally disadvantaged situation women face as compared to men, something that is now starting to be acknowledged, with a number of institutions, including the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Institute of Social and Environmental Transition, establishing indices to measure disparities.</div>
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Still, this does not provide instruction on how to fix the problem. And even for experienced forestry researchers who well understand the powerful contribution women have to make, it’s often hard to escape old, preconceived notions that they are primarily interested in family and health.</div>
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“All the systems we know are inequitable towards women,” says Colfer, “so it’s a topic that people have difficulty addressing.”</div>
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Though a number of reviews of women and natural resources have been produced, Colfer is unaware of any to date specifically relating to forests. That’s what makes this new how-to report, 'Women, Men and Forest Research', so unique.</div>
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“I felt there was a need for something that is longer than an article, because the amount of material compared to what is out there is phenomenal compared to when I started working in this field in the early 1980s, and the analyses have become much more sophisticated,” Colfer said as the world marks International Women’s Day.</div>
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“Today we increasingly appreciate that we not only need to acknowledge that women have different kinds of involvement in production activities, but we also need to look at things like power differentials and interactions between men and women. The more we know about women, the more complex the systems become.”</div>
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<b><u>Saving forests with a stethoscope</u></b></div>
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For example, there are many issues that affect women that may not intuitively be related to forests, like violence against women (some are subject to reprisals for legitimate activities outside the home) or the need for family planning.</div>
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“If we want forests to thrive, we need to have a fairly low population density in the area,” says Colfer.</div>
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“If we want women to have equal access to education, income generation, and political leverage, we have to allow them to control their fertility and there is a widespread demand for more birth control.”</div>
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A handful of initiatives, Colfer noted in an earlier CIFOR study, are already striving to integrate conservation and human health. Women living in the lush, biologically diverse forests of Indonesia’s portion of Borneo, for instance, are vulnerable to lung disease from cooking with wood, a problem that is exacerbated when land-clearing fires blanket the region with heavy, choking smoke.</div>
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Because they have so little access to formal healthcare (few doctors, clinics or drugs) they have to travel long distances on bad roads for anything from a routine doctor’s visit to a medical emergency. The latter costs money, enough at times to ruin a family financially, forcing some to turn to illegal logging, others to burn rainforest to clear new land for pesticide-laden crops and plantations. Clean watersheds become contaminated and floods damage fields and roads and accentuate disease.</div>
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It’s a vicious cycle, one the Indonesian non-governmental organisation, Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI), based next to Gunung Palung National Park, sought to address by setting up a high-quality mobile health clinic. In addition to offering free birth control, affordable diagnostics and ambulance service, they offer training in organic farming. Treatments don’t have to be paid in cash. Patients and their families can instead give manure for the clinic’s garden or seeds for its reforestation site.</div>
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<b><u>Integrating gender is good science</u></b></div>
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Colfer acknowledges she and her colleague only scratched the surface with their latest report, but it’s a starting point. Cristina Manfre, author of a related CIFOR guide published recently agrees. In 'Integrating Gender into Forestry Research', she lays out the numerous steps that researchers can take to ensure that perspectives on gender are included in their work. She hopes the research will help fill the knowledge gap and rectify many of the imbalances in people’s daily lives.</div>
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“How do you involve women in governance? Formal government, resource governance, and household governance – who does what work and who benefits,” Manfre said.</div>
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“This is ultimately about the division of labour: who gets to determine who does what.”</div>
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This requires long-time collaborative work with communities, she said. Only then is it possible to implement policies effectively.</div>
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“Integrating gender perspectives,” she said, “is good science.” - Zoe Cormier, AlertNet</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-17511685153873030372013-03-10T22:49:00.000-04:002013-03-10T22:49:04.474-04:00Is Tunisia Moving Towards A Sustainable Agricultural Future?<br />
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Africa's infrastructure is under pressure from increasing disasters but the infrastructure deficit is an opportunity for the continent to take a global lead on sustainable development and to leap-frog environmentally unfriendly technologies, said Mrs. Rhoda Peace, the African Union Commissioner for rural economy and agriculture, at a seminar marking the 11th African Day for the Environment hosted by the Tunisian government.</div>
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"Green growth and the avoidance of unsustainable consumption patterns are integral to Africa's efforts to reduce disaster risk and we would like this reflected adequately in the discussions at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in a few months time as well as in the new post-2015 framework agreement on disaster risk reduction when the Hyogo Framework for Action expires," she told UNISDR.</div>
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Mamia El Banna Zayani, Minister for the Environment, Tunisia, said her country was honoured to be the first country in North Africa to host the Africa Day for the Environment dedicated to the memory of the Kenyan Nobel Prize Winner and environmental activist, Wangari Maathai.</div>
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Mrs. El Banna Zayana said that Tunisia has realised the importance of the green economy as a promising field for employuments and had enshrined this in the new employment strategy at the national level.</div>
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She said that Tunisia was looking forward to playing a regional role in promoting the green economy with a strong focus on water, energy and food. "We cannot think of the development of Africa without addressing these."</div>
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A statement from the UN Environment Programme recognized Tunisia's potential to accelerate transition to a green economy in view of the fact that it is the second largest producer of organic farming in Africa with over 285,000 ha of organic farms and organic agriculture product exports reached 89 million Tunisian dinars. Tunisia also has a solar programme underway since 2005 and has the goal of reaching 4.3 % of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2014.</div>
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Frank Sperling, Chief Climate Change Specialist with the Africa Development Bank, highlighted that strengthening risk management and building resilience is essential for advancing green growth in light of climatic change, increasing natural resource pressures and population growth globally and in Africa itself. "The rationale for green growth is global and regional but we need solutions tailored to national circumstances," he said.</div>
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Desta Mebratu, UNEP's Deputy Regional Director for Africa, said that most part of the technological innovation required for the Green Economy transition is already here and where we have a significant lack is in the area of social innovation which will enable us to make the best use of the available technological options.</div>
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Mr. Mebratu highlighted the fact that Africa needed to improve its capacity to transform to new technologies and make maximum use of the available opportunities from global financing mechanisms including funds that are made available through the Global Environment Facility. - Denis McClean, Prevention Web </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-43841788956775565542013-03-09T09:57:00.001-05:002013-03-09T09:57:25.142-05:00Should The Food Term "Natural" Have A Legal Definition?<br />
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The million-strong Organic Consumers Association (OCA), North America’s leading watchdog over organic and fair trade standards, announced today at the national Expo-West Natural Products convention, along with its allies in the organic and natural health community, a new nationwide campaign: the Organic Retail and Consumer Alliance (ORCA). This new alliance of public interest groups and food producers and retailers, including co-ops, natural food stores, farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) buying clubs and wholesalers, will aggressively promote organic food and products, and expose and eliminate the misleading practice of “natural” labeling and marketing that has slowed the growth of America’s $30-billion dollar organic sector.</div>
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“Routine mislabeling and marketing has confused millions of U.S. consumers, and enabled the so-called ‘natural’ foods and products sector to grow into a $60-billion dollar a year powerhouse, garnering twice as many sales in 2012 as certified organic products,” said Ronnie Cummins, OCA’s National Director. “By exposing these misleading tactics, and promoting truth-in-labeling, we believe we can rapidly grow sales of certified organic and authentically natural food and products.”</div>
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Polls and surveys indicate that the majority of America’s health- and environmentally conscious consumers are confused about the qualitative difference between organic foods and items and so-called “natural” products. The majority of consumers believe, contrary to fact, that the cheaper foods, supplements, body care, clothing, and other products bearing the “natural” label are “almost organic,” while many consumers actually believe that the “all natural” label means a product is better than organic.</div>
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“This is outrageous,” said Cummins, “given that organic food and products, by law and by third-party certification, are produced without the use of synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, animal drugs, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), irradiation, nanoparticles, or sewage sludge, whereas so-called “natural” products are unregulated.”</div>
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ORCA members will ORCA members will use a combination of public education, marketplace pressure, boycotts, class action lawsuits and state legislation to end misleading labeling practices in the “natural” products sector. Member will agree to:</div>
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Promote organic foods and products, especially local and regionally produced organic, as well as products in transition to organic, rather than so-called "natural" products. (“Transition to organic” means a producer has signed a contract with an accredited organic certifier to begin making the transition to organic.)</div>
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Promote truth-in-labeling by demanding signed, legally binding affidavits from “natural” product and ingredient suppliers stating whether or not their products contain genetically engineered ingredients. Voluntarily label or inform consumers about which “natural” or “conventional” brands or products contain GMOs.</div>
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Educate customers and the public about the qualitative superiority of organic and truly natural products (i.e. 100% pastured and free-range meat and animal products), as opposed to bogus “natural” products, which in most cases are no different than “conventional” chemical-intensive, factory-farmed products. - eNews Park Forest </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-90922301276748332952013-03-06T16:43:00.000-05:002013-03-06T16:43:04.732-05:00Have Scientist In Dubai Created Genetically Modified Camels?<br />
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Researchers in Dubai hope to create the first genetically modified (GM) camels capable of producing pharmaceutical proteins in their milk,which can then be processed to manufacture cheaper drugs for the region.</div>
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The project aims to slash the prices of life-saving drugs including insulin, and clotting factors for treating hemophilia in the Middle East and North Africa, according to Nisar Wani, head of the Reproductive Biology Laboratory at Dubai's Camel Reproduction Center, in the United Arab Emirates.</div>
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The cost of camel milk in the region is comparable to that of cow's milk, but the former is more suited to local climates, said Wani. Camels are highly resistant to disease, easier to maintain in the region's arid climate, and are more efficient in converting food [into body mass] than cows.</div>
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"We are establishing camel cells modified with exogenous [foreign] DNA, for use in producing transgenic cloned animals, or GM camels," Wani told SciDev.Net. "Hopefully we will transfer camel transgenic embryos to surrogate mothers for the first time later this year."</div>
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Wani said he was unable to pinpoint when the first transgenic animal would be born, as the calving rate for cloned embryos was only five per cent, and "this rate gets even smaller when transgenic cells are used".</div>
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"We have crossed some critical barriers but still need to do a lot of work to reach the final destination," he added.</div>
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"Producing a transgenic animal will bring the Emirates to the top of the international research field," Serge Muyldermans, head of the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology at Vrije University Brussel, in Belgium, told SciDev.Net.* "However, so far they have just been repeating what others are doing with goats and cattle."</div>
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"Cows would be better producers of transgenic protein as they produce more milk," Muyldermans said. "But as camels can be kept in arid areas and are used to living under harsh conditions, they might be better suited to the Middle East."</div>
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The Reproductive Biology Laboratory was established in Dubai in 2003, to study the reproductive techniques in species from the region, particularly camels.</div>
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"[Previously] there was little or no literature available on assisted reproductive techniques in camels, so we had to standardise all the basic techniques one by one," explained Wani. "Finally, in 2009, we produced the first cloned camel calf named Injaz and thereafter produced many more."</div>
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The lab's researchers have established a cell bank from 'elite' camels, which excel in milk production and adapting to drought and hot weather, and now plan to clone these animals. The researchers are also setting up a cell bank for the region's other critically endangered species. - Rehab Abd Almohsen, Science Developement</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-72606090734662268742013-02-24T20:48:00.000-05:002013-02-24T20:50:52.551-05:00Is Organic Agriculture Moving Towards A Hazardous Industrial Future?<br />
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Longtime organic farmer Carmen Fernholz frets that the movement could be pulling away from its roots. “My fear is that organic food systems are moving too much to industrial models that conventional agriculture gives us, with larger and larger farming operations,” the Madison, Minn., farmer said.</div>
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It’s one of several themes Fernholz will deliver during his keynote speech this morning at the 24th annual Organic Farming Conference at the La Crosse Center. The three-day conference, sponsored by the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service in Spring Valley, Wis., has drawn more than 3,000 farmers and organic advocates.</div>
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“The organic food system has to be an egalitarian food system — the people’s food system,” said Fernholz, who farms 400 acres in western Minnesota. “We have to decide what size we want to be. My dad used to say, ’If you don’t know how big you want to be, you’ll never be big enough,’” he said.</div>
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If the system follows the industrial agricultural model, he said, “one of the consequences is it will deprive more people of the opportunity to be food producers.”</div>
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Although organic farming often gets a rap as being more expensive, “it’s easier to achieve a profitable bottom line, if you do it correctly,” he said. “You can get comparable yields, generally at more of a premium, and generally with less of a capital investment.”</div>
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Organic seeds are less expensive, and not buying pesticides and chemical fertilizers saves money, said Fernholz, an organic research coordinator for the University of Minnesota.</div>
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“I might invest $5,000 to $10,000 more in equipment” for increased weed management and tillage, he said, “but it will last five, 10, 15 years or more. If I spent $5,000 on herbicides, that would last for just one year.“ At market, he said, “Conservatively, my neighbor might get $14 for soybeans, and I could get $28. It’s a demand thing, and an incentive for organic producers.”</div>
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Even though organic food costs more at the retail level, it’s a good health choice for consumers, Fernholz said. “From a young family’s perspective, the residues of toxicity are taken care of through organic foods,” he said. “I mention younger families because smaller children are more susceptible to toxicity.” In addition, he said, “Some limited research indicates that organic foods have higher nutritional density.”</div>
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The conference attracted more than organic farmers and advocates, such as Patricia Hagen of Onalaska, a dietician with the Women, Infants and Children public health program in Monroe County.</div>
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“I wanted to learn more about the food and farming system and also have the opportunity to develop relationships with local farmers,” Hagen said. Among other things, the WIC program provides checks to families so they can buy locally grown fruits and vegetables, she said.</div>
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“As a dietician, I believe strongly in knowing where food comes from,” she said. As the debate over the cost of organic food continues, she said, “I think organic is becoming more mainstream, and more affordable. “It’s also an investment in your health,” Hagen said. “It may not be your whole diet, but whatever you can, and it supports local farmers.”</div>
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<b><u>Organic farms, by the numbers</u></b></div>
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With more than 1,200 certified organic farms, Wisconsin ranks second only to California, which has more than 2,700, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Washington state is third, at nearly 900, while New York is fourth at about 850, and Oregon, fifth at about 650.</div>
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A large portion of the Badger State’s organic farms are in the Coulee Region, with the heaviest concentrations in Monroe and Vernon counties, both of which have more than 60, according to the USDA’s 2011 National Organic Program data.</div>
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The program estimates that Jackson and Trempealeau counties have between 31 and 60 certified organic farms and La Crosse, between 11 and 30. In Minnesota, Winona County has between 26 and 50 organic farms, and Houston County has between 11 and 25, according to the state agriculture department. - By Mike Tighe, LaCroix Tribune </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-54496644033326819172013-02-17T22:01:00.000-05:002013-02-17T22:01:00.378-05:00Will "The Largest Climate Rally In History" Make A Difference?<br />
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The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) will join the Sierra Club, 350.org, the Hip Hop Caucus and more than 90 other organizations on Feb. 17, in Washington D.C., for the “Forward on Climate” rally. The rally is being billed as the largest climate rally in history. Participants will urge President Obama to reject the toxic Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, limit carbon pollution from our nation's dirty power plants, move beyond coal, oil and natural gas by investing in a clean energy economy, and transition to a healthy and sustainable food and farming system.</div>
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OCA will emphasize the critical, but often overlooked role factory farming plays in contributing to our planet’s rapidly warming climate. According to the Worldwatch Institute, the production of meat, eggs and milk on factory farms is responsible for more than 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.</div>
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“We have the technology to save the planet,” said OCA National Director Ronnie Cummins (OCA). “By abolishing factory farms and industrial and GMO crop cultivation, and transitioning back to carbon ranching and organic farming, we could potentially sequester the overwhelming majority of greenhouse gas emissions, and bring the CO2 level back down to the safe level of 350 parts-per-million. That’s the number scientist say we must achieve in order to avert a climate crisis.”</div>
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Industrial agriculture spews greenhouse gases into the earth's atmosphere at the rate of 3,700 pounds of CO2 per year per acre. Compare that with an acre of land farmed using organic methods, including composting and cover crops. The organically farmed acre can naturally sequester up to 7,000 pounds per year of CO2 back into the earth, according to research carried out by the Rodale Institute and others.</div>
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To facilitate this transition, OCA advocates boycotting products that come from factory farms, eating more local, organic produce, and consuming less meat; requiring mandatory labeling of all factory farm-produced meat, eggs and dairy; and empowering food and farm workers, local communities, and family farmers - the people who experience the harsh realities of factory farm abuses, pollution and economics first hand - to have a greater say in how we create a green, sustainable farming system.</div>
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Candidate Barack Obama agreed with OCA’s positions in 2008, stating "As president, I would direct the Environmental Protection Agency to strictly monitor and regulate pollution from large factory farms, with tough fines for those that violate environmental standards. I also support efforts to provide more meaningful local control over these factory farms." - eNews Park Forest </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-31275455746982617632013-02-10T23:11:00.000-05:002013-02-10T23:11:13.783-05:00What Role Do Women Play In Agriculture And Farming In Parts Of Africa?<div style="text-align: center;">
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The EU should support rural public education programmes in Africa, with a special focus on women, to facilitate adoption of sustainable farming practices, says Hailemariam Teklewold, a researcher at the University of Gothenburg.</div>
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Hailemariam Teklewold has completed his doctorate in environmental economics at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. aHe has been working as an agricultural economist in socio-economics unit at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research. He responded in writing to questions from EurActiv's Henriette Jacobsen.</div>
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<b>How do you define 'sustainable agriculture'?</b></div>
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Sustainable agriculture is the intensification of agricultural production through innovation, including adoption of sustainable agricultural practices to combat food insecurity and poverty and degradation of ecosystem services. The [UN] Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) argues that sustainable agriculture consists of five major attributes: conserves resources; environmentally non-degrading; technically appropriate; economically and socially acceptable.</div>
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Accordingly, these practices, broadly defined, may include conservation tillage, bio-diversification (e.g. intercropping and crop rotations), improved crop varieties, use of animal manure, complementary use of organic fertilisers, and soil and water conservation structures.</div>
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<b>What role do women play in agriculture and farming in Africa?</b></div>
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Women in rural areas of developing countries where agriculture is a means of livelihoods play an important role in most aspects of agricultural production, marketing, household food preparation and nutrition. In farming, women participate in numerous agricultural tasks including mainly cleaning the field during land preparation, transporting inputs to the field, weeding, harvesting, transporting, threshing and storage of the production. The role of women in managing home garden crops, poultry raising, feeding, watering and cleaning of livestock and milking is also important.</div>
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You have said that there is a link between 'education among women and use of sustainable agricultural methods'. Education is of course always important, but why do you think it's particularly important in this case?</div>
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Adoption of sustainable agricultural practices requires investment decision or planning of farming business. Given the importance of women in agriculture, education of women would create investments and provide skills for a critical evaluation of innovations, improve knowledge about methods of production and increasingly advance women’s entrepreneurial ability.</div>
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When the education level of women increases, farm technology adoption decisions cannot be viewed as an isolated decision mainly taken by men, but jointly between men and women as part of an overall household strategy. You have said that today relatively few farmers in developing countries use sustainable farming practices, despite intense promotion by both governmental and non-governmental organisations. What are the governments doing?</div>
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There are a number of initiatives from both governmental and non-governmental bodies which have emerged for promoting the adoption and diffusion of sustainable agricultural practices, mostly through the extension systems. There is a development of technology packages to overcome the decline of soil fertility and increase farm productivity.</div>
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<b>What are the reasons why the governments' promotion of sustainable farming isn't reaching the farmers?</b></div>
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In many cases, resource poor farmers lack the capacity to purchase necessary inputs to obtain consistently high yields. As a result, smallholder farmers are trapped in poverty, low investment capacity, soil fertility decline and low productivity. Our study also shows that the probability and extent of sustainable agricultural practice adoptions are affected by several factors - lack of social capital in the form of limited participation in rural institutions, credit constraint, women’s education, access to markets, extension service, tenure security and rainfall shocks.</div>
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<b>What could the EU do in order to help sustainable agriculture in Africa?</b></div>
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They could help the local governments in investments in rural public education with special focus on women. That would facilitate adoption of technologies and practices. In a country where there is information asymmetry and both input and output markets are missing or incomplete, local institutions can play a critical role in providing farmers with timely information, inputs (e.g., labour, credit, and insurance), and technical assistance.</div>
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Hence, the significant role of social capital on adoption suggests the need for establishing and strengthening local institutions and service providers to accelerate and sustain technology adoption. Investment in public safety net programmes ... for example, in public insurance and risk-protection mechanisms, can be expected to have a positive impact on the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.</div>
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<b>What is your opinion of microfinancing for poor women in Africa?</b></div>
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From our study, we found that resource constraints are important factors constraining the adoption and diffusion of sustainable agricultural practices for poor farmers. Microfinancing poor women could relax such resource constraints and increase the adoption rate of sustainable agricultural practices by smallholder farmers. - Euro Active<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-70656753371299530972013-02-10T16:58:00.004-05:002013-02-10T16:58:53.627-05:00Is The Future Bright For Tanzanian Organic Farmers?<br />
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Executive Director of Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement (TOAM) explained to me, that about 70% of Tanzanian farmers use traditional methods. In a way they are de facto organic farmers.</div>
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But at TOAM they want to separate organic from traditional farming. Gama explained that many sub-optimal practices are used by many traditional farmers. For examples, "Many burn their fields and others do not rotate their crops properly." </div>
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Traditional farming has the potential to convert to organic farming using locally made inputs. "Organic agriculture (kilimo hai)," he continued, "is the best mix of traditional knowledge and skills and science.</div>
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The knowledge and skills are best practices of many different successful farmers. But no one group of farmers has all the skills. Organic farming brings all the best practices together. It is about adding and improving quickly the quality of the soil using biological and mechanical methods as well as medicinal plants.</div>
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Inputs such as compost, livestock manure and other agro ecological best practices create a productive environment." I learned that organic means more than just not being genetically modified and being grown without pesticides. Organic is about knowledge of the environment, soil, consumer/social responsibilities, and workers' conditions.</div>
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On the TOAM website they explain that the Organic Agriculture Movement is based on four principles: health, ecology, fairness, and care. In the principle of health, organic agriculture should sustain and enhance the health of soil, plant, animal, human and planet as one and indivisible.</div>
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In the principle of ecology, organic agriculture should be based on living ecological systems and cycles, work with them, emulate them and help sustain them. In the principle of fairness, organic agriculture should build on relationships that ensure fairness with regard to the common environment and life opportunities.</div>
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In the principle of care, organic agriculture should be managed in a precautionary and responsible manner to protect the health and well-being of current and future generations and the environment. To eat food grown within such an environment is definitely something I would like to partake in.</div>
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But is it possible? It seems like a dream. It could be a dream coming true. It shimmers in my mind as seemingly far away, but Gama assured me that in Tanzania there might already be 450,000 certified organic producers!! He explained, "For instance, Biolands International alone has over 21,000 certified cocoa farmers in Kyela." Biolands engages in the production and export of certified organic cocoa.</div>
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It offers organic smallholder cocoa programmes. The company provides farmers with training in cocoa growing, and technical advice and supplies, as well as supplies cocoa seedlings to help improve farms. It also works with smallholders in Mbeya and Ruvuma regions of Tanzania to improve income from other crops, such as coffee, paprika, and sesame.</div>
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This is not counting KDCU (Karagwe District Co-operative Union Ltd.), KCU (Kagera Coffee Union), KNCU (Kilimanjaro Native Co-Operative Union Ltd.). And others. He continued, "There is certified organic cotton, coffee, cocoa, vegetables, tea and spices." I complained, "If there are so many organic products and I want to buy them, where are they?" He said, " Most organic products are exported.</div>
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For example the pyrethrum is all exported. The pharmacists, Mansoor Daya, want to formulate a compound for pest control using the organic pyrethrum but they can't get four kilograms." Instead of using the organic pyrethrum being grown in Tanzania for pest control we are offered imported chemical inputs! Organic cotton and organic coffee is almost all exported. There is organic instant TANICA coffee mostly for export markets.</div>
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I asked him, "How do you see the future?' Gama said, "The future looks bright. It is now clear that the policy and political will are there. The Heads of State at the Africa Union have decided to go with organic. In the Tanzanian Livestock Policy there is provision for organic practices as well as in the draft national agricultural policy.</div>
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The challenge is that our experts need to update themselves. We need extension training. We need to promote and increase domestic consumption for organic products. We need competent researchers who understand the system...." He paused for a moment as if thinking about the situation and then he said, "But we have confidence that the researchers are coming up. At Sokoine University for example they offered an elective course on organic agriculture and 100 students signed up. The future is bright." - Anne Outwater, Tanzania Daily News</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-64529875719727142532013-02-05T22:02:00.000-05:002013-02-05T22:02:42.881-05:00Why Will Russia Ban Imports Of U.S. Pork And Beef This Month?<br />
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Russia will ban U.S. pork and beef imports starting this month over concerns about ractopamine, a veterinary drug commonly used in North America to boost growth and leanness that is increasingly controversial overseas, according to Russian media reports.</div>
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“Since the violations continue and we are finding ractopamine in meat shipments from the USA, we plan starting February 11 to impose restrictions on the import of this product,” Sergei Dankvert, the chief of Russian veterinary and food safety service, Rosselkhoznadzor, told Interfax.</div>
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U.S. trade and agriculture officials have rebuked Russia’s position as retaliatory and unscientific.</div>
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“The United States is very concerned that Russia has taken these actions, which appear to be inconsistent with its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, in December when Russia first announced it would test beef and pork imports for the drug. “The United States calls on Russia to suspend these new measures and restore market access for U.S. beef and pork products.”</div>
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U.S. interests believe the ban is a retaliation for the Senate approval of a bill that punished Russian officials linked to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison after accusing authorities of embezzlement. The ban was announced hours after the bill passed. Russian agriculture officials maintain that their new policy, which has been in the works for months, is not politically motivated, but a response to lingering questions about the safety of ractopamine.</div>
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On Wednesday, Rosselkhoznadzor said it had informed the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service “that despite the repeated warnings the growth promoter ractopamine prohibited for use in Russia was detected during the laboratory monitoring of imported food product safety in pork consignments produced by plant No.17D and beef liver produced by plant No.235 which was a crude violation of Russian and CU animal health requirements.” (The same day, Russia’s veterinary service announced it was rejecting 22 tons of fruit, including grapes, apples, and strawberries, from China because of a compliance with plant health requirements and 63 tons of fruits and vegetables, supplied mostly from Poland, for pesticide residues that exceeded Russian standards. Products imported from Turkey and Italy were also rejected.)</div>
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In response to the new policy on ractopamine, Canada and Brazil have reportedly given Russian authorities assurance that pork and beef exports will be certified ractopamine-free before being shipped to Russia. The drug, which is a beta-agonist and mimics stress hormones, is fed primarily to swine and cattle in the weeks leading up to slaughter to improve the rate at which the animals convert feed to lean muscle. It was first approved by the FDA in 1999 for pigs, and has since been approved for cattle and turkeys.</div>
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Around two dozen countries have approved ractopamine as safe for use, but the European Union, China and several other countries, including Russia, ban their producers from using the drug. Last year, Taiwan had a contentious debate over whether to accept imports that contained low levels of the drug.</div>
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service does very limited testing for the drug, but the agency has never found levels that violate the U.S. residue limits, according to the data posted online. A recent test conducted by Consumer Reports of 240 pork samples found that about one in five were positive for very low levels of the drug under 5 parts per billion (ppb), which is well under the FDA’s established MRL of 50 ppb for pork. The FDA’s MRL for beef is 30 ppb. The recently-adopted residue limit at the Codex Alimentarius Commission is 10 ppb MRL for both beef and pork.</div>
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Advocacy groups recently petitioned the FDA to lower the maximum allowed residue limits for ractopamine in domestic meat products and review the drug’s impact on animal welfare.</div>
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The fact that pork producers have reported a high number of adverse reactions to the drug was first reported by the Food and Environment Reporting Network in an NBCnews.com report: “The drug has triggered more adverse reports in pigs than any other animal drug on the market. Pigs suffered from hyperactivity, trembling, broken limbs, inability to walk and death, according to FDA reports released under a Freedom of Information Act request. The FDA, however, says such data do not establish that the drug caused these effects.”</div>
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The FDA added a warning label to Paylean in 2002, noting that the drug could increase the incidence of “downers.”</div>
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The petition, filed by the Center for Food Safety and the Animal Legal Defense Fund, asks the FDA to immediately review the Codex standards and meet them or set “more health- and welfare-based standards.” - Helena Bottemiller, Food Safety News</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-73139619617610714252013-02-05T12:47:00.000-05:002013-02-05T12:52:14.209-05:00Is More Work Needed In The Organic vs Conventional Nutrition Debate?<div style="text-align: center;">
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0.30 mg of<b> zinc</b> in 100 g of organic <b>cabbage</b> compared to 0.25 mg in an equal amount of conventional cabbage, both grown in the summer of 1986. - Nutritional Quality of Organic Versus Conventional</div>
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<b>Ascorbic</b> and <b>citric acids</b> were higher in organic than conventional peaches, whereas <b>α-tocopherol</b> was increased in organic <b>pears</b>. - Modulation of Antioxidant Compounds in Organic vs Conventional Fruit </div>
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Total polyphenols content was higher in conventional <b>plums</b>. <b>Quercetin</b> was higher in conventional plums, but <b>myrecitin</b> and <b>kaempferol</b> were higher in organic plums. - Nutrients and Antioxidant Molecules in Yellow Plums (Prunus domestica L.) from Conventional and Organic Productions: A Comparative Study</div>
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When results were expressed as fresh matter, organic <b>tomatoes</b> had higher <b>vitamin C</b>, <b>carotenoids</b>, and polyphenol contents (except for chlorogenic acid) than conventional tomatoes. When results were expressed as dry matter, no significant difference was found for lycopene and naringenin. In tomato purees, no difference in carotenoid content was found between the two modes of culture, whereas the concentrations of vitamin C and polyphenols remained higher in purees made out of organic tomatoes. - Influence of Organic versus Conventional Agricultural Practice on the Antioxidant Microconstituent Content of Tomatoes and Derived Purees; Consequences on Antioxidant Plasma Status in Humans</div>
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Organic <b>tomato</b> fruits contained more <b>dry matter</b>, <b>total and reducing sugars</b>, <b>vitamin C</b>, <b>total flavones and beta-carotene</b>, but less lycopene in comparison to conventionally grown tomatoes. - Comparison of the Nutritive Quality of Tomato Fruits from Organic and Conventional Production in Poland</div>
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Organic fruits tend to have higher <b>hydrolysable polyphenol</b> contents than conventional ones, with values being 11.5% in <b>orange peels</b>, to 72.6% in <b>papaya peels</b>, higher for hydrolysable polyphenols. Fruit peels also showed higher concentration of polyphenols than pulp, reaching, for <b>bananas</b> and <b>tangerines</b>, twice the amount found in pulps, which reflected in higher antioxidant capacity. - Polyphenol content and antioxidant capacity in organic and conventional plant foods</div>
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<b>Blueberry</b> fruit grown from organic culture yielded significantly <b>higher sugars (fructose and glucose)</b>, <b>malic acid, total phenolics, total anthocyanins, and antioxidant activity</b> (ORAC) than fruit from the conventional culture. Organic culture also produced fruit with higher contents of <b>myriceti </b><b>3-arabinoside, quercetin 3-glucoside, delphinidin 3-galactoside, delphinidin 3-glucoside, delphinidin</b></div>
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<b>3-arabinoside, petunidin 3-galactoside, petunidin 3-glucoside, and malvidin 3-arabinoside</b> than</div>
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conventional culture. - Fruit Quality, Antioxidant Capacity, and Flavonoid Content of Organically and Conventionally Grown Blueberries</div>
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Overall, the results show that organic management and fertilization have a positive effect on the accumulation of certain beneficial <b>minerals and phenolic compounds</b> in <b>eggplant</b> and that organically and conventionally produced eggplants might be distinguished according to their composition profiles. - Effects of Organic and Conventional Cultivation Methods on Composition of Eggplant Fruits</div>
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Organic <b>oranges</b> had significantly <b>higher total phenolics, total anthocyanins and ascorbic acid</b> levels than the corresponding non–organic oranges (all p < 0.05). Moreover, the organic orange extracts had a higher total antioxidant activity than non–organic orange extracts (p < 0.05). In addition, our results indicate that red oranges have a strong capacity of inhibiting the production of conjugated diene containing lipids and free radicals in rat cardiomyocytes and differentiated Caco–2 cells, respectively. Statistically higher levels of <b>antioxidant activity</b> in both cell models were found in organically grown oranges as compared to those produced by integrated agriculture practice. Our results clearly show that organic red oranges have a higher <b>phytochemical content (i. e., phenolics, anthocyanins and ascorbic acid), total antioxidant activity and bioactivity</b> than integrated <b>red oranges</b>. Further studies are needed to confirm whether the organic agriculture practice is likely to increase the antioxidant activity of other varieties of fruits and vegetables. - Antioxidant effectiveness of organically and non-organically grown red oranges in cell culture systems </div>
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In studies that satisfied the screening criteria, the absolute levels of <b>micronutrients</b> were higher in organic foods more often than in conventional foods (462 vs 364 comparisons, P = 0.002), and the total micronutrient content, expressed as a percent difference, was higher in organic (+ 5.7%, P < 0.001) as compared to conventionally grown produce. - Evaluation of the Micronutrient Composition of Plant Foods Produced by Organic and Conventional Agricultural Methods<br />
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The two production systems resulted in different morphological attributes since organic <b>kiwifruits</b> exhibited a <b>larger total and columella area, smaller flesh area, more spherical shape, and thicker skin</b> compared to conventional kiwifruits. All the <b>main mineral constituents</b> were more concentrated in organic kiwifruits, which also had higher levels of <b>ascorbic acid and total phenol content</b>, resulting in a higher antioxidant activity. Sugars and organic acids composition was not affected by the production system. - A comparative study of composition and post harvest performance of organically and conventionally grown kiwifruits<br />
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In a study of five vegetables common in the Japanese diet, Ren et al. demonstrated that organically grown <b>spinach</b> contained <b>120 percent higher antioxidant activity</b> while <b>Welsh onion, Chinese cabbage and qing-gen-cai</b> contained <b>20-50 percent higher antioxidant activity</b> compared to their conventionally grown counterparts. - Antioxidative and antimicrobial activities and flavonoid contents of organically cultivated vegetables<br />
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In our own studies, we have found consistently higher levels of <b>total phenolics and ascorbic acid</b> in organic <b>strawberries, marionberries and sweet corn</b>. - Comparison of the total phenolic and ascorbic acid content of freeze-dried and air-dried marionberry, strawberry, and corn grown using conventional, organic, and sustainable agricultural practices.<br />
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Results from the study showed inconsistent pattern with respect to <b>vitamin C, calcium and potassium</b> contents in the conventionally and organically grown samples. No significant differences were observed in vitamin C content in conventionally and organically grown <b>cabbage, carrots and Cos lettuce</b> while significant differences were observed in <b>Valencia oranges</b> which showed higher vitamin C content in organic Valencia oranges as compared to conventional ones (51.8 to 43.4 mg/100 g fresh weight). Results on calcium and potassium contents showed significant differences in all the samples with the trend of higher values for organically grown cabbage, carrots and Cos lettuce as opposed to their conventionally grown counterparts. However, for Valencia oranges, results showed that the calcium and potassium contents were significantly higher in conventional Valencia oranges compared to the organic Valencia orange (54.5 and 192.0 mg to 51.8 and 189.5 mg/100 g, respectively). - Determination and comparison of vitamin C, calcium and potassium in four selected conventionally and organically grown fruits and vegetables<br />
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Conventional <b>Grapefruit</b> was better colored and higher in lycopene, and the juice was less tart, lower in the bitter principle naringin, and better accepted by the consumer panel than the organic fruit. Organic fruit had a <b>commercially preferred thinner peel, and the juice was higher in ascorbic acid and sugars and lower in nitrate and the drug interactive furanocoumarins.</b> - Organic vs Conventionally Grown Rio Red Whole Grapefruit and Juice: Comparison of Production Inputs, Market Quality, Consumer Acceptance, and Human Health-Bioactive Compounds<br />
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The results obtained showed that organic <b>carrots</b> contained significantly more <b>dry matter, vitamin C, phenolic acids and carotenoids</b> in comparison to the conventional ones. - The content of bioactive compounds in carrots from organic and conventional production in the context of health prevention<br />
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. Comparisons of analyses of archived samples from conventional and organic production systems demonstrated statistically higher levels (P < 0.05) of <b>quercetin and kaempferol aglycones</b> in organic <b>tomatoes</b>. Ten-year mean levels of quercetin and kaempferol in organic tomatoes [115.5 and 63.3 mg g-1 of dry matter (DM)] were 79 and 97% higher than those in conventional tomatoes (64.6 and 32.06 mg g-1 of DM), respectively. The levels of flavonoids increased over time in samples from organic treatments, whereas the levels of flavonoids did not vary significantly in conventional treatments. - Ten-Year Comparison of the Influence of Organic and Conventional Crop Management Practices on the Content of Flavonoids in Tomatoes<br />
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The results indicated <b>lower nitrate content and higher vitamin C and chlorogenic acid</b> content to be the parameters most consistently differentiating organically from conventionally produced <b>potatoes</b>. Elevated concentrations of <b>glycoalkaloids </b>were also observed throughout the experiments in some potato varieties grown in organic farming systems. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the analytical and other data using three PCs confirmed a good separation between the organically and conventionally produced potatoes when studied in single crop years. However, score-plots (objects) and loading-plots (variables) of pooled results from the consecutive harvests showed that between the years’ changes and also variety as well as geographical variations are equally or more important factors determining the quality of potatoes than the farming system. - Quality of organically and conventionally grown potatoes: Four-year study of micronutrients, metals, secondary metabolites, enzymic browning and organoleptic properties<br />
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<b>More To Come...</b><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-23312924663730855812013-02-02T21:57:00.002-05:002013-02-02T21:57:34.826-05:00Are Insecticides Used On Costa Rican Banana Plantations Giving Children Diseases?<br />
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Children living near traditional plantations in Costa Rica are exposed to twice as much of the insecticide chlorpyrifos compared to children living near organic plantations, a study reports. More than half of the 140 studied children who were mostly indigenous Ngäbe and Bribri had higher daily exposures than what is considered safe by U.S. standards. Residential use of the pesticide, which has been linked to neurological effects in children, is banned in the United States, although it is still permitted on some crops. Costa Rica's banana and plantain plantations export products to U.S. and European markets.</div>
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Chlorpyrifos treated bags are widely used to protect banana and plantain crops from pests in Latin America and West Africa [Editor's Note: A reference to West African nations using chlorpyrifos was removed on 1/11/2013 because there is no documentation to support it], even in populated areas. The bags coated with the insecticide surround the developing fruit and reduce pest damage. The chemical also contaminates the local air and soil and is tracked by workers into homes.</div>
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Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate insecticide used to control mites on animals, to eradicate termites from buildings and to kill adult mosquitoes (CDC 2009). Although it was banned more than a decade ago for indoor pest-control and all residential uses in the United States due to health concerns, about 10 million pounds are still used on U.S. crops each year, including on corn, citrus trees, cotton and alfalfa (EPA 2002).</div>
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Chlorpyrifos is highly toxic to insects, amphibians and fish. In people, it overstimulates the nervous system and can cause nausea, dizziness and confusion in adults.</div>
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Pre-birth exposures have been linked to lower birth weights in some but not all studies (Perera et al. 2003, Eskenazi et al. 2004). Children exposed to chlorpyrifos in the womb also are more likely to have mental and motor development delays, higher rates of ADHD at age 3 (Rauh et al. 2006), and lower full scale IQs and working memories through age 7 (Rauh et al. 2011). These neurodevelopmental effects may be caused by potentially irreversible physical changes in children’s brains following exposure (Rauh et al. 2012).</div>
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Blue bags treated with cholorpyrifos (CPF) dot the banana and plantain plantations in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica, on the Caribbean coast southeast of San Jose. The area is home to indigenous Bribri and Ngäbe. To gauge children's exposures to the insecticide, researchers compared levels of TCPy – a metabolite and marker of chlorpyrifos exposure – in children from three villages. The banana and plantain villages were near plantations that use CPF-treated bags, while the organic village was near several plantations with little or no insecticide use. </div>
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Researchers measured TCPy levels in urine samples collected from 140 children aged 6 - 9 from the three villages. The urinary TCPy levels were then used to back-calculate how much CPF the children had absorbed on average per day. These absorbed daily doses (ADDs) were compared to a reference dose that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for long-term exposures in children. The reference dose is called the chronic population adjusted dose, or cPAD (EPA 2002). To assess environmental exposures, CPF levels also were measured in hand wash and foot wash samples collected from some of the children. Levels also were measured in soil, house dust, mattress dust, drinking water, surface water, and air samples collected from inside or near the children’s homes or near the local school.</div>
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On average, children in the banana and plantain villages had twice the TCPy levels in their urine with geometric means of 1.6 and 2.0 micrograms per liter (μg/L) compared to children from the organic banana village, who had an average of 0.8 μg/L. Boys living in the plantain plantation also had higher TCPy levels than girls, suggesting that boys spend more time working in the plantation or assisting with other tasks associated with CPF exposure.</div>
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Alarmingly, the TCPy levels in urine suggested that more than half of the kids from all three villages exceeded the daily CPF reference dose considered safe by U.S. standards of 0.03 μg/kg/day for chronic exposures in children (EPA 2002). On average, children from the banana and plantain villages absorbed 3 times the reference dose, and those from the organic village absorbed 1.5 times the reference dose. The reference level was exceeded in 97 percent, 82 percent and 68 percent of the individual urine samples from the banana, plantain and organic village children, respectively. </div>
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The kids’ environment also was widely contaminated with CPF. In general, the banana village children had more contaminated home environments than the plantain village children. CPF levels in the hand- and foot-wash samples from the banana village also were 3 times higher than in the plantain village. Children from the banana village lived only 16 - 87 yards from the plantation and played in the schoolyard right next to the banana fields. The lower environmental exposures in the plantain village children may be because they lived farther away, a little over a mile from the plantation.</div>
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<b>What Does It Mean?</b></div>
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Pesticide exposures higher than recommended by U.S. standards are seen in children who live near plantations in Costa Rica that use insecticides when compared to children near organically farmed plantations. The findings raise concerns about long-term health effects on the youngsters.</div>
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The children living in two villages near banana and plantain plantations that use CPF-treated bags had higher exposures than children from a third village with mainly organic fruit production. Alarmingly, more than half of the studied children from all three villages also had calculated daily exposures that are considered unsafe according to U.S. standards.</div>
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The findings suggest that CPF-treated bags contribute to chlorpyrifos exposures in local Costa Rican children at levels that may affect their health. Although health effects were not measured directly in the children, previous studies link pre-birth CPF exposures to lower IQ, impaired memory, mental and motor development delays and higher rates of ADHD in children (Rauh et al. 2006, Rauh et al. 2011).</div>
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Prior to the 2001 regulatory changes in the United States, TCPy levels in U.S. children were even higher than in the Costa Rican children in the current study. These levels are partly why the U.S. CPF regs went into effect to prevent the use of CPF on various fruits. That year in the United States, CPF was banned for indoor pest-control use, and its use on tomatoes was stopped. Earlier in 2001, CPF was restricted for use on apples and grapes (EPA 2002). </div>
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U.S. health studies conducted around the same time reported that mean TCPy levels in 6- to 11-year-olds were 2.9 μg/L in 1999 - 2000 and 2.7 μg/L in 2001 - 2002 (CDC 2009). These levels were 35 - 81 percent higher than those found in the Costa Rican children from the two CPF-exposed villages. Although CPF exposures have likely decreased in U.S. children since 2001, more recent national health study data to confirm this trend have not yet been published. </div>
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Children of U.S. farm workers may have had even higher CPF exposures than the Costa Rican kids. A 2000 - 2001 study found TCPy mean level of 7.6 μg/L in farm kids from North Carolina and Minnesota whose fathers applied CPF (Alexander et al. 2006). The levels are 4 - 5 times higher when compared to the children from the Costa Rican study. In 2004, the TCPy mean level of 1.9 μg/L measured in 1- to 6-year-old farm worker children from North Carolina were more similar to Costa Rican children's levels (Arcury et al. 2007).</div>
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In addition to concerns about CPF exposure, conventional banana production is rife with other health and environmental concerns. According to BananaLink, a U.K.-based advocacy group, banana workers can work up to 10 - 12 hours a day in blistering heat, without access to clean drinking water or protective equipment to help reduce exposures to agrochemicals. Many workers also do not earn a living wage.</div>
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The banana industry uses more agrochemicals than any other industry except for cotton. Pesticides are heavily used to meet consumer demand for perfect, unblemished fruit and because bananas which are mostly grown in large monocultures are highly prone to pests and disease. Pesticides and fertilizers pollute local waterways and can have devastating effects on ecosystems as well as worker health. Deforestation to plant more bananas also can destroy entire ecosystems.</div>
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New ways to reduce the need for pesticides and other agrochemicals on banana crops are being developed. Options include planting several varieties of bananas and rotating crops to lessen the chance of pest infestation, using pheromone traps to lure away pests, digging trenches around the banana plants and removing diseased plants by hand to reduce the spread of infestations and disease, and boosting the soil with organic matter and beneficial organisms to strengthen plants and improve soil health (ENDURE 2010).</div>
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These and other interventions to reduce CPF exposures in the banana and plantain plantations may ultimately help to protect environmental health, as well as the health of the plantation workers and their children. - Glenys Webster, Wendy Hessler, Environmental Health News </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-24689234702322181502013-02-02T21:21:00.003-05:002013-02-02T21:21:54.323-05:00How Much Land Is Used Globally For Certified Organic Farming?<br />
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Despite the growing worldwide demand for organic food, clothing and other products, the area of land certified as organic still makes up just 0.9 of a percent of global agricultural land. In 2010, the latest year for which data are available, 91.39 million acres of land were organically farmed, an area that has grown more than threefold since 1999.</div>
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There is large regional variation in the area of land farmed organically. Oceania, which includes Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Island nations, leads the world in certified organic land, with 29.9 million acres in 2010.</div>
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In contrast, North America had 6.42 million acres of organic land, and Africa had just more than 2.47 million acres. Reliable data are lacking for land that is farmed using organic principles but that is not certified organic. Many farmers, particularly subsistence farmers or those selling to local markets, farm organically but do not acquire organic certification.</div>
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Certified organic products have created a niche market in recent decades, allowing farmers to earn premium prices over conventional products, particularly when selling to supermarkets or restaurants. The countries with the most certified organic producers in 2010 were India (400,551 farmers), Uganda (188,625), and Mexico (128,826), while the region that added the most organic farmland between 2009 and 2010 was Europe.</div>
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Overall, the amount of organically farmed land worldwide dropped slightly, by 0.1 of a percent, between 2009 and 2010 due largely to a decrease in organic land in India and China. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements defines organic agriculture is a production system that relies on ecological processes, such as waste recycling, rather than the use of synthetic inputs, such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides.</div>
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The Benefits:</div>
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<li>Organic farming can require up to 50 percent less fossil-fuel energy than conventional farming and boost on-farm biodiversity by an average of 30 percent;</li>
<li>It can help soil retain water and nutrients, improving resilience to drought and other harsh weather patterns; and</li>
<li>It reduces human exposure to chemicals or toxic residues, which have been linked to a variety of illnesses.</li>
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Organic land can return higher yields than land farmed conventionally, particularly when the land has been farmed organically for several years running. The modern organic farming movement emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, largely as a reaction to consumer concerns about the rising use of agrochemicals.</div>
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The period after World War II and through the 1950s is commonly known as the “golden age of pesticides.”</div>
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But, as the health and ecological impacts of agrochemicals began to be understood, governments started to regulate their use and consumers began demanding organically certified foods. Producing food sustainably, which includes farming without chemicals whenever possible, will be as important as ever in the coming decades, as the global population continues to grow and as climate change affects land quality worldwide.</div>
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Organic farming has the potential to contribute to sustainable food security by improving nutrition intake and supporting livelihoods in rural areas, while simultaneously enhancing biodiversity and reducing vulnerability to climate change. - Laura Reynolds, Iowa Farmer Today </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-63111630346982625992013-02-02T21:06:00.002-05:002013-02-02T21:06:59.998-05:00Will The USDA Help Organic Cotton Farmers Effected By The Drought?<br />
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The sweeping, unrelenting drought across US farmlands has also impacted organic cotton growers, but for the first time, farmers are able to get the full cash value back for lost crops. </div>
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The US Agriculture Department, which has long resisted to pay organic growers more because of the higher value of their crops, received crop insurance payments 40% greater than conventional cotton farmers in 2011. </div>
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While farmers planted 36% more acres of organic cotton that year, the harvest plunged because of scathing drought. Acreage devoted to this crop in the US is quite limited out of the 16,050 acres planted in 2011, just 6,151 were harvested. Organic growers received higher payments if they bought "multi-peril" crop insurance, which costs 5% more. </div>
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For example, if conventional cotton sold for $.93 per pound, an organic farmer received $1.30 per pound for lost crops. A survey of organic cotton growers shows they received $1.50 per pound for organic upland cotton, and as much as $3 a pound for organic pima cotton, about the same as U.S. organic cotton prices for the past several years. Along with cotton, organic corn soybeans and organic processing tomatoes were eligible for higher prices in 2011.</div>
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One of the barriers of farming organic cotton in the US is the increasing difficulty of sourcing organic cotton seed. Genetically modified (GMO) seeds dominate the market, and as major seed companies have acquired smaller ones they discontinue their organic offerings. Organic farmers save seeds from year to year, but much of that stock was lost to the drought. </div>
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"Although it may still be possible to source organic or at least untreated seeds, unfortunately little corporate or federally funded research has been conducted to improve the drought resistance, or other key performance measures, of these seed varieties. That said, it is worth noting that there are a few dedicated researchers, such as Texas A&M's Jane Dever, Ph. D., who continue to make strides in the realm of cotton breeding," says the Organic Trade Association.</div>
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Also, some of the programs organic farmers rely on were eliminated or cut as part of the "fiscal cliff" deal. Drought in the Southern Plains continued into 2012, but the toll wasn't as extreme for cotton. Farmers planted organic cotton on 14,481 acres final harvest numbers are not yet available. </div>
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Organic cotton is more often grown in other parts of the world, with over 800,000 acres in 2011. It's growing fastest in India, followed by Syria, China, Turkey, the US, Tanzania, Egypt, Mali, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Pakistan, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Benin, Paraguay, Israel, Tajikistan, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Senegal. - Sustainable Business </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-35327845376332444632013-01-21T20:57:00.003-05:002013-01-21T21:01:37.986-05:00What Are Some Of The Chemical Food Additives That Are Legal In The U.S. And Illegal In Other Countries?<br />
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Here is a look at a few of the more controversial and widely used American food additives that are banned elsewhere.</div>
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<b><u>Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO)</u></b></div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">What is it?</u>: A stabilizer and emulsifier used to prevent separation of citric oils from the drink they are flavoring.</div>
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<b><u>Where it's found</u></b>: Many citrus-flavored soft drinks, including Gatorade, Mountain Dew, Squirt and Fanta.</div>
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<b><u>Not eligible for use in</u></b>: European Union, India and Japan.</div>
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<b><u>Concerns</u></b>: A 2011 article in Scientific American noted that a few patients who binged on soda "have needed medical attention for skin lesions, memory loss and nerve disorders, all symptoms of overexposure to bromine." The story also reported that "other studies suggest that BVO could be building up in human tissues. … In mouse studies, big doses caused reproductive and behavioral problems."</div>
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The FDA says: "Interim" use at up to 15 parts per million has been permitted since the 1970s, "pending the outcome of additional toxicological studies." The FDA will not say if those tests were ever performed. Asked about the long-standing interim status, the agency said, "FDA prioritizes its rulemaking in a risk-based manner to maximize its resources to protect public health."</div>
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Gatorade says: "We take consumer safety and product integrity seriously, and we can assure you that Gatorade is safe. As standard practice we constantly evaluate our formulas and ingredients to ensure they comply with federal regulations and meet the high quality standards our consumers and athletes expect."</div>
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<u><b>Potassium Bromate (Bromated Flour)</b></u></div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">What is it</u>: An oxidizing agent that enhances the performance of flour, making the dough stronger and rise faster. Also often used in permanent wave solutions.</div>
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<b><u>Where it's found</u></b>: The American Bakers Association said most members have stopped using potassium bromate, but it still is found in some bread products. New York Flatbreads is one brand that lists bromated flour as an ingredient.</div>
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<b><u>Not eligible for use in</u></b>: Canada, the United Kingdom and China, among other countries.</div>
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<b><u>Concerns</u></b>: "Although adverse effects are not evident in animals fed bread-based diets made from flour treated with KBrO3, the agent is carcinogenic in rats and nephrotoxic (toxic to the kidneys) in both man and experimental animals when given orally," scientists wrote in Environmental Health Perspectives in 1990. </div>
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Bromate is considered a probable carcinogen by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. It is classified as a carcinogen in California.</div>
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The FDA says: The agency has encouraged manufacturers to stop using bromated flour but has not banned it. "Provided industry is complying with good manufacturing practices, residual bromate does not pose a public health hazard," said Dennis Keefe, director of the FDA's Office of Food Additive Safety. "Furthermore, recent label surveys indicate that the ingredient is no longer widely used by the baking industry."</div>
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The industry says: Companies that use bromated flour list it among the ingredients and use it according to FDA guidelines that theoretically leave less than 20 parts per billion in the finished product.</div>
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<u><b>Azodicarbonamide</b></u></div>
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<b><u>What is it</u></b>: Food uses include bleaching, aging and improving flour. Also often used in foamed plastics.</div>
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<b><u>Where it's found</u></b>: Some brands of soft, white sandwich bread and many fast-food burger buns, including those at McDonald's and Burger King.</div>
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<b><u>Not eligible for use in</u></b>: Australia and Europe. In Singapore, use can result in up to 15 years imprisonment and a fine of $450,000.</div>
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<b><u>Concerns</u></b>: The United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive said "the effects of exposure to azodicarbonamide in humans have not been fully evaluated, although evidence for respiratory sensitisation has been found in bronchial challenge studies and workplace health evaluations." The chemical also can break down to form semicarbazide (SEM), considered a carcinogen in mice.</div>
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The FDA says: The agency has "found concentrations of SEM in a limited survey of domestic bread and bakery products … indicative of azocarbonamide concentrations in excess of the 45 ppm regulatory limit in flour." The agency "has contacted the baking industry to identify production changes aimed at reducing SEM levels and potential consumer exposure and has recently initiated another survey of bread and bakery products."</div>
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McDonald's says: Azodicarbonamide "is used by McDonald's bakery suppliers in the United States, Canada and Latin America to help make the quality of their bread more consistent within each and every batch. ... All of our food ingredients in the U.S. comply with federal food laws."</div>
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<b><u>Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA), Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT)</u></b></div>
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<b><u>What are they</u></b>: Antioxidants used to slow the spoilage of certain fats and oils in food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products.</div>
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<b><u>Where they are found</u></b>: Processed butters, meats, cereals, chewing gum, baked goods, vitamins, dehydrated potatoes and beer, according to the National Institutes of Health.</div>
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<b><u>Not eligible for use in</u></b>: European cosmetics.</div>
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<b><u>Concerns</u></b>: The National Institutes of Health said that although studies show BHA can induce cancer in rats, existing scientific literature is "inadequate to evaluate the relationship between human cancer and the exposure specifically to BHA." California classifies BHA as a carcinogen. The FDA noted that a 2000 study found consumption of BHA and BHT does not increase people's risk of stomach cancer and may actually reduce it. The National Institutes of Health also says BHT is linked to liver enlargement.</div>
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FDA's position: The agency's select committee on food additives called in the 1970s for research on potential health risks. The agency did not respond to questions about whether studies were ever conducted.</div>
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Food manufacturer Kellogg says: "BHT is a common preservative, approved by the Food and Drug Administration," spokeswoman Kris Charles wrote. "Only the smallest amounts necessary are added to either the package liner or the food itself to preserve flavor and freshness of our products." - Chicago Tribune</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-55302447997028054442013-01-21T20:30:00.001-05:002013-01-21T20:30:14.408-05:00Have UCLA Researchers Found A Link Between Pesticides And Parkinson's Disease?<br />
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For several years, neurologists at UCLA have been building a case that a link exists between pesticides and Parkinson's disease. To date, paraquat, maneb and ziram are common chemicals sprayed in California's Central Valley and elsewhere have been tied to increases in the disease, not only among farmworkers but in individuals who simply lived or worked near fields and likely inhaled drifting particles.</div>
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Now, UCLA researchers have discovered a link between Parkinson's and another pesticide, benomyl, whose toxicological effects still linger some 10 years after the chemical was banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.</div>
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Even more significantly, the research suggests that the damaging series of events set in motion by benomyl may also occur in people with Parkinson's disease who were never exposed to the pesticide, according to Jeff Bronstein, senior author of the study and a professor of neurology at UCLA, and his colleagues.</div>
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Benomyl exposure, they say, starts a cascade of cellular events that may lead to Parkinson's. The pesticide prevents an enzyme called ALDH (aldehyde dehydrogenase) from keeping a lid on DOPAL, a toxin that naturally occurs in the brain. When left unchecked by ALDH, DOPAL accumulates, damages neurons and increases an individual's risk of developing Parkinson's.</div>
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The investigators believe their findings concerning benomyl may be generalized to all Parkinson's patients. Developing new drugs to protect ALDH activity, they say, may eventually help slow the progression of the disease, whether or not an individual has been exposed to pesticides. The research is published in the current online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.</div>
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Parkinson's disease is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions worldwide. Its symptoms including tremor, rigidity, and slowed movements and speech increase with the progressive degeneration of neurons, primarily in a part of the mid-brain called the substantia nigra. This area normally produces dopamine, a neurotransmitter that allows cells to communicate, and damage to the mid-brain has been linked to the disease. Usually, by the time Parkinson's symptoms manifest themselves, more than half of these neurons, known as dopaminergic neurons, have already been lost.</div>
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While researchers have identified certain genetic variations that cause an inherited form of Parkinson's, only a small fraction of the disease can be blamed on genes, said the study's first author, Arthur G. Fitzmaurice, a postdoctoral scholar in Bronstein's laboratory.</div>
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"As a result, environmental factors almost certainly play an important role in this disorder," Fitzmaurice said. "Understanding the relevant mechanisms particularly what causes the selective loss of dopaminergic neurons may provide important clues to explain how the disease develops."</div>
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Benomyl was widely used in the U.S. for three decades until toxicological evidence revealed it could potentially lead to liver tumors, brain malformations, reproductive effects and carcinogenesis. It was banned in 2001. The researchers wanted to explore whether there was a relationship between benomyl and Parkinson's, which would demonstrate the possibility of long-lasting toxicological effects from pesticide use, even a decade after chronic exposure. But because a direct causal relationship between the pesticide and Parkinson's can't be established by testing humans, the investigators sought to determine if exposure in experimental models could duplicate some of the pathologic features of the disease.</div>
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They first tested the effects of benomyl in cell cultures and confirmed that the pesticide damaged or destroyed dopaminergic neurons. Next, they tested the pesticide in a zebrafish model of the disease. This freshwater fish is commonly used in research because it is easy to manipulate genetically, it develops rapidly and it is transparent, making the observation and measurement of biological processes much easier. By using a fluorescent dye and counting the neurons, the researchers discovered there was significant neuron loss in the fish but only to the dopaminergic neurons. The other neurons were left unaffected.</div>
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Until now, evidence had pointed to one particular culprit a protein called α-synuclein in the development of Parkinson's. This protein, common to all Parkinson's patients, is thought to create a pathway to the disease when it binds together in "clumps" and becomes toxic, killing the brain's neurons. (See UCLA research using "molecular tweezers" to break up these toxic aggregations.) The identification of ALDH activity now gives researchers another target to focus on in trying to stop this disease.</div>
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"We've known that in animal models and cell cultures, agricultural pesticides trigger a neurodegenerative process that leads to Parkinson's," said Bronstein, who directs the UCLA Movement Disorders Program. "And epidemiologic studies have consistently shown the disease occurs at high rates among farmers and in rural populations. Our work reinforces the hypothesis that pesticides may be partially responsible, and the discovery of this new pathway may be a new avenue for developing therapeutic drugs."</div>
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Other authors of the study included Lisa Barnhill, Hoa A. Lam, Aaron Lulla, Nigel T. Maidment, Niall P. Murphy, Kelley C. O'Donnell, Shannon L. Rhodes, Beate Ritz, Alvaro Sagastig and Mark C. Stahl, all of UCLA; John E. Casida of UC Berkeley; and Myles Cockburn of the University of Southern California. The authors declare no conflict of interest.</div>
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This work was funded in part by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grants P01ES016732, R01ES010544, 5R21ES16446-2 and U54ES012078; National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke grant NS038367; the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System (Southwest Parkinson's Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Center); the Michael J. Fox Foundation; the Levine Foundation; and the Parkinson Alliance. - Mark Wheeler, UCLA Newsroom</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03969287797762715378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226363173957292463.post-86250239609884474942013-01-16T23:05:00.000-05:002013-01-17T23:41:48.769-05:00What Are Some Of The Health Effects That May Occur Due To Pesticide Exposure?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><u>Neurodevelopmental Damage?</u></b></div>
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Recent studies show that young children can be exposed to pesticides during normal oral exploration of their environment and their level of dermal contact with floors and other surfaces. Children living in agricultural areas may be exposed to higher pesticide levels than other children because of pesticides tracked into their homes by household members, by pesticide drift, by breast milk from their farm worker mother, or by playing in nearby fields. Nevertheless, few studies have assessed the extent of children's pesticide exposure, and no studies have examined whether there are adverse health effects of chronic exposure. There is substantial toxicologic evidence that repeated low-level exposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides may affect neurodevelopment and growth in developing animals. For example, animal studies have reported neurobehavorial effects such as impairment on maze performance, locomotion, and balance in neonates exposed (italic)in utero(/italic) and during early postnatal life. Possible mechanisms for these effects include inhibition of brain acetylcholinesterase, downregulation of muscarinic receptors, decreased brain DNA synthesis, and reduced brain weight in offspring. Research findings also suggest that it is biologically plausible that OP exposure may be related to respiratory disease in children through dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system. The University of California Berkeley Center for Children's Environmental Health Research is working to build a community-university partnership to study the environmental health of rural children. This Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas, or CHAMACOS in Monterey County, California, will assess (italic)in utero(/italic) and postnatal OP pesticide exposure and the relationship of exposure to neurodevelopment, growth, and symptoms of respiratory illness in children. The ultimate goal of the center is to translate research findings into a reduction of children's exposure to pesticides and other environmental agents, and thereby reduce the incidence of environmentally related disease. - B Eskenazi, A Bradman, and R Castorina, University of California</div>
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<b><u>Breast Cancer?</u></b></div>
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Epidemiologic evidence on the relationship between chemical pesticides and cancer is reviewed. In animal studies, many pesticides are carcinogenic, (e.g., organochlorines, creosote, and sulfallate) while others (notably, the organochlorines DDT, chlordane, and lindane) are tumor promoters. Some contaminants in commercial pesticide formulations also may pose a carcinogenic risk. In humans, arsenic compounds and insecticides used occupationally have been classified as carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Human data, however, are limited by the small number of studies that evaluate individual pesticides. Epidemiologic studies, although some-times contradictory, have linked phenoxy acid herbicides or contaminants in them with soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and malignant lymphoma; organochlorine insecticides are linked with STS, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), leukemia, and, less consistently, with cancers of the lung and breast; organophosphorous compounds are linked with NHL and leukemia; and triazine herbicides with ovarian cancer. Few, if any, of these associations can be considered established and causal. Hence, further epidemiologic studies are needed with detailed exposure assessment for individual pesticides, taking into consideration work practices, use of protective equipment, and other measures to reduce risk. - Jan Dich, Shelia Hoar Zahm, Annika Hanberg and Hans-Olov Adami, Cancer Causes & Controls </div>
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The authors examined the relation between 45 common agricultural pesticides and prostate cancer incidence in a prospective cohort study of 55,332 male pesticide applicators from Iowa and North Carolina with no prior history of prostate cancer. Data were collected by means of self-administered questionnaires completed at enrollment (1993–1997). Cancer incidence was determined through population-based cancer registries from enrollment through December 31, 1999. A prostate cancer standardized incidence ratio was computed for the cohort. Odds ratios were computed for individual pesticides and for pesticide use patterns identified by means of factor analysis. A prostate cancer standardized incidence ratio of 1.14 (95% confidence interval: 1.05, 1.24) was observed for the Agricultural Health Study cohort. Use of chlorinated pesticides among applicators over 50 years of age and methyl bromide use were significantly associated with prostate cancer risk. Several other pesticides showed a significantly increased risk of prostate cancer among study subjects with a family history of prostate cancer but not among those with no family history. Important family history-pesticide interactions were observed. - American Journal of Epidemiology </div>
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<b><u>Parkinson's Disease?</u></b></div>
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In the last two decades reports from different countries emerged associating pesticide and herbicide use with Parkinson's disease (PD). California growers use approximately 250 million pounds of pesticides annually, about a quarter of all pesticides used in the US. We employed a proportional odds mortality design to compare all cases of PD recorded as underlying (1984–1994) or associated causes (1984–1993) of death occurring in California with all deaths from ischaemic heart disease (ICD-9 410– 414) during the same period. Based on pesticide use report data we classified California counties into several pesticide use categories. Agricultural census data allowed us to create measures of percentage of land per county treated with pesticides. Employing logistic regression models we estimated the effect of pesticide use controlling for age, gender, race, birthplace, year of deaths, and education. Mortality from PD as the underlying cause of death was higher in agricultural pesticide-use counties than in non-use counties. A dose response was observed for insecticide use per county land treated when using 1982 agricultural census data, but not for amounts of restricted pesticides used or length of residency in a country prior to death. Our data show an increased PD mortality in California counties using agricultural pesticides. Unless all of our measures of county pesticide use are surrogates for other risk factors more prevalent in pesticide use counties, it seems important to target this prevalent exposure in rural California in future studies that use improved case finding mechanisms and collect pesticide exposure data for individuals. - School of Public Health, UCLA</div>
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Endocrine disrupting (ED) chemicals are compounds that alter the normal functioning of the endocrine system, potentially causing disease or deformity in organisms and their offspring. Pesticides are used widely to kill unwanted organisms in crops, public areas, homes and gardens and medicinally to kill parasites. Many are proven or suspected to be EDs. Ancient physiological similarities between different vertebrate groups suggest that disorders observed in wildlife may indicate risks to humans. This makes accurate risk assessment and effective legislation difficult. In this paper, the hazardous properties of pesticides which are known to have ED properties are reviewed in order to assess the implications for risk assessment. As well as data on sources of exposure in the United Kingdom (UK) an assessment of the evidence on the health effects of ED pesticides is also included. In total, 127 have been identified from the literature and their effects and modes of action are listed in this paper. Using the UK as a case study, the types and quantities of pesticides used, and their methods of application are assessed, along with their potential pathways to humans. In the UK reliable data are available only for agricultural use, so non-agricultural routes of pesticide exposure have been poorly quantified. The exposure of people resident in or visiting rural areas could also have been grossly under-estimated. Material links between ED pesticide use and specific illnesses or deformities are complicated by the multifactorial nature of disease, which can be affected by factors such as diet. Despite these difficulties, a large body of evidence has accumulated linking specific conditions to ED pesticides in wildlife and humans. A more precautionary approach to the use of ED pesticides, especially for non-essential purposes is proposed. - Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London</div>
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