¡Join the fight!
In Europe, the bee die-off that we call "colony collapse disorder" in the States is often referred to as "Varroa plus." That is, European scientists have embraced the idea that CCD is probably caused by several factors (Varroa plus pesticides, for example), the key symptom of which is the dreaded Varroa mite which has been pouncing on weakened bee colonies globally for over a decade.
Now the University of Florida is taking this same approach with a new study, one of the first of its kind, that will examine the compounded effect of multiple pesticides on bee colonies: Read more...
Surprise, surprise. Another new study links lawn and farming chemicals with Parkinson's Disease:
Individuals whose occupation involves contact with pesticides appear to have an increased risk of having Parkinson's disease, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Overall, the study found that those whose job involved using pesticides were 80% more likely to develop the condition, and three chemicals of the eight examined were particularly likely to elevate Parkinson's numbers. Read more...
A new lawyer has been retained by the six Nicaraguan men who say that Dole Food Company's pesticide-use rendered them sterile and whose case was thrown out earlier this year. From the LA Times:
Six Nicaraguan men who won a multimillion-dollar verdict in a 2007 jury trial against Dole Food Co. and other U.S. corporations are entitled to the money despite a Los Angeles judge's ruling that cast doubt on the merits of their case, the men's attorney wrote in papers filed Thursday. Read more...
On July 14, Science Daily reported that a new study in Archives of Neurology has found a strong correlation between Parkinson's Disease and a particular pesticide: Read more...
A new foodumentary, Bananas! (trailer), has Dole Food Co.'s full attention. From the LA Times: Read more...
I'm swipin
g this whole cloth from a Minneapolis neighborhood association's e-newsletter, mainly because I appreciate the top headline as an argument for why farmers markets are so important in certain areas.
On March 20, Michelle Obama raised the stakes for locally-grown food by planting a vegetable garden on the White House lawn. Read more...
I'm going to haul this article out the next time I start complaining about the unfortunate rise of organics as a big business.
Pesticide cleanup takes 11 years, $3 million (Washington's Yakima Herald)
After 11 years and more than $3 million, regulators say they're done with one of the Lower Valley's largest environmental cleanup jobs. Read more...
For people who say the organic food and farming story has been told, or that the label has lost credibility, Harvesting Justice has a crucial reminder. Pointing to the spate of articles on organic and sustainable food coming out of the NYT, including one titled Is a Food Revolution Now in Season, blogger Barb Howe writes:
This is the part of the organic story that has not been told. And it's crucial to tell it, because farm work is tough work, and, heck, if we're going to talk about food revolutions, U.S. farm workers have been pushing for a real change in how food gets to our plates since the early-1960's, addressing pesticide poisoning among farmworkers and better working conditions for the people who harvest our food.
Indeed, US farmworkers have actually been telling a different part of the organic story for some time. It's just that many in the organic industry have not wanted to listen. Or carry that story forward.
Is "organic" over? Passe? Are you bored with the organic foods argument?
Is Fair Trade over with? Has the downturn in the economy killed premium-priced, social justice food movements?
If that's what you're thinking these days, then maybe it's time for a reality check....and a banana check.
Ah, NAFTA! What a wonderful web of malfeasance you've wrought. In your efforts to enhance "free trade" (one of the greatest examples of real-life newspeak there ever was), you've created a crowbar for multinationals to pop open markets against their will. Cool! Read more...
