HORMONALLY-ACTICE COMPOUNDS FOUND IN FOOD, WATER, & ENVIRONMENT

Hormonally-active compounds found in food, water, and the environment have been linked to endocrine related dysfunctions. Dangerous chemicals found in soy-based formulas (banned in the United Kingdom) are known to cause altered ovarian differentiation and reproductive function. Herbicides (atrazine) are contributing to the demasculization of frogs, posing the question, "Is the human race next?" Excessively high amounts of uranium in drinking water may mimic estrogen activity, leading to utrine and vaginal deformation. In overview, many endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have been and still are causing reproductive, metabolic and developmental disorders and cancers.
To read more go to; http://ww.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=229329&p=41
Louis B

pastured chickens raised on cocofeed

In West Bend WI. Amish farmers are selling chickens raised in a pasture to feed on grass, insects and suplimented with cocofeed. Cocofeed is an organic chicken-feed ration made primarily from the meat of coconuts. Chickens raised on cocofeed render fat and meat containing lauric acid, a fatty acid known to have many more health benefits than poultry raised on soy based feed. These farmers, primarily based in western WI. and Indiana also practice sustainable agriculture. They rotate tracts of land, When animals are raised on a piece of land one year that tract will be used for crop production for at least the next two years so the soil does not become contaminated by an excess of manure.
www.foodreference.com/html/chickenOroganic-80406.html

The Organic Debate, The GM Limit In Europe

Organic producers want the ammount of genetic modification allowed in organic foods reduced below the current .9% limit. They say that their customers are fully against any genetic modificationa and the trust between them and the customer would be undermined if foods with such levels are allowed. It has sparked a debate over practicality. All EU member state produced foods are now standardly below .9% GM content.

For the full story visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6331865.stm

Food From a Dumpster?

This video is about a group of people known as "Freegans" (a combination of the words free and vegan). They do their best to help reduce the amount of food waste in the world. Believe it or not there is a vast amount of food available from these places. Obviously this is not sustainable for everyone to do this, but as long as this food is being wasted why not make use of it. It is an atrocity that people starve while so much food is thrown away. I know many people are turned off by the idea of eating "garbage", but the fact is there is plenty of clean, perfectly edible food in the trash. Please watch this movie with an open mind.

http://www.current.tv/studio/media/2564356


-Jake

Food service sanitation environment

The main points of this article are how food is already fragile and the way food has been processed. The article also mentioned that the food processing industry has been very lightly regulated over the years. It also talks about how the food industry itself is making changes in various stages of its operations to best protect the customer.
http://www.restaurantreport.com/features/ft_sanitation.html

Posted by: Ryan Wilson

Culling the Herd

This article http://www.startribune.com/531/story/1014602.html touches on many of the themes we've discussed in class. Basically, the DNR is hiring sharpshooters to thin deer in an area where there's been an outbreak of bovine TB. This is being done to prevent the spread of the disease to both deer and cattle. Some interesting implications. The idea of decreasing a population to ameliorate an adverse enviromental condition is just what we were discussing in class, regarding human population and famine. It mentions in the article how unnatural deer feeding has led to inflated deer numbers, which only exacerbates disease transmission (and other) problems for deer, exactly as our telepathic gorilla friend warned with food production and human population. There are some interesting food implications, as well. The venison will be be vended and donated, and the culling will (hopefully) be a plus for cattle herds and for the state deer herd long term, as well. Although any time where we step in to play at environmental power concerns me somewhat, this may be a time when we can use our ability to destroy to good advantage, to bring deer populations down to carrying capacity and to go from a slow, wasting, chronic disease to more effective limiting factor.

Also, my browser (Safari) doesn't support blogger's nifty text formatting buttons, so I am unable to make the above link into, well, an actual link. If someone with editorial powers could do that, it'd rock.

Humans' beef with livestock

well if you guys think that were causing global warming your wrong. this article says that the cows in the world produce more CO2 then humans do in one day. This article also tells us how we the meat eaters also produce 1.5 tons CO2 then the vegetarians. Also today we consume 295 million tons per year, by 2050 they say we will eat about 465 million tons of meat. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0220/p03s01-ussc.html

Why do we need Pesticides?

Blog #2...
Pesticides are used to kill unwanted pests, and weeds, they can also harm people, wildlife and the environment. This is why there are strict controls in place over their sale and use. It is up to everyone who is involved with pesticides, whether they are farmers, professional growers or gardeners, to ensure that they are used safely and effectively.

Farmers and other food growers use the pesticides to protect crops from insect pests, weeds and fungal diseases, prevent rats, mice, flies and other insects from contaminating foods while they are being stored, and safeguard human health by stopping food crops being contaminated by fungi.

This article was interesting to me to help understand the main cause of pesticides and what exactly they are.

For the whole story you may click this link to read more...
http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/about_pesticides.asp?id=219

Dirty Meth

This is an article that i thought was very relivant to our nature pond study that we had last week. When jay was talking about drainage and run offs and someone made a comment about the fish and prozac it reminded me of this article i read a while ago. I will be the first to admit that i dont know much about the enviornment but now that im in this class i find myself thinking about it alot more so the things that i do know about im able to make comparisons with and its allowing me to see the long term effects that this stuff is making on the earth. most of us contribute to the pollutioning of the earth in so many ways that its dying right befor our eyes and were still in denail about it . They say that knowing is half the battle and this is just one of the many ways that we are harming the world and our children. The source of this article is the AFC news . Michael Edwards

Dirty Meth
KPIX-TV (San Francisco): 9/12/02KXTV-TV (Sacramento): 4/26/02

"Illegal and highly toxic meth labs are showing up in suburban California neighborhoods.
California accounts for 85-percent of total U.S. methamphetamine production. Once relegated to rural areas, meth labs are now showing up in more and more suburban areas, crossing economic and social boundaries. According to the Department of Toxic Substances Control, Contra Costa County has become a hotbed of meth production in Northern California, with more than one hundred labs seized each year since 1998. That adds up to a major environmental and health hazard."

To read the rest of the article, CLICK HERE