http://www.puristat.com/standardamericandiet/pesticides.asp?pid=2&campaignno=SAD&adgroup=pesticides&keywords=what+are+pesticides&OVRAW=Pesticides&OVKEY=pesticide&OVMTC=standard
Pesticides in the Food Chain

This article speakes mainly about the pervasiveness of pesticides. Throwing in cool facts like, two and a half million tons of industrial pestacides are used annually around the world, the majority of which end up in our food and water sources. Or the fact that when herbacides and pestacides were invented, 37% of our crops were being destroyed by pests, now, 57 years later that percentage has not been reduced, but actually has risen. If this is true, why are we putting the future of our planet at risk?

my environmntal news article 3/8/07

the article I found talks about how localy produce is a popular trend in the restaurant business. It is the second hottest trend on the national restaurants associations list of hot trends. The u.s department of agriculture says that the farmers markets have grown more than 110 percent since 1994. This is great news for our local farmers. Eating locally grown foods helps out our environment greatly. It has a positive chain reaction. The article also talks about how the american palate is now looking at what is grown locally in a sophisticated manner. More on this topic @ http://www.trnusa.com/tx/htm

Sustainable Growers School

The University of West Georgia has started a new program called the "Sustainable Growers School" and is strictly about growing and providing local sustainable food to your community. The program is teaching students everything from buying land to use of land and needed equipment to keep the land and enviroment healthy and doing all of this without waste of food or energy. This article came from http://attra.ncat.org/, which is a really good website dedicated to sustainable agriculture and has a variety of links and publications to inform the public. This article about Georgia came from their weekly newsletter.

They Eat What? Drugs and Chemicals.

Animals raised in humane conditions with appropriate space and food rarely require medical treatment. Animals at animal farms often receive antibiotics to help them grow faster and helps the reproduce which makes them over crowded, stressful, and keeps them in unsanitary living conditions. An estimated 13.5 million pounds of antibiotics—the same classes of antibiotics used in human medicine—are routinely added to animal feed or water. This routine, use of antibiotics speeds the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can infect humans as well as animals. Antibiotic treatment is a pressing public health problem that costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars each year.

Some of the antimicrobials are used to control parasites and promote growth in poultry contain arsenic, a known human carcinogen. Arsenic can be found in meat or can contaminate human water supplies through runoff from factory farms.

Olive Groves in England?

A farmer from Devon, England has planted 120 olive trees in hopes of taking advantage of the rising climate. Mark Diacono intends for his olives to be used for oil in five to seven years. Diacono, who believes that global warming is one of the greatest problems facing the planet, hopes that his farm will help reduce the amount of "food miles". I am not to sure how to feel about this one. It does seem to be a good way to make good of a bad situation.


-Jake

U.S. Food Imports Now Exceed Exports

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. importation of goods exceeded it's exportation of agricultural goods than it exported in June and August.

One of the fastest growing categories is imported food, and many Americans shoppers want the types of food they can't get in America. Some benefits from having more imported goods is that we have more variety of foods and many Supermarket executives in the 1990's learned about importing and turned to Chile, Argentina, and Mexico for their goods, especially during the winter season.

Sunkist Growers Inc. which is a citrus cooperative owned by growers in Caifornia and Arizona are making plans to import navel oranges from South Africa for sale under their brand name while oranges are out of season.
"We either provide consumers with what they want or we are out of the market," said Jeffrey Gargiulo, Sunkist chief executive.

The growing immigrant population has created a demand for imported foods also. General Mills Inc. is beginning to import frozen flatbreads, roti and naan from India.

Most of Pepsi-Cola sold in theU.S. is made with concentrate imported from places such as Ireland, because manufacturing costs are cheaper than in the U.S

There is a load of information on this site but these topics were quite interesting to me and I learned something today, yay!

Here is the site
http://organicconsumers.org/corp/exports111204.cfm

THE AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINERNovember 10, 2004, Issue #379Monitoring Corporate Agribusiness>From a Public Interest Perspective

Beef or People?

So, many medical groups, and the FDA itself, think that approving this super-antibiotic for mass use in cattle is a bad idea. Two guesses as to whether or not they will, though. The idea that the regulators' hands are bound by a document that the pharm companies love concerns me, especially considering that the potential consequences are so grave. The standard used to determine dangerousness is ludicrous... a direct link to human mortality must be shown, but by the time there's a direct link, THERE'S HUMAN MORTALITY. Moreover, mortality from antibiotic resistant bacteria won't stop at one. There's no herding that diseased cow back into the barn.

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1032620.html

my environmental news article

My article refers to restaurant recycling, which is very closely tied to environmental science. The article states that restaurants are doing much better at recycling than they used too. They are always looking for ways to reduce costs, and recycling is one of them. It refers mainly to a program started in San Fransisco in 2004. Eateries seperate food scraps for compost collection, ten farms and vineyards fertilize with soil amendment made from the table scraps. This is recycling at its best. More info @ https://www.norcalwaste.com/press/prrestaurantrecycling.htm

Foie Gras Ban Enforced

On feburary 17th a hot dog store owner in Chicago was handed a citation for the sale of foie gras-laced hotdogs. This is the first citing of the law, put into effect in August, which bans the sale of foie gras. He had posted ads that he was selling the product as well as posting a listing of ingredients to his products on his website (http://www.hotdougs.com/). He is facing a $250 to $500 fine if convicted. Many restaraunts have continued selling foie gras since the ban and state that they will continue to sell the product. Mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley, considers this ban the "silliest" ordinance city council has ever passed. Hot Doug's menu is rather amusing if you get a moment to check it out. The original article can be found at http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8NBNK181.htm?chan=search&CFID=4575545&CFTOKEN=68805947.