Food Inc! Ouch!
I do not like this very disturbing film
that will win an Academy Award Sunday Night
for best Documentary.
Date: 3/6/2010 5:34:16 AM ( 14 y ) ... viewed 2392 times
This Plant Your Dream Blog
is dedicated to Senator John McCain
and our President Barack Obama. One of the highlights
of my T.V. watching days was the event during the
presidential campaign of 2008 when the two appeared
at a charity event in New York and roasted each other.
The humor was tremendous. There is the spirit
of play I want to bring into the new Dialogue
on Science, Ethics, and Food that I launched
last week here on the Plant Your Dream Blog.
READ ABOUT THE ROAST
WITH SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN AND
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA.
I am launching this dialogue with the intent
of lessening the tension between GMO and ORGANIC LOVERS
and all the varieties of farmers who use CONVENTIONAL
METHODS of AGRICULTURE.
In our age of looking at food as a commodity
it is easy to forget how personal our relationship to food
gets. We cannot live without food. Our entire
world depends upon it for thriving.
We simple need to start talking more between us
about the way we are growing food, and how to feed
the world.
I do not claim to have all the answers, but
I want to be part of an intelligent and well intended
dialogue that aims to "Lettuce Grow Together."
Will you join me, please?
I need your your participation.
The following blog is tongue in cheek humor.
Some of the references may go over your head.
There is a lot to say. I will give references
at the bottom of the Blog, and add to them
so we can look at some of the issues closely
from many sides.
Feel free to ask if you do not understand
where I am coming from.
I was once given a U.N. Peace Medal for the
work I would do in my life. I deeply feel a calling
now to stand up and talk about this issues
as never before.
I remain,
Your Enchanted Gardener
Uncle Leslie*
Uncle Leslie, Your Enchanted Gardener,
at Fat Tuesday at the Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax.
I had a ball dancing. This was my original farmers market.
I was a teen here in 1962 and would visit every Friday.
______
* From a Tenth Grader
at Hamilton High School February 2010:
Dear Uncle,
Hey I enjoyed you yesterday.
The conversation was very interesting.
You're a really, funny guy in your own lite way.
You could be my long lost uncle I never had.
Hey, well come back and visit us. I would like that.
Love always,
Rae
______
"I’ve been waiting half my life to tell somebody about Leslie Goldman.
Always figured I’d wait for some desperate moment.
Now it’s here."-- Bob Baker, Los Angeles times Magazine
RESPONSE FROM MONSANTO COMPANY
ON THE ISSUES RAISED IN "FOOD INC."
"
Dr. Robert T. Fraley, Ph.D., the Father of
Agricultural Biotenchnololgy, Leslie, and Tami Craig
Schilling, head of Public Affairs for the Monsanto
company met at the recent American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2010 Conference
March 18-22, 2010 at the San Diego Cpnvention Center.
Getting to know each other is a beginning stage of
dialogue, I believe.
The idea for a Dialogue was inspired when I met
Dr. Robert T. Fraley. There is a lot of tension now between
GMO and Organic Lovers that I feel is not helping get to the
basic issues that need to be discussed.
Dr. Fraley said he liked where I was coming from.
"Let's close the gap," he wrote to me in a note.
We planted Seeds toward that intention in
a small sugar cane compost Friendly pot,
a gift from Anthony Russo, of the Biosmart Company,
and a Beet Keeper Sponsor. There are 30 or more
Plant Your Dream Blogs on the recent AAAS meeting
in San Diego.
The Beet Keepers function as a non-profit and aim
to help each person regain their beat with Nature through
planting beet seeds or repotting a fully growing beet
in a pot.
THE ROAST/TONGUE IN CHEEK HUMOR STARTS HERE!!!!!
THE ROAST/TONGUE IN CHEEK HUMOR STARTS HERE!!!!!
THE ROAST/TONGUE IN CHEEK HUMOR STARTS HERE!!!!!
WRITTEN
MARCH 5
two days before the 2010
ACADEMY AWARDS
I do not like "Food, Inc."
the film that I predicted would win the best documentary
award at the 2010 Academy Awards.
"The Cove," a documentary about Dolphins, was
the actualy winner.
I made the mistake of watching "Food Inc"
for the first time two nights before the Oscars,
according to the orders of Keep the Beet Media Star,
The World's First Talking Beet Plant,
the U.S. Czarina of Foods.
I have not slept a wink.
"Food Inc" is a highly disturbing film.
I do not like to see chickens get their heads cut off,
be they by Joe Salatin, of Polyface Farms,
who talks to people like Michael Pollan, the Locavore,
or the Factory Farm version of the commodity
grown behind dark hidden walls, as indicated in the film.
"Food, Inc" shows chickens that can hardly stand up.
Thank God for regularly dousing them with
antibiotics and ammonia, or they and we might all be
contaminated.
This film is enough to turn any
level-headed person into a vegetarian, or at least
send them seeking out their locavore pasture-fed
chicken raiser. We have two of those in our San Diego
neighborhood. One I know is Curtis Womack, who is currently out
of birds, and Hani Illian of Middle East Foods on El Cajon Blvd
here is San Diego. Hani who butchers his own,
says Hallel prayers over his pasture-fed, bug pecking
out of the cage birds. Hallal,
practiced by the Muslems,
is the equivalent of Kosher,
Hallal is kosher enough for me.
I am looking forward to the Natural Product Expo West
next week where I will likely be connecting
Gary Hirshfield of Stonyfield Yogurt, who in "Food Inc"
says many of his radical friends considered him a sellout
for cashing in for $23 Billion and expanding into Wal-mart.
Gary and I go way back. I have always
liked the man. He offered to print
"A Love Letter to Joe the Farmer," on his web site,
a document that expressed the love many people
feel for the G.I. Joe's of our age, the local organic farmers.
These men and women get up
at 5 A.M. to drive to the nearby Farmers' Market.
Some say they represent true earth-based homeland security
and Food Safety that Farmers' Market shoppers can count on.
FOOD SAFETY IN LOCAL
ORGANIC FOODS?
Food Safety in local organic foods?
I feel very suspicious of the motives
of a farmer who grows his own food,
eats it, and has gratitude for all his Community Supported
Agriculture Members (CSA) that keep him in business.
What is his real hidden agenda?
Is he out to provide food too healthy
for human consumption? This could be very
disruptive to the status quo where being normal
is America now requires being double dosed
by our foods as well as the drugs T.V.
tells us are O.K. to remedy eating so poorly.
What kind of health reform would local
organic farmers breed in America if they
were given free reign? I can hardly imagine.
S 510--THE FOOD SAFETY MODERIZATION
ACT--WILL BE COMING TO YOUR DOOR SOON
I am happy to hear that the Food Safety Moderization Act,
#s-510, is finally now being prepped
for public consumption by bloggers and others
in the press. I have too long waited to
see the show on the floor of the Senate.
The house of representatives passed its version
of #USBILL #2749 in less that 78 hours.
House of Rep Members did not have time
to read the lengthy bill before they voted for
the bill that will help define the way we approach food for decades.
It was described Nick Marivell,
one organic farmer who gave testimony July 16, as a speeding
train. Who would want to stand in the way of
Food Safety legislation, that by its very promise
will help decontaminate Big Ag, while at the same
time--as preordained--give a stunning punch to
our remaining local small farmers?
One article I just read in the Huffington Post,
quotes the Billions that will be saved through the passage
of US BILL #s-510. These Billions we will spend
will almost equal the cost it will take to micro-inspect
all the farms, big and little, of our nation.
#s-510 increases FDA regulatory powers
and takes our careful inspectors
to distant places no bonefide lover of Big Pharma
has every gone. Much of the FDA research
is not done themselves, reports tell me.
I am a bit dissapointed that the FDA
will not likely come personally to our local Farmers'
Market with the passage of this #s-510. They will just hire
more local inspectors stateside. This will certainly help
balance our near-bankrupt budget here in California.
Its auxiliary Green Leafy Guidelines rap
the knuckles of our local farmers who might prefer
in invest in the rather unhygienic and soul inspired
Bank of Compost. Why stick with natural methods
when you can go high tech and pave the way for
Biotech Ag?
For a long time now, I have been thinking that our local farmers
who work round the clock abiding by USDA Organic rules
and tons of paperwork, needed a little more regulating.
I understand my ally Arnold S up at our capital will
be passing a new law to extend the day from 24 to 36 hours
just so the local farmers do not have to go out of business
to keep up with the added record keeping stresses
after #s-510 passes.
I love this #s-510 bill. It moves into practice Food Rules
that will harmonize our Multi-national
think tanks--i.e, the Codex Alimentarius Commission--
from Europe, through Washington, down to the local level where
most of us have become too dependent on farm fresh
picked-that-morning non-contaminated food.
BACK TO GARY HIRSHFIELD...
The last time I talked to Gary Hirshfield,
Joe and I wanted to buy back the JR Organic Farm--
the Rodriguez Ranch land-- from the new
owners, who made their money in Biotech and
shop at Whole Foods Market. Joe and family lost the land when
bickering relations wanted their share of the earth that
still grows some of San Diego's freshest food.
I have a problem personally with Joe's eight kinds of lettuce
that he features each Sunday at the Hillcrest Farmers' Market
in San Diego and all the way up into Santa Monica.
There is just too much biodiversity to choose from!
I much prefer the uniformity that less choice has too offer.
Joe's lettuce is so undumbed down chemically free alive
that it is still growing by the time it is sold.
I find myself whispering around it, so as to not break
the news to it that it has been picked. I spend a lot of time
talking to Keep The Beet Media Star, the World's
First Talking Beet Plant. Feeling restrained from speaking
by a sexy looking lettuce is a bit much.
I will be asking Gary to offer up the "A Love Letter to Joe The Farmer"
document on the Stonyfield Site. He once offered to do that
to help Joe out.
People will click through, get a copy, and give $1.00.
Each $1.00 will likely go into a fund to buy 1000's of acres
of land here in San Diego County, a place that can grow food
12 months of the year. Likely, we will buy back Joe's land for him
and set him up as a school where he can prep new farmers. Joe
Rodriguez Jr planted that Seed Dream with me years ago.
Some of our local Food groups, such as the Roots Sustainable
Food Project, are fast moving into positions as a non-profit
where they could manage the millions that will likely come
their way.
Back to Gary selling out. I think this was a good move.
His yogurt is now in WalMart. According to what he says
in "Food Inc." the sale of Stonyfield increased its exposure.
A Walmart spokesperson says in "Food Inc" that they take their cues
by what people want.
Hirshfield reports in the film that Walmarts support
was the near death blow to the nifty Hormone additive
that gives cows the ability to give 25 or more
percent more milk. My FDA friend Michael Taylor
helped add in the additive when he worked for
Monsanto Company in the 80's. Hirshfield is one
of those kind of guys who believes that we determine
the vote our system of food in at th checkout register
through our choices.
Another Monsanto ally tells me that
there really isn't much difference between organic and preferred
brand of extra rich hormone fed milk, but all that kind of info will come up
for discussion as the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Food (DoSEF)
kicks off big here on the Plant Your Dream Blog.
I imagine Gary will be one of the $2000.00 a year contributors
to get that dialogue off the ground.
I am definitely a fan of Monsanto Company for their
amazing skill at masterminding a more standarized
organization for most of the Seeds in the world.
Why have millions of farmers messing around with
millions of varieties of seeds when we can have
one company owning all of them?
Monsanto Company was the Forbes Business of the year
for their skill in business. I am looking forward to speaking
at one of the upcoming BIO, Biotechnology Industry Organization
annual meetings. Keep the Beet Media Star, The World's
First Talking Beet Plant-- the U.S. Czarina of Foods--
plans to tell the many well-intended people of
BIO, why locally grown organic food may likely be the best
investment for feeding the world's poor--but that too
is up for discussion.
Stay Tuned...
I'll be reporting here live from the Natural Product Expo West
starting Wednesday March 10, my travel day.
A LOVE LETTER TO JOE THE FARMER
GET A COPY of this important poster
soon to be available. Share the words
with friends. Thank you.
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for his Angel activities in my life and in the world.
NEW SPONSORS
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and PROGRAM TO PUT IN A GARDEN AT
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RELATED ARTICLES oF NOTE
TO BE LOOKED AT IN THE DoSEF PLANT YOUR DREAM BLOGS
HOW DO GE FOODS, CONVENTIONAL, and ORGANIC
CO-EXIST I ASKED RAYNE PEGG OF THE USDA March 1.
SHE DID NOT KNOW, BUT SAID SHE WILL ASK THE FDA
and GET BACK TO ME. http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1584810
MR MICHAEL TAYLOR UPDATED US
ON CODEX ALIMENTARIUS IN HIS TESTIMONY
JULY 29
In addition, FDA is leading an effort
through the Codex Alimentarius Commission,
the international food safety standards body,
with support of the Food and Agriculture Organzation l
World Health Organization, to develop commodity- specific
annexes to the Codex hygienic code for fresh fruit
and vegetable production, starting with an annex
for fresh leafy vegetables and herbs. In June 2009,
FDA conducted the first Codex international elechonic
working group with members of the Codex Committee
on Food Hygiene (CCFÐ to advance the drafr Annex
for Fresh Leafy Vegetables to the next stage of completion.
In November 2009,
CCFH will consider how to proceed
with the next tier of priority commodities.
"Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives
passed H.R. 2749 -
The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009,
by a large margin. The bill was substantially amended
to reflect concerns from the Agriculture Committee,
but many issues raised by organic and sustainable farmers
went unaddressed, particularly: making sure standards
are compatible with the National Organic Program;
addressing conservation practices; and scale-appropriate standards
and fees. On the floor, Congressman John Dingell, principal sponsor,
agreed to address the organic standards and conservation practices
in the final bill. Action now moves to the Senate, where S 510 -
The Food Safety Modernization Act, will be the prime legislation.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
released draft guidance documents
for leafy greens, melons, and tomatoes on Thursday.
These are open for comment for 90 days.
MOFGA will organize a meeting to discuss them prior to submitting our comments.
There is a major emphasis on sanitizing washes
in the leafy green standards -- essentially recommending
dilute bleach to wash greens before selling them.
This is an example of standards that need to be scale-appropriate.
See amendments to H.R. 2749. See FDA guidelines.
S 510 is not available for viewing online at the moment.
We already have ample regulatory agencies
giving oversight to local farmers and producers.
Many say the problems are with industrial farming.
The Bill, that moves toward the Senate
where S-510 is called the Food Safety Moderization Act.
It will come up in September, after the August break. "
--Russell Libby,
Main Organic Farm and Gardening Association
TOTAL LIES AGAINST THE FDA, MY FAVORITE
AGENCY OF THE US GOVERNMENT....
...that using synthetic bovine growth hormone could lead to such health problems as premature puberty or even cancer. But the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) studied the issue before it approved RBST in 1993, when it reported that tests showed no significant difference between the milk from treated and untreated cows.
Several groups, including Consumers Union and the Center for Food Safety, say the tests did in fact reveal worrisome differences and that the FDA incorrectly interpreted the data. Activists campaigning against genetically modified (GM) food want the U.S. to ban RBST outright, as Europe and Canada have. As for Maine, "we would rather be safe than sorry," says assistant attorney general Francis Ackerman, who is preparing the state's brief to intervene on Oakhurst's behalf.
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Monday, July 13, 2009
Is it true that an organic farmer in CA
was asked to quarantine a part of his field
because a deer walked on the field?
Are there people suggesting that children under five in diapers
should be kept out of growing fields?
From the story...
"He has since ripped out such plants
in the name of food safety, because his big customers
demand sterile buffers around his crops.
No vegetation. No water. No wildlife of any kind. "
I was driving by a field where a squirrel fed off
the end of the field, and so 30 feet
in we had to destroy the crop," he said
. "On one field where a deer walked through,
didn't eat anything, just walked through
and you could see the tracks,
we had to take out 30 feet on each side
of the tracks and annihilate the crop.
" "They're used to working inside the factory walls,
" said Ken Kimes, owner of New Natives farms
in Aptos (Santa Cruz County)
and a board member
of the Community Alliance With Family Farmers,
a California group. "If they're not prepared
for the farm landscape, it can come as quite
a shock to them. Some of this stuff that they want,
you just can't actually do."
"Auditors have told Kimes
that no children younger than 5
can be allowed on his farm f
or fear of diapers. He has been asked
to issue identification badges to all visitors.
Not only do the rules conflict
with organic and environmental standards;
many are simply unscientific.
Surprisingly little is known about how E.
coli is transmitted from cow to table."
Taylor also determined that milk fro injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto,
he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies
ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH,
they should also include a disclaimer stating
that according to the FDA, there is no difference between
milk from treated and untreated cows.
Friday, July 24. 2009
LOCAL FOOD
Should Small, Sustainable Farms Fear S.510?
BY HELENA BOTTEMILLER | FEB 24, 2010
John Bailey
02/25/2010
1:03PM
Interesting Article. I can see both sides of this one but the small farmers are wise to be cautious. This regulation is just as much about power and control as it is about food safety.
And realistically, unless small producers are given explicit assurances on how they will be able to influence the development of traceability systems, the reality is that they will be too busy working on their farm to participate.
Giving away what little power they have left is not in the best interest of any small farmer. So any legislation should provide for a mechanism that protects and ensures small grower participation in the process by funding a number of well-respected groups (like the NSAC or Food Alliance) to represent their interests.
I find myself on the opposite side again
from Jill here.
I sense that part of the intent of the bill
is to weaken local agriculture.
Jill, is correct is saying that the need for
food safety is not a controverial issue.
The issue is how to achieve food safety.
Suppot for local, organic, and local fresh,
is the foundation of food safety This bill
has other aims, mainly to harmonize us
with binational notions of regulatatory
Food Rultes. Everything in Food Inc.
points to this.
THIS IS ONE OF THE CERTIFICATES
WE FILL OUT WHEN WE DO THE PLANT YOUR DREAM
WORK
What will you be celebating one year from now,
KEEP The BEET Media Star,
The World's First Talking Beet Plant wants to know??
There are approximately 23 Plant Your Dream Blogs
written between February 18-25 on my experience
at the 176th Annual meeting of AAAS This represents
approximately 60 hours of work. I have
20 more hours of debriefing and followup I would
like to do about the conference.
If you would like to be a sponsor
for these freelance writings that are intended
to further the dialogue, please contact me through the
email above, or through my personal email.
Your name will be listed on
a blog of sponsors of the dialogue, or you may
ask your contribution to remain anonymous.
NEW SPONSORS
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and PROGRAM TO PUT IN A GARDEN AT
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March 1, 2010
ART UPLOADED
11:44 AM
February 23, 2010
I was given a United Nations Peace Medal in 1983 by Robert Muller,
then Undersecretary General of the U.N. for the work I would do
in my life. The image is the UN Peace Medal Surrounded by
beet seeds. That story is told here. http://lesliegoldman.com/AboutLeslie/id33.htm
Cozy Connections Allowed rbGH Hormones in Your Dairy Products, Too
Michael Taylor, a former vice president of public policy and chief lobbyist at Monsanto Company, is now the senior advisor for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Who is Michael Taylor?
He is the person who not only “oversaw the creation of GMO policy,” according to Jeffrey Smith, the leading spokesperson on the dangers of GM foods, but also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST).
This growth hormone, which has been banned in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand because of cancer risks and other health concerns, was approved in the United States while Taylor was in charge at the FDA.
Smith writes:
“Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.”
Taylor’s white paper, which again was untrue as even FDA scientists acknowledged differences in the rbGH milk, allowed Monsanto to sue dairies that labeled their products rbGH-free!
Disregarding conventional wisdom, the Salatins planted trees, built huge compost piles, dug ponds, moved cows daily with portable electric fencing, and invented portable sheltering systems to produce all their animals on perennial prairie polycultures.
Today the farm arguably represents America’s premier non-industrial food production oasis. Believing that the Creator’s design is still the best pattern for the biological world, the Salatin family invites like-minded folks to join in the farm’s mission: to develop emotionally, economically, environmentally enhancing agricultural enterprises and facilitate their duplication throughout the world.
SUPPORT LESLIE's MINISTRY
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BAGASSE TABLEWARE. Your purchases
help keep me writing. Thanks to Anthony Russo,
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for his Angel activities in my life and in the world.
NEW SPONSORS
WESTBRIDGE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.
THANK YOU TINA FOR SPONSORING OUR DIALOGUE
and PROGRAM TO PUT IN A GARDEN AT
HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL IN LOS ANGELES. http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1582616
NEW SPONSOR
TERRA BELLA ORGANIC FARMS
ADDED
March 8, 201
ADD FOLLOW UP!!
OUT OF THIS WORLD FOOD
TO BE FEATURED AT EDWARDS IMAX 18
A Seed Dream born today.
March 8, 2010 follow up.
___
What do you think of this,
Rudenski?
10 AM-5:17 AM-1232 PM
__
corrections
9:19 AM
March 7, 2010
12:35 PM
NOTES--FOR LATER
NOTES
I WILL Cut this all out later...
Sanatize
Squeeky-Clean California Ag
Peanut Butter FDA Negligence
Pre-Emptive Laws--Not resonsible for mistakes
they make.
Premise that if they had more money
they could solve the problem.
THey view is not...
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