Unbossed
and unbought news and information you can use
Vol.
13 No. 34…Dedicated
to the Dialogue on Race…August 22, 2010
Intuit's
Vibe
Perhaps the World Ends Here
By Joy Harjo
The world begins at a kitchen table.
No matter what, we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared,
Set on the table.
So it has been since creation,
And it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it.
Babies teethe at the corners.
They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions
On what it means to be human.
We make men at it, we make women.
At this table we gossip,
Recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us
As they put their arms around our children.
They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves
And as we put ourselves back together
once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain,
An umbrella in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table.
It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror.
A place to celebrate the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table,
And have prepared our parents for burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow.
We pray of suffering and remorse.
We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table,
While we are laughing and crying,
Eating of the last sweet bite.
George Washington Carver (1861-1943)
"It is not the style of clothes one wears,
neither the kind of automobile one drives, nor the amount of money one has in
the bank, that counts. These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures
success." George Washington Carver
Born
January 10, 1864 near Diamond,
Carver
began his formal education at age twelve. Racial segregation and the absence of
schools for black children near his adopted parents' home forced Carver to move
to
Since
he was intent on a science career and Simpson offered no science courses,
Carver transferred to Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (
In
1897, Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial
Institute, convinced Carver to come south and serve as the school's Director of
Agriculture. At
Because
the
Carver
educated farmers to alternate soil-depleting cotton and tobacco crops with
soil-enriching ones, such as peanuts, peas, soybeans, sweet potato and pecans.
And to help market the new crops, Carver discovered three hundred uses for
peanuts and hundreds more for soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes. Among the
listed items that he suggested to southern farmers to help them economically
were his recipes and improvements to/for: adhesives, axle grease, bleach, buttermilk,
chili sauce, fuel briquettes, ink, instant coffee, linoleum, mayonnaise, meat
tenderizer, metal polish, paper, plastic, pavement, shaving cream, shoe polish,
synthetic rubber, talcum powder and wood stain. However, Carver only applied
for three patents.
Carver
also worked to develop industrial applications from agricultural crops. During
World War I, he found a way to replace textile dyes formerly imported from
Carver neither patented nor profited from most of his ideas. He freely gave
them to mankind. About his ideas he said, "God gave them to me. How can I
sell them to someone else?"
Carver
received an honorary doctorate from
In a culture in which maximizing individual satisfaction is a cornerstone of
the free enterprise economy, it is difficult to imagine the selflessness of
Carver's actions in giving the world his ideas for improving agriculture,
rather than trying to enrich himself. Carver donated his life savings to establish
the Carver Research Foundation at
Modified Foods
and Toxic Chemicals (Excerpts)
By Rosalind
Peterson
Genetically
Modified foods and toxic chemicals are finding their way into the food you eat
and other products at an alarming rate. The United States Department of
Agriculture (U.S.D.A.), the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.), and the
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (U.S. D.H.H.S.) are allowing
genetically modified food and other products to be approved without considering
or even knowing their negative impacts on human health, pollinators, the very
food chain that we depend upon, and other key agriculture and climate issues.
One-hundred
and sixty three regulatory agency reviews have been completed involving
tomatoes, cotton, corn, canola, papaya, soybeans, potatoes, brassica napus,
cantaloupe, flax, squash, beets, rice, radicchio, sugar beets, wheat, alfalfa,
and other crops. Most of these basic foods are used worldwide and in the
Thus, after the introduction of these altered plants into the environment, it
will take years of study to determine their impact on human health,
pollinators, and cross-pollination problems. And once introduced they cannot be
removed from our environment. They will also increase our dependence on
chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and insecticides, increasing
human consumption of these toxins from our food sources. Our oceans, rivers,
and streams will also be changed due to ever-increasing toxic fertilizer and chemical
run-off into these water sources.
The
USDA database, for the above 163 GE crops, lists the companies and universities
involved in genetically modifying our crops to increase their profits and make
us more dependent on their seeds, fertilizers, and chemicals. The list of
chemical companies, seed companies, and universities includes, but is not
limited to: Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences LLC, DuPont, DNA Plant Technology
Corporation, Ciba-Geigy Corporation, Mycogen, Calgene Inc., Agritope Inc.,
Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., Aventis CropScience, AgrEvo, Zeneca &
Petoseed, BASF, Rhone Poulenc Inc., Northrup King, Syngenta Seeds, Inc.,
Asgrow, Dekalb Genetics Corporation, Novartis Seeds, Plant Genetic Systems,
Bejo Zaden BV, Upjohn, Vector, Bayer CropScience, and various universities.
The listing of "Trait Categories" varies from "Herbicide
Tolerances," to "Altered Fatty Acids & Oils," "Insect
& Virus Resistance," "Male Sterility," and "Phytate
Degradation" along with other trait modifications. One of the most
interesting and widespread of all the categories is DELAYED FRUIT RIPENING in
tomatoes and cantaloupes.
Tomatoes are used as fresh vegetables, in soups, stewed tomatoes, catsup, for
seasoning, sauces and a wide variety of other food products. They have been
under the genetically modified barrage for years in order to remake them for
mechanical picking. The taste of these modified tomatoes has made them almost
unfit for fresh use as they taste nothing like the delicious tomatoes of our
past. Now, there is interest, by many companies, to delay the ripening process
so they can be stored for longer and longer periods of time. When the
genetically modified tomatoes, now found in many supermarkets ripen, they still
don't taste like their former counterparts…anyone can tell the difference by
the harder feel, color, flavor, lack of moisture, and the tough or greasy
skins. They don't fully ripen for the most part and don't have the taste and
juice qualities for a great eating experience
The
most important problem to be addressed is genetic food modification on our
pollinators. Without the pollinators we won't have enough food to eat and we
will lose the wide variety of food, flowers, and other plants that not only
sustain wildlife but ourselves in the long run. If we damage this abundance for
any reason then we all suffer from lack of variety, type of foods, and the
nutrition that goes with those foods.
It
appears that the USDA, the EPA, and DHHS are in league with huge chemical
companies and other groups to bring these genetically engineered crops to
market without public consent and adequate long-term testing. And it appears
that these corporations and some universities are in league to promote this
type of world for us to live within without our consent. Chemical companies
want a monopoly on worldwide crops and seeds and they want them engineered so
that they won't grow without their fertilizers and chemicals being used on
them. All crops and seeds should not be patented or owned solely by chemical or
seed companies.
The Obama administration's approach to agriculture has been to allow government
agencies to approve genetically modified crops continuing Bush administration
policies. Chemical companies like CropLife
It
is all driven by money…the public is the sacrificial lamb willing to allow
chemical companies and other corporations to dictate what we eat and how safe
it is for us and our children. We all have a choice to make…we can stop this
process or we can allow these companies to dominate our food supplies, the very
quality, quantity, and the types of food we eat.
Read
the entire article at www.newswithviews.com,
and for more information, visit www.agriculturedefensecoalition.org.
Female Infants
Growing Breasts
By John Robbins
People
are very upset about this, and for good reason. Female infants in
According to the official Chinese Daily newspaper, medical tests performed on
the babies found levels of estrogens circulating in their bloodstreams that are
as high as those found in most adult women. These babies are between four and
15 months old. And the evidence is overwhelming that the milk formula they have
been fed is responsible.
Synutra,
the company that makes the baby formula consumed by these babies, says it's not
their fault. They insist that "no man-made hormones or any illegal
substances were added during the production of the milk powder."
What
is the source of the hormones? A Chinese dairy association says the hormones
could have entered the food chain when farmers reared the cows. "Since a
regulation forbidding the use of hormones to cultivate livestock has yet to be
drawn up in
An extraordinary number of food products sold in the
There
is currently no way for consumers to know whether infant formula they might
purchase has been made with milk products from
If this problem appears in the
As
I describe in my books The Food
Revolution and Diet for a New
America, and on my website, this isn't the first time something
like this has happened. In the 1980s, doctors in
Writing a few years later in the Journal
of the Puerto Rico Medical Association, Dr. Carmen A. Saenz
explained the cause. "It was clearly observed in 97 percent of the cases
that the appearance of abnormal breast tissue was...related to local whole milk
in the infants."
The problem was traced and found to stem from the misuse of hormones in dairy
cows. When Dr. Saenz was asked how she could be certain the babies and children
were contaminated with hormones from milk rather than from some other source,
she replied simply: "When we take our young patients off... fresh milk,
their symptoms usually regress."
Along
with
The
Why
is that a problem? A report by the European Commission's authoritative
international 16-member scientific committee not only confirmed that excessive
levels of IGF-1 are always found in the milk of cows injected with BGH. It also
concluded that excess levels of IGF-1 pose serious risks of breast, colon and
prostate cancer.
How
serious is the increased risk? According to an article in the May 9, 1998 issue
of the medical journal The Lancet,
women with even a relatively small increase in blood levels of IGF-1 are up to
seven times more likely to develop breast cancer than women with lower levels.
IGF-1
that is consumed by human beings in dairy products is rapidly absorbed into the
bloodstream. It isn't destroyed by human digestion. And pasteurization is no
help. In fact, the pasteurization process actually increases IGF-1 levels in
milk.
What's
a consumer to do? If at all possible, breast-feed your babies, and support
breast-feeding friendly workplaces and other environments. It's hard to
overstate the health advantages of breast-feeding for both mother and baby.
They are enormous, particularly today when the possibility exists that
commercially available infant formula could be contaminated with excess
hormones.
If you buy dairy products, try to get them from organic sources. Organic milk
products by law can't be produced with bovine growth hormone (BGH). Or look for
dairy products that specifically say they are produced without BGH (also called
recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST).
If you're going to eat cheese, remember that American-made cheeses are likely
to be contaminated with BGH and excess levels of IGF-1 unless they're organic
or labeled BGH-free. Most cheeses that are imported from Europe are safe, since
much of
Have
you ever wondered why dairy products made from cows injected with the hormone
aren't labeled? Monsanto, the original manufacturer of BGH, has aggressively
and successfully lobbied state governments in the past to make sure that no
legislation is passed that would require such labeling.
As
if that wasn't enough, Monsanto has insistently sought to make it illegal for
dairy products that are BGH-free to say so on their labels, unless the labels
also included wording exonerating BGH. How does Monsanto justify such a ban?
They say that allowing retailers to tell consumers a dairy product is BGH-free
shouldn't be allowed, even if true, because it unfairly stigmatizes BGH.
Monsanto acts as though accurately labeling products would make them the victim
of some irrational cultural bias. But the company's products are, in fact,
responsible for untold damage to human health.
My
compassion is not for Monsanto. My heart goes out to the babies in
About Me: Author
of The New Good Life, Diet For A New America, and many other
bestsellers, Robbins is the only son of the founder of the Baskin-Robbins ice
cream empire. Groomed to follow in his father's footsteps, he chose to
"pursue the deeper American Dream…of a society at peace with its
conscience because it respects and lives in harmony with all life forms...a
society that is truly healthy, practicing a wise and compassionate stewardship
of a balanced ecosystem." For more, visit www.johnrobbins.info.
Study: Puberty
Coming Earlier for US Girls
According
to new research, girls in the
Doctors
are unsure of what could be causing girls to develop at a younger age, but
rising obesity rates may be to blame, they say.
In
a study published today in Pediatrics, Biro's team examined about 1,200 girls
aged 7 and 8 in
Compared
to the 1997 findings from girls across the
At
age 7, approximately 10 percent of white girls and 23 percent of black girls
had started developing breasts - compared to 5 percent of white girls and 15
percent of black girls in 1997, the authors write.
Among
8-year-olds in the study, 18 percent of white girls and 43 percent of black
girls had entered puberty - an increase from around 11 percent of white girls
from 1997, but the same as black girls in that year.
This study and another published in Pediatrics suggest that being overweight,
both as a young child and growing up, makes girls more likely to enter puberty
earlier. In the second study, Dr. Mildred Maisonet from
Biro's
team found that girls with a higher body mass index (BMI) - a ratio of weight
and height - at age 7 and 8 were more likely to be developed than their thinner
peers.
Those
authors warn that their study population, although diverse, doesn't necessarily
represent what's happening in all
Biro
thinks that rising rates of obesity could be a major reason why girls seem to
be developing faster than they did even 13 years ago.
Researchers
know that heavier girls are more likely to enter puberty early, Lee, of the
Lee and Biro said doctors are worried about both the psychological and physical
health of girls who hit puberty at a young age.
Studies
have shown that girls who develop early are more at risk for depression and
often start having sex earlier than girls who develop later.
"For the 11-year old that looks like she's 15 or 16, adults are going to
interact with her like she's 15 or 16, but so are her peers," Biro said.
Girls who develop early "look physically older," he said. "It
doesn't mean that they're psychologically or socially more mature."
In addition, women who spend more of their lives menstruating are at a higher
risk for breast cancer - which, depending on when they hit menopause, could be
a worry for girls who develop early.
Dr. Biro advises families to minimize the possible risk of early puberty in
young daughters by including more fruits and vegetables in their diet and
eating together as a family. (Sources: http://link.reuters.com and http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/)
Egg Recall
The
egg recall has expanded again, this time involving a second
The recall involves eggs distributed to 14 states:
Consumers are advised to check - again - the stamped numbers on the end of
their egg cartons. The new egg recall involves two plants: P1663 and P1860 (the
P stands for plant). If you have P1663 or P1860 stamped on your carton, look
for the three-digit number nearby, often just to the right.
For cartons with P1663, the recall involves eggs packaged between 137 and 230
(the 137th day of the year is May 17; the 230th day is Aug. 18). For cartons
stamped P1860, the recall involves eggs packaged between 099 and 230 (April 9
to Aug. 18).
Although most of these eggs have long ago been consumed, Hillandale Farms urges
consumers to return any remaining eggs and cartons to the store where they were
purchased. The stores should offer a full refund. If you have any questions,
you can call the New Hampton, Iowa, company at (866) 262-4208.
This marks the third egg recall since Aug. 13. Wright County Egg, another
In announcing its recall Friday, Hillandale Farms confirmed that officials had
linked some salmonella illnesses to its eggs. "There have been
laboratory-confirmed Salmonella enteritidis illnesses associated with the shell
eggs; the investigation is ongoing," the company said in a statement.
(Source: www.medicinenet.com)
Disgruntled wants to
know: A study conducted by the Environmental
Working Group, a nonprofit organization in 
discovered the coating on 40%, or two fifths, of
all
Disgruntled says:
A recent news story touted the return of commercial fishing to the
Disgruntled feels:
Occupied! While the Obama administration is not declaring "Mission
Accomplished" in Iraq, a mistake made by the former White House resident
George W Bush, who stood in front of a banner on the deck of the USS Abraham
Lincoln in 2003 that made such a declaration, it is declaring an "end to
major combat operations in Iraq." Seven years later combat troops may be
leaving
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and
Telephone Calls
Email
www.jonesreport.com ...Food: The Ultimate
Secret Exposed...Advocacy groups recommend that consumers should avoid BPA by
doing the following: (1) Search for unlucky 7. Avoid #7 plastic food or
beverage containers (check for the numbered triangle on the bottom of the
container). Safer plastics for storing your consumables are numbers 2, 4, and
5. Better yet, go for ceramic, stainless steel, or glass. (2) Look askance at
cans. Favor fresh, frozen or shelf-stable boxed or pouched food over canned
food (at least until food makers stop lining their cans with BPA). If you can't
completely avoid cans, be aware that BPA is prone to leach into acidic foods
like tomatoes or pasta sauces. BPA is fat soluble, too, so if you eat canned
tuna, make sure it's packed in water, not oil. (3) Keep plastic cool. Avoid
heating any plastic container, since this promotes leaching. It's probably wise
never to heat or microwave food in any kind of plastic. Most plastics contain
one additive or another, and none are likely to benefit human health. If you
tote your water in a metal bottle, check with the manufacturer to see what the
lining is made out of--some could contain BPA.
Email
www.reuters.com
Email actionalert@cspinet.org A
human health crisis is brewing on our nation's farms. An estimated 70 percent
of antibiotics used in the