GMO’s in the News   2015

 

Here’s our first new update for 2015.

Below is a new book coming out next week that I am buying. Link below.

Some other important news as well.

Mom

 

The Massive Fraud Behind GMOs Exposed

by COLIN TODHUNTER

This is not what the GMO industry wanted to see: banner headlines today in major newspapers and across the internet exposing the fraud behind GMOs. But this constitutes much more than a PR nightmare. The story behind the headlines shakes the very foundations upon which the industry is built.

‘Altered Genes, Twisted Truth’ is a new book by the US public interest lawyer Steve Druker. The book is the result of more than 15 years of intensive research and investigation by Druker, who initiated a lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that forced it to divulge its files on GM foods. Those files revealed that GM foods first achieved commercialisation in 1992 but only because the FDA covered up the extensive warnings of its own scientists about their dangers, lied about the facts and then violated federal food safety law by permitting these foods to be marketed without having been proven safe through standard testing.

If the FDA had heeded its own experts’ advice and publicly acknowledged their warnings that GM foods entailed higher risks than their conventional counterparts, Druker says that the GM food venture would have imploded and never gained traction anywhere.

He also argues that that many well-placed scientists have repeatedly issued misleading statements about GM foods, and so have leading scientific institutions such as the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the UK’s Royal Society.

Druker states that contrary to the claims of biotech advocates, humans have indeed been harmed by consuming the output of genetic engineering. The technology’s first ingestible product (a food supplement of the essential amino acid, L-tryptophan) caused dozens of deaths and seriously sickened thousands of people (permanently disabling many of them). Moreover, the evidence points to the genetic alteration as the most likely cause of the unusual contamination that rendered the supplement toxic.

He explains that laboratory animals have also suffered from eating products of genetic engineering, and well-conducted tests with GM crops have yielded many troubling results, including intestinal abnormalities, liver disturbances, and impaired immune systems.

 

Read the rest here: http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/06/the-massive-fraud-behind-gmos-exposed/

 

 

 

 

 

New Study: Huge Increase in US Chronic Diseases Linked to Glyphosate Herbicides

 

A new correlation study published on Friday in the Journal of Organic Systems has linked the world’s number one herbicide, glyphosate, to a huge increase in the incidence of  chronic diseases across the United States.

 

In the most detailed analysis yet performed on the correlation between the use of glyphosate-based pesticides and rates of chronic diseases, a team including Dr. Nancy Swanson and the President of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), Andre Leu, identified a serious link between the increase in the use of glyphosate in the U.S. and diseases such as diabetes, obesity, lipoprotein metabolism disorder, Alzheimer’s, senile dementia, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and autism.

 

What is Glyphosate?

PCBs, DDT and Agent Orange all had very harmful effects on women, men and children across the Globe in the 20th Century. Glyphosate-based herbicides have been identified as the next dangerous widely used chemical on this list. It is time for some real action to be taken to find out the full extent of the harm being caused to the environment and human health by glyphosate the world’s number one weed killer.

 

Glyphosate, or N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine, is a broad-spectrum herbicide, meaning it kills all plant life. Glyphosate was developed by John E. Franz of Monsanto Company. It was first introduced in 1974.

Glyphosate-containing herbicides are now the top-selling herbicides in the world and are sold under trademarks such as Monsanto’s ‘Roundup’.

Numerous glyphosate-based herbicide formulations (e.g. Roundup, Clearout 41) are now produced by at least 100 manufacturers worldwide.

 

Glyphosate herbicides are used by farmers to kill weeds in crop fields. But their use is not restricted to farming. Public authorities spray them along roads, on pavements, and in public parks to control weeds. Even home gardeners use them. They are sold in supermarkets and garden centres.

 

The new study  states:

“Within the last 20 years there has been an alarming increase in serious illnesses in the US, along with a marked decrease in life expectancy (Bezruchka, 2012). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the cost of diabetes and diabetes-related treatment was approximately $116 billion dollars in 2007. Estimated costs related to obesity were $147 billion in 2008 and cardiovascular diseases and stroke were $475.3 billion in 2009. Health care expenditures in the US totaled 2.2 trillion dollars in 2007 (CDC, 2013a). The onset of serious illness is appearing in increasingly younger cohorts. The US leads the world in the increase in deaths due to neurological diseases between 1979-81 and 2004-06 for the 55-65 age group (Pritchard et al., 2013).

“These mental disorder deaths are more typical of the over 65 age group. There have been similar findings for obesity, asthma, behavior and learning problems, and chronic disease in children and young adults (Van Cleave et al., 2010). Type II diabetes in youth is being called an epidemic (Rosenbloom et al., 1999). The rate of chronic disease in the entire US population has been dramatically increasing with an estimated 25% of the US population suffering from multiple chronic diseases (Autoimmunity Research Foundation, 2012). These findings suggest environmental triggers rather than genetic or age-related causes.

“During this same time period, there has been an exponential increase in the amount of glyphosate applied to food crops and in the percentage of GE food crops planted (Benbrook, 2012). We undertook a study to see if correlations existed between the rise of GE crops, the associated glyphosate use and the rise in chronic disease in the US.”

 

Read the rest and find the link to the paper here:

http://sustainablepulse.com/2014/11/07/new-study-huge-increase-us-chronic-diseases-linked-glyphosate-herbicides/#.VQMhv2bOWS0

 

Kellogg’s Froot Loops Tests Positive For GMOs and Weedkiller
In 2013, GMO Free USA sent a sample of Froot Loops to a certified lab to test for the presence of GMO material. The quantitative PCR test verified, by DNA analysis, that 100% of the corn in the Froot Loops was GMO, containing DNA sequences known to be present in insecticide producing Bt and Roundup Ready corn.  The soy contained DNA sequences known to be present in Roundup Ready GMO soy. This year we plan to continue testing for the presence of GMOs in various food products and now we have expanded our testing to include glyphosate. GMO Free USA plans to further expand testing to include 2,4-D, dicamba, atrazine, and neonicotinoid insecticides.

 

Read more here:

 

http://www.gmofreeusa.org/food-testing/kelloggs/kelloggs-froot-loops/

 

End double standards in evaluating GMO safety studies – say scientists

 

Europe’s food safety agency only criticises studies that find risk, new analysis shows

ENSSER Press release

 

The controversy about the Séralini et al. study, which reported negative health effects of Monsanto’s NK603 GM maize and Roundup herbicide fed to rats over the long term,[1] is still going on. According to a new review published in Environmental Sciences Europe, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) used unscientific double standards to dismiss the Séralini study on genetically modified (GM) maize.[2]

The publication of this latest review comes just days after the retraction of the Séralini paper by Elsevier, the publisher of Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT), on the unprecedented grounds of the “inconclusive” nature of some of the findings. ENSSER condemned the retraction[3] .

The Séralini study triggered an immediate storm of criticism by scientists and organisations, most of whom are known for their support of GMOs and their pleas for sweeping deregulation of GM plants in the EU and relaxation or even abandonment of risk assessment standards.[4]

Retrospective and selective application of new standards by EFSA

In September 2012, the European Commission asked EFSA to review the Séralini study. EFSA did so by retrospectively applying new standards released in 2011 to scientific work that Séralini planned and started in 2008.[5] EFSA concluded that the Séralini study was “inadequate”.[6]

But EFSA did not apply these same standards retrospectively to the original rat feeding study by Monsanto, even though the underlying design for the Monsanto study was later repeated by Seralini.[7] The Monsanto study concluded that this same GM maize was safe to eat, resulting in the approval for consumption of this GM crop by millions of animals and EU citizens in 2005.

EFSA review undermined the basic principles of science

Hartmut Meyer, one of the authors of the new review, said, “Use of such double standards is a common response from scientists calling for GMO deregulation and, somewhat surprisingly, also from some government authorities, to studies that show negative environmental and health effects of GMOs. Only those studies that find problems are subjected to excessive scrutiny and rejected as defective. This approach appears to be a tactic to avoid dealing with ‘inconvenient’ results, whilst selecting for ‘convenient’ results.”

The new review then applied the same criteria used by EFSA to reject the Séralini study to 21 other 1-2-year feeding studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals during the last 20 years. Those studies did not test feed derived from GM plants but mostly chemicals, used the same strain of rat, similar low numbers of tested animals and likewise modified protocols that extended or diverged to some degree from the strict OECD protocols and EFSA criteria as both Seralini and Monsanto did.

Restore scientific principles of objectivity

Angelika Hilbeck, the second author of the new review and chair of the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER), said, “ENSSER wants to see scientific objectivity restored. We are calling for an end to the use of double standards, particularly by EFSA, in the evaluation of scientific research on substances that may pose risks to public health. We need a reasoned, respectful debate with the aim of reaching a consensus on the evaluation standards that must be consistently applied to all toxicity and carcinogenicity trials, regardless of whether they have findings that are ‘inconvenient’ for certain parties. EFSA should take the lead here.”

“It’s time to stop selectively attacking methods and begin to deal with the results.”

Double standards used to claim GMO safety

Another example of selective scrutiny of study methods in order to avoid dealing with the results is a review of GMO safety studies conducted by Snell et al. (2012)[8]. In their review of 24 animal feeding trials with GM plant-derived feed, the authors noticed severe methodological shortcomings in a majority of the analysed publications, e.g. isogenic lines as controls were only used in 10 studies. However, Snell et al. used these shortcomings as arguments to dismiss those studies stating negative effects – but not those stating safety. Based on this asymmetrical, result-triggered approach, the review incorrectly concludes that no health hazards were found in 24 analysed publications.

 

 

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I had some muffins similar to these at our local health food store. They were so good that I was determined to replicate them. I’ve had a bag of hazelnut meal in my freezer for a year and didn’t know what to do with it. I also had some homemade sugarless blackberry jam that needed using up.

This recipe was a winner!

 

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cup hazelnut meal/flour
• ½ cup almond flour/almond meal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Celtic Sea salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) organic butter, melted
• 4 organic, pastured eggs
• 1/3 cup water
• Sweetener to taste — about 1/3 to 1/2 cup usually works well – I use Swerve
• ¼ cup organic jam – I use sugarless (sweetened with stevia or erythratol) and homemade

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 -25 minutes
• Yield: 12 Muffins

Preparation

1) Preheat oven to 350 F.

2) Butter a muffin tin. You can also use paper or silicone muffin liners.

3) Mix dry ingredients together well.

4) Add wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix well.

 

5) Fill each muffin cup about 1/3 with batter, then put about 1 tsp of jam on top of that, then fill all muffins evenly with batter

6) Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes until lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean.

 

Enjoy!

Italian Cheese Pie

I had bought some ricotta cheese, and ended up not using it for the original recipe so searched around online and found this.
It was very good and you could use just lemon or orange. The first time I made it I used one orange and all of the zest and juice – it was great.

2lbs organic ricotta cheese

1 organic orange, zested + 1 tbsp. orange juice
1 organic lemon, zested + 1 tbsp lemon juice
2tsp guar/xanthan gum mix or 6 tbsp. almond flour
1T good organic vanilla
4 organic pastured eggs

1 ½ cups sweetener of choice: rapadura, organic sugar, erythritol, stevia equivalent.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a 9 inch pie plate {glass is good}.
3. Combine the cheese, orange and lemon zest and juice, guar/xanthan or almond flour, and vanilla in a bowl. {I use my food processor}.
4. In another bowl, beat the eggs, then slowly add the sweetener and continue to beat eggs until foamy {I used my whisk}.
5. Put the egg mixture into the cheese mixture, and mix well, and pour into prepared pie plate
6. Bake in oven for 1 hour or until filling is firm.
7. Cool and slice for serving (I like it cold)

Enjoy!

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Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin

This is a great winter stew. Very rich and satisfying too.

Browning the bacon, chicken and vegetables briefly before adding them to the crock pot creates deep rich flavors in both the chicken and sauce.

We served it over zucchini noodles, you could also have it with crusty bread, potato’s, or cauliflower rice or mashed cauliflower.

Ingredients:

1 whole organic chicken, cut up

Celtic salt and pepper to taste

4 slices organic bacon, cut into 1” strips

1 (12-ounce) package organic white or baby bella mushrooms, quartered

2  organic carrots, chopped

1 medium organic yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves organic garlic, chopped

1 ¾ cup red wine (I used Pinot Noir)

¼ cup Cognac, Brandy or

1 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried thyme, or a large sprig fresh

1 bay leaf

 

Directions:

In a bowl, mix together wine, cognac, tomato paste and dried herbs and set aside.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add bacon and cook until golden and just crisp, 3 minutes. Drain bacon on paper towels and set aside.

Add chicken to bacon drippings and cook until lightly browned all over, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to a large plate as done and set aside.

Then in the same pan, add all the vegetables and cook until they just begin to soften. Transfer vegetables to crock pot. Arrange chicken on top. Sprinkle bacon over chicken. Pour wine/ herb mixture over the tops. . Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Season with salt and pepper, then serve.

 

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The Best Sweet Potato Pie

I found this recipe around 10 years ago and tweaked it to make it gluten free, and you can make it sugar free as well. It’s SO good and what we’re serving for dessert this Thanksgiving.

To make a gluten free crust, put in your food processor:

2 cups almond flour

dash salt

2 tablespoons coconut oil or pastured lard

1 organic pastured egg

Pulse the processor until the dough forms a ball and then press into your pan.

 

 

For the Pie:

Ingredients:

2 pounds organic sweet potato’s

1/3 cup melted organic butter

¾ cup organic sugar (or swerve, or stevia equivalent)

3 organic eggs

¼ cup organic half and half or cream (or coconut cream/milk)

1 tsp organic lemon extract

Dash or organic cinnamon

 

Directions:

Wash potatoes and put them in a pot with cold water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until soft, about 45 minutes.

Pour off hot water and then run cold water over the potatoes and drain, twice.

While hot, Peel potatoes and put them in your mixer bowl. Mix or whip until smooth. Add melted butter and stir until mixed in.

Add sweetener, taste for sweetness and add more if needed. Add eggs and stir until mixed in.

Add half and half, lemon extract and cinnamon. Mix well.

Pour mixture into pie shell and bake at 350° for an hour or until set.

Cool and enjoy! Serve with whipped cream if desired.

 

Read more, great Fat Tuesday posts here:  http://realfoodforager.com/fat-tuesday-november-25-2014/

Read more, great Real Food Wednesday posts here:  http://kellythekitchenkop.com/real-food-wednesday-11262014-real-food-recipe-blog-carnival.html

 

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I still have almost a dozen zucchinis in the refrigerator from our garden. I’ve been having a hard time decidimg what to do with them, that we haven’t done too many times before and decided to try oven fries. They are very good. Gluten free and low carb too!

Ingredients:

2 organic Zucchini

1 tablespoon course Sea Salt

2 Organic Pastured Eggs

½ cup Almonds Meal

½ cup Organic Grated Parmesan Cheese

½ tsp. Italian Seasoning or any herbs you’d like

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. You don’t have to, but I put a cooling rack on top of the parchment paper as shown in the picture. It kept the fries lifted up and I didn’t need to turn them over.

Cut zucchini into 3-inch lengths, then cut each piece into 9 fries. Place zucchini fries into a colander and sprinkle with salt. Let the zucchini pieces drain for at least 1 hour to remove excess liquid

Beat eggs in a shallow bowl. Mix almonds, Parmesan cheese, and Italian seasoning in a second shallow bowl. Rinse salt off zucchini and pat dry with paper towels.

Dip each zucchini piece into beaten egg and roll in the almond coating. Place coated fries on prepared baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven until the zucchini are tender and the coating is crisp and browned, about 25 minutes, turning them halfway through cooking time.

I served it with a little ranch dressing on the side. Enjoy!

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Why we have a Wood Chip Garden

I’ve been gardening for a long time. I really love working outside with the plants and getting delicious homegrown produce and herbs is a big bonus. I’ve gardened in so many different ways from raised beds to large pots when I was renting and couldn’t dig up the lawn. A few years ago I heard about this movie called Back to Eden. It’s about Paul Gautschi who’s an organic gardener from Washington State. He lives in an area that has very dry summers and came up with this great mulching system to keep the plants moist.

There have been many books about mulch and how good it is for your garden but most of the one’s I’ve seen, like Ruth Stouts books use straw for mulch. We live in Northern California where we have very dry summers so when we moved here a few years ago and I was getting ready to start a new garden from scratch, I knew I wanted to try Paul’s system.

We needed to have a number of trees cut down to make a spot for our garden as our property is heavily wooded so part of what we looked for was someone with a really big chipper. We found a great company and they chipped most of the trees that came down in the garden area. The rest we chopped into firewood. We did a layer of cardboard to cover the weeds, then a layer of cow manure, then a layer of compost then at least six inches of wood chips.

We got our garden finished in early April of 2013. Ideally, you are supposed to get your wood garden finished six months before you plant but it didn’t work out for us that way. I planted about a quarter of the garden out in June and figured it would be an experiment as it was too soon to expect good results.

It did really well! We got tomatoes (including a great volunteer plant from the compost we used under the chips), eggplant, pumpkins and one great melon plant. I planted a few things over the winter like garlic and cabbage, but as we got so little rain and I didn’t water at all, it just did okay.

This summer I went for it. Planted a lot and it’s been just amazing. We have irrigation water so I am supplementing water but only an hour or so, twice a week. I don’t think I make a garden any other way. The chips absorb moisture if they get to wet, and keep moisture when it’s dry.

Here’s the link to the movie and the picture is our garden this past August.

You can watch Back to Eden for free at the link below.

http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/#movie

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Yellow Squash Casserole

I haven’t eaten yellow (aka Crookneck) squash in a long time. This year I decided to grow one plant, along with my Zucchini. Found some recipes and this was our favorite by far. We’ve made this a number of times and it’s always a hit.

I will grow two plants next year. 🙂

 

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon organic olive or coconut oil

1 teaspoon organic pastured butter

1 small organic onion, chopped

2 cloves organic garlic, minced

4-6 cups organic yellow squash, cubed

1 teaspoon Celtic Sea Salt

½ teaspoon organic freshly ground black pepper

1/3 cup Almond Flour (or almond meal would work too)

1 cup shredded organic cheese – I’ve used cheddar, Swiss or Monterey Jack –     they’re all good.

½ organic heavy cream

2 organic pastured eggs

1/3 cup chopped roasted salted almonds (I’ve used other roasted/ salted nuts successfully too)

 

Directions:

Preheat over to 400° F

Heat oil and butter in a skillet over medium high heat. When the butter melts, cook and stir onion and garlic until softened, about three minutes. Add squash, salt and pepper. Stir, and cover pan. Let cook, stirring occasionally until the squash is softened, about 5 minutes.

Put squash mixture into a 8×10 or 9 x 13 inch pan.

In a separate bowl, mix almond flour and ½ cup of the grated cheese together and stir into the squash mixture. In another bowl whisk cream and eggs together and stir into squash mix. Top with remaining cheese.

Bake until golden brown and bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes. Enjoy!

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I bought a spiral vegetable slicer a few years back and haven’t had the right occasion to try it out. This year are garden is growing giant zucchini’s so I decided to pull it out and make ‘spaghetti’ with our zucchini. It was great!

I’ll put a link below to the slicer I used. It was SO easy and made long wonderful strands from the zucchini.

This is a pretty free form recipe. You can use any kind of sauce and or meat that you’d like. It would be great with Pesto as well.

Ingredients (for the recipe pictured)

1 pound organic hot Italian pork sausage  (ground – you could use ground beef, or lamb too)

1 large organic zucchini (it was really big! – I’m guessing at least 2-3 pounds)

1 jar of organic spaghetti sauce any type.

Directions:

Brown sausage in a pan until cooked through. Add sauce and simmer for a few minutes. Add Zucchini noodles and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if desired and enjoy! (Serves 4-6)

 

Here’s the link for the one I used.

 

We have one zucchini plant that is producing like crazy already. I am looking for and trying out many new recipes for zucchini and sharing the crop as well! This was really delicious and I will make and freeze some loaves for winter and potlucks.

 

3/4 cup almond flour, organic if possible (homemade works well)

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons organic flax meal

1 1/2 teaspoons organic cinnamon  (I’ve been using Ceylon lately)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

½ to 2/3 cup organic sugar or equivalent (stevia, erythritol, etc)

3 organic pastured eggs

¼ cup organic coconut oil, melted

1 1/2 teaspoon organic vanilla

1 packed cup grated organic zucchini

1/2 cup chopped organic walnuts

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a bread pan with parchment paper.

In a small bowl stir together the dry ingredients. In another bowl use a fork to beat together the wet ingredients until well blended. Mix dry and wet ingredients together.

Stir in the zucchini, then the walnuts (you could also use raisins). Spread in the pan and bake 40 to 45 minutes until the center is set. Remove from pan immediately and let cool completely before slicing with a serrated knife. Freezes well. Enjoy!

 

Read more great, Fat Tuesday posts here:  http://realfoodforager.com/fat-tuesday-july-15-2014/

Read more great, Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/real-food-wednesday-7162014.html

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