Beef that is contaminated with the Salmonella bacteria has been found in Newport, Colorado, and traced back to the Beef Packers Incorporated, in California.
Read the story here:
Once again, why do American consumers trust the USDA or the food industry?
–Pat
If any of you have been following my blog, you know that I write about the USDA and FDA, corporate “Big Ag” companies, and how they are not our allies or great protectors of the food chain..
I subscribe to different feeds that bring food safety and nutritional news to my inbox, so that I can keep all of you updated. One of those (and I am sure I have told some of you about this) is called The Center for Food Safety. They have teamed up with a film maker, and together have produced a film that should be seen by anyone that eats food – It is called “Food, Inc.”
“Food Inc.” premiers today, June 12th in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco, followed by the nationwide release on June 19th.
The film reports the abusive persecution and, in other cases, prosecution of farmers by Monsanto as it tries to force its genetically altered food products into the mainstream food industry.
It has interviews with such innovative farmers as Joe Salatin (Polyface Farm) and Gary Hershberg of Storyfields. There are also interviews with Journalist and author, Michael Pollan (“In Defense of Food” and “The Omnivores Dilemma”) and Eric Schlosser (Author of “Fast Food Nation”).
It also exposes the role that the FDA and USDA play in promoting a Corporate-run Industrialized Agriculture model – A failing model that has caused a new strain of E. Coli that affects over 73,000 people per year, an unprecedented escalation of heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and childhood obesity – reaching epidemic proportions in our society.
I have affectionately called this “Poison for Profits” for a couple of years now…
This is a MUST SEE film!
For more information go to this link:
http://www.foodincmovie.com/index.php
To your health,
–Pat
It seems that over 2 million elderly Americans are taking potentially dangerous combinations of drugs, according to this article.
The most alarming statistic is One in ten Older men are taking risky combinations of drugs – from blood thinners and cholesterol medicine to Aspirin and Ginkgo pills.
The American diet, the AMA (American Medical Association) and pharmaceutical companies are to blame, along with our sweet tooth and the companies making the processed food items which we crave (the cravings, in large part coming from the added hydrolyzed protein, AKA, MSG). Of course, the only medicines we would need could be, have been, and are, found in the very foods we (should) eat.
Eating a “raw”, unprocessed diet could alleviate many of the modern maladies affecting our society. The FDA ad USDA turn a blind eye to many harmful items found in the food chain, and have decided to regulate based on the monetary contributions to “pet projects”, grants and, of course, age old graft. – A term I have affectionately termed “Poison for Profits”.
If we were to spend more money on good, healthful, nutritious foods and less on electronic toys, we would be a far healthier society. But mainstream media, and their bombardment of the American populous with advertisement and marketing that insists that we are not complete without a GPS in our cell phone that we can use while driving down the interstate and while watching a DVD in the automobile console and drinking a diet beverage, brainwashes us into believing all of the consumerism hype. We have to have it or we won’t be cool!
So, why don’t we start the New Year with a new resolution? A resolution to take back control and to live healthier by:
And most of all, let’s remember that the food we eat is our medicine. The pharmaceutical companies don’t want you healthy, they want your money…
To your health,
Pat
Went to the store the other night.
Now that winter is here, I thought I’d pick up some “Progresso” soups for my lunches at work. You would think “Progresso” would be a healthy choice for lunch, right?
I picked up a can of the beef, barley and vegetable soup and started “analyzing” it – “analyzing = “reading the label”.
As I scanner the ingredients, I came across that familiar bad sign… “hydrolyzed vegetable protein”.
So, what is hydrolyzed vegetable protein? MSG.
Look at some of the soy sauces, salad dressings and anything else that says “No added MSG” or “No MSG” or No MSG added”. If it says hydrolyzed protein (soy protein or vegetable protein), it has MSG in it.
According to the truth in labeling website, this is illegal, but the FDA has “looked away”, and the USDA actaully promotes this illegal labeling and lying to the consumer… Here is an excerpt from the article on their website:
Placing “No MSG,” “No MSG Added,” or “No Added MSG” on food labels has been deemed by the FDA to be false and misleading under section (403)(a)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act when the label also lists any hydrolyzed protein as an ingredient since it contains MSG.”(3) Thus, to advertise “No MSG,” “No MSG Added,” or “No Added MSG” when there is MSG in a product is illegal.
At one time, the FDA responded to the illegal use of the term “No MSG Added,” with both a Regulatory Letter and threat of seizure and injunction in case of non-compliance.(4) At one time, State Attorneys General sued manufacturers that made such claims, and won consent decrees from them, and sometimes imposed fines.(5-6) But when the FDA began to look the other way, and the State Attorneys General turned their attention to other matters, the deceptive and misleading use of “No MSG” and No Added MSG” once more began proliferating.
Following the FDA’s announcement in 1995 that “…FDA considers foods whose labels say “No MSG” or “No Added MSG” to be misleading if the food contains ingredients that are sources of free glutamates, such as hydrolyzed protein,”(7) the incidence of such misleading and deceptive labels regulated by the FDA began to decline. At the same time, similar labels regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) continued proliferating. At the USDA they don’t simply fail to enforce the regulation. The USDA actually approves labels of meat and poultry products that claim “No MSG,” “No MSG Added,” or “No Added MSG” when they contain free glutamic acid.
To read the entire article, go Here
Anyway, back to my soup encounter at the store …
I put the can back on the shelf and looked at Marilyn. She said “I have barley, vegetables and such at home, let’s go home and make a big pot of it.”
We went home and she filled the crockpot full of all those yummy, healthful ingredients (BTW, barley is a great source of protein). I had a great dinner the next night – beef, barley and vegetables. And I had it for lunch the next day at work. And you know what they say –
Soup tastes better the next day…
So the next time you go to the store, read the label…
And pass on the MSG…
To your health,
Pat
In the news yesterday, the headlines read “Cancer to Surpass Heart Disease as World’s Leading Killer”
Read article here
Based on the direction of the USDA and FDA, I believe it.
Just this last year, the FDA increased the allowable amount of glyphosate ( the active ingredient in RoundUp weed killer) by 6000% for sugar beets – just as Mansanto released its genetically altered “RoundUp ready” sugar beet for introduction to the BigAg corporations for planting and distribution. All with the approval nod from the USDA. And did you know that 50% of the refined sugar in the US omes from the sugar beet?
Coincidence? I think not. The FDA and USDA, instead of protecting the American public by closely monitoring the food chain, and stopping bio-engineering of foods, has welcomed these technologies and the chemical defoliants and fertilizers that are most likely to blame for muich of the cancer spreading through the Amarican people. I have termed this phenomena “Poison for Profits”.
At the same time, the FDA has gone on a “witch hunt” to close down all of the herbal rememdy companies out there – “snake oil salesmen” they call them, out to defraud the public. While this is true to some degree, the real reason the FDA wants to shut them down is because if people saw the real benefit in homeopathic and other natural methods of healing, the grants and funding that come from the Lilly, Mansanto and other big pharmaceutical and chemical companies would dry up.
It isn’t about our health – it’s about money.
Did you know that even if our customers write reviews on our website saying that a product heals, or softens their skin, we can’t print it because then we are making claims (indirectly) and can be sued by the FDA?
So, if you try our lotion, lotion bars, dinosaur balm, lip balms or body butters, and they do any of those things, we can’t say that they did. We would have to spend over $1 million to prove it by doing the research and testing, and then it would be classed as a drug, and we would have to change everything we do.
But, according to another article today, 38% of adults are now seeking alternative medical help -
Read article Here
why? Because the American public isn’t as stupid as the FDA ad USDA think – and we have had enough of spending thousands of dollars for “health care” that leaves us wanting, and usually with worse symptoms than those we came into the doctor’s office with!
TO your health,
Pat
There is an organization — “The Center for Food Safety” – that has done some great work on the behalf of all those that want natural, wholesome foods to eat.
In the past year alone, they have:
<ul>
<li>Won a major federal court victory that stopped the planting of a new genetically engineered crop – Roundup Ready alfalfa – for the first time in history; </li>
<li>Halted risky field tests growing experimental drug crops (pharmacrops) in open fields through other federal court victories;</li>
<li>Defended the organic standards from numerous threats by agribusiness to weaken them;</li>
<li>Generated over 145,000 comments to FDA from people opposing milk and meat from cloned animals in our food supply;</li>
<li>Won the passage of the Mikulski-Specter amendment in the Senate version of the Farm Bill demanding further testing of food from cloned animals before FDA allows such products on the market;</li>
<li>Fought for and won a ban on animal cloning in organic production;</li>
<li>Successfully pressured Congress to remove language in the Farm Bill that would have eliminated the rights of states and local governments to regulate genetically engineered crops;</li>
<li><font size=”3″>Pressured FDA to maintain strong and accurate labels on irradiated foods.</li>
</ul>
You can keep abreast of all food safety issues, or support this great organization by going to their website:
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/index.cfm
The Victorian and New South Wales governments have become the first in Australia to allow farmers to grow genetically-modified (GM) food crops.
It seems that Australia wants to push genetically altered foods faster and further than the USDA! Incredible that they would promote GMO without testing for issues with human consumption of the genetically altered foods – once they are altered, what are they, really???
Read more here:<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/27/2102585.htm"></a>