Thanks to Virginia Clarke, the Coordinator of the Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders for finding these!
Voices from Africa: African Farmers & Environmentalists Speak Out Against a New Green Revolution in Africa, issues a direct challenge to Western-led plans for a genetically engineered revolution in African agriculture, particularly the recent misguided philanthropic efforts of the Gates Foundation’s Alliance for a New Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and presents African resistance and solutions rooted in first-hand knowledge of what Africans need.
ANIMAL PRODUCTION
Free Range Trichinosis
04-10-09 By James E. McWilliams
To produce pork that’s safe and tasty might mean taking greater control of the animal instead of letting it roam partly free.
FARMING
Humanity Even for Nonhumans
04-08-09 By Nicholas D. Kristof
One of the historical election landmarks last year had nothing to do with race or the presidency. Rather, it had to do with pigs and chickens — and with overarching ideas about the limits of human dominion over other species.
Genetic Engineering Has Failed To Significantly Boost U.S. Crop Yields Despite Biotech Industry Claims, New Report Finds
For years, the biotechnology industry has trumpeted that it will feed the world, promising that its genetically engineered crops will produce higher yields. That promise has proven to be empty, according to a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Despite 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization, genetic engineering has failed to significantly increase U.S. crop yields. “The biotech industry has spent billions on research and public relations hype, but genetically engineered food and feed crops haven’t enabled American farmers to grow significantly more crops per acre of land,” said Doug Gurian-Sherman, a biologist in the UCS Food and Environment Program and author of the report. “In comparison, traditional breeding continues to deliver better results.”
HEALTH
EPA To Begin Testing Pesticides for Endocrine Disruption
(Washington, D.C. – April 15, 2009) EPA has issued the first list of pesticides to be screened for possibly disrupting the endocrine system.Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interact with and possibly disrupt the hormones produced or secreted by the human or animal endocrine system, which regulates growth, metabolism and reproduction. “Endocrine disruptors can cause lifelong health problems – especially for children,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Gathering this information will help us work with communities and industry to protect Americans from harmful exposure.”
For Young Japanese, It’s Back to the Farm
April 15, 2009 By Hiroko Tabuchi
YOKOSHIBAHIKARI, Japan — A motley group of unlikely farmers descended on the countryside here one recent Sunday, fresh towels around their necks, shiny boots on their feet.
POLICY
No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
April 2009 by Sam Hurst
For generations, the students at Red Cloud Indian School raised their own food—then the federal government got into the act. Ever hear of a road paved with good intentions? In the 1880s, the Lakota chief Red Cloud turned away from the buffalo hunt. He turned his back on the militant resistance of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull that would lead both warrior chiefs to violent deaths. He settled on the arid, harsh Pine Ridge Reservation in the Badlands of western South Dakota and began the painful process of assimilation.