A message from Helena Norberg-Hodge
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- Published on Tuesday, 17 January 2017 18:50
Dear friends, Donald Trump’s candidacy – with its simplistic policy positions and its undercurrent of racism and sexism – left most of us believing he couldn’t possibly win. Now his victory is a visceral shock from which many have still not recovered. To better understand what happened – and why – we need to broaden our horizons. If we zoom out a bit, it becomes clear that Trump is not an isolated phenomenon; the forces that put him in the White House have been growing throughout the Western world for some time. Earlier this year, the Brexit vote in the UK was also based on fear and narrow-minded nationalism, not on a sophisticated critique of EU economic policy.
Right-wing extremism is on the rise in many other parts of Europe; even in my native country of Sweden, where racism was all but absent during my younger years. If we zoom out even further, a broader pattern emerges. Almost everywhere in the world, unemployment is increasing, the gap between rich and poor is widening, environmental devastation is worsening, and a spiritual crisis – revealed in substance abuse, domestic assaults, and teenage suicide – is deepening.
By looking from a global perspective it becomes apparent that these many crises – including the rise of right-wing sentiments – share a common root cause: an increasingly corporatized and globalized economic system that is devastating not only planetary ecosystems, but the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
Read more https://notthembutus.wordpress.com/2017/01/09/a-message-from-helena-norberg-hodge/Organic farming: better for the climate, soil conservation, biodiversity and food security
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- Published on Monday, 09 January 2017 05:32
Organic farming: better for the climate, soil conservation, biodiversity and food security
This news will be of particular interest to those who have read about animal factory-farming methods (see the work of Tracy Worcester) and those who were earlier stunned by the exposure of systemic pesticides in ‘Roots of Evil’ (The Guardian 29.4.95) by Joanna Blythman.
In 2016, Scheherazade Daneshkhu, Consumer Industries Editor for the Financial Times, reported that home deliveries of organic vegetables have almost returned to pre-recession levels - £2.1bn in 2008.There has also been a higher demand for organic jam, tea, oils, organic cotton clothes and beauty products.
She cited the Soil Association’s 2016 Market Report, free to members, which recorded that sales of organic products rose last year by 4.9% to £1.95bn in the UK - the third year of consecutive growth for the UK organic sector, now worth £1.95bn. Sales of non-organic food dropped by 0.9%.
SNIP!
The Organic Research Centre is the UK’s leading independent research centre for the development of organic food production and land management solutions to climate change, soil and biodiversity conservation and food security.
Its detailed financial report on organic farming in England and Wales for 2014/15, published two months later also showed organic farm profits increasing, with organic dairy farming outperforming conventional dairy farming in England and Wales .
Read on: https://foodvitalpublicservice.wordpress.com/2017/01/04/organic-farming-better-for-the-climate-soil-conservation-biodiversity-and-food-security/India’s Organic Rice Revolution Proves GMOs Are Unnecessary
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- Published on Wednesday, 28 September 2016 14:44
In a world with an ever-increasing human population, increased food production is of obvious concern. With the world population projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, many people, especially those with connections to biotechnology and agrochemical companies, say that genetically modified food (GMO) is necessary in order to satisfy increased global demand for food. However, do we really need GMOs to feed the world? http://anonhq.com/indias-organic-rice-revolution-proves-gmos-unnecessary/
Polish Policy Makers Support ‘Direct From the Farmer’ Initiative
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- Published on Friday, 12 February 2016 13:16
‘Direct From the Farmer’ Gains Ground!
The new government in Poland is responding to our campaign to free-up the drastically repressive food and hygiene regulations that have dogged the Country’s small and medium sized farmers for decades. Up until now, governments have outlawed the sale of on-farm processed foods unless farmers establish their operations as a separate business and in a separate hygienically sanitised building; something that is unaffordable to the great majority of small farmers whose holdings typically range from between 3 and 10 hectares.
However, an International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside campaign to change this position and to free-up Poland’s 1.3 million small family farms to operate autonomously - and to direct-sell their produce locally - is gaining momentum and is not, thus far, seen as being at odds with the agenda of the new government.
Read more: Polish Policy Makers Support ‘Direct From the Farmer’ Initiative
Glyphosate Causes Irreversible Abnormal Growth & Delayed Development of Embryonic Rat Neuronal Cells
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- Published on Friday, 12 February 2016 12:59
The intended recipient for this message is julia.....
The Institute of Science in Society
Science Society Sustainability
www.i-sis.org.ukThis article can be found on the I-SIS website at http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Glyphosate_Causes_Abnormal_Neuronal_Development.php
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ISIS Report 20/01/16
Glyphosate Causes Irreversible Abnormal Growth & Delayed Development of Embryonic Rat Neuronal Cells
Primary rat neuronal cultures exposed to glyphosate showed abnormal morphology, delayed differentiation and decreased activity of a Wnt signalling pathway involved in embryonic development Dr Eva Sirinathsinghji
Please circulate widely and repost, but you must give the URL of the original and preserve all the links back to articles on our website. If you find this report useful, please support ISIS by subscribing to our magazine Science in Society, and encourage your friends to do so. Or have a look at the ISIS bookstorefor other publications
A new study finds that cultured embryonic rat neurones exposed to sub-lethal doses of glyphosate show a delay in development characterised by reduced neuronal polarisation, complexity and morphology. Underlying the abnormalities was reduced activity of a Wnt protein Wnt5a, a signalling transduction molecule, as well as its downstream signalling effector CaMKII (Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II). Effects of glyphosate were rescued through the restoration of normal Wnt signalling activity, validating its involvement in glyphosate?s neurotoxic effects.
The toxicity of glyphosate herbicides and their formulation products are widely recognised in the scientific literature, with evidence accumulating on its neurotoxic effects (see [1] Banishing Glyphosate, Special ISIS report). Studies have linked glyphosate to Parkinson?s disease following acute exposure, increased seizures in epileptic patients, and deficits in learning and memory; and there is epidemiological evidence of increased behavioural problems in children such as ADHD (see [1]). Further, a recent investigation into neurotoxic mechanisms identified increased oxidative stress and cell death in the hippocampus of exposed rats linked to increased levels of extracellular glutamate neurotransmitter [2]. Nevertheless, cellular mechanisms underlying nervous system damage remained unknown.
Monsanto Face People’s Trial for Crimes against Humanity
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- Published on Monday, 14 December 2015 06:14
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA), IFOAM International Organics, Navdanya, Regeneration International (RI), and Millions Against Monsanto, joined by dozens of global food, farming and environmental justice groups announced today that they will take Monsanto MON (NYSE), a US-based transnational corporation, to a people’s trial for crimes against nature and humanity, and ecocide, in The Hague, Netherlands, next year on World Food Day, October 16, 2016.
http://sustainablepulse.com/2015/12/03/monsanto-put-on-trial-for-crimes-against-humanity-in-the-hague/#.Vm5d7V51u2b
