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Political Crazyness

Dairy Farmer Acquitted on Three of Four Charges in Raw Milk Trial

In fascist America, being convicted of just one of the absurd charges against you is considered a victory.

Via: Journal Sentinel:

Dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger was acquitted on three of four criminal charges early Saturday morning in a trial that drew national attention from supporters of the raw, unpasteurized milk movement.

Jurors in Sauk County Circuit Court deliberated about four hours, until nearly 1 a.m. Saturday, before returning a verdict of guilty on one charge of violating a holding order placed on products on the Hershberger farm following a raid there in the summer of 2010.

The 41-year-old farmer faces up to a year in jail and $10,000 in fines on that conviction. A sentencing date will be announced later, Judge Guy Reynolds said.

Hershberger was found innocent of three charges that included operating an unlicensed retail store that sold raw milk and other products; and operating a dairy farm and dairy processing facility without licenses.

Hershberger’s supporters have said he was targeted for prosecution because he sold raw milk directly to consumers through a private buying club with several hundred members.

The trial’s outcome will set a precedent, according to the Weston A. Price Foundation, an organization that has advocated for the legalization of raw-milk sales in Wisconsin and other states. “This is a victory for the food rights movement,” said one of Hershberger’s attorneys, Elizabeth Rich.

    • #raw milk
    • #america
    • #food
    • #freedom
    • #farming
  • 1 week ago > thefreelioness
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Your Tax Dollars at Work: State Dept. Lobbies Abroad for Monsanto Biotech Seeds

Monsanto sees the international market as the source of enormous potential profit, if only foreign governments would let Monsanto make inroads into their agricultural economies. And, in a major example of corporate welfare, the State Department has marshaled its resources to lobby for Monsanto.

    • #monsanto
    • #corruption
    • #corporatism
    • #food
    • #world
    • #nwo
    • #government
  • 2 weeks ago > thefreelioness
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theheritagefoundation:

The Farm Bill isn’t what it seems.

Also, the goverment should not even be spending that much on farms. The un-regulated market can take care of that problem by providing what people want and need for food. Instead of the goverment deciding what we need and want.
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theheritagefoundation:

The Farm Bill isn’t what it seems.

Also, the goverment should not even be spending that much on farms. The un-regulated market can take care of that problem by providing what people want and need for food. Instead of the goverment deciding what we need and want.

(via nomosshere)

    • #farm bill
    • #farms
    • #food
    • #food stamps
    • #stamps
    • #politics
  • 2 weeks ago > theheritagefoundation
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Poor Richard's News: 4th grader embarrasses New York City's DOE with hidden camera documentary about their dishonest lunch program

poorrichardsnews:

image

I love this kid.  He has the smarts to become a great investigative journalist.  

Zachary Maxwell is his name, and he’s a whiz. He decided to document the dishonesty of New York City’s Department of Education about their school lunch program.  His findings are both disgusting and hilarious. 

Here’s a clip from his film:

from Zachary’s website:

Zachary is a fourth grader at a large New York City public elementary school.   Each day he reads the Department of Education lunch menu online to see what is being served.  The menu describes delicious and nutritious cuisine that reads as if it came from the finest restaurants.  However, when Zachary gets to school, he finds a very different reality.  Armed with a concealed video camera and a healthy dose of rebellious courage, Zachary embarks on a six month covert mission to collect video footage of his lunch and expose the truth about the City’s school food service program.

This short documentary provides a fun and spirited insider’s perspective on the elementary school lunch room. 

read the rest

Zachary, I hope that you read this.  What you’ve documented here is big government corruption, and it won’t be the last time you see it in your lifetime. See, government always promises to make things better, and sometimes they even use famous celebrities to sell their ideas to the public.  It always sounds nice… Yummy gourmet school lunches! Free healthcare for everybody! Shovel ready jobs! 

In the end, the results are always the same: greater cost to the taxpayer and results that are just as bad as (if not worse than) what things were before.  

Please take this lesson about government to heart, Zachary.  Think about it: if your parents didn’t have to pay higher taxes for you to get these “delicious, nutritious school lunches,” they could afford to pack an incredible lunch for you to take to school every day. Sadly, as things are right now, if you bring your own lunch, you’re actually paying twice! And that’s how big government always works. Always. 

    • #politics
    • #news
    • #big government
    • #new york
    • #new york city
    • #libertarian
    • #tcot
    • #conservative
    • #4th grade
    • #public school
    • #department of education
    • #education
    • #nutrition
    • #food
    • #healthy food
    • #foodie
  • 1 month ago > poorrichardsnews
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How To Get Food After TSHTF

newstome1:



May 4, 2013
Ken Jorgustin




How to get food after TSHTF



Food. We need it. Today it’s easy to get. We just buy it. What would we do though if we couldn’t just go out and buy it, or if there were scarcity at the grocery stores?

Here are a few notes outlining methods which may lead you in the right direction…




Read More…

    • #Politics
    • #Survival
    • #TSHTF
    • #Food
    • #Survival Prep
  • 1 month ago > newstome1
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C2CL Ian Punnett The Truth About Soy 2006 Classic Show C2CAM (by zigdogshow)

I loath soy. It makes nothing but trouble. Gives guys girl hips. Helps to make girls go into early puberty. Then a lot of people also have allergies to it and not even know it. This is a must listen.

    • #coast to coast am
    • #soy
    • #food
    • #cooking
    • #health
    • #genetic engineering
    • #diet
  • 1 month ago
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haleymeijercasbolt:

#repost from @themushroomofcourse #fda #health #food
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haleymeijercasbolt:

#repost from @themushroomofcourse #fda #health #food

    • #food
    • #health
    • #repost
  • 1 month ago > haleymeijercasbolt
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Yes, liberal friends, the government is ‘protecting’ you from delicious, local food « Hot Air

vincenzof:

I love when the nanny state statists bump into each other and hilarity ensues.

    • #freedom
    • #food
    • #liberty
    • #statists
  • 1 month ago > vincenzof
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'\x3ciframe width=\x22500\x22 height=\x22281\x22 src=\x22http://www.youtube.com/embed/ioSh8Xinzvk?wmode=transparent\x26autohide=1\x26egm=0\x26hd=1\x26iv_load_policy=3\x26modestbranding=1\x26rel=0\x26showinfo=0\x26showsearch=0\x22 frameborder=\x220\x22 allowfullscreen\x3e\x3c/iframe\x3e'

What Kind of a Monster Bans Chipotle?! (Nanny of the Month, April 2013) (by ReasonTV)

    • #liberty
    • #rights
    • #freedom
    • #food
    • #fast food
    • #nanny state
    • #nanny
    • #big brother
  • 1 month ago
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    • #皆方由衣
    • #yui minakata
    • #KERA
    • #KERA model
    • #Japanese model
    • #Japanese fashion
    • #women fashion
    • #fashion
    • #Japan
    • #style
    • #eyes
    • #lens
    • #kawaii
    • #cute
    • #food
    • #foodporn
    • #love
  • 1 month ago > japanesefashionlovers
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Infowars: Monsanto and the FDA: 2 crimes families working a trillion-dollar hustle

infowarsdotcom:

Jon Rappoport
Infowars.com
March 2, 2013

Perhaps you remember the ill-fated Just-Label-It campaign. A number of activist groups petitioned the FDA for a federal regulation that would make labeling GMO food mandatory.

The petition amassed over a million signatures. But the FDA decided only 394 of these were legitimate, because all the others were electronically submitted in one document.

Infuriating? Of course. But that was nothing. Let’s get down to the core of the crime.

Imagine this. A killer is put on trial, and the jury, in a surprise verdict, finds him not guilty. Afterwards, reporters interview this killer. He says, “The jury freed me. It’s up to them. They decide. That’s what is justice is all about.”

Then the press moves along to members of the jury, who say: Well, we had to take the defendant’s word. He said he was innocent, so that’s what we ruled.

That’s an exact description of the FDA and Monsanto partnership.

When you cut through the verbiage that surrounded the introduction of GMO food into America, you arrive at two key statements. One from Monsanto and one from the FDA, the agency responsible for overseeing, licensing, and certifying new food varieties as safe.

Quoted in the New York Times Magazine (October 25, 1998, “Playing God in the Garden”), Philip Angell, Monsanto’s director of corporate communications, famously stated: “Monsanto shouldn’t have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA’s job.”

From the Federal Register, Volume 57, No.104, “Statement of [FDA] Policy: Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties,” here is what the FDA had to say on this matter: “Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety.”

The direct and irreconcilable clash of these two statements is no accident. It’s not a sign of incompetence or sloppy work or a mistake or a miscommunication. It’s a clear signal that the fix was in.

Passing the buck back and forth was the chilling and arrogant strategy through which Pandora’s box was pried opened and GMO food was let into the US food supply.

In order for this titanic scam to work, the media had to cooperate. Reporters had to be a) idiots and b)sell-outs.

With few exceptions, reporters and their editors let the story rest there, as a “he said-he said” issue. No sane principled journalist would have cut bait at that point, but who said mainstream reporters are sane or principled?

Underneath the Monsanto-FDA buck-passing act, there was a conscious deal to give a free pass to GMO crops. This had nothing to do with science or health or “feeding the world.” It was about profits. It was also about establishing a new monopoly on food.

Not only would big agribusiness dominate the planet’s food supply, it would strengthen its stranglehold through patents on novel types of seeds which were technologically engineered.

It’s very much like saying, “A cob of corn is not a plant, it’s a machine, and we own the rights to every one of those yellow machines.”

How was Monsanto able to gather so much clout?

There was one reason and one reason only. Putting the world’s food supply into fewer hands was, and is, a major item on the Globalist agenda. If it weren’t, the FDA-Monsanto scam would have been exposed in a matter of weeks or months.

Major newspapers and television networks would have attacked the obvious con job like packs of wild dogs and torn it to pieces.

But once the scam had been given a free pass, the primary corporate-government tactic was to accomplish a fait accompli, a series of events that was irreversible.

In this case, it was about gene drift. From the beginning, it was well known that GMO plants release genes that blow in the wind and spread from plant to plant, crop to crop, and field to field. There is no stopping it.

Along with convincing enough farmers to lock themselves into GMO-seed contracts, Monsanto bought up food-seed companies in order to engineer the seeds…and the gene-drift factor was the ace in the hole.

Sell enough GMO seeds, plant enough GMO crops, and you flood the world’s food crops with Monsanto genes.

Back in the 1990s, the prince of darkness, Michael Taylor, who has moved through the revolving door between the FDA and Monsanto several times, and is now the czar of food safety at the FDA—Taylor said, with great conviction, that the GMO revolution was unstoppable; within a decade or two, an overwhelming percentage of food grown on planet Earth would be GMO.

Taylor and others knew. They knew about gene drift, and they also knew that ownership of the world’s food, by a few companies, was a prime focus for Globalist kings who intended to feed the population through Central Planning and Distribution.

“We feed these people; we hold back food from those people; we send food there; we don’t send food here.”

Control food and water, and you hold the world in your hand.

Here is evidence that, even in earlier days, Monsanto knew about and pushed for the Globalist agenda. Quoted by J. Flint, in his 1998 “Agricultural Giants Moving Towards Genetic Monopolism,” Robert Fraley, head of Monsanto’s agri-division, stated: “What you are seeing is not just a consolidation of [Monsanto-purchased] seed companies. It’s really a consolidation of the entire food chain.”

And as for the power of the propaganda in that time period, I can think of no better statement than the one made on January 25th, 2001, by the outgoing US Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman. As reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Glickman said:

“What I saw generically on the pro-biotech side was the attitude that the technology was good and that it was almost immoral to say that it wasn’t good, because it was going to solve the problems of the human race and feed the hungry and clothe the naked. And there was a lot of money that had been invested in this, and if you’re against it, you’re Luddites, you’re stupid. There was rhetoric like that even here in this department. You felt like you were almost an alien, disloyal, by trying to present an open-minded view on some of these issues being raised. So I pretty much spouted the rhetoric that everybody else around here spouted; it was written into my speeches.”

Glickman reveals several things in these remarks: he was spineless; people at the Dept. of Agriculture were madly buying into the Monsanto cover story about feeding the world; and there had to be a significant degree of infiltration at his Agency.

The last point is key. This wasn’t left to chance. You don’t get a vocal majority of Dept. of Agriculture personnel spouting the Monsanto propaganda merely because the fairy tale about feeding the world sounds so good. No, there are people working on the inside to promote the “social cause” and make pariahs out of dissenters.

You need special background and training to pull that off. It isn’t an automatic walk in the park. This is professional psyop and intelligence work.

I’ve done some investigation of various groups on both the left and the right, and I’ve seen some pros in action. They’re good. They know how to leverage ideas and slogans and ideals. They know how to defame opponents and find just the right words to sink them. They know how to turn high-flying but vague words about “humanity” into moral imperatives.

This isn’t rinky-dink stuff. To tune up bureaucrats and scientists, you have to have a background in manipulation. You have to know what you’re doing. You have to be able to build and sustain support, without giving your game away.

Truth be told, governments are full of these pros, who will take any number of causes and turn them into what falsely sounds like good science, good government, good morality, all the while knowing that, on the far shore, sits the real prize: control.

These psyop specialists are hired to help make overarching and planet-wide agendas come true, as populations are brought under sophisticated and pathological elites who care, for example, about feeding the world as much as a collector cares about paralyzing and pinning butterflies on a panel in a glass case.

Here is David Rockefeller, writing in his 2003 Memoirs:

Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure—one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”

 
The Globalists play for keeps.

Owning the food of the world is part of their strike-force action plan, and Monsanto is the technocratic arm of that plan.

Meanwhile, the controlled press treats the whole sordid Monsanto story with its time-honored policy of “he said-he said.” This policy dictates that stories merely present both sides of a conflict without drawing conclusions.

It applies across the board—except when it doesn’t. For example, for reasons too complex to go into here, the Washington Post decided to suspend its policy in the Watergate case. Woodward and Bernstein were assigned to investigate what was going on behind White House denials and obfuscations.

The same thing could be done with Monsanto, and it would be far easier. The lies and crimes and cover-ups are everywhere. You could wear sunglasses and find them in the dark.

The NY Times and the Washington Post could sell millions more papers on the back of the Monsanto story alone. It would be a bonanza for them. But no. They don’t care. They’d rather keep declining and losing readers. They’d rather die.

Normally, a business doesn’t commit suicide, especially when it sees exactly how to resuscitate itself. But here we are dealing with an agenda which can’t be disturbed. Globalism, and its agri-techno partner, Monsanto, are creating a planetary future. Major media are part and parcel of that op. They are selling it.

Even as their bottom lines erode, these newspapers and television networks have to stay on their present course. By pretending they’re reporting the real news, they’re giving the impression that Monsanto and the FDA are home free.

Again, we aren’t talking about sloppy reporting or accidental omissions of fact or boggling incompetence or ignorance about science. We are talking about conscious intent to deceive.

Yes, now and then the controlled media will release a troubling piece about Monsanto. But placement and frequency are everything. How often do these stories run? Do they run as the lead or do we find them on page 7? Are reporters assigned to keep pounding on a basic story and reveal more and more crimes? Does the basic story gather steam over the course of weeks and months?

These are the decisions that make or break a story. In the case of Monsanto and the FDA, the decisions were made a long time ago.

Part of every new reporter’s training, if he has any ideals at all, is marching into his editor’s office with his hair on fire demanding to be given an assignment to expose a crime. The editor, knowing the true agenda of his newspaper or television network, tells the reporter:

“We’ve already covered that.”

“It’s old news.”

“People aren’t interested in it.”

“It’s too complicated.”

“The evidence you’re showing me is thin.”

“You’ll never get to the bottom of it.”

“The people involved won’t talk to you.”

And if none of those lies work, the editor might say, “If you keep pushing this, it would be bad for your career. You’ll lose access for other stories. You’ll be thought of as weird…”

This is how the game works at ground level. But make no mistake about it, the hidden agenda is about protecting an elite’s op from exposure.

If NBC, for example, gave its golden boy, Brian Williams, the green light, he would become an expert on Monsanto in three days. He’d become a tiger. He’d affect a whole set of morally outraged poses and send Monsanto down into Hell.

Don’t misunderstand. Brian hasn’t been waiting to move in for the kill. He’s a neutral entity. Wind him up and point to a target and he’ll go there.

But no one will point him at Monsanto or the FDA.

All the major reporters at news outlets and all the elite television anchors are really psyop specialists. It’s just that most of them don’t know it.

One outraged major reporter who woke up and got out of the business put it to me this way: When he was in the game, he looked at the news as a big public restroom. His one guiding principle was: Don’t piss on your shoes. Stand closer to the urinal. Pissing on your shoes was covering a story that was considered out of bounds. If you pissed on your shoes and walked into the boss’s office, he’d look at you and see the telltale sign. He’d say, “Hey, you pissed on your shoes. That’s disgusting. Get out of here. You’re fired.”

Jon Rappoport
The author of an explosive collection, THE MATRIX REVEALED, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com

    • #slim jim
    • #kool aid
    • #food
    • #hunts ketchup
    • #heath
  • 3 months ago > infowarsdotcom
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Poor Richard's News: Video: Liberal students try (and fail) to kick Chick-fil-a off University of New Mexico Campus

poorrichardsnews:

Liberal students at the University of New Mexico led the student senate to a decision to kick Chick-fil-a off campus, despite polls that showed the vast majority of students wanted them to stay.  Yesterday, the governing body over dining at the university resoundingly overturned that decision. 

The reason I’m posting this story is the practically hyperventilating students who said that the very presence of a Chick-fil-a bag made them feel “unsafe” and “threatened.”  No seriously…students actually said that.

Here’s video of the local news report:

from KRQE (emphasis mine):

“Students started expressing to me they felt unsafe to go into their own campus union building,” Sen. Miquela Ortiz of the Associated Students of UNM said. “When they said they felt uncomfortable on campus, I felt it was an issue that I should bring up.”

Ortiz sponsored a resolution to boot food vendor off the university’s campus.

Late last year Chick-fil-A’s president stirred up protests across the nation and even in Albuquerque after speaking out against gay marriage.

Last week the student senate passed Ortiz’s resolution and asked the SUB board to make Chick-fil-A fly the coop. The meeting was full of emotion.

“Please look at this from a moral standpoint,” said Brittany Arneson, a student against having Chick-fil-A on campus. “Look at the kids that are here that are telling you, ‘I do not feel safe on this campus anymore.’”

Those in favor of booting the vendor say even the bags have become a symbol of hate. They claim seeing professors and students carrying them on campus makes them uncomfortable and fearful of retaliation because of their lifestyles.

read the rest

Facepalm.  Look, I’ve got some news for you.  If you feel unsafe because of a fast food bag, you’re not ready for the real world. 

I find it absolutely hilarious that the Chick-fil-a opponents actually tried to  frame this as a student safety issue. I love what the one student in the video said about the whole ordeal:

“Nobody is in imminent danger on this campus because of chicken.” 

    • #politics
    • #news
    • #chickfila
    • #chicken
    • #food
    • #Education
    • #liberals
    • #UNM
  • 3 months ago > poorrichardsnews
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Infowars: Food Monopolists are Taking Over the World Food Supply

infowarsdotcom:

J.D. Heyes
Natural News
March 6, 2013

There was a reason why our founding fathers were leery of monopolies – because they knew that too much power and influence in too few hands was not conducive to liberty and freedom.

Photo by ParentingPatch, via Wikimedia Commons

That’s one reason why they would likely be concerned about control of the global food supply these days – because too few food multinationals have a grip on commodity markets, “with potentially dramatic effects for consumers and food producers alike,” Britain’s Independent reported recently.

The newspaper was citing a new report that warned the livelihoods of millions of small business owners and firms that produce many of the drinks and foods we consume on a daily basis are “seriously under threat,” noting that extreme price volatility coupled with higher food prices and more concentrated food markets threaten to leave farmers “condemned to poverty.”

The paper said three mega-multinationals now control better than 40 percent of global coffee sales, for example. Eight companies control the supply of cocoa and chocolate. Seven control the lion’s share – 85 percent – of tea production. Five multinationals control three-quarters of the world banana trade. And the largest half-dozen sugar traders account for about 66 percent of world trade, the new report by the Fairtrade Foundation said.

World food system ‘dangerously out of control’

That tight control of the markets by the mega-companies, which utilize their “buyer power” to control the supply chain and how it operates – can leave smaller firms “marginalized” and surviving on low-yield contracts, poverty-level wages and with poor health and safety practices to boot, the report warned.

It stresses that, with the G8 summit set for June in Northern Ireland, 2013 is the year “to put the politics of food on the public agenda and find better solutions to the insanity of our broken food system.”

While more and more people may be shopping ethically, the world’s food system is still “dangerously out of control,” the report said. Cocoa growers, for example, now get only between 3.5 and six percent of the average retail price of a chocolate bar, while in the 1980s they earned about 18 percent.

The new report is being published to coincide with the launch of a three-year food campaign by Fairtrade Foundation, in order to “pull our broken food system back from the brink and make it work for all.” The report contains recommendations, including asking governments to guarantee greater transparency and “fair competition” in the realm of international food supply chains.

“Putting too much power into hands of too few companies increases the risk of exploitation in food supply chains, where producers have no choice but to sell for low prices, while consumers face a bewildering array of products on shop shelves even though their purchases benefit only a small number of brands,” said Michael Gidney, chief executive of the foundation. “Unless we do something now, millions of small farmers are condemned to poverty. If they are in crisis, and farmers see no future in farming, then many of our foods could be at risk.”

Interestingly, about 500 million small farmers produce some 70 percent of the world’s food, the foundation said, but comprise half of the world’s hungry; women are the forefront of this alarming statistic, producing 60 to 80 percent of the food in developing countries and acting as the primary producers.

‘Consolidation shifting power away from governments and towards multinationals’

Take the case of Gerardo Arias Camacho, a 43-year-old coffee farmer from Costa Rica. He has been producing coffee since he was removed from school to help his father farm the commodity at the age of 10. Today, he works 13 hours a day to produce coffee from about five hectares (about 12.3 acres). Camacho, who is a board member of the first Fairtrade-certified co-op in Costa Rica, said this year, he will likely struggle to make even a small profit from some of the coffee he produces and sells.

“About 40 percent of our coffee is sold to multinationals, but the problem with the free market is there is no minimum price,” he told the paper. “Last year, I got $2.20 per pound of coffee; this year it’s about $1.40. This is really bad for us, as the cost of producing is about $1.60.”

He continued: “They really don’t care about what problems we have here in our village; we worry about having enough food, clothes, and enough money to send our kids to school. Small roasting companies have direct relations with us, know our needs and understand us. This makes a big difference.”

A separate report, Power in Agriculture, also warns that food production is shifting away from governments and is being overly concentrated in the hands of fewer food multinationals.

“Consolidation of TNCs (trans-national corporations) has seen some shifting of the focus of power from governments and supra-national bodies towards corporate business,” the report said.

That includes food production, the report said, noting that 75-90 percent of the international grain trade is controlled by just four multinationals.

    • #food
    • #coffee
    • #Costa Rica
    • #chocolate bar
    • #Monopolists
  • 3 months ago > infowarsdotcom
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Extent of food waste revealed in effort to feed the hungry

sinidentidades:

The green beans are fresh, the broccoli crunchy and the baby corn sweet, but having failed “cosmetic” tests of international supermarkets, the Kenyan-grown food was hurled out as waste.

On Tuesday however, vegetables considered too ugly for shop-shelves were served at a special dinner for some 100 global environment ministers and top-level delegations to highlight the “scandal” of large scale but entirely unnecessary food wastage.

The meal, held at the Nairobi-based UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), was organised by anti-food waste campaigner Tristram Stuart, who collected some 1,600 kilogrammes of unwanted fruit and vegetables in Kenya for the meal.

“No economic, environmental or ethical argument can be made to justify the extent of food waste,” UNEP chief Achim Steiner told the dinner, where the previously binned food was served up by top chefs.

UNEP is campaigning to slash the current 1.3 billion tonnes of food lost or wasted each year as part of efforts to ease the environmental impact on an “already straining global food system”.

Kenya is a key market for export of fresh vegetables to European supermarkets, especially to Britain.

But similar displays of the “disproportionate power of supermarkets” over farmers producing for export are found worldwide, Stuart said, showing images of rotting bananas in Ecuador, oranges in Florida or tomatoes in Tenerife.

“It is a huge scandal, but also a huge opportunity” for change, said Stuart, who said he was “genuinely shocked and distressed” at the amount of vegetables in Kenya rejected by supermarkets and thrown away.

Stuart criticised the “particularly pernicious practices” of international supermarkets with overly strict standards for appearance that will bin beans for being too long or not green enough.

Supermarkets also cancel orders after vegetables had been harvested, added Stuart, a British environmental campaigner who created the ‘Feeding the 5,000’ organisation to encourage cuts in food waste.

While some unwanted produce is sold on the local market or donated, so much is rejected that much is left to rot or fed to livestock, prompting resentment amongst Kenyan farmers hit with the lost revenue, he added.

And some producers sign contracts with supermarket chains that block them from selling unwanted food on local markets or even donating it to charities, with farmers allowed only to use the vegetables for animal feed.

    • #food
    • #capitalism
    • #news
    • #government
    • #politics
    • #kenya
  • 3 months ago > sinidentidades
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sinidentidades:

‘Long-term food monopoly’ if Supreme Court favors Monsanto

Bert Foer of the American Antitrust Institute warned Tuesday of a “long-term food monopoly” if the Supreme Court sided with agricultural giant Monsanto in a patent dispute.

“If I were writing the laws I would put some limitations on the types of conditions that can be placed on an initial sale,” he said on PBS Newshour. “I would say, after the initial sale you are subject to any licenses and contracts, and those can be reviewed by courts under such laws as the anti-trust laws and we can get some sort of a balance in the public interest.”

“Whereas, if you say it is only subject to patent infringement, you’re putting all the cards with the patentee and very few with the consumers or with all the other parties in the economic who are going to be effected.”

Foer remarked that society was increasingly dependent on patented technologies and the law was not keeping pace with the changes.

Under current patent law, once someone purchases an item they can use it as they wish and even sell it. However, they are prohibited from copying or replicating it. Due to this, Monsanto has required farmers to purchase brand new seeds every year rather than simply replanting seeds from their crops.

Vernon Hugh Bowman, a 75-year-old Indiana soybean farmer, was sued by Monsanto for purchasing its genetically engineered Roundup Ready seed from a grain elevator. Monsanto said Bowman violated the firm’s patent rights by replanting the seeds rather than purchasing new seeds from the company. Bowman appealed the case to the Supreme Court, arguing that farming was not equivalent of making copies of the seeds.

The Associated Press reported that the Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical of Bowman’s arguments on Tuesday. Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal echoed that observation on PBS, but also noted that Justices Antonin Scalia and Elena Kagan were sympathetic to some of the farmer’s claims.

    • #news
    • #government
    • #politics
    • #monsanto
    • #food
  • 3 months ago > sinidentidades
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