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In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto Michael Pollan See book keywords and concepts

All of our uncertainties about nutrition should not obscure the plain fact that the chronic diseases that now kill most of us can be traced directly to the industrialization of our food: the rise of highly processed foods and refined grains; the use of chemicals to raise plants and animals in huge monocultures; the superabundance of cheap calories of sugar and fat produced by modern agriculture; and the narrowing of the biological diversity of the human diet to a tiny handful of staple crops, notably wheat, corn, and soy.

Review: The Future of Food, a must-see documentary that exposes the biotech threat to life on our planet Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

These companies have taken over the food supply, injected pesticides, viruses and invading genes into staple crops, engineered "terminator" genes that make crop seeds unviable, destroyed the livelihood of farmers and used every tactic they could think of -- legal threats, intimidation, bribery, monopolistic market practices and many more -- to gain monopolistic control over the global food supply. One documentary brings you this astonishing story.

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Mark Lynas See book keywords and concepts

Maize is one of the world's great staple crops, essential for household income and food security in many developing countries. This is where the problems begin. In Central and South America, the region where maize was first cultivated for food by the ancient Maya, losses are projected in every country except Chile and Ecuador. These losses may be offset by technological improvements in the future, but subsistence family farmers will be less able to adapt than big mechanised growers. The majority of Africa is also expected to experience big declines in yields.

Yields of staple crops like rice, wheat and maize will decline by nearly 40 per cent; perhaps more if water supplies for irrigation run out. China will face the unenviable task of feeding 1.5 billion much richer people - 300 million more than now - on two-thirds of current supplies. Of course world markets could in theory supplement the gap, but agricultural breadbaskets will be suffering declines right around the world by this time, with whole areas knocked one by one out of production.

Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century Alex Steffen See book keywords and concepts

In protecting and enhancing native staple crops, ICARDA works to alleviate poverty by boosting agricultural productivity. Samples from the seed bank have also been used to reintroduce crops into war-torn Afghanistan. eg & as Global Crop Diversity Trust The Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) is both the net and the umbrella of the world's seed banks. Many seed banks are lost as a result of catastrophe or a lack of funding. Grants from governments, foundations, and private corporations allow the GCDT to secure consistent funding for the preservation of crop diversity around the world.

Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism Marion Nestle See book keywords and concepts

Similar techniques are being used to improve other staple crops of the developing world, including cassava, banana, and potato."18 These statements are promises. The crops are not yet in production, but the public relations materials do not emphasize that point. The most highly publicized example of the gap between promises and reality is "Golden Rice," genetically engineered to contain beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A.

Food, Inc. Mendel to Monsanto - The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest Peter Pringle See book keywords and concepts

The greatest concern was about centers of diversity for staple crops. What would happen when pollen from GM varieties pollinated corn landraces or wild species in Mexico? The rice bowls of Asia? Or the original potato fields of Peru? The talk was never if, only when this contamination would occur.28 In the summer of 1995—five years before Quist and Chapela started their research—the Mexican government and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) held a seminar on gene flow to which they invited experts from the United States who had been studying Mexican corn.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, and leading food research groups suggested that the real solution was to increase the amount of the missing nutrients in the staple crops. Potrykus searched in vain for private funds for his rice transformations. None of the private companies was even studying rice. At the nearby University of Freiburg, Beyer was studying enzymes (catalysts in chemical reactions) that regulate the metabolic pathway that produces carotenoids, the family including beta-carotene, in daffodils.

None of the big agribusiness companies—the Swiss Syngenta, the American Monsanto or DuPont, and the German AgrEvo—had produced improved varieties of rice, cassava, or yams, the staple crops of the third world (although Monsanto had developed a high-beta-carotene mustard plant that it decided to give free of charge to poor and subsistence farmers).7 The only way undeveloped countries came into contact with the products of the first generation of the biotech agricultural revolution was through food aid—millions of tons of genetically modified corn from the U.S.

They could even cause the extinction of important wild plants essential for breeding staple crops. GM crops could destroy America's favorite insect, the monarch butterfly, some warned, adding that these plants could also bring about the elimination of treasured songbirds from European hedgerows. In Europe and Japan consumers became so agitated about the new GM crops that their governments refused to approve the planting of the new crops pending further scientific studies. The list goes on. Anti-GM forces discovered in taco shells genetically modified corn approved only for animal feed.

Instead, biotech companies have concentrated on altering genes in staple crops like corn, potatoes, and soybeans to give them new defenses against pests and allow them to survive being doused by stronger herbicides. These changes have benefited the seed company, the chemical company (often now the same outfit), the farmer, and the food processor. The biotech industry proudly points to the rapid rise in acreage planted to transgenic crops. A few million acres worldwide were planted with GM (genetically modified) seeds in 1996; by 2002 the acreage had expanded to more than 120 million.

What the public badly needed was an open debate on the merits of the Berkeley research and its implications for the future of one of the world s staple crops. If what Chapela and Quist had found was shown to be correct, there were serious questions about gene flow from genetic engineering. In the cornfields of Oaxaca, more was at stake than academic reputations. But Nature left the battlefield, telling readers to "judge the science for themselves." Dr. Ignacio Chapela, a forty-two-year-old Mexican microbial ecolo-gist, had not started out to find contaminated corn.

Food Revolution: How your diet can help save your life and our world John Robbins See book keywords and concepts

Monsanto's goal," says Rachel's Environment and Health Weekly, "is effective control of many of the staple crops that presently feed the world."55 Robert T. Fraley, co-president of Monsanto's agricultural sector, seems to agree. After the company bought up yet another competing seed company, he said, "This is not just a consolidation of seed companies. It's reallv a consolidation of the entire food chain.'"' This shines an interesting light on Monsanto's corporate slogan — "Doing well by doing good." j\je the Risks Overblown?

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ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of this NaturalNews Naturalpedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.