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How Much Poison Should We Feed Our Children Today?

Based on some things that I have been writing about lately and reading in the news, it got me thinking.

There is complete acceptance, tolerance, and even encouragement in our country for people to eat conventionally-grown food, which has been sprayed with synthetic pesticides.

And make no mistake about it. Food sprayed with these pesticides is food sprayed with poison. Period.

If you drank enough of it, you would die.

Here are some troubling examples that should alarm people.

GOVERNMENT

– President Obama and the USDA approved genetically-engineered corn that is resistant to 2,4-D.

For those who don’t know, 2,4-D was an active ingredient in Agent Orange, the herbicide warfare program used in Vietnam that killed 400,000 people and caused birth defects in another 500,000.

If approved, an incredible amount of 2,4-D will be sprayed on this genetically-engineered corn, which will end up in our food and water supply. It will also contaminate nearby crops.

– The Grocery Manufacturers Association has estimated that approximately 75-80% of the food on supermarket shelves contains genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). Nearly all GMOs are sprayed with dangerous chemicals, and the government massively subsidizes the GM-industry.

– In the aggregate, EPA-registered pesticides contain nearly 900 active ingredients, many of which are toxic. Many of the inert ingredients in pesticides also are toxic but are not required to be tested for causing chronic diseases such as cancer. (From the President’s Cancer Panel)

According to the EPA, approximately 1.2 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year.

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS

When the Environmental Working Group (EWG) put out its Dirty Dozen, the list of the most pesticide-sprayed fruits and vegetables, a group called the Alliance for Food & Farming demanded that the EWG stop publishing this list.

The Alliance for Food & Farming, which is funded by the Produce Marketing Association, has a whole website dedicated to coaxing people into thinking that pesticides are safe to consume.

CANCER INSTITUTIONS

In the last few days, I went after the world-renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for claiming that “there is no scientific evidence that organic food provides health benefits.”

Outraged that a leading cancer hospital could say something like this, I called Dana-Farber’s statement “factually incorrect and morally reprehensible.”

Under pressure, Dana-Farber retracted this statement but went on to say that “it’s better to eat conventional fruits and vegetables than none at all.”

How do we know that it is better to eat conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables (which have been sprayed with dangerous pesticides) than none at all?

More importantly, why doesn’t this major cancer institution make a statement that is consistent with what the President’s Cancer Panel is saying?

In its report, the President’s Cancer Panel recommended that people avoid eating food that is grown with pesticides.

—–

Demand for organic food continues to boom because people are increasingly coming to realize that what they feed their families must be free of harmful chemicals.

And you don’t need to have a medical degree to understand that dangerous pesticides, in any amount, should be kept out of a person’s body, particularly for children.

The President’s Cancer Panel agrees.

It is “particularly concerned that the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated. With nearly 80,000 chemicals on the market in the United States, many of which are used by millions of Americans in their daily lives and are un- or understudied and largely unregulated, exposure to potential environmental carcinogens is widespread” and says that “children are far more vulnerable to environmental toxins and radiation than adults.”

As you sit down to dinner tonight, ask yourself what is the acceptable amount of poison you’d be willing to put on the plates of your children.

For me, the answer is none.

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Organic Insider

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The GMO ‘Golden Rice’ Experiment was an Ethical Disaster – One Shocking New Development

What GMO apologists will constantly tell you is that genetically-modified food is essential to feed the world.

They’ve spent so much money on lobbying and influencing politicians – $572 million from 1999 to 2010 – that a majority of people in Washington D.C. have actually come to believe this nonsense. (University of Michigan’s Catherine Badgley explains here why organic can feed the world.)

But GMOs, we are told, won’t just feed the world. They’ll supposedly nourish it as well.

One prime example of this is GMO ‘Golden Rice’, which was touted as a way to help solve a major global health problem by providing kids adequate amounts of Vitamin A. 

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A message from Tradin Organic

How Tradin Organic is Helping Coconut Farmers in The Philippines

For more than a decade, Tradin Organic has been working with local partners in The Philippines to bring a diversified range of organic products to the market, such as coconut oil, tropical fruits and even cocoa.

The company is helping to support local farmers by assisting them with technical support and organic certification, in addition to paying Fairtrade premium on top of the organic premium.

Learn more.

Living Maxwell

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Another Reason to Eat Organic – Lower Your Risk of Cancer by Up to 25%

In the latest President’s Cancer Panel report, it was found that 41% of Americans are going to get cancer and 21% of Americans are going to die from cancer.

What makes these numbers even more sobering is that this data was from a decade ago, and I have heard doctors say that they now believe a minimum of 50% of the population will get cancer at some point in their lives.

Given how deeply cancer has permeated our society, it would seem to make sense that people should be doing whatever they can to avoid contracting this deadly disease.

And according to a recent study out of France, as reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, eating as much organic food as possible is an important strategy to accomplish this.

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Organic Insider

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What is Regenerative Organic Certified and Why it Could Become the New Gold Standard in Organic

If you are a consumer or participant in the organic industry, something new is set to hit the marketplace that you absolutely want to know about, and it is called the Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC).

Started by three organizations — Patagonia, Dr. Bronner’s and Rodale Institute — the certification aims to raise the bar for what organic represents.

But contrary to what one might believe, it is not a substitution for the USDA organic seal. Instead, it adds onto the USDA organic seal and is referred to as an “add-on” label. The USDA organic seal is a requirement, or a baseline, in order for a company to receive the ROC certification.

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