Greenpeace of Southeast Asia petitioned the court for a Writ of Kalikasan (Nature) in April 2011, seeking to ban Bt eggplant field trials due to potential health risks and environmental damage. That action bore fruit earlier this month, when the Philippine Supreme Court ruled to stop field testing of Bt eggplant. According to Greenpeace International,

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that GE Bt eggplant violates the public’s constitutional rights to a healthy environment and therefore recognized the scientific uncertainties of the health and environmental safety of GE Bt eggplant. It ordered the respondents, including the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, to justify the field testing of GE Bt eggplant in the country within the next 10 days.

The petitioners had filed a writ of kalikasan, which is a unique Philippine legal remedy for people whose constitutional right to a balanced and healthy ecology is violated or threatened by an unlawful act or omission of a public official, involving environmental damage of such magnitude as to prejudice the life, health or property of inhabitants in two or more cities or provinces.

Bt eggplant, also known as Bt talong, Bt brinjal, or Bt aubergine, produces a toxin called Bacillus thuringenesis. Before genetically engineered crops introduced Bt toxin to the human food chain, it was never approved for consumption by mammals.

Bt cotton has proven devastating to farmers in India, and Bt eggplant has prompted Indian legal action over biopiracy and environmental concerns. The Institute for Science in Society calls it unfit for human consumption, citing concerns related to antibiotic resistance, blood clotting, and liver health. Like virtually every GM food currently approved for human consumption, the longest Bt safety studies were only 90 days in duration — inadequate to rule out many toxicity risks.

Prior to this court ruling, no application for Filipino GM crop approval had ever been rejected. Environmental groups applaud the Bt eggplant decision, and hope it signals the beginning of a better system for evaluating potentially harmful GMOs before their approval and cultivation.

Like all currently approved GM crops in the US, Bt eggplant was approved in the Philippines without adequate objective scientific data supporting its safety — either in terms of human health or environmental impact. This case represents an important move towards science and accountability, and away from governmental catering to biotechnology interests at the expense of their own citizens.

This ruling also marks also the first time a national government has openly called into question the safety of genetically engineered crops, and the scientific inadequacy of  existing research on  health and environmental impacts related to GMOs.

Coming on the heels of our own legislative foolishness in Connecticut and Vermont, the Filipino Bt eggplant ruling shines a harsh light on the extent to which we’ve dropped the ball, here in the US. The fox isn’t allowed to rule the food-growing henhouse in the Philippines, or India, or Japan, or the European Union, or any of the other countries that have drawn a GMO line in the sand (er, soil).

Are we content to let the biotechnology industry continue to tyrannize the US food system? I’m not!

If you agree that things need to change, here’s what you can do:

1. Vote your dollar! Buy organic or ‘Non-GMO’ labelled food every chance you get, until we see change on this issue. Reward producers who aren’t trying to trick you into eating stuff you wouldn’t buy if they labeled it. Go here to learn more about avoiding GMOs.
2. The only thing legislators hate more than lawsuits is bad press. Write a letter to the editor of your favorite local publication, and share information about this issue on all your social networks — the more people who know about GMO labeling issues, the harder it is for politicians to crumple like wet paper bags before Monsanto’s legal foot-stomping.
3. ‘Like’ Millions Against Monsanto on Facebook, for updates on pending GMO legislation and action opportunities.
4. If you live in a state with pending GMO labeling legislation, make your voice heard! Call, write, and generally pester your representatives to demand accurate labeling of genetically engineered foods. Volunteer with a local Right to Know Group. Vote! And bring people with you!
5. Wherever you live, sign this to let them know we think this is a big deal.

Unlike in the Philippines — and so much of the rest of the civilized world — the links between US government and biotech interests make this an issue unlikely to change without intense consumer agitation.

So.

For goodness sake, people: agitate!

Image credit: Creative Commons photo by matsuyuki.

Whether you agree or disagree with the whole My Plate concept (I’m not so mad about the emphasis on dairy, for example), one thing is unequivocally true: we don’t grow or eat enough fruits and vegetables to meet the My Plate recommendations. In fact, only about 2 percent of U.S. farm acreage grows the fruits and veggies that USDA says we should be eating the most.

A better Farm Bill — one that supports small farmers growing food instead of industrial farms growing animal feed — could make a big difference. What we need to see is a change in emphasis from growing grains for animal feed to one on growing the fruits and veggies that USDA says we should be eating.

It wouldn’t even take that big a shift in production to meet our nutritional needs, and we could stimulate local economies while we’re at it. Not too shabby, right? Check out this infographic from the Union of Concerned Scientists that looks at how American farmers can grow the fruits and vegetables we need while creating jobs and benefiting local economies.

Bottoms up, caffeine fiends.

As it turns out, a new study finds that coffee drinkers have a lower risk of death. Scrrrreeech. What? A lower risk of death?

Sort of. While not exactly a time machine or immortal elixer, coffee drinkers are “less likely to die from heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and infections,” though those caffeine jitters might still be par for the course. Pass the soy milk, please!

The researchers found that the association between coffee and reduction in risk of death increased with the amount of coffee consumed. Relative to men and women who did not drink coffee, those who consumed three or more cups of coffee per day had approximately a 10 percent lower risk of death. Coffee drinking was not associated with cancer mortality among women, but there was a slight and only marginally statistically significant association of heavier coffee intake with increased risk of cancer death among men.

As with any scientific study involving medicine as food, researchers are always hesitant to make any rash predictions, saying “we believe these results do provide some reassurance that coffee drinking does not adversely affect health,” but not overtly claiming there are advantageous reasons to drink coffee.

Either way, for more than one cup a day type of people, the fear of health detriments due to java consumption may be lessened. The best part of waking up, is not resenting your morning brew.

Image Credit: Flickr Creative Commons, Jennie Faber

But, how much do any of these substitutes actually compare to the “real thing?” And should we even keep trying?

NPR recently wrote about a new fake chicken product called Beyond Meat that is looking to blur the line even further between actual chicken meat and imitation varieties, making the transition easier for those weaning themselves off of animal products, or at least more tasty.

Founder Ethan Brown told NPR “he became increasingly concerned about [animal] welfare. He eventually became a vegan but was frustrated by the ‘fake meat’ options available, so he started his own company.” Brown wasn’t looking to blend in with the pack of meat-alternatives like Morningstar or Boca brands, but instead create something so similar to real chicken that “flexitarians” will have less barriers to make the switch.

According to NPR, Brown is hoping his Beyond Meat chicken will “break out of the health-food niche and sell to mainstream meat-eaters.”

A market research firm tracking meat consumption claims ”the $340 million U.S. market for meat alternatives is growing modestly, at between 3 and 5 percent a year, while there’s a decline in per capita meat consumption.” Brown is looking to expand this difference with an affordable, accessible product.

The double is in the details. Beyond Meat simulates the texture of chicken by using “new technology to turn soy meal…into a finished product that mimics chicken meat.” Said Brown of his farm-lab:

 ”This is one of the cleanest proteins you can get. You don’t have to worry about any of the additives that are being put into a chicken. It’s just a pure, simple product that comes from plants.”

What’s beyond meat? Less harmful additives, sure. More plants, definitely. But no matter how you dice it, it still kind of tastes like chicken.

Image Credit: Flickr Creative Commons, StevenW.

The list of appointments to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is a who’s who of Big Ag. This is not the NOSB we envisioned in the 1990s.

When genetically modified DHA and ARA were approved as non-organic additives in organic foods, organic advocates protested. How did this come to be? Genetically modified organisms were not supposed to be allowed under organic standards.

The Cornucopia Institute uncovered a long list of members of the board who came straight from agri-business and companies such as General Mills and Campbell Soup. It’s no surprise such a board would advocate for more corporate-friendly organic standards.

“The Organic Watergate – White Paper” is the result of the Cornucopia Institute’s research. Subtitled “Connecting the Dots: Corporate Influence at the USDA’s National Organic Program”, the seventy-five page paper reviews the shortcomings in the appointment process and how the appointments of corporate representatives is blurring the line between organic and conventional foods.

What Can You Do?

Let the USDA decision-makers know how you feel about this. The Cornucopia Institute has a letter that people who want organic labels to accurately reflect the production and origins of foods can sign and send in.

Organic label photo via Shutterstock

'Grandma Stout's Speckled’ lima

Genuinely heirloom seeds are seeds with stories. They were passed down through generations of families and communities. Typically, they traveled long distances with immigrants to new lands as cherished food plants. These traditional sources of food were a comfort, and beyond that, a necessity. In our urban supermarket and fast-food culture it’s easy to forget that at one time families relied on what they could grow, and the crops they grew were a rainbow of diversity.

What happens to these unique varieties of edibles when there is no one to grow them and pass seeds on to the next generation? Extinction.

Many have already been lost, but there are heroic efforts underway to save as many as possible, along with their stories.

A Cucumber Lost, Then Found

For example, I love the story of the Collier Cucumber, named after a family who began growing it in about 1910, after being given seeds by traveling gypsies. Seed sleuth Sara Straate, was able to collect information through interviews with the Collier children. Straate, who is a Seed Historian with Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), learned that in the 1950’s the parents had planted all of the seeds they had. As fate (and weather) would have it, the entire crop failed. The family was crushed to have lost this much-loved cucumber, which they ate fresh and pickled. Remarkably, a single plant came up the next year from a seed that survived in the ground. The father diligently protected it and was able to save the variety.

Saving Stories Through the CORE Project

Through an ambitious project called CORE, the Collection Origins Research Effort, Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), the largest seed saving organization in the United States, is gathering, verifying, and filling in the gaps in the stories behind the thousands of heirloom seeds that they are entrusted with safekeeping.  Many of the seeds they have received are accompanied by background information, but it is often incomplete or consists of letters that are difficult to decipher. It’s Straate’s job to follow up on any gaps or inconsistencies in their records and attempt to reconnect with donors who have ties to and memories of these seeds.

A Beautiful Speckled Lima Gets Its Name Back

Sometimes the historical information on file is handwritten and leads to misinterpretation. SSE has in their collection a ‘Grandma Storrt’s Speckled’ lima. This is a lima bean that SSE received as a donation in 1989 from a 70 year-old woman in California who was afraid it would be lost (it wasn’t growing well there). The lima had been cultivated by her family in Missouri since the 1800’s.  It had been a reliable and hardy source of food, even when all else dried up in the garden.  Misinterpretation of her letter led to the name Storrt’s.  Straate was able to confirm that the proper name is ‘Grandma Stout’s Speckled’ lima by recruiting the help of the Historical Society in Johnson County, Missouri, to aid in tracing the family.

As Straate tells it in an Email message:

“Not only did the historical society correct the name of the lima bean itself, but their research helped identify the family members who had been stewards of the lima for over 120 years.”

Three Heart lettuce was brought to the USA in the 1880s

‘Three Heart’ Lettuce Lives On

My own fascination with growing and eating heirlooms led me to join SSE’s Member Grower Evaluation Network (M-GEN). I’m currently growing ‘Three Heart’ lettuce to provide cultivation data to the organization, which relies on member participation. I admit that it appeals to my romantic nature, and as a gardener, the opportunity to grow a rare, special variety is too enticing to pass up.

I found the story of “my” lettuce poignant:

“Three Heart’ was donated to Seed Savers Exchange in 2005 by Steve and Anna Marie Stoller of Indiana. In communication with SSE, Steve tells the story of how he received seeds of ‘Three Heart’ in 2003 from Amelia Scharlach Schini, a resident of a local nursing home.  Amelia indicated a family member brought ‘Three Heart’ with them when they immigrated to the United States from Alsace-Lorraine (Germany/Switzerland) in the 1880s. “

 ”‘Three Heart’ is still grown today by a few members of the older generation of the Apostolic Christian Church, a small denomination of under 100 congregations worldwide.”

SSE has long recognized that the stories that accompany these seeds are precious historical gems, as well as important for understanding the food plants themselves (cultivation requirements, uses, etc.). SSE co-founder Diane Ott Whealey chronicles this in her engaging book Gathering, the story of how she and her husband safeguarded not only heirloom seeds, but the accompanying tales that came with them. It’s been over 35 years since the founding of the organization and the collection now numbers in the thousands.

Straate will be busy for a very, very long time.

The expected outcomes of CORE are:

1. Improved quality of information associated with each variety in the collection, enabling better utilization of its biological and historical value.
2. An enhanced understanding of the practice of seed saving, including its cultural, familial, and agricultural implications.
3. Identification of varieties most in need of preservation and promotion.

For more information about the CORE Project click here.

Photo credits:

Photo of Grandma Stout’s Speckled Lima courtesy of Seed Savers Exchange.

Photo of Three Heart Lettuce by Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke

We’re all about reducing food waste around here, and along with solid strategies to waste less food in your day to day, it’s always nice to have handy tools when you’re trying to make a positive lifestyle change.

That’s where the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany comes in. Scientists there are working on a smart phone app to help consumers reduce our food waste by helping us choose the freshest food on the shelf. According to our sister site, sustainablog, the app would:

…eliminate even more of that food waste by making every consumer a quality tester. They’re developing a miniature spectrometer which could attach to your smart phone and tell you at the point of sale how ripe that fruit or vegetable is (or, for that matter, how good a piece meat is). No more tapping an apple or tomato: just scan it with your phone to “assess starch, protein, water, and fat content…”

The app is a few years from being available.

What do you guys think? It sounds like the app won’t help reduce food waste overall — that old produce is just going to rot in the store or in someone else’s crisper — but at least it could mean less food going bad in your kitchen, which means saving money.

Image Credit: Food Waste photo via Shutterstock

Biodiversity in our food supply is dwindling, but what can we do to preserve it?

At the turn of last century, farmers and gardeners could choose from hundreds of varieties of seeds to grow various food plants. Today, those numbers have dwindled to as little as 12.

Biodiversity is important for pest and disease resistance. When you plant a variety of types of, say corn, it’s harder for a single problem to wipe out your whole crop. Thanks to industrial farming, we’re losing that precious biodiversity.

We’ve shared this graphic from National Geographic before, but the folks at ProPublica included it in their list of best reporting on food safety, and I thought it bore sharing again.

Click to view a full-sized version.

Preserving Biodiversity in Our Food Supply

Our food supply’s dwindling biodiversity is a systemic problem, but as consumers there are some ways that we can vote with our wallets and show producers that we want more variety.

• Just Eat It. If you run across an interesting variety of fruit or veggie that you’ve never seen at the store before, pick one up!
• Go Local. Small organic farms often plant heirloom varieties of fruits and veggies. Find yourself a local CSA and support farmers who are doing their part to support biodiversity. If a CSA isn’t for you, check out your local organic farmers market.
• Support a Seed Bank. Seed banks like the Kew Milennium Seed Bank focus on preserving endangered seeds, including those from food plants.
• Grow Your Own. Next time you’re shopping your favorite seed catalog, look for rare or heirloom varieties of seeds instead of more common hybrids.

Image Credits: Tomatoes - Creative Commons photo by wendyness; Biodiversity graphic via National Geographic

Americans are also drinking a lot more energy drinks and sports drinks, but soda is still America’s most popular drink. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation:

Carbonated soft drinks still stood as by far the biggest liquid refreshment beverage category, but they continued to lose both volume and market share. Volume slipped by 1.7% from 13.8 billion gallons in 2010 to 13.6 billion gallons in 2011, which lowered their market share from 47% to 46%. Nonetheless, certain soda trademarks, such as Dr Pepper and Coke Zero, did achieve growth. Moreover, carbonated soft drinks accounted for four of the 10 biggest beverage trademarks during 2011, with Coca–Cola and Pepsi–Cola retaining their usual first and second positions.

Do you drink bottled water? What about energy drinks, sports drinks, or soda?