Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
Orlando-Based, Seed2Source Corporation Joins The Villages® to Operate One of Florida’s Largest Agriculture Production Farms & Medical Culinary Programs
Orlando-Based, Seed2Source Corporation Joins The Villages® to Operate One of Florida’s Largest Agriculture Production Farms & Medical Culinary Programs
Orlando, FL (May 30, 2018) -
Orlando-based, agriculture and wellness company, Seed2SourceTM Corporation, recently entered into a strategic partnership with The Villages® to bring, The Villages GrownTM —a future multi-acre produce production operation that includes technologically-advanced greenhouses, an outdoor farm, processing center, and retail market, supported by medical culinary wellness programs. This multi-phased project will be one of the local food system operations of its kind in the state of Florida. The operation will yield approximately 2 million pounds of produce beginning the first year and will focus on nutrient-dense food offerings with a food- as-medicine approach to health and wellness.
‘The Villages Grown, Together with Seed2SourceTM’, will be located in The Villages community and will ensure that the approximately 120,000+ residents achieve optimal health through hyper-local food access and educational wellness programs.
The Villages Grown will be supported through dining services, commercial businesses, corporations, retailers and the medical community.
Phase I of this project features a controlled environment greenhouse operation utilizing advanced growing technologies within a collective of proprietary methodologies; an outdoor field-grown farm with sustainable production methods; a full-scale processing center that includes wholesale access for chefs; and a mobile farmers market.
Up to 60 different culinary crop varieties with food-as-medicine specific benefits will be grown and distributed from this location. The farm operation will be one of the most technologically and sustainably-driven approaches currently in Florida. Jennifer Waxman-Loyd, a familiar name in the agriculture world and co-founder of Seed2Source Corporation, says, “It’s an exciting time in agriculture. The Villages Grown has the opportunity to benefit hundreds of thousands of people—from consumers, to farmers, to local and corporate businesses. I honestly think this effort could prove to be the largest healthy local food system built around a targeted demographic in a single master planned community.”
This initiative will eventually support and assist both the existing Seed2Source and The Villages farm networks by aggregating local farmers and aspiring artisans, thus providing a way for them to participate in this health-driven organization. These forward-thinking approaches are set to empower not only The Villages community, but also serve and inspire others. Future amenities could include a retail market, culinary commercial and demonstration kitchens, food-as-medicine programs, and farm-2-table dining experiences.
The Villages Grown project could ultimately benefit all of Central Florida due to the high volume of consistently grown, local, quality produce provided from this operation. Product will be distributed to the Central Florida Medical Community, institutions, corporations, food service providers, restaurant holding groups, resorts, select retail grocers, as well as consumers.
Over the past decade, Seed2Source Corporation, a division of Sustainable Synergy Inc., has been dedicated to creating a healthy Central Food Local Food System by bridging food with commercial development; aggregating & distributing local food to organizations; and creating healthy workplaces through a Food-as-Medicine approach supported by Education. The company offers consulting services such as agricultural business planning, capital and grant funding, Go-to-Market strategies, advanced growing methodologies and the distribution of premium local food products. Seed2Source works with various companies including The Villages, Higgins Ag, Compass Group, Chartwells, Stetson University, Florida Polytech University, Rollins College, Sodexo, University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), Long & Scott Farms, Lake Meadow Naturals, Orlando Utilities Commission, Green Works Orlando, Orange County Health Department, among others.
Del Monte's Vegetable Tray Recall Affecting Retailers In Six States
Del Monte's Vegetable Tray Recall Affecting Retailers In Six States
JUNE 18, 2018
Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A. Inc. announced a voluntary recall of a limited quantity of six-, 12- and 28-ounce vegetable trays containing fresh broccoli, cauliflower, celery sticks, carrots and dill dip sold to select retailers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
The Centers for Disease Control has reported 78 laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis in persons who reportedly consumed vegetable trays.
Del Monte was notified by state agencies of a Cyclospora outbreak and the company's potential involvement. It has recalled the products because they may be linked to the recent cluster of illnesses and have the potential to be contaminated with Cyclospora, a parasite that can cause the intestinal illness Cyclosporiasis.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the infection usually is not life-threatening. Symptoms of Cyclosporiasis may include the following: watery diarrhea (most common), loss of appetite, weight loss, cramping, bloating, increased gas, nausea and fatigue. Other symptoms that may occur but are less common include vomiting and low-grade fever.
The recalled products were distributed to Kwik Trip, Kwik Star, Demond's, Sentry, Potash, Meehan's, Country Market, Food Max Supermarket and Peapod in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin and have "Best If Enjoyed By" date of June 17 or earlier.
The recalled products were distributed for sale in clear plastic containers with these labels and markings.
Kiribati Man Keen To Expand Hydroponics
Kiribati Man Keen To Expand Hydroponics
June 17, 2018
The Kiribati capital and most populated area, South Tarawa, consists of several islets, connected by a series of causeways. Photo: Supplied
A Kiribati man has come up with an ambitious target to get every family in Kiribati growing plants and vegetables hydroponically.
Hydroponics uses mineral nutrient rich water instead of soil to grow plants.
Eritai Kateibwi launched his business with 500 hydroponic units using a UN start-up grant he won last year.
He said in just one month, he has installed 20 units for more than 10 families and has helped train them up.
"That's our vision, we want to install at least two units per family and it will go really fast if we get the word out there right now."
Eritai Kateibwi said he first learned about hydroponics when studying in the United States.
He said it is his passion to teach others back in Kiribati home to 115,000 people and densely populated in some parts.
Q & A With Frank Sharp, Senior Technical Leader, The Electric Power Research Institute, Inc.
Q & A With Frank Sharp, Senior Technical Leader, The Electric Power Research Institute, Inc.
Background on EPRI:
The Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI, www.epri.com) conducts research and development relating to the generation, delivery and use of electricity for the benefit of the public.
An independent, nonprofit organization, EPRI brings together its scientists and engineers as well as experts from academia and industry to help address challenges in electricity, including reliability, efficiency, health, safety and the environment. EPRI's members represent more than 90 percent of the electricity generated and delivered in the United States, and international participation extends to 40 countries. EPRI's principal offices and laboratories are located in Palo Alto, Calif.; Charlotte, N.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Lenox, Mass.
Q&A: Frank Sharp, Senior Technical Leader, Energy Utilization, EPRI.
- What is the best form factor in this industry?
-
- EPRI is researching CEA because of its potential to address issues related to population growth, food security, food safety, water access, water use, sustainability, grid load, local job creation, land usage, and smart city integration, all for community benefit.
- That said, we see three primary emerging forms and each have benefits:
- The converted warehouse, vertical farm, custom building
-
- This provides opportunity to use underutilized or underperforming real estate in areas that often have limited economic potential.
- These facilities offer the ability to yield high quality produce in large volumes near population centers via their use of technologies to maintain ideal growing conditions.
- Converted shipping containers or pods
- This approach is highly mobile, is often modular, and utilize modern technologies to maintain growing conditions.
- These facilities offer the ability to reliability deliver fresh produce to targeted communities and applications and use minimal resources
- Augmented greenhouses where heat and lighting are added to keep the greenhouse operating year-round.
-
- This format has lower operational cost per square foot since it’s lighting load is only utilized when sunlight is not available
- These facilities have the ability to deliver crops in large scale and deliver fresh produce year-round to markets. We found a lot of unanswered questions about each of these types of controlled environment agriculture and they all warrant significantly more research as we move forward. We are working with utilities and CEA groups to better leverage current technology to forward each of these formats for the public benefit.
- That said, we see three primary emerging forms and each have benefits:
- In addition to these three forms there are other forms developing like aquaculture, indoor shrimp production, and insects for protein.
- Note, established industries like traditional greenhouses and floriculture operations are also very common and will continue to expand and be utilized. These operations are typically not researched by EPRI since their operations and technologies are well established. EPRI does follow work in these areas and will engage to evaluate new process and technologies in these operations if they emerge.
- With major e coli and other pathogen outbreak concerns plaguing the food landscape, CEA is a viable solution if implemented correctly. What measures are you implementing now to reduce the likelihood of a pathogen outbreak, or warn a consumer that the food is not safe?
- Controlled environment agriculture can reduce the likelihood of the spread of food borne pathogens due to its ability to control the environment and limit exposure to outside factors. But there is still risk and all agriculture facilities (indoor or out) should remain vigilant to maintain food safety and security in the future. Continued research into efficacies and future technologies will help reduce this risk further.
- Energy is one of the most expensive component for an indoor growing operation. What is your number of grams that can be grown on the farm in a given month, then divide this by the number of KWH consumed per month. Please give more configuration details, pictures, and growth trial data from these trials.
- While energy is one of the more significant costs for growing indoors, this industry has great potential to expand. This expansion will be driven by need for fresh produce by expanding population, but the CEA industry must focus on improving its operational efficiency where it can be a vital part of a further efficiently electrified economy.
- Benefits derived from improved operational efficiency and higher yield can also help CEA facilities minimize labor costs, which are typically they highest costs.
- The combination of improved technologies, operational efficiency improvements, and maximized labor costs can help assure CEA facilities that their products are competitive.
- CEA integration with an electrified economy will also make CEA a key part of future smart cities.
- The smart city integration of CEA will be further enhanced by use of grid integrated renewable energy and other distributed energy. As these resources come online, access to affordable and clean energy resources will help shift the energy costs of CEA facilities. We will be exploring this aspect of CEA in great detail during our 2018 Electrification conference in Long Beach this summer.
- With further electrification and demand on the grid, additional research is critical to learn how to support grid stability and reliability as more CEA operations come online.
- We are working with utilities and CEA operations around the world to learn more about emerging technologies and identifying proper placement of these operations on the existing grid.
Kellogg Recalls Honey Smacks For Salmonella Contamination
Kellogg has voluntarily recalled Honey Smacks cereal after reports that it may be contaminated with salmonella, the company stated. According to Reuters, about 1.3 million cases of cereal are involved in this recall.
Kellogg Recalls Honey Smacks For Salmonella Contamination
AUTHOR: Megan Poinski@meganpoinski
PUBLISHED: June 15, 2018
Dive Brief:
- Kellogg has voluntarily recalled Honey Smacks cereal after reports that it may be contaminated with salmonella, the company stated. According to Reuters, about 1.3 million cases of cereal are involved in this recall.
- So far, 73 people in 31 states have reported illnesses related to the cereal, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those affected, 24 have been hospitalized. There have been no deaths. Victims first became ill between March 3 and May 28. They range in age from less than one year to 87, with a median age of 58.
- The affected cereal was distributed across the United States, as well as in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, the Caribbean, Guam, Tahiti and Saipan, Kellogg says on a webpage about the recall. Boxes of the cereal are both 15.3 oz and 23 oz, with UPC codes of 38000 39103 or 38000 14810. The best if used by date on the package is between June 14, 2018 and June 14, 2019.
Dive Insight:
While Kellogg and other manufacturers struggle to get consumers to pour themselves a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a recall this serious and widespread does not help the category's popularity. But it leaves many more questions about consumer safety unanswered.
According to the CDC, people have been getting sick from this batch of cereal for more than three months. The outbreak has spread to more than half of the nation's states, and the cereal has traveled thousands of miles to other countries. The CDC only has information on specific illnesses for 55 people, and 44% of them have been hospitalized. So why are consumers only hearing about this outbreak now?
The CDC outlines the process for determining whether an illness was caused by a food, then researches and tests to determine the specific kind of bacteria causing it. From the initial sickness until the strain can be serotyped and given a "DNA fingerprint," the process could take up to 28 days. While this is a long and painstaking process, the timeline doesn't explain why this outbreak has been growing over three months without a formal announcement or recall. Considering how widespread the illness is, it's likely that the potential size and scope had been known for some time. An earlier announcement may have slowed the spread.
And how does cereal get contaminated with salmonella? The pathogen is found in animal feces, and animal-derived products — including meat and eggs — are most at risk. The best way to protect consumers from the bacteria is to fully cook food items. But food items that aren't derived from animals — like flour, which had a massive recall two years ago when General Mills' brands were contaminated with E. coli — also see the bacteria killed when the ingredients are cooked.
Honey Smacks cereal is fully cooked when purchased, and it's unclear how the cereal could have become contaminated with salmonella. This may indicate a larger issue with the cleanliness of the factory or processes where the cereal was made. It's not known which factory the cereal came from, but inspections under the Food Safety Modernization Act should have discovered any risks — and if Kellogg were following the tenets of FSMA, it presumably already had plans to address this type of issue.
The silver lining to this contamination may be that it hasn't affected many children yet. Even though Honey Smacks is a cereal targeted at kids, the victims' ages skew more toward adults. At least half of the victims are in their late 50s or older. According to the CDC, children are the most at risk of salmonella infection, and they tend to have more severe reactions. However, older adults are also at great risk, and considering the oldest victim is 87, a large number of them could be in that age group.
The CDC cautions that more illnesses could be added to this outbreak in coming weeks, given the long timeline of identifying related cases. It's unknown if more information distributed sooner could have resulted in fewer total victims, demonstrating the government's need for speed in disseminating information about outbreaks.
Recommended Reading:
- PRNewswireKellogg Company Voluntarily Recalls Honey Smacks Cereal Due to Possible Health Risk
- Centers for Disease Control and PreventionMultistate Outbreak of Salmonella Mbandaka Infections Linked to Kellogg’s Honey Smacks Cereal
- ReutersKellogg issues massive Honey Smacks cereal recall over Salmonella risk
Follow Megan Poinski on Twitter
Indiana Health Officials To Help Investigate Salmonella Outbreak
Indiana Health Officials To Help Investigate Salmonella Outbreak
By NewsCenter 16 |
Posted: Jun 09, 2018
INDIANAPOLIS (WNDU) – The Indiana State Department of Health says it will collaborate with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to investigate a recent outbreak of salmonella.
As we reported Friday, the outbreak has affected some 60 people in five states, including 32 in Michigan and 11 in Indiana.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that cut melons are the likely source of the recent outbreak.
More from the Indiana State Department of Health
The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) is collaborating with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on an investigation into a multi-state outbreak of salmonellosis that has been linked to cut melons. The outbreak has sickened 60 people in five states, including 11 Hoosiers.
The CDC has indicated that pre-cut melon supplied by Caito Foods of Indianapolis is a likely source of the outbreak. Caito Foods on Friday voluntarily recalled fresh-cut watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe and fresh-cut mixed fruit containing one of these melons that were produced at its Indianapolis facility. The recall notice can be found at https://bit.ly/2xWdkzx.
Products were packaged in clear, plastic clamshell containers and distributed to Costco, Jay C, Kroger, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Walgreens, Whole Foods and other stores in Indiana, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. A complete list of stores is available at https://bit.ly/2M6CWNr.
Consumers who purchased pre-cut melon from these stores should not eat the products and should throw them away or return them to the place of purchase for a refund. The CDC advises individuals who are unsure where they purchased a pre-cut melon product to discard it. While the current guidance applies only to pre-cut melons and not whole melons, Hoosiers should always wash whole melons before cutting them to reduce the risk of illness.
Salmonellosis is a bacterial infection that can be contracted through exposure to undercooked animal-based foods, such as poultry and eggs, and contact with feces from an infected animal or person. Symptoms include diarrhea and abdominal cramps and typically appear between 12 and 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and most people recover without treatment.
In some cases, however, diarrhea may be so severe that the patient needs to be hospitalized. In such cases, the salmonella infection may spread to the bloodstream and to other body sites, leading to a life-threatening infection that requires prompt treatment with antibiotics. Young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are more vulnerable to severe illness.
Individuals who have consumed pre-cut melon and are experiencing symptoms of Salmonella infection should contact a healthcare provider.
This is an ongoing investigation, and guidance could change as more information is gathered. Visit the CDC website at https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/adelaide-06-18/index.html for updates.
For more information about Salmonella, go to https://www.in.gov/isdh/files/2016QuickFact_Salmonella.pdf.
Visit the Indiana State Department of Health at http://www.in.gov/isdh/ or follow us on Twitter at @StateHealthIN and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/isdh1.
Caito Joins Big Melon Recall After CDC Reports 60 ill In Salmonella Outbreak
Caito Joins Big Melon Recall After CDC Reports 60 ill In Salmonella Outbreak
BY NEWS DESK | JUNE 9, 2018
Caito Foods recalled fresh melon Saturday after the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a multistate Salmonella outbreak that has sickened 60 people, sending 32 to hospitals. The CDC is warning the public to not to eat pre-cut cantaloupe and watermelon from certain retailers and to throw it away if they don’t know where it’s from because of a new
The Indianapolis-based Caito Foods recalled fresh cut watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe and fresh-cut mixed fruit containing one of these melons because these products have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. The recall includes a long list of brands including Trader Joe’s, Delish, Whole Foods, Sprouts, Renaissance and Open Acres (see complete list below).
All the products originated at Caito’s Indianapolis facility. It said all have “the potential” of being contaminated with Salmonella. Caito Foods has ceased producing and distributing these products as the company, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continue to investigate.
The products were packaged in clear, plastic clamshell containers and distributed in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.
The Caito recall extends to both retailers and consumers because the melon products could still be on store shelves or already purchased for home use.
An analysis of public health records by the states is what led officials to believe Caito melons might be contaminated. The company said it took the recall action “out of an abundance of caution.”
The Caito recall comes 48 hours after Walmart and Kroger, two of the nation’s largest grocery store chains, began removing fresh-cut melon products from their shelves.
Use or consumption of products contaminated with Salmonella may result in serious illness. It can also produce severe and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or older adults and others with weakened immune systems.
Others infected with Salmonella can experience fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis.
The products listed below are included in this recall:
CustomerProduct DescriptionPack WeighUPCLabel Description/BrandBest By/Use By Date Range
Caito Foods DistributionCANTALOUPE SPEARS 6/16Z16 oz.81851301294Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionHONEYDEW SPEARS 6/16Z16 oz.81851301300Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionMELON MIX 6/10Z10 oz.81851301331Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionFRUIT MIX 6/10Z10 oz.81851301348Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionHONEYDEW CHUNKS 6/10Z10 oz.81851301362Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionCANTALOUPE CHUNKS 6/10Z10 oz.81851301379Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionWATERMELON CHUNKS 6/9.5Z9.5 oz.81851301386Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionFRUIT MIX 6/5Z5 oz.81851301393Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionFRUIT BURST 4/20Z20 oz.81851301409Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionFRUIT MIX 3/48Z48 oz.81851301416Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionMELON MIX 6/16Z16 oz.81851301430Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionFRUIT MIX 6/16Z16 oz.81851301447Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionFRUIT SNACK TRAY 3/32Z32 oz.81851301454Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionFRUIT PARTY PLATTER 3/64Z64 oz.81851301461Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionMELON MIX SPEARS 6/16Z16 oz.81851301478Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionFRUIT BOWL 6/64Z64 oz.81851301485Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionWATERMELON SPEAR 6/16Z16 oz.81851301591Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionWATERMELON SPEAR 4/28Z28 oz.81851301607Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionCANTALOUPE CHUNKS 1/80Z80 oz.81851301614Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionHONEYDEW CHUNKS 1/80Z80 oz.81851301621Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionFRUIT MIX 1/5LB80 oz.81851302079Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionWATERMELON CHUNKS 1/5LB80 oz.81851302147Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionFRUIT BURST 6/10Z10 oz.81851302215Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionWATERMELON TRAY 1/5LB80 oz.81851302239Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Caito Foods DistributionWATERMELON CHUNK 4/18Z18 oz.826766260317Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
CostcoFRUIT BOWL 8/48Z48 oz.826766241125Garden Highway Label4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Gordon Food ServiceWATERMELON CHUNKS 4/5Z5 oz.826766009800Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Gordon Food ServiceCANTALOUPE CHUNKS 4/5Z5 oz.826766009817Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Gordon Food ServiceMELON MIX 4/5Z5 oz.826766009886Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Gordon Food ServiceFRUIT MIX 6/4.5Z 4.5 oz.826766257676Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Gordon Food ServiceWATERMELON CHUNK 4/10Z10 oz.826766260041Clear Generic Label Distributed by Caito Foods4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerWATERMELON QUARTER 6/36Z36 oz.826766139903Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerCANTALOUPE HALF 6/24Z24 oz.826766139927Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerWATERMELON SLICE 1/55Z55 oz.826766139941Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerWATERMELON CHUNK 1/5LB80 oz.826766896011Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerHONEYDEW CHUNKS 1/10Z10 oz.49022558632Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerMELON SPEAR TRIO 1/16Z16 oz.826766139590Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerMIXED SPEARS 1/16Z16 oz.826766139606Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerWATERMELON SPEAR 1/16Z16 oz.826766139620Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerFRUIT TRAY LRG W/DIP 1/63Z63 oz.826766145393Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerWATERMELON SPEAR 1/4LB64 oz.826766181704Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerFRU TRAY LG W/WATMLN 1/64.75Z64.75 oz.826766185498Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerSALAD FIESTA FRUIT 1/18Z18 oz.826766185641Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
KrogerCANTALOUPE CHUNK 1/5LB80 oz.826766896578Clear Generic Label Distributed by Renaissance Food Group4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionFRUIT MIX 6/5Z5 oz.884853630610Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionCANTALOUPE CHUNKS 1/80Z80 oz.884853631266Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionWATERMELON SPEAR 4/28Z28 oz.884853630672Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionCANTALOUPE SPEARS 6/16Z16 oz.884853630856Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionFRUIT BURST 6/10Z10 oz.884853630887Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionMELON MIX 6/10Z10 oz.884853630894Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionFRUIT MIX 6/10Z10 oz.884853630900Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionHONEYDEW CHUNKS 6/10Z10 oz.884853630924Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionCANTALOUPE CHUNKS 6/10Z10 oz.884853630931Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionWATERMELON CHUNKS 6/9.5Z9.5 oz.884853630948Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionFRUIT BURST 4/20Z20 oz.884853630955Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionFRUIT MIX 3/48Z48 oz.884853630962Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionMELON MIX 6/16Z16 oz.884853630986Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionFRUIT MIX 6/16Z16 oz.884853630993Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionFRUIT TRAY 3/32Z32 oz.884853631006Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionFRUIT PARTY PLATTER 3/64Z64 oz.884853631013Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionWATERMELON SPEAR 6/16Z16 oz.884853631068Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SpartanNash DistributionHONEYDEW CHUNKS 1/80Z80 oz.884853631273Open Acres4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SproutsWATERMELON CHUNK 6/18Z18 oz.646670522406Sprouts Farmers Market4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SproutsMELON MIX CHUNK 6/20Z20 oz.646670522437Sprouts Farmers Market4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SproutsWATERMELON CHUNK 6/9.5Z9.5 oz.646670522444Sprouts Farmers Market4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SproutsFRUIT BURST 6/10Z10 oz.646670522482Sprouts Farmers Market4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SproutsFRUIT PARTY PLATTER 3/64Z64 oz.646670522499Sprouts Farmers Market4/27/18 – 06/16/18
SproutsWATERMELON SPEAR 6/16Z16 oz.826766893850Sprouts Farmers Market4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Trader JoesCANTALOUPE SLICE Trader Joe’s 12/16Z16 oz.00952668Trader Joe’s4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensMELON MIX 1/10Z10 oz.49022519114Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensWATERMELON CHUNK 1/5Z5 oz.49022519138Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensCANTALOUPE SNACK CUP WAG 1/5Z5 oz.49022519169Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensSEASONAL FRUIT SALAD 1/10Z10 oz.49022519183Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensTROPICAL MEDLEY 1/10Z10 oz.49022536999Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensMANGO PINE LOPE SPEAR WAG 1/5Z5 oz.49022537019Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensFRUIT BURST 1/10Z10 oz.49022558625Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensWATERMELON SPEAR 1/16Z16 oz.49022588219Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensCANTALOUPE SPEAR WAG 1/16Z16 oz.49022588240Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensFRUIT SALAD SEASONAL WAG 1/32Z32 oz.49022637764Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensFRUIT TRAY 1/22Z22 oz.49022683129Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensWATERMELON CHUNK 1/9.5Z9.5 oz.49022804586Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensFRUIT SPEAR ASSORTED 1/16Z16 oz.49022813823Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensCANTALOUPE CHUNK 1/10Z10 oz.49022822436Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensFRUIT MIX 1/10Z10 oz.49022822443Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalgreensWATERMELON CHUNK 1/18Z18 oz.49022923331Delish4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartCANTALOUPE SPEAR 4/10Z10 oz.681131180146Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartCANTALOUPE SPEAR 4/16Z16 oz.681131180153Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartFRUIT TRAY 2/48Z48 oz.681131180207Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartFRUIT BOWL 2/40Z40 oz.681131180238Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartSEASONAL BLEND 4/10Z10 oz.681131180481Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartSEASONAL BLEND 4/16Z16 oz.681131180498Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartSEASONAL BLEND 2/32Z32 oz.681131180504Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartWATERMELON CHUNK 2/42Z40 oz.681131180658Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartWATERMELON SPEAR 4/16Z16 oz.681131180665Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartWATERMELON SPEAR 4/10Z10 oz.681131180672Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartWATERMELON SPEAR 2/32Z32 oz.681131180689Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartSEASONAL TRIO 2/32Z32 oz.681131180696Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartWATERMELON QUARTERS 4/44Z47 oz.681131221719Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartMELON BERRY MIX 4/10Z13 oz.826766254248Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
WalmartSALAD SEASONAL FRUIT 4/10Z13 oz.826766254262Freshness Guaranteed4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Whole Foods/AmazonMELON COMBO20 oz.82676681120Whole Foods Market Label4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Whole Foods/AmazonFRUIT TRAY SMALL36 oz.826766811274Whole Foods Market Label4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Whole Foods/AmazonFRUIT SALAD SEASONAL20 oz.826766810987Whole Foods Market Label4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Whole Foods/AmazonCANTALOUPE CHUNKS10 oz.826766811199Whole Foods Market Label4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Whole Foods/AmazonWATERMELON CHUNKS9.5 oz.826766810956Whole Foods Market Label4/27/18 – 06/16/18
Whole Foods/AmazonWatermelon Spears,16 oz.826766810970Whole Foods Market Label4/27/18 – 06/16/18
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click )
© Food Safety News
More Headlines from Food Recalls »
Excerpt From The Worldview Dimension of Gaia Education’s online Course In Design For Sustainability
May 20, 2018
Food and Health
Excerpt From The Worldview Dimension of Gaia Education’s online Course In Design For Sustainability
Daniel Christian WahlEducator, speaker, strategic advisor — Ph.D. Design for Sustainability, MSc Holistic Science, BSc Biol. Sciences; author of ‘Designing Regenerative Cultures’
“People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the health industry which pays no attention to food.”
— Wendell Berry
The creation and support of local food economies, based on the sustainable use of renewable local resources, are the most important first step in creating health and resilience at the regional scale. Paying more attention to what we are eating and where it comes from and making responsible choices will not only improve our health but also the health of our communities, the health of local ecosystems and the health of the planet as a whole.
The creation of local and sustainable food economies is one of the most rapidly effective and employable salutogenic design strategies responsible citizens and local, regional and national governments can employ right now. As we have already explored to some extent in the Economic Dimension of this course, the current globalized food system destroys the environment, atrophies local communities and creates both human and environmental health problems. It also is a major contributor to global and national inequity and therefore population health. In creating local food economies, we have the opportunity to solve a whole range of ecological, social and economic problems at the same time.
Predominantly localized, sustainable food production will be one of the mutually reinforcing elements of a dynamic local and regional economy, along with a localized building industry, localized energy production and an empowerment of local political institutions through the participatory design principle of subsidiarity.
The future of the global food system, by Charles J. Godfray et al. Although food prices in major world markets are at or near a historical low, there is increasing concern about food security — the ability of the world to provide healthy and environmentally sustainable diets for all its peoples.
Bringing the Food Economy Home. Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness, by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Todd Merrified and Steven Gorelick.
In 2013 and important UNCTAD report called for an urgent return to small-scale highly productive traditional and organic farming practices. ( image middle, image right)
With climate change identified as one of the single most dangerous threats facing humanity, one of the strongest arguments in favor of localized food economies is that more self-reliant, local food economies produce far less pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, than food supplied by a globalized food trade. The highly decentralized nature of local food production and consumption reduces the environmental damage incurred by transporting food to distant markets.
There is another energy use related advantage of local food production over food supplied by the globalized agricultural and food businesses: “Since local foods are more often consumed fresh, they usually require far less packaging, processing, and refrigeration” (Norberg-Hodge et al., 2000, p.11). As more and more people are taking responsibility for their own consumer behavior and begin to support local food initiatives, a number of win-win situation arise for these people and their communities.
The International Society for Ecology and Culture has been a leading advocate of the multiple benefits of local food systems, as they improve community cohesion, resilience, health, and sustainability.
“While enjoying the health benefits of preparing and eating fresher more wholesome foods, they are also discovering the sheer pleasure of shopping at farmers’ markets, of knowing the people that produce their food, of connecting more closely with the place where they live. Shortening the links between farmers and consumers may in fact be the most strategic and enjoyable way to bring about fundamental change for the better.”
— Helena Norberg-Hodge (et al., 2000, pp.5–6)
What type of food system we design and the farming practices we follow have a substantial impact on the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and therefore significantly affect global climate change patterns. “Farming, as presently practiced, contributes about one-fourth of the risk of altering the Earth’s climate.”(Hawken, Lovins & Lovins, 2000).
Improving soil health through sustainable regionalized agriculture has benefits for both human and planetary health. We already addressed these issues in detail in the Ecological Dimension when we explore the potential of regenerative agriculture in climate mitigation as well as its role in solving the global food and water crises.
“The world’s cultivated soils contain about twice as much carbon as the atmosphere … The earth’s 5 billion acres of degraded soils are particularly low in carbon and in need of carbon-absorbing vegetative cover. Increasing degraded soil’s carbon content at plausible rates could absorb about as much carbon as all human activity emits. This would also improve soil, water, and air quality, agricultural productivity, and human prosperity.”
— Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins & Hunter Lovins(2000, p.205)
Natural Capitalism is a critique of traditional “Industrial Capitalism”, saying that the traditional system of capitalism “does not fully conform to its own accounting principles. It liquidates its capital and calls it income. It neglects to assign any value to the largest stocks of capital it employs- the natural resources and living systems, as well as the social and cultural systems that are the basis of human capital.” There are many people and institutions all over the globe doing excellent work in promoting sustainable agricultural practices.
Wes Jackson and the Land Institute in the USA have twenty-five years of experience in researching ‘the way nature farms’. One of their aims is to create healthy and productive perennial food crop systems based on the example of the North American tallgrass prairie.
Navdanya in India was founded by physicist and activist Vandana Shiva in order to promote non-violent farming which protects biodiversity, the Earth, and small farmers.
The Centre for Food Safety provides up-to-date information about the important link between nutrition (the quantity and types of foods we eat) and human health, including the dangers of GMO foods.
Other important networks to be aware of in this context are Slow Food and Via Campesina, Food First, as well as, the Soil Association, which promotes healthy soils for healthy people and a healthy planet.
“Globalized industrialized food is not cheap: it is too costly for the Earth, for the farmers, for our health. The Earth can no longer carry the burden of groundwater mining, pesticide pollution, disappearance of species and destabilization of the climate. Farmers can no longer carry the burden of debt, which is inevitable in industrial farming with its high costs of production. It is incapable of producing safe, culturally appropriate, tasty, quality food. And it is incapable of producing enough food for all because it is wasteful of land, water and energy. Industrial agriculture uses ten times more energy than it produces. It is thus ten times less efficient.”
— Vandana Shiva, Navdanya International
Note: This is an excerpt from the Worldview Dimension of Gaia Education’s online course in Design for Sustainability. In 2012 I was asked to rewrite this dimension as part of a collaboration between Gaia Education and the Open University of Catalunya (UOC) and in 2016 I revised it again into this current version. The next opportunity to join the course is with the start of the Worldview Dimension on May 21st, 2018. You might also enjoy my book ‘Designing Regenerative Cultures’.
Daniel Christian Wahl
Educator, speaker, strategic advisor — PhD Design for Sustainability, MSc Holistic Science, BSc Biol. Sciences; author of ‘Designing Regenerative Cultures’
5 Food Safety Best Practices You Need to Know
5 Food Safety Best Practices You Need to Know
by Mia Lauenroth | May 9, 2018 | Business Mgt & Operations
On April 10, 2018, an E. coli outbreak in the US was reported to the CDC. By April 9, 17 people were already infected. At the time this blog was published, there had been 149 infected people from 29 states, 64 hospitalizations, 1 death, and zero recalls.
Foodborne illness outbreaks are largely preventable by practicing food safety. While accidents happen, there are many things you can do to prevent contamination and thwart illness before it ever has a chance to reach your customers.
Making someone sick can have serious consequences. Did you know that listeria can cause paralysis and even blindness? That salmonella can cause chronic arthritic pain?
Contamination is a risk in every step of the process, from production to preparation. While farming indoors with controlled environments and little to no risk of animal contamination can mitigate many food safety concerns, it is still an important issue to consider.
Here are the top things to consider when involved in selling or producing commercial produce:
(These are suggestions, so please make sure to consult your state and federal regulations before selling any produce.)
Hygiene
Making sure that you and your employees practice good hygiene, especially before entering the farm, is momentous in preventing contamination.
Hands—to avoid contamination, wash hands thoroughly for at least 30 seconds and wear gloves when handling produce. This doesn’t mean those flimsy, scratchy, cloth gloves you get from Ace Hardware for gardening. It’s a good idea to get one-use, latex-free (to avoid allergens) nitrile gloves. Dispose of them after each use.
- It is also good practice to keep children out of the farms—kids can be pretty messy. If you’d like your farm operation to be a family activity, make sure that your kids follow the same hygiene principles that you do.
- Keep animals out of farms at all times. If there has been evidence of animal activity, you will need to investigate and possibly dispose of produce.
- PPE (gowns)—Dedicate “clean suits” for yourself and employees wear inside your farm. These could be reusable or disposable sanitary gowns or coveralls that you wash frequently. Consider wearing hair nets, beard nets, and sleeves for extra protection if/while packaging.
- Leave food and drink outside the farm. In addition to potentially carrying unwanted bacteria, external food and beverages may bring allergens into your farm that could pose risks to your consumers. Leaving them out of the farm all together will help avoid that risk.
- Minimize the number of personal items allowed in the farm. This includes cell phones, jewelry, nail polish, hair extensions, and even band-aids. These things can fall or chip off into the produce, and often carry bacteria. If you do need to wear a band-aid, make sure it is properly secured and covered with a glove, sleeve, etc.
- Keep ill employees out of the farm until you are sure there is no risk of contamination. Good practice is to keep them out until at least 24 hours after symptoms end.
Supplier Control
You probably rely on external suppliers for many items within your farm; from structural components to system inputs. Anyone of these could potentially harm your product, so choose very carefully where you get your supplies.
- Is the company reputable?
- Have you looked into their processes and/or systems?
- What food safety protocol do they follow?
- How will they notify you of a recall?
What about your seeds, plugs, trays, lights, and even nutrients? Are they guaranteed to be safe? When possible, get a letter of guarantee for each of the items supplied to you by an external supplier. This is your opportunity to make sure that all of your supplies meet your high standards for food safety!
Traceability
If one of your plants becomes contaminated, it’s likely that the plants surrounding it are also at risk. Traceability allows you and the consumer to identify where in each plant’s life cycle they may have been put at risk. Consider tracking each plant from seed all the way to packaging and sale. You don’t have to track each and every seed, but you should track from which supplier the seeds came, and from which package. This could be a life-saver if a plant was contaminated as a seed before it even reached your farm.
In addition to seeds, track the other items in your supply chain. For example, document which tray held each seedling and where that tray came from. An easy way to do this is to assign each system component a name, a number, or a combination of the two. Use a spreadsheet or a traceability software to keep track of them. This way, if one of your consumables has a recall, it’s easy for you to identify where and how you use it in your farm.
Recall program. Recall programs are often implemented in very large-scale commercial food service companies and are used to remove product from the market that has been identified as being potentially harmful to consumers. Unless you are a large commercial supplier, you probably won’t be too involved in this.
Sanitation Program
- Tools—make sure that your tools are cleaned before and after each use. Also, ensure that any cleaning supplies such as brooms and mops are specifically designated to the farm. A regular household mop could bring in any number of outside contaminants!
- Make certain that the way you transport your produce is sanitary, and minimize the likelihood that customers could handle the food before purchasing.
- Have a process in place for sanitizing and sterilizing all system components before and after each crop cycle. Make sure you use food-grade chemicals so you don’t kill your plants or your customers!
GAP/GMP
GAP: Good Agricultural Practices. These ensure that your grow operations encourage a food-safe environment. GAPs make sure that the way you grow your produce is safe and clean. These are often required by grocery stores, so if you plan on entering that market, make sure to ask if they’re required. We recommend that everyone who sells produce acquire a GAP certification.
GMP: Good Manufacturing Practices. These are requirements you must meet to ensure that you produce safe food, and focus on the food processing at your farm. This means harvesting and anything that happens to the produce after. These practices track the quality of almost everything that happens in your farm, including your system components and processes.
Additional Considerations
- Allergens—when dealing with foods, make sure to state which allergens may have come in contact with your produce, and which allergens are concurrently produced at your facility. Also, consider which allergens you bring into your farms by handling them; You don’t want to make someone sick because you ate a peanut butter bar and then touched the produce you sell.
- EMP or Environmental Monitoring Program helps manage the conditions that could encourage the growth of microorganisms that cause foodborne illnesses including how effective your sanitation and hygiene programs are.
- Storage temperature. Produce needs to be kept cool after harvest in order to keep it from accumulating or growing bacteria or diseases. The food-safe temperature is 41º F or below. If produce is brought below this point and then rises above again in temperature, the risk of contamination is increased, and the food is unsafe. If you will be harvesting a long time before selling your produce, consider implementing cold storage.
Conclusion
Whether it’s just you running your farm or you employ helpers, you need to make sure that everyone entering your farm is aware of the food safety risks and the tools they can use to prevent illness. Though there is more concern when you’re selling your produce to a market, you should also keep good food safety practices if you run a small hobby system at home. You can ensure that your produce is safe for consumption and keep your consumers healthy by employing food safety tactics in your farm.
“About 48 million people in the U.S. (1 in 6) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die each year from foodborne diseases, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is a significant public health burden that is largely preventable.” — FDA FSMA https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/FSMA/
Additional resources
MotorLeaf: The Farming AI Which Helps Boost Modern Indoor Farms
MotorLeaf: The Farming AI Which Helps Boost Modern Indoor Farms
from RESET
Published on 23 May 2018
MotorLeaf introduces a green-fingered AI which can help indoor farms match the growing food demands of the future.
The Agronomist AI uses a range of wirelessly connected devices to monitor crops.
The recent expansion of agricultural tech, combined with emerging food security concerns, has led to the development of modern agricultural practices which seem a million miles away from the rolling green fields and romanticised ideas of farming yore.
For example, we recently reported on AeroFarms, a US-based company exploring the concept of urban vertical farming, while elsewhere, technological greenhouses can utilize new systems to greatly reduce water consumption without compromising on yield. Indeed, in many cases, the yield is drastically increased.
MotorLeaf is the latest company to find a role in this new market. The artificial intelligence developer has created a new AI which can help urban and indoor growers to monitor their crops, and predict issues in real time.
Their Agronomist AI uses data-driven machine-based learning to provide indoor farms with a comprehensive suite of insights, whether relating to potential yield or even predicting disease. Put all together, this data can help reduce waste and crop failure - something which will only become more important as more stress is put on the agricultural sector by population growth and climate change induced weather patterns.
Many of Agronomist’s services can be used individually or combined together with the MotorLeaf HEART system to operate as a larger AI manager of an indoor farm or greenhouse. Every four seconds, MotorLeaf’s AI collects data from a collection of wirelessly connected devices which can provide information on factors such as light spectrum, light intensity, CO2, humidity, air temperature, water usage and chemical makeup.
Recent trials conducted in California led to a fifty percent reduction in yield prediction errors of tomatoes, and with recently secured funding, they are seeking to expand the product to different crops and scales.
Can AI Be Environmental?
Currently, the system is mostly being used in hi-tech, comparatively low-yield indoor farms in developed nations - and is it likely to remain that way for some time. Furthermore, the current goal of MotorLeaf appears to be making these ventures more profitable and cost-effective, and less concerned with environmental protection - although the two are not mutually exclusive.
Despite this, technology such as the Agromost.ai or similar could also have major implications for farms and greenhouses in developing nations. Although the current expense and technical know-how required to operate such software may be beyond most farmers in the Global South, the ability to predict disaster and better monitor the conditions of your crops could become an invaluable tool in the fight against famines, crop failure, and poor weather conditions.
If AI is to become a tool of future, it should also be used broadly to help those most in need of its utility. AI that remains the sole possession of developed nations is likely only to exacerbate inequalities and economic gulfs between states. However, as AI becomes more widespread, and the tech it relies on cheaper and more available, it could be an important player in supporting an agricultural sector that can feed the entire world. Additionally, much else remains to be debated about AI from a social standpoint, including its potential impact on employment, not only in manufacturing but in a range of sectors and roles.
Urban Farmer Jon Walsh Finds Fertile Ground In Tokyo
Jon Walsh stands in a community garden. Photo: Steve Morin
Urban Farmer Jon Walsh Finds Fertile Ground In Tokyo
May 20, 2018
By Joan Bailey TOKYO
Seven years ago, Jon Walsh watched as earthquakes shook his home country of New Zealand and his current home in Japan. Like many, his mind turned to disaster-preparedness; however, his train of thought took a different track: food security.
He planted a garden and found the 6 x 1-meter space produced more than his family could eat. Inspired, Jon decided to add urban farming workshops and garden creation to the existing menu of services offered by Business Grow, his company that specializes in writing, editing, and marketing services. Japan Today talked with Jon to learn more about urban farming and what his vision is for the future of it in Tokyo and beyond.
How would you describe your work as an urban farmer?
My objective is to make urban farming sexy – something that people don’t necessarily think they should do, but something they want to start because it is attractive and they understand the benefits of it. My underlying goal is to encourage the younger generation to get into urban farming because let’s face it, they are the future.
I focus on showing people how to grow healthy food – minus chemicals – in the city, and recycling where possible. I don’t just grow food; I provide urban farming training for individuals, families, students, companies, universities, such as Lakeland College, and organizations like Social Innovation Japan. The trainings are also supported by consulting services and an expanding range of resources that includes articles, how-to guides, lesson materials and self-learning packs. These all help people learn and pass on key food growing skills.
I strongly hope my work inspires people to start growing food in ways that can make it a viable livelihood." Photo: Steve Morin
"How does urban farming fit with the concept of sustainability?
I see urban farming as crucial in the overall picture of global sustainability. If done correctly (i.e. without chemicals), it only produces good: good food, strengthened communities, better personal and environmental health, and self-sufficiency. Plus, if there’s a natural disaster, that homegrown food could save our lives.
Urban farming seems new to many people not because these skills were "lost," but because they were never taught them in the first place. This is a big deal because food means life. Taking control of our food supply allows us to take control of our health because so much of the food currently consumed is produced in factories and laced with chemicals.
You have many different projects underway – rooftop gardens at hotels and offices, school gardens and food-focused CSR programs, which donate some of the harvest to food banks. Where do you see the greatest potential?
Hotel and office gardens. Landing the Grand Hyatt Tokyo organic garden project was a huge milestone. As a first garden installation project, it was a significant confidence booster and triggered a lot of interest.
Office gardens have a different dynamic from school or home gardens and present a unique challenge. My plan this year is to encourage and show office staff in large office buildings how to set up rooftop gardens. Over time, each company would have their own corporate garden where staff would visit during lunch breaks and after work to tend and grow food.
The space would become a fragrant, colorful garden. Staff from different offices would swap gardening tips and tools, share food and create bonds. At the end of the evening, workers would go home with vegetables they grew, solid evidence of the success of a true urban farming project.
Jon Walsh gives a seminar at Lakeland College. Photo: Daniel Calvert
Jon Walsh conducts an event at Social Innovation Japan. Photo: Social Innovation Japan
What effect do you think your work could have on farming as a livelihood in the city?
I strongly hope my work inspires people to start growing food in ways that can make it a viable livelihood. Space is, of course, a key factor as it determines yield. I am hoping that, particularly here in Japan, the falling population will free up more land in towns and cities that could be turned into community gardens. Coupled with some of the stunningly creative ideas for vertical and indoor farming out there, this would also enable these places to become more self-sustaining.
What is your vision for the future of food and Business Grow?
I would love to run this type of business in my home city of Auckland. In many suburbs, almost every house has a lawn but not every house has a garden. That means every street, as well as offices, hotels, hospitals and shops with safe rooftops and surrounding spare space would be an opportunity to grow a business like this.
I also want to see fresh, free, healthy food growing on every street that anyone walking by can pick. I want to see schools teaching comprehensive food growing programs, and companies receiving subsidies and tax deductions if they run their staff through urban farming programs. I would like people to realize that growing food is one of the most positive and impacting things we can do to improve our world, and it starts with the food we decide to put on our plates.
The bottom line is that our food should be nurturing, strengthening and healing us. Every step in the process of sharing the importance of producing and sharing real food is important, because small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.
- EXTERNAL LINK
- http://www.businessgrow.net/
© Japan Today
The Journey To Fully Traceable Crops
Mikhail Hutton Helping farmers with their security, compliance, and scale at @Agrilyst.
May 9, 2018
The Journey To Fully Traceable Crops
The current E.coli outbreak has hospitalized dozens of people and caused one death so far. It is still unknown which farm or processor led to the outbreak. We believe this is unacceptable and solvable, and so today we’re releasing a new feature: Digital Compliance.
There are three big challenges with food safety compliance today: it is expensive and time intensive to document, the regulations apply primarily to packing and shipping not growing, and the regulations are relatively vague.
Let’s talk about documentation. This all starts with a Food Safety Plan which outlines standard operating procedures. Typically this includes things like: traceability procedures, employee training, visitor procedures, hygiene requirements, and water testing procedures.
For anything outlined in the Food Safety Plan, you are required to maintain logs. For example, in order to meet the requirement of training employees on food safety, you’ll need to not only provide the training material but also a log of when each employee receives the training.
Sample training log from the Produce Safety Alliance
This is cumbersome. And expensive. The FDA estimates it will cost small growers between $6,000 and $25,000 annually in record-keeping costs alone.
For the larger multi-acre greenhouses who work with us it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in both man hours and crops. It’s not uncommon for us to see some of the larger facilities hire a full-time person or team just to focus on compliance.
And although food safety compliance used to be optional by buyer demand (a buyer could demand third party audits), it is now mandatory for any grower selling more than $25,000 each year (under FSMA). So this isn’t just something we’re thinking about, it’s something every grower needs to pay attention to.
And as I mentioned earlier, the requirements typically apply to post-harvest processes. There are little tracking requirements for the crop while it’s growing. Hence why we’re having trouble tracking down the farm where the current E.coli outbreak started.
At Agrilyst, we want to change this. We believe in full traceability from seed to stomach and are making that process as easy and cost-effective for the grower as possible.
So how do we do that?
Documentation
We wanted to make it easier for people to store documents like their Food Safety Plan, Standard Operating Procedures, Training Materials, and Farm Layout right in Agrilyst. Now instead of storing documents in a dusty binder, they’re accessible to everyone in the organization and auditors with the click of a button.
Automating Logs
You are already completing logs in Agrilyst…we just call them tasks. Every time you check off a task in Agrilyst, that task stores data: who completed the task, when was it completed, how did crops perform, were they moved, by whom, were things completed as expected or was a corrective action needed?
Now you can simply search for that information and store the logs along with your other food safety documents. And, you can store crop logs as well. This isn’t required under any food safety protocol, but we believe it’s a critical step in transparency.
Track Crops
Crops in Agrilyst are always assigned a unique ID. You can also assign a barcode to a batch. Both of these make all of your crops searchable and trackable. A critical component of food safety protocol is the ability to track crops one step forward and one step backward. With Agrilyst, you can track what inputs went into a batch and where a batch ultimately went by assigning barcodes and unique IDs.
In the case of an outbreak, once a batch is recalled, a grower can find all similar batches with a quick search and we can mitigate issues like we’re currently having. More about how we do this here.
Not Just For Food Safety
This is about more than just food safety. Our cannabis growers are also required to track crops from seed to sale and Compliance helps growers do just that. Our flower growers think about traceability too. Logging and compliance are two of the biggest components of running a commercial farm and we’re here to make that process easier and more cost-efficient. Think of us as an insurance policy and traceability is the data gateway to higher margins.
Have questions or thoughts? I want to hear from you. You can email me directly at mhutton@agrilyst.com to learn more about our Compliance feature.
To find out if you’ll have to comply with the Produce Safety Rule and see how Agrilyst can help you do that, go to www.agrilyst.com/food-safety.
Like what you read? Give Mikhail Hutton a round of applause.
From a quick cheer to a standing ovation, clap to show how much you enjoyed this story.
The Greenhouse
Stories about agriculture and agtech from the team
FAO Releases Alarming Report On Soil Pollution
FAO Releases Alarming Report On Soil Pollution
Untreated urban waste is amongst those human activities that contaminate our soils. Credit: Hermes Rivera on Unsplash
ROME, May 4, 2018 (IPS) - Soil pollution is posing a serious threat to our environment, to our sources of food and ultimately to our health. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warns that there is still a lack of awareness about the scale and severity of this threat.
FAO released a report titled “Soil Pollution: A Hidden Reality” at the start of a global symposium which has been taking place 2-4 May 2018 at FAO headquarters, participated by experts and policymakers to discuss the threat of soil pollution in order to build an effective framework for a cohesive international response.
Background: What is soil pollution?
“Soil pollution refers to the presence of a chemical or substance out of place and/or present at a higher than the normal concentration that has adverse effects on any non-targeted organism. Soil pollution often cannot be directly assessed or visually perceived, making it a hidden danger” states the FAO report. As a “hidden danger” right below our feet, soil pollution turns out to be underestimated affecting everyone – humans and animals.
The FAO report warns that this dangerous phenomenon should be of concern worldwide. Its consequences are not limited to the degrading of our soils: ultimately, it also poisons the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. Soil pollution significantly reduces food security, not only by reducing crop yields due to toxic levels of contaminants but also by causing crops produced from polluted soils unsafe for consumptions both for animals and humans
The Global Symposium on Soil Pollution (GSOP18), aims to be a step to build a common platform to discuss the latest data on the status, trends and actions on soil pollution and its threatening consequences on human health, food safety and the environment.
The report prepared by FAO shows how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are deeply linked with the issue of addressing soil pollution. SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Wealth and Well-Being), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and SDG 15 (Life on Land) have all targets which have direct reference to soil resources, particularly soil pollution and degradation in relation to food security.
Furthermore, the widespread consensus that was achieved on the Declaration on soil pollution during the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-3, December 2017) is an obvious sign of global determination to tackle pollution and its causes, which mainly originate from human activities. Unsustainable farming practices, industrial activities and mining, untreated urban waste and other non-environmental friendly practices are amongst the main causes of soil pollution, highlights FAO’s report.
Facts and figures to note
The FAO report is an updated benchmark of scientific research on soil pollution and it can be a critical tool to identify and plug global information gaps and therefore advance a cohesive international response to soil pollution.
According to findings of the report, the current situation is of high concern. For example, the amount of chemicals produced by the European chemical industry in 2015 was 319 million tonnes. Of that, 117 million tonnes were deemed hazardous to the environment.
Global production of municipal solid waste was around 1.3 billion tonnes per year in 2012 and it is expected to rise to 2.2 billion tonnes annually by 2025. Some developing countries have notably increased their use of pesticides over the last decade. Rwanda and Ethiopia by over six times, Bangladesh by four times and Sudan by ten times.
The report also highlights that “the total number of contaminated sites is estimated at 80,000 across Australia; in China, the Chinese Environmental Protection Ministry, estimated that 16 percent of all Chinese soils and 19 percent of its agricultural soils are categorized as polluted”.
“In the European Economic Area and cooperating countries in the West Balkans” adding, “there are approximately 3 million potentially polluted sites”. While in the United States of America (USA) there are “more than 1,300 polluted or contaminated sites”. These facts are stunning and the international community needs to turn its urgent attention to preserve the state of our soils and to remediate polluted soils into concrete action.
The report also warns that studies which have been conducted, have largely been limited to developed economies because of the inadequacy of available information in developing countries and because of the differences in registering polluted sites across geographic regions.
This means that there are clearly massive information gaps regarding the nature and extent of soil pollution. Despite that, the limited information available is enough for deep concern, the report adds.
A growing concern
“The more we learn, the more we know we need cleaner dirt,” said FAO’s Director of Communication, Enrique Yeves, confirming the urgency of the UN agency to address the issue of soil pollution as soon as possible.
Concern and awareness over soil pollution are increasing worldwide. The report highlights the positive increase in research conducted on soil pollution around the world and fortunately, determination is turning into action at international and national levels.
Soil pollution was at the center of discussion during the Fifth Global Soil Partnership (GSP) Plenary Assembly (GSP, 2017) and not long ago, the UNE3 adopted a resolution calling for accelerated actions and collaboration to address and manage soil pollution. “This consensus” highlights FAO’s report, “achieved by more than 170 countries, is a clear sign of the global relevance of pollution and of the willingness of these countries to develop concrete solutions to address pollution problems”.
FAO’s World Soil Charter recommends that “national governments implement regulations on soil pollution and limit the accumulation of contaminants beyond established levels in order to guarantee human health and wellbeing. Governments are also urged to facilitate remediation of contaminated soils”.
“It is also essential to limit pollution from agricultural sources by the global implementation of sustainable soil management practices”. These recommendations need to be adequately addressed both at international and national levels, in line with the 2030 agenda.
Zooey Deschanel Has Strong Opinions About What You Should Be Eating
Zooey Deschanel Has Strong Opinions About What You Should Be Eating
BY CATHLEEN KRUEGER MAY 03, 2018
Zooey Deschanel is opening up about her latest venture, The Farm Project, and why she wants you to start asking questions about your food.
“The more that you ask questions and find out where the food [comes and who is growing it, it’s going to totally affect what you buy,” the “New Girl” actress told LIVESTRONG.COM at the opening of the L.A. Food Bowl on May 1. “And when you buy locally, your food is going to be more nutritious, it’s going to taste better and it’s going to be better for the environment.
“And you might not be eating the same thing all year round, but it’s going to create a more interesting plate for you,” she adds.
Deschanel co-founded The Farm Project with her husband, Jacob Pechenik, to empower people to eat local, sustainable, seasonal and organic food.
“Our whole mission is we’re trying to make sustainable, local food as affordable and easy as packaged and processed alternatives,” she told People last year.
As for her own eating habits, Deschanel has been outspoken about her unsuccessful attempts to go vegan in the past. “I have a lot of food sensitivities,” she tells Health. “I can’t eat wheat or soy, and it was very difficult to eat and get enough calories. It was even impossible to eat at a vegan restaurant.”
So she and her family, which includes daughter Elsie, 2, and son Charlie, 1, eat a “flexitarian” diet.
“We’re kind of, like, flexible vegetarians,” she tells LIVESTRONG.COM. “Because if I’m, like, in somewhere, I might have fish. But [the children] don’t really eat any meat. [Elsie] will have a little egg and cheese sometimes. But we’re mostly vegetarian.”
Deschanel also revealed that The Farm Project has been working on Lettuce Grow, a service that provides you with all the equipment and maintenance you need to run an urban farm. “We do these vertical gardens, so you can grow in a very small space,” she says.
So why should we care where our food comes from? Studies have linked pesticides to multiple chronic illnesses, including prostate cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma and breast cancer as well as Parkinson’s disease. What’s more, it’s estimated that Americans lose about 16.9 million IQ points every year due to exposure to organophosphates, the most commonly used pesticide.
Deschanel’s initiative to make local, organic food more accessible is incredibly important, considering that some of LIVESTRONG.COM’s users have mentioned that it can be difficult and costly to find organic options. If you’re on a budget, know that there are certain foods that are more essential to buy organic than others. Find out more by reading our lists of the 21 foods to always buy organic and the 16 foods that are OK to opt for nonorganic.
Has your interest been piqued? If so, watch Deschanel dive into the origins of our food and the potentially harmful processes that go into producing it in her Facebook educational series “Your Food’s Roots with Zooey Deschanel.” And be sure to read up on all the reasons why you should start buying organic!
What Do You Think?
Do you shop organic? How important to you is eating seasonal and local foods? Will you be watching out for more of The Farm Project’s work? Share in the comments section!
Judge Rules Non-Profits Can Sue Monsanto for Misleading Safety Labeling of Popular Herbicide Roundup
(Beyond Pesticides, May 7, 2018) Beyond Pesticides and The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) today responded to a federal judge’s ruling against Monsanto Co.’s motion to dismiss the groups’ lawsuit, filed in April, 2017. The lawsuit challenged Monsanto’s safety claim on its Roundup (glyphosate) products as misleading and fraudulent. Monsanto displays a claim on its Roundup product label that states that the chemicals in the product “targets an enzyme bound in plants but not in people or pets,” when, in fact, the chemical adversely affects beneficial bacteria essential to the gut biome and normal body functions.
Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, the lead plaintiff in the case, said:
“In the face of EPA’s poor regulation of pesticides, misleading pesticide product labeling cannot be left unchecked. The court’s decision to allow our case to move forward, in denying Monsanto’s motion to dismiss, is critical to showing that the company is deceiving the public with a safety claim on its Roundup (glyphosate) label. Its advertising and labeling claim that Roundup ‘targets an enzyme found in plants but not in people or pets’ is false, given the devastating harm that glyphosate has on beneficial bacteria in the gut biome. The disruption of the gut biome is associated with a host of 21st century diseases, including asthma, autism, bacterial vaginosis, cardiovascular disease, cancer, Crohn’s disease, depression, inflammatory bowel disease, leaky gut syndrome, multiple sclerosis, obesity, Type 1 and 2 diabetes, and Parkinson’s.
The science on the hazards of Roundup (glyphosate) are clear and Monsanto officials know it. With this case, we seek to ensure that the public is not misled by false advertising and product labeling in the marketplace. It is a critical step toward ensuring that people are fully informed before purchasing toxic products that can poison them, their families, and the communities where they live.”
OCA International Director, Ronnie Cummins said:
“Monsanto aggressively markets Roundup as ‘safe’ for humans and animals, despite newer studies indicating that glyphosate may be carcinogenic and its use may affect human and animal cardiovascular, endocrine, nervous and reproductive systems. No reasonable consumer seeing the claim on this product that glyphosate targets an enzyme not found ‘in people or pets’ would expect that Roundup actually targets an important bacterial enzyme found in humans and animals, affecting the health of their immune system.
Survey after survey shows that consumers rely on labels to guide their purchases and keep them and their families safe. When corporations mislead on the issue of a product’s effect on consumers and their families, they put everyone, but especially young children—in this case, playing in yards and parks—at risk, leaving the public no other recourse than to use the legal system to seek the removal of this misleading information.”
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, ruled that Beyond Pesticides and OCA presented enough evidence to support that Monsanto’s labeling of its flagship weedkiller, Roundup, misleads consumers.
Through their attorneys, Richman Law Group, Beyond Pesticides and OCA sued Monsanto on behalf of the general public, in Washington D.C., under the District of Columbia’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act, for misleading the public by labeling its popular weedkiller Roundup as “target[ing] an enzyme found in plants but not in people or pets.” The nonprofits allege that this statement is false, deceptive and misleading, because the enzyme targeted by glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is, in fact, found in people and pets.
Beyond Pesticides is a national grassroots non-profit organization headquartered in the District of Columbia that works with allies in protecting public health and the environment to lead the transition to a world free of toxic pesticides. For more information, visit www.beyondpesticides.org.
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots non-profit 501(c)3 public interest organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability. For more information, visit: www.organicconsumers.org.
Richman Law Group (RLG) is a boutique law firm specializing in consumer protection and civil rights. RLG is dedicated to serving the greater good by holding large corporations accountable for actions that harm consumers, the environment, and the general public. For more information, visit: www.richmanlawgroup.com.
CONTACT:
Jay Feldman, Beyond Pesticides, 202-543-5450
Katherine Paul, Organic Consumers Assoc.: (207) 653 3090
Why Maersk is Investing in AgriFood Tech Startups
Maersk, the end-to-end transport, and logistics company and the biggest food transporter in the world, is currently accepting applications from agrifood tech startups to take part in an equity-free startup support program called FoodTrack.
Why Maersk is Investing in AgriFood Tech Startups
Maersk, the end-to-end transport, and logistics company and the biggest food transporter in the world, is currently accepting applications from agrifood tech startups to take part in an equity-free startup support program called FoodTrack. The program, a partnership with the multi-vertical startup accelerator, Rockstart, will focus on combating food loss across the supply chain.
The Maersk Group has been involved in logistics and transport for more than a century and works across industries worldwide, with food a significant part of its business; the company ships more perishable food than anyone else, transporting 30% of all reefer containers (those designed for shipment of perishable goods).”
“In addressing the growing challenge of food loss, we believe a value chain approach towards the food system is required, and with Maersk’s substantial involvement in food transportation, we want to be part of the solution in collaboration with startups,” says Peter Votkjaer Jorgensen, venture partner at Maersk’s venture arm Maersk Growth.
To be part of that solution, Maersk Growth is hosting a month-long startup program at its headquarters in Copenhagen in June. The program will provide startups with exclusive access to Maersk leaders across departments as well as the company’s network of suppliers and partners to help validate their technologies. Startups will also gain insight into the technology systems already in use at Maersk and association with the brand will inevitably open doors in the future.
“We want to be the rocket fuel for these startups so together we can create significant impact across our value-chain,” says Jorgensen.
Participating startups will be in the running for an equity investment from Maersk Growth.
Food waste, a trillion dollar issue
As a major transporter of food globally, Maersk is no stranger to the challenge of food loss; one-third of food grown for human consumption is wasted and of that 80% occurs before it reaches retail stores. Startups with technologies aiming to combat food waste are eligible to take part in the month-long support program that’s aimed at validating how their business can be accelerated by the global presence, infrastructure and industry expertise Maersk has to offer, potentially ending in an investment from Maersk’s venture arm — Maersk Growth.
“With food waste being a trillion-dollar issue, it is simply good business for everyone in the value chain to address it, and we want to play our part in that,” says Jorgensen. Combatting food waste with technology could also play a key role in addressing supply chain efficiency and transparency, which Maersk is also committed to as part of its alignment with the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals.
The value of startup investments
Maersk believes investing in startups is a key way to meet these goals as they bring a new perspective and can offer diversity from other industries.
“Startups make us think differently about the challenges we want to solve,” says Jorgensen.
“The ideal partnership is where startups bring their agility and market perspective, and we merge that with our ability to scale.”
To that end, Maersk set up its venture arm in 2017 and decided to work with Rockstart on a program to get exposure to a wider number of entrepreneurs. While an equity investment is a potential outcome of the program, Maersk is already investing in the startups in the program by paying for their travel and accommodation expenses and does not require startups to give up any equity. But there is still a clear value proposition for the logistics giant.
“The purpose of FoodTrack is not to offer training; it’s investing,” says Jorgensen. “It is already quite a commitment for a startup to spend four to five weeks here in Copenhagen and we want to ensure we get the right startups participating; the decision for the startups should be about the value of a program with Maersk, not whether they want to release equity just to participate.”
What technologies?
Maersk wants a broad range of startups to apply to the program with a focus on combating food loss from field to distribution.
“This is where we see our own strength and also the part of the supply chain with by far the biggest loss component,” says Jorgensen. “Some technologies are likely to go across the entire supply chain, and we do have interest in those as well. The waste that happens at the consumer end is not within our reach.”
Technologies interesting to Maersk include packaging and preservation methods, improved information systems encouraging more transparency and information sharing across the supply chain, food condition tracking and analysis to determine if something is spoiling across the whole value chain, and new market opportunities where farmers and stakeholders can redistribute surplus produce.
To apply before the May 20 deadline, please click here.
*This article was sponsored by Maersk’s FoodTrack program
The Great Nutrient Collapse
The Great Nutrient Collapse
Geoff Johnson for POLITICO
The atmosphere is literally changing the food we eat, for the worse. And almost nobody is paying attention.
09/13/2017
Irakli Loladze is a mathematician by training, but he was in a biology lab when he encountered the puzzle that would change his life. It was in 1998, and Loladze was studying for his Ph.D. at Arizona State University. Against a backdrop of glass containers glowing with bright green algae, a biologist told Loladze and a half-dozen other graduate students that scientists had discovered something mysterious about zooplankton.
Zooplankton are microscopic animals that float in the world’s oceans and lakes, and for food they rely on algae, which are essentially tiny plants. Scientists found that they could make algae grow faster by shining more light onto them—increasing the food supply for the zooplankton, which should have flourished. But it didn’t work out that way. When the researchers shined more light on the algae, the algae grew faster, and the tiny animals had lots and lots to eat—but at a certain point they started struggling to survive. This was a paradox. More food should lead to more growth. How could more algae be a problem?
Loladze was technically in the math department, but he loved biology and couldn’t stop thinking about this. The biologists had an idea of what was going on: The increased light was making the algae grow faster, but they ended up containing fewer of the nutrients the zooplankton needed to thrive. By speeding up their growth, the researchers had essentially turned the algae into junk food. The zooplankton had plenty to eat, but their food was less nutritious, and so they were starving.
Loladze used his math training to help measure and explain the algae-zooplankton dynamic. He and his colleagues devised a model that captured the relationship between a food source and a grazer that depends on the food. They published that first paper in 2000. But Loladze was also captivated by a much larger question raised by the experiment: Just how far this problem might extend.
“What struck me is that its application is wider,” Loladze recalled in an interview. Could the same problem affect grass and cows? What about rice and people? “It was kind of a watershed moment for me when I started thinking about human nutrition,” he said.
In the outside world, the problem isn’t that plants are suddenly getting more light: It’s that for years, they’ve been getting more carbon dioxide. Plants rely on both light and carbon dioxide to grow. If shining more light results in faster-growing, less nutritious algae—junk-food algae whose ratio of sugar to nutrients was out of whack—then it seemed logical to assume that ramping up carbon dioxide might do the same. And it could also be playing out in plants all over the planet. What might that mean for the plants that people eat?
What Loladze found is that scientists simply didn’t know. It was already well documented that CO2levels were rising in the atmosphere, but he was astonished at how little research had been done on how it affected the quality of the plants we eat. For the next 17 years, as he pursued his math career, Loladze scoured the scientific literature for any studies and data he could find. The results, as he collected them, all seemed to point in the same direction: The junk-food effect he had learned about in that Arizona lab also appeared to be occurring in fields and forests around the world. “Every leaf and every grass blade on earth makes more and more sugars as CO2 levels keep rising,” Loladze said. “We are witnessing the greatest injection of carbohydrates into the biosphere in human history―[an] injection that dilutes other nutrients in our food supply.”
He published those findings just a few years ago, adding to the concerns of a small but increasingly worried group of researchers who are raising unsettling questions about the future of our food supply. Could carbon dioxide have an effect on human health we haven’t accounted for yet? The answer appears to be yes—and along the way, it has steered Loladze and other scientists, directly into some of the thorniest questions in their profession, including just how hard it is to do research in a field that doesn’t quite exist yet.
IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH, it’s been understood for some time that many of our most important foods have been getting less nutritious. Measurements of fruits and vegetables show that their minerals, vitamin and protein content has measurably dropped over the past 50 to 70 years. Researchers have generally assumed the reason is fairly straightforward: We’ve been breeding and choosing crops for higher yields, rather than nutrition, and higher-yielding crops—whether broccoli, tomatoes, or wheat—tend to be less nutrient-packed.
In 2004, a landmark study of fruits and vegetables found that everything from protein to calcium, iron and vitamin C had declined significantly across most garden crops since 1950. The researchers concluded this could mostly be explained by the varieties we were choosing to grow.
Loladze and a handful of other scientists have come to suspect that’s not the whole story and that the atmosphere itself may be changing the food we eat. Plants need carbon dioxide to live like humans need oxygen. And in the increasingly polarized debate about climate science, one thing that isn’t up for debate is that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is rising. Before the industrial revolution, the earth’s atmosphere had about 280 parts per million of carbon dioxide. Last year, the planet crossed over the 400 parts per million threshold; scientists predict we will likely reach 550 parts per million within the next half-century—essentially twice the amount that was in the air when Americans started farming with tractors.
If you’re someone who thinks about plant growth, this seems like a good thing. It has also been useful ammunition for politicians looking for reasons to worry less about the implications of climate change. Rep. Lamar Smith, a Republican who chairs the House Committee on Science, recently argued that people shouldn’t be so worried about rising CO2 levels because it’s good for plants, and what’s good for plants is good for us.
“A higher concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere would aid photosynthesis, which in turn contributes to increased plant growth,” the Texas Republican wrote. “This correlates to a greater volume of food production and better quality food.”
But as the zooplankton experiment showed, greater volume and better quality might not go hand-in-hand. In fact, they might be inversely linked. As best scientists can tell, this is what happens: Rising CO2 revs up photosynthesis, the process that helps plants transform sunlight to food. This makes plants grow, but it also leads them to pack in more carbohydrates like glucose at the expense of other nutrients that we depend on, like protein, iron and zinc.
In 2002, while a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, Loladze published a seminal research paper in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, a leading journal,arguing that rising CO2 and human nutrition were inextricably linked through a global shift in the quality of plants. In the paper, Loladze complained about the dearth of data: Among thousands of publications he had reviewed on plants and rising CO2, he found only one that looked specifically at how it affected the balance of nutrients in rice, a crop that billions of people rely on. (The paper, published in 1997, found a drop in zinc and iron.)
Increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is reducing the protein in staple crops like rice, wheat, barley and potatoes, raising unknown risks to human health in the future. | Getty Images
Loladze’s paper was first to tie the impact of CO2 on plant quality to human nutrition. But he also raised more questions than he answered, arguing that there were fundamental holes in the research. If these nutritional shifts were happening up and down the food chain, the phenomenon needed to be measured and understood.
Part of the problem, Loladze was finding, lay in the research world itself. Answering the question required an understanding of plant physiology, agriculture and nutrition―as well as a healthy dollop of math. He could do the math, but he was a young academic trying to establish himself, and math departments weren't especially interested in solving problems in farming and human health. Loladze struggled to get funding to generate new data and continued to obsessively collect published data from researchers across the globe. He headed to the heartland to take an assistant professor position at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It was a major agricultural school, which seemed like a good sign, but Loladze was still a math professor. He was told he could pursue his research interests as long as he brought in funding, but he struggled. Biology grant makers said his proposals were too math-heavy; math grant makers said his proposals contained too much biology.
“It was year after year, rejection after rejection,” he said. “It was so frustrating. I don’t think people grasp the scale of this.”
It’s not just in the fields of math and biology that this issue has fallen through the cracks. To say that it’s little known that key crops are getting less nutritious due to rising CO2 is an understatement. It is simply not discussed in the agriculture, public health or nutrition communities. At all.
When POLITICO contacted top nutrition experts about the growing body of research on the topic, they were almost universally perplexed and asked to see the research. One leading nutrition scientist at Johns Hopkins University said it was interesting, but admitted he didn’t know anything about it. He referred me to another expert. She said they didn’t know about the subject, either. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, an association representing an army of nutrition experts across the country, connected me with Robin Foroutan, an integrative medicine nutritionist who was also not familiar with the research.
“It’s really interesting, and you’re right, it’s not on many people’s radar,” wrote Foroutan, in an email, after being sent some papers on the topic. Foroutan said she would like to see a whole lot more data, particularly on how a subtle shift toward more carbohydrates in plants could affect public health.
"We don't know what a minor shift in the carbohydrate ratio in the diet is ultimately going to do,” she said, noting that the overall trend toward more starch and carbohydrate consumption has been associated with an increase in diet-related disease like obesity and diabetes. "To what degree would a shift in the food system contribute to that? We can't really say.”
Asked to comment for this story, Marion Nestle, a nutrition policy professor at New York University who’s one of the best-known nutrition experts in the country, initially expressed skepticism about the whole concept but offered to dig into a file she keeps on climate issues.
After reviewing the evidence, she changed her tune. “I’m convinced,” she said, in an email, while also urging caution: It wasn’t clear whether CO2-driven nutrient depletion would have a meaningful impact on public health. We need to know a whole lot more, she said.
Kristie Ebi, a researcher at the University of Washington who’s studied the intersection of climate change and global health for two decades, is one of a handful of scientists in the U.S. who is keyed into the potentially sweeping consequences of the CO2-nutrition dynamic, and brings it up in every talk she gives.
"It's a hidden issue,” Ebi said. “The fact that my bread doesn't have the micronutrients it did 20 years ago―how would you know?"
As Ebi sees it, the CO2-nutrition link has been slow to break through, much as it took the academic community a long time to start seriously looking at the intersection of climate and human health in general. “This is before the change,” she said. “This is what it looks like before the change."
Soybeans growing in a field outside Lincoln, Nebraska, one of many crops whose nutrient content is shifting as a result of rising carbon dioxide levels. | Geoff Johnson for POLITICO
LOLADZE'S EARLY PAPER raised some big questions that are difficult, but not impossible, to answer. How does rising atmospheric CO2 change how plants grow? How much of the long-term nutrient drop is caused by the atmosphere, and how much by other factors, like breeding?
It’s also difficult, but not impossible, to run farm-scale experiments on how CO2affects plants. Researchers use a technique that essentially turns an entire field into a lab. The current gold standard for this type of research is called a FACE experiment (for “free-air carbon dioxide enrichment”), in which researchers create large open-air structures that blow CO2 onto the plants in a given area. Small sensors keep track of the CO2 levels. When too much CO2 escapes the perimeter, the contraption puffs more into the air to keep the levels stable. Scientists can then compare those plants directly to others growing in normal air nearby.
These experiments and others like them have shown scientists that plants change in important ways when they’re grown at elevated CO2 levels. Within the category of plants known as “C3”―which includes approximately 95 percent of plant species on earth, including ones we eat like wheat, rice, barley and potatoes―elevated CO2has been shown to drive down important minerals like calcium, potassium, zinc and iron. The data we have, which look at how plants would respond to the kind of CO2 concentrations we may see in our lifetimes, show these important minerals drop by 8 percent, on average. The same conditions have been shown to drive down the protein content of C3 crops, in some cases significantly, with wheat and rice dropping 6 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
Earlier this summer, a group of researchers published the first studies attempting to estimate what these shifts could mean for the global population. Plants are a crucial source of protein for people in the developing world, and by 2050, they estimate, 150 million people could be put at risk of protein deficiency, particularly in countries like India and Bangladesh. Researchers found a loss of zinc, which is particularly essential for maternal and infant health, could put 138 million people at risk. They also estimated that more than 1 billion mothers and 354 million children live in countries where dietary iron is projected to drop significantly, which could exacerbate the already widespread public health problem of anemia.
There aren’t any projections for the United States, where we for the most part enjoy a diverse diet with no shortage of protein, but some researchers look at the growing proportion of sugars in plants and hypothesize that a systemic shift in plants could further contribute to our already alarming rates of obesity and cardiovascular disease.
Another new and important strain of research on CO2 and plant nutrition is now coming out of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Lewis Ziska, a plant physiologist at the Agricultural Research Service headquarters in Beltsville, Maryland, is drilling down on some of the questions that Loladze first raised 15 years ago with a number of new studies that focus on nutrition.
Lewis Ziska, a plant physiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, examines rice growing in his laboratory in Beltsville, Md. Ziska and his colleagues are conducting experiments to find out how rising carbon dioxide levels affect the nutrient profile of plants. Plant physiologist Julie Wolf harvests peppers to study changes in vitamin C, lower right. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO
Ziska devised an experiment that eliminated the complicating factor of plant breeding: He decided to look at bee food.
Goldenrod, a wildflower many consider a weed, is extremely important to bees. It flowers late in the season, and its pollen provides an important source of protein for bees as they head into the harshness of winter. Since goldenrod is wild and humans haven’t bred it into new strains, it hasn’t changed over time as much as, say, corn or wheat. And the Smithsonian Institution also happens to have hundreds of samples of goldenrod, dating back to 1842, in its massive historical archive—which gave Ziska and his colleagues a chance to figure out how one plant has changed over time.
They found that the protein content of goldenrod pollen has declined by a third since the industrial revolution—and the change closely tracks with the rise in CO2. Scientists have been trying to figure out why bee populations around the world have been in decline, which threatens many crops that rely on bees for pollination. Ziska’s paper suggested that a decline in protein prior to winter could be an additional factor making it hard for bees to survive other stressors.
Ziska worries we’re not studying all the ways CO2 affects the plants we depend on with enough urgency, especially considering the fact that retooling crops takes a long time.
“We’re falling behind in our ability to intercede and begin to use the traditional agricultural tools, like breeding, to compensate,” he said. “Right now it can take 15 to 20 years before we get from the laboratory to the field.”
AS LOLADZE AND others have found, tackling globe-spanning new questions that cross the boundaries of scientific fields can be difficult. There are plenty of plant physiologists researching crops, but most are dedicated to studying factors like yield and pest resistance—qualities that have nothing to do with nutrition. Math departments, as Loladze discovered, don’t exactly prioritize food research. And studying living things can be costly and slow: It takes several years and huge sums of money to get a FACE experiment to generate enough data to draw any conclusions.
Despite these challenges, researchers are increasingly studying these questions, which means we may have more answers in the coming years. Ziska and Loladze, who now teaches math at Bryan College of Health Sciences in Lincoln, Nebraska, are collaborating with a coalition of researchers in China, Japan, Australia and elsewhere in the U.S. on a large study looking at rising CO2 and the nutritional profile of rice, one of humankind’s most important crops. Their study also includes vitamins, an important nutritional component, that to date has almost not been studied at all.
USDA researchers also recently dug up varieties of rice, wheat and soy that USDA had saved from the 1950s and 1960s and planted them in plots around the U.S. where previous researchers had grown the same cultivars decades ago, with the aim of better understanding how today’s higher levels of CO2 affect them.
Mathematician Irakli Loladze tosses sugar over vegetables outside his home in Lincoln Nebraska, to illustrate how the sugar content of the plants we eat is increasing as a result of rising carbon dioxide levels. Loladze was the first scientist to publish research connecting rising CO2 and changes in plant quality to human nutrition. | Geoff Johnson for POLITICO
In a USDA research field in Maryland, researchers are running experiments on bell peppers to measure how vitamin C changes under elevated CO2. They’re also looking at coffee to see whether caffeine declines. “There are lots of questions,” Ziska said as he showed me around his research campus in Beltsville. “We’re just putting our toe in the water.”
Ziska is part of a small band of researchers now trying to measure these changes and figure out what it means for humans. Another key figure studying this nexus is Samuel Myers, a doctor turned climate researcher at Harvard University who leads the Planetary Health Alliance, a new global effort to connect the dots between climate science and human health.
Myers is also concerned that the research community is not more focused on understanding the CO2-nutrition dynamic, since it’s a crucial piece of a much larger picture of how such changes might ripple through ecosystems. "This is the tip of the iceberg," said Myers. "It's been hard for us to get people to understand how many questions they should have."
In 2014, Myers and a team of other scientists published a large, data-rich study in the journal Nature that looked at key crops grown at several sites in Japan, Australia and the United States that also found rising CO2 led to a drop in protein, iron and zinc. It was the first time the issue had attracted any real media attention.
“The public health implications of global climate change are difficult to predict, and we expect many surprises,” the researchers wrote. “The finding that raising atmospheric CO2 lowers the nutritional value of C3 crops is one such surprise that we can now better predict and prepare for.”
The same year―in fact, on the same day―Loladze, then teaching math at the The Catholic University of Daegu in South Korea, published his own paper, the result of more than 15 years of gathering data on the same subject. It was the largest study in the world on rising CO2 and its impact on plant nutrients. Loladze likes to describe plant science as “noisy”―research-speak for cluttered with complicating data, through which it can be difficult to detect the signal you’re looking for. His new data set was finally big enough to see the signal through the noise, to detect the “hidden shift,” as he put it.
PHOTOS: How to measure a plant
What he found is that his 2002 theory—or, rather, the strong suspicion he had articulated back then—appeared to be borne out. Across nearly 130 varieties of plants and more than 15,000 samples collected from experiments over the past three decades, the overall concentration of minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc and iron had dropped by 8 percent on average. The ratio of carbohydrates to minerals was going up. The plants, like the algae, were becoming junk food.
What that means for humans―whose main food intake is plants―is only just starting to be investigated. Researchers who dive into it will have to surmount obstacles like its low profile and slow pace, and a political environment where the word “climate” is enough to derail a funding conversation. It will also require entirely new bridges to be built in the world of science―a problem that Loladze himself wryly acknowledges in his own research. When his paper was finally published in 2014, Loladze listed his grant rejections in the acknowledgements.
Helena Bottemiller Evich is a senior food and agriculture reporter for POLITICO Pro.
Jury Hits Pork Giant For $50M For Hog Operation's Nuisance
Jury Hits Pork Giant For $50M For Hog Operation's Nuisance
May 1, 2018
By EMERY P. DALESIO, AP Business Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal jury on Thursday awarded more than $50 million in damages to neighbors of an industrial hog operation found responsible for intense smells, noise and other disturbances so bad people couldn't enjoy their rural homes.
Jurors on Thursday awarded the 10 neighbors of a 15,000-head swine operation a total of $750,000 in compensation, plus $50 million in damages designed to punish the corporation that owns the animals.
Lawyers didn't sue the Bladen County farm's owner, instead targeting Murphy-Brown LLC, the hog-production division of Virginia-based Smithfield Foods. The Chinese-owned company uses strict contracts to dictate how farm operators raise livestock that Smithfield owns.
The decision is the first in dozens of lawsuits filed by more than 500 neighbors complaining about hog operations.
Jurors decided that "the defendant owed them (neighbors) a standard of care in terms of trying to minimize the odors and other undesirable fallout from their processes," said Wake Forest University law professor Sidney Shapiro, who has followed the cases. "Apparently, the jury decided they (Smithfield) knew about and disregarded all this fallout, even though they could do something positive to reduce it."
Rural residents have complained about smells, clouds of flies and excessive spraying for decades. But local and state politicians have either supported or backed down in the face of a politically powerful industry.
North Carolina legislators last year changed state law to make it much more difficult to replicate the string of nuisance lawsuits targeting hog operations like the one decided Thursday.
Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, a recipient of campaign contributions from hog farmers, pushed to make the law retroactive, which would have limited damages in these cases as well. But that part of the proposal was voted down when other lawmakers questioned its constitutionality.
Smithfield Foods said it would appeal the decision.
"The lawsuits are a serious threat to a major industry, to North Carolina's entire economy and to the jobs and livelihoods of tens of thousands of North Carolinians," Senior Vice President Keira Lombardo said in a statement.
Smithfield Foods hasn't changed the locally dominant method of hog waste disposal since intensive hog operations multiplied in North Carolina in the 1980s and 1990s. The practice involves housing thousands of hogs together, flushing their waste into holding pits, allowing bacteria to break down the material, then spraying the effluent onto fields with agricultural spray guns.
Neighbors say the spraying sends the smells and animal waste airborne, allowing it to drift into their homes and sometimes coat outdoor surfaces on their properties.
"We are pleased with the verdict. These cases are about North Carolina family property rights and a clean environment," said Mona Lisa Wallace, a Salisbury attorney whose firm teamed with two Texas-based firms to prepare the series of trials covering similar ground. "We are now preparing for the next, which is scheduled for the end of May."
This case, presenting with the plaintiffs and the specific farm, was chosen by suing attorneys. Although the size of the jury award is large, the result of the next trial could be more telling since the parties were chosen by Smithfield's attorneys, said Drew Kershen, an emeritus law professor at the University of Oklahoma and a past president of the American Agricultural Law Association.
"If you got a second test case, chosen by the defense attorney, which turns out to have damages like this, then you would really have to say, 'My goodness, these are really significant claims against the industry in North Carolina,'" he said.
Follow Emery P. Dalesio on Twitter at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio. His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/emery%20dalesio
Horrible-Smell Hog Farm Case Wins $50 Million From Smithfield
Update: Horrible-Smell Hog Farm Case Wins $50 Million From Smithfield
By Dan Nosowitz on April 27, 2018
This is a hog smelling, not a hog's smell. HomeAndGardners on Flickr
After four years, a lawsuit targeting unnecessarily putrid hog farm feces pits—you read that right, although we'd understand if you'd prefer not to have that image in your head—has come to an initial decision.
The case involved ten plaintiffs in North Carolina who are unlucky enough to live near a major industrial hog operation. That operation, Kinlaw Farms, is not the target of the lawsuit; Kinlaw is ultimately beholden to Smithfield Foods, theh company for which they raise hogs. The plaintiffs alleged that the use of anaerobic lagoons—literally huge pits of hog feces—has negatively affected their quality of life thanks to putrid odors, buzzards, and swarms of insects. (For more info on the case, check out our earlier coverage.)
A federal jury, after a two-day deliberation, awarded over $50 million to the plaintiffs: $75,000 each in compensatory damages and $5 million each in punitive damages. Interestingly, and disturbingly, even if the case survives on appeal, the plaintiffs may not be able to secure the latter money.
In the past four years, since the suit was filed, lawmakers with financial ties to the lucrative hog industry have attempted to put a hard cap on the amount of money a plaintiff can receive in this kind of lawsuit. Despite a veto from the North Carolina’s governor, that hard cap passed, which limits the amount of damages to three times the compensatory damages, which would be only $225,000, far less than the amount the jury ruled the plaintiffs are entitled to.
FDA Scientists Find Glyphosate In Common Foods, Internal Emails Show
(Beyond Pesticides, May 2, 2018) Granola, cereal, and wheat crackers all contain “a fair amount” of glyphosate, the herbicide in Monsanto’s popular Roundup, according to internal emails from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Although the results of these tests have not been formally released, FDA had stated it will be conducting tests for glyphosate in food. Previous reports have detailed the presence of glyphosate, the chemical classified as a “probable carcinogen,” in a wide range of foods and in people’s bodies.
Internal emails obtained by The Guardian through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveal communication between FDA scientists regarding glyphosate residues in common foods. One email, dated January 2017, detail one scientist’s results from foods taken from his own home.
“I have brought wheat crackers, granola cereal and cornmeal from home and there’s a fair amount in all of them,” FDA chemist Richard Thompson wrote to colleagues in the email last year regarding glyphosate. He further went on to write that broccoli was the only food he had “on hand” that he found to be glyphosate-free.
According to The Guardian, another FDA chemist Narong Chamkasem separately found “over-the-tolerance” levels of glyphosate in corn, detected at 6.5 parts per million, an FDA email states. The legal limit is 5.0 ppm. A level above what is currently allowed would normally be reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but an FDA supervisor wrote to an EPA official that the corn was not considered an “official sample”.
The FDA is charged with monitoring and testing food samples for pesticide residues for residue levels. However, despite glyphosate being the most widely used herbicide in the U.S., used on over 100 food crops, the agency only recently announced it would test for glyphosate under mounting public pressure to do so. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) decided to abandon its plans for testing the U.S. food supply for glyphosate residues. USDA had previously tested soybeans for glyphosate residue in 2011, finding that 90% of samples contained residues between 0.26 ppm and 18.5 ppm, barely under the allowed food tolerance level of 20 ppm. The federal government’s pesticide monitoring program, which is run jointly by USDA, FDA, and EPA, was criticized by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2014 for its failure to test for the widely used herbicide.
A report by Food Democracy Now! and the Detox Project, Glyphosate: Unsafe on Any Plate, found high levels of glyphosate contamination in popular American food brands, such as Cheerios, Doritos, Oreos, Goldfish and Ritz Crackers, and Stacy’s Pita Chips. According to the report, the levels found in these products are above the levels associated with organ damage (above 0.1 parts per billion(ppb)). Among 29 different foods tested, the highest levels detected were found in General Mills’ Original Cheerios, at 1,125.3 ppb. Stacy’s Simply Naked Pita Chips were the next highest, at 812.53 ppb. Other reports of the widespread presence of glyphosate residues find the chemical in breast milk, in German beers, feminine hygiene products, and bread, as well as in nearly 100% of Germans tested.
The Guardian details that along with glyphosate, the agency has been trying to measure residues of the herbicides 2,4-D and dicamba because of projected increased use of these weedkillers on new genetically engineered (GE) crops. The FDA spokesman said that the agency has “expanded capacity” for testing foods for those herbicides this year. The official findings should be released later this year or early in 2019 as part of its 2016 annual residue report.
Glyphosate became a focus of media attention following the 2015 World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classification of glyphosate as a “probable human carcinogen.” Since then, Monsanto has been hard at work trying to undermine findings that show its flagship product, glyphosate, is anything other than “safe.” However, its attempts to unduly influence and undermine scientific research and government review of its product has been disclosed widely in the press. EPA recently closed the public comment period for the human health and ecological assessments for glyphosate. On April 30, 2018, the day the comment period ended, public interest, food safety, and environmental organizations delivered over 165,000 public comments to EPA, urging the agency to ban glyphosate.
While federal oversight and regulation lag behind, environmental groups, like Beyond Pesticides, are urging localities to restrict or ban the use of glyphosate and other unnecessary toxic pesticides. Beyond Pesticides promotes these actions and many more through the Tools for Change webpage. This page is designed to help activists and other concerned citizens organize around a variety of pesticide issues on the local, state, and national level. Learn how to organize a campaign and talk to your neighbors about pesticides with our factsheets.
Consumers can also avoid glyphosate exposure by buying and supporting organic food and agriculture. Beyond Pesticides has long promoted the importance of organic in a sustainable food system, and works to promote the widespread transition of conventional farmland to organic production. Utilizing ecological pest management strategies, organic practices, and solutions that are not chemical-intensive is the most appropriate and long-term solution to managing unwanted plants, or weeds.
To find out more about the work Beyond Pesticides is doing on organic integrity and actions you can take, check out Keeping Organic Strong, or see all the reasons to go organic, visit Eating with a Conscience.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
Source: The Guardian