Sunlight Seeker
Look up national or state donors or check where your Congresspeople are getting their money.
| September 2005 |
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
|
18
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
23
|
24
|
|
25
|
26
|
27
|
28
|
29
|
30
|
Liz Eisen - Sat 11 Oct 2008 10:12 AM CDT
Tojo8817 - Fri 03 Oct 2008 08:35 PM CDT
Marilyn Walker - Fri 03 Oct 2008 12:51 PM CDT
Brent - Mon 29 Sep 2008 02:55 PM CDT
audiored - Sat 27 Sep 2008 10:34 PM CDT
|
Sunday, September 18
Going Organic Can Shield Children From Pesticides
by
Linda Thieman
on Sun 18 Sep 2005 11:00 AM CDT
 Going Organic Can Shield Children From Pesticides
by Marla Cone, LATimes.com
Switching
to organic foods provides children "dramatic and immediate" protection
from pesticides that are widely used on a variety of crops, according
to a study by a team of federally-funded scientists.
Concentrations
of two organophosphate pesticides - malathion and chlorpyrifos -
declined substantially in the bodies of elementary school-age children
during a five-day period when organic foods were substituted for
conventional foods.
The two chemicals are the most commonly used insecticides in U.S.
agriculture. More than 2 million pounds were applied to California
crops in 2003.
(Click here to access the original article.)
Malathion and Iowa
Use of malathion by farmers in Iowa and Minnesota has recently been linked to an
increased risk of one type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Malathion is one of the most widely used organophosphate insecticides in the
United States and throughout the world.
In Iowa, malathion is frequently used to spray against mosquitoes.
Shown to be mutagenic, a possible carcinogen, implicated in vision loss,
reproductive and learning problems, immune system disruption and other negative
health effects in human and animal studies, damaging to non-target organisms,
and containing highly toxic impurities, malathion has a legacy of serious
problems.
Did you know that malathion is also used to kill head
lice? Yeah, put that on your kids' heads and see what
happens. According to this report on the KWWL website
out of Waterloo, malathion has been used so frequently against
head lice that the lice are building up a resistance to it and it is
now only 17% effective. Combing through you child's wet hair with
a fine-tooth comb is much more effective.
Saturday, September 17
Consumers Want COOL for Food
by
Caroline Vernon
on Sat 17 Sep 2005 12:55 PM CDT
 Consumers Want Country of Origin Labeling for Food
by Public Citizen
www.citizen.org
Speaking
from my own perspective, with the increasing incidents and concerns
over mad cow disease, humans dying from Streptococcus suis (a pig
disease), and the pandemic of bird flu abroad, you would think our
elected officials would baulk at the idea of making COOL a voluntary
program. Considering the potential risk to the public health, and the
fact that so few food processors and meatpackers have been willing to
participate, we see once again, a Congress that caters to the
corporate interests who continue to choose profit over people!
After
reading this report, please participate in Public Citizen’s online
action by contacting your elected representatives and urging others to
do the same. This is very important to all of us, so please don’t
hesitate to act. Click here:
As
corporate consolidation of agriculture continues to drive family
farmers out of business in record numbers, more of our food supply is
controlled by a small group of companies. These companies don’t want to
give ranchers and farmers a desperately needed way to identify their
crops and livestock as products of the United States.
Twenty-one
companies and trade organizations that are avowed foes of the mandatory
COOL law, and have registered to lobby against it, have spent a total
of $29.2 million to lobby Congress and the executive branch on COOL and
other issues from 2000 to 2004. These groups are some of the biggest
names in agribusiness and include the National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association (NCBA), Wal-Mart Stores, Cargill, Tyson Foods, American
Meat Institute
and the Grocery Manufacturers of America.
WASHINGTON,
D.C. – As the Senate prepares to vote this week on its version of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) budget, a new Public Citizen
investigation just released illustrates how big agribusiness used
millions of dollars in lobbying expenditures and campaign
contributions, and a network of Washington insiders with close
connections to the Bush administration and Congress, to thwart a
consumer-friendly provision mandating country-of-origin labeling,
popularly known as COOL.
When shopping for food, the most basic ingredient a consumer needs to help choose between products is a label. So why isn’t there a label noting the country of origin for meat – just as you can learn whether your shirt was made in China?
Consumers want mandatory country-of-origin labeling for food products, commonly known as COOL. A recent public opinion poll of 1,000 people shows that an overwhelming majority of consumers – 85 percent – favor labeling that will tell them where their food is raised or produced.
Additionally, 74 percent support the idea of Congress making such labeling mandatory, and 55 percent have “little or not much trust” in the meat, seafood, produce and
grocery industries to voluntarily provide country-of-origin information. These findings are similar to a 2002 survey published in The Packer, a trade journal.
If Congress were listening to the public, the COOL program would have been in place a year ago, on Sept. 30, 2004. That is the date the 2002 Farm Bill mandated the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to require industry to begin mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef,
lamb, pork, fish, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, and peanuts. The label would be found on foods sold in grocery stores and would state the food’s country of origin. (For meat, the animal would have to be born, raised and slaughtered in the United States to get the “Product of
U.S.” seal.)
Mandatory COOL was one of the most significant wins for family farmers and consumers in the controversial 2002 Farm Bill. But Big Agribusiness, especially the meat and grocery industries, doesn’t want consumers to know where their food comes from, and it worked to kill COOL before it ever got started. First, agribusiness interests tried to use the regulatory process at the USDA and the White House to undermine support for the measure, including by mislabeling
COOL as having few benefits but costing billions of dollars. Next, it got Congress through the more secretive appropriations process to delay implementation of the law by two years – to Sept. 30, 2006 – for everything covered by the law except fish (COOL for seafood went into effect in April 2005). And the House agriculture appropriations bill for fiscal year 2006, which will soon be negotiated with the Senate, would delay for an additional year a mandatory COOL program for meat.
Meanwhile, key lawmakers are trying to change COOL into a voluntary program, legislation that 65 members of the House and Senate are sponsoring. Voluntary labeling has been an option for two years, yet few food processors and meatpackers have been willing to participate.
As corporate consolidation of agriculture continues to drive family farmers out of business in record numbers, more of our food supply is controlled by a small group of companies. These companies don’t want to give ranchers and farmers a desperately needed way to identify their crops and livestock as products of the United States. They seem to be nervous – and rightfully so – that consumers won’t agree with their vision of shifting food production to the developing
world, where labor and land are cheap, and environmental, worker safety and pesticide rules are more lenient.
To read the rest of the report, Click here:
Thursday, September 1
Add These to Your List: Progressive Blogs and E-groups of Note
by
Linda Thieman
on Thu 01 Sep 2005 04:00 AM CDT
 Add These to Your List: Progressive Blogs & E-groups of Note
Iowa's Drew Miller Blog
Check
out the award-winning Drew Miller Blog, if you haven't already. Drew covers
news and topics related to the Iowa scene and spices up his
observations with a quick wit and a sharp sense of humor.
Underground Railroad: The Official Blog of African Americans for Democracy
You may
remember Oscar Carter (Oscar in Louisville) from the Dean campaign
blog. Oscar, who is a minister and Biblical scholar, now runs the
Underground Railroad blog. From time to time, Oscar applies a
Biblical understanding to the news of the day. A real treat!
Howard-empowered People: Shadow BFA Blog
It's the new
Blog for America "Shadow Blog" - there is now a new BFA, sort of,
shadowing the main blog, but completely troll-free. If you were
ever a Dean blogger, you will recognize the names of the people who run
this blog: Renee in Ohio, her husband Demetrius (who, by the way,
designed the Blog for Iowa banner for us back in March of 2004), Oscar
in Louisville (yes, same as above), and Barbara in Seattle.
Deaniac Alert: New Dean On TV Yahoo Group
There's
a new Yahoo Group on the scene. This one is designed NOT for
discussion but for group members to alert each other to TV and radio
appearances by the beloved DNC chair, Gov. Howard Dean, and to post
published articles about him. The clunky name of this group is HDeanArticlesAppearances. Sign up here to get on the list.
BrixTalk E-group
If
you're interested in organic farming or gardening, this is a group that
may appeal to you. This group of gardeners concerns itself with
adding the right combination and level of minerals and such to the soil so as to create
the highest possible level of nutrients in the food grown.
Apparently, if the nutrient level is very high, pests will not be
attracted to the crop (they only attack "weak" plants). Sign up here to join the Brix e-group.
One final note:
Blog for Iowa would like to thank John Drury of Swaledale for his
excellent contributions on the Iowa political scene. John phased
out his posts as he has accepted a great new job. So, congratulations
on the new job, John, and best of luck to you. We sure do miss
you.
|
|
