Long-Term Exposure to Pesticides May Be Linked to Dementia

Long term exposure to pesticides may be linked to the development of dementia, suggests research published online in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The authors base their findings on 614 vineyard workers in South West France whose intellectual capacity was monitored for up to six years as part of the PHYTONER study. This aims to track the impact of pesticides on the cognitive abilities of people in their 40s and 50s who have worked for at least 20 years in the agricultural sector.

Click to read more ...

Crop Failures and Drought Within Our Children's Lifetimes

Children today are likely to reach old age in a world that is 4C warmer, where the 10,000-year certainties of the global climate can no longer be relied on, and widespread crop failures, drought, flooding and mass migration of the dispossessed become a part of everyday life.

Click to read more ...

Jeffrey Smith: Doctors and Animals Alike Tell Us: Avoid Genetically Modified Food

The farmer grinned as he told the visitor, “Watch this!” He called his pigs, which ran frantically towards him to be fed. But when he scooped out corn and threw it on the ground, the pigs sniffed it and then looked up at the farmer with confused expectation. The farmer then scooped corn from another bin and flung it near the pigs, which ran over and quickly devoured it.

Click to read more ...

Rady Ananda: The Food Safety Modernization Act: The US Government's Assault on "Food Freedom"

The voice of controlled opposition wants Americans to believe that the Tester Amendment to S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, elevates the bill to something we should adopt. The Tester Amendment puts a bandaid on a head wound. It does not stop the most lethal agency in American history from seizing control of the food supply from farm to fork.

Click to read more ...

When Big Ag Attacks: Government-Sponsored Pesticide Propaganda

The White House garden may be green and unsullied by agricultural chemicals, but Obama's United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) just forked over $180,000 to fund an agribusiness-backed smear campaign against the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) "Shopper's Guide to Pesticides," which includes the "Dirty Dozen," a list of the foods most commonly found to have pesticide residue.

Click to read more ...

GM soy increases poverty, threatens health in South America - farmer advocates

The conversion of South American agriculture to large-scale, industrial farming of genetically modified soya harm the environment, increasing poverty and threatening human health, two leading advocates for small farmers' rights told SvD during a visit to Sweden.

Click to read more ...

None Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: A World Without Birds

Scanning the sky with his binoculars, he searches carefully for any sign of movement: the steady beat of a blackbird's wings, the fluttering of a flock of starlings. It has been a week now since he saw the starlings: just four of them flitting from tree to tree, feasting on the autumn berries.

Click to read more ...

Have We Really Solved the Mystery Behind the Shocking Die-off of Bees?

The New York Times made a long-awaited (and much emailed) announcement on its front page last week: The mystery of the ongoing and agriculturally devastating bee die-off (aka Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD) has been cracked!

Click to read more ...

Food in Uncertain Times: How to Grow and Store the 5 Crops You Need to Survive

In an age of erratic weather and instability, it's increasingly important to develop a greater self-reliance when it comes to food. And because of this, more than ever before, farmers are developing new gardening techniques that help achieve a greater resilience. Longtime gardener and scientist Carol Deppe, in her new book The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times, offers a wealth of unique and expansive information for serious home gardeners and farmers who are seeking optimistic advice. Do you want to know more about the five crops you need to survive through the next thousand years? What about tips for drying summer squash, for your winter soups? Ever thought of keeping ducks on your land? Read on.

Click to read more ...

UN Says Global Farm Methods 'Recipe for Disaster'

GENEVA - The United Nations top official on the right to food has called for wholesale changes in farming methods to safeguard the environment and ensure everyone has enough to eat.

Click to read more ...