GMO Arctic apples are being sold on Amazon. There is no notice that the food is GMO. There’s nothing illegal about this; GMO foods do not have to be labeled.
If you’re wondering what they look like and what to watch out for, here they are:
Arctic apples have been genetically engineered not to brown. They are devoid of the enzyme that causes apples to oxidize when the flesh comes in contact with air. Retailers, restaurants, and other foodservice sectors have expressed interest in using the GMO apples. Expect to see them in hospitals, restaurants, schools, vending machines, and anywhere you may see presliced apples.
Right now three new genetically engineered, non-browning apples have been approved: Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and recently the addition of the Fuji. Gala apples are next. Only Goldens and Granny trees have been in the ground long enough to produce fruit in commercial quantities by next fall.
In the 1980s supermarkets were even more concerned with proper shape and size of produce than they are today. Consumers expected carrots to be a particular size, shape, and color. Anything that didn’t fit the image was sold for juice or processing or animal feed, or often simply thrown away.
There are “true baby carrots” and then there are the processed “baby carrots” we normally see in stores. True baby carrots are just young carrots harvested before the root reaches its mature size. Some say they are sweeter this way. Some even think they’re healthier. These carrots aren’t nearly as common in grocery stores, but when you see them they often still have their stalks. What we typically see labeled as “baby carrots” in those small plastic bags are full grown carrots that would once have been rejected and wasted.
Broken and misshaped carrots that are not pretty enough for consumers were discarded, leaving farmers with as little as 30 percent of their crop to sell. Mike Yurosek was tired of this waste. He took his ugly reject carrots and used a potato peeler to reshape them into small pieces. Yurosek then scaled up with an industrial green bean cutter to quickly whittle the carrots into the well-known sizes we still see today. 1
How Are Baby Carrots Made Today?
The industry calls them “baby cuts.” They are no longer simply rejected carrots. These baby cuts you see in supermarkets come from carrots have been specifically bred to be smaller in diameter, and to be a bright orange without color variation, and they are also raised to have considerably sweeter than regular carrots. 2
These baby carrots are planted closer together than traditional carrots and they are harvested in about 120 days. But before packaging, the carrots are cut and peeled and scrubbed, then they get the infamous chlorine bath. But the amount of chlorine in the water is not really anything to be alarmed about. It’s likely that every time you eat out at a restaurant you will consume more chlorine than when eating baby carrots.
Grimmway Farms uses a chlorine solution on all its carrots — organic and non-organic — to prevent food poisoning, before a final wash in water. Grimmway says the chlorine rinse is well within limits set by the EPA and is comparable to levels found in tap water.” – Fox
The minute amount of chlorine in our water for washing carrots is nearly 90% less than the chlorine level in normal tap (drinking) water.” – The Truth About Baby Carrots
What’s the Concern?
Baby carrots are no longer a byproduct of the carrot industry, so buying baby carrots no longer helps to reduce food waste.
The chlorine is problematic but if you eat out at restaurants, even healthy ones, you’re getting plenty of chlorine in your food. If you shower without water filtration, you’re breathing it in.
The problem is that the food is processed. People think they are getting fresh carrots, but they’re not. The life force energy of the food is gone (the chlorine bath allows the food to last longer, and some may have additional preservatives). The enzymes are done. And the peel, which contains the highest concentration of nutrients, is gone.
Eating baby carrots is eating processed food, but it’s not the worst choice one could make. As poor food choices go, this is probably the best of them. I have been I situations where I was very hungry and the only food choice I saw that would not make me sick were baby carrots, and I have eaten plenty.
But the best carrots for you are unprocessed, unpeeled, un-messed-with carrots. Vitamin C and niacin are most concentrated in the peel. A little more than half of the phytonutrients are found in the peel. 3
Five Random Carrot Facts
Carrots come in orange, white, yellow, red, and purple
Cultivated carrots are usually about 88% water, 7% sugar, 1% protein, 1% fibre, 1% ash, and 0.2% fat
The world’s largest carrot producer is China, accounting for over 45% of the global output
The voice of cartoon character Bugs Bunny reportedly did not like carrots
Coffee, Glyphosate Levels, and Shorter Pregnancies
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is the most commonly used herbicide in the world. Nearly 300 million pounds of Roundup is sprayed on U.S. farms every year. A small Indiana study found that more than 90 percent of pregnant women had glyphosate in their urine. They also found that higher concentrations of glyphosate correlate to earlier deliveries.
Researchers recruited 71 pregnant women in central Indiana. The women provided two urine samples and two drinking water samples from their homes and answered questions about what food and beverages they consume and the kind of stress they deal with, as well as where they lived. Researchers tested the water and urine samples for glyphosate. Then researchers divided women into four groups based on how much glyphosate was in their urine. Researchers later used medical records after birth to determine their pregnancy length.
The study found that 93 percent of the women had detectable glyphosate in their urine and those who lived in rural areas more glyphosate in their urine than the suburban residents did.
The study also found that women who drank more than 24 ounces of caffeinated beverages daily had shown greater levels of glyphosate. The good news is that none of the drinking water samples had detectable glyphosate levels in them, but this looks like bad news for coffee addicts.
Only two of the women in the study gave birth prematurely, but researchers found that women with more glyphosate in their urine delivered earlier than women with less, on average. Glyphosate was not found to lead to correlate with low birth weight or head circumference.
It was mind-boggling that glyphosate was so prevalent in urine samples . . . but it was a pleasant surprise that none of the drinking water came out positive,” – Lead author Shahid Parvez
The link between caffeine intake and high glyphosate levels in urine surprised the researchers.
It makes sense to us since there are many different food products imported from Southeast Asia and South America but we don’t know what they contain. It indicates a need to think about these food products, such as coffee beans and other drinks that we import.” – Parvez
Most of the women were white. The sample was small. The study is limited by its small size and lack of geographic and racial diversity.
More research needs to be done, but the precautions are common sense. Be vigilant and careful, especially those living in areas where corn and soybeans are grown.”
New Report Details Harms of Fracking including Asthma, Birth Defects, Cancer
A new report, titled Compendium of Scientific, Medical and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking is the most authoritative study that’s ever been done on fracking and how it is contaminating the air and water – and imperiling the health of millions of us.
Our examination of the peer-reviewed medical and public health literature uncovered no evidence that fracking can be practiced in a manner that does not threaten human health.”
This report looked at news investigations, government assessments, and more than a thousand peer-reviewed research articles. The study shows that fracking is poisoning our air, contaminating the groundwater, and putting our health of at risk.
Dr. Sandra Steingraber is a biologist and one of the co-authors. She’s been a public health advocate on issues like breast cancer and toxic incinerators. She says that “Fracking is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”
Those of us in the public health sector started to realize years ago that there were potential risks, then the industry rolled out faster than we could do our science. Now we see those risks have turned into human harms and people are getting sick. And we in this field have a moral imperative to raise the alarm.” –Dr. Steingraber, Rolling Stone
Fracking is a complicated extraction process with public health hazards at virtually every part of the process. If you want to read it, click here to read the report, and then click the download button to view the PDF.
Residents living near an active fracking site breathe in carcinogens like benzene and formaldehyde. THis leads to an increased risk of asthma and leads to developmental disorders and problems with pregnancies.
Pregnant women have a major risk, not only themselves but they’re carrying a fetus whose cells are multiplying continuously. If those cells get hit by some toxic chemical from fracking, it may not manifest itself for years.” – Dr. Lynn Ringenberg, president-elect of Physicians for Social Responsibility
Fracking sites have caught fire some have even exploded, as happened last month in Belmont County, Ohio. Communities have shown that fracking contaminates underground aquifers with hazardous chemicals. Fracked gas travels through pipelines, and leaks and explosions are now well-documented. Piped gas has to continuously be re-pressurized at compressor stations, and those stations have been documented to emit toxic gases and fine particle matter like methane, benzene, formaldehyde and other known human carcinogens.
Dr. Kathleen Nolan is a co-author of the report. She’s a pediatrician and bioethicist. Dr. Nolan has examined people who have been sickened by fracking. Shedescribes a case of one western Pennsylvania family:
They would see a yellow fog, kind of like a chemical mist coming from the compressor station. Their two youngest children, nine and 11, started having tics where their muscles would go into spasms, those spasms would persist even when they were asleep.”
The Trump administration officially withdrew an Obama-era rule for higher standards regarding the treatment of animals whose meat will be sold under the organic label.
The standards were first created in 2016 under the United States Department of Agriculture. The rules had not been put in place yet. The USDA officially overturned the rule Monday, after delaying its implementation three times.
The rule would have required poultry to be housed in spaces large enough to move freely and fully stretch their wings. Livestock would be required to have some access to outdoor space year round.
The existing robust organic livestock and poultry regulations are effective. The organic industry’s continued growth domestically and globally shows that consumers trust the current approach that balances consumer expectations and the needs of organic producers and handlers.” – Greg Ibach, USDA Marketing and Regulatory Program Undersecretary
At this time animals must be raised without antibiotics or growth hormones, and the animal feed needs to be organic well. Clarity around animal welfare and living conditions is lacking. Many organic hens and cows live in similar conditions as their factory-farmed counterparts, with no room to move and little to no significant outside access. The USDA estimates that half of all organic eggs are produced from hens living in total confinement.
Consumers trust that the Organic seal stands for a meaningful difference in production practices. It makes no sense that the Trump Administration would pursue actions that could damage a marketplace that is giving American farmers a profitable alternative, creating jobs, and improving the economies of our rural areas.” – Organic Trade Association
The proposed rule drew 47,000 comments, with only 28 supporting the withdrawal, according to data compiled by the Organic Trade Association.
This is representative of the influence lobbyists and election money has at the Trump administration’s USDA.” – Mark Kastel, co-director of Cornucopia Institute
Six out of 10 Americans feel that animals used to produce organic food should be raised on farms with higher animal welfare standards. More than half of Americans believe such animals should be allowed time outside and room to move freely.
Great Pacific Garbage Patch Now Twice the Size of Texas
According to a new study, there are more than 79,000 tonnes of ocean plastic and other trash (mostly plastic) all within a 1.6 million square kilometer area of the North Pacific Ocean (600,000 square miles). That’s 16 times larger than previous estimates. That’s twice the size of Texas.
“The Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” is a collection of garbage located halfway between Hawaii and California. Winds and ocean currents form gyres, think of water spiraling down the drain in a vortex. These gyres draw in litter from around the world. Garbage gets trapped in the gyres and eventually large pieces break down into smaller pieces, which are ingested by marine life. The patch is growing at an alarming rate. The patch is not a solid mass of plastic. It’s not like the news pictures indicate. Some of the trash is easily visible to the naked eye, but the microplastics make up the bulk of the patch. Satellite imagery doesn’t show a giant mountain of garbage. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch looks like a cloudy soup intermixed with larger items, like jugs, fishing gear, and shoes, etc.
Much of the garbage is rather large. “We were surprised by the amount of large plastic objects we encountered,” said Julia Reisser, from the Ocean Cleanup Foundation. “We used to think most of the debris consists of small fragments, but this new analysis shines a new light on the scope of the debris.”
A sample that was collected during a 2015 expedition showed the majority of the garbage is microplastics less than 0.5 cm in diameter. The Ocean Cleanup Foundation launched the expedition to look at the eastern part of the patch. They used 30 vessels and a C-130 Hercules airplane to acquire and catalog more than one million pieces of plastic.
The new study suggests the total amount of microplastics in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch totals more 1.8 trillion pieces, a number that far exceeds earlier estimates.
The study was based on a three-year mapping effort conducted by an international team of scientists affiliated with the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, six universities, and an aerial sensor company. The Ocean Cleanup Foundation is a non-profit organization that spearheaded this research, which is the most complete and thorough study ever done on the garbage patch. It was published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Scientific Reports.
It’s estimated that 80% of the trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is from North America and Asia. The trash from North America’s coast takes around six years to reach the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, while Japan’s garbage takes about a year.
People have been focusing on microplastics, because it’s likely to be the one to have the most adverse effects on marine life, because of ingestion. But we need to understand the full-size picture of plastics, starting from the tiniest piece to larger debris.” – Laurent Lebreton, lead author of the paper.
When you go out into the middle of the ocean, you find that there’s a lot more fishing gear than was expected.”
A lot of focus has been pushed toward land-based sources of plastic and waste and single-use plastic, and that’s fair, but it’s also good to remind us that that’s not the only source, that fishing and aquaculture and marine-based sources also contribute to the problem.”
Sudan was our last male northern white rhino. He was 45. Sudan was suffering from multiple infections in his advanced age. He was euthanized Monday by a veterinary team in Kenya, a tam that had fought for years to save him.
We at Ol Pejeta are all saddened by Sudan’s death. He was an amazing rhino, a great ambassador for his species, and will be remembered for the work he did to raise awareness globally of the plight facing not only rhinos, but also the many thousands of other species facing extinction as a result of unsustainable human activity.
One day, his demise will hopefully be seen as a seminal moment for conservationists worldwide.” – Richard Vigne, Ol Pejeta Conservancy CEO
Rhinos around the world are on the brink of extinction, and this is mostly due to poaching. Rhino horn has been highly prized in Chinese traditional medicine and as a decorative component of daggers carried by many Yemeni men. Around 30,000 rhinos from five species remain worldwide. Two species in Indonesia, the Sumatran and Javan rhinos, have around or less than 100 individuals.
Sudan spent the last years of his life under 24-hour protection from armed guards. His horn had been chopped off to deter poachers, though it had begun to grow back. His guards regularly foiled poaching attacks. But the effort to save the northern white rhino seems to have come too late for a real turnaround.
But the Subspecies May Still Survive
Researchers saved the sperm from Sudan, and from four other male northern white rhinos before they died. They think they might be able to produce a calf via in vitro fertilization. The researchers would fertilize one of the female eggs with the frozen sperm. The team could then use a female of a closely related species, the southern white rhino, as a surrogate.
If that doesn’t work, scientists could potentially transform northern white rhino skin cells into stem cells. They would then coax those stem cells into eggs. They would then fertilize the eggs.
Since the last two remaining northern white rhinos are closely related there would need to be a way to diversify the subspecies. The stem cell option could help with that, as scientists could use any samples from any of the deceased rhino.
Many conservationists think we’d be better off spending that money elsewhere. The cost is at $800,000 to $10 million per attempt. We’re in the middle of a mass extinction, as and this scares the hell out of anyone who understands how systems work. Do you think the northern white rhino is deserving of such incredible expense to bring it back from extinction or is our money spent better elsewhere?
