Ottawa to allow slaughterhouses to process already dead animals

OTTAWA—The federal government wants to allow the carcasses of already dead animals to be processed in slaughterhouses for human consumption, a move that is raising concerns about the safety of Canada’s food system.

The Conservative government is pitching the change as a way to cut red tape and provide greater flexibility to slaughterhouse operators.

But the New Democrats are raising a red flag saying the move invites possible “contamination” of the food supply.

“Under the present regulations . . . it has to come in alive, be slaughtered on site,” said NDP MP Malcolm Allen (Welland), the party’s agriculture critic.

“Now you can bring in dead stock. It’s okay to bring in that animal into a slaughterhouse, have it cut, wrapped . . . for human consumption.

“The real fear is how did it die, (and) under what circumstances did it die.”

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Piggycide? Farmers Considered Felons in Michigan, Forced to Mass Slaughter their Healthy Pigs

In the heart of Western Michigan are picturesque rural towns that are now a backdrop to a raging battle between farmers and the government. The Department of Natural Resources in Michigan has deemed a certain type of pigs an invasive species. Farmers have been ordered to slaughter every last one of their pigs and piglets and farmers that don’t comply are now faced with jail time and a felony. But some farmers are putting up a fight. RT Correspondent Liz Wahl and Photojournalist Jon Conway traveled to Michigan to investigate what’s really behind the swine carnage.

U.S. quarantines two dairies after mad cow case

WASHINGTON – Two California dairy farms are under quarantine and a calf ranch is under investigation following discovery of the latest U.S. case of mad cow disease, but the government on Wednesday said the actions were standard procedure and there was no threat to the food supply.

Also, a calf born to the infected cow was found and tested negative for the disease.

Cattle records at the two dairies are being matched to determine if any at-risk cattle are on the farms, said the Agriculture Department.

USDA said the infected cow was a rare “atypical” case of the disease, meaning it arose spontaneously rather than through the feed supply. However, it is USDA’s standard procedure to search for other cattle, offspring or herd mates, that might be exposed to the fatal disease, even though mad cow disease is not contagious.

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Mad cow reemergence may hamper California’s beef, dairy industries

The reemergence of mad cow disease, discovered in a California dairy cow, could have major implications for the state’s meat industry, even though officials have said that the human food supply is unaffected.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy hasn’t been found in U.S. since 2006 and was discovered in only three instances before then. But the disease has dealt a crippling blow to the industry in the past, especially when foreign countries refused to import American beef when mad cow was first uncovered in 2003.

The U.S. Department of Agriculturetests about 40,000 cows a year in its effort to catch the disease.

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Monsanto Threatens to Sue Vermont for GMO Labeling Bill

When Judge Naomi Buchwald dismissed OSGATA et al vs. Monsanto last month, it was on the basis that she did not think the corporation had any interest in suing the organic growers and trade organizations that took the case to court. But as it turns out, their fears of a lawsuit-happy Monsanto are somewhat justified. According to reports, the biotech behemoth has threatened to sue the state of Vermont if it presses ahead with the signing of the Vermont Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act (H. 722), a bill that would make Vermont the first of the United States to require labeling of genetically engineered food.

Vermont is not a state that messes around with its food – last year, the state’s Agency of Agriculture threatened to sue McDonald’s over due to its Fruit & Maple Oatmeal not actually containing any real natural maple syrup. This also isn’t the first time Vermont and Monsanto have tangled, as the state was sued in the 1990s over the labeling of bovine growth hormone in milk. This time around, however, Monsanto has reportedly threatened legal action toward the state over its H. 722 bill.

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Judge Orders FDA To Limit Antibiotics Being Fed To Livestock!

65-year-old California ‘milk man’ subjected to extreme torture, hypothermia, raw sewage in LA County jail

(NaturalNews) NaturalNews exclusive report, please credit with link. NaturalNews can now report that 65-year-old senior citizen James Stewart, a raw milk farmer with no criminal history, was nearly tortured to death in the LA County jail this past week. He survived a “week of torturous Hell” at the hands of LA County jail keepers who subjected him to starvation, sleep deprivation, hypothermia, loss of blood circulation to extremities, verbal intimidation, involuntary medical testing and even subjected him to over 30 hours of raw biological sewage filth containing dangerous pathogens.

This is from a county that has targeted and terrorized James Stewart for the supposed crime of selling fresh milk containing “dangerous pathogens.” That’s right – the only “crime” James has ever committed is being the milk man and distributing milk that is openly and honestly kept fresh and raw instead of pasteurized. So as part of his punishment of advocating raw cow’s milk, he was tortured with raw human sewage at the LA County jail.

This true story of jaw-dropping dehumanization and torture — conducted in total violation of state law as well as the Geneva Convention for prisoners of war — is told in an exclusive audio interview recorded today between Mike Adams and James Stewart.

That audio recording, which has been released by Adams into the public domain for the purpose of widespread copying and sharing, is available for download at the following links:

128kbps MP3 file (47MB, Hi-Fi, suitable for posting online):
MP3 only: www.naturalnews.com/files/Torture_128.mp3
ZIP file container: www.naturalnews.com/files/Torture_128.zip

32kbps MP3 file (12MB, Lo-Fi, suitable for emailing or sharing on mobile devices):
MP3 only: www.naturalnews.com/files/Torture_32.mp3
ZIP file container: www.naturalnews.com/files/Torture_32.zip

Video files:

Watch the full interview on YouTube at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkDrrKhPB7M

or if YouTube censors it (as they now do almost any video critical of government), see it on the uncensored video site TV.NaturalNews.com at:
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=B0E3220D2A290E5966F3683E6377778B

Adams openly encourages members of the public to post these files on YouTube, Vimeo, bittorrent sitesand anywhere else where they may reach the public.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035208_James_Stewart_torture_county_jail.html#ixzz1os2TExXk

Organic Growers Attack Monsanto

On January 31, 2012, a hearing on GMO’s was held in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. On the evening news you often times see convicted former Wall Street financiers walking out of the doors of this courthouse in New York City. This court is the setting for a major legal battle which will impact all grain farmers in the United States.

The Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association squared off against Monsanto.

The case, at the moment, goes off on a legal issue of whether the organic farmers have standing to bring a declaratory judgment action against Monsanto. Simply, the question is whether the organic farmers have suffered harm which allows them to get their case before a court for a possible trial.

The case involves 96 plaintiffs claiming that “Society stands on the precipice of forever being bound to transgenic agriculture and transgenic food. Coexistence between transgenic seed and organic seed is impossible because transgenic seed contaminates and eventually overcomes organic seed.”

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The Underground Secret; grasping the mysteries of creating healthy soil

When it comes to gardening, most avid participants in the ancient art of gardening will at some point in their life’s outdoor experience come to understand that the secret is in the soil. This is so much more of a satisfying approach than doing battle with nature, the most common mainstream agricultural pursuit, which sees farmers using huge quantities of pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilizers to dominate nature. Nature must both laugh and cry at this onslaught, seeing ignorant members of blind humans bombard the soils with substances that destroy nature, thinking they know the answers.

After decades of different agricultural revolutions, those of us who are perceptive enough to begin to unveil the mysteries of nature are now more fully coming to grips with the fact that for the soils of the world to continue to provide us with the bounty we need and desire, we must continuously be working to restore fertility in our age depleted soils.Organic matter is the key to this rebuilding, as are soil based microbes, earthworms and more that work to break down organic matter and nutrients in the soil, thus rendering them in a perfect state for plants to absorb them.

In the field of biodynamics, permaculture and organics there are many solutions to build up soil. It is the key to our future health and that of our children. Healthy plants that do not need pesticides and herbicides depend upon a healthy soil.

Organic Matter

The Color of Any Matter Is a Key to Its Use in the Garden
Sunday, February 5, 2012
By Virginia Hayes

The key to healthy soil is organic matter. Every gardening guide says so, so it must be true. And it is. But all organic matter is not equal. Composting tends to even the playing field, eventually. Larger pieces and woodier material will break down along with the tender leaves and stems resulting in compost that is fine, crumbly, and sweet-smelling.

There are shortcuts. Some refuse can go directly into the garden to cycle back into essential nutrients right in place, bypassing the layering and turning of the compost bin.

Fresh, green clippings like grass and other tender leaves and stems, as well as kitchen scraps—from carrot and apple peels to tough green bean strings and pea pods—can be thinly layered on the surface of the garden or added sparingly to soil when preparing for planting. Seaweeds fit in this category, as well, but remember to rinse oceanic plants thoroughly to remove excess salt. Beware: Too thick a layer of these fresh greens may result in an impenetrable mat that doesn’t break down and even can impede water percolation.

Dry leaves and other dry, but fairly thin, plant stems, such as straw and pine needles, take a little longer and can be used as mulch and layered on the soil up to 4 inches deep. Don’t try to use them directly into a planting hole. Large and very woody bits (think those chips from the tree service) should only be used as a top dressing. They take a really long time to break down, even in a nice hot composting system. Don’t worry; there are microbes and fungi that will eventually convert them into dark, crumbly, beautiful humus. Nearly magical, this substance is the key to healthy soil. In fact, the color of any organic material will be a key to its use in the garden. All green waste will eventually take on this dark hue, and the darker the material, the better it is to incorporate when planting.

There is yet another class of organics to consider: manures. Most manures should not be used immediately after their production by the animals in question. Garden gurus speak of “hot” manure, meaning that it is of recent origin and contains a high concentration of ammonia. It takes time and some helpful bacteria to make this compound into a more easily assimilable source of nitrogen for plants. If it stinks, it’s too strong for delicate roots. Horse manure may be the most readily available, from area riding stables, and is usually mixed with some type of bedding material (straw or fine wood chips). It still needs time, either in the compost pile with all the other garden clippings or in a pile of its own to break down a bit.

Gardeners are increasingly growing chickens, rabbits, goats, or other beasts, and all of their droppings are also valuable sources of nitrogen and organic components. The mammals are herbivores and produce dung that has a fair amount of plant fiber since they eat only grasses and grains. Avian droppings are more concentrated (they also eat insects, snails, and almost anything small enough to pass their craw), so it needs to be used sparingly when fresh or composted well. Keeping a goat or a few chickens is an excellent way to process garden and kitchen clippings, however. Toss the raw ingredients into the coop or corral, and they will be crunched, digested, excreted, and mixed together with no extra effort; ready-made soil amendments.

As you can read in the article above, there are many strategies to recycle organic material into the soil and thus build it up, thus creating a rich foundation for nourishing us on many levels.

How seed saving and food security are two sides of the same coin

More and more people are waking up to understand just how insecure our food system is these days and how far we have moved from our relationship with our food. At the root of this crisis is the crisis over viable seed, a crisis precipitated by large agricultural interests that promote vegetable and fruit varieties that are easy to transport and have a longer shelf life , rather than varieties that are more nutritious.In this article below on seed saving by kay Baxter, learn what some are doing around the world to remedy this situation.

In our changing and unstable world, the question of food security is becoming increasingly relevant. Our ability to grow healthy food locally and sustainably is dependent in many ways on the quality of our seeds. It has been a focus of the Koanga Institute for many years to support home gardeners with the skills needed for self reliance, and understanding the process of saving high quality seed that is well adapted to local climates is fundamental to this. Almost all seed available commercially today is grown by large companies either in Europe or the USA. This leaves the home gardener extremely vulnerable to global instability if they are not saving their own seeds. Genetic diversity in our food crops has been lost on a drastic scale due to the industrialisation of our food production. The incredible diversity we once had, with thousands of genetically unique varieties, has been reduced to a tiny number of varieties that have been selected for their suitability to commercial applications (not the requirements of a home gardener).

The Koanga Institute holds a significant and valuable collection of NZ heritage seed (vegetables, herbs and flowers), and has international recognition for their unique work in the field of seed saving and seed production. The founder of the Institute — Kay Baxter — has been dedicated to saving these seeds and making them available in NZ. Over the past 30 years, Kay’s work for the Institute has ensured the survival of more than 800 NZ heritage seed lines, many of which are now available to members and home gardeners. A major focus of our research in the past few years has been finding ways for home gardeners to increase the nutritional density of their produce, adapting biological agricultural methods to suit home gardeners.

Very few soils have the complete balance of minerals required to grow produce to support optimum human health. This is not such an issue while we have food available to us from many parts of the world, but as we look towards self reliance (be it on a family scale or a local community scale) human health will suffer if these deficiencies aren’t addressed. Once the minerals have been balanced, then it becomes possible to manage the recycling and regeneration of these nutrients.

As community based organisations develop skills and networks that foster local sustainability and community self reliance, the question of seed saving becomes increasingly important. While seed saving is not difficult, there are many things to take into account if you are serious about ensuring food security, and the survival of specific varieties.

This 5-day workshop will give you the skills and understanding to grow and save your own seeds, and to ensure that the seeds you save will be high quality, for longevity and with the potential for optimal nutrition. Whether you are planning to set up a seed bank for a larger community, or would like to address food security for your immediate family, here you will find the skills and resources required. Processes taught are very low tech, and could be adapted to suit any situation, including rural villages without electricity or technology.

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