Monsanto lobyists to be placed in charge of food safety

Hope... Change...I don't think so!

This month Michael Taylor became the senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA. He had been Monsanto's attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto's vice president and chief lobbyist. He is the gem of a human being responsible for arguing that milk from cows injected with RBGH did not require any special labeling after repeated studies showed the milk contained higher levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). IGF-1, a huge risk factor for common cancers. He oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated the introduction of GMOs in 1996, silencing those who voiced concerns.

GMOs were rushed onto our plates in 1996. Over the next nine years, multiple chronic illnesses in the US nearly doubled -- from 7% to 13%. Allergy-related emergency room visits doubled between 1997 and 2002 while food allergies, especially among children, skyrocketed. We also witnessed a dramatic rise in asthma, autism, obesity, diabetes, digestive disorders, and certain cancers.
Read more here.

Farm Fresh Foods

This Morning Edition series takes you to America's farmers markets and roadside stands for a sample of what's growing on its farms, in its gardens and across the countryside. We invite you to share your recipes and ideas. Click on the image above to access the links.

40 farmers under 40

Lots of CASFS grads on the list! Thanks to Emily for the hat tip.

Hazon Food Conference

Registration is now open for the 2009 Hazon Food Conference which is held Dec 24-27 at Asilomar Conference and Retreat Center in Monterey, CA.
Visit www.hazon.org/foodconference for more information about the conference.
Scholarship funds are available (scroll down to the bottom of the page) and info is listed under the "Volunteer Scholarship" section.
Contact the one and only Emily Freed with questions.

Organic Farms as Subdivision Amenities

Increasingly, subdivisions, usually master-planned developments at which buyers buy home sites or raw land, have been treating farms as an amenity. “There are currently at least 200 projects that include agriculture as a key community component,” said Ed McMahon, a senior fellow with the Urban Land Institute. In 2001, investors in a stalled project with an agriculture component outside Boise, Idaho, recruited Frank Martin to take over their development. Mr. Martin had been a manager at Prairie Crossing, a subdivision built around a working farm in the Chicago suburb of Gray’s Lake. By 2008, the 1,756-acre Idaho development had repaid a $12 million loan from the financing arm of General Motors; realized a 61 percent premium on the sale of its sites, compared with similar parcels with no farm nearby; and claimed a $2.8 million pretax profit by selling 785 of 800 lots, while keeping 1,000 acres open. The success of the two developments proved the concept, and like-minded developers around the country are trying it on inactive farmland and even on formerly industrial land.
Full story here.