PANNA: Share the Love with Flower Workers

I've been a big supporter of pesticide-free and organic flower production for years. One of my Search Engineering clients, Hana Flowers, an on-line florist in Hawaii, grows pesticide free in Hawaii. Each flower is hand-picked, hand-washed in a bio-degradeable solution, and hand-packed in wet paper before being shipped anywhere in the world.

If you'd like to go even further, I recommend you read this article about flower workers and what you can do to help them. The Pesticide Action Network of North America has a program to help you purchase fair trade chocolate and organically grown flowers.

Warm up any room for the holidays with a tropical bouquet of Hawaiian flowers. Hana Flowers, of Maui Hawaii, grows pesticide-free flowers which are hand-picked, hand-washed in bio-degradeable soap, and hand-packed in damp paper, then shipped directly to you from Hawaii.

Considering that flowers are usually grown in third world countries, where they - and the workers - are coated in dangerous pesticides, shopping for your holiday flowers from Hana flowers makes sense for your health, the health of floral workers, and the health of the environment. Please vote with your dollars by purchasing these high-quality, earth-friendly tropical flowers for your holiday bouquet.

If anyone would like to post here on a regular basis, contact me at ssupak at yahoo dot com. Here's an e-mail I got the other day.

Hi, I wanted to let you know about this news story for your organic blog, and how factory farming affects all of us: Fruits, Veggies Now Linked to Most Major Salmonella Cases.

And more generally I wanted to introduce The NewStandard--a national, independent, newspaper with hard news from a progressive standpoint five days a week. They're in an uphill battle for another 380 members and financial stability, so if you like it and you or anyone you know would want to become members, I'd greatly appreciate the help in keeping this important project alive.

Great sites! And happy Thanksgiving!

benjamin melançon
human being
ben at melanconent dot com

Founding Member
People Who Give a Damn

Webworker, beMWeb web site design & digital photography

Interim Co-ordinator, The Fund for Authentic Journalism , Supporting the work of the Narco News Bulletin, And its companion projects, the School of Authentic Journalism and the NarcoSphere

I often get mail from kids looking for organic farms on which they'd like to work, in order to learn more about organic agriculture. Now they can go to college, because as today's AP headline says, Students Flock to Campus Organic Farms.

Over the past few years, about 200 schools have signed up with farm-to-college programs, which match up local farmers with area universities, according to the Venice, Calif.-based Community Food Security Coalition.

It's not just fruits and vegetables, either. The University of Montana in Missoula spends $425,000 on local meat, dairy and wheat products, about 17 percent of the school's overall food budget. Some of the students are even looking into bio-diesel programs to run their tractors.

I have such hope for the next generation. At my local grocery store the other day, the stock boy, about 18 years old, was putting glass bottles of milk on the shelf. I said I was amazed that they still put milk in glass, and he said he wished they put organic milk in glass, because that's all he'll drink. Wow. I remember the days when I was explaining to everyone why they should eat, and drink, organic. Now, they're bragging about it.

For anyone who still doesn't understand why eating organic is better for you, read today's LA Times story, Dozens of Chemicals Found in Most Americans' Bodies. While your health is certainly a good reason to go organic, you should know that organic agriculture is much better for the planet's health too.

Pesticides linked to Parkinsons

As I read this story about a link between common garden pesticides and Parkinsons, I wondered why anyone would still use this crap, when organic gardening is so much easier for lazy gardeners like me, and so much better for you and the planet. Odd that the scientests who made this connection simply say to wear protective equipment when you apply pesticides (no mention of going organice), and they story doesn't mention exactly which pesticides they made the connection for.

So, I did a little digging and found the New Scientist Magazine article, where the researches admit that exactly which pesticide or pesticides were causing the Parkinsons had slipped through their regulatory net.

It would be more helpful, he adds, for studies to monitor exposure to individual pesticides as and when they are used, rather than relying on people's memories of their usage.

Just stop using the poisons!

Friends of the Earth: Press Releases: 2003: New Tax Could Cut Pesticide Use

What are the odds that the Bush Assministration will let anything like this, which would cost the billionaire executives of Monsanto and DuPont some pocket change (assuming people actually start using less of their toxic stuff), anywhere near the Governator's Pen? I can hear the phone conversaton now.

Bush: Arnold?
Gov: W?
Bush: Hey, if you want any chance to become president, you gotta stop this pesticide tax.
Gov: No problem. I promised no new taxes, and all of these kinds of things.

The proposed tax hike on pesticides would fund classes for California farmers on how to reduce the amount of toxic runoff in the state's water supply. This would be a temporary tax paid by urban buyers of all sorts of chemicals, including chlorine for pools. The current 2.1% tax would go to 10% for three years, and then revert to the 2.1%. During this time, farmers who enroll in the classes would recieve rebates, and could actually make money from the program.

You know why this won't happen? Because it makes sense. In the mean time, I encourage everyone to learn what you can online about using less, or no, synthetic chemicals on your yards and gardens. Organic gardeners have no runoff problems.

Also in organic news today (busy day):

Organic greens strengthen the immune system: Danish study. Good eatin'!

Great southern Maine restaurant serves organic food

Joshua Mather's Restaurant in Wells, southern Maine, known simply as Joshua's, offers organic food whenever possible. His priority is always freshness first, organic or natural second, and local or from Maine third. Much of the organic produce, when in season, comes from Johua's father, Mort Mather. His organic farm near Wells produces a large protion of the fresh, organic vegetables used in the restaurant.

Mort is an author and former President of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. His organic gardening web site is full of his articles on organic gardening.

Good News on the Sustainable Agriculture front from, uh, yes, I've checked it again, the Bush Agriculture Department.

Kansas is proving ground for federal conservation program

Seems in 2002, Bush signed into law the Conservation Security Program, a "voluntary program that provides financial and technical assistance to promote the conservation and improvement of soil, water, air, energy, plant and animal life, and other conservation purposes on Tribal and private working lands." My only question is, how much did Monstanto pay to have them wait this long?

Still, all my sarcasm and bitterness aside, this is apparently a good program, under which farmers who have been doing the right thing all along can be rewarded for their actions. Proof, I suppose, that even when guided by corporate schills, the beauracracy can churn out a good program every now and then. I'm sure this didn't originate in the White House, anyway.

Of particular interest is the inclusion of rewards for no-till practices, which improve soil tilth and reduce erosion. And, as anyone who has visited my organic gardening site knows, healthy soil makes healthy plants that are disease, drought, and pest resistant.

Organic Gardening Gifts

We've restocked our organic gardening supplies store with great gardening gifts for the gardener in your family. Wow. You can tell that sentence was written by a specialist in search engine optimization. We hope that on this day of sad environmental news, you'll vote with your dollars. By spending our money wisely, in ways that help the planet, we'll be telling American industry and politicians that no matter which party you're from, or which polluting industry you lobby for, a majority of Americans believe in more environmental protection, not less. By spending your money on environmentally sound products and services, like our organic gardedning products, you send a message by rewarding the companies that produce these environmental products, and punishing the ones who don't.

Perhaps most importantly is getting children involved in sustaianble spending. We recommend getting them started in organic gardening with this Whitney Farms Organic Gardening Starter Kit. Besides teaching them respect for nature and organic gardening techniques they will remember all their lives, children will eat vegetables they grow!

Anyone who wasn't paying attention to the USDA's organic standards fiasco this week wouldn't have noticed yet another Bush administration flip-flop. This time, the USDA, and Ann Veneman, Armageddon freak, tried to allow some pesticide and antibiotic use in organic food. Today, about 24 hours later, Veneman backed off those changes. It was all probably a ploy so Bush could say he protected the organic standards from attack.

One thing's for sure: John Kerry doesn't flip-flop on the environment. He gets a 92%, an A, from the League of Conservation Voters. George Bush gets an F. The first F they've ever given.

So, all you Kerry voters in California and New York (or any other solidly blue or red state) get your asses to Ohio, where you only have to be a resident for 30 days to vote there.

The Rose and Kettle Restaurant

If you're looking for a great Cooperstown restaurant to visit after you go to the Baseball Hall of Fame, or on your way to the Glimmerglass Opera, stop by the Rose and Kettle in Cherry Valley. The Rose and Kettle offers fresh, organic, locally raised and grown gourmet food at reasonable prices in upstate New York.

Many U.S. Residents Carry Toxic Pesticides Above "Safe" Levels; Report: Children, Women, Mexican-Americans Shoulder Heaviest Burden

"None of us choose to have hazardous pesticides in our bodies," said Kristin Schafer, PAN Program Coordinator and lead author of the report. "Yet CDC found pesticides in 100 percent of the people who had both blood and urine tested. The average person in this group carried a toxic cocktail of 13 of the 23 pesticides we analyzed."

Bush Administration Limits Farmers from Suing Pesticide-makers

"...if a pesticide not only doesn't do what it says it's supposed to do, but also kills your crop, that could cost you a year's income. There has to be some legal recourse, and (this change) could really limit that."—Tom Buis, National Farmers Union

The Bush administration, apparently feeling that donations from the pesticide industry are more important than votes from farmers in states Bush will probably win anyway, has changed a long standing federal position allowing farmers to sue pesticide companies when their products don't do what's advertised.

Erik Olson of the Natural Resources Defense Council says the change immunizes pesticide-makers from legitimate damage claims. The new policy also could bolster pesticide-makers' contention that federal labeling insulates them from suits alleging that their products caused broader health and environmental harm, Olson says.

Bulgaria is hoping to become Europe's food basket by moving into organic farming.

"More than 80 percent of Bulgaria's farming land is suitable for organic farming."—Nihat Kabil, Bulgarian deputy minister for agriculture and forestry

Ironically, because of the sheer poverty of the Bulgarian people, chemical pesticides and fertilizers just weren't an option after the fall of the Soviet Union. So, for the past 12 years or so, vast tracts of land have remained fallow, while many small farmers have been growing organically. So many, in fact, that sustainable agriculture has become quite a growth industry.

Organic Food Has More Healthy Compounds

A new study has revealed that, contrary to what the chemical people have been telling us for years, organically grown food is more nutritious. For years I've talked about A Mozafar's study showing that crops using manure as fertilizer were higher in vitamin B. Now a new study shows that blackberries grown sustainably or organically and then frozen contained 50 percent to 58 percent more polyphenolics than conventionally grown crops from neighboring plots. Sustainably grown frozen strawberries contained 19 percent more polyphenolics than conventional fruit. Sustainably grown and organic produce also had more ascorbic acid, which the body converts to vitamin C, Mitchell's team reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Republican Redneck From Georgia Wrote Language to Dilute Meaning of Organic

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman says organic food standards could be undermined by a measure passed in Congress that allows farmers who feed animals conventional meal to label the meat organic if reasonably priced organic grain isn't available. She stopped short of endorsing an effort led by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to repeal the language wrapped by Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., into the $397 billion government-wide spending bill. Still, organic food supporters welcomed her statement. "I think that USDA's statement provides the perfect justification for quietly saying: Let's repeal this," said Bob Scowcroft, head of the Organic Farming Research Foundation in California.

New Reasons for eating organic

Francesca Lyman of MSNBC writes that a new study claims that a pesticide-free diet significantly lowers the amount of pesticide residues kids are exposed to, DUH.... The study, published on-line here, concluded:

The researchers measured six metabolites that derive from some 39 organophosphorus pesticides, the most commonly used in the United States and also some of the most toxic. They compared a group of 18 organic-eating children with 21 conventional food-eating children all roughly the same age (2-to-5-years-old on average), gender, and of similar family income. The children with primarily organic diets had far lower levels of the metabolites in their bodies.

Dear CALPIRG supporter,

For the past 20 years, the run-off from the 25,000 farms located in the Central Valley has not been regulated. Waivers, created in 1982, exempted these farms from the California clean water laws because the State assumed that these farms would regulate themselves and that the run-off - which includes toxic pesticides and manure - would not harm the public.

This assumption has been proven dreadfully wrong. Now, over 500 miles of rivers and streams in the Central Valley have been declared unsafe for fishing, swimming and drinking by the U.S. EPA because of this toxic agricultural run-off.

Please take a moment to ask the Central Valley Water Board to regulate agricultural run-off and dairy pollution in California. Follow the link below to go to a web page where you can e-mail the Central Valley Water Board.

http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=312&id4=ES


BACKGROUND

Agricultural pollution, including pesticide-laden irrigation waters and nitrate run-off, is the largest source of pollution for many of California's waterways. This water pollution extends well beyond our agricultural areas, however, threatening fish supplies and scarce drinking water stores for all Californians. For example, agricultural pesticides and manure-related pollutants, such as E. coli, pathogens, nitrates and salts, have been detected in drinking water sources for at least 46 California counties.

Incredibly, agricultural pollution - unlike every other source of water pollution in the state - has gone entirely unchecked, with farms and dairies enjoying a perpetual waiver from the requirements of the state and federal clean water laws. In 1999, the California legislature rightly decided to bring an end to these waivers, including those enjoyed by Central Valley farmers and dairymen, on January 1, 2003. Now that the deadline is looming, the Farm Bureau and other agribusiness interests are pressuring the Central Valley Water Quality Control Board to delay meaningful action that would reduce the amount of agricultural pollution dumped into our waters.

And the Regional Board is bending to agribusiness pressure. Instead of taking this historic opportunity to require agriculture to comply with the same clean water laws as everyone else, the Board has proposed yet another waiver - a weak measure that will ensure more of the same: unabated agricultural pollution, contaminated waterways, threatened fish and drinking water supplies.

Please take a moment to urge the Central Valley Board to implement an effective program to control agricultural and dairy pollution and assure compliance with water quality objectives for our waters. Follow the link below to go to a web page where you can e-mail the Central Valley Water Board.

http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=312&id4=ES

Sincerely,

Wendy Wendlandt
CALPIRG Associate Director
http://www.CALPIRG.org

Certified Organic

Last week's cover story does a good job looking into organic food, but fails to mention tests that have proven that using manure as fertilizer boosts vitamin B12 in fruits and vegetables (look up A Mozafar). Also, no mention of the fact that because organic frood is usually picked later, when it's more ripe, it tends to be healthier for that reason too. These facts, along with the environmental effects of chemical farming, and the fact that pesticides are found on all produce, but in much higher concentrations on conventionally farmed produce, are enough to make the logical choice to go organic!

Dr. Pedro Sanchez Teaches African Farmers the Secrets of the Soil

Poor quality soil is the cause of many of the evils that plague poor countries, from hunger and poverty to environmental devastation caused by slash-and-burn farming. Dr. Sanchez, whose work earned him the 2002 World Food Prize, has taught 150,000 small-scale African farmers how to boost yields by improving their soil. He plans to use the $250,000 prize to continue his work.

As many of you probably know, healthy soil is what Mort Mather and I preach at our organic gardening web site. Healthy soil grows healthy plants which are naturally disease, pest, and drought resistant.