A Moving Story of a Mother

You can still watch it on Facebook!

My Story
A moving story of a mother.AVAILABLE SUBTITLES: Arabic, Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Lithuanian, Persian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Turkish (click the CC option on the player).Courtesy of: Mercy For Animals
Posted by Best Video You Will Ever See on Saturday, June 13, 2015

Validated Independent News: Human Health

By Project Censored

Campaign to Fluoridate America Corporate media obscure an ongoing battle over water fluoridation in the U.S. While a recent New York Times editorial cites the Center for Disease Control’s claim that fluoridation is one of the top accomplishments in public health over the past century, James Tracy reports that fluoridating the nation’s water supply appears to have been a carefully coordinated plan designed to shield major aluminum and steel producers from liabilities for the substantial fluorine pollution their plants generated. Thus American industrial interests, supported by public relations firms, have been the chief forces behind water fluoridation.

Cow Hormones in Water Supply A May 2012 study published by the journal Environmental Science & Technology reported that large dairy farms are a “primary source” of estrogen contamination in the environment. Researchers found three primary estrogens in the wastewater, and further analysis revealed that, because of the rapid conversion from one form estrogen to another, these hormones do not degrade, but persist in the environment.

Potential of African-led Health Research A 2011 study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank and USAid found that investing an additional $21-$36 per person on healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa would save more than 3 million lives in the year 2015. 90% of those saved would be women and children. Such an investment would also generate $100 billion in economic benefits.

Wireless Technology a Looming Health Crisis As a multitude of hazardous wireless technologies are deployed in homes, schools and workplaces, government officials and industry representatives continue to insist on their safety despite growing evidence to the contrary. A major health crisis looms that is only hastened through the extensive deployment of “smart grid” technology.

Corporate Hypocrisy in Fight against Breast Cancer Each year in October, corporations such as General Mills and Johnson & Johnson adorn their products in pink to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research; however, many of these companies’ products contain cancer-linked chemicals and toxins. As Brittany Shoot reports, “Food manufacturing giants use packaging full of cancer-linked chemicals, yet partner with breast cancer organizations to funnel money toward research.” This “pink washing” may distract consumers from how these companies actual contribute to the problem.

U.S. Health Law May Curb Rising Maternal Deaths America’s mothers are dying in increasing numbers. The U.S. had the highest rate of maternal mortality of all developed nations in 2009 with 16.1 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, an increase from 6.6 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1987, according to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Definitive explanations for the rising maternal mortality rate are lacking, but some evidence suggests that hew health care laws, improving preventative care for pregnant women, could contribute to reversing the trend.

Should Childhood Vaccination be Mandatory? Childhood vaccines killed or injured 2,699 children last year in America, the US government has admitted – and 101 children developed autism after vaccination, even though researchers continue to insist that no link exists. Paul Offit advocates that, although vaccines are not free of risk, their benefits clearly outweigh their risks. If parents were well informed, they would choose to vaccinate their children. 

Missing Medicines in Malawi Malawi suffers from shortages of essential drugs. A 2012 Oxfam report found that only nine percent of local health facilities (54 of 585) had the full Essential Health Package list of drugs for treating 11 common diseases. 

China Acknowledges “Cancer Villages” In February 2013, China’s environmental ministry officially acknowledged the presence of cancer hot spots, known informally as “cancer villages,” throughout the country. Chinese media have reported 459 “cancer villages” throughout China, in every province and autonomous region except Qinghai and Tibet. Once a rare disease, cancer is now the biggest killer in both urban and rural China, with mortality rates as high as 80 percent in the last 30 years.

The Drugs in US Meat–We’re Eating What? Synthetic growth hormones routinely administered in the US to livestock are not listed on food package labels. Other drugs used to increase muscle mass in pigs and turkeys, including ractopamine, have been banned in 160 but remain in use in the US. A European scientific commission believes there is an association between steroid hormones and cancers, including breast and prostate cancers, and that meat consumption is the culprit. The US has the highest rates of both and also uses the most hormones in its meat production. Since 1989, Europe has banned most US meat.

Genital Mutilation in the US Although genital mutilation is concentrated in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, thousands of US girls living in immigrant communities are sent out of the country to places where genital mutilation is practiced, or relatives from practicing counties come to the US to do the procedure. The New York metropolitan area has the highest cases of female genital mutilation in the US; approximately 41,000 cases. These women face major complications to their health, including infections, post-traumatic stress disorder and painful menstruation cycles.

Routine Infant Circumcision: Exempt from American Medical Ethics The US is the only country in the world that circumcises male infants for non-religious reasons. This pro-circumcision bias of American culture is reflected in medical theory and policy. However, most proponents lack awareness of the health impact of circumcision.

South Africa “Over 25% Schoolgirls HIV Positive” About five million people in South Africa are HIV positive, which is about 10% of the total population. Those numbers are higher when looking at the school-age female population. Over 25% of school-aged girls are HIV positive, some as young as 10 years old. Many contract HIV as a result of sexual relations with older “sugar-daddies.” 

Private-Equity Firms Target the US Health-Care Industry

Private equity (PE) firms are targeting the US health-care providers. Growing PE interest in low profit or non-profit sectors like hospitals is expanding. PE investors are betting on new profit opportunities from the growing needs of the baby-boomer generation and from the Affordable Care Act, which will dramatically expand health-insurance coverage.

Federally Funded Health-Care Co-ops —Coming to Your Community With funding from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), communities are coming together to develop Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans—CO-Ops to operate community health care facilities or cooperative insurance plans. Unlike private health insurance companies, these co-ops are owned and democratically controlled by their members. Beginning in 2014, a first wave of co-ops will launch in 24 states, with an estimated 19 million previously uninsured Americans expected to use insurance exchanges to buy health coverage.

The US has left Iraq with an Epidemic of Cancers and Birth Defects After ten years of war in Iraq, Dahr Jamail reports, the US has left Iraq (and especially the city of Fallujah) with a rising epidemic of toxic contamination. After the US military used depleted uranium munitions in 2004, Iraqi medical officials have tracked twice number of cancer cases as in 1995.

Mozambique’s First HIV Vaccine Trial Heralds New Era in Local Research Mozambique’s Polana Cancio Centre for Research and Public Health has finished its first HIV vaccine trial and is preparing to start the second trial. According to the preliminary test, the vaccine is safe for use. According to Ilesh Jani, the studies mark an important step towards bolstering clinical trial and research capacity for diseases such as HIV and malaria. One goal of this research is to develop a vaccine that will be affordable in countries such as Mozambique.

Skyrocketing HIV/AIDS Rates in African American Women In August 2012 at the International AIDS Conference in Washington DC, HIV advocates met to discuss the skyrocketing HIV infection rates in black women that are increasing to levels found in sub-Sahara Africa. The recent growth in HIV cases among African-American women especially among youth has public health professionals concerned. In 2010, black women contracted 44 percent of new HIV infections. 

Background TV Poses Danger for Children A recent study conducted at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington (UNCW) sheds new light on the detrimental impact background television has on children’s neural development and social skills. The UNCW study shows that children exposed to more TV are more likely to develop problems with hyperactivity and antisocial behavior. When children accustomed to such high doses of daily television stop watching all together, depression has a tendency to develop.

US Veterans Prescribed Lethal Drugs to Treat PTSD A number of US war veterans were issued a variety of potentially deadly pharmaceuticals to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) including the dangerous antipsychotic drug Seroquel. Pleas from the families of deceased veterans finally persuaded the U.S. Central Command to remove the dangerous antipsychotic from the list of military PTSD treatments. Information about Seroquel and similar drugs is often kept hidden from the public, leaving consumers of generic brands unaware of corporate deceit and veteran deaths.

Antidepressant Drugs Pose Serious Health Concerns for Unborn Babies The world’s largest drug companies are encouraging pregnant women to take prescription drugs, get vaccine shots, and even have chemotherapy. Among these are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or antidepressants, which are causing miscarriages and a variety of birth defects. Excessive prescription drug use in pregnant women is also linked to the increase of babies born with autism, preterm birth, newborn behavioral syndrome, persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn and longer-term neurobehavioral effects.

Pesticides May Lead to Cancer and Autism in Children Pesticides are harmful to the health and intelligence of America’s children, according to an October 2012 report released by the Pesticide Action Network of North America. Titled, “A Generation in Jeopardy,” the study notes how chemicals from pest control products are one key cause of a range of disorders such as ADHD, autism, cancer, disrupted metabolism, and even low IQs.

Laboratory Study of Rats Supports Dangers of GM Corn A study published in September issue of The Food & Chemical Toxicology Journal found that rats fed Monsanto’s genetically modified corn over several months showed significant health problems including premature death and tumors. The study found that over half of the male rats and 70 percent of the females who were fed a lifetime of Monsanto’s corn died prematurely with significant liver and kidney damage. Scientists also found the rats to contain cancerous tumors so large they blocked organ function. While numerous studies have examined their short-term impact, this is the first ever study to examine the long-term effects of GMO consumptions.

Project Censored

The News That Didn't Make The News

Eighteen college and universities worldwide have researched and validated 233 independent news stories for the annual Project Censored review cycle. These independent news stories have seen little if any coverage by the corporate media. The Project Censored network is currently voting on the top 25 most important stories for inclusion in Censored 2014: Fearless Speech in Fateful Times, the latest edition of our annual yearbook, scheduled for release by Seven Stories Press in October 2013. 

Please help us maintain this annual process by becoming a subscriber ($5-$10 a month) or by making a one time tax deductible donation of support here.

We thank you for your support and please review the latest Validated Independent News stories on Human Health.

Sincerely,

Mickey Huff—Director of Project Censored

Andy Roth—Associate Director of Project Censored

Peter Phillips—President, Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored

http://www.projectcensored.org/

Argentina - A Poster Child for the Health Hazards of GMO Crops

By Dr Mercola

Argentina’s population is being sickened by massive spraying of herbicides on its genetically engineered soya fields. Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, is blamed for the dramatic increase in devastating birth defects as well as cancer. Sterility and miscarriages are also increasing.

A 2012 nutritional analysis of GMO versus non-GMO corn shows shocking differences in nutritional content. Non-GMO corn contains 437 times more calcium, 56 times more magnesium, and 7 times more manganese than GMO corn.

GMO corn was also found to contain 13 ppm of glyphosate, compared to zero in non-GMO corn. The EPA standard for glyphosate in American water supplies is 0.7 ppm, and organ damage in animals has occurred at levels as low as 0.1 ppm.

GMO corn contains extremely high levels of formaldehyde—about 200 times the amount found toxic to animals.

Unfortunately, President Obama recently signed into law a spending bill that included a devastating provision that puts Monsanto above the law. The provision limits the ability of judges to stop Monsanto and/or farmers from growing or harvesting genetically engineered crops, even if courts find evidence of potential health risks.

Source and more info here.

Hormones force kids to grow up fast

Boys are going through puberty up to two years earlier, with their voices starting to crack at the age of 9 in some cases, according to new numbers in the journal Pediatrics. 

That's only third or fourth grade, for crying out loud. 

But on the other hand, maybe they're just keeping up with their classmates -- because girls are also going through puberty earlier than ever. 

For the girls, puberty kicks in so much earlier these days because they're exposed to estrogen at every turn -- the hormone is in meat, milk, soy, packaged foods, canned drinks, toys, shower curtains, scented candles, and more. 

There's even estrogen in the water! 

Boys are getting estrogen from all those same sources, of course. In theory, that should delay puberty for them -- so researchers are stumped. 

But I'm not. 

In lakes and rivers around the country, male frogs and fish are spontaneously turning into females -- and it's because of all the estrogen in the water. 

It's not happening in humans -- not literally, not yet -- but take a look around. Today's young “men” are weepy, wimpy girlie-men -- and most of them even have their own pair of manboobs. 

So, sure, they're going through early puberty... FEMALE puberty! In a generation or two, they may even start menstruating (assuming they haven't already). 

By the way, all that estrogen is obviously disastrous for kids. But it's not much better for older folks, and can increase the risk of everything from diabetes to cancer. 

Don't wait for the government to act. Protect yourself and your family by swapping hormone-laced processed foods for an all-natural diet of fresh organic meats and dairy, and filtering your own water with reverse osmosis. 

Separating the boys from the girls, 

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

Monsanto Faces $7.5 Billion Payout to Brazilian Farmers

By Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, CorpWatch Blog

June 28th, 2012 

Monsanto, the largest seed corporation in the world, may have to pay as much as $7.5 billion to five million Brazilian soy farmers.

The company has long dealt out severe legal sanctions against farmers it suspects of "pirating" its seed. But now the farmers have turned the tables on Monsanto, by suing the company and winning.

Genetically modified (GM) soy production in Brazil began illegally in 1998 with seeds smuggled in from Argentina. Farmers favored the engineered product because it was resistant to Roundup herbicide (another Monsanto product) making it easier to plant. In 2005 Brazilian president Luiz Inacio "Lula" Da Silva, realizing that many farmers had switched over, legalized Roundup Ready soy despite the misgivings of environmental activists. Last year the country planted 30.3 million hectares of GM crops, most of which were soy.

Most of this soy is exported to Europe, where the soy is used to feed cattle and for biofuels, and to China, whose burgeoning beef industry has an enormous and ever growing demand for cattle feed. Soy comprises 26 percent of Brazil's farm exports.

That same year, Monsanto began to charge Brazilian growers a two percent tax for their GM soy production. Farmers that buy seed from Monsanto are also required to sign a contract in which they pledge not to save seed for future harvests, a millenia-old custom among farmers.

Monsanto penalized farmers who did not keep GM soy strictly separated from non GM soy. (also marketed by Monsanto) If tests of non GM soy crops uncovered Roundup Ready soy, Monsanto required farmers to pay a three percent fee.

The biotech industry claims that the farmers either knowingly or unknowingly mix the two strains together. It has long downplayed the allegation that GM seeds spread through pollination or inventory errors, a process known as "genetic contamination.”

In 2009 a group of rural syndicates from Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state, took Monsanto to court, charging that separating GM and non-GM soy was virtually impossible and that therefore the "Monsanto tax" was unjust. 

"The issue is that segregating GM and conventional soya is difficult, since the GM soya is highly contaminating", http://www.nature.com/news/monsanto-may-lose-gm-soya-royalties-throughout-brazil-1.10837 João Batista da Silveira, president of the Sindicato Rural de Passo Fundo and one of the leading plaintiffs, told Nature magazine.

In April 2012 a Rio Grande Do Sul judge ruled that Monsanto's fees were illegal and noted that the Roundup Ready seed patent had already expired in the country. The company was not only ordered to stop collecting the royalty fees but to also return all such fees collected since 2004. Such collected royalties amount to $2 billion.

Monsanto appealed the ruling but was dealt another blow on June 12 when the Brazil Supreme Court decided unanimously that whatever the Rio Grande Do Sul courts rule on this matter should apply to the whole of Brazil. This caused the number of plaintiffs to balloon to five million and the total royalty owed to rise to $7.5 billion.

Monsanto also claimed that when farmers saved seed to replant it in the following seasons, they were required to pay royalties every season. But the plaintiffs counter that Brazilian law allows them to save seed.

"Monsanto gets paid when it sells the seeds," Jane Berwanger, lawyer for the farmers told MercoPress. "The law gives producers the right to multiply the seeds they buy and nowhere in the world is there a requirement to pay (again)... Producers are in effect paying a private tax on production."

In an official statement, Monsanto stated: "While the lawsuit lasts and the courts do not render a final decision on the merits, the royalty collection system for the use of Monsanto's Roundup Ready technology will continue operating normally based on legal safeguards established."

Toxic Impact Of Roundup Ready Soy

In 2008 Chemical Research in Toxicology published a study by Gilles-Eric Seralini, a French specialist in molecular biology and professor at the University of Caen, that indicated that Roundup is lethal to human cells. According to his research, doses far below those used on soy crops cause cell death in a few hours.

In 2010 Chemical Research in Toxicology, published a peer-reviewed study by Argentine embryologist Andres Carrasco, leading researcher at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research and director of the molecular embryology laboratory at the University of Buenos Aires, which determined that glyphosate, Roundup's active ingredient, is extremely toxic for amphibian embryos in doses much lower than those used in agricultural sprayings, as much as 1,540 times lower.

See Biosecurity Project Puerto Rico for more.

Source

Filthy Business - Stop paying the price for factory farming (EU)

By Compassion in World Farming

Economic pressures on farmers, such as the low price they are paid for milk, have led to extreme breeds of dairy cow who are able to produce up to ten times the natural amount of milk, pushed by a constant cycle of feeding and milking.

Demand better farming today

Every single year, billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money are spent by the EU on farm subsidies. A percentage should be used to help farmers invest in changes that will improve the lives of their animals. One study shows, for example, that giving indoor-housed cows access to pasture cuts BY HALF the risk of them becoming lame.

Together we can deliver better farming for Europe – but we need your support. Join us now in taking the action below to alert your MEPs and add your voice to the campaign against the filthy business of factory farming.

The European Union’s policymakers like to boast about high quality farming, often portraying healthy and happy animals pottering in pastures and farmyards. This is of course an absurdly false notion.

Every year, 80% of farm animals in the EU* spend their days confined in sheds, pens and even cages; many growing at an unnatural rate with little to do but eat grain and imported soya; billions dying in under-regulated slaughterhouses or prematurely from injury or exhaustion. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

*Estimated using figured for numbers of farmed animals from Eurostat and FAOSTAT

The more European citizens that voice their demand for EU decision makers to support more humane, sustainable forms of animal husbandry, the closer we are to ending the filthy business of factory farming.

Lameness is the scandalous secret suffered in silence by far too many of the EU's 23 million dairy cows. The factory farming approach of milking cows for 'all they are worth' is becoming increasingly common in much of Europe, including the UK. The strain on their bodies causes exhaustion. The huge volume of milk held in their udders – weighing 15kg (15 bags of sugar!) or more – makes it hard for them to walk normally. And all this brings the risk of painful problems with their hooves and legs.

Add your voice to ask for change in the way the EU spends the subsidies it gives to farmers, so that we move towards better farming practices in the UK and the EU.

Filthy Business – a new campaign to eradicate factory farming in the EU

Filthy Business aims to rid the EU of factory farming, starting with changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which allocates huge subsidies to farmers. We want a percentage of the £45 billion per year that Europe's farmers receive from EU taxpayers to subsidise better farming rather than intensive systems that subject animals to a life of misery and pain.

Right now, our farming future is in the hands of your MEPs

MEPs are discussing how these subsidies should be spent right now. Please help us to support better farming by urging your MEPs to push for more financial support for farmers who are humane towards animals, and who don't devastate the environment as they farm. Write to your MEPs and demand better farming now.

http://action.ciwf.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=119&ea.campaign.id=12471

Food Inc.

Know where your food is coming from and vote for change through your food choices and with your wallet!

Conventional farmers won't eat their own produce

Link to the slides on the bottom of the page.
http://homesweetfarm.com/

Icelandic consumers call for factory farm alternative

By IceNews

The Association of Organic Consumers in Iceland has criticised the country’s agriculture industry at a conference this week. One of the group’s board members said in a speech that it is all-but impossible to buy chicken, pork and eggs which were not raised intensively on factory farms.

Oddny Anna Bjornsdottir told guests at the conference this week (which is a part of the Green April campaign) that Icelandic consumers have almost no choice at all when it comes to organic meat and dairy products. While organic lamb is available in specialist health food stores, farmers markets and very occasionally in the supermarkets; there is nothing else on the market, she said.

The conditions and upbringing of Icelandic farm animals have been in the headlines recently like never before and Bjornsdottir puts it down to a national awakening among consumers who increasingly want to buy products from animals with a free range and organic background. Only two slaughter houses in Iceland are certified to process organically reared meat, Visir.is reported.

Bjornsdottir believes that Icelanders have fallen into the same trap with agriculture as they did with many other environmental issues in the past: the assumption that a small nation of people living in a large and unpolluted country automatically means that serious environmental/agricultural problems do not exist in Iceland. She says, on the other hand, that this is changing slowly; despite the fact that the country is far behind its neighbours when it comes to factory farming.

To illustrate the problem, Bjornsdottir points out that very nearly all chicken meat in Iceland comes from intensively reared, caged birds and the same goes for 85 percent of eggs. Even the 15 percent free range eggs fall short of organic standards and usually come from barn birds.

She named five producers of organic lamb and three more who plan to start this year. There are three organic beef producers. Organic pork buyers will need to go direct to farmers, she says; as 90 percent of the country’s pork meat comes from just three factory farms.

Chicken is available in small amounts from the producers of ‘free range’ eggs; but even they are not ‘free range’ enough.

The pressure is mounting from concerned consumers and a shift in the market appears to be in the air.

Read more: http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2011/04/29/icelandic-consumers-call-for-factory-farm-alternative/#ixzz1LlsKZ8Vz

Eggs are healthy after all

By WC Douglass MD

Sounds like someone in Washington has egg on his face. The feds have just completed one of the longest, slowest turnarounds in the history of their mistaken food guidelines.

Oops! Turns out eggs aren't so bad for you after all. That's right! You can even eat the yolks now. (Of course, if you've been listening to me, you never stopped eating them in the first place.)

This isn't the first time U.S. government food advice has been badly wrong, and you can bet the farm it won't be the last.

The change of heart was supposedly based on a new survey that shows eggs now contain 14 percent less cholesterol and 64 percent more vitamin D than found in a similar study conducted in 2002.

Give me a break. Those surveys used eggs from just 12 places around the country. It's such a minor sample that it's bound to differ each time it's run -- and, let's face it, 14 percent isn't exactly a major drop.

It's hardly a study worthy of changing guidelines over -- which should give you a clue about what's really going on here.

You're a first-hand witness to the USDA going into C-Y-A mode. They've finally realized what I've been telling you for years: eggs have virtually no impact on blood cholesterol levels.

Even if you're worried about cholesterol (and you shouldn't be -- but that's another story), cutting out eggs won't make a difference.

Repeated studies have shown that two eggs a day have no impact on blood cholesterol levels, even in people who already have elevated cholesterol.

So whether you like yours fried, boiled, sunny side up, over easy, undercooked or not cooked at all, there's no egg-scuses -- eat your eggs, and eat them often.

Just be sure you get yours fresh from the farm, or at least organic -- because eggs HAVE changed in recent years, just not in the ways the USDA will ever admit.

Factory farms give their chickens worthless feed instead of the grass, bugs, and worms they need to produce good-quality, nutrient-dense eggs.

Hens fed naturally, on the other hand, produce eggs with more omega-3 fatty acids, beta-carotene and vitamins A, D and E.

You might have to shell out more for fresh and organic eggs -- but they're worth the extra scratch.

King Corn

The disastrous US food supply starting with GMO corn. All those millions of acres of GMO corn planted is NOT food. It is basically a raw material for the food and meat industry. The US industrial agriculture is basically growing fast food. 

"We are growing crap! The poorest quality the world has ever seen! We don't eat the corn we grow. Not safe."

And it's all subsidized by the government because the farmers are actually making a loss by producing corn.

All in all, the US government is funding an industrial agriculture and food production that is making millions of Americans sick!

Oh, by the way, they started selling this cheap crap to the EU too.

Bon appetite! 

Official site.

Nocton mega-dairy from the UK withdraws plans for factory dairy farm

Great news from the UK! I don't understand why people in the US are still willing to put up with this!

Take action!

By Care 2

There is good news from the UK.  Thanks in no small part to the dedicated animal and environmental groups, along with many individuals, the mega dairy application for Nocton has been withdrawn.  The proposed dairy factory farm in Lincolnshire would have been the first such endeavor in the UK.

Originally, the proposal called for 8,000 cows, but due to strong objections, a plan was resubmitted for close to 4,000.  Modeled after U.S. factory farm methods, Nocton Dairies would have been a precedent-setting operation for England. 

The Ecologist reported "in a statement, the farmers behind the Nocton proposal, David Barnes and Peter Willis, said they still hoped to see large-scale, US-style, dairy farming in the UK and challenged others to 'stand up to' opponents of the system. Another farmer, David Alvis, has recently been reported to be looking to set up a 2,000-3,000 cow unit in Cambridgeshire."

In the end, it was the environmental impact of tens of thousands of tons of waste products produced by the cows each year that was the main concern about giving approval.  The huge amount of waste runoff would seep into ground water and pollute the area.  Animal welfare concerns won this battle by default.

PETA, WSPA and VIVA.com had active campaigns running to prevent Nocton Dairy from becoming a reality.  The WSPA ‘Not in my Cuppa’ campaign was quite creative in drawing the public's attention to the issue.  The video below is one such example.

Thanks to the many Care2 members who took the time to get involved by writing, emailing, signing petitions and calling North Kesteven District Council.  Your voices have been heard!

Related Stories:

Urgent: Public Comments Needed to Stop Factory Dairy Farm in UK
Is Antibiotic Use on Factory Farms Making Us Sick?
Ohio Dairy Farmer Escapes Cruelty Charges

Read more: animal welfare, factory farming, success story, united kingdom, nocton, dairy farm, nocton mega dairy

Neotame, the new neurotoxic sweetener

Good old Monsanto! What chemical they were cooking in their lab again  to be approved as food!? Neotame! More toxic than aspartame! Since some of us already know how toxic aspartame is, or maybe they thought that it's not toxic enough, they felt the urge to come up with something lovely again. And guess what! By the time we learnt how to read food labeling, FDA won't require Neotame to be labeled. Not even in organic and kosher food. After all, why would you bother with this when FDA is always there for you to keep you safe?! 

The article below is written by Heidi Stevenson

Aspartame can step aside. There's a new sweetener in town and it isn't saddled with the inconvenience of having to be listed on labels, so it can be sneaked into any prepared food, even USDA so-called Organic. So sayeth the FDA. Neotame is a Monsanto-created chemical similar to Aspartame, including its neurotoxic properties.

Monsanto developed Neotame as their Aspartame patent was expiring, and had no trouble in gaining FDA approval in 2002. They added 3-dimethylbutyl, a chemical listed as hazardous by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to Aspartame, making it both sweeter and more toxic.

Both Aspartame and Neotame contain substances that are metabolized into formaldehyde, a highly toxic poison, and an excitotoxic amino acid that agitates, thereby damaging, nerves.

Up to this time, Neotame hasn't been sold to the public, but that hasn't been necessary. It's been used widely in prepared foods. So, the less awareness the public has, the less likely it is that people will try to avoid it. For the most part, the technique has worked. Now, very quietly, the FDA has decided that the public shouldn't be informed when Neotame is included in any product. Even Organic products, which are supposed to be unadultered with chemicals, are not required to state when Neotame is inside.

India will soon serve as guinea pigs for Neotame. It will soon be launched there as a tabletop sweetener, like Equal and Splendor, by NutraSweet, which owns and sells the product.

Neotame is now being marketed as Sweetos for use in cattle feed. Molasses has been utlized to get cows to eat foods made unpalatable by chemical additives. Neotame is both less costly than molasses and subject to fewer regulations. How do you like that? A natural food is more stringently regulated than a known-poisonous chemical that's put into food.

The reach of Neotame is likely to be extensive. They're planning to replace other artificial sweeteners with it. A major seller of artificial sweeteners, which goes by the misleading name of Ensigns Health Care Pvt Ltd, intends to use it in place of sucralose.

In the EU, Neotame has been approved by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA). As is so common in the EU, the product is hidden behind an E-number. So, labels don't have to say that products contain Neotame. They only need to list "E 961". Naturally, with hundreds of E-numbers, how many people can be aware of which ones are truly dangerous?

You can read the original article here.

You can watch the film about the aspartame story here "Sweet Misery - A Poisoned World"

7 foods that experts won't eat

1. Canned tomatoes

The resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol-A, a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Unfortunately, acidity (a prominent characteristic of tomatoes) causes BPA to leach into your food. Studies show that the BPA in most people’s body exceeds the amount that suppresses sperm production or causes chromosomal damage to the eggs of animals. “You can get 50 mcg of BPA per liter out of a tomato can, and that’s a level that is going to impact people, particularly the young,” says vom Saal. “I won’t go near canned tomatoes.” Fredrick vom Saal, PhD, endocrinologist

2. Corn - fed beef

Cattle evolved to eat grass, not grains. But farmers today feed their animals corn and soybeans, which fatten up the animals faster for slaughter. More money for cattle farmers (and lower prices at the grocery store) means a lot less nutrition for us. A recent comprehensive study conducted by the USDA and researchers from Clemson University found that compared with corn-fed beef, grass-fed beef is higher in beta-carotene, vitamin E, omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), calcium, magnesium, and potassium; lower in inflammatory omega-6s; and lower in saturated fats that have been linked to heart disease. “We need to respect the fact that cows are herbivores, and that does not mean feeding them corn and chicken manure,” says Salatin. Joel Salatin, expert on sustainable farming

3. Microwave popcorn

Chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), in the lining of the bag, are part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans, according to a recent study from UCLA. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Studies show that microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize—and migrate into your popcorn. “They stay in your body for years and accumulate there,” says Naidenko, which is why researchers worry that levels in humans could approach the amounts causing cancers in laboratory animals. DuPont and other manufacturers have promised to phase out PFOA by 2015 under a voluntary EPA plan, but millions of bags of popcorn will be sold between now and then. Olga Naidenko, PhD, Environmental Working Group

4. Non-organic potatoes

Root vegetables absorb herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that wind up in soil. In the case of potatoes—the nation’s most popular vegetable—they’re treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. After they’re dug up, the potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting. “Try this experiment: Buy a conventional potato in a store, and try to get it to sprout. It won’t,” says Moyer, who is also farm director of the Rodale Institute (also owned by Rodale Inc., the publisher of Prevention). “I’ve talked with potato growers who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals.” Jeffrey Moyer, National Organic Standards

5. Farmed salmon

Nature didn’t intend for salmon to be crammed into pens and fed soy, poultry litter, and hydrolyzed chicken feathers. As a result, farmed salmon is lower in vitamin D and higher in contaminants, including carcinogens, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides such as dioxin and DDT. According to Carpenter, the most contaminated fish come from Northern Europe, which can be found on American menus. “You can only safely eat one of these salmon dinners every 5 months without increasing your risk of cancer,” says Carpenter, whose 2004 fish contamination study got broad media attention. “It’s that bad.” Preliminary science has also linked DDT to diabetes and obesity, but some nutritionists believe the benefits of omega-3s outweigh the risks. There is also concern about the high level of antibiotics and pesticides used to treat these fish. When you eat farmed salmon, you get dosed with the same drugs and chemicals. David Carpenter MD

6. Milk produced with artificial hormones

Milk producers treat their dairy cattle with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST, as it is also known) to boost milk production. But rBGH also increases udder infections and even pus in the milk. It also leads to higher levels of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor in milk. In people, high levels of IGF-1 may contribute to breast, prostate, and colon cancers. “When the government approved rBGH, it was thought that IGF-1 from milk would be broken down in the human digestive tract,” says North. As it turns out, the casein in milk protects most of it, according to several independent studies. “There’s not 100% proof that this is increasing cancer in humans,” admits North. “However, it’s banned in most industrialized countries.” Nick North Campaign for Safe Food

7. Conventional apples

If fall fruits held a “most doused in pesticides contest,” apples would win. Why? They are individually grafted (descended from a single tree) so that each variety maintains its distinctive flavor. As such, apples don’t develop resistance to pests and are sprayed frequently. The industry maintains that these residues are not harmful. But Kastel counters that it’s just common sense to minimize exposure by avoiding the most doused produce, like apples. “Farm workers have higher rates of many cancers,” he says. And increasing numbers of studies are starting to link a higher body burden of pesticides (from all sources) with Parkinson’s disease. Mark Kastel, Cornucopia Institute

On how to avoid these foods and for the full article, please click here.

Related articles
Top 10 food additives to avoid
More FDA authority won't improve food safety
Say no to methyl iodide
The truth about farmed salmon
Interview with Shiv Chopra
10 organic foods that are worth the money
Teenagers carry 30% more BPA in their bodies than the rest of the population

The MRSA - animal factory farms connection

So where is antibiotic resistant bacteria coming from? Here is the answer.

By Dr John Mercola

Animals in factory farms are given doses of antibiotics -- both to keep them alive in stressful, unsanitary conditions, and to make them grow faster. The practice leads to new strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as the now-widespread form of staph (MRSA) known as ST398.

Federal regulators have in the past refused to release estimates of just how much antibiotics the livestock industry uses. But recently the FDA released its first-ever report on the topic. And the amount? Twenty-nine million pounds of antibiotics in 2009 alone.

MRSA ST398, also known as "the pig strain" of MRSA, was first discovered in pigs and pig-farm workers in the Netherlands in 2004. Since then, this livestock MRSA strain has spread across Europe, Canada and the United States, causing both mild and life-threatening infections, and has even been found in retail meat in Canada.

This livestock-acquired strain of MRSA (ST398) adds to an already troubling situation.

The human community-associated strain of MRSA, USA300, already affects close to 100,000 people a year in the US, and caused 18,600 deaths in 2005 alone. To put that number into perspective, HIV/AIDS killed 17,000 people that same year.

What's worse, it appears the various MRSA strains can be transmitted from humans to animals and vice versa, putting the health of both humans and animals (including pets) at ever increasing risk.

According to a 2009 University of Iowa study, 70 percent of hogs and 64 percent of workers in industrial animal confinements tested positive for the antibiotic resistant strain of MRSA. The study pointed out that, once MRSA is introduced, it could spread broadly to other swine and their caretakers, as well as to their families and friends.

Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamase (ESBL) is another antibiotic-resistant bacteria that has killed both people and swine.

But what has spawned these deadly superbugs?

It's important to realize that antibiotic-resistant disease like MRSA is a man-made problem, created by the excessive use of antibiotics. Medical overuse of antibiotics is one aspect, but the greatest, and most hidden, factor is the excessive use of antibiotics in food production.

Chickens, cattle and hogs are fed antibiotics, not to treat disease, but to make them grow faster, which increases profit margins for livestock producers.

It's been unclear just how many antibiotics were really used in the manufacturing of our food—until now.

According to the first-ever report by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on this subject, factory farms used a whopping 29 million pounds of antibiotics in 2009 alone.

Back in 2001, a report issued by the Union of Concerned Scientists estimated that the non-therapeutic livestock use of antibiotics accounted for 70 percent of the total antibiotic use in the US, and when all agricultural uses were considered, they estimated the share could be as high as 84 percent!

Clearly, agricultural antibiotic use is the smoking gun in the battle against antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

The connection between antibiotics in your meat and your gut health.

As an adult, you have three to four pounds of beneficial bacteria and yeast living within your intestines. These microbes compete for nutrients from the food you eat. Usually, the strength in numbers that beneficial bacteria enjoy both keeps the ever-present yeasts in check and causes them to produce nutrients such as the B vitamins.

However, every time you swallow antibiotics, you kill these beneficial bacteria within your intestines. When you do so, you upset the delicate balance of your intestinal terrain. Yeasts grow unchecked into large colonies and take over, in a condition called dysbiosis.

Yeasts are opportunistic organisms. This means that, as your intestinal bacteria die, yeasts thrive, especially when their dietary needs are met.

Using their tendrils (hyphae), yeast can literally poke holes through the lining of your intestinal wall, which results in a syndrome called leaky gut. In addition, parasitic yeasts can also cause you to change what you eat by causing "cravings" for carbohydrates like sugar, pasta and bread, for example.

So, it should come as no surprise that weight gain counts as one of the telltale signs of antibiotic damage and subsequent yeast overgrowth.

By altering the normal terrain of your intestines, antibiotics can also make food allergies more likely. An array of intestinal disorders can ensue, as well.

Sadly, many doctors dismiss the connection between their patients' intestinal disorders and the drugs they themselves prescribed. So, beware, and always make sure to repopulate your gut with a high quality probiotic every time you use an antibiotic.

The prevalence of antibiotics in the meats you eat could potentially also contribute to this intestinal imbalance, making organic, grass-fed meats all the more appealing.

About how to avoid factory farmed meat and to read the full article, please click here.

Meat - mad cow disease and the US beef industry

A Korean documentary about food safety; featuring Natural News and an interview with Howard Lyman. You can also learn about Japanese food safety standards, to which US food safety standards are nowhere near as rigorous!
Japan still does not allow GMO-s into their country either. 

Since lots of readers would like to know more about meat, this film is one of the documentaries to watch.  Most of your meat is produced (!) in factory farms, where animals are fed GM corn and soy they cannot properly digest; They are diseased, riddled with E-coli, and pumped with hormones and antibiotics regularly. They are "raised", I mean pumped up to the weight to be eligible for slaughter in half the time they would normally grow. 

The other important thing you should know about is rendering, which is basically a manual how to spread mad cow disease effectively! This is what it means:

“When a cow is slaughtered, about half of it by weight is not eaten by humans: the intestines and their contents, the head, hooves, and horns, as well as bones and blood. These are dumped into giant grinders at rendering plants, as are the entire bodies of cows and other farm animals known to be diseased. Rendering is a $2.4 billion-a-year industry, processing 40 billion pounds (18 billion kg) of dead animals a year. There is simply no such thing in America as an animal too ravaged by disease, too cancerous, or too putrid to be welcomed by the all-embracing arms of the renderer. Another staple of the renderer's diet, in addition to farm animals, is euthanized pets – the six or seven million dogs and cats that are killed in animal shelters every year. The city of Los Angeles alone, for example, sends some two hundred tons of euthanized cats and dogs to a rendering plant every month.”

“Added to the blend are the euthanized catch of animal control agencies, and road kill. (Road kill is not collected daily, and in the summer, the better road kill collection crews can generally smell it before they can see it.) When this gruesome mix is ground and steam-cooked, the lighter, fatty material floating to the top gets refined for use in such products as cosmetics, lubricants, soaps, candles, and waxes. The heavier protein material is dried and pulverized into a brown powder-about a quarter of which consists of faecal material. The power is used as an additive to almost all pet food as well as to livestock feed. Farmers call it protein concentrates. In 1995, five million tons of processed slaughterhouse leftovers were sold for animal feed in the United States. I used to feed tons of the stuff to my own livestock. It never concerned me that I was feeding cattle to cattle.”

You can also watch the Mad Cowboy documentary here.

Bon Appetite!