Pesticides Make Us Dumber

Ethonomic Indicator of the Day: 7 -- The number of IQ points that children exposed to pesticides in utero fell behind other children.

From the department of "science proves the obvious": exposure to neurotoxic pesticides in the womb results in children with lower IQs, according to a study from the University of California at Berkeley. Time to raid the organic fruits and vegetables section of Whole Foods.

UC Berkeley's study focused on organophosphate exposure (a neurotoxic pesticide sprayed on food crops and used for pest control in apartments) among children in Salinas, an agriculture-heavy town in California. The results were disturbing: Children exposed to the most prenatal pesticides scored seven points lower on standardized intelligence tests compared with children who had the lowest pesticide exposure levels. Two similar studies from Mt. Sinai Medical Center and Columbia University (published in this month's Environmental Health Perspectives) also found links between prenatal pesticide exposure and IQ. Exposure to organophosphates after birth had no repercussions on intelligence (but still: not good for you).

Beet Down: Court Orders Monsanto Sugar Beets to Be Destroyed

The world of genetically modified agriculture has become so contentious that a judge ordered Monsanto seedlings to be removed from the soil this week. U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White issued the ruling after Monsanto ignored his August ruling, which deemed the planting and sale of the company's "Roundup Ready" sugar beets illegal, due to insufficient environmental review from the USDA.

Fearful of Genetically-Modified Crops? You're Too Late

Ethonomic Indicator of the Day: 93% of U.S. soybeans are genetically modified.
Frankenfood! It's the evil-sounding name given to genetically modified crops by organic enthusiasts fearful that altering nature's design will result in irreparable damage to either the environment or our bodies. And there is a good chance that they're right. The fight against GM crops has been intensifying of late, with the USDA approving modified alfalfa early this year, despite protests from big organic (which might be less worried about the potential risks and mostly worried about their organic certification). Because a cow that eats GM alfalfa is no longer organic, no matter how it was raised, and GM alfalfa has the extra ability to spread like kudzu--even to places where it's not supposed to be, like an adjacent field of original-gene alfalfa.
But these fights should not give the impression that we are about to step over a precipice into a world full of GM crops. We did that in 1996. See this chart from the USDA:

Genetically Modified Showdown: Monsanto Sued by Organic Farmers

Imagine if Apple tried to charge you every time you accidentally glanced at an iPhone on the street. That's basically the policy that Monsanto, an agriculture giant whose patented genes are in 95% of all soybeans and 80% of all corn grown in the U.S, enforces. The company is notorious for suing farmers that the company suspects of violating patents in even inadvertent manners. Monsanto has sued hundreds of farmers and received over $15 million from these patent-violation cases (PDF), which have included incidences of farmers being sued because pollen from nearby farmers' Monsanto-brand genetically modified crops blew over the fence onto their field. Now, finally, organic farmers are fighting back.

Monsanto Will Soon Be Allowed To Police Itself

Monsanto, enemy of organic farmers and anti-GMO advocates alike, will likely be allowed to conduct its own environmental studies as part of a two-year USDA experiment. But there is no good that can possibly come of an experiment where the company behind nearly every genetically modified crop in our daily diets is allowed to decide whether its products are causing any environmental harm. And Monsanto isn't the only biotech company that will be permitted to police itself.

"There can be no justifications for land grabbing!" social movements and CSOs tell World Bank, UN agencies and governments

Today, on the International Day of Peasant Struggles, prominent farmers, fisherfolk, human rights and research organisations have sharply criticised the World Bank, three UN agencies and governments for promoting agricultural investments that are resulting in land grabbing on a massive scale.

From 18-20 April, investors, government officials and staff of international agencies will gather in Washington DC for the Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty to discuss how to operationalise a framework called Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI). Formulated by the World Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), RAI consists of seven principles which investors may choose whether or not to abide by when conducting large-scale farmland acquisitions.

Food Movements Unite

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/19417480?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/19417480">Food Movements Unite!</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/foodfirst">Food First</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Death Row Psychologist Reprimanded (for sending mentally handicapped to death)

Texas psychologist George Denkowski will never again evaluate inmates' IQ to determine if they are mentally disabled — and thus unable to face the death penalty — or not. The Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists has issued him a reprimand. He will also pay a fine of $5,500. All of which is good news for the fourteen inmates on Death Row who Denkowski, using highly criticized and faulty methods, determined were not mentally handicapped. It comes too late for the two inmates who have already been executed after Denkowski found them mentally capable. 

Last January, in a Texas Observer cover story, Investigative Fund reporter Reneé Feltz exposed the questionable methods and junk science used by psychologist George Denkowski in an article about the Texas death penalty case of Mexican immigrant Daniel Plata. In the 2002 Atkins v. Virginia ruling, the Supreme Court stated that "executions of mentally retarded criminals are cruel and unusual." Defense lawyers called Denkowski "Dr. Death" for his finding twenty-one of the twenty-nine inmates he has worked with to be mentally capable — and thus eligible for the death penalty. Feltz showed that he routinely inflated the inmates’ IQ scores through faulty methods.

Stop Iowa’s Anti-Farm Whistleblower Bill

Have you heard Big Agriculture’s latest move? They want to keep you in the dark. Remember those undercover photos and videos of animal abuse and environmental damage at factory farms? Under a proposed Iowa law, broadcasting (and even possessing) these images would be a crime.

Last month, Florida’s state legislature passed a bill that attacks farm photographers and limits their activities. Now, it’s Iowa’s turn. Iowa Bill H.F. 589 has already been passed by the Iowa House, and is now up for debate in the Senate.
Guess who’s sponsoring this? That’s right, Monsanto has been lobbying heavily for this bill behind the scenes. They’re trying to draw an iron curtain around their operations and scare away potential whistle-blowers with legal threats.
Let’s stop this bill before it can spread to other states. We'll deliver your comments before the end of this year's legislative session, April 29th.

Teaching people to cook outside the box

A Toronto food bank that has become an international success story for reinventing itself as a unique food-change organization has set its sights on revamping Canada’s relationship with food.

Riding increased public interest in the myriad politics that affect how food is produced, distributed and sold, The Stop Community Food Centre has embarked on an ambitious plan to seed a network of national institutions that will provide emergency meals but pursue a much broader goal: teach Canadians how to reconnect with real food – especially those who can least afford it.

Over the past dozen years, The Stop has increasingly paired the food hampers it distributes through its west-end outpost with educationalprograms that, at their core, aim to reduce clients’ reliance on an industrial food system that has made non-nutritious food the cheapest and most easily available. By offering affordable classes on how to cook healthy, non-processed meals, grow vegetables and wage campaigns for social justice, The Stop is building a grassroots movement that, combined with other efforts, will aim to influence changes in the policies and subsidies that shape what and how Canadians eat.