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A diverse range of influential people are entering the GM debate, strongly opposing the use of genetically modified crops as a potential solution to world food shortages.

Prince Charles, organic agriculture advocate, has nominated the mass development of genetically modified crops as the world’s worst environmental disaster, and says multi-national companies trialling gene manipulation are engaging in a “gigantic experiment with nature and the whole of humanity which I think has gone seriously wrong”. And he mentioned the effects of hybrid crops of Australia as a worst-case-scenario in particular.

“Western Australia has huge salinisation problems which have come from some of the excessive approaches to modern forms of agriculture.”

His comments have been nominated his most outspoken intervention on the issue of GM food so far, with the Prince expressing fear that - far from being a solution to world hunger - food would in fact run out due to the damage on the earth’s soil by scientists’ research. He said in the future relying on “gigantic corporations” for food, would result in “absolute disaster”.

“We have gone working against nature for too long… this is a classic way of ensuring there is no food in the future” he said, noting focusing on food security was not the same as focusing on food production. He also referenced India as one example where premature action on GM had created environmental havoc.

“I have been to the Punjab where you have seen the disasters that have taken place as result of the over demand on irrigation because of the hybrid seeds and grains that have been produced which demand huge amounts of water. [The] water table has disappeared. They have huge problems with water level, with pesticide problems, and complications which are now coming home to roost.”

His comments come as Australia begins harvesting GM Canola crops. Farmers in Australia have also adopted rapidly GM cotton, which ABARE estimates now accounts for more than 90per cent of total land dedicated for cotton crops. The commercial growth of genetically modified carnations is also permitted. ABARE notes over the long term, other broadacre GM crops may be up for adoption by Australian farmers, with their own quantitative assessment focused on canola, soy bean, maize, wheat and rice.

However the uptake of GM is not something Australian consumers and the food industry seem particularly pleased about. Australian chefs have become strong anti-GM campaigners. Over 150 of the nation’s top chefs have signed a food labelling petition expressing their opposition to serving GM goods in restaurants.

More recently, leading Australian chefs Tobie Puttock and Dur-é Dara have joined nutritionist Dr Rosemary Stanton and Greenpeace in launching another national petition – “Our right to know” – demanding more comprehensive labelling and testing of GM food products.

“We have no idea about the long-term health impacts of GE food because appropriate tests have generally not been done and the products have not been labelled. The lack of labelling concerns me,” says Dr Stanton.

The Biological Farmers of Australia also is concerned about lax GM labelling laws which currently do not extend to highly refined GM food products, and will allow oil from GM canola to be used in subsequent products without identification.

Dr. Maarten Stapper, Australian soil health expert and former CSIRO scientist, says the environmental problems inherent in GM crops could damage agricultural environments. “Genes don’t fix soils degraded by modern farming – isolated genes are but a small part in highly complex production systems” says Mr. Stapper. “We need to regenerate our soils by increasing soil organic carbon and re-activate soil biology to achieve sustainable farming, enhancing internal plant resistance to insects and diseases.

“Focus should be on productive and resilient biological-organic agriculture for healthy soils, the production of mineral rich food and a regenerated landscape that demonstrates biodiversity and clean water and air. Commercial GM would likely be introduced at the expense of soil health.”

Australia’s advertising industry is finally cracking down on greenwashing, with the Australian Association of National Advertisers publishing an Environmental Claims in Advertising and Marketing Code.

While not saying as much, the Association (AANA) has made it clear that the code is designed to stop advertisers misleading the public with bogus claims about the green-ness of their products.

In its official statement announcing the code, the AANA said it aims to ensure “marketers apply rigorous, industry-wide standards when they make environmental claims in advertising or marketing communications.”

The code states that claims made about the environment “shall not be misleading or deceptive or be likely to mislead or deceive.’’ Furthermore, the code prohibits these claims from being “vague, ambiguous or unbalanced.” Claims should be “supported by evidence that is current and reflects legislative, scientific and technological developments”, and have to be presented “in a manner that can be clearly understood by the consumer.”

Meanwhile, in the U.S.A…

Calling it ‘the victory of the week’ the US-based Organic Consumers Association (OCA) has released the following welcome report. It reads: ‘A committee of the USDA National Organic Standards Board wants to ‘Solve the Problem of Mislabeled Organic Personal Care.’

The Organic Consumers Association is very encouraged by the committee’s proposal to make sure that any use of the word ‘organic’ on a personal care product is backed up by third-party certification to USDA standards for products that are ‘USDA Organic’ or ‘Made With Organic Ingredients.’

This is what OCA’s Coming Clean campaign has been pushing the USDA to do for the last 5 years. Unfortunately, the USDA has been hostile to the idea and even USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, an advocate for organic agriculture, has resisted consumer pressure on this issue.

So, the long struggle for USDA enforcement of organic standards in personal care continues. But this also promises to be somewhat bigger than just a baby step forward. If you are interested in adding your support to this latest push for more honest labelling, you can go to its website and put your name to a support document.

& in the U.K…

The annual report from the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) shows that in 2007 the ASA received 561 complaints about environmental claims in 410 adverts, compared with just 117 complaints about 83 adverts the year before – a more than fourfold increase. The ASA has already censured several high-profile companies including Suzuki, Shell, Ryanair and Toyota for the practice of “greenwash” – where companies are found to have misled consumers on their environmental practices as a business or of the particular benefits of a product or service.

A complaint against the oil giant Shell was upheld by the advertising watchdog last year over a press advert that showed refinery chimneys emitting flowers. Environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth was among those who complained about the advert, which ran with the slogan, “Don’t throw anything anyway. There is no away.” Friends of the Earth said the ad’s central image - of refinery chimneys spewing out flowers - misrepresented the environmental impact of Shell’s activities.

The most important secret to good health is to unlock the body’s potential to heal itself. With our understanding of the different philosophies of the body we must focus upon the immune system and assist it to evolve to its highest potential.

For the immune system to reach this potential it must have raw materials in the form of organic nutrients at its disposal. Ideally these organic nutrients would come from whole foods grown in organic soils because the quality of any plant is a reflection of the environment it is grown in.

The immune system is so intelligent it recognises the difference between manmade biochemical nutrients and natural ones produced by the body’s own cells or found in nature’s whole foods.

The body reacts in a form of shock to manmade nutrients which it identifies as a ‘foreign substance’. Foreign substances cause the body to shut off other parts of the immune system, particularly in the stem cells where the basic building blocks of healthy new cells are spawned. Therefore the potential for future repair of damaged cells is compromised.

To actualize the potential of the immune system we must first address the needs of the body in relation to bacteria. The balance of good bacteria and what has been labelled as ‘bad bacteria’ must be in a ratio of 85% good and 15% bad. Once this most important ratio falls out of balance, disease manifests in the body and overwhelms the immune system.

Most holistic practitioners agree that disease begins in the colon. Once putrefactive bacteria take hold in the bowels all kinds of toxic materials are released into the body environment. Bad bacteria imbalances allow fungus and yeast to cross these important lines of balance resulting in candida and thrush.

Antibiotics found in drug therapy and in the meat and foods we eat destroy the important balance of bacteria in our body.

The air we now are forced to breathe in the world’s cities has over 600 toxins that also affect this balance. Birth control pills, heat, cold, preservatives found in most foodstuff, salt, alcohol, colas, fluorides, and chlorines, just to name a few, also destroy or compromise this delicate balance of bacteria in the gut!

So - we need to adjust the bacteria balance in our intestinal tract and then saturate the body with a broad spectrum of whole food organic nutrients. We must learn to replace the good bacteria on a daily basis. If this is not done then no matter what remedy, therapy, diet or drug is used, it is all for naught!

~Czerral, Formulator of InLiven and Fast Tract.

Dr Robert Barron at Purdue University in Indiana did much of the ground work that proved conclusively that people are happier and operate more effectively in work environments where certain essential oils have been dispersed through the air.
His ideas and original research were taken up by the Japanese perfume manufacturers Takasago, Toho University School of Medicine and others. This ongoing research has shown that people keying data into computers make only half as many errors when the air is diffused with lemon essential oil.
Jasmine essential oil in the atmosphere induces 33% fewer mistakes and lavender is also credited with similar measurable increases in accuracy by office workers.
Consequently, vapourised essential oils are now used to great effect in shops, hospitals, factories, airports and other public places right around the world.

Writing in the Good Health Newsletter, John Ryan said recently: ‘…few realise that jokes, humor and comedy are truly medicines, in their own right.’
‘It’s established that optimists live longer than pessimists,’ Ryan said. ‘But now there is some hard evidence that people with a better sense of humor also have longer and healthier lives.’
‘Your Stay Healthy plan should include a joke and a 20-minute comedy show, to go with the broccoli and carrots,’ Ryan suggests. (Of course we’d add Berry Radical and In-Liven to this plan!)
Although yet to be conclusively proven, it is widely accepted that laughter increases pain resistance. What research there is also indicates that people who readily laugh out loud, also do better during treatment for diseases such as cancer.
According to Mr Ryan, it’s believed ‘that a good joke may lower the blood pressure, improve memory and cognitive functions and boost the immune system …and that a good sense of humor may protect you against heart diseases and alter your biochemical state to a level where the organism produces more antibodies’.
But of course, there’s one more really important aspect to laughing. You generally do it with someone. Jokes connect people – and connected people suffer less from loneliness, depression and mental imbalances.

A University of Washington study of top-selling laundry products and air fresheners found the products emitted dozens of different chemicals. All six products tested gave off at least one chemical regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal laws, yet none of those chemicals were listed on the product labels.

“I first got interested in this topic because people were telling me that the air fresheners in public restrooms and the scent from laundry products vented outdoors were making them sick,” said Anne Steinemann, a UW professor of civil and environmental engineering and public affairs. “And I wanted to know, ‘What’s in these products that is causing these effects?’”

She analyzed the products to discover the chemicals’ identity.

“I was surprised by both the number and the potential toxicity of the chemicals that were found,” Steinemann said. Chemicals included acetone, the active ingredient in paint thinner and nail-polish remover; limonene, a molecule with a citrus scent; as well as acetaldehyde, chloromethane and 1,4-dioxane.

“Nearly 100 volatile organic compounds were emitted from these six products, and none were listed on any product label. Plus, five of the six products emitted one or more carcinogenic ‘hazardous air pollutants,’ which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to have no safe exposure level,” Steinemann said.

Her study was published online today by the journal Environmental Impact Assessment Review. Steinemann chose not to disclose the brand names of the six products she tested. In a larger study of 25 cleaners, personal care products, air fresheners and laundry products, now submitted for publication, she found that many other brands contained similar chemicals.

Because manufacturers of consumer products are not required to disclose the ingredients, Steinemann analyzed the products to discover their contents. She studied three common air fresheners (a solid deodorizer disk, a liquid spray and a plug-in oil) and three laundry products (a dryer sheet, fabric softener and a detergent), selecting a top seller in each category. She bought household items at a grocery store and asked companies for samples of industrial products.

In the laboratory, each product was placed in an isolated space at room temperature and the surrounding air was analyzed for volatile organic compounds, small molecules that evaporate from the product’s surface into the air.

Results showed 58 different volatile organic compounds above a concentration of 300 micrograms per cubic meter, many of which were present in more than one of the six products. For instance, a plug-in air freshener contained more than 20 different volatile organic compounds. Of these, seven are regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal laws. The product label lists no ingredients, and information on the Material Safety Data Sheet, required for workplace handling of chemicals, lists the contents as “mixture of perfume oils.”

This study does not address links between exposure to chemicals and health effects. However, two national surveys published by Steinemann and a colleague in 2004 and 2005 found that about 20 percent of the population reported adverse health effects from air fresheners, and about 10 percent complained of adverse effects from laundry products vented to the outdoors. Among asthmatics such complaints were roughly twice as common.

Manufacturers are not required to list the ingredients used in laundry products and air fresheners. Personal-care products and cleaners often contain similar fragrance chemicals, Steinemann said. And although cosmetics are required by the Food and Drug Administration to list ingredients, no law requires products of any kind to list chemicals used in fragrances.

“Fragrance chemicals are of particular interest because of the potential for involuntary exposure, or second-hand scents,” Steinemann said.

“Be careful if you buy products with fragrance, because you really don’t know what’s in them,” she added. “I’d like to see better labeling. In the meantime, I’d recommend that instead of air fresheners people use ventilation, and with laundry products, choose fragrance-free versions.”

The European Union recently enacted legislation requiring products to list 26 fragrance chemicals when they are present above a certain concentration in cosmetic products and detergents. No similar laws exist in the United States.

“I hope this study will raise public awareness, and reduce exposures to potentially hazardous chemicals,” said Steinemann.

MiEssence Certified Organic Rainforest Air Freshener: http://yourcertifiedorganicproducts.com/mienviron/insect-repellent

By Jon Gordon.

Each night before my children go to bed I ask them what their success of the day is. The idea came from a story I read about the Olympic gymnast, Bart Connor. Turns out 9 months before the 1984 Olympics he tore his bicep muscle. They said he would never make it back in time to compete in the Olympics. But not only did he make it back, he won two gold medals.

When Charlie Jones, the television broadcaster, was interviewing him, he asked Bart how he did it. Bart thanked his parents. Charlie Jones said, “Come on Bart, everyone thanks their parents when they win a gold medal.” Bart told Charlie that this was different. He said, “Every night before bed my parents would ask me what my success was. So I went to bed a success every night of my life. I woke up every morning a success. When I was injured before the Olympics, I knew I was going to make it back because I was a success every day of my life.” Talk about a confidence booster.

Since engaging in this practice with my children I can attest it works. I also know it works because I share this story in my keynotes and hear great stories from people all the time who are doing this with their children.

I also know it works for adults in businesses, schools, and organizations because when we focus on what people are doing right, they do more things right. It’s the simple, powerful message in the classic book The One Minute Manager
and it’s an important part of the work I do with organizations.

Teams and organizations that focus on and celebrate success create more success. Success becomes ingrained in the culture and people naturally look for it, focus on it and expect it. That’s why certain football coaches and business leaders are always successful. They implement systems and principles that create a culture that celebrates and expects success and this drives behaviour and habits that create successful outcomes.

So how do we put this into practice? The ideas are endless but here are few: If you are in sales have a sales meeting each week (in person or by phone) and share success stories. If you are in management recognize people and their success throughout the year. Not just during annual meetings. Celebrate the small wins as much as the big wins. Celebrate successful projects and implementations. As a leader you’ll want to praise people and reinforce successes that shine a spotlight on important goals and growth initiatives. For your own personal growth, keep a daily and weekly success journal. Write down your success of the day. Do this for 30 days and you’ll see amazing results. What we focus on shows up more in our life. If we look for and celebrate success we’ll see more of it. It works for Olympic
athletes, children and us.

http://www.jongordon.com/

A new OCA study was released that assesses current levels of the petrochemical carcinogen 1,4-dioxane in leading conventional vs. “natural” and “organic” brands of personal care and household cleaning products. The results indicate some products mislabeled as “natural” should have a cancer warning. Read the full story.

This enlightening CBC Canada special reveals the effects on males from hormone disrupting chemicals such as bisphenol-A and phthalates.  Are they literally causing the male race to become extinct? Watch it online!

Now you can find out for sure

For 27 years, the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), has been working tirelessly across six continents to bring about a real, sustainable, global food system reform.

It raises public awareness, promotes the elimination of highly hazardous pesticides and offers solutions that protect people and the environment.

On its webpage, PAN says of pesticides:

‘Their mass introduction into farming 70 years ago, along with petro-chemically derived fertilizers, set U.S. farming down a costly and unsustainable path. Along the way, community-scale farming was nearly destroyed, generations have suffered ill health ranging from cancer to autism and Parkinson’s (and) biodiversity has taken big hits…’

In its determination to turn the tide, PAN works to loosen the pesticide industry’s control over global agriculture by holding accountable those governmental bodies charged with regulating pesticides. But beyond these activities, PAN is always aware that its real power is the power of the people in demanding - and expecting - change.

Now, with the release of its new website ‘What’s On My Food’, PAN has taken a great step towards its goal of engaging a wider public in its unrelenting demand for cleaner, healthier food. A searchable database designed to make the public problem of pesticide exposure visible and more understandable, ‘What’sOnMyFood’ is timely, meets an ever-increasing need for valid information – and is easy to use!

With all its produce items neatly listed in alphabetical order, the study allows you to compare test results for organic, conventional, domestic and ‘imported’ products (imported into USA in this case).

The What’sOnMyFood study is awesome in its span and scope

USDA’s Pesticide Data Program (PDP) has been cross-referenced with toxicology* data from Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and other authoritative listings, with results based on tens of thousands of sample tests on 89 foods that have been carried out consistently since 1999. Easily read summaries of USDA test results in the PAN ‘What’sOnMyFood’ database can be searched for three kinds of information:

1. How often is a pesticide residue found in a food?

2. On average, how much of a pesticide residue is found in a food?

3. What is the maximum amount of a pesticide residue in a food?

Check out What’sOnMyFood here: http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/

Note: Tests for any given food are often conducted in multiple years. In all cases, WhatsOnMyFood shows only the most recent test year. The test results for Apples come from test year 2005.

*Toxicology is the study of chemical poisoning effects on living things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicology