More mad cow?
Ronnie Cummins- Organic Consumers Assoc.
Organic Is Better. Really.
Are organic foods healthier? Worth the extra expense?
The scientific debate has raged on for years. Now, a new report says yes—especially if you believe toxic chemicals are bad for your health.
Two years ago conventional media used a meta-analysis by Stanford University to cast doubt on the value of an organic diet. This despite the fact that the analysis—which looked at 240 studies comparing organically and conventionally grown food—found that organic foods are less contaminated with agricultural chemicals.
In an effort to further clarify the 2012 findings, a group of European scientists recently evaluated an even greater number of studies, 343 in all, published over the last several decades.
Here’s what they found. Not only do organic foods have more nutrients, including cancer-fighting antioxidants, but they also contain far fewer pesticide residues. This is a no-brainer given that monoculture chemical and GMO farmers kill the soil with toxic chemicals and climate-destabilizing nitrate fertilizer—while organic farmers feed the soil with compost, nurturing the soil food web.
But the key nutritional difference between conventional and organics? Anywhere from 18 to 69 percent more antioxidants.
ACTION ALERT
More Mad Cow?
Question: What could be worse for food safety than a global trade agreement negotiated in secret, by the corporations that stand to benefit, and slated to be rammed through Congress using the controversial “fast track” option?
Answer: Finding out, from leaked documents, that the agreements are being written so vaguely that the public will have no idea what hit them—and corporations will have virtual free rein to skirt regulations intended to protect consumers.
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) recently got its hands on some of the secret draft texts for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). According to the IATP’s analysis, the texts call for fewer inspections and less testing of meat imported to the U.S. from other countries, putting Americans at risk of diseases like bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as “mad cow disease.”
The leaked documents also make it clear that regulations governing animal abuse will be weaker under the TTIP.
As the IATP states, trade agreements have a “profound influence” on public health. Yet the leaked documents contain “abstract” language and are not “consumer friendly.”
According to the IATP:
Instead of a public debate about appropriate protections for health and the type of agriculture we want, these negotiations are taking place behind closed doors, and heavily influeced by corporate trade advisors whose employers are the main beneficiaries of the trade agreements. This is a perverse approach to trade negotiations, forcing the public to read between the lines of leaked, partial texts. This leaked draft TTIP chapter doesn’t tell us everything about where negotiations are headed on food safety, but it tells us enough to raise serious concerns.
Perhaps those “serious concerns” are precisely why the Obama administration wants to ram the agreement through, without input or debate from Congress or the public, and with no possibility of amending them.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress: Don’t Fast-Track this Disastrous Trade Agreement
More on the secret global trade deals
Photo Credit: Eduardo Amorim via Compfight cc
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The folks who run Safeway (SWY), the
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