Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and Other Big Grocers Make Big Decision on GMO Salmon.

TakePart – A number of major grocery chains announced today they’re not waiting for the Food and Drug Administration to approve AquaBounty’s genetically modified salmon. Instead? They’ve made a pledge to their customers that they will not carry the controversial fish in their stores—regardless of what the FDA decides. This marks the first organized pledge made by a group of grocers to not carry GMO seafood.

Awareness of Antibiotics

SupermarketNews – Awareness of the issue of antibiotics and growth hormones is high, with 79% of Midan respondents having heard of antibiotics’ use in meat production and 85% having heard about growth hormones. Forty-one percent of respondents said they were concerned about negative effects of antibiotics and 42% about the effects of growth hormones.

Study Sheds Light on How Salmonella Spreads

The Poultry Site – New research on how Salmonella spreads in the body could have major implications for improving treatment and vaccination.
Findings of Cambridge scientists, published today in the journal PLoS Pathogens, show a new mechanism used by bacteria to spread in the body with the potential to identify targets to prevent the dissemination of the infection process.

Spread of Lethal Salmonella in Africa Linked to HIV

By Jon Cohen
Science – Among bacteria, Salmonella is notorious: One strain causes typhoid and spreads readily among humans, often because of inadequate sanitation or hygiene, leading to millions of cases a year. Think Typhoid Mary, the infamous New York cook. Another strain, known as nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS), causes millions of cases of food poisoning each year and is usually contracted by eating undercooked meat or eggs. There’s a lesser-known relative as well, invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella (iNTS), which also causes serious disease in humans—and appears to have exploded in sub-Saharan Africa over the past 50 years….. >>Continue reading<<

Source and Photo: Science, 1 October 2012
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Three-dimensional fruit

Returnable packaging, custom-tailored to properly hold fruit such as persimmons, mangos, papayas and strawberries, thus reducing losses in their shipment after harvest, was developed by the National Institute of Technology (INT) in partnership with the Center for Food Technology at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). Losses of fruits and vegetables as a result of the systems currently in use, such as wooden, cardboard or plastic crates, is close to 39%, according to data from Embrapa. “We created the packaging according to the shape of the fruit,” says Marcos Henrique Garamvolgyi, project designer in the industrial design division of the INT. The process of developing the packaging involves making a digital image of the fruit using a 3D scanner and performing tests with samples printed on rapid prototype machines, allowing for the creation and testing of containers even outside of the fruit harvest periods. The packaging is made of plastic and vegetable fiber and its base is fordable so it can be returned to the producer. The tray is thin and the cavities are the exact size of the fruit.

Source and Photo: FAPESP, October 2012
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Meeting Challenge of Antibiotic Use

By Chris Harris
The Poultry Site – In general, in the more developed agricultural nations in the EU, such as the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, food is being produced with larger herds and flocks and by fewer farmers. Fewer producers are producing more and more of the food and in the UK, some estimates have 20 per cent of the producers producing 80 per cent of the meat, milk and eggs that are consumed.

However, the farming sector is having to face up to continued price volatility and the challenges of relationships within the supply chain. The food production sector is also changing to meet new global changing eating habits, such as those in India and China and, in Europe, reforms to economic policies are also having a significant impact on what people eat.

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Source and Photo: The Poultry Site, November 21st, 2012
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Firestorm Erupts Over Transgenic Rice Study in Chinese Children

By  Mara Hvistendahl and Martin Enserink

ScienceInside —The cartoon that appeared last week on the Web site of the Chinese state news agency Xinhua was no laughing matter. It depicted a scientist wearing a tie emblazoned with the American flag, staring through a microscope while dropping unnaturally colored kernels of rice into a Chinese child’s mouth. It ran with a story headlined, “More shameful than the experiment are the lies.”

Danish Whistle-blowers Reveal Links between GM soy, Roundup and Health Damage in Pig Herd

A farming newspaper (Effektivt Landbrug) has caused a storm of controversy in Denmark by publishing (1) an extended analysis of the connections made by pig farmer Ib Borup Pedersen between GM soy and health problems in his herd of breeding sows. In an interview for the newspaper, Mr Pedersen contended that there was also a link between Roundup herbicide residues and stillbirths and malformations in pig litters. But most interestingly of all, he explained that since switching the feed in his breeding sow house to non-GM soy, health problems and medical costs have declined dramatically, to the point where the extra costs involved in purchasing non-GM soy feed are more than offset by reduced medication costs. The bottom line is that his farming operation is now more profitable than it was under the GM-soy feeding regime.

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Source and Photo: Sustanaible Pulse, April 24th, 2012
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Food for thought: how can we change our wasteful eating habits?

By Jason Clay
The Guardian – Last month, the planet’s population surpassed seven billion people. Not only are there more people on Earth today, but they have more income. Acccording to the World Bank, by 2050 global per capita income is expected to increase almost three times. While income in developed countries will increase by 1.6% per year, in developing countries it is expected to increase by 5.2%.

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Source and Photo: The Guardian, November 22nd, 2011
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Tackling food waste through a social enterprise model

By Jo Confino

The Guardian – If you were to search for a torchbearer to represent the social enterprise movement, you would be hard put to find someone better than 27-year-old Jenny Dawson.

The founder of chutney and jam company Rubies in the Rubble has that rare quality of integrating a sharp and ambitious business mind with a heart of gold.

Dawson, who this week won the UK prize in a European-wide social enterprise competition run by ice-cream company Ben & Jerry’s, left her lucrative fund management job two years ago because she did not want to reach middle age and wonder why she had not concentrated on something she was passionate about.

Source and Photo: The Guardian, August 22nd, 2012
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