The documentary below gives an amazing run down of the development of biotechnology in the last 50 years, and the dangers of the unregulated and immoral use of such technologies.  I encourage all of you to watch the whole video and share it with as many people as you can.

There are millions of starving people struggling in regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. We’ve all known this for years. The usual explanation is that there are simply too many people and not enough food. And the usual proposed solution is to grow more food using new biotechnologies to increase yield. The truth is that people starve as a direct result of policies that govern the way we grow and trade food. To me it’s clear that the foreign policies of Western governments are actually based on the profiteering of Western-based corporations. In a world where the vast majority of humanity is still engaged in agriculture, the common people are suffering.

Growing Food: Traditional farming is NOT backward

In old world agricultural communities, farmers have developed the means to fertilize and cultivate their land through thousands of years of accumulated traditional knowledge. Farmers in South America know that corn and squash grow well together; farmers in India use the Neem tree as a natural pesticide. These farmers live in balance with their local environment and grow enough food to sustain themselves and their communities, while selling the surplus. The West came in with a new dogma: the “best” way to farm is by using high-yield seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides to maximize crop yield. On top of that, countries should specialize in producing a few different foods, and import the rest.

What has been the result? Previously sustainable communities are now dependent on buying seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides (inputs) from Western corporations. The chemicals from these inputs deplete the natural minerals in the soil, so every year farmers need more and more to reach the same yield. They now only grow a single crop and they depend on the cash from selling that crop. Many farmers are going into debt as they put more money into inputs and get less and less yield from their chemically burnt soil. In India, over 20,000 farmers have committed suicide because of indebtedness and starvation.

Trading Food: Agribusiness sets the rule of the game

An agricultural subsidy is money the government pays to farmers (and agribusiness) to supplement their income and manage the supply of produce. Western governments first started subsidizing farmers because food is not a stable commodity—in some years there is good harvest, and in some years there is drought. As time went on, Western countries became increasingly urbanized and farms fell under the control of large agribusiness corporations. Today, only about 2% of the U.S. population is still engaged in agriculture. This means that when we subsidize agriculture we subsidize large corporations. On average, $16 Billion a year is given to agribusiness in the U.S. in the form of subsidies. We subsidize our crops so much, that farms sell staple produce for LESS than its own cost. The result is a very cheap and abundant supply of food.

So what do Western countries do with all their cheap food? Well, we eat a lot of it. This has lead to a large scale obesity epidemic in the U.S. But we also export it to other countries. This is where organizations like World Trade Organization (WTO) come in. Going along with the doctrine that countries should specialize in a few products, the WTO advocates for free trade in agriculture—meaning no tariffs. A tariff is a tax on imported goods—tariffs make the imported product more expensive to defend the domestic producer. When developing countries remove their agriculture tariffs in a global economy, their farmers are put into direct competition with overseas producers. All that cheap, subsidized food from the West floods the markets of these countries. Developing countries do not have the means to subsidize their agriculture so heavily. Local economies, local farmers, and local produce are wiped out. Large agribusiness firms from the U.S. and EU effectively “capture” these markets. While millions starve, and billions are indebted, the Western companies reap windfall profits.

The truth about starvation

There is enough land and food in this world to feed every person. However, because the policies for growing and trading food are dominated by corporations that are primarly concerned with their bottom line, millions are no longer able to sustain themselves.

–Rohit

The granulated sugar supply in the U.S. comes from two agricultural sources: half from sugar cane and the other half from sugar beets. Recently, American Crystal, a large Wyoming-based sugar company, along with several other leading sugar manufacturers announced that they will be sourcing their sugar from genetically engineered sugar beets beginning this year and arriving in stores in 2008. Products containing GE sugar will not be labeled as such. It works the same way for GE corn and GE soy, which are both already on the market.

This marks a dramatic change in the U.S. food supply. Together, GE corn, GE soy, and now GE sugar, are found in many conventional food products. It has now reached the point where consumers will be exposed to GE foods in just about every non-organic multiple ingredient product they purchase.

The reason these sugar companies have decided to use GE sugar beets is because these sugar beets are designed to withstand strong doses of pesticides. Obviously, it’s a profit motive. Using these new sugar beets enables agribusiness to streamline production and cut costs. But what about the consumer? I don’t want to eat sugar that came from a crop of pesticide-ridden, unnatural, and engineered sugar beets. Can’t we eat any normal food anymore?

To read more, go here.

-Rohit

This is another example of big pharmaceutical and food industries lying and cheating to consumers, and victimizing the public. The traditional theory dealing with baldness was that it is caused by the male hormone, testosterone. Testosterone is converted to another hormone called dihydrotestosterone, which causes hair to grow darker and longer on the body, face, and sides of the head. Dihydrotestosterone also causes hair loss and baldness because it makes the hair on the top of the head lighter and thinner.

Out of all the corporations out there, Merck is probably the worst because they screw behind your back and not to your face. Scientists at Merck developed a drug called Proscar to shrink enlarged prostates by blocking the formation of dihydrotestosterone. Merck then turned around and started selling the same drug as Propecia, charging five times as much to help hair grow on bald men. Propecia is not very effective because it treats the symptoms of baldness, not the root cause.

New research shows that high blood levels of insulin may lead to male pattern baldness in which men and women lose hair from the top and front of their heads. A study from the Harvard School of Public Health shows that men who have the highest blood levels of insulin like growth factor-1 are the ones most likely to suffer male pattern baldness. Women who have high levels of insulin are the ones most likely to lose hair from the tops of their heads. It still is early in the research, but evidence is accumulating that male-pattern baldness may be caused by high levels of insulin that are produced by eating huge amounts of sugary and floured foods such as bakery products and pastas. We need more research to show if male pattern baldness can be prevented by avoiding flour and sugar. The exact mechanism by which insulin causes baldness is yet to be determined. But, my experience is that high levels of sugar destroy the body’s normal functioning processes. It makes sense to me that high sugar consumption would lead to baldness. Trust your instincts.

So, we end up with a situation where the food industry is selling us the problem (refined sugar) and the health industry is selling us a solution to the problem (Propecia). Both industries make money while the consumer ends up unhealthy and bald. Fortunately, you as a consumer can make the choice to cut out excessive consumption of sugar, starches, flour, and alcohol-all these ingredients are used too often in our food supply.

To read more go here and here.

-Ro

Food is supposed to nourish, replenish, and sustain the body. When you turn food into a major corporate for-profit venture, everything gets screwed up. Food conglomerates care more about their balance sheets then they do about consumer health. This is a simple fact. It is not necessarily anyone’s fault, but it is a result of the commodification of food in our market system.

Food is one of the most advertised commodities on television. In 2001, U.S. companies spent $3.5 billion on fast-food advertising, and another $5.8 billion on other food categories. Nearly $1 billion was spent on advertising for the top five soda brands.

Food advertising influences the way people think and the choices they make. The consumption of advertised foods is much higher than foods that are not advertised. Children exposed to more food advertising have been found to choose the products advertised at significantly higher rates than children not exposed to the advertisements. So what happens? You watch more TV, you eat more junk food. This is a blatant victimization of children.

The food industry and policymakers have a responsibility to encourage the creation and promotion of healthier foods. The problem is that so much money is tied up between politicians and major food corporations. As usual, the consumer is being screwed and the corporations are making out like bandits.

As consumers, we can make the decision to purchase healthier foods. As people, we need to work to build awareness about this issue, especially in schools. To read more click here.

-Ro

In Short: Everything we eat is basically corn. That’s unnatural and its screwing up everything.

For those of you haven’t heard of Michael Pollan, he’s a professor of journalism here at Berkeley. I’ve been reading some of his books and articles. One of his best works, in my opinon, is The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Pollan introduces some amazing insights about the relationship between humans and food.

Pollan describes the four main ways in which human societies have obtained food: the current industrial system, the big organic operation, the local self-sufficient farm, and the hunter-gatherer.

In the first section of the book he explores industrial food. He demonstrates that nearly everything we eat in Western society, particularly in America, is derived from corn. Even the protein in our diet from foods such as eggs, chicken, fish, and beef are essentially derived from corn: cows, chickens, and fish are coerced to consume a food that to them is highly unnatural. If we are what we eat, as Pollan says, we are mostly corn.

He is critical of the food produced by the industrial food chain. He argues that virtue of cheap food, particularly food derived from cheap corn, hides its cost. The true cost of cheap food is borne by Western populations in the form of taxes and corn subsidies, environmental damage, and most importantly, health problems. He details major similarities between the modern obesity epidemic and the rampant alcoholism of 19th century America, both of which are explicable by the need to use an ever-growing surplus of cheap corn. He contends that we are participating in an unsustainable form of food production, and that our dependence on a single crop is a glaring weakness that may serious consequences for our health and the environment.

In the the remainder of the book he criticizes the modern organic food industry, explores self-sufficient farming, and discusses hunting and gathering.

Bottom line- great book, it will change the way you think about food and the food industry.

-Ro

This issue has really alarmed me, so I’ve been doing everything I can to reduce my water and energy usage.  Besides from taking shorter showers and using lower water pressure while washing dishes (and also washing dishes myself!), I’ve also invested in a low flow showerhead.  The average shower lasts about 7.5 minutes, and with most showerheads having a slow rate of 4 gallons per minute or greater, that’s over 30 gallons of water per shower.  By buying a low flow showerhead, (like this one I bought from GAIAM.com ) you can cut your water usage per shower by 50-75%.  Besides being great for the environment, these showerheads can save you some serious $$$.  My apartments water bills have been significantly reduced since we installed one in each of our showers, and since both showerheads together cost $32 with shipping, we expect to make back our investment within 2-3 months.

]]> http://roshis.com/save-water-help-earth-a-lot/feed/ 0 http://roshis.com/lies-deceit-and-ingredient-labels/ http://roshis.com/lies-deceit-and-ingredient-labels/#comments Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:29:50 +0000 rishi http://roshis.com/blog/?p=11 Since becoming a raw foodist, I’ve learned to read the ingredient labels of the food I eat very carefully.  Still, there’s only limited information you can get from these food labels, and I’ve always been a bit uneasy about FDA regulations.  One of the main problems I’ve seen is the regulation which states that any ingredient that constitutes less that 0.5% of a product can be rounded down to 0.  So if a product contains 0.5% hydrogenated soybean oil, the product can still state that it is Trans Fat Free.  For a full list of Ingredient and Nutrition label loopholes, check this page out.

–Rishi

I have to credit Rishi for coming up with the concept for this recipe, but I do it big. This is one of the most simple and easy to make raw desserts out there- Raw Chocolate Pudding. It’s awesome because I can literally make this stuff by the gallon–and I practically eat it by the gallon. And it’s not like this stuff is bad for me, if anything it helps me pack in a decent amount of calorie-dense food for the day. It’s a really simple recipe, all you need is a food processor.

Ingredients:

* 2 Bananas
* 1 1/2 Cup Raw Cocao Powder
* 3 Tablespoons Raw Honey (or 1/4 cup Raw Agave)
* 1 1/2 Cup Raw Cashews or Pine Nuts
* 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

* Chopped Strawberries (as many as you like for the topping)

Directions:

* Mix all ingredients in food processor
* I like to top off the pudding with chopped strawberries. It tastes amazing.

How simple is that?? Pretty damn simple. It’s the perfect thing for college kids and people-on-the-go.

Global Food Crisis

Okay now for the nerdy stuff. I wanted to shed some light on an important issue that is lacking adequate American media attention. In most Western media, it’s hard to even find new articles dealing with the global food crisis currently facing much of the world.

Climate change has resulted in severe droughts throughout the world. These droughts, coupled with the fact that large quantities of grain are being diverted for bio-fuel production, have resulted in the global food shortage.

The effects of the crisis may not seem to significant in Western countries, but the developing word is facing mass starvation, death, and rapidly rising farmer suicide rates. This is truly an issue that demands increased attention from the developed world. To read more about the food shortage, check out this article on MSN news.

–Ro