Found this post. Thought it flows with several other blog postings I published written by Dr. Don Huber. If below peaks your curiosity and you want to start your investigation please take a look on my blog for the articles written by Dr. Don Huber on GMO’s.

According to F.W. Engdahl, an American-German freelance journalist, historian, and economic researcher, one long-standing project of the U.S. government has been to perfect a genetically-modified strand of corn. This variety of corn was field-tested over ten years ago, and according to the president of the small bio-tech firm in charge of that project…

“We have a hothouse filled with corn plants that make anti-sperm antibodies.”

Taking antibodies from women with a rare condition known as “immune infertility” and isolating the genes that regulated the manufacture of those antibodies, they inserted them into the corn plants, creating, in essence, a biological weapon for population control.

And who was helping to finance this endeavor? The Gates’ Foundation (which includes the Buffet Foundation) and the Rockefeller Foundation, through a project called The Alliance for a Green Revolution, headed by none other than former U.N. Chief, Kofi Annan. Major GMO agri-businesses are reported to be at the heart of AGRA, using it to spread their GMO technology throughout the Third World. According to Engdahl, “Gates and Buffet are major funders of global population reduction programs.” Included in this unholy alliance is Ted Turner, who thinks that a 95% reduction in global population to around 300 million would be “ideal.”

And remember, the Rockefeller Foundation has been involved in eugenics and genocide since it began funding the eugenics research in Germany in the 1920s and well into the Third Reich. (Seeds of Destruction, F.W. Engdahl.) The Rockefellers backed the forced sterilizations and racial purity ideology of Hitler’s Germany.

But how does a Third World program affect us in western civilization? More specifically, how does it affect us here, in the United States?

Shortly after the introduction of GMO corn into the U.S. in 1996, birth rates began falling. Since 1999, birth rates have plummeted even faster – just three years after GMO corn was introduced into the food supply.

GMOS, according to scientists interviewed for the film Science Under Attack, have been known to cause smaller brain size, lowered immunity, organ damage, and infertility in animals fed biotech food. Does this correspond to the 20% rate of infertility occurring in our population today? That’s a good question. Unfortunately, agri-giants and our government are suppressing the answers.

Since 2008, the U.S. government has opposed a national effort to label GMO foods. They upped the ante by trying to suppress GMO labeling anywhere in the world, by using Codex, the U.N. arm that seeks to regulate every food, mineral, and herb in the world used for consumption. However, this effort has stalled because Codex doesn’t look at GMO created products as “food.”

However, Codex does place these products into a special category that can be utilized in alternative applications. (Like birth control, maybe?)

Genetically engineered corn, soy, cottonseed oil, and canola oil are the most processed foods in the United States. These foods have NEVER been tested for safety in human consumption … even though animal studies show severe organ damage, spontaneous abortions, and sterility when consumed.

Take control of your fertility … your health … your life … by taking control of your own food supply.

This article was originally written and posted at GreenPastures.org

©2012 The Wine Wench. All Rights Reserved.

©2012 The Wine Wench. All Rights Reserved.

USDA senior scientist sends “emergency” warning to US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on a new plant pathogen in Roundup Ready GM soybean and corn that may be responsible for high rates of infertility and spontaneous abortions in livestock Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

An open letter appeared on the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance founded and run by Judith McGeary to save family farms in the US [1, 2].  The letter, written by Don Huber, professor emeritus at Purdue University, to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, warns of a pathogen “new to science” discovered by “a team of senior plant and animal scientists”. Huber says it should be treated as an “emergency’’, as it could result in “a collapse of US soy and corn export markets and significant disruption of domestic food and feed supplies.”

The letter appeared to have been written before Vilsack announced his decision to authorize unrestricted commercial planting of GM alfalfa on 1 February, in the hope of convincing the Secretary of Agriculture to impose a moratorium instead on deregulation of Roundup Ready (RR) crops.

The new pathogen appears associated with serious pervasive diseases in plants – sudden death syndrome in soybean and Goss’ wilt in corn – but its suspected effects on livestock is alarming.  Huber refers to “recent reports of infertility rates in dairy heifers of over 20%, and spontaneous abortions in cattle as high as 45%.”

This could be the worst nightmare of genetic engineering that some scientists including me have been warning for years [3] (see Genetic Engineering Dream or Nightmare, ISIS publication): the unintended creation of new pathogens through assisted horizontal gene transfer and recombination.

Huber writes in closing: “I have studied plant pathogens for more than 50 years. We are now seeing an unprecedented trend of increasing plant and animal diseases and disorders. This pathogen may be instrumental to understanding and solving this problem. It deserves immediate attention with significant resources to avoid a general collapse of our critical agricultural infrastructure.”

The complete letter is reproduced below.

Dear Secretary Vilsack:

A team of senior plant and animal scientists have recently brought to my attention the discovery of an electron microscopic pathogen that appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings. Based on a review of the data, it is widespread, very serious, and is in much higher concentrations in Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans and corn-suggesting a link with the RR gene or more likely the presence of Roundup. This organism appears NEW to science!

This is highly sensitive information that could result in a collapse of US soy and corn export markets and significant disruption of domestic food and feed supplies. On the other hand, this new organism may already be responsible for significant harm (see below). My colleagues and I are therefore moving our investigation forward with speed and discretion, and seek assistance from the USDA and other entities to identify the pathogen’s source, prevalence, implications, and remedies.

We are informing the USDA of our findings at this early stage, specifically due to your pending decision regarding approval of RR alfalfa. Naturally, if either the RR gene or Roundup itself is a promoter or co-factor of this pathogen, then such approval could be a calamity. Based on the current evidence, the only reasonable action at this time would be to delay deregulation at least until sufficient data has exonerated the RR system, if it does.

For the past 40 years, I have been a scientist in the professional and military agencies that evaluate and prepare for natural and manmade biological threats, including germ warfare and disease outbreaks. Based on this experience, I believe the threat we are facing from this pathogen is unique and of a high risk status. In layman’s terms, it should be treated as an emergency.

A diverse set of researchers working on this problem have contributed various pieces of the puzzle, which together presents the following disturbing scenario:

Unique Physical Properties
This previously unknown organism is only visible under an electron microscope (36,000X), with an approximate size range equal to a medium size virus. It is able to reproduce and appears to be a micro-fungal-like organism. If so, it would be the first such micro-fungus ever identified. There is strong evidence that this infectious agent promotes diseases of both plants and mammals, which is very rare.

Pathogen Location and Concentration
It is found in high concentrations in Roundup Ready soybean meal and corn, distillers meal, fermentation feed products, pig stomach contents, and pig and cattle placentas.

Linked with Outbreaks of Plant Disease
The organism is prolific in plants infected with two pervasive diseases that are driving down yields and farmer income-sudden death syndrome (SDS) in soy, and Goss’ wilt in corn. The pathogen is also found in the fungal causative agent of SDS (Fusarium solani fsp glycines).

Implicated in Animal Reproductive Failure
Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of this organism in a wide variety of livestock that have experienced spontaneous abortions and infertility. Preliminary results from ongoing research have also been able to reproduce abortions in a clinical setting.

The pathogen may explain the escalating frequency of infertility and spontaneous abortions over the past few years in US cattle, dairy, swine, and horse operations. These include recent reports of infertility rates in dairy heifers of over 20%, and spontaneous abortions in cattle as high as 45%.

For example, 450 of 1,000 pregnant heifers fed wheatlege experienced spontaneous abortions. Over the same period, another 1,000 heifers from the same herd that were raised on hay had no abortions. High concentrations of the pathogen were confirmed on the wheatlege, which likely had been under weed management using glyphosate.

Recommendations
In summary, because of the high titer of this new animal pathogen in Roundup Ready crops, and its association with plant and animal diseases that are reaching epidemic proportions, we request USDA’s participation in a multi-agency investigation, and an immediate moratorium on the deregulation of RR crops until the causal/predisposing relationship with glyphosate and/or RR plants can be ruled out as a threat to crop and animal production and human health.

It is urgent to examine whether the side-effects of glyphosate use may have facilitated the growth of this pathogen, or allowed it to cause greater harm to weakened plant and animal hosts. It is well-documented that glyphosate promotes soil pathogens and is already implicated with the increase of more than 40 plant diseases; it dismantles plant defenses by chelating vital nutrients; and it reduces the bioavailability of nutrients in feed, which in turn can cause animal disorders. To properly evaluate these factors, we request access to the relevant USDA data.

I have studied plant pathogens for more than 50 years. We are now seeing an unprecedented trend of increasing plant and animal diseases and disorders. This pathogen may be instrumental to understanding and solving this problem. It deserves immediate attention with significant resources to avoid a general collapse of our critical agricultural infrastructure.

Sincerely,

APS Coordinator, USDA National Plant Disease Recovery System (NPDRS)
COL (Ret.) Don M. Huber
Emeritus Professor, Purdue University

References:
1. “Researcher: Glyphosate (Roundup) or Roundup Ready Crops May Cause Animal Miscarriages”, Jill Richardson, La Vida Locavore, 18 February 2011
http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/4523

2. “Researcher: Glyphosate (Roundup) or Roundup Ready Crops May Cause Animal Miscarriages”, 18 February 2011, http://farmandranchfreedom.org/gmo-miscarriages

3. Ho MW. Genetic Engineering Dream of Nightmare? The Brave New World of Bad Science and Big Business, Third World Network, Gateway Books, MacMillan, Continuum, Penang, Malaysia, Bath, UK, Dublin, Ireland, New York, USA, 1998, 1999, 2007 (reprint with extended Introduction). http://www.i-sis.org.uk/genet.php

©2012 The Wine Wench. All Rights Reserved.

Sources:

Organic Consumers Association January 27, 2011

Whole Foods Market January 28, 2011

Grist January 27, 2011

Grist January 31, 2011

Organic Consumers Association February 2, 2011

Organic Consumers Association February 3, 2011

Organic Consumers Association February 2, 2011

Organic Consumers Association, February 1, 2011

Organic Consumers Association February 3, 2011

The Atlantic January 28, 2011

Uruknet February 22, 2011

Video Transcript

©2012 The Wine Wench. All Rights Reserved.

There’s some controversy about what cut of meat a Delmonico steak really is–a top sirloin, bone-in top loin (from the short loin), or rib eye. Although some say it can only be rib eye, in my experience, steaks labeled “Delmonico” can be boneless or bone-in and come from different parts of the cow. Wherever the steak comes from, it is always tender and rich, and it’s made even more so by its nearly traditional accompaniment–my version of Bordelaise sauce. (If you want to go all out, add mashed potatoes topped with grated cheese and bread crumbs).

I call my sauce faux because classic Bordelaise uses bone marrow and demi-glace, which are not always found in the average home pantry. I substitute butter for the marrow (although if you have marrow, do use it!). If you don’t have homemade beef stock, be wary of using beef bouillon for two reasons: First, it’s not from grass-fed beef, and second, it tends to be salty. If you save the drippings from roasting beef, you may have a supply of the dark jelly that separates from the fat–if so, use this culinary gold here instead of stock.

For the steak:
1 1/2 pounds grass-fed Delmonico steak
2 tablespoons coarse sea salt such as a gray Atlantic or Celtic (for pan-searing only)

For the sauce:
1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter or bone marrow diced
1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
1/2 cup red wine
Leaves from 1 small sprig fresh thyme
1 cup of homemade beef stock, greatly reduced, or 1/2 cup of the jelly layer formed by saved beef drippings

Be sure you have a really nice quality cast iron frying pan. Bring the meat to room temperature, rinse it, and blot it well. Heat a dry, seasoned cast-iron frying pan large enough to hold the steak flat. When the pan is hot, add the salt so it is scattered all over the pan. When the salt begins to pop, add the steak.

Cook until the meat no longer sticks to the pan, about 3 minutes. Turn it and cook the other side the same way, removing the meat promptly to rest on a plate while making the sauce. Make sure not to repeatedly flip the steak or pierce it which will allow all the juices to escape and you want to keep those juices in the steak.

Coarsely crack the peppercorns in a mortar and pestle or in a plastic bag using the underside of a cast-iron frying pan. Set aside.

Heat a shallow pan such as a frying pan over medium low heat, and then add half the butter (or marrow) until gently melted. Over medium heat, cook the shallots in the fat until translucent and wilted, about 2 minutes. Add the wine and cook until it has reduced by half, 3 minutes or so. Lower the heat and add the thyme and peppercorns and cook until there is very little liquid left, being careful not to burn the contents of the pan.

Add the reduced beef stock or beef jelly and the remaining half of the butter, and cook, whisking as needed, for about 5 minutes or until further reduced and silky. Pour the sauce over the steak and serve.

To accompany these steaks, I made celery root mashed potatoes topped with grated parmigiano reggiano cheese a recipe from Nourishing Traditions Cookbook by Sally Fallon.

Potato and Celery Root Purée
6 baked potatoes, wash, cut a bit of the ends off and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours on 350
3 celery roots, peeled and cut up
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and mashed
pinch of nutmeg
Celtic sea salt, pepper
1/2 cup of butter
1/2 to 1 cup piima cream or creme fraiche

Cover the celery root pieces with cold water, bring to a boil and cook until very tender, about 30 minutes. Cut up the butter and place in the bottom of a large bowl. Scoop out potato flesh into the bowl. Add celery root and garlic, and mash all together. Add the cream to obtain desired consistency. If you want your purée really smooth, you may now mix with handheld beater. Season to taste. I grated some fresh cheese and sprinkled on top of the potatoes. Transfer to a buttered ovenproof dish and keep warm in the oven.

Check out all  pictures here

©2012 The Wine Wench. All Rights Reserved.

For the Marinade:
2/3 cup red wine
Zest of 1 orange removed with a vegetable peeler in big strips
1 stick cinnamon
3 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
4 or 5 sprigs fresh thyme

Other Ingredients:
1 to 1 1/2 pounds grass-fed stew beef
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chopped bacon or pancetta (or all olive oil, if preferred)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 cup water or homemade beef stock
1 cup of olives, mixed green and black or all one type
Kosher salt

Optional Topping:
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Creme Fraiche

Mix the marinade ingredients together and add the beef. Refrigerate all day or overnight. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Remove the meat from the marinade, reserving the marinade. Bring the beef to room temperature and blot it dry. Heat the pot you will cook the stew in, and add the olive oil. Brown the meat on all sides and remove it to a plate.

Add the bacon or pancetta to the pot and cook it over medium-low heat to render the fat (or use 1/4 cup olive oil); add the onion, carrot, and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally,  until the vegetables have softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Return the meat to the pot, along with the marinade. Add as much water or stock as necessary to just cover the meat. Add the olives and salt to taste. Bring just to a boil and immediately remove from the heat.

Put the pot in the middle of the oven and slow-bake for about 2 hours, or until the meat is soft and fragrant. If you plan to use the topping, mix all the chopped ingredients together. To serve, discard the stems left from the thyme, as well as the orange peel. Ladle the stew into shallow bowls on top of noodles, polenta, rice, or mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with a little of the topping and a dollop of Creme Fraiche.

©2012 The Wine Wench. All Rights Reserved.

2 pounds of grass-fed/finished pasture raised ground lamb
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon dried rosemary or thyme
2 eggs
2 cups whole grain bread crumbs
1 cup cream
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
about 1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup red wine
2-3 cups of beef or lamb stock
2-4 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped or 1 can tomatoes, drained and chopped
2 cups spinach, chard, kale or beet greens, chopped

Saute onion and rosemary in 2 tablespoons olive oil until soft. Meanwhile, soak bread crumbs in cream. Mix onion mixture, eggs, bread crumbs, sea salt and pepper with ground lamb. Form into 1-inch balls. Dredge in flour and saute a few at a time in olive oil. Pour out browning oil and add red wine to the pan. Bring to a boil, scraping up coagulated juices in the pan with a wooden spoon. Add stock and tomatoes and reduce by boiling until sauce thickens, skimming occasionally. Add meatballs and chopped greens to sauce and simmer for about 15 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through. Serve with basic brown rice or buckwheat or brown rice noodles.

Brown rice or Jasmine rice should be soaked and fermented in a mixture of water and whey for 7 to 24 hours before cooking in butter and sea salt. 2 cups of rice to 4 cups of cold filtered water and 4 tablespoons of whey. After soaking add butter and Celtic salt, bring to a boil, skim, reduce heat and let cook for 45 minutes or until done. Season to taste. This process neutralizes a large portion of phytic acid in grains and will vastly improve nutritional benefits and digestibility. Along with cooking the rice in butter, an necessary digestive aid when consuming grains and vegetables. Believe me this process really makes incredibly delicious rice.

I paired a 2007 Carpe Diem Pinto Noir with this dish.

See all photos here.

Man has been eating meat and fat for thousands of years, but hardening of the arteries is a new disease. My father, practicing medicine in Georgia fifty years ago, rarely saw a heart attack. Heart attacks have only become common since the advent of homogenized pasteurized milk, oleo-margarine, and the increased consumption of polyunsaturated vegetable oils. William Campbell Douglass, MD The Milk Book

©2012 The Wine Wench. All Rights Reserved.

2 medium onions or leeks, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 tablespoons butter
3 medium backing potatoes or 6 red potatoes, washed and cut up
2 quarts homemade chicken stock (click link for recipe)
several sprigs fresh thyme, tied together
1/2 teaspoon dried green peppercorns, crushed
4 zucchini, ends removed and sliced
sea salt or fish sauce
pepper
piima cream or creme fraiche

Melt butter in a large, stainless steel post and add onions or leeks and carrots. Cover and cook over lowest possible heat for at least 1/2 hour. The vegetables should soften but not burn. Add potatoes and stock, bring to a rapid boil and skim. Reduce heath and add thyme sprigs and crushed peppercorns. Cover and cook until the potatoes are soft. Add zucchini and cook until they are just tender–about 5 to 10 min. Remove the thyme sprigs. Puree the soup with a handheld blender. If soup is to thick, think with filtered water. Season to taste. Ladle into heated bowls and garnish with cultured cream.

Side Note: Make sure that the soup has cooled down and you can taste it without burning your tongue before you add the cultured cream. If you put the cream in while the soup is to hot, you will kill all the enzymes and lacto-bacteria that aids in digestion. According to Sally Fallon, “Cultured dairy products provide beneficial bacteria and lactic acid to the digestive tract. These friendly creatures and their by-products keep pathogens at bay, guard against infectious illness and aid in the fullest possible digestion of all food we consume.” It basically turns into a dead food.

Raw foods enthusiasts point to scientific evidence which shows that when cooked foods are consumed, the white blood cell count immediately rises, while no such increase occurs when eating raw fruit or vegetables. The white blood cells function as immune system scavengers, removing foreign organisms and any chemical compounds the body considers invasive. The conclusion is drawn that, therefore, cooked foods are bad because the body considers them invasive and toxic, and raw foods are good because they evoke no immune system response. However, one can look at the same results and conclude that the cooked food is stimulating the immune function and causing the increase in white blood cells not because the food itself is toxic, but because a function of cooked food is to “exercise” the immune system in producing white blood cells for real emergencies, somewhat akin to a biological fire drill. Indeed, it is quite natural for the body to use the invasion of low doses of microorganisms or chemical poisons to immunize itself against greater danger. And on one level food is a foreign substance that the body must “overcome” through the process of digestion and assimilation. In this sense cooked food can be seen to strengthen the system while raw foods simply do not have the same white-blood-cell-stimulating effect. – Marc David Nourishing Wisdom

©2012 The Wine Wench. All Rights Reserved.

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

With consumer demand for organic products continuing to grow, more large corporations are entering the organic market. To maximize profits, some of these companies don’t follow organic standards but still label products as organic. For example, Horizon Organic and Aurora Organic, sold by Wal-Mart and other retailers, continue to produce “organic” milk under factory-farm conditions that few reasonable people would consider truly organic.

According to the Organic Consumers Association, half of Horizon’s “organic” milk today comes from what can only be considered “factory” dairy feedlots — and much of Aurora’s organic milk does as well. Rather than buy organic calves that have been raised from birth on organic farms, these companies seemed to have discovered it’s cheaper to buy conventional calves that have been raised on conventional farms, install them in factory feedlots, then milk them and call it organic.

The situation has become so alarming that the Organic Consumers Association ultimately called for a boycott, and many knowledgeable consumers are now avoiding the Horizon brand entirely.

The organic milk controversy extends to organic soy milk as well. Horizon Organic’s parent company, Dean Foods, also bought out Silk, the leading organic soy milk brand in the United States. Dean Foods has pushed for lower organic standards in the United States and to allow industrial-style production to be called “organic.”

Meanwhile, major grocery chains import cheap, so-called “organic” soybeans from China, where the workers are treated much like slaves and organic standards are dubious. They are also imported from Brazil where the Amazon rainforest is being bulldozed in order to create more acreage for growing soybeans.

To gain more insight on the details of this emerging battle over organic standards, NaturalNews editor Mike Adams sat down with Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association for some straight talk on organic milk. What follows is the full interview.

Mike: I am here today talking with Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association. That is at www.OrganicConsumers.org. What’s the overview of the situation on organic milk, Ronnie?

Ronnie: Well, the good news is, there is such a huge demand for organic products across the United States and North America that there is a serious shortage of supply. One of the types of products that are in serious short supply is organic milk. This is already more than a $1-billion-a-year industry in the United States, out of the $15 billion in organic food sales last year.

The problem is that our government – specifically the U. S. Department of Agriculture – takes about $90 billion of our tax money every year, and they give subsidies to all of these factory farms to go organic, but they give no subsidies to help family-scale dairies make the transition to organic. We literally do not have enough family farmers with the wherewithal to achieve organic certification and make the product.

At the same time, we have these giant retail giants like Wal-Mart who have noticed that the public wants organic food and they are willing to pay a premium price for it, so they and the other retail chain stores have moved with a vengeance to dominate the organic market. Wal-Mart is now the number-one seller of organic milk in the country. The problem is that the milk they are selling – Horizon Organic – is not really organic. It is coming from the factory-style dairy farms where the animals are kept in intensive confinement and have been imported from conventional farms as calves. They simply label it organic, and the USDA lets them get away with it.

Mike: Let us get into more detail on that, because I want people to understand how they do an end-run around this organic label. First, do you agree that there is some degree of success in the fact that consumer demand for organic products is now so strong? Is that not a success by itself?

Ronnie: It is a tremendous success. It is attributed to the fact that a lot of us spent the last 30 years building up an alternative food and farming system in the United States. This alternative system has proved to be much better than industrial agriculture, and so now the latest polls show 75 percent of Americans say they are shopping for healthier food. If you look at the statistics, about 12 cents of every grocery store dollar are going for foods that are labeled as either natural or organic.

Mike: Well, that is a substantial sum. That is growing at, what, about 20 percent a year or something?

Ronnie: Growing at 20 percent a year, whereas conventional food sales tend to grow about 2 percent a year. This 20 percent-a-year growth has been steady ever since 1991. It appears that it will continue through the end of this decade, so by then most food sold in grocery stores will have a label that says ‘natural’ or ‘organic’.

The question is: If we let these gigantic corporations like Horizon and Wal-Mart take over the industry, will it really be organic?

How the USDA enables big business to corrupt organic standards for profit

Mike: Let’s talk about the definition of organic, then. What should organic really mean in terms of, not only the treatment of the cows, but also what chemicals are not in the milk, for example? What is the real definition?

Ronnie: There are organic farmers all over the world – in about 100 countries – who are certified organic nowadays. Traditionally, organic has always meant that you raise crops without chemical pesticides or chemical fertilizers and that you raise animals without drugging them up with hormones or antibiotics. You cannot take sewage sludge and put it on farmlands. You cannot feed animals things like blood, slaughterhouse waste, manure and municipal garbage, and you cannot use untested and hazardous technologies like genetic engineering or fruit irradiation. The animals have to be raised on pasture – which is their natural behavior – where every day of the growing season, weather permitting, they are out on pasture eating grass and foraging as they have evolved to do.

What has happened recently is that Wal-Mart was buying their organic milk from genuine organic dairy farmers that pastured their animals, and then they turned around to that company – Organic Valley – and they said, “Hey, we want a lower price,” just as Wal-Mart always does. Organic Valley said no, so Wal-Mart then turned to Dean Foods, the largest dairy conglomerate in the world – which had bought out Horizon Organic – and said, “Would you sell to us?” To which Horizon said, “We will sell you the cheapest organic milk you have ever seen.”

Horizon conveniently took advantage of the fact that Federal Organic Standards say the cows must have access to pasture, and they said, “Oh well, I guess theoretical access to pasture is good enough. We are going to chain up our cows and milk them three times a day, and they will never get out pasturing unless there is a news organization coming to the farm that day. We will still call it organic.” They have been doing this for four years, and there have been complaints from the Organic Consumers Association and organic farmers all over the country.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has completely ignored these complaints for four years. However, now this controversy has reached such a state, with the mass media covering it and retail stores across the country starting to drop Horizon and Aurora Organic, that the USDA is finally making noises that they will clear up this situation and promulgate federal regulations that actually require the animals to be pastured.

They will make sure that the animals were not imported from some conventional dairy farm where they were weaned on blood, fed antibiotics, slaughterhouse waste and chicken manure and then called “organic.” The animals must be raised from birth as organic, and they must be pastured every day during t he growing season – a minimum of 120 days a year. This is what organic has always meant in terms of raising cows, and it is what it should mean now.

Mike: Now, these are pretty serious accusations of Horizon Milk or Dean Foods’ behavior. How are you able to support this? Do you have an insider taking pictures, or how did you become aware of this behavior on their part?

Ronnie: It was called to our attention by a watchdog organization called The Cornucopia Institute, which actually visited some of these factory-style dairy farms that Horizon and Aurora call organic. They witnessed first-hand things like a farm where there are 4,000 animals, but only a few hundred acres of pasture. You cannot possibly pasture animals on that little pasture, especially when they are in semi-arid parts of Idaho, Colorado and West Texas.

Then beyond that, workers on these farms started coming forth as whistleblowers. There was a story in the Chicago Tribune about one of these whistleblowers who pointed out that these cows are not put out to pasture. The only time they are put out to pasture is when there is a media organization or an important person coming out.

Yes, it is first-hand information. It is a look at the terrain that these factory-style dairy feedlots are set on. Look at the size of their pasture, and then the fact that there was a national survey of organic dairy farms that came out March 22 – which the unethical dairies did not respond to or they got really low ranks – whereas, the ethical producers were happy to be transparent about their practices.

The good news is, almost all the organic farmers in the country are actually practicing real organic standards. The bad news is that the market leader, Horizon Organic, and their junior partner, Aurora Organic, are flagrantly violating organic standards to the point where we, the Organic Consumers Association, had to call for a boycott. We have never called for a boycott against an organic product before. This was going too far, so starting in early April, we called on consumers across the country to start boycotting the products of Horizon Organic and Aurora Organic, and to boycott the brand names that the leading retailers are selling from Horizon and Aurora at Wal-Mart, Costco, Safeway, Giant, Publix and Wild Oats.

Mike: Well, this seems like a clear case in which big business is now seeing dollar signs whenever the word “organic” appears, so they are doing the minimum necessary or even just blatantly violating the rules in order to put that word on their products, regardless of the spirit of the law or the original intent of organics. Is this just corporate greed?

Ronnie: This is, and the sad thing is, how easy it would be to help 5,000 or 10,000 conventional family farmers make the transition in their dairies to organic. It would not be that hard. It would not cost that much money, and this way we could still have organic standards that were real, animals treated humanely and not damage the environment.

Of course, we have not even mentioned that one of the reasons you want organic animals to be outdoors and pastured is because the quality of the meat and milk is much higher if the animals are raised naturally on grass. The other organic requirements mean that the end product is going to be healthier as well. They are not going to have antibiotic residues or genetically engineered hormones. They are not going to be spreading mad cow disease and so on. We, right now in the United States, have an excess of milk being produced by family-scale dairy farmers who are not yet organic. It would be very simple to help those who want to make the transition do so if we were to force the government to give us a fair share of our subsidies to help these farmers do that.

Lax standards of corporate manufacturers and retailers affect both organic milk and soymilk products

Mike: Now, you mentioned that pasture-fed cows are healthier cows. This gets back to something you mentioned earlier that needs to be emphasized, because most people simply do not believe this is happening. Conventional cows, in fact, are being fed chicken litter and other animals.

Ronnie: Yes, they take it from birth. Cows were traditionally weaned on their mother’s milk, but industrial agriculture figured out that it’s pretty expensive to wean the calves on milk, so they decided to wean them on blood. That is common practice nowadays on a conventional dairy farm. Then, you feed them primarily grains that are genetically engineered, but mixed in with those grains are things that make the animals grow faster and put on weight, like slaughterhouse waste – basically ground up pigs, chickens, dogs, cats and everything else are fed to them.

They found out all these factory poultry farms around the country were producing billions of pounds of manure that pollute the environment. What can we do with all this manure? Presto, they feed it back to cows. They sweep up the manure, the feathers and the dropped bits of cattle that are fed to chickens in their feed. They sweep that all up, turn around and feed it back to cows.

Most people in the United States are shocked when they hear that 80 percent of the drugs and antibiotics made in this country are not fed to humans to cure them of some illness, but fed to animals in their feed every day to make them grow faster. Scientists do not totally understand why, but they do know that if you cram thousands of animals together in unsanitary or unhygienic – not to mention inhumane – conditions, they all get sick and die.

The only way to keep them alive is to constantly feed them antibiotics. Of course, what that means is you turn around and drink a glass of dairy milk from a conventional farm, and you are getting residues of antibiotics in every drink. They also figured out, “We could use our genetically engineered hormone to shoot up these cows with this hormone produced by Monsanto, even though it is banned in just about every industrialized country in the world except for the United States.” If you shoot up dairy cows with this hormone, you can force them to give more milk, and you can keep milking them even past their lactation period. You can actually milk a cow not for a year, but for up to a thousand days. Of course, the cow will drop dead after that, but they do not care.

For all these reasons, there is a huge movement on the part of American consumers and especially concerned parents and concerned grandparents – if they drink milk and if their kids and grandparents drink – to switch to organic.

Mike: Is it fair to say, Ronnie, that the organic-labeled Horizon Milk on the shelves in Wal-Mart right now comes, at least in part, from cows that were at one point in their lives fed blood, manure, chicken litter and some other things you mentioned? Is that accurate?

Ronnie: Yes, half of Horizon Organic’s milk today comes from these factory dairy feedlots. One hundred percent of Aurora Organic’s milk comes from these factory dairy feedlots. It is cheaper to not buy organic calves that have been raised from birth on an organic farm, but to buy conventional calves that have been raised as cheaply as possible on a conventional farm. The routine practice today on a conventional farm is feeding the animals blood plasma as a milk replacer. You feed them genetically engineered grains, slaughterhouse waste and chicken manure. That is industry standard. Why? You can make more money doing it that way.

Mike: Okay, so for those reading this, take a closer look at that bowl of cereal next time. If you are pouring cow’s milk in there, you might want to buy genuine organic and not the cheap stuff.

Ronnie: Here is another point that you might think about: for those people who do not drink dairy milk, but who buy organic soy milk, the leading organic soy milk brand in the United States is Silk. Many consumers have no idea that Silk – just like Horizon Organic Milk – was bought out by this giant conglomerate, Dean Foods.

Silk used to buy their organic soybeans from U.S. and Canadian organic soybean farmers, and they paid them a decent price – $16 to $21 a bushel – for these organic soybeans. Well, now that Dean Foods has bought out Silk, they are starting to import cheap, so-called organic soybeans from China, where the workers are treated like slaves and organic standards are dubious. Or, they are importing soybeans from Brazil where there is a huge uproar over the fact that people are whacking down the Amazon – the lungs of the planet – in order to plant export crops, specifically soybeans, to export.

Even if we think this does not affect us, because we do not eat meat or we do not eat dairy, we have to see the effect of these big corporations like Dean Foods coming into organic. Wal-Mart wants to sell you stuff that is cheaper than their competitors, and the only way they can do that is to outsource it from overseas – places like China and Brazil – where worker rights and environmental standards are routinely violated, or else lower standards in the United States and allow industrial-style production to call itself organic.

Mike: Now, this is obviously a very important story for consumers to follow. How can they continue to get updates from you on this story?

Ronnie: Every day on our news site, www.OrganicConsumers.org you will find updates. We have a whole section of our website called “Safeguard Organic Standards,” where you can take action … send a message to what we are calling the “Shameless Seven.” These are the large corporations trying to defraud consumers and put ethical organic farmers out of business by labeling factory farm production – and slave labor production, in the case of China – as organic.

Mike: I want to thank you, Ronnie, for taking the time to give us all of this shocking information today.

Ronnie: Thank you.

Related Resources
• Organic Consumers Association – (www.organicconsumers.org)

• The Cornucopia Institute – (www.cornucopia.org)

• USDA’s National Organic Program (http://www.ams.usda.gov/NOP)

©2012 The Wine Wench. All Rights Reserved.

Almost all traditional cultures prize organ meats for their ability to build reserves of strength and vitality. Organ meats are extremely rich in fat-soluble vitamins A and D, as well as essential fatty acids, important very-long-chain superunsaturated fatty acids and the whole gamut of macro and trace minerals. Wild animals eat the organs of their kill first, thus showing a wisdom superior to our own.

While you can buy Pâté, Mousse, and Liverwurst at the grocery store, I like to make my own because like most grocery store meat, it is made from animals that are raised in industrial farms and feedlots under a toxic and horrible farming model. Why does it even matter? Well, it is especially important to eat organ meats from really healthy animals that are healthy, free of hormones, antibiotics, synthetic products and have been raised and fed properly. Otherwise you ingesting all those toxins into your own body. You are what you eat is really ringing true in this day and age. – Sally Fallon Nourishing Traditions Cookbook

This recipe serves 12 – 18

3 tablespoon butter
1 pound chicken or duck livers, or a combination
1/2 pound mushrooms, washed, dried and coarsely chopped
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
2/3 cup dry white wine or vermouth
1 clove of garlic, mashed
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon dried dill
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 stick butter, softened
sea salt

Melt butter in a heavy skillet. Add livers, onions and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes until livers are browned. Add wine, garlic, mustard, lemon juice and herbs. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, until the liquid is gone. Allow to cool. Process in a food processor with softened butter. Season to taste. Place in a crock or mold and chill well. Serve with homemade whole grain bread or homemade triangle croutons. Top with black caviar.

If you don’t want to make your own liver Pâté, have no fear, you can purchase organic Pâté, mousse, liverwurst from sustainably raised animals from Les Trois Petits Cochons (The Three Little Pigs) or D’Artagnan Gourmet Meat.

Bon Appetit!

Partially hydrogenated margarine and shortenings are even worse for you than the highly refined vegetable oils from which they are made because of chemical changes that occur during the hydrogenation process. Under high temperatures, the nickel catalyst causes the hydrogen atoms to change position on the fatty acid chain. Before hydrogenation, pairs of hydrogen atoms occur together on the chain, causing the chain to bend slightly and creating a concentration of electrons at the site of the double bond. This is called the cis formation, the configuration most commonly found in nature. With hydrogenation, one hydrogen atom of the pair is moved to the other side so that the molecule straightens. This is called the trans formation, rarely found in nature. Most of these man-made trans fats are toxins to the body, but unfortunately your digestive system does not recognize them as such. Instead of eliminating them, your body incorporates trans fats into the cell membranes as though they were cis fats–your cells actually become partially hydrogenated! Once in place, trans fatty acids wreak havoc with cell metabolism because chemical reactions can take place only when electrons in the cell membranes are in certain arrangements or patterns, which they hydrogenation process has distributed. -Sally Fallon Nourishing Traditions Cookbook

©2012 The Wine Wench. All Rights Reserved.