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POPSFraudulent "Smart Choices" food labeling program crumbles As NaturalNews previously reported (http://www.naturalnews.com/027077_n...), the fraudulent Smart Choices food labeling program was being led by a Tufts University dean named Dr. Eileen Kennedy, a woman who continues to insist that sugary breakfast cereals made with 40% sugar, artificial coloring chemicals and partially-hydrogenated oils are really, really healthy for kids! (Eat more!) To paraphrase her view, they're smart choices because they are "better than a donut."
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POPSDeceptive Techniques of Food Labels, What You Read is NOT What You Get!
The FDA website shares some tips on how to understand and use the Nutrition Facts Label http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutrition/ConsumerInformation/ucm078889.htm Have you ever really looked at what is considered a ‘serving size’? I laughed when I first started seeing this on packages. I had been eating more than one serving size pretty much my whole life, and still do. I think most of us do. The problem I have with eating right is knowing whether or not I’m getting the right amount of nutrients necessary for optimum health and a strong immune system. Most doctors will tell you that you can obtain all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients you need from a normal healthy diet. It would be good if this was the case but because of the degradation of the food supply it has become almost impossible to achieve a diet for optimal health and the prevention of degenerative disease. I guess this is why the nutritional supplement market is so wide open.
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POPSNon-Organic Organic Food
Likewise, the program was supposed to set uniform standards for how organic foods are produced. Yet 65 of the standards recommended by the board since 2002 simply have been ignored by the administrator. For example, the board proposed specific rules to ensure that organic dairy farmers provide "access to pasture" for their cows, but Robinson's team has refused to implement the proposal. Thus, a giant milk purveyor such as Dean Foods (Horizon dairy products) is allowed to sell "organic" milk from cows that are confined in factory conditions rather than allowed to graze in open pastures. By failing to set rules that apply to everyone, the USDA is permitting private, for-profit organic certification firms to create their own standards, which means corporate interests can shop around for the most lenient certifiers. You might think that the USDA would see the organic labeling program as a way to earn consumer trust in the integrity of these products. But, no. Robinson told The Washingto
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POPS Now "The One" is A Really PO'd C-I-C “Let North Korea be warned I am prepared to use any and all language at my disposal to express the full discomfort of the United States, while being careful not to agitate the North Koreans, Chinese, Russians, Korean-Americans, or Jimmy Carter. Further actions of a non-positive manner by North Korea will regrettably leave me no choice but to unleash the full power of the thesaurus in dealing with this situation.”
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POPSGlobal Grocer: Imports, Rarity, and the Case for Origin Labeling Seasonal impulses could help save small farms and the planet – but only if they’re supported by adequate origin labeling, so shoppers can distinguish between good, local, seasonal food and over-traveled, chemically ripened, unseasonable food. Instead of having your favorite fruit or vegetable everyday of the year, lacking its special tenderness or sweetness because it was forced to grow with chemicals and picked too early so it can withstand the rigors of a long travel time, wouldn’t you rather have it at its peak freshness and flavor a few times a year because it was grown locally and in season? Any locavore will tell you that embracing this rarity, far from being an altruistic sacrifice, is actually a deliciously hedonistic adventure. Americans can’t reclaim rarity as a cultural value until we are able make educated decisions about not just what to buy, but where to buy it from – and consequently, when.
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POPSWhat's really in foods labeled "healthy"? Rule of thumb: if it has an advertising campaign, be intelligently skeptical about it. For example, plain old yogurt is good for you. Sweetened, thickened, colored, flavored "Go-gurt" in a tube... not so much.
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POPSSomali "Pirates" or Militia Coast Guard--New 'Gulf of Tonkin' Incident? You might have guessed there was another side to the story, but you will never hear about this on MSM: But the “pirates” have the overwhelming support of the local population for a reason . The independent Somalian news site WardherNews conducted the best research we have into what ordinary Somalis are thinking - and it found 70 percent “strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defense of the country’s territorial waters.” One of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali, said their motive was “to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters … We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish and dump in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas.”
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POPS GENETICALLY MODIFIED SUGAR BEETS: A BAD BET (AT THE WORST TIME)
BIOTECH PROMISES COME UP SHORT For more than a decade, biotech advocates spread promises of an unprecedented economic boom, but according to the San Francisco Chronicle, most of their hoopla remains “in the ‘promise’ category - and has been each year.” Their “smorgasbord of marketing claims,” writes the Asia Times, just adds to “the credibility problems that are piling up against genetic engineering.” The Wall Street Journal reported, “Not only has the biotech industry yielded negative financial returns for decades, it generally digs its hole deeper every year.” The Associated Press says it “remains a money-losing, niche industry.” In spite of their poor track record, advocates continue to convince politicians and others to invest in their infant technology. “This notion that you lure biotech to your community to save its economy is laughable,” said Joseph Cortright, an Oregon economist who co-wrote a report on the subject. “This is a bad-idea virus that has swept t
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POPSLocal Foods The notion of local foods may become replaced with branded location products. This may finally be the motivation needed for Country of origin labeling and State branding initiatives. Does anyone want a "Florida Orange made in the U.S.A."
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POPSFood Pets Die For: Shocking Facts about Pet Food More: Dead Dogs and Cats as a Protein Source The most objectionable source of protein for pet food is euthanized cats and dogs. (See Chapter Four.) It is a common practice for thousands of euthanized dogs and cats to be delivered to rendering plants, daily, and thrown into rendering vats--along with pet collars, I.D. tags, and plastic bags--to become part of an ingredient called "meat meal." If you see the term "meat meal" listed as an ingredient, there is no guarantee that the pet food does not contain euthanized cats and dogs.
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POPSA green meat... "Other proposals include everything from persuading consumers to eat less meat to slapping a “sin tax” on pork and beef. Next year, Sweden will start labeling food products so that shoppers can look at how much emission can be attributed to serving steak compared with, say, chicken or turkey. "
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POPSOne Company's Toxic Agenda or Our Poisonous Way of Life? Marie-Monique Robin's "The World According 
Both text and film are extraordinary models of investigative reporting, each comprising chilling and compelling indictments of a company with a long history of producing varieties of poison. I have no doubt that had a human individual, rather than a multinational corporation, been responsible for the death, suffering and destruction Marie-Monique Robin documents, the International Criminal Court and other jurisdictions around the world would be clamoring for that person's head. Yet, Monsanto continues to operate so much more freely than the disguised Radovan Karadzic. Only last week The Independent reported that Gordon Brown and other European leaders are secretly planning to promote GMO food - 90 percent of which is produced by Monsanto - over the objections of their own populations. Both Ms. Robin's film and her book use a montage of Monsanto advertising, promotional films, claims and pledges to illustrate the fantasy chemical, then biotech/life sciences company it purports t
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POPSAMA Calls For Reduced Sodium in U.S. Foods I stopped salting my food years ago. It's about time someone regulated the food industry so we can live longer and be healthier, and still enjoy canned foods, eating out at restaurants, and purchasing convenient frozen foods without the added worry of killer sodium added to these foods.
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POPSSlick-A** Pet Food Labeling They do the same thing with human food. I love K. Trudeau's "Natural Cures..." advice -- If it comes from a publicly traded company, don't buy it. (Of course that almost precludes shopping in grocery stores)
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POPSGMO - what we don't know An interesting article. I, for one, would like to have a choice about what I consume. Without accurate labeling, it's next to impossible to make an informed purchasing decision.
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POPSMonsanto's Udder Disgrace The milk labeling controversy - and other corporate practices of Monsanto - have been issues for years. For a while every time I saw my Senator, I would greet him with the same comment, "Hey Bernie, when are you going to do something about Monsanto?" Senator Bernie would shake his head and raise his hands in frustration. I often heard him say that no matter how bad you think things are in Washington, they are really much worse. While the Congress is distracted with growth hormones taken by sports figures, our farm animals are being abused with other hormones. Baseball players have a free choice. Cows don't. None of us have a choice. Not if Monsanto has anything to say about it and they do. Money talks.