Old News is Good News?
(bits of global this and that we've picked up here and there and just can't seem to throw out)

2005
Recent stories of food and health presented in very long sentences

A special feature of this recent internet feature article on the pros and cons of organic eating is the big-food-business ads that scroll throughout.

From an LA Times article reprinted in the Japan Times, 4 Sept:
"Concentrates of two organiphosphate pesticides-- malathion and chlorpyrifos-- declined substantially in the bodies of elementary-school age children during a five-day period when organic foods were substituted for conventional foods... In 2001, the US Environmental Protection Agency banned most residential uses of chlorpyrifos but has left most agricultural uses unrestricted."

Results of Japanese distributor of natural foods and so much more Daichi-o-Mamoru-Kai's survey of average 3-person family eating patterns suggest that the savings in CO2 expenditure if said families lived solely on domestically produced food would equal that of a 20%+ cut in household heating and lighting. 

From the UK's Guardian, a report of strike two against the GM-crop UK immersion:
GM oilseed rape cross-fertilised all on its own with distant relative charlock to create a superweed, just as pro-GM researchers said would never happen and Friends of Earth and others warned. Strike One was the above-normal damage to surrounding wildlife populations from the introduction of herbicides used in combination with the GM crops. http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,1535428,00.html 

"If we don't eat whale meat, it would be damaging to the ecosystem of the ocean," said Masayuki Komatsu, executive director of Japan's Fisheries Research Agency, who noted that his teenage daughter is opposed to commercial whaling. He later added, "The younger generation is always a problem, so education is very important."
--As quoted by Anthony Faiola, in  “Reviving a Taste for Whale”, washintonpost.com, 19 June, 2005, on the eve of the 57^th International Whaling Commission in Ulsan, South Korea. Director Komatsu can probably be reached for comment c/o the FRA Headquartes, Queen’s Tower B15F, 2-3-3 Minato Mirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ken 220-6115, fax 045-227-2700.

 A supersize round of applause to the McLibel 2, who found vindication, if not the last ten years of their lives back, in the European Court of Human Rights this February. In a vaguely related try-this-at-home incident, a couple of weeks back one member of our staff purchased fried potato from two fast food establishments, one Japanese and one international and both starting with M. Fries M1 developed mold after four days while M2 have yet to show any visible signs of decomposition. Not being experts, we can say nothing to the significance of these findings.

 A review of lifestyle data from 90-and-older residents of a California retirement community suggested that diet and antioxidant vitamin intake had little effect on longevity, although moderate wine and coffee consumption did. Healthy weight and a physically active lifestyle were two more factors found to be positive, according to a Los Angeles Times report. “There is no question in my mind that longevity is a combination of genetics and environment,” reports the architect of the $9 million federally funded study, echoing beliefs many have long held absolutely free of charge.

Environmental effects can be passed from one generation to the next without genetic mutation by a process called epigenetics. According to Rachel’s Environment & Health News #819 from the Environmental Research Foundation, “the cancer you get today may have been caused by your grandmother’s exposure to an industrial poison 50 years ago, even though your grandmother’s genes were not changed by the exposure. Or the mercury you’re eating today in fish may not harm you directly, but may harm your grandchildren. Recent findings in epigenetics underscore the far-reaching effects of pollutants, even the ones we think we’ve gotten rid of.”
Visit www.rachel.org for details on epigenetics and other important environmental news. 

Two infants in Philadelphia, USA, were diagnosed this summer with a kind of malnutrition usually not seen in over-developed nations and doctors are reminding people again NOT to use Rice Dream exclusively as a substitute for baby formula. Imagine is in the process of reworking the label. Breast, as they say, is best, and rice milk is not an balanced substitute for very small people growing at astounding rates.
--details from Kansas City Star, 28 June 2005 

New hope for American health? The American Heart Association has recently allowed as how a meat-free diet might be a good one, observing mildly that “Many studies have shown that vegetarians seem to have a lower risk of obesity, coronary heart disease (which causes heart attack), high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, and some forms of cancer.” The USDA, in their 2005 Dietary Guidelines, stress the importance of vegetables, fruits and whole grains as well as physical activity to good physical health.

Don't read Japanese but want to spread the word about animal rights? For information on the government-sponsored killing of monkeys around the lovely resort of Karuizawa, get somebody to tell you what this says!