Agriculture
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Glyphosate Overuse Leads to Serious Immune System Concerns
16 May 2020 — Sustainable Pulse Editorial By Henry Rowlands, Sustainable Pulse Director In a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is dominating the global psyche, it is of course important to delve deeper into the background reasons for the failure of our immune systems to be able to cope with the serious threat of infectious… Continue reading
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COVID-19 bulletin 23: will a ‘shock-resistant food system’ be adopted?
Since the coronavirus pandemic took over and some supermarket egg and flour shelves are still bare here – and in parts of America – there has been greater public awareness of the fragility of our food system. Continue reading
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‘Our Food System Is Very Much Modeled on Plantation Economics’
Janine Jackson interviewed the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Ricardo Salvador about the coronavirus food crisis for the May 8, 2020, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. Continue reading
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Book Review: Capitalist Pigs: Pigs, pork, and power in America
How pigs became commodities and key elements of the interlocked social, economic and political institutions of US capitalism. Continue reading
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Coronavirus shows we must change how we live or face self-destruction
EXCERPT: Indigenous societies… are based on worldviews where human needs are balanced with the needs of other life forms. This worldview inherently acknowledges the constraints of an ecosystem, the essence of sustainability. When the integrity of an ecosystem is guarded, the integrity and very existence of human communities are guarded as well. In a philosophical… Continue reading
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Covid-19 as symptom: Notes on the production of a virus
Understandably, these days we hear a lot about the symptoms of Covid-19 (dry cough, high fever, etc.). Conversely, there is much less discussion of the virus as a symptom. Let’s say then that to intervene on the symptoms of the virus it is necessary not only to have specific scientific knowledge, but also to put… Continue reading
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Dependency, Distress and No Durable Agronomic Benefits: The Story of Bt Cotton in India
In the early 2000s, genetically modified (GM) Bt insecticidal cotton was being heavily promoted in India on the basis that it would cut pesticide use dramatically, boost yields and contribute to the financial well-being of farmers. Private sector Bt cotton hybrids now cover over 90% of the area under cotton. Continue reading
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Capitalist agriculture and Covid-19: A deadly combination
A socialist biologist explains the tight links between new viruses, industrial food production, and the profitability of multinational corporations. Continue reading
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Dicamba litigation against Bayer, BASF poised to explode, lawyers say
Claims say weedkilling products developed by the former Monsanto and other chemical companies are destroying and contaminating crops, including organic Continue reading
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Global Breaking News on GMOs and Pesticides
6 March 2020 — Sustainable Pulse Editors’ picks Next Generation Effects from GMO Crops Are a Serious Risk for Ecosystems – New Study A new peer reviewed paper published in the international Environmental Sciences Europe journal has focused for the first time on the risk assessment of so-called next generation effects from GM Crops. The… Continue reading
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GM food issue on the rise again in UK
Judging from the high number of media articles drawing attention to the post-Brexit threat of the US’s GM foods invading British supermarket shelves, it’s clear that the GM food issue is far from dead in the UK. It appears that it was only “sleeping” due to the fact that EU labelling and risk assessment requirements… Continue reading
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Toxic Agriculture and the Gates Foundation
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was launched in 2000 and has $46.8 billion in assets (December 2018). It is the largest charitable foundation in the world and distributes more aid for global health than any government. One of the foundation’s stated goals is to globally enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty. Continue reading
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Extensive chemical safety fraud uncovered at German testing laboratory
The case of an animal rights activist who infiltrated an independent German chemical testing laboratory has triggered the discovery of an apparently extensive chemical testing fraud. Continue reading
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Toxic residues through the back door
Pesticide corporations and trade partners pressured EU to allow banned substances in imported crops Continue reading
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Apocalypse Now! Insects, Pesticide and a Public Health Crisis
In 2017, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver, and UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics, Baskut Tuncak, produced a report that called for a comprehensive new global treaty to regulate and phase out the use of dangerous pesticides in farming and move towards sustainable agricultural practices. Continue reading
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Bayer On The Edge As Jury Awards $265 M To US Peach Farmer Over Illegal Dicamba Drift
A jury on Saturday awarded US$ 250 million in punitive damages to a southeastern Missouri peach farmer who argued that weedkiller dicamba that had drifted onto his orchards from other farms had severely damaged his trees — an award that could bode well for over 140 other farmers suing the chemical’s makers – Bayer (Monsanto)… Continue reading
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BT Cotton: Cultivating Farmer Distress in India By Colin Todhunter
This month, India’s Supreme Court will hold a lengthy hearing on the commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) mustard, which would be the country’s first GM food crop. The court has asked the chair of the Technical Expert Committee to be present and says that the decision on GM mustard cannot be kept pending. The TEC… Continue reading
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Genetically Modified Seeds: Conceived as a Weapon
GM seeds and GM food carry great risks for all nations, so much so that for many reasons it is probably imperative these foods be banned outright. This subject is too large to be discussed here, but one aspect requires brief notice. If we were to ask about the origin of GM seeds, how the… Continue reading
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Global Breaking News on GMOs and Pesticides
14 February 2020 — Sustainable Pulse Editors’ picks Fraud in German Laboratory Casts Doubt on 2017 EU Re-Approval of Glyphosate Fraud in a German laboratory has cast additional doubts on the 2017 re-approval of glyphosate and on the entire EU pesticide safety evaluation procedure, Pesticide Action Network Europe reported on Tuesday. A new study has… Continue reading
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Catastrophe is upon us – the grim view from Southern Africa
The word catastrophe is being used more and more by institutions reporting on the effects of extreme weather in the two regions of Africa, Southern and South Eastern Africa, and of late Australia. The word means a number of things: tragic; fiasco; utter failure; sudden and violent change in a feature of the Earth. All… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 