The advantages of organic farming and more in this week's update.  Catch up with what's going on with this compilation of news stories:

·      Vast Mexico Bribery Case Hushed Up by Wal-Mart After top-Level Struggle http://nyti.ms/I28Ods

Confronted with evidence of widespread corruption in Mexico, top Wal-Mart executives focused more on damage control than on rooting out wrongdoing, an examination by The New York Times found.

o   Walmart’s Criminal Problems – Much Bigger Than NewsCorp’s http://huff.to/I9FEJz

o   Walmart To Be Investigated By Congress Over Mexican Bribery Scandal http://huff.to/IuI6f8

·      Wendell Berry: Finding Patience in an Era of Emergency http://bit.ly/IpE5tt

o   Wendell Berry : This old farmer is still full of piss and vinegar http://bit.ly/IfknCv

·      Where No City Has Gone Before: San Francisco Will Be World’s First Zero-Waste Town by 2020 http://bit.ly/I3hJQB

A future without landfills? SF is already 78% of the way there – but the hardest part is still ahead.

·      Poverty In America: Defining The New Poor http://n.pr/JjElJ0

Cutting food stamps even further…

·      Food security: Why hunger is a farm issue http://bit.ly/HY4aiH

·      Food security: Why hunger is a farm issue http://bit.ly/HY4aiH

A nation that cannot feed itself is a nation that is inherently food insecure. Welcome to Canada, 21^st Century.

·      Sex, Oil, and Videotape http://bit.ly/JoFwKS

Tar sand oil spill (1 million gal.) in the Kalamazoo River oil spill cover up

·      Herding Goats In The City http://huff.to/IahG4o

·      US Asparagus Industry, Crushed By Imports, Sees Signs for Strong Year http://huff.to/IqeJfN

The war on drugs and NAFTA have taken their toll on US asparagus farmers…

·      Climate Change Raising Corn Prices Pushing Up Costs of Other Foods http://huff.to/ImZPGw

·      Tanya Fields: Breaking locks and planting seeds in the South Bronx http://bit.ly/Jmh2kg

·      Nestle Targets Developing Nations for Bottled Water, Infant Formula Sales  http://bit.ly/IcJg0V  and Nestle’s New Deal More Proof of Profits Trumping Public Policy http://bit.ly/IBS9PR

Nestle is at it again, this harkens back to the 1970’s Nestle boycott over infant mortality in the developing world due to their formula … further information here http://bit.ly/15JrkZ

·      Groups to World Bank: Stop the Land Grabs! http://bit.ly/IC1ZkK

Groups, farmers mobilize at Bank’s annual conference, say: “The World Bank’s RAI principles are an attempt to legitimize corporate land grabs and the expansion of an industrial model of agriculture that is destroying people’s livelihoods and the planet”

·      Organic industry valued at $31.5 million (it is actually $31.5 billion) http://exm.nr/IbJ6cf

·      DuPont opens new $40m R&D facility in Iowa http://bit.ly/IF5w1A

DuPont has opened $40m, 200,000 sq ft plant genetics research facility in Johnston, Iowa, to focus on plant breeding and research and development of new transgenic products, the company has said.

·      Can Organic Food Feed the World? New Study Sheds Light on Debate Over Organic Vs. Conventional Agriculture http://bit.ly/IhQ1PP

Here we go again…

·      Infographic: Who owns what in the food industry? http://bit.ly/IhcLiU

·      Infographic: 10 Companies Control Enormous Number of Consumer Brands http://huff.to/Ihm6IG

·      Crop prices up. Profits unchanged for farmers http://bit.ly/J19C3v

·      It’s Official: China now eats twice the meat we do http://bit.ly/IwGEXl

·      Natural Fibers: Benefitting the Environment and Improving Food Security One Organism at a Time http://bit.ly/IyrDb5

Labor

·      Federal Judge Finds Jimmy John’s Guilty of Illegally Firing Whistleblowers in Sick Day Campaign http://bit.ly/IaBj90

A federal judge has ordered Jimmy John's to reinstate six workers fired by franchise owners for blowing the whistle on company policies that expose customers to sandwiches made by sick workers. Jimmy John's workers can be written up or fired if they take a day off without finding a substitute when they are sick. A union survey revealed that this policy, in conjunction with minimum-wage workers' inability to afford to take a day off, result in an average of two workers making sandwiches while sick every day at the Minneapolis franchise of the chain…

This is the policy I always worked under in the restaurant industry since 1978…

·      Editorial: Make farms safer for children http://bit.ly/HZWCNV

·      Making tomato farming less brutal (on field workers) http://bit.ly/Ib0doS

Florida’s Fair Food Program…

·      Common Ground on the Kill Floor: Organizing Smithfield http://bit.ly/IlaFu1

… two slaughterhouse workers who helped organize the union at the Smithfield Foods plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina.

·      Lawmakers pushing to tie California minimum wage to consumer price index http://bit.ly/IeKp4z

·      New Rules Mean New Hardship for Poultry Workers http://bit.ly/IbLfUn

·      Justice for Food Workers http://bit.ly/ICj909

Food and farm workers are among the lowest paid and most highly exploited

workers all over the world. This includes the 20 million food workers in the

US and right here in our towns and neighborhoods.

Occupy & Anonymous

·      Occupy the Farm Activists Reclaim Prime Urban agriculture Land in SF Bay Area (Earth Day 4/22/12) http://bit.ly/Jiw8XU and ‘Whole Food, Not Whole Foods’: Renegade Farmers Reclaim Land on Earth Day http://bit.ly/K1H08U

o   Earth Day and Occupy make a Baby: Food Sovereignty http://bit.ly/K3TbC5

o   Occupy vs. Whole Foods? Activists Take Over Land Slated for Development and Start a Farm http://bit.ly/InpjDK

The Gill Tract is prime agricultural soil that activists hope can feed hundreds. But the UC Berkeley-owned land may be sod to Whole Foods.

o   Occupying the Farm: A Model of Resistance http://bit.ly/JiE2fq

o   ‘Occupy the Farm’ Protesters Plan Big Weekend in Albany, CA http://bit.ly/Ki4X0V

Government/Regulation/Farm Bill

·      FDA Report: Global Engagement http://1.usa.gov/IkRlQH

‘Global Engagement,’ new, in-depth report from the FDA, tells how the agency works to ensure that the imported foods, medical products, and other goods it regulates meet the same high standards for safety and quality set for products manufactured domestically.

·      Key FSMA Rules Continue to Languish at OMB, Months After Deadline http://bit.ly/I4pE0Z

·      Honey Debate: National Honey Board: Honey is Made from Nectar, Not Pollen http://bit.ly/I5enNP

·      California Rainwater Harvesting Code Draft (update) http://bit.ly/I5gWzw

·      April 4^th Day of Hunger http://bit.ly/IleUZ0

Food Not Bombs Criminalized For Feeding The Hungry Across the US

·      State (NC) Threatens to Shut Down Nutrition Blogger http://bit.ly/JzHM04

Nutrition board says he needs a license to advocate dietary approaches

o   NC Board of Dietetics/Nutrition: Case Closed, he is compliant: http://bit.ly/IcDehY

·      Sustainability in the Lexicon of the Farm Bill http://bit.ly/IKFaeo

·      Fat Farms (Farm Bill… ) http://wapo.st/IgaLaW

GMOs/Cloning/Nanotechnology/Poisons

·      Blamed for Bee Collapse, Monsanto Buys Leading Bee Research Firm http://bit.ly/HWaivr

If you can’t beat them, buy them…

·      Monsanto blocks research on GMO Safety http://bit.ly/H0wuga

·      GM foods not served in Monsanto cafeteria http://bit.ly/o3cvaI

… company spokesman Tony Coombes says the only reason for the GM-free foods is because the company "believes in choice."

This article is from 2000!

·      Silent Hives http://nyr.kr/JlHpnG

·      Nanotechnology In Food: FDA Proposes Rules for Monitoring Food Safety http://huff.to/K29MpN

·      Is Vermont’s Governor Surrendering to Monsanto? http://bit.ly/JP3gTn

Vermont’s governor has 2 weeks to stand with 90% of his constituents who favor labeling genetically engineered foods, or cave to Monsanto.

·      Angry Consumers Deluge Kashi with Concerns over GMO Subterfuge http://bit.ly/IHJThm

·      USDA Recieves Over 365,000 Public Comments Opposing Approval of 2,4-D-Resistant, GM Corn http://bit.ly/JYSVt4

Healthy/Humane/Safe Food & Water?

·      All red meat is bad for you, new study says http://lat.ms/wKCPXU

·      Minnesota Shows How to Cook for a Crowd http://bit.ly/IhJ4sQ

·      12 Processed Foods With More Than 25 Ingredients http://huff.to/JDdzNH and try this one http://huff.to/IBZ0sx

Grilled Tallegio sandwich with shaved apples and Fruity Pebbles, who would of thought?

·      Case of Mad Cow Disease Is Found in US http://nyti.ms/I9ql9o

·      ‘Mad Cow’ Finding Highlights Food Safety Gaps, Say Critics http://bit.ly/JGl5Ya

o   NPR: Mad Cow Case In Calif. Found In USDA Testing http://n.pr/If5FLZ

o   USDA Reveals More Details About latest ‘Mad Cow’ http://bit.ly/Ji572n

o   Pink Slime and Mad Cow Disease: Coming to a Burger Near You http://huff.to/KfXOd9

·      A macroepigenetic approach to identify factors responsible epidemic in the United States http://bit.ly/HBJiNb

Study links autism with industrial food, environment

·      Burger King becomes first national chain to pledge cage-free pork and eggs http://wapo.st/Iadjax

·      11 Minutes to Eat School Lunch!? http://bit.ly/IK9RAF

If you haven’t seen it, you probably don’t want to…

Events

·      People's Grocery Spring Plant Sale, Block Party and mural unveiling...
Sunday April 29^th, 12-4pm @ the California Hotel Garden
35th and Chestnut in West Oakland
more info at http://www.peoplesg rocery.org

We will have a large variety of red, orange, purple, black, and white
cherry tomatoes, standard tomatoes, peppers, eggplant suitable
for the Bay Area, greens,beans, herbs, and a breath taking variety of
edible perennial/permacult ure plants (Oca, Yacon, Walking Onions,
Tree Collards, Perennial Peppers-Rocoto, Perennial Buckwheat, Tree Tomato and more)

*Come celebrate the unveiling of the the Chestnut Green Corridor Project

  and the rebirth of the California Hotel with the residents and community

  organizers that made it all possible. People¹s Grocery celebrates our 3^rd

  anniversary at the Hotel with a plant sale, block party, and ceremony.

·      California GMO Right to Know Victory Rallies: Join us May 2 to Celebrate

San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego http://bit.ly/Kgb2Gy

·      Good Jobs, Green Jobs Midwest Conference 2012, Detroit May 10-11 http://bit.ly/4SNhQp

·      Rudd Center Seminar: Culinary Intelligence: The Art of Eating Healthy (and Really Well) Friday, May 11, 2012, 12:30pm – 2:00pm http://bit.ly/J4ZWTx

·      National Food Policy Conference, Washington DC, May 17 – 18, 2012 http://bit.ly/yvz8HY

·      Justice Begins With Seeds Conference, May 18-19, San Francisco http://biosafetyalliance.org/  keynote speaker Winona LaDuke

Justice Begins with Seeds, International Conference May 18 – 19 2012 Food Sovereignty Week May 14 – 20, San Francisco, California

Biosafety Alliance is pleased to announce the 2012 Justice Begins with Seeds International Conference.