·      The Story of Change: Why Citizens (Not Shoppers) Hold the Key to a Better World http://goo.gl/1zpxc

·      The disappearing middle: Mid-sized farms that once supported rural communities are fading away http://goo.gl/0akuJ

·      The Ecology of Disease http://nyti.ms/LRN8s6

Disease, it turns out, is largely an environmental issue.

Factory farming everyone…

·      Nature’s Pooper Scoopers: Dung Beetles http://goo.gl/3S2Vd

·      Raj Patel: Food Rebellions and Political Accountability http://bit.ly/LqfyrA

o   Generation Food Project: You can help feed the world http://goo.gl/TdsI1

Steve James and Raj Patel will tell stories of people fixing a broken food system today so that everyone can eat tomorrow.

·      Ethical living: it is right to give a dam? http://bit.ly/MzpEEq

Why aren’t we all protesting the Belo Monte dam?

·      Trashed, documentary with Jeremy Irons on the toxic effects of the endless worldwide buildup of our waste http://goo.gl/vhlhN

·      Lobster Prices Still at Record Lows, But Fishermen Resume Pulling TrapJuly Is Bs http://huff.to/NgeM1N

·      Alaska’s King Salmon Disappearance Leaves Local Wondering http://goo.gl/l9yuD

o   Proposed Alaska Mine Could Wreak Havoc on Bristol Bay Salmon http://goo.gl/f9n3V

·      Proposed Missouri Horse Slaughterhours Mired In Lawsuits, Fraud Claims http://goo.gl/X9rfa

·      Heat, drought and possible mitigation? (not really)

o   Midwest’s Tart Cherry Crop Destroyed By Weather http://huff.to/MaYlSA

o   Drought: Oklahoma, Arkansas Fear Repeat of 2011 with Brutally High Temperatures http://huff.to/LhRTK4

Hay bales ignite spontaneously in brutal heat wave…

o   US Drought Disaster Worst In Over 50 Years http://bit.ly/SCnB5k

Forecast: More Heat, More Drought

o   ‘The Dust Bowl of 2012’: Drought Covers Majority of US and ‘Might be a $50 Billion Event for the Economy’ http://bit.ly/LskaJ7

While it has been hotter than the 1930s in many places in this country, the drought hasn’t been quite as bad as the worst of the original Dust Bowl.

o   A Long Hot Summer (Bill McKibben) http://goo.gl/njD7l

Keystone, Fracking rally in DC, protests from NY to Montana…

o   Scientists Propose Dumping Hundreds of Tons of Iron Dust into Ocean to “Stop Global Warming” http://goo.gl/qiaLu

o   Ontario’s corn crop withers under drought http://goo.gl/pYlJO

·      NYT: Coca-Cola Selects 22 Inspiring Americans to Carry the Olympic Flame in the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay http://bit.ly/NrJyk2

·      Alaska Salmon: Governor Parnell Seeks Federal Disaster Aid For Weak Fish Runs http://huff.to/Q4XKFr

·      Debunking Myths About Food Stamps http://huff.to/xZEnHf

·      The Food Issue, Harvard Medical School, Center for Health and Global Environment July News Letter http://bit.ly/OMKKhu

·      Subway In Schools: Chain in Early Talks To Open In UK School http://huff.to/O98XQ9

·      Pacific Coast Fisheries in Dire Need of Protection http://goo.gl/R98GO

NGOs are implementing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Papua New Guinea to secure marine ecosystems and fisher folk’s livelihoods for the future.

·      A Coup Over Land: Monsanto, Dupont, and Cargill’s Resource War Behind Paraguay’s Crisis http://goo.gl/OBhMw

·      Food prices are at the mercy of global pressures that we struggle to control (the fight for fair milk prices for farmers in the UK) http://bit.ly/NKdBTY

Beyond the outcry about the cost of milk at home lies a deeper problem of international supply and demand

o   Morrisons (UK) follows Co-op in raising milk payments amid farmers’ protests http://bbc.in/O57AQC

o   Rising Food Prices and Social Unrest http://bit.ly/Mt6srV

Labor

·      Deporting the Hand That Feeds Us: How Anti-Immigrant Laws Are Causing a Farm Labor Shortage http://bit.ly/MkAD8r

If Americans won’t do the work, and the US successfully keeps undocumented immigrants out of the country, then who will do it?

Prison labor? Our new Jim Crow/Slave labor…

·      CIW: Florida tomato grower settles (sexual harassment) suit filed by EEOC http://goo.gl/pAK8o

Economics

·      Nationwide Insurance: Fracking Damage Won’t Be Covered http://huff.to/Nm7VCp

Government/Regulation/Policy/Farm Bill

·      It’s All About the Farm Bill

o   How Agribiz Bought the Farm Bill http://bit.ly/P8DlJF

o   Cultivating Influence: The 2008 Farm Bill Lobbying Frenzy http://bit.ly/OOtd8N

Special interests spent $173.5 million lobbying on 2008 Farm Bill..

o   How the House Farm Bill Guts Important Food Safety Protections http://bit.ly/Mzt0EM

·      EPA Tells Beekeepers to Buzz off Despite Chronic Bee Kills Linked to Pesticides http://goo.gl/XBgMV

… US EPA announced it formally refused to recognize that honey bees face an “imminent hazard” and denied a request by beekeepers to immediately suspend the use of pesticides that pose harm to pollinators…

o   EPA Withdraws Proposed Clean Water Act Regulation Requiring CAFOs to Manage Waste http://goo.gl/9oG7H

o   EPA Restricts Pesticide Linked to Learning Disabilities in Children http://goo.gl/SjfDg

·      NYT: FDA Engaged in Widespread Spying on Whistleblowers http://bit.ly/NVF6vW

·      Food Safety Modernization Act Still Awaiting Obama’s Approval http://huff.to/MGXbdo

·      Illegal? Seriously? (Quebec Canada) http://bit.ly/P34HAQ

·      India: Review Bt Cotton, orders state govt http://bit.ly/LyoB57

GMOs/Cloning/Nanotechnology/Poisons

·      USDA Draft Guidance for Nanotechnology http://1.usa.gov/HY9YZw

Please comment through IATP http://bit.ly/OJUMPr

·      USDA Prepares to Green-Light Gnarliest GMO Soy Yet http://bit.ly/OhrBXy

·      Vandana Shiva on the Problem with Genetically – Modified Seeds http://bit.ly/PWD96n

·      Watsonville (California) Teachers and Students Take on Methyl Iodide Pesticide http://bit.ly/NmQzX4

·      Boulder lawyer wins case for farmers with leukemia http://bit.ly/McHigX

·      That Fresh Look, Genetically Buffed http://nyti.ms/OCAdW3

·      Gates Foundation Pours $10 Million Into Genetically Modified Crops http://bit.ly/OuLmqU

Vandana Shiva: Bill Gates “so totally wrong on this assumption the genetically modified seeds produce more.”

·      Briefs Filed to Stop Monsanto’s Patent Infringement War Against Family Farmers http://bit.ly/MwR6qb

“Monsanto continues to claim that plaintiffs’ concerns about being accused of patent infringement after being accused of patent infringement after being contaminated by Monsanto’s transgenic seed are unsubstantiated and unjustified.”

·      Doctors and Scientists Present Gov. Cuomo with Fracking Digest http://goo.gl/NrnfX

·      DuPont Hid Failure of Soybeans for Years, Monsanto Says http://bloom.bg/PNiLnZ

Healthy/Humane/Safe Food & Water?

·      Humane Society to Sue 51 Pork Plants Over Ammonia Emissions http://huff.to/LjCYdt

·      Peter Brabeck, Nestle Chairman, Eyes Looming World Water Crisis http://huff.to/LSYBaP

·      Canada’s Tar Sands, a Dante’s Hell Threatens People Nearby and Across the Globe http://huff.to/OetUqv

·      Minnesota Amish vs. Fracking http://bit.ly/NmBFPw

·      Will Congress Let Monsanto Write It’s Own Rules? http://huff.to/Ns2mSl

o   Stop the Monsanto Rider http://bit.ly/SCh22w

·      FDA to Ban BPA from Baby Bottles; Plan Falls Short of Needed Protections: Scientists http://bit.ly/MisfV7

·      Walmart, Chritensen Farms’ Alleged Abuse of Pigs Caught on Undercover Video http://goo.gl/UQUVg

Education

·      Poultry Workshops (homesteading and commercial production) August 14 (Orleans, CA) & 15 (Carlotta, CA), University of California Cooperative Extension Humboldt – Del Norte Counties http://goo.gl/NoikI

Events

·      4^th Annual Florida Small Farm & Alternative Enterprise Conference Conference: July 27-29, Kissimmee, Florida http://bit.ly/NwAuu0

·      Seeds & Weeds: Thrown Down for the Town, July 28, Oakland, California http://goo.gl/xdgmQ

Victory Garden Foundation sponsors and manages a community garden in Oakland at the Telegraph Community Center (http://www.telegraphcenter.com/)providing fresh organic produce twice a week to center’s clients of the food pantry.

On Saturday, 7/28; VGF is sponsoring a big garden work day at the People’s Victory Garden at the Telegraph Center. We’re preparing the garden to step up the crop production.

I invite you to join us! Attached is an event poster. Let me know that you will attend and please pass the word along to your network.

I look forward to seeing you soon!

Other

·      The National Academies, free download: Meeting Critical Laboratory Needs for Animal Agriculture: Examination of Three Options http://bit.ly/Nz2uyO

NEWS RELEASE 
Date: July 4, 2012
To Small Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers
in Rural Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan

(IMMEDIATE RESPONSE NEEDED)

Pembroke Farming Family (PFF) is calling on rural disadvantaged farmers and ranchers (producers) to participate in a technical assistance project designed to help participants write their own farm plan and business plan.  This year long project is to be funded by the “USDA Small , Socially-Disadvantaged  Producer Grant (SSDPG)”.  PFF is a farmer Cooperative comprising of small-scale producers that are resident based in Pembroke Township of Kankakee County. Our mission is “To empower farmers of Pembroke Township, Illinois to become more self-sufficient, natural growers and producers of crops, livestock and other agricultural products for ourselves, families and greater communities; fortify our member body as sustainable, economically viable farm entrepreneurs; and strengthen Pembroke’s farming community and other stakeholders as we strive to build a community-based food system and become key components of the emerging local food systems developing across the state of Illinois”.
 
The project’s  goal is to assist 51 small and socially disadvantaged producers. Qualified producers who are accepted to participate will receive individualized technical assistance which will result in creation of a farm plan, a business plan and a recording keeping system.  The Technical Assistance will also include an analysis of current farm operations and financials, and future farm goals as they pertain to the rising local foods market, Ag Tourism and estate planning.

For more information please call Kamal K Rashid, Project Director (815 549-7332) or emailkamalrashid19@gmail.com

·      Join the Official California Right to Know Label GMOs.org Blogger Team! http://goo.gl/1jGqs