Food Rights Network

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Consumer Pressure Spurs Campbell's to Announce Phase-Out of BPA

by Rebekah Wilce — March 7, 2012 - 8:35am
  • Topics: Children, Corporations, Food Rights Network, Health

    • Succumbing to public pressure to eliminate the use of bisphenol A (BPA) (a suspected endocrine disruptor) found in baby bottles, plastic bottles and in the lining of food containers, Campbell's announced at a February shareholder meeting that it will begin to phase out the use of BPA in its soup can linings.

    Op-Ed

    More Free Sludge! Calabasas, California Offers Free Sewage Sludge "Compost"

    by Rebekah Wilce — March 6, 2012 - 7:47am
  • Topics: Sludge, Food Rights Network

    • Good news! The sewage treatment plant in Calabasas, California has been giving away free sludge! Free sludge, you say? That potent stew of human and industrial sewage sludge laced with flame retardants, endocrine disruptors, pharmaceutical residues, phthalates, industrial solvents, resistant pathogens, and perfluorinated compounds? "Composted" sludge, which can bioaccumulate in plants grown in sludge-contaminated soil? Oh, goodie.

    News

    Activists Rally Around Wisconsin Dairy Farmer Facing Criminal Charges

    by Rebekah Wilce — March 5, 2012 - 9:50am
  • Topics: Agriculture, Activism, Raw Milk, Food Rights Network

    • As snow started to fall, a Mennonite dairy farmer arrived at the courthouse in Baraboo, Wisconsin, on March 2 for a hearing on four charges against him related to the production and distribution of milk and other foods. Vernon Hershberger operates Grazin' Acres Farm, a small family dairy farm in Loganville, and is part of a private food club that leases his cows and receives distributions of raw milk and other foods via what he calls a members-only "food pantry" on the farm.

    News

    Rampant GMO Contamination Unchecked by Judge

    by Rebekah Wilce — March 5, 2012 - 7:00am
  • Topics: Food Safety, Genetic Engineering, Corporations, Food Rights Network

    • A judge in New York sided with Monsanto and against organic farmers in the first case of its kind seeking to protect famers from being accused of patent infringement upon unintentional contamination by Monsanto's GMO seed.

    Organic farmers sought a judgment against Monsanto to protect themselves from being sued for patent infringement when their crops are unintentionally contaminated with the company's genetically modified (GMO) seed, was dismissed in federal district court in New York by Judge Naomi Buchwald called the plaintiffs' concern an "intangible worry, unanchored in time."

    News

    Sewage Sludge Rash? Texas Musical Fest-Goers Blame "Dillo Dirt"

    by Sara Jerving — March 2, 2012 - 8:00am
  • Topics: Sludge, Food Rights Network

    • Nine months before tens of thousands flocked to a popular music festival in Austin, Texas, the concert park grounds were spread with sewage sludge. It was autumn of 2009, and sewage sludge was used as a "fertilizer" to make the grass -- parched from prior dry seasons -- green. But it rained the weekend of the festival, turning the grounds into a huge mud pit, with a stench that one concert-goer described as the smell of "pig manure," with the consistency of pudding.

    Following the event, several attendees reported rashes and other maladies that they believe were contracted from coming in contact with the churned up human and industrial waste. The local media was abuzz with stories of the festival's epidemiological aftermath.

    News

    Spinning Suspect Ingredients in Baby Formula

    by Rebekah Wilce — February 22, 2012 - 7:30am
  • Topics: Food Safety, Children, Food Rights Network, Public Relations

    • "That same day that I gave her the first bottle [of formula], she had terrible diarrhea, she had horrible spit-up, she had gas, she was crying with pain. ... [Then] our pharmacy accidentally ordered [formula] without DHA/ARA. She had it for four days and her symptoms improved almost overnight."

    Isabel Salas reported to the non-profit Cornucopia Institute (Cornucopia) the difficulties she faced when her infant daughter reacted badly to a set of additives present in most baby formulas: DHA and ARA oils. Containers of formula containing these additives say things like, "Our formula is proven in clinical studies to enhance mental development" and "as close as ever to breast milk."

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