Biodynamic treechange (homesteading)

Pay the farmer now or the doctor later - you choose.

This excellent short piece encapsulates exactly what we are doing at Near River Produce - no factory feed lot industrialised farming for us, more pasture raised free range petro-chemical free nutrient dense foods.

Into the bargin, the video has Willie Nelson's version of Coldplay's 'The Scientist'.

Enjoy.

 

Do you want fries with that?

For those of you who visit McDonalds for more than coffee, you might want to think about your 'food' choice again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name this McDonalds menu item.

 

 

Soft serve ice cream, right?

 

 

No.

 

 

It’s Pre-Chicken Nugget Meat Paste

AKA Mechanically Separated Poultry or Mechanically Separated Chicken

The photo above has been extensively passed around recently, and for good reason: it's a peek into the rarely-seen world of mechanically separated meat, or Advanced Meat Recovery (AMR).

Fooducate writes:
Some American figured out in the 1960s that meat processors can eek out a few more percent of profit from chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows by scraping the bones 100% clean of meat. This is done by machines, not humans, by passing bones leftover after the initial cutting through a high pressure sieve. The paste you see in the picture above is the result. There's more: because it's crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavoured artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial colour.

But, hey, at least it tastes good, right?

The resulting paste goes on to become the main ingredient in many of Australia's favourite mass-produced and processed meat-like foods and snacks: bologna, hot dogs, salami, pepperoni, meat jerky, and of course the ever-polarizing chicken nugget, where the paste from the photo above was likely destined.


That late night/early morning feed at Macca’s doesn’t look so good now does it!

Say NO to GMO 20.01.11

I can stay quiet no longer.

Two really important matters have come to light recently that warrant your attention.

The first is an application by Monsanto to FSANZ (Food Safety Australia New Zealand) to amend the Food Standard to permit the sale and use of food derived from soybean line MON87769. This is a new variety of soybean that is genetically modified (GM) to produce stearidonic acid (SDA), an omega-3 fatty acid, in the seeds of the plant.

FSANZ is calling for comments which close on Jan 25th.

The spin is that it is high in Omega 3. The best sources of Omega 3 is from grass fed meat, organic flax, organic Near River eggs, purslane and fish. In other words real food produced with care and respect.

To see the submission and lodge a comment, go here soon!

The second issue involves an organic farmer in WA who has had his crop 'polluted' by a neighbouring farmer growing GM canola. The organic farmer, David Kibble, has lost his certification and his crop. As you might expect this is turning into a debacle with WA farmers wanting their Minister for Agriculture to resign, legislation to protect non-GM farmers, and a full audit of GM farms and their neighbours. Behind all this are the deep pockets of Monsanto. To hear an interview with David and the Food Fight team from radio 3CR, click here

You can expect to see a continuing flurry of these types of posts - after all, earlier this month Monsanto was voted Most Evil Corporation of the Year by 51% of respondents to an online poll.

Guess the other 49% don't care about what they eat!

Just like letting kids into a lolly shop

I'm a pretty optimistic kind of guy - heavens knows with Mother Nature as the majority shareholder in your enterprise you need to be.

But this article from The Guardian in the UK has left me gobsmacked. Surely they can't be serious - this is some sort of joke, right?

Read on and see what you think - I find it unbelievable.

If this is how the Governments of the 'developed' world are going to deal with the health issues that we as a race are facing, then we might as well give up now.

McDonald's and PepsiCo to help write UK health policy

Exclusive: Department of Health putting fast food companies at heart of policy on obesity, alcohol and diet-related disease

McDonald's and other food companies will help write policy on obesity and diet-related diseases. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

The Department of Health is putting the fast food companies McDonald's and KFC and processed food and drink manufacturers such as PepsiCo, Kellogg's, Unilever, Mars and Diageo at the heart of writing government policy on obesity, alcohol and diet-related disease, the Guardian has learned.

In an overhaul of public health, said by campaign groups to be the equivalent of handing smoking policy over to the tobacco industry, health secretary Andrew Lansley has set up five "responsibility deal" networks with business, co-chaired by ministers, to come up with policies. Some of these are expected to be used in the public health white paper due in the next month.

The groups are dominated by food and alcohol industry members, who have been invited to suggest measures to tackle public health crises. Working alongside them are public interest health and consumer groups including Which?, Cancer Research UK and the Faculty of Public Health. The alcohol responsibility deal network is chaired by the head of the lobby group the Wine and Spirit Trade Association. The food network to tackle diet and health problems includes processed food manufacturers, fast food companies, and Compass, the catering company famously pilloried by Jamie Oliver for its school menus of turkey twizzlers. The food deal's sub-group on calories is chaired by PepsiCo, owner of Walkers crisps.

The leading supermarkets are an equally strong presence, while the responsibility deal's physical activity group is chaired by the Fitness Industry Association, which is the lobby group for private gyms and personal trainers.

In early meetings, these commercial partners have been invited to draft priorities and identify barriers, such as EU legislation, that they would like removed. They have been assured by Lansley that he wants to explore voluntary not regulatory approaches, and to support them in removing obstacles. Using the pricing of food or alcohol to change consumption has been ruled out. One group was told that the health department did not want to lead, but rather hear from its members what should be done.

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, the leading liver specialist and until recently president of the Royal College of Physicians, said he was very concerned by the emphasis on voluntary partnerships with industry. A member of the alcohol responsibility deal network, Gilmore said he had decided to co-operate, but he doubted whether there could be "a meaningful convergence between the interests of industry and public health since the priority of the drinks industry was to make money for shareholders while public health demanded a cut in consumption".

He said: "On alcohol there is undoubtedly a need for regulation on price, availability and marketing and there is a risk that discussions will be deflected away from regulation that is likely to be effective but would affect sales. On food labelling we have listened too much to the supermarkets rather than going for traffic lights [warnings] which health experts recommend." Employers are being asked to take on more responsibility for employees in a fourth health at work deal. The fifth network is charged with changing behaviour, and is chaired by the National Heart Forum. This group is likely to be working with the new Cabinet Office behavioural insight unit, which is exploring ways of making people change their behaviour without new laws.

Lansley's public health reforms are seen as a test case for wider Conservative policies on replacing state intervention with private and corporate action.

While public interest groups are taking part in drawing up the deals, many have argued that robust regulation is needed to deal with junk food and alcohol misuse.

The Faculty of Public Health, represented on several of the deal networks, has called for a ban on trans fats and minimum alcohol pricing. Professor Lindsey Davies, FPH president, said: "We are hopeful that engaging with the food industry will lead to changes in the quality and healthiness of the products we and our children eat.  It is possible to make progress on issues such as salt reduction through voluntary agreements, and we're keeping an open mind until we see what comes out of the meetings, but we do think that there is still a role for regulation."

Responding to criticism that industry was too prominent in the plans, the Department of Health said: "We are constantly in touch with expert bodies, including those in the public health field, to help inform all our work. For the forthcoming public health white paper we've engaged a wide range of people, as we are also doing to help us develop the responsibility deal drawn from business, the voluntary sector, other non-governmental organisations, local government, as well as public health bodies. A diverse range of experts are also involved."

He added that the government wanted to improve public health through voluntary agreements with business and other partners, rather than through regulation or top-down lectures because it believed this approach would be far more effective and ambitious than previous efforts.

An over-arching board, chaired by Lansley, has been set up to oversee the work of the five responsibility deal networks, with representatives of local government and a regional health director – but it too is dominated by the food, alcohol, advertising and retail industries. Gilmore called for a better balance of commercial interests and independent experts on it.

Other experts have also expressed concern at Lansley's approach. Professor Tim Lang, a member of the government's advisory committee on obesity, doubted the food and drink industry's ability to regulate itself. "In public health, the track record of industry has not been good. Obesity is a systemic problem, and industry is locked into thinking of its own narrow interests," said Lang.

"I am deeply troubled to be sent signals from the secretary of state about working 'with business' and that any action has got to be soft 'nudge' action."

Jeanette Longfield, head of the food campaign group Sustain, said: "This is the equivalent of putting the tobacco industry in charge of smoke-free spaces. We know this 'let's all get round the table approach' doesn't work, because we've all tried it before, including the last Conservative government. This isn't 'big society', it's big business."

• guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Rapping the virtues of organic food

Is this how to market organic produce?

Do you think it's fabulous or worrying? I can't decide.

 

What I do know though is that Yeo Valley have hit the mark so much better than this lame attempt by Woolworths.

 

But then what can you expect from a company that believes it's claim to sell fresh food is accurate.

Say 'NO' to GMO today

This came through from GM Watch earlier today. It's pretty important and easy to act on.

The Economist has a GM debate sponsored by BASF: "This house believes that biotechnology and sustainable agriculture are complementary, not contradictory." 

We're currently losing and the debate rounds up in the next 48 hours. 

Please vote now a nd vote NO - and tell everyone you know to do the same.

The following is from Phil Chandler.

Please - show the GM industry what you think of them with just one click - no signup, name or email needed - just go here - http://tinyurl.com/3yk4xj6 and vote AGAINST the motion.

I suspect this has been worded in an attempt to ask a 'soft' question, which sounds harmless, so that people will be fooled into agreeing with it. But the fact is that GM and sustainable agriculture are NOT compatible, or complementary, as the very presence of GM in an open space means that organic and other non-GM crops will inevitably be contaminated. This is happening wherever GM crops are grown, and is well-documented. American farmers who were sold on GM ten years ago are now turning against it - listen to my podcast at http://biobees.libsyn.com for evidence of this.

Don't be fooled by industry propaganda: GM crops are TOTALLY INCOMPATIBLE with sustainable agriculture.

This is not a definitive survey, but it is run by The Economist and will be used by the media as 'evidence' one way or the other.

So please, if you care about keeping our food and our bees GM-free - VOTE AGAINST THIS MOTION - http://tinyurl.com/3yk4xj6 - they don't need your name or email address, and it only takes a second.

Thanks. Phil Chandler www.biobees.com 

How to fix our food system

Every now and then, something comes along that brings a smile to your face, adds a glint to your eye, and a spring in your step for the rest of the day.

That’s what happened to me when I watched Birke Baehr on TEDx Next Generation recently.

This 11 year old has a real plan for sorting out the ills of our complex industrial food system, and deals with pesticides and GMO’s into the bargain.

And all in a little over 5 minutes.

Check it out.

With people like this guy around, the future might just be in good hands.

Oh and I can relate to Birke – I was 12 when I declared to my assembled family that I was going to be a farmer when I grew up!

Monsanto's Greatest Hits

The greater part of the 20th century was about industrial and chemical innovations, and as a leader (?) in various fields, Monsanto was there.

 

Having spent the entire 20th century in pursuit of profit through science, here's a chronology of MONSANTO's pursuits over their first 100 years; from Saccharin to aspirin, from Agent Orange to Round Up.

 

1901--Founder John Francis Queeny names Monsanto Chemical Works after his wife, Olga Mendez Monsanto. 

1902--The company manufactures its first product, Saccharin. The U.S. government later files suit over the safety of Saccharin, but loses.

1917--Monsanto starts producing aspirin.

1929--Monsanto acquires Rubber Services Laboratories

1935--Monsanto goes into the soap and detergents industry, starts producing phosphorus.

1938--The company goes into the plastic business.

Have you heard? - The Near River CSA is having a one-off, mid-season intake. You'll need to be quick.

That’s right, as the headline says, we’re having a one-off, mid-season intake. So you’ll need to leap at this opportunity. Read on for details.

We supply boxes of chemical-free, wholesome and nutritious vegetables each week to families in the Hastings Valley here on the Mid North Coast, and to families in Sydney, four and a half hours down the highway. This will continue through to the end of this year’s season in late June 2009, before the next season starts in September.

The produce is grown by us here on our 22 acre property, ‘Near River’, and by joining our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) venture, you’ll have a direct connection with who is growing your food, where it’s being grown, and how it’s being grown. And for some of us in this day of global food and beverage conglomerates, supply chains and over processed foodstuffs, this is very important.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is very popular in Japan, where it started in the mid-70’s, in Europe, and in America, where it continues to grow apace with over 2,000 CSA’s listed on various directories.For more information about US based CSA’s and the concept, Local Harvest is packed with details and links.

Here in Australia, CSA’s are yet to bloom, but we think their time has come, and we are looking to lead the way.

You can join our CSA, Near River Produce, by downloading and filling out either the Sydney brochure for people in Sydney’s northern, eastern and inner western suburbs, or the Hastings Valley brochure for people in the Port Macquarie and Wauchope region.

Further information can be found on this site by viewing earlier posts here, here and here, and by visiting the Near River Produce page. Readers from other Australian states who are interested in contacting CSA’s in their local area, can email us at andrew@nearriverproduce.com and we’ll forward you contacts that exist in each state.

And remember, you are what you eat! (Do you want pesticides with that?).

A Truly Most Unusual Panel Pairing

Back in September this year, at a suitable conference, the boffins at Google somehow convinced what I consider to be two of the food industries leading opponents to both join a panel to discuss ‘Creating a World That Can Feed Itself’.

One of these people was Hugh Grant, Chairman, President and CEO of Monsanto, and you can imagine the angle he took in the discussion.

The other participant was Mike Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism, UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and author of ‘In Defence of Food’ and ‘The Omnivores Dilemma’.

I’ve written about Pollan before, and am a keen supporter of most if not all of his ideals. And I’ve written about Monsanto before, and am a keen opponent of most if not all of it’s ideals.

The discussion is most enlivening and interesting. Click below to view the battle!