What the USEPA does not want to know about PIPS

Submitted by Zebra Mussel on Mon, 10/16/2006 - 20:47.

Once again the 'agency' makes a move towards increasing the likelyhood of exposure to frankenfoods.  Check it:

On Oct. 11 in the Federal Register notice (71 Fed. Reg. 59,697) the  USEPA has issued a draft rule that exempts some plant incorporated protectants from the EPA's regulatory requirments for pesticides.

 What is a 'plant incorporated protectant' or PIP you might ask?  Well the types of PIPs exempted from the recent draft regulations are known as viral coat protein genes.  These PIPS are made by genetically tweaking plants to repel pests.  This results in plants that can produce bacteria, etc that act as an insecticide, essentially turning the plants surface into a designer insect repellant factory, engineered deep in some underground lab probably.   

'These protectants are created by inserting plant material with genertic material derived from a plant virus, which encodes the new protein with resistance to the virus from which it was derived'.   Doesnt that sound extra tasty on your Mc D - L FrankenSalad?

Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) the EPA has to let the US Dpt of Ag know of the proposed exemption.  Can you guess who has them in their pocket?  Certainly not the same people who have the USEPA in their pocket..... right?

How will we know which foods have these and which dont?  We wont.  Not with our current food labeling laws.   Hmmm. why are our food labeling laws so different from the euro's?     Not sure?   Guess who's funding the lobbying firms pushing for zero labeling?    Give up?  

Until next time, enjoy your unlabeled, potentially GMO containing sugar bombs!

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Better approaches to food

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 10/17/2006 - 01:42.

A few observations from north of the border. When I went to the grocery store all the produce is labeled for what country and in some cases what provence the food comes from. How that is of value came out when I was buying apples and grabbed one and realized it was from China, which means it had traveled 1,000s of miles and was probably picked weeks before, when in the next bin there were apples from Ontario, which probably were just days off the tree (and much more eco-friendly). We should label food like this in America. Second, last trip to Toronto I bought local fruit at one of the 1,000s of streetfront fruit stands - Ontario grapes and peaches - and they were the best fruit I can recall - fresh local food from a caring local vendor is so much better than the generic stuff... we need more of the local-grown philosophy here Third, my favorite coffee house in Toronto, the Linux Caffe - has the following food policy: "Our suppliers must carry local product, offer good value, and be within walking distance. By visiting them often, we can offer fresher goods and by taking the little wagon, we can do it without a vehicle." Only Talkies could even attempt this, as they are just a block from the West Side Market... but this is the world we should live in. What you describe in this article is the opposite, and unacceptable to me. The more America becomes chemical-tainted, the less willing I am to spend time here. If NEO can break away from this unhealthy model, that will be a competitive advantage for the region... there are places in America that understand that, and we should too.

Disrupt IT

The food chain vs. the chain restaurants

Submitted by Evelyn Kiefer on Tue, 10/17/2006 - 11:18.

If only more people would start thinking about how we are affecting the food chain.

I am curious, what is the primary use of these PIPs?

Are they designed to cater to people who would nt dare eat a peach with a worm hole in it? People who would load their home with toxic chemicals rather than share it with a spider or two?