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  • What if You Woke Up Tomorrow and Cinnabon Was Vegan?

    I’ve never eaten at (or a) Cinnabon. I’ve smelled the cloying aroma wafting through shopping malls inappropriately mixing with department store perfumes and greasy Sbarro pizza. It offends me not just as a vegan who can’t eat anything at a Cinnabon, but also as a human being who prides myself on my ability to not face dive into gobs of white flour and sugar in the name of something resembling a breakfast food. We need Cinnabons on earth about as much as we need the shopping malls they live in. More

  • USDA Recommends Deregulation of 2,4-D Resistant GMO Crops: What’s the Big Deal?

    Last week the USDA released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement on newly developed 2,4-D resistant genetically modified corn and soybean traits. As the internet exploded with pro-biotech advocacy celebrating the move towards deregulation of yet another GMO product line, I couldn’t help noticing the number of straw men participating in the debate! Just so the ‘no thank you’ side of the unfolding 2,4-D debacle is fairly represented, here’s why some sustainability enthusiasts don’t consider this potential ‘alternative’ even a little tiny bit preferred. More

  • Watch and Share: Genetic Scientist’s TED Talk Indicts GMO Agriculture

    Dr. Thierry Vrain spent most of his working life advocating for biotechnology companies, as a soil biologist and genetic engineering enthusiast. In his recent TED talk Vrain systematically unravels the biotech spin, from the perspective of a scientist who can no longer ignore a growing body of evidence that GMOs cause problems. No matter how desperately chemical companies seek to paint critics as anti-science, reality rears its evidence-based head: considering everything we’ve learned since 1996, genetically engineered food crops deserve our best and most enthusiastic skepticism. More

  • Top 10 Most Common GMO Foods

    Genetically modified food is already present in the supermarkets. We don’t always know which foods are GMO and which are non-GMO. Besides looking for label, here are 10 foods that are commonly GMO.
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  • Bel Brands USA Responds To Red Wax Wrapper Question

    A few weeks ago I posted about Mini Baby Bel’s red wax wrapper and how the company could not confirm that the red dye doesn’t leach into the cheese it contains. Here is the response I received. Dear Miss Kaplan, Thank you for contacting us. Our wax is composed of fully refined paraffin wax, micro-crystalline […] More

  • 5 Things You Absolutely Need To Know About GMOs

    What’s all the fuss about? Even if you’re out of the loop on the GMO debate, here are five things you want to know about GMOs and the food supply. 1. GMOs are hidden in many foods. It turns out that genetic engineering is used in the production of countless products. For example, additives made from GM […] More

  • Laughing Cow Mini Babybel Red Covers May Leach Dye

    According to a recent email from the Feingold Association of the United States,  Laughing Cow Mini Babybel Mild Cheddar suggests that Laughing Cow “was unable to be sure if the dye in the red plastic cover will leach out into the cheese.” You know which red plastic (I thought it was wax!) covers we are talking […] More

  • Agroecological Farming vs. Organic Farming: What’s the difference?

    One of Becky’s recent posts raised the question of what separates agroecological farming from organic farming. Although agroecological farming shares some of the same principals as organic farming, agroecology is not associated with a particular type of agriculture. Conventional and organic farms alike can take an agroecological approach to managing farmland. What Is Agroecology? Agroecology […] More

  • Is RoundUp Killing the Soil?

    There is still a great debate on whether or not Monsanto’s genetically modified crops and heavily used pesticides are safe. But has it already been proven that the company is severely damaging our soils? Monsanto is an $11.8 billion/year industrial agriculture behemoth. Aside from numerous environmental and health concerns regarding its pesticides, genetically modified seeds […] More

  • Where Have All The Nasty Pesticides Gone?

    [social_buttons] (apologies to Pete Seeger for the song title reference) The graph above shows how over the last 15 years, the use of 23 old pesticides has declined more than 97% in California.  These are all pesticides that have the specific, neurotoxic mode of action called “Choline Esterase Inhibition.”  They are “organophosphate” or “carbamate” insecticides – […] More

  • Why Pesticides Are Actually Important for Agricultural Sustainability

    [social_buttons] I know that some readers will find my title surprising or offensive, but I hope you will read on.  I’m writing this because I’m involved in a “broad stakeholder process” that is trying to define “scientifically sound metrics” to measure the sustainability of specialty agriculture (fruit and vegetable crops…).  Its a very ambitious effort […] More