Following widely circulated anecdotal reports of people claiming that Tractor Supply’s “Producer’s Pride” brand of chicken feed was causing their chickens to stop laying eggs, we purchased six chicken feed products (of various brands) from Tractor Supply for the purpose of conducting comprehensive lab testing. Continue reading
Source for Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlYClniDFkM&t=4s Continue reading
A recently released report that took four decades to complete has shown that organic farming produced 40 percent more yields during stressful drought periods compared to conventional farming. Continue reading
The devastation of Hurricane Ian has implications far beyond Florida itself. One of the largest fertilizer companies in the world, Mosaic, is located right in the devastation path of Ian, which lingered for over 12 hours in Central Florida, dropping actual feet of rain in some areas, causing widespread flooding and infrastructure damage. That, combined with the sustained hurricane-force winds, ripped some communities to shreds and left almost no structure standing in certain areas. Continue reading
We’ve just released a bombshell new mini-documentary that reveals the globalist war on the elements of life. You can watch it at this link on Brighteon.com or play the embed below. Continue reading
Truth with RFK Jr. and Vandana Shiva Continue reading
Researchers made a makeshift “elevator” in the ocean to grow giant kelp, the world’s biggest species of marine algae and a promising source of biofuel. The researchers explained that giant kelp needs to be moved up and down the ocean column every day to thrive. Continue reading
Researchers have determined that the nation’s farmland is now 48 times more toxic to insects than it was just 25 years ago, and much of this rise in toxicity is being blamed on the widespread use of a dangerous category of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. Continue reading
Plants were efficient absorbers of carbon dioxide during the early Miocene – a period with high levels of carbon dioxide, found a study published in the journal Climate of the Past. Continue reading
Story at-a-glance
The modern agricultural system is responsible for putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the actual burning of fossil fuels Continue reading
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An international consortium of scientists has produced the first systematic network map of interactions that occur between proteins in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. (Arabidopsis is a mustard plant that has 27,000 proteins and serves as a popular model organism for biological studies of plants, analogous to lab rats that serve as popular model organisms for biological studies of animals.) Known as an “interactome,” the new Arabidopsis network map defines 6,205 protein-to-protein Arabidopsis interactions involving 2,774 individual proteins. By itself, this map doubles the volume of data on protein interactions Continue reading |
Do you want everything that goes down your drain winding up on your backyard produce? Well that’s what happens to those who use organic compost made with municipal sewage.
More than half of the 15 trillion gallons of sewage flushed annually by Americans ends up in a fertilizer product and those products contain everything that goes down the drain from Prozac flushed down toilets to the motor oil rinsed off factory floors (http://motherjones.com/environment/…). The U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn’t regulate which fertilizers can be labeled as “organic” which means anyone can use the term, including those companies that are packaging what we flush. Continue reading
The Researchers from the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have made an interesting and noteworthy discovery concerning the use of soil bacteria in controlling crop pests. Michael Blackburn, an entomologist at the ARS Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., and his colleagues recently found that pest-eliminating strains of soil bacteria with a certain type of enzyme survive better than strains without the enzyme, which means they are ultimately more effective at eliminating pests without the need for much human intervention.
Published in the journal Biological Control, the results of the study represent a significant milestone in understanding natural bacterial pest control. The findings not only expand the viability of using soil Continue reading
Clifford Hatch cares for about 20 cows at his family-run farm, producing fresh raw milk that is at the center of controversy over its sale and safety.
Hatch sells raw, or unpasteurized, milk products from a retail shop at his dairy farm, which state regulations allow him to do because the business is located on the same property where his Ayrshire cattle are milked.
He said he might sell 40 to 50 gallons a day at his Upinngill Farm, which started producing raw milk and cheese years ago when local residents began seeking an alternative to dairy from big, industrialized producers whose use of artificial bovine growth hormones was widespread then.
“The system is pretty sensible and reasonably well-enforced,” Hatch said.
But debate is swirling over raw milk in many U.S. states, and the thought of tighter federal rules on its production and sale makes independent producers such as Hatch uneasy.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both strongly warn the public against drinking raw milk. They see potential health risks from pathogens like E. coli bacteria, which in some instances can get into milk from an animal’s manure.
But raw dairy advocates say unpasteurized milk is at least as safe as the “superheated” varieties because of the dedication small-batch farmers have to maintaining hygienic facilities.
Some people prefer raw milk, saying it is sweeter and has more vitamins and minerals, “healthy” bacteria and digestive enzymes. They say pasteurizing milk, or heating it to above 160 degrees Fahrenheit, destroys most of those features.
Part of the debate centers on cheese, which is legal under federal law if it is aged at least 60 days to kill bacteria such as E. coli.
But the FDA is mulling extending the aging requirement past 60 days which could, in effect, outlaw some popular raw milk cheeses as well as pasteurized ripened cheeses.
An FDA spokeswoman said on Wednesday the agency is looking at whether the aging requirements for cheese “are sufficient to minimize pathogens,” including salmonella and E. coli.
The FDA’s review could take until late in the year, when it would release results of its risk study, she said.
Some raw dairy proponents fear the FDA could outlaw raw milk production altogether.
“Their policy certainly is very anti-raw milk. It’s always a concern,” said Winton Pitcoff, raw milk network coordinator for the Massachusetts chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFAMass).
Some U.S. states are restricting raw milk use already.
Vermont has both deep agricultural roots and a newer local-food renaissance boosting the economy. But the state this month suspended workshops led by an advocacy group teaching people how to turn unpasteurized milk into butter and cheese.
Vermont’s agriculture agency says the state’s 2009 raw milk law limits farmers to selling it to customers for fluid consumption only. But the agency says it will not interfere with how people use or consume raw milk in their own homes.
In ten states, including California, Maine, Connecticut and New Hampshire, people can buy raw milk in grocery stores. But sales are banned in many other states, including dairy giant Wisconsin. Federal law also bans interstate sales of raw milk.
A few states are considering legalization or loosening regulations, among them Texas, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Massachusetts does not allow raw milk sales in grocery stores, but it is considering a bill to let farmers deliver to customers and sell at stands away from their farms.
Raw milk producers can sell a gallon of fresh milk for $6 to $12 – about four times what processors pay dairy farmers for milk they truck to processing plants.
Farmers say the heftier price can make the difference between a farm being profitable or needing to shut down.
The number of dairy farms nationwide has dwindled. In Massachusetts, about 5,000 farms existed in 1950 but today fewer than 180 remain, NOFAMass says.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/02/24/raw-milk-debate-simmers-states-fda-mull-rules/#ixzz1EzZDKmMx
