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Mon, 03 Apr 2006

Welcome to Carnival of the Green #21

This weeks Carnival is at Green Thinker, a Canadian green blog. The reference to CBC was a dead giveaway. Just for old times sake I went and poked around in the CBC archives.

Although I've known that Canada is a foreign country since I moved to the US, it was very apparent in the series of articles in which the Canadian gov't apologizes over and over, and gives out gobs of money, for putting the native children in residential schools and taking away their language and culture. I believe they're still unapologetically doing that in the U.S!

Anyway, back to the Carnival - it's coffee to bamboo to angry golfers with guns to eco-snobs on South Park this week, and ranges from Miami, to Australia, to LA, to India. Last weeks C.O.T.G. was at Greener Magazine, with hip wit Harlan Weikle, who makes COTG FUN, like, well like a carnival!

Carnival of the Green was created by Triple Pundit and City Hippy. Each week one green blog hosts the Carnival of the Green and gives a roving digest of the green blogosphere. Green as in environmental and sustainable. And not to be missed!

GMO Trilogy Available Now

A new DVD and CD set produced by bestselling author Jeffrey Smith, Seeds of Deception), which shows how genetically modified organisms (GMOs) put our health and environment at risk, may impact consumer perceptions and buying habits.

The release of Jeffrey Smith's new GMO Trilogy is an important event, one that organizers and supporters hope will finally alert the general public to the dangers of GMO food. To make it affordable for all, the trilogy is sponsored by these green businesses and organizations: Eden Foods, Nature’s Path, Organic Valley, Frey Vineyards, Nutiva, Now Foods, French Meadow Bakery, Organic Food Bar, Organic Consumers Association, The Institute for Responsible Technology and Seventh Generation.

For more information about the contents, a 5 minute preview and audio download, and to order a copy (highly recommend!) go to GMO Trilogy

Review of GMO Trilogy

Brian Tokar directs the Biotechnology Project at the Institute for Social Ecology and is the editor of two books on the science and politics of biotechnology: "Redesigning Life?" and "Gene Traders." Following is the introduction to his review of the GMO Trilogy

In recent years, "you are what you eat" has become a popular adage, a truism, perhaps a bit of a cliche. There is little doubt that the quality and variety of the food we eat has a profound impact on our health and well being.

But in recent years, a new threat has emerged that challenges our ability to make the most basic choices about our food. The new technology of genetic engineering (GE), coupled with an unprecedented concentration of corporate control over the processing and distribution of food—and especially the sources of our seeds—has cast doubt on the safety and integrity of even some of the most common foods we eat every day.

Thus far, genetic engineering on a large scale has been largely limited to four basic crops: soybeans, corn, cotton and canola. Hawaiian papayas, some varieties of summer squash, and milk from cows injected with a genetically engineered hormone, Monsanto’s notorious recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), are also affected to varying degrees. But when we consider the pervasiveness of various soy and corn extracts in processed foods—even 'natural' processed foods—the broad extent of the problem is revealed. The more scientists learn about the consequences of genetic engineering (also known as genetic modification, hence the popular abbreviation GMOs, for 'genetically modified organisms'), the more alarmed we become about how this technology is affecting our health and the environment.

Read Brian Tokar's review of the GMO Trilogy

More info on the GMO Trilogy