Australian Herbs Could Replace Dangerous Sodium Benzoate in Foods, Beverages
by David Gutierrez

(NaturalNews) An inventor has developed a blend of native Australian herbs that he says functions as an effective preservative for foods and beverages, and can be used to replace artificial preservatives such as sodium benzoate.

Vic Cherikoff markets his product Herbal-Active as an inhibitor of bacteria and surface mold growth, and as a flavoring agent. Cherikoff says that he researched a number of native Australian herbs and developed a blend that is 30 times more effective as a preservative than the sum of all the plants put together. Because he cannot afford to patent the blend, Cherikoff says, he will not reveal which herbs are being used. He says only that all of them are native culinary herbs and are either wild-harvested or grown on organic plantations.

Common Dreams News Center
May 13, 2008
The Washington Post
by Rick Weiss

A handful of the world’s largest agricultural biotechnology companies are seeking hundreds of patents on gene-altered crops designed to withstand drought and other environmental stresses, part of a race for dominance in the potentially lucrative market for crops that can handle global warming, according to a report being released today.

Three companies — BASF of Germany, Syngenta of Switzerland and Monsanto of St. Louis — have filed applications to control nearly two-thirds of the climate-related gene families submitted to patent offices worldwide, according to the report by the Ottawa-based ETC Group, an activist organization that advocates for subsistence farmers.

The applications say that the new “climate ready” genes will help crops survive drought, flooding, saltwater incursions, high temperatures and increased ultraviolet radiation — all of which are predicted to undermine food security in coming decades.

Company officials dismissed the report’s contention that the applications amount to an intellectual-property “grab,” countering that gene-altered plants will be crucial to solving world hunger but will never be developed without patent protections.

The New York Times
May 13, 2008
By GARDINER HARRIS

WASHINGTON — The United States Court of Federal Claims began another hearing on Monday to decide whether a vaccine additive led thousands of children to become autistic.

The hearing is the second in a series of three in which the court is considering whether the government should pay millions of dollars to the parents of some 4,800 autistic children. In this hearing, parents are claiming that thimerosal, a preservative that contains mercury, damaged their children’s brains. Thimerosal was removed from all routinely administered childhood vaccines by 2001.

Every major study and scientific organization to examine the issue has found no link between vaccination and autism, but the parents and their advocates have persisted.

The claims are being heard in a special court set up by Congress 20 years ago when a series of scares nearly crippled the vaccine industry. The hearing is expected to last two to three weeks, and a decision is not expected until next year.

OpEdNews
May 11, 2008
By Stephen Fox

This is astonishing!

The world's largest Aspartame and MSG manufacturer, Ajinomoto, has decided to sue ASDA, the UK Supermarket chain, for removing the sale of products containing aspartame, the neurotoxic and carcinogenic artificial sweetener, which was done

AT THE REQUEST OF THEIR OWN CUSTOMERS!

Fresh from their many successes, like a Forbes article/puff piece in February, routing the genteel legislative effort in the Hawaii Senate to just ask the FDA Commissioner to rescind the approval for their product in US markets, etc., perhaps Ajinomoto is about to shoot itself in the foot, or more apropos: commit a kind of jurisprudential hari kiri in its efforts to silence ASDA's publicity.

There is a superb article here:

Sott.net
Jo Hartley
Natural News
May 10, 2008

Environmental and farm worker groups have now sued the Bush administration for allowing the continued use of four pesticides. They claim that the government brushed aside its own evidence that the chemicals are toxic to workers, children, and animals.

The suit challenged the Environmental Protection Agency's 2006 decision to reauthorize the four pesticides used on fruit and vegetable fields in California.

A 1996 federal law required the EPA to reassess the safety of all pesticides used on foods. Based on this reassessment, the EPA was to decide whether to approve their use. The EPA found that four substances posed substantial risks to human health but they concluded that the cost savings to growers outweighed the dangers to humans.

These four pesticides reportedly put thousands of farm workers and their families at risk of serious illness.

EPA spokesman Tim Lyons stated that the agency would review the lawsuit and respond in court. However, they did say: "Our mission is to protect the environment and human health."

Spiegel online
May 9, 2008
By Andrew Curry

Bees in the German state of Baden-Württemburg are dying by the hundreds of thousands. In some places more than half of hives have perished. Government officials say the causes are unclear -- but beekeepers are blaming new pesticides.

In Germany's bucolic Baden-Württemburg region, there is a curious silence this week. All up and down the Rhine river, farm fields usually buzzing with bees are quiet. Beginning late last week, helpless beekeepers could only watch as their hives were hit by an unprecedented die-off. Many say one of Germany's biggest chemical companies is to blame.

In some parts of the region, hundreds of bees per hive have been dying each day. "It's an absolute bee emergency," Manfred Hederer, president of the German Professional Beekeeper's Association, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Fifty to 60 percent of the bees have died on average, and some beekeepers have lost all their hives."

Sott.net
JR Raphael
Geeks Are Sexy
May 5, 2008

It connects you to the world, but your cell phone could also be giving anyone from your boss to your wife a window into your every move. The same technology that lets you stay in touch on-the-go can now let others tap into your private world - without you ever even suspecting something is awry.

The new generation

Long gone are the days of simple wiretapping, when the worst your phone could do was let someone listen in to your conversations. The new generation of cell phone spying tools provides a lot more power.

Eavesdropping is easy. All it takes is a two-minute software install and someone can record your calls and monitor your text messages. They can even set up systems to be automatically alerted when you dial a certain number, then instantly patched into your conversation. Anyone who can perform a basic internet search can find the tools and figure out how to do it in no time.

But the scarier stuff is what your phone can do when you aren't even using it. Let's start with your location.

Sott.net
WorldNetDaily
May 5, 2008

Safety debate over public water treatments heats up with release of shocking new studies

Water treatment plant ©WorldNetDaily

WASHINGTON - From Pennsylvania to Nebraska and from Europe to New Zealand, there is growing and fierce opposition to plans to fluoridate public drinking water, fueled by a battery of shocking new studies that seriously question a practice routine among U.S. municipalities for nearly the last 50 years.

• In Clearfield, Pa., the municipal authority asked the state Department of Environmental Protection for permission to stop adding fluoride to its water. But before city officials got an answer, they got a lawsuit threat from the Pennsylvania Dental Association, which promised not only an injunction against any plans to stop adding the chemical to drinking supplies but litigation against the individual board members who approved the action. The city backed down and continues to fluoridate water.

Sott.net

Hope Shand
gristmill
May 2, 2008

A review of Claire Hope Cummings' Uncertain Peril

In October 1996, a spokesman for Monsanto told Farm Journal why his company was buying up seed companies left and right: "What you're seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it's really a consolidation of the entire food chain."

Today, Monsanto is the world's largest seed company -- and makes more money selling seeds than chemicals. The company's biotech seeds and traits accounted for 88 percent of the worldwide area devoted to genetically modified seeds in 2006 -- and Monsanto earns royalties on every single one. No one needed to tell Monsanto: Whoever controls the first link in the food chain -- the seeds -- controls the food supply.

From The Times
May 3, 2008
Alexandra Frean, Education Editor

Targets for “toddler technology” skills laid down by the Government, which will require children to master basic computer skills by the age of 4 and understand how to use a television remote control, pose serious risks to child development, experts have said.

Aric Sigman, a psychologist and author of Remotely Controlled, said that the Government’s new early years curriculum, which requires underfives to be taught on computers, risked creating a generation of screen addicts.

Exposure to screen technology during key stages of child development may have counter-productive effects on cognitive processes and learning, particularly language development and competency in reading and maths, Dr Sigman said.

“Legally requiring the introduction of screen technology to 20 to 60-month-old children is likely to lead to even higher levels of daily screen viewing. Early introduction to ICT [information and communications technology] is likely to lead to a greater lifetime dependency on screens,” he said.