Growing Hemp Legalized In United States

Story at-a-glance

• Hemp, a species of cannabis plant, has been valued since ancient times for its fibers and seeds, but it’s been illegal to grow in the U.S. for decades
• The 2018 Farm Bill included a section legalizing hemp production, paving the way for what many are calling the next big cash crop
• While both marijuana and hemp come from the cannabis plant, hemp is low in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the substance that produces the “high” associated with marijuana
• Hemp is beneficial for the soil as it doesn’t require the use of pesticides and has a short growing cycle, making it sustainable
• Hemp is valued as an omega-3-rich plant food and fiber and has more than 25,000 industrial uses
• Many of hemp’s health benefits relate to its cannabidiol (CBD) content, which has been found to offer neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory benefits

Hemp, a species of cannabis plant, has been valued since ancient times for its fibers and seeds, but it’s been illegal to grow in the U.S. for decades. That all changed in late 2018 with the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. It included a section legalizing hemp production, paving the way for what many are calling the next big cash crop.
Hemp has many uses, ranging from food to fiber, but it’s also the source of the hemp-derived compound cannabidiol (CBD), which shows promising medical uses. The CBD market in the U.S. was estimated at $600 million in 2018, with projections shooting up over $20 billion by 2022.¹
The change in hemp’s legal status was a long time coming and paves the way for this beneficial plant to be treated like other crops, instead of an illegal substance.

The History of Hemp

The legalization of hemp is cause for celebration for more than just hemp supporters, who have been spearheading legalization attempts for decades. The move has ramifications for human health and the environment, now that this plant will no longer be treated as an illicit drug.
Hemp has been valued for thousands of years, with perhaps the oldest discovery of hemp dating back to a piece of hemp fabric from 8,000 B.C.² As noted by the National Hemp Association, hemp has been used throughout the world for centuries:³

“The spread of cannabis took place from China to the Middle East and the Mediterranean area and, subsequently, to Europe, probably via nomadic peoples. Starting around the year 600, the Germans, Frankish tribes and Vikings produced rope, cloth and garments from hemp fiber.

In the Middle Ages, most people wore hemp sandals. Many farmers grew hemp on a small scale. Since the Middle Ages, the industrial use of hemp has seen a number of peaks.”

In the 17th century, for instance, ships took to the seas with sails and lines made from braided hemp fibers. Hemp clothing was also popular, and Rembrandt used hemp paper for sketching. In the U.S., Presidents Washington and Jefferson grew hemp, and according to the Hemp Industries Association (HIA), “Americans were legally bound to grow hemp during the Colonial Era and Early Republic.”⁴
By the 19th century, however, alternative materials like cotton and wood pulp began to take hemp’s place, making it less popular. In 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed, which grouped hemp with marijuana, making hemp sales heavily taxed. The financial strain caused may hemp businesses to close and the hemp industry further declined.⁵
WWII brought with it a brief boost for hemp, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) encouraging U.S. farmers to grow the plant and the government offering subsidies for hemp cultivation. About 1 million acres of hemp were planted in the U.S. during that time, and the stiff fiber was used to make parachutes, uniforms, tarps and other products useful to the war industry.
“After the war ended, the government quietly shut down all the hemp processing plants and the industry faded away again,” the HIA noted.⁶ The final nail in the coffin came with the passage of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which grouped hemp and marijuana together as Schedule 1 substances, a classification reserved for drugs with "high potential for abuse" and "no accepted medical use."
Three years later the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was formed to enforce the newly created drug schedules, and the fight against marijuana and hemp use began.

Marijuana Versus Hemp: What’s the Difference?

While both marijuana and hemp come from the cannabis plant, hemp is low in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the substance that produces the “high” associated with marijuana use. Whereas hemp typically contains 0.3 percent THC or less, marijuana may contain anywhere from 5 to 35 percent THC, according to HIA.
Interestingly, the 0.3 percent for THC in hemp came about quite by accident when a couple of Canadian scientists designated that number in a 1976 report they wrote on the two plants. Later, the DEA used the same number when they were formulating rules to ban hemp and all products with THC in them. The 0.3 percent later became part of federal law with the 2014 Farm Bill, explained later in this article.⁷
And while the THC percentage varies in marijuana depending on which part of the plant is used, the Alcohol & Drug Institute at the University of Washington says the average THC in marijuana dried leaves and buds in the U.S. can vary from less than1 percent to 20 percent.⁸
Marijuana is typically used for medicinal or recreational purposes, whereas hemp can be used for a variety of applications ranging from food and medicine to clothing, construction, body care and even plastic. You can’t get high from hemp, but its high CBD content makes it attractive for medicinal purposes.
Further, whereas marijuana must be grown in a carefully controlled atmosphere, hemp is easy to grow and thrives in most climates. Generally speaking, cannabis sativa, which has long and narrow leaves, is grown outdoors and has higher CBD and low THC, producing no psychoactive effects.
Cannabis idica, on the other hand, has shorter, wider leaves, grows best indoors and contains higher THC, which produces the high most recreational marijuana users are after.
However, because many hybrids have been produced, it’s not possible to identify these qualities from plant name alone.⁹ According to the 2014 Farm Bill, hemp refers to cannabis sativa plants containing 0.3 percent or less of THC, and that definition remained unchanged in the 2018 Bill.

The Slow Progress Toward Hemp Legalization in the US

In 2013, Colorado legalized industrial hemp farming for commercial and research purposes, provided the farmers verified the THC levels and paid for a permit. In 2014, the Farm Bill also included a section that allowed hemp cultivation for select research and pilot programs, and dozens of states introduced pro-hemp legislation to follow.
By 2017, nearly 26,000 acres of hemp were being grown in 19 states.¹⁰ Still, in a major waste of taxpayer dollars, the DEA would target hemp farmers. Ministry of Hemp noted that prior to the 2018 legalization:¹¹

“[F]armers in all these states still risk being raided by the DEA, going to prison, and losing their property because the federal policy fail[ed] to distinguish non-drug oilseed and fiber varieties of industrial hemp from the psychoactive drug varieties (i.e., ‘marijuana’)”

Now that hemp has been legalized, it removes restrictions for crop insurance, banking and other barriers to farmers looking for a profitable crop. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who spearheaded the bill, believes hemp could replace tobacco as a new cash crop, stating:¹²

“At a time when farm income is down and growers are struggling, industrial hemp is a bright spot of agriculture’s future. My provision in the Farm Bill will not only legalize domestic hemp, but it will also allow state departments of agriculture to be responsible for its oversight.”

What’s more, hemp is sometimes described as a miracle crop, providing sustainable material to replace trees for paper, for instance, because it has a growing cycle of just four to six months. Hemp is beneficial for the soil as well, as it doesn’t require the use of pesticides due to its dense, deep roots, which repel weeds naturally.¹³
Because it grows so close together, hemp can be grown in tight spaces, decreasing land use while still leading to high yields because of its fast growing rate. Basically, hemp grows like a weed, tolerating a variety of climates and soil types, and requiring relatively little water. It was even used to extract toxins from the soil at Chernobyl.¹⁴

What Will the Legalization of Hemp Mean for CBD Products?

With hemp’s legalization, CBD products, which are already on the upswing, are set to take off. Their legal status is another issue entirely. CBD is technically illegal according to the DEA, and it’s unclear whether it will be reclassified. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), meanwhile, classifies CBD as a drug and has no plans to change that. In a statement, FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said:¹⁵

“[T]he FDA requires a cannabis product (hemp-derived or otherwise) that is marketed with a claim of therapeutic benefit, or with any other disease claim, to be approved by the FDA for its intended use before it may be introduced into interstate commerce. This is the same standard to which we hold any product marketed as a drug for human or animal use.

Cannabis and cannabis-derived products claiming in their marketing and promotional materials that they’re intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of diseases (such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, psychiatric disorders and diabetes) are considered new drugs or new animal drugs and must go through the FDA drug approval process for human or animal use before they are marketed in the U.S.”

CBD can come from either marijuana or hemp. Again, the distinction between these two plants hinges on the THC content. Hemp has very little if any THC, whereas marijuana will have varying amounts of THC. Hemp products such as hemp oil and hemp extract are legal.
So even though they may have small amounts of CBD, hemp products such as hemp oil can be lawfully marketed, provided they don’t reference CBD or claim to cure any diseases. This is a potential loophole the CBD industry could use. The drawback is hemp products may not have much CBD in them, and they may not be clinically effective.
That being said, the new legal status will open up hemp and CBD for research, potentially leading to more definitive knowledge about proper dosing and usage. And as noted by the Ministry of Hemp, “Attitudes are already changing. Even before being signed into law, the 2018 Farm Bill inspired the Alabama state attorney general to back off from plans to prosecute CBD stores.”¹⁶

The Many Benefits of Hemp

The hoopla over hemp is well deserved. Its seeds contain nearly as much protein as soybeans and all nine essential amino acids, especially arginine, which is beneficial for heart health.
Two main proteins in hemp seed protein, albumin and edestin, are rich in essential amino acids, with profiles comparable to egg white. Hemp's edestin content is among the highest of all plants. Hemp protein is also easy to digest because of its lack of oligosaccharides and trypsin inhibitors, which can affect protein absorption.
Hemp seeds are also an excellent source of plant-based omega-3s and include a balanced 1-to-3 ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fats. Hemp seeds, especially those with the hulls intact, are also rich in fiber and contain a variety of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin E, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc and B vitamins.
Many of hemp’s health benefits relate to its CBD content as well, which has been found to offer neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory benefits.¹⁷ Potential uses for CBD and other hemp extracts include:^18,19

Parkinson’s disease	Alzheimer’s disease	Multiple sclerosis
Neuropathic pain	Childhood seizure disorders	Schizophrenia
Anxiety	Depression	Addiction
Posttraumatic stress disorder	Pain	Vomiting and nausea

Medicinal uses aside, hemp seed oil is used in body care products while the fiber can be used to make fabric, clothing, paper and even a recyclable hemp plastic and hemp concrete. There are reportedly more than 25,000 industrial uses for hemp,²⁰ and this probably only scratches the surface of what this versatile plant is good for.
The legalization of hemp in the U.S. will now make it easier for humans and the environment alike to enjoy the benefits of this natural wonder plant once again.

Read more: https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/01/08/growing-industrial-hemp-legalization.aspx?utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art2&utm_campaign=20190108Z1_UCM&et_cid=DM259304&et_rid=514332196

FDA hid glyphosate findings from the public after finding weed killer contamination in nearly ALL food

Shocking internal emails, uncovered via the Freedom of Information Act, have revealed yet another scandal: The FDA knew that the toxic weed killer, glyphosate, was contaminating the U.S. food supply — and ignored the dangerous threat posed to American consumers. Apparently, the finding of glyphosate in heavily consumed products like granola bars and corn is of no concern to FDA officials; supervisors have reportedly declared that the glyphosate present in these items doesn’t count because they aren’t part of the agency’s “official” report.
Science be damned; the federal government has a report to write — and now, some are wondering if perhaps somebody, somewhere has already told them what to put in it.
For decades, the FDA has been responsible for testing food samples to ensure that specific quality standards are met. This includes monitoring foods for illegally high amounts of pesticide residues. Until recently, however, the FDA had not been testing for glyphosate residues — a fact that drew much scrutiny from the Government Accountability Office, as well as consumer watchdog organizations.
Glyphosate in and of itself has drawn a lot of criticism, due to its litany of adverse effects on human health and the environment.  The star ingredient of Monsanto’s Roundup came under fire in 2015, after the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer declared that glyphosate was a “probable carcinogen.”  Some research has shown that increasing use of this pesticide may be contributing to the rapid decline of bee populations, as well.

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Now a string of emails from the FDA show that multiple FDA scientists have found concerning levels of glyphosate residue in everyday foods. In separate investigations, chemists Richard Thompson and Narong Chamkasem found traces of glyphosate that exceeded legal amounts in different foods.
In one email, Thompson wrote to his colleagues, “I have brought wheat crackers, granola cereal and corn meal from home and there’s a fair amount in all of them,” and noted that only his broccoli sample seemed to be free of glyphosate.
Chamkasem’s findings were similar, with the chemist noting that there were exceptionally high amounts of glyphosate residue in corn. In an internal FDA email, Chamkasem reported that they had detected glyphosate in corn at 6.5 parts per million, while the legal limit is 5.0 ppm.
“These emails shatter any remaining faith in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration operating as some sort of defender of public health,” explained Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, founder of CWC Labs and author of Food Forensics. “The fact that the FDA deliberately withheld these alarming findings from the public speaks volumes about the real motivations of this failed agency,” Adams added. “It’s clear to every scientifically-minded person that the FDA goes out of its way to hide the truth about agricultural chemicals in the food supply, most likely to protect the financial interests of chemical pesticide and herbicide corporations which wield tremendous influence over government regulators.”

How the FDA buried its findings while food consumers continued to eat cancer-linked weed killer chemicals

Perhaps what’s most concerning about this is that a supervisor at the FDA essentially waved off this finding. Normally, The Guardian explains, a finding like this is reported to the EPA. However, an FDA supervisor wrote to an EPA official, declaring that the corn tested by Chamkasem was not an “official” sample.
Chamkasem also reportedly uncovered glyphosate residues in oatmeal products and honey in 2016. FDA documents show that after announcing these findings, Chamkasem’s lab was “reassigned to other programs” and the entire investigation was actually suspended temporarily. Again, the FDA declared that these items were not part of their glyphosate residue review.
The fact that foods like wheat and oats are not part of the FDA review is actually highly concerning, as it’s become well-known that farmers use glyphosate as a desiccant. Wheat, oats and other foods are commonly sprayed with glyphosate late in the season to hasten the harvesting process. So, there’s plenty of reason to suspect these foods are also contaminated, even if they aren’t supposed to be treated with glyphosate.
But sadly, as The Guardian notes further, it seems unlikely that either Thompson’s or Chamkasem’s findings will be included in the official FDA report. When asked about glyphosate testing, an FDA spokesperson reportedly stated that “the FDA had not found any illegal levels in corn, soy, milk or eggs, the four commodities it considers part of its glyphosate ‘special assignment.’ The “unofficial findings” from the emails were not addressed.
As usual, big government operates on its own agenda — who is going to hold these people accountable? Read more news on glyphosate at Glyphosate.news.
Sources for this article include:
TheGuardian.com
USRTK.org
TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com

Read more:  https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-05-02-fda-hid-glyphosate-findings-from-the-public-weed-killer-contamination-in-nearly-all-food.html

Glyphosate was patented as an antibiotic … is this contributing to antibiotic resistance?

For decades, the environment – rivers, lakes, fields, humans, livestock and wildlife – has been exposed to the toxic effects of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup. The chemical, classified as a probable carcinogen by the World Health Organization in 2015, has been linked to kidney disease, liver damage, birth defects, cancers, Parkinson’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and more.
Plus, as if this situation weren’t outrageous enough, troubling news is emerging about one of glyphosate’s less well-known properties. It turns out that glyphosate is also an antibiotic, and has been registered as such by the most hated corporation in the world, Monsanto.

Shocking new study about glyphosate reveals an alarming prospect

The very concept of resistant bacteria – in which mutating microorganisms become immune to the effects of antibiotics – is the stuff of nightmares, with resistant bacterial infections exacting a very real toll. According to the CDC, MRSA – or methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus – claims over 11,000 lives a year.
Now, add glyphosate to the list of substances that can fuel antibiotic resistance in bacteria. In a study conducted at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, researchers found that exposure to common herbicides – such as glyphosate and dicamba – caused bacteria to change their response to antibiotics, allowing them to display increased resistance.
The results were so surprising that the researchers feared some sort of error or contamination had affected their results. They enlisted a colleague at a different university to conduct the same experiments – and the findings were reproduced.

Glyphosate seems to “target” beneficial bacteria

And the harm from glyphosate doesn’t stop with its contribution to antibiotic resistance.
Glyphosate kills plants by interfering with a system called the shikamate pathway that regulates the synthesis of amino acids. As apologists for Monsanto never tire of pointing out, the shikamate pathway doesn’t exist in humans. But it does exist in bacteria – including the beneficial bacteria on which we depend for synthesis of amino acids.
Natural health experts have long insisted that glyphosate exposure can cause depletion of the amino acids tyrosine, tryptophan and phenylalanine – thereby setting the stage for obesity, autism and depression, as well as neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers know from studies on chicken and cattle that ingestion of glyphosate can destroy beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract, while leaving dangerous bacterial pathogens – such as salmonella and E. coli – unharmed. There is no reason to believe glyphosate isn’t causing the same harm to humans – giving rise to the current epidemic of gastrointestinal conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease and leaky gut.
In an article published in the scientific journal Entropy, the authors concluded that glyphosate could be the most important factor in the development of multiple chronic diseases that have become prevalent in Western societies.

Glyphosate’s toxic history is marked by skyrocketing use on food crops

Glyphosate, which has been in use since the 1970s, was initially only sprayed on weeds. But with the development of genetically engineered, glyphosate-tolerant “Roundup Ready” crops, the herbicide is now sprayed liberally on food crops – with glyphosate use doubling between 2001 and 2007 alone.
In a sickening chain of contamination, animals ingest glyphosate-laden feed, and humans then consume the meat – often along with produce that has been sprayed directly with Roundup. In this way, an unprescribed (and unsafe) drug succeeds in making its way from stockyards and fields to your plate, probably several times a day.

Monsanto’s glib reassurances are ridiculous

Monsanto continues to insist that glyphosate is not toxic to humans, which is laughable enough. But the company’s defense against concerns about glyphosate residue fueling antibiotic resistance take the word “ridiculous” to new levels. You can read it for yourself here.
Claiming that it is routine for companies to patent for “reasonable “ potential uses, Monsanto goes to considerable lengths to point out that glyphosate, “when used as recommended,” is not “concentrated” enough to function as a clinical antibiotic.
First, note the sanctimonious use of the disclaimer “when used as recommended.” As demonstrated by the heartbreaking accidental pesticide poisoning of four Texas children in January, chemicals are not always “used as recommended.” Human error, accident and mishap are an unfortunate reality.
Monsanto insists that the concentrations aren’t high enough to make glyphosate “clinically effective” as an antibiotic – but is clinical effectiveness even the point? Who knows at what concentration bacteria begin to develop resistance? Does anyone feel like gambling?
It’s worth nothing that a recent animal study showed that liver damage resulted from amounts of glyphosate that were many times lower than that allowed in tap water for human consumption. If damage can occur at those low levels, why not antibiotic resistance?

What you can do to reduce your exposure to glyphosate

The first step, of course, is avoiding the use of Roundup on your lawn and garden – and encouraging others to bypass it as well.  Say “no” to processed foods, “fast food” and junk food. Opt for grass-fed meat, pastured poultry, and certified organic products – which are guaranteed to be free of toxic pesticides and GMOs.
Glyphosate – a carcinogen, toxin, endocrine disruptor and DNA mutagen – has now been revealed as an antibiotic. And, the infuriating fact is: we’ve all been used like guinea pigs for this noxious chemical experiment.
References:
http://sustainablepulse.com/2015/03/24/new-study-shows-roundup-herbicide-causes-antibiotic-resistance-in-bacteria/#.WMUMkVXyvIV

Read more: http://www.naturalhealth365.com/glyphosate-roundup-2170.html

The Truth About Monsanto You Need to Know

By Andrew Kimbrell, Center for Food Safety
Most of us have told a lie a time or two and probably a variety of them. For example, there is the excuse lie as in the timeless “my dog at my homework,” and the proverbial “white lie” as in “No you really do look great in those jeans.”
But the “The Big Lie” is different. The term refers to a propaganda or advertising technique by which first you say the opposite of an obvious truth about an event or product, and then keep repeating and repeating that lie until it becomes an unquestioned mantra for the public. So no matter how much the lie defies common sense it over time becomes commonplace.
Take the iconic marketing campaign promoting Coca Cola. You’ll easily recall the endlessly repeated mantra: “Coke, it’s the real thing.” Well, whatever you may think of Coke, not much in my estimation, it is anything but the real thing. It’s highly processed, is laden with high fructose corn syrup derived from GMO corn, contains caramel coloring and it goes downhill from there. So the ad is obviously the exact opposite of the truth. But repeated countless times the slogan becomes accepted without thought.
Here’s another favorite example, the AT&T telephone ad campaign, “Reach out and touch someone.” Certainly phones can be great but as anyone separated from a loved one knows, to their great frustration, the one thing you can’t do with them is actually reach out and touch that important someone. You are actually just touching the dial pad and handset. Again, a mantra that is obviously false but was repeated so often it almost made sense.
Similarly, for more than two decades the promotion of genetically engineered (GE) crops in the United States and worldwide has been based on the Big Lie. Led by Monsanto’s aggressive international marketing campaign the mantra has been, and still is, that GE crops “reduce pesticide use, increase yield and are key to feeding the world.”
I have been working on this issue for decades and during that time have seen that virtually every major media story on GE crops began with this “Big Lie” claim, and using almost identical language. These claims, as with those in the Coke and AT&T commercials, defy common sense.
Monsanto and the other leaders in promoting GE crops—Dow, Dupont, Syngenta and Bayer—are all chemical companies that make tens of billions of dollars in profits by selling ever more pesticides, especially herbicides. Why would they spend hundreds of millions of research dollars and then billions in advertising and lobbying to promote crops that actually “reduce pesticides” and thereby destroy their bottom line?
Are these companies committing economic suicide in an altruistic attempt to feed the world? Obviously not. You can accuse Monsanto of many things, including myriad corporate crimes over many decades, but altruism is not one of them. As my organization and many others have scientifically demonstrated many times to a deaf media, the vast majority of GMOs are not designed to decrease herbicide use but to massively increase it.
More than 90% of US corn, soy, cotton, and sugar beets have been genetically engineered to withstand massive doses of the toxic herbicides these companies make, and profit from. Normally care has to be taken using herbicides because they kill not just weeds but anything green, including the crops they come into contact with. But with these herbicide tolerant crops large-scale operations can even conduct aerial spraying of their fields with these herbicides and the weeds die but the crops survive.
Because of GE crops, each year, more than 100 million more pounds of Roundup are used on America’s croplands each year. These toxic chemicals pollute our water and air, kill wildlife and native plants and threaten the very survival of the monarch butterfly and other species. In 2015, the World Health Organization’s research arm found that the active ingredient in Roundup is a “probable carcinogen.” So for Monsanto and the other chemical companies, genetically engineering crops is just another way to significantly increase profits. They sell the seeds and the poisons sprayed on those seeds. Great for their bottom line, terrible for the rest of us and the planet.
What about the Big Lie about increased yield and feeding the world? Well in 2009 the Union of Concerned Scientists published a definitive report called “Failure to Yield,” which made it clear that there was no significant yield increase with GE crops. Despite the clear title and message the media entranced with the Big Lie barely noticed.
But as Martin Luther King, Jr. liked to say, “No lie can live forever.” And in the waning weeks of the recent contentious and dispiriting election campaign, a surprising ray of light illuminated the longstanding GE crops debate. Remarkably, the source was the New York Times, which for so many years had ignored the science about genetic engineering and bought the Big Lie. But in a front-page story, the Times became among the first mainstream media sources to debunk the Big Lie about GMOs.
The newspaper story was based on research comparing pesticide use and yield between the United States, where genetic engineering has dominated major crops, and Western Europe, which did not embrace the technology. They found that overall the use of herbicides such as Monsanto’s Roundup had increased by more than 20% in the United States since the introduction of GE crops, while during the same time period herbicide use in France, Europe’s biggest crop producer, had not only not increased but actually decreased by 36 percent.

Read more: https://foodrevolution.org/blog/food-and-the-environment/monsanto-gmos-truth/?utm_campaign=frn16&utm_medium=email&utm_source=email-automated&utm_content=2335&utm_term=existing-email-list&email=subzerohc%40yahoo.com&firstname=John&lastname=Zahos

The First Sustainable Urban Agrihood in the U.S. Could Serve As A Model for Urban Development

Could fresh, healthy, affordable food be the future of urban neighborhood development?
In Detroit, Michigan, “the first sustainable urban agrihood” in the U.S. centers around an edible garden, with easily accessible, affordable produce offered to neighborhood residents and the community.
Each year, this urban farm provides fresh, free produce to 2,000 households within two square miles of the farm. They also supply food to local markets, restaurants, and food pantries.
The concept of agrihoods isn’t new —the Urban Land Institute estimated that about 200 agrihoods had been or were under construction across the U.S. — but this agrihood is unique because it’s the first truly urban agrihood. It plans to operate in a sustainable way, and is more accessible than most other agrihoods.
Agrihoods, also called agritopias or community-supported development, are an exciting concept because they create a remarkable improvement to the dominant food system.
They help tackle food insecurity and other community problems. They make it easy for people in low-income communities to get fresh, healthy food. And they give people a connection with the food they eat, the earth, and each other.

All about the first sustainable urban agrihood

The first sustainable urban agrihood, which recently debuted in Detroit, is the project of the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative — an all-volunteer nonprofit, which seeks to empower urban communities using sustainable agriculture.
The three-acre development has vacant land, along with occupied and abandoned homes centered around a two-acre urban garden, with more than 300 organic vegetable varieties, like lettuce, kale, and carrots, as well as a 200-tree fruit orchard, with apples, pears, plums, and cherries, a children’s sensory garden, and more.
The nonprofit is also working on other projects that go beyond farming, including:

• Turning a long-vacant building into a community resource center, which will offer educational programs, event and meeting space for the neighborhood, a nonprofit incubator, and two commercial kitchens
• Developing a healthy food cafe, and  
• Restoring a home into student intern housing and an off-grid shipping container.

Other projects to make the place more sustainable include:

• Installing solar panels,
• Converting a basement into a water harvesting cistern that will automatically irrigate the garden
• A public composting toilet, and
• A retention pond made from the foundation of a blighted home to supply the farm with water. 
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• Read more: https://foodrevolution.org/blog/food-politics/first-sustainable-urban-agrihood/?utm_campaign=frn16&utm_medium=email&utm_source=email-automated&utm_content=2331&utm_term=existing-email-list&email=subzerohc%40yahoo.com&firstname=John&lastname=Zahos

“SOS: Save Our Soil” Shows Innovative Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture

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• New video report shows how soil health affects the planet’s climate and ecosystem, and features a few innovative farmers with game-changing approaches to sustainable agriculture
• The world’s soils have lost 50 to 70 percent of their carbon, much of which is now in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide
• Humus, different from compost, nourishes soil for centuries and develops naturally if enough organic matter is added and the soil remains undisturbed
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• Watch video: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/04/04/soil-health-sustainable-agriculture.aspx?e_cid=20150404Z1_DNL_B_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20150404Z1_DNL_B&et_cid=DM73343&et_rid=902786735 

Regenerative Agriculture Is the Answer to Many of the World’s Most Pressing Problems

• To feed the world, we must feed the soil. One of the best ways to prevent global disaster, save our health, and build a sustainable economy is through regenerative agriculture
• Agricultural chemicals are decimating our soils, killing off pollinating insects and other flora and fauna. An estimated 60 percent of the world’s ecological systems are nearing collapse
• As with antibiotic overuse, the onslaught of pesticides and herbicide to combat pests has led to the development of weeds and bugs that are now resistant to the chemicals
• The chemical technology industry not only manages to avoid accountability, it also devises “solutions” that further increase company profits while worsening the problem they created
• Rapidly increasing weed resistance is driving up the volume of herbicide needed by about 25 percent annually. The approvals of 2,4-D and dicamba resistant GE crops could drive it up by another 50 percent
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• Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/10/14/regenerative-agriculture.aspx?e_cid=20141014Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20141014Z1&et_cid=DM57928&et_rid=692297207 

Plants Can Hear Themselves Being Eaten, and Can Communicate the Threat to Their Neighbors

• Plants are capable of communicating with each other via extensive and complex networks, and can warn each other of the presence of pests. In response, the plants will mount natural defenses against the infestation
• When a bug such as a caterpillar chews on a plant’s leaf, the plant “hears” the vibrations of the chewing, and produces chemicals to defend itself from further harm
• These chemicals are also what give a plant many of its medicinal qualities, such as glucosinolates, which have anti-cancer properties, and other antioxidants
• This research even suggests that minor pest attacks may play an important role in encouraging plant growth that have higher levels of (to humans) important nutrients
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• Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/10/11/plant-communication.aspx?e_cid=20141011Z1_DNL_art_2&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art2&utm_campaign=20141011Z1&et_cid=DM59063&et_rid=689341209 

Wood Chips—The Secret to Effortless, Inexpensive Biodynamic Gardening

• Using wood chips as ground cover, not compost, is a highly cost-effective strategy that will help radically improve your ability to effortlessly grow nutrient-dense food
• A few short months after putting down a deep layer of wood chips, you will end up with lush fertile soil beneath the chips that will support whatever you choose to grow
• Using wood chips has many benefits, from promoting soil fertility and earthworms that create vermicompost, to eliminating the need for irrigation and the use of fertilizer
• Most tree cutting companies will drop a truck load (or more) of wood chips right on your property, for free
• It’s important to avoid tilling your soil, as 70 percent of the soil microbes responsible for plant health and plant communication are fungi, and tilling will disrupt these mycorrhizal fungal filaments
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• Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/10/05/wood-chips-ground-cover.aspx?e_cid=20141005Z1_SNL_art_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20141005Z1&et_cid=DM57529&et_rid=681493691 

Heirloom seed proponents now labeled 'agri-terrorists' by government

Increasingly, when Americans "dare" to color outside the lines of government food regulation, those who seek to rule us label them extremists and, now, even "agri-terrorists."

As noted by Daisy Luther at The Organic Prepper, officials in more than one state have turned into food Nazis:

It looks like Michigan is not the only state with a Department of Agriculture that is adamant about the best interests of their citizens. Residents in Pennsylvania can now breathe a little bit easier since an illegal enterprise has been shut down.

The Joseph T. Simpson Public Library in Mechanicsburg was participating in an activity that put the entire ecosystem of the state at risk.

In an astonishing act of hubris, they were running a seed library, right there amongst the books, in the very facility where small children go to have stories read to them.

Yes, that's right: a seed library.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/046361_agri-terrorism_heirloom_seeds_home_gardening.html#ixzz3A4EcTT9Z

Antibiotic-Resistant Genes in Cow Manure May Add to the Threat of Untreatable Disease

• Maintaining optimal intestinal health is paramount in the fight against both acute and chronic disease. One of the fastest ways to destroy your gut microbiome is through the use of antibiotics
• While antibiotics are certainly overused in medicine, one of the most pervasive sources of antibiotics is actually through the foods you eat—in particular factory farmed meats
• Recent research has found antibiotic-resistant genes in the bacteria of dairy cows' guts. Cow manure, commonly used as crop fertilizer, may transfer these bacteria to soil where food is grown for human consumption
• 80 different antibiotic-resistant genes were found in five manure samples. When these genes were added to E.coli bacteria, the E.coli became resistant to antibiotics
• Traditionally fermented (unpasteurized) foods are the best route to optimal digestive health
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• Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/07/antibiotic-resistance-genes.aspx?e_cid=20140507Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20140507Z1&et_cid=DM44275&et_rid=513021422 

Chinese government admits one-fifth of farm lands heavily contaminated with toxic heavy metals

(NaturalNews) For the past few months, Natural News has been warning the world about toxic heavy metals found in foods, superfoods and dietary supplements grown in China. Our Natural News Forensic Food Lab has produced breakthrough results showing, for example, that rice protein imported from China is significantly contaminated with lead, cadmium and tungsten -- all industrial heavy metals.

Some greed-driven promoters of rice protein initially insisted all these heavy metals were "naturally occurring," but now the Chinese government has gone on the record confirming the truth: China's farm lands are heavily contaminated with toxic heavy metals, and this has now been scientifically documented and proven by Chinese researchers and publicly released by Chinese authorities.

19.4% of China's farm lands contaminated with toxic heavy metals

According to this statement by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in China, 19.4% of the nation's arable land has been heavily contaminated by toxic heavy metals.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/044950_China_heavy_metals_soils_contamination.html#ixzz30YQi73rk

Industrial agriculture has reached its 'peak,' say scientists; time for a return to small-scale organics

(NaturalNews) The era of large-scale monoculture, with all of its toxic pesticides and untested genetically modified organisms (GMOs), could finally be coming to an end. Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) discovered recently that yield expansion rates for most major industrial food crops are plateauing or even declining in many areas of the world, a fact that further supports the case for a return to small-scale, diversified agriculture grown organically.

Published in a recent issue of the journal Nature Communications, these and other findings, including updated projections on future crop yields, help obliterate the myth that modern, industrial methods of food production (e.g., transgenic modification, pesticide use and single-crop cultivation) have led to dramatic advancements in agriculture, when it has actually accomplished quite the opposite.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043629_industrial_agriculture_small-scale_organics_food_security.html#ixzz2rGsDHxQP

How Grazing Cows Can Save the Planet, and Other Surprising Ways of Healing the Earth

• The modern agricultural system is responsible for putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the actual burning of fossil fuels
• Herds raised according to modern, conventional practices contribute to desertification—turning land into desert—which does not support plant life and photosynthesis, thereby worsening atmospheric CO2 levels
• According to an African ecologist, dramatically increasing the number of grazing livestock is the only thing that can reverse both desertification and climate change
• According to estimates, grazing large herds of livestock on half of the world’s barren or semi-barren grasslands could take enough carbon from the atmosphere to bring us back to preindustrial levels
• Integrating biological farming principles can increase plant performance by 200-400 percent. What’s more, not only does it improve the quantity, it also improves the quality of the food you’re growing
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• Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/01/12/grazing-cows-biological-farming.aspx?e_cid=20140112Z3_SNL_Art_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20140112Z3&et_cid=DM37711&et_rid=396165763 

Why Dirt Matters to Your Health

• The root ball of a plant acts as the “gut” or intestinal tract of the plant, housing essential microbes, just like your gut does, provided the soil system is healthy
• The cooperation between soil microorganisms and the plants’ roots is responsible for allowing the plant to absorb nutrients from the soil. Without proper soil biome, the food will lack nutrients that are important for your health
• Soil health connects to everything up the food chain, from plant and insect health, all the way up to animal and human health
• Health, therefore, truly begins in the soils in which our food is grown
• Scientists have discovered that gene swapping takes place between your gut microbiome and the soil biome, as well as with microorganisms from other places in your daily surroundings
• One of the reasons for concern about genetically engineered crops is a main characteristic of such plants is resistance to the potent herbicide glyphosate, which decimates soil bacteria
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• Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/23/soil-quality.aspx?e_cid=20131223Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131223Z1&et_cid=DM37599&et_rid=376486017 

Hemp: the multi-billion dollar industry the government crushed

(NaturalNews) The original drafts of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written on paper derived from it. The sails of Christopher Columbus' ship, the Santa Maria, were made of fabric spun from it. Even early U.S. currency was printed on material extracted from it: hemp, a.k.a. cannabis, the most versatile plant in the world that, despite its significance as an early Americana, is still prohibited from being grown in most of America.

Some of our regular readers may already be familiar with the historical record of hemp, including its prominent role in American industry before the days of prohibition. But this important food and fuel crop is still largely misunderstood by millions of people. Not only is industrial hemp non-psychoactive, meaning that it cannot be smoked for mood-altering purposes in the same way as other strains of cannabis, but it also happens to be one of the most versatile plants known to man.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043203_hemp_cannabis_prohibition_cash_crop.html#ixzz2nA7d1wpe

GMOs cause horrible deformities, birth defects in piglets

(NaturalNews) When Danish pig farmer Ib Pedersen first noticed the sudden uptick in disease, deformities and death among his farrow, his immediate reaction was to investigate the diet of his pigs to look for possible causes. And what he found confirms what a growing body of evidence also suggests: that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in conventional animal feed are increasingly responsible for triggering birth defects, deformities, spontaneous abortions and other growth and development abnormalities in both pigs and cattle.

With 13,000 pigs on his farm, Pedersen knows the ins and outs of how to properly raise swine, as well as what is considered normal in terms of pig health. This is why he grew particularly alarmed when many more of them than usual began to come down with strange illnesses. Besides noticeably lower birthrates, Pedersen observed more of his pigs than normal being born with strange defects like spinal deformities and limb problems, and many more pigs than usual were dying.

"When using GM feed I saw symptoms of bloat, stomach ulcers, high rates of diarrhea, pigs born with deformities," explained Pedersen to The Ecologist's Andrew Wasley, who recently conducted an in-depth investigation into the link between GMOs and animal health problems. "But when I switched [to non-GM feed] these problems went away, some within a matter of days."

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043208_GMOs_farm_animals_birth_defects.html#ixzz2nA5x36B4

Seed diversity has collapsed more than 12-fold since early 1900s

(NaturalNews) From the looks of an average produce section in a typical American supermarket, it might seem like modern society has access to basically every major type of fruit, vegetable and herb one could want. But a survey conducted by the U.S. National Seed Storage Laboratory back in 1983 found that the diversity of our food supply has been progressively shrinking since 1903 when a previous seed stock inventory was taken, with fewer than one-twelfth the number of unique crop varieties available today compared to 100 years ago.

Known today as the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP), the laboratory collected seed data on 10 common produce items: beets, cabbages, sweet corn, lettuces, muskmelons, peas, radishes, squashes, tomatoes and cucumbers. NCGRP compared the availability of seeds for each of these items in 1903 to their availability in 1983, which was still long before the time genetically modified organisms (GMOs) hit the scene.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043166_seed_diversity_agriculture_heirloom_plants.html#ixzz2mrWQ0NYh

High-Performance Agriculture Can Increase Your Garden Yield Eight-Fold

• Farmers and food producers routinely harvest only about 10 to 15 percent of the inherent genetic capacity of any given crop. By optimizing soil composition and nutrient application, you can easily increase your garden yield six to eight times
• The foundation of healthy plants boils down to two things: Adequate mineral nutrition, and strong soil biology. Compost tea and plant nutritional supplements can address both of these components, thereby maximizing plant performance
• Addressing other environmental factors, such as increasing the organic matter in your garden soil by adding soil amendments, such as BioChar, which provides a suitable environment in which beneficial soil bacteria can flourish
• As plant nutrition is improved, they become naturally resistant to disease and insect pests, they become hardier, and form much higher levels of medicinal compounds and essential oils. This is when food becomes medicine
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• Read more: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/09/22/high-performance-agriculture.aspx?e_cid=20130922Z1_SNL_Art_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20130922Z1 

New science confirms raw milk is remarkably safe

(NaturalNews) All of those antiquated government talking points about the alleged dangers of drinking raw milk have once again been debunked, this time by a series of scientific risk assessments recently published in the Journal of Food Protection. A press release published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) explains that, based on the results of three new quantitative microbial risk assessments (QMRAs), as well as the review of dozens of other scholarly papers on the subject, raw milk is very clearly a low-risk food that is generally safe for everyone, including pregnant women and young children.

Presented at a recent meeting of the Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, the groundbreaking results of these QMRAs were offered up as some of the latest scientific evidence proving the safety of fresh milk during a presentation entitled Unpasteurized milk: myths and evidence. The main reviewer, Nadine Ijaz, M.S.c, divulged during this presentation how raw milk has been unfairly and wrongly categorized as a high-risk food since the 1930s when filthy, urban distillery dairies were churning out toxic "swill" milk that had to be pasteurized because it was causing people to become ill.

Distillery dairies were eventually decommissioned and replaced by real farm dairies, which eliminated virtually all the risks associated with raw milk, but the "science" behind milk pasteurization became crystallized into the American psyche thanks to tremendous pressures by many state departments of agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA, as many NaturalNews readers are well aware, still clings to the outmoded theory that all milk has to be pasteurized in order to be considered safe.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041039_raw_milk_FDA_unpasteurized.html#ixzz2XsIkIFs4