Through a unanimous vote by its City Council, the city of Berkeley, California has decided to hold Monsanto legally liable for polluting the land and water with PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). [1]
The council’s 6-0 vote means that Berkeley is joining Oakland, San Jose, San Diego and Spokane, Washington, in filing suits against Monsanto, the agricultural biotech company based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Six major food manufacturers – including Nestle, PepsiCo, and Mexican baking company Grupo Bimbo – have been slapped with fines by the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, which alleges the companies failed to include labels indicating the use of genetically modified ingredients.
The fines range from $277,400 to just over $1 million, for an estimated total of $3 million.
The world is already well aware of the many nasty effects of pesticides, but in missing its own risk assessment deadline in 2015 for atrazine, glyphosate, and imidacloprid, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sends a clear message to those concerned about biological diversity and human health. If the EPA isn’t doing the business of pushing biotech’s agenda, the agency isn’t interested in protecting life.
Tropicana Pure Premium products and 4 other PepsiCo brands will soon bear the Non-GMO Project butterfly seal. The emblem will start appearing early next year.
PepsiCo has been one of the biggest opponents of state efforts to require labels on such foods, though now it seems the company is making extra effort to grapple the consumer market seeking organic and non-GMO foods.
No one can argue that 2015 was a rough year for Chipotle. Five outbreaks of foodborne illness have struck the Mexican restaurant franchise since October, giving a bad reputation to a food chain that is going the route of healthy and GMO-free (at least on the surface).
Here’s a timeline of Chipotle’s nightmare:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is ordering an isolation barrier to be built at the West Lake Landfill in St. Louis, Missouri where nuclear waste dating back to the 1973 Manhattan Project was illegally dumped 4 years ago.
An underground fire has been burning beneath the landfill some 1,200 feet away from the adjoining Bridgeton Landfill. [1]
EPA spokeswoman Angela Breese said the barrier “will essentially be an underground wall.”
Back in October, we reported on the growing lead crisis in Flint, Michigan’s tap water. Water had twice the amount of lead in it after it switched its water sources in April 2014 from the Detroit to the Flint River, all in the name of money.
This might sound like an odd-sounded phrase: organic Gatorade. But it’s real, and it will soon be on store shelves.
The organic Gatorade, made by PepsiCo, was announced by company CEO Al Carey last Monday at Beverage Digest’s Future Smarts conference.
“It’s a consumer interest. I think they’re very interested in non-GMO and organic, and to the degree you can make it meaningful to the consumer – do it,” said Carey.
In the massive spending bill unveiled Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill, 2 small paragraphs contain language that may force the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to finalize guidelines for the labeling of the recently-approved genetically modified (GM) salmon, or “Frankenfish.”
The U.S. Senate unanimously voted recently to phase out the use of plastic microbeads in soaps, body washes, and other personal care products starting in 2017.
The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 was approved following House approval last week and is now headed to President Barack Obama’s desk.
