Visit the Nolan’s farm Laurel Valley Creamery online http://su.pr/1iSL3S and follow the farm on twitter @lvcreamery.

If you’d like to see this amazing short film turned into a full length documentary you can help out by clicking here. The great group at Milk Products Media have about 2 months left to raise $28,000 to turn From Grass to Cheese into a feature!  Media and films like these help build support for family run farms which we desperately need more of.  So, be sure to share this video with all your friends and family and use your dollars in the best possible way at grocery stores and buy local family owned & operated!

From Grass to Cheese is a feature documentary that chronicles the ups and downs of a family-run dairy farm in Ohio during it’s first year of cheese production. From Grass to Cheese will tell the story of Nick and Celeste Nolan, their five children, and what it’s like to start up a family farm in the age of industrial agriculture.

Here’s a first hand account by Goldman Prize winner Maria Gunnoe describing first hand the devastation residents are facing.

Mountaintop removal mining study will test Obama’s commitment to science
Just days after the Environmental Protection Agency approved the expansion of a massive mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia, a dozen prominent scientists published a landmark study documenting the severe environmental and human health damage caused by the practice — and called on the government to impose a moratorium.
The findings will test the Obama administration’s stated commitment to basing policy on science instead of politics.

Titled “Mountaintop Mining Consequences,“ the study by some of the nation’s leading environmental scientists appeared in the Jan. 8 issue of the journal Science. It takes a broad look at the impacts of the practice, which involves clearing upper-elevation forests, stripping the topsoil, and blasting the rock with explosives to get to the coal below. The resulting waste is pushed into the valleys, burying headwater streams.

The researchers found that mountaintop removal mining operators have destroyed around 500 peaks in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky, and about 2,000 miles of streams. They also found that efforts to restore the damaged sites have not prevented metals and other contaminants from moving into waters downstream. The study documents deformities found in young fish in water contaminated by mountaintop removal mine runoff — as well as higher disease and mortality rates in the coal fields’ human residents.

The authors include Emily Bernhardt, a biologist with Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment in Durham, N.C.; Dennis Lemly, U.S. Forest Service research biologist at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.; plant biologist Peter White of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Michael Hendryx with West Virginia University’s Department of Community Medicine; and William Schlesinger, the former dean of Duke’s Nicholas School who’s now with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y.

via The Institute for Southern Studies

Visit the National Resources for Defence Council to TAKE ACTION and send a message to Congress.

More First Hand Accounts from Kentucky residents and miners.

Carl Shoupe talks about Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in Kentucky

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Michael R. Taylor, J.D., was appointed Deputy Commissioner for Foods.  This was announced on the FDA’s website the day after the earthquake in Haiti.  Michael Taylor is a former top executive, lawyer and lobbyist with biotech giant Monsanto Co. He has rotated in and out of law firms, Monsanto, the USDA and FDA.

During his former stint in the FDA during the Clinton administration he helped write the rules to allow rBGH (Bovine Growth Hormone) into the American food system and our children’s milk. Which is perhaps why the FDA staffer who wrote Taylor’s bio seems to have all-but-forgotten his decade-plus of Monsanto work.  Michael Taylor and Monsanto are responsible for subjecting this country and many others to the increased risk of breast cancer (7 times greater risk), prostate cancer and colon cancer because of what they did to milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream with rBGH as well as to all the foods that rely on milk solids and other parts of milk.

As a bi-product of the rBGH fight Michael Taylor then led the ban on labeling of GM products all together.  This was labeled “the principal of substantial equivalence” which prohibits any distinction to be made between GM and traditional products.  Regardless of any testing or lack there of  on the possible effects of GM foods used for human consumption.  Even though Memo after memo described toxins, new diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and hard-to-detect allergens. They were adamant that the technology carried “serious health hazards,” and required careful, long-term research, including human studies, before any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be safely released into the food supply.

He left the FDA in 1994 and a few years later became Monsanto’s Vice President in charge of lobbying in Washington.  As a lobbyist, Taylor argued AGAINST the Delaney Clause, one of the foundations of food safety regulation that prohibits cancer-causing chemicals to be added to food.

“The American Academy of Environmental Medicine this year said that genetically modified foods, according to animal studies, are causally linked to accelerated aging, dysfunctional immune regulation, organ damage, gastrointestinal distress, and immune system damage. A study came out by the Union of Concerned Scientists confirming what we all know, that genetically modified crops, on average, reduce yield. A USDA report from 2006 showed that farmers don’t actually increase income from GMOs, but many actually lose income. And for the last several years, the United States has been forced to spend $3-$5 billion per year to prop up the prices of the GM crops no one wants.

If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history.  That person is Michael Taylor.” – Jeffrey M. Smith*

It’s deplorable that Michael Taylor who has repeatedly and knowingly endangered the American people is once again in charge of our food safety.

A Winning Pair FDA & USDA!

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto support of genetically engineered pharmaceutical crops, especially pharmaceutical corn.  Vilsack was the origin of the Seed Pre-Emption bill in 2005, which many people in Iowa fought.   The bill took away local government’s possibility of ever having a regulation on seeds such as where GE would be grown, having GE-free buffers.  Tom Vilsack was also the founder and former chair of the Governor’s Biotechnology Partnership.

Bill HR 875 nicknamed ‘The Criminalization of Organic Farming and the Take Over of the US Food Supply’

Monsanto is taking massive control over all farms through the falsely named “Food Safety” bills, introduced by Rosa DeLauro whose husband, Stanley Greenburg got rich from working for Clinton and Monsanto. The agriculture committee is loaded with people who have gotten large donations from Monsanto.  The biggest of the Monsanto bills introduced by DeLauro is HR 875.   Identical bills that have been enacted into law in the European Union resulted in 60% of the Polish farmers are now gone and 60+ UK farmers have committed suicide.  Iraq has been rendered helpless serfs by the theft of their country’s seeds and criminalization of farmers’ collection of their own seed.  By far the most devasting is India, where 182,000 farmers have committed suicide since the WTO and IMF got hold of agriculture and our Big Ag firms went in there, an additional 8 million farmers have left the land altogether.

By comparison to other nations the criminalization of our hard working family farmers is still in it’s infancy.  In Ohio, state ag department SWAT team raid on an organic CoOp, Pennsylvania ag department raids on horse and buggy Mennonites, California setting coliform levels so low fresh milk dairy farmers would need cows that produced pasteurized milk right out the udder, arrest and handcuffing of a single mother in front of her children for selling goat milk, the USDA paying its agents bonuses for foreclosing on farms.  HR-875 will make theses instances look like specs of dust in the devastation it wishes to unleash on Americans.

This is the death of organic food and the criminalization of seed banking.   It is a Monsanto take over and Taylor is here to run it with a few former Monsanto sidekicks – Clarence Thomas (Supreme Court), Ann Veneman (Executive Director of UNICEF).

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

Keep the conversation going! Share informative articles such as this with friends, family and colleagues.  Knowledge is power! This is a topic you rarely if ever see on the news, it’s up to us to protect our family, friends and farmers.  Americans need to demand a food safety system that is independent of corporate interests.  Use your buying power; every dollar you spend with organic, local, Monsanto-free farmers, as well as the stores and restaurants that carry their food, is a vote against companies like Monsanto.

CLICK HERE TO DIGG THIS STORY

It will take you less then 5 minutes to read the facts below.  These scientific facts should lead to no other conclusion that top parties (former and present) at Monsanto should face criminal prosecution, not be rewarded with top seats in the American Government.

a VERY Brief Monsanto Background – Monsanto is responsible for the following:

• The Manhattan Project – under Monsanto operation conducted during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb and nuclear weapons.
• Agent Orange – Dow Chemical and Monsanto were the main producers of Agent Orange.  Internal memos from them reveal that at the time Agent Orange was sold to the U.S. government for use in Vietnam it was known that it contained a dioxin, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD), a by-product of the manufacture 2,4,5-T. The National Toxicology Program has classified TCDD to be a human carcinogen linked to the following diseases as reported by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs: prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, type II diabetes, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy, B cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia, Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and spina bifida in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange.
• DDT – Monsanto began producing in 1944 along with 15 other companies. People living in areas where DDT is used for IRS have high levels of the chemical and its breakdown products in their bodies.   These levels have been associated with profound affects on male fertility and neurological abnormalities in babies ingesting relatively large quantities of DDT from breast milk.
• Bovine Growth Horomone (rBGH, BST) - Bovine somatotropin (abbreviated bST and BST) is a protein hormone produced in the pituitary glands of cattle. It is also called bovine growth hormone, or BGH. Monsanto first synthesized the hormone in large quantities using recombinant DNA technology and marketed it as “POSILAC” beginning in 1994. The resulting product is called recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), or artificial growth hormone.  After many legal battles, bad press and public outcry against rBGH Monsanto sold its POSILAC Brand Dairy Product and Related Business to Elanco Animal Health, a division of Eli Lilly and Company in August 2008. Posilac was banned from use in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe, by 2000 or earlier. By 2009, in parts of the United States, consumer desire for “no artificial growth hormones” caused many milk products to become rBST-free
• Sued 100+ Family Farms – The non-profit Center for Food Safety listed 112 lawsuits by Monsanto against farmers for claims of seed patent violations.  Many innocent farmers settle with Monsanto (agree to use their GMO seeds) because they cannot afford the lawsuit from the giant company. Monsanto is frequently described by farmers as “Gestapo” and “Mafia” both because of these lawsuits and because of the questionable means they use to collect evidence of patent infringement.
• RoundUp - This is a deep rabbit whole that is a key element in the current Monsanto compan – I highly recommend watching The World According to Monsanto! Much of Monsanto’s seed products are genetically modified, often to make them immune to their pesticides. In a study by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, researchers found that “these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity (chemical driven liver damage).
• PCBs – Monsanto produced PCBs at plants in Sauget, Illinois and Anniston, Alabama. Monsanto Co. routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills.  And thousands of pages of Monsanto documents — many emblazoned with warnings such as “CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy” — show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew. Anniston is now one of the most polluted patches of land in America, so saturated with toxic, cancer-causing chemicals, that it’s in the dirt people walk on, in the air that they breathe, even in the blood that pumps through their veins. Due to PCB’s toxicity and classification as persistent organic pollutants, PCB production was banned by the United States Congress in 1976 and by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2001.

*Jeffrey M. Smith, International Best Selling Author of Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods from Chelsea Green Publishing. Smith worked at a GMO detection laboratory, founded the Institute for Responsible Technology, and currently lives in Iowa—surrounded by genetically modified corn and soybeans.

More detailed Monsanto Articles

BioIntegrity.org |  OrganicConsumers.org |  Vanity Fair 2008 feature article | Combat-Monsanto.co.uk

At this stage in the game it’s a rare occurrence to find something in your house or in a store that is made in the U.S.A. and not in China.  There’s a lot of ways to be ‘green’ and I’ll be the first to admit I  fail on most of them!   I don’t compost, I don’t drive an electric car, I can’t afford solar panels, I have a full flush toilet, I don’t collect rain water … trust me the list goes on.  Someday I hope to have a self contained off the grid carbon neutral  living arrangement … until then, I do my best to support items and businesses made locally by friends and family and choose MADE IN THE USA whenever possible.

View more information on the Cotton of the Carolinas website.

A 30-Minute Documentary from the makers of King Corn about The Ecological Consequences of Industrial Agriculture.

http://www.bigriverfilm.com

For more info and tickets, visit http://asheville. twestival.com

Thanks to popular films like Food Inc., Monsanto is becoming more of a household term.  But who is Monsanto?  Where did they come from?  Why can saying their name alone bring such outrage that their nickname is the ‘devil’?

Below you will find a great 10 part documentary series free on YouTube in HD.  Since this one company is now controlling a majority of the worlds food supply and it’s unlikely to ever hit your evening news in a big way, take the time now to educate yourself.  Learn more, see how you feel about the company form your own opinions and open up dialog with your friends and family. If you have any trouble viewing the videos below view them on YouTube here.

The World According to Monsanto | part 1 of 10

part 2 of 10

part 3 of 10

part 4 of 10

part 5 of 10

part 6 of 10

part 7 of 10

part 8 of 10

part 9 of 10

part 10 of 10

PHOTO BY: KIESHA JEAN

If you have had the privilege to see Food Inc.  you have seen the horrible truth behind GMO companies.  They are destroying the heart of our great nation by controlling, unlawfully suing and spying on hard working honest farmers.   H.R. 6637, The Genetically Engineered Farmer Protection Act, places liability from the impacts of genetically engineered organisms on the biotechnology companies that created the GMOs, and protects farmers from law suits by biotechnology companies. Dennis Kucinich is fighting for the right to protect farmers from large companies such as Monsanto with H. R. 6637.  Kucinich is proud to give strong and unwavering support to our organic family farmers.

Please fill out the petition below to have North Carolina Congressman Heath Schuler protect farmers rights and support Bill H. R. 6637.  I know our audience reaches far beyond the mountains of Western North Carolina.  If you agree with this bill, please sign the petition and I will forward your information to your elected official.

View the full H. R. 6637 bill

Sign the Petition

You can also share your personal message with Congressman Heath Shuler by clicking here

This message is very near and dear to me.  Our farmers sustain our life with the food that they provide, please help give them a voice.  We can make a difference!  Share this link with your friends | family | coworkers | followers & Digg this submission below.   The bigger the audience the bigger the voice.  Thank you.

note to news and onlines sources: you have our full permission to share this message either in part or whole on your site.

Visit 38 farms and gardens throughout six counties in Western North Carolina.

“The region is home to agriculture of all kinds, ranging from century farms cultivated by the same family for generations, to certified organic farms, to urban gardens. Tour your choice.”

Admission

Purchase a button. One button admits everyone in your car.
Button are offered for sale for $20 at these locations .
You may also purchase buttons at farms on the day of the tour for $25.
If you only wish to visit one farm, pay $10 on-site.

photo by: Kiesha Jean Dillingham, NC Spring 2009

About the Tour

“Here’s how it works: Get a farm tour map and button. Gather your friends, fill a car, choose the farms you want to visit, and plan a route. There are more than enough choices to fill a schedule for Saturday and Sunday.

Come with a cooler and your appetite.  A variety of vegetables and fruits, trout, beef, pork, lamb, eggs, artisan cheeses, herbs, mushrooms, honey, garlic, preserves, and much more are available to sample or for sale. Products including yarn, soap, and crafts are offered as well.

Watch animals such as bison, llamas, baby lambs, and bunnies. See traditional skills in practice—and even try them out yourself—during demonstrations of border collie shepherding, outdoor apple butter making, milking, the maple syrup tapping process, and wool spinning.  Or, learn about new ideas during a tour of renewable energy systems, see a hydroponics system, visit an edible landscape, or explore a garden labyrinth. Eat bread fresh from a wood fired oven and artisan ice cream, and stop for a picnic at one of the many beautiful farms along the way.”

Click Here for more info on the Family Farm Tour

http://www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen

Watch the full movie on YouTube until June 14th, 2009!
http://www.youtube.com/homeproject