From the files in my head: My food research for today, August 31.. for teachers and folks i care about

This started on facebook, when someone posted an article on Chinese babies growing breasts from the milk they drank. This is the response that I posted in my "notes" page:

From the files in my head: My food research for today, August 31.. for teachers and folks i care about

by Aurora Harris on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:17pm

my reseach info for today includes:

POV: Point of View PBS Docs

1. Notes on Milk... a documentary about the US milk industry
http://www.pbs.org/pov/notesonmilk/photo_gallery_watch.php

2. Swill Milk: stuff whiskey distilleries fed cows during whiskey-milk wars
http://brooklynology.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/post/2010/01/20/Brooklyn-Distilleries.aspx

3. Chernobyl nuclear explosion ( cuz the radiated milk was sent to the Philippines)
http://www.pbs.org/pov/englishsurgeon/background.php

and ..."The 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was one of the worst nuclear accidents in history, and the efforts of the Soviet government to conceal the accident and its fallout led to the contamination of about 8 percent of Ukraine's land mass, contributing to significantly higher cancer rates, particularly thyroid, in the region. According to the World Health Organization, there is no evidence that the Chernobyl incident contributed to a higher incidence of brain tumors. . The tumors Marsh sees in Kyiv are the same as those he sees in London, except they are often larger due to a lack of early diagnosis. The disaster did add to Ukraine's environmental woes, as did the country's role as an industrial center in the Soviet era, when lax regulation allowed extensive pollution to build up."

4. From years ago,  when I was following WTO presentations and scientifically grown seeds that were pushed on Asian rice farmers (Transnational Institute, 1999)
http://www.tni.org/article/asia-asian-farmers-and-wto    also:

http://www.pbs.org/pov/borders/2004/earth/earth_int_game.html

"Seed saving is an age-old tradition amongst farmers. Seeds are collected every harvest and saved for planting the following year. Some farmers also crossbreed different varieties to produce hybrid crops that flourish in the conditions that exist on that particular farm.

The "Seed Stewards" game illustrates the experience of 73-year-old Saskatchewan farmer, Percy Schmeiser, who contends that genetically-modified seeds contaminated his fields. In 1998, Monsanto investigators found evidence that Schmeiser was illegally growing patented seeds in his fields. Schmeiser, a conventional canola farmer and seed saver, claimed that the patented "Round-Up Ready" seeds blew into his fields from the nearby road and a neighboring farm. He refused to pay the licensing fee. The company sued Schmeiser shortly thereafter to protect its patent."

4. Genetically altered seeds in Africa:
http://www.africanagricultureblog.com/2010/01/seed-giant-dominates-genetically.html

peace
Aurora