Most Coffee is Heavily Sprayed With Pesticides

Next time you visit Starbucks, or any other coffee house think about this:

Most people are not aware that regular coffee consumption can be a significant source of pesticides. According to the CS Monitor, conventional farmers apply up to 250 pounds of chemical fertilizers per acre!

Pesticides contribute to a wide range of health problems, including prostate and other types of cancers, Parkinson’s disease, and miscarriages in pregnant women.

So when you sip on your non-organic morning brew, you are also sipping on pesticide residues. Further, the U.S. has limited input and control over the type and quantity of pesticides used in the countries from which we import.

Since the vast majority of coffee, both organic and non-organic, consumed in the U.S. is grown outside this country, a return to non-organic farming of coffee beans in Latin America means a return to heavy use of pesticides.

More Coffee Adverse Effects

Coffee increases your risk for rheumatoid arthritis, leukemia, stomach cancer, and stroke. It can further wreak havoc on your health by:

• Raising your cholesterol
  
• Sending your insulin levels out of control
  
• Damaging your blood vessels
  
• Increasing your risk of heart disease
  
• Damaging your body’s metabolism
  
• Increasing your risk of osteoporosis
  

Coffee also interferes with your body’s ability to use folate and vitamins B12 and B6. These nutrients are important in order to keep your homocysteine level in the healthy range. Elevated homocysteine levels are associated with a wide range of devastating health conditions.
Coffee also stimulates your adrenals -- the hormones that activate your fight or flight response. If your adrenal hormones are stimulated too often, which is bound to happen if you are a daily coffee drinker, your adrenal glands may eventually burn out.
When your adrenals no longer function effectively, your body will go in search of a replacement hormone -- which happens to be progesterone.
Progesterone has its own full-time job to do, part of which is to keep your body’s estrogen in balance. As your progesterone is used up compensating for your exhausted adrenals, you run the risk of becoming estrogen dominant.
Estrogen dominance can lead to osteoporosis.
Coffee also raises the acidity level of your blood, causing calcium to be pulled from your bones and teeth for use as a buffering agent. The combination of estrogen dominance and high blood acidity puts you at an even greater risk for osteoporosis. In fact, research has established an undeniable link between coffee consumption and hip fractures.

If You’re Planning a Family, Coffee Should Not be on the Menu

If you’re pregnant or planning to be, you should avoid coffee altogether.
Over 300 mg of caffeine a day, which is the equivalent of two to three eight ounce cups of coffee, can increase your risk of:

• Miscarriage
  
• Delivering a low birth weight baby
  
• Having a child with certain birth defects like cleft palate
  

Four or more cups of coffee a day may increase your baby’s risk of SIDS.
When you’re pregnant, any caffeine you ingest passes easily through the placenta to your unborn child.
It is also transferred through breast milk, and stays in your body – and the body of your un­born child or infant – longer than average. Your unborn baby has no ability to detoxify this drug.

f You Must Drink Coffee …

If you simply MUST drink coffee here are a few tips to help reduce the chances of harmful effects:

1. Use organic coffee – Again, coffee is a heavily sprayed crop, so drinking organic coffee might reduce or eliminate the exposure to toxic herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers. The only drawback is that the countries where coffee is produced probably have less control and monitoring for compliance to organic practices. You will also be helping to protect the health of the people working in the coffee fields, as you will be helping to reduce their toxic exposure as well. If you want to go a step further, look for fair-trade certified coffee, which means the coffee farmers have been paid fairly and treated well.
   
2. "Swiss Water Process" decaf -- If you are going to drink decaffeinated coffee, be sure that it is one that uses a non-chemical based method of decaffeination. The "Swiss Water Process" is a patented method and is the best choice. Most of the major brands are chemically decaffeinated, even if it says "Naturally Decaffeinated" right on the container. If you are unsure of the methods, contact the manufacturer.
   
3. Avoid sugar and/or milk -- These are actually much worse for you than the coffee itself. Don't compound the detrimental health effects by adding milk or sugar to your coffee.
   
4. Unbleached filters -- If you use a "drip" coffee maker, be sure to use non-bleached filters. The bright white ones, which most people use, are chlorine bleached and some of this chlorine will be extracted from the filter during the brewing process.

To read additional information - see source: 
 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/30/if-you-drink-coffee-make-sure-it-is-organic.aspx

Government tyranny: Illinois Department of Agriculture secretly destroys beekeeper's bees and 15 years of research proving Monsanto's Roundup kills bees

An Illinois beekeeper with more than a decade's worth of expertise about how to successfully raise organic, chemical-free bees is the latest victim of flagrant government tyranny. According to the Prairie Advocate, Terrence "Terry" Ingram of Apple River, Ill., owner of Apple Creek Apiaries, recently had his bees and beehives stolen from him by the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDofA), as well as more than 15 years' worth of research proving Monsanto's Roundup to be the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) destroyed.

It began last summer when Ingram, who teaches children about natural beekeeping, gave a sample of his honeycomb to IDofA inspector Susan Kivikko (http://www.agr.state.il.us/programs/bees/inspectors.html) at a beekeeper's picnic. Ingram explained that his bees would not touch the comb, and asked Kivikko if it could be tested for chemical contamination.

Kivikko told him that IDofA does not test for chemicals, presumably because its policy is to actively promote them, and instead took the comb and had it tested for "foulbrood," a disease that Ingram says is greatly overblown. When the test allegedly came back positive, Kivikko proceeded to get the ball rolling on a witch hunt that would eventually lead to the illegal seizure and destruction of Ingram's personal property.

Not only did Kivikko, as well as her colleague Eleanor Balson and superior Steven D. Chard, break the law by trespassing Ingram's property on numerous occasions without a warrant, but they also committed numerous crimes by stealing his hives and equipment and destroying pertinent evidence before a hearing, which Ingram believes may have ultimately been rooted in a deliberate conspiracy by the state to hide the truth about Roundup, and subsequently steal his most vibrant bees.

IDofA appears to have targeted Ingram for his research linking Roundup to CCD

Of particular interest was Ingram's extensive research on Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, which began several years ago when hundreds of Ingram's hives had died. He later determined that Roundup sprayings near his property were to blame, which prompted him to actively research the subject and closely monitor his hives in conjunction with this research from that point onward.

What he gathered, and subsequently taught to others, was concrete evidence that Roundup kills bees. He also used this information and his many years of experience to develop and refine ways of growing strong, chemical-free bees in spite of Roundup sprayings, a move that apparently upset IDofA, which operates primarily to serve the interests of chemical companies rather than the interests of the people.

"Is Illinois becoming a police state, where citizens do not have rights?" asked Ingram, who has been deliberately denied his rights, to the Prairie Advocate. "Knowing that Monsanto and the Department of Agriculture are in bed together, one has to wonder if Monsanto was behind the theft to ruin my research that may prove Roundup was, and is, killing honeybees."

Be sure to read the full Prairie Advocate story about Terry Ingram, which includes a video interview, here:
http://www.pacc-news.com/5-2-12/heart_ingram5_2_12.html

Sources for this article include:

http://www.pacc-news.com/5-2-12/heart_ingram5_2_12.html

http://www.agr.state.il.us/programs/bees/inspectors.html

Source:  http://www.naturalnews.com/035920_beekeeper_Illinois_raid.html#ixzz1vQygHL3E

Six steps to create your own organic permaculture garden

Organic gardening avoids the use of chemicals to make plants grow or protect them from insects, relying instead on natural gardening principles used for thousands of years. Permaculture organic gardening goes a step further and also emphasizes growing plants sustainably, working with rather than against the grain of the natural environment. Permaculture organic gardening is growing in popularity as more people realize that it offers an inexpensive and relatively low-maintenance way to grow their own fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers.

Choosing a location

Observe your property at different times of day. Consider which areas receive the most sun, which are in shade for much of the day. Depending on where you live, if sunshine is a scarce commodity, you will want to expose plants to receive as much as possible. On the other hand, in desert regions, you will not want your plants to be in the area most likely to be parched by sun exposure. Also think protecting your garden from the paths where strong winds tend to blow through your property. Even a small property will have microclimates -- notice these and plant accordingly to give different plants either more sun or more shade according to their preference.

Selecting plants

Avoid disease-prone plants which require time-consuming chores such as spraying and pruning by the gardener. Select plants which will thrive in your area rather than those which will require extra labor on your part to protect them from the environment. As far as possible, select plants which serve multiple purposes, such as fruit trees which will put forth blossoms in one season, fruit to pick in another, and provide shade for when you want to sit and enjoy your garden's natural beauty. Native plants are also more likely to attract local pollinators such as bees, and to draw butterflies so that your garden contains even more natural beauty.

Making a home for your plants

Raised beds require less physical effort on the part of the gardener and also benefit plants, providing better air circulation, more protection from spring chills and improved usage of water. Raised beds also mean a small permaculture garden is an option even for apartment dwellers and others with little available space since you can rely on containers and vertical gardening principles.

Feeding your plants

One of the key concepts of permaculture organic gardening is to avoid waste. Having a garden gives you a means of re-using natural waste such as eggshells, apple cores, coffee grinds as well as yard waste which many people throw away. You can either purchase or make a compost bin to turn this organic material into gardening gold which can be used to help your plants grow.

Watering your plants

Modern gardeners who do not follow sustainability principles tend to draw heavily on piped-in water resources, often using hoses and sprinklers to make plants which require abundant water grow in a desert climate. Permaculture organic gardening tries to use natural water as much as possible, maximizing the use of groundwater and rainwater. Rain barrels allow you to collect rainfall and extend its use over longer periods of time.

Protecting plants from pests

Eschewing the use of chemicals does not have to mean a garden full of pests. You can use companion gardening principles, growing plants which deter pests near those which attract them. There is also a natural synergy between some plants which means planting them near each other increases your yield. Also, just as some herbs have a medicinal effect on human health, they also offer benefits to plants which grow near them. For more information about companion planting, visit http://www.appropedia.org/CCAT_companion_planting and http://www.gardeningknowhow.com

If you have space and live in an area where it is permissible to keep poultry, chickens can make a wonderful addition to a permaculture garden. If they are permitted free-range for most of the day, they will consume many pests. Chicken manure also contributes beneficial nitrogen to the soil of your garden.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.safecom.org.au/permaculture.htm

http://www.organicgardening.com

http://www.appropedia.org/Beginners_permaculture_garden

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/035038_permaculture_gardening_how_to.html#ixzz1nQZExyLx

Victory Garden Idea

It’s just starting to warm up a little bit, but I’m already thinking of the coming growing season. What with the fluctuation of food prices, colony collapse disorders (some beekeepers are replacing their American honeybees with foreign bees- notably some from Australia, which are more aggressive than Western bees… fantastic!) and my general, healthy dose of skepticism, it’s a good time to get ready to plant. I’m thinking that cilantro, chives, lemon balm, strawberries, tomatoes, cukes, carrots, red peppers, green peppers, Thai basil, and some squash with a little lettuce thrown in should be a good start… May have to increase the size of the plot sometime…and purchase a box of ladybugs and some marigolds.

Grocery Warning: The Seven Most Dangerous Ingredients in Conventional Foods

Do you know which seven dangerous food ingredients to watch out for in your groceries? These are the "deadly seven," as I call them, and they can directly promote heart disease, migraines, obesity, outrageous food cravings, osteoporosis, diabetes and even birth defects.

The top three most dangerous ingredients I've found in my research are:

1) Sodium nitrite -- causes cancer, found in processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, sausage. Used to make meats appear red (a color fixer chemical).

2) Hydrogenated oils -- causes heart disease, nutritional deficiencies, general deterioration of cellular health, and much more. Found in cookies, crackers, margarine and many "manufactured" foods. Used to make oils stay in the food, extending shelf life. Sometimes also called "plastic fat."

3) Excitotoxins -- aspartame, monosodium glutamate and others (see below). These neurotoxic chemical additives directly harm nerve cells, over-exciting them to the point of cell death, according to Dr. Russell Blaylock. They're found in diet soda, canned soup, salad dressing, breakfast sausage and even many manufactured vegetarian foods. They're used to add flavor to over-processed, boring foods that have had the life cooked out of them.

Want to know more about the genuine dangers posed by toxic food ingredients and additives? I'll share more with you in this email, but first let me invite you to check out the tell-all book I've written on the subject: "Grocery Warning."

Grocery Warning exposes the truth that food companies will never admit to and the mainstream media will never print (because they receive advertising funds from food companies, of course!).

http://www.truthpublishing.com/GroceryWarning.html

It reveals, in shocking detail, exactly which ingredients compromise your health (and how they do it). Based on thousands of hours of research, and quotations from the top doctors, authors and nutritionists, Grocery Warning tells you the truth about foods and groceries that will empower you with life-changing information.

Did you know, for example, that:

* Feeding children hot dogs increases their risk of brain cancer by 300%? * Strawberry yogurt, fruit punch and other red-looking grocery products are often colored with dead, ground-up cochineal beetles? The ingredient is called "carmine," and it's made from insects. It's listed right on the label of many of your favorite foods.
* Food companies now "hide" MSG in safe-sounding ingredients like yeast extract or torula yeast?
* Many Florida oranges are actually dipped in an artificial orange dye in order to make them more visually appealing? It's the same dye that's been banned for use in foods because of cancer risk.
* Girl Scout cookies are still made with hydrogenated oils that contain trans fatty acids?
* Many so-called "healthy" or vegetarian foods also contain the very same offending ingredients as conventional groceries?
* Eating just one serving of processed meats each day increases your risk of pancreatic cancer by 67%?
* One artificial color additive causes behavioral disorders in children? And that 80% of children diagnosed with ADHD can be outright cured of the condition in two weeks by avoiding certain ingredients?
* The #1 ingredient in Slim Fast meal replacement shake (powder form) is sugar?
* Some guacamole dips don't even contain avocado? Instead, they're made with hydrogenated soybean oil and artificial colors. Everything I'm sharing here is absolutely true. It's all quite shocking, yes, but this is information you need to know if you want to feed yourself -- and your family -- foods that actually promote health instead of disease.

Check out the Grocery Warning System, complete with my book, audio bonus CD, reference charts, research compendium and more:

http://www.truthpublishing.com/GroceryWarning.html

The truth about metabolic disruptors

Nearly all modern diseases are caused by what I call "metabolic disruptors." These are common ingredients, such as white flour and sugar, that prevent your body from healing. Unfortunately, metabolic disruptors are used in almost all commercially prepared foods, which means most products on your grocer's shelves contribute to poor health. But if you know what to look for, you can fill your cart with foods that will help you live a longer more vibrant life.

That's why I created the Grocery Warning System. This system will give you the information you need to make the healthiest shopping choices at the grocery store. You'll learn which ingredients have been linked to disease, as well as important nutrients that have been shown to prevent and reverse cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other degenerative diseases.

Here's what else you'll find in Grocery Warning:
* Which common ingredient has been shown to ravage the cardiovascular system and promote heart disease while destroying brain cells. *
* Why some popular beverages have been linked to blindness and seizures, dementia, Alzheimer's and behavioral disorders. *
* How a single food ingredient is killing more than 30,000 Americans each year and yet remains perfectly legal due to food industry politics and influence on federal regulators. *
* How food manufacturers alter natural fats and convert them into disease-promoting ingredients that ravage your health and make it virtually impossible to lose weight, no matter what you eat! *
* The one natural, alternative sweetener that has no calories, no blood sugar effects, no chemical toxicity, and tastes great! *
* What "homogenized" means on milk products and the shocking truth of how this artificial alteration of dairy fats poses a very real threat to your health. *
* How to reverse osteoporosis and other bone disorders through dietary and lifestyle changes that create high-density bones throughout your body. *
* The truth behind the margarine scam and how the food industry convinced an entire nation to eat disease-promoting margarine for decades, based on shoddy scientific evidence and political influence. *
* The one natural oil that's lacking from the diets of virtually all Americans, but can significantly improve brain function. *
* Why at least one prominent doctor is accusing the FDA of committing crimes against humanity for not protecting the public from the immediate health dangers posed by three different ingredients found in virtually every grocery store. To find out more about the Grocery Warning System, visit: http://www.truthpublishing.com/GroceryWarning.html

Back to the "hidden" ingredients

So how do food companies manage to hide excitotoxins and taste additives to their foods? It's easy: They just keep changing the words to confuse consumers. Once customers learned to avoid MSG / monosodium glutamate, the food companies started using yeast extract.

And now, two years after I started sounding the alarm on yeast extract, many companies have switched to "torula yeast," which accomplishes the same thing. Other hidden sources of MSG include:

. Autolyzed vegetable protein . Hydrolyzed vegetable protein

The ingredients "stacking" trick

Food companies also use the ingredients stacking trick to intentionally leave you with the wrong impression about what's really in their food products.

For example, one company makes a nutrition bar that's absolutely loaded with sugar, but they way they've arranged the ingredients prevents sugar from appearing as the #1 ingredient. Instead, the first ingredient is rice. But looking down the label, you'll find all the following forms of sugar, all in the same nutrition bar:

. Sugar . Sucrose . High-fructose corn syrup . Corn syrup solids . Dextrose

Add all these up, and the #1 component in the bar is, indeed, sugar (or sugary substances). But the manufacturer has used ingredients stacking to make you think the top ingredient is actually rice.

It's a clever, dishonest technique used by food companies to lie with food labels.

Remember, the longer the ingredients label, the less healthy the food. Read those ingredients lists before buying foods, and if you discover chemical names that you can't pronounce, don't buy the food!

Learn more with Grocery Warning: http://www.truthpublishing.com/GroceryWarning.html

To your health, - Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Source: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_705.cfm

Senomyx: Urgent Food From NanoTechnology

Note to the reader: Senomyx has exclusive agreements with Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Rockefeller University, and the University of California regarding various enabling technologies in the field of chemosensation. 

Senomyx is a leading company using proprietary taste receptor technologies to discover and develop novel flavor ingredients in the savory, sweet, salt, bitter, and cooling areas. Senomyx has entered into product discovery and development collaborations with seven of the world's leading packaged food and beverage companies: Ajinomoto Co., Inc., Cadbury Schweppes, Campbell Soup Company, The Coca-Cola Company, Firmenich SA, Nestlé SA, and Solae, LLC. Nestlé is currently marketing products that contain one of Senomyx's flavor ingredients. For more information, please visit www.senomyx.com.

**********************************************************
Forward from: Eileen Dannemann

Sourced: www.progressiveconvergence.com/

Perhaps some of you remember the day when the National Organic Standards Board and most consumers knew nothing about GMO. And we had to get educated fast and just managed to save the Organic standards from GMO on a case to case basis which was being pushed by Gene Kahn of Cascadian who sold out to Welches. Well....here is the next wave that you must be prepared for. I suggest the leaders of food movements take the time to educate themselves this weekend.

THIS IS ABOUT THE APPLICATION OF THE RELATIVELY NEW SCIENCE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY TO FOOD

It relates to S.510 the Food Safety bill

It relates to the Organic Certification diminution and Kraft being "krafty" in preparing the way with the its lobbying a few years ago to potentially set up the Organic standards to employ its patented nanotechnology and create organic product lines...like Organic diet drinks, for example.

... for your education, Tiny primer (primer for you on nanotechnology from www.etcgroup.org)

And a blurb about SENOMYX.

And a video series by Bruce Lipton that is very enlightening when you think about how Senomyx must work.

Bruce Lipton Perception (beliefs) controls genes (series of 10)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJXRjEPEhL0&feature=related

Renowned cell biologist, former University of Wisconsin Medical School professor and Stanford University researcher Bruce Lipton, PhD, MD.

... The question ultimately comes down to the "programmer," those that decide what intention they have for Senomyx. This means , "Do we trust the corporations to use this "drug" for the benefit of health. Well there, I have a clear answer ... and that is, NO! Interestingly, they company has made a concerted effort to keep their meddling out of the public and off of the labels. That, in itself, is the revelation of their intent. Upfront, they will crow about the virtues of Senomyx, and in the back room they are likely considering the manufacture of cheap Senomyx-flavored polystyrene food substitutes.

Given the moral compass of today's food industry corporations, legitimizing Senomyx is like giving a gun to the guy who is already threatening your life with a knife.

Hope this personal assessment is useful!

Bruce

See also:
New Chemical Alternative to MSG That is Coming Soon
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/01/08/chemists-cooking-up-mysterious-quot-fifth-taste-quot.aspx

Are Nanofoods the Next Consumer Nightmare?
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/08/19/are-nanofoods-the-next-consumer-nightmare.aspx

more from: from Eileen Dannemann:

Folks...You had better get familiar with nanotechnology. It is a technology of such small scale they are putting it in our food and drinks without labeling...for example Kraft, Nestle, Coca Cola, Campbell...Senomyx...An unlabeled food enhancer that will allow manufacturers (such as Kraft who is an "organic" foods processor) to put it in our drinks instead of sugar say, or salt or even msg. But the caveat is....Senomyx, as an example of nano technology that basically when consuming the product, it DRUGS our tongue receptors so that we "think" we are eating sugar but we are not. Are we going to allow the food manufacturers to destroy our trust in our senses? If so..the children and the intelligent of world had better start developing the advance inner sixth sense which they can't touch.

It was, by the way, a Kraft related lobbyist who diluted the organic standards

Senate Bill 510 Food Safety does not mention nanotechnology as a safety issue. Are they really interested in food safety or controlling the market?