Healthy Garden Food Newsletter
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| Editor: Bev Buckley |
MONTH YEAR |
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| Genetic Modification - a threat to the sustainability of human life |
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Fresh fears are being raised about the safety of genetically modified food following the publication of research studies in Austria and the findings from some of Monsanto's own research carried out on three strains of GM maize, all of which are widely grown in America. Monsanto was forced to publish its raw data, after a legal challenge from Greenpeace, the Swiss Board of Agriculture and French anti-GM campaigners.
Raw data from the Monsanto research was examined by French researcher Dr Gilles-Eric Seralini, who has called for more studies to check for long-term organ damage in animals fed a diet of genetically modified food. Monsanto claims the analysis of its data was "based on faulty analytical methods and reasoning and does not call into question the safety findings for these products".
In the Monsanto study rats, which ate genetically modified maize, had "statistically significant" signs of liver and kidney damage. This was linked to unusual concentrations of hormones in the blood and urine. Female rats had high blood sugar levels and raised tri-glyceride levels.
In Austria, researchers confirmed a direct link between a decrease in fertility and a diet containing GM food. The study was commissioned by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety and carried out by the Veterinary University Vienna. They found significant litter size and pup weight deceases in the third and fourth litters in GM-fed mice. The GM produce in question was corn genetically modified with genes that produce a pesticidal toxin as well as genes that allow the corn to survive applications of the herbicide Roundup.
Jeffrey Smith, author of "Seeds of Deception" and "Genetic Roulette" has documented 65 serious health risks from genetically modified products of all kinds. |
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These include:
- offspring of rats fed GM soy showed a five-fold increase in mortality, lower birth rates and inability to reproduce
- male mice fed GM soy had damaged young sperm cells
- embryonic offspring of GM soy-fed mice had altered DNA functioning
- sterility or fertility problems among pigs and cows fed on GM corn varieties
- fertility problems, abortions, premature births and other serious health issues, including deaths, among buffaloes in India fed GM cottonseed products.
Whilst no one knows for sure the long term effect of eating genetically modified food, the immediate consequences are known: between 1991 and 2001, the period during which GMO food flooded the market, food related illnesses doubled because GMO foods can be allogenic, toxic, carcinogenic and anti-nutritional.
Dr Mae-Wan Ho of the Institute of Science in Society explains that GM foods are dangerous because "the genome is remarkably dynamic and 'fluid' and constantly in conversation with the environment. This determines which genes are turned on, when, where, by how much and for how long. Moreover, the genetic material itself could also be marked or changed according to experience, and the influence passed on to the next generation. Rogue genes inserted into a genome could land anywhere; typically in a re-arranged or defective form, scrambling and mutating the host genome, and have the tendency to move or re-arrange further once inserted. This is ultimately why genetic modification is dangerous.
Ref: http://www.dailynews.co.uk Jan 21, 2010
Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement. |
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Carrots
Raw carrots provide a good source of potassium, vitamin B6, copper, folic acid, magnesium as well as calcium pectate: a pectin, that has cholesterol-lowering properties.
Cooked carrots and carrot juice are even more nutritious than raw carrots.
Cooked carrots provide vitamins A, B1, B2, C and E, alpha and beta carotene, phytochemicals, glutathione, calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous and sulphur. Carrots also contain phenolic compounds, which have anti-oxidant properties.
The reason for the improved nutritional value of cooked carrots is that digestive system cannot break down a carrot’s thick cell walls. Cooking partially dissolves cellulose, frees up nutrients and makes them easier to digest.
Carrots are recognised for their sweetening, healing, diuretic, re-mineralisation and sedative properties. |
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Carrot Cake
Ingredients
2 large carrots (300 grams)
1 cup of self raising flour (150 grams)
½ cup of plain flour (75 grams)
½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
½ cup of brown sugar (80 grams)
¾ cup of oil (185 grams)
½ cup of golden syrup
3 eggs
½ cup of chopped walnuts
Icing
250 grams of cream cheese
½ cup of icing sugar
½ teaspoon of vanilla essence.
Method
Preheat oven to 1700C. Grease a 20 cm round cake tin lightly with oil and line with non-stick paper. Grate carrots and set aside.
Sift flour, bi-carbonate of soda and cinnamon into a large bowl. Blend oil, brown sugar, golden syrup, eggs and vanilla. Pour oil mixture into dry ingredients and stir gently to combine. Add carrots and walnuts and stir into the mixture.
Pour into cake tin and bake for 1 hour.
Icing
When cake is cool blend cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla. Spread over cake. |
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If you think you're a person of influence, try ordering someone else's dog around.
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Growing carrots
the bio-nutrient way
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Sow carrots directly into the soil. They do not transplant readily. They like deep, friable soil so growing on a mounded bed is ideal. Carrots don't like too much nitrogen so don't use animal manure before you plant.
If your soil is heavy because it has a high clay content, add humic acid granules, lime, sand and/or crushed rock to open up the soil and allow oxygen to penetrate.
The ideal growing weather for carrots is between 70C and 240C but carrots will germinate all year round even in extremely hot weather as long as they are kept damp. If the soil dries out, the seeds and seedlings "bake" in the heat. In hot dry weather water twice a day until the carrots are well established.
To plant, mark a very shallow furrow with a trowel. Many people have problems germinating carrots because they plant them too deeply. Cover the seeds with a very thin sprinkling of soil.
I sow my carrot rows about 15 cm apart, which is closer than is normally recommended. This means I don't get huge carrots, but I get lots and lots of medium sized ones. If you want large sized carrots, sow the rows further apart and be sparing with the seeds as you plant. Some people recommend mixing the seeds with sand, but I prefer to move along the row very quickly and allow the carrot seeds to fall onto the ground from a height of 1/2 metre. As they fall they spread out. When the carrots emerge you can see where the seeds have fallen too close together. Weeds and seedlings emerge after two weeks. Pull the weeds out when they are small and at the same remove carrots that are too close to each other. Crowded carrots do not mature. Leave 1 cm. between each carrot plant. This is time consuming but not difficult if you do it when the weeds are tiny. If you let them get established, you have major problems. Side dress with an all purpose fertilizer such as blood and bone and mulch right up to the edge of the carrot row with grass cuttings, straw or cane mulch. This retards further weed growth.
Pick your carrots selectively. The ones on the outside of the row mature first. Pick them and allow the others time and space to grow. |
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© Growing Healthy Australia 2010.
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