This is a definite risk with organic farms all over the world, as these genetically modified seeds and crops that are being utilized by farmers and companies eager to stave off the impending droughts and other global-warming-induced natural conditions.

Organicconsumers.org reports the story in an interesting way, and it is one well-worth reading. For a taste, start here with the fact that, “ethanol’s revival is intimately linked to one company, the giant grain-trading firm Archer Daniels Midland, and one seemingly unrelated product, high-fructose corn syrup. The story centers on a man who arguably counts as corporate America’s most generous and influential political donor of the second half of the 20th century, former ADM CEO Dwayne Andreas. To understand the weird and lucrative nexus between an industrial sweetener, a gas substitute, and a grain magnate, we need to go back to the days of disco.”

As organicconsumers.org reports, “nationwide, heightened food and gasoline prices, combined with an economy that’s shedding jobs, are putting a hard squeeze on consumers. According to The New York Times, applications for food stamps have surged recently, and the program is projected to reach 28 million Americans over the next several months, the most since its inception in the 1960s.”

This is something we all need to be very, very careful with. Those who are struggling to put food on the table are not going to find any sort of joy in going to the local farmers market to buy produce that is locally and organically grown -that’s just not the way the world works.

To that front, about 5,000 activists came together and marked through the German city of Bonn on Monday, May 12 to, according to organicconsumers.org, “protest against genetically modified food at the start of a U.N. conference to discuss risks linked to the technology.” The protesters went on to say that they “are protesting for biodiversity and against the destruction of nature, against GM, for the protection of biodiversity” all of which are very good causes!

The efforts of these students to get these sustainable foods into their schools include everything “from supporting local farm stands on campuses to teaching dining service staff how to cook with local and sustainable ingredients to participating in national campaigns to raise awareness about green eating, young learners have become integral to the larger process of change. The term ’sustainable’ in this case refers to agricultural practices that are environmentally friendly (i.e. organic or with minimal pesticides), support local small farmers and promote healthy, diversified diets.”

As organicconsumers.org tells us, “The value of genetically modified, or bio-engineered, food is an intensely disputed issue in the U.S. and in Europe, where many countries have banned foods made from genetically modified organisms, or GMOs” which should be enough to tell you that these foods are not good for us to be eating.

At the end of the day, the safest thing for any of us is to eat naturally, organically-grown crops and to give our bodies nutrition, etc. in the purest form we can find it. Read more about these genetically-altered crops here and just think about what may happen.

Luckily, and back to the point at hand, this slated water bottling plant seems to at least be on the back burner is not out of the picture completely. Read the story here for more.

Read up on the issue here and come to your own conclusions regarding this arrogant chain. Oh, just in case you need it spelled out for you, no I do not support Starbucks. I will use them for a bathroom the same as I would use a McDonald’s, that is the only time I will set foot into one of their stores.

Finally a new UNESCO study is coming to the same conclusions that many (but not enough) forward-thinking and progressive Americans have been insisting on for years. Organicconsumers.org reports that, a report compiled by UNESCO entitled “International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development,” came to the conlusion “that modern agriculture policies and practices have returned starkly unequal benefits worldwide, while incurring high social and environmental costs. It recommends, among other things, reducing the distance between food production and consumption, and suggests food producers should try using more ‘natural processes’ like crop rotation and organic fertilizer.”