The global resistance against genetically modified (GM) crops is growing at an exponential rate, with as many as 35 nations now completely banning GM food and the pesticides that go with them, or have severely restricting their use. Now Mexico joins the anti-GM movement, after a group of beekeepers succeeded in stopping the agricultural biotech giant from planting soybeans that are genetically modified to resist their Round-up herbicide.

Monsanto had received a permit to plant its seeds on more than 620,000 acres of land, despite vocal protests by Greenpeace, The National Institute of Ecology, other major environmental groups, and thousands of citizens, beekeepers, and Mayan traditional farmers.

The company confirmed last Thursday that Mexico’s agriculture sanitation authority had revoked its permit to plant genetically modified soy in seven states, criticizing the decision as unjustified. The revocation applies to the states of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Veracruz, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo and follows a 2016 legal suspension of the permit.

According to a report in The Guardian, “A district judge in the state of Yucatán last month overturned a permit issued to Monsanto by Mexico’s agriculture ministry, Sagarpa, and environmental protection agency, Semarnat, in June 2012 that allowed commercial planting of Round-up ready Soybeans. In withdrawing the permit, the judge was convinced by the scientific evidence presented about the threats posed by GM soy crops to honey production in the Yucatán peninsula, which includes Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatán states. Co-existence between honey production and GM soybeans is not possible, the judge ruled.”

Mexico is the fourth largest honey producer and fifth largest honey exporter in the world, but bee colonies are rapidly declining, threatening food security all over the world. The Guardian story stated, “GM crops could devastate the important European export market for Mexican beekeepers, where the sale of honey containing pollen derived from GM crops has been restricted since a landmark decision in 2001 by the European Court of Justice.”

David Roubik, senior staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and his colleagues developed a method to identify pollen grains in honey in Panama and in Mexico during the 1980s and 1990s as part of their study on the effects of Africanized bees on native bees. They found that six honey samples from nine hives in the Campeche region of Mexico contained soy pollen in addition to pollen from many wild plant species. The pollen came from crops near the bee colonies in several small apiaries. Due to strict European regulations, rural farmers in the Mexican Yucatan face significant price cuts or outright rejection of their honey when their product contains pollen from GMO crops that are not for human consumption. Regional agricultural authorities seemed unaware that bees visited flowering soybeans to collect nectar and pollen.

A study published in the US National Library of Medicine and in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology shows how Monsanto’s best-selling weedkiller glyphosate holds potential to be an endocrine disruptor. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can interfere with the hormone system in mammals, causing developmental disorders, birth defects and cancer. They are also linked to Alzheimers, Parkinsons Disease, and autism.

European regulators have known that Monsanto’s glyphosate causes a number of birth malformations since at least 2002. Regulators misled the public about glyphosate’s safety, and in Germany the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety told the European Commission that there was no evidence to suggest that glyphosate causes birth defects.

Monsanto disagrees, and said in a statement that the permit had been withdrawn on unwarranted legal and technical grounds. The company said it would take the necessary steps to safeguard its rights and those of farmers using the technology, but did not elaborate.

SENASICA officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Mexican newspaper Reforma cited a document saying the permit had been withdrawn due to the detection of transgenic Monsanto soya in areas where it was not authorized. Monsanto rejected that argument, saying in its statement that authorities had not done an analysis of how the soy on which their decision was based was sown.

The world is one step closer towards a completely GMO/Pesticide free environment.

The post Mexico “builds a wall” against Monsanto GMO soybeans appeared first on Green Prophet.

Is test tube meat, grown in a laboratory, slated to become the future of food?  If proven to be grown from natural substances, and not genetically modified, lab grown meat products may become commercially viable enough to replace live animals and reduce animal slaughter; according to experiments now being carried out.

Although laboratory grown meat cells are not yet found in local supermarkets or as hamburger patties or chicken nuggets at fast food restaurants, the idea of growing meat from self-producing animal cells may wind up causing a revolution in the meat production industry. Following on the heels of successful laboratory growing of ground beef from animal cells, efforts by a couple of food companies, US based Memphis Meats and a Dutch company Mosa Meats, successful growing of chicken strips for food purposes has now become a reality.

The new lab grown chicken strips were grown in stainless steel vats and were successfully tested on a group of people, who said afterwards that they would eat the lab grown chicken product again.

It’s still prohibitively expensive to produce such meat, however, since the lab produced beef patties and meatballs cost around $!8,000 a pound (450g) and the new chicken strips around $9,000 a pound. The eventual savings to the environment, as well as less animal slaughter, will definitely weigh in, once the costs of producing such foods are reduced.

Producing lab grown or cultured chicken meat is considered to be a major achievement in the future of meat processing, due to so much chicken meat being consumed in Western countries. The average American eats more than 90 lbs (41kg) of chicken per year; and Israelis alone consume more than 36 kg per year or 76 lbs. It will still be awhile before lab grown chicken meat will be found common chicken nuggets; but Memphis Meats hopes to have it available for the mass market by 2021. Work in developing cultured meat in Israel is being undertaken by the Modern Agriculture Foundation.

There may be issues concerning cultured meat in that it can be grown faster if genetically modified. This possibility remains to be dealt with, however, as cultured meat is still a work in progress.

Read more on cultured or test-tube meat and GM meat:
Could test-tube meat be the future of food?
Coming soon: chicken meat without the slaughter
Genetically Modified Foods in Israel, Lots of it

The post Lab grown meat is your future food appeared first on Green Prophet.

Eerie and beautiful, The Scarecrow is a powerful anti-factory-farming message served up in a new commercial that barely refers to what’s actually being pitched. But the intent is as subtle as a brick to the head: Chipotle Mexican Grill is taking on Big Food.

The Scarecrow is an animated short meant “to help people better understand the difference between processed food and the real thing,” says Chipotle chief marketing officer Mark Crumpacker, the American food chain behind the promotion.

See a dystopian city where animals are pumped with growth chemicals and meat is labeled “beef-ish.”  Watch hapless scarecrows abandon their crop watch, becoming slaves to creepy robotic crows. Hear Fiona Apple croon “Pure Imagination” from the 1971 film classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a haunting soundtrack that further darkens the mood.

The promotion stops short of actually naming any livestock producers that do cage animals and pump them with growth promoters and antibiotics, nor does it tag restaurants that serve up the resulting “meat”.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/lUtnas5ScSE[/youtube]

It’s also a teaser for a free game, available for iPhone and iPad, in which players  “tilt and tap your way through four unique worlds to protect vulnerable veggies, rescue caged animals, and bring fresh food to the citizens of Plenty, all while dodging the menacing Crowbots.”  Play well and win “stars” that give you discounts at Chipotle stores.

Haunting visuals, hipster music, and a free game for smartphones and tablets: no wonder this promo is being touted as the most brilliant marketing campaign of 2013.  North America’s favorite Mexican restaurant chain doesn’t advertise on TV, as market research shows that Millenials (Chipotle’s target customer) are skeptical of brands that aggressively self-promote.

Previously part-owned by McDonald’s, Chipotle has adopted a mission statement of “food with integrity“, a manageable goal since their menu consists of only five items: tacos, salads, and a trio of burrito dishes.

Last July, the company announced plans to become the first US restaurant chain to ban genetically engineered ingredients. It offers vegetarian entrees, and serves meat sourced from animals raised responsibly, free from antibiotics and fed an additive-free, vegetarian diet. There are no microwaves or freezers in any of its 1,400 locations spread across the US, Canada, France and the United Kingdom.

So maybe calorie-laden burritos are nutritionally dubious, but they sure beat nuggets made from pink slime or lab-raised hamburger. I’d take a taco over a pork-fed fish fillet any day, and I’m an ancient Baby Boomer without a handheld device.

Spend the three minutes to check out The Scarecrow.  It might officially cement this company’s status as a fast food chain with a brain.

The post Chipotle Takes on Big Food in Haunting Commercial, The Scarecrow appeared first on Green Prophet.

Professor of Biology Shimon Gepstein from Haifa Technion University in Israel forgot to water his genetically-modified “superplants” for a few weeks; instead of perishing, the plants survived the accidental neglect – giving Gepstein an inside peak at their incredible resilience.

As part of a research project recently described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Gepstein modified the plants for longevity by boosting levels of the zytokinin hormone, which delays the aging process.

“Let’s take a staple food, for example rice, when the photosynthesis ends, the rice stops growing, it’s a natural process with every plant,” says Prof. Simon Gepstein, who led the research. “But by extending the juvenile hormone we have managed to extend the life of the plant, therefore producing more crops.”

The research team also found that the “super plants” require less water – a boon for such a water scarce nation as Israel.

“These plants can survive droughts, they can go on for a month without water and even if you water them, they only need 30 percent the amount of liquid normal plants do,” said Geptstein.

With climate change exacerbating already extreme water scarcity throughout the Middle East and other regions, food becomes increasingly difficult to grow. Gepstein believes that his “super plants” could be a solution, particularly since they have a longer shelf life than crops with normal zytokinin levels.

The Israeli research team is not the first to proclaim that their genetically-modified foods might stave off global hunger, but critics worry about the unseen consequences of tampering with mother nature. Yet Gepstein insists his super plants pose no danger.

“Despite all the bad the word ‘genetically modified’ has, I can tell our plants are not dangerous for human health,” said Gepstein, “because we have altered them using their own components, they have nothing added to them.”

Image of lab plant, Shutterstock

The post Israel’s Genetically Modified “Superplants” Thrive in Arid Areas appeared first on Green Prophet.

The burger was unveiled by its creator Mark Post, Vascular Physiology Head of the Department of Physiology at Maastricht University.  The fake meat, which cost about $325,000 to produce, was then taste-tested at a London press conference.

Austrian food researcher Hanni Ruetzler told the BBC, “I was expecting the texture to be softer. There is some intense taste. The consistency is perfect, but I miss salt and pepper.”

The protein patty was formed from 3,000 microscopic strips of artificial meat grown from cow stem cells. The team of scientists who concocted it believe that the product could become a household staple within a decade (or two). It’s part of food revolution taking place in laboratories (instead of kitchens) as scientists explore ways to offset the extreme environmental damage caused by livestock and seek to adequately feed the world’s hungry.

“Eventually, my vision is that you have a limited herd of donor animals which you keep in stock in the world,” Post told The Independent, “You basically kill animals and take all the stem cells from them, so you still need animals for this technology.”

“Right now, we are using 70% of all our agricultural capacity to grow meat through livestock. You are going to need alternatives. If we don’t do anything, meat will become a luxury food and will become very expensive,” said Post.

Compared to traditionally reared beef, test tube burgers would result in 45% less energy use, 96% fewer greenhouse gas emissions and 99% less land use, according to an independent study published in Environmental Science and Technology. It would also allow “meat” production to occur virtually everywhere, including in water-starved regions like the Middle East.

Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin financed the project, underwriting Big Science with potential for super scalability. The idea is to ultimately lower productive costs to be competitive with traditional ranching, then undercut  the multi-billion-dollar meat industry as it gains a larger market share.

It’s a solid source of protein that looks like meat, smells like meat, and kinda sorta tastes like meat.  No question it’s an environmental  game-changer. But how about a poll in the comments section: would you eat this stuff?

Image of woman with a burger from Shutterstock

The post $325,000 Fake Beef Burgers Grown in a Lab & Coming to a BBQ Near You! appeared first on Green Prophet.

As hummus, a staple of Middle Eastern cuisine, gains popularity among Americans seeking healthful snacks, tobacco farmers open their fields to chick peas and Pepsico undertakes to develop new hummus food science with an Israeli company, Strauss. Both businesses see massive potential in developing American chick pea strains for a number of good reasons, some perhaps less good. Let’s start with the good: homemade hummus or that bought from a kiosk which makes it fresh, is high in protein, low in salt and fat, and can be free of artificial additives.  Made with inexpensive chickpeas, it can easily be whipped up at home.

But in America, the Mecca of fast food, the quickest way to a consumer’s heart is through store-bought pre-made, conveniently packaged eating opportunities. 

Market-research firm Information Resources Inc. says US food retailers rang up $530 million in sales of “refrigerated flavored spreads” (a food category dominated by hummus), a 25% jump over 2010.

That chickpea-jonesing trend (it’s also a crunchy snack!) has caught the attention of major food companies like Sabra Dipping Co. (a joint venture of PepsiCo, Inc. and Israel’s Strauss Group Ltd), and Kraft Foods Group, Inc., which owns Athenos, another big hummus brand.

Sabra hooks Americans on hummus through free sampling events staged in major cities, distributing over ten thousand 2-ounce tasting packages in a single day. The company kicked off its first national television ad campaign earlier this year.

Sabra 2012 sales reached an estimated $315 million.

Like quinoa shortages, tiny chickpeas have become a hot commodity and forward thinking manufacturers are preparing for a potential shortage. 

To meet demand, Sabra’s manufacturing plant near Richmond, Virginia will undergo an $86 million expansion. And to reduce its dependence on the primary chickpea-growers in the Pacific Northwest, Sabra wants to cultivate a commercial crop in Virginia.

“We need to establish the supply chain to meet our growing demand,” says Sabra’s chief technology officer, Tulin Tuzel. “We want to reduce the risk of bad weather or concentration in one region. If possible, we also want to expand the growing seasons.”

Sabra also seeks to identify new chickpea varieties.

Sourcing chickpeas locally will lower shipping costs, and come with a healthy perk of reduced transportation emissions.

So Sabra is lobbying farmers in the heart of American tobacco country to grow chickpeas, an easy sell as declining cigarette sales has dramatically changed the economics of farming tobacco.

Compared with corn or wheat, chickpeas are a tiny crop, but lucrative.

Last year’s US harvest reached a record 332 million pounds, up 51% from 2011, with a record value of $115.5 million, according to the USDA.

In addition to heightened hummus production, chickpea demand from Spain, Turkey and Pakistan also has led farmers to increase plantings.

But it’s not a simple substitution of seeds: experts say the state’s high summer heat and humidity could prove a significant obstacle to chickpea viability. (Is this an invite for genetic modification?)

With Sabra financial support, Virginia State University is working on identifying a variety more suited to the climate. Agronomist Harbans Bhardwaj thinks Virginia farmers may be able to grow the crop on a commercial scale within three years. The university has recruited farmers to plant on-farm trials.

According to the Wall Street Journal, James Brown, a 72-year-old tobacco, corn and soybean farmer in Clover, Va., said he knew nothing about chickpeas when an agent from Virginia State called him several months ago and asked if he would plant the bean.

He said he jumped at the opportunity because he is looking for ways to make his roughly 300-acre farm more profitable.

Brown planted four acres with chickpeas in mid-April. That week, his wife served him the first chickpeas he’d ever eaten. “They tasted pretty good,” the farmer said.

Image via soggydan

The post Chickpea Farmers Wanted in America for Hummus Invasion: Move Over Tobacco! appeared first on Green Prophet.

Turkey is the latest country to ban 26 GMOs following an incident involving the unauthorized entry of genetically modified rice that was due at Mersin port, according to local press. The Biosecurity Board unanimously passed the ban, though some genetically modified corn and soy will be permitted for animal feed.

Studies show that certain GMOs are potentially destructive not only to health, but also the kind of genetic diversity that underpins successful ecosystems.

And while some nations (like the US and South Africa) are lapping them up as a panacea for world hunger, there exists little evidence that GM seeds produce greater yields.

Egypt has been pushing back against Monsanto’s MON810, which contains cry1Ab – a deadly insecticide that ruptures the stomachs of insects that eat it, and now Turkey has joined the resistance with an unprecedented show of support against GMOs.

The 26 banned products include modified corn crops used for fuel, as well as sugar beet and rapeseed that even the European Union allows as feeders, according to Hurriyet Daily News.

Three food company executives were recently detained for allegedly ordering genetically modified rice to be delivered into Turkey via Mersin port on the northeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

They have since been released, but the incident set off a firestorm of debate, which the Biosecurity Board has urged the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) to continue by researching the benefits and detriments of GMOs.

Despite the opposition to powerful companies like Monsanto, 19 corn and soy products will be permitted into the country as feed for cattle, chicken, and fish. Which means meat-eaters will still be exposed.

:: Hurriyet Daily News

Image of genetically modified experiment via Shutterstock

The post Turkey Bans 26 Genetically Modified Organisms appeared first on Green Prophet.

Miriam has been covering a series of sustainable meal recipes from the Middle East region, from countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iran to help people reconnect with their local food (click the countries to get some great local recipes).

We know that food industry is shaping the future of our bodies and our planet, and not in the best way. When you last tucked into dinner, did you pay any attention to where the ingredients came from? What’s on your plate? Where does it come from? The documentary Sustainable Table: What’s On Your Plate looks into the food we eat. While the film covers what’s going on in America the lesson can be applied to our global village, patterning itself on the West. 

For Sustainable Table: What’s On Your Plate,  director Mischa Hedges traveled along America’s west coast to learn more about our food system, and his findings apply globally.

Modern agriculture is waging a war against the planet, attacking nature with pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, monoculture and genetically modified organisms. Learn what you can do to help stop it.

The film serves up these unsavory stats:

• 7 percent of farms now sell 75% of our food
• Agricultural runoff is a primary river pollutant, poisoning groundwater and killing entire ecosystems
• Epidemic obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are directly linked to changes in food production
• Over the last half century, agricultural exploitation and pollution have caused massive ecological degradation; 60% of earth’s ecosystems are sustained only through human intervention

Modern methods of commercial food production don’t consider environmental or human health costs when calculating bottom line. Monoculture is the practice of continually growing on the same land a single, high-yield crop: corn, soybeans and wheat are common monoculture crops. Sure it’s efficient and a better bang for your farming buck, but over the past century, massive monoculture has:

• Reduced the diversity of soil nutrients
• Destroyed biodiversity
• Increased dependency on chemical pesticides and fertilizers
• Increased reliance on specialized farm equipment dependent on fossil fuels

Polyculture (rotation of livestock and crops) evolved over centuries to meet a local community’s complete food needs. It can naturally replenish what’s consumed in the growing process by re- using byproducts of animal husbandry. When manure is direct-deposited onto fields by livestock, or purposely gathered and spread by farmers, the enriched soils help fertilize crops which are then consumed by humans and animals alike.  This eat/poop process returns critical phosphorus returned to the soil, a natural continuum.

Modern agriculture treats animals as commodities rather than living beings, exposing livestock to mental and physical anguish, dosing them with growth hormones and antibiotics and raising them in overcrowded conditions. Large scale animal breeding facilities (called concentrated animal feeding operations – CAFOs) generate foul emissions, which are linked to heart disease, neurological problems and asthma in nearby human populations. Animal waste runoff from these facilities is a leading contaminant of drinking water.

CAFOs are promoted as the best route to large-scale food production,  but their “efficiency” comes by replacing pasture-grazing with meal made from government-subsidized crops, completely altering the animals’ natural diets, with negative consequences for both animal and human health.

According to health website Mercola.com, farm subsidies underpin our unhealthy modern diet by supporting high-fructose corn syrup, fast food, animal factories, and monoculture.  Non-profit watchdog U.S. PIRG issued a stunning report translating federal subsidies of junk food versus fresh produce into easily understood terms: if you received the same annual subsidy a s Big Food Business, you’d get $7.36 to spend on junk food and 11 cents for fresh produce.

We vote every day when we choose our food.  Will you vote for the system that is systematically destroying your health, animal welfare and the planet? Or will you opt for sustainable change?

What can you do to help?  This film tries to find some of the answers.

The post Sustainable Table Film Shows What’s On Your Plate appeared first on Green Prophet.

The European Commission (EC) approved a pork-based feedstock for farm-raised fish.  Next year, your mullet and trout might contain chicken and pork:

Horsemeat in burgers, meatballs and frozen lasagna is startling, but while these products include a “secret ingredient”, they remain as advertised: meat-based foods.  But what happens when the fish on your dish also contains meat?

Wild salmon won’t be tucking in to a pork roast, but their farmed cousins will soon be dining on ground up pig parts.  A variety of animal byproducts are processed into an animal protein powder, also called meat meal, which is now approved as an additive to fish food.  Byproducts include pork-sourced cartilage (from ears, tails), hooves and organs, and it’s not particularly clear that those parts come from perfectly healthy piggies either.

The Middle East is a large importer of European seafood

Seafood labeling is widely a slipshod business: in a study last year, non-profit Oceana performed DNA testing on seafood sold at 74 retail outlets in Los Angeles. Results showed that 55% of 119 fish samples were misidentified. If California can’t get species properly sorted, what’s the likelihood that the Middle East can take it a step further and also identify each fish’s diet?

How’s this swim with Jews and Muslims and pescatarians?

How can you know if your fish purchases are kosher, or halal, or just pure fish? Will the absence of dietary surety mean an exodus of shoppers from the seafood aisle? It could be that the EC is cutting off it’s own metaphorical body part in a misguided attempt to help its aquaculture industry.

In 1997, a similar fish feed was banned for its connection to Mad Cow Disease.  Debate raged over the global food network.  Was it ethical to feed cow products to cows?  Was it safe?  But time passed and rules softened, and in 2008 fish meal was reintroduced to pig and poultry feeds. This latest step flips the food chain, now feeding pork and poultry meat meal to fish.

The news is muffled.  Food Navigator gave it a few paragraphs, as did EurActiv.  But what’s the reaction in Israel and Jordan? Why no squeals from the Gulf states or snorts from Egypt?

Global web mover and shaker Avaaz is raising a stink (appropriate for a subject that combines fish and pigs).

They’ve got a petition in play to pressure governments to stop porkfish from entering our markets. Avaaz has incited over 1 million people to petition against genetically modified food in Europe, and another million to take action against mutant salmon “frankenfish”. Want to join the movement?  Click this link and sign, share with everyone interested in controlling what they eat.

More comfortable sitting back, allowing governments to meddle with your menu?  Then perhaps you should memorize a new take on an old rhyme:

This little cod went to market; this little salmon stayed home, this little tuna ate roast beef, and little tilapia had none. And this little porkfish ran all the way home!

Browse more on this in our archives: aquaculture, Genetically Modified Food, global foodchain, halal, kosher, Mad Cow Disease

The post Are Pork-fed “Porkfish” Kosher and Halal? appeared first on Green Prophet.

The European Commission (EC) approved a meat-based feedstock for farm-raised fish.  Next year, your mullet and trout might contain chicken and pork.

Horsemeat in burgers, meatballs and frozen lasagna is startling, but while these products include a “secret ingredient”, they remain as advertised: meat-based foods.  But what happens when the fish on your dish also contains meat?

Wild salmon won’t be tucking in to a pork roast, but their farmed cousins will soon be dining on ground up pig parts.  A variety of animal byproducts are processed into an animal protein powder, also called meat meal, which is now approved as an additive to fish food.  Byproducts include cartilage (ears, tails), hooves and organs, and it’s not particularly clear that those parts come from perfectly healthy piggies.

The Middle East is a large importer of European seafood.

Seafood labeling is widely a slipshod business: in a study last year, non-profit Oceana performed DNA testing on seafood sold at 74 retail outlets in Los Angeles. Results showed that 55% of 119 fish samples were misidentified. If California can’t get species properly sorted, what’s the likelihood that the Middle East can take it a step further and also identify each fish’s diet?

How’s this swim with Jews and Muslims and pescatarians?

How can you know if your fish purchases are kosher, or halal, or just pure fish? Will the absence of dietary surety mean an exodus of shoppers from the seafood aisle? It could be that the EC is cutting off it’s own metaphorical body part in a misguided attempt to help its aquaculture industry.

In 1997, a similar fish feed was banned for its connection to Mad Cow Disease.  Debate raged over the global food network.  Was it ethical to feed cow products to cows?  Was it safe?  But time passed and rules softened, and in 2008 fish meal was reintroduced to pig and poultry feeds. This latest step flips the food chain, now feeding pork and poultry meat meal to fish.

The news is muffled.  Food Navigator gave it a few paragraphs, as did EurActiv.  But what’s the reaction in Israel and Jordan? Why no squeals from the Gulf states or snorts from Egypt?

Global web mover and shaker Avaaz is raising a stink (appropriate for a subject that combines fish and pigs).  They’ve got a petition in play to pressure governments to stop porkfish from entering our markets. Avaaz has incited over 1 million people to petition against genetically modified food in Europe, and another million to take action against mutant salmon “frankenfish”. Want to join the movement?  Click this link and sign, share with everyone interested in controlling what they eat.

More comfortable sitting back, allowing governments to meddle with your menu?  Then perhaps you should memorize a new take on an old rhyme:

This little cod went to market; this little salmon stayed home, this little tuna ate roast beef, and this little tilapia had none.  And this little porkfish ran all the way home!

 Image of porkfish from Avaaz, and of  salt-water pig from Shutterstock

The post Is Pig-fed kosher or halal? appeared first on Green Prophet.