A new organic pesticide developed at New Mexico State University is showing great promise. Called NMX, the essential oil-based pesticide is a safe alternative to conventional chemical pesticides and solutions. NMSU Microbiologist Geoffrey Smith developed NMX with a team of three researchers, who discovered that a mixture of essential oils from common desert plants can …
Month: August 2018
The monolithic chemical company, Monsanto, is trying to convince the world that glyphosate, their number one selling herbicide, is not a probable carcinogen as defined by World Health Organization report published earlier this year. According to Reuters, a 16-member panel, assembled by Intertek Scientific & Regulatory Consultancy will present its findings to the annual meeting …
Food is the single largest contributor to landfills today. In Canada, an estimated $27 billion in Canadian food annually finds its way to landfill creating unnecessarily high levels of carbon and methane. That’s approximately 40% of all the food we produce. As consumers, we are responsible for more food waste farmers, grocery stores, restaurants or …
The line between genetically engineered fodder and natural food is once again being blurred thanks to the Canadian government. Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency rammed through approval of genetically modified salmon without public consultation or assessment of the potential effects on natural fish being affected by GM fish escaping into the wild …
Food Safety Magazine published an interesting study on food recalls. The publication tallied recalls from 2015 data from three different agencies—the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS), and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The results produced some disturbing insights. According to the report, the …
Next time you chow down on that juicy burger grilled on your trusty barby or when ordering your fave from a local drive-thru, better make sure that burger is well-done — really well done. For decades, Health Canada advised consumers to cook ground beef to 71 °C (159.8 °F) — supposedly the tipping point for …
A new study suggests Canada’s freshwater birds, just like their ocean-dwelling counterparts, are at risk from our plastic-saturated lifestyles. Scientists are finding bottle caps, coffee cup lids, packing tape wire, foil, Styrofoam pellets in the stomachs of freshwater birds across the country. While much research has looked at plastic pollution in ocean birds, little is …
France is to ban disposable plastic cups and plates in an attempt to curb the obscene amounts of plastic waste that’s accumulating in the oceans.The new French law will require all disposable tableware to be made from 50% biologically-sourced materials that can be composted at home by January of 2020. That number will rise to …
Giant Nestle is playing hardball with common heritage resources again. Last week the multinational outbid a small, but growing community in Ontario for a well near Elora. The community needed a safe source of clean drinking water; the corporation needed a “supplemental well for future business growth”. Nestle already extracts up to 3.6 million litres …
A 2016 University of Illinois Plant Clinic herbicide resistance report shows that glyphosate herbicide resistance and PPO Inhibitor herbicide resistance have both reached epic proportions across the Midwest of the United States. Herbicide-resistant weeds are symptomatic of a bigger problem: an outdated system of farming that relies on planting huge acreages of the same crop …