Chemical Industry - Pesticides Use in Europe: EU To 'Completely Ban' Outdoor Use Of Neonicotinoids, Blamed For Devastating Bees - by Bill Chappell

Citing concerns for food production, the environment and biodiversity, the European Union is set to "completely ban" the outdoor use of neonicotinoid insecticides that have been blamed for killing bees, and for keeping other bees from laying eggs.

"All outdoor use of the three substances will be banned and the neonicotinoids in question will only be allowed in permanent greenhouses where no contact with bees is expected," the EU announced on Friday.

An EU committee approved the plan to tightly restrict use of the insecticides, acting upon scientific advice from the European Food Safety Authority to tighten existing restrictions and protect bees, crucial pollinators.

The EFSA said in February that it had confirmed risks to both honeybees and to wild bees such as bumblebees posed by neonicotinoid pesticides.

"There is variability in the conclusions, due to factors such as the bee species, the intended use of the pesticide and the route of exposure," the head of EFSA's pesticides unit, Jose Tarazona, said at the time. "Some low risks have been identified, but overall the risk to the three types of bees we have assessed is confirmed."

Reacting to Friday's decision, Bayer CropScience, the biggest seller of neonicotinoids, called it "a sad day for farmers and a bad deal for Europe." Bayer added that the new rules "will not improve the lot of bees or other pollinators."

Bayer and another pesticide company have already challenged the EU's existing restrictions on neonicotinoids that were enacted in 2013. A verdict in that case is due next month.

 Read more: EU To 'Completely Ban' Outdoor Use Of Neonicotinoids, Blamed For Devastating Bee : The Two-Way : NPR

Chemical Industry: -Pesticides: 'Monsanto accused of influencing research on safety of glyphosate'

French daily Le Monde looks at the communications strategy of agrochemical giant Monsanto, and reveals that the firm tried to influence research on the safety of glyphosate, the main component of its herbicide

Read more: 'Monsanto accused of influencing research on safety of glyphosate' - France 24

The Netherlands: Dutch MPs slam handling of egg crisis, say food safety body has failed -

MPs have been highly critical of the way the Dutch food safety body NVWA has handled the growing contaminated egg scandal during a debate with ministers on Thursday afternoon. Party agriculture spokesmen were recalled from holiday early to take part in the debate and used the occasion to slam the lack of communication and the slow speed at which the food body has reacted as the scandal unfolds.

In particular, they want to know why the NVWA failed to take action when tipped off that the Dutch company Chickfriend was using the banned chemical fipronil in a de-licing agent in November 2016.

The confusion surrounding the scandal became apparent on August 1 when the NVWA’s deputy chairman told a television programme that people should not eat eggs until more was known about the scale of the contamination.

Read more: Dutch MPs slam handling of egg crisis, say food safety body has failed - DutchNews.nl

The Netherlands: Experts say: Netherland's frugal ways caused egg scare

Dutch Government getting "egg on their face"

As Europe-wide health scare continues, millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves across the old continent and dozens of poultry farms have closed since it emerged on Aug. 1 that eggs contaminated with fipronil, which can harm human health, were being exported and sold. Fipronil is widely used to rid household pets such as dogs and cats of fleas, but is banned by the European Union from treating animals destined for human consumption, including chickens.

The World Health Organization says fipronil is "moderately hazardous" in large quantities, with potential danger to people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

Food safety authorities in The Netherlands - where farmers are at the epicenter of the row - this week admitted they received an anonymous tip-off last November about the use of fipronil in chicken pens but refuted allegations of negligence.

"It's mind-blowing that there was no connection made then, between the tip-off and the fact that fipronil may have contaminated both the chickens and the eggs," Dutch investigative journalist and food writer Marcel van Silfhout told AFP.

Had the NVWA, the Dutch food and goods watchdog, acted at that point, the latest trouble to hit the export-dependent Dutch food industry could have largely been avoided, said Van Silfhout, who penned a critical book about food safety and the NVWA in 2014.

Martin van den Berg, a professor and senior toxicologist at Utrecht University's Institute of Risk Assessment Sciences, added: "If there were investigators who were experts in this area and understood the impact of fipronil, maybe there would have been a different reaction."

But after consultations following the tip-off, the NVWA decided "there was no reason to think that fipronil would enter either eggs or chickens," two Dutch ministers said in a letter to parliament on Thursday.

Much of the current problem can be traced back to a growing loss of expertise; the NVWA and its predecessors have faced a series of cutbacks and trims since 2003, experts say.

The heavily burdened agency - which deals with food security but also general safety of goods - saw its permanent staff shrink from 3,700 full-time jobs in 2003 to 2,200 over the next decade, according to the Dutch Christian-based daily Trouw. Though the number is now back up slightly to about 2,600, many employees are not experts in their fields, according to Van Silfhout.

"There is no doubt that the problem started with the cutbacks since 2003," he said.

Since then, a series of food scandals to hit The Netherlands, including the outbreak of Q fever in 2007, which killed dozens of people, firmly laid the blame on the NVWA.

"A culture of soft enforcement took hold ... instead of clear independent inspections," Van Silfhout wrote. Pieter van Vollenhoven, Princess Margriet's husband and a former Dutch Safety Board chairman, agreed.

"At (farming) companies, economic considerations quickly took the lead," he told the Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad in a recent interview.

"The NVWA must stand up for public interest, for food security. Alas, the agency in reality is not a food watchdog, but an extension of economic policy," Van Vollenhoven said.

Read more Experts say : Netherland's frugal ways caused egg scare - Daily Sabah

Chemical Giants: The World vs. Monsanto: A Short History of the Battle Against the Most Evil Corporation on the Planet - by Jason Louv

Starting in 2013, the Monsanto Company made a major play to not only consolidate its control over the agribusiness industry, but to seize permanent control of the entire world’s food supply. Ultraculture, and the entire world, fought back. Here’s a history of the Great Monsanto War of 2013-15.

From 2013 to 2015, Ultraculture helped lead the charge against the Monsanto Company, and worked to guide and encourage the global effort to get chemicals and genetic tampering out of our food supply.

Monsanto has relentlessly and ruthlessly lobbied for the ability to re-engineer our food for profit, without consumers knowing what it’s doing—particularly in the United States.

Thanks to a network of lobbyists passed through the “revolving door” between public office and private corporate appointments, Monsanto has been able to operate largely without the American public having any awareness of its actions.

But nothing can stay hidden for long. Our reporting on Monsanto rocketed to the top of Reddit, breaking the story of the “Monsanto Protection Act,” helping to initiate the global furor that prompted the two-million-strong “March Against Monsanto” and forcing the company into backpedal mode as its stock took a hit.

All of this reporting (which we followed up with by breaking the story of the TPP at Vice News) resulted in a book, Monsanto vs. the World, which took a critical and investigative look at the company and has since become a lasting success, achieving ongoing sales, becoming a go-to text of the anti-GMO movement and being placed on the syllabus of multiple college courses.

Now it’s time to round up all of our Monsanto reporting into one cornerstone post, which collects the best of our reporting to archive the history of the Great Monsanto War for posterity. The fight against Monsanto—and genetic (specifically transgenic) tampering with food—goes on, and it’s important to have the information summarized for easy access.

To read the complete report click here: The World vs. Monsanto: A Short History of the Battle Against the Most Evil Corporation on the Planet

The Netherlands - Toxic eggs: Albert Heijn removes 14 types of eggs from its shelves as scandal spreads

The Netherlands’ biggest supermarket group Albert Heijn said on Thursday it is removing 14 different types of eggs from its shelves, as the uncertainty over pesticide contamination continues.

The measure is a precautionary one, the company said. Among the eggs to be removed are the company’s own brand free-range and organic eggs. It had already removed some eggs earlier this week, website Nu.nl reported. Jumbo, the second biggest Dutch supermarket group has also removed some types of eggs from its stores,

Nu.nl reported, as has German supermarket group REWE. ‘We want to give our clients total transparency,’ the German company said in a statement. Farmers say they are extremely unhappy at the supermarkets’ decision and describe it as an over-reaction.

The government said earlier on Thursday that farmers themselves will have to pick up the bill for the product recall following the discovery of the contamination with a banned pesticide.

The Dutch food and product safety board has come under fire from experts, MPs and farmers for the way it is handling the ongoing contaminated egg scandal.

The NVWA first said there was no danger to human health and then issued a warning about certain batches of eggs, only for its deputy director to suggest a day later consumers should avoid eggs altogether until tests for a banned pesticide have been completed.

Note EU-Digest:  Hopefully the Dutch Government will not be swayed by lobbyists from Chemical companies to put their head in the sand and clean-up the apparently poorly functioning government food inspection services (NVWA). It is also strange no one is questioning who the makers of the pesticide are,  causing this calamity and why it is allowed by local EU Governments to being used in the food chain? Unfortunately this is probably just the top of the iceberg, when it comes to the use of pesticides in the European food chain.

Read more: Albert Heijn removes 14 types of eggs from its shelves as scandal spreads - DutchNews.nl

Germany - Food Safety: : Aldi stops selling eggs in Germany over food safety scare

Discount supermarket chain Aldi is withdrawing all eggs from sale at its more than 4,000 stores in Germany as a precaution, it said on Friday, as a scare over the possible contamination of eggs with insecticide spreads.

Traces of insecticide fipronil were found in eggs in Belgium and the Netherlands last month, which has led to the temporary shut-down of some poultry farms and to supermarkets halting the sale of Dutch eggs. 

Investigators suspect the chemical may have gotten into eggs through contaminated detergent against mites that is used to clean barns. 

The detergent was also supplied to farms in the northern German state of Lower Saxony, from where eggs are distributed across the country, Germany's food and agriculture ministry has said.

Aldi is the first major retailer to take all eggs, regardless of origin, off its shelves.

Read more: Aldi stops selling eggs in Germany over food safety scare

The Netherlands: Pesticide Contamination : Dozens more egg producers shut down as pesticide scandal spreads

The Dutch food and product safety board has stopped ‘dozens’ more poultry farms from sending their eggs to market because they may be contaminated with the pesticide fipronil. Tests for traces of the pesticide, used to control lice in poultry, are now being carried out on eggs, hens and chicken manure at several dozen farms, the NVWA said in a statement.

On Monday, the NVWA shut down seven poultry farms after fipronil was found in samples of eggs.

The chemical is primarily used as an insecticide, particularly to kill fleas, and is classed as a ‘moderately hazardous pesticide’ by the World Health Organisation.

In the Netherlands it is banned in the poultry sector. The NVWA, which took the action after a tip-off from the Belgian authorities, said in a statement there is no danger to human health. According to regional paper de Stentor, the contamination may have come from a pest control company in Gelderland which used the pesticide to deal with chicken lice.

The NVWA says it has not so far found concentrations of the chemical which would prove a direct danger to human health. However, continued consumption of eggs containing fipronil ‘could have damaging effect.

The anti-lice pesticide at the centre of an egg safety scandal in the Netherlands may have been used on Dutch farms as early as June 2016, the Volkskrant said on Wednesday.

The company at the centre of the scandal, Barneveld-based Chickfriend, was treating poultry for lice last year and there is no reason to believe that the product did not contain fipronil at that time, the paper said.

The Dutch food and product safety board NVWA told the paper that eggs containing the banned pesticide fipronil could have been sold in Dutch shops since then, but said: ‘we have no way of checking because the eggs have been eaten’.

Chickfriend is now thought to have bought the pesticide from a Belgian supplier and investigators are now trying to find out if the Dutch firm was aware the product, said to be based on natural oils such as eucalyptus, contained fipronil. The pesticide is classed as ‘moderately hazardous pesticide’ by the World Health Organisation.

Note EU-Digest:  Reviewing Chemical Product Lists of chemical products sold in the EU reveals Fipronil is among one of the many poisonous (to humans) products sold by the US based company Dow Chemicals in the EU. The EU authorities and local European governments need to do a better job at overcoming the intense lobby efforts, of mainly US based companies, to sell harmful products like Fipronil in the EU.

Read more: Dozens more egg producers shut down as pesticide scandal spreads - DutchNews.nl

Pesticides and GMO's: What Grocery Stores Don’t Tell You about the Stickers on Produce

You know those stickers that can be found on most fruits and veggies in grocery stores worldwide? If you’ve ever bought produce from a grocery chain, you’ll recognize the ones we’re talking about. I’m sure for some of us who used to or currently work in a grocery store, those stickers are burned into our minds .

They usually have a a bar code on them for scanning and a PLU code, which helps your friendly neighborhood cashier identify what type of produce you’re buying.

But these unassuming stickers are more telling than you’d think. While the PLU is the “price lookup” number and identifies the fruit or veggie, it also helps to identify something else: how the produce was grown. By correctly reading this code, you can tell if the fruit was genetically modified, organically grown or produced with chemical fertilizers, fungicides, or herbicides

The story behind where your fruits and vegetables actually came from has been right under your nose all along! You just have to know how to analyze the labels and the PLU number. It’s actually a lot easier than you’d imagine

Here’s the basics of what you need to know about the truth behind PLU codes.

    1) If there are only four numbers in the PLU, this means that the produce was grown conventionally or “traditionally” with the use of pesticides. The last four letters (or only four, in this case) of the PLU code are simply what kind of vegetable or fruit you’re buying. An example is that all bananas are labeled with the code of 4011.
   
    2) If there are five numbers in the PLU code, and the number starts with “8”, this tells you that the item is a genetically modified fruit or vegetable. Genetically modified fruits and vegetables have been tampered with in an unnatural way; essentially, produce that has been genetically modified was created in a lab or over decades of artificial selection, and cannot be found in nature. A genetically engineered (GE or GMO) banana would be: 84011
   
    3) If there are five numbers in the PLU code, and the number starts with “9”, this tells you that the produce was grown organically and is not genetically modified. An organic banana would be: 94011
   
    Interestingly enough, the adhesive used to attach the stickers is considered food-grade, but the stickers themselves aren’t safe to consume.

If you’re looking to be hyper aware of what fruits and vegetables have been treated with pesticides and other chemicals and which have not, you’ll want to check out the homepage for the Environmental Working Groups. The EWG has compiled two lists to help consumers identify which produce is generally cleaner and which produce is generally tampered with; the Clean Fifteen and the Dirty Dozen.

The Top 5 for the “Clean Fifteen” produce are:

    1)Avocados
    2)Sweet Corn
    3)Pineapple
    4)Cabbage
    5)Sweet Peas (Frozen)

The Top 5 for the “Dirty Dozen” produce are:

    1)Strawberries
    2)Apples
    3)Nectarines
    4)Peaches
    5)Celery

For the full lists, food news, and additional food rankings, make sure to check out the EWG online.

Read more: What Grocery Stores Don’t Tell You about the Stickers on Produce | TipHero

GMO Labeling Endorsed by US Physicians but blocked by Chemical Industry Lobby - Ten Reason to avoid them

Is the Industry Lobby Bamboozling you about GMO's?

Even as the federal government pursues H.R. 1599, aka the “Deny Americans the Right to Know” (DARK) act, mainstream medicine is urging the government to abandon its resistance to GMO (genetically modified organism) labeling. 

They are bolstered by a recent announcement by the World Health Organization that glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer) is probably carcinogenic in humans. The genetic engineering ends up making crops resistant to the herbicide so more must be applied.

According to contributing doctors from Harvard, Mt. Sinai Medical Center and the University of Wisconsin reporting in the New England Journal of Medicine, “GM crops are now the agricultural products most heavily treated with herbicides, and two of these herbicides may pose risks of cancer.”

A recent notice in the same journal, “GMOs, Herbicides and Public Health,” reports: “The application of biotechnology to agriculture has been rapid and aggressive. The vast majority of the soy and [feed] corn grown in the United States are now genetically engineered. Foods produced from GM crops have become ubiquitous.”

Sixty-four countries, including Russia and China, have already adopted transparency in labeling laws, but U.S. Big Food and Big Ag lobbyists have stonewalled efforts domestically.\

EU representatives at the EU-US Trade Negotiations (TTIP) hopefully will not let this issue be swiped off the table by the American delegation.  As it is well known that the political establishment in the US Congress is very much influenced by the US Chemical and food Industry Lobby, which includes corporate giants like Monsanto, Dow Chemicals, Syngenta, Tyson, ADM and Cargill..

To put this in an order of magnitude: ADM and Cargill now control 65% of the world's trade in grain. Monsanto and Syngenta control 20% of the $60-billion market in bio-engineered seeds.

The EU better be aware that this US corporate lobby campaign to "patent nature" and control the world's food supply has been very successful,  Today, 85% of US corn is genetically engineered.

And if you need more convincing: Ten Reasons to avoid  GMO's  - Europe does not need GMO's

EU-Digest 

US Congress - GMO Labeling: The Monsanto Protection Act is back -- worse than before - impact on EU TTIP negotiations

The biggest threat to GMO labeling that we ever saw could soon become law if people don’t react now.

US Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo, Monsanto’s hand-picked representative in Washington, has combined his anti-GMO labeling bill, the “DARK Act,” with the Monsanto Protection Act – and it’s even worse than before.

This newly revised Monsanto Protection Act would not only prevent states from enacting their own GMO labeling laws, but it would go even further by nullifying all existing restrictions on GMO crops already on the books.

This unbelievable power grab by Monsanto and its Republican supporters is quickly making its way through Congressional committees and could be up for a final vote by the end of the month.

According to the Environmental Working Group, a leading advocate for GMO labeling and major opponent of Rep. Pompeo’s legislation, the new Monsanto Protection Act would:

• Block all state laws requiring mandatory GMO labeling, including Vermont’s landmark labeling law;
• Prevent the FDA from establishing a national mandatory GMO labeling program;
• Possibly block non-GMO claims until the USDA creates a non-GMO certification program, which could take up to 10 years;
• Block all state and local efforts to protect rural communities and farmers from the impacts of GMO crops;
• Prevent claims by food companies that non-GMO foods are better than GMO ones.

The consequences of this legislation for the US food system would be drastic and widespread.

US State-level efforts to label GMO foods that have already passed in states like Vermont, Maine, and Connecticut would be nullified. All local oversight and restrictions on genetically modified crops would be prohibited. Laws and regulations in states and communities with GMO-free agricultural zones, including in California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii, could be completely overturned.

Monsanto has significantly beefed up its lobbying efforts to pass this bill, spending nearly a half million dollars per month in total lobbying and boasting that it has contacted every single member of Congress.

Recent polling shows that even though more than 90% of Americans are in favor of GMO labeling, corporate money  is being used to influence Congressional legislators to vote against preventive health measures and consumer choices provided by food labeling.

The EU negotiating team at the EU-US Trade Negotiations (TTIP) are hopefully also aware of the going's on in the US Congress in relation to GMO's and food labeling. 

New EU food labeling rules came into force in the EU on December 13, 2014 to ensure that consumers receive clearer and more accurate information about what they buy and eat.

The new EU  rules will now even  force restaurants and cafés to list 14 different allergens in the menus - including nuts, gluten, lactose, soy or milk.Displaying allergens was until then only mandatory for pre-packed foods.

Nano components will also have to be included in the ingredients list. Oils will need to refer to the plants used in their production, such as sunflower, palm or olive.

Fresh meat from pigs, sheep, goats and poultry will need to carry a mandatory origin label, with a font size of at least 1.2 milimetres.   

As one EU parliamentarian noted: "we must keep that unlabeled American Junk-Food out off the European food supplies". 

EU-Digest