Author Archives: marcia

TS Dorian, TS Flossie, European Heat Wave,

Posted on by

In the Central Pacific, Tropical Storm Flossie, a strong tropical storm with 65 mph winds, is headed west at 20 mph towards Hawaii. Satellite images show that Flossie is maintaining a modest area of heavy thunderstorms that are well-organized. The storm is over waters of 25°C, which is about 1°C below the water temperature typically needed to sustain a tropical storm. Flossie peaked in intensity Saturday morning, when the storm had 70 mph winds. As Flossie approaches the Big Island of Hawaii on Monday, these waters will warm to 26°C, but wind shear is expected to be in the moderate range, which should keep Flossie from strengthening. Dry air aloft will likely cause some weakening before landfall Monday morning, and Flossie will likely have top winds of 45 – 55 mph when is passes through the Hawaiian Islands. Flossie’s main threat will be heavy rains, with 6 – 10″ expected over The Big Island and Maui County, and 4 – 8″ in Oahu. Rains of this magnitude are capable of causing dangerous flash flooding and mudslides. Sunday’s 11 am EDT wind probability forecast from the Central Pacific Hurricane Center gave Hilo on the Big Island a 33% chance of experiencing sustained tropical storm force winds of 39 mph or greater from Flossie. These odds were 32% for Honolulu and 41% for Kahului.


Figure 1. MODIS satellite image of Tropical Storm Flossie taken at approximately 5 pm EDT Saturday July 27, 2013. At the time, Flossie had top winds near 50 mph. Image credit: NASA.

Tropical storms are uncommon in Hawaii
On average, between four and five tropical cyclones are observed in the Central Pacific every year. This number has ranged from zero, most recently as 1979, to as many as eleven in 1992 and 1994. August is the peak month, followed by July, then September. Tropical storms and hurricanes are uncommon in the Hawaiian Islands. Only eight named storms have impacted Hawaii in the 34 year period 1979–2012, an average of one storm every four years. Since 1949, the Hawaiian Islands received a direct hit from just two hurricanes–Dot in 1959, and Iniki in 1992. Both hit the island of Kauai. Only one tropical storm has hit the islands since 1949–an unnamed 1958 storm that hit the Big Island. A brief summary of the three most significant hurricanes to affect Hawaii in modern times:

September 1992: Hurricane Iniki was the strongest, deadliest, and most damaging hurricane to affect Hawaii since records began. It hit the island of Kauai as a Category 4 on September 11, killing six and causing $2 billion in damage.

November 1982: Hurricane Iwa was one of Hawaii’s most damaging hurricanes. Although it was only a Category 1 storm, it passed just miles west of Kauai, moving at a speed of nearly 50 miles per hour (80 km/h). Iwa killed one person and did $250 million in damage, making it the second most damaging hurricane to ever hit Hawaii. All the islands reported some surf damage along their southwest facing shores, and wind damage was widespread on Kauai.

August 1959: Hurricane Dot entered the Central Pacific as a Category 4 hurricane just south of Hawaii, but weakened to a Category 1 storm before making landfall on Kauai. Dot brought sustained winds of 81 mph with gusts to 103 mph to Kilauea Light. Damage was in excess of $6 million. No Dot-related deaths were recorded.


Figure 2. Tracks of all tropical storms and hurricanes to pass within 100 miles of the Hawaiian Islands, 1949 – 2012. During that time span, the Hawaiian Islands received a direct hit from just two hurricanes–Dot in 1959, and Iniki in 1992. Both hit the island of Kauai. One tropical storm also hit, and unnamed 1958 storm that hit the Big Island of Hawaii. Image credit: NOAA/CSC.

Remains of Dorian are worth watching
The remains of Tropical Storm Dorian will be passing just north of northern Lesser Antilles Islands today and just north of Puerto Rico tonight. Satellite images show no signs of a surface circulation, and just a moderate area of heavy thunderstorms associated with the storm. AIr Force hurricane hunter aircraft are on call to investigate Dorian’s remains on Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon, if necessary. In their 8 am EDT Tropical Weather Outlook, NHC gave Dorian’s remains a 20% chance of regenerating by Tuesday.

Extreme heat wave in Europe
An extreme heat wave is baking Europe today, and at least five countries have a chance at setting a new all-time national heat record. The most likely candidate is Liechtenstein, where the forecast for Balzers Sunday calls for a high of 95°F. According to wunderground’s International Records database maintained by our weather historian, Christopher C. Burt, the current all-time heat record for Liechtenstein is 36°C (96.8°F) set at Vaduz on August 13, 2003.

from:    http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html

Your Color Vibe for 07/27

Posted on by

Saturday, July 27:
Okay, it is time to give up a lot of the stuff that you had been counting on, and to see it for what it is/was.  These things are pretty well rooted in your past dreams, desires, and expectations.  They have no more real import as the energies are shifting and changing.  If you are to hold onto them, you can find yourself being really, really frustrated, and frustration can meld into anger if it is not nipped in the bud.  So today is about taking a look at that old stuff that you had once thought was so important.  It is about seeing the competitions, the encounters, the happenings, real, imagined, or dreamt about, for what they are and knowing that  they were merely things that you thought were important then.  Then was a big word then.  NOW is the new word.  Let all of that then stuff go, and open to the NOWness of what is all around you.  Now is today, and today is showing you a few things that you need to look at.  How you will deal with them, receive them, open to them is up to you.  Throughout it all there is always choice

Jim Self on Time

Posted on by

Passing Through Present-Time

Jim Self
a message from Jim Self
Tuesday, 16 July, 2013  (posted 25 July, 2013)

As you move through your days, do you notice that your relationship with time has changed? First of all, there seems to be less of it. And what little remains is jam packed with commitments and obligations. In a very real sense, many are moving from the past into the future without even a glance at the present moment.

We are leap-frogging over the present to get to the future as we drag our past along. Business travel offers a tremendous opportunity to observe your relationship with time and where you are at every moment. As you rent the car, are you thinking about directions to the hotel (future), and in that unfocused moment misplace your driver’s license and have to go out of your way to retrieve it? As you check into the hotel, are you reminded of another (past) stay and forget to ask for a king-size bed?

Even in our personal lives, we rush through the present from the past into the future. As you check your email, is your attention on the conversation with your partner an hour ago? As you prepare your meal, are you focused upon it or is your attention on finishing up your taxes after dinner? Keeping your attention in the past or future can, at the very least, be stressful. Long term attention on the past or future can cause an imbalance in your present-time experience and your ultimate success, ease and well-being.

James attended a Level 1 seminar in Toronto, Canada. He was enthusiastic and ready to make changes in his life. He was also not in present-time. James asked many, many questions. Non-stop. Most of his concerns and questions were based upon experiences from the past (childhood injuries, lost relationships, unsatisfying career) and worries about the future (money, new town, his heath). The moment I answered one question, he had three more flowing out of his mouth.

He didn’t hear the answers and had his full attention on a time other than the present. Only after frequently and gently being reminded to ground and bring his attention back to the present moment did James take a breath and slow down. (“All your questions will indeed be answered, I promise. The answers lie exactly where the question is asked.”) By the end of the weekend he was quiet, in his body (pain-free), present, and saying he was the calmest he had been in a very long time.

Present-time is the only place from which you can successfully create, whether you are creating a day at the beach or a business meeting.  Your body is in the present – right here and now.  Keeping your attention with your body, instead of the past or future will allow greater health, well-being, success, and laughter.  The only way to solve a problem is from the present.  When you misplace your driver’s license at the airport, the only way you will know how to proceed is from the grounded present.

Self-Coaching Tool

Before you are in the thick of a stressful situation practice using your tools. If you practice them when you don’t need them, you’ll have them at your fingertips when you do. Try asking yourself one of these questions as often as possible during each day for a wonderful time-check:

“What thought am I thinking right now?”  (going shopping, the meeting we just completed, my kid at home)

“Where am I?: – Past, future or present? In my body?

“How did I get here?”  Try to trace back the (unconscious?) thought-path that got you here.

Asking yourself these three questions will bring your attention and your energy back to the powerful, present moment from which ease and success flow. The Grounding Cord tool and the Center of the Head tool will also help tremendously.

Universal Copyright 2013 is authorized here. Please distribute freely as long as both the author and www.masteringalchemy.com is included as the resource and this information is distributed on a non-commercial
no charge basis.
from:    http://spiritlibrary.com/jim-self/passing-through-present-time

Monsanto Looks to Patenting Conventional Crops

Posted on by
Europe

Monsanto gives up on GM crops in Europe, pursues patenting of conventional crops

Wednesday, July 24, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer

 

(NaturalNews) The world’s most evil corporation, Monsanto, has announced it will cease trying to introduce any new genetically-modified (GM) crops into Europe following years of widespread public opposition to the controversial and untested technology. Instead, the multinational biotechnology behemoth will re-focus its efforts on controlling the conventional seed market in the European Union (EU), an outlandish move that proves the seed giant is still determined, in one way or another, to dominate global agriculture.

Monsanto’s President and Managing Director for Europe, Jose Manuel Madero, recently told Reuters in a phone interview that his company will be withdrawing all existing approval requests for new GMOs in Europe within the next few months. These include five pending approval requests for at least one new variety of GM corn (maize), as well as GM soybeans and GM sugar beets. As of this writing, there is only one GM crop, Monsanto’s MON810 maize, currently approved for cultivation anywhere in Europe.

No matter how hard Monsanto and various others in the biotechnology industry have tried in years past to force GMOs on Europe, the result has almost always been the same: failure. The people of Europe have repeatedly expressed loudly and clearly that they do not want to eat GMOs, and the European Commission (EC) has tended to align its approval process for GMOs with this public sentiment in mind. Thus, GMOs continue to remain largely absent from the European market, with the exception of widely-used animal feed.

“(The requests) have been going nowhere fast for several years,” says Brandon Mitchener, a Monsanto spokesman, about the company’s failed efforts to force GMOs on Europe. “There’s no end in sight.”

Monsanto: If we can’t force Europeans to accept GMOs, we will instead take over their conventional crops

This is good news for Europeans, of course, who will finally have the opportunity to rest a little easier as far as the integrity of their food supply is concerned — this is with the exception of GM animal feed, of course, which is currently imported into the country from places like the U.S. and South America at a rate of more than 30 million metric tons yearly, according to Reuters.

But what Europeans will now have to worry about, sadly, is Monsanto’s new pursuit of controlling their conventional crops. As we here at NaturalNews have been reporting on recently, Monsanto has been taking advantage of a little-known loophole in European patent law that allows the company to literally draw patents on natural crops like broccoli and green beans.

You can read more about this here:
http://www.naturalnews.com

“In the coming weeks, around a dozen new patents will be granted (to Monsanto), covering species such as broccoli, onions, melons, lettuce and cucumber,” explains the food freedom watchdog coalition No Patents on Seeds! about Monsanto’s new business approach. “Monsanto and Syngenta already own more than 50 percent of seed varieties of tomato, paprika and cauliflower registered in the EU.”

In other words, since it could not have its way with GMOs in Europe, Monsanto simply turned to the earth’s natural bounty and gradually claimed it as its own — and the European Patent Office (EPO) continues to facilitate this takeover of the natural food supply in Europe, mostly because the European people remain in the dark about what is actually happening to their agricultural system.

You can help fight Monsanto’s takeover of the European food supply by signing the No Patents on Seeds! online petition:
http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org

Tropical Storm Dorian Forms

Posted on by

The season’s fourth named storm, Tropical Storm Dorian, is here. Born from a strong tropical wave that moved off the coast of Africa on Monday, Dorian formed unusually far east for so early in the season, at longitude 29.9°W. Only Hurricane Bertha of 2008, which became a tropical storm at 22.9°W longitude on July 3, formed farther to the east so early in the year. Satellite images show that Dorian is a small but well-organized system with a moderate amount of heavy thunderstorms. A large area of dry air lies to Dorian’s west, as seen on water vapor satellite images, but Dorian has moistened its environment enough that this dry air should not interfere with development for the next day. Dorian is under a low 5 – 10 knots of wind shear, which will tend to allow slow development. Ocean temperatures are barely adequate for maintaining strength of a tropical storm, about 26.5°C.


Figure 1. MODIS satellite image of Tropical Storm Dorian taken at approximately 8 am EDT July 24, 2013. At the time, Dorian had top winds near 50 mph. Image credit: NASA.

Forecast for Dorian
The SHIPS model predicts that wind shear will stay in the low range through Thursday, then rise to the moderate range Friday through Monday. Ocean temperatures will fall to 25 – 26°C Wednesday night through Thursday night, which may induce some weakening of Dorian. Thereafter, ocean temperatures will rise again, but wind shear will rise. This increase in wind shear will be capable of causing weakening, since there will still be a large area of dry air to Dorian’s west that the shear may be able to bring into Dorian’s core. Given its small size, Dorian is capable of relatively large changes in intensity in a short amount of time, and it would not surprise me if the storm dissipated by the end of the week–or became a Category 1 hurricane. However, the official NHC forecast of a tropical storm passing just north of the Lesser Antilles on Sunday is the most likely outcome; the 11 am wind probability forecast from NHC gave Dorian a 6% chance of being a hurricane at that time. Dorian should maintain a west-northwest track through the week, and spread heavy rains and gusty winds to the northern Lesser Antilles Islands beginning on Sunday. The usually reliable European model (ECMWF) has Dorian passing several hundred miles to the north of the Lesser Antilles Islands, while the other models show Dorian passing closer, within 100 miles. It currently appears that Dorian will be a potential threat to the Bahama Islands, Bermuda, and the U.S. East Coast next week. There will be a trough of low pressure capable of recurving Dorian out to sea before the storm reaches the Bahamas and U.S., but this trough is currently depicted as being fairly weak, reducing the chances of Dorian missing the Bahamas and U.S. East Coast.


Figure 2. Tracks of all Atlantic tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes (tropical cyclones) occurring in the months of June and July off the coast of Africa. Only Bertha of 2008 became a named storm farther east so early in the year, compared to Tropical Storm Dorian. Reliable satellite records of Eastern Atlantic tropical cyclones go back to 1966. Image credit: NOAA/CSC.

from:    http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html

Minxian, Gansu, CHina Deadly Quake

Posted on by

Deadly earthquake near Minxian, Gansu, China – at least 95 killed and +1000 injured – Update July 24

Last update: July 24, 2013 at 2:22 pm by By

Update : the expected shaking at some Chinese cities based on the data from USGS (M5.9). Chinese have M6.6 but deeper than USGS which may after all have the same intensity.

Screen Shot 2013-07-22 at 02.36.57

Update : The Chinese seismological authority has reported a M6.6 at a depth of 20 km, an even grimmer perspective than the M5.9 from USGS on which the data below have been calculated. There is no reason not to believe the data from the Chinese as they are highly specialized in earthquakes.

Update : USGS expects a very strong MMI VII shaking for approx. 19,000 people, a strong shaking for 150,000 people and a moderate shaking for 379,000 people.

Screen Shot 2013-07-22 at 02.37.14

A very dangerous earthquake struck the Gansu province, China

Screen Shot 2013-07-22 at 02.33.56

13km (8mi) E of Chabu, China
151km (94mi) W of Beidao, China
154km (96mi) SE of Linxia, China
177km (110mi) SSE of Lanzhou, China
1233km (766mi) WSW of Beijing, China

Most important Earthquake Data:

Magnitude : 6

Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2013-07-22 07:45:57

GMT/UTC Time : 2013-07-21 23:45:57

Depth (Hypocenter)  : 10 km

Update 13:46 UTC : Good and important news from the earthquake region. The ministry of transportation has ended all repair work at the National and Provincial roads in the earthquake region. This will enable relief and rescue trucks to transport the necessary equipment closer to the epicenter area.

Update 12:51 UTC : Something ER just learned now in reading the earthquake responsive : Veterinary emergency task group that works closely together with the Ministry of agriculture to assess asap all animal related topics, like prevent dead animals becoming sources sickness, getting abandoned animals to their owner, helping farmers manage their stock. This service is extremely important in rural areas where animals are often the only wealth of the owner. The teams include also veterinarians.

Update 12:15 UTC : Just like it happened in the Sichuan earthquake a couple of months ago, the Central Disaster Management team has taken over the lead in the rescue and relief efforts. Premier Li Keqying will overview personally every effort going on for rescue and relief. Earthquakes in China are divided into different categories. Some do only need local county response, others Province and the very big ones are managed by the Central Government.
An earthquake which is managed buy the Central Bejing Government has all possible power to engage whatever means possible. Army, police even temporarily allocation of civilian aircraft lies in their power.
We can make sure to our readers that this response is by far the most efficient in the world. Will it be perfect ? Never, but since we cover almost every earthquake in the world who needs assistance, we know what we are talking about. Congratulations to the Chinese response teams.

Premier Li Keqying on his way to the recent Sichuan earthquake to manage relief and rescue efforts

Premier Li Keqying on his way to the recent Sichuan earthquake to manage relief and rescue efforts

Update 11:19 UTC : A video from a China News channel with a reporter in the earthquake damaged areas (can be slow to load)

Important Update 10:22 UTC :
Sad to report that the victim numbers are increasing by the hour (these are all “at least” numbers):
– 75 people are now confirmed as being killed
– 14 have been recorded as missing
– 584 people are being treated for all kinds of injuries
– Chinese seismologists have said that the shaking intensity near the epicenter must have been VIII or “severe shaking”

Update 10:30 UTC : The experts of the China Earthquake Network have given more details about the technicalities behind the quake. They speak about the influence of stronger earthquakes the last 10 years on the faults that triggered this earthquake. The fault is likely a North South direction fault. Ano no major earthquake happened in this area since 1900 (see also our bottom map), stress has accumulated and has been released now. Perfectly normal are telling the scientists. 405 aftershocks so far, some of them +5. They expect this to go on for at least a week with +5 still possible. For that reason they ask people to be super-careful and not to live in damaged houses. For those camping in the open, they ask people to be careful and look at the terrain at all sides, mainly to avoid secondary geological elements like landslides, flash floods, etc.

Update 10:15 UTC : To imagine better the destruction the earthquake has inflicted, the picture below.
At least 14 people are still missing.

Screen Shot 2013-07-22 at 12.18.06

Update 10:00 UTC :  Weather during and immediately after an earthquake is incredibly important both for the chance on landslides and the way rescue has to be organized and relief goods to be distributed.  Bernhard Mühr from KIT Karlsruhe has made a short study on what to expect in the earthquake area until the end of July. The conclusion of this in-depth weather forecast : very good considering the monsoon period.

Brief Meteorological and Climatological Overview
Minxian and Zhangxian Districts, Gansu, China
Issued: Monday, July 22, 2013
Climatological Overview

Screen Shot 2013-07-22 at 11.41.48

There is a strong gradient in precipitation from Lantschau southward. The districts hit by the earthquake, Minxian and Zhangxian, expect significantly more rain than Lantschau. The  monthly rain amounts during the summer months are about twice as much (~100-150 mm).
The districts in many places have rugged terrain, narrow valleys are located between mountain ranges that rise to more than 3000 meters.
Monsoon rains often are associated with thunderstorms and are of great intensity. These downpours frequently lead to sudden rise of river levels, flooding and might trigger landslides.

Screen Shot 2013-07-22 at 11.42.12

Long term average (1961-1990) mean of rain in July in south-east asia. Red rectangle indicates the earthquake region. Source: www.wettergefahren-fruehwarnung.de, Data source: Climate Research Unit

Rain forecast
The latest GFS-model run (July 22, 2013, 00 UTC) doesn’t show much rain for the next 8 days in the affected area. Widespread and large rain amounts are not to be expected. However, in unstable monsoon airmasses localized rain areas and thunderstorms might occur any time.  Their intensity can be large and thus cause problems with river levels and landslides at places.

Screen Shot 2013-07-22 at 11.40.26

RaiRRain forecast: Accumulated rain during the next 8 days until July 30, 2013. In the region hit by the earthquake (rectangle) large and widespread rain amounts are not very likely until end of month.
Source: www.wettergefahren-fruehwarnung.de; Data source: GFS model run, July 22, 2013, 00 UTC

Screen Shot 2013-07-22 at 11.39.38

Update 09:34 UTC : The number of injured persons has increased to 462 (from 412)
As we have expected it fropm almost immediately after the earthquake hit, landslides have also been triggered. At least 10 houses have been buried in Meixian, Minxian county.

Screen Shot 2013-07-22 at 11.32.47

Update 08:51 UTC : Chinese are far better pupils if it comes to earthquake preparedness than most other countries in the world. One example : once out of the building, most people evacuate to the middle of the street or in open places.

Screen Shot 2013-07-22 at 10.53.41

Update 08:47 UTC : A picture we will see more and more in the future. Death toll will decrease considerably in the future due to earthquake resistant (new) houses and apartment buildings. The villages in the rural areas do not have the money to build this way and people are in great majority still living in very old primitive houses. Conclusion : less and less fatalities in (modern) cities and only a fraction less in rural areas.

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2013/07/21/very-strong-earthquake-gansu-china-on-july-21-2013/

Petunias in Space

Posted on by

PETUNIAS AT THE EDGE OF SPACE: The students of Earth to Sky Calculus have recovered the petunias they sent to the stratosphere last Friday. The flowers left Earth July 19th onboard a helium research balloon, ascended to 110,570 feet, then parachuted back to Earth on the same day. These four screenshots, culled from more than 2 hours of high-definition video, summarizes what happened:

(1) The flowers were pink and alert when they left Earth. (2) An hour later, in the stratosphere, the flowers appear limp and wilted, but they were not. Actually, the flowers were frozen. The petals were bent downward by onrushing wind during the ascent, and they froze in place as the petunias passed through the tropopause where the temperature was -63 C. (3) You can see that the flowers were frozen stiff because when the balloon exploded, they did not move at all. (4) Finally, as the payload parachuted back to Earth the flowers thawed and turned deep purple.

The petunias were just one of several experiments flown to the stratosphere on July 19th during Cassini’s historic photo-shoot of Earth through the rings of Saturn. Other items on board were selected competitively from more than 1056 entries suggested by Spaceweather.com readers.

from:  spaceweather.com

Unnecessary Surgery Epidemic

Posted on by

Doctors Perform Thousands of Unnecessary Surgeries: Are You Getting One of Them?

By Dr. Mercola

Story at-a-glance

  • According to a USA Today review of government records and medical databases, tens of thousands of patients undergo unnecessary surgery each and every year
  • Among the most commonly performed unnecessary surgeries are cardiac angioplasties, pacemakers, back surgery, knee and hip surgeries, hysterectomy and Cesarean sections
  • Diagnostic errors are also problematic and may account for the permanent injury or death of up to 160,000 US patients each year
  • If you’re having an elective medical procedure done always get a second opinion—and possibly a third and fourth

If your physician tells you that you need surgery, unless it is an emergency, I would strongly recommend to get a second opinion first.

In many cases, you may find that you don’t need surgery after all, saving not only a considerable amount of money but also avoiding the potentially deadly risks that any surgery carries.

In fact, according to a new USA Today review of government records and medical databases, tens of thousands of patients undergo unnecessary surgery each and every year!1 And according to some experts, that number may actually be in the millions. According to USA Today:

“‘It’s a very serious issue, (and) there really hasn’t been a movement to address it,’ says Lucian Leape, a former surgeon and professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. Leape, a renowned patient safety expert…

He began studying unnecessary surgery after a 1974 congressional report estimated that there were 2.4 million cases a year, killing nearly 12,000 patients. Leape’s take today? “Things haven’t changed very much.’”

to read more, go to:    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/07/10/unnecessary-surgeries.aspx?e_cid=20130710_DNL_art_2&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art2&utm_campaign=20130710

 

 

 

Foods Banned in Other Countires, Not USA

Posted on by

10 American Foods That Are Banned in Other Countries

By Dr. Mercola

Americans are slowly waking up to the sad fact that much of the food sold in the US is far inferior to the same foods sold in other nations. In fact, many of the foods you eat are BANNED in other countries.

Here, I’ll review 10 American foods that are banned elsewhere, which were featured in a recent MSN article.1

Seeing how the overall health of Americans is so much lower than other industrialized countries, you can’t help but wonder whether toxic foods such as these might play a role in our skyrocketing disease rates.

Story at-a-glance

  • Many foods sold in the US are banned in other countries due to harmful additives, growth promoters, genetically engineered ingredients or other dangerous practices
  • This includes farm-raised salmon, Hawaiian (GMO) papaya, artificial food dyes, arsenic-laced chicken, ractopamine-tainted meat, bromate-containing drinks and bread, olestra, carcinogenic preservatives, and rBGH-laced milk
  • To avoid potentially hazardous foods and harmful ingredients permitted in the US food supply, ditching processed foods entirely is your best option
  • Also swap out your regular meat sources to organic, grass-fed/pasture-raised versions of beef and poultry. The same goes for dairy products and animal by-products such as eggs.

to read the whole articles, go to:    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/07/10/banned-foods.aspx?e_cid=20130710_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20130710

Know What You Are Eating

Posted on by
Michael F. Jacobson

Executive Director, Center for Science in the Public Interest

Ending Food Ignorance: Education Is Too Important to Leave to Big Food

Would you be surprised to know that there is a highly-sophisticated, multi-billion-dollar campaign underway designed to teach your children about food? There is. In fact, experts agree that this campaign is wildly successful. Unfortunately, the massive instructional campaign to which I refer is the $2 billion effort by the food industry to teach children and teens to want candy, sugar drinks, sugary cereals, and other highly-processed junk foods. Mostly, these lessons are delivered through your television set. Increasingly though, these messages reach kids through mobile devices, so-called “advergames” on the web, and shockingly, even junk-food marketing within the four walls of their classrooms.

When one-third of American kids are overweight or obese, and are on track to have shorter lives than their parents, it’s clear that food education is too important to leave to Big Food. That’s why Jamie Oliver’s Food Foundation and the organizers behind Food Day (Oct. 24) are collaborating on a new national initiative to put food education in every school.

Parents would be outraged if their children in elementary school didn’t learn that two plus two is four, or couldn’t identify the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Yet, as Oliver demonstrated in 2010, some American school kids cannot identify tomatoes, beets, or cauliflower, or might mistake an eggplant for a pear! Yet thanks to Big Food’s marketing muscle, junk food brands like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Chuck E. Cheese’s are as firmly implanted in kids’ developing brains as the names of the three ships that sailed the ocean blue in 1492.

The anti-hunger group Feeding America estimates that elementary school students receive just 3.4 hours of nutrition education — actual education and not marketing — each year. Fewer than 25 percent of high school students take any family and consumer science classes, formerly known as home economics, and those classes are often the first to go when school budgets are trimmed. And parents have to shoulder some of the blame, when, in all too many harried households, “cooking” actually means “microwaving” or otherwise heating some well-preserved, factory-extruded, combination of flour, fat, salt, sugar, dyes, and other chemicals.

But just as we expect our schools to do the heavy lifting when it comes to teaching geography, algebra, physical education, and history, we should expect schools to teach children about food — where it comes from and how it affects our bodies and our health. Where it’s been done well, we know it works. First of all, most kids find that cooking is fun. The more children cook and prepare fresh recipes from scratch, the more likely they are to appreciate healthier and varied ingredients and develop a skill that will serve them well throughout their lives. The more children learn about food and nutrition, the more likely they are to eat fruits, vegetables, and other healthful foods. And the real-world experience of Alice Waters’ edible schoolyards show that the more that children plant and harvest fresh fruits and vegetables, they more motivated they’ll be to eat them.

We call on policymakers at all levels of government, starting with local school boards, mayors, and governors and then on up to members of Congress and to the famous nutrition advocates living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, to put food education back in every school. We can’t raise another generation of kids that can’t tell tomatoes from potatoes, or for whom cooking means pressing the “start” button on the microwave. Let’s make sure every kid advances to the next grade with a handful of age-appropriate recipes under their belt, with some healthful sandwiches and salads learned in elementary school, more advanced soups and pastas in middle school, and healthy and wholesome entrees in high school. Let’s envision the financial windfall taxpayers should reap when we begin to make a serious dent in rates of childhood overweight and obesity. And let’s put food education back in schools because we value our children and their prospects for long, healthy, and happy lives.

It will be many years, if ever, before America’s real food educators have the same financial resources as America’s junk-food manufacturers. But we shouldn’t leave the critical task of teaching nutrition to the food industry any more than we’d leave teaching science to the Flat Earth Society.

For more by Michael F. Jacobson, click here.

from:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-f-jacobson/food-education_b_3552273.html