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Master Baby Food Lawsuit Filed in MDL Outlines How Toxic Metals Caused Autism, ADHD in Children
Attorneys representing families pursuing toxic baby food lawsuits throughout the federal court system have filed a Master Complaint, which identifies specific products found to be contaminated with heavy metals, and outlines how the baby food caused children to develop autism, ADHD and other injuries.
The Master Complaint will help simplify the filing of future claims and streamline pretrial proceedings in the federal Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) established for complaints brought against Beech-Nut, Gerber, Hain, Nurture and other products, which have been sold in recent years with toxic levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury.
Despite calls from health experts and regulators for manufacturers to entirely remove the contaminants from their products, subsequent testing has found that toxic heavy metals in baby food remain a pervasive problem, with a report published last year finding that popular brands sold by Gerber, Plum Organics, Sprout, Walmart and others still having potentially dangerous levels.
Scientists Sound the Alarm Over Outdoor Gene Editing Pesticides
We’re used to gene editing being something that’s done in controlled and contained conditions in the lab, with just the final product being unleashed in the environment. But coming down the pipeline are pesticides designed to “edit” the genes of organisms out of doors, in the uncontrolled conditions of the open environment. Applied by spraying, irrigation, or via soil pellets, these outdoor-use genetic pesticides are claimed to be more environmentally friendly than chemical pesticides.
The problem is that these genetic pesticides could also “edit” the genes of what scientists call non-target organisms — i.e. people, animals, and insects in the environment could become collateral damage. “Editing” these organisms’ genes means silencing or disrupting their normal functioning. And the deregulation of gene editing that is occurring and being aggressively promoted around the globe means that these products could be used in open fields with no prior risk assessment, traceability, or monitoring.
Sounding the alarm about this “Wild West” scenario is a new study by an international team of scientists. The study, based on computer predictive modeling, found that exposure to a CRISPR/Cas gene-editing pesticide could unintentionally alter the genes of a wide assortment of non-target organisms, with potentially serious or even fatal consequences. And leading the list of potential victims of unintended gene editing are humans.
It’s ‘Almost Impossible’ to Eliminate Toxic PFAS From Your Diet. Here’s What You Can Do
In recent years, research has found or pointed to the presence of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in a range of staples, products and beverages across the food system.
Among them are kale, eggs, butter, protein powder, milk, ketchup, coffee, canola oil, smoothies, tea, beef, juice drinks and rice. Evidence suggests they’re most widely contaminating carryout food, seafood and even pet food.
So, how can you avoid PFAS in your diet? Well, you can’t. While regulators have focused on reducing PFAS in water, there is general agreement that food represents the largest exposure route — though it’s not a settled question. No food is totally safe from contamination because PFAS are used across thousands of consumer products and industrial processes, pollution is so widespread and there are myriad entry points in the food system.
The Food and Drug Administration does not have limits in place on PFAS in food. Though it monitors for the chemicals, it uses a methodology that public health advocates charge makes it appear as if food is broadly less contaminated than it is.
Could AI Robots With Lasers Make Herbicides — and Farm Workers — Obsolete?
The smell of burnt vegetation wafted through a lettuce field here one recent summer morning as nearly 200 farmers, academics and engineers gathered to witness the future of automated agriculture.
Thirteen hulking machines with names like “Weed Spider” and “Mantis” crawled through rows of romaine. One used artificial intelligence cameras to scan the crops and spray them with herbicides. Another zapped weeds with lasers. Yet another deployed robotic arms to cultivate and pick through the foliage.
The massive machine uses deep-learning AI models to scan fields and identify weeds in real-time before vaporizing them with more than 30 high-powered lasers, all while protecting the crop. The company says it reduces farming costs, increases yields and improves soil health while avoiding the need for chemical herbicides.
Machines enhanced with AI and robotics can help solve many of the same problems without the use of antique sprays and pollutants, he said.
Bird Flu That Infected 6 Colorado Poultry Workers Is Closely Related to the Virus in Cows
Public health experts who’ve been following the surprising spillover of H5N1 bird flu into America’s dairy cattle herds now have all eyes on Colorado, waiting to see if a cluster of human cases there might balloon into something bigger.
On July 14, Colorado officials announced that five workers involved in the culling of 1.8 million chickens at a large H5N1-infected egg farm in Weld County had tested positive for the virus. And the strain infecting the workers appears to be closely related to the virus infecting cows in Colorado and at least 12 other states.
Pig Transplant Research Yields a Surprise: Bacon Safe for Some People Allergic to Red Meat
Some people who develop a weird and terrifying allergy to red meat after a bite from a lone star tick can still eat pork from a surprising source: Genetically modified pigs created for organ transplant research. Don’t look for it in grocery stores. The company that bred these special pigs shares its small supply, for free, with allergy patients.
The allergy is called alpha-gal syndrome, named for a sugar that’s present in the tissues of nearly all mammals — except for people and some of our primate cousins. It can cause a serious reaction hours after eating beef, pork or any other red meat, or certain mammalian products such as milk or gelatin.
But where does organ transplantation come in? There aren’t enough donated human organs to go around so researchers are trying to use organs from pigs instead — and that same alpha-gal sugar is a big barrier. It causes the human immune system to immediately destroy a transplanted organ from an ordinary pig. So the first gene that Revivicor inactivated as it began genetically modifying pigs for animal-to-human transplants was the one that produces alpha-gal.
While xenotransplants still are experimental, Revivicor’s “GalSafe” pigs won Food and Drug Administration approval in 2020 to be used as a source of food, and a potential source for human therapeutics. The FDA determined there was no detectable level of alpha-gal across multiple generations of the pigs.
Tainted Syrups, Cooking Oils Stir Up Global Food Safety Scandal
Food & Beverage Insider reported:
The latest Chinese food scandal may have implications for the U.S. food industry. State-owned Beijing News reported that tankers were routinely not cleaned between transportation of fluid foods and potentially harmful chemicals.
According to the July 2 article, edible liquids such as soybean oil and syrups are often transported in cargo tankers that also transport coal-based liquids. To save costs, many tankers are not cleaned before reloading. Manufacturers’ controls are lacking.
Although the media and government’s focus is on edible oils, other bulk food liquids may be subject to the same safety concerns. China supplies a wide variety of syrups to the U.S., including honey and liquid stevia. A quick search on importgenius.com revealed that 2,685,894 pounds of the following liquids were imported in 2023: allulose, isomalto-oligosaccharide (tapioca) syrup, organic resistant dextrin syrup and sucralose liquid concentrate.
Food Giants Are Strangling Britain’s Farmers and Consumers. What’s the Solution? Break Them Up
When British farmers protested outside the Houses of Parliament earlier this year, they sent 49 scarecrows, after a survey had found that 49% of U.K. fruit and vegetable farmers said they expected to go bust within a year. The scarecrows stood in for real farmers, who are mostly too afraid to speak out.
One farmer told campaigners they had grown 60 tonnes of salad potatoes for a large U.K. supermarket, only for the supermarket to suddenly cancel the order, leaving the farmer “financially screwed.” The arbitrary power that supermarkets wield instills fear, which the supermarkets leverage to impose take-it-or-leave-it fees and other unfair conditions on farmers.
The problem is our monopolized food system. Think of it as a vast profit machine shaped like an hourglass, with many food producers at the top, millions of consumers at the bottom, and a few dominant firms — such as giant supermarkets or global food traders — clustered at its narrowing neck, siphoning a cut from the passing traffic.
This power ripples through global supply chains. Between 70% and 90% of commercial grain trading, for example, is now controlled by five giants, known as ABCCD: ADM, Bunge, Cofco, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus Company. Together, they handle the bread, cereals, meat and other food that lands on our plates.
