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How Raw Milk Went From a Whole Foods Staple to a Conservative Signal
Long a fringe health food for new-age hippies and fad-chasing liberal foodies, raw milk has won over the hearts and minds of GOP legislators and regulators in the last few years. (The Iowa vote broke almost perfectly along party lines with nearly all Republicans in favor and only a handful of Democrats defecting to their side.)
And it’s not just in Iowa. Montana, North Dakota, Alaska, Georgia and Wyoming all have passed laws (or changed regulations) since 2020 legalizing the sale of raw milk on farms or in stores.
To be clear, raw milk is still a niche product. According to an FDA study relying on 2016 and 2019 data, 4.4% of Americans report consuming raw milk in the past year, although the number has almost certainly grown since then.
Though raw milk’s appeal remains small, its increasing popularity among Republicans nevertheless demonstrates a scrambling of the political poles in which the American left-of-center, long associated with anti-establishment sentiment, has become more deferential to institutions as the right-of-center, long associated with the establishment, has seized the iconoclastic fervor inherent in America’s DNA.
In the words of Jason Schultz, now an Iowa state senator: “Cycle after cycle, we find new officeholders are just becoming more freedom-oriented and less trusting of government at all levels.”
Legal Action Could End Use of Toxic Sewage Sludge on U.S. Crops as Fertilizer
New legal action could put an end to the practice of spreading toxic sewage sludge on U.S. cropland as a cheap alternative to fertilizer, and force America to rethink how it disposes of its industrial and human waste. A notice of intent to sue federal regulators charges they have failed to address dangerous levels of PFAS “forever chemicals” known to be in virtually all sludge.
The action comes as sludge has contaminated farmland across the country, sickening farmers, killing livestock, polluting drinking water, contaminating meat sold to the public, tainting crops and destroying farmers’ livelihoods.
Public health advocates have blasted the practice because the nation spends billions of dollars annually treating water only to take the toxic byproduct, insert it into the food supply and re-pollute water.
Though the EPA has acknowledged the threat of PFAS in sludge, it has taken little action. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The New Science on What Ultra-Processed Food Does to Your Brain
The Wall Street Journal reported:
Ultra-processed foods may not only affect our bodies but our brains too.
New research suggests links between ultra-processed foods — such as chips, many cereals and most packaged snacks at the grocery store — and changes in the way we learn, remember and feel.
These foods can act like addictive substances, researchers say, and some scientists are proposing a new mental health condition called “ultra-processed food use disorder.” Diets filled with such foods may raise the risk of mental health and sleep problems.
Junk Food Is Literally Killing Us. Here’s How to Fight Back.
Ultra-processed food is not just killing us, it’s making us sicker, fatter and more miserable.
A British Medical Journal study examined evidence from 2009 to 2023 found that eating more ultra-processed food — ostensibly junk food — leads to a 50% increase in cardiovascular death and a 12% jump in type 2 diabetes. The study also saw anxiety diagnoses increase by 48% and mental health conditions, including depression, by 53%.
Less convincing but still highly suggestive evidence linked it to a 21% higher all-cause mortality rate. There were 41% higher risks of poor sleep, 40% more wheezing, and — to no surprise — 55% more obesity.
But here’s the silver lining. Studies like this one have found that reducing the amount of ultra-processed food you eat can have substantial health benefits, even in the span of two weeks. Making it a habit can translate to tremendous health benefits long-term.
There is no single theory about why ultra-processed foods as a group are so dangerous. They are not immediately poisonous, like arsenic. Yet many reasons have been proposed. First, our bodies can’t fully process some chemicals, and react in harmful ways, promoting chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation, as opposed to acute inflammation, which occurs when you sprain your ankle, damages healthy cells, organs and tissues. It produces internal scarring and injures healthy cell DNA.
Sick Because of Roundup? These Bills Could Make Suing Impossible.
Six years ago, the multinational corporation Bayer made one of the worst purchases in American business history: It bought Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, for $63 billion.
Monsanto was already being sued by a school groundskeeper in the Bay Area who said his exposure to the weedkiller had given him non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Two months after the merger, a jury awarded the groundskeeper $289 million. Since then, Bayer has been pummeled with lawsuits, and between settlements and jury verdicts, it has been required to pay out more than $14 billion to plaintiffs. Its stock has lost 70 percent of its value.
Desperate to reassure investors, the company has been fighting back with every means at its disposal. Its latest effort: lobbying state legislatures to shield it from future lawsuits and to annul at least some of the 50,000 claims that are currently active.
Since January, bills to shield pesticide manufacturers from lawsuits have been filed in three states where Bayer has a major corporate presence: Missouri (where Monsanto is headquartered), Idaho (where it has a phosphate mine), and Iowa (where it has a manufacturing plant). Daniel Hinkle, an attorney with the American Association for Justice, who works with trial lawyer associations throughout the country, predicted that if these bills succeed, Bayer will push similar legislation in a number of other states next year.
Oregon State Researchers Make Key Advance Toward Removing Pesticide From Groundwater
Oregon State University reported:
Scientists led by an Oregon State University chemistry researcher are closing in on a new tool for tackling the global problem of weedkiller-tainted groundwater.
Kyriakos Stylianou of the OSU College of Science led an international team that identified a material known as a metal-organic framework, or MOF, that showed an ability to completely remove, and also break down, the oft-used herbicide glyphosate.
The MOF, one of four tested in collaboration among scientists from Oregon State and Tiangong University in China, is based on scandium, the chemical symbol Sc, and a carboxylate linker, TBAPy.
Another 3 Common Pesticides Are Now Linked to Parkinson’s Disease Risk
Parkinson’s disease is the fastest-growing neurological disorder in the world at present and the reason why is unclear.
Now, research due to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 76th Annual Meeting, in Denver, CO, held between April 13–18, 2024, outlines how three more pesticides have been linked to increased risk of Parkinson’s disease. This research has not yet appeared in a peer-reviewed journal. The study was funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Results showed an association between 14 pesticides and increased Parkinson’s disease risk in the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains region. Three of these were found to have the strongest relationship with increased risk: simazine, lindane, and atrazine.
EU Countries to Demand Bloc Does More to Help Farmers, Draft Statement Says
European Union country leaders will urge the EU to work quickly on more measures to support farmers in response to months of protests by angry agriculture workers, draft conclusions for an EU leaders’ summit showed.
The EU has already watered down some environmental policies in response to the sometimes violent protests, but with farmers still taking to the streets this week in Belgium and France, Brussels is under pressure to do more.
Draft conclusions for an EU summit on March 21-22, seen by Reuters, showed EU country leaders plan to ask the European Commission to work without delay on “all possible short-term measures, including those to reduce the administrative burden and achieve simplification for farmers.”
The EU should also take action to strengthen the position of farmers in the food supply chain, and ensure they can earn a fair income, the draft said.
Ammonia Levels Four Times Higher in Europe’s Farming Regions, Study Finds
A study has revealed the sources of ammonia that are polluting our air and damaging our health and ecosystems.
Researchers collected measurements from 69 locations in the U.K. and mainland Europe. They found that ammonia is, on average, four times greater in farming regions compared with other areas. Agriculture also added to the ammonia found in the suburbs of many cities.
Studies have found increased asthma among children in agricultural areas with the most ammonia, including close to intensive pig farms. However, the biggest health impact comes when ammonia reacts with air pollution from traffic and industry to form particle pollution. This creates up to half of the particle pollution in Europe.
More than 80% of the ammonia that leaches into our air comes from farming, specifically nitrogen fertilizers and animal waste, but the researchers also found sources in towns and cities.
