“Top down control by a coercive state has been going on for less than 4500 of modern human’s 100,000 years on planet Earth. Its every variation has eventually failed, often bringing down the civilization than it had fed upon.” G Sams
Gregory Sams has been a health food pioneer from the 1960’s. In 1967, he and his brother Craig introduced organic and natural foods to the UK marketplace. After 15 years of catering, Seed magazine, Ceres Grain Store & Bakery, Harmony & Whole Earth Foods, in 1982 Gregory conceived and christened the original VegeBurger.
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In the 80’s, he also became fascinated with the scientific ideas of chaos theory, so he founded Strange Attractions, a shop dedicated to chaos theory.
Sams’ lifelong passions, health, culture and consciousness culminated in two books. Continue reading →
Ronnie Cummins (CounterPunch) | RS_News | February 11 2012
What is really behind the labels at Whole Foods? (photo: Getty Images)
On January 31, organic and natural foods giant Whole Foods Market (WFM) once again attacked the Organic Consumers Association, the nation’s leading watchdog on organic standards, as being too “hard-line” for insisting that retailers like WFM stop selling, or at least start labeling, billions of dollars worth of so-called “natural” foods in their stores – foods that are laced with unlabeled, hazardous genetically engineered (GE) ingredients.
WFM’s most recent attack on OCA predictably backfired, throwing gasoline on the fiery debate surrounding my previous essay “The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto.” In that essay, written in January 2011, I criticized WFM and several other well-known organic companies for their foolish (now hopefully repudiated) stance of espousing “co-existence” with the USDA and Monsanto, in exchange for minimal federal regulation of genetically engineered crops.
In subsequent articles OCA has called for an end to “organic infighting” and for the organic industry, farmers, and consumers to join forces and pass laws or state ballot initiatives (like the current campaign in California) that would require mandatory labels on products containing genetically engineered ingredients, as well as to make it illegal to label or market GE-tainted foods as “natural” or “all natural.”
Anger is now running so high against Monsanto and the USDA, as well as anyone appearing to tolerate “co-existence” with either group, that rumors are fast spreading that Monsanto has bought out, or plans to buy out, WFM. That rumor is untrue. However, it has focused attention once again on the critical issue of food labeling. WFM, and all of us in the organic community, must put an end to labeling fraud in the “natural” products sector, by passing laws that will require brands and supermarkets to clearly label all genetically engineered ingredients on their products.
Growing awareness has created a strong organic movement
Millions of health-minded Americans, especially parents of young children, now understand that cheap, non-organic, genetically engineered, industrial food is hazardous. Not only does chemical- and energy-intensive factory farming destroy the environment, impoverish rural communities, exploit farm workers, inflict unnecessary cruelty on farm animals, and contaminate the water supply, but the end product itself is inevitably contaminated.
