Friday, August 1, 2014

Food News Roundup From an Anarchist's Perspective

So my natural foods co-op runs stories in the back of its monthly rag, and here are a few of this month's bulletins:
The Supreme Court has ruled that Pom Wonderful, maker of 100 percent pomegranate juice, can continue to sue Coca-Cola Co., maker of a "Pomegranate Blueberry" beverage that’s actually 99.4 percent apple and grape, containing only 0.3 percent pomegranate juice and 0.2 percent blueberry juice.
Wait... who expects Coca Cola to do any different?  Is this really what we have the US Supreme Court for?  Pom has great supermarket facing, why does it not just say "100% Pomegranate juice, Coca Cola is .3 percent" and then note Pom is the better deal?
Large numbers of men bought and sold like animals and held against their will on fishing boats off Thailand are integral to the production of shrimp sold in leading supermarkets around the world, including the top four global retailers: Walmart, Carrefour, Costco and Tesco.
I doubt this one. Fisherman can be a cranky lot and are necessarily armed.  They may be constrained by a "poverty draft" of greater pressure than a bully of a captain.  Sounds to me like someone is angling for a career "speaking for enslaved shrimpers..."    Chia Abad has created a profession out of being an "exploited seamstress" so it is not unheard of.    It ain't the hand you are dealt, it is how you play the cards.  The real problem, usury, goes unaddressed.
South Dakota’s Supreme Court has refused to throw out a defamation lawsuit involving media coverage of the meat product that critics call "pink slime." Beef Products Inc. sued ABC News in 2012, saying the network’s coverage caused three plants to close and led to 700 layoffs by implying the product was unsafe.
A 92 year old acquaintance of mine brought a grocery manager to his knees after she found surimi in her "shrimp salad."  She noted they charged a premium price, which she was happy to pay, but with not much time left she was not going to tolerate Surimi fillers.  Surimi is now banned from the deli, such was his embarrassment.  Pink slime is fed to people who have been targeted for liquidation anyway, the EBT beneficiaries.  How about instead of complaining about Pink Slime, we end usury based corporate welfare and we get back to good food which requires talented butchers and far more people employed?
A genetically engineered, vitamin-enhanced banana developed by scientists is to be tested on humans. The trials will take place in the United States over a six-week period. Researchers aim to start growing the fruit in Uganda by 2020. 
I wonder what else the banana does for you?  What was wrong with the old bananas?  New golden era bananas?  Tufts Univ ersity is trying to recover from their unethical participation in "Golden Rice" in China.

I think there are 400 kind so bananas extent, and the most common one, the Cavendish, is a hybrid.  What you want can by hybridized, not need to GMO it, unless you want some specific effect.... and of course to control food by "intellectual" "property" rights".  Because there is no rational limit to lending credit, food can be "redesigned" and Harvard Educated cohort in Uganda can be enticed to host this experiment.

The bottom line in all of these problems is that they are financed by unlimited credit for which control is in state hands.  No sane people ever let a government have anything to do with money or credit.  Never turns out well.


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