Source: truefoodnow.org

Judge Jeffrey White, federal district judge for the Northern District of California,
issued a ruling granting the request of plaintiffs Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, High Mowing Organic Seeds, and the Sierra Club to rescind the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) approval of genetically engineered “Roundup Ready” sugar beets (Center for Food Safety v. Vilsack, No. C08-00484 JSW [N.D. Cal. 2010]). In September 2009, the Court had found that the USDA had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by approving the Monsanto-engineered biotech crop without first preparing an Environmental Impact Statement. The crop was engineered to resist the effects of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, which it sells to farmers together with the patented seed. Similar Roundup Ready crops have led to increased use of herbicides, proliferation of herbicide resistant weeds, and contamination of conventional and organic crops.

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Source: MIKE STOBBE and MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

ATLANTA – Hundreds of people have been sickened in a salmonella outbreak linked to eggs in four states and possibly more, health officials said Wednesday as a company dramatically expanded a recall to 380 million eggs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with state health departments to investigate the illnesses. No deaths have been reported, said Dr. Christopher Braden, a CDC epidemiologist involved in the investigation.

Initially, 228 million eggs, or the equivalent of 19 million dozen-egg cartons, were recalled by the company Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa. But that number was increased to nearly 32 million dozen-egg cartons.

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Source: Time.com

Two years after tainted milk powder killed six infants and left some 300,000 more suffering from kidney stones, China is again roiled by allegations of health hazards in infant formula. This time the repercussions are less deadly but nonetheless disturbing. Three infant girls in the central city of Wuhan and a fourth in Beijing have shown signs of premature development, including growth of breasts, according to state media reports. Tests showed that their hormone levels were abnormally high, which some doctors suspect may be linked to drinking infant formula produced by Synutra International, a Nasdaq-listed infant formula maker based in Qingdao, in coastal northeastern China.

The company has denied the allegations, and on Aug. 9 CEO Liang Zhang said, “We are completely confident that our products are safe and our quality levels are industry-leading.” Synutra has also threatened to take legal action against those who have accused it of selling tainted products.

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