Check Your Receipt: It May Be Tainted with BPA

Bisphenol-A, also known as BPA, is a chemical compound used in making plastic products and the lining of tin cans. This harmful chemical can leach out of products and into food. Consumption of food products packaged in containers made with BPA, expose humans to a variety of adverse side effects. Recent research shows that the chemical can be absorbed into human skin in a less familiar way: the handling of receipts. Beyond cash register receipts, high levels of BPA are also often present in the thermal paper used to make baggage destination tags, cigarette filters, toilet paper, paper towels, and bus, train and lottery tickets. BPA is an endocrine disrupter, mimicking the body’s hormones. Studies on animals have suggested that it can have harmful effects on the reproductive, developmental and other systems, causing cancer and neurological problems.

Bush Era Organic Scandal Ends in $7.5 Million Settlement

Aurora Dairy, Walmart, Costco, Target and others aid to have misled consumers! What has been billed the largest scandal in the history of the organic industry has now resulted in a court settlement on behalf of consumers against Aurora Dairy, a giant factory farm operator with industrial-scale operations in Colorado and Texas. Aurora has agreed to pay plaintiffs in a class-action consumer fraud lawsuit $7.5 million to end litigation involving fraudulent marketing claims concerning organic milk. (Way too low, in my opinion!) Aurora and its major customers, supermarket chains selling private-label organic milk, were accused of mis-representing the authenticity of their products. This settlement proves there is a higher authority enforcing the organic standards in this country than the USDA, and that’s the organic customer.

America: Becoming a Land Without Farmers

Currently less than 3% of farmers make more than 63% of the money, including government subsidies. Large areas of the US are becoming impoverished farm towns with abandoned farmhouses and deserted land. More and more of the countryside has been devoted to massive factory farms and plantations. The consequences, though worse now than ever, have been there for all to see and feel for decades. By the early 1940s, USDA no longer saw the family farm as a national asset. In 2002, 35% of America’s farmers were completely impoverished. These farmers earned less than $2,500 which,  represented 1% of sales and government payouts.

Right Whales Wronged: Judge allows Navy to Expand Sonar Use In Florida

North Atlantic Right Whales just lost in court, and that decision could possibly sentence the last remaining 300 whales to extinction. In a disappointing decision, the court denied a motion for summary judgement in a lawsuit that challenged the Navy’s reckless decision to construct and operate a 500-square-mile undersea warfare training range next to the whales’ only known calving ground near Jacksonville, Florida. Hunted nearly to extinction, North Atlantic Right Whales teeter on the edge of survival.