Diminishing Quality of Food & Products

nivek

As Above So Below

Eating Lab Grown Chicken Equivalent to Eating Cancer Tumors?

This past November we reported how a new lab-grown chicken product is being developed and could soon be available commercially. The company, Upside Foods, is run by a medical doctor, and they put out a press release last year claiming that the FDA had “cleared” the product. But that was simply a clever marketing campaign, as the FDA does not approve foods, like they do drugs.

Reading the headlines and press releases on this action by the FDA, one is led to believe that the FDA has approved this lab-grown “chicken.” But the FDA doesn’t approve foods. They monitor food safety and labeling, but they do not approve foods. They only approve drugs.

Here is the actual press release from the FDA:

FDA Completes First Pre-Market Consultation for Human Food Made Using Animal Cell Culture Technology

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) completed its first pre-market consultation for a human food made from cultured animal cells. We evaluated the information UPSIDE Foods submitted to the agency and have no further questions at this time about the firm’s safety conclusion. The firm will use animal cell culture technology to take living cells from chickens and grow the cells in a controlled environment to make the cultured animal cell food.
The FDA’s pre-market consultation with the firm included an evaluation of the firm’s production process and the cultured cell material made by the production process, including the establishment of cell lines and cell banks, manufacturing controls, and all components and inputs. The voluntary pre-market consultation is not an approval process. Instead, it means that after our careful evaluation of the data and information shared by the firm, we have no further questions at this time about the firm’s safety conclusion. (Source.)

Read the full article here.
So what does this actually mean? In terms of how safe this product is, it means NOTHING. This was a “voluntary,” “pre-market consultation” paid for by the company planning to market this product, so that they could use the FDA logo with their product giving the illusion that the FDA has actually approved this product, when in fact they have not.

Do we really need a lab-cultured product called “chicken” produced by a medical doctor who has no training in agriculture or nutrition? Has the FDA and the medical system given us any evidence that they are truly concerned about human health during the past couple years since COVID came out?

The USDA will also look at this product and give it some kind of stamp of approval, but this will primarily only be for the facilities that produce it, since that is what the USDA currently does for agricultural meat products. Who will conduct the studies on how this lab-grown “chicken” will affect human health once people start consuming it?

You will, along with the rest of the public who decides to start eating it. The American consumer will become the lab rats in what will basically become the Phase III trials to see how their health will be affected after consuming this lab-created product. And who are the investors that are bringing this product to market? Investors include top meat producer Tyson, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Elon Musks’ brother Kimbal Musk. (Source.)

Unlike other lab-produced meats which are vegetarian and plant based, this product uses cell lines from chickens.

Bloomsburg did an investigative report
on this product this week, and reported that these cell lines are “immortalized” and are basically the same as cancerous tumors.

Thank the biotech revolution. Under the right conditions, animal cells can be grown in a petri dish, or even at scale in factories full of stainless-steel drums. For decades, companies such as Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson have cultured large volumes of cells to produce vaccines, monoclonal antibodies and other biotherapeutics. Now the idea is that we might as well eat these cells, too.

“This is meat,” Upside Foods Inc. Chief Executive Officer Uma Valeti said at an industry conference a little more than a year ago.

“Calling it anything else, I think, is going to be misleading.” On a cellular level, alternative protein advocates say, it’s no different. And that’s 99.9% true.

The big honking asterisk is that normal meat cells don’t just keep dividing forever. To get the cell cultures to grow at rates big enough to power a business, several companies…. are quietly using what are called immortalized cells, something most people have never eaten intentionally. Immortalized cells are a staple of medical research, but they are, technically speaking, precancerous and can be, in some cases, fully cancerous.

Don’t worry: Prominent cancer researchers tell Bloomberg Businessweek that because the cells aren’t human, it’s essentially impossible for people who eat them to get cancer from them, or for the precancerous or cancerous cells to replicate inside people at all.

Of course, the facts might not matter much if ranchers or other players in the traditional meat industry felt threatened enough to declare a public-relations war. It’s all too easy to imagine misleading Fox News chyrons about chicken tumors and cancer burgers.

Most of the scientists I spoke with for this story say that worst case, our digestive enzymes would break down any animal cancer cells we ate. If we wanted to, we could eat malignant chicken tumors by the bucketload. (Full article.)

Well that settles it then. It doesn’t matter that people have never eaten this kind of lab-cultured cancer tumor “meat” before, or that there are no long term studies done on it.

“Scientists” tell us it is just fine, and drug companies have been using the same technique to culture human cells from aborted fetuses to make vaccines for decades now, so it must be OK, right?


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nivek

As Above So Below
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pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Australia set for 3rd year of bumper wheat harvests, easing world supply woes

Australia set for 3rd year of bumper wheat harvests, easing world supply woes​

By Naveen Thukral
The crop is seen in a wheat field ahead of annual harvest near Moree

The crop is seen in a wheat field ahead of annual harvest near Moree, Australia, October 27, 2020. Picture taken October 27, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Barrett

SINGAPORE, June 2 (Reuters) - Australia is poised for a third year of near-record wheat production in 2022 as good weather boosts planting across its grain belt, easing concerns over tight global inventories.
World wheat supplies have tightened after Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this year cut off shipments from one of the top exporting regions, sending grain prices sharply higher and fuelling fears of a global food crisis. read more

India's recent move to ban exports and adverse weather in the United States have added to concerns over the availability of food grains.

Benchmark Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures prices jumped to an all-time high of $13.64 a bushel in March. The market was trading up 0.4% at $10.45-1/4 a bushel, as of 0307 GMT on Thursday.
Farmers in Australia, which emerged as the world's second largest wheat exporter in 2021/22, have nearly finished this year's wheat planting on about 14.45 million hectares (35.7 million acres), an all-time high, encouraged by red-hot prices and ideal growing conditions, according to estimates from brokerage IKON Commodities.

Last year, wheat was produced on around 14 million hectares, it added.
Australia on track for 3rd straight bumper wheat harvest - traders

Australia on track for 3rd straight bumper wheat harvest - traders
EARLY ESTIMATES, EARLY SALES

Even though it is still too early to estimate the full size of 2022-23 crop, which will be harvested at the end of the year, analysts and traders have started forecasting total output of around 30-35 million tonnes, not far from the record 2021-22 harvest of more than 36 million tonnes.
"Are we looking at a crop of above 30 million tonnes for a third year in a row? I think we have a good shot at it," said Phin Ziebell, agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank in Melbourne.

"Farmers have good cash positions and the weather is really working for them."
In the past 10 years, the country's wheat output averaged 24.8 million tonnes annually, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).
While wet conditions have aided planting on the country's east coast, known for its high-protein hard wheat, timely rains in Western Australia have also lifted sowing.
Australia wheat planted area, yield and output by state

Australia wheat planted area, yield and output by state
Global wheat production, however, is estimated to decline to 774.83 million tonnes in 2022-23, from 779.29 million tonnes a year ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows.
Asian buyers are heavily reliant on Australian wheat, with China emerging as the biggest buyer this year, traders said. Indonesia, the world's second largest wheat buyer, Japan and South Korea are other key importers in the region.
Australian farmers have enjoyed all-time high wheat prices this year with record output giving added advantage.
Key global wheat prices since 2005

Key global wheat prices since 2005
Australian Premium White (APW) was quoted at $440 a tonne, Free on Board, Western Australia, this week, slightly below a record price of $460 a tonne a few weeks ago.
Importers are looking at striking deals earlier than usual for the crop which will be ready for harvest in November, traders said.
"We expect business to start earlier than usual (in) August-September time," said one Singapore-based trader.

Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Kim Coghill
 

nivek

As Above So Below

Inflation is now so bad people are nostalgic for 2021, when an avocado cost $1 instead of $2.50, and a dozen eggs were $1.60 not $4.21

American's facing rising inflation have become nostalgic for prices from just two years ago when the cost of basic groceries were almost half their price.

In the past, people may have cynically recalled how the cost of everyday items had risen over decades, but now people see prices escalating right before their eyes, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Avocados cost an average of $1 each in early 2021 but had risen to $2.50 just one year later.

'There is an element of whiplash,' a 41-year-old marketing consultant told the paper, regarding the price of avocados. 'Was that a bygone era from my youth, or was it just last year?'

According to finance professors, however, on top of inflation is psychology. On average, people exaggerate the extent of inflation and remember prices being lower than they actually were.

Recent inflation has caused some to become nostalgic about prices just two years ago - the cost of groceries has risen considerably, and faster than wages


Nonetheless, people are correct in sensing that the cost of living is rising and the cost of food products for the home is outgrowing wages.

Over the last two years, since February 2021, prices of food products such as cereals, meats, dairy and fruit have risen by an average of around 19 percent, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The price of eggs rose so much over the past year that Americans even began smuggling them across the US-Mexico border.

Wages, on the other hand, have risen by around 11 percent over the same period, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Wage Growth Tracker.

Although that change to hourly and annual salaries is a historically large increase, households have experienced reduced disposable income.

While federal stimulus packages increased the amount of cash in ordinary American households, the buying power of all that money was reduced by inflation.


(More on the link)

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nivek

As Above So Below
:ohmy8:

Toronto mom says she saves hundreds of dollars a month by feeding her 18-month-old baby CRICKETS instead of meat as a 'source of protein' - and now plans to add ants, grasshoppers, and WORMS to her daughter's diet

A mother has revealed that she feeds her 18-month-old baby crickets since they're 'a great source of protein' - and has insisted that the tot 'loves' eating the bugs and that it's saved hundreds of dollars per month on her grocery bill.

Tiffany Leigh, a food writer from Toronto, Canada, said that she first tried insects during a visit to Asia - tasting everything from fried tarantula legs to scorpion on a stick - and she 'loved' how the critters were 'incorporated into local dishes' to 'enhance their textural appeal.'

When her daughter became old enough to start eating food, Tiffany decided to add bugs to her diet - which she described as a much cheaper way to provide the toddler with protein.

While speaking to Insider recently, the mother-of-one explained that since she started mixing crickets into her 18-month-old's meals, she doesn't have to spend as much on 'more traditionally expensive proteins like beef, chicken, and pork' - and she said the change has resulted in her cutting her food bill down from $250-$300 a week to $150-$200 a week.


(More on the link)

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nivek

As Above So Below

You're not going crazy... your favorite snacks really ARE shrinking: Doritos, Honey Nut Cheerios and Gatorade are among dozens of brands to slash size of products in response to inflation

If you've picked up a bag of Doritos recently and thought it had less chips in it, you're not going crazy.

Some of America's favorite snacks have shrunk by up to 20 percent in the last 25 years as companies cost-cut amid rising inflation, a move dubbed 'shrinkflation'.

It is not just chips. Fast food, cereals, soda, ice cream and dressings have all been kept at the same price or even made more expensive despite shrinking in size.

Candy industry leaders claim they are reducing product sizes for the good of consumers, saying it helps control sugar and calorie intake.

Domino's $7.99 box of chicken wings used to contain 10 wings in 2022, but now it only has eight. Cadbury's creme eggs have decreased more than 14 percent in size from the 1970s to 2015, while the weight of a Toblerone has dropped more than 15 percent since 2010.


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spacecase0

earth human
I am surprised by the lack of the organic foods in the stores the last 2 years,
it is getting quite hard to get clean food at the store
 

nivek

As Above So Below
I've noticed something about this popcorn I've been buying...There's a white cheddar variety and a regular non-butter variety...As you can see by these two images below and I verified checking my own bags I've bought and have at home, both are 6.7 ounces in quantity...The thing is, the white cheddar variety feels extremely full, barely any empty space in the bag whilst the regular variety has one third of the bag empty...This I have noticed and it's been repeatable...So since the weight of the quantity is the same (at least as advertised) then the bags may be of different sizes making the white cheddar bags appear fuller, to what end I don't know...Or the regular variety doesn't weigh 6.7 ounces or the white cheddar variety weighs over 6.7 ounces...I have a bag of each and when both bags are emptied I will flatten them out and compare bag sizes...If both bags are identical in size then the weight of one of them is wrong...

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nivek

As Above So Below
I've noticed something about this popcorn I've been buying...There's a white cheddar variety and a regular non-butter variety...As you can see by these two images below and I verified checking my own bags I've bought and have at home, both are 6.7 ounces in quantity...The thing is, the white cheddar variety feels extremely full, barely any empty space in the bag whilst the regular variety has one third of the bag empty...This I have noticed and it's been repeatable...So since the weight of the quantity is the same (at least as advertised) then the bags may be of different sizes making the white cheddar bags appear fuller, to what end I don't know...Or the regular variety doesn't weigh 6.7 ounces or the white cheddar variety weighs over 6.7 ounces...I have a bag of each and when both bags are emptied I will flatten them out and compare bag sizes...If both bags are identical in size then the weight of one of them is wrong...

View attachment 18446

View attachment 18447

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This evening I finished a bag of white cheddar popcorn and had an empty bag of the regular variety already saved to compare...Well, both bags are exactly the same size, I flattened out both and stacked them on top each other, both ways...So the next test is to weigh both bags before I open them...

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nivek

As Above So Below
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nivek

As Above So Below

Michigan community leads fightback against Chinese takeover of US agriculture - as Beijing-backed companies now own $2 BILLION of American farmland

EXCLUSIVE: Michigan community leads fightback against Chinese takeover of US agriculture
A rural community in Michigan has hailed a 'huge victory' after a Chinese-owned industrial firm backed out of buying local farmland. Residents of the idyllic Green Charter Township, around 50 miles east of Lake Michigan, say they were 'bullied' into accepting the takeover, but refused to do so. It comes as data shows Chinese firms now own more than $2 billion worth of US farmland, up from just $162 million a decade ago, DailyMail.com can reveal.

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