Fair Trade Flowers and Cloned Meat Now Available!

In a "win some, lose some" week this February, Americans now have access to both Fair Trade flowers (which will be labeled and certified by TransFair USA), and cloned meat and milk products, which have no label at all if the biotech lobby gets its way--SCARY!!! According to TransFair, "The Fair Trade Certified label on your bouquet means that flower workers, most of whom are women, can put food on their tables, send their children to school, invest in community development, and use sustainable farming methods." You can check out an ever-growing list of where to buy Fair Trade flowers, and watch their Fair Trade flowers video on the Transfair website.

On the "lose some" side, the Union of Concerned Scientists reports in its journal FEED, that "The Food and Drug Administration has declared that milk and meat from cloned animals and their offspring are safe for human consumption." Despite the fact that these genetically engineered animals are often born with obvious birth defects, the biotech lobby wants to sell cloned meat and milk as a solution to world poverty (oh yeah, and to line their patented pockets). YUK! A better solution would be to stop growing so much corn to feed ruminant animals (that prefer grass anyway), eat lower on the food chain (plants), and use the surplus corn, land, and water to feed hungry people. If you haven't read Michael Pollan's "An Omnivore's Dilemma" yet, get cracking on it, so that you can then follow it up with his latest book, "In Defense of Food," now available at a library near you.