EU: Pesticides in food: what is the European Parliament doing to help?

Europeans are concerned about pesticide residues in food and their
potential effect on health. Find out how MEPs are tackling the issue.

About 50% of the food tested by the European Food Safety Authority
(EFSA) in 2016 contained pesticide residues, with 3.8% exceeding legal
limits.

In the EU, pesticides and the active substances in them are
carefully monitored, but in recent years, concern has been raised over
the approval procedure, especially after controversy about the renewal
of glyphosate approval in 2017.

To better protect people’s health the European Parliament wants action to improve the management of pesticide use in the EU.

More transparent pesticide approval procedure

In February 2018, Parliament appointed a special committee to look into
the EU’s authorisation procedure for pesticides. On 16 January, MEPs
backed the committee’s final report pushing for more transparent
procedures to ensure political accountability.

MEPs recommend that:

*The public should be granted access to studies used in the authorisation procedure

*Manufacturers asking for substance approval should register all
regulatory studies in a public register to ensure all relevant
information is taken into account

*Scientific experts should review studies on carcinogenicity of
glyphosate and maximum residue levels for soils and surface water should
be set

*Pesticides and their active substances should be tested thoroughly,
taking into account cumulative effects and long-term toxicityPesticides
should no longer be used over a wide area near schools, childcare
facilities, playing fields, hospitals, maternity hospitals and care
homes

Better access to studies on food chain safety

In December 2018 Parliament voted in favour of an update of the general
food law regulation covering food safety in EU at all stages of the food
chain, including animal health, plant protection and production.

The proposed new rules aim to improve public access to studies used by
the European Food Safety Agency in the risk assessment of food products,
and to ensure the studies are reliable, objective and independent.

A common European registry would be set up for commissioned studies, so
the European Food Safety Agency can check whether companies are
suppressing any unfavourable studies. If there is reason to doubt the
evidence provided by the applicants, the agency could request additional
studies.

Read more at:
EU: Pesticides in food: what is the European Parliament doing to help?

Pollution: Meat Is Murder — On the Climate, Anyway - Americans eat 60 percent more than Europeans

One of the leading sources of methane

Beware the cows !

Sure, it looks like we've got them where we want them, penned up in farms, easily led to the meat-packing plants. But in an ongoing display of passive resistance, they may be trying to take us with them.

 Beyond the fat and cholesterol, they're also one of the leading sources of methane — a planet-warming greenhouse gas with 25 times the punch of carbon dioxide on a 100-year time scale. And those emissions are expected to go up planet-wide as developing countries urbanize and get richer, putting a Western-style diet within the reach of billions more people.

In the United States alone, what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) euphemistically calls "enteric fermentation" — the belches and farts of livestock, mostly cattle — is the second-biggest source of US methane emissions. Those emissions added up to the equivalent of 648 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2014. Their manure added another 60 million, according to an EPA report released last week.

 And when you total up the effect of all the feed, fertilizer, and fuel involved in modern farming, that quarter-pound cheeseburger ends up having the same carbon footprint as a nearly seven-mile (11-kilometer) drive, said Dawn Undurraga, a nutritionist with the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.

 "Americans eat a huge amount of meat," Undurraga said. "We eat 60 percent more than Europeans and somewhere between 150 or 200 percent of our needs."

Note Almere Digest: Pollution, not only by industry, but also as a result of agriculture, livestock, meat production industry, etc.etc, will eventually kill us all, if we don't act now. 

 If you are a parent and not discussing these issues with your children, to make sure they become aware of this disaster, you are basically just as criminal as the polluters. Watch programs on TV like "Meat is murder - on the climate anyway" (see story above),  do it together as a family, and talk about it afterwards. 

Might not be as much fun as sport activities, music concerts. or reality shows, but certainly will better prepare your kids for the future and hopefully also make them realize that being an "activist" is not a stigma or a dirty word. 

Read more: Meat Is Murder — On the Climate, Anyway | VICE News

Surveillance: 9 Ways You're Being Spied On Every Day

Casinos. Banks. Airports. We all know there are public places where we're being watched, ostensibly for crime-prevention purposes. But with the advancement of digital technologies, "Big Brother's" reach has gotten way wider, recording our movements—and our conversations—in a surprising amount of places.

"Big Brother is becoming more and more intrusive in our private lives and until something is done to scale it back or eliminate it, it's only going to get worse," says David Bakke, Money Crashers tech expert.

Read more: 9 Ways You're Being Spied On Every Day