Civil Eats » Blog Archive » Court to FDA: Follow the Law on Curbing Overuse of Antibiotics in Livestock.

The Court wrote:

“[T]he statutory scheme requires the Agency to ensure the safety and effectiveness of all drugs sold in interstate commerce, and, if an approved drug is not shown to be safe or effective, the Agency must begin withdrawal proceedings. The Agency has forsaken these obligations in the name of a proposed voluntary program, Guidance # 209, and acted contrary to the statutory language.

. . .

[FDA] must evaluate the safety risks of the petitioned drugs and either make the finding that the drugs are not shown to be safe or provide a reasoned explanation as to why the Agency is refusing to make such a finding.”

The Citizen Petitions asked FDA to act on medically important antibiotics that are being fed to healthy livestock and are contributing to the looming public health crisis of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance can lead to longer illnesses, the use of antibiotics with greater side effects, and even death when treatments fail. Almost seventy percent of all antibiotics sold in the US are used on healthy livestock, to promote faster weight gain and compensate for unsanitary, crowded conditions. Yet, in the face of the rising public health threat of antibiotic resistance, the FDA has largely failed to act. This is in spite of the fact that, as the Court notes, “the Agency has all but made a finding that the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in food-producing animals has not been shown to be safe.”

Nuns Mad As Hell | Women’s Media Center.

What drew the ire of the nuns was an investigation of their group that concluded with a bishop being appointed to oversee their every move, and to decide which speakers they could have at their conferences, and what sort of programs they could offer. Their sins? According to the investigation ordered by Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the sisters were guilty of advancing “radical feminist themes,” not speaking out against same-sex marriage and abortion, and failing to withdraw a 1977 statement that called for the priesthood to be opened to women.

Go, go, go little Genie! Grin

My time is up. I hear them calling me. What am I to do? They are calling my name. My heart is beating fast. What am I to do? I’m scared. My knees and hands are shaking, my mouth is dry. I feel sick.I’m getting paler and colder with every second that passes. What am I to do, they are still calling my name. I have no choice but to go. I want to walk slowly, but my feet act independently. I pass many people who look worse than I. My eyes are full of tears. No one cares. I am on my own now.I realize everyone is on their own.I need more time… I’m not ready for this…!I want to yell More time! But no voice comes from my mouth.My feet stop. I look up and I’m standing in front of them. Three angels; so beautiful and bright. I can’t see them clearly.  They gently call my name.Do you want time? Do you want another chance?My voice is shaky … Yes. Then close your eyes. When you open them, you should know this is your second chance. Use it wisely and make the right choices. Know that God is great, but if you fall there is no getting up!I open my eyes. I’m in my room. I rush to the window. Is it morning? The sun is not out. I can see stars and hear the morning prayers from the mosque outside my home: “Your prayer is better then your sleep!”I realize that it was a dream. No, not a dream, a warning. A second chance cannot be given a second time.By Aisha 

via Afghan Women\'s Writing Project | Second Chance.

My time is up. I hear them calling me. What am I to do? They are calling my name. My heart is beating fast. What am I to do? I’m scared. My knees and hands are shaking, my mouth is dry. I feel sick.I’m getting paler and colder with every second that passes. What am I to do, they are still calling my name. I have no choice but to go. I want to walk slowly, but my feet act independently. I pass many people who look worse than I. My eyes are full of tears. No one cares. I am on my own now.I realize everyone is on their own.I need more time… I’m not ready for this…!I want to yell More time! But no voice comes from my mouth.My feet stop. I look up and I’m standing in front of them. Three angels; so beautiful and bright. I can’t see them clearly.  They gently call my name.Do you want time? Do you want another chance?My voice is shaky … Yes. Then close your eyes. When you open them, you should know this is your second chance. Use it wisely and make the right choices. Know that God is great, but if you fall there is no getting up!I open my eyes. I’m in my room. I rush to the window. Is it morning? The sun is not out. I can see stars and hear the morning prayers from the mosque outside my home: “Your prayer is better then your sleep!”I realize that it was a dream. No, not a dream, a warning. A second chance cannot be given a second time.By Aisha

via Afghan Women\’s Writing Project | Second Chance.

Right-Wing Extremists Cultivate Horthy Cult in Hungary – SPIEGEL ONLINE. The world does not need to go back to the killing fields of Nazi Europe!!! Hungary’s controversial new constitution, in force since the beginning of the year, evokes the spirit of a long-past era: the thousand-year-old Hungarian state that is represented by the Holy Crown of Saint Stephen I. The constitution pledges to “protect” the unique Hungarian language, Hungarian identity and national culture. It is a thinly veiled throwback to the spirit of the interwar period, when the country was ruled by Miklós Horthy, who established an authoritarian, ultraconservative nationalist and revisionist regime.

Now, under the leadership of conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, this spirit is more or less taking concrete form. In mid-May, a statue of Horthy was erected in Kereki in southwestern Hungary. It was something of a first in post-communist Hungary. After all, Miklós Horthy was a notorious anti-Semite and the leader of the White Terror, a wave of post World War I, anti- Communist violence which claimed many Jews as its victims. As head of state in 1944, he was responsible for the mass deportation of 400,000 Hungarian Jews who were murdered in Auschwitz.

The outdoor library entitled Bookyard was built by Italian artist Massimo Bartolini for the Belgian art festival TRACK: A Contemporary City Conversation in Ghent. Visitors are invited to peruse the stacks and are free to take any book they find for a small donation at a designated box.

via LiANARAMA.

Do Plants Think?: Scientific American.

Do plants communicate with each other?
At a basic level, yes.  But I guess it centers around how you define communication. There is no doubt that plants respond to cues from other plants. For example, if a maple tree is attacked by bugs, it releases a pheromone into the air that is picked up by the neighboring trees. This induces the receiving trees to start making chemicals that will help it fight off the impending bug attack. So on the face of it, this is definitely communication.

Rural Women in Peru Key to Adaptation of Seeds to Climate Change – IPS ipsnews.net.

Peruvian women may save world agriculture! At 3,100 metres above sea level, in the highlands community of Tiomayo near the city of Cuzco, 1,150 km southeast of Lima, Isabel García Champa, 42, works hard on her small farm. 

In workshops at the Flora Tristán Agroecological School, she has built on what she learned about preserving and saving seeds since she was a young girl. And she is all too aware of the impact that climate change can have. 

“On my land I grow potatoes, maize, beans, apples, peas and wheat,” she told IPS. “Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. It’s not like it was before; everything is changing with the rise in temperatures, the heat. The rains don’t come when they’re supposed to, and often we can’t even grow anything.” 

García, whose mother tongue is Quechua but who also speaks Spanish fluently, is a married mother of four and divides her long days between working on the nearly one-hectare farm and taking care of her family. 

Her children also help out on the farm, although only the two youngest – a 16-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy – still live there. 

She sees herself as an inquisitive, enterprising woman who wants to continue learning and to help encourage other women farmers. 

In late 2011, she won the first contest for Women Caring for Seeds and Preserving Identity and Life. 

The prize is granted by the Flora Tristán Centre and Peru’s Network of Rural Municipalities, and García is especially proud of the farm tools that she was awarded, worth around 300 dollars. 

Isabel García Champa next to one of the apple trees on her small family farm in the Peruvian region of Cuzco. Credit: Katherine Pozo/IPS

She said the women presented seeds of more than 30 native varieties of potato, maize, beans, wheat, barley, peas, oca (Oxalis tuborosa – a tuber), quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa – a grain-like crop native to the Andes) and tarwi or Andean lupine (Lupinus mutabilis – a protein- rich native legume). 

She won the prize with the six kinds of maize she grows, some of which are exclusive to the Peruvian highlands: chullpi, janka, sacse, cheqche, estaquilado and blanco. 

“I have gradually improved my knowledge,” she said. “I shell the corn and choose the healthiest kernels, the ones that are the same size and colour. The kernels have to be whole; broken ones aren’t any good. 

“When everything is ready, I put the kernels in cloth sacks and store them in my house, in my bedroom. The kernels are safe there from dust or worms, and they last at least a year, for when I’m ready to plant again,” she said. 

But information and technical resources are scarce and difficult to access for rural women, and the efforts of NGOs cannot fill the gaps left by the state, which does not take advantage of this valuable human capital.