Re: [apple-crop] arctic apples

[Ginda Fisher]

On Feb 26, 2015, at 10:34 PM, Jon Clements wrote:
> ...
> 6.) What ever happened to BST/BGH push-back and labeling? Ginda, I will let 
> you look that one up.
> ...
> Jon

I don't need to look that one up, because I've followed it. The differences 
between the milk and meat of BST/BGH-treated cows is too small to be 
conclusively measured (higher levels of this and that, but within the normal 
range) HOWEVER, the incidence of mastitis and other maladies is significantly 
higher in cows treated with BST than in untreated cows. So, just as the 
"roundup ready" gene doesn't affect how your body interacts with food, but the 
greater residue of roundup might be a concern, the hormonal changes in the milk 
are probably unimportant, but you are probably exposed to more antibiotic 
residue (and anti-biotic-resistant bacterial contamination) from the milk (and 
meat) of treated cows.

It's been outlawed in Canada, the EU, and several other first-world countries, 
mostly on animal welfare grounds. It remains legal in the US, but most of the 
milk in my supermarket says "our farmers pledged not to use BST".  Checking 
with wikipedia, this isn't just a yuppie phenomenon, a large number of major 
brands of milk, including Costco's "Kirkland" brand, Walmart's "Great Value" 
brand, and many more. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_somatotropin

The wikipedia article doesn't have any recent data on how commonly it is used, 
but says:

"From 2000-2005 the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) survey 
of dairy producers found that about 17% of producers used rBST.[23] The 2010 
USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service survey of Wisconsin farms found 
that about 18% of dairy farms used rBST.[24]"

So it's still out there, but most of our milk supply is from untreated cows.

...

John, your first link in both intriguing and scary. 

1.) I would be a lot more worried about this 
http://www.the-open-mind.com/mit-estimates-half-of-all-children-autistic-in-10-years-due-to-monsanto-1/#fsWKjef2oeh3k4OW.01
 ...
Do you know anything about how reliable the author is? She uses a lot of graphs 
of correlations, that I find very unconvincing. There are all manner of things 
that correlate, and most of them aren't causal. Some are both causally related 
to a third factor, and some are completely random. If you want to see some fun, 
random correlations, check out this link.

http://www.tylervigen.com/

Ginda Fisher___
apple-crop mailing list
apple-crop@virtualorchard.net
http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop

[apple-crop] Fwd: [Shared Post] “Dirty Dozen” List Authors Say Conventionally Grown Produce Are “Best Foods”

[Jon Clements]

“Dirty Dozen” List Authors Say Conventionally Grown Produce Are “Best
Foods”
http://www.growingproduce.com/vegetables/dirty-dozen-list-authors-say-conventionally-grown-produce-are-best-foods/

:-)

-- 
Jon Clements
aka 'Mr Honeycrisp'
UMass Cold Spring Orchard
393 Sabin St.
Belchertown, MA  01007
413-478-7219
umassfruit.com
___
apple-crop mailing list
apple-crop@virtualorchard.net
http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop

[apple-crop] Fwd: arctic apples

[Ginda Fisher]

Did this go through?

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ginda Fisher 
> Date: February 27, 2015 8:16:33 AM EST
> To: Apple-Crop 
> Subject: Re: [apple-crop] arctic apples
> 
> 
> On Feb 26, 2015, at 10:34 PM, Jon Clements wrote:
>> ...
>> 6.) What ever happened to BST/BGH push-back and labeling? Ginda, I will let 
>> you look that one up.
>> ...
>> Jon
> 
> I don't need to look that one up, because I've followed it. The differences 
> between the milk and meat of BST/BGH-treated cows is too small to be 
> conclusively measured (higher levels of this and that, but within the normal 
> range) HOWEVER, the incidence of mastitis and other maladies is significantly 
> higher in cows treated with BST than in untreated cows. So, just as the 
> "roundup ready" gene doesn't affect how your body interacts with food, but 
> the greater residue of roundup might be a concern, the hormonal changes in 
> the milk are probably unimportant, but you are probably exposed to more 
> antibiotic residue (and anti-biotic-resistant bacterial contamination) from 
> the milk (and meat) of treated cows.
> 
> It's been outlawed in Canada, the EU, and several other first-world 
> countries, mostly on animal welfare grounds. It remains legal in the US, but 
> most of the milk in my supermarket says "our farmers pledged not to use BST". 
>  Checking with wikipedia, this isn't just a yuppie phenomenon, a large number 
> of major brands of milk, including Costco's "Kirkland" brand, Walmart's 
> "Great Value" brand, and many more. 
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_somatotropin
> 
> The wikipedia article doesn't have any recent data on how commonly it is 
> used, but says:
> 
> "From 2000-2005 the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) 
> survey of dairy producers found that about 17% of producers used rBST.[23] 
> The 2010 USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service survey of Wisconsin 
> farms found that about 18% of dairy farms used rBST.[24]"
> 
> So it's still out there, but most of our milk supply is from untreated cows.
> 
> ...
> 
> John, your first link in both intriguing and scary. 
> 
> 1.) I would be a lot more worried about this 
> http://www.the-open-mind.com/mit-estimates-half-of-all-children-autistic-in-10-years-due-to-monsanto-1/#fsWKjef2oeh3k4OW.01
>  ...
> Do you know anything about how reliable the author is? She uses a lot of 
> graphs of correlations, that I find very unconvincing. There are all manner 
> of things that correlate, and most of them aren't causal. Some are both 
> causally related to a third factor, and some are completely random. If you 
> want to see some fun, random correlations, check out this link.
> 
> http://www.tylervigen.com/
> 
> Ginda Fisher

___
apple-crop mailing list
apple-crop@virtualorchard.net
http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop

Re: [apple-crop] arctic apples

[Fleming, William]

Daryl,
The reason they breed by manipulating genes rather than conventional breeding 
is because it only takes years rather than decades to come up with the 
desirable result.
While I don't have a strong opinion either way on GMOs what I feel is a better 
use of the technology is to identify the gene with the trait you desire and 
what variety has that gene naturally then use conventional breeding for the 
desired new fruit.
Seems that might go over better with the public once it's explained, plus the 
crop wouldn't have to be labeled GMO if that ever comes around.


Bill Fleming
Montana State University
Western Ag Research Center
580 Quast Lane
Corvallis, MT 59828



-Original Message-
From: apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net 
[mailto:apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net] On Behalf Of Daryl Hunter
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 9:09 PM
To: Apple-crop discussion list
Subject: Re: [apple-crop] arctic apples

Keeping with the Arctic Apple discussion.

The Arctic Apple is supposed to be like no other apple in that they have turned 
off a gene so that it does not turn brown like all other apples.
That statement is misleading since there are apple varieties/cultivars among 
the thousands of varieties that can be sliced and the pieces do not turn brown. 
These are natural bee pollinated genetics, not scientifically manipulated. I 
wonder why they would spend so much money developing a non-browning apple when 
they could easily do it the benign way? I think there is more cost in marketing 
hype here than in the actual genetic work.

For example, here in New Brunswick, Canada we have the Tangowine apple, dark 
purplish skin, snow white sweet flesh with attractive pink streaks, and cut 
pieces can be set on a table for days without turning brown. It is also very 
resistant to scab. It was an open pollinated apple found growing in a gravel 
pit.

In their promotion of the Arctic apple they added a challenge, "Now if we could 
just get rid of the seeds!"  Well, we have seedless apples here in New 
Brunswick too.

Daryl Hunter
___
apple-crop mailing list
apple-crop@virtualorchard.net
http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop



___
apple-crop mailing list
apple-crop@virtualorchard.net
http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop