Tag: food

Agriculture Secretary Announces Update As Flesh-Eating Screwworm Comes Within 70 Miles Of US Border

More than 8,000 traps have been deployed across Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, targeting the New World screwworm (NWS) flies, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a Sept. 26 post on X, adding that no additional NWS infections have been detected since last Sunday.

On Sunday, Sept. 21, an announcement was made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which said that Mexico’s National Service of Agro-Alimentary Health, Safety, and Quality had confirmed a new NWS infection in Sabinas Hidalgo, Nueva Leon state, less than 70 miles from America’s southern border. The infected animal was an 8-month-old cow.

Earlier in July, an NWS infection had been reported 370 miles south of the U.S.–Mexico border.

In her post, Rollins said that over 13,000 screening samples have been screened, and zero NWS flies have been identified thus far.

In addition, 750,000 sterilized NWS flies are being trucked in and dispersed in the Nueva Leon region twice a week, she said.

Mass-produced, sterile male NWS flies are often used to tackle the spread of wild NWS fly swarms. When these sterile flies are released into a swarm in large numbers, they mate with the wild female flies, which end up laying unfertilized eggs, thus lowering the swarm population.

Tackling NWS swarms is crucial since they pose a major threat to livestock. In an Aug. 15 statement, USDA called NWS a “devastating pest.”

“When NWS fly larvae (maggots) burrow into the flesh of a living animal, they cause serious, often deadly damage to the animal. NWS can infest livestock, pets, wildlife, occasionally birds, and in rare cases, people,” the agency said.

“It is not only a threat to our ranching community, but it is a threat to our food supply and our national security.”

Since May, U.S. ports have been closed to imports of cattle, horses, and bison from Mexico to prevent the spread of NWS flies into the United States.

Rollins accused Mexico of having “failed to enforce proper cattle movement controls and neglected to regularly maintain fly traps as agreed, undermining detection efforts.”

“This is unacceptable,” she said in the post on X. “Mexico must immediately implement agreed-upon protocols, expand surveillance, and restrict cattle movement in infected zones. For the foreseeable future the border will remain closed.”

In a Sept. 22 statement, Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the Sept. 21 detection was of an NWS fly in its larval stage, “meaning there is no possibility of the fly emerging.”

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After Massive Shrimp Recalls, the FDA Finds Radioactive Contamination in Spices Too

Federal regulators have detected possible radioactive contamination in a second food product sent to the U.S. from Indonesia, even as recalls of potentially tainted shrimp continue to grow. The discovery adds to questions about the source of the unusual problem.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials last week blocked import of all spices from PT Natural Java Spice of Indonesia after federal inspectors detected cesium 137 in a shipment of cloves sent to California.

That follows the import alert imposed in August on the company PT Bahari Makmuri Sejati, or BMS foods, which sends millions of pounds of shrimp to the U.S. each year.

Here’s what you need to know about potential cesium 137 contamination:

What is cesium 137?

Cesium 137 is a radioactive isotope created as a byproduct of nuclear reactions, including nuclear bombs, testing, reactor operations and accidents. It’s widespread around the world, with trace amounts found in the environment, including soil, food and air.

What have U.S. officials found?

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials detected cesium 137 in shipping containers of shrimp sent by PT Bahari Makmur Sejati to several U.S. ports. CBP officials flagged the potential contamination to the FDA, which tested samples of the shrimp and detected cesium 137 in one sample of breaded shrimp.

The company has sent about 84 million pounds (38 million kilograms) of shrimp to U.S. ports this year, according to data from Import Genius, a trade data analysis company. It supplies about 6% of foreign shrimp imported in the U.S.

This month, FDA officials detected cesium 137 in one sample of cloves exported by PT Natural Java Spice, which sends spices to the U.S. and other countries. Records show the company sent about 440,000 pounds ( 200,000 kilograms) of cloves to the U.S. this year.

What are the health risks?

No food that triggered alerts or tested positive has been released for sale in the U.S., FDA officials emphasized.

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Aspartame Alters Gut Bacteria and Triggers Cancer Genes in Glioblastoma

Aspartame Activates Brain Cancer Genes, Study Finds

A recent animal study published in Scientific Reports investigated the effects of aspartame on gene expression and gut bacteria in mice with glioblastoma. Researchers assessed whether aspartame could influence tumor progression on a molecular level, even in the absence of visible tumor growth.1

•The mice used in the study had gliomas induced by transplanting cancerous cells — These test subjects were then split into two groups. One received aspartame in their drinking water, while the control group was given plain water.

•One of the most striking findings was the activation of cancer-linked genes — The researchers discovered dramatic internal changes — particularly at the genetic and microbial level — in the aspartame-exposed group. Specifically, they observed a significant upregulation of three key genes — myelocytomatosis (MYC), cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (CDKN1A), and transforming growth factor-β (TGFB1).

•These three genes are well-established contributors to cancer progression — MYC is an oncogene, meaning it plays a direct role in driving uncontrolled cell growth, while TGFB1 is often associated with a poor prognosis in glioblastoma due to its ability to suppress immune function and promote tumor cell survival. CDKN1A is typically involved in controlling the cell cycle, but when dysregulated, it contributes to tumor aggressiveness.

•The most unsettling part? These changes happened without any measurable increase in tumor size. That means even if your tumor isn’t growing, it could still be genetically evolving into something far more dangerous.

Aspartame Alters Your Gut Microbiota by Affecting the Gut-Brain Axis

Aspartame was accidentally discovered in 1965 and had been used in consumer products since the 1980s. Being a low-calorie sweetener that’s 200 times sweeter than regular sugar, it became widely popular among people who want to cut back on their calorie consumption. It’s now used in over 6,000 different products worldwide, including diet soda, sugar-free gum and candy, and even condiments like ketchup and salad dressings.2

However, aspartame is not as safe as it seems — in fact, it has been associated with a long list of health problems, such as obesity, headaches, and depression.3 In 2023, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared aspartame as possibly carcinogenic to humans4 — and now, this animal study provides stronger evidence backing up this classification.

•The changes in gene activity were traced to a powerful biological process called RNA methylation — These changes occurred specifically along the N6-methyladenosine (m6A) pathway. RNA methylation is a chemical modification of messenger RNA (mRNA), the molecule your body uses to translate DNA into proteins.

This modification acts like a dimmer switch — it fine-tunes how active a gene becomes. When aspartame exposure elevated this process, the dimmer switch turned all the way up on cancer-promoting genes.

•Aspartame increases glioblastoma risk by affecting the gut-brain axis — This is the bidirectional pathway by which your gut and brain communicate with each other. Your gut bacteria synthesize short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like butyrate and metabolize dietary components like tryptophan into molecules that regulate the tumor microenvironment.

When these metabolites reach tumor sites, they improve immune surveillance mechanisms and alter cellular metabolic processes to inhibit tumor growth.

•Conversely, tumors also influence gut microbial composition — Certain gut bacteria that colonize tumor tissues contribute to carcinogenesis through multiple mechanisms — they induce DNA damage, suppress the immune system’s ability to recognize tumor antigens, and disrupt vital metabolic pathways. These create conditions conducive to tumor survival and proliferation.

To put it simply, some gut bacteria produce substances that help fight cancer, while others actually help tumors grow and spread; Aspartame alters your gut to increase the growth of tumor-spreading bacteria.

•Mice fed aspartame had a significant drop in bacteria from the Rikenellaceae family — Rikenellaceae are part of a group of microbes involved in producing SCFAs, which, as mentioned above, help inhibit cancer formation. According to the study authors:

“The composition and abundance of gut microbiota, particularly the Rikenellaceae family, are closely associated with the levels of volatile fatty acids, such as acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid.

Numerous findings have provided compelling evidence of a robust connection between the abundance of the Rikenellaceae family in the gut and a diverse array of metabolic health conditions, including Parkinson’s disease and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Our study concluded that although the aspartame diet did not significantly affect tumor growth, it did induce changes in the composition of the gut microbiota, particularly a decrease in the relative abundance of the Rikenellaceae family. We speculated that gut microbiota could influence the progression of glioblastoma multiforme by gut-brain axis.”5

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Radioactive metal at Indonesia industrial site may be linked to shrimp recall

Contaminated metal at an industrial site in Indonesia may be the source of radioactive material that led to massive recalls of imported frozen shrimp, international nuclear safety officials say, as efforts are underway to halt more U.S.-bound shipments.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday that officials are in “constant contact” with Indonesian nuclear regulators who have detected Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope, at a processing plant that sent millions of pounds of shrimp to the U.S.

“Preliminary information suggests that it may have originated from activities at a metal melting facility at the same industrial site or from the disposal of scrap metal junk to other areas of the site,” IAEA spokesperson Fredrik Dahl said in an email.

No U.S. investigators have been sent to the site in Serang, west of Jakarta, federal officials said.

Meanwhile, the company that exported the shrimp, PT Bahari Makmur Sejati, also known as BMS Foods, has recalled more than 300 shipping containers that were already on their way to the U.S., Dahl said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned last month that Cesium-137 was detected in shipping containers sent to four U.S. ports, and in a sample of imported frozen shrimp. That spurred multiple recalls of shrimp sold at Walmart, Kroger and other stores.

This week, additional recalls were issued by Tampa Maid Foods LLC, of Florida, for breaded butterfly shrimp sold under Admiral of the Fleet, Portico Seafood Classic and other labels.

None of the shrimp that triggered alerts or tested positive for Cesium-137 was released for sale, the FDA said. But other shipments sent to stores may have been manufactured under conditions that allowed the products to become contaminated, the agency said.

The risk appears to be small, but the shrimp could pose a “potential health concern” for people exposed to low levels of Cesium-137 over time, FDA officials said.

The FDA issued an import alert for shrimp from BMS Foods to stop the products from coming into the U.S.

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USDA BANS LIVESTOCK FROM MEXICO BUT IS YOUR “MADE IN THE USA” BEEF ACTUALLY MADE IN THE USA?

For 70 years, the United States has been fighting an invasion at our southern border, but its not the invasion of illegal immigrants we are talking about.

The United States has, for 70 years, been fighting a continuous aerial war against the New World screwworm, a parasite that eats animals alive: cow, pig, deer, dog, even human. (Its scientific name, C. hominivorax, translates to “man-eater.”) Larvae of the parasitic fly chew through flesh, transforming small nicks into big, gruesome wounds. 

The United States government, to prevent the spread of this deadly parasite, blasted flies with radiation to make them sterile and then began intensive campaign of dropping these sterile flies south of the border.

While this effort held the deadly parasite at bay for a time, the containment efforts are now failing:

But in 2022, the barrier was breached. Cases in Panama—mostly in cattle—skyrocketed from dozens a year to 1,000, despite ongoing drops of sterile flies. The parasite then began moving northward, at first slowly and then rapidly by 2024… The U.S. subsequently suspended live-cattle imports from Mexico.

Now the Trump administration is taking new efforts to stop the spread of the deadly parasite, by shutting down livestock trade across the southern border:

US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has ordered the shutdown of livestock trade through southern border ports following the detection of a new case of New World Screwworm in Veracruz, Mexico—a massive red flag that the parasite is moving north toward the United States.

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Israel’s Attacks on Seed Banks Destroy Millennia of Palestinian Cultural Heritage

This summer, Israeli bulldozers rolled through the West Bank city of Hebron with ruthless efficiency, targeting not soldiers or weapons caches, but something deeply vulnerable: Palestine’s only surviving national seed bank.

Within hours of the bulldozers’ arrival on July 31, 2025, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees’ seed multiplication facility lay in ruins — its propagation materials scattered, its infrastructure demolished, and with it, generations of Palestinian agricultural heritage reduced to rubble.

What happened in Hebron fits the legal definition of ecocide — the deliberate destruction of ecosystems to undermine human survival. The Union of Agricultural Work Committees condemned this attack as “an act of erasure intended to sever the generational ties between farmers and their land.”

When ecocide operates within the context of genocide, as it does in Palestine, it functions as a temporal weapon that extends the logic of elimination far beyond the present moment, reaching into an indefinite future where recovery becomes systematically impossible.

The Union of Agricultural Work Committees’ seed facility housed over 70 baladi (heirloom) seed varieties, many of which no longer exist elsewhere, that Palestinian farmers had cultivated and perfected over centuries. These seeds — for rare, indigenous, hardy strains of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, and others collected from local farms in the West Bank and Gaza — weren’t just any seeds. They were living libraries of Palestinian agricultural knowledge, carrying genetic traits for drought resistance, soil adaptation, and nutritional density that commercial varieties lack.

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Brooke Rollins Approves Louisiana SNAP Waiver Eliminating Soda and Candy from Eligible Items

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved Louisiana’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) waiver barring individuals from purchasing soda and candy with food stamps and adding rotisserie chicken to the eligible items in an effort to Make America Healthy Again.

“Guess what was in the mail? Got a great postcard from the wonderful Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, my great friend, and this is our SNAP waiver,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) said in a video update Tuesday morning.

“Thank you, President Trump. Thank you, Brooke Rollins, for helping make Louisiana healthy again,” he continued, explaining that SNAP beneficiaries are “more likely to have higher rates of obesity that creates a greater risk for chronic diseases.”

“We want to make Louisianans healthy, so you will no longer be able to buy sugary candy, energy drinks, or soft drinks — no more soda pop —  on food stamps,” he said.

However, the governor said they are adding rotisserie chicken, which will now be covered.

“We want all of Louisiana to be healthy, and our welfare programs are supposed to be a hand up, not a candy out,” Landry added, thanking President Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

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Is climate change REALLY making people allergic to meat?

Ticks responsible for giving people a “meat allergy” are spreading further and wider because the planet is warming.

That’s the story, anyway.

The disease is called Alpha-Gal Syndrome, it is a condition where your body produces an immune response to galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, a carbohydrate found in mammalian meat.

It was first noted in the mid-2000s, when cancer patients began to display symptoms of anaphylaxis after being treated with the monoclonal antibody drug Cetuximab.

Then, in the early 2010s, researchers found a correlation between increased alpha-gal antibody reaction and repeated tick bites.

Since then, the prevalence of alpha-gal has been increasing year-on-year, with the CDC now estimating almost 500,000 people suffer from this “meat allergy” in the US alone.

Why are these numbers increasing?

Because of climate change, apparently. You see, the warmer weather is causing the tick population to increase, so more people are being bitten, so more people become allergic to meat.

It’s all very…neat, don’t you think?

Myths built upon convenient myths, each reinforcing the other. Just as people “should” be eating less meat to (allegedly) help fight climate change, a disease emerges that forces people to eat less meat…because of climate change.

The reality – if we can even call it that – is that alpha gal is a “confounding condition”, that’s what this Guardian article calls it anyway…

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New Recall of Potentially Radioactive Cocktail Shrimp in 27 US States

The Food and Drug Administration announced on Aug. 28 a new recall of cocktail shrimp sold in Walmart stores across 27 states for potential contamination due to being prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions where they may have become contaminated with cesium-137 (Cs-137).

Seattle-based AquaStar (USA) Corp is recalling approximately 26,460 6-ounce packages of cocktail shrimp, imported from Indonesia, and sold between July 31 and Aug. 16.

The states in which they have been sold are Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin,

A day earlier, on Aug. 27, the FDA issued a similar recall warning for frozen cooked shrimp sold across 17 states. In that instance, the importer, Aquastar, had recalled approximately 18,000 bags (net weight 2 pounds) of Kroger Mercado Cooked Medium Peeled Tail-Off Shrimp.

Both recalls are an expansion of recent recalls by Walmart and other distributors.

Cs-137 is a man-made radioisotope of the extremely reactive metal cesium, the FDA said.

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CDC dramatically scales back program that tracks food poisoning infections

Federal health officials have dramatically scaled back a program that has tracked food poisoning infections in the U.S. for three decades.

The Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, known as FoodNet, has cut required monitoring to just two pathogens that cause infections, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s down from eight.

Under the change, which began in July, health departments in 10 states that participate in the joint state and federal program will be required to monitor only foodborne infections caused by salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli bacteria. Those are among the top contributors to foodborne illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S., the CDC said.

Previously, the FoodNet system required surveillance of infections confirmed to be caused by six other germs as well: campylobacter, cyclospora, listeria, shigella, vibrio and Yersinia.

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