Michael Pollan: Supermarket Secrets
GET YOUR KIDS INTO THE KITCHEN!
Source: Uploaded by NourishLife on Nov 1, 2010 to YouTube
Visit http://nourishlife.org. How do you make healthy choices at the supermarket? Food journalist Michael Pollan helps us navigate the grocery store to find fresh, whole foods.
What’s In Your Fridge?? This Is How I Shop For Health
GET YOUR KIDS INTO THE KITCHEN!
Source: Uploaded by PaulChekLive on Jul 25, 2008 to YouTube
Sean from http://www.undergroundwellness.com lets us into his pantry for a little show and tell. If you care about your meat suit then choose your meat carefully. Go against the grain and eat the best you can obtain cause disease is born of bodies carelessly maintained.
Flow – Water Privatization – Full
GET YOUR KIDS INTO THE KITCHEN!
Source: Uploaded by absolutebaloney on Feb 5, 2011 to YouTube
This upload is intended as educational and not commercial.
Watch this 84 minutes documentary where several environmental activists like Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow, Medha Patkar and Rajendra Singh explain why we are facing the biggest crisis of our times, and how large corporations and global institutions such as the World Bank are behind this.
How Did A Handful Of Corporations Steal Our Water? Water is the very essence of life, sustaining every being on the planet. ‘FLOW’ confronts the disturbing reality that our crucial resource is dwindling and greed just may be the cause.
Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century — The World Water Crisis. Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.
Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question “CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?”
Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.
Talk – Vandana Shiva – The Impact of Globalization on Food and Water
Source: Uploaded by talkingsticktv on Feb 15, 2010 to YouTube
I think you will find this video as germane today, if not more so, than when Vandana Shiva made this presentation in 2002. FoodSpook.
Talk by Vandana Shiva author of "Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit" speaking on "The Impact of Globalization on Food and Water" given July 28, 2002 at Kane Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Your Health is Under Attack – Dr. Russell Blaylock
Source: Uploaded by Goodfightlads Dec. 6, 2010 to YouTube
Dr. Russell L. Blaylock – Excitotoxins (MSG, Aspartame)
Uploaded by oximoronTV on Dec 14, 2010 to YouTube
Dr. Russell Blaylock discusses how our food today is adulterated with excitotoxins. Dr. Blaylock has written many books and does an excellent job explaining how these toxins affect our bodies. He cuts through the political and industry lies. This is a must see video.
Conversations With History: The Politics of Food
Source: Uploaded by UCtelevision on Feb 19, 2009 to YouTube
Host Harry Kreisler welcomes writer Michael Pollan for a discussion of the agricultural industrial complex that dominates consumer choices about what to eat. He explores the origins, evolution and consequences of this system for the nations health and environment.
He highlights the role of science, journalism, and politics in the development of a diet that emphasizes nutrition over food. Pollan also sketches a reform agenda and speculates on how a movement might change Americas eating habits. He also talks about science writing, the rewards of gardening, and how students might prepare for the future.
Michael Pollan: The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Source: Uploaded by UCtelevision on May 9, 2008 to YouTube
The UC Davis Mondavi Center presents bestselling author and UC Berkeley journalism professor Michael Pollan. He explores the ecology of eating to unveil why we consume what we consume in the twenty-first century. Michael Pollan is the author, most recently, of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
The New Food Wars: Globalization GMOs and Biofuels
Across the world, food riots are taking place. Scientist and activist Vandana Shiva explores whether the future will be one of food wars or food peace. She argues that the creation of food peace demands a major shift in the way food is produced and distributed, and the way in which we manage and use the soil, water and biodiversity, which makes food production possible.
Source: UCtelevision on YouTube
What to Eat: Sensible Choices in an Era of Food Confusion
Proper nutrition is on all of our minds, but how do we make smart choices in today’s world of savvy marketing? Join us for this eye-opening lecture from one of the leading author’s on how the food industry influences our nutrition and health. Marion Nestle, Ph.D., is an author and professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University. Series: “UCSD Moores Cancer Center Presents”
Source: UCtelevision on YouTube
Michael Pollan – Food Rules for Healthy People and Planet
Award-winning food writer Michael Pollan shows how we can become more mindful of what we eat, and how we can make food choices that are better for ourselves and our environment.
Biography: 
Michael Pollan is the author, most recently, of IN DEFENSE OF FOOD: AN EATER’S MANIFESTO. His previous book, THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA: A NATURAL HISTORY OF FOUR MEALS (2006), was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by the NEW YORK TIMES and the Washington Post. It also won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, the James Beard Award for best food writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is also the author of THE BOTANY OF DESIRE: A PLANT’S-EYE VIEW OF THE WORLD (2001); A PLACE OF MY OWN (1997); and SECOND NATURE (1991). A contributing writer to the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, Pollan is the recipient of numerous journalistic awards, including the James Beard Award for best magazine series in 2003 and the Reuters-I.U.C.N. 2000 Global Award for Environmental Journalism.
Pollan served for many years as executive editor of HARPER’S Magazine and is now the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley. His articles have been anthologized in BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE WRITING (2004); BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS (1990 and 2003) and the NORTON BOOK OF NATURE WRITING. Published November 28, 2008.
Source: theRSAorg on YouTube
Food Policy – What We Eat is Making Us Sick
Marion Nestle is a Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health (the department she chaired from 1988-2003) and Professor of Sociology at New York University. Marion’s blogsite is www.foodpolitics.com.
Source: Bravenewfilms on YouTube
Vandana Shiva – The Future of Food and Seed – Video 59:54
Source: pdxjustice on Google videos, Posted November 12, 2009
Scientist, feminist, ecologist and author, Vandana Shiva, presenting the keynote address at the 2009 Organcology Conference in Portland, Oregon on February 28, 2009.
Vandana Shiva, World Food Activist
Vendana Shiva is a world warrior fighting for the rights of people of of all countries to own their own seeds and to grow their own foods. This lady from India is taking on major Western corporations that are hijacking food rights on a global scale.
FoodSpook
Vandana Shiva – Biography
Vandana Shiva, a 46-year-old physicist, philosopher and feminist, was born in the city of Dehra Dun, located at the bottom of the Himalayas. She is known as one of most eloquent speakers who help fight for people’s rights. She holds a master’s degree in particle physics and in 1978 completed her Ph.D. in the philosophy of science. She is active in citizens’ action against environmental destruction, including the Chipko Movement. She also directs a seed conservation project, and is part of the Indian National Environmental Council. She supported the grassroot networks all across India. She is directing an international movement on Food Rights.
She was not the only one who was of a help to community. Her grandfather went on a hunger strike just to build a college for girls and her mother inspected this college, making sure it was running normally. She became very successful working at this college and soon met a husband while there. Being successful didn’t mean anything to her so her husband left her with a child.
In 1993, She won the prestigious right livelihood award for her work with national and international environment organizations. This was an award in ecology that had been given since 1980. She also established Navdanya (a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers’ rights in India.) In 1982 she created a research foundation for science, technology and ecology where they worked on biodiversity conservations and protecting peoples’ rights from threats to their lives and environment by centralized systems of monoculture in forestry, agriculture and fisheries. In 1988 she represented an environmental group at the People’s Tribunal concerning the World Bank and IMF. She was a member of the 1991 World Congress on Women and Environment.
Source: Eon3 on YouTube
Alice Waters: “The Edible Schoolyard”- Video 2:48 min.
Posted August 4, 2009
Alice talks about the importance of exposing children to real food at a early age. People are starting to listen. First Lady Michelle Obama had D.C. children come to the White House and worked with them to create a home garden. This is a direct result of Alice Water’s campaign to educate our children about the importance of real foods. Alice had been advocating for the White House to establish a home garden for several years. It is amazing how one person’s passion can influence a multitude of people and eventually effect change on a global scale!
FoodSpook
Source: tsffvideo on YouTube
Alice Waters, Eric Schlosser and Others on Our Food Culture – Video 12 min.
Posted July 31, 2009
Alice Waters is the co-owner of the world reknown restaurant “Chez Panisse” located in Berkeley, California. Eric Schlosser is the author of the best selling book “Fast Food Nation” which was made into a big hit underground movie. Alice and Eric are part of a panel speaking about our food culture at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club. Eric is on the far left as moderator.
We have nutritional experts literally screaming at us to become aware of of how the corporate food industry is deceiving our population into making unhealthy food choices. These decisions can have grave consequences. We have to get our heads out of the sand and listen!
Note: If you have time, check out the streaming videos of more Commonwealth Club lectures at the end of this video.
FoodSpook
Source: commonwealthclub on YouTube
Michael Pollan: Authors @ Google – video 59:14 min.
Michael Pollan visits Google’s Mountain View headquarters to discuss his book, “In Defense of Food.” This talk took place on March 4, 2008 as part of the Authors@Google series. This talk gives some real insight on how our nutrition is affected by the marketing strategies of the food industry.
Source: AtGoogleTalks, on YouTube
Plant Genetics by Rachael Moeller Gorman
Shoot the Messenger
Proto
Posted June 3, 2009
It all started with petunias. In the mid-1980s, Richard Jorgensen and Carolyn Napoli were working as plant geneticists for an Oakland biotechnology startup that specialized in boosting agricultural yields—increasing frost tolerance with a sort of antifreeze bacteria called Frostban and quickening the ripening of fruits, among other advances. Yet if such improvements were apt to delight farmers, they didn’t always impress potential investors. So the researchers decided to try something more obviously spectacular: creating an extraordinary flower. They chose petunias (Petunia hybrida) because of the plant’s large, colorful blooms and because even then, early in the history of genetic research, scientists had developed sound methods for introducing genes into petunia cells.
In the laboratory, petunias can be grown from single cells, so Jorgensen and Napoli inserted into leaf cells a gene known to produce large amounts of the protein responsible for the flower’s purple pigment. They nurtured the cells into full-grown plants, then transplanted them into soil in a greenhouse. But when the blooms appeared, they were white, not vividly violet. Adding a purple pigment gene had somehow caused the plants to make less of the hue. After ruling out an experimental mishap, they realized an unknown process must be at work.
During the next several years, Jorgensen, Napoli and other plant researchers began to unravel the mysteries of a phenomenon they dubbed co-suppression, a form of gene silencing. But remarkable as it may now seem, the discovery had little impact outside the world of plant research until 1998, when a small team of scientists published a paper detailing a similar type of co-suppression they had discovered in a tiny worm. Interest in this type of gene silencing grew exponentially, and today, 20 years later, the same mechanism that drained the color from petunias is being tested in numerous human clinical trials. It appears capable of remarkable things.
Now known as RNA interference, or RNAi, the mechanism has already transformed the way geneticists figure out the function of genes, sparking “a revolution in our understanding of basic biology,” says Judy Lieberman, a biomedical researcher at Harvard Medical School. But the real excitement involves what RNAi could do outside the laboratory, potentially spawning a vast pharmacopoeia that could selectively eliminate harmful proteins produced by wayward genes in difficult-to-treat diseases.
Unlike gene therapy, which attempts—with limited results—to cure disease by replacing defective genes with properly functioning ones, RNAi allows researchers to tap a pathway that primitive organisms use to turn off invading viruses. Because the workings of the mechanism are natural to the cell, RNAi is theoretically much easier to implement than gene therapy, less invasive (because you’re not actually altering a person’s DNA) and has fewer potential side effects. What’s more, if there are problems, it can be washed from a person’s system.
If RNAi works as researchers hope, it might curb cancer genes; inflammatory genes associated with Crohn’s disease and inflammatory bowel disease, among others; and even genes that cause high cholesterol. Already, there are clinical trials of treatments for AIDS, acute renal failure, respiratory syncytial virus and the wet form of age-related macular degeneration.
Not that there aren’t some very real obstacles, such as simply being able to get a drug carrying an RNAi molecule to the right place in the body and avoiding a massive immune system attack against foreign genetic material. Yet while the hype is huge, the research so far is convincing.
Although known to researchers for decades, RNA had always been considered a mere servant to the more fundamental DNA. Though both kinds of nucleic acid are made of strings of nucleotides, the building blocks of the genetic code that determines every individual’s unique makeup, RNA generally has just one strand of code, while DNA has two. Encapsulated in the cell’s nucleus, DNA holds an organism’s entire archive of genes. To tap that archive, the organism creates RNA, a complementary string of nucleotides that is a copy of a section of DNA code. Exiting the nucleus, the RNA—in this capacity, called messenger RNA, or mRNA—enters the cytoplasm, where the code is translated into proteins.
By the 1990s, scientists had begun to suspect that RNA might play another important role. Craig Mello, at the University of Massachusetts, and Andrew Fire, then at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and now at Stanford University, were intrigued by studies of worms showing that injected RNA could sometimes interfere with the normal protein production coded by a particular gene. So they decided to inject two forms of RNA into Caenorhabditis elegans, a millimeter-long worm often used as a simple model of human disease. The first form was the better-known single-stranded RNA, while the second was a double-stranded cousin (dsRNA) found naturally only in viruses, in which the second strand contains the complementary code sequence of the first (both strands differ somewhat in structure from DNA).
Mello and Fire used this method to introduce extra copies of certain genes into the worm and then tested whether its behavior and appearance had changed. They hypothesized that the genes they had injected would be turned off. In fact, protein production associated with the genes carried by the double-stranded RNA was almost nil. The shutdown was powerfully specific, much more so than that elicited by the single-stranded RNA. It affected only those genes targeted, and it was easy to elicit. They called the effect RNA interference.
Mello and Fire described their worm experiments in the journal Nature, detailing research for which they were awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. But it was only later that they and other researchers discovered how RNAi shuts down protein production. It turns out that double-stranded RNA attaches to a cell enzyme called Dicer, which chops the dsRNA (which the cell thinks came from an invading virus) into little pieces. A complex that contains the enzyme Argonaute 2 attaches to the dsRNA. Argonaute 2 splits those pieces into two single strands; one strand remains bound to the complex and eventually finds its corresponding messenger RNA. That mRNA, without this interference, would deliver the genetic code for the gene in question to the cytoplasm’s protein-making machinery, and the protein coded by the gene would be produced. Instead, Argonaute 2 cleaves the mRNA, rendering it useless. Even tiny amounts of dsRNA are enough to slam the door almost completely on protein production.
RNAi also works in fruit flies, plants, zebrafish and other lower organisms, but for several years that seemed to be as far as it went—no one could get RNAi to work in higher organisms. Double-stranded RNA injected into mammals appeared to turn off all genes. But everything finally changed in 2001 with the publication of a paper in Nature by Thomas Tuschl, a co-founder of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Mass. He knew that most RNAi experiments used long strands of dsRNA that strung together hundreds of nucleotides. But Tuschl and others had had success with shorter strands, especially in the fruit fly, so he decided to try that approach in mammalian cells.
Eventually it worked. Tuschl found that to trigger RNAi in a mammal’s cell, the physical structure of the double-stranded RNA molecule—known as small interfering RNA, or siRNA—must be precisely constructed. It had to be short, just 21 nucleotides in length, with an overhang of two nucleotides on one or both ends. Using such a molecule in mammals, Tuschl was able to switch off specific genes. “This made what had been an interesting biologic phenomenon in worms relevant to all of us in the medical profession,” says Johannes Fruehauf, vice president of research at Cequent Pharmaceuticals, another RNAi company in Cambridge. “Suddenly there was the prospect of using this process to make a drug.”
Many drugs try to deactivate disease-causing proteins. For example, scientists have engineered small molecules that bind to the active part of a cancer-causing protein and disable it. But only a relatively small number of proteins, probably no more than a few thousand, are treatable by these “small molecule” drugs. Other proteins tend to be inaccessible, with chemical structures not easily targeted. In contrast, with RNAi it’s theoretically possible to design a drug that could turn off any of the 30,000 or so human genes—each of which normally codes for a different protein. “RNAi opens up the possibility that the whole universe of genes becomes ‘druggable,’” says Harvard Medical School’s Lieberman.
There’s another potential advantage. Because many drugs are designed to knock out or alter a particular protein, researchers have to consider the target’s physical structure and model a drug that fits it perfectly. Even then, there’s a chance the drug could react with other, similar proteins. With RNAi, protein targeting becomes both simpler and more precise. Suppose a researcher wants to eliminate production of a protein associated with a particular gene. He could systematically test 21-nucleotide sections of that gene with corresponding dsRNA until he finds one that effectively silences the gene. “This gives you a ready-made drug,” says John J. Rossi of the Beckman Research Institute in Duarte, Calif. “It’s very easy to design siRNA for virtually any gene of interest. And with the whole genome now sequenced, we can identify a target instantaneously.”
A final advantage is that rather than attacking a problem protein, RNAi addresses disease at a fundamental level, turning off the gene that codes for production of that protein. “With RNAi, you’re preventing the protein from even being made, versus trying to mop up the protein’s activity,” says Akshay Vaishnaw, vice president of clinical research at Alnylam.
In 2002 Lieberman began a study attempting to cure HIV in a petri dish of human cells. First, she targeted a protein called CD4, a receptor on the outer membrane of human immune cells, to which the HIV virus attaches itself and into which it inserts its genetic material. Lieberman used siRNA to silence the gene that coded for CD4 and found that without CD4 receptors to bind to, the HIV virus was four times less able to enter a cell. This could halt the spread of the virus.
Next, Lieberman tried a different tack, targeting the virus itself. Using RNAi, she turned off a pivotal HIV gene, called gag, that codes for proteins essential to the virus’s structure. She found that this sharply reduced the amount of HIV in the cells, apparently because new copies of the virus could not be made without the gag gene. Finally, to see whether siRNA could treat infection as well as prevent it, she infected the cells with HIV and then dosed them with siRNA. That worked too.
But treating cells in a petri dish is a far cry from achieving the effect in humans. To see what was possible in a living creature, Lieberman moved on to mice. Because overabundance of a protein called Fas is often involved in liver disease, she designed siRNA for the gene that makes that protein and was able to protect mice with hepatitis from liver failure—the first time siRNA had alleviated disease in an animal.
However, the extraordinary measures she had to employ—injecting a dose of siRNA equal to one-fifth of the mouse’s blood volume at high pressure—would never work in humans. But the following year, a group from Alnylam managed to inject siRNA into a mouse at a normal pressure and volume to silence a gene called apoB, which causes high LDL cholesterol. The researchers altered the siRNA slightly, chemically stabilizing the strands and attaching them to a molecule of cholesterol to make it easier for them to pass into cells. This approach also kept the siRNA from being quickly degraded by enzymes—normally a problem—and the treatment had the desired effect, entering the liver and slowing production of LDL. Alnylam followed up with a 2006 study in primates that also reduced cholesterol.
Yet this success hasn’t really solved the biggest problem of using RNAi to treat human disease. Delivery is the elephant in the room, and progress has been slow. In addition to Alnylam’s cholesterol work, Lieberman is developing an approach using antibodies, while Rossi at the Beckman Research Institute is trying to attach siRNA to a molecule called an aptamer that can bind to various parts of a cell. But none of these has been tested in people yet.
Until the delivery issue is sorted out, researchers say, they’re left to pluck the low-hanging fruit, targeting tissues to which siRNA can be applied directly rather than depending on systemic delivery through the bloodstream. For example, three years ago, Acuity (now called OPKO Health) began the first clinical trial of an siRNA for the wet form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Researchers injected siRNA for the gene that codes for the protein VEGF directly into the back of the eye. VEGF causes leaky blood vessels to grow in the eye, damaging the macula—the part of the retina with the most vision cells—and harming the ability to see fine detail. In these small trials, the siRNA proved effective in reducing expression of VEGF. Now, in a larger Phase III trial (the first for an RNAi therapeutic), the siRNA drug is being compared with another AMD drug already on the market.
The lung, reached via inhaled drugs, is also an easy target. Alnylam is conducting a clinical trial that attempts to silence a gene important for the replication of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The company’s main drug, ALN-RSV01, was found to be safe and well tolerated in Phase I trials, and it’s now in Phase II trials to test how well it knocks down the virus in the upper respiratory tract.
For RNAi to live up to its hype, however, researchers will have to find a way to go beyond direct delivery. There are other issues too, not least the worry that siRNAs could trigger a damaging immune response in humans. And what would happen if someone took RNAi drugs for a lifetime, a requirement for many diseases such as HIV or hepatitis? Still, hopes are high. “All of us developing RNAi-based drugs think that this will add a whole new class to our arsenal,” says Fruehauf of Cequent Pharmaceuticals.
Rossi hopes his HIV treatment will be one of those. He has just recruited the first of five patients for a small trial. The patient has lymphoma and AIDS, and as part of the treatment for lymphoma, he’ll receive a blood stem-cell transplant. But before the transplanted cells go into the patient, Rossi will add an anti-HIV siRNA, which “we hope will make the other drugs the patient is on more potent. That could let us lower the dosage of those drugs, or enable patients to go on drug holidays.”
Rossi will follow the patients in his trial indefinitely to monitor whether siRNA continues to combat the virus. But he also thinks RNAi will benefit AIDS patients in another major way. Because HIV mutates rapidly, drugs that were once effective eventually lose potency. RNAi could offer an important answer to this persistent problem. “You could just make a new RNA that would counter the resistance mutation,” he says. “It would be so easy to change the drug. We might even be able to develop an injectable once-a-month treatment using siRNA that would take the place of conventional drugs.”
Source: Rachael Moeller Gorman in “Proto” magazine
Michael Pollan: The Omnivore’s Next Dilemma: video 17:32 min.
Source:Uploaded by TEDtalksDirector on Feb 7, 2008 to YouTube
http://www.ted.com What if human consciousness isn’t the end-all and be-all of Darwinism? What if we are all just pawns in corn’s clever strategy game to rule the Earth? Author Michael Pollan asks us to see the world from a plant’s-eye view.
Michael Pollan, “In Defense of Food”, Part 1 of 4 – video 9:56 min.
Source: cookingupastory on YouTube
For more Stories, Food News, and Cooking Fresh videos, visit: http://cookingupastory.com
Michael Pollan’s new book, In Defense of Food, provides the backdrop for his talk at the Bagdad Theater in Portland, Oregon, and this prior interview with Deborah Kane of the environmental nonprofit organization, Ecotrust. Remarkably, Mr. Pollan is talking about a defense of food in a literal sense: it’s increasingly difficult to escape from eating foods that are food-like substances (processed foods), but are not whole (real) foods. We have come to look upon “nutritionism” as a valid means of determining (healthy) value in our diet; food has been reduced to its composition of good and bad nutrients, but are we really eating healthier? In part one, we see how simple changes in food labeling requirements can influence consumer behavior, and how food manufacturer’s apply overwhelming pressure to effect laws that ultimately protect their own interests.
Subcribe Here
