Friday, 4 October 2013

HEALTH ALERT: HIGH-FAT, HIGH-CALORIE DIET LINKED TO PANCREATIC CANCER

HIGH-FAT, HIGH-CALORIE DIET LINKED TO PANCREATIC CANCER

Posted in News, Obesity, Demographic, Cancer, Science & Research, Healthy, Healthy Foods, Nutrition,Calorie, Fat Reduction, Calorie Reduction, Digestive Health, Weight Management, Fats/Oils
LOS ANGELES—Eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet may lead to the development of pancreatic cancer, according to researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC).


Two sets of genetically engineered model mice that had the same genetic mutation found in human pancreatic cancer patients were examined during the study. It made the study more feasible due to the changes in mouse metabolism caused by obesity and that one of humans.

A set of mice consumed a normal diet gaining approximately 7.2 grams of weight plus or minus approximately 2.8 grams over a 14-month period. Those that ate a high-fat, high-calorie diet gained on average 15.9 grams, plus or minus 3.2 grams. The mice fed a normal diet had mostly normal pancreases with few scattered pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias (PanIN) lesions, but those who at the high-fat, high-calorie diet had significantly more PanIN lesions and fewer overall healthy pancreases.

The study showed that the high-fat, high-calorie diet cause a significant increase in weight, metabolism abnormalities and increased insulin levels. In addition, pancreatic tissue inflammation was present and development of PanIn lesions. PanIn lesions are known to be precursors to pancreas cancer.

"“The development of these lesions in mice is very similar to what happens in humans," Dr. Guido. Eibl, lead author of the study said. “These lesions take a long time to develop into cancer, so there is enough time for cancer preventive strategies, such as changing to a lower fat, lower calorie diet, to have a positive effect."

A previous study demonstrated that a diet high in dietary fats from red meat and dairy products was associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer, but consuming non-starchy vegetables has been shown to have a probable decreased risk in pancreatic cancers.
Sources:
Check out my latest e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain"





The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Thanks for taking the time
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Thursday, 3 October 2013

CANADIAN AGRI-FOOD EXPORTS: How Steeltown transformed into a booming agrifood hub

How Steeltown transformed into a booming agrifood hub Add to ...

BARRIE MCKENNA
HAMILTON — The Globe and Mail (includes correction)
Published 
Last updated 
At Pier 16 in Hamilton Harbour, another chapter in the sad decline of the city’s once-dominant steel industry is playing out as cranes load huge mounds of unwanted iron ore onto a ship, bound for mills in China.
Carting off the vital steel-making raw material from United States Steel Corp., which idled its blast furnace here three years ago, suggests the mill won’t be restarting any time soon, if ever.


And yet across the harbour a second ship highlights an emerging economic engine for Hamilton – the booming agrifood sector. The Federal Yukina is waiting to dock alongside Parrish & Heimbecker Ltd.’s newly built dome-shaped grain silos, where it will begin loading up the fall harvest of Ontario soybeans for export to the Netherlands.
From near-obscurity five years ago, agrifood has become a mainstay of Hamilton’s port, and the regional economy. Agricultural tonnage shipped through the port doubled between 2008 and 2012 to a record of more than 1.6 million tonnes, led by exports of one million tonnes of soybeans last year. Agricultural products now account for 16 per cent of everything shipped in and out of the port, up from less than 10 per cent in 2009.
This year is expected to be even better as a bumper crop of soybeans, corn and wheat is harvested across Ontario. So far, grain shipments are up 30 per cent from last year. Fertilizer is up 80 per cent.
Steel shipments, on the other hand, are down 35 per cent so far this year, compared to 2012. Shipments of coke, a key steel-making input, are down 92 per cent.
“Agriculture is the new steel for Hamilton,” said Ian Hamilton, vice-president of the Hamilton Port Authority and head of real estate development. “Five years ago, the market for steel collapsed. And that’s when it hit home that we had to diversify.”
Since then, the port has attracted $200-million in new investment, including $40-million in various agriculture-related projects, such as new and expanded storage and handling for grains and fertilizer. In 2007, Bunge Ltd. expanded its canola processing plant and Biox Corp. opened a 67-million-litre biodiesel plant at the port.
“Everything you can see from here down to there is alive and well,” said Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina, pointing out over the harbour toward the Burlington Bay Bridge. “We’re running out of space. That’s probably our biggest problem. We don’t have enough space to put people who want to be here.”
So the port authority is looking for additional land to feed future expansion, much of it linked to agrifood – already a $1.3-billion industry in the city. Among other things, the port is eyeing U.S. Steel’s underused 400-hectare site that dominates the waterfront.
“If the land mass is there, they will come,” said Bruce Wood, president and chief executive of the port authority. “If U.S. Steel ever gave up or sold some of their property, that’s a game changer.”
The port has ambitious plans to boost tonnage capacity by expanding rail links that would double the length of trains that can access the harbour, to 100 cars from 50. Efforts are also under way to attract new value-added manufacturers, such as margarine makers, distilleries and breweries plus a flour mill to help feed a nearby Maple Leaf Foods mega-bakery, opened in 2011.
“A lot of the flour mills in Canada are old,” Mr. Bratina said. “You have grain. You have a bakery. Why not make flour?”
Parrish & Heimbecher, one of the port’s newest tenants, invested $20-million to build two 30,000-tonne multi-use storage domes, capable of handling everything from soybean and sugar to fertilizer. It’s now exploring the possibility of adding substantially to that capacity. “We have plans to grow our business on this site,” said Matthew Gardner, operations manager for Eastern Canada.
Ontario consumes less than half of the province’s swelling production of wheat and soybeans. The surplus needs to find a way to hungry markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America, Mr. Gardner pointed out.
Across the harbour at grain merchant Richardson International Ltd., a steady stream of double tractor-trailers is unloading wheat from as far away as Owen Sound and Trenton, Ont. At the peak of the harvest, as many as 240 trucks per day are weighed in, their load tested for quality and then cycled through three unloading pits.
Thanks to a $5.5-million expansion in 2008, tonnage has grown 35 per cent. “As agriculture has boomed, we’ve benefited too,” explained Riley Verhelst, Richardson’s director of operations.
Hamilton Harbour is also becoming a key conduit for fertilizer, including potash from Saskatchewan and urea from the Baltics. Handlers such as Agrico Canada Ltd. have seen inbound tonnage more than double since the recession, buoyed by demand from Ontario farmers, who have vastly expanded corn acreage.
(Editors note: An earlier online version has been corrected to indicate that the Parrish & Heimbecher investment was to build two 30,000-tonne multi-use storage domes, not 30-tonne. And Riley Verhelst is Richardson’s director of operations. His surname was misspelled.) 
Check out my latest e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain"





The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Thanks for taking the time
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SUPPLY CHAIN

THE BOARDROOM JOURNAL: SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SUPPLY CHAIN

Posted in News, Business, International, Agriculture, Crop, Sustainability, Market Research, Market Trends, Costs, Economics, Beverages, Dairy Management, Dairy, Grains / Pasta / Tuber, Bakery / Cereal, Food Safety, Fruits / Vegetables, Meat Products, Fats/Oils, Sweeteners
PHOENIX—Food Product Design's first issue of The Boardroom Journal explores sustainability's effect on the global food supply chain. With a myriad of concepts, practices and issues falling underneath the sustainability label, it's important for organizations to ask questions such as: What does sustainability mean for my business? How do I implement sustainable practices into my everyday processes? Below are a few teasers from this quarter's digital issue. To download the full issue, check out some videos or flip through a couple slide shows on the topic, click here.


The Benefit Corporation: Balancing Profits and Social Welfare
Traditionally, directors have owed fiduciary duties to maximize shareholder value—the environment and social welfare now and again be disregarded if it interfered with the bottom line; the benefit corporation is changing that rule of law.

In Delaware, home to more than 1 million legal entities and some of the nation's largest businesses, "public benefit corporations" must balance the interests of stockholders, "those materially affected by the corporation's conduct" and the "public benefit or benefits" that have been identified in incorporation paperwork. The law is intended to ensure that benefit corporations are held accountable while still granting directors broad protection from liability.

B Lab, a non-profit organization with offices in New York, San Francisco and Wayne, PA, has been certifying businesses as so-called B Corps since 2007. To date, the number of certified B Corps totals 830 organizations in 27 countries with 60 industries participating, including food and beverage companies such as Andean Naturals, Ben & Jerry's, Bison Brewing Co., New Belgium Brewing Co., Sustainable Harvest and Plum Organics.

The Biotechnology Opportunity: Agricultural biotechnology’s potential contribution to global food security and stewardship of the earth’s resources
In 2012, the United Nations issued an unprecedented warning about the state of global food supplies, noting world-grain reserves are so dangerously low that economists warn another year of severe weather in the United States or other food-exporting countries could trigger a major hunger crisis. Clearly, unprecedented needs require innovative solutions. Martina Newell- McGloughlin and Kent J. Bradford, Ph.D., from the University of California, Davis, illustrate in their article from the basic nutrition perspective, there is a clear dichotomy in demonstrated need between different regions and socioeconomic groups, the starkest being injudicious consumption in the developed world and under-nourishment in less-developed countries. To this point, agricultural biotechnology already has helped farmers around the world boost their productivity and grow crops in more ecologically healthy fields while allowing much more efficient use of resources.

Current Trends in Sustainability
Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of adult American consumers surveyed in Natural Marketing Institute's 2012 LOHAS Consumer Trends Database® responded they are aware of the term "sustainability." Moreover, sustainability has manifested itself in the food and beverage market often via products that also offer health benefits, such as organic or local food. Given that one's personal health is generally more motivating than planetary health, attracting consumers on the basis of the personal health benefits a product or service offers can be an effective gateway to introducing them to other dimensions of a sustainable lifestyle.
Check out my latest e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain"





The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Thanks for taking the time
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, 2 October 2013

Slide Show: Sustainability: Trends and Insights

Slide Show: Sustainability: Trends and Insights

Go to this link to view the slide show:in Food Product Design
Check out my latest e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain"





The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Thanks for taking the time
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

FOOD SUSTAINABILITY: WHOLE FOODS TO LABEL PRODUCE BASED ON SUSTAINABILITY

WHOLE FOODS TO LABEL PRODUCE BASED ON SUSTAINABILITY

Posted in News, Fruits / Vegetables, Fruit, Vegetable, Sustainability, Whole Foods Market, Labeling,Agriculture, Apple, Banana, Berries, Bioavailability, Blueberry, Cherry, Crop, Fair Trade, Food Safety,Grape, Natural, Organic, Packaging, Pesticides, Preservatives, Quality, Retail, Salad, Squash, Strawberry
AUSTIN—In September 2014, Whole Foods Market® will label produce on a three-tier rating system using a science-based index to measure performance on criteria for sustainable farming.

Foods in the produce department will display ratings of “good," “better" or “best" based on this new index, developed with the help of sustainable agriculture experts and input from suppliers. The index measures important sustainable farming topics, including pest management (prohibited and restricted pesticides), farmworker welfare, pollinator protection, water conservation/protection, soil health ecosystems, biodiversity, waste, recycling/packaging, energy and climate.

Suppliers who receive fair trade, rainforest alliance, protected harvest and demeter biodynamic certification will be rewarded through the ratings, as well as growers who implement specific pesticide practices to protect pollinators, like habitat restoration and by controlling the impact of managed hives on farms.

Whole Foods Market aims to reduce pesticide use and its risks to consumers, farmworkers, wildlife and the environment by encouraging suppliers to eliminate or restrict the most toxic pesticides from the nation’s food supply. Incentives will be provided for growers to measure and reduce other pesticide use.
The ratings also will recognize growers who address genetically-modified organism (GMO) transparency, food safety and traceability. The company plans to require all products in all Canadian and U.S. stores to include labels specifying whether the food contains GMOs by 2018.

Sources:

Check out my latest e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain"





The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Thanks for taking the time
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

Canadian labour costs in spotlight as grocery wars shift to front lines

Labour costs in spotlight as Canadian grocery wars shift to front lines

MARINA STRAUSS - RETAILING REPORTER
The Globe and Mail
Published 
An increasingly competitive market and a wave of consolidation are forcing major grocers to look for more ways to cut costs, moves that are causing tension with employees who are feeling the squeeze.
In the latest flare-up, unionized workers at Loblaw Cos. Ltd. have set a strike deadline in Alberta and Saskatchewan. They are locked in a fight over the company’s bid to add more part-time employees and reduce wages by as much as 40 per cent, according to the union.

MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY

Metro Inc. is also moving to trim labour costs at 15 of its stores in Ontario, or even close a few of them, as the company takes a $40-million charge this year.
The initiatives come as Loblaw and Sobeys Inc. make major acquisitions, putting further pressure on rivals to change their game. Loblaw is buying Shoppers Drug Mart Corp., while Sobeys has a deal to acquire Safeway Canada.
At the same time, non-unionized U.S. discounters Wal-Mart Canada Corp. and newcomer Target Corp. are expanding and adding grocery aisles, enjoying the flexibility to shift workers’ schedules and other conditions quickly.
Canadian incumbents now are gambling that more labour agreements more favourable to companies will better arm them for the escalating battle.
“You have all these additional square foot [space] and …you have a consumer who is spending a little bit less,” Loblaw president Vicente Trius told a recent conference. “My gut feel is this is going to level off, but you will have a very competitive environment [for the next eight months].”
The United Food and Commercial Workers has taken its fight against Brampton, Ont.-based Loblaw public in an open letter to Galen G. Weston, the retailer’s executive chairman and company pitchman. In full-page advertisements last week, the UFCW pleaded with him to “do the right thing” and stop trying to slash employees’ work hours and roll back their wages by 30 per cent to 40 per cent.
“We can’t make a living and we certainly cannot ‘exceed customer expectations,’” the letter said. “Stores are a mess and food safety is an issue.”
Loblaw spokeswoman Julija Hunter said in an e-mail on Monday that the company is in labour negotiations and can’t address specific questions. “But I do want to state that our customers are at the heart of every decision we make, and we would not compromise that priority in the way we conduct our business.”
She said Loblaw has a responsibility to ensure the contract it negotiates allows it to remain competitive “now and in the future.”
Members of three Loblaw unions had voted to strike by Oct. 6, but the local in Manitoba reached a tentative agreement last Thursday. Two others – in Alberta and Saskatchewan – representing more than 12,000 employees in 82 outlets, including Real Canadian Superstores and Extra Foods, remain locked in talks.
For years, grocers have been trying to gain the flexibility to change employees’ hours and other conditions while converting stores to lower-cost banners, such as Loblaw’s No Frills, where union agreements allow for lower wages and benefits.
Montreal-based Metro wants to lower wages and reduce benefits at 15 Ontario stores, starting with a Richmond Hill outlet it plans to convert to the discount Food Basics banner. Four other stores – in Bracebridge, Huntsville, Tillsonburg and Sault Ste. Marie – will adopt lower-compensation contracts, and more moves will come by next spring, spokeswoman Marie-Claude Bacon said.
“The benefits will be a higher top line, a better bottom line …for these stores that are converted,” Metro chief executive Eric La Fleche said during a recent conference call.
Grocers are grappling with consolidation, as well as essentially zero inflation this year, forcing them to try to reduce labour and other expenses, said Sylvain Charlebois, a food policy professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario. “Margins are very tight,” he said. “They have to really rethink their business model.”
But Kendra Coulter, a labour studies professor at Ontario’s Brock University, said grocers risk unstocked shelves and poor customer service if they don’t ensure financial stability for their employees. The shift to part-timers takes a toll, she noted: Although they make up 19 per cent of the total labour force, the rate is as high as 65 per cent among cashiers in grocery and department stores, up from 58 per cent in 1998, her data show. “There are benefits to reducing turnover.”
Tom Hesse, chief negotiator for UFCW Local 401 in Alberta, said Loblaw was forced to temporarily close a superstore in Calgary several years ago because of serious mouse infestations. He said publicity about such problems lead to fewer customers, less business and job cuts, which make it difficult for workers to keep up.
He said Loblaw wants to cut wages of cashiers and shelf-stockers to between $11.65 to $14.65 an hour, from $11.65 to $24.24 an hour currently. The company wants to cap part-time workers’ pay at $14.65 an hour, and full-timers wages at $16.45, he said. The union is asking for 4 per cent to 8 per cent annual wage increases and limits on self-scanners, suppliers stocking shelves’ and hiring of new staff.
Check out my latest e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain"





The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Thanks for taking the time
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)