Aquaponics USA/World      
March 2016 Newsletter        
   #27
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Where Does Agave Come From?
Why is Agave Terrible for Your Body?
Behold the FOOD REVOLUTION
Introducing the "Center For Food Safety" (CFS)
Introducing "Natural Society" again
The DARK ACT Just Blew Up! YEAH!
A Word From Our Editor, Grace Sylke
I'm sorry to be the bearer of the bad news about Agave. I know there are a lot of you out there that really believed it was the answer to your and your children's sugar crav-ings. 

Believe me when I say that's exactly what the unscru-pulous marketers want you to believe. They are using the healthy food industry's buzz words against us; and since so many of us simply don't have the time to do the research to determine the truth, there unscrupulous tactics are working. I guess that's what one of our jobs has become--helping to keep us all informed. 

That's why Aps like Foodu-cate are so important. We wrote about Fooducate in our January 2016 News-letter. We all have to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. That's why the list of Good Guys we're sharing in this and next months News-letters are important. 

The Good Guys just won a major victory. We can't crow enough about this one--the Senate actually (because of a lot of pressure from these Good Guys) defeated the Dark Act, which means States can vote to DEMAND the labeling of GMO's. YEAH! This is HUGE!
Follow Grace on Instagram at
Grace is an Aquaponics Entrepreneur, a Food Activist, a Brainwave Neuro-feedback Trainer and a Photographer. Yes, she's a very busy woman. 

She often travels to Arizona to conduct Brainwave Neurofeedback Trainings at 
Biocybernaut Institute. So once she started her Instagram site, it became obvious that her travel Photos needed to play an important role on this fun site. 

This explains why one day she's posting photos of her Vertical Food Foreverâ„¢ Farm System, and the next day, she's posting photos of picturesque land/skyscapes. It certainly keeps her Insta-gram site interesting.

If you're on a desktop or laptop, just click this
to see what she's uploaded today!

If you're mobile, go to Instagram and Follow: Aquaponics_Grace

As a Food Activist, Grace is doing her best to create more Food Activists because if we sit around and do nothing, we'll all die sooner and lead lives of sickness with Big Pharma's pills flooding our medicine cabinets and Big Foods poison filling our cupboards.
Get Links to all of our 2014 Newsletters from our
December 2014 Edition. This is also the Newsletter where Obesity In AMERICA, Part 1 Starts!
Here they are all in one place. Our fist year of Newsletters full of incredible information about Aqua-ponics and our Food System.
Look for this December 2015 Newsletter to show up in our sidebars all through 2016 as the carrier of all the 2015 Newsletters.
Here they are all in one place. Our second year, 2015, of Newsletters full of incredible information about Aquaponics and our Food System.
Be sure to get the Ap for the
Catch all 4 Parts of Grace's Series on the FOOD REVOLUTION! To read her Food Revolution Series in Newsletter format, click on the December 2014 Newsletter
and it will guide you to Food Revolution Parts 1-4.

Th e Aquaponics Digest Magazine features an advanced digital magazine and publishing and marketing platform for the 21st century; and it's just getting started.

Click on the Link to learn how/where to get the Ap for iPhone, iPad and other mobile devices.

Aquaponics Digest Magazine is a must read for any and all Aquaponics enthusiasts.

It features articles by the field's leaders like:
Sylvia Bernstein
Aaron Woolf
Glenn Martinez
and our own
Grace Sylke
Read our Daily Newspaper, the
This paper features articles about Aquaponics, our Food System, Health, Healthy Eating and Much more.

And it comes out Daily!
Aquaponics 101 is here and people are loving it! Get it Free on our Aquaponics USA site under the Education Menu Bar.
This is some of the best information you'll ever find about Aquaponics and How to build an Aquaponics System. It's on our website complete with Quizzes and a Certificate of Completion.
Check Out our
We have several Videos on How To Do Aquaponics including two on installing our Food Forever Growing Systems in two schools in Tucson, AZ.

We'll soon be uploading the Video of the Installation of one of our STEM Food Growing Systems at ExplorOcean in Newport Beach, California.
Be Sure to Visit our
It's full of Original Pixton Cartoon Art by our Editor, Grace Sylke, including her newest Pixton Cartoon image of the Senate blowing up the DARK ACT seen in this March 2016 Newsletter!
Watch for the new Food Documentary
It's still in production but coming out soon. It features famous food activists like we discuss in this Newsletter including Jeffery Smith and Vandana Shiva and we're in it. 
Click the Link to Check out the Trailer.  
We now have
And they're all about saving money on one of our Food Forever Growing Systems and saving money to get it shipped!

"You Build A Little,
We Ship A Lot For Less!".
Visit the ExplorOcean Website. Better yet, make an appointment to visit ExplorOcean in person. If you're a Teacher, bring eager, inquisitive students
One of our FFGS-20 STEM Food Growing Systems has been installed in their Ocean Literacy Center. Check it out along with other exciting interactive Ocean experiences.
We Are Now Offering STEM Food Growing Systems.
These are fully bundled Food Growing Systems that turn ordinary classrooms into STEM Classrooms, and they come with a 10% Discount!

To purchase a STEM Food Growing System, just scroll to the bottom of our Growing System pages at:
Here's our January 2016 Newsletter in case you missed it.
This is Part 10 of the Obesity In AMERICA Series.

It's all about our vegetarian kitchen. If we haven't convinced any of our readers to change their eating habits while writing this important Series, we sure have convinced ourselves.
Here's our
in case you missed it.
This Newsletter is all about what's been happening at Aquaponics USA, which is why it has such an unusual cover image. 

Check it out to see why Balboa Island at Newport Beach is being featured here.
Obesity In AMERICA, Part 11

Dear Subscriber:

As promised, we've come back to our important and popular Series on Obesity In AMERICA, which we will be concluding with Part 12 in April. We ended 2015 with unfinished business as one of our readers pointed out to us that we had not explored the pros and cons of a very popular substitute sweetener called Agave, and we had not shared our list of websites that are aiding in the fight for food freedom.

So now is the Month to fulfill those promises; and as you can tell from the cover image, it's not looking good for Agave. So let's get to it.
Here is an AGAVE field in Mexico.
Agave Sweetener is not the main product that comes out of the multitudes of agave plants that are grown in Mexico as there's a far more lucrative market for agave plantations, and that market is the alcohol known as Tequila. 

But one day a clever marketing genius was looking at the billion plus dollars that are being made selling a product into the rapidly growing sugar substitute arena, and Agave so called "nectar" was born.

"Agave nectar was first introduced to the U.S. market in Anaheim, California, at the 1995 Natural Products Expo West, the nation's largest natural, organic and healthy products trade show. Marketeers have touted this tempting sweetener from Mexico for its low glycemic index and it soon became a favorite found in raw food circles and among enthusiasts of healthier foods. Agave nectar is often an ingredient in newer 'health foods' including energy bars and organic ice creams. Advertisements for agave stress such attractive features as acceptability for vegan and raw food diets, grown in nutrient-rich soils, all natural, 100 percent organic, fair traded, sustainably harvested, and even kosher." (Quote taken from The Weston A. Price Foundation Blog post entitled "Agave: Nectar of the Gods?"

"Commercial agave nectar is produced primarily by two companies, Nekutli SA de CV (distributed by the Colibree Company of Aspen, Colorado) and IIDEA (the latter also produces tequila). Each of these companies then sells its bulk product for repackaging under a variety of different brand names. Nekutli's most familiar brand of agave nectar is sold as 'Madhava Agave Nectar 100% Natural Sweetener' and IIDEA's most popular brand is 'Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Blue Agave Nectar.' "(Quote taken from The Weston A Price Foundation Blog post entitled "Agave: Nectar of the Gods?")

Since that initial introduction in the 90's, Agave has swept through the healthy food market like Genghis Khan through the Mongol Empire. It has ended up in all kinds of organic, health oriented products disguised as the savior for diabetics and the good sweetener that will rescue the world from the ravishes of having to deal with relentless sweet teeth. It has even landed in Our Vegetarian Kitchen. And here it is sitting right next to our Protein Powder. As part of this Newsletter, we're going to dump this fraudulent so called healthy substitute sweetener down the drain. Notice how the savey marketing campaign is using all the right buzz words on this label starting with "Wholesome". Then there's "Organic" followed by "Raw". It even carries the compromised USDA Certified Organic Label and it is "Fairtrade Certified". WOW! What health nut wouldn't fall for a hype like this?

Now let us tell you why Agave is actually poison in your body.
Why Is Agave Terrible for Your Body?

 

"Agaves grow primarily in Mexico, but you can also find them in the southern and western United States, as well as in South America. Agaves are not cacti, but succulents of the yucca family, more closely related to amaryllis and other lilies. Edible parts of the agave are the flowers, leaves, stalks and the sap. [Notice, that among the edible parts, the root bulb is not mentioned.]

A mature agave is 7 to 12 feet in diameter with leaves that are 5 to 8 feet tall -- an impressive plant in stature, to be sure. There are over 100 species of agave, in a wide variety of sizes and colors.

Although the industry wants you to believe that agave nectar runs straight from the plant and into your jar, nothing could be further from the truth.

In spite of manufacturer's claims, most agave 'nectar' is not made from the sap of the yucca or agave plant but from its pineapple-like root bulb [pictured above]. The root has a complex carbohydrate called inulin, which is made up of fructose molecules [and this is the same part of the plant that Tequila is made from. Tequila is a fermented alcohol, which like all alcohols has to be processed through the liver and can cause liver damage if too much alcohol enters the body over time.]

The process which many, if not most, agave producers use to convert this inulin into 'nectar' is VERY similar to the process by which cornstarch is converted into HFCS [High Fructose Corn Syrup]. 

[If you wish to read or re-read our May 2015 Newsletter that tells the whole awful story about HFCS, click on the above link. HFCS is causing liver damage just like alcohol can cause liver damage; and Agave is worse than HFCS!!! It's even made from the same stuff as Tequila!!!]

Though processing methods can differ among manufacturers, most commercially available agave is converted into fructose-rich syrup using genetically modified enzymes and a chemically intensive process involving caustic acids, clarifiers, and filtration chemicals. Here is a partial list of the chemicals many producers use including: Activated Charcoal, Cationic and Ionic resins, Sulfuric and/or Hydrofluoric acid, Dicalite, Clarimex, Inulin enzymes and Fructozym.

How natural does this sound? The result is highly refined fructose syrup, along with some of the remaining inulin. Most agave 'nectar' is neither safe nor natural with laboratory-generated fructose levels of more than 80 percent!" (Quote taken from a Mercola.com website article entitled "Shocking! The "Tequila" Sweetener Agave Is Far Worse Than High Fructose Corn Syrup")

The Agave craze is due to misleading marketing schemes designed to fool the health conscious customer and worse, the fast growing diabetic consumer, with dangerous claims that will compromise the health of everyone consuming it. Stay away from Agave liver killing poison (I mean "nectar").

To demonstrate once again that we're learning as much as our readers as we write these Newsletters, here's a picture of Oliver, who was defending Agave until he read this, dumping his bottle down the drain.

Behold the FOOD REVOLUTION!
No matter how you look at it, the FOOD REVO-LUTION is coming; and we're not at all sure whether it's coming the hard way or the easy way (less hard way). If it comes the less hard way, we will gradually get educated and wake up to the truth of what's happening to us under the thumb of Big Food one funeral at a time.

If it comes the hard way, here's what will happen. Many economists are predicting a huge economic crash is coming to the EU and the U.S. They believe that coming crash will be so severe that it will disrupt the just in time delivery of Big Food products to our super markets to the extent that everyone will realize that it is:

This dangerous, challenging and possible hard way reality is why we started learning how to grow food using Aquaponic technology in the first place, and we can't emphasize enough the joyful and empowering feeling of actually being able to grow food anytime and anywhere. 

To help the easy way FOOD REVOLUTION along, we are sharing the following list of websites that are doing their best to educate us about our food and our broken Food System. So let's start with the Center For Food Safety and the great news they shared on, March 16th, 2016 because that was a great day!

"Center for Food Safety (CFS) is a national non-profit public interest and environmental advocacy organization working to protect human health and the environment by curbing the use of harmful food production technologies and by promoting organic and other forms of sustainable agriculture. CFS also educates consumers concerning the definition of organic food and products. CFS uses legal actions, groundbreaking scientific and policy reports, books and other educational materials, market pressure and grass roots campaigns through our True Food Network. CFS's successful legal cases collectively represent a landmark body of case law on food and agricultural issues." (Quote taken from the About Page of the Center For Food Safety website)

The Center For Food Safety's True Food Network offers a Shoppers Guide that helps shoppers identify foods made with genetically modified organisms. They list a number of important Food Action Items like "Tell Food Companies To Reject The GE Apple!" and "Tell Orville Redenbacher To Stop Killing Bees!"

These are the kind of Good Guys we want to follow, join and support.

Here's a quote from the Natural Society About Page lead-in:

"Hi this is Anthony Gucciardi, and thanks for visiting Natural Society! It is impossible to keep up with all of the latest health news that affects you and your family on a daily basis - that's why we have created Natural Society. Following my own horror story in dealing with the current medical establishment and finding success through using natural alternatives that doctors said would never work, I embarked on a several year journey with Co-Founder Mike Barrett that ultimately led to the creation of Natural Society in late 2011."

Natural Society is one of the leading websites forging the path to understanding the difference between toxic fake franken food and real healthy, nutritious food.

We featured Anthony Gucciardi in Part 4 of our  Food Revolution Series Newsletter that talked about The Revolutionaries. In that Newsletter, we introduced several of the Good Guys who are helping to educate us about the toxins in Big Food including: 


Visit these websites. Learn what they're teaching. Buy what they're selling. These are the Good Guys who are on the front lines of this battle for the stomachs of America. If we lose this battle, our stomachs will continue to take in toxic poisons disguised as food--poisons that are destroying our livers, our hearts, our kidneys and our entire population.
BIG WONDERFUL NEWS! 
The Senate just Blew Up the DARK ACT!
WE, The People, WON a huge victory on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 when the Senate blew up the Dark Act. Dark stands for "Deny Americans the Right to Know" when their food contains GMO's. The Dark Act refers to Senate Bill S.2609, which would have denied all States from voting in mandatory GMO Labeling Laws and leave the voluntary labeling of these toxic man-made concoctions up to the companies creating them. 

This anti-GMO Labeling Bill passed the House of Representatives in 2015 with the ironic title of "Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015". Soon after, Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) introduced similar legislation into the Senate. The fact that the Senate defeated the Dark Act is a testimony to the hard work done by all the websites we've shared here.

"Gary Hirshberg, chairman of Just Label It and Stonyfield Farm, said the time is ripe for a true compromise that would satisfy the consumers' right to know and can also work for industry.  

Hirshberg said:
Simply put, Senator Roberts' proposal didn't deserve the support of the Senate. It would have implemented yet another unworkable and confusing voluntary labeling system. We are grateful for the leadership of our champions in the Senate, including Senators Stabenow, Merkley, Tester, Boxer and Leahy.

Now that the DARK Act has been rejected by the Senate, I am optimistic that Congress can come together to find a real solution for consumers that is mandatory, national and gives consumers the information they want about the food they are eating. Any solution has to work for both consumers and for industry." (Quote taken from a Just Label It! website Press Release)
This is a time for Celebration and Thanks! We'll continue our list of the Angelic websites out there that are helping us navigate the shark infested waters of Big Food in Part 12 of Obesity In AMERICA next month. These are the folks who defeated the DARK ACT! We all owe them big tokens of our gratitude.

And a special Thank You to all of you who participated in the thousands of Letters that went out to our Senators letting them know "We Want To Know What's In Our Food!"

But we can't rest on our laurels. We have to stay vigilant because the DARK ACT defeat was almost a 50/50 split in the Senate. 49 of our Senators voted for it while 48 of them voted against it. The Bill, S2609, needed 60 votes to pass so it missed passage by only 11 votes. We have to keep the pressure on. Next month, we'll be publishing the list of Traitors in the Senate who voted to sell us out along with the list of Good Guys who voted to defeat S2609. See you then.
Please FORWARD this email to your colleagues, friends and family who need to become aware of the importance of healthy eating. We can't make the changes we need to make without first understanding why the changes are so important. We can save lives with this information.

Thank You for following our Newsletters. We so appreciate your interest in our two cutting edge Aquaponics Companies, Aquaponics USA and Aquaponics Wold, LLC. We'll continue to bring you important information about Aquaponics, our Food and our U.S. Food System, which, right now, is broken and has turned us into subjects of Big Food.

Please help us turn the tables around so we can declare our Food Freedom again and become the healthiest country on the planet instead of the sickest.

P.S. We are publishing this Newsletter on the day, March 22, 2016, of the horrific Brussels terror attack. We just want to share our Condolences to the families of the ones who sacrificed their lives and the wounded ones, several of whom are in critical care right now, and the families who are mourning and the families that are praying for the recovery of their loved ones. These sacrifices are not in vain. These special ones who died today gave their lives to help us all wake up to the undeniable danger of Islamic Extremism that is threatening our very way of life in many parts of our world. Rest in Peace. You and Your Families Are All Heroes.

Sustainably,

Aquaponics USA/World
Get Your 10% Discount
On a Food Foreverâ„¢ Growing System!

Offer ends April 30th at Midnight!