GMO Free World

Revolution Pac Broadcast

2012-02-04T21:53:00.002-05:00

http://www.revolutionpac.com/Nevada-Caucus-Broadcast/

GMO Free Zone - Tshirts, Buttons, Signs and More

2011-12-10T11:42:00.001-05:00

Keep the fight for your right to know what's in your food going. Visit gmofreezone.org for t-shirts, buttons, signs and more. Just say "no" to GMO!

http://www.gmofreezone.org

Organic and Natural Food Membership Club

2011-10-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

If you have not yet heard about the Green Polka Dot Box, check them out for savings of 60% on natural and organic foods.

http://www.greenpolkadotbox.com/invite/gmofreebl

1. Over 90% of our projected products for launch have been shipped or they are already in our warehouse.

2. Membership is going to bust through 11,000 this week!

3. Our Free One-Year Club membership Drive has been extended to October 23rd.

4. Reward Membership activations for shopping priority will commence on October 24th.

5. The Green PolkaDot Box will open for business on the morning of November 1st.

http://www.greenpolkadotbox.com/invite/gmofreebl

October is Here!

2011-10-02T07:51:00.003-04:00

October is here! Are you ready to make an impact for Food Freedom? http://www.zazzle.com/vkm416/gifts?cg=196790432601825413

"Between October 1st and October 16th of this year, marchers from all across the country will be walking from New York City to the White House, in Washington DC, demanding labeling of all Genetically Engineered Foods, in what has come to be called the GMO Right2Know march. Come walk with us – step-by-step we will take back our Right to Know!" http://thefutureoffoodfilm.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/right-2-know-march-against-gmos/

Esdifan - Stop Diarrhea Fast and Naturally

2011-09-23T23:43:00.001-04:00

OK, we don't normally endorse particular brands on this blog, but we have to pass along this great tip for an awesome product! We know many of you probably suffer from digestive disorders due to the effects of GMOs and toxins in the Standard American Diet. We have come across an amzaing, natural treatment that stops diarrhea fast. We have tested it and can personally recommend it as a proven alternative to OTC and prescription treatments. Read the testimonials and draw your own conclusions!

http://www.zeohealth.com/?VM12604esdifan.html

Two Products To Try for Detox, Purification and IBS Relief

2011-09-17T06:48:00.003-04:00

Two recommeded products to try

"Esdifan stops diarrhea fast and naturally."
http://www.zeohealth.com/?VM12604esdifan.html

Adya Clarity for water purification and health rejuvination
http://jrox.therawfoodworld.com/jrox.php?id=2369

Benefits of Diatomaceous Earth

2011-08-31T19:17:00.002-04:00

http://www.naturalnews.com/033367_silica_diatomaceous_earth.html#ixzz1VVmbyMgb

Coming in 2012: Genetically Modified Lawns and Mass Spraying of Lawns and Playgrounds

2011-08-27T21:40:00.000-04:00

http://www.naturalnews.com/033022_Scotts_Miracle-Gro_GMO_seeds.html

Why is Soros Selling Gold to Buy Farmland?

2011-08-14T22:26:00.000-04:00

Investors are selling gold and buying up farmland around the world:

Why Is Soros Selling Gold and Buying Farmland?

Emergency Food - Long Life Shelf Life - Saving Families One Meal at a time

http://www.gmofreeworld.efoodsglobal.com/

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Blazing Fast Search Engine Optimization

Paypal Affiliate Programs Pays Instantly

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Design Your Own Custom Made Gifts

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Mobile Marketing Frenzy

Would You Walk 313 Miles to Stop Monsanto?

2011-07-30T11:35:00.001-04:00

http://www.organicauthority.com/blog/organic/would-you-walk-313-miles-to-stop-monsanto/

Germany's Superbug Is Weaponized with Bubonic Plague DNA

2011-07-08T19:59:00.000-04:00

Read about it here:

Germany's Superbug is Weaponized with Bubonic Plague DNA

Congress Bans FDA Approval of GE Fish

2011-06-17T22:49:00.000-04:00

Good News!
Congress Bans FDA From Approving Genetically Modified Fish!

Confronting the Tyranny Head On

2011-05-26T15:35:00.000-04:00

Alex Jones and Citizens Rock the Capital
5/26/11

In an impromptu show of support for standing against forced TSA pat-downs, Alex Jones and hundreds of local supporters showed up at the capital Wednesday afternoon to confront senators face to face. Americans are fed up with the abuse of power that seems to be increasing more and more everyday, and now the threat of making Texas a "no fly zone" if the senate did not stop the bill to override TSA authority was the final straw! It was gratifying to see people stand up to the tyranny that is taking place in our country. People are starting to wake up in America. Alternative news has gained rapid support in recent weeks. God bless America. Stand up for your freedoms as laid out in the Bill or Rights and the US Constitution!

Alex Jones & Fellow Texans Take to Capitol, Demand Representatives Resist TSA Tyranny

Republican Lt. Governor Killed TSA Bill for Obama - Republican Lt. Governor Killed TSA Bill for Obama

Food Prices Continue to Skyrocket. Be Prepared BEFORE The Food Shortage Gets Here.

Do You Know What's In Your Food? Find out at www.gmofree.us

Need to Get Your News Out FAST? Need Your site Ranking on Page 1 in the Search Engines?
Blazing Fast Search Engine Optimization Blows Away the Competition!

5 Reasons High Fructose Corn Syrup Can Kill You

2011-05-25T13:41:00.000-04:00

Posted By Mark Hyman, MD On May 13, 2011 @ 7:30 pm In Articles,UltraWellness Library

[1]IF YOU CAN’T CONVINCE THEM, CONFUSE THEM.

—Harry Truman

The current media debate about the benefits (or lack of harm) of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in our diet misses the obvious. The average American increased their consumption of HFCS (mostly from sugar sweetened drinks and processed food) from zero to over 60 pounds per person per year. During that time period, obesity rates have more than tripled and diabetes incidence has increased more than seven fold. Not perhaps the only cause, but a fact that cannot be ignored.

Doubt and confusion are the currency of deception, and they sow the seeds of complacency. These are used skillfully through massive print and television advertising campaigns by the Corn Refiners Association [2]’s attempt to dispel the “myth” that HFCS is harmful and assert through the opinion of “medical and nutrition experts” that it is no different than cane sugar. It is a “natural” product that is a healthy part of our diet when used in moderation.

Except for one problem. When used in moderation it is a major cause of heart disease [3], obesity [4], cancer, dementia [5], liver failure, tooth decay and more.

Why is the corn industry spending millions on misinformation campaigns to convince consumers and health care professionals of the safety of their product? Could it be that the food industry comprises 17 percent of our economy?

The Lengths the Corn Industry Will Go To

The goal of the corn industry is to call into question any claim of harm from consuming high fructose corn syrup, and to confuse and deflect by calling their product natural “corn sugar”. That’s like calling tobacco in cigarettes natural herbal medicine. Watch the slick ad [6] where a caring father walks hand in hand with his four-year-old daughter through a big question mark carved in an idyllic cornfield.

In the ad, the father tells us:

“Like any parent I have questions about the food my daughter eats – like high fructose corn syrup. So I started looking for answers from medical and nutrition experts, and what I discovered whether it’s corn sugar or cane sugar your body can’t tell the difference. Sugar is sugar. Knowing that makes me feel better about what she eats and that’s one less thing to worry about.”

Physicians are also targeted directly. I received a 12-page color glossy monograph from the Corn Refiners Association reviewing the “science” that HFCS was safe and no different than cane sugar. I assume the other 700,000 physicians in America received the same propaganda at who knows what cost.

In addition to this, I received a special “personal” letter from the Corn Refiner’s Association outlining every mention of the problems with HCFS in our diet – whether in print, blogs, books, radio or television. They warned me of the errors of my ways and put me on “notice”. For what I am not sure. To think they are tracking this (and me) that closely gives me an Orwellian chill.

New websites like www.sweetsurprise.com [7] and www.cornsugar.com [8] help “set us straight” about HFCS with quotes from professors of nutrition and medicine and thought leaders from Harvard and other stellar institutions.

Why is the corn industry spending millions on misinformation campaigns to convince consumers and health care professionals of the safety of their product? Could it be that the food industry comprises 17 percent of our economy?

But are these twisted sweet lies or a sweet surprise, as the Corn Refiners Association websites claim?

What the Science Says about HFCS

Let’s examine the science and insert some common sense into the conversation. These facts may indeed come as a sweet surprise. The ads suggest getting your nutrition advice from your doctor (who, unfortunately, probably knows less about nutrition than most grandmothers). Having studied this for over a decade, and having read, interviewed or personally talked with most of the “medical and nutrition experts” used to bolster the claim that “corn sugar” and cane sugar are essentially the same, quite a different picture emerges and the role of HCFS in promoting obesity, disease and death across the globe becomes clear.

Last week over lunch with Dr. Bruce Ames, one of the foremost nutritional scientists in the world and Dr. Jeffrey Bland, a nutritional biochemist, a student of Linus Pauling and I reviewed the existing science, and Dr. Ames shared shocking new evidence from his research center on how HFCS can trigger body-wide inflammation and obesity.

Here are 5 reasons you should stay way from any product containing high fructose corn syrup and why it may kill you.

1. Sugar in any form causes obesity and disease when consumed in pharmacologic doses.

Cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup are indeed both harmful when consumed in pharmacologic doses of 140 pounds per person per year. When one 20 ounce HFCS sweetened soda, sports drink or tea has 17 teaspoons of sugar (and the average teenager often consumes two drinks a day) we are conducting a largely uncontrolled experiment on the human species. Our hunter gather ancestors consumed the equivalent of 20 teaspoons per year, not per day. In this sense, I would agree with the corn industry that sugar is sugar. Quantity matters. But there are some important differences.

2. HFCS and cane sugar are NOT biochemically identical or processed the same way by the body.

High fructose corn syrup is an industrial food product and far from “natural” or a naturally occurring substance. It is extracted from corn stalks through a process so secret that Archer Daniels Midland and Carghill would not allow the investigative journalist, Michael Pollan to observe it for his book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The sugars are extracted through a chemical enzymatic process resulting in a chemically and biologically novel compound called HFCS.

Some basic biochemistry will help you understand this. Regular cane sugar (sucrose) is made of two-sugar molecules bound tightly together – glucose and fructose in equal amounts. The enzymes in your digestive tract must break down the sucrose into glucose and fructose, which are then absorbed into the body.

HFCS also consists of glucose and fructose, not in a 50-50 ratio, but a 55-45 fructose to glucose ratio in an unbound form. Fructose is sweeter than glucose. And HCFS is cheaper than sugar because of the government farm bill corn subsidies. Products with HFCS are sweeter and cheaper than products made with cane sugar. This allowed for the average soda size to balloon from 8 ounces to 20 ounces with little financial costs to manufacturers but great human costs of increased obesity, diabetes and chronic disease.

Now back to biochemistry. Since there is there is no chemical bond between them, no digestion is required so they are more rapidly absorbed into your blood stream. Fructose goes right to the liver and triggers lipogenesis (the production of fats like triglycerides and cholesterol) this is why it is the major cause of liver damage in this country and causes a condition called “fatty liver” which affects 70 million people. The rapidly absorbed glucose triggers big spikes in insulin – our body’s major fat storage hormone. Both these features of HFCS lead to increased metabolic disturbances that drive increases in appetite, weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia and more.

But there was one more thing I learned during lunch with Dr. Bruce Ames. Research done by his group at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute [9] found that free fructose from HFCS requires more energy to be absorbed by the gut and soaks up two phosphorous molecules from ATP (our body’s energy source). This depletes the energy fuel source or ATP in our gut required to maintain the integrity of our intestinal lining. Little “tight junctions” cement each intestinal cell together preventing food and bacteria from “leaking” across the intestinal membrane and triggering an immune reaction and body wide inflammation.

High doses of free fructose have been proven to literally punch holes in the intestinal lining allowing nasty byproducts of toxic gut bacteria and partially digested food proteins to enter your blood stream and trigger the inflammation that we know is at the root of obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, dementia and accelerated aging. Naturally occurring fructose in fruit is part of a complex of nutrients and fiber that doesn’t exhibit the same biological effects as the free high fructose doses found in “corn sugar”.

The takeaway: Cane sugar and the industrially produced, euphemistically named “corn sugar” are not biochemically or physiologically the same.

3. HFCS contains contaminants including mercury [10] that are not regulated or measured by the FDA

An FDA researcher asked corn producers to ship a barrel of high fructose corn syrup in order to test for contaminants. Her repeated requests were refused until she claimed she represented a newly created soft drink company. She was then promptly shipped a big vat of HFCS that was used as part of the study that showed that HFCS often contains toxic levels of mercury because of chlor-alkali products used in its manufacturing.(i [11]) Poisoned sugar is certainly not “natural”.

When HFCS is run through a chemical analyzer or a chromatograph, strange chemical peaks show up that are not glucose or fructose. What are they? Who knows? This certainly calls into question the purity of this processed form of super sugar. The exact nature, effects and toxicity of these funny compounds have not been fully explained, but shouldn’t we be protected from the presence of untested chemical compounds in our food supply, especially when the contaminated food product comprises up to 15-20 percent of the average American’s daily calorie intake?

4. Independent medical and nutrition experts DO NOT support the use of HCFS in our diet, despite the assertions of the corn industry.

The corn industry’s happy looking websites www.cornsugar.com [8] and www.sweetsurprise.com [7] bolster their position that cane sugar and corn sugar are the same by quoting experts, or should we say mis-quoting …

Barry M. Popkin, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has published widely on the dangers of sugar-sweetened drinks and their contribution to the obesity epidemic. In a review of HFCS in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,(ii [12]) he explains the mechanism by which the free fructose may contribute to obesity. He states that:

“The digestion, absorption, and metabolism of fructose differ from those of glucose. Hepatic metabolism of fructose favors de novo lipogenesis [production of fat in the liver]. In addition, unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or enhance leptin production. Because insulin and leptin act as key afferent signals in the regulation of food intake and body weight [to control appetite], this suggests that dietary fructose may contribute to increased energy intake and weight gain. Furthermore, calorically sweetened beverages may enhance caloric overconsumption.”

He states that HFCS is absorbed more rapidly than regular sugar, and that it doesn’t stimulate insulin or leptin production. This prevents you from triggering the body’s signals for being full and may lead to overconsumption of total calories.

He concludes by saying that:

“… the increase in consumption of HFCS has a temporal relation to the epidemic of obesity, and the overconsumption of HFCS in calorically sweetened beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity.”

The corn industry takes his comments out of context to support their position. “All sugar you eat is the same.”

True pharmacologic doses of any kind of sugar are harmful, but the biochemistry of different kinds of sugar and their respective effects on absorption, appetite and metabolism are different, and Dr. Popkin knows that.

David S. Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, and a personal friend has published extensively on the dangers and the obesogenic properties of sugar-sweetened beverages. He was quoted as saying that “high fructose corn syrup is one of the most misunderstood products in the food industry.” When I asked him why he supported the corn industry, he told me he didn’t and that his comments were taken totally out of context.

Misrepresenting science is one thing, misrepresenting scientists who have been at the forefront of the fight against obesity and high fructose sugar sweetened beverages is quite another.

5. HCFS is almost always a marker of poor-quality, nutrient-poor disease creating industrial food products or “food-like substances”.

The last reason to avoid products that contain HFCS is that they are a marker for poor-quality, nutritionally depleted, processed industrial food full of empty calories and artificial ingredients. If you find “high fructose corn syrup” on the label you can be sure it is not a whole, real, fresh food full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants. Stay away if you want to stay healthy. We still must reduce our overall consumption of sugar, but with this one simple dietary change you can radically reduce your health risks and improve your health.

While debate may rage about the biochemistry and physiology of cane sugar vs. corn sugar, this is in fact beside the point (despite the finer points of my scientific analysis above). The conversation has been diverted to a simple assertion that cane sugar and corn sugar are not different.

The real issues are only two.

We are consuming HFCS and sugar in pharmacologic quantities never before experienced in human history — 140 pounds a year vs. 20 teaspoons a year 10,000 years ago.
High fructose corn syrup is always found in very poor quality foods that are nutritionally vacuous and filled with all sorts of other disease promoting compounds, fats, salt, chemicals and even mercury.
These critical ideas should be the heart of the national conversation, not the meaningless confusing ads and statements by the corn industry in the media and online that attempt to assure the public that the biochemistry of real sugar and industrially produced sugar from corn are the same.

Know I’d like to hear from you …

Do you think there is an association between the introduction of HFCS in our diet and the obesity epidemic?

What reason do you think the Corn Refiners Association has for running such ads and publishing websites like those listed in this article?

What do you think of the science presented here and the general effects of HFCS on the American diet?

Please leave your thoughts by adding a comment below.

To your good health,

Mark Hyman, MD

References

(i) Dufault, R., LeBlanc, B., Schnoll, R. et al. 2009. Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: Measured concentrations in food product sugar. Environ Health. 26(8):2.

(ii) Bray, G.A., Nielsen, S.J., and B.M. Popkin. 2004. Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity. Am J Clin Nutr. 79(4):537-43. Review.

Prince Charles Warns About GMO Dangers

2011-04-30T23:41:00.001-04:00

Prince Charles Warns GM Crops Risk Causing The Biggest Ever Environmental Disaster

Perhaps the Royal Family will have the influence needed to compete with the money and influence of Gates and "foundations" that are pushing the GMO agenda. Please keep spreading the awareness!

Petition - No Subsidies For Poison Crops

2011-04-23T09:07:00.003-04:00

Click Here to Congress, "No Subsidies for Poison Crops!"
Petition now live. Target = 10,000 Plus
Signatures recieved within first 24 hour = 102

Please sign and share with everyone you know!

Thank You!

Labeling GMO Food - New ballot initiative in the U.S.

2011-04-22T08:28:00.001-04:00

http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/13084-labeling-gmo-food-new-ballot-initiative-in-the-us
source - gmwatch.org

Thursday, 21 April 2011 21:11

1. Labeling GMO food - The right to know what you’re eating
2. 'Genetic labelling' claims wrong

NOTE: There's a new initiative in the US to get mandatory GM labelling put on the 2012 ballot (item 1). The website related to the article below is here: http://labelgmos.org/

We expect biotech interests in the US to try their usual trick of persuading people to reject the labelling initiative on the claimed grounds that it will increase food prices for consumers. But this claim has been exposed as hogwash in an article by Prof Chris Viljoen (item 2), who says, "There has never been a documented report that genetic modification labelling has led to a cost increase in food anywhere."
---
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1. Labeling GMO food
The right to know what you’re eating
By Christine G.K. LaPado
NewsReview.com
April 21, 2011
http://bit.ly/eVUE0c

Local grandmother and food activist Pamm Larry is leading a grassroots charge to get an initiative put on the 2012 California ballot that would require all genetically modified (GMO) foods—including meat and other products from animals fed GMO foods—to be labeled as such.

Larry (pictured) calls herself the "primary instigator" behind the Committee for the Right to Know, which recently launched a website called Label GMOs: It’s Our Right to Know (www.labelgmos.org). She just got back from the San Francisco Green Festival, and she was asked to return to San Francisco in September to help organize and participate in a conference on GMOs.

Larry said that after "bitching and moaning" for years about the increasing prevalence of GMO foods and lack of labeling as such, she decided to act.

In January, she "took six weeks to learn about government and the initiative process," and by early April she had a website and a Facebook page up and running with more than 700 supporters.

Larry has been gaining support throughout the state, including from the California State Grange, she said.

She has to have a properly worded document to state authorities by September; upon approval, the big job begins of garnering enough signatures to get the initiative put on the ballot.

"As consumers, we have a right to know what we put in our mouth," Larry said.

Go to www.labelgmos.org to learn more and to volunteer to help.
---
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2. 'Genetic labelling' claims wrong
CHRIS VILJOEN
BusinessDay
Published: 2011/02/03 07:39:05 AM
http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=133250

It was with interest that I read recent press articles about calls to label modified foods. I was most interested in the comments on the perceived link between the threshold for labelling and the cost of labelling.

First, whether the threshold is 5% or 1%, there is no cost difference in laboratory testing — I should know as I run the GMO Testing Facility that performs routine genetic modification detection in SA.

Further, the regulations make provision for companies to assume an ingredient contains genetically modified matter if it was derived from a crop for which there is a genetically modified equivalent being produced in SA, such as maize or soybean. In such a case, no laboratory testing would be required, with no additional cost to the company. Compared to this, companies that want to indicate an ingredient has not been genetically modified would be required to verify this using laboratory tests — but this is no different to what is being practised.

Second, the proposition that genetic modification labelling will increase food costs 10% to 20% is unfounded and based on misinformation. In a comprehensive study in the European Union (EU) it was estimated that the added cost to food of genetic modification labelling ranged from 0,01% to 0,17%, depending on the stringency required. The EU system for genetic modification labelling is considerably more stringent than in SA and from this it is reasonable to suggest that the labelling cost to food would be much lower in SA.

There has never been a documented report that genetic modification labelling has led to a cost increase in food anywhere. What is being implemented in SA can be considered a minimum level compared to genetic modification labelling in other countries, including Australia, Brazil, China, New Zealand and the EU.

Third, the comment that some food products "cannot be accurately analysed or labelled because they do not contain detectable protein" is misleading. It is true that processing destroys protein, making it undetectable, but the world standard for performing genetic modification analysis on food is not based on detecting protein but rather DNA (the molecule responsible for making the protein).

DNA is considerably more stable than protein and genetic modification detection laboratories around the world routinely analyse highly processed food ingredients, including starches and oils.

It is true, however, that extremely processed products cannot be tested accurately for genetically modified content as even the DNA may be destroyed. In such cases the ingredients used to make the extremely processed product can be tested.

Finally, genetic modification labelling is no different to labelling foods for the presence of additives or colorants — common practice in SA. There is no report that this practice has resulted in any food cost increase either. If consumer rights are truly autonomous, genetic modification labelling should be no exception.

Prof Chris Viljoen
GMO Testing Laboratory, University of the Free State

Upcoming Rallies

2011-04-14T09:01:00.000-04:00

Colorado - April 16
www.gmo.myevent.com/3/events.htm

Rally and GMO Info

2011-04-11T13:33:00.001-04:00

Thanks to all who listened to our Atlanta interview this afternoon on http://wrfg.org! And thanks to the radio station for giving this worthy cause some well deserved airtime!

Right to Know Rally Info:

http://www.gmomarch.org
http://right2knowrally.com

Petition! Please sign if you have not already done so!

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/525

GMO Info and Resources:

resonsibletechnology.org - Institute for Responsible Technology
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org
http://trushinlabelingcoalition.org

Article on how the Right To Know Rallies came about:
http://hartkeisonline.com/food-politics/rallies-for-right-to-know-about-gmos-to-be-held-in-21-states/

Big thanks to Trish Wright for driving this movement, along with all the volunteers across the nation who coordinated and/or worked behind the scenes for rallies on March 26th and ongoing rallies leading up to the big march in October from New York to DC!

For more information and to get involved, also visit these facebook pages:

GMO Truth Alliance
Millions Against Monsanto
Rally For The Right To Know

Take Action!

*Educate yourself on the dangers of Genetically Modified Organisms (Genetically Engineered Foods)
*Contact your congressional reps and senators
*Sign the Petition to demand honest labeling
*Attend an upcoming Rally
*"Like" us on Facebook and Twitter
*Tell everyone you know about the dangers of GMOs

THANK YOU ~ THANK YOU ~ THANK YOU!

Together we can make our voices be heard! We have a Right to Know if our food is GMO!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Radio Interview - April 11, 2011

2011-04-10T19:55:00.002-04:00

Tune in to WRFG 89.3 FM Monday at 12:45 pm as we discuss the recent Rally for The Right To Know in Atlanta.

Listen online at http://wrfg.org

Connecticut - Surprisingly Complex Debate on GMO Labeling

2011-04-01T16:28:00.000-04:00

Connecticut Debate - Sign Petition and Contact Your Rep Today!

Organic Farmers and Seed Sellers Sue Monsanto

2011-03-29T19:24:00.006-04:00

ORGANIC FARMERS AND SEED SELLERS SUE MONSANTO TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM PATENTS ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED SEED: Preemptive Action Seeks Ruling That Would Prohibit Monsanto From Suing Organic and Seed Growers If Contaminated By Roundup Ready Seed
(Read Article)

New York - March 29, 2011

This, on the heels of nationwide rallies held simultaneously on Saturday, March 26th to stand up for the "Right to Know" if foods contain GMOs. Ralliers in Washington, DC and cities from the east coast to Hawaii stood in solidarity to demand GMO foods be labeled and educate others on the dangers of GMOs. Atlanta's rally included "GMO Joe Schmo" who sang along with Mike Adams' rap video "Just Say No to GMO"!

Perhaps the tables have finally turned on Monsanto, the CHEMICAL COMPANY that brought us AGENT ORANGE and Herbacides like RoundUp followed by seeds cleverly engineered to soak up pesticides and herbacides. Do you see the conflict of interest here? Why has it taken this long for the general public to see this sinister plan? Perhaps now things have finally come to light thanks to social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter and various blog sites where news travels faster than the speed of light. Whatever the case, consumers have a right to know what is in their food and the right to choose wholesome, natural, untainted food for their families. The time is NOW for any company including GMOs in their products to disclose this on the food labels. And the time is NOW for Monsanto to no longer be allowed to control agencies like the FDA, USDA and any branch of state or federal government. The time is NOW for patents on seeds to be deemed invalid. The time is NOW for citizens to take back their freedom of choice and demand government subsidies for GMOs be ceased immediately!

Follow these links to stay on top of changing developments:

http://www.gmomarch.org/

http://www.facebook.com/rallyfortherighttoknow2011

http://www.responsibletechnology.org

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Millions-Against-Monsanto-by-OrganicConsumersorg/289934516904

Rally Successes - One Person Can Make a Difference!

2011-03-27T15:30:00.004-04:00

Here is a great article on how the Right to Know rallies came about, thanks to Trisha Wright! Thanks everyone who volunteered, coordinated and participated in all the rallies across the nation on Saturday. You can make a difference!

http://hartkeisonline.com/food-politics/rallies-for-right-to-know-about-gmos-to-be-held-in-21-states/

Keep the movement growing!

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/index.cfm#righttoknow

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Rally For the Right to Know - Sat. March 26th

2011-03-18T22:35:00.005-04:00

Please join the Rally For the Right to Know in Washington D. C. next Saturday. If you can't attend the national event, join a local rally in your state. Visit the links below for general info. Look for your state under the "discussions" tab.

Rally in DC

Atlanta Rally

The main Rally Page has information to fliers and sources for T-shirts, etc.

Links for additional gear and products are listed here or you may have your own resource.
Rush your order now to receive in time for Saturday's been event!

Vendor - Zazzle:

Tank Top - Click to Order (See images below)

Magnets & Buttons - Click Here to Order (See images below)

From Oval City Stickers - Millions Against Monsanto, Etc.

http://www.ovalcitystickers.com/health--wellness.html

Outrage Pours In After USDA Approves GE Alfalfa Deregulation!

2011-01-29T01:07:00.000-05:00

http://go.usa.gov/Y08

Thursday the USDA announced alfalfa would become deregulated thus allowing genetically engineered alfalfa to grow alongside organic and non-ge alfalfa. By Friday night, their Facebook Page had over 171 comments - all of which were expressing GRAVE DISAPPOINTMENT and DISAPPROVAL of the decision. What will it take for our government to take seriously the dangers of GMO's? Please continue to visit the USDA page and post your opposition.
http://www.facebook.com/USDA#!/USDA/posts/189844441034999

Also, pick up the phone and call the 3 key contacts responsible for this action - Tom Vilsack, President Obama, and Monsanto. We must let our voices be heard. It may be the weekend, but we will not forget about this by Monday. Call, call call, post, post, post...

202-720-3631 TOM VILSACK
202-456-1111 OBAMA
314-694-1000 MONSANTO

Several have also mentioned a class action law suit and are currently in the process of seeking out attorneys. Keep the pressure on!

Food safety bill invokes Codex harmonization and grants FDA authority to police food safety of foreign nations

2010-12-29T09:10:00.000-05:00

Oh my, if you don't think corrupt corporations are trying to control the global food supply, read this! Via naturalnews.com. This is mind-blowing, especially if other countries allow this to happen!

http://www.naturalnews.com/030863_food_safety_bill_Codex_Alimentarius.html

The Vermont Resolution for Food Sovereignty - Vermont Commons

2010-12-26T18:33:00.000-05:00

We need this in every state in the US. Please reach out to all your state reps & contacts to protect health & food freedom. S.510 "Food Safety" bill will NOT do the job.
http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2010/12/21/most-likely-secede-vermont-resolution-food-sovereignty

MOST LIKELY TO SECEDE: The Vermont Resolution for Food Sovereignty - Vermont Commons

www.vtcommons.org

GMWatch - A Non-Profit Resource for Updated Information

2010-12-26T09:15:00.004-05:00

Via GMO Truth Alliance
GMWatch on facebook, the web at www.gmwatch.org and Twitter at http://twitter.com/gmwatch is a great resource for up to the date GMO news and more!

GMWatch
www.gmwatch.org

GMWatch is an independent non-profit making organisation founded in 1998. We seek to counter the enormous corporate political power and propaganda of the biotech industry.

WikiLeaks - US Against Europe Over Monsanto GM Crops - Demcracy Now!

2010-12-25T10:48:00.002-05:00

Interview with Jeffrey Smith this week on Democracy Now exposes shocking truths about massive collateral dangers from GMOs and the corruption involved in pushing GMOs. Very significant info here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uORWuakfBtE

WikiLeaks - U.S. Against Europe Over Monsanto GM Crops - Democracy NOW! (MIRROR)

Rockefellers and Heads of Monsanto Won't Eat GMOs!

2010-12-20T20:52:00.001-05:00

Alex Jones discusses Monsanto and GMO's

Rockefellers and heads of Monsanto have their own farm and will only eat THEIR OWN FOOD, not this poisonous stuff their dishing out to the rest of us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaGlmrGtu-c&list=PL4E9381242D7C320B&index=55&playnext=2

Food Safety Bill Passes Senate

2010-12-20T20:15:00.001-05:00

URGENT! Via naturalnews.com:

Sorry to bring you this news, but S.510 has PASSED in the Senate in a late-night session. It is now back to the House where your help is once again needed to resist this food tyranny bill. This is our last chance to defeat this. Get the details and the action items in this article. - Mike

Help protect small local farmers! Help stop HR 2751, which now contains the Food Safety Modernization Act. We now have our own petition at NaturalNews / Consumer Wellness Center. You can sign it here: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/7025/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5020

Jamie Oliver's Garden

2010-12-13T12:53:00.000-05:00

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=257459&id=27994914806

You may be familiar with Jamie Oliver, the chef who brought us the wonderful reality show last year called "Food Revolution". He has posted a few photos of his own garden on Facebook to inspire us.

Mainstream Media Agrees Food Safety Bill Will Do Nothing to Improve Food Safety!

2010-12-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

Via NaturalNews.com: A recent editorial in Forbes magazine online slams the recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "Food Safety Modernization Act" for being a huge waste of taxpayer money, and an effort that will do absolutely nothing to actually improve food safety.

http://www.naturalnews.com/030697_food_safety_FDA.html

Obama's Evergreen Revolution a Ploy to Push GMOs

2010-12-12T00:30:00.000-05:00

	http://www.naturalnews.com/030695_GMOs_Obama.html

Jeffrey Smith on Dr. Oz Discussing GMO's

2010-12-07T21:44:00.002-05:00

In case you missed it today, Dr. Oz has come to the forefront with GMO expert Jeffrey Smith to unravel the truths behind genetically modified foods you don't even know you are eating - from seeds infused with pesticides and DESIGNED to drink in
herbacides - eventually turning your gut into a pesticide factory! Thank you Dr. Oz and Jeffrey Smith for bringing this to mainstream media!

Check out the 3 clips here:

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/genetically-modified-foods-pt-1

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/genetically-modified-foods-pt-2

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/genetically-modified-foods-pt-3

Top Ten Lies About Senate Bill 510 - Food Safety

2010-12-01T08:41:00.002-05:00

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
NaturalNews.com (printable article)
Originally published December 1 2010

(NaturalNews) The Food Safety Modernization Act looks like it's headed to become law. It's being hailed as a "breakthrough" achievement in food safety, and it would hand vast new powers and funding to the FDA so that it can clean up the food supply and protect all Americans from food-borne pathogens.

There's just one problem with all this: It's all a big lie.

Here are the ten biggest lies that have been promoted about S.510 by the U.S. Congress, the food industry giants and the mainstream media:

Lie #1 - Most deaths from food poisoning are caused by fresh produce

Here's a whopper the mainstream media won't dare report: Out of the 1,809 people who die in America every year from food-borne pathogens (CDC estimate), only a fraction die from the manufacturer's contamination of fresh produce. By far the majority of food poisoning is caused by the consumption of spoiled processed foods, dead foods and animal-human transmission of pathogens.

For example, one of the largest food-borne killers according to the CDC is Toxoplasma gondii, a disease that people acquire from cat feces coming into contact with their food, which can happen right in their own homes (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/Vol5n...). Salmonella poisoning accounts for 553 deaths a year. As a reference for relative risk, over 42,000 people die each year from road accidents in the USA, meaning driving a car has a roughly 7600% higher chance of killing you than eating fresh produce. (http://www.driveandstayalive.com/in...)

In terms of food-borne illness, many of the deaths come from things like spoiled tomato sauce, spoiled canned foods and spoiled pasteurized milk. S 510, of course, does absolutely nothing to address these food contamination deaths, since those foods are considered "sterilized" at the time of sale.

Lie #2 - Under S.510, the FDA would only recall products it knows to be contaminated

Not true. S.510 merely requires the FDA to have "reason to believe" a food is contaminated. So right there, that means all raw milk will be targeted by the FDA because even without conducting any scientific tests at all, the FDA can say it has "reason to believe" the milk is contaminated merely because it is raw.

In other words, the FDA no longer needs science to outlaw a food product. It merely needs an opinion.

Is this "reason to believe" section really true? Yep, and here's how it was amended:

SEC. 208. ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION OF FOOD.
23 (a) IN GENERAL. - Section 304(h)(1)(A) (21 U.S.C.24 334(h)(1)(A)) is amended by
(1) striking ''credible evidence or information indicating'' and inserting ''reason to believe'';
(http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi...)

In other words, in negotiating this bill, the U.S. Senate removed the requirement that the FDA needed "credible evidence" in order to recall a product and, instead, replaced that with the FDA only needing "reason to believe."

It is utterly amazing that the U.S. Congress would give the FDA to conduct large-scale product recalls and even imprison people based entirely on what the agency "has reason to believe."

Last time I checked, the FDA held some pretty bizarre (if not downright moronic) beliefs, including this jaw-dropping whopper: The FDA literally believes that there is no food, no herb, no vitamin or supplement that has any ability to prevent disease of any kind. They don't even believe limes can prevent scurvy, and you'd have to nutritionally illiterate to believe that.

The FDA believes foods are inert and that all the amazing phytonutrients in those foods (carotenoids, antioxidants, therapeutic fats like omega-3 and so on) are utterly useless for human biology.

This belief, held by the FDA that has now been put in charge of the food supply, is the belief system of an insane government agency that has completely lost touch with reality while abandoning nutritional science.

Lie #3 - They didn't tell you that nearly 70% of grocery store chickens are contaminated with salmonella every day

Yep, it's true: Amid all the fear-mongering over salmonella, everybody forgot to notice that the vast majority of fresh chickens sold at grocery stores every single day are widely contaminated with salmonella (http://www.naturalnews.com/028661_c...). Yet S 510 does absolutely nothing to address this. It's not even mentioned in the bill.

In fact, it is these contaminated chickens that end up cross-contaminating the fresh produce in many kitchens across America. So the so-called "food poisoning" that's often blamed on spinach or onions often originates with the contaminated chicken meat people bring home and slice on their kitchen cutting boards.

Lie #4 - S.510 will exclude and protect small farmers

The Tester Amendment, which was finally included in S.510, excludes farmers who sell less than $500,000 worth of food each year from the more onerous paperwork and compliance burdens described in the bill. But this dollar amount is not indexed to inflation, meaning that as the U.S. dollar continues to lose value due to the Federal Reserve counterfeiting machine running at full speed (more "quantitative easing," anyone?), food prices will continue to skyrocket -- and this will shift even small family farms into the $500,000 sales range within just a few years.

In fact, a single-family farm with just four people could easily sell $500,000 worth of fresh produce a year right now, even before inflation. Remember, $500,000 is not their profit, but rather the gross sales amount. The profits on that might be only $50,000 or even less.

Furthermore, this $500,000 threshold means that small, successful farms that are doing well and would like to expand will refuse to hire more people or expand their operations. To avoid the tyranny of S 510, small farms will try to stay small, and that means avoiding the kind of business expansion that would create new jobs.

Lie #5 - The FDA needs more power to enforce food safety

The FDA already has the power to effectively recall foods by publicly announcing a product has been found to be contaminated. The FDA already has the power to confiscate "misbranded" products, too, and it could easily use this power to halt the sale of contaminated food items.

But the FDA simply refuses to enforce the laws already on the books and, instead, has sought to expand its power by hyping up the e.coli food scares. The ploy apparently worked: Now in a reaction to the food scare-mongering, the FDA is being handed not just new powers, but more funding, too! And you can bet it will find creative new ways to put this power to work suppressing the health freedoms and food freedoms of the American people.

Lie #6 - Fresh produce is contaminated because of a lack of paperwork

There is no evidence that requiring farms to fill out more paperwork will make their food safer. The real cause of produce contamination is the existence of factory animal farms whose effluent output (huge rivers of cow feces, basically), end up in the water supply, soils and equipment that comes into contact with fresh produce.

The food contamination problem is an UPSTREAM problem where you've got to reform the factory animal operations that now dominate the American meat industry. S.510, however, does absolutely nothing to address this. Factory animal farms aren't even addressed in the bill!

Lie #7 - The American people are dying in droves from unsafe fresh food

The truth is that Americans are dying from processed food laced with toxic chemical additives, not from fresh, raw produce. Partially-hydrogenated oils, white sugar, aspartame, MSG and artificial food colors almost certainly kill far more people than bacterial contaminations.

The American public is also dying from pharmaceuticals -- anywhere from 100,000 to 240,000 people a year are killed by FDA-approved drugs (http://www.naturalnews.com/001894.html), most of which have been approved under the guise of blatantly fraudulent science and drug company trickery. The FDA doesn't seem to mind. In fact, it has been a willful co-conspirator in the scientific fraud carried out by Big Pharma in the name of "medicine." (http://www.naturalnews.com/027851_h...)

To think that the FDA -- the very same agency responsible for the Big Pharma death machine -- is now going to "save us" by controlling food safety is highly irrational.

Lie #8 - The FDA just wants to make food "safer"

Actually, the FDA wants to make the food more DEAD. Both the FDA and the USDA are vocal opponents of live food. They think that the only safe food is sterilized food, which is why they've supported the fumigation, pasteurization and irradiation efforts that have been pushed over the last few years.

California almond growers, for example, must now either chemically fumigate or pasteurize their almonds before selling them (http://www.naturalnews.com/021776.html). This has destroyed the incomes of U.S. almond farmers and forced U.S. food companies to buy raw almonds from Spain and other countries.

Lie #9 - Food smuggling is a huge problem in America

One of the main sections of S.510 addresses "food smuggling." Yep -- people smuggling food across the country. If you've never heard of this problem that's because it's not actually a problem.

Not yet anyway.

But there's a reason why they put this into the bill: Because they're probably planning on criminalizing fresh produce and then arresting people for transporting broccoli with the "intent to distribute."

Yep, farmers bringing fresh produce to sell at the weekend farmer's market could soon be arrested and imprisoned as if they were drug smugglers. Hence the need for the "food smuggling" provisions of S.510.

Soon, we will all have to meet in secret locations just to trade carrots for cash.

Lie #10 - S.510 will make America's food supply the safest in the world

Actually, even with S.510 in place, America's food supply is among the most chemically contaminated in the world, second only to China. You can find mercury in the seafood, BPA in the canned soup, yeast extract (MSG) in the "natural" potato chips, and artificial petrochemical coloring agents in children's foods.

Eating the "Standard American Diet" is probably the single most harmful thing a person can do for their health. It's the fastest way to get cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Every nation in the world that begins to consume the American diet starts to show record rates of degenerative disease within one generation. This is the "safe food" that the U.S. Senate is now pushing on everyone.

Remember, with S.510, SAFE = DEAD. And the FDA says it wants to keep everybody safe.

Permission granted to reproduce and post this list with credit

Feel free to share this list! Please give the courtesy of credit to this author and a clickable link back to NaturalNews.com. We are working hard to fight for freedom and educate the public about why we need to resist these "Big Government solutions" that trample over our Constitutional rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (which, in my mind, includes buying fresh produce at the farmer's market).

Thank you for your support.

All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml

Morgellons Disease May Be Linked to Genetically Modified Food

2010-11-09T23:46:00.000-05:00

Morgellons Disease May Be Linked to Genetically Modified Food

Originally published April 13 2008
Morgellons Disease May Be Linked to Genetically Modified Food
by Barbara L. Minton, citizen journalist
See all articles by this author
Email this author

(NaturalNews) The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has given care giant Kaiser Permanente over $300,000 to test and interview 150 to 500 patients suffering from Morgellons Disease. The study will be done in northern California where many Morgellons patients live.

Prior to this news, people had written off the disease as a hoax or the result of hypochondria. But recent evidence suggests that the disease is indeed real, and may be related to genetically modified (GM) food.

What is Morgellons Disease?

On August 1, 2007, the CDC issued the following statement regarding Morgellons Disease: "Morgellons is an unexplained and debilitating condition that has emerged as a public health concern. Recently, the CDC has received an increased number of inquiries from the public, health care providers, public health officials, Congress, and the media regarding this condition. Persons who suffer from this condition report a range of coetaneous symptoms including crawling, biting and stinging sensations; granules, threads or black speck-like materials on or beneath the skin; and/or lesions (e.g., rashes or sores) and some sufferers also report systemic manifestations such as fatigue, mental confusion, short term memory loss, joint pain, and changes in vision. Moreover, some who suffer from this condition appear to have substantial morbidity and social dysfunction, which can include decreased work productivity or job loss, total disability, familial estrangement, divorce, loss of child custody, home abandonment, and suicidal ideation."

As of February, 2007, approximately 10,000 families had registered with the Morgellons Research Foundation (MRF) and felt they or a member of their family met criteria for Morgellons as defined by the MRF. Of the U.S. families in the MRF registry, 24% reside in California with geographic clustering in the San Francisco metropolitan areas.

In New Science magazine, Sept. 15-21 edition, Daniel Elkan describes a patient who for years has been "finding tiny blue, red and black fibers growing from intensely itchy lesions on his skin." These fibers appear like pliable plastic and can be several millimeters long. Some appear in a zig-zag pattern. These fibers can be as fine as spider silk, yet they are strong enough to distend the skin when pulled.

A May 18, 2006 story carried by KGW, a local news channel in Oregon, recounts the story of a family practice doctor experiencing the disease. She reported feeling like bugs were crawling under her skin. "If I fully tell people what has gone on with me medically, they think they're in the twilight zone," said Dr. Drottar who woke up with the feeling that fluid was flowing just below her skin. When black or blue hair-like fibers protruded from her skin, she reported thinking she had been exposed to asbestos. "I thought I was having asbestos fibers come out of my skin. I was pulling long, thin, small hair-like fibers that were extremely sharp that could literally pierce through my finger nail."

According to Dr. Drottar, these symptoms were accompanied by severe depression, chronic fatigue and a weakened immune system. This debilitating condition forced her to give up her medical practice.

Effective treatment for Morgellons suffers has been elusive. Doctors have claimed that this type of disease must be caused by a parasite, but even the strongest anti-parasitic medications have not helped. In the past, psychologists have insisted that this was a new version of delusional parasitosis, a form of psychosis in which suffers hold a delusional belief that they are infected by parasites.

The Morgellons, GM Link

According to the CDC statement, the etiology of Morgellons is unknown, and the medical community has insufficient information to determine whether persons who identify themselves as having the disease have a common cause for their symptoms. In April, 2006, the CDC recommended an epidemiologic investigation. It was not until January 16, 2008 that the care grant to Kaiser Permanente was announced.

In the meantime, a research team from Oklahoma State University lead by Dr. Randy Wymore, studied some of the fibers sent to them by Morgellons patients. They discovered that fibers from different people looked remarkably similar to each other and yet seemed to match no common environmental fibers.

Ahmed Kilani, a specialist in infectious disease detection, claimed to have broken down two fiber samples and extracted their DNA. He found that they belonged to a fungus.

In an even more provocative finding, Vitaly Citovsky, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University in New York, discovered that the fibers contained the substance Agrobacterium, a genus of gram-negative bacteria capable of genetically transforming not only plants, but also other eukaryotic species, including human cells.

Anonymous samples were provided to Professor Citovsky by the Morgellons Research Foundation to use in investigating the potential presence of Agrobacterium in biopsies from Morgellons patients. Control reactions included samples provided by healthy donors. Only Morgellons, not healthy subjects, tested positive in these studies.

According to a statement issued by Professor Citovsky, this observation does not imply that Agrobacterium causes Morgellons or that Morgellons is indeed an infectious disease. However, it does encourage future studies to determine (1) statistical significance of data, (2) whether Agrobacterium is not only present extracellularly, but also causes genetic transformation of the infected tissues, and (3) whether infection of laboratory animals with Agrobacterium can recreate symptoms of Morgellons.

Sources:

"Background information on the involvement of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the investigation of Morgellons disease in the U.S.", published by the CDC.

"Skin Disease May Be Linked to GM Food", Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country, Oct. 12, 2007.

"Serious Study of Mystery Disease" Whitney Strieber's Unknown Country, Jan. 31, 2008.

"GMO Disease Epidemics: (10) Bt-cotton Fiber Disease", Myron Stagman, Ph.D., Portland independent media center

Morgellons Watch, "Clarification from Vitaly Citovsky"

About the author

Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using "alternative" treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural.

Viral Music Video, "Just Say No to GMO"!

2010-10-28T15:27:00.002-04:00

Great video by the Health Ranger!

"Just Say No to GMO"

California Food Police Raid Organic Food Store, Guns Drawn!

2010-10-26T21:21:00.001-04:00

The California food police are completely out of control!

Pending Food Shortage - Be Prepared!

2010-10-19T13:40:00.003-04:00

Resources

Food Reserves - Long Shelf Life: eFoods GLOBAL - Information eFoods GLOBAL - Essential Products

Seeds - Humble Seed the Producer:

www.humbleseed.com

Humble Seed's Facebook Page Additional Resources for Non-GMO Foods are available at http://responsibletechnology.org and include the following brands, retailers and suppliers: New Chapter Organics Whole Foods Amy's Cascadian Farms And many, many others! Non-GMO Shopping Guide makes grocery shopping easy!

It seems evident we are destined to have a food shortage and a run on emergency staples in the near future. Your chances of survival during a 6 week hyper-inflationary period and food shortage will be greater if you follow some simple guidelines now.

Preparedness Guidelines:

Stock up on clean drinking water!
Bottled water will go off the shelves before anything else. We witnessed this after Hurricane Katrina a few years ago. And in just the past year, we saw this happen after floods in Georgia and Massachusettes where residents were without running water for days. Local supplies of bottled water were scarce, and people had to line up for rationed supplies. As shown in the video here, shoppers were fighting over the few bottles remaining in the stores. For optimum health, try to find water that is fluoride-free. Purification through osmosis or distillation is best. A gallon of purified water is usually about a dollar at the grocery store... currently. Once the crisis hits, it will go up! If you have a good water filter, start bottling water now and keep it in a safe place.
Plant your own garden.
Much of the food we purchase at our local grocery stores is shipped in on trucks. If there is a gas shortage or labor strike, shipments will be delayed, possibly for several weeks. It's also healthier to grow your own food or shop from your local farmers' markets where natural, whole foods - free of pesticides and genetically modified organisms - are more abundant.
Buy seeds now! Seeds will become a key factor to growing your own food and and will become scarce in the coming months. Big Ag seeds (genetically modified seeds from Monsanto, Sygenta, etc.) are not the seeds you want to purchase. They are genetically altered and designed to soak up pesticides and herbacides instead of relying on nature to produce healthy crops. Look for heirloom, organic or Non-GMO seeds. Stay away from weed-killers and herbacides such as Roundup as these products contain high levels of toxins and were designed to work with genetically modified seeds. Now the manufacturers and consumers are coming to the horrific realization that these harmful chemicals have only made matters worse by creating "super weeds" and producing smaller yields of crops than if they had used natural seeds, fertilizers, etc. and not relied so heavily on pesticides and herbacides for farming.
Purchase food reserves with a long shelf life for emergency. Start now! There will be times when crops are out of season or you may not have yet harvested enough food to last throughout a crisis. There may also be a period of time when you won't have power or optimal storage to preserve what little food you do have on hand without it perishing. There are resources where you can obtain food that requires no refrigeration and has a long shelf life to feed your family during these difficult situations. You will want to make sure you have enough food on hand to feed your family for at least six weeks.

Gates Foundation & Monsanto Ties - Sign the Petition!

2010-10-13T14:42:00.000-04:00

Conflict of interest - this is newsworthy. Many fed-up consumers and citizens are not happy with the Gates Foundation's ties to Monsanto when it comes to solving the world's hunger problems. And rightly so.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/103/petition-against-gates-foundation-monsanto-investment/

Family Farm Ordered to Destroy 50,000 Pounds of Cheese

2010-10-11T21:39:00.000-04:00

If this doesn't infuriate you, it should. Excerpts pasted below from the hartkeisonline blog http://hartkeisonline.com/2010/10/11/family-farm-ordered-to-destroy-50000-pounds-of-cheese/:

"As readers of this blog and those in the real food movement know, the FDA has a mission. They have blatantly stated that you have no right to consume foods of your choice, and the FDA Plant and Dairy head has a documented Howard Hughes like fear of raw dairy. They are happy to use their resources to “protect” you from consuming things that don’t make any one ill. They’ve reduced science to superstition. If they get more power through S.510, they will regulate the family farm and real food to death and give you Cheez Whiz and Twinkies as government approved food."
Further comments after story posted:
"Morningland Dairy has been tested and been found free of pathogens according to their blog (excerpt to follow). My question is this: was thecheese properly handled and refrigerated at the retail store and by the FDA after it was seized? If there is a problem at Morningland Dairy, wouldn’t theyhave found the bacteria when they took all those samples?

The saga of how they’ve been railroaded can be found here:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Hannes/doreen107.htm

Despite ALWAYS being compliant with govt rules and regulations, and despite the fact that the FDA found NOTHING wrong at their dairy (if there really is a problem, it’s out in California!), Morningland has been forced to recall and embargo their cheeses based on a sample taken from a cheese that was seized in California (four months after it left Missouri) – and not tested until FIFTY FIVE DAYS after the sample was seized.
Now, despite the fact that the FDA took over 100 swabs of the dairy, and ALL the samples tested came back 100% free of pathogens, the FDA and the Missouri Milk Board have declared that Morningland Dairy must DESTROY ALL 50,000 pounds of their cheese product sitting innocently in their coolers. (This in addition to all the cheese destroyed due to the recall.)"

How to help: "For as little as $5 you can tell the FDA and their minions that you are smart enough to decide what you want to eat and don’t need their permission or “help” to figure out what is “good for us”. This battle must be won." The Uncheese Party: http://uncheese-party.webs.com/

National Non-GMO Day 10-10-10

2010-10-09T11:23:00.000-04:00

October is the 1st ever National Non-GMO Month! Tomorrow, 10-10-10 is National Non-GMO Day. Show your support by participating in events in your local community. Find creative ways of your own to show support and spread the word!

http://responsibletechnology.org/

Former Mars Candy Exec Tapped for Ag Research Post?! What the...

2010-10-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

GRIST: Obama Taps Food Industry Exec for Top Ag Research Post. If this doesn't upset you, it should! They're putting a former CANDY exec in charge of Agrigulture. The revolving door keeps going in its viscious cycle.

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-10-01-obama-taps-food-industry-exec-to-top-ag-research-post

Must Read! Key FDA Documents Revealing Dangers in GM Food & Flaws in Policy

2010-09-22T23:41:00.003-04:00

(Reposted from www.responsibletechnology.org)

FDA Documents

KEY FDA DOCUMENTS REVEALING
(1) HAZARDS OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS--AND
(2) FLAWS WITH HOW THE AGENCY MADE ITS POLICY

http://www.biointegrity.org/

About the Documents
You will see scanned reproductions (exact copies) of some of the Food & Drug Administration's (FDA) internal memoranda about the hazards of genetically engineered foods. These documents became available through the Alliance for Bio-Integrity's lawsuit (Alliance for Bio-Integrity et al., vs. Shalala, et al.) to gain mandatory safety testing and labeling of these foods. The large numbers on the bottom of each page (i.e. 18952) are the Administrative Record (A.R.) numbers affixed by the FDA.

How to View and Print
In order to make these documents easily accessible, we've saved each page in two different formats: one intended for viewing on your monitor using your internet browser (click on "View Document"), and one formatted in PDF suitable for printing onto a 8 1/2" X 11" sheet of paper (click on "View PDF").

To print the PDF files you will need free software called Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't already have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download it here. Depending on your computer and internet connection, downloading Adobe Acrobat Reader may take up to fifteen minutes. You may find that the best way to view and read the documents on your monitor is to select the PDF files; they are larger files and therefore may take slightly longer to download, but the Acrobat Reader enables you to enlarge or reduce the image size to fit your monitor.

A. FDA Scientists Discuss Various Safety Concerns

Comments from Dr. Linda Kahl, FDA compliance officer, to Dr. James Maryanski, FDA Biotechnology Coordinator, about the Federal Register document "Statement of Policy: Foods from Genetically Modified Plants." Dated January 8, 1992. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Memorandum from Dr. Edwin J. Mathews to the Toxicology Section of the Biotechnology Working Group. Subject: "Analysis of the Major Plant Toxicants." Dated October 28, 1991. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document -View PDF
Memorandum from Dr. Samuel I. Shibko to Dr. James Maryanski, FDA Biotechnology Coordinator. Subject: "Revision of Toxicology Section of the Statement of Policy: Foods Derived from Genetically Modified Plants." Dated January 31, 1992. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Comments from Dr. Louis J. Pribyl re: the "Biotechnology Draft Document, 2/27/92." Dated March 6, 1992. (5 pages)View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Comments from Dr. Louis J. Pribyl re: "... the March 18, 1992 Version of the Biotechnology Document." Dated March 18, 1992. (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Comments from Division of Food Chemistry and Technology and Division of Contaminants Chemistry. Subject: "Points to Consider for Safety Evaluation of Genetically Modified Foods. Supplemental Information." Dated November 1, 1991. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Memorandum from Dr. Mitchell Smith, Head, Biological and Organic Chemistry Section, to Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator. Subject: "Comments on Draft Federal Register Notice on Food Biotechnology, Dec. 12, 1991 draft." Dated January 8, 1992. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Letter from Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator, to Dr. Bill Murray, Chairman of the Food Directorate, Canada. Subject: the safety assessment of foods and food ingredients developed through new biotechnology. Dated October 23, 1991. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Comments from Dr. Carl B. Johnson on the "draft statement of policy 12/12/91." Dated January 8, 1992. (2 pages)View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Memorandum from Dr. Gerald B. Guest, Director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine, to Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator. Subject: "Regulation of Transgenic Plants--FDA Draft Federal Register Notice on Food Biotechnology." Dated February 5, 1992. (4 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF

B. Specific Objections to Use of Antibiotic-Resistant Marker Genes

Memorandum from Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator, to Dr. Murray Lumpkin. Subject: "Use of Kanamycin Resistance Marker Gene in Tomatoes." (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Memorandum from Dr. Murray Lumpkin to Dr. Bruce Burlington. Subject: "The tomatoes that will eat Akron." Dated December 17, 1992. (7 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Memorandum from Dr. Albert Sheldon to Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator. Subject: "Use of Kanamycin Resistance Markers in Tomatoes." Dated March 30, 1993. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF

C. Safety Questions Raised by Tests on the Flavr Savr Tomato--the Most Thoroughly Tested Bioengineered Food

Memorandum from Dr. Fred Hines to Dr. Linda Kahl. Subject: "FLAVR SAVR Tomato:" ... "Pathology Branch's Evaluation of Rats with Stomach Lesions From Three Four-Week Oral (Gavage) Toxicity Studies" ... "and an Expert Panel's Report." Dated June 16, 1993. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Memorandum from Robert J. Scheuplein, Ph.D. to the FDA Biotechnology Coordinator and others. Subject: "Response to Calgene Amended Petition." Dated October 27, 1993. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Memorandum from Dr. Carl B. Johnson to Dr. Linda Kahl & Others. Subject: "Flavr Savr(TM) tomato; significance of pending DHEE question." Dated Dec 7, 1993. (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Memorandum from Dr. Fred Hines to Dr. Linda Kahl. Subject: "FLAVR SAVR Tomato"... "Pathology Branch's Remarks to Calgene Inc.'s Response to FDA Letter of June 29, 1993." Dated December 10, 1993. (3 pages) View Our Summary- View Document - View PDF

D. Additional Evidence of Improprieties In The Formation Of FDA Policy On Bioengineered Foods

Note from Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator, to Mr. Michael Taylor. Subject: "Food Biotechnology Policy Development." Dated October 7, 1993. (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Document titled "FDA REGULATION OF FOOD PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM GENETICALLY ALTERED PLANTS: POINTS TO CONSIDER" Not dated. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Memorandum from Dr. James Maryanksi, Biotechnology Coordinator, to the Director of the Center for Applied Nutrition. Subject: "FDA Task Group on Food Biotechnology: Progress Report 2." Dated August 15, 1991. (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Memorandum from David Kessler, Commissioner of Food & Drugs. Subject: "FDA Proposed Statement of Policy Clarifying the Regulation of Food Derived from Genetically Modified Plants--DECISION." Dated March 20, 1992. (4 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Letter from Terry Medley, J.D. (of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service), to Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator. Subject: "Comments on FDA Draft Statement of Policy on foods derived from new plant varieties, including plants derived by recombinant DNA techniques. Dated April 2, 1992. (5 pages) View Our Summary -View Document - View PDF
Note from Eric Katz (Dept. of Health & Human Services) to John Gallivan. Subject: "Food Biotechnology Policy Statement." Dated March 27, 1992. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF
Memorandum from James B. MacRae, Jr. (of the Office of Management and Budget), for C. Boyden Gray (President Bush’s White House counsel). Subject: "FDA Food Biotechnology Policy." Dated March 21, 1992. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - View PDF

Gates Foundation, ONE Foundation & Monsanto Relationship Becoming Transparent

2010-09-21T19:17:00.000-04:00

Finally - The Gates Foundation, ONE Foundation and Monsanto relationship is becoming more transparent among world-wide followers. GM Foods is not the answer to solve the world hunger crisis. The foundations and philanthropists need to get the facts before implementing such programs. Citizens must keep up the inquiries and do some research before jumping on the band wagon to support these efforts. They can do far more harm than good in the long run. Keep corruption out of global and local charitable functions and projects. News item posted this week in the Irish Times:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0920/breaking33.html?sms_ss=twitter

Silk Soy Beverage Busted!

2010-09-20T21:22:00.002-04:00

http://gefreebc.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/silk-soy-beverage-busted-gmo/

Monsanto hired mercenary Blackwater to infiltrate anti-GMO groups

2010-09-18T00:57:00.000-04:00

Listen Print Like • 26 people liked this

REPOSTED FROM DIGITAL JOURNAL:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/297701

In the Media

13 HOURS AGO by ■ Stephanie Dearing - 5 comments

Monsanto hired mercenary Blackwater to infiltrate anti-GMO groups

Documents reveal that Blackwater has been busy expanding its corporate reach by providing intelligence services for agencies such as the Canadian Military, Netherlands Police and corporations like Monsanto.

Blackwater is a private, mercenary army. They've been called the 'shadow army,' and most notoriously worked for the United States in Iraq, where the company courted controversy. Journalist Jeremy Scahill, who wrote a book about Blackwater, wrote an exclusive for The Nation, revealing general details of the extent of the Blackwater business operations. Scahill managed to obtain documents that, according to Scahill, show

"... entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation. Blackwater's work for corporations and government agencies was contracted using two companies owned by Blackwater's owner and founder, Erik Prince: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center (TRC). Prince is listed as the chairman of both companies in internal company documents, which show how the web of companies functions as a highly coordinated operation."

A spokesperson for Monsanto, reached by Scahill, first denied the relationship with Blackwater, but then admitted that Monsanto had paid Total Intelligence for intelligence reoprts

"... about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information. The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites."

The spokesperson told Scahill he was told Total Intelligence was completely separate from Blackwater.

The news that Monsanto hired a Blackwater company for intelligence reports is rocketing around the world via anti-GMO activists. Blogger Rady Ananda summed up the relationship between Monsanto and Blackwater as

"... A death-tech firm weds a hit squad."

Citing the growing movement to destroy GMO crops, Ananda thought Monsanto was hoping to be able to quell dissent through infiltrating actvist groups that take direct action. Ananda concluded his article saying

"... Monsanto, by hiring a mercenary army and former CIA field agents, is deadly serious about protecting its deadly products. Yet, this contract further discredits the company. The public can now paint an even bleaker picture of the firm that brought us Agent Orange, PCBs, rBST, DDT, aspartame and, now, hitmen."

Writing on Above Top Secret, Airspoon commented on Monsanto's hiring of Blackwater, saying (sic)

"The above quote is pretty scary and indicative of how corporate interests are acting against our own, though most of us already knew that. For any of the deniars who tried to refute that such tactics were used, one need only look at the plethora of information coming out about Xe and Blackwater due to the scandal in Iraq.
I think that the best thing that could be done, is to boycott these companies as much as possible. Monsanto might be a little hard to boycott for some folks, though the other companies shouldn't be. In fact, Monsanto shouldn't be either for most folks.
Blackwater (Xe) is one of the most dangerous entities facing the American people. It's like the enforcement arm of corporate interests that does not have to operate under the same "restrictions" that government enforcers have to operate under under. It's like a private army for TPTB.
Americans and citizens of the world should be irate ove the very existence of a company such as Blackwater and we should all stand together against the Nazi-like tactics and the anti-freedom angenda of such an evil organization."

The documents obtained by Scahill show that Monsanto paid Blackwater's subsidiary, Total Intelligence a total of $232,000 for intelligence services provided in 2008 and 2009.

Aside from the brief statement provided to Scahill, Monsanto is keeping quiet on the matter, as is Blackwater and the other organizations cited in Scahill's article.

Scahill said the Canadian Military paid Blackwater over $1.6 million for training, which was provided through Blackwater's subsidiary, the Terrorism Research Center.

Blackwater violated some US export control laws, reported Yahoo News this past August, violations which included the provision of training to the Canadian Military.

While the list of violations the US Department of State found Blackwater guilty of is extensive, the company was only fined $42 million.

The company name 'Blackwater' was changed to Xe (pronounced 'zee') in 2009, whichSource Watch called a 'rebranding effort.'

The company is now up for sale.

AFP reported Blackwater operatives were accused of killing 17 Iraqis, wounding a further 22 in what was said to be an unprovoked attack in 2007. The company was later cleared of all wrongdoing. Blackwater was ordered out of Iraq earlier this year because of that violent incident said CBS News.

Scahill is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. He recently wrote the book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. Scahill is also an award-winning investigative journalist and in addition to writing for The Nation, he is a correspondent with Democracy Now!.

Scahill's article on Blackwater will be available in the October 4, 2010 print edition of The Nation.

Johnny Isakson is a co-sponsor of S510 - This is his response to our letter of concern

2010-09-17T19:18:00.000-04:00

Disappointing response from Senator Johnny Isakson - Georgia Senator - regarding S510 Food Safety Bill:

Thank you for contacting me regarding food safety legislation. I appreciate your comments and concerns and am glad to have the opportunity to respond.

In this global economy, food ingredients originate from a number of possible sources, are sold at competitive prices, and are introduced into our nation's food supply. This may drive down food prices, but it also exposes our nation's food supply to possible contamination by a source that is not easily identified. We are all well aware of the recent outbreaks of food-borne illness and nationwide recalls of contaminated food from both domestic and foreign sources.

I understand your concern regarding an unnecessary expansion of government and there are a number of bills in the House regarding this issue that I am concerned about and am currently monitoring. I believe there is critical need to protect our nation's food sources from wide-spread contamination and outbreaks without compromising our nation's farmer and food processors.

I am a cosponsor of S.510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. This bipartisan legislation will help ensure the safety of our nation's food supply by improving the Food and Drug Administration's capabilities to oversee food inspection. Specifically, S.510 will enable the FDA toestablish preventive plans in food-processing facilities that identify and prevent potential hazards from occurring. Furthermore, this bill will give the FDA the ability to issue mandatory recalls on food products, increase capacity to detect and respond to food-borne illness outbreaks, and establish a pilot-program testing food traceability measures. S.510 was last placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar for debate. Please rest assured that I will keep your thoughts and concerns in mind regarding food safety as we go forward in the legislative process.

Thank you again for contacting me. Please visit my webpage at http://isakson.senate.gov/ for more information on the issues important to you and to sign up for my e-newsletter.

Sincerely,
Johnny Isakson
United States Senator

For future correspondence with my office, please visit my web site at http://isakson.senate.gov/contact.cfm. You can also click here to sign up for the eNewsletter

Introducing Corn Salt! Heck, why not "Corn Everything?"!

2010-09-15T16:14:00.001-04:00

Here's a novel idea: Corn Salt! If HFCS can be renamed Corn Sugar, we might as well call fake salt "corn salt" too! Why not have "Corn Everything?!" LMAO Be sure and visit our new blog:
Corn Salt! (http://www.cornsalt.com aka http://corneverything.blogspot.com/)

High Fructose Corn Syrup Up for a New Name | TakePart - Inspiration to Action
www.takepart.com

The Corn Refiners Association (CRA)—the trade organization that champions high fructose corn syrup—announced Tuesday it has applied with the Food and Drug Administration to approve a more innocuous name for what they say is merely "corn sugar."

Come on, people! Do you think we are that gullible???!!!

Let's just go ahead and start naming various spices and food products Corn-Blank. For starters, we'll call pretend salt, "corn salt".

Pharma Not in Business of Health-Healing-Cures-Wellness

2010-09-14T19:25:00.003-04:00

See video from whistleblower who worked for the pharmaceutical industry as she tells us point blank that these companies are in the business of keeping people dependent on drugs - not in the business of healing. That would put them out of business, which doesn't make sense. Big Pharma makes 5 to 6 times more than any other Fortune 500 Industry in the United States. Something must be done to stop the rampant mis-use of drug production and prescription in America!
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=1973F9A094B8A8184CDD0A899DC62BDC

This text will be replaced by the player

Local Farms Could Be Illegal if S510 Passes!

2010-09-08T10:09:00.002-04:00

Outrage in America! S510 Bill must NOT happen. Americans should be able to grow their own food. Small farms should NOT be illegal. GMO's kill. Monsanto and their lobbyists must go! Clarence Thomas must be removed from the supreme court. The FDA and USDA must be investigated. Large corporations are trying to control all the food in America and throughout the world. This must stop! Contact your governor today!

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Fraud: Whole Foods, Rachel Ray, Safeway, Newman's Own, Colavita, Bertolli

2010-09-05T21:31:00.002-04:00

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/720875

Text of post below:

UC-Davis has just published an extensive report on the fraudulent labeling of extra-virgin olive oil. Imported olive oil has been known to often have fraudulent or misleading labels, now certain US brands have been found to be mislabeling their olive oil as well.
"More than two-thirds of common brands of extra-virgin olive oil found in California grocery stores aren't what they claim to be, according to a report by researchers at UC Davis, " said the Los Angeles Times in the story linked to below.

Scroll down to page 10 of the UC-Davis report here for the chart of the various brands.
http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/news-events/news/files/olive%20oil%20final%20071410%20.pdf

The tests to determine extra-vrigin oil (acidity, peroxide level, etc.) are listed and described.
"Lab tests cast doubt on olive oil's virginity"
Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi...
Found to have be fraudulently labeled as Extra-Virgin:
Whole Foods
Rachel Ray
Safeway
Newman's Own
Colavita
Bertolli
Filippo Berio
Pompeian
Star
Carapelli
Mezzetta
Mazzola
Found to be accurately labeled as Extra-Virgin:
Kirkland Organic
Corto Olive
California Olive Ranch
McEvoy Ranch Organic

By maria lorraine on Jul 15, 2010 01:44PM

Educate "ONE", Bill Gates & the World About the Dangers of GMOs

2010-08-27T07:33:00.001-04:00

Thanks to all the readers who are supporting the effort to educate the ONE community and the world about the dangers of GMO Corn and all GMO foods and crops.

Four Paths to Organic Health

2010-08-26T16:50:00.000-04:00

Four Paths to Organic Health

#239, August 26, 2010

Health, Justice and Sustainability News
from the Organic Consumers Association

Edited by Alexis Baden-Mayer and Ronnie Cummins

In this issue:

Four Paths to Organic Health
1. Organic - President's Cancer Panel: Eat Organic
2. Farm Subsidies - Why Is It So Expensive to Eat Healthy?
3. Food Labels - "Warning: Eat This, You'll Get Fat & Sick"
4. Junk Food Taxes - Scientists & USDA Say Taxes Can Cut Obesity
Thanks for Your Support!
Wake Up America: Join the OCA Delegation to the World Climate Summit in Cancun
Video of the Week: Transition Cities
Little Bytes

Connect with us:

Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Read Past Issues | OCA Homepage | Donate

Organics

Four Paths to Organic Health

1. Eat Organic to Avoid Cancer
A landmark report released earlier this year from the President's Cancer Panel, "Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk, What We Can Do Now," recommends eating organic food as a strategy to reduce cancer risk.
Though the "O" word itself is scarce, the authors referenced organic food in everything but name.
"Exposure to pesticides can be decreased by choosing, to the extent possible, food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers Similarly, exposure to antibiotics, growth hormones, and toxic runoff from livestock feed lots can be minimized by eating free-range meat raised without these medications," the report states.
Food produced without antibiotics, hormones, or toxic agrichemicals is, by definition, organic. Certified organic farms are inspected at least once a year and subject to surprise visits to make sure the harmful chemicals and drugs referred to in the President's Cancer Panel report are not being used.

Learn More

TAKE ACTION! If you support going organic as a way to reduce cancer and other diet-related diseases, please sign the Food Agenda 2020 Petition

2. Subsidize Organic - Not GMOs and Junk Food - to Reduce Obesity
Fast-food restaurants charge low prices for "value meals" of hamburgers and french fries because the government provides billions of dollars in subsidies for the genetically engineered corn and soybeans used for animal feed and vegetable oil, says Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the Gillings School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"We have made it more expensive to eat healthy in a very big way," says Dr. Popkin, who has a doctorate in agricultural economics and is the author of a book called The World Is Fat: The Fads, Trends, Policies and Products That Are Fattening the Human Race.
The inflation-adjusted price of a McDonald's quarter-pounder with cheese, for example, fell 5.44 percent from 1990 to 2007, according to an article on the economics of child obesity published in the journal Health Affairs. But the inflation-adjusted price of fruit and vegetables, which are not subject to federal largess, rose 17 percent just from 1997 to 2003, the study said. Cutting agricultural subsidies would have a big impact on people's eating habits, says Dr. Popkin.

Learn more

TAKE ACTION: If you support ending subsidies for GMOs and junk food, please sign the Food Agenda 2020 Petition

3. Truth in Labeling - "Warning: Eat This, You'll Get Fat & Sick"
Full Disclosure of Hidden Dangers
It takes a food chemist to translate the eight-syllable words commonly found on ingredients lists into plain English, but many of the most dangerous substances found in food today are additives, contaminants, or packaging and processing aids that don't get listed on the label, such as Acrylamide, Bisphenol A, and more.

Read Our List of Hidden Dangers

Health Warnings on Junk Food
Leading public health experts around the world are warning that fatty foods should carry official health warnings, similar to those on cigarettes.
The U.K. is instituting front-label nutrition summaries at the insistence of scientists like Professor David Hunter of Durham University who urged:
"The problem of obesity needs to be tackled by strong action from the government. There are many products which contain such high levels of fat and other ingredients that they are contributing to health problems. Rather than banning foods it would be a system of food labeling and working with the food industry to phase these products out. [Removing unhealthy foods from sale] would be in the interests of industry as well. After all, consumers can't keep buying their products if they are unwell or even dead."
- Professor David Hunter, Durham University, Britain

Learn more

TAKE ACTION: If you support truth in labeling, please sign the Food Agenda 2020 Petition

4. Junk Food Taxes - Scientists & USDA Say Taxes Can Cut Obesity
To pay for the enormous public health damage caused by junk food, OCA supports a heavy tax on junk foods and beverages, similar to taxes already in place for toxic tobacco products.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service found that a 20 percent increase in the price of high-calorie, sweetened beverages, such as soda and sports drinks, could result in a decrease in the daily calorie intake of beverages by 37 calories for an average adult and 43 calories for children. That translates into an average reduction of 3.8 pounds over a year for an adult and 4.5 pounds for a child.
Similarly, research published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine estimates that an 18 percent tax on pizza and soda could push down U.S. adults' calorie intake enough to lower their average weight by 5 pounds per year. The researchers concluded that taxes could be used to offset and reduce the health care costs of obesity, estimated $147 billion a year.

Learn More

TAKE ACTION: If you support junk food taxes, please sign the Food Agenda 2020 Petition

Support the OCA!

OCA Needs Your Help to Fight Junk Food and Spread the Organic Revolution

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who has donated to OCA over the past few weeks. We've successfully overcome our summer financial crisis and will be back to full staffing by September. But we still need your donations to fight Monsanto and junk food. We still need your help to relocalize and rebuild local food and farming systems and prevent our climate crisis from metastasizing into full blown climate catastrophe. Please send us a tax-deductible donation today and we'll send you a free "Millions Against Monsanto" bumper sticker so you can help spread the word in your community. Please be sure to put "sticker" in the comments field of your donation.
Any donation $100 and over will get a free t-shirt. Please specify your interest and size in the comments field. Help OCA and spread the word about the Millions Against Monsanto Campaign!
Please consider joining OCA staff on one or both of our 5-6-day delegations to the Global Climate Summit in Cancun, Mexico at the end of November or early December. Details follow below.

PLEASE DONATE

Alert Update

Join the OCA at the Historic Global Climate Summit and Protests in Cancun

In 1999 and 2003, the OCA helped organize protests and teach-ins against the World Trade Organization in Seattle and Cancun. These mobilizations were the coming of age of the global grassroots. Now you have the opportunity to join OCA Director Ronnie Cummins and other OCA staff on an escorted delegation to the historic teach-ins and rallies for climate justice and organic agriculture at the Global Climate Summit in Cancun, Mexico November 29-Dec. 10.
Over 100,000 concerned citizens from North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia are expected to converge on Cancun, including leading farm, food, Fair Trade, climate justice, and anti-GE activists. They'll attend a wide range of workshops, forums, and cultural events. Following up on the theme of the World Social Forum, "Another World is Possible," the emphasis in Cancun will be on presenting organic and green solutions to the climate crisis.
The OCA delegation, limited to 100 people, will include international experts on organic agriculture and climate justice, including OCA Directors Ronnie Cummins and Alexis Baden-Mayer, organic farm leader and author, Will Allen, and author and food activist Jill Richardson.
OCA and our sister network in Mexico, Via Organica, will be hosting two tours:

6-Day Tour: November 29th- December 5th, 2010
5-Day Tour: December 5th-11th, 2010
It is also possible to stay for the entire 11 day event from November 29th through December 11th, 2010.

World famous speakers and activists including Vandana Shiva, James Hansen, Bill McKibben, Pat Mooney, and Maude Barlow are expected to make presentations at the Grassroots Summit, which will take place simultaneously with the global negotiations of leaders from every nation in the world. During the week of teach-ins and protests, November 29th to December 10th, the OCA delegation will be housed in comfortable accommodations in the city of Cancun, near Palapas Park, action center of the grassroots summit.
For more information on pricing and housing options and for updates on scheduled speakers, please visit our webpage.

Video of the Week

Transition Cities on Studio 12 Episode

Public TV Host Tamara Banks takes a look at the Transition Cities movement that is working for a way of life that is environmentally friendly, supports the local economy and conserves natural resources.

Watch

Little Bytes

With Salmonella Recall Expanding to Half a Billion Eggs, it's Time to Rethink 'Efficiency'
READ MORE
A Global Shift to Renewable Energy: But Will it be Fast Enough?
READ MORE
The Iraq Legacy: Tell It Like It Is
READ MORE
Climate Change Policy Ignores Women Farmers
READ MORE
Wide Range of Diseases Linked to Pesticides
READ MORE

LOCAL GA NEWS OF THE WEEK

GA - Get Involved Locally

Learn more about OCA related action alerts and other news in GA here.
Join GA discussion groups in our forum.
Post events in GA on our community calendar.

Message from our Sponsors

Dr. Bronner's is Celebrating Our 60th Anniversary!

Marking the 60th Anniversary of the company, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps is pleased to announce that all classic liquid & bar soaps are now not only certified under the USDA National Organic Program, but also certified Fair Trade! In addition, we are pleased to introduce a revolutionary new range of high-quality organic products, from hair rinses to shaving gels - all certified under the same USDA program that certifies organic foods.
Please visit us on the web at DrBronner.com

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Every issue of Organic Bytes now goes to 250,000 organic consumers with a thousand new subscribers each week. Please help us and your business by letting our subscribers know who you are and that you support the work of the OCA. Please contact us if you want more information! (Note: select "Sponsorship Coordinator" from the dropdown menu)

Please forward this publication to family and friends, place it on web sites,
print it, duplicate it and post it freely. Knowledge is power!

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Fruit & Vegetable Allergies Soaring

2010-08-24T08:49:00.003-04:00

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/05/02/Fruit-and-Vegetable-Allergies-Soaring.aspx

Is Monsanto Responsible for 200,000 Suicides?

2010-08-22T15:21:00.000-04:00

http://www.care2.com/causes/real-food/blog/monsanto-blamed-for-200-000-farmer-suicides/

Super Weeds Put USDA on Hotseat

2010-08-22T14:59:00.002-04:00

http://southeastfarmpress.com/soybeans/super-weeds-put-usda-on-hotseat-0819/

Hairy Teeth in 3rd Generation Off-Spring After GM Soy Consumption!

2010-08-20T18:59:00.000-04:00

I'm reposting this for my cousin, whom I ran into at the hospital today. He's a farmer. We were discussing how farming today is not like it was years ago.

See the side effects of GM Soy in 2nd generation off-spring (in this case, hampsters, with hair growing inside their mouths by the teeth!

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/utility/showArticle/?objectID=4888

Text of article from responsibletechnology.org:

Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality

"This study was just routine," said Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov, in what could end up as the understatement of this century. Surov and his colleagues set out to discover if Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) soy, grown on 91% of US soybean fields, leads to problems in growth or reproduction. What he discovered may uproot a multi-billion dollar industry.

After feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups.

And if this isn't shocking enough, some in the third generation even had hair growing inside their mouths—a phenomenon rarely seen, but apparently more prevalent among hamsters eating GM soy.

The study, jointly conducted by Surov's Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Association for Gene Security, is expected to be published in three months (July 2010)—so the technical details will have to wait. But Surov sketched out the basic set up for me in an email.

He used Campbell hamsters, with a fast reproduction rate, divided into 4 groups. All were fed a normal diet, but one was without any soy, another had non-GM soy, a third used GM soy, and a fourth contained higher amounts of GM soy. They used 5 pairs of hamsters per group, each of which produced 7-8 litters, totally 140 animals.

Surov told The Voice of Russia,

"Originally, everything went smoothly. However, we noticed quite a serious effect when we selected new pairs from their cubs and continued to feed them as before. These pairs' growth rate was slower and reached their sexual maturity slowly."

He selected new pairs from each group, which generated another 39 litters. There were 52 pups born to the control group and 78 to the non-GM soy group. In the GM soy group, however, only 40 pups were born. And of these, 25% died. This was a fivefold higher death rate than the 5% seen among the controls. Of the hamsters that ate high GM soy content, only a single female hamster gave birth. She had 16 pups; about 20% died.

Surov said "The low numbers in F2 [third generation] showed that many animals were sterile."

The published paper will also include measurements of organ size for the third generation animals, including testes, spleen, uterus, etc. And if the team can raise sufficient funds, they will also analyze hormone levels in collected blood samples.

Hair Growing in the Mouth

Earlier this year, Surov co-authored a paper in Doklady Biological Sciences showing that in rare instances, hair grows inside recessed pouches in the mouths of hamsters.

"Some of these pouches contained single hairs; others, thick bundles of colorless or pigmented hairs reaching as high as the chewing surface of the teeth. Sometimes, the tooth row was surrounded with a regular brush of hair bundles on both sides. The hairs grew vertically and had sharp ends, often covered with lumps of a mucous."

Rat Study Oral Hair

“(a) The external appearance of the oral cavity. Gingival pouches (GP) with thick bundles of hair growing from their mucous lining are clearly seen. (b) Perforated bone tissue of the teeth of an adult Ph. campbelli. Numerous hollows are seen. A, hair.”

From A. S. Baranov, O. F. Chernova, N. Yu. Feoktistova, and A. V. Surov, “A New Example of Ectopia: Oral Hair in Some Rodent Species,” Doklady Biological Sciences, 2010, Vol. 431, pp. 117–120, Original Russian Text © A.S. Baranov, O.F. Chernova, N.Yu. Feoktistova, A.V. Surov, 2010, published in Doklady Akademii Nauk, 2010, Vol. 431, No. 4, pp. 559–562.

At the conclusion of the study, the authors surmise that such an astounding defect may be due to the diet of hamsters raised in the laboratory. They write, "This pathology may be exacerbated by elements of the food that are absent in natural food, such as genetically modified (GM) ingredients (GM soybean or maize meal) or contaminants (pesticides, mycotoxins, heavy metals, etc.)." Indeed, the number of hairy mouthed hamsters was much higher among the third generation of GM soy fed animals than anywhere Surov had seen before.

Preliminary, But Ominous

Surov warns against jumping to early conclusions. He said, "It is quite possible that the GMO does not cause these effects by itself." Surov wants to make the analysis of the feed components a priority, to discover just what is causing the effect and how.

In addition to the GMOs, it could be contaminants, he said, or higher herbicide residues, such as Roundup. There is in fact much higher levels of Roundup on these beans; they're called "Roundup Ready." Bacterial genes are forced into their DNA so that the plants can tolerate Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. Therefore, GM soy always carries the double threat of higher herbicide content, couple with any side effects of genetic engineering.

Years of Reproductive Disorders from GMO-Feed

Rats photo #1Surov's hamsters are just the latest animals to suffer from reproductive disorders after consuming GMOs. In 2005, Irina Ermakova, also with the Russian National Academy of Sciences, reported that more than half the babies from mother rats fed GM soy died within three weeks. This was also five times higher than the 10% death rate of the non-GMO soy group. The babies in the GM group were also smaller (see photo) and could not reproduce.

In a telling coincidence, after Ermakova's feeding trials, her laboratory started feeding all the rats in the facility a commercial rat chow using GM soy. Within two months, the infant mortality facility-wide reached 55%.

When Ermakova fed male rats GM soy, their testicles changed from the normal pink to dark blue!

Image - Rat testicles cells - large

Italian scientists similarly found changes in mice testes (PDF), including damaged young sperm cells. Furthermore, the DNA of embryos from parent mice fed GM soy functioned differently.

An Austrian government study published in November 2008 showed that the more GM corn was fed to mice, the fewer the babies they had (PDF), and the smaller the babies were.

Central Iowa Farmer Jerry Rosman also had trouble with pigs and cows becoming sterile. Some of his pigs even had false pregnancies or gave birth to bags of water. After months of investigations and testing, he finally traced the problem to GM corn feed. Every time a newspaper, magazine, or TV show reported Jerry's problems, he would receive calls from more farmers complaining of livestock sterility on their farm, linked to GM corn.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine accidentally discovered that rats raised on corncob bedding "neither breed nor exhibit reproductive behavior." Tests on the corn material revealed two compounds that stopped the sexual cycle in females "at concentrations approximately two-hundredfold lower than classical phytoestrogens." One compound also curtailed male sexual behavior and both substances contributed to the growth of breast and prostate cancer cell cultures. Researchers found that the amount of the substances varied with GM corn varieties. The crushed corncob used at Baylor was likely shipped from central Iowa, near the farm of Jerry Rosman and others complaining of sterile livestock.

In Haryana, India, a team of investigating veterinarians report that buffalo consuming GM cottonseed suffer from infertility, as well as frequent abortions, premature deliveries, and prolapsed uteruses. Many adult and young buffalo have also died mysteriously.

Denial, Attack and Canceled Follow-up

Scientists who discover adverse findings from GMOs are regularly attacked, ridiculed, denied funding, and even fired. When Ermakova reported the high infant mortality among GM soy fed offspring, for example, she appealed to the scientific community to repeat and verify her preliminary results. She also sought additional funds to analyze preserved organs. Instead, she was attacked and vilified. Samples were stolen from her lab, papers were burnt on her desk, and she said that her boss, under pressure from his boss, told her to stop doing any more GMO research. No one has yet repeated Ermakova's simple, inexpensive studies.

In an attempt to offer her sympathy, one of her colleagues suggested that maybe the GM soy will solve the over population problem!

Surov reports that so far, he has not been under any pressure.

Opting Out of the Massive GMO Feeding Experiment

Without detailed tests, no one can pinpoint exactly what is causing the reproductive travesties in Russian hamsters and rats, Italian and Austrian mice, and livestock in India and America. And we can only speculate about the relationship between the introduction of genetically modified foods in 1996, and the corresponding upsurge in low birth weight babies, infertility, and other problems among the US population. But many scientists, physicians, and concerned citizens don't think that the public should remain the lab animals for the biotech industry's massive uncontrolled experiment.

Alexey Surov says, "We have no right to use GMOs until we understand the possible adverse effects, not only to ourselves but to future generations as well. We definitely need fully detailed studies to clarify this. Any type of contamination has to be tested before we consume it, and GMO is just one of them."

Eat safely! Get the Non-GMO Shopping Guide >

Female Infants Growing Breasts!

2010-08-10T21:49:00.003-04:00

Female Infants Growing Breasts: Another Disaster From Hormones in Milk Production

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-robbins/female-infants-growing-br_b_676402.html

Excerpt: "... The problem was traced, and found to stem from the misuse of hormones in dairy cows. When Dr. Saenz was asked how she could be certain the babies and children were contaminated with hormones from milk rather than from some other source, she replied simply: "When we take our young patients off... fresh milk, their symptoms usually regress."

Along with China, the U.S. is today one of the few countries in the world that still allows bovine growth hormones to be injected into dairy cows. Though banned in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe, the use of these hormones in U.S. dairy is not only legal, it's routine in all 50 states.

The U.S. dairy industry assures us that this is not a problem. [???] But there is a very real problem, and its name is Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1). Monsanto's own studies, as well as those of Eli Lilly & Co., have found a 10-fold increase in IGF-1 levels in the milk of cows who have been injected with bovine growth hormone (BGH).

Why is that a problem? A report by the European Commission's authoritative international 16-member scientific committee not only confirmed that excessive levels of IGF-1 are always found in the milk of cows injected with BGH. It also concluded that excess levels of IGF-1 pose serious risks of breast, colon and prostate cancer.

How serious is the increased risk? According to an article in the May 9, 1998 issue of the medical journal The Lancet, women with even a relatively small increase in blood levels of IGF-1 are up to seven times more likely to develop breast cancer than women with lower levels.

IGF-1 that is consumed by human beings in dairy products is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream. It isn't destroyed by human digestion. And pasteurization is no help. In fact, the pasteurization process actually increases IGF-1 levels in milk.

Shocking Information on Aspartame - Dangerous Neurotoxin!

2010-07-31T08:53:00.000-04:00

Shocking Information on Aspartame - One of the Most Dangerous Neurotoxins Used Daily Since its Approval in 1981 - "World's Worst Research" included falsified reports from lab animals with tumors and death after consumption of chemicals found in MSG, Aspartame, etc.

Evidence indicates aspartame is linked to:

Spikes in brain neurological and brain disorders since 1983
Increased seizures in patients who had consumed aspartame

This video exposes what is considered the "World's Worst Research" which included false reports on lab animals with tumors and death from consumption of chemicals used in msg and aspartame - a huge coverup deemed criminal by the FDA but unprosecuted due to statute of limitations! Now how is it this organization cannot have better controls over their approval process?! And we're consuming this toxic sweetner every day in gallons of diet soda, and other products.

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7443860471353432030

Farmers Speak: Bust Up Big Ag

2010-07-26T20:30:00.002-04:00

Farmers from different states speak out, including the President of the National President of the American National Raw Milk Pricing Association, Joel Grenaw of Kendall, Wisconsin.

New NonGmo Bumper Sticker Available

2010-07-25T17:14:00.005-04:00

Click on the photo to view bumper sticker details or order.

Also see video about the effects of fluoride on the pineal gland.
For more information on fluoride, visit:
http://fluoridenetwork.org or http://fluoridealert.org

4 More Congress Members Co-sponsor HR5577

2010-07-22T22:07:00.002-04:00

Via "Millions Against Monsanto": GOOD NEWS - FOUR more Congressmembers have signed on as Co-Sponsors to HR 5577 The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act: Rep Lowey (NY), Rep Hinchey (NY), Rep Maloney (NY) and Rep Sanchez (CA). Please thank them and continue to contact your reps who haven't signed on yet!!!
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-5577

Letter From Oregon Congressman, Peter Defazio

2010-07-22T21:42:00.002-04:00

The following is a copy of the letter Congressman, Peter Defazio of Oregon wrote to the mother of one of our friends about the concerns about genetically engineered foods. Please take a moment to write to him and thank him. He is looking out for Oregon as well as the rest of us.

Dear Ms. Allen: Thank you for contacting me with concerns about genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa. I completely agree with you and appreciate you writing on this issue. You will be happy to know that I recently wrote a letter to USDA Secretary Vilsack, in which Senator Leahy (D-VT) and 56 of my colleagues joined me in asking that USDA ... See Moreprohibit the use of GE alfalfa. I have long stood up against GE products, particularly during the creation of the national standards for the National Organic Program, which I helped establish. There are numerous reasons to believe that GE contamination will occur among non-GE alfalfa crops and result in significant economic harm to the alfalfa seed and hay export markets and to the organic and conventional dairy industries. Alfalfa seed growers are particularly at risk, and the Pacific Northwest grows more alfalfa seed than anywhere in the country. USDA's recent draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for GE alfalfa concluded that deregulation of GE alfalfa would have "no significant impact". However, the public comment period of USDA's DEIS received more than 200,000 comments, most of which argued that the USDA findings were grossly inaccurate. Alfalfa is the main feed for dairy cows, so deregulated GE alfalfa that contaminates conventional alfalfa would tremendously impact the dairy industry, especially organic dairy industry which is approximately a $1.4 billion industry. American consumers today expect the USDA certified organic seal to represent products free of GE contamination. If the USDA organic seal no longer represents a GE-free product because of unintended contamination, the integrity of the entire organic industry will be compromised. Furthermore, if farmers are unable to source adequate organic feed and forage, they will not be able to produce organic milk.It is important to point out that concerns with GE alfalfa contamination are not just related to the organic industry. Conventional alfalfa growers rely heavily on the export market and have real reason to worry about those markets drying up if GE alfalfa is deregulated. According to the Foreign Agriculture Service at USDA, conventional alfalfa producers could lose at least $197 million in alfalfa seed and forage exports as a result of GE alfalfa deregulation. The largest alfalfa export markets are to GE sensitive countries, which have restrictions against importing GE contaminated crops. Further, Roundup is often used to kill stands between growing seasons, and Roundup tolerant seeds would lead to conventional growers using larger quantities of more expensive pesticides. You can be sure that I will continue to stand up for the organic industry. I appreciate you contacting me and I encourage you to be in touch in the future.

ABC Reports: "Crop Safety A Little Seedy"

2010-07-22T20:45:00.002-04:00

There you have it - straight from the headlines. It's about time...

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2961156.htm

Rice farmer is awarded $500,000 in case over crop contamination

2010-07-22T20:32:00.000-04:00

Rice farmer is awarded $500,000 in case over crop contamination

Fluoride - The Truth!

2010-07-20T20:31:00.001-04:00

What you didn't know about fluoride in your water may shock you! Did you know fluoride comes from industrial waste?

http://gmofreeworld.blogspot.com/p/flouride-truth.html

Don't Forget to Vote Today! Where does your candidate stand on GMOs?

2010-07-20T11:54:00.006-04:00

Today is election day for some of the primaries. We contacted several elected officials and politicians currently seeking public office in Georgia to find out their position on GMOs. Below are the ones we have heard from:

Candidate Darwin Carter - Running for GA Agriculture Commissioner

"I think the more we engineered things we put in our food the worse it is for us. I think each school system should buy local, if possible and at least state wide local. I think our state government should... only buy local. Give me a call if you would like to talk."

http://ww.examiner.com/x-38352-Paulding-County-Republican-Examiner~y2010m7d19-Conservative-Candidate-Darwin-Carter-receives-Cobb-County-Conservative-Activists-endorsement

Senator Saxby Chamblis
Mr. Chambliss responded to our inquiry. He, on the other hand, is pro-gmo and does not support mandatory labeling of gmo foods. We find this very discouraging.

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*We know GM crops have NOT been thoroughly tested before entering human food supply, and we have evidence showing the dangers of these crops. Unfortunately, we cannot rely on some of our current elected officials to look out for our best interests and must commit to supporting and electing leaders who will.

Tainted Cereal Exposes Soggy Food-Safety System

2010-07-17T20:10:00.002-04:00

More unsettling facts unravel as Food Safety questions loom

http://www.grist.org/article/food-kelloggs-froot-loops-recall/

GMOs Contaminate Crops Worldwide - Organic Farmers Penalized!

2010-07-11T23:21:00.005-04:00

GMOs Contaminate Crops Worldwide - Organic Farmers Penalized
Reposting from http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com

Attack of the Mutant Rice

2010-07-11T22:59:00.001-04:00

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/07/09/100122123/index.htm
(from July 2, 2007 - CNNMoney.com)

Attack of the mutant rice

America's rice farmers didn't want to grow a genetically engineered crop. Their customers in Europe did not want to buy it. So how did it end up in our food? Fortune's Marc Gunther reports.

By Marc Gunther, Fortune senior writer

July 2 2007: 3:56 PM EDT

(Fortune Magazine) -- Back in the spring of 2001, a 64-year-old Texas rice farmer named Jacko Garrett watched a fleet of 18-wheelers haul away truckloads of rice that he had grown with great care. "It just bothers me so bad," Garrett said. "I'm sitting here trying to find food to feed people, and I've got to bury five million pounds of rice." No one likes to waste food, but for Garrett, who runs a charity that collects rice for the needy, the pain was especially acute.

Garrett's rice was genetically modified, part of an experiment that was brought to an abrupt halt by its sponsor, a North Carolina-based biotechnology company called Aventis Crop Science. The company had contracted with a handful of farmers to grow the rice, which was known as Liberty Link because its genes had been altered to resist a weed killer called Liberty, also made by Aventis.

But by 2001, Aventis Crop Science was living a biotech nightmare. Another one of its creations, a variety of genetically modified corn known as StarLink, had been discovered in taco shells made by Kraft. Because the StarLink corn had been approved as animal feed - and not for human consumption - all hell broke loose.

Hundreds of corn products were recalled. Consumers and farmers sued. Greenpeace dumped bags of corn in front of federal regulatory agencies, and an Environmental Protection Agency official accused Aventis Crop Science of breaking the law. So shell-shocked was Aventis SA (Charts), the French pharmaceutical giant that owned Aventis Crop Science, that it decided to sell the U.S. biotech unit and abandon the very emotional business of reengineering the foods we eat.

So dumping the Texas rice was a no-brainer. "We didn't want to take any chances," says a former Aventis executive. "We burned and buried enough rice to feed 20 million people."

Eventually Aventis paid about $120 million to settle the StarLink lawsuits. It sold its crop science unit to Bayer (Charts), the German drug giant that makes aspirin, Aleve and Alka-Seltzer. Bayer Crop Science dropped plans to bring Liberty Link rice to market, largely because rice grown in the U.S. is exported to Europe and other places that don't want genetically modified foods. And everyone forgot about Jacko Garrett's rice.

Can you guess where this is going? Yep. In January 2006, small amounts of genetically engineered rice turned up in a shipment that was tested - we don't know why - by a French customer of Riceland Foods, a big rice mill based in Stuttgart, Ark. Because no transgenic rice is grown commercially in the U.S., the people at Riceland were stunned. At first they figured that the test was a mistake or that tiny bits of genetically modified corn or soybeans had somehow gotten mixed up with rice during shipping. They said nothing.

Then came another shock. Testing revealed that the genetically modified rice contained a strain of Liberty Link that had not been approved for human consumption. What's more, trace amounts of the Liberty Link had mysteriously made their way into the commercial rice supply in all five of the Southern states where long-grain rice is grown: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri. Bayer and Riceland then informed the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which announced the contamination last August.

By then the tainted rice was everywhere. If in the past year or so you or your family ate Uncle Ben's, Rice Krispies, or Gerber's, or drank a Budweiser - Anheuser-Busch (Charts, Fortune 500) is America's biggest buyer of rice - you probably ingested a little bit of Liberty Link, with the unapproved gene. (A very little bit - perhaps ten to 15 grains of transgenic rice in a one-pound bag of rice, which contains about 29,000 grains.)

Last November, over the howls of anti-GMO (that's genetically modified organisms) activists, the USDA retroactively approved the Liberty Link rice, known as LL601. The department said the genes that it approved are similar to those inserted for years into canola and corn, with no apparent ill effects. The experts at the USDA, the EPA and the Food and Drug Administration, all of which bear some responsibility for regulating transgenic food, say the contamination is nothing to worry about.

Then again, the experts also have dismissed repeated warnings that genetically modified crops can't be managed or controlled. When organic farmers worried that their fields could be invaded by genetically modified plants grown nearby, regulators told them there was nothing to fear. The biotech industry promised that experimental, gene-altered plants could be grown in open fields and never, ever end up in the neighborhood Safeway.

Oops.

In any event, after last year's contamination became public, and after rice prices took a tumble, and after Europe said it no longer wanted any American rice, and after several other countries, including Japan and Iraq (!), demanded rigorous testing of U.S. rice, the industry moved to contain the damage.

Rice growers were told not to plant Cheniere, a popular seed variety that had been tainted by Liberty Link genes. Regulators set up a comprehensive testing program to keep future harvests clean. Last December, Bruce Knight, a USDA official, assured worried rice farmers, "The good news is that the only foundation seed to test positive for Liberty Link was of a single variety - 2003 Cheniere."

And then ... the tests that had been put in place uncovered a second contamination, and then a third, involving new, unapproved strains of Liberty Link, which turned up in another popular variety of rice seed, called Clearfield 131 (CL131). This seed variety is made by the German chemical giant BASF Corp. So the CL131 seed had to be banned as well.

Yes, it's the attack of the mutant rice, and it's spreading.

The industry takes a hit

"This is a new kind of pollution," says Andrew Kimbrell, director of a Washington advocacy group called the Center for Food Safety, which opposes transgenic food. "You don't see it. It disseminates. It reproduces. It mutates. It's living pollution."

And here's the thing that really bugs many of America's 8,000 rice farmers: They didn't want to grow transgenic rice. It's not that they object to genetic engineering per se; many of them grow transgenic corn or soybeans alongside their conventional rice. Over the past decade, in fact, biotech crops have become staples of the American diet; about 60 to 70 percent of the processed foods in U.S. grocery stores contains oils or ingredients derived from biotech corn and soybeans, according to BIO, an industry group.

Nevertheless, an acrimonious debate about whether biotech food is safe for the environment and human health rages on amid considerable scientific uncertainty. Absent firm proof of danger, regulators in the U.S. have chosen to permit widespread bioengineering. But rice farmers know their market. About half of the U.S. rice crop, which was worth about $1.9 billion last year, is exported, and Europeans and Asian consumers simply don't want genetically engineered food.

"If I can't sell it, I don't want to grow it," says Jennifer James, who grows rice, wheat and soybeans, some of them transgenic, on a 7,500-acre farm near Newport, Ark.

And so the farmers are hiring lawyers and calling their congressmen and trying to decide whom to blame: Bayer Crop Science, which owns Liberty Link and is the target of dozens of lawsuits, or the U.S. government, which regulates agricultural biotechnology, or the Europeans, for their opposition to genetically modified crops, which many farmers suspect is a form of protectionism. (Funny, isn't it - European consumers won't buy genetically modified food, but French, Swiss and German drug companies sell biotechnology to U.S. farmers.)

Some farmers point the finger at environmental groups like Greenpeace for scaring people with their talk of Frankenfoods. Says James, who has decided not to sue: "Somebody screwed up somewhere."

Collectively, farmers and seed companies have lost hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of the contamination. Its origins remain a mystery. "This is the most traumatic thing I've seen in the rice industry in 30 years," says Darryl Little, the widely respected director of the Arkansas State Plant Board, who has tried to clean up the mess. "It's been devastating."

And not just to the farmers. Consider the plight of Scott Deeter, the chief executive of a Sacramento biotech firm called Ventria Bioscience. Ventria wants to grow rice that has been genetically engineered to produce proteins that can then be extracted and turned into low-cost treatments for diarrhea. Making the drugs by growing transgenic rice is cheaper than producing them in a lab. "The rice plant is just the factory," Deeter says.

Ventria's medicine would save lives, Deeter says. About 1.8 million children in poor countries die annually from diarrhea. The disease raises national security issues as well, Deeter told a congressional subcommittee. "During Operation Iraqi Freedom, 70 percent of deployed troops suffered a diarrheal attack," he testified. "This is a silent enemy attacking American troops."

Even before the Liberty Link brouhaha, Ventria struggled to find a home for its "pharma rice." California told the company not to grow it in the state after farmers objected. So did Missouri, after Anheuser-Busch threatened to stop buying Missouri rice if Ventria was allowed to grow there. (AB did not want diarrhea-fighting proteins to turn up in a Bud.) Last year Deeter took his plans for rice fields and a production plant to Junction City, a small Kansas town more than 200 miles away from the nearest rice farm.

That's not far enough to satisfy critics. The USA Rice Federation, an industry group, opposed Ventria's plans. Citing Liberty Link, the group said it does not believe that the USDA can protect "the environment and the public's food and feed supply from unwanted intrusions of genetically engineered materials."

"We're not anti-biotech, and we're not anti-Ventria," says Bob Cummings, the federation's senior vice president. "Our job is to protect our industry."

Farmers fight back

"HAVE A RICE DAY." So says the USA Rice Federation, which wants people to eat more rice. Check out the recipes on its Web site for Senegalese peanut soup with spicy rice timbales; walnut rice with cream cheese, mushrooms and spinach; and chocolate-chip banana nut rice pudding. Yum.

Alas, these items are not on the menu at the Little Chef restaurant in Stuttgart, Ark., where Fortune and a group of rice growers recently discussed the industry's woes over a lunch of chicken-fried steak, vegetables and you-know-what. Arkansas grows about 45 percent of the nation's rice crop, and America's two biggest rice mills, Riceland Foods and Producer's Rice Mill, are headquartered in Stuttgart, a town of 10,000 people that bills itself as the Rice and Duck Capital of the World. Rice plants and ducks both like water.

Although they can't prove it, the farmers believe that rice prices are lower than they would be because of the Liberty Link problems. After the contamination was made public by the USDA on Aug. 18, 2006, the price of rice futures fell by about 10 percent. Prices have recovered since then, but farmers say they should be higher given the rising prices for other farm commodities.

Currently, rough (meaning unrefined) rice sells for about $10.70 per hundredweight, or 100 pounds. "Rice could have been $1 a hundredweight more, and every farmer needs that," says Ray Vester, who farms about 1,300 acres in Stuttgart and sits on the state plant board. Rice farmers have been hard hit by rising energy and fertilizer costs, so they are feeling squeezed.

Farmers who planned to use either Cheniere or CL131 seed had an additional problem. They had to scramble to find alternatives or plant other crops. About 40 percent of the rice acreage in Arkansas would have been planted with either Cheniere or CL131 until both were banned, according to Chuck Wilson, a rice specialist with the University of Arkansas cooperative extension service in Stuttgart. Wilson expects Arkansas growers to plant 1.2 million acres of rice this year, 13 percent less than last year and the lowest acreage since 1996.

Hardest hit was a small group of farmers who specialize in growing rice for seed and were unable to sell their stocks of Cheniere or CL131 to other farmers. "We had to put seals on the bins. We couldn't ship it. We couldn't plant it," said Troy Hornbeck, an owner of HBK Seed in Dewitt, Ark. He was eventually permitted to sell the transgenic rice for consumption, not for planting, at a loss.

Ten seed dealers from Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana recently sued Bayer, saying the company's carelessness ruined their seed. Rival BASF, which lost an estimated $15 million because it owns the banned Clearfield 131 variety, hasn't said whether it will sue, but its executives are unhappy. "We can't have an unwanted GM event floating around the seed supply," said one.

Many other lawsuits have been filed. Tilda, a British importer of rice, has sued Bayer Crop Science, Riceland Foods and Producer's Rice Mill, saying it had to destroy or send back Arkansas rice.

A Chicago tort lawyer named Adam Levitt has been named a lead counsel in a federal lawsuit brought on behalf of more than 400 rice growers. Not by coincidence, Levitt represented corn farmers who successfully sued Aventis Crop Science, Bayer's predecessor, over StarLink. Says Levitt: "Bayer knew Liberty Link rice could easily contaminate the rice supply, because Bayer contaminated the U.S. corn supply only a few years ago."

Bayer says the company complied fully with the law. In a legal filing, its lawyers speculated that the alleged damages were caused by an "act of God."

What went wrong?

So it's God's fault? That's about as good an answer as we've got right now to the question of what went wrong.

The USDA's Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has been investigating since last summer, but the agency won't say what it has learned. In a sense, APHIS is investigating itself. Its track record, frankly, is a little scary.

In 2005 the USDA's inspector general said that APHIS, which regulates field tests of biotech foods, didn't know the location of some field trials, did no independent testing of nearby crops and did not even require submission of written protocols by some biotech firms, leaving the industry to, in effect, monitor itself.

The audit concluded: "APHIS' current regulations, policies and procedures do not go far enough to ensure the safe introduction of agricultural biotechnology." APHIS says it has fixed the problems. "We regulate technology that's constantly changing, and our policies continue to evolve," John Turner, an agency official, told Fortune.

As it turns out, it's unlikely that Jacko Garrett's Texas rice escaped from the landfill to live another day. He grew a different variety of Liberty Link from the one that got into the Cheniere seed. Instead, the source of the contamination is probably a rice research station in Crowley, La., operated by Louisiana State University. The LSU fields appear to be among the very few places - if not the only one - where the Liberty Link rice was grown in proximity to fields where Cheniere and CL131 seeds were also being developed.

The LSU rice-breeding station is run by a man named Steve Linscombe, one of the most admired men in the U.S. rice industry. Linscombe, who is 52, has devoted his entire career to developing rice-seed varieties that improve yields and resist pests or herbicides. "He has put millions of dollars into the pockets of rice farmers," says Darryl Little, the Arkansas regulator. "He's a premier breeder."

Because Linscombe understood the risks of mixing transgenic rice seed with conventional varieties, he took extra precautions when working with Liberty Link. To prevent pollen or stray kernels of rice from migrating, USDA rules recommend at least a ten-foot buffer zone around transgenic field tests. LSU's contract with Bayer called for a 30-foot isolation zone. Linscombe created buffer zones of at least 120 feet. Until now, no one thought rice pollen could travel that far.

"I did as much isolation as I possibly could," Linscombe said. So what happened? "I have been dealing with this for nine months, and I still can't give you a definitive answer," he said. Wilson, the University of Arkansas rice specialist, says, "I think we've learned some things about rice, biologically, that we didn't know before."

Whether the USDA has learned is another question. In May the agency granted Ventria's application to grow its pharma rice on up to 3,200 acres in Kansas. The agency had received 20,000 comments (most by e-mail clicks) opposing the plan from citizens, activists, farmers and rice industry groups.

Deeter, Ventria's CEO, says there's no chance that the pharma rice will find its way into the food supply, as Liberty Link did: "We're more strictly regulated, by a factor of ten - not for any good reason, by the way."

In the USDA ruling, Rebecca Bech, an APHIS administrator, wrote, "The combination of isolation distance, production practices, and rice biology make it extremely unlikely that this rice would impact the U.S. commercial rice supply."

In other words, there's nothing - nothing at all - to fear.

Window Farms Project - Think Outside the Box!

2010-07-10T10:38:00.003-04:00

This is a really cool way to grow your own food indoors and could probably be done just about anywhere in the world and potentially solve the "world food hunger" issue - WITHOUT GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOOD!

Autism Cover Up by FDA Exposed

2010-07-10T10:04:00.003-04:00

Interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reveals explosive cover up by FDA and the relationship between thermerasol in vaccines and autism in children. Note the surge in autism cases after the FDA gave the green light in 1989 for increased usage of these vaccines. It is becoming more evident the FDA has been reluctant in recent years to cooperate in removing this dangerous ingredient from vaccines or admit the autism connection in an effort to cover their tracks at the expense of children!

Report on Agave - Is It Good or Bad For You?

2010-07-10T09:29:00.005-04:00

There are some very confusing reports and opinions on the health effects of agave as a sweetner lately. Many nutrionists claim agave is the way to go while one of our most respected resources will advise caution when considering agave. For a detailed explanation on these findings, the following report from the owner of Gnosis Chocolate describes how most forms of agave are potentially worse than high fructose corn syrup, but when processed correctly, agave can be a great alternative to sugar and other sweetners.

http://www.gnosischocolate.com/agave-report/

*Disclaimer - This site does not receive compensation from either resource mentioned in these reports. We respect the opinions of both Dr. Mercola, (osteopathetic physician and best-selling author) and Vanessa Barg (President and Raw Chocolatier of Gnosis Chocolate). Our intent is to provide informative resources for you to make an educated and informed choice in your health and nutrition - especially in an effort to avoid genetically modified organisms.

Study Confirms Three Monsanto Corn Varieties' Noxiousness to the Organism

2010-07-10T08:29:00.002-04:00

Study Proves Three Monsanto Corn Varieties' Noxiousness to the Organism
Published on 12-27-2009

A study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences demonstrates the toxicity of three genetically modified corn varieties from the American seed company Monsanto, the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (Criigen, based in Caen), which participated in that study, announced Friday, December 11 [2009].

"For the first time in the world, we've proven that GMO are neither sufficiently healthy nor proper to be commercialized. [...] Each time, for all three GMOs, the kidneys and liver, which are the main organs that react to a chemical food poisoning, had problems," indicated Gilles-Eric Séralini, an expert member of the Commission for Biotechnology Reevaluation, created by the EU in 2008.

Caen and Rouen University researchers, as well as Criigen researchers, based their analyses on the data supplied by Monsanto to health authorities to obtain the green light for commercialization, but they draw different conclusions after new statistical calculations. According to Professor Séralini, the health authorities based themselves on a reading of the conclusions Monsanto has presented and not on conclusions drawn from the totality of the data. The researchers were able to obtain complete documentation following a legal decision.

"Monsanto's tests, effected over 90 days, are obviously not of sufficient duration to be able to say whether chronic illnesses are caused. That's why we ask for tests over a period of at least two years," explained one researcher. Consequently, the scientists demand a "firm prohibition" on the importation and cultivation of these GMOs.

These three GMOs (MON810, MON863 and NK603) "are approved for human and animal consumption in the EU and especially the United States," notes Professor Séralini. "MON810 is the only one of the three grown in certain EU countries (especially Spain); the others are imported," he adds. A meeting of EU ministers over MON810 and NK603 is scheduled Monday

Translation: Truthout French Language Editor Leslie Thatcher.

http://blacklistednews.com/?news_id=6817

Source: Le Monde with AFP

References
http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm

GMO Truth Alliance - Research Articles Section: http://www.facebook.com/GMOTruth#!/topic.php?uid=97259066994&topic=11843

Good resourse explaining GMOs in a nutshell - for those new to the GMO Free movement: http://www.raw-wisdom.com/50harmful.

Three Waterville Wheat Growers Ban Together Against GMO Wheat

2010-07-07T22:48:00.002-04:00

This article from December sheds some light on GMO's next target - the wheat industry. Some wheat growers aren't taking this lying down!
http://www.capitalpress.com/results/djw-GMOwheat-121809

GMO-Free Buttons

2010-07-05T19:38:00.004-04:00

Buttons now available to share your message!

http://www.zazzle.com/gmo_free_button-145013109330910874

Skillet Pizza - Trick to Keep Crust from Burning

2010-07-05T14:48:00.011-04:00

Skillet Pizza - Trick to prevent crust from burning

If you are like some of us who have to improvise from time to time, like when we don't have a working oven, you may find yourself cooking some things on the stove top or electric skillet. However, when making skillet pizza, as I like to call it, you may find yourself facing the dilemma of how to keep the crust from burning while the rest of the pizza gets good and done. Here is a little trick I thought of at the last minute today when I decided to add some fresh onions and garlic... After your pizza has been in the skillet long enough for the bottom of the crust to turn a light, golden brown, remove the pizza for a moment, place a layer of thickly-sliced onions in the bottom of the skillet, and place the pizza back in the skillet on top of the onions. The onions will serve as an edible cooking rack and can be used as a topping when done. Now, cover the pizza with a lid to keep the heat in and continue cooking until toppings are melted and crust is done.

*Side Note: Of course, at times, you may find yourself too busy to deal with making a pizza entirely from scratch. If you MUST opt for a frozen pizza, Amy's is one that is GMO-Free! (Notice the little green logo on the front of the box?! This is the kind of thing you want to look for when shopping for any packaged GMO-Free foods in the grocery store.) The above pizza is Amy's Margherita Style pizza. I personally like a thinner crust, especially if making pizza on the stove top or in an electric skillet. But it's nice to know we have healthy options.

The Cost of Corn-Fed Cattle

2010-07-05T08:45:00.001-04:00

We can boycott Mars, M&M, Hershey, but they still find ways to get that junk into our food supply. If they don't sell the candy, they use it as cow fodder. This GM conspiracy monster must be stopped and NOW!

The Cost of Corn-Fed Cattle

Chicken Industry

2010-07-04T13:51:00.004-04:00

Interesting video on the chicken industry.

http://www.chickenindustry.com/cfi/videogallery/

Monsanto Stocks Sinking Fast!

2010-07-01T23:57:00.002-04:00

"Investers should cut their losses...."

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2010/06/30/monsanto-getting-lost-in-the-weeds/

Hairy Teeth in 3rd Generation Off-Spring After GM Soy Consumption

2010-07-01T00:59:00.008-04:00

This was posted a little while back... thought you might like to see the side effects of GM Soy in 2nd generation off-spring (in this case, hampsters, with hair growing inside their mouths by the teeth!

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/utility/showArticle/?objectID=4888

Text of article from responsibletechnology.org:

Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality

"This study was just routine," said Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov, in what could end up as the understatement of this century. Surov and his colleagues set out to discover if Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) soy, grown on 91% of US soybean fields, leads to problems in growth or reproduction. What he discovered may uproot a multi-billion dollar industry.

After feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups.

And if this isn't shocking enough, some in the third generation even had hair growing inside their mouths—a phenomenon rarely seen, but apparently more prevalent among hamsters eating GM soy.

The study, jointly conducted by Surov's Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Association for Gene Security, is expected to be published in three months (July 2010)—so the technical details will have to wait. But Surov sketched out the basic set up for me in an email.

He used Campbell hamsters, with a fast reproduction rate, divided into 4 groups. All were fed a normal diet, but one was without any soy, another had non-GM soy, a third used GM soy, and a fourth contained higher amounts of GM soy. They used 5 pairs of hamsters per group, each of which produced 7-8 litters, totally 140 animals.

Surov told The Voice of Russia,

"Originally, everything went smoothly. However, we noticed quite a serious effect when we selected new pairs from their cubs and continued to feed them as before. These pairs' growth rate was slower and reached their sexual maturity slowly."

He selected new pairs from each group, which generated another 39 litters. There were 52 pups born to the control group and 78 to the non-GM soy group. In the GM soy group, however, only 40 pups were born. And of these, 25% died. This was a fivefold higher death rate than the 5% seen among the controls. Of the hamsters that ate high GM soy content, only a single female hamster gave birth. She had 16 pups; about 20% died.

Surov said "The low numbers in F2 [third generation] showed that many animals were sterile."

The published paper will also include measurements of organ size for the third generation animals, including testes, spleen, uterus, etc. And if the team can raise sufficient funds, they will also analyze hormone levels in collected blood samples.

Hair Growing in the Mouth

Earlier this year, Surov co-authored a paper in Doklady Biological Sciences showing that in rare instances, hair grows inside recessed pouches in the mouths of hamsters.

"Some of these pouches contained single hairs; others, thick bundles of colorless or pigmented hairs reaching as high as the chewing surface of the teeth. Sometimes, the tooth row was surrounded with a regular brush of hair bundles on both sides. The hairs grew vertically and had sharp ends, often covered with lumps of a mucous."

Rat Study Oral Hair

“(a) The external appearance of the oral cavity. Gingival pouches (GP) with thick bundles of hair growing from their mucous lining are clearly seen. (b) Perforated bone tissue of the teeth of an adult Ph. campbelli. Numerous hollows are seen. A, hair.”

From A. S. Baranov, O. F. Chernova, N. Yu. Feoktistova, and A. V. Surov, “A New Example of Ectopia: Oral Hair in Some Rodent Species,” Doklady Biological Sciences, 2010, Vol. 431, pp. 117–120, Original Russian Text © A.S. Baranov, O.F. Chernova, N.Yu. Feoktistova, A.V. Surov, 2010, published in Doklady Akademii Nauk, 2010, Vol. 431, No. 4, pp. 559–562.

At the conclusion of the study, the authors surmise that such an astounding defect may be due to the diet of hamsters raised in the laboratory. They write, "This pathology may be exacerbated by elements of the food that are absent in natural food, such as genetically modified (GM) ingredients (GM soybean or maize meal) or contaminants (pesticides, mycotoxins, heavy metals, etc.)." Indeed, the number of hairy mouthed hamsters was much higher among the third generation of GM soy fed animals than anywhere Surov had seen before.

Preliminary, But Ominous

Surov warns against jumping to early conclusions. He said, "It is quite possible that the GMO does not cause these effects by itself." Surov wants to make the analysis of the feed components a priority, to discover just what is causing the effect and how.

In addition to the GMOs, it could be contaminants, he said, or higher herbicide residues, such as Roundup. There is in fact much higher levels of Roundup on these beans; they're called "Roundup Ready." Bacterial genes are forced into their DNA so that the plants can tolerate Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. Therefore, GM soy always carries the double threat of higher herbicide content, couple with any side effects of genetic engineering.

Years of Reproductive Disorders from GMO-Feed

Rats photo #1Surov's hamsters are just the latest animals to suffer from reproductive disorders after consuming GMOs. In 2005, Irina Ermakova, also with the Russian National Academy of Sciences, reported that more than half the babies from mother rats fed GM soy died within three weeks. This was also five times higher than the 10% death rate of the non-GMO soy group. The babies in the GM group were also smaller (see photo) and could not reproduce.

In a telling coincidence, after Ermakova's feeding trials, her laboratory started feeding all the rats in the facility a commercial rat chow using GM soy. Within two months, the infant mortality facility-wide reached 55%.

When Ermakova fed male rats GM soy, their testicles changed from the normal pink to dark blue!

Image - Rat testicles cells - large

Italian scientists similarly found changes in mice testes (PDF), including damaged young sperm cells. Furthermore, the DNA of embryos from parent mice fed GM soy functioned differently.

An Austrian government study published in November 2008 showed that the more GM corn was fed to mice, the fewer the babies they had (PDF), and the smaller the babies were.

Central Iowa Farmer Jerry Rosman also had trouble with pigs and cows becoming sterile. Some of his pigs even had false pregnancies or gave birth to bags of water. After months of investigations and testing, he finally traced the problem to GM corn feed. Every time a newspaper, magazine, or TV show reported Jerry's problems, he would receive calls from more farmers complaining of livestock sterility on their farm, linked to GM corn.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine accidentally discovered that rats raised on corncob bedding "neither breed nor exhibit reproductive behavior." Tests on the corn material revealed two compounds that stopped the sexual cycle in females "at concentrations approximately two-hundredfold lower than classical phytoestrogens." One compound also curtailed male sexual behavior and both substances contributed to the growth of breast and prostate cancer cell cultures. Researchers found that the amount of the substances varied with GM corn varieties. The crushed corncob used at Baylor was likely shipped from central Iowa, near the farm of Jerry Rosman and others complaining of sterile livestock.

In Haryana, India, a team of investigating veterinarians report that buffalo consuming GM cottonseed suffer from infertility, as well as frequent abortions, premature deliveries, and prolapsed uteruses. Many adult and young buffalo have also died mysteriously.

Denial, Attack and Canceled Follow-up

Scientists who discover adverse findings from GMOs are regularly attacked, ridiculed, denied funding, and even fired. When Ermakova reported the high infant mortality among GM soy fed offspring, for example, she appealed to the scientific community to repeat and verify her preliminary results. She also sought additional funds to analyze preserved organs. Instead, she was attacked and vilified. Samples were stolen from her lab, papers were burnt on her desk, and she said that her boss, under pressure from his boss, told her to stop doing any more GMO research. No one has yet repeated Ermakova's simple, inexpensive studies.

In an attempt to offer her sympathy, one of her colleagues suggested that maybe the GM soy will solve the over population problem!

Surov reports that so far, he has not been under any pressure.

Opting Out of the Massive GMO Feeding Experiment

Without detailed tests, no one can pinpoint exactly what is causing the reproductive travesties in Russian hamsters and rats, Italian and Austrian mice, and livestock in India and America. And we can only speculate about the relationship between the introduction of genetically modified foods in 1996, and the corresponding upsurge in low birth weight babies, infertility, and other problems among the US population. But many scientists, physicians, and concerned citizens don't think that the public should remain the lab animals for the biotech industry's massive uncontrolled experiment.

Alexey Surov says, "We have no right to use GMOs until we understand the possible adverse effects, not only to ourselves but to future generations as well. We definitely need fully detailed studies to clarify this. Any type of contamination has to be tested before we consume it, and GMO is just one of them."

Eat safely! Get the Non-GMO Shopping Guide >

"DDT is Good For Me-e-e!"

2010-06-30T23:05:00.003-04:00

via "Millions Against Monsanto"

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photo.php?pid=4954313&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=289934516904&aid=-1&id=577601372

Getting the Word Out - Google Search Page 1!

2010-06-30T13:31:00.006-04:00

As promised, we're pulling out all the stops to educate the public about the dangers of GMOs and to urge citizens to write to their congressional representatives and demand the FDA be investigated. These snapshots show current results of our efforts in Google - Page 1 - over just the past few days! Our postings are in the top of the search engines, so we'll keep doing our part here.

(Will try to post better, clearer images later. You may have to zoom in to see the details in the meantime.)

Keyword Search - investigate FDA:

Keyword Search - GMO Free Zazzle

Also check these seach terms: GMO Free Marketing (more to come). 6/20/2010

Monsanto Being Investigated by West Virginia

2010-06-26T22:51:00.000-04:00

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-25/monsanto-soybean-claims-probed-by-west-virginia-update2-.html

CBS News Reports on Hidden GMO Ingredients In Our Food

2010-06-26T12:38:00.002-04:00

FINALLY. A Major Media News Outlet airs a story on GMOs. (Fox killed their story a few years back.) Thank you, CBS News. Notice that a former FDA employee admits the FDA "fought hard" to keep GMO ingredients out of the labeling because they were terrified that "no one would buy the products" - not because they were concerned for American Consumer Safety, but because they were afraid no one would buy the Genetically Engineered Products!

Isn't it time to investigate the FDA and hold them accountable for criminal acts such as this?!

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Kelloggs Recall 2010: 28 Million Boxes of Cereal Pulled for Off Odor

2010-06-25T21:56:00.001-04:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/25/food-recalls-2010-the-lat_n_622812.html

Tell Congress to Labeling & Safety Testing of GE Foods!

2010-06-25T21:05:00.000-04:00

TAKE ACTION!
Click here to send the letter below to your congressional representatives today! You can personalize the letter with your own comments.

Text:

[Dear Congressman/woman:]

I am writing to urge you to support and co-sponsor legislation to require the mandatory labeling and safety testing of genetically engineered foods. The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act would require labels on gene altered food, and the Genetically Engineered Food Safety Act would call for federal standards for safety assessments of these experimental foods now in our stores.

It is shocking that the FDA has never developed binding federal rules to protect consumers from the food safety risks of genetically engineered foods. Unlike crops from traditional breeding, genetically engineered crops contain antibiotic-resistant marker genes, viral promoters and foreign proteins never before consumed by humans. Yet the FDA relies on the very companies that have a financial interest in bringing these biotech crops to market to assess their safety. FDA has stated, "Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety" of gene altered foods.

Congress must step up and fill the gaping regulatory hole left by the FDA to protect American consumers. The Genetically Engineered Food Safety Act would fill this hole by requiring mandatory pre-market safety testing for all GE foods.

The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act would require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. Here in America, we pride ourselves on having choices and making informed decisions. Under current FDA regulations we don't have that choice when it comes to GE ingredients in the foods we purchase and feed our families. Labeling is essential for me to choose whether or not I want to consume genetically engineered foods. Genetically engineered foods are required to be labeled in the 15 European Union nations, Russia, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, and many other countries around the world. As an American, I firmly believe I should also have the right to know if my foods have been genetically engineered. If food makers like Kraft and Kellogg's can label the products they sell in these countries, they can certainly do it in the U.S.

A recent poll released by ABC News found that 92 percent of the American public wants the federal government to require mandatory labeling on genetically engineered foods. As ABC News stated, "Such near-unanimity in public opinion is rare." I hope you will listen to me and the other 92 percent of the American public who want mandatory labeling and show your support for American consumers by supporting and co-sponsoring the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act. I look forward to a written response confirming your support.

Thank you!

(See my additional comments in red below.)

If there are laws requiring possible allergens to be listed on food labels, GE foods should CERTAINLY be included as possible allergens. Both my son and I have developed an increase in allergies over the past decade alone. I know for a fact that when I eat something that may contain GE ingredients instead of organic versions of the same food, I have physical allergic reactions. Doctors will not say I am allergic to any ingredient in those products (because we all know mainstream medicine refuses to acknowledge the dangers of GM foods), but I can tell the difference. If a person is sentive to chemicals, pesticides, etc., then it stands to reason that foods containing such chemicals should be required to list them on the food labels. If I am exposed to certain chemicals, fragrances, fumes, pesticides, etc., my throat dries up, and I have a difficult time breathing. The same thing happens if I consume certain foods, therefore I am convinced these toxic foods are allergens to my body, and I have the right to demand these irritants and allergens be disclosed if sold on the open market or used in government supported food programs such as school lunches for children and teens or food programs for the sick, elderly and underprivileged. Refusing to publish these possible allergens on food labels is therefore criminal and discriminatory in my opinion.

Bayer finally gets the message – we don’t want GE! | Greenpeace International

2010-06-24T18:44:00.000-04:00

Bayer finally gets the message – we don’t want GE! | Greenpeace International

Blogpost by gtyler - June 24, 2010 at 12:20 PM

It has taken a long time - 8 years to be precise. In 2002 Bayer first applied for approval for Brazilian farmers to be allowed to grow their genetically engineered (GE) rice. The only problem with their plan is that Brazilian rice farmers and producers don’t want GE rice. Bayer has finally gotten the message, and yesterday they finally withdrew their application.

Bayer is saying publically that they have withdrawn their application “to broaden the dialogue with key members in the production of rice in Brazil”. I would think 8 years would be more than enough time to broaden the debate on how GE crops are becoming less effective in the face of weeds that are resistant to herbicides, how rice producers have lost financially due to GE rice and how we continue to see unexpected side effects from GE crops.

It might have been more than just the Brazilian’s rejection of GE rice that made Bayer act. They are also currently taking a pounding in the US courts, having to pay out tens of millions of dollars to rice producers affected by their contamination of the US rice supply in 2006.

Despite this, the message from Brazilian rice producers is clear – GE rice is not wanted in Brazil. To broaden the debate Bayer will need to do some serious searching for other players in the Brazilian rice production chain, as already most of these players have voiced their opposition to GE rice. Amongst these groups is the Rice Federation of Rio Grande do Sul, the region which accounts for 60% of Brazilian rice production.

It’s time for governments everywhere to stand up for what people and producers want and stop GE rice.

See more on Greenpeace Brazil’s webpage (in Portuguese).

Monsanto to Introduce "Agent Orange" into Our culture to Battle Superweeds

2010-06-22T12:18:00.000-04:00

Superweeds, a by-product of Monsanto's short-sighted greed and conspiracies, will now force farmers to resort to stronger chemicals. Monsanto to introduce "Agent Orange" into our culture!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/21/farmers-may-return-to-har_n_619185.html

June 22, 2010

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When the weed killer Roundup was introduced in the 1970s, it proved it could kill nearly any plant while still being safer than many other herbicides, and it allowed farmers to give up harsher chemicals and reduce tilling that can contribute to erosion.

But 34 years later, a few sturdy species of weed resistant to Roundup have evolved, forcing farmers to return to some of the less environmentally safe practices they abandoned decades ago.

The situation is the worst in the South, where some farmers now walk fields with hoes, killing weeds in a way their great-grandfathers were happy to leave behind. And the problem is spreading quickly across the Corn Belt and beyond, with Roundup now proving unreliable in killing at least 10 weed species in at least 22 states. Some species, like Palmer amaranth in Arkansas and water hemp and marestail in Illinois, grow fast and big, producing tens of thousands of seeds.

"It's getting to be a big deal," said Mike Plumer, a 61-year-old farmer and University of Illinois agronomist who grows soybeans and cotton near the southern Illinois community of Creal Springs. "If you've got it, it's a real big deal."

When Monsanto introduced Roundup in 1976, "it was like the best thing since sliced bread," said Garry Niemeyer, who grows corn and soybeans near Auburn in central Illinois.

The weed killer, known generically as glyphosate, is absorbed through plants' leaves and kills them by blocking the production of proteins they need to grow. At the same time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers it to have little toxicity to people and animals, and aside from the plants it's sprayed on, it's less of a threat to the environment because it quickly binds to soil and becomes inactive.

Monsanto's introduction of seeds designed to survive Roundup made things even better for farmers because they could spray it on emerging crops to wipe out the weeds growing alongside them. Seeds containing Monsanto's Roundup Ready traits are now used to grow about 90 percent of the nation's soybeans and 70 percent of its corn and cotton.

With increased reliance on Roundup, herbicide use on corn decreased from 2.76 pounds an acre in 1994 to 2.06 in 2005, the most recent year for which the U.S. Department of Agriculture has data. Spread that out over the 81.8 million acres planted in 2005, and it's a decrease of more than 57 million pounds of herbicides annually.

Farmers also found they could cut back or in some cases eliminate tilling, reducing erosion and fuel use.

But with any herbicide, the more it's used, the more likely it'll run into individual plants within a species that have just enough genetic variation to survive what kills most of their relatives. With each generation, the survivors represent a larger percentage of the species.

St. Louis-based Monsanto maintains the resistance is often overstated, noting that most weeds show no sign of immunity.

"We believe that glyphosate will remain an important tool in the farmers' arsenal," Monsanto spokesman John Combest said.

That said, the company has started paying cotton farmers $12 an acre to cover the cost of other herbicides to use alongside Roundup to boost its effectiveness.

The trend has confirmed some food safety groups' belief that biotechnology won't reduce the use of chemicals in the long run.

"That's being reversed," said Bill Freese, a chemist with the Washington, D.C.-based Center For Food Safety, which promotes organic agriculture. "They're going to dramatically increase use of those chemicals, and that's bad news."

The first weeds in the U.S. that survived Roundup were found about 10 years ago in Delaware.

Agricultural experts said the use of other chemicals is already creeping up. Monsanto and other companies are developing new seeds designed to resist older herbicides like dicamba and 2,4-D, a weed killer developed during World War II and an ingredient in Agent Orange, which was used to destroy jungle foliage during the Vietnam War and is blamed for health problems among veterans.

Penn State University weed scientist David Mortensen estimates that in three or four years, farmers' use of dicamba and 2,4-D will increase by 55.1 million pounds a year because of resistance to Roundup. That would push both far up the list of herbicides heavily used by farmers.

Dicamba and 2,4-D both easily drift beyond the areas where they're sprayed, making them a threat to neighboring crops and wild plants, Mortensen said. That, in turn, could also threaten wildlife.

"We're finding that the (wild) plants that grow on the field edges actually support beneficial insects, like bees," he said.

In Australia, weed scientist Stephen Powles has been a sort of evangelist for saving Roundup, calling it a near-miraculous farming tool.

Australia has been dealing with Roundup-resistant weeds since the mid 1990s, but changes in farming practices have helped keep it effective, Powers said. That has included using a broader array of herbicides to kill off Roundup resistant weeds and employing other methods of weed control.

Those alternative methods, such as planting so-called cover crops like rye to hold back weeds during the winter and other times when fields aren't planted with corn, soybeans or cotton, are the key, said Freese, the Center For Food Safety chemist.

Otherwise, he said, "We're talking a pesticide treadmill here. It's just coming back to kick us in the butt now with resistant weeds."

(This version CORRECTS the second paragraph to say that it is 34 years after the introduction of Roundup, not 24.)

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Supreme Court Ruling in Monsanto Case is Victory for Center for Food Safety Farmers

2010-06-21T20:46:00.000-04:00

Yes! This war on GM food isn't over yet, but FINALLY, the courts ruled in favor of Food Safety today!

"The Court further recognized that the threat of transgenic contamination is harmful and onerous to organic and conventional farmers and that the injury allows them to challenge future biotech crop commercializations in court."

http://truefoodnow.org/2010/06/21/supreme-court-ruling-in-monsanto-case-is-victory-for-center-for-food-safety-farmers/

Posted on June 21, 2010 by Heather

High Court Delivers Ruling that Leaves Ban on Planting of Roundup Ready Alfalfa in Place in First-Ever Case on a Genetically-Engineered Crop

CFS staff attorney George Kimbrell speaks to members of the press after Tuesday's Supreme Court hearing

The Center for Food Safety today celebrated the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Monsanto v. Geerston Farms, the first genetically modified crop case ever brought before the Supreme Court. Although the High Court decision reverses parts of the lower courts’ rulings, the judgment holds that a vacatur bars the planting of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Alfalfa until and unless future deregulation occurs. It is a victory for the Center for Food Safety and the Farmers and Consumers it represents.

“The Justices’ decision today means that the selling and planting of Roundup Ready Alfalfa is illegal. The ban on the crop will remain in place until a full and adequate EIS is prepared by USDA and they officially deregulate the crop. This is a year or more away according to the agency, and even then, a deregulation move may be subject to further litigation if the agency’s analysis is not adequate,” said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety. “In sum, it’s a significant victory in our ongoing fight to protect farmer and consumer choice, the environment and the organic industry.”

In the majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, the Court held: “In sum…the vacatur of APHIS’s deregulation decision means that virtually no RRA (Roundup Ready Alfalfa) can be grown or sold until such time as a new deregulation decision is in place, and we also know that any party aggrieved by a hypothetical future deregulation decision will have ample opportunity to challenge it, and to seek appropriate preliminary relief, if and when such a decision is made.” (Opinion at p. 22).

The Court also held that:

Any further attempt to commercialize RRA even in part may require an EIS subject to legal challenge.
The Court further recognized that the threat of transgenic contamination is harmful and onerous to organic and conventional farmers and that the injury allows them to challenge future biotech crop commercializations in court.

USDA indicated at the Supreme Court argument that full deregulation is about a year away and that they will not pursue a partial deregulation in the interim. Any new attempt at deregulation in full or part will be subject to legal challenge.

“The bottom line is that the Supreme Court set aside the injunction because the vacating of the commercialization decision already gave us all the relief we needed, by forbidding RRA planting until a new decision is made by the agency. And at such time, farmers and consumers still have the right to challenge the adequacy of that process.” said George Kimbrell, senior staff attorney for CFS. “The Court’s decision affirmed that the threat of genetic contamination of natural plants posed by biotech crops is an issue of significant environmental concern now and in the future.”

In this case, CFS faced off against powerful opposing entities, including the Department of Agriculture and the agricultural biotech giant, Monsanto Corporation. The Center and the other respondents were supported by a broad array of diverse interests, marshalling no less than seven amicus briefs in support. The amici included three states’ attorneys general, leading scientific experts, legal scholars, former government officials, farmers, exporters, environmental groups, food companies and organic industry trade groups. The Organic Trade association and companies like Stonyfield Farms, Cliff Bar and Eden Foods voiced united concern over the threat a ruling for Monsanto would pose to the organic food businesses, the fastest growing sector in the American food industry. Attorneys general from California, Oregon and Massachusetts filed a brief on behalf of their citizens emphasizing “the States’ interests in protecting the environment, their natural resources and their citizens’ rights to be informed about the environmental impacts of federal actions.” A full list of the more than sixty organizations, companies and individuals who filed briefs in support of CFS and opposed to Monsanto can be viewed at http://truefoodnow.org/publications/supreme-court-briefs/.

Monsanto was supported by a bloc of powerful corporate interests and industry groups, including the American Farm Bureau, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and CropLife America.

The environmental, health, cultural, and economic impacts of the genetically-engineered alfalfa seed, which is designed to be immune to Monsanto’s flagship herbicide Roundup, and the USDA’s plan to commercialize it, was at the heart of this dispute since 2006, when CFS filed a lawsuit against the USDA on behalf of a coalition of non-profits and farmers who wanted to retain the choice to grow non-GE alfalfa. Central to the issue is unwanted transgenetic drift: GE alfalfa can spread uncontrollably by way of bees that can cross-pollinate plants many miles away, contaminating both conventional and organic alfalfa with foreign DNA, patented by Monsanto.

“We brought this case to court because I and other conventional farmers will no doubt suffer irreversible economic harm if the planting of GE alfalfa is allowed,” said plaintiff Phil Geerston. “It was simply a question of our survival, and though we did not win on all points of the law, we are grateful that the practical result of today’s ruling is that Monsanto cannot take away our rights and Roundup Ready alfalfa cannot threaten our livelihoods.”

Alfalfa is the fourth most widely grown crop in the U.S., and a key source of dairy forage. Organic and conventional farmers faced the loss of their businesses due to widespread contamination from Monsanto’s patented GE alfalfa, and the foreseeable contamination of feral or wild alfalfa would ensure an ongoing and permanent source of transgenic pollution in wild places akin to that of invasive species.

Roundup Ready alfalfa would also increase Roundup use and thereby exacerbate the serious, ongoing epidemic of glyphosate-resistant superweeds. As recently discussed in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, superweeds lead to increased use of toxic herbicides, more soil-eroding tillage and higher production costs for farmers. If allowed to spread, they could reduce food production and lead to higher food prices. USDA has failed to take superweeds seriously or propose any means to address them.

Further background information on the history of this case and scientific studies are available at http://truefoodnow.org/publications/supreme-court-briefs/. The Supreme Court decision can be viewed here: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/09-475.pdf

The Center for Food Safety is national, non-profit, membership organization, founded in 1997, that works 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. On the web at: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org

Call for Action - Urge Congress to Investigate FDA

2010-06-20T09:55:00.000-04:00

http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=5615

(Copied in part below)

Congress: End the Destruction Now! Investigate the US’ Most Lawless Agency: FDA!

Natural Solutions Foundation
The Voice of Global Health Freedom™
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org

Congressional Hearing on FDA Lawlessness

Excerpt:

Principle: The FDA is lawfully bound by the US Constitution and the Legislation of the US Congress.

Problem: FDA answers to its industrial constituency, not the Constitution and the well-being of the people of the United States.

Background: Article 16 of the enabling legislation which created what has become Food and Drug Administration in 1932 (who thought of combining foods and drugs?) says that the primary purpose of the Agency is to promote, protect and promulgate the Pharmaceutical Industry. The Agency is doing that job very, very well. Its other job, however, protecting the health and welfare of the American Public is not being served.

Summary: Despite Constitutional and explicit legal protection, the FDA has repeatedly created arbitrary, illogical and unlawful standards upon which to curtail First Amendment rights regarding health and food, nutrients, health devices and technologies and abused its considerable powers to stifle non-pharmaceutical, natural health options. FDA Marshals invade and terrorize small manufacturers of legal substances and devices. FDA lawyers bully and intimidate these same companies and individuals, jailing innocent people and destroying legitimate businesses which compete with drug company profits.

Action: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3688

For complete article, click here.

Economic Stimulus - How Family Farmers Can Ultimately Save the American Economy

2010-06-19T20:28:00.000-04:00

Economic Stimulus slideshow

View more presentations from Farm Aid.

There is a great paper put together by Willie Nelson and the Board of Directors for Farm Aid addressed to Congress to support American Family Farmers. It is very insightful and addresses the issues of GMOs and CAFOs, etc. It is a very well-thought-out, well-written proposal to rebuild America. Real life examples of towns and communities that have turned their economies around through utilizing local family farmers. It appears to have been written in September, 2008 but has resurfaced for the site's current publication dated June 2010.

http://www.farmaid.org/atf/cf/%7B6ef41923-f003-4e0f-a4a6-ae0031db12fb%7D/FARMAID...

Main site: http://www.farmaid.org/site/c.qlI5IhNVJsE/b.6037327/k.3472/Economic_Stimulus__We...

Scientists Create GM 'Frankenfish' - Grows 3 Times Faster Than Normal Salmon

2010-06-17T20:15:00.000-04:00

This is very scary! I don't want to eat this stuff.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1287084/Scientists-create-GM-Frankenfish-grows-times-fast-normal-salmon.htm l

via GMO Truth Alliance

"Store Wars" Video - Must See!

2010-06-17T17:26:00.000-04:00

Awesme production from "FreeRangeStudios". You may find it a little corny, but it gets the message across.

Q+A - What Happens If EU Relaxes GMO Rules?

2010-06-13T19:28:00.000-04:00

If you are from Europe, have connection with or influence on the leadership, please educate yourself on the dangers of genetically modified foods and help us to stop this madness. See article posted below from June 4th. The US is living (or dying) proof of the ill-effects GMOs have had on humans since bioengineered crops were introduced into mainstream food supplies a decade and a half ago. Obestity, diabetes, and various illness have taken over as these foods have infiltrated the American diet. Many countries have been wise to not succumb to the demands and tricks of the agri-giants like Monsanto. Many US imports have now been banned by many countries due to the health risks. Please, consider these facts very seriously.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6530CV20100604?type=marketsNews

Fri Jun 4, 2010 7:34am EDT

By Charlie Dunmore

Stocks | Global Markets

June 4 (Reuters) - The EU executive European Commission has drawn up plans for a radical overhaul of the 27-nation bloc's rules on genetically modified (GM) crop cultivation, according to sources, which if approved could see huge growth in plantings in Europe. Click for Reuters exclusive [ID:nLDE6520Q6]

Below are questions and answers the plans raises.

WHAT IS BEING PROPOSED?

* The plan set to be adopted in mid-July has two elements: "fast-track" technical guidelines immediately enabling member states to grow or ban GM crops as they choose, and a legislative change designed to confirm the new approach in EU law.

* The Commission hopes that by giving countries opposed to GM cultivation the option to ban it, they will end their opposition to approving new varieties for growing in the EU and unblock the paralysis in Europe's approval system.

* Approvals would still be granted at EU level following a scientific safety assessment, but member states would be free to ban cultivation at any time without the need for scientific justification, and the Commission will not intervene.

WHAT IMPACT WILL THE PLANS HAVE?

* If approved the proposals are likely to see rapid growth of GM cultivation in parts of Europe, particularly in countries seen as favourable to the technology such as Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

* They would also legally confirm cultivation bans in anti-GM countries such as Italy, Austria and Hungary, and raise the prospect of new national bans in the future should governments change their position on GM crops.

* Multinational biotech companies such as U.S. seed and chemical giant Monsanto (MON.N) and Swiss agro-chemicals firm Syngenta (SYNN.VX) could see lucrative new markets opening up in Europe, but countries' ability to ban cultivation at any time creates legal uncertainty and could hamper their business plans.

* Industry experts said new GM crops most likely to be planted in Europe in the coming years include a maize variety resistant to the corn root worm, and a fungal-resistant potato currently being trialled.

* New GM oilseed rape varieties could be available within a decade, and GM wheat with resistance to septoria disease could be developed within 10 to 20 years, they added.

WILL THE PLANS BE APPROVED?

* The "fast-track" guidelines would only need to be rubber-stamped by EU governments to take effect, which could happen within weeks of publication in mid-July, though countries such as France are thought to be strongly opposed to the plans.

* The legislative change is even more uncertain, as it must be approved by a qualified majority of EU governments and members of the European Parliament under the bloc's weighted voting system.

* The Commission believes it can restrict the scope of the legal review to its proposal alone, but EU lawmakers could try and open up the EU's entire GM policy for review, which could take several years and make the final outcome very uncertain.

HOW HAVE THE PLANS BEEN RECEIVED?

* The biotech industry has criticised the proposals for introducing unscientific concepts and legal uncertainty into the EU's approval system, and warn that different rules in different countries will disrupt the EU's internal market and lead to legal disputes.

* Environmentalists are also unhappy, because they fear an end to the EU's largely GM-free stance, which has seen commercial planting limited to less than 100,000 hectares to date, compared with 134 million hectares worldwide.

* The EU's trading partners are known to be watching developments closely, and could challenge the new rules in the World Trade Organisation if they percieve them as anti-science or a barrier to trade. (Compiled by Charlie Dunmore, Editing by Keiron Henderson)

New Promo Items Available

2010-06-12T11:30:00.001-04:00

http://gmofreeworld.blogspot.com/p/customizable-gmo-free-products.html

POV | Food, Inc. | Interview with Robert Kenner | PBS

2010-06-12T10:32:00.000-04:00

GMO Free World

Revolution Pac Broadcast

GMO Free Zone - Tshirts, Buttons, Signs and More

Keep the fight for your right to know what's in your food going. Visit gmofreezone.org for t-shirts, buttons, signs and more. Just say "no" to GMO!

Organic and Natural Food Membership Club

October is Here!

Esdifan - Stop Diarrhea Fast and Naturally

Two Products To Try for Detox, Purification and IBS Relief

Benefits of Diatomaceous Earth

Coming in 2012: Genetically Modified Lawns and Mass Spraying of Lawns and Playgrounds

Why is Soros Selling Gold to Buy Farmland?

Would You Walk 313 Miles to Stop Monsanto?

Germany's Superbug Is Weaponized with Bubonic Plague DNA

Congress Bans FDA Approval of GE Fish

Confronting the Tyranny Head On

5 Reasons High Fructose Corn Syrup Can Kill You

Prince Charles Warns About GMO Dangers

Petition - No Subsidies For Poison Crops

Labeling GMO Food - New ballot initiative in the U.S.

Upcoming Rallies

Rally and GMO Info

Radio Interview - April 11, 2011

Connecticut - Surprisingly Complex Debate on GMO Labeling

Organic Farmers and Seed Sellers Sue Monsanto

Rally Successes - One Person Can Make a Difference!

Rally For the Right to Know - Sat. March 26th

Outrage Pours In After USDA Approves GE Alfalfa Deregulation!

Food safety bill invokes Codex harmonization and grants FDA authority to police food safety of foreign nations

The Vermont Resolution for Food Sovereignty - Vermont Commons

We need this in every state in the US. Please reach out to all your state reps & contacts to protect health & food freedom. S.510 "Food Safety" bill will NOT do the job.http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2010/12/21/most-likely-secede-vermont-resolution-food-sovereignty

GMWatch - A Non-Profit Resource for Updated Information

WikiLeaks - US Against Europe Over Monsanto GM Crops - Demcracy Now!

Interview with Jeffrey Smith this week on Democracy Now exposes shocking truths about massive collateral dangers from GMOs and the corruption involved in pushing GMOs. Very significant info here!

Rockefellers and Heads of Monsanto Won't Eat GMOs!

Food Safety Bill Passes Senate

Sorry to bring you this news, but S.510 has PASSED in the Senate in a late-night session. It is now back to the House where your help is once again needed to resist this food tyranny bill. This is our last chance to defeat this. Get the details and the action items in this article. - Mike

Jamie Oliver's Garden

Mainstream Media Agrees Food Safety Bill Will Do Nothing to Improve Food Safety!

Via NaturalNews.com: A recent editorial in Forbes magazine online slams the recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "Food Safety Modernization Act" for being a huge waste of taxpayer money, and an effort that will do absolutely nothing to actually improve food safety.

Obama's Evergreen Revolution a Ploy to Push GMOs

Jeffrey Smith on Dr. Oz Discussing GMO's

Check out the 3 clips here:

Top Ten Lies About Senate Bill 510 - Food Safety

Lie #1 - Most deaths from food poisoning are caused by fresh produce

Lie #2 - Under S.510, the FDA would only recall products it knows to be contaminated

Lie #3 - They didn't tell you that nearly 70% of grocery store chickens are contaminated with salmonella every day

Lie #4 - S.510 will exclude and protect small farmers

Lie #5 - The FDA needs more power to enforce food safety

Lie #6 - Fresh produce is contaminated because of a lack of paperwork

Lie #7 - The American people are dying in droves from unsafe fresh food

Lie #8 - The FDA just wants to make food "safer"

Lie #9 - Food smuggling is a huge problem in America

Lie #10 - S.510 will make America's food supply the safest in the world

Permission granted to reproduce and post this list with credit

Morgellons Disease May Be Linked to Genetically Modified Food

About the author

Viral Music Video, "Just Say No to GMO"!

California Food Police Raid Organic Food Store, Guns Drawn!

Pending Food Shortage - Be Prepared!

Gates Foundation & Monsanto Ties - Sign the Petition!

Conflict of interest - this is newsworthy. Many fed-up consumers and citizens are not happy with the Gates Foundation's ties to Monsanto when it comes to solving the world's hunger problems. And rightly so.

Family Farm Ordered to Destroy 50,000 Pounds of Cheese

If this doesn't infuriate you, it should. Excerpts pasted below from the hartkeisonline blog http://hartkeisonline.com/2010/10/11/family-farm-ordered-to-destroy-50000-pounds-of-cheese/:

The saga of how they’ve been railroaded can be found here:http://www.newswithviews.com/Hannes/doreen107.htm

How to help: "For as little as $5 you can tell the FDA and their minions that you are smart enough to decide what you want to eat and don’t need their permission or “help” to figure out what is “good for us”. This battle must be won." The Uncheese Party: http://uncheese-party.webs.com/

National Non-GMO Day 10-10-10

Former Mars Candy Exec Tapped for Ag Research Post?! What the...

GRIST: Obama Taps Food Industry Exec for Top Ag Research Post. If this doesn't upset you, it should! They're putting a former CANDY exec in charge of Agrigulture. The revolving door keeps going in its viscious cycle.

Must Read! Key FDA Documents Revealing Dangers in GM Food & Flaws in Policy

Gates Foundation, ONE Foundation & Monsanto Relationship Becoming Transparent

Silk Soy Beverage Busted!

Monsanto hired mercenary Blackwater to infiltrate anti-GMO groups

Monsanto hired mercenary Blackwater to infiltrate anti-GMO groups

Johnny Isakson is a co-sponsor of S510 - This is his response to our letter of concern

Introducing Corn Salt! Heck, why not "Corn Everything?"!

Pharma Not in Business of Health-Healing-Cures-Wellness

Local Farms Could Be Illegal if S510 Passes!

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Fraud: Whole Foods, Rachel Ray, Safeway, Newman's Own, Colavita, Bertolli

Educate "ONE", Bill Gates & the World About the Dangers of GMOs

Four Paths to Organic Health

We need this in every state in the US. Please reach out to all your state reps & contacts to protect health & food freedom. S.510 "Food Safety" bill will NOT do the job.
http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2010/12/21/most-likely-secede-vermont-resolution-food-sovereignty

The saga of how they’ve been railroaded can be found here:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Hannes/doreen107.htm

Health, Justice and Sustainability News
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