Dr. Oz: GMOs Can Be Ushering in a Pesticide Arms Race

Heather Callaghan

One thing's for sure: when Dr. Oz speaks, people listen. Many a healthfood store and tea shop owner have saluted him when he mentions their goods on air - and their stores fill up. In the past he has drawn cheers and jeers for his fluctuating stances on organic food and genetically modified organisms in the food supply.

Today, he makes a very clear stance, as a concerned doctor, against the EPA's pending approval of a new, toxic pesticide intended for use on genetically engineered crops like corn and soy - this country's biggest crops and food ingredients. He warns about floundering brain health, thyroid problems, chronic disease and more as a result of this stronger pesticide's use.

Today's episode of The Dr. Oz Show examines a new GMO pesticide that the EPA is on the very brink of approving because GMO crops now contain superweeds that have become resistant to glyphosate (Roundup). This new concoction called Enlist Duo, by Dow AgroSciences, contains both glyphosate and the choline salt of 2,4-D (2,4-D was one of the ingredients in Agent Orange).

50 Members of Congress Urge EPA and USDA to Reject New GMO Crops

GE Crops Would Lead to Dramatic Increase in Use of Toxic, War-era Herbicide 2,4-D

GMO farmer

Activist Post

Fifty Members of Congress led by Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-OR-04) and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME-01) wrote today to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expressing “grave concerns” over Dow Chemical's Enlist Duo™ herbicide and new varieties of genetically engineered (GE) corn and soy the herbicide mixture would be used with.

“In the absence of leadership from the agencies tasked to protect our health, our food, and our environment, it is up to Congress to put pressure on the Obama Administration to do what's right. On the cusp of the 5-week August recess, 50 Members of Congress sent a clear message to USDA and EPA: reject the next wave of pesticide promoting crops before it is too late,” said Colin O'Neil, director of government affairs at Center for Food Safety.

“If either USDA or EPA had any surprises in store over the August recess, they’d better think again,” added O’Neil.

The USDA Is Pushing Food Stamps Like a Drug Dealer at a Grade School

Daisy Luther

One in 7 Americans receives food stamps and the government wants the number to be even higher.

Yes, I said higher.

The USDA is soliciting people to receive food stamps in the manner of a drug dealer on a grade school playground. ”Psst – hey you! I’ve got something for you…it’s free…come on, try it. You’ll like it!”

Even though we are drowning in debt and going under after a last gasp of air, the government of the United States is encouraging more people to go on the dole, even if doing so had never crossed their minds.

Last year the USDA targeted Spanish speaking citizens (and non-citizens) with a radio “novela” – which was basically a soap opera outlining how the lives of the characters improved as soon as they went on SNAP.

Feds vs. Raisins: Small Farmers Stand Up to the USDA

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The Price of Milk To Double Without a Farm Bill

Eric Blair
Activist Post

Did you know milk, cheese, and other dairy products could double in January if the farm bill isn't passed before the new year? 

At first I thought this was a veiled threat from the farm lobby to get their subsidies, but it looks like it goes deeper than that.  In fact, farmers don't want the price to go up because they fear they'll be swimming in unsold milk.

"Few will buy milk the USDA will be forced to sell at prices consumers can’t afford, so Congress has no alternative but to stop the change," UW-Madison agriculture economist Bruce Jones told the Wisconsin State Journal. "We’ll be swimming in milk, with nobody to consume it."

USGS: Glyphosate pollutes air, rain and rivers in US

Rady Ananda, Contributing Writer

Two new studies by the U.S. Geological Survey reveal the pervasive spread of the biocide, glyphosate, mostly used as a weedkiller for crops genetically engineered to resist it.

Used in formulations by Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and others, glyphosate has been linked to spontaneous abortions in livestock, birth defects in humans, insect resistance, and weed resistance.

Worse, regulators have known for years of these links, Earth Open Source reported.

The Amazing and Healthy USDA Food Stamp Diet

Karen De Coster, Contributor
Activist Post

This is one of those things that make you think: real or satire? I’ve checked around, and everything I come up with seems to point to the fact that this ad really is a product of the federal government. If anyone finds anything different, let me know. This isn’t just a promotion of the welfare state; in fact, it is much more. It is an endorsement of the federal government’s grain-laden food pyramid, as well as the corporate state, corn-and-sugar, processed-food empire. Because no one on food stamps buys quality food. In fact, the food those folks tend toward buying is the cheapest, most processed, sugar-laden, economy food available on the market. But, according to this commercial, the welfare-and-food stamp set all look spectacular! Thanks to Travis Holte for the link.

USDA offers to drop fine against rabbit seller

Associated Press

NIXA, Mo. | A southwest Missouri man who faced a $90,654 penalty for selling rabbits without a license might get a reprieve.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would waive the penalty against John Dollarhite of Nixa if he agrees to never get a license, The Springfield News-Leader reported Saturday. He also must no longer own breeding animals and spay or neuter any animals he wants to keep

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June 2 protest planned for USDA $90K rabbit fine

protest against government intrusion "into every aspect of our lives."

Rady Ananda, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

A Missouri group has vowed to continue protesting the USDA’s outrageous $90,000 fine on Missouri rabbit breeders engaged strictly in intrastate commerce. Their “crime” was selling without a license over $500 worth of rabbits in a single year to a reseller, which invoked federal statute, according to the April 19 USDA letter and attachment.

Wearechange Branson has set the next rally for Thursday, June 2 from 4:30–6 pm at Congress Member Billy Long’s Springfield office, 3232 E. Ridgeview Street. They rallied last Wednesday in front of a USDA Service Center in Ozark.

In a video, the Dollarhites conveyed much gratitude for the local and national support they’ve received since the news broke in alternative media.

“The support has been tremendous. I’m so full of hope that our people are coming together and supporting us. They’re fed up with the status quo of the way our government has taken over every possible aspect of our lives,” Judy Dollarhite said.

Groups sue US over antibiotics in farm feed

Hogs are raised on a farm in Iowa
© AFP/Getty Images/File Scott Olson

AFP

NEW YORK (AFP) - A coalition of consumer groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the US Food and Drug Administration over the use of human antibiotics in animal feed, saying it creates dangerous superbugs.

The suit alleges that the regulatory agency concluded in 1977 that the practice of feeding healthy animals low doses of penicillin and tetracycline could lead to the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria in people.

"However, despite this conclusion and laws requiring that the agency act on its findings, FDA failed to take any action to protect human health," the groups said in a statement.

Family Facing $4 Million in Fines for Selling Bunnies

"There, the inspector began running the width of her finger across the cage and told the Dollarhites they would need to replace the cage, because it was a quarter-inch too small and, therefore, did not meet federal regulations."

BobMcCarty.com

Almost nine months after a Missouri dairywas ordered to stop selling cheese made from raw milk, I share details of another hare-raising story from the Show-Me State:  John Dollarhite and his wife Judy of tiny Nixa, Mo., have been told by the USDA that, by Monday, they must pay a fine exceeding $90,000.  If they don’t pay that fine, they could face additional fines of almost $4 million.  Why?  Because they sold more than $500 worth of bunnies — $4,600 worth to be exact — in a single calendar year.

About six years ago, the Dollarhites wanted to teach their young teenage son responsibility and the value of the dollar. So they rescued a pair of rabbits — one male and one female — and those rabbits did what rabbits do; they reproduced.  Before long, things were literally hopping on the three-acre homestead 30 miles south of Springfield, and Dollarvalue Rabbitry was launched as more of a hobby than a business.

More problems with glyphosate: Rice growers sound alarm

Rady Ananda, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Adding to the natural rice industry’s woes after Bayer CropScience contaminated a third of the US rice supply with transgenic rice in 2006, the widespread application of Bayer’s glufosinate and Monsanto’s glyphosate is reducing crop yields, and burning and deforming rice plants that survive. [Image: Glyphosate deforms the growing points on rice plants.]

The Mississippi Rice Council (MRC) has sounded a national alarm over damage caused by aerial drift of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup, calling for severely restricted aerial application.

MRC president Mike Wagner recently told crop dusters at this year’s Mississippi Agricultural Aviation Association annual meeting that glyphosate is wreaking havoc on the natural rice industry where “non-transgenic rice is planted in a sea of genetically modified crops that are tolerant to glyphosate.”

Wagner reported that, “Rice specialists noticed that rice that had no obvious damage through the growing season would yield and mill poorly and would exhibit the classic trait associated with late glyphosate drift — the kernel would be shaped like a parrot beak instead of its normally elongated, symmetrical shape.”

[Image: Glyphosate causes rice to deform from a cylinder into a parrot beak shape.]

Field studies run in 2007 and 2008 by the University of Arkansas showed reduced rice yield by up to 80% from glyphosate, as well as glufosinate, an herbicide produced by Bayer. On top of reduced yield, both herbicides burned the leaves and stunted the growth of rice plants.

In December, the MRC unanimously recommended an annual cutoff date of June 1 for its aerial application, when yield potential for rice is determined.

“Damage occurring at this time does not allow for an alternate crop to be replanted. Consequently, the farmer has two nooses around his neck: (1) he is stuck with a crop that will generate lower revenues, and (2) he has already incurred nearly all expenses that are associated with that crop,” said Wagner.

Because those expenses range from $650 to $900 per acre, “One can see that any losses can be staggering. This is a losing proposition for our rice industry, and one that continues to occur. Our alarm is warranted.”

Free our food

 Wiki Image

By Deirdre Fulton
The Portland Phoenix

"From farm to table" isn't just a meaningless foodie slogan anymore. It's the rallying cry for the smallest of small-scale farming operations in Maine, which are fighting against what they consider to be burdensome state and federal regulations. In the process, they're laying the groundwork for a nationwide "food sovereignty" movement, aimed at restoring the direct relationship between food producers and consumers, while reducing government interference in local food systems.

It started on the Blue Hill peninsula, a cluster of tiny, rural, coastal towns about three hours northeast of Portland. A controversy over poultry regulations led a group of family farmers to Augusta, where they told legislators that state food-safety rules were too strict. They claimed that current law could require them to spend tens of thousands of dollars in permitting fees, equipment, and new facilities, just to butcher a few chickens and sell the meat to their neighbors.

At a public hearing and later at a work session, the farmers were told — sympathetically, but still — that if the state were to loosen its meat-inspection conditions, federal funding would be pulled. Hal Prince, director of the state's Quality Assurance and Regulation division within the agriculture department, explains that in order for the state to run its own meat-inspection program, its standards "have to be at least equal to the [US Department of Agriculture]." The USDA chips in about $200,000 — roughly half of the program's operating costs.

How Safe Is Your Food? GMOs, Foodborne Illness and Trade Agreements

Rady Ananda, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

A research group that supports community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems, GRAIN, has released a global report, Food Safety for Whom? Corporate Wealth vs. Peoples’ Health, showing how governments and corporations use “food safety” to manipulate market access and control. Rather than making food safer, domestic and trade rules “force open markets, or backdoor ways to limit market access.”

Highlighting aspects of the report, GRAIN states:

Across the world, people are getting sick and dying from food like never before. Governments and corporations are responding with all kinds of rules and regulations, but few have anything to do with public health. The trade agreements, laws and private standards used to impose their version of ‘food safety’ only entrench corporate food systems that make us sick and devastate those that truly feed and care for people, those based on biodiversity, traditional knowledge, and local markets.

Monsanto Will Soon Be Allowed To Police Itself

Ariel Schwartz
Fast Company

Monsanto, enemy of organic farmers and anti-GMO advocates alike, will likely be allowed to conduct its own environmental studies as part of a two-year USDA experiment. But there is no good that can possibly come of an experiment where the company behind nearly every genetically modified crop in our daily diets is allowed to decide whether its products are causing any environmental harm. And Monsanto isn't the only biotech company that will be permitted to police itself.

As it stands, the USDA is responsible for assessing environmental impacts of new GMO crops. The agency has been lax about this, to say the least. In 2005, the USDA gave Monsanto the go-ahead to unleash its sugar beets before preparing an Environmental Impact Statement. This decision triggered a judge to rule that Monsanto sugar beet seedlings should be ripped from the ground.

Because the USDA is so bad at doing its job on time, the agency decided to see if anyone else was prepared to do its EIS work instead. And so it looks like the USDA will at least temporarily hand over environmental impact responsibilities to the biotech companies behind GMO crops. The pilot program will allow these companies to conduct their own environmental assessments of crops or outsource the work to contractors.

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With your help - Free speech in health science may become a reality

Craig Smith
Natural News

The Free Speech about Science (FSAS) Act, HR 1364, would change FDA regulations so that legitimate, peer-reviewed scientific studies can be referenced without changing the food's regulatory category to an unapproved drug. This will protect access to scientific information, and will protect your right to know about the healthy benefits of food and food supplements. The bill amends the appropriate sections of current law to allow the flow of legitimate scientific and educational information while still giving FDA and FTC the right to take action against misleading information and against false and unsubstantiated claims.

Gretchen DuBeau of the Executive and Legal Director of The Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH-USA) says this legislation is critical because "current FDA regulations prohibit dietary supplementmanufacturers and food producers from referring to any scientific studies on the health benefits of a food or natural substance."

The Codex Alimentarius Irradiated Food Cover-up

Radura symbol - Wiki Image

Updated excerpt from  
Codex Alimentarius -- The End of Health Freedom

Brandon Turbeville

Activist Post 

In the last article, I briefly discussed a proposal made by the FDA which was very similar to one made by Congress five years earlier. This proposal would have allowed production companies to use terms such as “electronically pasteurized” instead of “irradiated” and, going further, simply allow the food to be categorized as “pasteurized” with no indication whatsoever that the food had been subject to radiation.

The proposal made by the FDA in April, 2007 is an interesting one indeed. In the opening summary of the text, the FDA states that one of the purposes of the proposal is to make it so that “only those irradiated foods in which the irradiation causes a material change in the food, or a material change in the consequences that may result from the use of the food, bear the radura logo and the term ‘irradiation,’ or a derivative thereof, in conjunction with explicit language describing the change in the food or its conditions of use.”[1] 

While this may seem like a strengthening of a rule, in reality it is not. This proposal is merely another cover mechanism for the pretense of protecting the consumer with strong regulation, while allowing industry to do just what it wants, i.e. produce high levels of irradiated food to cover up unsanitary manufacturing practices.

U.S. government commits avian holocaust with mass poisoning of millions of birds

Mike Adams
Natural News

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is engaged in what can only be called an avian holocaust through its Bye Bye Blackbird program that has poisoned tens of millions of birds over the last decade. The USDA even reports the number of birds it has poisoned to death in a PDF document posted on the USDA website.

Anticipating the USDA possibly removing that document, we have posted a copy on NaturalNews servers at: http://www.naturalnews.com/files/US...

The original source URL of this file was: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_...

This document shows that, just in 2009, the following bird populations were poisoned and killed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, using taxpayer dollars:


(Listed as "Intentional" and "Killed / Euthanized") 

Brown-headed cowbirds: 1,046,109
European Starlings: 1,259,714
Red-winged blackbirds: 965,889
Canadian geese: 24,519
Grackles: 93,210
Pigeons: 96,297

...plus tens of thousands of crows, doves, ducks, falcons, finches, gulls, hawks, herons, owls, ravens, sparrows, swallows, swans, turkeys, vultures and woodpeckers, among other animals.

The chart even shows that the USDA "unintentionally" euthanized one Bald Eagle.

Also murdered in 2009 by the USDA are victims of other species:

27,000 beavers, 1700 bobcats, 81,000 coyotes, 2,000 gray foxes, 336 mountain lions, 1900 woodchucks, 130 porcupines, 12,000 raccoons, 20,000 squirrels, 30,000 wild pigs, 478 wolves.

See the list yourself at: http://www.naturalnews.com/files/US...

The mass-murdering U.S. government that disavows violence?
Keep in mind that murdering animals is an act of violence. Yet in the wake of the recentGiffords shooting, we have U.S. government officials running around screaming about how much they disavow violence, saying things like "violence should never be used to resolve problems."

But their actions say something different: Violence against non-human life forms is not only tolerated and approved by the federal government, but even encouraged. Through these mass killings of birds, cougars, ducks and other animals, the United States federal government is actively engaged in widespread acts of violence against nature, murdering literally millions of animals on an annual basis.

Keep in mind that the numbers shown above are only for 2009. A similar number of animals were killed by the USDA all the other years, too, going all the way back to the 1960's when the "Bye Bye Blackbird" program was first initiated.

By my estimates, the USDA has actively murdered at least 100 million animals in Americaover the last four decades, putting this on the scale of an animal holocaust and a crime against nature.

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Like the Patriot Act? You’re gonna love the Food Safety Modernization Act

Rady Ananda
Food Freedom

Down to the wire – the bill will likely be voted on this Monday, November 29. Farmers, slow food activists, natural food growers and distributors have all condemned the federal government seizing control of how food is grown and sold. Yet, every day, in corporate and first tier “alternative” media sites, support for the bill is promoted. Here’s why you shouldn’t fall for the psyops.

At Food Freedom, Global Research, The People’s Voice,Dissident Voice, Counter Currents, the Jeff Rense Program, Natural News, David Icke, Activist Post, What Really Happened, Before It’s News, Blacklisted News,InfoWars, Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, G. Edward Griffin, and (several more) we’ve covered S 510 extensively. We’ve summarized and detailed the bill’s sections, showing the effects. We’ve made the connections to Monsanto and the Rockefellers, and the move by elites to control every aspect of human life. They want us to eat chemically and genetically altered food.

We’ve exposed the physical, financial, social and environmental harm caused by their food plans, citing biological and social scientists.  Their Food “Safety” plan parallels the Patriot Acts; it is a raw power grab to alter and control how humans sustain themselves.

Here are some articles of note, in case you’re still unclear how devastating this bill will be for the US food supply: 

Tester Amendment to food ‘safety’ bill puts lipstick on a pig 
By Rady Ananda
The voice of controlled opposition wants Americans to believe that the Tester Amendment to S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, elevates the bill to something we should adopt. It isn’t The Tester Amendment amounts to putting lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig, and it still needs to be slaughtered.

Full Spectrum Dominance: 8 Examples of How the Government Is Taking Total Control of Our Food, Our Health, Our Money and Even Our Dignity
By Michael Snyder
Government has become a gluttonous, out of control behemoth that is gobbling up everything in sight and that is attempting to exert full spectrum dominance over our lives, including food control.

The New Politics of Starvation and Weaponized Food 
By Michael Vail
Weaponized genetically engineered food and food without nutrients are both weapons for a silent war.

Alex Jones and Mike Adams on GMOs, vaccines, farm raids, FDA, more (VIDEO)
Aired October 1, 2010

S 510 Food Safety? The FDA has killed far more people than contaminated eggs or lettuce
By Mike Adams
Proponents of Senate Bill 510 — the Food Safety and Modernization Act — keep trying to claim that we need the FDA to protect us from tainted food. But the FDA is responsible for far more deaths of Americans than all the terrorist events in the history of the world — combined.

S510 summaries from the around the web 
By Rady Ananda
Various organizations have posted their analysis of what the impact would be from S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, which was moved out of committee yesterday, for a full vote within 60 days. Drawing only from those which oppose S. 510, below are summaries of some of those analyses, along with a link to contact your Senators.

The most evil bill in American history
By Richard Smith
Food safety is a corporate lie, and already comes with violence against those providing safe food.

Propaganda Alert: AP reports Small Farms are Exempt from Food Safety Bill
By Activist Post
A day after the Food Safety Modernization Act (S.510) passed cloture with a vote of 74-25, the Associated Press put out some world-class propaganda claiming that “Some small farms would be exempt from government efforts to prevent foodborne illness under a Senate agreement on food safety legislation.”  That’s not quite true.

BREAKING: Senate votes cloture on S 510 – must now be voted on in 60 days
By Rady Ananda
By a vote of 74 to 25, at noon today, the U.S. Senate voted for cloture on S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, which means it must now be voted on in the full Senate within 60 days. All amendments to the controversial food control bill must be completed by that time.

S.510, alternative medicine and natural foods
By Suzana Megles
For too long, we have let government entities like the FDA call the shots on important things which reflect on our lives. And sadly many of us believe that the FDA is too cozy with big corporations as in the case of Monsanto and others. Monsanto has almost put a stranglehold on the rights of the small farmer. We are eating genetically modified foods. GM food is wrong in my opinion. If it is in yours as well, please e-mail your US Senators and ask them to OPPOSE S 510.

S 510 and Cancer
By Jeremy Lasko
High dose Vitamin C’s impact on a man in New Zealand is stunning and wonderful news being heard around the world. The behavior of the hospitals and medical establishment, on the other hand, is causing outrage.

What’s For Dinner? Corporate Food Tyranny
By Russ
S 510 has been the subject of great controversy, with many like me calling it a Food Tyranny bill, others dismissing this as overly alarmist. There’s nothing exaggerated in the alarm we raise, as we look at the evidence of the government’s stated ideology and its record of action to date.

Leaked trade agreements and hidden dangers of S 510: Corporations plan to end normal farming
By M. Gardner
Canada’s National Farmers Union wants the Canada-EU trade deal scrapped. US farmers face the same assault by agribusiness and the biotech industry under S 510.

FDA’s Ace in the Hole
By Pete Kennedy
Despite there being not even a single report of illness, the FDA has suspended the licenses of raw milk over positive tests for Listeria monocytogenes. S 510 would give the FDA more power to target raw food producers. http://wp.me/pyeD4-1fY

Be sure to read Linn Cohen-Cole’s early 2009 piece, Seeds – How to Criminalize Them.
And the piece from last April that put Food Freedom on the map: Steve Green’s

S 510 is hissing in the grass

For more articles, use S 510 as a search term on our site, and a few dozen more will show up.
So, the holidays are now upon us… eat well. On Friday, take action. Go towww.farmtoconsumer.org/stopS510 to use the online Reject S.510 petition to send a live email to your Legislators and local newspaper editor. 

Tell your Senators to protect local foods and vote against S.510.


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