Ukraine a Vector for GMO Poison’s Spread Through EU

Ulson Gunnar

When the Washington Post chooses to pen an insulting, condescending editorial targeting entire nations speaking up against Western impropriety, one can just as well assume the precise opposite of whatever narrative the Postis trying to push forward is true. 

Regarding American biotech companies and their attempts to infest the planet with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and in particular their attempts to corrupt the whole of Europe with their unwanted poison through a backdoor (Ukraine), has prompted Russia to speak up for their Eastern European neighbor. Up until the armed coup in 2013-2014, also known as the “Euromaidan,” Ukraine had adamantly rejected GMOs. 

With an obedient client regime now installed in Kiev, a series of political, economic and military decisions have been made that have more or less extinguished Ukraine as a sovereign nation state. Along with its extinguished sovereignty comes a complete lack of desire for self-preservation, and so, sowing one’s fields with genetically tainted, unsafe, literal poison goes from being adamantly avoided, to being openly embraced. 

Dear Farmers: U.S. is Now Importing Organic Corn to Satisfy Consumer Demand

Heather Callaghan

There are three things driving a surge in organic imports:

1. U.S. farmers have been systematically pushed into growing mostly GMO crops; grown primarily for fuel, animal feed and cheap processed foods. Russia even used our food supply as an example for the EU to dump us and join them instead. 
2. U.S. consumers are not only demanding fresh, organic produce as well as non-GMO convenience foods - but also want meat, dairy and eggs from animals that were fed non-GMO or organic feed.
3. Other countries primarily grow non-GE crops, and plenty of organic. They've got the goods and they reap the benefits of trade.  

This is ridiculous, as the U.S. could not only use a valuable export, but could honestly use a supportive, in-house product. Yet again, we find ourselves outsourcing for staples. Shouldn't our own farmers be benefiting from this rise in demand coming from their country? Yet again, farmers have been tricked and kicked by the very companies with which they sign agreements.

U.S. consumers are coming into awareness about how their food affects their health and want superior products, which sadly, aren't always available here...yet.

Monsanto is the Department of Homeland Security for food

Dees Illustration

Jon Rappoport

“Whenever people encounter a crazy idea, a high-flying absurd notion, they reject it out of hand. That’s the first impulse. ‘No, no one would believe that. It’s ridiculous.’ But as time passes, and this crazy idea is repeated over and over again, people make adjustments to their own minds. ‘Well, maybe it’s true, a lot of important authorities accept it, so maybe I should accept it. I guess it does make sense.’ This is the process of buying a cover story, buying an egregious lie meant to obscure a hidden truth.”(The Underground, Jon Rappoport) 

Being the US government means being on permanent wartime status. 

Wherever it is possible to fantasize enemies, enemies are there. They must be conquered. They must be stopped. 

It’s a vast cover story that, among other benefits, provides enormous profits to the military industrial complex. 

Here’s an addition to the cover story: to accomplish this war on everything that moves, advanced technology must be deployed—and those who resist the omnipresence and domination of the technology are considered potential terrorists. 

Even a small organic American farmer on an acre of land can qualify as a threat, because he appears to oppose the technology of genetic engineering, as it applies to food crops. 

No, Really, Monsanto Has a "Discredit Bureau"

A company functionary discusses Monsanto's 'Ministry of Truth'

Heather Callaghan

Monsanto company arguably holds an inordinate amount of the global food supply, not only with its genetically engineered seed but its complimentary product, Roundup herbicide, which contains the active ingredient glyphosate.

Which is why they spat lividly when a subset of WHO publicly announced that glyphosate is a probably cause of cancer. They demanded a retraction. The report published in The Lancet Oncology discussed chromosomal and DNA damage, and glyphosate found in human blood and intestines. Catherine Frompovich expounds on it in What’s Your “Daily Value” of Glyphosate?

Since they hold more capital than Lucifer, it stands to reason they would have a propaganda wing that disseminates information and decimates those who stand in the way. Snippets of proof have surfaced before. Although shrouded in secrecy, this time someone from the company got a little too gleeful at the thought of "debunking" naysayers whether they be scientists, activists, bloggers or you.

What’s Your “Daily Value” of Glyphosate?

Dees Illustration

Catherine J. Frompovich

Do readers know what glyphosate is? Or, what the Daily Value (DV) is? Are you aware that there are glyphosate residues present in almost every food or edible product U.S. consumers eat? However, as yet, there are no minimum or maximum Daily Values for dietary intake guidelines designated by the U.S. FDA or any other federal health agency for glyphosate—a toxic herbicide in foods—intake, as there are for “Guidance for Industry: A Food Labeling Guide (14. Appendix F: Calculate the Percent Daily Value for the Appropriate Nutrients).”Maybe there ought to be such guidelines, since U.S. consumers are eating glyphosate residues in incalculable amounts in just about 85 to 90 percent of all processed foods! 

It is my understanding that no one’s figured out how much glyphosate we consume on a daily basis as yet. 

Why should we know how much glyphosate we are ingesting? 

Study: New GM Soybean Oil and Non-GMO Are Terrible Compared to This Oil

Heather Callaghan

Unfortunately, many Americans simply skim headlines. They might even share information based solely on headlines. And it's almost like both the media and research communities know this when they choose a headline. Especially when they choose headlines that have a deliberately opposite meaning than the content therein.

When this writer came across headlines that suggested a new genetically engineered soybean oil was healthier to humans than conventional soybean oil - she just had to bite and see what is the newest GMO claim.

"How healthy is genetically modified soybean oil?" one asks innocently. Another says GE soybean oils is slightly healthier than conventional implying that both are a part of a complete breakfast.

The Debate over the Health & Safety of GMOs Is Not Over!

Catherine J. Frompovich

DEADLINE MARCH 12: Tell BIO’s Dr. Cathleen Enright How You Feel about Being Forced to Eat GMO ‘Food’ 

The information below is copied and pasted from OCA’s TAKE ACTION Petition

When Organic Consumers Association was invited to be on a panel Cathleen Enright, executive vice president food & agriculture, for the Biotech Industry Organization (BIO), at the “Southbites: Feed Your Mind” session during Austin’s South-by-Southwest (SXSW) Interactive, we jumped at the chance.

But after we’d accepted the invitation, an organizer at SXSW told us that Enright had vetoed our participation.

We called Enright to confirm that she was controlling who was on the panel, and that OCA was not welcome. Her explanation? OCA has “demonized” GMO food technology and she was not interested in a debate on the health and safety of GMOs.

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).

Guatemala Rejects U.S. Trade Law Protecting Monsanto and GMOs

Heather Callaghan

Big Biotech's promise to feed the world, by squeezing out every other choice against the will of the impoverished people intended as the target - is beyond cruel and exploitative. It is another way that the U.S. occupies other countries. How else are other people in these countries supposed to view multiple soft-sanctions on food, but as an act of war?

The people of Guatemala caught on to the deceptive nature of a U.S. Trade Agreement with Central America which was marketed as a way to "modernize" them. It also pretends to protect new seed varieties and paints the seed bearers in need of protection as small farmers. It is actually a way for big biotech and seed companies like Monsanto, DuPont, Duwest, Syngenta, etc. to assume power and immunity as owners of their food supply.

Guatemala is calling it "Monsanto Law." It does bear resemblance to the "Monsanto Protection Act" which was a rider slipped into a U.S. financial bill last year, now considered dead.

Russia Moves to Toughen GMO Food Sanctions, Introduces Fines for Vague Labeling

image source

Heather Callaghan

Close on the heels of  their new food import bans, Russia is enacting stricter methods to keep GMOs off the table.

Russia has a consumer safety watchdog group called Rospotrebnadzor - also known as the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare.

Russia's Government Legislative Commission has just approved Rospotrebnadzor’s proposal to further toughen sanctions and for the introduction of fines for unclear or inappropriately labeled genetically modified food, RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday.

Forbes Calls Consumer Reports Anti-Science in a Pro-GMO Rant That…Lacks Science

Daisy Luther

Forbes Magazine is known for its lists of the wealthiest people and companies.  Frequently they use their influence to slyly support their big dollar buddies in the biotech industry.

Forbes successfully plumbed a new depth with an attack on Consumer Reports magazine last week.

Consumer Reports did an article ranking different milk substitutes for its readers.  In that report, they (gasp) referred to the inclusion of GMOs as a “con” in their review on soy milk.

GMO Golden Rice: The Scourge of Asia

Ulson Gunnar

Asia’s dependency on rice cultivation for both subsidence and income is intuitively understood. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates the agricultural population of lowland rice cultivation in Asia to be over 470 million - larger than the entire population of the United States. Improvements in rice cultivation would stand to lift hundreds of millions from debt and poverty. Conversely, the disruption of rice cultivation would threaten to mire hundreds of millions in deeper debt, inescapable destitution, and all of the negative socioeconomic implications that follow. 

Asia’s rice farmers produce between 1-2 harvests a year depending on the climb and climate of any given region. They do so to sell their rice, generally to mills who in turn sell the final product to exporters or for domestic consumption. Out of each harvest, rice farmers keep a portion for their own consumption, but the vast majority of what they grow is for income. 

The UK-based Rice Association claims there are up to 40,000 species of rice, with a wide variety of characteristics suitable for different markets and uses. Rice farmers grow those which local, national and regional markets are best suited to move. In nations where subsidies are offered for rice crops, cheap, easy to grow varieties are chosen. More desirable or exotic species are grown by independent farmers who have developed their own cooperative with millers, marketers and exporters. The rice Asians eat depends on both economic and market realities. The impoverished eat what is cheapest and most easily available, but not necessarily that which is healthiest. 

Enter GMO: Problem, Reaction, Solution 

John Kerry to Starving Africans: ‘Don’t Build New Farms, Just Plant More GMO’

Melissa Melton

“You better eat everything on your plate, dear. There are children starving in Africa.”

How many kids in first world countries have likely heard their mom utter that phrase at the dinner table at least once? It may be an overused image, but that doesn’t make it any less valid. There really are lots of starving children in Africa.

Well, this week Secretary of State John Kerry took to the podium at the U.S.—Africa Leaders Summit to say that Africans shouldn’t build more farms because that would contribute to man-made global warming through a process that “releases significant amounts of carbon pollution”.

No, instead, they should just make existing lands “more productive”:

Jeffrey Smith Challenges Neil deGrasse Tyson on GMOs

Heather Callaghan

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson made waves last week with a video and Facebook letter aimed at critics of genetically modified organisms in food. His argument spun the idea that the process to achieve a GMO is exactly the same as traditional agricultural techniques.

There were writers who called him out on enmeshing genetically engineered organisms (transgenics) in crops with traditional practices of selective breeding. In "round three" of Tyson's statements he continues the enmeshment. Jeffrey Smith, founder of Institute for Responsible Technology, has challenged that basis below.

To use an analogy from Brandon Turbeville in Codex Alimentarius: The End of Health Freedom:

...This argument would be akin to claiming that breeding of humans of different ethnic backgrounds is the same as breeding between humans and horses.

Obviously, you can see that "genetic modification" holds two completely different meanings in that context. But Tyson wants everyone to believe it is all the same practice "for tens of thousands of years." That people concerned about the GMO method are rejecting all of history's agricultural gains due to lab-phobia.

Neil Young: Chemical Factory Farming Threatens the "Garden of the World"

Heather Callaghan

While people have been torn over beloved astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's recent comments on genetically modified organisms, another beloved Neil took a stand - largely unnoticed.

While Tyson claims he never took a side, he still holds that genetic engineering is no different than what we've been doing for tens of thousands of years. One gets the impression from his view that corporatism and science become one for survival - despite negative consequences - and anyone who objects can go back to...being backward? Neil Young took an entirely different point-of-view, putting himself in the boots of that oft-forgotten group that gets left holding the bag in this mix: the farmer! Did his speech inspire them? Not at first...

Did he really suggest that Monsanto, the chemical conglomerates, industrialists and the big bankers are responsible for...? His argument below is unique, to say the least.

Neil deGrasse Tyson Thinks GMOs Originated 10,000 Years Ago?

Not a god.

Heather Callaghan

Of course not - he is, after all, a PhD - but he will let fans think that.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, Cosmoshost, and is beloved for his sense of humor and putting complex concepts into layman's terms. He is an Internet sensation as the subject of memes and is paid homage in YouTube video series like Epic Rap Battles of History.

After a talk, a French journalist asked Tyson - allegedly about genetic modification. Tyson told GMO critics to "chill out," but had more to say about how we have always altered the world's biology to serve us for tens of thousands of years.

 

There are major problems with the logic presented in this clip and his response to the backlash.

Oregon to Vote on GMO Food Labeling This November

Heather Callaghan

Earlier this year, two Oregon cities voted at the ordinance level to ban GMO cultivation.

This November, Oregon state residents will have the ability to vote on whether they want genetically modified foods labeled - or not.

There has been an outpouring of interest among Oregonians to vote "Yea" on GMO labeling as evidenced by the petition to get the issue on the ballot.

Monsanto Paid Female Bloggers to Attend Panel

Heather Callaghan

Writers are often barraged with email invites to attend conferences to become better writers with promises that, in time, their efforts will produce a lucrative income. There are niche writing workshops as well, such as "food blogging." The hitch, of course, is that one must pay for tickets to enter said workshop.

In a notable flipside, however, Monsanto recently paid female bloggers $150 if they attended "an intimate and interactive panel." The goal here not being a way to a successful writing career, but rather an incentivized way to shape public opinion.

The invite target? Women ... Perhaps those of the ever-growing "Mommy Blogger" persuasion?

Glyphosate Detected in Deformed Piglets

Heather Callaghan

In April, a Danish farmer called for a ban on glyphosate. For three years he had used non-GMO soy feed for his pig herds, but when he ran out, he ordered two tons of GM soy feed. His herdsman immediately told the farmer of diarrhea in the piglets and lack of appetite in the sows. He had not told the herdsman of the feed switch.

Worse, he began noticing an absurd amount of deformed piglets and reproductive problems in the sows.  Roundup is used on GMO soy shortly before it is used as pig feed.

But that's not all - he brought 38 malformed piglets to a laboratory. In a research project by German and Egypt Veterinarian doctors using ELISA testing, differing levels of glyphosate (aka Roundup herbicide, by Monsanto) concentrations were discovered in piglets born from sows eating genetically modified soy feed.

Monsanto/FDA: 2 crime families, trillion-dollar hustle

Dees Illustration

Jon Rappoport

“The propagandists who actually decide the content of mainstream news have done a bang-up job on Monsanto. They’ve made it seem that the science for and against GMO crops is a swamp of uncertainty no one can decipher. Therefore, leave it alone. Don’t step into it. This omits one stunning circumstance: exactly how GMO crops were permitted into the US food supply in the first place.”(The Underground, Jon Rappoport) 

Perhaps you remember the Just-Label-It campaign. A number of activist groups petitioned the FDA for a federal regulation that would make labeling GMO food mandatory all across America. 

The petition amassed over a million signatures. But the FDA decided only 394 of these were legitimate, because all the others were electronically submitted in one document. 

Infuriating? Of course. But that was nothing.