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).

Beemageddon: Syngenta Wants Increase in Pesticide Levels

Chris Carrington

Syngenta is asking federal regulators to increase the allowable levels of some pesticides, even though experts have linked the chemicals to massive bee die offs.

The company wants the Environmental Protection Agency to pass an increase of 4.9 parts per million of thiamethoxan. The current allowable level is 0.1ppm, Syngenta wants it increased to 5.0ppm. You can read the details on the regulations.gov website which published the request on September 5th. The request itself was filed on August 22nd.

Tiffany Stacker of E&E reports:

Tainted Fruit - Watch Out For This Hidden Ingredient

Heather Callaghan

Case reveals possible allergy to this hidden fruit and veggie residue.

A 10-year-old girl has a history of asthma, seasonal allergies and anaphylaxis when exposed to cow's milk or penicillin.

She sat down to eat a blueberry pie, with none of those ingredients.

One bout of anaphylactic shock later, led allergist researchers to dig deeper for the trigger ingredient.

What they found concerns us all, and you'll never find it on a label. And not it's not just pesticides.

This Discovery Makes Bee Die-Off Problem That Much Worse

Heather Callaghan

Many arrows point to the bee decline. A Harvard professor recently warned that Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is only the beginning for us. The ripple effect from new classes of pesticides is just getting started.

But there's more...

The problems they face can be compared to a kaleidoscope, where the shapes are layered, interconnected, many and morphing.

It's not only pesticides that lead to pollinator death - it's more. It's other things, the combination of things, thought to be harmless to bees and to humans.

Harvard Professor Warns, CCD is Only the First Alarm Bell from Bees

Anthony Freda Art

Heather Callaghan

While chemical corporations and critics of bee activists want people to remain focused on addressing symptoms of colony collapse disorder, and fund research aimed at that goal, one Harvard PhD stands out as he presses on pesticides.

Researcher and Harvard professor, Chengsheng (Alex) Lu,  has been outspoken about the effects of neonicotinoid pesticides and their contribution to colony collapse disorder. Especially so, since conducting his own tests for a number of years now. 

But he now warns that a pollinator drop could be the least our worries at this point. That it may be a sign of things to come - bees acting as the canary in the coalmine. That not only are we connected to bees through our food supply, but that the plight that so afflicts them may very well soon be our own.

Look Again: Who is Behind UK's Initiative to "Help the Bees"?

Anthony Freda Art

Heather Callaghan

With friends like these...

Recently I wrote about a large Canada-wide surveillance initiative: Look Who's Behind This Large Study to "Help the Bees". Following the money trail, one could see that Canada's government was placing "hope" for an answer unto major international biotech and agricultural companies such as Monsanto, BASF, Bayer, Syngenta etc... The very same companies whose chemical products are implicated for diminishing bee populations and have everything to gain by "finding" an answer that doesn't point back to them.

Does that seem like a gross conflict of interest to you?

It may or may not surprise you to know that similar shadow puppeteering is going on in the UK.

Pesticide Exposure Linked to Autism Spectrum Disorder

Heather Callaghan

Based on the sheer amount of research studies available dating back to the 1950s on the association between industrial chemicals and neurobehavioral disorders - it makes sense that more recent studies are finally starting to emphasize the chemical/neurodevelopmental disorder connection. That is, additional links to keynotes seen in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and ADHD symptomology. 

Many agricultural pesticides are, after all, neurotoxic - that's how they work on eradicating the intended pest. While regulatory and corporate entities continue to espouse their safety, and while farmers are encouraged to wear protective gear - how are levels of chemical plume to be regulated for individuals who live right near application sites? What about the effects on the developing fetus?

UC Davis researchers in tandem with MIND Institute found a connection between pregnant women living in close proximity of California pesticide applications and later diagnoses of ASD and other developmental delays.

Two Ways Bird Declines Are Linked to Chemical Pesticides

Heather Callaghan
Activist Post

Netherlands researchers fear the second coming of Silent Spring

"Neonicotinoids were always regarded as selective toxins. But our results suggest that they may affect the entire ecosystem," says Hans de Kroon of Radboud University and co-author of a study recently published in Nature journal.

It's not just the bees. There are at least two ways that neonicotinoid pesticides dramatically affect the bird population.

Monsanto Baseball: Escaping Accountability in Corporate America

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‘Rider’ in House Bill Seeks to Let Dow Keep Spraying Fluoride Pesticide on Our Food

Melissa Melton

Does the government even pass a bill anymore unless it benefits mega corporations and places profits over people?

First the Supreme Court ruled that pharmaceutical companies are exempt from lawsuits. Then a Monsanto rider magically found its way into a non-related 2013 Senate spending bill.

Now, a rider protecting Dow Chemical’s sulfuryl fluoride pesticide (known by the market name Vikane) has found its way into the 2014 House Appropriations Bill to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from phasing out the chemical’s use on the U.S. food supply.



Back Story

In 2011, the EPA announced tolerance levels for the chemical fumigant sulfuryl fluoride would be phased out:

The 10 GMO Myths That Monsanto Wants You To Believe

Daisy Luther

Monsanto and their biotech buddies would have you believe that they are super-heroes, set on saving hungry children from starvation wearing a dazzling fake-green cape. In fact, in a recent attack on activists, Monsanto’s CEO Hugh Grant said that because critics “can afford” organic food, we don’t care about the plight of those who can’t afford it. “There is this strange kind of reverse elitism: If I’m going to do this, then everything else shouldn’t exist,” said Grant. “There is space in the supermarket shelf for all of us.”

Even Monsanto’s website is on the defense, with page after page attempting to justify what the biotech industry is doing to our food supply. It must be true if even leading “philanthropists” (and I use this term loosely) like Bill and Melinda Gates are behind the distribution of Monsanto crops across the globe. Right?

Actually, it’s all about the public’s perception. The push for acceptance of GMO foods has, thus far, been all about which team has the most money. Monsanto and their ilk can afford more television ads and more PR than anti-GMO activists can. Because the biotech companies, Big Food, and Big Agri can pay to spread their message, many people are convinced by their pure propaganda that GMOs are a necessary evil if the Third World is to avoid millions of slow, agonizing deaths by starvation. Because biotech is able to afford to blanket the media with their perspective, their view point is accepted as the correct one because that is the only perspective that many people ever hear.

But just because they shout the loudest, that doesn’t make it true.

Honeybee Extinction = Global Collapse

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Corn pesticides are killing off waves of honeybees, and the effects could spell disaster for life on Earth. Will the pollinators of most of our plants get wiped out by mankind and take us with them?


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Nearly 40 Million 'Bee Holocaust' in Canada

Image

Heather Callaghan

Imagine you own and run an all-natural sweetener factory. You walk into work and all the employees are sprawled out dead - on the floors, over railings, in the vats. They've been gassed; poisoned. Your immune system is slightly stronger so you aren't as affected. Now imagine you have tens of millions of employees and they run farms on the side. That city and the metropolitan areas would be devastated - and it happens in other cities, and other countries - simultaneously for seven years. Think of the headlines and the conclusions - the words "terror attack" would be tossed about. But they aren't there; the gravity is downplayed to protect corporate interests and an agenda that must destroy the ecology, environment, and the food supply to usher in  a new era that requires complete debilitating dependence.

If you think this reframe sounds over dramatic - think again. It's that important for the food supply, ecology, and even the economy that these co-creators be able to survive.

Recently 25-50,000 bees in Oregon dropped dead with strong evidence pointing to a toxic spray used in trees. The UK just witnessed their biggest bee loss yet, and it's been suggested that the U.S. lost 50% of its bee population in the last year - affecting both crops and prices. Now we see a massive loss with our neighbors up north in Canada....

Codex Alimentarius Permits a Wide Range of Dangerous Chemicals in Food

image source

Brandon Turbeville

In my past few articles, I have discussed the documented adverse health effects related to pesticide use [1], the difference between general pesticides and POPs [2] (Persistent Organic Pollutants), and the requirements that must be met [3] in order for the designation of POP to be applied to a specific pesticide.

With all of this in mind, one may be surprised that Codex Alimentarius actually allows for the presence of such dangerous chemicals in food. Before explaining this position, however, it is important to note some of the background regarding POPs, the Stockholm Convention, and, finally, the Codex Alimentarius POP guidelines themselves.

In 2001, The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants was adopted with the stated goals of eliminating or reducing the production and use of POPs. The Stockholm Convention entered into force in 2004 and is overseen by the United Nations Environment Program. The Conference of the Parties of the Stockholm Convention (COP) manages the POPs Convention with each of the members of the Stockholm Convention being the members of the COP. The function of the members of the Convention is to implement the obligations of the treaty at the national level.

Although 50 countries have ratified the treaty, the U.S. is not one of them. However, the U.S. has largely begun to implement the treaty on the national level. This has been accomplished through a series of national laws and other international agreements.

USDA Organic Infant Formula Contains Pesticide Labeled As A "Nutrient"

Sayer Ji

The USDA organic label is supposed to protect the consumer against GMOs and avoidable chemical exposures, but the sobering fact is that USDA-certified infant formula manufacturers are not only being allowed to use a pesticide in their formulas, but are advertising it as a 'healthy' mineral to unsuspecting consumers.

Unbeknownst to the vast majority of U.S. consumers, the nutritional adequacy of infant formula it not determined by its ability to support and produce health in those who receive it, as would be expected. Instead, it is deemed nutritionally adequate solely by virtue of it containing minimum quantities of a list of 29 nutrients, without specifying or even acknowledging the significant qualitative differences that exist between minerals in the form of nutrients and those in the form of industrial chemicals, e.g. amino acid-chelated forms of iron (iron glycinate) are much safer than relatively inorganic forms (ferrous oxide). Surprisingly, all that regulators do is ensure that those ingredients are there in the amounts deemed necessary, and that some basic quality control measures are followed during the manufacturing process.

Multiple Scientific Studies Link Pesticides to Cancer

image source

Brandon Turbeville

In my article, “Pesticide Content In Food Less Regulated By Codex Than Vitamins and Minerals,” I briefly discussed the connection between commonly used pesticides and neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease. In addition, I mentioned the rather contradictory position held regarding the use of such pesticides, which banned their commercial use in some aspects, but continues to tacitly allow their use in food production.

However, neurological diseases are not the only negative side effects presented by Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) or general pesticides. Indeed, pesticides have been linked to cancer as well.

For instance, a study published in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, found that exposure to certain pesticides doubled an individual’s risk of developing Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS) compared to individuals in the general population.[1] MGUS is a “pre-cancerous condition that can lead to multiple layer myeloma which is a painful cancer of the plasma cells the bone marrow.”[2] When one is diagnosed with MGUS, the patient requires life-long monitoring because MGUS is a condition that virtually every multiple layer myeloma patient experiences prior to developing the myeloma.[3]

The People's Movement Against Monsanto

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Monsanto is a company feared and reviled by the public in equal measure. But whatever cases Monsanto has lost in the court of public opinion it has made up for in the courts of justice thanks to its revolving door with the upper reaches of Washington. Now, a new movement is seeking to galvanize grassroots resistance to the corporation, and derail its agenda.


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Roundup: Birth Defects Caused By World's Top-Selling Weedkiller, Scientists Say

Insecticide Spraying - Wikimedia Commons Image

Lucia Graves 
Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- The chemical at the heart of the planet’s most widely used herbicide -- Roundup weedkiller, used in farms and gardens across the U.S. -- is coming under more intense scrutiny following the release of a new report calling for a heightened regulatory response around its use.

Critics have argued for decades that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup and other herbicides used around the globe, poses a serious threat to public health. Industry regulators, however, appear to have consistently overlooked their concerns.

A comprehensive review of existing data released this month by Earth Open Source, an organization that uses open-source collaboration to advance sustainable food production, suggests that industry regulators in Europe have known for years that glyphosate, originally introduced by American agricultural biotechnology giant Monsanto in 1976, causes birth defects in the embryos of laboratory animals.

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Factory Farms Produce 100 Times More Waste Than All People In the US Combined

"Factory farms are dangerous to the environment; they are ticking time bombs of manure just waiting to be spilled into public waters."

Jill Richardson
AlterNet

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently delivered a major victory to factory farms. Under a 2008 EPA rule, any confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) "designed, constructed, operated, and maintained in a manner such that the CAFO will discharge" animal waste must apply for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit under the Clean Water Act. The livestock industry ridiculed the notion that a farm must apply for a permit to discharge manure whether it intended to discharge it or not. And while, when phrased that way, it might sound ridiculous to you too, the details of the case betray a different story.

David Kirby, author of Animal Factory, The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment, tells story after story in his book of factory farms discharging waste irresponsibly -- sometimes on purpose, and sometimes not. As Karen Hudson, whose story is told in the book, says, "Factory farms are dangerous to the environment; they are ticking time bombs of manure just waiting to be spilled into public waters."

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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