VIDEO REPORT PBS Newshour, March 05, 105 THE DEADLY TOXIC LEGACY OF MONSANTO'S "AGENT ORANGE" Fifty years since the first major American combat unit was deployed to Vietnam, the lethal legacies of war still haunt generations of civilians in that country. Special correspondent Mike Cerre, who served in that conflict, reports from Danang about some Americans who have returned in hopes of making a difference.
Agent Orange, the defoliant used extensively by the American military during the war, contains dioxin, a dangerous compound believed to cause birth defects and cancers in Vietnamese families and American veterans. "We’re seeing more and more of the genetic results of Agent Orange. These two boys are third-generation victims. And I see it in our own veterans’ families back in the U.S. The problems have been skipping generations. Grandchildren and now great-grandchildren are being born with problems as a result of the genetic issue with Agent Orange."
▶ 2,4-D :THE NEXT "ROUNDUP" GENERATION.....Michael Pollan: "Don't miss this VIDEO, about the next wave of herbicide-tolerant crops from Monsanto-- will make Round-Up look benign" -▶ WATCH -▶
▶ THE CHILD VICTIMS OF AGRICULTURAL PESTICIDE POISONING - PESTICIDE INDUSTRY DISMISSIVEhttp://sco.lt/8KO8GH
Environmental Working Group, June 02, 2014 ▶ 2,4-D HERBICIDE & GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CROPShttp://www.ewg.org/24D
GRAIN, May 26, 2014 ▶ 2,4-D SOY: WAGING WAR ON PEASANTSGlobal attempts by Dow AgroSciences to gain approval for new genetically-modified soybean varieties resistant to the herbicide 2,4-D have become particularly aggressive in recent months. Simultaneous applications have been filed in several of the countries where genetically engineered crops (GE or transgenic crops or GMOs) were introduced in the 1990s. The push for approval of new transgenics is part of a broader strategy by agribusiness to make the world’s farms increasingly dependent on its toxic herbicides, thus increasing the profits it derives from selling these chemicals. The current situation is a rerun of the 1990s’ introduction of Roundup Ready (glyphosate-resistant) crops, only this time the herbicides in question are much more toxic. These weed-killers have been around for a longer time and the case for their hazardousness to human health and the environment has been well documented.http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4945-2-4-d-soy-waging-war-on-peasants
ROUNDUP - THE ULTIMATE KILLING MACHINE
MONSANTO'S INSECTICIDE "ROUNDUP" LINKED TO PARKINSON'S, INFERTILITY AND CANCERShttp://sco.lt/4pt9tJ
▶ DOW WANTS FAST TRACKING TO INTRODUCE TOXIC, MORE POWERFUL, PESTICIDE. A U.S. farmer group on Tuesday dropped its opposition to efforts by Dow AgroSciences to roll out a new biotech crop system in exchange for some concessions by Dow, including help investigating any accidental crop damage.... http://planetark.org/wen/66513
▶ MONSANTO'S AGENT ORANGE LEGACY: THE SCOURGE OF VIETNAMDecades after the Vietnam War, victims wither away with scant efforts being made to tackle the deadly chemicals manufactured by Monsanto and Dow Chemicalhttp://thediplomat.com/2014/07/agent-orange-legacy-scourges-vietnam/
Investigative Reporting Workshop, December 21, 2012
▶ WHITE HOUSE STALLS CRITICAL EPA REPORT HIGHLIGHTING CHEMICAL DANGERS TO CHILDREN - AMID FIERCE OPPOSITION FROM CHEMICAL INDUSTRY A landmark Environmental Protection Agency report concluding that children exposed to toxic substances can develop learning disabilities, asthma and other health problems has been sidetracked indefinitely amid fierce opposition from the chemical industry.
▶ MONSANTO ROUNDUP: BIG AG PESTICIDES AND THE IMPACTS OF GLYPHOSATE HERBICIDE ON HUMAN HEALTH The foodstuffs of the Western diet, primarily grown by industrial agriculture, are increasingly being produced using a two-part system of engineered plant seeds and toxic chemical application. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. http://www.globalresearch.ca/monsanto-roundup-the-impacts-of-glyphosate-herbicide-on-human-health-pathways-to-modern-diseases/5342520
========================
▶ PESTICIDE CHEMICAL REGULATION OVERHAUL NEEDED TO PROTECT WILDLIFE, ECOSYSTEMS AND FOOD CHAINhttp://sco.lt/813dw1
▶ PESTICIDE LOBBY SPENDS MILLIONS TO DEFEND CHEMICALS TIED TO BEE DEATH AND HUMAN HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/8nhcsT
--- WATCH ---
A Must see VIDEO for all. GenetistDr. David Suzuki
WHAT IS GENETIC ENGINEERING
"WHAT ARE ROUNDUP READY & Bt PESTICIDE GMO CROPS?"
▶ CORNSTALKS EVERYWHERE BUT NOTHING ELSE, NOT EVEN A BEE
Corn farmers champion corn. Anything that might eat corn, hurt corn, bother corn, is killed. Their corn is bred to fight pests. The ground is sprayed. The stalks are sprayed again. We've erased everything else. (AND WE EAT THIS TOXIC FOOD?)
We need to feed our planet, of course. But we also need the teeny creatures that drive all life on earth. There's something strange about a farm that intentionally creates a biological desert to produce food for one species: us. It's efficient, yes. But it's so efficient that the ants are missing, the bees are missing, and even the birds stay away. Something's not right here. Our cornfields are too quiet....http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/11/29/166156242/cornstalks-everywhere-but-nothing-else-not-even-a-bee
Summit County Citizens Voice, March 01, 2015 -▶ NEW GLOBAL MAP IDs PESTICIDE POLLUTION HOT SPOTS. The world has a long way to go to come to grips with pesticide pollution say scientists who recently created a global map showing which areas are most susceptible.Their modeling suggests that streams across about 40 percent of the planet’s surface are at risk from the application of insecticides, with the Mediterranean region, the USA, Central America and Southeast Asia among the hotspots...On average, farmers apply about 4 million tons of agricultural pesticides annually,...We know from earlier investigations for example that pesticides can reduce the biodiversity of invertebrates in freshwater ecosystems by up to 42 percent...
Pesticide Action Group, March 12, 2014 -▶ THE BIG 6: BIGGER AND BADDER.The public comment period for Dow's new genetically engineered, 2,4-D-resistant corn and soy closed March 11, 2014. And despite comments from nearly 400,000 concerned individuals and farmers urging otherwise, USDA has signaled it will likely greenlight these new GE crops.http://www.panna.org/blog/big-6-bigger-badder
▶ CULTIVATING SANITY : BANGLADESH FARMERS TURN BACK THE CLOCK TO COMBAT CLIMATE STRESSED CROPS - Cultivation of the old varieties is expanding in part because they need almost no chemical fertiliser or pesticides - which makes them cheaper and easier to grow - and because their yields are good in tough conditions.http://www.trust.org/item/20141126125124-0i6go
▶ 2,4-D :THE NEXT "ROUNDUP" GENERATION.....Michael Pollan: "Don't miss this VIDEO, about the next wave of herbicide-tolerant crops from Monsanto-- will make Round-Up look benign" -▶ WATCH -▶
Environmental Working Group, June 02, 2014 ▶ 2,4-D HERBICIDE & GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CROPShttp://www.ewg.org/24D
GRAIN, May 26, 2014 -▶ 2,4-D SOY: WAGING WAR ON PEASANTS. To study the history of how GMOs were forced upon us is to discover that we have come down the wrong road. Herbicide-resistant weeds have become a major problem, yet, during the first GE decade, corporations routinely denied their existencehttp://www.grain.org/article/entries/4945-2-4-d-soy-waging-war-on-
Guardian Environment, January 29, 2014 ▶ MONARCH BUTTERFLY DECLINE LEADS TO WARNING OVER FAMED MIGRATION. INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE FAULTED - Low levels in central Mexico blamed on Big Agriculture disappearance of the Monarchs's milkweed breeding grounds in US and Canadahttp://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/29/monarch-butterfly-decline-mexico
EcoWatch, March 06, 2014 ▶ RENOWNED NYU PROFESSOR: GMOs COULD LITERALLY DESTROY THE PLANET:What effects will the genetic manipulation of nature have on our worldwide ecosystem? http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/06/nyu-gmos-destroy-planet/
- ▶ MORE THAN HALF OF U.S. RIVERS ARE TOO POLLUTED TO SUPPORT LIFE AS SHOCKING REPORT REVEALS SCALE OF WATER CONTAMINATIONhttp://sco.lt/5JvEi9
WATCH
Emmy Award Winning 1 hr Film - University of Minnesota
▶ "TROUBLED WATERS: A MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORY" ▶ This excellent one hour documentary examines the "unintended consequences" of farming practices on water quality, soil loss and the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. Knitting together federal energy, farm and environmental policies, the film makes a compelling case for the revamping of US agricultural policy. Through beautiful photography and inspiring narrative, the film puts deliberate emphasis on solutions and provides a hopeful blueprint for progress and positive change... http://www.rememberthispoint.com/?p=212
65 BILLION ANIMALS RAISED IN CORPORATE CONCENTRATION PENS: DRUGS, GMO FEED AND AG-GAG LAWS TO IMPACT US ALL
Today, nearly 65 BILLION animals worldwide, including cows, chickens and pigs, are crammed into CAFOs (Confined Animal Feed Lots). These animals are literally imprisoned and tortured in unhealthy, unsanitary and unconscionably cruel conditions. Sickness is the norm for animals who are confined rather than pastured, and who eat GMO corn and soybeans, rather than grass and forage as nature intended. To prevent the inevitable spread of disease from stress, overcrowding and lack of vitamin D, animals are fed a steady diet of antibiotics. Those antibiotics pose a direct threat to the environment when they run off into our lakes, rivers, aquifers and drinking water.
The vast majority of consumers don’t realize that nearly 95% of the meat, dairy and eggs sold in the U.S. come from CAFOs. Nor do most people realize that CAFOs represent a corporate-controlled system characterized by large-scale, centralized, low profit-margin production, processing and distribution systems....http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/17-5
David Hogan, February 19, 2014 -▶ THE AG-GAG REFLEX: THE ANIMAL ENTERPRISE TERRORISM ACT'S IMPACT ON US ALL. On November 27, 2006, after heavy lobbying by the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) was quietly signed into law. The AETA makes it a terrorist offense to engage in certain speech and activity that causes an “animal enterprise” the loss of real or personal property. (There is a dispute as to whether the term ‘loss of property’ means ‘loss of profits.’) ....http://davidhoganwriter.com/2014/02/19/the-ag-gag-reflex-the-animal-enterprise-terrorism-
WATCH; "DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM [HBO] (2009) 1:27:25
Directors Tom Simon and Sarah Teale (HBOs Dealing Dogs) tell the story of an animal rights investigator who goes undercover at hog farm in Ohio to explore a whistle blowers allegations. The evidence he gathers leads to a rare prosecution and trial for animal cruelty, and a verdict that surprises nearly everyonehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfiolWwzD94
- ▶ ANTI-WHISTLE BLOWER AG-GAG BILLS AIMED AT KEEPING YOU IN THE DARK ABOUT FACTORY FARMS AND YOUR FOOD http://sco.lt/7aFBUv
▶ A 6,200 COW INDUSTRIAL FARM: DISPUTED EXPANSION OF WISCONSIN MEGA DAIRY WATCHED FOR STATEWIDE IMPACT: Owners vow to protect water quality; neighbors want tighter DNR oversight
The Dept of Natural Resources is defending its approval of the Kinnard Farms permit, which will allow the farm to grow by 55 percent — from 5,627 to 8,710 animal units, or about 6,200 cattle. The farm, classified as a concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO, because of its large size, is in the town of Lincoln in Kewaunee County...http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2014/02/08/disputed-expansion-of-dairy-watched-for-statewide-impact/
- ▶ WHAT EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BLIND, FOOTLESS GMO CHICKENS. FACTORY FARMS AND THE AG-GAG BILL http://sco.lt/961xVh
DON'T BE MISLED BY THIS HYPERBOL...IT'S ALL ABOUT MONEY AND CONTROL OF OUR FOOD AND AGRICULTURE THROUGH SEED PATENTS AND LASHINGS UPON LASHINGS OF PESTICIDES REQUIRED FOR GMO CROPS. IT'S A TRILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS. UNTESTED, UNREGULATED, UNLABELED. THIS GRAND EXPERIMENT ON NATURE AND HUMAN HEALTH MUST STOP!
The Independent, March 22,2015 GMO BANANAS: THE GM CROPS DEBATE MOVES TO AFRICA --AND IT'S JUST AS NOISY
Many of the "vitamin" fortified GMO crops are the only source of food in impoverished nation and/or the multiple crops being fortified mean each meal they are getting yet another dose of a vitamin whether they need it or not risking serious health symptoms from overdose.
"Recent tests have revealed that a substantial amount of vitamin A can be obtained by eating only 60g of cooked golden rice. "What is not being addressed is the issue of Vitamin A overdose and poisoning.
We need to proceed with great caution about gene-altered "fortified" food that has no boundaries or dosage warnings and no regulation or labels. Whether your body needs the "fortification" it or not, it will enter your digestive system risking Vitamin A overdose, reactions, allergies and deaths. More dangerous is that potential spread of these gene-altered crops into traditional bananas without us knowing it, impacting surrounding biodiversity, wildlife and pollinators.
- ▶ OUR GMO CORNFIELDS ARE TOO QUIET: ALL LIFE CHEMICALLY EXTERMINATED EXCEPT THE TOXIC BT CORNhttp://sco.lt/9Lh4iX
WATCH BANANAS! Trailer In the suspenseful documentary BANANAS!*, filmmaker Fredrik Gertten sheds new light on the global politics of food, tackling Dole Food in a ground-breaking legal battle for their use of a banned pesticide on GMO Banana crops, that was known by the company to cause sterility. http://www.bananasthemovie.com/
WATCH 54:03
BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS : DOLE'S CORPORATE GREED AND INTIMIDATION TACTICS
AN ISSUE OF ETHICS: THERE ARE NO LAWS OR ANY ONE AGENCY GOVERNING THESE EXPERIMENTS WITH OUR LIVES. MANIPULATING OUR FOOD WITHOUT INDEPENDENT PEER REVIEWED HEALTH STUDIES FOR IMPACT ON BOTH HUMAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH IS A SERIOUS MORAL ISSUE AND HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE. NO LABELS, NO REGULATIONS, NO OVERSIGHT
- ▶ BIOTECH IS RE-ENGINEERING, RE-PROGRAMMING AND PATENTING LIFE ITSELF: THE ETHICS AND LEGALITIEShttp://sco.lt/5GPxwX
And the subsequent trial results will surprise you
First aired on HBO March 16th 2009
Directors Tom Simon and Sarah Teale (HBOs Dealing Dogs) tell the story of an animal rights investigator who goes undercover at hog farm in Ohio to explore a whistle blowers allegations. The evidence he gathers leads to a rare prosecution and trial for animal cruelty, and a verdict that surprises nearly everyone...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfiolWwzD94
Grist, January 29, 2014 -▶ POOR COWS: HARVESTING METHANE BY PUNCHING HOLES IN COWS STOMACHS: Argentinian scientists are punching holes in the sides of cattle and passing pipes through to their stomachs. The other end of the pipe goes into a bag fitted on the cow’s back. The captured gas, can be burned to produce energy. http://grist.org/news/we-can-harvest-methane-from-cow-guts-should-we/
David Hogan, February 19, 2014 -▶ THE AG-GAG REFLEX: THE ANIMAL ENTERPRISE TERRORISM ACT'S IMPACT ON US ALL. On November 27, 2006, after heavy lobbying by the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) was quietly signed into law. The AETA makes it a terrorist offense to engage in certain speech and activity that causes an “animal enterprise” the loss of real or personal property. (There is a dispute as to whether the term ‘loss of property’ means ‘loss of profits.’) ....http://davidhoganwriter.com/2014/02/19/the-ag-gag-reflex-the-animal-enterprise-terrorism-
▶ A 6,200 COW INDUSTRIAL FARM: DISPUTED EXPANSION OF WISCONSIN MEGA DAIRY WATCHED FOR STATEWIDE IMPACT: Owners vow to protect water quality; neighbors want tighter DNR oversight
The Dept of Natural Resources is defending its approval of the Kinnard Farms permit, which will allow the farm to grow by 55 percent — from 5,627 to 8,710 animal units, or about 6,200 cattle. The farm, classified as a concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO, because of its large size, is in the town of Lincoln in Kewaunee County...http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2014/02/08/disputed-expansion-of-dairy-watched-for-statewide-impact/
Nation of Change, July 27, 2014 -▶ TOP AGRIBUSINESS FOOD COMPANIES DUMPING WASTE IN OUR WATERS. Companies like Tyson Foods, Cargill, Inc., and Perdue Farms Inc. dump their garbage—more than 206 million pounds of it—into our water almost every year and leave others to worry about the clean-up. Now, as the Environmental Protection Agency considers a rule to restore the Clean Water Act, these companies are pulling out all the stops to maintain their freedom to dump and pollute, regardless of the toxic outcomes.http://www.nationofchange.org/top-agribusiness-food-companies-dumping-waste-our-waters-1406476247
FARM-AGEDDON:
No birds. No bees. Our countryside laid waste. And billions of animals that never see a blade of grasshttp://sco.lt/7ztQbB
Who Makes the Billions of Pounds of Toxic Chemicals Flowing Through the U.S. Economy Each Year?
A new report by Environmental Defense Fund tallies billions of pounds of unregulated chemicals in the American marketplace that are known or strongly suspected to cause increasingly common disorders...http://www.edf.org/health/toxics-across-america
Treehugger, November 25, 2014 ▶ ANTIBACTERIAL SOAP INGREDIENT TRICLOSAN NOW LINKED TO LIVER FIBROSIS.Another reason to stop buying antibacterial soap The marketing claim 'antibacterial' still sells soap. That apparently means that people are not afraid of superbugs developing due to the constant evolutionary pressure of low levels of antibiotics in the environment. Fear of frog-disruptors has not slowed the growth of this product sector.http://www.treehugger.com/health/another-reason-stop-buying-antibacterial-soap-will-it-finally-be-banned.html
INVESTIGATIVE REPORT Beyond Pesticides and Food & Water Watch TRICOLOSAN "ANTIBACTERIAL" IN YOUR SOAP
WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS. A growing list of household and personal care products are advertised as “antibacterial” because they contain a chemical called triclosan. While the manufacturers of these products want you to think triclosan protects you from harmful bacteria, it turns out that it may be doing more harm than good. Here is a summary of research from 60 studies on how triclosan impacts human health and the environment. http://www.beyondpesticides.org/antibacterial/triclosan-research-3-09.pd
WATCH Link TV (27:17) UNSAFE: THE TRUTH BEHIND EVERYDAY CHEMICALS They contribute to disease and are linked to conditions such as asthma, autism, ADHD, diabetes, cancers, infertility, cognitive disorders, obesity, reproductive disorders and birth defects. Earth Focus looks at endocrine disruptors, ubiquitous chemicals that affect development, metabolism, fertility and intelligence at extremely low doses and at what measures could be taken to better ensure public safety. http://www.linktv.org/video/9214/unsafe-the-truth-behind-everyday-chemicals
▶ FEDERAL LAW MAKES IT PRACTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO BAN HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS - The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, the only major environmental law that hasn't been updated since it was enacted, allows chemical manufacturers to skip evaluating the safety of their products before putting them on the market.http://www.scoop.it/t/agriculture-gmos-pesticides?q=chemicals+in+your+body/
National Journal ▶ WHY CONGRESS CAN'T FIX OUR CRAZY CHEMICAL SAFETY SYSTEM.How broken is the nation's chemical-safety system? Of the 80,000 or so chemicals currently used in commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency has only tested 200 since Congress gave the agency its marching orders nearly four decades ago. And of the 200 tested chemicals, only five have been banned or regulated.
▶ FORMALDEHYDE "FLAME RETARDANTS" SHOULD NOT BE IN OUR HOUSES, NO MATTER HOW "NATURAL" BIG CHEM SAYS IT IShttp://sco.lt/5o8sq1
Environmental Health News, September 02, 2014
▶ TOXIC GULLS: QUEBEC'S CONTAMINATED BIRD COLONY OFFERS CLUE ABOUT FLAME RETARDANTS Flame retardants are the 21st century’s PCBs, and Great Lakes birds still are the victims. These chemicals in the gulls of Deslauriers Island off Montreal are altering their hormones. In kestrels, they are causing aggressive behavior.http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2014/aug/wingedwarnings5flame-retardants
-▶ FOOD OR POISON: 40 PERCENT OF FOOD POISONOUS: FAO-GOVT TESTS FIND BANNED PESTICIDES IN FOODS. Banned pesticides that cause serious health hazards have been found in fruits, vegetables, milk and milk products and dry fish, according to a FAO-sponsored test at a government laboratory. The presence of toxic substances in the food samples was three to 20 times the limits set by the European Union, show test results of the National Food Safety Laboratory (NFSL).http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/40pc-food-poisonous-21921
▶ THE CHILD VICTIMS OF AGRICULTURAL PESTICIDE POISONING - PESTICIDE INDUSTRY DISMISSIVEhttp://sco.lt/8KO8GH
▶ PESTICIDE CHEMICAL REGULATION OVERHAUL NEEDED TO PROTECT WILDLIFE, ECOSYSTEMS AND FOOD CHAINhttp://sco.lt/813dw1
▶ PESTICIDE LOBBY SPENDS MILLIONS TO DEFEND CHEMICALS TIED TO BEE DEATH AND HUMAN HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/8nhcsT
Ag Professional, August 01, 2014 -▶ CHINA ADOPTS STRICTER PESTICIDE RESIDUE STANDARD.The new standard includes 3,650 indices detailing the maximum allowable residue for 387 pesticides on 284 types of food, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Health and Family Planning Commission, which jointly issued the standard. Compared with the current standard that took effect in 2012, the new standard contains 1,357 new indices covering 65 new pesticides and 43 new types of food. The standard covers vegetables, fruits, grain, edible oil, sugar, soft drinks, nuts, eggs and meat. It includes juice and preserved fruits for the first time.http://www.agprofessional.com/news/China-adopts-stricter-pesticide-residue-standard-269591991.html
=======================
-▶ FRACKING NATURAL GAS CHEMICAL WASTE THREATENS HUMAN HEALTH, THE ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFEhttp://sco.lt/8n9QED
THINK THOSE 80,000 CHEMICALS & PESTICIDES HAVE BEEN TESTED? http://sco.lt/91jqHh
Huffington Post Green, September 19, 2014 HOW CORPORATE MONEY IS FREQUENTLY FUNNELED INTO RESEARCHERS' POCKETS.Hidden Source Of Industry Influence Threatens Toxic Chemical Regulations. At the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology conference, focus turned to -- a move often undisclosed to the public or even to fellow scientists. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/18/industry-toxic-chemicals-funding-conflicts-of-interest_n_5837968.html
▶ URGENT NEW RULES FOR CHEMICALS NEEDED TO PROTECT HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTCongress has utterly failed to effectively regulate the chemical industry, and thus shares responsibility for widespread toxic chemical contamination of people and the environment. In our daily lives we are exposed to hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of chemicals from a wide range of sources, including personal care and cleaning products, food packaging, plastics, children’s toys, furniture, air, water, our workplaces and our neighborhoods.
-▶ THOUSANDS OF SRI LANKANS HAVE BEEN STRUCK WITH A DEADLY FORM OF KIDNEY DISEASE. A new study points to a likely cause - pesticides and fertilisers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19628295
Summit County Citizens Voice, March 01, 2015 -▶ NEW GLOBAL MAP IDs PESTICIDE POLLUTION HOT SPOTS. The world has a long way to go to come to grips with pesticide pollution say scientists who recently created a global map showing which areas are most susceptible.Their modeling suggests that streams across about 40 percent of the planet’s surface are at risk from the application of insecticides, with the Mediterranean region, the USA, Central America and Southeast Asia among the hotspots...On average, farmers apply about 4 million tons of agricultural pesticides annually,...We know from earlier investigations for example that pesticides can reduce the biodiversity of invertebrates in freshwater ecosystems by up to 42 percent...
-▶ STUDY LINKS KIDNEY DISEASE IN SRI LANKA'S FARM BELT TO AGROCHEMICALSA new report links the high prevalence of chronic kidney disease in Sri Lanka’s main agricultural production regions with the presence of heavy metals in the water, caused by fertiliser and pesticide use....as many as 22,000 people may have died as a result in past two decadeshttp://www.ipsnews.net/2012/08/study-links-kidney-disease-in-sri-lankas-farm-belt-to-agrochemicals/
The Ecologist, July 02, 2014 -▶ NEONICOTINOIDS ARE POISONING NOT JUST HUMANS AND BEES BUT ENTIRE FARMLAND ECOSYSTEMS The world's most widely used insecticides have contaminated the environment across the planet so pervasively that global food production is at risk, according to a comprehensive scientific assessment of the chemicals' impacts. http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2459001/neonicotoids_are_poisoning_entire_farmland_ecosystems.html
Institute of Science in Society, April 09, 2014 -▶ SRI LANKA PARTIALLY BANS PESTICIDE CONTAINING GLYPHOSATE FOR DEADLY KIDNEY DISEASE EPIDEMIC. Glyphosate’s metal-chelating activity causes bioaccumulation of toxic metals in the body, resulting in an estimated 400 000 cases in Sri Lanka and 20 000 deaths Dr Eva Sirinathsinghji http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Sri_Lanka_partially_bans_glyphosate.php
Sustainable Pulse, May 13, 2014 -▶ UNDER PRESSURE, SRI LANKA REVERSES BAN ON SALE OF MONSANTO'S "ROUNDUP" GLYPHOSATE. GM Watch comment: As for the “European glyphosate task force” mentioned in the article, which has “concluded that there is no true link” between glyphosate herbicide and chronic kidney disease, let’s hope the Sri Lankan government recognises that THIS 'TASK FORCE' IS ENTIRELY MADE UP OF THE PESTICIDE COMPANIES that make and sell glyphosate herbicide!http://sustainablepulse.com/2014/05/13/sri-lanka-lifts-ban-sale-glyphosate/#.U3Mhgi_p5K4
MYSTERY IN THE FIELDS
The Center For Public Integrity, December 28, 2012
Pesticide Action Group, March 12, 2014 -▶ THE BIG 6: BIGGER AND BADDER. The public comment period for Dow's new genetically engineered, pesticide 2,4-D-resistant corn and soy closed. And despite comments from nearly 400,000 concerned individuals and farmers urging otherwise, USDA has signaled it will likely greenlight these new GE crops.http://www.panna.org/blog/big-6-bigger-badder
GRAIN, May 26, 2014 2,4-D SOY: WAGING WAR ON PEASANTSGlobal attempts by Dow AgroSciences to gain approval for new genetically-modified soybean varieties resistant to the herbicide 2,4-D have become particularly aggressive in recent months. Simultaneous applications have been filed in several of the countries where genetically engineered crops (GE or transgenic crops or GMOs) were introduced in the 1990s. The push for approval of new transgenics is part of a broader strategy by agribusiness to make the world’s farms increasingly dependent on its toxic herbicides, thus increasing the profits it derives from selling these chemicals. The current situation is a rerun of the 1990s’ introduction of Roundup Ready (glyphosate-resistant) crops, only this time the herbicides in question are much more toxic. These weed-killers have been around for a longer time and the case for their hazardousness to human health and the environment has been well documented.http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4945-2-4-d-soy-waging-war-on-peasants
The Ecologist, July 02, 2014 -▶ NEONICOTINOIDS ARE POISONING NOT JUST HUMANS AND BEES BUT ENTIRE FARMLAND ECOSYSTEMSThe world's most widely used insecticides have contaminated the environment across the planet so pervasively that global food production is at risk, according to a comprehensive scientific assessment of the chemicals' impacts.http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2459001/neonicotoids_are_poisoning_entire_farmland_ecosystems.html
The Asian Age, June 18, 2014 -▶ INDIA'S NEW CORPORATE GOVERNMENT. Intelligence agencies are supposed to protect the safety and security of a nation and its citizens from external threats. Tragically, we now have a report from the Intelligence Bureau that promotes the very foreign interests that are threatening our seed and food sovereignty, the livelihood of our farmers and the health of our citizens. The IB report, which was commissioned by the UPA government but submitted to the newly elected NDA government, blindly promotes genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). GMOs are the source of genetically modified foods. http://www.asianage.com/columnists/generously-motivated-526
Digital Journal , July 02, 2014 -▶ GENETICALLY ENGINEERED U.S. COTTON GROWERS WANT UNLICENSED, HIGHLY TOXIC PESTICIDE USE ON 3 MILLION ACRES - FURTHER POISONING SOIL, WATER AND ALL LIFE WITHIN THE ENVIRONMENT -- EXCEPT THE COTTONhttp://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2031904
Pambazuka, July 24. 2014 -▶ GMOs AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: WHICH WAY AFRICA? African governments are under intense pressure from within but also from big agribusiness and Western governments to embrace GMOs. Governments must resist all forms of arm-twisting and food colonialism and make their biotechnology choices based on the factshttp://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/92594
▶ DOWN ON THE FARM:The first years of the twenty-first century will be remembered for a global land rush of nearly unprecedented scale. An estimated 500 million acres, an area eight times the size of Britain, was reported bought or leased across the developing world between 2000 and 2011, often at the expense of local food security and land rights. When the price of food spiked in 2008, pushing the number of hungry people in the world to over one billion, the interest of investors spiked as well, and within a year foreign land deals in the developing world rose by a staggering 200 percent. Today, enthusiasm for agriculture borders on speculative mania. Driven by everything from rising food prices to growing demand for biofuel, the financial sector is taking an interest in farmland as never before. As the Oakland Institute reported in 2012, a new generation of institutional investors—including hedge funds, private equity, pension funds, and university endowments—is eager to capitalize on global farmland as a new and highly desirable asset class...http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/down-on-the-farm
INVESTIGATION Foreign Policy, July 11, 2014 WHEN WALL STREET WENT TO AFRICA http://sco.lt/6jxBxZ
Environmental Health News, February 12, 2014
-▶ CORPORATIONS, INVESTORS GRABBING LAND AND WATER OVERSEAS. As a growing population stresses the world's food and water supplies, corporations and investors in wealthy countries are buying up foreign farmland and the freshwater perks that come with it. From Sudan to Indonesia, most of the land lies in poverty-stricken regions, so experts warn that this widespread purchasing could expand the gap between developed and developing countries. The “water grabbing” by corporations amounts to 454 billion cubic meters per year globally, according to a new study by environmental scientists. That’s about 5 percent of the water the world uses annually. For countries reliant on farming and already suffering from poverty, the potential impacts are huge, said Paolo D’Odorico, a University of Virginia professor. “In many of these countries, the sum of the water being grabbed would be enough to eliminate malnourishment,” he said. Some of the more active buyers in the United States, which leads the pack in number of deals, include multinational investors Nile Trading and Development, BHP Billiton, Unitech and media magnate Ted Turner, according to the researchers. Most purchasers are agricultural, biofuel and timber investors.http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/land-grabbing
-▶ STOP FEEDING THE BEAST AND START FEEDING THE PEOPLE. We have a system of predatory agriculture in which corporations pursue private gain relentlessly regardless of the social consequences. Social consequences can be defined as anything from polluting our water, land and air to impacting the health of our families to making the business of farming economically unsustainable.http://ecowatch.com/2014/02/22/stop-feeding-beast-start-feeding-people/
Food and Environment Reporting Network, April 02, 2014 -▶ PLOWED UNDER. Across the Western Plains, native grassland is being turned into farmland at a rate not seen since the 1920s. The environmental consequences could be disastrous. - See more athttp://thefern.org/2014/04/plowed-under/
Action Aid Report, May 23, 2014 ▶ GLOBAL POLICIES ENCOURAGE LAND GRABBING AND WORSEN HUNGER AND POVERTY.“Allowing land to become vehicles for wealthy corporations and individuals to become richer while pushing vulnerable rural people into poverty and hunger is unjust, unwise and unethical,” it said in the report. http://www.trust.org/item/20140523061928-bn12w/
-▶ MASSIVE LAND GRABBING BY MULTINATIONAL FIRMS PREVALENT IN UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES AND WILL GET WORSE WITH TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
At present, some 1.5 million hectares of land are primed for lease to foreign countries, and the Philippine government is set to open more agricultural lands to monopoly corporations of the United States, European Union, South Korea and Australia. Lawmakers in the Philippines are pushing for amendments to the 1987 Constitution to allow 100 percent foreign ownership of land. This is reportedly a condition set on the Philippine government before being accepted to the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), a trade pact being organized by the US government. - See more at: http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/22386#sthash.xl4kiTPB.dpuf
▶ FOOD, SLAVE LABOR AND THE WALMARTIZATION OF AGRICULTURE AND AMERICAhttp://sco.lt/8oSVBx
=========================
-▶ OUR INDUSTRIAL, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL FOOD SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/63qRl3
Guardian Global Development, February 18, 2014 ▶ THE G8 AND THE CORPORATE TAKE OVER OF AFRICAN FARMING.As part of the New Alliance, 10 African governments have signed up to change dozens of laws, policies and regulations to make their countries more attractive to the private sector. Collectively, they have made more than 200 commitments, including the overhaul of seed and tax laws and the setting aside of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land for commercial investors. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/interactive/2014/feb/18/g8-fight-future-african-farming-interactive
-▶ AFRICA G8 - FOOD SECURITY FOR WHOM? CORPORATE PROFITS vs SMALL HOLDER FARMERS INTERESThttp://sco.lt/8JKbIn
▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH"http://sco.lt/696Tlx
-▶ WIKILEAKS: USA GOVERNMENT PUSHES MONSANTO, GMO CROPS GLOBALLY: STARTS 'TRADE WARS' WITH NATIONS OPPOSEDhttp://sco.lt/6PzO9x
The Guardian, March 12, 2014 -▶ THE TRUTH ABOUT LOBBYING: 10 WAYS BUSINESS CONTROLS GOVERNMENTS.Whether facing down a threat to profits from a corporate tax hike, or pushing for market opportunities – such as government privatisations – lobbying has become another way of making money. Here are the 10 key steps that lobbying businesses will follow to bend government to their will.http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/12/lobbying-10-ways-corprations-influence-government
-▶ HOW MEGA BANKS DROVE A MACK TRUCK THRU A LOOPHOLE TO DOMINATE AND CONTROL GLOBAL POLITICS, INDUSTRY AND SOCIETYhttp://sco.lt/4iZ2ED
▶ CONTEMPORARY CORPORATE AGRICULTURE IS BURNING UP OUR PLANEThttp://sco.lt/6xupV3
▶ ARE YOU EATING CLONED PIG? CHINA ENTERS USA FOOD MARKET UNLABELED, UNREGULATEDhttp://sco.lt/9IkFmr
VIDEO:
FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/4l725B
-- A MUST WATCH ON GROWING CORPORATE ECOCIDE -- VIDEO REPORT September 15, 2013 The Real News -▶ PHILIPPINE ACTIVISTS FIGHT BACK AGAINST CORPORATE AND MILITARY FORCES DESTROYING THEIR LAND, FORESTS AND LIVELIHOODS:Corporate agri-businesses like U.S.-based Dole, Del Monte, Monsanto, along with international and Philippine mines, are polluting waterways and destroying the surrounding farms. Chinese, European, Canadian, and Filipino mines are stripping away the mountains to get at what some estimate to be the largest iron deposit in the world. There also some of the most significant gold, nickel, and copper reserves in Asia.http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10725
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE?
NEW SECRETIVE GLOBAL TRADE PACTS WILL IMPACT US ALL AS SOVEREIGN RIGHTS NEGOTIATED AWAYhttp://sco.lt/6P14JF
THE BIGGER PICTURE
"Monsanto Protection Act" the Trans Pacific Partnership and Corporate Governancehttp://sco.lt/8XeEyX
▶ OUR CONTEMPORARY, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTH
Over the course of the past century our food supply has shifted from local to global. Most food our grandparents ate was grown regionally, often by neighbourhood farmers.
Today our food comes from across the world. More importantly, it is often produced in highly destructive ways, at the lowest possible cost.
Consequently our food production system is responsible for accelerating the rate of destruction of the very ecosystems we are reliant upon in order to maintain our delicate global environmental equilibrium.
We cut and clear the lungs of the world, our tropical rainforests, to feed livestock or grow dishonestly named "biofuels". We bulldoze natural filtration systems and the nurseries for life like wetlands and mangrove swamps to produce luxury foods for obese populations... http://allafrica.com/stories/201401071158.html?viewall=1
▶ OUR AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM HAS LOST IT'S WAY - TOWARD HEALTHY FOOD AND FARMSModern intensive farming produces plentiful, cheap food but is reliant on heavy use of agrochemicals and is a major driver of the ongoing collapse of wildlife populations. Taxpayers pay billions each year to support this system, with the bulk of this money going to the biggest, richest farming operations...
Truthout, December 04, 2014 ▶ SEEDS OF THE FUTURE DIMINISHING AS MONO INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE DOMINATES THE WORLD. A third of the world's land area is dedicated to agriculture. Farmers' fields and pastures comprise (after the oceans) the second largest ecosystem on the planet. This vast tract has been largely transformed into sterile monoculture deserts in which all other organisms are suppressed with agrochemicals, and only the cash crop is allowed to thrive. Whether it is soy in the Brazilian Amazon, wheat on the Ukrainian steppes or corn in Iowa, a single high-yield variety typically dominates the landscape for as far as the eye can see. http://truth-out.org/news/item/27760-seeds-of-the-future
Pambazuka -Voices for Freedom and Justice in Africa
▶ HOW MEGA CORPORATIONS FRAME ISSUES OF FOOD AND GLOBAL HUNGER FOR THEIR OWN SELF-INTEREST AND BOTTOM=LINE PROFITS. There is a new, but deceptive, foreign drive to end hunger in Africa through large-scale agribusiness. Yet helping poor households in rural Africa feed themselves in an affordable manner means introducing low-cost, sustainable enhancements to farming.
...The rise of philanthrocapitalism in the US, where former and current business leaders, through the strength of their foundations, have increasingly come to influence the shape and direction of US international development programmes. Central to the philanthrocapitalist worldview is a belief that private enterprise is the fundamental agent of progressive change and that business acumen trumps other forms of expertise... http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/85291
▶ THE CORPORATE 'PHILANTHROCAPITALISTS' TAKEOVER OF AFRICAN AND GLOBAL FOOD SECURITYhttp://sco.lt/6CHP3R
▶ FUTURISTIC FARMS: RETHINKING MONOCULTURE FARMING AND HOW WE GROW OUR FOOD.It’s a vicious cycle that has been the curse of destructive agriculture for thousands of years: remove native vegetation, continuously grow crops, don’t rest the land or return nutrients. Erode and exhaust soils. Move on. Repeat..http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/25/california-drought-silicon-valley-moment
Biocultural Heritage, ▶ SMALLHOLDER INDIGENOUS INNOVATION FOR RESILIENCE. Much of the world's agrobiodiversity has been lost in the last century due to the spread of modern agriculture. Only about 30 crops now provide 95% of all human diet (FAO). The pockets of crop diversity that remain, which are often sustained by indigenous people and small-scale farmers, are vital for food security because they provide options for adaptation, now and in the future. These local varieties (or landraces), are adapted to the natural and cultural environment, are often more resilient than modern crops, and are continuing to co-evolve with farmers to adapt to change. But this diversity is in steady decline and innovation by small-scale farmers is weakening as a result of top down research and development in agriculture, which undermines their capacity to adapt.http://biocultural.iied.org/smallholder-innovation-resilience-sifor
REPORT Part 2 of 4 Environmental Justice and Climate Change, November 08, 2014 Environmental and Food Justice THE PANACEA OF GMOs INDIGENOUS RIGHT LIVELIHOODS
Guardian Sustainable Business, October 20, 2014 ▶INVESTING IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE BY CONVERTING FARMS TO "BEYOND ORGANIC'.How do you profitably invest in sustainable agriculture - farms producing diverse, fairly-priced healthy food without harming the environment, but which also restore soil fertility and provide farmers with a fair living?http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/oct/20/investing-sustainable-agriculture-farms-beyond-organic
March 10, 2014
Oliver De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
-▶ GMOs AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: WHICH WAY AFRICA? African governments are under intense pressure from within but also from big agribusiness and Western governments to embrace GMOs. Governments must resist all forms of arm-twisting and food colonialism and make their biotechnology choices based on the factshttp://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/92594
▶ DESPITE CLIMATE CHANGE, AFRICAN CAN FEED AFRICA. There is a continuing argument as to whether the industrial agricultural revolution will solve some or all of Africa's climate change problems. However, experts maintain that industrial agriculture currently accounts for one third of all greenhouse gas emissions--the very element most responsible for climate change. Additionally, they believe that the resources and infrastructure required to operate an industrial agricultural system in Africa are impractical for smallholder farmers...http://allafrica.com/stories/201402191455.html
Nation of Change, July 27, 2014 -▶ TOP AGRIBUSINESS FOOD COMPANIES DUMPING WASTE IN OUR WATERS. Companies like Tyson Foods, Cargill, Inc., and Perdue Farms Inc. dump their garbage—more than 206 million pounds of it—into our water almost every year and leave others to worry about the clean-up. Now, as the Environmental Protection Agency considers a rule to restore the Clean Water Act, these companies are pulling out all the stops to maintain their freedom to dump and pollute, regardless of the toxic outcomes. http://www.nationofchange.org/top-agribusiness-food-companies-dumping-waste-our-waters-1406476247
WATCH
"A RIVER OF WASTE"
Industrial livestock produce hundreds of millions of tons of manure annually, polluting our groundwater and waterways http://sco.lt/6PQUk5
ETC Group, September 4, 2013 ▶ WHO WILL CONTROL THE AGRICULTURAL INPUTS: THE STATE OF CORPORATE CONCENTRATION, 2013 (PDF REPORT) PUTTING THE CARTEL BEFORE THE HORSE... AND FARM, SEEDS, SOIL AND PEASANTS http://www.etcgroup.org/putting_the_cartel_before_the_horse_2013
▶ WALL STREET, CORPORATIONS GOBBLING UP AMERICAN, FOREIGN FARMLAND, THREATENING FUTURE OF U.S. AND WORLD AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITYhttp://sco.lt/8mcmbR
EcoWatch, February 22, 2014
-▶ STOP FEEDING THE BEAST AND START FEEDING THE PEOPLE. We have a system of predatory agriculture in which corporations pursue private gain relentlessly regardless of the social consequences. Social consequences can be defined as anything from polluting our water, land and air to impacting the health of our families to making the business of farming economically unsustainable.http://ecowatch.com/2014/02/22/stop-feeding-beast-start-feeding-people/
Cornucopia Institute, June 11, 2014 ▶ SMALL FARMERS ARE FEEDING THE WORLD ON LESS LAND.A new study by GRAIN reports that small farmers are the world’s main food producers and they do it on a quarter of the land of large farms. As large monoculture farms continue to gobble up the land to grow exports, small farmers are producing more food per acre and feeding the local people. Biodiversity and companion planting on small farms further reduce crop losses to drought, pests and disease.http://www.cornucopia.org/2014/06/small-farmers-feeding-world-less-land/
GRAIN, May 28, 214 ▶ HUNGRY FOR LAND: SMALL FARMERS FEED THE WORLD FOR LESS THAN A QUARTER OF ALL FARMLAND AS CORPORATIONS ACCELERATE LAND GRABShttp://www.grain.org/article/entries/492
One World News, December 9, 2013 -▶ INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE VITAL FOR BIODIVERSITY, SAY EXPERTS. With species disappearing up to 1,000 times faster than the natural extinction rate, biodiversity experts say knowledge co-production with indigenous peoples has growing importance. http://oneworld.org/2013/12/05/indigenous-knowledge-vital-for-biodiversity-say-experts/
National Geographic, "Future of Food" May 02, 2014 ▶ FEED THE WORLD: FAMILY FARMERS HOLD KEYS TO AGRICULTURE IN A WARMING WORLD. When policymakers in the developed world talk about feeding billions of extra mouths in the decades to come, it's multinational agribusinesses—which operate industrial-size farms—that usually get most of the attention.
-▶ INDIGENOUS DIETS CAN FIGHT MODERN ILLNESSES, SAY HEALTH EXPERTS Unprecedented levels of chronic non-communicable diseases are prompting calls to revert to the diets of our ancestors to regain lost nutrients. It is believed that such a shift would help to improve society's relationship with the Earth and restore human and environmental health. "The rise of the industrial model of agriculture has contributed greatly to people being disconnected from the food on their plates," says Sarah Somian, a France-based nutritionist.http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/feb/03/indigenous-diets-fight-modern-illnesses
WATCH (10:46)
The Satoyama Initiative SATOYAMA: TOWARD A RURAL SOCIETY IN HARMONY WITH NATUREJapan gave the name of the SATOYAMA Initiative to establishment of universal philosophy for sustainable maintenance and use of natural resourceshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAcS6px3WEg
THIS GRAND EXPERIMENT ON HUMANITY MUST STOP:
GMO BILL GATES FUNDS RISKY, UNTESTED UNREGULATED VITAMIN FORTIFIED GMO FOOD FOR AFRICA AND INDIAhttp://sco.lt/6CZccT
Common Dream, February 27, 2014 - ▶ ORGANIC AGRICULTURE: THE WAY FORWARD IN THE AGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE.Cling to a food system that contributes to climate change and jeopardizes food security, or adopt a regenerative system that strengthens food security and helps mitigate the climate crisis—"The choice is ours to make," a new report states.http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/27-6
- ▶ PERMACULTURE IS THE SILVER-GREEN BULLET FOR THE MIDDLE EASThttp://sco.lt/5Tql9d
April 18, 2014, The Two-Way
▶ CHINA ADMITS THAT ONE-FIFTH OF IT'S FARMLAND IS CONTAMINATED - Unbridled industrialization with almost no environmental regulation has resulted in the toxic contamination of one-fifth of China's farmland, the Communist Party has acknowledged for the first time. http://listen.sdpb.org/post/china-admits-one-fifth-its-farmland-contaminated
BBC News, June 24, 2014 ▶ GROWING PAINS OF CHINA'S AGRICULTURAL WATER NEEDS.Farming accounts for about 65% of water use in China and the limited resource is coming under pressure from rapid urbanisation and industrialisation. The study focused on four major food crops - soya, wheat, rice and corn (maize) - and three livestock groups: ruminant, pork and poultry. Together, these products accounted for 93% of China's domestic food supply in 2005, according to figures from the United Nations. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27978124
HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/5YJpKb
VIDEO
-▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/4l725B
BillMoyers.com, November 21, 2014 ▶'FOOD CHAINS,' A NEW DOCUMENTARY BY 'FOOD, INC."Food Chains, a new hard-hitting documentary about the battle between Florida farmworkers and the giant supermarket and fast food conglomerates. Farmworkers are among the lowest paid workers in America, averaging about $12,000 per year in wages, and many of them, especially women, have been subjected to human rights abuses in the fields. In its review of the film, The New York Times calls Food Chains an “emphatic and empathetic documentary” that presents farm laborers as modern-day slaveshttp://billmoyers.com/2014/11/21/food-chains/
WATCH
▶ FILM: ***"HOME"
An Exquisite Dedication To the Stewards of Our Planet
Modern Farmer, March 31, 2015 -▶ AMAZING NEW LAW TO STOP GIVING FARM PAYMENTS TO CORPORATE NON-FARMERS. The USDA has a variety of different programs in place to help farmers survive tough times; collectively, they’re known as the Farm Safety Net.The Farm Safety Net includes : subsidized insurance, minimum prices for commodity products like corn, wheat, and soybeans, and disaster assurance (so farmers might receive payments in the case of drought or frost, that kind of thing). This last element, and a bunch of others that are expressed via direct payments to farmers, are the focus of the loophole closing announced by the USDA. http://modernfarmer.com/2015/03/amazing-new-law-to-stop-giving-farm-payments-to-corporate-non-farmers/
RedState, November 22, 2014 ▶ AGRIBUSINESS HITS THE $10 BILLION JACKPOT SUBSIDIES, AT EXPENSE OF TAXPAYER -- AGAIN - RUNNING UP FOOD STAMPS COST. U.S. corporate farmers are about to reap a bumper harvest not just in corn and soybeans but also in new subsidies that could soar to $10 billion, blowing a hole in the government’s promise that its new five-year farm bill would save taxpayers money.http://www.redstate.com/2014/11/22/agribusiness-hits-jackpot-taxpayers-much/
Reuters, November 19, 2014 ▶ U.S. FARMERS SET TO GET HUGE GOVERNMENT PAYOUTS DESPITE BUMPER HARVEST. U.S. farmers are about to reap a bumper harvest not just in corn and soybeans but also in new subsidies that could soar to $10 billion, blowing a hole in the government's promise that its new five-year farm bill would save taxpayers money. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/19/us-usa-grains-insurance-idUSKCN0J32FB20141119
New York Times, January 24, 2014 ▶ RUNNING BELOW THE RADAR: A HIDDEN THREAT IN THE 2014 FARM BILL COMING RIGHT AT YOU.The mammoth farm bill is reportedly near a conference compromise in Congress, bristling with more tragic cuts in the food stamp program for the needy and a revision of lucrative commodity subsidies for mostly big farmers. Running below the radar is a dangerous, broadly written amendment that would threaten states’ current powers to enact their own agricultural standards — standards that can extend far beyond farmyards to consumer, worker and environmental safety.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/opinion/a-hidden-threat-in-the-farm-bill.html?emc=edit_tnt_20140125&tntemail0=y&_r=0
Civil Eats, June 11, 2014 ▶ HOW CONGRESS IS MOVING TO CRUSH PROTECTIONS FOR SMALL MEAT AND POULTRY PRODUCERS.Consolidation has meant “the meatpackers report huge profits, while farmers’ share of the retail dollar has gone down dramatically—and consumers still see food prices rising at the grocery store.” In Missouri, Gibbons adds, thousands of independent small and mid-size family hog farmers have gone out of business because they don’t have access to a fair market. “Because of massive corporate control of the market, we’ve lost 91 percent of hog producers in Missouri since 1985. That’s over 20,000 farmers and many, many jobs in our rural communities.”http://civileats.com/2014/06/11/how-congress-is-moving-to-crush-protections-for-small-meat-and-poultry-producers-and-why-you-should-care/
Beginning with a history of the American food system, River of Waste shows its evolution to large-scale corporate farms where pollution and use of growth hormones threaten both individual health and the future of our planethttp://sco.lt/5WwPVx
▶ THE GLOBAL CHEMICAL BIOTECH CARTEL - AN UNPRECEDENTED POWER OVER WORLD AGRICULTURE AND HUMAN HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/9MtkYL
March 21, 2013
-▶ US GOVERNMENT FUNDING BILL STRIPS FEDERAL COURTS OF THEIR POWER TO RULE OVER BIOTECH INDUSTRY AND GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD AND ANIMALShttp://sco.lt/6kO2Xh
RT News, April 17, 2015 -▶ EU POISED TO LET IN NEW GM PRODUCTS, INTRODUCE NON-HEALTH - OPT-OUTS. The EU is expected to permit over a dozen new genetically modified agricultural products into its market. Individual countries would reportedly be able to ban GM products, as long as they don’t challenge the science behind authorizations.
▶ AUSTRALIA, STATE OF TASMANIA TO CONTINUE MORATORIUM ON GM CROPS AND ANIMALSThe Tasmanian government will indefinitely extend a ban on genetically modified crops and animals in the state's products...http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/09/tasmania-gm
DR JUDY CARMAN, Associate Professor in Biochemistry at Flinders University; Director of the Institute of Health and Enviornmental Research, on the genetically modified organisms (GMO) moratorium in Tasmania and what that means for Tasmania. (00-8:40)
▶ GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS NOT THE SOLUTION FOR "FEEDING THE WORLD"http://sco.lt/77BuML
Sustainable Pulse, November 12, 2013 ▶ SPREAD OF GM CROPS ILLEGALLY OUT OF CONTROL IN MANY COUNTRIES. Testbiotech published the first global overview showing how genetically engineered plants (GM crops) such as maize, rice, cotton, oilseed rape, bentgrass and poplar trees are spreading uncontrollably. This is happening in regions and countries such as the USA and Canada, Middle America, Japan, China, Australia and Europe. In many cases, the plants have escaped far beyond the fields into the environment. In some regions, the transgenes have already moved into populations of wild relatives.... http://sustainablepulse.com/2013/11/12/spread-of-gm-crops-out-of-control-in-many-countries-breaking-news/#.UoLV-o3piRQ
▶ HOW GMO FOODS AFFECT HEALTH - GENE ALTERED FOODS NOW LARGE PART OF AMERICAN DIEThttp://sco.lt/7oVxQH
THE COUNTER RETALIATION
U.S. GOVERNMENT AGGRESSIVELY BACKS & PROMOTES MONSANTO, BIOTECH THRUST FOR CONTROL OF GLOBAL GMO FOOD - WITH TRADE DEAL ARM-TWISTINGhttp://sco.lt/5AJ1Pt
▶ WHY IS THERE SO LITTLE INDEPENDENT PEER REVIEW GMO RESEARCH?http://sco.lt/8mGIO9
▶ A RACE TO SAVE THE APPLE AND ORANGE BY ALTERING ITS DNA: EUROPE BANS AMERICAN APPLES: Pesticides, Antibiotics on Your Fruit and Veggies http://sco.lt/6ljP1t
INVESTIGATIVE REPORT:
SOARING PESTICIDE USE AND POISONING LINKED TO GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CROP PRODUCTIONhttp://sco.lt/8iunRp
▶ “FATALLY FLAWED" FDA ASSESSMENT TO UNLEASH GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON ONTO YOUR DINNER PLATE, NO REGULATIONS, NO OVERSIGHT, NO LABELINGhttp://sco.lt/8ZDraz
▶ HUMAN GENES ENGINEERED INTO EXPERIMENTAL GMO RICE BEING GROWN IN KANSASThe only known GMO with inbred human traits in cultivation today, a GM rice product made by biotechnology company Ventria Bioscience is currently being grown on 3,200 acres in Junction City, Kansas — and possibly elsewhere — and most people have no idea about it. Since about 2006, Ventria has been quietly cultivating rice that has been genetically modified (GM) with genes from the human liver for the purpose of taking the artificial proteins produced by this “Frankenrice” and using them in pharmaceuticals. http://aworldchaos.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/human-genes-engineered-into-experimental-gmo-rice-being-grown-in-kansas/
▶ MONSANTO GMO TREES COULD DEVASTATE FOREST ECOSYSTEMS - LEAVING A BIOLOGICAL DESERThttp://sco.lt/51ekyH
▶ THE NEXT GMO BIOTECH WAVE: EXTREME SYNTHETIC GENETICS: THE IMPLICATIONS. THE ETHICShttp://sco.lt/6TyUmv
▶ 21st CENTURY PATENTING OF LIFE: BIOTECH IS RE-ENGINEERING, RE-PROGRAMMING AND PATENTING LIFE ITSELF. THE ETHICS AND LEGALITIEShttp://sco.lt/9Hu7Tl
▶ MANIPULATING THE SEEDS OF LIFE: SEED PATENTS AND CONTROL OF YOUR FOOD - THE GLOBAL CORPORATE MONOPOLY The Global Corporate Monopoly http://sco.lt/7yB3XF
▶ THE NEXT GMO BIOTECH WAVE: EXTREME SYNTHETIC GENETICS. THE IMPLICATIONS, THE ETHICShttp://sco.lt/6JaFLF
Summit County Citizens Voice, March 01, 2015 -▶ NEW GLOBAL MAP IDs PESTICIDE POLLUTION HOT SPOTS. The world has a long way to go to come to grips with pesticide pollution say scientists who recently created a global map showing which areas are most susceptible.Their modeling suggests that streams across about 40 percent of the planet’s surface are at risk from the application of insecticides, with the Mediterranean region, the USA, Central America and Southeast Asia among the hotspots...On average, farmers apply about 4 million tons of agricultural pesticides annually,...We know from earlier investigations for example that pesticides can reduce the biodiversity of invertebrates in freshwater ecosystems by up to 42 percent...
Guardian Environment, February 03 2015 ▶'SUPPRESSED' EU REPORT COULD HAVE BANNED 31 HARMFUL HORMONE-DISRUPTING CHEMICALS/PESTICIDES WORTH BILLIONS -- UNDER PRESSURE FROM BIG CHEMICAL FIRMS
Ag Professional, August 01, 2014 -▶ CHINA ADOPTS STRICTER PESTICIDE RESIDUE STANDARD. The new standard includes 3,650 indices detailing the maximum allowable residue for 387 pesticides on 284 types of food, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Health and Family Planning Commission, which jointly issued the standard. Compared with the current standard that took effect in 2012, the new standard contains 1,357 new indices covering 65 new pesticides and 43 new types of food. The standard covers vegetables, fruits, grain, edible oil, sugar, soft drinks, nuts, eggs and meat. It includes juice and preserved fruits for the first time.http://www.agprofessional.com/news/China-adopts-stricter-pesticide-residue-standard-269591991.html
Food Democracy Now, May 16, 2013 ▶ NEW STUDY LINKS GMO FOOD TO LEUKEMIA: GMO BT CRY-TOXINS MAY CONTRIBUTE TO BLOOD ABNORMALITIES. A groundbreaking new study published in the current issue of the Journal of Hematology & Thromboembolic Diseases reveals the potential "leukemogenic" properties of the Bt toxin biopesticides engineered into the vast majority of GMO food crops already within the US food supplyhttp://www.fooddemocracynow.org/blog/2013/may/16/new_study_links_GMO_food_to_leukemia/
Newsweek, July 24, 2014 ▶ EXPOSURE TO PESTICIDES WHEN PREGNANT LINKED TO 3 GENERATIONS OF DISEASE. In the post-Silent Spring 1960s, when the pesticide DDT was discovered to be toxic to humans and wildlife and to persist for years in the environment, farmers and landscapers turned enthusiastically to Methoxychlor. The pesticide—also commercially known as Chemform, Methoxo, Metox or Moxie—had a much shorter half-life and was billed as the safe alternative to DDT. Now, new research argues that exposure to the pesticide could cause diseases three generations later, in offspring who were never exposed to the Methoxychlor themselves. http://www.newsweek.com/pesticide-diseases-pesticide-exposure-pesticide-poisoning-pesticides-and-pregnancy-261181
▶ THE CHILD VICTIMS OF AGRICULTURAL PESTICIDE POISONING - PESTICIDE INDUSTRY DISMISSIVE http://sco.lt/8KO8GH
Deutche Welles October 25, 2013 ▶ PESTICIDE ILLNESS TRIGGERS ANTI-MONSANTO PROTEST IN ARGENTINA. Monsanto pesticides are causing birth defects and cancer in Argentina, according to a new report. In a farming community near Córdoba, residents say they have been poisoned by pesticideshttp://www.dw.de/pesticide-illness-triggers-anti-monsanto-protest-in-argentina/a-17013525
Wired, September 25, 2014 ▶ NEW GENERATION OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS & PESTICIDES PUTS AGRICULTURE IN A 'CRISIS SITUATION' - BATTLE LINES ARE DRAWN http://www.wired.com/2014/09/new-gm-crops/
VIDEO REPORT PBS Newshour, November 15, 2014 INCREASED IMMUNITY IN WEEDS MAY THREATEN U.S. CROPS NewsHour Weekend traveled to Iowa to explore the widespread issue of herbicide-resistant and hard-to-control weeds. Millions of acres of farmland have been affected, rendering some fields unable to be farmed.The EPA recently approved a new Dow herbicide that the industry says could help the problem. Opponents have sued claiming it could possibly harm the environment and human health.http://video.pbs.org/video/2365369832/
VIDEO YourIs, September 16, 2014 ▶ SCIENTISTS ARE EXPERIMENTING WITH SOUND VIBRATIONS TO REPLACE PESTICIDE, BOOST HARVESTS. Scientists in Italy are experimenting with sound vibrations to replace pesticides. Adapting different eco-friendly methods they are able to boost harvests and open up a new chapter in sustainable farminghttp://www.youris.com/Bioeconomy/BIOECONOMY-TV/Reducing-Pesticides-And-Boosting-Harvests.kl
GRAIN, May 26, 2014 2,4-D SOY: WAGING WAR ON PEASANTSGlobal attempts by Dow AgroSciences to gain approval for new genetically-modified soybean varieties resistant to the herbicide 2,4-D have become particularly aggressive in recent months. Simultaneous applications have been filed in several of the countries where genetically engineered crops (GE or transgenic crops or GMOs) were introduced in the 1990s. The push for approval of new transgenics is part of a broader strategy by agribusiness to make the world’s farms increasingly dependent on its toxic herbicides, thus increasing the profits it derives from selling these chemicals. The current situation is a rerun of the 1990s’ introduction of Roundup Ready (glyphosate-resistant) crops, only this time the herbicides in question are much more toxic. These weed-killers have been around for a longer time and the case for their hazardousness to human health and the environment has been well documented.http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4945-2-4-d-soy-waging-war-on-peasants
-▶ PESTICIDE LOBBY SPENDS TENS OF MILLIONS TO DEFEND CHEMICALS TIED TO BEE DEATHS AND HUMAN ILL-HEALTH http://sco.lt/8nhcsT
▶ MONSANTO RAISES FORECAST AS PROFIT RISES ON PATENTED GMO INSECTICIDE CORN SEEDS- -- $TRILLION PROFITS AND GLOBAL MONOPOLY http://sco.lt/5CQ0Lh
Pesticide Action Group, March 12, 2014
-▶ THE BIG 6: BIGGER AND BADDER.The public comment period for Dow's new genetically engineered, 2,4-D-resistant corn and soy closed MARCH 11, 2014. And despite comments from nearly 400,000 concerned individuals and farmers urging otherwise, USDA has signaled it will likely greenlight these new GE crops. http://www.panna.org/blog/big-6-bigger-badder (Beyond Pesticides offers the latest information on pesticides and alternatives, as well as ongoing projects including children's health, organic food, mosquito control and organic lawn care)http://beyondpesticides.org
Digital Journal, July 02, 2014 ▶ GENETICALLY ENGINEERED COTTON GROWERS WANT UNLICENSED, HIGHLY TOXIC PESTICIDE USE ON 3 MILLION ACRES - POISONING SOIL, WATER AND ALL LIFE WITHIN THE ENVIRONMENT -- EXCEPT THE COTTONhttp://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2031904
Bleeding Heartland, July 02, 3013 -▶ TIME FOR TOM VILSACK, US SEC. OF AGRICULTURE, TO SHOW LEADERSHIP ON GMO WEED CONTROL. As the USDA considers the biotech industry's "next silver bullet solution" for herbicide-resistant weeds, Vilsack should think hard about the risks, "rather than just believing people who have some shiny new product to sell" Vilsack's record raises doubts about whether he is up to this task.http://www.bleedingheartland.com/diary/7011/time-for-tom-vilsack-to-show-leadership-on-weed-control
The Des Moines Register, May 17, 2014 ▶ GMO AGRIBUSINESS BLAMED FOR 'SUPERWEED' CRISIS. Agribusiness companies including Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences are creating a "superweed crisis" by producing new technologies that are compounding weed resistance, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists
Common Dream, February 27, 2014 ▶ ORGANIC AGRICULTURE: THE WAY FORWARD IN THE AGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE. Cling to a food system that contributes to climate change and jeopardizes food security, or adopt a regenerative system that strengthens food security and helps mitigate the climate crisis—"The choice is ours to make," a new report states.http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/27-6
RT News, February 24, 2014 ▶ FINALLY, SOME ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: GMO MONOCROPS MAY CAUSE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL (AND HUMAN HEALTH) RISKS, USDA ADMITShttp://rt.com/usa/usda-gmo-risk-report-537/
▶ THE POST-GMO ECONOMY - HOW MONSANTO IS TERRIFYING THE FARMING WORLDhttp://sco.lt/6wRNsv
▶ The Economic Times, November 25, 2013 NOW "MUTAGENESIS" - AS OPPOSITION TO GM CROPS GROWS, COMPANIES ARE TURNING TO "MUTANT" SEED BREEDING
Mutagenesis deletes and rearranges hundreds or thousands of genes randomly, spawning mutations that are less precise than GMOs. ... The process, which faces almost no regulation, creates opportunities for companies to grab a bigger share of the $34 billion global commercial seed market. But some scientists say mutant crops are more likely to pose health risks than genetically modified ones.
Sustainable Pulse, November 12, 2013 ▶ SPREAD OF GM CROPS ILLEGALLY OUT OF CONTROL IN MANY COUNTRIES. Testbiotech published the first global overview showing how genetically engineered plants (GM crops) such as maize, rice, cotton, oilseed rape, bentgrass and poplar trees are spreading uncontrollably. This is happening in regions and countries such as the USA and Canada, Middle America, Japan, China, Australia and Europe. In many cases, the plants have escaped far beyond the fields into the environment. In some regions, the transgenes have already moved into populations of wild relatives....http://sustainablepulse.com/2013/11/12/spread-of-gm-crops-out-of-control-in-many-countries-breaking-news/#.UoLV-o3piRQ
Sustainable Pulse, October 30, 2013 ▶ GROWING SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS ON GMO SAFETY FEARS
▶ WHAT'S AN ORGANIC LABEL REALLY WORTH: Supermarkets in North America and Europe are overflowing with organic-labelled fruit, vegetables, eggs and meats. More than 80 countries have organic standards and products carry one or more of 200 seals, logos and certification claims. But are consumers able to make informed choices? What’s the real ethical impact of “buying organic”? The answers are murkier than you might think....http://www.ethicalcorp.com/supply-chains/organic-food-%E2%80%93-what-%E2%80%98organic%E2%80%99-label-really-worth
▶ CORPORATE CLOUT CHIPS AWAY AT USDA ORGANIC STANDARDS.Without any input from the public, the USDA changed the way the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) decides which non-organic materials are allowed in certified organic. The change all but guarantees that when the NOSB meets every six months, the list of non-organic and synthetic materials allowed in organic will get longer and longer. http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_29653.cfm
Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, July 11, 2014 -▶ NUTRITIONAL QUALITY AND SAFETY OF ORGANIC AND NON-ORGANIC FOODdifferences in nutritional quality and safety between organically and non-organically grown cropshttp://csanr.wsu.edu/significant-benefits-organic-plant-based-foods/
Guardian Sustainable Business, October 20, 2014 ▶ INVESTING IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE BY CONVERTING FARMS TO "BEYOND ORGANIC'.How do you profitably invest in sustainable agriculture - farms producing diverse, fairly-priced healthy food without harming the environment, but which also restore soil fertility and provide farmers with a fair living?http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/oct/20/investing-sustainable-agriculture-farms-beyond-organic
Technologywater,December 14, 2013 ▶ UN REPORT SAYS SMALL-SCALE ORGANIC FARMING ONLY WAY TO FEED THE WORLD.Even as the United States government continues to push for the use of more chemically-intensive and corporate-dominated farming methods such as GMOs and monoculture-based crops, the United Nations is once against sounding the alarm about the urgent need to return to (and develop) a more sustainable, natural and organic system.
Cornucopia Institute, June 19, 2014 ▶ DON'T BE FOOLED BY THE NAME :"THE ORGANIC TRADE ASSOCIATION" (OTA) IS A BIG INDUSTRY LOBBY GROUP MISREPRESENTING ORGANIC FARMERS....the USDA will not allow any promotional or information program, project, or activity that can be viewed as disparaging to conventionally produced products...
Big Ag and their USDA cohorts have attempted to stack The National Organic Standards Board with their ilk, wresting power from true organic proponents, but four seats are now open. If you or someone you know would like to help take back organics, nominations are due May 15, 2014
An outrageous power grab to destroy organics must be stopped! Right now one of the biggest assaults on the integrity of organic foods is taking place at the USDA that has ever been conceived, with high-level political appointees working behind the scenes with giant industrial corporations that sell organic product lines to gut 20 years of precedent in the congressionally-mandated National Organic Standards Board (NOSB).
At stake here is the neutering of an independent NOSB decision making process and the deliberate destruction of organic integrity by allowing synthetic ingredients to be permanently allowed in organic foods due to pressure from giant corporate organic interests.http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/take_stand_for_organic_integrity/
Cornucopia Institute, December 11, 2014 ▶ INVESTIGATION: INDUSTRIAL FACTORY FARMS PRODUCING MASSIVE QUANTITIES OF "ORGANIC" MILK AND EGGS. In what has been called one of the largest fraud investigations in the history of the organic industry, The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group, announced filing formal legal complaints against 14 industrial livestock operations producing milk, meat and eggs being marketed, allegedly illegally, as organic. http://www.cornucopia.org/2014/12/investigation-factory-farms-producing-massive-quantities-organic-milk-eggs/
Common Dream, February 27, 2014 ▶ ORGANIC AGRICULTURE: THE WAY FORWARD IN THE AGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE.Cling to a food system that contributes to climate change and jeopardizes food security, or adopt a regenerative system that strengthens food security and helps mitigate the climate crisis—"The choice is ours to make," a new report states.http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/27-6
Common Dream, February 27, 2014 - ▶ ORGANIC AGRICULTURE: THE WAY FORWARD IN THE AGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE. Cling to a food system that contributes to climate change and jeopardizes food security, or adopt a regenerative system that strengthens food security and helps mitigate the climate crisis—"The choice is ours to make," a new report states.http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/27-6
▶ OUR INDUSTRIAL, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL FOOD SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTH http://sco.lt/63qRl3
▶ CORPORATE HIJACKING OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: GENETIC ENGINEERING AND THE GLOBAL GMO INDUSTRYhttp://sco.lt/73IdQ9
Pambazuka, July 24. 2014 -▶ GMOs AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: WHICH WAY AFRICA? African governments are under intense pressure from within but also from big agribusiness and Western governments to embrace GMOs. Governments must resist all forms of arm-twisting and food colonialism and make their biotechnology choices based on the factshttp://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/92594
The Ecologist, July 02, 2014 -▶ NEONICOTINOIDS ARE POISONING NOT JUST HUMANS AND BEES BUT ENTIRE FARMLAND ECOSYSTEMSThe world's most widely used insecticides have contaminated the environment across the planet so pervasively that global food production is at risk, according to a comprehensive scientific assessment of the chemicals' impacts.http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2459001/neonicotoids_are_poisoning_entire_farmland_ecosystems.html
▶ THE CHILD VICTIMS OF AGRICULTURAL PESTICIDE POISONING - PESTICIDE INDUSTRY DISMISSIVEhttp://sco.lt/8KO8GH
Motley Fool, March 05, 2014 -▶ GMOs AND ECOCIDE: RENOWNED EXPERT SAYS GMOs POSE MORE RISK THAN WE THINK. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have the ability to cause "an irreversible termination of life at some scale, which could be the planet." says Nassim Taleb, distinguished professor of risk engineering at New York Universityhttp://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/05/renowned-expert-gmos-pose-more-risk-than-we-think.aspx
After reading this article and having worked at a organic farmers market, i do not believe everything labeled as "organic" can all be 100 percent accurate. Although many are certified or classified as being organic i do not believe what the organic companies are trying to sell us. Makes me as an individual believe what is going on in the world, where you cannot trust what is being put down your mouth. Obviously a person has to eat but what exactly are they eating is the proper question. Certainty an eyebrow raising situation i believe everything is a scam. People will pay for something that is labeled as "organic" which only profits the business and is all about money, rather then be as a positive interest to an individual.
▶ NAKED CORRUPTION: THE SCANDAL OF GLYPHOSATE RE-ASSESSMENT IN EUROPE. The EU's 'rapporteur state' on glyphosate, Germany, has recommended re-approval of the herbicide with its daily intake increased by 67%, write Drs Nancy Swanson and Mae Wan Ho. The verdict is based on a re-assessment carried out by Monsanto and a consortium of chemical companies, based on unpublished industry studies. It should be rejected outright.http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2985077/naked_corruption_the_scandal_of_glyphosate_reassessment_in_europe
Global Research, January 2, 2014 ▶ MONSANTO ROUNDUP: THE IMPACTS OF GLYPHOSATE HERBICIDE ON HUMAN HEALTHThe foodstuffs of the Western diet, primarily grown by industrial agriculture, are increasingly being produced using a two-part system of engineered plant seeds and toxic chemical application. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. http://www.globalresearch.ca/monsanto-roundup-the-impacts-of-glyphosate-herbicide-on-human-health-pathways-to-modern-diseases/5342520
Guardian Sustainable Business, April 06 2015 -▶FROM ANTIBIOTICS TO INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE TO FOSSIL FUELS: THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY.Humanity has spent the last century creating life-changing luxuries. Here’s why our next move should be learning how to wean ourselves off these wonders
Institute of Science in Society, September 17, 2014
- ▶ ROUNDUP, GLYPHOSATE EVERYWHERE... IN YOUR FOOD, IN OUR WATER, IN OUR SOIL. Glyphosate’s suppression of Cytochrome P450 enzymes and amino acid biosynthesis by beneficial gut microbes has led to a variety of human diseases that globally reach epidemic proportions in populations on a Western diet, including gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease [5].
Glyphosate and other pesticide residues had been contaminating our staple foods since before 2002, according to UK Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues in Food (PRiF) [6] and neither had our friends in Wales and in Denmark. Following the recommendations by Monsanto, farmers had been using glyphosate as herbicide throughout the crop growth cycle; and at the end they were also desiccating (drying) or ripening crops with glyphosate sprayed about 7-10 days before harvest [7]. So, some of us in Europe are receiving glyphosate residues in all our non-organic staple foods, such as bread, cereals, potatoes, pasta, pulses, rice, sugar, beer, whisky, etc.[6] and many foods from the US made from corn or soya (mostly GM).http://www.i-sis.org.uk/How_Roundup_Poisoned_My_Nature_Reserve.php
-▶ NEW MIT STUDY QUESTIONS MONSANTO SAFETY CLAIMS FOR PESTICIDE ROUNDUP “GLYPHOSATE" IN OUR FOOD AND WATER This effect, according to the researchers, can contribute to causing or worsening “the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.”...http://organicconnectmag.com/wp/mit-study-questions-monsantos-safety-claims-for-roundup/#.Uc_BGevpiRQ
SAD WHEN OUR OWN GOVERNMENT TAX-PAID SCIENTISTS NEED PROTECTING FROM THE BIG CORPORATE CHEMICAL CARTEL
Reuters, March 27, 2015 ▶ ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP SEEKS GREATER PROTECTION FOR USDA SCIENTISTS WHOSE RESEARCH QUESTIONS BIG AGRIBUSINESS CHEMICALS. The petition to the USDA presses the agency to adopt policies to prevent "political suppression or alteration of studies and to lay out clear procedures for investigating allegations of scientific misconduct."
According to the petition, some scientists working for the federal government are finding their research restricted or censored when it conflicts with agribusiness industry interests.
▶ A LOOPHOLE FOR PESTICIDES PUTS PUBLIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AT RISK - the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved roughly 11,000 pesticides intended for use in agriculture, inside homes, on lawns, in hand soaps, on clothing and other consumer goods with little or no safety tests, according to a multi-year investigation by the Natural Resources Defense Council.http://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2013/03/loophole-pesticides-risks-public-health
How You Became a Guinea Pig For the Chemical and BioTech Corporationshttp://sco.lt/8fk9ZJ
WATCH Link TV (27:17) UNSAFE: THE TRUTH BEHIND EVERYDAY CHEMICALS They contribute to disease and are linked to conditions such as asthma, autism, ADHD, diabetes, cancers, infertility, cognitive disorders, obesity, reproductive disorders and birth defects. Earth Focus looks at endocrine disruptors, ubiquitous chemicals that affect development, metabolism, fertility and intelligence at extremely low doses and at what measures could be taken to better ensure public safety. http://www.linktv.org/video/9214/unsafe-the-truth-behind-everyday-chemicals
Por esto no aceptamos el uso de pesticidas en nuestras tierras…tenemos que decir ya no en todo Mexico.
This is why we do not use any pesticides at Hacienda Silil, giving our bees and other plants and animals a chance to live and grow in natural conditions.
One World News, December 9, 2013 -▶ INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE VITAL FOR BIODIVERSITY, SAY EXPERTS. With species disappearing up to 1,000 times faster than the natural extinction rate, biodiversity experts say knowledge co-production with indigenous peoples has growing importance. http://oneworld.org/2013/12/05/indigenous-knowledge-vital-for-biodiversity-say-experts/
African Agriculture: AGRA - ‘Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa' is a major assault on seed sovereignty’
Nagoya, Japan -- Under the guise of developing “climate-ready” crops, the world’s largest seed and agrochemical corporations are filing hundreds of sweeping, multi-genome patents in a bid to control the world’s plant biomass, according to a report released by ETC Grouphttp://www.etcgroup.org/fr/node/5220
Biocultural Heritage, ▶ SMALLHOLDER INDIGENOUS INNOVATION FOR RESILIENCE. Much of the world's agrobiodiversity has been lost in the last century due to the spread of modern agriculture. Only about 30 crops now provide 95% of all human diet (FAO). The pockets of crop diversity that remain, which are often sustained by indigenous people and small-scale farmers, are vital for food security because they provide options for adaptation, now and in the future. These local varieties (or landraces), are adapted to the natural and cultural environment, are often more resilient than modern crops, and are continuing to co-evolve with farmers to adapt to change. But this diversity is in steady decline and innovation by small-scale farmers is weakening as a result of top down research and development in agriculture, which undermines their capacity to adapt.http://biocultural.iied.org/smallholder-innovation-resilience-sifor
Animal Ecology In Focus, January 16, 2015 ▶ BIODIVERSITY v INTENSIVE FARMING : HAS FARMING LOST ITS WAY?Modern intensive farming produces plentiful, cheap food but is reliant on heavy use of agrochemicals and is a major driver of the ongoing collapse of wildlife populations. Taxpayers pay billions each year to support this system, with the bulk of this money going to the biggest, richest farming operations.... https://journalofanimalecology.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/biodiversity-v-intensive-farming-has-farming-lost-its-way/
Guardian Environment, March 25, 2014
▶ FUTURISTIC FARMS: RETHINKING MONOCULTURE FARMING AND HOW WE GROW OUR FOOD.It’s a vicious cycle that has been the curse of destructive agriculture for thousands of years: remove native vegetation, continuously grow crops, don’t rest the land or return nutrients. Erode and exhaust soils. Move on. Repeat..http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/25/california-drought-silicon-valley-moment
To increase profitability – and productivity – industrial agriculture has mechanized production processes and reduced options to a few highly controlled varieties. In the beginning of factory farming, one size was supposed to fit all and the landscape everywhere (including water and micro-climates) was to be engineered to accommodate only the selected commercial variety of plant or animal.... Of course, such defiance of nature caused serious problems and local ecosystems were thrown out of balance. The soil dried up and blew away. Insects and weeds invaded crops and destroyed yields. And so the arch controllers of nature invented pesticides and herbicides – and a highly profitable chemical industry was born to rule over the land.
Capitalism and the accompanying industrial revolution promised to free us from the bonds of nature, limit the quality and variety of products, and greatly increase the quantity of sales necessary to consolidate power and wealth. Over the relative short time the industrial system has been in place, it has separated us entirely from our organic roots – physically and spiritually. And everything has become artificially fabricated outside of nature: our society, our religions, and certainly most of our food...http://www.goodfoodworld.com/2014/09/seed-is-life-soil-is-life-water-is-life/
Truthout, December 04, 2014 ▶ SEEDS OF THE FUTURE DIMINISHING AS MONO INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE DOMINATES THE WORLD. A third of the world's land area is dedicated to agriculture. Farmers' fields and pastures comprise (after the oceans) the second largest ecosystem on the planet. This vast tract has been largely transformed into sterile monoculture deserts in which all other organisms are suppressed with agrochemicals, and only the cash crop is allowed to thrive. Whether it is soy in the Brazilian Amazon, wheat on the Ukrainian steppes or corn in Iowa, a single high-yield variety typically dominates the landscape for as far as the eye can see. http://truth-out.org/news/item/27760-seeds-of-the-future
Common Dreams, February 23, 2015 ▶ MANIPULATE AND MISLEAD: HOW GMOs ARE INFILTRATING AFRICAThe most persistent myth about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is that they are necessary to feed a growing global population. Highly effective marketing campaigns have drilled it into our heads that GMOs will produce more food on less land in an environmentally friendly manner. The mantra has been repeated so often that it is considered to be truth. Now this mantra has come to Africa, sung by the United States government and multinational corporations like Monsanto, seeking to open new markets for a product that has been rejected by so many others around the globe. http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/02/23/manipulate-and-mislead-how-gmos-are-infiltrating-africa
African Centre for Biosafety, November 18, 2013 ▶ A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE ALLIANCE FOR A GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA (AGRA) - 2013 REPORT GIVING WITH ONE HAND, TAKING WITH TWOhttp://www.acbio.org.za/
▶ AFRICAN AGRICULTURE: AGRA "ALLIANCE FOR A GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA" IS A MAJOR ASSAULT ON SEED SOVEREIGNTY
September 6, 2013 Greenpeace International ▶ AGRA: HELPING BIG AGRIBUSINESS "CONQUER" AFRICAN AGRICULTUREFinally, we have confirmation of what we have long suspected: AGRA, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, has been created to facilitate the corporate takeover of African agriculture, not support African smallholder farmers with real solutions...http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/agra-agribusiness-africa-agriculture/blog/46511/
▶ BILL GATES, MONSANTO AND EUGENICS: HOW ONE OF THE WORLD'S WEALTHIEST MEN IS ACTIVELY PROMOTING A CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF GLOBAL HEALTH, AGRICULTURE (FOOD) AND EDUCATIONhttp://sco.lt/51EymH
Genetic engineering is about private corporate control of the food system.
▶ THE RABID TACTICS OF THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY TO GAIN CONTROL OF GHANA'S FOOD SYSTEMWhose interests does Prof. Alhassan represent? Prof. Alhassan was been quoted as dismissing anti-GMO groups because, according to him, they allegedly do not have any scientific proof or knowledge to offer when it comes GMO technology. But he is wrong.
Ghanaian farmers need to abhor and reject scientists laden with conflicts of interest. Monsanto and Syngenta are particularly greedy to get their hands on Ghana’s agriculture and control the seed market here.Professor Alhassan is attempting to control the information farmers and the public see and hear just like the industry he represents....
“Today, large numbers of scientists are in the employ of Big Pharma, Big Ag, and all kinds of corporations with anti-environmental and anti-social justice agendas.”(2)... Professor Alhassan is a key employee of Big Ag, and has been for his entire career....
REPORT Part 2 of 4 Environmental Justice and Climate Change, November 08, 2014 Environmental and Food Justice THE PANACEA OF GMOs INDIGENOUS RIGHT LIVELIHOODS
Pambazuka -Voices for Freedom and Justice in Africa
▶ HOW COMPANIES FRAME ISSUES OF FOOD AND GLOBAL HUNGER FOR THEIR OWN SELF-INTEREST AND BOTTOMLINE PROFITS
There is a new, but deceptive, foreign drive to end hunger in Africa through large-scale agribusiness. Yet helping poor households in rural Africa feed themselves in an affordable manner means introducing low-cost, sustainable enhancements to farming.
History is riddled with examples of the poor dying of hunger when food was plentiful. Classic amongst these is the famine which wracked the West African Sahel during the early 1970s. While people were dying of hunger in Senegal, Mali and Niger, peanuts — a key sauce ingredient and source of protein across the region — were being exported to Europe....
...The rise of philanthrocapitalism in the US, where former and current business leaders, through the strength of their foundations, have increasingly come to influence the shape and direction of US international development programmes. Central to the philanthrocapitalist worldview is a belief that private enterprise is the fundamental agent of progressive change and that business acumen trumps other forms of expertise...http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/85291
-▶ FROM GROWING PROFIT TO GROWING FOOD: CHALLENGING CORPORATE RULEhttp://sco.lt/7Dg37p
-▶ THE HUNGER GAMES: -▶
HOW UK AND USA GOVERNMENTS SUPPORT FOR BIG AGRIBUSINESS IS FUELING POVERTY IN AFRICA AND AROUND THE WORLD
▶ ACQUISITION OF AFRICA'S SEEDCO BY MONSANTO FURTHERS GLOBAL SEED CARTEL GRIP: NEO-COLONIAL OCCUPATION OF AFRICA'S SEED SYSTEM. The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is deeply concerned about the recent acquisitions by multi-national seed companies of large parts of SeedCo, one of Africa’s largest home-grown seed companies. Attracting foreign investment from the world’s largest seed companies, most of who got to their current dominant positions by devouring national seed companies and their competitors through mergers and acquisitions, is an inevitable consequence of the fierce drive to commercialise agriculture in Africa.http://www.acbio.org.za/
▶ SEED PATENTS & CONTROL OF GLOBAL FOOD & AGRICULTURE: THE BIOTECH, GMO, CHEMICAL CORPORATE CARTELhttp://sco.lt/5LcjVR
GRAIN, October 23, 2014 ▶ HARVEST OF HARDSHIP: YALA SWAMP LAND GRAB DESTROYS KENYAN FARMERS' LIVELIHOOD.Dominion Farms arrived in Kenya's Yala Swamp basin in 2004 with big promises. The company claimed it would turn a defunct state demonstration farm into a modern rice plantation, provide locals with good jobs, and build hospitals and schools. The American owner of the company, Calvin Burgess, presented himself as a 'man of God', on a mission to bring US-style progress to Africa. The locals, sold on this grand vision, decided – with some hesitation and dissent – to allow Dominion to farm on 3,700 ha of their lands...http://www.grain.org/article/entries/5061-harvest-of-hardship-yala-swamp-land-grab-destroys-kenyan-farmers-livelihoods
GRAIN, May 26, 2014 2,4-D SOY: WAGING WAR ON PEASANTSGlobal attempts by Dow AgroSciences to gain approval for new genetically-modified soybean varieties resistant to the herbicide 2,4-D have become particularly aggressive in recent months. Simultaneous applications have been filed in several of the countries where genetically engineered crops (GE or transgenic crops or GMOs) were introduced in the 1990s. The push for approval of new transgenics is part of a broader strategy by agribusiness to make the world’s farms increasingly dependent on its toxic herbicides, thus increasing the profits it derives from selling these chemicals. The current situation is a rerun of the 1990s’ introduction of Roundup Ready (glyphosate-resistant) crops, only this time the herbicides in question are much more toxic. These weed-killers have been around for a longer time and the case for their hazardousness to human health and the environment has been well documented.http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4945-2-4-d-soy-waging-war-on-peasants
▶ THESE TOP FOOD COMPANIES CONTROL ALMOST EVERYTHING WE EAT:There are more than 38,000 products in the average American supermarket. That means tons of choice, right? In fact, the vast majority of these products are owned by just 10 companies. Those friendly looking Green Giant pees? That's General Mills. And Odwalla juice? That's Coca Cola. This matters, of course, because we deserve to know where our food comes from--and how it's made. http://www.fastcocreate.com/3032899/see-who-actually-owns-the-food-you-eat-and-how-theyre-behaving
Pambazuka, September 25, 2014 ▶ MAYAN PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT DEFEATS MONSANTO LAW IN GUATEMALA. There was a great risk that the Monsanto Law would have made criminals of already repressed small farmers who are just trying to make ends meet and doing what they have done for generations – cultivating corn and black beans for their own consumption. The Monsanto Law meant that they would not have been able to grow and harvest anything that originates from natural seeds. Farmers would be breaking the laws if these natural seeds had been mixed with patented seeds from other crops as a result of pollination or wind, unless they had had a license for the patented seed from a transnational corporation like Monsanto. .. The Monsanto Law would have given exclusivity on patented seeds to a handful of transnational companies....the Mayan people – or actually most people – in Guatemala do not agree with a policy of treating nature like a commodity to be sold off piece by piece, ...http://pambazuka.net/en/category/features/92994
▶ CULTIVATING SANITY : BANGLADESH FARMERS TURN BACK THE CLOCK TO COMBAT CLIMATE STRESSED CROPS - Cultivation of the old varieties is expanding in part because they need almost no chemical fertiliser or pesticides - which makes them cheaper and easier to grow - and because their yields are good in tough conditions.http://www.trust.org/item/20141126125124-0i6go
ReliefWeb, December 19, 2014 ▶ MAIZE, RICE, WHEAT FARMING MUST BECOME MORE SUSTAINABLE: FAO.The FAO meeting agreed that agriculture can no longer rely on input-intensive agriculture to increase crop production. Improved varieties of maize, rice and wheat must go hand-in-hand with what FAO calls "Save and Grow" farming systems that keep soil healthy, integrate crop, tree and animal production, use water far more efficiently, and protect crops with integrated pest management..Experts at the meeting said that that challenge could only be met with eco-friendly agriculture that achieves higher productivity while conserving natural resources, adapting to climate change, and delivering economic benefits to the world's 500 million small-scale family farms.
Appeal-Democrat, December 21, 2014 ▶ AG-TECH COULD CHANGE HOW WORLD EATS: Investors and entrepreneurs behind some of the world's newest industries have started to put their money and tech talents into farming — the world's oldest industry —Silicon Valley is pushing its way into every stage of the food-growing process, from tech tycoons buying up farmland to startups selling robots that work the fields to hackathons dedicated to building the next farming app.http://www.appeal-democrat.com/business/ag-tech-could-change-how-world-eats/article_af7d8ab2-88b3-11e4-a88c-53786b1de7d9.html
▶ WEB-OF-LIFE UNRAVELLING - HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS VITAL FOR ALL PLANETARY LIFEhttp://sco.lt/8idD7J
▶ BIODIVERSITY IS VITAL TO MAINTAINING ECOSYSTEMS AND HUMAN HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/4u4JhR
▶ THE HIDDEN WORLD OF SOIL UNDER OUR FEET : SOIL AS A LIFELINEhttp://sco.lt/6kqJaT
▶ LAND GRABBING: HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/7rqpG5
-▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE, INDIGENOUS LAND AND LIVELIHOODS IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH"http://sco.lt/5nT3OT
VIDEO
-▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/4l725B
USA Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, was acquired by a Chinese firm in 2013 for nearly $5 billion -- more than the company’s market value. The surprising purchase caused some lawmakers to wonder if there might be a hidden player. As part of the series Food for 9 Billion, Nathan Halverson of the Center for Investigative Reporting examines how the Chinese government is involved. Continue reading →
The Economist, December 2, 2014 - ▶ SWINE IN CHINA: EMPIRE OF THE PIGChina’s insatiable appetite for pork is a symbol of the country’s rise. It is also a danger to the world. Some industrial facilities, often owned by the state or by multinationals, produce as many as 100,000 swine a year. These are born and live for ever on slatted metal beds; most never see direct sunlight; very few ever get to breed. The pigs themselves have changed physically, too. Three foreign breeds now account for 95% of them
USA GOVERNMENT HIDING BEHIND "NATIONAL SECURITY"...AGAIN. BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, US CONGRESS QUIETLY SELLING OUR MEAT, POULTRY AND MILK OUT FROM UNDER US TO CHINA.
September 6, 2013 Agri Pulse - ▶ U.S. REGULATORS, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, QUIETLY GIVES CHINA APPROVAL TO PURCHASE SMITHFIELD, AMERICA'S LARGEST FACTORY FARM HOG PRODUCER. The merger has drawn congressional scrutiny in regards to food safety, as well as concerns about drug safety.
Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., noted that because the CFIUS review includes issues of national security, it is done in secret with no public oversight or transparency.
“It remains unclear what factors the [CFIUS] took into account in making its decision,” Stabenow said. “We still do not know if the potential impact on American food security, the transfer of taxpayer funded innovation to a foreign competitor, or China's protectionist trade barriers were considered.”
- ▶ CHINESE MEAT "IMPORT" QUIETLY APPROVED BY USDA: NO LABELING, NO REGULATIONS, NO OVERSIGHT : United States Department of Agriculture has agreed to allow four Chinese chicken processing plants to export their meat into our country. “There will be no US officials present at the Chinese processing plants and consumers won’t know where their food comes from because processed meat does not require a point of origin label.”http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/09/dont-be-chicken-chinese-meat-import-now-usda-approved/
June 13, 2013 The Center for Investigative Reporting - ▶ ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS SURFACE AS CALIFORNIA AIMS TO MILK CHINA'S DAIRY DEMANDhttp://cironline.org/node/4726
Beginning with a history of the American food system, River of Waste shows its evolution to large-scale corporate farms where pollution and use of growth hormones threaten both individual health and the future of our planethttp://sco.lt/5WwPVx
"Sadly, a GMO free world is now virtually impossible. Transgenes have already escaped into the biosphere, creating a pollution that is truly irreversible. The least we can do is to stop this global experiment, as it is being conducted without the informed consent of those being exposed to its fallout. The Biotech GMO Cartel enjoys free license with little or no regulation or oversight, or labeling. This must cease. We should not have to fight for our food security and food safety while multi-national corporations are making trillions of dollars from our ill-health caused by their produce and products".
BAN GMOs NOW - SPECIAL REPORT
Institute of Science in Society
@ISISscience
GM agriculture is failing on all counts while hazards to health and the environment are coming to light. Opposition to GMOs is gaining momentum worldwide but the expansionist GM corporate agenda continues undiminished. GM agriculture is a recipe for disaster as this report will make clear. It is also standing in the way of the shift to sustainable agriculture already taking place in local communities all over the world that can truly enable people to feed themselves in times of climate change. Take action now to ban environmental releases of GMOs, locally in communities, villages, towns, municipalities, regions, as well as nationally and globally. We the people need to reclaim our food and seed sovereignty from the corporate empire before they destroy our food, farming (and human/environment) health irreversibly...http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Ban_GMOs_Now_-_Special_ISIS_Report.php
-▶ DID YOU KNOW? GENE ALTERED FOODS -- NOW LARGE PART OF AMERICAN DIET - AS AMERICANS GET SICKER AND SICKER - NO REGULATIONS, NO OVERSIGHT, NO LABELINGhttp://sco.lt/7oVxQH
▶ GMO LOBBY WORKS TIRELESSLY AGAINST MANDATORY LABELING GMO.A coalition of genetically modified organism (GMO), pesticide, grocery and agriculture corporate trade groups are fighting mandatory labeling efforts at the state and local level by pushing preemption measures in Congress and at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/03/12431/gmo-lobby-works-tirelessly-against-mandatory-labeling
THE FOOD FIGHT OF OUR LIVES
June 06, 2014 -▶FOOD FIGHT, CORPORATE TRADE AGREEMENTS AND STATES' RIGHTS: DEMOCRACY OR CORPOCRACY?Angered by Monsanto and agribusiness stomping on their traditional community rights, consumers are fighting back, and so is the powerful Biotech Agri-Chemical Industry. Approximately 1,000 counties in the U.S. have explicit authority in their state constitution to allow and uphold citizen ballot initiatives. Fearing that more and more counties will launch these initiatives, factory farm and biotech interests in at least A DOZEN STATES HAVE PASSED SO-CALLED “RIGHT-TO-FARM" LEGISLATION DESIGNED TO PROTECT THE INTEREST OF CORPORATEhttp://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_29258.cfm
Sustainable Business, May 20, 2014
▶ GLOBAL COALITION FORMS TO TAKE ON GMO AGRICULTURE BRINGING TOGETHER 4.5 MILLION PEOPLE - A new global organization has formed to take the GMO issue on. The Global GMO Free Coalition brings together GMO-free groups across 6 continents with a total membership of over 4.5 million people. More than 60 groups are part of this first globally coordinated network that plans to take the GMO food and crop industry head on. Among the countries represented: US, UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Russia, Georgia, Iran, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Taiwan, Australia, South Africa, New Caledonia and Ghana.Its aim, they say, is to cut through biotech industry propaganda, providing fact-based independent information to the media and governments that leads to responsible regulation in countries worldwide.
▶ GENETIC MODIFICATION STRAINS OLD FOOD AND DRUG LAWS: HOW A FISH BECOMES A DRUG AND CORN A PESThttp://sco.lt/66YF2v
Motley Fool, March 05, 2014 -▶ GMOs AND ECOCIDE: RENOWNED EXPERT SAYS GMOs POSE MORE RISK THAN WE THINK.Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have the ability to cause "an irreversible termination of life at some scale, which could be the planet." says Nassim Taleb, distinguished professor of risk engineering at New York Universityhttp://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/05/renowned-expert-gmos-pose-more-risk-than-we-think.aspx
WATCH "WHAT ARE ROUNDUP READY & Bt PESTICIDE GMO CROPS?" A Must see VIDEO for all. Dr. David Suzuki http://sco.lt/5n6cuP
-▶ WHY ARE COUNTRIES BANNING GMO (GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CROPS) AND ANIMALS?http://sco.lt/7l7AVV
-▶ 30 YEARS OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PLANTS - 20 YEARS OF COMMERCIAL CULTIVATION IN THE U.S. - A CRITICAL ASSESSMENThttp://sco.lt/5PYIM5
▶ CORPORATE HIJACKING OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: GENETIC ENGINEERING AND THE GLOBAL GMO INDUSTRYhttp://sco.lt/73IdQ9
-▶ BIOTECH IS RE-ENGINEERING, RE-PROGRAMMING AND PATENTING LIFE ITSELF -- IS BIOTECH OUT OF CONTROL?http://sco.lt/4thM6
▶ THE NEXT GMO BIOTECH WAVE: EXTREME SYNTHETIC GENETICS: THE IMPLICATION, THE ETHICShttp://sco.lt/6JaFLF
▶ FINAL REPORT TO UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL ON THE RIGHT TO FOOD. In his final report to the UN Human Rights Council after a six-year term as Special Rapporteur, Olivier De Schutter today called for the world’s food systems to be radically and democratically redesigned....
-▶ CUTTING BACK ON DOMINANT GMO CORN EASIER SAID THAN DONE: PATENTS, SEEDS, CORPORATE CONTROLhttp://sco.lt/6SxEYL
EcoWatch, February 22, 2014
-▶ STOP FEEDING THE BEAST AND START FEEDING THE PEOPLE. We have a system of predatory agriculture in which corporations pursue private gain relentlessly regardless of the social consequences. Social consequences can be defined as anything from polluting our water, land and air to impacting the health of our families to making the business of farming economically unsustainable.http://ecowatch.com/2014/02/22/stop-feeding-beast-start-feeding-people/
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DAVID IS READY TO TAKE ON GOLIATH
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Global GMO Free Coalition, May 20, 2014
▶ GLOBAL GMO FREE COALITION BRINGS TOGETHER 4.5 MILLION PEOPLE TO FIGHT BIOTECH INDUSTRY PROPAGANDAhttp://www.gmofreeglobal.org/
-▶AGRIBUSINESS OVER LOCAL CITIZENS . And in Hawaii and Jackson County, Ore., where there are active initiatives in play, the biotech industry and the Farm Bureau are now pouring millions of dollars into campaigns to defeat those initiatives.http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_29258.cfm
- ▶ MONSANTO'S POWER GRAB: GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS GIVEN IMMUNITY FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENThttp://sco.lt/7D3awz
▶ MONSANTO, BIOTECH AGRICHEMICAL CARTEL BUYS OBAMA, THE US SENATE AND THE GLOBAL FARMhttp://sco.lt/8edR3Z
- ▶ MONSANTO GMO TREES COULD DEVASTATE FOREST ECOSYSTEMS CREATING BIOLOGICAL DESERTS: Eradicating Real Forests to plant Monoculture BioEngineered Treeshttp://sco.lt/52lFDN
There is an extraordinary, well-funded, co-ordinated PR push by the powerful Biotech GMO industry, using Biotech "shills" to write articles in all top publications, on both sides of the Atlantic, right now, with the intent of bulldozing the less informed into global GMO acceptance, with little peer reviewed (vs self-interest industry studies) science references or acknowledgement of environmental and human health concerns. Expect an all out attack including character assassinations, USDA propaganda, heavy lobbying and funding of pro-biotech stances. Stay Alert. Do your homework on the sources allegiances and backgrounds
WARNING:
TOXIC GMO GRASS AND THEIR PESTICIDE SEEDS SNEAKED INTO CONSUMER MARKET , UNLABELED, UNREGULATED
▶ THESE TOP FOOD COMPANIES CONTROL ALMOST EVERYTHING WE EAT:There are more than 38,000 products in the average American supermarket. That means tons of choice, right? In fact, the vast majority of these products are owned by just 10 companies. Those friendly looking Green Giant pees? That's General Mills. And Odwalla juice? That's Coca Cola. This matters, of course, because we deserve to know where our food comes from--and how it's made.http://www.fastcocreate.com/3032899/see-who-actually-owns-the-food-you-eat-and-how-theyre-behaving
Wakeup World, September 04, 2014 ▶ SCIENTISTS OFFICIALLY LINK PROCESSED FOODS TO AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE. The modern diet of processed foods, takeaways and microwave meals could be to blame for a sharp increase in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, alopecia, asthma and eczema.
A team of scientists from Yale University in the U.S and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, in Germany, say junk food diets could be partly to blame. “This study is the first to indicate that excess refined and processed salt may be one of the environmental factors driving the increased incidence of autoimmune diseases”, they said.http://wakeup-world.com/2014/09/04/scientists-officially-link-processed-foods-to-autoimmune-disease/
Appeal-Democrat, December 21, 2014 ▶ AG-TECH COULD CHANGE HOW WORLD EATS:
—Silicon Valley is pushing its way into every stage of the food-growing process, from tech tycoons buying up farmland to startups selling robots that work the fields to hackathons dedicated to building the next farming app. Investors and entrepreneurs behind some of the world's newest industries have started to put their money and tech talents into farming — the world's oldest industry http://www.appeal-democrat.com/business/ag-tech-could-change-how-world-eats/article_af7d8ab2-88b3-11e4-a88c-53786b1de7d9.html
Feb 26, 2013 - TruthOut ▶ OUR FOOD SYSTEM IS IN CRISIS DUE TO TECHNOLOGY RUN AMOK AND MONOPOLIZING CORPORATIONS
"The Foods that Make Billions" is a 3-part series looking at how big business feeds us. By employing clever tactics and smart marketing, big business seduces the appetite of the consumer and entices people to spend and spend and spend. This is how global food and beverage empires are built.
Part 1: Liquid Gold - Bottled Water: Liquid Gold looks at the competitive dynamics between two of the global leaders in the bottled water marketplace: Nestle and Danone and unpacks the brand philosophy and big business strategy behind these big hitters in the industry
Part 2: The Age of PlentyEpisode two tells the story of a modern marketing miracle: the story of the breakfast cereal. The Age of Plenty investigates the processing, marketing and advertising behind a breakfast that has singularly impacted the way we live.
Part 3: Pots of Gold: Big business has managed to increase the profit margins of simple products, like yogurt by monumental proportions, resulting in multi-billion dollar industry.
▶ CORPORATIONS QUIETLY INSERTING UNTESTED SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY INTO HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS.The processes using synthetic biology involve techniques that more extensively alter genetic code. Those include “artificial gene synthesis,” in which DNA is created on computers and inserted into organisms, and other methods for changing DNA sequences and genes within organisms to alter their function.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/31/business/biofuel-tools-applied-to-household-soaps.html
APOCALYPSE OF THE "HAPPY MEAL" WORSHIPING THE GOLDEN CALF
What we set on our tables, and chow down on at fast-food restaurants, may be contributing more to the acceleration of climate change and human extinction than some of the usual carbon-emitting culprits. Throughout the world, native grasslands, forests and wild species have been burned, butchered and brutalized for cattle ranches. Our farming system of grain-fed livestock consumes resources far out of proportion to the useful dietary yield.http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25562-apocalypse-of-the-happy-meal-worshipping-the-golden-calf
Scientific American, May 12, 2014 ▶ DRUGS, CHEMICALS SEEP DEEP INTO SOIL FROM SEWAGE SLUDGE FERTILIZER, ABSORBED BY OUR FOOD The widespread use of biosolids could contaminate groundwater near farms with a variety of chemicals, including anti-depressants such as Prozac and hormone-disrupting compounds in antibacterial soaps
Food Chains, a new hard-hitting documentary about the battle between Florida farmworkers and the giant supermarket and fast food conglomerates. The New York Times calls Food Chains an “emphatic and empathetic documentary” that presents farm laborers as modern-day slaveshttp://billmoyers.com/2014/11/21/food-chains/
▶ WHO OWNS NATURE? Corporate Power and the Final Frontier in the Commodification of Life
Three decades ago, humanity had a problem; science had a fascination; and industry had an opportunity. Our problem was injustice. The ranks of the hungry were expanding while the ranks of farmers were thinning. Meanwhile, science was fascinated by biotechnology – the idea that we could genetically engineer crops and livestock (and people) with traits that could overcome all our problems.
Agribusiness saw an opportunity to extract the enormous surplus value that was laced throughout the food chain. The hugely decentralized food system held pockets of profit just crying out to be centralized. All the biotechnology industry had to do is chase away the competition and coerce governments into surrendering control. ....http://www.etcgroup.org/content/who-owns-nature
Pambazuka -Voices for Freedom and Justice in Africa
▶ AFRICA: HOW COMPANIES FRAME ISSUES OF FOOD AND GLOBAL HUNGER FOR THEIR OWN SELF-INTEREST AND BOTTOMLINE PROFITS
There is a new, but deceptive, foreign drive to end hunger in Africa through large-scale agribusiness. Yet helping poor households in rural Africa feed themselves in an affordable manner means introducing low-cost, sustainable enhancements to farming.
History is riddled with examples of the poor dying of hunger when food was plentiful.
...The rise of philanthrocapitalism in the US, where former and current business leaders, through the strength of their foundations, have increasingly come to influence the shape and direction of US international development programmes.
Central to the philanthrocapitalist worldview is a belief that private enterprise is the fundamental agent of progressive change and that business acumen trumps other forms of expertise... http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/85291
National Geographic, "Future of Food" May 02, 2014 ▶ FEED THE WORLD: FAMILY FARMERS HOLD KEYS TO AGRICULTURE IN A WARMING WORLD.Faced with global warming and a population that will swell to nine billion by 2050, a growing number of experts say that the way to feed the masses as climate change makes growing our food more difficult is to focus on family farmers, who often can barely feed themselves. ...
When policymakers in the developed world talk about feeding billions of extra mouths in the decades to come, it's multinational agribusinesses—which operate industrial-size farms—that usually get most of the attention.
GRAIN, May 28, 214 ▶ AFRICA: HUNGRY FOR LAND: CORPORATIONS ACCELERATE AFRICA LAND GRABS - Bt Cotton in South Africa
This article summarises the results of five years of research undertaken by Biowatch South Africa on the socio-economic impact of Bt cotton on small-scale farmers in South Africa. It forms part of a comprehensive research paper on the topic that will be published later this year.
Pambazuka, July 24. 2014 WHICH WAY AFRICA? GMOs AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: African governments are under intense pressure from within but also from big agribusiness and Western governments to embrace GMOs. Governments must resist all forms of arm-twisting and food colonialism and make their biotechnology choices based on the factshttp://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/92594
WALL STREET, CORPORATIONS GOBBLING UP AMERICAN & FOREIGN FARMLAND THREATENING FUTURE OF U.S. AND WORLD FOOD SECURITY, AGRICULTURE & FOODhttp://sco.lt/8mcmbR
ARE YOU EATING CLONED PORK? CHINA ENTERS USA FOOD MARKET - UNLABELED, UNREGULATED - USDA, FDAhttp://sco.lt/57VNh3
Summit County Citizens Voice, April 03, 2015 - ▶ EPA TO START TRACKING NANOSCALE CHEMICALS.
Despite the promise of nanoscale materials, scientists know there is potential for negative environmental impacts. In a 2012 study, researchers with the University of Alaska and the U.S. Geological Survey found that carbon nanotubes can kill aquatic organisms.
- ▶ THE NEXT CRISIS: UNREGULATED, UNTESTED NANOTECHNOLOGY BREAKTHROUGH COULD POSE THREAT TO ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND YOUR HEALTH. Fast-developing know-how makes our khakis resist stains, artificial bones more practical and diesel burn more efficiently.That nanotechnology builds microscopic wonders inhabiting a man-made universe that smothers stink and mops up pollution by working on a scale that makes a dust mite look gargantuan.
Research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this year, raises fresh worries about nanotechnology. Some critics say it’s becoming quickly integrated into the modern economy and the world environment faster than scientists can sort out its potential dangers.“We need to put together a model where we’re thinking this through before we get to a point that we can’t undo it,” said Patty Lovera, an assistant director of the consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch.
Modern Farmer, January 15, 2015 - ▶ EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NANOPESTICIDES. ...the unique physical properties of the nano-scale call into question the particles’ environmental fate. Once they’re sprayed on fields, will they clump on crops or slide through the soil into water bodies? Most worrisome, Harper wonders whether they will be readily taken up by organisms that aren’t pests (such as bees or fish), and how long they will persist in the environment — properties that could radically change with size. “We just don’t know,” ...
- ▶ NANOPARTICLES IN YOUR FOOD: YOU'RE ALREADY EATING THEM: What's engineered in a lab, added to processed foods, and never labeled? If you thought GMOs were mysterious, try nanoparticles.
... the growing role of nanotechnology in food and agriculture, the current lack of oversight and regulations, and the growing consensus that more information and transparency are both sorely needed in relation to this growing field....http://grist.org/food/nanoparticles-in-your-food-youre-already-eating-them/
- ▶ THINK THOSE 80,000 CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDES IN YOUR FOOD & ENVIRONMENT HAVE BEEN TESTED?http://sco.lt/91jqHh
New York Times, May 30, 2014
▶ CORPORATIONS QUIETLY INSERTING UNTESTED SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY INTO HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS.The processes using synthetic biology involve techniques that more extensively alter genetic code. Those include “artificial gene synthesis,” in which DNA is created on computers and inserted into organisms, and other methods for changing DNA sequences and genes within organisms to alter their function.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/31/business/biofuel-tools-applied-to-household-soaps.html
DO WE NEED A GENETIC BILL OF RIGHTS?
Beyond GMOs. The Rise of Synthetic Biology. Patenting Life
PESTICIDES ARE POISON, NO MATTER HOW YOU CUT THE CAKE. THEY ARE POISONING OUR FOOD, SOIL, WATERWAYS, ENVIRONMENT AND KILL BIRDS AND ALL INSECTS, BENEFICIAL OR OTHERWISE, THAT THEY COME IN CONTACT WITH LEAVING BIOLOGICAL WASTELANDS.
Neonicotinoids are systemic, meaning that as the plant grows the pesticide becomes incorporated into the plant (AND WE HUMANS INGEST THIS???)
-▶ TOXIC INSECTICIDES PUT WORLD FOOD SUPPLIES AT RISK, SAY SCIENTISTS. Regulations on pesticides have failed to prevent poisoning of almost all habitats, international team of scientists concludes. The world’s most widely used insecticides have contaminated the environment across the planet so pervasively that global food production is at risk, according to a comprehensive scientific assessment of the chemicals’ impacts. The researchers compare their impact with that reported in Silent Spring, the landmark 1962 book by Rachel Carson that revealed the decimation of birds and insects by the blanket use of DDT and other pesticides and led to the modern environmental movement. Billions of dollars’ worth of the potent and long-lasting neurotoxins are sold every year but regulations have failed to prevent the poisoning of almost all habitats, the international team of scientists concluded in the most detailed study yet. As a result, they say, creatures essential to global food production – from bees to earthworms – are likely to be suffering grave harm and the chemicals must be phased out...http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/24/insecticides-world-food-supplies-risk
Guardian Environment, July 09, 2014 -▶ CRIMINAL: NEONICOTINOID AGRICULTURAL INSECTICIDES, DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, BIODIVERSITY AND YOUR HEALTH - LINKED TO RECENT FALL IN FARMLAND BIRD NUMBERS.Peer-Reviewed Research, published in the leading journal Nature has revealed pervasive pollution by these nerve agents now threatening all food production.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/09/neonicotinoids-farmland-birds
-▶ THE BATTLE FOR THE BEES -▶
Dying Bees Raise Alarm For Humans - Europe Bans Pesticide
IUCN, June 24, 2014 ▶ SYSTEMIC PESTICIDES POSE GLOBAL THREAT TO BIODIVERSITY, ECOSYSTEMS AND HUMAN HEALTH.The conclusions of a new meta-analysis (800 Scientists) of the systemic pesticides neonicotinoids and fipronil (neonics) confirm that they are causing significant damage to a wide range of beneficial invertebrate species and are a key factor in the decline of bees.http://www.iucn.org/news_homepage/?16025/Systemic-Pesticides-Pose-Global-Threat-to-Biodiversity-And-Ecosystem-Services
-▶ TRACKING THE CAUSES OF MASSIVE MONARCH BUTTERFLY DECLINE: GMOs, PESTICIDES, HABITAT LOSS DUE TO MEGA MONOCROP FARMINGhttp://sco.lt/8iXChl
BBC News, June 23, 2014
-▶ WIDESPREAD IMPACTS OF NEONICOTINOIDS 'IMPOSSIBLE TO DENY': UNEQUIVOCAL EVIDENCENeonicotinoid pesticides are causing significant damage to a wide range of beneficial species and are a key factor in the decline of bees, say scientistshttp://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27980344
EENews, September 05, 2014 -▶ PESTICIDES: SYNGENTA ASKS EPA TO RAISE TOLERANCE LEVEL FOR 'BEE-KILLING PESTICIDE CHEMICALhttp://www.eenews.net/stories/1060005321
Beyond Pesticides, September 09, 2014 -▶ SYNGENTA PROPOSES 400x INCREASE IN BEE-TOXIC PESTICIDE ON CROPS AND FOODhttp://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=14016http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=14016
Huffington Post Green, June 17, 2014 -▶ CHINA'S REJECTION OF GMO CORN HAS COST U.S. UP TO $2.9 BILLION. The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) estimated in a report that rejections of shipments containing Syngenta AG's Agrisure Viptera corn resulted in losses of at least $1 billion, based on an economic analysis that included data supplied by top global grain exporters. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/17/gmo-corn-china_n_5162921.html
Digital Journal , July 02, 2014 -▶ GENETICALLY ENGINEERED U.S. COTTON GROWERS WANT UNLICENSED, HIGHLY TOXIC PESTICIDE USE ON 3 MILLION ACRES - FURTHER POISONING SOIL, WATER AND ALL LIFE WITHIN THE ENVIRONMENT -- EXCEPT THE COTTONhttp://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2031904
100 Reporters, February 15, 2012 ▶ THE BAIT AND SWITCH TACTICS OF THE PESTICIDE/CHEMICAL INDUSTRY: FDA OVERSIGHT? WEIGHING THE PARTS, IGNORING THE WHOLE.In the EPA’s process for registering chemicals...pesticide makers win approval for specific active ingredients, and then mix those chemicals with a number of other ingredients. The result is a far different formulation that has bypassed government safety reviews and is then sold to the public. “Virtually no pesticide is registered by the EPA. The EPA only registers the active ingredient.” http://100r.org/2012/02/epa-oversight-weighing-the-parts-ignoring-the-whole/
EurActive, February 25, 2014
▶ AFRICAN FARMERS CUT USE OF 'TOXIC' PESTICIDES FOR NATURAL 'BIOPESTICIDES' . Cotton farmers in Mali have reduced their use of toxic pesticides and cut costs through an education project carried out by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and partially funded by the European Union. The UN established field schools to train cotton farmers to use alternative forms of pest control, such as “biopesticides”, which led to a 92% decrease in the use of toxic pesticides. The use of the biopesticides, such as neem tree extract, meant that the farmers refrained from using an estimated 47,000 litres of synthesised pesticides, saving them nearly half a million dollars over the study period. The biopesticides, which had no negative impacts on yields, therefore proved to be three times more cost-effective than synthetic pesticides.http://www.euractiv.com/sustainability/african-farmers-cut-use-toxic-pe-news-533719
March 19, 2013 Southwest Farm Press -▶ SUPERWEEDS A GROWING NIGHTMARE FOR AGRICULTURE UNCONTROLLABLE SUPER WEEDS ACROSS THE USA SUNBELT, GMO HERBICIDE RESISTANT
Harvard Gazette, August 19, 2014 - ▶ ARE FAILING BEES OUR WARNING SIGN FOR HUMAN HEALTH IMPLICATIONS?Harvard School of Public Health’s (HSPH) Chengsheng (Alex) Lu, an associate professor of environmental exposure biology, believes that the potential human health implications of colony collapse disorder extend beyond the drop in pollination — though that is worrisome enough — to the impact on humans of long exposure to low-level poisons like neonicotinoid pesticides...links the pesticide to the recent increase in neurological conditions in children such as autism and ADHD. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/08/are-failing-bees-our-warning-sign/
IIn the last few months, investigative reporters in the U.S. and Canada have highlighted Syngenta’s desperate scrambling to discredit atrazine’s critics. Recent pieces in major outlets like the New Yorker and Canada’s 16 x 9, building on important findings first published in 100Reporters, have pulled back the curtain on Syngenta’s PR machine for a broader audience. The message? ....http://www.panna.org/blog/spinning-science-atrazine
▶ SYNGENTA'S NEXT TARGET: JACKSON COUNTY, OREGONLast week, Swiss-based pesticide corporation Syngenta dumped tens of thousands of dollars into a county election in Southern Oregon. Sound familiar? It should. Still reeling from their recent defeat in Kaua'i, Syngenta and the rest of the "Big 6" don’t want to lose any more fights around pesticides and GMOs.http://www.panna.org/blog/syngenta-GE-jackson-county-oregon
-▶ EUROPEAN UNION: BAYER, SYNGENTA PESTICIDES HALVE BEES POLLEN GATHERING ABILITY, RESEARCH SHOWS.A two-year EU ban of three neonicotinoids, the most widely used insecticides in the world, began in December, following research that showed harm to honey and bumblebees. The neonicotinoids are "systemic" pesticides, being applied to seeds so that the chemical spreads within the plants. Over three-quarters of the world's food crops require insect pollination, but bees have declined in recent decades due to loss of flower-rich habitat, disease and pesticide use.http://www.euractiv.com/cap/pesticides-halve-bees-pollen-gat-news-533220
-▶ SPECIAL REPORT: SCIENTISTS CRITICAL OF NEW EU CHEMICAL/PESTICIDE POLICY HAS INDUSTRY TIES, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST.An investigation by Environmental Health News reveals that of 18 toxicology journal editors who signed a controversial editorial, 17 have collaborated with the chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, tobacco, pesticide or biotechnology industries.
▶ FEDERAL LAW MAKES IT PRACTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO BAN HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS - The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, the only major environmental law that hasn't been updated since it was enacted, allows chemical manufacturers to skip evaluating the safety of their products before putting them on the market.http://www.scoop.it/t/agriculture-gmos-pesticides?q=chemicals+in+your+body
WASHINGTON — The corn refinery and sugar industries, bitter rivals in the manufacture of billions of dollars’ worth of sweeteners for sodas and other high-calorie foods, covertly funded dueling nonprofit groups in Washington in a multiyear effort to grab market share, while also stoking fears among consumers about possible health risks, court records made public in a federal lawsuit between the two parties show.
The lawsuit, which has brought hundreds of pages of secret corporate emails and strategy documents into the public domain, demonstrates how Washington-based groups and academic experts frequently become extensions of corporate lobbying campaigns as rival industries use them to try to inflict damage on their competitors or defend their reputations against such assaults...
▶ FEEDING BEES GMO PESTICIDE-LADEN CORN SYRUP WEAKENS IMMUNE SYSTEM AND HONEY BEE HEALTH - SO WHAT'S IT DOING TO YOU?http://www.beekeepereric.com/?p=307
VIDEO (7:13) "BIG FOOD" And Addiction Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity
RSN, August 22, 2012 - ▶ A LIST OF FOOD COMPANIES THAT HIDE GMO SWEETENERS
Big Ag companies have a vested interest in GMO seeds, and the pesticides and herbicides they use in tandem. GMO cotton, soy, sugar beets and corn, which are manipulated to make sweeteners and fats along with other additives like high-fructose corn syrup and soy lecithin, are in ready-made food, snacks, condiments, juice, soda and cereal. Many companies pushing these products into the marketplace prefer to hold profits high and keep consumers in the dark. Labeling these products would affect close to 80% of processed, non-organic food in the US.http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/13062-a-list-of-food-companies-that-hide-gmos
SugarScience.org Americans are consuming unprecedented amounts of dietary sugars in the form of sugary drinks and packaged/processed foods – far more than we did just a few decades ago. A growing body of new science suggests that all this sugar isn’t just making us fat; it may also be making us sick.http://www.sugarscience.org/why-sugar-why-now.html
THE SOURCE TO GO TO FOR SUGARSCIENCE.ORG The authoritative source for evidence-based, scientific information about sugar and its impact on healthhttp://www.sugarscience.org/
Behind closed doors, animals are suffering on factory farms
Shocking undercover footage taken at a JBS supplier reveals sickening animal cruelty, including pigs punched and kicked in the face; mother pigs confined to cages so small they are unable to even turn around; and piglets painfully mutilated, suffering from untreated injuries and illness, and killed by having their heads smashed against the ground.
- ▶ FARM-AGEDDON: TODAY'S MEGA FARMS DESTROYING ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTHToday, ‘mixed’ farming of animals and crops has all but disappeared, writes PHILIP LYMBERY, and has been replaced by farms specialising in one product only....
Because without fuss or fanfare, and largely unnoticed by the public, our farm animals are being disconnected from the land, disappearing from fields and moved into cramped, airless hangars and barns, with concrete beneath their feet instead of grass.
And now the pressure is growing to move to the next stage of intensive farming: mega-piggeries, mega-dairies and ‘battery’-reared beef, with the genetically engineered animals and crops already common in the United States and elsewhere.
- ▶ Thousands of pigs drown in their imprisoned confined quarters. When natural disasters like #flooding hit, animals are often victims, classified only as minor economic losses by the Meat Industry.
There are over 100 billion farmed animals alive at this moment—more than ten times the number of humans. Many years from now, our descendants will look back on the use of animals for food—particularly the intense animal suffering in factory farms—as a moral atrocity
#Fact: VIDEO The pork industry kills piglets who aren’t growing fast enough by slamming them head first onto concrete floors. pic.twitter.com/KpZJ9TQpm8
- ▶ FEED LOTS:
THIS IS HOW YOUR BEEF IS RAISED: #CAFO Lots: Are We Allowed to See How Our Food Is Raised? A Husband and Wife Goes Out to Investigate: VIDEO 15:40 https://youtu.be/sFDpsUDE27A
CivilEats, October 01, 2018
- ▶ WHY ARE SOWS IN FACTORY FARMS DYING IN SURPRISING NUMBERS?
Today's sows are being bred to produce more babies faster. They're also dying early and unexpectedly in many large-scale farming operations.
In a closed farrowing system, the average sow produces around 23.5 piglets per year—or 10 per litter at an industry target rate of 2.35 litters annually. Across the country, some 33.2 million pigs enter the system per year. If the sows die before the piglets are weaned, the loss can also impact their health and rate of survival. After 2-4 litters, however, most sows tend to get replaced by younger gilts who can produce piglets at a higher rate. When this happens, the sows being replaced are typically culled and sold to sausage companies like Jimmy Dean.
- ▶ IOWANS UNITE TO STOP HOG FARMS FROM POLLUTING THEIR COMMUNITY
Families in the Hawkeye State are joining together to stop the spread of large-scale farms that they say are polluting the environment and destroying their way of life.
Between 1982 and 2012, the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture census, total hog production in Iowa rose from 14.3 million a year to 20.5 million. During the same time period, the number of farmers producing hogs dropped from 45,768 to 6,266.
In Howard County, 427 hog farms existed in 1982 and just 54 in 2012, according to census data. Those 54 farmers are producing 197,113 hogs a year, or about 3,650 hogs a farmer
- ▶SHOCKING: Thousands of chicks tossed in the trash. Fully conscious. This is how the Egg Industry treats *millions* of male chicks every year pic.twitter.com/ZBnPvNjddD
One Green Planet
- ▶ 10 ALARMING FACTS ABOUT FACTORY FARMS
A deeper look into the lives of factory farmed animals reveals that we have created a huge prison system for animals where they are no longer considered sentient beings, capable of feelings, thoughts, and pain, but instead are treated as products on an assembly line from the moment they are born to the moment they are murdered
Grist, January 27, 2014 -▶ U.N, WARNS US TO EAT LESS MEAT AND LAY OFF BIOFUELS, OR WE'RE IN FOR IT.We’re over consuming ourselves into environmental oblivion. Farming will eliminate forests, plains, and other wild areas nearly the size of Brazil by 2050 around the world if we can’t mend our agricultural, dietary, and biofuel-burning ways. This unsustainable drive for more growing land will result in rising hunger and more frequent riots as food prices increase.http://grist.org/news/un-warns-us-to-eat-less-meat-and-lay-off-biofuels-or-were-in-for-it/
65 BILLION ANIMALS WORLDWIDE CRAMMED INTO CAFOs (Confined Animal Feed Lots including cows, chickens and pigs, These animals are literally imprisoned and tortured in unhealthy, unsanitary and unconscionably cruel conditions. Sickness is the norm for animals who are confined rather than pastured, and who eat GMO corn and soybeans, rather than grass and forage as nature intended. To prevent the inevitable spread of disease from stress, overcrowding and lack of vitamin D, animals are fed a steady diet of antibiotics. Those antibiotics pose a direct threat to the environment when they run off into our lakes, rivers, aquifers and drinking water.
The vast majority of consumers don’t realize that nearly 95% of the meat, dairy and eggs sold in the U.S. come from CAFOs. Nor do most people realize that CAFOs represent a corporate-controlled system characterized by large-scale, centralized, low profit-margin production, processing and distribution systems....http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/17-5
-▶ POOR COWS: HARVESTING METHANE BY PUNCHING HOLES IN COWS STOMACHS: Argentinian scientists are punching holes in the sides of cattle and passing pipes through to their stomachs. The other end of the pipe goes into a bag fitted on the cow’s back. The captured gas, can be burned to produce energy.http://grist.org/news/we-can-harvest-methane-from-cow-guts-should-we/
- ▶ PATENT FOR A PIG -- BIOTECH SCIENTISTS RACING TO RE-ENGINEER OUR FARM ANIMALS: ANIMALS LIKE ON AN INANIMATE AUTO PRODUCTION LINEhttp://sco.lt/7g1H3R
INVESTIGATIVE REPORT WATCH 53:41) Frontline PBS, October 14, 2014 THE TROUBLE WITH ANTIBIOTICS REDUCING GROWTH HORMONES USE IN FOOD ANIMALS Up to 70 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used in food animals. For years, farmers and ranchers have used antibiotics to help food animals grow faster on less feed. This practice, known as “growth promotion,”http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/trouble-with-antibiotics/
-▶ FOUR-FIFTHS OF BIG PHARMA ANTIBIOTICS CONSUMED BY MEAT AND POULTRY INDUSTRY (What Are You Eating?)http://sco.lt/5u5Gyn
CORPORATE MONOPOLY OF OUR FOOD SUPPLY
TakePart, July 10, 2014 -▶ THE LEGAL FIGHT OVER WRITING CORPORATE INDUSTRIAL FARMING INTO THE CONSTITUTIONState constitutional amendments and other legal measures would protect industrial agriculture. When state legislators met to hash out new laws in the spring of 2013, farm protection or ag-gag bills were voted on across the Midwest and in agricultural states in the South and Southwest. The laws were designed to criminalize the work of animal rights activists and whistle-blowers who secretly recorded abuse or other unlawful activity in confined animal feeding operations or other farms...http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/07/10/right-farm-laws
Grist, June 10, 2014 - ▶ MONOPOLIES: A MEAT GIANT GOBBLES UP ANOTHER MEAT GIANT: GRAPHSThere are problems with this kind of consolidation...“When all the power is so centralized in these behemoths, they end up writing their own rules in Congress and fighting the reforms to protect consumers and farmers”...
When the Obama administration sought to reform the animal farming industry, many farmers, some visibly frightened, risked their livelihoods by speaking publicly about abuses. But industry squelched that attempt.
Now, the industry lobbyists are working to reduce the number of inspectors in slaughterhouses, while speeding up the kill and processing lines. "But the chickens already move down the disassembly lines “obscenely fast, in my opinion,”http://grist.org/food/a-meat-giant-gobbles-up-another-meat-giant/
The Ecologist, June 2, 2014 -▶ THE BIG TEN FOOD COMPANIES MUST JOIN THE CLIMATE FIGHT. In the fight for zero hunger in a safer climate, the silence of the food and beverage industry is not a virtue. They must cut their huge carbon emissions, campaign to protect global climate, and rethink their entire mission to encompass health and wellbeing.http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2445685
Yale Environment 260, May 27, 2014 ▶ AS CORPORATE DAIRY FARMS GROW BIGGER, NEW CONCERN ABOUT POLLUTION. Dairy operations in the U.S. are consolidating, with ever-larger numbers of cows concentrated on single farms. In states like Wisconsin, opposition to some large operations is growing after manure spills and improper handling of waste have contaminated waterways and aquifers.http://e360.yale.edu/feature/as_dairy_farms_grow_bigger_new_concerns_about_pollution/2768/
WATCH:
"A RIVER OF WASTE"
The Massive Pollution and History of Factory Farms - CAFOs (Confined Animal Feed Lots) http://sco.lt/6PQUk5
- ▶ WHAT EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BLIND, FOOTLESS CHICKENS, EGGS, FACTORY FARMS AND THE AG-GAG BILLhttp://sco.lt/71PvtJ
-▶ ANIMALS RAISED IN CORPORATE CONCENTRATION PENS - DRUGS, GMO FEED AND 'AG-GAG' LAWS TO IMPACT BEYOND THE USA http://sco.lt/6jKf2H
WATCH "DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM [HBO] (2009) 1:27:25
Directors Tom Simon and Sarah Teale (HBOs Dealing Dogs) tell the story of an animal rights investigator who goes undercover at hog farm in Ohio to explore a whistle blowers allegations. The evidence he gathers leads to a rare prosecution and trial for animal cruelty, and a verdict that surprises nearly everyone.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfiolWwzD94
Yale Environment 360, March 13, 2014 -▶ IN THE PASTURES OF COLUMBIA, COWS, CROPS AND TIMBER COEXIST.As an ambitious program in Colombia demonstrates, combining grazing and agriculture with tree cultivation can coax more food from each acre, boost farmers’ incomes, restore degraded landscapes, and make farmland more resilient to climate change.http://e360.yale.edu/feature/in_the_pastures_of_colombia_cows_crops_and_timber_coexist/2746/
-▶ WALL STREET BANKS EYE AMERICAN FARMLAND, THREATEN FUTURE OF U.S. AND WORLD AGRICULTUREhttp://sco.lt/4nG6Ur
-▶ BIG CORPORATE AGRICULTURE CAUSES 80% OF TROPICAL DEFORESTATION - THE TERRIBLE PRICE WE PAYhttp://sco.lt/8DCl1d
- ▶ HOW BIOTECH CORPORATIONS AND GMO CROPS ARE THREATENING THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMANKIND ALIKEhttp://sco.lt/7OmezB
-▶ CORPORATE HIJACKING OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: GENETIC ENGINEERING AND THE GMO INDUSTRYhttp://sco.lt/73IdQ9
-▶ OUR INDUSTRIAL, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL FOOD SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/63qRl3
-▶ STOP FEEDING THE BEAST AND START FEEDING THE PEOPLE. We have a system of predatory agriculture in which corporations pursue private gain relentlessly regardless of the social consequences. Social consequences can be defined as anything from polluting our water, land and air to impacting the health of our families to making the business of farming economically unsustainable.http://ecowatch.com/2014/02/22/stop-feeding-beast-start-feeding-people/
▶ FIVE HOLISTIC ALTERNATIVE FARMING METHODS: AGROECOLOGY AT ITS BESThttp://sco.lt/4i3lqr
WATCH DOCUMENTARY (88 min) "SEEDS OF PERMACULTURE" - ECOLOGICAL FARMING People are becoming less and less self-sufficient around the world, these local communities that were previously growing everything themselves and knew how to build their own houses out of natural materials are completely dependent on big foreign powers and import from other countries. ...http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/seeds-permaculture/
Guardian Environment, February 03, 2014 -▶ INDIGENOUS DIETS CAN FIGHT MODERN ILLNESSES, SAY HEALTH EXPERTS Unprecedented levels of chronic non-communicable diseases are prompting calls to revert to the diets of our ancestors to regain lost nutrients. It is believed that such a shift would help to improve society's relationship with the Earth and restore human and environmental health. "The rise of the industrial model of agriculture has contributed greatly to people being disconnected from the food on their plates," says Sarah Somian, a France-based nutritionist.http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/feb/03/indigenous-diets-fight-modern-illnesses
WATCH
Short Video
"FARMED AND DANGEROUS"
Chipotle's online show about the terrors of industrial farming Is
▶ DECLINE IN BIODIVERSITY OF FARMED PLANTS AND ANIMALS GATHERING PACEhttp://sco.lt/7o99MH
EurActiv, January 24, 2014 ▶ MORE CONSUMPTION NOT NECESSARY FOR HUMAN WELL-BEING, SAYS UN REPORT. Greater food system efficiency and curbs to the expansion of cropland are necessary to prevent the collapse of global ecosystems, says a report presented today (24 January) by the UN at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.http://www.euractiv.com/sustainability/greater-consumption-necessary-hu-news-532991
-▶ FARM TO FORK: THE STORY OF OUR TOXIC FOOD SYSTEM - INFOGRAPHhttp://sco.lt/8xKt7J
- ▶ IS MEAT FROM CLONED ANIMALS DANGEROUS?The EU is at sixes and sevens - the European Commission (pro corporate) is in favor of allowing the consumption of meat from cloned animals, the European Parliament has voted for a ban. What exactly is clone-meat? Here are the facts.
BBC News, January 13, 2014 - ▶ CHINA CLONING PIGS ON AN 'INDUSTRIAL SCALE - CLONE UPON CLONE UPON CLONE -The scale of ambition is staggering. BGI is not only the world's largest centre for cloning pigs - it's also the world's largest centre for gene sequencing. In neighbouring buildings, there are rows of gene sequencers - machines the size of fridges operating 24 hours a day crunching through the codes for life.
To illustrate the scale of this operation, Europe's largest gene sequencing centre is the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge. It has 30 machines. BGI has 156 and has even bought an American company that makes them. BGI's chief executive, Wang Jun, tells me how they need the technology to develop ever FASTER, CHEAPER ways of reading genes.
- ▶ ARE YOU EATING CLONED MEAT? FDA APPROVES CLONED MEAT -- WITHOUT LABELING, REGULATION OR OVERSIGHTThe FDA stated in 2008 that the food from cloned cattle, swine and goats was safe and it would not require labelinghttp://techcomm.wikidot.com/are-you-eating-cloned-meat
Rather Than Find An Alternative to Extreme Factory Farming, The Biotech Industry is altering our animals to keep "more of the same" mega-profit factory farming going, with little regulation, oversight, or labeling for consumers: Repeated Cloning can create deformities and sickness from inbreeding.
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, February 18, 2014 -▶ BRACING FOR IMPACTS AS CHINA ENTERS INDUSTRIAL MEAT COMPLEX. IATP is excited to announce the release of a series of new reports looking in-depth at China’s feed, pork, poultry and dairy sectors, the past and future trajectory of the industry, and global impacts of China’s efforts to balance grain self-sufficiency and the desire to provide cheap meat.
------ UNLEASHING GENETICALLY SALMON ONTO YOUR DINNER PLATE = NO REGULATIONS, NO OVERSIGHT - "FATALLY FLAWED" FDA ASSESSMENT http://sco.lt/8ZDraz
----- GROWING PHARMACEUTICALS IN GMO PLANT REQUIRES NEW, STRICT REGULATIONS AND OVERSIGHT - PATENT MONOPOLIES http://sco.lt/7KM4qv
------ BIO RE-ENGINEERING NATURE: PEACH GENOME AND POPLARS, WILLOW TREES FOR BIOFUELS (AND PATENTING) http://sco.lt/8WvNKb
------ GMO PATENTS MAY OWN OUR FORESTS: MONSANTO GMO TREES COULD DEVASTATE FOREST ECOYSTEMS http://sco.lt/5G9P0L
▶ “FATALLY FLAWED" FDA ASSESSMENT TO UNLEASH GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON ONTO YOUR DINNER PLATE, NO REGULATIONS, NO OVERSIGHT, NO LABELINGhttp://sco.lt/8ZDraz
- ▶ FARM-AGEDDON: TODAY'S MEGA FARMS DESTROYING ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTHToday, ‘mixed’ farming of animals and crops has all but disappeared, writes PHILIP LYMBERY, and has been replaced by farms specialising in one product only....
WATCH; "DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM [HBO] (2009) 1:27:25
Directors Tom Simon and Sarah Teale (HBOs Dealing Dogs) tell the story of an animal rights investigator who goes undercover at hog farm in Ohio to explore a whistle blowers allegations. The evidence he gathers leads to a rare prosecution and trial for animal cruelty, and a verdict that surprises nearly everyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfiolWwzD94
- ▶ ANTI-WHISTLE BLOWER AG-GAG BILLS AIMED AT KEEPING YOU IN THE DARK ABOUT FACTORY FARMS AND YOUR FOODhttp://sco.lt/7aFBUv
TakePart, July 10, 2014 FORGET AG-GAG LAWS: THIS SUMMER'S LEGAL FIGHT IS OVER THE RIGHT TO FARM. State constitutional amendments and other legal measures would protect industrial agriculture. When state legislators met to hash out new laws in the spring of 2013, farm protection or ag-gag bills were voted on across the Midwest and in agricultural states in the South and Southwest. The laws were designed to criminalize the work of animal rights activists and whistle-blowers who secretly recorded abuse or other unlawful activity in confined animal feeding operations or other farms.
Star Tribune, June 08, 2014 -▶ CONSUMER PRESSURE LEADS AGRIBIZ COLOSSUS CARGILL TO GIVE PIGS MORE ROOM. Pork producers across the United States have long kept their sows in small, barred stalls or crates, with so little space they can’t turn around. Agribusiness colossus Cargill and its big corporate competitors have deep pockets.http://www.startribune.com/business/262257761.html
Economic Times, June 09, 2014 INDIA OFFICIALS SEEK TO CURB ANTIBIOTICS AND HORMONES IN ANIMAL FEED. Fearing spread of antibiotic resistance through the food chain, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) and the agriculture ministry have directed state governments to stop the use of antibiotics and hormones in animal feed. They have also called for strict implementation of a 2012 law, which mandates a gap between the time an animal is given a drug for medical purposes and sale of food products from that animal.http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-06-09/news/50448268_1_food-producing-animals-antibiotics-animal-feed
Agribusiness has introduced anti-whistle-blower or “ag-gag” bills in numerous states aimed at making whistle-blowing on factory farms essentially impossible. Whistle-blowing employees have played a vital role in exposing animal abuse, unsafe working conditions, and environmental problems on industrial factory farms. The agribusiness industry's response to these exposés has not been to prevent the abuses, but rather to try to prevent the American people from finding out about the abuses in the first place...http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/campaigns/factory_farming/fact-sheets/ag_gag.html#id=album-185&num=content-3312
▶ ANTI-WHISTLE BLOWER AG-GAG LAWS AIMED AT KEEPING YOU IN THE DARK ABOUT YOUR FACTORY FARMED FOOD - PIGS, CHICKENS, VEAL, BEEF, DAIRY, TURKEY, DUCKShttp://sco.lt/7aFBUv
▶ FROM THE BACKYARD GRILL TO THE PICNIC BASKET , Americans seem to have a love affair with meat and poultry. From the backyard grill to the picnic basket, To supply that demand, livestock production has turned to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) as the new business model, growing high volumes of cows, pigs, and poultry within short time spans and in the smallest spaces possible....http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/opinions/animal-waste-waterways-and-drinking-water-85899409190
March 19, 2013 - Huffington Post
▶ WHY EVERYONE SHOULD BE ANGRY ABOUT CORPORATE FACTORY FARMINGhttp://sco.lt/7kUpVp
Beginning with a history of the American food system, River of Waste shows its evolution to large-scale corporate farms where pollution and use of growth hormones threaten both individual health and the future of our planethttp://sco.lt/5WwPVx
Global Research, September 17, 2014 BILL GATES DONATES $5.6 MILLION TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY WHICH HELPED MONSANTO PROMOTE GMO BOVINE GROWTH HORMONE. Want to know just how far Gates’ money reaches to promote GMOs and other unhealthy ‘scientific’ discoveries touted as boons to society? Look no further than Cornell University, the institution that tells us Monsanto’s rBST (also known as rBGH) - a genetically engineered growth hormone used to make cows produce more milk – is safe. http://www.globalresearch.ca/bill-gates-donates-5-6-million-to-cornell-university-that-helped-monsanto-promote-gmo-bovine-growth-hormone-rbst/5402471
Guardian Environment, February 03 2015 ▶ 'SUPPRESSED' EU REPORT COULD HAVE BANNED 31 HARMFUL HORMONE-DISRUPTING CHEMICALS/PESTICIDES WORTH BILLIONS -- UNDER PRESSURE FROM BIG CHEMICAL FIRMS
Daily Mail, May 20, 2014 -▶ GENETICALLY MODIFIED Bt FOOD TOXIN FOUND IN THE BLOOD OF 95% OF UNBORN BABIES - NEW STUDY.The new study was carried out by independent doctors at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at the University of Sherbrooke Hospital Centre in Quebec, Canada. Traces of Bt toxin were found in the blood of 93 per cent of the pregnant mothers – 28 out of 30. It was also found in 80 per cent of the umbilical cords – 24 out of 30. In the non-pregnant group, traces were found in the blood of 69 per cent – 27 out of 39. It is thought the toxin is getting into the human body as a result of eating meat, milk and eggs from farm livestock fed GM corn. The Canadian team told the scientific journal Reproductive Toxicology: ‘This is the first study to highlight the presence of pesticides associated with genetically modified foods in maternal, foetal and non-pregnant women’s blood.’..http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1388888/GM-food-toxins-blood-93-unborn-babies.html
July 18, 2013 National Geographic ▶ ORGANOPHOPHATES: A COMMON BUT DEADLY PESTICIDE IN LUNCH THAT KILLED 23 CHILDREN IN INDIA.The pesticides blamed for killing at least 25 children in India are widely used around the world, including in the United States, and health experts have raised safety concerns about this class of chemicals in the past. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130718-organophosphates-pesticides-indian-food-poisoning/
If the apples in your local store are bug-free because of pesticides, then you might ask who the pesticides hurt before the apples left the farm. That’s because many pesticides are toxic enough to seriously harm the humans who work in the orchardshttp://earthjustice.org/blog/2013-july/pesticides-taking-toll-on-farmworkers
Grist, October 16, 2013 ▶ CATCH THE DRIFT: FARMERS GO ROGUE TO FIGHT AIRBORNE PESTICIDE POLLUTION. Use and exposure to agricultural sprays have been associated with various types of cancer and neurological disorders, with farmworkers being most susceptible due to their time in the fields during and after applications. The drift is also responsible for diminishing number of bees.http://grist.org/food/drift-catchers-use-citizen-science-to-fight-pesticide-pollution/
▶ PESTICIDES ARE KILLING OUR PLANET: DECIMATING POLLINATORS, DRAGONFLIES AND OTHER AQUATIC INSECTS -- AND YOUhttp://sco.lt/5XzNlx
Times-Standard Online, November 30, 2013
▶ PESTICIDE-LADEN POT: THE DANGERS OF LURKING CONTAMINANTS AND PESTICIDES WITH COMPROMISED IMMUNE SYSTEMS. Humboldt State University, Jeffrey Raber said a recent study he conducted found that up to 70 percent of the pesticides found on a marijuana bud can transfer to the smoke being inhaled.."It's much like injecting it directly into your blood stream.”...
...especially in the medical patient context,” Raber said. “These are people that are immunocompromised, they're undergoing chemotherapy, they're very sick with antibacterial loads. We can't be subjecting them to more of these types of potentially harmful contaminants when they're looking to this as a medicine source.” http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_24628828/what-are-you-smoking-study-finds-pesticides-transfer
RT News, February 24, 2014 ▶ FINALLY, SOME ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: GMO CROPS MAY CAUSE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL (AND HUMAN HEALTH) RISKS, USDA ADMITShttp://rt.com/usa/usda-gmo-risk-report-537/
Ag Professional, August 01, 2014 -▶ CHINA ADOPTS STRICTER PESTICIDE RESIDUE STANDARD. The new standard includes 3,650 indices detailing the maximum allowable residue for 387 pesticides on 284 types of food, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Health and Family Planning Commission, which jointly issued the standard. Compared with the current standard that took effect in 2012, the new standard contains 1,357 new indices covering 65 new pesticides and 43 new types of food. The standard covers vegetables, fruits, grain, edible oil, sugar, soft drinks, nuts, eggs and meat. It includes juice and preserved fruits for the first time.http://www.agprofessional.com/news/China-adopts-stricter-pesticide-residue-standard-269591991.html
The reason why you may not have thought much about these pesticide plants before is because our media has found itself in an unhealthy alliance with well paid spokespeople who aggressively represent the biotech industry’s point of view.
Simply frightful! I have been commenting on this topic since I first published my in house thesis for the 21st century:Quantum Organiculture. It was published for me by the Jamaican Gleaner company during the 80s and 90s, and a modified version by the Science Research Council of Jamaica at their 16th Annual Conference in Kingston Jamaica. My position remains the same and as far as I cn see is being almightily reinforced by these findings.
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YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY NEWS AGGREGATES [url=/u/179070 x-already-notified=1]pdjmoo[/url]
▶ CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY http://www.scoop.it/t/environmental-and-human-health
▶ CLIMATE CHANGE WILL IMPACT US ALL http://www.scoop.it/t/changingplanet
▶ BIODIVERSITY IS LIFE http://www.scoop.it/t/biodiversity-is-life
▶ OUR OCEANS NEED US http://www.scoop.it/t/our-oceans-need-us
▶ OUR FOOD, OUR HEALTH http://www.scoop.it/t/agriculture-gmos-pesticides