▶ HORSE BURGERS SHOULD HAVE US ALL WEEPING IN THE AISLESThe UK supermarkets are not the victims in this scandal – with false smells and tastes they've made us lose touch with what we eat
▶ 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/
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
▶ US GOVERNMENT FUNDING BILL STRIPS FEDERAL COURTS OF THEIR POWER TO RULE OVER BIOTECH INDUSTRY AND GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD AND ANIMALShttp://sco.lt/6kO2Xh
▶ GMO GENE GIANTS STOCKPILING PATENTS ON LIFE 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 Group http://www.etcgroup.org/fr/node/5220
Environmental Health News, September 23, 2013 ▶ SPECIAL REPORT: SCIENTISTS CRITICAL OF NEW EU CHEMICAL/PESTICIDE POLICY HAS INDUSTRY TIES, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST Seventeen scientists who have criticized plans in Europe to regulate endocrine-disrupting chemicals have past or current ties to regulated industries. 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.
▶ WHAT HAPPENS TO SCIENTISTS WHO SPEAK OUT AGAINST GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD & GLOBAL BIOTECHNOLOGY CARTEL?Immoral Maize: Extract from "Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat" by Andrew Rowell
▶ 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/
=====================
PESTICIDES & GMOs
=====================
INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
SOARING PESTICIDE USE AND POISONING LINKED TO GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CROP PRODUCTIONhttp://sco.lt/8iunRp
▶ 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
▶ THRU THE BACK DOOR: MEGA BIOTECH GIANTS USE NEW USA-EU TRADE DEAL TO DESTROY GMO SAFEGUARDS | http://sco.lt/8E3Xsn
March 14, 2013
▶ NEW US GOVT "MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT" CONFIRMS MONSANTO POWER OVER US GOVERNMENThttp://ow.ly/iXRqG
The Asian Age, June 18, 2014 -▶ INDIA'S NEW CORPORATE GOVERNMENT AND THE POWER OF MONSANTO AND THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY. 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
▶ UN-FAO: "GMOs IN THE PIPELINE. LOOKING TO THE NEXT FIVE YEARS IN the crop, forestry, livestock, aquaculture and agro-industry sectors in developing countries" http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-forum/en/
The BRAI Bill overrides states’ authority over agriculture and health. It envisages only an advisory role for the states in the form of a state biotechnology regulatory advisory committee. The committee has no powers to enable the state to take any decision on introduction of modern biotechnology...http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/stage-set-gm-crops
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?"
-▶ HIGH STEAKS: THE CASE FOR LESS AND BETTER MEAT.There’s a high price to pay for that juicy T-Bone from supermarkets. Most meat, poultry, eggs and dairy sold in restaurants and supermarkets in the U.S. comes from factory farms — where animals are often raised in cruel, cramped and unsanitary conditions. In order to prevent disease and promote faster growth, they are frequently pumped with doses of antibiotics. This practice has contributed to the rise of antibiotic-resistant diseases in human populations, which pose one of the greatest public health threats of our time. THE CASE FOR LESS AND BETTER MEAT ... READ ON https://medium.com/friends-of-the-earth-newsmagazine/high-steaks-827023cb0456
Alternet, April 01, 2015 ▶ AMERICA'S RED MEAT HORROR SHOW: WHY WE MUST GET RID OF FACTORY FARMS. FOUR MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES —Tyson JBS, Cargill and Smithfield—produce about 85 percent of the factory farm meat in the U.S., making it difficult for ranchers to sell their livestock to anyone but the Big Four. And of course these same Big Four companies, along with their front groups such as the North American Meat Institute, are lobbying the government to ditch the 2015 dietary guidelines to “eat less red and processed meat” recommendation because they understand what that recommendation will do to their bottom lines.
Stuff.co.nz , November 25, 2014 -▶ EVERYTHING IS A COMMODITY NOW: BIG JUMP IN BOBBY CALF KILL. Beef+Lamb economist Rob Davison said 2.07 million calves were culled in the year ended September, up 9.8 per cent on the comparable period last year... There seems to be no one reason for the significant rise in unwanted calves sent for "processing", as reported to Beef + Lamb NZ by the country's meat companies.http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/beef/63489037/big-jump-in-bobby-calf-kill
George Monbiot, December 17, 2014 -▶OVERGROWTH: What can you say about a society whose food production must be hidden from public view? In which the factory farms and slaughterhouses supplying much of our diet must be guarded like arsenals to prevent us from seeing what happens there? The growth rate of broiler chickens has quadrupled in 50 years: they are now killed at seven weeks(2). By then they are often crippled by their weight. Animals selected for obesity cause obesity. Bred to bulge, scarcely able to move, overfed, factory farmed chickens now contain almost three times as much fat as chickens did in 1970, and just two thirds of the protein(3). Stalled pigs and feedlot cattle have undergone a similar transformation. Meat production? No, this is fat production. http://www.monbiot.com/2014/12/16/overgrowth/
WATCH:
"A BLOODY BUSINESS" - LIVE ANIMAL EXPORTS
Investigation by Australian TV Four Corners Investigation
DW News, November 22, 2014 -▶ EU GREENS TO CONFRONT INDUSTRIALIZED FARM LOBBY.Germany's opposition Greens have set their sights on nutrition that avoids mass livestock farming. They have accused Chancellor Angela Merkel's government of giving agriculturalized industry an unrestrained free run.
Future Food, November 18, 2014 -▶ GREENER PASTURES FOR CATTLE RANCHING. Colombian farming researcher Enrique Murgueitio advocates grazing animals on wooded land to boost sustainability and production. http://futurefood2050.com/greener-pastures-for-cattle-ranching/
HuffingtonPostGreen, October 30, 2014 -▶ MEAT HAS SEASONS, JUST LIKE PRODUCE. AND HERE'S HOW FACTORY FARMING HAS MESSED WITH THAT
A journey into the soul of humanity - A powerful statement about deforestation and the global industrial economy.
-▶ "ALMA" explores the devastating impacts of the cattle industry on the Amazon and a powerful statement about the global industrial economy.
Beautifully shot, alternately joyful and horrifying, Alma captures the ecological, and even spiritual, cost of meat, dairy, and leather production in the Amazon.
A cinematic journey into the world's forests and the industries that are destroying them, this time heading to Brazil to explore the devastating impacts of the cattle industry. Here he creates a powerful statement about the global industrial economy and the speed with which virgin forests are being cleared for timber and new grazing land...http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8uVOYQPobzo
Mongabay, December 18, 2014 -▶ IMPACTS OF DEFORESTATION ON AMAZONIAN RIVER ECOSYSTEMS COULD BE FAR REACHING. Vast areas of the Amazon forest are being destroyed for agricultural uses, mainly industrial-scale soybean crops, and turned into pasture land for livestock.
This article is related to our AP Human Geography Agriculture unit due to the fact cattle ranching is a form of agriculture found in many less inhabited areas around the world. When someone goes to the store to pay high prices for meat there such as a T-bone steak the meat should be in prime eating condition when high price is paid. Therefore, the supplier of the meat or the distributor should sterilize and keep their product (cows) clean and fed proper nutrients and water.
▶ 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
The Guardian Environment, December 21, 2012- Tom Philpott
-▶ FALSE PROMISES: MEET THE WEEDS THAT MONSANTO'S POISONS CAN'T BEAT - - -Instead of the supposed revolution in agriculture that Monsato's GM seeds were meant to bring, the opposite effect has occurred – a gigantic rise in herbicide/pesticide use http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/21/weeds-monsato-cant-beat
========================
THINK THOSE CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDES IN YOUR FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT HAVE BEEN TESTED?http://sco.lt/7QxMob
========================
- ▶ HOW YOU BECAME A GUINEA PIG FOR THE CHEMICAL AND BIOTECH CORPORATIONShttp://sco.lt/5dp0wz
-▶ PROCESSED AND GMO FOODS MAKE UP 70 PERCENT OF THE US DIET- WITH ABOUT 5,000 DIFFERENT CHEMICAL ADDITIVEShttp://sco.lt/7FPtxZ
-▶ WHY MANY MILLIONS OF ANIMALS, LIKE PEOPLE, ARE NOW OVERWEIGHT - CHEMICALS, PESTICIDES IN YOUR FOODhttp://sco.lt/5MB0TJ
▶ WHY IS THERE SO LITTLE INDEPENDENT PEER REVIEWED GMO RESEARCH?http://sco.lt/5FIWcD
-▶ PESTICIDE/CHEMICAL REGULATION OVERHAUL NEEDED TO PROTECT WILDLIFE, ECOSYSTEMS AND FOOD CHAINhttp://sco.lt/6VkkXB
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.
▶ GMO CROPS WILL NOT FEED THE WORLD. A review article in the Agronomy for Sustainable Development journal concludes that GM crops will not only not feed the world, they are hampering efforts to sustainably feed the world by jeopardizing existing biological and genetic diversity.http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=965
Natural Society, Novermber 04, 2012 -▶ GMO CROPS PROVEN TO BE INEFFECTIVE AT FIGHTING WORLD HUNGER. DEVOID OF NUTRITION Funded by the World Bank and United Nations, an organization was created known as the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). Consisting of 900 scientists and researchers, they set out to examine the complex issue of world hunger. While the issue of world hunger may be quite complex, their results were not. Quite plainly, the group found that genetically modified crops were not a meaningful solution to the problem. In other words, the expert team showed through rigorous analysis and repeated study that the claims made by Bill Gates are completely inaccurate... http://naturalsociety.com/gmo-crops-proven-to-be-ineffective-at-fighting-world-hunger/
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.
...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
GHANA AND GMOs
Pambazuka, February 19, 2015
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....
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
FACT-CHECKING ABOUT GMO FOODS In the last few decades many Americans have been suffering from different chronic diseases. Many factors could be contributing in the increase in chronic diseases but the most important one is indeed our diet, even more so than our lifestyle....http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-foods/fact-checking-gmo-foods/#FDA
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
THE CORPORATE 'PHILANTHROCAPITLISTS' TAKEOVER OF AFRICAN AND GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY http://sco.lt/6CHP3R
▶ 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
Common Dreams, May 23, 2014 ▶ PERMACULTURE POISED TO CONQUER THE CARIBBEAN. No fertilisers, herbicides, or pesticides but a bold vision to save a region from climate change and resource scarcity http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/05/23
DW.DE English, October 28, 2013 ▶ FIGHTING HUNGER THROUGH SUSTAINABLE FARMING
Until now, many have believed that intensive farming is the answer to famine and malnutrition around the world. But now experts are challenging this idea, propagating quality and variety over quantity.
The amount of chemical found in nour bodies when eating the processed 'food' that is cheaply available will shock you. Many young girls are now hitting puberty at ages no one would have thought because the hormones in the milk they drink.
Wow! Wow! Wow! This is shocking indeed. So informational and so crucial. It is amazing how naive I am when it comes what I am buying and eating. This was truly eyeopening and it truly motivates me to want investigate further!
▶ THE REASON EUROPE BAN AMERICAN APPLES.It’s sad when one of the biggest ‘super powers’ can’t even export a quintessentially American food to another country because it is too toxic to eat. But apples treated with diphenylamine (DPA), a substance which keeps them from turning brown for months at a time when they are kept in storage, is now a sore spot for importers of American appleshttp://www.nationofchange.org/reason-europe-bans-american-apples-1403109800
-▶ WHY IS THERE SO LITTLE INDEPENDENT PEER REVIEW GMO RESEARCH?http://sco.lt/5FIWcD
▶ GENETIC MODIFICATION STRAINS OLD FOOD AND DRUG LAWS: HOW A FISH BECOMES A DRUG AND CORN A PESThttp://sco.lt/6vynBp
▶ HOW GMO FOODS AFFECT HEALTH : GENE ALTERED FOODS NOW LARGE PART OF AMERICAN DIEThttp://sco.lt/61Pv17
APPLES
July 27, 2013 New York Times
▶ A RACE TO SAVE THE APPLE AND ORANGE BY ALTERING ITS DNA
Growers turned to genetics in hopes of building a tougher orange tree. But what intervention would the public accept?
The idea of eating plants and animals whose DNA has been manipulated in a laboratory — called genetically modified organisms, or G.M.O.’s — still spooks many people. Critics worry that such crops carry risks not yet detected, and distrust the big agrochemical companies that have produced the few in wide use. And hostility toward the technology, long ingrained in Europe, has deepened recently among Americans as organic food advocates, environmentalists and others have made opposition to it a pillar of a growing movement for healthier and ethical food choices....http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/28/science/a-race-to-save-the-orange-by-altering-its-dna.html?ref=science&_r=0
Truthout, February 23, 2015 ▶ USDA APPROVE USDA APPROVES, "UNTESTED, INHERENTLY RISKY" GMO APPLEDESPITE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PETITIONS ASKING THE USDA TO REJECT ITGiven that the dsRNA from our food, and presumably the Frankenapple, will enter the bloodstream and cells of consumers, safety research should be done BEFORE this GMO apple is put on the grocery shelf to prove that the dsRNA that enters consumers' bodies will not harm them. To date, no such research has been reported, so the Frankenapple is flying in the dark.... AND MORE PESTICIDEShttp://www.truth-out.org/news/item/29261-usda-approves-untested-inherently-risky-gmo-apple
National Journal, February 20, 2015 ▶ WOULD YOU BUY A GENETICALLY MODIFIED APPLES THAT DOESN'T GO BROWN? IMPACT ON HUMAN AND ECOSYSTEM HEALTH MUST BE ASSESSED.
The actual genetic engineering process includes insertion of nptII, neomycin phosphotransferase type II gene from E. coli Tn5. This gene allows the transformed apple tissue to grow on a medium containing the antibiotic kanamycin but confers no benefit to the apple plant. Every cell of every GE apple tree, including the fruit and the tree roots, will show resistance to kanamycin. Kanamycin is a commonly used antibiotic in human medicine, used to treat a wide variety of infections. Eating an Arctic Apple could transfer the gene for kanamycin resistance into your digestive system. A similar transfer has been demonstrated with GE soy. There is a real possibility that bacteria in the human digestive systems could develop kanamycin resistance. Antibiotic resistance is a major concern among medical professionals. Furthermore, the GE apple’s DNA can also spread to bacteria on the plant and in the soil. Orchardists might very well find that controlling diseases of special concern like fireblight in orchards may become much more difficult. And in the soil environment, the GE DNA can persist for at least a year, where it can be taken up by natural soil bacteria and then incorporated into their genetic structure. There is no proof that Arctic Apples are harmless, but there is certainly reason to suspect that they may be harmful to humans, wildlife, and the soil environment. Urge the USDA to reject approval of the Arctic Apple. The unknown risks far outweigh the cosmetic value of an apple that doesn’t brown when sliced...http://www.cornucopia.org/2013/12/crushed-nutsrotten-apples-pasteurized-nuts-gmo-apples-tell-fda-usda/
Environmental Working Group, April 24, 2014 ▶ MOST U.S. CONVENTIONAL APPLES COATED WITH CARCINOGENIC CHEMICAL BANNED IN EUROPE. USDA pesticide residue tests of apples find DPA more often and at greater concentrations than most other pesticide residues. DPA is also detected in apple juice and applesauce and, less often, on pears and in pear baby food. It is regulated as a pesticide, but its primary function is a “growth regulator” or antioxidant that slows fruit skin discoloration during storage.http://www.ewg.org/release/most-us-apples-coated-chemical-banned-europe-0
-▶ RE-ENGINEERING ANIMALS IN LUST FOR PROFITS ... and into our environment, food and bodies - No Regulation, No Oversight, No Labeling... http://sco.lt/6n7JtB
-▶ THINK THOSE CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDES IN YOUR FOOD HAVE BEEN TESTED?http://sco.lt/7QxMob
BAN GMOs NOW - A Special Institute of Science in Society Report http://sco.lt/5CPilt
▶ WHY THE UPRISING: Global Marches Challenge Monsanto, GMOs and The Global Corporate Biotech Cartel's Dominance http://sco.lt/73oibx
▶ ALL ABOUT GMOs: YOUR FOOD, YOUR HEALTH: #Biotech #GMOs #Pesticides #Chemicals #FactoryFarms #CAFOs #BigFood by @pdjmoo on @scoopit http://sco.lt/7uy3aD
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/
EurekAlert! Science News 8-May-2015 -▶ ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE TO HORMONES USED IN ANIMAL AGRICULTURE GREATER THAN EXPECTED
Reuters, April 10, 2015 -▶ U.S. MEAT INDUSTRY BOUGHT MORE HUMAN ANTIBIOTICS TO 2013. Sales of medically important antibiotics in the United States for use in livestock jumped by 20 percent between 2009 and 2013
Huffington Post, March 21, 2015 - ▶ ANTIBIOTIC USE IN MEAT IS SOARING. In 2010, farmers around the world used more than 63,000 tons of antibiotics to raise livestock. By 2030, the researchers expect that number to rise to more than 105,000 tons. The antibiotics serve two purposes. First, they help fatten up livestock at a faster rate. Second, they keep animals healthy despite being raised in overcrowded, filthy conditions where disease spreads easily. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/21/antibiotics-meat_n_6916932.html
The pork industry relies on a drug that stresses out pigs—and other ways the industry harms animals through feed. Meat Industry Still Denying Antibiotic Resistance. After damning reports on from the GAO and European researchers on antibiotics, the meat industry basks in denial. Revolving Door: Still Swinging Between USDA and Meat Industry. A top official at the USDA's meat-inspection service goes to work for Big Turkey in "regulatory affairs."
Cattle, swine, chickens and other livestock receive an estimated 80 percent of the nation's antibiotics, according to the FDA. Whether used to treat our future food, prevent the spread of disease in cramped conditions or simply to promote growth, animal antibiotics are thought to affect human health via multiple pathways: direct or indirect contact with food, water, air or anywhere manure goes.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/09/antibiotic-farm-animals-fda-regulation_n_1193680.html
TriplePundit, March 12, 2015 - ▶ UNDER PUBLIC PRESSURE, COSTCO, McDONALD'S TO REPLACE "ANTI-BIOTICS" IN THEIR CHICKEN - But with the billions of chickens being raised in cramped factory-farmed conditions, what will they replace it with? http://www.triplepundit.com/2015/03/costco-chicken-going-antibiotic-free/
FDA dithers on regulation, releases new numbers on the industry's showing nearly half of retail chicken carries antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter.
While human antibiotic use has leveled off at below 8 billion pounds annually, livestock farms have been sucking in more and more of the drugs each year—and consumption reached a record nearly 29.9 billion pounds in 2011. To put it another way, the livestock industry is now consuming nearly four-fifths of the antibiotics used in the US, and its appetite for them is growing... http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2013/02/meat-industry-still-gorging-antibiotics
Modern Farmer, June 17, 2014 DUTCH FARMERS JUST SAY NO TO ANTIBIOTICS FOR LIVESTOCK.
This farmer raises more than 17,000 pigs each year and it's open for public viewing. Owner Gerbert Oosterlaken believes the more you can see, the better. “We decided that animal health, and human health, would be our priority,” Oosterlaken told me last fall in his barn, surrounded by warm plastic-lined pens where sows snoozed and new piglets squealed. “I don’t need to take antibiotics every day. There’s no reason my pigs should either.” http://modernfarmer.com/2014/06/abstinence-method/
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
Chicago Sun-Times, October 07, 2014 FACTORY FARMS SOW SUPERBUGS.In its recent report on antimicrobial resistance, the World Health Organization (WHO) said: “A post-antibiotic era in which common infections and minor injuries can kill — far from being an apocalyptic fantasy — is instead a very real possibility for the 21st Century.
”There are several causes leading to the development of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, and a major contributor is the use of low doses of antibiotics in factory farms. More than 70 percent of antibiotics in classes used in human medicine are sold for use in food for animals. These drugs are placed in the food and water of livestock to accelerate growth and help compensate for often horrific, unsanitary living conditions.
Already, two million Americans fall ill every year from antibiotic-resistant infections, and according to the CDC, 23,000 of them die from those infections annually. Public health experts are in agreement: if we don’t act, the problem will only worsen. .. http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/30321003-452/factory-farms-sow-superbugs.html
-▶ WHAT EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE AG=GAG BILL AND HOW OUR MEAT IS RAISED ON FACTORY FARMShttp://sco.lt/7w0l05
- ▶ HOW YOU BECAME A GUINEA PIG FOR THE CHEMICAL CORPORATIONS 'A hidden epidemic is poisoning America. The toxins are in the air we breathe and the water we drink, in the walls of our homes and the furniture within them. We can't escape it in our cars. It's in cities and suburbs. It afflicts rich and poor, young and old. And there's a reason why you've never read about it in the newspaper or seen a report on the nightly news: it has no name - and no antidote....http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/17182-focus-how-you-became-a-guinea-pig-for-the-chemical-corporations
Center for Public Integrity, April 14, 2015
THE DISINFORMATION INDUSTRY WHY THE FDA DOESN'T REALLY KNOW WHAT'S IN YOUR FOOD.
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.
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
- ▶ THINK THOSE 80,000 CHEMICALS/PESTICIDES HAVE BEEN TESTED? http://sco.lt/7QxMob
▶ WHY BANNING DANGEROUS CHEMICALS IN OUR FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT IS NOT ENOUGH. The growth in chemical production in the past 40 years has been nothing short of explosive, with global output of $171bn in 1970 (pdf) burgeoning to more than $4tn in 2010 (an increase of more than 2,000%). By 2050, the market is expected to expand further to more than $14tn (an increase of more than 250% from 2010), with the BRICS countries dominating and accounting for more than $6tn together ($4tn for China alone). http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/sep/16/banning-dangerous-chemicals-business
February 20, 2012 - The Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch:
- ▶ SYNGENTA PAID THIRD PARTY PUNDITS TO SPIN THE NEWS ON ENDROCINE DISRUPTOR "ATRAZINE"http://sco.lt/5WHGhF
May 11, 2013 UNEP - ▶ UN CONFERENCE TAKES HISTORIC STRIDES TO STRENGTHEN CHEMICAL SAFETY GLOBALLY FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said that in many countries intensive crop production has depleted agriculture's natural resource base, jeopardizing future productivity. "To fight hunger and eradicate poverty, we will need to find more sustainable ways to produce 60 percent more food by 2050," he said. However, he recognized that chemical pesticides would continue to be part of farming in many parts of the world in future. ...http://www.unep.org/newscentre/default.aspx?DocumentID=2716&ArticleID=9501&l=en
GMO AND INDUSTRIAL CORPORATE FARMING REQUIRE TONS AND TONS OF PESTICIDES AND CHEMICALS SPRAYED ON BOTH OUR FOOD CROPS AND ECOSYSTEMS
--- WATCH ---
A Must see VIDEO for all. Dr. David Suzuki
WHAT IS GENETIC ENGINEERING
"WHAT ARE ROUNDUP READY & Bt PESTICIDE GMO CROPS?"
-▶ UNBELIEVABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, OUTRAGEOUS: PUBLIC OFFICIALS DON'T KNOW POTENTIAL RISKS OF WEST VIRGINIA MASSIVE CHEMICAL SPILLhttp://sco.lt/5RrPaT
Mail and Guardian, March 04, 2015 -▶ MEET THE SILENT BUT DANGEROUS POLLUTANT ON OUR BLOCK :E-waste As the world continues to grow increasingly dependent on the world of IT and computers, the volume of electronic waste is rising, and with it comes a new threat – risk of exposure to lead, cadmium, chromium and other hazardous materials that can be toxic to human health and the environment.http://mg.co.za/article/2015-03-04-meet-the-silent-but-dangerous-pollutant-on-our-block-e-waste
- ▶ CORONARY CAPITALISM. Just as the financial industry caused a near-meltdown of the global economy in 2008, the food industry has facilitated the explosion of obesity around the world....http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/coronary-capitalism
FastCoExist, November 24, 2014 -▶ THE CONSEQUENCES OF EVERYONE EATING AN AMERICAN-STYLE DIET ARE AWFUL.If the developing world adopts a typical American diet, the consequences for health and the environment could be tragic. According to a major new study, we'd see a big rise in type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and massive growth in carbon emissions. What emerging countries choose to eat in the years ahead couldn't be more importanthttp://www.fastcoexist.com/3038577/the-consequences-of-everyone-eating-an-american-style-diet-are-awful-to-contemplate
CNBC News, November 20, 2014 ▶ OBESITY AS A BUSINESS: HOW MUCH OBESITY IS COSTING US. INVESTORS SEE GENEROUS PROFITS IN OBESITY EPIDEMIC
Our expanding waistlines are costing the global economy almost as much to deal with as smoking and military conflict, according to a new report by the McKinsey Global Institute. The annual global bill for obesity for lost productivity and treating conditions like diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers is $2 trillion. That’s nearly as much as the $2.1 trillion smoking or war and conflict costs the global economy, a group of analysts at the research institute concluded. http://www.cnbc.com/id/102203044
THE COVERT WAR BETWEEN CORN AND SUGAR INDUSTRIES: SWEET-TALKING THE PUBLIC TO KEEP US HOOKEDhttp://sco.lt/6PDz17
WHY SUGAR? WHY NOW?
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/
FACT-CHECKING ABOUT GMO FOODS In the last few decades many Americans have been suffering from different chronic diseases. Many factors could be contributing in the increase in chronic diseases but the most important one is indeed our diet, even more so than our lifestyle. http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-foods/fact-checking-gmo-foods/#FDA
HOW GMO FOODS AFFECT HEALTH
GENE ALTERED FOODS NOW LARGE PART OF AMERICAN DIET
VIDEOS EcoSense For Living Environmental Body Makeover Getting rid of toxins in and on our bodies. Bestselling author, Dr. Andrew Weil, tells us how to keep healthy by making smart diet & nutrition choices and knowing what food labels really say. Director of Environmental Working Group, Ken Cook, shares some surprising tidbits about chemicals in everyday body products. A boy with Autism makes amazing progress with help from Shauna K. Young, PhD, through a manganese-free diet and elimination of food additives. Environmentalist Laurie David gives us her take on how the overuse of antibiotics on farm animals makes us more susceptible to disease and sickness, and what we can do about it. http://www.ecosenseforliving.com/info/episode5.html
I think its a good source because it gives reasons and it has really good explanations that are true. People are getting obese, and its really bad for peoples health.
▶ 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/
VIDEO REPORT PBS Newshour, September 15, 2014 BRINGING HEALTHIER, LOCALLY-SOURCED FOOD TO CALIFORNIA SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAMS
- ▶ TOO MUCH POWER IN TOO FEW HANDS : FOOD GIANTS TAKE OVER THE INDUSTRYhttp://sco.lt/7d5xkP
ALL ABOUT MEGA-PROFITS, NOTHING MORE OR LESS
WATCH "THE FOODS THAT MAKE BILLIONS" (177 min Entire Series) 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
The United States is in the midst of a public health epidemic due to poor diet. While much of the focus has been on obvious culprits such as sugary soft drinks and fast food, dairy foods often get a pass. The dairy industry, propped up by government, has convinced us of the health benefits of milk and other dairy products. But the context of how people consume dairy matters. My new report, Whitewashed: How Industry and Government Promote Dairy Junk Foods, shines a light on the shifting patterns of consumption away from plain milk toward dairy products laden with sugar, fat, and salt.http://ecowatch.com/2014/06/11/dairy-industry-government-promote-junk-foods/
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/
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
Scientific American, May 12, 2014 ▶ DRUGS, CHEMICALS SEEP DEEP INTO SOIL FROM SEWAGE SLUDGE FERTILIZER, ABSORBED BY OUR FOODThe researchers looked for 57 “emerging” contaminants that are increasingly showing up in the environment. Ten were detected in the soil at depths between 7 and 50 inches 18 months after the treated sludge was applied. None was in the field’s soil beforehand.http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/drugs-chemicals-seep-deep-into-soil-from-sewage-sludge/
- ▶ WHAT EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BLIND, FOOTLESS CHICKENS, FACTORY FARMS AND THE AG-GAG BILLhttp://sco.lt/71PvtJ
- ▶ CORPORATE FARMING EATING UP SMALL POULTRY FARMS. Rawalpindi, Pakistan: Corporate farms are gradually swallowing small poultry farms as more than 50% of small businesses have packed up following failure to sustain pressure and compete with rapidly growing state-of-the-art poultry sheds over the last six years. http://tribune.com.pk/story/757942/corporate-farming-eating-up-small-poultry-farms/
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 WAR AGAINST ORGANICS: WHAT'S AN 'ORGANIC' LABEL REALLY WORTH?http://sco.lt/6Qny1R
===========================
▶ 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
▶ INVITRO BURGERS ANYONE? INSIDE THE COMING MEAT LAB: THE FUTURE OF FOODhttp://sco.lt/6EY7hR
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 ▶ 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
▶ CONTEMPORARY CORPORATE AGRICULTURE IS BURNING UP OUR PLANEThttp://sco.lt/6xupV3
- ETC Group
▶ CORPORATE POWER AND THE FINAL FRONTIER IN THE COMMODIFICATION OF LIFE - WE WERE WARNED...IN 2008.
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
▶ 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
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 well being.http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2445685
Animals Australia, April 01, 2015 SHORT VIDEO The disturbing ‘waste product’ of the worldwide egg industry GERMANY SAYS 'NO MORE CHICK SHREDDING'Germany has become the FIRST country in the world to decide it no longer wants to grind up millions of live baby chicks —. http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/germany-stops-shredding-chicks.php
CNBC, April 20, 2015 - ▶ US POULTRY EXPORTS PLUNGE WITH AVIAN FLU SCARE - MILLIONS OF BIRDS TO BE DESTROYED. The avian flu outbreak that has spread in 12 states is taking its toll on more than just the millions of birds that will be destroyed.http://www.cnbc.com/id/102606828
George Monbiot, December 17, 2014 - ▶ OVERGROWTH: What can you say about a society whose food production must be hidden from public view?In which the factory farms and slaughterhouses supplying much of our diet must be guarded like arsenals to prevent us from seeing what happens there? The growth rate of broiler chickens has quadrupled in 50 years: they are now killed at seven weeks(2). By then they are often crippled by their weight. Animals selected for obesity cause obesity. Bred to bulge, scarcely able to move, overfed, factory farmed chickens now contain almost three times as much fat as chickens did in 1970, and just two thirds of the protein(3). Stalled pigs and feedlot cattle have undergone a similar transformation. Meat production? No, this is fat production.
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/
The Dodo, March 06, 2014 - ▶ NO ONE WANTS TO DO THIS JOB THAT KILLS 6,000 CHICKS PER DAY.Within the world of poultry farming, both in the U.S. and abroad, large-scale laying operations have no need for male chicks in egg production, so the males — often just minutes old — are immediately killed. Some in a gas chamber. Others are killed in a macerator, a blender-like machine that grinds them up alive. https://www.thedodo.com/chicks-factory-farming-culling-1027688867.htm
The life of an egg-laying chicken in the U.S., or one of 301 million others like her, normally lasts 12 to 18 months, during which she produces up to 450 eggs. But what happens after that, when she's no longer considered profitable by the egg industry? According to a new investigation, the life of a "spent" bird — the industry's term for a hen who's no longer used for her eggs — is short and not so sweet.
Common Dreams, December 19, 2013 - ▶ IS YOUR CHICKEN DINNER MAKING YOU SICK?Two new reports highlight public health risks. For its report "The High Cost of Cheap Chicken," Consumer Reports tested over 300 raw chicken breasts, including some labeled as organic and antibiotic free, at national retailers. The study found that nearly all (97 percent) had potentially harmful bacteria, and roughly half (49.7 percent) the chicken sampled contained at least one multidrug-resistant bacterium...http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/12/19-3
France24, May 05, 2014 ▶ IS U.S. CHLORINATED CHICKEN AND GMO FOOD HEADED TO THE EU? THE CONTROVERSIAL EU-US TRADE AGREEMENT #TAFTA .Chicken washed in chlorine, meat treated with artificial beef hormones and a host of genetically modified crops – all of these could be making their way into European supermarkets under a free trade agreement being negotiated between the US and EU..http://www.france24.com/en/20140514-usa-chlorinated-chicken-gm-food-heading-eu-trade-deal-tafta-ttip-france
HuffingtonPost Green, July 14, 2014 ▶ GERMANY SAYS NEIN DANKE TO U.S. 'CHLORINE CHICKEN'
Grist, January 4, 2014 ▶ POULTRY MATTER: WHAT DO DO WITH ALL THE CHICKEN SHIT? Report from the Pew Charitable Trusts on the chicken industry. Nitrogen and phosphorous runoff from agricultural activity is a major source of water pollution in many parts of the country. In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, half of the phosphorous and 40 percent of the excess nitrogen result from agricultural runoff, leading to algae blooms and destructive conditions for the bay’s legendary fish, oysters, and crabs...http://grist.org/food/poultry-matter-what-to-do-with-all-that-chicken-shit/
This documentary looks at the potential hazards caused by factory farms in the United States, particularly by waste disposal. 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
This article talked about many different things, one of the things it talked about was the new gag law. This law states that it is illegal to video tape animal farms without permission. It has been implemented in 5 states already. It also talked about the health of the animals. In the small cramped spaces the animals develop diseases, when they take antibiotics we also recieve these antibiotics. AS we keep consuming these drugs our body becomes immune so when its time for us to really need an antibiotic it might not work.
Farmers are trying to do more to ensure animal safety in farms. Being honest about animal health is a big concern. If an animal has something wrong, the selling of the animal should contain all of the info about the animal. Honesty in the purchasing of animals is very critical. Many farms for breeding are grounds for disease. More antibiotics are being used to ensure animal safety. These animals are being consumed by humans so they are consuming the antibiotics as well so their bodies are becoming less immune to the antibiotic. Scientists suggest that antibiotic use should be limited on farms to ensure more human safety on farms.
Pambazuka,March 16, 2014 ▶ HEDGE FUNDS AND CORPORATE RAIDERS IN AFRICA: SPACE INVADERS OF THE THIRD KIND. The new wave of ‘looting’ of land and other natural resources will likely continue on a scale hitherto unknown. Whatever the supposed benefits of this trend, urgent attention ought to be turned to the thousands of people in Africa and other emerging nations who will become landless in the countries of their birth.
MintPress News, April 01, 2015 -▶ GEORGE SOROS LOOKS TO CO-OWN UKRAINE AND AFRICA.The Hungarian-born economic hitman may be more interested in helping his, and other investor’s, pockets, rather than the people of Ukraine. http://www.mintpressnews.com/george-soros-looks-to-co-own-ukraine/203866/
THE 21st CENTURY CORPORATE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA World Development Movement -▶ STOP THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF AFRICA'S FOOD. Under the guise of tackling hunger, initiatives like the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, will help corporations take control over Africa’s land, seeds and markets - at the expense of small farmers. Join our campaign to oppose this twenty-first century corporate scramble for Africa. - See more at: http://www.wdm.org.uk/food#sthash.dgDwkdF0.dpufhttp://www.wdm.org.uk/food
THE NEW SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA. - INFOGRAPH
In the nineteenth century scramble for Africa, European colonial powers took control of the continent’s land, resources and people. Today’s multinational corporations, aided by governments, are taking control over Africa’s food system.http://www.wdm.org.uk/new-scramble-africa-food-monsanto-syngenta-yara/
WATCH "BIG MEN" (1:23:00) Big Men provides an unprecedented inside look at the global deal making and dark underside of energy development in Ghana, Nigeria, Africa — a contest for money and power that is reshaping the world. http://www.pbs.org/pov/bigmen/full.php
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
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
LAND GRABS
HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/5YJpKb
▶ CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE IS CORPORATE GREEN-WASHING - AGRAhttp://sco.lt/8Ry4Wn
HuffPost Politics, November 28, 2014 ▶ OBAMA'S PLAN TO 'POWER AFRICA' GETS OFF TO A DIM START.As with many African aid projects, rights groups have criticized Power Africa as mostly being a vehicle to subsidize U.S. companies.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/28/obama-africa-aid_n_6234774.html
GHANA AND GMOs
Genetic engineering is about private corporate control of the food system.
Pambazuka, February 19, 2015
▶ 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....
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
Mongabay, August 20, 2014 LOOMING MINING 'TSUNAMI' SET TO TAKE AFRICA BY STORM. A new report published by a team of scientists from James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, documents a surging tide of foreign interest in mining in Africa and cautions that the sector’s unchecked development and expansion could devastate the environment.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0820-gfrn-john-cannon-africa-mining-tsunami.html?n3ws1ttr
farmlandgrab.org, August 04, 2014 ▶ CORPORATE INFLUENCE THROUGH THE G8NA AND OBAMA'S NEW ALLIANCE FOR FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN AFRICA. In recent times, new partnerships models between governments, business and civil society are increasingly gaining attention. One prominent example is the "New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition" (G8NA), inaugurated at the G8 summit 2012 in the United States.
This working paper concludes that the approach and objectives of the G8NA are highly problematic. The initiative serves as an enforcing mechanism for corporate driven blueprints for agriculture and sidelines national plans and international standards. It is dominated and tailored towards the interests of big corporate actors and is based on a reductionist approach of agricultural “development”. And lastly, the G8NA is poorly institutionalized and disregards fundamental principles of transparency participation and accountability. http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23793
INDEPTH REPORT
GRAIN, September 16, 2014 AFRICA'S AG GIANTS "GREEN" REVOLUTION THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AFRICA' BURGEONING CHEMICAL FERTILISER RUSH
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
Inter Press Service, August 04, 2014 ▶ THE 'GLOBAL' LAND RUSH.The first years of the twenty-first century will be remembered for a global land rush of nearly unprecedented scale.Today, enthusiasm for agriculture borders on speculative mania. When the price of food spiked in 2008, pushing the number of hungry people in the world to over one billion, it spiked the interest of investors as well, and within a year foreign land deals in the developing world rose by a staggering 200 percent.http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/08/the-global-land-rush/
▶ GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS NOT THE SOLUTION FOR "FEEDING THE WORLD"http://sco.lt/9Gdbxh
FOOD AID FOR THE 21st CENTURY:
MEETING THE OBJECTIVE OR FEEDING THE CORPORATE COFFERS?
▶ A PRIVATE AFFAIR: REPORT SHOWS HOW DEVELOPMENT FINANCE INSTITUTIONS BENEFIT THE RICH IN WESTERN COUNTRIESThe European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) launched today the study A Private Affair in which it shows how the world’s biggest multilateral lenders are using billions of euros of loans in developing countries to finance Western-based companies while excluding governments and citizens of countries they are meant to assist from decision-making.
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/
▶ WORLD BANK AND UN CARBON OFFSET SCHEME 'COMPLICIT' IN GENOCIDAL LAND GRABShttp://sco.lt/5IxW2j
▶ ARE GENETICALLY ENGINEERED AND FARMED SALMON SAFE?
There are massively disturbing ethical, environmental, and health concerns that make the introduction of Frankenfish highly controversial...
Frankenfish could be on your dinner plate by the end of the year.
On December 21, at the very end of the last business day before Christmas week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quietly released its environmental assessment that found “no significant impact” from the controversial AquaBounty AquaAdvantage transgenic salmon.,,
What is the rationale behind genetically engineered salmon? Why have scientists spliced genes from an eel-like creature called the ocean pout into the genome of the Atlantic salmon? These genes crank out growth hormone year-round, resulting in a fish that grows faster, cutting the time to reach market weight almost in half. This could mean cost savings for fish farmers, leading to higher profits for the salmon farming industry and (they promise) lower prices for consumers.
-▶ CANADA APPROVES EXPORT OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED SALMON EGGS - TO USA via PANAMA'S AQUABOUNTY Canada will allow genetically modified salmon eggs to be produced and exported — but no way in hell will the eggs be allowed to hatch on Canadian soil. The eggs will be exported to Aquabounties hatcheries in Panama and then exported to the USAhttp://grist.org/news/canada-approves-export-of-genetically-modified-salmon-eggs/
-▶ SCOTTISH FISH FARMERS USE RECORD AMOUNTS OF PARASITE PESTICIDES DESTROYING MARINE ECOSYSTEMShttp://sco.lt/4i52I5
UNESCO, February 22, 2012 -▶ MARINE SCIENTIST ALARMED ABOUT INCREASING THREAT TO OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS. In the last 30 years, coastal resources such as mangroves, coral reefs and fishery resources have become depleted on a large scale. For example, more than 60 per cent of Asia’s mangroves have already been converted to aquaculture farms (ESCAP and ADB, 2000). The region is losing its resource bases to support people’s livelihoods and sustain future economic development. http://www.unescobkk.org/news/article/marine-scientists-alarmed-about-increasing-threats-to-ocean-ecosystems/
WATCH SALMON CONFIDENTIAL 1:09:14 2013 British Columbia Documentary INDUSTRIAL SALMON FISH FARMS DESTROYING NATURAL SALMON POPULATION https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2AUHpuJzac
-▶ UNLEASHING GENETICALLY SALMON ONTO YOUR DINNER PLATE = NO REGULATIONS, NO OVERSIGHT - "FATALLY FLAWED" FDA ASSESSMENThttp://sco.lt/8ZDraz
May 29, 2013 Center for Food Safety
-▶ KEEP GE SALMON OFF OUR TABLES: - Target, Giant Eagle, Meijer and H-E-B have just agreed not to sell genetically engineered fish in their stores! These retail giants join over 55 other food retailers that made similar commitments earlier this year, including Trader Joe’s, Aldi, Whole Foods, Marsh and Hy-Vee.... http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/1881/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=10107
20 March, 2013 - The Guardian Environment
-▶ MAJOR US SUPERMARKETS TO BOYCOTT GM SALMON - FIRST OF 30 OTHER GENETICALLY ALTERED SPECIES UNDER DEVELOPMENT. The GM salmon is the first in some 30 other species of genetically engineered fish under development, including tilapia. Researchers are also working to bring GM cows, chickens and pigs to market....http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/20/major-us-supermarkets-boycott-gm-salmon
AquaBounty, the company behind the first Frankenfish, insists that their creation poses no threat to wild salmon populations. But research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that a release of just sixty GE salmon into a wild population of 60,000 would lead to the extinction of the wild population in less than 40 fish generations.
Not a Good mix and no matter how tightly confined pens are, there's always 'one'
Some years ago I saw a YouTube discussion on Genetically Engineered salmon where a private firm was advocating genetic engineering of the fish and its advantages. Actually they were interested in profits, nothing else.
The fish grows to three times in weight as compared to the natural salmon in half the time. Salmon's breeding grounds are rivers and salmon eats anything that moves. Did this private company ever conducted a single biosafety test to ensure their engineered salmon's impact on Natural environment and aquatic life? I don't think so.
The posting has many useful links; please explore that.
Thanks Marian. That bit I did not know that just 60 could wipe out 60,000. I must read this report because we don't know if someone in South Asia is using that technology. Will you kindly send me the URL? Thanks again.
--------------------- NAFTA ON STEROIDS --------------------
THE US-EU "FREE TRADE" PACT AND THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS ARE ABOUT SECURING DE-REGULATORY GAINS FOR MAJOR CORPORATE INTERESTS, WAVING LIABILITY AND PUBLIC RIGHTS
Asia Times Online, September 27, 2013 -▶ TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP IS A TROJAN HORSE The TPP is a Trojan horse, branded as a "free trade" agreement, but having nothing to do with fair and equitable treatment. In reality, it is precisely "a wish list of the 1% - a worldwide corporate power". [8] "Only 5 of its 29 chapters cover traditional trade matters, like tariffs or quotas." [9] "The other chapters enshrine new rights and privileges for major corporations while weakening the power of nation states to oppose them." [10]http://atimes.com/atimes/Japan/JAP-02-270913.html
Naked Capitalism, August 16, 2013 -▶ TROJAN HORSE "TRADE" DEALS ---- THE PENDING TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AND EU-EU "TRADE" DEALS.The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the US-European Union “Free Trade” Agreement are both inaccurately depicted as being helpful to ordinary Americans by virtue of liberalizing trade. Instead, they have perilous little to do with trade. They are both intended to make the world more lucrative for major corporations by weakening regulations and by strengthening intellectual property laws. The TPP has an additional wrinkle of being an “everybody but China” deal, intended to strengthen ties among nations who will then be presumed allies of America in its efforts to contain China…http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/08/how-the-pending-trans-pacific-partnership-and-eu-us-trade-deals-will-gut-national-regulations-hurt-budgets-and-undermine-sovereignity.html
Transnational Institute, October 09, 2014 -▶ CORPORATE POWER: EL SALVADOR'S STRUGGLE AGAINST CORPORATE IMPUNITY.The controversial legal case that Canadian mining firm Pacific Rim has launched against El Salvador has added fuel to the growing international debate on the balance of corporate rights and responsibilities and the need for new legal international frameworks to address corporate impunity.http://www.tni.org/article/responsibilities-or-rights-el-salvadors-struggle-against-corporate-impunity
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. March 1, 2013
-▶ GOVERNMENTS MUST PROTECT LAND, FOOD SYSTEMS AS TRADE LIBERALIZATION ACCELERATES LAND GRABBINGhttp://iatp.org/blog-agriculture
Common Dream, April 22, 2014 -▶ CORPORATE COLONIALISM: PROTESTERS SLAM TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP.These secretive trade pacts are really about resurrecting global U.S. military power and economic dominancehttp://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/22-3
WATCH Bill Moyers & Company, November 1, 2013 'SECRETS TRADE PACTS THAT WILL IMPACT US ALL" A US-led trade deal is currently being negotiated that could increase the price of prescription drugs, weaken financial regulations and even allow partner countries to challenge American laws. But few know its substance. The pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), is deliberately shrouded in secrecy...http://billmoyers.com/segment/yves-smith-and-dean-baker-on-secrets-in-trade/
Trans Pacific Partnership -
-▶ THIS IS WHAT CORPORATE GOVERNANCE LOOKS LIKE: NAFTA ON STEROIDShttp://sco.lt/8xWubB
Foreign Policy In Focus, December 13, 2013 -▶ NAFTA AT 20: NAFTA HAS DISPLACED WORKERS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER, DEPRESSED WAGES, AND WEAKENED UNIONShttp://fpif.org/nafta-20-state-north-american-worker/
The Sunlight Foundation, March 14, 2014 -▶ HOW BIG PHARMA (AND OTHERS) BEGAN LOBBYING ON THE TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP BEFORE YOU EVER HEARD OF IT. NAMING NAMES: WHICH CORPORATIONS AND INDUSTRIES?http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2014/03/13/tpp-lobby/
▶ BIG PHARMA, BIG BUCKS: ENDING DRUG MONOPOLIES, MEGA PROFITS AND STRANGLEHOLD ON PATENTS -- PEOPLE ARE DYINGhttp://sco.lt/5WVBkP
-▶ WALL STREET, CORPORATIONS BUYING UP AMERICAN, FOREIGN FARMLAND, THREATENING FUTURE OF U.S. AND WORLD AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITYhttp://sco.lt/8mcmbR
Truthout, March 27, 2013 -▶ TRANSPACIFIC PARTNERSHIP WILL UNDERMINE DEMOCRACY, EMPOWER TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS Circumventing the Checks and Balances of US Democracy: If the TPP is approved, the sovereignty of the United States and other member nations will be dissipated by trade tribunals that favor corporate power and force national laws to be subservient to corporate interests.,,http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15353-transpacific-partnership-will-undermine-democracy-empower-transnational-corporations
Corporate Europe Observatory, October 4, 2013 -▶ TRUTHS AND MYTHS: "A BRAVE NEW TRANSLANTIC PARTNERSHIP" - THE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENT CONSEQUENCES.A new report published by members of the Seattle to Brussels Network (S2B), including CEO, which reveals the true human and environmental costs of the proposed EU-US trade deal
Common Dreams, September 19, 2013 -▶ OBAMA MOVES TO FAST-TRACK THE SECRETIVE TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIPCritics slam highly secretive deal as a tool for U.S. and corporate power http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/19-9
-▶ MASSIVE LAND GRABBING BY MULTINATIONAL FIRMS PREVALENT IN UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES AND WILL GET WORSE WITH TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIPLawmakers 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
-▶ LAND GRABS: HOW FOREIGN 'INVESTMENTS' ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/96H2yv
AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
-▶ OBAMA QUIETLY DE-REGULATES GMO/ GENETIC BIOTECH INDUSTRY IN PREPARATION FOR NEW TRADE DEALS : Fast-tracking Approvals, Waiving Regulations, Oversight and Liabilityhttp://sco.lt/5uCx8b
-▶ THE BIGGER PICTURE: TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE - SETTING THE STAGE WITH THE "MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT"http://sco.lt/8U0kjJ
-▶ ANTI-WHISTLE-BLOWER AG-GAG BILLS AIMED AT KEEPING YOU IN THE DARK ABOUT OUR FACTORY-FARMED FOODhttp://sco.lt/7aFBUv
pdjmoo's insight:
VIDEO REPORT
The Real News, September 15, 2013 -▶ 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
YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY NEWS AGGREGATES @pdjmoo
▶ 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
Your new post is loading...
