Infinite Unknown

- The Monsanto Protection Act? A Debate on Controversial New Measure Over Genetically Modified Crops (Democracy Now, April 2, 2013):

President Obama outraged food activists last week when he signed into law a spending bill with a controversial rider that critics have dubbed the “Monsanto Protection Act.” The rider says the government must allow the planting of genetically modified crops even if courts rule they pose health risks. The measure has galvanized the U.S. food justice movement, which is now preparing for its next fight when the provision expires in six months. We host a discussion on the “Monsanto Protection Act” and the safety of genetically modified foods with two guests: Gregory Jaffe, director of the Biotechnology Project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that addresses food and nutrition issues; and Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch and author of the book, “Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America.” On Wednesday, Hauter’s group is releasing a major new report called “Monsanto: A Corporate Profile.” [includes rush transcript]

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AARON MATÉ: President Obama outraged food activists last week when he signed into law a spending bill with a controversial rider attached. Critics have dubbed the rider the “Monsanto Protection Act.” That’s because it effectively says the government must allow the planting of genetically modified crops even if courts rule they pose health risks. The provision calls on the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the USDA, to, quote, “grant temporary permit(s) or temporary deregulation,” unquote, to the crop growers until an environmental review is completed. In other words, plant the GE crop first and assess the impact later.

AMY GOODMAN: One of the biggest supporters of the provision was Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, Monsanto’s home state. Blunt reportedly crafted the bill’s language with Monsato’s help.
On the other side was the lone member of the Senate who’s also an active farmer, Democrat Jon Tester of Montana. Senator Tester tried to remove the rider when the budget bill made its way through Congress last month. Speaking on the Senate floor, Tester said the provision would undermine judicial oversight and hurt family farmers.

SEN. JON TESTER: The United States Congress is telling the Agricultural Department that even if a court tells you that you’ve failed to follow the right process and tells you to start over, you must disregard the court’s ruling and allow the crop to be planted anyway. Not only does this ignore the constitutional idea of separation of powers, but it also lets genetically modified crops take hold across this country, even when a judge finds it violates the law—once again, agribusiness multinational corporations putting farmers as serfs. It’s a dangerous precedent. Mr. President, it will paralyze the USDA, putting the department in the middle of a battle between Congress and the courts. And the ultimate loser will be our family farmers going about their business and feeding America in the right way.

AARON MATÉ: Well, Senator Tester’s effort failed, and the rider was included in last month’s legislation that avoided a government shutdown.

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Biotech, Congress, Constitution, Corporations, Environment, Food, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Government, Health, Law, Monsanto, Obama administration, Politics, Roy Blunt, Society, U.S., USDA

- Regulators Discover a Hidden Viral Gene in Commercial GMO Crops (Independent Sciencre News, Jan 21, 2013):

How should a regulatory agency announce they have discovered something potentially very important about the safety of products they have been approving for over twenty years?

In the course of analysis to identify potential allergens in GMO crops, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has belatedly discovered that the most common genetic regulatory sequence in commercial GMOs also encodes a significant fragment of a viral gene (Podevin and du Jardin 2012). This finding has serious ramifications for crop biotechnology and its regulation, but possibly even greater ones for consumers and farmers. This is because there are clear indications that this viral gene (called Gene VI) might not be safe for human consumption. It also may disturb the normal functioning of crops, including their natural pest resistance.

What Podevin and du Jardin discovered is that of the 86 different transgenic events (unique insertions of foreign DNA) commercialized to-date in the United States 54 contain portions of Gene VI within them. They include any with a widely used gene regulatory sequence called the CaMV 35S promoter (from the cauliflower mosaic virus; CaMV). Among the affected transgenic events are some of the most widely grown GMOs, including Roundup Ready soybeans (40-3-2) and MON810 maize. They include the controversial NK603 maize recently reported as causing tumors in rats (Seralini et al. 2012).

The researchers themselves concluded that the presence of segments of Gene VI “might result in unintended phenotypic changes”. They reached this conclusion because similar fragments of Gene VI have already been shown to be active on their own (e.g. De Tapia et al. 1993). In other words, the EFSA researchers were unable to rule out a hazard to public health or the environment. Continue reading »

Tags: Biotech, DNA, Food, General Mills, Genetically Modified Organisms, Health, Science, Virus

- Scientists torn over Kenya’s recent GM food ban (Nature, Dec 3, 2012):

Scientists fear that Kenya’s recent banning of the import of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) may be a significant blow to progress on biotechnology research and development in the country.

A cabinet meeting chaired by Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki, this month (8 November), directed the public health minister to ban GMO imports until the country is able to certify that they have no negative impact on people’s health.

In a statement to the press, the cabinet said there was a “lack of sufficient information on the public health impact of such foods”.

“The ban will remain in effect until there is sufficient information, data and knowledge demonstrating that GMO foods are not a danger to public health,” it added.

Continue reading »

Tags: Biotech, Environment, Food, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Good News, Government, Health, Kenya, Politics, Science

“…being outspent by a factor of five is tough to overcome.”

For dumb & totally brainwashed sheeple that statement may be true.

- Lies, Dirty Tricks and $45 Million Kill GMO Labeling in California (Huffington Post, Nov 8, 2012):

California’s Proposition 37, which would have required labeling of GMO foods, died a painful death Tuesday night. Despite polling in mid-September showing an overwhelming lead, the measure lost by 53 to 47 percent, which is relatively close considering the “No” side’s tactics.

As I’ve been writing about, the opposition has waged a deceptive and ugly campaign, fueled by more than $45 million, mostly from the leading biotech, pesticide, and junk food companies. Meanwhile, the “Yes” side raised almost $9 million, which is not bad, but being outspent by a factor of five is tough to overcome.

Continue reading »

Tags: Biotech, California, FDA, Food, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Government, Politics, Prop 37, propaganda, Society, U.S.

- Monsanto Threatens Europe – Industrial Food Giants Bully European Lawmakers (Green Chip Stocks, July 12, 2012):

Is Monsanto waging war on the European Union? The notion isn’t as daft as you may think.

Genetically modified (GM) crops have pervaded the U.S. food supply for nearly twenty years, albeit incrementally and often inconspicuously.

Continue reading »

Tags: Biotech, Economy, Environment, EU, Europe, Food, food supply, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Government, Health, Monsanto, Politics, U.S.

What could possibly go wrong?

- ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ to grant biotech industry total immunity over GM crops? (Natural News, July 15, 2012):

While millions of Americans were busy celebrating freedom from tyranny during the recent Independence Day festivities, Monsanto was actively trying to thwart that freedom with new attacks on health freedom. It turns out that the most evil corporation in the world has quietly attached riders to both the 2012 Farm Bill and the 2013 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that would essentially force the federal government to approve GMOs at the request of biotechnology companies, and prohibit all safety reviews of GMOs from having any real impact on the GMO approval process.

The Alliance for Natural Health – USA (ANH-USA), the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), and several other health freedom advocacy groups have been actively drawing attention to these stealth attacks in recent days, and urging Americans to rise up and oppose them now before it is too late. If we fail to act now as a single, unified community devoted to health freedom, in other words, America’s agricultural future could literally end up being controlled entirely by the biotech industry, which will have full immunity from the law.

You can fight back now against these threats to food freedom by visiting:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_25711.cfm

Full exemption from the law for the biotech industry

Continue reading »

Tags: Agriculture, Barack Obama, Biotech, Dictatorship, Environment, Fascism, Food, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Government, Health, Law, Monsanto, New World Order, Obama administration, Politics, U.S., USDA

- Monsanto rider: New bill could make biotech companies immune to courts (RT, July 11, 2012):

If passed, an amendment in the Agricultural Appropriations Bill will not just allow, but require the secretary of agriculture to grant permits for planting or cultivating GM crops – even if a federal court has given an injunction against it.

Basically, all Monsanto and other biotech companies have to do is ask and the industry gets its way. Issues like crop contamination, damage to farmers or consumers, courts orders or USDA studies all go out the window and the biotech industry cashes in.

Organizations like Food Democracy Now are in a panic, calling all to petition against the bill, which they say “fundamentally undermines the concept of judicial review and would strip judges of their constitutional mandate to protect consumer rights and the environment, while opening up the floodgates for the planting of new untested genetically engineered crops, endangering farmers, consumers and the environment.”

Representative Peter DeFazio has been trying to push through an amendment that would kill the havoc-wreaking rider. He has the support of organizations like Organic Consumers Associations, Center for Food Safety and others. Their warnings have been circulating the web, gathering attention and support – but will they be enough to sway the House?

“Ceding broad and unprecedented powers to industry, the rider poses a direct threat to the authority of US courts, jettisons the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) established oversight powers on key agriculture issues and puts the nation’s farmers and food supply at risk, “ claimed the Center for Food Safety in a recent statement.

Continue reading »

Tags: Agriculture, Barack Obama, Biotech, Corporations, Dictatorship, DuPont, Farmers, Fascism, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Government, Law, Monsanto, New World Order, Obama administration, Politics, U.S., USDA

- NC Museum of Natural Sciences holds ‘Biotechnology Day’ for children with presentations by Monsanto (Natural News, July 03, 2012):

The largest and most comprehensive natural history museum in the Southeast, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS) is one of the premier educational destinations for both young and old alike to learn about the natural world in a fun, interactive environment. But this beacon of cultural enlightenment has apparently been infiltrated by Monsanto and numerous other corporate interests, all of which were allowed to give presentations at the museum’s recent “Biotechnology Day.”

Continue reading »

Tags: Biotech, Children, Drugs, Education, Global News, Monsanto, Society

See also:

- The Chinese Food-Safety Mess: Mercury In Baby Formula, Cabbages Sprayed With Formaldehyde, Soy Sauce Made From Hair Clippings, Cooking Oil Scooped Out Of Gutters For Recycling, Artificial Green Peas, Grilled Kebabs From Cat Meat, …

Flashback:

- In China, What You Eat Tells Who You Are … And Organic Food Is Only For The Power Elite

- I ate Hu Jintao’s dinner; China’s president, and the rest of the politburo eat only organic food

Moo-ove over, Mum.

Chinese scientists have produced a herd of genetically modified cows that make milk that could substitute for human breast milk — a possible alternative to formula in a nation rocked by tainted milk powder scandals.

Researchers at the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology of the China Agricultural University introduced human genetic coding into the DNA of Holstein dairy cow embryos, then transferred the embryos into cow surrogates.

Continue reading »

Tags: Biotech, China, DNA, Food, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Health, Milk, Science

- Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes released into the wild (Updated News, June 24, 2012):

Australian research scientists have developed a strategy for fighting Dengue fever, a viral disease spread by mosquitoes that affects more than 50 million people annually and causes fever and crippling joint and muscle pain—and in some cases even death.

Dengue kills FAR more people worldwide than influenza, yet it is rarely even mentioned by Western media.

A bacterium named Wolbachiapipientis naturally infects many insect species and has the ability to interfere with its host’s reproductive ability in such a way that entire populations become infected within just a few generationsⁱ. When Wolbachia infects mosquitoes, the mosquitoes’ ability to transmit Dengue virus is almost completely blocked.

Researchers are encouraged that these bacterially infected mosquitoes are safe to humans and, once set loose, are capable of spreading on their own and overtaking the wild mosquito populations that transmit disease to humans.

In two northern Australian towns, between 10,000 and 20,000 of these infected mozzies were released (“mozzie” is Australian for mosquito), and wild mosquito infection rates neared 100 percent—meaning, mosquitoes that can infect humans were almost completely replaced by the ones that can’t.

Continue reading »

Tags: Australia, Biotech, Environment, Global News, Health, Mosquito, Oxitec