Infinite Unknown

- 20 GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS COMING TO YOUR PLATE (World Truth TV):

If the need to halt GMOs were not urgent enough, this article should scare the pants off you. Here we glimpse some of the potentials for the unabated and bizarre proliferation of GMOs. Some of these developments you will already know about (hopefully), but some will come as a surprise. As I see it we are now at a crossroads where we can still dismantle this dangerous and perverted manipulation of the very fabric of life, the sacred code of nature, which will undoubtedly affect each and every one of us in profound ways now and in the future. Continue reading »

Tags: Bananas, canola, Corn, Cotton, Food, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Health, honey, Papaya, Potatoes, rice, Salmon, Society, soybeans, Sugar Beets, Sugar Cane, Tomatoes

- Chinese buy up big in Australia (Sydney Morning Herald, Sep 3, 2012):

CHINESE investment in Australia almost doubled last year as the world’s second-largest economy flexed its economic muscles abroad, according to new data from the Ministry of Commerce.

Recent Chinese investment in Australia includes the sale of Australia’s largest cotton producer, Cubbie Station, to a Chinese-led consortium, approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board on Friday.

Chinese companies – both private and state-owned – invested a total of $3.2 billion in Australia in 2011, an 86 per cent increase from 2010. Australia is the third-most-popular investment destination behind the European Union and the ASEAN countries.

Continue reading »

Tags: Australia, China, Cotton, Economy, Global News

YouTube Added: 30.08.2012

Description:

Watch on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1bjdWTFMUM
or on journeyman here: http://vodsite.journeyman.tv/store?p=4885
For downloads and more information visit: http://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=63220

Our morning ritual speaks of our love affair with cotton: we throw off crisp cotton sheets, shower and dry ourselves with thick cotton towels, sweep fluffy cotton balls over our face, then slip on cotton panties, socks, t-shirts, jeans and jackets. With cotton so much in demand, we ask growers and seed developer Monsanto if the trade is fair, in a film that beats to the ancient rhythms of cotton production.

India is the world’s second largest producer, one of the largest consumers and one of the largest producers of organic cotton. Rural life revolves around it. Barefoot farmers plough their cotton fields. Traditional handlooms work the yarn – weavers working for wages their children would never accept. When the cotton is “sized” huge swathes of fabric run through the village.

Since 2002 India has replaced almost all its native varieties with genetically modified seeds – known as BT cotton – containing toxins that destroy pests. The price of cotton seed has soared from 9 rupees a kilo to a staggering 4,000. The cotton farmer’s life is a hard one; they treat their crops “like children,” since wildlife may destroy them and “man is so dependent on money.” Children toil in the fields for less than $2 a day.

Monsanto says farmers buy seeds developed with its technology as they have confidence in their yields. But Greenpeace claims GM farmers get into 80% more debt. Farmers blame suppliers when their seed turns out to be sterile: “Everything they said was a lie.” Experts examine plants and fail to find male/female parts to them. Monsanto denies its seeds carry a “Terminator” gene but Tiruvadi Jagadisan – former head of Monsanto India – alleges they do: “Introducing genetically modified seeds is murder!” Continue reading »

Tags: Agriculture, Cotton, Economy, Environment, Farmers, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Health, India, Monsanto, Society, Suicide, Tiruvadi Jagadisan

Nearly all of the processed foods in the US contain GMO.

- GMO alert: top 10 genetically modified foods to avoid eating (Natural News, May 01, 2012):

There is a conspiracy of selling out happening in America. Politics and personal interest it would seem determine government policies over and above health and safety issues. When President Obama appointed Michael Taylor in 2009 as senior adviser for the FDA, a fierce protest ensued from consumer groups and environmentalists. Why? Taylor used to be vice president for Monsanto, a multinational interested in marketing genetically modified (GM) food. It was during his term that GMO’s were approved in the US without undergoing tests to determine if they were safe for human consumption.

The danger of GMO’s

The question of whether or not genetically modified foods (GMO’s) are safe for human consumption is an ongoing debate that does not seem to see any resolution except in the arena of public opinion. Due to lack of labeling, Americans are still left at a loss as to whether or not what is on the table is genetically modified. This lack of information makes the avoiding and tracking of GM foods an exercise in futility. Below are just some of the food products popularly identified to be genetically modified: Continue reading »

Tags: canola, Corn, Cotton, Food, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Health, Papaya, Peas, Potatoes, rice, soy, Tomatoes

Companies that genetically engineer crops have a lock on what we know about their safety and benefits.

Trust us!!!

Soybeans, corn, cotton and canola — most of the acres planted in these crops in the United States are genetically altered. “Transgenic” seeds reduce the use of some insecticides. But herbicide use is higher, and respected experts argue that some genetically engineered crops may also pose serious health and environmental risks. The benefits of genetically engineered crops may be overstated.

For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, February 17, 2011 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 19 Editorial Desk 1 inches; 32 words Type of Material: Correction
Seeds: In a Feb. 13 Op-Ed about seed-company barriers to independent research on genetically modified crops, the owner of the seed company Pioneer was incorrectly identified as Dow Chemical. DuPont owns Pioneer.

We don’t have the complete picture. That’s no accident. Multibillion-dollar agricultural corporations, including Monsanto and Syngenta, have restricted independent research on their genetically engineered crops. They have often refused to provide independent scientists with seeds, or they’ve set restrictive conditions that severely limit research options.

This is legal. Under U.S. law, genetically engineered crops are patentable inventions. Companies have broad power over the use of any patented product, including who can study it and how.

Agricultural companies defend their stonewalling by saying that unrestricted research could make them vulnerable to lawsuits if an experiment somehow leads to harm, or that it could give competitors unfair insight into their products. But it’s likely that the companies fear something else as well: An experiment could reveal that a genetically engineered product is hazardous or doesn’t perform as promised.

Continue reading »

Tags: canola, Corn, Cotton, Global News, Health, Monsanto, Science, Society, soybeans, Syngenta

Last week, when commenting on cotton’s torrid YTD performance, we noted “A retest of the $2 psychological price barrier is now guaranteed and is on next week’s docket.”

This despite the ICE’s 25% hike in initial and maintenance margins.

Sure enough, as expected, cotton has just passed the $2 price (an all time record obviously).

Continue reading »

Tags: Commodities, Cotton, Economy, Global News

And clothing prices will continue to rise:

- Cotton Prices Jump, Continue To Skyrocket, Mills Panic

- Cotton Prices Rise To A 140-Year Record High

Clothing Prices to Rise 10% Starting in Spring

The era of falling clothing prices is ending. Clothing prices have dropped for a decade as tame inflation and cheap overseas labor helped hold down costs.

Retailers and clothing makers cut frills and experimented with fabric blends to cut prices during the recession. But as the world economy recovers and demand for goods rises, a surge in labor and raw materials costs is squeezing retailers and manufacturers who have run out of ways to pare costs.

Cotton has more than doubled in price over the past year, hitting all-time highs. The price of other synthetic fabrics has jumped roughly 50 percent as demand for alternatives and blends has risen.

Clothing prices are expected to rise about 10 percent in coming months, with the biggest increases coming in the second half of the year, said Burt Flickinger III president of Strategic Resource Group.

Continue reading »

Tags: Cotton, Economy, Global News, Inflation, Retailers, U.S.

… or else:

- US Conspired to Retaliate Against European Nations If They Resisted GMOs: Wikileaks Cable Reveals

Enjoy US GM cuisine without fear?

Far more Europeans, than Americans, are aware of the fact that GM food alters the DNA, changes brain waves, destroys the immune system, the organs and makes people infertile.

And when travelling to the US, to enjoy that GM junk cuisine,  Europeans  have the choice to get either radiated or sexually assaulted by the TSA.

At least 80 percent of ‘food’ in the supermarkets is contaminated with GMOs in the US, with no labeling required, although the vast majority of Americans wants it, because this would make Americans insecure, says the US government.

These are all good reasons to pay the land of the free a visit, where the rule of law has no meaning anymore, right?

- Despite a Court Ban USDA Allows Commercial Planting of Monsanto’s Genetically Modified Sugar Beets

Europeans know exactly that the elite plans to turn the EU into one Big Brother, fascist police state, feeding its citizens GM junk, adding mind-control chemicals into the water that make people docile and infertile like in the US, where 70% of the drinking water is fluoridated.

Hitler and Stalin did that in their concentration camps and gulags.

Wake up America and Europe stay awake!

And Mrs. Sapiro …

BRUSSELS – A top US trade official said she will bang down the door of the European Commission Thursday in a bid to break a long-standing impasse blocking the march of genetically-modified foods.

“When Europeans come to the United States, they come and enjoy our cuisine without any fears,” Deputy US Trade Representative Miriam Sapiro told an audience of policymakers in Brussels ahead of talks with European Union trade commissioner Karel De Gucht’s senior officials.

“Why should we have different standards in Europe? That alone is a reason to change position.

“I will be raising that issue today — it is important to address, and to continue to press the commission to go the right way. Decisions on GM foods need to be science-based,” she insisted, underlining her confidence in US safety standards.

A day earlier, a committee of experts from the 27 EU states pushed back a commission proposal to lift import restrictions on animal foodstuffs containing traces of GM crops, up to a certain threshold, due to opposition from France and Poland.

Similarly, intra-EU divisions meant authorisation for growing was not granted for three new strains of GM maize and one of GM cotton, marketed by Syngenta and US giant Dow AgroSciences, although the commission will try again on March 1.

Continue reading »

Tags: Cotton, Dow Agrosciences, Dow Chemical, EU, Europe, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Government, maize, Politics, Syngenta, U.S.

- US cotton rises for third day as mills rush to buy (Reuters):

NEW YORK, Feb 2 (Reuters) – U.S. cotton futures jumped for
the third straight day on Wednesday, settling up the daily
limit, as Asian mills fueled the rally on average volume.

Cotton futures have rallied almost 25 percent since the
middle of January, the latest wave of a historic run that began
in 2010 and sent cotton prices to their loftiest levels in
almost 150 years.

“It’s basically mills panicking,” said Lou Barbera, a
cotton analyst for brokerage VIP Commodities. “Overseas mills
are getting the ball rolling.”

Continue reading »

Tags: Commodities, Cotton, Economy

Yu Lianmin, a cotton farmer in Huji, China, harvested 6,600 pounds of cotton this year. Despite record cotton prices, he didn’t sell any of it.

Farmer Yu Feng tends his stockpile of roughly 7,700 pounds of cotton that he is storing in his home in Huji, China.

Instead, mounds of cotton are piled up in two empty rooms of Mr. Yu’s home, and the homes of many of the farmers in his small township of Yujia, which is part of the bigger township of Huji in northern Shandong province, 220 miles southeast of Beijing. The farmers are holding out for higher prices, aiming to help overcome higher costs of labor and fertilizer, which are up about 20% in the past year.

“I think there’s still hope for prices to go higher,” he said.

The amount of cotton held in hamlets throughout China is unknown, but, with 25 million cotton farmers, a Chinese cotton agency estimates it could amount to about 9% of the world’s cotton supply. And the situation is occurring throughout the supply chain. Many ginners and merchants in China are keeping warehouses full, according to the agency, in an attempt to obtain higher prices.

Expectations that prices will rise are driving the apparent stockpiling, which causes short-term shortages and leads prices to rise further. The situation is complicating an already volatile picture for cotton, which has jumped to 140-year highs in the U.S. and has become a symbol of brewing commodity inflation around the globe.

Farmer Yu Feng tends his stockpile of roughly 7,700 pounds of cotton that he is storing in his home in Huji, China.

Continue reading »

Tags: Commodities, Cotton, Economy