Infinite Unknown

Just as Monsanto attempted to discredit scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini’s study on rats fed genetically engineered corn, the company called this peer-reviewed journal article “another bogus study” due to its “bad science.”

- Study Links Monsanto’s Roundup To Autism, Parkinson’s And Alzheimer’s (Nation of Change, May 5, 2013):

A new review of hundreds of scientific studies surrounding glyphosate—the major component of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide—sheds light on its effects within the human body. The paper describes how all of these effects could work together, and with other variables, trigger health problems in humans, including debilitating diseases like gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

Glyphosate impairs the cytochrome P450 (CYP) gene pathway, which creates enzymes that help to form and also break down molecules in cells. There are myriad important CYP enzymes, including aromatase (the enzyme that converts androgen into estrogen) and 21-Hydroxylase, which creates cortisol (stress hormone) and aldosterone (regulates blood pressure). One function of these CYP enzymes is also to detoxify xenobiotics, which are foreign chemicals like drugs, carcinogens or pesticides. Glyphosate inhibits these CYP enzymes, which has rippling effects throughout our body.

Because the CYP pathway is essential for normal functioning of various systems in our bodies, any small change in its expression can lead to disruptions. For example, humans exposed to glyphosate have decreased levels of the amino acid tryptophan, which is necessary for active signaling of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Suppressed serotonin levels have been associated with weight gain, depression and Alzheimer’s disease.

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Tags: Alzheimer, Brain, Diabetes, Environment, Enzymes, Global News, Glyphosate, Health, Heart disease, Monsanto, Obesity, Parkinson, Roundup, Roundup Ready, Science, Serotonin

- GMO and the Corporate Patenting of Living Organisms: Monsanto’s Patents on Life (Global Research, March 1, 2013):

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing arguments in a seed patent infringement case that pits a small farmer from Indiana, 75-year old Vernon Hugh Bowman, against biotech goliath Monsanto. Reporters from the New York Times to the Sacramento Bee dissected the legal arguments. They speculated on the odds. They opined on the impact a Monsanto loss might have, not only on genetically modified crops, but on medical research and software.

What most of them didn’t report on is the absurdity – and the danger – of allowing companies to patent living organisms in the first place, and then use those patents to attempt to monopolize world seed and food production.

The case boils down to this. Monsanto sells its patented genetically engineered (GE) “Roundup Ready” soybean seeds to farmers under a contract that prohibits the farmers from saving the next-generation seeds and replanting them. Farmers like Mr. Bowman who buy Monsanto’s GE seeds are required to buy new seeds every year. For years, Mr. Bowman played by Monsanto’s rules. Then in 2007, he bought an unmarked mix of soybeans from a grain elevator and planted them. Some of the soybeans turned out to have been grown from Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready soybean seeds. Monsanto sued Mr. Bowman, won, and the court ordered the farmer to pay the company $84,000. Mr. Bowman appealed, arguing that he unknowingly bought soybeans grown from Monsanto’s seeds, not the seeds themselves, and that therefore the law of “patent exhaustion” applies.

The press and public have fixated on the sticky legal details of the case, and the classic David vs. Goliath nature of the fight. But win or lose, Mr. Bowman’s predicament is part of a much bigger problem.

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Tags: Agriculture, DuPont, Economy, Environment, Food, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Herbicides, Law, Monsanto, Roundup, Roundup Ready, Supreme Court, Syngenta, U.S.

- USDA Received Pathogen Warning BEFORE Deregulating GM Alfalfa (Activist Post, Feb 20, 2013):

Following a 6 year approval battle, the USDA fully deregulated Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa in January 2011. A week later, they partially deregulated GM sugar beets. This occurred despite Secretary of Agriculture’s Tom Vilsack’s knowledge of a stark warning letter by Dr. Don M. Huber, Emeritus Professor of Plant Pathology, Purdue University two weeks prior, who found a link between the modified organisms and the proliferation of the new pathogen. Huber knew about its presence in Roundup Ready soy and corn and sought to hold off the GE alfalfa calling the situation an “emergency.”

Dr. Huber said (vid below) “we don’t know what it is” – it’s a new entity first noticed by veterinarians in the late ’90s, new to science. It’s not a virus, although similar, actually smaller in size and like a fungus that spreads like a virus. It’s contained in Roundup Ready (RR) and Roundup sprayed plants and feed and bizarrely affects all farmland animals often with infertility and spontaneous abortions – an inter-species syndrome that could be the first of its kind.

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Tags: Alfalfa, Environment, Food, Genetically Modified Organisms, Genocide, Global News, GMO, Government, Health, Monsanto, Politics, Roundup, Roundup Ready, Science, USDA

- Indiana soybean farmer sees Monsanto lawsuit reach US supreme court (Guardian, Feb 9, 2013):

Who controls the rights to the seeds planted in the ground? A 75-year-old farmer takes the agricultural giant to court to find out

As David versus Goliath battles go it is hard to imagine a more uneven fight than the one about to play out in front of the US supreme court between Vernon Hugh Bowman and Monsanto.

On the one side is Bowman, a single 75-year-old Indiana soybean farmer who is still tending the same acres of land as his father before him in rural south-western Indiana. On the other is a gigantic multibillion dollar agricultural business famed for its zealous protection of its commercial rights.

Not that Bowman sees it that way. “I really don’t consider it as David and Goliath. I don’t think of it in those terms. I think of it in terms of right and wrong,” Bowman told The Guardian in an interview.

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Tags: Agriculture, Environment, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Government, Indiana, Law, Monsanto, Roundup, Roundup Ready, Society, soybeans, Supreme Court

- Roundup Herbicide Linked To Overgrowth of Deadly Bacteria (GreenMedInfo, Dec 14, 2012):

Could Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup be leading to the overgrowth of deadly bacteria in animals and humans consuming genetically-modified food contaminated with it?

This question follows from a new study published in the journal Current Microbiology titled, “The Effect of Glyphosate on Potential Pathogens and Beneficial Members of Poultry Microbiota In Vitro,” which found that the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, known as glyphosate, negatively impacted the gastrointestinal bacteria of poultry in vitro. The researchers presented evidence that highly pathogenic bacteria resisted glyphosate, whereas beneficial bacteria were moderately to highly susceptible to it.

Some of the beneficial species that were found to be suppressed by glyphosate were Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Bacillus badius, Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Lactobacillus spp. The pathogenic species which were found to resist glyphosate toxicity were Salmonella Entritidis, Salmonella Gallinarum, Salmonella Typhimurium, Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium botulinum.

The researchers stated that “A reduction of beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract microbiota by ingestion of glyphosate could disturb the normal gut bacterial community.”   Even more alarming was their observation that the toxicity of glyphosate to the most prevalent beneficial species, Enterococcus, “could be a significant predisposing factor that is associated with the increase in Clostridia botulinum-mediated diseases by suppressing the antagonistic effect of these bacteria on clostridia.”  Clostridia are a class of anaerobic bacteria including some of the most dangerous known to man, such as C. tetani and C. botulinum, which produce tetanus and botulin toxin, respectively.

Consider that botulin is the most acutely toxic substance known, and that despite the fact it is FDA-approved for use “cosmetically,” e.g. Botox injections, it is being looked at as a potential bioweapon because it only takes 75 billionths of a gram (75 ng) to kill a person weighing 75 kg (165 lbs). It has been estimated that only 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) would be enough to kill the entire human population.

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Tags: Bacteria, Clostridia botulinum, Clostridium perfringens, FDA, Food, Global News, Glyphosate, Health, Herbicides, Monsanto, Roundup, Roundup Ready, Salmonella Entritidis, Salmonella Gallinarum, Salmonella Typhimurium, toxic, toxicity

- DOJ Mysteriously Quits Monsanto Antitrust Investigation (Mother Jones, Dec, 1, 2012):

There’s an age-old tradition in Washington of making unpopular announcements when no one’s listening—like, you know, the days leading up to Thanksgiving. That’s when the Obama administration sneaked a tasty dish to the genetically modified seed/pesticide industry.This treat involves the unceremonious end of the Department of Justice’s antitrust investigation into possible anticompetitive practices in the US seed market, which it had begun in January 2010. It’s not hard to see why DOJ would take a look. For the the crops that cover the bulk of US farmland like corn, soy, and cotton, the seed trade is essentially dominated by five companies: Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer, and Dow. And a single company, Monsanto, supplies nearly all genetically modified traits now so commonly used in those crops, which it licenses to its rivals for sale in their own seeds.

What’s harder to figure out is why the DOJ ended the investigation without taking any action—and did so with a near-complete lack of public information. The DOJ didn’t even see fit to mark the investigation’s end with a press release. News of it emerged from a brief item Monsanto itself issued the Friday before Thanksgiving, declaring it had “received written notification” from the DOJ antitrust division that it had ended its investigation “without taking any enforcement action.”

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Tags: Bayer, Dictatorship, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Economy, Food, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Government, Monsanto, Politics, Roundup, Roundup Ready, Syngenta, U.S., USDA

See also:

- Rep. Dennis Kucinich On Americans Demanding The Labeling Of GMOs & The Corruption That Prevents This From Happening (Video)

- The GMO Ticking Time Bomb (Documentary)

- Study: GMO Toxins Found In Nearly All Pregnant Women, Unborn Babies

- GMO Technology, Glyphosate Toxicity Leaving Men Sterile

- FIRST LONG-TERM GMO STUDY: Monsanto GMO Corn & Roundup Cause Massive Tumors In Lab Animals (Video)

- Former Managing Director Of Monsanto India: ‘Introducing Genetically Modified Seeds Is Murder!’ (Video)

- Study: Roundup Herbicide 450-Fold Diluted Is Still Genotoxic

- Former Monsanto Scientist Exposes The Genetic Engineering Fraud:

I saw what was really the fraud associated with genetic engineering: My impression, and I think most people’s impression with genetically engineered foods and crops and other things is that it’s just like putting one gene in there and that one gene is expressed. If that was the case, well then that’s not so bad. But in reality, the process of genetic engineering changes the cell in such a way that it’s unknown what the effects are going to be.

(More links down below.)

- DuPont Sends in Former Cops to Enforce Seed Patents: Commodities (Bloomberg, Nov 28, 2012):

DuPont Co. (DD), the world’s second- biggest seed company, is sending dozens of former police officers across North America to prevent a practice generations of farmers once took for granted.

The provider of the best-selling genetically modified soybean seed is looking for evidence of farmers illegally saving them from harvests for replanting next season, which is not allowed under sales contracts. The Wilmington, Delaware-based company is inspecting Canadian fields and will begin in the U.S. next year, said Randy Schlatter, a DuPont senior manager.

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Tags: Agriculture, DuPont, Farmers, Genetically Modified Organisms, GMO, Monsanto, Police, Roundup, Roundup Ready, soybeans

- GM Cancer Warning Can No Longer Be Ignored (Farm Wars, Oct 24, 2012):

The latest findings of cancers and deaths from GM maize and Roundup herbicide are the result of the most in-depth long-term toxicology study ever done on GM food; we ignore them at our peril.

In the Vatican Museums in Rome stands a statue of La0coön and his sons. Legend has it that Laocoön tried to warn his fellow citizens against taking in the wooden horse that the Greeks had left outside their gates. It was not a gift, but a ruse designed to allow Greek soldiers to enter the city. The Greek gods, who wanted to see Troy destroyed, sent sea serpents to kill Laocoön. This convinced the Trojans that the horse was indeed sacred; so they opened the gates and dragged it into the city. The result was the total destruction of Troy and its empire.

The biotech industry is doing its best to convince us that GMOs are the key to feeding a hungry world, when all the evidence is that they profit only the companies. Whenever anyone tries to warn of the dangers of GMOs, the industry responds by doing its utmost to discredit the whistle blower and prevent the warning from being heard. We have already witnessed what happened to Arpad Pusztai ([1] Pusztai Publishes Amidst Fresh Storm of Attack , ISIS News 3), David Quist and Ignacio Chapela ([2] Who’s Afraid of Horizontal Gene Transfer?, SiS 15) and Irina Ermakova ([3] Science and Scientist Abused, SiS 36) to name but a few; also Nancy Oliviera ([4] Big Business = Bad Science?ISIS News 9/10) and David Healy ([5] The Depressing Side of Medical Science, SiS 39) with the pharmaceutical industry no less corrupt than biotechnology.

GM maize and herbicide link to cancer “a bomb”

The latest warning – perhaps the most dramatic to-date – comes in a paper published online 19 September 2012 in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology reporting high rates of death and cancers in rats fed Monsanto’s GM maize NK603 and/or Roundup herbicide compared with controls [6]. The study carried out by Gilles-Eric Séralini and his group at the University of Caen involved the largest number of rats followed for their entire lifespan of two years. By all accounts, it was the most in-depth long-term toxicology study ever done on GM food [7]. Séralini reported the results in the European Parliament. Continue reading »

Tags: Cancer, Corn, Environment, Food, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, Glyphosate, GMO, Health, Monsanto, Roundup, Roundup Ready, Science

- Study: GMO toxins found in nearly all pregnant women, unborn babies (Natural News, Oct 10, 2012):

A recent study published in the journal Reproductive Toxicology debunks yet another lie of the biotechnology industry concerning genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). According to an analysis conducted by researchers from the University of Sherbrooke Hospital Centre in Quebec, Canada, 100 percent of pregnant women and their unborn babies tested positive for GMO toxins in their blood, proving that transgenic materials are not effectively broken down and eliminated during digestion as we have all been told.

The study, which is featured in the new Jeffrey Smith documentary Genetic Roulette (http://www.naturalnews.com/037272_Genetic_Roulette_movie_GMO.html), examined the blood of 30 pregnant women and 39 non-pregnant women. The research team, led by Aziz Aris and Samuel Leblanc, looked for glyphosate (Roundup); gluphosinate, an active ingredient in various broad-spectrum herbicides; Cry1Ab, the Bt toxin of gluphosinate; and several metabolites of both glyphosate and gluphosinate.

Continue reading »

Tags: Babies, BT, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, Glyphosate, GMO, Health, Pregnancy, Roundup, Roundup Ready, Science, toxic, toxicity, Toxins

See also:

- FIRST LONG-TERM GMO STUDY: Monsanto GMO Corn & Roundup Cause Massive Tumors In Lab Animals (Video)

- French Scientists: Monsanto GM Corn Causes Tumors And Severe Liver & Kidney Damage In Rats

- Shocking GMO Study: Rats Fed Lifetime Of GM Corn Grow Horrifying Tumors, 70% Of Females Die Early

And here goes the first long-term study on the safety of GMOs:

- EU sides with Monsanto in ‘GMO Cancer Corn’ word war (RT, Oct 5, 2012):

The European Food Safety Authority has rejected a controversial study by French scientists linking GM corn to cancer. Many in Europe are already calling for stricter controls on GMOs, as farmers weigh the lucrative crops against health concerns.

­In September, French scientists from the University of Caen released a study claiming that rats fed on a diet containing NK603 – a corn seed variety made tolerant to amounts of Monsanto’s Roundup weed-killer – or given water mixed with the product at levels permitted in the United States died earlier than those on a standard diet.

The study elicited calls for stricter controls on already unpopular genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe. France had already issued a temporary ban on another Monsanto corn seed (MON810) in May due to a similar study.

However, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) claimed the study lacked enough specific information on Friday, and asked the scientists who conducted it to provide more details on their testing methods. The move adds to the constant back and forth in the debate over genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

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Tags: Corn, Efsa, EU, Europe, Food, Genetically Modified Organisms, Global News, GMO, Government, Health, Monsanto, Politics, Roundup, Roundup Ready, Science