Los Angeles may become largest GMO-free area in the US

via RT.com

A Los Angeles March Against Monsanto protester
 making his sign. Image: AFB

Los Angeles City Councilmen Paul Koretz and Mitch O’Farrell introduced Friday a motion to curb growth proliferation of GMO seeds and plants within the city. The councilmen said the proposal aims to protect local gardens and city-grown food from future contamination from GMO seeds. The motion would not impact the sale of food containing GMO ingredients, however.

GMO seeds are mostly used only by large-scale farming operations, of which none exists in Los Angeles city.


"The pending ordinance would be symbolic more than anything else, but we do feel it's an important step to have the second-largest city in the nation declare itself as against genetically modified seeds," said head of Learning Garden and Seed Library of LA David King, who assisted in creating the motion.

King told The Huffington Post that if GMO seeds begin to be marketed to smaller farmers, the ban would be in place to protect home-grown food.

O’Farrell said suspicions that powerful new pesticides - incorporated into plant DNA via genetic engineering - have devastated worldwide honeybee populations by 40 to 50 percent in 2012 is the“canary in the coal mine” for GMOs. California’s almond crop, which supplies 80 percent of US almonds, has fallen on tough times given almonds rely so much on bees.


“A growing number of problems are being traced to GMOs," Koretz said in a statement. He cited examples like "the evolution of 'superbug' insects which are growing immune to the pesticides engineered within GMO crops" and "'seed drift' (for example the recent finding of GMO-pollinated wheat growing in an Oregon farmer’s field)."

Some smaller US localities have banned the cultivation of GMOs, but LA would be by far the biggest US city to do so.

Genetic engineering on plants, for example, occurs when a gene from another plant species, bacterium or virus is inserted into the organism's DNA.

An international group of over 90 scientists, academics and physicians released a statement early this week saying there is no scientific consensus on the safety of GMOs for humans, as proponents likeMonsanto attest, and that any GMO cultivation should take internationally-approved precautions.


“The claim that it does exist is misleading and misrepresents the currently available scientific evidence and the broad diversity of opinion among scientists on this issue,” the statement said.
“Moreover, the claim encourages a climate of complacency that could lead to a lack of regulatory and scientific rigour and appropriate caution, potentially endangering the health of humans, animals, and the environment.”

A public effort to require all GMO foods and seeds to be labeled as such throughout the entire state of California failed a year ago. Opponents of Proposition 37 - like Monsanto and Kraft - helped donate around $46 million to the cause against labeling. Supporters of labeling raised just over $9 million in that defeat.
Voters in Washington State will consider a labeling requirement next month. Opponents of Initiative 522 - led by questionable fundraising tactics by industry trade group Grocery Manufacturers Association - have pumped $17 million into the effort to defeat labeling. Supporters have raised over $5 million.

A lawsuit filed by the state against the GMA claimed that the group violated campaign disclosure laws, and forced it to reveal donors to its “Defense of Brands Strategic Account.”

Out of the 34 companies who doled out over $7.2 million into the initiative the top three were PepsiCo, which contributed $1.6 million, and Nestle USA, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Co., which spent over $1 million each.

Source: RT.com

Protesters Successfully Delay Monsanto Plant from Opening in Argentina

Image: rt.com

Community organisations and locals blocked off roads late on Wednesday in a new manifestation against the establishment of a Monsanto seed plant in the city of Malvinas Argentinas.

Earlier this month, a court in Córdoba province ruled that the agricultural giant could continue with the construction of the controversial plant in Malvinas Argentinas. Building had been temporarily suspended by the company due to continued protests taking place outside the plant.

In fresh demonstrations yesterday, groups of individuals blocked off portions of the A88 route in Malvinas Argentinas in front of the contested plant. In another area, around 50 people blocked off Route 9 and dozens others on Route 36.

Protesters are also demanding greater environmental protection policies. Earlier in the day, demonstrators stood in front of the provincial Ministry of Water, Environment, and Energy to demand answers from local government on alleged malpractice.

An official report was presented yesterday for alleged abuse of authority by Federico Bocco, provincial environment secretary. The complaint was brought forth by Raul Montenegro and has been passed onto the anti-corruption fiscal department for further investigation. Montenegro is the president of the Foundation in Defence of the Environment and he is accusing Bocco of irregularities in the selection process of commission members that evaluated the Monsanto plant project. Simultaneously, legislators from the Frente para la Victoria (FpV) political party asked for clarifications on the Monsanto situation to Bocco.

Due to the investigation, residents of Malvinas Argentinas asked the Ministry to annul Monsanto’s authorisation to begin construction works.

Protesters have blocked off certain routes between Malvinas Argentinas, Candonga, Barrio Inaudi, and Juarez Celman.

Source: thefreethoughtproject.com via argentinaindependent.com

Feds to parents: kids can't bring lunch to school without a doctor's note

It looks like the days of trading half of your peanut butter and jelly sandwich for half of your best friend’s ham sandwich may soon be over if the federal government has anything to do with it.

A Richmond, Virginia mother received the following note, telling her not to pack a lunch for her pre-school age child. (source: Momdot.com)

Image: http://www.momdot.com/a-doctors-note-for-gmos/

As a family, we have made the decision to avoid a host of ingredients that are all found in abundance in school lunches.  We don’t consume:

• GMOs
• Pesticides
• Artificial colors and flavors
• Preservatives
• Hormone laden meat and dairy

But this week at my daughter’s school, the offerings are:

• Corn dog or chicken nuggets, tater tots
• Beef tostada boat or PB and J on white bread
• Pepperoni pizza or fish sticks with roll
• Pretzel sticks with cheese sauce or chicken teriyaki
• Cheeseburger or breaded chicken patty with seasoned fries

There is not one thing on that list that falls into our normal diet. Add a side of rBGH-filled milk and a corn-syrup laden “fruit cup” and you have a complete nutritional disaster.

Why should the parents be required to bear the expense of a doctor’s visit to get the required note to be allowed to send healthful, homemade lunches for their children?

I’m glad you asked.

It’s all about profit and control.

Because, you see, the federal government must have all the little children on board in order to subsidize the farmers, make the rich richer, and make the poor sicker.  Throw in some Obamacare to treat the resulting nutritionally-driven illnesses and it is a win-win situation – at least it is if you own a food processing plant, a medical facility, or a factory farm and you’re not the ones eating that so-called food.

Agricultural surplus is used to provide a base of food which is provided to the schools free of charge.  It is then turned into processed junk for the public school system while the food manufacturers profit.  The National School Lunch Program, enacted in 1946, has a mission besides just feeding hungry children: to subsidize the agricultural business by using up beef, cheese, and pork.  The school lunches are loaded with these artery-clogging ingredients, in the most processed forms possible.  According to an article in the NY Times, here’s how it happens:

"The Agriculture Department pays about $1 billion a year for commodities like fresh apples and sweet potatoes, chickens and turkeys. Schools get the food free; some cook it on site, but more and more pay processors to turn these healthy ingredients into fried chicken nuggets, fruit pastries, pizza and the like. Some $445 million worth of commodities are sent for processing each year, a nearly 50 percent increase since 2006.
The Agriculture Department doesn’t track spending to process the food, but school authorities do. The Michigan Department of Education, for example, gets free raw chicken worth $11.40 a case and sends it for processing into nuggets at $33.45 a case. The schools in San Bernardino, Calif., spend $14.75 to make French fries out of $5.95 worth of potatoes.
The money is ill spent. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has warned that sending food to be processed often means lower nutritional value and noted that “many schools continue to exceed the standards for fat, saturated fat and sodium.” A 2008 study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that by the time many healthier commodities reach students, “they have about the same nutritional value as junk foods.”
…
Why is this allowed to happen? Part of it is that school authorities don’t want the trouble of overseeing real kitchens. Part of it is that the management companies are saving money by not having to pay skilled kitchen workers.
In addition, the management companies have a cozy relationship with food processers, which routinely pay the companies rebates (typically around 14 percent) in return for contracts. The rebates have generally been kept secret from schools, which are charged the full price."

So, lots of people are making money while feeding children nutritionally bereft garbage. People who don’t know how to cook are warming up processed junk to feed to kids who cannot afford anything better.  That free lunch isn’t so free when you consider the high percentage of kids suffering from obesity and chronic illnesses due to their poor nutritional intake.

"Public schools serve more than 4 billion meals every year — a number that would make many fast-food chains envious — and officials say all those lunches are contributing to the growing health crisis among kids. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity rates have doubled in children and tripled in adolescents since 1980, spurring an epidemic of type II diabetes, once considered an adult-onset condition. Obesity has also been associated with heart disease, arthritis, and certain cancers, and researchers have found fatty streaks in the blood vessels of children as young as 10.
“USDA needs to relate the current crisis in kids’ health to the meals that are being served, especially to poor kids, because that’s the population that’s most vulnerable,” says Antonia Demas, director of the Food Studies Institute, a child-nutrition group based in upstate New York. Because low-income children often eat both breakfast and lunch at school, “they get at least two-thirds of their calories from school each day, and they’re the population really showing an increase in the diet-related diseases.” (source)

As with anything the federal government touches, school lunches are cloaked in do-gooder benevolence, but they are a poisoned gift that benefits those who already have money at the expense of our society’s most vulnerable people: poor children.  As our economy continues to decline, more kids will be forced to take these “free lunches” if they expect to have anything to eat all day.

So, now, at least one school wants children to have a doctor’s note to say no to the school lunch offerings of hormones, GMOs, preservatives, and grease.  They must have the permission of a professional to avoid  junk food. A parent’s good judgement is not sufficient, it seems, to make the healthy decision to provide a toxin-free lunch. Does anyone else see the irony here?

Kids are a target. The school system is trying to change the rules to force us to feed our children these food-like substances and to disallow us the right to nourish them as we see fit.  By controlling the food that our kids eat, they are controlling their entire lives, right down to their ability to think critically, their future fertility, and their overall lifespans.

"We are lathering our skin with petrochemicals. BPA is leaching into our food and beverages.  Chemtrails and questionable farming methods are tainting the air that we breathe…it’s enough for a book, not merely an article.  Additives like MSG and unpronounceable non-food ingredients are killing off our brain cells and triggering the growth of cancerous cells in our bodies. 

And the result of all of this?
DiseaseObesityLethargyLower IQsShorter lifespansInfertility 

If it was only one toxic assault, or maybe even two or three, you might be able to write this off as accidental, something that just happened due to carelessness.  But with all of the evidence proving irrefutably that the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe is making us sick, how can we form any other conclusion than the one that states, “This is a deliberate attack.” 

All of the alphabet agencies that are supposedly there for our protection are merely arms of the giant propaganda machine.  They are there to convince us that “someone” would put a stop to it if these things were actually bad for us. They are there to dispense a false sense of confidence in our governing bodies and to make us feel as though our health and safety is their first concern. 

Moderation is not an option.  We have to fight back through strict avoidance.
Think about this. 

Would you willingly feed your child just a “little bit of cyanide”?  Would you let them have a serving of strychnine “once in a while”? Would you purposely give them a cigarette just because you “happened to be out and that is what was offered”?  Would you let them drink bleach from the laundry room as long as it wasn’t in an amount that would be immediately deadly and if it was diluted so that it didn’t burn their throats when they swallowed it?
Our politicians, government officials, and “protection” agencies are bought and paid for. They are at best, complicit, and at worst, the ones instituting this. (source)"

Article source: The Organic Prepper

Please feel free to share any information from this site in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to this website and the following bio.

Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

Scientists discover what’s killing the bees and it’s worse than you thought

As we’ve written before, the mysterious mass die-off of honey bees that pollinate $30 billion worth of crops in the US has so decimated America’s apis melliferapopulation that one bad winter could leave fields fallow. Now, a new study has pinpointed some of the probable causes of bee deaths and the rather scary results show that averting beemageddon will be much more difficult than previously thought.

Image: kezi.com

Scientists had struggled to find the trigger for so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that has wiped out an estimated 10 million beehives, worth $2 billion, over the past six years. Suspects have included pesticides, disease-bearing parasites and poor nutrition. But in a first-of-its-kind study published in the journal PLOS ONE, scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture have identified a witch’s brew of pesticides and fungicides contaminating pollen that bees collect to feed their hives. The findings break new ground on why large numbers of bees are dying though they do not identify the specific cause of CCD, where an entire beehive dies at once.

When researchers collected pollen from hives on the east coast pollinating cranberry, watermelon and other crops and fed it to healthy bees, those bees showed a significant decline in their ability to resist infection by a parasite calledNosema ceranae. The parasite has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder though scientists took pains to point out that their findings do not directly link the pesticides to CCD. The pollen was contaminated on average with nine different pesticides and fungicides though scientists discovered 21 agricultural chemicals in one sample. Scientists identified eight ag chemicals associated with increased risk of infection by the parasite.

Most disturbing, bees that ate pollen contaminated with fungicides were three times as likely to be infected by the parasite. Widely used, fungicides had been thought to be harmless for bees as they’re designed to kill fungus, not insects, on crops like apples.

“There’s growing evidence that fungicides may be affecting the bees on their own and I think what it highlights is a need to reassess how we label these agricultural chemicals,” Dennis vanEngelsdorp, the study’s lead author, told Quartz.

Labels on pesticides warn farmers not to spray when pollinating bees are in the vicinity but such precautions have not applied to fungicides.

Bee populations are so low in the US that it now takes 60% of the country’s surviving colonies just to pollinate one California crop, almonds. And that’s not just a west coast problem—California supplies 80% of the world’s almonds, a market worth $4 billion.

In recent years, a class of chemicals called neonicotinoids has been linked to bee deaths and in April regulators banned the use of the pesticide for two years in Europe where bee populations have also plummeted. But vanEngelsdorp, an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland, says the new study shows that the interaction of multiple pesticides is affecting bee health.

“The pesticide issue in itself is much more complex than we have led to be believe,” he says. “It’s a lot more complicated than just one product, which means of course the solution does not lie in just banning one class of product.”

The study found another complication in efforts to save the bees: US honey bees, which are descendants of European bees, do not bring home pollen from native North American crops but collect bee chow from nearby weeds and wildflowers. That pollen, however, was also contaminated with pesticides even though those plants were not the target of spraying.
“It’s not clear whether the pesticides are drifting over to those plants but we need take a new look at agricultural spraying practices,” says vanEngelsdorp.

Source: QZ.com

Los Angeles May Become GMO-Free Zone as City Council Considers Ban

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Two Los Angeles City Councilmen Friday announced the introduction of a motion aimed at protecting homes, schools, community gardens and public spaces from contamination caused by plants and other genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Image: www.annarbor.com

The motion calls for a “GMO-Free Zone” across the city’s more than 502 square miles that would ban the growth, sale, and distribution of genetically engineered seeds and plants.

City Councilmen Paul Koretz and Mitch O’Farrell introduced the measure at a news conference at City Hall.

“A growing number of problems are being traced to GMOs, including the worldwide disappearance of honeybees (through “colony collapse disorder”); concerns over “seed drift” (for example the recent finding of GMO-pollinated wheat growing in an Oregon farmer’s field); the evolution of “superbug” insects which are growing immune to
the pesticides engineered within GMO crops; and European studies which raise the question of how GMOs impact human health,” according to a statement released by the Council members.

Last October, Koretz and the rest of the City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution supporting Proposition 37, which requires genetically engineered foods to be properly labeled and prohibits such foods from being marketed as “natural” in California.

Fifty-two percent of residents in Los Angeles County voted in favor of Prop. 37 last year, according to the motion.

Source: CBSLA.com

Will Argentina be the next country to ban GMOs?

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina's agricultural industry has been dramatically transformed by the introduction of genetically modified plants in 1996.

A country once known for its grass-fed beef is now dominated by soy, corn and cotton. Soy harvests alone have tripled, ranking Argentina as the world's third largest soybean producer.

Image: eeksy

But the pesticides powering this boom are poorly controlled and used in ways that were never anticipated by regulatory science, if not specifically banned by law.

Doctors and scientist worry the chemicals may be the cause of rising cancer rates, birth defects and other health problems.

Aixa Cano, a shy 5-year-old who lives in Chaco, Argentina's poorest province, was born with hairy moles all over her body. Her mother believes the skin condition was caused by contaminated water.

Fabian Tomasi, 47, never wore any protective gear in the years he spent pumping poisons into crop-dusting planes. Today, he is near death from polyneuropathy, a neurological disorder that has left him emaciated.

The Monsanto Co., one of several agricultural companies that sell pesticides in Argentina, says it is working with government officials and farmers to promote better pesticide practices.

But an Associated Press investigation found that Argentine farmers now use more than twice as much pesticide per acre as U.S. farmers do, making Argentina a laboratory for what can go wrong with biotech farming.

Source: New York Times

Avoid these 10 things to help prevent breast cancer

Top 10 causes of breast cancer revealed

1. Hormones in meats and milk: Most cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and farm-raised fish are given artificial hormones to make them either bigger, meatier, or produce unnatural amounts of milk or eggs at an unnatural frequency. (HTTP://WWW.PUREFOOD.ORG/RBGH/RACH598.HTML) This causes infections, depression, cancer, and other diseases in the very animals you are putting in your mouth regularly. Get your protein from Superfoods like spirulina and chlorella and reverse the damage.

Image: rawforbeauty.com

2. Mammograms, dental x-rays and airport TSA screening machines: Did the x-ray technician forget to tell you to pull that deflector flap over your chest before running out of the room to escape the deadly cancer rays? Why are you getting an exam that CAUSES cancer in order to check for cancer anyway? Did the dentist and dental hygienist reassure you their new digital x-ray is so safe that you can get them every other visit, just before they dove out of the room to escape the cancer breeding rays? Do you dare walk through that unregulated, unmeasured amount of cancer causing x-rays at the airport, or have you even been told you can opt out and get a harmless pat-down? (HTTP://WWW.NATURALNEWS.COM/027641_MAMMOGRAMS_BREAST_CANCER.HTML)

3. Aluminum in antiperspirants and deodorants: Did you know that most breast cancer tumors originate in the upper quadrant of the breast closest to the armpit, where you apply that aluminum and all those “smell-fresh” chemicals that block in sweat and poisons your body is trying to eliminate? Look for aluminum-free, organic deodorant. Stop using antiperspirants and reverse the damage. (HTTP://WWW.GLOBALHEALINGCENTER.COM)

4. Toxic makeup/cosmetics: The skin is the largest organ. You are most likely applying petroleum and coal tar right on top of your largest organ, which absorbs it all and sends it rushing through your bloodstream, infecting other organs that are trying so hard to filter out toxins from food and water. Your dermatologist also lives in a three story house and owns a few sports cars and won’t be telling you much about parabens and phthalates. Start buying organic cosmetics and reverse the damage you’ve done. (HTTP://WWW.ORGANICAUTHORITY.COM)

5. GMO Soy and Corn: Most soy in America is genetically modified (GMO), processed, and causes extreme health detriment. Do you drink soy milk? Switch to almond or rice milk right away. Why? Soybeans contain haemagglutinin, a clot promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together. Plus, soy consumption increases estrogen. Add that to the artificial hormones from meat and rBGH milk and you can stop wondering how breast tumors originate. Remove soy and corn-based processed foods from your diet and reverse the damage.

6. Artificial sweeteners: Aspartame would have never been legal if Ronald Reagan didn’t fire the head of the FDA and put Donald Rumsfeld’s right hand man in place to approve it. The pharmaceutical industry has made a fortune off this cancer causing fake sugar criminal. Nearly every chewing gum, breath mint, liquid medicine, and diet food contain either Aspartame, Sucralose, or Sorbitol, which are all artificial and breed cancer cells. The Splenda, NutraSweet and Equal “craze” is just the front end of chemotherapy treatment. Use sugar in the raw and exercise, and you can reverse the damage. (HTTP://TOPDOCUMENTARYFILMS.COM/SWEET-MISERY-A-POISONED-WORLD/)

7. Fluoridated water: No, it’s not the naturally occurring mineral in nature that’s running through your pipes. No, it doesn’t prevent tooth decay, it promotes it. No, it doesn’t clean the water, it pollutes it with a toxic chemical that leaches minerals from your body and breaks down the immune system. Fluoridated water fuels breast cancer. Drink spring water and reverse the damage. (HTTP://WWW.BREASTCANCERCHOICES.ORG/WATER.HTML)

8. Pharmaceuticals: Big pharma wants you sick and dying so you can’t collect social security or use Medicare or Medicaid. Visit your Naturopathic doctor and get some advice on nutrition as prevention and the cure for breast cancer. (HTTP://WWW.NATUROPATHIC.ORG/)

9. Food coloring agents and preservatives: Nearly every artificial food coloring and dye is a chemical cooked up in a laboratory. Food preservatives like sodium benzoate, BHT and BHA strangulate your cells and breed cancer cells. Use colorful organic fruits and vegetables to brighten up your plate and make it beautiful. (HTTP://WWW.NATURALNEWS.COM/033726_SODIUM_BENZOATE_CANCER.HTML)

10. Soaps, shampoos, toothpaste and lotions (including sun tan and sun block): Again, what you apply to your skin, scalp, teeth and gums does penetrate and enter your blood stream. Perfumes, dyes, artificial sweeteners, animal by-products, and just about any ingredient you cannot pronounce is probably a chemical that causes cancer. (HTTP://WWW.SKINNYSKINNY.COM/ABOUT-EZP-1.HTML)
Learn more:

Source: NATURALNEWS.COM & rawforbeauty.com

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How to Make Gutter Gardens for Under $40

Image: www.servicecentral.com.au

Check out this cool and creative way top make the most out of any space you have. Set up an herb garden or an organic veggie grow in these low cost vertical gutter gardens, all for under $40. You can even put something like this on your apartment balcony or go indoors with it. DIY video below:

Check out another cool use of pallets to make a vertical garden that we have posted about: No space for a garden? No problem. Grow vertical with an inexpensive pallet garden

Here are some other creative ways to start taking control of your food supply and ensure you're not ingesting GMOs or poisonous pesticides: This is how you can be sure that your food is non-GMO

Why doesn't the Government want you growing your own food?

by Nick Bernabe

With the recent March Against Monsanto protests that happened on Saturday, the conversation has shifted back to the corporate giant Monsanto, GMOs, chemical pesticides, corruption, our food supply and the other concerns surrounding this monolithic corporation. The social and independent media has been abuzz the last few weeks with the hashtag #MarchOct12 even trending on twitter on October 5th, a few days before the march: 

Post by March Against Monsanto.

Recent events have brought the question of government suppression into the spotlight after Ann Arbor organizer Kryssi Jones was arrested on May 25th after being wrongfully detained and held on bail. Here is a video of some of that encounter with police:



Add to that the blatant censorship brought on by Facebook administrators when they removed the entire event page for the March Against Monsanto's main protest at Monsanto headquarters in St. Louis. On the right is a screen shot of Facebook's reply after there was an outcry of support for the event to be reinstated.
Eco Watch posted a story about the censorship and it immediately went viral; reaching usually very hard to contact administrators on Facebook and promting a quick apology and the event was restored.

Then there was the blatant suppression of social media accounts that were affiliated with March Against Monsanto or posted about the event. It has become common in the activist community to see posts on social media censored when any action or event is near, my own admin account was suspended last May exactly seven days before the first March, rendering my profile and all the pages I administer useless.

Organizers of the March Against Monsanto also received various reports of police attempting to intimidate activists during the march on October 12th. One participant, Karl Tricamo Brandt, said in a Facebook post that

"While standing in an obviously visible pedestrian area, I was man- handled (battered) by Officer D. Weiss of the Chesterfield Police Department. He was nice enough to come all the way out to Olivette to help intimidate my 20-month-old son and I as we marched against Monsanto. While being pushed backwards I easily could have fell, possibly into traffic while holding my child. I will not adhere to arbitrary fascism. If I'm breaking a law (which I was not), arrest or ticket me. Unless a person resists such arrest or ticketing there is absolutely no validation for the use of any physical force by an officer. Let alone a man holding an infant child."

Here is the video he posted:

Post by Karl Tricamo Brandt.

Brandt, who is no stranger to controversy surrounding growing his own food, has already had to defend the garden in his front yard from the St. Louis government and won a lawsuit against the city after they demanded he remove his garden.

Matt Hazelton, who was on my radio show on Monday, stated that police were not permitting the March Against Monsanto participants in Myrtle Beach, SC to practice freedom of speech and were threatening them with being arrested for handing out flyers about Monsanto, GMOs, pesticides and other related material on public property. He later posted the meme on the right from his Facebook profile:

The question remains, why doesn't the Government want you growing your own food? Why is the March Against Monsanto censored in the national media and on the popular social networks?

Some may assume that the political establishment doesn't want the Americans to come to the realization that Monsanto and company have largely infiltrated and corrupted the government and regulatory bodies which are supposed to keep them accountable. Monsanto currently has many former employees within government bureaucracies including the head of the FDA, Michael Taylor, and Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas, so the question of conflict of interest is very evident and would likely lead to punitive action if the public were to learn of this corruption.

Legislation like the 'Monsanto Protection Act' shows the deep connection between these bio-giants and the US Congress, another reason why the government doesn't want the Monsanto cat out of the bag. If this cronyism were to receive mainstream coverage, it could damage the overall faith in the government and regulatory bodies which are supposed to keep our food "safe".

Then you have the control factor. Long time and top level political advisor to many US presidents, man behind the scenes, and wanted international war criminal, Henry Kissinger, has been quoted as saying "Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control people."

Image: twicsy.com

So a long time presidential advisor, war hawk and foreign interventionist considers control over the food supply one of the best ways to control the population; anyone else see a problem here? Kissinger was also behind the military coup in Chile which sought to oust a democratically elected government and cost thousands of innocent lives, does this man have no conscience? Why does he still have influence over our government?

Monsanto is without a doubt a huge problem for advocates of a democratized food supply and ordinary people alike. Their monopoly over US staple crops has come under scrutiny after lawsuits filed by Monsanto against small farmers have forced the closure of many small farms and and have led at least 284,000 Indian farmers to commit suicide. These lawsuits have tilted in Monsanto's favor even though their seeds were the aggressor that have been invading non-GMO crops and violating farmers' property rights, possibly due to Monsanto's deep connection in the government and the court systems.

Whether this consolidation of the food supply is simply a result of corporate greed or a more sinister 'Kissinger-esque' power grab over the food supply, one thing is clear: Monsanto must be stopped. The government's brutal reaction to the March Against Monsanto protests, the social media censorship and the blatant blackout of the millions of activists who marched against them last weekend shows us that there is something big happening. The March Against Monsanto is working, despite all these efforts to stop it or slow it down, the march goes on. Activists are already planning more action against Monsanto, these policies and politicians who are actively undermining our food supply. The next march will be on May 24th 2014 with more actions likely to continue until this bio-behemoth is gone for good. To get involved in the March Against Monsanto and stay updated on further action please follow our website: www.March-Against-Monsanto.com

Pro-GMO Lobby Busted for Violating Campaign Finance Laws

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) - A lobbying group for major U.S. food manufacturers has violated campaign finance laws in its attempt to block a measure that would require labeling of genetically modified foods in Washington state, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the state's attorney general.

Image: http://yeson522.com/

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson alleges that the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) illegally collected and spent more than $7 million while shielding the identity of its contributors.

GMA, which represents some of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, has been heavily lobbying against ballot initiative 522, set for a public vote in Washington state on November 5. The measure requires labels of goods containing ingredients made from genetically engineered crops as well as labeling of genetically engineered seeds and seed products sold in the state.

"Truly fair elections demand all sides follow the rules by disclosing who their donors are and how much they are spending to advocate their views," Ferguson said in a statement.

GMA is the largest donor to a "No on I-522" campaign, and the Attorney General's office said that the group set up a "Defense of Brands Strategic Account" within its organization and asked members to pay assessments that would be used to oppose the GMO labeling initiative. GMA then funded opposition efforts while shielding contributors' names from public disclosure, the attorney general alleges.

More than 300 companies are listed as members on GMA's website.

The attorney general's office said it would seek a temporary restraining order asking the court to order the GMA to immediately comply with state disclosure laws. The attorney general's office also said it would request civil penalties.

The group said in a statement that it was surprised by the lawsuit.

"GMA takes great care to understand and comply with all state election and campaign finance laws," the group said. "GMA will review its actions in Washington state and relevant statutes and continue to cooperate with state authorities to fully resolve the issue as promptly as possible."

The Yes on 522 campaign, which is pushing for labeling of GMO foods, said it was heartened by the lawsuit. The proponents of labeling are being heavily outspent in advertising and other campaigning efforts leading up to the election.

The latest campaign finance data reported to the state shows opponents raising more than $17 million and spending more than $13 million, compared to the proponents of labeling, who have raised about $5.5 million and spent about $5.4 million.

"It's clear that they broke the law," said Elizabeth Larter, spokeswoman for the Yes campaign. "They don't want to tell us who is funding the No on 522 campaign just like they don't want Washington consumers to know what is in their food."

(Reporting by Carey Gillam in Des Moines, Iowa; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Source: reuters.com

Lawyer: every GMO food is on the US market illegally

Steven Druker is a public interest attorney who, as executive director of the Alliance for Bio-Integrity, organized a lawsuit that forced the FDA to divulge its files on GE foods. This revealed that politically appointed administrators had covered up the warnings of their own scientists about the risks, lied about the facts, and then ushered these products onto the market in violation of explicit mandates of the law.

Image: mommypotamus.com

Mexican Judge Rules GMOs Imminent Threat, Bans Monsanto GM Corn

Environmental And Food Justice

An October 10 press release with Mexico City byline announces the banning of genetically-engineered corn in Mexico. According to the group that issued the press release, La Coperacha, a federal judge has ordered Mexico’s SAGARPA (Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca, y Alimentación), which is Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture, and SEMARNAT (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales), which is equivalent of the EPA, to immediately “suspend all activities involving the planting of transgenic corn in the country and end the granting of permission for experimental and pilot commercial plantings”.

The unprecedented ban was granted by the Twelfth Federal District Court for Civil Matters of Mexico City. Judge Jaime Eduardo Verdugo J. wrote the opinion and cited “the risk of imminent harm to the environment” as the basis for the decision. The judge’s ruling also ruled that multinationals like Monsanto and Pioneer are banned from the release of transgenic maize in the Mexican countryside” as long as collective action lawsuits initiated by citizens, farmers, scientists, and civil society organizations are working their way through the judicial system.

The decision was explained during a press conference in Mexico City yesterday by members of the community-based organizations that sued federal authorities and companies introducing transgenic maize into Mexico. The group, Acción Colectiva, is led by Father Miguel Concha of the Human Rights Center Fray Francisco de Vittoria; Victor Suarez of ANEC (National Association of Rural Commercialization Entertprises); Dr. Mercedes Lopéz of Vía Organica; and Adelita San Vicente, a teacher and member of Semillas De Vida, a national organization that has been involved in broad-based social action projects to protect Mexico’s extraordinary status as a major world center of food crop biodiversity.

According to the press release, Acción Colectiva [Collective Action] aims to achieve absolute federal declaration of the suspension of the introduction of transgenic maize in all its various forms – including experimental and pilot commercial plantings – in  Mexico, “which is the birthplace of corn in the world”.
This ruling marks a milestone in the long struggle of citizen demands for a GMO-free country, acknowledged Rene Sanchez Galindo, legal counsel for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, adding that the ruling has serious enforcement provisions and includes the possibility of “criminal charges for the authorities responsible for allowing the introduction of transgenic corn in our country”.
Father Miguel Concha said the judge’s decision reflects a commitment to respect the Precautionary Principle expressed in various international treaties and statements of human rights. Concha emphasized that the government is obliged to protect the human rights of Mexicans against the economic interests of big business.The lawsuit seeks to protect the “human right to save and use the agrobiodiversity of native landraces from the threats posed by GMO maize”, said the human rights advocate.

The class action lawsuit is supported by scientific evidence from studies that have – since 2001 – documented the contamination of mexico’s native corn varieties by transgenes from GMO corn, princiupally the varieties introduced by Monsanto’s Roundup ready lines and the herbicide-resistant varieties marketed by Pioneer and Bayer CropScience. The collection of the growing body of scientific research on the introgression of transgenes into Mexico’s native corn genome has been a principal goal and activity of the national campaign, Sin Maíz, No Hay Paíz [Without Corn, There Is No Country].
Originally published: Environmetal Food and Justice.

Source: fooddemocracynow.org

Video: ‘Monsanto is the metaphor for genetic manipulation, food chain control’

Why is the US Government so keen to protect it’s interests? Monsanto has a “patented monopoly on seeds” and is willing to “bribe any world government” to have complete control over the world food supply. This amazing video below explains so much and the message is delivered by an expert and best selling author in the field of GMO food!

F. William Engdahl is an award-winning geopolitical analyst and strategic risk consultant whose internationally best-selling books have been translated into thirteen foreign languages. He wrote an amazing book, “Seeds of Destruction” which is a must read on the topic of GMO food.

Source: RT.com

Russia is Considering a Total Ban on GMOs

Prevent Disease

As one of the few nations in the world with a GMO-free platform, Russia does not allow any cultivation of GMOs for commercial purposes. Their regulatory agencies recently suspended the import and use of an American GM corn following a study suggesting a link to breast cancer and organ damage. The Russian Prime Minister has now ordered the same agencies to consider a possible ban on all GMO imports into Russia.

The Russian Federal Environmental Assessment Commission has not adopted any commercialized GM varieties for agricultural use.

The recent decision by the Russians to suspend authorisation for American GM corn threatens to trigger a transatlantic commercial and diplomatic row.

A growing body of scientific research - done mostly in Europe, Russia, and other countries - showing that diets containing engineered corn or soya cause serious health problems in laboratory mice and rats.

Experts at the University of Caen conducted an experiment running for the full lives of rats - two years.

(RELATED: Join the March Against Monsanto happening 10/12/13: http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/p/blog-page.html)

The findings, which were peer reviewed by independent experts before being published in a respected scientific journal, found raised levels of breast cancer, liver and kidney damage.

Russian Prime Minister Announces Possible Ban On All Imports

Russia’s consumer rights watchdog and Health Ministry, Rospotrebnadzor, announced one year ago that it had suspended the import and use of the Monsanto GM corn.

Now, the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the relevant agencies to consider a possible ban of all imports into Russia of products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by October 15.

The order is addressed to Rospotrebnadzor, the Agriculture Ministry, and the Trade and Economic Development Ministry. They have been ordered to “submit proposals on amendments to the Russian legislation aimed at tightening control over the turnover of products containing components obtained from GMOs together with the relevant federal executive bodies.”

The aforementioned agencies are also ordered to submit proposals “on the possibility of banning the import of such products into the Russian Federation.”

A list of the prime minister’s orders was drawn up to fulfill the presidential orders issued after the meeting on the socio-economic development of the Rostov region held on September 18. Medvedev’s orders have been posted on the government website, Interfax news agency reported last September 25.

Russia is currently taking a hard line on GMOs -- in August the first independent project for identifying whether Russian farmers are growing illegal GM crops started in the Belgorod region.

NAGS (The National Association for Genetic Safety) conducted the first checks of agricultural crops for the presence of GMOs. No GMO plants were found in any Belgorod fields.

According to the current law, 19 GM lines are allowed in foodstuffs, but the cultivation of GMOs is not allowed.

After joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Russia is being pressured simplify the procedure for registration of genetically modified products, seed and feed, to stop their safety checks, and to stop controls over their distribution.

Nations Banning Monsanto's Glyphosate Herbicide 

Glyphosate is the world's top selling herbicide, and Monsanto's formulations Roundup is used with more than 80 percent of all genetically modified (GM) crops grown globally. But evidence of its extreme toxicity has been emerging within the past decade. Glyphosate was found to kill human placental cells at concentrations below that recommended for agricultural use and approved by our regulators, while Roundup was lethal at even lower concentrations.

The toxic effects of Roundup (R400) begin at 5 ppm, and the first endocrine disrupting action is already evident at 0.5 ppm, 800 times lower than the level of 400 ppm authorized by the US Environment Protection Agency in food or feed.

According to one analysis, GMO corn tested by Profit Pro contains a number of elements absent from traditional cord, including chlorides, formaldehyde and glyphosate. While those elements don’t appear naturally in corn, they were present in GMO samples to the tune of 60 ppm, 200pm and 13 ppm, respectively.

“Glyphosate is a strong organic phosphate chelator that immobilizes positively charged minerals such as manganese, cobalt, iron, zinc [and] copper,” Dr. Don Huber attested during a separate GMO study recently released, adding that those elements “are essential for normal physiological functions in soils, plants and animals.”

El Salvador has recently voted to ban glyphosate, the pesticide that most GM crops are designed to be grown with, along with 52 other chemicals.

Predictably, protests have been raised by the GM lobby group CropLife, which is scaremongering about losses of up to 60% in crop production if the chemicals are banned.

CropLife is funded by the big GM companies, including Monsanto.
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/CropLife_International

The news of the historic El Salvadorean vote comes on the anniversary of the publication of the groundbreaking study led by Prof GE Seralini, which found that the glyphosate-based pesticide Roundup - and a GM maize engineered to tolerate it - caused severe organ damage and increased rates of tumours and premature death in rats. Roundup was found to be toxic at half the level permitted in EU drinking water.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691512005637

Denmark has also imposed widespread bans on the spraying of glyphosate in response to research showing that the sprays have been contaminating the countrys groundwater.

The chemical has, against all expectations sieving down through the soil and polluting the ground water at a rate of five times more than the allowed level for drinking water, according to tests done by the Denmark and Greenland Geological Research Institution (DGGRI).

A decade ago, the Danish environment minister Hans Christian Schmidt announced unprecedented restrictions on glyphosate, the country's and Europe's most widely used herbicide.

Sources: 
gmwatch.org
preventdisease.com
rt.com
organic.com.au

Natasha Longo has a master's degree in nutrition and is a certified fitness and nutritional counselor. She has consulted on public health policy and procurement in Canada, Australia, Spain, Ireland, England and Germany.

Shared from realfarmacy.com