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

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

Hawaii Advances First in the Nation Bill to Ban GMOs

"BREAKING NEWS: The Big Island of Hawai'i Council passed the first reading of Bill 113, to BAN NEW GMOs from being grown on the island. The Bill will go to a second reading during the first week of Nov. and on to the Mayor for final approval. There is strong support in the council, currently enough to override a potential veto by the Mayor if that should happen. Hawai'i shows us how it's done. These amazing citizens have exerted relentless pressure on their elected officials to represent the will and the interests of the people, and not corporate interests. Today will go down in history. First Kaua'i and now The Big Island of Hawai'i."

And from Natural Remedies Blog:

"Hawaii is the home of Genetically Engineered Paypaya, Pineapple, Summer Squash, etc. so this IS BIG news!! 

GMO Free Canada announced: “The Big Island of Hawaii County Council Committee passed a GMO prohibition Bill by a vote of 6-2. Bill 133 moves forward to the full Council later this month. The Bill will ban open air cultivation of GMOs, with the exception of the GM Papaya already being grown on the island. Hawaii island is the last without GMO experimentation and the least contaminated island in the state of Hawaii. The future is looking volcanically bright for Hawaii to remain in this pristine state. Sending much Aloha to our amazing food warriors who are fighting hard and doing an incredible job. Good will triumph over evil."

Rumors about Hawaii banning GMOs are untrue for now, but that could change in the very near future if this bill is approved, and it seems that it likely will. Hawaii has been actively opposing GMO crops on all of the islands because they are a threat to the vast bio-diversity on the islands. This news is no doubt a huge win for Hawaiians and food activists. From GMO Free Canada:

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

Insecticides to blame for massive bee die-off in Minneapolis

(www.cornucopia.org) Last September, thousands of bees were mysteriously found dead in Minneapolis. Considering the continuing decline in bee population that threatens drastic consequences for our environment, the University of Minnesota's Bee Lab and Bee Squad teamed up with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) to investigate the cause of the massive die-off.

Image: www.greenpeace.org

The investigators gathered samples of dead bees and sent them to a lab in North Carolina, where it was confirmed that the bees had been poisoned by fipronil, an insecticide commonly used by commercial companies around the foundations of buildings. According to the MDA, fipronil sprayed on a house's foundation likely got on nearby plants, and from there foraging bees accidently carried the chemical back the hive.

The investigators determined that the insecticide was not applied by state or local government workers. The poison was probably sprayed either commercially or by a resident. Since the incident occurred in a residential area, it would likely be difficult to find out who is responsible for the bee kill. The MDA said that it is not going to investigate the matter further.

This incident serves as a perfect example of the vast unintended consequences that chemicals can have on our environment and shows that, contrary to what is conventionally practiced, the utmost caution should be used when working with pesticides.

Source: buzz.naturalnews.com

3 Facts Everyone Should Know About Monsanto

by ARJUN WALIA

Image: March Against Monsanto

Monsanto is an American multinational corporation founded in the early 1900′s by John Francis Queeny. It’s no coincidence that he was a veteran of the pharmaceutical industry. Monsanto and the people that govern it hide behind the classification of multinational corporations and political labels in order to implement their desired agenda. Why on Earth is our food being manufactured by the largest pesticide company in the world?  Food is supposed to give us health and nourishment, but today our food contains toxins that are without question a major threat to our health. Toxic chemicals are added to our food supply simply through production, harmful pesticide residue and genetic engineering of seeds and crops. Even food packaging can be a source of toxins in food. Why are we allowing poisonous and toxic chemicals to enter into our food supply? What type of corporation would try to persuade the population that it is a good thing? Monsanto would, it’s no coincidence that the food, pharmaceutical and medical industries are so well connected. The most common argument against this fact is “well, I don’t know”, which is not much of an argument at all. In fact, everything we use in our daily lives can often be traced back to a group of families and the corporations they run.

Even as we have an increasing disease burden due to chemicals and pollutants, there is an attempt to push GMOs despite the serious health risks they pose – Dr. Vandana Shiva

1. Monsanto purposely puts small farmers out of business

Monsanto has shut down many small farms via lawsuits because their patented crop was found on the farms. While it was only small percentages of the crop that were Monsanto’s seeds, they were able to get a ruling in their favor regardless of the fact that Monsanto was accused for purposely putting their seed onto farmers land as well as the fact that Monsanto crop pollen from nearby farms can easily blow onto other farms who are not using Monsanto crop. Percy Schmeiser is a Canadian farmer whose canola fields were contaminated with Monsanto’s Round-Up Ready Canola by pollen from a nearby GMO farm. Monsanto successfully argued in a lawsuit that Schmeiser violated their patent rights, and forced Schmeiser to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.This type of biotech bullying is happening all over North America. Monsanto performed no independent tests as their tests were all performed in house or by experts hired by the company.

2. Monsanto has multiple connections to the government
Most people are aware that multinational corporations (like Monsanto) are above the government when it comes to the hierarchical  pyramidal structure of control that we see on the planet today. We are living in a corporatocracy, not a democracy,our entire economic, political, health, energy, and educational industries are controlled by corporations and the people that hide behind them.

Toby Moffett –  Toby Moffett is the chairman of the Moffett Group. The Moffett group is a government relations and strategic consulting firm in Washington, DC. He is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  He is the liaison between clients and the congress, the Obama administration as well as other federal agencies. Toby Moffett is a former NBC news anchor, as well as former Vice President of Monsanto, and currently serves as a Monsanto consultant.

Margaret Miller - Dr Margaret Miller was a Dep Director for the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) For Bush Sr as well as Bill Clinton. She has worked as in the health and food departments of the World Health Organization (WHO). The FDA and WHO are responsible for the creation of codex alimentarius, an organization that defines the required toxins and chemicals to put in our food.

Michael Taylor - Michael Taylor is the deputy commissioner for Foods at at the FDA, appointed by Obama. He is also the VP for public policy at Monsanto, the same man in charge of GMO’s being put into our food supply.

Linda Fisher- Former Deputy Administrator for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Vice president for government affairs at Monsanto.

The list goes on and on, almost all positions  that hold significance within Monsanto are held by those who have been involved in the political game and with major governmental organizations. More ties can be made to all industries that govern our life on this planet. Our media, health, education, and energy industries are all owned and operated by the same people, it’s a revolving door.

3. Monsanto invented the toxic chemicals that that they spray on our food, which they own.
Monsanto is the leading producer and manufacturer of the herbicide glyphosate. It was manufactured and discovered by Monsanto in the early 1970′s. Glyphosate requires a full body suit and protective eye wear when spraying, do you still think it’s good for us to consume? It kills plants and insects, yet we continue to consume it constantly and wonder why cancer rates are on the rise.

The giant corporations who had produced chemicals for chemical industrial agriculture were talking about three instruments to consolidate the food chain. The first was genetic engineering as a way of control. The second was patenting seed and patenting life as a way of as a way of control. Determining seed to be private property, treating the saving of seed by farmers as theft. Lastly, the design of terminator technology, to create sterile seed in order to impose even more dependence of humanity on a hand full of corporations. – Dr. Vandana Shiva

 Findings like this are helping the world make connections. We are in the process of transparency, if one is truly passionate and curious about how the world operates, all the information and events are there to see. It’s not hard to do a little research and make connections, if one does so I am sure everybody who does will find that the current way of life on our planet does not resonate with them. We created this whole experience on the planet, and we have the freedom to change it anytime we desire. Waking up to the major industries around us that we use to govern our life, and how they operate is something that can no longer be ignored. A critical mass of people on the planet are now calling for a change, and it starts with you.
Source: Collective Evolution

Source: RealFarmacy.com & Collective-Evolution.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

Monsanto Buys Climate Firm for $1B, Reports 4Q Loss On Weak Seed Sales

| WTF News |

Ahead of the Oct. 12 March Against Monsanto, Monsanto announced their latest acquisition on the morning of their earnings release revealing a “larger than expected” quarterly loss. Listen to the conference call and downloadslideshow PDF for reference. This was a slick move to paper over the loss and redirect the attention of investors, which TechCrunch described as cunning. One thing that stood out on the earnings call was there was no mention of the global Oct. 12 protests which reportedly has some hedge funds dumping the stock.

TechCrunch Interview this morning with Monsanto VP of Global Strategy Kerry Preete and Climate Corporation CEO David Friedberg

Monsanto Acquires The Climate Corporation

Monsanto

ST. LOUIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire The Climate Corporation for a cash purchase price of approximately $930 million. The acquisition will combine The Climate Corporation’s expertise in agriculture analytics and risk-management with Monsanto’s R&D capabilities, and will provide farmers access to more information about the many factors that affect the success of their crops. The companies’ combined capabilities will support greater productivity while utilizing the planet’s finite resources more precisely.

The acquisition is expected to expand on The Climate Corporation’s leadership in the area of data science, which represents the agriculture sector’s next major breakthrough, and will immediately expand both the near- and long-term growth opportunities for Monsanto’s business and Integrated Farming Systems platform.

“The Climate Corporation is focused on unlocking new value for the farm through data science,” said Hugh Grant, chairman and chief executive officer for Monsanto. “Everyone benefits when farmers are able to produce more with fewer resources. The Climate Corporation team brings leading expertise that will continue to greatly benefit farmers and their bottom-line, and we want to expand upon this tremendous work and broaden their reach to more crops and more world areas. We look forward to working closely with our distribution partners and others in the agricultural industry to bring this suite of information resources to the farm.”

The Climate Corporation was founded in 2006 by a highly successful team of software engineers and data scientists formerly with Google and other leading Silicon Valley technology companies. Since that time, the company has built the agriculture industry’s most advanced technology platform combining hyper-local weather monitoring, agronomic data modeling, and high-resolution weather simulations to deliver a complete suite of full-season monitoring, analytics and risk-management products.

“Farmers around the world are challenged to make key decisions for their farms in the face of increasingly volatile weather, as well as a proliferation of information sources,” said David Friedberg, chief executive officer for The Climate Corporation. “Our team understands that the ability to turn data into actionable insight and farm management recommendations is vitally important for agriculture around the world and can greatly benefit farmers, regardless of farm size or their preferred farming methods. Monsanto shares this important vision for our business and we look forward to creating even greater experiences for our farmer customers.”

The Climate Corporation has a core set of support tools to benefit farmers. These include products that help them boost yields on existing farmland and better manage risks that occur throughout a crop season. The Climate Corporation will continue to offer its current risk-management products including an online service that provides crop planning, monitoring, and recommendations, and insurance offerings through its network of independent agents.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the first quarter of Monsanto’s 2014 fiscal year. Following the acquisition, The Climate Corporation will operate its business to retain its distinct brand identity and customer experience. The company will continue to maintain headquarters in Silicon Valley and all of its employees will be offered continued employment.

Combined Company to Be a Leader in Data Science, Acquisition Expected to Drive Near-and Long-Term Growth Potential

The acquisition of The Climate Corporation represents a natural extension of Monsanto’s vision to increase crop productivity, conserve more of our planet’s natural resources and improve the lives of people around the world. It will also greatly expand The Climate Corporation’s capabilities in data science, agriculture’s next major growth frontier, an area that represents a potential opportunity of $20 billion beyond Monsanto’s core focus today. The companies estimate the majority of farmers have an untapped yield opportunity of up to 30 bushels to 50 bushels in their corn fields, and they believe that advancements in data science can help further unlock that additional value for the farm.

The combined capabilities will immediately expand both the near- and long-term growth opportunities of Monsanto’s Integrated Farming Systems platform and research and development pipeline in the coming years.

Longer-term, the combination is expected to broaden the product choices available to farmers beyond Monsanto’s current row crop and vegetable portfolio, both inside and outside of the United States. This includes the delivery of insight and decision-support tools that could increase agriculture productivity on a billion planted acres around the globe.

Monsanto and The Climate Corporation share a commitment to delivering innovation for farmers through a broad range of choices and service providers. Monsanto noted that, consistent with its broad-licensing and multi-channel approach to technology, it intends to deliver the value of The Climate Corporation’s current and future applications through its distribution network.

Monsanto today also announced the company’s financial results for its fiscal 2013 fourth quarter and full year, including the financial effect of The Climate Corporation acquisition. For more information about today’s earnings announcement, see the press release and supporting resources available atwww.monsanto.com.

About Monsanto Company

Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality. Monsanto remains focused on enabling both small-holder and large-scale farmers to produce more from their land while conserving more of our world’s natural resources such as water and energy. To learn more about our business and our commitments, please visit: www.monsanto.com. Follow our business on Twitter^® atwww.twitter.com/MonsantoCo, on the company blog, Beyond the Rows at www.monsantoblog.com, or subscribe to our News Release RSS Feed.

About The Climate Corporation

The Climate Corporation aims to help farmers around the world protect and improve their farming operations with uniquely powerful software and insurance products. The company’s proprietary technology platform combines hyper-local weather monitoring, agronomic data modeling, and high-resolution weather simulations to deliver climate.com, a SaaS solution that helps farmers improve their profits by making better informed operating and financing decisions, and Total Weather Insurance, an insurance offering that pays farmers automatically for bad weather that may impact their profits. The company is also an authorized provider of the U.S. Federal crop insurance program, enabling authorized independent crop insurance agents to provide farmers with the industry’s most powerful full-stack risk management solution. In the face of increasingly volatile weather, the global $3 trillion agriculture industry depends on the company’s unique technologies to help stabilize and improve profits and, ultimately, help feed the world. For more information, please visit http://www.climate.com or follow the company on Twitter @climatecorp.

CEO and chairman Hugh Grant described the earnings call like “none other” as he talked about “integrated farming systems” and other things about extending the company’s advantages. The earnings loss is a sign of possibly weakening positions in some areas although the company is healthy overall, hence the reason for acquisition and diversification.

Yahoo
Oct 2 (Reuters) – Monsanto Co, the world’s largest seed company, reported a larger quarterly loss on Wednesday as seed sales slipped, but total sales rose and the company said it was positioned for strong growth in 2014.

The leading developer of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and other crops also announced it was acquiring a climate data science company as part of a long-term growth plan.

Overall, the company lost $249 million, or 47 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $229 million, or 42 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts on average were expecting a loss of 43 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales rose to $2.2 billion from $2.1 billion a year earlier, but sales of its key seeds and genomics business dropped to $1.19 billion from $1.20 billion a year earlier.

Monsanto in their own words

Monsanto
Year after year, farmers gain valuable insights from their crops and fields. The information helps farmers grow their crops more efficiently, and allows them to make smarter choices as they work to produce more food using fewer resources.

That’s why Monsanto’s acquisition of The Climate Corporation fits in with Monsanto’s commitment to produce more, conserve more and improve lives.

The Climate Corporation’s expertise is in data science. The company turns a wide range of information into valuable insights and recommendations for farmers. For example, recommendations may be planting a few days earlier or changing an irrigation schedule.

The ability to provide farmers better information to develop practical recommendations can help them, regardless of size or preferred production practice, produce more while most efficiently using resources.

The acquisition of The Climate Corporation represents Monsanto investment in supporting farmers by offering them novel options in the way they manage risk on farm – including weather, which is the single biggest risk farmers face on an annual basis. The Climate Corporation’s data science expertise is an important complement to our Integrated Farming Systems℠ research platform that provides farmers with field-by-field recommendations on how to maximize yield and manage risk. The Climate Corporation’s weather-modeling capabilities complement our current FieldScripts℠ offering by adding an additional dimension of analysis to seed prescriptions.

Source: wtfrly.com

Upcoming March Against Monsanto to take place October 12

(http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/)Millions of activists are preparing for another March Against Monsanto to take place on October 12. Marches will be held in over 400 cities around the world and are currently scheduled in 47 U.S. states. The event will protest the controversial use of genetically modified organisms and the dangerous heavy use of pesticides in our food supply.

GMOs have never been properly tested for long-term safety. The only published study that examined the long-term effects of eating genetically modified corn produced horrifying effects in rats, but it was rejected by Monsanto and the general scientific community. The revolving door between government and biotech companies like Monsanto basically allows it greater government influence than even citizens seem to have. The use of GMO crops leads to increased pesticide usage, destroys the soil and biodiversity and contributes to bee colony collapse. GMOs have been linked to adverse health effects such as organ damage, sterility, infant mortality, birth defects, auto-immune conditions, allergies and increased cancer risks. Monsanto's business practices are equally as evil, as they file lawsuits against any innocent farmer whose field was contaminated by their mutant seed. More than a quarter of a million Indian farmers have already committed suicide after the GMO crops they bought were a failure that left their families in poverty. 62 countries mandate GMO labeling, which Monsanto has spent millions of dollars opposing in the U.S. alone. They don't even want you to know that you are eating their poisons.

That is why activists continue to march against Monsanto. And that's why anyone concerned with their health, their children or the future of the world and sustainable agriculture should join in. Protestors will march in St. Louis, Monsanto's headquarters, at 1:00 pm. To find an event near you, visit docs.google.com. You can also visit the March Against Monsanto website or Facebook page for more information.

Source: naturalnews.com

Bill Maher vs GMOs Round 1

In this hilarious “New Rules” segment Bill Maher takes on GMOS and the food supply. This is a must watch.

Study: GMO Food Linked to Higher Leukemia Risk

By: Sayer Ji

A groundbreaking new study published in the current issue of the Journal of Hematology & Thromboembolic Diseases reveals the potential “leukemogenic” properties of the Bt toxin biopesticides engineered into the vast majority of GMO food crops already within the US food supply.

Image: http://www.realfarmacy.com

Last September, the causal link between cancer and genetically modified food was confirmed in a French study, the first independent long-term animal feeding study not commissioned by the biotech corporations themselves. The disturbing details can be found here: New Study Finds GM Corn and Roundup Causes Cancer In Rats

Now, a new study published in the Journal of Hematology & Thromboembolic Diseases indicates that the biopesticides engineered into GM crops known as Bacillus Thuringensis (Bt) or Cry-toxins, may also contribute to blood abnormalities from anemia to hematological malignancies (blood cancers) such as leukemia.[i]

Related: Join the March Against Monsanto Oct 12th: http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/p/blog-page.html

A group of scientists from the Department of Genetics and Morphology, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Brasilia, Brasilia/DF, Brazil set out to test the purported human and environmental biosafety of GM crops, looking particularly at the role that the Bt toxin found within virtually all GM food crops plays on non-target or non-insect animal species.

The research was spurred by the Brazilian Collegiate Board of Directors of the National Sanitary Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), who advocated in 2005 for evaluations of toxicity and pathogenicity of microbiological control agents such as Bt toxins, given that little is known about their toxicological potential in non-target organisms, including humans.

While Bacillus Thurigensis spore-crystals have been used since the late 1960′s in agriculture as a foliar insecticide, it was only after the advent of recombinant DNA biotechnology that these toxin-producing genes (known as delta endotoxins) were first inserted into the plants themselves and released into commercial production in the mid-90′s, making their presence in the US food supply and the bodies of exposed populations ubiquitous.

What the new study revealed is that various binary combinations and doses of Bt toxins are capable of targeting mammalian cells, particularly the erythroid (red blood cell) lineage, resulting in red blood cell changes indicative of significant damage, such as anemia. In addition, the study found that Bt toxins suppressed bone marrow proliferation creating abnormal lymphocyte patterns consistent with some types of leukemia.

The researchers also found that one of the prevailing myths about the selective toxicity of Bt to insects, the target species, no longer holds true:

It has been reported that Cry toxins exert their toxicity when activated at alkaline pH of the digestive tract of susceptible larvae, and, because the physiology of the mammalian digestive system does not allow their activation, and no known specific receptors in mammalian  intestinal cells have been reported, the toxicity these MCAs to mammals  would negligible [8,22,23]. However, our study demonstrated that Bt spore-crystals genetically modified to express individually Cry1Aa, Cry1Ab, Cry1Ac or Cry2A induced hematotoxicity, particularly to the erythroid lineage. This finding corroborates literature that demonstrated that alkali-solubilized  Bt spore-crystals caused in vitro hemolysis in cell lines of rat, mouse, sheep, horse, and human erythrocytes and suggested that the plasma membrane of susceptible cells (erythrocytes, in this case) may be the primary target for these toxins [33]

THE STUDY ALSO FOUND:

1) That Cry toxins are capable of exerting their adverse effects when suspended in distilled water, not requiring alkalinization via insect physiology to become activated as formerly believed.

2) That a dose of Cry1Ab as low as 27 mg/kg, their lowest tested dose, was capable of inducing hypochromic anemia in mice – the very toxin has been detected in blood of non-pregnant women, pregnant women and their fetuses in Canada, supposedly exposed through diet.

3) Whereas past reports have found that Bt toxins are generally nontoxic and do not bioaccumulate in fatty tissue or persist in the environment, the new study demonstrated that all Cry toxins tested had a more pronounced effect from 72 hours of exposure onwards, indicating the opposite is true.

4) That high-dose Cry toxin doses caused blood changes indicative of bone marrow damage (damage to “hematopoietic stem cell or bone marrow stroma”).

The authors noted their results “demonstrate leukemogenic activity for other spore-crystals not yet reported in the literature.”

Sources: realfarmacy.com & greenmedinfo.com