How to detox your body from GMOs and Pesticides

Detoxing can be hard on your body and cause a wide variety of alarming side effects. After all, the substances being removed are usually pretty horrible, consisting of toxic chemicals from pesticide residues, by-products of GMO foods, pharmaceutical drugs, chemotherapy residue, free-radicals, heavy metals, aluminum, radiation.

Image: consciouslifenews.com

There are numerous detoxing agents and methods available — some more costly than others — and some producing very intense experiences with potentially dangerous side effects. We advise choosing a more natural method.

However, there are several ways to remove these noxious substances gently, with kindness to your system. These techniques may take a bit longer to achieve completion that some the harsher detox programs; however, if you take your time one or more of these natural methods should work for you.

Pectin

Fruit pectin is probably the most gentle method of detoxing contaminants. Pectin comes from the fibrous portion of the fruit and is most commonly found in the pith of limes, lemons and other citrus fruit as well as in apples. Other sources of pectin are bananas, grapes, carrots, and cabbage. Pectin helps to release heavy metals, chemicals and other substances into the blood stream, where it binds to them and flushes them from the body. Simply eating fruit high in pectin will help to cleanse your system, or you can add a pectin product to a glass of water, organic grape juice or fresh veggie juice to speed the detox process. Beware of pectin sold in grocery stores, as some brands may contain MSG. Check health food stores for the best products.

Cilantro

The delicious culinary herb cilantro, happens to be one of the most effective and gentle detoxifiers of mercury, heavy metals and other toxic contaminants. You can buy cilantro juice at health food stores or simply include the fresh herb in your diet as pesto or seasoning to control the amount consumed and limit unwanted side effects. It’s inexpensive and works without the addition of man-made chemicals. Cilantro also possesses antibacterial and anti-fungal properties, quickly reducing infection and inflammation as it works to clear your system.
Detoxing can be hard on your body and cause a wide variety of alarming side effects. After all, the substances being removed are usually pretty horrible, consisting of toxic chemicals from pesticide residues, by-products of GMO foods, pharmaceutical drugs, chemotherapy residue, free-radicals, heavy metals, aluminum, radiation.

There are numerous detoxing agents and methods available — some more costly than others — and some producing very intense experiences with potentially dangerous side effects. We advise choosing a more natural method.

However, there are several ways to remove these noxious substances gently, with kindness to your system. These techniques may take a bit longer to achieve completion that some the harsher detox programs; however, if you take your time one or more of these natural methods should work for you.

Pectin

Fruit pectin is probably the most gentle method of detoxing contaminants. Pectin comes from the fibrous portion of the fruit and is most commonly found in the pith of limes, lemons and other citrus fruit as well as in apples. Other sources of pectin are bananas, grapes, carrots, and cabbage. Pectin helps to release heavy metals, chemicals and other substances into the blood stream, where it binds to them and flushes them from the body. Simply eating fruit high in pectin will help to cleanse your system, or you can add a pectin product to a glass of water, organic grape juice or fresh veggie juice to speed the detox process. Beware of pectin sold in grocery stores, as some brands may contain MSG. Check health food stores for the best products.

Cilantro

The delicious culinary herb cilantro, happens to be one of the most effective and gentle detoxifiers of mercury, heavy metals and other toxic contaminants. You can buy cilantro juice at health food stores or simply include the fresh herb in your diet as pesto or seasoning to control the amount consumed and limit unwanted side effects. It’s inexpensive and works without the addition of man-made chemicals. Cilantro also possesses antibacterial and anti-fungal properties, quickly reducing infection and inflammation as it works to clear your system.

Chlorella

Chlorella is a single cell algae sea vegetable that grows in fresh water. Some of the best cholrella reserves have come from Japan; however, use caution when buying Japanese chlorella due to possible exposure to radiation from Fukushima. Chlorella is an easy-to-digest superfood best known for being able to remove mercury and other heavy metals from the cells. Too much chlorella can produce side effects — mostly in the digestive tract — where it works best to bind to mercury, eliminating it. Start with the lowest quantity and work up slowly for a gentle detox.

Wheatgrass

Juicing fresh produce and grasses such as wheat or barley grass provides an excellent way to remove toxins from the system. Wheatgrass is high in nutritional content, and provides vitamins, minerals and all nine essential amino acids. Wheatgrass can be a powerful detox, so start slowly with only a small amount of juice to keep it gentle — 1/2 ounce a day — and work up to avoid symptoms.

Using gentle detoxing products requires that you repeat treatments over a period of time until all symptoms have cleared. Side effects may include nausea, vomiting, muscle aches and pains, dizziness and fatigue. Additionally, detoxing can cause a flare-up in your condition temporarily. It’s just the toxins leaving your system and should pass shortly. If side effects are severe, reduce the quantity of whatever you’re using to detox. If the symptoms continue, stop and consult your natural health practitioner for further instructions.

Source: Natural News

Bug Spray Linked to Behavior Problems - Try These Organic Solutions

Organophosphate pesticides are known for their hazards to human health. Prenatal exposure, for example, has been linked to delayed brain development, reduced IQ, and attention deficits¹.

As a result, pyrethroids²—synthetic chemicals derived from natural chemicals found in chrysanthemums—have risen in popularity over the past decade.  There are currently more than 3,500 commercial products containing this insecticide. This includes items like roach sprays, flea bombs, and dog flea or tick collars and medicated shampoos.

Pyrethroids are well-known to be highly toxic to cats, and the most frequent reason for pyrethroid poisoning in cats is the incorrect and unadvised application of dog flea or tick medication.

You can identify pyrethroids in any given product by reading the label. Compounds that end in “thrin,” such as bifenthrin, permethrin and cypermethrin, are all pyrethroids. Alas, switching to pyrethroids may not have been the wisest move. Animal studies suggest it causes neurological-, immune-, and reproductive damage. And, as usual, the human health effects are still largely unknown, despite its widespread use.

Now, Canadian research suggests pyrethroids may be associated with behavior problems in children.  As reported by Scientific American³:

“The findings raise some questions about the safety of the compounds, which have replaced other insecticides with known risks to children’s brain development.

Exposure to pyrethroids, which kill insects by interfering with their nervous systems, is widespread because they are used inside homes and schools, in municipal mosquito control and on farms.”

Common Insecticide May have Adverse Effects on Your Child’s Development

The study⁴ in question tested urine samples from 779 Canadian children, aged 6-11, and the parents answered questions relating to their child’s behavior. Shockingly, even at that tender young age, 97 percent of the children had pyrethroid breakdown products in their urine. Ninety-one percent also had traces of organophosphate pesticides.

“A 10-fold increase in urinary levels of one pyrethroid breakdown product, cis-DCCA, was associated with a doubling in the odds of a child scoring high for parent-reported behavioral problems, such as inattention and hyperactivity,” the featured article reports.

A previous study found that toddlers who had been exposed to pyrethroids while in utero had lower development scores compared to unexposed children. According to a 2006 EPA review, animal research has also shown that even low levels of some of these compounds have an adverse effect on⁵:

 Some pyrethroids act as endocrine disruptors by mimicking estrogen. Such hormone-disrupting chemicals can raise your levels of estrogen, thereby promoting the growth of estrogen-sensitive cancers such as breast cancer.

As stated by Dana Boyd Barr, a research professor of environmental health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta⁶:  “Pyrethroids are obviously a safer alternative to organophosphates, but just because they are safer doesn’t mean they are safe.”

Are You Using this Toxic Bug Spray On or Near Your Kids?

Permethrin—a member of the synthetic pyrethroid family—can also be found in many commercial bug sprays. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), permethrin is carcinogenic⁷, capable of causing lung tumors, liver tumors, immune system problems, and chromosomal abnormalities. Permethrin is also damaging to the environment, and it is particularly toxic to bees and aquatic life.

Despite that, approximately 2 million pounds of permethrin are applied to agricultural, residential and public sites each year. The majority, about 70 percent, is applied in non-agricultural settings; more than 40 percent of it is applied by homeowners in residential areas, so there’s plenty of room for individuals to take personal control over this chemical exposure.

While it may be tempting to douse your kids with bug spray in order to prevent bugs from biting them, there are plenty of other tricks that can keep bugs at bay that don't involve the application of neurotoxic and potentially carcinogenic chemicals.

Simple Preventative Measures to Avoid Mosquito Bites

Mosquito’s are probably the most pervasive when it comes to biting bugs. You can avoid most assaults by staying inside around dawn and dusk, which is when they are most active. If you must be out during those times, wear light-colored, long sleeved shirts and long pants, hats and socks.

Mosquitoes are also thicker in shrubby areas and near standing water. Body temperature and skin chemicals like lactic acid also attract mosquitoes, so trying to stay as cool and dry as possible may also help to some degree.

The American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) has a helpful factsheet⁸ of things you can do to prevent mosquito breeding on your property. The Three D’s of protection from mosquitoes are:

1.    Drain—Mosquitoes require water in which to breed, so carefully drain any and all sources of standing water around your house and yard, including pet bowls, gutters, garbage- and recycling bins, spare tires, bird baths and so on

2.    Dress—Light colored, loose fitting clothing offer the greatest protection

3.    Defend—Again, I recommend avoiding most chemical repellents, especially those containing DEET or permethrin. (The Environmental Working Group (EWG) recently released an extensive review of bug repellants, and virtually all of them are associated with health hazards⁹.) Instead, try some of the natural alternatives suggested in this article.

Besides draining all sources of standing water and dressing appropriately, the following ideas can help reduce the mosquito population around your yard:

·         Add some bat boxes: Bat houses are becoming increasingly popular since bats are voracious consumers of insects, especially mosquitoes. For more on buying a bat house or constructing one yourself, visit the Organization for Bat Conservation^10.

·         Plant marigolds: Planting marigolds around your yard works as a bug repellent because the flowers give off a fragrance that bugs do not like. This is a great way to ward off mosquitoes without using chemical insecticides.

·         Blow ‘em away... As a last minute fix, a simple house fan can help keep mosquitoes at bay if you’re having a get-together in your backyard.

DIY Bug Repellants

Your diet may have something to do with your popularity with the mosquitoes. To reduce your attractiveness, you may want to forgo bananas during mosquito season. According to alternative health nutritionist Dr. Janet Starr Hull¹¹, “there’s something about how your body processes the banana oil that attracts these female sugar-loving insects.” She also recommends supplementing with one vitamin B-1 tablet a day from April through October, and then adding 100 mg of B-1 to a B-100 Complex daily during the mosquito season to make you less attractive to mosquitoes.

Regularly consuming garlic or garlic capsules may also help protect against both mosquito and tick bites. Bear in mind, the best way to avoid ticks is to make sure you tuck your pants into your socks and wear closed shoes and a hat—especially if venturing out into wooded areas. You can also make your own mosquito repellent using any of the following:

·         Cinnamon leaf oil (one study found it was more effective at killing mosquitoes than DEET)

·         Clear liquid vanilla extract mixed with olive oil

·         Wash with citronella soap, and then put some 100% pure citronella essential oil on your skin. Java Citronella is considered the highest quality citronella on the market

·         Catnip oil (according to one study, this oil is 10 times more effective than DEET¹²)

Another option is to use the safe solution I formulated to repel mosquitoes, fleas, chiggers, ticks, and other biting insects. It's anatural insect repellant with a combination of citronella, lemongrass oil, peppermint oil, and vanillin. An independent study showed it was more effective than a product containing 100 percent DEET. And it's safe for you, your children, and your pets.

Safer Alternatives for Ant, Roach, Lice and Flea Control

With mosquito control out of the way, what about other pesky bugs? Not to worry, there are safer alternatives for most infestations. For example:

·         Knock out roaches, ants and termites with boric acid powder. Sprinkle some in the inner corners of your cabinets and in the corners under your cabinets. Pests will carry it back to their nests on their feet and kill the remainder of the infestation. Boric acid is generally non-toxic for animals, but you’d still be well-advised to place it in areas where your pet will not ingest or inhale it, as it kills bugs by causing dehydration.

·         Treat head lice with an old-fashioned nit comb and essential oils of anise and ylang ylang, combined into a spray. This has been found to be highly effective in eliminating over 90 percent of head lice.

·         Control your pet’s fleas and ticks with safe, natural pest repellents, such as:

o    Cedar oil

o    Natural, food-grade diatomaceous earth

o    Fresh garlic -- work with your holistic vet to determine a safe amount for your pet’s body weight

o    Feeding your pet a balanced, species-appropriate diet. The healthier your dog or cat is, the less appealing she’ll be to parasites. A biologically appropriate diet supports a strong immune system.

o    Bathing and brushing your pet regularly and performing frequent full-body inspections to check for parasite activity.

 Source: Dr. Mercola

The Monarch Butterflies are Being Decimated by Monsanto

by Lauren McCauley | Common Dreams

Image: 

The migratory population of the monarch butterfly has reached an “ominous” low, researchers in Mexico announced Wednesday.

Scientists are attributing the decline of this essential pollinating population to the ongoing drought and the “explosive” increase in the use of genetically modified crops in the American corn belt.

“Because farmers have planted over 120 million acres of crops resistant to the milkweed-killing herbicide glyphosate, the monarchs’ essential food supply has been all but destroyed.”

Released by the Mexican government along with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a recent survey found a 59% decrease in the area occupied by monarch colonies wintering in the forests of central Mexico, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Because of the difficulty in counting butterflies, scientists rely on measurements of the area that butterflies occupy to estimate their numbers; 1 hectare may contain as many as 50 million butterflies.

“The report of the dwindling Monarch butterfly winter residence in Mexico is ominous,” said leading entomologist Lincoln Brower.

According to Chip Taylor, director of the conservation group Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas, the decline was “hastened” by North America’s ongoing drought and record-breaking heat

However, the more “alarming” source of decline, according to Taylor and Omar Vidal, head of WWF in Mexico, is the “explosive increase” in the use of herbicide-tolerant genetically modified soybean and corn crops across America’s farmland which, the New York Times reports, has “enabled farmers to wipe out the milkweed,” on which monarch larvae feed almost exclusively.

“The American Midwest’s corn belt is a critical feeding ground for monarchs, which once found a ready source of milkweed growing between the rows of millions of acres of soybean and corn,” they continue. However, as farmers have planted over 120 million acres of crops resistant to the milkweed-killing herbicide glyphosate, the monarchs’ essential food supply is all but destroyed.

“That habitat is virtually gone. We’ve lost well over 120 million acres, and probably closer to 150 million acres,” Mr. Taylor said.

Previously, environmental groups cited logging in Mexico’s forests, the butterfly’s winter habitat, as the primary threat to the population. Since the area was declared a nature reserve in 2000, that is now considered a lesser threat.

“The conservation of the Monarch butterfly is a shared responsibility between Mexico, the United States and Canada,” said Vidal. “By protecting the reserves and having practically eliminated large-scale illegal logging, Mexico has done its part. It is now necessary for the United States and Canada to do their part and protect the butterflies’ habitat in their territories.”

Like bees, butterflies provide essential pollinating functions for entire ecosystems.”The fruits, nuts, seeds and foliage that everything else feeds on,” said Taylor. “If we pull the monarchs out of the system, we’re really pulling the rug out from under a whole lot of other species.”

According to Nature World News, the Monarch butterflies begin life as an egg that hatch into larvae (which feed almost exclusively on the milkweed plant). These larvae become caterpillars and in the fourth stage they become butterflies. Only Monarchs born between late summer and early fall make the migration. Even though it takes about four generations of the Monarchs to make the incredible journey, each butterfly knows the way and at times, these butterflies have been found to come back to the same tree from where their great grandparents had begun the journey.
“This is one of the world’s great migrations. It would be a shame to lose it.”

Source: Common Dreams via RealFarmacy.com

GMO Farming Is Poisoning The World's Drinking Water

Image: Raw For Beauty

Monsanto’s Herbicide Linked To Groundwater Contamination

In a groundbreaking study published in the journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry last year, evidence surfaced that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the Monsanto’s patented herbicide Roundup, is flowing freely into the groundwater in areas where it is being applied.1 The researchers found that 41% of the 140 groundwater samples taken from Catalonia Spain, had levels beyond the limit of quantification – indicating that, despite the manufacturer’s claims, glyphosate herbicide does not break down rapidly in the environment, and is accumulating there in concerning quantities.

Why Is Groundwater Contamination An Important Finding?

Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface, that supplies aquifers, wells and springs.  If a chemical like glyphosate is mobile enough to get into the groundwater and is intrinsically resistant to being biodegraded (after all, it is being used to kill/degrade living things – not the other way around), significant environmental exposures to humans using the water are inevitable. After all, according to the USGS, 88,000 tons were used in the US in 2007 alone.

Keep in mind that glyphosate is considered by the EPA as a Class III toxic substance, fatal to an adult at 30 grams, and has been linked to over 20 adverse health effects in the peer-reviewed, biomedical literature.
This groundwater contamination study adds to another highly concerning finding from March, 2011, published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, where researchers found the chemical in 60-100% of all air and rain samples tested, indicating that glyphosate pollution and exposure is now omnipresent in the US. When simply breathing makes you susceptible to glyphosate exposure, we know we are dealing with a problem of unprecedented scale.

In fact, glyphosate’s broad spectrum toxicity has been identified to be one potential cause for the disturbing loss of indispensable food-starter bacteria from soils and cultured foods within certain regions of the world, indicating that GMO farming may be depleting the microbial biodiversity of the soil, and ultimately its ability to remain fertile.

Who Is Responsible For The Groundwater Contamination? 

Monsanto is a multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation, presently dominating the global genetically engineered seed market, with 90% market share in the US alone. It is also the world’s largest producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as “Roundup,” among other brand names.  If you are eating corn and soy, or any of their ten thousand plus byproducts – and it does not have a USDA organic logo – you are getting the Monsanto “double whammy”: the genetic modification (GM) of your health (and gene expression) that follows the consumption of GM food (because we are – literally – what we eat), and ceaseless chemical exposure to glyphosate, as all Monsanto-engineered foods have been designed to be glyphosate-resistant, and therefore are saturated with it.

Is Monsanto’s Herbicide A New Agent Orange?

Roundup is not Monsanto’s first entry into the systemic herbicide market. Monsanto admits it manufactured the herbicide/defoliant Agent Orange from 1965 to 1969, which Vietnam estimated killed and maimed 400,000 people and resulted in the 500,000 children being born with birth defects.

The true devastation caused by Agent Orange was covered up for many years. We may find that Monsanto’s Roundup, and its primary active ingredient glyphosate, may be causing a similar degree of devastation to both environmental and human health under the lidless, though not very watchful eye (as far as business interests are concerned), of our regulatory agencies.

Indeed, glyphosate is a powerful endocrine disrupter. Exceedingly small amounts are capable of mimicking and/or disrupting hormonal pathways, cell receptor sites and signaling. Research culled from The National Library of Medicine links it to 17 adverse pharmacological actions, including carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, neurotoxicty, hepatoxicity, and nephrotoxicity.

Source: Raw For Beauty via Green Med Info

Sign this petition to ban all bee killing pesticides!

Image: facebook.com/gardenofeating

A shocking 31% of America's honeybees died over the winter and this has been happening for the past 7 years. We're speeding towards the disastrous point at which we will not have enough bees to pollinate our crops.

Related: Insecticides to blame for massive bee die-off in Minneapolis

Neonicotinoid pesticides are known to cause bee deaths yet the EPA continues to approve their usage despite warnings from their own scientists. In fact, the EPA has just approved, Sulfoxaflor, yet another pesticide that is known to be highly toxic to bees.

In contrast, the European Union just banned this entire class of pesticides in an effort to protect its dwindling honey bee populations. The U.S. needs to follow Europe's lead, and fast!

We're almost to the goal!

Sign the petition here:http://www.change.org/petitions/epa-ban-bee-killing-pesticides-now

Over 75 Million Americans are now eating organic. Here are 10 reasons why:

Organic Consumers Association

Image: Organics.org

Organic foods and products are the fastest growing items in America’s grocery carts. Thirty million households, comprising 75 million people, are now buying organic foods, clothing, body care, supplements, pet food, and other products on a regular basis. Fifty-six percent of U.S. consumers say they prefer organic foods.

Here are 10 reasons why you should buy organic foods and products:

1. Organic foods are produced without the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Consumers worry about untested and unlabeled genetically modified food ingredients in common supermarket items. Genetically engineered ingredients are now found in 75% of all non-organic U.S. processed foods, even in many products labeled or advertised as “natural.” In addition, the overwhelming majority of non-organic meat, dairy, and eggs are derived from animals reared on a steady diet of GM animal feed. Although polls indicate that 90% of Americans want labels on gene-altered foods, government and industry adamantly refuse to respect consumers’ right to know, understanding quite well that health and environmental-minded shoppers will avoid foods with a GMO label.

2. Organic foods are safe and pure. Organic farming prohibits the use of toxic pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormones, nano-particles, and climate-destabilizing chemical fertilizers. Consumers worry about pesticide and drug residues routinely found in non-organic produce, processed foods, and animal products. Consumer Reports has found that 77% of non-organic produce items in the average supermarket contain pesticide residues. The beef industry has acknowledged that 94% of all U.S. beef cattle have hormone implants, which are banned in Europe as a cancer hazard. Approximately 10% of all U.S. dairy cows are injected with Monsanto and Elanco’s controversial genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone, banned in most industrialized nations. Recent studies indicate that an alarming percentage of non-organic U.S. meat contains dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

3. Organic foods and farming are climate-friendly. Citizens are increasingly concerned about climate-destabilizing greenhouse gas pollution (CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide), 35-50% of which in North America comes from our energy-intensive, chemical-intensive food and farming system. Organic farms and ranches, on the other hand, use far less fossil fuel and can safely sequester large amounts of CO2 in the soil (up to 7,000 pounds of CO2 per acre per year, every year.) Twenty-four billion pounds of chemical fertilizers applied on non-organic farms in the U.S. every year not only pollute our drinking water and create enormous dead zones in the oceans; but also release enormous amounts of nitrous oxide, a super potent, climate-destabilizing greenhouse gas.

4. Organic food certification prohibits nuclear irradiation. Consumers are justifiably alarmed about irradiating food with nuclear waste or electron beams, which destroy vitamins and nutrients and produce cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene and formaldehyde. The nuclear industry, large food processors, and slaughterhouses continue to lobby Congress to remove required labels from irradiated foods and replace these with misleading labels that use the term “cold pasteurization.” The USDA and large meat companies have promoted the use of irradiated meat in school lunches and senior citizen facilities. Many non-organic spices contain irradiated ingredients.

5. Consumers worry about rampant e-coli, salmonella, campylobacter, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and fecal contamination in animal products coming out of the nation’s inhumane and filthy slaughterhouses. The Centers for Disease Control have admitted that up to 76 million Americans suffer from food poisoning every year. Very few cases of food poisoning have ever been linked to organic farms or food processors.

6. Consumers are concerned about billions of pounds of toxic municipal sewage sludge dumped as “fertilizer” on 140,000 of America’s chemical farms. Scientific evidence has confirmed that municipal sewage sludge contains hundreds of dangerous pathogens, toxic heavy metals, flame-retardants, endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, pharmaceutical drugs and other hazardous chemicals coming from residential drains, storm water runoff, hospitals, and industrial plants. Organic farming categorically prohibits the use of sewage sludge.

7. Consumers worry about the routine practice of grinding up slaughterhouse waste and feeding this offal and blood back to other animals, a practice that has given rise to a form of human mad-cow disease called CJD, often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease. Animals on organic farms cannot be fed slaughterhouse waste, manure, or blood – daily rations on America’s factory farms.

8. Consumers care about the humane treatment of animals. Organic farming prohibits intensive confinement and mutilation (debeaking, cutting off tails, etc.) of farm animals. In addition to the cruel and unhealthy confinement of animals on factory farms, scientists warn that these CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) produce enormous volumes of manure and urine, which not only pollute surface and ground water, but also emit large quantities of methane, a powerful climate-destabilizing greenhouse gas.

9. Consumers are concerned about purchasing foods with high nutritional value. Organic foods are nutritionally dense compared to foods produced with toxic chemicals, chemical fertilizers, and GMO seeds. Studies show that organic foods contain more vitamins, cancer-fighting anti-oxidants, and important trace minerals.

10. Consumers care about preserving America’s family farms, world hunger, and the plight of the world’s two billion small farmers. Just about the only small farmers who stand a chance of making decent living these days are organic farmers, who get a better price for their products. In addition study after study has shown that small organic farms in the developing world produce twice as much food per acre as chemical and GMO farms, while using far less fossil fuel and sequestering large amounts of excess CO2 in the soil. Yields on organic farms in the industrialized world are comparable to the yields on chemical and GMO farms, with the important qualification that organic farms far out-produce chemical farms under extreme weather conditions of drought or torrential rains. Of course, given accelerated climate change, extreme weather is fast becoming the norm.

For all these reasons, millions of American consumers are turning to organic foods and other organic items, including clothing and body care products – part of an overall movement toward healthy living, preserving the environment, and reversing global warming.

Source: Organic Consumers Association & RealFarmacy.com

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

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

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

How to wash the pesticide from produce

Organically farmed produce is better than conventionally farmed produce. This statement has been backed variously by scientific studies and empirical evidence to that effect. However, organically farmed crops are not everybody’s cup of tea for all sorts of reasons, including that the wallet factor is high.The least we can do then, to help ourselves is thoroughly wash our fruit and vegetables, thereby making them cleaner and safer to consume. Some old fashioned cleaning materials either combined or used by themselves are known to reduce the impact of eating sprayed produce.

Image: Natural News

Practical and cheap

Hydrogen peroxide and white vinegar put separately into dark spray bottles and sprayed at the same time but separately on the fruit and vegetables, and subsequently rinsed in water is meant to render them clean.

Another simple and effective way to clean produce is by soaking it in water and adding sea salt or rock salt with lemon juice and letting it sit for ten minutes before rinsing out and using.

A slightly more ingredient and labour intensive cleaning mix is created by using vinegar, baking soda, grapefruit seed extract and one cup of water. Mix the lot and put the solution into a spray bottle. Spray the fruit and vegetables and leave for an hour before rinsing and using. Vinegar is a great bacteria killer and can be used just by itself to clean the produce, especially if you consider how much it would have been handled before you eat it.

Everything is energy

Finally, if we go by the theory that everything in the manifest world is ultimately energy, then why not change the energetic basis of the food we eat? Offering gratitude before eating and asking the food to enhance your health is one way – this is called using intention to change the nature of things. This is possible say the spiritual teachers and enlightened masters. For as the old saying goes: if you change the way you observe a thing, the thing that is being observed will change.

NaturalNews.com

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

Monsanto's RoundUp is Now Banned in El Salvador

Natural Cures Not Medicine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/naturalcuresnotmedicine

From a press release by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources:

With 45 votes in favor, members of the FMLN, Unidos por El salvador and GANA approved the amendment of a Law on the control of pesticides, fertilizers and products for agricultural use, which allows the prohibition of 53 chemicals in El Salvador.

Related: Join the March Against Monsanto on 10/12/13: http://bit.ly/14RN9EV

Among the list of the 53 chemicals are Paraquat, Glyphosate and Endosulfan, which caused controversy among right-wing deputies. Deputy Mario Ponce, of the Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) party, opposed these substances being on the list, however, he did not have the support of other MPs.

Nery Diaz, deputy of the Frente Farabundo Martí party (FMLN) defended the opinion on the grounds that paraquat is related to an increase in renal diseases.

According to the president of the Association of Coffee Producers (ABECAFE), Carlos Borgonovo, the congressional initiative threatens the quality and quantity of the grain harvest. “At the moment there is no substitute, we would have to order in from an international laboratory,” said Borgonovo referring to the chemical endosulfan. This product is used for controlling the coffee berry borer pest.

In relation to herbicides, both Borgonovo as well as Marcelino Samayoa, director of ABECAFE agree that you cannot depend on labor dedicated to removing weeds. While these chemicals are applied twice a year, removing weeds with a machete requires twice as much effort.

For its part, the National Executive Council (COENA) asked President Mauricio Funes to study the decree banning the use of these 53 pesticides and fertilizers because they are working against the country’s agricultural sector.

“The call is for there to be a lot of research carried out and that prior to sanctioning, vetoing or monitoring them, there be observations of the impact that it will have in the medium and long term, not only in relation to the issue of food security, but also in relation to economics” said Ricardo Esmahán, COENA member.


Sources: http://en.centralamericadata.com/

 www.realfarmacy.com

California Sues Whole Foods Over All-Natural Pesticides, Ignores Cancer Causing Pesticides

Natural Cures Not Medicine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/naturalcuresnotmedicine

by Nick Bernabe

March Against Monsanto

The state of California has taken up the noble task of suing natural food retailer Whole Foods over all-natural pesticides the California Department of Pesticide Regulation says it has not approved of. The natural pesticides, including: 365 Natural Pines Pellet Cat Litter, Purely Botanical Cat Flea Spray, Purely Botanical Dog Flea Spray and Enviroman Bugs R Done Bug spray are being sold at Whole Foods markets despite the government reportedly not authorizing permission to sell these products in California.

Perhaps these products would have been readily approved had the companies greased the pockets of California politicians like Monsanto and other large corporations do when legally bribing or 'lobbying' government officials to pass laws that favor their companies and speed up the regulatory approval process. 

Related: Join the March Against Monsanto on October 12th

One may naturally question the credibility of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation after it willingly disobeyed constituents when it approved the use of methyl iodide pesticides in December 2011, despite even the farmers' unwillingness to use the chemical.

From CaliforniaWatch.org:

The controversy over methyl iodide has simmered for years, but it erupted in 2010 when Department of Pesticide Regulation managers overruled both their own staff scientists and an agency-appointed peer review panel to approve the chemical for use in California agriculture. 

UCLA professor John Froines, who led the peer review committee, appeared at a state Assembly hearing in Sacramento last April and said “science was subverted” in the state’s decision to approve methyl iodide. 

“I would not want my family, my friends or anyone else to live or work or go to school near fields where this methyl iodide will be used,” Froines said after detailing the chemical’s properties that are known to cause cancer and damage nervous systems. “You had the best science you could have had, and the fact that it was ignored is devastating.”

It seems that despite popular opposition, farmer's reluctance to adopt the chemical pesticide, and clear science showing that this chemical would cause drastic negative health and environmental effects, it was still approved by California Department of Pesticide Regulation: making claims of bribery all the more likely.

The pesticide has since been abandoned in the US by the manufacturer Arysta LifeScience Inc. due to questions over the safety and effectiveness of the product and lack of interest from farmers who were afraid to use it due to consumer and political backlash.

As the war on natural health continues to march on, many people are beginning to question the objectivity and even legitimacy of regulatory bureaucracies who often times receive a large portion of their budgets directly from Big Pharma and Big Food. In fact, the FDA's year over year budget increase of nearly 1 billion dollars is 94% funded by Big Pharma, yet the agencies escape any transparency due to the mainstream media's willful ignorance(and perhaps the $2.4 billion the media receives in ad revenue from Big Pharma every year).

So can we trust these unelected bureaucrats, who often times have direct ties to the very companies they are "regulating", to make unbiased decisions on our behalf? Can we trust them to fairly represent industries that do not lobby them? Let us know how you feel about it in the comments below.