GMO oranges, China, and the loss of another piece of America’s agricultural base
America’s oranges are now in the crosshairs of a genetic modification juggernaut that is sweeping this country and leaving in its wake a swath of destruction so wide and so utterly decimating that recovery seems a distant dream.
The genetic modification of corn and soy has succeeded in infiltrating nearly every processed food in America, with wheat and alfalfa soon to be next. Now it’s oranges. But why?
The orange is the second most profitable fruit crop in America after the grape. Valued at 1.5 billion in 2009, it accounts for 1/6 of all fruit and nut cash receipts. Because it requires a tropical or subtropical climate to flourish, commercial orange production is limited to just four states: Florida, California, Texas and Arizona.
While California does produce the majority of the fresh fruit, Florida dominates the orange juice market. And since orange juice is far more popular than fresh oranges, the Sunshine State rules the orange industry. At last count, more than seventy percent of the oranges grown in America are Florida oranges.
Florida orange juice is the single most profitable and distinctive fruit product in the state. The industry is responsible for over eighty percent of the US supply. As a result, America rarely imports orange juice. (Halegroves.com)
It only makes sense for the biotech industry to go after the largest and most profitable crops. The bigger the crop the better. Why waste time on smaller crops when the larger ones produce more income, and provide more control over production and distribution?
The excuse that is being used for this genetic takeover of the orange industry is a disease called “greening.”
Citrus greening, also known as huanglongbing (HLB) or yellow dragon disease, is one of the most serious citrus diseases in the world. It is a bacterial disease that greatly reduces production, destroys the economic value of fruit, and can kill trees. (APHIS Factsheet PDF )
An insect called a psyllid spreads the disease. This disease was detected in Florida in 2005.
The Asian citrus psyllid, which has been detected in the United States, bears the scientific name Diaphorina citri Kuwayama and is widely distributed in southern Asia and parts of Mexico and Brazil. (APHIS Factsheet)
Since there is no known cure, the best defense is to control the psyllid populations. There are several natural ways to control these pests such as:
Topical applications of insecticidal soaps and neem oils
Natural predators such as lady beetles, lacewings, spiders, and parasitic wasps
Environmental controls such as removing infected branches or trees, creating new hybrids, and planting guava trees among the citrus trees. Infestations seem to be eliminated when the guava trees are used. (Insect Library)
But the USDA is not interested in these natural alternatives.
Shivering Britain can expect at least another month of bitterly cold temperatures with many parts failing to get much above zero until the middle of January, forecasters have warned.
Heavy snow fell on Scotland and northern England last week Photo: PA By Martin Evans 6:39PM GMT 09 Dec 2010
So far December has seen some of the coldest temperatures and heaviest snowfalls since 1981, but with no let up on the horizon, it could end up being the worst winter since 1910.
Parts of northern England and central Scotland have seen lows of (0F) -18C while the mercury has continued to drop in the south.
But apart from a brief respite over the coming weekend, when temperatures are expected to climb slightly, the cold snap is likely to continue throughout Christmas and well into January.
Drivers are being warned to remain vigilant and cautious as many road surfaces will be icy and treacherous for many weeks to come.
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Dozens of people have been killed and thousands have abandoned their homes as floods and mudslides ravage Colombia and Venezuela.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday urged nearly 500 people to evacuate from the vulnerable hillside of a poor Medellin suburb where a landslide killed dozens as it buried about 30 homes.
The bodies of 36 victims — at least a third of them children — have been recovered from Sunday’s disaster. Authorities say about 90 people remain missing.
Santos on Tuesday visited the stricken suburb of Bello, about 155 miles (250 kilometers) northeast of Bogota, and told reporters the landslide was a tragedy waiting to happen. He promised to build 1,000 homes for at-risk families in the town, where officials say between 80 and 100 homes are in danger.
Meanwhile, authorities in Venezuela evacuated 5,000 more people from high-risk areas, bringing the total number of Venezuelans displaced by weeks of rain to more than 106,900, Defense Minister Carlos Mata Figueroa said Tuesday. At least 35 people have been killed by flooding and mudslides.
Heavy rain has caused the widespread flooding forcing authorities to declare a state of emergency and evacuate thousands of people from their homes.
A state of emergency has been declared in several areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina after five days of torrential rain caused what has been decribed as the worst flooding in a century.
The Bosian Army is using boats to deliver food and drinking water to houses cut-off, due to roads and bridges being submerged by water.
Cash machines are running out of money ahead of what is traditionally one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.
The heaviest snowfall for 20 years means security vans carrying cash are being prevented from making deliveries to their regular destinations.
High street bank HSBC confirmed yesterday that snow was causing problems for some of its drivers.
It reported that 7 per cent of its cash machines were closed yesterday and that if levels dropped any further, it would be reach “unacceptable levels”.
* Two pensioners die after collapsing in their gardens
* Milder temperatures expected tomorrow but falling again on Sunday
* Short-haul flights from Gatwick cancelled until 5pm
* Petrol forecourts run dry as deliveries are held up
* Rail networks cancel services for the third day running
Petrol forecourts were today running dry and food stores were struggling to replenish their shelves as icy conditions halted deliveries.
‘Critical’ shortages of petrol have been reported by the RMI Petrol Retailers Association, with remote areas being particularly badly affected.
Some fuel stations have also been accused of ‘cashing in’ on the crisis by increasing their prices – with one garage in Surrey putting up the cost of diesel per litre from £1.24 to £1.28 within the past four days.
The news came as snowfalls eased but temperatures plummeted even further, dropping -20.1C in Scotland and -7C in London and Birmingham overnight.
Think strawberries are expensive now? Wait until they start costing people their lives!
California is about to sign off on an insane plan that would allow farmers to use one of the world’s most dangerous chemicals as a pesticide on strawberry plants.
It’s called methyl iodide, and even some chemists won’t go near it. It’s such a powerful and reliable carcinogen that researchers use it to induce cancer in lab animals.
But go ahead, take a bite. California says it’s OK — and never mind the five Nobel-winning chemists and dozens of other experts who’ve written a letter begging the EPA to keep this poison out of strawberry fields, forever.
Who do you believe — a roomful of Nobel winners and their trusted colleagues, or a bunch of politically motivated bureaucrats?
This toxic monster has been linked to thyroid tumors, nerve damage, and brain and lung problems. It’s also been known to cause miscarriages in lab animals — when it’s not being used to give them cancer.
No wonder it’s such a great pesticide — it can destroy just about anything. The pests don’t stand a chance… and neither do you if you get too close to this poison.
Experts say a good breeze can even send methyl iodide airborne… and if you think U.S. groundwater is bad now, wait until this junk starts seeping in.
California approves use of pesticide linked to cancer
A farmer spraying pesticide on a crop of vegetables. Long-term exposure to pesticides may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, according to a study released Thursday.
FRESNO, Calif. – California regulators approved a pesticide Wednesday for use by fruit and vegetable growers despite heavy opposition from environmental and farmworker groups that cited its links to cancer.
The state Department of Pesticide Regulation will register methyl iodide as a substitute for the pesticide methyl bromide, which is being phased out by international treaty because it depletes the Earth’s protective ozone layer.
California’s $1.6 billion strawberry industry will undoubtedly provide one of the biggest markets for the chemical, as will the Central Valley’s nut orchards and the fresh flower nurseries dotting the coast in Ventura and San Diego counties.
The pesticide is included on California’s official list of cancer-causing chemicals, and the department’s own scientific advisory panel has raised concerns that it could poison the air and water.
Mike Utsler, Chief Operating Officer of BP’s Gulf Coast Restoration, admits publicly “There is a new form of microbiology that is attacking this (oil) plume and using it as a food source”. This brief video snippet is taken from a Novermber 7, 2010 broadcast by BBC TWO entitled ‘Has the Oil Really Gone?’ by reporter Stephen Fry and can be seen in it’s entirety at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vy…
Notice how Utsler is cut off by his own people at BP immediately after stating this and the interview was abruptly ended.
To understand exactly what this synthetic genome “new form of Microbiology” is, go to:
Watch an ‘Inconvenient Truth (Lie)’ again (What a horrible thought!) or watch the following video from 2:20 and you will see that CO2 lags 800 years behind temperature rises:
And yes, the hockey stick graph is a fake and it is obvious to anybody:
Redd scheme designed to prevent deforestation but critics call it ‘privatisation’ of natural resources
An aerial view of trees at a forest on Sumatra, Indonesia where millions are being spent to fight deforestation. Photograph: Beawiharta/Reuters
Some of the world’s largest oil, mining, car and gas corporations will make hundreds of millions of dollars from a UN-backed forest protection scheme, according to a new report from the Friends of the Earth International.
The group’s new report – launched on the first day of the global climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, where 193 countries hope to thrash out a new agreement – is the first major assessment of the several hundred, large-scale Redd (Reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation) pilot schemes. It shows that banks, airlines, charitable foundations, carbon traders, conservation groups, gas companies and palm plantation companies have also scrambled into forestry protection.
While forestry is billed as one issue where significant progress could be made at the talks, over the weekend David Cameron, Chris Huhne, the climate change secretary, and the government’s chief scientists all played down the prospect of a global deal to cut carbon emissions.
“British ministers are going to Mexico this week with an approach that is both realistic and optimistic,” the prime minister wrote in the Observer . “Realistic, because we don’t expect a global deal to be struck in Cancun, but optimistic too, because we are viewing this as a stepping stone to future agreement.”
Huhne, who will attend the second week of the talks, was more blunt: “No one expects a binding deal on climate change in Cancun.” But he said deforestation and longer-term climate finance were areas where progress could be made.
The Redd scheme is central to slowing, or halting, deforestation, which causes huge releases of carbon dioxide. But critics say that the scheme amounts to privatisation of natural resources.
FoE’s report shows, for example that the Anglo-Dutch oil firm Shell has linked with Russian gas giant Gazprom and the Clinton Foundation to invest in the Rimba Rey project, 100,000ha of peat swamp in Indonesia. The project is expecting to prevent 75m tonnes of carbon being emitted over 30 years, which could earn the three groups $750m at a modest carbon price of $10 a tonne.
It also says that an investment of little more than $10m by the bank Merrill Lynch, the conservation group Flora and Fauna International and an Australian carbon trading company could generate more than $430m, over 30 years, from a project to protect 750,000ha of forest in Aceh province, Indonesia.
Britain’s worst November snowfall for decades shut schools and roads from Cornwall to Scotland as forecasters warned that Siberian winds could bring temperatures as low as minus 20C in the coming days.
Deep snow and freezing conditions in the North East and Scotland were causing widespread travel disruption today, with icy temperatures everywhere else creating similar problems for commuters.
There is no sign of a let-up in the wintry weather, with bitter winds increasing and more parts of the UK including London facing snow in the coming days.
So far Scotland and the North East have been worst hit by snow, with more than 40cm in parts, and police have advised people to stay indoors for all but essential travel.
Forecasters warned the rest of the country is likely to be blanketed this week as the weather front moves west.
The severe conditions could also last well into next week, with rain, sleet and snow.
Aisling Creevey, of MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said Londoners should prepare for the possibility of snow tonight.
Team of experts say such an increase would cause severe droughts and see millions of migrants seeking refuge
Monday 29 November 2010Nomadic pastoralists Turkana tribesmen herd goats and sheep to a almost dry dam on the outskirts of Gakong, in northwestern Kenya on 13 December 2009. Photograph: Stephen Morrison/EPA
A hellish vision of a world warmed by 4C within a lifetime has been set out by an international team of scientists, who say the agonisingly slow progress of the global climate change talks that restart in Mexico today makes the so-called safe limit of 2C impossible to keep. A 4C rise in the planet’s temperature would see severe droughts across the world and millions of migrants seeking refuge as their food supplies collapse.
“There is now little to no chance of maintaining the rise in global surface temperature at below 2C, despite repeated high-level statements to the contrary,” said Kevin Anderson, from the University of Manchester, who with colleague Alice Bows contributed research to a special collection of Royal Society journal papers published tomorrow. “Moreover, the impacts associated with 2C have been revised upwards so that 2C now represents the threshold [of] extremely dangerous climate change.”
The new analysis by Anderson and Bows takes account of the non-binding pledges made by countries in the Copenhagen Accord, the compromise document that emerged from the last major UN climate summit, and the slight dip in greenhouse gas emissions caused by the economic recession. The scientists’ modelling is based on actual tonnes of emissions, not percentage reductions, and separates the predicted emissions of rich and fast-industrialising nations such as China. “2010 represents a political tipping point,” said Anderson, but added in the report: “This paper is not intended as a message of futility, but rather a bare and perhaps brutal assessment of where our ‘rose-tinted’ and well-intentioned approach to climate change has brought us. Real hope and opportunity, if it is to arise at all, will do so from a raw and dispassionate assessment of the scale of the challenge faced by the global community.”
A rise of 4C could be seen as soon as 2060 in a worst case scenario, according to research in the same journal, led by the Met Office’s Richard Betts and first revealed in the Guardian last year. Betts accepts the scenario is extreme but argues it is also plausible given the rapidly rising trend in emissions.
John Bush of Texans for Accountable Government Exposes Agenda 21 to Dumb Austin City Council
Added: 14. October 2010
Flashback …
Most Americans are unaware that one of the greatest threats to their freedom may be a United Nations program known as Agenda 21. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development created Agenda 21 as a sustainability agenda which is arguably an amalgamation of socialism and extreme environmentalism brushed with anti-American, anti-capitalist overtones.
A detailed history on sustainable development, definitions, and critical actions can be found here. Section III of the Agenda 21 Plan addresses local community sustainable development. The Preamble and Chapter 28 discuss how Agenda 21 should be implemented at a local level. The United Nations purposely recommends avoiding the term Agenda 21 and suggests a cleverly named alternative: “smart growth.” The United Nations Millennium Papers – Issue 2 (page 5) says this of Agenda 21 and smart growth:
Participating in a UN-advocated planning process would very likely bring out many of the conspiracy-fixated groups and individuals in our society such as the National Rifle Association, citizen militias and some members of Congress. This segment of our society who fear ‘one-world government’ and a UN invasion of the United States through which our individual freedom would be stripped away would actively work to defeat any elected official who joined ‘the conspiracy’ by undertaking LA21. So, we call our process something else, such as comprehensive planning, growth management, or smart growth [emphasis added].
Undoubtedly, residents of any town, county, or city in the United States that treasure their freedom, liberty, and property rights couldn’t care less whether it’s called Agenda 21 or smart growth. A recent example of this can be found in Carroll County, Maryland, where a smart growth plan called Pathways was drafted by the County Planning Department. The plan, if enacted, proposed a breathtaking reshuffling of land rights:
Rezoning of thousands of acres of beautiful, low-density agricultural farmland and protected residential conservation land into office parks
Down-zoning of agriculture land to prevent future subdivision by farmers
Up-zoning of low-density residential land around small towns into higher density zoning to permit construction of hundreds or possibly thousands of inclusive housing units, including apartments and condominiums
Inclusive housing with placement of multi-family construction on in-fill lots within existing residential single family communities
Endorsement of government-sponsored housing initiatives (subsidies) to ensure healthier, balanced neighborhoods
Every month, JPMorgan Chase dispatches a researcher to several supermarkets in Virginia. The task is to comparison shop for 31 items.
In July, the firm’s personal shopper came back with a stunning report: Wal-Mart had raised its prices 5.8% during the previous month. More significantly, its prices were approaching the levels of competing stores run by Kroger and Safeway. The “low-price leader” still holds its title, but by a noticeably slimmer margin.
Within this tale lie several lessons you can put to work to make money. And it’s best to get started soon, because if you think your grocery bill is already high, you ain’t seen nothing yet. In fact, we could be just one supply shock away from a full-blown food crisis that would make the price spikes of 2008 look like a happy memory.
Fact is, the food crisis of 2008 never really went away.
True, food riots didn’t break out in poor countries during 2009 and warehouse stores like Costco didn’t ration 20-pound bags of rice…but supply remained tight.
Prices for basic foodstuffs like corn and wheat remain below their 2008 highs. But they’re a lot higher than they were before “the food crisis of 2008” took hold. Here’s what’s happened to some key farm commodities so far in 2010…
Corn: Up 63%
Wheat: Up 84%
Soybeans: Up 24%
Sugar: Up 55%
What was a slow and steady increase much of the year has gone into overdrive since late summer. Blame it on two factors…
Aug. 5: A failed wheat harvest prompted Russia to ban grain exports through the end of the year. Later in August, the ban was extended through the end of 2011. Drought has wrecked the harvest in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan – home to a quarter of world production
Oct. 8: For a second month running, the Agriculture Department cut its forecast for US corn production. The USDA predicts a 3.4% decline from last year. Damage done by Midwestern floods in June was made worse by hot, dry weather in August.
America’s been blessed with year after year of “record harvests,” depending on how you measure it. So when crisis hits elsewhere in the world, the burden of keeping the world fed falls on America’s shoulders.
The big freeze will continue to grip Britain for weeks to come, forecasters said last night.
Motorists struggle as heavy snowfalls continue throught the UK Photo: AP
The predication came as more severe weather warnings were issued and parts of Scotland and North East England were hit by up to 16 ins of snow.
The snow will spread across the Pennines towards Manchester today and also move inland from eastern England towards the South East and London, the Met Office said.
A spokesman for the MeteoGroup forecasters said: “People should be bracing themselves for more cold weather for the working week and beyond.”
Gritters were out in force to clear main roads yesterday but conditions on minor roads in many areas were described as “treacherous”.
Police in the worst-hit areas warned motorists to drive only if their journeys were “absolutely essential” as the disruption caused by the earliest widespread snow for 17 years continued.
Up to 6ins (15cm) of snow fell in the customary cold spots of north-east Scotland and northern England, as well as in Wales and Northern Ireland, but it even fell in Cornwall, causing problems on trains and on the roads.
Hearing crucial in animals’ ability to feed, navigate
Rescue workers helped a dolphin on Lieutenant Island in Wellfleet, Mass., in March, when two groups of white-sided dolphins wounded up being stranded on Cape Cod. (Steve Heaslip/Cape Cod Times via Associated Press) By
WASHINGTON — New research into the cause of dolphin “strandings’’ — incidents in which weakened or dead dolphins are found near shore — has shown that in some species, many stranded creatures share the same problem.
They are nearly deaf, in a world where hearing can be as valuable as sight.
That understanding — gained from a study of dolphins’ brain activity — could help explain why such intelligent animals do something so seemingly dumb. Unable to use sound to find food or family members, dolphins can wind up weak and disoriented.
Researchers are unsure what is causing the hearing loss: It might be old age, birth defects, or a cacophony of man-made noise in the ocean, including Navy sonar, which has been associated with some marine mammal strandings in recent years.
The news, researchers say, is a warning for those who rescue and release injured dolphins: In some cases, the animals might be going back to a world they can’t hear.
“Rehab is pretty time-consuming and pretty expensive,’’ said David Mann, a professor at the University of South Florida and the study’s lead author. If the dolphin can’t hear, he said, “there’s almost no point in rehabbing it and releasing it.’’
City trees are becoming sick from wireless radiation from local area networks and mobile phones, according to a European study.
Radiation from Wi-Fi networks is harmful to trees, causing significant variations in growth, as well as bleeding and fissures in the bark, according to a recent study in the Netherlands.
All deciduous trees in the Western world are affected, according to the study by Wageningen University. The city of Alphen aan den Rijn ordered the study five years ago after officials found unexplained abnormalities on trees that couldn’t be ascribed to a virus or bacterial infection.
Additional testing found the disease to occur throughout the Western world. In the Netherlands, about 70 percent of all trees in urban areas show the same symptoms, compared with only 10 percent five years ago. Trees in densely forested areas are hardly affected.
Besides the electromagnetic fields created by mobile-phone networks and wireless LANs, ultrafine particles emitted by cars and trucks may also be to blame. These particles are so small they are able to enter the organisms.
The study exposed 20 ash trees to various radiation sources for a period of three months. Trees placed closest to the Wi-Fi radio demonstrated a “lead-like shine” on their leaves that was caused by the dying of the upper and lower epidermis of the leaves. This would eventually result in the death of parts of the leaves. The study also found that Wi-Fi radiation could inhibit the growth of corn cobs.
A man walks on a pedestrian overpass on a hazy day at Beijing’s Central Business District, China, Friday, Nov. 19, 2010. Beijing’s air, notorious for its pollution, soared above 500 on the air quality index on Friday, considered hazardous for all populations by U.S. standards. (AP)
BEIJING – Pollution in Beijing was so bad Friday the U.S. Embassy, which has been independently monitoring air quality, ran out of conventional adjectives to describe it, at one point saying it was “crazy bad.”
The embassy later deleted the phrase, saying it was an “incorrect” description and it would revise the language to use when the air quality index goes above 500, its highest point and a level considered hazardous for all people by U.S. standards.
The hazardous haze has forced schools to stop outdoor exercises, and health experts asked residents, especially those with respiratory problems, the elderly and children, to stay indoors.
“We’ve canceled 10 days worth of games since August,” said David Niven, chief operating officer of China ClubFootball, which runs extensive youth and adult football leagues in Beijing. “If the air is above 240, some of the schools will ask us to move football games indoors or cancel them altogether. Because of the bad air this year, we’ve had to cancel more games than ever before.”
Cocoa Consuming Countries
Source: UNCTAD based on the data from International Cocoa Organization, quaterly bulletin of cocoa statistics
With the intention of flooding 70% of the global cocoa supply with genetically modified (GMO) cocoa tree hybrids, a collaboration involving Mars, USDA and IBM is accelerating this process.
With primary funding from US chocolate producer Mars, the partnership includes scientists based at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the US Department of Agriculture and Science as well as researchers working at IBM’s Thomas J Watson Research Center.
The scientists are determined to finalize gene sequencing of the cocoa genome which they say will “benefit” the chocolate industry and cocoa growers in West Africa where 70 percent of the world’s cocoa is produced, and in other tropical zones.
According to the global head of plant science and research at the confectionery firm, Howard-Yana Shapiro, the sequence is of great importance.
“As plant breeders, we’re always looking after the golden traits: pest and disease resistant, drought tolerance, the ability to adapt to climate change, tree architecture, yield quality, etc,” said Dr Shapiro.
The researchers including ARS based molecular biologist David Kuhn and geneticist Raymond Schnell said that they released the findings of sequencing into the public domain in order to assist scientists to begin applying the findings immediately.
This is unconstitutional and violates your basic human right to grow your own food!
This is treason!
“The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson
“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion…. And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms…. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
– Thomas Jefferson
Your help is needed to halt the tyrannical new “S.510” U.S. Senate bill that could criminalize saving seeds and outlaw backyard garden food production. It is being called “the most dangerous bill in the history of the United States of America.”
(NaturalNews) Senate Bill 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, has been called “the most dangerous bill in the history of the United States of America.” It would grant the U.S. government new authority over the public’s right to grow, trade and transport any foods. This would give Big brother the power to regulate the tomato plants in your backyard. It would grant them the power to arrest and imprison people selling cucumbers at farmer’s markets. It would criminalize the transporting of organic produce if you don’t comply with the authoritarian rules of the federal government.
“It will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade and consumption of food and agricultural products of one’s choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary to natural law or, if you like, the will of God.” – Dr. Shiv Chopra, Canada Health whistleblower (http://shivchopra.com/?page_id=2)
This tyrannical law puts all food production (yes, even food produced in your own garden) under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security. Yep — the very same people running the TSA and its naked body scanner / passenger groping programs.
This law would also give the U.S. government the power to arrest any backyard food producer as a felon (a “smuggler”) for merely growing lettuce and selling it at a local farmer’s market.
It also sells out U.S. sovereignty over our own food supply by ceding to the authority of both the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Codex Alimentarius.
It would criminalize seed saving (http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/20…), turning backyard gardeners who save heirloom seeds into common criminals. This is obviously designed to give corporations like Monsanto a monopoly over seeds.
It would create an unreasonable paperwork burden that would put small food producers out of business, resulting in more power over the food supply shifting to large multinational corporations.
I encourage you to read more about this dangerous bill at the Food Freedom blog on WordPress: http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/20…
S.510 in more detail:
In addition, the Cornucopia Institute recently sent out an urgent call-to-action email containing the following information: (http://www.cornucopia.org/2010/11/a…)
1) Go to Congress.org and type in your zip code in the box in the upper right hand corner.
2) Click on your Senator’s name, and then on the contact tab for their phone number. You can also call the Capitol Switchboard and ask to be directly connected to your Senator’s office: 202-224-3121.
3) Once connected ask to speak to the legislative staff person responsible for agriculture. If they are unavailable leave a voice mail message. Be sure to include your name and phone number.
Give them this message in support of the “Tester Amendment” which would exempt small farms from S.510:
“I am a constituent of Senator___________. I ask that he/she support the Tester Amendment to the food safety bill. The Tester Amendment will exempt the safest, small, owner-operator farms and food facilities and farmers who direct market their products to consumers, stores or restaurants. Food safety legislation should not create inappropriate and costly regulatory barriers to family farms and the growing healthy food movement in the drive to crack down on corporate bad actors. Please support the Tester Amendment and market opportunities for small and mid-sized family farms, and small food processing facilities.”
You may also wish to explain that you oppose the Food Safety Modernization Act in its entirety, and it is a destructive, freedom-crushing law that will destroy the future of food in America.
Remember, America has already lost control over its money supply to the Federal Reserve (nearly a hundred years ago). America has lost its health due to the medical industry and its profit-from-sickness agenda. Now we may lose our right to grow our own food and save our own seeds if Senate Bill 510 passes.
This is a dangerous, tyrannical law that would thrust the American people into an age of darkness and malnutrition. It would criminalize many of the very people growing our food and turn food production into yet another corporate monopoly.
Please take the time right now to contact your U.S. Senator and voice your strong opposition to this bill.
This video is part one of an investigative series by CBS affiliate KHOU, aired Nov. 9, 2010:
This video is part two of an investigative series by CBS affiliate KHOU, aired Nov. 10, 2010:
Texas officials charged with protecting the environment and public health have for years made arbitrary subtractions to the measured levels of radiation delivered by water utilities across the state, according to a series of investigative reports out of Houston.
Those subtractions, based on the test results’ margin of error, made all the difference for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ): without the reduction, demonstrated levels of dangerous radiation would have been in excess of federal limits for years.
This was being done in direct contravention of an order by the US Environmental Protection Agency, which told state regulators in 2000 to stop subtracting the margin of error.
The findings are part of an investigation by Houston CBS affiliate KHOU.
Confronted by reporter Mark Greenblatt, TCEQ staffer Linda Brookins claimed that the radiation was “natural” and people shouldn’t be concerned. She also refused to read on camera the EPA’s order to stop subtracting margins of error from radiation test results.
KHOU called it “Texas math,” in part two of its ongoing series.
Thanks to the TCEQ’s under-reporting of radioactive content, one particular water provider in Harris County was able to skirt needed maintenance for years, even though uncensored tests showed radiation was almost always above legal limits.
Independent tests, the station noted, showed that some of the radiation contained harmful alpha particles, which can cause cell mutations and increase the risk of cancer.
The practice of under-reporting radiation continued until last year, when the EPA once again demanded Texas comply with the law.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Federal agriculture officials have released a plan to let farmers plant genetically modified sugar beets while a lawsuit over them is resolved, but farmers fear a partial lifting of a court-ordered ban won’t come in time for next year’s crop.
A federal judge in California issued an order last summer halting the planting of genetically modified sugar beets until the U.S. Department of Agriculture completes an environmental impact study on how the beets could affect conventional crops. The ruling had a widespread effect since nearly all the nation’s sugar beet farmers had converted to genetically modified seed.
Half of the nation’s sugar comes from sugar beets, and 95 percent of them are grown using so-called Roundup Ready seed produced by St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. The seeds are engineered to withstand the weed killer Roundup, allowing farmers to reduce the use of other chemicals and limit tilling, which kills weeds but can contribute to erosion.
No offspring for you (Image: CDC/Phanie/Rex Features)
An outdoor trial of mosquitoes genetically engineered to sabotage Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spread dengue fever, has been declared a success by scientists in the field.
By the end of the six-month trial on a 16-hectare plot, populations of the native insects, which spread the dengue virus had plummeted.
“It’s a proof of principle, that it works,” says Angela Harris of the Mosquito Control and Research Unit on the Caribbean island of Grand Cayman, where the trial took place. The MCRU conducted the trial with Oxitec, the company in Oxford, UK, that bred the GM mosquitoes.
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Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
