Agriculture

37 Reasons to Avoid Genetically Modified Foods

Posted on Jan 31, 2012 in Featured Articles, Health, Food News, & Big Pharma
Kevin Hayden – TruthisTreason.net

The adulteration and modification of some of the planet’s most widely used crops has changed our food landscape. Chemicals, preservatives, genetic modification and low-cost substitutions and fillers have wrecked meals that were once healthy for us. Stepping inside of a grocery store nowadays, we find ourselves in a dangerous and toxic new world. The introduction of genetically modified organisms into the food supply in the 1990′s, coupled with rampant use of carcinogens such as aspartame, and substitutions like high fructose corn syrup, set the perfect stage to form a deadly concoction known as processed food. Sadly, this is what encompasses the average American diet.

The United States isn’t broke; we’re the richest country on the planet and a country in which the richest among us are doing exceptionally well. But the truth is, our economy is broken, producing more pollution, greenhouse gasses and garbage than any other country. In these and so many other ways, it just isn’t working. But rather than invest in something better, we continue to keep this ‘dinosaur economy’ on life support with hundreds of billions of dollars of our tax money. The Story of Broke calls for a shift in government spending toward investments in clean, green solutions—renewable energy, safer chemicals and materials, zero waste and more—that can deliver jobs AND a healthier environment. It’s time to rebuild the American Dream; but this time, let’s build it better.

Bleached corals on coral reef on southern Great Barrier Reef

Ocean scientists find the effects of climate change in the world's oceans. From acidification and warming temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice loss, Ira Flatow and guests explore how the oceans are changing.
Source: Changing Climate Means Changing Oceans

Gareth Porter

Scott Horton Interviews Gareth Porter

Gareth Porter is an independent historian and journalist for IPS News. He discusses the acceptance of the false Iraq War narrative. He explains how the U.S. and Iran are essentially partners-in-meddling in Iraqi politics.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews Gareth Porter, September 13, 2010

Riz Khan of Al Jazeera English questions the food distribution system

He asks with more than one billion people around the world considered overweight, why are so many others still starving and struggling to fill their plates?
Source: Riz Khan - Global food justice

Music includes Earth Anthem, The Maid Freed from the Gallows, Lonely Bull, We'll Meet Again

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Toxic Pesticide Approved for Strawberries in CA

posted by Jake Richardson Dec 3, 2010 7:03 am

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation approved the use of methyl iodide for strawberry farmers this week. The pesticide is a fumigant that kills insects, weeds and bacteria. There is also research showing it causes cancer in rats and mice. The EPA’s website says, “In rats that received subcutaneous injections, subcutaneous sarcomas and pulmonary metastases were reported. An increased incidence of lung tumors was reported in mice exposed to high levels of methyl iodide by intraperitoneal injection.” (Source: EPA.gov)

The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment published a document listing the type of toxicity for methyl iodide as “cancer.” The 2008 document’s title is Chemicals Known to the State to Cause Cancer or Reproductive Toxicity.

The EPA also says chronic inhalation of the pesticide may impact the human central nervous system. Skin contact for long periods can cause burns in animals and humans, though the length of time to cause burns is not specified. A material safety data sheet, which is a document used by people who handle chemicals regularly such as lab workers, states skin burns can occur on contact. If inhaled for longer periods, it can cause, “pallor, giddiness, dizziness, ataxia, sleepiness, irritability, drowsiness, incoordination, slurred speech, muscular twitching, and even death.”(Source: Sciencelab.com) Ingestion causes vomiting, abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea. It can also be fatal.

(Non Genetically Modified Shopping guide)

How Science Is Changing Your Thanksgiving Feast

Thanks to biotechnology and widespread genetic modification, the meal you'll enjoy tomorrow certainly isn't your grandma's feast
By Rebecca Boyle

Since they were introduced 15 years ago, genetically modified foods have taken astonishing hold in North America. This time of year, the result is a Thanksgiving menu that may, on the surface, look much the same as the one your grandma cooked 20 years ago. But at the genetic level, it is very different, and it's a far cry from the fabled feast shared by the pilgrims and American Indians in the 17th century. In celebration of Thanksgiving, the most food-focused day of the year, here's a look at how biotechnology is changing the way we eat.

Before it reached the grocery store — even before it reached the farm — your turkey, turducken or tofurkey likely started out in a lab, with scientists in white coats peering at PCR data and tinkering with plant genomes to produce traits that nature never intended.

Let's start with your morning coffee. Unless you buy organic, your milk and half-and-half most likely comes from cows that have been administered synthetic hormones. The hormones rBST and rBGH let cows grow bigger faster, and allow them to produce more milk. Do you use soy milk instead? It's probably from GMO soybeans. How about sweetener? Fully 95 percent of the U.S. sugar beet crop is genetically modified, and half the nation’s sugar supply comes from beets. What about high fructose corn syrup? Of course. About 85 percent of American corn is genetically modified. Even sugarcane is genetically altered.

NEW RELEASE 1 September 2010
By: Patrick Porgans
Further Info: Contact Planetary Solutionaries at pp [at] planetarysolutionaries.org, 415-306-3317

Government Data Raises 'More Doubts About the Drought'

California Agriculture Cashing In at Record Breaking Highs

The Golden State’s agricultural earnings have reached historic highs during the so-called three-year drought.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture, (USDA), California’s cash receipts from crop and livestock sales, in billions of dollars, are as follows: 2009- $34.841; 2008- $38.407; 2007- $36.386; 2006- $31.426; 2005 - $32.4; 2004- $30.939; 2003- $28.232; 2002- $26.544; 2000 - $26.206; and 2000- $25.185.

California’s Governor Schwarzenegger, state water officials, 60 Minutes’ Leslie Stahl, and Fox Cable TV host Sean Hannity, were among those espousing their “Dust Bowl” drought rhetoric for the past three years, depicting images or fallow fields, orchards being ripped out and projections of the state’s agricultural industry going under. It appears their doomsday predictions were all wet.

Government data released yesterday by the USDA, does not support their draconian doom and gloom prophecies reminiscent of the “Great Drought – Dust Bowl” of the 1930’s, and their predictions that billions of dollars in lost revenues were imminent.

In fact, in 2008, the second year of what officials proclaimed may be the state’s “worst drought ever," agricultural “cash receipts” (revenues realized from all agricultural commodities produced in the Golden State) reached a record-breaking high of $38.4 billion (just recently revised from the initial 2008 estimate of $36.2 billion), up from the previous all-time high in 2007 of $36.4 billion.

The first of two videos with Emmy Award winning reporter George Knapp. It exposes the corruption and outright baldfaced lies by the corporate-to-BLM-and-back-again-revolving-door and political-career-climber-muckety-muck-bureaucrats. The next video explains the reason for BP's involvement with the roundups in Nv. and possibly California ... which is, BP's, among other's, interest in the Ruby Pipeline, a 42" Natural Gas Pipeline from Wyoming to Oregon.

The Mustang Conspiracy: Sex, Drugs, Corruption, and BP

[...]

Part one covers the history of the BLM's lies and a former BLM employee, Craig Downer who quit in disgust and has proven the BLM's data is false, provides the factual counterpoint to those lies. Part one also covers the investigations into the bogus data used to support these lies, via FOIA work done by a private citizen, Cindy MacDonald, that shows what the true motivations are behind these heinous acts. We'll also get a glimpse into George's 20 plus year investigation of this activity , the truth about the horses, their land and how it's been handed over to Big Agriculture (Corporate Cattle Ranches) and Big Oil, all at the expense of the U.S. Tax Payer and in violation of U.S. Federal Law.

The comments of Sean Hannity, in "The Valley Hope Forgot: California Farmers at Obama's Mercy" show on Fox TV News on September 18, are typical of those that perpetuate the myth that west side San Joa

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/025856.html

"The Daily Show" funnyman Jon Stewart took some time last night to poke fun at Fox News host Sean Hannity's recent special on California's water woes.

MediaWatch: Correcting Sean Hannity from Bruce Tokars on Vimeo.

Tuesday night, August 11, 2009, Sean Hannity of Fox News did a short piece on the water problems of the western San Joaquin Valley, interviewing Rep. Devin Nunes and Comedian Paul Rodriguez, who is head of the California Latino Water Coalition. The segment was full of falsehoods, misinformation and disinformation.