Thread: Seeds of Death: Unveiling The Lies of GMO’s – Full Movie

Seeds of Death: Unveiling The Lies of GMO’s – Full Movie

May 25, 2013
ppjg GMO, Toxic food agriculture, crops, environmental activists, farming, food, Genetically Modified Organisms, GMO's, organic farming, Seeds of Death, toxic food 3 Comments


The world’s leading Scientists, Physicians, Attorneys, Politicians and Environmental Activists expose the corruption and dangers surrounding the widespread use of Genetically Modified Organisms in the new feature length documentary, “Seeds of Death: Unveiling the Lies of GMOs”.

Published on May 23, 2013

Senior Executive Producer / Writer / Director: Gary Null PhD
Executive Producer/Writer/Co-Director: Richard Polonetsky
Producers: Paola Bossola, Richard Gale, James Spruill, Patrick Thompson, Valerie Van Cleve
Editors: James Spruill, Patrick Thompson, Richie Williamson, Nick Palm
Music: Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com), Armando Guarnera
Graphics: Jay Graygor



http://ppjg.me/2013/05/25/seeds-of-d...os-full-movie/

The 2013 Farm Bill: What to Know, What to Do

• By Katherine Paul
  Organic Consumers Association, May 23, 2013
  
  

BREAKING NEWS: This morning, the Senate voted down (27-71) the Sanders amendment #965 to S.954, the Farm bill. The amendment, submitted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), was an effort to support the existing right of states to enact their own laws requiring the labeling of genetically engineered food. Already this year 26 states have introduced labeling laws with the possibility of passage in a number of states. You can watch today's debate and vote on this amendment recorded here. You can see how your senators voted here.

Editor's note: The information in the following article was up to date as of 7 a.m. EST, Thursday, May 23. Because the Senate debate on the Farm Bill is ongoing, the information below will continue to change. Updates will be posted above.

Unless you're a diehard policy wonk, it may be tough to get excited about something called a Farm Bill. But consumers have a bigger stake than what many of us may think in the policies being debated this week in Washington D.C. And Big Ag's lobbyists are out in full force to protect corporate interests, almost always at the expense of consumers.

Will the Senate repeal the infamous Monsanto Protection Act? Will your Senators support an amendment that could take away states' rights to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs)? Or will they approve an amendment supporting GMO labeling? Will they approve policies that support organic farmers? That finally allow U.S. farmers to grow hemp?

This week the U.S. Senate began the laborious task of debating amendments and fine tuning S. 954, the 2013 Farm Bill. When finalized and voted on by Congress, the new bill will set policies on national agriculture, nutrition, conservation and forestry policy. The last Farm Bill, passed in 2008, expired in 2012. Congress voted on Jan. 1, 2013, to extend several expired Farm Bill Programs.

Here are some of the key amendments consumers should contact their Senators about this week. Find your Senator's name and number here. Or if you already know their name, you can just call them at the Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the Senate office you request.

States' rights - King Amendment: Passed on May 15 by the House Ag Committee, and is already in the House version of the Farm Bill (H.R. 1947). It was proposed by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), largely in response to a California law stating that by 2015, California will allow only eggs to be sold from hens housed in cages specified by California. But policy analysts emphasize that the measure, broadly and ambiguously written, might be used to prohibit or preempt any state GMO labeling or food safety law. Tell your Congress members you don't want this amendment, or any rider or amendment that would preempt states' rights to label GMOs, included in the final version of the Farm Bill.

Learn more

Repeal Monsanto Protection Act - Merkley Amendment #978: Introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), would repeal the infamous Monsanto Protection Act.

Please contact your senators today and ask them to support the Merkley Amendment.

Learn more

Support GMO labeling - Boxer Amendments #1025 and #1026: Introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) would demonstrate Senate support for labeling of GMOs (#1025) and request that the FDA and USDA study the 64 countries around the world that already require labeling (#1026). Call your Senators today, ask them to support the Boxer Amendments #1025 and #1026.

Ban Frankenfish - Begich Amendment #934: Introduced by Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), the amendment would ban the sale of genetically engineered salmon (likely to be approved soon by the FDA) until federal wildlife agencies are properly consulted and find that genetically engineered salmon pose no environmental risk. Call your Senators today, ask them to support the Begich Amendment #934.

Learn more

Allow farmers to grow Industrial hemp - Wyden Amendment #952: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced an amendment to the farm bill Monday that would allow farmers to grow industrial hemp. The "Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013" would exclude industrial hemp, which is not a drug, from classification as "marihuana," removing it from the federal laws against growing pot, and allowing for regulation by the states. Call your Senators today, ask them to support the Wyden Amendment #952.

Learn more

Protect honeybees - Boxer Amendment #1027: Introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to protect honeybees and native pollinators, that have declined over 45% last winter as a result of pesticides and industrial agriculture. Call your Senators today, ask them to support the Boxer Amendment #1027.

Protect our seeds - Tester Amendment #1080: Introduced by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont), will help keep a wide array of seeds in the public domain by ensuring that researchers can develop publicly held seeds for farmers, instead of corporate-controlled, privately held varieties. Call your Senators today, ask them to support the Tester Amendment #1080.

Learn more.

Katherine Paul is Director of Communications and Development for the Organic Consumers Association.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/arti...icle_27587.cfm

Chris Hedges' Columns
Rise Up or Die

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Posted on May 19, 2013

Illustration by Mr. Fish

By Chris Hedges
Joe Sacco and I spent two years reporting from the poorest pockets of the United States for our book “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.” We went into our nation’s impoverished “sacrifice zones”—the first areas forced to kneel before the dictates of the marketplace—to show what happens when unfettered corporate capitalism and ceaseless economic expansion no longer have external impediments. We wanted to illustrate what unrestrained corporate exploitation does to families, communities and the natural world. We wanted to challenge the reigning ideology of globalization and laissez-faire capitalism to illustrate what life becomes when human beings and the ecosystem are ruthlessly turned into commodities to exploit until exhaustion or collapse. And we wanted to expose as impotent the formal liberal and governmental institutions that once made reform possible, institutions no longer equipped with enough authority to check the assault of corporate power.
What has taken place in these sacrifice zones—in postindustrial cities such as Camden, N.J., and Detroit, in coalfields of southern West Virginia where mining companies blast off mountaintops, in Indian reservations where the demented project of limitless economic expansion and exploitation worked some of its earliest evil, and in produce fields where laborers often endure conditions that replicate slavery—is now happening to much of the rest of the country. These sacrifice zones succumbed first. You and I are next.
Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the political theater of electoral politics and impose our educational curriculum. They have turned the judiciary into one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. They have decimated labor unions and other independent mass organizations, as well as having bought off the Democratic Party, which once defended the rights of workers. With the evisceration of piecemeal and incremental reform—the primary role of liberal, democratic institutions—we are left defenseless against corporate power.
The Department of Justice seizure of two months of records of phone calls to and from editors and reporters at The Associated Press is the latest in a series of dramatic assaults against our civil liberties. The DOJ move is part of an effort to hunt down the government official or officials who leaked information to the AP about the foiling of a plot to blow up a passenger jet. Information concerning phones of Associated Press bureaus in New York, Washington, D.C., and Hartford, Conn., as well as the home and mobile phones of editors and reporters, was secretly confiscated. This, along with measures such as the use of the Espionage Act against whistle-blowers, will put a deep freeze on all independent investigations into abuses of government and corporate power.
Seizing the AP phone logs is part of the corporate state’s broader efforts to silence all voices that defy the official narrative, the state’s Newspeak, and hide from public view the inner workings, lies and crimes of empire. The person or persons who provided the classified information to the AP will, if arrested, mostly likely be prosecuted under the Espionage Act. That law was never intended when it was instituted in 1917 to silence whistle-blowers. And from 1917 until Barack Obama took office in 2009 it was employed against whistle-blowers only three times, the first time against Daniel Ellsberg for leaking the Pentagon Papers in 1971. The Espionage Act has been used six times by the Obama administration against government whistle-blowers, including Thomas Drake.

The government’s fierce persecution of the press—an attack pressed by many of the governmental agencies that are arrayed against WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and activists such as Jeremy Hammond—dovetails with the government’s use of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force to carry out the assassination of U.S. citizens; of the FISA Amendments Act, which retroactively makes legal what under our Constitution was once illegal—the warrantless wiretapping and monitoring of tens of millions of U.S. citizens; and of Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act, which permits the government to have the military seize U.S. citizens, strip them of due process and hold them in indefinite detention. These measures, taken together, mean there are almost no civil liberties left. A handful of corporate oligarchs around the globe have everything—wealth, power and privilege—and the rest of us struggle as part of a vast underclass, increasingly impoverished and ruthlessly repressed. There is one set of laws and regulations for us; there is another set of laws and regulations for a power elite that functions as a global mafia.
We stand helpless before the corporate onslaught. There is no way to vote against corporate power. Citizens have no way to bring about the prosecution of Wall Street bankers and financiers for fraud, military and intelligence officials for torture and war crimes, or security and surveillance officers for human rights abuses. The Federal Reserve is reduced to printing money for banks and financiers and lending it to them at almost zero percent interest; corporate officers then lend it to us at usurious rates as high as 30 percent. I do not know what to call this system. It is certainly not capitalism. Extortion might be a better word. The fossil fuel industry, meanwhile, relentlessly trashes the ecosystem for profit. The melting of 40 percent of the summer Arctic sea ice is, to corporations, a business opportunity. Companies rush to the Arctic and extract the last vestiges of oil, natural gas, minerals and fish stocks, indifferent to the death pangs of the planet. The same corporate forces that give us endless soap operas that pass for news, from the latest court proceedings surrounding O.J. Simpson to the tawdry details of the Jodi Arias murder trial, also give us atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide that surpass 400 parts per million. They entrance us with their electronic hallucinations as we waiver, as paralyzed with fear as Odysseus’ sailors, between Scylla and Charybdis.


Chris Hedges' Columns
Rise Up or Die

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Posted on May 19, 2013

Illustration by Mr. Fish

By Chris Hedges
(Page 2)
There is nothing in 5,000 years of economic history to justify the belief that human societies should structure their behavior around the demands of the marketplace. This is an absurd, utopian ideology. The airy promises of the market economy have, by now, all been exposed as lies. The ability of corporations to migrate overseas has decimated our manufacturing base. It has driven down wages, impoverishing our working class and ravaging our middle class. It has forced huge segments of the population—including those burdened by student loans—into decades of debt peonage. It has also opened the way to massive tax shelters that allow companies such as General Electric to pay no income tax. Corporations employ virtual slave labor in Bangladesh and China, making obscene profits. As corporations suck the last resources from communities and the natural world, they leave behind, as Joe Sacco and I saw in the sacrifice zones we wrote about, horrific human suffering and dead landscapes. The greater the destruction, the greater the apparatus crushes dissent.
More than 100 million Americans—one-third of the population—live in poverty or a category called “near poverty.” Yet the stories of the poor and the near poor, the hardships they endure, are rarely told by a media that is owned by a handful of corporations—Viacom, General Electric, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., Clear Channel and Disney. The suffering of the underclass, like the crimes of the power elite, has been rendered invisible.
In the Lakota Indian reservation at Pine Ridge, S.D., in the United States’ second poorest county, the average life expectancy for a male is 48. This is the lowest in the Western Hemisphere outside of Haiti. About 60 percent of the Pine Ridge dwellings, many of which are sod huts, lack electricity, running water, adequate insulation or sewage systems. In the old coal camps of southern West Virginia, amid poisoned air, soil and water, cancer is an epidemic. There are few jobs. And the Appalachian Mountains, which provide the headwaters for much of the Eastern Seaboard, are dotted with enormous impoundment ponds filled with heavy metals and toxic sludge. In order to breathe, children go to school in southern West Virginia clutching inhalers. Residents trapped in the internal colonies of our blighted cities endure levels of poverty and violence, as well as mass incarceration, that leave them psychologically and emotionally shattered. And the nation’s agricultural workers, denied legal protection, are often forced to labor in conditions of unpaid bondage. This is the terrible algebra of corporate domination. This is where we are all headed. And in this accelerated race to the bottom we will end up as serfs or slaves.
Rebel. Even if you fail, even if we all fail, we will have asserted against the corporate forces of exploitation and death our ultimate dignity as human beings. We will have defended what is sacred. Rebellion means steadfast defiance. It means resisting just as have Bradley Manning and Julian Assange, just as has Mumia Abu-Jamal, the radical journalist whom Cornel West, James Cone and I visited in prison last week in Frackville, Pa. It means refusing to succumb to fear. It means refusing to surrender, even if you find yourself, like Manning and Abu-Jamal, caged like an animal. It means saying no. To remain safe, to remain “innocent” in the eyes of the law in this moment in history is to be complicit in a monstrous evil. In his poem of resistance, “If We Must Die,” Claude McKay knew that the odds were stacked against African-Americans who resisted white supremacy. But he also knew that resistance to tyranny saves our souls. McKay wrote:

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

It is time to build radical mass movements that defy all formal centers of power and make concessions to none. It is time to employ the harsh language of open rebellion and class warfare. It is time to march to the beat of our own drum. The law historically has been a very imperfect tool for justice, as African-Americans know, but now it is exclusively the handmaiden of our corporate oppressors; now it is a mechanism of injustice. It was our corporate overlords who launched this war. Not us. Revolt will see us branded as criminals. Revolt will push us into the shadows. And yet, if we do not revolt we can no longer use the word “hope.”
Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” grasps the dark soul of global capitalism. We are all aboard the doomed ship Pequod, a name connected to an Indian tribe eradicated by genocide, and Ahab is in charge. “All my means are sane,” Ahab says, “my motive and my object mad.” We are sailing on a maniacal voyage of self-destruction, and no one in a position of authority, even if he or she sees what lies ahead, is willing or able to stop it. Those on the Pequod who had a conscience, including Starbuck, did not have the courage to defy Ahab. The ship and its crew were doomed by habit, cowardice and hubris. Melville’s warning must become ours. Rise up or die.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/...die_20130519//

Comment before Monday, June 3, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. ET

Unbelievable! USDA Power Grab Should Not Go Unchallenged

May 24th, 2013USDA violates the Organic Foods Production Act
Draft rule on carrageenan, cellulose and “inert” synthetics in pesticides disregards decisions by the National Organic Standards Board
Comment before Monday, June 3, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. ET

Political corruption and power grabs usually happen behind closed doors. The Cornucopia Institute has consistently called for more transparency at the USDA’s National Organic Program, but quite frankly, this power grab, in broad daylight, is unexpected.
The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the citizen panel charged by Congress to determine which synthetics are allowed in organic food production, voted to prohibit the use of carrageenan in organic infant formula, to prohibit the use of synthetic microcrystalline cellulose as a food ingredient, and set a deadline for reviewing synthetic and potentially harmful ingredients in previously approved pesticide formulations.
By law, the USDA cannot allow a synthetic material in organics unless it has been approved by the NOSB. But the agency seems completely uninterested in following the law governing organics, the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. The USDA’s proposed rule, released on May 3, disregards the NOSB’s decisions entirely on these three important topics.
Please send a comment to the USDA—let them know that they are acting outside their legal authority and that we will not stand by quietly while they protect corporate interests rather than the health of consumers and the environment.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING COMMENT
To submit your comment electronically:
http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=AMS-NOP-11-0003-0029
Docket Number: AMS—NOP—11—0003
For the required field “Organization Name,” please enter “Citizen.”
The deadline for submitting comments is Monday, June 3.
SAMPLE LETTER (you may cut and paste, but you are encouraged to personalize)
The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (OFPA) does not give the USDA the authority to list materials on the National List unless they have been approved by the NOSB.
The USDA disregarded the proposed annotations, adopted by the NOSB, on List 3 inerts, carrageenan and cellulose (prohibiting or restricting their use).
I am especially concerned with the USDA’s decision not to prohibit the use of carrageenan in organic infant formula. Carrageenan is a harmful ingredient that has been linked to gastrointestinal inflammation and even cancer. It should be prohibited in all organic foods.
I would also like to see all ingredients in pesticide formulations used in organics reviewed as soon as possible, and the NOSB’s annotation would facilitate this.
In accordance with OFPA, I urge the USDA to rewrite the proposed rule adhering to the recommendations approved by the NOSB and to follow the law.
Again, please act by Monday, June 3 to submit your comments!
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND BACKGROUND
Microcrystalline Cellulose
Microcrystalline cellulose is a heavily processed, synthetic ingredient. Technical reviewers advised the NOSB in 2001 that it should be prohibited in organic foods.
In 2012, the NOSB voted to prohibit its use in organic foods.
But the USDA’s proposed rule disregards the NOSB’s decision and will continue to allow microcrystalline cellulose.
The USDA’s stated reason? Just in case a food manufacturer may be using the prohibited material.
The potential use of a material by a food manufacturer is not a criterion in the law that would justify its continued use, especially if the NOSB has voted to prohibit its use.
Sadly, the USDA’s draft rule appears to illustrate their interest in protecting the economic interests of corporate agribusiness rather than organic stakeholders.
Carrageenan
For the past four decades, independent scientists have warned that the use of carrageenan in food is not safe.
Animal studies have repeatedly shown that food-grade carrageenan causes gastrointestinal inflammation and higher rates of intestinal lesions, ulcerations, and even malignant tumors. To read Cornucopia’s report on carrageenan, click here.
The story of carrageenan in organics mirrors the story of aspartame, artificial colors, genetically engineered organisms and other harmful ingredients in the food supply. The only studies capable of defending the safety of carrageenan are funded by those with a financial interest in the continued use of the material. This is not sound science, and should not dictate the policy decisions by the National Organic Program.
In a split decision, the NOSB listened to the corporate lobbyists in the room and voted to continue allowing carrageenan in organic food. However, to protect the very youngest and most vulnerable, they voted to prohibit it in organic infant formula. Now, the USDA’s proposed rule relists and allows carrageenan—without prohibiting it in organic infant formula, as the NOSB ruled.
List 3 Inerts and Pesticides
It is imperative, to maintain the integrity of organics, that all synthetic chemicals that are used in organic production be reviewed as soon as possible. The organic standards allow for the use of some pesticides, if they have been reviewed and deemed not harmful to human health or the environment. But many of these pesticide formulations contain “inert” ingredients.
The NOSB voted to establish a deadline for reviewing the inert ingredients, known as List 3 Inerts. These inerts are not always harmless (we know this to be particularly true for conventional pesticides), and the review of these ingredients is necessary to ensure the safety of organic food.
But the USDA’s draft rule disregards the NOSB’s decision. The USDA should adopt the NOSB’s recommended annotation with the expiration date.

http://www.cornucopia.org/2013/05/unbelievable-usda-power-grab-should-not-go-unchallenged/


USDA violates the Organic Foods Production Act

Draft rule on carrageenan, cellulose and "inert" synthetics in pesticides
disregards decisions by the National Organic Standards Board

Comment before Monday, June 3, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. ET

http://www.cornucopia.org/2013/05/unbelievable-usda-power-grab-should-not-go-unchallenged/
May 26, 2013
Political corruption and power grabs usually happen behind closed doors. The Cornucopia Institute has consistently called for more transparency at the USDA’s National Organic Program, but quite frankly, this power grab, in broad daylight, is unexpected.
The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the citizen panel charged by Congress to determine which synthetics are allowed in organic food production, voted to prohibit the use of carrageenan in organic infant formula, to prohibit the use of synthetic microcrystalline cellulose as a food ingredient, and set a deadline for reviewing synthetic and potentially harmful ingredients in previously approved pesticide formulations.

By law, the USDA cannot allow a synthetic material in organics unless it has been approved by the NOSB. But the agency seems completely uninterested in following the law governing organics, the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. The USDA’s proposed rule, released on May 3, disregards the NOSB’s decisions entirely on these three important topics.
Please send a comment to the USDA—let them know that they are acting outside their legal authority and that we will not stand by quietly while they protect corporate interests rather than the health of consumers and the environment.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING COMMENT
To submit your comment electronically:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=AMS-NOP-11-0003-0029

Docket Number: AMS—NOP—11—0003
For the required field “Organization Name,” please enter “Citizen.”

The deadline for submitting comments is Monday, June 3.


SAMPLE LETTER (you may cut and paste, but you are encouraged to personalize)
The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (OFPA) does not give the USDA the authority to list materials on the National List unless they have been approved by the NOSB.
The USDA disregarded the proposed annotations, adopted by the NOSB, on List 3 inerts, carrageenan and cellulose (prohibiting or restricting their use).
I am especially concerned with the USDA’s decision not to prohibit the use of carrageenan in organic infant formula. Carrageenan is a harmful ingredient that has been linked to gastrointestinal inflammation and even cancer. It should be prohibited in all organic foods.
I would also like to see all ingredients in pesticide formulations used in organics reviewed as soon as possible, and the NOSB’s annotation would facilitate this.
In accordance with OFPA, I urge the USDA to rewrite the proposed rule adhering to the recommendations approved by the NOSB and to follow the law.
Again, please act by Monday, June 3 to submit your comments!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND BACKGROUND

Microcrystalline Cellulose

Microcrystalline cellulose is a heavily processed, synthetic ingredient. Technical reviewers advised the NOSB in 2001 that it should be prohibited in organic foods.

In 2012, the NOSB voted to prohibit its use in organic foods.

But the USDA’s proposed rule disregards the NOSB’s decision and will continue to allow microcrystalline cellulose.

The USDA’s stated reason? Just in case a food manufacturer may be using the prohibited material.

The potential use of a material by a food manufacturer is not a criterion in the law that would justify its continued use, especially if the NOSB has voted to prohibit its use.

Sadly, the USDA's draft rule appears to illustrate their interest in protecting the economic interests of corporate agribusiness rather than organic stakeholders.


Carrageenan

For the past four decades, independent scientists have warned that the use of carrageenan in food is not safe.

Animal studies have repeatedly shown that food-grade carrageenan causes gastrointestinal inflammation and higher rates of intestinal lesions, ulcerations, and even malignant tumors. To read Cornucopia's report on carrageenan, click here.

The story of carrageenan in organics mirrors the story of aspartame, artificial colors, genetically engineered organisms and other harmful ingredients in the food supply. The only studies capable of defending the safety of carrageenan are funded by those with a financial interest in the continued use of the material. This is not sound science, and should not dictate the policy decisions by the National Organic Program.

In a split decision, the NOSB listened to the corporate lobbyists in the room and voted to continue allowing carrageenan in organic food. However, to protect the very youngest and most vulnerable, they voted to prohibit it in organic infant formula. Now, the USDA’s proposed rule relists and allows carrageenan—without prohibiting it in organic infant formula, as the NOSB ruled.


List 3 Inerts and Pesticides

It is imperative, to maintain the integrity of organics, that all synthetic chemicals that are used in organic production be reviewed as soon as possible. The organic standards allow for the use of some pesticides, if they have been reviewed and deemed not harmful to human health or the environment. But many of these pesticide formulations contain “inert” ingredients.

The NOSB voted to establish a deadline for reviewing the inert ingredients, known as List 3 Inerts. These inerts are not always harmless (we know this to be particularly true for conventional pesticides), and the review of these ingredients is necessary to ensure the safety of organic food.

But the USDA’s draft rule disregards the NOSB’s decision. The USDA should adopt the NOSB’s recommended annotation with the expiration date.

The Cornucopia Institute P.O. Box 126 Cornucopia, WI 54827 www.cornucopia.org

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Monsanto hires infamous mercenary firm Blackwater to track activists around the world



Remember the private mercenary army Blackwater that caused such a stir in Iraq during an unprovoked attack in 2007? Apparently, Monsanto and the controversial security firm are in bed together, described by blogger Randy Ananda as "a death-tech firm weds a hit squad." At this point, you might be wondering what in the world the GM seed giant needs with the services of a 'shadow army'? It appears as though the corporation found it necessary to contract with Blackwater in order to collect intelligence on anti-Monsanto activists as well infiltrate their ranks.

Protest Monsanto, stalked by Blackwater
Notorious for the Iraqi Nisour Square Massacre, Blackwater "created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq," reports the New York Times. One of these subsidiaries became Total Intelligence, the company contracted by Monsanto between 2008-2010 to collect intelligence on activists rallying against GMO crops and other Monsanto activities. Journalist Jeremy Scahill states in The Nation:

"... entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation. Blackwater's work for corporations and government agencies was contracted using two companies owned by Blackwater's owner and founder, Erik Prince: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center (TRC). Prince is listed as the chairman of both companies in internal company documents, which show how the web of companies functions as a highly coordinated operation."

A spokesperson representing Monsanto admits the company hired Total Intelligence for information "... about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information. The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites."

However, what the spokesperson fails to address is that according to documents secured by Scahill, Monsanto was willing to pay a sizable sum (up to $500,000) for Blackwater agents to infiltrate anti-Monsanto organizations.

As the plot continues to thicken regarding Monsanto's tactics of domination, Ananda aptly notes:

"... Monsanto, by hiring a mercenary army and former CIA field agents, is deadly serious about protecting its deadly products. Yet, this contract further discredits the company. The public can now paint an even bleaker picture of the firm that brought us Agent Orange, PCBs, rBST, DDT, aspartame and, now, hit men."

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/040492_GM...#ixzz2UPup1VER

http://www.antigmofoods.com/2013/05/...nary-firm.html

Monsanto Cucumbers Cause Genital Baldness — Immediately Banned in Nova Scotia

Monday, May 27, 2013 23:25
(Before It's News)

A six-month study by AgriSearch, an on-campus research arm of Dalhousie University, has shown that genetically modified (GM) cucumbers grown under license to Monsanto Inc. result in serious side effects including total groin hair loss and chafing in “sensitive areas”, leading to the immediate and total ban of sales of all that company’s crop and subsequent dill pickles.

Cucumbers


by Robin Steel
The Lapine
May 28, 2013

The tracking study of 643 men and women in Nova Scotia came about after reports began to surface about bald field mice and the bald feral cats that ate them being discovered by farmers on acreages growing the new crop.

“The bald wild animals raised a huge flag and we immediately obtained subpoenas for the medical records of all 600 plus adults who took part in focus groups and taste tests of the cucumbers by Monsanto in Canada,” said Dr. Nancy Walker, Director of Public Health Research at Dalhousie. “Fully 3/4 of the people who ate these cukes had their crotch area hair fall out. This is not a joking matter at all…these people now have hairless heinies.”

Nova Scotia became the first province or state in North America to ban a Monsanto GM food product, although GM corn and other food crops are currently outlawed in Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece and Hungary. Governments in Australia, Spain, UK, France, Turkey, India and Mexico have public petitions or legislative bills under consideration. Californians recently voted down a bill that would have required all GM foods to be clearly labeled. Monsanto cucumbers have been ordered removed from all food stores in Nova Scotia, while Quebec stores have begun a voluntary removal, partially because the UPC code stickers contain some English.

“I pulled down my boxer shorts to get ready for bed one night and there it was…a pile of hair that looked like a chihuahua puppy,” said Eric LaMaze, who was paid $50 by Monsanto to compare the tastes of natural cucumbers to Monsanto GM cucumbers in March of this year in Halifax. “Then I saw my bits and whoa they were like all shiny skin. Bald.”

Mr. LaMaze and other taste test participants said the GM cucumbers tasted the same as the naturally grown cucumbers but made a slight “fizzing noise” when swallowed. The participants also complained of raw skin in their genital area and some bed wetting.

Monsanto Inc., a self-described Sustainable Agriculture Company based in Creve Coeur, Missouri, where they share offices with major shareholder Bain Capital, issued a statement saying, “Next generation fruits and vegetables, including VO5 cucumbers, are safe for human consumption with some potential minor side effects. Some fine-tuning is underway.”

McDonald’s Corp. issued a statement following the Nova Scotia ban announcing that they will replace dill and sweet cucumber pickles on their burgers with non-GM pickled zucchini as a precaution until it is proven that no Monsanto pickles were sold into the North American market. McDonald’s website contains a bulletin to that effect and includes a revised hip-hop Big Mac jingle that now sings, “Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickled zuke, onions on a sesame seed bun.”

Federal Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq said a Canada-wide recall and ban will be issued within 24 hours. “The Government of Canada takes this very, very seriously,” said the Minister. “Being hairless down there should be a matter of personal choice for Canadian men and women and not one taken away by a cucumber.”

“They used to have the real cucumber slices in those salad things at the City Hall Dining Club,” sighed Former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford on the courthouse steps after being impeached by a Provincial Judge. “Those were good times…”

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