Image via WikipediaGenetically Manipulated Crops: The GMO Catastrophe in the USA. A Lesson for the World
In the entire world until the present, all GMO crops have been manipulated and patented for only two things – to be resistant or “tolerant” to the patented highly toxic herbicide glyphosate chemicals that Monsanto and the others force farmers to buy as a condition for buying their patented GMO seeds. The second trait is GMO seeds that have been engineered genetically to resist specific insects.
The United States began large scale commercial planting of GMO plants, mainly soybeans and corn and cotton around 1997. By now, GM crops have taken over between 85 percent to 91 percent of the areas planted with the three major crops, soybean, corn and cotton in the U.S., on nearly 171 million acres.
The ecological time-bomb that came with the GMO according to Ho, is about to explode. Over several years of constant application of patented glyphosate herbicides such as Monsanto’s famous and highly [toxic] Roundup, new herbicide-resistant “super-weeds” have evolved, nature’s response to man-made attempts to violate it. The super-weeds require significantly more not less herbicide to control.
ABC Television, a major U.S. national network, made a recent documentary about the super-weeds under the rubric, “super weeds that can’t be killed.”[1]
They interviewed farmers and scientists across Arkansas who described fields overrun with giant pigweed plants that can withstand as much glyphosate as farmers are able to spray. They interviewed one farmer who spent almost €400,000 in only three months in a failed attempt to kill the new super-weeds.
The new super-weeds are so robust that harvester combines are unable to harvest the fields and hand tools break trying to cut them down. At least 400,000 hectares of soybean and cotton in Arkansas alone have become invested with this new mutant biological plague. Detailed data on other agricultural regions is not available but believed similar. The pro-GMO and pro-agribusiness U.S. Department of Agriculture has been reported lying about the true state of U.S. crop harvest partly to hide the grim reality and to prevent an explosive revolt against GMO in the world’s largest GMO market.
One variety of super-weed, palmer pigweed can grow up to 2.4 meters high, withstands severe heat and prolonged droughts, and produces thousands of seeds with a root system that drains nutrients away from crops. If left unchecked, it takes over an entire field in a year. Some farmers have been forced to abandon their land. To date palmer pigweed infestation in GMO crop regions has been identified in addition to Arkansas, also in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, New Mexico, Mississippi and most recently, Alabama and Missouri.
Weed scientists at the University of Georgia estimate that just two palmer pigweed plants in every 6 meter length of cotton row can reduce yield by at least 23 percent. A single weed plant can produce 450,000 seeds.[2]
Monsanto is encouraging farmers to mix glyphosate with its older herbicides such as 2,4-D, banned in Sweden, Denmark and Norway for links to cancer and reproductive and neurological damage. 2,4-D is a component of Agent Orange, produced by Monsanto for use in Vietnam in the 1960s.
Farmers across the United States are reported to be going back to conventional non-GMO crops instead. According to a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, retail sales of organic food went up to $21.1 billion in 2008 from $3.6 billion in 1997.[4] The market is so active that organic farms have struggled at times to produce sufficient supply to keep up with the rapid growth in consumer demand, leading to periodic shortages of organic products.
A recent study by Iowa State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture assessing the performance of farms during the three-year transition it takes to switch from conventional to certified organic production showed notable advantages of organic farming over GMO or even conventional non-GMO crops. In an experiment lasting four years – three years transition and first year organic – the study showed that although yields dropped initially, they equalized in the third year, and by the fourth year, the organic yields were ahead of the conventional for both soybean and corn.
by Rady Ananda at Global Research
( I monitor Rady Ananda loosely on a feedreader I don't often use..but find lots of good articles )
( I monitor Rady Ananda loosely on a feedreader I don't often use..but find lots of good articles )
Early Sunday morning, French police stood help less as sixty people, locked inside an open-air field of genetically modified grapevines, uprooted all the plants. In Spain last month, dozens of people destroyed two GMO fields. On the millennial cusp, Indian farmers burned Bt cotton in their Cremate Monsanto campaign. Ignored by multinational corporations and corrupt public policy makers, citizens act to protect the food supply and the planet.
In the 1990s, Indian farmers burnt Bt cotton fields in their Cremate Monsanto campaign.
After the Haiti earthquake this year, Monsanto offered 475 tons of hybrid corn and terminator vegetable seeds in partnership with USAID. In June, 10,000 Haitian farmers marched in protest of the “poison gift” which produces no viable seeds for future plantings and requires heavy chemical inputs. Haitian farm leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste observed that the biotech plan makes farmers dependent on multinational corporations.
In the US, GMOs were secretly foisted on the public in the mid-1990s, and only now is the US Supreme Court addressing the scourge. In June, the high court upheld partial deregulation of GM alfalfa, which permits limited planting while the USDA prepares an Environmental Impact Statement. Natural and organic alfalfa supply is threatened by the very real potential of GM contamination. This would destroy the organic meat and dairy industry.
Last Friday, a federal court took a tougher position on GM sugar beets. Judge Jeffrey S. White revoked USDA approval of the GM beet, while allowing for its planting this year only.
Also this month, a British farmer exposed that milk and meat from cloned animals had secretly entered the food supply.
Public opposition to GM crops has grown in recent years as more evidence surfaces that DNA-altered crops:
50 Harmful Effects of Genetically Modified Foods
In the US, GMOs were secretly foisted on the public in the mid-1990s, and only now is the US Supreme Court addressing the scourge. In June, the high court upheld partial deregulation of GM alfalfa, which permits limited planting while the USDA prepares an Environmental Impact Statement. Natural and organic alfalfa supply is threatened by the very real potential of GM contamination. This would destroy the organic meat and dairy industry.
Last Friday, a federal court took a tougher position on GM sugar beets. Judge Jeffrey S. White revoked USDA approval of the GM beet, while allowing for its planting this year only.
Also this month, a British farmer exposed that milk and meat from cloned animals had secretly entered the food supply.
Public opposition to GM crops has grown in recent years as more evidence surfaces that DNA-altered crops:
- Require massive chemical inputs which destroy local biodiversity and poison the water tables;
- Cross-pollinate with natural and weedy crops;
- Create superweeds; and
- Have been shown to cause organ damage, sterility, and diabetes and obesity in mammals.
50 Harmful Effects of Genetically Modified Foods
Canadian opposition report critical of oil sands
Opposition members of a Canadian parliamentary committee released a sharply critical report on oil sands development on Wednesday, saying governments and industry were in denial about the impact on fresh water.
The report by Liberal Party members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development said there was ample evidence that oil sands projects in northern Alberta were polluting a regional watershed and that Ottawa was not doing its duty to manage the impact.
The document, which largely addresses issues involving the Athabasca River system, fueled the latest controversy in a protracted battle over developing Canada's oil sands, the largest crude oil source outside the Middle East.
"Governments have reacted defensively to warnings from environmental groups and scientists alike about how the oil sands industry might be impacting on water supplies," the report said. "Instead they have sought refuge in the science of public relations."
Among the recommendations was a call for more study of the native people of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, on Lake Athabasca, who have been shown to have higher rates of rare cancers than the general population. The link to oil sands development has not been proven.
The Liberals also called for federal environmental assessments of oil sands development to include analysis of the cumulative groundwater impact, and pushed for the federal Conservative government to take a stronger role in monitoring and protecting fresh water near oil sands projects.
Zombie ants ruled by mind-controlling parasites
An unnerving variety of parasites have evolved the ability to control the brains of victims to help the parasites spread.
"We are now realizing that half of life on Earth is parasitic -- each free-living organism has at least one parasite," Hughes said. "But very few manipulate behaviors and there is a reason for that -- it is likely very costly. The fossil now challenges us to think of what past environments acted as selective forces for such cool tricks to evolve."
Veterans react to looming ombud departure
Dennis Manuge served in Bosnia, but was medically discharged over a worsening back injury. Manuge was given 75 per cent of his salary, but a $400 a month disability benefit was cancelled.
Now, he’s so angry he refuses to wear his medals. Manuge and 6,500 other soldiers in the same predicament have launched a class action suit.
"When we need it most — when the uniform comes off and we’re injured — we’re kind of hung out to dry and left on our own," he said.
Under Canada's Veterans Charter, Barnwell received a lump sum payment. If he had been wounded before the charter came into effect in 2006, he would have received a pension for life. The difference is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/08/18/veteran-ombudsman-reaction.html?ref=rss#ixzz0x0MkrR93
Now, he’s so angry he refuses to wear his medals. Manuge and 6,500 other soldiers in the same predicament have launched a class action suit.
"When we need it most — when the uniform comes off and we’re injured — we’re kind of hung out to dry and left on our own," he said.
Under Canada's Veterans Charter, Barnwell received a lump sum payment. If he had been wounded before the charter came into effect in 2006, he would have received a pension for life. The difference is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/08/18/veteran-ombudsman-reaction.html?ref=rss#ixzz0x0MkrR93
Greg Palast on THE Mosque for BuzzFlash: Why Not Ban All Churches From Oklahoma Because McVeigh Was Christian?
Separation of Church and Hate:
The Kate Mosque Solution
The Prelude to Cheney's Katrina
A deeper look at the energy legislation based on Cheney’s secret energy task force underscores how the unabashedly pro-oil policies and permissive regulatory environment created during the Bush administration set the stage for Cheney’s Katrina—the BP oil disaster. CAP’s Joshua Dorner has the story in this repost
Toxicologist: Dispersants extract the “dangerous cancer-causing chemicals” from crude that “bio-accumulate”; “There is a GRAVE problem”
Independent analysis by toxicologists dispute FDA claims made in the last few days that chemical dispersants used by BP during the oil catastrophe may not accumulate in seafood.In fact, in a full report by Dr. Bill Sawyer released today, there is a grave problem caused by dispersants, due to the fact that these were used in deep waters and on such a vast scale.
Studies of other spills show that the toxic components of crude oil ‘bio-accumulate’ into the food chain and become highly toxic to marine reproduction and harmful when consumed by humans…
OLDER: NOAA samples reveal polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons of “the most toxic variety”; Appearing near shore and in beach samples
NEWER: “Purple looking jelly stuff, three feet thick, floating all over, as wide as a football field” says former BP cleanup worker »
The Uses of Coal Ash
Coal ash is not yet regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), even though it contains mercury, arsenic and lead, which are all toxic substances. Instead each of the United States is responsible for conducting regulation of the ash it produces. However the EPA does approve the use of coal ash in construction.
End Afghan War & Dependence on Oil
The War Costs of USA Dependence On Oil: One Trillion Enroute to Two Trillion
Click Here for Petition to End Afghan War & Dependence on Oil
Almost all “get it” that among the costs of our dependence on oil are disasters like that in the Gulf. Most “get it” that burning oil adds greatly to the emissions that threaten all life on earth with catastrophic global warming or climate change. Many “get it” that the world’s oil will be for all intents and purposes exhausted in just 25 or 30 years, and that the cost of gas and things dependent on it like food production will inevitably soon skyrocket as oil grows more scarce and what is left is more costly to extract.
Not enough “get it” that the principal reason for the USA’s “War on Terror” at home and in Iraq and Afghanistan is among other things the hyped excuse for military action to insure access to oil in the Middle East.
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