Sustainable Agriculture Group USSC/Monsanto reports

Okay, it looks like the bee situation is connected to Bayer. They have been using a nicotine based pesticide that after use in Europe killed 300,000 bees. And German scientists determined it was bad years ago. I'm confused about the Kagan Monsanto connection. I hope others can find the court paperwork and look and see whether she was there on behalf of Monsanto or Geertson Seeds. I did find info that said Kagan was on of the originators of the concept that a corporation has the rights of a person and therefore can give political contributions. Ha! One the of concepts that boggle my mind. Soooo.... let the sleuthing begin.

http://www.rttnews.com/Content/BeforeTheBell.aspx?Id=1297410&Category=Before...

Just thought i would post that as of last Thursday, Monsanto's stock price closed for its third consecutive low since March of this year. Hopefully the publicity generated by this case which will focus on GMOs has played a part in this.

Also, Carolyn, thanks for your research on bees and GMOs. I personally believe it is a logical corrolation to make.

JanforGore, I don't visit current that often anymore, but whenever I do, the first place I go is your site so I can read or listen to what you are posting. You have become a champion in the efforts to stop monsanto and their attempt to poison our planet. I applaud you. I would also like to tell you that you have been able to withstand more adverse comments than anyone should have to and it hurts me that people choose to be so mean. Please know that you are serving a greater good, and like the old saying goes " the cream always rises to the top". I also belong to the Millions Against Monsanto Campaign and notice that your information here on Current.com is being posted there also, your work is traveling far and wide.

Rock on sister!!!!

As the discussion has widened to include the impact of pesticides like DDT, just so everyone is on the same page, here are some introductory paragraphs from Wikipedia on DDT:

In 1962, Silent Spring by American biologist Rachel Carson was published. The book cataloged the environmental impacts of the indiscriminate spraying of DDT in the US and questioned the logic of releasing large amounts of chemicals into the environment without fully understanding their effects on ecology or human health.
The book suggested that DDT and other pesticides may cause cancer and that their agricultural use was a threat to wildlife, particularly birds.
Its publication was one of the signature events in the birth of the environmental movement, and resulted in a large public outcry that eventually led to DDT being banned in the US in 1972.
[4] DDT was subsequently banned for agricultural use worldwide under the Stockholm Convention, but its limited use in disease vector control continues to this day and remains controversial.[5]

Along with the passage of the Endangered Species Act, the US ban on DDT is cited by scientists as a major factor in the comeback of the bald eagle, the national bird of the United States,[6] from near-extinction in the contiguous US.

http://current.com/1g76a4c
This was an entry I wrote for the Green Blog when it had one. It's called Morality Over Monsanto. Think any mainstream newspaper would print it? Or would I have to pay them off like Monsanto does to print their propaganda?

If Monsanto's pesticide coated GMO seeds do disrupt crop pollination by bees, (which Jan suggest might be one of the actual goals of their efforts) that would an apocalyptic nightmare.
Is it too vain a hope that the aging, highly politicized members of the US Supreme Court, in making sure there is "no restraint on trade," would fully consider all the possible effects of allowing the unfettered introduction of a possibly disastrous corporate technology into the world food supply?
Reviewing the history of law in that respect so far, yes, sadly, that probably is a vain hope.

Xenzaka:

Went to the link you provided and just sent this off to Monsanto... Big wave too to all of their Internet shills scouring the sites to post their propaganda.

"GMOS are a cancer on this planet. The evidence is now too overwhelming to keep it quiet. What you are doing with monoculture and pesticides is not sustainable agriculture nor is it feeding the world. And more people know it, will know it, and will join together to expose that truth. You may have USSC judges, government officials and agencies, and media outlets you can influence, but that doesn't change the truth. Bullying scientists? Harrassing farmers? Raising prices of seed and not allowing farmers to save it? Deforesting Latin America to grow your fake animal feed soy while people go deeper into debt and hunger? Trampling on democracy and food sovereignty in Africa? Farmer suicides in India? Pesticide/bacteria laced seeds contaminating traditional natural seeds globally? That is Sustainable Agriculture to you? Agent Orange? Dioxin? Aspartame? PCBS? You actually think people want to eat your garbage? Is that why you fight to keep labels free of this crime against nature? Your toxic legacy speaks for itself. And I say, shame on you."

Xenzaka suggested to write Monsanto. Good idea. I also wrote Glenn Beck. Despite what people think of him, he has a very large following so I sent him this letter.

Did you know that Obama appointed two of Monsanto's team to the FDA. Since there is such a concern about GMO food safety, why appoint people who could approve a possibly dangerous food product to the regulatory board that determines food safety. Isn't this a conflict of interest? This trend seems to be common, ie. appointing potential wolves to guard the hen house.
You mentioned that you were open to safe GMO foods, but I noticed that you had made a garden for your family and you used Hierloom seeds that are not genetically engineered. I think you may have more access to information than the average joe. Can you find out why it was mandated that Iraqis use only Monsanto GMO seeds? Why would that be an issue and why would they get such a monopoly? How many other countries are being forced to use only Monsanto seeds?

There is a push to NOT label GMO foods as such. Can you find out why? If GMO foods are healthy and safe then why not label? Why not brag about it's superiority? Do GMO food production have anything to do with the bee die off? Bee population is down 90% of it's past population. Bees are how most food, flowers and other plants are pollinated. Is the use of GMO corn in dog food the reason why dogs commonly have corn allergies that cause their fur to fall out? I've had dogs my whole life and have never heard of corn allergies until recently. Now it's very, very common. What about human food allergies? There seem to be more than ever.

I'm writing you because I'm hoping you can get to the bottom of this with integrity. One thing I do know is that GMO foods are cheaper. I'm happy that poor people can afford food. However, if the food is not healthy than are we poisoning our poor? That would include the elderly, children, anyone who doesn't have the funds to shop organically.

Please help me find the answers.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

PS... there will be a vote next week to allow GMO foods worldwide to NOT be labeled.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cmte=C00042069&cycle=2010

Here is a listing of current members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans taking Monsanto's toxic money. Another way to stop them is to vote these accomplices in their crimes against nature out of office.

So I finished the pdf and Monsanto's argument seems to be that there is no harm done and that if anyone thinks there is harm it is a "psychological objection to genetically engineered alfalfa". (p.56) Yeah, tell that to all the dead honeybees. Perhaps we can arrange for Halliburton to work on the Monsanto seed storage facilities and laboratories.

How many times does the crap in here have to be flagged before moderators do their job?

tenletterz:: You are sick. Seek help. I have a job, a life, a family and am very happy. You however seem to spend WAY too much time here worrying about me. I also have more conviction in my pinky toe than you have in your entire body. This is also not a thread about Al Gore. Slow down on the meds and go outside. Your obsession is getting the better of you.

And moderators, keep ignoring the flags and allowing a**holes like this destroy important threads and driving good and relevant discussion away and you will lose what is left of the truly dedicated members of this site who actually report NEWS.

pinches chichotes....

ay guay.

I'm still trying to read the pdf file posted by queenofit:

"
+1 queenofit
Jan, here is the pdf file link of the transcript from yesterday's oral argument, even before I have finished reading it myself, I am putting it here. I am going to finish reading it now.

http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/09-475.pdf

_________________________

CarolynJ brings up the point about the honeybees. I've been thinking about that also. During The Future of Food and Seed, link posted below by JanforGore, Dr. Vandana Shiva discusses the importance of honeybees for natural seed pollination and that Monsanto wants to eliminate the honeybees (in so many words), that GMO's do not require pollination as they do not produce seed for the future, i.e. terminator seed. So does the GMO alfalfa seed kill off the honeybee? Is the GMO alfalfa seed harmful to the honeybee? Perhaps this is discussed in the pdf but I haven't gotten that far. It seems that would be Monsanto's strategy, to kill off anything that would pollinate natural seed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollinator_decline

"It is commonly said that about one third of human nutrition is due to bee pollination. This includes the majority of fruits, many vegetables (or their seed crop) and secondary effects from legumes such as alfalfa and clover fed to livestock.

Observation of pollinator decline

As plantings have grown larger, the need for concentrated pollinators at bloom time has grown. At the same time populations of many pollinators have been declining, and this decline has become a major environmental issue today. Pollination management seeks to protect, enhance, and augment agricultural pollination.

For example, feral honey bee populations in the US have dropped about 90% in the past 50 years, except for the Southwest where they have been replaced by Africanized bees. At the same time managed honey bee colonies have dropped by about two thirds. On the other hand, this has been offset by a natural increase in native pollinator populations in parts of the US, where such had been partially displaced by the invasive honey bees imported from Europe.

Monoculture needs very high populations at bloom, but can make the area quite barren, or even toxic when the bloom is done.

The study of pollinator decline is also interesting some scientists, as bees have the potential to become a keystone indicator species of environmental degradation. Any changes in their abundance and diversity will influence the abundance and diversity of the prevailing plant species. This is a mutual dependency as bees rely on a steady nectar source and pollen source throughout the year to build up their hive."

http://topics.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/09-475

More analysis and commentary on the case.

My question is this: Based on what scientific evidence did APHIS deregulate Round Up Ready alfalfa in the first place? And, if there is no 'irreparable harm' why not just file the EIS?

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this posting. I agree wholeheartedly that this Monsanto situation is by far one of the worst breaches of public trust ever witnessed. I heard that part of the deal made with Iraq was that they were mandated to use only Monsanto seeds. These seeds are self terminating, which means that they need to be repurchased and replanted every year. If this suicide gene trait in thier food does contaminate other plants it could mean death for everyone. Plants, animals and people. I also have been concerned about the critically low bee population. Could this unnatural plant manipulation be responsible for the seriously low bee numbers?

Our country's corporate greed has become too serious to be ignored. Since corporations like Monsanto, Exxon, Haliburton, KBR etc, etc, etc are able to commit crimes against life we must find a way to stop them. They do what they want in broad day light. They are adversely affecting our health, the ecosystems of indigenous peoples around the world with no penalties, and they seem to live above the law. The YES MEN have done a wonderful job of bringing these beings into the pubic eye, but we all need to move. Now. Until we refuse, they will continue. Our political and judicial system seem to be broken right now so where does that leave us?

I've also advocated the stockpiling of non-gmo seeds where ever we can like a 'Noah's Ark' of sorts. The only problem with that is the intense push under bills like the misnamed "Food Safety Act" that wants to prevent organic gardening.

What can we do?

Check this out JanforGore; posted by ablindeye:

http://www.eutimes.net/2010/04/russia-reports-over-2-million-dead-in-us-as-myste...

http://current.com/news/92404100_russia-reports-over-2-million-dead-in-us-as-mys...

Excerpt:
"A most chilling report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared by the Russian Academy of Medical and Technical Science for Prime Minister Putin states that a “mysterious die-off” in the United States has claimed over 2,000,000 lives since 2008 and is “more than likely” linked to a “crossover” plant disease linked to genetically modified grains and foods.
According to these reports this mysterious, and as yet unidentified, lung disease responsible for this mass die-off began during the spring of 2008 in the US agricultural State of Iowa where (very ironically) at least 36 people attending a Lung Association event at the Governors mansion were stricken.
Important to note about Iowa is that it is one of the largest corn producing regions in the World harvesting over 2 billon bushels of this valuable grain farmed on nearly 32 million acres of its farmland, over 99% of which are genetically modified varieties made by the US agricultural giant Monsanto and idententifeid by their trade names of Mon 863, insecticide-producing Mon 810, and Roundup® herbicide-absorbing NK 603.
Not reported to the American people about these genetically modified corn varieties made by Monsanto was the study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences warning that they were linked to organ damage. Monsanto quickly responded to this study, stating that the research was “based on faulty analytical methods and reasoning and do not call into question the safety findings for these products.”
Russian scientists in these reports, however, call Monsanto’s claim of their genetically modified Mon 863 corn as being safe for human or animal consumption “totally without validation”, a finding supported by the French biomolecular engineering commission, the Commission du Génie Biomoléculaire (CGB) who stated in their report, “with the present data it cannot be concluded that GM corn MON 863 is a safe product.”
Further supporting the findings of Russian scientists was Greenpeace International, who in their report titled “MON 863: A chronicle of systematic deception” warned that the campaign to unearth and evaluate data about this most dangerous of genetically modified grains demonstrates, beyond all doubt, that MON863 is unfit for consumption.
Most unfortunately for the American people though, all of these warnings have been ignored by their government masters who have allowed the mass planting of these genetically modified crops to such an extent that in the United States today fully 80% of their corn and 93% of their soybeans are of these dangerous varieties and leading one Russian scientist in these reports to warn that our World is now on the verge of experiencing an ecological disaster of “Biblical proportions”.
And according to these reports this ecological disaster is well underway in the United States and supported by American death statistics showing that of the nearly 2.5 million deaths reported by them each year the number of “sudden deaths” has increased to 40% equaling out to over 2 million “mysterious and unexplained” deaths from early 2008 to March, 2010.
Now of these “mysterious and unexplained” American deaths, these reports continue, nearly all of them are lung related and being erroneously documented as being caused by influenza and pneumonia type diseases so as not to panic these peoples, but have, instead, been caused by as an yet unidentified plant virus that has successfully jumped the species barrier to human beings.
Supporting Russian scientists in these conclusions is new research being conducted by the Didier Raoult of the University of the Mediterranean in Marseilles, France, where for the first time in human history a plant virus has been found to cause problems in people.
Russian scientists further claim in these reports that the United States mass vaccination of their population this past year for the supposed H1N1 Swine Flu epidemic was instead a “very clumsy attempt” to stop the spreading of this mysterious lung disease by injecting into these peoples a DNA “fix” to this genetically modified corn, and which by all the evidence available, they state, appears to have failed.
For those wondering how the United States government could ever allow such a monstrous outrage to be committed on their citizens one only need know that over the past 10 years Monsanto has paid over $500 million in bribing those American officials responsible for food safety while at the same time has joined US corporate giants General Electric and Exxon Mobil in not paying any taxes despite the billions in profits they have reaped.
And for those Americans believing that President Obama will protect them from these outrages they couldn’t be more mistaken, and as we can read as reported by the Huffington Post News Service in their article titled “You’re Appointing Who? Please Obama, Say It’s Not So!” and which, in part, says:
“The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US food safety czar. This is no joke."

If the way we grow our food doesn't change soon we could be facing some serious issues in years to come. Thanks for the piece Jan...

Hallelujah Jan! I sent messages to several media stations requesting their coverage! This should be headline news.

Finally news that really matters.

Not to spam, but since it is morning, I would like everyone to see there is an opportunity to express how you feel toward this company.

You can personally contact them, and let them know exactly how you feel about the intentions of Monsanto's.

Contact Monsanto's World-Wide Industries! Let Them Know We Humans, Enjoy Living. We Will Soon Grow Our Own Food!
http://www.monsanto.com/who_we_are/contact_us.asp

In addition, if you find this story interesting and have extra time, please (I really ask you to) just view this ten minute video. This is "real". Fox News Whistleblowers.

I actually copy and pasted these links in the message I had for Monsanto's.

i hate grammar, i don't think the "s" is needed but its kinda cute anyway, lol, do excuse

Once again, fine work Jan. I've been trying to get the word out but interest is limited. It's a bit disturbing that not many even know what GMO is. It's a tough sell but I still have hope.

I am so glad you are following this , Jan , because it will determine so much . You are a fine reporter , a hunter of truth . Keep up the good work . We cannot remain free if we remain ignorant .

To come in here again tenletterz just to harrass JanforGore because she supports him is immature. I hope the moderators here nip your shit in the bud in this thread so people can come here and read the news here instead of your crap.

Not even animals in germany will eat this toxic.
In fact, it seems these companies are out to
Cull the herd. (which is very scary)
Elites control all.

Today and any other day just seems to
Infest my mind with utter stark reminders
That evil is absolutely incarnated, and we will always
Struggle....but nature will always find it's equilibrium.

Go ahead and give them your thoughts, we live in a land of "free speech".

Write your thoughts.

http://www.monsanto.com/who_we_are/contact_us.asp

(seriously, why not)

Go ahead and give them your thoughts, we live in a land of "free speech".

Write your thoughts.

http://www.monsanto.com/who_we_are/contact_us.asp

(seriously, why not)

I see. It has nothing to do with food, or seed. You are just against companies making money. This is ideology, not issue driven.

You have to be kidding. Sustainable agriculture was the tip-off. Were agriculture not sustainable, there would be no one left to hear that there is a sustainable variety for which to protest, whine, complain, whatever.
So random genetic mutation of seeds (which is what every seed has endured if it is anything but lightning hitting slimy protein), is superior to genetically directed agriculture? On what basis? Sure we prefer quick growth, and are willing to sacrifice nutrition in the process, but you would first have to establish that the old stuff is perfect for us to determine that any change to it is bad.