E-mail messages obtained by the New York Times show that statements by dozens of lawmakers entered into the official record of the House debate on healthcare were ghostwritten, in whole or part, by lobbyists for biotechnology company Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotech companies. The company estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points — 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats.E-mail messages obtained by the New York Times show that statements by dozens of... more
Monsanto’s money buys the “truth” even on public radio so that it too spreads Monsanto’s PR message “Produce more, Conserve More.” In reality, agriculture a la Monsanto is everything but conservation or sustainability. Read our analysis of Monsanto’s treatment by Marketplace.Monsanto’s money buys the “truth” even on public radio so that it too spreads... more
Many commercial companies are at least waist deep in the murky waters of social networking. Dozens of advocacy groups and environmental organizations can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other social networks. Yet biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and trade associations are just beginning to use these communications tools to engage their constituency. Why is this so?
German researchers have successfully transferred a fungal resisting gene found in bacteria and other plants into peas but as a result of high administrative costs and political uncertainty in Germany, they will continue field testing genetically modified peas in United States.
With a packed house, and time for only one more question, author Jeffrey Smith stepped to the mic and received the loudest applause of the morning with this question on genetically modified (GM) foods.With a packed house, and time for only one more question, author Jeffrey Smith stepped... more
Sustainable agriculture investing gets serious with Wall Street money movers.
The business of feeding the world’s populations has fast become less about the quality of the produce shipped halfway around the world to your salad bowl and all about the quantity and speed at which the agricultural industry can deliver higher yields through soil damaging pest control and genetic mutations through biotechnology.
A new investment firm seeks to pair sustainable solutions with the resources necessary to fix our broken agricultural system.
Janine Yorio, Founder of NewSeed Advisors.
A lot of what we call sustainable also becomes economically necessary in the face of rising oil prices. So the day that we wake up and gas is at $5 again is that day that farmers and people [who] are actually involved in food production need to find alternatives to the petrochemicals that they use every single day to produce food.
According to Janine, the interest and the resources of the new wave of sustainable investors are big enough to counteract the old standards of short-term gains and turn-and-burn investing.
For more on NewSeed’s upcoming event and the full interview with Janine Yorio, click here.
Photo by rich_awn.Sustainable agriculture investing gets serious with Wall Street money movers.
The... more
A startup biotechnology company unveiled its grand plans for a new energy source yesterday–although it didn’t share a few crucial details. The company, Joule Biotechnologies, says it has genetically engineered an organism that can efficiently produce unprecedented amounts of liquid fuel. However, chief executive Bill Sims will not reveal what that marvelous organism is.
by Eliza StricklandA startup biotechnology company unveiled its grand plans for a new energy source... more
As the demand for solar power is growing all around the world, scientists develop new technologies for cheaper and more efficient solar energy production. The Hydrogen Club at Oregon University is currently focused mainly on three approaches to solar energy production, namely: bacterial approach, chemical approach (ie. heating up to 1000 degrees to produce hydrogen from water) and the method using microbes to break down waste molecules in water and produce hydrogen as well as a stream of clean water.
Among all, the bacterial method sounds the most appealing to me as it is 100% natural and more promising to be affordable by a larger segment of the world’s population.
The name the protogonists is “cyanobacteria”. Cyanobacteria have an elaborate and highly organized system of internal membranes that function in photosynthesis. And, as a part of this photosynthesis cyanobacteria produce hydrogen. Moreover, it doesn’t need direct or high levels of sunlight.
Certain health risks are indicated for mass-reproduction of cyanobacteria, and an accurate assessment of the risks is not available. Yet, The Hydrogen Club members envision bacteria based solar panels (such as large sheets of gel) to be hung all sides of buildings as a future solar power generation system which could work even on cloudy days.As the demand for solar power is growing all around the world, scientists develop new... more
Since Argentina's soybean boom in the late 90s, clinical studies have been conducted in communities reporting suspiciously high rates of cancer, birth defects, and neonatal mortality. However, industry leaders also refute these clinical studies, saying they are anecdotal and have little scientific basis. Among a corporate controlled scientific community it is notoriously difficult for clinical studies to "prove" the link between environmental contamination and health results, since life is not a "controlled environment."
In a small town bordering soy farms in the province of Cordoba, the Mothers of Ituzaingo group was formed in response to sudden increases in the local cancer rate. Ituzaingo has 5,000 residents—in 2001 they reported more than 200 cases of cancer and by 2009 that number has jumped to 300. This is 41 times the national average. (I conducted this calculation: the national average or percentage is 0.145 of the population diagnosed with cancer—in this town 6% of the population has cancer.) They have fought for regulations against fumigating soy crops in residential areas and a ban of agrochemicals.
Sofia Gatica is an activist with the Mothers of Ituzaingo. Sofia joined the grassroots group after suffering the death of her newborn baby. Her daughter was still born with a malformed kidney. Her 14-year-old daughter is currently undergoing treatment for toxicity in the blood. The toxin was identified as endosulfan, an insecticide used on soy fields.
Gatica describes the many birth defects that have occurred locally. "We have had children born with only two thumbs and no fingers, malformed kidneys, children with six fingers. We have had babies born without an anus, or with malformations in the intestines."
After years of documenting the tragedies, the Mothers of Itzuaingo decided to take their case to the courts. In 2006, they won their lawsuit in the provincial Supreme Court. Based on their findings the court ruled to prohibit the use of agrochemicals within 1,000 meters of residential areas. The decision applies to the province of Cordoba while in the rest of the country farmers can continue to fumigate with no regulations.
The case of Ituzaingo is not an isolated case. For nearly a decade, communities have reported health problems from aerial and terrestrial fumigation with the arsenal of pesticides and herbicides used in industrial soy farming. And for nearly a decade they have been ignored. "Communities are literally fumigated with planes or with the terrestrial 'mosquito repellant' fumigations (similar to the DEET trucks used to fumigate U.S. neighborhoods in the 50s). Cases of health problems, miscarriages, birth defects, and cancer rates have multiplied at an alarming rate in communities surrounding the soy fields," says Carlos A. Vicente, head of information for Latin America at GRAIN.
The Campesino Movement of Santiago del Estero (MOCASE), a grassroots movement made up of traditional farmers and indigenous groups, has taken more than 100 accusations of agrochemical poisoning to court in Santiago del Estero. The only other case of a judge ruling against the use of herbicides occurred in the northern province of Formosa. The judge, Silvia Amanda Sevilla, was subsequently fired. No other judge in the country has ruled in favor of prohibiting fumigation using glyphosate or other herbicides and pesticides. The courts have either thrown out or ruled against every single claim brought by the plaintiffs. Darío Aranda, a journalist with the national daily, Página/12, has reported on numerous communities in soy-producing regions throughout the country that have faced severe health problems, including residents in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Entre Rios, Chaco, Santa Fe, and Formosa.
Worse yet, research shows that the mostly rural communities that suffer the negative health effects of fumigations have not benefited from the soy explosion.
Much more at the link.Since Argentina's soybean boom in the late 90s, clinical studies have been conducted... more
The terminology is Photo Dynamic Therapy. AKA Light Therapy.
It is important to know that past light therapies have been used by medical professionals,
though in general skepticism remained largely due to little result data.
However, such is not the case with this newly developed and cost effective prototype solution. Newly developed light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by Polymertronics, patch up wounds AND destroy skin cancer cells by zapping them with light.
"We have tested both our LED solution and organic LED solutions in a controlled laboratory experiment. The LED killed 100% of head and neck cancer cells in less than half an hour, whilst our organic LED solution did the job in 2.5 hours. For a wearable product this is very acceptable."The terminology is Photo Dynamic Therapy. AKA Light Therapy.
It is important... more
A new bill before the Senate would create a federal mandate for genetically modified (GM) crop research as part of U.S. aid programs, despite evidence that these crops will fail to curb hunger.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the sweet-sounding Global Food Security Act (SB 384) last month with little fanfare. The legislation, also known as the Lugar-Casey Act for the bill's authors Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Robert Casey (D-PA), includes a provision sought after by aid groups that would allow food aid to be purchased — at least in part, locally. The bill aims to reform aid programs to focus on longer-term agricultural development, and restructure aid agencies to better respond to crises. While the focus on hunger is commendable, funding for agricultural development — some $7.7 billion worth of it — under the proposed law would be directed in large part to genetically modified crop research.
The bill is proving to be divisive among aid groups. But according to a new report by Food First that I co-authored, this bill is not an isolated piece of legislation, but a coordinated roll-out of the "new Green Revolution," — a project that includes the Gates Foundation's multi-billion dollar Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). In fact, the legislation is based on an industry-friendly report funded by the Gates Foundation. Initiated by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in fall of 2008 and drafted by the end the year, the hastily prepared report on which the new law is based calls for increasing research funding for biotechnology.
In contrast, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD), a recent four-year study conducted by the World Bank and the Food and Organization (FAO) in consultation with more than 400 scientists and development experts, reached the opposite conclusions. The IAASTD found that reliance on resource-extractive industrial agriculture is unsustainable, particularly in the face of worsening climate, energy, and water crises. And it concluded that expensive, short-term technical fixes — including GM crops — don't adequately address the complex challenges of the agricultural sector and often exacerbate social and environmental harm. The IAASTD called for land reform, agro-ecological techniques (proven to enhance farmers' adaptive capacity and resilience to environmental stresses such as climate change and water scarcity), building local economies, local control of seeds, and farmer-led participatory breeding programs.
Evidence in favor of these alternatives is building. A 2008 study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development found that "organic agriculture can be more conducive to food security in Africa than most conventional production systems, and…it is more likely to be sustainable in the long term." Numerous studies have documented these alternatives' ability not only to raise yield — but reduce poverty and inequality, the root cause of hunger.
The Lugar-Casey Act represents the biggest project in agriculture since the original Green Revolution industrialized farming in the 1950s and 1960s. The first Green Revolution increased global food production by 11% in a very short time, but per capita hunger also increased equally as much. How could this be? Green Revolution technologies are expensive. The fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, and machinery needed to cash in on productive gains put the technology out of reach of most small farmers, increasing the divide between rich and poor in the developing world. Poor farmers were driven out of business and into poverty-stricken urban slums.A new bill before the Senate would create a federal mandate for genetically modified... more
This is a photoessay of my visit to North Carolina Central University's Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise (BRITE) facilities at North Carolina's famous Research Triangle.This is a photoessay of my visit to North Carolina Central University's... more
"Scientists at the University of Tokyo revealing a 5mm doll made in living cells.
The demonstration that displays a whole new way of biofabricating three-dimensional living
structures went into experimentation with researchers cultivating 100,000 0.1mm balls of
collagen, coated in dozens of skin cells inside a doll-shaped mold for day, which was then
dipped in culture solution and managed to survive there for over a day...""Scientists at the University of Tokyo revealing a 5mm doll made in living cells.... more
As of last night, a US marshall, 2 state police and a county police are all over Mr. Hixon's area, serving notices to farmers that they are being sued by Monsanto. They arrive in pairs, with two cars parked a quarter mile and half mile down the road. They've served 3 so far and said "a bunch more are coming." No telling how many will be served since Hixon has between 200-400 farmers he cleans seeds for and these farmers have been repeatedly threatened by Monsanto thugs for the last two months, getting "visits," letters, and calls daily.
Farmers report that a Monsanto investigator laughed that they were doing "rural cleansing."
Steve Hixon is a seed cleaner in southern Illinois. He has equipment that takes the plant materials and "cleans" it so that the seeds are separated out and can be given back to farmers to save for the next season. It's a mechanized step up from farmers hand picking seeds off their own plants, which, with hundreds of acres - or even 10 - would not be easy to do.
Mr. Hixon has the non-distinction of being attacked by Monsanto. He is far from alone. Monsanto has been picking off seed cleaners across the Midwest, having already done its thuggish thing in Pilot Grove, Missouri, and in Indiana, attacking Maurice Parr, destroying business for all of them.
Mr. Parr reports that when he was sued, the first thing out of the judge said was how "honored to have a fine company like Monsanto in my courtroom."
"Shortly after someone broke into Mr. Hixon's office and he found his account book on his truck seat where he would never have left it, evey one of his remotely located and very scattered customers had three men (described as goons with "no necks") arrived at each farm, going out onto it without permission ... Mr. Hixon and state police who were called in, believe a GPS tracking device may have been put on Mr. Hixon's equipment." Click here.
In 2002, when Mr. Hixon was at the state legislature for a meeting, he said he told a Monsanto representative there, "If you guys want to take over the seed industry so bad, you ought to buy guys like me out." The Monsanto agent is supposed to have responded "We'd rather put you out of business, it's more fun that way."
..."Of all of Monsanto, DuPont and Dow's agricultural products, genetically engineered food crops might appear to be the least tainted with immediate wartime origins. But this technology emerged from a period when the future of chemical agriculture appeared very much in doubt. With the rapid expansion of the agrochemical industry during the post-World War II era, these companies and their European counterparts had established a profound degree of control over agricultural practices."
But as public pressure and the weight of scientific evidence curtailed the use of DDT and many other chlorinated pesticides in the 1970s, executives and corporate scientists saw the potential for limitless advances -- and ever-expanding marketing potential -- in the incorporation of technological advances into the genetics of seeds. During the 1990s, Monsanto alone spent nearly $8 billion acquiring leading commercial seed suppliers in the United States and internationally; DuPont and others quickly followed suit, leading to today's widespread proliferation of genetically engineered food crops."
Today, in Illinois, our federal agents and police, working on behalf of Monsanto, are terrorizing ... whom? Drug dealers? Financiers who have stolen this country blind? The people who took us to war based on lies and have profited while thousands of American and 100s of thousands of Iraqi have died? No. Our tax dollars are being used to turn our marshals and police into Monsanto agents to terrorize our disappearing farmers.
Terror is palpable in rural America. It defines American farming communities now.As of last night, a US marshall, 2 state police and a county police are all over Mr.... more
According to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, "The worldwide need for nanotechnology workers is expected to reach 2 million by 2015."According to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, "The worldwide need for... more
Soy, she tells me, is "a disease, stuck in the marrow of my bones. It sustains me enough to keep me breathing at the end of each day, but it is rotting me alive. It is slowly numbing my body from the inside out. This crop has robbed me of my child. It has robbed me of my youth, my hope, my want to look ahead to a future. I am not the only one. There are many of us. In America you have cocaine to kill slowly; in Argentina we have soybeans."
Her name is Sonita Ponce. She is thirty-three, but she looks much older. She lives with her husband in the same stone, tin and mud hut that her great grandparents built and passed down through the generations. Their farm is located thirty miles south of Bolivia, in the northern Argentine province of Jujuy. Sonita's family members have always been farmers, and until quite recently their farm produced a wide variety of crops including maize, quinoa, lettuces, and other legumes. This changed in the early years of 2000 when the craze of soy hit America and China. Then genetically modified soy seeds were introduced to Argentina. Suddenly the production demand for soybeans increased so dramatically that the local farmers of these countries could no longer meet the consumer demands, and land was bought up by multinational soy corporations. Many farmers have lost their jobs, homes, land, and health.
In the past, farming in Northern Argentina was community based and structured. The provinces in this part of the country are very hot and dry, and this ecosystem can naturally support only small networks of farms. Thus this area consisted of small communities built around many little farms. The average farm contained 100-250 hectares with 10-15 male field hands who maintained and harvested the crops by hand or simple machinery. Many of the workers lived in small shacks on or close to the property of the farm, turning it into a gathering and meeting place for them and their families. Without modern technology, these small farms had jobs or chores for every age group. Small children could harvest vegetables or tend animals. Wives cooked or accompanied the men in the fields. Older generations assisted the children with harvesting and other simple tasks.
A farmerless crop
As soy fields spread, the US agrochemical giant Monsanto Corporation, developed and introduced the genetically engineered "Roundup Ready" (RR) soybean into the agriculture sector of South America. All parties concerned predicted that the introduction of the genetically modified (GM) soybean would advance farmers economically and technologically. The RR seed is resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, meaning that when the farmers spray glyphosate on their fields, the herbicide kills all the weeds without hurting the soy seed. Without a weed problem, the farmers dramatically decrease or stop tilling their fields, saving gas and machinery cost.
From an economic standpoint, Monsanto thought that cutting production costs would increase profit. They failed, however to understand that by bringing in these GM crops, they were uprooting the social structure and culture that the people of Northern Argentina survived on. "Genetically modified soy is a farm product that needs no farmers," Sonita explains, "which was what made it so appealing to all of us. We just weren't ready for the long terms effects."
With less machinery being operated, and the "built-in" weed management system, few hands are needed to tend to the crops. The labor requirement now for a soy farm is only one job per 100-55 hectares, which creates a large increase in unemployment throughout Northern Argentina. Without the need for extra field hands, suddenly thousands of workers and their families found themselves jobless, and, not soon after, homeless. These workers were the first people to feel the direct impact of the new GM soy crop.Soy, she tells me, is "a disease, stuck in the marrow of my bones. It sustains me... more
No longer science fiction, researchers have invented a way to stop free floating DNA particles and nanoparticles. This technology allows for the movement of particles over long distances.No longer science fiction, researchers have invented a way to stop free floating DNA... more
"Teams in the UK, US and China are at work on the 1,000 Genomes Project, which will create the most useful map ever of genetic variation. The project Will read 6 trillion DNA building blocks including populations from Africa, Asia, USA and Europe ...""Teams in the UK, US and China are at work on the 1,000 Genomes Project, which will... more
Are we setting ourselves up for a health catastrophe in the future? To allow GM foods to go out freely into our market and our environment without adequate testing is opening a pandora's box to a possible epidemic of illnesses due to GM foods. It may take another twenty years before the real consequences of this technology is known, or to concede we may not see any. However, without the proper testing and oversight we will never know and that is simply unacceptable.Are we setting ourselves up for a health catastrophe in the future? To allow GM foods... more
A study in the journal Nature Nanotechnology shows that carbon nanotubes wrapped in DNA can be safely inserted into living cells. The nanotubes emit infrared signals that reveal the cellular conditions affecting the DNA... click on the picture or follow this link for more info: http://uniknotions.com/fulldebate.php?debatenum=143A study in the journal Nature Nanotechnology shows that carbon nanotubes wrapped in... more
