"The Environmental Protection Agency today reversed its stance on the potential hazards of atrazine, one of the most commonly-used herbicides in the country, saying it will re-examine how the chemical affects human health."
Wouldn't you say that all herbicides affect one's health? I mean, even if it seems safe, I don't think they can be 100% safe all the time. Is there a natural herbicide that exists?"The Environmental Protection Agency today reversed its stance on the potential... more
"Cheap meat has become a way of life in much of Europe, but the full price is being paid across Latin America as vast soya plantations and their attendant chemicals lead to poisonings and violence. "
Excerpt:
"The film, Killing Fields: the battle to feed factory farms – produced by a coalition of pressure groups including Friends of the Earth, Food and Water Watch and with European coordination by Via Campesina, – documents the experiences of some of those caught up in Paraguay's growing conflict over soy farming and reveals, for the first time, how intensive animal farming across the EU, including the UK, is fuelling the problem.
Campaigners plan to use the film to highlight the 'unsustainable' nature of modern food production, and to spearhead efforts to raise awareness of the largely hidden cost of the factory farming systems supplying much of Europe's cheap meat and dairy produce."
More:
"Industrial scale soy production, particularly for genetically modified (GM) crops – some 90 per cent of Paraguay's soy is now thought to be GM – is dependent on the frequent application of powerful pesticides and other agri-chemicals which have been linked to environmental degradation and a host of negative health impacts on people living near to soy farms.
Crop spraying has polluted important water sources in many rural regions, say campaigners, poisoning both domestic and wild animals, threatening plant life, and resulting in a number of health problems in people, including diarrhoea, vomiting, genetic malformations, headaches, loss of sight and even death.
The film contains harrowing testimony from Petrona Villaboa, who lives in Pirapey, whose son Silvano died after being sprayed with toxic chemicals on a soy plantation.
Statistics compiled by pressure groups suggest that as much as 23 million litres of pesticides and herbicides are sprayed in Paraguay each year, including several that have been classified by the World Health Organisation as being 'extremely hazardous'."
This is so sad and scary.
What is the world doing about this?
The meat consumption in America as in Europe is devastating our Nature at an alarming rate.
The whole world has to rethink the consumption of meat as it causes deforestation, hunger, poverty, desertification, water contamination, water scarcity, species extinction and the subjugation of the indigenous people.
Across the South, there's a weed that man can no longer kill. It's called the pig weed, and for decades farmers controlled it by spraying their fields with herbicides.
This past summer, Pace Hindsely on Coffee Creek Farms and other farmers started noticing the chemicals they routinely used were no longer working
The weeds have adapted, and this year they're choking more than a million acres of cotton and soybeans.
...More...Across the South, there's a weed that man can no longer kill. It's called the pig... more
"It's a question that has baffled the worlds of agriculture and science – what is it that has caused the mysterious deaths of honey bees all over the world in the last five years? A new film may have the answer.
Vanishing of the Bees, which will be released in Britain next month, claims the cause is the use of a new generation of pesticides that weakens the bees and makes them more susceptible to other diseases."
Bayer denies it.
I have no doubts that GMO is the main responsible for CCD.
Pesticides,herbicides,chemical fertilizers are very destructive too.
The combination has been fatal for our bees.
For a technology that has sucked up billions of research dollars and prolonged agriculture's dependence on chemical inputs, GMOs (genetically modified organisms) have yet to justify their role in a world desperate for more sustainable ways to produce healthier food for more people. In a recent report by the Union of Concerned Scientists entitled "Failure to Yield," a summary of on-farm production levels of genetically modified crops showed less than marginal gains in actual yield. In fact, the review concluded that "no currently available transgenic varieties enhance the intrinsic yield of any crops."
Let's Put GMO Food on the Shelf
Such findings beg the question: Who needs GMO food anyway? If GMOs are developed to increase yields, then they have failed. If they are marketed to reduce costs for farmers, and the price of GMO corn seed is now three times greater than it was just a few years ago, they have failed yet again. If these seeds are engineered to use less herbicides when, according to recent indications, many weeds are becoming Roundup-resistant, requiring a cocktail of herbicide applications in certain farming areas while crop land is just being abandoned in others, they have most certainly failed!
GMO defenders cite net yield increases per acre due to weed and pest management traits, apparently comparing GMO-chemical regimes with non-GMO-chemical regimes in traditional intensive corn-soy production systems. They don't compare the genetically modified pest-management results with non-chemical systems where organic corn tolerates higher weed populations without yield loss, and where insect damage becomes insignificant in most years once basic crop rotations are established and soil health improves. It seems GMO defenders have failed to take the varying approaches of these two systems into account, which leaves us with only a chapter of the whole story.
GMO Food Just Doesn't Make Sense
Despite the failures of GMOs, it is clear that their developers have not failed at making huge profits in a system where farmers are forced to market on volume, and have no market rewards for nutritional quality or penalties for ecological impact.
So what have consumers gained? Perhaps the answer is unclear. But I do know why we in the organic movement are so dead against GMO food. The answer is pretty simple: Genetically engineered seeds just don't make sense. Here's why:
• How can a seed variety that is costly to patent (and legally can't be saved for replanting) help poor farmers around the world?
• How can a seed that needs increased levels of toxins to control weeds be the safest option, ecologically or from a human standpoint?
• How can a seed that is artificially injected with foreign proteins be harmless to eat?
GMO Food and Human Health: The Hidden Consequences
Whether genetically modified foods are safe for human consumption will remain a controversial issue. Yet some scientists who have been quieted or marginalized have found serious concerns about the safety of GMOs in laboratory animal studies. In many investigations involving GMO-fed animals, there have been cases of underdeveloped organs, reproductive problems, accelerated aging and even death.
As the four As (allergies, asthma, autism, and ADD) rapidly increase in U.S. health statistics, we must consider that GMOs could certainly be one of the causes. As a matter of fact, in a recent position paper by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, physicians across the country called for a moratorium on GMO foods because "there is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects."For a technology that has sucked up billions of research dollars and prolonged... more
In times when food is genetically manipulated and chemically contaminated, the metaphor "food for thought" can also stand for manipulated information and be toxic food for thought. Unfortunately, Dr M.S. Swaminathan's GM: Food for Thought (August 26), is as manipulated as the genetically-modified (GM) foods which were the subject of his article.
Dr Swaminathan's first scientific manipulation was the argument that conventional plant "breeding methods are very time consuming and often not very accurate. However, with the recombinant DNA technology, plants with the desired traits can be produced very rapidly and with greater accuracy". This is scientifically false. Genetic engineering is a crude and blind technology of shooting genes into an organism through a "gene gun". It’s like infecting the organism with a "cancer". It is not known if the transgene is introduced, and that is why antibiotic resistance markers have to be used. Nor is it known where in the genome the transgene gets introduced. This is not "accuracy", it is literally shooting in the dark.
Further, the genetically engineered construct is introduced into existing crops that are bred by conventional breeding methods. Thus Bt Cotton (Bt stands for Bacillus Thuringenesis) is the introduction of Bt genes into existing hybrids in the case of Mahyco (a company that produces and markets a broad range of seeds developed with biotechnology), and into a selection in the case of the Central Cotton Research Institute. GM technology does not substitute conventional breeding, it is dependent on it. Thus the arguments of "speed" as well as "accuracy" are false.
The second scientific inaccuracy in Dr Swaminathan’s article is the claim that through GM technology "we can isolate a gene responsible for conferring drought tolerance, introduce that gene into a plant, and make it drought tolerant".
Drought tolerance is a polygenetic trait. It is, therefore, scientifically flawed to talk of "isolating a gene for drought tolerance". Genetic engineering tools are so far only able to transfer single gene traits. That is why in 20 years only two single gene traits have been commercialised through genetic engineering. One is herbicide resistance and the second is the Bt toxin trait.
Navdanya Trust’s recent report (Biopiracy of Climate Resilient Crops: Gene giants are stealing farmers innovation of drought resistant, flood resistant and salt resistant varieties) shows that farmers have bred corps that are resistant to climate extremes. And it is these traits, a result of a millennia of farmers breeding, that are now being patented and pirated by the genetic engineering industry. Using farmers’ varieties as "genetic material", the biotechnology industry is playing genetic roulette to gamble on which gene complexes are responsible for which trait. This is not done through genetic engineering; it is done through software programs like "Athlete" that uses "vast amounts of available genomic data (mostly public) to rapidly reach a reliable limited list of candidate key genes with high relevance to a target trait of choice. Allegorically, the Athlete platform could be viewed as a "machine" that is able to choose 50-100 lottery tickets from amongst hundreds of thousands
of tickets, with the high likelihood that the winning ticket will be included among them".
Breeding is being replaced by gambling, innovation is giving way to biopiracy, and science is being substituted by propaganda.
more at the link.In times when food is genetically manipulated and chemically contaminated, the... more
You mess with nature, it messes you back. It's time to ban glyphosate.
Excerpt:
The gospel of high-tech genetically modified (GM) crops is not sounding quite so sweet in the land of the converted. A new pest, the evil pigweed, is hitting headlines and chomping its way across Sun Belt states, threatening to transform cotton and soybean plots into weed battlefields.
In late 2004, “superweeds” that resisted Monsanto’s iconic “Roundup” herbicide, popped up in GM crops in the county of Macon, Georgia. Monsanto, the US multinational biotech corporation, is the world’s leading producer of Roundup, as well as genetically engineered seeds. Company figures show that nine out of 10 US farmers produce Roundup Ready seeds for their soybean crops.
Superweeds have since alarmingly appeared in other parts of Georgia, as well as South Carolina, North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri, according to media reports. Roundup contains the active ingredient glyphosate, which is the most used herbicide in the USA.
How has this happened? Farmers over-relied on Monsanto’s revolutionary and controversial combination of a single “round up” herbicide and a high-tech seed with a built-in resistance to glyphosate, scientists say.
Today, 100,000 acres in Georgia are severely infested with pigweed and 29 counties have now confirmed resistance to glyphosate, according to weed specialist Stanley Culpepper from the University of Georgia.
“Farmers are taking this threat very seriously. It took us two years to make them understand how serious it was. But once they understood, they started taking a very aggressive approach to the weed,” Culpepper told FRANCE 24.
“Just to illustrate how aggressive we are, last year we hand-weeded 45% of our severely infested fields,” said Culpepper, adding that the fight involved “spending a lot of money.”
In 2007, 10,000 acres of land were abandoned in Macon country, the epicentre of the superweed explosion, North Carolina State University’s Alan York told local media.
The perfect weed
Had Monsanto wanted to design a deadlier weed, they probably could not have done better. Resistant pigweed is the most feared superweed, alongside horseweed, ragweed and waterhemp.
“Palmer pigweed is the one pest you don’t want, it is so dominating,” says Culpepper. Pigweed can produce 10,000 seeds at a time, is drought-resistant, and has very diverse genetics. It can grow to three metres high and easily smother young cotton plants.
Today, farmers are struggling to find an effective herbicide they can safely use over cotton plants.You mess with nature, it messes you back. It's time to ban glyphosate.
Excerpt:... more
In 2007, 10,000 acres of land were abandoned in Macon country, the epicenter of the superweed explosion, North Carolina State University's Alan York told local media.
'Superweed' explosion threatens Monsanto heartlands
France 24, 19 April 2009 http://tiny.cc/vTMid
"Superweeds" are plaguing high-tech Monsanto crops in southern US states, driving farmers to use more herbicides, return to conventional crops or even abandon their farms.
The gospel of high-tech genetically modified (GM) crops is not sounding quite so sweet in the land of the converted. A new pest, the evil pigweed, is hitting headlines and chomping its way across Sun Belt states, threatening to transform cotton and soybean plots into weed battlefields.
In late 2004, "superweeds" that resisted Monsanto's iconic "Roundup" herbicide, popped up in GM crops in the county of Macon, Georgia. Monsanto, the US multinational biotech corporation, is the world's leading producer of Roundup, as well as genetically engineered seeds. Company figures show that nine out of 10 US farmers produce Roundup Ready seeds for their soybean crops.
Superweeds have since alarmingly appeared in other parts of Georgia, as well as South Carolina, North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri, according to media reports. Roundup contains the active ingredient glyphosate, which is the most used herbicide in the USA.
GM protesters demonstrate near the French town of Toulouse in March 2008. How has this happened? Farmers over-relied on Monsanto's revolutionary and controversial combination of a single "round up" herbicide and a high-tech seed with a built-in resistance to glyphosate, scientists say.
Today, 100,000 acres in Georgia are severely infested with pigweed and 29 counties have now confirmed resistance to glyphosate, according to weed specialist Stanley Culpepper from the University of Georgia. http://mulch.cropsoil.uga.edu/weedsci/
"Farmers are taking this threat very seriously. It took us two years to make them understand how serious it was. But once they understood, they started taking a very aggressive approach to the weed," Culpepper told FRANCE 24.
"Just to illustrate how aggressive we are, last year we hand-weeded 45% of our severely infested fields," said Culpepper, adding that the fight involved "spending a lot of money."
In 2007, 10,000 acres of land were abandoned in Macon country, the epicenter of the superweed explosion, North Carolina State University's Alan York told local media. http://deltafarmpress.com/cotton/palmer-amaranth-1226/
The perfect weed
Had Monsanto wanted to design a deadlier weed, they probably could not have done better. Resistant pigweed is the most feared superweed, alongside horseweed, ragweed and waterhemp.In 2007, 10,000 acres of land were abandoned in Macon country, the epicenter of the... more
I just posted another study a couple of days ago regarding herbicides and their possible linkage to brain cancer in children. Now tell me, how is it that Monsanto PR reps have the absolute NERVE to come on these Internet sites and tell us that this poison is safe? Any company that claims they didn't want to lose one dollar of profit after toxifying an entire town with their PCBS, doesn't seem likely to give a damn about the poisons they sell now. Remember, the suffix "cide" refers to killing something.That obviously is not going to happen with a benign substance.
This also goes back to their seed patents, because farmers are required to purchase Round Up with the seeds because the seeds are supposedly "Round Up Ready." I have never seen such diabolical deceptive measures employed by a company to make proft over the safety and health of the environment and the people. But we will never see this information dessiminated by this media or the polticians who continue to support them.
I even saw a new ad from Monsanto the other night about Round Up CONCENTRATE, and they encourage people to spray it around their homes to kill weeds, but no warnings given. How absolutely evil. I say, if what they say about it being safer to drink a glass of glyphosate than milk is indeed true, let's see the CEO of Monsanto down a nice big tall one on one of those ads.I just posted another study a couple of days ago regarding herbicides and their... more
Little is known conclusively about what causes brain cancer in children, but research studies are consistently finding links to prebirth pesticide exposure.
A new study finds that children who live in homes where their parents use pesticides are twice as likely to develop brain cancer versus those that live in residences in which no pesticides are used. Herbicide use appeared to cause a particularly elevated risk for a certain type of cancer.
It is well established that many pesticides cause cancer in animals.
This study highlights a new and compelling reason to avoid or limit pesticide use and take necessary precautions during exposure. It also adds to a growing body of research that finds that pesticide exposure -- especially with farm life and pesticide use -- might be contributing significantly to this deadly disease.
Brain cancer is the second most common cancer in children, yet why it develops is not clear. Genetics plays a role in some cases, but researchers believe those not due to associated genes are related to environmental factors and exposures.
The authors explain that "parental exposures may act before the child’s conception, during gestation, or after birth to increase the risk of cancer." Exposures at each time period may trigger different changes that lead to cancers, such as genetic mutations or changes in gene expression or hormone and immune function.
The study evaluated more than 800 fathers and more than 500 mothers that lived in residential areas in four Atlantic Coast states (Florida, New Jersey, New York (excluding New York City) and Pennsylvania). Researchers match and compare every person that is "exposed" to an "unexposed" person of the same age and status. In this case, more than 400 fathers and 250 mothers of exposed children were included.
Researchers assessed -- through telephone interviews with the mothers -- parental exposure to insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides at home and at work beginning two years prior to their child's birth.
Brain cancer cases in children under 10 years old, diagnosed between 1993 and 1997, were included in the study. The children had participated in the original Atlantic Coast childhood brain cancer study. Their illnesses represented a range of cancers, including astrocytomas and primitive neuroectodermal tumours (PNET). Astrocytomas was associated with herbicide use in this study.Little is known conclusively about what causes brain cancer in children, but research... more
The real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40 percent while the real price of soft drinks (AKA Liquid Corn) declined by 23 percent.
The Farm Bill essentially treats our children as a human disposal for all the unhealthful calories that the Farm Bill has encouraged American farmers to overproduce.
The public health community has come to recognize it can't hope to address obesity and diabetes without addressing the Farm Bill.The real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40... more
After a decade of nothing being done to address this serious environmental problem, let's see what Lisa Jackson does under the Obama administration. She will have to coordinate her efforts with Tom Vilsack of the USDA, and that may prove to be a sticky situation if he has to put pressure on Monsanto and other agribusiness companies (factory farms) whose phosphate herbicides and fertilizers are contributing in great part to this problem. Monsanto knowingly poisoned an entire town in Alabama with PCBs. Now their chemicals along with other toxic runoff and fertilizers poison our waterways. It has to end.After a decade of nothing being done to address this serious environmental problem,... more
(Marquette, Michigan) - The Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project in Marquette is protecting pollinators like butterflies because billions of honeybees and bumblebees are dying worldwide in syndrome called “Colony Collapse Disorder.”
Marquette teens and Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) youth spent this summer building the first of dozens of white cedar butterfly houses that will be created over the next three years. Lined with bark and slimmer than birdhouses, the shelters offer protection, rest and reproduction safety to Monarchs and other butterflies.
Butterflies are a close second to bees in transferring pollen from one plant to another.
Experts are unsure why bee colonies are collapsing but pesticides, climate change and other man-made reasons are among the suspects. Without pollinators the world food supply will dry up including fruits, vegetables, flowers, other plants and trees.
The Zaagkii Project was founded by the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) in Marquette.
“The problem with disappearing pollinators is a cause for concern (because) all life is interconnected,” said Todd Warner, KBIC Natural Resource Director.
Sponsors are KBIC, CTI, Marquette County Juvenile Court and the United States Forest Service (USFS).
“We are seeing a reduction in the number of bumblebees,” said Jan Schultz, Botany and Non-native Invasive Species Program Leader at the USFS eastern region office in Milwaukee.
The Zaagkii Project will plant native plants on the once-barren and polluted Sand Point, a Lake Superior beach that the KBIC is restoring from the effects of old copper mining waste. Marquette teens planted and distributed over 26,000 native plant seeds including at the Hiawatha National Forest greenhouse in Marquette.
The KBIC will use many of the plants at Sand Point Beach that was polluted about 90 years ago with stamp sands from the Mass Mill.
The first tribal Brownfield cleanup site in the Midwest, future plans include a nature tail, restoring a historic lighthouse, swimming, camping, boating, picnic areas and fishing ponds.
The goal is “the propagation of the native species rather than having the exotics come in and destroying what we have established,” said Evelyn Ravindra, KBIC NRD Natural Resources Specialist.
KBIC Summer Youth Program members Ethan Smith,17, and Janelle Paquin,15, and other NativeAmerican teens measured, hammered and painted the butterfly houses.
"We put the bark on the inside for the butterflies to rest on," Smith said.
Marquette teens were given a tour of a bee farm with about 60,000 honeybees.
If all bees disappeared the world food supply would be devastated as “fruits, vegetables, nuts and other commercial crops” vanish, said Beekeeper Jim Hayward of Negaunee Township. “We are all dependent on bees.”
The Marquette teens “went to libraries and studied about the Monarch butterflies and their life cycle and their migration patterns,” said Danny Weymouth, 16.
Restoring indigenous plants is vital to wildlife “so our native species don't get overruled and extinct by predator species,” said Justin Fassbender, 16.
Ensuring the future of native plants is important because “there are a lot of invasive species,” said Devin Dahlstrom, 15.
The public can help protect pollinators by being careful with insecticides, Schultz said.
“Apply the pesticide really early in the morning or at dusk when the pollinators aren’t active,” Schultz said.
The Zaagkii Project contributors include the Marquette Community Foundation, the Negaunee Community Fund, the Negaunee Community Youth Fund, the M.E. Davenport Foundation, the Kaufman Foundation, the Phyllis and Max Reynolds Foundation, theUpper Peninsula Children's Museum in Marquette and the Borealis Seed Company in Big Bay.(Marquette, Michigan) - The Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project in Marquette is protecting... more
In a few hundred thousand years, after all weather effects of 21st century climate change have disappeared from the earth-s surface, after our quietly smoldering nuclear waste has been extinguished, two destructive impacts traceable to George Bush-s policies will yet remain.
The first is extinctions. Species that have died out, including the subset resulting from Bush-s environmental policies, will forever deprive our evolving biosphere of their contribution.
The second is genetically modified organisms (GMOs) -- animals, plants, bacteria, and viruses, whose DNA have been mixed and mangled by insertions from foreign species. Once released into the ecosystem, by intention or accident, the genetic pollution self-propagates. No recall by the Obama administration can clean up Mexico-s indigenous corn varieties, now contaminated by our genetically modified (GM) corn. No executive order can remove or even identify the wild mustard plants now carrying altered genes bestowed on it by the pollen from its cousin, GM canola.
We all know stories that illustrate the exponential effects of invasive species. Here-s my favorite, recalled in my book Genetic Roulette:
On Christmas Day 1859, the Victorian Acclimatization Society released 24 rabbits into the Australian countryside so that settlers could hunt them for sport and feel more at home. The rabbits multiplied to well over 200 million, spreading out over 4 million square kilometers. That Christmas present now costs Australian agriculture about $600 million per year.
Will GMOs of today show up as the Australian rabbits of the future? While their impact on our ecosystem and diet is largely unstudied, that has not stopped the current and past administrations from presiding over the release of millions of acres of GM crops. Not only does each plant carry a gene from bacteria or viruses, its DNA has hundreds or thousands of mutations resulting from the disruptive process of genetic engineering. Reports suggest that the side effects of GMOs are quite dangerous. http://geneticroulette.com/
Bush policies institutionalize GMO contamination
If we were to ban GMOs today, as is more than justified, some contamination from commercialized GM food crops will nonetheless carry forward in the gene pool of those (and related) species. This includes contaminants from our largest farmed GM crops, including soybeans, yellow corn, cotton, and canola, as well as the smaller crops: Hawaiian papaya, zucchini, and crookneck squash. Newly added--in this year-s harvest--are GM sugar beets and white corn. There are also GM tomatoes and potatoes no longer on the market, but whose genes and seeds, to some degree, continue to persist out there. But the dirty laundry list actually includes over 100 different experimental GM crops, field trialed at more than 50,000 sites in the US since 1986.
Although the government is supposed to make sure that these trials won-t contaminate the surrounding environment, a 2005 report by the USDA Office of Inspector General harshly condemned the USDA-s abominable oversight. Current regulations, policies, and procedures, said the report, do not go far enough to ensure the safe introduction of agricultural biotechnology. The agency-s weaknesses increase the risk that regulated genetically engineered organisms will inadvertently persist in the environment.
But George Bush-s pro-biotech response was to further weaken the agency-s GMO oversight--and he-s trying to do it quickly, before Obama steps in. The proposed ruling makes gene escape more likely, even from GM crops designed to produce pharmaceutical drugs and industrial chemicals.
^^In a few hundred thousand years, after all weather effects of 21st century climate... more
Brazil-s Amazon jungles, known as the lungs of the world, lost almost 12,000 square kilometres (4,800 sq. miles) in just 12 months, a rise of almost 4.0 percent, new figures showed Friday.
The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said the deforestation of the vast jungles due to encroaching farm exploitation, was 3.8 percent higher from August 2007 to July 2008 than in the previous 12 months.
The areas most affected were in northern Para and in the central Mato Grosso region, which is a huge producer of soya beans.
Over the past three years, the Brazilian authorities have succeeded in sharply reducing the loss of the Amazon rainforests, the biggest zone of tropical woodland on the planet.
Brazil is fighting to preserve its five million square kilometers of Amazon forest, a battle which it wants to be recognized as a service against global warming.
It argues that its efforts should be rewarded with financial input from other countries which would go to helping poor Amazon populations that might otherwise turn to cutting down trees.
But the results from 2007-2008 show that a surface equivalent to Solvenia or Israel was lost compared with the previous year.
The government had warned that the figures were likely to rise and has brought in new measures to combat the problem, including a system of fines.
It has also passed a series of agreements with soya, meat, wood and mineral producers that they will not buy illegal products.
Environment Minister Carlos Minc has said that without these measures the deforestation would have been twice as large.Brazil-s Amazon jungles, known as the lungs of the world, lost almost 12,000 square... more
Marquette, Michigan - The Upper Peninsula Earth Keepers announced several projects for the next year on Thursday night (Nov. 13, 2008) as they received the Michigan Sierra Club prestigious White Pine Award for past projects that included recycling hundreds of tons of hazardous waste, energy conservation programs and the protection of Lake Superior.
Numerous Earth Keeper Initiative (EKI) faith leaders, volunteers and student members accepted the award on Nov. 13 at a meeting of the Sierra Club U.P. Group.
The White Pine Award recognizes "a group outside of the Sierra Club which has been doing things to help protect the environment," said Dr. Jon Rebers, chair of the Sierra Club Central U.P. Group.
The U.P. Earth Keepers, involving the congregations of over 150 U.P. churches and temples, held three annual Earth Day collections at dozens of sites across northern Michigan that removed almost 370 tons of household hazardous waste from the environment.
Earth Keepers collected one ton of pharmaceuticals & $500,000 in narcotics in 2007; 320 tons of computers, televisions & electronics in 2006; and 45 tons of household hazardous waste like pesticides, herbicides, oil-based paint and car batteries. Most of the waste turned in by the public.
Earth Keepers held a 2007 energy summit that helped hundreds of Michigan homes and businesses become energy efficient & helped organize classical musicians to form the Boreal Chamber Symphony for a Lake Superior Day 2007 concert in Marquette that raised funds to protect the world's largest body of freshwater.
"We are moving into our fifth year," said Rev. Jon Magnuson, Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) ex. Dir.
Sponsors: CTI, Superior Water Shed Partnership (SWP), Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and 10 faith communities: Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Bahá'í, Jewish, Quakers & Zen Buddhist.
Partners include the EPA, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
Earth Keepers are "trying to honor the creation by preserving it," said Dr. Rodney Clarken, a Bahá'í. "One of the Bahá'í principles is that each human being is entrusted and is in some way the image of God. We can't be pure and holy unless...the environment is pure and holy."
The leader of a Marquette Zen Buddhist temple said "your environment is in trouble right now."
"Zen Buddhists tend to believe in the oneness of all - you are part of your environment - that is absolutely inescapable," said Rev. Tesshin Paul Lehmberg, head priest of Lake Superior Zendo.
Member Nancy Irish said her favorite EKI project is the "Adopt a Watershed" program.
"We've had a number of campouts for kids," said Irish of the Marquette Unitarian Universalist church. "There is nothing more wonderful than facilitating the meeting of the natural world with children .. children protect what they love & they love what they know.""
"One of the Quaker basic testimonies is the simplicity of living and of course this ties well into that (the Earth Keeper Covenant)," said David McCowen of Lake Superior Friends (Quakers).
The SWP and the CTI "facilitate what happens with the Earth Keepers," said watershed partnership representative Natasha Koss.
The Northern Michigan University EarthKeeper Student Team goals include an "Eco-Christmas Initiative," said Sarah Swanson, project director. "We are going to encourage people to be more eco-conscious when they are purchasing gifts for family and friends over the holidays."
Students will recycle televisions in February, now that they are switching to high definition television, she said. And "planting a bunch of trees on Earth Day" plus "organize some community gardens."
People have "an inescapable relationship with their environment," said Ben Scheelk, NMU EK student team project coor. from the Student Leader Fellowship Program.
Rev. Jon Magnuson
906-228-5494
Greg
906-401-0109 earthkeeper@charter.netMarquette, Michigan - The Upper Peninsula Earth Keepers announced several projects for... more
A study of farmers finds that those with the highest number of lifetime exposure days to agricultural pesticides were 50% more likely to be diagnosed with clinical depression than those with the fewest application days and were 80% more likely if they had applied a class of insecticide called organophosphates. This is the first study to find a link with chronic, low-dose pesticide exposure, although previous studies show an increased risk of depression among people exposed to very high doses or poisoned. This study reinforces concerns that exposure to commonly used pesticides could cause psychiatric disorders.
snip
Researchers analyzed data from the Agricultural Health Study, a large study of individuals with pesticide applicator licenses in North Carolina and Iowa. Participants in the study are divided into commercial pesticide applicators and private applicators, who tend to be farmers. The researchers limited the current analysis to male private applicators.
More than 17,000 men filled out detailed questionnaires about their pesticide use, their health and their behaviors for the study. Men were asked if they had ever been diagnosed with depression requiring medication or shock therapy. They were also asked about their lifetime use of 50 different pesticides, including the number of days per year and the total number of years each pesticide was applied. Pesticides were grouped into different classes, including herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and fumigants. Insecticides were further broken down into three types: organophosphates, carbamates and organochlorines. Individuals were categorized into low (752 days) lifetime pesticide exposure. Men were also asked if they had ever been diagnosed with pesticide poisoning or experienced an incident of unusually high pesticide exposure.
The researchers then compared the likelihood of being diagnosed with depression among men with low, medium and high cumulative days of pesticide use. Using statistical methods, they took into account factors such as age, education, race and marital status that could impact the results.
snip
This study suggests that long-term, chronic pesticide use may have neurological effects, particularly relating to depression. Previous medical reports have shown anxiety and depression symptoms in pesticide-poisoned individuals. This is the first study to extend those findings to regular pesticide use.
The men in this study were all licensed pesticide applicators who experienced pesticide exposures at levels much higher than the general public. However, pesticide exposure is widespread in the general population because of use in homes, workplaces and food.
The study is strong because it looked at a large population of men with wide variability in their pesticide exposures, allowing the authors to compare individuals with high exposure to those with low exposure in the same population. The researchers had extensive information on participants' backgrounds and pesticide exposure history. The major weakness of the study is that men reported about diagnosis of depression and pesticide use that occurred in the past, without differentiating whether the pesticide exposure came before or after the depression. Self-reporting, large time categories and lack of information about some stress-related events (financial) were additional limitations.
The results indicate that pesticides may have neurological effects at exposure levels well below those that cause clinically identifiable poisoning symptoms. Those who apply pesticides as part of their jobs, such as farmers and pest control applicators, should remain vigilant and use safety precautions to protect their long-term mental health. The authors advise that "physicians should be alert to mood changes in those with a history of applying pesticides." A study of farmers finds that those with the highest number of lifetime exposure days... more
GMO's are made by manipulation of extremely deadly viruses & bacteria that have been engineered to be IMMUNE TO ANTIBIOTICS, such as E. coli (Pause video at 8:08). Monsanto spends millions of dollars each month to "sugar" coat and hide the truth of what they are doing or what is really behind how GMO's are made.
This video straight-forwardly explains the scientific facts how Monsanto manufactures their GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms) by removing all the corporate propaganda, the "smoke & mirrors" if you will.
**Please be warned, the once the mask is removed from what you are eating & feeding your children each day, it will outrage you and shock you to the core.
Monsanto's greed combined with their quest to totally monopolize all aspects of food on the planet, has knowingly allowed the proverbial Reaper free upon the world.
GMO's are now acting much like the deadly virus and pre-cancer cells they are made from... by infecting other organisms that were once pure and healthy.
The people of the world should be demanding Monsanto be held for crimes against humanity for the atrocities they have committed and what can be reasonably seen as the start of the end to all life as we know it.
The Bee's disappearance is in perfect unison with the time line of Monsanto's release of GMO's; this can not be argued but due to Monsanto's influence of corruption in governments across the globe, any scientist that tries to inform the public and raise the alarm about the Bee's & GMO's is destroyed financially, as well as their careers'.
Monsanto is the MOST ruthless corporation in the world, which basically controls many governments due to their near limitless resources, money and their "campaign contributions".
They buy WHO they need and crush those that try to stand in their way.
Now that you know, what will you do?
Will YOU decided to fight, right now, this very day or will you put it off for some other time?
After watching these videos, will you also knowingly look the other way and FEED your family GM foods; even though you now know you could be killing or permanently harming your child/family??? If so, call Monsanto for a job, for you have disgraced and shamed yourself for knowingly poisoning the people you claim to love and PROTECT!
....BUT
If you are OUTRAGED at Monsanto's poisoning our food, milk (see my other video on milk!) and health; Please do the following actions, do them once a week... make a difference:
1) Call and WRITE (pen & paper) you're Legislators
(Emails are the very last thing you should do; most are scanned by software and are blocked/deleted when they contain certain key words. This is a fact.)
Demand:
2) That they FULLY endorse: "H.R. 6636 GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOOD RIGHT TO KNOW ACT"
3) An immediate moratorium on all GMO's and their Byproducts!
4) FDA change their findings on GMO's being "Generally Recognized As Safe"! This was done with ZERO testing by the FDA!
5) Demand a full investigation into the criminal conflicts of interest as it pertains to the head personal of Monsanto and the FDA being one in the same.
6) Demand congress pass a "whistle blowers protection" for all professional scientists so that Corporations, Universities and Colleges can no longer manipulate their research.
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This is the description of the video written by the member who uploaded it. I concur with it. We need to wake up. Now.GMO's are made by manipulation of extremely deadly viruses & bacteria that have been... more
To implement their 2008 Saginaw County Brush Control Program, this year the company they hire to spray our roadsides used a defoliant cocktail that contains even more herbicides than in the past. The notice to spray can be read in its entirety on the Saginaw County Road Commission Website; www.scrc-mi.org. OUR Website address is; www.roadsiderage.com. We have a pending lawsuit in regards to the spraying of our private property / Certified Naturally Grown herb business in Burt (Taymouth Township) Michigan, and once again our township was on the list to be sprayed. Why spray? There is NO GOOD REASON! Why not spray? To keep our roadsides, personal properties, ourselves and our children safe from this horrific means of controlling brush. The judge in our case would not grant us an injunction, rather an agreement between ourselves and the sprayers that they would not spray our property. This agreement obviously does not shield anyone else in our county and/or township from target spraying and/or drift. Should you or those you know and love live in the affected townships in Saginaw County, MI. please have them contact us @ 989-770-6004, 989-233-3859, or E-mail: wildcrafted@usa.com. We have a petition on hand to stop the defoliant spraying. FYI - Are you aware that your taxes are being spent on poisoning you? To implement their 2008 Saginaw County Brush Control Program, this year the company... more
Documentary filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin's film "Le Monde selon Monsanto" ("The World According to Monsanto") explores the history and future direction of chemical and so-called "life sciences" industrial company Monsanto. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Monsanto was founded in 1901 to manufacture the synthetic sweetener saccharin. The multinational biotech company in the intervening decades has produced styrene and PCBs; became the leading producer of Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War; manufactures Roundup, the best-selling herbicide; and has advanced the development of genetically engineered seeds and bovine growth hormone. The company has also had a history of mergers and spin-offs, and in 2000 merged with Pharmacia and Upjohn.
"Le Monde selon Monsanto" aired on the French-German television network ARTE earlier this year, and had its premiere in Switzlerland in February. Marie-Monique Robin's film -- based on her book "Le Monde selon Monsanto" -- is the result of three years of research and interviews from around the world, and explores the biotech giant's legal battles and controversies in the manufacture of toxic herbicides and the production of genetically modified organisms. Monsanto currently markets its brand as a "life sciences" company emphasizing its green image.
"Le Monde selon Monsanto" will have public screenings at Ex-Centris in Montreal on Friday, May 23; at Cinéma Le Clap in Quebec City starting Friday, May 23; and at the Toronto Mediatheque on Monday, May 26.
