Achieving ambitious Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) production targets to meet growing world demands will not suffice to feed the world, and focusing too much on churning out crops may even be damaging, experts warn.
The Rome-based United Nations agency said earlier this month that world food production must increase 70 percent by 2050 to nourish a human population likely to reach 9.1 billion. It said this can happen if developing countries, expected to generate most of the extra 2.3 billion people, increase agricultural investment by around 83 billion dollars per year.
But FAO's estimate that over one billion people, almost one-sixth of humanity, are suffering hunger in a world that today generates more than enough to feed everyone suggests that meeting this target is only part of the equation.
"We ask how we can feed the world by 2050, but what we should also ask is how we can overcome poverty by 2050," Hasan Sahin, programme officer of the Tehran-based Economic Cooperation Organisation tells IPS.
Marco Contiero, the genetic engineering and sustainable agriculture specialist at Greenpeace's European Unit, also thinks there is a danger of taking too narrow an approach. "The dogma that we just need to produce more is wrong," Contiero tells IPS.
"Of course we must increase production where it is at low levels. But we already produce lots of food and yet we still have one billion people going hungry, while 1.6 billion are overweight and 500 million are obese. This shows there is much more to the problem."
Some analysts fear the drive to meet quantity targets could lead to an increased use of large-scale industrial farming of a restricted number of crops - methods that have kept the First World well-fed but which might not be appropriate for developing countries.
One of the main reasons these methods may be inappropriate is that they risk further damaging the plight of poor people in rural areas worst affected by hunger, where a Catch 22 situation frequently materialises.
"When the prices are too low the farmers have no cash. If the gate price does not even pay for the calories they spend in their muscles on ploughing, that's nonsensical. But when prices are high, poor people become very vulnerable," Roberto Ridolfi, head of the European Commission's Europe Aid F3 Unit, tells IPS. "It's bad news for poor people no matter what."
Helping developing countries' small farmers to break out of poverty, on the other hand, could create a virtuous circle in which they stop being part of the problem and become part of the solution.
"We are not the ones who feed the world, the farmers are. What we need to do is motivate farmers to increase productivity - farmers need to be a major concern for us," Benyamin Lakitan, secretary of Indonesia's State Ministry for Research and Development tells IPS.
"The problem in developing countries is that farmers' prosperity has really not increased for decades. We need to put more effort into increasing farmer prosperity; that way farmers will help us to increase food production. Financial incentives for farmers is the key issue."Achieving ambitious Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) production targets to meet... more
I was going to add a title saying I was stripping for sustainable agriculture to get more attention, but I decided not to. But seriously, is that really what we have to stoop to in order to get people to pay attention to such an important issue? When will this be considered important to media? When you are not able to buy or plant a seed without a corporation owning it? When you will not be able to eat anything but what they tell you to eat? When the number of crops grown dwindles down to 10 and biodiversity is all but gone? When the worldwide famine hits or we completely poison this planet into unsustainability?
Excerpt:
A global civil society coalition sent a public warning to the UN General Assembly that a new class of patents covering plants and animals endangers both innovation and food security, echoing the sentiments of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.
The "Global alert against Monstantosizing' our food" was released on 21 October by the "No Patents on Seeds" coalition, coinciding with the presentation of similar concerns by the UN Special Rapporteur, Olivier de Schutter, on the Right to Food, at the Third Committee (dealing with Social, Humanitarian and Cultural issues) in New York.
The alert was initiated by the organisations Berne Declaration, Swissaid, Misereor No Patents on Life (Switzerland), Greenpeace and The Development Fund (Norway), supported by farmer organisations from Europe, South America and Asia. They include Coldiretti in Italy, COAG in Spain, dairy farmers from Germany, Federacion Agraria Argentina and Bharat Krishak Samaj, an Indian farmer organisation.
Directed at governments, parliaments and patent offices, the alert warns about a new class of patents covering plants and animals derived from conventional breeding. "These patents even claim harvests and derived food products such as milk, butter and bread," the report revealed.
By speaking of "Monsantosizing", the signatories to the alert warned that the whole chain from seed to food production might be controlled by a few big international corporations like Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta, leading to a process of oligopolies and increasing concentration.
"A radical change in both patent legislation and the practice of patent offices is needed to eliminate patents on plants and farm animals," said Francois Meienberg of the Berne Declaration.
"Corporations should not be allowed to continue to misappropriate and monopolise seeds, plants and farm animals via patent law. If they are, these patents will become a major threat to global food security, food sovereignty and innovation."
"The big companies are about to control seed, harvest, trade and even food production," warned Luis Contigiani at Federacion Agraria Argentina.
"We can see how Monsanto tries to license fees on soy production, imposing embargoes on European importers of Argentinean soy and derivatives based on patents that are not valid in our country. This is an example of the consequences when genetic resources are subjected to the logic of monopolisation by patent rights."
The alert quotes from the background report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (A/64/170), de Schutter, which also raises concerns that seed patents might increase food crises. Citing de Schutter, "The oligopolistic structure of the input providers' market may result in poor farmers being deprived of access to seeds, productive resources essential for their livelihoods, and it could raise the price of food, thus making food less affordable for the poorest."I was going to add a title saying I was stripping for sustainable agriculture to get... more
The following are actual Soil Carbon case studies and further information.
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Sequestering carbon in soil is the most natural, effective, and cost effective way to mitigate global warming and maintain soil health for optimal food security. There are no other methods that can produce the results achieved with soil carbon sequesration. This is the answer to the overabundance of Co2 emissions from fossil fuels, to global poverty, to food insecurity, and the antithesis to the "clean coal" rhetoric that is a fiction.
However, it will not work when attached to a cap and trade mechanism that would allow corporations to continue emitting at present levels while claiming to be financing soil carbon sequestration in a developing country. There must be two sides to this equation in using soil carbon sequestration and rewarding those at the source who are doing it, and also holding those accountable who continue to emit GHGs that nullify the effects of natural sequestration.
This is a very well done presentation that I recommend you watch to understand how very important soil and sustainable agriculture are as solutions to this crisis. Soil carbon sequestration and reforestation along with better grazing management are positive responses that can be achieved that are the quickest ways to absorb the overabundance of carbon in our atmosphere to give us a balance that will work to get us to 350. But it must be fair and equitable to all in order to work.
October 16 was World Food Day. In honor of the day I sent a letter to my community paper regarding GMOs and calling for a boycott of them. Whether it has any effect remains to be seen, but hopefully it will make more people aware of just what is being done to our food supply for proft and how the poor in our world are paying the biggest price for it.
Just as with water, I believe food is a human right that should not be denied to anyone. However, we see this right denied more and more in the developing world and much of the hunger we see is perpetuated by the WTO, World Bank, and IMF policies that keep access of food from the poor to create speculation that drives up prices of food. This keeps Western imports coming into countries whose land is now used to grow luxury crops for export to foreign markets rather than having food sovereignty.
So in honor of World Food Day, pledge to make every day World Food Day and write a letter to a newspaper, or blog, or send a note to someone in government, or simply pledge to take it upon yourself to boycott those who use food simply as a profit motive and call for food sovereignty for farmers, seed saving, water, and environmental democracy for all.
Thanks.October 16 was World Food Day. In honor of the day I sent a letter to my community... more
An 18-year Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Manager for the FBI has called for a Special Counsel to be appointed to investigate the allegations of FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds. John M. Cole, who now works as an intelligence contractor for the Air Force, made his comments during an audio interview released late last week with radio journalist Peter B. Collins.
He also offered a detailed insider's look at the concerns among high-level officials inside the Bureau as Edmonds' disturbing allegations began coming to light back in 2002, before they would be quashed for seven long years by the Bush Administration's unprecedented use of the so-called "State Secrets Privilege" to gag her.
Earlier last week, following the publication of a remarkable American Conservative magazine cover story interview with Edmonds --- detailing a broad bribery, blackmail, and espionage conspiracy said to have been carried out between current and former members of the U.S. Congress, high-ranking State and Defense Department officials and covert operatives from Turkey and Israel, resulting in the theft and sale of nuclear weapons technology on the foreign black market --- Cole had been quoted by the magazine confirming one of Edmonds' key allegations.
"I am fully aware of the FBI's decade-long investigation of" Marc Grossman, he said in response to the AmCon article/interview. Grossman had served as the third-highest ranking official in the Bush State Department and was alleged by Edmonds in the interview, and in a sworn, video-taped deposition a month earlier, to have been the U.S. ringleader for a massive Turkish espionage scandal reaching through the halls of power and into top-secret nuclear facilities around the country to the benefit of allies and enemies alike. Cole said that the FBI's counterintelligence probe "ultimately was buried and covered up," and that he believes it is "long past time" for an investigation of the case to "bring about accountability."
In his subsequent interview with Collins last week (audio and text excerpts posted below) Cole elaborated on those comments in much greater detail, noting that Edmonds has been "one hundred percent right on the money, on the mark" and confirming the existence of an "ongoing and detailed effort by Turkey to develop influence in the United States" through various illegal activities.
"Yes, I can confirm that," Cole told Collins, "That's true."
The FBI veteran executive also offered an insider's account of the panic that ensued inside the highest echelons of the bureau following Edmonds' first disclosure of information in 2002, recounting how an executive assistant director admitted to him at the time, just after the story first broke, "Well, all I know is that everything that Sibel is stating is true. I read her file. Everything she stated is, in fact, accurate."
Cole further describes how the concerns about Edmonds ultimately led to the Bush Administration's two-time use of the Draconian "State Secrets Privilege" in hopes of keeping her extraordinary information from becoming public. "Everybody at headquarters level at the bureau knew that what she was saying was extremely accurate."
"I know they didn't want her to go out and speak about it at all," Cole revealed, "and I know they were trying to figure out ways of keeping this whole thing quiet, because they didn't want Sibel to come out."
He also offered information which directly counters one of the criticisms of Edmonds' allegations as frequently offered by skeptics. Namely, that as a short time FBI contract translator --- even though she was tasked to review some seven years of counterintelligence wiretaps made from 1996 to 2002 --- she couldn't have had enough understanding of the full scope of the investigations to understand what was really going on.
More...An 18-year Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Manager for the FBI has called for... more
UK, September 17, 2009 (Pal Telegraph)- Could anyone imagine as a result of your own actions you are killing your own troops and your own population? This is now the case in Israel.
Many weapons used by the IDF in Gaza contained uranium components and upon impact set off huge volumes of aerosol particles that then drifted back over the border into Israel with devastating results.
It has been some time since the Israelis bombed Lebanon and the Gaza Strip and in both cases the weapons used left behind a trial of misery for all those that lived downwind. We can now start to see the results of those actions and I must say the term "What goes around comes around" rings true in the ears of the residents of Israel. Some interesting health statements have been released that prove when you play with dirty weapons it can all come back to you. It would now appear that we have a situation whereby Israelis are killing Israelis.
In May this year we saw the following headline appear in the Haaretz:
"Quality of Israeli sperm down 40% in past decade" The quality of Israeli sperm has declined alarmingly in the last decade, according to recent research conducted at Jerusalem's Hadassah University Hospital, Mount Scopus. The cause for the decline is not known, but it's believed by some researchers to be connected to the exposure of children and pregnant women to hormones and other contaminants in food and water.
This month started to see some more statistics appear out of Israel which again indicates that contamination by DU may well be the cause. The next headline was even more alarming: "More women diagnosed with cancer in Israel than in Europe" Israel's health ranking is dropping compared to those of developed European nations, the Israel Medical Association said yesterday. Israel lags behind the European average in disease prevention.
The report gave a clear message that something in the environment may be causing these dramatic increases. The comparison gave the number of new female cancer patients as follows: 290 per 100,000 compared to an average of 179 in Europe. The report went of the say that for men the average was much the same but again was showing a steady rise since 2005.
When you think you have heard the last of the bad news you are then confronted with another shocking headline from the IMA: Hodgkin's lymphoma is a distinct primary solid tumour of the immune system that shows wide variation in incidence among different geographic regions and among various races. It was previously suggested that susceptible people living in certain parts of Israel had a higher risk of HL because of exposure to unidentified environmental factors in these regions. Compared with other parts of Israel, these regions were characterized by a higher proportion of Israeli-born Jews.
A total of 4812 Jewish cases of HL were reported to the Israel Cancer Registry during the study period 1960-2005. There has been a persistent increase in the age-standardized incidence rate of HL, all subtypes pooled, in Israeli-born Jews in both men and women. The age distribution pattern in both genders was bimodal in all periods. The highest incidence was observed in the 20-24 year age group: for women (9.13 per 100,000 per year) during the period 1988-1996, and for men (6.60 per 100,000 per year) during the period 1997-2005.UK, September 17, 2009 (Pal Telegraph)- Could anyone imagine as a result of your own... more
Last week marked a little-known and under-reported symposium held in Rome under the auspices of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation – the World Seed Conference. Although the subject may appear obscure, the conference theme and the issues discussed, including plant variety protection and seed improvement techniques, could not be more important to millions of farmers in the developing world.
Between the heavy acronyms and technical terms used by the UN figures, government officials and industry representatives, the conference illustrated two clear themes; firstly, the desire of Northern-based business to continue a process of enclosure of key farming inputs such as seeds by way of technology. Secondly, a push by these same companies (supported by the US and EU countries) for an extension and tightening of intellectual property rights on plant genetic resources into the national law of poorer countries.
Under the guise of innovation and progress, breeding companies suggest that seed varieties developed in laboratories in the North and then sold to poorer farmers in the South can raise yields in crops, increase nutritional values, reduce pesticide and fossil fuels use as well as conserve biodiversity. In the words of one participant at the conference, his company utilised ‘the art and science of changing the genetics of plants for the benefit of humankind.’
Advocates from industry argue that to safeguard their investment in these manipulated ‘seed innovations’ governments should use a form of legal construction (intellectual property rights) to prevent farmers from re-using and changing seeds that are a ‘product’ of agribusiness. Industry lobbyists also suggest that such monopoly rights should extend to developed plants varieties that business cannot easily control by technology – for example due to natural reproduction.
However, the patenting of seeds, extension of plant variety protection and rollout of a global regime of intellectual property rights for agricultural inputs could have serious consequences for small-scale farmers in the developing world.
Techno-Fixes and Monopoly Control
Firstly, the intellectual property regime that many participants in the Conference wish to tighten and extend to poorer countries (what one participant called ‘the development of a new industry competitiveness on foreign markets’), legally prevents farmers from sharing and saving seeds for later harvests or for future generations.
Under a key intellectual property treaty first signed in the 1960s and last amended in 1991, called UPOV, and the later WTO TRIPS, governments agreed to prevent farmers from saving or sharing seeds with only a few limited exceptions. In countries that have accepted these intellectual property regimes, small-scale farmers have moved increasingly towards the use of imported seeds, suffering from a number of adverse effects including increased debt levels, displacement and worsening food security. Making the situation worse, under intellectual property laws, some governments refuse to subsidise or even prohibit the use of seeds that do not make an ‘official list’ – most often those that were previously shared and exchanged between communities.Last week marked a little-known and under-reported symposium held in Rome under the... more
Oh yes, the entire world's fate regarding food now rests in the hands of Hillary Clinton, Monsanto's point woman in the Obama administration, the World Bank, The Gates' and Rockefellers ties to GMOs, and governments lining up with Big ag to make a killing on Gm demonseeds. Watch the slight of hand very closely on this as they use policy to exploit the poor with lies. And just one comment about Cheryl Mills's comments: You used a lot of words to say nothing. Only when food sovereignty and seed saving to preserve biodiversity and soil rests in the hands of those small farmers in not being slaves to companies like Monsanto will we see food security in our world. Monoculture will NOT solve this crisis.Oh yes, the entire world's fate regarding food now rests in the hands of Hillary... more
GIRALDI: And Grossman received money as a result. In one case, you said that a State Department colleague went to pick up a bag of money…
EDMONDS: $14,000
GIRALDI: What kind of information was Grossman giving to foreign countries? Did he give assistance to foreign individuals penetrating U.S. government labs and defense installations as has been reported? It’s also been reported that he was the conduit to a group of congressmen who become, in a sense, the targets to be recruited as “agents of influence.”
EDMONDS: Yes, that’s correct. Grossman assisted his Turkish and Israeli contacts directly, and he also facilitated access to members of Congress who might be inclined to help for reasons of their own or could be bribed into cooperation. The top person obtaining classified information was Congressman Tom Lantos. A Lantos associate, Alan Makovsky worked very closely with Dr. Sabri Sayari in Georgetown University, who is widely believed to be a Turkish spy. Lantos would give Makovsky highly classified policy-related documents obtained during defense briefings for passage to Israel because Makovsky was also working for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
GIRALDI: Makovsky is now working for the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy, a pro-Israeli think tank.
EDMONDS: Yes. Lantos was at the time probably the most outspoken supporter of Israel in Congress. AIPAC would take out the information from Lantos that was relevant to Israel, and they would give the rest of it to their Turkish associates. The Turks would go through the leftovers, take what they wanted, and then try to sell the rest. If there were something relevant to Pakistan, they would contact the ISI officer at the embassy and say, “We’ve got this and this, let’s sit down and talk.” And then they would sell it to the Pakistanis.
GIRALDI: ISI—Pakistani intelligence—has been linked to the Pakistani nuclear proliferation program as well as to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.LINK TO FULL ARTICLE: http://amconmag.com/article/2009/nov/01/00006/
Who’s... more
Well, the key word here is bank. They are not in this for philanthropic reasons. Why people continue to think they serve any other real purpose but to keep developing countries in the developing stage in order to keep the rich countries rich escapes me.
Excerpt:
The World Bank is spending billions of pounds subsidising new coal-fired power stations in developing countries despite claiming that burning fossil fuels exposes the poor to catastrophic climate change. The bank, which has a goal of reducing poverty and is funded by Britain and other developed countries, calls on all nations in a report today to “act differently on climate change”.
It says that the world must reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, but it is funding several giant coal-burning plants that will each emit millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide a year for the next 40 to 50 years.
Britain is contributing £400million to a World Bank fund that claims to support “clean technology” but is financing coal power plants.
The bank’s World Development Report says: “Developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change — a crisis that is not of their making and for which they are the least prepared. Increasing access to energy and other services using high-carbon technologies will produce more greenhouse gases, hence more climate change.”
The report says that between 75 and 80 per cent of the damage caused by climate change through drought, floods and rising sea levels will happen in developing countries. It calls on richer nations, including Britain, to increase the amount that they spend on helping developing countries to adapt to climate change.
The bank also wants global spending on research and development on sustainable sources of energy to be increased from the present $70billion (£40billion) a year to $700billion.
The report says that unless the world acts now to cut carbon dioxide emissions it faces a 5C (9F) rise in global temperatures by the end of the century. “Such a drastic temperature shift would cause the possible dieback of the Amazon rainforest, complete loss of glaciers in the Andes and Himalayas, and rapid ocean acidification leading to death of coral reefs,” it says.
“The speed and magnitude of change could wipe out more than 50 per cent of species. Sea levels could rise by one metre this century, threatening 60 million people. Agricultural productivity would likely decline throughout the world and over three million additional people could die from malnutrition each year.”
The 260-page report advises against “locking the world into high-carbon infrastructure” but makes no mention of the bank’s plans to subsidise coal power plants in India, South Africa, Botswana and other developing countries.
Last year the bank and its partner, the Asian Development Bank, approved $850million in loans to finance a coal-fired plant in Gujarat, western India.
The Environmental Defence Fund, a US lobby group, said that the plant, the first of nine planned in India, would be one of the biggest new sources of greenhouse gases on Earth, emitting 26.7million tonnes of CO2 a year for the next 50 years.
The bank is also contributing $5billion towards South Africa’s power generation expansion plan, which includes six coal plants.
Marianne Fay, the bank’s chief economist for sustainable development, said that coal was the cheapest and most secure way to deliver electricity to the 1.6billion people without it. She said: “There are a lot of poor countries which have coal reserves and for them it’s the only option.
end of excerptWell, the key word here is bank. They are not in this for philanthropic reasons. Why... more
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
A demonstrator was killed and three others were wounded when police fired to disperse hundreds of people protesting against water cuts in the southern city of Aden, witnesses said on Monday.
It was the third night in a row that people living in the Khor M'kassar district had rallied to protest about their lack of water, although the city authorities said they were seeking to restore supplies.
The demonstrations are taking place amid an groundswell of discontent among people in impoverished south Yemen who believe they are neglected by the government in Sanaa.
Since late April, at least 43 people have been killed in clashes in the south.
The Sanaa government blames separatists who want to restore the south's independence but many of the demonstrators have been protesting against poor living conditions in the region.
A month ago at least 16 people were killed and 30 others wounded in violent clashes between government forces and armed activists at a separatist rally in south Yemen, according to witnesses.A demonstrator was killed and three others were wounded when police fired to disperse... 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
Dennis Hastert, Stephen Solarz, Bob Livingston, Tom Lantos, Roy Blunt, Dan Burton and an Unnamed Congresswoman ~ All Named IN MAJOR WASHINGTON DC SCANDAL
A long tale of massive corruption that has been hidden throughout the eight years of the Bush administration is finally surfacing. After years of Federal Gag Orders issued by the Department of Justice , the Obama White House has refused to continue the coverup and has opened the doors to criminal investigation.
What has surfaced, is a scandal that like no other. Showing clearly the selling of American influence and nuclear defense secrets to the highest bidder. The names that have floated to the surface are some of the most trusted highest ranking US government officials. Starting with The Ex-Speaker of the House; Republican, Dennis Hastert, then on to Stephen Solarz, Bob Livingston, Tom Lantos, Roy Blunt, Dan Burton and an (Unnamed Congresswoman) ~ All whom were named (Under Oath) as what appears to be the largest US Scandal of all time.
More will be surfacing as Pandora's box has just begun to open...
Gérartd Angé
------------------------------ Begin Quoted Text: ------------------------------
In this first break-down article, we'll look at the answers given by Edmonds during her deposition in regard to bribery and blackmail of current and former members of the U.S. Congress, including Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Bob Livingston (R-LA), Dan Burton (R-IN), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Stephen Solarz (D-NY), Tom Lantos (D-CA, deceased) and an unnamed, currently-serving, married Democratic Congresswoman said to have been video-taped in a Lesbian affair by Turkish agents for blackmail purposes.
Though Edmonds was careful to not "discuss the intelligence gathering method by the FBI," she notes in her deposition that her claims are "Based on documented and provable, tracked files and based on...100 percent, documented facts."
In further breakdown articles, we'll look at her disclosures concerning top State and Defense Department officials including Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and, perhaps most notably, the former Deputy Undersecretary of State, Marc Grossman, the third-highest ranking official in the State Department. Also, details on the theft of nuclear weapons technology; disclosures on Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA front company Brewster-Jennings; items related to U.S. knowledge of 9/11 and al-Qaeda prior to September 11, 2001; infiltration of the FBI translation department and more.
---------------------------------------------------------
Brad Friedman: Investigative journalist, broadcaster,
BradBlog.com creator,
Commonweal Institute Fellow.
Posted: September 5, 2009 03:14 PM
Former FBI Language Specialist Sibel Edmonds finally gets to testify under oath, after being hit with a gag order. Bombshells Under Oath: INCLUDE: CONGRESS MEMBERS NAMED IN ESPIONAGE, BRIBERY, SEXUAL BLACKMAIL SCHEMES; NEW BREWSTER JENNINGS / VALERIE PLAME DISCLOSURE...
Long gagged under the "state secrets" privilege by the Bush Administration, the Obama Administration's DoJ chose not to re-invoke privilege, paving the way for this information to finally make its way on to the unclassified public record.
WHEN CORPORATIONS FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS CAN USE OUR COURTS AS A TOOL TO SUBVERT THE FABRIC OF OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS THAT PROTECT ALL CITIZENS. THEN... WE ALL LOSE.
IN A SURPRISE TWIST: Our Trial Judge was quickly switched from The Honorable Barbara Miller to: Judge John M. True III.
OUR FIRST HEARING BEFORE JUDGE JOHN M. TRUE III ~ We were Denied our Constitutional Right to equal justice under the law.
" I was ordered by Judge True to represent our corporate case in trial." " I told Judge True NO! That I couldn't do that because I am not an attorney and, I wasn't qualified and, that we already had an Attorney." Judge True III replied: [quote] "That if I SAID THAT YOU would have to represent yourself - Then... that's exactly what you will have to do!... So, Deal With It-!!!!" . [end quote].
By doing that Judge John M. True III first denied us our Constitutional Right to equal justice under the law and then soon after Judge John M. True III... denied our Second Constitutional Right... The Right to a Trial.
On August 04, 2009, Judge John M. True III on behalf of Gap International, a TurkishAmerican company based in Pennsylvania, with self-claimed
[ Deep Government Connections] dismissed our case against the Defendants,
After six years, a series of quick odd rulings a surprise hearing without our attorney present. Fabricated Phony charges of missing "Assignment of Claims" documents that were in fact... never missing at all.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSvlwg3F6q0
Former FBI Language Specialist Sibel... more
~ THE BENEFITS OF HAVING DEEP GOVERNMENT CONNECTIONS ~
Until the thefts we had no knowledge about this Turkish American company called Gap international. What we know now, we have learnt first hand in the last six years at great cost from what we have observed from the acts committed against us and from what Gap International has posted on their web site.
I am certain that if I stole one of their many web sites. I would be in locked up in jail right now. But, for those of us “Without these [ Deep Government Connections ]. This story is a much different one...
PLEASE READ ON:
Although Defendants (Gap PA) characterize Plaintiff (Gerard Ange') as someone who violated their purchase of legal property, the "full records" and "full testimony" do not reflect a legal transaction at all. It reflects embezzlement and, theft with the first theft and conversion of our legally owned property "www.gapinternational.com". The Second Theft(s) shows a cold retaliatory gangland style attacks on the Plaintiff with multiple theft(s) of his property, www.win-tv.com, www.win-tv.net, www.worldindigenousnetwork.com, that along with the first theft all these additional acts reflect serious criminal wrongdoing with malicious criminal intent to damage Mr. Gerard Ange’ personally and were committed with the three intentions: (1) First to send a clear message to intimidate and terrorize the Plaintiffs. (2) To conceal and cover up the initial criminal act of the first theft of www.gapinternational.com web domain. And (3) To damage the Plaintiffs financially and stop Mr. Ange' from pursuing legal action against the defendants for the crimes they committed against his businesses and against him personally.
IN CONCLUSION:
If the Defendants were so innocent of crime, you would think that they would be more than willing to go to trial and present their case and share all of the their evidence with a jury because, that could prove the defendants innocence. But, that is not that case here. Documents and evidence have been [EXCLUDED] and [REMOVED] and also [DELETED]. The final solution for Defendants was to stop the trial all together... An action clearly showing the defendants intent to conceal, cover-up and stop this case being presented to a Jury, in an attempt by the Defendants to continue to hide their acts.
JULY 20th HEARING RESULTS:
Judge True followed through with his threat he made to us in June, and ruled to dismiss our case against the defendants. He explained that the reason he dismissed the case was because of his previous ruling on June 10, 2009: When he moved forward to have a trial ("without our attorney present"). He then ruled to dismissed all charges against the defendants. By doing that Judge John M. True III denied our Constitutional Right to a Trial.
WHY DID THIS HAPPEN TO US?
Because of a company named Gap International of Philadelphia wanted our property to "Brand" their Company. Gap felt that they needed "our domain name" to do that.
THE BIG QUESTION IS:
What kind of people would find it so important to intentionally destroy the lives of so many people and, destroy both our corporations, our future, my life ~ in order to get ~ a stupid domain name? www.gapinternational.com ( WHY? )
A MONETARY JUDGMENT WILL BE NOW GRANTED AGAINST THE VICTIMS OF CRIME:
Judge John M. True III on 7/20/09 Stated that he will be granting a judgment against (the Plaintiffs) to pay for all of the defendants legal expenses". (A figure after six years could very well be as high as $1 Million dollars.)
OUR FUTURE:
We are now seeking additional funding for an Appeal and for a complete formal investigation into the replacement of Judge Barbara Miller and the odd rulings and Judicial actions exhibited in Alameda County Superior court by Judge John M. True III.
Many see aid as a cure for underdevelopment. Not so, says William Easterly, co-director of New York University's Development Research Institute. Easterly doesn't believe aid is useless - after all, he says, it has helped saved lives, particularly of children in the developing world.Many see aid as a cure for underdevelopment. Not so, says William Easterly,... more
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Former FBI Language Specialist Sibel Edmonds finally gets to testify under oath, after being hit with a gag order.
Bombshells Under Oath: INCLUDE: CONGRESS MEMBERS NAMED IN ESPIONAGE, BRIBERY, SEXUAL BLACKMAIL SCHEMES; NEW BREWSTER JENNINGS / VALERIE PLAME DISCLOSURE...
Long gagged under the "state secrets" privilege by the Bush Administration, the Obama Administration's DoJ chose not to re-invoke privilege, paving the way for this information to finally make its way on to the unclassified public record.
CNN NEWS/ As scandals from Wall Street to Washington roil the public trust, the justice system in Luzerne County, in the heart of Pennsylvania's struggling coal country, has also fallen prey to corruption. The county has been rocked by a kickback scandal involving two elected judges who essentially jailed kids for cash.
**** Many of the children had appeared before judges without a lawyer.
Ciavarella pleaded guilty earlier this month to federal criminal charges of fraud and other tax charges, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Former Luzerne County Senior Judge Michael Conahan also pleaded guilty to the same charges. The two secretly received more than $2.6 million, prosecutors said.
The judges have been disbarred and have resigned from their elected positions. They agreed to serve 87 months in prison under their plea deals. Ciavarella and Conahan did not return calls, and their attorneys told CNN that they have no comment.
The federal government began investigating in 2006.
The kickback scandal highlights a major problem in the juvenile justice system in Luzerne County and across the country, attorneys say. They say hundreds of children who appeared before Ciavarella didn't have lawyers.
On August 04, 2009, Judge John M. True III on behalf of Gap International, a Turkish/American company based in Pennsylvania, with self-claimed [ Deep Government Connections ] dismissed our case against the Defendants, stopping our six year attempt at trying to get a Jury trial.
I was born here but, today I don't even feel like citizen anymore. Judge True who was mysteriously substituted into our case, replacing the Honorable Judge Barbara Miller, took all that all away from all of us when he ruled his own twisted version of the law by first, denying our right to our attorney and then demanded that I represent my own case in court as Pro Se. By doing that Judge John M. True III denied our right to trial and right to equal justice under the law.
After six years of hell in our search for Justice.... Watching our Television Broadcast businesses G.A.P. International and our WIN-TV Project all intentionally destroyed by the Defendants. My once perfect credit now - Ruined... My bank accounts - Liened... My corporations are now all - in Default. All of my good friends and family that believed in WIN-TV and invested in me and, what we were doing. We never could have imagined that someone would commit such theft(s) against us, and then steal all our email to & from our investors... trying to destroy both our businesses until... it was too late.
Today, I find myself looking back after six years of living this nightmare. It seemed that the only thing that I had left after the theft, was this one thing... My deep (but false) embedded belief that "in the end, that Justice would prevail." With that belief, I moved forward spending over $100,000.00 in legal fees in the last six years in our search of justice..
But unknown to us, the ultimate theft was yet to happen...
In the last six years I was in front of many fine Judges that I respected. But now, out of nowhere a new judge appeared, a judge that was substituted into our case as our trial judge “Judge Barbara Miller" disappeared. Like a scene from a bad movie from the first moment I was in front of Judge True he seemed hell-bent on one mission. A mission to destroy our case! I then watched him on April 10th reversing Judge Millers decisions and destroying our case after six years... Right in front of our eyes... It just didn't seem real! This type of stuff isn't supposed to happen.
One thing I know very well after six years of living in hell... That it is one thing being robbed like we were and seeing our businesses intentionally destroyed and then watch as everything we all had worked so very hard for so many years to build ruined. And then to find myself... to end up almost homeless where I am today, is totally devastating. But, the real crime here is when you do the right thing and expect something that what was promised to you as a right from birth. A pillar of your belief in America is then systematically stolen from you. As it was with us with our case after six long years of our search for justice. A long journey that ended in the theft our civil rights and the denial of equal justice under the law by the person we looked to for help.
Why did this happened to us?
Because Gap International (www.gapinter.com) of Philadelphia wanted our property to "Brand" their Company, and they felt that they needed "our property " our domain name " to do that.
THE BIG QUESTION IS:
What kind of people would find it so important to intentionally destroy the lives of so many people and destroy both our corporations, our future, my life ~ in order to get ~ a stupid domain name? www.gapinternational.com ( WHY? )
WHEN CORPORATIONS AND CEO'S CAN USE OUR COURTS AS A TOOL TO SUBVERT THE FABRIC OF OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS THAT PROTECT ALL CITIZENS. THEN... WE ALL LOSE.
Gérard Angé
President CEO
G.A.P. INTERNATIONAL
World Indigenous Network Corporation
