tagged w/ Freedom of Choice
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Here’s what happens when corporations begin to control education.
"When I approached professors to discuss research projects addressing organic agriculture in farmer's markets, the first one told me that 'no one cares about people selling food in parking lots on the other side of the train tracks,’” said a PhD student at a large land-grant university who did not wish to be identified. “My academic adviser told me my best bet was to write a grant for Monsanto or the Department of Homeland Security to fund my research on why farmer's markets were stocked with 'black market vegetables' that 'are a bioterrorism threat waiting to happen.' It was communicated to me on more than one occasion throughout my education that I should just study something Monsanto would fund rather than ideas to which I was deeply committed. I ended up studying what I wanted, but received no financial support, and paid for my education out of pocket."
Unfortunately, she's not alone. Conducting research requires funding, and today's research follows the golden rule: The one with the gold makes the rules.
A report just released by Food and Water Watch examines the role of corporate funding of agricultural research at land grant universities, of which there are more than 100. “You hear again and again Congress and regulators clamoring for science-based rules, policies, regulations,” says Food and Water Watch researcher Tim
Schwab, explaining why he began investigating corporate influence in agricultural research. “So if the rules and regulations and policies are based on science that is industry-biased, then the fallout goes beyond academic articles. It really trickles down to farmer livelihoods and consumer choice.”
The report found that nearly one quarter of research funding at land grant universities now comes from corporations, compared to less than 15 percent from the USDA. Although corporate funding of research surpassed USDA funding at these universities in the mid-1990s, the gap is now larger than ever. What's more, a broader look at all corporate agricultural research, $7.4 billion in 2006, dwarfs the mere $5.7 billion in all public funding of agricultural research spent the same year.
Influence does not end with research funding, however. In 2005, nearly one third of agricultural scientists reported consulting for private industry. Corporations endow professorships and donate money to universities in return for having buildings, labs and wings named for them. Purdue University's Department of Nutrition Science blatantly offers corporate affiliates “corporate visibility with students and faculty” and “commitment by faculty and administration to address [corporate] members' needs,” in return for the $6,000 each corporate affiliate pays annually.
In perhaps the most egregious cases, corporate boards and college leadership overlap. In 2009, South Dakota State's president, for example, joined the board of directors of Monsanto, where he earns six figures each year. Bruce Rastetter is simultaneously the co-founder and managing director of a company called AgriSol Energy and a member of the Iowa Board of Regents. Under his influence, Iowa State joined AgriSol in a venture in Tanzania that would have forcefully removed 162,000 people from their land, but the university later pulled out of the project after public outcry.
What is the impact of the flood of corporate cash? “We know from a number of meta-analyses, that corporate funding leads to results that are favorable to the corporate funder,” says Schwab.
More at the linkHere’s what happens when corporations begin to control education.
"When... more
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KB723
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added this
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1 month ago
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This article refers to the parody cartoon found at (http://www.naturalnews.com/028211_v...). This parody cartoon grew out of the idea that vaccines are "shots" that are being increasingly forced upon children and teens. At times, these vaccines are enforced at gunpoint or with the presence of vicious guard dogs -- as happened in Maryland two years ago when a court judge ordered thousands of parents to bring their children to court for vaccination or face gunpoint arrest and possible jail time. (http://www.naturalnews.com/022267.html)
Most modern vaccinations are, of course, a form of chemical violence against children. If they were all formulated without chemical preservatives (like thimerosal) and dangerous adjuvants (which can harm the nervous system), that might be a different story. But far too many of today's vaccines are chemical concoctions that are entirely unnatural to the human body. To force them into the bodies of innocent children is an act of medical violence.
The method of introducing the vaccines is unnatural and highly interventionist: These chemicals and DNA / RNA fragments are injected directly into the tissues and blood, bypassing the skin (a normal protective defense) and bypassing the digestive system, too. An injected mandatory vaccine dumps foreign material directly into the bloodstream of children without the consent of either the child or the parents -- that's what qualifies mandatory vaccines as "chemical violence" against children.
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I tend to agree and think more should be put towards disease eradication and education.
What do you think?This article refers to the parody cartoon found at... more
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Lol... or is it...?
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Nettle
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added this
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2 years ago
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private prisons profit primarily per prohibition . pretty pathetic pirateering peoples private property. please participate per previous petition,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,peaceprivate prisons profit primarily per prohibition . pretty pathetic pirateering peoples... more
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I am just curious how they plan to enforce the 'must wear underwear' and what prompted this new rule?
A Florida city is cleaning up with a new dress code that requires city workers to wear underwear and use deodorant.
The city council in Brooksville north of Tampa recently approved a dress code that instructs employees to observe "strict personal hygiene."
It also prohibits exposed underwear, clothing with foul language, "sexually provocative" clothes and piercings anywhere except the ears.
Repeat offenders can be fired.
The city council approved the dress code 4-1 as part of a wider effort to update existing policies and ordinances.
The one vote in opposition came from Mayor Joe Bernadini. He said the underwear edict "takes away freedom of choice."I am just curious how they plan to enforce the 'must wear underwear' and... more
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A new bill before the Senate would create a federal mandate for genetically modified (GM) crop research as part of U.S. aid programs, despite evidence that these crops will fail to curb hunger.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the sweet-sounding Global Food Security Act (SB 384) last month with little fanfare. The legislation, also known as the Lugar-Casey Act for the bill's authors Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Robert Casey (D-PA), includes a provision sought after by aid groups that would allow food aid to be purchased — at least in part, locally. The bill aims to reform aid programs to focus on longer-term agricultural development, and restructure aid agencies to better respond to crises. While the focus on hunger is commendable, funding for agricultural development — some $7.7 billion worth of it — under the proposed law would be directed in large part to genetically modified crop research.
The bill is proving to be divisive among aid groups. But according to a new report by Food First that I co-authored, this bill is not an isolated piece of legislation, but a coordinated roll-out of the "new Green Revolution," — a project that includes the Gates Foundation's multi-billion dollar Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). In fact, the legislation is based on an industry-friendly report funded by the Gates Foundation. Initiated by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in fall of 2008 and drafted by the end the year, the hastily prepared report on which the new law is based calls for increasing research funding for biotechnology.
In contrast, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD), a recent four-year study conducted by the World Bank and the Food and Organization (FAO) in consultation with more than 400 scientists and development experts, reached the opposite conclusions. The IAASTD found that reliance on resource-extractive industrial agriculture is unsustainable, particularly in the face of worsening climate, energy, and water crises. And it concluded that expensive, short-term technical fixes — including GM crops — don't adequately address the complex challenges of the agricultural sector and often exacerbate social and environmental harm. The IAASTD called for land reform, agro-ecological techniques (proven to enhance farmers' adaptive capacity and resilience to environmental stresses such as climate change and water scarcity), building local economies, local control of seeds, and farmer-led participatory breeding programs.
Evidence in favor of these alternatives is building. A 2008 study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development found that "organic agriculture can be more conducive to food security in Africa than most conventional production systems, and…it is more likely to be sustainable in the long term." Numerous studies have documented these alternatives' ability not only to raise yield — but reduce poverty and inequality, the root cause of hunger.
The Lugar-Casey Act represents the biggest project in agriculture since the original Green Revolution industrialized farming in the 1950s and 1960s. The first Green Revolution increased global food production by 11% in a very short time, but per capita hunger also increased equally as much. How could this be? Green Revolution technologies are expensive. The fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, and machinery needed to cash in on productive gains put the technology out of reach of most small farmers, increasing the divide between rich and poor in the developing world. Poor farmers were driven out of business and into poverty-stricken urban slums.A new bill before the Senate would create a federal mandate for genetically modified... more
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Monsanto, the world's biggest seed company, said on Wednesday it hoped legal action to end Germany's ban on growing its genetically modified (GMO) maize would allow the variety to be sown for the 2009 harvest.
On Tuesday, Monsanto said it had started legal action against the decision on April 14 by German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner to ban cultivation and sale of Monanto's MON 810 GMO maize which stopped it being sown for this year's harvest.
Monsanto hoped a court decision would be available by mid-May which would permit the maize to be sown for this year's harvest, a Monsanto spokesman said.
An application for an urgent hearing had been made in a German district court. German maize is planted in April and May.
The company would contest the ban because it believed the decision damaged its legal rights as the European Union had approved the maize as safe, he said.
Aigner had said she decided to issue the ban as information showed there was a justifiable reason to believe GMO maize presented a danger to the environment.
Such decisions must be based on new scientific information, the Monsanto spokesman said.
"The explanation that we received from the BVL (German federal food safety agency) last Friday contains no new scientific findings and the study that the BVL puts forward has already been examined by the European Food Safety Authority and other agencies," he said.
The EFSA is the EU risk assessment agency for food and animal feed safety.
A spokesperson for Germany's Agriculture Ministry said: "We have taken note of this lawsuit, which is not a surprise." The ministry would not make detailed comment on legal cases.
The ban put Germany alongside France, Austria, Hungary, Greece and Luxembourg, which also banned MON 810 maize despite its approval by the EU as safe for commercial use in the bloc.
The EU Commission, the bloc's executive arm, has tried without success to get the bans in other countries lifted.Monsanto, the world's biggest seed company, said on Wednesday it hoped legal... more
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BOSTON (AP) — Boston officials approved some of the toughest anti-tobacco rules in the nation Thursday, extinguishing cigar bars and hookah bars and ending the sales of tobacco in pharmacies and on college campuses.
The Boston Public Health Commission, however, decided to give the bars 10 years before they would have to close, doubling the original proposed grace period for the establishments. Even then, the bars could seek an extension for another 10 years.
Boston is the largest city, by far, to move to outlaw smoking bars, which have been exempt from the city's four-year-old workplace smoking ban.BOSTON (AP) — Boston officials approved some of the toughest anti-tobacco rules... more
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brad62
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3 years ago
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I personally believe patrial birth abortion is atrocious and should never be considered by any means. There is no possible way that you can even use the excuse of "the mother's life is in danger" w/ modern technology.
Partial birth abortion is killing the baby flat-out and I believe this is the only issue I have a quarrel with Obama about.
What does everyone else think? Should a 8-9 month old baby be killed while being delivered?I personally believe patrial birth abortion is atrocious and should never be... more
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Cynthia McKinney, presidential nominee for the Green Party and Ralph Nader, presidential nominee for the Independent Party answered the same questions as Obama and McCain did at the last debate, but with more truth. Good use of debate footage here to include both McKinney and Nader with Obama and McCain. This is posted for those who want to hear the other choices in order to make an informed decision. That's democracy. Cynthia McKinney, presidential nominee for the Green Party and Ralph Nader,... more
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Three Facts About John McCain's Extreme Position on Choice:
John McCain is running on the Republican platform, which would ban all abortions - even in cases of rape and incest.
John McCain voted to criminalize doctors who support women in their reproductive choices, even when a woman's health is at risk.
Since 1983, John McCain has voted 125 times against women's reproductive health choices.
John McCain: Out of Touch with Women's Lives...
Check the Facts:ABC News, 8/20/08;
The Chicago Tribune, Eric Zorn, 8/28/08.
Senate vote 51, 3/13/03.
The New Republic, 8/27/08. Three Facts About John McCain's Extreme Position on Choice:
John McCain is... more
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Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) Rice with Human DNA - planting plans in Kansas, Spring 2007 - Lee Quaintance farms in Edgerton, Kansas - member grower, Kansas City Food Circle.
He speaks truth about crop contamination and GMOs regarding disclosure. Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) Rice with Human DNA - planting plans in Kansas,... more
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Burton Aldrich, a quadriplegic from Kingston, NY, explains how medical marijuana helps with his excruciating pain and spasms and says, "I … don't know if I would be around if it wasn't for marijuana." Viewers are urged to ask the state Senate to make New York the 13th state to allow medical marijuana.
If you are a New Yorker, please write your state senator in support of allowing medical marijuana here or call him or her here.Burton Aldrich, a quadriplegic from Kingston, NY, explains how medical marijuana helps... more
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For some ridiculous reason, Texas has a law that forbids strippers from getting within 3-feet of their customers. (Do you know how far 3-feet is when boobs are involved?) And according to TheSmokingGun.com, because of this completely impractical law, they busted 18 innocent–I’m sure–women yesterday, who forgot to pack a tape measure in their g-string.
Way to go Texas! You're running neck and neck with Florida for having the wackiest/trashiest news.For some ridiculous reason, Texas has a law that forbids strippers from getting within... more
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