tagged w/ Say NO to GM foods
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The recent news regarding the FDA and irradiation of foods and their decision regarding genetically modified animals and crops is all related to the Codex Alimentarius.This video brings some of that to light to give people information about a global plan to control our food supply and work to weaken the effects of vitamins and supplements. It is information we all need to fight this and to protect our health and safety.The recent news regarding the FDA and irradiation of foods and their decision... more
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Pressure from the president of the European Commission has not succeeded in advancing the cause of transgenic crops. In spite of the power wielded by the executive organ of the European Union, the bloc's member countries are gradually discontinuing the use of genetically modified seeds.
This is due in large measure to the difficulty of convincing European farmers to adopt the transgenic crop production model, which is being promoted by biotech giants, but also to increasingly vociferous protests from civil society, which is demanding that governments take an active role, according to an expert interviewed by IPS.
Genetically modified (GM) organisms, also called transgenics, are made in laboratories by inserting genes from other species of plants or animals into their original DNA, in order to improve their properties or confer resistance to external factors like pests or insecticides. Vectors, often viruses or bacteria, are used to insert the foreign genes.
In Spain and Portugal, which have the largest areas in the EU devoted to GM maize cultivation, people are beginning to question the benefits of sowing and harvesting transgenic varieties of maize, a crop native to the Americas which was the staple food of a number of indigenous cultures.
Maize was slow to be introduced in Europe, because the Central American areas where it was grown were colonised by the Spanish at the time when the Roman Catholic Church was conducting the Inquisition, and they believed that Europeans should not eat the same food as indigenous peoples because, in their view, the latter were not "children of God."
Widely used now as feed for animals, maize has been the subject of fierce controversy within the European Commission.
On the one hand, Commission President Jos; Manuel Duro Barroso is in favour of significantly increasing the production of GM maize within the EU. On the other, European Commissioner for the Environment, Stavros Dimas, is dead set against it.
The European Commission works like a cabinet government and is made up of 27 Commissioners, one from each EU member state, although they must represent the interests of the EU as a whole, not just their home country.
In October 2007, Dimas opposed European Commission approval for cultivation in the EU of two GM varieties of maize, Bt-11 and 1507, because "possible long-term risks to the environment and biodiversity are not completely known, and environmental effects resulting from the cultivation of the GM maize lines are unacceptable."
"However, the majority of the Commissioners are in favour of GM maize, and the final decision has been postponed twice because a consensus could not be reached," Portuguese biologist Margarida Silva, the national coordinator of Plataforma Transgnicos Fora, comprising 12 Portuguese non-governmental organisations working on agriculture and the environment and networking with likeminded NGOs in the EU, told IPS.
Duro Barroso tried to convince Dimas to withdraw his objections in April, while simultaneously requesting an assessment by the European Food Safety Authority, "with the purpose of undermining the legitimacy of Dimas' stance," according to Silva, who is also a university professor.
Silva said that "the movement against transgenics is growing in civil society throughout Europe, and GM crops have already been banned in several countries."
snip
A huge, unified movement of people in favour of declaring a moratorium on the cultivation of GM crops has emerged in Spain and Portugal, following a similar decision taken in March by the French government that invoked the "safeguard clause" allowing an EU member state to bypass a community directive.
Silva said France based its decision "on a set of 25 scientific studies indicating risks to the environment, farming and human health derived from the cultivation of GM maize."
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Photo credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_penfold/2657046712/
Pressure from the president of the European Commission has not succeeded in advancing... more
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It's getting harder to avoid GM foods.
Certified organic, locally grown food....the only way to go.
It's getting harder to avoid GM foods.
Certified organic, locally grown... more
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Do YOU want to know what the Meatrix is?
Take the red pill...and watch this video
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Have you ever wondered exactly how sustainable agriculture is better than industrial? The this is an easy reference that quickly and easily shows the difference between sustainable and industrial agriculture.Have you ever wondered exactly how sustainable agriculture is better than industrial?... more
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This time it’s 153,630 pounds of frozen ground beef products produced by S&S Foods LLC of Azusa, Calif., that may be contaminated with that peskily virulent strain O157:H7.This time it’s 153,630 pounds of frozen ground beef products produced by S&S... more
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A pretty good summery (although it's really just a sample of information) of what is going on in our food supply. Big Agribusiness, the EPA and the FDA are doing a pretty good job of making sure the public doesn't get to this kind of info. Andrew Kimbrell (who appears in the film "The Future of Food" ) and Dr. Vandana Shiva are great people to google if you want more info. Just wanted to share what I know. Please inform yourself on the topic if you are interested. A pretty good summery (although it's really just a sample of information) of what... more
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Check it out....awesome site for people interested in food politics.
"We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process."Check it out....awesome site for people interested in food politics.
"We... more
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The CBC's national news takes a look at how GM crops are being monitored in Canada.
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Say No To GMOs! provides information, activities and resources for Texas and beyond. The goal is to inform the public and encourage grassroots action that will insure consumer choice and a genetically viable future.Say No To GMOs! provides information, activities and resources for Texas and beyond.... more
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The debate still rages whether organic or conventionally handled foods are better for us. Don't believe it?The debate still rages whether organic or conventionally handled foods are better for... more
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A clever little analogical letter to Monsanto....the evil bully on the playground.
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Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.
The study – carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt – has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.
Professor Barney Gordon, of the university's department of agronomy, said he started the research – reported in the journal Better Crops – because many farmers who had changed over to the GM crop had "noticed that yields are not as high as expected even under optimal conditions". He added: "People were asking the question 'how come I don't get as high a yield as I used to?'"
He grew a Monsanto GM soybean and an almost identical conventional variety in the same field. The modified crop produced only 70 bushels of grain per acre, compared with 77 bushels from the non-GM one.
The GM crop – engineered to resist Monsanto's own weedkiller, Roundup – recovered only when he added extra manganese, leading to suggestions that the modification hindered the crop's take-up of the essential element from the soil. Even with the addition it brought the GM soya's yield to equal that of the conventional one, rather than surpassing it.
The new study confirms earlier research at the University of Nebraska, which found that another Monsanto GM soya produced 6 per cent less than its closest conventional relative, and 11 per cent less than the best non-GM soya available.
The Nebraska study suggested that two factors are at work. First, it takes time to modify a plant and, while this is being done, better conventional ones are being developed. This is acknowledged even by the fervently pro-GM US Department of Agriculture, which has admitted that the time lag could lead to a "decrease" in yields.
But the fact that GM crops did worse than their near-identical non-GM counterparts suggest that a second factor is also at work, and that the very process of modification depresses productivity. The new Kansas study both confirms this and suggests how it is happening.
A similar situation seems to have happened with GM cotton in the US, where the total US crop declined even as GM technology took over.
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GM food is not the answer to world hunger. Addressing the cause of hunger is. This is only a profit making scheme for CEOs like Hugh Grant of Monsanto to make over THREE MILLION dollars a year not even counting the hundreds of thousands of shares he has in the company while people continue to starve in the world.
And our own FDA has helped them put something on the market that goes in our bodies and the bodies of our children that was not scientifically vetted and is not labelled on our food. It is time to expose the corporate frauds that seek to control our food and water and send more poor farmers in this country and in Asia, Africa, and South America into debt. Patenting life is immoral as is deceiving the public about what they are eating and devastating our environment.
We need to boycott Monsanto, Cargill, ADM, and any other multinational in the business of profit over people until they are held accountable for their deceptions.Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new... more
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Jeffrey M. Smith, international bestselling author and expert on the health dangers of genetically modified (GM) foods, describes the Campaign for Healthy Eating in America, and how it will achieve the tipping point of consumer resistance to GM foods. This will drive them out of the U.S. food supply as was accomplished in Europe and is already being witnessed in the rejection of genetically modified bovine growth hormone, rBGH, in the U.S. People are invited to participate in the campaign by signing up at http://www.responsibletechnology.org. Jeffrey M. Smith, international bestselling author and expert on the health dangers of... more
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Some 200 million acres of the world's farms grew biotech crops last year, with over 90 percent of those crops coming from genetically engineered seeds patented by U.S.-based Monsanto.
Scientists have taken genetic material from one organism (like a soil bacterium), along with an antibiotic resistant marker gene, and spliced both into a food crop (like corn) to create a genetically modified crop that resists specific diseases and pests.
There has been no long-term, independent testing on the effects of these "Franken-foods" on the ecosystem or human health.
It would be difficult to avoid eating genetically modified organisms in our country because they are so pervasive in the food system and unlabeled in the grocery stores.
Part of the reason for this is biotech giants fought to keep GMO foods unlabeled.
Most recently, the growth hormones from GE organisms known as rBGH, which is given to cows to make them produce more milk, were banned in Europe and Canada after authorities learned about the health risks of drinking milk from cows treated with rBGH hormones.
American milk producers started labeling their milk "rBGH and rBST free." Monsanto, which sells bovine growth hormones under the brand name Posilac, has successfully sued dairy producers to force them to stop labeling their milk.
In addition to most milk products, GMOs can be found in commercially farmed meats and processed foods on store shelves. In our country, 89 percent of all soy, 61 percent of all corn, and 75 percent of all canola are genetically altered.
Other foods, like commercially grown papaya, zucchini, tomatoes, several fish species, and food additives like enzymes, flavorings and processing agents, including the sweetener aspartame and rennet used to make hard cheeses, also contain GMOs, according to Greenpeace.
To complicate matters, GMOs move around in the ecosystem through pollen, wind and natural cross-fertilization. The Union of Concerned Scientists conducted two independent laboratory tests on non-GM seeds "representing a substantial proportion of the traditional seed supply" for corn, soy and oilseed.
The test found that at "the most conservative expression," half the corn and soy were contaminated with GM genes, eight years after the modified varieties were first grown on a large scale in the U.S.
Some 200 million acres of the world's farms grew biotech crops last year, with... more
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