Sunday, April 7, 2013

Monopolistic Corporations Controlling Global Food Supplies Pass Laws Making Dissent Illegal


Our food may be killing us as factory farming pollutes the environment and breeds super-viruses and bacteria requiring ever greater use of antibiotics:

Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime by R. OpelApril 6, 2013, The New YorkTimes, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/us/taping-of-farm-cruelty-is-becoming-the-crime.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130407&_r=0

[Excerpted] On one covert video, farm workers illegally burn the ankles of Tennessee walking horses with chemicals. Another captures workers in Wyoming punching and kicking pigs and flinging piglets into the air. And at one of the country’s largest egg suppliers, a video shows hens caged alongside rotting bird corpses, while workers burn and snap off the beaks of young chicks....

.. a dozen or so state legislatures have had a different reaction: They proposed or enacted bills that would make it illegal to covertly videotape livestock farms, or apply for a job at one without disclosing ties to animal rights groups. They have also drafted measures to require such videos to be given to the authorities almost immediately, which activists say would thwart any meaningful undercover investigation of large factory farms.

Critics call them “Ag-Gag” bills. One of the group’s model bills, “The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act,” prohibits filming or taking pictures on livestock farms to “defame the facility or its owner.” Violators would be placed on a “terrorist registry.”  

Majia here:  So, now it is a crime to expose animal abuse and human health risks at factory farms.

Even worse, our GM food, which completely dominates corn and soy production (and now sugar beets and alfalfa), has been conclusively linked with a virulent pathogen. The Round-Up used on most GM seeds has ALSO been found to disrupt endocrine functions in developing mammals. 

Fearful of regulation, the SUPER EVIL corporation Monsanto has effectively blocked a legal challenge to its frankenseeds:

Monsanto Protection Act put GM companies above the federal courts The Guardian by John Vidal April 4, 2013http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/apr/04/monsanto-protection-act-gm

[Excerpted] Campaigners say that not even the US government can now stop the sale, planting, harvest or distribution of any GM seed...

US, President Barack Obama last week signed off what has become widely known as "the Monsanto Protection Act", technically the Farmer Assurance Provision rider in HR 933: Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act 2013 

The key phrases are a mouthful of legal mumbo jumbo but are widely thought to have been added to the bill by the Missouri republican senator Roy Blunt who is Monsanto's chief recipient of political funds. For the record, they read: 

"In the event that a determination of nonregulated status made pursuant to section 411 of Plant Protection Act is or has been invalidated or vacated, the secretary of agriculture shall, notwithstanding any other provision of law upon request by a farmer, grower, farm operator, or producer, immediately grant temporary permit(s) or temporary deregulation in part, subject to necessary and appropriate conditions consistent with section 411(a) or 412c of the Plant Protection Act, which interim conditions shall authorise the movement, introduction, continued cultivation, commercialisation and other specifically enumerated activities and requirements, including measures designed to mitigate or minimise potential adverse environmental effects, if any, relevant to the secretary's evaluation of the petition for nonregulated status, while ensuring that growers or other users are able to move, plant, cultivate, introduce into commerce and carry out other authorised activities in a time manner …"

According to an array of food and consumer groups, organic farmers, civil liberty and trade unions and others, this hijacks the constitution, sets a legal precedent and puts Monsanto and other biotech companies above the federal courts. It means, they say, that not even the US government can now stop the sale, planting, harvest or distribution of any GM seed, even if it is linked to illness or environmental problems.

...The only good news, say the opponents, is that because the "Monsanto Protection Act" was part of the much wider spending bill, it will formally expire in September. The bad news however is that the precedent has been set and it is unlikely that the world's largest seed company and the main driver of the divisive GM technology will ever agree to give up its new legal protection.....

Majia here: Corporations control much of our global food supply. Meanwhile, more and more research documents the PROFOUND HEALTH RISKS OF FACTORY FARMING and GM Round-Up Ready, Bt Seeds.

So, corporations' collective response is to make it illegal to report animal abuse and to use legal code and trade agreement provisions to PREVENT citizens and governments from PROTECTING PUBLIC HEALTH by REGULATING frankenfood.

I recently discussed a video interview with emeritus professor Don Huber from Purdue University. He is the spokesperson for a research group that has found a novel PATHOGEN that flourishes in Round-Up ready plants. The pathogen has been linked to very high rates of miscarriages and stillbirths in cattle. 

See the interview with Huber see the interview with Huber here (scroll down the page for the video) and my discussion here.

Other research has documented that Round-Up is an endocrine disruptor capable of causing developmental abnormalities, among other harms.
 
OTHER RESOURCES 


REPORT ON DANGERS OF ROUND-UP
Report found here is authored by extremely well credential scholars who feel that the public has been misinformed about the risks of Round-Up. The report addresses malformations in animal embryos caused by much lower doses than used to spray crops. http://www.scribd.com/doc/57277946/RoundupandBirthDefectsv5

GM CONTAMINATION OF STREAMS Ruitenberg, R. (2010, September 28) Toxin From Biotech Corn Detected in U.S. Streams, Study Finds http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-28/toxin-from-biotech-corn-detected-in-u-s-streams-study-finds.html

ROUND-UP TOXIC TO HUMAN PLACENTAL JEG3 CELLS Richard, S., Moslemi, S., Sipahutar, H., Benachour, N. Seralini, G. (2005). Environmental Health Perspectives
http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1289/ehp.7728
[abstract] "Here we show that glyphosate is toxic to human placental JEG3 cells within 18 hr with concentrations lower than those found with agricultural use, and this effect increases with concentration and time or in the presence of Roundup adjuvants. Surprisingly, Roundup is always more toxic than its active ingredient…We conclude that endocrine and toxic effects of Roundup, not just glyphosate, can be observed in mammals. We suggest that the presence of Roundup adjuvants enhances glyphosate bioavailability and/or bioaccumulation….”

EFFECTS OF BT ON MAMMAL LIVER AND KIDNEY Genetically modified crops safety assessments: present limits and possible improvements. Environmental Sciences Europe. Gilles-Eric Séralini1*, Robin Mesnage1, Emilie Clair1, Steeve Gress1, Joël Spiroux de Vendômois2, Dominique Cellier3 http://www.enveurope.com/content/pdf/2190-4715-23-10.pdf

[excerpt] "We reviewed 19 studies of mammals fed with commercialized genetically modified soybean and maize which represent, per trait and plant, more than 80% of all environmental genetically modified organisms (GMOs) cultivated on a large scale, after they were modified to tolerate or produce a pesticide. We have also obtained the raw data of 90-day-long rat tests following court actions or official requests. The data obtained include biochemical blood and urine parameters of mammals eating GMOs with numerous organ weights and histopathology findings...

Results: Several convergent data appear to indicate liver and kidney problems as end points of GMO diet effects in the above-mentioned experiments. This was confirmed by our meta-analysis of all the in vivo studies published, which revealed that the kidneys were particularly affected, concentrating 43.5% of all disrupted parameters in males, whereas the liver was more specifically disrupted in females (30.8% of all disrupted parameters)" [end excerpt]

 

CONFIRMATION
By Associated Press, Friday, April , 5:24 AM Researcher’s warning about genetically modified crops spreads, but scientists question claims http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/websites-spread-retired-researchers-warning-about-gm-crops-but-scientists-question-claims/2011/04/01/AFiLCpEC_story.html?nl_headlines
 
DES MOINES, Iowa — The widespread Internet posting of a letter by a retired Purdue University researcher who says he has linked genetically modified corn and soybeans to crop diseases and abortions and infertility in livestock has raised concern among scientists that the public will believe his unsupported claim is true.

The letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has been posted on dozens of websites ranging from the Huffington Post to obscure gardening and food blogs, generating discussion on message boards about the controversial topic of genetically modified crops and their potential effect on animals and humans...
Huber, 76, wrote the letter to Vilsack in January, warning of a new organism he claims has been found in corn and soybeans modified to resist the weed killer Roundup. Huber wrote that the organism could lead to a “general collapse of our critical agriculture infrastructure” and further approval of Roundup Ready crops “could be a calamity.”
He told The Associated Press the organism that concerned him was found in much higher concentrations in corn and soybeans grown from so-called Roundup Ready seeds than in grains grown from conventional seed, although the samples of conventional crops tested were too small to get a reliable result.
 
Huber believes the pathogen has made genetically modified soybeans more susceptible to sudden death syndrome and corn to Goss’ wilt. He also claims it’s linked to spontaneous abortions and infertility in livestock that eat feed generated from those crops ...

 GENERAL DISCUSSION

Scientists warn of link between dangerous new pathogen and Monsanto’s Roundup in the People’s Voice February 20th, 2011  By Rady Ananda http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2011/02/20/scientists-warn-of-link-between-dangerou

[excerpt] A plant pathologist experienced in protecting against biological warfare recently warned the USDA of a new, self-replicating, micro-fungal virus-sized organism which may be causing spontaneous abortions in livestock, sudden death syndrome in Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soy, and wilt in Monsanto’s RR corn.
 
Dr. Don M. Huber, who coordinates the Emergent Diseases and Pathogens committee of the American Phytopathological Society, as part of the USDA National Plant Disease Recovery System, warned Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that this pathogen threatens the US food and feed supply and can lead to the collapse of the US corn and soy export markets. Likewise, deregulation of GE alfalfa “could be a calamity,” he noted in his letter (reproduced in full below)."

Some of my previous posts on Round-up and genetically modified plants

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/round-up-produces-birth-defects.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/round-up-toxic-more-confirmation.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/regulators-knew-round-up-causes-birth.html

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/bottom-line-herbicides-are-not-safe.html 





 

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