Mondays are the days to catch up on the “FOOD NEWS”; what’s going on in the world with food safety, gmos and related topics in our daily MARCH AGAINST MONSANTO. Thank you for supporting the people’s voice at FreedomizerRadio and for sharing our goals and presence on the net.
Show Links – CthePower 7.7.14
Live at 9am PACIFIC 347 324 3704
The Gluten Intolerance Epidemic: Monsanto’s Hegelian Dialectic Dream Come True | Truthstream Media
Recently, research has come forward to suggest that it’s the main ingredient glyphosate in Big Agra giant Monsanto’s worldwide best-seller Roundup that is potentially behind the gluten intolerance epidemic we’re seeing today:
“Here, we propose that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Roundup®, is the most important causal factor in this epidemic.
“Fish exposed to glyphosate develop digestive problems that are reminiscent of celiac disease. Celiac disease is associated with imbalances in gut bacteria that can be fully explained by the known effects of glyphosate on gut bacteria.
“Characteristics of celiac disease point to impairment in many cytochrome P450 enzymes, which are involved with detoxifying environmental toxins, activating vitamin D3, catabolizing vitamin A, and maintaining bile acid production and sulfate supplies to the gut. “Glyphosate is known to inhibit cytochrome P450 enzymes. Deficiencies in iron, cobalt, molybdenum, copper, and other rare metals associated with celiac disease can be attributed to glyphosate’s strong ability to chelate these elements…
“Glyphosate residues in wheat and other crops are likely increasing recently due to the growing practice of crop desiccation [drying] just prior to the harvest. We argue that the practice of “ripening” sugar cane with glyphosate may explain the recent surge in kidney failure among agricultural workers in Central America. We conclude with a plea to governments to reconsider policies regarding the safety of glyphosate residues in foods.”
Monsanto also began producing genetically modified glyphosate tolerant sorghum in the last decade, which is used in many of the gluten-free foods that make up that $4 billion gluten-free food market and which Monsanto mentions on its website “is an excellent substitute for wheat for those who cannot tolerate gluten.”
So what now? Gluten sensitivities are spreading throughout modern society like cancer, and glyphosate is everywhere these days. We’re using more glyphosate now than at any other time since it was invented, and that figure is not set to lessen any time soon with the continued proliferation of Monsanto’s glyphosate-resistant crops all over the world.
Well, the “answer” the scientific community has come up with is…you guessed it…more GMO.
via The Gluten Intolerance Epidemic: Monsanto’s Hegelian Dialectic Dream Come True | Truthstream Media.
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), a non-profit watchdog group, found that nearly one in three of 55 brand-name foods contained mercury. The chemical was found most commonly in high fructose corn syrup HFCS-containing dairy products, dressings and condiments.
But an organization representing the refiners is disputing the results published in Environmental Health.
“This study appears to be based on outdated information of dubious significance,” said Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, in a statement. “Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two re-agents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years. These mercury-free re-agents perform important functions, including adjusting pH balances.”
However, the IATP told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that four plants in Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and West Virginia still use “mercury-cell” technology that can lead to contamination.
The U.S. government, through its ambassador in El Salvador, Mari Carmen Aponte, has set conditions on the delivery of a development aid package worth 277 million dollars from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. foreign aid agency. It wants the country to open its seed procurement process to U.S. companies.
Aponte told local media that excluding U.S. companies violates the Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Central America- Dominican Republic (DR-CAFTA), which was signed by El Salvador in 2004.
Since 2011, the Salvadoran government has bought 88,000 quintals of maize seed annually from 18 producers, for distribution to 400,000 small farmers as part of its Family Agriculture Plan. Each farmer receives 10 kilos of improved seed and 45 kilos of fertilisers a year.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/07/salvadoran-peasant-farmers-clash-with-u-s-over-seeds/
What lurks in the shadow of foreign aid is sometimes CORPORATE INTERESTS
IN THE SHADOWS: A pilot scheme for commercial cultivation of Asia’s first genetically modified (GM) Bt brinjal (eggplant), brought disappointing results for 9 of the 20 farmers, as reported recently in the Guardian newspaper [1]. Four varieties: Kajla, Uttara, Nayantara and ISD006, were planted in different climactic regions. Brinjal is one of Bangladesh’s most important crops both for consumption and export, making its cultivation a huge health and economic risk for the population. Indeed, the region is a centre of origin and genetic diversity for brinjal, and should be protected from genetic contamination as advised under the UN Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Its popularity and importance as a food crop makes it a prime target for GM proponents bent in spreading GM technologies to the nation and wider region, including India, where a moratorium is in effect. The Indian moratorium came after fierce opposition from various civil society groups, top scientists, state governments in brinjal growing regions, as well as citizens and environmental groups. The cultivation in Bangladesh has drawn similar controversy, with 100 civil society organisations writing to the country’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in protest (see [2] Don’t Grow Bt Brinjal, SiS 61). The disappointing results will be a setback for those backing the project.
“Diagnosing and Treating Vitamin B12…”: “If you haven’t viewed this video please do so. If you have viewed it please view it again. and, check out DR NORMAN’S interview here on FreedomizerRadio !
GLYPHOSATE POISONING
“We had a great break for the season, so there was quite a bit of early growth, and growers are using higher and higher amounts of glyphosate to knock out green material prior to planting, to make sure they control the weed populations.
“So perhaps higher than normal use rates might have been a contributing factor. But in this case it was rainfall soon after application that washed the glyphosate into the crop furrow and damaged an emerging canola crop, that had been sown quite shallow.”
Mr Long says the case he has seen was in a canola crop north of Adelaide and he says there have also been reports of glyphosate damage in pulses in the Victorian Mallee.
“Once glyphosate gets into an emerging canola seedling. even low doses are enough to do some damage.
“In this case the crop has been virtually wiped out, and has to be replanted, right now.”
“Foster Farm recalls chicken due to…”: “Looks like the meat supply for cooked chicken is replenished for a while.
http://www.foodexposed.co.za/
foster-farm-recalls-chicken-
due-to-salmonella-outbreak-
that-has-sickened-621-people/”
Foster Farm is voluntarily recalling contaminated chicken linked to the salmonella outbreak and include products originating from its plant in central California. The salmonella strains connected to the outbreak have been identified in nearly 600 cases in 27 states and Puerto Rico and the producst under recall were distributed in California, Hawaii, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Oregon and Alaska.
“This recall is prompted by a single illness associated with specific fresh chicken product, but in the fullest interest of food safety, Foster Farms has broadened the recall to encompass all products packaged at that time. Foster Farms regrets any illness associated with its products,” a statement released by Foster Farms said.
The Center for Disease control has reported a total of 621 persons infected with seven outbreak strains of Salmonella Heidelberg. Most of the cases (77 %) originate from California.
Let me make this perfectly clear. Neotame does not have to be included in ANY list of ingredients! So, if you buy processed food, whether USDA Certified [made with/contains] Organic or not, that food might contain Neotame because it is cost-effective, and since no one knows it is there, there is no public backlash similar to what is happening with Aspartame. A win/win situation!
But that’s not all. Just love chowing down on that delicious steak? Well, that cow most likely will have been fed with feed containing…..you guessed it…..Neotame! A product called “Sweetos,” which is actually composed of Neotame, is being substituted for molasses in animal feed.
“Sweetos is an economical substitute for molasses. Sweetos guarantees the masking of unpleasant tastes and odor and improves the palatability of feed. This product will be economical for farmers and manufacturers of cattle feed. It can also be used in mineral mixture,” said Craig Petray, CEO, The NutraSweet Company, a division of Searle, which is a part of Monsanto. (Bungalow Bill)
Farmwars.info
CHINA REJECTS GMO IMPORTS FROM THE US: On opposite sides of the globe, pesticide regulators are refusing to release to the public the key industry studies on glyphosate that underpin regulatory authorizations and safety limits set for the herbicide.
Earlier this year a group of Chinese food safety volunteers submitted a request to China’s Ministry of Agriculture to disclose the study that justified issuing the safety certificate for the import into China of Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup. The Ministry replied that Roundup was registered in China in 1988 based on a toxicology test report issued by a testing company called Younger Laboratories in St Louis, Missouri. The test was an acute exposure toxicity test (such tests last a maximum of a few days), with Roundup being given to rats by mouth and applied to the skin of rabbits. It claimed to find no effect on the eyes or skin, and no allergy.
The volunteers asked the Ministry to release the study, and the Ministry in turn asked Monsanto. Monsanto replied that the study constituted its own commercial secret, adding that the company had never disclosed the study anywhere in the world and did not agree to disclose it now. The volunteers are appealing against the decision.
Meeting Outline:
Glyphosate is the most widely used weed-killer in the world. In addition to its use in agriculture and horticulture it is also used for weed control in many other circumstances, e.g. on paved surfaces. Two uses of glyphosate greatly increase the chances that it will be ingested by humans and farm animals – to desiccate cereal, pulse and oilseed crops prior to harvest and when used on Roundup Ready GM soya, maize and cotton crops. Glyphosate is being routinely detected in the blood and urine. It has also recently been found in human breast milk
Is it really safe?
Glyphosate is often presented as a benign chemical which is inactivated in the soil. However this is far from the case. Glyphosate interferes with enzymes in plants and microbes because of its ability to chelate (bind) trace metals and by its antibiotic action (it is patented for both). Other chemicals used in formulated products sold to farmers and gardeners enhance its toxic effects.
This meeting examined how these properties of glyphosate impact on the health of humans, the soil and wildlife from residues and traces being detected in humans and the environment as use of glyphosate based weed-killers , such as Roundup, escalates.
Monsanto and Pioneer withdraw another four applications for the cultivation of genetically engineered crops in the EU
Nine applications still remain
1 July 2014. Although an EU Commission decision on the cultivation of genetically engineered maize 1507 has been expected for several months, it has still not been published. In the meantime, new information has become available indicating that the biotech industry is pulling out of the cultivation of transgenic crops in the EU. According to Testbiotech investigations, US companies have just recently quietly withdrawn four EU applications for the cultivation genetically engineered plants.
Amongst others, the withdrawals were for two glyphosate-tolerant seeds marketed by Monsanto, soybean 40-3-2 (Roundup Ready soybean) and maize line NK603.
This information has emerged from the minutes of a meeting of the „Standing Committee on genetically modified food and feed“ (SCFCAH). In this committee, representatives of EU member states meet to vote on applications for market authorisation of genetically engineered crops.
After these two withdrawals, there is only one Monsanto application for the cultivation of a transgenic plant left. This application is for the renewal of the maize MON 810 authorisation. MON 810 produces an insecticidal protein.
CORPORATE LAND GRAB:
The land grabbed in some of the world’s hungriest countries by foreign goverments and corporations could feed up to 550m people, according to new research. The crops grown on grabbed land are frequently exported, or used to produce biofuel, but the new work shows it could end malnourishment in those countries if used to feed local people.
Since 2000, at least 31m hectares (77m acres) of land has been acquired by overseas investors seeking to secure food supplies or increase production, a process dubbed land grabbing. Almost half has been in Africa, particularly Sudan. But Indonesia and Papua New Guinea have been targets too. Proponents argue the foreign investment can increase yields and provide development and employment, but critics say the grabs often occur without the consent of those on the land and lead to food being exported.
“Crucial to this debate is the knowledge of the magnitude of the phenomenon: how many people could be fed,” said Prof Maria Cristina Rulli from Politecnico di Milano in Italy, one of the research team. It found that, even accounting for the crops diverted to biofuels, the grabbed land could support 300m-550m people if yields were raised to the levels of industrialised western farming. Even without those yield increases, the land could support 190m-370m people, the researchers calculated.
BEFORE ITS NEWS:
The city council of Spokane, WA, voted Monday to discontinue government use of neonicotinoids, a controversial class of insecticides that have taken the brunt of the blame for colony collapse disorder, the phenomenon causing significant declines in honeybee populations.
The vote comes on the heels of last week’s Presidential Memorandum establishing a federal task force to address the crisis of diminishing pollinator populations, as well as a new scientific review finding “conclusive” evidence that neonicotinoids are a large part of the problem.
Spokane now follows Eugene, OR, to become the second city in the U.S. to ban the insecticides from city property. Seattle has also had an initiative in place since 2001 to reduce pesticide use in particular parks throughout the city.
“This ordinance simply says Spokane prioritizes the protection of our food supply over the ornamental use of pesticides,”
WALMART THREATENS ORGANIC FOOD INDUSTRY
MONSANTO TRIES TO PATENT NATURALLY OCCURRING TRAITS
FOUND IN A VARIETY OF TOMATOES
The secret to richer, carbon-capturing soil?
Treat your microbes well
One thing is certain: If agriculture were able to switch from an emitter of carbon to an absorber of carbon, the effect would be huge. Plants, those cheap carbon-removal machines that nature has given us, work well. If we can get them to make our dinner while they are also sucking up greenhouse gas, what a coup that would be.
But it would be an even greater coup if we could begin, as these scientists have done, to understand how to manipulate whole ecological systems — rather than just systems that have been simplified and stripped down to easily controllable parts.