News regarding the dangers of GMOs and biotech, and the advantages of organic sustainable agriculture.
Will New FDA Regulations Put Organic Farms Out Of Business?
The FDA’s new food safety rules are threatening to put organic small farmers out of business, while protecting Big Ag. Your action is needed to let the FDA know that this is unacceptable!
Over 85 Scientists Release Statement: No Consensus on GMO Safety!
There is no scientific consensus that genetically modified foods and crops are safe, according to a statement released by an international group of over 85 scientists, academics and physicians. The statement comes in response to recent claims from the GM industry and some scientists and commentators that there is a “scientific consensus” that GM foods and crops are safe for human and animal health and the environment. The newly released statement calls such claims “misleading” and states, “The claimed consensus on GMO safety does not exist.” Decisions on the future of our food and agriculture should not be based on misleading and misrepresentative claims that a “scientific consensus” exists on GMO safety.
U.S. Farmer with Contaminated Fields Wants to Protect Growers from GMO Seeds
An Eastern Washington farmer says he has no idea how genetically engineered alfalfa started growing in his fields. "I want to protect other farmers," Peila, who farms near the town of Royal City, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday in explaining why he is coming forward to tell his story.
Mexico Bans GMO Corn
A federal judge has ordered Mexico’s SAGARPA (Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca, y Alimentación), which is Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture, and SEMARNAT (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales), which is equivalent of the EPA, to immediately “suspend all activities involving the planting of transgenic corn in the country and end the granting of permission for experimental and pilot commercial plantings.” The unprecedented ban was granted by the Twelfth Federal District Court for Civil Matters of Mexico City. Judge Jaime Eduardo Verdugo J. wrote the opinion and cited “the risk of imminent harm to the environment” as the basis for the decision. The judge’s ruling also ruled that multinationals like Monsanto and Pioneer are banned from the release of transgenic maize in the Mexican countryside” as long as collective action lawsuits initiated by citizens, farmers, scientists, and civil society organizations are working their way through the judicial system.
Toxicology Expert Speaks Out About Roundup and GMOs
There are NO peer-reviewed scientific papers establishing the safety of GMO crops. There are, however, both clinical and peer-reviewed scientific papers showing the hazards of GMO crops, including harmful secondary effects. Epidemiological patterns show there’s an identical rise in over 30 human diseases alongside our increased usage of glyphosate and the increased prevalence of genetically engineered proteins in our food. Glyphosate is not “just” an herbicide. It was originally patented as a mineral chelator. It immobilizes nutrients, making them unavailable for your body. It’s also patented as a potent antibiotic that can devastate human gut bacteria. The EPA recently doubled the amount of glyphosate allowed in food. Soybean oil is now allowed to contain a whopping 4,000 times the limit at which it can impact your health.
CDC Reveals Disturbing Truth about Factory Farms and Superbugs
Agricultural usage accounts for about 80 percent of all antibiotic use in the US, so it's a MAJOR source of human antibiotic consumption. According to a new CDC report, antibiotics used in livestock plays a role in antibiotic resistance and “should be phased out”; 22 percent of antibiotic-resistant illness in humans is in fact linked to food. MRSA infection has been rapidly increasing among people outside hospital settings as well. Increasing evidence points to factory-scale hog facilities as a source. Previous research suggests you have a 50/50 chance of buying meat tainted with drug-resistant bacteria when you buy meat from your local grocery store. Excessive exposure to antibiotics—which includes regularly eating antibiotic-laced CAFO meats—also takes a heavy toll on your gastrointestinal health. This in turn can predispose you to virtually any disease.
GE Seed Monopoly – Fewer Choices, Higher Prices
The introduction of genetically engineered (GE) crops has corresponded with increasing monopolization of seed by biotechnology companies and higher seed costs. This has led to tragedies in some countries, while pushing out conventional, non-GE seeds and reducing farmer seed choices. Four companies now control 40 percent of the seed market, and the problem is particularly bad in the U.S. with the government subsidized corn and soybean seed markets.
High-Performance Agriculture Can Increase Your Garden Yield Eight-Fold
Taking care of the soil through high-performance farming can increase yields and turn food into medicine.
YOU the Taxpayer are Funding the Agri Business Takeover of our Food Supply
When the United States was founded in the 1700s, about 90% of the U.S. population was employed in agriculture. By the time of the Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln served as President of the United States, about 50% of the population was employed in agriculture. Today, less than 1% of our population is employed in agriculture, and most of the food sold in the U.S., and even around the world, is controlled by just a handful of companies. Who controls the food supply in the U.S. today, and how did they come to be so powerful? Unfortunately, we are blaming everyone and everything for the poor quality of our food today, except for the ones who have actually caused this to happen. Unless we understand the true cause of the problem, and the real solutions, nothing will change.
Tell the FDA to Stop Their Plan of Banning Outdoor Access to Organic Laying Hens
The FDA is zeroing in on egg farmers who provide outdoor access (required in certified organic production) for their flocks. The agency has issued a Draft Guidance that will make it difficult, expensive and perhaps even impossible to maintain medium-sized poultry flocks outdoors. This could spell the end for commercial-scale, truly organic eggs where hens live outdoors, free to exhibit their native behaviors, as required by the USDA’s organic regulations. The FDA’s guidance seeks to prevent outbreaks of Salmonella Enteritidis in shell eggs, and was sparked by a major 2010 salmonella outbreak in eggs, centered on “factory farms” in Iowa, confining tens of thousands of hens indoors in filthy and dangerous conditions. The fact is, based on published-reviewed research, that the biggest risk to human health comes from caged hens in giant factory farms—not organic birds enjoying a good life outdoors! Read more, and make your voice heard before September 23rd!
GM Canola out of Control: New Combinations of DNA Never Approved Being Found
Testbiotech has published a global overview of countries where there has been an uncontrolled spread of genetically engineered oilseed rape (canola). The countries include Canada, the US, Japan, Australia, and Europe. In many cases the plants have escaped far beyond the fields into the environment. In some cases, the transgenes have moved into populations of wild relatives. Furthermore, new combinations of DNA constructs have been found which were never approved for release into the environment.
The Monsanto Protection Act is BACK!
Last March, what the world has been calling the “Monsanto Protection Act”, was inserted at the last minute into a “must-pass” funding bill to keep the government running through the use of a congressional tool known as a Continuing Resolution (CR). The so-called Farmer Assurance Provision—misnamed because, frankly, the only ones who are assured about anything are GMO manufacturers like Monsanto—actually strips federal courts of the authority to halt the sale and planting of potentially hazardous genetically engineered crops while USDA is performing an environmental impact statement. It’s a huge blow to the justice system, completely overriding judicial safeguards that protect both farmers and the public. The emergency funding period (and with it, this sneak provision) ends September 30, but since Congress has been unable to pass their appropriations bills, they will try to extend the CR as another stop-gap to prevent total government shutdown. Not surprisingly, the same noxious language has already appeared in the House Appropriations CR that was nearly voted upon last week! However, because it’s so controversial and Congress is afraid of citizen backlash, that bill is still sitting in the House—just waiting for the right opportunity to be pushed through. Help us put an end to this underhanded end-run around the courts once and for all.
BREAKING: Study Links Roundup ‘Weedkiller’ To Overgrowth of Deadly Fungal Toxins
A new study reveals that Roundup herbicide enhances the growth of aflatoxin-producing fungi, lending an explanation for the alarming increase in fungal toxins recently discovered in U.S corn, and revealing another way in which GM farming is seriously undermining food quality and our health.
Big Ag: Don’t Ban Pesticides over Bee Population, Mass Produce High Fructose Corn Syrup and Factory Farm Bees
Instead of getting rid of the pesticides that are killing the bees, the ag industry wants to create a big new market for high-fructose corn syrup. Since 2006, up to 40% of the bee colonies in the US have suffered Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and neonicotinoid pesticides are to blame. Rather than the agriculture industry addressing the pesticide issue, they are now creating factory farmed bee hives, where the bees are fed sugar and high-fructose corn syrup instead of honey (both of which will contain GMOs). Studies of GMO grains on small mammals show that offspring become sterile by the third generation. What if all the bees were to suddenly stop reproducing?
Antibiotics in Animal Feed Pose a Serious Risk to Human Health
In the US, animals raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are also continuously given low-dose antibiotics in their feed because it makes the animals get bigger faster. In other parts of the world, such as the European Union, the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animal feed has been banned for years. Routine antibiotic use in animal food production is likely worsening the epidemic of antibiotic-resistant disease. A recent study showed industrial pig workers were found to be carrying pig MRSA, a type of antibiotic-resistant bacteria -- and that farmers at pig farms that use antibiotics are more likely to contract MRSA from the pigs than workers at antibiotic-free farms.
USDA Wants to Eliminate Poultry Inspectors for Factory Birds
Besides the obvious food safety concerns expressed by Ken Ward, a former USDA poultry inspector, there is quite possibly a far greater risk here in this new USDA plan to privatize poultry inspection. This rule change may exclude small pastured poultry producers from being able to comply and market their products, thereby eliminating your option to buy chickens raised outdoors on pasture.
Prosecution of Peaceful Farmers Continues Across U.S.
State regulatory agencies are increasingly targeting and prosecuting peaceful farmers who provide fresh, healthful food to ready and willing co-op members. The war against raw milk and other small farmers is an issue of government and big business trying to interfere with your right to access pure food from the producers of your choice. This is a tragic situation, indeed, as well as a serious threat to your ability to purchase food from small, independent farmers.
U.S. Government Wants More Farmers so They Can Join the Military – Not Grow Food
In a recent meeting attended by Joel Salatin, US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack stated that it was concerning that rural America now only represented 16 percent of the population, because it gives 40 percent of the personnel to the military. According to Salatin, the USDA goal of increasing the nation's farmers is not about food, healing the land, or stewarding precious soil and resources; it's all about making sure we keep a steady stream of youngsters going into the military.
Dangerous Banned GMO Corn Suddenly Appears in Food Supply
StarLink™ maize, the first genetically modified organism to be pulled off the market over a decade ago due to safety concerns, was recently found to be contaminating food products in Saudi Arabia. Does this mean that an illegal form of GM corn is still being produced in the US? And if so, renewed testing of US corn-containing products intended for human consumption both domestically and abroad should be initiated immediately.
Scientists Discover Fungicide and Pesticide are Killing Bees―and It’s Worse Than You Thought
Researchers analyzed pollen from bee hives and found 35 different pesticides along with high fungicide loads. Each sample contained, on average, nine different pesticides and fungicides, although one contained 21 different chemicals. While previously assumed to be safe for bees, bees fed pollen contaminated with high levels of fungicides had a significant decline in the ability to resist infection with the Nosema ceranae parasite, which has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). In the US, the “Save America’s Pollinators Act” has been introduced; if passed, this bill, HR 2692, would require the EPA to pull neonicotinoid pesticides, also implicated in bee die-offs, from the market until their safety is proven.