Good for Haiti: Farmers Reject Monsanto’s donation and Burn GMO Seeds
24 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in genetically modified, Health News, Monsanto, organic food Tags: earthquake, farmers, GMO seeds, Haiti, Monsanto
I just love this. Here is a developing nation that is using more common sense than we are.
Check out the story below to find out why I applaud these smart Haitian farmers.
Source – Natural News
Article written by: Tony Isaacs
In an attempt to backdoor GMO seeds into a new market, Monsanto has taken the opportunity to donate hundreds of tons of GMO seeds to Haiti and is calling it an effort to help the people in Haiti with earthquake relief. However, Monsanto’s “generosity” is being met with skepticism and outright rejection.
Recently, a large group of small farmers burned a symbolic quantity of Monsanto’s donated hybrid corn seed in the central square of the agricultural town of Hinche. A 200,000-member national coalition is encouraging Haiti farmers to burn all Monsanto seeds that have already been distributed, and has called on the government to reject additional shipments.
Peasant leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste told IPS News: Farmers want to preserve their traditional “organic agriculture that respects the environment and fights against its degradation. We defend native seeds and the rights of peasants on their land.” Jean-Batiste also said “Fighting hybrid and GMO seeds is critical to save our diversity and our agriculture” and maintained that a “county has a right to define it own agricultural policies, to grow first for the family and then for local market, to grow healthy food in a way which respects the environment and Mother Earth.”
Another peasant farmer stated, “We have a problem today with Monsanto and all the multinationals who sell seeds. Seeds and water are the common patrimony of humanity.”
Monsanto has already donated the first round of what Global Research has referred to as a “new earthquake” and “deadly gift”: 475 tons of genetically modified seeds, along with the accompanying fertilizer and pesticides, whose demand usually increases in proportion to the use of GMO seeds.
The multinational seed giant is known around the world for its aggressive GMO policies. It is also known for intimidating and suing farmers and small agricultural companies it claims have violated its contracts and patents, including farmers whose fields have been contaminated by pollen from someone else’s genetically engineered crop or who have had voluntary seed sprout from a previous year’s crop. By 2007 Monsanto had already collected over $21.5 million in judgments in the U.S. alone.
In addition, Monsanto is infamously known for the deaths and health problems that have resulted from its highly toxic herbicide products, most notable of which is Agent Orange. A large number of U.S. Veterans got cancer as a result of exposure to the company’s Agent Orange. The Vietnamese government claims that 400,000 of their citizens died or were disabled and 500,000 children were born with birth defects as a result of Agent Orange.
The corn seed product Monsanto donated to Haiti has been treated with the fungicide Maxim XO, while the calypso tomato seeds were treated with thiram. Thiram is a highly toxic chemical which the EPA examined and deemed to be so dangerous that agricultural workers are now mandated to wear protective clothing when handling them.
While Monsanto is calling the seeds a donation, it isn’t hard to see how the company will benefit by getting farmers hooked on a need that only it can supply, as it has done elsewhere around the world – most notably in the U.S. and Canada.
Seed company giants Monsanto, Syngenta, Dupont and Bayer control more than half of the world’s seed patents. Monsanto has almost 650 seed patents, most of which are for cotton, corn, and soy. The company also owns almost 30 percent of the share of all the world’s biotechnology research and development.
The world’s largest confederation of farmers, Via Campesina, has called Monsanto one of the “principal enemies of peasant sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty for all peoples.”
Sources included:
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/…
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/fo…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bever…
Organic News for July
22 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Baby & Child Health, genetically modified, Health News, organic food, Toxic Food Ingredients/Additives Tags: antibiotics, Monsanto, Organic Trade Association, Pesticides a cancer risk, scientists, synthetic dyes, unborn, USDA
Why Is the Obama Administration Parroting Monsanto Talking Points?
alternet.org
When key government officials start touting the need for biotechnology there’s reason to be concerned. Roger Beachy, the Chief Scientist of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), recently told Smartplanet.com that biotechnology is needed to maximize food production and reduce the use of agrochemicals. “With a greater number of people,” he said, “we’re going to have to have more crop per acre. If we don’t, we’ll have to expand [agriculture] to our parks, forests, and golf courses.” And at first it might seem strange to hear a top government official parroting talking points from Monsanto’s Corporate Responsibility page … until you read his resume, that is. His last job before joining the USDA was as founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, a non-profit research institute co-founded by Monsanto and the Danforth Foundation.
Antibiotics in livestock affect humans, USDA testifies
www.desmoinesregister.com
There is a clear link between the use of antibiotics in livestock and drug resistance in humans, President Barack Obama’s administration says, a position sharply at odds with agribusiness interests.
In testimony to a House committee on Wednesday, even the Agriculture Department, which livestock producers have traditionally relied on to advocate for their interests, backed the idea of a link between animal use of antibiotics and human health.
Pesticides a cancer risk to the unborn, say scientists
news.scotsman.com
SCIENTISTS have called for a government crackdown on pesticides that they warn are putting pregnant women at greater risk of having children with cancer.
The researchers say studies have shown that pesticide exposure either before conception or during pregnancy increases the risk of childhood cancer.
Writing in a report for the Chemicals, Health and Environment Monitoring (Chem) Trust, they have called on the government to step up action to ban the most harmful pesticides and to bring in a duty for the public to be informed before spraying takes place.
Consumers Can Choose Organic Products to Avoid Synthetic Food Dyes
www.healthyandfitmagazine.com
In response to a call from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) to ban synthetic dyes to color foods, the Organic Trade Association (OTA) reminded consumers last week that they can already avoid such dyes in the marketplace by choosing to purchase organic foods.
CSPI’s latest report entitled “Food Dyes: A Rainbow of Risks” outlines health concerns posed by the nine currently approved dyes used on conventionally produced foods (http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/food-dyes-rainbow-of-risks.pdf). According to CSPI, the dyes present “a rainbow of risks,” including allergic reactions, hyperactivity, and even cancer.
No to ‘GMOs” and Monsanto: So you must Buy Organic
12 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
in genetically modified, Health News Tags: GMO, Monsanto, Organic
Everyday Organic: Saying no to ‘GMO’
By MaryJane Butters
The Salt Lake Tribune
Every detail, from the perfume of enlivened soil to the sight of tiny green leaves sprouting toward the sun, appeals to my senses and are perfect little gifts. It’s all part of a cycle that has been circling throughout the eons, assuring the fruition of nature’s many gifts and making this planet a veritable paradise. I don’t need to know the science behind every little miracle; it’s enough that I can count on them happening, each in their own sweet time.
It’s my faith in Mother Nature’s wisdom that spurs a knee-jerk skepticism every time I hear news of technology tampering with a system that has been working wonders since the beginning of time. In particular, I am floored by the whole genetically modified food idea. It’s a concept that has crept into our kitchens and threatens to devour the concept of food as we know it. Pandora’s box had nothing on GMOs. If you’re still a little mystified by what it all really means, you’re not alone. That’s why I started digging up a different kind of dirt– the nitty-gritty on genetically modified foods and how they are affecting the way we eat.
What does GMO mean?
The initials GMO stand for “genetically modified organism.” It Advertisement Quantcast also goes by the alias GE, or “genetically engineered.” GMOs are the result of a process that takes crops from the field to the laboratory, where scientists splice them with things like animal genes and pesticides. Completely different than natural crossbreeding, genetic modification means that genes are actually removed from one species and inserted into another. For example, genes from an arctic flounder, which has “antifreeze” properties, may be spliced into a tomato to prevent frost damage. GM crops also are manufactured to produce their own pesticides. One such pesticide, the Bt toxin, kills many species of insect larvae indiscriminately, not just crop-damaging pests. Imagine the implications of mass insecticide: Without pollination by insects, most plants would be unable to reproduce at all.
Health hazards
On May 19 2009, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine called for a moratorium on GM foods. They stated that “several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food,” including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, insulin regulation problems and changes in major organs. Ohio allergist Dr. John Boyles reported, “I used to test for soy allergies all the time, but now that soy is genetically engineered, it is so dangerous that I tell people never to eat it.”
Food Inc. – A Must See Film
30 Mar 2010 1 Comment
in Baby & Child Health, food inc., genetically modified, Health News, Organic Living Video's, Toxic Food Ingredients/Additives Tags: contaminated meat, E. coli, farmers, food inc, genetically modified food, GMO, happy pigs, harmful bacteria, Monsanto, organic food, salmonella, toxic food
Foodies, Readers and Cheap food eaters; I come to bury our current food system not to praise it!
Sorry Shakespeare – but I had to change those famous lines of yours.
So – what are you eating these days?
Did you know that your child could die from contaminated ground beef? See here for a recent news article.
Or better yet do you know what has been found in your favorite fast food burgers. Did you know that it’s possible to find cow poop in your burgers along with a tasteful dose of ammonia?
I hope your freaking out, Lord knows I was when I first learned of this years ago. Who knew that one day we would be eating food treated with toxic ammonia. Does anyone think this is insane???? For more on ammonia in your burgers read this recent NY Times article A must read if you don’t eat Organic meats, if you buy fast food and or have children in public schools.
Now, getting back to the title of this blog; Food Inc. is a movie I highly recommend you watching. You can get it by visiting your locally library to check out a copy or rent it from Amazon’s Video on Demand at a cheap $2.99.
Below is what the movie’s website has to say about the film:
“In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.”
To view a trailer of the movie click here here
Not only is this film portraying actual happenings in the food industry it informs the public on the potential hazards that certain foods can cause to our health. I highly recommend this video for adults and children. My 5 and 9 year old children sat through the whole movie and they were amazed and had tons of questions afterwards. If you really want to make an impact you can always go to the Food Inc. website and download materials that will help you host discussions and raise awareness.
To eat or not to eat that is the question…
Who's saying what