On March 11 a new documentary was aired on French television. It is a documentary most Americans will never see, explaining how the gigantic biotech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years.
For millennia, farmers have saved seeds from season to season. But when Monsanto developed GM seeds that would resist its own herbicide, Roundup, Monsanto patented the seeds. For nearly all of its history the United States Patent and Trademark Office refused to grant patents on seeds, viewing them as life-forms with too many variables to be patented. But in 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court allowed for seed patents in a five-to-four decision, laying the groundwork for a handful of corporations to begin taking control of the world’s food supply.
Since the 1980s, Monsanto has become the world leader in genetic modification of seeds and has won 674 biotechnology patents, more than any other company. Farmers who buy Monsanto’s Roundup Ready seeds are required to sign an agreement promising not to save the seed produced after each harvest for re-planting, or to sell the seed to other farmers. This means that farmers must buy new seed every year.
Monsanto puts pressure on farmers, farmers’ co-ops, seed dealers, and anyone else it suspects may have infringed its patents of genetically modified seeds. To do this, Monsanto relies on a shadowy army of private investigators and agents. They secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops. They infiltrate community meetings. They gather information from informants about farming activities.
Some Monsanto agents pretend to be surveyors. Others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them to sign papers giving Monsanto access to their private records. Farmers call them the “seed police” and use words such as “Gestapo” and “Mafia” to describe their tactics.
Sources:
Vanity Fair May 2008
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Monsanto, which was a plain old chemical business before it rechristened itself a "life sciences" company, and started using bioengineering to develop genetically altered crops, is one of the biggest threats to both mankind and the earth today. They have both the capability and the ruthless drive to, more or less single-handedly, destroy the world’s natural biodiversity and food supply for their own profit.
Complicating the picture further, Monsanto is also deeply entrenched with the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmacia Corporation was created in April 2000 through the merger of Pharmacia & Upjohn with Monsanto Company and its G.D. Searle unit. Few people ever make the connection between GMO crops and the sale of drugs.
I believe the GMO crop issue is one of the most significant challenges to your future health. And, the drug industry is one of the primary driving forces for the traditional paradigm, which focuses on the treating symptoms with expensive band-aids, so you get sicker and sicker and require more of their self-serving expensive drug solutions to relieve your symptoms. Put these two health disasters together – where one is feeding the profits of the other -- and the picture becomes bleak indeed.
Folks, it’s time to just say no to this madness and abrogation of ethics.
Let your elected officials know how you feel about it; ask your local supermarket to stock their shelves with more natural organic foods; vote with your pocketbook – avoid everything that contains GMO products. That means abstaining from virtually all processed food products and sticking to fresh, locally grown, organic food stuffs, and going back to basic food preparation in your own home.
Cooking from scratch, with wholesome ingredients based on your nutritional type, is one of the absolute best things you can do for your long-term health.
Is New Terrifying Disease the Cause of Genetically Modified Foods?
Have you ever heard of “Morgellon’s Disease?”
As of February 2007, more than 10,000 reports of the mysterious disease have been reported on the Morgellon Foundation's website. That’s up from 2,000 reports in February of 2006.
Reports come from 15 nations across the world, including Canada, the UK, Australia and The Netherlands, as well as all 50 U.S. states. The majority of reports have come from Texas, California and Florida.
People with Morgellon’s disease describe it as a feeling of bugs or parasites scuttling around beneath their skin, accompanied by open lesions that heal slowly and ooze out blue, black or white fibers that can be several millimeters long. These fibers appear like pliable plastic. They can be as fine as spider silk, yet they are strong enough to distend the skin when pulled and elicit shooting pains when you try to remove them.
The CDC, unusually slow to respond to what can only be described as a new outbreak, has finally set up a web page about the phenomenon, which they refer to as “Unexplained Dermopathy.” In August 2007 -- a year after vowing to look into the terrifying disorder -- they gave $300,000 to Kaiser Permanente to investigate the disease.
The CDC’s website lists additional symptoms, including fatigue, mental confusion, short term memory loss, joint pain, changes in vision, and social dysfunction, including suicide.
According to an article in Natural News, published last week, Morgellon’s disease may be linked to genetically modified food.
While the CDC dragged its feet, a research team from Oklahoma State University lead by Dr. Randy Wymore, studied some of the fibers sent to them by Morgellons patients. They found that the fibers from different people look remarkably similar to each other, yet do not match any common environmental fibers.Vitaly Citovsky, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University in New York, discovered that the fibers contain the substance Agrobacterium, a genus of gram-negative bacteria capable of genetically transforming not only plants, but also other eukaryotic species, including human cells.
Are we now teetering on the brink of the GM food disaster we feared from the very beginning?
Information is Power, so Power Up!
If you aren't convinced this is an important issue for you, your children, and your grandchildren, then do yourself a favor and find some free time to review the evidence, starting with the related articles listed at the end. You can also search my site by entering “Monsanto” into the search box. I have over 300 pages on this topic alone! To further guide you in understanding the problems associated with GM foods, I strongly recommend reading the incredible series Seeds of Doubt, written by staffers at the Sacramento Bee.
And, last but not least, I urge everyone to watch the video The Future of Food. Forward the link to this video widely among your friends, family and acquaintances. This in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind genetically modified foods is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. It will help you understand how and why the genetic engineering we allow to be unleashed today is a very real threat to ALL future generations.
How to Avoid GM Foods
Many of you probably don't understand just how ubiquitous GM foods are in the food chain.
The fact is that genetically modified foods are so prevalent in the United States that if you randomly pick an item off your grocery store's shelves, you have a 75 percent chance of picking a food with GM ingredients. This is because at least seven out of every 10 items have been genetically modified.
The True Food Shopping Guide is a great tool for helping you determine which brands and products contain GMO ingredients. It lists 20 different food categories that include everything from baby food to chocolate.
Here are four simple steps to decrease your consumption of GM foods as much as possible:
Reduce or eliminate processed foods in your diet. The fact that 75 percent of processed foods contain GM ingredients is only one of the many reasons to stick to a whole foods diet.
Read produce and food labels. Conventionally raised soybeans and corn make up the largest portion of genetically modified crops. Ingredients made from these foods include high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), corn flour and meal, dextrin, starch, soy sauce, margarine, and tofu.
Buy organic produce. By definition, food that is certified organic must be free from all GM organisms, produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers and from an animal reared without the routine use of antibiotics, growth promoters or other drugs. Additionally, grass-fed beef will not have been fed GM corn feed.
Look at produce stickers. The PLU code on stickers for conventionally grown fruit consists of four numbers, organically grown fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number nine, and GM fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number eight.
Related Articles:
Drug Company Owns Monsanto and Their Weed Killer Is What Funds GMO Crops How Monsanto Manipulates the System to Poison Your Health Genetically Modified Food Genes Contaminate Humans
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Chemicals hidden in your food
New Stealth Chemicals Hidden in Your Food
If you pick up a can of soup and find that the sodium levels are lower than you expected, or that a food item advertises it has “less sugar” or “no MSG” ... then there may be cause for alarm. A relatively young company, Senomyx, may be responsible for the sodium and sugar levels falling in various grocery store items. They may be putting chemicals into your food right now, without telling you and without you even realizing. Under the law, they don’t have to.Senomyx has contracted with Kraft, Nestle, Coca Cola, and Campbell Soup to put a chemical in foods that masks bitter flavors by turning off bitter flavor receptors on your tongue. The companies can then reduce sugar and sodium levels by approximately half without affecting the flavor. All of the companies declined to identify which foods and beverages the chemical additives have been or will be added to. These chemical compounds are not required to be listed separately on food labels; they are grouped into the general category of "artificial flavors."Senomyx was able to obtain FDA approval and a “generally recognized as safe” classification from the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association in less than a year and a half, based on a safety study of rats conducted for just 3 months.Food items that are most likely to contain these new chemicals include soups, juices (fruit and vegetable), ice cream and sauces.
Sources:
Natural News April 10, 2008
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Perhaps one day we can all simply eat cans of mush, and it won’t matter because they’ll contain chemicals to block and alter all of our taste receptors! This is an example of malicious brilliance at its finest.Processed foods, by their very nature, do not taste good unless they have loads of artificial colors and flavoring agents, salt, sugar and often MSG added to doctor up the flavors. In fact, most processed foods would taste incredibly bitter if they weren’t doctored up because of things like their extremely hot cooking processes and added caffeine (in soft drinks).
So what do food companies like Nestle, Cadbury Schweppes, Campbell Soup, and Coca-Cola do? They hire Senomyx, a biotech company that can skillfully manipulate your taste buds with synthetic chemicals. The company has already developed several chemicals that, although they contain no flavor of their own, activate or block receptors in your mouth that taste. The chemicals can mimic or enhance savory, sweet and salty tastes, and are intended to reduce the use of sugar, salt and monosodium glutamate (MSG) in processed foods.
One of Senomyx’s chemicals even causes a “cooling” taste, and we have only just begun to hear about the “innovations” that come from this company.Senomyx already has 113 patents, and 371 more pending, in the United States, Europe and elsewhere in the world.
A Brief Lesson About Your Taste Buds
When you were in grade school, you were probably taught that certain areas of your tongue can taste different flavors. The “sweet” taste buds, for instance, were said to be at the tip of your tongue, and the “bitter” ones in back.This taste-bud tongue map is still being taught today, but it has been known for decades to be entirely incorrect. In reality, each one of your taste buds contains 50 to 100 receptors for each taste. This means that you can taste every flavor there is with every taste bud on your tongue. And, along with the standard sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes that everyone has heard of, your tongue can also taste a fifth basic taste: umami (the taste of glutamate, which is found in many Japanese foods, bacon and also MSG). It is also being debated whether or not there is actually a sixth taste receptor for fat on your tongue as well. Of course, your taste buds are not only there for pleasurable purposes. They also help you determine if a food is spoiled, unripe or otherwise unsafe to eat, which is why you’re probably better off leaving your taste buds as nature intended them to be: in fully functioning, tasting condition.
Your Taste Buds May Already be Deceiving You
Nestle is already marketing products that contain one of Senomyx’s savory enhancers. But you would never know it, because the chemical compounds are lumped in with an ingredient that’s already listed on most processed foods: “artificial flavors.”I did a little digging and found that the first product sold by Nestle that includes these “savory flavor ingredients” is bouillon used as a base to make soups and stews. So if you are using one of theirs that lists “artificial flavors,” I’d be very suspicious. Meanwhile, because the compounds are being used in small amounts (less than one part per million), Senomyx did not have to go through the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval process typically necessary to release food additives. Instead of the lengthy FDA process, the company only had to be classified as "generally recognized as safe" by the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association -- a task that took less than 18 months. And as for safety, well there was that one three-month rat study. That’s right: one three-month long study is apparently enough for major food manufacturers to decide that a never-before-used chemical is safe for you and your family to eat.
Unfortunately, for now it appears that these taste-bud-altering chemicals are here to stay, as earlier this month both Coca-Cola and Nestle extended their research agreements with Senomyx.If You Want Chemical-Free Food …It is becoming more important than ever to avoid processed foods. At the very least, boycott any product that lists “artificial flavors” as an ingredient.
You can tell a real food from a processed food because real foods are:
Grown, not processed
Messy, not neat and convenient
Of variable quality, not always the same
Prone to spoiling, not “forever” fresh
Vibrantly colored and textured, not dull and bland
Naturally flavorful, not artificially flavored
Strongly connected to the land and cultureReal foods have flavors that your taste buds won’t want to miss, so take a break from the grocery store and take advantage of your local farmer’s markets. There you’ll find fresh, whole foods that your taste buds will be happy to recognize.
Related Articles:
Is Processed Food Really Food? How The Deceptive Practices of Processed Food Manufacturers Contribute to Childhood Obesity A New Food Additive: Good or Bad?
If you pick up a can of soup and find that the sodium levels are lower than you expected, or that a food item advertises it has “less sugar” or “no MSG” ... then there may be cause for alarm. A relatively young company, Senomyx, may be responsible for the sodium and sugar levels falling in various grocery store items. They may be putting chemicals into your food right now, without telling you and without you even realizing. Under the law, they don’t have to.Senomyx has contracted with Kraft, Nestle, Coca Cola, and Campbell Soup to put a chemical in foods that masks bitter flavors by turning off bitter flavor receptors on your tongue. The companies can then reduce sugar and sodium levels by approximately half without affecting the flavor. All of the companies declined to identify which foods and beverages the chemical additives have been or will be added to. These chemical compounds are not required to be listed separately on food labels; they are grouped into the general category of "artificial flavors."Senomyx was able to obtain FDA approval and a “generally recognized as safe” classification from the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association in less than a year and a half, based on a safety study of rats conducted for just 3 months.Food items that are most likely to contain these new chemicals include soups, juices (fruit and vegetable), ice cream and sauces.
Sources:
Natural News April 10, 2008
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Perhaps one day we can all simply eat cans of mush, and it won’t matter because they’ll contain chemicals to block and alter all of our taste receptors! This is an example of malicious brilliance at its finest.Processed foods, by their very nature, do not taste good unless they have loads of artificial colors and flavoring agents, salt, sugar and often MSG added to doctor up the flavors. In fact, most processed foods would taste incredibly bitter if they weren’t doctored up because of things like their extremely hot cooking processes and added caffeine (in soft drinks).
So what do food companies like Nestle, Cadbury Schweppes, Campbell Soup, and Coca-Cola do? They hire Senomyx, a biotech company that can skillfully manipulate your taste buds with synthetic chemicals. The company has already developed several chemicals that, although they contain no flavor of their own, activate or block receptors in your mouth that taste. The chemicals can mimic or enhance savory, sweet and salty tastes, and are intended to reduce the use of sugar, salt and monosodium glutamate (MSG) in processed foods.
One of Senomyx’s chemicals even causes a “cooling” taste, and we have only just begun to hear about the “innovations” that come from this company.Senomyx already has 113 patents, and 371 more pending, in the United States, Europe and elsewhere in the world.
A Brief Lesson About Your Taste Buds
When you were in grade school, you were probably taught that certain areas of your tongue can taste different flavors. The “sweet” taste buds, for instance, were said to be at the tip of your tongue, and the “bitter” ones in back.This taste-bud tongue map is still being taught today, but it has been known for decades to be entirely incorrect. In reality, each one of your taste buds contains 50 to 100 receptors for each taste. This means that you can taste every flavor there is with every taste bud on your tongue. And, along with the standard sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes that everyone has heard of, your tongue can also taste a fifth basic taste: umami (the taste of glutamate, which is found in many Japanese foods, bacon and also MSG). It is also being debated whether or not there is actually a sixth taste receptor for fat on your tongue as well. Of course, your taste buds are not only there for pleasurable purposes. They also help you determine if a food is spoiled, unripe or otherwise unsafe to eat, which is why you’re probably better off leaving your taste buds as nature intended them to be: in fully functioning, tasting condition.
Your Taste Buds May Already be Deceiving You
Nestle is already marketing products that contain one of Senomyx’s savory enhancers. But you would never know it, because the chemical compounds are lumped in with an ingredient that’s already listed on most processed foods: “artificial flavors.”I did a little digging and found that the first product sold by Nestle that includes these “savory flavor ingredients” is bouillon used as a base to make soups and stews. So if you are using one of theirs that lists “artificial flavors,” I’d be very suspicious. Meanwhile, because the compounds are being used in small amounts (less than one part per million), Senomyx did not have to go through the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval process typically necessary to release food additives. Instead of the lengthy FDA process, the company only had to be classified as "generally recognized as safe" by the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association -- a task that took less than 18 months. And as for safety, well there was that one three-month rat study. That’s right: one three-month long study is apparently enough for major food manufacturers to decide that a never-before-used chemical is safe for you and your family to eat.
Unfortunately, for now it appears that these taste-bud-altering chemicals are here to stay, as earlier this month both Coca-Cola and Nestle extended their research agreements with Senomyx.If You Want Chemical-Free Food …It is becoming more important than ever to avoid processed foods. At the very least, boycott any product that lists “artificial flavors” as an ingredient.
You can tell a real food from a processed food because real foods are:
Grown, not processed
Messy, not neat and convenient
Of variable quality, not always the same
Prone to spoiling, not “forever” fresh
Vibrantly colored and textured, not dull and bland
Naturally flavorful, not artificially flavored
Strongly connected to the land and cultureReal foods have flavors that your taste buds won’t want to miss, so take a break from the grocery store and take advantage of your local farmer’s markets. There you’ll find fresh, whole foods that your taste buds will be happy to recognize.
Related Articles:
Is Processed Food Really Food? How The Deceptive Practices of Processed Food Manufacturers Contribute to Childhood Obesity A New Food Additive: Good or Bad?
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Honeybees and lavendar
You may have heard that the honeybees seem to be disappearing in the last couple years. That is a bit alarming since we depend on them for pollination of some of our produce. I recently read an article that encouraged readers to plant the kind of plants and flowers that attract bees. Lavendar is one of them. My lavendar plant gets bigger every year, and the purple blossoms are out. Today I saw three bees on my plant! Woo hoo! I took this photo of one of them, I am very impressed with our camera and how well this turned out. I had it zoomed way in to get this shot. Keep coming honeybees, we need you back!!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
I am a first born!
You Are Likely a First Born |
 At your darkest moments, you feel guilty. At work and school, you do best when you're researching. When you love someone, you tend to agree with them often. In friendship, you are considerate and compromising. Your ideal careers are: business, research, counseling, promotion, and speaking. You will leave your mark on the world with discoveries, new information, and teaching people to dream. |
Monday, April 14, 2008
Re-discovering the world through the eyes of a child
I recently e-mailed some photos of Ronnie to family and friends, and this was one of them. As a first time mommy, I am thoroughly enjoying re-discovering the world through the eyes of my son. I love to watch him explore his world, to figure out how things work. I can see his little mind just working through things as he pushes this and pulls that. When he first started pulling up on things he was wabbly and a bit hesitant. Now he is so much braver and his legs are getting stronger. He is learning how to coordinate his legs and arms in order to hold himself up. He is also testing his own strength. It is just fascinating to watch, and to re-learn all those things right along with him.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Wagon ride
Ronnie had his first wagon ride today outside. We went up and down the driveway. He just sat and looked around and enjoyed the ride. It was too cute!!!
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