Some things are Better Said by Others

Some people just say it much better than I can...

Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food
By JO ROBINSON

WE like the idea that food can be the answer to our ills, that if we eat nutritious foods we won’t need medicine or supplements. We have valued this notion for a long, long time. The Greek physician Hippocrates proclaimed nearly 2,500 years ago: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Today, medical experts concur. If we heap our plates with fresh fruits and vegetables, they tell us, we will come closer to optimum health.

This health directive needs to be revised. If we want to get maximum health benefits from fruits and vegetables, we must choose the right varieties. Studies published within the past 15 years show that much of our produce is relatively low in phytonutrients, which are the compounds with the potential to reduce the risk of four of our modern scourges: cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia. The loss of these beneficial nutrients did not begin 50 or 100 years ago, as many assume. Unwittingly, we have been stripping phytonutrients from our diet since we stopped foraging for wild plants some 10,000 years ago and became farmers.

These insights have been made possible by new technology that has allowed researchers to compare the phytonutrient content of wild plants with the produce in our supermarkets. The results are startling.

Wild dandelions, once a springtime treat for Native Americans, have seven times more phytonutrients than spinach, which we consider a “superfood.” A purple potato native to Peru has 28 times more cancer-fighting anthocyanins than common russet potatoes. One species of apple has a staggering 100 times more phytonutrients than the Golden Delicious displayed in our supermarkets. (I'm sorry she didn't name the apple variety in this article.)

Were the people who foraged for these wild foods healthier than we are today? They did not live nearly as long as we do, but growing evidence suggests that they were much less likely to die from degenerative diseases, even the minority who lived 70 years and more. The primary cause of death for most adults, according to anthropologists, was injury and infections.

Each fruit and vegetable in our stores has a unique history of nutrient loss, I’ve discovered, but there are two common themes. Throughout the ages, our farming ancestors have chosen the least bitter plants to grow in their gardens. It is now known that many of the most beneficial phytonutrients have a bitter, sour or astringent taste. Second, early farmers favored plants that were relatively low in fiber and high in sugar, starch and oil. These energy-dense plants were pleasurable to eat and provided the calories needed to fuel a strenuous lifestyle. The more palatable our fruits and vegetables became, however, the less advantageous they were for our health.

The sweet corn that we serve at summer dinners illustrates both of these trends. The wild ancestor of our present-day corn is a grassy plant called teosinte. It is hard to see the family resemblance. Teosinte is a bushy plant with short spikes of grain instead of ears, and each spike has only 5 to 12 kernels. The kernels are encased in shells so dense you’d need a hammer to crack them open. Once you extract the kernels, you wonder why you bothered. The dry tidbit of food is a lot of starch and little sugar. Teosinte has 10 times more protein than the corn we eat today, but it was not soft or sweet enough to tempt our ancestors.

Over several thousand years, teosinte underwent several spontaneous mutations. Nature’s rewriting of the genome freed the kernels of their cases and turned a spike of grain into a cob with kernels of many colors. Our ancestors decided that this transformed corn was tasty enough to plant in their gardens. By the 1400s, corn was central to the diet of people living throughout Mexico and the Americas.

When European colonists first arrived in North America, they came upon what they called “Indian corn.” John Winthrop Jr., governor of the colony of Connecticut in the mid-1600s, observed that American Indians grew “corne with great variety of colours,” citing “red, yellow, blew, olive colour, and greenish, and some very black and some of intermediate degrees.” A few centuries later, we would learn that black, red and blue corn is rich in anthocyanins. Anthocyanins have the potential to fight cancer, calm inflammation, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, protect the aging brain, and reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

European settlers were content with this colorful corn until the summer of 1779 when they found something more delectable — a yellow variety with sweeter and more tender kernels. This unusual variety came to light that year after George Washington ordered a scorched-earth campaign against Iroquois tribes. While the militia was destroying the food caches of the Iroquois and burning their crops, soldiers came across a field of extra-sweet yellow corn. According to one account, a lieutenant named Richard Bagnal took home some seeds to share with others. Our old-fashioned sweet corn is a direct descendant of these spoils of war.

Up until this time, nature had been the primary change agent in remaking corn. Farmers began to play a more active role in the 19th century. In 1836, Noyes Darling, a onetime mayor of New Haven, and a gentleman farmer, was the first to use scientific methods to breed a new variety of corn. His goal was to create a sweet, all-white variety that was “fit for boiling” by mid-July.

He succeeded, noting with pride that he had rid sweet corn of “the disadvantage of being yellow.”

The disadvantage of being yellow, we now know, had been an advantage to human health. Corn with deep yellow kernels, including the yellow corn available in our grocery stores, has nearly 60 times more beta-carotene than white corn, valuable because it turns to Vitamin A in the body, which helps vision and the immune system.

SUPERSWEET corn, which now outsells all other kinds of corn, was derived from spontaneous mutations that were selected for their high sugar content. In 1959, a geneticist named John Laughnan was studying a handful of mutant kernels and popped a few into his mouth. He was startled by their intense sweetness. Lab tests showed that they were up to 10 times sweeter than ordinary sweet corn.

Mr. Laughnan was not a plant breeder, but he realized at once that this mutant corn would revolutionize the sweet corn industry. He became an entrepreneur overnight and spent years developing commercial varieties of supersweet corn. His first hybrids began to be sold in 1961. This appears to be the first genetically modified food to enter the United States food supply, an event that has received scant attention.

Within one generation, the new extra sugary varieties eclipsed old-fashioned sweet corn in the marketplace. Build a sweeter fruit or vegetable — by any means — and we will come. Today, most of the fresh corn in our supermarkets is extra-sweet. The kernels are either white, pale yellow, or a combination of the two. The sweetest varieties approach 40 percent sugar, bringing new meaning to the words “candy corn.” Only a handful of farmers in the United States specialize in multicolored Indian corn, and it is generally sold for seasonal decorations, not food.

We’ve reduced the nutrients and increased the sugar and starch content of hundreds of other fruits and vegetables. How can we begin to recoup the losses?

Here are some suggestions to get you started. Select corn with deep yellow kernels. To recapture the lost anthocyanins and beta-carotene, cook with blue, red or purple cornmeal, which is available in some supermarkets and on the Internet. Make a stack of blue cornmeal pancakes for Sunday breakfast and top with maple syrup.

In the lettuce section, look for arugula. Arugula, also called salad rocket, is very similar to its wild ancestor. Some varieties were domesticated as recently as the 1970s, thousands of years after most fruits and vegetables had come under our sway. The greens are rich in cancer-fighting compounds called glucosinolates and higher in antioxidant activity than many green lettuces.

Scallions, or green onions, are jewels of nutrition hiding in plain sight. They resemble wild onions and are just as good for you. Remarkably, they have more than five times more phytonutrients than many common onions do. The green portions of scallions are more nutritious than the white bulbs, so use the entire plant. Herbs are wild plants incognito. We’ve long valued them for their intense flavors and aroma, which is why they’ve not been given a flavor makeover. Because we’ve left them well enough alone, their phytonutrient content has remained intact.

Experiment with using large quantities of mild-tasting fresh herbs. Add one cup of mixed chopped Italian parsley and basil to a pound of ground grass-fed beef or poultry to make “herb-burgers.” Herbs bring back missing phytonutrients and a touch of wild flavor as well.

The United States Department of Agriculture exerts far more effort developing disease-resistant fruits and vegetables than creating new varieties to enhance the disease resistance of consumers. In fact, I’ve interviewed U.S.D.A. plant breeders who have spent a decade or more developing a new variety of pear or carrot without once measuring its nutritional content.

We can’t increase the health benefits of our produce if we don’t know which nutrients it contains. Ultimately, we need more than an admonition to eat a greater quantity of fruits and vegetables: we need more fruits and vegetables that have the nutrients we require for optimum health.

Jo Robinson is the author of the forthcoming book “Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health.”

Another Victory! Europe Kills GMO efforts

GMO lose Europe – victory for environmental organisations
By: Nils Mulvad | 29/05/2013

Monsanto will halt production of genetically modified corn in all of Europe, except Spain, Portugal and Czech republic. The agribusiness multinational states not to spend any more money on trials, development, marketing, court cases or anything else to get GM corn accepted in Europe.

”In Europe Monsanto only sells GM corn in three countries. GM corn represents less than 1% of the EU’s corn cultivation by land area. Field trials are only in progress in three countries. We will not spend any more money to convince people to plant them,” states Brandon Mitchener, Public Affairs Lead for Monsanto in Europe and Middle East, in an interview with Investigative Reporting Denmark.

The decision was taken quietly. The company found no reason to communicate it. This means that every agribusiness company has now given up on genetically modified crops in Europe – apart from selling them in Spain and Portugal.

Source

On the other hand:
Monsanto Modified Wheat Unapproved by USDA Found in Oregon Field

Monsanto of St. Louis is the world’s biggest seed producer. The company halted plans to develop modified wheat in May 2004 after the Canadian Wheat Board, the world’s largest grain seller, said its 10 biggest red spring-wheat importers, including Japan, the U.K. and Malaysia, wouldn’t accept modified varieties. Italy’s biggest miller, Grandi Molini Italiani, was among buyers in Europe and Asia that refused to import modified wheat amid consumer unease over eating such products.

There are no genetically engineered wheat varieties approved for general planting, USDA said.


So, why did the USDA just now find some??

More Fake Ingredients in Popular Foods

ABC News reports:
"A new scientific examination by the non-profit food fraud detectives, The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), discovered rising numbers of fake ingredients in products from olive oil to spices to fruit juice.
 
"Food products are not always what they purport to be," Markus Lipp, senior director for Food Standards for the independent lab in Maryland, told ABC News.

In a new database to be released Wednesday (2/20/2013), and obtained exclusively by ABC News today, USP warns consumers, the FDA and manufacturers that the amount of food fraud they found is up by 60 percent this year.

Among the most popular targets for unscrupulous food suppliers? Pomegranate juice, which is often diluted with grape or pear juice. Most recently the FDA issued an alert for pomegranate juice mislabeled as 100 percent pomegranate juice, as well as one for the adulteration of honey.

USP tells ABC News that liquids and ground foods in general are the easiest to tamper with:
    Olive oil: often diluted with cheaper oils
    Lemon juice: cheapened with water and sugar
    Tea: diluted with fillers like lawn grass or fern leaves
    Spices: like paprika or saffron adulterated with dangerous food colorings that mimic the colors

Milk, honey, coffee and syrup are also listed by the USP as being highly adulterated products.

Also high on the list: seafood. The number one fake being escolar, an oily fish that can cause stomach problems, being mislabeled as white tuna or albacore, frequently found on sushi menus.

National Consumers League did its own testing on lemon juice just this past year and found four different products labeled 100 percent lemon juice were far from pure.

"One had 10% lemon juice, it said it had 100%, another had 15% lemon juice, another...had 25%, and the last one had 35% lemon juice," Sally Greenberg, Executive Director for the National Consumers League said. "And they were all labeled 100% lemon juice." 
Straight from the Horses' Mouth
  In addition, 70% of all ground beef was found to contain "pink slime".

Butchers use "meat glue" to create "bigger" cuts of beef, chicken, lamb and fish, even though it leads to much higher levels of food poisoning.

British hamburgers were found to contain horse meat and pork ... and it could happen in the U.S. as well. (says Forbes)

Indeed, modern red meat is arguably not really meat at all.
Source  
 
And selling genetically modified food without labeling them as such is arguably food fraud as well, since a large majority of Americans want genetically modified foods to be labeled. Genetically engineered foods have been linked to obesity, cancer, liver failure, infertility and all sorts of other diseases, and the Food and Drug Administration doesn't even test the safety of such foods.


 

FDA approves GMO flu vaccine

"A new vaccine for influenza has hit the market, and it is the first ever to contain genetically-modified (GM) proteins derived from insect cells. According to reports, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the vaccine, known as Flublok, which contains recombinant DNA technology and an insect virus known as baculovirus that is purported to help facilitate the more rapid production of vaccines.

According to Flublok's package insert, the vaccine is trivalent, which means it contains GM proteins from three different flu strains. The vaccine's manufacturer, Protein Sciences Corporation (PSC), explains that Flublok is produced by extracting cells from the fall armyworm, a type of caterpillar, and genetically altering them to produce large amounts of hemagglutinin, a flu virus protein that enables the flu virus itself to enter the body quickly.

So rather than have to produce vaccines the "traditional" way using egg cultures, vaccine manufacturers will now have the ability to rapidly produce large batches of flu virus protein using GMOs, which is sure to increase profits for the vaccine industry. But it is also sure to lead to all sorts of serious side effects, including the deadly nerve disease Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GSB), which is listed on the shot as a potential side effect.

FDA also approved flu vaccine containing dog kidney cells
Back in November, the FDA also approved a new flu vaccine known as Flucelvax that is actually made using dog kidney cells. A product of pharmaceutical giant Novartis, Flucelvax also does away with the egg cultures, and can similarly be produced much more rapidly than traditional flu vaccines, which means vaccine companies can have it ready and waiting should the federal government declare a pandemic.

Like Flublok, Flucelvax was made possible because of a $1 billion, taxpayer-funded grant given in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in contracts to six manufacturers to develop cell-based flu vaccine technology in the United States. Although its use in flu vaccines is new, cell-based vaccine technology has been around for years, offering a faster, more reliable alternative to egg culture.

In 2009, spurred by difficulties in growing vaccine for the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provided Novartis with nearly $500 million to build the first U.S. facility capable of producing cell-based vaccine for seasonal and pandemic flu in the United States. Novartis picked up the rest of the estimated $1 billion price tag."
Source: Reuters

(My cousin's daughter got Guillain-Barre Syndrome as a child from vaccinations required to attend public school. She is now an adult but still has the nerve damage.)

I don't like vaccines much anyway because the carrier is usually mercury, although I've had most of them as a child... and agree they have saved many lives worldwide. Now that at least one (two more are in the wings, nearing FDA approval) is GMO gives me more reason for caution and hesitation.

GMO Valentine Kisses

Did your honey give you Hershey's chocolate kisses for Valentine's Day? If so, and you are in the USA, you received GMO kisses. Valentine's Day is also the day where once again giant corporations try to enrich themselves by encouraging Americans to consume endless amounts of sugary sweets.

All Hershey's chocolate products sold in the US contain GMO's, but they source organic and non-GMO ingredients in their chocolates sold in foreign countries. That’s right, Hershey’s went GMO free in Europe in 2010, but keeps peddling GMOs in America.

Hershey’s Top Chocolate Products: Hershey’s chocolate bars, Reese’s, Hershey Kisses, Nutrageous, 5th Avenue, Almond Joy, Caramello, Heath, Kit Kat, Mounds, Mr. Goodbar, Rolo, Symphony, Take5, Whatchamacallit, York and Dagoba.

While California voters were trying to support their basic right to label genetically engineered foods, the Hershey Company, the nation’s largest chocolate-maker, contributed $519,000 to defeat Prop 37 and your Right to Know what’s in your food, alongside Monsanto, the world's largest biotech seed company, who dumped in $8.1 million to stifle democracy and transparency.

In the past, many large U.S. food producers have argued that reformulating their products to exclude GMOs is not cost effective. But why it was worthwhile for Hershey's to change its product formulas for the European market, but not for the U.S. market, so far remains a question without an answer.

Apocalypse? Change in Consciousness?

I confess to not liking TV in general, although I have enjoyed most of the shows on "Ancient Aliens" because they seem plausible to me.  For months now the same channel has carried segments about The End Times (Apocalypse) delivered by various prophecies from the Mayan Calendar and the Hopi Indians to Nostradamus. The chapters of Revelations from the King James Version of the Christian New Testament fits right in, with descriptions of gruesome stages to destruction.

I'm sure there are people who hold the subconscious fear that the prophecies may be right. There have been days when even I have thought it would be fitting and justified, in order to wipe out the greed/evil being carried out this lovely blue planet. But, would it, really? I worry that any survivors would still carry the concept of greed in their hearts.

Wikipedia has this to say: An apocalypse, translated literally from Greek, refers to a revelation of something hidden, although this sense did not enter the English language until the 14th century. In religious contexts it is usually a revelation of hidden meaning - hidden from human knowledge in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception. 

In the Revelation of John, the last book of the New Testament, the revelation which John receives is that of the ultimate victory of good over evil and the end of the present age. In chapter 20, John receives a vision of a thousand-year reign of the Christ/Messiah upon the earth. 

I interpret that reign as a Time of Peace and Love regardless on one's religious beliefs, and the end of an "age", not the end of the world. I also don't think it will be a pleasant passage, as greed/power doesn't give up easily.

Not everyone follows the Judea-Christian beliefs, but most of us in this country have grown up exposed to them, along with the many other religious faiths around the world that hold in common the belief in good vs. evil. 

However, I think in order to wipe out Evil, there will have to be a change in Consciousness rather than mass destruction with few survivors. The possibility that Monsanto, on Dec. 21, 2012, would awaken with a change of heart staggers my imagination.

Wanna Move to Peru?

Peru has officially passed a law banning genetically modified ingredients anywhere within the country for the next ten years.

In a massive blow to multinational agribiz corporations such as Monsanto, Bayer, and Dow, Peru has officially passed a law banning genetically modified ingredients anywhere within the country for a full decade before coming up for another review.

Peru’s Plenary Session of the Congress made the decision 3 years after the decree was written despite previous governmental pushes for GM legalization due largely to the pressure from farmers that together form the Parque de la Papa in Cusco, a farming community of 6,000 people that represent six communities.

They worry the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) will compromise the native species of Peru, such as the giant white corn, purple corn and, of course, the famous species of Peruvian potatoes. Anibal Huerta, President of Peru’s Agrarian Commission, said the ban was needed to prevent the ”danger that can arise from the use of biotechnology.”

While the ban will curb the planting and importation of GMOs in the country, a test conducted by the Peruvian Association of Consumers and Users (ASPEC) at the time of the ban’s implementation found that 77 percent of supermarket products tested contained GM contaminants.

”Research by ASPEC confirms something that Peruvians knew all along: GM foods are on the shelves of our markets and wineries, and consumers buy them and take them into their homes to eat without knowing it. Nobody tells us, no one says anything, which involves a clear violation of our right to information,” Cáceres told Gestión. GMOs are so prevalent in the Americas that it is virtually impossible to truly and completely block them, whether through pollination or being sneaked in as processed foods.

“There is an increasing consensus among consumers that they want safe, local, organic fresh food and that they want the environment and wildlife to be protected,” wrote Walter Pengue from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, in a recent statement concerning GMOs in South America. “South American countries must proceed with a broader evaluation of their original agricultural policies and practices using the precautionary principle.”

Source

Note: This decree was signed into effect on April 15th 2011. I guess agribiz corporations didn't want it widely known!

A Rat's Tale

 

Genetic Roulette - The Gamble for Our Lives
Watch the whole movie free until 31 Oct 12012


 

Speaking out of both sides of the mouth

The most important opportunity to affect the control the Corporate Agribusiness has over our foods is Proposition 37 on the California ballot in November. Prop. 37 is the Right to Know (what's in our food), mandating GMO labelling.

All Proposition 37 does is require clear labels letting consumers know if foods are genetically modified. We already have food labels showing nutrition, allergy information and other facts consumers want to know. This measure simply adds information telling us if food is produced using genetic engineering, which is when food is modified in a laboratory by adding DNA from other plants, animals, bacteria or viruses.    

I think the California vote on Prop. 37 is perhaps even more important that the Presidential vote. After all, no matter who is elected President, he will still have 535 Voting Members of Congress to deal with anything he wants to change or accomplish. However, if Prop. 37 passes, it will ultimately inform every one of us in the U.S. who purchases food because it will be too costly and cumbersome for corporations to have different food labels for foods sold in different states.

Most of us imagine that anything "organic" (by Law non-GMO) would automatically be on the side to defeat the proposition, yet many large corporations that produce or market organic foods have helped put over $26 MILLION into the war chest to defeat the initiative. How can these corporations market some foods as good for us, yet refuse to label what's in the other foods they market?

        Kellogg’s (Kashi, Bear Naked, Morningstar Farms);
        General Mills (Muir Glen, Cascadian Farm, Larabar);
        Dean Foods (Horizon, Silk, White Wave);
        Smucker’s (R.W. Knudsen, Santa Cruz Organic);
        Coca-Cola (Honest Tea, Odwalla);
        Safeway (‘O’ Organics);
        Kraft (Boca Burgers and Back to Nature);
        Con-Agra (Orville Redenbacher’s Organic, Hunt’s Organic, Lightlife); and
        PepsiCo (Naked Juice, Tostito’s Organic, Tropicana Organic).

On the other hand, there are many smaller organic leaders supporting the Proposition. By enlarging the poster above, you can see the companies donating to the cause. Please support them and their products when possible!  

The current Administration has deregulated more genetically modified foods than ever. From plums to alfalfa and even sugar beets. But it's not just that so many crops are modified (93% of all soy, 86% of corn, and 93% of canola seeds are now genetically modified) it's that there's currently no labeling system in place so that we know what we're buying. 

We are one of the few industrialized nations that doesn't require labeling of GMO foods. In the past year alone 19 U.S. states have attempted to pass GMO labeling laws, but each time Monsanto and biotech lobbyists have threatened to sue. Only Alaska, with its huge wild salmon industry, has passed a biotech seafood labeling law.

Most of us would like to believe that our foods come from nature, but that's far from the case. In 40 countries, including Australia, Japan and all European Union nations, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production of GMOs because they are not considered proven safe.

Update: Giant pesticide and big food companies have so far donated more than $37 million to defeat Yes on 37 to label GMOs in California. Earlier this spring, the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA), of which Monsanto is a leading partner, declared that defeating Prop 37 was its single highest priority for 2012.

Monsanto just funneled another $2.9 million dollars to defeat California’s Prop 37 to label genetically engineered foods. This comes on top of their $4.2 million dollar pledge only weeks ago and brings Monsanto’s combined total to more than $7.1 million dollars!  That’s a huge pile of cash and it’s dedicated to only one thing – denying us the Right to Know what’s in our food.

My Question: Did Monsanto just kick in more $$ because they are concerned the People might actually WIN??

.

No GMO Apples!

"A small BC (British Columbia) company called Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF) has developed a genetically modified apple that will not turn brown when it is cut, even though 10 years ago, the genetically engineered (or genetically modified, GM) “non-browning” apple was actually driven out of Canada when BC apple growers successfully stopped planned field trials at a local government research station. Nonetheless, the company has now asked Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) for approval.

When apple flesh is cut and exposed to oxygen, it begins to brown. But the GM apple or “Arctic Apple,” as the company calls it, “will decay naturally just like any other apple, but it will not turn brown from bruising, cutting or biting – not in minutes, hours or days.” In fact, the company president has told reporters the GM apple will not brown for 15 to 18 days.

But browning in fruit is not a problem; on the contrary, it’s helpful information. Without this visual cue for freshness, we could be eating apple pieces that are old and decaying. Non-browning is a cosmetic change that consumers have not asked for, especially as we already have techniques that slow browning – in our kitchens, we use lemon juice and the food service industry uses ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

OSF is asking for approval to sell two varieties of genetically engineered apples: GM Golden Delicious and GM Granny Smith, but president Neal Carter also says, “Our Arctic program isn’t going to stop with golden and the granny; those are just the first out of the pipe.” In fact, OSF says they are planning to engineer Gala and Fuji apples and also lists “future products” that include cherries and pears with the same non-browning technology.

OSF says the US could approve the GM apple this year and by 2014 it could be on sale in Canada. While our government has set up regulation to approve GM foods quickly and quietly, without any consideration of the impact on farmers and consumers, the GM apple and proposed GM alfalfa are putting this system to the test. While the federal government ignores the negative effects on farmers, local and regional governments cannot. On May 28, the City of Richmond just south of Vancouver, unanimously passed a resolution that states, “No further GM crops, trees or plants should be grown in the City of Richmond. This also includes GM fruit trees, all GM plants and shrubbery, GM vegetables, GM commodity crops and any and all field tests for medical and experimental GM crops.”

Source

Demanding GMO Labeling

http://www.organicconsumersfund.org/donate/moneybomb.cfm

All of our persistence and insistence in the U.S. for labeling GMO ingredients in our foods has been ignored for years because Money Talks, but we finally have an opportunity to change that by a public vote. 

Which way California votes will largely determine the future of what we all eat and what we grow all over the country. If we can force GMO labeling in California - the eighth largest economy in the world, and a population of nearly 40 million people - consumers will finally know what's in their foods and can choose to avoid buying foods containing GMOs. Labeling laws in CA will affect packaging and ingredient decisions nation-wide.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 2, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In victory rallies across state today, supporters celebrated as the California Right to Know campaign filed 971,126 signatures for the state's first-ever ballot initiative to require labeling of genetically engineered foods. The huge signature haul, gathered in a 10-week period, is nearly double the 555,236 signatures the campaign needs to qualify for the November ballot. 

If passed this November, Californians will join citizens of over 40 countries including all of Europe, Japan and even China who have the right to know whether they are eating genetically engineered food.

Of course, I'm not in California so I cannot cast a vote, but I can send a few $$ to support the effort to get the ballot passed. My own Right to Know is at stake! 

Monsanto and their minions have billions invested in GMO's and are pouring millions of dollars into California, lobbying and advertising to defeat this initiative, trying convince people that GMO's are safe, and labeling is not only unnecessary but will drive up the cost of foods. (The bill has been carefully written to ensure that it will not increase costs to consumers or producers).  

The best thing those of us in other states can do is to financially support the campaign in California, because if they lose... we all lose. I'm encouraging you to make a donation to the campaign behind the grassroots-powered citizens' ballot initiative (California Right to Know GMO Labeling Campaign) to require GMO labeling. It's time to put our money where our mouth is!

Mercola.com, the largest alternative health website in the world, along with a group of leading organic companies including Nature's Path, Lundberg Family Farms, and Eden Foods, pledged another one million dollars to the campaign - but only if the campaign also reaches a goal of $1 million by May 26. 

For decades, Monsanto has controlled the world's food supply by buying off politicians and regulatory agencies, intimidating small farmers, manipulating the outcome of scientific studies, lying to consumers - and threatening to sue states like Vermont if they dare to pass a GMO labeling law. It's time we have a choice in our foods, and we can't choose if we don't know what's in them. 

Labeling genetically engineered foods is a wildly popular idea and enjoys nearly unanimous support across the political spectrum. A March 2012 Mellman Group poll found that 9 out of 10 American voters favor labeling for genetically engineered food.

Every dollar you contribute will go directly into the California Right to Know ballot initiative and other state GMO labeling campaigns, including a legal defense fund to defend states that pass GMO labeling laws from Monsanto lawsuits. 

It's time to put our money where our mouth is!

Long White Worm of Hay Bales

A nearby field I pass on the way to my house from the interstate grows some kind of grass for hay, which is cut and baled, and then followed by a GMO corn (Pioneer) for silage. Year after year (Ugh). I had noticed his round bales encased in a white plastic over the last year or two, but I finally saw how it's done. I suspect he has the only set-up in the county to do this.

The machine accepts round bales from the back, and they get wrapped as the machine moves them forward, and at the same time the machine inches backwards so the wrapped bales drop off in line with previous bales and it's ready to accept another bale.

I found it fascinating even though I HATE that he grows GMO corn for his cows. Fortunately I think his fields are far enough away from my garden that I'm not too worried about pollen contamination, and I don;t grow corn anyway.

Tipping Points in Food Wars, and Choice

I often wonder if there will be a point where public outcry against GMO's will tip the balance in our favor. Surely that should have happened by now because 93% of Americans are said to be in favor of GMO labeling, but maybe that "tipping point" is only measured by the ballot box? If that's the sole indicator, we are in trouble because authenticated reports of electronic manipulation/fraud of cast ballots are all over the internet, and there is no way to know if the pronounced results of any counted ballots is truly real or not.

Right now, the fate of GMO labeling in the US rests largely in the hands of voters in California, IF they can get GMO labeling on the November ballot... and IF we can believe the ballot counts. California is the 8th largest economy in the world, and the 5th largest supplier of food in the world.

Ballot initiatives are simple in theory, but obscenely expensive in practice because they often rely heavily on television. Companies like Monsanto clearly have the dollars to spend on lobbying against the initiative. A 2004 GMO-labeling ballot initiative attempt in Oregon failed when supporters put up only $100,000 compared to the $5.5 million that came form a group calling themselves “Coalition Against the Costly Labeling Law” which included Monsanto, DuPont, Croplife, and Conagra, to name a few.

 

Then there’s the question of if or when Right to Know legislation passes, whether it’ll be held up in court when Big Ag lawyers drag it there... which is probable. Their argument will likely be that food labeling belongs in the federal domain and should not be a state issue. And of course, we know who's money is most influential in the federal domain.

For the average consumer like me, that leaves only a few safe food choices: grow my own from certified (and possibly even organic) non-GMO seed; buy grass-fed meat from local farmer's who also use only safe seed to grow their produce; and do NOT buy any processed foods or foods requiring any label at all, because surely GMO's are hiding there in chemical terms. 

Although I do not buy into the mania of many of the Survivalist's groups about hording foods, I do think it is prudent to have provisions against possible disasters from storms, drought, etc. However, since President Obama signed the new Executive Order "National Defense Resources Preparedness" on March 16, 2012, I'm having second thoughts about what edibles I grow in my garden, since my gardens are up for grabs under the new E.O. I am also a little concerned by the E.O. because by it, only Obama can decide what constitutes a "state of emergency". 

My personal "state of emergency" is now the gasoline prices hitting $4 a gallon plus most foods from the grocery store being harmful to my health. I wonder what the President really considers a "state of emergency"?

This year in my garden, I am leaning strongly towards including a lot of edible weeds and other foodstuffs that most would not recognize as edible, yet will nourish me. Are they gonna come and dig up my dandelions? LOL

 

Are You (Unintentionally) Supporting Monsanto??

Are you unintentionally supporting Monsanto? It's that time of year to buy garden seeds, and I was surprised to find out the names of some of the seed companies that Monsanto owns, and for whom Monsanto packages seed. Granted, these may not be GMO seeds (yet) but I hate putting a single penny in Monsanto's pocket. 

I was surprised to see the now very popular onion, "Candy" is a Monsanto-owned seed as is the popular cherry tomato, Sweet Million. I was also surprised to read that Jung Seed, R.H. Shumway, Vermont Bean Seed and Totally Tomatoes are among the Monsanto-owned seed companies.

Several years ago, Monsanto bought Seminis (a seed company that has 40% of the US seed market), and more recently bought De Ruiter Seeds (one of the top vegetable breeders in the world). Monsanto is now in the vegetable seed business for the first time, and it's in big time. More than 55 percent of store bought lettuce, 75 percent of U.S. tomatoes, and 85 percent of peppers now originate through Monsanto's fingers. (Source) Our salad plate is now being dished out by Monsanto!

Although Monsanto has yet to release many genetically modified vegetables into the market, they spend almost 2 million dollars a day on research and development, so GM vegetables are probably not very far away. (Monsanto currently holds the technology for more than 90 percent of the world’s genetically engineered crops, and they also hold thousands of U.S. seed patents without mentioning their alleged theft of heirloom seeds world-wide.) If you see PVP (Plant Variety Protection) listed after a seed or plant name, that means the seed or plant carries a U.S. patent, and Monsanto could own it. Some are listed below... check with the seed companies for others.
 

It's best to remember that Monsanto sells seeds in huge quantities to distributors (even if not Monsanto-owned), who in turn break down the huge bulk units and resell smaller bulk units to seed companies who package them in small seed packs, often with a different 'name' for the same vegetable. So, you may be supporting Monsanto just by purchasing repackaged seeds from "Aunt Sally's Seed Company" (a fictitious seed company used here only for illustration!). Some companies who have signed the Safe Seed Pledge (which only says they are not GMO seeds) may be selling Monsanto seed. The best bet is buying OP (open pollinated), heirloom and/or organic seeds. If you are in doubt about a particular seed, ask the company selling it!

For an alternative way to shop for seed, visit the non-profit Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) Organic Seeds Database which lists certified "final handlers" for organic seed. List is by produce. Pick a vegetable and find a seller. Also, Here's a list by region of safe-seed companies, and notes about each company.

Listed below are some Monsanto-owned seed companies, and then a list of some Monsanto-owned seed varieties by name. If you buy from ANY of these companies, or buy any of the varieties listed, you are putting money in Monsanto's pockets. Monsanto says this on their website: "Monsanto offers the world’s vegetable growers more than 4,000 distinct seed varieties representing more than 20 species. Monsanto’s vegetable seed business serves open-field and protected culture customers through its brands: Seminis, De Ruiter Seeds and regional brands."

Here are some of the brand names that Monsanto owns and 'packages' their seeds as:

American Seeds

Asgrow

Campbell

DeKalb

De Ruiter

Diener Seeds

Fielder's Choice

Fontanelle

Gold Country Seed

Hawkeye

Heartland

Heritage Seeds

Holdens

HPS Seed

Hubner Seed

icorn

Jung Seed

Kruger Seeds

Lewis Hybrids

Peotec

Poloni

Rea Hybrids

R.H. Shumway

Seeds of the World

Seminis

Seymour's Selected Seeds

Specialty

Stewart

Stone Seed

Totally Tomatoes

Trelay

Vermont Bean Seed Company

Western Seeds

(Source) 

Here are a few of the variety names owned by Monsanto (there were links where one could click on a type for more of any variety name, but the Seminis website Administor has blocked the links).
Edit: I discovered you can go to this page and find the variety names of many of the Seminis seeds; I have not found a similar site for De Ruiter seeds.

Beans: Brio, Eureka, EZ Gold, Goldrush, Kentucky King, Lynx, Xera...
 

Broccoli: Captain, Heritage, Liberty, Packman, more...
 

Carrot: Nutri-Red, Sweet Sunshine, Karina, Chantenay hybrids, Chantilly, Lariat
 

Cauliflower: Cheddar, Fremont, Minuteman, more...
 

Cucumber : Babylon, Dasher II, Daytona, Homemade Pickles, Speedway, Sweet Slice, Yellow Submarine, Sweeter Yet...link to De Ruiter cucumber list...
 

Eggplant: Black Beauty, Dancer, Fairy Tale, Gretel, Hansel, Tango, Twilight...De Ruiter Eggplants...
 

Lettuce: Baby Star, Blackjack, Esmeralda, Lolla Rossa, Monet, Red Butterworth, Red Sails, Red Tide, Summer time...

Melons: Alaska, Bush Whopper, Casablanca, Dixie Jumbo, Early Crisp, Stars and Stripes, Sugarnut, more...

Okra: Cajun Delight

Onion: Arsenal, Candy, Hamlet, Mars, Red Zeppelin, Superstar, many more...

Peppers: Aristotle, Biscayne, Camelot, Caribbean Red, Cherry Bomb, Dulce, Early Sunsation, Fat and Sassy, King Arthur, Northstar, Red Knight, Serrano del Sol, Sahuaro, Super Chili, Valencia, many more including De Ruiter pepper varities...

Pumpkin: Buckskin Pumpkin, Orange Smoothie, Prizewinner, more...

Spinach: Bolero, Cypress, Melody, Unipack 151, many more...

Squash: Autumn Delight, Blackjack, Bush Delicata, Butterstick, Daisy, Early Butternut, Fancycrook, Gold Rush, Latino, Lolita, Patty Green Tint, Really Big Butternut, Seneca (all), Sungreen, Sunny Delight, Table Ace...

Tomato: Baby Girl, Big Beef, Beefmaster, Beaufort, Celebrity, Favorita, First Lady I and II, Early Girl, Geronimo, Golden Girl, Maxifort, Pink Girl, Sunguard, Sun Chief Sweet, Sweet Million, Trust... and more De Ruiter tomato varieties...

Watermelon: Bambino, Crimson Glory, Royal Flush, Royal Star, Stargazer, Starbright, Stars and Stripes, Tiger Baby, Yellow Doll

Many Thanks for the compilation of the above information all in one place to Inspiration Green.

Monsanto Threatens Vermont

The world’s most hated corporation is at it again, this time in Vermont.

"Despite overwhelming public support and support from a clear majority of Vermont’s Agriculture Committee, Vermont legislators are dragging their feet on a proposed GMO labeling bill. Why? Because Monsanto has threatened to sue the state if the bill passes.

The popular legislative bill requiring mandatory labels on genetically engineered food (H-722) is languishing in the Vermont House Agriculture Committee, with only four weeks left until the legislature adjourns for the year. Despite thousands of emails and calls from constituents who overwhelmingly support mandatory labeling, despite the fact that a majority (6 to 5) of Agriculture Committee members support passage of the measure, Vermont legislators are holding up the labeling bill and refusing to take a vote.

Monsanto has used lawsuits or threats of lawsuits for 20 years to force unlabeled genetically engineered foods on the public, and to intimidate farmers into buying their genetically engineered seeds and hormones. When Vermont became the first state in the nation in 1994 to require mandatory labels on milk and dairy products derived from cows injected with the controversial genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone, Monsanto’s minions sued in Federal Court and won on a judge’s decision that dairy corporations have the first amendment “right” to remain silent on whether or not they are injecting their cows with rBGH - even though rBGH has been linked to severe health damage in cows and increased cancer risk for humans, and is banned in much of the industrialized world, including Europe and Canada.

Monsanto wields tremendous influence in Washington, DC and most state capitals. The company’s stranglehold over politicians and regulatory officials is what has prompted activists in California to bypass the legislature and collect 850,000 signatures to place a citizens’ Initiative on the ballot in November 2012. The 2012 California Right to Know Act will force mandatory labeling of GMOs and to ban the routine practice of labeling GMO-tainted food as “natural.”

On the other side of the fence, Monsanto’s lobbyist and Vermont mouthpiece, Margaret Laggis employed inaccurate, unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims to make Monsanto’s case. She warned during the hearings that if this law were passed, there would not be enough corn, canola, and soybean seed for Vermont farmers to plant.

Laggis lied when she said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had done exhaustive feeding tests on genetically modified foods. Hansen corrected her, testifying that all of the GMO feeding tests submitted to the FDA were conducted by Monsanto and other GMO corporations and that the FDA had not done any GMO testing of its own.

Laggis lied again when she claimed that a recent Canadian study showing that more than 90% pregnant women had high levels of a genetically modified bacterial pesticide in their blood resulted from them “eating too much organic food” during pregnancy. Again, Hansen refuted this nonsense by pointing out that the Bacillus thuingensis (Bt) bacterium spray used by organic growers is chemically and materially different from the GMO Bt bacterium which showed up in the pregnant women’s blood and the umbilical cords of their fetuses. Hanson pointed that the high levels of Monsanto’s mutant Bt in the women’s blood was due to the widespread cultivation of GMO corn, cotton, soy, and canola.

The committee heard testimony that European Union studies have been conducted which showed that even short-term feeding studies of GMO crops caused 43.5% of male test animals to suffer kidney abnormalities, and 30.8% of female test animals to suffer liver abnormalities. Studies also have shown that the intestinal lining of animals fed GMO food was thickened compared to the control animals. All of these short-term results could become chronic, and thus precursors to cancer.

(Studies like these have prompted 50 nations around the world to pass laws requiring mandatory labels on GMO foods.)

In the end, none of the scientific testimony mattered. Monsanto operatives simply reverted to their usual tactics: They openly threatened to sue the state.

Unfortunately in the US, industry and the government continue to side with Monsanto rather than the 90% of consumers who support labeling. Monsanto’s biotech bullying is a classic example of how the 1% control the rest of us, even in Vermont, generally acknowledged as the most progressive state in the nation.

What it really comes down to this: Elected officials are abandoning the public interest and public will in the face of corporate intimidation."

If you live in Vermont, activists are organizing a protest at the state capital on April 12 to coincide with the next round of hearings on H-722, and are asking residents to write letters, make calls, and e-mail their legislators and the Governor. For more information, please go to the website  or the Facebook page of the Vermont Right to Know Campaign.

~Source

Hyperpalatable Industrial Foods

They really do a good job, don't they, those scientists who create the taste and smell of adulterated food to seem real and delicious? As another blogger says, we are "Seduced by Foods".

Research and Development teams have done studies and conducted taste panels that have found "sweet" sells. The more they sell sweet stuff, the more people come to expect it. Sweet is found in loads of savory items too, not just sweet items. Tomato sauces, crackers, salad dressings, mustards, coated chicken products, sausages, and more. Many of our fresh products are also enhanced with sugar, like Butterball turkey, pumped brined pork loins, stewing hens. Our palates are being distorted by sweet.

As much as I am aware of the "deceptions" the food scientists have created, and as much as I am aware of the nutritive value in real foods, there are still times when I am lured by barely detectable smells and/or my mental images into thinking a fast food meal like a Big Mac, a taco supreme, or a take-out pizza* would hit the spot! Taste-wise I'm sure it would, thanks to those scientists who work hard to manufacture chemicals that tease our taste buds, and addict us to their pseudo foods. It is a very difficult temptation to resist! 

The tongue can detect five tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami (savory). While you are probably familiar with the first four, umami is a taste that is relatively new to the Western palate, although the Japanese have known about it for decades. Umami is based on the detection of glutamate, and many foods naturally contain glutamate, although it is often added as well. You have probably heard of MSG: monosodium glutamate is the lab-derived chemical that enhances tastes. It makes things taste more like what they are (or should be). While umami is a taste that is hard to define, it is sometimes described as “meaty.”

The sense of small is probably the oldest and the least understood of our five senses. During evolution it has kept its connections with the parts of the brain, which grew to be the sorting house for our emotional responses, intimately linking the odors of things to our emotions. Think of the smell of BBQ coming from a grill at the BBQ joint down the street. Do you notice they have the grill/smoker outside or even vented outside, all the better to send those lovely smells in the air and capture us for a sale? It's an emotional response, our involuntary response to those smells wafting in the air. Researchers say 80 percent of the flavors we taste come from what we smell.

Our sense of taste is also triggered by sight. Ever notice the ads for foods on TV look SO juicy and tempting? Enough so that we have an emotional response that even overrides the reality of the supposedly same thing we are actually served. We salivate and feel the taste of a preferred food before even touching it. In the end, we believe more in what we see than in our other senses.

I have to constantly remind myself that those "almost foods" or "food-like products" come packaged with "micronutritional" malnutrition, and they can bring on (among other things) thyroid dysfunction, insulin resistance, and poor gut flora... all of which can lead to obesity. So many processed foods aren't really food, but nutritionally lacking "food-like products" engineered to stimulate us to eat more, buy more, and ensure that big food conglomerates turn a profit.

When most Americans eat a "hamburger", it isn't really meat they are eating. It's a "flavorless, factory-formed protein matrix for sugar and soy oils engineered to induce higher consumption".  Source

* I do eat pizza... but home-made, with real aged raw-milk cheese rather than pseudo "processed" cheese... tomato sauce from my garden without any artificial ingredients; true pepperoni that even real Italians would recognize rather than that imitation stuff made just for pizzas; fresh organic vegetables (onion, peppers) and mushrooms for toppings, and NO GMO soy or canola anywhere in sight.

My hamburgers are local grass-fed beef, and the condiments are lacto-fermented, home-made without all that sugar, although I think you can now buy good quality condiments with a dedicated search. I did look in the natural foods store yesterday for a mayonnaise without GMO soy or canola oil. None to be found.

GMO updates: good, bad, and really ugly

My last GMO rant for at least a few weeks! *Besides, it's time to gear up for garden season...


The Good news:
 Boulder, Colorado bans GMO crops on county-owned land

Monsanto Forced Out of UK by Activists
http://naturalsociety.com/breaking-monsanto-forced-out-of-uk-by-activists/

Monsanto Found Guilty of Chemical Poisoning in France
http://naturalsociety.com/breaking-monsanto-found-guilty-of-chemical-poisoning-in-france/

This one is too funny: a 1999 Flashback: GM food banned in Monsanto canteen
https://www.sott.net/articles/show/238831-Genetically-Modified-Foods-Not-Served-in-Monsanto-Cafeteria 

India Suing Monsanto, seeds of discord

Source

While this is a good start for India, it does not address over 17,500 of India's farmers who have committed suicide, apparently most largely due to GMO cotton. Source

11 Year-old speaks about Monsanto

Yeah, he sounds a little too rehearsed, but it's a start!

In-between news?
300,000 Organic Farmers Sue Monsanto in Federal Court:
Judge's Decision due on March 31st as to whether to Go to Trial
http://www.nationofchange.org/300000-organic-farmers-sue-monsanto-federal-court-decision-march-31st-go-trial-1329059467

Bad news:
Monsanto illegally plants GM corn in India 

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/monsanto-illegally-plants-gm-corn-in-india/

Monsanto at war with the USA & all other Nations?

http://coquillepermaculture.blogspot.com/2012/01/monsanto-at-war-with-usa-all-other.html

 

Roundup herbicide found in air, rain, and streams

http://gmwatch.eu/latest-listing/1-news-items/13549

Yet Another FDA  Monsanto Food Scandal

http://coquillepermaculture.blogspot.com/2012/01/yet-another-fda-monsanto-food-scandal.html

"Part of me would like to tell you it will be ok, things are going to be ok, but I cannot do that. In Europe where the EU has banned GMO foods a documentary was made that we here in the US are being blocked from seeing by Monsanto. They do not want you to know the truth, but as the show "X-Files" used to say in the credits, The truth is out there."

http://youtu.be/DCFnx2W6CvY

 

Human trials of GM wheat

http://dprogram.net/2011/07/15/scientists-from-around-the-world-decry-proposed-human-trials-of-gm-wheat/

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/scientists-reject-human-trials-of-gm-wheat-20110627-1gn7e.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/033007_GM_wheat_experimental.html

 

...and The Really Ugly News:

"The USDA presented the industry with only two options that they were considering– deregulation, and deregulation with restrictions. Given the pervasive planting of GE crops in the U.S. – 93% of soy, 86% of corn, 93% of cotton and 93% of canola seed planted were genetically engineered in the U.S. in 2010 – the option of an outright ban was not on the table." Source: Red Green & Blue (http://s.tt/12AJa )

Under Industry Pressure, USDA Works to Speed Approval of Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered Crops

ps... don't forget canola oil (Canadian Oil Low Acid) made from rapeseed is a GMO, and while it is said to have benefits, all of the GM rapeseed grown throughout the world is herbicide resistant which means more chemicals are used for weed control. The same is true of soybean oil, and soy products; most are GMO unless they specify "organic".