Today is the International Day Against Monoculture Timber Plantations.

"Today is the International Day Against Monoculture Timber Plantations. Across the globe, timber plantations are wreaking havoc on forests and forest dependent communities. Now, to further exacerbate this damage, genetically engineered trees (or GE trees) pose a new and unprecedented threat."

Video - Genetic engineering: The world's greatest scam?

"Genetic engineering is a threat to food security, especially in a changing climate. The introduction of genetically manipulated organisms by choice or by accident grossly undermines sustainable agriculture and in so doing, severely limits the choice of food we can eat.

Once GE plants are released into the environment, they are out of control. If anything goes wrong - they are impossible to recall.

GE contamination threatens biodiversity respected as the global heritage of humankind, and one of our world's fundamental keys to survival."

Video - The Genetic Conspiracy

" July 22, 2007 — How safe is the so-called "Green Genetic Engineering" really?
Monsanto, the world's largest genetic engineering corporation, insists it is safe. Numerous studies claim genetically modified plants can cause allergies and cancers. However, commercial and political interests are determined to make genetic engineering the norm."

GM crops bring higher pesticide use, not less. No surprise there.

"It is the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen."
- Andrew Wargo III, the president of the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts, quoted in a must-read New York Times article by William Neuman and Andrew Pollack, May 4, 2010, "Farmers Cope With Roundup-Resistant Weeds." The article describes how overuse of Monsanto's Roundup on Monsanto's Roundup Ready GMO crops has resulted in a new generation of superweeds that must be sprayed with highly toxic pesticides. " - OCA

As reported over at Organic Consumers Association, overuse of Monsanto's roundup, the basic intent of the development of Monsanto GM seeds, has resulted, as predicted by scientists not in the employ of agribusiness, in the development of superweeds requiring excessive doses of herbicides, read the full story here. 

The World According to Monsanto (US NTSC Format)

Monsanto Indian Farmer Suicide

Thanks to Organic Consumers Association for the heads up on this video.

Genetically modified health threat

Not only has genetically modified corn led to increased pesticide use when it was supposed to reduce it, it has led to the destruction of small family farms and the small businesses such as seed cleaners, increasing unemployment and driving people off the land. Now, as many have suspected for years it is becoming apparent that it is really bad for your health, it has been found to cause organ damage in lab animals. Please sign the petition to take it off the market until such time as it has been properly studied by independent scientists rather than the paid corporate hacks who produce corporate psuedo science to dupe our leaders.

Take GM corn off the shelves!

Who do you want to control your food supply?

The intentional ruination of small farmers and the peripheral businesses that support them, the pollution of millions of acres of farmland worldwide with GMO pollen, the corruption and control of the regulatory process through millions of dollars worth of lobbying; do you want these guys controlling your food supply?

Check out this 2 part article over at Beginning Farmer on the increasing domination of seeds by corporate interests.

Part 1

Part 2

Maintain Freedom to choose not to consume GM Bovine Growth Hormone tainted milk

"Contact Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and urge her to veto HB 2121 before April 16th. HB 2121 could potentiall restrict any national US dairy from properly labeling their milk products as free from genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH or rbST)." - Organic Consumers Association

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27022

GM based agriculture incurs more costs than benefits

A report out of Germany indicates that the use of GM crops in agriculture;

"does not bring any macro-economic benefits. In fact, the use of GM crops incurs extreme high costs in the entire food chain. These costs are generated by strongly increasing seed prices as well as necessary measures to avoid threatening resistances, the separation of commodity flows, and analyses. Additionally, there are losses (Dazu kommen Schäden) to the tune of several billion US dollar, which where caused in corn and rice by contamination with unapproved GM. Also in farming, the at best marginal cost benefits of planting GM crops pay off only in the short-term. Clear winners from the use of GM seeds are a handful of corporations, first and foremost Monsanto, which secure high profits for themselves from seed patents."

read more about it at Organic Consumers Association

BT Cotton kills the soil

Recent research by Navdanya, the research organization set up by world renowned scientist Vandana Shiva, has shown that BT Cotton, Mon 810 produced by Monsanto, destroys the ecology of the soil by killing vital microorganisms necessary for the transfer of nutrients from the soil to the plant. Read more at the Navdanya site:


Bt Cotton: weaving a web of infertility

here is an excerpt;
"Navdanya's study was conducted in Bt cotton growing areas of Vidharbha, comparing the microbial biomass in the soil of Bt cotton fields with that of fields that grew other crops or other types of cotton. The survey found statistically significant drops in 2 microbes and 3 beneficial enzymes. These results are significant as it provides scientific evidence that Bt Cotton is making the soil infertile by decreasing microbial activity, and thus essentially killing the very soil that the crop is grown in. Additionally this proves that industrial agriculture creates a relentless cycle of despair as industrial agricultural products deteriorate soil fertility that then necessitates intensified fertilizer and agricultural application, which ultimately results in increased farmer's costs and soaring debts. It is interesting to note that the study was conducted in a region which has shown an alarmingly high rate of farmer suicides, a shocking 20,000 in the past 5 years. Finally, the fact that Bt cotton crops decreases microbial activity in the soil portends a future of sterile soil that may result in massive desertification and loss of arable land in the future in a time where food security is evermore essential."

image Source: The Hindu, Nov 13th, 2003

Good news for a change

EU continues to see the light and listen to reason


See Organic Consumers Association



" Although more than 70% of the non-organic food in American supermarkets contains genetically engineered ingredients, massive opposition to GMO crops in Europe has basically kept them off the market (except for imported animal feed). According to the majority the EU, biotech crops pose unacceptable risks to human health and the environment-- despite industry, U.S. Government, and many trade officials' insistence that they are perfectly safe. This week, France's Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo announced that his country, along with several other European nations, would be renewing its ban on all genetically engineered (GE) crops, including Monsanto's GE corn (MON 810), which is the only biotech crop allowed for human consumption in the EU. According to Borloo, "The basis of the safeguard clause, which tackles open-field cultivation of the Monsanto 810 maize, is on risks considered as severe for the environment..."

You're eating WHAT?!

Currently Americans are not given the right of knowing what they are eating. The biotech companies have successfully controlled the regulatory process and prevented the labelling of Frankenfood, even though 90% of those surveyed said they would avoid this non food if they only knew. As a result 90% of Americans regularly consume frankenfood even though the evidence is mounting that it is poison!

Check it out over at Organic Consumers Association.

"here are some quick tips to help you avoid GMO ingredients and "Frankenfoods."


1) Look for products that voluntarily label themselves as GMO or GE-free.

2) Buy Organic: Products certified as "Organic" are not allowed to contain genetically modified ingredients.

3) Avoid non-organic products that contain the most common genetically engineered ingredients: corn (corn syrup, corn meal, corn oil, etc.), fructose, dextrose, glucose, modified food starch, ingredients including the word "soy" (soy flour, soy lecithin, etc.), vegetable oil, vegetable protein, canola oil (also called rapeseed oil), cottonseed oil, and sugar from sugar beets." (OCA)

Thanks to www.berghuis.co.nz/abiator/weird/bigrooster.html for the image