Monsanto's Roundup disaster

[elmanito]

OMFG. They lived through the DDT dark days of mankind and are still alive.

But you forget 1 thing and that is that most of them are now having cancer.I don't see many old people nowadays with a nice good health in the west.

Namaste

 

[grapeman]

But you forget 1 thing and that is that most of them are now having cancer.I don't see many old people nowadays with a nice good health in the west.

Namaste

Most have cancer?

Everyone gets cancer if they live long enough. but a blanket statement such as "most of them have cancer" is just...... well..... not provable and rather dumb.

 

[elmanito]

Most have cancer?

Everyone gets cancer if they live long enough. but a blanket statement such as "most of them have cancer" is just...... well..... not provable and rather dumb.

Probably never been to Sardinia in Italy where you have a lot of oldies over the 100 years in very good health.BTW i didn't know you had also a doctor's degree, so i'm sorry for being blond.

Namaste

 

[StRa]

Haitian Farmers Fighting Monsanto and Chemical-Intensive Agriculture

Haitian Farmers Fighting Monsanto and Chemical-Intensive Agriculture

Haitian Farmers Fighting Monsanto and Chemical-Intensive Agriculture

(Beyond Pesticides, September 1, 2011) In an exclusive Beyond Pesticides’ interview in Mirebalais, Haiti (in the central plateau region of the country) on August 26, 2011 with the head of Haiti’s Mouvman Peyizan Papay [MPP] (Peasant Movement of Papay), a 200,000 member strong organization of small farmers, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste calls for support of food sovereignty in his earthquake-torn country and an end to efforts by Monsanto and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to advance chemical-intensive agriculture in Haiti. Mr. Chavannes and his organization led a protest of 10,000 peasant farmers in 2010 during which they burned Monsanto seed that was donated and being distributed by USAID’s Watershed Initiative for National Natural Environmental Resources (WINNER) Program.

[youtubeif]MrMaUWIoWzI[/youtubeif]

At the time the seeds were being distributed in 2010, Mr. Jean-Baptiste said Monsanto’s donation is an effort to shift farmer dependence to more expensive hybrid varieties from traditional seeds and will harm the island-nation’s agriculture. He called the donation a new earthquake. Haitian farmers and small growers traditionally save seed from season to season or buy the seed they desire from traditional seed markets, and, as he points out, have been doing this for 200 years.

Monsanto says that it donated “more than $4 million worth of conventional corn and vegetable seeds to be made over the next 12 months [through 2010] in support of reconstruction efforts.” According to Monsanto, the donated seeds include corn, cabbage, carrot, eggplant, melon, onion, tomato, spinach and watermelon. The hybrid corn seeds are treated with the fungicide Maxim XL, which is comprised of fludioxonil and mefenoxam. Other vegetable seeds were treated with thiram, a neurological, reproductive and thyroid toxicant, mutagen and skin sensitizer. The USAID WINNER program was responsible for distributing the seeds through farmer association stores where they were then sold to farmers at a significantly reduced price. Mr. Jean-Baptiste said that the Ministry of Agriculture has been unwilling to share any information with him on specifics of the seed.

In the interview, Mr. Jean-Baptiste voiced concern that the efforts of Monsanto and USAID were undermining traditional, organic peasant agriculture, while advancing a form of industrial agriculture that relies on seeds that require synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. He identified farmers who had used the Monsanto seeds without the synthetic fertilizer that was provided. The yields and quality of the corn were diminished, according to the farmers interviewed.

Mr. Jean-Baptiste expresses a strong belief that peasant organic agriculture is the only form of agriculture that can feed Haiti and the world and fight global climate change. He points to university studies in Europe and the U.S. and the position of the United Nations as additional support for his position.

MPP was founded in 1973 and is Haiti’s largest grassroots organization dedicated to work toward social justice and improving the quality of life in the country. Among the organization’s goals are to improve the environment and soil so that Haiti can regain its food sovereignty and contribute to an efficient management of natural resources such as water, forests, and seeds. For more information or to donate to help the farmers of Haiti, go to mpphaiti.org.

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=5890

 

[StRa]

http://www.ifoam.org/pdfs/UN-GMO-R2K--Declaration-final.pdf

http://sustainablefoodnews.com/story.php?news_id=14112

UN accepts non-GMO declaration from global organic trade group
IFOAM wants all UN members to label genetically modified foods

by Sustainable Food News
October 6, 2011

Representatives of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) has presented a special declaration to the United Nations asking it to commit all of its member nations to identify genetically modified foods on product labels.

Maria-Luisa Chavez, director of the UN's Information Centre, accepted the declaration on behalf of the international agency and is passing it on to the president of the General Assembly.

“Biased agriculture policies, research and development agendas, and private sector strategies favor short-term individual profits,” the declaration states. “This (behavior) is to the detriment of the long-term sustainable use of natural resources for the benefit of all and is responsible for hunger, poverty, climate change, and the destruction of habitats and biodiversity.”

The UN declaration was signed by Katherine DiMatteo, IFOAM president; Joseph William, IFOAM member; and, Bernward Geier, NGO coordinator.

Companies leading production of genetically modified foods include Monsanto in the United States and BASF and Novartis-Syngenta in Europe.

"Unless radical changes to curtail GMOs are adopted worldwide and the subsidy for agri-industry and monocultures is greatly reduced, the future of organic farming and healthy, natural foods will be threatened," IFOAM said.

IFOAM and its 750 member organizations in more than 110 countries are dedicated to uniting and leading organic farmers and businesses worldwide to work toward a safe and natural food supply.

In July, a barrier to national laws requiring labeling of GMOs was overcome when the Codex Alimentarius Commission voted to allow countries to adopt such laws.

That means that the laws cannot be challenged by the World Trade Organization, making it much more likely that countries would seek to adopt labeling laws.

 

[VerdantGreen]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/19/gm-crops-insecurity-superweeds-pesticides

Genetic engineering has failed to increase the yield of any food crop but has vastly increased the use of chemicals and the growth of "superweeds", according to a report by 20 Indian, south-east Asian, African and Latin American food and conservation groups representing millions of people.

The so-called miracle crops, which were first sold in the US about 20 years ago and which are now grown in 29 countries on about 1.5bn hectares (3.7bn acres) of land, have been billed as potential solutions to food crises, climate change and soil erosion, but the assessment finds that they have not lived up to their promises.

The report claims that hunger has reached "epic proportions" since the technology was developed.........

 

[StRa]

Culmination of the Right2Know March in front of the White House

I'm sure grapeman was there!!!ahahahhaah..... ;-))

 

[grapeman]

Culmination of the Right2Know March in front of the White House

I'm sure grapeman was there!!!ahahahhaah..... ;-))

No I'm too busy to join your friends from "occupy wall street" who took a break that day and gathered in D.C. to show their ignorance is wide spread and affects many subjects.

 

[elmanito]

Monsanto’s Roundup Spawns Superweeds Consuming Over 120 Million Hectares

Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide Roundup has created a new category of superweeds that are heavily resistant to the herbicide that Roundup contains known as glyphosate. These resistant weeds currently cover over 4.5 million hectares in the United States alone, though experts estimate the world-wide land coverage to have reached at least 120 million hectares by 2010. The onset of superweeds is being increasingly documented in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Europe and South Africa.

Meanwhile, Monsanto pushes its genetically modified crops and biopesticides under the guise of helping the environment and reducing pesticide use. In reality, the resistant weeds are now so resistant to Roundup that they require significantly more pesticides. Due to the large-scale use of Roundup, pesticide spraying will have to increase worldwide in order to combat the new superweeds. Of course the company is refusing to accept responsibility for the escalating cost of combating the weeds, stating that “Roundup agricultural warranties will not cover the failure to control glyphosate resistant weed populations.”

Superweeds, Mutant Insects, and a Devastated Environment
Roundup is not the only Monsanto invention tearing up the environment and producing super resistant organisms. The usage of genetically modified Bt, a biopesticide manufactured by Monsanto, has created a number of new mutated insect species. Research has confirmed that at least 8 populations of insects have developed resistance, with 2 populations resistant to Bt sprays and 6 species resistant to Bt crops as a whole. As a result, biotech scientists are now further genetically modifying the Bt to kill the mutated insects. This is despite the fact that tests have indicated that the additional modification will provide ‘little or no advantage’ in fending off the super insects.

All of this is being done instead of simply turning to sustainable and organic farming practices that do not yield super resistant, mutated organisms of any kind. Even the researchers conducting the research on Bt concluded that alternative organic farming methods would provide a more environmentally-friendly alternative in which there would be no dependence on bloated corporations like Monsanto:

Alternative organic, sustainable methods of farming provide a realistic alternative, independent of reliance on agrobiotech corporations.

One comment from my site about the organic farming issue in the article is that i hope that they use rock dust like Azomite or lava dust to remineralize the soil and not only manure and compost.Silica which is found in a high quantity in rock dust has a sustainable protection against insects plaques.

Namaste

 

[elmanito]

Monsanto Corn May Be Failing to Kill Bugs in 4 States, EPA Says

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Monsanto Co. corn that is genetically engineered to kill insects may be losing effectiveness against rootworms in four states, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.

Rootworms in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska are suspected of developing tolerance of the plants’ insecticide, based on documented cases of severe crop damage and reports from entomologists, the EPA said in a document dated Nov. 22 and posted yesterday on the government website. Monsanto’s program for monitoring suspected cases of resistance is “inadequate,” the EPA said.

An Iowa State University study said in July that some rootworms have evolved resistance to an insect-killing protein derived from Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, a natural insecticide engineered into Monsanto corn. Entomologists in Illinois and other Midwestern states are studying possible resistance where the insects devour roots in Monsanto’s Bt corn.

“Resistance is suspected in at least some portions of four states in which ‘unexpected damage’ reports originated,” the EPA said in the document, an internal memo that reviewed damage reports.

There is no scientific confirmation of resistance to Monsanto’s Bt corn, Lee Quarles, a spokesman for the St. Louis- based company, said today by telephone. Monsanto takes the EPA report “seriously” and is increasing efforts to teach farmers how to respond to unexpected damage in their fields, he said.

--Editors: Steven Frank, Simon Casey

Nature fights back as always

Namaste

 

[Nondual]

Nature fights back as always

I remember listening to a CD of a talk Bruce Tainio did and he created a lot of veggie strains if I'm remembering correctly. He bred in insect resistance but over time the insects adapted and in the long run the plants 'lost' their ability to fight off attack.

 

[StRa]

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=6170

(Beyond Pesticides, October 18, 2011) The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently announced the availability of a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) that evaluates the potential environmental effects of deregulating (commercializing) sugar beets genetically engineered (GE) to be resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, commonly referred to as Roundup Ready (RR) sugar beets. APHIS considered three alternatives in the draft EIS: deny the petition seeking a determination of nonregulated status (prohibit commercial planting), make a determination of nonregulated status (allow commercial planting), or extend the partial deregulation of RR sugar beets for the root crop, with mandatory conditions and restrictions. Comments will be accepted until December 13, 2011.

APHIS originally deregulated RR sugar beets in 2005. A coalition of environmental groups and organic seed companies, led by the Center for Food Safety, challenged the USDA approval in 2008. It argued that GE sugar beets would contaminate organic and non-GE farmers of related crops, such as table beets and chard, as well as increase pesticide impacts on the environment and worsen the current Roundup-resistant “superweeds” epidemic in U.S. agriculture. In September 2009, Judge Jeffrey S. White in the federal district court in San Francisco agreed, and ordered USDA to prepare an EIS assessing these and other impacts, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In August 2010, after a year of vigorous litigation over the proper remedy for USDA’s unlawful approval, the court again agreed with plaintiffs, threw out the USDA’s approval, and halted planting.

Despite the absence of lawful review or a new agency decision, in summer 2010, USDA and the biotech industry, led by Monsanto, demanded the court allow planting to continue unabated. The district court refused to do so and instead set aside USDA’s approval of the crop based on the agency’s failure to comply with environmental laws. That precedential ruling was also preserved by the appeals court order. During this case’s appeal, USDA approved 2011-2012 planting of GE sugar beets under the terms of a novel permitting and “partial deregulation” scheme while it conducted the court-ordered analysis. That decision is the subject of separate litigation that is ongoing in the District of Columbia.

Monsanto created “Roundup Ready” crops to withstand its Roundup herbicide (with the active ingredient glyphosate). Growing previous Roundup Ready crops such as soy, cotton, and corn have led to greater use of herbicides. It has also led to the spread of herbicide resistant weeds on millions of acres throughout the U.S. and other countries where such crops are grown, as well as contamination of conventional and organic crops, which has been costly to U.S. farmers. Due to GE crops, in large part, Roundup has become the most popular pesticide ever.

Glyphosate is a known carcinogen, neurotoxin, irritant, and has been found to kill human embryonic cells, and can cause kidney and liver damage. Glyphosate is also harmful to the environment, particularly aquatic life and water quality and has been linked to intersex frogs, and is lethal to amphibians in concentrations found in the environment.

As researchers scramble to find new ways of chemically coping with increased weed resistance, they overlook the glaring fact that there already exist alternative systems such as organic farming, which erases the need for these drastic measures through its systemic pest prevention approaches. Organic farming can be at least as productive as conventional, chemical-reliant farming while having none of the toxic side effects that create significant risks to ecosystems and human health. To learn more, see our page on organic food and agriculture.

Currently, there are commercially available glyphosate tolerant seed varieties for corn, soybeans, canola, sorghum, and cotton. In addition to sugar beets, USDA recently approved Roundup-Ready alfalfa. Due to serious questions regarding the integrity of USDA’s environmental evaluations, public interest groups, including Beyond Pesticides, have filed suit against the agency to stop its full deregulation of GE alfalfa.

Take Action: APHIS is seeking public comment on the draft EIS and will consider all public comments submitted during the comment period before finalizing the EIS or making any decisions regarding the regulatory status of RR sugar beets. The comment period will be open for 60 days (until December 13, 2011). To obtain feedback and take comments from members of the general public, APHIS is scheduling three public meetings. These meetings will take place in Fargo, N.D., on Nov. 15; Corvallis, Ore., on Nov. 17; and APHIS will also hold a public meeting in the Riverdale, Md., on Nov. 22. Exact locations will be published in the Federal Register and posted on the APHIS website.

 

[StRa]

USDA Deregulates Monsanto’s Drought Resistant Corn, Opens Comment Period on 2,4-D Res

USDA Deregulates Monsanto’s Drought Resistant Corn, Opens Comment Period on 2,4-D Res

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=6569

USDA Deregulates Monsanto’s Drought Resistant Corn, Opens Comment Period on 2,4-D Resistant Corn

(Beyond Pesticides, January 5, 2012) Just as everyone was getting ready for the holidays, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved yet another genetically modified seed by Monsanto, a drought-tolerant variety of corn, MON87460. In addition to its announcement approving Monsanto’s newest GE corn variety, USDA also opened a 60-day public comment period for two additional petitions – one for Monsanto’s GE soybean containing higher levels of an omega-3 fatty acid, that does not naturally occur in soybeans, and the other from Dow AgroSciences for corn that has been genetically engineered to resist the poisonous herbicide 2,4-D.

“In 2012 the USDA is proposing approving a new GE corn variety that is resistant to a different toxic herbicide, escalating the toxic treadmill in chemical-dependent agriculture,” said Jay Feldman, Executive Director of Beyond Pesticides. “This is nothing more than a band-aid solution to a serious problem, and will only give rise to more superweeds, more herbicide pollution in our environment, more herbicide poisoning, while likely leading to the need for even more toxic herbicides a couple of years down the line. This foolish circle has to end,” he added. [To listen to a radio interview on 2,4-D by Jay Feldman click here.]

While the USDA attempts to assure the public that 2,4-D is safe, scientists have raised serious concerns about the safety of this herbicide, which was used as a key ingredient in “Agent Orange,” used to defoliate forests and croplands in the Vietnam War. 2,4-D is a chlorophenoxy herbicide, and scientists around the world have reported increased cancer risks in association with its use, especially for soft tissue sarcoma and malignant lymphoma. Four separate studies in the United States reported an association with chlorophenoxy herbicide use and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. When Monsanto introduced glyphosate, it was touted as a safer and less toxic alternative to herbicides like 2,4-D. Now, an emerging body of scientific literature is raising serious concerns about the safety of glyphosate as well.

Research by the EPA found that babies born in counties with high rates of 2,4-D application to farm fields were significantly more likely to be born with birth defects of the respiratory and circulatory systems, as well as defects of the musculoskeletal system like clubfoot, fused digits and extra digits. These birth defects were 60% to 90% more likely in counties with higher 2,4-D application rates. The results also showed a higher likelihood of birth defects in babies conceived in the spring, when herbicide application rates peak.

In its petition, Dow AgroSciences states that 2,4-D is increasingly important for chemical farmers because of the presence of weeds that have developed resistance to glyphosate, as a result of the widespread use of Monsanto’s genetically engineered glyphosate-resistant crops. Farm research groups are also concerned with the impact of genetically engineered crops on organic farmers, whose organic crops are already at risk of contamination with Monsanto’s unnatural DNA, from pollen drift.

Citizens can comment on the proposed approval of Dow’s 2,4-D tolerant corn and Monsanto’s stearidonic acid soybeans until February 27, 2012.

An online petition by The Cornucopia Institute opposing Dow’s 2,4-D corn variety, which will be sent to President Obama and Secretary Vilsack, can be signed here.

The news of the approval of drought-tolerant corn comes despite nearly 45,000 public comments in opposition to MON87460 and only 23 in favor, according to a Cornucopia press release. In addition, there are a host of problems with the new variety, including lack efficacy and health data. Back in May, USDA found that the crop did not perform well.

According to Reuters, the major U.S. area for adoption of drought-tolerant corn would be the Plains, which produce one-quarter of the U.S. crop, Monsanto estimated, as well as similar dryland regions of Africa, Europe and Latin America. Corn is the most widely grown U.S. crop and farmers grew 91.9 million acres of the feed grain this year, the second-largest area since World War Two.

The Cornucopia Institute reports that in the Environmental Assessment of the “drought tolerant” Monsanto corn USDA concedes that gene flow of corn pollen is likely to occur. It is well-established that corn pollen travels, and pollen from genetically engineered plants will contaminate natural corn plants.

“The irony, of course, is that organic fields and crops are much more drought tolerant, because common sense and field trials show healthy and biologically active organic soil retains moisture much better than tired and depleted soil on conventional monoculture farms, and organic crops are healthier and more robust than conventional crops,” said Charlotte Vallaeys, a researcher at Cornucopia Institute.

For more information on the failure of genetically engineered food, read “Genetically Engineered Food Failed promises and hazardous outcomes,” from the Summer 2011 issue of Pesticides and You, or go to our Genetic Engineering web page.

Take Action:
Send comments on the proposed approval of Dow’s 2,4-D tolerant corn until February 27, 2012. Submit comments at http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2010-0103-0001. You only need to fill out fields that have an asterisk (*) beside it.

Additionally, an online petition by The Cornucopia Institute opposing Dow’s 2,4-D corn variety, which will be sent to President Obama and Secretary Vilsack, can be signed here.

Sources: Cornucopia Institute press release, Reuters, and TreeHugger

 

[foomar]

the USDA attempts to assure the public that 2,4-D is safe

This has been reduced in useage in europe due to health concerns for operators applying it , little used now apart from brushkiller , was banned on the railways decades ago.

As i remember the details , its not the 24D thats the real problem but the traces of dioxin that are always present as part of the manufactureing process.

Distinctly remember the rep touting roundup as so safe you could drink it at spray strength , and did just that on many occasions to make a point/sale , he must be shitting himself now the long term reports are comeing out if he survived this long.

 

[mr.brunch]

Cuba was given as an example of a place where large scale natural growing was successful.

In China farmers can only have one or two children

In the USA I cannot plant a crop unless my land is zoned for planting...it is illegal

In most states of the USA, as a farmer, I must pay a tax to the government every year on the equipment and land which I own...hard to imagine such socialism

In the USA, the poor are given tickets (stamps) to go get food and certain items cannot be purchased with those tickets

In the USA many people cannot go to the specialist of their choice (as they can north of the USA) and must go see a particular group of doctors....huh? What's up with that?

Sorry for going off topic but some points need to be made for those blinded by their country's propaganda.

well said . especially when we saw on documentaries how 9/11 victims were turned down medical help, based on the fact they could not afford it , but went to cuba and were treated, for free , based on the fact they are human beings.
whoop whoop for capitalism

 

[grapeman]

This has been reduced in useage in europe due to health concerns for operators applying it , little used now apart from brushkiller , was banned on the railways decades ago.

As i remember the details , its not the 24D thats the real problem but the traces of dioxin that are always present as part of the manufactureing process.

Distinctly remember the rep touting roundup as so safe you could drink it at spray strength , and did just that on many occasions to make a point/sale , he must be shitting himself now the long term reports are comeing out if he survived this long.

It's still available in the US. In fact, you can buy it for home use at any big box home improvement store under differing labels.

 

[foomar]

This chem is still available at sheds and garden centres here but would be illegal for me to contract spray on agricultural land or as an amenity herbicide , in fact the only herbicide still allowed for grounds maintenance is roundup and there are no viable licensed residual or pre emergents left.

Paraquat was also available to the consumer long after its use was curtailed on farms , used correctly its no more dangerous and its mode of action does not build resistance.

 

[Oregonism]

All I can say is Educate Yourself! Monsanto is the creator of Agent Orange, half of which is 2-4,D. My father was in the Navy during and after Vietnam, he died at 49 of T-Cell Lymphonic Leukemia Cancer, it killed him in 3 months from diagnosis. Not only was he a bomb loader on a carrier, he most likely was also part of Project Shadd, which the government disigenuously myth-busts. These were secret tests in the armed forces without people's knowledge of being gassed with Agent Orange.
Now I ponder my own genetic heritage as these incidents were a few years before my own birth.

 

[Bennyweed1]

I dont know if people hit this subject but Im throwing it out there again. Monsanto is a headed by some top former FDA folks. The FDA approves this stuff, claims it safe for consumption. Population control is a real deal thing and Monsanto and GE/GMO crops is a step in total control. Controlling the food supply, money supply, and environmental factors, its is all there its and spelled out in front of us. It is illegal to buy raw milk but fine to consume GMO crops by monsanto that whom also pump the bulvine hormone into commercial cows. If the farmer doesn't take the offer or refuses the FDA shuts them done. Places like wholefoods are now having to start stocking Monsanto crops. Its putting its death grasp around the worlds food supply. Our money is backed by a banking system not even under our own federal government and we have scientist developing systems call HARRP ( High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) around the globe that alter weather patterns. We are seriously fucked I am fairly certain of it and I am not a paranoid person.

I just look at the facts and how it is all related and the same people and agencies are interlaced behind it all. The government doesnt issue freedom, it is impossible. They are supposed to protect it and that is all. Monsanto is going to fuck up and destroy a lot of shit. The people behind it dont plan for it tomorrow though. This shit dates back to 1913 to families like the rothschilds and rockefellers. Its a drawn out plan and I am convinced of it. Call me crazy, I dont care. All I know is the last person I ever will depend on to protect myself is myself. Not some cop, some government or military because when shit does hit the fan people are out for themselves and all I am saying is be ready if that day ever comes.

History repeats itself and when governments in the world hold the power to start the world over, people better start waking up.

 

[Oregonism]

We can wonder about "what if's" all day.....

Educate yourself

Grow your own food

Fuck the system

What else is there do to do?