FDA: From Corrupt to Fascist

By Tony Albion

The FDA has for some time been seen as one of the most corrupt of government agencies.  Whether it is protecting the interests of those making lethal NSAIDS (aspirin, ibuprofen, etc.) by threatening cherry growers not to disclose the science showing that cherries provide the same or more benefits at no risk, or keeping drugs on the market that kill people, while imprisoning those who heal them, the FDA has been an agent for the pharmaceutical industry and far from a friend to the American people.

But it has now gone much further than corruption and bias that leads to deaths.  The FDA is now trying to establish a legal standard that Americans do not have the right to their own bodies and health.

Five Things You Can Do to Break up Big Food and Build Local Food Economies

By Bust the Trust

Big agribusiness has taken over your dinner table. This corporate domination has harmed farmers, who are stuck buying inputs and selling product to a tiny number of corporations. Monopoly power over our food has also limited the number of consumer choices to a few brands of unhealthy processed foods, and many neighborhoods are left without any fresh produce at all. This corporate food chain is being exported worldwide by these same companies. What we need instead is a just and sustainable food system that makes sure farmers make a decent living and everyone can afford good food.

This is an historic opportunity for all of us—farmers, consumers, environmentalists, community activists, advocates fighting global poverty and hunger, and you—to get involved, make our voices heard and demand that the rampant corporate control of our food, farms and family dinners be stopped.

Germs in Soil Might Give Learning a Boost

By HealthDay News

Mice exposed to the bacteria got through mazes twice as fast, researchers report

Could certain germs help you learn more easily? New research suggests bacteria could indeed, at least if you spend time outdoors and inhale or consume them.

Researchers looked at mycobacterium vaccae, a kind of natural bacteria that’s found in soil. People ingest or breathe in the germ when they spend time in nature, researcher Dorothy Matthews of The Sage Colleges in Troy, N.Y., said in a news release.

Health products under fire as FDA attacks walnuts, cherries and more

Image at snipurl.com/wtiih

By Mike Adams
Natural News

According to the FDA, walnuts are unapproved drugs because they have been scientifically proven to lower high cholesterol. So the FDA has unleashed a threatening attack against a large walnut company to scare them into removing all scientific research about walnuts from their website and marketing materials. The FDA, you may already realize, is waging a campaign of censorship, disinformation and consumer ignorance to try to destroy all knowledge of the scientifically-proven health benefits of healing foods and nutritional supplements.

Support the Free Speech About Science Act and restore freedom of health speech

Growing Opposition to Round Table on ‘Responsible’ (GM) Soy

Soy field Brazil (J. Paglione)

By Aboriginal News Group

We kindly invite all organisations to sign the Open Letter below, opposing the ‘responsible’ label for monoculture soy (including GM soy), developed by the industry’s Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS). Please find the text of the letter below.

The RTRS is holding its 5th conference 9-10 June 2010 in Sao Paolo, Brazil. It is expected that the label will be launched in Europe some time after the conference. This is the time to once more voice strong opposition to this greenwashing of industrial soy.

Please send the name of your organisation (and country, if relevant) before Friday June 4th, 4 o’clock European time, to nina@corporateeurope.org

The Chemtrail-GMO Connection: Coming this Fall

What in the World Are They Spraying?
A film by Michael Murphy and Paul Wittenberger
Truth Media Productions

Anticipated release: Fall 2010

Our future FarmVille? Urban community gardens are growing in Orlando, Florida

Mary Lou Basham waters her garden at Orlando’s Festival Park recently. Photo by Jacob Langston.

By Victor Manuel Ramos
Orlando Sentinel

City dwellers use their green thumbs to strengthen neighborhood bonds in community gardens

Amaury Diaz is proud to show off the shoots of tomatoes, bell peppers, pumpkins and black-eyed peas that he planted two weeks ago.

“This is my farm,” a beaming Diaz says as he leans down to inspect their leaves and feel the soil before watering.

Farmer stands up to Department of Homeland Security

Clement Rainville, his wife Elizabeth and son Craig on their farmland in Vermont near the U.S. border station on May 20, 2010. (John Morstad for the Globe and Mail)

By Ingrid Peritz
Globe and Mail (Quebec)

Few spots on the Canada-U.S. border would seem as tranquil as Morses Line. Cows vastly outnumber cars. You’re more likely to hear the sounds of songbirds than an idling 18-wheeler. Yet it’s here, on a rustling meadow seeded with clover and alfalfa just steps from the border with Quebec, that the Department of Homeland Security envisions a modern new border station to bolster security on its northern frontier. That is, unless dairy farmer Clement Rainville gets his way.

“They say they want to reinforce the border here. But we’re not at war.” ~Clement Rainville

5-22-10 Extent of BP oil: Situation Status map

Gulf oil extent 5-22-10 [pdf file]

Originally posted at BP, but keeping a copy for the public record on this and other sites is probably a good idea.

UPDATE: Word from Louisiana is that this map is inaccurate and out of date, despite its time stamp of 6 AM May 22nd. I’m leaving it up because if it is false, it is further evidence of BP deception (like the 5,000 barrels a day claim).

Venezuela redistributes land from the rich to peasant farmers

By James Suggett
Venezuala Analysis

The Venezuelan National Assembly is set to pass a reform to the controversial Land Law that will further facilitate land redistribution. Since the law was passed in 2001, 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres) of idle privately owned land have been confiscated and either turned over to small farmers or used for state farms and research laboratories. The law was one of the causes of a two-day right wing coup against Chavez in 2002, and the law’s opponents have murdered more than 220 peasant organizers.

Five Questions Monsanto Needs to Answer about its Seed Donation to Haiti

By Timi Gerson
Civil Eats

Monsanto has donated $4 million in seeds to Haiti, sending 60 tons of conventional hybrid corn and vegetable seed, followed by 70 more tons of corn seed last week with an additional 345 tons of corn seed to come during the next year. Yet the number one recommendation of a recent report by Catholic Relief Services on post-earthquake Haiti is to focus on local seed fairs and not to introduce new or “improved” varieties at this time.

It’s BAAACK: NAIS nka ADT (Animal Disease Traceability)

APHIS holds public meeting to discuss animal traceability

By Doug Rich
High Plains Midwest Ag Journal

Round two in the struggle to develop an animal identification system or traceability program in this country has begun. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service held a public meeting in Kansas City, Mo., May 11 to discuss the new framework for animal disease traceability.

Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds

By Beverly Bell
The Wip

In an open letter sent of May 14, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, the Executive Director of MPP (Peasant Movement of Papay) and the spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the Congress of Papay (MPNKP), called the entry of Monsanto seeds into Haiti “a very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds…, and on what is left our environment in Haiti.”[1] Haitian social movements have been vocal in their opposition to agribusiness imports of seeds and food, which undermines local production with local seed stocks. They have expressed special concern about the import of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

For now, without a law regulating the use of GMOs in Haiti, the Ministry of Agriculture rejected Monsanto’s offer of Roundup Ready GMO seeds. In an email exchange, a Monsanto representative assured the Ministry of Agriculture that the seeds being donated are not GMO.

Hotel Rio in India declares itself ‘GM-free’

By Umendra Dutt
Kheti Virasat Mission

Anti-GM foods campaign launched with Hotel Rio, others to follow suit

Padma Bhushan Dr P.M. Bhargava, architect of molecular biology and biotechnology in India, on Saturday declared Hotel Rio in Chandigarh, India a GM-free hotel as part of a major initiative against genetically modified (GM) goods and products in the country.

Preventing Cancer: 9 Practical Tips for Consumers

By Jane Houlihan
Environmental Working Group

Four of every 10 Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes, and two of every 10 will die of it. But there are some things you can do to reduce the risk. First, talk to your doctor about lifestyle changes that are known to make a difference – stopping smoking, reducing drinking, losing weight, exercising and eating right.

But according to a new report from the President’s Cancer Panel, environmental toxins also play a significant and under-recognized role in cancer, causing “grievous harm” to untold numbers of people. Environmental Working Group’s own research has found that children are born “pre-polluted” with up to 200 industrial chemicals, pesticides and contaminants that have been found to cause cancer in lab studies or in people.

Mark of the Beast: Obama’s latest Monsanto pick, Elena Kagan

Monsanto goon Elena Kagan

By Rady Ananda

First, we spit out our coffee over President Obama’s appointments of former Monsanto goon Michael Taylor as Food Safety [sic] Czar and ‘biotech governor of the year’ Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture. Then we choked on our grits when he made Monsanto lobbyist, Islam Siddiqui, the US Ag Trade Representative. Now, the real food movement has completely lost its appetite with Obama’s nomination of Monsanto defender, Elena Kagan, to the US Supreme Court.

In December 2009, in her capacity as Solicitor General, Kagan intervened in the first case on which SCOTUS will rule involving genetically modified crops, Monsanto v Geertson Seed. She defended Monsanto’s fight to contaminate the environment with its GM alfalfa, not the American people’s right to safe feed and a protected environment. 

U.S. State Department to aggressively confront GM critics

By Jim Goodman
CounterPunch

When the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) met in Chicago last week they were, no doubt, elated to hear that the U.S. State Department would be aggressively confronting critics of agricultural biotechnology.

Wouldn’t you think the State Department might have more pressing issues than carrying water for Monsanto and the rest of the biotechnology industry?

Feds on GMO Labeling: Don’t Tell, Don’t Ask

The policy is a direct carry-over from the Bush years. Want fries with that “change?”

By Barry Estabrook, The Atlantic
Posted on April 28, 2010, Printed on May 11, 2010

If you were hoping there might be some change in the U.S. government’s official position on genetically modified and genetically engineered (GM/GE) foods under the Obama administration, tough luck.

Last month there was the appointment of big-time GM/GE advocate (and former Monsanto lobbyist) Islam Siddiqui to Office of the United States Trade Representative as the country’s chief agricultural negotiator. Now comes a position paper from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that opposes labeling for genetically modified food. The U.S. claims that letting consumers know whether or not food contains GM/GE products is “false, misleading, or deceptive.”

You read that correctly. In Obama Newspeak, telling the public the truth is false, misleading, or deceptive, while concealing facts is not. Incidentally, the language is identical to that used by previous administrations. How’s that for change?

Explosion in bugs near Monsanto’s Bt cotton fields

 

Bt-cotton harvested in the US (Photo by Scott Olson, Getty Images)

By Ian Sample
Guardian UK

Scientists call for GM review after surge in pests around cotton farms in China

Farmland struck by infestations of bugs following widespread adoption of Bt cotton made by biotech giant Monsanto

Scientists are calling for the long-term risks of GM crops to be reassessed after field studies revealed an explosion in pest numbers around farms growing modified strains of cotton.

The unexpected surge of infestations “highlights a critical need” for better ways of predicting the impact of GM crops and spotting potentially damaging knock-on effects arising from their cultivation, researchers said.

Pasteurization without Representation

By Corby Kummer
The Atlantic

Raw milk is one of those issues that riles people (and inspires puns, “raw deal,” “raw nerves” and the like). This week Massachusetts farmers and fans of raw milk were sufficiently agitated to bring a cow to Boston Common, in view of the State House, to demonstrate their anger at a state crackdown on the product, with officials enforcing laws banning the sale of raw milk anywhere but directly from farms that are certified to sell it.