More from Reichschancellor Obama

[Ningishiddza]

Obama Deregulates GMO Crops Despite Supreme Court Injunction

Early this spring, while the world was distracted by Egypt’s uprising, President Barack Obama pushed the Secretary of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to deregulate genetically engineered alfalfa and sugar beets in the United States. The USDA came through as he directed, totally deregulating these Monsanto-patented genes in early February.

In so doing, Obama and the USDA have chosen to override and ignore decisions and injunctions made by the U.S. Supreme Court that banned planting of genetically engineered alfalfa and sugar beets without consideration of the Environmental Impact Assessments, which showed high risks to organic and conventional (chemical) farmers.

http://www.truth-out.org/obama-dereg...ion/1307023149

Might as well give control of the entire food supply to Monsanto and Con-Agra.

[Anarch]

http://www.truth-out.org/obama-dereg...ion/1307023149

Might as well give control of the entire food supply to Monsanto and Con-Agra.

I thought this was already so comrade.

[tahn1000]

i would NEVER eat gm food knowingly. glad i'm not in america.

[Reef Badlaw]

I wonder what other side-alley magic-tricks the administration is performing, with the country's attention diverted by a dozen different distractions...

here's how they think... I worry so much about buying sweetcorn at a roadside-stand, that I'd rather pay 4-to-5-times more for an alleged genetically-perfect substitute whose test-results can only be attained by The Freedom Of Information Act.

That thought-process mirrors how the administration expects us to regard EV's (electric vehicles)... I hate foreign-oil so much that I'd rather pay twice-as-much for a EV, and eagerly pay for artificially-inflated electricity-prices as the DOE jacks-up costs via a carbonmarket-approved Clean Energy Standard profit-scheme.

His administration just yanked-the-plug on the Massachusetts-WindFarm project. Hmmm... that is weird, because the Kennedy-family was against it too.

As the Cape Wind debacle illustrates, Obama isn’t sincerely interested in clean energy. His proposed “clean energy standard” is merely a ruse for seducing Republicans into enacting a carbon cap scheme like cap-and-trade.

And he was against ethanol-subsidies before he was for them... how fatcatty.

[Ningishiddza]

here's how they think... I worry so much about buying sweetcorn at a roadside-stand, that I'd rather pay 4-to-5-times more for an alleged genetically-perfect substitute whose test-results can only be attained by The Freedom Of Information Act.

That is hilarious.

That thought-process mirrors how the administration expects us to regard EV's (electric vehicles)... I hate foreign-oil so much that I'd rather pay twice-as-much for a EV, and eagerly pay for artificially-inflated electricity-prices as the DOE jacks-up costs via a carbonmarket-approved Clean Energy Standard profit-scheme.

His administration just yanked-the-plug on the Massachusetts-WindFarm project. Hmmm... that is weird, because the Kennedy-family was against it too.

As the Cape Wind debacle illustrates, Obama isn’t sincerely interested in clean energy. His proposed “clean energy standard” is merely a ruse for seducing Republicans into enacting a carbon cap scheme like cap-and-trade.

And he was against ethanol-subsidies before he was for them... how fatcatty.

He's an arrogant prick worse than freaking Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat nachos."

[Reef Badlaw]

It's Bush's fault... and Japan's?

A funny thing happened on the way back from the brink, I guess...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56184.html

[Nu Kua]

Get over it! You are only lucky it is not a stinky Republican president doing this very same thing... that would be mean spirited and show that the President caters to special interests perhaps show a President who took a bribe in the form of anonymous contributions- maybe he owed a few favors... a Republican would be an asshole here. But here we have a savior and all you can do is scoff.

tsk tsk

You guys are just mean spirited and obviously racist. You can't even see it!
Luckily we have this Democratic, progressive, open-hearted liberalish-tinted kind of leader who obviously loves The People because he said so! So when he heads the administration that OK's these things, that makes it OK that the SCOTUS injunction was ignored.

There are plenty of great excuses to excuse this... like lets see, what is the most popular apology for sucking the cock of Monsanto? Oh yeah- Monsanto et al will save the world from hunger by their research and practices, and to oppose Monsanto not only means you are an idiot afraid of technological advances, it also means you simply hate people, especially hungry people.

Why do you hate people? Why do you hate America? I find you suspicious... thank goodness for the nifty quick access "Call DHS if you see something suspicious" campaign. I've tattooed the number on my left wrist, just to have it handy.

Get with the program, boys!

[GamerGal]

With out GM foods... about 2 billion would starve. Hell, maybe even 3billion. So you find 3 billion ready too starve to death.

[JenaS62]

With out GM foods... about 2 billion would starve. Hell, maybe even 3billion. So you find 3 billion ready too starve to death.

As usual GG is down on her knees to perform felatio on Obama.

http://singularityhub.com/2011/04/19...uture-of-food/


"1. Monsanto aggressively defends their patents.

How aggressively? Put it this way…Monsanto puts the “agro” in agricultural patent law. What’s worse is that the genes themselves are patented. So let’s say farmer A is using Monsanto seed next to farmer B who is using seeds passed down through the family. If the wind blows the wrong way, a seed gets caught in the fur of field mice, shared equipment gets contaminated or any other possible way that a transgenic seed or a patented gene should happen to get from farmer A’s field into farmer B’s crops and then Monsanto finds out about it, odds are the company will sue farmer B for patent infringement."


These ARE poor farmers. These are farmers who normally use their own seeds each season and now with cross contamination - they will have to purchase new seeds each season. Monsanto is so good for world hunger that millions of people are lining up against them.

[tahn1000]

With out GM foods... about 2 billion would starve. Hell, maybe even 3billion. So you find 3 billion ready too starve to death.

you do realise - or perhaps you don't - that one of the ways gm foods are "modified" is to prevent seed germination. this is to protect the profits of the corporations so farmers are FORCED to buy more seed for next year's crop. THERE IS NONE OF THE TRADITIONAL PUTTING ASIDE OF SEED FOR NEXT YEAR'S CROP.

now, there is one other horrible side effect. these crops are called "suicide" crops for a reason. because they DO produce pollen. but when natural varieties are cross-pollinated with them by nature, THE NATURAL PLANT PRODUCES STERILE SEED meaning that the farmer next door now has no seed for next year's crop - and again IS FORCED TO BUY THE GM SEED FOR NEXT YEAR'S CROP.

now - think of what's happening in the third world countries. THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO BUY EXPENSIVE GM SEED FOR THE NEXT YEAR'S CROP. but because the gm seed got dumped on them, NATURAL CROPS ARE FAILING. they produce sterile seed which will not germinate. NOW THE THIRD WORLD FARMER IS FORCED TO BUY THE GM SEED FOR THE NEXT YEAR'S CROP, TOO - OR STARVE. and as natural seed crops are being wiped out, that is exactly what is happening.

the other thing which hasn't been connected yet, is what is happening to the POLLEN EATERS - the bees, butterflies, other insects and birds etc. bee populations have been trending downwards GLOBALLY. and one day someone might even do a study and realise it directly correlates to the spread and use of gm crops.

[Nu Kua]

Millions are starving already and the market is saturated with GM.

[Ningishiddza]

GM foods increase starvation, not decrease it.

If US and British multi-national corporations hadn't plowed under the food crops in Africa to grow Coffee, Chocolate and Sugar Cane, there wouldn't be any starvation in the first place.

So, what do you do when a president is in contempt of court?

Impeach?

Contempt is a misdemeanor, so it would fall under High Crimes and Misdemeanors.

[Nu Kua]

that one of the ways gm foods are "modified" is to prevent seed germination. this is to protect the profits of the corporations so farmers are FORCED to buy more seed for next year's crop. THERE IS NONE OF THE TRADITIONAL PUTTING ASIDE OF SEED FOR NEXT YEAR'S CROP.

Monsanto is so good for world hunger that millions of people are lining up against them.

Yep!
May 21, 2010
YES! Magazine:

Haitian Farmers Refuse Monsanto Hybrid Seeds

“A new earthquake” is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that American agribusiness giant Monsanto will be donating 60,000 sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds to Haiti—some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto’s seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation’s presence in Haiti on June 4, World Environment Day...

...The hybrid corn seeds Monsanto has donated to Haiti are treated with the fungicide Maxim XO, and the calypso tomato seeds are treated with thiram. [3] Thiram belongs to a highly toxic class of chemicals called ethylene bisdithiocarbamates (EBDCs). Results of tests of EBDCs on mice and rats caused concern to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which then ordered a special review. The EPA determined that EBDC-treated plants are so dangerous to agricultural workers that they must wear special protective clothing when handling them...

The concern of Haitian social movements is not just about chemical dangers and the possibility of future GMO imports. They claim that the future of Haiti depends on local production with local seeds for local consumption—otherwise known as food sovereignty. Monsanto’s arrival in Haiti, they say, is a further threat to such a future.

“People in the U.S. need to help us produce, not give us food and seeds. They’re ruining our chance to support ourselves,” said farmer Jonas Deronzil of a peasant cooperative in the rural region of Verrettes. [5]...

Quoting and linking to previous threads and posts because it's easier.

Jan 28th, 2011
The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto

Ronnie Cummins writes for Millions Against Monsanto:

The policy set for GE alfalfa will most likely guide policies for other GE crops as well. True coexistence is a must." - Whole Foods Market, Jan. 21, 2011

In the wake of a 12-year battle to keep Monsanto's Genetically Engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation's 25,000 organic farms and ranches, America's organic consumers and producers are facing betrayal. A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market , Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it's time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly admitted that they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto's controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to sit down and cut a deal for "coexistence" with Monsanto and USDA biotech cheerleader Tom Vilsack.

In a cleverly worded, but profoundly misleading email sent to its customers last week, Whole Foods Market, while proclaiming their support for organics and "seed purity," gave the green light to USDA bureaucrats to approve the "conditional deregulation" of Monsanto's genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant alfalfa. Beyond the regulatory euphemism of "conditional deregulation," this means that WFM and their colleagues are willing to go along with the massive planting of a chemical and energy-intensive GE perennial crop, alfalfa; guaranteed to spread its mutant genes and seeds across the nation; guaranteed to contaminate the alfalfa fed to organic animals; guaranteed to lead to massive poisoning of farm workers and destruction of the essential soil food web by the toxic herbicide, Roundup; and guaranteed to produce Roundup-resistant superweeds that will require even more deadly herbicides such as 2,4 D to be sprayed on millions of acres of alfalfa across the U.S...

Fully knowing that the use of Round-up cannot be contained only on the farms that chose to use it,

In exchange for allowing Monsanto's premeditated pollution of the alfalfa gene pool, WFM wants "compensation." In exchange for a new assault on farmworkers and rural communities (a recent large-scale Swedish study found that spraying Roundup doubles farm workers' and rural residents' risk of getting cancer), WFM expects the pro-biotech USDA to begin to regulate rather than cheerlead for Monsanto. ...WFM wants the Biotech Bully of St. Louis to agree to pay "compensation" (i.e. hush money) to farmers "for any losses related to the contamination of his crop."

Apparently, the PR efforts of these companies contend that working to "co-exist" with the biotech industry will lead to greater oversight of the industry by the USDA. It is hard to imagine they could say this with a straight face, because, as the article goes on to detail, Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the USDA who in 2001 was honored as "Governer of the Year" by the Biotechnology Industry Organization and who makes use of Monsanto's corporate jet while campaigning, is also a close, personal friend of the the CEO's of both Stonyfield Farms and Whole Foods Market, both of whom contribute to Vilsack's political campaigns.

Whole Food markets Non-GMO Project is basically a farcical green-washing PR campaign, focuing on the fact that its organics contain no GMO's- which is no big leap of understanding since GMO's are banned in organic production- while ignoring the fact that their "natural" foods market, which makes up two thirds of their sales, are not required to be regulated at all and in fact do contain non-organic ingredients which have been found to be contaminated with GMO's.

Cummings suggests this is the reason behind the push to "co-exist" with Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, ect- they want the controversy to just go away because it is from GMO contaminated foods that these so-called natural food markets make the bulk of their money.

Dec 10th, 2010
The Tyranny of Soy Agribusiness in Paraguay

Ben Dangl; produced by Jesse Freeston.

+ YouTube Video

Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill and a series of Brazilians agribusinesses are flexing their muscles in Paraguay, currently occupying 25% of all arable land for the production of genetically modified soy for export. The losers are Paraguay's peasant farmers, and they've mobilized to defend themselves, including getting a president into power who promised to help them. But as Ben Dangl reports, for a serious of reasons, President Lugo has converted into an enemy of the same farmers that got him into power in the first place.


Benjamin Dangl has worked as a journalist throughout Latin America for the Guardian Unlimited, The Nation, and the NACLA Report on the Americas. He is the author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press) and Dancing with Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin America (AK Press). He is the editor of TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events and co-founder of UpsideDownWorld.org, a website on activism and politics in Latin America. Dangl teaches South American history and globalization at Burlington College.

Aug 6th, 2009
Monsanto and Dow bring 'Smartstax' corn to you


Canadian Biotechnology Action Network:

*edit
Actually, this is the Press Release page- scroll down to the Smartstax section for the press release.

Codex Food Safety Guidelines can be downloaded here; pdf, 18 pages

For More Information:
On Regulation
On SmartStax

Now- speaking of world hunger- check this out- from 2008

Setting Global Food Prices from the United States

This just floored me.
The global food crisis is fueled largely by commodities trading in the US.
Speculation in the commodities markets is one reason why food prices are soaring.
And its all happening in Chicago where global trends are analyzed and food prices set.
Traders in the U-S are buying up food-related stocks, hoping for higher returns.

+ YouTube Video

People are beginning to riot for food. People have been driven by hunger to protests and rioting in Haiti and Egypt; as well as Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Indonesia and Peru.

Security fears as food prices soar

(remember this is from '08)

The recipe for food rights

...The farmers who are committing suicide in India are precisely in those areas where genetically engineered cotton is being grown by Monsanto [a chemicals and agricultural science corporation].

This is a new crisis. A small farmer could make a living in this country a few years ago. Today, as a result of globalisation, agriculture is being run down.

We have grown enough wheat in the last few years – 74 million tonnes. We are still self-reliant in food, but we are being forced to import; both under the multilateral globalisation free trade agreements as well as under bilateral arrangements like a crazy treaty called the Agriculture Knowledge Initiative between the US and India.

It was signed at the same time as the nuclear treaty was signed. The nuclear agreement has had a lot of political attention. The agriculture treaty has had absolutely no attention.

Indian farmers are being paid 8,000 rupees [$200] for a tonne of wheat. When the farmers ask for more, to make a viable living, the government says it will cause a rise in inflation.

So the government goes to Cargill [a transnational agricultural corporation] and the United States because of this bilateral agreement and buys wheat at $400 dollars a tonne, which is 16,000 rupees a tonne – twice the price that Indian farmers can produce wheat for...