Poland’s ‘Festival of Nature and Culture’ takes unified stand against GMOs

It is sometimes easy to forget that people from nations all over the world, and not just from here in the US, are having to fight against the forces of evil that seek to overtake their agricultural systems in favor of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). And citizens…

Poland’s ‘Festival of Nature and Culture’ takes unified stand against GMOs

It is sometimes easy to forget that people from nations all over the world, and not just from here in the US, are having to fight against the forces of evil that seek to overtake their agricultural systems in favor of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). And citizens…

Radiation-induced mutation breeding of plants was precursor to modern-day GMOs

(NaturalNews) The motives of feeding the world and ending hunger are expressed to keep critics at bay. Although some real issues are occasionally addressed successfully, scientists are prone to meddle with nature without investigating potential hazards. And there are those, including this author, who say the short sighted technocrats who gleefully meddle with nature are serving a larger vision of depopulation. The Atomic Energy Plant Mutation Breeding Not many know about the precursor to today’s GMO madness. Shortly after WW II, a movement for peaceful applications of atomic energy, “atoms for peace,” began. Before atomic energy for electrical power or vessel propulsion would manifest, atomic gardens began exposing plants with gamma ray radiation in large circular gardens to produce desired specialty plants or necessarily hardier plants that could resist certain diseases. Some efforts were also put into garden variety plants and flower, selling “atomic energized seeds” to amateur gardeners and professional nurseries. The circular gardens surrounded a cobalt source of gamma rays on a pole in the center of that circle. The pole could be remotely controlled to slide down into a led shielded tube whenever workers walked in. Fences and alarms were installed to keep others from wandering in. Obviously, they knew of the dangers, but assumed it would be okay to radiate food plants. The plants being radiated would be in wedges with the largest part at the edge of the circle and the smallest part in the center. Plants closest to the center often died. Plants farther away mutated excessively and were deformed. Farther back plants looked the same but were unpredictably genetically modified. The stolons (horizontal stems at the base of plants) of those exposed plants would be inserted into a crop field that wasn’t exposed to radiation. This created a short cut to hybrid plants or crops which were considered more desirable than the originals. We know now how none of those experimenting with seed radiation fully considered the implications of the atomic beast providing its energy. Gamma rays were used in atomic gardens or small labs to genetically alter seeds. External exposure to gamma rays is dangerous, leading to radiation sickness and cancer. Ingesting items emitting gamma rays creates an internal exposure that is more dangerous and difficult to remove. As these dangers became more evident, atomic gardens and seeds fell out of favor as a solution to food supply issues. A Couple of Survivors However, two mutated varieties from that era are still prominent. One is the Rio Star grapefruit. It was atomically hybrid in Texas to create a grapefruit whose fruit and juice were more red than any grown in that state previously. Another atomic survivor is the peppermint plant Mentha piperita . It was susceptible to the fungal disease Vericillium wilt . Thousands of stolons were irradiated at the Brookhaven National Laboratory from the mid-1950s and planted in wilt infested fields. By 1971, Todds Mitcham cultivars (specially cultivated plants) emerged as the peppermint that would resist the wilt fungus. Most global production of mint oil, used in gum, toothpaste, candies, scented oils, soaps and candles is produce from the atomically modified Mentha piperita. Mint oil is a multimillion dollar business. Garden historian Paige Johnson, who was interviewed about atomic energy gardens, explained that we don’t know the genetic line of lots of foods we take for granted. Someone’s garden plants or veggies from what were thought to be heirloom seeds may have anomalies generated by stolons from decades old gamma ray exposed plants. And we don’t know how much current bad health could be attributed to those decades of plant radiating experiments that were the precursors to our modern GMO menace. Then and Now It seems the atomic garden hazards have left the agricultural scene. Instead, radiation from nuclear power and radiation from spent military ammunition made with “depleted” uranium threaten us all more than ever. The current GMO monster menaces human health and more. The health issues from GMO’s main gene transfer promoter alone, Ca35S, guarantees immune system dysfunction by ruining gut flora. GMO production scientists assumed the Ca35S would be neutralized in the stomach. It is just another example of a half-baked premise. As more GM crops and trees infest pristine crops and forests, all plant life is threatened. Once infested, those crops or trees stay that way. There is no return to nature. The GMO monster threatens all of plant life. A recent UN agricultural study concluded that small organic farms were capable of producing more yield per acre while maintaining topsoil health than large mono-culture Big Ag farms that destroy the topsoil. The UN study proposed this as the future solution to world food supply shortages. This won’t happen if Monsanto succeeds with its stated goal of controlling the food supply. In addition to GMOs, Monsanto is buying up normal seeds and, by way of convoluted corporate legalese, getting those seeds patented too. Monsanto’s 100 year product legacy is nothing but toxic chemicals and food additives that endanger plant and human life. And now after a few short years, GMO farming has proven disastrous. But Monsanto marches on with government support. Are we approaching the end, my friend? Sources for more information include: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-04/atomic-gardens-biotechnology-past-can-teach-lessons-about-future-farming Paige Johnson interview http://pruned.blogspot.com/2011/04/atomic-gardens.html http://gardenhistorygirl.blogspot.com/ http://www.naturalnews.com/030305_food_crisis_Monsanto.html Scientific paper on CaMV 35S promoter from cauliflower mosaic virus http://www.ask-force.org/web/S35/Powell-Rebuttal-Ho-1999.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding

Consolidation of seed companies leading to corporate domination of world food supply

(NaturalNews) Throughout the history of agriculture across the globe, farming has always been a diversified sector of the economy. Small, self-sustaining, family farms were the order of the day in most cultures. Even as small farms grew larger and more specialized over time, many of them still saved seeds or purchased them from other farmers, which kept control of farming in the hands of the people. But today everything has changed, as large chemical and agribusiness firms have acquired or merged with seed companies and other agricultural input companies. They have successfully gained a foothold on genetically-modified (GM) crops with transgenic traits. These primary factors and several others have facilitated a crescendo towards the global domination of agriculture by corporations, and thus the world’s food supply. The dismal state in which we find ourselves today did not come overnight, of course, but it did pick up rapid speed after the introduction of GM crops in the mid-1990s. Since that time, multinational corporations like Monsanto, DuPont, and Syngenta have seized a significant amount of control over the global seed industry, which has greatly limited agricultural diversity and freedom. The ability to patent both seeds and seed traits has also added injury to insult, as the ability to obtain natural or heirloom seeds is becoming increasingly difficult, and many farmers feel they have no choice but to go with the flow. Professor Philip H. Howard from the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies at Michigan State University published a study in 2009 entitled Visualizing Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: 1996 – 2008 that analyzes the trend in agriculture towards corporate dominance. The report, which was featured in a special issue of the journal Renewable Agriculture , provides both an extensive data analysis of agriculture’s dramatic transformation over the past several decades, as well as a highly-informative visual analysis of this truly shocking hostile takeover situation. The ‘Big Six” pharmaceutical and chemical companies have acquired, created joint ventures with hundreds of seed companies over the past 15 years In order to help assist his readers in understanding the state of the seed industry, Prof. Howard developed a very informative graphic that displays the reality of who really controls the seed industry. Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow, and BASF collectively own or partially-own hundreds of formerly-independent seed companies — and Monsanto, of course, dominates them all. You can view the graphic for yourself at the following link: http://www.naturalnews.com/files/seedindustry.pdf As you will see, the blue circles in the diagram represent seed companies, while the red circles — which happen to all be chemical or pharmaceutical companies — control the vast majority of them. Solid gray arrows indicate complete ownership of a company, while gray lines indicate partial ownership. One of the most obvious first impressions to be gathered from the diagram is Monsanto’s excessive and widespread control over the seed industry. According to Prof. Howard’s analysis, Monsanto acquired more than 50 seed companies just during the time represented by his study period, which spans the years between 1996 and 2008. Monsanto had little-to-no involvement in the seed industry prior to the mid-1980s, but since that time has been rapidly eating up seed companies and furthering its development and control over the food supply through GMOs. Today, Monsanto is the world’s largest seed company, and the transnational behemoth continues to acquire or otherwise create “partnerships” with various independent seed companies that are still in existence. Behind Monsanto, the other five of the “Big Six” that Prof. Howard illustrates — DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow, and BASF — collectively own or control a great portion of the remaining major seed companies not owned or controlled by Monsanto. And one of the biggest factors that has contributed to this dismal setup is GMOs and transgenic, patentable seed traits that are shared among the industry players. The “Big Six” each have agreements with one or more of the others; their overall success has largely hinged on GMOs and increased control of agricultural inputs The only thing worse than Monsanto and the dominance of the seed market are the cozy relationships with one another. Prof. Howard’s analysis reveals that every company in the “Big Six” has at least one mutual relationship with one another, and they together share corporate control of the seed industry. Monsanto has established cross-licensing agreements for its transgenic patents with every single other company in the mix, while Dow has agreements with all except for Bayer. And Syngenta has agreements with Dow, Monsanto, and DuPont, while BASF has agreements with Dow and Monsanto. What does this all mean? It means that the already-disturbing oligarchy that controls the seed industry is shaping up to become a total monopoly with Monsanto at the helm, of course. And as transgenic technology continues to develop, which forces farmers to either go with the flow or leave the business, there may soon be no other choices in farming besides whatever Monsanto has to offer. One would think that farmers would be more aware of this takeover and resist it. But the “Big Six” effectively fly under the radar, in most cases, by selling their seeds and chemicals through various vendors and under different names. According to Prof. Howard, this is how they effectively maintain an illusion of competition and choice in the midst of their takeover. How things got this bad and how the situation can be fixed Real competition in the seed industry has been systematically deconstructed over the years for numerous reasons. Besides blatant industry consolidation and takeover by drug and chemical companies, many farmers have simply been willing to accept the latest seed technologies, even when it has meant having to give up their seed saving freedom, and being forced to rely on the intensive use of chemicals and other synthetic interventions in order to farm. Prof. Howard explains that a concept known as the “agricultural treadmill” has been a major contributing factor in the demise of the seed industry. Because demand for food is largely inelastic, any increase in production will cause crop prices to fall. So as new farming technologies emerge, farmers that adopt them first inadvertently force all the other farmers to adopt them as well, just to maintain the same level of revenue. If they do not adopt them, or fail to keep up with other farmers on the treadmill, they will eventually fall off, or be forced out of the farming business altogether. Other factors include changes in policy that have decreased the barriers to accumulation that have prevented agricultural takeover in the past. By developing patented, transgenic traits, seed companies have been able to overcome a barrier to accumulation in agriculture. When farmers cannot save their GM seeds, the corporate owners can effectively maintain a continual, yearly cash flow just from selling seeds and their corresponding pesticides and herbicides, which in turn makes agriculture a vastly more profitable enterprise for preying corporations like Monsanto than it used to be. So what is the solution? Prof. Howard suggests improving antitrust enforcement, which will prevent the continual shift of seed company ownership and gradual accumulation of the food chain by a few large companies. Another idea is to create policies that fight against the agricultural treadmill phenomenon, and that instead promote independent, self-sustaining agricultural systems that maintain control of food with the people rather than the corporations. Perhaps the most effective suggestion — and one that we here at NaturalNews strongly advocate for as well — is to end the practice of granting patents on living organisms. By re-establishing this most-effective obstacle to accumulation, there will be no more incentive for multinational biotechnology companies like Monsanto to focus on dominating agriculture because there will be no more opportunity for the massive accumulation of wealth and capital through patented seeds. Sources for this story include: http://www.seedbuzz.com/knowledge-center/article/visualizing-consolidation-in-the-global-seed-industry-1996%E2%80%932008 http://www.naturalnews.com/files/seedindustry.pdf

Extreme weather taking a huge toll on global food production

(NaturalNews) An increase in the prevalence of extreme weather events due to global warming will seriously affect global food production worldwide, climate and agriculture experts are increasingly warning. “Climate change threatens to make large areas of the planet unsuitable for human habitation and for an adequate level of food production,” writes Ervin Laszlo in the book Quantum Shift in the Global Brain . “Very few countries are still food self-sufficient — and the internationally available food reserves are shrinking.” In the past few months, a drought has devastated the Russian wheat harvest, floods have destroyed vast stretches of Pakistani farmland, and a heat wave led to the death of 2,000 cattle in Kansas. As greenhouse gas emissions continue and the planet keeps warming, climatologists are predicting “more and more hot extremes and worse unprecedented extremes and that’s what we’re seeing,” said Neville Nicholls of Monash University in Australia. The impact of such disasters has an implications far beyond the specific croplands affected. Russia’s decision to ban exports of its shrunken wheat crop, for example, has caused alarm in wheat importing countries such as Egypt. Analysts worry about a return to the food riots of 2007 and 2008, when rising prices led to supply crises in poor countries. “Over the whole globe all of these changes in climate … are going to cause some real ripples in our capabilities of producing food,” said Jerry Hatfield of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service. Crop failures are also expected to hit rice fields in the near future. “That could start showing up in the next decade or so, because we’re getting these heating peaks already,” said Peter Timmer of the nonprofit Center for Global Development. Beyond the next few years, researchers admit that they have no idea what our agricultural future will look like. “In the longer term, all bets are off which crops can and can’t grow,” said Jay Gulledge, the senior scientist at the Pew Center for Global Climate Change in Washington. Sources for this story include: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE67B3W320100812.

Development and Uses of Biofortified Agricultural Products

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Monsanto launches deceptive ad campaign in desperate attempt to improve image

(NaturalNews) Monsanto has become the new Marlboro, with a new advertising campaign designed to improved its hopelessly-tarnished image. Except instead of handsome cowboys smoking cigarettes, Monsanto is plastering images of hardy American farmers and their crop fields on billboards and bus stops throughout the nation. The new ad campaign, of course, is a desperate attempt to convince the public that the company is not only working in the best interests of U.S. agriculture, but is also responsible for creating and maintaining millions of American farm jobs in the process, both of which are patently false. Monsanto has always glowingly endorsed and self-promoted itself as the agricultural savior of the world, despite the fact that its biotechnological developments have led to far more agricultural problems than ever before. Pesticide and herbicide resistance, widespread environmental contamination, perpetual dependence on non-renewable seeds, the emergence of “superweeds”, and even crop failures are included on the laundry list of genetically-modified (GM) destruction foisted on the public by Monsanto. But the company is working overtime to cover up reality with a steady stream of deceptive marketing propaganda. Monsanto’s website states: “9 billion people to feed. A changing climate. NOW WHAT? Producing more. Conserving more. Improving farmers’ lives. That’s sustainable agriculture. And that’s what Monsanto is all about.” It is truly amazing that a company propagating genetically-engineered, self-destructing seeds that require heavy pesticide and herbicide applications in order to grow as intended, would claim that its agricultural system is sustainable. In reality, Monsanto’s technology is arguably the most unsustainable form of agriculture. Monsanto also claims that its technologies produce more food, conserve resources and improve lives. But in practice, its biotechnology systems deplete soil health, pollute the environment, and force farmers to be dependent on biotechnology companies for seeds and chemicals, all of which are hardly a recipe for sustainability and self-dependancy. To learn more about the evils of Monsanto, visit: http://www.naturalnews.com/Monsanto.html Sources for this story include: http://www.grist.org/article/food-2011-01-21-monsantos-new-farmwashing-ad-campaign

Mushrooms made into green packing material

(NaturalNews) It sounds like a futuristic sci fi idea: a non-toxic, earth friendly packing material that grows itself and, after it’s used, makes a great garden compost. But this isn’t fiction — it’s mushrooms. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), two former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute undergraduates, Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer, came up with the idea to make a composite of mushroom roots that could be used as a packing foam substitute. Their product, which they dubbed Mycobond, is now hitting the market and, according to a NSF press statement, has several advantages for the environment. First of all, the manufacture of Mycobond requires just one eighth the energy and one tenth the carbon dioxide of traditional foam packing material. In fact, most of the manufacturing process is virtually energy-free with the mycelia (the vegetative parts of the mushrooms which consist of masses of branching, thread-like hyphae) simply growing by digesting agricultural starter material (mostly cotton seed or wood fiber) in a dark, room temperature environment. The growth take place within a molded plastic structure which can be customized for whatever needs to be packed with the mushroom material. That means no energy at all is required for shaping the products. “We don’t manufacture materials, we grow them,” McIntyre explained in a statement to the media. “We’re converting agricultural byproducts into a higher-value product.” The material has another economic benefit as well, he added, because the cost of mushroom packing material isn’t tied to the price fluctuations of synthetic materials that are derived from sources like petroleum. “All of our raw materials are inherently renewable and they are literally waste streams,” McIntyre said. “It’s an open system based on biological materials.” Once fully formed, each Mycobond piece is heat-treated to stop the growth process and then delivered to the customer. Bayer and McIntyre, whose business is called Ecovative, are working to turn the entire process into a packaged kit that will eventually allow shipping facilities, and even homeowners, to grow their own Mycobond materials. With support from NSF, McIntyre and Bayer are also developing an even less energy-intensive method to sterilize the agricultural waste starter material they use. Sterilization is a necessary step for enabling the mycelia to grow because it kills any spores that would compete with the growing-for-packing-material mushrooms. McIntyre and Bayer have been using a steam-heat sterilization process but they’ve now come up with a treatment made from cinnamon-bark oil, thyme oil, oregano oil and lemongrass oil that will allow the Mycobond mushroom product to grow in the open air, instead of their current clean-room environment. “The biological disinfection process simply emulates nature in that it uses compounds that plants have evolved over centuries to inhibit microbial growth,” McIntyre said in a press statement. “The unintended result is that our production floor smells like a pizza shop.” For more information: http://ecovativedesign.com/ http://www.research.gov/