Bill Gates buys positive press spin on vaccines, GMOs

Aaron Dykes of Prison Planet recently gave an insightful TV news presentation analyzing The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s influence over the media to promote their “world health and agriculture” agendas while soft pedaling the downside of all they’re doing. Such…

Banish depression with the tree of happiness

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), an estimated 44.3 million Americans, ages 18 and older, suffer from a mental disorder. Depression, included in this number, is reaching epidemic proportions. While the media continues to report on the potentially…

Who controls your mind? (opinion)

(NaturalNews)When we are talking about the media, it comes down to this question: do they create the consciousness of the people or is the consciousness of the people merely being created by the media? The fact is that practically everyone watches TV and reads the newspapers;…

Butter shortage in Norway leads to $500 a pack price

An inexplicable butter shortage in Norway that authorities and the media are blaming on the growing popularity of low-carb, high-fat diets has left the wealthy Scandinavian country scrambling to find other sources of the precious cooking ingredient. After all, the Christmas…

Butter shortage in Norway leads to $500 a pack price

An inexplicable butter shortage in Norway that authorities and the media are blaming on the growing popularity of low-carb, high-fat diets has left the wealthy Scandinavian country scrambling to find other sources of the precious cooking ingredient. After all, the Christmas…

Film review: Consuming Kids – a must-see documentary for all parents

Parents, educators and anyone interested in how children in the US are affected by the media will want to watch “Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood.” The film, available for viewing online (www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uUU7cjfcdM), traces the connection between…

McDonald’s dumps McMuffin egg supplier after investigation reveals ‘significant’ and ‘serious’ health violations

(NaturalNews) Fast-food giant McDonald’s is once again in the media limelight after it was recently revealed that its West Coast egg supplier has been engaged in “significant and serious violations,” according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). McDonald’s officially ended its relationship with Minnesota-based Sparboe Farms after an undercover investigation exposed severe animal abuse and filthy conditions at the company’s Vincent, Iowa, facility. For years, Sparboe Farms, the fifth-largest factory egg producer in the US, had been the sole supplier of eggs for all McDonald’s restaurants west of the Mississippi River. But after undercover video captured by Mercy for Animals, a Chicago-based animal rights group, went viral, the fast-food chain officially dumped Sparboe as its supplier and issued a public statement about its decision that questioned “the management of Sparboe facilities.” Captured video footage shows factory workers aggressively grabbing chickens by their necks and slamming them in and out of cages, for instance, which is a serious abuse violation. It also shows seemingly endless rows of chicken “battery cages,” where chickens are packed densely in stacked rows of inhumane cages. Chickens that live in such conditions often wallow in their own feces, and some get caught in cage wiring which results in their death. You can watch some of this disturbing footage at the following link: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/mcdonalds-dumps-mcmuffin-egg-factory-health-concerns/story?id=14976054 The FDA reportedly issued a company-wide warning letter to Sparboe Farms, which operates a number of other factory hen houses in the Midwest, decrying these and other violations. The agency also cited the company for at least 13 violations of its new federal egg rule, which was enacted following the massive egg recall saga from last year (http://www.naturalnews.com/029539_salmonella_eggs.html). Corporate retailer Target, which had also sold Sparboe Farms eggs at its Super Target stores, recently pulled all the company’s eggs from store shelves following the release of the damaging footage. Like McDonald’s, Target expressed surprise at the findings, and took the position that it was unaware of the “unacceptable conditions in the company’s egg laying facilities.” Neither McDonald’s nor Target has indicated who they will choose as their new egg suppliers. But because of the nature of their business models, both companies will likely just choose other factory egg suppliers that utilize many of the same inhumane and filthy chicken raising methods — in other words, consumers can expect more of the same. Sources for this article include: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/mcdonalds-dumps-mcmuffin-egg-factory-health-concerns/story?id=14976054

Monsanto partners with USAID to push GM corn in Nepal

(NaturalNews) The southeast Asian country of Nepal is once again having to fight against foreign interests that are trying to take over its agricultural system. Biotechnology giant Monsanto apparently has its sights set on bringing genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) to this sliver of a country just north of India, and it is allegedly working with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a so-called humanitarian group, and officials in Nepal to make it happen. USAID issued a statement on Sept. 13, 2011, saying that it had partnered with Nepal’s Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoACs) and Monsanto to “promote hybrid maize (corn) seeds among 20,000 farmers of Chitwan, Nawalparasi and Kavre districts and provide training to them.” Media across Nepal quickly picked up on the story, and massive public outcry ensued. GMOs are not widely cultivated in Nepal, and the country has always taken a very cautious approach to adopting them. In fact, when it was discovered that some GMO ingredients had potentially already contaminated the nation’s food supply back in 2003, government officials quickly made precautionary recommendations at the time to require GMO labeling on all food items. But with multinational corporations and the US government working overtime to force GM corn on Nepali farmers, Nepal appears to be getting pushed to the brink of no return. Though Nepal still imports some of its corn from elsewhere, the country is having no problems with the conventional, organic, and heirloom varieties it currently cultivates, and has no need whatsoever for GM varieties. Since the controversy erupted, Nepali officials have reportedly backed off from the plan. Hari Dahal, joint secretary at MoACs, told reporters recently that his agency had “no idea why USAID issued the statements saying that the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives was partnering with Monsanto” because “no agreement had been signed.” USAID was a little more ambiguous about whether or not MoACs was specifically involved in the matter, but the agency did make it very clear that it is working with Monsanto to promote GMOs around the world, including in Nepal. And based on the way Monsanto continues to thrust GMOs on the people of India just to the south, there is no doubt that the biotech giant is doing the same thing to people of Nepal as we speak. Sources for this article include: http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/2011/11/8/Nation/18676 http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90064942?Monsanto%20focus%20of%20controversy%20in%20Nepal%20over%20hybrid%20maize

Was Andy Rooney killed by his surgery?

(NaturalNews) The infamous media writer Andy Rooney died last week after undergoing surgery for an undisclosed, but reportedly minor, condition. Though he was 92 years old, Rooney was not known to be sick prior to this minor surgery — but somehow the medical procedure went awry, which resulted in the rapid demise of the often-controversial 60 Minutes commentator. Whether you loved him or hated him, it is undeniable that Andy Rooney had become a type of American media legend. And while many of those paying tribute to his life after his passing have a lot of good things to say about him, one glaring segment that is missing from such reports concerns the circumstances surrounding his mysterious death. Why did an otherwise healthy man suddenly die after being admitted to the hospital for a minor surgery? What were the “major complications” that arose following this minor surgery, and how were they able to progress so badly that they ended up killing him? Throughout the past several years, NaturalNews has covered the many celebrities and other prominent figures that have died from things like prescription drug overdoses and conventional treatments for serious conditions like cancer. In many of these cases, their cause of death could be traced back to the treatment rather than the disease. While nobody knows for sure why Andy Rooney went in for surgery, it is clear from media reports that the issue was minor and not life threatening. And even though nobody in the media seems all that concerned with investigating the incident further, it is also clear that something went terribly wrong during Rooney’s surgery that ended up killing him. Rooney was very private with his personal life and medical history, which is perhaps why the media is leaving the surgery issue alone. But it only seems right that the issue be addressed — after all, if there was some type of medical malpractice involved, does not the world deserve to know the truth? A 2010 study published in the British Journal of Surgery found that roughly 25 percent of patients end up in worse shape after surgery than they were before surgery (http://www.naturalnews.com/030839_surgery_patients.html). And another more recent study out of Harvard University found that many surgeries performed on seniors are unnecessary, and they often correspond with increased mortality (http://www.naturalnews.com/034013_hospital_profits_Medicare.html). Was Rooney the victim of a conventional medical procedure that was dangerous and unnecessary for a man of his age? Sources for this article include: http://news.yahoo.com/andy-rooney-wry-60-minutes-commentator-dies-133038061.html http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/26/entertainment/la-et-quick-20111026

Truth comes out: 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic ‘deaths’ of children were actually caused by MRSA

(NaturalNews) Remember two years ago when every news show featured hysterical reports about the so-called H1N1 pandemic and how the supposed killer flu was striking down healthy kids? True, many previously healthy children became critically ill, developing severe pneumonia and respiratory failure. And some tragically died after being diagnosed with H1N1. But was that really the accurate explanation of what caused their death? According to the largest nationwide investigation to date of the flu in children who became critically ill, scientists from Children’s Hospital Boston have found another reason to explain the severity of the youngsters illness. It turns out that it most likely wasn’t H1N1 alone that caused healthy children to become so ill many died. Instead, these kids were unknowingly infected with something else. That additional infection, the superbug known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) , spiked the risk for flu-related deaths 8-fold in children who were otherwise believed to be totally healthy before they became ill. Almost all of these children who were found to be infected with the superbug were immediately treated with vancomycin, considered to be best treatment for MRSA. Yet they died despite being administered this powerful antibiotic and their deaths were blamed on the flu . But the new research suggests it was the MRSA that played a huge role in killing these children. “There’s more risk for MRSA to become invasive in the presence of flu or other viruses,” study leader Adrienne Randolph, MD, MsC, of the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston. Said in a statement to the media. “These deaths in co-infected children are a warning sign.” He added this is especially alarming given the rising rates of MRSA infections being carried widely among children. “It is not common in the U.S. to lose a previously healthy child to pneumonia,” Randolph said. “Unfortunately, these children had necrotizing pneumonia eating away at their tissue and killing off whole areas of the lung. They looked like immunocompromised patients in the way MRSA went through their body. It’s not that flu alone can’t kill – it can – but in most cases children with flu alone survived.” MRSA risk continues to spread Sixty percent of the youngsters investigated for the new study already had sometimes serious health problems before contracting the flu. But of the 251 children (30 percent) previously healthy children included in the research, the only risk factor that was identified which likely contributed to their increased risk of dying was a diagnosis of a MRSA infection in the lung. The researchers expressed surprise that the antibiotic used to treat the MRSA-infected children didn’t work and suggested the drug couldn’t penetrate the lungs or the disease moved too rapidly. Recent studies have shown a worrisome rise in the number of youngsters who are carriers of MRSA. A 2010 study published in Pediatrics found that the number of children hospitalized for MRSA infections increased from 2 in 1,000 admissions in 1999 to 21 in 1,000 admissions by 2008. The cause appears to be the never-ending and growing use of antibiotics in people and animals. “The more antibiotics we take, the more we colonize ourselves with antibiotic-resistant organisms such as MRSA,” Randolph noted. Curiously, the researchers are not emphasizing going after the cause and spread of MRSA infections as much as they are using their findings to push for flu shots. Their study, just published in the journal Pediatrics , promotes flu vaccination among all children aged 6 months and older. Sources for this article include: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/current http://www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom/Site1339/mainpageS1339P1.html

Next Page »