Rep. Kucinich proposes legislation to ban open-air cultivation of pharmaceutical-producing GE crops

(NaturalNews)A long-time advocate of protecting the food supply from the detrimental, and most-likely irreversible, effects of genetically-engineered (GE) crops on the environment and humans, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has proposed new legislation to ban the open-air cultivation…

Occupy GMOs: Protesters block access to manufacturing plant filled with animal ‘Frankenfeed’

(NaturalNews) Tired of the quiet import and use of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in the animal food supply throughout Europe, a group of protesters in France has decided to make a statement by blockading the entrances of the Glon Sanders animal feed plant in Saint-Gerard, Morbihan, France. The company’s more than 200 employees have been unable to come to work for some time now, which means that production has stopped at the plant, and its offices remain empty. Most of Europe is staunchly opposed to GMOs in general, which is why they are hardly ever sold there, and why they must be properly labeled if they are. But GMOs have been furtively making their way into the European food supply via animal feed, which is often laced with GM soy, corn, and other contaminated ingredients thanks to labeling loopholes that permit “non-GMO” livestock to consume GM feed. So to push authorities in France to take a stand against this deceitful practice, a group of concerned individuals decided to storm the Glon Sanders factory, which they reportedly felt was the perfect place to make their voices heard. “Sanders, a subsidiary of Sofiproteol chaired by Xavier Beulin (also president of the FNSEA), is a strategic location to make an act of denial of the use of GMOs in agriculture, particularly in animal feed,” said the group in a translated quote from Maville.com, a French paper. Both the cultivation and consumption of GM soy are linked to a host of environmental and human health problems. The cultivation of GM soy involves dousing plants in millions of tons of toxic Roundup, also known a glyphosate, which causes various diseases in plants, as well as serious health problems in humans (http://www.naturalnews.com/Roundup.html). And consumption of GM soy itself is linked to causing gastrointestinal problems, heart disease, chronic fatigue, thyroid disorders, and reproductive problems (http://www.naturalnews.com/GM_soy.html). A documentary produced in Germany explains how GM soy is covertly making its way into Europe via animal feed, and why this loophole is a significant threat to the European food supply. It also explains how the cultivation of GM soy around the world is destroying both the environment and human health. You can watch a clip from that documentary here: http://www.naturalnews.com/031382_GM_soy_GMOs.html Sources for this article include: http://www.toxicsoy.org/toxicsoy/news/Artikelen/2011/11/17_Animal_feed_factory_in_Britany_France_blocked.html

OP-ED COLUMNIST; New Farmers Find Their Footing

Mark Bittman Op-Ed column welcomes the growing pool of sustainable farmers, noting that everyone benefits from their concern for the environment and desire to grow, and eat, better food; holds that these new farmers deserve recognition for their bold and often creative programs

British government squanders millions conducting secret GM potato trials while non-GM variety already performs spectacularly

(NaturalNews) For the past ten years, the British government has been quietly subsidizing research aimed at developing a genetically-modified (GM) potato resistant to blight, the fungal disease responsible for causing the infamous Irish potato famine. According to Indymedia UK , Sainsbury Laboratory, the group tasked with development, has already spent roughly 1.7 million pounds ($2.7 million) worth of public funds to develop the GM potato, despite the fact that a natural blight-resistant variety has already been successfully bred and in use for the past three years. Unlike in the US where GM crops are widely cultivated, GM crops have never been commercially grown in the UK. Widespread public opposition to their introduction back in 1997, as well as continued opposition, has kept them largely out of food and off the land. And yet reports explains that the GM potato research being conducted by Sainsbury — with public funding — is so secretive that nobody knows for sure whether or not any open-air trials of test GM potatoes have taken place. Meanwhile, a small Welsh research group three years ago successful bred a natural, non-GM potato variety with natural resistance to blight — and that potato variety has been in cultivation ever since that time. As opposed to GM crops, this blight-resistant potato — which is now available in more than six different varieties — is safe for the environment, safe for human consumption, and it does not require the yearly repurchasing of terminator seeds and expensive chemical pesticides in order to grow. But the British government continues to pour money into useless endeavors to develop a GM variety, which has prompted Stop GM, a UK group devoted to ending the spread of GMOs, to take action. The group is holding an event on July 23 to speak out against the abuse of public funds by the UK government, and it needs your help to make it a success. Part of this event will include the dropping off of a trailer full of safe, non-GM, blight-resistant potatoes at the Sainsbury research center where the GM potato trials are taking place. To learn more about how you can help fight GMOs in the UK, visit: http://www.stopgm.org.uk/take-action.html Sources for this story include: http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/06/480991.html

TEPCO: Stopping melt-through fuel from contaminating groundwater will cost too much, hurt company stock price

(NaturalNews) The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which owns the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility struck by the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, has made it abundantly clear that protecting people and the environment from the radioactive fallout of its three massive reactor “melt-throughs” is not a priority (http://www.naturalnews.com/032657_Fukushima_meltdown.html). According to a recent report in The Mainichi Daily News , TEPCO officials claim that installing proper containment vessels to prevent melted fuel from seeping into groundwater will cost too much, and hurt the company’s stock value — and thus it is fighting against calls by the Japanese government to install a concrete containment barrier below the damaged reactors. After all that has occurred since that fateful March day, including the revelation that TEPCO has been basically lying about the true, dire condition of the Fukushima plant for months, the company has the audacity to openly put profits before public safety by denying the only logical propositions being made to contain deadly radiation from contaminating the environment even further. When reporters questioned the company as to why it had not already begun construction of such underground barriers, TEPCO officials actually responded by claiming that “[u]nderground water flows at a speed of about five to ten centimeters a day, so we have more than a year before it reaches shores.” In other words, TEPCO believes there is no need to really do anything because radioactive hot particles will move slowly, and may take years to reach the ocean. Such blatant disregard for human life is astounding in light of the ongoing fallout and devastation coming from Fukushima, the extent of which could take months or years to fully materialize. And if TEPCO ultimately rejects pleas to build proper containment fortifications at Fukushima because it costs too much, the company will be willfully guilty of causing untold destruction and death because of its greed. Sources for this story include: http://www.myweathertech.com/2011/06/22/fukushima-nuclear-fuel-leaking-into-groundwater-tepco-says-barrier-too-expensive-will-hurt-stock-price/

High levels of GMO agrochemicals found in breast milk of Brazilian mothers

(NaturalNews) The pesticides and herbicides used to treat genetically-modified organisms (GMO) are showing up in significant amounts in rainwater, water wells, and even mothers’ breast milk, according to new research out of Brazil. Particularly among residents living near massive GMO monoculture operations, research reveals that 100 percent of women tested positive for at least one agrochemical in their breast milk, and cumulatively tested at agrochemical levels much higher than what is even permitted in cow’s milk. In 2006, an airplane spraying accident contaminated the entire Brazilian city of Lucas do Rio Verde with untold levels of toxic agrochemicals. Residents of that city are already exposed to more than 35 gallons of agrochemicals in a year , but during that particular year, residents were exposed to even higher amounts. As a result, researchers decided to delve deeper into what the effects of that exposure have been on the population. According to an investigation out of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, a sampling of breast milk from 62 women revealed that all were contaminated with at least one dangerous agrochemical. Every single sample also tested positive for DDE, a metabolite of the infamous synthetic pesticide DDT, which has been banned in Brazil for over a decade. Other chemicals detected in the majority of samples included organochlorines, which are extremely toxic. According to Danielly Palma, the primary researcher who worked on the study, 44 percent of the breast milk samples contained beta-endosulfan, an insecticide chemical known to damage the central nervous system, immune system, and respiratory system (http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/wastemin/minimize/factshts/endobeta.pdf). Thirty-seven percent of the samples tested positive for deltamethrin, another widely-used, highly-toxic insecticide known to cause severe prenatal damage (http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/carbaryl-dicrotophos/deltamethrin-ext.html). Overall, the study illustrates clearly how pervasive industrial agriculture chemicals are in the environment and among populations. There is simply no denying that the massive spraying of GMO agrochemicals is affecting humans in very significant ways, and that GMOs are hardly the “green” breakthrough in agricultural technology that the biotechnology companies would have you think they are. Sources for this story include: http://www.gmwatch.eu/latest-listing/1-news-items/13039-agrochemicals-found-in-mothers-milk-in-soy-producing-area-of-brazil

Minnesota attorney general files lawsuit against 3M for years of environmental pollution

(NaturalNews) Minnesota attorney general Lori Swanson is determined to hold the 3M Company, one of the world’s largest multinational corporations based near St. Paul, responsible for years of environmental pollution that tainted the Mississippi River and contaminated water supplies in the east-metro area of the Twin Cities. Swanson recently filed a lawsuit against 3M requesting that the company pay for residual cleanup costs associated with the pollution it caused. “The company caused damage to the environment,” Swanson is quoted as saying in the Star Tribune . “We are simply asking, let’s make it right.” For many years, 3M was dumping perfluorochemicals, or PFCs, into the environment. PFCs do not decompose, and they gradually build up in the environment over time. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) indicates that the chemicals cause brain, nervous system, and organ damage, as well as reproductive and developmental problems, autoimmune disorders, and cancer (http://www.ewg.org/chemindex/term/496). A spokesman from 3M, however, denies the allegations. He told reporters that PFCs are “not hazardous,” and that any water contaminated by the company’s PFCs is below government safety thresholds. But tell that to the numerous residents in the metro area near the 3M plant whose water wells were ruined by PFCs, or the water drilling project of the nearby city of Lake Elmo, Minn., that ultimately failed due to PFC levels that exceeded state safety thresholds. One resident told the Star Tribune that he and his wife drank PFC-contaminated well water for years without knowing it, which ultimately led to his wife dying of cancer. Though 3M has already paid out several millions of dollars to help remediate certain aspects of the damage caused by its pollution, Swanson does not believe it is enough. If successful, her lawsuit will be one of the first to hold a large corporation responsible for damage it caused to the environment many years prior. Sources for this story include: http://www.startribune.com/local/112695399.html

Artificial ‘nano-food’ could soon show up at a store near you

(NaturalNews) The scientific community has once again caught food-tampering fever. Recent reports indicate that food scientists are busy developing nanoparticle-modified (NM) food that could one day end up on your dinner plate — and you may never even know about it. By shifting around nanoparticles, food scientists say that fat-free foods can taste like full-fat foods, and they can be programmed to digest more slowly–two changes that some say may help reverse the obesity epidemic. But most of this research is going on in secret because of fears over how the public will respond. Like genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), nano-modifying food involves literally changing its molecular properties, which has never been proven safe. So naturally, consumers are likely to reject NM food if given the choice. “These particles could be hazardous and we need to know more about their effects both in the body and in the environment,” said Frans Kampers, coordinator of research on food nanotechnology at Wageningen and Research Center in the Netherlands. “Since these particles are very small, they can…enter cells or even the nucleus of a cell if they have the right characteristics.” The stated goal of nanotechnology research in food is to create foods that behave differently than real ones in terms of digestion, assimilation, taste and nutritional value. By altering the “nano-structure” of food, so to speak, NM food can be programmed to make people feel fuller faster, for instance. And nutrients in food can also be nano-encapsulated to release at timed intervals to specific parts of the body. Even though NM food has yet to see the light day, the European Union (EU) is already taking proactive steps to make sure that, if it does make it to consumers, NM food will at least be regulated and labeled. Thus, the EU has developed a research project called NanoLyse to address the “very limited knowledge [that is] available on the potential impact of engineered nanoparticles on consumers’ health.” Sources for this story include: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68E24W20100915

Canadian biotech company pushes USDA to approve GMO apples

(NaturalNews) Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF), a British Columbian biotechnology company, is petitioning the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to approve a genetically-modified (GM) variety of apple that the company says does not brown after being sliced. The company licensed the technology from Australian researchers who have already used it in potatoes to eliminate the browning enzyme. The current request marks the first time a company has sought approval for GM apples. Though the company says the technology will lower the cost of producing sliced apple products like the ones now sold at many grocers and fast-food restaurants, it has not been determined that the GM apples are actually safe for human consumption, even though Neal Carter, president of OSF, insists they are safe for humans and the environment. R. Andre Bell, a spokesman from the USDA, has indicated that the agency will have to review the proposal and make a proper judgment. Those opposed to the request cite cross-contamination problems and unknown effects in humans and the environment as several reasons among many for the petition to be rejected. “Scientists have been saying they’re only turning one thing off (the browning enzyme), but that switch is connected to another switch and another switch,” responded Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, concerning the false notion that eliminating just one apple enzyme is safe. “You can’t just do one thing to nature. It’s nice to think so, but it just doesn’t work that way.” Another concern about the GM apple is that it stays looking fresh for a very long time, even after it has technically gone bad. So if approved, suppliers and retailers will end up benefiting the most because the visual shelf life of the “Frankenapples” is indefinite. Sources for this story include: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/food/2010/11/29/2010-11-29_usda_asked_to_approve_genetically_modified_apple_that_wont_brown_.html

Biotech company secretly releases millions of GM mosquitoes in Cayman Islands

(NaturalNews) Scientists at British biotechnology giant Oxitec recently developed a genetically-modified (GM) mosquito that, apart from a specific chemical antibiotic, is unable to successfully repopulate. And the company recently released millions of these GM mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands to see what would happen — and they did so without proper approval or announcement — prompting outrage by experts and the public over the unknown consequences of conducting such an irresponsible experiment. Oxitec released the mosquitoes last year, but only just recently let the public know about it. The company has attempted to justify its decision by claiming its GM mosquitoes may help fight the spread of dengue fever by reducing or eliminating the wild mosquito population. But nobody knows what happens when these GM mosquitoes interact with other animals and humans, or how their altered genes will disrupt the living environment. Seemingly content with its decision to hide the trial from the public initially, Oxitec had the audacity to announce at the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene that its trial was “successful”. But how the company can make such a preposterous statement without knowing the long-term effects of its irreversible decision is mind-boggling. “Oxitec considers its trial ‘successful’ just days after the experiment has ended,” explained Kathy Jo Wetter, a researcher at the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Cooperation. “[U]nintended impacts on the environment cannot be known, and Oxitec’s unproven technology could make things worse in the long term. There is no possibility of recall if something goes wrong — who takes responsibility in that case?” Not only are mosquitoes a necessary component of the natural food chain, representing the prey of various creatures like birds and bats, but they are also important pollinators in the same way that bees are. Even though they appear to be a nuisance, without them, the entire food chain could collapse. Sources for this story include: http://www.scidev.net/en/news/gm-mosquito-wild-release-takes-campaigners-by-surprise.html

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