Filed under: biological warfare, Chemical Warfare, chlorine, Eugenics, european union, fda, food ban, food contamination, food market, food poisoning, food safety, Genocide, health and environment, Russia, toxic earth, toxic environment, toxic food, toxicity, USDA
Russia Bans U.S. Poultry Treated With Chlorine
Food Safety News
January 7, 2010
With as much as 30,000 tons of American poultry in the pipeline to Russia, the government in Moscow imposed a ban on future U.S. poultry imports on New Year’s Day.
Russia joins the European Union in prohibiting the use of chlorine as an anti-microbial treatment in poultry production, which is commonly used in the United States.
As for birds in the pipeline, USA Poultry and Egg Export Council President Jim Summers said he thinks based on earlier assurances from the Russian Veterinary Service that poultry in transit will be allowed to enter.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defended the use of chlorine by the American poultry industry.
“Since chlorine has been used as an anti-microbial treatment for more than 25 years, this resolution effectively blocks U.S. exports of poultry to Russia, has a devastating impact on the U.S. poultry industry and trade, and raised the costs of poultry products for Russia’s consumers,” says USDA spokeswoman Katie Gorscak.
She said there is overwhelming scientific evidence that chlorine is safe and effective as a disinfectant for poultry.
American poultry exports to Russia are the biggest component of U.S. agricultural exports to the former Soviet Union. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Russia has grown to become American’s tenth largest Ag export market for a total of $1.8 billion in 2008. Poultry was almost half of that amount.
Losing another near billion-worth of exports to Russia over chlorine comes as the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has also been unable to open the EU to U.S. poultry for the same issue. For trade disputes with the EU, complaints go to the World Trade Organization (WTO). But, Russia is not a member of WTO.
In 2009, Russia accepted poultry from the U.S. under a quota lowered from 2008 levels. Russia’s domestic poultry industry has improved greatly over the past few years, but experts say the country will still need U.S. birds to meet the demands of its consumers.
The EU ban on bathing chicken in chlorine has been in effect since 1997. The US-EU dispute was a test case for the Transatlantic Economic Council, which was formed in 2007 to facilitate trade and business between the two economies. A plan to end the ban was vetoed by EU veterinary experts.
The U.S. and Russia plan to hold technical talks over the chlorine issue. As written, there is more chlorine in most U.S. public water systems than Russia would allow for chicken baths.
Filed under: agriculture, Credit Crisis, DEBT, depression, devaluation, Dollar, dollar bubble, dollar collapse, dollar drop, dollar dump, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Federal Reserve, food crisis, food inflation, food market, food shortage, global economy, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, Inflation, liquidation, malthusian, malthusian catastrohe, u.s. economy, USDA
Food shortages THIS year! Want to know why the media is not covering this?
Filed under: agriculture, biological warfare, cancer, Chemical Warfare, Child Abuse, city water, deception, DoA, drinking water, elite, establishment, eugenicists, Eugenics, fda, food contamination, food market, food poisoning, food safety, full-body scanners, Genocide, global elite, government crimes, government regulations, health and environment, internationalist, lobbyists, Mad Cow, nanny state, radiation, ruling class, softkill, toxic earth, toxic environment, toxicity, u.s. crops, USDA | Tags: Burger King, department of agriculture, fast food, health alert, junk food, McDonald’s, meat industry
U.S. Government Approves Treating Beef With Ammonia
NoWorldSystem
January 3, 2010
The New York Times forgot to mention that in the past, the USDA and FDA approved of injecting meat with carbon monoxide to keep rotten meat looking fresh, treating meat with viruses and even Oked the use of Mad Cow diseased beef into the food market just as long as it was mixed with 1% healthy beef.
The plan to inject ammonia into meat is just another toxic substance added to our daily intake that the government seems not to mind. The eugenicist elite that control the U.S. government know that stuff like this is bad for us and are purposely increasing the toxins in our environment. These are softkill methods of eugenics to cut the human population down by a ‘reasonable’ number, they use methods like; radiating us at airports, leaving drugs in the city water supply and using human sewage as fertilizer on major U.S. crops.
It should be painfully obvious now that the government doesn’t give a damn about you, the eugenicist elitists want you dead sooner than later because they look at ‘humans’ as a threat to the ‘ruling class’ clique, they consider us monsters that are unworthy of life. This is the real threat against humanity, not some patsy/terrorist crotch bomber. A decade from now we’ll all be wondering why people are dying at age 50 or 60.
New York Times
December 30, 2009
Eight years ago, federal officials were struggling to remove potentially deadly E. coli from hamburgers when an entrepreneurial company from South Dakota came up with a novel idea: injecting beef with ammonia.
The company, Beef Products Inc., had been looking to expand into the hamburger business with a product made from beef that included fatty trimmings the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil. The trimmings were particularly susceptible to contamination, but a study commissioned by the company showed that the ammonia process would kill E. coli as well as salmonella.
Officials at the United States Department of Agriculture endorsed the company’s ammonia treatment, and have said it destroys E. coli “to an undetectable level.” They decided it was so effective that in 2007, when the department began routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public, they exempted Beef Products.
With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, the company’s processed beef has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone.
But government and industry records obtained by The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays.
…
Carl S. Custer, a former U.S.D.A. microbiologist, said he and other scientists were concerned that the department had approved the treated beef for sale without obtaining independent validation of the potential safety risk. Another department microbiologist, Gerald Zirnstein, called the processed beef “pink slime” in a 2002 e-mail message to colleagues and said, “I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and I consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling.”
One of the toughest hurdles for Beef Products was the Agricultural Marketing Service, the U.S.D.A. division that buys food for school lunches. Officials cited complaints about the odor, and wrote in a 2002 memorandum that they had “to determine if the addition of ammonia to the product is in the best interest to A.M.S. from a quality standpoint.”
“It is our contention,” the memo added, “that product should be labeled accordingly.”
Represented by Dennis R. Johnson, a top lawyer and lobbyist for the meat industry, Beef Products prevailed on the question of whether ammonia should be listed as an ingredient, arguing that the government had just decided against requiring another company to list a chemical used in treating poultry.
School lunch officials said they ultimately agreed to use the treated meat because it shaved about 3 cents off the cost of making a pound of ground beef.
USDA serves pet food grade meat at public schools
FDA Is Urged to Ban Carbon-Monoxide-Treated Meat
Filed under: 2-party system, agriculture, arsenic, biochemical warfare, biological warfare, Chemical Warfare, coal, corruption, darwinists, deception, Dictatorship, DoA, Empire, environmental disaster, EPA, Eugenics, food safety, health and environment, Human Experiments, human waste, left right paradigm, malthusian, malthusian catastrophe, Mercury, Nazi, Population Control, scandal, softkill, toxic earth, toxic waste, toxicity, US Crops, USDA, White House | Tags: coal-fired power plants, FGD gypsum
U.S. wants farmers to use coal waste on fields
Washington Post
December 23, 2009
The federal government is encouraging farmers to spread a chalky waste from coal-fired power plants on their fields to loosen and fertilize soil even as it considers regulating coal wastes for the first time.
The material is produced by power plant “scrubbers” that remove acid-rain-causing sulfur dioxide from plant emissions. A synthetic form of the mineral gypsum, it also contains mercury, arsenic, lead and other heavy metals.
The Environmental Protection Agency says those toxic metals occur in only tiny amounts that pose no threat to crops, surface water or people. But some environmentalists say too little is known about how the material affects crops, and ultimately human health, for the government to suggest that farmers use it.
“This is a leap into the unknown,” said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “This stuff has materials in it that we’re trying to prevent entering the environment from coal-fired power plants, and then to turn around and smear it across ag lands raises some real questions.”
With wastes piling up around the coal-fired plants that produce half the nation’s power, the EPA and U.S. Department of Agriculture began promoting what they call the wastes’ “beneficial uses” during the Bush administration.
Part of that push is to expand the use of synthetic gypsum — a whitish, calcium-rich material known as flue gas desulfurization gypsum, or FGD gypsum. The Obama administration has continued promoting FGD gypsum’s use in farming.
The administration is also drafting a regulatory rule for coal waste, in response to a spill from a coal ash pond near Knoxville, Tenn., one year ago Tuesday. Ash and water flooded 300 acres, damaging homes and killing fish. The cleanup is expected to cost about $1 billion.
The EPA is expected to announce its proposals for regulation early next year, setting the first federal standards for storage and disposal of coal wastes.
EPA officials declined to talk about the agency’s promotion of FGD gypsum before then and would not say whether the draft rule would cover it.
Field studies have shown that mercury, the main heavy metal of concern because it can harm nervous-system development, does not accumulate in crops or run off fields in surface water at “significant” levels, the EPA said.
“EPA believes that the use of FGD gypsum in agriculture is safe in appropriate soil and hydrogeologic conditions,” the statement said.
Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, which advocates for more effective enforcement of environmental laws, said he is not overly worried about FGD gypsum’s use on fields because research shows it contains only tiny amounts of heavy metals. But he said federal limits on the amounts of heavy metals in FGD gypsum sold to farmers would help allay concerns.
“That would give them assurance that they’ve got clean FGD gypsum,” he said.
Since the EPA-USDA partnership began in 2001, farmers’ use of the material has more than tripled, from about 78,000 tons spread on fields in 2002 to nearly 279,000 tons last year, according to the American Coal Ash Association, a utility industry group.
About half of the 17.7 million tons of FGD gypsum produced in the United States last year was used to make drywall, said Thomas Adams, the association’s executive director. But he said it is important to find new uses for it and other coal wastes because the United States will probably rely on coal-fired power plants for decades to come.
“If we can find safe ways to recycle those materials, we’re a lot better off doing that than we are creating a whole bunch of new landfills,” Adams said.
Filed under: agriculture, biochemical warfare, biological warfare, biosolids, CFS, Chemical Warfare, corruption, deception, Dictatorship, DoA, Empire, environmental disaster, EPA, Eugenics, food safety, health and environment, Human Experiments, human waste, malthusian, malthusian catastrophe, methanphetamines, Michael Mack, Michelle Obama, Nazi, Population Control, san francisco, scandal, softkill, syngenta, toxic earth, toxic waste, toxicity, US Crops, USDA, water safety, White House | Tags: Center for Food Safety
Toxic Sewage Sludge in Your Food
Mercola.com
December 16, 2009
The increasing use of sewage sludge as fertilizer for your food is an under-publicized and often hidden threat.
Sludge is the toxic mix that is created by our municipal wastewater treatment facilities. Just about anything that is flushed down toilets or that ends up in sewers is in this sludge; the pollutants in sludge come not just from household sewage, but also from every hospital, industrial plant, and stormwater drain.
For a long time, sludge was simply dumped in the oceans. Over time, it became apparent that this was an environmental and human health disaster. An alternative solution has been pushed since the 1980’s by the U.S. government. The EPA determined that a good way to dispose of treated sewage sludge was to legally distribute it as a cheap alternative to fertilizer.
Unsurprisingly, scientific analysis of the poisons in sewage sludge shows it’s the wrong, and dangerous, solution for U.S. farmers and communities. Unfortunately, many American farmers and gardeners are unknowingly using sludge-derived “compost,” which is given away free in many cities throughout the United States.
As a result, farms and homes across the country have been unknowingly spreading hazardous chemicals and heavy metals on their fields, lawns and gardens.
Meanwhile, Michael Mack, the chief executive of Syngenta, a Swiss agribusiness giant that makes pesticides, is waging war against the organic movement as a whole. He argues that, “Organic food is not only not better for the planet. It is categorically worse.”
“If the whole planet were to suddenly switch to organic farming tomorrow, it would be an ecological disaster,” he said. Pesticides, he argued, “have been proven safe and effective and absolutely not harmful to the environment or to humans.”
Of course, Mr. Mack dismissed the notion that Syngenta, a company that sold nearly $12-billion worth of “crop protection” technologies last year, felt threatened by the organic movement.
Dr. Mercola’s Comments:
If you’re looking for a compelling reason to switch to a primarily organic diet, the fact that it is free from sewage sludge fertilizers is a very good one. Sewage sludge, or “biosolids” — as they’re referred to with a PR spin — began being “recycled” into food crops when, ironically, it was realized that dumping them into rivers, lakes and bays was an environmental disaster.
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that about 50 percent of all biosolids are recycled to land. This sludge is what’s leftover after sewage is treated and processed.
Your first thought may be the “yuck factor” of human waste being used to fertilize your food, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. Every time a paintbrush gets rinsed, an old bottle of medications flushed, or solvents are hosed off a factory floor, it ends up in the sewage system.
So it’s not surprising that a past analysis of sewage sludge by the Environmental Working Group found:
- *Over 100 synthetic organic compounds including phthalates, toluene, and chlorobenzene
*Dioxins in sludge from 179 out of 208 systems (80%)
*42 different pesticides — at least one in almost every sample, with an average of almost 2 pesticides per survey sample
*Nine heavy metals, often at high concentrations
And it was sewage sludge that was partly blamed earlier this year for contaminating the White House lawn, and Michelle Obama’s organic vegetable garden, with lead.
This toxic sludge has been masterfully spun by PR masters into an acceptable, even “green,” fertilizer. Even San Francisco, arguably one of the “greenest” cities around, has been distributing toxic sewage sludge to homeowners and schoolyards and calling it “organic compost”! Nevermind that in 2008 its sludge was found to contain industrial chemicals, disinfectants, phenol, pesticides and solvents.
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) has recently petitioned San Francisco to stop this “compost” giveaway, lest it contaminate backyards and communities with toxic chemicals, but the sludge is still being widely used all across the United States.
If you want to get the real dirt on how this toxic sewage sludge has become such a popular fertilizer, I strongly encourage you to read Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry. It’s written by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, the authors of one of my favorite exposes on the PR industry, Trust Us, We’re Experts, and does not disappoin
What is Going On With the State of Agriculture in the United States?
They say truth is stranger than fiction, and the once respectable business of farming in the United States is a perfect example of how true this statement can be.
Gone are the days when farmers grew food according to the laws of nature, with a deserved respect for the Earth and its resources. Nowadays, with the exception of the small but growing movement of organic and sustainable farmers, it may surprise you to learn that farming — once the symbol of all that’s natural and wholesome — creates some of the worst pollution in the United States.
That’s because most “farming” today is nothing like the small farming of our ancestors. The Farm Sanctuary points out that farm animals produce 130 times more waste than humans. And agricultural runoff is the primary reason why 60 percent of U.S. rivers and streams are polluted.
Meanwhile, in areas where animal agriculture is most concentrated (Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Illinois and Indiana round out the top five states with the most factory-farm pollution) bacteria known as pfiesteria is common in waterways. Not only does pfiesteria kill fish, it also causes nausea, memory loss, fatigue and disorientation in people!
Aside from the pollution, factory farms use vast quantities of resources. According to FactoryFarm.org, industrial milking centers that use manure flush cleaning and automatic cow washing systems, go through as much as 150 gallons of water per cow per day!
Energy costs are even steeper.
A 2002 study from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that industrial farms use an average of three calories of energy to create one calorie of food. Grain-fed beef is at the top of the list of offenders, using 35 calories of energy to produce one calorie of food! And this does not even take into account the energy used to process and transport the foods, so the real toll is even larger.
The Agribusiness Giants are Getting Out of Control!
On top of the environmental assaults, you have agribusiness executives like Michael Mack, the chief executive of pesticide manufacturer Syngenta, making outrageous statements like “Organic food is not only not better for the planet, it is categorically worse.”
What?!
His entire argument was based on the premise that organic farming takes up more land than non-organic farming for the same yield.
He obviously must have missed the recent study that examined a global dataset of 293 farming examples, which found that in developing countries organic systems produce 80% more than conventional farms. And a review of 286 projects in 57 countries found that farmers who used “resource-conserving” or ecological agriculture had increased agricultural productivity by an average of 79%!
- “It is clear that ecological agriculture is productive and has the potential to meet food security needs … Moreover, ecological agricultural approaches allow farmers to improve local food production with low-cost, readily available technologies and inputs, without causing environmental damage,” Lim Li Ching, the study’s author, writes.
Really, the question we should be asking ourselves shouldn’t be ‘Can organic or sustainable farming feed the world?’, but ‘How can food production possibly continue as it is?’
When I hear someone extolling the virtues of “modern” agriculture and wondering how “organic” or “sustainable” farming could possibly be the solution, I maintain that the fact we have come to accept inefficient, industrial practices, including dousing our food with chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as a viable way to grow food is the real wonder.
And then I always look at the source, which in this case is a pesticide giant CEO … which makes his motives very clear, indeed.
How Can You Find Safe Food for Your Family?
There are still safe food options out there, but it does take a bit of digging to find them. Your local grocery store is generally NOT going to be the best source for healthy, fresh food.
So, short of starting your own sustainable farm (which you can do on a small-scale in your own backyard), you can find safe food options by supporting sustainable agriculture movements in your area.
Make it a point to only buy food from a source you know and trust, one that uses safe and non-toxic farming methods. This will do your health a major favor and support the small family farms in your area. You’ll receive nutritious food from a source that you can trust, and you’ll be supporting the honest work of a real family farm instead of an agri-business corporation.
Filed under: Child Abuse, education, education system, food poisoning, food safety, health and environment, public school, USDA | Tags: health alert, school food
USDA serves pet food grade meat at public schools
Filed under: 1984, agriculture, Big Brother, biometrics, cargill, consolidation, Control Grid, department of agriculture, digital angel, Echelon, fda, food safety, global elite, global government, Globalism, gps, Mad Cow, mandatory microchipping, michigan, microchip, Monsanto, nanny state, New World Order, NWO, Oppression, organic, orwell, RFID, Science and technology, Spy, Surveillance, USDA, Verichip | Tags: internet of things, microchip implant cancer, National Animal Identification System, rfid cancer, Ubiquitous living, utopia
Amish farmers lose court battle against RFID
Beasts must still be numbered, says court
The Register
July 31, 2009
Michigan farmers have failed in their attempt to block the introduction of RFID tags for cattle, despite arguments about the cost and the risk of upsetting an otherwise benevolent deity.
The case was bought by the catchily-named Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defence Fund (FTCLDF), representing small farmers in Michigan as well as a group of six Amish farmers: the former concerned about the cost of the tags, while the latter were more worried about eternal damnation brought on by applying numbers to God’s own cattle.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) tried to get the case dismissed back in November last year, but only now has it managed to have the case thrown out on the basis that it is a Michigan ruling and thus subject to state laws, rather than part of any agenda being set by the USDA as part of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), against which the plaintiff’s case was based.
Even in Michigan the law is intended to be voluntary, but the plaintiffs clearly believe that the voluntary status is just a ruse under which a mandatory ruling can be later implemented, which would threaten their livelihoods, or eternal souls, as appropriate. It’s worth noting, as the Judge did, that even Amish cattle already have numbered metal ear studs, so the contention that numbering cattle is against God’s law was already in shaky ground.
As for the USDA agenda, RFID Journal covers the case in some detail including quotes from a Michigan representative explaining:
“We implemented this program nearly 10 years ago… This was done pre-NAIS. Michigan is the only state with a mandatory electronic animal-tracking program, but it is also the only state with documented bovine TB cases”
Electronic tracking, in this instance, doesn’t necessarily mean RFID tags. The same thing can be, and is, achieved using the existing metal studs, with the data gathered electronically whenever the cattle are moved. But such assurances aren’t going to dent a good conspiracy theory about federal control.
National Animal Identification System
Insane Food Bill 2749 Passes House On 2nd Try. HR 2749: Totalitarian Control Of Our Food Supply
Filed under: 2008 olympics, agriculture, asia, beijing, China, EPA, Eugenics, fda, federal crime, genetically modified, Genocide, Globalism, GM, gm crops, gm food, health and environment, Human Experiments, malthusian catastrophe, melamine, Monsanto, olympics, Population Control, USDA | Tags: cyromazine, dangerous candy, deadly candy, halloween, halloween candy, herbicide glyphosate, hersheys, infant deaths, infanticide, John Schorr, kelloggs, kidneys, lactose powder, M&Ms, made in china, mars, milk, non-fat milk powder, pet food, powdered milk, roundup, roundup ready, sugar, sugar beet, sugar beets, target, trick or treating, u.s. food safety, u.s. food supply, wheat gluten, whole milk powder
Halloween Candy With Melamine on U.S. Store Shelves?
This Halloween, Say No To Candy Containing GM Sugar
Joanne Waldron
NaturalNews
October 27, 2008
Parents in Brazil are refusing to feed their children products made using genetically-modified sugar, according to an article at Food & Water Watch. Halloween is just around the corner, and unbeknownst to many American parents, foods like Kellogg’s cereal and Hershey’s chocolate may be made with sugar from genetically-modified sugar beets, warns Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel in a report at NewWest.net. There are many reasons that parents of American children need to be concerned.
Why Would They Use GM Sugar Beets?
Not surprisingly, it’s all about the money. These sugar beets have been genetically altered so that they can withstand regular applications of a weed killer made by Monsanto known as RoundUp. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently increased the allowable residue of the active ingredient of the weed killer (known as glyphosate) on beetroots by a whopping 5000%. Those scientists at the EPA are really doing their jobs protecting everyone, eh?
What’s The Trouble With Glyphosate?
So, what’s the trouble with the weed killer residue? Probably the biggest issue is that there have been studies linking glyphosate exposure to cancer and other health problems. Of course, there is also the Network of Concerned Farmers, a group of farmers who believe that glyphosate can create “super weeds” that are resistant to herbicides. Then, of course, there is a concern that these frankenfood crops may be responsible for the gene pollution of other crops and plants.
Monsanto Hires a Team of Lobbyists – Parents Must Take Action!
While the sugar industry is trying to keep their use of genetically-modified sugar beets quiet, Monsanto has hired a whole team of lobbyists to work on their behalf. This is why it is very important for concerned parents to make their views known before it is too late! Contact Nancy Pelosi at AmericanVoices@house.gov, and tell her that laws are needed to protect consumers from genetically-modified sugar beets. It is also important to send faxes to lawmakers. One can (at the time of this writing) send two free faxes per day at FaxZero.com right from any computer with an Internet connection (see terms and conditions at the site). Consumers should never have to worry about getting cancer from eating a piece of Halloween candy. (Even if parents are strict about what their children eat at home, it’s hard to police what they might be given at at class parties at school.) Why not send a free fax to two different lawmakers every single day? If enough people complain, lawmakers will have to listen. E-mail or fax this article to lawmakers today.
Don’t Support Child Slave Labor
Unfortunately, there is another reason to be concerned about the candy one purchases. According to an article by Dr. Edward Group, two of the companies that rule the chocolate industry (M&M/Mars and Hershey’s) purchase much of their cocoa from the Ivory Coast. Unfortunately, Ivory Coast cocoa farms use child slave labor to work their farms. Parents must consider whether they really want their children indulging in sweets made at the expense of other children.
Dr. Group: Put Your Money Where Your Health Is
Dr. Group believes parents can make their voices heard by voting with their dollars, by purchasing only organic chocolate and candy products. Dr Group asks parents to ask themselves if they would buy a chocolate bar if the label on the product said: “Consuming this candy bar may cause cancer – contains sugar from genetically engineered beets, cocoa harvested by child slaves, and harmful pesticides and fungicides.” Sounds much less appealing, doesn’t it?
Filed under: agriculture, EPA, genetically modified, GM, gm crops, gm food, health and environment, Human Experiments, idaho, minnesota, Monsanto, north dakota, Science and technology, USDA | Tags: halloween, herbicide glyphosate, hersheys, John Schorr, m&M, mars, roundup, roundup ready, sugar, sugar beet, sugar beets, u.s. food supply
Sugar now coming from genetically modified sugar beets
Mike Adams
NaturalNews
October 7, 2008
This year saw the first commercial planting of genetically modified (GM) sugar beets in the United States, with that sugar to hit the food supply soon after.
Farmers across the country will soon be planting Monsanto’s Roundup Ready sugar beet, genetically engineered for resistance to Monsanto’s herbicide glyphosate (marketed as Roundup). John Schorr, agriculture manager for Amalgamated Sugar, estimates that 95 percent of the sugar beet crop in Idaho will be of the new GM variety in 2008, or a total of 150,000 out of 167,000 acres.
Approximately 1.4 million acres of sugar beets are planted in the United States each year, primarily in Minnesota and North Dakota’s Red River Valley, as well as the Pacific Northwest, Great Plains and Great Lakes areas.
In response to the anticipated flood of GM sugar onto the food market, the consumer group Citizens for Health has launched an email campaign to pressure three major sugar and candy companies to refuse the new product. In 2001, American Crystal Sugar, Hershey’s and M&M Mars all promised that they would not use GM sugar; Citizens for Health is asking consumers to email those companies from the group’s Web site and urge them to keep that promise.
“Since half of the granulated sugar in the U.S. comes from sugar beets, the infiltration of GE sugar beets represents a significant alteration of our food supply,” Citizens for Health says on its Web site. “Unlike traditional breeding, genetic engineering creates new life forms that would never occur in nature, creating new and unpredictable health and environmental risks.”
In 1999, candy companies’ refusal to purchase GM sugar scuttled Monsanto’s first attempt to introduce Roundup Ready sugar beets.
On another front, a coalition of farmer and environmental groups is seeking to block the planting of the GM beets through a federal lawsuit. The plaintiffs in the case – the Center for Food Safety, High Mowing Organic Seeds, the Organic Seed Alliance and the Sierra Club – are represented by lawyers from the Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice.
In 2005, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) changed the classification of Roundup Ready sugar beets from regulated to deregulated, meaning that the GM beets could be planted without a special permit. But the lawsuit alleges that the USDA failed to properly conduct an environmental review into the impacts of this deregulation.
“The law requires the government to take a hard look at the impact that deregulating Roundup Ready sugar beets will have on human health, agriculture and the environment,” said Greg Loarie of Earthjustice. “The government cannot simply ignore the fact that deregulation will harm organic farmers and consumers, and exacerbate the growing epidemic of herbicide resistant weeds.”
Critics point out that Roundup Ready crops encourage increased chemical use, with dangerous effects on both human health and the environment. In addition to contaminating soil and water, pesticides leave potentially dangerous residue on food plants themselves.
Citizens for Health says that this is a particular concern in light of the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent compliance with a Monsanto request to increase the allowable levels of glyphosate residue on sugar beet roots by 5000 percent.
“Sugar is extracted from the beet’s root, and the result is more glyphosate pesticide in our sugar,” the group said.
Another concern is that such plants encourage the development of “superweeds” that are resistant to Roundup.
“Just as overuse of antibiotics eventually breeds drug resistant bacteria, overuse of Roundup eventually breeds Roundup-resistant weeds,” said Kevin Golden of the Center for Food Safety. “When that happens, farmers are forced to rely on even more toxic herbicides to control those weeds.”
USDA data reveals that in the 10 years after the 1994 introduction of Roundup Ready crops, herbicide use increased by 15 times. This has led to a concurrent increase in superweeds. While no cases of Roundup-resistant weeds were known in the U.S. corn belt in 2000, this year the roster of such weeds includes marestail, common and giant ragweed, waterhemp, Palmer pigweed, Cocklebur, lambsquarters, morning glory and velvetleaf.
Ninety-nine percent of U.S. superweeds are resistant to Roundup.
GM crops may also cross-breed with non-GM plants of the same or closely related species. The primary seed-growing region for sugar beets – the Willamette Valley of Oregon – is also a major seed-growing area for the closely related organic chard and table beets. Since all these species are wind pollinated, the chances of contamination are very high.
“Contamination from genetically modified pollen is a major risk to both the conventional and organic seed farmers, who have a long history in the Willamette Valley,” said Matthew Dillon, director of advocacy for the Organic Seed Alliance. “The economic impact of contamination affects not only these seed farmers, but the beet and chard farmers who rely on the genetic integrity of their varieties.”
Crops contaminated by cross-pollination with GM varieties can no longer be certified organic.
Since corn syrup is an even more widely used sweetener than sugar and the majority of corn grown in the United States is also Roundup Ready, food safety advocates note that nearly all sweetened food in the United States will soon be GM. Because U.S. law does not require labeling of GM ingredients, consumers of products from candy to breakfast cereal will soon be unknowingly exposed to engineered sugar, with unknown health consequences.
“As a consumer, I’m very concerned about genetically engineered sugar making its way into the products I eat,” Neil Carman of the Sierra Club said.
Filed under: Alan Greenspan, bailout, central bank, CNBC, Congress, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, fannie mae, Federal Reserve, food crisis, food market, food prices, freddie mac, gas prices, global economy, gold, Great Depression, Greenback, henry paulson, house senate, housing market, hyperinflation, Inflation, Jim Cramer, liquidation, Mad Money, Media, medicare, morgan stanley, mortgage, mortgage companies, mortgage lenders, nationalization, NYSE, Oil, Paulson, Petrol, real estate, SEC, Stock Market, subprime, subprime lending, US Economy, US Treasury, USDA, Wall Street, Warren Buffett | Tags: securities and exchange commission
Buffett Says Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac ’Game Is Over’
Bloomberg
August 22, 2008
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest mortgage finance companies, “don’t have any net worth,’’ billionaire investor Warren Buffett said.
“The game is over’’ as independent companies said Buffett, the 77-year-old chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., in an interview on CNBC today. “They were able to borrow without any of the normal restraints. They had a blank check from the federal government.’’
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae touched 20-year lows yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange on speculation a government bailout will leave the stocks worthless. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson won approval from Congress last month to pump emergency capital into the companies, which account for more than half of the $12 trillion U.S. mortgage market.
Fannie and Freddie mispriced their products and “kept existing because they had the federal government behind them,’’ Buffett said. Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire had been among the largest holders of Freddie until about 2001, when it became apparent the company wasn’t being run well, he said.
Jim Cramer Talks About Market Manipulation
http://www.reuters.com/article..220080820?sp=true
79 Million Americans Struggle To Pay Med Bills
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/2..AjuAtPXqgtjMugI32IL4GWO9j7AB
Gold surges to a 1-week high of $839
http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN222833.html
US Crony Capitalism
http://mparent7777-1.livejournal.com/1375774.html
Recession within year, say experts
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pres..ay-experts-6323e80.html
Oil shoots to $122 on missile shield row
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/..70614&sid=20295831&con_type=3
Morgan Stanley Says Financial Crisis Will Last: Report
http://www.cnbc.com/id/26252398
Wholesale prices: Highest annual rate in 27 years
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/19/ne..postversion=2008081910
Wall Street Pulls Back As Financials Fall
Stocks Fall On Inflation Data
Financial Fears, Soaring Inflation Hit Wall Street
Filed under: Africa, Britain, Europe, european union, fda, genetically modified, GM, gm crops, health and environment, Science and technology, United Kingdom, USDA | Tags: cloned, cloned animals, cloned beef, u.s. food supply
Cloned Beef Has Already Entered U.S. Food Supply, Even Before FDA Nod
Natural News
July 29, 2008
The major cattle cloning companies in the United States have admitted that they have not bothered to try and keep meat from the offspring of clones out of the U.S. food supply, in spite of a request by the FDA several years ago.
“This is a fairy tale that this technology is not being used and is not already in the food chain,” said Donald Coover, who owns a specialty cattle semen business. “Anyone who tells you otherwise either doesn’t know what they’re talking about, or they’re not being honest.”
Coover admitted that for several years, he has been openly selling semen from cloned bulls. He is sure, he added, that others are doing the same.
The revelation came as the FDA approved cloned beef as safe for human consumption but the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) asked farmers to keep it out of the food supply anyway.
The USDA’s primary concern is that if cloned beef enters the U.S. food supply, other countries might refuse to purchase beef from the United States. Similar problems have emerged in the past with genetically modified U.S. crops being rejected, particularly in Europe but also in parts of Africa, Asia and the Americas. Insiders from agencies such as the USDA and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative noted that a product that no other country wants to buy might do the United States more harm than good.
The USDA’s request for a moratorium on cloned beef is meant to give time for “an acceptance process” that will be needed “given the emotional nature of this issue.”
A survey by the International Food Information Council Foundation found that 22 percent of U.S. residents surveyed had a favorable impression of cloned meat in 2007, as opposed to 16 percent in 2006. Approximately 50 percent had a negative impression of such food.
The FDA has rejected calls to require the labeling of food produced from cloned animals.
Filed under: Chemical Warfare, Eugenics, fda, health and environment, Oil, organic, USDA | Tags: Citrus Magic, Earth Friendly Products, Ecover, ethaline oxide, Giovanni, Jason, Kiss My Face, Lifetree, Method, Nutribiotic, Sea-Chi Organics, Seventh Generation, sodium laural sulfate, whole foods
Cancer Causing Agent Found in Organic Products
Natural News
March 4, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7qe4zfhDLY&hl=en
A cancer-causing compound called 1,4-dioxane has been found in some of the most commonly used petroleum-based cosmetics by a study commissioned by the Organic Consumers Association, including products from Kiss My Face, Nutribiotic, Jason, Ecover, Citrus Magic, 365, Alba, Lifetree, Giovanni, Seventh Generation, Method, Earth Friendly Products, Sea-Chi Organics and many other brands . 1,4-dioxane (often just called dioxane) is a clear, colorless, organic compound that’s a liquid at room temperature and is a known human carcinogen.
Filed under: California, health and environment, Mad Cow, USDA | Tags: ConAgra, General Mills, Hallmark/Westland, Heinz, Nestle
What they didn’t tell you about recent meat recall
The Seattle Times
March 12, 2008
The largest meat recall in U.S. history was bound to reverberate throughout the food-manufacturing world. So far, four major food manufacturers — ConAgra, General Mills, Heinz and Nestlé — have acknowledged that meat involved in the 143 million-pound recall, announced Feb. 17, was used in some of their products.
So why haven’t those products been recalled?
They have been — very quietly.
Nestlé, General Mills, Heinz and ConAgra each acknowledged to news organizations that they have recalled products containing beef from the meatpacking company Hallmark/Westland.
Those products include two versions of Nestlé’s Hot Pocket sandwiches, Heinz’s Boston Market lasagna with meat sauce, General Mills’ Progresso Italian Wedding Soup and a variety of meat products from ConAgra, ranging from Slim Jim snacks to Hunt’s Manwich Original Sloppy Joe Sauce.
The companies stressed that the use of Hallmark/Westland meat was limited, and that they notified retailers and told them to pull those products.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/bus..&ref=business&pagewanted=print
USDA Allows Mad Cow Infested Beef to Market, as Long as it’s Mixed with 1% Healthy Beef
Wall Street Journal
February 22, 2008
U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said yesterday they are still tracing 15 million of the 143 million pounds of beef involved in the nation’s largest-ever meat recall, but the meat industry appears to be pressing the agency to scale back the recall.
Just days after the recall was announced, industry representatives were talking with federal food-safety regulators about narrowing its scope, according to a legal memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The USDA has said much of the recalled beef, which was produced by Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., of Chino, Calif., probably has been consumed. No illnesses from the meat have been reported.
In two conference calls this week, industry and USDA officials discussed the possibility of excluding from the recall Hallmark/Westland beef that was mixed with other suppliers’ meat and sent to retail and wholesale customers, according to a memo written by an employee of Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Bode Matz PC. The Washington law firm represents several food companies. The department appears to have since decided against narrowing the scope.
It wasn’t clear how much meat such an exemption might involve. The recall, announced Sunday, came about three weeks after the Humane Society of the United States released an undercover video showing workers at Hallmark/Westland’s Chino plant forcing sick or injured cows into slaughter by kicking them or ramming them with forklifts. Cows that can’t walk or stand on their own are generally banned from the food supply.
Such “downer” cows can be sources of mad-cow disease, which can cause a rare but fatal brain disorder in humans.
Though USDA and the industry discussed excluding some meat shipped to retailers and wholesalers from the recall, any Hallmark/Westland meat supplied to the federal school-lunch program — whether mingled with other suppliers’ meat or not — would have to be recalled. On one call this week with about 20 processors, agency officials reaffirmed all meat containing Hallmark/Westland products furnished to schools must be destroyed. But on a separate call, the USDA said it would take a “different approach” for Hallmark/Westland meat that was mixed with other suppliers’ meat and already sent to retail or wholesale customers, the law-firm memo said. “If a processor or grinder has records demonstrating that products were produced using less than 100% of recalled Westland meat for the meat component, then there is no need…to retrieve that ‘commingled’ product,” the memo said.
Filed under: biofuels, Canada, canadacom, catastrophic event, China, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, ethanol, food crisis, food market, food prices, gold, Great Depression, Greenback, Inflation, Iraq, Mexico, middle class, middle east, NORTHCOM, Oil, ration, Stock Market, Troops, UN, US Economy, USDA, wheat
Middle Class May Be Subject To Food Rations, Warns UN
Experts warn of food riots as foreign troops cleared to patrol American cities
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
February 25, 2008
The UN is warning of a food shortage crisis and drawing up plans for food rations which will hit even middle-class suburban populations as inflation and economic uncertainty causes the prices of staple food commodities to skyrocket.
The United Nation’s World Food Programme cautions today that if it doesn’t receive more funding, it will have to halt food aid to developing countries like Mexico and China.
“The WFP crisis talks come as the body sees the emergence of a “new area of hunger” in developing countries where even middle-class, urban people are being “priced out of the food market” because of rising food prices,”reports the Financial Times.
The warning coincides with a speech by William Lapp, of US-based consultancy Advanced Economic Solutions, who cautioned that rising agricultural raw material prices would translate this year into sharply higher food inflation.
It also parallels a prediction by Don Coxe, a Chicago-based global portfolio strategist for BMO Financial Group who correctly forecast the fall of the dollar and the rise in price of gold and oil years in advance, who last week spoke of a “global food crisis” which will cause the world to enter into, “A period of food shortages and swiftly rising prices,” leading to government embargoes.
With the U.S. on the verge of a recession and, as many analysts have warned, a potential second great depression, those long scoffed at for hoarding vast quantities of storable food may unfortunately be able to say “I told you so” if the dollar continues to deteriorate and people begin to be priced out of the food market.
Global food prices have skyrocketed by as much as 60 per cent in the past year, while UN officials warn of the likelihood of food riots.
“If prices continue to rise, I would not be surprised if we began to see food riots,” said Jacques Diouf, director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, last October.
Many see the food shortages, whether real or manufactured, as simply another pretext for the implementation of martial law and the introduction of foreign troops to patrol major U.S. cities.
A recent announcement by Northcom confirmed that U.S. and Canadian troops will be allowed to patrol each other’s countries in the event of a national emergency.
“U.S. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, and Canadian Air Force Lt.-Gen. Marc Dumais, commander of Canada Command, have signed a Civil Assistance Plan that allows the military from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a civil emergency,” reads a Northcom press release.
Shoppers Warned Food Prices Set To Rise
Financial Times
February 25, 2008
When William Lapp, of US-based consultancy Advanced Economic Solutions, took the podium at the annual US Department of Agriculture conference, the sentiment was already bullish for agricultural commodities boosted by demand from the biofuels industry and emerging countries.
He added a twist – that rising agricultural raw material prices would translate this year into sharply higher food inflation.
“I hope you enjoy your meal,” Mr Lapp told delegates during a luncheon. “It is the cheapest one you are going to have at this forum for a while.”
His warning that a strong wave of food inflation is heading towards the world economy was met by nods from agriculture traders, food industry executives and western’s government officials at the USDA’s annual Agricultural Outlook Forum.
Larry Pope, chief executive of Smithfield Foods, the largest US pork processor, warned delegates of a wave of “real food inflation” just at the time central banks were under pressure to cut interest rates.
“I think we need to tell the American consumer that [prices] are going up,” he said. “We’re seeing cost increases that we’ve never seen in our business.”
The comments highlighted one of the conference’s main concerns – that rising agricultural prices have reached a stage at which the impact will be felt not only on fresh food but will also filter through the supply chain and raise the cost of processed food.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk..tural_resources/article3423734.ece
Fresh records for price of wheat
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7264239.stm
‘Panic’ wheat buying across the US; World wheat prices surge 5pc overnight
http://nqr.farmonline.com.au/news_daily.asp?ag_id=48992
Iraq to Curb Food Rations, Spurring Fear of Hunger
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m41486&hd=&size=1&l=e
Inflation Creating Food Riots In Middle East
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25..ogin&ref=world&pagewanted=print
Biofuels Will Not Feed The Hungry
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cfe4dab4-e3d6-11dc-8799-0000779fd2ac.html
Wheat Hits Record Levels On Inventory Report
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm..68_apcommoditiesreview08.html
noworldsystem.com 