Vilsack's USDA Officially Approves Controversial Genetifically Modified Alfalfa

Barry Estabrook at The Atlantic:

On Thursday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) had approved the unrestricted planting of genetically modified alfalfa sold by Monsanto Co. and Forge Genetics, despite protests from organic groups and public health advocates and comments from nearly 250,000 citizens asking the department to keep this GMO genie in its bottle.

Read the whole story

Comments

[Grimlock]

01:58 PM on 02/07/2011

For those not in the know, the Rockefeller Foundation has heavily funded Monsanto for decades. This is chronicled, rather extensively, in the book "Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation" by William F. Engdahl. If you're not familiar with David Rockefeller and his family dynasty, then you'd be interested to know that David Rockefeller has been rather outspoken about curbing the world's population at any cost. For world leaders, corporate elitists, and the like, GMO is not just about greed. It is about control, illness, and eugenics. As for the "feeding the world" BS they'd like us to believe, don't buy it......literally or figuratively.

[farmilyman]

03:02 AM on 02/06/2011

Monsanto Nation: Exposing Monsanto's Minions

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22499.cfm

[HazelPethigFan]

09:25 PM on 02/04/2011

Here's the latest news (Hpost hasn't published anything yet): The USDA will allow GM sugar beets for this planting season.

Hooray. Pragmatism wins. Ideological purism loses. Awhhh..... you poor antiGMers...First the GM Alfalfa news and now this. What will you do now? Certainly you won't be reading science textbooks since you have never read them in the first place. Why start now?

I guess the USDA was worried since there would have been a serious sugar shortage in the country with no GM beets allowed. They estimated 20% less sugar with no GM beets. I was afraid it would be even worse since it was already near chaos among the farmers not knowing what to do this spring.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iSP3N_GQl7RZIu1LECoSA3gQ4bxw?docId=9ea8ffae77084f83af8a56fd6c7ad61a

[natureswaytheonlyway]

01:08 AM on 02/05/2011

wow dude. If you think gm Foods and pesticides are good for your , you are truly ignorant.

[HazelPethigFan]

10:21 PM on 02/03/2011

Here's an abstract from an actual ag scientist (as opposed to the non-scientist quacks that you anti-Technology/antiGM people post)

"Biotechnology and the Development of Food Markets:
Retrospect and Prospects"

http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/42811/2/08-WP_477_moschini.pdf
"Biotechnology has had an important impact on the agricultural and food industries
over the last twelve years by way of fast and extensive adoption of a few genetically
modified (GM) crops. This has produced large efficiency gains, including higher yields
and reduced costs of weed and pest control, as well as some environmental benefits. The
expected development of crops with additional agronomic traits, and with output traits to
improve the nutrition and health attributes of food products, holds the potential for even
more pervasive impacts. Full realisation of such promises may require overcoming the
constraining effects of restrictive GM product regulation"

[farmilyman]

03:06 AM on 02/06/2011

This "scientist" is very delusional.

[YourEG]

01:32 AM on 02/03/2011

TOXIC EFFECTS OF ROUND UP READY
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1763499

ARTICLE FROM CENTER FOR FOOD
SAFETY TO SEC OF AG VILSACK
from Andrew Kimbrell organization

http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Open-Letter-CFS-to-Vilsack-FINAL-1-24-10-with-CC-list.pdf

RR alfalfa provides very little countervailing benefit, because alfalfa is a crop that simply does not require weed-killing chemicals. It grows vigorously in dense stands that crowd out weeds, and regular mowing effectively controls those that do emerge. This explains why just 7% of alfalfa hay acres in the U.S. are treated with any herbicide at all,xxv and why USDA projects that substantial adoption of herbicide-promoting RR alfalfa would increase herbicide use by up to 23 million lbs. per year.xxvi This increased herbicide use would bring little benefit, as even USDA concedes that neither the quality nor the yield of RR alfalfa hay has been demonstrated to be systematically better than that of conventional alfalfa.xxvii

Glyphosate-resistant weeds are increasing weed control costs substantially, and in severe cases threaten to put farmers out of businessxxviii – farmers who for many years have been misguided by Monsanto into believing that Roundup Ready crops can be grown and sprayed with glyphosate year-in, year-out, without risk of weed resistance.xxix

[TallThinMan]

01:43 AM on 02/01/2011

This is pathetic...a supreme reason why the government shouldn't be meddling in our food supply at all. In addition to all the GM plus government subsities for things like fake GM corn that they're infesting in Everything now, this is for the people to decide NOT the USDA and their criminal corporate Robot friends-with-benefits.
2012 is right around the corner Obama...better get it right!

[jane8877]

05:46 PM on 01/31/2011

Obama has been BFF with Monsanto from the start. Vilsack is a Monsanto man. Obama has handed our entire country over to Goldman and Monsanto.

At least people will be able to save their money and they can stop buying organically grown anything. Like most horrible infections GE seeds germinate and once they're airborne everything grown will be GE, yes even Michelle's garden, not to mention your home gardens as well.

If no Independent Progressive/Liberal is running in 2012 write in the name of one. Obama is going to finish the destruction of this country started by Regan.

Every single chance this man has to do right by the people in this country; he does wrong and always sides with the rich and powerful.

How can Obama or Michelle have the nerve to say, with a straight face, they care about the health of Americans? Total hypocrisy.

[HHUA]

06:33 PM on 01/31/2011

I agree 100% and will not be voting for Obama again. If it means SP or someone just as bad? So be it...it's nothing less than we deserve as a nation for the kind of apathy and willful ignorance that has all but lost us our democracy already. I will not vote for someone I view as a traitor to the principles he ran on, and the people of this nation who voted for him.

Fanned & Faved!

[Natural Food List]

04:24 PM on 01/31/2011

On Getting Divided and Conquered – How Biotech Firms Are Winning The War via Social Media http://bit.ly/guTTiO

[HenryDavid]

01:53 PM on 01/31/2011

I'll bet they don't serve Genetically Modified Alfalfa sprouts for white house dining.

I don't expect to see any news clips with the president saying, "Michelle, the salad was great...especially those GMO sprouts. Make sure the chef keeps plenty of those available." No, I don't think we'll see that.

More likely, it will be the prez saying to the white house chef--
"Don't you ever, ever, ever put GMO sprouts in my salad again. I may allow them for political gain, but that doesn't mean I have to eat them."

[esquilax]

03:28 AM on 01/31/2011

An interesting perspective from David Suzuki;

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2009/09/more-science-needed-on-effects-of-genetically-modifying-food-crops/

[HHUA]

12:40 PM on 01/31/2011

Thanks for this link esquilax!

I am highlighting just a few of the key points for those who will not bother to open the link. There is someone on this thread who claims to have a background in science but seems to be missing the "science" part (or more likely being paid to ignore it).

"A review of the science conducted under the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development in 2008 concluded that "there are a limited number of properly designed and independently peer-reviewed studies on human health" and that this and other observations "create concern about the adequacy of testing methodologies for commercial GM plants."

"...Because we aren't certain about the effects of GMOs, we must consider one of the guiding principles in science, the precautionary principle. Under this principle, if a policy or action could harm human health or the environment, we must not proceed until we know for sure what the impact will be. And it is up to those proposing the action or policy to prove that it is not harmful."

[Richcrafter]

02:15 AM on 01/31/2011

Scary! As if salmonella isn't enough to worry about with sprouts!

[NebDem78]

01:35 AM on 01/31/2011

A great article.

[Brian Steinberg]

01:17 AM on 01/31/2011

To counter the GMO take over, I started a small project to take back non-gmo beet sugar in Michigan.

It is called the Ann Arbor Sugar Beet Project. We are a small group of gardeners who grow our own backyard sugar beets and make sugar at home.

And you can too.

http://lastoneeating.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/ann-arbor-sugar-beet-project-molasses-test/

Organic Sugar Beet seed is almost impossible to find. If any knows a source please let me know.

The revolutions will be sweet.

CB

[HHUA]

11:54 AM on 01/31/2011

Kudos and fanned!

As part of a growing movement more and more people are buying locally (myself included) and even growing themselves. I am looking into hydroponic gardening... growing sugar never even occurred to me.

[HazelPethigFan]

08:43 PM on 01/31/2011

Did Michigan have migrants working the sugar beet fields on hot days 30 years ago like Minnesota did? The now banned GM beets have no need for hand labor. Are you anti-Technology folks going to volunteer your time to help the beet farmers out or are you willing to let others (as usual) do the hard labor. This is NOT garden work.

Also, It will be ironic that beet farmers will use harsher chemicals than RoundUp now that Roundup ready beets are banned.

Here's some history (no....it's not funded by Monsanto):
http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/58/v58i04p196-209.pdf

“Los Betabeleros (The Beet-field Workers)”
by Unidentified

In the year 1923
Of the present era
The beet-field workers went
To that Michigan weeping,
Because all the bosses
Began to scold,
And Don Santiago says to them:
“I want to return
Because they haven’t done for us
What they said they would.”
Here they come and they tell you
That you ought to go up there,
Because there you will have everything
Without having to fight for it,
But these are nothing but lies,
And those who come and say those
Things are liars.
“Los Betabeleros” (“The Beet-field Workers”) is a Mexican ballad, or corrido, describing the fate of the people who went to work in the beet fields

Hey, HHUA are you surprised I am a leftie?

[joebaggadonuts]

12:55 AM on 01/31/2011

Pretty soon there is a reasonable likelihood that all the suburbanites will be able to do is grow their own food. THey won't be able to commute to jobs in the city. They can use natural alfalfa if there is any left, but if not, they won't be able to afford to care.