The recent carnage to the American people's way of life began more than 30 years ago when the Reagan administration crafted deliberate policies that stopped enforcement of antitrust laws at the Department of Justice, encouraged an orgy of corporate mergers and launched a three decade assault on common sense government oversight. Since that time, politicians of both parties have embraced the radical notion of "free" markets that decoupled risk from accountability.
Occupy Wall Street was born out of a legitimate frustration with the collusion between Big Business and elected officials of the U.S. government. And nowhere is that collusion so great as in food and agricultural production where four firms control 84 percent of beef packing, 66 percent of pork production and one company, Monsanto, controls patents on more than 93 percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn grown in the U.S.
Ironically, on the day that Occupy Wall Street launched, I was in San Francisco at a conference appropriately named "Justice Begins with Seeds" to discuss the problems of excessive corporate control over our food supply. The incredible growth in the use of genetically modified (GMO) seeds and the excessive corporate influence of biotech seed companies have in Washington was high on the agenda. Much like the ubiquitous credit default swaps of the mortgage crisis, which became toxic assets for the global economy, this new technology of GMO seeds is less than two decades old, but already appears in an estimated 75 to 80 percent of processed food that Americans eat everyday.
In 2011, an estimated 94 percent of soybeans, 88 percent of corn, 90 percent of cotton, 93 percent of canola and 95 percent of sugar beets produced in the U.S. contain GMOs. And since most items in the grocery store include common ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, vegetable oils made from corn, soybeans, cottonseed and canola, with 8 out of every 10 bites of processed food, Americans are consuming genetically engineered foods without knowing it.
Despite a recent Reuters poll showing that 93 percent Americans support mandatory labeling of GMO foods, politicians in Washington and Monsanto lobbyists have so far blocked this basic right.
Even now, more than 50 countries around the world require labeling of GMOs, including citizens in the European Union, Japan, Russia and even China.
Food Democracy Now! recently released an exclusive, never before seen video taken in 2007 of then Senator Barack Obama promising a room full of more than 400 Iowa farmers and rural activists that if elected he would immediately work to label food that "has been genetically modified because Americans should know what they're buying."
Incredibly, President Obama made this comment during the Iowa caucus, in a mostly rural state with a leading agricultural economy, which he won by a wide margin and helped launch him to the White House. With the national conversation now raging about corporate influence it's curious that he hasn't kept his promise since taking office.
In another portion of the speech, more widely circulated, Obama offered the hope that his administration would differ vastly from the administrations before him.
"For far too long, you've had to listen to politicians tell you one thing out on the campaign trail, and then close the door and do another thing in Washington when they make rural policy. You're sending your message, but sometimes you can't get through because there's a lobbyist who's already on line," professed Obama.
Four years later however, the shine of Obama's victory has worn off, leaving many of us to wonder if this isn't the most agribusiness friendly administration yet. The approval in one year of three new biotech crops (GMO alfalfa, sugar beets an ethanol corn) and a Roundup Ready bluegrass for lawns represents the same threat that financial deregulation and the resulting economic crash does to our food supply.
Even this week, more news of the Obama administration's love affair with food and crop biotechnology is making the rounds, with an announcement last Monday that the Food and Drug Administration recommended the commercialization of GMO salmon (despite flawed scientific research). Currently the evaluation is under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget, but if the administration is as cavalier with GMO salmon as they have been with other GMO crops, the first genetically engineered animal could be a plate near you soon.
At the same time the Obama administration has decided to "plow ahead" with the indiscriminate approval of GMOs, a flood of recent studies have disproven several previous claims by the agricultural biotech industry, such as the perilous rise of superweeds, insects becoming resistant to the genetically inserted insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), and a disturbing report out of Canada that found that 93 percent of pregnant mothers tested had the genetically engineered Bt toxin in their blood, something biotech scientists claimed was impossible.
In the 1990s, when agricultural biotech companies wanted to make sure nothing got between them and profits, they rotated executives into high-ranking positions in government to help write the rules that govern approval of GMO crops.
In the most famous example, former Monsanto attorney and super lobbyist Michael Taylor oversaw biotechnology regulations at the Food and Drug Administration that placed rBGH, a synthetic hormone, in the milk supply, despite the objections of agency scientists, and implemented the policy declaring genetically engineered foods to be "substantially equivalent" to naturally bred seeds and animals, the main Catch 22 of why GMOs are not required to be labeled in the U.S.
Currently, Michael Taylor is back at the FDA as the Food Safety Czar. So much for closing the revolving door.
For everyone who eats, the events that brought down our banking system and the lack of accountability for those who rigged the rules in their favor should be lessons in the making. Today's system of industrial agriculture has become too concentrated, while corporations and commodity groups are continually advocating for the same type of policies and practices that outsource the risk onto society while privatizing all the profit.
Rather than encourage a diversified portfolio in agriculture, the Obama administration and the USDA are doing everything in their power to put all of global agriculture's eggs in the biotech basket.
If people and elected officials think the collapse of the global economy was a disaster, wait until it happens to our food supply. The truth is, if people really knew about the collusion behind what they were eating, both parties would be in the streets. For some reason, Obama has so far sided with chemical and biotech seed giants like Monsanto, who keep insisting that Americans should be dining in the dark. It's time to remind President Obama of his promise, after all there's nothing more important than the food that we eat and feed our families. And some things are worth fighting for.
Follow Dave Murphy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/food_democracy
Labelling of GMO Products: Freedom of Choice for Consumers
As for the science of GMOs, please read what actual scientists say in this comprehension study published by the National Academies:
"WASHINGTON -- Many U.S. farmers who grow genetically engineered (GE) crops are realizing substantial economic and environmental benefits -- such as lower production costs, fewer pest problems, reduced use of pesticides, and better yields -- compared with conventional crops, says a new report from the National Research Council. However, GE crops resistant to the herbicide glyphosate -- a main component in Roundup and other commercial weed killers -- could develop more weed problems as weeds evolve their own resistance to glyphosate. GE crops could lose their effectiveness unless farmers also use other proven weed and insect management practices."
"Improvements in water quality could prove to be the largest single benefit of GE crops, the report says. Insecticide use has declined since GE crops were introduced, and farmers who grow GE crops use fewer insecticides and herbicides that linger in soil and waterways. In addition, farmers who grow herbicide-resistant crops till less often to control weeds and are more likely to practice conservation tillage, which improves soil quality and water filtration and reduces erosion."
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12804
The full article is too long to post here, so please read! Disgusting and pethetic...........
http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-10-20-why-monsanto-paying-farmers-to-spray-rival-herbicides
Why Monsanto is paying farmers to spray its rivals’ herbicides | Grist
Monsanto's ongoing humiliation proceeds apace. I'm not referring to the company's triumph in recent "Villains of Food" polls. Instead, I'm talking about a Tuesday item from the Des Moines Register's Philip Brasher, reporting that Monsanto has been forced into the unenviable position of having to pay farmers to spray the herbicides of rival companies.
If you tend large plantings of Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" soy or cotton, genetically engineered to withstand application of the company's Roundup herbicide (which will kill the weeds -- supposedly -- but not the crops), Monsanto will cut you a $6 check for every acre on which you apply at least two other herbicides. One imagines farmers counting cash as literally millions of acres across the South and Midwest get doused with Monsanto-subsidized poison cocktails.
The move is the latest step in the abject reversal of Monsanto's longtime claim: that Roundup Ready technology solved the age-old problem of weeds in an ecologically benign way.
There was just one problem, which the Union of Concerned Scientists pointed out as early as 1993.
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What are you implying? That RoundUp may not kill weeds? Your ignorance is showing.
And here's a good one for you. Organic farms use pesticides that are HARSHER than roundup.
Here's one with warnings:
"Copper sulfate is highly toxic to fish. Even at recommended rates of application, this material may be poisonous to trout and other fish, especially in soft or acid waters. Its toxicity to fish generally decreases as water hardness increases. Fish eggs are more resistant than young fish to the toxic effects of copper sulfate. Copper sulfate is toxic to aquatic invertebrates, such as crab, shrimp, and oysters. It is used as a pesticide to control tadpole shrimp in rice production. "
http://web.pppmb.cals.cornell.edu/resourceguide/mfs/06copper.php
Why do organic farms use chemicals harsher than RoundUp?
AntiFarmer nonscientists like you need to explain that one.
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/303048_10150363719342302_522902301_8081378_1172972906_n.jpg
The small print reads, "Ingredients: You don't have a right to know. You will only be confused and alarmed by the information."
If you are paying attention to Occupy Wall Street—and by now most people are—the anti-corporate message is coming through loud and clear. Most participants at the events now spreading across the country say they are no longer willing to let powerful corporate interests determine the course of their lives. These Americans realize that a participatory democracy is essential.
As it stands today, 75 percent of the population are obese or overweight and many are chronically ill with diet-related diseases. They are also largely dependent on an increasingly unhealthful and contaminated food supply that is heavily controlled by corporate interests. It’s obvious that this is our moment to drive a very important point home—upending corporate control of the food supply is a fundamental change that must occur if the 99 percent are to be healthy participants in a true democracy.
We've got OUR chance..... The TIME is NOW!
http://pubs.ecowatch.org/a/177933
:)
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Only less than " two decades" old? oh the horror.
and many antiGMers say we need "more testing more testing more testing" to see if GMOs are safe. really?
The left has been taken over by science deniers
Bahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahaha
http://thedownstreamvegan.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/protest-like-its-1963-eat-like-its-2011/
http://thedownstreamvegan.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/why-occupy-wall-street-excludes-the-slaves/
http://thetruthaboutmcs.blogspot.com/2011/10/organic-bytes-obamas-biotech-boosters.html
http://motherjones.com/environment/2011/10/food-industry-monopoly-occupy-wall-street
Dominion has nothing to do with destroying biodiversity and making it illegal to use seeds that have been cultivated for thousands of years and handed down through hundreds of generations of farmers. That is what we are doing to India and other countries. They are outlawing and destroying vast seed supplies that have taken thousands of years to harmonize within unique and vastly diverse ecological terrains. Along comes this American bully named Mansanto and they are just completely disrespecting life itself in the name of monopolistic agricultural profiteering. At least mandate the labels as you promised Mr. President. It would be one small step towards dominion rather than the leaps you have made toward domination.
Every single one of those things (the edible things, not the cotton) is banned on my diet, the Metabolic Type Diet. If people stuck to a diet like mine, they would not be collaborating with Monsanto. As an added benefit, they would no longer need to see doctors and take medication. I think we as a culture need to change what we eat. If you are Occupying your city, what have you been eating? What have you seen others eating? The real enemy here is the US Government. If you want to protest, sit in front of the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court, the Pentagon and the FDA. And FFS, don't eat tofu or corn while you are sitting there.
Take heart though, when you die of starvation and malnutrition, you will be an example to others. In the scenario that I'm painting, that example would take the form of a cautionary tale.
In any case, no man, or woman, dies in vain, and the example that you're setting will give the rest of us the inspiration well need to not follow that path.
Cyber hug to you ((( Karen ))) :)
What you've posted is 100% true. We need to educate, educate, educate on this subject. People have no idea of the crap that their eating.
F & F!!