Saturday, January 31, 2015

MONSANTO SHAREHOLDERS MET BY PROTESTING MOMS AND DOCTORS

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Moms and Doctors Have a Message for Monsanto: 'You're Making Us Sick'

As shareholders gather in St. Louis on Friday, concerned parents, doctors, and environmental and food safety advocates will hold a memorial to the agrichemical giant's victims.
As shareholders of the agrichemical giant Monsanto  gather in St. Louis, Missouri for their annual meeting on Friday, they will be met by a coalition of doctors, concerned parents, and food and environmental safety advocates delivering a simple message: "You're making us sick."

At issue are the company's genetically modified crops and pesticides, including the herbicide Roundup—whose key ingredient glyphosate has been tied by researchers to a host of human health problems, from Parkinson's to cancer to autism.

"We're bringing message that glyphosate and genetically-modified foods have never been thoroughly safety tested for human consumption," Katherine Paul of the Organic Consumers Association told Common Dreams.

Inside the shareholders' meeting, the coalition intends to present a proposal for greater corporate accountability. Outside the meeting, advocates plan to hold a mid-day memorial to "victims of Monsanto's products."

"Numerous scientific studies show, and Moms see, that GMOs and related chemicals are connected to our children's skyrocketing health issues," said Zen Honeycutt, founder, Moms Across America, in a press statement. "Taking the first step in being responsible and having a pediatrician on their board makes sense for Monsanto Shareholders and for our children and the future of our country."

Monsanto has long been a target of world-wide protests for its role in spreading the agro-industrial model, which critics say undermines peasants and farmworkers while increasing food insecurity, environmental destruction, and climate change.

Protesters plan to highlight the impact the Monsanto has in the United States, where it is the country's third most hated company, according to a Harris poll last year.

According to Paul, federal authorities play a key role in allowing the company to avoid tough regulations despite serious questions about the safety of their products and practices. "We are also sending a message to the Food and Drug Administration to, at the very least, label GMO foods," said Paul. "Furthermore, it is time to ban Roundup."

"We go back to the previous examples of DDT and Agent Orange, where corporate America and the federal government told Americans they were perfectly safe until proof they they weren't safe came to light. But by that time, it was already too late for a lot of people."
Reports and commentary on the protest will be posted to Twitter throughout the day:

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

GMA MERGES FOR MASSIVE FOOD CONTROL MONOPOLY

Safeway in Washington, DC. (Photo: Daniel Lobo/flickr/cc)Published on
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Buyers Beware: New Grocery Merger Creates Mammoth That Puts 'Stranglehold on Consumers'

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced on Tuesday it has approved the $9.2 billion merger of Safeway Inc. and Albertsons
Safeway in Washington, DC. (Photo: Daniel Lobo/flickr/cc)
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced on Tuesday it has approved the $9.2 billion merger of Safeway Inc. and Albertsons, clearing the way for the creation of the country's third largest grocery retailer (behind Walmart and Kroger) and, according to critics, leaving consumers vulnerable at a time of poverty, low wages, and food insecurity.
The Commission green-lighted the merger after the companies agreed to sell 168 of their stores. FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez claimed in a statement that the sales alleviate any concerns that the merger will lead to higher prices. "This settlement will ensure that consumers in those communities continue to benefit from competition among their local supermarkets," she said.

But the divested stores represent just seven percent of the chains' combined 2,400 stores, and in the words of Wenonah Hauter, executive director for Food and Water Watch, amount to "a paltry number of grocery stores in a handful of cities." The deal, therefore, allows the supermarkets to maintain their "stranglehold on consumers," said Hauter, almost certainly leading to higher prices and lower quality.

Furthermore, Hauter continued, "The FTC did not require the chains to divest a single store in twenty metropolitan areas where the merger combined local rivals. In these markets, the four largest retailers will sell two-thirds of all groceries, and 12 million consumers will face higher prices and reduced choices.

"The FT approved a divestiture plan that is simply inadequate to protect consumers," concluded Hauter. "It largely permits supermarkets to tighten their stranglehold on consumers at a time of rising grocery prices and stagnant wages."
A USDA study published in September found that nearly 50 million people in the U.S. struggled with food insecurity in 2013.

It is not immediately clear how the merger, which both companies say they want to complete withing five business days, will impact the tens of thousands of unionized workers at both chains.

ROUNDUP on GMO NEWS 1-28-2015

Kansas City Business Journal - ‎21 hours ago‎




China, a leading importer of U.S. corn, will not accept any corn shipments that have traces of the GMO trait. The plaintiffs allege that the vast majority of U.S.

Genetic Literacy Project - ‎Jan 20, 2015‎




The latter is an edible organism, the genetic material of which has been altered for some purpose. ... Despite widespread ignorance about the relative safety of GM foods, recent votes rejecting mandatory GMO labeling initiatives in California, Colorado ...
JD Supra (press release) - ‎Jan 23, 2015‎




In the first weeks of 2015, even as bills like Indiana's were also introduced in New York, Virginia, Arizona, and Missouri, a federal court heard arguments implicating states' rights in the battle over Vermont's new labeling law. ... Peter DeFazio, D ...
Corporate Crime Reporter - ‎Jan 27, 2015‎




Virtually every consumer and public interest group in the United States favors labeling of products that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). With one notable exception - the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). CSPI is opposed ...
Homer Tribune - ‎16 hours ago‎




Let's review the basics: GMO foods are pumped full of a bacteria called bacillus thuringensis, mutated to include herbicide in its genes.

New Zealand Doctor Online - ‎Jan 26, 2015‎




Professor Seralini of CRIIGEN Institute in France study on rats found that long term ingestion of genetically engineered RoundUp resistant corn caused an increase in kidney and liver damage and early tumour development.

Corvallis Gazette Times - ‎18 hours ago‎




16 article, “GMO wheat in the works again” leaves me baffled by the conclusion that Monsanto makes that wheat growers are ready for GMO wheat.

RT - ‎Jan 22, 2015‎




Soybean workers exposed to the agrochemicals like glyphosate, the main component in Monsanto's 'Roundup' herbicide and other biocides, suffer from elevated DNA and cell damage, according to a new study.

Care2.com - ‎Jan 22, 2015‎




Realizing that he had switched the feed three years earlier to Monsanto's genetically-modified seed and because he had never witnessed such high numbers of birth defects in his piglets before, he suspected that the GM-seed or the glyphosate could be to ...

Huffington Post - ‎Jan 23, 2015‎




I'm referring to Vandana Shiva, the Indian anti-GMO crusader who kicked off a five-day blitz through Hawaii with a talk-and-music fest at the Capitol Building on Wednesday.

WAMC - ‎Jan 25, 2015‎




Dr. Vandana Shiva is an internationally renowned environmental activist, scientist and the author of more than a dozen books.





Kathleen Furey
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