MORE GMO HEALTH DAMAGE LINKS

Groundbreaking New Study Links GMO to Leukemia: When Will Monsanto Stop Lying to Us?

by Christina Sarich
July 15th, 2013
Updated 07/15/2013 at 1:30 pm

There are lots of ‘scientists,’ otherwise known as the academics on Monsanto’s payroll, who keep spouting the preposterous statement that there is no real science to back up the claims that GMO are bad for our health, but yet another study says otherwise.
Recently published in the Journal of Hematology & Thromboembolic Diseases, the study underscores the potential ‘leukemogenic’ properties of the Bt toxin biopesticides used in almost all GMO foods that are currently planted on more than 3.9 million acres of crops in the US. Many of these crops are shipped to other countries who have not yet banned GM foods from their imports, so the prevalence of their use on US soil affects the whole planet.
Just a few months ago, references to GMO were made by scientists in France who conducted a study that pinpointed Monsanto’s genetically engineered corn, called NK603, as a major cancer-causing agent. Rats developed cancerous tumors the size of ping-pong balls. The study was called into question; however by academics under Monsanto’s reign.

Now, the study states that the biopesticides engineered into crops like corn, soy, sugar cane, etc. carry what is known as Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt), also called Cry-toxins, which contribute to all sorts of health problems including:

• Blood abnormalities

• Hematological malignancies (blood cancers), i.e. leukemia

• Suppression of bone marrow proliferation

• Abnormal lymphocyte patterns

Furthermore, Bt toxins used in prevalent GMOs can target mammalian cells, particularly of the erythroid lineage (red blood cells) which results in damage to the cells that is significant enough to start as anemia, and end up as cancer. Also, Cry toxins were found to be capable of exerting their damaging effects even when suspended in distilled water, and did not require alkalinization through an insect’s physiological form to become activated. Put simply, this means that while Cry toxins may have been developed to kill bugs, they kill us.
How can these studies keep being denied? Scientist Michael Spector recently gave a profound Ted Talks speech about the danger of scientists denying the problems with GMO food. Another scientist, Dr. Theirry Vrain also gives a TED Talks lecture on the true damage that GMOs can do, even though they were once looked to as a positive, viable option to increase world food supply. Monsanto-funded studies, however, continue to spew ‘science’ about the benign nature of GMOs. When will this corporation stop lying to the masses?
Maybe this is why the World Health Organization still says GMOs are completely safe:

“GM foods currently available on the international market have passed risk assessments and are not likely to present risks for human health. In addition, no effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved. Continuous use of risk assessments based on the Codex principles and, where appropriate, including post market monitoring, should form the basis for evaluating the safety of GM foods.”

Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/groundbreaking-study-links-gmos-bt-toxin-leukemia/#ixzz2n0v3vIj8 

WTO DEAL THROWS WORLD'S POOR UNDER BUS

Published on Saturday, December 7, 2013 by Common Dreams

'Rank Hypocrisy': WTO Deal Bows to Wealth, Squashes the Poor

US and EU called out for protecting their own subsidies while demanding world's poorest citizens be pushed back into starvation

- Jon Queally, staff writer

Food sovereignty campaigners protest against the WTO in Bali, Indonesia this week. (Twitpic / @JHilary)In announcing a final agreement in Bali, Indonesia on Saturday morning, head of the World Trade Organization Roberto Azevedo, said: "For the first time in our history, the WTO has truly delivered."

"There is a rank hypocrisy at the heart of the WTO that cannot be glossed over. The USA and EU continue to channel billions in subsidies to their richest farmers, yet seek to destroy other countries’ right to protect their poorest citizens from starvation. The WTO is an institution that has lost any claim to legitimacy. No amount of spin from Bali can disguise that fact." –John Hilary, War on Want

Unfortunately, say critics, what the deal is certain to "deliver" is more pain and suffering for the world's poorest people and farmers at the expense of the world's largest and most powerful nations and corporations.

Anti-poverty groups and food sovereignty advocates across the world were pushing off pronouncements like Azevedo's, saying that the agreement is a failure when it comes to fairness, poverty reduction, environmental protections, and the alleviation of hunger across the globe.

Among those slamming the final deal, director of the World Development Movement (WDM) Nick Deardensaid the Bali agreement is designed to serve the interests of "transnational corporations not the world's poor."

"Here in Bali," he continued, "social movements, trade unions and campaign groups have supported the efforts of developing countries to get a deal which moves the agenda away from a pro-corporate charter and towards something that asserts the rights and needs of the majority of the world's population."

And John Hilary, executive director of the UK-based War on Want, slammed the deal:

Any suggestion that there is a deal to celebrate from the WTO talks in Bali is absurd. The negotiations have failed to secure permanent protection for countries to safeguard the food rights of their peoples, exposing hundreds of millions to the prospect of hunger and starvation simply in order to satisfy the dogma of free trade. It is time to end the WTO charade once and for all, and focus instead on undoing the harm it has already caused across the world.

There is a rank hypocrisy at the heart of the WTO that cannot be glossed over. The USA and EU continue to channel billions in subsidies to their richest farmers, yet seek to destroy other countries’ right to protect their poorest citizens from starvation. The WTO is an institution that has lost any claim to legitimacy. No amount of spin from Bali can disguise that fact.

Maude Barlow, speaking on behalf of the Council of Canadians, expressed equal outrage:

This was not a historic win for developing countries at the WTO. They scrape by with modest and temporary protections for food security policies that should be completely excluded from corporate trade rules, which are still biased in the interests of corporations and rich countries. The bargain, if you can call it that, also came at the high price of agreeing to a trade facilitation agreement that further locks in a neo-colonial trading system that has condemned much of the world to poverty.

It is unfortunate that some countries will leave Bali with a vain hope that further negotiations will conclude the WTO’s so-called development agenda over the next year. The reality is rich countries like Canada, the United States and Europe have abandoned the idea completely and are focused on moving their corporate agenda as far as it can go in transatlantic and transpacific free trade deals, as well as a highly secretive international services agreement being negotiated on the outskirts of the WTO in Geneva by a small cabal of developed countries.

Though the so-called "peace clause" was agreed to, as previous Common Dreams reportingindicated, the compromise does almost nothing to protect the world's poor over the long-term. In fact, critics warn, the so-called "compromise" sets up a ticking clock by which the poorest nations will be forced to throw their small farmers under the bus in the name of global capitalism.A street market in the old quarters of Delhi. India sought safeguards, at the WTO, from US agricultural surpluses. (Photograph: Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

As French economist and food sovereignty campaigner Maxim Combes tweeted:

1. EU Mission to WTO @EUmissionWTO

   Bali package is formally adopted! #MC9 #WTO

Maxime Combes @MaximCombes 7:35 PM - 6 Dec 2013

Follow

@EUmissionWTO @Trade_EU @WTODGazevedo #BaliPackage guarantee rights for TNCs and developed countries, not for people or for the planet

And Dearden added, "The aggressive stance of the US and EU means that we have moved only a little, and shows again that the WTO can never be a forum for creating a just and equal global economic system."

Dearden and Hilary were not alone in indicating that the WTO should be thrown overboard entirely if trade policies are ever to serve humanity and not just the bottom lines of transnational corporations (TNCs). As Pablo Solon, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South, tweeted:

Pablo Solon @pablosolon

Follow

The Bali Package is a severely imbalanced text that benefits only the developed countries and their TNCs #EndWTO

7:38 PM - 6 Dec 2013

Pablo Solon @pablosolon

Follow

The WTO is the world upside down. Few are getting more and more while the majority gets crumbs. #EndWTO

7:18 PM - 6 Dec 2013

And Mary Ann Manahan, Solon's colleague at FGS, added:

Mary Ann Manahan @criticalcommons

Follow

Yet again, WTO has failed to protect food security & peoples interests. There is a Bali deal. Corporations is having a field day! #EndWTO

12:51 AM - 7 Dec 2013

_______________________________________________

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

ANOTHER WIN! ALOHA AINA, MAHALO FOR HAWAI'I GMO LEGISLATION LEADERSHIP!

Mayor Billy Kenoi signed Bill 113 on December 5, 2013. Below is the message he sent to the Hawai’i County Council:

Aloha, Chair Yoshimoto and Members:                                            

On Nov. 19, 2013 the Hawai‘i County Council adopted Bill 113 Draft 3 adding a new article relating to Genetically Engineered Crops and Plants, and on Nov. 21, 2013 delivered the bill to me for my consideration. After careful deliberation and discussions with members of my administration and the public, I am signing Bill 113.

Our community has a deep connection and respect for our land, and we all understand we must protect our island and preserve our precious natural resources. We are determined to do what is right for the land because this place is unlike any other in the world. With this new ordinance we are conveying that instead of global agribusiness corporations, we want to encourage and support community-based farming and ranching.

The debate over this bill has at times been divisive and hurtful, and some of our hard-working farmers who produce food for our community have been treated disrespectfully. We are determined to protect every farmer and rancher. Agriculture on Hawai‘i Island will continue to grow with county assistance, investment and support. That commitment includes initiatives such as the public-private partnership to improve and expand the Pa‘auilo Slaughterhouse to support our grass-fed beef industry, and the launch of the Kapulena Agricultural Park, the largest agricultural park in the state on 1,739 acres of county-owned land. It also includes support for innovative training programs to grow the farmers of the future, and to train veterans to engage in agriculture on Hawaiian Home Lands, and the introduction and advancement of Korean Natural Farming as a sustainable method of producing healthier crops and livestock. It includes completion of the first-in-the-state Food Self-Sufficiency Baseline Study of Hawai‘i Island to measure the island’s progress toward food self-sufficiency.

We are determined to reunite our farming community to create a stronger and more vibrant agricultural sector. It is time to end the angry rhetoric and reach out to our neighbors. Our farmers are essential to creating a wholesome and sustainable food supply on this island, and they deserve to be treated with respect and aloha. We must turn now to a meaningful, factual dialogue with one another.

With my approval of this bill, our administration will launch a year of research and data collection to investigate factual claims and to seek out new directions that farming in our community should take. This work will include an expanded database detailing the locations of both organic and conventional farms, the crops that are grown, more accurate estimates of the revenue earned from these enterprises, and the challenges our farmers face in meeting food safety and organic certification requirements. We will work with our farmers and our ranchers to carefully monitor the impacts of this bill over the next year to separate speculation and guesswork from the facts.

Today our communities expect that government will be as cautious as possible in protecting our food and water supplies. We all want to minimize impacts to the environment while also producing abundant, affordable food for local consumption. This ordinance expresses the desires and demands of our community for a safe, sustainable agricultural sector that can help feed our people while keeping our precious island productive and healthy.

Aloha,

William P. Kenoi
MAYOR

Press Release http://hawaiicountymayor.com/2013/12/05/mayor-kenoi-signs-bill-113/

MAHALO THE MAYOR! cohmayor@co.hawaii.hi.us
Facebook: MayorKenoi
Twitter: @Mayorkenoi Mayor Billy Kenoi mahalo!

Mahalo for your commitment and perseverance!

GMO-Free Hawaii Island    gmofreehawaiiisland.org

Visit our Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/GMOFreeHawaiiIsland

Email:  gmofreehawaiiisland@gmail.com

TYPICAL USA DINNER - BANNED IN 30 NATIONS

FAST FOOD STRIKE - FACT SHEET

Published on Thursday, December 5, 2013 by Campaign for America's Future Blog

12 Fast Facts About Thursday’s Fast-Food Strike

by Richard Eskow

(Credit: Low Pay Is Not Ok)This Thursday, December 5, workers at fast-food restaurants around the country will be striking for higher pay and better working conditions. Their primary demand is an increase in their base hourly wages to $15 an hour.

Here are 12 things you should know about Thursday’s action.

1. If wages had kept pace with productivity gains, the minimum wage would be over $16 an hour.

Corporate profits have soared. Workers are producing more, but they’re not sharing in the rewards.

Productivity and the minimum wage generally increased at the same rate from 1947 to 1969, during this country’s postwar boom years. Using a conservative benchmark, economists Dean Baker and Will Kimball determined that the minimum wage would be $16.54 today if it had continued to keep pace with productivity.

The strikers are asking for $15 an hour.

(Source: Baker and Kimball, Center for Economic and Policy Research)

2. The average fast food worker makes $8.69 an hour.

Many jobs pay at or near the minimum wage, which is $7.25 per hour. And an estimated 87 percent of fast food workers receive no health benefits.

(Source: UC Berkeley Labor Center)

3. The CEO of McDonald’s Corporation makes $13.8 million per year.

That’s a 237 percent pay increase over last year, when he was paid a “mere” $4.1 million. Presumably health benefits are also included.

(Source: USA Today)

4. McDonald’s cost the American taxpayer an estimated $1.2 billion in public assistance per year.

In other words, taxpayer money is subsidizing this large corporation’s profits – at the expense of American workers.

(Source: National Employment Law Project)

5. McDonald’s made $1.5 billion in profits last quarter.

That’s up 5 percent from the previous year.

(Source: McDonald’s Corporation)

6. The 10 largest fast food companies cost taxpayers an estimated $3.9 billion in government health assistance and $1.04 billion in food assistance.

Republicans are demanding cuts to government health and food programs. With all the talk of deficit reduction, it’s surprising that no one has pointed out that a great way to lower expenditures would be by ending these backdoor subsidies for highly profitable corporations.

(Source: UC Berkeley Labor Center)

7. These 10 companies earned $7.4 billion in profits last year.

They also paid out $7.7 billion in dividends. Meanwhile …

(Source: National Employment Law Project)

8. Fast food workers are more than twice as likely to be on public assistance.

25 percent of American workers receive some form of public assistance – which is a disturbing figure itself. For fast food workers that figure was 52 percent.

And it’s not just part-time work that’s causing the problem.  More than half of full-time fast food workers receive some form of public assistance.

(Sources: University of California, Berkeley/University of Illinois study; UC Berkeley Labor Center)

9. Most of the workers who would be affected by this wage change are adults.

We also hear that it’s not necessary to raise the minimum wage, especially for fast food workers, because most of them are “kids” working a few hours each week for pocket money. Think of this as the “malt shoppe” argument.

But it’s not true. Most low-wage workers are adults. Nationally, adults make up 88 percent of the workers who would receive a raise if the minimum wage were increased to $10.10 per hour. In locales as distinct as New York State and Albuquerque, New Mexico, that figure rises to 92 percent.

(Sources: US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Fiscal Policy Institute, New Mexico Voices for Children/Fiscal Policy Project)

10. Over 7 million children live in minimum-wage households.

And many of these workers are parents. Seven million children – nearly  one American child in ten – feels the effects of low wages.

(Source: data from the National Women’s Law Center)

11. This strike is targeting large employers.

66 percent of low-wage workers are employed by organizations with 100 employees or more. Thursday’s strikers aren’t targeting mom-and-pop operations. They’re striking against some of America’s largest corporations.

How large? McDonald’s employs 707,850 people. Yum! Brands (better known as Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC) employs 379,449 people. Altogether these 10 companies employ 2,251,956 people.

The workforce for these ten companies is greater than the populations of Nebraska, West Virginia, Idaho, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota,  Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming, states which hold 28 seats in the United States Senate.  Shouldn’t these fast-food workers have a voice of some kind too?

(Sources: National Employment Law Project, US Census Bureau)

12. There’s probably a rally near you.

There’s an easy-to-use website to help you find one. There’s also an online workers’ strike kit, for fast food workers who want to take action.

(Source: Low Pay Is Not OK)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Richard (RJ) Eskow is a well-known blogger and writer, a former Wall Street executive, an experienced consultant, and a former musician. He has experience in health insurance and economics, occupational health, benefits, risk management, finance, and information technology. Richard has consulting experience in the US and over 20 countries.

TODAY - PALM OIL DEFORESTATION; TOMORROW, GE CROPS - AS PUBLIC PRESSURE ESCALATES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 5, 2013 3:13 PM

CONTACT: Greenpeace Tristan Tremschnig, Communications Coordinator Indonesia Forests, Greenpeace International, mob: +31 6 43 78 7393 email:tristan.tremschnig@greenpeace.org

Palm Oil Giant Wilmar Caves to Public Pressure, Commits To End Forests Destruction

JAKARTA - December 5, 2013 - Wilmar International, the world's largest palm oil trader today announced a No Deforestation Policy in response to pressure from Greenpeace, NGOs and consumers around the world. The policy has the potential to be a landmark win for the world’s forests and the people that depend on them for their livelihoods.

Bustar Maitar, head of the Indonesia forest campaign at Greenpeace International said:

“Wilmar has responded to years of pressure from Greenpeace, other NGOs, and a growing movement of consumers around the world demanding clean palm oil and an end to forest destruction. Wilmar’s commitment to No Deforestation has the potential to transform the controversial palm oil industry.”

“Wilmar’s policy shows that the sector has a massive problem, and while this policy is great news for forests and tigers, its success will be judged by Wilmar’s actions to implement and enforce it. Our challenge to Wilmar is this: will it now immediately stop buying from companies such as the Ganda Group, which is closely linked to Wilmar and is involved in ongoing forest clearance, illegal peatland development and social conflict?”

Over the last seven years, Greenpeace has repeatedly exposed Wilmar’s role in gross acts of forest destruction; sourcing from national parks, destroying prime tiger habitat, sourcing from suppliers linked to orang-utan ‘graveyards’ or this year’s forest fire crisis in Sumatra, to name a few.

“For years companies, including Wilmar, have been hiding behind so called sustainability bodies such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Greenpeace will be closely monitoring how Wilmar will put these words into action, and will welcome Wilmar’s immediate end to all trade with companies involved in deforestation. The gauntlet is thrown to other palm oil traders such as Cargill, Musim Mas and Sime Darby to release similar policies,” added Bustar.

The palm oil sector is the greatest single cause of deforestation in Indonesia. Ministry of Forestry maps show that Indonesia is losing some 620,000ha of rainforest every year between 2009-2011 (an area greater than the size of Brunei). Palm oil’s expansion into New Guinea and Africa is already threatening forests, sparking controversy and conflict with local communities.

Wilmar International accounts for more than a third of global trade of palm oil.

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Independent campaigning organization that uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.

Source:  http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/12/05-1

USDA ABOUT TO DEREGULATE SALMONELLA INSPECTION EVEN FURTHER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 4, 2013 2:42 PM

CONTACT: Food & Water Watch Darcey Rakestraw, drakestraw@fwwatch.org; 202-683-2467

USDA’s Salmonella Action Plan Misses the Mark

Statement by Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch Executive Director

WASHINGTON - December 4 - “Today the USDA released its new Salmonella Action Plan, which highlights a controversial proposal to radically change inspection of poultry products as a top priority in battling salmonella. Unfortunately, this new packaging doesn’t make the ‘Modernization of Poultry Inspection’ proposal any more logical or protective of public health. It is still a deregulation of the poultry industry that will put consumers, workers and even animal welfare at risk.

“USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service wants to expand a pilot project in place in two-dozen plants to 200 poultry plants across the country. The proposed change would remove most FSIS inspectors from the slaughter lines and replace them with untrained company employees, allowing processing companies to police themselves. It would also permit chicken plants to increase line speeds to 175 birds-per-minute. FSIS has received hundreds of thousands of comments from consumers opposed to this change and worker safety advocates have raised serious concerns that poultry plant workers will suffer increased rates of injuries trying to keep up with increased line speeds.

“This fall, the Government Accountability Office released a report on the pilot project that is being used to justify this proposed change. The GAO evaluated 20 young chicken and five young turkey plants and found gaping methodological flaws in the pilot project. The GAO also questioned how FSIS could use its flawed evaluation of the pilot project as the basis to propose expanding the privatized inspection model across the entire poultry industry.

“This flawed proposed rule cannot serve as the foundation of any serious plan to reduce salmonella rates in meat and poultry products. To really tackle the salmonella problem, USDA should not be trying to cut government inspection of poultry products. Instead the Obama administration needs to get the legal authority from Congress to hold companies accountable for putting contaminated food into commerce, not deregulate inspection.

“We also call into question the salmonella reduction statistics that the agency is touting in its press release. While the Centers for Disease Control has stated that minimal progress has been made to reduce the number of food borne illness outbreaks associated with salmonella contamination, FSIS argues that salmonella rates in young chickens have decreased by 75% since 2006. The agency is deriving these numbers from its regulatory testing program that is not based on random sampling. In fact, the agency concluded in a 2012 research paper (“Use of FSIS Regulatory Verification Sampling to Generate Prevalence Estimates”) that accurate prevalence estimates for salmonella could not be calculated by the data generated in its current salmonella testing program.

“Instead of deregulating inspection, the agency needs to go to Congress and seek the legislative authority to fix the current legal loophole in the Federal Meat Inspection and Poultry Products Inspection Acts so that it can effectively regulate salmonella as a food borne pathogen.”

Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control.

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Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

Source:  http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/12/04-2