Scientist Find Many Negative Impacts of Roundup Ready GM Crops: Report

What the USDA doesn't want us to know. SDS, Sudden Death Syndrome, is being found in root fungi that are necessary to fix nitrogen in the soils for needed crop nutrients.
-Clean Food Earth Woman


http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/jan10/scientists_find_negative_impacts_of_GM_crops.php

EMISSIONS REPORT from UK Food: Higher Than Believed

18 January 2010

*New report finds technology and behavioural changes required to cut emissions from food*

The food we eat accounts for 30% of the UK’s carbon footprint, according to a new report published today by WWF-UK and the Food Climate Research Network. Previous estimates put the figure closer to 20%, but this study is the first to incorporate land use change overseas, increasing the estimate of emissions attributed to food consumption in this country from 152MtCO2 to 253MtCO2.

Land use change, mainly deforestation, is a major source of climate changing emissions. Each year world-wide, an area of forest equivalent to half of England is lost. The expansion of the food system is the biggest driver behind this as land is cleared to grow crops and rear animals.

Given the extent of food consumption on the UK’s overall emissions, WWF-UK and the FCRN are calling for a radical change to the country’s food system to help stop deforestation and reduce the scale of emissions from the food chain.
Full Text: http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/press_centre/?3665/Emissions-from-UK-food-industry-far-higher-than-believed

INDIA: NATIONWIDE PUBLIC MEETINGS on PROPOSED GM EGGPLANT

India holds public meetings on GM food crop
* From IPS, part of the Guardian Environment Network
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 14 January 2010 18.23 GMT
Activists and farmers' groups oppose India's meetings on the commercial release of genetically modified aubergine. From IPS, part of the Guardian Environment Network

As India's central government begins a series of public meetings across the country this month on the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) brinjal – or aubergine - in this country, activists and farmers' groups are mobilising to oppose such a plan.

Full Text: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/14/india-gm-food-crop

EIGTH POISONS BRED INTO MONSANTO & DOW SEEDS- EAT UP!

"SUPER SEEDS" KNOWN AS "SMARTSTAX" are now a part of the MONSANTO/DOW
pesticides-upon-pesticides-stacked-into-the-seed products
that can be claimed for the GMO, GE, GM foods to look out
for. Here's their marketing material:

http://www.monsanto.com/pdf/investors/2007/09-14-07.pdf

Pass it on!
-Clean Food Earth Woman

GMO CORN LINKED TO ORGAN FAILURE

http://bit.ly/4wYFxN Huffpost

- MAKES YOU THINK ABOUT GMO, GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS, AND HFC, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP and all the products...the thousands and thousands of products made with GMO corn (almost anything in a package or bottle).

WATCH THIS CASE!!!! GOING TO THE SUPREME COURT

Breaking News: Monsanto Takes Center for Food Safety Legal Victory to Highest Court

(January 15, 2010) Today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear a first-time case about the risks of genetically engineered crops. Named Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, No. 09-475, the case before the high court will be yet another step in an ongoing battle waged by the Center for Food Safety to protect consumers and the environment from potentially harmful effects of genetically engineered (GE) crops.

The modified alfalfa seed at the heart of the dispute has been engineered to be immune to Monsanto’s flagship herbicide Roundup. Monsanto intervened in a 2007 federal district court ruling that the Department of Agriculture’s approval of GE alfalfa was illegal. The Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a 2006 lawsuit on behalf of a coalition of non-profits and farmers who wished to retain the choice to plant non-GE alfalfa. CFS was victorious in this case – in addition CFS has won two appeals by Monsanto in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit: in 2008 and again in 2009. Now, upon Monsanto’s insistence, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.

“This is truly a ‘David versus Goliath’ struggle, between public interest non-profits and a corporation bent on nothing less than domination of our food system,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. “That Monsanto has pushed this case all the way to the Supreme Court, even though USDA’s court-ordered analysis is now complete, and the U.S. government actively opposed further litigation in this matter, underscores the great lengths that Monsanto will go to further its mission of patent control of our food system and selling more pesticides.”

The federal district court required the Department of Agriculture to undertake an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) assessing the impacts of the crop on the environment and on farmers; the first time the U.S. government had ever undertaken such analysis for any GE crop. The court permitted farmers that had already planted to continue, but halted any further planting pending the agency’s re-assessment. That the EIS was required is not in dispute; the legal issue is only the scope of relief while USDA analyzed the impacts of the crop for the first time.

In October 2009 Monsanto asked the Supreme Court to hear further arguments. In response, the Center and the U.S. government separately opposed that request the following December. USDA completed the first draft of the EIS in December 2009.

“Although we believe a further hearing is unnecessary, we are confident we will again prevail, as the lower courts have already three times determined,” continued Kimbrell. “We hope that this grand stage will further inform the public, policymakers and the media about the significant risks of genetically engineered crops and the vital need to protect farmers and the environment.”

Alfalfa is the fourth most widely grown crop in the U.S. and a key source of dairy forage. It is the first perennial crop to be genetically engineered. It is open-pollinated by bees, which can cross-pollinate at distances of several miles, spreading the patented, foreign DNA to conventional and organic crops. Such biological contamination threatens the livelihood of organic farmers and dairies, since the U.S. Organic standard prohibits genetic engineering, and alfalfa exporters, since most overseas governments also reject GE-contaminated crops.

“We trust the Supreme Court will uphold farmers right to choose their crop of choice and protect us from the constant fear of contamination from GE crops,” said Phil Geertson, an alfalfa farmer based in Idaho.

Related:

A 2009 study showed that the use of genetically modified crops, the vast majority Monsanto’s “roundup ready” crops, has caused over the last 13 years a dramatic increase in herbicide use, by 383 million pounds, and concomitant harms to the environment and human health.

The U.S. Department of Justice has undertaken an investigation of Monsanto regarding violations of anti-trust and monopoly laws and is set to hold public hearings in spring 2010.

Another 2009 study showed that, despite decades of promises and hype, GE crops do not increase yields.
-The Center For Food Safety, The True Food Network

TAKE ACTION: SCHOOL FOODS WORSE THAN FAST FOOD!!!

Protect Children from the USDA’s Unsafe School Lunches
Targeting: Tom Vilsack (Secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Sponsored by: CREDO Action

Know what's less safe for our nation's children than fast-food? Their school lunch!

It's hard to believe, but hamburgers from McDonald's and Jack in the Box are safer than the meat that America's 31 million children are offered at our nation's schools.

Each year the USDA buys some 100 million pounds of beef for America's school lunch program -- but the USDA refuses to adopt common-sense practices to ensure that meat served to our children is safe.

A recent investigation by USA Today found that the meat sold to U.S. school cafeterias faces less testing and lower safety standards than the meat that's served in most fast-food restaurants -- outlets that aren't otherwise known for their health consciousness and are as cost-conscious as the most passionate deficit hawk.

That's right: McDonalds, KFC, and Jack in the Box test the ground beef they buy five to 10 times more frequently than the USDA tests beef for U.S. school lunches! And these restaurants have for years refused to buy certain kinds of lower-quality meat and chicken which the USDA continues to accept.

Despite assurances of safety from Rayne Pegg, head of the Agricultural Marketing Services, the USDA agency responsible for school lunch meat purchases, scientists and experts agree that there is no excuse for the USDA's lax standards. Even the USDA used to agree! As far back as 2000, the USDA Secretary under Bill Clinton vowed to rectify this unacceptable policy. Then the Bush administration took office and Big Meat (AKA the meat industry) used its influence to kill any hope of reform. Until now.

Admirably, current Secretary Tom Vilsack has agreed to "an independent review" of USDA safety standards for school lunch meat. But that is not nearly enough. With tens of millions of pounds of contaminated meat recalled over the past two years, it's only a matter of time before these low standards lead to a school cafeteria outbreak and sickened children. The possibility is unacceptable.

http://www.change.org/actions/view/protect_children_from_the_usdas_unsafe_school_lunches

Tell Secretary Tom Vilsack that our children need immediate, emergency action to make sure that the food they eat each day is the safest possible!