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Genetically Modified Food Industry’s Dirty Little Secret

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Reader Supported News | October 9 2012

As a scientist at Pesticide Action Network, I am frequently asked these days to explain what genetically engineered (GE) crops have to do with pesticides. When I answer that GE crops both contain and drive up pesticide use, I am often met with earnest incredulity. We seem to need to believe that GE technology is the best thing since sliced bread.

On a radio program just last week, a caller voiced his genuine hopes to me that GE crops would provide a green solution to the woes of the world since he’d heard that these crops increase yield, cure blindness and reduce pesticide use. I was sorry to have to disappoint him on all counts, since GE crops have consistently failed to improve yield, have done nothing to date for Vitamin A deficiency-related blindness and have driven increases in pesticide use since their introduction some sixteen years ago.

On this last point, a new study on GE crops out last week added yet more weight to the body of evidence contradicting the GE crop industry’s long-standing myth. Published Friday in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe, the Washington State University (WSU) study offers a simple but devastating finding: GE seeds dramatically increase pesticide use, and that use will grow unless we change the course of our food and farming system.

So here it is, the pesticide industry’s dirty little secret: GE seeds are no green solution to the world’s food needs, but are rather the growth engine of the world’s biggest pesticide companies. In point of fact, the latest wave of GE crops is expected to drive a 25-fold increase in the use of one particularly nasty pesticide (2,4-D) in corn over the next seven years.

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GMO Ticking Time Bomb [Video]

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TheHealthRanger | October 5 2012

The first in an upcoming series of mini-documentary videos about GMOs, this Gary Null production delves into the reality of GMO health risks. Gary Null calls it a “GMO ticking time bomb.”

This video reveals some of the health problems caused by GMOs, including infertility, accelerated aging, organ damage, immune malfunction and more.

Uploaded by NaturalNews.com with permission from Gary Null.

View Part 2 here

 

Whole Foods Knowingly Engages In Massive GMO Deception

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NaturalNews | September 26 2012

Whole Foods deceives consumers into unknowingly buying GMOs while financially supporting a GMO supply chain that ultimately enriches Monsanto, charges an explosive new undercover sting video released by Organic Spies.

The video features secret camera footage from a dozen Whole Foods stores in the Los Angeles area, capturing Whole Foods employees lying on camera about the genetically engineered ingredients found in products sold at Whole Foods.

“It’s against our policy to carry anything that’s grown with GMOs in it,” says one employee, caught on camera.

But according to Organic Spies, anywhere from 20% – 30% of Whole Foods products contain GMOs.

When asked whether Whole Foods products contain GMOs, another employee says, “Absolutely not. Because the bottom line for all Whole Foods is no preservatives, no additives, no added growth hormones, no GMOs, absolutely, that’s for everything.”

This statement is, of course, patently absurd. Even I’ve noticed all kinds of additives and preservatives in products sold at Whole Foods. And GMOs are found throughout the store, including in many so-called “natural” products that are actually made with GM corn. In fact, Natural News just revealed a list of the top 10 breakfast cereals most likely to contain GMOs… and some of them are sold at Whole Foods.

“Whole Foods has mastered the art of bait and switch”

According to the undercover video, Whole Foods has “mastered the art of bait and switch” by advertising their foods as organic and non-GMO, then inundating customers with foods labeled “natural” which actually contain genetically engineered ingredients and pesticide residues.

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Congress Poised to Reverse Monsanto Crop Bans by Courts

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Congress Poised to Reverse Monsanto Crop Bans by CourtsJack Kaskey – A House of Representatives committee voted to let farmers grow genetically modified crops developed by Monsanto Co. (MON) and its competitors during legal appeals of the approval process.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture would be required to permit modified crops to be planted and sold into the food supply after the agency’s approvals have been invalidated by a court, under a provision in the fiscal 2013 agriculture spending bill approved by the House Appropriations committee today.

The one-paragraph provision in the the 90-page bill would circumvent legal obstacles that have slowed commercialization of engineered crops, sometimes for years, benefiting Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company. Planting would be permitted until USDA completes any analysis required by a judge. Continue reading →

Dying Honeybees: It Was the Insecticides All Along

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Jeanne Roberts (Celsias) | Reader Supported News | January 28 2012

BayerWith news that the U.S. honeybee population has been so devastated that some beekeepers will qualify for disaster relief dollars, comes a report from Purdue University that one of the causes of honeybee deaths is – as long suspected – neonicotinoids.

I say one of the causes, because the article does. In fact, the levels of neonicotinoid contamination of the powder used to spread seeds – up to 700,000 times the lethal dose – suggest that this pesticide may be the major, or precipitating, cause, with Varroa mites and other problems simply the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

And this, a myriad of causes, none of them dominant, is what agencies like the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture would have us believe, either because (as some suggest) they are understaffed to adequately investigate Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), or because some of their former (or present) members are in bed with major chemical and genetically modified (GM) seed manufacturers.

The study, by Christian Krupke (professor of entomology) and Greg Hunt (professor of genetics and honeybee specialist), explains that the contaminated powder is residue from the seed treatment. What happens is, corn and soybean seeds are treated with neonicotinoids in a talc base to keep them moving through today’s high-tech vacuum seed spreaders when it comes time to plant.

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