The U.S. government is encouraging farmers to spread a chalky waste from coal-fired power plants on their fields to loosen and fertilize soil.
The material is produced by power plant "scrubbers" that remove acid-rain-causing sulfur dioxide from plant emissions.
The substance is a synthetic form of the mineral gypsum, and it also contains mercury, arsenic, lead and other heavy metals.
The Environmental Protection Agency says those toxic metals occur in only tiny amounts. But some environmentalists say too little is known about how the material affects crops, and ultimately human health.
Sources:
Washington Post December 23, 2009
Wall Street Journal January 9, 2010
-Dr Joseph Mercoloa
As you may know, coal-fired plants produce about 50 percent of the power in the US, and are a major source of environmental pollution. One of its byproducts is FGD gypsum (flue gas desulfurization gypsum). Not surprisingly, the standard solution is to develop a scheme to sweep the problem under the rug and make money doing it.
In this case, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has begun promoting what they call “wastes beneficial uses,” in order to deal with industrial byproducts.
This is history repeating itself ad nauseum.
The plot to use of FGD gypsum on agricultural soils is virtually identical to the story of how the toxic byproduct fluoride was deemed beneficial to human health, once it became too costly for the aluminum industry to clean it up.
If you’re not yet aware of how the “beneficial waste uses” of fluoride came about, you may want to take a look at it now, because these two stories are hauntingly familiar.
Ironically, while the EPA and USDA are recommending the use of this toxic byproduct on fields, the Obama administration is also in the process of drafting the first federal standards for storage and disposal of coal wastes. The White House and the EPA are currently at odds over how to handle the more than 125 million tons of coal ash and sludge waste generated each year, reports the Wall Street Journal.
According to the Associated Press, this action was prompted by a spill from a coal ash pond near Knoxville, TN, just over a year ago. Ash and water flooded 300 acres, damaging homes and killing fish. The cleanup will cost an estimated $1 billion.
It’s logically challenging to accept that while an accidental coal waste spill is environmentally devastating, the willful spreading coal waste on farm lands, year after year, would be environmentally sound.
Granted, the combined contents of the spill was likely far more toxic than FGD gypsum alone, but we’re still talking about adding toxins to our farm lands, and no matter how minute these toxins are, they will eventually accumulate.
Why would we want to do this to ourselves, and to our future generations?
Where Else Can You Find This Toxic Byproduct?
By the way, the use of FGD gypsum on farm fields is not brand new. According to the American Coal Ash Association, farmers' use of the material has more than tripled in the past 6 years, from about 78,000 tons spread on fields in 2002, to nearly 279,000 tons in 2008.
However, the overall annual production of this byproduct is expected to double in the next several years, as more coal-fired plants come online and as more scrubbers are added to existing power plants to comply with the EPA’s Clean Air Interstate Rule and other requirements. This means, the problem of what to do with all that waste will grow significantly.
About half of the nearly 18 million tons of FGD gypsum produced in the US in 2008 was put to “beneficial use” in the manufacturing of drywall. However, did you know that this potentially heavy metal-laced byproduct is also used as a filler ingredient in some foods and in toothpaste?!
Yet another reason to avoid processed foods. Much of it is not even food-based!
There’s no question that the push for FGD gypsum in farming is orchestrated by the industry producing the waste – as a solution that is convenient and profit-producing for them. I doubt it has ANY real benefits to human health.
Consider this 2007 National Network for Use of FGD Gypsum in Agriculture workshop, led by the Electric Power Research Institute, whose sole objective is to “increase the use of FGD gypsum in agricultural applications.”
The electric power industry hard at work to improve the quality of your food?
I think not.
Because as reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Electric Power Research Institute has also stated that utilities could lose $5 billion to $10 billion of revenue each year if they were no longer allowed to sell coal combustion byproducts to industry. Furthermore, the organization says added storage costs could be a burden on power plants, especially those operating in deregulated markets, where they must compete against other forms of non-coal power generation.
What Can You Do?
There does not appear to be any kind of grassroots movement to stop this practice. Or if there is, I’ve not been able to find it. However, there is one thing I’d encourage you to do, and that is to bring your concerns about the agricultural use of FGD gypsum to the attention of organic growers everywhere.
Why?
Because it appears use of FGD gypsum may have trickled into organic farming as well, since it’s not considered a petroleum-based soil additive, which is forbidden in organic farming.
One of the significant benefits of buying locally-grown, organic food is that you can oftentimes meet the growers face to face. You can ask questions about their growing practices and discuss your personal concerns with them directly. And that is a dialogue I believe must be revived.
We’ve become so far removed from our food sources, most people have no idea what they’re putting in their mouths anymore. Approaching your local farmers and opening up a dialogue might be the most important thing any one of us could do.
Related Links:
Buying Local Should Include Buying Organic
Organic Farming Increases Crop Yields
What You Don't Know About Factory Farming May Make You Sick
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
At a Mighty 104 Strongman, Gone While Still Going Strong
At a Mighty 104, Gone While Still Going Strong
">NY Times
By MANNY FERNANDEZ and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: January 11, 2010
Joe Rollino once lifted 475 pounds. He used neither his arms nor his legs but, reportedly, his teeth. With just one finger he raised up 635 pounds; with his back he moved 3,200. He bit down on quarters to bend them with his thumb.
NO MATCH Joe Rollino bending a spike with his teeth. He once raised 635 pounds with a finger; he called that his proudest feat.
Charles Denson
IN FORM Mr. Rollino at a party in Brooklyn for his 103rd birthday. He was one of the last links to the old Coney Island strongmen.
Enlarge This Image
EARLY BRAWN Mr. Rollino at age 10, weighing in at 68 pounds. In his prime, he was the greatest strongman, pound for pound, one expert said.
People called him the Great Joe Rollino, the Mighty Joe Rollino and even the World’s Strongest Man, and what did it matter if at least one of those people was Mr. Rollino himself.
On Monday morning, Mr. Rollino went for a walk in his Brooklyn neighborhood, a daily routine. It was part of the Great Joe Rollino’s greatest feat, a display of physical dexterity and stamina so subtle that it revealed itself only if you happened to ask him his date of birth: March 19, 1905. He was 104 years old and counting.
A few minutes before 7 a.m., as Mr. Rollino was crossing Bay Ridge Parkway at 13th Avenue, a 1999 Ford Windstar minivan struck him. The police said he suffered fractures to his pelvis, chest, ribs and face, as well as head trauma. Unconscious, he was taken to Lutheran Medical Center, where he later died.
New York is a city of extraordinary lives and events, and here, indisputably, was one of them — one of the city’s strongest and oldest, struck down on a Monday morning by a minivan in Brooklyn.
“Pound for pound, in the feats that he practiced, he was one of the greatest performing strongmen we’ve ever had, if the lifts he’s credited with are accurate,” said Terry Todd, a co-director of the Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports at the University of Texas, who knew Mr. Rollino for more than four decades. “He certainly wasn’t one of the strongest all-time strongmen, because of his size. To ask a well-trained 130-pound man if he can lift what a well-trained 400-pound man can lift is asking an unreasonable question. But for his size, Joe was apparently one of the strongest men who ever lived.”
Mr. Rollino stayed away from meat. And cigarettes. And alcohol. He said he walked five miles every morning, rain or shine. At the height of his career, he weighed between 125 and 150 pounds and stood about 5-foot-5.
He was a teenager when he watched Jack Dempsey knock out Jess Willard in 1919. He later boxed under the name Kid Dundee, became a Coney Island performer, worked as a longshoreman, fought in World War II and had a bit part in “On the Waterfront” that never made the film, not necessarily in that order.
Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Rollino was proudest of one in particular. “My finger strength,” he told an interviewer for ESPN The Magazine. “Six hundred thirty-five pounds. See the size of it. At 150 pounds, nobody ever beat me in this world.”
He was a legend within that small Coney Island society in which few New Yorkers would want to become known as legends: the men and women who swim in the Atlantic when it is at its harshest and coldest. On a 6-degree day in January 1974, Mr. Rollino and six other members of the Iceberg Athletic Club swam into the waters off Coney Island. The freezing Atlantic was like steel: It didn’t intimidate him.
“People told me he holds the record for swimming every day for eight years,” said Louis Scarcella, 59, a former homicide detective and a member of the city’s oldest winter swimming club, the Coney Island Polar Bear Club. “He was known as the Great Joe Rollino, and he was great. You knew he was great just by standing next to him. He just had that humble confidence and strength. It shined.”
Mr. Scarcella, like many of those who knew Mr. Rollino, has a Joe Rollino story, or several Joe Rollino stories. And though some of them can be neither confirmed nor refuted, they get told and retold and told again, because they are too good not to. Mr. Scarcella heard that one winter in the 1950s, Mr. Rollino recovered the bodies of two people who drowned in Prospect Park, because the police did not have the necessary protective equipment and it was too cold for anyone else to jump in and bring them to the surface.
Mr. Rollino was a longtime member of the Association of Oldetime Barbell and Strongmen. Dennis Rogers, a fellow member and a professional strongman, remembered seeing him at the association’s annual dinner in June, at a hotel near the Newark airport. “He just came in to say hi to everybody and coached some of the guys that were performing,” said Mr. Rogers, who in 1995 prevented four motorcycles from moving at full throttle for 12 seconds, according to his Web site. “He would regularly work out in the gym. He was in pretty good shape. He walked a little slow but looked fine.”
Mr. Rollino had lately been living in Brooklyn with a niece, in a house on 14th Avenue, about a block from where the accident occurred. The driver of the minivan that struck Mr. Rollino, a 54-year-old woman who lives in the neighborhood and who remained at the scene, was not charged. She received a summons for having a defective horn, and the police said that neither speed nor alcohol was a factor. Mr. Rollino had been walking about 40 feet from the nearest crosswalk when the minivan hit him, according to the authorities.
Old photographs of Mr. Rollino are displayed in several neighborhood shops. People called him Puggy. “If he shook your hand, he’d break it,” said James Romeo, owner of Romeo Brothers Meats and Foods on 15th Avenue. “He wasn’t feeble.”
Charles Denson, a historian and the author of “Coney Island: Lost and Found,” first met Mr. Rollino at his 103rd birthday party at a neighborhood restaurant. “He was one of the last links to the old strongman days of Coney Island,” he said. “Coney Island was the training ground for strongmen. He was one of the best.”
Mr. Rollino wowed the crowd at the party, Mr. Denson recalled. He told stories about the old days, of course, but he was more than just talk, even at 103. Mr. Rollino put a quarter in his teeth. Then he bent it.
Stacey Solie and Karen Zraick contributed reporting.
">NY Times
By MANNY FERNANDEZ and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: January 11, 2010
Joe Rollino once lifted 475 pounds. He used neither his arms nor his legs but, reportedly, his teeth. With just one finger he raised up 635 pounds; with his back he moved 3,200. He bit down on quarters to bend them with his thumb.
NO MATCH Joe Rollino bending a spike with his teeth. He once raised 635 pounds with a finger; he called that his proudest feat.
Charles Denson
IN FORM Mr. Rollino at a party in Brooklyn for his 103rd birthday. He was one of the last links to the old Coney Island strongmen.
Enlarge This Image
EARLY BRAWN Mr. Rollino at age 10, weighing in at 68 pounds. In his prime, he was the greatest strongman, pound for pound, one expert said.
People called him the Great Joe Rollino, the Mighty Joe Rollino and even the World’s Strongest Man, and what did it matter if at least one of those people was Mr. Rollino himself.
On Monday morning, Mr. Rollino went for a walk in his Brooklyn neighborhood, a daily routine. It was part of the Great Joe Rollino’s greatest feat, a display of physical dexterity and stamina so subtle that it revealed itself only if you happened to ask him his date of birth: March 19, 1905. He was 104 years old and counting.
A few minutes before 7 a.m., as Mr. Rollino was crossing Bay Ridge Parkway at 13th Avenue, a 1999 Ford Windstar minivan struck him. The police said he suffered fractures to his pelvis, chest, ribs and face, as well as head trauma. Unconscious, he was taken to Lutheran Medical Center, where he later died.
New York is a city of extraordinary lives and events, and here, indisputably, was one of them — one of the city’s strongest and oldest, struck down on a Monday morning by a minivan in Brooklyn.
“Pound for pound, in the feats that he practiced, he was one of the greatest performing strongmen we’ve ever had, if the lifts he’s credited with are accurate,” said Terry Todd, a co-director of the Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports at the University of Texas, who knew Mr. Rollino for more than four decades. “He certainly wasn’t one of the strongest all-time strongmen, because of his size. To ask a well-trained 130-pound man if he can lift what a well-trained 400-pound man can lift is asking an unreasonable question. But for his size, Joe was apparently one of the strongest men who ever lived.”
Mr. Rollino stayed away from meat. And cigarettes. And alcohol. He said he walked five miles every morning, rain or shine. At the height of his career, he weighed between 125 and 150 pounds and stood about 5-foot-5.
He was a teenager when he watched Jack Dempsey knock out Jess Willard in 1919. He later boxed under the name Kid Dundee, became a Coney Island performer, worked as a longshoreman, fought in World War II and had a bit part in “On the Waterfront” that never made the film, not necessarily in that order.
Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Rollino was proudest of one in particular. “My finger strength,” he told an interviewer for ESPN The Magazine. “Six hundred thirty-five pounds. See the size of it. At 150 pounds, nobody ever beat me in this world.”
He was a legend within that small Coney Island society in which few New Yorkers would want to become known as legends: the men and women who swim in the Atlantic when it is at its harshest and coldest. On a 6-degree day in January 1974, Mr. Rollino and six other members of the Iceberg Athletic Club swam into the waters off Coney Island. The freezing Atlantic was like steel: It didn’t intimidate him.
“People told me he holds the record for swimming every day for eight years,” said Louis Scarcella, 59, a former homicide detective and a member of the city’s oldest winter swimming club, the Coney Island Polar Bear Club. “He was known as the Great Joe Rollino, and he was great. You knew he was great just by standing next to him. He just had that humble confidence and strength. It shined.”
Mr. Scarcella, like many of those who knew Mr. Rollino, has a Joe Rollino story, or several Joe Rollino stories. And though some of them can be neither confirmed nor refuted, they get told and retold and told again, because they are too good not to. Mr. Scarcella heard that one winter in the 1950s, Mr. Rollino recovered the bodies of two people who drowned in Prospect Park, because the police did not have the necessary protective equipment and it was too cold for anyone else to jump in and bring them to the surface.
Mr. Rollino was a longtime member of the Association of Oldetime Barbell and Strongmen. Dennis Rogers, a fellow member and a professional strongman, remembered seeing him at the association’s annual dinner in June, at a hotel near the Newark airport. “He just came in to say hi to everybody and coached some of the guys that were performing,” said Mr. Rogers, who in 1995 prevented four motorcycles from moving at full throttle for 12 seconds, according to his Web site. “He would regularly work out in the gym. He was in pretty good shape. He walked a little slow but looked fine.”
Mr. Rollino had lately been living in Brooklyn with a niece, in a house on 14th Avenue, about a block from where the accident occurred. The driver of the minivan that struck Mr. Rollino, a 54-year-old woman who lives in the neighborhood and who remained at the scene, was not charged. She received a summons for having a defective horn, and the police said that neither speed nor alcohol was a factor. Mr. Rollino had been walking about 40 feet from the nearest crosswalk when the minivan hit him, according to the authorities.
Old photographs of Mr. Rollino are displayed in several neighborhood shops. People called him Puggy. “If he shook your hand, he’d break it,” said James Romeo, owner of Romeo Brothers Meats and Foods on 15th Avenue. “He wasn’t feeble.”
Charles Denson, a historian and the author of “Coney Island: Lost and Found,” first met Mr. Rollino at his 103rd birthday party at a neighborhood restaurant. “He was one of the last links to the old strongman days of Coney Island,” he said. “Coney Island was the training ground for strongmen. He was one of the best.”
Mr. Rollino wowed the crowd at the party, Mr. Denson recalled. He told stories about the old days, of course, but he was more than just talk, even at 103. Mr. Rollino put a quarter in his teeth. Then he bent it.
Stacey Solie and Karen Zraick contributed reporting.
25 ways to improve your health and happiness in 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
NaturalNews) The New Year is upon us, and for many people, it includes a New Year's resolution for achieving improved health and happiness in 2010. Here are twenty-five health-enhancing ideas to help you accomplish that goal.
#1 - Replace sodas or soft drinks with tea or water.
#2 - Commit to eating one raw fruit (or serving of vegetables) at every meal.
#3 - Add just 5 minutes a day to your exercise routine. Don't have an exercise routine? Start with 5 minutes a day!
#4 - Get more sunshine!
#5 - Learn some Pilates. It's probably the #1 exercise system for core strength and flexibility.
#6 - Drink a superfood smoothie every day.
#7 - Buy more indoor plants: They purify the air in your home.
#8 - Take a quality, wild-harvested fish oil supplement that contains vitamin D.
#9 - Eat more quinoa: It's a high-protein, low-carb "grain" that can easily replace rice or couscous.
#10 - When you get out of bed each morning, do five sit-ups first. It sounds simple, but just 5 sit-ups a day can make a difference.
#11 - Instead of trying to find a parking spot so close to the grocery store, park farther away. You'll get a little more walking exercise and a little more sunshine.
#12 - Get a good water filter so you can stop drinking tap water (or bottled water).
#13 - Pick up a "gentle" art like Tai-Qi or Yoga. It will reduce your stress and improve your physical stamina.
#14 - Take a relaxing hot bath with epsom salts and soothing herbs like lavender. It will do wonders for your mind and your muscles.
#15 - Get a professional massage! Massage therapy is really, really healthy, and it's a great way to reward yourself for some of the other accomplishments you're making.
#16 - Grow your own sprouts! With a simple, low-cost sprouting machine, you can grow and eat your own sprouts. Eating just one ounce of sprouts a day still had a huge impact on preventing cancer and boosting immune function.
#17 - Prepare for a Spring garden. Sure, it's cold and snowy right now, but make a commitment to start a garden this Spring, and you'll reap many health benefits in the months ahead.
#18 - Get a mini-trampoline and do some rebounding in your living room. You can even watch movies or documentary DVDs at the same time.
#19 - Make a point to get at least eight hours of sleep for 2-3 nights a week (or more, if you can). Most people are sleep deprived, and the health cost is enormous.
#20 - Start visiting local farmer's markets so that you eat more local food in 2010. You'll be healthier and happier as a result.
#21 - Got a job you don't like? Quit it! Downgrade your lifestyle to live on less money, then pursue what you really enjoy. Being happy in a small house is better than being miserable in a big one.
#22 - Get off those medications! Make a point to learn how to safely and gradually get yourself off all the medications you can by eliminating underlying imbalances or illnesses. The fewer medications you take, the healthier you'll be!
#23 - Throw out your television! Are you still watching cable TV or satellite TV? It's a complete waste of your life (but you already knew that). Disconnect the cable. Read more books and get your information online where news sources are more independent and intelligent.
#24 - Make a decision to think of food as nourishment instead of entertainment. Eat what your body needs, not what your taste buds desire.
#25 - Teach others how to be healthy! The more you talk with others about healthy habits, the more you'll follow them yourself. :-)
That's it! I hope you enjoyed these 25 ideas for improving your health in 2010 (and beyond).
Of course, one of the best ways to keep improving your health in 2010 is to keep reading NaturalNews! We'll be bringing you more natural cures, herbal remedies and self-care tips throughout 2010.
I'm personally looking forward to sharing a great year with you!
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
NaturalNews) The New Year is upon us, and for many people, it includes a New Year's resolution for achieving improved health and happiness in 2010. Here are twenty-five health-enhancing ideas to help you accomplish that goal.
#1 - Replace sodas or soft drinks with tea or water.
#2 - Commit to eating one raw fruit (or serving of vegetables) at every meal.
#3 - Add just 5 minutes a day to your exercise routine. Don't have an exercise routine? Start with 5 minutes a day!
#4 - Get more sunshine!
#5 - Learn some Pilates. It's probably the #1 exercise system for core strength and flexibility.
#6 - Drink a superfood smoothie every day.
#7 - Buy more indoor plants: They purify the air in your home.
#8 - Take a quality, wild-harvested fish oil supplement that contains vitamin D.
#9 - Eat more quinoa: It's a high-protein, low-carb "grain" that can easily replace rice or couscous.
#10 - When you get out of bed each morning, do five sit-ups first. It sounds simple, but just 5 sit-ups a day can make a difference.
#11 - Instead of trying to find a parking spot so close to the grocery store, park farther away. You'll get a little more walking exercise and a little more sunshine.
#12 - Get a good water filter so you can stop drinking tap water (or bottled water).
#13 - Pick up a "gentle" art like Tai-Qi or Yoga. It will reduce your stress and improve your physical stamina.
#14 - Take a relaxing hot bath with epsom salts and soothing herbs like lavender. It will do wonders for your mind and your muscles.
#15 - Get a professional massage! Massage therapy is really, really healthy, and it's a great way to reward yourself for some of the other accomplishments you're making.
#16 - Grow your own sprouts! With a simple, low-cost sprouting machine, you can grow and eat your own sprouts. Eating just one ounce of sprouts a day still had a huge impact on preventing cancer and boosting immune function.
#17 - Prepare for a Spring garden. Sure, it's cold and snowy right now, but make a commitment to start a garden this Spring, and you'll reap many health benefits in the months ahead.
#18 - Get a mini-trampoline and do some rebounding in your living room. You can even watch movies or documentary DVDs at the same time.
#19 - Make a point to get at least eight hours of sleep for 2-3 nights a week (or more, if you can). Most people are sleep deprived, and the health cost is enormous.
#20 - Start visiting local farmer's markets so that you eat more local food in 2010. You'll be healthier and happier as a result.
#21 - Got a job you don't like? Quit it! Downgrade your lifestyle to live on less money, then pursue what you really enjoy. Being happy in a small house is better than being miserable in a big one.
#22 - Get off those medications! Make a point to learn how to safely and gradually get yourself off all the medications you can by eliminating underlying imbalances or illnesses. The fewer medications you take, the healthier you'll be!
#23 - Throw out your television! Are you still watching cable TV or satellite TV? It's a complete waste of your life (but you already knew that). Disconnect the cable. Read more books and get your information online where news sources are more independent and intelligent.
#24 - Make a decision to think of food as nourishment instead of entertainment. Eat what your body needs, not what your taste buds desire.
#25 - Teach others how to be healthy! The more you talk with others about healthy habits, the more you'll follow them yourself. :-)
That's it! I hope you enjoyed these 25 ideas for improving your health in 2010 (and beyond).
Of course, one of the best ways to keep improving your health in 2010 is to keep reading NaturalNews! We'll be bringing you more natural cures, herbal remedies and self-care tips throughout 2010.
I'm personally looking forward to sharing a great year with you!
Three Approved GMO Crops Linked to Organ Damage
(NaturalNews)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 by: Aaron Turpen, citizen journalist
Genetically Modified crops (or GM) are genetically modified organisms (GMO) that have been altered to meet a specific profile. They have also been the subject of controversy almost since their introduction two decades ago. A new study pinpoints three variations of GM corn (maize) as being linked to organ damage in mammals.
The three varieties in question are Mon 810, Mon 863, and NK 603. The "Mon" is for, you guessed it, Monsanto and the NK is also a Monsanto product, being engineered for herbicide tolerance. The study was conducted by the Committee of Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN) and the Universities of Caen and Rouen in France.1
The study used the same data that was used by Monsanto to gain approval in several parts of the world. The data was released publicly in 2005 by European authorities when the three GM strains were approved for human consumption in both the U.S. and Europe.
Gilles-Eric Seralini, a molecular biologist at the University of Caen and one of the principals in the study, says that the data "clearly underlines adverse impacts on kidneys and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, as well as different levels of damages to heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system."
Each of the three strains produced differing amounts of adverse impact, but the impact on vital organs was universal for all three GM crops.
The study was completed in December 2009 and appears in the International Journal of Biological Sciences1 (IJBS). It conforms with and substantiates an earlier study done by CRIIGEN in 2007 on Mon 863.2 The results of that study were rejected by Monsanto.3
One controversy many point to when criticizing Monsanto's counter-analysis as well as the governmental acceptance of the GM crops is in the way Monsanto's studies were carried out. Traditionally, when testing drug, pesticide, or other human-ingested items' safety, the standard protocol is to use three different mammalian species.
Monsanto used only rats for their studies, but still managed to win GMO approval in at least a dozen countries. Further, the studies were carried out in only 90 day spans, which is not long enough to find most chronic problems.
Other problems with Monsanto's studies should have raised more red flags, but they were ignored by the governmental panels put in charge of making the decision to allow the company's genetically modified crops into wide distribution in their countries.
The new CRIIGEN study concludes that the raw data makes it clear that all three GMO crops have real problems and should be put under "an immediate ban on the import and export of these GMOs." The study also strongly recommends additional long-term, multi-generational animal feeding studies be done on at least three species to provide truly scientific "data on the acute and chronic toxic effects of GM crops, feed and foods."
Resources:
1 - de Vendomois JS, Roullier F, Cellier D, Seralini GE. A Comparison of the Effects of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health. - Int J Biol Sci 2009; 5:706-726.
2 Greenpeace analysis of MON863 CRIIGEN study, 2007.
3 Rejection of the 2007 study on Monsanto's website.
4 Information about Genetically Modified foods
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 by: Aaron Turpen, citizen journalist
Genetically Modified crops (or GM) are genetically modified organisms (GMO) that have been altered to meet a specific profile. They have also been the subject of controversy almost since their introduction two decades ago. A new study pinpoints three variations of GM corn (maize) as being linked to organ damage in mammals.
The three varieties in question are Mon 810, Mon 863, and NK 603. The "Mon" is for, you guessed it, Monsanto and the NK is also a Monsanto product, being engineered for herbicide tolerance. The study was conducted by the Committee of Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN) and the Universities of Caen and Rouen in France.1
The study used the same data that was used by Monsanto to gain approval in several parts of the world. The data was released publicly in 2005 by European authorities when the three GM strains were approved for human consumption in both the U.S. and Europe.
Gilles-Eric Seralini, a molecular biologist at the University of Caen and one of the principals in the study, says that the data "clearly underlines adverse impacts on kidneys and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, as well as different levels of damages to heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system."
Each of the three strains produced differing amounts of adverse impact, but the impact on vital organs was universal for all three GM crops.
The study was completed in December 2009 and appears in the International Journal of Biological Sciences1 (IJBS). It conforms with and substantiates an earlier study done by CRIIGEN in 2007 on Mon 863.2 The results of that study were rejected by Monsanto.3
One controversy many point to when criticizing Monsanto's counter-analysis as well as the governmental acceptance of the GM crops is in the way Monsanto's studies were carried out. Traditionally, when testing drug, pesticide, or other human-ingested items' safety, the standard protocol is to use three different mammalian species.
Monsanto used only rats for their studies, but still managed to win GMO approval in at least a dozen countries. Further, the studies were carried out in only 90 day spans, which is not long enough to find most chronic problems.
Other problems with Monsanto's studies should have raised more red flags, but they were ignored by the governmental panels put in charge of making the decision to allow the company's genetically modified crops into wide distribution in their countries.
The new CRIIGEN study concludes that the raw data makes it clear that all three GMO crops have real problems and should be put under "an immediate ban on the import and export of these GMOs." The study also strongly recommends additional long-term, multi-generational animal feeding studies be done on at least three species to provide truly scientific "data on the acute and chronic toxic effects of GM crops, feed and foods."
Resources:
1 - de Vendomois JS, Roullier F, Cellier D, Seralini GE. A Comparison of the Effects of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health. - Int J Biol Sci 2009; 5:706-726.
2 Greenpeace analysis of MON863 CRIIGEN study, 2007.
3 Rejection of the 2007 study on Monsanto's website.
4 Information about Genetically Modified foods
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The scanning machines actually do save and transmit the images of nude air passengers.
Monday, January 11, 2010
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) The TSA has been lying to the American people about full-body scanners. The agency has insisted that these "digital strip search" machines are incapable of saving, storing or transmitting the images they take. This, we are told, makes it okay for people to be digitally strip-searched.
But secret documents uncovered by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (www.EPIC.org) have revealed that these machines do indeed posses precisely such capabilities. According to TSA specification requirement documents that have been uncovered by the EPIC, all full-body scanners purchased by the TSA must have the ability to both save and transmit the scanned images of air passengers.
The documents were obtained by EPIC through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. They have also been shared with CNN, which has viewed the documents and published a story about what they reveal.
These documents contradict the claims of the TSA, which include the statement that "the system has no way to save, transmit or print the image."
TSA misleads the public
The TSA's own "imaging technology" page (http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/im...) claims, "This state-of-the-art technology cannot store, print, transmit or save the image. In fact, all machines are delivered to airports with these functions disabled."
That in itself is an interesting statement because by stating those functions are "disabled," it also admits that the machines inherently have these functions. And just because the machines are delivered with the functions disabled doesn't mean those functions can't be re-enabled at the flick of a switch.
In other words, these machines are designed and constructed with the ability to save, store and transmit the images.
"I don't think the TSA has been forthcoming with the American public about the true capability of these devices," said the Executive Director of EPIC, Marc Rotenberg in a CNN interview. "They've done a bunch of very slick promotions where they show people -- including journalists -- going through the devices. And then they reassure people, based on the images that have been produced, that there's not any privacy concerns. But if you look at the actual technical specifications and you read the vendor contracts, you come to understand that these machines are capable of doing far more than the TSA has let on." (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/...)
In other words, the TSA is telling the public and the press one thing, but the machines they're buying are capable of something far more insidious, these documents reveal. Is the TSA intentionally lying to the public in order to mislead people over the real capabilities of these machines?
If these full-body scanners can save, store and transmit images, then it's only a matter of time before some rogue TSA employee finds a way to copy off the images or display them on the screen so that they can take snapshots with their own portable cameras.
The TSA says it's protecting your privacy. But its own scanner specification documents tell a different story: The TSA won't even buy these machines unless they can save, store and transmit revealing images of air passengers.
Sources for this story include:
CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/...
TSA.gov:
http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/im...
EPIC:
www.Epic.org
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) The TSA has been lying to the American people about full-body scanners. The agency has insisted that these "digital strip search" machines are incapable of saving, storing or transmitting the images they take. This, we are told, makes it okay for people to be digitally strip-searched.
But secret documents uncovered by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (www.EPIC.org) have revealed that these machines do indeed posses precisely such capabilities. According to TSA specification requirement documents that have been uncovered by the EPIC, all full-body scanners purchased by the TSA must have the ability to both save and transmit the scanned images of air passengers.
The documents were obtained by EPIC through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. They have also been shared with CNN, which has viewed the documents and published a story about what they reveal.
These documents contradict the claims of the TSA, which include the statement that "the system has no way to save, transmit or print the image."
TSA misleads the public
The TSA's own "imaging technology" page (http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/im...) claims, "This state-of-the-art technology cannot store, print, transmit or save the image. In fact, all machines are delivered to airports with these functions disabled."
That in itself is an interesting statement because by stating those functions are "disabled," it also admits that the machines inherently have these functions. And just because the machines are delivered with the functions disabled doesn't mean those functions can't be re-enabled at the flick of a switch.
In other words, these machines are designed and constructed with the ability to save, store and transmit the images.
"I don't think the TSA has been forthcoming with the American public about the true capability of these devices," said the Executive Director of EPIC, Marc Rotenberg in a CNN interview. "They've done a bunch of very slick promotions where they show people -- including journalists -- going through the devices. And then they reassure people, based on the images that have been produced, that there's not any privacy concerns. But if you look at the actual technical specifications and you read the vendor contracts, you come to understand that these machines are capable of doing far more than the TSA has let on." (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/...)
In other words, the TSA is telling the public and the press one thing, but the machines they're buying are capable of something far more insidious, these documents reveal. Is the TSA intentionally lying to the public in order to mislead people over the real capabilities of these machines?
If these full-body scanners can save, store and transmit images, then it's only a matter of time before some rogue TSA employee finds a way to copy off the images or display them on the screen so that they can take snapshots with their own portable cameras.
The TSA says it's protecting your privacy. But its own scanner specification documents tell a different story: The TSA won't even buy these machines unless they can save, store and transmit revealing images of air passengers.
Sources for this story include:
CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/...
TSA.gov:
http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/im...
EPIC:
www.Epic.org
Monsanto is trying to take over the world -This is Scary
(NaturalNews) Tuesday, January 12, 2010 by: Ethan Huff, citizen journalist:
According to a recent Associated Press investigation, agri-giant Monsanto regularly employs business practices that not only aim to eliminate all competition, but essentially position the company as the sole proprietor of all things related to food. While old news to many in the natural health community, the mainstream press is beginning to recognize the world domination tactics being employed by Monsanto that are slowly destroying the integrity of the global food supply.
Monsanto's genetic modification program has reached 95 percent of domestic soybean crops and 80 percent of domestic corn crops. It has plans in the works to insert its patented genes into wheat crops as well, given U.S. farmers agree to use them this time around. These percentages are likely even higher when considering the natural and unintended spread of pollen and seeds from these genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) into conventional or organic fields.
According to Neil Harl, an agricultural economist from Iowa State University, Monsanto now has patented control over 90 percent of seeds and seed genetics, a chilling notion that has far-reaching consequences. Since the company regularly buys up independent seed companies, its competition is dwindling and the prices for its patented seeds continue to rise.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and at least two state attorneys general are probing Monsanto's contracts and agreements that many are alleging violate antitrust laws. Everything from exerting unreasonable control on farmers who purchase its seeds to flat out lying about their benefits is under investigation.
Once a farmer agrees to use even a single Monsanto gene or seed he is essentially locked into a contract with Monsanto that is very difficult to get out of logistically. Once the seed traits have proliferated a crop, removing it in order to revert back to a conventional seed is extremely difficult and expensive, leaving many farmers helpless to escape Monsanto's control over them.
Monsanto's contracts also contain provisions that mandate the destruction of all seeds containing its genes if and when a seed company changes ownership, making it easy for Monsanto to buy up seed companies cheaply and eliminate all competitor participation in the bidding process.
Many seed growers and crop farmers feel cornered by Monsanto as it solidifies its control over the entire seed and crop industry. Most have no other option but to continue using Monsanto products or else face ruin. Unless the DOJ steps in and clamps down on Monsanto's quest for total control, the world's food supply may eventually be controlled by a single biotechnology corporation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have some video's on Monsanto on My youtube channel under Monsanto -- I dont want to live in a Monsanto World
Sources:
Food giant's power tactics - Salon
AN AP INVESTIGATION: Monsanto seed business role revealed - GlobeGazette.com
Monsanto uses patent law to control most of U.S. corn, soy seed market - Cleveland.com
According to a recent Associated Press investigation, agri-giant Monsanto regularly employs business practices that not only aim to eliminate all competition, but essentially position the company as the sole proprietor of all things related to food. While old news to many in the natural health community, the mainstream press is beginning to recognize the world domination tactics being employed by Monsanto that are slowly destroying the integrity of the global food supply.
Monsanto's genetic modification program has reached 95 percent of domestic soybean crops and 80 percent of domestic corn crops. It has plans in the works to insert its patented genes into wheat crops as well, given U.S. farmers agree to use them this time around. These percentages are likely even higher when considering the natural and unintended spread of pollen and seeds from these genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) into conventional or organic fields.
According to Neil Harl, an agricultural economist from Iowa State University, Monsanto now has patented control over 90 percent of seeds and seed genetics, a chilling notion that has far-reaching consequences. Since the company regularly buys up independent seed companies, its competition is dwindling and the prices for its patented seeds continue to rise.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and at least two state attorneys general are probing Monsanto's contracts and agreements that many are alleging violate antitrust laws. Everything from exerting unreasonable control on farmers who purchase its seeds to flat out lying about their benefits is under investigation.
Once a farmer agrees to use even a single Monsanto gene or seed he is essentially locked into a contract with Monsanto that is very difficult to get out of logistically. Once the seed traits have proliferated a crop, removing it in order to revert back to a conventional seed is extremely difficult and expensive, leaving many farmers helpless to escape Monsanto's control over them.
Monsanto's contracts also contain provisions that mandate the destruction of all seeds containing its genes if and when a seed company changes ownership, making it easy for Monsanto to buy up seed companies cheaply and eliminate all competitor participation in the bidding process.
Many seed growers and crop farmers feel cornered by Monsanto as it solidifies its control over the entire seed and crop industry. Most have no other option but to continue using Monsanto products or else face ruin. Unless the DOJ steps in and clamps down on Monsanto's quest for total control, the world's food supply may eventually be controlled by a single biotechnology corporation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have some video's on Monsanto on My youtube channel under Monsanto -- I dont want to live in a Monsanto World
Sources:
Food giant's power tactics - Salon
AN AP INVESTIGATION: Monsanto seed business role revealed - GlobeGazette.com
Monsanto uses patent law to control most of U.S. corn, soy seed market - Cleveland.com
Monday, January 11, 2010
Do Right by the Forest and It will do Right by you- Arnold Coombs
Wow I just love this... First off I just love Maple Trees and well It turns out I was searching for a better Maple Syrup than the brands we currently use and I came across this webstite and I just love their story.
I had to share...
Small farms play a big role in preserving the health and character of our land. They help to protect ecosystems, conserve our resources, and keep an important lifestyle alive. Small farms also provide opportunities for us all to learn more about where the foods we eat come from - and how we can play a more direct, engaged role in determining how our food is produced, and how it gets to our table. When it comes to a sustainable agriculture, small is a big idea.
Coombs Family Farm
I had to share...
Small farms play a big role in preserving the health and character of our land. They help to protect ecosystems, conserve our resources, and keep an important lifestyle alive. Small farms also provide opportunities for us all to learn more about where the foods we eat come from - and how we can play a more direct, engaged role in determining how our food is produced, and how it gets to our table. When it comes to a sustainable agriculture, small is a big idea.
Coombs Family Farm
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Suzanne Somers talks about Big Pharma...
It is the interest of Big Business to teach this moneymaking protocol and from a business standpoint they have the perfect template in place: fund the students who will administer their medicines, fund the Hospitals to administer their medicines, lobby in Washinton D.C.. for a standard of care that revoloves around their medicines, make it illegal not to use their medicines, and ostracize doctors who don't toe the company line, calling them quacks, charlatans and frauds and running them out of town.
Pharma is not interested in anything that comes from Natur. Anything from Nature cannot be patented, and if it cant be patended, there is little revenue in it. This is why so often many natural alternatives to serious disease never see the light of day.
- Suzanne Somers
Her book "Knockout" is a must read.. very important and interesting there is so much information in this book.
Pharma is not interested in anything that comes from Natur. Anything from Nature cannot be patented, and if it cant be patended, there is little revenue in it. This is why so often many natural alternatives to serious disease never see the light of day.
- Suzanne Somers
Her book "Knockout" is a must read.. very important and interesting there is so much information in this book.
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