Critical Observer

HAWAII FIELDS TO BE INFILTRATED WITH GMO BANANAS

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<span style="font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">The <a href="http://hdoa.hawaii.gov/meetings-reports/" style="background-color: transparent; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #194e8e; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hawaii State Department of Agriculture</a> conducted an impromptu meeting to allow biotech to ‘field test’ genetically modified bananas. This is of great concern to the people of Hawaii, and no public notice was made of the meeting until very recently. UH received a $1.5 million research grant from the US federal government to develop a GMO banana variety, even though Hawaii residents have made it very clear they oppose GM crops.</span></h5>
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Hector Valenzuela of the Dept. of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, CTAHR, UH-Manoa has explained that even though bananas propagate asexually, widespread contamination is likely to occur in the state through people sharing propagating materials – called suckers or keikis – with friends, or neighbors.</div>
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The <a href="http://hawaiiseed.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Papaya-Contamination-Report.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #194e8e; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">experience with the GMO Rainbow papaya</a> shows that UH and GMO papaya farmers have been incapable of containing GMOs within the boundary of their farms resulting in the widespread contamination of non-GMO areas throughout the state.</div>
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Research needs to be conducted to determine potential health, environmental, economic, and social impacts from the release of a GMO banana variety in Hawaii, yet the biotech industry is set to unleash the GM banana variety without any of this.</div>
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Little or no research has been conducted by UH to find alternative ecologically-based, low input, practices to manage the bunchy top virus in Hawaii.</div>
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IslandBreath <a href="http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2015/10/sneaking-in-gmo-bananas.html" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #194e8e; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">reports that</a> they are trying to ‘sneak’ the GM banana.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Say 'no' to GM bananas!</span></h2>
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<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: proxima-nova; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 30px; max-width: 100%; padding: 10px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This article originally appeared at <a href="http://naturalsociety.com/hawaii-test-fields-to-be-illegally-infiltrated-with-gm-bananas/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #194e8e; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Natural Society</a>.</em></div>

HAWAII FIELDS TO BE INFILTRATED WITH GMO BANANAS

The Hawaii State Department of Agriculture conducted an impromptu meeting to allow biotech to ‘field test’ genetically modified bananas...

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GMO SEEDS HAVE LED TO CREATION OF ‘SUPERWEEDS’

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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On Friday the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) signed off on a new genetically modified corn developed by Monsanto after a review concluded the product posed no threat to other crops, plants or the environment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The move by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/23/us-usa-monsanto-gmo-idUSKCN0SH2HR20151023" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.75s;" target="_blank">deregulated Monsanto’s MON 87411 maize</a>, developed to protect the plants against corn rootworm, which can drag down crop yields. And of course, the GMO seed is also tolerant to glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><i style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">Comment: This is the REAL ecological disaster facing the planet, not global warming. This is genetic terrorism by Monsanto.</i></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The trait would be inserted into the corn seeds’ genetic code, and could be “stacked” with other traits. This means that additional modifications of the genetic code could be manipulated, making the corn seed nothing like the original. The fact that the seed is also tolerant to glyphosate is worth looking at a bit closer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The deregulation step by APHIS is only one of a number of steps that involve a multiyear process before the new corn seed gets final approval to be used commercially. Other steps include assessments by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USDA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and regulators in other countries.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/image/181202" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.75s;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img alt="Diabrotica virgifera the rootworm" border="0" class="aligncenter" src="http://www.digitaljournal.com/img/4/2/9/6/2/6/i/1/8/1/p-large/cornworm.jpg" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 5px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></span></a></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Red flags have already been raised</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">An EPA review of Monsanto’s MON 87411 maize is still going on. The agency’s scientific advisory council has raised some red flags. Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist with the advocacy group The Center for Food Safety, questions the weak guidelines in use to assess the risks of GMO technology.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Monsanto filed its petition to deregulate its groundbreaking genetically engineered corn in September 2014. There are many critics against GMO corn, and they have voiced their disapproval. “Do your job and don’t approve this or other products until they can be shown safe,” said<a href="http://investigatemidwest.org/2015/10/02/monsantos-new-corn-gmo-is-the-latest-step-in-a-long-journey/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.75s;" target="_blank"> commenter Doug Lande</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Monsanto expects to launch its SmartStax PRO, a line of products featuring MON 87411 maize within the next five years, “pending the necessary approvals,” Monsanto said in a statement, according to<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/23/us-usa-monsanto-gmo-idUSKCN0SH2HR20151023" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.75s;" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">APHIS is extending the comment period for another GMO corn product developed by Syngenta Seeds Inc., a unit of Syngenta AG, for 30 days. Syngenta’s genetically modified MZHG0JG corn is not only tolerant of glyphosate, but is also tolerant of glufosinate, according to preliminary findings.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/image/265522" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.75s;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img alt="Agribusiness giant Syngenta AG s MIR162 genetically modified corn." border="0" class="aligncenter" src="http://www.digitaljournal.com/img/8/4/3/0/8/3/i/2/6/5/p-large/superweeds-3.JPG" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 5px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the USDA’s preliminary assessment, the agency says, “the risk of herbicide-resistant weed development will be ever present where herbicides are used.” This statement is important, especially so because farmers are already battling herbicide-resistant weeds, or superweeds.</span></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The advent of the superweed</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When Monsanto first introduced its glyphosate herbicide, Roundup in 1970, the herbicide was hailed as the answer to agriculture’s need for an effective product to kill broadleaf weeds and grasses that competed with commercially grown crops.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When Monsanto introduced its genetically engineered Roundup Ready crops in 1990, farmers flocked to buy the new seeds, even though scientists said the weeds that Roundup killed eventually would build up a resistance to glyphosate. Scientists rightly said that any glyphosate-resistant weed would have a distinct reproductive advantage. Monsanto said this scenario would never happen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Well, guess what? It did happen, and much sooner than expected. Superweeds have taken over more than 60 million acres of American farmland, creating environmental havoc, driving up farmers’ costs, prompting them to resort to more and more toxic weed-killers. The first documented case of glyphosate-resistant weeds occurred in Australia in 1996, involving rigid ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) near Orange, New South Wales.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/image/265523" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.75s;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img alt="United Soybean Board photo of Palmer amaranth also known as pigweed infesting a soybean field." border="0" class="aligncenter" src="http://www.digitaljournal.com/img/8/4/3/0/8/3/i/2/6/5/o/superweeds-2.JPG" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 5px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></span></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">United Soybean Board photo of Palmer amaranth, also known as pigweed, infesting a soybean field. Union of Concerned Scientists</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Canada had its first documented case in 2009 and it involved giant ragweed. By this time, 15 different species of weeds had shown up as being <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/business/energy-environment/04weed.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.75s;" target="_blank">resistant to glyphosate</a>. By 2010, about 10 million acres in the U.S., out of a total of 170 million acres of agricultural land, was infested with superweeds. Keep in mind that now, 60 million acres are choking with superweeds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">While thousands of farmers are looking for answers to this dilemma, Monsanto, and other Agro-companies are selling farmers on the idea that more genetically modified crops that are tolerant of more than one herbicide are the answer. And that is exactly what Syngenta, Monsanto and other companies are doing now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However, the introduction of <a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/02/new-gmo-crop-controversy/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.75s;" target="_blank">genetically modified crops</a> such as corn, soybeans and cotton that tolerate the spraying of multiple herbicides, and products made with more than one herbicide in the formulation are really creating a huge downward spiral that we will never be able to stop.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Opponents of the introduction of even newer GMO crops and the new breed of herbicides say we will be creating a new generation of superweeds, and the answer will have to be the creation of even newer GMO seeds and harsher formulations of herbicides, in a never-ending cycle of destruction involving not only our environment, but our health and food sustainability.</span></div>
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GMO SEEDS HAVE LED TO CREATION OF ‘SUPERWEEDS’

On Friday the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) signed off on a new genetically modified corn developed by Monsanto after a review con...

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MONSANTO’S GLYPHOSATE DOUBLES CANCER RISK

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As news of Monsanto’s falling stock, and laid-off employees reaches the far stretches of the media circus, another dire report for the biotech company becomes common knowledge: glyphosate nearly doubles cancer risk.<br />
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One particular type of cancer stands above the rest, even after the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said that glyphosate was probably carcinogenic. Glyphosate has been found to double the risk of the blood cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and increase the risk of a related cancer, multiple myeloma.<br />
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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) points out that the IARC’s most recent report confirmed the findings of the Agency’s previous meta-analysis, which combined the results of several studies and concluded that farmers and others exposed to glyphosate suffer double the risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The more recent report also highlighted studies that found that farm workers’ glyphosate exposure increases their risk of multiple myeloma by 70 to 100%.<br />
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This doesn’t bode well for a company that is having trouble selling ‘suicide’ seeds, and has long lost public support for GM crops. The fact that farm workers should start looking for life insurance policies if they work with Monsanto’s chemicals is not only shocking, but it is entirely unnecessary. There are less-toxic, more sustainable ways of farming that have been around for centuries,; ones that biotech always attempts to discredit.<br />
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This should also be alarming to people who buy anything that isn’t organically-grown from US grocery store shelves. Some estimate that 90% of all processed food contains glyphosate residues. As a French court has found, this toxic chemical concoction certainly doesn’t ‘leave the soil clean’ or ‘biodegrade’ to become some inane, and innocuous magic soap scum that we can just wash away.<br />
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Glyphosate should be restricted or banned around the world.<br />
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This article originally appeared at Natural Society.

MONSANTO’S GLYPHOSATE DOUBLES CANCER RISK

As news of Monsanto’s falling stock, and laid-off employees reaches the far stretches of the media circus, another dire report for the bi...

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MONSANTO ANNOUNCES LAYOFFS, LOW EARNINGS - YAY! :)

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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Monsanto’s profits are slipping and the agriculture giant best known for its GMO Roundup Ready seeds announced Thursday that restructuring will occur, including layoffs. Monsanto missed its fourth quarter earnings and is offering share buybacks, according to Seeking Alpha. The revisions come after the company lost 19 cents per share when they were expected to break even in the fourth quarter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Monsanto announced that it will cut about one-eighth of its workforce, according to Seeking Alpha, though according to U.S. News & World Report, and others, the percentage of workers who will lose their jobs with Monsanto is closer to 12 percent of the current workforce. The company is also expected to buy back nearly $3 billion in stock, which is nearly eight percent of outstanding shares, according to analysts. Monsanto’s stock has fallen nearly 26 percent this year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">All total, Monsanto plans to lay off 2,600 workers, according to U.S. News & World Report. The St. Louis-based ag giant hopes that the new plan will generate between $275 million and $300 million in yearly savings by the end of the fiscal year in 2017.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The last time Monsanto announced a major layoff was in June of 2009, when around 900 workers lost their jobs. This time, CEO Hugh Grant blames the unfortunate impact of foreign exchange rates and falling crop prices for the lower-than-expected earnings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Despite weakening global currencies and commodity prices we continue to view this as a time of opportunity,” Grant said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Monsanto has been struggling, and demand for its GMO corn seeds is plummeting, according to reports. Farmers have shifted more and more acres to other crops after last year’s surplus left farmers frustrated. The company’s sales ended up worse than even Wall Street analysts had anticipated. Biotech GMO corn seeds fell five percent while the company’s chemical business, featuring Roundup weed killer, fell a staggering 12 percent.</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Earlier this year, Monsanto had tried to buy up competitor Syngenta AG, but that plan was abandoned in August after Syngenta AG rejected the offer. It’s been a rough fiscal year for Monsanto between lawsuits from farmworkers claiming that its pesticides contributed to their cancers, to major public resistance, to public resistance to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as noted in an earlier report about Monsanto’s finances.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Entire countries have banned GMOs, in fact.</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Public response to Monsanto’s lost of earnings has been both aggressive and celebratory.</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Still, among one of the worst hits of the year came from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). In a study, IARC’s documentation was so strongly worded that Monsanto’s vice president of global regulatory affairs, <a class="external" href="http://gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2015-articles/16046-monsanto-s-discredit-bureau-really-does-exist" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Philip Miller</a>, told <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Reuters</em>, “We question the quality of the assessment. The WHO has something to explain.” IARC stated that there is evidence that glyphosate, the chemical in Monsanto’s star herbicide, does cause cancer, contrary to industry studies.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide, currently with the highest production volumes of all herbicides. It is used in more than 750 different products for agriculture, forestry, urban, and home applications. Its use has increased sharply with the development of genetically modified glyphosate-resistant crop varieties. Glyphosate has been detected in air during spraying, in water, and in food. There WAS limited evidence in humans for the carcinogenicity of glyphosate.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Glyphosate has been detected in the blood and urine of agricultural workers, indicating absorption. Soil microbes degrade glyphosate to aminomethylphosphoric acid (AMPA). Blood AMPA detection after poisonings suggests intestinal microbial metabolism in humans. Glyphosate and glyphosate formulations induced DNA and chromosomal damage in mammals, and in human and animal cells in vitro. One study reported increases in blood markers of chromosomal damage (micronuclei) in residents of several communities after spraying of glyphosate formulations.”</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The statement from the WHO’s IARC, published in the highly-respected medical journal, <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Lancet Oncology</em>, unraveled the perception of safety of both the herbicides and genetically modified foods in the mind of the populace, and could be Monsanto’s great undoing, some claim.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What do you think? Will Monsanto bounce back with the layoffs, restructuring and stock buy-backs, or has the ag giant actually been brought to its knees?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">From inquisitr</span></div>
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MONSANTO ANNOUNCES LAYOFFS, LOW EARNINGS - YAY! :)

Monsanto’s profits are slipping and the agriculture giant best known for its GMO Roundup Ready seeds announced Thursday that restructurin...

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RUSSIAN PM: GMO FOOD ISN'T NEEDED TO FEED WORLD

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It becomes exceedingly clear that there is a war of information going on when you compare the headlines about genetically modified foods (GMOs) in Russia and Europe and compare them to what is being whitewashed in the US Press. EU country after EU country has been banning GMOs, and Russia has banned GMOs. The prime minister of Russia says that we don’t need GMOs to feed the world. This surely isn’t the line we’ve been fed by ‘scientists’ paid handsome sums by the biotech industry.<br />
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In a laughable attempt to minimize the damage of the WHO’s recent declaration of glyphosate and other herbicide’s carcinogenic nature, the US Press iterates the following malarkey, “risk is relative,” claiming that even if glyphosate causes cancer we shouldn’t necessarily stop using it.<br />
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Meanwhile, announcing to the world at the 12th International ‘Science and Technology in Society (STS) forum’ in Kyoto, Japan, Russian Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich stated that it is not necessary to use genetic modification to feed the world.<br />
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He further explained:<br />
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“In order to ensure the inhabitants of the planet have food it is not necessary to use genetic modification technology.<br />
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We believe that the world can be fed without genetically modified products. We are not against the technology, but we are not going to use them in our country; we are not going to grow such products.<br />
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One of our key priorities is investment in the agricultural sector.”<br />
The Russians have already shown that small scale, organic farms can feed the world. They’ve been through more than one economic collapse, too, and still made it through with food in people’s bellies.<br />
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According to some statistics, Russians small organic farms already grow 91% of the entire countries’ potatoes, 76% of its vegetables, and 79% of its fruit. They feed 71% of the entire population from privately-owned, organic farms or house gardens all across the country. These aren’t huge agro-farms run by pharmaceutical companies; these are small family farms and less-than-an-acre gardens that don’t use agro-chemicals.<br />
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The Russian PM is right. We don’t need GMOs to live.<br />
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This article originally appeared at Natural Society.

RUSSIAN PM: GMO FOOD ISN'T NEEDED TO FEED WORLD

It becomes exceedingly clear that there is a war of information going on when you compare the headlines about genetically modified foods ...

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WALES ANNOUNCES COMPLETE BAN ON GMO CROPS

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The Welsh Deputy Minister for Farming and Food, Rebecca Evans, has announced that the country will take advantage of new EU rules allowing countries to opt out of growing EU-authorized GM crops. Yep – Wales is moving forward with a complete ban on biotech’s seed! [1]<br />
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Evans says that the nation plans to ban GM corn as well as 7 other GM crops authorized by the EU. She states:<br />
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“These new rules proposed by the European Commission provide Wales with the necessary tools to maintain our cautionary approach by allowing us to control the future cultivation of GM crops in Wales. It will allow us to protect the significant investment we have made in our organic sector and safeguard the agricultural land in Wales that is managed under voluntary agri-environment schemes.”<br />
She continued:<br />
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“Farming and food processing businesses remain the driving force of our rural economy. Our emphasis is on competing on quality, strong branding and adding value through local processing.  We, therefore, need to preserve consumer confidence and maintain our focus on a clean, green, natural environment. By having the ability to control what is grown in Wales we can have confidence in preserving these values.  I have therefore acted now to ban the eight GM varieties from being grown in Wales that are either approved or about to be approved for cultivation in the EU.<br />
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These crops have not been developed for Welsh growing conditions and would be of no real benefit to Welsh farmers at this time. I will of course keep this position under review and am keeping an open mind on future GM developments and more advanced genetic techniques.”<br />
Meanwhile, in the US, Food Democracy Now has reported that the Senate Agriculture Committee has scheduled a hearing less than three weeks away — on Wed. Oct 21st, to try to pass its version of the DARK ACT, 1599. The House passed the DARK act in July; the act outlaws states’ rights to label GMOs. Forget bans in the US, we can’t even get correct labeling, thanks to Monsanto!<br />
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With the string of EU Countries banning GMOs, soon we’ll have to report on the stragglers who haven’t banned genetically modified organisms.<br />
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This article originally appeared at Natural Society.

WALES ANNOUNCES COMPLETE BAN ON GMO CROPS

The Welsh Deputy Minister for Farming and Food, Rebecca Evans, has announced that the country will take advantage of new EU rules allowin...

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15 OUT OF 28 E.U. COUNTRIES SAY NO TO GMO CROPS

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On the eve of the European Union’s deadline for member states and territories to declare their stance on allowing or banning genetically modified (GM or GMO) crops, more than half of EU countries are asking to opt out—a total of 15 out of 28 members, according to the latest count by the European Commission.<br />
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The governments, including those of Germany and Scotland, are utilizing new EU rules which allow member states to send territorial exclusion requests to agrochemical manufacturers like Dow, Monsanto, Syngenta, and Pioneer—even if their crops snag wider EU approval.<br />
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As of October 2, the list of members opting out also includes Austria, Croatia, France, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Italy, Slovenia, Belgium’s Wallonia region, and Wales and Northern Ireland in the UK.<br />
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By invoking those rights, Greenpeace EU food policy director Franziska Achterberg said, the majority of EU governments are “rejecting the Commission’s drive for GM crop approvals.”<br />
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“The only way to restore trust in the EU system now is for the Commission to hit the pause button on GM crop approvals and to urgently reform safety testing and the approval system,” Achterberg said.<br />
In European Parliament, Green food safety spokesperson Bart Staes said, “The resolve of these EU member states to ban GMO cultivation on their territory is laudable. It confirms what we already know: that a clear majority in Europe is opposed to genetically-modified crops. It is clearly regrettable that the Commission and some member states want to push ahead with GMO cultivation in spite of the myriad of problems this poses, also cross border.”<br />
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Currently, only one GMO crop is cleared for cultivation in Europe—Monsanto’s MON810 maize—but seven more varieties are under consideration by the Commission. The EU rules allow member states to ban all eight.<br />
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The opt-outs only cover the cultivation of GMO crops, rather than importing of GMO products. The EU has approved 70 GMO products, including human food, animal feed, and cut flowers.<br />
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Negotiations for a strategy that would allow member states to ban GMO imports in their border-free territories are still under way. If such a plan is approved by the European Parliament’s environmental committee at its meeting next month, it could bring even more substantial changes.<br />
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The widespread opposition to GMOs has blocked the Commission from authorizing new strands of crops for years, even as a smaller number of countries, such as Spain and England, push for their approval. The opt-outs emerged as a compromise to that division after years of negotiations between member states.<br />
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Unsurprisingly, agrochemical companies opposed the deal and expressed their disappointment with the swift and far-reaching opt-outs. Biotechnology lobbyist group Europabio said the rules send a “negative signal for all innovative industries considering investing in Europe.”<br />
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As Common Dreams has previously reported, the new laws have gotten a mixed reception from food safety advocates who say the EU may in fact be empowering agribusiness companies while failing to protect organic farmers:<br />
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Among the law’s weaknesses, environmental groups say biotech companies are given the power to negotiate with individual countries who seek a ban in a particular territory or geographic area.<br />
[….] If a government does not first seek permission from the GMO manufacturer, it must enact a national ban on one of the following grounds: environmental policy objectives, town and country planning, land use, socio-economic impacts, avoidance of GMO crop presence in other products, agricultural policy objectives, or public policy. Notably, a country is not permitted to ban GMOs on the grounds of environmental concerns—an exclusion that Greenpeace warns could have “serious consequences.”<br />
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Nonetheless, green groups called on EU members to take the options available to them and ban GMO crops.<br />
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Now, Staes said, it is “imperative that the Commission and the minority of pro-GMO governments both respect and actively support all those EU governments that have opted to ban GMO cultivation. There are serious concerns that the legal framework for these opt-outs, under the EU rules finalised earlier this year, is not watertight. This could leave governments subject to challenges by biotech corporations. Those member states opting-out of GMO authorisations must therefore have the full support of the Commission and other EU governments.<br />
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Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the Commission, in July 2014 said that member states should not be forced to accept GMO crops if the majority of governments disapprove of them.<br />
As of their October 3 deadline, it seems that is officially the case.<br />
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Via Common Dreams.

15 OUT OF 28 E.U. COUNTRIES SAY NO TO GMO CROPS

On the eve of the European Union’s deadline for member states and territories to declare their stance on allowing or banning genetically ...

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EUROPE'S GMO BATTLE: HALF OF EUROPE OPTS OUT

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Six months after a European Union compromise allowing member states to decide themselves whether or not to grow genetically modified crops, half the bloc's members has announced plans to ban them. How will this play out?</div>
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By an October 3 deadline, more than half of European Union countries have notified the European Commission that they intend to ban farming of genetically modified (GM) crops.</div>
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The bans apply not only to the sole GM crop currently approved for cultivation in Europe - Monsanto's pesticide-producing GM corn - but also to seven varieties of GM maize all currently awaiting approval by the commission.</div>
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Earlier in 2015, after years of squabbling, the EU's 28 member states had finally reached a compromise allowing each member state to make its own decision on GM crop cultivation.<br />
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But even as individual nations seek to ban genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, legal analysts say such bans may stand up in court. Meanwhile, campaigners against GMOs fear the new legislation may open the way for GM crops to flood into Europe - which has remained largely GMO-free.</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal;">Divided union</span></div>
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Croatia is among the EU countries to announce a ban on cultivation of GMOs</div>
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Because the EU is a single market, crop authorizations are decided in Brussels, rather than by individual member states. Some EU countries, such as England and Spain, want the EU to approve GM strains so they can start growing them.</div>
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But anti-GMO countries, which include France, Austria and Germany, are numerous enough to block new GM crop authorizations. Besides MON810 - the one GM crop currently grown in Europe - no new GMOs have been approved for many years.</div>
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The European Commission sought to overcome this impasse by putting forward a compromise proposal in 2010 that would allow an exemption from the single market rule. The EU will approve GMO crops - and individual countries can ban them if they wish.</div>
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After years of negotiation between member states, the new legislation for growing GMO crops in the EU came into effect in early April 2015.</div>
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But now, by an October 3 deadline, 15 EU countries and several regional administrations have confirmed that they intend to ban GM crop cultivation under the rule.</div>
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Austria, Croatia, France, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and Slovenia - along with Wallonia in Belgium, and Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom - have officially notified the European Commission of this intention.</div>
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"Member states have the right to block cultivation," said Franziska Achterberg, EU food policy director at Greenpeace.</div>
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"Member states … will have to justify their opt-out measures - that they are motivated by an overriding reason of general interest, and are in line with the rules of the internal market," said European Commissioner Margreth Vestayer.</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal;">GMO import undecided</span></div>
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Aside from the issue of national bans on growing GMOs, there is also the perhaps more complicated issue of banning imports of GM crops . The EU imports vast amounts of GMO produce - but this is currently used only for animal feed and for industrial purposes, and not for human consumption.</div>
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<a class="overlayLink init" href="http://www.dw.com/en/europes-gmo-compromise-bound-to-unravel/a-18477896#" link="/overlay/overlay_image/s-11798/c-18477896/18477991" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0087eb; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Container port, Barcelona, Spain" border="0" height="394" src="http://www.dw.com/image/0,,18477991_401,00.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 700px;" title="A ban on imports of GMO crops could cause a logistical nightmare at container ports such as this one in Barcelona" width="700" /></a><br />
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A ban on imports of GMO crops could cause a logistical nightmare at container ports such as this one in Barcelona</div>
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Earlier this year, the European Commission had unexpectedly proposed to extend the new compromise regime to imports of GMO crops grown outside the EU - something anti-GMO campaigners were unhappy with. This issue remains undecided.<br />
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Alexander Doring, secretary general of the European Feed Manufacturers Federation, said European farmers are now largely dependent on these GMO feed imports. About 80 to 86 percent of compound feed fed to cattle in Europe contains GMOs, he said.<br />
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"Any opt-out scenario would disrupt all these chains, whether we talk about conventional feeds or non-GM," Doring said. "It means the whole logistics setup needs to be re-arranged - meaning extra costs for everybody."</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal;">Legal struggle just begun</span></div>
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Jean-Claude Juncker, who took office as president of the European Commission in 2014, made reforming the GMO approval system part of his campaign manifesto. He said it shouldn't be possible for a genetically modified crop to be approved when a majority of member states are against it.</div>
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Meanwhile, the legal wrangling over growing genetically modified crops is only just beginning.</div>
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EUROPE'S GMO BATTLE: HALF OF EUROPE OPTS OUT

Six months after a European Union compromise allowing member states to decide themselves whether or not to grow genetically modified crops,...

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GERMANY BANNING (GMO) GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS

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Germany has opted out of cultivating GMO crops on its territory, informing the EU Commission of the move and in the process joining Poland, France, Scotland and several other member states. The October 3 deadline for EU GMO decisions is looming.<br />
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The German Agriculture Ministry has notified the European Commission that the country will not allow the growth of GMO crops on its territory.<br />
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“The cultivation of genetically modified corn is incompatible with the use of arable land in Germany,” Minister of Agriculture, Christian Schmidt wrote in a letter he submitted to the EU Commission, according to Die Zeit newspaper.<br />
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German agriculture officials have cited the possibility that GMO plants risk contaminating local crops.<br />
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The decision would affect major GMO producers, including Monsanto, DuPont Pioneer and Dow Chemical – developers of herbicide-resistant maize – who have already submitted applications for the cultivation of genetically modified plants to the EC. These applications have already been “partially” approved by Brussels.<br />
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Germany has been joined by Poland, a country in which agriculture ministers have also made a decision to not permit new GMO crop cultivation on the country’s fields. Poland was the latest country to do so, following Hungary, France, Greece, Latvia and Scotland, which already notified Brussels of their decisions.<br />
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The EU-approved “opt-out law” has allowed individual member states to restrict or prohibit imported genetically modified (GM) crops – even if they have been approved by the bloc as a whole.<br />
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Europe has divided opinions on GM crops, which are widely grown in the Americas and Asia. Monsanto's maize MON810, which is grown in Spain and Portugal, is the only GM crop currently present in the EU.<br />
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There are 58 GM crops approved for feed and food, according to the European Commission.<br />
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Around 60 percent of EU vegetable proteins for cattle come from soy and soymeal imported from countries where GM cultivation is prevalent.<br />
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In April, the European Union gave the green light for the importation of 10 new types of genetically modified crops for the first time since 2013. The crops, which include maize, soybeans, cotton and rapeseed would be authorized for human food and animal feed over the next 10 years, the European Commission announced then.<br />
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The opt-out law is set to significantly undermine work of, for example, DuPont Pioneer and Dow Chemical, who have been waiting for an EU executive permit for GMO cultivation in the bloc for nearly 15 years. Earlier in August, Monsanto criticized Latvia’s and Greece’s “opt out decisions” saying that they “contradict” science, but said that it would abide by requests.<br />
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According to the biotech giant, EU members’ decision to opt-out also “undermines the scientific consensus on the safety of MON810.”<br />
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“Nevertheless, we regret that some countries are deviating from a science-based approach to innovation in agriculture and have elected to prohibit the cultivation of a successful GM product on arbitrary political grounds,” Monsanto’s statement said at the time.<br />
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Under the new EU rules, other EU states have until October 3, 2015 to inform the EU Commission if they wish to opt out of new EU-wide GMO cultivation approvals.

GERMANY BANNING (GMO) GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS

Germany has opted out of cultivating GMO crops on its territory, informing the EU Commission of the move and in the process joining Polan...

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ITALY SAYS IT WILL OPT OUT OF GROWING GMO CROPS

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Italy has told the European Commission that it will ban growing crops with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) under a rule that allows European Union countries to opt out of GMO cultivation, a government statement said on Thursday.<br />
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Italy's Agriculture, Environment and Health ministers wrote to the commission to "request to exclude cultivation of all the GMOs authorised at an EU level from all of Italian territory," the statement said.<br />
An EU law approved in March cleared the way for new GMO crops to be approved after years of deadlock. But the law also gave individual countries the right to ban GMO crops even after they have been approved as safe by the European Commission.<br />
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On Wednesday, Germany sent a similar letter to Brussels, and Bulgaria also said it would opt out of GMO cultivation.<br />
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Reporting by Steve Scherer of Reuters

ITALY SAYS IT WILL OPT OUT OF GROWING GMO CROPS

Italy has told the European Commission that it will ban growing crops with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) under a rule that allows...

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MONSANTO COVERED UP GLYPHOSATE CANCER DATA

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What will it take to shut down Monsanto’s doors irrevocably? Likely it will be the same type of lawsuit that finally pulled the shades on the tobacco industry. If Big Tobacco eventually had to pay a $206 billion settlement over 25 years for lying about the health impacts of cigarettes, what do you think Monsanto will have to pay for lying about glyphosate’s carcinogenic nature for almost 40 years?</h5>
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Some well-respected researchers are now saying that Monsanto demanded incriminating data and reports be sealed and locked away from public scrutiny as proprietary trade secrets, though they knew these documents would reveal glyphosate’s carcinogenic nature.</div>
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Monsanto has yet to be caught red-handed lying about research, but the corp has been caught twice when they utilized outside laboratories that were later found to have been criminal. In 1978, the EPA busted Industrial Biotest Laboratories for rigging laboratory results; the company’s executives were found guilty for submitting fabricated data supporting glyphosate in positive light to the government. In 1991, another firm, Craven Labs, was found guilty on similar charges with 20 felony counts. Monsanto’s timeline of crime is undeniable. [1]</div>
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The EPA continually colludes with Monsanto to present glyphosate as ‘safe’ to the public, but during an exclusive interview on the Progressive Radio Network on September 4, Anthony Samsel stated that Monsanto used an industry trick to dismiss evidence about glyphosate’s risks in its own research.  “Monsanto misrepresented the data,” says Samsel, “and deliberately covered up data to bring the product [glyphosate] to market.”</div>
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Samsel, an independent research scientist and a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, explains, along with Dr. Stephanie Seneff, that in order to minimize and cancel out its adverse findings:</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Monsanto had relied upon earlier historical animal control data, toxicological research with lab animals afflicted with cancer and organ failures, and <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">completely unrelated to glyphosate</strong></em><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">. In some cases the control animals displayed kidney, liver and pancreatic diseases.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Many of Monsanto’s own studies required the inclusion of extraneous studies in order to cancel out damaging results</strong></em><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">.  This is not an uncommon industry habit, particularly in toxicological science. It <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">enables corporations to mask undesirable outcomes and make claims that observable illnesses and disease are spontaneous occurrences</strong></em><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">without known causal factors.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Frequently, Monsanto would have to rely on three external control studies to negate the adverse effects of a single one of its own. Samsel found other incidences in Monsanto’s data where 5, 7 and in one case 11 unrelated studies were necessary to diminish the severity of its own findings.  In effect, glyphosate received licensure based upon a platform of junk tobacco science.”</em></div>
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The researchers go on to explain that Monsanto covered up the fact that glyphosate was equally toxic in both low and high range doses. These findings are corroborated by a recent study from France published in the August issue of the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Environmental Health Journal</em> by scientists at Kings College London and the University of Caen in France.</div>
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The two year study found that glyphosate administered at an ultra-low dose of 0.1 ppb (the EU’s safety limit) in drinking water <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">altered over 4000 gene clusters</strong> in the livers and kidneys of rats, though the biotech industry has been trying to debunk its findings.</div>
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So what information is hiding in Monsanto’s sealed documents?</div>
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Among the many cancers and diseases associated with glyphosate are:</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Adenoma cancer in the pituitary gland</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Glioma tumors in the brain</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Reticular cell sarcomas in the heart</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Malignant tumors in the lungs</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Salivary mandibular reticular cell carcinoma</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Metastatic sarcomas of the lymph gland</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Prostate carcinoma</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Cancer of the bladder</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Thyroid carcinoma</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Adrenal reticulum cell sarcomas</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Cortical adenomas</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Basal cell squamous skin tumors</li>
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Yet these were all hidden from public view. I think that hundreds of billions of dollars won’t come close to account for the 40 years of health damage Monsanto has potentially caused by hiding this information. But one thing is certain, just like the Tobacco industry – Monsanto will pay.</div>
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Want to learn more? Watch these videos:</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Lobbyist who says you can drink glyphosate:</strong></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="320" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ovKw6YjqSfM" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 425px; overflow: hidden !important; width: 620px;" width="620"></iframe></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Documentary of the Monsanto Company:</strong></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="320" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/su0om5L4Bhg" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 425px; overflow: hidden !important; width: 620px;" width="620"></iframe></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Seeds of Death:</strong></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="320" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a6OxbpLwEjQ" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 425px; overflow: hidden !important; width: 620px;" width="620"></iframe></div>
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Monsanto has gotten away with murder for long enough. The world is starting to wake up, and hold them accountable. Our efforts are working; just don’t let up the pressure. Keep educating yourself and others and we will protect the food supply.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">This article originally appeared at Natural Society.</em></div>

MONSANTO COVERED UP GLYPHOSATE CANCER DATA

What will it take to shut down Monsanto’s doors irrevocably? Likely it will be the same type of lawsuit that finally pulled the shades ...

Read Article »

NEW MONSANTO ROUNDUP CANCER LAWSUITS

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For folks who are concerned with the increasing rates of cancer, birth defects and childhood autism and brain development, may take pause on this recent spate of Roundup lawsuits. Monsanto is exposed to two new cancer lawsuits by farm workers who allege that they developed cancer from the popular Roundup weedkiller and herbicide. Roundup is the world’s most widely used herbicide, with a lion’s share of the market.<br />
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Enrique Rubio, was diagnosed with bone cancer after exposure to the weed killer, and filed his claim in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California.<br />
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Judi Fitzgerald, was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) after exposure to the weed killer, filed her claim in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.<br />
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Monsanto Roundup Cancer Allegations<br />
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The Roundup cancer lawsuits, have similar allegations that Monsanto failed to provide warnings about the cancer and other lethal injury risks linked to heavy exposure of the key chemical, glyphosate, in the weed and grass killer Roundup.<br />
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Roundup Popular And Widely Used<br />
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Roundup is one of the most popular herbicides, which was mass marketed by Monsanto in the 1970s. The weedkiller has always been plagued by concerns about the potential association between Roundup and cancer.<br />
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World Health Organization Roundup Cancer Warning<br />
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Recently in March 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced a warning about the human health side effects of glyphosate.<br />
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California Lawsuit Facts<br />
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According to Rubio, he worked at farms in Oregon, California and Texas from 1986 to 1995, where he sprayed Roundup on crops several times a week using a hand pump sprayer.<br />
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In 1995, Rubio was diagnosed with bone cancer, which he claims was caused by Roundup.<br />
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New York Lawsuit Facts<br />
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According to Fitzgerald, she worked as a Growers Assistant for a New York company from 1994 to 1998, and she was exposed to Roundup both in a greenhouse and in fields.<br />
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In 2012, Fitzgerald was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, potentially lethal blood cancer.<br />
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Herbicide Glyphosate Cancer Links<br />
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The key ingredient in Roundup and similar herbicides is Glyphosate, which blocks a key enzyme in plant growth.<br />
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According to the lawsuits, glyphosate is a carcinogen, and that Monsanto knew the herbicide was risky for years. In 1996, the agricultural giant was investigated by the New York Attorney General’s office, for making false and misleading claims about Roundup’s safety.<br />
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Monsanto Claimed That “Roundup Is Safer Than Table Salt”<br />
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The agricultural company claimed in advertisements that Roundup was “safer than table salt” and “practically non-toxic” to animals. The New York AG’s office forced the company in November 1996 to stop making such claims.<br />
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Roundup Cancer Risk What’s The Evidence?<br />
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In March 2015, the IARC determined that the herbicide glyphosate probably causes cancer in humans.<br />
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According to Monsanto, the IARC’s conclusions were agenda-driven and based on “junk science,” and has said it is convening its own independent panel to review the cancer risks of Roundup.<br />
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Roundup Explosive Sales<br />
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In the mid 1990s, Monsanto sold the controversial genetically engineered crop seeds of soybeans, corn and cotton to withstand herbicide treatment with Roundup. Roundup kills the weeds and not the genetically modified crops.<br />
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Because of the widespread and indiscriminate use of Roundup, some weeds have developed resistance to glyphosate. And now, farmers have to use higher amounts of Roundup, further releasing Roundup into the air, polluting our drinking water, lakes and estuaries.<br />
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The U.S. Geological Survey estimated agricultural use of glyphosate increased dramatically from 110 million pounds in 2002, now to more than 283 million pounds in 2012.<br />
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California May Change Warning Labels On Glyphosate Containing Herbicides<br />
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California may become the first in the U.S., to require label warnings that glyphosate, is a cancer-causing agent.<br />
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The California Environmental Protection Agency’s (CAL-EPA) issued a notice of intent recently, that it has decided to list glyphosate as a chemical that is known to cause cancer.<br />
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The OEHHA will also add Tetrachlorvinphos, Parathion, and Malathion to the list of cancer causing agents.<br />
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No Current Regulation For Roundup Use<br />
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Currently now there is no official measurement of glyphosate in any of our drinking water, our foodstuff, or air we breathe. If these allegations survive to a jury verdict, you have to wonder whether a nice green lawn, golf course, park or other green space is worth the increased cancer risk and other serious diseases. How does a world overflowing with cancer and birth defects grab you? You cannot indiscriminately pollute the world and expect no push back.<br />
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Article by Shezad Malik MD JD of The Legal Examiner

NEW MONSANTO ROUNDUP CANCER LAWSUITS

For folks who are concerned with the increasing rates of cancer, birth defects and childhood autism and brain development, may take pause...

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SERBIA WILL NOT ALLOW CULTIVATION OF GMO CROPS

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia543boeeKUaMknbsBmmm0UaSyLTtlu8l81PDNDusfJ_d6cajPAbpL-vjaJ7eCFPptENy-iOqmD8vn-iEi5u4DFqSewzJyU02bjBWhGG9ajb9HMMqeUsJGt4L6Dg5iUF9DYt_8AIwyTPU/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia543boeeKUaMknbsBmmm0UaSyLTtlu8l81PDNDusfJ_d6cajPAbpL-vjaJ7eCFPptENy-iOqmD8vn-iEi5u4DFqSewzJyU02bjBWhGG9ajb9HMMqeUsJGt4L6Dg5iUF9DYt_8AIwyTPU/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is the official stand of the current government and it will not be changed by any law for as long as it is in office, Golubovic told Tanjug.<br />
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He noted that potential changes in the Law on GMO "could only lead towards additional strengthening of consumer safety," and underscored that "this matter will not be realized behind the back of the public."<br />
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Golubovic also "denied the allegations which recently appeared in the media according to which Serbia is being pressured by the EU to allow cultivation of GMO seeds," Tanjug reported.<br />
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He noted that "another advantage for Serbia lies in the fact that the movement against GMO is growing stronger in Europe and that some countries such as Hungary have banned cultivation of the seed through their Constitution."<br />
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Recalling that Serbia is a leader among producers of GMO-free soy, Golubovic noted that the government wishes to continue stimulating production of non-GMO soy together with the Danube Soya Organisation.<br />
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Danube Soya stands for healthy soy, which means that consumers can recognisz it as controlled quality soy, i.e. non-GMO soy, he explained.<br />
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Golubovic said that such products, just like organic products, have higher market value, and noted that demanding markets such as the EU market are ready to pay more for such product.<br />
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This is why the government is ready to stimulate the growth of GMO-free cultures, Golubovic said.

SERBIA WILL NOT ALLOW CULTIVATION OF GMO CROPS

This is the official stand of the current government and it will not be changed by any law for as long as it is in office, Golubovic told...

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MONSANTO LYING ABOUT SAFETY OF GMO CRY PROTEINS

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrDXln9p6YFhKZ4P4nufP5GpUX_yDnMcRQqARPBcVKxCZt-Tq5Ih7ykyr3uD6rf16abUJdEHSZXZuHl_SrOuP9W8f2GmB9zOX485EPId2qTG0LwBQSiWAIW4MtLcL7XNrOM_jY5J8w2EQ/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrDXln9p6YFhKZ4P4nufP5GpUX_yDnMcRQqARPBcVKxCZt-Tq5Ih7ykyr3uD6rf16abUJdEHSZXZuHl_SrOuP9W8f2GmB9zOX485EPId2qTG0LwBQSiWAIW4MtLcL7XNrOM_jY5J8w2EQ/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; color: #362f2d; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; color: #362f2d; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>In a recent interview on Food Sleuth Radio, Dr. Hansen exposes Monsanto’s latest contrivance – that Bt toxic corn is ‘safe’ to eat. Dr. Hansen provides ‘clean’ science through Consumer Reports that has no private backing, and certainly none by the GM industry.</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; color: #362f2d; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #362f2d; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hansen states that biotechnology allows you to move genetic traits from any possible source – viruses, bacteria, animals, humans, etc. and put them into plants. This is what allowed scientists to make Bt corn and other Bt crops, and then patent them. </span></span></div>
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Bt crops are created by inserting a gene from the soil bacterium <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bacillus thuringienesis</em> into a plant, thereby creating a pesticide that lives within the plant from roots to stems. The plant itself, in fact, becomes a pesticide, and when insect pests eat them, their guts are altered, and the insect dies.</div>
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The first Bt corn variety made by Monsanto, MON 810 (which was submitted to the FDA with research <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">only</em> done by Monsanto itself), is promoted by the company as being safe; however, the FDA has never declared that BT crops were safe, and in fact, no solid safety testing has been done on Bt toxins.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #362f2d; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<img alt="GMcrop" class="alignright" height="281" src="http://naturalsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/GMcrop.gif" style="border: 0px none; float: right; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 635px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="360" />Conversely, eating Bt toxins can “turn your gut into a living pesticide.” The FDA, like other agencies, has turned a blind eye to Monsanto’s shenanigans, but never made a statement that GM crops were safe, only that <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">based on studies supplied by the industry</em>, they seem to be equivalent to their non-GM counterparts.</div>
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Hansen explains that Cry proteins (the Bt toxins inserted into GM corn, sugar beets, etc.) are likely allergenic. A Dutch study conservatively states that they “found sequence homology between inserted proteins in GE products that are on the market and known human allergens,” but Hansen thinks this is shying away from the truth.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How Cry-Proteins in GMOs are Human Allergens, and Health-Damaging</strong></div>
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To counteract this study (and other industry studies which show no correlation to Bt toxins and allergies at all) and to show that there is suggestive evidence that the Cry proteins (but especially Cry1Ab/Cry1Ac) associated with the Bt crops may be human allergens and may have adverse effects on the human gut, Hansen argues:</div>
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“In 1999, an EPA-funded study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives and titled “Immune responses in farm workers after exposure to Bacillus thuringiensis pesticides,” pointed out that “In 1992 the use of Bt in an Asian gypsy moth control program was associated with classical allergic rhinitis symptoms, exacerbations of asthma, and skin reactions among exposed individuals reporting possible health effects after the spraying operation (7).</div>
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Unfortunately, there was no follow-up to determine whether these events were Bt-induced hypersensitivity or toxic reaction or merely due to common aeroallergens coincidental to the season during which the spraying occurred (8). Similar findings occurred during another Bt spraying in the spring of 1994 (8)” (Bernstein et al., 1999: pg. 575). Since there was no follow-up, how can one say that Cry proteins weren’t the source of the allergic reactions? This clearly looks like an example of “don’t look, don’t find.”</div>
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The Institute for Responsible Technology explains that pesticide-producing crops (Bt) contaminate nearby streams, possibly affecting aquatic life. The bt toxin produced by these GM crops are <strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">far stronger than any found in nature</strong>, and are <strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">produced throughout the plant</strong>.</div>
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They may also harm beneficial insects, which is completely the opposite of what Monsanto claims. It has been found that previously-insignificant insects which are not targeted by the GM varieties develop into pests. Then pesticide spraying resumes, on top of the potential build-up of the extra strong Bt toxin in the soil. This has occurred in China, India, and the US.</div>
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Even farm workers that have been exposed to Bt pesticide-sprays exhibit skin sensitization and presence of IgE and IgG antibodies with those responses being more numerous in those workers with higher levels of exposure. Both skin sensitization and IgE antibodies are <strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">components of an allergic response</strong>.</div>
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Hansen also points out that an additional series of 5 studies published in the last 7 years and carried out by a team of scientists from two Mexican universities (Universidad Autonoma de Mexico and Cinvestav-IPN) and from Cuba have suggested that the Cry1Ac protein (found in Bt cotton) in both the full-length form (protoxin) and the truncated form (soluble form)-have <strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">immunogenic and allergenic properties</strong>.</div>
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Finally, a recent 91-day study published in the <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Journal of American Science</em> explained that Bt corn is toxic to rats. According to researchers at Suez Canal University in Egypt, GM corn diet resulted in increased or decreased organs or body weight in lab rats. They also found that the GE corn-fed rats endured changes in blood biochemistry that indicated possible toxicity.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yep – Bt Toxins are Toxic</strong></div>
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Bt toxins, in summary, might very well be the reason we are seeing more food allergies than ever before – more gut disorders, more immunity problems, and other health issues as well. Cry proteins are <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">not</em> safe. The evidence is apparent, so why does Monsanto’s website say:</div>
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“Regulatory authorities and other third parties have conducted extensive analysis demonstrating that MON810 [a Bt variety of corn] is safe to humans, animals, non-target organisms and beneficial insects.”</div>
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Further studies that support Dr. Michael Hansen’s assertions:</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Finamore A, Roselli M, Britti S, Monastra G, Ambra R, Turrini A, Mengheri E. (2008) Intestinal and peripheral immune response to MON810 maize ingestion in weaning and old mice. J Agric Food Chem. Dec 10;56(23):11533-9. <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19007233" style="border: 0px; color: #3b4d81; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19007233</a></em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bernstein IL, Bernstein, J.A., Miller,M., Tierzieva, S., Bernstein, D.I.,Lummus, Z.Selgrade, M.K., Doerfler, D.L., and Seligy,V.L. (1999) Immune responses in farm workers after exposure to Bacillus thuringiensis pesticides. Environmental Health Perspectives. July; 107(7):575582. <a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fpmc%2Farticles%2FPMC1566654%2F&h=TAQHuRySSAQEmTHklVRpmhFUWvqFTps9ApeyDDrRBvQ9oeg&enc=AZNb-evipxI16k8V8ZkMDzHXcIcf2VnzdAVAqyRUPJ5HODeTd-1HawQgwgo7LmrNDusG7hmov7_V8mLkKiprKjIKMip5zcTRy_FQams2rIHwrb2NqR1TWsUEVtBBNJXnqwJviywxCvr8WfCjnWT9_pfn8pkGem_yFCPh6pNi-HyRhbO2lbzj4do13rWdOUHWrHzjRyULvPMezNK9c0cmSc0a&s=1" style="border: 0px; color: #3b4d81; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1566654/</a></em></div>

MONSANTO LYING ABOUT SAFETY OF GMO CRY PROTEINS

In a recent interview on Food Sleuth Radio, Dr. Hansen exposes Monsanto’s latest contrivance – that Bt toxic corn is ‘safe’ to eat. Dr....

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