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This is a good news piece for those of us who care about organic foods. Monsanto has for far too long been wrecking the small farmer with law suits. This preemptive strike should curtail those efforts if successful. Best of luck to them in their suit because if they do not prevail organic farming might be doomed.
“One of the big goals of NAIS is to shift liability to the farmers and off of the packers and retail chains. This is despite the fact that virtually all food contamination happens at the slaughterhouse and beyond.” nonais.org...
“quality assurance training required for Badger Vac 45.” And reported “You [the farmer] will be required to cover ALL expenses in the event of contamination...The bottom line is that after 10 years [note the date] of below normal prices here in Wis because the state allowed Equity Livestock Coop to create a monopoly, our savior has now arrived to burden us with contracts shifting all liability to feeder cattle producers if they can’t prove they are innocent. “ Source
Originally posted by Peter Brake
reply to post by wayouttheredude
Kindly ask Monsato to pay for crop losses and cleanup absolutely for organic farms (and everyone else). Organic farms lose their certification if they have GE crops. Make Monsato pay for it all.
Monsanto has to be stopped before the have a monopoly on all seeds, who knows what modifications they are doing to the seeds, but why stop at the farmers, this should go viral.
...A small California biotech company, Epicyte, in 2001 announced the development of genetically engineered corn which contained a spermicide which made the semen of men who ate it sterile. At the time Epicyte had a joint venture agreement to spread its technology with DuPont and Syngenta, two of the sponsors of the Svalbard Doomsday Seed Vault. Epicyte was since acquired by a North Carolina biotech company. Astonishing to learn was that Epicyte had developed its spermicidal GMO corn with research funds from the US Department of Agriculture, the same USDA which, despite worldwide opposition, continued to finance the development of Terminator technology, now held by Monsanto. More here.
Now do you want labels on your GMO foods?
noblelie.com...
Horizontal Gene Transfer from GMOs Does Happen
Recent evidence confirms that transgenic DNA does jump species to bacteria and even plant and animals, as some of us had predicted Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins
Genetic engineering creates vast arrays of transgenic DNA that could spread, not only through cross-pollination with the same or related species, but also through the direct uptake of the transgenic DNA by cells of unrelated species, a process called horizontal gene transfer. We have been alerting regulators to Horizontal Gene Transfer - The Hidden Hazards of Genetic Engineering [1] on many occasions since the late 1990s [2-4] (Genetic Engineering Dream or Nightmare, ISIS Publication) when the regulators and their scientific advisors had denied vehemently that horizontal gene transfer could happen, and assumed mistakenly that transgenic DNA, like all DNA, would be rapidly degraded once out of the cell.
In a review published in 1998 [5], we presented extensive evidence that DNA persists in all environments and can indeed be taken up by cells of many species throughout the living world. We called for a public enquiry on the extent to which the poorly regulated discharge of transgenic organisms and transgenic nucleic acids into the environment could have been responsible for the increased emergence of new viral and bacterial diseases and antibiotic and drug resistance since genetic engineering began in the mid 1970s. Horizontal gene transfer and recombination is the main route for generating new pathogens and spreading antibiotic and drug resistance, and genetic engineering is nothing if not greatly facilitated horizontal gene transfer and recombination....
...they’ve already found that genetically modified foods (GMO’s) can affect birth weight and infant mortality. Now, scientists in Russia recently discovered one horrifying consequence — GMO’s might cause “long term sterility” — that is sterility in 2nd or 3rd generations of offspring.... inhabitat.com...
...Concerning the experiment carried out jointly by the National Association for Gene Security and the Institute of Ecological and Evolutional Problems, Dr. Alexei Surov has this to say.
“We selected several groups of hamsters, kept them in pairs in cells and gave them ordinary food as always,” says Alexei Surov. “We did not add anything for one group but the other was fed with soya that contained no GM components, while the third group with some content of Genetically Modified Organisms and the fourth one with increased amount of GMO.
We monitored their behavior and how they gain weight and when they give birth to their cubs. Originally, everything went smoothly. However, we noticed quite a serious effect when we selected new pairs from their cubs and continued to feed them as before. These pairs’ growth rate was slower and reached their sexual maturity slowly.
When we got some of their cubs we formed the new pairs of the third generation. We failed to get cubs from these pairs, which were fed with GM foodstuffs. It was proved that these pairs lost their ability to give birth to their cubs,” Dr. Alexei Surov said. english.ruvr.ru...
New Scientist: US babies mysteriously shrinking
Birthweights in the US are falling but no one knows why, according to a study of 36.8 million infants born between 1990 and 2005.
A 52-gram drop in the weight of full-term singletons – from an average of 3.441 to 3.389 kilograms – has left Emily Oken's team at Harvard Medical School scratching their heads. It can't be accounted for by an increase in caesarean sections or induced labours, which shorten gestation. What's more, women in the US now smoke less and gain more weight during pregnancy, which should make babies heavier. Oken suggests that unmeasured factors, such as diet or exercise, could explain why babies are being born lighter....
Journal Reference: Obstetrics & Gynecology, DOI: 10.1097/aog.0b013e3181cbd5f5
Originally posted by burntheships
reply to post by Sounds_of_Silence
Because they are in bed with the USDA, The FDA.
And when the Monsanto Minions graduate, guess where they go?
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a3581a467677.jpg[/atsimg]
Originally posted by Peter Brake
reply to post by wayouttheredude
It seems totally strange that your legal system works this way, to me Monsato is criminally liable for the damage done from spreading seeds that infest other farmers, and these folks are getting sued!!
Originally posted by wayouttheredude
reply to post by crimvelvet
I don't disagree with you. These guys are more than willing to fight dirty. I think they would go so far as to hire mercenaries in fact to harass the plaintiffs if they felt that was necessary. They do have a mercenary company now on their payroll. I do not think them acquiring Xe (AKA Blackwater) was an accident. They are more than willing to fight dirty and have money for the long war in any legal battle.
BELOW IS A GREAT WEBSITE WHERE YOU CAN START GETTING INVOLVED IN RALLIES, EDUCATION ON GMO'S, ETC.
www.organicconsumers.org...
...Lori Robertson of FactCheck.org, who is not a lawyer (she has a B.A. in advertising), claims the bill doesn’t apply to “that tomato plant in your backyard.” As a lawyer, I am skeptical of this claim (I co-represented the prevailing defendant in the last successful constitutional challenge to federal regulation under the interstate commerce clause, United States v. Morrison (2000), one of only two cases in 70 years in which a challenge was successful). Congress's power under the Constitution's Commerce Clause is almost unlimited in the eyes of the courts, and thus can reach the "tomato plant in your backyard."
This so-called “food safety” bill may actually make food less safe. Federal regulation often backfires or reduces competition.... www.examiner.com...
Most Americans have absolutely no idea that over the past couple of decades, one giant corporation has achieved a virtual monopoly on some of the most important seed markets in the United States. Not only that, but this same company has done more to push genetically modified food on to the dinner tables of America than any other corporation. The name of that giant corporation is Monsanto, and today approximately 95 percent of all soybeans and approximately 80 percent of all corn in the United States grow from seeds genetically altered according to Monsanto company patents. The power that Monsanto now holds is almost indescribable. Now, a stunning new investigation by the Associated Press has revealed how Monsanto is relentlessly squeezing their competitors, exerting tremendous control over the survival of smaller seed companies and ruthlessly protecting its dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered seeds.
It (the recall of Hallmark/Westland Meat) highlights one of the problems that we have attempted to raise with the agency ever since 1996 when the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) inspection system was put in place. There seems to be too much reliance on an honor system for the industry to police itself. While the USDA investigation is still on going at Hallmark/Westland, a couple of facts have emerged that point to a system that can be gamed by those who want to break the law. It (HACCP) shifted the responsibility for food safety over to the companies .
President Obama made history Tuesday when he signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act into law. This historic event establishes the first major reform of food oversight at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 1938...
This new [food] law is the first step moving us toward such a system, as described in a recent National Academy of Sciences report which I co-authored....
...in 1993, the USDA decided to move to the HACCP system of inspection. Based on the idea that the plant operator knows the plant better than the USDA, the responsibility for designing an inspection system was turned over to each individual plant.
.... USDA “officials initially described HACCP to the industry in the mid-90’s, the agency made the following enticing promises:
* “Under HACCP, the agency will implement a ‘Hands Off’ role in meat inspection.
* “Under HACCP, the agency will no longer police the industry, but the industry will police itself.
* “Under HACCP, the agency will disband its previous command and control authority.
* “Under HACCP, each plant will write its own HACCP Plan, and the agency cannot tell plants what must be in their HACCP Plans.”
As a result, the inspector was no longer responsible for what was happening on the plant floor: that was left to company personnel. The new role of the inspector was to make sure that plant personnel were carrying out their duties in a manner consistent with the HACCP plan. In many cases this amounted to making sure that all of the paper work was in the proper order.... www.agpolicy.org...
Summary of Tuberculosis Surveillance in California Cattle
Number of Cattle Tested........1995.....1996.....1997.......1998.......1999......2000.....2001
By Animal Health Officials...10,576...5,100 ....2,861 .....3,530.....1,425 ....1,967.....2,500
By Private Veterinarians ...15,921...17,100...19,930...18,189...22,863...19,930...19,587
Submissions at Slaughter..........39..........58 .........64...........39...........58..........64.........385
www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu...
TEXAS ANIMAL HEALTH COMMISSION 2009 – 2013 AGENCY STRATEGIC PLAN
The surveillance element or function is the most intensive of the six functions with respect to resources and personnel. Surveillance includes all activities designed and implemented to identify and locate any possible focus of infection or exposure to diseases of animal/poultry health significance in the livestock, poultry and exotic animal population. TAHC surveys animal populations for possible disease problems by collecting blood samples at livestock markets, on farms or ranches, and at slaughter plants.... Additionally, TAHC foreign animal disease diagnosticians investigate all reports of potential foreign animal diseases in order to achieve early diagnosis of a foreign animal disease, should it be introduced into the state.
USDA is moving toward supporting fewer labs nationwide, with the remaining labs serving as regional labs and supporting larger geographic areas..... If this funding is not maintained, this lab will be closed and the out-of-state samples will not be processed by remaining TAHC laboratories....
Gramm, head of the CFTC, helped firms such as Goldman Sachs gain influence over the commodity markets. At the end of 2006, food prices across the world started to rise, suddenly. Wheat had shot up by 80 per cent, maize by 90 per cent, rice by 320 per cent.
“Then, in spring 2008, prices just as mysteriously fell back to their previous level. Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, calls it “a silent mass murder”, entirely due to “man-made actions.” Through the 1990s, Goldman Sachs and others lobbied hard and the regulations [controlling agricultural futures contracts] were abolished. Suddenly, these contracts were turned into “derivatives” that could be bought and sold among traders who had nothing to do with agriculture. A market in “food speculation” was born. The speculators drove the price through the roof.” www.independent.co.uk...
In 2010 : Fmr. President Clinton Apologizes for Trade Policies that Destroyed Haitian Rice Farming – “We Made a Devil’s Bargain”
President Bill Clinton, now the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, publicly apologized last month for forcing Haiti to drop tariffs on imported, subsidized US rice during his time in office. The policy wiped out Haitian rice farming and seriously damaged Haiti’s ability to be self-sufficient.” www.democracynow.org...