Quote of the day -- on Monsanto and their GMOs

Lest anyone should think it's from some Left Wing, progressive, corporate-hating person with too many opinions, check out the source for the quote, too:

A very rare salutation to Missouri Senator Roy Blunt

If you're ever read here before--either of you--or if you know me, you know I'm no big fan of Republican, Right Wing, "Conservative", "Mr. Monsanto" Senator Roy Blunt.  He's done so many things for his political party and for corporations and the wealthy that were also, at the same time, against the far greater American people, I can't help but go against this man and his work.

Most times, anyway.

All that said, for once, I have to give kudos and salutations to the Senator today, with this nod. This, from the White House and their blog today, giving their own positive props to people from the opposite political party (who said he won't compromise and work with the Republicans?):

Strengthening American Manufacturing

This week, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Representatives Tom Reed (R-NY) and Joe Kennedy (D-MA) took action that’ll bolster the manufacturing sector, strengthen the economy, and help create a better bargain for middle class families. The bipartisan Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2013, introduced yesterday in the Senate and today in the House, calls for the creation of a Network for Manufacturing Innovation, expanding our ability to compete for advanced manufacturing jobs by investing in manufacturing technologies and capabilities.

The Act calls for resources to create a network of manufacturing innovation institutes, based on the pilot institute in Youngstown, Ohio launched by President Obama last year, and the efforts under way by the Administration to launch three new institutes this year. The Act builds on the President’s past and current proposals for a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation with a goal of up to 45 institutes over the next decade. These institutes bring together companies and universities, supported by Federal agencies, to co-invest in world-leading manufacturing technologies and workforce capabilities, giving our workers and firms the tools they need to compete.

With the introduction of this legislation, it’s clear that revitalizing American manufacturing and innovation is a goal both parties can get behind.  America’s manufacturing sector is critical to an innovation economy that supports a strong and growing middle class. After a decade of decline, the manufacturing sector has added 515,000 jobs since the beginning of 2010, and if we continue to put the right policies in place we have the opportunity to drive a U.S. manufacturing renaissance as outlined in a speech at Brookings last week.  

We commend Senators Brown and Blunt and Representatives Reed and Kennedy for their bipartisan leadership in building America’s strength in advanced manufacturing and we’ll  work side by side with them to move this important initiative forward.

Now if someone in that other political party would just propose a jobs/infrastructure bill for both the employment and repair and updating of our nation's highways, bridges, roads, etc.

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

We're going to kill ourselves

There was another great, rather important article on NPR yesterday about Monsanto, farmers in the country and insecticides:

As Biotech Seed Falters, Insecticide Use Surges In Corn Belt

Really, fascinating.

It seems the genetically-modified seeds that Monsanto created some years ago have--SURPRISE!!--evolved (take that, Right Wing Christians!) and so now they aren't as effective keeping parasitic bugs away.

Imagine that.

Wouldn't Charles Darwin have told us this was bound to happen?

Couldn't ANY scientist have told us that is PRECISELY what would happen, given enough time?

I mean, come on.  The little guys who couldn't take it died. The ones who could, lived and then their offspring lived.  Sheesh.  It's not that complicated.

And the thing is, now, the farmers are buying up yet more and more insecticides, for pity's sake, to spray on their crops--our food, thank you--in order TO KILL THE BUGS.

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In the first place, that's what Monsanto said their seeds would do. That is, repel the bugs.

Second, again, Monsanto should have known this would happen. For that matter, the farmers should have known.  Heck we all knew better and we aren't growing the stuff.

So now the farmers will all start getting sick again, applying the insecticide (it's in the article, straight from a farmer) and then the stuff is in our food, in our food supply.

This is no way to live, folks, no way to grow our food.  It makes no sense.

The article also points out the solution, too.  You likely heard it in grade school.  I know I did.

All the farmers have to do is rotate their crops.

That's right, all they have to do to avoid these problems is grow a different crop, simple as that.

But then they won't be growing the big cash-cow crop that is, right now, corn.

So instead, we're going to poison ourselves.

Brilliant.

We'll be sick, at minimum, those of us who don't get cancer or other diseases but we'll have out corn.

Oh, and our money.

Yeehaw.

The American public is being bought and sold, no exaggeration

We're being sold you and I--the citizens of the US--by our representatives in Washington DC and our own state houses, to corporations and no doubt in lots and lots of different ways. This is just one of the latest:

Monsanto Crop Bans by Courts Would Be Reversed in Bill

"A House of Representatives committee voted to let farmers grow genetically modified crops developed by Monsanto Co. (MON) (MON) and its competitors during legal appeals of the approval process.

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

So rather than protect the American people, the public, you and I, our representatives in Washington, in the House of Representatives, in this case, are, instead, protecting Monsanto because, you know, there's all that money Monsanto can give our representatives for their "campaigns."

Nice, huh?

The Justice Department, the courts, nearly protected us but then the House of Representatives jumped in so they could protect corporate Monsanto, instead.

How does it feel to be bought and sold, America?

When are we all going to get really mad and see to it we kill campaign contributions?

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-19/house-bill-would-override-court-bans-on-planting-monsanto-crops

Missouri Senators: shills for corporations

Once again, our government voted against you and me--against the people--and voted, instead, to protect the corporations in the country.

The Senate just voted last week to keep you and I from knowing what's in our food.

Again.

Companies don't have to label genetically-modified foods (GMO's) to show that they're in what we eat. Basically, they're protecting the corporations--St. Louis' own Monsanto, among others, I'm sure--instead of protecting the people.

Forget that we otherwise are supposed to know what's in our foods.

Forget that all over Europe they don't even let GMO's into their food chain, let alone not label them.

This provision, added to the farm bill, "would permit states to 'require that any food, beverage, or other edible product offered for sale have a label on indicating that the food, beverage, or other edible product contains a genetically engineered ingredient.'"

What's particularly and especially galling about this is that our own Senators Roy Blunt (Republican) and Senator Clair McCaskill (Democrat) both voted to protect the corporations--Monsanto--instead of us.

It's not surprising--not surprising at all--since Senator Blunt regularly, typically and repeatedly votes to protect corporations and "Big Oil" and Monsanto instead of voting with and for the people--you and me.

As for Senator McCaskill, it's an election year and she no doubt needs and wants the Right Wing and corporate support and money.

It's disgusting.

It's this same Senator Roy Blunt who is, right now, also trying to get the Canadian company's Transcanada Keystone XL pipeline to cut through the good old US of A, from the Northern border all the way to Texas, just short of the Southern border, all so a Canadian company--Transcanada--can get their oil to world markets and make yet more money for themselves.

Forget that oil spills inevitably happen with these things. Forget that we'd have to then clean it up. Forget the environmental damage it would, without question, inflict, permanently.

Senator Blunt HAS to stand up for his corporations and get all that money in his pockets.

And Senator McCaskill has to fight to be re-elected.

Truly disgusting.

Links: http://www.americablog.com/2012/06/senate-votes-7326-to-deny-states-right.html

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2012/06/genetically-modified-america.html

I can hardly believe I'm quoting Jesse Ventura seriously

We Ain't Got Time To Bleed. It's Time for the Revolution.

"You control our world. You've poisoned the air we breathe, contaminated the water we drink, and copyrighted the food we eat. We fight in your wars, die for your causes, and sacrifice our freedoms to protect you. You've liquidated our savings, destroyed our middle class, and used our tax dollars to bailout your unending greed. We are slaves to your corporations, zombies to your airwaves, servants to your decadence. You've stolen our elections, assassinated our leaders, and abolished our basic rights as human beings. You own our property, shipped away our jobs, and shredded our unions. You've profited off of disaster, destabilized our currencies, and raised our cost of living. You've monopolized our freedom, stripped away our education, and have almost extinguished our flame. We are hit...we are bleeding...but we ain't got time to bleed. We will bring the giants to their knees and you will witness our revolution! "

-Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, April 12, 2011
 
Good on you, Governor.

"Vanishing of the Bees" Documentary: maybe we should pay attention?

It's Spring: What you should know about strawberries

Sure, it's Spring and with it comes warm weather and fresh, new, Spring asparagus and--what else?--strawberries, of course.

But instead of just blindly running to the grocery store and buying them up, day after day and/or week after week, it seems there's plenty we need to know about corporate America's strawberries.  To wit:

Strawberries may be a superfood—but they pose a potential risk unless you go organic. In addition to having up to 13 pesticides detected on the fruit, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis, conventional "strawberries have a large surface area and all those tiny bumps, which makes the pesticides hard to wash off, so you’re ingesting more of those chemicals," explains Marion Nestle, PhD, a professor of nutrition and public health at New York University and author of What to Eat.


Not to be done there, unfortunately...

If you can, also skip conventional peaches, apples, blueberries, and cherries, which are typically treated with multiple pesticides and usually eaten skins-on.


And then there's...


Beef
You’ve probably read plenty of stories about the risks of eating chicken. But the most important protein to buy organic may well be beef. "Research suggests a strong connection between some of the hormones given to cattle and cancer in humans, particularly breast cancer," says Samuel Epstein, MD, professor emeritus of environmental and occupational medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. Specifically, the concern is that the estrogen-like agents used on cattle could increase your cancer risk, adds Ted Schettler, MD, science director at the Science and Environmental Health Network.

Though there are strong regulations about the use of hormones in cattle, "not all beef producers are following those regulations strictly, and some studies continue to find hormone residue in cattle," Dr. Schettler says. When you buy beef that’s been certified organic by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), you’re not only cutting out those hormones, you’re also avoiding the massive doses of antibiotics cows typically receive, which the USDA says may lead to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in people


As they used to say on the old TV show "Hill Street Blues"-- "Let's be careful out there..."


You might want to read the entire article since it's about "11 things you should buy organic":  http://shine.yahoo.com/event/green/11-things-you-should-buy-organic-2467411/

Quote of the day--at what point do we pay attention to nature?

“The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st century,  The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of the world’s food, over 70 are pollinated by bees.” --UNEP executive director Achim Steiner

Mr. Steiner was responding to the following announcement from the United Nations:

GENEVA (AFP) – The UN on Thursday expressed alarm at a huge decline in bee colonies under a multiple onslaught of pests and pollution, urging an international effort to save the pollinators that are vital for food crops.

Much of the decline, ranging up to 85 percent in some areas, is taking place in the industrialised northern hemisphere due to more than a dozen factors, according to a report by the UN’s environmental agency.

They include pesticides, air pollution, a lethal pinhead-sized parasite that only affects bee species in the northern hemisphere, mismanagement of the countryside, the loss of flowering plants and a decline in beekeepers in Europe.


At what point are we going to pay attention?

At what point are we going to care?

When the food system totally breaks down?

Link to original post:  United Nations Sounds Alarm Over Vanishing Bees
http://www.disinfo.com/2011/03/united-nations-sounds-alarm-over-vanishing-bees/

Note to Missouri chemical companies Bayer and Monsanto

To the chemical companies--and even the farmers--around the world:

You're killing us:

"The mysterious 4-year-old crisis of disappearing honeybees is deepening. A quick federal survey indicates a heavy bee die-off this winter, while a new study shows honeybees' pollen and hives laden with pesticides."

Do you know how central, how pivotal, the common honey bee is to our existence, folks?

Extremely.

Pollinization is key to a great deal of plant's lives around the world and if we don't have bees, it can't happen.

What else, other than the common honey bee, is going to go from plant to plant, pollinizing?

You? Me?

Nope. And we know it.

Check it out: "About one-third of the human diet is from plants that require pollination from honeybees, which means everything from apples to zucchini."

Note that it's from A to Z.

One third of the human diet potentially not available because we use--overuse, really--chemicals and pesticides.

"This year bees seem to be in bigger trouble than normal after a bad winter, according to an informal survey of commercial bee brokers cited in an internal USDA document. One-third of those surveyed had trouble finding enough hives to pollinate California's blossoming nut trees, which grow the bulk of the world's almonds."

As Bob Dylan wrote and sang "A change is gonna' come" and it better be sooner than later, folks.

We'd better start paying attention to what we're doing to our world.