Written by In the heart of Western Michigan are picturesque rural towns that are now a backdrop to a raging battle between farmers and the government. The Department of Natural Resources in Michigan has deemed a certain type of pigs an invasive species. Farmers have been ordered to slaughter every last one of their pigs and piglets and farmers that don’t comply are now faced with jail time and a felony. But some farmers are putting up a fight. RT Correspondent Liz Wahl and Photojournalist Jon Conway traveled to Michigan to investigate what’s really behind the swine carnage.
Posts in category Farming
U.S. quarantines two dairies after mad cow case
WASHINGTON – Two California dairy farms are under quarantine and a calf ranch is under investigation following discovery of the latest U.S. case of mad cow disease, but the government on Wednesday said the actions were standard procedure and there was no threat to the food supply.
Also, a calf born to the infected cow was found and tested negative for the disease.
Cattle records at the two dairies are being matched to determine if any at-risk cattle are on the farms, said the Agriculture Department.
USDA said the infected cow was a rare “atypical” case of the disease, meaning it arose spontaneously rather than through the feed supply. However, it is USDA’s standard procedure to search for other cattle, offspring or herd mates, that might be exposed to the fatal disease, even though mad cow disease is not contagious.
Olive harvest reaps animosity in West Bank
Israeli authorities are giving Palestinian olive growers less time to harvest their crops this year, saying they want to protect them from settler violence and vandalism.
For families in the West Bank, whose livelihoods depend on the sale of olives and oil, picking the olives before they are ripe can seriously decrease their value.
Jewish families in nearby settlements claim that harvests have been used as cover for “terrorist activity” and that the Israeli military needs to oversee them.
But many Palestinian farmers see violence only on the other side, when settlers burn and chop down their orchards, forcing them to replant again and again.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reports from the West Bank.
EU bans GM-contaminated honey from general sale
The European Union’s highest court on Tuesday ruled that honey which contains trace amounts of pollen from genetically modified (GM) corn must be labelled as GM produce and undergo full safety authorisation before it can be sold as food.
In what green groups are calling a “groundbreaking” ruling, the decision could force the EU to strengthen its already near-zero tolerance policy on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Bavarian beekeepers, some 500m from a test field for a modified maize crop developed by Monsanto – one of only two GM crops authorised as safe to be cultivated in Europe – claimed their honey had been “contaminated” by pollen from the plant.
The European court of justice found in their favour, a ruling that should offer grounds for the beekeepers to claim compensation in a German court.
Monsanto Plans To Sell Sweet Corn In Your Local Supermarket
Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, is known for developing engineered crops (i.e. corn and soybeans) that end up in many of the food products found on grocery store aisles, as well as in fibers and animal feed. Up until now, the company’s GM crops have only been available in processed foods–in other words, in little bits and pieces. But now Monsanto is making a move into the consumer market with GM sweet corn, which will be found in a supermarket produce bin or farmer’s market near you starting this fall.
There is a good chance you’ve already eaten GM sweet corn: Syngenta–a Monsanto rival–has been selling it for a decade. And Monsanto already sells GM squash developed by Seminis, which the company bought in 2005. So why is Monsanto’s sweet corn a big deal? This is the first consumer product actually developed by Monsanto. While previous industry attempts to introduce GM consumer-oriented vegetables in the 1990s failed miserably (see Calgene’s Flavr Savr tomatoes), Monsanto may be warming up to the idea. “I think Monsanto is trying to test the waters here,” says Bill Freese, a science policy analyst with the Center for Food Safety. If GM sweet corn works out for the agri-giant, we might see even more GM produce on our supermarket shelves.
Monsanto-spawned superweeds growing three inches daily, destroying farm equipment
(NaturalNews) The proliferation of superweeds — weeds that have mutated to develop resistance to popular herbicides like Monsanto’s Roundup formula — continues to rise. But the individual plants’ overall size and strength is also increasing. According to a series of new studies published in the journal Weed Science, farmers are having more trouble than ever dealing with out-of-control superweeds in their fields, some of which grow up to three inches a day in size, and are so strong and thick that they are destroying farm equipment.
The studies reveal that there are currently at least 21 different weed species known to be resistant to Roundup, also known generically as glyphosate. These species include ragweed, pigweed, horseweed, waterhemp, and ryegrass. Since 2007, the total acreage of farmland known to be infested with superweeds has also jumped more than 450 percent, from 2.4 million acres to 11 million acres, which means that the problem is only going to get exponentially worse.
“Super-strains of plants like pigweed — which grows three inches a day and is tough enough to damage farm machinery — have emerged, which may dramatically reduce the options for farmers to control them,” writes Fast Company in a recent piece on the issue. “The alternatives are usually more dangerous chemicals or plowing and mulching fields, undermining many of the environmental benefits biotech crops are supposed to offer. It’s ‘the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen,’ claims Andrew Wargo III, president of the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts.”
And yet for years Monsanto has denied, at least in part, that Roundup is the cause of superweeds, alleging also that widespread concern about the issue is overblown. Though it now admits that Roundup may actually be culprit in spawning superweeds (you think?), Monsanto is trying to somehow spin the situation in a positive light. Back in 2010, for instance, a writer for Monsanto’s public relations blog actually claimed that using too little Roundup might be a cause of superweeds (http://www.monsantoblog.com/2010/05…).
Farmers sued for saving Monsanto wheat seeds
Agrichemical giant Monsanto Co. today filed a federal lawsuit against two Erie-area farmers, accusing them of planting seed saved from plants grown from the company’s genetically engineered products.
According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, farmers Harold Wiser, of Carlton, and Steve Wiser, of Girard, bought Monsanto’s wheat, soybean and corn seeds. The seeds are genetically engineered to be resistant to Monsanto’s pesticides, which “will cause severe injury or death to varieties that do not contain the [pesticide-resistance] technology.”
The farmers had signed an agreement in 2003 outlining how the seeds could be used. Not authorized: Saving seeds from plants grown from the Monsanto products, and planting them the next year.
Death wish: Routine use of vital antibiotics on farms threatens human health
The use of modern antibiotics on British farms has risen dramatically in the past decade, fuelling the development of resistant organisms and weakening the power of human medicine to cure disease.
Click HERE to view graphic (218k jpg)
Three classes of antibiotics rated as “critically important in human medicine” by the World Health Organisation – cephalosporins, fluouroquinolones and macrolides – have increased in use by up to eightfold in the animal population over the past decade.
Over the same period, livestock numbers have fallen, by 27 per cent in the case of pigs, 10 per cent for cattle and 11 per cent for poultry. Experts say intensive farming, with thousands of animals reared in cramped conditions driven by price pressure imposed by the big supermarket chains, means infections spread faster and the need for antibiotics is greater. The widespread use of antibiotics in livestock farming is recognised as a major contributor to the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Last month British scientists identified a new type of MRSA in milk, the first time the resistant organism had been found in farm animals in the UK. Although the superbug is killed by pasteurisation, there are fears it could spread from cattle to humans.
Resistant genes for toxic forms of E.coli can jump from animal to human strains. The outbreak of a virulent antibiotic-resistant strain of E.coli in Germany last month, which has claimed 39 lives and left more than 3,300 people requiring hospital treatment, has been blamed on the overuse of antibiotics in farming.
E.coli superbug outbreak in Germany due to abuse of antibiotics in meat production
(NaturalNews) The e.coli outbreak in Germany is raising alarm worldwide as scientists are now describing this particular strain of e.coli as “extremely aggressive and toxic.” Even worse, the strain is resistant to antibiotics, making it one of the world’s first widespread superbug food infections that’s racking up a noticeable body count while sickening thousands.
Of course, virtually every report you’ll read on this in the mainstream media has the facts wrong. This isn’t about cucumbers being dangerous, because e.coli does not grow on cucumbers. E.coli is an intestinal strain of bacteria that only grows inside the guts of animals (and people). Thus, the source of all this e.coli is ANIMAL, not vegetable.
FEMA To Confiscate Food From Local Farms In Emergencies?
FEMA To Confiscate Food From Local Farms In Emergencies?
http://www.naturalnews.com/032357_FEMA_food_confiscation.html#ixzz1M3FQ05dh
The Intel Hub
http://theintelhub.com
Food security, local farms and FEMA
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=72620642EB2DE54931674ED4857C08EC
HSUS Member Sues Perdue Over “Humane” Chicken
One of the nation’s largest chicken producers is facing a class action lawsuit alleging the company is using misleading labeling on its packaging. The label claims the chickens are “humanely raised,” when in fact the treatment of the birds is as poor as ever.
Canada’s transgenic Enviropig is stuck in a genetic modification poke
The small herd of pigs in a research barn in Guelph look like ordinary pigs.
They act like ordinary pigs, and presumably, they would even taste like ordinary pigs if anyone dared to break the law and sample one.
But these are Enviropigs. The transgenic creations of university researchers, they are the world’s most controversial environmentally sensitive swine, and they’re not legally fit to eat. At least, not yet.
Under development for more than a decade, the University of Guelph’s 20 Enviropigs are close behind a Canadian-made supersized salmon in a race to become the first genetically modified animals allowed into the food system.
Starting with the discovery that an E.coli gene could produce a digestive enzyme that regular pigs lack, the Guelph scientists realized they could introduce genetic material from that bacterium into pigs to minimize the environmental impact of the animals’ waste, reducing a major pollutant from large-scale production – and allowing pork producers to cut operation costs.
The market may soon need Enviropig. To feed the projected world population of nine billion in 2050, food production will have to increase by 70 per cent, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Genetically engineered organisms will have to be part of the equation, according to the globe-spanning community of experts concerned with meeting those looming targets.
Study Shows Monsanto Roundup Herbicide Link to Birth Defects
A major new scientific study has confirmed growing conviction that the world’s most widely used chemical herbicide, Monsanto Corporation’s Roundup is toxic and a danger to human as well as animal organisms. The latest scientific research carried out by a multinational scientific team headed by Professor Andrés Carrasco, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Embryology at the University of Buenos Aires Medical School and member of Argentina’s National Council of Scientific and Technical Research, presents alarming demonstration that Monsanto and the GMO agribusiness industry have systematically lied about the safety of their Roundup. Roundup in far lower concentrations than used in agriculture is linked to birth defects. The health implications are huge. All major GMO crops on the market today are genetically manipulated to “tolerate” the herbicide Roundup.
Glyphosate was patented by Monsanto in the 1970’s well before GMO was commercialized, as a so-called broad-spectrum weed killer. It is typically sprayed and absorbed through the leaves, or used as a forestry herbicide. It was initially patented and sold by Monsanto under the trade name Roundup, which also contains non-disclosed added chemicals the company refuses to divulge for “trade secret” reasons. As of 2005, 87% of all US soybean fields were planted with glyphosate-resistant varieties of GMO soybeans and sprayed with Roundup.
Because the seeds of Monsanto Roundup Ready GMO soybeans or other crops have been manipulated solely to be “resistant” to Roundup herbicide, while all other plant life in the field is killed by Roundup, farmers using Roundup Ready seeds must also purchase Roundup herbicide, making a captive market for both seed and chemicals.
The problem with this cozy arrangement, aside from the fact that Roundup-resistant “super-weeds” are emerging as a new biological catastrophe (see Katastrophale Folgen von GVO-Pflanzen in den USA – eine Lektion für die EU), is that Glyphosate has now been demonstrated to be linked to birth defects as one of the most highly toxic substances in agriculture. The US Government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), nonetheless continues to regard Roundup as “relatively low in toxicity, and without carcinogenic or teratogenic effects.” In the United States the US Government notoriously relies on test data from Monsanto and the agribusiness industry to make safety rulings, under the 1992 doctrine of Substantial Equivalence which asserts that GMO seeds are “substantially equivalent” to ordinary seeds and thereby need no independent health or safety tests. While herbicides are treated slightly different, the fact that the agribusiness industry influences much of US Government policy has insured the most benign regulatory treatment of Roundup to date.
Evolution and Food, a Different Point of View
2011 Leave a Comment
I read a paper once on a native American tribe from the southwest. They had a larger than normal occurrence of diabetes. To put it in a nutshell, in trying to determine the cause of this the study found that the loss of a melon that had been natural to their diet contributed greatly to the rise in diabetes cases within the tribe. When the melon was reintroduced into their diet the occurrence of diabetes fell dramatically. It turns out that after ten thousand years of depending on this fruit for a major part of their diet their digestive systems had adapted to the point where taking the food source away caused it damage. READ MORE »