Free Republic

Relying on "gigantic corporations" for food, he said, would result in "absolute disaster". "That would be the absolute destruction of everything... and the classic way of ensuring there is no food in the future," he said. Snip.."If they think this is the way to go....we [will] end up with millions of small farmers all over the world being driven off their land into unsustainable, unmanageable, degraded and dysfunctional conurbations of unmentionable awfulness."

Albert Einstein once said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left.” Why? Because without bees, plants don’t get pollinated. Without pollination, say goodbye to fruit, nuts, and some vegetables. We also won’t have natural oils (such as olive oil, sunflower oil, hemp oil, etc.). And we don’t have many natural fibers, such as cotton. You can see how important the bee is to our livelihood and existence. Some economists say the bee is worth about $14 billion to our economy. That’s why I was so alarmed to...

Sorry about the caps, this is the way it was posted: =================================================== I HAVE BEEN DOING AN ETIOLOGY OF MORGELLONS MY FINDINGS ARE VERY IMPORTANT FOR ALL AFFECTED WITH THIS NEW DISEASE (MUTATION). I AM 99.9% POSITIVE OF MY FINDINGS FOR ALL AFFECTED IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO HAVE A GENETIC/DNA TEST DONE(PERFORMED BY THE *BLAST METHOD*) TO FIND OUT YOUR GENETIC STATUS ALL MORGELLON SUFFERES WILL FIND THAT THEY HAVE A PLANT GENE GROWING IN THEM IT IS CAUSED BY USE OF GMO'S(GENETICALLY MODOFIED ORGANISM'S) THAT ARE IN 68% OF USA'S FOOD CHAIN IT IS PRODUCED BY THE USE...

In August, Bayer Cropscience reported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that some of the American long grain rice crop had been commingled with its genetically modified (GM) LL-601 rice. LL-601 is the abbreviation for the gene that confers resistance to the Liberty Link herbicide. LL-601 rice, which has not been approved for human consumption, was field tested between 1998 and 2001 and was dropped by Bayer when other varieties proved more productive and it judged that the time was not ripe for introducing GM rice. No one currently knows how the LL-601 rice got commingled at a...

Zimbabwean Minister of State for Land Reform and Resettlement Didymus Mutasa has denied the press reports that the southern African country had started importing genetically modified foods from Argentina. Mutasa said in a statement that "To be honest, I have never heard of that. They would have to consult with me but no one has done so. That policy (against unmilled genetically modified maize) is steadfast, we continue to maintain it. It has not been reviewed and the cabinet has not changed its position," he said. Zimbabwe and many other countries in the region are suspicious of genetically modified foods,...

Amidst all of political stories, I have noticed several intriguing biology articles on the Drudge Report; and for that matter, on the Free Republic website. (Even though, according to liberals, reading these sites for serious news is like saying you read Playboy for the articles). One of the articles involved a group of scientists who were able to entice human brain cells to grow within mice; another involved a mouse with human ovaries. It is perhaps unfortunate that these articles were juxtaposed with my attendance at a seminar upon the promise of genomics, presented by two researchers from the University...

Amidst all of political stories, I have noticed several intriguing biology articles on the Drudge Report; and for that matter, on the Free Republic website. (Even though, according to liberals, reading these sites for serious news is like saying you read Playboy for the articles). One of the articles involved a group of scientists who were able to entice human brain cells to grow within mice; another involved a mouse with human ovaries. It is perhaps unfortunate that these articles were juxtaposed with my attendance at a seminar upon the promise of genomics, presented by two researchers from the University...

The Congress of Racial Equality’s recent conference, video and commentary on agricultural biotechnology* presented personal testimonials from African farmers whose lives have been improved by GM crops, impressive data on progress, and a message of hope for poor, malnourished people in developing countries. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. But not from all quarters. Predictably, anti-GM zealots continue to offer a steady stream of unsupported and unsupportable invective. To hear them tell it, biotechnology is a "scourge" that will do nothing to save lives or reduce poverty and malnutrition. "Evil multinationals" like Monsanto are determined to impose "a new form...

Tsunami survivors and millions of others could benefit from a marvel of modern science: golden rice. By adding two daffodil genes to common rice, researchers made it rich in beta-carotene, which humans can convert to vitamin A. This miracle rice could help reduce widespread Vitamin A deficiency that causes up to 500,000 children to go blind every year--and 2,000,000 a year to die from diseases they would likely survive if they weren’t so malnourished. Just a few ounces a day will do wonders. Unfortunately, thanks to anti-biotechnology zealots, the rice is still not available. Even if it were, these unfortunate...

Almost everywhere food is sold these days, you are likely to find products claiming to contain no genetically modified substances. But unless you are buying wild mushrooms, game, berries or fish, that statement is untrue. Nearly every food we eat has been genetically modified, through centuries of crosses, both within and between species, and for most of the last century through mutations induced by bombarding seeds with chemicals or radiation. In each of these techniques, dozens, hundreds, even thousands of genes of unknown function are transferred or modified to produce new food varieties. Most so-called organic foods are no exception....

Genetically Engineered Plants Detect Land Mines (look under 11/29/2004 entry) “A Danish company, Aresa Biodetection, has developed genetically-modified flowers that change color when their roots come in contact with nitrogen dioxide in the soil. Explosives used in mines produce NO2 as the chemicals gradually decay. The company plans to sow fields of NO2-sniffing Arabidopsis thaliana (Thale or mouse cress) in areas riddled with long-forgotten ordinance from Angola to Cambodia. The effort's life- and limb-saving potential is staggering: More than 100 million land mines kill or injure 26,000 people in 45 countries each year. Today's most popular detection method is poking...

A new report issued by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) under North American Free Trade Agreement points out that genes from genetically modified corn (maize) have been found in traditional varieties grown by Mexican farmers. The transgenes evidently came from corn genetically enhanced for insect resistance that has been imported from the United States. Instead of eating the corn, some Mexican farmers planted it and it crossbred with local varieties. So Chapela was right.  Now we turn to the question, does it matter?  Scientifically, the CEC report basically concludes that crossbreeding between transgenic, conventional and traditional varieties...

Genetically engineered crops do not pose health risks that cannot also arise from crops created by other techniques, including conventional breeding, the National Academy of Sciences said in a report issued yesterday. The conclusion backs the basic approach now underlying government oversight of biotech foods, that special food safety regulations are not needed just because foods are genetically engineered. Nevertheless, the report said that genetic engineering and other techniques used to create novel crops could result in unintended, harmful changes to the composition of food, and that scrutiny of such crops should be tightened before they go to market. "The...

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"/> May 15, 2004 Europeans Appear Ready to Approve a Biotech CornBy PAUL MELLER and ANDREW POLLACK RUSSELS, May 14 - The European Union appears ready to approve a genetically engineered corn, ending a six-year moratorium on approvals for biotechnology crops that led to a bitter trade dispute with the United States. Spokesmen for the European Commission said here on Friday that the commissioners were expected to approve the corn, an insect-resistant sweet corn developed by Syngenta, at its weekly meeting on Wednesday. United States government and industry officials cautiously welcomed the move but...

Tests Show U.S. Failure to Block Contamination From Gene-Altered Varieties Much of the U.S. supply of ordinary crop seeds has become contaminated with strands of engineered DNA, suggesting that current methods for segregating gene-altered seed plants from traditional varieties are failing, according to a pilot study released yesterday. More than two-thirds of 36 conventional corn, soy and canola seed batches contained traces of DNA from genetically engineered crop varieties in lab tests commissioned by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based advocacy group. The actual amount of foreign DNA present in U.S. seeds appears to be small, and most engineered...

<p>A Sacramento biotechnology company is pushing the $500 million California rice industry to a new frontier with a proposal to grow commercial rice engineered to make drug compounds.</p> <p>The controversial plan is ambitious and somewhat mysterious. The company, Ventria Bioscience, will not reveal where it hopes to cultivate what would be America's first genetically engineered plant-produced pharmaceuticals to reach the market.</p>

Move to Ban Altered Crops Is Focused on California Published: January 11, 2004 UKIAH, Calif., Jan. 10 (AP) — The center of the nation's anti-biotechnology movement can be found these days here in Mendocino County, a quirky region with a strong streak of independence. Farmers and businesses in this Northern California county are trying to persuade voters to pass a measure on March 2 that would prohibit genetically modified plants and animals from being raised or kept in the county. "I believe that genetic engineering at this stage is the biggest uncontrolled biological experiment going on in the world today,"...

Technology will make labeling battles moot. Labeling is back in the news because of one mad cow. Actually, the Canadian Holstein seems to have been pretty well labeled. Investigators were able to use her paper trail to trace her north of the border and then confirm it by testing her DNA. Instead of slaughtering 450 calves in order to kill the mad one's progeny, they could have DNA testing to fin the calf—probably still too expensive. In any case, Washington state's single mad cow is now propelling the usual gaggle of "consumer advocates" to push Congress to adopt new labeling...

A Tale of Two Seeds By Pramit Pal Chaudhuri India and Brazil are continents apart, but human aspirations are universal. The experience of farmers in both these countries illustrates their common desire to access new technologies, improve productivity and reach new markets. Indeed, the future of agriculture biotechnology may rest on what happens in these two large agriculturally significant countries. The increasing demand for GM seeds by farmers is forcing the hands of the governments in both these countries. Brazil Basics In a hectic 36 hour period last month, Brazil twice lifted and once restored a ban on the use...

Toxic ShockBy Thomas R. DeGregori From Ripley Today online news site we learn that on Saturday September 27, "Greenpeace campaigners" exchanged "what they described as genetically modified milk for the organic alternative, free of charge" at a booth in front of a Sainsbury's grocery store. This was allegedly for the purpose of food safety and informing and protecting consumers. Somehow Greenpeace always seems to have an uncanny ability to get things exactly opposite to the truth and in this case, once again they have not failed us in being egregiously in error. In a number of recently published scholarly articles...

By now even the lactose intolerant are aware of the battle being waged by chemical giant Monsanto against the against the locally owned and operated [Portland, Maine] Oakhurst Dairy over the "hormone-free" label Oakhurst uses on its milk. Monsanto is the sole US producer of the artificial-growth hormone in question, and reportedly doesn’t like the implication that customers should care about — or want to avoid — such a chemical in their dairy products. Monsanto recently filed for an injunction to prevent Oakhurst from labeling or advertising its milk as hormone-free, based primarily on the fact that Posilac (the hormone’s...

Foes of the Earth by Alex Avery [ 29/07/2003 ] Stock Photo Those who call themselves advocates for the environment continue in their desperate campaign against biotech-improved crops -- the most critically needed farming technology in half a century. In a world that already farms nearly half the non-ice covered land on planet earth, yet faces a doubling of global food demand over the next half-century, neither humanity nor the wildlife we might otherwise plow down for more farmland can afford to lose such a promising technology. This month in the Times of London, Tony Juniper, the director of the...

<p>The chaotic scene was a precursor to an even larger rally and march beginning at 10 a.m. today at the state Capitol. Organizers have taken out a march permit for 8,000 people. Their target: an international agriculture conference, hosted by the U.S. government, that starts today at the Sacramento Convention Center.</p>

"With transatlantic relations still strained by the Iraq war, President Bush on Wednesday opened a new front by accusing Europe of impeding American efforts to combat famine and poverty in Africa and beyond," according to Reuters. "The United States plans to sue the European Union unless it quickly opens its market to genetically modified (GMO) products. France, which led opposition to the Iraq war, is also leading the GMO-skeptics in Europe, where consumer sentiment against the products runs high." In a Cato Institute Trade Policy Analysis, "The Looming Trade War over Plant Biotechnology", Cato Adjunct Scholar Ronald Bailey writes that...

Anyone who's been awake at all in the last six months or so will have noticed that the United States is having trouble keeping friends in the international community. It's not our fault, of course. We only do what we consider to be in our interest, and all we ask from our allies is that they do what's in our interest, too. We give them plenty of guidance in this (and for free!), but a lot of them insist on exercising their own judgement. Not only is this inefficient, but it sometimes leads them to take positions contrary to ours,...

ST. LOUIS (CP) - At 72, lifelong Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser never dreamed he'd be the poster boy in what he calls a worldwide struggle for farmers' rights and autonomy. But five years and $200,000 in legal fees later, the Saskatchewan farmer said he will go down fighting St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. for the right of farmers to plant seed saved from one growing season in the next. Schmeiser barely had heard of Monsanto before 1998, he said Friday at the Biodevastation 7 conference in St. Louis, a three-day gathering of opponents of genetic engineering. He and his wife had...

<p>Why is the United States taking the European Union to the World Trade Organization court because of its longstanding moratorium against genetically modified crops?</p> <p>Are we simply bullying European consumers by forcing unwanted food down their throats as some suggest? Hardly. The United States, Canada, Argentina, Egypt and nearly a dozen other countries are merely reminding the EU to live up to the contractual provisions it agreed to years ago.</p>