Free Republic

GM Debate Not Settled, Say European Scientists Controversy erupts after World Food Prize awarded to Monsanto By Justina Reichel, Epoch Times | October 24, 2013 In the wake of biotech giants Monsanto and Syngenta being awarded the World Food Prize, a European coalition of scientists is challenging claims that the debate around genetically modified foods is settled and that GM foods are safe. The European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility, which consists of more than 90 scientists, academics, and physicians, released a statement Monday in response to “sweeping claims” that GM products are safe. “We strongly reject...

In an essay "Freedom of the Press" George Orwell wrote presciently about the dangers of a press too bound to prevailing orthodoxy to print anything else: "Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news -- things which on their own merits would get the big headlines -- being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that "it wouldn't do" to mention...

MARTIN COUNTY — Algae found in the St. Lucie River is toxic, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection confirmed Tuesday. Martin County health officials have warned residents to stay out of the water. Check back for developments. Read more: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region_martin_county/toxic-algae-confirmed-in-st-lucie-river-health-officials-warn-to-stay-out-of-water#ixzz2bEpjxEuk

Shortly after 50,000 bees were found dead in an Oregon parking lot (read more here), a staggering 37 million bees have been found dead in Elmwood, Ontario, Canada.Dave Schuit, who runs a honey operation in Elmwood has lost 600 hives. He is pointing the finger at the insecticides known as neonicotinoids, which are manufactured by Bayer CropScience Inc. The loss comes after the planting of corn. Neonicotinoid pesticides are used to coat corn seed with air seeders, which result in blowing the pesticide dust into the air when planted. The death of millions of pollinators was studied by Purdue University....

Fifty thousand bumblebees will be honored in a memorial this weekend at the Wilsonville Target where a majority of the insects died. State officials directly linked the die-off to trees that had been sprayed with the insecticide Safari. Rozzell Medina, of Portland, said on the Facebook page that the event will "memorialize these fallen lifeforms and talk about the plight of the bees and their importance to life on Earth."

Europe is on the brink of a landmark ban on the world's most widely used insecticides, which have increasingly been linked to serious declines in bee numbers. Despite intense secret lobbying by British ministers and chemical companies against the ban, revealed in documents obtained by the Observer, a vote in Brussels on Monday is expected to lead to the suspension of the nerve agents. Bees and other insects are vital for global food production as they pollinate three-quarters of all crops. The plummeting numbers of pollinators in recent years has been blamed on disease, loss of habitat and, increasingly, the...

Rats or Humans? Inside Saddam's Extermination Plant(August 29, 2002)This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/ He was introduced as director of research and development at Falluja, one of the remote factories where the United States claims Saddam Hussein could be making chemical and biological weapons. Asked if he had worked on any of Saddam's chemical weapons programs, Dr Mohammed Frah played a straight bat: "In the early 1980s I worked for five years on the chemical and biological programs at Al-Muthanna." This is the name of a critical centre in Saddam's weapons program - a huge pesticide complex that produced...

Yet more top-quality research shows current regulation is woefully inadequate in protecting the creatures that pollinate much of our food. Here we go again. Yet more research has been published in the world's most prestigious, peer-reviewed journals showing that extremely widely-used pesticides have very damaging effects on bees, yet the only response from the government is inaction. The new paper, published in Nature, shows that bumblebees foraging naturally and exposed to realistic doses of pesticides suffer in two key ways. First they are about twice as likely to die: two-thirds of the bees are lost when exposed to two pesticides...

Join us for this special GMO Awareness radio show! On Saturday, October 13, 2012 at 8:40 a.m. (PST). Deborah Whitman will be talking about some of the health affects of GMO Food and how you can protect yourself and your family.

A European Union court has annulled a Commission decision rejecting two environmental groups’ request for an internal review of a pesticide regulation. The General Court’s decision on 14 June called into question the narrow wording of the regulation that obliges the EU’s institutions to protect the rights of civil society to participate in environmental decision-making. The plaintiffs in the case—Stichting Natuur en Milieu, a Dutch environmental foundation, and Pesticide Action Network Europe, a group that campaigns against the use of chemical pesticides—welcomed the outcome. François Veillerette, who heads the Pesticide Action Network, urged the commission to accept the decision and...

The Brand names include Havoc, Talon, Contrac, Maki, Ratimus and d-CON Mouse Pruf II. The EPA now is moving to curb widespread use of these rodenticides, starting next June. That move, however, could be short-circuited by a lawsuit filed by the multinational corporation the sells d-CON products. Pesticide manufacturers, applicators and health officials say controlling rats is an important public health goal because they can spread a number of diseases, including hemorrhagic fever, leptospirosis, salmonellosis and rat bite fever.

A California man at odds with state regulators regarding whether his worm-waste products are pesticides is taking his fight to court. George Hahn of Cardiff, who was fined $100,000 last year by the state Department of Pesticide Regulation for allegedly selling unregistered pesticides, claims in Sacramento Court his products are made from all-natural ingredients and should not have to be registered, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Monday. Hahn said his products -- Worm Gold, Worm Gold Plus and Tree Rescue Solution, are made from worm feces, sometimes called castings -- are fertilizers that improve the soil and help plants grow....

June 2, 2010 Dear Senator Johanns, Quoting your recent e-mail update: "I'm disappointed in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s proposal today to further regulate our farmers and ranchers by subjecting pesticide applicators to new and duplicative requirements under the Clean Water Act. It ignores long-established laws already in place to regulate pesticides and will further burden producers, yet it will have virtually zero environmental benefit." Senator Johanns, I am compelled to wonder what heights your "disappointment" shall reach when America no longer is distinct among the nations; when that utterly peculiar design of its founders – a republic whose government...

ADHD Revised? Bethany Stotts, May 17, 2010 A new study conducted by Harvard researchers correlates certain pesticides with an increased risk attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. Using a 95% confidence level, they determined that “For the most-commonly detected DMAP metabolite, dimethyl thiophosphate, children with levels higher than the median of detectable concentrations had twice the odds of ADHD (adjusted odds ratio: 1.93 [95% confidence interval: 1.23–3.02]), compared with children with undetectable levels.” They studied over a thousand children. “These findings support the hypothesis that organophosphate exposure, at levels common among US children, may contribute to ADHD prevalence,” state the authors...

Scientists in the United Kingdom are turning moths gay to prevent them from mating, thus saving crops from their destructive larvae. It could also prevent the overuse of pesticides, which has so far been the conventional method of killing off the larvae of the codling moth. But this has also killed more beneficial insects, as well as devaluing the crop. The codling moth (Cydia pomonella) is largely grey and has copper-striped wings. It lays its eggs on fruit trees. The yellow and black larvae – known in America as “the worm in the apple” – hatch and then burrow into...

To protect our health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets maximum legal residue levels for every pesticide, for dozens of crops. But a new study in the respected journal Toxicology has shown that, at low levels that are currently legal on our food, Roundup could cause DNA damage, endocrine disruption and cell death. The study, conducted by French researchers, shows glyphosate-based herbicides are toxic to human reproductive cells. The potential real-life risks from this are infertility, low sperm count, and prostate or testicular cancer. But, “Symptoms could be so subtle, they would be easy to overlook,” says Theo Colborn,...

More than a decade after Congress directed the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to carry out assessments of endocrine disrupting chemicals, the agency has announced the first set of compounds to be screened under its Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP). Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can affect hormones produced by the endocrine system, which regulate growth, metabolism and reproduction.The EPA has requested that manufacturers screen seven compounds under this  first round, including atrazine - a widely used herbicide that may be associated with birth defects, low birth weight and menstrual problems. Although banned in Europe, atrazine remains prevalent in the US, with...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Good news for men who farm U.S. fields. Regular exposure to pesticides used commonly on the farm does not appear to increase the risk of heart attack. As part of the Agricultural Health Study, between 1993 and 1997, researchers asked more than 54,000 male farmers what pesticides they used regularly, how much time they spent using tractors and other farm equipment, and whether they raised poultry or other livestock. Dr. Jane A. Hoppin, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and colleagues surveyed roughly 32,000 of these men...

Common herbs and spices show promise as an environmentally-friendly alternative to conventional pesticides, scientists have told a major US conference. They have spent a decade researching the insecticidal properties of rosemary, thyme, clove and mint. They could become a key weapon against insect pests in organic agriculture, the researchers say, as the industry attempts to satisfy demand. The "plant essential oils" have a broad range of action against bugs. Some kill them outright while others repel them. Details were presented at the Fall Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Washington DC.....

Shoppers face an array of choices on fruit but little guidance on which type to pick. Expensive organic? Pricey farmers' market? Cheap ones from the grocery store? Cost is certainly important. But there are essential numbers that go beyond the price tag. Which contain the highest levels of pesticides?