Genetically Engineered Organisms (GMOs):
The Greatest Threat Ever to Humans and Animals
"Six years ago, Americans began eating genetically engineered food. Surprised? That's because no one told you. While other countries require mandatory labeling of these food ingredients, our FDA has decided we don't need to know.
A genetically modified organism (GMO, also called "genetically engineered") is a plant, animal or microorganism (eg, bacteria) that is created by means that overcome natural boundaries. Genetic engineering involves crossing species which could not cross in nature. For example, genes from a fish have been inserted into strawberries and tomatoes. While the Food and Drug Administration insists that foods produced by genetic engineering are the same as foods from traditional breeding, their own scientists reported that, "the processes of genetic engineering and traditional breeding are different and... they lead to different risks." (1)
Why are companies spending billions on this crazy idea? Because they want to own copyrights on a genes that no one else 'owns' - so that they can make billions of dollars from them.
RISKS? WITH FOOD???
Don't believe the people who say there is no evidence of the harm they do:
To give just a few examples:
1. The lifespan of ladybugs (ladybirds) was reduced to half when they ate aphids that had fed on genetically altered potatoes in Scotland, according to a London Times article (10/22/97) by Science Editor, Nigel Hawkes.
The ladybugs also laid fewer eggs. Note that the ladybirds did not even eat the genetically modified food directly, as we are doing now. They ate something ELSE that had eaten the GMOs. The danger lived on in the food chain. For more information.
2. A recent TV Show by PBS (Public Broadcasting) on GMO's showed how people have now created salmon that is several times bigger than normal salmon, and grows faster. Thankfully, these salmon are currently being farmed inland. However, to save a few dollars the salmon farm is currently seeking permission to farm the salmon in fenced off sections of the ocean. The problem is that if even a couple get away, they could cause the extinction of salmon, because wild salmon prefer the larger salmon because they assume they are better mates, and the resulting offspring have much less chance (if any) of surviving and reproducing.
3. The danger to many humans who are allergic to certain foods is guaranteed, because no one will know what they are eating. For example, say someone is deathly allergic to peanuts. A GMO may have a gene from a peanut in them. The allergic person could get a reaction from eating ANYTHING that contained the peanut gene. They wouldn't even know what caused it - because there are no labelling laws about GMOs.
4. Pesticides are now going to be INSIDE the food you eat!
Most times when people start messing up nature they do bad things that they cannot undo. I am from Australia and you only have to look at all the troubles there caused by introduced species. Many small animals are extinct or threatened due to the introduced fox and cat. And farmers are constantly having to battle whole fields full of toxic Patterson's Curse which got loose from people's gardens (the florists who sell this pretty purple flower probably give it another name than that).
The sad thing is that we don't even need GMOs to produce more food. There is already 2-4 times enough food on the planet to feed everyone. And if people want to grow food in their own area, then the methods described in "Secrets of the Soil" (below) will give them the abundance they seek, at the same time they IMPROVE their health. But multinational chemical companies with billions of dollars to lose don't want you to know this.
Monsanto's View On GM Crop Safety
A Monsanto official told the New York Times, October 25, 1998, that the corporation should not have to take responsibility for the safety of its food products. "Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food," said Phil Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate communications. "Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job." See the GMO link above.
An article in Spectrum Magazine described a Polish experiment which showed that mice definitely prefer non GMO food to GMO food. And when forced to eat GMO food, the mice began to display bizarre behavioural characterisics.
Please learn all you can on this incredible threat to life as we know it, and do your bit to stop it. Once the genie is out of the bag, their is no putting it back in!!!
At least find out which foods have GMOs and boycott (stop buying) them.
MORE INFORMATION AT:
50 Harmful Effects of Genetically Modified Foods
http://www.raw-wisdom.com/genetically-modified-food
True Food Now http://www.truefoodnow.org/
And now we have Genetically Modified Trees! http://www.relfe.com/genetically_modified_trees.html "GE trees are the greatest threat to the world's forests and forest-dwelling indigenous peoples since the invention of the chainsaw"
Genetically Manipulated Food News http://home.intekom.com/tm_info/index.html
Dangerous Air Pharmaceutical Spraying of Crops http://www.rense.com/general32/reisk.htm
(1) Discovery documents from the lawsuit against the FDA, Alliance for Bio-Integrity et al v. Shalala, May
1998. Center for Food Safety, 666 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington, DC 202-547-9359.
GM Crops Breeding with Wild Weeds - Suppressed Report www.rense.com/general33/gmcvrop.htm
Insects THRIVE on GM Crops! http://www.rense.com/general36/gm.htm
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Every bite you take. How Sysco monopolizes food
"A hot dog from Yankee Stadium. Potato latkes from the Four Seasons in Manhattan. Sirloin steak at Applebee's. The jumbo cheeseburger at the University of Iowa Hospital. While it would seem these menu items have nothing in common, they're all from Sysco, a Houston-based food wholesaler. This top food supplier serves nearly 400,000 American eating establishments, from fast-food joints like Wendy's, to five-star eating establishments like Robert Redford's Tree Room Restaurant, to mom-and-pop diners like the Chatterbox Drive-In, to ethnic restaurants like Meskerem Ethiopian restaurant. Even Gitmo dishes out food from Sysco. Should you worry that one source dominates so much of what you eat?
Like any retailer, chefs need wholesalers that distribute goods cheaply and efficiently, and Sysco's 400,000-plus item catalog conveniently sells everything a cook needs to run an eating establishment. A little more than half of their products are brand names like Parkay and Lucky Charms.
The rest are Sysco-packaged items like 25-pound bags of rice, half-gallons of salsa, boxes of plastic gloves, beer mugs, dish-washing detergent, not to mention 1,900 different fresh and frozen chicken products. Whatever a cook orders is delivered straight to the kitchen door at bottom-barrel prices: One Sysco invoice I got my hands on has a 25-pound bag of Uncle Ben's Converted Rice selling for $20.95, or about 84 cents a pound, while a 1-pound box bought through Amazon Grocery costs $2.09.
The ingredients alone on some of the pre-made items are enough to make a restaurant-goer swear off eating out. The breaded cheese chicken breast, for instance, contains monocalcium phosphates, sorbic acid preservatives, and oleoresin in turmeric. The Serve Smart Chicken is particularly frightening. While it looks natural, it consists of parts of other chicken breasts mashed together into a single, chicken-breastlike block. As the company notes on its Web site, our "unique 3-D technology gives you the look and texture of a solid muscle chicken breast, at a fraction of the cost. … Available in four great flavors: teriyaki, BBQ, fajita and original." What Smart Chicken tastes like, I'd rather not know.
Restaurants make a mint from serving these pre-prepped foods, since the meals can be purchased in bulk and stored in a freezer for months. A box of 36, 4-ounce chicken Kievs, for instance, can be kept in an icebox for up to 180 days. And the savings from labor costs are considerable. Each reheated Angus country fried steak will bring in almost $5 in profits. In the words of Sysco, these meals require nothing more than the ability to "heat, assemble, and serve..
Unfortunately, you can't rely on a 5-Star restaurant either: They often buy their chef's gourmet food from big wholesalers." More at: http://www.slate.com/id/2160284/
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On This Day:
Tito dies, May 4, 1980:
"Josip Broz Tito, communist leader of Yugoslavia since 1945, passes away at the age of 88 in Belgrade. During his 35-year rule, Tito guided Yugoslavia along a pathway that combined dogmatic allegiance to Marxism with an independent, and often combative, relationship with the Soviet Union.
The child of peasants, Tito became a convert to the ideals of communism as a young man. His rise to prominence in Yugoslavia began during World War II when he led resistance groups fighting against both the Nazi occupation forces and their Yugoslav collaborators. In 1944, he appealed to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for assistance in capturing the capital city of Belgrade from its Nazi occupiers. Stalin sent units of the Red Army to help in the attack and by early 1945 Tito declared himself ruler of a new Yugoslav Republic. Unlike many other Eastern European nations, however, Tito's Yugoslavia was not subjected to a lengthy Soviet occupation.
After 1945, relations between Tito and the Soviet Union deteriorated rapidly. Tito's assistance to Greek communists was considered poor policy to Stalin, who had earlier reached an agreement with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to accept British hegemony in Greece. In addition, Tito's independent course in his foreign policy irritated Stalin, who expected the communist "satellite" regimes in Eastern Europe to toe the Soviet line. In 1948, Stalin expelled Yugoslavia from the Communist Information Bureau (an agency designed to coordinate communist policy in the international sphere). This action effectively severed ties between the Soviet bloc and Yugoslavia. Tito reacted to this by actively seeking U.S. military and economic assistance. Somewhat surprisingly, this aid was forthcoming. President Harry S. Truman and his advisors saw in Tito an opportunity to drive a wedge into the supposedly monolithic communist bloc and encourage other communist regimes to break free from Soviet domination. If the Americans expected Tito to deviate from his Marxist ideology, however, they were sadly mistaken. Until his death in 1980, Tito remained a steadfast communist, albeit one who charted an independent course from the Soviet Union."
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Yesterday:
Misty and I got ready to go meet some friends from RV-Dreams Chatroom, at the Lake Conroe KOA.
It took Rob and Debra a long time to sell their house in FL, but now they have been Fulltiming in their beautiful Pinnacle 5th. wheel for a few months now. Arlene came from Magnolia to visit with us too.
Rob and Debra's dog, "Bale", and my dog, "Misty" had a good time too.
The weather was great with a breeze to keep us cool as we sat at the picnic table under their awning.
Then as I had to go past there on the way home, I took Misty for a walk around Petsmart, as she had never been there. She liked that. But I couldn't make her stand still, looking up, so I had to put her in a cart to take her picture.
A very good day!
1 comment:
Thanks for all the pics. I enjoyed reading about your visit and looking at the pictures.
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