GMO Foods. Toxin From GM Crops Found In Human Blood. Boycott Kellogg’s. Kashi has GMO Soy. 10 Companies. Male Fertility. Non-GMO Shopping Guide. Nixon. Cat’s Teeth.

For “Foodie Friday”:

5 Ways to Lessen Your Exposure to GMOs

“While politicians debate regulations for labeling and researchers explore the safety issues, there are a few things you can do now if you want to reduce your exposure to GMOs.

Buy organic. Certified organic producers are not allowed to use GM seeds. (Bear in mind, though, that there are no guarantees: There is a slight possibility that organic crops may have been contaminated by nearby GM crops through cross-fertilization.)

 
Look for the "Non-GMO Project Verified" seal. This stamp means that the producer uses best practices to avoid GMO ingredients. Nearly 6,000 products already carry the seal, and Whole Foods has committed to certifying all its store-brand products (called 365 Everyday Value) with the Non-GMO Project.

Check supplement and vitamin labels. Coatings and fillers are often sourced from GM corn and soy (you'll find them hiding under names like maltodextrin and citric acid), and some pills are produced using GM bacteria and fungi. Go to nongmoproject.org to search for verified brands.
When possible, steer clear of nonorganic products made with ingredients that are most likely GM: corn, soy, canola oil, cottonseed oil, and sugar (unless the label says "pure cane sugar").
Download the ShopNoGMO app to your iPhone, or print out a cheat sheet from nongmoshoppingguide.com. Both list products—from cereals to condiments to baby food—that avoid GM ingredients.”    Read more: http://www.oprah.com/health/How-to-Reduce-Exposure-to-GMOs#ixzz21lhLeun5    Next: How genetically modified foods affect your health
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Toxin from GM crops found in human blood: Study

“Bt toxin is widely used in genetically modified crops.  Fresh doubts have arisen about the safety of genetically modified crops, with a new study reporting presence of Bt toxin, used widely in GM crops, in human blood for the first time.

Genetically modified crops include genes extracted from bacteria to make them resistant to pest attacks.

These genes make crops toxic to pests but are claimed to pose no danger to the environment and human health. Genetically modified brinjal, whose commercial release was stopped a year ago, has a toxin derived from a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis ( Bt).

Till now, scientists and multinational corporations promoting GM crops have maintained that Bt toxin poses no danger to human health as the protein breaks down in the human gut. But the presence of this toxin in human blood shows that this does not happen.

Scientists from the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, have detected the insecticidal protein, Cry1Ab, circulating in the blood of pregnant as well as non-pregnant women.

They have also detected the toxin in fetal blood, implying it could pass on to the next generation. The research paper has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in the journal Reproductive Toxicology. The study covered 30 pregnant women and 39 women who had come for tubectomy at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS) in Quebec.

None of them had worked or lived with a spouse working in contact with pesticides.  They were all consuming typical Canadian diet that included GM foods such as soybeans, corn and potatoes. Blood samples were taken before delivery for pregnant women and at tubal ligation for non-pregnant women. Umbilical cord blood sampling was done after birth.

Cry1Ab toxin was detected in 93 per cent and 80 per cent of maternal and fetal blood samples, respectively and in 69 per cent of tested blood samples from non-pregnant women. Earlier studies had found trace amounts of the Cry1Ab toxin in gastrointestinal contents of livestock fed on GM corn. This gave rise to fears that the toxins may not be effectively eliminated in humans and there may be a high risk of exposure through consumption of contaminated meat.”     Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/toxin-from-gm-crops-found-in-human-blood/1/137728.html

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GMO Free USA Launches Campaign #1: Boycott Kellogg’s. Americans come together to Say NO to Kellogg's GMOs!

Join the Boycott,  Take Action Now!

“On June 26, 2012, Kellogg Company contributed $20,167.59 to the California political campaign known as The COALITION AGAINST THE COSTLY FOOD LABELING PROPOSITION, SPONSORED BY FARMERS AND FOOD PRODUCERS. This organization was set up to spread propaganda about the cost of labeling GMOs to California residents. In this digital age, you have to wonder why a company would spend more money than it could possibly cost to change their product labels to fight against the consumer’s right to know what we are eating.

Kellogg's products contain genetically engineered ingredients (GMOs) that were released into our food supply without independent long term testing. The FDA does not oversee the nature or extent of testing that these GMOs undergo. Instead, they allow the companies that develop them and profit from their sale, to determine whether they are safe. "The superficial studies they do conduct are widely criticized as rigged to avoid finding problems.  Genetic engineering is crude and imprecise, and the results are unpredictable.”  Mounting scientific evidence has shown that the GMOs in our food supply are not safe for human consumption.

Kellogg's products contain an EPA Registered Pesticide also known as GMO Bt Corn, and other GMOs that have been scientifically linked to health problems. These problems include:

• infertility
• organ damage 
• certain cancers 
• leaky gut 
• autism 
• autoimmune diseases 
• allergies
• birth defects 
• inflammatory bowel diseases
• learning disabilities
• attention deficit disorders
• accelerated aging
• faulty insulin regulation

The FDA doesn't care, BUT WE DO. Please take a moment to email Kellogg's executives and customer service. Share the scientific evidence. Tell them that Kellogg's Corn Flakes are no longer an American Icon and you will be boycotting Kellogg's products until they remove GMOs!”

Take Action: http://www.capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=61576866&type=CU

* http://www.responsibletechnology.org/docs/140.pdf

**http://earthopensource.org/files/pdfs/GMO_Myths_and_Truth...

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Does Kellogg's have any organic lines?

“..and here we thought we could trust Kashi…

Kellogg's owns Kashi, which does have some ‘natural’ products.

Some of the Kashi products were independently tested by Cornucopia a few months ago (see their Cereal Crimes report).  The ‘natural’ products were found to contain GMOs at that time.  The soy in Kashi cereals comes from soybeans that have had a gene inserted to protect the soybeans from the herbicide Roundup, which kills weeds.

Kashi, one of the nation's leading "natural" brands, owned by Kellogg, was one of the brands featured in the report. Cereal Crimes contrasts the natural cereals with certified organic cereals which prohibit genetically modified grains and synthetic pesticides in organic food production.

Some further clarification: Kellogg's is a big company with a lot of purchasing power. As long as companies like this are buying GMOs, there will be no change. Some of this comes down to the basic economics of supply and demand.

If we are to stop the GMO contamination of this planet, we MUST fry some big fish. Even if Kellogg's is not your favorite breakfast cereal, please participate and spread the word. We must stop this madness NOW!”  Sign here:  http://www.capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=61576866&type=CU

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These 10 Companies Control Enormous Number Of Consumer Brands

“It may be obvious that Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes are both made by Kellogg's, but did you know that Hot Pockets and L'Oreal share a parent company in Nestlé?

A ginormous number of brands are controlled by just 10 multinationals, according to this amazing infographic from French blog Convergence Alimentaire. Now we can see just how many products are owned by Kraft, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Kellogg's, Mars, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, P&G and Nestlé.   (Disclaimer: We are not sure how up-to-date the graphic is. For example, it has not been updated to reflect P&G's sale of Pringles to Kellogg's in February.)

It's not just the consumer goods industry that's become so consolidated. Ninety percent of the media is now controlled by just six companies, down from 50 in 1983, according to a Frugal Dad infographic from last year. Likewise, 37 banks merged to become JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and CitiGroup in a little over two decades, as seen in this 2010 graphic from Mother Jones.”

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Inside Monsanto's tactics to avoid the labeling issue

“Monsanto has no end of tactics in play to avoid the labeling of its GMOs. As we can always ask, if your products are so great, why not advertise them? Now a P.R. guy is in place to fight back.   Digital Journal reported on June 1 that the American Medical Association is considering the labeling of genetically modified foods.

Even the New York Times has been reporting on the issue of labeling recently. Apparently it made front page news at the time.

Now, with the AMA set to consider the labeling of GMOs, so that doctors can more readily find the source of illness, a negative campaign is on the loose.  On Monsanto's side, we have the "Coalition Against the Costly Food Labeling" (CACFLP), an anti-labeling group. Catchy name.

The name of the initiative gives the impression that they are concerned about protecting consumers' money. However, the website lists only one consumer group in its coalition - "Consumers Coalition of California". A search on the IRS.gov site turns up no information on this group, however, the Torrance, Calif. based coalition describes itself as “Research and oriented community education studies and info for residential and small businesses advocating on issues affecting major legislation.” There is no website for the group, and no other national or California-based consumer groups are listed on the CACFLP website.”    Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/325949#ixzz21lt6YwyC

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Battle Brewing Over Labeling of Genetically Modified Food

Using her own stickers, Cynthia LaPier surreptitiously labels foods that she knows contain genetically modified organisms.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — “On a recent sunny morning at the Big Y grocery here, Cynthia LaPier parked her cart in the cereal aisle. With a glance over her shoulder and a quick check of the ingredients, she plastered several boxes with hand-designed stickers from a roll in her purse. “Warning,” they read. “May Contain GMO’s (Genetically Modified Organisms).””

Labeling GMO Groceries

 

 

 

 

In San Francisco, a gathering of supporters of a California ballot proposition requiring genetically modified foods to be labeled.

“For more than a decade, almost all processed foods in the United States — cereals, snack foods, salad dressings — have contained ingredients from plants whose DNA was manipulated in a laboratory. Regulators and many scientists say these pose no danger.  But as Americans ask more pointed questions about what they are eating, popular suspicions about the health and environmental effects of biotechnology are fueling a movement to require that food from genetically modified crops be labeled, if not eliminated.

Labeling bills have been proposed in more than a dozen states over the last year, and an appeal to the Food and Drug Administration last fall to mandate labels nationally drew more than a million signatures. There is an iPhone app: ShopNoGMO.

The most closely watched labeling effort is a proposed ballot initiative in California that cleared a crucial hurdle this month, setting the stage for a probable November vote that could influence not just food packaging but the future of American agriculture.

Tens of millions of dollars are expected to be spent on the election showdown. It pits consumer groups and the organic food industry, both of which support mandatory labeling, against more conventional farmers, agricultural biotechnology companies like Monsanto and many of the nation’s best-known food brands like Kellogg’s and Kraft.”       More at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/science/dispute-over-labeling-of-genetically-modified-food.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1338710519-9xf7ukARgXQgzjgz3de5Qg

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GMOs should be safety tested before they hit the market says AMA

“The American Medical Association called for mandatory pre-market safety testing of genetically engineered foods as part of a revised policy voted on at the AMA's meeting in Chicago Tuesday.

Currently biotech companies are simply encouraged to engage in a voluntary safety consultation with the Food and Drug Administration before releasing a product onto the market.

Some activists concerned about foods made with genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, had hoped the association would have gone so far as to support mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods.” More at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/stew/chi-gmos-should-be-safety-tested-before-they-hit-the-market-says-ama-20120619,0,4405082.story

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Is Monsanto's Herbicide Harming Male Fertility?

Post date: Saturday, May 19th 2012 at 10:30 am by Sayer Ji, founder

“In a disturbing new study published last month (Dec. 2011) in the Journal of Toxicology in Vitro, researchers found that Monsanto's popular "weed killer" known as Roundup, which has already been linked to over 25 adverse health effects, is also capable of interfering with and/or harming the male reproductive system.

Researchers tested Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, on mature rat testicular cells at a concentration range between 1 and 10,000 ppm, which they described as "the range in some human urine and in environment to agricultural levels." They found that within 1 to 48 hours of Roundup exposure testicular (Leydig) cells were damaged or killed.

What is more disturbing is that even at a lower, presumably "non toxic" concentration of 1 ppm of Roundup, or glyphosate by itself, testosterone concentrations were observed to decrease by 35%.

Keep in mind that 1 ppm of Roundup is an infinitesimal concentration. Distilled water, as a reference point, contains between 5-10 ppm of dissolved solids. How can such a small concentration of Roundup/glyphosate cause such a profound disruption of biological activity in testicular cells? The phenomenon is known as endocrine disruption.” From: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/monsantos-herbicide-harming-male-fertility

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DOWNLOAD THE SHOPPING GUIDE & TIPS BROCHURE

DOWNLOAD      Non-GMO Shopping Guide

Our revised Non-GMO Shopping Guide has features over 150 brands currently enrolled in the Non-GMO Project. This purse/pocket-sized guide will help you identify and avoid foods that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs) foods while you shop.

DOWNLOAD     Non-GMO Shopping Tips

Excerpts of the Non-GMO Shopping Guide are also found in IRT’s new two sided “Tips” brochure, which does not contain a listing of non-GMO brands. It does include generic tips designed to help consumers identify and avoid genetically modified (GM) foods, including the hidden GM ingredients (labeled ingredients on foods that read more like a chemical periodic table) on grocers shelves.”  http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/download.html

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On This Day:

Nixon charged with first of three articles of impeachment, Jul 27, 1974:

“On this day in 1974, the House of Representatives charges President Richard M. Nixon with the first of three articles of impeachment for obstruction of justice after he refused to release White House tape recordings that contained crucial information regarding the Watergate scandal.

In June 1972, five men connected with Nixon's reelection committee, the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), had been caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. A subsequent investigation exposed illegal activities perpetrated by CREEP and authorized by senior members of Nixon's administration. It also raised questions about what the president knew about those activities. In May 1973, the Senate convened an investigation into the Watergate scandal amid public cries for Nixon's impeachment. Nixon vigorously denied involvement in the burglary cover-up, most famously in November 1973 when he declared, "I am not a crook." Although Nixon released some of the tapes requested by the Senate in April 1974, he withheld the most damning of them, claiming executive privilege. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court rejected Nixon's claim of executive privilege and ordered him to turn over the remaining tapes. When he refused to do so, the House of Representatives passed the first article of impeachment against Nixon for obstruction of justice. On August 5, with the impeachment process already underway, Nixon reluctantly released the remaining tapes.

On August 8, 1974, Nixon avoided a Senate trial and likely conviction by becoming the first president to resign.”

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Yesterday:

Jay called at 7.30 to say that he was ready.  Well, I don’t even get a chance to be ready at that time.  But Misty and I were still early driving down there, and she and Maddie had their little walk-about before we all came back here.  

Jay looked terrible, and I found out that he had been out on a ‘pub crawl’ with his son the night before.  His son was late for work.  Jay wasn’t up to working, but wanted me to groom Maddie, the little Yorkie.  So I did that while he slept on my recliner.

As I was taking Jay and Maddie home, we passed May, down the street’s cats, and they were all looking really straggly. On the way back here, I picked May up, so we could talk about the cats.  She was feeding them a diet of really cheap dry cat food only, and didn’t realize what that was doing to them. 

Cat's Teeth Are Not Made for Chewing Dry Food.
"As is typical of carnivores, the teeth of the cat are appropriately modified for grasping, puncturing, and tearing (cutting), rather than for true mastication. With the exception of "crunching" dry food, cats do little, if any, actual chewing.  The hinging of the  lower jaw can only be moved up and down and possesses no ability for a lateral chewing motion.

The cat has no first premolars and no lower (inferior) first or second premolars; the molars consist of a single upper and lower tooth on each side. When the mouth is closed, the upper sectorial tooth (P4) slides across the vestibular surface of the lower sectorial tooth (Ml), producing an effective scissor-like cutting action, rather than a chewing action.
Thus the dental benefits of feeding dry food are grossly overrated.  The arrangement and spacing of the cat's teeth will more likely trap small, saliva-moistened pieces of dry food.  Carbohydrate based dry cat foods also leaves a starchy coating which promotes plaque.”

She had been told not to give them people scraps, but as we know from http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2009/10/10/Can-Human-Food-Be-Beneficial-for-Your-Pet.aspx  that sometimes the people scraps are the only decent food these cats will get to eat.  We had a nice visit, and I gave her some good cat food, some beef, and printed out some info about cat’s nutrition.  I hope I see an improvement in the cats in the next few days.