Cookies Cause Deforestation. Invisible Nuclear Threat. Cabbage With Scorpion! Marine One. Medal of Honor.

 

For “Foodie Friday”:

Do Your Cookies and Shampoo Contain "Deforestation?"

Orangutans are endangered because their homes—the tropical forests of Indonesia and Malaysia—are being cleared to make room for new palm oil plantations.

“Palm oil is currently used in thousands of products we use every day, from baked goods to cleaning products to shampoo. Unfortunately, all that palm oil is being produced at a tremendous expense to our planet's tropical forests. These forests are being cleared at an alarming rate to make room for new palm oil plantations—and for every acre of trees that are cut down and burned, hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide are released into our atmosphere.

This deforestation causes about 15 percent of global warming emissions worldwide! And to make matters worse, more than half of all plant and animal species in the world live in those forests. With every acre cleared, those species get even closer to extinction.

The good news is that we have the power to change this story.

It is possible to grow palm oil without destroying tropical forests. Businesses can grow palm oil on degraded land instead of forested land and existing plantations can increase crop yields to avoid the need to further expand into forests.

In June, the U.S. government announced a new joint initiative with the Consumer Goods Forum—a global network of manufacturers and retailers that includes major corporations such as Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola—to make ingredients, like palm oil, deforestation-free.

Please urge the CEOs of Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble, and Kraft Foods, who sit on the board of the Consumer Goods Forum, to ensure all the products made or sold by member companies globally are deforestation-free.”  More at: https://secure3.convio.net/ucs/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3419

“Global consumption of palm oil, almost all of which comes from the rainforest regions of Southeast Asia, has skyrocketed in the twenty-first century. The result has been a tragic loss of tropical forests and their biodiversity and carbon stocks.”

Click here to read more about the Consumer Goods Forum's initiative and palm oil on our blog.

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The Invisible Nuclear Threat Within Non-Organic Food

“Whether you know it or or not, nuclear waste (cobalt-60) has been used for decades to make your food "safer."

There is a profound misunderstanding in the mass market today about the value of certified organic food.  The question is not whether the 50% higher or more you pay at the register for an organic product is really worth the added vitamin, mineral and phytonutrient content you receive.

Inconceivably High Amounts of Radiation Used To "Pasteurize" Your Food

This is not a hypochondriac's ranting, as we aren't talking here about small amounts of radiation.  The level of gamma radiation used starts at 1 kiloGray (equivalent to 2,500,000 chest x-rays (40 millirems each) or 166 times a human lethal dose (5 Grays)) and goes all the way up to 30 kiloGray (75,000,000 chest x-rays or 4,980 times a human lethal dose).  The following table is a list of foods that are increasingly being "nuked" for your protection.

 

Even though organic food does usually have considerably higher nutrient density, it is not always the positive quality of what it contains that makes it so special. Rather, it is what you know the organic food does not contain, or what has not happened to it on its journey to your table, that makes buying organic a no-brainer to the educated consumer.  Let me explain.

The FDA presently supports and actively promotes the use of cobalt-60 culled from nuclear reactors as a form of "electronic pasteurization" on all domestically produced conventional food. They claim it makes the food "safer."¹ The use of euphemisms like "food additive" and "pasteurization" to describe the process of blasting food with inordinately high levels of gamma radiation can not obviate the fact that the very same death rays generated by thermonuclear warfare to destroy life are now being applied to food to "make it safer."  This sort of Orwellian logic, e.g. WAR is PEACE, is the bread and butter of State-sponsored industry propaganda, and also informs other ostensibly "humanitarian" applications of weapons of mass destruction such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

How is it, then,  that a process that is so obviously detrimental to human health is allowed? There are at least three reasons driving this dangerous process:

1. Food Sanitization: food irradiation allows for the continuance of the fundamentally unsanitary and unsafe farming practices considered essential for the profitability of large corporation-owned factory farms.  When raw human sewage and wastewater in combination with manure from sick, antibiotic-raised animals is used as fertilizer, virulent strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria can infect the product, getting deep within its tissues where chemical sanitizers can't reach.  Gamma-radiation, which effectively penetrates deep within the product, enables the irresponsible, immoral and unsanitary conditions to remain.”       Rest of article at: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/invisible-nuclear-threat-within-non-organic-food1

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GMO Gene Splicing Lunacy: Cabbage Mixed with Scorpion Poison Coming Soon

“Would you consider scorpion venom ‘safe’? The next ‘safe’ GMO food for you to consume is a genetically altered cabbage that has been gene spliced with scorpion venom because it is more ‘resistant’ to Roundup ready chemicals, and of course they are telling us it is safe.

As the GMO frankenfood business continues, the brain-children of the likes of Monsanto and Dow get progressively ludicrous. I beg a rap artist to talk about scorpion-poison genes interlaced with cabbage, just to exacerbate the inane to the masses of people who still believe these companies are out for your best interests, and really care about your health.

In 1994, a scorpion-poison-pesticide was made and ‘tested’ by spraying it in a field with scientists who wore full hazmat suits to protect themselves from it. Even the lead scientist in charge of running the trial was absent from the spraying altogether – perhaps David Bishop was just as worried as we are about scorpion cabbages.

Now, in 2013, the same genetic engineering is utilizing genes from the scorpion, Androctonus australis hector as a cross-breed with cabbages, of course with the goal of creating plenty of food for a growing population, and to feed us all. The FDA hasn’t done any research on this new crop, and it is probable that this newest freak-show of ‘food’ will turn out on our grocery store shelves before we can say, “WHAT?!””  More at: http://naturalsociety.com/gmo-gene-splicing-lunacy-cabbage-mixed-with-scorpion-poison-coming-soon/

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On This Day:

Eisenhower takes first presidential ride in a helicopter, Jul 12, 1957:

“On this day in 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the first president to ride in the newest advance in aviation technology: the helicopter.

Although experimental military helicopters had been tested since 1947, it was not until 10 years later that a president considered using the new machine for short, official trips to and from the White House. Eisenhower suggested the idea to the Secret Service, which approved of the new mode of transportation, seeing it as safer and more efficient than the traditional limousine motorcade. The HMX-1 Nighthawks squadron put into the president's service was initially administered jointly by the Army and the Marine Corps. In 1976, the Marine Corps took over all helicopter operations.

During his second term, Eisenhower used a Bell UH-13-J Sioux to fly to the presidential retreat at Camp David and to his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. According to the White House's Military Office, presidents since Eisenhower have used the Sikorsky VH-3D, otherwise known as a Sea King, for travel both in the continental United States and abroad. Most presidential helicopter flights depart and arrive from the White House's south lawn. The official presidential helicopter is always called Marine One, just as the official presidential airplane is always referred to as Air Force One. Marine One and a second decoy helicopter now accompany Air Force One on all presidential trips.

Currently there are 19 helicopters, including Sea Kings and the UH-60 Blackhawk available for the president's use.”

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First Marine wins Medal of Honor, Jul 12, 1965:

“Viet Cong ambush Company A of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, led by U.S.M.C. Lt. Frank Reasoner of Kellogg, Idaho. The Marines had been on a sweep of a suspected Viet Cong area to deter any enemy activity aimed at the nearby airbase at Da Nang.

Reasoner and the five-man point team he was accompanying were cut off from the main body of the company. He ordered his men to lay down a base of fire and then, repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire, killed two Viet Cong, single-handedly wiped out an enemy machine gun emplacement, and raced through enemy fire to rescue his injured radio operator. Trying to rally his men, Reasoner was hit by enemy machine gun fire and was killed instantly. For this action, Reasoner was nominated for America's highest award for valor. When Navy Secretary Paul H. Nitze presented the Medal of Honor to Reasoner's widow and son in ceremonies at the Pentagon on January 31, 1967, he spoke of Reasoner's willingness to die for his men: "Lieutenant Reasoner's complete disregard for his own welfare will long serve as an inspiring example to others." Lieutenant Reasoner was the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for action in Vietnam.”

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Yesterday:

Jay didn’t call to see if I was on schedule to pick him up, so I presumed that he was too hung over and didn’t want to work.  If he is like, that I don’t want to be around him, anyway.

Ray’s back was bothering him so he wanted to rest up after he had taken his son to Conroe for an appointment.

So I paid some bills which can’t be paid automatically, caught up on some emails, and answered some people about things I have advertized.  It seems that anything one does anymore takes more time than it did without a computer.

The puppy playpen, with a top, was all ready for Midnight and her kittens when they arrived for their four day stay.  They just slept as soon as they had been fed.  They are growing, and seem a lot more content than they were last week.

About 3.00pm in the afternoon, the internet and TV went out, but the electricity didn’t, thank goodness, so we still had air conditioning.  I don’t know how I would have kept 7 animals cool.  So I just did noisy things like vacuuming, grinding coffee, and running the Bullet.  Machinery scares Nala, my foster cat, so I don’t know if she has ever lived in a house before.  Nala does not like canned food, so I blend it with some liquid in the Bullet, then sometimes she will drink it.  I am trying to keep her healthy, and an all dry cat food diet will not do that, no matter how good it is. 

To have some noise in the house, I plugged in a radio which also has a tape deck, but I had never used it and couldn’t make the tape work.  We don’t have any good radio stations around here, so I had it on Country Oldies, not my favorite.  Bored with Willie, Waylon and the Boys, I plugged a phone cord into my old laptop which has a ‘telephone hole’, and was able to chat with my friends in the RV-Dreams chat room on Dial-Up.  When I called the cable company they said that a fiber had been cut affecting several towns, and it might take a day to find and fix it, so I went to bed.  I feel so sorry for the cable splicers working in this heat.  The TV came on at 10.45pm.  I didn’t check the internet then, but it is working this morning.

So things are back to normal today.