Monsanto blocks research on GMO safety

[sasha031]

Monsanto has been systematically blocking researchers from using its patented gene modified (GMO) seeds to learn if there are problems with them, according to an explosive op-ed in yesterday’s LA Times by Doug Gurian-Sherman of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
This doesn’t come as a huge surprise, but it’s encouraging that it’s hitting the mainstream media. Soybeans, corn, cotton and canola — most of the acres planted in these crops in the United States are genetically altered. “Transgenic” seeds can save farmers time and reduce the use of some insecticides, but herbicide use is higher, and respected experts argue that some genetically engineered crops may also pose serious health and environmental risks. Also, the benefits of genetically engineered crops may be overstated.
We don’t have the complete picture. That’s no accident. Multibillion-dollar agricultural corporations, including Monsanto and Syngenta, have restricted independent research on their genetically engineered crops. They have often refused to provide independent scientists with seeds, or they’ve set restrictive conditions that severely limit research options.
When Monsanto won a Supreme Court case last year allowing deregulation of their GMO Alfalfa, David Snively, Monsanto’s senior vice president and general counsel, called the decision “important for every American farmer, not just alfalfa growers.”
http://redgreenandblue.org/2011/02/14/monsanto-blocks-research-on-gmo-safety/

[Webster Green]

1. Pure evil.

They will likely destroy the world's food supply, and it won't really take that long for it to happen.

[sasha031]

3. as George Carlin said, "we're *ucked"

[Webster Green]

9. "It's a big club and you ain't in it"

RIP George Carlin!

:thumbsup:

[gateley]

2. Fascinating - and infuriating - article. Thanks! And be sure to click on The Next Page! nt

[Elwood P Dowd]

4. And Obama puts a Monsanto guy in charge of USDA.

We are royally fucked!

[sasha031]

5. that I didn't know

[Elwood P Dowd]

7. Read all about it........

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7988548

[sasha031]

12. thank you for the link

:thumbsup:

[truedelphi]

14. Sadly, this administration like the Clinton Admin before it,

Has been a government about appointments.

And just as Clinton was giving Mike Taylor the go ahead with his appointing him, now Obama has done the same thing.

Who Obama answers to became clear - crystal - to me the moment that Michelle planted the "organic" garden.

Really Michelle? You plant an organic garden and then go to bed with the man who has totally destroyed organic gardening in this nation? Tells me everything I need to know about who your real handlers are.

[Tumbulu]

6. The abuse of scientists who were not supportive of gmo crops

began in the 1980's when the Land Grant Universities began a purge on all entomologists and agronomists who did not tow the line for the "new" technology.

It has simply proceeded from there and they used all the tactics that the rethugs use in politics. Brutal and dishonest. It has been a horror to experience.

[truedelphi]

15. + 1,000. n/t

[tabatha]

8. That means they have something to fear.

[SpiralHawk]

10. Monsanto's mutant GMO crapola is creating RepubliPollution in...

the bodies and souls of all living beings.

This ugly, occultly-operating RepubliCorp is creating
FASCIST FOOD (R)

[JohnyCanuck]

11. Monsanto was also a major manufacturers

of Agent Orange (the defoliant used in Vietnam) who kept hidden their own findings that their product was massively contaminated by Dioxin.

Monsanto is guilty of murder, assault, negligence, reckless endangerment and more. Their history is one full of atrocities and crimes against man and nature. See if you or I could get away with that and still be walking around free. It’ll never happen. We would be under the jail never to be seen again.

Monsanto gave us Agent Orange, INSISTED it was safe but they lied, and as a result we sprayed over 77 million liters of it in South Vietnam! How can we trust what they say about GMO foods, or any of their products?

For Monsanto’s “Agent Orange” alone the company should be shut down. All the employees involved in making it should be arrested and tried for war crimes. We don’t allow other nations to use WMDs like nerve and chemical agents so neither should we. SHUT DOWN MONSANTO NOW!

By the way, I AM AWARE of the fact that our goal using agent orange was only to remove the vegetation, however, using a substance that was not thoroughly tested as safe for humans directly on and over the heads of humans, is willful, reckless endangerment and the perpetrators need punished severely.

Watch the effects of Agent Orange in some of the videos below and ask yourself, “Why am I trusting them to tell me GMO foods, bovine growth hormone, roundup, and everything else they make is safe? Why am I letting a big corporation that only cares about profits tell me what my children can ingest? Am I not a sovereign individual capable of making my own decisions?”

4.8 Million are still suffering from the effects of Monsanto’s agent orange. Three generations later babies are still being born horribly deformed.

http://eoars.avrnlive.com/welcome-to-eye-on-america-roadshow/monsanto-greed-revolving-door-politics-and-lies/

If there is such a thing as hell, there must be few more deserving of roasting there on a spit than the Monsanto executives and scientists who through the years have assisted that soulless, avaricious beyond measure, corporate behemoth in committing war crimes and crimes against nature and humanity and then participated in the coverup of those crimes.

[Mnemosyne]

13. K&R for more visibility. n/t

[JohnyCanuck]

16. Big Agra and big Pharma rule in Washington

By brigitte wallace

President Obama has unbelievably chosen to approve two biotech crops, Monsanto's Roundup Ready genetically modified (GMO) alfalfa and Roundup Ready genetically modified (GMO) sugar beets. They will be planted as early as this spring, despite widespread acknowledgement that these crops are certain to contaminate both conventional and organic farmers' non-GMO crops. The deregulation of GMO Roundup Ready alfalfa could lead to the genetic contamination of all conventional and organic alfalfa within five years.

SNIP

Ninety-three percent of the alfalfa hay in the Us does not use any herbicides. Alfafa is a perennial legume that does not have to fight weeds as do corn, soybeans, cotton or canola. Ninety-three percent of the alfalfa hay in the U.S. does not use any herbicides. As a perennial legume, it does not suffer from the same weed pressures as other crops, such as corn, soybeans, cotton and canola. GMO alfalfa will only lead to an increase of glyphosate-resistant superweeds. The USDA's Vilsack backed by Obama ruthlessly choose to ignore the basic biological principles of pollination and good agricultural practices. Industrial agriculture, far from being the salvation it promises, is actually undermining the resource base--healthy soil, clean water, and diversity of plants and animals--needed to sustain the world's growing human population in the long term.

This decision undermines opportunities for farmers in America, particularly in important export markets for conventional alfalfa and in the growing organic dairy industry. It also severely restricts the choice of farmers and 50 million U.S. consumers who every day exercise their right to consume food that is certified organic and free of GMOs, that are yet to be proven safe for human consumption and our common environment, because all previous studies have shown that they are not. Genetic food engineering is the most powerful and pernicious technology known to man and yet it is being released throughout our environment with contempt for the multiple ethical issues it raises and the irreversible harm it will bring to life on earth as we know it.

SNIP

Why then, when it is obviously not good for us, is it being approved? Well for Greed. It is good for Monsanto, and what is good for Monsanto is even better for the hundreds of politicians and government employees who are directly or indirectly on the big Pharma and big Agro (one of the same) payroll.

The FDA and the USDA have become the legislative and executive branches of Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and the likes . When you look at all the Monsanto executives who have gone through the revolving door between private industry and government oversight, you uncover the truly disturbing picture of America today.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Big-Agra-and-big-Pharma-ru-by-brigitte-wallace-110215-971.html