Thanks to Monsanto, he feels he has no choice
Like a thousand other farmers across the US, Kirk Bair is a farmer looking for ways to grow food economically and with as little labor as possible – but what are the moral implications of planting food you are aware is toxic, and selling it to your friends and neighbors? Is Bair in the right for planting GMO seed, even if conventional seed is hard to come by?
Bair has said:
“When you put a herbicide gene inside a corn seed, soybean, wheat, whatever you’re working with, you’re eating that. You’re ingesting it.”
It is clear that Bair realizes the health dangers of GM crops, but he plants them anyway? Why? He feels he has no choice, and there is a multi-billion dollar industry calling the shots.
“I’ve got some good looking ears coming,” said Kirk Bair, admiring his genetically modified corn crop, developed with Monsanto’s technology.
When asked why he has planted GM corn, Blair states:
“To use conventional corn, non-GMO, I’d have to till, apply pre-emergence herbicide. It’s more economical and more convenient to use GMO corn on real ground. I only use it because I felt like I had to. My seed supplier said, ‘Kirk it’s harder and harder to get a hold of conventional seed.’”
In less than a decade, the US has gone from planning 100% conventional seeds to almost 90% genetically modified seeds. Corn, soybeans and cotton are some of the most commonly grown GM crops – all considered staples.
Even though Blair grows GM crops, he says:
“I want to know what I am eating and I don’t want to eat GMO foods.”
Imagine that – a farmer who won’t eat his own crops. He has even supported labeling initiatives in California stating:
“People need know what they’re eating. People want to know what they’re eating.”
Read: 800 Scientists Demand Global ‘GMO Experiment’ End
This is a strange phenomenon – when farmers will knowingly plant crops they realize are dangerous to human health. Are they right about giving in to Monsanto, Bayer, and Syngenta when banned GM crops are being found in Europe, or when they are growing in Oregon and Minnesota fields without permission?
What about cross-pollination? Is a farmer’s ability to grow non-GMO completely compromised already to such a degree that she or he has to just shut down their tilling machines like a defeated warrior laying down his sword?
One biotech company claims the following reasons that farmers plant GM crops:
“Because they benefit from the technology – after all, 17.3 million farmers around the world do so, and their numbers grow each season.
In addition to higher yields and higher farm income, their reasons include:
Increased management flexibility
Easier adoption of no- or reduced till farming, which saves time, equipment usage, and carbon emissions
Improved weed control
Soil preservation
Less worry about pest damage
Less time spent on crop walking and/or insecticide application
Savings in energy use – mainly associated with less spraying and tillage
Savings in machinery use (for spraying and possibly reduced harvesting times)
Improved quality (e.g., lower levels of mycotoxins in GM insect-resistant maize)”
To the astute reader, there are several items on this list that are completely false – ‘less worry about pest damage’ could elicit an entire book of refutation. GM crops have increased worry about pest infestation. The emergence of superweeds and superbugs was in tandem with GM planting.
The ‘savings in machinery’ is arguable too, as more and more herbicide and pesticide use likely eats up any saved costs from having to spray more often – not less. The soil is also not preserved with GM crop planting – but destroyed. This has been proven many times over.
Multiple studies have looked at GM planting and its effects on the soil. One such study explains:
. . .residues of Bt maize plants that are ploughed into the soil following harvest suppress its ability to respire (produce carbon dioxide), it also reduces mycorrhizal colonisation and seriously alters bacterial populations within the soil ecosystem. This function of soil is vitally important for regulating plant growth and vitality, and for increasing availability of minerals and nutrients.
. . . Bt toxins persist in the soil for a considerable amount of time, which impedes the soil flora recovery and impacts upon plant health and growth in subsequent growing seasons.”
Addressing the other items on the list like improved quality are questionable, as are many other of the fallacious reasons given by EuropaBio.
Many farmers simply won’t accept the biotech misinformation that has been dished out for decades. The Rodale Research Institute on Organic Farming and Gardening lists thousands of farmers who know a better way. Since the 1940s and prior, this country has been growing food without chemicals and GM technology. It is more than possible, and now more than ever, vital.
It is understandable how farmers could initially feel drawn to the Big Ag model, based largely on the calculating lies of the biotech industry – but hopefully more farmers are seeing through biotech’s façade.
Bair seems to have seen behind Oz’s curtain to some degree, but he and other farmers like him obviously need public support to choose non-GM seeds and grow them.
You don’t fight a multi-billion dollar industry on a few acres. Perhaps Bair will join the ranks of Dr. Theirry Vrain, a former pro-GMO scientist who now whistleblows on the entire industry. That would be redemption.
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Showing posts with label Bt-toxin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bt-toxin. Show all posts
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Monsanto’s Bt-Toxins Found to Kill Human Embryo Cells
People show be interested to know that Monsanto’s (NYSE:MON) Bt-toxin is far from ‘safe’ as the chemical company claimed it would be when filing their papers with the FDA.
New research from Canada show that BT toxins are showing up in pregnant women, and low and they are killing human embryo cells.
Y 2014 is the Year of the Horse, but advocated not through beating this horse to death.
It is called reproductive toxicology, and just like their suicide seeds, these Bt toxins are starting to kill unborn children. This is no exaggeration.
Advocacy groups are saying now is the time to put Monsanto to “rest” amnd bankrupt them, and let the world know their ‘Secrets.’
Bt toxins are prominent in genetically altered crops (GMOs) such as Corn, Soybean, Wheat, and others, called Cry1Ab, and they can be lethal according to the study
Not only do these cry-toxins target the kidney cells of developing human fetuses, but when Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac are combined with RoundUp, they can delay apoptosis of human cancer cells.
What is worse, glyphosate, the main ingredient in RoundUp, also causes necrosis , i.e. the death of human tissue, and this happens even when the substance is found in much smaller amounts than what is currently being used on our agricultural crops, it is carcinogenic in the parts per trillion range.
In its rush to stay the ‘agricultural leader’ of the world, the US government erected defunct regulatory bodies that have no means to truly examine the ramifications of biotechnology on our food.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) is a joke and the FDA gave Monsanto a pass to run rampant over the the food supply.
The Organic Seed Grower’s Association sued Monsanto in Y 2011, and Idaho Wheat growers are suing Monsanto for cross-contamination.
The Big Q: what about parental groups?
Mother’s Against Drunk Driving was formed when a mom lost her baby to a drunk driver. Perhaps the mothers who face reproductive failure due to Monsanto’s hand can sue them too.
The FDA’s internal memos about their concerns surrounding GMO seed crops recently surfaced in a lawsuit, though the public was not meant to see them.
GMO foods are not the foods we have always eaten, to say we have is a lie.
Be safe, avoid GMOs while you write your Senators, Representatives, Congressman, and President, protest, let them know you, and your love ones want to live…
Monday, November 25, 2013
Genetically Modified Foods Proposed as Trigger for Gluten Sensitivity
FAIRFIELD, Iowa, Nov. 25, 2013 --/PRNewswire/ -- The Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT) released a report today proposing a link between genetically modified (GM) foods and gluten-related disorders. In today's report, a team of experts suggests that GM foods may be an important environmental trigger for gluten sensitivity, which is estimated to affect as many as 18 million Americans.
Citing U.S. Dept. of Agriculture data, Environmental Protection Act records, medical journal reviews, and international research, the authors relate genetically modified foods to five conditions that may either trigger or exacerbate gluten-related disorders, including the serious autoimmune disorder, Celiac Disease:
- Intestinal permeability
- Imbalanced gut bacteria
- Immune activation and allergic response
- Impaired digestion
- Damage to the intestinal wall
Although wheat has been hybridized over the years, it is not a genetically modified organism (GMO), which can only be created by a laboratory process that inserts genetic material into plant DNA. There are nine GMO food crops currently being grown for commercial use: soy, corn, cotton (oil), canola (oil), sugar from sugar beets, zucchini, yellow squash, Hawaiian papaya, and alfalfa.
Most GMOs are engineered to tolerate a weed killer called glyphosate (Roundup®). They contain high levels of this toxin at harvest. Corn and cotton varieties are also engineered to produce an insecticide called Bt-toxin. The report focuses primarily on the effects of these two toxins.
Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, Jeffrey Smith, explains, "The Bt-toxin in corn is designed to puncture holes in insect cells, but studies show it does the same in human cells. Bt-toxin may be linked to leaky gut, which physicians consistently see in gluten-sensitive patients."
Stephanie Seneff, Senior Research Scientist at MIT, expresses concern about Roundup®: "Glyphosate is a patented antibiotic that destroys beneficial gut bacteria. An imbalance of gut flora commonly accompanies Celiac Disease and other gluten-related disorders."
Mary Waldner, founder of Mary's Gone Crackers®, a Non-GMO Project verified and gluten-free certified food manufacturer, says, "I'm excited by the research that offers an explanation for the dramatic increase in gluten-related disorders. I encourage everyone to avoid GMOs in their diets. I have always been concerned about the effects of GMOs and Mary's Gone Crackers has never used GMO ingredients in our products."
Dr. Tom O'Bryan, internationally recognized expert on gluten sensitivity and Celiac Disease, says, "The introduction of GMOs is highly suspect as a candidate to explain the rapid rise in gluten-related disorders over the last 17 years." Internist, Emily Linder MD, says, "Based on my clinical experience, when I remove genetically modified foods as part of the treatment for gluten sensitivity, recovery is faster and more complete. I believe that GMOs in our diet contribute to the rise in gluten sensitivity in the U.S. population."
The best way to avoid GMOs is to purchase certified organic or Non-GMO Project verified products. Download a shopping guide at NonGMOShoppingGuide.com or a free iPhone app, ShopNoGMO.
The markets for both gluten-free products and non-GMO products are expanding. Gluten-free sales are expected to exceed $5 billion by 2015 and Non-GMO Project Verified sales went from $0 to over $3.5 billion in the last three years. Just as Mary's Gone Crackers® did in 2011, the conclusions in this report may inspire more gluten-free food manufacturers to pursue Non-GMO Project Verified status.
For a full report see www.glutenandgmos.com.
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