Monsanto in bed with DOD over Ebola can't be good

Monday, Fox news reported that "The experimental drug used to treat two American aid workers who have been infected with theEbola virus has never been tested on humans before and was only identified earlier this year as part of an ongoing research program backed by the U.S. government and military."

Fox also said, "The Defense Department has long had a hand in researching infectious diseases, including Ebola. During much of the Cold War period this served two purposes: to keep abreast of diseases that could limit the effectiveness of troops deployed abroad and to be prepared if biological agents were used as weapons." It was also stated that the U.S. military currently has no biological weapons program

Continue Learning>>>http://www.examiner.com/article/monsanto-bed-with-dod-over-ebola-can-t-be-good

Monsanto ordered to pay $93million for poisoning people

Big wins can happen in small places. The West Virginia State Supreme Court finalized a big blow to the biotech giant Monsanto this month, finishing a settlement causing Monsanto to pay $93 million to the tiny town of Nitro, West Virginia for poisoning citizens with Agent Orange chemicals.

The settlement was approved last year, but details were worked out only weeks ago as to how the funds were to be spent.

Continue Learning>>>http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_67121.shtml

Roundup Chemical Doubles Your Risk of Lymphoma

There’s been a striking increase in the number of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cases over the past three decades, and a major new scientific review suggests chemical pesticides—particularly glyphosate, the active ingredient in the popular weedkiller Roundup—are playing an important role in fueling the cancer.

 Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate have been linked to:
• death of human embryonic cells
• breast cancer and other cancers
• infertility
• hormone disruption
• birth defects
• eye, skin, and respiratory irritation
• spontaneous abortions in farm animals.

Continue Learning>>>http://www.cornucopia.org/2014/06/roundup-chemical-doubles-risk-lymphoma

The Vietnam War Toxin Now Lurking in US Food

Sign the petition to USDA and President Obama to stop Dow Chemical’s “Agent Orange” crops

TAKE ACTION NOW

It took years for scientists to fully understand the danger of Agent Orange, but that hasn't stopped Dow Chemical from bringing the specter of Agent Orange to our food supply.

Dow Chemical has genetically engineered pesticide-promoting varieties of corn and soybeans to survive repeated dousing with 2,4-D. The herbicide 2,4-D is considered to be the less toxic half of Agent Orange. But it's also the seventh largest source of dioxins in the environment. According to the World Health Organization, dioxins are highly toxic persistent environmental pollutants that "can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and cause cancer."

Continue Learning>>>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-kucinich/agent-orange-herbicide_b_5453812.html

Puerto Rico: US Lab

AGENT ORANGE
Test trials of Agent Orange were carried out in Puerto Rico.
The US imposed a military government on Puerto Rico a century ago when it was seized from the Spanish. The island of Vieques (40 miles off the coast, population 5,500) has been used for target practise by the US military for the last 60 years from 1941 until 2003. Since 1980 it has been used for test firing of depleted uranium munitions, chemical contaminants have found their way into ground water, local crabs have 20 times the normal levels of heavy metals, cancer rates amongst the island’s population is twice the national average.


GMO RESEARCH
Today, "human experimentation" in Puerto Rico continues as daily experiments are conducted on genetically modified plants where there is little regulation, oversight or accountability. Puerto Rico is host to more GM food experiments per square mile than any U.S. state except Hawaii ( http://silentcrownews.com/wordpress/?p=2139 ). Located on a small island with a civilian population, the U.S. military bases on Vieques, which were used as a testing site for weapons should also be considered within the context of "human experimentation" on the Puerto Rican People

Roundup Weedkiller Linked To Global Epidemic of Fatal Kidney Disease

READ ENTIRE OPEN ACCESS STUDY at this link>>>http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/2/2125

The extent of the health problem is so massive that the Center for Public Integrity found that CKDu has killed more people in El Salvador and Nicaragua than diabetes, AIDS and leukemia combined, over the past 5 years on record.

Titled, "Glyphosate, Hard Water and Nephrotoxic Metals: Are They the Culprits Behind the Epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology in Sri Lanka?"” researchers hypothesized that while glyphosate is toxic, it alone is not capable of destroying kidney tissue on the scale recently observed in rice paddy regions of Northern Sri Lanka, or in El Salvador where it is the second leading cause of death among men. They propose glyphosate becomes extremely toxic to the kidney when it mixes with ‘hard’ water or heavy metals like arsenic and cadmium, either naturally present in the soil or added externally through fertilizer inputs. Hard water contains "metals," such as calcium, magnesium, strontium and iron, along with carbonate, bicarbonate, sulphate and chlorides.

Continue Learning:  http://www.cornucopia.org/2014/03/11548

Simple ways to avoid GMO foods

The rise in food allergies and gluten sensitivities are evidence that GM foods have impacted the global food chain in negative and dangerous ways.

As such, millions of Americans agree that, at the very minimum, GM foods ought to carry labeling designating them as such -- just like the labeling requirements for ingredients in other foods.

Continue Learning:  http://www.naturalnews.com/044332_GMOs_organic_food_ingredient_labeling.html

Agent Orange from farm to table

While my sister-in-law put the finishing touches on Thanksgiving dinner, I listened to her friend recount the losing battle her husband, a Vietnam veteran, fought with lung cancer. She explained her husband’s illness was caused by his wartime exposure to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange, produced primarily by two companies, Dow Chemical and Monsanto.

Decades after Agent Orange was sprayed over South Vietnam, we have borne witness to the human toll of exposure to its cocktail of chemicals, including 2,4-D. It would be wise to approach with extreme caution any regulatory action that would encourage more — not less — use of 2,4-D. What’s more, herbicide use on American farmland simply perpetuates a vicious cycle: Spraying leads to weed resistance, which leads to more spraying. The solution is to break the cycle by investing in a different kind of innovation, one that promotes ecological solutions to weed control.

On March 11, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service closed its public comment period on the question of regulating these new crops. If the USDA approves the seeds, the EPA still has to assess whether and how 2,4-D should be sprayed. Until then, environmental and health advocates, such as the Center for Food Safety, are urging Americans to air their concerns about this new use of genetic engineering. It’s time we pivot from a corrosive cycle and support the kind of innovations that get decades-old, toxic chemicals off our farms, fields and lawns.
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/3/agent-orange-farmtotableherbicidemonsantodowchemicalagriculture.html
Continue Learning:  

Biotech group pushes acceptance of genetically modified food

The Web campaign is part of a broad strategy by the biotech industry to try to beat back growing calls for GMO food labeling and for tighter regulation of the biotech seed industry in the United States.

A consortium backed in part by Monsanto, DuPont and Dow AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical, created the website in July. So far, it has logged more than 650 questions, chiefly focused on the impact of GMOs on health and nutrition.

Continue Learning:  http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Biotech-group-pushes-acceptance-of-genetically-5225790.php

NEWS FROM AGENT ORANGE ZONE BLOG

EPA Ponders Future Of San Jacinto Waste Pits Superfund Site

http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1386612560-EPA-Ponders-Future-Of-San-Jacinto-Waste-Pits-Superfund-Site.html

The Environmental Protection Agency is poised to make an important decision regarding the San Jacinto Waste Pits. The Superfund site just east of Channelview will either be permanently capped or relocated.

The San Jacinto Waste Pits were a dumping site in the 1960s for toxic sludge from a nearby paper mill.
The Superfund site has partially subsided into the San Jacinto River, and leaking chemicals have spread to the Houston Ship Channel and Galveston Bay.
Jackie Young is with Texans Together, an advocacy group trying to get the waste pits relocated.
"The waste pits contain the absolute worst chemical known to man, dioxin compound commonly known as Agent Orange. They also contain Mercury, PCBs and about 35 other toxic chemicals."
Harris County has filed a $100 million lawsuit against Waste Management and International Paper for mismanagement of the site.
That litigation goes to trial in September.
Meanwhile, construction will begin next week to install a new cap on the pits to stop the leaking.
"We're in a very, very crucial point in the Superfund process. The EPA is going to soon be making their decision on whether or not they're going to let the potentially responsible parties leave the waste pits in the river, capped, or if they're going to require the two responsible parties to remove the waste pits and contain them elsewhere, inland, in a stable, safe environment."
Young says the EPA will hold a community meeting on January 30th at the Highlands Community Center. She says testimony from residents as to the recreational uses of the affected waterways may sway the EPA toward relocating the pits, with a remediation price tag of about $300 million.

Will Monsanto Become The NSA Of Agriculture?

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140101/03380625737/will-monsanto-become-nsa-agriculture.shtml
Monsanto is best-known for its controversial use of genetically-modified organisms, and less well-known for being involved in the story of the defoliant Agent Orange (the company's long and involved story is well told in the book and film "The World According to Monsanto", by Marie-Monique Robin.) Its shadow also looms large over the current TPP talks: the USTR's Chief Agricultural Negotiator is Islam A. Siddiqui, a former lobbyist for Monsanto. But it would seem that the company is starting to explore new fields, so to speak; as Salon reports in a fascinating and important post, Monsanto is going digital:

Monsanto spent close to $1 billion to buy the Climate Corporation, a data analytics firm. Last year the chemical and seed company also bought Precision Planting, another high-tech firm, and also launched a venture capital arm geared to fund tech start-ups.

Here's the key shift that is behind that move:

Many farmers have been collecting digitized yield data on their operations since the 1990s, when high-tech farm tools first emerged. But that information would sit on a tractor or monitor until the farmer manually transferred it to his computer, or handed a USB stick to an agronomist to analyze. Now, however, smart devices can wirelessly transfer data straight to a corporation’s servers, sometimes without a farmer's knowledge.

READ MORE: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140101/03380625737/will-monsanto-become-nsa-agriculture.shtml

Belligerent strongman seeks control of America’s food supply

In the early years, the St. Louis biotech giant helped pioneer such leading chemicals as DDT, PCBs, and Agent Orange. Unfortunately, these breakthroughs had a tendency to kill stuff. And the torrent of lawsuits that comes from random killing put a crimp on long-term profitability. - See more at: http://www.independent.co.ug/news/news-analysis/8573-the-monsanto-menace#sthash.VrV105kF.dpuf

So Monsanto hatched a less lethal, more lucrative plan. The company would attempt to take control of the world’s food supply. It began in the mid-’90s, when Monsanto developed genetically modified (GM) crops such as soybeans, alfalfa, sugar beets, and wheat. These Franken-crops were immune to its leading weed killer,

Continue Learning: http://www.independent.co.ug/news/news-analysis/8573-the-monsanto-menace

USDA clears way for more GMO crops resistant to herbicides

The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service published a draft environmental impact statement Friday as part of the process for potential deregulation of the seeds, which can now be used only in tightly controlled field trials. Deregulation would allow commercial development of the seeds and presumably lead to greater use of the herbicide.

The USDA has oversight over the seeds, not the herbicide.

The public has 45 days to comment on its report. The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a separate review of 2,4-D, although it previously found it safe to use.

Continue Learning:  http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_12294.shtml

See Petition at this link>>>http://www.aphis.usda.gov/biotechnology/petitions_table_pending.shtml

Is Monsanto’s Glyphosate RoundUp the New Agent Orange?

The truth is that RoundUp, in the form of glyphosate, is just another product of the military industrial complex, and an evolution of Agent Orange. If we don’t wake up and fight, en masse, then Monsanto and its government connections will completely destroy our food supply and our planet.

Continue Learning:  http://www.globalresearch.ca/is-monsantos-glyphosate-roundup-the-new-agent-orange/5359401

State Supreme Court upholds Monsanto pollution settlement with Nitro

The approval of a settlement in a lawsuit over pollution of the community of Nitro with dioxin from the former Monsanto chemical plant has been upheld by the state Supreme Court. 
 
By a 4-1 vote Friday, the High Court affirmed a January ruling made by Circuit Judge Derek Swope in the case. 

Swope approved the class-action settlement which was meant to resolve long-standing allegations that Monsanto had contaminated Nitro with toxic pollution from the production of the defoliant Agent Orange.

Continue Learning:   http://wvmetronews.com/2013/11/22/state-supreme-court-upholds-monsanto-pollution-settlement-with-nitro/

Attack of the Monsanto Superinsects

Dumping a single herbicide onto millions of acres of farmland has, predictably enough, given rise to weeds resistant to that herbicide.

Such "superweeds" are now galloping through cotton and corn country, forcing farmers to resort to highly toxic herbicide cocktails and even hand-weeding.

More than 11 million acres are infested with Roundup-resistant weeds, up from 2.4 million acres in 2007, reckons Penn State University weed expert David Mortensen.

Just as Roundup-resistant superweeds rapidly bloomed into a major problem after first appearing in the mid-2000s, Bt-resistant superinsects may be just getting started. Colleen Scherer, managing editor of the industrial-ag trade magazine Ag Professional, put it like this: "There is no 'putting the genie back in the bottle,' and resistance in these areas is a problem that won't go away."

So what does all of this mean for Monsanto? If its main attraction for farmers—the promise of easy pest management—is turning to dust in a quite public way, should we expect the company be on the verge of getting crushed under the weight of its failures?

The Source

Monsanto GMO Lawns: Where We Live: Grass Gets Browner

Now, Monsanto has produced ‘Roundup Ready’ soybeans, canola, corn, and others, and they’ve proven to have terrible effects over a wide area, killing many kinds of wildlife, interbreeding with non-GMO varieties, and ruining organic farms for miles. The claim is that Roundup Ready crops would lead to lower pesticide use, since you would use only what was necessary, knowing the crop wouldn’t be harmed, but the reality is pesticide use has gone up, often dramatically.

Indeed, like microbes in an environment of misused antibiotics, overuse of Roundup is breeding weeds adapted to survive it.

If the pattern holds, planting this kind of grass will grow weeds which will laugh at Roundup in the future, in the meantime leading to a pattern of escalation- more and more herbicide being dumped on lawns in an increasingly futile quest for a weedless, “perfect” lawn.

Not only that, but you won’t even own the lawn! Monsanto claims they own those genes and regularly sues innocent farmers for growing “their” crops.

The farmers didn’t even plant it; their land was polluted by GMO pollen blowing in from another farm or brought by insects.

The Source

Monsanto: roundup ready nation

Monsanto's 5 Most Dubious Contributions to the Planet

Organic Consumers Millions Against Monsanto Campaign

Monsanto's Crimes

Oh, Monsanto, you sly dog.

1. Saccharin
After all, how could a product derived from coal tar not be safe for consumption?

2) Polystyrene
As most of us are aware by now, polystyrene foam is an environmental disaster. Not only is there nothing out there that biodegrades it, it breaks off into tiny pieces that choke animals, harm marine life, and release cancer-causing benzene into the environment for a thousand years or more.


3) Agent Orange
In the process, they dumped over 12 million gallons of the potent chemical cocktail—described by Yale biologist Arthur Galston as "perhaps the most toxic molecule ever synthesized by man"—over towns, farms, and water supplies during a nine-year period.

4) Bovine Growth Hormone
Did you know the United States is the only developed nation that permits the sale of milk from cows given artificial growth hormones?

5) Genetically-Modified Seeds
"Being unable to save seeds from sterile crops could mean the difference between surviving and going under."


The Source

MONSANTO: With modified sweet corn, Monsanto enters fresh produce aisle

Is there anything better than a fresh ear of summer corn, charred to perfection on the grill?

Monsanto, the company best known for developing genetically-modified versions of natural foods, is for the first time entering the fresh produce aisle — and it’s beginning with everyone’s favorite summer treat, sweet corn.

The corn won’t carry any designation of its origin or description of what’s been tucked into its genes.

Organic Consumers Millions Against Monsanto Campaign

Organic Consumers Monsanto Crimes

The Source

Monsanto, GMOs & Agent Orange Vietnam: The American Half-Century

The US should help the victims of Agent Orange; but although Vietnam has suffered the poison’s unspeakable horrors for fifty-years now, the country must be careful not to sell its soul looking for compensation.

But there are other things that friends and supporters of the AO-victims have to take note of: Len Aldis, in his Op-Ed in this paper suggested that “the people of Ho Chi Minh City should petition the local authorities to close down the offices of Monsanto and Dow Chemical.” This was the first time I had heard of the existence of those offices. I knew that the Vietnamese government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are planning to use genetically manipulated plants (GMO) and herbicides in Vietnam, and that therefore representatives of Monsanto and Dow Chemical have already gained a foothold in the form of agreements with Vietnamese authorities.

But some people fear that Monsanto & Co. could offer Vietnam some help (voluntary and without any recognition of responsibility) for the victims of AO if Vietnam introduces GMOs on a large scale. Even if the companies offered millions, they wouldn’t miss it. What would the Vietnamese government do?

The Source