GMOs = Increased Headaches

By Theodora Filis

Today, developed nations do not consider GMOs to be safe. In nearly 50 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, and all of the countries in the European Union, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production and sale of GMOs.

In the US the government has approved GMOs based on studies conducted by the same corporations that created them and profit from their sale. Increasingly, Americans are taking matters into their own hands and choosing to opt out of the GMO experiment.

Polls consistently show that a significant majority of North Americans would like to be able to tell if the food they’re purchasing contains GMOs (a 2008 CBS News Poll found that 87% of consumers wanted GMOs labeled). And, according to a recent CBS/New York Times poll, 53% of consumers said they would not buy food that has been genetically modified.

In the US, GMOs are in as much as 80% of the conventional processed food.

Many people don’t know what a GMO is, let alone which crops and processed ingredients are high-risk.  As such, labeling only products that contain high-risk ingredients could give an unfair competitive advantage to products that contain ingredients containing corn, soy, etc.

Over 80% of all GMOs grown worldwide are engineered for herbicide tolerance. As a result, the use of toxic herbicides like Roundup has increased 15 times since GMOs were introduced. GMO crops are also responsible for the emergence of “superweeds” and “superbugs:’ which can only be killed with ever more toxic poisons like 2,4-D (a major ingredient in Agent Orange). GMOs are a direct extension of chemical agriculture and are developed and sold by the world’s biggest chemical companies.

The long-term impacts of GMOs are unknown, and once released into the environment these novel organisms cannot be recalled.

Turing the tables on Monsanto, Lauren McCauley, staff writer at Common Dreams writes, "75-year-old Indiana soybean farmer, Vernon Hugh Bowman, is taking agriculture giant Monsanto to the supreme court over one of the most “systemic crisis” in modern farming: who controls the rights to the seeds planted in the ground."

Last week, the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside (ICPPC) and a group of British and Polish supporters rallied in front of the Polish Embassy in central London, against the sale of Polish farmland to foreign multinationals.

Supporters conveyed the messages 'No to GMO' ' Local Food, not Global Food' and 'Stop Land Grabs.'

The ongoing saga of Bt cotton in India continues to be one of the most interesting and important. Bt cotton yields have recently dropped to a 5-year low in India, which Monsanto is blamed on the farmers.

Virtually all commercial GMOs are engineered to withstand the direct application of herbicide and/or to produce an insecticide. Despite biotech industry promises, none of the GMO traits currently on the market offer increased yield, drought tolerance, enhanced nutrition, or any other consumer benefit.

A growing body of evidence connects GMOs with health problems, environmental damage, and violation of farmers’ and consumers’ rights.

Unfortunately, even though polls consistently show that a significant majority of Americans want to know if the food they’re purchasing contains GMOs, the powerful biotech lobby has succeeded in keeping this information from the public.

GMOs pose a serious threat to farmer sovereignty and to the national food security of any country where they are grown --- including the US.

Cancer Fears Cause Countries To Cancel GMOs, But US Insists On Pushing Bayer's Global Adgenda

by Theodora Filis

A bill to introduce compulsory registration of all products containing genetically modified components is in the final stages of adoption by the Russian parliament.

Following an explosive French study suggesting a link between Monsanto’s (known now as Bayer) controversial genetically engineered (GMO) corn and cancer, Russian authorities have suspended all imports and use of the US biotech GMO product until further safety testing can be performed. 

Officials worldwide are also investigating the matter. 

Researchers in France released the results of their two-year study, published in The Food & Chemical Toxicology Journal. According to the scientists, both the genetically engineered corn and the herbicide Roundup were linked to early death, massive organ failure, tumor growth, and other serious health problems.

US analysts and Monsanto have downplayed the significance of the Russian government’s decision, claiming that it would not have a large effect on the firm’s business. Among the reasons cited: the government already prohibits farmers from planting GMOs and Russia imports very little corn from the United States anyway. Russia’s consumer-protection agency, known as Rospotrebnadzor, said it had ordered the country’s Institute of Nutrition to investigate the recent French university study. 

The regulatory agency has also reportedly asked the European Union for its views as the European Food Safety Authority vowed to review the research."Until we receive the full information, in this case, the import and sale of genetically modified NK603 corn are being temporarily suspended," the Russian agency said in a statement posted on its website.

"If we begin to register GMOs - then it won’t be long before we start to grow it on an extensive basis. And, are GMOs safe? This question can be compared to "Is there life on Mars?" We can, of course, adopt this law and start growing GMOs all over the country, but after that, there will be no going back," Elena Sharoykina, Director of the National Association for Genetic Security claim.

Even before Russia’s temporary ban was announced, Monsanto was already under attack in California and Europe. Critics have accused Monsanto and the biotech industry as a whole of attempting to quash any scientific data that casts doubts on the safety and efficacy of genetic engineering, saying the whole sector relies instead on lobbying and US Government support as the cornerstone of its business plan.

Despite the growing pressure on both sides of the Atlantic, Monsanto is still doing very well as a company. Its share price is up by 30% year-to-date, and more than a few analysts have advertised the stock as a bargain. Supporters also believe that genetic engineering might one day help to feed the world by making crops more resistant to droughts or pests.

Documents released by WikiLeaks also confirmed that the company has a relentless ally in the US government, which even tried to threaten other nations into approving GMOs. Top Monsanto officials also have what critics refer to as a revolving door with the federal government — allowing executives to move back and forth between regulatory agencies and the private sector at will.

However, even considering the power of the US government, fear and opposition to GMOs are building even in the United States, where most of the corn planted today is genetically engineered. According to analysts, the entire corn industry could collapse if the trend continues. Activists are currently trying to orchestrate a boycott of companies opposed to labeling as a precursor to bringing down the whole biotech industry.

"Why is this GMO labeling fight so important? Once GMOs are labeled in California, it will bring a cascade effect in other states as well, since most national companies won't create two labeling schemes, one for California and one for the rest of the country," said the Alliance for Natural Health, one of the groups leading the boycott effort.

Thirteen crops and foods require labelings, such as genetically modified apples, potatoes, and pink flesh pineapple.

Yet much of the bioengineered labeling winds up on products that use GMO crops. Most of the corn, canola, soybeans, and sugar beets harvested in the U.S. are genetically modified, said William Hallman, a professor and chair for Rutgers University’s Department of Human Ecology.

“We make so many ingredients out of those particular crops,” Hallman said.
For instance, high fructose corn syrup made from corn goes into lots of other foods.

Good Morning California! How Long Have Gas Companies Been Fracking Around In Your Backyard?

By Theodora Filis

What most Californians don’t realize is that fracking has been taking place throughout their state for over sixty years. US towns and communities have been in the midst of an unprecedented gas drilling boom, using a process called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." With each new drill comes frightening reports of poisoned drinking water, polluted air, mysterious animal deaths, industrial disasters, and explosions.

Fracking involves injecting thousands of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals into the earth at extremely high pressure and speeds to fracture underground shale deposits thus releasing natural gas and oil. Homeowners living near fracked wells have been complaining that their drinking water has been contaminated with methane, a key component in natural gas.

California does not track the number of fracked wells, or their location. The state's Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) said that it "does not believe that fracking is widely used" in the state. More recently, DOGGR reported, that the practice is "used for a brief period to stimulate the production of oil and gas wells," but added in its report, that "the division doesn't believe the practice is nearly as widespread as it is in the Eastern US for shale gas production."

Today, Californians are waking up to the unfortunate reality that hundreds of locations around their state, including nearby Monterey County, have been fracked. An article, published by Mother Jones, said that according to a report released by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), fracking is much more common in California than the regulators would like you to believe.

According to Mother Jones, a team of EWG investigators has unearthed dozens of industry documents and academic papers indicating that the practice has been going on in at least six California counties for 60 years or more. And evidence suggests that it's still going strong: "We asked Halliburton, 'What percentage of wells are you fracking in Kern County, for example?,'" says Bill Allayud, EWG's California Director of Governmental Affairs. "And they said 50 to 60 percent of oil wells." A 2008 paper by the Halliburton subsidiary Pinnacle Technologies detailed the widespread current use of fracking in California.

Even after sixty years, the state of California is only now learning about fracking and how attractive their land is to gas companies. Officials, in Monterey County, have given the OK for a Denver-based oil company, Venoco, to drill exploratory wells in the Hames Valley, using fracking technology. Hames Valley, home to oil drilling, will now see a boom in gas drilling.

Update as of 7/12/23:

Environmental justice organizations representing low-income communities and people of color have protested fracking for its potential water contamination and the methane released by the process. Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas.

Newsom, a Democrat, called in 2020 for state lawmakers to ban the practice by 2024. But a proposal before lawmakers failed, leading Newsom to direct CalGEM to proceed with the timeline on its own. It’s only one piece of Newsom’s climate change agenda, which includes a complete end to oil and gas production in the state by 2045, long after he’s left office.