The Gaia Reports

By Theodora Filis Mars chocolate manufacturer, the 5th largest privately held company in the US, is funding research to genetically modify 70 percent of the global cocoa supply. Funding for this project comes from Mars, involving scientists based at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the US Department of Agriculture and Science in addition to researchers working at IBM’s Thomas J Watson Research Center. Cacao production provides a livelihood for over 6.5 million farmers in Africa, South America and Asia and ranks as one of the top ten agriculture commodities in the world. Although chocolate is mostly consumed by the industrialized world, it is grown in developing countries. The US, France, and Germany consume more than half of the world's cocoa supply. The first use of cocoa appears to have occurred around 1100 BC. In the Americas, this crop has been cultivated for at least three millenniums. So the question arises if humans have been growing coc...

By Theodora Filis In the US, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) fall under the regulatory jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Environmental Protection Association (EPA). Now, more than ever, environmentalists are complaining that policies and regulations are insufficient and poorly organized. Many worry corporate influence over policy has led to a dangerous level of "self-regulation" by biotech companies like Monsanto, Syngenta, and Scotts. Mandatory labeling of GMOs and biotech companies allowed to self-regulate are causing heated debates. Debates have caused a significant increase in the amount of valuable information regarding GMOs, but have not helped to stop the planting of the “gene flow” of GMO seeds worldwide. Gene flow, the process by which a gene will move through wind-blown pollen and work its way into non-modified varieties, has already been well-established for GMO corn, GMO ...

By Theodora Filis In the US and Canada, the Organic Trade Association (OTA) claims their mission is to promote consumer ethics, protect and promote the benefit of the organic trade environment, and promote the economy of the public and farmers as a whole. OTA is a member of the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM). “Organic” refers to the way agricultural products are grown and processed. It includes a system of production, processing, distribution, and handling to maintain the organic integrity that starts on the farm. Governed by government standards, organic requires that products bearing the organic label are made without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides, synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, antibiotics, synthetic hormones, genetic engineering or other excluded practices, sewage sludge, or irradiation. Sixty percent of OTA members are micro and small business trade members. The OTA originally went under the name Organic Foods Production Associa...

By Theodora Filis Yearly, hundreds of children die from food allergies. Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) contain proteins from other plants, making non-labeling a big concern for allergy sufferers. Because of the lack of labeling people are now, unknowingly, exposed to substances that trigger allergies. For example, a tomato plant may contain a protein from peanuts – peanut allergy has more than doubled since 1997 -- concern is that if scientists create new proteins and put them into foods people who did not have food allergies before could begin to have reactions. Each year in the U.S., 200,000 people require emergency medical care for allergic reactions to food. Food allergy symptoms are most common in babies and children, but they can appear at any age. You can even develop an allergy to foods you have eaten for years with no problems.   Food allergies occur when a person's immune system reacts to a protein in a food he or she eats. The allergic response can be as mild as a s...

By Theodora Filis The two main political parties in the United Kingdom (UK), Tories and Labour, are backing genetically modified (GM) food crops. This came as a surprise and disappointment to many, however, it should not have. The director of Rothamstead Research in the UK, the largest, oldest, and some say, the most important agricultural research station in the world, is Professor Maurice Moloney, a scientist best known for developing the world's first transgenic oilseeds and the genetically modified crop that is grown in Australia, RoundUp Ready(R) Canola. Professor Moloney argues that GM is all about "feeding a hungry world and says serious scientific bodies have looked at GM technology in recent years and concluded it would be a mistake to exclude the technology from the arsenal of tools needed to deal with both global food security and environmental protection challenges". The RoundUp Ready System was specifically designed to require the exclusive use of Mon...

By Theodora Filis US citizens were appalled when the Japanese government attempted to conceal vital information from the rest of the world in order to save face and maintain the status quo. Last week, ABC World News reported, “A subcontractor urged workers at Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant to put lead around radiation detection devices in order to stay under a safety threshold for exposure.” Does the US have the right to be shocked or angered by TEPCO's cover-up, or by the Japanese government knowingly, and seemingly without regard, concealing the horrible fate of many Fukushima plant workers? Not if you consider the disregard for human life that has been going on for decades by industry leaders and our own government. o Although the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) took action against the use of asbestos in many consumer products, asbestos is still not banned and is still widely used today in consumer and industrial products in...

By Theodora Filis It has been twelve years since the world's first GM crop, the Flav Savr tomato, was commercially approved, and hundreds more GM varieties were granted deregulation status. The global area of GM crops has reached 102 million hectares, according to industry sources, though this has been strongly contested around the world. In August 2006, a federal district judge in Hawaii ruled on the first case involving GMOs – drug-producing GM crops. The judge, in this case, ruled that the USDA violated the Endangered Species Act as well as the National Environmental Policy Act in allowing drug-producing GM crops to be cultivated throughout Hawaii and failing to conduct even preliminary investigations on environmental impact prior to the approval of planting. The plaintiffs were the Center for Food Safety, KAHEA (The Hawaiian Environmental Alliance), Friends of the Earth, and the Pesticide Action Network, North America. The defendants were the US Secretary of Agriculture and a...

By Theodora Filis "Ten years after Congress required the EPA to test certain pesticides for their cumulative dangers, the agency did so, but minimized the risks." Poisoned For Profit Genetically engineered foods have been in the news a lot lately. European environmental organizations and public interest groups have been actively protesting against GE foods for months, and the recent controversy over the unrestricted planting of engineered alfalfa has brought the issue of genetic engineering to the forefront of the public consciousness in the U.S. This week in Washington, DC a press conference was held by U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, announcing the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The national consumer organization Food & Water Watch, along with its coalition partners, demonstrated outside the press conference to draw attention to the USDA's ...

By Theodora Filis Monday, a UK government-commissioned study into food security called for urgent action to avert global hunger. The report suggested the British public overcome its fear of "Frankenstein foods" and accept that genetically modified crops are necessary to feed the world's growing population.The Foresight Report on Food and Farming Futures says the current system is unsustainable and will fail to end hunger unless radically redesigned. The report is the culmination of a two-year study, involving 400 experts from 35 countries. Sir John Beddington, the Government's chief scientific adviser who is leading the team behind the report, said new technologies such as GM crops will have to be used to feed the population. Sir Beddington was among the first to warn of a “perfect storm” of a growing population, climate change and diminishing resources for food production. The report also calls for new measures to hold governments and food producers to ...

Who among you ever thinks about the farmer or his wife? The fate of their children, and most troubling of all, the consequences of working with pesticides? What is most important about the plight of the female farmer - or more commonly known throughout the world as the farmer's wife - is something that is affecting many of us today. With the rising costs of pesticides, the difficulties in obtaining subsidies, and the drop in produce purchases due to increased costs, the farmer is finding it impossible to feed their families.  Leaving it up to the husband to go to the city to find work.  The wife, therefore, is left to tend to the house, the children and the farm. In parts of the developing world, many men in this situation commit suicide leaving the wife to not only deal with the running of the house, children and farm, but also left with the shame of her husbands actions, and much more harmful, becoming disen...

By Theodora Filis For several years now much concern has been raised over the use of genetically modified crops in foods.  There has been little to no published research into the effects of genetically modified foods on human health, and the US government has not yet required labeling of products that contain genetically modified ingredients.  As a result, American consumers have no way to identify genetically modified content in their foods, even if they were aware they should be looking out for it. While 30 countries have significant restrictions or outright bans on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the US has approved their use.The reason for the FDA’s industry-friendly policy on GMOs is that the White House (under the first George Bush) ordered the agency to promote biotechnology. Also, the person in charge of developing the policy was the former attorney, Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, then of Monsanto, and later their vice preside...