We Don’t Want to Know
Consumerism, Economics, GMOs, Health & Disease, Society — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor November 8, 2012
I awoke this morning eager to find out the results of November 6th’s voting in the U.S. of A. And no, I’m not talking about the tiresome presidential election….
Comments (7)GM Cancer Warning Can No Longer Be Ignored
GMOs, Health & Disease — by I-SIS November 2, 2012
The latest findings of cancers and deaths from GM maize and Roundup herbicide are the result of the most in-depth long-term toxicology study ever done on GM food; we ignore them at our peril.
by Prof Peter Saunders and Dr Mae-Wan Ho
A fully referenced version of this report is posted on ISIS members website and is otherwise available for download here.
In the Vatican Museums in Rome stands a statue of Laocoön and his sons. Legend has it that Laocoön tried to warn his fellow citizens against taking in the wooden horse that the Greeks had left outside their gates. It was not a gift, but a ruse designed to allow Greek soldiers to enter the city. The Greek gods, who wanted to see Troy destroyed, sent sea serpents to kill Laocoön. This convinced the Trojans that the horse was indeed sacred; so they opened the gates and dragged it into the city. The result was the total destruction of Troy and its empire.
Comments (0)Urgent, Prop 37 Needs Your Help Today!
GMOs, Health & Disease — by Jeffrey M. Smith
If you wish to donate directly to place this ad on more stations, you can go to this dedicated donation page. Please be generous (and swift!).
With only a few days left before the vote on November 6, there’s no time to lose. The latest California poll now puts Prop 37 ten points behind! Whether or not you’re in California, please donate generously — immediately.
And please sign up for the phone banking to call California voters to tell them the truth.
Comments (0)Why Glyphosate Should Be Banned – A Review of its Hazards to Health and the Environment
Biodiversity, GMOs, Health & Disease, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho November 1, 2012
Glyphosate has contaminated land, water, air, and our food supply; the maximum permitted levels are set to rise by100-150 times in the European Union if Monsanto gets its way as damning evidence of serious harm to health & the environment piles up.
by Dr Eva Sirinathsinghji and Dr Mae-Wan Ho
 Click to purchase the fully referenced and illustrated report |
A fully referenced and illustrated version of this report is posted on ISIS members’ website and is otherwise available for download here.
- Introduction
- Regulators and industry both culpable
- How glyphosate works
- Health impacts
4.1 Teratogenicity and reproductive effects
4.2 Endocrine disruption
4.3 Carcinogenicity
4.4 Genotoxicity
4.5 Neurotoxicity
4.6 Internal organ toxicity
4.7 Acute toxicity - Environmental and agronomic effects
5.1 Glyphosate resistant weeds
5.2 Effects on crop and plant health
5.3 Effects on soil ecology
5.4 Effects on ecosystems
5.5 Diseases of livestock
5.6 Widespread contamination of water supplies - To conclude
Executive Summary
The use of glyphosate-based herbicides, especially Monsanto’s Roundup formulation, has increased dramatically since the introduction of genetically modified (GM) glyphosate-tolerant crops, resulting in the contamination of our food, environment and water supplies.
Glyphosate-based herbicides are now the most commonly used herbicides in the world. It is still promoted as ‘safe’, despite damning evidence of serious harm to health and the environment.
Comments (2)Bitter Seeds Documentary (video)
Biodiversity, Food Shortages, GMOs, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 31, 2012
This new documentary, with perfect timing for the upcoming Proposition 37 vote on November 6, is a heartbreaking look at the impact GMOs have had in India, where many thousands of peasant farmers have been pushed to the brink, and beyond, due to crop failures and spiraling costs for seed and the chemicals they demand.
For your interest, there are currently efforts to put a 10-year ban on GMO field trials across India. A court appointed expert panel has advised India’s supreme court that such a ban should be implemented. At time of writing, the next hearing for this case will be November 9, 2012. A 1.5mb PDF submission to the supreme court by the expert panel can be downloaded here.
Comments (0)Sign Up For Phone Calling on Prop 37
GMOs, Health & Disease — by Jeffrey M. Smith October 30, 2012
Editor’s Note: In case you missed our alert, take the opportunity to watch Genetic Roulette for free until the end of October, 2012, and also see our GMO category for many more articles and videos. Prop 37 is an historic opportunity — I hope that all who can will get involved.
Monsanto and friends are spending over $1 million a day to fight GMO labeling and defeat Prop. 37. You can help. Join the volunteers to fight back now!
by Jeffrey Smith, Responsible Technology Institute
In less than two weeks, Californians will vote on Prop. 37. This is an historic campaign — it would mean that for the first time in the United States, consumers would have the right to know if the food they are eating has been genetically tampered with by chemical companies. Nearly one million Californians signed their names to put the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act — aka Prop 37 — on the ballot, and over 90% of Americans say they support labeling GMOs. But right now, the world’s largest pesticide and junk food companies, led by Monsanto, DuPont, Dow Chemical, Pepsi, Kraft & Coca Cola have invested over $40 million and are spending $1 million per day to deceive Californians. They are flooding the state with misleading ads to confuse and scare the voters and to trick people into voting against their own best interests. And it’s working. In the past week our poll numbers have dropped from 61% to 48%. We must fight back.
Here are the ways you can help to fight back:
Comments (0)Seeds of Doubt Conference (Videos)
GMOs, Health & Disease — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 24, 2012
To follow are six videos, recorded at the October 6 2012 Seeds of Doubt Conference in Los Angeles:
Comments (0)GMO Myths and Truths
GMOs, Health & Disease — by Michael Antoniou
Editor’s Note: Michael Antoniou, PhD, is reader in molecular genetics and head of the Gene Expression and Therapy Group, King’s College London School of Medicine, London, UK. His work and experience with genetic engineering is comprehensive, working in the field for almost three decades, making him well placed to highlight the dangers and shortcomings of genetically engineering our crops. Kudos to him for standing up and speaking out against Big Biotech at a time when many scientists are afraid to do so. The document you can download below is an excellent addition to the armoury of anti-GMO educators and activists. Please share this page widely.
Click the image above to download the full report (1.7mb PDF)
An evidence-based examination of the claims made for the safety and efficacy of genetically modified crops.
by Michael Antoniou, Claire Robinson and John Fagan
Executive Summary:
Comments (3)Genetic Roulette Documentary – Free Viewing Period Extended Until End of October 2012
DVDs/Books, GMOs, Health & Disease — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 19, 2012
A few days ago I informed that you could watch the Genetic Roulette Documentary for free until October 17. Well, several organisations have kindly sponsored an extension of this free viewing period until the end of October. With Proposition 37 coming up on November 6 in California, there’s no time like the present to get the word out on GMOs. So, if you haven’t already, please take the time to watch it, and please do your best to share it with all your family, friends and colleagues!
Watch the full documentary here!
If we can get mandatory labelling of GMOs happening in California, this can cascade across the U.S. — making it easier for people to recognise and reject ‘food’ items containing GMOs, and this in turn can cause boycotts of supermarkets who continue to stock them. Using the European example as evidence, we may only need about 5% of U.S. residents to start rejecting items containing GMOs, before supermarkets will feel the pinch and try to outcompete other supply chains by no longer stocking them.
And, below is a new 10-minute re-mix of the documentary, useful for those who just can’t make time to watch the full 1.5 hour film.
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Preparing Our Children For a Resilient Future, Part III: Water
Biodiversity, Biological Cleaning, Conservation, Consumerism, Deforestation, Education, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Potable Water, Regional Water Cycle, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Storm Water, Village Development, Waste Water, Water Contaminaton & Loss, Water Harvesting — by Anthea Hudson October 18, 2012
Water — without it life on earth could not exist and yet it is often treated with little care or respect, especially by more affluent communities. Clean drinking water is actually a valuable and diminishing resource, due to all the toxins that are carelessly allowed to make their way into our water systems.
These statistics about water may surprise you and give you a greater understanding about just how important it is that we protect water, especially our potable water.
75% of the Earth’s surface is covered with water — however 97% of that water is the salt water of our oceans. That only leaves 3%, but 2% of that is frozen and only 0.5% is actually usable fresh water! Just 0.5% of all the water on Earth. Kinda brings the point home, doesn’t it?
As you can probably see, it is therefore vital that we help our children understand the value of water, the importance of protecting it and ways in which they can use it more sustainably.
Below are some ideas for introducing these concepts to your children… some of them quite a bit of fun, but with very important messages behind them.
Comments (4)Excess Cancers and Deaths with GM Feed: the Stats Stand Up
GMOs, Health & Disease — by I-SIS October 17, 2012
That cancers are found even with a small number of rats tested is strong evidence that the GM feed and herbicide are carcinogenic.
In September 2012, the research team led by Gilles-Eric Séralini at the University of Caen published the findings of their feeding trial on rats to test for toxicity of Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) maize NK603 and/or Roundup herbicide in the online edition of Food and Chemical Toxicology [1].
Séralini and his colleagues had previously found evidence for toxicity of GM feed in data from Monsanto’s own experiments, which they had obtained through a Freedom of Information demand [2]. Monsanto challenged their conclusions and, to no one’s great surprise the European Food Standards Agency (EFSA) supported Monsanto [3]. So the team decided to run their own experiment, using an unusually large number of animals and over a period of about two years, roughly the life expectancy of the rats, rather than the usual 90 days required in toxicity trials including Monsanto’s.
What Séralini and his colleagues found was that NK603 and Roundup are not only both toxic as expected, but also carcinogenic, which was unexpected. The proportion of treated rats that died during the experiments was much greater than the controls; moreover, in almost all groups a higher proportion developed tumours, and the tumours appeared earlier.
As soon as the paper appeared, the GM lobby swung into action. In particular, the Science Media Centre (SMC), a London-based organisation partly funded by industry, quickly obtained quotes from a number of pro-GM scientists and distributed them to the media [4]. According to a report in Times Higher Education [5], the SMC succeeded in influencing the coverage of the story in the UK press and largely kept it off the television news.
Comments (2)National Gardening Leave – Why Britain Would Be Better Off If We All Spent Less Time at the Office
Consumerism, Economics, Health & Disease, Society, peak oil — by New Economics Foundation October 16, 2012
The case for a new, voluntary scheme to introduce a shorter working week, and for the rapid expansion of productive and pleasurable gardening in Britain’s towns and cities.
Executive Summary
 Click to download (1.34mb PDF) |
The Proposal – National Gardening Leave: for a stronger, healthier and happier Britain.
This pamphlet argues that Britain will be better off if we all spent less time at the office. It makes the case for a new, voluntary scheme to introduce a shorter working week referred to as National Gardening Leave. And it calls for adapting a wide range of available spaces for the rapid expansion of gardening, both productive and aesthetic, in Britain’s towns and cities.
We argue that this will leave people happier, healthier and better equipped for our challenging times. It will make the economy more resilient, better positioned for the modern world, and more protected from external food and energy price shocks. It will also make communities stronger and more convivial places to live.
Giving people entering new jobs (and, where possible, those in existing jobs) the option of working a four day week – something which is standard practice in the Netherlands, for example – brings potential multiple benefits to individuals, workplaces, communities, the environment and the economy.
It is time to reap the benefits in taking the next logical step in the historical trend toward a shorter, conventional working week. In the new time made available, gardening wouldn’t be compulsory or the only choice of what to do, but it is already incredibly popular and we believe, an important and attractive option.
Comments (4)Tell US Congress: It’s Time To Label GMOs
GMOs, Health & Disease — by Jeffrey M. Smith October 11, 2012
We’re fast approaching a tipping point on the labeling of genetically engineered foods. With California’s proposition 37 coming before voters November 6, and with 91% of the American public supporting the right to know, we’ve decided that now is a perfect time to launch a national petition to Congress.
Comments (1)Watch ‘Genetic Roulette’ Documentary Online Today
GMOs, Health & Disease — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor September 28, 2012
Last night I watched ‘Genetic Roulette’ online (trailer above). You can watch it for a paltry US$2.99 — or, better yet, add a little more as a donation, and you’ll help to get this important information much further, by subsidising its translation into many other languages, so people worldwide can learn of the dangers inherent in genetically engineering our food.
I won’t spoil your viewing experience by telling you too much, but you’ll learn about how the FDA ignored repeated warnings by their own scientists of the dangers of allowing these organisms into the food chain, and you’ll hear doctors and scientists explaining how they are linked to a massive rise in health issues — this rise beginning at the same time as their release. You’ll learn about issues farmers have faced worldwide, with their GMO-fed livestock going sterile and suffering a myriad otherwise inexplicable problems, and which ‘miraculously’ vanished after reverting to a non-GMO diet. You’ll meet scientists who have dared to stand up to Monsanto, and who have been fired for it, and you’ll learn how our Monsanto-financed universities are becoming academic puppets for BigBiotech.
This is a must-watch documentary which should serve to infuriate viewers into tossing GMOs out of their kitchens and shopping trolleys, with the huge potential for this to translate to lost market share for supermarket chains who will feel the pressure to also boycott these ‘products’. If we can get as little as five percent of the US population avoiding GMOs, then we could see the beginning of the end for this industry — an industry which, to me, is the ultimate representation of capitalism run amuck (and along the lines of ‘industries’ like Academi, formerly known as Blackwater, and Xe Industries).
Comments (1)Scientists Warn on CSIRO GM Wheat Threat
GMOs, Health & Disease — by Safe Food Foundation September 26, 2012
Expert scientists warn that genetically modified wheat may cause Glycogen Storage Disease IV, resulting in an enlarged liver, cirrhosis of the liver, and failure to thrive. Children born with this disease usually die at about the age of five.
Australia is on track to be the first country in the world to grow GM wheat commercially, and to test this in human feeding trials.
Today in Melbourne molecular biologist and risk assessment researcher Professor Jack Heinemann of the University of Canterbury, NZ, and Associate Professor Judy Carman, a biochemist at Flinders University, will release expert scientific opinions on the safety of CSIRO’s GM wheat. These opinions have been reviewed by Dr Michael Antoniou, reader in molecular genetics at King’s College, London.
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