Speaking of Antiscience (GMO and You)

The reason we don't see non GMO labeling.

http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/millenium/fdadisallowsgmo-freelabel.php

http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/nongmolabel112205.cfm

ah the monsanto/adm effect

they are going to get away with whatever they can until FDA is getting substantial flak

the hippies had a minor victory

http://www.gmofreemendo.com/

how many counties would it take for the FDA to change their policies?

Those CA ballot initiatives are great, until some judge comes in decides that the people were wrong.

I was reading through one of those links I posted, and supposedly one of the government's reasons for not allowing nonGMO labels, was that there is no way to guarantee that there are no GMO proteins in the food.

What's up with that?????

Are they admitting, that through their own corrupt practices, that GM modification has already spread to non GM farms?

If that's the case, the Pandora's Box is definitely wide open.

the lady who started that particular initiative is one of the owners of a organic winery

they have been making wine without sulphur, since the 80's

no GMO has stuck there for a few years, of course about all they grow in mendo county is grapes, pears & of course weed

they probably have or [will soon] GMO alfalfa the pollen spreads..

That's what I'm thinking. Not just with alfalfa, but everything GMO. There is no way to prevent pollen from blowing in the wind, being carried by bees, etc.

I tried to find something comprehensive on the web, like maps, of exactly where all of the GM farms are, and came up empty handed.

I can't tell you how freaked out my brother would be if his organic farm got contaminated with GM pollen......................then again, I guess he would never know. And that could be just the way they want it.

Corn, soybeans & cotton

would probably all be considered to be GMO likely

so the map would be the midwest & anywhere that silage is grown for corn

south & west cotton

so the GMO map would probably cover more than 1/2 the country

the genie is out of that bottle

but your brother probably isn't growing any of the biggie's anyway...

the mega corp domination of the legal process is the bigger problem

Yeah, his stuff is probably fairly safe..................for now.

I don't think he wants his bees exposed to GM crops either though.

I thought about it last night and I'll have to dig up the article when I have a second, but the topic was about GM crops and bees.

The basic premise of the article was that colony collapse disorder in bees is due to the genetic tampering of crops. It said that no one commonality has been discovered that explains the widespread nature of CCD (prior to the GM crop theory). It also stated that research had been done to see if CCD could be caused by using GM crops... the answer was yes.

I'll do some digging for you when I have a few.

Seems like a much more likely candidate than cell phone towers.

I snagged this link from an AP on another blog

http://www.raw-wisdom.com/50harmful.

this

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/monsanto_sweet_corn/?r=231328&id=27574-3654183-iiBQfRx

hit my inbox earlier this morning

not much in the way of activism, I've seen other petitions get in the 10's of 1000 signatures

At least with the Grocery store they have a vested interest in their customer and there are groups watching this industry and keeping pressure on them to avoid the toxic GMO products. It is having quite a bit of influence as some European countries have banned some GMO and Monsanto profits are heading down. All we now need is for the Corrupt governments of USA and Canada to get some spine and protect their people. Unfortunately as in India GMO caused the suicide of 250,000 farmers due to high prices of seeds and death of their buffalo from eating the stalks left from harvest leaving them with no beast of burden.

I'm on a few petition sites, I think it's good to speak with a unified voice

some of the petitions do go to legislators

here's another social justice one

http://www.change.org/

I haven't seen any [sites] that were particularly conservative

I don't care about the politics, the issues are the issues

some of the issues are a bit over the top...

I don't care about the politics either. I care about what my 4 year old daughter's liver and kidneys are going to look like in 30 years if this stuff is all over the grocery shelves.

I've seen other petitions get in the 10's of 1000 signatures

I'm not sure what you mean...I signed the petition and received the following message:

We've reached 80% (120,267) of our 5th NEW goal of 150,000 signers!

so that's a good one then, glad to see it

as you may remember from other threads, I'm looking for ways to provide informed opinion to our government

these petitions are a little superficial, but better than facebook/twitter crap

any way we can express ourselves with a unified message/voice is better than nothing

Not sure I dare say this, therefor I must; Government doesn't operate on the basis of informed opinion. Governments operate according to how they think Jo Public will perceive them. They need to get re-elected.

Informing government is a noble goal, but does any message work 'top-down' or 'bottom up' ?

Sorry, Garth, it's late and I'm being a bit verbose. Trotsky would approve, I'm sure .

Your last two lines, I can fault not.

there are possibilities for interactive systems, that just were not possible in the past

the perceptions & the reality of government can come closer together

talk is being substituted for actual work

we've all worked with these kinds of people, the one that spend more time & effort avoiding/talking about work than actually doing anything

Good points.

In this techno-age, why do we not interact with local rep's ?. My meaning is that in (UK system as well as USA), we have elected officials and on any given issue, they cast a vote without refference to the electorate. This is supposedly the age of the bloody internet - all can have access (at least in the West).

How hard can it be ? My local MP has to vote on some topic in Parliament. He/She has been elected on a broad agenda. If there is a specific cause/issue, why on earth can he/she not canvass opinion of those who elected them. The Rep can publish the issue on a website and ask yes/no. Does it happen ? Oh, look, I saw a flying pig.

I wouldn't give a toss about their politics, but I would vote for anybody who stood on an agenda of 'I will ask local people how they feel on all given issues upon which I vote in Parliament'. It will never happen, despite technology being available. I'd go eat a dog, but I'm not sure which ones are allowed.

Democracy is a fickle thing.

Admin let this thread run, so they can hardly delete my observations on what is essentialy a political topic. From the mouth of babes...

do they have grand juries in Britland?

some grand juries are used as an instrument of oversight, [other GJ's are used for criminal matters]

That link is just scary.

You're right, if the reps cared what we thought, it would be quite easy for them to hear from us via the internet. Now they hire people to dump the email daily.

entropy is a powerful thing

the informal approach, is too easy subvert, no accountability, no review of data

any information gathered is random

remember looking at the approach the scientific community takes to funding cuts?

the lack of a unified message renders most similar efforts easy to ignore

Nobody should even have to sign petitions on this issue. It's just wrong.

We've got the first lady screeching about sugary drinks and fast food, and not a word from anyone in the FDA or the USDA on unlabeled GM produce in the grocery stores?!!!

If our gutless media was running this on the nightly news it would be a non issue.

"Just wrong" is in the eye of the beholder

I'm sure monsanto, would consider anyone complaining about GMO being "just wrong"

Well, if they consider what they are doing is right, they should be bragging, shouting it from the rooftops, and setting up free GMO tasting booths in the stores............not trying to do it covertly.

The corrupt government doesn't have to do anything except allow non-GMO food to be labeled as such! They put a stop to that..............those that are here to protect us. The Ba$tards.

I wonder how difficult it would be in the next ten years or so, or now, to introduce genes into our food crops that would make people like me more complacent/compliant.

psssst.... they already took care of the complacency issue with fluoride in the water... You must be on a well, are you?

Yes. No koolaid here..................unless I make it.

I bought three bell peppers yesterday from Whole Foods, a red one a green one and a yellow one; and, not one of them had a single seed. Can anybody tell me if that was accomplished without genetic modification?

I'm not sure about the peppers, but I've been doing a lot of reading about tomatoes this summer, and I learned that the usage of a "male sterile" parent plant to produce hybrid seeds is very common. It saves a lot of skilled surgical labour otherwise required to prevent the plants from self-pollinating and getting a self seed instead of the desired F1. This means that the seeds from the F1 generation are carrying that male sterile gene, which is not a good thing to get into your saved seed gene pool for greenhouse tomatoes, will produce some plants that set no fruit unless they are pollinated externally.

Did a quick search and turned up this article on seedless peppers, it is a recessive trait that can be easily produced by breeding/selection so GMO isn't necessary.

It seems to me, that in so many notes Reminding you #41-43 is sensible.