SchwartzReport: 25% of Americans Struggle to Afford Food; Latin American Inequality Improving While US Most Unequal Country on the Planet

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 11 Society

This story, I think, more than almost any other trend I follow on SR makes me furious. Nearly twenty five percent of the people in the richest country on earth struggle to have enough to eat. And the Republicans try over and over again to cut even the little social support that does exist to see that the elderly and the young get at least something to eat. This is immoral at a level I ca! nnot find the words to express.

Report: Nearly a Quarter of All Americans Struggle to Afford Food
KATIE MCDONOUGH, Assistant Editor – Salon

When I read this story I remembered favelas I had seen in Brazil, or the slums in Agentina, and thought to myself is it possible that the disparity between our one per cent and the 99 per cent is so great that it is worse than the difference between rich and poor in Latin America. Apparently it is. What a commentary. This is what we have sunk to.

Latin America’s Inequality Is Improving; The U.S. is The Most Unequal Country In The West
PATRICIA REY MALLÉN – International Business Times

SchwartzReport: LEAKED: US Government Spending Millions on Behalf of Monsanto, Bribing and Blocking Foreign Bio-Tech

01 Agriculture, 07 Health, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government

schwartz reportIf you had any doubts about how corrupt the government has become, and how much it is an extension of the Non-geographical Corporate States, this story should settle the matter.

Leak: US Using Taxpayer Dollars To Promote Monsanto GMOs Overseas
ANTHONY GUCCIARDI – Natural Society

Just when you thought the latest Supreme Court ruling in favor of Monsanto’s anti-farmer patent policy was enough evidence of Monsanto’s deep relationship with the US government, hundreds of new cables from the State Department and embassies around the world reveal that your taxpayer dollars are being used to push Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds.

Even mainstream news websites like Reuters are now reporting on the cable details, as it becomes more than crystal clear that the United States government is literally assisting Monsanto in promoting it’s health-crushing genetically modified seeds and escalating the corporation above the law. The same corporation busted for running slave-like work rings where ‘employees’ were required to work on the GMO corn fields for up to 14 hours a day or have their pay withheld.

As it turns out, taxpayer dollars are being funneled into the pockets of international lobbyists who specifically negotiated deals that benefited Monsanto – not even the government itself. This even included crushing the biotech competition in many countries where Monsanto wanted the edge. All performed by the U.S. State Department with the taxes you pay each year from your own salary. What great use, huh? This leak is very similar to the one I discussed back in January of 2012, where the US threatened ‘trade wars’ against nations opposing Monsanto.

One circumstance from 2009 regarding Spain is particularly telling, as the cable tells us that the embassy was demanding ”high-level U.S. government intervention” at the ‘urgent request” of Monsanto to squash biotech competitors in the country so that Monsanto could come scoop up the market for itself. The organization Food & Water Watch has released a detailed report on the cables. A representative from the organization explained how this isn’t even just the promotion of Monsanto but a truly insane initiative by the US government to bend over backwards for the GMO juggernaut:

‘It really goes beyond promoting the U.S.’s biotech industry and agriculture,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. ‘It really gets down to twisting the arms of countries and working to undermine local democratic movements that may be opposed to biotech crops, and pressuring foreign governments to also reduce the oversight of biotech crops.”

This revelation is truly amazing, even to me. I am rarely surprised with the latest Monsanto news, but the leaks reveal that the State Department even sent out pamphlets and DVDs to promote Monsanto. They even offered to help troubleshoot any problems that the countries had with letting Monsanto in for business.

Monsanto truly has the United States government in the palm of its bloody proverbial hand.

Mini-Me: End Hunger, 3D Printed Food — GMO on Steroids, Toxins Free

01 Agriculture, 01 Poverty, 07 Health, Ethics
Who?  Mini-Me?
Who? Mini-Me?

Huh?

NASA-funded research

The audacious plan to end hunger with 3-D printed food

Christopher Mims

Quartz, 21 May 2013

Anjan Contractor’s 3D food printer might evoke visions of the “replicator” popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain Picard was constantly interrupting himself to order tea. And indeed Contractor’s company, Systems & Materials Research Corporation, just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer.

But Contractor, a mechanical engineer with a background in 3D printing, envisions a much more mundane—and ultimately more important—use for the technology. He sees a day when every kitchen has a 3D printer, and the earth’s 12 billion people feed themselves customized, nutritionally-appropriate meals synthesized one layer at a time, from cartridges of powder and oils they buy at the corner grocery store. Contractor’s vision would mean the end of food waste, because the powder his system will use is shelf-stable for up to 30 years, so that each cartridge, whether it contains sugars, complex carbohydrates, protein or some other basic building block, would be fully exhausted before being returned to the store.

Ubiquitous food synthesizers would also create new ways of producing the basic calories on which we all rely. Since a powder is a powder, the inputs could be anything that contain the right organic molecules. We already know that eating meat is environmentally unsustainable, so why not get all our protein from insects?

If eating something spat out by the same kind of 3D printers that are currently being used to make everything from jet engine parts to fine art doesn’t sound too appetizing, that’s only because you can currently afford the good stuff, says Contractor. That might not be the case once the world’s population reaches its peak size, probably sometime near the end of this century.

“I think, and many economists think, that current food systems can’t supply 12 billion people sufficiently,” says Contractor. “So we eventually have to change our perception of what we see as food.”

Read full article with graphics, photos, video.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: End Hunger, 3D Printed Food — GMO on Steroids, Toxins Free”

SchwartzReport: New Solution on Water Purification — and Three Corporate Evil Stories — Media, Patents, Monsanto

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 11 Society, 12 Water, Commerce, Corruption, Government

schwartz reportAlthough those of us in the developed nations take potable water for granted the fact is for several billion people it is a major matter of urgent stress. Here is a new technology that may help relieve this problem.  Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Biopolymer-reinforced synthetic granular nanocomposites for affordable point-of-use water purification, PNAS, Published online before print May 6, 2013, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1220222110

Nano-scientists Develop New Kind of Portable Water Purification System
BOB YIRKA – Phys.org

I have written extensively about the bias of the media and, particularly, the use of false equivalencies. (For a discussion of this see my esssay: False Equivalencies and the Mediocrity of Nonlocal Consciousness Research Criticism: http://www.explorejournal.com/article/S1550-8307%2813%2900059-1/fulltext)! . Here is proof of my argument.   Click through to see the charts which accompany this piece. They will appall you when you see how incredibly compromised American corporate media has become.

How New York Times, NPR And Wall Street Journal Print Fossil Fuel Talking Points Without Full Disclosure
REBECCA LEBER – Climate Progress

Here in a very clear exegetic essay Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz spells out the whole sordid story of the attempt by corporations to patent and own life forms.

Lives versus Profits
JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ, PHD, Nobel Laureate Economist – Project Syndicate

Here in one essay the true dimensions of the corruption of The U.S. Department of Agriculture by Monsanto is made clear.

Monsanto Has Taken Over the USDA
DAVID SWANSON – Nation of Change

SchwartzReport: Solar Traps Game Changer — and US Allows Seven Toxic Food Practices Banned in Europe

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 05 Energy, 07 Health, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Ethics, Government

schwartz reportHere is another potential game changer in the transition to non-carbon energy. More and more breakthroughs are popping up. One can only wonder what it would have been like if we had put the trillions we have spent on war into eliminating carbon energy, and transitioning to energy technologies that were non-polluting.

Inventor Claims Solar Energy Discovery That Is Game-changer
GREG GORDON – Idaho Statesman

This is the difference between the U.S. and European food systems. It is not a pretty picture.

Seven Dangerous Food Practices Banned in Europe But Just Fine in America
TOM PHILPOTT – AlterNet (U.S.)/Mother Jones

SchwartzReport: US Tops in Brain Diseases, GMO Foods Use More Water and Contaminate Water Not Used

01 Agriculture, 07 Health, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government

schwartz reportThis is not good news. And guess which country is number one in this category? Do you think this might be the result of the toxins and hormones in our environment, food, and water? This is exactly what one would expect to see in large animal studies designed to study the process of disease.

Brain Diseases Affecting More People and Starting Earlier Than Ever Before
Science Daily

Additional unintended consequences of GMOS resulting from a view of the earth that values only profits, with no consideration as to wellness at any level.  Click through to see the relevant charts.  A fully referenced and illustrated version of this article is posted on ISIS members website and is otherwise available for download: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/login.php?location=GM_Crops_and_Water_a_Recipe_for_Disaster.php

GM Crops and Water – A Recipe for Disaster
Institute of Science in Society

SchwartzReport: Government Not Labeling GMO So New Non-Profit Certifiying Non-GMO — Meanwhile, Nanoparticles Entering Food Industry and Harming Blood-Brain Barrier

01 Agriculture, 07 Health, IO Impotency

schwartz reportI love stories like this. Citizens are beginning to do what our corporate controlled government will not. As this report explains a citizen movement has arisen that Aikidos the issue: Instead of listing GMO, they list No-GMO present. It requires no law to list what you don't have in your food. It's a brilliant idea. It now depends on whether customers make a choice on that basis. If enough of us do, it ! will accomplish the same effect as the law that we have been unable to get through the corrupted Congress.

What it Means to Carry the Non GMO Project Certification
MERLYN SEELEY – Examiner (Houston)

Like the untested introduction of GMOs into the food supply, we have here revealed another animal experiment — with us as the lab rates.  Click through to see the graphs, which are very useful.

Nanoparticles: The Tiniest Toxin
DAISY LUTHER – Activist Post