SchwartzReport: Franken-Wheat Crime Against Humanity?

01 Agriculture, 07 Health

How Dangerous Is Genetically Modified Food?

ALEX DALEY, Chief Technology Investment Strategist – Casey Research

Here is an investment advisor's view of developments in GMO. These analysts, who are focused only on making money, have a very cold blooded view of issues like GMO, and when they are alarmed it is worth paying attention.

Last month, a group of Australian scientists published a warning to the citizens of the country and of the world who collectively gobble up some $34 billion annually of its agricultural exports. The warning concerned the safety of a new type of wheat.

As Australia's number-one export, a $6-billion annual industry, and the most-consumed grain locally, wheat is of the utmost importance to the country. A serious safety risk from wheat – a mad wheat disease of sorts – would have disastrous effects for the country and for its customers.

Which is why the alarm bells are being rung over a new variety of wheat being ushered toward production by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia. In a sense, the crop is little different than the wide variety of modern genetically modified foods. A sequence of the plant's genes has been turned off to change the wheat's natural behavior a bit, to make it more commercially viable (hardier, higher yielding, slower decaying, etc.).

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Chuck Spinney: Israeli Micro-Management of Gaza Malnutrition

01 Agriculture, 06 Family, 06 Genocide, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 11 Society
Chuck Spinney

Below is a BBC report of and Israeli “calorie” study drafted in support of Israel blockade policies for Gaza.  To Israel's credit, an Israeli human rights group forced the release of this report, but it does nevertheless raise a question: What kind of government would authorize work on such a methodical report on this subject in the first place?

“In her reporting of the Eichmann trial for The New Yorker, which evolved into Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963), Hannah Arendt coined the phrase “the banality of evil” to describe Eichmann. She raised the question of whether evil is radical or simply a function of thoughtlessness, a tendency of ordinary people to obey orders and conform to mass opinion without a critical evaluation of the consequences of their actions and inaction.” (wikipedia)

Read the calorie study (Israeli study of Gaza food consumption to support blockade policy) as well BBC report below, and ask yourself how would you behave if someone was even thinking about doing this to you.  Would you fight back with any weapons at your disposal or meekly submit?

 BBC, 17 October 2012 Last updated at 21:51 GMT

Israel forced to release study on Gaza blockade

An Israeli court has forced the release of government research detailing the number of calories Palestinians in Gaza need to consume to avoid malnutrition.

The study was commissioned after Israel tightened its blockade of the territory after Hamas came to power in June 2007.

. . . . . . .

‘Daily humanitarian portion'

The Israeli human rights group Gisha, which campaigns against Israel's Gaza blockade, fought a long legal battle to get the Israeli ministry of defence to release this document.

Dated from 2008 and entitled, Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip – The Red Lines, it is a detailed study of how many calories Palestinians needed to eat to avoid malnutrition.

How can Israel claim that it is not responsible for civilian life in Gaza – when it controls even the type and quantity of food that Palestinian residents of Gaza are permitted to consume?”

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Berto Jongman: Food Security Index & Map 2013

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 05 Energy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, 12 Water, Earth Intelligence
Berto Jongman

Food security in 75% of African countries at high or extreme risk – Maplecroft global index

‘Arab Awakening' countries at increased risk from 2013 food price shocks

10/10/2012

Despite strong economic growth, food security remains an issue of primary importance for Africa, according to a new study by risk analysis company Maplecroft, which classifies 75% of the continent’s countries at ‘high’ or ‘extreme risk.’

Click on Image to Enlarge

In the light of recent food price spikes, the findings are especially significant for areas of sub-Saharan Africa where poverty, armed conflict, civil unrest, drought, displacement and poor governance can combine to create conditions where a food crisis may take hold.

Africa accounts for 39 of the 59 most at risk countries in Maplecroft’s Food Security Risk Index and hosts nine of the eleven countries in the ‘extreme risk’ category. These include: Somalia and DR Congo (ranked joint 1st in the index), Burundi (4), Chad (5), Ethiopia (6), Eritrea (7), South Sudan (9), Comoros (10) and Sierra Leone (11). The countries of Haiti (3) and Afghanistan (8) complete the category.

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Michel Bauwens: Russia’s small-scale organic agriculture model may hold the key to feeding the world [while future-proofing cities]

01 Agriculture, 06 Russia, 11 Society
Michel Bauwens

Russia's small-scale organic agriculture model may hold the key to feeding the world

Imagine living in a country where having the freedom to cultivate your own land, tax-free and without government interference, is not only common but also encouraged for the purpose of promoting individual sovereignty and strong, healthy communities. Now imagine that in this same country, nearly all of your neighbors also cultivate their own land as part of a vast network of decentralized, self-sustaining, independent “eco-villages” that produce more than enough food to feed the entire country.

Click on Image to Enlarge

You might be thinking this sounds like some kind of utopian interpretation of historical America, but the country actually being described here is modern-day Russia. It turns out that Russia's current agricultural model is one that thrives as a result of the millions of small-scale, family-owned and -operated, organically-cultivated farms that together produce the vast majority of the food consumed throughout the country.

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Koko: Arsenic in US-Grown Rice – Threat to Babies

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 04 Education, 06 Family, 07 Health, 11 Society, Earth Intelligence
Koko

Koko:  Humans still don't understand Earth as a whole (closed) system.

Reported arsenic levels in rice prompt concern

(CBS News) Consumer Reports found significant levels of arsenic in apple juice earlier this year, and now, the magazine has a new study, showing many brands of rice also contain the toxin.

The arsenic enters into the rice when it is grown, according to Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He explained the rice with the highest levels of arsenic is from Texas and Louisiana, and along the Gulf coast where fields were used to grow cotton a century ago.

“When there was cotton there they had to treat the cotton with arsenic pesticides to control the bowl weevil,” he said. “Now a century later, that arsenic is still in the soil, the rice is very effective at pulling it out of the soil in and it concentrates in the rice.”

Arsenic causes lung, skin and bladder cancer, Landrigan said. He added that arsenic is also very harmful to babies' brain development. If a baby is exposed to arsenic in the womb because the mother is eating arsenic or if a baby ingests arsenic in the first months of life in cereal, rice milk or other food, the arsenic could interfere with brain development, reduce the child's intelligence, and cause behavioral problems.

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Chuck Spinney: Russian Land, Chinese Labor – The North Evolves

01 Agriculture, 02 China, 03 Economy, 06 Russia, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Culture, Economics/True Cost
Chuck Spinney

Interesting evolution of Russo-Chinese relations

Nation Rich in Land Draws Workers From One Rich in People

By ANDREW E. KRAMER

The New York Times, 10 September 2012

OSTANINO, Russia — When a Chinese investor bought a farm outside this village a few years back, he was pleased enough to name it Golden Land. The soil was rich, the sunshine and rain bountiful.

The land, deep in rural Russia, was also largely devoid of people.

No more. Today, row upon row of greenhouses here teem with dozens of Chinese farmhands picking tomatoes. And in a season with a bumper crop of tomatoes, the foreman said he would happily have employed hundreds more.

The influx of Chinese farm labor in Russia reflects the growing trade and economic ties between the two countries, one rich in land and resources, the other in people.

For years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, both countries have struggled to convert these complementary strengths into real business opportunities. A few mining ventures are succeeding. And state companies have struck big oil, coal and timber deals that form the backbone of the economic relationship.

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John Steiner: Global Fallout from Fukishima

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, 12 Water
John Steiner

Following is a link to the most detailed, in-depth article I have yet to read on GLOBAL Fukishima fallout…including fallout in the southern hemisphere (yes, dorothy).

Time to really start being careful about what you eat and drink…in most countries, and both hemispheres.

Read the article. Be informed. This is real.

No Place to Hide – Fukushima Fallout Findings Widespread