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”

Michelle Monk: Chinese Plant Compound Wipes out Cancer in 40 Days, Says New Research + Innovation and Technology Repression RECAP

07 Health, Commerce, Corruption, Design, Earth Intelligence, Government, Innovation, Knowledge
Michelle Monk
Michelle Monk

Chinese Plant Compound Wipes Out Cancer in 40 Days, Says New Research

A little-known plant with a truly bizarre name is now making headlines as a cancer killer, with the compound of the plant vanishing tumors in mice with pancreatic cancer.

Known as the ‘thunder god vine’ or lei gong teng, the Chinese plant is actually integrated into Chinese medicine and has been used for ages in remedying a number of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis.

According to the new research out of the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center, the thunder god plant compound led to no signs of tumors after a 40 day period — even after discontinuing the treatment. Published in the journal Science Translational Medicine and funded by the National Institutes of Health, even the scientists working on the project were stunned by the anti-cancer properties of the compound. Known to contain something known as triptolide, which has been identified as a cancer fighter in previous research, it is thought to be the key component that may be responsible for the anti-tumor capabilities.

Study leader and vice chairman of research at the Cancer Center explained to Bloomberg how he was blown away by the effects of the simple plant:

“This drug is just unbelievably potent in killing tumor cells,” he said. – See more.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

And just like with numerous other powerful substances like turmeric and ginger, mainstream science is still slowly confirming what many traditional practitioners have known for their entire lives. This is, of course, due to the fact that there is simply no money for major corporations in researching the healing powers of natural herbs and compounds such as the compound found in the thunder god vine. Turmeric and ginger, for example, have been found to be amazing anti-cancer substances that are virtually free compared to expensive and dangerous cancer drugs.

Nevertheless, the Big Pharma sponsored corporate scientists have managed to ignore these spices as much as possible. In fact, they have even been caught time and time again faking thousands of studies to fraudulently demonstrate the supposed value of pharmaceutical drugs pushed by major pharma juggernauts — many of which are later forced to pay millions in fines which only slightly stack up against their billions in profits.

Profits that are threatened by the many real studies that were performed by scientists examining the rejeuvenating power of cheap ingredients like turmeric, which has been found by peer-reviewed research available on PubMed to positively influence over 590 conditions.

Continue reading “Michelle Monk: Chinese Plant Compound Wipes out Cancer in 40 Days, Says New Research + Innovation and Technology Repression RECAP”

Koko: Infectious Disease — Not War Of Our Own Making — Should Be Our Top Priority Along with Poverty

02 Infectious Disease, 07 Health
Koko
Koko

Foolish humans — one trillion dollar virus in gestation.

China's bird flu outbreak cost $6.5 billion

(Reuters) – The H7N9 virus appears to have been brought under control in China largely due to restrictions at bird markets, but caused some $6.5 billion in losses to the economy, U.N. experts said on Tuesday.

Health authorities worldwide must be on the lookout to detect the virus, the experts said, which could still develop the ability to spread easily among humans and cause a deadly influenza pandemic.

The new bird flu virus is known to have infected 130 people in mainland China since emerging in March, including 36 who died, but no cases have been detected since early May, Health Minister Li Bin told a meeting of the World Health Organization. One case was found in Taiwan in April, making a total of 131.

“The immediate outbreak has been controlled, but it is also unlikely that virus has simply disappeared. We believe we need go another autumn/winter/spring season to know,” said Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director-general for health security.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Koko: Infectious Disease — Not War Of Our Own Making — Should Be Our Top Priority Along with Poverty”

SchwartzReport: Scientists Fighting Corporate Subversion or “The War on Science”

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Academia, Commerce, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, IO Impotency

schwartz reportThe attack on science by the Theocratic Right and the corporate interests destroying the earth have done great damage, but finally science is pushing back. We'll see.

Corporations Are Manufacturing Uncertainty About Scientific Findings. Now Scientists Are Fighting Back.
BILL MOYERS & COMPANY – The Raw Story

SchwartzReport: Army Goes Green (20 Years After It Was Told To…)

03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, 07 Health, 11 Society, DoD, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Military, Officers Call

schwartz reportThis is good news. The military, perhaps because it is a centralized command structure, often adopts progressive positions before general society. The military integrated long before the rest of America. It became a gender, race, and religion neutral meritocracy — an evolution in which I played a role — well before this was the norm. So the military's adaptation of noncarbon energy is the latest in a line of accomplishments.

The Army Goes Off the Grid
Jim Hightower – Nation of Change

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: Army Goes Green (20 Years After It Was Told To…)”

noble gold