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500 protesters march against ag giant Monsanto
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | May 23, 2015 | J.K. Dineen

Posted on 05/23/2015 7:33:43 PM PDT by artichokegrower

Beekeepers. Physicians. Organic farmers. Preschool teachers. Parents of autistic kids.

Those were some of the groups represented Saturday in a march against the controversial biotech and agricultural giant Monsanto, which is often cast as Public Enemy No. 1 by those opposed to genetically modified foods.

As many as 500 people — many dressed like bumblebees and butterflies — filled Justin Herman Plaza around noon and then marched down the Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf. Many held signs with slogans like “Evil Seed of Corporate Greed” and “GMOs Cause Autism and Cancer.”

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: agriculture; cancer; clinton; glysophate; gmo; monsanto; patentabuse; tinfoiledagain; ttp
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To: artichokegrower

Of all the mega-corps running amok, Monsanto has consistently outperformed its rivals, earning the crown as “most evil corporation on Earth!” Not content to simply rest upon its throne of destruction, it remains focused on newer, more scientifically innovative ways to harm the planet and its people.

1901: The company is founded by John Francis Queeny, a member of the Knights of Malta, a thirty year pharmaceutical veteran married to Olga Mendez Monsanto, for which Monsanto Chemical Works is named. The company’s first product is chemical saccharin, sold to Coca-Cola as an artificial sweetener.

Even then, the government knew saccharin was poisonous and sued to stop its manufacture but lost in court, thus opening the Monsanto Pandora’s Box to begin poisoning the world through the soft drink.

toxiclove1920s: Monsanto expands into industrial chemicals and drugs, becoming the world’s largest maker of aspirin, acetylsalicyclic acid, (toxic of course). This is also the time when things began to go horribly wrong for the planet in a hurry with the introduction of their polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

“PCBs were considered an industrial wonder chemical, an oil that wouldn’t burn, impervious to degradation and had almost limitless applications. Today PCBs are considered one of the gravest chemical threats on the planet. Widely used as lubricants, hydraulic fluids, cutting oils, waterproof coatings and liquid sealants, are potent carcinogens and have been implicated in reproductive, developmental and immune system disorders. The world’s center of PCB manufacturing was Monsanto’s plant on the outskirts of East St. Louis, Illinois, which has the highest rate of fetal death and immature births in the state.”(1)

Even though PCBs were eventually banned after fifty years for causing such devastation, it is still present in just about all animal and human blood and tissue cells across the globe. Documents introduced in court later showed Monsanto was fully aware of the deadly effects, but criminally hid them from the public to keep the PCB gravy-train going full speed!

1930s: Created its first hybrid seed corn and expands into detergents, soaps, industrial cleaning products, synthetic rubbers and plastics. Oh yes, all toxic of course!

1940s: They begin research on uranium to be used for the Manhattan Project’s first atomic bomb, which would later be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese, Korean and US Military servicemen and poisoning millions more.

The company continues its unabated killing spree by creating pesticides for agriculture containing deadly dioxin, which poisons the food and water supplies. It was later discovered Monsanto failed to disclose that dioxin was used in a wide range of their products because doing so would force them to acknowledge that it had created an environmental Hell on Earth.

1950s: Closely aligned with The Walt Disney Company, Monsanto creates several attractions at Disney’s Tomorrowland, espousing the glories of chemicals and plastics. Their “House of the Future” is constructed entirely of toxic plastic that is not biodegradable as they had asserted. What, Monsanto lied? I’m shocked!

“After attracting a total of 20 million visitors from 1957 to 1967, Disney finally tore the house down, but discovered it would not go down without a fight. According to Monsanto Magazine, wrecking balls literally bounced off the glass-fiber, reinforced polyester material. Torches, jackhammers, chain saws and shovels did not work. Finally, choker cables were used to squeeze off parts of the house bit by bit to be trucked away.”(2)

Monsanto’s Disneyfied vision of the future:

1960s: Monsanto, along with chemical partner-in-crime DOW Chemical, produces dioxin-laced Agent Orange for use in the U.S.’s Vietnam invasion. The results? Over 3 million people contaminated, a half-million Vietnamese civilians dead, a half-million Vietnamese babies born with birth defects and thousands of U.S. military veterans suffering or dying from its effects to this day!

Monsanto is hauled into court again and internal memos show they knew the deadly effects of dioxin in Agent Orange when they sold it to the government. Outrageously though, Monsanto is allowed to present their own “research” that concluded dioxin was safe and posed no negative health concerns whatsoever. Satisfied, the bought and paid for courts side with Monsanto and throws the case out. Afterwards, it comes to light that Monsanto lied about the findings and their real research concluded that dioxin kills very effectively.

A later internal memo released in a 2002 trial admitted

“that the evidence proving the persistence of these compounds and their universal presence as residues in the environment is beyond question … the public and legal pressures to eliminate them to prevent global contamination are inevitable. The subject is snowballing. Where do we go from here? The alternatives: go out of business; sell the hell out of them as long as we can and do nothing else; try to stay in business; have alternative products.”(3)

Monsanto partners with I.G. Farben, makers of Bayer aspirin and the Third Reich’s go-to chemical manufacturer producing deadly Zyklon-B gas during World War II. Together, the companies use their collective expertise to introduce aspartame, another extremely deadly neurotoxin, into the food supply. When questions surface regarding the toxicity of saccharin, Monsanto exploits this opportunity to introduce yet another of its deadly poisons onto an unsuspecting public.

1970s: Monsanto partner, G.D. Searle, produces numerous internal studies which claim aspartame to be safe, while the FDA’s own scientific research clearly reveals that aspartame causes tumors and massive holes in the brains of rats, before killing them. The FDA initiates a grand jury investigation into G.D. Searle for “knowingly misrepresenting findings and concealing material facts and making false statements” in regard to aspartame safety.

During this time, Searle strategically taps prominent Washington insider Donald Rumsfeld, who served as Secretary of Defense during the Gerald Ford and George W. Bush presidencies, to become CEO. The corporation’s primary goal is to have Rumsfeld utilize his political influence and vast experience in the killing business to grease the FDA to play ball with them.

A few months later, Samuel Skinner receives “an offer he can’t refuse,” withdraws from the investigation and resigns his post at the U.S. Attorney’s Office to go work for Searle’s law firm. This mob tactic stalls the case just long enough for the statute of limitation to run out and the grand jury investigation is abruptly and conveniently dropped.

1980s: Amid indisputable research that reveals the toxic effects of aspartame and as then FDA commissioner Dr. Jere Goyan was about to sign a petition into law keeping it off the market, Donald Rumsfeld calls Ronald Reagan for a favor the day after he takes office. Reagan fires the uncooperative Goyan and appoints Dr. Arthur Hayes Hull to head the FDA, who then quickly tips the scales in Searle’s favor and NutraSweet is approved for human consumption in dried products.This becomes sadly ironic since Reagan, a known jelly bean and candy enthusiast, later suffers from Alzheimers during his second term, one of the many horrific effects of aspartame consumption.

Searle’s real goal though was to have aspartame approved as a soft drink sweetener since exhaustive studies revealed that at temperatures exceeding 85 degrees Fahrenheit, it “breaks down into known toxins Diketopiperazines (DKP), methyl (wood) alcohol, and formaldehyde.”(4), becoming many times deadlier than its powdered form!

The National Soft Drink Association (NSDA) is initially in an uproar, fearing future lawsuits from consumers permanently injured or killed by drinking the poison. When Searle is able to show that liquid aspartame, though incredibly deadly, is much more addictive than crack cocaine, the NSDA is convinced that skyrocketing profits from the sale of soft drinks laced with aspartame would easily offset any future liability. With that, corporate greed wins and the unsuspecting soft drink consumers pay for it with damaged healths.

Coke leads the way once again (remember saccharin?) and begins poisoning Diet Coke drinkers with aspartame in 1983. As expected, sales skyrocket as millions become hopelessly addicted and sickened by the sweet poison served in a can. The rest of the soft drink industry likes what it sees and quickly follows suit, conveniently forgetting all about their initial reservations that aspartame is a deadly chemical. There’s money to be made, lots of it and that’s all that really matters to them anyway!

In 1985, undaunted by the swirl of corruption and multiple accusations of fraudulent research undertaken by Searle, Monsanto purchases the company and forms a new aspartame subsidiary called NutraSweet Company. When multitudes of independent scientists and researchers continue to warn about aspartame’s toxic effects, Monsanto goes on the offensive, bribing the National Cancer Institute and providing their own fraudulent papers to get the NCI to claim that formaldehyde does not cause cancer so that aspartame can stay on the market.

The known effects of aspartame ingestion are: “mania, rage, violence, blindness, joint-pain, fatigue, weight-gain, chest-pain, coma, insomnia, numbness, depression, tinnitus, weakness, spasms, irritability, nausea, deafness, memory-loss, rashes, dizziness, headaches, seizures, anxiety, palpitations, fainting, cramps, diarrhoea, panic, burning in the mouth. Diseases triggered/mimmicked include diabetes, MS, lupus, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, tumours, miscarriage, infertility, fibromyalgia, infant death, Alzheimer’s… Source : U.S. Food & Drug Administration.(5)

Further, 80% of complaints made to the FDA regarding food additives are about aspartame, which is now in over 5,000 products including diet and non-diet sodas and sports drinks, mints, chewing gum, frozen desserts, cookies, cakes, vitamins, pharmaceuticals, milk drinks, instant teas, coffees, yogurt, baby food and many, many more!(6) Read labels closely and do not buy anything that contains this horrific killer!

Amidst all the death and disease, FDA’s Arthur Hull resigns under a cloud of corruption and is immediately hired by Searle’s public relations firm as a senior scientific consultant. No, that’s not a joke! Monsanto, the FDA and many government health regulatory agencies have become one and the same! It seems the only prerequisite for becoming an FDA commissioner is that they spend time at either Monsanto or one of the pharmaceutical cartel’s organized crime corps.

1990s: Monsanto spends millions defeating state and federal legislation that disallows the corporation from continuing to dump dioxins, pesticides and other cancer-causing poisons into drinking water systems. Regardless, they are sued countless times for causing disease in their plant workers, the people in surrounding areas and birth defects in babies.

With their coffins full from the massive billions of profits, the $100 million dollar settlements are considered the low cost of doing business and thanks to the FDA, Congress and White House, business remains very good. So good that Monsanto is sued for giving radioactive iron to 829 pregnant women for a study to see what would happen to them.

In 1994, the FDA once again criminally approves Monsanto’s latest monstrosity, the Synthetic Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), produced from a genetically modified E. coli bacteria, despite obvious outrage from the scientific community of its dangers. Of course, Monsanto claims that diseased pus milk, full of antibiotics and hormones is not only safe, but actually good for you!

Worse yet, dairy companies who refuse to use this toxic cow pus and label their products as“rBGH-free” are sued by Monsanto, claiming it gives them an unfair advantage over competitors that did. In essence, what Monsanto was saying is “yeah, we know rBGH makes people sick, but it’s not alright that you advertise it’s not in your products.”

The following year, the diabolical company begins producing GMO crops that are tolerant to their toxic herbicide Roundup. Roundup-ready canola oil (rapeseed), soybeans, corn and BT cotton begin hitting the market, advertised as being safer, healthier alternatives to their organic non-GMO rivals. Apparently, the propaganda worked as today over 80% of canola on the market is their GMO variety.

A few things you definitely want to avoid in your diet are GMO soy, corn, wheat and canola oil, despite the fact that many “natural” health experts claim the latter to be a healthy oil. It’s not, but you’ll find it polluting many products on grocery store shelves.

Because these GM crops have been engineered to ‘self-pollinate,’ they do not need nature or bees to do that for them. There is a very dark side agenda to this and that is to wipe out the world’s bee population.

Monsanto knows that birds and especially bees, throw a wrench into their monopoly due to their ability to pollinate plants, thus naturally creating foods outside of the company’s “full domination control agenda.” When bees attempt to pollinate a GM plant or flower, it gets poisoned and dies. In fact, the bee colony collapse was recognized and has been going on since GM crops were first introduced.

To counter the accusations that they deliberately caused this ongoing genocide of bees, Monsanto devilishly buys out Beeologics, the largest bee research firm that was dedicated to studying the colony collapse phenomenon and whose extensive research named the monster as the primary culprit! After that, it’s “bees, what bees? Everything’s just dandy!” Again, I did not make this up, but wish I had!

During the mid-90s, they decide to reinvent their evil company as one focused on controlling the world’s food supply through artificial, biotechnology means to preserve the Roundup cash-cow from losing market-share in the face of competing, less-toxic herbicides. You see, Roundup is so toxic that it wipes out non-GMO crops, insects, animals, human health and the environment at the same time. How very efficient!

Because Roundup-ready crops are engineered to be toxic pesticides masquerading as food, they have been banned in the EU, but not in America! Is there any connection between that and the fact that Americans, despite the high cost and availability of healthcare, are collectively the sickest people in the world? Of course not!

As was Monsanto’s plan from the beginning, all non-Monsanto crops would be destroyed, forcing farmers the world over to use only its toxic terminator seeds. And Monsanto made sure farmers who refused to come into the fold were driven out of business or sued when windblown terminator seeds poisoned organic farms.

This gave the company a virtual monopoly as terminator seed crops and Roundup worked hand in glove with each other as GMO crops could not survive in a non-chemical environment so farmers were forced to buy both.

Their next step was to spend billions globally buying up as many seed companies as possible and transitioning them into terminator seed companies in an effort to wipe out any rivals and eliminate organic foods off the face of the earth. In Monsanto’s view, all foods must be under their full control and genetically modified or they are not safe to eat!

They pretend to be shocked that their critics in the scientific community question whether crops genetically modified with the genes of diseased pigs, cows, spiders, monkeys, fish, vaccines and viruses are healthy to eat. The answer to that question is obviously a very big “no way!”

You’d think the company would be so proud of their GMO foods that they’d serve them to their employees, but they don’t. In fact, Monsanto has banned GM foods from being served in their own employee cafeterias. Monsanto lamely responded “we believe in choice.” What they really means is “we don’t want to kill the help.”

It’s quite okay though to force-feed poor nations and Americans these modified monstrosities as a means to end starvation since dead people don’t need to eat! I’ll bet the thought on most peoples’ minds these days is that Monsanto is clearly focused on eugenics and genocide, as opposed to providing foods that will sustain the world. As in Monsanto partner Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, the wicked witch gives the people the poisoned GMO apple that puts them to sleep forever!

2000s: By this time Monsanto controls the largest share of the global GMO market. In turn, the US gov’t spends hundreds of millions to fund aerial spraying of Roundup, causing massive environmental devastation. Fish and animals by the thousands die within days of spraying as respiratory ailments and cancer deaths in humans spike tremendously. But this is all considered an unusual coincidence so the spraying continues. If you thought Monsanto and the FDA were one and the same, well you can add the gov’t to that sorry list now.

The monster grows bigger: Monsanto merges with Pharmacia & Upjohn, then separates from its chemical business and rebrands itself as an agricultural company. Yes, that’s right, a chemical company whose products have devastated the environment, killed millions of people and wildlife over the years now wants us to believe they produce safe and nutritious foods that won’t kill people any longer. That’s an extremely hard-sell, which is why they continue to grow bigger through mergers and secret partnerships.

Because rival DuPont is too large a corporation to be allowed to merge with, they instead form a stealth partnership where each agrees to drop existing patent lawsuits against one another and begin sharing GMO technologies for mutual benefit. In layman’s terms, together they would be far too powerful and politically connected for anything to stop them from owning a virtual monopoly on agriculture; “control the food supply & you control the people!”

Not all is rosy as the monster is repeatedly sued for $100s of millions for causing illness, infant deformities and death by illegally dumping all manner of PCBs into ground water, and continually lying about products safety – you know, business as usual.

The monster often perseveres and proves difficult to slay as it begins filing frivolous suits against farmers it claims infringe on their terminator seed patents. In virtually all cases, unwanted seeds are windblown onto farmers’ lands by neighboring terminator-seeded farms. Not only do these horrendous seeds destroy the organic farmers’ crops, the lawsuits drive them into bankruptcy, while the Supreme Court overturns lower court rulings and sides with Monsanto each time.

At the same time, the monster begins filing patents on breeding techniques for pigs, claiming animals bred any way remotely similar to their patent would grant them ownership. So loose was this patent filing that it became obvious they wanted to claim all pigs bred throughout the world would infringe upon their patent.

The global terrorism spreads to India as over 100,000 farmers who are bankrupted by GMO crop failure, commit suicide by drinking Roundup so their families will be eligible for death insurance payments. In response, the monster takes advantage of the situation by alerting the media to a new project to assist small Indian farmers by donating the very things that caused crop failures in the country in the first place! Forbes then names Monsanto “company of the year.” Sickening, but true.

More troubling is that Whole Foods, the corporation that brands itself as organic, natural and eco-friendly is proven to be anything but. They refuse to support Proposition 37, California’s GMO-labeling measure that Monsanto and its GMO-brethren eventually helped to defeat.

Why? Because Whole Foods has been in bed with Monsanto for a long time, secretly stuffing its shelves with overpriced, fraudulently advertized “natural & organic” crap loaded with GMOs, pesticides, rBGH, hormones and antibiotics. So, of course they don’t want mandatory labelling as that would expose them as the Whole Frauds and Whore Foods that they really are!

However, when over twenty biotech-friendly companies including WalMart, Pepsico and ConAgra recently met with FDA in favor of mandatory labelling laws, this after fighting tooth and nail to defeat Prop 37, Whole Foods sees an opportunity to save face and becomes the first grocery chain to announce mandatory labelling of their GMO products…in 2018! Uh, thanks for nothing, Whore.

And if you think its peers have suddenly grown a conscience, think again. They are simply reacting to the public’s outcry over the defeat of Prop 37 by crafting deceptive GMO-labelling laws to circumvent any real change, thus keeping the status quo intact.

To add insult to world injury, Monsanto and their partners in crime Archer Daniels Midland, Sodexo and Tyson Foods write and sponsor The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009: HR 875. This criminal “act” gives the corporate factory farms a virtual monopoly to police and control all foods grown anywhere, including one’s own backyard, and provides harsh penalties and jail sentences for those who do not use chemicals and fertilizers. President Obama decided this sounded reasonable and gave his approval.

With this Act, Monsanto claims that only GM foods are safe and organic or homegrown foods potentially spread disease, therefore must be regulated out of existence for the safety of the world. If eating GM pesticide balls is their idea of safe food, I would like to think the rest of the world is smart enough to pass.

As further revelations have broken open regarding this evil giant’s true intentions, Monsanto crafted the ridiculous HR 933 Continuing Resolution, aka Monsanto Protection Act, which Obama robo-signed into law as well.This law states that no matter how harmful Monsanto’s GMO crops are and no matter how much devastation they wreak upon the country, U.S. federal courts cannot stop them from continuing to plant them anywhere they choose. Yes, Obama signed a provision that makes Monsanto above any laws and makes them more powerful than the government itself. We have to wonder who’s really in charge of the country because it’s certainly not him!

There comes a tipping point though when a corporation becomes too evil and the world pushes back…hard! Many countries continue to convict Monsanto of crimes against humanity and have banned them altogether, telling them to “get out and stay out!”

The world has begun to awaken to the fact that the corporate monster does not want control over the global production of food simply for profit’s sake. No, it’s become clear by over a century of death & destruction that the primary goal is to destroy human health and the environment, turning the world into a Mon-Satanic Hell on Earth!

Research into the name itself reveals it to be latin, meaning “my saint,” which may explain why critics often refer to it as “Mon-Satan.” Even more conspiratorially interesting is that free masons and other esoteric societies assigned numbers to each letter in our latin-based alphabet system in a six system. Under that number system, what might Monsanto add up to? Why, of course 6-6-6!

Know that all is not lost. Evil always loses in the end once it is widely exposed to the light of truth as is occurring now. The fact that the Monsanto-led government finds it necessary to enact desperate legislation to protect its true leader proves this point. Being evicted elsewhere, the United States is Monsanto’s last stand so to speak.

Yet, even here many have begun striking back by protesting against and rejecting GMO monstrosities, choosing to grow their own foods and shop at local farmers markets instead of the Monsanto-supported corporate grocery chains.

The awakening people are also beginning to see they have been misled by corporate tricksters and federal government criminals poisoned by too much power, control and greed, which has resulted in the creation of the monstrous, out-of-control corporate beast.


41 posted on 05/24/2015 8:37:46 PM PDT by Yollopoliuhqui
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To: acapesket
I cannot tolerate chemicals

nor genetically modified HYBRID CHEMICALS

Most of the wheat in the USA has beeny hyrid pre-GMO’s.

?

If you cannot tolerate chemicals, how can you possibly be alive given that your body, the air you breathe, the water you drink (even the purest of water) and the food you eat, even if it is completely organically grown from heirloom seeds, your heirloom tomatoes; all is made up of chemicals.

You sound exactly like the people who signed a petition to ban Dihydrogen Monoxide or someone who spends 4x the $ to purchase “organic” shampoo because you don’t want to put “chemicals” on their scalp.

Navigating the Language of Chemicals (Introduction)

What Is – And What Isn’t – A Chemical

Party on “the scientifically literate.” ; )

42 posted on 05/25/2015 6:31:28 AM PDT by MD Expat in PA
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To: Yollopoliuhqui
Holy Cr@p On A Cracker! If only I had known!

I have now seen The Light because of your post.

Chant with me everybody – “We must ban ALL CHEMICALS! When do we ban them? NOW!”

We must destroy all companies who produce any type of chemical whatsoever and tar and feather their CEO’s and investors. Big Oil and Big Pharma, Big Whatever while we are at it too!

Aspirin is the most evil drug ever unleashed on mankind! Soap is evidently toxic too according to your post – let’s ban it along with all “detergents, industrial cleaning products, synthetic rubbers and plastics. Oh yes, all toxic of course!” as your post says. So have fun driving your solar powered wind sail powered car (solar power requires batteries and plastics and chemicals and like totally other like bad like stuff and you know like and like) made entirely from reclaimed recycled wood with tires made from hemp. Of course that might give a whole new meaning to “smoking your tires”. ; ),

Disney, WalMart, “diseased pus milk”, Global Terrorism, Nazi’s, the Manhattan Project, suicide by drinking Round Up, Ronald Regan, Donald Rumsfeld, Clinton, Obama, Satanism, the number 6-6-6 (What? Left out ancient aliens and Kim Kardashian?)… heck, I bet that even the Stone Cutters are also involved in this vast conspiracy; after all the Stone Cutters are responsible for making Steve Guttenberg a star – and just how more evil can you get than that?

I give you much credit for writing such an original, well written, well reasoned and thoughtful piece on the topic. / s

No. Wait. What???? I would seem you copied and pasted your post word for word without any attribution BTW, from here:

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/06/20/complete-history-monsanto-worlds-evil-corporation/

WakingTimes.com is an independent news blog for people interested in natural health, living with awareness and elevating their consciousness.

In other words - a lot of New Age – Hippy – druggie cr@p.

I particularly liked this gem of an article from the same site:

Ayahuasca – A Catalyst for Total Transformation

“In case you’re unfamiliar with Ayahuasca, it’s a plant medicine that South American shamans have been brewing for millennia for divinatory and healing purposes. They use it to treat anything ranging from depression to cancer, and a lot of Westerners call it “thirty years worth of psychotherapy in a cup.” Powerful stuff.

Might I hazard to point out that Ayahuasca, while a plant based chemical, is still a chemical compound and so is marijuana and cocaine. On one hand, they cry over the supposed toxicity and harmful effects of Aspirin or Aspartame as being a neurotoxin but a plant based hallucinogen (and neurotoxin FWIW) like Ayahuasca is perfectly fine as it opens pathways to the inner mind docha know. And just look at what it’s done for the Indians of South America – being that they are world leaders in technology and in advanced medical care.

Not to mention, their awesome taste in fashion.

But party on you new age, drug loving, scientific illiterate. Party on dude.

43 posted on 05/25/2015 11:43:22 AM PDT by MD Expat in PA
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To: acapesket

“Glyphosate is evil stuff “

No not really.
Provide facts that it is harmful.


44 posted on 05/25/2015 11:48:59 AM PDT by HereInTheHeartland
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To: acapesket
No, I am not gluten sensitive but yes, I cannot tolerate chemicals.

Really??????

How do you survive without eating, drinking, or breathing?

Do you also avoid touching things?

*Everything* is made of chemicals. Everything.

45 posted on 05/27/2015 3:20:05 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: NormsRevenge
I think the question is if Mother Nature can genetically mod things over time.. should we do it too.. only on a quicker timescale?

The fact is, that humans have been genetically modifying foods since we first started developing agriculture. It is the nature of living things to change genetically over time; every offspring contains new mutations not seen in either parent. In humans, there are about 120 new mutations per person. Depending on the selective pressures, those new mutations can persist in following generations, disappear, or even become more prevalent if they confer a survival advantage.

Through the practice of selective breeding, humans attempt to give a survival advantage to certain mutations. By hybridization, humans attempt to create new organisms containing favorable traits of its parents, while avoiding the noxious traits. In the early 20th century, humans found that they could radiate seeds--which breaks up the DNA and forces the tiny embryos inside the seeds to try to repair the DNA, which they can never repair to its original form because of the way radiation damages DNA--and come up with completely new variations of plants.

The thing about all of these older methods of genetic engineering is that they are random and unpredictable. The practitioner must assess a large number of offspring to determine which ones have desirable traits and lack noxious traits. Old-method genetic engineering methods have resulted in many modified organisms that are unfit for human consumption, usually due to high levels of natural toxins (which all plants produce). This article about an attempt to breed (i.e. genetically modify) potatoes to come up with superior potato chips talks about that issue and discusses some of the many issues that arise with old methods of genetically engineering foods.

Our new methods are targeted in a way that is not possible with older methods. This all but eliminates random effects while maximizing the desired effects. Instead of randomly mixing up a plant's entire genome--or randomly mixing up tens of thousands of genes by making hybrids--we can insert, remove, or modify a single gene in a plant (or animal) whose qualities we already know. Since modern genetic engineering methods are far less random, they are orders of magnitude less likely to result in plants that produce high levels of toxins.

A comparison of old versus new genetic engineering methods can be visualized by an analogy to sculpting methods. Old methods would be comparable to trying to repair a flaw in a marble statue when your only tool is a hammer. Maybe you can repair the flaw, but the most likely result is that the statue will look worse after you finish your "repair" than it did before. New methods would be comparable to having a set of chisels, hammers, sandpaper, crack filler, etc., to fix the statue. In that case, your statue will most likely look better after the repair than before.

One other thing about the tools of modern genetic engineering: every single one of them comes from nature. The majority of them are enzymes made by bacteria, and a few are enzymes produced by plants and animals. These enzymes are extremely specific: an enzyme that recognizes a certain sequence in DNA will not act on DNA at any other point than where that sequence occurs. For example, an enzyme called EcoR1 cuts DNA at the sequence GAATTC. With those natural tools at my disposal, I can precisely edit any gene to achieve any end result I want. If I want to change a single letter (nucleotide, base-pair) in a gene, I can. I did many genetic engineering experiments while earning my PhD.

46 posted on 05/27/2015 4:07:08 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: exDemMom

SOOOoo.. You work for Monsanto? Or some other related corp?

I don’t quite buy your entirety of your arguments.

Genetic modification happens. Fine.

Man makes thijnbgs better by doing it?

Maybe you can modify my genes and I might swallow all of it.. Or I might not.


47 posted on 05/27/2015 10:56:57 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (SEMPER FI!! - Monthly Donors Rock!!)
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To: NormsRevenge
SOOOoo.. You work for Monsanto? Or some other related corp?

I always think it funny when someone accuses me of being a shill when they recognize that I display the high level of extremely specialized education and experience to be qualified to work at such a place. Probably fewer than 0.1% of all people actually have the level of expertise needed to work in such highly technical fields. Thank you for that recognition.

I don’t quite buy your entirety of your arguments.

Genetic modification happens. Fine.

Man makes thijnbgs better by doing it?

Humans have been genetically modifying food ever since they invented agriculture. And if you don't think we have better food for it, just compare corn and its genetically unmodified parent, teosinte. Or compare any kind of tomato you want to the parent genetically unmodified tomato, which has a tiny fruit about the size of a blueberry. Or consider the many kinds of chickens there are, some for meat, some for eggs, and some for decoration, and compare them to their wild ancestor, the jungle fowl. And so on. In every case, humans propagated the organisms with superior qualities.

Maybe you can modify my genes and I might swallow all of it.. Or I might not.

If you have ever exposed your skin to sunlight, you have modified your genes. Sunlight causes a very specific type of DNA modification, which is repaired by your body *almost* 100% of the time (not 100%; this type of damage when unrepaired leads to cancer). Just the act of living causes modifications to your DNA. Luckily for you, humans have evolved an array of DNA repair enzymes that (usually) repair the DNA--but not always. Hence, you can get cancer and other diseases, and the longer you live, the more likely those diseases are.

DNA is extremely prone to modification, all by itself. In speaking of genetically modified foods, however, the DNA is almost a red herring. There are tens of thousands of genes in any given organism. The only ones that matter are those that become proteins, and it is the properties of the proteins, not the DNA, that give food its characteristics.

48 posted on 05/27/2015 7:47:03 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: exDemMom

Shill? No.

but thanks for confirming suspicions.


49 posted on 05/27/2015 8:55:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (SEMPER FI!! - Monthly Donors Rock!!)
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To: NormsRevenge
Shill? No.

but thanks for confirming suspicions.

Again, very amusing. If only I worked for all the places people have accused me of working for just because I happen to be a scientist and truly understand the issues and try to explain them clearly. I'd be an exhausted overworked mega-millionaire.

Since science is the practice of observing and describing reality as accurately as possible, it does not really matter who the scientist is or who he/she works for--the facts don't change.

50 posted on 05/28/2015 4:08:14 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: exDemMom

I appreciate your sincere replies and apologize for all those who have ‘abused’ you here..

as for understanding issues,, be careful.

All you see in the universe is not all that is there.


51 posted on 05/28/2015 8:59:26 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (SEMPER FI!! - Monthly Donors Rock!!)
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To: exDemMom

You Know what?? Tell us all what it is That you actually “know”, please.
I, for one would love to hear what you actually know and not what you say that you “know”.
Enlighten us all with your facts.


52 posted on 05/28/2015 8:29:08 PM PDT by acapesket
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To: NormsRevenge
as for understanding issues,, be careful.

All you see in the universe is not all that is there.

If something cannot be seen, heard, or otherwise detected within the physical universe, I am not interested. On the other hand, the physical universe contains enough wonder and complexity that it can keep countless people like me happily exploring its secrets for millenia.

53 posted on 05/30/2015 7:55:36 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: exDemMom

when ya find da fountain of yout’, let me know.

ever look into chemtrails? 8-}


54 posted on 05/30/2015 9:31:05 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (SEMPER FI!! - Monthly Donors Rock!!)
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To: NormsRevenge

Chemtrails are caused by birds.

55 posted on 05/30/2015 9:48:38 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: exDemMom

Watch out for the wind turbines!

The birds IM looking at are all shiny steel.. The latest batch this weekend is especially stringy and squigglish.. And ghostlike.

Regardless, we would be living in strange times anyway.


56 posted on 05/30/2015 9:57:36 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (SEMPER FI!! - Monthly Donors Rock!!)
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To: acapesket
You Know what?? Tell us all what it is That you actually “know”, please.
I, for one would love to hear what you actually know and not what you say that you “know”.
Enlighten us all with your facts.

That does not even make sense.

When I have additional information to add to an article about a science/health related topic that might help people to better understand the implications of the subject of the article, I post it. When I see pseudoscientific nonsense, I point it out because I know that many people simply do not have the scientific background to either recognize pseudoscience, or to know what exactly makes it pseudoscience even if they do recognize it as such.

There is a disturbing lack of scientific literacy in this country, and this lack jeopardizes our position as the world's superpower. You can't have a superpower where the majority of the population is scientifically illiterate and superstitious. So I do what I can to increase scientific literacy.

The very nature of your attempts to discredit me in the past reveal that you do recognize that I have the education and credentials that I say I have. Your previous attempt to claim that all I do is "copy-paste" (i.e. that I am able to provide references for everything I post, even if I don't go to the trouble of posting the references every time), or your attempts to discredit me as a "shill" are clear admissions that you recognize my expertise. After all, one cannot be a "shill" for (just to pick a random example) "big pharma" unless one has a pretty esoteric set of skills and education, as detailed in this job listing. You don't find people with those qualifications working at McDonald's.

You might not like the scientific view of things--it certainly does not fit the magical belief system that makes people believe, for example, that "supplements" will cure them of just about anything--but it won't go away just because of superstitions.

My philosophy is that expertise is apparent, even to people who are completely unfamiliar with the expert's particular field of knowledge. It shows in the way experts present themselves, in the way that they describe things.

As always, if someone has a philosophical disagreement with the science I present, either with specific facts or with the interpretation of the facts in accordance with theory, they are welcome to show that I am wrong. If I am wrong about something, anyone can reference the medical literature to show how and why I am wrong. If they cannot do that, and their "disagreement" consists of calling me a shill or otherwise trying to discredit me without addressing the facts that I present, then I have to conclude that they actually do recognize that I know what I'm talking about--they just don't like it because it challenges their superstitions.

57 posted on 05/30/2015 10:18:46 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: exDemMom

Present your “peer reviewed papers” and I will stop disagreeing.
That is all that I have asked.


58 posted on 05/30/2015 5:38:29 PM PDT by acapesket
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To: acapesket
Present your “peer reviewed papers” and I will stop disagreeing.
That is all that I have asked.

I have never posted anything here that I cannot support with peer-reviewed references from the medical literature.

Your problem with me is not that I do not factually support what I post--it is that what I post does not support "woo"--that is, it doesn't support pseudoscience and snake oil. You are more than welcome to provide factual evidence, with peer-reviewed references, if you think I am wrong about something--but you have never done so.

P.S. If you think that I am going to post references to my own publications, you'd better rethink that. There is no way that I will put my personal information onto a public forum.

59 posted on 06/02/2015 4:16:50 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: southern rock

Monsanto is the worlds most evil corporation. BTW they are trying to buy Europe’s #1 GMO corporation

___________________

Herbicide diversity drives Monsanto’s bid for Syngenta
[Herbicide diversity drives Monsanto’s bid for Syngenta]
Why does Monsanto, the agricultural seeds and chemicals group, want to buy rival Syngenta? One of the main answers is Roundup. The chemical, whose generic name is glyphosate, is one of the most widely used …


60 posted on 06/02/2015 6:44:39 AM PDT by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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