Saturday, June 21, 2014

Vermont and the People are “Fighting Monsanto” for their Lives and For Now “They are Winning” The Modern Day Story of David and Goliath By Joachim Hagopian Global Research

Global Research

Vermont and the People are “Fighting Monsanto” for their Lives and For Now “They are Winning”

The Modern Day Story of David and Goliath

By Joachim Hagopian

Global Research, June 20, 2014

Region: USA

Theme: Biotechnology and GMO, Law and Justice

The world’s most powerful chemical manufacturer, Monsanto, and the powerful food and agri-industries have had their way in America for many decades. Through the power of lobbyists pouring money into the hands of corrupt lawmakers, US presidents, and federal agencies like the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), until just recently they have successfully squelched any grassroots movements made by the American people concerned about the food they eat and its effect on their physical health.
Similar to the health industry, citizens of the United States are virtually the only national population among developed nations without a universal healthcare system for all its citizens, Americans are also the only national population in the industrial world forced to eat genetically modified organisms (GMO) as their food source. In a recent poll only 15% of British farmers said they would be willing to eat genetically modified food. Of course as residents within the European Union, they do not have to since GMO’s are banned. In fact, 64 other nations laws are in place protecting the health of citizens by forcing food to be labeled as GMO’s, thus offering their consumers a choice. More and more nations around the world are simply banning GMO foods from even entering their country altogether. This trend is becoming a growing concern for the large US exporters of GMO soy, wheat and corn products.
The European Union (EU) operating on behalf of the health of all Europeans just banned the import of apples from the US as the world’s second largest producers of the fruit (behind China) because of the toxic chemical preservative diphenylamine (DPA) used to artificially keep apples from turning naturally brown with age. Its chemical reaction to the apple causes toxins that have proven to be carcinogenic. When the EU passed a law in 2012 lowering the trace of DPA to .1 parts per million and then recently discovered that the US apples were averaging .42 parts per million, Europe banned all apples made in America from arriving.
In recent years a similar increasing trend has both the US agri- and livestock industries worried that the rest of the world is deciding to no longer import American produce, meat and other food products for that very same reason – USA products have simply been deemed too poisonous and unhealthy for countries and continents that unlike America actually care about the health of their citizens. The lobbying power of the largest transnational corporations have run into such stiff resistance and opposition from health conscious consumers throughout Europe and other parts of the world that they have successfully pressured their governments to protect them with both universal healthcare and far healthier food. In short, governments elsewhere take better care of its citizens than does America.
As an example, the EU, Russia, China along with 160 other nations have banned meat products
containing even traces of the growth stimulant additive called Ractopamine manufactured by Eli Lilly. Stiff fines and prison time have been levied against offenders throughout most of the world. Yet because big pharm rules in America and without any long term studies, in 1999 the FDA approved use of the drug on pigs and in 2003 on cattle for purposes of beefing up lean muscle. Despite the drug being associated with increased risk of heart attacks and a known carcinogen, the US beef and pork industry customarily laces the feed for its animals with the drug so greater profits can be made at the expense of meat eating American consumers. Pig ranchers with a conscience have even admitted that the drug acts similar to steroids on humans, causing swine to walk as if they suffer from arthritis. Typically they become “unable to cope with stress, more emotional, mean, aggressive and stubborn.” Livestock under stress have been reported to actually fall down and die from heart attacks with toxic stress hormones pulsing through their bodies. It is clearly animal torture and cruelty. Yet even with all this known information, the FDA, big pharm and agri-industry conspire together in the interests of pure greed and continue to put both these poor animals and the American human population at high risk of major long term health problems – all by calculated design.
Only in America the richest country on earth has big business been allowed to run amok over the health and well being of its population of 316 million people, third largest in the world. Only in America would the largest health organization of doctors that is supposed to help people be healthy – the powerful American Medical Association (AMA), and the FDA the governmental organization whose purpose is to protect the health of its citizens, would conspire to team up with the world’s largest chemical and seed supplier company Monsanto to squash GMO labeling that would clearly be in the best interest of its own nation’s people. But then only in America would the rampant corruption and immorality of a decaying political and economic system officially classified recently as an oligarchy place making record profits and greed over the health and well being of its own people.
From the oligarch point of view, if people were healthier, the healthcare industry would never make such enormous profits and if GMO foods were outlawed and only chemical-free organic food was allowed to be sold and consumed, then monster corporations like Monsanto, Dow, Dupont and the other chemical giants literally killing this planet would also have to go out of business. Of course the oligarchs that have long owned all these biggest corporations and most national governments on earth would rather cause millions and even billions of people to die first rather than risk having their corporations make less money or risk going out of business.
Slow death that bleeds the lifeblood out of its own fellow citizens is the status quo system that is here to stay in the US. Obamacare or not, a firmly entrenched system that is so heavily stacked against the people always remains the same. It is part of the oligarchy’s eugenics plan to kill off 90-95% of the total global population. So clearly it is in both the food and healthcare industries’ best sinister interest to intentionally keep people sick with chronic illness and disease, paying anywhere from two or three times up to ten times the amount of money for the same healthcare services than the next most expensive nation on earth. This is how sick, twisted and corrupt our system in America has become. Between this murderous, morally bankrupt food and healthcare systems, combined with the widespread use of toxic vaccines and decades of concentrated aerial spraying chemtrails of toxic metals from the skies, and the globalist agenda at will imposing destabilization, countless wars on the horizon and impoverishment throughout the world, millions and perhaps billions of humans will soon be dying by diabolical design, compliments of the oligarchs that comprise less than one quarter of one percent of the world’s population.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) openly stated in a 2010 The Nation article:

“An upper-crust of extremely wealthy families are hell-bent on destroying the democratic vision of a strong middle-class which has made the United States the envy of the world. In its place they are determined to create an oligarchy in which a small number of families control the economic and political life of our country.”

All this doom and gloom is enough to put any of us mere mortals over the edge if it were not for the one bright spot on this dark horizon that is finally gaining grassroots momentum here in the United States. In a classic case of David versus Goliath, Bernie Sanders’ own tiny home state of Vermont with not much more than a half million people, is boldly leading the charge in requiring food to be GMO labeled. For the first time in the US, a state Governor in Peter Shumlin just signed into law earlier this month a mandate as of 2016 that will force all food products sold in the state to specify if they contain GMO’s. Unlike in Vermont, in 2012 California and a year later in the state of Washington, Monsanto and the food industry poured millions into ads misinforming voters in the final weeks leading up to the November elections to actually vote against their own best interest in defeating the same law requiring food labeling. This November it will likely be on the ballot for Oregon to possibly become the second state to pass a GMO labeling law.
With so much at stake, because if labeling becomes law in another state, it would place increasing pressure on the FDA to make labeling universal throughout the country. But of course the FDA has historically been in the back pocket of corporate interests. So it most likely will require other New England states near or adjacent Vermont to pass a similar law. The states of Maine and Connecticut already have laws on the books to label GMO food as long as one of their neighboring states follows suit. That means all that is necessary to become a federal requirement is a state like Massachusetts to come up with its own law. The tide seems to be slowly turning on the side of the people, an extremely rare phenomenon in America where in recent times the oligarchs are winning every battle.
That said, the giant conglomerate bullies are currently lining up to try and crush the people’s grassroots challenge with all its big money by suing Vermont and lobbying Congress and the President to head the people off at the pass by passing laws prohibiting people from even having any say in what they eat. With only one other state out of 50 having a smaller size population than the Green Mountain State and only five lesser in total size, to help even the odds for modest little Vermont in its role as David up against the giant, online contributions are rushing to the legal aid of Vermont and already raised $14,000 to counter the millions of dollars that will be spent in the coming months and year building a legal case against the little state that could.
In the words of the director of government affairs at the Center for Food Safety, Colin O’Neil:

“We could have as many as five states by the end of this year with mandatory labeling. Is the FDA going to allow them to dictate national policy, or will they step in with a federal blueprint? I suspect we are not going to see a patchwork go on much longer before the feds step in.”

To counter this growing groundswell of citizen support for GMO labeling, currently Kansas Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo pompously is pushing for a bill that would prevent states from passing laws mandating labels. He is also going after the FDA from potentially requiring national labeling on the false empty ground that there is “a lack of scientific evidence that GMO food is unhealthy.” Similar to the way polluting industries pay off scientists and politicians to hold out with the bogus claim that global warming does not exist, big money has been busily paying off both government and researchers to conclude there are no harmful effects from GMO products. They have also harassed and ruined careers of a number of reputable whistle blowing scientists who have been brave enough to demonstrate through their research the health dangers involved with both GMO and chemically treated food.
Meanwhile, if GMO food is so healthy for us as Monsanto and corrupt bought-and-sold politicians would have us believe, why then does Monsanto in its own cafeteria serve non-GMO food to its employees? And why has the White House kitchen staff been mandated to only prepare and serve non-GMO organically grown food with all meals for the President and his family? After signing a law last year preventing Monsanto from ever being sued, once again Obama is showing his characteristic hypocrisy in talking out of both sides of his mouth claiming what is good for the American people is not quite good enough for his own family. In March 2013 the president made it official, protecting genetically modified seed corporations from any litigation over the possible health risks posed by eating genetically modified crops. And this comes after Obama made a yet another broken promise he failed to keep while campaigning for president in 2007, claiming he would oppose GMO food if elected president. Obama has proven consistency in one thing and one thing only, betraying the American people who on hope and good faith elected him.
With GMO food being consumed starting only two decades ago, not enough time has even elapsed to demonstrate with any degree of certainty that GMO food carries no long term health hazards. But in this relative short amount of time, there exists overwhelming scientific evidence that both GMO food as well as food grown and treated with poison pesticide chemicals are both unhealthy compared to non-GMO organic food. A strong consensus among a growing number of honest and reputable research studies is reaching the conclusion that GMO food and food grown with pesticides and herbicides are clearly detrimental to human health. They also are strongly implicated in the disappearance of a growing bee population so crucial for pollinating 80% of fruits and vegetables eaten.
A Canadian study utilizing pregnant women, their fetuses as well as non-pregnant women found pesticides associated with GMO foods in all three groups. Since potential toxicity can harm the vulnerable developing fetus, the investigation suggests that the presence of any foreign substance like pesticides can be dangerous to early human embryonic development. Another study indicates that the DNA from GMO plants fail to get broken down in the digestive track as non-GMO food does and can pass into the bloodstream posing additional health risks.
With another study showing that tumors in rats resulted directly from the Monsanto herbicide weed killer product Roundup. After it was published in a very reputable journal, it was suddenly retracted without explanation. In all likelihood, powerful Monsanto forced the move despite the study’s methodology and findings initially passing the rigorous scrutiny that any published research from that journal would normally undergo. Still another investigation found that GMO’s interfere with the hormone estrogen production which can lead to cancer and birth defects. In multiple studies glysophate contained in GMO’s has been linked to breast cancer and birth defects. Since glysophate is a foreign substance that is incompatible with natural bio-chemistry of the body, it has been found to increase adverse reactions that commonly lead to higher incidence of not only birth defects and cancer, but also autism, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease as well.
A German study has shown that high glysophate levels from both humans and animals consuming GMO food is excreted through urine. Moreover, unhealthy people have far higher levels of this severely toxic substance than healthy individuals. Despite multiple scientific disciplines over numerous studies all pointing to the same obvious result, Monsanto continues feebly claiming its product Roundup is safe for humans, animals and plant environments with silent complicity from both the EPA and FDA. This only informs us of the chemical company’s power to prevail over agencies designed to protect us. Other research points to inflamed stomach and gastrointestinal tract in pigs when fed GMO feed compared to pigs not given GMO feed. And since human stomachs operate very similarly to pig stomachs, the implications are serious. Finally another investigation found a strong connection between gluten disorders and GMO food. With 18 million Americans suffering from various gluten disorders, again the ramifications of human diets loaded with GMO foods are alarming. And since GMO’s are commonly treated with pesticides, also known to carry serious dangerous health consequences, the emerging evidence becomes overwhelming.
It has been estimated that Americans spend 90% of their food bill on processed and packaged foods (apart from pesticide treated produce and/or GMO produce which as shown carry harmful health risks in and of themselves). Additionally, the US allows over 3000 chemical additives in the form of preservatives and dyes often banned in many other countries to be added to food sold in America. Considering the poor diet filled with so many toxins, it is no wonder the health of Americans is so poor compared to the rest of the world. In fact, a total of 36 other nations in the world including the entirety of Western Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, a large part of the Middle East and several Central and South American nations all rank higher in the recent World Health Organization list than the US. Obviously poor diet leads to obesity and a plethora of other health problems that explain why the USA is anything but the “most exceptional” in the domain of physical health.
If given the choice, the vast majority of the American people would prefer to know if the food they are eating is genetically altered or not. Many intuitively believe and even more who do a little research come to know that their health is far better served eating non-GMO organically grown food. But thus far America as a nation has yet to even grant its people the voice or will to be heard and respected due to the evil power structure firmly in place that has consistently and increasingly failed to operate in the people’s best interest. Oligarchy simply does not work that way. So when both the government and corporations behave in unequivocal ways that betray and deny the very needs of the people, it becomes imperative for the citizens to join forces in utilizing the power of their vote to promote much needed change.

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