Will Obama Do a Monsanto?
What is a Monsanto?
It is when you promote something as safe to eat for the general public and ban it in your own restaurant because you know it is not safe.
Monsanto did this in 1999 when they removed genetically modified soy and corn from all food products served in their own restaurant in the UK.
The Obama family is cultivating an organic garden on the south lawn of the White House, featuring 55 types of vegetables and they are requiring that only organic food, that is non-GMO-food, is served at the White House.
I believe the answer is no. Obama will not do a Monsanto.
I am confident that they will not allow the American people to be force fed the sub-standard, genetically engineered industrial organic matter masquerading as food originating from GM-giants like Monsanto. They will enforce mandatory labeling as promised and revise the legislation that allowed genetic experiments to be sold as food under the presumption that all genetical manipulation will produce safe food products.
Er, that’s what I used to think that they would do. Now I am not so sure. Why would Obama appoint Tom Vilsack as the 30th Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture? If Monsanto was offered to choose a USDA secretary, they would pick Tim Vilsack faster than you could say “glow-in-the-dark amphibians” or “pesticide-manufacturing intestinal bacteria.”
Vilsack’s nomination sends the message that dangerous, untested, unlabeled genetically engineered crops will be the norm in the Obama Administration, [...] Obama’s choice for Secretary of Agriculture points to the continuation of agribusiness as usual, the failed policies of chemical- and energy-intensive, genetically engineered industrial agriculture, [...] Americans were promised ‘change,’ not just another shill for Monsanto and corporate agribusiness. — Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director of Organic Consumers Association.
GM WHITE HOUSE
George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all promoted GMOs. In 1992, the White House made sure that GM foods were fast tracked by the FDA. They appointed Michael Taylor as FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Policy, with orders to make sure genetically engineered food were classified as safe. Taylor was an attorney for Monsanto and later became Monsanto’s Vice-President so it is not surprising that GM-foods soon were classified as GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe). To do this, they had to contain the concerns of a number of FDA scientists that warned that GM-foods had the potential to cause serious health problems. They managed keep this opposition hidden until a lawsuit unearthed 44,000 pages of internal FDA documents that showed how the warnings of the scientists were deleted during the drafting of the FDA’s policy on GMOs.
News of the suppressed opposition of the FDA scientists still didn’t reach the public, but it seems their warnings did reach the White house. Laura Bush decided she only wanted organic non-GM food in the Bush kitchen.
Will Obama follow in their footsteps, having one standard for themselves and another for the public? We will soon know.
THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING
Why do I call genetically engineered food products “sub-standard genetically engineered industrial organic matter masquerading as food”? You are right. I am too lenient. I should call it bio-hazardous material unfit for consumption. In fact, it should never have been allowed to be grown
In 1992, FDA scientists and their warnings were ignored, but now, a long list of studies are showing that they were right. There is also a rising incidence of diseases in the USA that parallels the introduction of GM-foods. These diseases and health problems match the effects seen in the animal studies. And we know now that most of the claimed benefits of GM-crops in reality are non-existent.
GM crops concentrate corporate control of food, increase herbicide use without increasing average yields, endanger food security, are detrimental to sustainable and organic farming, and trap farmers in a cycle of debt and dependence. They shrink biodiversity, harm beneficial insects, damage soil bacteria, contaminate non-GM varieties, and persist in the environment. The presence of self-propagating genetic pollution might outlast the effects of global warming and nuclear waste.Jeffrey Smith
Studies link GMOs to infertility, allergies, and poorer health of newborns. Milk treated with genetically engineered bovine growth hormone has been linked to an increased cancer risk. Animal feeding studies show toxic livers, altered sperm cells, significant changes in embryo development, and a fivefold increase in infant mortality. Surprisingly, farmers working in or living close to fields of some GM-crops experience a whole range of serious health effects. 1 2. Sheep grazing on Bt-cotton plants in India started to exhibit a number of worrying symptoms, including erosive mouth lesions, cough, bloat, diarrhea, and red-colored urine. Within 5–7 days 25% died. 3
The great Indian civilization practiced organic farming for thousands of years — a sustainable technology. Now, after a brief period of “conventional farming” using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the land is quickly loosing its fertility, pest are becoming resistant, and as a result, farmers are now gradually shifting back to organic farming. Organic farming is also apparently less impacted by the recession. 4
GM MYTHS
The technology that was hailed as a way to end world hunger has proven itself to be a threat to food security and economically disastrous for the farmers that adopt it. In India, the transition to GM-crops was a transition to failed crops and expensive seeds and pesticides that drove farmers into debt and depression, causing hundred of thousands of farmers to commit suicide. The use of child labor in farming has exploded because of the need to reduce costs. 5 Some of these children are exposed to high doses of poisonous pesticides.
It seems the biotech answer to world hunger is to reduce the number of mouths to feed rather than to increase crop yields.
GMOs GO TO AFGHANISTAN
Is it this kind of help president Obama wants to send to Afghanistan? The Pro-GM USDA secretary Tom Vilsack is putting together the agricultural aid package to Afghanistan. Will we see the same catastrophic failure of GM-crops over there? Is this a war against terrorism or a campaign to promote US biotech giants?
I guess it is both. I also guess both will fail, and regardless of which, it is a continuation of a policy that is taking us down a dehumanizing path, into a very bleak future, characterized by corporate greed, pesticide-laden food and water, GM contamination, increased civilian deaths from terrorism and restrictions in personal freedom.
The decision by the incoming Obama administration to embrace an undefined, amorphous “war on terror” will keep us locked in a war without end. This war has no clear definition of victory, unless victory means the death or capture of every terrorist on earth—an impossibility. It is a frightening death spiral. It feeds on itself. The concept of a “war on terror” is no less apocalyptic or world-purifying than the dreams and fantasies of terrorist groups like al-Qaida.
The vain effort to purify the world through force is always self-defeating. Those who insist that the world can be molded into their vision are the most susceptible to violence as antidote.
[...] Those who externalize evil and seek to eradicate that evil through violence lose touch with their own humanity and the humanity of others. They cannot make moral distinctions. They are blind to their own moral corruption. In the name of civilization and high ideals, in the name of reason and science, they become monsters. We will never free ourselves from the self-delusion of the “war on terror” until we first vanquish the terrorist within. — Chris Hedges, Confronting the Terrorist Within, Truthdig.
REAL CHANGE?
Barack Obama’s pre-election rhetoric gave the impression that real change actually might be forthcoming, but his recent appointments seem to indicate there will be continuation of the Bush era policies. Perhaps minus the torture.
Why do I say perhaps? The war on terror goes on. What happens in remote villages in Afhganistan or Pakistan may be very far removed from pre-election rhethoric. And should we expect those promises to be held?
President Barack Obama is going to protect the those responsible for the torture under the Bush administration by preventing the torture victims from having their day in court. The Obama administration is breaking the promises of greater transparency that was made before the election and is expanding the use of the state secrets privilege act to shut down entire lawsuits against those involved in war crimes. Exactly the same kind of abuse of the State Secrets privilege act that the Bush administration was guilty of. 6
Why such a blatant betrayal?
Now I am almost inclined to believe some of the conspiracy theories. Did we really have a choice?
THE OBAMA DECEPTION
If you turn on your TV, there is only freedom, good intentions and organic produce eloquently flowing from the Obamas, but if you take a closer look, things look a little sinister.
ONE BILL TO RULE THEM ALL, ONE BILL TO FIND THEM, ONE BILL TO BRING THEM ALL AND IN THE DARKNESS BIND THEM.
There are some very interesting bills being hammered out deep in the bowels of democracy. Down here, the bright light of public scrutiny seem dim and feeble. Strange goblin-like creatures hide in the shadows. But not long ago, a stray ray of light managed to illuminate the convoluted creations that go under the names HR 875 (Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009) and HR 759 (Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009). 7 8
A number of YouTube videos, eventually rising very high in popularity, brought them to the surface. The creators of these YouTube videos pointed to details in the construction of these bills that seemed to indicate that the dark forces of Monsanto had been involved in their making, predicting all kinds of dire consequences if they were implemented. These bills will serve as good indicators of the real intentions of the Obama administration.
Are the promises of GM-labeling and the planting of organic vegetables in the White House garden signs of a real change or just a carefully planned public relation stunt to hide the fact that the Obama administration is pledged to the service of “Monsatan”?
Large corporations have substantial influential power over the legislative process. The complexity and the hard to interpret legalese of introduced bills help keep media and the public out of the loop. When the finished bills are passed, federal agencies suddenly know exactly how to interpret the legislation and FDA SWAT teams promptly descend on the unfortunate citizens who for example have the nerve to tell the truth about the cancer-preventing properties of cherries. 9 Or, you may find yourself and your children being held at gunpoint in your own home by law enforcement officers because you are operating an organic food cooperative. 10
Food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your president, but as a parent. — President Barack Obama
What will we get? Will Mr. Vilsack do something about the use of antibiotics in raising American livestock that results in life-threatening MRSA infections? Will the out-of-control GM-food experiment finally be properly regulated? Will they promote local organic farming?
It certainly doesn’t look like it. These videos and related articles have been criticized for being sensationalistic and incorrect in numerous ways. But after reading the proposed bills, most commentators still are alarmed at the possible consequences of the legislation.
CODEX ALIMENTARIUS
Some claim that HR 875 is a stepping stone into the grey, industrial, vitamin-free, pesticide GM-laden future of the Codex Alimentarius. It is suggested that the strategy is to restrict our health freedom incrementally by introducing legislation under the guise of food safety and trade harmonization. Legislation that sounds perfectly well intended and reasonable when you describe it in broad terms. But, the devil is in the details.
Others say the worry about Codex Alimentarius “is just conspiratorial nonsense; it will not strip away our health freedom. Of course, we will be allowed to use safe supplements to prevent disease.”
They project a sweet, bunny-like innocence that is refreshing, but unfortunately, their conclusions are not at all self-evident. Norway and Germany provide a glimpse of a possible future. It is now illegal to sell Vitamin C in strenghts above 200 mg in these countries. This ensures that vitamin C supplementation will provide no benefit whatsoever on cardiovascular disease risk. A large number of studies show that benefits start to appear at dosages above 500 mg.
To be clear, these laws are currently more a result of decisions in these countries than rules imposed by the EU, but if certain powerful interests are left unchecked, health freedom will likely be restricted in most western countries.
None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.— Goethe
The internet is jam-packed with contradicting articles about Codex Alimentarius. It is difficult to find any hard truths. One reason is that the regulations are complex and voluminous, one that it all is still evolving.
Another possibility is that there is a deliberate disinformation campaign in operation. This have been suggested by various parties that are well versed in the complex matters of the codex. By spreading factually false conspiratorial alarmist nonsense on a grand scale, real issues that are raised by the health freedom movement are going to be automatically dismissed as hysterical nonsense. The Natural Solutions Foundation (NSF) is a prime suspect for deliberately delivering false information about Codex Alimentarius. Now, it appears as if they also are spreading disinformation about HR 875. 11
So, the best way to defeat the efforts that seem to be directed at restricting our health freedom might not be to send letters and emails to members of congress, at least if there is a real possibility that the content is deliberately planted disinformation. It could be more effective if we start voting with the wallet — buying only organic non-GM products or, even better, if we start growing organic produce ourselves.
If you are looking for good answers about Codex Alimentarius, there is one light shining bright in the darkness, and, as it happens, the good people behind it also represent our best hope of changing the rules of the Codex – The Alliance for Natural Health:
ANH Information about Codex Alimentarius.
ANH Information about Health Freedom.
Please give them your support.
So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.— Voltaire
- 1 Summary of Health Risks of GM food, Institute for Responsible Technology. ¶
- 2 Recent government studies, Institute for Responsible Technology ¶
- 3 Mortality in Sheep Flocks after grazing on Bt Cotton fields – Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh, Report of the Preliminary Assessment, April, 2006 ¶
- 4 Organic farming beats recession, The Financial Express ¶
- 5 Sourcewatch: Monsanto in India. ¶
- 6 Salon: Obama fails his first test on civil liberties and accountability — resoundingly and disgracefully and The 180-degree reversal of Obama’s State Secrets position ¶
- 7 Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009, To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to improve the safety of food, drugs, devices, and cosmetics in the global market, and for other purposes. ¶
- 8 Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 ¶
- 9 FDA tyranny and the censorship of cherry health facts, Mike Adams, Natural News. ¶
- 10 Unconscionable Police Raid on Family’s Home and Organic Food Co-Op, Dr. Mercola, mercola.com. ¶
- 11 The Monsanto Connection by Robert Singer, Dissident Voice. ¶
