A note to all the currently-unoccupied “Occupy Wall Street” folks.\u00a0 Why not target a truly greedy and evil company:\u00a0 Monsanto?<\/p>\n
If there has been a company more responsible for despoiling our earth and our food supply it is this chemical giant.\u00a0 Particularly galling are all Monsanto’s ads proclaiming its dedication to “sustainable agriculture”.\u00a0 In fact, Monsanto’s only real dedication has been to its bottom line.\u00a0 Now some financial advisers have finally put it on their “sell” list.<\/p>\n
Monsanto’s biggest claim to fame has been the promotion of Genetically Modified foods.\u00a0 They’ve\u00a0made all sorts of claims for GM products such as corn and soybeans:\u00a0 higher yields and disease resistance, in particular.\u00a0 Bad news, you’d think, for Monsanto’s other big triumph in agriculture:\u00a0 Roundup, the biggest seller not only for home lawn weed control but in agriculture as well.<\/p>\n
Well, as the old saying goes:\u00a0 “Don’t mess with Mother Nature”.\u00a0 There was a day not long ago when the major ingredient in Roundup—glyphosate—was certain death to every weed in the world.\u00a0 Now, however, we understand there are 23 weeds that have developed an immunity to glyphosate.\u00a0 They’re calling them Super Weeds.<\/p>\n
Most of these Super Weeds (13) are right here in the United States, which is also the leader (a coincidence?) in producing genetically modified foods.\u00a0 And farmers, far from using less weed killer, have been forced to increase their applications by more than 80%.\u00a0 Not only that, GM acreage is requiring twice the volume of water to grow those “super seeds”.<\/p>\n
Somebody should do something…and the government is!\u00a0 Or is going to, in about 4 years.\u00a0 Well, to be precise, that’s when they’ll review whether they should do something.\u00a0 Monsanto, you see, has friends in high places.\u00a0 A couple of their former executives are high up in the Administration…offices in the White House!…and a good friend is Secretary of Agriculture.\u00a0 We hasten to add that Monsanto is nothing if not bi-partisan.\u00a0 They wielded the same total clout in previous Republican Administrations.<\/p>\n
And that’s why the US has been pressuring Europe to change its farming methods….opening up their markets to both big Monsanto contributions to agriculture:\u00a0 GM seeds and Roundup.\u00a0 So far, Europe isn’t buying….but European resistance and the scientific news on Super Weeds is now causing some re-thinking of Monsanto’s future.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, we’re raising a generation of Americans on two products that have unknown impacts at best…..are poisonous, at worst.\u00a0 The soil, of course, is jam-packed with life; billions of tiny microbes which are killed by poisons applied at the surface.\u00a0 More scary, they can be changed in ways we do not understand.\u00a0 Super Weeds can be followed by Super Bugs.<\/p>\n
The real bottom line is that healthy soil is required for health plants and we require both for a healthy life.<\/p>\n
Undeterred, Monsanto is now trying to get approval for GM alfalfa….a major grass fed to cows.\u00a0 And that is truly terrifying because, unlike corn and soybean seed, which fall to earth and cause localized damage to the nutrients in the soil and to the health of those who choose to eat corn and soy products (corn fructose, for instance)…alfalfa seed floats in the air and will contaminate everything for miles around.<\/p>\n
If Monsanto wins this round….there will be no more truly organic and natural food available….anywhere!<\/p>\n
Note: we want to add that a Purdue University professor, Dr. Don Huber, has been “on the glyphosate case” for many years, as has a good friend, Bill Roberts of 12 Stones Grasslands Farm.\u00a0 Recently, the leading health blog in the country,written by Dr. Joseph Mercola, has taken up the cause.\u00a0 We recommend you click on the following link to learn more.<\/em><\/p>\n http:\/\/articles.mercola.com\/sites\/articles\/archive\/2011\/12\/13\/monsanto-defea<\/a>ted-by-super-weeds.aspx?e_cid=20111213_DNL_art_2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A note to all the currently-unoccupied “Occupy Wall Street” folks.\u00a0 Why not target a truly greedy and evil company:\u00a0 Monsanto? If there has been a company more responsible for despoiling our earth and our food supply it is this chemical giant.\u00a0 Particularly galling are all Monsanto’s ads proclaiming its dedication to “sustainable agriculture”.\u00a0 In fact, Monsanto’s only real dedication has been to its bottom line.\u00a0 Now some financial advisers have finally put it on their “sell” list. Monsanto’s biggest claim to fame has been the promotion of Genetically Modified foods.\u00a0 They’ve\u00a0made all sorts of claims for GM products such as corn and soybeans:\u00a0 higher yields and disease resistance, in particular.\u00a0 Bad news, you’d think, for Monsanto’s other big triumph in agriculture:\u00a0 Roundup, the biggest seller not only for home lawn weed control but in agriculture as well. Well, as the old saying goes:\u00a0 “Don’t mess with Mother Nature”.\u00a0 There was a day not long ago when the major ingredient in Roundup—glyphosate—was certain death to every weed in the world.\u00a0 Now, however, we understand there are 23 weeds that have developed an immunity to glyphosate.\u00a0 They’re calling them Super Weeds. Most of these Super Weeds (13) are right here in the United States, which is also the leader (a coincidence?) in producing genetically modified foods.\u00a0 And farmers, far from using less weed killer, have been forced to increase their applications by more than 80%.\u00a0 Not only that, GM acreage is requiring twice the volume of water to grow those “super seeds”. Somebody should do something…and the government is!\u00a0 Or is going to, in about 4 years.\u00a0 Well, to be precise, that’s when they’ll review whether they should do something.\u00a0 Monsanto, you see, has friends in high places.\u00a0 A couple of their former executives are high up in the Administration…offices in the White House!…and a good friend is Secretary of Agriculture.\u00a0 We hasten to add that Monsanto is nothing if not bi-partisan.\u00a0 They wielded the same total clout in previous Republican Administrations. And that’s why the US has been pressuring Europe to change its farming methods….opening up their markets to both big Monsanto contributions to agriculture:\u00a0 GM seeds and Roundup.\u00a0 So far, Europe isn’t buying….but European resistance and the scientific news on Super Weeds is now causing some re-thinking of Monsanto’s future. Meanwhile, we’re raising a generation of Americans on two products that have unknown impacts at best…..are poisonous, at worst.\u00a0 The soil, of course, is jam-packed with life; billions of tiny microbes which are killed by poisons applied at the surface.\u00a0 More scary, they can be changed in ways we do not understand.\u00a0 Super Weeds can be followed by Super Bugs. The real bottom line is that healthy soil is required for health plants and we require both for a healthy life. Undeterred, Monsanto is now trying to get approval for GM alfalfa….a major grass fed to cows.\u00a0 And that is truly terrifying because, unlike corn and soybean seed, which fall to earth and cause localized damage to the nutrients in the soil and to the health of those who choose to eat corn and soy products (corn fructose, for instance)…alfalfa seed floats in the air and will contaminate everything for miles around. If Monsanto wins this round….there will be no more truly organic and natural food available….anywhere! Note: we want to add that a Purdue University professor, Dr. Don Huber, has been “on the glyphosate case” for many years, as has a good friend, Bill Roberts of 12 Stones Grasslands Farm.\u00a0 Recently, the leading health blog in the country,written by Dr. Joseph Mercola, has taken up the cause.\u00a0 We recommend you click on the following link to learn more. http:\/\/articles.mercola.com\/sites\/articles\/archive\/2011\/12\/13\/monsanto-defeated-by-super-weeds.aspx?e_cid=20111213_DNL_art_2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-on-the-soap-box"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}