For several years the global citizenry has had to deal with famine, natural disasters and the slow erosion of resources, which causes us to research and look for new technology to offset their use and now we may have to deal with health issues from a company that continues to dispute and protect their “miracle” crops. These crops are inundated with DNA splicing to prevent things like pests, insecticides and weeds from depleting the yields of those items that consumers use just about every day. Since their inception, many critics, scientists and press persons have attempted to warn the public about the growing dangers of use within those same items and remind us of the unknown long term effects, and this author is also no stranger to reporting the truth and trying my best to help the public. One of the duties of the press and authors like me is to help clear up the muck, although some agencies use sensationalism to do so, this article will not. In this article, I will reveal some items that are very important to public health and safety, a basis for most of the articles I produce. The Monsanto Company has been known so far to sue farmers, apply pressure to anyone who opposes their view, do seemingly underhanded things, and even attempt to influence judicial thoughts that in reality are a MAJOR infraction of public health, all while having specific wording inserted into legislation that they pretty much know won’t be read or will have the influence of former executives of that company, simply because they now hold an office in Washington. I strongly urge anyone who reads this article to press your own representative or health care provider into taking steps to prevent any further harm to the public from this growing problem and the deadly products in our world.
In a magazine entitled Health and Wellness, an article appeared on page 22 of the June 2013 edition, entitled: “Monsanto Roundup Weed Killer & GMO BT Crops: List of Linked Health Problems Grows”. Upon reading this briefing, two studies that were conducted revealed some staggering items about the potential health problems, the studies were conducted by scientists who get my applause for reporting and revealing health conditions that have effects worse than tobacco products. According to this article, chronic inflammation is at the root of nearly every medical condition, the study looked at the weed killer and the GMO crops being produced by Monsanto. Both of those items showed to cause inflammation in addition to other health problems. Glyphosate residue, the main ingredient in the weed killer does (not may) enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins that interfere with our normal body functions which lead to other conditions such as: Parkinson’s disease, Infertility and Cancer (Entropy Journal, April 2013). The negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as the damage to our cellular systems take hold throughout our body. At one of the websites mentioned in the article (www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416) a listing of “other” health problems can be found which include: Inflammatory Bowel disease, obesity, depression, attention hyperactivity disorder, Autism, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, multiple sclerosis, cancer, cachexia or wasting syndrome, infertility, developmental malformations. In another series of experiments to see what else this “miracle” can cause, items like mammalian blood, specifically red blood cell damage does exist. Cry1AB proteins produced in common BT crops like corn and soy raises white blood cell counts, is cytotoxic to bone marrow cells, can cause hemolysis (death of red blood cells) in vitro and induced microcytic hypochromic anemia in mice at extremely low levels. These items in addition to the ability to break through the blood-brain barrier is only the beginning of the woes associated with their consumption and use, my own thoughts of how many persons have consumed these items or even used these items over the past decades is nearly overwhelming, the level of “unexplained” health problems that now includes commercials that are trying to raise awareness of 1 in 5 persons suffering from Autism, is it possible that some of those epidemics are being sparked from consumables, that is yet known and I believe only because we haven’t slowed down enough to force this company to reveal all their own studies or look even more closely ourselves.
While these items or information may be fairly new, other studies and reports of this company’s out of control bullying are dominant. In an online article from Vanity Fair (May 2008 “A Harvest of Fear”) a scenario of how bad it is exists plainly. Enter one Gary Rinehart who in 2002 had a strange encounter that ended with threats toward his humble small business known as “Square Deal”. On one summer day a representative from the Monsanto company entered into his store and began accusing him of planting seeds that belonged to Monsanto and that he himself was in violation of certain patented rights, words were exchanged including the man telling Rinehart, “Better come clean and settle or face the consequences” and “Monsanto is big, you can’t win, we will get you, you will pay.” Scenes such as these, according to several reports are unfolding across the nation, stemming from a secret society of persons who have been known to claim they are “surveying” as well as fanning out across America’s farmlands with cameras in hand to photograph the violators and being directly associated with Monsanto. Farmers who grow crops have always saved seeds from the harvest, it reduces cost for the next season and gives them relative assurance that life may go on, however, according to Monsanto, quite a few of our hard working folks are in violation of patents. A concept of patent in the United States isn’t new, however, for many years to get a patent on seeds was not allowed, that is until 1980 when in a 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme Court turned seeds into widgets which laid the ground work for a handful of companies to control the world’s food supply (scary isn’t it, knowing what you eat is CONTROLLED by corporations, not the farmers and agriculturists or even nutritionists). The decision wasn’t really about seeds, it was about a microorganism that was produced by GE to help clean up oil spills, none the less, the law spread and eventually included seed development. 674, this is the number of patents Monsanto has had since 1980, this is more than any other company, and this is the same company who helped spark the “roundup” revolution by creating a weed killer.
Among the items farmers are required to do when using Monsanto Seeds is to sign an agreement to NOT reuse the seeds from the previous year’s crops, essentially insuring that each year the farmer must buy the same seeds from the same company EVERY year and saving any seeds to reuse is a direct violation of their policy, keep in mind that for many years, Monsanto was considered a chemical company, not one of agricultural science and in fact the majority of those chemicals have contributed to some of the most polluted places on Earth, keep this in mind next Earth Day, who really is killing our planet? So far this company has produced its seed wonders in Soy, Corn, Cotton, and Canola and is experimenting with growth hormones that will cause cows to produce milk at a larger rate while taking steps to almost force those who do not want to do it into their laps with no other alternatives (“Monsanto Protection Act”), does this sound like a company who is trying to help? This company’s thirst for control knows no limits, including buying up company’s like Seminis (2005) who at one time controlled 40 percent of the world’s supply of lettuce, tomatoes, vegetables and fruit seeds and just two short years later, buying Emergent Genetics and totaling around 90 percent control over all seeds produced, not just soy. If these actions seem similar to the items Microsoft went through, you would be spot on in your assessment, the difference is Microsoft eventually folded under patent pressures, while this company remains untouched, and monopoly laws apparently have no effect.
Mr. Rinehart being forced into court had no choice but to hire an attorney and according to the article in Vanity Fair, eventually the Monsanto company dropped the suit as they deemed they had the “wrong man”, however, Rinehart learned during the process that Monsanto’s goons had been in the area scouting all the farms for violators, the sad part, they never sent a letter of apology or even made a public announcement that they were in the wrong, instead they ramped up pressures and due to that, most farmers feel (and felt) they have no say so as to where they purchase their seeds. Fact: From 1980 to 2007, GMO crops were virtually non-existent, today more than 200 million acres are said to grow WORLD WIDE. Monsanto continued to aggressively pursue law suits, to the tune of 112 of them scattered over 27 states in 2007, this according to the center for food safety, talk about wasting a court room’s time. The common tactic of Monsanto is to show up at the farmer or person’s location of violation with a photograph of them “violating” patent rights and using intimidation tactics to get the person to comply, a common tactic used is the statement heard most often by the farmer, “Monsanto has proof and if you do not settle, we will take your farm, your seeds and leave you out in the cold” most settle out of court as they do not have the funding to fight this so called giant of seed production. I recommend watching Food Nation and Food Inc to get an idea of how bad the growth hormones and items really are in video documentation.
Dateline 2006: Pilot Grove, Missouri a town with one item of importance, a grain elevator system that helps in distribution of soybean and corn, they buy it in the fall and ship it out over the winter months, this town has a population of only 750 persons, the company that ships these grains has a total of 7 employees and 4 computers. Monsanto targeted this company in 2006, why they started investigating them is relatively unknown but here is the gist of what happened: Monsanto goons videotaped (secretly) workers in fields; around 17 videos were made and done by an outsourcing company known as McDowell and Associates. The legal battles started and still continue to dominate the legal system in that area, not long after their investigation, 800 pages of documents of seed cleaning facilities and farmers were produced, resulting in 27 farmers to found in violation of Monsanto patents and policies, 2 were sued the other 25 settled out of court, including Mr. Rinehart’s case mentioned earlier. To date, the legal battles continue, including Pilot Grove allowing 5 more years of records to be introduced, but this wasn’t good enough, Monsanto wanted a hand’s on look at the computers being used, the attorney for Pilot Grove likened the actions to a “scorched earth” regime, where the legal heat would drive these souls off the map, shameful practices in this author’s eyes and because of pilot grove’s resistance, Monsanto expanded their requests to the co-op’s and farmers associated with the region to include the previous 5 year’s receipts, purchases and paper trails, to which the attorney for Pilot Grove responded, “this company (Monsanto) is trying to expand the case so large that the expense of it will undoubtedly affect the person’s ability to defend who are involved.” Fact: Monsanto was named after the founder’s wife’s maiden name in 1901, their first adventure was a product called “saccharin” and its number one company using it, Coca-Cola, from there more products like vanilla, caffeine and drugs used for sedatives as well as laxatives were included in their initial scope. Other items such as plastics, rubber goods, fuel additives, artificial caffeine, industrial fluids, antifreeze, vinyl siding, dishwasher detergent, artificial turf as well as herbicides and pesticides soon began to roll out of this company.
Charleston West Virginia, Monsanto company operated a chemical plant from 1929 to 1945 that made a product known as “2,4,5-T” known as “weed bug” by its workers, the byproduct of this process became known as dioxin, if this sounds familiar it is because the name itself refers to a group of products or chemicals that cause: heart disease, liver disease, reproductive disorders as well as developmental problems, so harmful was this product that the World Health Organization classified it as a “human carcinogen” or cancerous causing product. This same plant in the 1960’s produced Agent Orange, a warfare chemical popularly associated with the war in Vietnam. The article in Vanity Fair goes on to describe the effects of a plant explosion, the harmful side effects of the chemicals exposed during that explosion and the subsequent law suits against Monsanto, some of which were settled. Take a long look at the list of items mentioned to this point and is becomes very clear that this company interested in alleviating the worlds food problems has also been divulging in an un-necessary population control tactic, judicial and congressional influence or so it seems (which also includes PCB’s invented by Monsanto which are now outlawed by the EPA). The list of health hazards both known and not known are extensive and we as consumers for the most part have been placed in the dark about the underhanded and shady practices of this once pioneering chemical company. Thinking in relation to some of the items that Monsanto now controls, such as Corn, Soy, Cotton and Canola, items that are produced from some of these natural items are:
CORN – Paper Products, Adhesive for stamps, Packaging Tape, the porcelain on spark plugs, corn starch, corn syrup, sorbitol, toothpaste, aspirin, dye, resin and lacquer in paint, instant coffee, instant tea, instant soups, pesticides, fertilizers, cosmetics, vitamins, hand soaps and kitty litter, some beers in processing, dextrose (common in IV solutions), gypsum (drywall), cereal and over 4200 (forty two hundred) separate items that are derived from corn.
SOYBEAN – Cookies, Crackers and snack foods, cooking oil, coffee creamers, liquid shortening, margarine, mayonnaise, some pharmaceuticals, salad dressings, salad oils, sandwich spreads, infant soy formula, baby foods (Enfamil is a large user), candy, diet food products, grits, sausage casings, noodles, antibiotics, plastics, plywood, leather substitutes, dairy feeds, fungicides and inks just to name a few.
COTTON – Sheets, towels, jeans, shirts, linseed oil, socks, soft furnishings, pillow cases and is found in over 90% of all Levi’s Strauss products (besides denim), knitting yarn, currency fibers, Band-Aids, swabs (Q-tips) and a host of “first aid” items. It is super absorbent and light weight and nearly all persons who wear underwear are wearing some form of it. Keep in mind sheep that “accidentally” ingested the plants provided by GMO seeds, died as a result of their consumption, not that anyone eats cotton, but we certainly wear it and the skin is a transfer point for sweat and dirt as well as other absorbed items.
CANOLA – “Rapeseed” oil or Canola oil and is found in a variety of food products as well as used for cooking some of those products.
As we can see in conclusion, the top four items in question cover a vast majority of what we wear, use or consume in our everyday lives. With Monsanto buying up companies left and right, suing or controlling farmers and the lands they have worked for generations, we are on a fast track to self destruction should the harmful side effects of these items continue to go on unabridged and uncontrolled or even investigated by our own government, although Monsanto says that the effects of them are “negligible” or “acceptable”. Stop a moment, go back up to the introductory paragraph below the opening of this article and look at the known effects and then if you still decide these risks are acceptable all the better for the blind consumer, however, by now I am betting a vast majority of you are in total shock of how liberal a bath (reference to the article “a growing problem”) we are all taking in these same products that are using the GMO crops and not just for consumption. Just in case you need a brief review, they include: Birth Defects, ALS, Parkinson’s, Cancer, Autism, Red Blood Cell Damage, Elevated White Blood Cell Counts, Reproductive problems in Humans AND animals, Toxins that reduce our natural ability to fight common illnesses and a host of others, to the point that doctors across this nation are advising against eating them, such as Dr. Jennifer Armstrong of the AAEM, (American Academy of Environmental Medicine) who advises to “just avoid eating them”, sounds easy enough but with the list of items produced from these products, we may never truly get away from total dependence, applause for those who grow non GMO foods and steer clear of grains fed to livestock that cause them to be sterile, can’t milk a dead cow, right? I wonder if enough doctors pulled their concerns together would it be enough to force Monsanto to reveal the whole truth and not just the “benefits to society and the food supply”. Until they do, this author pledges that every new bit of information in association with the deadly effects of these foods and the fleecing of our hard working families in agriculture, will be reported, revealed and reminded and for you goons at Monsanto, rest assured some of us are watching you, except we are not in violation of privacy laws such as yourselves who video tape from afar, intimidate and then settle, persons such as myself and others will use this in accordance to the wording of the laws of this land and diligently defend our rights to food safety, including safe handling practices, now off to my own organic garden where the food I am growing is GMO free and very safe to eat. Good day readers, eat, drink and live well.
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