Posts Tagged Monsanto

Another Blow to Monsanto: Roundup Pesticide Linked to Serious Soil Damage

Aug 19

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“Glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup pesticide, is being linked to damaged soil and roots of treated plants, finds 15 years of study, according to a representative from the USDA.

Fungal root disease has increased among farmers using the popular Roundup pesticide, particularly on the Monsanto genetically modified Roundup Ready seeds, according to Bob Kremer, a microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service.”

Another Blow to Monsanto: Roundup Pesticide Linked to Serious Soil Damage via Jill Ettinger – Organic Authority

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GMO Giant Monsanto under Investigation

Jul 22

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“Last month the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began an investigation into Monsanto’s glyphosate herbicide business – The Monsanto Company is the world’s largest genetically modified seed producer. This investigation looks into Monsanto’s incentive program for Roundup distributors for 2009 and 2010, which was discontinued last summer as part of Monsanto’s larger restructuring of its herbicide business.

The US company provides cash incentives to distributors to buy Roundup glyphosate, the world’s leading herbicide, and Roundup Ready seeds. Its most recent program, introduced last year, offered up to $20 per acre. Federal regulators are now investigating Monsanto’s incentive program for distributors who sell the company’s herbicide Roundup to farmers.”

GMO Giant Monsanto under Investigation via Organic Consumers Association

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Whole Foods or Whole Hypocrisy?

Apr 27

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“In an interview at the Green Festival in San Francisco on April 9, Alexis Baden-Mayer, OCA Campaign Director, explained the strategy behind the Millions Against Monsanto Truth-in-Labeling Campaign.

“Over 90% of Americans want GE-tainted foods labeled. Why? So that we can avoid buying these foods.  This is a major reason why millions of us are buying certified organic products, which preclude the use of GE ingredients, as well as toxic chemicals and animal drugs. Since the politicians in Washington apparently prefer to listen to Monsanto rather than their constituents, we need to put our efforts where we currently have the most power, in our local communities, especially at the retail grocery store level, where 50 million of us are regularly buying certified organic and so-called ‘natural’ foods.

“What most green consumers don’t understand yet, is that most of the so-called “natural” processed foods and animal products (which make up 2/3 of the sales of Whole Foods Market) that we are still buying are GMO-contaminated. Either they contain GMO ingredients like soy, corn, canola, cottonseed oil or sugar beet sweetener, or else the animals have been force-fed fed a steady diet of GMO grains and drugs.”

Whole Foods or Whole Hypocrisy? via Ronnie Cummins – Counter Punch / Organic Consumers Association

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USDA moves to let Monsanto perform its own environmental impact studies on GMOs

Apr 20

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“Last August, Federal Judge Jeffrey White issued a stinging rebuke to the USDA for its process on approving new genetically modified seeds. He ruled that the agency’s practice of “deregulating” novel seed varieties without first performing an environmental impact study violated the National Environmental Policy Act.

How has the Obama USDA responded to Judge White’s rebuke? By repeatedly defying it, most recently in February, when the agency moved to allow farmers to plant the engineered seeds even though the impact study has yet to be completed. Its rationale for violating the court order will raise an eyebrow of anyone who read Gary Taubes’ recent New York Times Magazine piece teasing out the health hazards of the American sweet tooth: the USDA feared that the GMO sugar beet ban would cause sweetener prices to rise. Thus the USDA places the food industry’s right to cheap sweetener for its junk food over the dictates of a federal court.

In early April, the USDA made what I’m reading as a second response to Judge White, this one even more craven. To satisfy the legal system’s pesky demand for environmental impact studies of novel GMO crops, the USDA has settled upon a brilliant solution: let the GMO industry conduct its own environmental impact studies, or pay other researchers to. The USDA announced the program in the Federal Register for April 7, 2011 [PDF].”

USDA moves to let Monsanto perform its own environmental impact studies on GMOs via Tom Philpott – Grist

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Join Jeffrey M. Smith at Chicago Green Festival, May 14th 5:00 PM

Apr 15

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Feast Your Eyes: The Atlas of Genetically Modified Crops

Mar 7

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“Yesterday, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, a nonprofit organization funded in large part by the biotech industry, issued a new report on the status of genetically modified crops around the world.

The Economist has used ISAAA’s data to make a map showing where in the world GM crops are grown. As you can see, the United States is by far the leader in the field, with 165 million acres (66.8 million hectares) of GM crops under cultivation, an increase of nearly 7 million acres on 2009 levels.”

Feast Your Eyes: The Atlas of Genetically Modified Crops via Nicolla Twilley – GOOD

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Why Aren’t G.M.O. Foods Labeled?

Feb 21

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“If you want to avoid sugar, aspartame, trans-fats, MSG, or just about anything else, you read the label. If you want to avoid G.M.O.’s — genetically modified organisms — you’re out of luck. They’re not listed. You could, until now, simply buy organic foods, which by law can’t contain more than 5 percent G.M.O.’s. Now, however, even that may not work.

In the last three weeks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved three new kinds of genetically engineered (G.E.) foods: alfalfa (which becomes hay), a type of corn grown to produce ethanol), and  sugar beets. And the approval by the Food and Drug Administration of a super-fast-growing salmon — the first genetically modified animal to be sold in the U.S., but probably not the last — may not be far behind.”

Why Aren’t G.M.O. Foods Labeled? via Mark Bittman – NY Times

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