Showing posts with label Mother Nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mother Nature. Show all posts

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Vaccinated Farmed Fish Have Side Effects

Natural Blaze | Mar 5, 2015 | Catherine J. Frompovich

Be forewarned, please, that this will not be very pleasant reading, especially if readers eat farm-raised fish and, in particular, salmon, a highly-farm-raised fish. “Wild-caught” need not apply.

During my years of research, I’ve come across all sorts of information, studies, and papers relating to animal vaccines, but this one sort of “takes the cake,” in my opinion. Farmed fish are vaccinated because, according to the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science (NSVS),
Modern fish farming is highly industrialized and relies heavily upon effective vaccines to minimize losses caused by infectious diseases. [1]
Want to know how to vaccinate a fish?

Please see slide 4 of the 28-slide presentation, “Side-effects of vaccination: an example of the conflict between guidelines and real life.” 

It looks like a PowerPoint presentation made by Trygve T. Poppe and Gunvor Knudsen of the NSVS.

However, before I go any further about fish vaccinations, readers ought to know that there’s a 404-page book detailing the science of fish vaccinations titled—what else but—“Fish Vaccination,” May 2014 published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. The book obviously is a guide to sustainable bio-production, disease prevention to reduce losses by employing the use of antimicrobials and vaccinations, which are considered effective in stimulating the immune system of fish.

Did anyone ask the fish? That may sound like an unlikely and stupid question, but in the NSVS PowerPoint presentation, slide 10 states,
Over the years fish farmers in Norway (and strangly [sic] enough to a very limited extent in other countries) have experienced severe and unacceptable side-effects in vaccinated fish.
[Hmmm! I could have told them to expect that; it’s a no brainer!] [CJF emphasis added]
There’s a photograph of a fish carcass with some sort of black “diseased-like” flesh inside the abdominal cavity. Check it out for yourself here (No. 12) .

The two slides following No. 12 show other fish health problems such as generalized granulomatous peritonitis and abdominal lesions affecting internal organs that often have heavy melanization, meaning causing tissue to turn dark or black.

Something I find rather interesting, and bordering on empathetic, is the remark on slide 15 that vaccines save fish lives [sounds familiar] from acute death from bacterial infections, but some fish are sentenced to “life-long suffering due to severe pathological lesions in internal organs.” If that happens to fish from vaccines, what, if anything, happens to human vaccinees’ organs?

But, the real “kicker” is the remark on another slide about their having no consensus about pain perception in fish! Interestingly, though, there is a caveat that’s added, “…but anorexia and retarded growth are good indicators.” Anorexia in fish! Retarded growth too! Hmmm. Can autism occur in fish?

A fish liver granuloma [nodular inflammation in tissue] with multinucleated giant cell is featured on slide 16.

Slide 18 features the inside cavity of a fish that has to be seen – really – to believe, and people eat vaccinated farmed fish! Or, hopefully, diseased fish never make it to market. But, what if their diseased organs are removed—are those fish marketed? I wonder, “What will happen with vaccinated GMO fish?”

Candidly, the PP presentation reports that the magnitude and significance of fish disease cases are unknown and “certainly underreported” [probably just like human vaccine damage] “as most cases have been closed in agreement between the fish farmers and the vaccine manufacturer. This is confirmed by The Norwegian Medicines Agency (NMA).” Since the fish obviously don’t have legal rights, this sounds familiar and probably similar to what apparently goes on at the U.S. Vaccine Court, in my opinion.

Slide 20 has a chart of “Reported side-effects from fish veterinarians to Norwegian Medicines Agency, 1996 to 2004.” Not knowing how to interpret that chart correctly, I wouldn’t want to take a guess since I was not in the audience to hear the presenters’ interpretation. However, following that on the very next chart, we read two rather disconcerting statements, I think:
  1. Is this an example of testing where results obtained in experiments are far from what happens in real life? [Again, human vaccine tests are fudged; we know that from some whistleblowers [6] and a federal court case [5].]
  2. Possible problems are not addressed well enough prior to release of the products [vaccines]
Whereas, on another slide (22) this most pointed of questions appears:
How can this happen as long as these vaccines are approved by NMA following their testing protocols (since 2001)? [That seems like vaccine adverse event history just repeating itself when human vaccines are used, especially in the USA as the VAERS reports indicate.] [CJF emphasis added]
Apparently, a similar question can – and should be – asked regarding human vaccines and the testing/approval process.

At one point, slide 25, this blunt and self-searching question is asked about vaccines for fish:
Should we INCREASE the number of experimental fish for vaccine testing prior to release in order to reduce the number of side-effects? (or how should we REFINE present testing?)
It would seem that the NSVS scientists have more concern about fish than the U.S. FDA has about vaccines harming children. With all the complaints about the HPV vaccines causing harms, even deaths, to teenage girls, the FDA apparently is not asking any questions!

Now, we get down to what, for me, was the “nitty-gritty” of the fish’s health issues:
  1. They were concerned about animal welfare and the “quality of life” for the fish prior to slaughter.
  2. That the side-effects from vaccines in fish were still occurring after 12 years of extensive use of vaccines, and people were eating vaccinated fish!
  3. They want to find ways to refine present testing to reduce side-effects! So, they realize that side effects still go on after 12 years, and continue to use vaccines. Duh!
I think I know how they can reduce all those vaccine side effects. Eliminate the vaccines; take the fish out of farms, tanks, and pens and let fish be fish! What’s happening with “farmed” fish confirms what happens when corporate-food-production ‘innovates’ on the way in which Nature intends for food production: free roaming; not-confined in close quarters thereby promoting infectious diseases from exposure to filth; and not being subjected to chemical intervention from feed or vaccines.

Vaccines for Other Animals

Other corporate-food-producers, e.g., egg production and chickens, are notorious for cramped quarters, even stacked cages for egg-laying hens, plus supplemented GMO feed ‘enhanced’ with antibiotics and other chemicals for faster growth, or for earlier harvesting than would be normal naturally. Merck & Company produces vaccines for chickens, turkeys, and ducks. (Source)

Feed lots for cattle are another example of stress on animals grown for food. Stress in any form enables or promotes animals from all genres to produce stress-related hormones. Humans produce certain hormones like cortisol and epinephrine. Furthermore, cortisol is also produced by cattle! [2] Some researchers contend that animals in fear, or under stress, produce excess adrenalin, cortisol-like excretions and steroid-like hormones, which are secreted into their tissues and have been found in their meat served to research lab animals. Here’s the “Beef cattle herd health vaccination schedule.”

In the above information about fish vaccine adverse effects, it is interesting to learn that two veterinary scientists seem concerned about “quality of life” for fish prior to slaughter.

Animal vaccines for pets have been responsible for tumor growths at injection sites, especially in cats. [3, 4] That’s why veterinarians recommend vaccinating on cats’ limbs, so the limbs can be amputated, if need be.

Vaccines are BIG business for both humans and animals, too. Here are just a few animal vaccination schedules:

The Chicken Vet – Vaccination
http://www.chickenvet.co.uk/health-and-common-diseases/vaccination/index.aspx

Cattle Vaccines and Their Use
http://www.iowabeefcenter.org/Beef%20Cattle%20Handbook/Vaccines_Cattle.pdf

Vaccination Schedule for Goats and Sheep
http://www.valleyvet.com/library/sheep_vaccine.html

Vaccination Schedule for Pigs
http://animals.pawnation.com/vaccination-schedule-pigs-2248.html

Caring for Rabbits, Guinea Pigs and Ferrets
http://www.vetwest.com.au/pet-library/caring-for-rabbits-guinea-pigs-and-ferrets

Vaccinations for Adult Horses
http://www.aaep.org/custdocs/adultvaccinationchart.pdf

Overview of Vaccination for Exotic Mammals
http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/exotic_and_laboratory_animals/vaccination_of_exotic_mammals/overview_of_vaccination_of_exotic_mammals.html

Preventive Medicine for Zoo Animals

http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/exotic_and_laboratory_animals/zoo_animals/preventive_medicine_for_zoo_animals.html

So, what’s in your meat or fish?

References:

[1] http://oslovet.norecopa.no/gardermoen/2405poppe.pdf
[2] http://www.dairyco.org.uk/technical-information/animal-health-welfare/mastitis/symptoms-of-mastitis/stress-health-and-productivity/#.VPhd8hQ5D9I
[3] http://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/cancer/c_ct_vaccine_sarcoma
[4] https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/Reference/Pages/rbbroch.aspx
[5] http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/06/27/47851.htm
[6] http://healthimpactnews.com/2015/obama-grants-immunity-to-cdc-whistleblower-on-measles-vaccine-link-to-autism/

Resources:

Vaccines for fish in acquaculture

http://www.aqualifeservices.com/services/fish-vaccination/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15757476
http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/150/vaccines-for-fish-in-aquaculture/

Vaccine Associated Fibrosarcoma

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?A=526
http://www.fws.gov/fisheries/aadap/INAD%20Workshop%20Files/Workshop%202011%20Bozeman
/Presentations/Wednesday/Wed%20PM/Mitchell_Fish%20vaccine%20status%20AADAP%20August%202011.pdf

Image source

Catherine retired from researching and writing, but felt compelled to write this article. 

Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.

Catherine’s latest book, published October 4, 2013, is Vaccination Voodoo, What YOU Don’t Know About Vaccines, available on Amazon.com.

Her 2012 book A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective & Non-Toxic Treatments, is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook.

Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008)

Monday, March 2, 2015

Olive tree-killing bacteria may spread across Europe

Reuters / Eric Gaillard
RT | Feb 28, 2015

A bacteria affecting olive trees in Italy may soon spread to other olive oil-producing countries of southern Europe, industry officials warn. The blight came from the Americas and is aggravating an already bad harvest for Italian olive growers.

The bacteria, called Xylella fastidiosa, or olive leaf scorch, have affected thousands of trees in Italy's southernmost Apulia region. The microbe hampers fluid movement in affected plants, making their leaves and branches dry out and die. Insects spread the disease to new plants.

According to the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa), the problem already affecting Italy may soon spread to other EU nations, unless contamination procedures are implemented. But Italian olive growers say the government will not allocate money to tackle the problem.

"If it expands its range further, the entire Mediterranean basin risks being contaminated," Giovanni Melcarne, the president of an oil-producing consortium in Otranto, was quoted by The Telegraph as saying on Friday.

Since the bacterium was first detected in Italy in September 2013, it has spread dramatically from 8,000 hectares to 230,000 hectares. Olive trees as old as 1,000 years, which are considered a national heritage in Italy, are affected.

There is no cure for the disease and combatting it has a cost both in monetary terms and in terms of environmental damage. Stopping the aphid carriers from traveling to new areas requires creating wide stripes of ploughed soil treated with insecticides around the contaminated areas.

Reuters / Jon Nazca
The spread of the bacterium is facilitated by Italy's long-time tradition of planting olive trees along the roads, which now gives the infection ready routes.

“There is serious concern that this disease could spread from the Apulia region as it has been increasing in the last few months,” Enrico Brivio, a European Commission spokesman, told the Guardian. “We will evaluate the situation and decide if additional measures are necessary at a standing committee meeting on the 19-20 January.”

The Xylella outbreak coincides with a particularly bad year for Italian olive growers last year. An unusually cold and wet summer meant that olive trees lost many buds. And those that managed to produce olives were attacked by olive fly, which lays its larvae in the olives.

"It's a disaster of Biblical proportions," Johnny Madge, a British producer who has been making olive oil in the Sabine Hills region, north of Rome, told the Telegraph. "In this region, production will be almost zero."

The harvest was the worst in decades, down 40 to 50 percent. With Italy and Spain accounting for some 70 percent of Europe's olive output, industry organizations warn of an imminent price hike.

Emergency Action To Stop GE Trees


Popular Resistance | Mar 1, 2015 |

On THURSDAY 5 March 2015, CTNBio, the agency that regulates GMOs in Brazil, will decide on an industry request to legalize the commercial development of genetically engineered eucalyptus trees.
CTNBio may approve this commercial release of genetically engineered (GE) eucalyptus.

That is, UNLESS there’s enough pressure, both nationally and globally, to change their mind.
If this request is approved, it will be an unprecedented decision, with devastating social and environmental impacts not only for Brazil but around the world.

In the US, a similar request to the USDA from GE tree company ArborGen to legalize their GE eucalyptus trees is currently pending, and doubtless the US will be paying close attention to this decision in Brazil.

We need you to help stop this disaster!

We are mobilizing an Emergency Day of Action to STOP GE Trees NEXT TUESDAY, March 3rd and we need your help to make it a success!
 
Here’s how you can take part on Tuesday:  

Go to the Brazilian Embassy or Consulate nearest to you (see list of locations at the bottom of this post).

Bring signs, banners and some friends. Use these simple slogans (please use both English and Portuguese):

Brazil: No GMO Trees! / Brasil: Não às árvores transgênicas!

Brazil: STOP GMO Trees! / Brasil: Parem as árvores transgênicas!

Take some photos of you and your group with signs and banners in front of the Embassy or Consulate and send them to us by 2 PM EST (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday. This is crucial! We’ll include what we get in our press release on the action and any other media we produce.

Send those photos to our media coordinator, Kip, at either kip@stopgetrees.org OR media@stopgetrees.org by Tuesday, March 3rd at 2 PM EST (19:00GMT).

Please print this protest letter, adding your or your group’s name, and hand it to the receptionist at the Embassy or Consulate where you are.

And Tweet your photos and updates from your awesome action using the hashtag #stopgetrees.
(Please let us know if you will take part by emailing globalecology@gmavt.net)

Click here for the full list of Brazilian Embassies and Consulates

Brazilian Embassies and Consulates in the US and Canada:

USA

Brazilian Embassy in Washington
3006 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
(+1) 202 238 2700
(+1) 202 238 2827
http://washington.itamaraty.gov.br/en-us/

Brazilian Consulate General in Atlanta
3500 Lenox Road, Suite 800
One Alliance Center
Atlanta, Georgia 30326
(+1) (404) 949-2400
info@atlantaconsulatebrazil.org
atlanta.itamaraty.gov.br

Brazilian Consulate General in Chicago
401 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1850
Chicago, Illinois 60611
(+1) (312) 464 0244
central.chicago@itamaraty.gov.br
chicago.itamaraty.gov.br

Brazilian Consulate General in Hartford
One Constitution Plaza, ground floor
Hartford, Connecticut 06103
(+1) (860) 760 3100
(+1) (860) 760 3139
hartford.itamaraty.gov.br

Brazilian Consulate General in Houston
Park Tower North
1233 West Loop South, Suite 1150
Houston, Texas 77027
(+1) (281) 384 4966
cg.houston@itamaraty.gov.br

Brazilian Consulate General in Los Angeles
8484 Wilshire Boulevard, suite 300
Beverly Hills
Los Angeles, California 90211
(+1) (323) 651 2664
(+1) (323) 651 1274
losangeles.itamaraty.gov.br

Brazilian Consulate General in Miami
80 SW 8th Street, 26th floor
Miami, Florida 33130-3004
(+1) (305) 285 6200
miami.itamaraty.gov.br
  
Brazilian Consulate General in New York
1185 Avenue of the Americas, 21st floor
New York, New York 10036
(+1) (917) 777 7777
novayork.itamaraty.gov.br

Brazilian Consulate General in San Francisco
300 Montgomery Street, suite 300
San Francisco, California 94104
(+1) (415) 981 8170
(+1) (415) 986 4625
saofrancisco.itamaraty.gov.br

HONORARIES:

Honorary Consulate of Brazil in Fort Lauderdale
2385 N.W. Executive Center Drive, Suite 100
Boca Raton, Florida 33431 , United States
(+1) (561) 210-7192

Honarary Consulate in Seattle
World Trade Center West Building
2200 Alaskan Way, Suite 450
Seattle, WA 98121

Brazilian Consulate in Philadelphia
5415 N. Lawrence Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19120
Mr Paul Thomas Johnson, Consul
(+1) (215) 275-6890

Brazil Honorary Consulate in Salt Lake City
180 S 300 West, Suite 130
Salt Lake City, UT  84101
Gary Neeleman
Honorary Consul of Brazil
801.363.4936

Brazilian Consulate in San Diego
8047 Caminito Mallorca
La Jolla, California 92037
(+1) (858) 453-8383

Brazilian Consulate General in Phoenix
1322 E. Louis Way
Tempe, Arizona 85284
(+1) 480.656.0206
Caio Pagano, Consul General

Consulate General of Brazil in Norfolk
500 E Plume Street
Norfolk, VA 23510
(757) 627-6286
  
Brazilian Consulate in New Orleans
365 Canal Street, Suite 1600
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
Mr David Paul Schulingkamp
(504) 561-6206

Brazilian Consulate in Memphis
1256 N. McLean Blvd.
Memphis, Tennessee 38108
Mr Edson P. Peredo, Consul
(+1) (901) 272-6505

Brazilian Consulate in Las Vegas
7205 Madonna Drive
Las Vegas, Nevada 89156
(+1) (702) 350 2999
Mr Luis Antonio de Souza e Silva

Brazilian Consulate in Honolulu
3056 Kalakaua Ave #7W
Honolulu, Hawaii
(+1) (808) 235-0571
Eric Guimaraes Crispin
CANADA

Brazilian Consulate General in Vancouver
2020-666 Burrard Street
Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 2X8
(+1) (604) 696 5311
(+1) (604) 696 5366
vancouver.itamaraty.gov.br

Brazilian Consulate General in Toronto
77 Bloor Street West, Suite 1109
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1M2
(+1) (416) 922 2503
(+1) (416) 922 1832
toronto.itamaraty.gov.br

Brazilian Embassy in Ottawa 
450 Wilbrod Street, Ottawa
Ontario K1N 6M8
(+1) 613 237 1090
ottawa.itamaraty.gov.br

Brazilian Consulate General in Montreal
1 Wood Ave
Westmount, Quebec
(+1) (514) 499 0968
montreal.itamaraty.gov.br

Click here for the full list of Brazilian Embassies and Consulates

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Food Rising Mini-Farm Grow Box official launch video

Health Ranger | Feb 24, 2015 | Mike Adams

The Health Ranger launches the Food Rising Mini-Farm Grow Box system in this revolutionary unveiling.


Learn more at www.FoodRising.org

Friday, February 20, 2015

Opportunity Epidemic: The Silent War On Trees (Redux)

gail zawacki | Feb 20, 2015

Ozone is invisible but highly toxic air pollution. As the background level increases, trees that absorb it are poisoned and become more susceptible to insects, disease and fungus. Epidemic attacks are causing forests to decline around the world.


More info at WarOnTrees.blogspot.com

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

New Brunswick resident shares viral video of insane snowfall

© Reuters/Nathan Rochford
A man walks near a snow plow after a winter
storm hit Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
February 16, 2015. Canadian media reported that
80 cm (2.6 feet) of snow hit the
province, breaking a single storm record.
SOTT | Feb 17, 2015 | Toronto Sun

One New Brunswick man made it his mission to prove the East Coast has it worst than the rest of the country by uploading a YouTube video documenting just how much snow they've received.

It worked. You win, East Coast. We concede.

Kevin McGrath, a resident of Dieppe, probably wasn't expecting his home video showing off the amount of snow congregating around his house to hit almost 84,000 views on YouTube in two days but that's precisely what happened.

In the video, McGrath starts off by showing the "9-foot" snow bank that has built up in front of his door. He tries to dig his way out of it, but after about 30 seconds admits defeat and moves to another potential exit point.

In the garage, the situation is a little less dire, but not by much. McGrath is able to see the top half of his car and figures he and his wife can jump and squeeze their way out of the house.

With a perfect amount of dad jokes and cussing thrown in for a soundtrack, the video is a terrifying hoot.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Monsanto’s Roundup system threatens extinction of monarch butterflies - report

Reuters / Michael Fiala
RT | Feb 5, 2015

Monsanto’s Roundup Ready system – a potent herbicide combined with genetically-modified seeds that can withstand it – has decimated the monarch butterfly’s only source of food in the Midwest, putting it on the edge of extinction, according to a new study.

Biotechnology conglomerate Monsanto’s glyphosate-based Roundup has become the most common herbicide in American agriculture today, used in tandem with the company’s genetically-engineered Roundup Ready crops.

Since its heavy proliferation began in the 1990s, glyphosate has been a leading killer of 99 percent of milkweed in the Midwest’s corn and soybean fields. Glyphosate-sensitive milkweed plants are the only spots where monarchs lay eggs, as the plant is the only food source for monarch larvae.

According to the Center for Food Safety’s new report, “Monarchs in Peril: Herbicide-Resistant Crops and the Decline of Monarch Butterflies in North America,” these conditions have contributed to a drastic 90-percent drop in population for monarchs in their main habitat, crop fields in the Midwest.

“This report is a wake-up call. This iconic species is on the verge of extinction because of Monsanto's Roundup Ready crop system,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director for the Center for Food Safety.

“To let the monarch butterfly die out in order to allow Monsanto to sell its signature herbicide for a few more years is simply shameful.”

As Monsanto is on the precipice of receiving US government approval for its next generation of the Roundup Ready system, the report raises the question of how much longer will the monarch survive?

“Milkweed growing in Midwest cropland is essential to the monarch’s continued survival. Without milkweed, we'll have no monarchs,” said Dr. Martha Crouch, a biologist for the Center for Food Safety and a co-author of the report.

“Very few of us fully understand the ecological impacts of our food system, but we need to pay attention. The decline of the monarch is a stark reminder that the way we farm matters.”
The Center for Food Safety said it was presenting the new report “to Congress today at an expert briefing on the decline of monarchs.”

In December, the US Fish and Wildlife Service said it may designate the monarch as a threatened species under the US Endangered Species Act. The agency review comes in response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation to list the subspecies of monarch (Danaus plexippus plexippus).

Disregarding their natural beauty, monarch butterflies play an important role in ecology. They carry pollen from plant to plant, helping fruits and flowers to produce new seeds. In their caterpillar stage, they are a food source for birds, mammals, and other insects.

While milkweed can grow away from main cropland, there is an increasingly low amount of habitat that can support monarchs. Herbicide spraying over corn and soybeans fields that dominate the Midwestern Corn Belt leave monarchs to search for milkweed in other areas like roadsides and pastures, according to the report. Monarchs also produce four times more eggs per plant on milkweed growing in a crop field as opposed to milkweed sprouting elsewhere, the Center for Food Safety claimed.

Monarchs are also threatened by global climate change, drought and heat waves, other pesticides, urban sprawl, and logging on their Mexican wintering grounds. Scientists have predicted that the monarch's entire winter range in Mexico and large parts of its summer range in the states could become unsuitable due to these threats.

The report said that as monarch population sinks, they will likely become more susceptible to remarkable weather events.

The Center for Food Safety listed a host of policy recommendations in the report, including that the US Department of Agriculture should “reject applications to approve new herbicide-resistant crops, and [US Environmental Protection Agency] should deny registrations of herbicides for use on them, unless or until appropriate restrictions are enacted to ameliorate their harms to milkweeds, monarchs and pollinators.”

“Glyphosate is the monarch’s enemy number one. To save this remarkable species, we must quickly boost milkweed populations and curtail the use of herbicide-resistant crop systems,” said Bill Freese, a co-author of the report.

As RT reported last month, the Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service approved Monsanto’s new GMO cotton and soybean plants. The company now awaits approval from the Environmental Protection Agency for it latest herbicide – a mix of the formidable chemical dicamba and glyphosate, which the company has developed for use on the newly-approved GMO crops.

The new GMO crops – coupled with the dicamba/glyphosate cocktail – make up what Monsanto has dubbed the 'Roundup Ready Xtend crop system,' designed to trump super weeds that have evolved along with its Roundup biocide.

For its part, Monsanto says it is seeking alternatives for the monarch.

"At Monsanto, we’re committed to doing our part to protect these amazing butterflies. That’s why we are collaborating with experts from universities, nonprofits, and government agencies to help the monarch by restoring their habitat in Crop Reserve Program land, on-farm buffer strips, roadsides, utility rights-of way and government-owned land."

Thursday, February 5, 2015

GeneWatch Warns of Superbug Danger from GMO Insect Factories

Sustainable Pulse | Feb 4, 2015

In a new report published today, GeneWatch UK publishes evidence that genetically modified (GM) insect factories could spread antibiotic resistant bacteria into the environment, posing a risk to human health (1). Antibiotic resistance is recognised to be a major problem for human and animal health as it makes treatments for many bacterial infections ineffective. Bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics are sometimes known as “superbugs”.

UK company Oxitec has developed GM mosquitoes and agricultural pests which are bred using the common antibiotic tetracycline in their feed. The report explores concerns that mass-breeding and repeated large-scale open releases of such GM insects could spread antibiotic resistance into the environment, potentially creating more superbugs.

“Mass production of GM insects in factories, using antibiotics as an additive in their feed, could lead to drug resistance in bacteria, leading to the spread of superbugs as billions of insects are released into the environment in future” warned Dr Helen Wallace, GeneWatch UK’s Director, “This important risk to human health has been ignored by regulators, despite bans on the use of antibiotics in animal feed in many countries”.

Large-scale experimental releases of tens of millions of Oxitec’s GM mosquitoes are already taking place in Brazil and Panama, without considering this important risk, and releases are being considered in the Florida Keys. Oxitec’s GM fruit flies have been approved for release in Brazil, although these experiments have not yet taken place, and Oxitec is awaiting approval for experimental releases of GM diamondback moths in New York State. The company withdrew an application to release GM olive flies in Spain last year.

If commercial uses were to take place in the future, many billions of Oxitec’s GM insects would be released year after year in attempts to suppress wild pest insect populations over vast areas and perhaps whole countries. If such GM insects became a new source of antibiotic resistance worldwide, this could have serious adverse impacts on human and animal health.

The report highlights evidence that:

•           Exposure to antibiotics of the tetracycline class in feed during mass production is likely to lead to the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the GM insects’ guts;

•           Repeated releases of tens of millions of GM insects will disseminate these bacteria and their resistance genes widely in the environment;

•           In many insect species, bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes may spread through the insect population from the mainly male GM insects that are released to their wild mates and offspring;

•           Horizontal gene transfer may lead to transfer of antibiotic resistance to bacteria causing food- and water-borne diseases, such as E. coli, via larvae that develop in food (agricultural pests) or water (mosquitoes);

•           Direct routes of transfer to humans or animals include swallowing GM agricultural pests at the larval stage when they will contaminate fruit and vegetable supplies, swallowing GM mosquito larvae via contaminated water, or swallowing adult GM insects during mass releases, when they vastly outnumber the wild population;

•           Disposal of tetracycline-contaminated water from GM insect factories may also pose a risk and antibiotic resistance might also be transferred to workers in these factories;

•           The potential for antibiotic resistance to be transferred to other bacteria in the longer term via indirect routes, such as being spread by rodents eating GM larvae on crops to the bacteria carried by ticks which cause Lyme disease, needs further investigation, although horizontal gene transfer is much rarer in these species of bacteria;

•           Mass-breeding of GM insects using tetracycline breaches existing policies and regulations, which advise against indiscriminate feeding of antibiotics to animals worldwide and which ban this practice in some countries.

For further information contact:

Dr Helen Wallace: +44(0)-1298-24300 (office); +44(0)-7903-311584 (mobile)

Find the Full Report here: www.genewatch.org

With Pollinator Declines, Millions at Risk of Malnutrition

Source: Eleanor
Cornucopia | Feb 2, 2015 | EurekAlert! by University of Vermont

A new study shows that more than half the people in some developing countries could become newly at risk for malnutrition if crop-pollinating animals — like bees — continue to decline.

Despite popular reports that pollinators are crucial for human nutritional health, no scientific studies have actually tested this claim — until now. The new research by scientists at the University of Vermont and Harvard University has, for the first time, connected what people actually eat in four developing countries to the pollination requirements of the crops that provide their food and nutrients.

“The take-home is: pollinator declines can really matter to human health, with quite scary numbers for vitamin A deficiencies, for example,” says UVM scientist Taylor Ricketts who co-led the new study, “which can lead to blindness and increase death rates for some diseases, including malaria.”

It’s not just plummeting populations of bees. Scientists around the world have observed a worrisome decline of many pollinator species, threatening the world’s food supply. Recent studies have shown that these pollinators are responsible for up to forty percent of the world’s supply of nutrients.

The new research takes the next step. It shows that in some populations — like parts of Mozambique that the team studied, where many children and mothers are barely able to meet their needs for micronutrients, especially vitamin A — the disappearance of pollinators could push as many as 56 percent of people over the edge into malnutrition.

The study, “Do Pollinators Contribute to Nutritional Health?” was led by Alicia Ellis and Taylor Ricketts at UVM’s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and Samuel Myers at the Harvard School of Public Health. It appears in the Jan. 9 issue of the journal PLOS ONE.

The “hidden hunger” associated with vitamin and mineral deficiencies is estimated to harm more than 1 in 4 people around the globe, the scientists note, contributing to increased risk of many diseases, reduced IQ and diminished work productivity. “Continued declines of pollinator populations could have drastic consequences for global public health,” the team writes.

“This is the first study that quantifies the potential human health impacts of animal pollinator declines,” says Myers. Earlier studies have shown links between pollinators and crop yields — and between crop yields and the availability of food and nutrients. “But to evaluate whether pollinator declines will really affect human nutrition, you need to know what people are eating,” Myers explains. So the new study examined the full pathway from pollinators through to detailed survey data about people’s daily diets in parts of Zambia, Mozambique, Uganda and Bangladesh.

“How much mango? How much fish?” says Ricketts. “And from that kind of data we can find out if they get enough vitamin A, calcium, folate, iron and zinc.” Then the scientists were able to examine the likely impact a future without pollinators would have on these diets.

And for parts of the developing world, that future could well include “an increase in neural tube defects from folate deficiency or an increase in blindness and infectious diseases from vitamin A deficiency,” Myers says, “because we have transformed our landscapes in ways that don’t support animal pollinators anymore.”

“We find really alarming effects in some countries for some nutrients and little to no effect elsewhere,” Ricketts says. On the bleak end of the spectrum, the team projected little difference in Bangladesh, since so many people there are already malnourished. And, at the other end of the spectrum, Zambia should be relatively insulated from this risk. That’s because — though the scientists project reductions in the intake of vitamin A with pollinator declines in Zambia — “there is so much vitamin A in the diet already that it didn’t push very many people below the threshold,” Myers explains.

This new study fits into an emerging field of research exploring how the very rapid transformation of Earth’s natural systems affects human health. The big picture? “Ecosystem damage can damage human health,” Ricketts says, “so conservation can be thought of as an investment in public health.”

Monday, February 2, 2015

Outrage over US secret approval of GM trees

GM Watch | Jan 30, 2015

Loblolly pine pollen is known to travel for hundreds of miles

EXCERPT: In 2013, when the USDA called for public comments on another ArborGen request to commercialize a GE eucalyptus tree (a decision still pending), they received comments at the rate of 10,000 to one opposing the industry request. By simply refusing to regulate this new GE pine, the USDA has cut the public out of the process completely.

Outrage over US secret approval of genetically engineered trees


The International Campaign to STOP GE Trees, Dogwood Alliance & Biofuelwatch
Global Justice Ecology Project, 29 Jan 2015
http://globaljusticeecology.org/outrage-us-secret-approval-genetically-engineered-trees/

* Groups Condemn US for Bowing to Industry, Ignoring Widespread Public Opposition
Groups from around the world[1] today joined together to denounce the US government for allowing the first genetically engineered tree, a loblolly pine, to be legalized with no government or public oversight, with no assessment of their risks to the public or the environment, and without regard to overwhelming public opposition to GE trees.

A secret letter from the USDA to GE tree company ArborGen[2], dated last August, was recently exposed by scientist Doug Gurian-Sherman of the Center for Food Safety.[3] In this letter, the USDA made the unprecedented decision to allow ArborGen to pursue unregulated commercial cultivation of a loblolly pine genetically engineered for altered wood composition. These trees could be planted anywhere in the US, without public knowledge or access to information about them.

Gurian-Sherman argues the USDA “is deliberately thumbing its nose at the public” with this decision, pointing out that this is probably the biggest environmental regulatory change in the US since the early 1990s.[4]

Loblolly pines are native across 14 states throughout the US Southeast, and are grown in plantations around the world. Their pollen is known to travel for hundreds of miles.

“If these GE loblolly pines are released on a large scale in the US, there will be no way to stop them from cross contaminating native loblolly pines,” said biologist Dr. Rachel Smolker of Biofuelwatch. “This is deliberate, irreversible and completely irresponsible contamination of the environment with unknown and possibly devastating consequences. Forest ecosystems are barely understood, and the introduction of trees with genes for modified wood characteristics could have all manner of negative impacts on soils, fungi, insects, wildlife, songbirds, and public health. And all this for short term commercial profit.”

Many are also worried about the international implications of this USDA decision. Winnie Overbeek, International Coordinator of the Uruguay-based World Rainforest Movement states, “We are greatly concerned that these unregulated GE pines could be shipped to Brazil or other countries without public, or maybe even government, knowledge, further promoting the expansion of industrial tree plantations in the Global South. This contributes to deforestation and affects indigenous and peasant communities worldwide who depend on forests for survival.”

Global Justice Ecology Project’s Ruddy Turnstone from Florida remarks, “ArborGen and the government may think they have won this round, but there is already a huge anti-GMO movement. There are also forest protection groups, Indigenous Peoples, birders, foresters, scientists, parents, hikers, and many others who do not want the forests contaminated by GE trees. A great many of them will take action to ensure these trees are never planted.”

In 2013, when the USDA called for public comments on another ArborGen request to commercialize a GE Eucalyptus tree (a decision still pending), they received comments at the rate of 10,000 to one opposing the industry request. By simply refusing to regulate this new GE pine, the USDA has cut the public out of the process completely.  In 2013, a conference on Tree Biotechnology in Asheville, NC was disrupted for its entire 5 days by anti-GE tree activists, and there were multiple arrests.

The Campaign to STOP GE Trees is an international alliance of organizations mobilized to protect forests and biodiversity and to support communities threatened by the dangerous release of genetically engineered trees into the environment.

Contacts

Anne Petermann, Coordinator, Campaign to STOP GE Trees:  +1.716.931.5833 (office), +1.716.364.1188 (mobile), globalecology@gmavt.net

Jay Burney, Media Coordinator, Campaign to STOP GE Trees: +1.716.931.5833 (office), +1.716.867.4080 (mobile), jay@stopgetrees.org

Notes

[1] The Campaign to STOP GE Trees includes: Biofuelwatch (US & UK), Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, EcoNexus (Europe), Friends of the Earth (Melbourne, Australia), Global Justice Ecology Project (Int’l), Indigenous Environmental Network (North America),World Rainforest Movement (Int’l). Dogwood Alliance is based in North Carolina.

[2] A letter dated 28 August 2014 from Michael Firko, Assistant Director of the US Department of Agriculture’s Biotechnology Regulatory Services, to GE tree company ArborGen agreed with ArborGen’s position that their GE loblolly pine did not need to be regulated. This letter was only made public on 13 January 2014.

ArborGen is jointly owned by multinational timber companies International Paper (US), MeadWestvaco (US) and Rubicon (NZ). Most of ArborGen’s executive staff comes from Monsanto. ArborGen attempted to offer an initial public offering of its stock in 2010.  They cancelled at the last minute and records show they lost almost $15 million that year. Stock value of parent company Rubicon was significantly decreased.

[3] Center for Food Safety, New Genetically Engineered Tree To Avoid Federal Oversight Completely

[4] Doug Gurian-Sherman, The Next Phase of Genetic Engineering: A Flood of New Crops Evading Environmental Regulation

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Senate approves Keystone XL pipeline despite veto threat

A depot used to store pipes for Transcanada Corp's
planned Keystone XL oil pipeline is seen in
Gascoyne, North Dakota November 14, 2014.

(Reuters/Andrew Cullen)
RT | Jan 29, 2015

The Republican-controlled Senate passed a bipartisan bill approving construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, prompting a showdown with President Barack Obama, who has promised to veto the legislation.

In a 62-36 vote, Republicans were able to peel away nine Democrats from President Obama’s position on the pipeline, ensuring easy passage for the bill once it cleared a filibuster. If Obama vetoes the bill as promised, however, supporters do not have the 67 votes needed to override his decision.

The pipeline was first proposed in 2008 and would carry oil 1,179 miles from Canada’s tar sands to Nebraska, where it would connect to an existing pipeline and continue traveling south.

“Constructing Keystone would pump billions into our economy,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said prior to voting. “It would support thousands of good American jobs and as the president’s own State Department has indicated, it would do this with minimal environmental impact.”

The bill now moves into the reconciliation process with the House of Representatives, which passed its own bill approving the pipeline earlier this month.

Previously, the White House resisted attempts by Congress to force the president to make a decision. In 2012, Obama vetoed a proposal supporting the pipeline, but the project’s developer, TransCanada Corp, then reapplied.

Now environmentalists are urging the president to reject it again, as they argue it will make it easier to drill for oil in Canada’s tar sands –a dirty process which burns a lot of energy in itself. The State Department is also seeking input on the project's potential environmental fallout from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department.

The project has also sparked opposition from Native American tribes, particularly those living on Nebraska land that the pipeline is expected to run through.




Supporters of the pipeline argue that its construction will create jobs and boost the United States' energy independence. Construction is estimated to create thousands of jobs and contribute a few billion dollars to America's GDP, but once it is completed some 50 people will be required to maintain its operation.

"The fact is, Keystone would create only 35 permanent jobs -- a drop in the bucket," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) to the Huffington Post. "A fried chicken franchise creates about as many jobs."

The Thursday vote ended weeks of vigorous debate, which had the Senate up until the small hours of the morning on one occasion. Dozens of amendments to the bill were also considered, but only a few made it in, including one that got the GOP-controlled Senate to say on the record that climate change is real and another two promoting energy efficiency.

Both the House and Senate are expected to reconcile any outstanding issues quickly, meaning that the bill could land on Obama’s desk within days. The White House insists it will veto construction proposals until an ongoing review process by the State Department is completed.

For its part, TransCanada CEO Russ Girling welcomed the vote.

“It’s time to approve Keystone XL so we can transport Canadian and American oil to fuel the everyday lives of the American people," he said. "We look forward to a decision by the U.S. Administration to approve the construction of Keystone XL."

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Millions of GMO mosquitoes may be released in Florida neighborhood

Reuters / Ricardo Rojas
RT | Jan 26, 2015

Pointing to climate change and the rise of tropical diseases, British researchers hope to sell their idea of releasing millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. Almost 140,000 people have signed a petition against the plan.

For many years, the neighborhoods of the Florida Keys have been sprayed with insecticides to ward off a host of bugs, including perhaps the mother of all pests, the mosquito. Over time, however, Aedes aegypti, a mosquito that can spread the dengue fever, chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses has built up resistance to many of the insecticides used to kill them.

The rising risk of a mosquito infestation and disease outbreak presents an opportunity for one British firm, Oxitec, which has developed a method for breeding Aedes aegypti that kills mosquito larvae, AP reported.
According to Oxitec’s website, the process involves injecting a “lethal gene” into either the male sperm or female egg that eventually kills the offspring.

Change.org, the world’s largest petition platform, presented some of the unintended consequences of releasing millions of mutant mosquitos into the Florida Keys. For example, would the more virulent Asian tiger mosquito, which is also a carrier of dengue, “fill the void” left by a drop in Aedes aegypti populations? Or will the dengue virus mutate and become even more deadly?

@whatwakeup

The group calls efforts to introduce genetically modified mosquitos a “radical approach” since dengue fever has been absent from Key West since 2010. The group says this “indicates the current methods of control and public education are working.”

Oxitec says only non-biting male mosquitoes would be released, while attempting to assure the public that no genetically modified DNA would enter the bloodstream in the event of a bite from an overlooked female specimen.

Experts, however, question the claims.

"I think the science is fine, they definitely can kill mosquitoes, but the GMO issue still sticks as something of a thorny issue for the general public," Phil Lounibos, a researcher at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, told AP.

"I'm on their side, in that consequences are highly unlikely. But to say that there's no genetically modified DNA that might get into a human, that's kind of a gray matter."

Oxitec spokeswoman Chris Creese said the experiment will be similar in size to one held in 2012 in the Cayman Islands, where 3.3 million genetically modified mosquitoes were set loose over a six- month period, resulting in the elimination of 96 percent of the targeted insects, AP quoted.

Critics say the British firm failed to notify residents about the possibility of being bitten by a few females overlooked by the researchers.

As more people question anything genetically modified, especially something that has the potential to suck their blood, resistance to the idea is growing. Already, almost 140,000 people have signed a Change.org petition to halt the experiment.

FDA spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman said no experiments with the modified bugs will be permitted until the agency has "thoroughly reviewed all the necessary information."

Marilyn Smith, a Florida Keys resident, wasn't sold on the plan following Oxitec's presentation at a public meeting. Smith asked "why are we being used as the experiment, the guinea pigs, just to see what happens," AP quoted her as saying.

Oxitec has a laboratory in Marathon, a Key West town of just over 10,000 people, and hopes to start releasing mosquitoes in the Key West region this spring.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Cuba’s Harvest of Surprises

Cornucopia | Jan 22, 2015 | Christopher D. Cook
Source: Thomas Münter
"Flanked by a lush, dark-green eruption of chard and fava beans at a tiny eighth-of-an-acre garden plot in Berkeley, Altieri scribbles numbers on a notepad, producing some compelling calculations: Applying agroecology methods on 1200 acres of public lands, the city of Oakland could produce 25,000 tons of food annually—enough to feed at least 400,000 people—without any pesticides or genetically engineered “super plants.” Such a change would be huge, Altieri argues, since the Bay Area imports 6,000 tons of food each day, which lean heavily on fossil fuel. But for a host of reasons, it’s not likely, he says."
In the fall of 1989, a full quarter-century before President Obama normalized US relations with Cuba, the Berlin Wall came tumbling to the ground in a flurry of sledgehammers and concrete dust. Meanwhile, an economic tsunami was brewing on the small Caribbean island. The Soviet Bloc was crumbling fast, sending shock waves across the globe that would plunge Cuba’s food and farming into years of austerity, hunger, and radical overhaul.

Earlier that year, the international socialist market terminated Cuba’s favorable trade rates—abruptly curtailing 85 percent of the tiny nation’s trade. Imports of wheat and other grains dropped by more than half; food rationing set in, and hunger widened. Soviet aid, a pillar of Cuba’s economy, evaporated as U.S. economic sanctions tightened.

Economic collapse led swiftly to agricultural crisis. Cuba’s industrialized farming system, fueled, literally, by Soviet tractors and petrochemicals, ground to a halt. Oil imports fell by 53 percent, and the supply of pesticides and fertilizers fell by 80 percent. Launching an era of austerity and reform known as the “Special Period in Time of Peace,” the Castro government “instituted drastic measures such as planned blackouts, the use of bicycles for mass transportation, and the use of animals in the place of tractors” to meet the unfolding crisis, according to a report by Food First, a U.S.-based think tank focused on food justice issues.

Read more..

Monday, January 12, 2015

Manatees moving out of Florida waters west along Gulf coast

© AP/ Wilfredo Lee
In this May 15, 2014 photo. a manatee sticks its head
out of the water at Miami Seaquarium in Miami. As
manatees recover in Florida, their U.S. home base,
more and more seem to be showing up
farther west along the Gulf of Mexico.
SOTT | Jan 11, 2015 | Janet McConnaughey

As manatees recover in Florida, their U.S. home base, more and more seem to be showing up farther west along the Gulf of Mexico.

A total of seven stranded manatees had been reported along the Alabama coast before 2007, when a network to report strandings and sightings was created. Since then, "we've responded to dozens" of strandings, said Ruth Carmichael, head of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab's Manatee Sighting Network for Alabama and Mississippi.

"I think things are changing, in the manatee population and in the environment," she said Tuesday. She said scientists know there are more of the big, gentle marine mammals than there used to be. "But habitat is stable or declining. Animals are being forced to do something. The natural thing would be to spread out."

In hope of gathering enough data to learn whether her impression is accurate, she's now working with people in Louisiana and Texas to expand the network - "as far as I know, the only manatee sighting network in the country" - to those states.

"We see more animals coming here, staying longer, going farther west. We want to be prepared," Carmichael said.

Read more..

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Ocean Snow in Florida Sets Record

News4Jax | Jan 9, 2015 | Blake Mathews

© New4Jax
 [...] According to meteorologist Jason Hess, only three snowfalls have actually accumulated officially in Jacksonville in 103 years (1956, 1986 and 1989) with the greatest 24 hour accumulation of 1.9 inches in February 1899 -- before records officially began.

Thursday's snowfall was a rare phenomenon known as 'ocean effect snow.' It's the same idea as lake-effect snow except it occurs over the ocean.  The idea here is that the water is warmer than the land this time of year allowing moisture to rise and condense to form clouds and rain or snow.

When our winds shifted to the northeast, the moisture began moving towards land. Even though the surface temperatures were above freezing near the surface, the air just above the boundary layer (basically the first few hundred feet above the surface) was below freezing allowing the snowflakes to make it to the ground before melting. Voila! Snow.

It nearly didn't happen though. A powerful arctic front pushed through Florida late Wednesday powered by a mega-high pressure system over the mid west. That high drove in a lot of dry air, evidence by our dew points (measure of moisture in the air) into the teens meaning any flakes would have evaporated before reaching the ground. Through the process of evaporative cooling (wet-bulbing), our atmosphere cooled and moistened just enough to allow for the flakes to hit the ground.

Snow was last observed officially, a trace, in Jacksonville the day after Christmas in 2010 with measurable snowfall in southeast Georgia.

Read more..

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

SOTT Summary - December 2014: Extreme Weather, Earth Changes, Fireballs, High Strangeness

SOTT Media | Jan 7, 2015

© Courtesy SOTT Summary
The twelth installment in our monthly series, the following video compiles footage of 'signs of the times' from around the world during December 2014 - 'earth changes', extreme weather, meteor fireballs, high strangeness and planetary upheaval.

Mother Nature was apparently determined to see out 2014 with a bang, ramping up the extreme weather and Earth Changes in December. Snowstorms buried cities in Russia's Far east and Northeastern China, where a waterfall on the Yellow River partially froze. Japan was hit with record-breaking snowfall for the second time in a year, while a deep freeze in Northern India claimed at least 150 lives.

A week of non-stop electrical storms brought hail, flooding and widespread damage to Sydney, Australia, while a huge sinkhole swallowed three cars in Melbourne. Fish and whales continue to turn up dead in large numbers on coastlines and in freshwater lakes and rivers, thanks in part to increased volcanic activity, demonstrated above ground in December via eruptions in Indonesia, Mexico, Iceland, Cape Verde, Hawaii and Japan.

Drought-stricken Sao Paulo was inundated with rain, turning streets into rivers. Waterspouts appeared in Australia and the Mediterranean, a tornado hit downtown LA for the first time in decades, while another 'unseasonal' tornado outbreak in the U.S. South killed 5 and left dozens homeless. The "worst flooding in decades" hit Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia and Sri Lanka, where some quarter million people had to evacuate their homes.

A trail of storms pummelled the US West Coast, with landslides, mudslides, blizzards, and flash-flooding washing away homes and roads. Across the Atlantic, a so-called 'weather bomb' hit the UK and Ireland, bringing monster waves and hurricane-force winds. This was followed by a big freeze that brought blizzards to Western Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean, where Malta received its first snow in over a half-century.

Spectacular meteor fireballs were filmed over Puerto Rico, Brazil, the US, Canada, Spain, and Japan. So-called 'mystery' booms shook homes in communities from the US to the UK. An incredible UFO sighting in Santiago, Chile, and the appearance of a bright glowing 'plasma light' over Lima, Peru rang in the New Year.



Buckle up for 2015; it's gonna be 'interesting'!

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Monday, December 22, 2014

Amazing Facts: Termites produce more CO2 each year than all living things combined

image
Ice Age Now | Dec 20, 2014

Termite and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Facts:

Scientists have calculated that termites alone produce ten times as much carbon dioxide as all the fossil fuels burned in the whole world in a year.

Pound for pound, the weight of all the termites in the world is greater than the total weight of humans.

Scientists estimate that, worldwide, termites may release over 150 million tons of methane gas into the atmosphere annually. In our lower atmosphere this methane then reacts to form carbon dioxide and ozone.
It is estimated that for every human on Earth there may be 1000 pounds of termites.

On the average Termites expel gas composed of about 59% nitrogen, 21% hydrogen, 9% carbon dioxide, 7% methane, and 4% oxygen.

It is thought “There are 2,600 different species of termites, and it is estimated that there are at least a million billion individual termites on Earth, that they emit two and four percent of the global carbon dioxide and methane budget, respectively-both mediated directly or indirectly by their microbes.

http://termitedetector.com/detection.cfm

Thanks to E Stephens for this link

Friday, December 12, 2014

Authorities Reverse GMO Fish-Food Approval over Environmental Concerns


Natural Society | Dec 11, 2014 | Christina Sarich

Thanks to Mass Production of GM Soy

With the mass production of genetically modified soy, Monsanto and Cargill produced some big plans for feeding the fish of the sea. But the Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board, and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority decided not to participate in these plans – as it could lead to an environmental disaster.

Due to environmental and health concerns revolving around fish given GMO feed that code for antibiotic resistance, Norwegian authorities have stopped approving GM feed for fish. This applies to 8 of the 19 GMO feed varieties that the biotech industry currently pushes on fish farms.

Food & Water Watch reported:
“The American soy industry is powerful. It has been able to fund many studies on using soy for fish feed; it has built relationships in the aquaculture industry; and it has publicly supported federal policies in favor of offshore aquaculture.

… Soy does not have the full array of nutrients demanded by fish, however; nor is it a natural fish food or substance in the marine environment. In fact, using soy may cause some fish farms to pollute more by producing extra waste. Further, the negative ramifications of the soy industry on the environment and potentially on our health are reasons to resist the allure of soy as a “savior” of the aquaculture industry.


The cultivation of soy is associated with agricultural runoff that is contributing to the dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, with deforestation in Latin America and with the displacement of many indigenous peoples from their homes and work.


As soy becomes increasingly ubiquitous in our diets — in processed foods and the meat from animals that have been raised on it — we must ask what health impacts this high level of soy consumption may have on us. Scientists are beginning to question claims about the benefits of eating soy and to suggest that the plant-based estrogens that occur naturally in soy, many of which are endocrine disruptors, could potentially have adverse impacts.


In light of these concerns and unanswered questions, it is troubling to know that much of our fish — one of our last wild foods — could be fattened on this crop.”
About half of the world’s fish comes from aquaculture, or industrial fish farming. The practice has had problems such as overcrowding of tanks or growth sites, pollution, and contaminating the ocean with more GMOs.

Only recently have people needed to be concerned about GM-fed fish. There are extremely sustainable and of course, non-GMO methods, of growing fish as a food source, though. According to the World Resources Institute, “New research shows that aquaculture production will need to more than double again between now and 2050 to meet the demands of a growing population.”

Related: Major Grocery Stores Refuse GMO Salmon

Even wild fish are being threatened by unsustainable fishing practices, with estimates that our oceans could be fished out by 2050. As Ted Barber has explained in an edifying Ted Talk, “. . .it takes fifteen pounds of wild fish to get you one pound of farm tuna. Not very sustainable. It doesn’t taste very good either.” But one man has completely reversed ecological damage (without using GMOs I might add) by building a 27,000-acre, completely sustainable fish farm in the Argentinean wetlands. It doesn’t rely on a single Big Ag method of farming.

The Norwegian fish industry authorities had given permission to biotech to use GM soy and other contaminates in fish feed since 2008, but new research helped them change their minds:
The fear is that genes in the GM feed that code for antibiotic resistance may be taken up by various bacteria in the soil in the country where the GMO is produced, in the feed production chain, or in the gut of the fish. Scientists know little about to what extent, or if, this happens with genes that are inserted via genetic modification, but few would deny that it could happen. If the genes first have entered into a bacterium [during the genetic engineering process], they may quickly spread further.”
Norwegian authorities have repeatedly expressed concern over antibiotic-resistant infections, which are rendering antibiotics completely useless. Considering the new evidence pointing to the fact that human and animal guts take up the antibiotic resistance genes from GMOs, this is no small feat toward defeating the biotech machine.

A translation of the Norwegian press article on the antibiotic marker genes in fish feed is available here.

Additional Sources:

Food and Water Watch