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"They Call It “Pharming” And It’s Phrightening!" (OpEdNews 404 – Repost)
By Robert Singer
Click here to read why this “article is not currently available” at the OpEdNews link: http://www.opednews.com/articles/They-Call-It-Pharming-An-by-Robert-Singer-080916-752.html
They Call It “Pharming” And It’s Phrightening!
Biofuels are often blamed for 85% of corn price increases since 2002. Even Congress is growing weary of the corn/ethanol inflation.
Why were we on this road in the first place?
It would seem an easy road to avoid, considering over 140% more energy—mostly high value oil and natural gas, is expended to produce a gallon of corn ethanol than is in the ethanol itself. In 2007, 20% of the U.S. corn crop was converted into 6 billion gallons of ethanol—to replace only 1% of U.S. oil consumption.
President, Bush 42 — known for his insight into our energy problems (We need an energy bill that encourages consumption), on April 29, 2008 told reporters at the Rose Garden “the solution now is to make ethanol out of switchgrasses or wood chips.” Later in that same speech he said, “…it's in our national interest that our farmers grow energy.” Really? I thought that’s what our food supply was supposed to provide—energy for our bodies to survive.
Switchgrass and growing energy is not a solution to our energy and global warming problems. They worsen Global Warming and are a Trojan Horse for Genetic Modified Organisms (GMOs), promising not only whole new markets for biotech products, but the irreversible entrenchment of genetically modified crops throughout the world.
When GMOs were first introduced into agriculture, farmers and consumer groups questioned the lack of basic protections. Since then, GMO contamination has spread from the cornfields in the Midwest to the birthplace of corn in the remote mountains of Mexico. Farmers have not been able to protect themselves from this genetic trespass. Instead of holding GMO manufacturers liable, the courts are upholding the patent rights of seed companies and making the farmers pay!
The latest proposals are to produce biofuels from more cellulose-rich plants like switchgrass rather than food crops. This may seem like a solution to the food v. fuel conflict inherent in ethanol production, because people will not directly starve when we fill up our gas tanks (of course they probably wouldn’t starve if we subsidized alternative fuels, mass transit or just demanded automakers produce cars that get 50+ miles per gallon). However the energy it takes to unlock the energy in cellulosic ethanol is far greater than the energy it produces, making it a net energy loser, but a winner for genetically modified organisms or GMOs because the cellulosic plants will be grown from these high tech seeds, which independent sources have warned of emerging human health and environmental problems.
With the advent of biofuels, however, Monsanto and other biotech companies have found a market that is more insulated from public rejection because none of these crops are directly destined for our food supply only our gas tank.
The problem is that once Genetically Modified or GM seeds are planted in the field, there is no way to prevent GMO fuel crops from contaminating their food-crop cousins. Because these crops are wind-pollinated, cases of genetic contamination are commonplace. In the past two years alone, there were at least 73 publicly documented cases of genetic contamination. Once GM agrofuels have entered the agricultural gates, they will soon escape into the wild, contaminating food crops across the globe.
Briana Waters: Victimized by Green Scare State Terrorism
by Stephen Lendman
An earlier article discussed her case, accessed through the following link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/04/green-scare-state-terrorism.html
Content from it is repeated below before updating her status. An innocent woman, she's one of many victims of US state terrorism, in her case for courageous environmental activism. Her web site provides more information, accessed through the following link:
Her Case
On March 30, 2006, she was arrested, then falsely accused of being a lookout in connection with a 2001 arson at the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture.
In fact, she's a California resident, a professional musician, violin teacher, and mother of a young child. Yet, she was bogusly indicted, then reindicted with other defendants on May 10, 2006, including charges of using a destructive device, carrying a mandatory 30 year sentence if convicted.
More torture unpunished
Mary Shaw
In January, former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison. He had been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. But he has been accused of some things that are far more disturbing than those charges might suggest.
Burge, who is white, allegedly spent decades torturing black murder suspects - shocking, burning, and suffocating them - until they confessed. Kind of like what happens to the brown detainees at Gitmo, but in Chicago instead.
While I am pleased to see Burge behind bars, I am disappointed that he was convicted not for torturing the suspects but merely for lying about the torture.
Field Notes on American-Style Democracy
by Stephen Lendman
Perhaps George Bernard Shaw was thinking of Obama's administration when he said, "Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for the appointment of the corrupt few."
Obama upholds the tradition and then some, doing more harm globally in two years than most of history's tinpot despots in decades, yet most of it gets little attention. Imagine what's planned ahead. Already, his legacy includes:
-- breaking every key promise he made across the board;
-- looting the nation's wealth, wrecking the economy, and consigning growing millions to impoverishment without jobs, homes, savings, social services, or futures;
"Give Us the ANWAR and Keep Shopping" (OpEdNews 404 – Repost)
By Robert Singer
Click here to read why this “article is not currently available” at the OpEdNews link: http://www.opednews.com/articles/-Give-Us-the-ANWAR-and-Kee-by-Robert-Singer-080914-244.html
September 14, 2008
"Give Us the ANWAR and Keep Shopping"-They Found They Can't Have Both
Associated Press (AP) reported on September 13th, 2008 that the unprecedented rise in gas prices has brought a change to the American way of life that even a drop in oil prices below $100/barrel won’t erase. As AP put it, “Public transportation is in. Hummers are out. Frugality is in. Wastefulness is out.”
Apparently, the worst gas price hike has produced the worst-case scenario for the select group of people who raised the price of gasoline to almost $5.00/gallon smug in their belief they could get Americans to give up their last Arctic wilderness while continuing to buy useless, wasteful consumer goods.
Two significant things happened recently after gas approached $5 a gallon and oil was selling for $142 a barrel.
• Retail sales fell in July as shoppers shunned autos and other big-ticket items. In spite of government stimulus payments to U.S. households retail sales dipped 0.1 percent last month when a variety of economic woes including skyrocketing gas prices combined to blunt America's shopping habits—habits which wreak havoc on the environment.
• August 14, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) signaled her willingness to consider opening up more coastal areas to oil and gas exploration. Just weeks before Pelosi was resolved to block any votes to allow offshore drilling.
Once the environment's last bastion of defense (Congress) had fallen, and gasoline prices rose so high, it tremendously curbed American buying habits, gasoline prices mysteriously came down almost a dollar and oil is now under $100 a barrel.
Really? Just because a month ago we agreed to consider more drilling? Oil drops by $45 a barrel, is that possible?
No. It appears the price of gasoline stayed high too long. A $45/barrel drop in oil isn’t enough to fool anyone into thinking the “economy” is back to normal. You can’t cover up bank failures, home foreclosures, high unemployment and the experts like Warren Buffett predicting major disruptions in financial markets.
Even with the recent drop in gas prices, Americans seem to have realized they can live comfortable lives by returning to a time when they valued stewardship, resourcefulness, and thrift…and that just might be good for everyone who has to live on this planet.
So the same select group of people who were betting on trashing the ANWR and on trashing the planet by getting the public to shop for billions of dollars of useless, non-recyclable consumer goods appear to be losing. As the AP press said, “Americans have changed; being frugal is the thing.” And that makes winners of the rest of us, for now.
There's a 20-minute documentary storyofstuff.com that lays this all out in a manner that even a child could understand and shows the path to saving the planet is no more complicated than controlling our addiction to all that "stuff."
Authors Bio: Robert Singer is a retired information technology professional and an environmental activist living in southern California. In 1995 he and his cousin Adam D. Singer founded IPC The Hospitalist Company, Inc., where he served as chief technology officer. Today the company manages more than 130 practice groups, providing care in some 300 medical facilities in 18 states. Prior to that he was president of Useful Software, a developer and publisher of business and consumer software for the personal computing Industry.
We're All Egyptians Now!
by Stephen Lendman
And Tunisians, and Yemenis, and Algerians, and Jordanians, and Lebanese, and, of course, Palestinians, suffering for over six decades after Israel stole their historic homeland, over 43 years under brutal, suffocating occupation. Their struggle is ours, and it's high time we reacted, showing spirit as courageous as theirs.
In her latest January 31 article, Phyllis Bennis headlined, "Tunisia's Spark and Egypt's Flame: the Middle East is Rising," asking:
"Is this how empires end, with people flooding the streets, demanding resignation of their leaders and forcing local dictators out? Maybe not entirely, (but the) legacy of US-dominated governments across the region will never be the same. The US empire's reach in the resource-rich and strategically vital Middle East has been shaken to its core....The years of Washington calling the shots (based on its) version of 'stability' are definitively over."
Reagan’s Secret Legacy
Peter Chamberlin
On this, the one-hundredth birthday of Ronald Reagan, the Reagan worshippers are coming out of the woodwork. It seems that the self-appointed leaders of the “Tempest in the Teapot” party (or whatever they call themselves), even Obama himself, are trying to ride Reagan’s fame to new political heights. That’s good, because Reagan had a serious weakness, his notoriety associated with his extremist beliefs, which we should all take time to remember today.
Ronald Reagan did something very bad to this country; he planted a poisonous seed that has now put forth fully ripened fruit, in our own era, fruit which makes the heart cold and intoxicates the minds, filling them with visions of untold wealth and power. Reagan imbibed deeply on his own poison, giving substance to his own hallucinatory visions, which he shared with his followers. It his delusional military and economic theories that are directly responsible for the dual crises that threaten the civilized world today. His nonsensical faith-based “supply-side economics” theory (which George Bush described as “voodoo economics”) set loose the dangerous speculative economics that have plagued us, giving credence to the “borrow our way to prosperity” theories that have imperiled the world economy.
Haiti Update: Electoral Runoff and Aristide's Status
by Stephen Lendman
With world attention focused on Middle East events, mainly Egypt's, Haiti's gotten little attention despite its compelling need for real change. So far, it's nowhere in sight, nor openly discussed, or demanded like visible millions are doing abroad.
Stay tuned. It may happen if visceral anger spreads globally by enough people knowing that democratic freedoms depend on them - through massive, sustained grassroots pressure, accepting nothing less than ouster of corrupt, repressive regimes for equitable, just ones they choose.
Imperial Washington Suffocates Long Suffering Haitians
Despite sham November presidential and parliamentary elections and growing calls for new ones, a runoff March 20 second round is scheduled, led by two Washington-approved presidential candidates:
The Arab Revolt in Tunisia and Egypt
Ziad Shaker elJishi
I get sick to my stomach listening to CNN or reading the New York Times but i do it every once and a while because i like to learn what the imperialist and pro-Zionist media outlets are saying. Yesterday was no exception as I listened to the mutterings of CNN as it collided heads trying to cover the million or so that constituted the Egyptian brave youths as they listened in to the latest trash talk uttered by Hosni Mubarak who they are working to dispose of.
The "Recovery" - - Just Don't Eat, Heat Your Home, or Buy Clothing
We still don’t even know if Fed officials actually believe the ridiculous things they say, or whether they are merely acting stupid to hide the fact that they have created a world in which financial prudence is punished, those who save are forced to subsidize those who speculate, and people around the world are rioting just so someone will notice that they can no longer afford to feed themselves or their family.
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