Monsanto's Position on GMO Labeling

As the world continues to grow, there are more mouths to feed. With emerging markets, biotechnology in the agricultural sector contributes to market stability and aids in providing the resources necessary to continue economic growth in the developing world. On every continent, these shifts are apparent and farmers and the agribusiness are striving to adapt accordingly. From drought resistant seeds in Africa to growing metropolitan areas in South America, agribusiness is engineering, not only food production, but also energy, medicine, and materials in order to change the landscape on multiple levels. Featuring: Brett Begemann, https://archive.org/details/Monsanto_s_Position_on_GMO_Labeling

Monsanto,has patented the first genetically modified strain of marijuana.

St-Louis, MO | Monsanto, the multi-billion agribusiness giant, has announced today it has patented the first genetically modified strain of marijuana. The news that has been welcomed by scientists and leaders of the agriculture business alike as a move forward towards the industrial use of marijuana and hemp products could bring a major shift towards marijuana policies in the U.S.A. and ultimately, to the world. Under present US federal law, it is illegal to possess, use, buy, sell, or cultivate marijuana, since the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, although it has been decriminalized to some extent in certain states, Monsanto’s interest in the field has been interpreted by experts as the precursor to “a major shift in marijuana policy in the US” as it is believed the company would not have invested so much time and energy if it had not had “previous knowledge” of the Federal government’s “openness” towards the future legalization of marijuana.

coal-mining activity is most likely to blame

A cloud of methane gas about the size of Delaware was detected over the Four Corners area of the American southwest years ago. The readings were so unusually high that NASA scientists dismissed them. A new study confirms the methane hotspot is real. “We didn’t focus on it because we weren’t sure if it was a true signal or an instrument error,” said Christian Frankenberg, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena, California, in an article on NASA’s news website. Methane gas is the most potent of the so-called “greenhouse gases” that trap the Earth’s heat and contribute to global climate change. Carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas, is far more plentiful in the atmosphere, but methane is about 80 percent more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, according to an article on The Atlantic’s CityLab website. An article on the Christian Science Monitor website says that the 2,500-square mile methane cloud over the region where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet traps more heat in a year than all the annual carbon dioxide emissions of Sweden. The change of heart by NASA scientists is described in a new study published Friday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters which took another look at the earlier data, and confirmed the existence of North America’s largest methane “hotspot.” The source of the methane is believed to be extensive coal-mining activity in the San Juan Basin, according to Eric Kort, a professor of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and lead author of the study. He calls the Basin “the most active coalbed methane production area in the country.” The study shows that there were 0.59 million metric tons of methane released every year during the period 2003-2009, 3.5 times more than earlier estimates. There is currently a sharp increase in hydraulic fracturing – commonly called fracking – in the region, but because the cloud predates the fracking activity, Kort and Frankenberg say the earlier coal-mining activity is most likely to blame. “The results are indicative that emissions from established fossil fuel harvesting techniques are greater than inventoried,” Kort said. “There’s been so much attention on high-volume hydraulic fracturing, but we need to consider the industry as a whole.”

"Climate change is a 'threat multiplier'

Speaking at the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas in Arequipa, Peru on Monday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel outlined the challenges that climate change presents to the military and national security. Hagel spoke at a news conference on Saturday in Santiago, Chile, outlining his address at the Defense Conference on Monday. He noted that climate change will have a significant effect on the security environment, pointing out that as sea levels rise, so will security threats. He spoke of natural disasters, and the potential for threats, such as law and order and people taking advantage of a catastrophe. Possibly the most important part of his address will be the potential security risks to all nations with the opening of the Arctic Sea. “We see an Arctic that is melting, meaning that most likely a new sea lane will emerge,” he said. “We know that there are significant minerals and natural deposits of oil and natural gas there. That means that nations will compete for those natural resources.” The Arctic hasn't been an issue before, noted Hagel. “You couldn't get up there and get anything out of there,” he added. “We have to manage through what those conditions and new realities are going to bring in the way of potential threats.” On January 31, 2010 it was reported by the Guardian that the Pentagon, in their quadrennial defense review would rank global warming as a threat to national security. The draft of the review also said that global warming was a destabilizing force that added fuel to conflict and put American troops at risk around the world. This early warning review was overshadowed by polls showing a mostly complacent public opinion over climate change. But the Pentagon put climate change on the same level as political and economic factors as the primary factors that shape the world. That the heads of our military even bothered to look at climate as being a factor in global security at all was due only to the foresight of Senators Hillary Clinton and John Warner. In 2008, the two senators suggested that the Pentagon look specifically at global warming in their next annual review.

scientific evidence on BPA

BPA, short for bisphenol-A, and certain other environmental chemicals can have very weak, hormone-like effects. Tests show BPA in nearly everyone's urine, though the chemical has been removed from baby bottles and many reusable drink containers in recent years. The federal Food and Drug Administration says BPA is safe as used now in other food containers.

BPA is used to line cans to prevent corrosion, but it is also found in plastic bottles, tableware and food storage containers. BPA is referred to by researchers as a "hormone-disrupting chemical" due to links to health risks including reproductive problems, neurodevelopmental delays, diabetes and obesity. The chemical is banned in Canada and the European Union. In the United States, BPA was banned from baby bottles and sippy cups in July 2012, but the Food and Drug Administration has rejected an outright ban of the chemical, saying current scientific evidence "does not suggest that the very low levels of human exposure to BPA through the diet are unsafe." Researchers recruited 114 women in early pregnancy and gave them blood tests, storing their samples. Blood was later tested in women who had given birth and women who had a miscarriage in the first trimester. They assigned women into four groups based on their blood levels of BPA from lowest to highest, and then assessed miscarriage risk for each group. Women who had a miscarriage had higher BPA levels on average than women who had live births. Miscarriage risk rose with increasing levels of BPA in mom's blood, with women in the group with the highest levels at about an 80 percent increased risk.

fetal tissue in your soda

No person or entity is manufacturing food or other products intended for human consumption that contain aborted human fetuses. But some food companies are using cell lines that were originally derived from human fetuses in order to develop new food products. Moreover, many medicines and vaccines, which I suppose could be seen as “meant for human consumption.” The Children of God For Life, which according to press reports inspired Shortey’s bill, also opposes standard vaccines for chickenpox, rubella and hepatitis A and drugs such as Roche’s Pulmozyme for cystic fibrosis and Amgen‘s Enbrel for rheumatoid arthritis. (See a list of products Children of God For Life say are unethical. A tiny company called Senomyx, whose stock is trading near its 52-week low, has been working to use this new technology to create food additives. Senomyx has isolated receptors found on cells that detect taste, and added them to the HEK cells. This allows them to test thousands of potential taste additives to see whether they might taste sweet or savory with a speed that would be impossible with human taste testers. (You can find a scientific paper on the Senomyx sweetener work here. ) Synomyx has announced collaborations with Pepsi, Nestle, and Coca-Cola. The stock market values the company at $140 million, which is not much by the standards of biotech. full story click here

National security letters

May 07, 2008 challenges FBI's secret records demand Internet Archive founder breaks gag order, detailing FBI's secret demand for user's personal information and the resulting lawsuit challenging the subpoena The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has withdrawn a secret demand that the Internet Archive, an online library, provide the agency with a user's personal information after the Web site challenged the records request in court. The FBI sent a national security letter, or NSL, to the Internet Archive in November and included a gag order barring site founder Brewster Kahle from talking to anyone other than his lawyers about the request. Kahle, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit to challenge the subpoena, arguing that the NSL program is unconstitutional, and the FBI withdrew the NSL on April 22. The settlement between the FBI and the Internet Archive allowed Kahle to break the gag order, a standard part of an NSL request. The Internet Archive's challenge of the NSL is only the third case that the ACLU is aware of in which an NSL has been challenged in court, said Melissa Goodman an attorney for the civil liberties group's National Security Project. "The NSLs basically allow the FBI to demand extremely sensitive personal information about innocent people without any prior court approval, often in total secrecy," Goodman said Wednesday. The NSL program, expanded when Congress passed the antiterrorism Patriot Act shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., allows the FBI and other U.S. government agencies to issue administrative subpoenas to U.S. businesses for customer and other personal information. FBI assistant director John Miller issued a statement about the case Wednesday. "The information requested in the national security letter was relevant to an ongoing, authorized national security investigation," he said. "National security letters remain indispensable tools for national security investigations and permit the FBI to gather the basic building blocks for our counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations." Although the settlement keeps parts of the FBI request secret, Kahle applauded the lawsuit and settlement, saying it will show other businesses how to challenge NSLs. The FBI issued nearly 200,000 NSLs between 2003 and 2006, according to a U.S. Department of Justice inspector general's report. "We see this as an unqualified success," Kahle said during a news conference. "The goal here was to help other recipients of NSLs ... understand that you can push back on these." The gag order prevented Kahle from discussing the case with the library's board of directors, staff, and even his wife, he said. "Gags don't seem to be necessary," he said. "Gagging librarians is horrendous." Kahle's lawyers declined to talk about the nature of the FBI investigation or reveal the identity of the targeted user. The NSL sent to the Internet Archive asked for a user's name, address, length of service, e-mail header information, and activity logs. The FBI investigation was "relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities," according to the FBI letter.