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We Have the Right To Know – Label GE Foods
92% of Americans want the FDA to label genetically engineered foods. Watch the new video from Food, Inc. Filmmaker Robert Kenner to hear why we have the right to know what’s in our food. Will you join these individuals — and over half a million Americans — in contacting the FDA to require the labeling of genetically engineered (GE) foods?
What are Genetically Engineered Foods / GMOs?
Plants or animals that have had their genetic makeup altered to exhibit traits that are not naturally theirs.
-From the glossary on the Monsanto website.
Organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally.
-World Health Organization
“Genetically Engineered Foods”, “Genetically modified organisms,” or GMOs, are organisms that have been created through application of transgenic, gene-splicing techniques that are part of biotechnology. These transgenic methods for moving genes around are also called “genetic engineering,” or GE.
This relatively new science allows DNA (genetic material) from one species to be transferred into another species, creating transgenic organisms with combinations of genes from plants, animals, bacteria, and even viral gene pools. The mixing of genes from different species that have never shared genes in the past is what makes GMOs and GE crops so unique. It is impossible to create such transgenic organisms through traditional crossbreeding methods.
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Leaked documents reveal US diplomats actually work for Monsanto
(NaturalNews) Biotech giant Monsanto has been genetically modifying the world’s food supply and subsequently breeding environmental devastation for years, but leaked documents now reveal that Monsanto has also deeply infiltrated the United States government. With leaked reports revealing how U.S. diplomats are actually working for Monsanto to push their agenda along with other key government officials, Monsanto’s grasp on international politics has never been clearer.
Amazingly, the information reveals that the massive corporation is also intensely involved in the passing and regulations concerning the very GM ingredients they are responsible for. In fact, the information released by WikiLeaks reveals just how much power Monsanto has thanks to key positions within the United States government and elsewhere. Not only was it exposed that the U.S. is threatening nations who oppose Monsanto with military-style trade wars, but that many U.S. diplomats actually work directly for Monsanto.
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Human brain cells created from skin
The cerebral cortex is the part of the brain that is responsible for most of the major high-level thought processes such as memory, language and consciousness
The researchers have for the first time generated crucial types of human brain cells in the laboratory by reprogramming skin cells, which they say could speed up the hunt for new treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy and stroke.
Until now it has only been possible to generate tissue from the cerebral cortex, the area of the brain where most major neurological diseases occur, by using controversial embryonic stem cells, obtained by the destruction of an embryo.
This has meant the supply of brain tissue available for research has been limited due to the ethical concerns around embryonic stem cells and shortages in their availability.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge, however, now insist they have overcome this problem after showing for the first time that it is possible to re-programme adult human skin cells so that they develop into neurons found in the cerebral cortex.
Initially brain cells grown in this way could be used to help researchers gain a better understanding of how the brain develops, what goes wrong when it is affected by disease and it could also be used for screening new drug treatments.
Twitches Spread at New York School; Parents Urge More Tests
LE ROY, New York (REUTERS) – State health officials have added three more names to a growing list of students in this working-class town who are experiencing mysterious tics and twitching, while authorities on Saturday sought to assure parents the community’s high school is safe.
Although the symptoms are typically associated with Tourette Syndrome, that has been ruled out in all but one case, causing fear and confusion among many residents of Le Roy, N.Y., about 50 miles east of Buffalo.
“The building is safe for the community,” District Superintendent Kim Cox told several hundred residents gathered in the auditorium of Le Roy Junior-Senior High School on Saturday.
The Le Roy Central School District scrambled to conduct environmental testing for air quality and mold when an initial 12 students developed tics and impulsive verbal outbursts last fall. But state health investigators ruled out environmental factors, latent side-effects from drugs or vaccines like Gardasil, trauma or genetic factors.
Instead, doctors say conversion disorder – once called mass hysteria – is to blame among an expanding list of patients. Three more unconfirmed cases have been added to the original list of students exhibiting the symptoms, and others are being examined.
Air quality and mold surveys at the school have all come back negative, according to district officials and representatives of Leader Professional Services Inc., a company hired to conduct environmental testing at the school after the symptoms first surfaced.
Senior Industrial Hygienist Mary Ellen Holvey on Saturday said air and water tests turned up nothing, and recommended follow-up testing of air inside the school.
She said that would help determine whether a soil review will be conducted – a test demanded by those residents who believe environmental factors are to blame.
One parent, Melissa Cianci, said her daughter no longer wants to attend school in light of the outbreak. She said students should be moved to another location as the investigation continues.
“She doesn’t know if it’s safe,” Cianci said, adding her daughter had perfect attendance prior to the incidents. “I’m done listening to you,” she yelled at the panel before storming out, later criticizing the district for being less than candid early in the investigation and demanding that soil tests be conducted of school grounds.
Though there is no evidence of environmental contamination, for some residents environmental concerns were heightened by the district’s recent disclosure of six natural gas wells on school property, as well as possible contamination from the nearby site of a 1970 train derailment and chemical spill.
Regarding the wells on school land, William Albert, of the district’s law firm Harris Beach, said, “It’s not unusual. We’re out in the country.”
Several representatives of renowned environmentalist Erin Brockovich were barred recently from collecting soil samples near the school by local police.
State health officials note that all of the patients have had significant stress factors, which can worsen the condition. Three of them had pre-existing medical conditions, including one confirmed case of Tourette’s Syndrome. Just one of the patients in male.
Congresswoman Kathy Hochul, who represents the district, sent a letter to the environmental Protection Agency on Monday calling for a review of the Superfund site, which the EPA said is regularly monitored, including testing scheduled later this month.
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Sweet Misery
After 7000 miles, and 25 hours of footage, “Sweet Misery” will reveal one of the most pervasive, insidious forms of corporate negligence in the history of the industrial revolution.
The toxic long-term effects of aspartame are often dismissed as a “hoax” by the sweetener industry and at least five other internet websites. The real footwork, however, unravels something less comforting than a mere “Hoax.”
“Sweet Misery” is the title of a documentary released by Sound and Fury in June of 2004. Our primary investigation includes interviews with doctors, lawyers, people who have had health probems which they associate with aspartame usage, advocates, and many others.
“Aspartame is inherently, markedly and uniquely unstable in aqueous media”
is a quote from the congressional record in 1985, and yet it was approved for use in soft drinks and other beverages.
Aspartame
On September 30, 1980, a public Board of Inquiry advised against the approval of aspartame, stating: “The Board has not been presented with proof of a reasonable certainty that aspartame (NutraSweet) is safe for use as a food additive under its intended conditions of use.” In 1981, however, the FDA approved aspartame for consumer use based on studies that seem tainted by heavy financial interest in its approval. To many medical practitioners and consumer interest groups, the approval was a gross betrayal of public trust. “To think that there is even a reasonable doubt that aspartame can induce brain tumors in the American population is frightening. And to think that the FDA has lulled them into a false sense of security is a monumental crime,” writes Dr. Russell L. Blaylock in Excitotoxins. In 2005, twenty-five years after the initial Board of Inquiry’s caution against approval, numerous adults and children consume aspartame-sweetened products on a daily basis, despite reservations regarding its safety.
