seedthemovie.com - Few things on Earth are as miraculous and vital as seeds. Worshipped and treasured since the dawn of humankind. SEED: The Untold Story follows passionate seed keepers protecting our 12,000 year-old food legacy. In the last century, 94% of our seed varieties have disappeared. As biotech chemical companies control the majority of our seeds, farmers, scientists, lawyers, and indigenous seed keepers fight a David and Goliath battle to defend the future of our food. In a harrowing and heartening story, these reluctant heroes rekindle a lost connection to our most treasured resource and revive a culture connected to seeds. SEED features Vandana Shiva, Dr. Jane Goodall, Andrew Kimbrell, Winona Laduke and Raj Patel.
NOW it's official: genes from genetically modified corn have escaped into wild varieties in rural Mexico. A new study resolves a long-running controversy over the spread of GM genes and suggests that detecting such escapes may be tougher than previously thought.
The King of kings' Bible -
Enoch 68:14 Since they (men) were only created, so that, like the angels of heaven, they might remain righteous and pure.
68:15 Then death, which destroys every thing, would not have affected them;
68:16 But by this, THEIR KNOWLEDGE (science - 1 Tim. 5:20), THEY PERISH, and
by this also its power consumes them.
By Linda Joyce Forristal, CCP, MTA
Think of sugar and you think of sugar cane or beets. Extraction of sugar from sugar cane spurred the colonization of the New World. Extraction of sugar from beets was developed during the time of Napoleon so that the French could have sugar in spite of the English trading blockade.
Nobody thinks of sugar when they see a field of corn. Most of us would be surprised to learn that the larger percentage of sweeteners used in processed food comes from corn, not sugar cane or beets.
The process for making the sweetener high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) out of corn was developed in the 1970s. Use of HFCS grew rapidly, from less than three million short tons in 1980 to almost 8 million short tons in 1995. During the late 1990s, use of sugar actually declined as it was eclipsed by HFCS. Today Americans consume more HFCS than sugar.
Julian Rose exposes the scandal of EU’s deliberate policy to get rid of family farms for the benefit of the corporations and gives a personal account of his battle with the GMO dragon that threatens to devastate rural Poland
You. Will. Not. Be. Able. To. Get. Food. Need this be spelled out any more plainly? It is time to consider that the stage has been set for petroleum-induced famine. http://jahtruth.net/signs.htm
We have "innocently" accommodated rising population with greater and greater food production via technology and the profit motive. But now we have run out of room to grow, as biotechnology, for example, has severe limitations -- major ones being petroleum dependence and topsoil loss. The biggest wild card for our existence is climate change, as we see with floods and other extreme weather affecting our food supply.
We are headed for massive shortages of food and other essentials, mainly brought about by the depletion of geological fossil reserves of cheap energy and water. The situation is demonstrated regularly with easy arithmetic based on statistical indicators from the United Nations, Worldwatch Institute, World Resources Institute, Earth Policy Institute, and numerous governments. Usually the full force of the message is offset by predictions of huge rises in future human population growth that are simple extrapolations of historical trends.
No one can say with certainty that the worst effects of today's crisis will occur tomorrow or by any particular date. But it is irrational to assume there will only be gradual tightening of supplies until some solutions miraculously come to our aid. One ought to at least admit that one year ago few people thought we'd be going in the direction we're going in, this fast, today.
Three days is our average food supply around the modernized world, i.e., for cities and their supermarkets. Long-term food stocks have plummeted: "Cereal stocks that are at their lowest level in 30 years," according to Worldwatch institute in its most recent Vital Signs. This is exacerbated by increasingly weirder weather, compounded by the oil price/supply pressure on food. What can interfere with the three-day situation are truckers on strike (as in Europe), extended/repeated power outages, and the inability of the work force to commute to work.
Editor's note: The following is the transcript of the speech that Severn Suzuki gave to the Plenary Session at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio Centro, Brazil. Severn was twelve years old. SASS feels there is no better example of a young person standing up and speaking on behalf of something in which they truly believe, for the betterment of themselves and the world around them.
Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. - The Environmental Children's Organisation.
We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds from Canada trying to make a difference:
Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We raised all the money ourselves to come six thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future.
Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come.
I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard.
I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. We cannot afford to be not heard.
Genetically engineered plants have only recently been permitted in Germany. However, they have been in regular use in the USA and Argentina for many years. How safe is the so-called "Green Genetic Engineering" really? Monsanto, the world's largest genetic engineering corporation, insists it is safe. Numerous studies claim genetically modified plants can cause allergies and cancers. However, commercial and political interests are determined to make genetic engineering the norm.
The American biotechnology firm, Monsanto, has applied for a patent for pig breeding in 160 countries. The patent is for specific parts of the genetic material of pigs which Monsanto's genetic researchers have decoded. If this patent is granted, pig breeding would be possible with the approval of the company.
On March 11 a new documentary was aired on French television (ARTE – French-German cultural tv channel) by French journalist and film maker Marie-Monique Robin, The World According to Monsanto - A documentary that Americans won't ever see.
The gigantic biotech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years.
SAO PAULO (AFP) — Around 300 women rural residents in Brazil burst into a property owned by the US company Monsanto and destroyed a plant nursery and crops containing genetically modified corn, their organization said.
The women were protesting what they saw as environmental damage by the crops.
They trashed the plants within 30 minutes and left before police arrived at the site in the southern state of Sao Paulo, a member of the Landless Workers' Movement, Igor Foride, told AFP....
EUROPE will increase its genetically modified (GMO) crop area by 50,000-100,000 hectares a year over the next decade, US biotech giant Monsanto has said.
"It will be slow but within ten years GMOs will have reached the point of no return," said Jean-Michel Duhamel, Monsanto's director for southern Europe.
King of kings' Bible - Enoch 68:14 Since they (men) were only created, so
that, like the angels of heaven, they might remain righteous and pure.
68:15 Then death, which destroys every thing, would not have affected them;
68:16 But by this, THEIR KNOWLEDGE (science - 1 Tim. 5:20), THEY PERISH, and
by this also its power consumes them.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient of some of the most common herbicides used in farming and gardening. These products have been promoted as quickly biodegradable and non toxic. People believe that they are so safe that you can drink a cup of these herbicides without any ill effect.
Consequently, it is sprayed on roadsides while people are driving, on footpaths when people are shopping and in schoolyards and sports fields, exposing children to drift and residues. People buy it from supermarkets or garden shops and use it without any protective clothing because it is deemed 'safe'. It is sprayed in national parks and other environmentally sensitive areas in the belief that it is not toxic and or residual.
I continuously hear Primary Industries officers and other agricultural specialists telling farmers that it is not necessary to wear any protective clothing because it is harmless.
Unfortunately, the facts show that this is not the case. While pure Glyphosate has a low acute toxicity (the amount needed to cause death), when it is sold as a commercial herbicide it is combined with surfactants and other ingredients to make it more effective at killing plants. Studies show that the commercial products, such as Round Up, can be three times more toxic than pure glyphosate.
King of kings’ Bible – Enoch 68:14 Since they (men) were only created, so that, like the angels of heaven, they might remain righteous and pure. 68:15 Then death, which destroys every thing, would not have affected them; 68:16 But by this, THEIR KNOWLEDGE (science - 1 Tim. 5:20), THEY PERISH, and by this also its power consumes them.
In 1798 Thomas Malthus predicted that population would increase by exponential progression while agrarian growth would progress at an arithmetic or lineal rate thus causing catastrophic degeneration and inevitable famine and plague. Though Malthus’ solutions were reflective of societal morality, his conclusions were based on economic ratios where geometric progression always exceeds linear expansion.
While Thomas Maltus errantly applied his Essay on the Principle of Population to nineteenth century Europe, his predictions seem eerily prescient and applicable to recent global agricultural, environmental, political and scientific events. http://i.am/jah/environ.htm
As recently as twenty years ago, with dramatic advances in food enhancements, growth acceleration, preservation and delivery, the ability to produce and provide better than subsistence level nutrition was becoming feasible. The spectre of third world families on drought stricken expanses might finally have been poised for extinction and purged from modern memory and history.
And while the eyes of proud western civilizations watched political walls collapse and treaties signed, then turned to focus on ‘humanitarian’ welfare and unprecedented technological and scientific maturation, it seemed as though a seal was loosed just a bit somewhere. Slowly a backwash began to seep in.
When Monsanto decided to take Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser to court for using its seeds, the US biotech giant didn't know it was creating a folk hero for the anti-GM crop movement. http://i.am/ jah/genet.htm
Since losing a series of court battles with Monsanto, Schmeiser has been travelling the world on a crusade against genetically modified (GM) crops and patenting seeds, speaking to environment groups and public gatherings. http://i.am/ jah/environ.htm
"I've always campaigned on the right of a farmer to save and use his own seed," Schmeiser told an anti-GM conference of environmentalists and farmers in the Indian capital this week.
GM crops have become a hot-button issue in India with some seeing it as key to boosting food output while others fear the long-term impact of such a step.
"No one should have the right to patent life, it's a mad science," said the 76-year-old Schmeiser.
Schmeiser's run-in with Monsanto began in 1998 when the company told him he had infringed a patent for a genetically modified strain of canola it found growing on his farm in Saskatchewan.
CARACAS, April 21, 2004 (Venezuelanalysis. com) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias has announced that the cultivation of genetically modified crops will be prohibited on Venezuelan soil, possibly establishing the most sweeping restrictions on transgenic crops in the Western Hemisphere. Though full details of the administration's policy on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are still forthcoming, the statement by President Chavez will lead most immediately to the cancellation of a contract that Venezuela had negotiated with the U. S.-based Monsanto Corporation. Before a recent international gathering of supporters in Caracas, President Chavez admonished genetically engineered crops as contrary to interests and needs of the nation's farmers and farmworkers. He then zeroed in on Monsanto's plans to plant up to 500,000 acres of transgenic soybeans in Venezuela.
King of kings' Bible - Enoch 68:14 Since they (men) were only created, so
that, like the angels of heaven, they might remain righteous and pure.
68:15 Then death, which destroys every thing, would not have affected them;
68:16 But by this, THEIR KNOWLEDGE (science - 1 Tim. 5:20), THEY PERISH, and
by this also its power consumes them. http://i.am/jah/kofkad.htm
Pioneer Hi-Bred’s website boasts that their genetically modified (GM) Liberty Link[1] corn survives doses of Liberty herbicide, which would normally kill corn. The reason, they say, is that the herbicide becomes “inactive in the corn plant.”[2] They fail to reveal, however, that after you eat the GM corn, some inactive herbicide may become reactivated inside your gut and cause a toxic reaction. In addition, a gene that was inserted into the corn might transfer into the DNA of your gut bacteria, producing long-term effects. These are just a couple of the many potential side-effects of GM crops that critics say put the public at risk.
King of kings' Bible - Enoch 68:14 Since they (men) were only created, so
that, like the angels of heaven, they might remain righteous and pure.
68:15 Then death, which destroys every thing, would not have affected them;
68:16 But by this, THEIR KNOWLEDGE (science - 1 Tim. 5:20), THEY PERISH, and
by this also its power consumes them. http://i.am/jah/kofkad.htm
The same transgenic proteins implicated in two different GM crops
We recently reported illnesses and deaths among villagers of south Mindanao in the Philippines that are suspected of being linked to the genetically modified ‘Bt’ maize with an insecticidal protein from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis [1] (“GM ban long overdue, five deaths and dozens ill in the Philippines”, SiS 29).
Since then, similar illnesses are reported to have occurred in Madhya Pradesh, central India, as a result of exposure to ‘Bt’ cotton genetically modified with the same or similar insecticidal protein(s).
India began commercial planting of Bt cotton in 2002/03 with 38 038 ha (0.78 percent of hybrid area), increasing to 6.4 percent and 11.65 percent respectively in 2003/4 and 2004/5. Currently, nearly 9 million ha of cotton is grown in India, 2.8 million hybrid cotton.
Madhya Pradesh is India’s fifth largest cotton producing state, with Malwa and Nimad the main cotton growing regions. The Bt cotton varieties planted were developed by Monsanto, and carry the insecticidal Cry1Ac protein (Bollgard) or both Cry1Ac and Cry1Ab proteins (Bollgard II), according to an article on the industry’s website [2].
It is well past time that the people declared war on the geneticists and the
politicians, lawyers and judges who support them in their evil machinations.
The ONLY solution is to enforce The Plan against the traitorous legislating
Satanic N.W.O. Zion-Nazi mass-murder, inside-job perpetrators of OKC, Port
Arthur, Dunblane, Columbine, 911, Bali, 7/7/2005, Va-Tech and the War on
Terror and Freedom and reinstate God's Perfect Laws of Liberty:-
http://i.am/jah/plan.htm
Whoever controls the seed controls the food. And as a new film documents, the dangers of monoculture, industrial agriculture – and Monsanto – bode poorly for the future of food.
In less skillful hands, a film about genetically modified (GM) food could have been tough sledding for regular folks to sit through. Making visual sense of the science alone would be a daunting task. But The Future of Food is an engaging and lucid presentation of not only the science of genetic engineering, but of the people and the politics behind what looks to be a pitched battle to control the global food supply.
Deborah Koons Garcia, a long-time documentary filmmaker (and wife of the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia), spent the past three years writing, directing and producing Food for her Mill Valley, CA-based Lily Films. The idea for the film came after her award-winning educational series "All About Babies," an in-depth examination of the first two years of a child's life. She's had a lifelong concern about how food is grown, and "I always wanted to make a big film about agriculture that was as thorough as 'Babies,'" said Garcia.
She has said that her goal in making the film was to produce a cross between Silent Spring – Rachel Carson's historic shot-heard-'round-the-world about the dangers of chemical pesticides – and The Battle of Algiers, the 1965 film by Gillo Pontecorvo that became a training film for the Black Panthers as well as those who opposed the Vietnam War.
And it's true, The Future of Food makes no secret of its desire to see GM seed and food removed from the food supply. But its rendition of the science of genetic modification (and its potential risks) is clear and accurate. And the many startling facts that it presents about both the agriculture industry and the U.S. government, which continues to prop it up with taxpayer subsidies, make the film very difficult for a reasonable person to dismiss as mere anti-GM propaganda.
Fear of a Modified Planet
In farming, a monoculture is the result of cultivating a single plant variety over a large area of land. Monocultures make a single strain of plant – one particular variety of soybean, for example, out of the hundreds that may exist – particularly vulnerable to being wiped out by a single pest, microbial infection or some other environmental stressor, like an unseasonable heat wave or cold snap.
King of kings' Bible - Enoch 68:14 Since they (men) were only created, so that, like the angels of heaven, they might remain righteous and pure.
68:15 Then death, which destroys every thing, would not have affected them;
68:16 But by this, THEIR KNOWLEDGE (science - 1 Tim. 5:20), THEY PERISH, and by this also its power consumes them. http://i.am/jah/kofkad.htm
The PR exploitation of drought and hunger in Zambia shows that for the GM lobby there are no limits, even when it involves rewriting history and manufacturing crimes against humanity.
This year, following scanty and erratic rainfall, many of Zambia's maize fields have had the life scorched out of them. In some provinces the severity of the drought may mean a crop failure of 100 percent. With maize reserves falling short of the country's requirement, the Zambian government has banned the export of maize meal to neighbouring countries in a bid to forestall the looming food deficit.
This crisis is reminiscent of the crises Zambia faced in 2000 and 2002. It's not only the threat of hunger, though, that's reviving painful memories; it's also the way in which that threat is being exploited. For the genetically modified foods lobby, tragedy spells opportunity, with drought and crop failure providing the perfect platform to pressure the Zambian government over its resistance to genetically modified organisms. http://i.am/jah/genet.htm
Science for Peace Bulletin May 2005 Volume 25, Issue 2 - Terminators Galore!
by Joe Cummins
The author is Professor Emeritus at the University of Western Ontario.
In Canada, the Seed Sector Review advisory committee issued a report calling for changes to legislation to
(A) collect royalties on farm-saved seeds,
(B) compel farmers to buy officially certified seed, and
(C) terminate the right of farmers to sell common seed.
The report was financed by the Agriculture Ministry at a cost of nearly a million dollars to the Canadian taxpayers but essentially rubber-stamped the demands of multinational agricultural corporations (1). The onerous licensing requirements of the biotechnology industry are to be extended to all seeds, imposing a form of serfdom on any remaining independent farmers. In the future it is likely that even home gardeners will face the loony corporate payments for those willing to spy on neighbors and report covert seed activity. We may be entering a time when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are required to raid grow operations such as a row of radishes in a backyard garden.
The development of "terminator" technology goes hand in hand with the corporate move to control production and use of seeds. Terminator technology is the use of genetic engineering to produce seeds that can be used only once. The progeny of such seeds would either produce no flowers or produce seeds that provide grain or oil but cannot germinate to produce as new plants. In other words, terminator blocks viable seed production, production of pollen or ovule or the production of flowers. http://i.am/jah/gmterm.htm
King of kings' Bible - Enoch 68:14 Since they (men) were only created, so that, like the angels of heaven, they might remain righteous and pure.
68:15 Then death, which destroys every thing, would not have affected them;
68:16 But by this, THEIR KNOWLEDGE (science - 1 Tim. 5:20), THEY PERISH, and by this also its power consumes them. http://i.am/jah/kofkad.htm
There was an earlier article this week that also discussed the US dinking around with modifying the Avian Bird Flu to make it able to attack humans. I can't believe what we are accepting these days.
It will be a miracle if the rest of world doesn't declare war on us for what we are doing in the field of microbiology weapons of mass destruction. Don't forget the dead scientists that now number over 37 or more since 9-11. Do we see any of this in the national press??? God forbid, no! They are useless. Don't waste your money buying papers here in this country. After the Newsweek fiasco and their cowardly response, we will never see real news here again. Go to the European papers if you want to know what is really going on in this country. No wonder we scare the pants off of everyone just like Hitler did. Can you feel it? Time is running out.http://i.am/jah/signs.htm
US scientists push for go-ahead to genetically modify smallpox virus
US scientists are awaiting World Health Assembly approval to begin experiments to genetically modify the smallpox virus, one of the most lethal organisms the planet has known.
Researchers have already been given the go-ahead by a technical committee of the World Health Organisation, which accepts the argument that the research could bring new vaccines and treatments for smallpox closer. This week the debate will pass for a final decision to the floor of the full assembly of the WHO, whose representatives from 192 member states begin a 10-day annual meeting in Geneva today.
AMSTERDAM -- March 31 -- Greenpeace response to: Article in Nature magazine published on 24 March 2005 in which Syngenta admitted to a case of GE maize
(Bt10/Bt11) contamination. Article in Nature Biotechnology magazine published on 27 March 2005 in which Syngenta released the latest research on GE Golden Rice. Article in Nature magazine published on 31 March confirming that the Syngenta Bt10 GE maize contains an antibiotic resistance marker gene. http://i.am/jah/genet.htm
Amsterdam. 31 March 2005 Syngenta has attempted to deliberately mislead the public with their admission of GE maize (Bt10) contamination published last week when they neglected to include, amongst many other relevant facts, that the Bt10 contained an antibiotic resistance marker gene.
Vietnamese citizens who say they have suffered a lifetime of health problems after being poisoned by Agent Orange during the Vietnam War are suing the American chemical companies that provided the Pentagon with the toxic defoliant.
Monsanto yesterday paid $1.4bn (£745m) to buy a fruit and vegetable seed
company and said it would look at the possibility of genetically modifying
the produce. http://i.am/jah/genet.htm
The company is known for its controversial innovations in genetic
modifications for crops such as soya beans and corn. Genetically modified
Before you buy your next bottle of cooking oil... I think it's
important that as many people as possible KNOW about the origins of
this product. Then, if you choose to buy it, at least you're doing so
with your eyes open.
RAPE IN A DIFFERENT GUISE
Dear Editors
Recently I bought a cooking oil that's new to our supermarkets, Canola
Oil. I tried it because the label assured me it was lowest in "bad"
fats. However, when I had used half the bottle, I concluded that the
label told me surprisingly little else and I started to wonder: where
does canola oil come from? Olive oil comes from olives, peanut oil from
peanuts, sunflower oil from sunflowers; but what is a canola? There was
nothing on the label to enlighten me, which I thought odd. So, I did
some investigating on the Internet.
"...
A new report [1] by GRAIN and Focus on the Global South has found that new legislation in Iraq has been carefully put in place by the US that prevents farmers from saving their seeds and effectively hands over the seed market to transnational corporations. This is a disastrous turn of events for Iraqi farmers, biodiversity and the country's food security. While political sovereignty remains an illusion, food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has been made near impossible by these new regulations...."
....
"...In 2002, FAO estimated that 97 percent of Iraqi farmers used saved seed from their own stocks from last year's harvest or purchased from local markets. When the new law - on plant variety protection (PVP) - is put into effect, seed saving will be illegal and the market will only offer proprietary "PVP-protected" planting material "invented" by transnational agribusiness corporations. The new law totally ignores all the contributions Iraqi farmers have made to development of important crops like wheat, barley, date and pulses. Its consequences are the loss of farmers' freedoms and a grave threat to food sovereignty in Iraq. In this way, the US has declared a new war against the Iraqi farmer...."
For the record: “U.S. declares Iraqis can not save their own seeds”
"As part of sweeping "economic restructuring" implemented by the Bush Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save their seeds, which include seeds the Iraqis themselves have developed over hundreds of years. Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US corporations. That is because in recent years, transnational corporations have patented and now own many seed varieties originated or developed by indigenous peoples. In a short time, Iraq will be living under the new American credo:
Pay Monsanto, or starve ."
"The American Administrator of the Iraqi CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) government, Paul Bremer, updated Iraq's intellectual property law to 'meet current internationally-recognized standards of protection'. The updated law makes saving seeds for next year's harvest, practiced by 97% of Iraqi farmers in 2002, and is the standard farming practice for thousands of years across human civilizations, to be now illegal.. Instead, farmers will have to obtain a yearly license for genetically modified (GM) seeds from American corporations. These GM seeds have typically been modified from seeds developed over thousands of generations by indigenous farmers like the Iraqis, and shared freely like agricultural 'open source.'"
In a study in the early 1990s rats were fed genetically modified (GM) tomatoes. Well actually, the rats refused to eat them. They were force-fed. Several of the rats developed stomach lesions and seven out of forty died within two weeks. Scientists at the FDA who reviewed the study agreed that it did not provide a “demonstration of reasonable certainty of no harm.” In fact, agency scientists warned that GM foods in general might create unpredicted allergies, toxins, antibiotic resistant diseases, and nutritional problems. Internal FDA memos made public from a lawsuit reveal that the scientists urged their superiors to require long-term safety testing to catch these hard-to-detect side effects.
... And what about the genetically manipulated foods we are
unwittingly being fed nowadays? We are told that everything
that contains genetically modified plant matter is clearly labeled,
but studies in Britain reveal that cross-pollination has occurred
between G.M. test crops and other natural species and now it
is impossible to contain the genetically modified plant strains...
The real reason for the production of G.M. "Terminator
Seeds", nomatter what assurances and "spin-doctoring"
they give us, is to cross-pollinate all the crops on Earth,
so that the companies who produce these seeds will then have
the world at their mercy...
