tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40465191215590179892024-03-13T11:30:33.120-04:00We Love GMOs and VaccinesA blog about biotechnology.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-77886742922358240572016-04-10T02:12:00.000-04:002016-04-12T14:08:00.351-04:00The organic industry's war on breastfeeding <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="1; url=http://welovegv.com/the-organic-industrys-war-on-breastfeeding/">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Edited by Nandu Nandini</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Breast is best. But those who have been following me on Facebook for a while may have noticed that I occasionally get upset with a certain group of people who attempt to shame formula feeding parents. Mom shaming is a horrendous tactic used by many people to try and take advantage of new mothers and the vulnerable emotional state many find themselves in. Breastfeeding may be preferred when everything is equal, but anyone with a child knows that seldom things are equal. My best friend and his husband clearly don't have the option, and many new mothers have a myriad of reasons why formula may be a better fit for their own family.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J3f1-dbS028/VwpJnf1gbII/AAAAAAAAAmc/53CaF-slscIZLFHiw06nbbx9e6znP__Ow/s1600/16591139378_39a2a1eca6_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J3f1-dbS028/VwpJnf1gbII/AAAAAAAAAmc/53CaF-slscIZLFHiw06nbbx9e6znP__Ow/s320/16591139378_39a2a1eca6_o.jpg" width="213" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Moms Across America's</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> leader Zen Honeycuttt.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Until recently I was under the impression that this guilt was directed unilaterally towards formula feeding parents. After witnessing the shaming directed towards breastfeeding moms, from the most unlikely of sources, I now stand corrected.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two years ago <a href="http://www.momsacrossamerica.com/glyphosate_testing_results" target="_blank">Moms Across America, with Claire Robinson of Earth Open Source and GM Watch</a>, issued a press release that detailed a report they had created showing detectable levels of glyphosate in breast milk. Samples of breast milk were submitted to them from 10 mothers, and 3 supposedly contained glyphosate. <a href="http://academicsreview.org/2014/04/debunking-pseudo-science-lab-testing-health-risk-claims-about-glyphosate-roundup/" target="_blank">No validation of the assay used was submitted, the source of the breast milk is unknown, and there was no independent verification of the results.</a> It did, however, catch the attention of Professor Shelley McGuire of Washington State University.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://sbs.wsu.edu/faculty/?faculty/154" target="_blank">Professor McGuire</a> has a PHD in human nutrition from Cornell University, and her field of study is lactation physiology. There is no doubt that she supports the promotion of breastfeeding, and accepts,<a href="http://advances.nutrition.org/content/2/6/523.short" target="_blank"> “The scientific evidence that breastfeeding provides optimal nutritional and immunological support”</a>. The professor wanted to make sure breast milk was safe after hearing the results from Moms Across America.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Professor McGuire now finds herself under attack by the multi billion dollar organic food industry. Why? Because she undertook her own <a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2016/03/30/ajcn.115.126854.abstract" target="_blank">peer reviewed research</a> and concluded that breast milk was in fact safe. With results published that contradict the narrative the industry wished to spin, they mobilized quickly in an attempt to silence and discredit her.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Post card sent to Professor McGuire featuring the artwork</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">of ant-Semitic <a href="http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/domestic-extremism-terrorism/c/david-dees-conspiratorial.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/#.VwpGxPkrLIU">David Dees</a>.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The harassment took many forms including threatening postcards in the mail, the hacking of her original Twitter account, and culminated in an organic industry funded <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzJRuradOU1aRWFrYlV6VFRPT1p3emZNbFllWExyM216Z1c4" target="_blank">freedom of information </a>request <a href="http://www.acslaw.org/sites/default/files/Levinson_-_ACS_FOIA_First_Amdmt_Issue_Brief.pdf" target="_blank">similar to ones conducted by the tobacco industry</a> when trying to silence their own critics.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why would a movement that claims to love all things natural attack a public research professor for promoting breastfeeding? Some hints may very well come from a 2010 document called the “<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzJRuradOU1abVNlTXVMd0pDTmM" target="_blank">National Organic Action Plan</a>". The plan describes some of the goals the organic industry feels it must reach in order to continue growing. Using language that is very similar to what is used when describing addictive drugs, the industry states that “organic dairy products serve as a gateway to organic food for new mothers, opening up the door for them to purchase additional organic products.“</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is clearly evident why the organic food industry is so intent on opposing biotechnology. <a href="http://www.thefarmersdaughterusa.com/2015/01/the-national-organic-action-plan-its.html" target="_blank">Organic dairy farmers are having a supply problem because they can't feed their cows feed from GE crops.</a> If GE crops are banned, they can increase the supply of their “gateway" product. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anti-GMO NGOs are sending the message that breast feeding<br />
should be feared in favor of "Non-GMO" formula.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 20.24px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"It makes sense when you consider some basic supply and demand principles,"<a href="http://www.thefarmersdaughterusa.com/2015/01/the-national-organic-action-plan-its.html"> says blogger The Farmer's Daughter, </a>", and consider them in light of how the Plan depicts the current state of organic dairy. First, consider the realities of our agricultural commodities. Aside from maybe sugar beets, corn and soybeans are the most prevalent genetically modified crops in the marketplace today. In 2014, 93% of field corn produced in</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 20.24px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the United States contained a genetically modified trait, while 94% of all soybeans are genetically modified. Obviously, it’s fair to say that GMO corn and soybeans dominate the market place." </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R1QfQkkFsyw/VwpMq1PNfpI/AAAAAAAAAmw/EdzWKvtUmcs7Tq8v-DnEU6nq9csYWvBdA/s1600/12957223_10104503748868018_1783154437_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R1QfQkkFsyw/VwpMq1PNfpI/AAAAAAAAAmw/EdzWKvtUmcs7Tq8v-DnEU6nq9csYWvBdA/s320/12957223_10104503748868018_1783154437_n.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Biology Fortified's Anastasia Bodnar</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 20.24px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This attack on breastfeeding seems to me like a natural progression for them to boost sales of organic and "Non-GMO" formula. I spoke with Dr. Anastasia Bodnar of Biology Fortified, a biotechnology expert and mother who practices attachment parenting as well as extended breastfeeding:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Will mothers-to-be choose non GMO formula instead of breastfeeding because…. Monsanto? I hope not, but the possibility is there. Breastfeeding isn't the end all - fed is best - but there are benefits to breastfeeding, and any articles claiming breast milk is dangerous are a problem.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is especially true if these fears are exported to <a href="http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/index_24824.html" target="_blank">developing nations</a> that lack clean drinking water for mixing formula. It is an outrage for Professor McGuire to be treated this way merely for trying to reassure mothers that breast milk is safe. I hope parents everywhere will join me in demanding that US RTK end their FOIA harassment and Moms Across America (with their partner Earth Open Source/GM Watch) end their war on breastfeeding mothers.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-40772994191381188892016-03-19T19:55:00.000-04:002016-03-20T10:43:56.271-04:00 Kind Communication<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SXi9f_19gbc/VtncUjbsM4I/AAAAAAAAAFs/odVOE8rJatc8ngkBjtUpxg_tSQmkdAfww/s1600/nandu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SXi9f_19gbc/VtncUjbsM4I/AAAAAAAAAFs/odVOE8rJatc8ngkBjtUpxg_tSQmkdAfww/s320/nandu.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Science requires critical thinking, but it is also critical that we not be condescending when we communicate science."</span><br />
<br />
By Nandu Nandini<br />
<a class="DashboardProfileCard-screennameLink u-linkComplex u-linkClean" href="https://twitter.com/nandunandini11" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #66757f; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; padding-right: 5px; text-decoration: none !important;"><span style="color: #66757f; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; padding-right: 5px;">@</span></span><span class="u-linkComplex-target" style="color: #66757f; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; padding-right: 5px; text-decoration: none;">nandunandini11</span></a><br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Effective communication with the intent to inform and motivate to change requires much more than just excellent written or oral communication skills. It not only involves an understanding of our audience but also a basic recognition that this audience consists of human beings like us. Whether it is online or in person, at any point in time we are addressing a human being. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-28da7447-914d-c20b-34dc-acfb6b7e3c07" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we are communicating with people it is very important to understand that kindness and compassion towards others goes a long way in helping get your message across.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take for example when science and its concepts are being discussed. Science is based on evidence and facts. It requires logical, rational thinking. The concepts that are being discussed are straight hard cold facts. It is the reality and the truth. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But we human beings are complex creatures, cold hard facts are boring, period. We are creatures of emotion, we have the capacity to feel, we have differing perceptions shaped by our lives, society, environment, education levels, and many other influences. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keeping this in mind going into a discussion with a divisive mind is never a good idea. We want to find common ground. We want to share ideas, concepts, and facts. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do we do this ?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Foremost is to always remember it doesn’t cost us anything to be nice. Our behavior is one thing we can control and that will set the tone for any discussion. It is never a good idea to go into a discussion assuming we are always right. Being open minded and ready to acknowledge that we may be wrong is a good move. Leading with our ethics in mind is a good move. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some of the worst things one can do in a discussion among many others are.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don't call people names </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don’t dump all the blame on others and somehow make it about their behavior. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Never use racist, sexist, derogatory language in any discussion.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Never display hubris, arrogance, and a holier than thou attitude. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do not attack, mock or insult others.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we do not follow these rules people shut down, they put up mental walls, and they are not going to listen to your rational and logical explanations. All of what we are saying becomes mere noise to others and this is how we lose our audience. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we suspend our ego, our need to prove our intelligence and knowledge, and concentrate on exchanging ideas kindly we put the listener at ease. Then maybe they will not shut down, maybe they will listen, just maybe they will not feel the need to get defensive and resort to all the worst things aforementioned. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This area is where the anti science folks seem to have the upper hand, they know how to be nice to people while taking advantage of them. They charm people, they appeal to the emotion. Yes, it is a logical fallacy to appeal to emotion. But instead of committing this logical faux pas, why not recognize the inherent humanity in people we are trying to reach out to. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These people may be misled, they are afraid, they have been duped by charlatans who have taken advantage of their fears, they are confused. Some of them are suffering from severe cognitive dissonance. We need to attempt to breach these barriers to effectively communicate in discussions by first acknowledging that to ourselves. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No matter how intelligent we are, no matter how many degrees we possess, our attitude towards others makes us a better person. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we treat others with kindness and compassion in any interaction even if it is science communication we build a bridge and this may very well lead the other person to be willing to meet us halfway, we teach them and they teach us.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last but not least, even if the other person is belligerent and treats us badly, we always have the choice to not respond in the same manner. That restraint we show could quite possibly put the other person at ease, make them drop their defenses. They could be at a loss about how to continue. It may not always work, but it is well worth a try. We end up stopping in its tracks the vicious spiral of nastiness. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How effective we are surely depends not only on our methods but also the other person’s, but the key difference is we only have control of ourselves and our methods. When despite all our efforts to be nice fails, the best option would be to politely disengage from the discussion. When we take the high road, we may not win the argument, or we may feel like we have failed to communicate. But we will know we tried our best and did so in an ethical and compassionate manner.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06734681505933139833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-71898188946398560642016-03-07T19:21:00.002-05:002016-03-07T20:41:47.542-05:00Greenpeace: Twenty Years of Terror<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mLU9GnobZcM/VtJeIgJ70ZI/AAAAAAAAAd4/RwwHVsLqqW8/s1600/Screenshot%2B2016-02-27%2Bat%2B9.23.29%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mLU9GnobZcM/VtJeIgJ70ZI/AAAAAAAAAd4/RwwHVsLqqW8/s320/Screenshot%2B2016-02-27%2Bat%2B9.23.29%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a><br />
By Stephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com<br />
Edited by Nandu Nandini<br />
<br />
<b>October 1996</b><br />
<br />
"The reason we're doing this is to demonstrate the hazard of genetically manipulated food products," <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=348&dat=19961011&id=zxMwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gTMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1037,7319075&hl=en">Tzeporah Berman told reporters</a>. At the time Berman was a spokeswoman for Greenpeace, and she was explaining why 30 biotechnology opponents from her organization trespassed onto a test plot in Iowa to destroy research and begin terrorizing scientists. An entire year of research was destroyed as the anti-science activists trampled crops and spray painted the plants to form a giant "X" with the words "Biohazard Monsanto". These people were neither locals from Iowa, nor even necessarily from the United States. Wolfgang Pekny was flown in from Austria. A month before, Greenpeace had made attacking this breeding method of seed one of their top three priorities. A press conference in Germany was held announcing an alliance of NGOs, including Friends of the Earth. <a href="https://www.univie.ac.at/LSG/paganini/finals_pdf/WP6_FinalReport.pdf">"The campaign also spanned the Atlantic, as on 7th October 1996 Jeremy Rifkin's Foundation on Economic Trends and Greenpeace in the USA, launched an international alliance of more than 300 consumer, health, trade and agricultural organizations from 48 countries into a campaign for boycott of the Monsanto soya and Ciba-Giegy‟s maize." </a><br />
<br />
So began Greenpeace's war on science. Many people dislike the term anti-science, especially when used to describe Greenpeace, because of their stance on climate change. Their web page <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/science/scientific_consensus/">accurately states that</a>, "There is, in fact, a broad and overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, is caused in large part by human activities...". But this is really just cherry picking on their part, because they oppose many viable solutions to climate change like nuclear power and genetic engineering.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>July 1999</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/10/13/article-1077297-001D9F7400000258-491_468x314.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/10/13/article-1077297-001D9F7400000258-491_468x314.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a><img src="http://hoffman.photoshelter.com/img/pixel.gif" /><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/jul/27/food.foodanddrink">"I'm doing this for environmental reasons. The spray I use on my conventional crops is far less friendly than what I use on this crop. I wanted to trial these crops to see if there were any downsides</a>," William Brigham, whose family has farmed the same land for 300 years near Norfolk in the United Kingdom, attempted to reason with Greenpeace when they came to destroy his crops. In prior years his herbicide of choice was atrazine, far more risky to the environment than the Liberty herbicide his test plot was resistant to. This attack was led by Peter Mond, executive director of Greenpeace UK from 1989 to 2002. The British judicial system later let this family farm down, as all 28 criminals were acquitted of their crimes. The quacks and practitioners of pseudoscience that Greenpeace managed to parade in front of the jury managed to convince them that Greenpeace's "good intentions" outweighed the rights of the Brigham family to feel safe on their own property.<br />
<br />
"You know what slurry is? Well it comes from the back of a cow. Two thousand gallons we put on that and just two pints of Liberty [the herbicide made by AgrEvo of which the crops are engineered to be tolerant]. If that's not ****** organic, then what is?" Though Greenpeace got off the hook, the Brigham brothers at the very least got their licks in. During the vandalism Eddie Brigham got on his tractor with a bucket and began ramming the Greenpeace mowers, whacking as many raiders as he could with his bucket of choice. I am not one to romanticize the past, but this is one moment in time I wish I could visit.<br />
<br />
<b>April 2003</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.connectotel.com/gmfood/re090403.txt" target="_blank">Germany was finally ready to allow trials of genetically modified wheat.</a> Receiving approval, Syngenta made plans to plant their seeds, which were resistant to fungus in order to decrease the need for fungicide, in Thuringia. Greenpeace couldn't accept the idea and contaminated the land, making it unusable for the trial. Taking the idea of their own myths about contamination, they planted organic wheat seed all over the test fields so Syngenta would not be able to distinguish the biotech wheat from Greenpeace's.<br />
<br />
<b>July 2004</b><br />
<br />
One of the greatest success stories involving biotech crops is the papaya. Widely adopted in Hawaii, this corporation free fruit saved the papaya industry there when the Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) had hopped islands by 1995. Varieties of the disease resistant papaya have been developed for Brazil, Jamaica, Venezuela, Thailand, China, and The Philippines. First observed in 1975, PRSV is the single greatest barrier to widespread successful commercial papaya production in Thailand. Two Thai scientists traveled to Cornell University in 1995 to develop their own disease resistant papaya. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/ReSizes/Small/Global/international/planet-2/image/2004/7/greenpeace-thai-activists-seal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/ReSizes/Small/Global/international/planet-2/image/2004/7/greenpeace-thai-activists-seal.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2409016/" target="_blank">"Between 2001 and 2004, six sets of experiments were conducted that showed no ecological effects of GE papaya on adjacent non-GE trees, microbial flora, beneficial insects, or the surrounding soil. No differences in nutritional quality were found, no allergenic proteins or toxic attributes were observed, and rats fed GE papaya did not show any abnormalities"</a></blockquote>
The proven safety of the papaya was not enough to deter Greenpeace. Activists descended on a field in Northeast Thailand with the aim of destroying years of work by scientists. Proudly posing for photographs they ripped the fruit from the trees, throwing them into bins marked "biohazard." After winning courtroom battles, Greenpeace would later convince the government to end the trials and destroy all of the research.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>September 2007</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4npZEL652uk/Vt2zjPpp2gI/AAAAAAAAAgA/arjjJxPiRaY/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4npZEL652uk/Vt2zjPpp2gI/AAAAAAAAAgA/arjjJxPiRaY/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" /></a>In many countries where biotech crops have yet to be approved, a black market was developed to meet the demands of the farmers. They want this technology, but it is being denied to them by NGOs like Greenpeace who put pressure on their government and spread fear in the cities where the decisions get made. One such black market was developed in Romania. Biotech seeds were being smuggled in, saved by farmers, and sold without any corporation receiving profits.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://www.greenpeacefoto.de/GPIDoc/GPI/Media/TR1_WATERMARKED/0/5/9/9/GP018OB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Testing Tractor at GE Decontamination Station" border="0" src="http://www.greenpeacefoto.de/GPIDoc/GPI/Media/TR1_WATERMARKED/0/5/9/9/GP018OB.jpg" height="200" width="133" /></a></div>
One would think that anti-globalization movements would approve of this. What better way to stick it to Monsanto other than to use their product without paying for it? <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/press/releases/greenpeace-quarantines-braila/" target="_blank">Greenpeace decided to attack the farmers instead of the corporation.</a> Thirty members of Greenpeace from all over Europe flocked to Braila Island, where they took control of the ferry harbor and set up their own "decontamination station" forcing residents to pass through their inspections.<br />
<br />
<b>February 2011</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/ph/ReSizes/ImageGalleryLarge/Global/seasia/Greenpeace%20photo%20release-%20BT%20Talong%20Los%20Banos-17Feb2011-006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Greenpeace moves to decontaminate Bt eggplant field trial site in the Philippines" border="0" src="http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/ph/ReSizes/ImageGalleryLarge/Global/seasia/Greenpeace%20photo%20release-%20BT%20Talong%20Los%20Banos-17Feb2011-006.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a>On the morning of February 17, technician Noel Lawas was getting ready for work at the University of the Philippines Institute for Plant Breeding, when a guard informed him that people had broken into the plantation. It would be estimated that Greenpeace members Daniel M. Ocampo, Aileen Camille Dimatatac, Adrian N. Dagondon, Benjean May Tolosa, Raymond Berongay, Don Florentino, Shivani Shah, Ali Abbas, Ricky Morales, Eyesha Endar and Rhoda Armoda caused more than $500,000 in damages and destroyed many years of research. This publicly funded project would then later see <a href="https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/04/27/as-success-grows-for-bangladeshs-bt-brinjal-eggplant-mae-won-ho-renews-gmo-disinformation-campaign/" target="_blank">great success in Bangladesh</a> where farmers are seeing dramatic decreases in insecticide usage.<br />
<br />
<b>July 2011</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w2IFsvDt4JU/Vt4a_ulCaJI/AAAAAAAAAgY/HAoXbRsJpbw/s1600/r0_31_600_369_w800_h450_fmax.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w2IFsvDt4JU/Vt4a_ulCaJI/AAAAAAAAAgY/HAoXbRsJpbw/s200/r0_31_600_369_w800_h450_fmax.jpg" width="200" /></a>Scientists in Australia developed a new strain of wheat with a lower glycemic index and increased fiber content to improve bowel health. With human trials only six months away, three Greenpeace activists destroyed the entire crop. Jessica Latona and Heather McCabe, two of the vandals, later issued a joint statement after their sentencing. <a href="http://www.theland.com.au/story/3598546/greenpeace-will-keep-fighting-gm/" target="_blank">"GM is not proven safe to eat. The only thing we are sure about is that it’s a major threat to our environment.”</a> This was simply another attempt by Greenpeace to destroy testing so they can continue to claim a lack of testing.<br />
<br />
<b>Summer 2012</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2012/12/11/greenpeace-hysteria-campaign-scares-chinese-into-retreat-on-nutrition-enhancing-gmo-golden-rice/#657d7c5cc994" target="_blank">“24 children used as guinea pigs in genetically engineered ‘Golden Rice’ trial,"</a> screamed the press release put out by Greenpeace. Four years preceding this date 25 families in China had agreed to be part of a trial and allowed their children to consume what was described as a nutritionally enhanced rice. The study showed that 60% of the vitamin A that children require could be supplied by this rice. After reading a summary of the published study showing the success of the research, Greenpeace immediately launched a fear campaign. Tufts University, which initially approved the informed consent form, went back and decided that the breeding method was not properly explained to the parents. Why would it be? Scientists are not used to thinking in those terms. If any other breeding method had been used it would have been irrelevant. The study ended up being retracted, even though the results were confirmed by the Tufts review board. According to the World Health Organization, <a href="http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/vad/en/" target="_blank">"An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their eyesight."</a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Moving Forward</b><br />
<br />
Greenpeace has made it clear that the science is irrelevant, and in their war against food the ends justify the means. When asked if his opposition to biotechnology was "absolute and definite", rather than one that could be changed based on science, Lord Melchett responded that, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1083916/" target="_blank">"It is a permanent and definite and complete opposition."</a> Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace, is on record stating that the group no longer operates, <a href="http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/features/thebacklashagainstngos" target="_blank">"wholly in the scientific domain."</a> As recently as this week, Greenpeace has <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-gmo-idUSKCN0W90MK?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews" target="_blank">vowed to continue taking further action</a> against biotech crops. Similar to how Monsanto acts based upon the whim of their shareholders, Greenpeace acts based upon the whim of its members and donors. Perhaps, the best way to fight them is by bringing them under more public scrutiny. October 10th, 2016 will be the 20th year anniversary of their first attack on food on which date I will lead a protest in front of their office in Washington, DC, calling on them to end their war against humanity. Greenpeace has offices around the world, I invite you to do the same everywhere. If you can, come to DC, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/198114830549774/" target="_blank">join me here</a>. If you are willing to protest at one of their offices elsewhere, send me details of the event planned and I will help promote it. All it takes for pseudoscience to win, is for science communicators to do nothing.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-16174875606562804792016-03-07T15:30:00.000-05:002016-03-07T15:54:06.984-05:00How a Boston Globe journalist secretly allowed herself to be used for an organic industry-led attack on a professor.<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N-kyLmmfZ94/Vg6uKZWw2EI/AAAAAAAAAP4/jwzcwo2zAeI/s1600/lvczKHhv.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N-kyLmmfZ94/Vg6uKZWw2EI/AAAAAAAAAP4/jwzcwo2zAeI/s320/lvczKHhv.jpeg" width="320" /></a><br />
By Stephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com<br />
Edited by Nandu Nandini<br />
<br />
I have never quite read anything in such an esteemed paper as The Boston Globe as<a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/10/01/harvard-professor-failed-disclose-monsanto-connection-paper-touting-gmos/lLJipJQmI5WKS6RAgQbnrN/story.html" target="_blank"> this piece on Professor Juma</a> at Harvard. The article was clearly meant to tarnish his reputation, as there is zero evidence of any kind of wrongdoing on his part.<br />
<br />
In 2014 the professor wrote a <a href="http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/12/09/global-risks-of-rejecting-agricultural-biotechnology/" target="_blank">blog entry for Genetic Literacy</a>. An opinion piece. The Globe article makes it sound like it was some sort of research paper led by Monsanto. By emphasizing "biotechnology" in quotes it is quite demeaning to an entire technology. </div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-882m9SmeuVg/Vg6B0UQ0FnI/AAAAAAAAAPg/6q6YUNflw9Q/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-882m9SmeuVg/Vg6B0UQ0FnI/AAAAAAAAAPg/6q6YUNflw9Q/s1600/Capture.PNG" /></a>Clearly their writer Ms. Laura Krantz has an agenda here. After a quick Google search, I found a <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eSbl_FJtTXEJ:laurakrantz.blogspot.com/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" target="_blank">blog</a> wherein she discusses learning all about organic farming and her future plans to live that kind of lifestyle. Since the organic industry has a vested interest in demonizing biotech crops <a href="https://twitter.com/borlaugdisciple/status/649679749766377472" target="_blank">I called her out on it via Twitter</a>. Within 10 minutes of calling her out on it, she deleted her organic blog, clearly demonstrating that she had something to hide. I find it extremely unethical that a journalist complains about a writer not disclosing something, and then tries to hide her own past. Her page was saved in the Google cache and can be accessed <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eSbl_FJtTXEJ:laurakrantz.blogspot.com/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
I also question her honesty by which she obtained this information. The Boston Globe received the 4,600 emails from the University of Florida. One does not simply sort through nearly 5,000 emails to find one email from a Harvard professor. So I decided to do something a little unorthodox,<a href="https://www.muckrock.com/foi/florida-34/copies-of-foia-requests-on-professor-kevin-folta-24048/" target="_blank"> I submitted a FOIA request on the FOIA requests</a>. It turns out that she received the documents on September 30th, just one day before the article was published. Ms. Krantz would like us to believe that in no less than 24 hours she went through 4,600 emails, wrote the article, submitted it to her editor, and had it approved? In my opinion, she already had the email about Professor Juma in her possession from Gary Ruskin at US RTK, and the Globe's own FOIA request was a way to cover her tracks.<br />
<br />
US RTK received funding from the Organic Consumer's Association, which in turn receives funding from many companies in the organic industry such as; Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, Joseph Mercola, Nutiva, and Eden Organic. After losing the GMO labeling battle in California, Ruskin formed US RTK, through which has been submitting FOIA requests in the hopes of connecting scientists that defend science to the biotech industry.</div>
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Professor Juma did nothing wrong. He did not take any money from Monsanto and merely offered his opinion on a blog. Now he is receiving threats and calls to land him in jail by <a href="https://twitter.com/va_shiva/status/649696810445901824" target="_blank">celebrity husbands</a>. Professor Folta clearly <a href="http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/08/16/kevin-folta-responds-anti-gmo-foia-fiasco-plos-bungled-post-misrepresents-smoking-gun-email/" target="_blank">made a mistake</a> in not mentioning the grant his outreach program received. Professor Juma did not even make a mistake. Who discloses on brief emails when writing a blog posting? If Ms. Krantz has nothing to hide or disclose herself, why is she trying to delete her past?<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-48925830599754514152016-03-07T06:33:00.001-05:002016-04-12T18:36:23.667-04:0010 Amazing GMOs!<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="1; url=http://welovegv.com/10-amazing-gmo/">
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Most people are familiar with just three types of “GMOs” corn, soy beans, and beets (usually they can even cite glyphosate resistance or the Bt trait!). But dozens of GMOs exist and they have been used to benefit human health, animal welfare and to safeguard the environment for over 30 years! Here are some GMOs you may have never heard about, or realized why they were created in the first place!!!</div>
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1) Do you eat cheese?! Who doesn’t!? Once upon a time, the veal calf industry was booming, and we used calf stomach rennet (enzymes that coagulate milk into curd) to make cheese with. But as our concern for animal welfare grew, and our use of veal calves fell, we needed to find an alternate source of cheese making enzymes. We now use bioengineered chymosin to protect the welfare of veal calves and to have a cheap and virtually limitless supply of enzymes, responsible for over 90% of cheese consumed today.</div>
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2) Insulin — For 60 years after the discovery that injected insulin could treat diabetes, diabetics relied on insulin purified from animals, primarily cattle and pigs. Animal insulin works well on the whole, but is not an exact match with the human hormone and sometimes causes adverse reactions, for example, skin rashes. In 1978 insulin became the first human protein to be manufactured through biotechnology. Today all insulin for human use is manufactured from GMO bacteria.</div>
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3) Vaccines- indisputably life saving, vaccines are produced in chicken eggs, human cell lines or bacteria all genetically modified to produce the antigen of choice!</div>
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4) Golden Rice- a great example of improving a non-nutrient dense, staple food source that is heavily consumed in very poor countries. 190 million children and 19 million pregnant women are at risk for vitamin A deficiency. The genes to make vitamin A in Golden Rice were transferred from daffodils, a bacterium, and maize.</div>
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5) Papaya — the entire papaya industry in the US was nearly decimated by the papaya ringspot virus. GMOs saved the entire industry!!</div>
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6) Potatoes- GMO potatoes were approved by the FDA last year. Potatoes naturally contain a precursor to acrylamide, a cancer causing chemical that is produced when potatoes are cooked at high temperatures (just like we enjoy them, fried!!) the gene was modified so the potatoes will produce less if the chemicals. Nothing was added!!</div>
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7) Interferon- a protein used to treat multiple sclerosis, autoimmune disorders, and in some cancer treatments. As a society we rely on drugs produced by GMO bacteria!!!</div>
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8) Blood clotting treatments — for stokes, blood clots and blood clotting disorders — example, the drug, ATryn, is an anticoagulant which reduces the probability of blood clots during surgery or childbirth. It is extracted from genetically modified goat’s milk.</div>
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9) Cotton- 50% more cotton is produced worldwide today on the same amount of land as compared to 40 some years ago. Some countries have reduced their cotton insecticide use by up to 90%!!!</div>
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10) Salmon- it’s no secret that wild salmon populations have been overfished and stressed by climate change. Commercial fishing, and human-caused habitat destruction have caused the lowest salmon population observed since the 1970s. A new genetically engineered Atlantic salmon variety contains a gene from Pacific Salmon to increase the growth rate from the usual 3 years to 18 months. This and other technological advances, enables the fish to be grown on land, which could help us to build a US based salmon industry (95% of our salmon is imported) and also help us to protect our oceans from over fishing.</div>
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<span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;">GMOs in Development</span></div>
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Some of my favorite GMOs currently underdevelopment include;</div>
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A “polled” (hornless) version of dairy cattle, a stunning 9 million of which are currently deformed with hot irons, clippers or caustic paste causing much animal suffering (farmers hate doing it too!). Hornless cows are lousy milk producers and traditional breeding has not been able to cross breed a great milking AND hornless variety. This technology works by disabling a gene, instead of adding one from another species. There are many other genetic modifications in development currently to reduce animal suffering!!</div>
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The Florida Orange crop is currently being decimated by blight, a “citrus greening” plague sweeping through Florida. More than 80% of Florida’s orange trees are infected. A gene from spinach has been inserted into citrus trees to prevent this disease, and the citrus industry is only a few years away from complete collapse, however, approvals for new GMOs take a long time.</div>
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Spider silk from goats milk- spider silk is tougher than Kevlar, incredibly light and resilient! But spider silk, as useful as it may be to industry, is very hard to farm from spiders (they cannibalize each other..) !!</div>
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<span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700;">Some Persistent GMO myths</span></div>
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While we are at it, let’s also talk about some stuff I hate, m’kay?</div>
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“Genetic modifications are genes that are not found in nature.” False!!! These genes (every gene….) is found somewhere in nature, for example, when a gene from spinach is put into citrus trees. Synthetic biology and the <em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;">de novo</em>creation of genes or proteins has not quite made it out of the lab yet :). Watch out for it though. It’s coming for you!</div>
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“Genetically modified wheat caused the rise of Celiac disease and gluten intolerance”. The fact is, there is no such thing as “GMO wheat”. Wheat has been modified by human hands since the dawn of agriculture. The only modifications that have been made have occurred through NATURAL breeding. Not through bioengineering-i.e. the insertion or deletion of genes.</div>
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“Monsanto is making billions of dollars off the backs of poor farmers” False!!! Golden rice is distributed for free to subsistence farmers. Monsanto Company was one of the first companies to grant free licenses for golden rice. The cutoff is ten thousand dollars in profit- if farmers make more than $10,000 per year, then they are expected to buy the seeds.</div>
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I greatly dislike and object to the demonization of Monsanto. Why do you think it is that “Monsanto”, “RoundUp”, “glyphosate” and ‘Bt Corn’ are household names- while the examples below are not while Syngenta and DuPont are not? Exhibit A: ‘Syngenta’ is a huge biotech seed and agri-chemical company- they manufacture ‘Agrisure’ GM corn and triazine, one of the most widely used herbicides in US and Australian agriculture. The Agrisure brand corn has the Viptera trait, to be resistant to triazine.</div>
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Exhibit B: ‘DuPont “Pioneer”’, a huge company (a subsidiary of DuPont) that shares the GMO corn market with Monsanto. They each own around 36 percent of it.</div>
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Genes engineered into DuPont Pioneer products include the LibertyLink gene, which provides resistance to Bayer’s Ignite/Liberty herbicides; the Herculex I Insect Protection gene which provides protection against various insects; the Herculex RW insect protection trait which provides protection against other insects; the YieldGard Corn Borer gene, which provides resistance to another set of insects;and the Roundup Ready Corn 2 trait that provides crop resistance against glyphosate herbicides.</div>
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(Not only that, but DuPont has manufactured its share of dangerous pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals, including coatings like C8. By the way, DuPont also manufactured Agent Orange, DDT, and PCBs … just like ‘Monsanto’ did (the OLD Monsanto chemical company- not the new seed company).</div>
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In conclusion, I LOVE GMOs and Biotechnology. We do this to help SOLVE The world’s problems. If you are interested in GMOs check out a guest blog post I wrote on <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://youtrition.net/gmos/" href="http://youtrition.net/gmos/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%); background-position: 0px 22px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; text-decoration: none;">GMO basics</a>, where you can find out what happens to DNA after we eat it, or you can <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivubFMNXfDo" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivubFMNXfDo" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%); background-position: 0px 22px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; text-decoration: none;">watch me on You Tube</a> (how embarrassing) or for more advanced info- check out another post I wrote on what types of technologies<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/@32ATPs/monsanto-s-next-moves-as-gmo-patents-expire-bigdata-and-rnai-9bac3eeb4680#.yhvb0w2ub" href="https://medium.com/@32ATPs/monsanto-s-next-moves-as-gmo-patents-expire-bigdata-and-rnai-9bac3eeb4680#.yhvb0w2ub" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.298039); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%); background-position: 0px 22px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; text-decoration: none;"> Monsanto is developing next</a>. </div>
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This article originally appeared on Medium <a href="https://medium.com/@32ATPs/10-amazing-gmos-ce8d35f32021#.vi93mualr" target="_blank">here</a> and was reposted with permission of the author.</div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-44655806175664365432016-03-03T23:30:00.000-05:002016-04-13T19:09:41.304-04:00Five essential reasons why Tom Colicchio, celebrity chef, is wrong about biotechnology<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="1; url=http://welovegv.com/five-essential-reasons-why-tom-colicchio-celebrity-chef-is-wrong-about-biotechnology/">
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X5rafWK0CnE/VtmduyTMpII/AAAAAAAAAe8/vlcD6yAerWU/s1600/Untitled%2Bdrawing%2B%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X5rafWK0CnE/VtmduyTMpII/AAAAAAAAAe8/vlcD6yAerWU/s640/Untitled%2Bdrawing%2B%25282%2529.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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By Stephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com</div>
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Edited by Nandu Nandini</div>
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Yesterday, <a href="https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/tom-colicchio-tells-us-about-petitioning-chefs-for-more-gmo-transparency">Vice.com published an interview</a> with celebrity chef Tom Colicchio about his petition to label foods that contain ingredients from crops grown from seeds, which are bred by a breeding method not approved for the organic industry. Colicchio is the co-founder of Food Policy Action, an organization run by a "who's who" of people with a financial stake that depends on scaring people about our food supply. When <a href="http://foodpolicyaction.org/board/">Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farms, Joshua Brau of Chipotle, Marni Karlin of the Organic Trade Association, and Britt Lundgren of Stonyfield Farms</a> are all involved, rest assured the demonization of science is not far behind. This head judge of Top Chef showed off his lack of critical thinking by simply regurgitating all of the typical anti-biotechnology talking points promoted by the primitive food movement.</div>
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"I don’t necessarily believe that GMOs are inherently dangerous. I think in some instances, GMOs can be very helpful. They do show a lot of promise, but I still believe that people have a right to know what’s in their food. If I choose to opt out of supporting these kinds of practices, I should have the ability to know and make my decision."</div>
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Colicchio fails to recall that voluntary labels already serve this purpose. For many years now Jews and Muslims have had a similar desire to know what was in their food, and labels for their dietary restrictions are actually quite prevalent. If his customers are concerned about the breeding method of seed, the way Jews and Muslims are concerned about pork and shellfish, he can label his menus accordingly. Starting with the claim that he doesn't think "GMOs are inherently dangerous" but thinks they deserve mandatory labels, he sounds similar to: an anti-vaxxer chanting "I am not anti-vax, I am just pro-vax safety", a young earth creationist chanting about "micro versus macro evolution", or a climate change denier chanting "sure we are emitting greenhouse gasses, they just aren't actually contributing to a greenhouse effect."</div>
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"Everyone from Big Ag to food companies are behind the DARK Act. The Grocery Manufacturers Association is supporting it and so are companies like Monsanto, Syngenta, and Dow."</div>
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This argument is extremely irrelevant. Colicchio actually doesn't understand why biotechnology companies would fight to have warning labels that appears to be scaring people about their product, and which the people behind his own organization have been terrifying people about for almost 30 years? He isn't going to mention the vested interest of those who oppose the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act (in which he parrots the nickname given by organic marketing teams)? "Corporation" is not an argument for or against something. Big Pharma may screw up sometimes, but most people are quite happy with the way it has a habit of saving lives. Nevertheless because people like celebrity chefs do not fear hunger, they can scare people about a technology that can be used as one tool to fight malnutrition.</div>
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"There are plenty of studies that show that organic farming can feed the world as well. There are plenty of other ways to boost yields. Listen, Monsanto also does regular breeding in addition to GE breeding and they are finding that a lot of these conventional methods offer better yields. It’s a tool that we should be using, but it’s not the only tool we should be using. Right now, we as a nation waste about 40 percent of what we produce. How about we waste less food if we want to talk about feeding the world?"</div>
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Nice <a href="https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/strawman">straw man</a> argument, Tom ! No one is saying that genetic engineering is the only tool we should be using. It is quite the contradiction to say that, while also admitting that Monsanto uses other methods. In <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12571-016-0553-2">Genetically modified crops and agricultural development</a>, Matin Qaim explains, "GM technologies will not replace conventional breeding, rather both approaches are highly complementary. Locally adapted varieties contain a large bundle of various characteristics that cannot easily be designed through genetic engineering. However, genetic engineering can be used to add individual traits of interest to such locally adapted varieties. Second, GM technologies can help to conserve varietal diversity. Previously, when a superior new variety was developed, farmers often adopted this new variety, abandoning a larger number of old varieties and landraces. Now new GM traits can be introgressed into many existing varieties."</div>
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Sometimes genetic engineering can create higher yields, sometimes it cannot. From time to time it can reduce pesticide usage, but sometimes it can't. This disparity is based on countless factors. For example, the impacts of Bt crops will vary depending on the farming techniques used prior to their introduction. Australia, which was already using modern farming practices, did not see an increase in yield. What they did see was a 48% decrease in insecticide usage. The Philippines, which already was not using many insecticides compared to other countries, saw only a 5% decrease in insecticide use, but a staggering 34% increase in yield because their crops were not being consumed by pests as much.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GPK4nUTZjkw/VtmPkG69rwI/AAAAAAAAAeo/X8LgvoTdf30/s1600/Screenshot%2B2016-03-04%2Bat%2B8.36.59%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="422" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GPK4nUTZjkw/VtmPkG69rwI/AAAAAAAAAeo/X8LgvoTdf30/s640/Screenshot%2B2016-03-04%2Bat%2B8.36.59%2BAM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source - Matin Qaim:Genetically modified crops and agricultural development Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2016, (ISBN: 978-1-137-40571-5)</td></tr>
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What about food waste? Developed nations produce and consume a lot of food. So much so that a lot of it is wasted. This is a problem that we agree on. <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150122-food-waste-climate-change-hunger/">Climate change</a> might be eased by a reduction in food waste, whereas malnutrition and famine would probably not. True famine is only occurring in countries where food aid is being prevented from entering areas where it is needed such as North Korea <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/18/north-korea-us-food-aid%20http://www.fews.net/">where food aid from the United States is turned down</a>. The <a href="http://www.fews.net/about-us">Famine Early Warning System</a> is now in place saving lives around the globe. Better access to agricultural technology could actually help reduce food waste, rather than increase it. <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/indonesiarealtime/2015/02/22/better-infrastructure-would-cut-food-waste/">Better infrastructure in developing nations</a> would help food get to the consumers faster and increase shelf life through refrigeration. Food waste campaigns often have little impact on the developing world because they are almost based on food waste happening in developed countries. A recent report from the <a href="http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/post-2015-consensus/food-security-and-nutrition">Copenhagen Consensus Center</a> estimates that for every $1 spent investing in developing world agriculture to reduce postharvest losses the return would be $13.</div>
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"They’re being politicians. They’re just protecting their funding stream, and I get that, it’s politics. I guarantee that on hundred other issues, Pompeo [who introduced the bill] would be all for states’ rights. Now all of a sudden, it’s like 'to hell with the states, we need a federal bill.' We believe the same. We need a federal bill to label all transgenic GMO foods."</div>
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This same argument goes both ways. Senator Jon Tester, who is fighting for mandatory labels based on just the one breeding method, just so happens to run a large organic farm. Senator Murkowski of Alaska wants to label transgenic salmon, because it might compete with the Alaska salmon industry. Even Bernie Sanders is fighting against science because Vermont happens to be one of the <a href="http://www.cias.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/organic-numbers.pdf">top five states</a> producing organic products. Even the argument about states' rights can be used both ways. The organic industry fought hard in the 80s and 90s for a voluntary federal standard certification label in an attempt to prevent conflicting state standards that might confuse consumers. Sounds exactly like the argument the GMA is using now.</div>
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"It’s gotten far worse. The ag-gag laws in place are ridiculous. On the other hand, more and more we see people asking for more information about food supply. Look at what’s going on in Flint, Michigan with the water supply. These are basic things that we should be able to get right and who is it affecting? Largely poor people. We need to be more transparent and we need to look at the health of our population."</div>
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Ag-gag laws are a complete red herring in this discussion. Animal welfare has nothing to do with whether or not one breeding method, out of many, needs to be labeled on food. <a href="http://host.madison.com/wsj/business/peta-wants-dairy-farmers-to-breed-genetically-modified-cows/article_0d5d54d6-5c6b-5c38-8280-4452659ea138.html">Even PETA</a> wants this technology to help animals, so there can be genetically engineered cows that don't have horns. Is Tom concerned about the <a href="http://www.eater.com/2015/6/2/8708471/farmer-breeds-pigs-extra-ribs-more-meat-australia-genetics">welfare of pigs being bred with an extra set of ribs</a> for the sole purpose of having an extra set of ribs on the dinner plate? Something completely unregulated because it was done with artificial selection. This has even led to <a href="http://www.marketplace.org/2011/11/16/life/freakonomics-radio/your-thanksgiving-turkey-probably-product-artificial-insemination">male turkeys with such large breasts</a>, that the only way to breed them is through artificial insemination. Is that not information worth sharing with his customers? Flint, Michigan was the result of the government failing to use private industry to get the chemicals needed to treat the water (<a href="http://news.health.com/2015/12/21/the-lead-poisoning-crisis-in-michigan-how-it-happened-and-what-to-know-about-your-water/">organophosphates, I might add</a>). The breeding method of plant seeds does not give the consumer any information whatsoever on health or nutrition, and probably would serve as a distraction from information on things like calories and nutrition content, which matter most and also determine health and nutritional needs. Has anyone produced a correlation graph comparing organic food sales and adult obesity rates?</div>
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Democracy may be about making our voices heard, but as a republic we also have a duty to ensure that mob rule does not uphold. I agree with Mr. Colicchio when he says that everything in our kitchen is touched by policy, shouldn't we make sure the policy is based on facts and not fear? </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-68536334450388118132016-03-02T19:53:00.001-05:002016-03-03T14:57:52.538-05:00The organic industry has employed repugnant PR tactics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-77U3L1fiC3s/VteK-fhjd0I/AAAAAAAAAeQ/5JfpZoEa2Q0/s1600/10888776353_9c71574e19_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-77U3L1fiC3s/VteK-fhjd0I/AAAAAAAAAeQ/5JfpZoEa2Q0/s640/10888776353_9c71574e19_b.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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By Stephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com<br />
Edited by Nandu Nandini<br />
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Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, Joseph Mercola, Nutiva, and Eden Organic are multi-million dollar corporate entities that are known for their attacks against critics. They are also<a href="https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/glp-facts/organic-consumers-association-2/"> large contributors to the Organic Consumer's Association</a>, who funded the "attack NGO" US Right To Know (US RTK).<br />
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Writing for Examiner, James Cooper <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/relentless-attacks-silence-public-scientist">recounted the story of US RTK’s unusually forceful attacks against Kevin Folta</a>, a <a href="http://www.hos.ufl.edu/faculty/kmfolta">professor of Plant Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Florida</a> (as well as the hideously nefarious class Fruit For Fun and Profit). In his spare time Folta runs an outreach program on the subject of biotechnology, and was a very vocal critic online of the anti-GMO movement. In response, US RTK launched a multi-pronged effort to, <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2015/12/23/award-lists-you-do-and-dont-want-to-be-on/">in the words of Dr. David Gorski</a> (surgical oncologist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute), “discredit Folta.” Among other tactics the oraganic PR machine deployed against Folta, Cooper reports that:<br />
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"...the personal attacks on Folta had gotten completely out of hand, all claiming he was a lying Monsanto shill and the like. To see how bad it became, take a look at Mike Adam’s Natural News post calling him “the most discredited scientist in America,” and a “discredited Monsanto puppet.’ Mike Adams is, of course, not a scientist nor even a reporter. His Natural News site is recognized as a collection of completely made up conspiracies and other fantasies.</quote></blockquote>
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About this time, an advertisement appeared in the Gainesville Craigslist repeating these accusations and calling him “a lying Monsanto puppet.” It also published his home address, which made Folta fear for his young family."</quote></blockquote>
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In its efforts to intimidate unbiased journalists, US RTK also investigated the journalists <a href="http://usrtk.org/the-agrichemical-companies-have-employed-repugnant-pr-tactics/">Keith Kloor, Amy Harmon, and Tamar Haspel</a>. Kloor compared US RTK to <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/02/updated-agricultural-researchers-rattled-demands-documents-group-opposed-gm-foods">another anti-science movement</a>, "The tactic is familiar in another controversial area, climate science, where researchers have faced an avalanche of document requests from climate change skeptics."<br />
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<b>Brainwashing children</b><br />
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In 2015, <span style="background-color: white; font-family: "droid serif" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Macmillan/McGraw-Hill</span>, a large textbook publisher, revised a 6th grade textbook, to deliver organic industry PR to children. <a href="https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/01/14/macmillanmcgraw-hill-bows-to-anti-gmo-protestors-revises-6th-grade-textbook/">A massive campaign by many of the industry's astro-turf groups led to many calls to their customer service number</a>. If this had been young earth creationists calling to encourage a false balance on the topic of evolution, there would have been a huge media outrage. But because the organic industry has such a strong hold over the mainstream media, nothing was said or done.<br />
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<b>Attacking and intimidating scientists</b><br />
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The organic industry and its PR minions have a history of harsh and career-threatening attacks against their scientific critics, including <a href="https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/08/16/kevin-folta-responds-anti-gmo-foia-fiasco-plos-bungled-post-misrepresents-smoking-gun-email/">Kevin Folta</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzJRuradOU1aRWFrYlV6VFRPT1p3emZNbFllWExyM216Z1c4/view?usp=sharing">Shelley McGuire</a>, <a href="http://academicsreview.org/2015/09/the-usrtk-foia-campaign-against-academics-40-plus-years-of-public-science-research-and-teaching-under-assault/">Bruce Chassy</a>, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2581387/Scientists-hidden-links-GM-food-giants-Disturbing-truth-official-report-said-UK-forge-Frankenfoods.html">Sir David Baulcombe, Professor Jonathan Jones, Lord Sainsbury, Professor Jim Dunwell, Anthony Trewavas</a>, <a href="http://www.spinwatch.org/index.php/issues/science/item/164-smelling-a-corporate-rat">Chris Leaver, Martina Newell-McGloughlin, Val Giddings, Martina Newell-McGloughlin, Erio Barale-Thomas, Marc Fellous</a>, <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/051720_Bill_Nye_depopulation_corporate_propaganda.html">Bill Nye</a>, and even <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/051853_Neil_deGrasse_Tyson_geoengineering_GMO_junk_science.html">Neil deGrasse Tyson</a>.<br />
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How do these attacks affect what is known about the public perception of biotechnology? No one really knows. But given this history, any scientist who publishes findings that are contrary to the interests of the organic industry can reasonably expect a sharp attack, or perhaps even a career-ending one. Of course there are scientists who are courageous enough to publish despite such prospects. But surely worries about how the industry might respond, and its effects on career prospects, has a deterrent effect on scientists’ initiation and publication of research that is adverse to the organic industry.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-91980170785386701922016-02-27T16:00:00.001-05:002016-04-13T19:43:21.826-04:00Into the belly of the beast. My day at an integrative health conference.<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="1; url=http://welovegv.com/into-the-belly-of-the-beast-my-day-at-an-integrative-health-conference/">
<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/ebOEIZyvXIPnVKgZlBIGfOjUruuGjmCI40pUZM_F_mL8n2hiSIaPB97QeBXvlBH4W-ZLVw=w1241-h545" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Displaying DSC05506.JPG" border="0" height="213" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/ebOEIZyvXIPnVKgZlBIGfOjUruuGjmCI40pUZM_F_mL8n2hiSIaPB97QeBXvlBH4W-ZLVw=w1241-h545" width="320" /></a><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">S</span></b><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">tephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com </span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; line-height: 1.38;">"You here? Smells like woo and essential oils."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Those were the texts I received from my two fellow science communicators as we all arrived separately at </span><a href="http://www.healthylivingexpodc.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">HealthFest</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 2016, an integrative health conference in Washington, DC. As I first entered the vendor room, I immediately realized that I was surrounded by pseudoscience. Acupuncture, reiki, chiropractic, healing stones, holistic dentistry, and also college recruiters for bachelors and masters degrees in pseudoscience. That pseudoscience stuff you read about online and think that people surely cannot believe in this, turns out they really do. The event was also graced by the transcendental meditation cult recruiters in the back corner.</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As I collected the obligatory free pens, I noticed something odd about many of the vendors selling wares. I was expecting this would be like an arts and crafts festival I suppose, with homemade chakra stones and other merchandise. What I saw was a room full of victims of multi level marketing schemes. Essential oils, magic rub-on pain relievers, and organic versions of Herbalife. These were people suckered into buying products enabling a pharaoh somewhere to become richer regardless of whether or not any of these products ended up with a consumer.</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rCE4sSpFM0jVYz6JQpe7SO39voaE8aqtOEZwcHW35Gzl7Bb1GAvpS830DWtxY4loqicLgg=w1886-h904" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Displaying DSC05507.JPG" aria-hidden="true" border="0" class="drive-viewer-image-img drive-viewer-focus-to-default" height="213" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rCE4sSpFM0jVYz6JQpe7SO39voaE8aqtOEZwcHW35Gzl7Bb1GAvpS830DWtxY4loqicLgg=w1886-h904" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The workshop he held there was called, "Flint's Lead Poisoned Residents CAN Heal". I walked into the room and was fairly surprised to see that attendance was sparse, maybe about five people including myself. </span><a href="http://www.quackwatch.com/11Ind/gant.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">QuackWatch</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> reports that Gant left New York for having his license suspended because he, "practiced the profession with negligence on more than one occasion, practiced his profession fraudulently, engaged in conduct which evidences moral unfitness, filed false reports, received consideration from a third party for patient referrals and failed to maintain accurate records." He now practices the pseudoscience of naturopathy in Washington, DC.</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I purposefully sat in the front row so that there would be no doubt I was recording video of the entire session. In front of the "audience" was an elderly man who was so out of shape that he seemed out of breath just leaning onto a counter. If this is what worrying about chemicals instead of counting calories does to you, grab me a calculator. His lecture started late because of the lack of people in attendance. He kept waiting and made comments about how if everyone in the vendor room realized that 1/3, 1/4, 20% (the amount kept changing) of them were lead poisoned, there would be a stampede to get in. </span></b></div>
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<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/GQeol4iTwvDQWxby-NWnW1shxiO5qQgwg_FTvEAroGKXDOVv842pe2FOZ7v6uZLAfrNBnRD0uWx2YQnGoDPODAe4FcLtsXPGobBYN5ZCXWNTWjYm7_hLfYwaaWpWueRhRpn8XcnP" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/GQeol4iTwvDQWxby-NWnW1shxiO5qQgwg_FTvEAroGKXDOVv842pe2FOZ7v6uZLAfrNBnRD0uWx2YQnGoDPODAe4FcLtsXPGobBYN5ZCXWNTWjYm7_hLfYwaaWpWueRhRpn8XcnP" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border-image: none; border: currentColor; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Like many woo practitioners, he relied on blending fact with fiction. He explained why lead is a problem - Old infrastructures, especially in inner city areas, combined with some poor government decision making. But then he ventured into more familiar pseudoscience territory; the idea that even minute amounts of any substance is dangerously high, that even the amount of lead exposure deemed safe by every major scientific organization on the planet was giving children autism, depression, ADHD, and learning disabilities. "I assume there is a connection, even if there is not," he states in a way that essentially sums up every crank out there. His solution to this lead poisoning epidemic appears to be some type of natural genetic modification. He believes that alternative medicine will be found soon to turn genetic switches on and off to prevent lead contamination in the body. His 10-day detox therapy includes colloidal silver (for turning into Papa Smurf), IV therapies (because vaccines needles are bad, but pumping your blood full of vitamin C is good), and oxygen therapy (</span><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-prescription-for-death/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">for when the risk of death is worth getting rid of "toxins"</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">).</span></div>
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<a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/0GQeYNBguTpx8Bcx4O3GhBOaQn2eWp7nlCYtW-zFf6uHwlGFEk0dkcmEHBBr8t_H8r0opA=w1886-h904" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Displaying DSC05510.JPG" aria-hidden="true" border="0" class="drive-viewer-image-img drive-viewer-focus-to-default" height="213" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/0GQeYNBguTpx8Bcx4O3GhBOaQn2eWp7nlCYtW-zFf6uHwlGFEk0dkcmEHBBr8t_H8r0opA=w1886-h904" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I would say that my favorite moment was this quote, "For thousands of years it was thought that.... the good spirits from the volcanic water would take the evil spirits out of the body. And in fact even though they had the terminology a little wrong, they were right! The hot sulfur water causes us to sweat, and sulfur penetrates the surface of our bodies and binds to toxins and out they come." Somehow he managed to actually prove the skeptics were correct. We have been saying that </span><a href="https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/toxins-the-new-evil-humours/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">toxins are the new spirits for years</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Next up to speak was a holistic dentist. </span><a href="http://thedcdentist.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Dr. Terry Victor</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> offers services for patients who fear chemicals in the DC area. Profiting off of fluoride fear-mongering, Dr. Victor told us with a straight face that he is proud of a certain chart in his office. He apparently explains to his patients with this visual how meridians from ancient Chinese medicine relate to their teeth. The meridians he is talking about comes from acupuncture, allowing "chi" to flow through the body. I get nervous enough as it is thinking about dentists and needles, the last thing I want is one who practices acupuncture. Especially one who says that a patient with prostate cancer has a tooth connected to it through these meridians. I promise you, I was sober when I wrote that sentence. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Unlike Gant, Victor opened up to questions from potential patients. One young lady who was prescribed specific things by her legitimate dentist, was basically told to stop what she was doing by Victor. Victor compared the minute amounts of fluoride we get for our teeth to the high levels detected naturally in Chinese groundwater. </span><a href="https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/antifluoridation-bad-science/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Steven Novella explains the problem</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. "Fluoridated water in the US has the same level of fluoride as the control or low fluoride groups in the China studies reviewed in the recent article, and the negative association with IQ was only found where fluoride levels were much higher – generally above EPA limits."</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://carbon-comic.com/comic/244-prism-caption-winner/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://carbon-comic.com/comic/244-prism-caption-winner/</span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Of course one of the biggest problems with pseudoscience dentists are filling removals. Like mercury in vaccines, they incite fear about mercury in amalgam fillings. Patients seek out these doctors to have their fillings removed, and new ones placed in. </span><a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090402143746.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">"But composite fillings have their own problems. They cost more than amalgam and often are not covered by insurance. Numerous studies have shown that amalgam significantly outlasts composite, while composite causes more secondary cavities and may contribute to plaque formation."</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> This might be a nice circle of profit for these dentists, as this one spoke at length on tooth removal and what he uses to replace them. I wish I had access to data comparing cavity rates between holistic dentists and good dentists. He credits the Internet for allowing people to "do their research" and seek him out for filling removal.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Opposing alcohol based mouthwash and fluoride, what is left to put in your mouth? Oil pulling. This is where a person swishes something like sesame oil around in their mouth for 10 - 20 minutes. The term pulling is used to make it sound like "toxins" (evil spirits) are being pulled from your mouth. Swishing liquid around your mouth for that amount of time is probably going to remove some food particles from your mouth, and it may have a small role to play in oral hygiene in some developing parts of the world. People in developing parts of the world do swish water around in their mouth and spit it out after every meal, thus ensuring some food particles and sugars are washed off the teeth. But, again, as </span><a href="https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/oil-pulling-your-leg/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Steven Novella concludes</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, "Oil pulling for general health or any other indication is pure pseudoscience. Detox claims are based on nothing, as all detox claims are. There is no evidence or plausible rationale to recommend oil pulling for any indication other than as a poor substitute for oral care."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Victor ends the workshop with something that made my jaw hit the floor. He talked about a study that showed how the more teeth you have missing, the shorter your expected lifespan. Talk about a case of correlation vs. causation. Did he mean people with poor hygiene are very likely to live shorter lives and that is the only cause? Forget vaccines and other forms of modern medicine that can ensure longer lives. We just need to make sure those missing teeth get filled in everywhere. He went on some crazy rant about how the missing teeth causes you to not begin the digestion process properly leading to all sorts of health problems. Of course most people in the developed world with missing teeth are probably going to get fake ones placed in. The whole topic reeked of kombucha and essential oils.</span></div>
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<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/fJ0sEPSus3804m_OXLaskVM95TP4etKEz6evOh7WwqRXWqgLbGuPFsAF6s3BG1nQqjMpFQ=w1886-h904" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Displaying DSC05520.JPG" aria-hidden="true" border="0" class="drive-viewer-image-img drive-viewer-focus-to-default" height="213" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/fJ0sEPSus3804m_OXLaskVM95TP4etKEz6evOh7WwqRXWqgLbGuPFsAF6s3BG1nQqjMpFQ=w1886-h904" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Two people made that day worth it. The first was blogger Jenny Spitter who brought her son along with her. When her son asked her if everything Gant was saying was true, she didn't immediately say it was all BS like many skeptics would. She insisted on going home and looking for science and evidence based sources of information so he could come to his own conclusion. Pretty open minded for the author of, </span><a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/12/05/stop_telling_me_im_poisoning_my_kids_food_crusaders_sancti_mommies_and_the_rise_of_entitled_eaters/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">"Stop Telling Me I'm Poisoning My Kids."</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The other was <a href="http://www.gwcim.com/people/ilana-seidel-md/" target="_blank">Ilana Seidel</a>, an Integrative Medicine Family Medicine physician currently working at the Washington, D.C. Veteran Affairs Medical Center and the GW Center for Integrative Medicine, who approached my other science pal after the dentist's office manager mentioned his recording of the talk. "As an undergraduate, she shared Reiki with HIV+ patients at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York." With my We Love GMOs and Vaccines shirt I admitted I was a skeptic, but not that I was going to write about the event. At the time I wasn't sure if I was going to or not. We don't plan on actually distributing the audio and video at this point. But we had a very pleasant conversation, and she was not at all hostile about me not believing a word of any of the talk. I told her that in some cases placebos can be beneficial, and she tried to convince us that if we exercised or got massages we were already practicing integrative health. We left essentially agreeing to disagree, but on that day I came to a conclusion . These people are not lying. They are delusional. Vani Hari is not a liar. The dentist is not a liar. Gant is not a liar. Andrew Wakefield is not a liar. They actually believe all of this. You can be honest and wrong, which is something a lot of skeptics don't get. If this was all some giant scam set up with the purpose to deceive, they would have been hostile to us being there. She wanted to "save us" like a missionary going door to door. I am sure she just believed we were full of evil spirits, I mean toxins, that needed to be pulled out.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Into The Belly Of The Beast - My Day At An Integrative Health Conference by </span><a href="http://welovegv.blogspot.com/2016/02/into-belly-of-beast-my-day-at.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Stephan Neidenbach</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> is licensed under a </span><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
</b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-62243048148459616432016-02-16T09:31:00.001-05:002016-02-17T09:49:43.349-05:00Anti Biotechnology Groups Blame Organic Pesticide Company For Microcephaly in Brazil<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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No sooner than it was announced that transgenic mosquitoes and recombinant vaccines could help battle microcephaly in Brazil, conspiracy theorists drew out their arsenal and went into full battle mode. They immediately started grasping at straws to blame the problem on any bogeyman they could invent. One such conspiracy theory manufactured managed to make its way to Tech Times. In an insult to journalists everywhere, Alyssa Navarro seemed to not have spend any additional time in researching facts before regurgitating the internet myths. Much of the article seems pilfered from <a href="http://www.techtimes.com/articles/133548/20160214/monsanto-larvicide-not-zika-virus-true-cause-of-brazils-microcephaly-outbreak-doctors.htm" target="_blank">GM Watch</a>.</div>
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Navarro goes on to blame the problem on a larvicide she claimed was manufactured by a company owned by Monsanto. At some point the headline was changed to cover their tracks, but the original is still visible in the URL of the article. Monsanto would eventually complain, because they are in no way associated with the company that manufactures the larvicide, and later <a href="http://www.techtimes.com/articles/133955/20160216/clearing-the-air-monsanto-speaks-out-about-zika-virus-microcephaly-and-sumitomo-larvicide.htm" target="_blank">Navarro followed up with another article</a>. Unfortunately her old one is still out there, with no link to to the new one, nor was there ever an admission of her mistake.</div>
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The icing of the cake with all of these anti biotech and organic industry front groups running with the Monsanto/microcephaly conspiracy - The larvicide they claim is manufactured by Monsanto, is actually made by a large organic pesticide producer - Sumitomo. Sumitomo that makes the larvicide (the larvicide is itself not organic though), owns Valent and MGK. In fact, Hank Campbell writing for Genetic Literacy mentioned these companies back in 2014.</div>
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<a href="https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/10/24/how-to-sell-a-toxic-pesticide-the-smart-way-call-it-organic/" target="_blank">"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "droid serif" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">If you read the labels on MGK and Valent organic products, they basically say people should wear Hazmat suits when applying them the non-GMO approved organic way."</span></a></div>
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Sumitomo is also a major Japanese importer of organic sugar from Brazil used for energy and fertilizer production. Although they can get sugarcane locally in Asian countries, they choose to go organic and increase their carbon footprint by importing it from another continent. </div>
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I hope these organic industry front groups learn their lesson for the future. Do a "little research"; a term they love to use, before manufacturing fear, uncertainty, and doubt. </div>
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For more on the conspiracies about the Zika virus, check out Dr. Gorski's piece here:</div>
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<a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2016/02/05/zika-virus-the-conspiracy-theories-flow-fast-and-furious/" target="_blank">Zika virus and microcephaly: The conspiracy theories flow fast and furious</a></div>
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This <span href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" rel="dct:type" xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">work</span> by <span property="cc:attributionName" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#">Stephan Neidenbach</span> is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-47559404225004506942016-02-12T18:44:00.001-05:002016-04-12T21:17:28.113-04:00Who is Jonathan Matthews, and why is he trying to starve the planet?<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="1; url=http://welovegv.com/anti-biotech-gm-watchs-connections-to-maharishi-tm-cult-industry-money//">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By <a href="https://twitter.com/welovegv/" target="_blank">Stephan Neidenbach</a> welovegv@gmail.com</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edited By <a href="https://twitter.com/nandunandini11/" target="_blank">Nandu Nandini</a></td></tr>
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There is one organic industry "front group" I check in on more than any other, GM Watch. The organization regularly publishes up to date "news" and opinions about biotech crops. They always seem to be one of the first to publish articles about the latest crank studies that claim to show the benefits of eating like our ancestors did and to demonize modern agriculture. They also serve another purpose, to instantly smear any person or organization that seeks to debunk the myths spread by the primitive food movement, almost in real time.</div>
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Plan on <a href="https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/08/11/nutritionist-michelle-mcguire-responds-to-attacks-in-wake-of-glyphosate-not-in-milk-study/" target="_blank">refuting a study</a> that was designed to scare mothers into eating organic food? They will just <a href="http://www.gmwatch.org/news/latest-news/87-news/archive/2015/16317-wsu-researchers-find-glyphosate-free-breast-milk-for-monsanto" target="_blank">call you unscientific</a>. Are you a plant scientist <a href="http://explore.research.ufl.edu/plant-whisperer.html" target="_blank">studying the effects of different colored lights</a>, but like to volunteer some of your own time debunking myths? They will <a href="http://www.gmwatch.org/news/latest-news/16574" target="_blank">accuse you of subterfuge</a> and of running a network of hooded figures working for corporations. They are <a href="https://twitter.com/GMWatch/status/253236889350438912" target="_blank">anti-vaccine</a> and are quick to even call crops free of corporate control, <a href="http://gmwatch.org/news/latest-news/87-news/archive/2015/16043-golden-rice-is-it-vaporware" target="_blank">vapor ware</a>.</div>
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Their hatred of biotechnology knows no bounds. Recently they joined the trend of <a href="http://www.gmwatch.org/news/latest-news/16706-argentine-and-brazilian-doctors-name-larvicide-as-potential-cause-of-microcephaly" target="_blank">blaming the effects of the Zika virus</a> on anything they could rather than the mosquitoes actually causing it, essentially because they oppose any type of solution that might come from biotech companies. Limit the population of the number one animal killer of humans? Encourage the production of a recombinant vaccine to immunize populations? No, they just want everyone to put fish in all standing water. A solution that may work in <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35529348" target="_blank">one small village in El Salvador</a>, but can and has lead to <a href="http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/guangzhou-turns-to-mosquito-eating-fish-to-help-control-dengue-outbreak/?_r=0" target="_blank">fears of a new invasive species elsewhere</a>. As typical anti technology extremists, it is all or nothing with GM Watch. Scientists call for a blend of methods but GM Watch highlights one method as an example and make it seem like that it is all the world needs.</div>
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According to the GM Watch page, started in 1998, it is currently run by Jonathan Matthews and Claire Robinson. <a href="http://www.gmofreeusa.org/about-us/staff/claire-robinson/" target="_blank">Claire Robinson</a> is well known in the anti-biotechnology world. She is currently on the board of advisers of GMO Free USA, a "research" director at Earth Open Source, and part of a <a href="https://www.freedomofmind.com/Info/infoDet.php?id=469" target="_blank">dangerous mind control cult</a> called <a href="https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/glp-facts/earth-open-source-maharishi-cult-organic-ngo-promotes-anti-gmo-propaganda/" target="_blank">transcendental meditation</a>. The connection with TM is most interesting, because John Fagan was <a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2008/01/maharishi-invincibility-laboratories.html" target="_blank">"crowned Raja with Global Responsibility for Food Purity and Safety and for Healthy Invincibility"</a>. Fagan just happens to be a founder of Genetic ID (though no longer affiliated), which has a vested interest in demonizing biotech crops to stay in business. According to the transcendental meditation belief system, the removal of biotech crops from the world food supply will bring about world peace and invincibility for all mankind. Fagan helped kickstart a large "grassroots" campaign against biotech crops when <a href="http://www.nlpwessex.org/docs/tmnewsgm.htm" target="_blank">he traveled to England</a> not long before GM Watch was started. Their political party, Natural Law, <a href="http://www.nlpwessex.org/docs/gmleaflet.htm" target="_blank">worked hard to connect</a> all biotech crops with pesticides in the minds of the people there. Even though the first one on the market, a tomato, had no connection with pesticide traits. Their web page also describes how one of the editors, presumably Robinson or Matthews, received money for work done with the Institute for Responsible Technology, <a href="http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Smith" target="_blank">another NGO from the same cult</a>.</div>
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If Transcendental Meditation sounds familiar, it is because it has made the headlines many times over the decades. The Beatles flirted with the movement a bit, until <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-512747/Lennon-right-The-Giggling-Guru-shameless-old-fraud.html" target="_blank">John and George finally got fed up</a> when the cult founder was accused of making unwanted advances towards Mia Farrow. The organization would go on to be sued in the 80s by its ex members. Patricia Ryan, daughter of the late Senator Leo Ryan, even equated TM to cults like the one started by Rev. Jim Jones whose followers committed mass suicide in the 1970s and killed her father. More recently Fagan and Robinson's cult would <a href="http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/study-spent-on-measles-outbreak/article_78cafa89-87c3-5854-9e14-b47879da6d37.html" target="_blank">cost tax payers $142,000</a> when their unvaccinated adherents brought measles back from India. Accusations against the cult also includes the <span style="color: #333333; font-family: "guardian text egyptian web" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/may/02/usa.theobserver" target="_blank">exacerbation of existing psychological problems</a>, leading to a murder on their campus in Fairfield. </span></span></div>
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Not much is known about Jonathan Matthews himself. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-matthews-5b373011" target="_blank">A resident of Norwich</a>, England he is an administrator of an English language school there. A startling thought considering his willingness to maliciously attack fellow educators. After several people on Twitter mounted an organized attack on my own personal life, <a href="http://gmwatch.org/news/latest-news/87-news/archive/2015/16581-we-love-gmos-and-vendetta-2" target="_blank">he offered them a pedestal</a> on which to stand, so they could claim they were somehow the ones victimized. <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/collideascape/2013/01/31/mark-lynas-responds-to-his-detractors/#.VruWY-EViko" target="_blank">Matthews was largely responsible for a massive smear campaign against Mark Lynas</a> for the simple crime of the latter changing his mind on biotechnology when presented with evidence, and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130204194434/http://www.spinwatch.org/-articles-by-category-mainmenu-8/46-gm-industry/5557" target="_blank">insinuated that Lynas' apology speech</a> was but a PR ploy. I asked Mark about his experiences with GM Watch, and he had this to say, "GM Watch is at the extreme end even of the anti-GMO movement. They specialize in smear tactics, innuendo and character assassination. They're not part of any conversation I want to be involved in. The whole site reeks of hatred."</div>
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Hatred seems to be an accurate word to use. GM Watch is part of a large network of web pages that use similar techniques to push their agenda. Spin Watch, which Claire Robinson also writes for, seems to have "<a href="https://spinwatchwatch.wordpress.com/a-keen-interest-in-the-jews/" target="_blank">a keen interest in the Jews</a>", and is very <a href="https://spinwatchwatch.wordpress.com/spinwatch-or-migration-watch/" target="_blank">anti immigration</a>. </div>
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For someone who seems to distrust any money that originates from corporations, and who goes as far as <a href="http://www.gmwatch.org/2016-articles/16663-gates-foundation-is-world-s-bigger-funder-of-gm-crop-research" target="_blank">demonizing the wonderful Gates Foundation</a>, he seems to have no problem accepting corporate money for his own organization. The web page proudly claims to have received funding from the JMG Foundation, created from the estate of the late billionaire tycoon <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Goldsmith" target="_blank">James Goldsmith</a>. It should come as no surprise to anyone then that <a href="http://www.gmwatch.org/news/archive/2012/13961-zac-goldsmith-underlines-his-opposition-to-gm" target="_blank">Matthews hangs onto every word</a> uttered by the son of James Goldsmith, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zac_Goldsmith" target="_blank">millionaire Zac</a>. Zac Goldmisth has served as editor of <i>The Ecologist</i> and has been promoting the primitive food movement campaigns for quite some time. Recently <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/696682703912095744" target="_blank">The Ecologist faced criticism</a> for promoting myths about the zika virus and the transgenic mosquitoes set as a solution. This connection explains their lack of guilt. </div>
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Any further doubt about their industry ties are laid to rest considering they receive money from the Sheepdrove Trust. The Sheepdrove Organic Farm and Eco Conference Center was started in the 1990s, with the conference center opening in 2004 featuring anti GMO Prince Charles.</div>
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Matthews and Robinson have also received funding from the Isvara Foundation. Their web page was set up by <a href="https://whois.icann.org/en/lookup?name=www.isvarafoundation.org" target="_blank">The World Development Movement</a>. Under their new name Global Justice Now, this is the organization that recently issued a report <a href="http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/tags/bill-gates-foundation" target="_blank">demonizing the Gates Foundation</a> for promoting both vaccines and GMOs. The duo fail to state this conflict of interest whenever they criticize the Gates Foundation. The fact that Matthews and Robinson are connected to tractor companies, the Isvara Foundation is a product of <a href="http://jalladgroup.com/en/contactus/" target="_blank">Ayman Jallad</a>, is just the icing on the cake that alludes to vested interests. Herbicide and insect tolerant crops allow for the reduction of tilling the soil and chemical applications. Something Big Tractor might not be very happy with? </div>
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Is Jonathan Matthews another brainwashed victim of Transcendental Meditation? Is he being bankrolled by the billion dollar organic industry to help them sell fear? Does he just want to watch the developing world die of malnutrition from his home in well fed England? I sent him an email with some questions, but he has so far refused to comment. All said and done, he is probably like everyone in the anti biotechnology movement - fighting against human development.<br />
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This <span href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" rel="dct:type" xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">work</span> by <span property="cc:attributionName" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#">Stephan Neidenbach</span> is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-66160539753012549002016-02-06T22:57:00.000-05:002016-04-13T21:28:45.037-04:00I Love GMOs (And So Can You!): What I Learned In Two Years<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="1; url=http://welovegv.com/i-love-gmos-and-so-can-you-what-i-learned-in-two-years/">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com @welovegv</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Edited by </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 20.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nandu Nandini </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 20.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;">@nandunandini11</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>"Inconsistent views regarding the use of transgenic crop technology in Europe and elsewhere might have been avoided had more people received a better education in biological science." </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><a href="http://amzn.to/1S5OO1J" target="_blank">Norman Borlaug and Jimmy Carter, Starved For Science</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">In January of 2014 I contracted mononucleosis at the age of 34. Homebound for two weeks, I spent a lot of time on the internet. I came across the Cult of Dusty channel on Youtube, and enjoyed a lot of Dusty Smith’s videos. One in particular stood out, because the title was something I had never heard of before. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulq0NW1sTcI" target="_blank">I Love Monsanto</a>? (NSFW), At that time I had never heard of Monsanto. I had heard about the genetic engineering of crops. I was teaching in a rural school district and there were crops growing in fields across the street from the school. I was intrigued. I had heard that apparently some misinformed urban elites believed that farmers were purposefully poisoning their own communities and children by purchasing genetically engineered seed from this company, rather than seed created by other methods, namely those created by being <a href="https://youtu.be/Czx8nF7GrIM" target="_blank">drenched with radiation and toxic chemicals</a>. Many of the arguments that Dusty refuted in his video sounded a bit like the ones I had seen before about vaccines. Hence a Facebook page called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/welovegv" target="_blank">We F***ing Love GMOs and Vaccines</a> was born. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not long after starting the page a biology student in Russia began following the page and we communicated a bit. I was quite honored to have someone much more knowledgeable on the subject than me take the page seriously. Soon she was followed by farmers and scientists all over the world. I never tried to take myself too seriously. The early days of the page pretty much involved just the posting of screenshots of stupid things anti science people were saying. The first time I created a graphic responding to the argument, “Why are they labeled/banned in so many countries” I used the argument that homosexuality was banned in even more countries. Political, religious, and economic decisions made by other nations should not influence the acceptance of science or decision making in my country. Someone got really offended by that post and took it upon themselves to start emailing my principal. Unfortunately for the anti science cults, public school teachers (as government employees) are <a href="https://aclu-wa.org/news/free-speech-rights-public-school-teachers" target="_blank">free to speak on matters of the public interest</a>. This means that a <a href="http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/delaware/2015/11/30/health-teacher-denounces-vaccinations/76363954/" target="_blank">teacher in Delaware</a> can speak out against GMOs and vaccines, and this Maryland teacher can speak out in favor of them, without fear of losing our jobs. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6666669845581px; line-height: 20.2399997711182px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I actually have more freedom to speak my mind than if I actually did work for the Monsanto company. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next I needed to find a niche. There were already plenty of web pages, like Biofortified, that were focusing on the science. Having had a background in history, culture always fascinated me. I wanted to know and understand why so many people fear these crops. I found my answer in several books by Robert Paarlberg, Sheila Jasanoff, and Matin Qaim. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i><span style="font-size: 14.6666669845581px; line-height: 20.2399997711182px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"It costs rich countries little when a new technology not needed or wanted by most citizens is driven off the market through stifling regulation. But what if the same stifling regulations then come to be adopted in poor countries with unmet farm-production and food-consumption needs?"</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6666669845581px; line-height: 20.2399997711182px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><a href="http://amzn.to/1S5OO1J" target="_blank">Robert Paarlberg, Starved For Science</a></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In <a href="http://amzn.to/1S5OO1J" target="_blank">Starved For Science</a>, Paarlberg explains and discusses the many reasons given as to why rich countries fear genetic engineering when applied to agriculture. </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">New risks to health and the environment are not logical explanations because no risks have yet been found. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Current biotech traits on the market do not pose any risks that do not apply also to other breeding methods. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">That drought resistance does pose a threat to the environment because that is a trait that could help wild relatives of certain crops survive. As that trait is also being developed using other breeding methods, it is irrelevant to mention as a risk to genetic engineering ( a point that <span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 20.24px;">I would later learn from Matin Qaim) </span> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Simply disliking genetic engineering (the not natural argument) was also not enough of an explanation either. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Furthermore genetic engineering is hailed as an achievement in modern medicine. Paarlberg reiterates that the comparison to medicine goes even further because all the other complaints also apply equally to medicine. Patents, giant corporations, the high cost of products, and political lobbying are all used by conspiracy theorists to argue against Big Pharma, yet only with genetically engineered crops are these arguments so accepted by the general public. Paarlberg concludes that there is only one explanation, consumers in rich countries do not perceive a direct benefit to themselves. Without a reason to say “this product makes my own personal life better” primitive food zealots are able to create imaginary risks in the minds of enough consumers. Why else would pharmaceutical products, that can spend five minutes listing side effects in a commercial promoting their products made with the same technology, not quite face this public image problem on the same scale?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So if consumers in rich countries are inherently programmed to distrust genetic engineering when applied to seed breeding, why is this seen so much more in the United States than in Europe? In Paarlberg’s take on the overconsumption of food and fuel, <a href="http://amzn.to/23OooWb" target="_blank">The United States of Excess</a>, he makes some excellent points on the differences of the two cultures. One huge difference is how the role of the government and individual responsibility is viewed and shaped. Europeans are much more likely than Americans to believe the government has a duty to protect people from themselves, and to mistrust corporations. Americans are much more likely to believe that the government doesn't know what is best for people and that corporations should also be responsible for their own actions. Monsanto, Americans would say, doesn’t want to end up in court facing multi billion dollar lawsuits, hence they are unlikely to put out a product they believe to be harmful. He cites a Pew poll from 2011 showing that 36 percent of Americans believe they have little control of their own fate compared to 57 percent of French and 72 percent of Germans. Even the average American's views on science vary from their counterparts across the ocean. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The National Science Foundation, Paarlberg explains, found that 90 percent of Americans think that science and technology makes their lives better. The European Union ? Only 66 percent. Neither I nor Paarlberg, are necessarily stating that the American outlook is better. These same cultural norms lead Americans to much more likely fight the government regulating caloric intake and also to assume that they can burn all the fossil fuels they want because science and technology will solve global warming. But, unlike in most of Europe, American women are free to choose what to do with their own bodies. Surrogacy is completely legal in America, as is the freedom to terminate a pregnancy. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6666669845581px; line-height: 20.2399997711182px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>"Already by the mid-twentieth century, experts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had begun to insist on the objectivity of the cost-benefit analyses with which they justified flood-control projects. Whereas British actuaries and French railroad engineers admitted that their cost-benefit calculations reflected professional judgments, Corps engineers stoutly maintained that their assessments were not so compromised: their numbers were not subjective estimates but reliable representations of reality."</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6666669845581px; line-height: 20.2399997711182px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial";"><b>Sheila Jasanoff, <a href="http://amzn.to/1S5REUq" target="_blank">Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in the United States and Europe</a></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sheila Jasanoff expands on this in <a href="http://amzn.to/1KvC0z1" target="_blank">Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in the United States and Europe</a>. Whereas Paarlberg is clearly pro GMO in all of his writing, Jasanoff writes in an unbiased fashion to examine why biotechnology is viewed so differently in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. She paints the picture of what the primitive food movement probably saw as a perfect storm of events. US scientists themselves in the 1970s decided they wanted to gain the trust of the public and held an open door conference inviting the press to witness and report on how they would ensure the safety of these new experiments, without any government intervention needed to tell them to do so. Precautionary measures were put in place voluntarily that would assign risks based on what was being done. Innocuous cloning experiments, for example, were classified as being of lower risk with less containment required. Experiments with bacteria at the time, fearing escape into the general populace causing outbreaks (<a href="http://amzn.to/1KvC0iG" target="_blank">thanks Michael Crichton!</a>), were required to be genetically engineered to not survive outside the lab. The precedent was set and The United States would make decisions based on the product, not the process. Follow this up with 12 years of Reagan and Bush being in favor of deregulation when the first crops were coming to market, and one can easily see how this success played out. Great Britain would end up setting up government committees to make such decisions, setting a precedent that the process itself required government regulation from the beginning. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Suffice it to say when this same government failed at handling the mad cow scare adequately, they faced a highly critical public with regards to their decisions on the food supply. Many Germans still connected science with a fascist government that considered its citizens to be subjects of the state with a duty of subjugating nature. The Green party formed an early alliance with Social Democrats to create a committee with the explicit purpose to examine the “prospects and risks of genetic engineering”. The Greens would insist that before R&D could even take place, alternative methods would have to be considered first for any field, not just agriculture. When German protesters took this to the next level and protested a planned factory that was being built to develop genetically engineered insulin, the courts agreed and ruled that the German government had a duty to create laws controlling risks. “This conception of a conscientious state has no exact parallel in Anglo-American law,” Jasanoff explains.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>"Many in the wider public are deeply persuaded that GMOs are evil. This misconception builds on limited scientific understanding, false assumptions, and deliberate deception by anti-GMO activists, aided by the mass media and various groups of stakeholders who benefit from this opposition."</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Matin Qaim, <a href="http://amzn.to/20xX6Ek" target="_blank">Genetically Modified Crops and Agricultural Development</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With these answers in hand, I had to ask myself where were the defenders of this technology? Why are people so quick to defend the consensus on vaccines, evolution, and climate change? The answer would come to me from Matin Qaim in <a href="http://amzn.to/20xX6Ek" target="_blank">Genetically Modified Crops and Agricultural Development</a>. To put it simply, all it takes for pseudoscience to win, is for science communicators to do nothing. There is an alliance of non-governmental organizations, the mainstream media, food industries, pesticide manufacturers and politicians that have vested interests in demonizing biotechnology. Is this a vast conspiracy where heads of all these groups meet regularly to discuss how they are going to smear pro GMO scientists? Not at all. A large portion of these groups need to do nothing more than just sit back and watch it all unfold. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The organic food industry has an understandable financial interest in demonizing biotechnology. Biotech crops are not allowed in organic farming, and if they can convince people it is for their safety, they can boost sales. Considering how many conventional food companies now own organic food subsidiaries, and sell organic versions of their conventional products, they too don’t have much to lose when pseudoscience is allowed to propagate. Grocery stores and food producers may have a vested interest in fighting labeling so they don’t have to put warning stickers on their products, but they sure profit off of the fear mongering done by the anti GMO movement. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A great Twitter conversation with organic farmer <a href="https://twitter.com/songberryfarm" target="_blank">Rob Wallbridge</a>, whom I love to discuss economics with, made me realize how much of the organic premium that people pay goes to the companies, not the farmers. When pesticide traits hit the market, competing pesticide manufacturers were threatened. DuPont was even caught <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/18/monsanto-chief-accuses-rival-dupont-of-deceit/?page=all" target="_blank">donating money to an anti Monsanto organization</a>. Europe held most of the market share on pesticides for many years and were easily motivated to sit back and do nothing while an American product was taken through the wringer. There are people in Bangladesh who firmly believe their own <a href="http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2014/feb/27/matia-slams-environmentalists-protesting-bt-brinjal" target="_blank">pesticide companies are working with the anti-GMO movement</a> there to fight the acceptance of Bt brinjal. Politicians, like Alaska Senator Murkowski, will be extremely eager to jump on the anti GMO bandwagon when they feel it competes with a local industry. She might only be targeting salmon, but by saying transgenic salmon requires additional regulation because of the nature of how it was bred, she is feeding right into the process based regulation NGOs are seeking. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Furthermore media outlets themselves are rarely of any help. Which is more likely to get an audience’s attention ? Images of rats suffering from giant tumors, or the retraction of a poorly done study ? NGOs such as Greenpeace are given free reign by many politicians and media outlets because they are seen as “non profit” and therefore "pure" in some way. But, is their need to keep members hooked and sending in dues and donations really any different than Monsanto needing to keep profits up and their shareholders happy? Monsanto at least has a system of checks built into their operations. They have to keep their customers happy, because they need a steady profit flow to keep their shareholders happy. This at the risk of being taken to court decades later for harm done, even unintentionally. What customers does Greenpeace need to keep happy? Who can take Greenpeace to court decades later if the banana or orange industries are allowed to die because of their lobbying and fear mongering? Who can take Friends of the Earth to court for doing everything in their power to prevent a solution to vitamin A deficiency? That is unclear as they are not corporations with built in check systems. Why is unintentional harm from a company more of a crime than intentional harm from an NGO?</span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-3f1132f5-b379-2505-90ff-25bc69c6ac48"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Mind-control groups cannot tolerate opposition of any kind. Either people agree with them and are seen as potential converts, or they are the enemy.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Steven Hassan, <a href="http://amzn.to/1S5SEYP" target="_blank">Combating Cult Mind Control</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now what? Where do we go from here? I gained some insight from two more writers in fields I had not counted on to help guide me. Steven Hassan’s <a href="http://amzn.to/1S5SEYP" target="_blank">Combatting Cult Mind Control</a> began to help me reevaluate how to go on the offense. I became interested in cults after learning about the Transcendental Meditation movement’s involvement with the anti GMO movement. They are everywhere. A core part of their belief system is that,<a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2008/01/maharishi-invincibility-laboratories.html" target="_blank"> “Pure food is essential for good health and clarity of mind, and the supreme value of food purity is required to enliven total Natural Law in the life of the individual and society, bringing perfect health and enlightenment to the individual, perfect balance, harmony, and invincibility to every nation and permanent peace to our world. “</a> You read that correctly. John Fagan, Jeffrey Smith, Claire Robinson, and Steven Drukker believe that removing biotech crops from the food supply will lead to invincibility and world peace. John Fagan being the man who helped create Genetic ID, one of the major testing laboratories used by the NONGMO Project. Fagan also helped create the fear, uncertainty, and doubt around GM soy in England in the late 90s. His FUD campaign there had the secondary side effect of killing the successful Zeneca transgenic tomato. By being labeled with the process of creating them, he managed to lump them together in the minds of the British with Roundup Ready soy, even though the two were completely unrelated. Jeffrey Smith who runs the Institute for Responsible Technology wrote </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Seeds of Deception</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as well as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Genetic Roulette</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Claire Robinson who, along with John Fagan, works with GMO Free USA, Earth Open Source, and GM Watch. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hassan’s BITE model paints a picture of many movements and organizations within the anti GMO movement. Dictating dietary restrictions is a classic form of behavior control. Deception and the discouragement of accessing is another method commonly seen, especially the way any journalist or scientist who is pro GMO is automatically assumed to be owned by corporations. Actual thought control is regularly seen as they regularly refine words and create new language. The very term, NON GMO, is a perfect example. Are they denying that artificial selection involves the modification of genes? Are they stating that a bowl of corn flakes is one whole genetically modified organism, rather than made up of many ingredients? Emotional control is probably the most obvious. Instilling fear and creating devils, such as chemtrails or “Monsatan” keeps their followers from accepting any source outside their own inner circle. While helping break someone free from cult mind control is a time consuming and difficult process, one piece of advice from Hassan appealed to me. He has seen a lot of success in exposing cult members to other cults. Once they see comparisons between what they are going through, and what other cults are doing, they can stop and think. This is why graphics on We Love GMOs and Vaccines that compare the anti GMO movement to other anti science movements have always gotten a lot of engagement. Even the name of the page, albeit prior thought, turned out to be a nod to this technique. Activating prior knowledge is a technique most good teachers use to help students connect with information they already know. This really isn’t any different. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6666669845581px; line-height: 20.2399997711182px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>“Exposing a bad idea to the critical glare of other minds provides at least a chance that it will wither and die.” </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.6666669845581px; line-height: 20.2399997711182px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial";"><b>Steven Pinker, <a href="http://amzn.to/1X9ghPw" target="_blank">The Better Angels of our Nature</a></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Related to exposing the common traits between the anti GMO movement and others, is satire and science communication. In </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>T</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>he Better Angels of Our Nature,</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Steven Pinker seeks to prove that the human condition is improving, but explains why it will continue to do so based on historical data. Anti GMO terrorists like Gary Ruskin and Stacy Malkan, with their harassment of public scientists, truly believe and preach that they are under attack themselves. They are able to justify their actions because they believe if they stop their movement, it will, according to Pinker, “find itself on the wrong end of an invading army.” One connection, of many, to the decrease in violence over the centuries was the writing of and tolerance of satire. As seen in Gulliver’s Travels, a satirist can get someone to stop and look at themselves from the perspective of an outsider. “A satirist can make someone appreciate the hypocrisy of their own society and the flaws in human nature that foster it.” </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Recently The Onion wrote a cute piece on a <a href="http://www.theonion.com/article/monsanto-lab-lockdown-after-scientists-find-shatte-52171" target="_blank">tomato escaping confinement at Monsanto</a>. Monsanto took a risk and ran with it. They posted several pictures of an employee in a cubicle “bravely” <a href="https://twitter.com/MonsantoCo/status/687747815221497856" target="_blank">fighting back against these tomatoes</a> and saving us all. This type of self depreciating humor probably reached more people than any amount of Ketchum PR could, and was probably achieved with a fraction of the cost. Does Syngenta want to create a cheap promotion to calm everyone down about being bought by ChemChina? How about “Hey, at least we aren’t Monsanto!”. When several journalists on Twitter called me out on putting a long nose on someone in an article, they were right. We should insult ideas, not necessarily the people behind them. When Nicholas Taleb and Vani Hari go on insane rants about PR campaigns, it is because they simply assume we are doing what they are doing. They are in essence doing what in Psychology is called "projecting". They truly believe they need to launch an attack on the neighboring village, before the neighboring village does the same to them. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pinker reminds us that before Gutenberg invented the printing press, books were handwritten. This made them expensive and accessible only to the wealthy (kind of like organic food). As the efficiency of creating books improved, they became more accessible to the general populace (similar to conventional food, otherwise known as…. food). The blogospheres of the 1800s, (letters written and exchanged all over the world that discussed and reviewed books) took root, the spread of democracy and free thought became fate. Pseudoscience was an early adopter and took advantage of this early on. Food woo goes back to screaming 19th century upper class white women in New York telling everyone to only eat white bread. With social media the effect was similar. Cranks, not scientists, were the first adopters of this medium. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a classic case of correlation versus causation, many assume that Monsanto’s attempt to fix its public image involved hiring all these people (like myself) to do just that. But like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq5D43qAsVg" target="_blank">Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray</a> both filing patents for the telephone the same day, many of us merely followed similar paths to get here. Scientists began to realize that social media allowed a very easy method of communication to refute these claims. Companies realized that social media allowed them to speak to the public in innovative ways. Layman skeptics like me and others simply began to find each other, years after seeing the messages based on fear that we started questioning. Farmers found they could teach city folk about their farming practices with a smartphone without even getting out of their tractors. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ketchum didn’t connect me with Professor Juma, Professor Folta, Kavin Senapathy, Yvette d'Entremont, and Karl Haro Von Mogel. Mark Zuckerberg gave us a platform to reach out and connect with each other. Sixteen years ago a Monsanto PR firm actually did have to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/08/business/monsanto-campaign-tries-to-gain-support-for-gene-altered-food.html" target="_blank">reach out to people and buy them lunch</a> to bring them to a counter protest. 2015 was the year that was no longer true. Would it be fun to one day actually make money off of this? Sure ! Who doesn’t dream of making money doing what they enjoy. But it will be on my terms. Whether it is writing children’s books, a novel, starting a nonprofit agency to teach about agricultural biotechnology in schools, or just volunteering my time to organize eco modernist protests, these past two years were just laying the foundation.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.biofortified.org/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oZKWp4GlnLs/VrbJI0DFfsI/AAAAAAAAAbs/-umFStAYgdw/s640/AskFrank400.jpg" width="640" /></a><a href="http://www.biofortified.org/" target="_blank">http://www.biofortified.org/</a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width: 0;" /></a><br />
This <span href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" rel="dct:type" xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">work</span> by <span property="cc:attributionName" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#">Stephan Neidenbach</span> is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-22487676732262016852016-01-04T17:39:00.002-05:002016-01-04T17:39:40.929-05:00Every major anti-GMO talking point refutedStephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com<br />
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<img height="300" src="https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/v/t1.0-9/11988349_1643775999225782_9142606294788233946_n.png?oh=8b70e489a5f96b358dbf44925610dcba&oe=57185AD8" width="400" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">1. </span><a href="http://www.isaaa.org/gmapprovaldatabase/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.isaaa.org/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>gmapprovaldatabase/</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">2. </span><a href="http://agproducts.basf.us/products/clearfield-portfolio-landing-page.html" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://agproducts.basf.us/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>products/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>clearfield-portfolio-landin<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>g-page.html</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><a href="http://weedcontrolfreaks.com/2015/05/what-does-chipotles-switch-to-non-gmo-ingredients-mean-for-pesticide-use/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>weedcontrolfreaks.com/2015/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>05/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>what-does-chipotles-switch-<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>to-non-gmo-ingredients-mea<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>n-for-pesticide-use/</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">3. </span><a href="http://www.isaaa.org/gmapprovaldatabase/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.isaaa.org/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>gmapprovaldatabase/</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">4. </span><a href="http://fafdl.org/blog/2015/03/06/focus-on-pesticides-is-a-distraction-from-major-eco-impacts/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://fafdl.org/blog/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>2015/03/06/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>focus-on-pesticides-is-a-di<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>straction-from-major-eco-i<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>mpacts/</a><br />
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<img height="301" src="https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/11987136_1644004009202981_10850529291418638_n.png?oh=2096eb25df0d59c0bf4509a71c5a158d&oe=570BCD1F" width="400" /><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">1. </span><a href="http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_30" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>evolution.berkeley.edu/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>evolibrary/article/evo_30</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">2. </span><a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/12/02/long-before-genetic-engineering-why-breeding-new-flower-was-morally-radical/yqT0FcGmdMt66yXdZyJiZO/story.html?event=event25#comments" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>2014/12/02/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>long-before-genetic-enginee<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>ring-why-breeding-new-flow<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>er-was-morally-radical/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>yqT0FcGmdMt66yXdZyJiZO/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>story.html?event=event25#co<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>mments</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">3. </span><a href="http://www.grandin.com/inc/animals.make.us.human.ch7.html" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.grandin.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>inc/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>animals.make.us.human.ch7.h<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>tml</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><a href="http://www.uh.edu/~trdegreg/genetic_engineering_not_significantly.htm" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.uh.edu/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>~trdegreg/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>genetic_engineering_not_sig<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>nificantly.htm</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-and-nutrition-loss/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>www.scientificamerican.<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">com/article/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>soil-depletion-and-nutritio<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>n-loss/</span></a><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br />4. <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/07/31/aussie-grown-super-banana-help-reduce-global-hunger-malnutrition" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.sbs.com.au/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>news/article/2014/07/31/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>aussie-grown-super-banana-h<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>elp-reduce-global-hunger-m<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>alnutrition</a><br /><a href="http://phys.org/news/2015-09-resistance-genes-wild-relatives-crops.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v33/n1/full/nbt0115-12.html?WT.ec_id=NBT-201501" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://phys.org/news/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>2015-09-resistance-genes-wi<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>ld-relatives-crops.html</a></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://phys.org/news/2015-09-resistance-genes-wild-relatives-crops.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v33/n1/full/nbt0115-12.html?WT.ec_id=NBT-201501" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">htt<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>p://www.nature.com/nbt/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>journal/v33/n1/full/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>nbt0115-12.html?WT.ec_id=NB<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>T-201501</a></span><br />
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<span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: none; width: auto;" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><br />1. <a href="http://www.agprofessional.com/news/arkansas-releases-its-first-roundup-ready-soybean-variety" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>www.agprofessional.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>news/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>arkansas-releases-its-first<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>-roundup-ready-soybean-var<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>iety</a><br />2. <a href="http://www.texasweet.com/texas-grapefruits-and-oranges/texas-grapefruit-history/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.texasweet.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>texas-grapefruits-and-orang<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>es/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>texas-grapefruit-history/</a><br /><a href="http://www.google.com/patents/US20040226061" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.google.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>patents/US20040226061</a><br />3. <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/10/18/163034053/top-five-myths-of-genetically-modified-seeds-busted" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.npr.org/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>sections/thesalt/2012/10/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>18/163034053/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>top-five-myths-of-genetical<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>ly-modified-seeds-busted</a></span></span><br />
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<span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; outline: none; width: auto;" tabindex="0">1. <a href="http://www.isaaa.org/gmapprovaldatabase/advsearch/default.asp?CropID=Any&TraitTypeID=Any&DeveloperID=Any&CountryID=US&ApprovalTypeID=Any" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.isaaa.org/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>gmapprovaldatabase/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>advsearch/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>default.asp?CropID=Any&Trai<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>tTypeID=Any&DeveloperID=An<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>y&CountryID=US&ApprovalTyp<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>eID=Any</a><br />2. <a href="http://www.monsanto.com/products/pages/vegetable-seeds.aspx" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.monsanto.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>products/pages/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>vegetable-seeds.aspx</a><br />3. <a href="http://www.seminis-us.com/products/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.seminis-us.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>products/</a><br /><a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/01/new-monsanto-vegetables/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.wired.com/2014/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>01/new-monsanto-vegetables/</a></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report/89815/aid-policy-millions-wasted-on-shipping-food-aid" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.irinnews.org/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>report/89815/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>aid-policy-millions-wasted-<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>on-shipping-food-aid</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/indonesiarealtime/2015/02/22/better-infrastructure-would-cut-food-waste/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://blogs.wsj.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>indonesiarealtime/2015/02/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>22/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>better-infrastructure-would<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>-cut-food-waste/</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><a href="http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/post-2015-consensus/food-security-and-nutrition" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>www.copenhagenconsensus.com<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>/post-2015-consensus/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>food-security-and-nutrition</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0111629" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://journals.plos.org/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>plosone/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>article?id=10.1371%2Fjourna<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>l.pone.0111629</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><a href="http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/02/18/non-browning-apple-approved-now-comes-the-scare-campaign/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>www.geneticliteracyproject.<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>org/2015/02/18/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>non-browning-apple-approved<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>-now-comes-the-scare-campa<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>ign/</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/08/28/usda-to-approve-simplots-genetically-engineered-potato" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.usnews.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>news/business/articles/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>2015/08/28/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>usda-to-approve-simplots-ge<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>netically-engineered-potat<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>o</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-73295033000872128392015-12-30T19:22:00.002-05:002015-12-30T19:22:39.359-05:00Give up organic food as your 2016 resolution<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“ Environmental protection was not the original motive for advocating organic methods a century ago, so these environmental limitations embedded in the organic standard today should not be surprising.”</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199322384/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0199322384&linkCode=as2&tag=welogmanva-20&linkId=Q2D2XMZWINP6NML5" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Robert Paarlberg, Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. Protecting the monarch butterfly</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can I let you in on a dirty little secret? Organic farmers use pesticides too. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone. Weeds reduce yield, can harm livestock, compete for water, use valuable nutrients, and steal sunlight. </span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt1" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[1]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Glyphosate is currently being blamed for a decline in the monarch population because it just happens to be the most commonly used herbicide, and an easy target by anti-GMO activists because of its connection with one of the most common genetically modified crops. But even if we had a worldwide ban on glyphosate today, farmers would just use something else to kill weeds. The glyphosate tolerant pest management system just happens to reduce the amount of herbicide needed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What about that pollen drift from bt crops? Studies have shown that monarch larvae exposed to pollen from bt crops does harm them. Only the caterpillars on milkweed in close proximity to the fields are at risk. One solution in the works is to move the gene into the chloroplast genome, which should remove it from the pollen.</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt2" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[2]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The fact remains though that bt is deadly to the caterpillars. Organic farming uses bt as well, they just have to be even more careful because they are spraying it</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt3" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[3]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> rather than having it already built inside the plants they are seeking to protect. If conventional farmers gave up bt crops monarch butterflies would be at even more risk with increased spraying.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. Reducing fertilizer runoff</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Living in Maryland I am fully aware of mankind’s impact on water. I grew up in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. My children are growing up spending many summer days playing on its shores. Baltimore, Annapolis, and Norfolk are three of the largest cities found on it. I still remember being in elementary school and spray painting “No Dumping” with my class on storm drains all over the area. With all of the urban pollution, it is agriculture that is causing the most damage to the Chesapeake Bay. But contrary to what the organic and anti GMO activists are screaming, I never hear about pesticide run off being much of a problem. The leading contributor to pollution in the Chesapeake Bay is fertilizer, both synthetic and natural.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fertilizer is a necessity in farming. The lack of it created the Dust Bowl. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are needed for plants to grow. Plants do not create these nutrients themselves and rely on the soil.</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt4" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[4]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Synthetic fertilizers are needed because we don’t have enough animals producing manure. Replacing synthetic fertilizers with manure would require countless more acres of farmland for the animals, and even more farmland to feed those animals.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fertilizer runoff creates excess phosphorus and nitrogen, upsetting the natural balance in bodies of water like my own Chesapeake Bay. Algae loves to snack on that stuff. This creates algal blooms which then blocks sunlight from reaching underwater plant life. This upsets an entire food chain resulting in dead zones.</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt5" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[5]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> So once we recognize that synthetic fertilizer is not going anywhere out of necessity to feed seven billion people, what can be done to limit it? Cover crops, fencing animals away from streams, forest/grass buffers, and no-till farming are all methods organic and conventional farmers can practice to limit fertilizer use and runoff.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No-till farming is the key here. Tilling has been used since the beginning of human history to control weeds. Unfortunately tilling the soil promotes erosion, runoff, and the release of greenhouse gasses. Sixty-three percent of farmers surveyed between 1996 and 2001 stated that the herbicide tolerant crop system was a key factor in reducing tillage or going to a no-till system.</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt6" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[6]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Farmers are going to till the soil, use herbicides, or use flame weeding. Farmers are going to use fertilizers. Tilling the soil promotes fertilizer runoff which is a much greater threat to the environment than glyphosate. Flame weeding is not meant to be a standalone method and is going to require tillage or herbicides anyways.</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt7" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[7]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Organic farmers are not allowed to use any synthetic herbicides, making no-till farming almost impossible for them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Fighting climate change</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A further advantage of no-till farming that biotechnology has given us is the reduction of greenhouse gasses produced by agriculture. This system stores more carbon in the ground, which helps both the soil and the atmosphere. Reducing tillage also means less fuel being used by farmers.</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt8" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[8]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Organic herbicides themselves only kill the part of the plant that comes in to contact with the herbicide, requiring more to be sprayed and more trips into the field to spray them.</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt9" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[9]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Farmers using glyphosate do not need to cover the entire plant because it attacks an enzyme only found in plants. They can spray less herbicide, and use less fuel by using a more effective herbicide.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Local production, contrary to to what most believe, is not even beneficial to the environment. Steven Sexton estimates that corn acreage would increase by 27 percent, soybean acres by 18 percent, fertilizer use by 35 - 54%, and fuel use would increase by between 23 percent and 34 percent. A localized production system would dramatically increase greenhouse gasses, destroy biodiversity, and significantly increase pollution. </span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt10" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[10]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Busses may get less gas mileage, but they are the most efficient means of travel because of how many people can fit on one bus.</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt11" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[11]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The same is true of food. Per pound of food, bulk transportation from the other side of the planet actually has a smaller carbon footprint than a pickup truck traveling a short distance.</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt12" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[12]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The increase of costs due to this inefficiency would even impact human health by making fruits and vegetables more expensive. There is a reason why fruits and vegetables are currently cheaper than at any other point in human history.</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt13" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[13]</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4. Land conservation</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By using more efficient inputs conventional farmers are able to produce more food on less land. Organic methods of production in Europe and the United States are only able to yield a fraction of what conventional methods are able to yield. More land would need to be cultivated for organic farms to match conventional farms in production potential. Land equivalent to all of the remaining forests in France, Germany, Denmark, and Britain would need to be converted to agriculture for Europe to feed itself using organic production methods. The land required for organic production is the single greatest risk to the environment it carries.</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt14" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[14]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Genetically modified trees in South America are even promising to protect the rainforest by reducing the amount of land needed to grow eucalyptus trees. These new trees produce 20% more wood and come to harvest much quicker. </span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt15" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[15]</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5. Increased biodiversity</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Under the old way of thinking a growing population would require more cultivated land to feed it. This would result in more forests cut down, the destruction of entire food chains, and a resulting loss of biodiversity. My friends, that is what organic farming on any massive scale would bring us. With increased yields from modern farming, we can feed a growing population using less land. This means biodiversity being saved off of the farm, where it matters most. Organic activists like to cite studies where organic farms have more weeds and insects as evidence that they promote biodiversity. All those weeds and insects just mean that even more land needs to be cleared for production. Some studies have even shown that bt crops, because of their precision, have a direct benefit over organic farming for aquatic ecosystems.</span><a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt16" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">[16]</span></a></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My family will avoid organic food in 2016. Yours should as well. It costs more, offers no nutritional benefit, and is worse for the environment. There is nothing organic farmers can do for the environment that conventional farmers can’t, and many things conventional farmers can do that organic farmers can’t. If you have the disposable income and want to support those local organic farmers, go for it. Everyone needs a hobby. Just don’t bother giving yourself a pat on the back.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="20px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/dHUJr8cVsv3_ExEU1w8i_B-GO_UtTPA2Mjqd-2yEy-P-xF2clS8A-QYyl1iGXbx5bGzjLR1pMq558Jhy6ly7Vabx6XMsEfq2HqXZw-7CAYC4OGYgA1ezvqt70unLDpgISLId6_Gb" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" title="Click and drag to move" width="20px;" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref1" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[1]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive/weeds/weeds/why/impact.html</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref2" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[2]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://bsp.med.harvard.edu/node/79</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref3" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[3]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://www.todayshomeowner.com/using-bt-for-organic-caterpillar-control-in-your-garden/</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref4" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[4]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://home.howstuffworks.com/question181.htm</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref5" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[5]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://www.cbf.org/about-the-bay/issues/dead-zones/nitrogen-phosphorus</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref6" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[6]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> https://soygrowers.com/asa-study-confirms-environmental-benefits-of-biotech-soybeans/</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref7" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[7]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://cropwatch.unl.edu/archive/-/asset_publisher/VHeSpfv0Agju/content/4963643</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref8" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[8]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://www.ctic.org/media/pdf/Biotech2003.pdf</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref9" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[9]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://westernfarmpress.com/management/do-organic-herbicides-work</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref10" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[10]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://freakonomics.com/2011/11/14/the-inefficiency-of-local-food/</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref11" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[11]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://www.theicct.org/blogs/staff/planes-trains-and-automobiles-counting-carbon</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref12" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[12]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199322384/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0199322384&linkCode=as2&tag=welogmanva-20&linkId=MYH32SIURJ4JPYI4" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Robert Paarlberg, Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref13" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[13]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/224301/err55.pdf</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref14" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[14]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199322384/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0199322384&linkCode=as2&tag=welogmanva-20&linkId=MYH32SIURJ4JPYI4" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Robert Paarlberg, Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref15" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[15]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://www.nature.com/news/brazil-considers-transgenic-trees-1.15769</span></div>
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<a href="http://welovegv.com/entries/gmos/earthdayorganic#ftnt_ref16" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[16]</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0104270</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-36209515460639857092015-12-29T09:56:00.000-05:002016-02-15T13:08:15.017-05:00Labeling Inconsistencies: How Do You Actually Define a GMO?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pJFFck5su54/VoKe2dAPzKI/AAAAAAAAAXI/sZmop6-tLOI/s1600/640x-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pJFFck5su54/VoKe2dAPzKI/AAAAAAAAAXI/sZmop6-tLOI/s400/640x-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monsanto proudly labels all of their GMOs.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com (edited by </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif, sans; font-size: 13px; white-space: nowrap;">Emilia Raszkiewicz)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Labeling genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in the food supply has become a hot-button issue for farmers, consumers, and brands. On the surface, labeling seems like such a simple and reasonable request. If GMOs are safe, why label them? Or why not label them? More importantly, how do you define GMOs to weigh the real benefits of labeling or not labeling these foods?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The same question about labeling could be asked about the consumer’s right to know about any production tool used in agriculture. In the case of the <a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1210635.html" target="_blank">International Dairy Foods Association’s</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the court decision addressed the consumer’s wish to know about their foods’ production methods: “Were consumer interest alone sufficient, there is no end to the information that states could require manufacturers to disclose about their production methods. For instance, with respect to cattle, consumers might reasonably evince an interest in knowing which grains herds were fed, with which medicines they were treated, or the age at which they were slaughtered. Absent, however, is some indication that this information bears on a reasonable concern for human health or safety or some other sufficiently substantial governmental concern, the manufacturers cannot be compelled to disclose it. Instead, those consumers interested in such information should exercise the power of their purses by buying products from manufacturers who voluntarily reveal it.” </span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Clearly, on both sides of the aisle, parties are heavily invested on the outcome of labeling GMOs. The conventional food industry will tell you that labeling will increase costs. The organic food industry will try to show a substantial difference between GMOs and their counterparts bred through artificial selection or mutagenesis. How should GMOs be defined? Would a crop variety bred by mutagenesis or farmers’ selection not be a GMO, too? As a history teacher, I prefer to look at the past and how other breeding methods have been and are regulated.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pesticide-inferring traits are currently the most common traits found in genetically modified crops. But, this can lead to the question: if herbicide tolerance in plants and bt corn crops are chief concerns among GMO-labeling activists, shouldn’t they be concerned about labeling specific traits? Some genetically modified traits in plants include those for better taste, better nutrition, better yields, storage longevity, disease resistance, and more. The<a href="http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/03/30/success-of-independently-funded-gmo-papaya-confounds-anti-tech-ideologues/" target="_blank"> disease- resistant papaya</a> introduced in Hawaii</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was one of the greatest success stories involving genetically modified crops, and it has nothing to do with pesticide- related traits. <a href="http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/05/27/arctic-apple-founder-proves-gm-crop-can-be-developed-on-small-budget/" target="_blank">The Arctic Apple</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> has been modified to confer a non-browning trait to increase storage times and reduce food waste, and <a href="http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/11/10/whats-the-difference-between-a-conventional-and-simplot-potato/" target="_blank">Simplot’s new potato</a> actually reduces the risk of a known carcinogen.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Labeled GMO crops are not the only types that are bred for specific traits; a plant can be a GMO even if not created in the laboratory and/or not containing genes from different organisms (transgenic). Seven crops are currently being produced by BASF for tolerance to their imazamox-based herbicide, <a href="http://xn--beyond-oi0c./">“Beyond.</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://agproducts.basf.us/products/clearfield-portfolio-landing-page.html" target="_blank">”</a> Foods such as these crops are unlabeled and unregulated because they were created through mutagenesis, where chemicals and/or radiation are applied to speed up artificial selection. The herbicide-resistant sunflower, for example, was created after a farmer had discovered a crop of wild sunflowers that had developed a resistance to his herbicide treatments. Ethyl methanesulfonate and sodium azide were applied to the seeds of domesticated sunflowers to bring about the same resistance. <a href="http://weedcontrolfreaks.com/2015/05/what-does-chipotles-switch-to-non-gmo-ingredients-mean-for-pesticide-use/" target="_blank">These sunflowers are used in the oil Chipotle switched to</a> when they decided GM soybeans were too dangerous because of herbicide tolerance…..</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> If they were not created in the laboratory, are they not GMOs, or not as potentially harmful?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Can An Organism Bred by Artificial Selection Outside of the Laboratory be Labeled a GMO, too?</b></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Should we label foods for artificial selection, the products of which have cultivated, consumed, and marketed without labels? Artificial selection has been used for decades to select for pesticide- related and other traits. While the labeled, genetically-modified “GMO” bt corn crops express a protein that has been tested as harmless to humans, traits naturally occurring in unlabeled, artificially-selected plants can be harmful, especially when bred to increase their yields. <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/87/19/7777.full.pdf" target="_blank">99% of the pesticides we consume</a> in our diet are naturally occurring in the crops themselves</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, many of which are carcinogenic at high enough doses. By no means does this imply that we should fear these natural pesticides, but they should be considered when looking at risk assessments for novel traits—and labeling.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Potato breeders have used artificial selection to express disease and pest resistant traits for decades. High solanine potato varieties were found to be dangerous after commercial release in both the United States and Sweden. Celery was found have have elevated levels of psoralens, <a href="http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10977&page=40" target="_blank">causing skin irritation</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and even an <a href="http://www.uh.edu/~trdegreg/genetic_engineering_not_significantly.htm" target="_blank">organic zucchini variety</a> caused harm from elevated levels of cucurbitacins, caused by an unusually wet summer bringing additional insects and fungi. Had the organic farmer used a fungicide, the zucchini probably would not have activated that trait, and would not have caused the risk of harm to his consumers.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Compare that with outwardly-labeled genetically modified crops, where only one has shown the potential to harm consumers. Specifically, wWhen the allergen from the Brazil nut was transferred to a soybean through genetic engineering, it was detected by the researchers in the early stages, <a href="http://www.uh.edu/~trdegreg/genetic_engineering_not_significantly.htm" target="_blank">long before entering the market</a>.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Ongoing ,Worldwide Inconsistency in Labeling</b></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Europe is an excellent example of the inconsistency seen in labeling products that contain GMOs. The 1990s created a perfect storm in the EU, allowing fear mongering from governments to dictate a policy of precaution. Poor decision making by the UK led to the mad cow disease scare and a distrust of government regulation. Standardized organic labels were not regulated by the governments of Europe, leading to consumers who did wish to avoid GMOs to be unsure if they actually could trust the labeling. On the other hand, the United States created the National Organic Production Act of 1990 prior to GMOs coming on to the market, giving consumers this option.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1991, European corporations held 55% of the global market share for agricultural chemicals. By the end of the 1990s, <a href="http://giannini.ucop.edu/media/are-update/files/articles/v7n5_1.pdf" target="_blank">that market share fell to to 47%</a> as US corporations gained market share with their transgenic crops, offering appealing products that reduced the need for applying chemicals.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Inconsistencies with labeling GMOs and fear mongering discouraged many European farmers, who sought to avoid losing their farming subsidies after the WTO began to crack down. As a result, they stuck with labeled non-GMO crops so they can claim their product is “different” enough to <a href="http://giannini.ucop.edu/media/are-update/files/articles/v7n5_1.pdf" target="_blank">keep receiving those subsidies</a>.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Allowing fear of GMOs to create public policy was an easy economic decision for Europe to make. As another example of inconsistency, the EU is circumventing its own GMO labeling policy by using genetic editing techniques to create herbicide tolerance to sulfonylurea.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> What is the argument, then? Does Europe fear GMOs because they are plants that are bred with genes allowing them to resist pesticides and herbicides? Does it matter how a GMO is created? In this case, would not GMOs be the safer alternative for the environment? Some European countries are using more than<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fes3.60/full" target="_blank"> twice as many agricultural chemicals per acre as the United States</a>.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> By making unwarranted claims about health and the environment, Europe is simply able to get around trade agreements and benefit their own chemical and seed companies. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Misinformation about Patents and Mandatory Labels: Not Only GMOs are Patented</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Labeling proponents argue that because transgenic crops are patented, the government, by granting these patents, views these crops as inherently different from crops bred by alternative methods. However, patented crops exist that have been created using other breeding methods. The Ruby pink grapefruit, a result of mutagenesis, was patented decades ago, and even the organic Goose creek tomato variety was patented in 2004</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Patents on living organisms are a topic worthy of discussion, but it is not a discussion solely involving genetically modified crops. Genetically, there is a much greater difference between all the different varieties of sweet corn than there is between GMO-labeled bt sweet corn and the varieties the trait was added to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“At the very least, we should demand consistency.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mandatory labels are meant to give consumers information about a product. A label that reads, “this product contains genetically modified ingredients” tells the consumer nothing about selection method was used to create the imparted trait. It also does not explain the benefit of the genetically-modified trait, how the trait was used, how the trait is regulated, and ultimately, a shopper is left with no new information about the environmental or health impacts of the product. Voluntary dietary labels, like kosher and halal, already exist for consumers who wish to avoid GMOs for their own reasons, in the form of organic and non-GMO labels. There are no arguments against GMOs that cannot also be applied to mutagenesis and artificial selection. We should either label all methods of breeding, or label no methods of breeding. At the very least, we should demand consistency.</span></div>
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(Author's note: Emilia asked me to, as a layman, write an article about labeling for scientists on a web page she was an editor for. I was not paid a dime, and was just honored to have a professional editor work with me. She left that job before it got published. Any poor writing is a reflection on me, not her, as we never finished our collaboration.)
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />This <span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" rel="dct:type">work</span> by <span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" property="cc:attributionName">Stephan Neidenbach</span> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-48512187189763193402015-12-28T22:14:00.001-05:002016-02-15T13:07:43.561-05:00Your anti GMO argument is, "We already have enough food to feed the world".<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Stephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com</div>
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Congratulations! You would rather give a man a fish rather than teach him to fish. It is more worthwhile to teach modern farming techniques than it is to have developing nations rely on developed nations for food. Are you really the person that just said you are worried about who controls the world’s food supply? The <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/02/18/non-browning-apple-approved-now-comes-the-scare-campaign/" href="http://geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/02/18/non-browning-apple-approved-now-comes-the-scare-campaign/" target="_blank">Arctic Granny apple</a> keeping you up at night is an example of how GMOs can directly help prevent food waste, and it isn’t even transgenic. </div>
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GMOS ONLY HELP CORPORATIONS!!!!!!!!$$$$$!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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GMOs can be used to reduce poverty in the developing world. An <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111629" href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111629" target="_blank">independent meta-analysis</a> from Germany (a country with a cultural fear of biotechnology) shows how GMO crop adoption in developing nations has increased crop yields by 14% more than in developed nations, “especially smallholder farmers in the tropics and subtropics suffer from considerable pest damage that can be reduced through GM crop adoption.” The report also shows that the profit gains from these crops increase profits by 60% more than in developed nations due to this increase of yield, lower pesticide usage, and because many of these countries do not have patents on seed making the seed cheaper.</div>
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EVIL AND GREEDY BANKS KEEPING AFRICA IN DEBT IS THE CAUSE OF POVERTY!!!!!!!!%^&*%</div>
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I have to give Ned McFlanders some credit for making me look into that one. I also saw that great debate episode of <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/tv/reviews/15031/" href="http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/tv/reviews/15031/" target="_blank">West Wing</a> where the topic of debt relief came up. Those foreign loans actually come <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://%20http//www.huffingtonpost.com/marcelo-giugale/does-debt-forgiveness-wor_b_5318764.html" href="http://%20http//www.huffingtonpost.com/marcelo-giugale/does-debt-forgiveness-wor_b_5318764.html" target="_blank">mostly from foreign governments</a>, not from private banks. Europe is a large source of that debt, and they also happen to be the ones telling Africa not to use GMOs. So good job trying to keep Africa under the thumb of their old colonial rulers, give yourself a pat on the back. History may have played out a little differently if the <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine" target="_blank">Monroe Doctrine</a> had extended to Africa.</div>
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FOOD WASTE!!!!!!!!####!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Developed nations produce and consume a lot of food. So much so that a lot of it is wasted. This is a problem that we agree on. <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150122-food-waste-climate-change-hunger/" href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150122-food-waste-climate-change-hunger/" target="_blank">Climate change</a> might be eased by a reduction in food waste, malnutrition and famine would probably not. True famine is only occurring in countries where food aid is being prevented from entering areas where it is needed such as North Korea <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/18/north-korea-us-food-aid%20http://www.fews.net/" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/18/north-korea-us-food-aid%20http://www.fews.net/" target="_blank">where food aid from the United States is turned down.</a> The <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.fews.net/about-us" href="http://www.fews.net/about-us" target="_blank">Famine Early Warning System</a> is now in place saving lives around the globe. Better access to agricultural technology could actually help reduce food waste, rather than increase it. <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://blogs.wsj.com/indonesiarealtime/2015/02/22/better-infrastructure-would-cut-food-waste/" href="http://blogs.wsj.com/indonesiarealtime/2015/02/22/better-infrastructure-would-cut-food-waste/" target="_blank">Better infrastructure in developing nations</a> would help food get to the consumers faster and increase shelf life through refrigeration. Food waste campaigns often have little impact on the developing world because they are based on food waste in rich countries. A recent report from the <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/post-2015-consensus/food-security-and-nutrition" href="http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/post-2015-consensus/food-security-and-nutrition" target="_blank">Copenhagen Consensus Center</a> estimates that for every $1 spent to invest in developing world agriculture to reduce post harvest losses would return $13.</div>
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BUT IF WE STOPPED EATING SO MUCH MEAT WE COULD FEED EVERYONE!@#$%!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Your argument assumes it would be easy to just send our extra food to other countries. How much is Big Shipping paying you to post here? <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.irinnews.org/report/89815/aid-policy-millions-wasted-on-shipping-food-aid" href="http://www.irinnews.org/report/89815/aid-policy-millions-wasted-on-shipping-food-aid" target="_blank">The shipping industry has been working with the agriculture industry in the United States</a> to keep pressure on Congress to continue shipping food produced in the United States for food aid. An estimated $140 million dollars is spent annually just to move that food aid from the United States to those countries in need. Most countries have started to use food vouchers or even cash transfers that would allow developing countries to buy food locally. That is a high cost to give fish to countries that could be learning how to fish.</div>
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You are also making an assumption that without the demand for animal feed farmers in developed nations would have a reason to just keep growing grain. What incentive would they have? Who would pay them? That argument goes against the very basics of supply and demand. Robert Paarlberg raises these excellent points in two of his books:</div>
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<a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://amzn.to/1BChaZm" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199322384/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0199322384&linkCode=as2&tag=welogmanva-20&linkId=XPCWJ5IHRHDZRZJI" target="_blank">Robert Paarlberg, Food Politics</a></div>
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“If meat consumption declined, international meat and animal feed prices would also decline, but this would matter little for the vast proportion of hungry people, because they do not consume much that comes from the world market, and particularly not meat or animal feed. What these poor people need is more income to purchase rice, white maize, sorghum, millet, yams, cassava, or banana in their own local markets, not a lower international price for meat and feed. Most of the effects of lower meat consumption in rich countries would be confined to those same rich countries. Fewer cattle would be grazed on rangelands in Texas or Australia, but since these lands are too dry for growing crops, they would simply go unused. Less corn and soy would be produced for animal feed, and this would free up some more land for wheat and rice production, but the impact on international wheat and rice prices would be small. The International Food Policy Research Institute has used a computer model of global agricultural markets to estimate the reduction in hunger that would result from a 50 percent reduction in per capita meat consumption in all high-income countries, from current levels. Under this extreme and unlikely assumption, there would be 700,000 fewer chronically malnourished children in the developing world by the year 2030, compared to a “business as usual”scenario. This is a measurable gain, but very small relative to the size of the problem. Under the “business as usual”scenario, there will be 134 million cases of child malnutrition in 2030, so the payoff from a 50 percent cut in meat consumption in rich countries is only a one-half of 1 percent reduction in child hunger. Reducing meat consumption in rich countries remains an excellent idea for the purpose of improving health and moderating environmental damage in those same rich countries, but not for getting more food to the hungry.”<br />
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<a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://amzn.to/1AyWXkg" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HTJTK0Q/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00HTJTK0Q&linkCode=as2&tag=welogmanva-20&linkId=LIRDQZR4BFOZVG5Q" target="_blank">Robert Paarlberg, Starved For Science: How Biotechnology Is Being Kept Out Of Africa</a><br />
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“If rich countries stopped eating meat, their land, no longer needed to grow grain for livestock, would not be used to feed poor Africans. Nobody would step forward to pay farmers to plant for that new purpose or pay grain companies to export for that purpose. Grain is not a natural resource; if commercial demand goes away, supply goes away. Moreover, any kind of widespread spread vegetarianism in Africa itself would be a food-security nightmare. Meat animals in Africa are not a burden on the human food system but frequently the only way to secure adequate human foods from dry grazing lands that are useless for crop production.”</div>
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The politics of food is a lot more complicated than most people realize. We truly do have the food and the technology to feed the planet without even increasing the land needed for farming. The same organizations, such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, are not just fighting GMOs. The oppose all forms of modern agriculture needed by developing nations. They fight against irrigation, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and even conventional hybrids. Organizations like The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are trying to bring the very methods developed nations are using to increase yield and help reduce poverty. <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug" target="_blank">Norman Borlaug</a>, the man who saved over one billion lives, said it best:</div>
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"I now say that the world has the technology – either available or well advanced in the research pipeline – to feed on a sustainable basis a population of 10 billion people. The more pertinent question today is whether farmers and ranchers will be permitted to use this new technology? While the affluent nations can certainly afford to adopt ultra low-risk positions, and pay more for food produced by the so-called “organic” methods, the one billion chronically undernourished people of the low income, food-deficit nations cannot."</div>
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />This <span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" rel="dct:type">work</span> by <span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" property="cc:attributionName">Stephan Neidenbach</span> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-38085496829536150992015-12-28T14:43:00.002-05:002015-12-28T14:45:31.908-05:00Another abuse of cherry picking FOIA to manufacture a story. <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Cherry_picking_201127_(5991855207).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Cherry_picking_201127_(5991855207).jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Written by Vavilov</span><br />
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Alison Vuchnich from Global News Canada used the emails from the US-RTK sweep, that showed no evidence of wrong doing, <a href="http://globalnews.ca/news/2414720/documents-reveal-canadian-teenager-the-target-of-gmo-lobby/" target="_blank">to manufacture a false narrative</a> that targeted Kevin Folta, a public scientist that teaches public audiences the science of genetic engineering. </div>
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Alison lifted words from a conversation between Dr. Folta and the person that runs the GMOAnswers.com website, where he frequently answers questions for the public. He suggested that GMOAnswers set up a site parallel to Rachel Parent’s site, Kids Right to Know, calling it Kids Right to Truth. Parent is a 14 year old with no scientific training that makes frequent pronouncements on the dangers of genetically engineered foods. Her family owns a large health-food company, and her statements represent common non-scientific tropes and not actual science. The website was never established. It was an idea that Folta never bothered to pursue. Neither did the folks at GMO Answers. Nobody cared. It was just an idea. And Rachel Parent’s family <a href="https://who.godaddy.com/whoisstd.aspx?domain=kidsrighttotruth.com&prog_id=GoDaddy&k=Yvi6okPepZCvyHPh3SKVnhKJmk%20H5Mi%20wsvIi8tDlHmAOR1ddEmh1tvzyb3lLswWPHSpL3hIH7Y%3d" target="_blank">owns the URL</a>, not Folta or GMO Answers. </div>
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However, Vuchnich used the mention of this possibility, obtained from private emails confiscated from Folta under Freedom of Information Act, to claim this as an attack on Parent by the “GMO Lobby”. A piece littered with well debunked cherry-picked claims was presented in the Dec 21 issue of Global News. </div>
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She interviewed US-RTKs Gary Ruskin who referred to Folta as “Monsanto’s attack dog”. Folta simply teaches science and has never advocated on behalf of Monsanto or for that company. </div>
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The other US-RTK executive, Stacy Malkin, took to Twitter and again indicated that Monsanto had Ketchum (GMO Answers) persuade Folta to create a critical piece about Parent. In reality, someone asked GMOAnswers about her and he answered with a very complimentary commentary, suggesting she (and all young women) sharpen critical thinking skills and immerse themselves in STEM disciplines. <a href="https://gmoanswers.com/ask/14-year-old-teenager-canada-rachel-calmly-argues-basic-human-right-know-what%E2%80%99s-our-food-it-not" target="_blank">It was a very positive message</a>. </div>
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But Ruskin, Malkan and Vuchnich conspire to paint this discussion as an attack, and one funded by </div>
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Monsanto. Folta’s scientific research has <a href="http://hos.ufl.edu/kevinfolta/funding.html" target="_blank">never been sponsored by Monsanto</a> and never received any compensation from them personally. Monsanto did contribute to a science literacy program where Folta taught scientists how to engage the public, but those funds were not used after Folta and his family received threats.</div>
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That was the plan by Vuchnich, et al. A look at the comments in the article and by the notes on Twitter show the true intent—to harm a scientist by making him appear to be a bully, when he did nothing of the sort. This is the latest round in the Organic Consumer’s Association attack on Folta, orchestrated by US-RTK and facilitated by complicit journalists that manufacture false narratives from cherry-picked information. And just look how their willing disciples run with that false information---</div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-9ee0f8b3-ea0d-ebdf-cf89-605d2c0f0eab"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="164px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/MvpMbMdUHm35G6d4dzMZXkTU2c18I3KIKEma5T-HNJzumY2cXrfbSG2_7_hS-k4NoebTNxriUlTuwNaFb73FJri8ZLaF9IbpBVUqdwy-jWWhuzEloKAHQStZr5fCX_vQBsN6lF37sJKTy8kM" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="303px;" /><img height="111px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/SmgosJwxmA4M1CORRchTs40pWIUUG08FP8ovrJ9WyRlQUZTfPUYCQBXPFLnIbC4hhzg5AtERToXtVscVg7jV2pDERYuddnWiIWQNZFlSQqmoT7q1Bx5vtkEAR5QFqaT5JEE3_vBrlaNC0knn" style="border: none; font-size: 14.6667px; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="266px;" /><img height="125px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/ibnDJwgL8kXplNDfUsTLt9RmWSCLHiGG9prX7S_DuxI1edGi8llFAzwaG0csDSQFEdGXI2pEv-M7WPAwquH3pCjvC9fhmGDXnUqy5ugeThI_3EysZa18wgvA9Hn-JSATA9G96Kg0bJuHHeP4" style="border: none; font-size: 14.6667px; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="247px;" /><img height="276px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/VGCKybGwfhhulQE52EE845aH0HRPsAPfrikoawsaTlT8MVJGeKILQ5ChhFFLBGfGB9olNbjKVNkfbbKadqGs24AsdTNGT3qKnjF7QV1NKXcMoO4EhQf19rMrei_wk6K8c1ZpW2BAjpB8_S9g" style="border: none; font-size: 14.6667px; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="240px;" /><img height="357px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/oPkyzaalUSIfx-vDScr-NLLAwGPG_NlG9CtpGmvJTG5b7QJmxH3bFvUxSu9lGP8iPwfj3Hyk4VFa8yS8TpzelBggUG9RZ_7rPUnJQQTzKjYzwnyfiRIkz8ktTu0xtg4SI4yIzb720-GzpJEj" style="border: none; font-size: 14.6667px; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="249px;" /><img height="695px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/6WoS2wx0Yf0wk3XikYxkzWmTlahFCbsnH4sZAFJLundXLE3gSIlgq7x8YQXZKO28kfgk3AMdJpupKagozH2NR8h2lywcfjWUaPXbBszclTJEZyz23v3apusk6E077sXemG4NPLzukDfQ7feU" style="border: none; font-size: 14.6667px; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="624px;" /><img height="112px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/v2VETMiKpyFz0CkWj5Xo5jZwsLKqabNXZ4i9umnoKJmoK9HAR_Xh-wOGijp4dg2PCtM2nOjoh0clOI16OXHqQT29OzjIAP62QqTUOwL5GRfmXwvgebV6nAijt_KcauC_r21HZhT47i4rRMV4" style="border: none; font-size: 14.6667px; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="235px;" /></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-31795153484192239342015-12-06T09:49:00.000-05:002015-12-28T14:21:38.526-05:00Are we going to allow a dangerous mind control cult to manipulate our food supply?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ACZhA3jYp-A/VmRKrnYKFmI/AAAAAAAAAWc/Ts5GCx8t3_k/s1600/Levitaatio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ACZhA3jYp-A/VmRKrnYKFmI/AAAAAAAAAWc/Ts5GCx8t3_k/s200/Levitaatio.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Stephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A lot has been written about Kevin Folta in recent months by both the <a href="http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/how-to-attack-a-public-scientist/" target="_blank">pro science</a> and the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/food-industry-enlisted-academics-in-gmo-lobbying-war-emails-show.html?_r=0" target="_blank">anti science</a> crowds. One organization, though, has taken their obsession of Professor Folta to a whole different level. GM Watch has so far published four blog posts so full of conjecture and misinformation that it makes one question the sanity of the people running their nonprofit. The most recent one <a href="http://gmwatch.org/news/latest-news/16574-death-threats-libel-and-lies-part-4-kevin-folta-s-toxic-legacy" target="_blank">featured myself</a>. I don't know what they were hoping to accomplish with it, other than proving the point of one of the graphics <a href="https://twitter.com/kevinfolta/status/631647645719744512" target="_blank">they actually linked to</a>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The article did get me to take a closer look at GM Watch. They appear to currently be run by Claire Robinson and Jonathan Matthews. While not a lot is known about Jonathan Matthews, Claire Robinson we do know a lot about. She is heavily involved with <a href="http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/glp-facts/earth-open-source-maharishi-cult-organic-ngo-promotes-anti-gmo-propaganda/" target="_blank">Earth Open Source</a> and <a href="http://www.gmofreeusa.org/about-us/staff/" target="_blank">GMO Free USA</a> (count the Europeans involved with GMO Free "USA"). All of these organizations have strong ties to Transcendental Meditation, described as practicing<a href="https://www.freedomofmind.com/Info/infoDet.php?id=468" target="_blank"> "destructive mind control techniques"</a> by leading cult expert Steve Hassan. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ex-cult member, Gina Catena, <a href="https://www.freedomofmind.com/Info/infoDet.php?id=467" target="_blank">describes her experiences with TM</a>:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Believing with my well-intentioned loved ones, I watched devotees donate entire trust funds, become psychotic, and decline needed medical treatment in favor of Maharishi Ayur-Ved (R) medicinals. A few committed suicide. Our leaders taught us that hardships were brought upon ourselves."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Does Ayurveda sound familiar? It is the <a href="http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/13-10-09/" target="_blank">pseudoscience</a> promoted by Fran Drescher's husband, Shiva Ayyadurai, who recently made news by creating software that <a href="http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/07/29/ayyadurais-formaldehyde-in-gmos-claim-challenged-engineer-refuses-verification-offer/" target="_blank">modeled formaldehyde in biotech soy</a>. Are some of these connections starting to come together?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As part of this cult's search for "invincibility", they appear to believe in the consumption of their definition of "pure food". John Fagan, also of GMO Free USA, <a href="https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/topics/140295" target="_blank">appears to have been assigned the task</a> of creating "invincibility laboratories" around the world with the goals of testing food for biotech crops and glyphosate. It makes sense then that Fagan has close ties to the <a href="http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/may07/non-GMO_standard.php" target="_blank">Non-GMO Project</a>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many huge names in the anti-GMO movement appear to be connected to this destructive mind control cult. <a href="http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/oz-transcendental-meditation" target="_blank">Dr. Oz describes his interest</a>. Author of the Altered Genes book, lawyer Steven Druker is <a href="http://academicsreview.org/2015/07/steven-druker-twisted-truth-in-altered-genes-book/" target="_blank">part of this group</a>. Jeffrey Smith, of the Institute for Responsible Technology,<a href="http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/04/06/jeffrey-smith-i-know-nothing-about-gmos-but-that-doesnt-stop-me-from-promoting-junk-science/" target="_blank"> can be seen</a> practicing their art of flying yoga. Even <a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/01/12/meditation-benefits.aspx" target="_blank">Dr. Joseph Mercola himself</a> is a practitioner, and his girlfriend appears to be an administrator of the March Against Monsanto Facebook page. Through the David Lynch Foundation, they are attempting to <a href="https://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/schools.html" target="_blank">recruit public school students</a>. One member who recently left Earth Open Source to work for <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=67306296" target="_blank">Seattle Public Schools</a> should frighten anyone living in that area. Even Center For Food Safety's director, Andrew Kimbrell, <a href="http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/glp-facts/john-fagan-raja-world-peace-maharishi-movement-behind-scenes-guru-anti-gmo-movement/" target="_blank">appears to have strong ties</a>. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_learned_Transcendental_Meditation" target="_blank">list goes on</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cults attempting to shape public policy is nothing new. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_Church#Political_activism" target="_blank">The Unification Church</a> (Moonies) in their attempt to fight communism owns News World Communications (The Washington Times) and was linked to the South Korean government as members were found working in Congressional offices. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">TM has been connected to the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-512747/Lennon-right-The-Giggling-Guru-shameless-old-fraud.html" target="_blank">death of John Lennon</a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/may/02/usa.theobserver" target="_blank">accused of covering up events</a> leading to the murder of one of their students, and<a href="http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/study-spent-on-measles-outbreak/article_78cafa89-87c3-5854-9e14-b47879da6d37.html" target="_blank"> created a measles outbreak</a> leading to a tax bill of $142,000. Considering organic farming was created by <a href="http://townhall.com/tipsheet/elisabethmeinecke/2013/08/24/th-mag-the-shocking-roots-of-the-organic-food-movement-n1662379" target="_blank">practitioners of pseudoscience</a>, it shouldn't surprise anyone that it has been embraced and promoted by such a cult. We need to work to make sure their influence on our food supply comes to an end.<br /><br />Edit: Mercola and Smith are both involved in a coalition of <a href="http://www.health-liberty.org/sites/healthliberty/about-healthliberty.aspx" target="_blank">consumer pseudoscience organizations</a>, including the Organic Consumer's Association which funded USRTK (responsible for the FOIA requests).</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-87885189218072497482015-09-23T16:16:00.000-04:002015-12-28T14:21:38.671-05:00Your Anti-GMO Argument is Big Tobacco<html><head><style type="text/css">ol.lst-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-1.start{counter-reset:lst-ctn-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-1 0}.lst-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-2>li{counter-increment:lst-ctn-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-2}.lst-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-8>li{counter-increment:lst-ctn-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-8}.lst-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-5>li{counter-increment:lst-ctn-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-5}ol.lst-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-6.start{counter-reset:lst-ctn-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-6 0}ol.lst-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-4.start{counter-reset:lst-ctn-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-4 0}.lst-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-0>li{counter-increment:lst-ctn-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-0}.lst-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-4>li{counter-increment:lst-ctn-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-4}.lst-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-8>li:before{content:"" counter(lst-ctn-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-8,lower-roman) ". 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"}ol.lst-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-8.start{counter-reset:lst-ctn-kix_qp2gr8mtyiwn-8 0}ol{margin:0;padding:0}.c0{line-height:1.0;orphans:2;widows:2;direction:ltr}.c1{orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:justify;direction:ltr}.c5{background-color:#ffffff;max-width:468pt;padding:72pt 72pt 72pt 72pt}.c4{width:33%;height:1px}.c2{height:11pt}.c3{font-size:10pt}.title{padding-top:0pt;color:#000000;font-size:21pt;padding-bottom:0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";line-height:1.15;page-break-after:avoid;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left}.subtitle{padding-top:0pt;color:#666666;font-size:13pt;padding-bottom:10pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";line-height:1.15;page-break-after:avoid;font-style:italic;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left}li{color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Arial"}p{margin:0;color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Arial"}h1{padding-top:10pt;color:#000000;font-size:16pt;padding-bottom:0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";line-height:1.15;page-break-after:avoid;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left}h2{padding-top:10pt;color:#000000;font-weight:bold;font-size:13pt;padding-bottom:0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";line-height:1.15;page-break-after:avoid;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left}h3{padding-top:8pt;color:#666666;font-weight:bold;font-size:12pt;padding-bottom:0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";line-height:1.15;page-break-after:avoid;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left}h4{padding-top:8pt;color:#666666;text-decoration:underline;font-size:11pt;padding-bottom:0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";line-height:1.15;page-break-after:avoid;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left}h5{padding-top:8pt;color:#666666;font-size:11pt;padding-bottom:0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";line-height:1.15;page-break-after:avoid;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left}h6{padding-top:8pt;color:#666666;font-size:11pt;padding-bottom:0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";line-height:1.15;page-break-after:avoid;font-style:italic;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left}</style> <!-- Begin Open Graph metadata --> <b:if cond="data:blog.pageType == "item""> </b:if> <b:if cond="data:blog.postImageThumbnailUrl"> <b:else> </b:else></b:if> <b:if cond="data:blog.metaDescription"> <b:else> <!-- Still looking for a way to use the post snippet if there's no description --> </b:else></b:if> <!-- End Open Graph metadata --></head><body class="c5"><div class="c1"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LtFLRn3dS9g/VgMLi9B75CI/AAAAAAAAAO8/oipoA_drrTw/s1600/sheldon.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LtFLRn3dS9g/VgMLi9B75CI/AAAAAAAAAO8/oipoA_drrTw/s400/sheldon.png" /></a></div><span>‘When the tobacco companies say they're eager to find out the truth, they want you to think the truth isn't known…. They want to be able to call it a controversy.’ - Unnamed American Cancer Society Official </span><sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt1" name="ftnt_ref1">[1]</a></sup></div><div class="c1 c2"><span></span></div><span>Anti-GMO activists like to try and compare Monsanto to the tobacco industry, claiming that they paid off scientists to hide harm from their products. The problem is that the tobacco industry did no such thing. They denied the evidence scientists were presenting, and demanded that more studies needed to be done. Big Tobacco sounds a lot more like Big Organic.</span></body></html><br /><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1">In the early 20th century, scientists and doctors had begun to notice a correlation between smoking and lung cancer. Franz Muller, in Germany, published the first population study examining the connection. His data showed that smokers were far more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers, and his studies were verified by several other German scientists in the 1940s. By 1950 five large studies had been completed in the United States and the United Kingdom, again, verifying a connection between lung cancer and smoking. Cohort studies were conducted by 1954 showing that regardless of sex, age, and ethnicity, smoking was causing people to get lung cancer. The American Cancer Society said it was “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Animal studies, cellular pathology studies, and chemical analysis of the smoke were all being completed at the same time giving undeniable evidence that smoking cigarettes was harmful. By the mid-1950s a scientific consensus was reached.<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt2" name="ftnt_ref2">[2]</a></sup> Even the tobacco industry’s own animal studies confirmed that cigarette smoke was causing tumours. <sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt3" name="ftnt_ref3">[3]</a></sup> </div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1">Big Tobacco began a public relations campaign to create controversy. It was decided to not deny the science, but to ask for more of it. The industry began encouraging the skepticism of science in order to create doubt about the consensus. The idea that there was always more to know, and that we could never be sure, was repeated over and over again. By repeatedly offering more money for research, while questioning the results, they were able to create a moral high ground. How could anyone argue with more research being done? A select few of the very vocal scientists already critical of the research, many of which were smokers themselves, were placed into the center of the stage to deny a consensus existed. These were not scientists that worked for the tobacco industry, but (like evolution and climate change) the natural result of always having a few critics. A loud minority was formed that was able to shout over the other 99%. Journalists like to report on controversy, and this small group of scientists provided the appearance of balance. Rather than try to show cigarettes were safe, they attempted to create rebuttals to research that showed harm and highlight economic benefits of the industry.<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt4" name="ftnt_ref4">[4] </a></sup>Freedom of Information Act requests were even made to harrass scientists studying the effects of tobacco, even going so far to <a href="http://www.acslaw.org/sites/default/files/Levinson_-_ACS_FOIA_First_Amdmt_Issue_Brief.pdf" target="_blank">attack Professor Paul Fischer</a> for researching tobacco advertisements and children.<br /><br />Today, thousands of studies have been completed on the safety of genetically modified crops.<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt5" name="ftnt_ref5">[5]</a></sup> A scientific consensus has been reached among every major scientific organization in the world.<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt6" name="ftnt_ref6">[6]</a></sup> The organic industry sees the science of GMOs as a threat because it means less research is being conducted on organic seeds<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt7" name="ftnt_ref7">[7]</a></sup>, the possibility of creating more nutritious seed that doesn’t qualify for organic<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt8" name="ftnt_ref8">[8]</a></sup>, and the extremely small potential for contamination of organic fields<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt9" name="ftnt_ref9">[9]</a></sup>. Most of the organic industry’s anti-GMO campaign involves casting doubt on scientists conducting research.<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt10" name="ftnt_ref10">[10]</a></sup> Rather than attempting to argue the science behind the studies, the funding and characteristics of the scientists are called in to question.<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt11" name="ftnt_ref11">[11]</a></sup> A select group of vocally critical scientists were selected to engage the public and talk to the press creating the appearance of a lack of consensus.<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt12" name="ftnt_ref12">[12]</a></sup> Rather than attempting to show genetic engineering as inherently dangerous, they call into question cherry picked ways in which it is used such as pest control<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt13" name="ftnt_ref13">[13]</a></sup>. Loaded questions are asked like tobacco companies asking “where is the harm in just doing more research”? Asking about the harm in just labeling it, and the use of the precautionary principle have become the new mantra. The FOIA system is being abused to <a href="http://www.biofortified.org/2015/02/silencing-public-scientists/" target="_blank">target professors</a> speaking out in favor of science. Grassroots organizations were even set up to create the appearance of charity, much like Big Tobacco’s Scientific Advisory Board.<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt14" name="ftnt_ref14">[14]</a></sup></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1">Big Organic is in danger. The days of DDT are over. Scientists are now able to merge technology with the natural to benefit the environment and human health better than organic could ever hope to. Much like the tobacco industry, the organic industry is in panic mode. Just like creating a controversy helped the tobacco industry actually boost sales and profits regardless of the evidence of harm, creating a controversy about GM crops has boosted sales and profits of organic food.</div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1">American Cancer Society 1954 - ‘the presently available evidence indicates an association between smoking, particularly cigarette smoking, and lung cancer’<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt15" name="ftnt_ref15">[15]</a></sup></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1">American Cancer Society 2015 - ‘There is no proof at this time that the genetically modified foods that are now on the market are harmful to human health.’<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt16" name="ftnt_ref16">[16]</a></sup></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1">RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company 1954 - ‘There still isn’t a single shred of substantial evidence to link cigarette smoking and lung cancer directly.’<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt17" name="ftnt_ref17">[17]</a></sup></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1">Gary Ruskin 2012 - ‘...decide for ourselves whether we want to gamble with our health by eating GMO foods that have not been adequately studied and have not been proven safe.’<sup><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt18" name="ftnt_ref18">[18]</a></sup></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><div class="c1 c2"></div><hr class="c4" /><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref1" name="ftnt1">[1]</a><span class="c3"> Lelyveld J. Cigarette makers prosper despite debate on hazards. New York Times. November 29, 1963:59</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref2" name="ftnt2">[2]</a><span class="c3"> http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/21/2/87.full#ref-4</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref3" name="ftnt3">[3]</a><span class="c3"> https://books.google.com/books?id=VxcjOL1j8iAC&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=%22we+don%27t+accept+the+idea+that+there+are+harmful+agents+in+tobacco%22&source=bl&ots=H2RF5N0Cxe&sig=wm7C_aeqm2cvCrXbH0bV5jbnQKM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=35BUVZLMIOmUsQSqiYH4Bw&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22we%20don't%20accept%20the%20idea%20that%20there%20are%20harmful%20agents%20in%20tobacco%22&f=false</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref4" name="ftnt4">[4]</a><span class="c3"> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3490543/</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref5" name="ftnt5">[5]</a><span class="c3"> http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2013/10/14/2000-reasons-why-gmos-are-safe-to-eat-and-environmentally-sustainable/</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref6" name="ftnt6">[6]</a><span class="c3"> http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/01/29/pewaaas-study-scientific-consensus-on-gmo-safety-stronger-than-for-global-warming/</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref7" name="ftnt7">[7]</a><span class="c3"> http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S157352141000014X</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref8" name="ftnt8">[8]</a><span class="c3"> http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/marketing-biofortified-gmos/</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref9" name="ftnt9">[9]</a><span class="c3"> http://thefoodiefarmer.blogspot.com/2014/07/coexistence-organic-gmo.html</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref10" name="ftnt10">[10]</a><span class="c3"> http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/02/11/mimicking-climategate-organic-and-anti-gmo-activists-fund-legal-attack-on-biotech/</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref11" name="ftnt11">[11]</a><span class="c3"> http://www.biofortified.org/2015/02/silencing-public-scientists/</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref12" name="ftnt12">[12]</a><span class="c3"> http://www.biofortified.org/2013/12/with-scientists-on-both-sides-of-the-gmo-debate-how-can-you-know-whos-wrong-or-right/</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref13" name="ftnt13">[13]</a><span class="c3"> http://welovegv.com/pesticides</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref14" name="ftnt14">[14]</a><span class="c3"> http://discovermagazine.com/2013/april/16a-anti-gmo-efforts-us</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref15" name="ftnt15">[15]</a><span class="c3"> http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/21/2/87.full</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref16" name="ftnt16">[16]</a><span class="c3"> http://www.cancer.org/healthy/eathealthygetactive/acsguidelinesonnutritionphysicalactivityforcancerprevention/acs-guidelines-on-nutrition-and-physical-activity-for-cancer-prevention-common-questions</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref17" name="ftnt17">[17]</a><span class="c3"> http://www.who.int/tobacco/media/en/TobaccoExplained.pdf</span></div></div><div><div class="c0"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8410615280839187287#ftnt_ref18" name="ftnt18">[18]</a><span class="c3"> http://sandiegofreepress.org/2012/09/the-starting-line-food-labeling-campaign-prop-37-gets-boost-from-study-showing-long-term-damage-from-monsanto-products/</span></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-25204103423724980782015-09-15T17:31:00.000-04:002016-02-15T13:09:19.659-05:00Is Nicholas Taleb lying or deluded?<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Nicky still appears to be trying to throw misinformation at the wall to see what sticks. It appears that he is in the process of writing a new paper about the precautionary principle being applied to biotech crops, and recently <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzJRuradOU1aR2t0c1pyb0NmdTg/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">posted a summary sheet on his Facebook page</a>. With a complete lack of citations it is fairly easy to debunk the lies and misinformation within the document.</div>
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Stephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com</div>
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Nicky fails to actually mention any of the major scientific organizations that all agree biotech crops currently on the market are safe. He uses the ad hominem fallacy to allude to some vast conspiracy of Monsanto paid scientists and journalists, relying completely on one New York Times piece announcing Monsanto gave a grant to a university to help cover travel expenses for an outreach program. He tries to prevent anyone from calling out the organic industry for giving money to scientists because of how much more biotechnology companies spend. Again, his whole argument relies on a logical fallacy, and he is just trying to attack the people rather than the facts. <a href="http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/07/08/climate-change-vs-gmos-comparing-the-independent-global-scientific-consensus/" target="_blank">There really is a scientific consensus that biotech crops currently on the market are safe. </a></div>
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He then backpedals and states that even if there is a consensus, any potential risk is enough to warrant not using biotech crops. This is the genetic fallacy. He is speaking of demonizing an entire technology, regardless of how it is used. He doesn't mention which traits he perceives as having the potential for risk, he just alludes to all biotech crops having the same risk. How could herbicide tolerant corn and disease resistant papaya possibly carry the same risk? He proceeds to call for large scale studies at "organismal and ecological scales". Why would this be performed for one type of breeding process but not another? Novel traits are created through many different methods, and artificial selection has actually proven dangerous with <a href="http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2013/10/04/potato-chips-dangerously-delicious/" target="_blank">toxins being produced </a>and the introduction of <a href="http://io9.com/5979891/domestic-cats-are-among-the-worst-invasive-species-and-could-be-destroying-ecosystems" target="_blank">invasive species</a> which have actually severely damaged entire ecosystems. </div>
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Nicky continues to ramble on about how we don't "need" biotech crops to feed the world. This isn't even a claim that biotech companies or scientists make. The technology is one of many tools that can aid in the process and potentially help deal with "black swans" we haven't even considered yet. He is correct that there is currently enough food being produced to feed the world, and that distribution is a major problem. Unfortunately this urban elitist view is about giving a man a fish rather than teaching him to fish. The transportation costs to ship food into the developing world for this cause would be astronomical, and would also make the developing country dependent on the developed world. How very colonial of him. It almost makes me wonder how much <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/finance/204352-lobbying-fight-erupts-over-food-aid-shipping" target="_blank">Big Shipping</a> is paying him to write this nonsense. Yields in developing countries have actually been <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111629" target="_blank">proven to increase more</a> so than developed ones with the introduction of biotech crops, allowing these countries to produce food on their own. Investing in agriculture to help reduce post harvest losses in the developing world would return <a href="http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/post-2015-consensus/food-security-and-nutrition" target="_blank">$13 to those countries for every $1 spent</a>.</div>
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Calling for the use of supplements or alternative crops to combat malnutrition is yet another first world view only someone so far removed from reality as Nicky could have. He complains about novel crops replacing local varieties, and then says they should replace local varieties with alternative crops and supplements. <a href="http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/good-as-gold-can-golden-rice-and-other-biofortified-crops-prevent-malnutrition/" target="_blank">Crops like golden rice being investigated</a> would allow cultures to maintain their staple diets while making money by growing their own nutrition rather than relying on expensive supplements. </div>
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Reading his claim that biotech crops are based on pseudo-science because of "snake-oil" lobbying, and that science is based on skepticism and dissent actually made me throw up in my mouth a little. This is the same coward that has told his "cult" to refuse to engage anyone pro-biotechnology, and to call them all "shills", refusing to listen to any skepticism or dissent in regards to his own faith based views. The whole passage reeks of cult brainwashing, even holding himself up as some divine authority on risk. I actually agree with him that being anti biotech-crop does not make someone anti-biotechnology in medicine. It is a shame that he can differentiate between traits in this regard, but not for individual crops. </div>
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Nicky then proceeds to explain how in popular debate "GMOs" refer to transgenic crops specifically. This, and calling biotech crops a "top-down" intervention, are more examples of his cult like behavior. Loading the language is an example of thought reform where vocabulary and meanings are invented to make people conform to his way of thinking. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-down_and_bottom-up_design" target="_blank">Top-down and bottom-up</a> design has simply never been used to describe the breeding of crops.<a href="http://www.csj.org/studyindex/studymindctr/study_mindctr_lifton.htm" target="_blank"> He is just attempting to use a phrase in a new way that the outside world does not understand.</a> He claims that biotech crops some how require a different risk assessment than mutagenesis or artificial selection, but fails to explain why. The truth is there is not a single risk that can be applied to biotech crops that cannot also be applied to other breeding methods. </div>
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Nicky appears to think that because the current most prevalent biotech crop traits relate to pesticides, that they are intrinsically linked. Again, using the genetic fallacy in this way completely ignores disease resistance (which solves a problem with mono-cropping that artificial selection created), and traits designed to reduce food waste (something that contradicts his idea about having enough food being a reason not to use biotech crops). The fact is <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-11-13/mutant-crops-drive-basf-sales-where-monsanto-denied-commodities" target="_blank">mutagenesis and artificial selection</a> have both brought us herbicide tolerant crops, and we even have <a href="http://www.cibus.com/products.php" target="_blank">glyphosate tolerant flax due out in 2019</a> that qualifies for the NONGMO verification seal.</div>
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While claiming that pesticide use has increased with the introduction of biotech crops, without providing evidence, this couldn't be further from the truth. An independent meta-analyis from Germany (where there is no biotech crop cultivation) shows how <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111629" target="_blank">insecticide use has been drastically reduced</a> due to biotech crops. While glyphosate use has gone up, chemical inputs over all have remained steady even while production has sky rocketed in the United States. There is an anti-biotech assumption that increased biotech crops have increased pesticide usage because glyphosate usage has gone up, but they choose to ignore that <a href="http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/chemical-inputs/pesticide-use-markets.aspx" target="_blank">glyphosate simply replaced other herbicides</a>. One almost wonders if BASF is paying him to post such things, as their imazamox herbicide has been<a href="https://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/pnsp/usage/maps/show_map.php?year=2012&map=IMAZAMOX&hilo=L&disp=Imazamox" target="_blank"> seeing a resurgence</a> since the primitive food movement went crazy over biotech crops a few years back. </div>
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Nicky finishes his document with the "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" argument. Fine, then that would apply to all breeding methods equally. There is not one single risk that applies to biotech crops but not to other crops. It is pure hypocrisy to complain about a generalization that all biotech crops are dangerous, and then say all biotech crops are inherently risky. Saying all biotech crops are inherently risky because you don't like herbicide tolerance would be like saying all medicine is risky because you don't like <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/may/09/bad-science-medical-journals-companies" target="_blank">Vioxx</a>. </div>
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I challenge anyone to give me a risk that applies to biotech crops on the market now that does not apply to other breeding methods.
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />This <span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" rel="dct:type">work</span> by <span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" property="cc:attributionName">Stephan Neidenbach</span> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-91217336695551878602015-05-11T18:28:00.000-04:002016-02-26T18:29:06.317-05:00Vice gives up on balanced reporting for GMO segment<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Ubuntu; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the weekend the HBO series Vice did a segment on GMOs. Despite being balanced in most of their stories, Vice decided to put their hands on the scale for this one.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-3fb52d17-42ec-224d-9977-bdf3035b85ce" style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">We start off the segment with a visit to the infamous <a class="navigation_external_link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150514072927/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault" style="color: #b65615;" target="_blank">seed bank in Norway</a>. The seed bank was created so that if a global catastrophe occurs, humans will be able to replant the Earth. The aim of this documentary is clear from this first part, to convince the viewer that modern agriculture is going to destroy the planet. </span>Isobel Yeung, the reporter,<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;"> cherry picks the interview with Cary Fowler who accurately states that a diversity of crops is necessary for our survival. She never mentions GMOs to Fowler, probably because Cary Fowler is in favor of GMOs. In an<a class="navigation_external_link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150514072927/http://blog.ted.com/qa_with_cary_fo/" style="color: #b65615;" target="_blank"> interview with Ted Talks</a> he describes how GMOs are not all that different from traditional breeding, comparing them to Mendel using a paintbrush to move pollen between peas and even calling his own dog a genetic modification. Fowler even explains the importance of patents in encouraging innovation, stating that his job is just to keep the base stock available for use. “If there were to be a ban on all GMOs, virtually everyone in the US and Europe would be affected. Ninety-five percent, or more, of the world still uses food crops that have been traditionally bred and technically speaking that’s a modification. It’s just not one that upsets anybody these days.”</span> <span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">The best part? The seed bank receives a lot of funding from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who also spend a lot to fund GMO research.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Next is an encounter with Dr. Major Goodman. “One of my main concerns with transgenics is that the same gene is being used almost worldwide.” The problem here is that this isn’t an issue with transgenics. His concern is about the susceptibility of monocrops to disease. Kind of like the non-transgenic crops oranges, bananas, and cassava. All of which are currently at risk from such diseases. There is no mention of how transgenics have saved papaya and squash from just such a disease.</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-3fb52d17-42f5-0e9c-cf00-ad919d35b700" style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Now our fearless reporter enters the heart of the beast, Monsanto itself. To their credit they give Robb Fraley a few seconds of screen time, a scientist even less, and then on to scary footage of what appears to be a simulation of a soybean crop field being sprayed by glyphosate. The simulation fails to show that application of Roundup past a specific stage is illegal, and that it is </span></span><a class="navigation_external_link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150514072927/http://kfolta.blogspot.com/2014/07/glyphosate-math.html" style="color: #b65615; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" target="_blank">not actually sprayed on food</a><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">. While Fraley discusses the safety of glyphosate, footage rolls on showing scary spraying of crops. The footage shows post emergent crops being sprayed with what is most likely an insecticide or a fungicide, and probably not soybeans or corn.</span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> (I had a great conversation with many people over at GMOLOL trying to figure out exactly what was being sprayed, where, and on what.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-3fb52d17-42f8-6c01-e525-e08292d32dd9" style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">Paraguay is up next. With absolutely zero historical context. No explanation at all of the old <a class="navigation_external_link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150514072927/http://www.solarmapproject.com/2013/12/map-statistics-of-deforestation-paraguay-rain-forest/" style="color: #b65615;" target="_blank">slash and burn methods</a> used before modern agriculture arrived, and still practiced by small farmers there. No mention of<a class="navigation_external_link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150514072927/http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Paraguay-AGRICULTURE.html" style="color: #b65615;" target="_blank">cotton monocropping</a> that existed before converting over to soy. No mention of the farmers there who used GM soy illegally, forcing the government to legalize it, and Monsanto easing up on royalty requirements. Prior to the legalization of GM soy in Paraguay, <a class="navigation_external_link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150514072927/http://www.soya.be/paraguay-gmo.php" style="color: #b65615;" target="_blank">farmers got it from Argentina</a> where farmers were allowed to replant the seed. Taking a tour of Monsanto’s distributor there she discusses the requirement of farmers to purchase new seed from Monsanto each year, but fails to mention that this is<a class="navigation_external_link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150514072927/http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/vegetables/SEED.html" style="color: #b65615;" target="_blank">common for improved hybrids</a> regardless of how they were bred or patented. Heading out to a farmer’s field next to discuss glyphosate resistant weeds and bt resistant bugs. When looking at the percent of cultivated land, <a class="navigation_external_link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150514072927/http://www.rolf-derpsch.com/en/no-till/historical-review/" style="color: #b65615;" target="_blank">Paraguay leads the world in no-till farming</a>. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">This is due to multiple practices there, including the herbicide tolerant system used. This is a good thing. Erosion is being prevented, and soil health is being preserved. Herbicide resistance in weeds is going to evolve with any herbicide product. Methods like the rotation of herbicides, the rotation of crops, and cover crops (practiced in the United States) can be used to drastically reduce this problem. The farmers interviewed are never asked if they are practicing these methods, and judging from the condition of their fields I can only assume that they are not.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Back to Fraley she brings up a document from Monsanto’s past that states, “it is unlikely that weed resistance to glyphosate will become a problem.” She twists the statement into accusing Fraley of making a mistake that Monsanto was not expecting resistance to glyphosate to occur. Compared to other common herbicides, it hasn’t become a problem. New GMOs that are resistant to glyphosate and dicamba are mentioned, and it is stated that Monsanto also produces dicamba. They do not, BASF does.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The viewer is now returned to Paraguay, where scary statistics are thrown at us. 80% of farmland in Paraguay being owned by 2% of the farmers has nothing to do with Monsanto. This is an issue<a class="navigation_external_link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150514072927/https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp180-smallholders-at-risk-land-food-latin-america-230414-en_0.pdf" style="color: #b65615;" target="_blank"> dating much further back than the introduction of GMOs</a>. Removing technology is not going to help the smaller farmers. The problem isn’t the seed. Smaller farmers have lost cotton to disease, and drought has impacted sesame grown to replace it. Soy itself, regardless of the breeding method, is not suitable to small family farming in Paraguay. Their government is investing in the large landowners, and very little going to crops grown by the small farmers. They have a system of inequality built into their very government. This is what needs to be addressed. Not the breeding method of seeds. If Monsanto was banned from Paraguay today, those large landowners would just use hybrid seed and different herbicides.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-3fb52d17-4301-2776-2e02-51e5e932dc4a" style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">We next meet M. Jahi Chappell, whose argument boils down to being anti-corporation.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;"> Which is fine, except that he feels the need to lump GMOs in with that. GMOs are being developed in Africa, by Africans, right now. But the same fear mongering about Monsanto is being connected to seed they aren’t even working on. Even in countries without approved cultivation, they are still buying seed from the same companies. I also wonder why M. Jahi Chappell’s speech at the world food prize was pictured, but not Rob Fraley’s winning of the award. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Next up is Senator Jon Tester, a farmer from Montana to talk about corruption in our government and to hint at the possibility of Monsanto controlling things. His attempt to remove the <a class="navigation_external_link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150514072927/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmer_Assurance_Provision" style="color: #b65615;" target="_blank">farmer’s assurance provision</a> is briefly discussed, even though the provision did not do anything for Monsanto. The language protects farmers from losing their crops while Monsanto, or another company, is in court. Without that language biotech opponents could force farmers to rip up their crops with any frivolous lawsuit. She never mentions that Jon Tester is an <a class="navigation_external_link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150514072927/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Tester" style="color: #b65615;" target="_blank">organic farmer</a> with a financial stake in scaring people away from GMOs.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-3fb52d17-4304-5691-7341-07ecc0e2da72" style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">Ending with the report on glyphosate being a probable human carcinogen, and the flipping back to Tester stating that we should just label it, was clearly meant as fear mongering. The production method of seed has nothing to do with the pesticide use of one trait. There are GMOs without that trait, and there are non-GMO seeds with that trait. </span>BASF has more varities of herbicide tolerant crops than Monsanto, none of which is scrutinized because they are not GMOs.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-3fb52d17-4305-0034-ec73-0e5b434bd04d" style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;">A lot of people are jumping on the fact that Bill Maher is executive producer of the show. It is entirely possible that </span>his bias played a huge part in the show. Vice is also aimed at the millenials, the generation furthest removed from hunger and disease. I grew up with a grandfather who was a Newsie during the Great Depression, most of them will not hear such stories outside of history class.</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08976586152746690247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046519121559017989.post-24188431579406051992015-04-08T09:16:00.000-04:002016-02-15T13:09:03.826-05:00Food Babe's Message is Broken, Corrupt, and Lacks Evidence<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.08px;">Stephan Neidenbach - welovegv@gmail.com</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">By now we have all read the <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://gawker.com/the-food-babe-blogger-is-full-of-shit-1694902226" href="http://gawker.com/the-food-babe-blogger-is-full-of-shit-1694902226" target="_blank">Science Babe’s take down</a> of the Food Babe, and the Food Babe’s <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://foodbabe.com/response-to-gawker-the-food-babe-blogger-is-full-of-shit/" href="http://foodbabe.com/response-to-gawker-the-food-babe-blogger-is-full-of-shit/" target="_blank">response</a>. There are enough responses out there from <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.cosmopolitan.com/health-fitness/news/a38750/food-babe-blog-vani-hari-criticism/" href="http://www.cosmopolitan.com/health-fitness/news/a38750/food-babe-blog-vani-hari-criticism/" target="_blank">Cosmopolitan</a> to <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2015/04/08/get-out-the-popcorn-science-babe-vs-the-food-babe/" href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2015/04/08/get-out-the-popcorn-science-babe-vs-the-food-babe/" target="_blank">Orac</a> that I really don’t have much more to add. I have had many conversations with Yvette online over the past six months or so, and am extremely proud of what she has accomplished. I am honored that someone with her credentials occasionally asks me about something. Science bloggers and even some in the mainstream press have written about the poor science of Vani Hari for a couple of years now. This one seems to be having a much larger impact. It looks like Vani is losing some of the support she had.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">I was planning on staying out of this one. The article hit while I was teaching my daughter about the smallpox vaccination while on a trip to Valley Forge, and I was not spending much time on the internet. (I also discovered that the Sony Xperia Z3 is not quite as waterproof as the ads of people snorkeling with it made it appear. Kudos to Amazon for the full refund, but I am taking my time picking out a replacement.) Then I saw a sentence in Vani’s response that really got on my nerves.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">“I want a safer and healthier food system, and some people want to keep the food system just like it is today – broken, corrupt and full of unregulated food additives and chemicals that only improve the bottom line of food and biotech companies and not our health. “</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WhatWeDo/History/Milestones/ucm128305.htm" href="http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WhatWeDo/History/Milestones/ucm128305.htm" target="_blank">Food is more regulated</a> than it ever has been in human history.<a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2009/05/health_experts_say_food_supply.html" href="http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2009/05/health_experts_say_food_supply.html" target="_blank"> Food is also safer</a> than it ever has been in human history. I am not sure what she thinks food additives and “chemicals” are doing to us. <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.nia.nih.gov/research/publication/global-health-and-aging/living-longer" href="http://www.nia.nih.gov/research/publication/global-health-and-aging/living-longer" target="_blank">Life expectancy continues to go up.</a> (Can one of my readers who is better at math do a correlation graph comparing fast food restaurant openings and life expectancy?) Consumers have more <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WhatWeDo/History/Overviews/ucm056044.htm" href="http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WhatWeDo/History/Overviews/ucm056044.htm" target="_blank">information at their fingertips</a> than ever before about the food they are eating. The nutritional information available is unheard of.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">The leading cause of death in the United States is <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm" href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm" target="_blank">heart disease</a>. According to the <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-disease/in-depth/heart-healthy-diet/art-20047702" href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-disease/in-depth/heart-healthy-diet/art-20047702" target="_blank">Mayo Clinic</a>, these are eight steps one can take to prevent heart disease:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Eating more fruits and vegetables</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Whole grains</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Avoiding unhealthy fats</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Planning meals ahead of time</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Allowing yourself an occasional treat.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">So</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">rry Vani, avoiding GMOs and pesticides just did not make the cut. Vani’s recent attack on Weight Watchers (<a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.freep.com/story/life/2015/04/07/weight-watchers-jenny-craig-diet/25402731/" href="http://www.freep.com/story/life/2015/04/07/weight-watchers-jenny-craig-diet/25402731/" target="_blank">one of the most effective weight control systems out there</a>) negates number one. I guess she just can't stand something that is both healthy and affordable. Eating an all organic diet makes number two more expensive, threatening those who cannot afford it. She tells people to avoid store bought <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://foodbabe.com/2014/02/24/healthiest-bread-on-the-market/#more-16345" href="http://foodbabe.com/2014/02/24/healthiest-bread-on-the-market/#more-16345" target="_blank">whole wheat bread at all costs</a>, again telling people to buy much more expensive options. Avoiding food like butter is a great way of avoiding unhealthy fats, but not in her mind. She just wants to make sure we are all buying organic butter, actually stating that <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://foodbabe.com/2014/01/20/is-butter-secretly-ruining-your-health/" href="http://foodbabe.com/2014/01/20/is-butter-secretly-ruining-your-health/" target="_blank">regular organic butter is more nutritious than Smart Butter</a> (which oddly enough went non-GMO verified shortly after her article). Low-fat proteins? Her idea isn’t about avoiding high-fat proteins, it is about buying <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://foodbabe.com/2014/10/29/organic-milk/" href="http://foodbabe.com/2014/10/29/organic-milk/" target="_blank">organic over conventional</a>. She doesn’t have any articles about avoiding salt, but Himalayan Pink Salt is on her list of <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://foodbabe.com/pantry-list/" href="http://foodbabe.com/pantry-list/" target="_blank">pantry items</a>. Planning meals ahead she does have you covered for, just buy her <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://foodbabe.com/eating-guides/" href="http://foodbabe.com/eating-guides/" target="_blank">monthly planning guide</a>. (Having her own diet plan kind of explains the hatred for Weight Watchers.) Allowing yourself an occasional treat, as part of keeping a reasonable lifestyle, is the complete opposite of <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://foodbabe.com/2011/10/21/why-juice-fast/" href="http://foodbabe.com/2011/10/21/why-juice-fast/" target="_blank">juice fasting</a>. Anyone that recommends drinking nothing but juice for several days a week <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.livescience.com/48887-juice-cleanse-dangers.html" href="http://www.livescience.com/48887-juice-cleanse-dangers.html" target="_blank">loses the right to call for healthier eating</a>.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Maybe she is more worried about the second leading cause of death in the United States, <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm" href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm" target="_blank">cancer</a>. Once again she ignores science and preaches her bullshit. Instead of encouraging readers to give up smoking, the cause of the leading cause of cancer death and the <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.lung.org/lung-disease/lung-cancer/resources/facts-figures/lung-cancer-fact-sheet.html" href="http://www.lung.org/lung-disease/lung-cancer/resources/facts-figures/lung-cancer-fact-sheet.html" target="_blank">second most common cancer</a>, she screams about far less worrisome chemicals in our food. She would rather you fear the chemicals in <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://foodbabe.com/2013/05/05/what-you-need-to-know-before-you-ever-buy-sunscreen-again/" href="http://foodbabe.com/2013/05/05/what-you-need-to-know-before-you-ever-buy-sunscreen-again/" target="_blank">sunscreen</a> than the sun that can give you skin cancer. Obesity increases the risk of several types of cancer, and as mentioned before, her attack <a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://foodbabe.com/2015/04/01/watching-your-weight/" href="http://foodbabe.com/2015/04/01/watching-your-weight/" target="_blank">on Weight Watchers</a> is focused on ingredients regardless of its effectiveness at preventing cancer. There are even<a class="navigation_external_link" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cancer/basics/prevention/con-20032378" href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cancer/basics/prevention/con-20032378" target="_blank"> two vaccines</a> (hepatitis B and HPV) that can prevent some cancers, but she is terrified of the flu vaccine for containing many of the ingredients that those two contain.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">People like the Food Babe got a head start on social media. From anti-vaccine groups to anti-GMO gr</span></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">oups, these social media activists learned early on that many people will believe anything stated on the internet. Fear sells. Scientists have always been busy being scientists, with little time for public engagement. The tide is now turning. From Ben Goldacre to Orac. From Dr. Offit to Kevin Folta. From Kavin Senapathy to Yvette d’Etremont. Science is fighting back. Vani could actually learn something from these courageous individuals about Facebook and Twitter. Social media relies on interaction and discussion. Vani immediately bans any and all dissent on her pages, severely limiting the reach of her messages. If she truly values transparency, she should open a discussion with the skeptics. What does she have to hide? Ken Ham has so much faith in young earth creationism that he was even willing to debate Bill Nye publicly. Does Vani truly believe? Or is she just worried about how it would impact her bottom line…..</span></span></div>
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