GMO Letter to Feinstein, Boxer and Woolsey

June 2, 2011 Commentary

Letter to Senators Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey

There appears to be a revolving door between just about every industry in the United States and the agencies that we have created to regulate them. The Department of Agriculture is no exception. In January, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, with the “heavy handed” urging of President, ‘I’ve-got-an-organic-garden-in-my-back-yard’, Barack Obama, approved the coast to coast planting of Genetically Modified alfalfa, sugar beet and corn seeds. Genetically Modified seeds or GMO’s, incorporate a disruptively violent process of splicing poisonous genes into the DNA of plants in order to ward off pests, which eventually destroy natural seed stores via airborne contamination. The entire feedlot of the country, affecting milk, meat and produce, could potentially be contaminated within a year.

We face an IMMEDIATE CRISIS. Despite repeated industry claims to the contrary, a recent Canadian study (Daily Mail, May 20, 2011) shows Bt toxins (Bacillus thuringiensis) implanted into food crops to kill pests, showing up in 93% of the blood samples taken from pregnant women.

On May 6th, 2011, we held a forum in San Rafael, CA where over 300 people came out to hear Norman Solomon moderate a panel of GMO experts: Good Earth Natural Food Store owner and “Non GMO Project” founder Mark Squire, “Seeds of Deception” author Jeffrey Smith, “Uncertain Peril” author Clair Cummings and legal council for the Center for Food Safety Rebecca Smith.

In order to protect the imminent threat to our food supply Organic Consumer Association’s founder Ron Cummings is organizing a Millions Against Monsanto Washington, DC lobbying event for World Food Day on October 17. Doctor Bronner’s son is organizing a New York to Washington march that same week. We in Marin County are organizing a lobbying effort in Sacramento in September and will join World Food Day activities in Washington, DC in October.

This is our “Cairo Moment”. Our corporate controlled government has gone too far. We will stop Monsanto. Little people like myself are fed up, are “mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore”.

Real politicians follow the lead of the people they represent. This is your time to step up and do the right thing. Fill the gaping regulatory hole left by the FDA to protect American’s, by actively working to require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. Education and organization is the first step, restoring democracy is the second step and stopping Monsanto is our final goal.

For over forty years, I have supported the organic food movement with every purchase I make. As a human being, I firmly believe I should have the right to know if my foods have been genetically engineered. Under current FDA regulations I don’t know if GE ingredients are in the foods I purchase and feed my family. Labeling is essential. If Kraft and Kellogg’s can label the GM products they sell in European countries because the Europeans have demanded it, they can certainly do it here in the United States.

92% of the American public wants the federal government to require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. ABC News stated, “Such near-unanimity in public opinion is rare.” I HOPE you will listen to me and the other 92 percent of the American public who want mandatory labeling and show your support for American consumers by supporting and co-sponsoring legislation requiring mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods.

Food Crisis

May 5, 2011 Scrap Book

In January, Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, authorized the unrestricted commercial cultivation of genetically modified alfalfa from sea to shinning sea. Within one year of this planting, the entire milk supply and cattle feedlot in this country could potentially be contaminated. Next came the sugar beets that account for half of America’s sugar supply. The “third shoe to drop” came as Tom Vilsack approved the splicing of the enzyme alpha amylase into corn used to manufacture ethanol.

Friday January 28, 2011 New York Times, B1 – U.S. APPROVES PLANTING OF MODIFIED ALFALFA

Saturday February 5, 2011 New York Times, B3 – U.S. SAYS FARMERS MAY GROW ENGINEERED SUGAR BEETS

Saturday February 12, 2011 New York Times, B1 – U.S. APPROVES CORN MODIFIED FOR ETHANOL

For over fifteen years now, Monsanto has been introducing Genetically Modified Organisms, GMO’s, into our food supply, primarily with soybeans, cotton, corn and canola. The Corporate takeover of our food has been a slow and insidious process, and today it is nearly impossible to find 100% organic soy or corn, that is not contaminated. Ready-to-retire seed-saving-farmer Percy Schmeizer from Alberta Canada has been fighting Monsanto for the last ten years. THEY sued him for stealing THEIR seeds, which migrated over to HIS property and polluted HIS crops. The “chutzpa” and influence of these corporate giants is unbelievable.

The proven ill effects of GMO’s have been well documented by Jeffrey Smith in a number of books including GENETIC ROULETTE. Liver and kidney damage, along with reproductive problems are common. Third generation mice are not reproducing, and second-generation cattle are reproducing 40% less. Public opinion polls indicate that 90% of the people in this country want to have labeling of GMO’s, while over 50% of the people don’t want Genetically Modified food at all. Most of Europe rejects GMO imports. Uncontrollable super weeds are developing in areas where GMO herbicides and pesticides are polluting the soil. General Foods and General Mills have serious concerns that the new GMO Amylase modified ethanol corn will migrate to the sweet corn and kill the “flake” in corn flakes. The GMO test splicing of pharmaceuticals in food products; i.e., Prozac in corn, persists and is expanding.

We face a crisis, an immediate threat to our food supply and the end to certified organic foods as we know it. The revolving door between the Department of Agriculture and the giant food and seed companies, is typical of the same revolving door between Goldman Sacks and the financial regulators, between the nuclear industry and the nuclear regulators, between the oil industry and the oil regulators, between the war machine and military industrial complex, between corporate privatization and deregulated government.

The Corporate Colonization and GMO pollution of the food supplies in Paraguay, India and Mexico are well underway. We are the now target, but we have the tools to fight back. We have access to Social Networking, Television and Face to Face contact. We can make a difference. Get informed, use the internet, get involved, talk to you friends and neighbors. Make a difference. Just do it.

2011 – Most Important Year in History

March 28, 2011 Commentary

2011 – Most Important Year in History

Over the years, I’ve noticed that the last few weeks in January frequently have some astrological earth shattering news or entrepreneurial opportunity smack me in the face like when I discovered you can use now services from http://elitist-gaming.com for your video games. This year was no different: “The year 2011will be one of the most important in human history“, says ASTROLOGY TODAY (Jan 2011) ….accelerated time of change….incorporate new views…. be willing to innovate…be an agent of change…leap in collective consciousness ….no separation between spiritual and physical …as we help others we help ourselves.” What a positive mouthful, hold on to your hats.

Then the news started.

New York Times Mon 1/17 Front Page:

“Data Overload Can Be Deadly” – The Army has figured out that “multitasking” doesn’t work and might actually have negative effects, like the wrong people getting killed because a soldier has too much information to deal with and can’t make an intelligent decision. The Army is using MINDFULLNESS training to help soldiers focus. They are teaching soldiers to concentrate on a FEELING in their body, while sitting still. Unbelievable, they’ll be sending soldiers to Spirit Rock pretty soon. Wait long enough and everything changes.

Tuesday 1/25

“Cold Jumps Arctic Fence”… the world seems to have “flipped upside down”, as stalactites hang from a subway in Brooklyn, a deep freeze spreads across Europe and there’s no snow in the Arctic. It’s always good when mainstream media gets anything right.

Wed 1/26

“Financial Crisis Was Avoidable, Inquire Finds” … greed, ineptitude, corruption, heedless risk-taking, failure in regulation and corporate mismanagement are all highlighted as the actual cause of the financial meltdown, which was brought to us by Alan Greenspan, Bernanke, Paulson, Geitner and the Bush’ies, who are all signaled out by Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission chairman Phil Angelides and chided in Shakespearean language, “The fault lies not in the stars, but in us.” Real news two days in a row.

Thursday 1/27

“Pitcher Spurns $12Million, to Keep Self Respect” … for the first time ever, a professional baseball player Gil Meche turns down a $12 million dollar salary because he doesn’t want to sit on the bench and collect money he wasn’t earning. What a concept! Integrity over money, and in the same spot, on the front page below the fold, as yesterday’s Financial Meltdown story. Wall Street Greed caused the problem, and a Main Street individual can solve the problem

Friday 1/28, Business Page

“US Approves Planting of Modified Alfalfa” – Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack authorizes the unrestricted commercial planting of genetically modified alfalfa. This could potentially contaminate the entire feedlot of the country within a year. Alfalfa is what the milking cows and the cattle eat. This is insane.

In summary, the Army figured out that multitasking doesn’t work and is using Mindfulness Meditation Techniques. The world has been turned on its head. Greed and corruption is the cause of the financial meltdown, and we know who is responsible. A superstar turns down $12M to keep his self-respect. The Department of Agriculture declares war on the organic food movement.

All this in the same week that the uprising in Tunisia and Cairo started. Think there’s something in the air??????

The year started out so hopeful

March 22, 2011 Commentary

The year started out so hopeful

The year started out so hopeful. ADBUSTERS published an article by my old Political Economy professor, Robert Heilbroner, Final Reflections on the Human Prospect and PARABOLA published A Reverence for the Divine, by Peter Kingsley. Both articles flipped conventional thinking on its head and both articles offered HOPE for the future. Hope has sure come into abuse and misuse over the past year, but for a brief few weeks, I felt like it was reemerging as a real prospect.

Heilbroner, your typical elbow-patch-pipe-smoking-liberal-tweedy professor, wrote Final Reflections in 1975, as I, with his encouragement, was dropping out of graduate school and heading to California. He updated it in 1990 and ADBUSTERS, the most anti-capitalistic publication in the mainstream market, published his thoughts twenty years later in 2010, wow. He talks about the end of capitalism and the dangerous mentality of industrial civilization itself. He sees us moving into a postindustrial era where characteristics of many pre-industrial societies, such as the exploration of inner states of consciousness and a more communal social organization, rather than material accomplishments and individual achievement, become the norm.

Peter Kingsley essay is from his new book, REALITIES. He asserts that 6th Century BC Greek philosopher Parmenides, the father of Logic, developed his thesis from a previously unknown Shamanistic practice called Incubation, not from some head tripping dry abstract thinking. Incubation meant going deep inside, shutting down the body, going into the darkness of a cave, for anywhere from a week to a month, and finding the still point of deep mediation, visiting the underworld or the otherworld.

Heilbroner, author of the most famous Political Economy book of the 20th Century, THE WORLDLY PHILOSOPHERS, and Kingsley, well-respected theologian and philosopher, have both turned western philosophy on their head. As one of my long-term projects has been writing a “Spiritual Political Economy”, both these publications gave me much food for thought, fit into my own philosophy and gave me what I needed.

That was then, a time of hope. This is now, a time of unprecedented disasters, one after another. I’ll continue catching up to the present with my next post, which will start with the events at the end of January.