Whole Foods partners with Monsanto to endorse fake GMO-labeling bill

– What is it about large corporations and transparency that the two seldom mix? And here’s another question: If you don’t have any morals or a soul, then is there ever a point where you think you’ve gone too far or have actually done something wrong?

labelingThese two questions immediately came to my mind when I read Natural News editor Mike Adams’ bombshell expose this week that organic food retailer Whole Foods has aligned itself with GMO-manufacturing giant Monsanto, to endorse what amounts to little more than sham legislation that, to the uninformed observer may appear to call for the labeling of GMO foods, but which really doesn’t. And what’s more, if companies don’t comply with the legislation it won’t matter, because there won’t be any penalties leveled against them anyway.

So, a “labeling” bill that won’t actually require GMO labeling or punish those who ignore it. Truly a piece of legislation made in today’s dysfunctional, ineffectual Washington, where the special interests actually “govern” the country via the puppets posing as lawmakers.

The (non) GMO labeling bill

Whole Foods, of course, has quickly come out to deny this, posting this partial response on the company’s Facebook page :

There is no truth to these claims. We have always advocated for more transparency in the marketplace, because we believe people have a right to know what’s in their food. That’s why we were the first (and are still the only) national grocer to set a deadline for GMO transparency in our U.S. and Canadian stores. Continue reading

Monsanto’s puppets in the U.S. Senate announced a ‘compromise’ to outlaw GMO labeling laws nationwide

gmoMike Adams – While UK citizens were revolting en masse against bureaucratic rule in Europe, another cabal of prostituted lawmakers were busy plotting against American food consumers. According to this announcement from the United States Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, committee leaders have reached a “bipartisan agriculture biotechnology compromise solution.”

What exactly is this so-called “compromise?”

The complete banning of all GMO labeling state laws across America.

And that’s just for starters. After that, this new “compromise” decrees that no foods shall be GMO labeled for two years while the USDA ponders the best way to deceive consumers and hide Monsanto’s GMOs for another few years. The suggested law also gives the USDA the right to decree that any foods with less than 50% bioengineered content could be considered non-GMO, by the way.

As a bonus surrender to Monsanto, the law would also not require animal products derived from GMO-fed animals to be considered bioengineered at all. So cattle feedlots can pump cows full of GMOs and glyphosate for years, then sell the resulting beef as “all natural.”

Finally, after two years, the USDA would then roll out a nationwide rule that would only require food companies to place a scannable QR code on their labels. Consumers would then have to carry mobile phones with them to scan all the codes in order to determine what’s really GMO. As stated in the proposed law:

…the form of a food disclosure under this section be a text, symbol, or electronic or digital link…

In other words, “GMO labeling” doesn’t actually have to consist of words or any meaningful symbol. So it’s all a farce. This is how the food industry can claim they’ve agreed to label GMOs without actually labeling GMOs. It’s all more subterfuge and collusion between Monsanto and lawmakers… is anyone surprised? Continue reading

Growing Doubt: A Scientist’s Experience With GMOs

Dr. Mercola – Scientific misconduct and fraud: most of us have no concept of how they influence our food. Jonathan Latham, a scientist with a master’s degree in crop and a Ph.D. in plant virology, sheds much-needed light on this issue.

Together with his wife, Allison Wilson, who is also a scientist, he founded the Bioscience Resource Project, an organization with a mission “to provide the highest quality scientific information and analysis to enable a healthy food system and a healthy world.”

He’s also the editor of Independent Science News.

Part of his career was spent doing medical research in the genetics department at the University of Wisconsin. He also worked in the U.K., where many of his coworkers were proposing ambitious research projects designed to alter soil microbiology and cure plant viruses using novel transgenic techniques.

As explained by Latham in the video, when you make a transgene, you take different parts of genes from different organisms, and you put them together to (hopefully) get them to do what you want them to do.

Once a transgene performs according to expectation, it is used to develop commercial transgenic plants carrying that particular feature. However, Latham noticed that the end results were frequently potentially very dangerous, both to plants and people, which made him question the purpose of it all. Continue reading

Huge Victory: USDA Introduces Official Non-GMO Label

Mike Barrett – For years the public has been asking the U.S. government to institute mandatory labeling for any products containing genetically modified ingredients. Now, in response to the sounds of public outcry and vital activism, the United States Department of Agriculture is being forced to do something. The agency has developed a new government certification which companies can use to show that the product is completely free of GMOs.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/p6u_5SiahDU]

Though the food advancement is arguably just tip-toeing around mandatory GMO labeling, it is definitely a sign that our government agencies are being forced to listen to our collective voice, and that they are really recognizing that there needs to be something in place that can clearly differentiate GMO-riddled and non-GM foods.

Currently, companies have the option to use either the non-profit Non-GMO Project’s verified seal, developed in 2007, or the USDA’s certified organic label. The difference with the newly-created USDA certification and these seals, however, is that the new seal is government-certified (the Non-GMO Project seal isn’t), and the USDA Organic seal comes with many more strict food rules than just being GMO-free. In other words, not all GMO-free foods are 100% organic. Continue reading

Dear Farmers: U.S. Is Now Importing Organic Corn To Satisfy Consumer Demand

Heather Callaghan – There are three things driving a surge in organic imports:

  1. U.S. farmers have been systematically pushed into growing mostly GMO crops; grown primarily for fuel, animal feed and cheap processed foods. Russia even used our food supply as an example for the EU to dump us and join them instead.
  2. U.S. consumers are not only demanding fresh, organic produce as well as non-GMO convenience foods – but also want meat, dairy and eggs from animals that were fed non-GMO or organic feed.
  3. Other countries primarily grow non-GE crops, and plenty of organic. They’ve got the goods and they reap the benefits of trade.

This is ridiculous, as the U.S. could not only use a valuable export, but could honestly use a supportive, in-house product. Yet again, we find ourselves outsourcing for staples. Shouldn’t our own farmers be benefiting from this rise in demand coming from their country? Yet again, farmers have been tricked and kicked by the very companies with which they sign agreements.

U.S. consumers are coming into awareness about how their food affects their health and want superior products, which sadly, aren’t always available here…yet.

An analysis of U.S. trade data released Wednesday by the Organic Trade Association and Pennsylvania State University shows a spike in corn from Romania and soybeans from India. The chief executive officer of OTA is prompting farmers that the market is open for converts. She called it a “help-wanted” sign for farmers and said, “There are market distortions that are pretty striking.” [Also see: Study Quantifies Market Value of Nature’s Farming Services] Continue reading