Showing posts with label GMO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GMO. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Standing Up To Multinational Big-Ag: Nepal, Monsanto, & USAID

May 24, 2016 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - Throughout history, controlling India was the key to controlling Nepal. British control over the landlocked nation was an extension of its control over India itself. Today, imperialism is far from a distant memory. It did not go "extinct," rather, it merely "evolved." Today, imperialism looks like national and international "aid programs" which are used as fronts and vectors for corporate special interests.



USAID, the World Food Programme, and others, for instance, serve as fronts and vectors for corporations like Monsanto. In turn, Monsanto seeks a monopoly over world food production and the immense wealth and influence associated with such control. Just like the British East Indies Company did for centuries (1600's-1800's) the West is using a combination of corporations and foundations to project geopolitical power. And few other sectors engender such sought-after geopolitical power like control over a nation's agriculture.

The story of corporate-financier interests attempting to conquer Nepal through this method is not new. In 2011, when "Maoist" rebels finally took control of the country and Western-style "democracy" foisted upon the Nepali people, Western corporations were already positioned to overrun the levers of power by controlling the nation's infrastructure.

In the immediate aftermath of years of fighting, USAID along with Monsanto and a corrupt, weak, and vulnerable Nepal government began a "pilot program" indoctrinating some 20,000 farmers in the use of patented, poisoned, economy-wrecking GMO crops, and in particular Monsanto's infamous hybrid maize breeds. The program had also received backing from members of neighboring India's government who had already helped introduce Monsanto's GMO crops throughout their country -beginning the wholesale destruction of India's food security and domestic farming industry.


Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Cargill and Others Behind anti-Organic "Stanford Study"

Anti-organic "study" is not news, rather, coordinated propaganda campaign.
by Tony Cartalucci
 
September 5, 2012 - Harry Wallop of the London Telegraph ends his anti-organic food editorial with the following sentence:
"Tomorrow, the baby is going to get an extra dollop of pesticide-sprayed carrots."
Whether or not Wallop is as brain-addled as he leads on to being, the point of his editorial is to encourage similar attitudes amongst the Telegraph's readership, attempting to manipulate public perception in the wake of a recent Stanford University "study" regarding organic food.


Image: Conflict of interest? Strange that Stanford University is partnered with agricultural giant Cargill and just so happens to come out with a study that suggests organic food is no better than its big-agri competition. According to Stanford University, Cargill has donated at least 5 million dollars  for the creation of a Center on Food Security and the Environment (FSE). Cargill's website has a page describing its partnership with Stanford which can be found here. Cargill and many others also are listed as donors by Standford University in their 2011 Annual Report (page 38, .pdf).
....

Whether or not readers of the Telegraph will put their own health and that of their children at risk for the sake of protecting big-agri's bottom line and the faltering paradigm that big-agri products are safe for human consumption simply because Harry Wallop thinks its good to feed his baby with pesticide-sprayed carrots remains to be seen.

The London Telegraph, when not fabricating news to support England's latest imperial adventures overseas, is at the forefront of many of the largest corporate-financier funded lobbying campaigns. Recently, someone has splurged, and splurged big on anti-organic food lobbying built atop a suspect Stanford study. 

A Flawed "Study"

When entire news cycles are dominated by headlines built on a single university study, with editorials attempting to hammer in big-agri talking points, a lobbying effort is clearly afoot. 

Two news cycles have already been dedicated to trashing organic food. Organic food is free of pesticides and genetic manipulation, both of which are proven to cause learning disabilities, decreased IQ, sterility, and a myriad of other health problems including a wide variety of cancers.

This most recent anti-organic food campaign began with a Stanford study (and here) out of its Center for Health Policy (a subsidiary of Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies), examining the nutritional value of organic food versus non-organic. Food with pesticides on it had nearly the same nutritional value, the study claims, as organic food - completely skipping over the whole point of eating organic.

Indeed, the nutritional value would be similar - but the entire point of eating organic is not because of vastly superior nutritional value, but to avoid the "extras" included with products from big-agri corporations.

The Stanford study intentionally dismisses concerns regarding the presence of pesticides by simply claiming levels were within legal tolerances. No discussion was made on whether legal tolerances equated to safe tolerances, nor was there any mention made of the harmful effects of genetically modified organisms (GMO) or other controversial food additives found in non-organic food products.

So why the strawman argument?

A Corporate-funded "Study"

The Stanford Center for Health Policy states the following  on its own website:
"The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) relies on support from its friends, as well as from national and international foundations and corporations, for the funding of the Institute's research, teaching and outreach activities."
The Center for Health Policy is a subsidiary of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). So who are these "friends," national and international foundations and corporations funding the research of FSI and its subsidiary, the Stanford Center for Health Policy?


Image: From Stanford Center for Health Policy's own website it is admitted that " national and international foundations and corporations" fund its research and "outreach activities." This confirms the suspicions of an increasingly aware public who saw the "study" as biased, contradictory of both logic and ethics, and the result of insidious corporate-funding. 
....

According to FSI's 2011 Annual Report (page 38, .pdf) Agricultural giant Cargill, British Petroleum (BP), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (heavily invested in both Cargill and big-agri giant Monsanto), the Ford Foundation, Google, Goldman Sachs, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and many other corporate-financier, Fortune 500 special interests.


Image: From Stanford's 2011 FSI Annual Report (page 38, .pdf), of which the Center for Health Policy is a subsidiary, is funded by Cargill, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (heavily invested in both Cargill and big-agri giant Monsanto), and a myriad of other Fortune 500 corporate-financier special interests. The report at face value is throwaway propaganda, but its funding reveals a more insidious, coordinated effort to manipulate public perception, stretching across academia, mass media, government, and big business. (click image to enlarge)
....

That none of this is mentioned, and the lack of independence and transparency involved in the study and its presentation to the public, overturns the credibility of both Stanford, and the Western media machine that so eagerly shoveled the results out to the public. Combined with the fact that the study itself is flawed, and the concerted, disingenuous nature with which it is being promoted to the public, a premeditated public relations campaign, bought and paid for by Stanford's FSI sponsors, most notably Cargill and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is self-evident.

What to Do?

Quite obviously, one should continue eating organic. Additionally, the duplicitous nature exhibited by academia, the mass media, and the vast corporate interests overtly driving them both, demands from us to redouble our efforts at implementing full-spectrum boycotts aimed at big-agri as well as other Fortune 500 corporate-financier monopolies. This includes other processed food makers such as Pepsi and Coca-Cola, Kraft, and the myriad of subsidiaries they maintain.

We should also redouble our efforts at supporting local farmers, attending and contributing to local farmers markets, and investigating the possibility of growing, if only a small percentage, our own herbs, fruits, and vegetables.

Freedom and self-determination come from economic independence, self-reliance, and self-sufficiency. The most fundamental form of economic independence is having a safe, secure, and local food supply operated for, by, and of the people. Cementing this emerging paradigm, in spite of the crass, juvenile, even criminally irresponsible editorials like that of the Telegraph's Harry Wallop, and multimillion dollar "studies" subsidized by Cargill and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is the first step on extending this paradigm shift to other areas required for maintaining and advancing modern civilization.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Genetics & Humanity's Future

Our ability to create an educated, informed, responsible citizenry will determine whether our collective future is bright or a nightmarish dystopia.
by Tony Cartalucci

April 2, 2012 - Imagine a human cell is like a car - a piece of machinery serving a particular task. Imagine the cell's genetic instructions like a driver. The machine's potential is determine as much by its engineering and design as it is by its operator. The same could be said about a human cell and the instructions carried within its DNA.

Our genetic code is what makes us who we are - it determines predispositions that may help or hinder us throughout our lives. And while our ability to reason and invent can help us overcome many of our genetic predispositions, there are many that cannot currently be overcome - or require costly, inadequate solutions to do so.

One such genetic predisposition is hemophilia - a genetic condition that prevents the blood from properly clotting. Such a condition can allow an otherwise minor injury to become potentially life threatening - as no matter how long one waits with hemophilia, they continue to bleed. A series of pharmaceutical treatments have been developed to manage the symptoms of hemophilia and preserve the lives of those with the condition, but until now, little progress has been made in addressing the cause - a fault found within one's genetic code.

Just as changing or training a deficient driver can exponentially improve the performance of a car, tweaking the genetic code can likewise improve the performance of one's cells and in turn one's collective physiology. An example of this being done today comes to us from University College London and St Jude Children's Research Hospital who have been doing revolutionary work toward curing hemophilia.

The method of "training the driver" in this case comes in the form of identifying the part of genetic code responsible for causing hemophilia and replacing it. A virus is used - replacing its genetic material with a corrected form of human code - to deliver the correction to targeted cells from the patient. When a cell reproduces, human DNA replicates in a process comparable to copying a document - whatever exists in the corrected DNA code is perpetuated with each and every new copy made during cell division.

Image: One method of gene therapy - taking human cells, "editing" them genetically, and reinserting them into the human body where they will replicate and carry out their newly designed functions. (Microsoft Encarta Online Concise Encyclopedia)
....

In this way a patient with hemophilia can have their symptoms reduced without drugs by addressing the cause of the condition itself, and doing so permanently. A whole host of conditions can be treated using this method - called "gene therapy."



Video: Another example of gene therapy explained - this time involving damaged liver cells. As our understanding of the human genome advances, digital copies of an individual's entire genetic code could be stored and used to periodically replace our naturally deteriorating DNA code (aging) curing the most notorious disease of all - aging. Already, scientists led by pioneering biologist Craig Venter have sequenced the human genome and devised basic protocols for designing and synthesizing DNA - described in the next video.


Video: "Craig Venter unveils "synthetic life." Venter's team first sequenced the human genome and has now designed and synthesized an artificial lifeform using techniques similar to those described above for gene therapy. The implications of Venter's work, past, present, and proposed will turn medicine upside down. Now more than ever, scientists like Venter need an informed, intelligent, and responsible citizenry to support him and ensure his work is not perverted for the agenda of a few.
....

From "gene therapy," and through projects studying the human genome and how best to apply that knowledge to correcting conditions resulting from both our genetic predispositions as well as conditions resulting from cell division, including cancer and aging, we can revolutionize the field of medicine in ways once resigned only to the plots of science fiction.

But as any science fiction fan might point out, there are both stories of glistening towers amongst idealistic utpoias, and of tangled horrors within a technologically enhanced futuristic dystopia. As with all technology, we are inclined to see and believe only what is beneficial, and to ignore, deny, or wish away its potential abuses. Gene therapy could just as easily be used to reverse the health, vigor, intelligence, will, and vitality of individuals or segments of the population. And just as viruses are used to deliver life-enhancing hemophilia treatments, they can similarly be used to deliver engineered perversions of the human genetic code.

One horrifying scenario was recently discussed in Paul Joseph Watson's "Real Or Fake? Pentagon Proposal to Lobotomize ‘Terrorists’ Using Virus." It describes "curing" "religious fundamentalism" by re-engineering the genetic code affecting our neurology in such a way as to make it impossible to harbor intense emotional beliefs. Whether the video included in the article is real or not was discussed, and it was correctly concluded that regardless of its authenticity, it represents an important debate regarding recombinant DNA technology and gene therapy that must be addressed.

There are brilliant scientists working in the revolutionary field of genetics - however even if they were determined to do good it is virtually impossible for them in a system where sociopathic megalomaniacs loom over the levers of power while the general populations exists in a state of apathy, ignorance, and profound immaturity. Where would such a scientist then turn for support if approached to to use his work for the benefit of the global corporate-financier oligarchs instead of for the greater good of humanity? How would he appeal for help amongst a population so profoundly ignorant of basic biology let alone the cutting edge of genetic research?

Indeed, the global oligarchs - their corporations, institutions, and government proxies - demonstratively spend billions annually to manipulate public opinion, manufacture consensus and eliminate opposition to their goals and agendas. It would be supreme naivety to assume they would not attempt to leverage biotechnology the first opportunity they got to enhance their ability to domineer over the will of their fellow man. The more clever amongst us may then be struck by the answer to a confounding riddle that has been highlighted over the last 10 years: Why is a system of global banker-corporate-financier oligarchs so interested in pushing vaccines onto the population for our supposed "health," when they are just as happy to send millions, even tens of millions to their deaths all over the world in their wars of profit, opportunity, and global domination?

The answer is simple, while the population may or may not have even heard about the word "gene therapy" before quickly diverting their attention back to American Idol or expanding their holdings in "Farmville," the global elite have known about it for years and have set out to obtain the best method of exploiting it for their agenda. And just as agricultural giants like Monsanto, Cargill, and Bayer are rewriting the genetic code of our crops, livestock, and wildlife, vaccine makers are preparing to likewise rewrite the genetic code of humanity. And just like genetically modified organisms (GMO) are turning up as inefficient perversions of nature, consuming our planet's ecological heritage, our humanity will likewise be perverted, not enhanced by this depraved agenda.



Video
: Controlling our food: The world according to Monsanto - a wake up call to the world exposing how GMO biotechnology is being perverted and literally "overwriting" our global ecological genetic heritage with poisonous abominations. Such reckless, unchecked abuse of human ingenuity threatens not only humanity's survival, but that of every other living creature on Earth as well - it in reality is the man-made threat "global warming" is portrayed to be.
....

This is why it is important to research and understand these topics while raising awareness of their implications, both for good and bad, so that we can offer the brilliant minds amongst us pushing this boundary forward our support to ply their expert trade for the benefit of mankind. Transforming the general population from a contemptible mass of ignoramuses into informed and responsible citizens deprives the global elite their primary justification used when poisoning the minds of our scientists, researchers, and engineers against us - that we deserve what they've got planned for us.

Technology is what it is - innovation and progress cannot and will not be stopped. If something can be imagined it stands the potential of one day being done. If something can be done, it will be done. It is important then for us to ensure that this research and technology remains in the hands of responsible individuals overseen not by international institutions run by and for a global oligarchy seeking personal superiority, but by an educated, informed, and responsible citizenry seeking collective solidarity.