Monsanto: the Toxic Face of Globalization

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/26/monsanto-the-toxic-face-of-globalization/ 
To the rhythms of drums and chants, concerned people took to the streets across 436 cities in 52 countries yesterday. The message was clear: smash Monsanto. With thousands marching from coast to coast, Canada to Argentina, and around the world, the day of protest has emerged as one of the largest global events—and it has only been around for two years. However, more than small hopes for a mandatory labeling of genetically modified products, smashing Monsanto entails a larger transformation of the modern relationship between people and food.

It is not only GM products, but the continuing economy of globalization, that Monsanto represents. Thanks to major seed companies and agricultural conglomerates like Monsanto and Cargill, the very definition of farmer has changed throughout the world—from a person or group of people in a given community who specialized in producing food to a corporate, land-owning entity comprised more of machines, technological assemblages, and inputs than of people who work the land. Thus, the target of protest is not only GMs, although GMs are a central aspect, but also the supply chain of multinational corporations that transforms food into a commodity that many throughout the world cannot afford.
In the context of today’s historical epoch—the Global Land Grab, in which farmland is being grabbed by multinational corporations from vulnerable populations like small farmers, campesin@s, and Indigenous peoples throughout the world—the March Against Monsanto has taken on a particularly sharp edge. In Ethiopia, where Monsanto has taken up shop through the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, reports have emerged of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people flooding the streets of the capital city, Addis Ababa, to demonstrate against land grabbing.
Monsanto has also ingrained itself in Mali since the US-backed coup of 2012, in spite of renewed fighting in the North that only yesterday claimed the lives of 50 soldiers. Malian cotton farmers, who have resisted Monsanto’s genetically modified Bt Cotton seeds since 2004, are being brushed to the side. The process of side-stepping traditional agriculture moved forward in 2010 through the IMF-mandated privatization of La Compagnie malienne pour le développement du textile against the organized opposition of farmers who petitioned through the People’s Forum. A year after the coup, the USDA announced that Malian farmers are “ready to adopt Bt Cotton,” although Mali’s “biosafety law needs to be revised and made functional.” The biosafety law is to be removed, because it restricts the ability of researchers to run field tests.
READ MORE: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/26/monsanto-the-toxic-face-of-globalization/

Five Damning Facts About the Agent Orange Cover-up

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1938048
During the Vietnam War, the government hid the truth about Agent Orange from the world. The U.S. assumed that most of the world would be horrified by the use of Agent Orange and other compounds. So it did its best to conceal the program's existence.
The dangerous chemicals were sent overseas without any warning labels. "American servicemen were told that these herbicides were completely harmless, so no one took any precautions when handling them," says Sills. "Essentially, Americans and Vietnamese were unnecessarily exposed to poison so the U.S. could be protected from bad publicity."  
When veterans became sick, the VA ignored their problems. After Vietnam vets came home, the VA systematically covered up the truth about military herbicides. Toxic War shows how the VA dodged evidence and manipulated facts to make it appear that these herbicides were harmless.
The government sponsored deliberately bad science to cover up the truth. Almost all of the studies conducted on veterans who'd potentially been exposed to herbicides were terribly done and are now largely discredited.
"If government scientists had merely done a bad job, then their results would have been all over the place," notes Sills. "But all those wrong findings pointed in just one direction—that Vietnam vets weren't harmed by these chemicals. This couldn't have been a coincidence."
The government consistently tried to prevent "Agent Orange" veterans from getting the help they've needed. "Whenever the agency lost a round, it would fight the same battle again and again, and keep losing over and over," says Sills. "It didn't give up until Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki finally agreed to grant benefits to anyone who suffered from diseases that could have been caused by herbicide exposure, according to the best available science."  
Sadly, the government's unwillingness to accept responsibility wasn't an aberration. It has also tried to minimize the harm caused by toxins during the wars in the Middle East.
"There is a terrible disconnect between the inevitable demand to support our troops in wartime and how we treat those same troops after they come home," says Sills. "It is extremely unfortunate that political expedience has consistently trumped the proper care of our veterans. It isn't just that their health problems have been ignored. The government has actively covered up the truth about what really happened to our troops."

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1938048#ixzz331YqVOzp

Memorial Day 2014

Antibacterial Soap’s Deadly Secret

A comment on the following report from our friend and Agent Orange/Dioxin authority, George Claxton

           

Anti bacterial soap

A lot of antibacterial soap contains HEXACHLOROPHENE (HCP),  HCP contains 2,3,7,8-TCDD or dioxin.  It is one of the most dangerous poisons on the face of the Earth.  

To  my knowledge, about 50 years ago a large number of children were poisoned in France by HCP contaminated food. I believe they all DIED.  HCP is still on the market. 

Do you think there is a possibility that a greedy corporation might be keeping HCP on the market?

Faithfully submitted

________________________________________________________________________

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/21/antibacterial-soap-s-deadly-secret.html

Antibacterial soap is supposed to help you stay clean and healthy, right? Turns out, it’s hiding a dangerous ingredient.

Antibacterial soap is supposed to help you stay clean and healthy, right? Turns out, it’s hiding a dangerous ingredient.

Wildlife and humans won a small victory yesterday, at least in Minnesota. The state, which boasts one of the leading state departments of health in the country, decided to ban the antimicrobial chemical, triclosan, from soaps and other products because of concerns regarding its deleterious impact on the environment, animals, and ultimately, human health.
Triclosan has been earning a progressively worse rap in recent years after arriving on the scene a few decades ago as the great antiseptic hope. It does kill bacteria and fungi and other microbes efficiently, but whether the extra killing over soap and water means anything to anyone is uncertain at best. Evidence does support its beneficial role over fluoride alone in toothpaste as a way to avoid cavities and gum diseases, but that’s it.
The problem is that its side effects are many and quite varied.  Minnesota cited the risk of “hormone disruption” from triclosan as the rationale for its action. The hormone disruptor, also called an endocrine disruptor, is a slightly new-age concept coined by environmentalists and embraced now by most scientists. Chemicals—and there are many—that are viewed as capable of perturbing several endocrine systems, including the thyroid, the adrenals, the ovaries, and the testicles, in humans and other animals, are considered “hormone disruptors.” A list of the 12 most horrible was recently released. It included some veteran bad guys such as dioxin and lead.
READ MORE: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/21/antibacterial-soap-s-deadly-secret.html

Iraq, Afghan Veterans: Open Air Burn Pits Are New ‘Agent Orange’

Open Burn Pits - The New Agent Orange
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Hundreds of veterans coming back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are falling ill and many are dying of what’s being called the new “Agent Orange”: open air burn pits.

There’s no proven cause but vets and their families say they know why.
Lieutenant Colonel Gwen Chiaramonte is proud to have served her country. At Balad Air Force Base in Iraq she was a combat stress therapist, familiar with exposure to danger off base. “You worry but you think you just have to live,” she said.
Now she believes there was danger from within too: An open air pit where the base’s garbage was burned. “They they just threw everything in. Vehicles, tires, plastic bottles, trash, medical waste, dead animals. Then they would pour jet fuel on it and just light it,” she said.
Chiaramonte says the burn pit spewed columns of ashy smoke that often blew right into her nearby housing unit. “It would smell like it would be on fire,” she said.
She started getting constant nose bleeds. Then when she got home, the really bad news: A rare form of aggressive ovarian cancer.
Hundreds of former and current service members are filing claims with the Department of Veterans affairs, blaming harmful emissions from the burn pits for causing mysterious lung diseases, and cancers.
READ MORE: Open Burn Pits - The New Agent Orange

Air Force says no Agent Orange used on base

http://www.rantoulpress.com/news/environment/2014-05-20/air-force-says-no-agent-orange-used-base.html
RANTOUL — The project manager for a company in charge of cleanup efforts at the former Chanute Air Force Base (Illinois) said environmental concerns about Agent Orange and other agents are unfounded.

One by one, Howard Sparrow, project manager for CB&I Inc., Greenville, S.C., addressed areas of concern about public drinking water supply, private wells, Agent Orange and low levels of dioxins.
Water quality issue. Speaking at last Thursday’s Chanute Restoration Advisory Board meeting, Sparrow addressed a comment that indicated in 2008, the federal government warned the village of Rantoul and Chanute Air Force Base that they should notify all children, elderly and infants with health problems that the water had contaminants and that they should not drink the water.
“The Air Force’s response to that is that is not a true statement,” Sparrow said. “The village of Rantoul drinking water supply is perfectly safe for the public to drink.”
Sparrow said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in 2008 reviewed available information for the village, which now operates five of the former Chanute wells and found no contaminants “detected at levels of concern.”
The only notable item found as a result of testing was sodium, a naturally occurring mineral that might be a concern for people with high blood pressure.
Pete Passarelli, village of Rantoul assistant public works director, said at the November RAB meeting that the community’s water supply is “rigorously tested monthly through a certified lab, and it meets all of the U.S. EPA-required levels.”
READ MORE: http://www.rantoulpress.com/news/environment/2014-05-20/air-force-says-no-agent-orange-used-base.html

Are you dealing with the effects of Agent Orange?

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/05/agent_orange.html
Between 1962 and 1975, the U.S. deployed millions of tons of Agent Orange in Vietnam.
The powerful herbicide was used to defoliate forests, a hiding place for the Viet Cong, as well as a food source.
In the aftermath of the war, millions of veterans faced profound and debilitating medical complications as a result of exposure with the toxic substance. And even though in 1991 the government established broad and full compensation for veterans who had "boots on the ground," millions of others have continued to struggle to secure compensation for their medical needs as a result of Agent Orange.
PennLive is looking for veterans who may have been exposed to Agent Orange, whether or not they deal with health complications as a result. We are also looking for relatives of men and women who may were exposed to the defoliant.
If your father or grandfather - or even uncle or cousin or good friend - was a veteran who was exposed to the toxin, we would love to hear your story.
Share your story by filling out the form, emailing us at submissions@pennlive.com or writing in the comments section below.
We will keep your story confidential unless you tell us you want to share it with others.
GO TO: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/05/agent_orange.html

Group asks for grant to measure dioxin in Oroville

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/testing-grant/content?oid=13505034

A group called the Oroville Dioxin Education Committee (ODEC) has applied for a grant to do further testing for the cancer-causing pollutant dioxin. Testing over the years has revealed dioxin in chicken eggs and soil in the area around the Highway 70 Industrial Park.
The dioxin was generated by a couple of sources, the Koppers wood-treatment plant, which caught on fire in the late 1980s, spewing dioxin-laden smoke in a region of houses and farms south of the plant. More recently, the toxins came from the emissions from the Pacific Oroville Power Inc. cogeneration plant, which burned “urban waste” to create electricity. That plant closed two years ago.
The grant, if approved, would be administered by the city with funding from the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Contractors.
According to ODEC, the Butte County Public Health, Environmental Health Division has issued a report called “Dioxin in Oroville Summary and Recommendations.” The office can be reached at 538-7281.

The Monsanto Gang Rides

Pledge to boycott the brands that are fighting GMO labels!

Posted By: Organic Consumers Association (campaign leader)

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA)—Monsanto's Evil Twin—is pulling out all the stops to keep you in the dark about what's in your food.

The GMA plans to sue Vermont to overturn the state's new genetically engineered food labeling law, H.112. And it's pushing a bill in Congress that would take away states' rights to enact a GMO labeling laws, while legalizing the practice of labeling GMO foods "natural."

Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, Kellogg's, General Mills, Coca-Cola. These are just a few of the 300-plus members of the GMA. Combined, they own more than 6,000 brand name products, including foods, beverages, seeds, home and garden supplies, pet food, herbicides and pesticides.

You probably don't buy most of those products. But you may not be aware that many of your favorite organic and natural brands, like Honest Tea, Muir Glen, Odwalla, Kashi, Earthgrains, Santa Cruz and others, are owned by corporations that do belong to the GMA. Those corporations spent about $68 million to defeat GMO ballot initiatives in California (Prop 37) and Washington State (I-522). And they continue to fight against your right to know by supporting the GMA's effort to overturn states' rights to pass GMO labeling laws.

Who are the Traitor Brands? Take the pledge, and find out!

PLEDGE

Vietnam War Was Monsanto’s First Herbicidal Operation

Warning: The following video contains some graphic images and may be considered disturbing to some viewers.
The Vietnam War was the Monsanto Company’s first herbicidal operation. Monsanto and Dow Chemical were the two companies that manufactured Agent Orange, the deadly dioxin based herbicide.  The March Against Monsanto (MAM) is scheduled to host global protests at more than 100 sites on May 24. MAM is very vocal about moving beyond a genetically modified organism (GMO ) labeling centered discourse when it comes to exposing Monsanto’s negative impact on the world.

The protest network sponsors projects like Agent Orange Awareness (AOA). Founder of the AOA Kelly L. Derricks comments, “If we fail to realize that March Against Monsanto is not about GMOs alone, then we have already lost the battle.”
Organizers want to inform the public that Monsanto’s devastation stretches across the board. The media often simplifies protesters’ demands against Monsanto’s domination of food resources by not covering Monsanto’s history as a major manufacturer of Agent Orange.
Even though Monsanto was not the only Agent Orange producer, MAM confirms that Monsanto manufactured the chemical at 1,000 times its original potency making them the most deadly contributor to the herbicidal weapons used in the Vietnam War. Agent Orange was used in Operation Ranch Hand which began Monsanto’s role in destroying the global environment and harming the health of millions.
The Organic Consumers Association gives the history of how the toxic chemical was used in the Vietnam War. Approximately 72 million liters of herbicides, a majority Agent Orange, were sprayed by the United States military from 1962 to 1970. More than a million Vietnamese citizens and over 100,000 allied troops came into contact with the toxin. Since then, Monsanto has falsified several studies about the toxic effects of Agent Orange.
Studies that show Agent Orange’s toxic effects exist, but this research has done little to implicate Monsanto’s role in poisoning humans. Studies in the 1970s found that Agent Orange exposure caused, “a very significant, multi-system illness affecting all parts of the nervous system, and causing fatigue and muscle aches.” Groups like AOA and MAM are working to draw attention to the countless studies and life experiences that prove the damaging effects of Agent Orange.

READ MORE: http://guardianlv.com/2014/05/vietnam-war-was-monsantos-first-herbicidal-operation-video/

Panel to study at agent orange residue exposure

http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/oregon/panel-to-study-at-agent-orange-residue-exposure/article_aa600a32-dc88-11e3-9838-001a4bcf887a.html

The Veterans Affairs Department has long resisted disability claims from service members who said chemical residue left in Vietnam War-era planes that were used to spray defoliants over Southeast Asia caused them severe illnesses, including cancer.
This summer, a panel of independent scientists will try to determine whether those veterans could have been exposed to the toxins in defoliants, including Agent Orange, at a level that would be dangerous to their health.

If the panel, which hosted the first of a series of closed meetings and public hearings Thursday, finds a link, the service members could be eligible for tax-free disability compensation up to several thousand dollars a month.

That’s something Wes Carter, a retired Air Force major, believes is long overdue.

“We’ve got some sick folks that are not allowed to go into the VA,” said Carter, a former Oregon resident leading the crusade and who believes his prostate cancer and other disorders are due to his exposure to dioxin, a contaminant found in Agent Orange.

Carter served on C-123s in the Air Force Reserves as a medic from 1974 to 1980. The planes were used to spray millions of gallons of defoliants to destroy crops and eliminate jungle cover used by the North Vietnamese Army and the Vietcong.

Harmful to humans

The military stopped the spraying by early 1971 over concerns that some defoliants contained compounds harmful to humans. The fleet returned stateside, but Air Force Reserve units continued to fly them on cargo and medevac missions until the early 1980s.

Over the years veterans who flew in those planes have been getting sick, and like many Vietnam veterans, they’re blaming the defoliants.

Carter said he found out they still had dried herbicide residue in them after he was diagnosed in 2011 with prostate cancer, one of nearly 20 illnesses VA deems service-connected among Vietnam veterans, due to possible herbicide exposure.

READ MORE: http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/oregon/panel-to-study-at-agent-orange-residue-exposure/article_aa600a32-dc88-11e3-9838-001a4bcf887a.html

from Dr. Wayne Dwernychuk

An inspiring short film … Viet Nam … Agent Orange:

https://vimeo.com/13632153

A presentation of the filmmaker:

http://www.the-purpose-project.org/documentary/

Dr. Wayne Dwernychuk is retired from Hatfield Consultants