The World Food Prize - no, this is an actual prize given to people

The World Food Prize this year has been awarded to three individuals, Dr. Marc Van Montagu, Dr. Mary-Dell Chilton and Dr. Robert T. Fraley.  The website for the World Food Prize tells us that the prize is awarded to those that have made great contributions to the world for "... individual breakthrough achievements in founding, developing, and applying modern agricultural biotechnology. Their research is making it possible for farmers to grow crops with: improved yields; resistance to insects and disease; and the ability to tolerate extreme variations in climate."  

HUH?

I don't understand, the USDA website actually shows declining yields from GM crops in the US.  Research has shown that GM crops lack the proverbial "Substantial Equivalence" with regards to nutritional composition as promised to us.  And the resistance to insects, weeds killers and diseases have backfired, and the growth of insect and weed resistant species as well as new diseases have destroyed any hopes that GM crops are the miracles promised by Monsanto. 

Oh crap, wait a minute, doesn't Monsanto fund the World Food Prize?

Yeah, they do.  With a laudable concept, the World Food Prize honors a great plant biologist and Nobel Laureate, Dr. Norman Borlaug.  A nice honor.  A pretty cool tribute to a great man.  Except that Monsanto pretty much funds the whole thing so that the honors to scientists each year now go to those doing research on Genetically Modified Organisms.  That would be kind of like my ex-wife starting a foundation and giving herself an award for her humanitarian efforts to destroy my life, my business and my relationships with other women that are younger, thinner and nicer than her.  She excels in those areas, but fails as a human being.  Sigh, I just can't help but remember all those visits from state and county health inspectors responding to complaints from her.  Oh well, I can take a joke.  I never scored less than 98 on all those inspections.  Anyway, those that pay for the honors seem to get to choose who they honor.  That's why the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences isn't backed by MGM, if they were, only MGM movies would win Oscars.  I may be old fashioned, but some stuff kind of makes sense.  I guess that the real world and real world opinions are just too much for some business leaders.

Here is a copy of an ad in a newspaper in Europe from 1998.  The European countries were requiring the labeling of Genetically Modified Organisms that are used in any ingredients of any foods for human consumption and for animals that are consumed or produce products for human consumption.

Monsanto actually stated that they were certain beyond all expectations, GM crops were better and that labeling would not in any way harm their sales of GM foods.  They were wrong, GM crops don't sell in Europe, those people do not want them.  That's why Monsanto is so adamant about not having any laws in the US that require labeling of any GM food products.  Because they know that a moderate percentage of American consumers would not buy the crap if it said on the label that it was GM.

Monsanto has shown some success in pulling the wool over the eyes of Americans, with over 46 million dollars spent to defeat the GM labeling law in California last November, all of the heads of Monsanto have seen that in fact Americans are susceptible to advertising.  California airwaves were flooded with commercials telling residents that if passed, the law would drive up food costs by four to six hundred dollars per person, that GM crops were safe, and that organic food was no better than GM foods.  I don't think that I need to take the time to explain how all that is crap, but at this time is just seems that Monsanto is preparing for what they must beleive to be the appocolypse.  States passing laws to label GM foods.  That will be a major problem for Monsanto, when people see what they are eating, a good 30 to 35 per cent might make a choice to choose not to buy GM foods.

Really?

Yeah, most people don't care.  Some might, but the thought processes from the majority of people is that, so what, attitude.  They drink soda, eat white bread, buy packaged processed foods, (or what manufacturers call food) and are fine with it.  They eat at the golden arches and the burger king and at the Jack everyday and feel fine.  That's why those places exist, addictive foods, huge profits paying for blanket advertising, and additives additives additives.  People feel good after eating crap, and yet, no one can tell them that they are destined to die prematurely and in a horrific painful way.  They don't care.  They just had a burger, fries and coke, or a pizza, or whatever, and they feel good.   When the boob tube shows them commercials that show these wonderful recipients of the World Food Prize received that incredible recognition, then when it comes time to go vote, GM all the way.  They feel good for crying out loud. 

No one can make you, or any other person, eat a wholesome diet, exercise, or live a life of goodness and purity.  Sounds kind of gay huh?  But it's true, what you do is up to you, and you alone.  If you are happy with your life, with your health, your children's and their children's health, then those decisions to live your lifestyle and teach that to your progeny, is in fact yours.  Don't whine about cancer, degenerative disorders, autism, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, sterility, ALS like symptoms or anything else.

I try like hell to warn you what will happen if you choose wrong.

Saturated fat. They don't really lie to us, they just don't understand their own research.

For quite some time now the medical conspiracy association has been telling the world that saturated fats are bad for humans, and should be avoided.  Of course back when they first began disseminating this information the standard belief was that margarine, packed with trans fats, was a healthier alternative.  Hmmm, now that I think about it, I wonder how much the margarine manufacturers contributed to the medical conspiracy to have them back their poison. Probably a lot, I mean even the nasty tasting I Can't Believe It's Not Butter would not sell if people didn't feel that it was better for them than natural alternatives. Like butter.  Chock full of saturated fat.

But, new research, and actually just reviewing the original research that was interpreted in a way that made it appear that saturated fats caused heart disease; has shown just how wrong those conclusions have been. It all started in 1953 when this guy, Ancel Keys, published a paper showing the incidence of heart disease when compared to saturated fat intake in 7 different countries.  It was a landmark study, and formed the basis of the recommendations that Americans eat a low fat diet.  However, the good Dr. Keys ignored data from 15 other countries where just the opposite was true.  In fact, the good doc had data available from 22 different countries and given THAT data, the overwhelming conclusions show that populations that consume a higher percentage of calories from fat, specifically saturated fat, have lower incidences of heart disease. 

How does that work?  How does a researcher ignore data that would dispute the conclusions he publishes?

Money.

Sounds familiar now doesn't it?  Monsanto does it all the time.  Ignore the research from prominent  scientists showing how harmful their products are.  GM crops, Aspartame, rBGH,  glyphosate, Agent Orange, dioxin and PCB's. Hmmmmm, isn't there research showing all of those things to be toxic, cumulative, and big money makers for Monsanto.  Aren't there 32 SUPER sites of toxic pollution that the feds deemed so toxic that they have stripped all of the people, plant and animal life from them while they attempt to clean them up, and all are attributed to Monsanto production methods of dumping instead of destroying wastes.  And for the most part, Monsanto has only had to pay less than a billion of the estimated trillion dollars needed to clean up those sites.

Yeah.

It isn't new to try to mislead the people with partial or misleading research.  It happens all the time.  And in reality, ol' doc Keys wasn't a bad guy.  He invented "K-Rations" in World War II".  And studied fish.  A lot.  And did this weird study on saturated fats and heart disease.  Who knows.  I can't find that he went to work for any big business after the study.  Not like so many scientists at the FDA and USDA who go work for Monsanto after approving certain products that are known to be toxic.  Not like that.  But there must be some connection some where.  Maybe not, but it does seem to defy belief that someone would publish such a flawed study that affects so many millions and millions of people and billions and billions of dollars.

Anyway, the true facts are coming to light lately in a number of published studies showing the flawed conclusions.  It seems that, all things considered equal (meaning an overall healthy diet) that people consuming high amounts of natural foods containing high amounts of saturated fats have generally lower cholesterol and lower risk of heart disease.  Just the opposite of what Keys published.  And what to this day the AMA says is the preferred diet, low fat, avoidance of saturated fats completely.

There in lies the rub, it seems that saturated fats are not bad only if certain conditions of diet are met.  Mainly being that you eat a diet that contains no trans-fats, few refined carbohydrates like white flour, sugar, white rice or processed most anything, and has a generally equal ratio of saturated to polyunsaturated fat.  Yicks, that pretty much means that anyone living on the SAD (Standard American Diet) if losing the battle right off the bat.  But people that have any actual concern at all about their health and eat unprocessed foods, lots of vegetables and some fruit, nothing white, and nothing FAST; can pretty much not worry about having bacon, avocados and organic meats.  The fact is that Modern Meat is still bad for you for other reasons, but that good wholesome meats are no longer something to avoid because of what once was considered the GOSPEL of modern medicine, a low fat diet. The wonderful AMA has been attempting to pass this concept off to the public for almost sixty years now.  I looked at the AMA annual report, and it seems that a third of their operating expenses come from, "contributions".  With no specific actual sources listed, just a heading and total.  Makes me wonder if a good sized portion of the money comes from the makers of margarine.

Tuna Pie, not what some guys thinkin' - Prickly Pear Pie

Yes, prickly pear fruits are called Tuna.  Don't ask me why, I have no idea.  And in the scheme of life, it makes no difference, call them Tuna, or Beads of Heaven, or Nodules of Needles, Deathtraps of Delight.  Whatever.  I talked about enjoying some of the true native foods of the Southwest in previous posts, today I'm going to talk about making native dessert, Tuna Pie.

To make the pie, you need to get out and forage for some mesquite pods, and some tuna.  You need about 20 to 25 good size fully ripe prickly pear fruit.  Good and dark red at the tops, carefully pick them with tongs and bag them up and take them home.  Also you will need some more mesquite pods for the pie crust.  Grind the pods in the blender and sift out the big pieces.  Don't use the commercial mesquite flour for this, it is just too fine and won't give the same results as grinding in the blender.  We are looking for coarse mesquite, sort of like graham cracker texture.  Take a cup and a half of mesquite meal and toss with a half teaspoon of cinnamon.  That's optional, I like it though, you might try it and see, I think the cinnamon works well with the sweetness of the mesquite and tuna both.  Melt a stick of butter with a quarter cup of desert wildflower honey and stir it into the meal well and then press the mixture into a ten inch pie plate.  Bake in a 350 oven until well browned.  Remove and cool.  Now if you have a juicer, this gets easier, juice the tuna along with two apples.  If you don't have a juicer, grind them up in a blender and strain in a medium strainer, scraping the strainer often and pressing the juice through.  You should have at least two and a half to three cups of the juice.  Don't be tempted to buy a bottle of prickly pear juice and use it, most all brands sweeten the juice with corn syrup.  Not a good thing, see other articles on my blog about corn syrup poison.  So, now, taste the juice, if sweet enough, use it.  If not, add a bit of honey.  This is optional, but it does add complexity to the flavor, add the juice of a lime.  Now, take three egg yolks and beat well in a saucepan with a tablespoon of tapioca root.  Add half the juice, stir well and place over medium heat and while stirring bring to a boil, when it thickens, add the other half of the juice.  Remove from heat, cool to the touch and pour all but two tablespoons into the baked crust.  Chill in the fridge for a couple hours.  Take three quarters cup of heavy cream and add the reserved juice with another tablespoon honey and beat until stiff peaks form.  Spread or pipe onto the top of the pie and serve.  

An alternative way to make the pie is after you cook the juice mixture, cool in the fridge until well chilled and thick.  Then beat a cup and a half of heavy cream with the reserved juice and honey.  Remove about a third or so, and fold in the chilled juice until well blended.  It should be dark pink and light in texture.  Put into the pie shell and pipe on or spread the reserved whipped cream.  This one is very nice as well. 

Some cool stuff can be done with native foods, and the late desert is the best time to start a foraging trip out to get the stuff to experiment.  If you are lucky enough to live in an area where they raise goats, then try this out.  It sounds weird, but it is incredibly tasty.  I once had a goat wander into my yard one day.  I have no idea how it got there, but it was full of milk and bleating like crazy.  So I got about a quart of fresh milk out of her before she ran off.  Anyway, take the milk and heat on the stove in a pan with a cup of wildflower honey.  Stirring very frequently, cook until the milk turns light brown and gets thick.  Takes about an hour or so.  Add a couple of canned chipotle chilies that you minced along with a tablespoon sea salt.  Stir in well and serve that warm over the pie instead of the whipped cream.  YUMMY, sweet, caramelly, spicy and a bit salty, wow, this is the BOMB. 

From time to time I am going to go back through my old computer and get some of my recipes I used to make using southwestern native foods.  And print them up here.  I used to do a lot of fun stuff for my son and the neighbors, it was all in fun and we had a great time doing it.  My kid loved the stuffed rattlesnake.  Maybe next week. 

Nobody Wants Cancer in our society, wellllllll, maybe, some do.

The American Cancer Society has a nice website, and their expressed goals are laudable, they do in fact give their readers the idea that they are there to fight cancer.

Here is what the ACS website says about rBGH in milk, "The American Cancer Society (ACS) has no formal position regarding rBGH. Together with its advocacy affiliate, the ACS Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), the Society supports open, fair and transparent regulatory oversight of products containing rBGH. The ACS also encourages continued and expanded scientific research and independent, credible assessment of potential relationships between the use of this substance in cows and human cancer risk. We support regulatory standards based on rigorous scientific evidence to minimize exposure to carcinogens, and we encourage the FDA to give the public information regarding known and suspected causes of cancer in the food system. The need for an effective FDA in ensuring the safety of our food supply, medicines, and consumer products has never been greater."   (ACS rBGH)
Yeah, okay.  An effective FDA.  Ensuring the safety of our food supply.  This is what one former head of the organization tells us.  "People think the FDA is protecting them - it isn't. What the FDA is doing and what people think it's doing are as different as night and day." - Herbert L. Ley, Jr., M. D., former Commissioner of the FDA.

Man, the cancer people are living in a dream world.  And in fact they are, cancer research is pretty much a monopoly held by the American Cancer Society.  Work is being done by individuals, and research that has made HUGE strides in curing a large number of cancers.

The Cancer Industry: The Classic Expose on the Cancer Establishment by Ralph W. Moss - An ex-cancer insider at the Sloan Kettering institute details all of the alternative therapies which have been railroaded by the cancer establishment. An interesting read for anyone who has the nagging feeling that the cancer war is being lost because pharmaceutical companies are avoiding possible natural, non patentable cures.  And the FDA is in cahoots and protects the monopoly that big Pharma companies have over research by persecuting any individual doing research on his own in his own private facilities.  Even when he shows HUGE results.  The man in question is Dr. Burzinski.  A guy that has taken on the government, and won.  Sort of, he didn't go to jail.  But his progressive and successful research is still unavailable to the world because of the FDA persecution of him.  Here is what he has to deal with, “I never have and never will approve a new drug to an individual, but only to a large pharmaceutical firm with unlimited finances.” - Dr. Richard J. Crout, former Director of the FDA.   

Wow, seems against the stated objective of the FDA to protect AmeriKans.  I wish it was the only thing they do contrary to their objective of protecting you and me.  But it isn't.  The Cancer Prevention Coalition has been petitioning the FDA to ban the use of rBGH in AmeriKa for several years  Pretty much the rest of the world has banned the stuff, but it increases profits exponentially with use.  Profits versus health of the consumers, not much of a choice in profit driven AmeriKa. 

In 1997, two Fox-affiliate reporters attempted to air a program exposing the truth about the dangers of rBGH. Lawyers for Monsanto, a major advertiser with the Florida network, sent letters promising "dire consequences" if the story aired.  After attempts by Fox to pay off the reporters to keep quiet failed, the station agreed to air a revised version of the report. An unheard of 83 edits later, the report was shelved and the courts took over. Although a lower court ruled in favor of the reporters for some $425,000, a Florida appeals court denied them whistleblower protection, claiming Fox (and the media in general) have no obligation to tell the truth and have the freedom to report, essentially, fact OR fiction as real news.  Makes sense to me.  Not only do the media do what big businesses want, so do the courts. 

Budget for the National Cancer Society is 5.4 Billion Dollars annually.
Big Pharma companies in the Fortune 500, have profit percentages that are TRIPLE that of ANY other Fortune 500 company.  The top ten drug companies make MORE in PROFIT than the entire rest of the Fortune 500 companies COMBINED.  A large part of that profit is cancer treatments.  For the most part, curing cancer with modern medical treatments that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars is a dream.  Successful treatment of most cancers is still less than 20%.  Prostate, breast and skin cancer have higher rates of success.  Every other kind, zip. 

There is no monetary incentive to find an effective cure for cancer. 

No, I don't mean to attempt to get you to think that all breast cancers are caused by rBGH in milk.  They aren't.  The stuff was only approved in 1992, it can't be the cause of them all.  But then why has the incidence of breast, and well, all cancers; been increasing since the early 70's?

Diet?

Hey, sounds like the missing link to me.  The fact is that AmeriKa has approved more toxic additives to its food supply than any other nation on earth, AmeriKa allows higher levels of toxic residues of KNOWN carcinogenic pesticide and herbicides on its crops than any other nation on earth, and AmeriKa has some of the most polluted water supplies of any country on earth; and AmeriKa has the highest rates of all cancers of any country on earth.  The FDA doesn't want anyone to make that connection.  According to them, life here in Monsanto controlled AmeriKa,  is perfect.  Thank you Napoleon and Squeeler, life here on Animal Farm is perfect indeed!

The Whole Enchilada. GM, Mark of Excellence!

I used to watch a lot of TV in my youth, not so much anymore, a couple of shows I find to be incredibly well written, and don't miss them.  The Newsroom on HBO for one.  Longmire on A&E, for character development, and Big Bang Theory, cuz they remind me of me.  And other than repeats of Stargate, that's about it.  For the most part, TV grosses me out today.  But anyway, a long time ago, there was a series of commercials on the black and white box, and after showing the latest model, there would appear the big letters and the chorus of mostly male baritones would sing, " GM, Mark of Excellence"  I remember those commercials, and can't help but think that now the heads of General Motors might be having their brand confused with what is happening with our food supply today.  GM.

(The Whole Enchilada)
If you check out the whole enchilada it is a paper written by a researcher named  Dr. Judy Carman and a couple of others.  It is a pretty interesting report, and is very unique in that it does what no one else has ever done and looked at feeding Genetically Modified corn and soy to pigs.  Then looking at the pigs to see what damage was done.  Pigs, not the kind you find feeding at the troughs at the local Chinese Buffet, but real pigs, oinkers.  The little guys used to make bacon.  It is worth noting of course that this feeding study was done for less than 28 weeks.  It is in no way as comprehensive or long term as the Seralini report, but it does offer some new insights that were never expressed in that, or any other reported feeding study.  Here is why the researchers chose pigs to work with.  "Even though pigs are physiologically similar to humans, particularly for gastrointestinal observations, very few toxicology studies have been conducted on them for GM crops."  A pretty good reason to start a study, at least I think so anyway.

Then, when deciding to do this study, Dr. Carman looked at other studies and found, "...in 90 day feeding studies.  They found some evidence for adverse liver and kidney effects from eating some GM crops" And also they found in the Seralini study, "..higher death rates, more tumours and liver and kidney pathologies in GM-fed rats."  At the end of the paper are these conclusions written by Dr. Carman,
"Conclusion - Pigs fed a GMO diet exhibited heavier uteri and a higher rate of severe stomach inflammation than pigs fed a comparable non-GMO diet.  Given the widespread use of GMO feed for livestock as well as humans, this is a cause for concern..... the results indicate that it would be prudent for GM crops that are destined for human food and animal feed, including stacked GM crops, to undergo long-term animal feeding studies preferably before commercial planting, particularly for toxicological and reproductive effects.  Humans have a similar gastrointestinal tract to pigs, and these GM crops are widely consumed by people, particularly in the USA, so it would be prudent to determine if the findings of this study are applicable to humans."

Wow!

It is extremely important to note that this was a less than 28 week study.  Pigs were fed GM crops for a very short term.  Only long enough to get them to market weight for slaughter.  Just slightly over twice as long as the longest feeding study done by Monsanto or any other Gene Tech company before sending off the GM plants to begin commercial planting.  A hundred and ninety days.  And the result is a statistically significant increase in gastrointestinal problems along with hugely distorted growth of the uteri in the female pigs.

How long have you been eating a GMO diet?

How would you even know for certain, your food in AmeriKa does not have to have on the label that it is Genetically Modified.  

1. Dr. Carman research - pigs fed GM crops have high rates of inflammation and damage to their gastrointestinal tracts along with enlarged uteri in all the females
2. Scientists from the Russian National Association for Gene Security - Hamsters, mice and rats fed GM soy along with control groups fed no soy, non-GM soy, 10% GM-soy and 20% GM-soy found that the GM soy groups had as high as 25% infant mortality on the second generation with almost 40% fewer births and the third generation of GM soy fed all were sterile.
3. Seralini report - rats fed GM soy and corn for two years had higher than normal premature death rates and virtually all of the rats had tumors
4. Princeton University - reports Horizontal Gene Transfer takes place in the guts of human, (well students) volunteers.  Humans fed GM soy for several weeks then had their intestinal bacteria tested and the bacteria not only had the genes present that were inserted into the GM soy, they also had the genes present that were inserted into GM corn that the volunteers had been eating outside the study.
5. NCBI study on Glyphosate toxicity - Long term exposure to glyphosate residues on crops sprayed with Roundup lead to accumulation of the main constituent, glyphosate in the brain, kidneys, liver and reproductive organs in mammals. 
6. Archives of Toxicology Journal report - Glyphosate at concentrations of .02% of standard recommended usage leads to destruction of human DNA when residues on plants are consummed.
7. Dr. Mezzomo of the Department of Genetics and Morphology at the Institute of Biological Sciences at University of Brasilia report - Bacillus thuringensis toxins, previously thought to be of no significance to mammalian physiology have now been shown to be hemotoxic, killing red blood cells, cytotoxic to bone marrow, and there is a measurable negative effect as time goes on with respect to these toxins.  It was also noted that Bt toxin has been found in significant amounts in pregnant women and in fetal blood of unborn infants.  

Pretty much all of these scientific studies have come under fire from Monsanto and Monsanto paid minions like the Colorado State University who published a report stating that Bt toxin is not in any way dangerous for any mammal.  Monsanto funds a whole lot of research there, did anyone ever think they wouldn't refute and attempt to debunk anything showing Monsanto in a bad light.  Just today I got another form email from my favorite criminal in the Senate, John McCain telling me that GM crops are good for the world.   No one expects him, or any of the elected to dispute anything that Monsanto tells them.  Monsanto pays off sorry they contribute to the campaigns of most of the senate and congress.  Nary a bad word will ever be heard in the hallowed halls of congress.  So if Monsanto says that the research of these previously well respected scientists is pure crap, then congress wants to keep their Monsanto Masters happy and so they too believe with all their heart that it's all crap.  I don't know for sure, but I bet they all go home and eat organic.  I know for a fact the president does, the last two executive chefs at the white house have told us that the last four presidents only ate organic.  If I looked, I could find that youtube clip of Obama telling people back in 2008 that he would make it a priority to have a national law to label all GM foods.  He doesn't care about us, he eats organic anyway.

Seven items is not the whole enchilada, but it is pretty strong evidence that Genetically Modified foods and the way in which they are grown with the horrific use of glyphosate are not the wonderful and fantastic things that Monsanto claims they are.  There are a lot of things that need to be added to the enchilada dinner, the fact that the weeds are becoming resistant to glyphosate and so the FDA has increased the allowable residues up past the toxicity level recommended by the EPA.  Insects everywhere are becoming immune to the Bt toxin and so ever greater amounts of stronger pesticides are sprayed on crops.  Bees are dying off now because of that.  Wheat is now contaminated with GM genes and some of the largest buyers of wheat are canceling orders for AmeriKan wheat.  And Monsanto denies responsibility for not containing the stuff.

There is just so much going on, that there isn't enough room here, or anywhere to list it all.  It would take a week to read it all, so let's stop here.  This is enough to think about.  At least for those that think about the food they eat, and are concerned that they, their children and their children's children will live healthy lives. 

What constitutes "News" sort of a review of my blog entry from June 12

Wednesday the twelfth blog entry HERE
I was thinking about what it is that is newsworthy.  Who decides that kind of stuff.  And of course, the biggest questions, why is it that stuff that is sooooooo important to the people of AmeriKa is never shown, printed or talked about.  I mean we do hear about politicians that do bad things, Marion Barry, the coke thing, you know, pretty silly, and yet pretty stupid of the District to re-elect the man.  There hasn't been an administration yet that didn't have scandal, and tons of money changing hands.  Criminy, Warren Harding and the infamous Teapot Dome Scandal.   Look at the Keating 5 here in Arizona, the two biggest thieves were Arizona senators.  One still serving (AGAIN SHOWING THE STUPIDITY ((or perhaps lack of interest)) OF VOTERS) and taking money from big business in ever increasing amounts.  And McCain is on the list of senators that voted to remove the protection afforded all citizens by the Bill of Rights. That right there should have been top news, every single news show should have been talking about how this is in fact the first step that the government is taking to remove the remaining Rights afforded to Americans by the Constitution.  WHY ISN'T THIS THE TOP STORY?  I've mentioned before how I read a lot of whacko crazy websites here.  Many of them are talking about how they believe the Feds want to take away their right to bear arms, to have free speech, and yet none have talked about this latest move by the Senate to take away rights afforded the States as guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment.  When you take away the first one, the one with the least effect on individual rights, then the next one or ones they take away will be easier to do.

I think that this is in fact how conspiracies are started.  When something happens that is newsworthy, the producers of the news on TV then look at it and determine what action to take.  Reporting the news takes a backseat to making money.  News reporting is in fact, a business.  The whole production is financed by commercials, a LOT of commercials.  And when news occurs that puts any specific business in a bad light, then that business has the option of pulling any commercials from that news show.  And of course the backlash would come from businesses in similar industries, they would feel that if those news people are so arrogant as to report bad news about one of their brethren, then they just might look into their own dealings and report on them as well.  Can't have that, no business wants their actions to be in the spotlight.  Because most big businesses are doing things that are illegal, immoral, and not in the best interest of the public.  Yes Virginia, it's true, businesses really do consider you as nothing more than a source of revenue and a statistic.  And of course the BIG concern is that you won't learn that bit of info, and that you will in fact breed lots of children consumers and they will assume your position as addict to consumerism.

Point of fact, there have never been any reports on major TV network news shows on any of the large numbers of reports showing the toxicity of Aspartame.  There has never been a report on the application to the USDA and FDA by big dairy to be able to ADD Aspartame to 17 of their products and NOT PUT IT ON THE LABEL.  I think that is big news.  But it seems that milk and yogurt commercials bringing in revenue are a whole lot bigger.  There has never been any news reports on any TV news shows about the huge Mercury contamination problem found in the production of High Fructose Corn Syrup.  In 2005 there was a huge report showing the contamination problem, HOW the HFCS was being contaminated, the test results showing Mercury in the HFCS and how the researchers went to stores and bought products with HFCS in them and tested them for Mercury.  Pretty scary when you do the simple math and find that a normal person drinking just 8 sodas a day, eating processed food products with HFCS would consume EIGHT TIMES the EPA daily limit for consumption of MERCURY.  Not a word about it.  And of course the funding to that researcher dried up so they can't repeat the tests to determine if the manufacturing methods have been upgraded to remove the Mercury contamination.  And of course the big ones are also all the research on Genetically Modified crops coming out the last few years.  No mention of them on TV news.  EVER!

A conspiracy.  An unintentional one maybe.  I don't think that the media even thinks about stuff like that as a conspiracy.  They think that news is a tornado, a shooting, a politician having extramarital sex, or selling and taking illegal substances.  That's news.  Reports from researchers showing that everyday products are toxic is pretty boring, and of course the obvious thing, that the manufacturers won't advertise those products if there are reports on possible toxicity.  Plus just the fact that they would take up a huge portion of their shows as there are so many of them coming out.  No one wants boring stuff about health when the latest teeny booper sensation was seen drinking alcohol.  Or some do nothing woman on a reality show cries about some man and her pregnancy.  Or anything else that happens with the fake world of celebrities.  Sorry, I have no idea what goes on there, I avoid that part of the news shows, it is all so stupid.  I have no idea why Kardashians are even in the news to tell you the truth, I really don't know who they are.  Just that one is pregnant.  So.  Senator Blunt took a hundred thousand dollars from Monsanto to add an amendment to the farm bill that would allow Monsanto to have immunity from liability for their toxic products.  I believe that to be more newsworthy than some bimbo whining. 

Sustainable Farming and the world economy, the collapse, the recovery, the lifeblood of the world.

Years ago I was sent by my company to go work in Parsippany New Jersey on a special project for a few months.  There were 8 of us, from facilities all over the country.  We had fun, it was hard work and yet the company was nice to us considering the nature of the company and how they ended up treating all their employees just a few short years afterwards.  By that I mean they took all the jobs and moved them to India.  And of course in the process the customer service rating of AT&T went from high to the lowest in the industry.  And they brought the jobs back to the US, and the pay rate for those same jobs then became LESS than half what I made when I worked for them.  Oh well, this isn't about that, it's about what I saw when working in Jersay, as they say it there.  (Just a side note here, why is it that people from that region of the country are unable to pronounce words with the vowel sounds that they are spelled with?)(( a quarter is not pronounced "quataa"))

Anyway, attempts to understand the natives aside, we were all able to utilize the rented cars for us and partake in the rich and exotic local offerings.  We went to the nude beach, ate at the diner from Seinfeld, sat in traffic a lot, and one Saturday, I found myself alone with a car, and I headed out to Amish country.  Not such a weird thing, I mean I have always been into healthy foods, I have done my home canning, made my own preserves and such.  And gardened.  So I headed out to the Mecca of sustainable farming, Amish country.  It was not a disappointment, even though there were tons of factory made furniture for sale everywhere all claiming to be Amish, and in each little town every little store sold what they claimed to be Amish preserves and such, even though most listed corn syrup on the ingredients.  But I drove out into the heart of the area, and stopped at roadside stands and talked to the people out there.  And learned a lot about how these people have raised crops and made a way of life for themselves and done it without electricity, chemical fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides and without the help of Monsanto. 

Some people think that it is not possible to grow commercial crops on a large scale without the use of chemical intervention.  And it certainly is something that is drummed into children in schools now, I mean it was something that was in all the textbooks when I was in school in the early sixties.  Chemicals make for greater  production at less costs and that is the only way to feed a hungry world.  I'm glad that isn't true.  Sustainable farming is something that works quite well with large commercial farms.  It's just that no one, or very few, want to try it.  Farmers all over the country are stuck in that cycle of it works, don't change anything mentality.  And of course the propoganda from Monsanto tells them that THEIR way is the only way to make money in America. 

Well, the reality is that the Monsanto way is the only way for Monsanto to make money.  Four things make up modern farming techniques.  Fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide and Genetically Modified crops.  The fact is that they are dependent on each other, and without one, the crops fail.  It is only by using all four that modern farming techniques succeed.  But there is an alternative, and it is by far and above extremely cost effective, more productive producing foods that are proven to contain higher quantities of essential nutrients, and have little to no damage to the environment.  If Monsanto could legally get away with killing off all the Amish to eliminate their example of how REAL farming works, they would.  They want to sweep them off the face of the planet so that farmers everywhere would only see the Monsanto way.  At least until the world population dies from starvation because of the failure of their system, the environment collapses from the horrific pollution problems and cancers and degenerative diseases kill off the rest of the population that don't starve to death. 

Yeah, doom and gloom, the sad part is that it is all true.  The use of neonicotinoid pesticides since about 2002 has led to the deaths of bees all over the world.  Along with other remarkable species like the Monarch butterfly.  The concentrations of this particular pesticide in drinking water in states in the corn and wheat belt is higher than the EPA suggested limit. These toxins are neurodisruptors and when consumed by humans cause Parkinson like symptoms.  For song birds and other birds that are beneficial to the environment by eating destructive insects, the stuff is fatal.  France has outlawed the stuff, other European countries are on the verge of doing the same.  The Russians refused to sit down to talks about farm exports until the United States takes action to reduce or ban them altogether. 

And the big chemical manufacturers keep making money.  Congress is funded by agribusiness.

There are very few congressmen and senators that would attempt to bite that hand that pays them. 

Well, they are paid by the US tax dollars aren't they?  Grow up!  Politicians don't get paid enough money to pay for reelection expenses.  They depend on the generosity of big businesses to pay them to do their bidding in exchange for buying them elections.  That's the scary part, if it was up to Monsanto, they would pay off their senators to make it open season on Amish and that would be how they would eliminate that threat to their monopoly on the farming industry in AmeriKa.  Fortunately, even Monsanto doesn't have enough money to pay for that.  Yet.

Anyway, let's just say that for now, if you, and all your friends want to eat food that is healthy, GM free, chemical toxin free, and grown in a manner that is good for the environment; then you have to BUY that kind of food.  There are sustainable farmers out there, they are in the minority, but they exist.  They will tell you that the higher production costs are offset by the premium that they receive for their crops at the retail level.  And of course even the wholesale prices of organic produce is far higher than conventional, and that makes the whole thing viable from an economic view.  (Sustainable Farming 1) (Sustainable Farming 2)  The thing is, that if we don't do something soon, then there will not be any choices left to us.  Fully a third of the food we eat is available to us because bees pollinate the crops.  If the pesticide levels get any higher in groundwater and the water systems then the entire ecosystem will fail.  Let alone what will happen with the huge numbers of people shaking and palsied and unable to work, drive, walk or do anything.  (these are not my predictions, see Dr. Mercola) 

I never thought about becoming Amish, but right now, it looks pretty good.  Well, right up until open season is legalized by a government that has time and again shown themselves that money in their pockets trumps the good and the livelihood of the populace at large. 

Desert Foraging, Foods of the Native Peoples of the Southwest Deserts

I've lived in the deserts here in Arizona most of my life.  Yeah, 6 years in Austin, just east of the great Southwestern desert sort of counts, I mean it was hotter than all get out there.  And there were cactus.  And certainly, Mesquite.  That's one of the things that this entry to my blog is about today.  Mesquite.  Certainly we all pretty much know that the wood makes for great barbecue, and is the wood of choice for smoking meats everywhere.  But most people have no idea that the little bean pods are also considered to be a superfood.  The little annoying pods that drop onto the yards of anyone that planted a mesquite tree for its beautiful foliage and drought resistance; is one of the things that for centuries kept native Americans of the southwest free from diabetes.  It is a super food in every way, high in protein, low glycemic index, and packed with minerals, soluble fiber, tannins, inulin, and mucilaginous polysaccharide gums that help to prevent and improve diabetes. All in all, a great product, and it grows everywhere and it is free for the taking. 

Anyway, the best way to make mesquite flour for baking is to buy yourself a flour mill.  You need one to grind your own whole wheat berries into whole wheat flour, so it will be there in your kitchen anyway.  But for those of you out there that are not nuts like I am and have had a wheat mill for the last forty years or so, then there are alternatives.  These guys for one, http://www.desertharvesters.org/  have events where they grind mesquite pods for local people and it is a great alternative.  Then there is this method, it works, and will give you a satisfactory product.  Take a bunch of bean pods you picked and put in the sun to make sure they are good and dry.  Break them up a bit and fill the container on your blender.  Blend until most of the stuff in there is a powder.  Sift it, and bag it to store.  You will get a fairly fine meal and it works great for making things like mesquite biscuits. 

Take a cup of Mesquite meal and one cup of whole wheat flour and sift together with a teaspoon and a half of baking powder, a half teaspoon of sea salt and a teaspoon of baking soda.  Cut into the mixture a stick of butter.  Then mix together an egg and a cup of buttermilk, and toss together with a fork into the dry ingredients.  Mix with hands when well incorporated, and press together.  Roll out on hard counter using extra Mesquite meal to keep from sticking.  Cut rounds and place on baking sheet and bake at 350 until puffed and browned. 

What do mesquite biscuits taste like?  Sort of a cross between graham crackers and cracker jacks.  Sweet, and nutty, and pretty good. 

Get out and do something fun with the kids, fun with friends, or fun with the love of your life.  Pick beans.  I think you will be surprised at how cool these things are, and you might go nuts and pick your own prickly pear fruits, the pads (Nopales) Devils Claws, Saguaro Fruit, jojoba, agave fruits, and some other interesting and unique goodies out there in the desert and ready for you to taste. 

Revisiting the Top Ten Things to ADD to your diet and To AVOID

It's been about six months since I wrote those first two entries here on my blog, and I thought it might do to revisit the concepts and see how much my ideas have changed, if any at all.  Here are the two original entries. ( ADD )  ( AVOID )

Number One:  Brown Rice    This is God's most perfect food.  Good organic brown rice is the staple food of a large percentage of the WORLD.  If you eat it a lot, you won't have dry skin, dandruff, psoriasis, irregularity, and a whole host of problems that plague ANYONE that generally lives on the Standard American Diet; the SAD.  When I had the cooking and teaching store back in Austin, a whole lot of people came into my store looking for answers.  There are so many gimmicks and supplements and diets out there and people spend their money and nothing helped.  IT IS NOT A CURE ALL, but I personally know people that at my advice started to eat brown rice five times a week and their irritable bowel cleared, others had dandruff, dry skin and psoriasis disappear, and a whole host of maladies helped.  Get organic, most AmeriKan rice is contaminated with arsenic.  And forget the converted or instant brown, it isn't the same.

Number Two:  Whole Grains    Not just brown rice, but add any number of other whole grains to your diet and you will see a huge increase in your overall health.  Quinoa, Millet, Teff, Amaranth and yes, Whole Wheat.  And any of the Wheat family of grains.  Spelt, Kamut, Oats, Barley etc.  Yes, wheat is good for 98% of the population.  But, and here is the big one, WHOLE wheat, and avoid any processed grains that contain anything on the label that you can't pronounce.  ( BREAD ) You negate any possible benefits when you consume toxic additives.  One of the best things you can do is start a tradition of making bread with your family.  Then you know what is in your bread.

Number Three:  Fresh Organic Vegetables, raw, or lightly cooked.  Do I really have to explain this one?  Ideally your diet should consist of at least 50% raw foods.  It may seem like a lot, but it is the BEST way to live to be a hundred and still be active sexually and physically and mentally alert. Raw veggies help to detox your system of toxins you acquire from heavy metals, pesticide residues etc.  Modern Life.

Number Four:    Water   Drink a lot of it every day.  If your urine is yellow, you are not drinking enough water to be healthy.  Drink at least a half a gallon every day.  Soda is not water.  Juice is not water. Coffee is not water.  Water is what your body needs, fill your body's needs. 

Number Five:  Vitamin C, D, E and Cinnamon,   Take more than RDA.  Take 4 or 5 grams Vitamin C daily, and the cinnamon is new, new research shows that it is a HUGE detox agent that helps remove heavy metals like aluminum that cause Alzheimers.  I highly recommend a gram a day.

Number Six:  Extra Virgin Coconut and Olive Oil.  The finest products for your skin, liver, happiness.

Number Seven:  Yogurt and other Fermented Foods   We know that you have a lot of bacteria living in your digestive system.  It is a part of you, and a big part too.  Consuming the SAD kills off some of the bacterial flora.  If you don't replenish it with good bacteria, then you leave yourself open for BAD bacteria to grow there.  Put the good ones in and you will be better off.  Make your own fermented vegetables, Kim chee, sourkraut, etc are all good.  Yogurt, Kefir, miso and others are very good.

Number Eight:  Whole Fruit, never juice.  What's the point of juice?  Eat the whole thing and get more benefits, fiber, all the vitamins everything.  Not just juice, and especially bottled processed juice is pretty much devoid of benefits.

Number Nine:  Popcorn   Why not, I love it, it is NOT Genetically Modified in any way, and it is full of fiber, fun to eat and mighty tasty.

Number Ten:  Wine. Well, and maybe good beers.  Proven health benefits.  And good taste as well.  And okay, we can put chocolate in here as well. 

A few changes to my list, but basically the same.  Now here are the top ten to avoid.

Number One:  Canola oil  see my entry Canola Oil, the scary story  Forget the scary internet hype, the truth is that the eurycic acid content has been shown to be harmful, very harmful.  At 2% the level is dangerous enough to cause degeneration of brain tissue, as well as heart, liver, kidney and the pancreas.  Effects are cumulative, not transient.  Meaning when you eat foods containing eurycic acid, it accumulates in your body and is not eliminated as solid or liquid waste.  People that consume large amounts of foods fried in canola oil, or made with hydrogenated canola oil are at seriously high risk for degenerative illnesses and ALS type brain disorder symptoms.  And at this time, that's all we know for certain, more research is needed.

Number Two:  Bleached and/or Bromated Flour   It is bad enough that millers put chlorine in flour, but they also put in potassium bromate.  Bromine, the end product when bromate is heated during the baking process, is extremely toxic.  The US is just about the only industrialized country that allows the use of this cumulative neurotoxin in our food supply.  The FDA took action years ago, they asked for the bakery industry to voluntarily stop using it.  Those that did, now use azodicarbonamide, a very similar chemical that is banned in every country on the planet, except the US.  Again, both are cumulative toxins, your body only excretes a portion, the rest accumulates in your liver, brain and bone marrow.

Number Three:  High Fructose Corn Syrup:  I think enough has been said about this stuff in the media that most people should know how bad it is for our systems.  The media does not however report on the other bad stuff about it.  Like how much mercury is found in the stuff.  How mercury is found in soft drinks that use it.  And also now the newest threat to health comes from HMF  my blog has a lot about this new stuff and you can read it here. High Fructose Corn Syrup - Now, a known toxin 

Number Four:  Artificial Sweeteners and all those labeled "All Natural"  Wow, where to begin.  Apartame, Sucralose, Nutisse, Truvia, Agave.  All bad, all have their own entries here on my blog. Sweeteners - Aspartame/Nutrasw,  Sweeteners -- Sucralose/Splend, Truvia/Nectresse "NATURAL" Sweeteners?,  and a Sweet and Dirty Little Secret -- Agave    

Number Five: All Genetically Modified foods   So much has been written here on my blog, and in reality, all over the internet and in scientific publications world wide that little explanation is needed.

Number Six:  Soy products.  Hard for some people to hear, what with all the hype about it being nature's perfect food.  It isn't, too many anti nutrient properties, the hormonal imbalance it causes and just the fact that nearly all soy is GM.  Soy is one of those things that insects won't touch because it is toxic to them.  Very high concentrations of lectins and those are what prevent you from absorbing nutrients and they can also damage our cilia in your intestines. 

Number Seven:  Commercially Raised Meat  No body wants to hear that, but it is true, commercial farming practices are the cause of antibiotic resistant bacteria, the lowering of the age of puberty in humans, the increase in cancer, heart disease and who knows what else.  We need to try to remember that all of the toxins in our food supply, BT toxin, herbicides, pesticides, heavy metals and even hormonal agents are all CUMULATIVE.  Just like mercury in the top of the food chain, swordfish and large tuna, all that crap goes into cows, pigs, chickens and then into us in concentrated form.  Plus, holy cow, I mean a dedicated vegetarian like me will eat organic grass fed beef and pastured organic chicken because they TASTE BETTER.  And don't get me started on Berkshire pork.  It's worth the price.  But, limit or eliminate commercially raised meats and you will feel better, and in the long run, probably delay or remove the probability of cancer. (Meat 1 ) (Meat 2 ) (Meat 3 )

Number Eight:  Spice mixes containing Silica or any other "anticaking agent"  What, why?  Because most of them are little more than ground glass.  Make your own spice mixes.  Recipes all over the internet.  Yes, you can even make "BAM"  The great thing about making your own spice mixes is that you can control the amount of salt in them, or not add any at all.  Commercial spice mixes usually have crappy salt, and chemicals.  Look at the ingredients of Taco Bell Taco Mix, it is scary.

Number Nine:  Farmed Fish, shrimp, salmon etc.  Not shellfish like muscles, clams or oysters.  But definitely shrimp and salmon.  Again, those poor critters are fed factory made food from questionable sources.  And it makes this stuff just like commercial meats.  With one exception, salmon. Since consumers won't buy white salmon, Swiss chemical giant Hoffman La Roche synthetically produces canthaxanthin and an astaxanthin called Carophyll Pink from petrochemicals and provides salmon farms with -- SalmoFan.  Again, any toxins in their diet accumulate and make eating their flesh all the more toxic to humans.  

Number Ten:  Pretty much anything from China.  Well, isn't that harsh.  NO!  It is just common sense.  China has a pretty poor record for food production.  Questionable manufacturing practices, high pesticide residues on organic produce, the FDA sampling less than 1% of imports, huge recalls, the ban on all Chinese fish, and well, just a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is just that buying local makes sense in today's economy.  Spread some of your food dollars out to local people, don't send it off to big corporate agribusinesses or off to foreign companies.  We all need to do more of that, if we did, then maybe our economy really would start to recover instead of in the midst of huge layoffs, plant closings and a huge increase in menial minimum wage jobs with our governmental overlords spouting off about how the economy has improved, maybe it really will.  


Twelve years ago I had worked for AT&T for over 19 years.  As a customer service representative.  I had a base pay of over 21 bucks an hour.  In 2003 AT&T moved most of those jobs to India.  AT&T then got rated as the worst customer service in any industry.  After a few years, they brought those jobs back to the US, at less than ten bucks an hour.  Semi Skilled jobs in the US now pay way way way less than they used to, and yet the companies charge customers more than ever for products and services.  And the profits go to do nothings on Wall Street and the economy tanks as money accumulates to a smaller percentage of the populous.  I'm sorry, but I have firm views as to how to help this country, and it all starts with eliminating doing business with large corporations as much as possible.  Since a large percentage of everyone's income goes into food, shop local.  When dining out, go local, avoid the CHAIN restaurants and always always always avoid fast food.  Get the local movement moving, and that will improve the economy.

the Laugh-In News - late 60's concept hits mainstream media

A whole lot of people out there have no idea what this is about.  Rowan and Martin's TV show, Laugh In.  The theme song for the portion of the show dedicated to news went like this -"Here's the news  across the nation.  We have got the inspiration, In a way, we hope will amuseeee   you,  Ladies and Gents, Laugh in brings you the news"  And then Rowan and Martin would tell a bunch of one liners about politicians and made up stories about life.  It was all amusing.  It was silly, and Goldie Hawn wore a bikini.  I was 13.  I sort of half believed some of their news stories.  She wore a bikini.  I was 13

So where does that differ from today's news?  Attractive women in anchor positions, all with perfect complexions, sitting at desks and reading the "news" to the masses.  Sure, they tell us about the accidents, the tornadoes, the disasters here and abroad, and they very carefully leave out any mention of anything that would in any way disparage any big business that in any way puts money into the advertising revenue of the stations broadcasting the sanitized version of news to the world.  Sanitized.  That's a really good word.  It means that only the good stuff is left.  If you can call deaths from tornadoes good.  They do tell us that.  But if there was ever any scientific evidence showing that Monsanto or General Mills caused tornadoes, then you can bet your ass that tornadoes would not be included in any newscasts.

I research all of the things I talk about here on my blog.  I get emails from a whole slew of weirdo radical groups that have a slightly one sided view of the world.  I get ideas from them, and I attempt to verify their information.  Most times, I can, their radical views seem to have a basis in truth, they just have a twisted view of what happens in the world with the information they get.  And let's be realistic, there are thousands of weirdo radical groups out there and each of them have their own websites and newsletters and they bring to whoever wants to listen or read about it, their specific opinion about pretty much everything in many cases.  Not unlike me.  I on the other hand do not denounce and call for the violent removal of the government, the pope, Rush Limbaugh, or anyone or thing as so many do.  I write about food, and the failure of the government to protect Americans from big businesses that utilize the system to pay for additions of grossly toxic chemicals and processes as well as unproven GM plants into our food supply solely for the purpose of those businesses to make profits at the expense of the health of those that consume the foods.  I've written about here before, they get chronic toxins approved, then they ALL add them to food and as a result they are all insulated from liability simply because they ALL DO IT.  You can't single out any one business or industry for liability because all of them poison us.

Dr. Judy Carman is from the Institute of Health and Environmental Research in Kensington Park Australia.  She just published a study about Genetically Modified corn and soy being fed to pigs.  The study has been published in Journal of Organic Systems which is a rather prestigious science rag of which you can only get published in after your research has been reviewed and approved by your fellow scientists.  This one is big news.  The study shows that pigs fed a diet of Genetically Modified corn and soy showed inflammation and damage to their stomachs and intestines when compared to pigs fed standard non GM corn and soy.  I didn't see anything about the study on CBS, Fox, NBC, ABC, or CNN or, well, anywhere except NaturalNews.com.  (If you think I am radical, go there and read some whacko stuff)((Or Jesse Ventura's web site))  Well, I found the report, and it seems to be just one more piece of evidence linking GM foods to the declining health of humans.  But you won't hear about it on TV or read about it in the newspapers, or in People magazine.  Nor will your hear or read about the Serilini report either.  You know the report from the French guy that fed rats for two years a diet of GM soy and corn and virtually every one of the rats died or had horrific tumors.  Or the Princeton report about the Horizontal Gene Transfer phenomena that Monsanto to this day claims never happens.  Of course we should take their word for it instead of researchers at a somewhat prestigious university.

You won't ever see or read anything bad about any agribusiness in mainstream media.

Our news is sanitized.  Did you see anything on the boobtube about the March on Monsanto a couple of weeks ago.  No, there was a very small ten second bit about it on a couple of stations here in Phoenix, mostly about the interruption of traffic.  The websites of the TV stations in Austin had about the same thing, Traffic was disrupted when protesters filled the streets of Austin.  Sanitized.  How can stations get revenue when they carry stories that put most of the businesses in AmeriKa in a very bad light.  Let alone the elected officials.  Wouldn't it be nice if the government set aside money and paid a group of people to do the news.  An all news channel on TV that reported nothing but the news, and they could report ALL the news.  Imagine the headlines then, --
A rather portly plain faced man in an ill fitting suit and bad tie sitting at desk reading the news -
"In today's senate watch, we see evidence again of Senator Blunt accepting yet another hundred thousand dollars American from the giant agribusiness Monsanto, at this time Senator Blunt has not added another pro Monsanto amendment to any bills yet, however his past list of amendments and riders that have virtually allowed Monsanto to achieve absolute immunity from prosecution for any of the atrocities now proven to be caused by Roundup as well as all of the Genetically Modified crops that Monsanto has marketed in the world without any testing as to their safety has left Sen Blunt a very rich man.  New laws regarding accounting for all politicians has shown us this newest payoff and we here at government sponsored newswatch are waiting eagerly to see what new bits of legislative trickery the Good Senator tries to pull over the eyes of the people with this latest in a long line of payoffs for amendments he has proposed protecting the failing giant agribusiness.  In other news, Monsanto's GM wheat has been identified now in nearly 88 percent of the wheat growing in Canada and the US, again leaving millions of tons left to rot in the fields as there are no buyers for the proven toxic crops"

The unsanitized version is a lot more interesting now isn't it?

You know, I wish I was wrong about all this stuff.  I really do.  I wish that GM foods were the miracle they want them to be.  That they in fact raised crop yields, but they don't.  That they were as nutritious as the non GM versions, except they have been proven to lack the same nutrients.  I wish they didn't cause degenerative system failure and cancers, but new studies show they do.  I wish the BT toxin that they inserted into crops really did kill insects and had no harmful effects on humans, they don't, the insects evolved immunity and BT toxin really does cause neurological and other system damages.  And I wish that the pesticides and herbicides they spray on the crops didn't leave residues on the crops and that research didn't show how long term consumption of these residues eats away at your liver, brain and pancreas.  But they do.  When Monsanto denies that HGT,(Horizontal Gene Transfer) doesn't ever happen, I wish it were true, but it isn't.  And I really really wish that the mainstream media would say something about any of the research pointing to how toxic these things are to us, but they don't.

We have Laugh In news.  Minus Goldy in a bikini.  That's okay, I'm not 13 anymore.

The people are preparing for ......

Sunday was a nice day for me.  I sell my dip mixes and smoked almonds at the farmers markets around town, and on Sundays, I go to the one out in the community called Ahwatukee.  This market is a true community market, a bunch of hippy types set the market up, and they are all happy to donate their time and energy to the market for the opportunity to be part of something bigger, something important, something community.  Very noble, very nice.  Yeah, I may have long hair, but I'm not a hippy.  I sell at the markets to make money and to get customers for my traveling chef business.  Hippys, sheesh.  To each his own though, and this is something that this, and really all communities across AmeriKa need more of.  Participation in community projects and more of a reliance on locally produced food products.

After the market on Sunday, I drove to Peoria and met with 30 people in the community center at a mobile home park there.  These people are all part of a Meetup.com group that are prepping for the upcoming collapse of the basic economy of this country.  They wanted me to teach them how to use a pressure cooker to can excess produce from their home gardens.  I'm not making this up.  Some of my cigar smoking buddies out there think that I am a bit off the wall when I tell them that this country is headed for a complete breakdown in the social and economic systems and it is happening very soon.  They don't believe me when I tell them that the discovery of Genetically Modified Wheat in the fields in Oregon is going to destroy the world.  But then they also read my entries here and tell me the stuff about beef makes them hungry for more, not less.  So much for the thinking of most AmeriKans.  These people, from all walks of life, sat there in the hot community room and asked pertinent questions, gave markedly interesting feedback and were genuinely interested in learning how to preserve their own food products for home use because they truly believe that the food system in AmeriKa is broken, and it will collapse before it gets fixed.  So they all garden, they all are preparing.  They all seem to have it together.

Good luck to them.  They are all on the road to success, and they have the mind set that gives them a headstart on the economic collapse when it happens.  And good luck to my friends that think I'm nuts. I hope the McD's of the world continue to provide the nutritious and wonderful foods they do now at prices that you can afford just so you won't starve to death. 

FrankenFish - new reports, verification of the fears, but still just the tip of the iceberg of trouble.

Why do humans want to play god?  My ex-wife believed herself to be godlike. She was certain she was without fault, and that her commands should be obeyed without question just as though they were commands from above.  And she is just the lowliest most miserable of humans, I can't imagine what it would be like to be around and to know those that have a little bit of genetic training and millions of dollars of gene splicing equipment at their disposal.  What kind of godlike manners and affectations do they possess?   My ex was UNBEARABLE to be around, what must the heads of Monsanto be like?  Or for that matter, and for this discussion, the heads of the gene tech company, Aqua Bounty. 

Makes me wonder about the personal lives of gene scientists.  Do they all gather around certain bars and talk smack to each other?  "Hey man, so what if you put a simple Bt toxin gene into corn, anyone can splice genes into plants.  Want to try some REAL work, try splicing live animal DNA.  Man you guys think your hot stuff, we are the BOMB!"  "Yeah, big deal, anyone can clone a sheep and it doesn't take any smarts to mix fish together.  Just get you some salmon eggs from the bait store and scramble them and something might turn up."   Yeah, smack from nerdy scientists is pretty boring.

Anyway, the news is not that good for the world at large when we look at what is going on with the newest monstrosity from the scientists that don't have real personalities or ever seem to think about anyone else other than themselves and their ability to make money for their masters.  Frankenfish are in the news again, and it doesn't look good.  It seems that there is a new report out about these abominations, and from the Canadian group, The Royal Society.  Now I know that Monsanto and other gene tech companies hate it when scientific groups publish reports with conclusions that are markedly different from what they want the world to think about Genetically Modified crops; the ever popular Seralini Report is one such example.  A very well respected group of scientists did the unthinkable, they fed GM crops to rats over the course of two years and found out that most of the test subjects ended up with some rather nasty health problems.  Monsanto found that the best thing for them to do was to attack the credibility of the conclusions, the methods, and the scientists.  Oh yeah, they even questioned the use of the strain of rats used, even though Seralini used the same strain that Monsanto uses in their 60 day feeding studies that showed no deleterious effects whatsoever.  These are the same tactics that all gene tech companies use when presented with evidence that they don't quite have a grasp yet on their scientists playtime pretending to be god.

It remains to be seen what will happen when Aqua Bounty responds to the Canadian Royal Society report recommending that the new genetically modified salmon NOT be allowed to by approved and that they should not be allowed to be grown anywhere near the wild.  Their conclusions are somewhat ominous and are pretty specific.  They have found that GM salmon can, and will cross breed with brown trout in the wild and that the new interspecies mutant fish will take over and dominate the native species in streams and rivers throughout Canada and the US decimating native populations and doing, at this time, UNKNOWN damage to the ecology of the environment.  (The Royal Society Report)  

What are the heads of spin at Aqua Bounty going to say about this?

To this day, I have not yet found any research being done about the problem that I predict will happen if these FrankenFish are released into the environment.  I don't know if no one has even thought that this might be possible and so haven't tried to determine the likelihood, or maybe they did and are just doing the normal business approved thing, and covering it up.  My fear is HGT.  Horizontal Gene Transfer.  We know this happens.  We have proof it happens.  Even though Monsanto denies it, it happens.  HGT is when the specific genes inserted into the targeted species migrate, or transfer, to other species.  What has been documented is that when human beings eat GM soy and corn, then the genes inserted into those crops have been found as part of the genetic makeup of bacteria living in the intestinal tract of the test subjects.  That means that if you eat GM corn, then the genes to make Bt toxin are probably in the bacteria in your gut and are doing what the scientists at Monsanto want them to do, and that is, make more Bt toxin.  Right there in your system, a little Bt toxin factory making the stuff for your system to absorb.  I want to know if the same thing will happen to anything that eats the Genetically Modified salmon.

What happens when the FrankenSalmon escape and take over native populations of fish.  we know that the fish grow faster and bigger, but what about those that eat the fish?  Will the inserted genes that produce the fish growth hormones become fixed in the bacteria living in the guts of any animal that eats the fish?  Will bears, that eat a lot of salmon, soon have genetically modified fish growth hormone producing bacteria pumping their systems with ever more growth hormone?  Will they grow, bigger, faster, and scarier?  Will we have twenty foot tall bears, huge predatory birds, giant ants, and an ecosystem that is a nightmare of creatures out of storybooks?  And all with the root cause being people wanting to play god without the proper training. 

Think about the smack at the local bar then, "Man you guys, they found a thirty-one foot tall grizzly bear yesterday, you boys really outdid yourself on that one.  Killed forty people on a rampage, wo ho, way to go boys, what's the death toll at now?"  "Yeah so.  I heard that you gene plant boys just got your Bt corn definitively tied to the increase in cancer, thirty million deaths now attributed to your crap.  You're sooo much worse then us."

Yeah, nerdy scientist smack is pretty pathetic. 

the FDA, the Senate, Monsanto and GM foods, the way it is.

I wrote about this a couple of days ago.  The Bill of Rights guarantees the right of each state to pass laws that protect the population of the state.  Monsanto doesn't believe in the Bill of Rights.  The company, in its wondrous belief in its godlike ability to create life and make money; believes that if they, through whatever methods necessary, acquire the favor, and votes, of the majority of Senators, they can have them pass legislation that circumvents the Bill of Rights. 

the Sanders Amendment (S.AMDT.965) was added to specifically insure that all states have the right, as expressed in the Bill of Rights to pass state laws to protect the health and welfare of citizens of that state.  These 71 senators voted against that amendment, specifically at the behest of Monsanto.  This letter from Consumer Reports lists the reasons why GM foods need to be labeled, and why they fail so completely.
(the letter itself)


The 71 senators
  Alexander (R-TN)
  Ayotte (R-NH)
  Baldwin (D-WI)
  Barrasso (R-WY)
  Baucus (D-MT)
  Blunt (R-MO)
  Boozman (R-AR)
  Brown (D-OH)
  Burr (R-NC)
  Carper (D-DE)
  Casey (D-PA)
  Chambliss (R-GA)
  Coats (R-IN)
  Coburn (R-OK)
  Cochran (R-MS)
  Collins (R-ME)
  Coons (D-DE)
  Corker (R-TN)
  Cornyn (R-TX)
  Cowan (D-MA)
  Crapo (R-ID)
  Cruz (R-TX)
  Donnelly (D-IN)
  Durbin (D-IL)
  Enzi (R-WY)
  Fischer (R-NE)
  Franken (D-MN)
  Gillibrand (D-NY)
  Graham (R-SC)
  Grassley (R-IA)
  Hagan (D-NC)
  Harkin (D-IA)
  Hatch (R-UT)
  Heitkamp (D-ND)
  Heller (R-NV)
  Hoeven (R-ND)
  Inhofe (R-OK)
  Isakson (R-GA)
  Johanns (R-NE)
  Johnson (D-SD)
  Johnson (R-WI)
  Kaine (D-VA)
  Kirk (R-IL)
  Klobuchar (D-MN)
  Landrieu (D-LA)
  Lee (R-UT)
  Levin (D-MI)
  McCain (R-AZ)
  McCaskill (D-MO)
  McConnell (R-KY)
  Menendez (D-NJ)
  Moran (R-KS)
  Nelson (D-FL)
  Paul (R-KY)
  Portman (R-OH)
  Pryor (D-AR)
  Risch (R-ID)
  Roberts (R-KS)
  Rubio (R-FL)
  Scott (R-SC)
  Sessions (R-AL)
  Shaheen (D-NH)
  Shelby (R-AL)
  Stabenow (D-MI)
  Thune (R-SD)
  Toomey (R-PA)
  Udall (D-CO)
  Vitter (R-LA)
  Warner (D-VA)
  Warren (D-MA)
  Wicker (R-MS)

These senators all voted against an amendment that would insure that states, and ultimately, every citizen remained protected by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of these United States.  When senators vote to remove OUR RIGHTS, and they vote that way at the request of a business that has time and again shown themselves to utilize unscrupulous and illegal business tactics; then what other rights will elected representative give away next.

Ultimately you and every citizen out there has the ability to control how the senate runs.  It isn't hard, whatever state you re in, vote out all of the senators listed above, they have proven themselves to put the needs of big business above your rights as a citizen.  

Poop, I always thought it was nasty stuff, I was wrong, it seems to be the food of the future.

Potty training for a child is one of those things that either goes well, or doesn't.  Some kids seem to take off right away and they understand the concept, and everything goes smoothly.  Others, well, it is difficult to get a little baby to understand that the crap coming out of their butts is bad, and it should stay in the potty chair and not play with it.  The pet dog poops, and that is always fun to play with, and when the neighbor cat poops, the dog loves to eat the tasty little morsels.  But conveying the concept of poop is bad to toddlers, is an exercise in frustration at times.  Eventually, most grow, and their bathroom duties become habit, and poop is relegated to that one sanitary receptacle in the home where it can be disposed of, and forgotten about.  That is, unless your child grows up to be a rancher.  Ranchers have a different view of poop.  Poop is good food.

Yep, poop, not human poop, but chicken poop.  Right now in AmeriKa, about two million TONS of chicken waste are gathered up from the floors of industrialized chicken coops that are used to raise thousands and thousands of chickens; then it is fed to cows.  There just seems to be so much of the stuff that using it to fertilize fields is just not a viable option.  Well, that and the huge amounts of ARSENIC in the chicken poop from the additives that the chicken farmers add to make them grow faster and attempt to cut down on disease outbreaks (which are EXTREMELY prevalent in CAFO chicken farms).  All that makes chicken poop a very poor and risky fertilizer.  Just ask the rice farmers in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi that can no longer grow rice on their fields because of the arsenic contamination from using chicken manure for years.  Quite a few lawsuits going on right now from those farmers because they are not allowed to sell their crops because the chicken poop used as fertilizer contained so much of the stuff the fields can't be used for crops for human consumption, EVER!  But it seems that arsenic laced chicken poop is fine to feed to dairy and beef cattle.  Arsenic is not a problem with those that need a cheap feed.  Long term degenerative arsenic toxicity is not a problem as steers fed the stuff are slaughtered long before they croak.  So what if the meat has traces of arsenic in it, as long as no one dies, and as long as everyone does it, then if you get sick, and your hair falls out from arsenic poisoning, you can't sue any one rancher, because they all feed poop to their cattle.

Chicken manure feed contains a lot of stuff.  First off, it contains litter.  This is generally a wheat or oat straw that is put on the floors of the huge chicken barns to absorb the manure.  Then there is the poop.  We'll come back to that.  There is also a whole lot of feathers, feed that the chickens dropped while eating, dead rodents, bits of trash and rocks, nails etc.  Overall, not a bad fertilizer, except for the contents of the poop itself.  Back in the 1940's. someone discovered that if you add some arsenic to the feed of pigs and chickens, then you could crowd them together in smaller spaces, and they would grow a bit faster and get sick a little less.  The thing is, if the pigs and chickens have chronic degenerative problems, it doesn't matter, because they are killed and humans eat their meat.  Here is the Johns Hopkins report on arsenic levels in chicken meat (Report on Arsenic)  I can't ever imagine what the thought processes are for anyone that approves the use of arsenic as an additive for animals that end of being fed to humans.  This is from the Feds own website (FEDS and Arsenic)  " Chronic arsenic toxicity results in multisystem diseases. Arsenic is a well documented human carcinogen affecting numerous organs."  But yet, the FDA allows it to be used as an additive in chicken feed to this day.  Isn't that odd, I thought the FDA was out to protect the health of AmeriKans from toxic additives to food.  Well they are, except in cases where big businesses make a lot of money.  You can view most of the postings here on my blog to get an idea of the kind of protection that we miserable peons are afforded by the FDA.

Chicken manure also has the wonderful addition of high amounts of antibiotics in it.  It is a pretty well known fact that 80% of the antibiotics manufactured in the country find their way into animal feed.  One of the main reasons that we have so many varieties of antibiotic resistant bacteria in our world today.  It makes them grow a bit faster, and is used as a prophylaxis against the HUGE numbers of diseases that infect animals that are kept confined in small spaces and fed some rather disgusting things instead of real food.  Some of the things that chickens are fed include, cracked corn, wheat mill middlings, spent brewers grains, ground spinal columns from cows, ground bone meal and organs from cattle slaughterhouses, hide tanning wastes, canola seed meal treated with lye, and some other grains, notably sorghum and rice hulls.  Oh yeah, most commercial rice products also have arsenic in them.  Sort of a revolving cycle.  The thing is, that because no one wants to admit that the feeding of canola byproducts is what probably caused the huge mad cow disease scare back in the eighties, the Feds have instituted a really unique procedure for keeping mad cow disease out of the general population.  It is pretty simple, any cow that is over 30 months old when slaughtered, the brain and spinal column are not to be used for human food.  Simple huh?  So they grind them up and feed them to chickens.  And when the chickens poop it all out, it goes to feed the cows. This is a practice that the USDA says that they shouldn't do to prevent mad cow disease even though they themselves claim no one knows what causes it.  (USDA and FSIS on BSE) 

January first of this year, Maryland became the first state to enact a consumer protection law that outlaws the use of arsenic in the feed of chickens and pigs.  The state is looking at the good of the many over the ability of a few businesses to make money.  Wait a second, according to Monsanto, a state can't enact laws to protect their citizens, or at least that is what they want to happen and are desperately trying to get all of their senators and congresspeople to pass a federal law that takes away the state's rights to do that very thing. Somehow, this whole process is just scary to me.  I want real healthy food, big business wants to provide food to me that is, well, questionable at best.  If I get sick with any number of degenerative diseases from eating that food, I can't sue them, because ALL of the food manufacturers provide that crap to us.  How do I single out one specific provider of crap to sue.  I can't.  I shouldn't have to.  Our food system is broken here in AmeriKa.  Kudos to Maryland for taking a step toward better health for their citizens.  Let's all remember how our representatives voted when it came to protecting us every November.  I think that crap is crap, and poop shouldn't be on any menu. 

And thus it begins, soon British Petroleum will bill all Gulf residents for money they didn't make on the oil they spilled.

Well, I said it would happen, and it is.  The contamination of the wheat crop in Oregon has brought a huge industry to its knees.  Japan, South Korea have canceled orders for AmeriKan wheat.  Russia, one of the largest buyers of wheat, has announced that it will test all wheat before purchase.  The European Union has urged all members to test ANY wheat shipments for GM contamination before accepting the product.  Wheat futures, have dropped like the proverbial stone.  Farmers throughout the wheat belt in AmeriKa are bracing themselves for bankruptcy.  I bet a lot are wondering if they can plow in their wheat and plant something else before it gets too late.  The problem is, what else can they plant.  There are no commercially available crops that are NOT Genetically Modified.  Monsanto bought up all the seed companies two decades ago and they only offer GM seeds to farmers.  Awe, I shouldn't say that, there are a couple of independent ones out there, ones that market to home gardeners.  Can you imagine planting a thousand acres from those little paper envelopes of seeds?

Well, it is time to fight back, get Monsanto to pay for what they have done.  Back on January 10th, two farmers in Saskatchewan filed a class action lawsuit against Monsanto and Aventis.  the subject of the lawsuit, genetic pollution.  They claim that as certified organic farmers, they are unable to grow organic canola because the genetic pollution from Genetically Modified canola has spread to every farm and every crop everywhere.  Thus there is no possible way for them to continue to grow organic canola and to capture the higher priced market that exists for that product.  Monsanto and Aventis have destroyed their livelihood.  The farmers charge that Monsanto and Aventis were aware that it was IMPOSSIBLE to contain the genetic material in the modified canola and that the consequences of their actions were predicted.  And here is the big one, at that time, back in January, they also filed a cease and desist order to prevent Monsanto from planting ANY GM wheat as wheat is the cornerstone crop in the prairie culture and that introducing a crop that will infect commercial crops with unwanted and detrimental GM genes is a certainty that will destroy the market for organic farming.

And it seems to have become a reality now hasn't it.  GM wheat is out on the loose.

Yesterday a Kansas farmer filed a class action lawsuit against Monsanto.  For destroying the international market for the wheat that he grows.  His lawsuit claims that Monsanto did knowingly allow the contamination of the commercial wheat crop by failing to follow proper procedures for containment of the test crops.  That Monsanto was aware of the potential for genetic contamination is a certainty, in fact Monsanto has used that very problem to their advantage on over 400 lawsuits that the huge corporation has filed against small time farmers that have had Genetically Modified pollen from GM crops infect farmer's fields.  Then, when the supposedly non-GM crops showed the patented genes when tested and Monsanto sued the farmers for patent infringement, and won.

Yeah, Monsanto knows their crops cannot be contained.  They are counting on it.

Monsanto issued a statement in response to the lawsuit, they stated that they will take a vigorous defense against the lawsuit and take no responsibility whatsoever for the genetic contamination of the commercial wheat crop.  It is back to their old philosophy that if our shit contaminates your crops on your farm then that is your fault for capturing the wind blown pollen with your crops that Monsanto did not create.  So the concept of Monsanto seems to be, buy our seed to begin with and that way you don't have to worry about genetic contamination, it will already be contaminated and we will have made money.

What a concept.  Can you imagine what would happen if British Petroleum would have sent bills to all the states and all the local people that lived on the coasts and all the fishermen that made a living fishing the Gulf and the bill was for the gas that BP spilled and ended up polluting everything.  What would you do if you got a bill from BP for the raw oil that could have made BP money had they not spilled it?  Is that stupid?  Well, yeah.  But is it any different from Monsanto suing farmers that plant non GM crops that after planting get infected with GM pollen from neighboring fields and claiming those farmers STOLE genetic patented crops?  Last Saturday, I was at the Farmers Market on North Central and Northern Ave and was telling every customer about my blog, and about the wonderful March Against Monsanto going on.  Sooooooo many people had no idea what or who Monsanto was, or why it is needed.  This is why. 

OH NO, please don't talk about vaccines again Chef Roy, PLEASE!

Sheesh, okay.  I won't talk about the actual vaccines themselves.  On January 16 of this year, the Institute of Medicine made their report available, regarding vaccines.  (IOM Brief)  In this brief of the full report, the IOM states, "....no evidence of major safety concerns associated with adherence to the childhood immunization schedule, which should help to reassure a diverse group of stakeholders..."  ie. corporations that manufacture vaccines, and companies that distribute vaccines, and pediatricians that actually give the vaccines that are paid for by patient insurance plans. Reassurances from the IOM is just another dollar in their pockets, but then we all knew that.  Reality has little to do with the needs of the populace.  Not when money is involved. 

Oh yeah, this is the same organization, the IOM, that now tells us that the average sodium intake of 3400 mg per adult is fine, and that the Guidelines for American Diets put out by the US government are silly, and that reducing your intake to the recommended 1500 mg is not necessary.     And this tidbit, "...is no evidence on health outcomes to support treating population subgroups differently from the general US population."  Meaning that anyone over 50, or any African Americans should have the same sodium intake as everyone else, meaning 2500 mg or the standard at this time, 3400 mg. per day.  (PDF Read last paragraph)

Oh, and yeah, the IOM is also the same group of people that two years ago made the outrageous claim that any person between 1 and 70 only needs about 600 I.U. of Vitamin D to be healthy, and that there are virtually NO deficiencies known to exist in America.  (PDF again, last paragraph)  This is what they claim, "...evidence however does not support other benefits for Vitamin D...)  other than in the utilization of calcium.   Really, this is their conclusion.

Oh, and yeah, the IOM actually feels that taking supplements of Vitamin C and Vitamin E along with the rather well researched mineral selenium are not necessary.  In fact dietary amounts of these nutrients are in large enough quantities in the Standard American Diet as to make supplementation unnecessary and that, "At the present time, there is no resolution of the possible impact of these nutrients or food components on chronic disease."  So that there is no need to take these supplements.  They will not help prevent diseases of any sort.  (IOM on Vit C and E)

Oh, and yeah, the IOM are the people that firmly believe that the AmeriKan school lunch standards ar too restrictive, and that the whole grain standard for cereals for containing 51% whole grain should not be applied to whole grain bread as it now is.  Bread is not cereal and cost effectiveness would be better served if whole grain breads contained LESS than 51% whole grain.  (page 9 of report)  And in the same report, this bit of info, "...there's no scientific proof that high fructose corn syrup deserves the blame for obesity more than sugar.... at this time there is insufficient evidence to restrict the use of high fructose corn syrup..."

Hey, I make mistakes.  I voted for Obama, (in 2008 he promised to have a federal law for labeling GMO foods) I married that woman, (YIKES) and I have done some other things, dated the woman with the vestigial penis being at the top.  But I am just a guy, I have no authority, no HUGE sums of money coming in to pay me to write this blog and attempt to get the eyes of the populace filled with clarity and visions of truth.  I think vaccines, especially for infants, are a quick way to long term illnesses and degenerative problems.  The big guys say they are a good thing.  They say a lot of other stuff that just isn't true.