Positive News from the USA

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 04 Feb 2014 09:26

BTW that was a great commercial, Coke.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 04 Feb 2014 09:36

Mort Walker wrote: So in a sense, doctors are responsible for the lack of availability of health care in the USA

There.. corrected.

With the US claiming to lead the world and people in the US speaking as if what occurs there is the standard for the rest of the world to follow, it it important to make the point that this is a problem created by the US for the US.

As I said - doctors were overpaid to start with. It is OK to be grateful to doctors for services rendered but when you convert the value of a doctor's work into money and give him the license to charge pretty much whatever sum he can think of, the country is beginning the process of a self-cavity search.

Doctors are only one small part of a US tendency to convert everything into a value in dollars. How much do you want for telling your story? How much do you want to shut up? How much will you give me to shut up? How much will you pay me for an accident which I choose to blame on you?

This is an American problem. It is an "American doctors" problem only insofar as it is their fate to be in the US in the 21st century and not back in the 1960s when money could be made and no questions asked.

Funnily enough it is a sign that there is less money to go around now - an admission that I do not expect from the US for a few more decades while people tell me how the monetary value of everything today exceeds by many fold the monetary value of everything yesterday.

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 04 Feb 2014 09:54

Daily Diet:

Festive fireworks:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10.
Surprise romance:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
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9,
10.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 04 Feb 2014 10:00

Rony wrote:
You can watch the commercial here:

Only Pakistan exceeds America in fakeology.

The "melting pot" theme is pushed too far when in fact it is fake.

The US allowed pretty much free migration for white Europeans only, while they pretty much wiped out Injuns. And that migration lasted only up to 1921 when visa restrictions came in. Chinese, Japs and other slanteyes were restricted. Indians were not allowed till very recently.

So "melting pot" is a faking pot. India has been a bigger melting pot than the US for far longer. And what you see in India is what you get from 5000 years of being a melting pot. Don't like it? You can be "free" from that in the USA

Hitesh · Post by **Hitesh** » 04 Feb 2014 10:10

Mort Walker,

You have not factor in the cost of medical malpractice and billing services.

Sanjaykumar and others,

You don't know what you are even talking about. I have seen doctors who drive beat up cars even though they are experienced doctors doing 11 hours surgeries. Owning and managing a practice is becoming a very expensive process and it is one of the biggest reasons why doctors do not own their practices anymore. The trend is toward group practices or hospital chain owned practices where hospital assume the costs of owning the practices and doctors become employees. Nowadays, don't be surprised if a OBY-GYN makes less than $180k a year including bonuses and perks despite after spending 10 years in medical schools, residency, and fellowships where they pay dirt cheap wages bordering on minimum wage pay for the hours they put in and a couple hundred thousand dollars of student loan debt that have been piling up for the last 10 years. On average, in their late 50s or early 60s, the doctors will finally repay back their student loans.

Doctors are not the golden hens as some ignorant people on this forum make out to be.

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 04 Feb 2014 10:22

Ignorant hens. Yes Saar. Perhaps you know better.

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 04 Feb 2014 10:52

Doctors future is not rosy as everyone thinks. Recently a 93 year old doctor retired as he could not carry on . There are 4 folks pushing 80, a few in 70s. They are not poor but not rich enough. There are no doctors in rich list top 50or more.
All are non medicos.
They have long gestation period before they become independent and start earning well. Plenty of exams to pass- only a certain %age pass. It is tough in the sense of being voluminous subject with lot to know. Being smart intelligent generally does not work here.
More of work -tough physical work.

It is commonly said- a non medico enjoys what he earns. children enjoy what a medico earns.

It is tough love nowadays in massa- what with patients rating doctors etch etc.
Gov't has a website hospitals compare where each and every hospitals ratings are compared. Penalties are there for the lowest ones.

Doctors are generally poor at marketing themselves in front of patients.
They are the face of the medical team-any mishap they are in firing line including perceived ones.

Being a hakim myself have lots of stories to share.

Some specialists do earn more as the American system is geared to pay for procedures. Specialties with minimal or no procedures do not earn well.

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 04 Feb 2014 10:58

A doctor after residency can earn from 120k+ but with associated headaches -on calls mountainous paperwork plenty of yak yakking to patients documenting, sleepless days etc.
One wonders if it is worth it not to forget the long gestation period.

Recently Brfites got used to maid chasers, hakim are used to ambulance chasers

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 04 Feb 2014 11:10

krisna wrote:A doctor after residency can earn from 120k+ but with associated headaches -on calls mountainous paperwork plenty of yak yakking to patients documenting, sleepless days etc.
One wonders if it is worth it not to forget the long gestation period.

Recently Brfites got used to maid chasers, hakim are used to ambulance chasers

It is a more honorable profession than any other represented here. Let us leave it at that. It does not deserve a discussion in positive news. We question not valor, nor service. We are not after imperfection or aberration.

Facts, consistent, and continual was to be the fate of this conservatory. The truth is flowing by right under our noses, and it will impact our individual lives, soon, and in more ways than we can imagine.

Who here would have imagined a roadside colonoscopy 10 years ago? What does the future hold in another 10. This is a place of quiet introspection, and prayer. That we might find some mutation in these genes to look beyond immediate self-interest.

chandrasekhar.m · Post by **chandrasekhar.m** » 04 Feb 2014 12:29

Positive news to look forward to, even if a poisonous snake bites you. Easily available, cheap, effective treatment, onlee in the USofA.

Charged More Than $89,000 By Hospital For Snake Bite Anti-Venom Treatment

Eric Ferguson got bitten by a snake. Then health care costs sank their teeth into him.

A North Carolina hospital charged a stunned Ferguson $89,227 for anti-venom medicine and an 18-hour stay, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Ferguson, 54, of Mooresville, was taking out the garbage when a snake attacked his foot. He was treated with four vials of anti-venom that accounted for $81,000 of the tab, according to the Observer. He said he found the medication for $750 online.

Lake Norman Regional Medical Center explained in the article that it has to charge higher prices to compensate for discounts it gives insurance companies. In a deal with Ferguson's insurer, the hospital cut the bill to $20,227, with Ferguson paying $5,400 out of pocket. Ferguson emphasized he received great treatment after the August 2013 incident, but "it was just the sticker shock," he said to the newspaper.

<snip>
removed content not related to above case
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PS: Shreeman saar and others, if this post is in not to be in this thread, please let me know. I will delete it.

SanjayC · Post by **SanjayC** » 04 Feb 2014 13:35

500 Innocent Americans Killed by Cops Each Year

“Knock and announce” police raids are on the rise. They are estimated to occur as many as 40 – 50,000 per year. Back in the 1970s, military-style police raids used to be a rare event, occurring only a few hundred times per year.

What has happened in the last 40 years to cause the increase? Are Americans really behaving that badly? What is the reason for the rise in the use of excessive force by police officers?

Filmmaker Charles Shaw produced a short film titled “Release Us” to expose the harsh reality of the escalating battle between citizens and law enforcement.

Some highlights from the film:

500 innocent Americans are murdered by police every year (USDOJ). 5,000 since 9/11, equal to the number of US soldiers lost in Iraq.

In 1994 the US Government passed a law authorizing the Pentagon to donate surplus Cold War era military equipment to local police departments.

In the 20 years since, weaponry designed for use on a foreign battlefield, has been handed over for use on American streets…against American citizens.

The “War on Drugs” and the “War on Terror” replaced the Cold War with billions in funding and dozens of laws geared towards this new “war” against its own citizens.

This militarization of the police force has created what is being called an “epidemic of police brutality” sweeping the nation.

RELEASE US - a short film on police brutality by Charles Shaw

RACE AND POLICE BRUTALITY IN THE US

The Black-American Civil Rights Movement had to overcome numerous incidents of police brutality in its struggle for justice and racial equality, notably during the Birmingham campaign of 1963--64 and during the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965. Martin Luther King Jr. criticized police brutality in speeches. Media coverage of the brutality sparked national outrage, and public sympathy for the movement grew rapidly as a result. During the Vietnam War, anti-war demonstrations were sometimes quelled through the use of billy-clubs and CS gas, commonly known as tear gas. The most notorious of these assaults took place during the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The actions of the police were later described as a "police riot" in the Walker Report to the U.S. National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence (See Documentary).

In the United States, race and police brutality continue to be closely linked, and the phenomenon has sparked a string of race riots over the years. Most notable was the uprising caused by the arrest and beating of Rodney King on March 3, 1991 by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department. The police officers' brutality had been videotaped by a bystander and widely broadcast (around the world) afterwards. When the four law enforcement officers charged with assault and other charges were acquitted, the 1992 Los Angeles Riots broke out.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 04 Feb 2014 14:51

American town displays a keen sense of aesthetics so that visitors are not offended

Meet Hermine Ricketts and Tom Carroll, a South Florida couple who’ve been growing what they say is 80 percent of their food in a front-yard vegetable garden for the past 17 years. As it turns out, their self-sufficient lifestyle counts as illegal activity in Miami Shores — the couple was told to either rip out their garden, or pay $50 per day in fines.

The most infuriating part of the whole thing is why Miami Shores won’t let the couple keep their garden: vegetables are “inconsistent with the city’s aesthetic character.”

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 04 Feb 2014 15:18

^
Want to farm sustainably with cheap inputs in Massaland ?
No can do Sir. You MUST OBEY the Law.

US Lawmakers: Its all for the Greater Good

Repetetion by Big farming MNCs

Dow Chemicals :The Greater Good.
Monsanto :The Greater Good.
Cargill :The Greater Good.
Del Monte :The Greater Good.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 04 Feb 2014 16:51

America's streets are now safer (for the police) than ever before

darshhan · Post by **darshhan** » 04 Feb 2014 17:34

shiv wrote:American town displays a keen sense of aesthetics so that visitors are not offended
Meet Hermine Ricketts and Tom Carroll, a South Florida couple who’ve been growing what they say is 80 percent of their food in a front-yard vegetable garden for the past 17 years. As it turns out, their self-sufficient lifestyle counts as illegal activity in Miami Shores — the couple was told to either rip out their garden, or pay $50 per day in fines.

The most infuriating part of the whole thing is why Miami Shores won’t let the couple keep their garden: vegetables are “inconsistent with the city’s aesthetic character.”

Probably this is what they call as American Dream (Looks to me more like North Korean Dream)

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 04 Feb 2014 18:34

talk about saving energy but dont want to hang clothes in the sun

people can walk in their 2 piece suit in backyard but hanging clothes is strict no no.

it lowers property prices. no one wants to see others inner wear unless some body is inside it.!!

for the sake of aesthetics- americans spend over 6-10% of elecricity bills in washing/drying machines which can be saved.

saving energy is for non americans.

SanjayC · Post by **SanjayC** » 04 Feb 2014 18:58

US police is there to protect women, like in this video.

rajanb · Post by **rajanb** » 04 Feb 2014 19:08

krisna wrote:talk about saving energy but dont want to hang clothes in the sun

people can walk in their 2 piece suit in backyard but hanging clothes is strict no no.

it lowers property prices. no one wants to see others inner wear unless some body is inside it.!!

for the sake of aesthetics- americans spend over 6-10% of elecricity bills in washing/drying machines which can be saved.

saving energy is for non americans.

If you hang your inner wear up and walk around naked, do property prices go up? besides solving Vit D deficiency?

rajanb · Post by **rajanb** » 04 Feb 2014 20:19

Cor Blimey!

http://complex.foreignpolicy.com/posts/ ... fraud_case

Pentagon Investigates Thousands of Soldiers in Massive Fraud Case

saip · Post by **saip** » 04 Feb 2014 20:22

The rapist next door

Obviously lot of vegetarianism in US particularly in Alaska the Great State of Sarah Palin!

Link

Rony · Post by **Rony** » 04 Feb 2014 21:40

SanjayC wrote:US police is there to protect women, like in this video.

OMG ! I feel sorry for all those african-americans, latinos and other disadvantaged people in America who has go through this shit daily

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 04 Feb 2014 22:01

krisna wrote: it lowers property prices. no one wants to see others inner wear unless some body is inside it.!!

amirkhans are nuts about "property prices". appearances is everything.

see, only poor people hang clothes out to dry.

ergo, if you hang out your clothes to dry in your own backyard or over the balcony, you are driving property prices down because you are creating the appearance that your are poor, the neighborhood is poor etc.

SanjayC · Post by **SanjayC** » 04 Feb 2014 22:26

More love and affection of American police for the citizens.

Some black men arrested by cops for daring to enter a "white church," making the Whites "uncomfortable." Err... did someone say there was caste system in India?

Prem Kumar · Post by **Prem Kumar** » 04 Feb 2014 23:39

The above videos of gallant cops performing their honorable duty reminds me of the video below of poor animals earning their daily bread

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 05 Feb 2014 00:49

To Protect and to serve: America's finest doing their best to save society from a menstruating woman and her two friends

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 05 Feb 2014 01:00

Speaking on behalf of my cowboy friend from Texas: Boys, we know our Mmmurican friends have trouble from those damn n****r boys doing jack $hit and livin on govt support. I say our cops are doing a damn fine job of arresting each one of them and charging them for being in the USofA where these guys have no business in.

This last week the good-ol cops from California made a mash of themselves by charging this black boy for attacking the police. He should have known his place and submitted instead of raising his hands, he should have known better. Too bad he survived the shooting. We would have had one less on government support. I guess I talk too much, I am going to shut my bazoo and let you boys decide for yourself after reading it here.

Rony · Post by **Rony** » 05 Feb 2014 01:17

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 05 Feb 2014 01:27

Such maturity from the Guardians of Da Law!

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 05 Feb 2014 04:55

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 05 Feb 2014 05:39

Since the civil liberty movement in 1969 blacks in our great country have advanced so far ahead in all fields. There is absolutely no sign of racism, anywhere... trust me. If black people get arrested its their fault.. not ours.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 05 Feb 2014 07:09

Please emulate this gent. For help in "decluttering" by unloading Bimmers, houses, chocolates, goats etc, pls contact Ulan Batori

***Seriousness Break****
Actually there is much truth in what this person discovered. I too have been "downsizing" for several years. Bisses off the jerks no end.
****End Seriousness Break****

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 05 Feb 2014 09:22

...one man's rant about achieving a simpler lifestyle:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/02/ ... the-shaft/

No! Cover your ears!

Let’s be clear about this,: The retirement issue in this country is because people are buying way too much shit they don’t need, pampering themselves with ridiculous lattes, restaurants, shoes and massages, and riding around constantly in huge bullshit bank-financed trucks for no reason.

I admit that I also need a simpler lifestyle.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 05 Feb 2014 09:45

Money mustache not bad my kind of a man

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 05 Feb 2014 11:20

Yup! love him. I'm fairly close to my plan to reduce my base USA burn rate to under $500 pm.
Note that mustache man has paid off his home. This has to be the first component of living in USA.
Too many people bankrupt themselves over their house. Quicker you pay it off quicker you stop financing banker bonuses.
18 months left on my house.
I have 6 month left on my Audi lease and then I'm done with car payments too.
I have invested in an electric car w/ solar panels that has eliminated my gas bill and my utility bill.
there are an amazing number of people who practice this frugality these days.
It can be hard with SHQ's breathing down your neck.

chandrasekhar.m · Post by **chandrasekhar.m** » 05 Feb 2014 11:32

UlanBatori wrote:Please emulate this gent. For help in "decluttering" by unloading Bimmers, houses, chocolates, goats etc, pls contact Ulan Batori

***Seriousness Break****
Actually there is much truth in what this person discovered. I too have been "downsizing" for several years. Bisses off the jerks no end.
****End Seriousness Break****

That gent duo is quite savvy though. On one hand, they have seemingly decluttered. But on the other hand, have made a smart business out of giving talks, writing books, conducting workshops etc, all at a small premium onlee.

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 05 Feb 2014 14:00

Theo_Fidel wrote:Yup! love him. I'm fairly close to my plan to reduce my base USA burn rate to under $500 pm.
Note that mustache man has paid off his home. This has to be the first component of living in USA.
Too many people bankrupt themselves over their house. Quicker you pay it off quicker you stop financing banker bonuses.
18 months left on my house.
I have 6 month left on my Audi lease and then I'm done with car payments too.
I have invested in an electric car w/ solar panels that has eliminated my gas bill and my utility bill.
there are an amazing number of people who practice this frugality these days.
It can be hard with SHQ's breathing down your neck.

Good for you. Without the help of SHQ I think it would be impossible.

As this being a positive news thread, everyone needs SHQ's like these. Mostly found in USA, BUT becoming a big export overseas. http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4504416956516224&pid=1.7

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 05 Feb 2014 15:13

Ladies and Gentlemen: Today's civilizing episode is here: Please read to understand what needs to be done to civilize blacks from an ex computer programmer.

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 05 Feb 2014 15:18

Lest we forget about the antislavery civilize-by-cavity-search logic(based on the well known, we-will-bomb-you-for-peace logic): Here is a shining example of this.

johneeG · Post by **johneeG** » 05 Feb 2014 17:21

Lilo wrote:^
Want to farm sustainably with cheap inputs in Massaland ?
No can do Sir. You MUST OBEY the Law.

US Lawmakers: Its all for the Greater Good

Repetetion by Big farming MNCs

Dow Chemicals :The Greater Good.
Monsanto :The Greater Good.
Cargill :The Greater Good.
Del Monte :The Greater Good.

City of Arlington SWAT Raid on Peaceful Organic Farmers is a Big Budget Bust

“No Weed, Just Weeds”

The Garden of Eden is a conscious community located on a 3.5 acre space in Kennedale, Texas (DFW metroplex). They are dedicated to living sustainably by raising fresh food, utilizing earthen materials for building projects, and facilitating inspired events that bring out humans highest potential.

Since 2009, they have been providing food, shelter and sustainability education classes and workshops to the public for free. Their 3.5 acre land contains chickens, bees, composting stations, a large vegetable garden and many wildcrafted trees and plants that are used for foods, medicines, and household and beauty products. Their vision is to be a fully self-sustaining center for education on sustainable living.
sc-2b

At around seven thirty last Friday morning, inhabitants of The Garden of Eden, a small Intentional Community based on Sustainability, were awakened by a SWAT raid conducted by the City of Arlington for suspicion of being a full fledged marijuana growth and trafficking operation. Ultimately only a single arrest was made based on unrelated outstanding traffic violations, a handful of citations were given for city code violations, and zero drug related violations were found. The entire operation lasted about 10 hours and involved many dozens of city officials, SWAT team, police officers and code compliance employees, and numerous official vehicles including dozens of police cars and several specialized vehicular equipment that was involved in the “abatement” operation. Witnesses say that there were helicopters and unmanned flying drones circling the property in the days prior to the raid that are presumed to have been a part of the intelligence gathering. The combined expenses for the raid itself and the collection of information leading up to the fruitless raid are estimated in the tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

All 8 adults present in the house were initially handcuffed at the gunpoint of heavily armed SWAT officers, including the mother of a 22 month old and a two week old baby who was separated from her children during the raid. The police enforced activity on the day of the raid included mowing the grass, the forcible destruction of both wild and cultivated plants like blackberries, lamb’s quarters and okra, and the removal of other varied materials from around the premises such as pallets, tires and cardboard that the Community members say they had collected for use in sustainability projects. No marijuana or other drugs were found on site and the inhabitants of the premises were all unarmed.

After several hours and many requests from the community members, the City Police Officers finally produced two warrants. The first was a Search Warrant for a suspected marijuana growth and distribution operation purportedly being concealed on the premises. There was also an Inspection & Abatement Warrant for code compliance violations such as tall grass and storage in the yard, an issue that the City of Arlington and The Garden of Eden have been disputing since February of this year. The marijuana warrant was issued based on an unsubstantiated claim by an Arlington City Police Officer of possession of marijuana by one of the community members for which there is no police record. Garden of Eden community members also say they have a series of documents showing that their dispute with the City of Arlington over the code compliance violations had already been addressed and settled.

Landowner Shellie Smith states that she has been requesting a peaceful and honorable resolution since the onset of the dispute in February, requesting the aid of the City Manager Trey Yelverton, Sheriff Dee Anderson and Mayor Robert Cluck, but has received no response in the matter. Ms. Smith says “the City codes are in violation of our natural and Constitutional rights to live freely while causing damage to no one, and since there is no damaged party, there has been no crime committed on our part. Rather, the City of Arlington has trespassed and committed robbery against us, amongst other crimes, and will be held accountable in a court of law in due time. We have been targeted by the system because we are showing people how to live without it. We are growing more than just tomatoes here, we are growing the consciousness that will allow people to live freely and sustainably, and the system doesn’t want that to be known.”

Source: The Garden of Eden

Link

Illegal Strain Of Monsanto’s Gentically Modified Wheat Found On Oregon Farm

Genetically modified wheat that was never approved for sale has inexplicably turned up in a field in Oregon. A farmer found the crop when it survived a dousing of Roundup weedkiller. When he took it to a lab to be tested, the wheat was revealed to be an illegal strain, genetically modified to resist pesticides by Monsanto, the biotech corporation that owns the patents to most of the staple crops in the country.

Monsanto tested the genetically modified (GM) wheat in 16 states from 1998 to 2005, but dropped the project because many countries refused to accept genetically altered strains. It is unclear if any of the wheat made it into grain shipments to other countries. Though there is no compelling evidence that GM wheat is dangerous, any contamination could mean American wheat exports will be rejected.

Link

FDA ’s Secret War on Raw Milk and Organic Farming

When Michael Bloomberg started his anti-soda campaign in September 2012, there was an outrage. He cited the “obesity epidemic,” and the “statistic” that 2013 would be the first year that more people died from overeating than from hunger. The “big gulp ban,” which prohibited the sale of sodas more than 16 ounces in size, was struck down by the New York Supreme Court in July 2013 because of a violation of the city’s separation of powers doctrine.

Raw Milk

Many people celebrated a victory for liberty in what seemed like an obvious issue. Soda may be unhealthy, but the government doesn’t have the right to dictate what people choose to consume. The government already does this nationwide though, and some of the strongest regulations involve products with tangible health benefits, like unpasteurized, or “raw,” milk.

The FDA controls the sale and consumption of raw milk because they claim that it poses a threat of foodborne illness. It can contain salmonella, lysteria and e-coli, much the same way that unpasteurized eggs, raw meat and even raw vegetables can, and which in all likelihood are a result of the commercial process rather than the milk itself.

Many people, however, believe that raw milk is significantly healthier and better tasting than milk processed according to FDA regulations. Pasteurized milk is heated, usually at extremely high temperatures, and then homogenized, which prevents the formation of a cream layer. This process destroys many valuable enzymes and vitamins, changes the taste and reduces culinary possibilities.

On the federal level, the sale of raw milk is forbidden across state lines, and most states have stringent restrictions, including 19 which have banned sales completely and an additional 14 which ban sales outside of the farm on which the milk was produced.

Recently, the FDA has also been involved in multiple lawsuits and controversial cases regarding raw milk. Earlier this year, one lawsuit was filed and another dismissed against the FDA regarding its regulations. The first, by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, involved 100 gallons of milk which were embargoed and forced to be destroyed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture in 2010, but which the plaintiff argued was actually enforced by a present FDA agent instead of the state government. The case ruling established that the FDA would not take action against consumers who purchased raw milk, instead focusing their effort on farmers and distributors.

The second lawsuit took place in California, and involves Organic Pastures Dairy Company, which petitioned for the right to sell across state lines four years ago. The company’s goal is to force the FDA to take final action on the petition, which it should have decided on in 180 days. Both Arizona and California allow raw milk sales, but the Fresno-based company cannot sell its product to the Arizona-based Sprouts grocery stores because of the federal law.

Stories of FDA crackdowns on raw milk dairies, distributors and clubs have emerged across the country. Some people have bought shares in cows to get around regulations, because the government does not prevent people from drinking the milk produced by their own cows.

This battle is only a small part of a far bigger battle over agricultural freedom which involves everything from commercial drivers’ licenses to the estate tax – which will destroy the family farm – to Senate Bill 510, which makes it illegal to produce food valued over $5000 without submitting it for FDA testing.

Raw milk and agricultural freedom is an issue which goes beyond citizens’ right to decide what they put in their own bodies. The ability to grow one’s own food allows for independence and self-sufficiency, and the destruction of the family farm will make people dependent on centralized food supplies. The fight over raw milk and agricultural freedom is a fundamentally important one to the US.

Link

If you’ll excuse the gimmick, here are four foods that could go missing if the FDA sticks to the current version of its food-safety rules.

1. The local, organic carrots in your kid’s school lunch program. Many farm-to-school programs are facilitated by what the US Department of Agriculture calls food hubs—operations that gather produce from small farmers and sell it, usually to buyers like schools, restaurants, and retailers. …

The new rules imperil food hubs in two ways. The first is through the farms that supply them. The new law’s less-than-$500,000 exemption applies only to farms that sell more than half of their produce directly to consumers. But a growing number of small farms earn a significant amount of their income selling to third-party local enterprises like food hubs and food co-ops—and if revenue from those sources exceeds half of total revenue, these farms would lose their exemption and become subject to costly requirements. NSAC points to the FDA’s owneconomic analysis (see page 27) showing that more than 30,000 “small” and “very small” farms would be subject to regulation. The cost of compliance for these farms, USDA shows, will be 4 percent to 6 percent of total gross sales—enough to knock out half or more of a small operation’s profits, and turn an operation that’s scraping by into one that fails….

…

3. The pickles peddled by your favorite hipster farmer. Small value-added operations—like artisanal pickle and salsa makers—are also endangered by these hazy definitions. Indeed, the proposed rules “treat pickles like a dangerous substance,” NSAC reports. The FDA does not consider fermentation (pickling) or canning to to be “low-risk” activities, and thus operations that engage in them, no matter how small, will be subject to an onerous thing called the Preventative Control Rule—a set of requirements that make sense for a huge factory but not so much for the farm that produces your prized kimchi. The FDA claims such strictures are important because of the specter of botulism, which is indeed a deadly pathogen, but let’s remember that food-borne botulism cases remain vanishingly rare, and its incidence has not risen despite the recent artisanal pickle revival.

4. The local, organic spinach you’re hooked on. For me, perhaps the most galling aspect of the proposed FSMA rules involves compost and manure—the lifeblood of soil fertility on organic farms. Under the USDA’s organic standards for crops that come into contact with the soil, like greens, farmers can apply raw manure to soil as long as it’s at least four monthsprior to crop harvest. Most organic farmers I know apply manure in November and plant their first cash crops in April, harvesting some of them, like salad greens, soon after. That’s a five-to-six-month gap. The FDA’s new rules would push the limit for all farms to nine months, making the fertility programs that drive organic farming essentially illegal….

Link

Urban Agriculture Illegal in Cobourg?

I opened my mailbox this week to find a letter from the Planning Department of the Town of Cobourg. Someone has informed them that we take care of a few chickens on our property. This is correct: We have four lovely hens who provide us with a small supply of organic eggs, and their names are Tina, Ethel, Abigail, and Pam.

The Town argues that since “agricultural use” is not permitted in Residential Areas, and keeping chickens falls under the category of “agricultural use,” it is not legal for us to keep chickens on our property. They have requested that we remove the ladies by August 19, one month from today.

We did our research before deciding to keep backyard hens, and concluded that there was no wording in any of Cobourg’s by-laws that would make it illegal for us to keep chickens on our property. The Planning Department seems to argue otherwise, however.

It was not clear from the letter that someone actually filed a complaint about our chickens; perhaps that is implied. However, our chickens are nestled far away from any of our neighbours’ homes, and are significantly quieter than most of the dogs, children, and daily lawnmowers in our neighbourhood. Their coop and hen-house are solidly built, attractive and inconspicuous, and well sealed, based on plans from The Garden Coop in Portland, OR.

By extension of the logic used in this letter, it would follow that all activities defined under “agricultural use” (defined here, page 5, section 3.3) are illegal in Residential Areas. This includes producing vegetables for sale. Effectively, by asking us to remove our chickens, the Planning Department is setting a precedent that urban market gardens, such as our business, are illegal and unwanted in Cobourg’s Residential Areas.

Ironically, this letter arrives not a day after Laire and I received an enthusiastic reception at the Rotary Club of Northumberland Sunrise for our talk on urban farming and our efforts in introducing urban agriculture to Cobourg. Surely we have some local Rotarians on our side.

Our chickens play an important role on the farm:

They help to convert our garden waste into rich compost much more quickly than a compost pile would. This rich fertilizer is composted, and eventually serves to enrich our soils and keep them healthy and productive.
They are remarkably good at keeping the invasive dog-strangling vine at bay, which is a major problem on our property and throughout Northumberland County.
They provide an education about responsible husbandry and simply a better sense of where our food comes from to our visitors, and are especially loved by children who rarely, if ever, have the opportunity to visit a farm.

Of course, we also keep chickens for the beautiful and delicious multicoloured eggs they lay, as well as the entertainment they provide as our pets. But the value of the experience and knowledge we are gaining as farmers raising a small flock responsibly in an urban setting is second to none.

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Genetically Modified Democracy: Monsanto and Congress Move to Stomp on States' Rights

By Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association, May 16, 2013

Reliable sources in Washington D.C. have informed the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) that Monsanto has begun secretly lobbying its Congressional allies to attach one or more “Monsanto Riders” or amendments to the 2013 Farm Bill that would preempt or prohibit states from requiring labels on genetically engineered (GE) foods.

In response to this blatant violation of states’ rights to legislate, and consumers’ right to know, the OCA and a nationwide alliance have launched a petition to put every member of Congress on notice: If you support any Farm Bill amendment that would nullify states’ rights to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we’ll vote – or throw – you out of office.

On Wednesday, May 15, an amendment to the House version of the Farm Bill, inserted under the guise of protecting interstate commerce, passed out of the House Agricultural Committee. If the King Amendment makes it into the final Farm Bill, it would take away states’ rights to pass laws governing the production or manufacture of any agricultural product, including food and animals raised for food, that is involved in interstate commerce. The amendment was proposed by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), largely in response to a California law stating that by 2015, California will allow only eggs to be sold from hens housed in cages specified by California. But policy analysts emphasize that the amendment, broadly and ambiguously written, could be used to prohibit or preempt any state GMO labeling or food safety law.

Will the King Amendment survive the Senate? No one can be sure, say analysts. However few doubt that Monsanto will give up. We can expect that more amendments and riders will be introduced into the Farm Bill--even if the King Amendment fails—over the next month in an attempt to stop the wave of state GMO labeling laws and initiatives moving forward in states like Washington, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut and others.

Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) have admitted privately that they’ve “lost the battle” to stop GE food labeling at the state level, now that states are aggressively moving forward on labeling laws. On May 14, Maine’s House Ag Committee passed a GMO labeling law. On May 10, the Vermont House passed a labeling bill, 99-42, despite massive lobbying by Monsanto and threats to sue the state. And though Monsanto won a razor-thin victory (51 percent to 49 percent) in a costly, hard fought California GMO labeling ballot initiative last November, biotech and Big Food now realize that Washington State voters will likely pass I-522, an upcoming ballot initiative to label GE foods, on November 5.

If Monsanto can’t stop states from passing laws, then the next step is a national preemptive measure. And all signs point to just such a power grab. Earlier this year, Monsanto slipped its extremely unpopular “Monsanto Protection Act,” an act that gives biotech immunity from federal prosecution for planting illegally approved GE crops, into the 2013 Federal Appropriations Bill. During the June 2012 Farm Bill debate, 73 U.S. Senators voted against the right of states to pass mandatory GE food labeling laws. Emboldened by these votes, and now the House Ag Committee’s vote on the King Amendment, Monsanto has every reason to believe Congress would support a potential nullification of states’ rights to label.

The million-strong OCA and its allies in the organic and natural health movement are warning incumbent Senators and House members, Democrats and Republicans alike, that thousands of health and environmental-minded constituents in their Congressional districts or states will work to recall them or drive them out of office if they fail to heed the will of the people and to respect the time-honored traditions of shared state sovereignty over food labels, food safety laws, and consumers’ right to know.

Trouble in Monsanto Nation.
Over the past 20 years Monsanto and the biotech industry, aided and abetted by indentured politicians and corporate agribusiness, have begun seizing control over the global food and farming system, including the legislative, patent, trade, judicial and regulatory bodies that are supposed to safeguard the public interest.

In the U.S., despite mounting evidence of the damage GE crops inflict on human health and the environment, approximately 170 million acres of GE crops, including corn, soybeans, cotton, canola, sugar beets, alfalfa, papaya, and squash, are currently under cultivation. These crops, untested and unlabeled, comprise 41 percent of all cultivated cropland, or 17 percent of all cropland and pastureland combined. According to the GMA, at least 70 percent of non-organic grocery store processed foods contain GMOs. And GE grains and mill byproducts now supply the overwhelming majority of animal feed on the factory farms that supply 90 percent to 95 percent of the meat, eggs and dairy products that Americans consume.

Yet despite their marketplace dominance, record profits and enormous political clout in Washington D.C., Monsanto and the biotech industry are in deep trouble. Evidence is mounting that Monsanto’s top-selling herbicide, Roundup, is a deadly poison, destroying important human gut bacteria and likely contributing to the rapid increase of food allergies and serious human diseases including cancer, autism, neurological disorders , Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), dementia, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Those most susceptible to poisoning by Monsanto’s Roundup are children and the elderly.

Scientists aren’t the only ones raising new questions about Roundup. Farmers are complaining that they’re being forced to spray more and more chemicals on crops increasingly under siege from a growing army of herbicide-resistant weeds. The situation is so bad that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just raised the limits of Roundup residue allowed on grains and vegetables to even more dangerous levels. But just in case the EPA someday stops raising the limits, Monsanto, Dow and the biotech industry are working on a new “solution” to the onslaught of herbicide-resistant Superweeds: They’ve applied for approval of a new and highly controversial generation of super toxic herbicide-resistant GE crops, including “Agent Orange” (2,4-D and dicamba-resistant) corn, soybeans and cotton.

As a recent widely-circulated article points out,

“The use of 2,4-D is not new; it’s actually one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. What is new is that farmers will now ‘carpet bomb’ staple food crops like soy and corn with this chemical at a previously unprecedented scale—just the way glyphosate has been indiscriminately applied as a result of Roundup Ready crops. In fact, if 2,4-D resistant crops receive approval and eventually come to replace Monsanto's failing Roundup-resistant crops as Dow intends, it is likely that billions of pounds will be needed, on top of the already insane levels of Roundup being used (1.6 billion lbs were used in 2007 in the US alone).”

In addition to these Agent Orange crops, an expanded menu of genetically engineered organisms are awaiting approval. Next on the menu? GE apples, trees, and salmon.

State Labeling Laws: The ‘skull and crossbones’ that terrify Monsanto
Monsanto’s greatest fear isn’t a federal government charged with protecting the health and safety of its citizens. Congress and the White House seem only too happy to oblige the biotech industry’s unquenchable thirst for growth, power and dominance. No, it’s the massive, unstoppable (so far) grassroots movement of Millions Against Monsanto that strikes fear in the heart of the Biotech Bully. U.S. citizens are waking up. They’re demanding labels on genetically engineered foods, similar to those already required in the European Union. They’re calling for serious independent safety-testing of GE crops and animals, both those already approved (especially Monsanto’s Roundup-resistant crops) and those awaiting approval.

The anti-GMO movement has finally figured out, after 20 years of fruitlessly lobbying Congress, the FDA and the White House, that the federal government is not going to require labels on GE foods. Instead the movement has shifted the battleground on GMO labeling from Monsanto and Big Food’s turf in Washington D.C. to the more favorable terrain of state ballot initiatives and state legislative action—publicizing the fact that a state GMO labeling law will have the same marketplace impact as a national labeling law.

State laws spell doom for Monsanto. Companies like Kellogg’s, General Mills, Coca-Cola, Pepsi/Frito-Lay, Dean Foods, Unilever, Con-Agra, Safeway, Wal-Mart and Smuckers are not going to label in just one or two states. Monsanto knows that U.S. food companies will go GMO-free in the entire U.S., rather than admit to consumers that their products contain GMOs.

As Monsanto itself has pointed out, labels on genetically engineered foods are like putting a “skull and crossbones” on food packages. This is why Monsanto and their allies poured $46 million into defeating a California ballot initiative last year that would have required labels on GMO foods. This is why Monsanto has lobbied strenuously in 30 states this year to prevent, or at least delay, state mandatory labeling laws from being passed. This is why Monsanto has threatened to file federal lawsuits against Vermont, Connecticut, Maine and Washington if they dare grant citizens the right to know whether or not their food has been genetically engineered or not.

And this is why Monsanto’s minions are trying to insert amendments or riders into the Farm Bill that will make it nearly impossible, even illegal, for states to pass GMO labeling laws. And there’s nothing to stop them when Congress is filled with pro-biotech cheerleaders who could care less that 90 percent of U.S. consumers want mandatory labels and proper safety testing of genetically engineered crops and foods.

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Life in the Rural Police State of Monsanto
Wednesday, 19 June 2013 09:08 By Richard Schiffman, Truthout | News Analysis

There has been mixed news for the agrochemical giant Monsanto recently. On the one hand, there was the surprise announcement on June 1 by company spokesman Brandon Mitchener: "We are no longer working on lobbying for more cultivation in Europe... Currently we do not plan to apply for the approval of new genetically modified crops."

The embattled corporation has decided to stop tilting against the windmill of European resistance to its controversial biotech seeds. Eight EU nations have already prohibited GM (genetically modified) cultivation on their territory and banned the import of genetically modified foods from abroad.

But Monsanto's prospects in the United States took a very different turn last month when the US Supreme Court ordered Indiana farmer Vernon Bowman to pay Monsanto over $80,000 for planting its GM soybean seeds. Bowman had purchased the seeds from a grain elevator rather than from Monsanto itself, as their corporate contract requires. The seeds had been saved from an earlier crop.

For as long as humans have been growing food, farmers have saved seeds from their harvest to sow the following year. But Monsanto and other big seed companies have changed the rules of the game. They have successfully argued that they spend millions of dollars developing new crop varieties and that these products should be treated as proprietary inventions with full patent protection. Just as one can't legally reproduce a CD or DVD, farmers are now prohibited from copying the GM seeds that they purchase from companies like Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and Syngenta.

In one sense, these corporations no longer sell seeds - they lease them, requiring farmers to renew their lease with every subsequent growing season. Monsanto itself compares its GM seeds to rental cars. When you are finished using them, rights revert to the owner of the "intellectual property" contained within the seed.

Some farmers have saved their seeds anyway (called "brown bagging"), in some cases to save money, in others because they don't like the big companies telling them how to farm. Monsanto has responded with an all-out effort to track down the brown baggers and prosecute them as an example to others who might be tempted to violate its patent. By aggressively enforcing its "no replant policy," Monsanto has initiated a permanent low-grade war against farmers. At the time of this writing, the company had not responded to emailed questions about its seed saving policies.

"I don't know of [another] company that chooses to sue its own customer base," Joseph Mendelson of the Center for Food Safety told Vanity Fair Magazine. "It's a very bizarre business strategy."

Yet the strategy appears to be working. Over 90 percent of the soybeans, corn, canola and cotton grown in the United States are patented genetically modified organisms (commonly known as GMOs). The soybean variety that Bowman planted has proved popular with farmers because it has been modified to survive multiple sprayings by Monsanto's best-selling herbicide Roundup, whose active agent is glyphosate. While Monsanto claims that GMOs increase crop yields, there is little evidence that this is the case. The chemical giant turned seed company also claims that the new technology decreases the need for agrochemicals. Yet 85 percent of all GM crops are bred to be herbicide resistant, which has meant that pesticide use is increasing as a result of the spread of GM crops. What GMOs were designed to do - and indeed accomplish - is create plants that can be grown efficiently in the chemical-intensive large scale monocultures that dominate American agriculture.

But the dominance of GMOs has come at a cost. In addition to the uncertain environmental impacts of the GMOs and the chemicals that are used to grow them as well as the possible negative health impacts of eating genetically modified foods, their production is sowing seeds of conflict in America's rural heartland. Worldwatch Institute says that the GMO regime has initiated a "new era of feudalism," no longer by wealthy landowners, but by powerful multinationals who have consolidated their control over the lives and practices of farmers everywhere.

Like the old feudalism, the new one is backed by the iron fist of the law. Bowman is just one of the untold thousands of farmers who have run afoul of Monsanto's legal department in recent years. You don't even need to be a farmer to be targeted by the multinational. Ask Gary Rinehart.

As reported in 2008 in Vanity Fair, Rinehart was standing behind the counter at the Fair Deal, an old-fashioned country store that he owns in Eagleville, Missouri, when a man strode in and accused him - in front of his customers - of illegally planting patented seeds. "Monsanto is big," the stranger announced. "You can't win. We will get you. You will pay."

It must have seemed like a bad joke to Rinehart, who owns no farmland and doesn't plant seeds. He doesn't even sell them. The shopkeeper told the obnoxious stranger to get the hell out of his store. But it didn't end there. Some weeks later Rinehart was served with court papers from Monsanto which was suing him for sowing second-generation seeds, which it said were produced from Monsanto's genetic stock.

Rinehart fared better than Bowman. He easily won his case against America's largest seed company. Everyone in town - including the judge - knew that Rinehart was not a farmer. Even Monsanto eventually realized that it had targeted the wrong man. But they didn't send him a letter of apology, or offer to pay his lawyer's fees. Rinehart never heard from the company again.

"I don't know how they get away with it," Rinehart told Vanity Fair. "If I tried to do something like that it would be bad news. I felt like I was in another country."

Sadly, Rinehart is hardly alone in feeling like a character in a middle-American Kafka novel. Monsanto boasts one of the largest corporate security operations in the world, with agents working both openly and undercover in rural counties throughout the United States and Canada. Monsanto's investigators show up at front doors, and in some cases in the middle of farmers fields, making accusations, brandishing surveillance photos and demanding to see the farmer's private records or to be handed over their hard drives.

Bill Freese, a science policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety (CFS), told Truthout that these investigators will say things like, "Monsanto knows that you are saving Roundup Ready seeds, and if you don't sign these information-release forms, Monsanto is going to come after you and take your farm or take you for all you're worth."

Of the hundreds of cases that Monsanto pursues every year "the great majority end in out-of-court settlements," Freese said. "Farmers are terrified of standing up to the multinational and losing everything."

The litigious corporation claims that it has transformed the way farming is done and that big changes require tough action. "This is part of the agricultural revolution, and any revolution is painful," Karen Marshall, a spokeswoman for Monsanto in St. Louis told the Washington Post in 1999. "But the technology is good technology."

In the effort to police its "revolution," Monsanto does not limit itself to suing errant farmers. It also monitors farmer's co-ops, silo owners, seed-sellers, virtually anyone who has dealings with their patented seeds. And it employs tactics that may occasionally put it on the wrong side of the law. Iowa corn farmer Scott McAllister told Daily Finance that company investigators broke into his house, tapped his phones and "tailed his vehicles," charges which company spokesman Mica Veihman denied. But McAllister's allegations of Monsanto's extralegal intimidation of farmers is hardly unique.

Debbie Barker with the public interest organization Save Our Seeds alleges in a 2013 report issued jointly by her group and the Center for Food Safety that a Monsanto agent forged the signature of Anthony Parr, an Illinois seed-cleaner, in an effort to convict him of "aiding and abetting" farmers by processing their seeds for replanting.

Seed cleaners like Parr remove chaff and weed seed from harvested seed. Parr said that he was not aware that the seeds he cleaned were Monsanto's. Nevertheless, he racked up over $25,000 in legal fees before even setting foot in a courtroom and, like so many others, reluctantly settled out of court. Parr lost almost 90 percent of his former customers, who were afraid that associating with the hapless seed-cleaner would lead to prosecution against them as well.

Monsanto has spared no expense in its effort to nab patent violators. As early as 2003, the corporation had a department of 75 employees (dubbed "the gene police") with a budget of $10 million for the sole purpose of pursuing farmers for patent infringement, according to the Center for Food Safety/Save Our Seeds report. It has also hired a private investigation firm, McDowell & Associatesin Saint Louis. This investment has produced ample returns over the years. An analysis by the Center for Food Safety used Monsanto's own records to estimate that, as of 2006, farmers had paid the company an estimated $85 to $160 million in out-of-court settlements.

Monsanto's investigatory and prosecutorial efforts are likely even larger today. However, the company no longer publishes this information, and they recently withdrew the data which CFS used to make their estimate from its Internet site. [See page 6 of PDF.]

In its war against "seed pirates," Monsanto employs methods that are better known in law enforcement and military intelligence than in the world of farming. Monsanto analyzes satellite images, USDA planting data and bank records in its effort to track down errant farmers. Freese told Truthout that Monsanto agents sometimes pretend that they are conducting surveys of seed and chemical purchases and impersonate farmers or surveyors. Freese described one incident in Illinois, where a Monsanto investigator bragged that the company routinely hires retired farmers to pose as seed sellers in an effort to nab unsuspecting buyers in sting-type operations. Monsanto also has its own toll-free tip-line (1-800-ROUNDUP) where farmers are invited to inform on their neighbors, as thousands have reportedly already done.

"Instead of helping each other with barn-raisings and equipment sharing," a CFS report states, "those caught saving seed, a practice that is hundreds of years old, were turned into 'spies' against their neighbors, replacing the atmosphere of cooperation with one of distrust and suspicion." Critics accuse the company of fraying the delicate social fabric which holds farming communities together.

Saskatchewan Canola farmer Percy Schmeiser was even more direct when he spoke to The Washington Post in 1999 about what he said farmers in his area called "a reign of terror ... Everyone's looking at each other and asking, 'Did my neighbor say something?'"

In a now legendary incident, Schmeiser's fields were contaminated by seeds from a neighbor's genetically modified Roundup Ready canola plants, which had blown onto his land. When the farmer, who was the subject of the 2009 film "David Versus Monsanto," saved the seeds from these "accidental migrants" for replanting, Monsanto sued him for patent infringement and won the case but received no damages, since the court determined that Schmeiser had gained no economic benefit from the incident. Later Schmeiser countersued Monsanto for "libel, trespass, and contamination of his fields with Roundup Ready Canola." But that case was dismissed.

Schmeiser, who reportedly spent more than $400,000 on legal fees, says he can no longer use his strain of canola, which took him 50 years to develop, because he cannot prove that it doesn't include the Roundup Ready gene.

Organic farmers complain that the drift of pollen and seeds from GMO fields invade their own crops, which is increasingly making it difficult for them to maintain their organic standards.

Thierry Vrain, a former research scientist for Agriculture Canada noted on the Food Revolution Network, "Genetic pollution is so prevalent in North and South America where GM crops are grown that the fields of conventional and organic growers are regularly contaminated with engineered pollen and losing certification.The canola and flax export market from Canada to Europe (hundreds of millions of dollars) were recently lost because of genetic pollution."

This kind of biological pollution has also happened in Mexico, where traditional corn plants (there are 150 unique varieties in the southern state of Oaxaca alone) were discovered to have been contaminated by genes from transgenic "industrial corn" planted in nearby fields.

What effect this cross-pollination will have on the integrity of Mexico's staple crop is not yet known. But multiple studies have confirmed that it has already taken place in regions throughout Mexico. There is also anecdotal evidence of grotesquely deformed native corn plants which contained the genetically modified genes.

A Monsanto brochure boasts, "The good news is that practical experience clearly demonstrates that the coexistence of biotech, conventional and organic systems is not only possible, but it is peacefully occurring around the world."

The reality on the ground, however, tells a different story. Far from peacefully coexisting with other forms of agriculture, the new biotechnology is rapidly swallowing up traditional farming in the United States. GM cultivation, with its economies of scale, is proving the latest nail in the coffin of family farming.

Moreover, a small number of "high performing" GMOs increasingly dominate; fewer varieties of crops are being planted today than ever before. The Big Ag companies claim that they need patent protection to encourage the costly development of new seed varieties, but Freese told Truthout that Monsanto spends more buying up independent seed companies (to the tune of an estimated $960 million a year) than on its research and development budget.

The result of this monopolistic consolidation, according to critics, has been less innovation, rather than more. Not only are the companies spending less on creating new conventional crops, but publicly funded agricultural research and breeding, which for most of the 20th century was the main driver of agricultural development in the US, declined precipitously in recent years, according to a recent study by the American Enterprise Institute. Perhaps worst of all, the creativity which fueled thousands of years of farmer experimentation becomes impossible when growers are prohibited from replanting seeds.

In the past, farmers selected seeds for traits they wanted to develop in their crops such as taste, size, nutrition and suitability to changing local growing conditions. This ongoing process of selection has led to the fabulous diversity of fruits, grains and vegetables which were developed by untold numbers of farmers over the centuries. Nowadays, however, that selection process is increasingly being frozen by a corporate agricultural system which selects for one trait alone - greater profitability.

Monsanto's profits from its burgeoning seed business recently reached an all-time high.However, the bottom line for the people who farm the earth - and for all of us who inhabit it - is proving more difficult to calculate.

But Barker of Save Our Seeds told Truthout that the silver lining in the stormclouds of corporate dominance of agriculture is that farmers are so fed up that they are beginning to take matters into their own hands. "Over the last few years, I see more and more people who are not waiting on their governments to do the right thing," she said. "Instead, they are making change as citizens of the earth in their local communities."

Barker cites as examples the growing transition toward chemical-free farming, the local food movement and the rise of small-scale regional seed banks to preserve agri-diversity. But she says it's vital for people to work politically as well.

"Congress constantly hears from agrichemical corporations," Barker says, "but they don't often hear from farmers." However that is gradually changing as outrage against corporations like Monsanto gets transmuted, in America's agricultural heartland, into the political will to oppose them.

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Land of freedom and liberty...

Now, some people are trying to import these freedoms and liberties into dhesh as well through genetically modified seed companies.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 05 Feb 2014 17:39

Land of Opportunity

Yak has been parked, cup of hot Rooh Afza e- Kuffar inside. Legs de-iced, some feeling restored. OK. Nap time in Ulan Bator.