GMO's What's Going on, on the Insecticide Part of the Equation?
“As crude a weapon as the cave man's club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life - a fabric on the one hand delicate and destructible, on the other miraculously tough and resilient, and capable of striking back in unexpected ways. These extraordinary capacities of life have been ignored by the practitioners of chemical control who have brought to their task no "high-minded orientation," no humility before the vast forces with which they tamper.”
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Dr. Ray Seidler, former Senior Scientist for the EPA, and David Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps have set the record straight on what is going on with the use of GMO Herbicides & insecticides in our foods.
The picture drawn out by Harvard grad David Bronner and Dr. Ray Seidler is compelling. I listened to the full interview uploaded October 21. I encourage you to listen. As of October 29, There were 147 Page views of this interview as I wrote this. I would like to see 10,000. Help educate about the damage to nature being done by the insecticides.
Props to David Bronner, who some representing the opposing arguments would like to demean by calling him " Wacky." Will the real "Wacky?" Please stand up? For me, the AAAS, the most prodigious science organization in the US, has gone off the mark. In only makes sense that they would refuse to publish the Bronner Ad about insecticides in their magazine called "Science." It was the AAAS that came out for No on 37 less than a few weeks before the Prop 37 vote. The AAAS, I know from first hand experience attending their conference, is clearly primarily in the Biotechnology camp and will call incredulous any other scientific point if view as former AAAS president Nina Federoff did at the recent GE CROP HEARINGS NOW BEING HEARD INWashington. This Prodigious organization, needs to be reclaimed by true science, if science is to be believed at all as a source of truth. Gratefully, I know there are many good people within the organization that are capable of hearing sound science. I suggest that such a panel--telling both sides of the issue of GMOs be welcomed to the AAAS annual conference.
The bottom-line of the interview done October 21, embedded below, is that the use of GMO insecticides are leading to insect resistance as stronger and strong chemicals fail to deliver and harm our food supply. This is a bipartisan issue, and the first steps to sanity are Labeling GMOs.
"Chemical companies have a basic conflict of interest," Dr. Ray Seidler, said in the interview done on the WWGF News program by moderator Kathleen Hallal, Hanging Out on Air. The chemical companies that are producing these inferior products are interested in making a profit, no matter what. That is their bottom-line.
Many of us need to read again Rachel Carson's Book of 1962, :"Silent Spring." that led to the outlawing of DDT. She warned about what is going on now. She said the chemicals would become worthless and where do we go from there?" Where will we attempt to go from here? The chemicals in the farm field, intended to improve growing of food, are killing our pollinators and harming our food supply.
If the words of Dr. Ray Seidler and David Bronner are not enough, by next Spring 2015, Dr. Charles Benbrook, once chief scientists for the Organic Center, will provide even more raw completing data. For now you can look at his report, "Impacts of genetically engineered crops on pesticide use in the U.S. -- the first sixteen years" .
It is a question of getting past the media blockage. We have to make calls. said David Bronner and the moderator of the interview of the WWGF report.
###
6:44 am
October 29, 2014
The Neonicotinoids are the new DDT. What else are we killing through the use of these chemicals, and where do we go from here?
David Bronner's Message that he paid to have published in various magazines
Herbicide and Insecticide Use on GMO Crops Skyrocketing While Pro-GMO Media Run Interference
Posted in the Huffington Post,: 09/15/2014 10:00 am EDT Updated: 09/15/2014 10:00 am EDT
Former EPA Senior Scientist's New Article Sets Record Straight
Michael Specter's recent articles bashing Vandana Shiva and the labeling of genetically engineered foods (Seeds of Doubt and The Problem with G.M.O. Labels, 8/25/14) in the New Yorker are the latest high-profile pro-GMO articles that fail to engage with the fundamental critique of genetically engineered food crops in US soil today: rather than reduce pesticide inputs GMOs are causing them to skyrocket in amount and toxicity.
Setting the record straight, Dr. Ramon J. Seidler, Ph.D., former Senior Scientist, Environmental Protection Agency, has recently published a well-researched article documenting the devastating facts, "Pesticide Use On Genetically Engineered Crops" in Environmental Working Group's online AgMag. Dr. Seidler's article cites and links recent scientific literature and media reports, and should be required reading for all journalists covering GMOs, as well as for citizens generally to understand why their right to know if food is genetically engineered is so important. The short discussion below summarizes the major points of his five-page article.
Over 99% of GMO acreage is engineered by chemical companies to tolerate heavy herbicide (glyphosate) use and/or produce insecticide (Bt) in every cell of every plant over the entire growing season. The result is massive selection pressure that has rapidly created pest resistance--the opposite of integrated pest management where judicious use of chemical controls is applied only as necessary. Predictably, just like overuse of antibiotics in confined factory farms has created resistant "supergerms" leading to animals being overdosed with ever more powerful antibiotics, we now have huge swaths of the country infested with "superweeds" and "superbugs" resistant to glyphosate and Bt, meaning more volume of more toxic pesticides are being applied.
For example, the use of systemic insecticides, which coat GMO corn and soy seeds and are incorporated and expressed inside the entire plant, has skyrocketed in the last ten years. This includes use of neonicotinoids (neonics) which are extremely powerful neurotoxins that contaminate our food and water and destroy non-target pollinators and wildlife such as bees, butterflies and birds. In fact, two neonics in widespread use in the U.S. are currently banned in the EU because of their suspected link to Colony Collapse Disorder in bees.
Mainstream pro-GMO media also fail to discuss the ever-increasing amount of older much more toxic herbicides like 2,4 D and Dicamba being sprayed along with huge volumes of Glyphosate to deal with superweeds. Most importantly and egregiously, this biased reporting does not mention the imminent approval of the pesticide industry's next generation herbicide-tolerant crops that are resistant not only to glyphosate, but also high doses of 2,4 D and Dicamba, that will lead to huge increases of these toxic chemicals sprayed on our food and farming communities.
USDA and EPA are in the process of rubber-stamping these into our farming communities (and unlabeled onto our dinner plates) this fall, yet pro-GMO media consistently fail to discuss their imminent approval even as the lower-toxicity profile of Glyphosate is touted. Such reporting gives a pass to the chemical pesticide industry that pours millions into lobbying government and media elites and defeating voter ballot initiatives to require labeling of GMO foods.
Hopefully Dr. Seidler's article will be widely read and disseminated, so reporters can learn the facts and check their biases against industry-fed distortions. Citizens and consumers need to hear the fundamental concern that GMOs are doubling down on, not freeing us from, the pesticide treadmill that contaminates our food and water while lining the pockets of the chemical companies that make both the GMOs and the pesticides used on them.
David Bronner is President of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, the top-selling brand of natural soaps in North America. He graduated with a degree in Biology from Harvard University in 1995. A leader in the fight to label GMO foods in the U.S., David dedicates resources to different issues on behalf of the company's mission to make products of the highest quality, and to use profits thereof to help make a better world.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-bronner/herbicide-insecticide-use_b_5791304.html
PLEASE WATCH THIS INTERVIEW:
DR. RAMON J SEIDLER, FORMER EPA SENIOR SCIENTIST & DAVID BRONNER BLOW THE WHISTLE OF TRUTH ON WHAT IS GOING ON WITH GMO INSECTICIDES
This came out October 21, 2014
MY NOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW BY KATHLEEN HALLAL ON WWGF NEWS OCTOBER 20, 2014
"We are on a pesticide treadmill." from the interview.
The Health conditions in our children are mounting, says the moderator of this extensive interview says Hallal, the cofounder of Mom's Across America with Zen Honeycutt.
Reasonable people need to step forward, she says. We need to consume fewer chemicals. The level of chemicals in our food is going up.
"It's time to get on the right side of history." comment in the interview.
"EPA makes their decisions on a cost-risk basis….they look at the benefits and the risks….They decided to take the risks.:
The impression is that the EPA would not approve it if it was not dangerous. This is not the case….from the interview…
David Bronner surmises in this interview why Big Food is fighting us so hard? "There eyes May be on synthetic biology." For Big Food, they are looking to make foods from chemicals.
"They want to make all their ingredients from a lab."
The sugar companies hate Labeling worse they they hate Ebola--the moderator of this interview said.
OTHER LINKS TO STUDY
THE WHITE PAPERS BY DR. RAMON J SEIDLER & DAVID BRONNER ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP SITE
America is awash in pesticides that not only contaminate our food and water but also increase our body burden and pose significant risks to the nervous and endocrine systems of developing infants and children. (See EPA’s Pesticides: Health and Safety website, Protecting Children from Pesticide Exposure). The pesticide treadmill and chemical cocktails saturating the environment are getting worse, not better, as a result of increased planting of crops genetically engineered to produce insecticide and/or survive heavy herbicide use. Scientists emphasize that extensive application of toxins to farm soils is an unsustainable practice and must be changed to include more agro-ecological practices if we expect to feed future generations. (See “The Healthy Farm: A Vision for U.S. Agriculture”, unlon of Concerned Scientists.)
http://static.ewg.org/agmag/pdfs/pesticide_use_on_genetically_engineered_crops.pdf
PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM PESICIDE EXPOSURE
http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/health/children.htm
DR BRONNERS PRESS RELEASE ON ON INSECTICIDES AND RELATED ISSUES
https://www.drbronner.com/media-center/united-states/press-releases/dr-bronners-places-major-ad-buy-to-present-clear-evidence-from-former-epa-senior-scientist-of-skyrocketing-herbicide-and-insecticide-use-on-gmo-crops/
Is there any wonder that Science Magazine, published by the AAAS, rejected the Dr Bronner ad?
Here is the beginning of the statement against Labeling GMOs that came out a couple weeks before the Prop 37 vote on October 20, 2012:
Foods containing ingredients from genetically modified (GM) crops pose no greater risk than the same foods made from crops modified by conventional plant breeding techniques, the AAAS Board of Directors has concluded. Legally mandating labels on GM foods could therefore “mislead and falsely alarm consumers,” the Board said in a statement approved 20 October.
http://www.aaas.org/news/aaas-board-directors-legally-mandating-gm-food-labels-could-“mislead-and-falsely-alarm
This is Michelle Simon's Take on AAAS Coming out against Prop 37
This is from a Plant Your Dream Blog Post
Science, Ethics and Food: Reflections on Prop 37, on the eve of the election…
So the question remains: Why this position right now? Why would such a mainstream scientific organization stick its neck out on a highly controversial issue just days before the election? And how we can trust any future AAAS statements to be based on science, instead of what this looks like: A carefully-orchestrated political and public relations maneuver that puts the AAAS motto to shame: “Advancing science, serving society.” The only interests this charade serves are those of the biotech, chemical, and junk food industries.
Serving Science or Monsanto?
Posted on October 29, 2012 by Michele Simon
Lots of intelligent comments go with this article for those interested.
http://www.appetiteforprofit.com/2012/10/29/serving-science-or-monsanto/
HEADS UP! A REPORT ON GE CROPS IS COMING!
NEXT WEBINAR NOVEMBER 6
REPORT ON GE CROPS IS COMING
SUGGEST AN EXPERT FOR LATER EVENTS!
http://nas-sites.org/ge-crops/2014/06/15/provide-comments/
USDA INCLUDES SOME CRITICAL COMMENTS IN THEIR REPORT ON GE CROPS
This was a report from Feb 2014. A more detailed Report is forthcoming.
You can give input on that one.
http://sustainablepulse.com/2014/02/24/new-usda-gm-crop-report-includes-surprise-criticisms/#.VFEWKUvEauc
CLASSIC ARTICLE ON HOW GE BIOTECHNOLOGY CAME INTO BEING
A must read from Claire Hope Cummins, this article called "Trespass" shares the story of Ignacio Chapela who discovered GMO contamination, was published in Nature Magazine, and then ran into all kinds of static from the Biotech industry that was supporting Biotech work at Berkeley, his university.
I met this Pure Food and Seed Freedom hero at the recent National Heirloom Expo.
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/568
PLACES TO POST
https://twitter.com/GMOFreeNews
https://twitter.com/david_bronner
@drbronner @mintwoodmedia #LabelGMOs #GMO @david_bronner
https://www.facebook.com/ScienceMagazine
DEDICATION
To the Muckraker, Aldred Watterson McCann, a great journalist for Food Reform who lived near 100 years ago. I seek to have the strength and courage to follow in his footsteps.
"To attack science, the calm, the immutable, the exact, is one thing — the work of a fanatic or an irrational being. To attack an abuse of men claiming to represent science is not only a privilege but a duty, and he who shirks it through fear of criticism or through dread of precipitating a controversy in which he himself may lose prestige is no lover of truth. Rather does he love comfort more."
--Alfred Watterson McCann, The Author
of "The Science of Eating' (1918, 1919)
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF THIS PLANT YOUR DREAM BLOG
CONTAINED THIS REQUEST
The Beat comes on! We will gain GMO Labeling one way or another.
This was content I had on the original version of this Plant Your Dream Blog. The Labeling efforts in Oregon and Colorado did not pass. My Seed Dream is that GMOs will pass out of our lives entirely.
ACTION STEP FOR NOVEMBER 4 ELECTIONS IN THE US
Our choice now is for all reasonable people to get on the phone and help make calls into Oregon and Colorado. We can win GMO Labeling in Oregon and Colorado, and yet no matter what, the truth will come out, state by state. The first Label GMO Initative, that began in California as Prop 37, has continued to other states. The latest opportunity to educate is now in Oregon and Colorado, where both states that have Label GMO propositions on the ballot November 4, 2014.
A Message to all Pure Food Seed Freedom Heroes and Heroines, and those on Humanity's Team!
PURE FOOD AND SEED FREEDOM HEROES FACEBOOK ALBUM
TO VOLUNTEER TO HELP MAKE PHONE CALLS INTO IN OREGON IN SUPPORT OF PROP 52, YES ON THE RIGHT TO KNOW
http://oregonrighttoknow.ngpvanhost.com/form/-4011010330964195584?ms=site
COLORADO RIGHT TO KNOW…YES ON PROP 105
http://www.righttoknowcolorado.org
OREGON FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTONS
http://oregonrighttoknow.org/faq/
PAGE VIEWS
Date: 10/30/2014 8:47 AM ( 26 h ) ... viewed 193 times
DR. RAMON J SEIDLER, FORMER EPA SENIOR SCIENTIST & DAVID BRONNER BLOW THE WHISTLE OF TRUTH ON WHAT IS GOING ON WITH GMO INSECTICIDES
THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF THIS PLANT YOUR DREAM BLOG
CONTAINED THIS REQUEST