Illegal GM "Triffid" flax shows up in 16 countries

There has been some effort to investigate the possible connection between GMO crops and Colony Collapse, but there are to date no definitive links. It is like most complex questions posed by an assortment of environmental factors from the immune systems of the bees to and current chemical usage to things far beyond our ability to measure or perhaps even know to ask.

headinthegame....Don't worry Pamela; big govt and the multi-national corporations know what they are doing...you are safe and sound...just go along and get along and don't make anyone in power uncomfortable

Eh, a bit late for that go along stuff now. Once I shifted from fear to outrage the greatest satisfaction has come from afflicting the comfortable, fanning the flames burning for social justice and praying journalism will raise the volume, so our blind leaders might hear something discomforting enough to change They hear best with their cash balances. :~)

Ben...MoonCrow, most of the evidence in CCD points to a new virus, possibly similar to HIV.

Whatever this refers to is a topic that would be of great interest to pursue, please add details and or links to clue me in to what's off my radar but morphing in the virus realm. Do tell, do tell us!!

Pamela, yeah, I know--I was just joking.

I figured sarcasm and laughed, but don't miss the chance to remove any confusion.

I am glad you are at there taking swings at injustices that you see.

Thank you, it is always nice to hear that. :~)

Creepy name, Triffid flax. I really hate GMOs.

The names suit them perfectly and should be the names consumers read on the food labels.

53M5...It is socialist thinkers who believe that we need GM crops so we can feed the entire world cheaply.

Call it by any name you like, but there is no truth to the myth of higher yields or GMO crops feeding the world. The only ones offer GMO as an answer to world hunger and the Biotech PR fronts. It is a lie and anyone who claims otherwise should link to evidence where it has fed more than a balance sheet and shareholders .

Supporters are the cadre of the Biotech Brigade reaping windfall profits by turning food from a Natural wonder to a patented profit center. It strikes me more as corporate fascism, but why quibble over terminology when we agree it is an anti-democratic and comes at a huge cost to our Soverignty and security. It's bad for everyone but Wall Street.

The truth is there is a revolution brewing in this country. But its not tea baggers against liberals. This revolution is poised against Wall Street and the banking industry criminals who have systematically destroyed democracy and in the process nearly bankrupted our country with their greed.

I agree with you blade. When consumers start using their dollars as votes we can create change. Put that money in local and sustainable business hands as opposed to keeping billions on deposit in Citii and Chase or fueling the agribusiness giants. We have the anger and the power, all we need to do is unite those and the results will take care of themselves. Money is power, use yours for change!

What are GMO's?

They are genetically modified organisms aka GE for genetically engineered. They are plant forms that have been altered by blasing genes into their DNA to create traits that make them tolerant to toxic doses of herbicides or able to produce pesticides from within the plant or both.

There are many good overviews of GMOs, but one I like is GM Food: A Guide for the Confused

Rick VT...Much of it being totally harmless health-wise (modifications for higher resistance to blight or other crop diseases)

Please link to a source that shows the resistance to diseases and any evidence that the GM changes have been tested for human health effects, much less deemed harmless or safe to human health.

Pacific Northwest Blogger....Nature already provided us with the solution.

Don't need Monsanto or their pesticides

Not only has Nature been giving us to solutions for Eternity, she's on the spot adapting instantly to subtle changes in each location. Monsanto goes into the lab for years and years, then emerges with a one size fits all monoculture form.

They add chemicals, transportation, marketing and profits on top and think they've outsmarted God. Their claims of helping us work only with Enron accounting of benefits.

Problem is they modify seeds to be pesticide friendly

The most widely cultivated forms are Monsanto Roundup Ready, made to tolerate about ten times the strength of the Roundup or glyphosate weed killer folks spray in their driveways.

These are herbicide tolerant or HT forms. The second most widely used trait is pesticide producing. These plants themselves have pesticide in every fiber. When bugs like a corn boer eat the Bt corn they die by having their stomach lining eaten away.

How much do humans need to swallow before so many stomach linings are being eaten that we have an epidemic we can name acid reflux disease?

The third most popular, but newest and gaining speed is stacked that do both. Yummy, eh?

Absolutely rochart, knowledge is power and we need all of that we can get!

I recall the Canadian farmer who was driven out of business by Monsanto because some GMO pollen blew onto his field and they insisted on penalizing him for growing their crop without having paid for it. Sick, huh?

Percy Schmeiser, whose canola fields were contaminated was one of the farmers in my film that talked about the contamination of his crops. It's a huge problem with Monsanto spending about $10 million a year for private investigators and lawyers to sue farmers. It's horrid.

The Nelson Family is typical of this and the bigger crime is that American news ignores it!

Do you have a link to your film or something about it or a youtube excerpt?

Sure do, Roundup Ready Nation is the name of the film and the site. Within 72 hours of launching the website in 2006, Monsanto, DOW, Competitive Enterprise Institute, US State Department had been to the site. It was kind of freaky for me at the time and I wrote about being tracked by those folks at Newsvine. If you'd like a DVD just email me your address and I'll send one to you.

That will work! :~)

Nan...You guys really know a lot about this, which is so cool.

So glad you're intrigued and excited.

The corn has its own poison that kills pests, and it never occurred to Monsanto to investigate its possible affects upon human beings? [evil] [greedy] [hateful]

My theory is that Monsanto learned with PCB's and Agent Orange that testing for health effects can turn up some nasty details that stop sales. Why not devise a system where they are exempt from testing yet have a Federal notification that passes off their liability too. Pretty slick, eh?

Nan...The affect of GMOs on human beings was never even tested.

Nope and if anone ever challenges you on that, claiming as the biotech BS often does, that the human health effects and studies that were done, you can link them to this optional notification that Monsanto provided to the FDA before introducing the first genetically engineered, Roundup Ready crop. I'll explain and quote the relevant parts below.

Biotechnology Consultation Memorandum of Conference BNF No. 000001 September 19, 1994

Technically Monsanto's Posilac or rBGH bovine growth hormone treatment for dairy cows was the first gmo product. It's engineered with E. coli bacteria; milk is milk my tush!

Anyway this is the first soy fed to Americans and I'll paste the key points about testing. No testing was done by the FDA, everything rests on what Monsanto reported. Nice objectivity, eh?

http://www.fda.gov/Food/Biotechnology/Submissions/ucm161130.htm

This meeting was intended to bring Monsanto's consultation with FDA on the food and feed safety of this product to closure....

Wholesomeness Studies
Monsanto described the results of wholesomeness studies they carried out in rats, chickens, catfish, dairy cattle, and bobwhite quail. On the basis of their consideration of the totality of these studies, Monsanto has concluded that there is no significant difference in the wholesomeness of glyphosate-tolerant and traditional soybean varieties, as expected from their compositional analysis. These data are summarized on page 49 of Monsanto's September 2 submission.

Conclusions
Monsanto has concluded, in essence, that the glyphosate-tolerant soybean variety they have developed is not significantly altered within the meaning of 21 CFR 170.30(f)(2) when compared to soybean varieties with a history of safe use. At this time, based on Monsanto's description of its data and analysis, the agency considers Monsanto's consultation on this product to be complete.

F. Owen Fields, Ph.D.

The damn thing didn't even have an M.D. sign off on it! Consultation indeed; its consumer fraud.

The newly appointed Obama Food Czar, Michael Taylor, was the Monsanto lobbyist at FDA who created a loophole as big as Texas that said if the nutrients and fiber are close to the same, the law will call them "substantial equivalents" and then pretend they're ordinary food.

Voila, no testing required because Monsanto said the nutrients are the same and any differences are ignored, except when patent fees are at stake. They're almost like the food we ate before and all we need is an assurance from the folks who said PCB's were safe. Heck of a plan!