Rand Paul Responds to GMO Debate
June 27, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Commentary
From Rand’s Facebook Page:
I am an opponent of the FDA’s war on natural foods and farmers. I’ve stood up for raw milk, hemp and natural supplements. I fought to take power AWAY from the government on these issues. So while there is evidence we should be concerned about GMOs, we should also be careful not to lose our constitutional perspective simply because the end result is one we may desire. That’s what we fight against. That’s what the statists do. Take a look at a pretty thorough rundown on the recent GMO amendment. There were many more problems with it, including the potential the FDA could have assumed broad new rulemaking authority if this badly written amendment had passed.
Posted on Rand Paul’s Facebook page 6/26/12:
https://www.facebook.com/RandPaul2010
Along with a link to this article: http://iroots.org/2012/06/23/was-rand-paul-right-to-vote-aga…
Transhuman Symbolism in New Sci-Fi Summer Blockbuster “Prometheus”
June 10, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Music/Book/Film/Art
GO TO ORIGINAL HERE
Genetics & Humanity’s Future
April 3, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Sci-Tech
Our ability to create an educated, informed, responsible citizenry will determine whether our collective future is bright or a nightmarish dystopia.
by Tony Cartalucci
April 2, 2012 – Imagine a human cell is like a car – a piece of machinery serving a particular task. Imagine the cell’s genetic instructions like a driver. The machine’s potential is determine as much by its engineering and design as it is by its operator. The same could be said about a human cell and the instructions carried within its DNA.
Our genetic code is what makes us who we are – it determines predispositions that may help or hinder us throughout our lives. And while our ability to reason and invent can help us overcome many of our genetic predispositions, there are many that cannot currently be overcome – or require costly, inadequate solutions to do so.
One such genetic predisposition is hemophilia – a genetic condition that prevents the blood from properly clotting. Such a condition can allow an otherwise minor injury to become potentially life threatening – as no matter how long one waits with hemophilia, they continue to bleed. A series of pharmaceutical treatments have been developed to manage the symptoms of hemophilia and preserve the lives of those with the condition, but until now, little progress has been made in addressing the cause – a fault found within one’s genetic code.
Just as changing or training a deficient driver can exponentially improve the performance of a car, tweaking the genetic code can likewise improve the performance of one’s cells and in turn one’s collective physiology. An example of this being done today comes to us from University College London and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital who have been doing revolutionary work toward curing hemophilia.
The method of “training the driver” in this case comes in the form of identifying the part of genetic code responsible for causing hemophilia and replacing it. A virus is used – replacing its genetic material with a corrected form of human code – to deliver the correction to targeted cells from the patient. When a cell reproduces, human DNA replicates in a process comparable to copying a document – whatever exists in the corrected DNA code is perpetuated with each and every new copy made during cell division.

Image: One method of gene therapy – taking human cells, “editing” them genetically, and reinserting them into the human body where they will replicate and carry out their newly designed functions. (Microsoft Encarta Online Concise Encyclopedia)
In this way a patient with hemophilia can have their symptoms reduced without drugs by addressing the cause of the condition itself, and doing so permanently. A whole host of conditions can be treated using this method – called “gene therapy.”
Video: Another example of gene therapy explained – this time involving damaged liver cells. As our understanding of the human genome advances, digital copies of an individual’s entire genetic code could be stored and used to periodically replace our naturally deteriorating DNA code (aging) curing the most notorious disease of all – aging. Already, scientists led by pioneering biologist Craig Venter have sequenced the human genome and devised basic protocols for designing and synthesizing DNA – described in the next video.
Video: “Craig Venter unveils “synthetic life.” Venter’s team first sequenced the human genome and has now designed and synthesized an artificial lifeform using techniques similar to those described above for gene therapy. The implications of Venter’s work, past, present, and proposed will turn medicine upside down. Now more than ever, scientists like Venter need an informed, intelligent, and responsible citizenry to support him and ensure his work is not perverted for the agenda of a few.
From “gene therapy,” and through projects studying the human genome and how best to apply that knowledge to correcting conditions resulting from both our genetic predispositions as well as conditions resulting from cell division, including cancer and aging, we can revolutionize the field of medicine in ways once resigned only to the plots of science fiction.
But as any science fiction fan might point out, there are both stories of glistening towers amongst idealistic utpoias, and of tangled horrors within a technologically enhanced futuristic dystopia. As with all technology, we are inclined to see and believe only what is beneficial, and to ignore, deny, or wish away its potential abuses. Gene therapy could just as easily be used to reverse the health, vigor, intelligence, will, and vitality of individuals or segments of the population. And just as viruses are used to deliver life-enhancing hemophilia treatments, they can similarly be used to deliver engineered perversions of the human genetic code.
One horrifying scenario was recently discussed in Paul Joseph Watson’s “Real Or Fake? Pentagon Proposal to Lobotomize ‘Terrorists’ Using Virus.” It describes “curing” “religious fundamentalism” by re-engineering the genetic code affecting our neurology in such a way as to make it impossible to harbor intense emotional beliefs. Whether the video included in the article is real or not was discussed, and it was correctly concluded that regardless of its authenticity, it represents an important debate regarding recombinant DNA technology and gene therapy that must be addressed.
There are brilliant scientists working in the revolutionary field of genetics – however even if they were determined to do good it is virtually impossible for them in a system where sociopathic megalomaniacs loom over the levers of power while the general populations exists in a state of apathy, ignorance, and profound immaturity. Where would such a scientist then turn for support if approached to to use his work for the benefit of the global corporate-financier oligarchs instead of for the greater good of humanity? How would he appeal for help amongst a population so profoundly ignorant of basic biology let alone the cutting edge of genetic research?
Indeed, the global oligarchs – their corporations, institutions, and government proxies – demonstratively spend billions annually to manipulate public opinion, manufacture consensus and eliminate opposition to their goals and agendas. It would be supreme naivety to assume they would not attempt to leverage biotechnology the first opportunity they got to enhance their ability to domineer over the will of their fellow man. The more clever amongst us may then be struck by the answer to a confounding riddle that has been highlighted over the last 10 years: Why is a system of global banker-corporate-financier oligarchs so interested in pushing vaccines onto the population for our supposed “health,” when they are just as happy to send millions, even tens of millions to their deaths all over the world in their wars of profit, opportunity, and global domination?
The answer is simple, while the population may or may not have even heard about the word “gene therapy” before quickly diverting their attention back to American Idol or expanding their holdings in “Farmville,” the global elite have known about it for years and have set out to obtain the best method of exploiting it for their agenda. And just as agricultural giants like Monsanto, Cargill, and Bayer are rewriting the genetic code of our crops, livestock, and wildlife, vaccine makers are preparing to likewise rewrite the genetic code of humanity. And just like genetically modified organisms (GMO) are turning up as inefficient perversions of nature, consuming our planet’s ecological heritage, our humanity will likewise be perverted, not enhanced by this depraved agenda.
Read and watch the rest HERE
ALSO SEE:
Monsanto, a half-century of health scandals
The giant U.S. agribusiness Monsanto was found guilty on Monday Feb. 13, after being sued by a small farmer from Charente who had been poisoned by a herbicide. This event is a first in France. On the scale of the history of the one-hundred-year-old multinational, this sentence constitutes just one more episode in an already long record of court procedures.
PCBs, Agent Orange, dioxin, GMO, Aspartame, growth hormones, herbicides (Lasso and Roundup) … a number of products that have made the fortune of Monsanto, have been marred by health scandals and trials sometimes leading to their prohibition. But nothing has so far hindered the irresistible rise of this former chemical giant who converted back to biogenetics and has mastered the art of lobbying. Portrait of a multinational multi-recidivist.
Sorry Bill Gates: GMO Crops Proven to be Ineffective at Fighting World Hunger
March 3, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Sci-Tech
Anthony Gucciardi
Activist Post
Monsanto shareholder Bill Gates has argued that GMOs are the solution to world hunger, going as far as to say that they are actually needed to fight worldwide starvation. Unfortunately for Gates, who back in 2010 bought 500,000 shares of the company he is now promoting in mainstream media as the solution to the world’s problems, a team of 900 scientists have found that GMO crops are actually not effective at fighting world hunger. In fact, the massive team found that Monsanto’s seeds, which have lead to thousands of farmer suicides due to excessive costs and failure to yield crops, were outperformed by traditional “agro-ecological” farming practices.
Funded by the World Bank and United Nations, an organization was created known as the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). Consisting of 900 scientists and researchers, they set out to examine the complex issue of world hunger. While the issue of world hunger may be quite complex, their results were not.
Quite plainly, the group found that genetically modified crops were not a meaningful solution to the problem. In other words, the expert team showed through rigorous analysis and repeated study that the claims made by Bill Gates are completely inaccurate.
Perhaps what is most compelling, though, is the fact that Bill Gates was fully aware of these findings before going on air to inform the public that GMOs are the solution to world hunger.
The same GMOs that have been linked to organ damage, mutated insects, and a host of other issues.
Bill Gates Knew of These Findings Beforehand
The findings of the IAASTD regarding the ineffectiveness of GMO crops were published on April 15, 2008. That is long before Bill Gates’ address to the public in late January of this year. Did Monsanto stockholder Gates ignore this information, or does he believe the 900 scientists to be incorrect?
Perhaps the evidence generated from the expert team is not enough. In that case, then Gates should look no farther than the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Another massive research organization, the Union of Concerned Scientists also examined the true yield of GMO crops, only to find that the altered crops do not produce increased yields over the long run — despite their excessive cost and extreme danger to health and environment. The lack of scientific support behind the GMO crops was so startling to the Union that they documented all the details in a 2009 report entitled ”Failure to Yield.”
GMO crops are not only ineffective at fighting world hunger, but are a genuine threat to public health. Even if they were effective at feeding more individuals than traditional farming practices, would they really want to consume it?
Bill Gates appears to have the interests of massive corporations in mind when perpetuating the myth that GMOs are the answer to fighting starvation.
Explore More:
- Monsanto Investor Bill Gates Says GMO Crops Needed to Fight Starvation
- GMO Crops Continually Banned Around the World in Display of Health Freedom
- How the Bill Gates Foundation is Genetically Manipulating Nature and Devastating Our Health
- Bill Gates Foundation Buys 500,000 Shares of Monsanto
- Bill Gates Foundation Funds Experimental Insect Repellent
- How Biotech Corporations and GMO Crops are Threatening the Environment and Humankind Alike
This article first appeared at Natural Society, an excellent resource for health news and vaccine information.
First ‘test-tube’ hamburger to be produced this year
The world’s first “test-tube” meat, a hamburger made from a cow’s stem cells, will be produced this fall, Dutch scientist Mark Post told a major science conference on Sunday.
Post’s aim is to invent an efficient way to produce skeletal muscle tissue in a laboratory that exactly mimics meat, and eventually replace the entire meat-animal industry.
The ingredients for his first burger are “still in a laboratory phase,” he said, but by fall “we have committed ourselves to make a couple of thousand of small tissues, and then assemble them into a hamburger.”
Willie Nelson Joins Suit Against Agro Giant Monsanto
February 18, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Music/Book/Film/Art
The singer Willie Nelson has joined with 300,000 other activists in a lawsuit against the U.S. agricultural giant Monsanto, citing the company’s practice of suing small farmers whose fields have been contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds. The suit was filed as part of the “Occupy the Food System” campaign protesting the corporate takeover of small farms and the use of harmful pollutants like Monsanto’s “Roundup” herbicide.
Democracy Now! reports today:
Willie Nelson Joins 300,000 Activists in Suit Against Monsanto
Willie Nelson joins a plaintiff group of over 300,000 members in a lawsuit against big-ag giant Monsanto challenging the company’s patents on genetically modified seed.
The singer Willie Nelson has joined with 300,000 other activists in a lawsuit against the U.S. agricultural giant Monsanto, citing the company’s practice of suing small farmers whose fields have been contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds. The suit was filed as part of the “Occupy the Food System” campaign protesting the corporate takeover of small farms and the use of harmful pollutants like Monsanto’s “Roundup” herbicide.
The Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association (OSGATA) explains the lawsuit background on its website:
The case, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto, was filed in federal district court in Manhatten on March 29, 2011, on behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, challenging Monsanto’s patents on genetically modified seed. On June 1, 2011, we amplified our OSGATA v. Monsanto complaint by bringing on an additional 23 Plaintiffs to bring the total to 83. Our plaintiff group now represents over 300,000 members.
As Grist noted last week, the plaintiffs say that “Monsanto wants ultimate and absolute control over everything:”
OSGATA and company finally got their day in court on Jan. 31. Approximately 200 farmers and supporters showed up in front of the Federal District Court in Manhattan for opening arguments. Occupy Wall Street’s food justice working group helped organize the rally, though they are not plaintiffs in the suit. “We’re part of OWS, which is all about corporate consolidation, and you can’t discuss that without addressing agriculture,” says Corbin Laedlein, a member of the working group.
“We want nothing to do with Monsanto. We don’t want their seed. We don’t want their technology. We don’t want their contamination,” says Jim Gerritsen, an organic farmer from Maine and president of OSGATA. The organization originally brought the idea of a suit to the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), a group that wants to change how patent law works in the U.S., and PUBPAT took on the case pro bono. In Gerritsen’s estimation, about 300,000 individuals are involved in the case by proxy of organizations they’re a part of, including most certified organic farmers in the country. Gerritsen calls the dustings of GMO-crop pollen and the occasional seed carried wayward by the wind — a natural atmospheric occurrence found in what is known as the “outdoors” — contamination which not only is unwelcome, but can also could potentially lower the quality and value of organic and other non-GMO crops.
“They are probably the most aggressive patent holder in the U.S.,” Gerritsen adds. According to PUBPAT, between 1997 and April 2010, Monsanto filed 144 lawsuits against farmers for patent infringement, and more than 500 farms are investigated each year.
“The seed that Monsanto doesn’t control, they will control through contamination,” Gerritsen says. “Monsanto wants ultimate and absolute control over everything.”










