Food Inc.

[maxx]

This doc was shown on POV on Ch. 56 last Sunday. It's the most chilling horror movie you'll ever watch because it's about the food we eat. The two parts that really impressed me were the ones about the meat packing industry and Monsanto.
The first had pictures of sick cows being nudged with hi-los to the slaughterhouse. They explained how feeding cows corn has led to a very dangerous strain on e. coli which has led to a whole new industry. Instead of making smaller feeder lots which could be kept clean, the food industry has devised an ammonia bath with which it treats beef creating a beef filler.
I also was not aware that the veggie libel laws are very prevalent out west. It is against the law to disparage a food which might lead to loss of profits. Oprah won her case against the beef industry, but it cost her $1 million.

The part about Monsanto showed how it has taken over most of the seed industry.

[Diehard]

I remember that making the rounds in the theaters last summer and people saying that once you see it, you'll never want to eat anything you haven't grown yourself again.

[oladub]

The part about Monsanto showed how it has taken over most of the seed industry.

"Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack has been appointed Secretary of Agriculture while Michael Taylor, a former chief lobbyist for Monsanto, is a new senior adviser for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [[FDA).

Vilsack has long been a supporter of GM crops and factory farming. Taylor is the Deputy Commissioner for Foods and is in charge of policy for food safety for the FDA. Both are key positions of power over America's food supply." http://www.naturalnews.com/028459_GMO_agriculture.html

Six Reasons Why Obama Appointing Monsanto's Buddy, Former Iowa Governor Vilsack, for USDA Head is a Terrible Idea

[sumas]

I saw the documentary not to long ago and it was chilling. The Tyson company is the main thing that stands out in my mind. To grow chickens in the dark in mass coops was disgusting.

I eat meat sparingly but eat even less now.

The seed controllers are scary too!

The documentary is definitely "food for thought"!

[Danny]

Monsanto has done most of its monopolizing over the U.S. farming agriculture during the past 50 years. The scheming company has developed a G.M.O. soybean product that is patented just in case if any other independent farmers tried to use or cross pollinate it to their fields.

The G.M.O. soybean product has the pontential to not only grow faster than regular soybean, but also cross pollinate to other fields. Monsanto warned independent farmers not to seize, cross pollinate or use the G.M.O. soybeans or face tremendous lawsuits. For years lots of independent farmers faced Monsanto and lost. The result of the case is independent farmers lost their businesses. You all have seen lots of abandoned independent farmlands when driving through interstate highways during the late 1950s to the present. Today most independent farmers and their farmland represent about 2% of the U.S. Agriculture and soon they will be extict by the year 2100. Corporate Farming in the United States and plutomonic free enterprise globalization is the norm and we human beings will eat their garbage, get fat to the max, vomit and poop it out to the toilet.


WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

You all want Soylent Green?

In Memoriam: Neda Soltani

[Det_ard]

You cannot resist the mesquite-smoked ribs.

[Jimaz]

Attachment 5876

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[old guy]

I couldn't even believe the controlling of the seed market was true. I did some research about it and I guess I was wrong. That's beyond scary.

[Bella]

I couldn't even believe the controlling of the seed market was true. I did some research about it and I guess I was wrong. That's beyond scary.

There is quite a bit of info here
http://mydeathspace.com/smf/index.php?topic=15032.0

[Islandman]

Haven't seen this yet, but I have been reading about GMOs and the control of seeds worldwide in gardening magazines. Really interesting articles. One factoid I read in Urban Garderner was that @200,000 farmers in India have committed suicide due to bankruptcy after losing entire crops. These farmers were forced to use GMO seeds.

The science community has also been held at bay when it comes to testing. Some testing has been done that has shown evidence of organ damage in rats and other animals. Whenever the results start looking unfavorable to GMO seeds, research funding is cut, requests for more seeds are denied, the scientists are vilified professionally, etc.

It is amazing to me how any company can claim ownership of a seed!

[maxx]

http://truefoodnow.org/?CFID=23564164&CFTOKEN=43443287

High Court Hears Arguments In First-ever Case on Genetically Engineered Crops. States, Scientists, Organic and Conventional Farmers, Food Companies, Exporters, and Legal Scholars File Briefs in Support, Oppose Monsanto Today the Center for Food Safety [[CFS) faces off against Monsanto in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of farmers and public interest environmental organizations. Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, 09-475 [[you can read the .pdf transcripts of the oral argument here) is the first case involving genetically engineered crops that has ever been heard by the Supreme Court.
All the lower courts agreed that the planting of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa must be stopped because the U.S. Department of Agriculture [[USDA) had failed to analyze the crop’s impacts on farmers and the environment. Although it remains undisputed that USDA violated environmental laws, and that it must rigorously analyze the genetically engineered crop’s impacts before deciding whether or not to approve it for sale, Monsanto is arguing that the lower courts should have allowed the planting of the illegal crop to go forward in the interim.


Anyone with any extra money lying about, The Center for Food Safety could use it.

[maxx]

TO oladub:
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-09...santo-organic/

"Last winter, the administration tapped Kathleen Merrigan as deputy USDA secretary. This is traditionally a powerful position within the agency; under Bush, a paid-up industrial corn man held the post. Merrigan has pristine credentials as an organic advocate--and from the whispers I've heard, has been pushing that agenda within USDA. I'm told she's met with many prominent sustainable-ag advocates--folks who were completely frozen out by the Bush USDA. The latest: On Twitter, Michel Dimock of California's Roots of Change recently announced he has "4 mtngs w/ USDA nxt 2 days." That sort of access simply wasn't available at Bush's USDA..."

AS long as candidates depend on big money for elections, no head of any party is going to cut off all contributions from a huge corp. like Monsanto. The answer is to get more progressives on the SCOTUS.

[oladub]

maxx, Your first link and 'industrial corn man' link emphasized the Monsanto forces within the administration as did my 4/27 links to Secretary of State Vilsack. I'm glad to at least see Kathleen Merrigan on staff to run counter to Obama's chem-ag staff; sort of like keeping Volker around to offset Obama's economic clown posse.

Of course your answer to President's inability to provide the hope and change he promised is to hire some judges who will throttle free speech. Economist Friedrich Hayak noted back in the 40's that planners needed to muffle contrary voices to make their planning have better perceived outcomes.

I would take it back a step further and ask why the federal government was so involved in agriculture. The bulk of federal involvement under either Democrats or Republicans has been to favor big money interests over traditional family farmers. Even Roosevelt's depression efforts to provide water in California to farms of less than 40 acres in California have been overturned by judges and the water now goes to millionaires like the Pelosis who can take advantage of tax laws.

I live in a place where I have watched family farms, meat lockers, and small cheese factories destroyed over the last couple of decades by layer upon layer of government rules and regulations, tax laws, and, most recently, Homeland Security paperwork. It all hurts the small farmers while helping the ag corporations. I support some food safety and ecological regulations but the layers and layers of government are killing aspects of rural America. If you are in the city, all of this will mean unhealthier, less tasty food like the tomatoes at Wal-mart.

Anyone out there who might be interested in something a little different from all the govcorp ag, take a look at this page from Organic Valley. Go down to the bottom of the page for all the topics. It is owned by its farmers who receive about twice as much for their products as other farmers although they have to produce without chemicals. Organic valley products are available all over the US. They cost more than chem foods but it's your body. Don't wait for the government to get rid of GMO's and the chemicals it's policies encourage. Go to farmers' markets, buy organic, grow your own.

[maxx]

oladub: Of course your answer to President's inability to provide the hope and change he promised is to hire some judges who will throttle free speech.

maxx: The question of whether money contributions is free speech should be revisited especially in light of the danger that decision poses to our democracy. Everyone's freedom of speech in the U.S. is limited by the "clear and present danger" standard.
I won't argue with you about the ag business. Hopefully, the interest in organic food will spread and bring about some change away from the present corporate model of food production.

[oladub]

maxx: The question of whether money contributions is free speech should be revisited especially in light of the danger that decision poses to our democracy. Everyone's freedom of speech in the U.S. is limited by the "clear and present danger" standard.

The 1st Amendment says that Congress shall make NO law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. It doesn't make exceptions for the representatives of business, unions, religions, or other groups disallowing them to take out space in the media to express whatever they have to say. It doesn't give you or me the right to determine fair and appropriate speech either.

We at least agree that organics have some merit. Even there, the federal government came in and set up low organic standards at the behest of major corporations so they could control the Wal-mart 'organics' business with California corporate products and imported 'organic' food from Chile and China. For awhile, dairy companies were not even allowed to advertise that their non-organic dairy products were at least BGH free. Presumably, this was because the dairy competitors whose products are full of Monsanto's BGH wouldn't be put at a marketing disadvantage.

[maxx]

oladub: The 1st Amendment says that Congress shall make NO law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. It doesn't make exceptions for the representatives of business, unions, religions, or other groups disallowing them to take out space in the media to express whatever they have to say. It doesn't give you or me the right to determine fair and appropriate speech either.

maxx: We do have libel and slander laws, but how often do such cases come to court? If you don't have the money, chances are you won't get your day in court. We have allowed corporations to get so big, it is nearly impossible to fight against them.

http://www.hlrecord.org/opinion/citi...tion-1.1090846
"...
Teachout writes that “corruption was discussed more often in the constitutional convention than factions, violence, or instability. It was a topic of concern on almost a quarter of the days that the members convened. Madison recorded the specific term corruption fifty-four times, and the vast majority of the corruption discussions were spearheaded by influential delegates Madison, Moris, Mason, and Wilson. The attendees were concerned about the corrupting influence of wealth, greed, and ambition.” It is not an overstatement to say that the Framers actually saw the Constitution as an instrument to fight corruption.
The Framers defined political corruption to include “self-serving use of public power for private ends, including, without limitation, bribery, public decisions to serve private wealth made because of dependent relationships, public decisions to serve executive power made because of dependent relationships, and use by public officials of their positions of power to become wealthy”.
Their efforts to curb corruption in the political process is visible in issues including the regulation of elections, term limits, limits on holding multiple offices, limitations on accepting foreign gifts, the veto power, the impeachment clause, and provisions for the separation of powers, among other measures, with a view to ensure that leaders represent the interest of their constituency and not personal interests. In the words of Teachout, “taking seriously the architecture [of the Constitution] requires more than passing knowledge of what motivated the choice of architecture. Political corruption is context without which other specific words don't make sense; it is embodied in the text itself through other words that can’t be understood without understanding corruption”...

[maxx]

Why shouldn't our food industry be government owned? As it is, there is little competition in the beef or chicken industry. And it appears that efficiency is at the price of food quality which affects the population's health. We subsidize sugar, corn, wheat, and beef which contribute to the poor diet most Americans eat and leads to diabetes and heart disease. And there is the environmental impact that Big Ag has on our biosphere. Big Food contributes to political candidates which then perpetuate the subsidies. And while there is some interest in "organic" farming, a lot of people can't afford organics. When do ag businesses become too big to fail ? Do we have to wait for a corn blight to change our present model which is based on only a few plants?

[maxx]

When has anyone ever heard a Republican say anything good about the Sierra Club?

http://www.sierraclub.org/grassroots/stories/00030.aspJanuary 17, 2008
Court Rules For Club, Says Michigan Factory Farms Violate Clean Water Act


Clean water activists cheered on January 16 when the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the state's program for permitting large factory farms violates the federal Clean Water Act. The court agreed with the Sierra Club that factory farms in Michigan failed to provide adequate information on "nutrient" [[i.e., manure) pollution and make that information available for public review.

[terryh]

Read 'Fast Food Nation'..the author writes about how fast food consumption has changed the social-economic fabric of our society...especially interesting are the chapters that describe slaughterhouse production and 'why the fries taste so good'.....