Saturday, September 30, 2006
GE Rice Threatens US Rice Industry
from Greenpeace:
International — Just weeks after we uncovered US rice on supermarket shelves in Europe contained illegal genetically engineered (GE) rice, the scandal keeps growing with more illegal GE rice being discovered. In the latest blow for the GE industry, the world's largest rice processing company has stopped importing US rice into Europe due to the threat of contamination.
Ebro Puleva, which controls 30 percent of the European rice market, has stopped importing US rice due to the presence of an illegal GE rice strain. The rice strain causing the contamination is called LL601 and has not been approved for human consumption anywhere in the world. The company responsible for the contamination is Germany's Bayer who ended field trials of LL601 in the US five years ago. However, the LL601 rice escaped the field trials and has now contaminated an unknown number of conventional rice fields across the US.
Greenpeace investigations recently found another illegal GE rice contamination outbreak. This time it is from China and is a variety of rice called Bt63. Like the US however, Bt63 rice also escaped field trials and has now been found in processed rice imports into Europe. The extent of both GE contaminations is still unknown with new discoveries of contaminated rice occurring almost daily across Europe.
The move by Ebro Puleva to stop importing US rice follows a summer of scandals, with illegal GE contamination found in rice products all over Europe as well as in Japan. As a result of Bayer's recklessness, the global food industry is facing massive costs associated with this contamination, including testing costs, product recalls, brand damage, import bans and cancelled imports and contracts.
At least three multi-million dollar class action lawsuits have been filed by US rice farmers against Bayer CropScience already, as farmers struggle to protect their livelihoods from GE contamination. To compound Bayer's legal problems, they may soon be in the legal sights of Ebro Puleva too. The world's largest rice company has indicated that they expect to bring legal actions against Bayer as well.
"By imposing a blanket ban on rice imports from the US, Ebro Puleva has acknowledged how real and costly the risk of GE contamination is," said Jeremy Tager, GE campaigner from Greenpeace International. "With GE now as uneconomic as it is unacceptable, governments in countries that grow or import GE must stop placing farmers, consumers, the environment and industry at such high risk."
The illegal GE rice scandal continues to rage just as the WTO has finally published a ruling on a case brought against the EU by the US, Canada and Argentina over Europe imposing restrictions on the importing of GE food. At its heart, the dispute is about whether trade laws trump environmental laws - and surprise, surprise, to the WTO it is trade law rules."
The WTO is clearly unqualified to deal with complex scientific and environmental issues, and yet, when there is a conflict between trade and environmental considerations, it is the WTO that gets to decide which rules rule; it's like putting the fox in charge of the chickens," said Daniel Mittler, Trade Policy Advisor at Greenpeace International.
The latest GE contamination scandal shows that once GE organisms are released into the environment, the consequences for consumers, farmers and traders are enormous. The WTO has no place determining what people should eat and illegal GE rice has no place on the dinner tables of consumers anywhere in the world.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/banned-290906#
International — Just weeks after we uncovered US rice on supermarket shelves in Europe contained illegal genetically engineered (GE) rice, the scandal keeps growing with more illegal GE rice being discovered. In the latest blow for the GE industry, the world's largest rice processing company has stopped importing US rice into Europe due to the threat of contamination.
Ebro Puleva, which controls 30 percent of the European rice market, has stopped importing US rice due to the presence of an illegal GE rice strain. The rice strain causing the contamination is called LL601 and has not been approved for human consumption anywhere in the world. The company responsible for the contamination is Germany's Bayer who ended field trials of LL601 in the US five years ago. However, the LL601 rice escaped the field trials and has now contaminated an unknown number of conventional rice fields across the US.
Greenpeace investigations recently found another illegal GE rice contamination outbreak. This time it is from China and is a variety of rice called Bt63. Like the US however, Bt63 rice also escaped field trials and has now been found in processed rice imports into Europe. The extent of both GE contaminations is still unknown with new discoveries of contaminated rice occurring almost daily across Europe.
The move by Ebro Puleva to stop importing US rice follows a summer of scandals, with illegal GE contamination found in rice products all over Europe as well as in Japan. As a result of Bayer's recklessness, the global food industry is facing massive costs associated with this contamination, including testing costs, product recalls, brand damage, import bans and cancelled imports and contracts.
At least three multi-million dollar class action lawsuits have been filed by US rice farmers against Bayer CropScience already, as farmers struggle to protect their livelihoods from GE contamination. To compound Bayer's legal problems, they may soon be in the legal sights of Ebro Puleva too. The world's largest rice company has indicated that they expect to bring legal actions against Bayer as well.
"By imposing a blanket ban on rice imports from the US, Ebro Puleva has acknowledged how real and costly the risk of GE contamination is," said Jeremy Tager, GE campaigner from Greenpeace International. "With GE now as uneconomic as it is unacceptable, governments in countries that grow or import GE must stop placing farmers, consumers, the environment and industry at such high risk."
The illegal GE rice scandal continues to rage just as the WTO has finally published a ruling on a case brought against the EU by the US, Canada and Argentina over Europe imposing restrictions on the importing of GE food. At its heart, the dispute is about whether trade laws trump environmental laws - and surprise, surprise, to the WTO it is trade law rules."
The WTO is clearly unqualified to deal with complex scientific and environmental issues, and yet, when there is a conflict between trade and environmental considerations, it is the WTO that gets to decide which rules rule; it's like putting the fox in charge of the chickens," said Daniel Mittler, Trade Policy Advisor at Greenpeace International.
The latest GE contamination scandal shows that once GE organisms are released into the environment, the consequences for consumers, farmers and traders are enormous. The WTO has no place determining what people should eat and illegal GE rice has no place on the dinner tables of consumers anywhere in the world.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/banned-290906#
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
"Flat Daddies" ?!
`Flat Daddy' cutouts ease longing
[By Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff August 30, 2006 ]
Maine National Guard members in Iraq and Afghanistan are never far from the thoughts of their loved ones.
But now, thanks to a popular family-support program, they're even closer.
Welcome to the ``Flat Daddy" and ``Flat Mommy" phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.
The Flat Daddies ride in cars, sit at the dinner table, visit the dentist, and even are brought to confession, according to their significant others on the home front.
``I prop him up in a chair, or sometimes put him on the couch and cover him up with a blanket," said Kay Judkins of Caribou, whose husband, Jim, is a minesweeper mechanic in Afghanistan. ``The cat will curl up on the blanket, and it looks kind of weird. I've tricked several people by that. They think he's home again."
At the request of relatives, about 200 Flat Daddy and Flat Mommy photos have been enlarged and printed at the state National Guard headquarters in Augusta. The families cut out the photos, which show the Guard members from the waist up, and glue them to a $2 piece of foam board.
Sergeant First Class Barbara Claudel, the state family-support director who began the program, said the response from Guard families has been giddily enthusiastic.
``If there's something we can do to make it a little easier on the families, then that's our job and our responsibility. It brings them a little bit closer and might help them somewhere down the line," Claudel said yesterday.
``You know, this is my motto: `Deployment isn't a big thing, it's a million little things.' These families go through a lot."
...
``He goes everywhere with me. Every day he comes to work with me," said Judkins, who works in a dentist's office. ``I just bought a new table from the Amish community, and he sits at the head of the table. Yes, he does."
[By Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff August 30, 2006 ]
Maine National Guard members in Iraq and Afghanistan are never far from the thoughts of their loved ones.
But now, thanks to a popular family-support program, they're even closer.
Welcome to the ``Flat Daddy" and ``Flat Mommy" phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.
The Flat Daddies ride in cars, sit at the dinner table, visit the dentist, and even are brought to confession, according to their significant others on the home front.
``I prop him up in a chair, or sometimes put him on the couch and cover him up with a blanket," said Kay Judkins of Caribou, whose husband, Jim, is a minesweeper mechanic in Afghanistan. ``The cat will curl up on the blanket, and it looks kind of weird. I've tricked several people by that. They think he's home again."
At the request of relatives, about 200 Flat Daddy and Flat Mommy photos have been enlarged and printed at the state National Guard headquarters in Augusta. The families cut out the photos, which show the Guard members from the waist up, and glue them to a $2 piece of foam board.
Sergeant First Class Barbara Claudel, the state family-support director who began the program, said the response from Guard families has been giddily enthusiastic.
``If there's something we can do to make it a little easier on the families, then that's our job and our responsibility. It brings them a little bit closer and might help them somewhere down the line," Claudel said yesterday.
``You know, this is my motto: `Deployment isn't a big thing, it's a million little things.' These families go through a lot."
...
``He goes everywhere with me. Every day he comes to work with me," said Judkins, who works in a dentist's office. ``I just bought a new table from the Amish community, and he sits at the head of the table. Yes, he does."
Monday, September 25, 2006
"People are suffering, the world is suffering, and relief is being asked for, cried for, prayed for. Another human story exists to replace the self-destructive mythic addictions of modernity. A story of human lifeways repatterned onto principles of organismic growth and evolution, healthy ecological relations, and recognition of the worlds of spirit and vitality. This story comes from an in-place wisdom native to this earth, and it is breaking like a wave upon this planet. The knowledge that runs this story is now growing like mycelium through the cultural deadwood of the colonizers. It is coming out of the forests and deserts and mountains, out of the many earth-based cultures whose wisdoms are spreading through the air (and electronic) currents of world. It is working through people in the West who are returning home to the community of life, who are engaged in healing themselves and others of the chronic homesickness that manifests in so many of the ills of modernity. This is what the world-wide renaissance in the way of the plants is about."
from:
tribes » Health & Wellness » Ayahuasca » topics »
dietatopic posted Fri, September 15, 2006 - 1:44 PM by little light...
from:
tribes » Health & Wellness » Ayahuasca » topics »
dietatopic posted Fri, September 15, 2006 - 1:44 PM by little light...
Chavez makes Chomsky a best-seller
A three-year-old book by the radical author Noam Chomsky remains at the top of the Amazon.com's bestsellers list, after a plug by Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, during a UN speech last week.
"Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance," published in 2003, shot up from 26,000 to number one after Chavez urged Americans to read it.
Chavez had held up Chomsky's book and said Americans should read it "instead of watching Superman movies", to learn the truth about the abuses of the US government.
Aljazeera
"Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance," published in 2003, shot up from 26,000 to number one after Chavez urged Americans to read it.
Chavez had held up Chomsky's book and said Americans should read it "instead of watching Superman movies", to learn the truth about the abuses of the US government.
Aljazeera
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Fans of Steve Irwin kill stingrays
Irwin fans 'in revenge attacks'
Dead stingrays with their tails cut off have been found in Australia, sparking concern that fans of naturalist Steve Irwin may be avenging his death.
Mr Irwin, a TV personality known as the "Crocodile Hunter", was killed while diving in Queensland when a stingray's barb stabbed him in the chest.
Since then, 10 stingrays have been found mutilated on Queensland beaches.
Government officials said they were investigating the deaths and there could be prosecutions.
Two stingrays were found at a beach north of Brisbane with their tails cut off, while eight were found on another beach on Monday, The Australian reported.
Wayne Sumpton of the state fisheries department said it was not clear if the incidents were connected to Mr Irwin's death.
He said fishermen who inadvertently caught stingrays sometimes cut off their tails to avoid being stung, but such a practice was uncommon.
'Protect wildlife'
Michael Hornby, a friend of the late naturalist and executive director of Mr Irwin's Wildlife Warrior fund, condemned any revenge killings.
"We just want to make it very clear that we will not accept and not stand for anyone who's taken a form of retribution. That's the last thing Steve would want," he said.
"I hope everyone understands we have to protect wildlife now more than ever. This is what Steve was all about."
Stingrays are normally placid, but when they feel under threat, a sharp, poisonous spine in their tail flicks up.
A public memorial service for Mr Irwin will be held next week.
Dead stingrays with their tails cut off have been found in Australia, sparking concern that fans of naturalist Steve Irwin may be avenging his death.
Mr Irwin, a TV personality known as the "Crocodile Hunter", was killed while diving in Queensland when a stingray's barb stabbed him in the chest.
Since then, 10 stingrays have been found mutilated on Queensland beaches.
Government officials said they were investigating the deaths and there could be prosecutions.
Two stingrays were found at a beach north of Brisbane with their tails cut off, while eight were found on another beach on Monday, The Australian reported.
Wayne Sumpton of the state fisheries department said it was not clear if the incidents were connected to Mr Irwin's death.
He said fishermen who inadvertently caught stingrays sometimes cut off their tails to avoid being stung, but such a practice was uncommon.
'Protect wildlife'
Michael Hornby, a friend of the late naturalist and executive director of Mr Irwin's Wildlife Warrior fund, condemned any revenge killings.
"We just want to make it very clear that we will not accept and not stand for anyone who's taken a form of retribution. That's the last thing Steve would want," he said.
"I hope everyone understands we have to protect wildlife now more than ever. This is what Steve was all about."
Stingrays are normally placid, but when they feel under threat, a sharp, poisonous spine in their tail flicks up.
A public memorial service for Mr Irwin will be held next week.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Hurricane Katrina is Our 911: Sign that the Apocalypse is Upon Us
(Sept 1, 2005)
The first US catastrophe of the post-911 world and it went about as many of us would have predicted.
People of color/ poor people/ people who possess no power were treated worse than animals.
Recall the very first images of people wading through chemical- laced,
sewage-laden water and make every Black face White. Can you really
imagine that the situation would have been allowed to deteriorate as it has?
Imagine middle-class white people in that hell-hole formerly known as
the Superdome. Can’t quite picture that? Oh..that’s right. Black people
don’t really mind living in those conditions. And they like pickin’ cotton too.
All human beings are worthy. But some are more worthy than others. Do
you suppose the New York Times will publish biographies of each of the dead of Katrina as they did of 911?
Years from now will the public be still talking of the trauma these people (those who survived) experienced?
No, because what you get depends on who you are.
What about the trauma of the Palestinians compared to the trauma of the
Jewish settlers? One is huge and we hear little or nothing about it.
One is small and we hear about it every day for a week.
The government does not care for the least of us. That should not come as a surprise. The least of us are treated differently. So one shot fired at a Chinook helicopter, and rescue attempts are put on hold. That is collective punishment. Just like one Palestinian turns himself into a suicidal bomber, so Israel invades and destroys entire villages.
Collective punishment and racism. One of you did this to us, so we will turn our might on all of you. Doesn’t matter that the one act had nothing to do with the other.
I’m glad to see the Black Caucus, Jessie Jackson, Reverend Sharpton and
especially the Nation of Islam, getting involved. What would Malcolm do?
Malcolm would be there with the people sitting on the freeway, with the
people outside the Superdome. If Malcolm were here, wouldn’t be any
bullets flying at helicopters trying to evacuate the sick and dying. Malcolm would know how to turn that desperation into constructive action.
What would Mumia say? I hear Mumia’s voice. I hear that distinctive cadence, can’t quite make out the words. He will have the right words when words fail us all.
When all else fails blame the victim. FEMA head Mike Brown: "They"
chose not to evacuate and now they are causing me all this damn trouble. Somehow 911 victims didn’t get blamed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Damn. Ain’t that just like Black folk, causing all that trouble.
20 foreign countries and the U.N. to date have offered assistance.
Where are the corporate donations?? Where are the food companies, the water companies, the baby food companies?
What you get depends on who you are.
I recall trying to persuade people that Palestinians also grieve when
their children die. I know..seems kinda like asserting that the sun rises, but there it is. If we were watching fair-skinned babies dehydrate right before the camera’s eye..?
Charles Barkley, aka The Mouth, where are you? Sure would be nice if
some athletes - or teams - or owners - gave even a couple of million. Chump change to them. Now that would be community service. Bill Gates - are you watching your TV?
60% of some police precincts not showing up for work!!? What is that
about?! It got too hard, so I won’t show up?
I hear a lot of folks are praying. I’m praying too. I’m praying for an
end to racism. Those Black folk settled on the lowest-laying land in New
Orleans, because it was land where no one else wanted to live.
I’m praying for an end to classism. Those who had cars and money escaped. I’m praying for an enlightened leadership in our country which puts people above profits.
This is not a natural disaster.
Final comment: I never thought I would say this but I think for the
most part CNN and MSNBC did a good job. Of course looting was exaggerated. In some cases cable news did a great job, such as when Anderson Cooper let his emotions show and actually broke down on the air. The reporters on the ground saw the misery and did not attempt to filter it. They did not sugar coat the horror. I shudder to think how much worse, if we were not seeing these images every day, every hour. I suspect that some of these reporters have been forever changed. Give them credit- they kept asking - where is the aid? They argued with the politicians and the bureaucrats and they challenged them.
And (for-the-moment)Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans -
Let’s show some support for him when (if) this ordeal is over. He said the four- letter word, IRAQ and surely is going to be out of a job.
rasheeda
The first US catastrophe of the post-911 world and it went about as many of us would have predicted.
People of color/ poor people/ people who possess no power were treated worse than animals.
Recall the very first images of people wading through chemical- laced,
sewage-laden water and make every Black face White. Can you really
imagine that the situation would have been allowed to deteriorate as it has?
Imagine middle-class white people in that hell-hole formerly known as
the Superdome. Can’t quite picture that? Oh..that’s right. Black people
don’t really mind living in those conditions. And they like pickin’ cotton too.
All human beings are worthy. But some are more worthy than others. Do
you suppose the New York Times will publish biographies of each of the dead of Katrina as they did of 911?
Years from now will the public be still talking of the trauma these people (those who survived) experienced?
No, because what you get depends on who you are.
What about the trauma of the Palestinians compared to the trauma of the
Jewish settlers? One is huge and we hear little or nothing about it.
One is small and we hear about it every day for a week.
The government does not care for the least of us. That should not come as a surprise. The least of us are treated differently. So one shot fired at a Chinook helicopter, and rescue attempts are put on hold. That is collective punishment. Just like one Palestinian turns himself into a suicidal bomber, so Israel invades and destroys entire villages.
Collective punishment and racism. One of you did this to us, so we will turn our might on all of you. Doesn’t matter that the one act had nothing to do with the other.
I’m glad to see the Black Caucus, Jessie Jackson, Reverend Sharpton and
especially the Nation of Islam, getting involved. What would Malcolm do?
Malcolm would be there with the people sitting on the freeway, with the
people outside the Superdome. If Malcolm were here, wouldn’t be any
bullets flying at helicopters trying to evacuate the sick and dying. Malcolm would know how to turn that desperation into constructive action.
What would Mumia say? I hear Mumia’s voice. I hear that distinctive cadence, can’t quite make out the words. He will have the right words when words fail us all.
When all else fails blame the victim. FEMA head Mike Brown: "They"
chose not to evacuate and now they are causing me all this damn trouble. Somehow 911 victims didn’t get blamed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Damn. Ain’t that just like Black folk, causing all that trouble.
20 foreign countries and the U.N. to date have offered assistance.
Where are the corporate donations?? Where are the food companies, the water companies, the baby food companies?
What you get depends on who you are.
I recall trying to persuade people that Palestinians also grieve when
their children die. I know..seems kinda like asserting that the sun rises, but there it is. If we were watching fair-skinned babies dehydrate right before the camera’s eye..?
Charles Barkley, aka The Mouth, where are you? Sure would be nice if
some athletes - or teams - or owners - gave even a couple of million. Chump change to them. Now that would be community service. Bill Gates - are you watching your TV?
60% of some police precincts not showing up for work!!? What is that
about?! It got too hard, so I won’t show up?
I hear a lot of folks are praying. I’m praying too. I’m praying for an
end to racism. Those Black folk settled on the lowest-laying land in New
Orleans, because it was land where no one else wanted to live.
I’m praying for an end to classism. Those who had cars and money escaped. I’m praying for an enlightened leadership in our country which puts people above profits.
This is not a natural disaster.
Final comment: I never thought I would say this but I think for the
most part CNN and MSNBC did a good job. Of course looting was exaggerated. In some cases cable news did a great job, such as when Anderson Cooper let his emotions show and actually broke down on the air. The reporters on the ground saw the misery and did not attempt to filter it. They did not sugar coat the horror. I shudder to think how much worse, if we were not seeing these images every day, every hour. I suspect that some of these reporters have been forever changed. Give them credit- they kept asking - where is the aid? They argued with the politicians and the bureaucrats and they challenged them.
And (for-the-moment)Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans -
Let’s show some support for him when (if) this ordeal is over. He said the four- letter word, IRAQ and surely is going to be out of a job.
rasheeda
