Apr 22, 2008

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

YouTube - Why we have food shortages & riots

Clip goes into detail how the president of IG Farben sought to control global food production.

YouTube - Why we have food shortages & riots

Full Documentary here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5266884912495233634

Please visit :
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org

GM crops produce less than conventional equivalent

Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.

The study – carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt – has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.

Professor Barney Gordon, of the university's department of agronomy, said he started the research – reported in the journal Better Crops – because many farmers who had changed over to the GM crop had "noticed that yields are not as high as expected even under optimal conditions". He added: "People were asking the question 'how come I don't get as high a yield as I used to?'"

He grew a Monsanto GM soybean and an almost identical conventional variety in the same field. The modified crop produced only 70 bushels of grain per acre, compared with 77 bushels from the non-GM one.

The GM crop – engineered to resist Monsanto's own weedkiller, Roundup – recovered only when he added extra manganese, leading to suggestions that the modification hindered the crop's take-up of the essential element from the soil. Even with the addition it brought the GM soya's yield to equal that of the conventional one, rather than surpassing it.

The new study confirms earlier research at the University of Nebraska, which found that another Monsanto GM soya produced 6 per cent less than its closest conventional relative, and 11 per cent less than the best non-GM soya available.

The Nebraska study suggested that two factors are at work. First, it takes time to modify a plant and, while this is being done, better conventional ones are being developed. This is acknowledged even by the fervently pro-GM US Department of Agriculture, which has admitted that the time lag could lead to a "decrease" in yields.

But the fact that GM crops did worse than their near-identical non-GM counterparts suggest that a second factor is also at work, and that the very process of modification depresses productivity. The new Kansas study both confirms this and suggests how it is happening.

A similar situation seems to have happened with GM cotton in the US, where the total US crop declined even as GM technology took over. (See graphic above.)

Monsanto said yesterday that it was surprised by the extent of the decline found by the Kansas study, but not by the fact that the yields had dropped. It said that the soya had not been engineered to increase yields, and that it was now developing one that would.

Critics doubt whether the company will achieve this, saying that it requires more complex modification. And Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington – and who was one of the first to predict the current food crisis – said that the physiology of plants was now reaching the limits of the productivity that could be achieved.

A former champion crop grower himself, he drew the comparison with human runners. Since Roger Bannister ran the first four-minute mile more than 50 years ago, the best time has improved only modestly . "Despite all the advances in training, no one contemplates a three-minute mile."

Last week the biggest study of its kind ever conducted – the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development – concluded that GM was not the answer to world hunger.

Professor Bob Watson, the director of the study and chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when asked if GM could solve world hunger, said: "The simple answer is no."

Exposed: the great GM crops myth - Green Living, Environment - The Independent

"We are Not Insects" California Chemtrails

Californians discussing chemtrails and the recent spraying of insecticide used to kill moths. Comments on the effects on humans and local wildlife. Birds dying in unison, destruction of oil on birds feathers and the effects on mucus in human lungs. This is a great video.

Is the apple moth really a risk?? (related video)

Over 700 square miles of highly populated areas of the California Central Coast will be sprayed with a new untested pesticide by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). The spray will be released from airplanes in the dark of night at 300 to 700 feet above homes and schools. They will spray residents every 30 to 90 days for years to come.

Residents are not allowed to know all the ingredients of the aerial spray because it would supposedly violate trade secret laws.

Aerial spraying is planned to start June 1, 2008 in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties and on August 1, 2008 for San Francisco Bay Area communities.

Get educated. Get Active.

Visit http://www.LBAMspray.com for more information.

Pre Market Gaps NYSE & Nasdaq

Gapping up: ZRAN +12.8%, ICO +11.0%, FOE +10.9%, VLTR +10.1%, BMTI +9.0%, BSX +4.7%, MHS +4.6%, MICC +4.4%, WGOV +4.0%, LOGI +3.7%, NBR +3.4%, CE +3.2%, TTEK +2.9%, IFX +2.2%, VE +2.2%, ALB +2.2%, STLD +1.8%, ARTC +1.3%, DD +1.0%, LMT +1.0%...

Gapping down: OMCL -23.4%, CIT -13.7%, NFLX -13.3%, QI -13.2%, BRKR -11.7%, BJS -9.5%, UNH -8.1%, PKG -8.0%, NVLS -5.0%, VNUS -4.5%, ALO -4.4%, CNI -4.3%, RBS -3.9%, CME -3.3%, GENZ -2.8%, TXN -2.3%, ING -2.2%, USNA -1.6%, DB -1.5%, OMG -1.2%, CPO -1.2%.

Gapping up in reaction to strong earnings/guidance: VLTR +12.1% (also upgraded to Outperform at Piper), ZRAN +11.2%, FOE +10.9%, WGOV +8.7%, CPO +6.4%, EAT +6.0%, JBLU +5.5%, BSX +5.1%, KCI +4.8%, MICC +4.4%, BTU +3.8%, LOGI +3.7%, NBR +3.4%, CE +3.2%, ALB +2.2%, LXK +2.0%, STLD +1.8%, T +1.6%, ARTC +1.3%, CR +1.2%, DD +1.0%, LMT +1.0%, HSC +1.0%...

Other news: BMTI +10.1% (receives written communication from FDA confirming status of ongoing pivotal trial for GEM OS1), ICO +9.8% (still checking), FTEK +6.4% (Cramer makes positive comments on MadMoney), MHS +4.6% (Medco Health Solutions, UnitedHealth Group announce pharmacy services agreement; also upgraded to Buy at Jefferies and upgraded to Buy at Citigroup), TTEK +2.9% (Cramer makes positive comments on MadMoney), IFX +2.2% (prepares for disposal and deconsolidation of Qimonda; will record a write-down of euro 1 billion; FY08 EBIT guidance remains unchanged), VE +2.2% (still checking), AGU +1.4% (profiled in New America section of IBD)...

Analyst upgrades: BRLC +13.2% (upgraded to Outperform at Baird), NCC +4.0% (upgraded to Buy at Deutsche Bank and upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein), BCSI +2.2% (upgraded to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus), LOCM +1.9% (initiated with a Buy at Morgan Joseph).