Archive for the ‘GMO’ Category

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How much glyphosate is in your body?

Sunday, October 29th, 2017

By Catherine Haug, October 29, 2017 (Image, right, by C. Haug based on similar image on an Oregon Right To Know email)

Monsanto’s Roundup contains the herbicide glyphosate, which is sprayed on crops all across the US. Those GMO crops that are Roundup-Resistant have the highest levels of glyphosate. Why should you care about this?

Glyphosate is a patented antibiotic, which means that when you consume foods that contain glyphosate, you are disrupting the microbiome in your gut by killing-off not only the bad bugs but also the good ones that your health depends upon. The good bacteria in your gut help you to digest your food, and play a major role for your immune system (among their many benefits).

When your microbiome is out of balance, you are at risk for many scary diseases including dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, and more. Children with disrupted microbiome are more at risk for ADHD and autism. But its harm doesn’t stop there; as Hippocrates once stated, “All disease begins in the gut.” Science now knows that is because all disease can be traced back to your gut’s microbiome. (more…)

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Dicamba pesticide for GMO crops causing trouble for trees and bees

Tuesday, October 24th, 2017

Frankenfood

By Catherine Haug, Oct 24, 2017 (Image, right, from Organic Consumers Association, used with permission; photo below from Bug-Guide)

GMO Alert!

When Roundup-resistant GMO crops like corn, soy, cotton and canola started to get sick, Monsanto developed Roundup Ready Xtend cotton and soy, and you can be sure that cotton and canola will follow. This new GMO is resistant not only to Roundup but also Dicamba herbicide. There is much concern that use of this herbicide may be even more troublesome for bees and certain trees. (more…)

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“Food Evolution”: New GMO technology even worse than Roundup-resistance

Monday, August 28th, 2017

Frankenfood

By Catherine Haug, Aug 28, 2017 (Photo, right, from Organic Consumers Association (14), used with permission)

By now we should all be familiar with herbicide ag chemicals like Roundup, and harm they can cause to the herbicide-resistant crops on which it is sprayed. But the harm they cause to humans who eat those crops, and the soil in which they are grown, is not as well known. For example:

  • Roundup is a patented broad-spectrum antibiotic, which means that as the plant takes it up, it moves to the roots where it kills the soil microbiome that enable to plant to take up nutrients from the soil. This explains why after just a few plantings of the Roundup-resistant crops, they suffer root damage and do not yield a good crop. And other crops planted in the same soil likewise suffer root damage.
  • Its antibiotic nature also means that if you eat any part of a Roundup-resistant plant, you are taking up this antibiotic which then kills/damages the microbiome in your mouth and gut, lowering your resistance to disease and interaction between your brain and your primitive brain (the gut), which can ultimately lead to inflammation in both organs. Inflammation in the brain can manifest as depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s.

And while the harm of existing GMOs is more broad than this one example, new GMO technology pose even more harm. With advances in ag-chemical research, genetic modification techniques are even more sophisticated, and can do even more harm to nature as a whole, including humans. To me, this is downright scary – even more so than the worst horror film you could watch. (more…)

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2017: Clean vs Dirty Dozen Food (whether to buy Organic)

Monday, March 13th, 2017

Free-range chicken farm

By Catherine Haug, March 13, 2017 (Photo, right, from Cornucopia (5)

Cat’s food-shopping tips:

  • Produce: If you can afford Organic, it is highly recommended you choose Certified Organic or Organically-grown. If your budget is limited, see the Clean Dozen and Dirty Dozen food lists, below.
  • Red meats: Pasture/grass raised and finished, locally-raised livestock provide the most healthful meats; see also my posting Why ‘Pasture-Raised’ trumps ‘Organic’.
  • Poultry meats: Your best choice locally raised poultry, provided they have access to the outdoors; and not just a small door to the outdoors, but a door you can use, too. Chickens eat not only seeds but also insects, grubs and worms, and they need the sun for the sunshine vitamin, just like we do.
  • Eggs: Your best choice is eggs from poultry raised in similar way as for ‘poultry meats’ above.
  • Dairy: Buying from a local farmer (who keeps his/her dairy livestock in pasture) is highly recommended. Organic commercial milk is ultra-pasteurized and, in my opinion, ultra-damaged. See my article on Cat’s Kitchen: Raw Milk: A Real, Natural & Perfect Food, which has a discussion about the problems with ultra-pasteurized milk. If drinking raw milk is not for you, choose simply ‘pasteurized’ milk (HTST) from a local dairy, such as Kalispell Kreamery here in the Flathead Valley. See Food Safety & Pasteurization on The EssentiaList for a description of the various pasteurization types.
  • Cheese: This is a dairy food but I give it its own bullet because we have a great source of raw-milk cheeses in Montana: Lifeline brand, from Victor MT. There are also local brands that use simply-pasteurized milk to make their cheeses, such as Flathead Lake Cheese (2) in Polson, and Amaltheia Dairy (3) in Belgrade.
  • Avoid processed foods, even if they say ‘organic’ on the label, because unless they are Certified Organic, they will contain up to 15% non-organic ingredients most of which are GMO. See my posting: Natural vs Organic Labeling for more.

Buying Organic can be expensive, so if your food budget is limited, read on. (more…)

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Roundup, Paraquat herbicides lead to liver disease and Parkinson’s

Tuesday, February 7th, 2017

By Catherine Haug, February 7, 2017

If you regularly eat processed foods (boxed, bagged, dried, fried, canned or frozen), or meats, dairy and eggs from livestock not raised Organically, you may have a risk for these diseases: (1)

  •  NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease), which can lead to cirrhosis and increases likelihood of diabetes, heart attacks and strokes (from exposure to Roundup, (13))
  • Parkinson’s disease (from exposure to Paraquat, (2)).

This is another reason to avoid GMO foods. Read on for more. (more…)

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International Monsanto Tribunal

Saturday, December 10th, 2016

Frankenfood

By Catherine Haug, December 10, 2016 (Image, right, from Organic Consumers Association (6) used with permission)

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and Genetically Engineered (GE) foods are very common in today’s processed food supply and have even invaded the produce section. States have tried to halt it by passing laws requiring labelling of such foods, but last July, those efforts were invalidated by a sham GMO-labelling law passed by Congress and signed by our President. This law did not specifically require text stating the product contains GMO/GE ingredients, but rather allows printing of an 800-number or QR codes for more information. (See my article Pres. Obama signed the Dark Act (faulty GMO-labeling law) for more).

In October 2016, countries around the world participated in the International Monsanto Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. This “Tribunal was a show of international solidarity for a regenerative food and agriculture system — the antithesis of Monsanto’s toxic, degenerative model.” (1) The tribunal cannot impose penalties, nor is it a mock-trial, but rather a citizens tribunal, which “have a long history of bringing justice to issues where governments etagere act corruptly or fail to act.” (1) This tribunal was based on the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” adopted by the United Nations in 2011. It was “an international court of lawyers and judges  who assessed the potential criminal liability of Monsanto for damages inflicted on human health and the environment. [The tribunal’s] final verdicts can serve as foundation for future legal cases against not only Monsanto, but also Bayer, Syngenta, Dow and others.” (1)

Ronnie Cummins, International Director of the OCA and a member of the Regeneration International (5) steering committee. wrote: “Ultimately the People’s Assembly agreed that we need to not only get rid of Monsanto, but the entire degenerative system of food, farming and land use that is driving global warming, catastrophic droughts and floods, soil erosion, desertification, water shortages, mass biodiversity loss, rural poverty and war, and deteriorating public health. (4)

For more about the tribunal see references 2 – 5.
(more…)

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