Whole Foods Caves to Monsanto

[leemajors]

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/2011/01/9903/whole-foods-market-caves-monsanto


After 12 years of battling to stop Monsanto's genetically-engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation's organic farmland, the biggest retailers of "natural" and "organic" foods in the U.S., including Whole Foods Market (WFM), Organic Valley and Stonyfield Farm, have agreed to stop opposing mass commercialization of GE crops, like Monsanto's controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa. In exchange for dropping their opposition, WFM has asked for "compensation" to be paid to organic farmers for "any losses related to the contamination of his crop." Under current laws, Genetically-Modified Organisms (GMOs) are not subject to any pre-market safety testing or labeling. WFM is abandoning its fight with biotech companies in part because two thirds of the products they sell are not certified organic anyway, but are really conventional, chemical-intensive and foods that may contain GMOs and that they market as "natural" despite this. Most consumers don't know the difference between "natural" and "certified organic" products. "Natural" products can come from crops and animals fed nutrients containing GMOs. "Certified Organic" products are GMO-free. WFM and their main distributor, United Natural Foods, maximize profits by selling products labeled "natural" at premium organic prices.

[Hemotivo]

:reading

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Doesn't surprise me. They dont follow their "creed" as it is. I've found items with HFCS and "spices" on the label, which is a hocus pocus way of labeling MSG.

[boutons_deux]

It's just big corporations, committing fraud, and lying to its customers, selling them shitty GMO products, to make more profits.

[cantthinkofanything]

It's just big corporations, committing fraud, and lying to its customers, selling them shitty GMO products, to make more profits.

Oh...is that all? Whew...glad it's nothing serious.

[The Reckoning]

boutons needs a hug

[z0sa]

WFs is a ripoff anyway, for the reasons stated... less than half of their shit is actually organic, in principle its barely or simply not better than what you get at HEB..

[baseline bum]

LOL @ anyone spending $80 for their 6 items there.

[Bill_Brasky]

There's a reason they call it Whole Paycheck.

[baseline bum]

Whole Foods is proof that you can tell people to like anything and they will, though bottled water may be a better example.

[Drachen]

i only shop at co-ops, farmers markets and buy direct programs from local farms

win.

This is cool but they probably get their seed from Montesanto

That was one thing that was cool about Germany. I didn't even know what GMOs were before I lived there in the 96-97 school year. There was this one section in produce probably about half the size of the Organics section at HEB and it was completely swathed in red with huge white letters stating "GMO!". They had about 10 different fruits and vegetables in that small section.

[DisAsTerBot]

grow your own, then farmers market for the rest.


This is cool but they probably get their seed from Montesanto


always get to know the farmers you're buying from, otherwise you might as well be just as disconnected as shopping at the grocery store.

[Drachen]

grow your own, then farmers market for the rest.



always get to know the farmers you're buying from, otherwise you might as well be just as disconnected as shopping at the grocery store.

Oh, I dont disagree, I am just saying that it is incredibly difficult to buy non GMO seed. Plus most of what is grown from non GMO seed gets shipped to europe where they care.

BTW, I like Greenling as an option for fruits and veggies.

[boutons_deux]

boutons needs a hug

boutons is fine.

YOU need to wake up and smell how United Corporations of America fuck you in every orifice every day.

WF's entire schtick has been healthy foods for informed, health-con$ciou$ clients, so compromising to satisfy Monsanto should cost them Ms of customers (but it won't).

[mavs>spurs]

grow your own, then farmers market for the rest.



always get to know the farmers you're buying from, otherwise you might as well be just as disconnected as shopping at the grocery store.

tbh this guy knows his farming rofl

[PuttPutt]

http://www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com/12-reasons-to-avoid-gmos/

by guest blogger Alberto Gonzalez, founder and CEO of GustOrganics


I love talking to people about food. And these days at my restaurant, I inevitably end up talking about GMOs. Often, people ask me the reasons why I do not allow any GMO foods at GustOrganics. In fact, this happens so often that I started creating a list in my head of all the reasons I choose not to offer them to my customers. The list started to get so big that I decided to write it down and I thought I’d share it with you, dear readers.

First, a little background: GMO stands for genetically modified organisms; some people also refer to them as GE (genetically engineered). According to the FDA, GMO foods are made using recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA) technology. The agency commonly refers to them as “bioengineered foods,” or foods that have undergone genetic modification, meaning they’ve been engineered and altered at the genetic level “using any technique, new or traditional.”

Many years ago, I started reading studies about GMOs, and I discovered that most of the outcomes of the studies favored whoever was financing the research, which in most cases was the agrochemical companies. A few years later, I came across a book called The World According to Monsanto, by Marie-Monique Robin, and it was true eye-opener for me. Then, I read The Wheel of Life, by Debbie Barker from The Center for Food Safety, and I recommend this paper to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness between food, climate, human rights, and economy.

Now I do everything I can, at home and at my restaurant, to avoid GMOs. It’s not easy to do, since more than 80 percent of processed foods contain GMOs. Buying certified-organic food is the only way you can truly stay away from GMOs right now, since GMO foods are not labeled. But, honestly, the likelihood that GMO crops will cross-pollinate with organics gets higher every year as more and more GMOs are planted.

So, back to my list. Here are my reasons for avoiding GMO foods, compiled mostly from the sources named above:

Health harms.

1. GMOs are grown with toxic chemicals and resulting pesticide residues are known to be harmful to human health.

2. Research has shown that laboratory mammals fed GMOs suffer adverse effects that include damage to kidneys, liver, adrenal glands, spleen, and heart. Additionally, their immune systems were compromised and in some cases brain size was reduced.

Environmental harms.

3. GMO crops require huge amounts of chemicals that are harmful to soil, water, the atmosphere, and creatures. Although they are promoted as a technology to reduce pesticide usage, GM crops in the U.S. used greater than 26 percent more pesticides per acre in 2008 than non-GMO crops, based on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data.

4. GMOs are actually increasing the need for stronger and more poisonous pesticides. For example, one agrochemical company is awaiting USDA approval of corn and soybeans resistant to 2, 4-D, a chemical related to Agent Orange.

5. GMOs are causing a growing epidemic of “superweeds.” These massive weeds have evolved a resistance to glyphosate, a chemical used on GM crops. Stronger toxic chemicals and soil-eroding tillage operations are required in order to eliminate superweeds.

6. GMOs contribute to global warming: GM crops require synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, which are responsible for approximately 60 percent of total emissions of nitrous oxide (a greenhouse gas nearly 300 times more potent than CO2). GM crops use high amounts of fossil fuels through the production of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.

7. GMO practices contaminate our organic and local food systems. A report titled, Gone to Seed, found that 50 percent or more of non-GMO corn, canola, and soybean seed have been contaminated with GM genes.

8. Beneficial insects can be harmed. A Cornell University study showed that monarch butterflies suffered higher mortality rates when consuming milkweed leaves dusted with the Bt toxin associated with GM crops. And recently, pesticides called neonicotinoids have been blamed for the collapsing bee populations.

Harms to social and human rights.

9. GMOs are promoted as way to feed the world and mitigate hunger; however, numerous studies demonstrate that the GM crops do not produce higher yields as claimed. As one example, a USDA publication reports that “GM crops do not increase the yield potential.”

10. GMOs lead to corporate control over seed and food: Today only one company controls about 95 percent of GM seeds. This limits access to seeds, which are the center of food and life.

11. These large agri-corporations do not let farmers save seeds, a basic practice that has continued for centuries to ensure food security.

12. GMO agriculture is an extension of current industrial-farming practices that have resulted in the loss of family farms and farmer livelihoods around the globe.

For all of these reasons, and more that I’m just not thinking of right now, we at GustOrganics choose another path. We believe organic agriculture is the only way to go. Organic agriculture has equal or higher yields than factory farming. Organics don’t contain any synthetic hormones, antibiotics, chemicals or GMOs. And independent studies prove that organic food has more vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants than conventional food (which, at this point, is just another way of saying GMO food).

Talk to your friends about GMOs and help them to be aware of the facts. And go to justlabelit.org and help send 1 million signatures to the Food and Drug Administration to let them know that we want GMO foods labeled.

[Agloco]

Whole Foods is proof that you can tell people to like anything and they will, though bottled water may be a better example.

+1.1e100000000000000000000000000000000

[TDMVPDPOY]

htf do you think they going to graze it fast enough to feed ur population?

GE food, beggars cant be choosers...

[leemajors]

Whole Foods is proof that you can tell people to like anything and they will, though bottled water may be a better example.

Their meat counter is a lot better than you find at most grocery stores tbh, tho I prefer Central Market's. If you pay attention to ads there are usually good specials for meat and produce. I go there for those occasionally.

[MookieCrew]

Ha. That's what I woulda done.

I'd buy that for a dollar!

[baseline bum]

Their meat counter is a lot better than you find at most grocery stores tbh, tho I prefer Central Market's. If you pay attention to ads there are usually good specials for meat and produce. I go there for those occasionally.

I swore them off back when I was in Cali, so maybe they suck less in Texas, but my recollections of their meat was they'd take a $1.50 worth of raw chicken, throw 10 cents worth of spices on the skin, shrink-wrap it, and sell it for $5. Or $20 a pound for farmed salmon. I'll pass on that shit tbh.

[Sisk]

htf do you think they going to graze it fast enough to feed ur population?

GE food, beggars cant be choosers...

This.


I love how people bitch and moan about everything but don't have solutions.

Growing population = need more food. It's simple.

Fuck yourself, boutons.

[The Reckoning]

stop having more than two kids you dumbasses (until we colonize another planet). im not having any.

[mavs>spurs]

This.


I love how people bitch and moan about everything but don't have solutions.

Growing population = need more food. It's simple.

Fuck yourself, boutons.

I wonder what would happen if San Antonio just stopped eating so much. Seriously though, all of the Obese people in America probably eat enough for 2 people.

[mouse]

This.


I love how people bitch and moan about everything but don't have solutions.


Many of us do have a solution.


http://bread.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d945753ef016300029ce5970d-500wi




Growing population = need more food. It's simple.



Not anymore.

ifvp3Fxi7Uo

[boutons_deux]

This.


I love how people bitch and moan about everything but don't have solutions.

Growing population = need more food. It's simple.

Fuck yourself, boutons.

Do you really think profoundly evil Monsanto gives a fuck about the amt of good grown, or the population? They are in business to sell chemicals to put on crops, and sell sterile seeds modified to resist those chemicals.

There are farmers that are fed with their annual chemicals bills and learning to grow natural foods without artificial/synthetic crutches. Monsanto certainly has its private dicks noting who those farmers are.

[mouse]

7pZPEGgwSkI

[boutons_deux]

Another (foreign) evil chemical company.

If you can't get a hard dick, it could be because of the chemical companies.

How Syngenta Investigated the Press and Shaped the News About its Controversial Weed-Killer Atrazine

Documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy, recently unsealed as part of a major lawsuit against Syngenta, reveal how the global chemical company's PR team investigated the press and spent millions to spin news coverage and public perceptions in the face of growing concerns about potential health risks from the widely used weed-killer "atrazine."

This story is part of a new series about this PR campaign to influence the media, potential jurors, potential plaintiffs, farmers, politicians, scientists, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the midst of reviews of the weed-killer's potential to act as an endocrine disruptor, over the past decade or so.

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/154046

[mavs>spurs]

^you think that's bad? BPA that's in EVERYTHING is another endocrine disruptor, does the same thing and causes prostate and breast cancer. some say it's responsible for the increase in homosexuality in america as of late but that's not yet proven nor the point. BPA is a synthetic estrogen and they knowingly pump it into everything.

[leemajors]

This.


I love how people bitch and moan about everything but don't have solutions.

Growing population = need more food. It's simple.

Fuck yourself, boutons.

Eliminating Ethanol subsidies was a good start. Not handcuffing farmers into seed leases by companies like Mansanto is another great idea.

http://www.upperplayground.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/33326aca4717-AM.png.png

[CuckingFunt]

Growing population = need more food. It's simple.

It's actually not at all that simple.

Monsanto, and other big food/agriculture/beverage/etc. companies have made subsistence farming nearly impossible in much of the global south (heart of the feared overpopulation). Genetically modified foods are nothing more than an attempt to solve a manufactured problem.

[boutons_deux]

Why Do We Want to Spray More Agent Orange on Our Crops? Are We at War with Ourselves (and Our Children)?

One of the two active ingredients that made up Agent Orange is 2,4-D. Despite what Agent Orange did to Vietnam and the Vietnamese people, not to mention a generation of American soldiers, 2,4-D is currently the most widely used herbicide in the world, and the third most commonly used in North America. But apparently we aren’t using this poison enough. By using seeds engineered to withstand it, much more can be applied to our soil and crops.

One of the biggest reasons for genetic engineering of crops is that the harsh poisons used to kill weeds also tend to kill the crops themselves. Scientists genetically alter the crops’ DNA so they will resist damage from the herbicides. Most of the attention to date has been on the creation of Roundup Ready seeds—that is, seeds and crops that can withstand the herbicide Roundup from Monsanto. According to USDA figures, 94 percent of soybeans and more than 70 percent of corn and cotton planted in the US contain the Roundup-resistant gene.

Not at all surprisingly, weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to Roundup, creating “superweeds” which are “galloping through the Midwest.” So Dow AgroScience created a strain of corn that has been genetically engineered to withstand a different class of herbicides—those containing 2,4-D, a known carcinogen.

Dow is now seeking to freely use this 2,4-D-resistant corn. GE modification to create resistance means they will be free to use ever-increasing amounts of the herbicide, with no limits whatsoever.

These new herbicide-resistant crops will be planted alongside conventional and organic crops. This increases the potential for cross-contamination, and for the spillover of toxic herbicides into the groundwater and neighboring farms.

http://www.anh-usa.org/agent-orange-on-our-crops/

[boutons_deux]

There's no stopping the poisoning of our food, air, water, lands by corporations, aided and abetted by govt, seeking profit above all else.

[Sisk]

Monsanto's patents will expire. Don't accept leases into these crops. All this spouting off of how "evil" they are is hilarious. Without these crops most of these farms would fail. If they want to use an alternative method, go for it. Good luck, I genuinely hope they succeed.

Lee, all that shows is that the shitty seeds have gone away and the successful ones have prospered. Monsanto has found a way to be paid for something they invented *gasp* and have reaped the benefits. If you don't like it, find a better way or lure a foreign company in to help you out. Being at a school like A&M there are all sorts of discussions like this constantly - and a wide variety of opinions on the matter. However, food, like anything else, has its patents and people want to (and should) be rewarded for their creations. Sorry you don't like the way the world works, boutons. Singing kumbaya and talking about evil corporations doesn't feed the world. "Evil" corporations feed the world.

[DisAsTerBot]

wow, a monsanto proponent

[boutons_deux]

Monsanto's target isn't at all interested making food better, but enslaving agriculture to its seeds and x-icides.

Monsanto is indefensible at all levels, along with all the other chemical companies.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Monsanto's patents will expire. Don't accept leases into these crops. All this spouting off of how "evil" they are is hilarious. Without these crops most of these farms would fail. If they want to use an alternative method, go for it. Good luck, I genuinely hope they succeed.

Lee, all that shows is that the shitty seeds have gone away and the successful ones have prospered. Monsanto has found a way to be paid for something they invented *gasp* and have reaped the benefits. If you don't like it, find a better way or lure a foreign company in to help you out. Being at a school like A&M there are all sorts of discussions like this constantly - and a wide variety of opinions on the matter. However, food, like anything else, has its patents and people want to (and should) be rewarded for their creations. Sorry you don't like the way the world works, boutons. Singing kumbaya and talking about evil corporations doesn't feed the world. "Evil" corporations feed the world.

I don't think you know what monsato is or what their seeds do, besides grow food.

[Sisk]

I don't think you know what monsato is or what their seeds do, besides grow food.

Because my opinion isn't strictly based on "Food Inc."?

[leemajors]

Monsanto's patents will expire. Don't accept leases into these crops. All this spouting off of how "evil" they are is hilarious. Without these crops most of these farms would fail. If they want to use an alternative method, go for it. Good luck, I genuinely hope they succeed.

Lee, all that shows is that the shitty seeds have gone away and the successful ones have prospered. Monsanto has found a way to be paid for something they invented *gasp* and have reaped the benefits. If you don't like it, find a better way or lure a foreign company in to help you out. Being at a school like A&M there are all sorts of discussions like this constantly - and a wide variety of opinions on the matter. However, food, like anything else, has its patents and people want to (and should) be rewarded for their creations. Sorry you don't like the way the world works, boutons. Singing kumbaya and talking about evil corporations doesn't feed the world. "Evil" corporations feed the world.

Riiight, because over thousands of years farmers never saved the hardiest, highest yielding seeds and crops to try and ensure good harvests in the future.

[Sisk]

Riiight, because over thousands of years farmers never saved the hardiest, highest yielding seeds and crops to try and ensure good harvests in the future.

I think that's precisely what that graph illustrates. As technology increased, the best of the best were discovered more quickly and eliminated the need for the varieties that had more deficiencies.

[leemajors]

I think that's precisely what that graph illustrates. As technology increased, the best of the best were discovered more quickly and eliminated the need for the varieties that had more deficiencies.

Right, because you need technology to notice when you had a good harvest, and which crops performed well where. Good point! It's a wonder humans were able to farm successfully until this century.

[Sisk]

Right, because you need technology to notice when you had a good harvest, and which crops performed well where. Good point! It's a wonder humans were able to farm successfully until this century.

Actually, yes. Technology is used at an infinitely more frequent rate in today's farming than it was in 1903.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Because my opinion isn't strictly based on "Food Inc."?

That's funny. Neither is mine. Ive never even seen the movie.

Your turn :wakeup

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Actually, yes. Technology is used at an infinitely more frequent rate in today's farming than it was in 1903.

And what technology literally kills off its competition?

[Sisk]

That's funny. Neither is mine. Ive never even seen the movie.

Your turn :wakeup

That's great. I was shown the documentary in an agriculture course I took last semester that had many people who grew up on farms in it. Let's just say not every farmer hates monsanto. It doesn't bother me if everyone on here hates or loves monsanto because at the end of the day, none of us are farmers (or lobbyists).

[Sisk]

And what technology literally kills off its competition?

http://www.walkersands.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/apple-logo-small.jpg

Buying being an equivalent of killing.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

http://www.walkersands.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/apple-logo-small.jpg

Buying being an equivalent of killing.

"Literal"

[Sisk]

"Literal"

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/missiles/jdam/images/JDAM_D9a1_d4c-122657-1_300x375.jpg

[leemajors]

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-05-24/health/ct-met-gmo-food-labeling--20110524_1_gmos-food-safety-foods-market/2


Canadian researchers this year reported that the blood of 93 percent of pregnant women and 80 percent of their umbilical cord blood samples contained a pesticide implanted in GMO corn by the biotech company Monsanto, though digestion is supposed to remove it from the body. "Given the potential toxicity of these environmental pollutants and the fragility of the fetus, more studies are needed," they wrote in Reproductive Toxicology.

[boutons_deux]

the specific GMO shit that's supposed to get chewed up in the gut or liver but is actually making it into serum is microRNAs, genetic stuff aggressively studied for its role healthy/cancerous cell growth.

Monsanto has no fucking idea of what their GMO shit does to animals and humans.

If they know bad stuff (they do), they're hiding it and lying about it, just like BigPharma suppresses negative results and hypes the positive results.

[leemajors]

http://grist.org/industrial-agriculture/farmers-advance-in-their-suit-against-monsanto/


“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.

[Agloco]

2UFc1pr2yUU

[leemajors]

Monsanto found guilty of chemical poisoning in France:

http://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/idINDEE81C0FQ20120213?irpc=932