Control of agriculture seen as key to America’s political subjugation of India

From Colin Todhunter on Global Research:

“The World Bank/IMF/WTO’s goals on behalf of Big Agritech and the opening up of India to it are well documented [6]. With the help of compliant politicians, transnational companies want farmers’ lands and unmitigated access to Indian markets. This would entail the wholesale ‘restructuring’ of Indian society under the bogus banner of ‘free trade’, which will lead (is leading) to the destruction of the livelihoods of hundreds of millions [7,8,9].

Moreover, Monsanto, Walmart and other giant US corporations had a seat at the top table when the Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture was agreed with the US [10]. Monsanto also controls the cotton industry in India [11] and is increasingly shaping agri-policy and the knowledge paradigm by funding agricultural research in public universities and institutes: it is the “contemporary East India Company.” [12]

How will the dairy oligarchs defend their turf against raw milk intruders?

David E. Gumpert, of The Complete Patient blog, thinks it will be by amping up the fear factor. From his latest post:

“The proposed legislation to rescind or liberalize the federal ban on interstate raw milk sales holds out the prospect of a national debate on raw milk.

How so? There will need to be one or more hearings on the legislation before the House committee with responsibility for the legislation.

An aide to Kentucky Cong.[Congressman] Thomas Massie, who is leading the bipartisan “Milk Freedom” legislative effort, says he doesn’t have a specific timetable for when hearings could be held, but emailed me, “We hope sooner rather than later.” The hearings would be held before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Food safety & the politics of cheap food

From David E. Gumpert on the Complete Patient blog:

“I was explaining to a friend yesterday that the federal government in the form of the U.S. Department of Agriculture continues to allow a multibillion-dollar food corporation to sell product, even after its chicken has been associated with hundreds of illnesses, many caused by pathogens that are resistant to conventional antibiotics.

He didn’t believe me. “I’m sure the chicken has been recalled,” he said. No, I explained, it hasn’t. Nor has the producer been shut down.

“Well, something must be going on so the chicken isn’t being sold,” he concluded, hopefully. 

Raw milk in Israel — now if we could just get AIPAC behind promoting the raw milk cause in Washington…

From The Jerusalem Post:

“In the inner recesses of Jerusalem’s Mea She’arim neighborhood, a footpath leads to a capacious and open porch, showcasing two things in quantity: five dozen plastic jugs of milk neatly arranged, and a dozen siblings awestruck by the stranger at their fortress veranda. The home-brew peddled here actually puts the pusher at odds with the law of Israel. The contraband is unpasteurized, or “raw” milk, and über-haredi Yoel is the appointed milkman for this pious community.

His efforts are a matter of kashrut.

U.S. drought triggers “cowmageddon”

American farmers who can’t afford to feed their animals because of drought related crop failures, are sending them to the slaughterhouse in record numbers.

Raw milk: problem, reaction, solution?

In his latest post, American raw milk journalist David E. Gumpert compares the recent spate of raw milk disease incidents, and the outcry on the part of raw milk opponents — calls for prohibiting the feeding of raw milk to children and such — he compares that to the relationship between uppity blacks and their oppression by whites in the American south during the era of slavery. That’s certainly an illuminating comparison in that it highlights what might be happening on a soul level between the groups or classes involved in mutual struggle.

But one is tempted to wonder if there’s yet another principle at work here behind the scenes. There’s a well known formula of government that’s been invoked most famously through the events of 911. Step one is that you arrange for, or allow an outrageous public incident to take place, to “process the group mind”, as it were. Step 2 is to wait for the public outcry that something be done about it. And then step 3 is to put in place the “solution” you’ve been wanting to implement all along, but now you can do it with the appearance of democratic permission.

In Europe raw milk vending machines; in America, anti-raw-milk police

From Nicholas Tomasi, on “Death Rattle Sports”:

“The raw milk debate (not sure why there is one in the first place) has been heating up, with several media outlets taking an interest in the latest health food trend and studies being undertaken as well.

This one is more about the freedom to choose what we want to eat as humans of free will than it is about the possible health benefits, however, and it’s yet another indicator that Americans need to get out and fight for their freedoms again.

While raw milk is hard to find at best in America despite the fact that many of our ancestors were raised on it, Europe is the total opposite. Recently, news and pictures about raw milk machines in countries like Italy and now France have come out in American alternative media outlets, raising several questions.

Rawsome accused tortured in custody

From David E. Gumpert, on the Complete Patient blog:

Rawsome Foods manager James Stewart. Complete Patient photo. Click image to go there.

“James Stewart was feeling “disoriented” when I caught him on his phone this morning in Los Angeles. He had just been released from a Ventura County jail last evening, finally, on $100,000 bail. “I feel like I just got off an amusement park ride,” he said.

Walmart is not America’s food saviour

From Tom Laskawy, on Grist.org:

One of the new, smaller "neighborhood markets" Walmart has been opening in urban areas.

“Reforming our food system is a Herculean task; one that might intimidate Hercules himself. Willie Nelson and Anna Lappe summed up the challenge recently in the Huffington Post:

Of the 40,000 food items in a typical U.S. grocery store, more than half are now brought to us by just 10 corporations. Today, three companies process more than 70 percent of all U.S. beef, Tyson, Cargill and JBS. More than 90 percent of soybean seeds and 80 percent of corn seeds used in the United States are sold byjust one company: Monsanto. Four companies are responsible for up to 90 percent of the global trade in grain. And one in four food dollars is spent at Walmart.

Meanwhile, author Eric Schlosser and urban agriculture pioneer Will Allen put the consequences of all this in sharp perspective in their afterword to the recently published book based on a 2011 Prince of Wales speech on the importance of sustainable agriculture. The essay reads:

The vicious enemy of rural America

From Rob Ewart on The Post and Email:

Picture via The Post and Email.

“(Jan. 15, 2012) — “WE must protect OUR rural lands.” —Stated numerous times by an environmentalist on a radio talk show in a debate with this author

That’s right, environmentalists and even those that live in urban areas have been so brainwashed by the government through education and outright propaganda that they actually believe that it is OK for government to regulate rural lands with draconian environmental protection ordinances, without regard to the fact that those rural lands are owned by real people and are supposed to be protected by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, that states in part:

“….. nor shall any person ….. be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”