Michael Schmidt at “Millions Against Monsanto” Rally in Toronto, May 21st

From Counter Balance Today on YouTube.com

“Misinformation, disinformation and outright lies are what our conventional food system runs on.”

“As the new film, Organic Rising, created by Pulitzer Prize and Emmy award-winning filmmaker, Anthony Suau, points out – today’s food crisis is the civil rights movement of our time….”

From Christina Sarich, at Natural Society:

“Organic farming and gardening clearly isn’t just the old-timers way any more. It’s the way of a sustainable world. Younger farmers are coming into the fray more so than at any other time in our history except the 1920s, largely in response to our dilapidated and corrupt agricultural system.

Canada’s health minister Rona Ambrose meets with GMO activist Rachel Parent

From Global News:

From Global News

“For more than a year, Parent has been lobbying – speaking at schools, rallies, sending letters by courier – in the hope of securing a meeting with Ambrose.

Parent admits after more than a year of lobbying she was beginning to lose hope that a meeting would happen.

Then, in September, Global News asked Ambrose if she would meet with Parent. Ambrose said she would.

So they just stop counting? — GMO vote strangeness in California and Oregon

Miles Mathis on the GMO vote in Oregon:

“A couple of years ago I showed you how Monsanto (probably) stole the California GMO Proposition 37. They just did the same thing in Oregon. As I did in 2012, I have been following the vote count closely. This was easy since we got live updates from Oregon’s own state election site. As they did in California, when the vote got close, they just quit counting and reported final numbers. This despite the fact no final numbers have been tallied. No final numbers were ever tallied or reported in California, and it looks like no final numbers will ever be coming out of Oregon, either.

In California in November of 2012, the early numbers went against GMO labeling, but late numbers went for it. The late precincts were in the big cities, where yes on 37 was around 65-70%. So as the night wore on, the vote moved closer and closer to 50/50. Curiously, the vote counting stalled that night and the (final) result was reported, despite the fact that no real final result had been tallied. More than a week later state officials admitted many millions of votes had still not been counted, even in close races like Prop 37. Those complaining were told the State had a month to report final numbers.

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]

Vaccines, GMOs, and conflict of interest

From Dr. Kelly Brogan, on Global Research:

“Monsanto claims that GMOs are simultaneously equivalent to existing foods (relieving them of any real duty to demonstrate safety), and novel enough that they can be patented. Despite the Frankensteinian effects of genetic manipulation on proteins and gene expression, these foods have never been studied in a human population, let alone assessing for long-term effects. What happens as a result of this fast-track-to-market process is that slow-emerging trends of harm at the population level begin to emerge.  Differing patterns of chronic disease in Europe and America at this point may have some relation to limitations of GMO products in Europe.  There is inherent difficulty in associating cause to effect in chronic disease; however, arguing for the importance of long-term premarketing trials.

GMOs in Australia; Raw milk in Ontario

From the Centre for Social Poetry:

West Australian farmer Steve Marsh, who is suing his long-time friend Michael Baxter, claiming the latter’s GM crops contaminated his organic farm. Picture: Marie Nirme Source: The Australian. Click image to go to the story in the Australian in which this photo appeared.

“Two court proceedings of global significance are currently underway. The first is in Perth, Western Australia; the second in Ontario, Canada. Both cases have relevance not just for the future of food, but of social life as a whole.

Steve Marsh is an organic farmer from Kojonup, Western Australia. He grew up using ‘conventional’ farming methods, and continued to do so when he took over the farm from his father. After experiencing a number of health issues, however, as well as observing reduced powers in some sheep dips and commercial fertilisers, he decided to trial, in 2004, organic farming, particularly grains. The yields were slightly lower, he said, but the quality was better. He also met a real consumer need for organic produce, and so was able to remain financially viable. Ultimately, he said he was happy to be providing a good quality, natural product to consumers.[1]

Industry wants federal law to prohibit state-level GMO labeling legislation

From Michele Simon on Civil Eats:

“With the disappointing results now in from I-522, the initiative in Washington State that would have required labeling of genetically-engineered food (aka GMOs), the looming question is, what’s next? At least for the junk food lobby, that answer in painfully clear: stop this state-level movement at any cost. In today’s New York Times, Stephanie Strom reports on the dirty details contained in industry documents that I obtained from the Washington State attorney general’s office in the wake of a lawsuit brought against the Grocery Manufacturers Association for illegally concealing donors to the No on 522 campaign.

As I explained back in February, the food industry’s ultimate game plan to stop the bleeding in the state-by-state onslaught of GMO labeling efforts is to lobby for a weak federal law that simultaneously preempts or trumps any state-level policy. While we have known that industry would want to put an end to the public relations nightmare happening state by state, this document for the first time reveals the lobbyists’ specific strategy.

Joel Salatin debates Joseph Mercola on GMOs — Thurs. Nov. 7 live and online

From Kimberly Hartke’s “Hartke is Online” blog:

“The hue and cry over GMO ingredients in our food supply is probably giving the herbicide pushers sour stomachs and sleepless nights. What if organic food activists actually succeed in drumming up enough resistance to genetically modified food to disrupt the market? Would there be a radical exodus from the processed food aisles when all those labels “out” the offending products?

Currently, 64 countries around the world require labeling of genetically engineered foods.  Unlike most other developed countries – such as 15 nations in the European Union, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Russia and even China – the U.S. has no laws requiring labeling of genetically engineered foods. Why is the U.S. so negligent in notifying?

I was a teenage GMO-labeling activist

Toronto’s Rachel Parent is now blogging on the Huffington Post:

Fourteen-year-old Rachel Parent lecturing at the University of Toronto.

“Hi, my name is Rachel Parent. I’m 14 years old and just started high school in Toronto. When I was 12 years old, I saw how GMOs were negatively impacting the entire ecosystem — the environment, soil, water, plants, animals, insects and people. Just everything and everyone. The issues seemed endless and scary! So I founded my non-profit organization Kids Right To Know. I figured, why not me? Why can’t I make a change?