Genetically modified corn causes infertility

New research by the Austrian government confirms that a Monsanto-patented genetically modified maize causes infertility in mice (and probably in humans too). The variety, known as NK 603 x MON 810, is by the moment forbidden in the European Union but it is being grown experimentally in 30 municipalities of Spain.

Sources: Greenpeace, G&C and La Haine (all three in Spanish)

Research paper should be found here (in German) but at the moment the PDF link is broken, giving a "500 Internal Server Error" page.

Breaking the seals of Life

The future is today. And that does not only applies to economics, Keynesian or purely Liberal, but also to technology, obviously.

But this technology is a bit too daunting, I fear. Making life out of four bottles of chemicals (sic) really hits hard on our sense of life, existence and even triggers instincts of self-preservation, an imprecise but deep fear.

The sensation is that a cosmic seal has been broken, that this door should never have been opened.

But of course rationality steps in and reminds that after all it is something that would have happened sooner than later. That this is what intelligence and knowledge carry with them. That Nature has been doing exactly that forever and that therefore it can be considered a precious gift from our mother: the ability to manipulate her very matrix.

The fear is after all one of acknowledging that the child, Humankind, is not mature enough for such a power, that it will most probably misuse it, causing much grief and maybe self-destruction.

But that's how things are. We don't get gifts from Nature anymore, we open our path quite ruthlessly through her secrets and guess that's alright for her, as long as it guarantees our survival... and if it does not, this other extinction, ours, will only make Mother Nature stronger in the long run anyhow.

The case, you may know by now, is that US researchers have managed to create bacterial DNA from scratch, insert it into a DNA depleted cell and get it to live and reproduce. They have created life out from scratch.

The same team, J. Craig Venter and his Institute managed to create a virus from scratch in 2003 and had already synthesized the bacterial genome from mere computer programs and chemicals in 2008 but then they failed to get it to work.

Considering the speed of research of this biotechnology, I can estimate that full human beings may be ready by 2050. Let's see: amoebas by 2017, simple multicellular beings (coral or fungus) by 2024, simple plants and animals by 2031, complex animals by 2038, humans by 2045.

What then? I can imagine the likes of Monsanto patenting brand new species of plants in few decades, animals soon later and then even, who knows?, artificial humanoids to serve as slaves or whatever.

Scary? Pretty much, I'd say.

More details on this shocking advance at:

· J. Craig Venter Institute
· The Guardian
· Science Daily

... and probably in most of your usual news sites.

Major breakthrough in differentiating between form and function coding genes

Researchers from Taiwan and the USA have been able to differentiate between some 900 morphogenes and a similar number of physiogenes (out of more than five thousand tested) in genetically modified mice. In the words of co-researcher Jianzhi Zhang:

We found very large differences." Morphogenes were more likely to carry instructions for transcription -- the step that determines whether a gene should be turned on and how much gene product should be manufactured. Physiogenes were more likely to be blueprints for enzymes, receptors, transporters and ion channels (molecules that control the flow of ions across cell membranes).

The finding also seems to seriously challenge some hypothesis that suggested that genes caused both types of effects simultaneously.

The researchers also compared these genes in tissue from different species and found more differences in morphogenes than physiogenes, what means that form evolves effectively faster than function.

Source: Science Daily.

Ref. Ben Yang-Liao et al., Contrasting genetic paths to morphological and physiological evolution. PNAS 2010. (Pay per view depending on world region, should be open access everywhere in six months).

Transgenic crops forbidden to be researched independently

If somebody tells you or you read somewhere that there are no studies that prove that GMOs (genetically modified organisms, aka transgenics) are harmful in any way, you can simply reply that there are just no independent studies on GMOs.

That is the truth. Why are there not independent studies? According to F. William Engdahl at Global Research, because they are illegal. Why are they illegal? Because researching them without the approval of the company that owns the patent would be a breach of contract.

And that is: Monsanto and the other GMO mafias (oops, I meant respectful corporations) force any customer who buys their seeds to sign a contract that forbids such research in any form.

Tricky, eh?

So basically they create the little frankestein monsters, "research" them at their labs, correct whatever needs to be corrected, and then send those shiny dossiers claiming high performance and zero damage to governments like yours.

The reality is probably much different but it's illegal to investigate.
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Weed defeats Monsanto

Monsanto, the monopolistic monster that is behind most transgenic crops and related herbicides, notably Roundup, is facing an unexpected enemy: evolution.

After some time of preeminence of genetically modified crops in the USA, crops immune to Roundup, unlike any other plant (in principle), some weeds are taking advantage of the unnatural situation and adapting faster than the mega-corporation can research and react: Amaranthus palmeri, also known as pigweed, has developed immunity to Roundup and is rapidly expanding by the US crop fields, having already caused abandonment of more than 5,000 hectareas, as farmers just don't have any easy solution against it.

The massive use of Roundup in transgenic crop fields has simply exterminated all other plants and weeds, but those who have been able to adapt, in this case this species of amaranth, thrive without competition (as crops are never efficient competitors). The only option would be to supress the weeds manually but that's not any realistic option in the industrialized conditions of US agriculture.

It is suspected that amaranth may have obtained the resistence gene from the very genetically modified crops it is now killing, maybe by crossing or maybe by viral transmission. The massive use of Roundup has only created the perfect conditions in which this weed can now thrive without rivals.

Nature 1 - Capitalism 0 (or did anyone ever believed we could defeat Nature?)

Sources: Rebelión, Wikipedia.
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Doctors demand moratory on GM foods because they damage public health

Also from Voltairenet:

In a just-released position paper on GMO foods, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) states that ‘GM foods pose a serious health risk’ and calls for a moratorium on GMO foods. Citing several animal studies, the AAEM concludes ‘there is more than a casual association between GMO foods and adverse health effects’ and that ‘GM foods pose a serious health risk in the areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, and metabolic, physiologic and genetic health.’ The report is a devastating blow to the multibillion dollar international agribusiness industry, most especially to Monsanto Corporation, the world’s leading purveyor of GMO seeds and related herbicides.

LINK.
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How EU grows hateful even among Europeists

Just the last insulting item: EU has fined France for not allowing GM crops according to EU rules. The same EU that is not able to force the fishing fleet (largely French) to drop the hyper-destructive bottom-trawling techniques or other destructive arts is trying to force more ecological destruction by forcing us to accept the much hated genetically modified monsters.

But this is just an example: EU and its undemocratically clique is just imposing the bad things (ultra-liberalism, interests of private corporations) and showing itself unable to do the right things (protecting the enviroment, jobs, people's welfare...). If there is no radical swing (and its undemocratic structure does not allow for such thing), EU will end up fragmented and with people really hating it. In fact the main causes of the recent Greek upheaval are, according to most analysts, massive discontent for EU liberal measures that make jobs unstable and dismantle the national economy.

I am a strong Europeist but this undemocratic EU bureaucracy is an insult to all Europeans and a burden on our shoulders. We need a democraticaly elected government on a platform and under democratic scrutitny, not this government of the corporations. And we certainly need a more socialist EU, not this brutal Monsanto-style liberalism.

Rebelión review: transgenics, oil, WTO and the dirty secrets of the King

Spanish language counter-info site Rebelión is always worth a good read. But guess most of my readers are not fluent in this language and that's actually a very good reason to abstract some of their articles in Leherensuge. Right now there are four items that specially called my attention:

1. Interview with Marie-Monique Robin, author of the best-selling book "The world according to Monsanto", focused on Argentine agriculture.

(...) Nowadays the [transgenic soy] production uses 18 million hectareas. What does this mean? Just one thing: increase of monocultive. It is a fact that, for me is, unquestionable and confirms what I had already noticed in another visit I three years ago. The sentence: 'A people that is dedicated to monocultive is comintting suicide' is patent in this case. What we have to understand is that the expansion of transgenic soy is detrimental for small and middle farmers, who are forced to abandon food production for the people. First, because the seeds provided by Monsanto multinational known as Roundup Ready (RR Soy), are fumigated with the herbicide Roundup, causing the rest of the lands to become polluted, because it is a very volatile herbicide. That means that the small farmers must abandon their farms because their crops are simply destroyed by the herbicide. The soy itself causes severe health problems, and this has been confirmed by a report of the Italian Hospital of Rosario. But it also becomes a horrible social problem. Not regulating the production of transgenic soy is giving the key of national agriculture to investors that have nothing to do with farming.

(...)

What is the so-called 'substance equivalence principle', adopted by Argentina?

This principle, intially accepted by the USA, has no scienfic basis to validate it. Nevertheless, by impeding that the GMOs are considered as food additives, the biotechnological companies could avoid toxicological tests and prescind of special tagging of their products. This decission, that allowed to commercialize the GMOs without any evaluation, was accepted also in Argentina. Thanks to these lies, the GMOs arrived to the country and from it invaded Brazil and Paraguay, where they were not authorized. As Brazil did not accept the transgenics, Monsanto set its headquarter in Menem's Argentina and from it elaborated its strategy that ended up polluting a good deal of South America.

(...)

In Argentina the media do not mention that Monsanto has been declared guilty in the USA and France for false publicity, that they have not anymore the right to claim that their products do not affect the enviroment. I have confirmed in several countries the modus operandi of Monsanto: they bribe... In the book and the film it is demonstrated that there were scientists that were bribed for more than 20 years to tell lies. Now we know that Roundup causes cancer. It is clear that it will be forbidden eventually, as happened with so many other Monsanto products in the past (PCBs, dioxines, among others), which polluted the planet for forty years and were finally forbidden. Roundup is extremely toxic, in Argentina more than half of the croplands are sprinkled with a product that is not biodegradable, that reaches the freatic layers, that pollutes the soil. At the present rythm, the soil will become useless in the mid-term. (...) When an Argentine mother gives soy milk to her children, she is giving them a product contaminated with a toxic product.

(...)

What Monsanto is interested in is in selling Roundup and keep the patents on the seeds to later demand rolaties from other peoples' production. Today in countries like India, there are only trasgenic seeds. Monsanto bought all seed producing companies and farmers must pay royalties to Monsanto every time they use their GM seeds. Otherwise they send the police in. It is a perfect business. The same has been attempted by Monsanto in Argentina. irs claimed they would not demand royalties but in 2005 they changed their discourse by that one of: either you pay us or we are heading for a major conflict.

(...)

2. Tom Kuchard of Ecologistas en Acción writes on the WTO new failure: WTO is not the solution but the problem.

It is excellent news those of the failure of the of the last (exclussive, anti-democratic and illegiimate) meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The antiglobalization movement s pleased that it has been blocked by the moment a new liberalization of world trade.

He claims that the WTO goals can only favor the northern powers like the USA and EU. While some southern countries could also gain something from cheaper exports to the north, they would lose huge income in import taxes that they need desperately for public spending in key issues such as healthcare and education. Besides there has been no evaluation on how free imports would affect the local labor, probably just dumped into poverty and job unstability by decissions they cannot influence.

We face masive global crisis affecting food, energy, the financial system and the consequences of global warming, that intensify each other reciprocally. The commerce model promoted by the WTO deepens the crisis even more. The inability to end with hunger is another evidence of the failure after three decades of deregulation of agricultural markets. Neither the WTO nor other free trade treaties, bilateral or regional, that are being negoiated at this time, will be able to solve the food crisis, because the trade liberalization has eroded the ability of the nations to feed themselves.

He puts a lot of blame in the European Union because the agreements it is promoting further international competition without any sort of guarantee, creating new and greater conflicts only. He also accuses EU of ignoring the danger of global warming and doing nothing of value to stop the Earth from warming more than 2ºC. He argues that the global trade (ignored in carbon emissions "contability") is the main causant of global warming, that EU is doing nothing to supress the imports of products such as soy or palm oil, grown on deforested areas, in spite of deforestation being one of the main sources of hothouse-causing C02 emissions.

3. Herberto López Blanch writes on the threat of privatization of PEMEX, the Mexican public oil company.

He mentions that referenda in 9 states and the federal district sent a very clear message to Congress: 86% voted against allowing the private sector to participate in pertroleum extraction, refining, transport, distribution and storage; 84% rejected the approval of the privatization laws that are being debated now in the federal Congress. Andrés López Obrador (arguably the democratically elected President of Mexico, as the last elections are mostly considered massively rigged) declared: 'They have privatized more than one thousand major public companies, among them Teléfonos de México, national railroads, ports, airports, mines, banks, they are giving away the national electric industry and now what they ambition most is to grab the national oil wealth and that cannot be allowed'.

Privatization has been pentrating the Mexican economy even before the FTA was signed and the conservative PAN took power in 2000. The extremely controversial US company Haliburton, formerly with Dick Cheney as CEO, alone has already achieved drilling rights in more than 170 locations valued in some 4,000 million dollars.

Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution expressly forbids giving away concessions or contracts for the extraction of petroleum or radioactive minerals. Mexican oil was nationalized in 1938.

4. Former colonel denounces publically the dark business of the King of Spain.

Amadeo Martínez Inglés, who was colonel of the Spanish Army until he fell off with the government in the early 90s, has written a public letter to the President of the Cortes (parliament) denouncing the chief of state King Juan Carlos I for the follwing issues:

1. Participation in the military coup of February 13 1981, a wll known but seldom discussed affair, where he worked in collaboration with many politicians and high level generals in a strange maneouvre that they eventually abandoned when one of the involved soldiers, litutenant-colonel Tejero decided to go on his own.
2. Participation in the creation of the death-squads known as Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL), who were responsible of the murder (and sometimes kidnappng and tortures) of many Basque citizens in the 80s and early 90s.
   
3. Acquiring private wealth in an exaggerated and illegal manner, making his family one of the wealtiest in Europe and the World and recieving many millionaire bribes for obscure favors, benefitting ilegally of his statute and immunity before the law. The wealth of the Spanish royal family reaches the 1790 million euros, according to several foreing publications (in Spain this issueis taboo)
   
4. Being systematically corrupt, accepting all sorts of bribes.
   
5. Channeling millions from the reserved state funds for his many romances and also paying off extortions from some of them. (Popular wisdom knows well that the king is a drunkard and a whore-goer but nothing of this is ever discussed in the mainstream media).
   
6. A possible murder. In March 1956 he killed in very dark circumstances never really investigated his younger brother Alfonso, then 14, who apparently enjoyed the favors of his father who was against Franco and disliked the submission of prince Juan Carlos to the dictator. The fascist authorities then ruling Spain made everything possible to make that appear as an accident.
   

In the last paragraphs, after asking the parliament to demand the king to answer for these charges, he threates to go to international instances, claiming that it would be incongruent that the Spanish judiciary can judge foreign chiefs of state and that the chief of state of Spain is instead immune to prosecution.

He finishes with the following remark: Spain cannot have anymore a in the post of chief of state a person of such awful moral stature, confessed manslaughterer, presumpt murderer, and also, presumptly by the moment as well, conspirator in military coup, corrupt and terrorist.