Potatoes - Monsanto, and a follow on - now avoid the new GM variety - Fortuna!

This is a wonderful waxy organic potato, Pink Fir Apple.

The 'Blue Arran Victory' organically grown potato.

The above varieties of organic potatoes are very good to eat! -  Pink Fir Apple,  Blue Arrow Victory, and a seed potato - Milva.  A small selection of the many organic varieties  available in Berwick-upon-Tweed at our Green Shop, and grown locally.                  See: The keiser Report  - " Monsanto and the seeds of evil "   for more related information. Also my previous blogs on Monsanto in 2011.

GM foods. We are being softened up!

Sir John Beddington the governments chief scientific adviser is using the possible future global  hunger crisis to push  genetically modified foods.  He, on behalf of some of the fiercest lobbyists in the world,  is softening us up.
"GM crops could feed the world", "GM foods  are as safe as their non-GM counterparts and pose no additional risk to the consumer", "the general public should drop the term 'frankenstein foods', and embrace the technology." These  are some of the weasel words used by the pro GM lobby.
GM foods are derived from genetically modified organisms, and involve the insertion or deletion of genes. The first commercially grown GM crop was the tomato, modified to ripen without softening, this was developed by Calgene, later a subsiduary of Monsanto.
95% of GM crops are grown in N.America with rapid expansion of cotton varieties in India,  in Brazil, also in China, Paraguay, South Africa, and Argentina.  Monsanto is currently involved with US Supreme Court re 'roundup ready alfalfa', other court cases involve their pesticide - resistant sugar beets.
There is more than enough food in the world, the hunger crisis is caused by problems in food distribution and politics, not production. Vandana Shiva  founder of Nardanya a group that  represents the seed keepers and organic farmers in India is totally against the use of genetically modified crops, and several countries including Zambia, Venezuala, and Hungary have banned use of GM crops,  and the importation of GM rice to Europe has been stopped. India is holding a moratorium on cultivation of GM and France have banned Monsanto's MON-810 corn and similar modified crops.
The US have attempted to retaliate against France and the European Union for their decisions.
The health risks of eating GM foods is almost entirely unknown  although already some dangers have been noted. Danger to wild life,  birds, and  butterflies could be serious, and certain weeds may become uncontrollable.  Serious difficulties are experienced by organic farmers, and the fact that GM seed is subject to licensing  prevents farmers from sowing their own seed because the intellectual property is owned by the developers (Monsanto).
Beware!     Massive lobbying groups are infiltrating our news media in an effort to  soften us up.  NB.  See:  Caroline Spelman  (DEFRA), her husband Mark Spelman and  his senior position with Accenture,  and previous post - January 4, 2011, on Monsanto.

Monsanto, a huge beast, and a very dangerous one

Monsanto,  the notoriously  aggressive biotech giant  have been caught by Wikileaks with 'their hands in the cookie jar'.
Monsanto was  founded in 1901.  The first product they made was saccharin, the artificial sweetener that  they subsequently sold  to Coca Cola. Monsanto established their first foothold in Europe in Wales where they went into partnership with   Graesser's chemical works. They expanded in the 1920s, and in the 1940s became leading manufacturers of plastics, herbicides,  Agent Orange (a highly carcinogenic defoliant agent  used during the Vietnam War), other artificial sweeteners, and bovine growth hormones.
During the same decade they were involved with the development of the first Nuclear weapons, and in 1944 they commenced manufacturing DDT. After forming a partnership with the chemical giant Bayer they marketed polyurethanes in the US. In 1982 they were the first to genetically modify plant cells. It was during the years 1997 to 2002 that Monsanto moved from chemical giant to biotech giant.  They have,  since 2005,  patent claims on the breeding techniques of pigs,developed the so called 'terminator' seed which requires customers to repurchase seed for every planting, and developed bovine somatotropin, a synthetic hormone introduced to increase milk production. Not a pretty history!
Virtually every chemical  Monsanto have manufactured has been detrimental to human well being and other animals, and  many  have been/are excessively dangerous.  Like a cancer Monsanto attempt to spread and control  the world with their own  deadly variation of  the disease.
Wikileaks have done a good job exposing the American Ambassador for  chatting up the Vatican and generally sucking up to the EU . Thankfully, so far,  those in power in the EU have not succumbed  to their bribes and aggressive lobbying, but Monsanto play a very long game. We must all beware.