By Barbara H. Peterson
September 29, 2011
Remember Anniston, Alabama? You know, the town that Monsanto polluted so badly years ago that the ramifications of the worldwide PCB pollution it caused and denied responsibility for are still being felt to this day? Well, Anniston was chump change compared to this. This is worldwide pollution on a scale so huge that it boggles the mind.
We are all Anniston now…
Widespread Glyphosate Pollution
Food tasting a little on the “chemical” side lately? Water smelling and tasting a little off?
“Glyphosate, one of the most heavily used weed-killers in the world, has been found in air, rain and rivers in two states examined by government scientists.” (EWG)
And as the second “green revolution” of Monsanto’s GMO crops and subsequent sales of Roundup pesticides for use with those crops increases exponentially, so does the water pollution. The main ingredient in Roundup is glyphosate. But what most don’t know is that for its proprietary pesticide mixes, surfactants are used. Surfactants ride in on the glyphosate as inerts, with the glyphosate acting as a sort of Trojan Horse. No one has to know they are there, and they can be deadly.
The most widely used type of surfactants in glyphosate formulations are known as ethylated amines. POEA (polyoxy-ethyleneamine) has been frequently mentioned as a surfactant, but in fact it refers to a group of ethylated amine products used in glyphosate formulations. Members of this group of surfactants are significantly more toxic than glyphosate. They are serious irritants of eyes, the respiratory tract and skin, and have been found to contain dioxane (not dioxin) contaminants which are suspected of being carcinogenic.(Pan-UK)
So, as the spread of glyphosate engulfs our eco-system, so do the surfactants. And the thing that we all depend on to live, our water supply, is being contaminated. And with that, all the crops that depend on that water to grow, which is….. all of them.
That leaves us with the following questions: Do you know where your water comes from? Do you know where it has been? Have you tested it lately for pesticide contamination? Can you keep it from raining down on your crops? Where does that leave us as far as organic food is concerned? Up a glyphosate creek without a paddle, that’s where. Thank you Monsanto and all other proponents of the genetic modification of our food supply. Thank you for what, once again, can only be described as one of the most heinous crimes against people and nature perpetrated by a dedicated bunch of mega-corporate psychopaths in the last few decades.
“Pure” vs “Healthy” Food
What’s the difference between pure food and healthy food? The difference is that there is a huge divide in what a company can call “pure” and what it can term “healthy.” Monsanto says its herbicides and GM crops are healthy. I think not, and I’m not alone. There is a mountain of evidence pointing to the fact that Monsanto’s herbicides and GM crops are actually dangerous to health. So why would anyone buy “organic” or “healthy” food from companies associated either directly or indirectly with Monsanto et. al. that have a history of outright lying to the public about product health and safety concerns?
Recently, I received this statement from Rod Smith of The Green PolkaDot Box in response to my article Top Organics and Non-GMO Guys: “We want to give consumers a complete offering of clean foods, from whatever source.”
If you don’t care where the “clean” food you eat comes from, then what does it matter? So, my next question is: How can you NOT care where the food comes from if you are a proponent of real healthy food, and don’t just need the ‘feel good’ that eating something projected as “healthy” gives you? I want food purity, not some illusion of “health” dreamed up by master marketers such as Hain Celestials (publicly traded with a major investment by Monsanto supporters) or Tom’s of Maine (owned by Colgate-Palmolive since 2006), both of which The Box supports. You might not care where your products come from Rod, but I do, and I am not alone.
The Healthy Illusion
What we think is healthy, might be simply a warthog with lipstick masquerading as a princess. Let’s just take a look at one of the Hain Celestial Group’s products: Terra Chips.
Note that this just “looks” like a healthy alternative to potato chips. Why, it’s even Kosher! Let’s take a look at the back of the bag:
Ingredients:
A seasonal mix of root vegetables (sweet potato, parsnip, batata, taro, yucca), canola oil, and/or safflower oil and/or sunflower oil, beet juice concentrate (for color), salt.
This bag is not labeled “organic” or “GM free.” This means that pesticides and GMOs can be used. But the front label says “A full serving of vegetables in every ounce.” Yup, they got that right. Vegetables most likely grown with pesticides, then deep fried in a vat of GMO canola oil. Healthy. Yeah, right. But it looks and tastes good! It must be healthy. If you don’t care where the food comes from just as long as it has the illusion of being “healthy,” how can you know that it is actually healthy? You can’t.
I say that if you put a drop of diesel fuel in a cup of pure water, that water is no longer pure! I don’t care how much “spin” you put on it, pure is pure, and contaminated is not. This goes for food as well as the companies that produce that food. Just like frying “healthy” vegetables in GM oil, and supporting the Wal-Marts of quasi-organic food that pander wares processed by mega-corporate owned “organic” processing companies that could care less about real organics and pollute with one hand while raking in the dough under USDA Organic and other labels with the other hand, is not maintaining the “purity” of our organic food supply by any stretch of the imagination. By supporting the Wal-Marts of quasi-organic food, we actually contribute to the pollution of our own organic food supply. And now there’s that pesky contaminated water issue…
Stop the Madness – Go Local
What about those of us who really care about organic purity? Or has the thought of purity just become a thing of the past – a worthwhile, yet unattainable notion? Is this really a “learn to compromise” issue? And just how is that working out so far? Not so good, eh? A little diesel fuel or glyphosate in the water turns into more, and more, and so much more that even the most jaded won’t dare take a sip. If we allow ourselves the privilege of not giving a damn when it comes to buying something we really, really like, or supporting something that will make us lots and lots of money, then hey, it’s okay to compromise, eh? But what about the rest of us? What about those of us who don’t care a whit about how much money you are going to make, or how much we like something, but will stick to our guns and reject the criminalistic enterprise that is so fondly referred to as our food supply chain? WHAT ABOUT US?
The small, local guys who care about the purity of their organic products are the ones that we should be supporting, not Wal-Marts of quasi-organic foods. The organics industry is quickly becoming a high dollar money-maker. This means that what was once considered a pure food movement started by people who actually cared about the food we eat, is now considered a big “healthy” food movement designed to rake in big bucks for the same people that have polluted the food supply with poisons, and stand to make a hefty profit off of people trying to escape the pollution.
Wouldn’t you rather buy your food from the local guy down the street whom you know personally, and who lets you take a stroll through the garden or farm when you stop by? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was an online network of just such local guys? It seems that there is a new player in town, and that player is Farmigo. This collection of independent food growers in an online database might be just what is needed to combat the headlong rush to corporate food chains.
No Compromising with the Enemy
We need to kick ALL of the ne’er do wells out of the “organics” business by refusing to support them. Embracing just a few of the “good guys,” who also embrace some of the “bad guys” is not, IMHO, the way to go. It’s like adding just a little bit of diesel fuel, or glyphosate to your drinking water every day. The water is no longer pure, nor safe to drink. So, this is for all those who think that compromising with the enemy is a good thing:
You say compromise, I say BITE ME! Go local and do not use your dollars to support one single company that makes its living off the blood of others. Grow your own, and support those around you that do too. Develop a local network of food bartering. Learn to can and store your own veggies. Learn to harvest the seeds for next year’s planting. Make acquaintance with the local farmers. Lend your support to these things, and not the Wal-Marts of quasi-organic food that are helping to pollute our eco-system with dangerous pesticides and unhealthy food processing practices.
© 2011 Barbara H. Peterson
Tags: Barbara H. Peterson, contamination, Farm Wars, farmwars, glyphosate, monsanto, pcb, pesticides, pollution, quasi-organic food, Water
I have now stopped shopping at Walmart altogether. Their meats are the worst. I went in yesterday to cash a check an went over to the meat dept to see what’s up. Perdue chicken has taken over the whole chicken section. Only a couple of packages of cheaper chicken that were gray. When you buy chicken breasts and cook them and they are super dry and stringey this is chicken that is unfit to eat. Remember Perdue may not use hormones or any other things that worry people but their chicken is corn and soy fed and they are GMO. I called and asked them if the corn and soy were GMO and they were honest enough to say yes.
Not only is the source and quality in question but they are using MSG substitutes to manipulate your taste. I recently discovered this trick of the so called health food industry. The FDA allows any product that has less that 99% of free glutamate (MSG) to go unmentioned and unmonitored. There are about forty products that they use in this way. Often they will use 4 or five additives (which they claim are natural) in the same product to boost the free glutamate so you think junk tastes good. Not only does it allow them to use low quality products but this excitotoxin wreaks havoc on our our endocrine systems. It is criminal what they are doing. Basically you cannot buy any processed food. Free glutamate makes you fat, they mess up your liver, pancreas and blood sugar levels. They damage your hypothalamus, they block the hormone leptin that tells your barin your full. They fool your brain into thinking your eating something good for you and last but not least they overstimulate and damage your brain! They will even hide MSG under “natural flavor”.
In the comment from Keith, he mentioned ingredients in one chip. Here are the MSG substitutes in just that product. (Maltodextrin, autolyzed yeast extract, maltodextrin, torula yeast, natural worcestershire flavor, tamari soy sauce powder, rice maltodextrin, tapioca dextrin, maltodextrin, maltodextrin, extractive of paprika, natural flavor).
In this one chip they have 13 – I repeat 13 sources of hidden MSG. Some think they do it just so they can sell cheap crap and make money but I think they are intentionally poisoning people with this garbage. It’s the taste that kills. It’s ain’t healthy! Both Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods sell this stuff. I’m sure Green Box will too. The only way you can protect your self is to stop buying their process food. You can find this stuff in organic food too. So buy local food and boycott these criminals.
By carefully removing this crap from my diet and by adding some organic sulfur (MSM) I lost 14 lbs. Now when I eat a meal I feel full because the hidden MSG is not messing with my brain.
Since Monsanto is operated by the same bunch of evil psychopaths that were key in the murder-by-starvation of +/- 7,000,000 Ukrainians in the early ’50’s, (Holodomor), there is a very frightening parallel to what DID happen in the Ukraine and what very well COULD happen with the Zionist run monsters at Monsanto. Let’s say a certain group of people or a nation, (or state), decides to no longer “toe the line”. Rather than send in an expensive army, cut off their seeds for the next one or two growing seasons. They used similar tactics in the Ukraine and it worked, they can use it much more effectively and rapidly anywhere the “Renfield Class” in D.C. have been bought off by these corporate murderers. either shut up, keep your head and eyes down and die slowly from the poison they push as food OR, open your mouths, look into the faces of those who own us and have your seeds/food supply cut off and end it more rapidly. Our nation, our fellow U.S. citizens have been SOLD OUT by the “lords” running this fascist nation. There are actually nations that have BANNED this poison, why not here in the United States of Israel?
What can you tell me about bees dying ? We had a local guy who just lost over a million bees and Im curious why . We have a lot of chemtrail activity that has just stated this year in my area and Im wondering if there is a link . Im in Indian River county Florida, most of our crops are of course oranges and grapefruit . I heard there is a problem with gmo crops and the bees but not sure if there is gmo citrus ? thanks Joe . http://www.tcpalm.com/news/201.....ons-of-in/
Hi Sherry,
Can you put up a hoop house or greenhouse? If you use raised beds and some sort of structure to cover your veggies, then it is doable. Much better than the store-bought stuff by a long shot.
We own 10 acres. It doesn’t do much good to grow my own veggies
when the farmers around us are all using Monsanto poison on their corn and soybean fields.
Just finished reading your article. I am a master gardener at our local extension office and at our last meeting was speaking on the dangers of pesticides and especially the enert ingredients in them. It gets me as worked up as the crap they put out about the GMO’s, the way they market it to the public. I am not allowed to speak out against name brands,or on my views when I am speaking as a master gardener, and this also drives me up a wall. However, I am working on an article for our local paper which I intend to talk about both, on my own time.
Good Work!
I found the lists of ingredients for one of their chips: Blue potatoes, carrots, expeller pressed canola oil and/or safflower oil and/or sunflower oil, kabocha squash, seasoning (evaporated cane juice, dehydrated onion, salt, dextrose, dehydrated garlic, spices, citric acid).
Their is no indication that these ingredients were raised with conscious soil management, they could be doused with any number of toxic inputs, they could in fact be GMOs. We’d never know UNLESS THEY WERE REQUIRED TO IDENTIFY THEM. Since they are not required we are left in the dark while they spin fairy tales of “natural” and “better for you”. Better! Better than what is never addressed. They promise a dubiously “healthy way of life” with a commitment to a “small footprint” and “green” packaging. And a high price tag (mostly for the bag, marketing and shipping).
Here’s another: Ingredients: A seasonal mix of root vegetables (sweet potato, blue potato, beets), canola oil and/or safflower oil and/or sunflower oil, seasoning (organic evaporated cane juice, sea salt, tomato powder, molasses powder [molasses, maltodextrin], garlic powder, onion powder, autolyzed yeast extract, vinegar powder [maltodextrin, white distilled vinegar], torula yeast, natural worcestershire flavor [tamari soy sauce powder, (soybeans, rice flour, rice maltodextrin, salt, soy lecithin) tapioca dextrin], salt, fructose, sugar, maltodextrin, onion powder, spices, garlic powder, maltodextrin, citric acid, natural hickory smoke flavor, malt vinegar solids, toasted sesame oil, extractive of paprika, natural flavor), beet juice concentrate (for color). Contains: Soy
The details suggest conventionally toxic agriculture and processed crap.
Letters from people asking for details might start to reveal some of the hidden story.
People producing the same product with really local and organic ingredients could create thousands of little micro-niche businesses while supporting local growers.