USDA deregulates GE alfalfa; opens door to new era of widespread genetic pollution of crops

Friday, January 28, 2011 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: GE alfalfa, deregulation, health news

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(NaturalNews) After months of pretending to review public feedback on the issue of GE alfalfa, the USDA has announced a surprise lifting of all restrictions on the genetically engineered crop, effectively allowing anyone to plant GE alfalfa anywhere, without any restriction. This is the USDA's surrender to Monsanto, and it signifies the beginning of a new era of widespread genetic pollution of North America's crops and ranch animals (which eat those crops).

Even though the USDA recently admitted in its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) that GE alfalfa may pose a risk to both organic farmers and conventional farmers (http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/2010/12/1...), the agency suddenly and without scientific justification decided to remove all restrictions and allow Monsanto to regulate itself!

This is the work of USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, Monsanto lobbyists and certain members of Congress who have been influenced to write extremely dishonest letters to the USDA which characters GE restrictions as "unscientific." NaturalNews previously exposed the twisted logic and manipulative linguistic games used by biotech supporters in an article called, "Unscientific" is secret code for anyone who opposes GMOs or pesticides (https://www.naturalnews.com/031093_unscientif...).

The dishonest tactics used by the biotech industry have apparently been successful, and it is widely believed that this precedent will now be used to lift all regulation of other GE crops, unleashing what can only be called the era of genetic pollution across North America, courtesy of the USDA.

Confirmed: USDA is in the business of death

It was only a few days ago that NaturalNews shockingly revealed how the USDA is engaged in the deliberate murder of tens of millions of birds, cougars, beavers, foxes, ducks and other animals as part of its taxpayer-funded "Bye Bye Blackbird" program (https://www.naturalnews.com/031076_USDA_bird_...) and (https://www.naturalnews.com/031076_USDA_bird_...).

Under these programs, the USDA uses chemical poisons to murder literally millions of birds each year, including an occasional endangered species animal by accident. This is all part of the USDA's insane program of death to protect the financial interests of conventional agriculture giants.

Today's USDA decision to unleash genetically engineered alfalfa on the nation seems entirely consistent with the agency's reliance on mass animal murder to achieve its goals of reducing biodiversity and suppressing whatever forms of life it does not want to succeed. (I hope humans are not on the USDA's list of species to "manage," but after today's decision, I'm starting to think we might be...)

The USDA, as a rule, supports primarily corporate monoculture efforts such as genetically engineered crops, corn-fed cattle, and conventional crops being heavily sprayed with pesticides. With this decision on GE alfalfa, the USDA has squarely positioned itself as the enemy of organic food production, biodynamic farming methods and the use of heirloom seeds by farmers.

In fact, today's decision to unleash GE alfalfa on America now means the DNA pollution of non-GMO alfalfa is a certainty. Farmers trying to grow honest, non-GMO alfalfa, in other words, are about to suffer what can only be called an environmental catastrophe caused by GE alfalfa cross-contamination.

Alfalfa is fed to the cows used to produce meat

The chain of toxicity goes way beyond mere GE alfalfa, of course. Alfalfa is largely used to feed cows who tend to collect and concentrate toxins in their fat tissues, raising them to much higher concentrations than what was originally found in the plants.

Additionally, there is evidence (but not yet conclusive proof) to suggest that GE alfalfa may release pesticide chemicals into the bodies of cows during digestion. Cows eat a tremendous amount of alfalfa each day, further concentrating potential toxins that may be present in their feed. When those cows are then slaughtered and turned into hamburgers in fast food restaurants, they may theoretically be delivering extremely high concentrations of pesticide toxins that were originally found in their feed grasses (or corn, for that matter).

In other words, GE alfalfa may turn out to be a mechanism by which consumers are ultimately poisoned with herbicides because those herbicides were concentrated in the bodies of cows first.

Again, NaturalNews does not yet have conclusive proof that this is the case. But neither does the USDA have conclusive proof that GE alfalfa is safe, and this is precisely the point: Rather than relying on the Precautionary Principle, the USDA is haphazardly unleashing GE alfalfa into the wild and crossing their fingers (behind their backs, probably) in the hope that nothing will go wrong.

GE alfalfa is a grand genetic experiment with an unknown outcome. Importantly, this is an experiment which can never be put back in the box! Once you've unleashed GE alfalfa into the wild, you have engaged in an irreversible chain of events impacting the one of the most sacred things on our planet: The DNA of crop seeds.

If the USDA has miscalculated, and if we've been lied to by Monsanto (and gee, why would a corporation ever lie to us just to make a profit?), then we may, in time, find ourselves the victims of an unthinkable genetic pollution catastrophe combined with a possible food wipeout scenario that can all be traced back to genetic pollution caused by GMOs.

Again, I cannot say for certain that this outcome will occur, but neither can the USDA (nor Monsanto) say with any honesty that they know such an outcome won't happen. And given what's at stake -- the very future of sustainable life on our planet -- only a fool would choose to roll the dice and risk everything just for the sake of quarterly profits for a few more bucks on the corporate bottom line.

The USDA, it seems, is now doing to humans what it has been doing to the birds: Poisoning us all and hoping no one will notice.

But people are noticing... and this action has ignited a grassroots firestorm of protest across the internet (see below).

Here come the superweeds

We don't yet know whether GMOs will lead our world into a DNA catastrophe ending in global starvation and widespread death, but we do know something else that's similarly frightening: GE crops result in the creation of "superweeds" that are highly resistant to even today's strongest herbicides.

This is natural selection at work: When GE crops are sprayed with Roundup and other chemical pesticides -- and that's how GE crops are "managed" in the field -- they inevitably give rise to weeds that, through natural genetic variation, develop a genetic resistance to those herbicide chemicals. Those weeds survive and go to seed, reproducing and spreading their own "superweed DNA" across not just the GMO fields, but through conventional farming fields, too. This forces even conventional farmers (and organic farmers) to now deal with mutant superweeds that were created by GMO farming methods! (https://www.naturalnews.com/031095_superweeds...)

This is a mirror image of the situation with MRSA and antibiotics in humans: When physicians overprescribe antibiotics (which is happening in virtually every hospital in the western world today), this practice gives rise to antibiotic-resistant bacteria -- so-called "superbugs." These superbugs are immune to antibiotics and become the real killers that are claiming the lives of innocent victims in hospitals across America right now.

In some hospitals, entire floors of patients become infected with these superbugs, and many simply die. According to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, these superbugs kill 48,000 patients a year in America alone (https://www.naturalnews.com/028441_superbugs_...). In case you're keeping track, that's roughly 16 times the number of Americans killed on 9/11, and it's happening every year!

This is one of the greatest epidemics of infectious disease in America today, and it's being caused entirely by the abusive practice of using chemicals to eliminate undesirable forms of life in the bodies of human patients. Now the USDA wants to adopt this same disastrously failed method on a much larger scale, allowing chemicals to be used in combination with GE alfalfa in a way that is absolutely guaranteed to create superweeds which are resistant to standard herbicides.

Do you see where this is heading? Fast forward 25 years and we may see our fertile croplands overrun by aggressive, invasive superweeds that are resistant to everything -- weeds which are "Monsanto's Mutants" because they are the causal offshoots of insanely poor foresight and atrociously huge risk-taking by USDA officials who blatantly betray the American people at every opportunity. In making this decision, the USDA has squarely positioned itself as an enemy of sustainable life on our planet. It has made a deal with the Devil, and the price may ultimately be borne by the innocent victims who perish under a future crop failure or superweed explosion that extremely diminishes crop production potential across America.

America's great Bread Basket, in other words, may soon become a Dead Basket.

Center for Food Safety to file lawsuit

The Center for Food Safety (http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org) has announced its intention to immediately file a lawsuit challenging the USDA's lack of scientific integrity in lifting GE alfalfa regulations:

"We’re disappointed with USDA’s decision and we will be back in court representing the interest of farmers, preservation of the environment, and consumer choice" said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director for the Center for Food Safety. "USDA has become a rogue agency in its regulation of biotech crops and its decision to appease the few companies who seek to benefit from this technology comes despite increasing evidence that GE alfalfa will threaten the rights of farmers and consumers, as well as damage the environment."

Read the full announcement from the Center for Food Safety at:
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/2011/01/2...

Organic Consumers Association continues its fight against GMOs

The Organic Consumers Association (www.OrganicConsumers.org), led by grassroots organizer Ronnie Cummins, is also at the forefront of this fight with its Millions Against Monsanto campaign (http://organicconsumers.org/monsanto/index.c...).

I strongly urge you to get involved in the OCA, join their email list, read their website and stay informed about this issue. Watch for some very important announcements from the OCA in the coming weeks.

Jeffrey Smith and the IRT

Of course, Jeffrey Smith and the Institute for Responsible Technology (www.ResponsibleTechnology.org) are working tirelessly to oppose GE crops and protect the interests of consumers. NaturalNews is a cooperative supporter of the IRT and their mission, and I personally urge you to help contribute financially to the IRT at your earliest opportunity, as they are working on what promises to be a breakthrough documentary exposing GMOs. This project requires additional funding (and you can bet the large corporations won't be funding this, huh?)

About today's decision by the USDA, Jeffrey Smith told NaturalNews:

"The USDA's approval of Roundup Ready alfalfa is a travesty. It will simultaneously harm the health of humans, animals, plants, and soil life, and threaten the livelihood and purity of organic agriculture. I understand our friends at the Center for Food Safety are going ahead with immediate legal action. And others of us are considering how else we might prevent this catastrophe from going ahead."

Alliance for Natural Health

Please also stay in touch with the Alliance for Natural Health (www.ANH-USA.org), which has launched an effort to halt the use of GMOs in school lunches.

They have launched a petition that I urge you to sign:
https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=653

The ANH is a tremendously effective non-profit group fighting to protect the rights of natural health consumers. They deserve your support, and they're part of an ever-expanding coalition of health freedom groups who are all working to protect consumers interests. The Natural Solutions Foundation (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org), similarly, was hugely effective in the fight to halt the S.510 Food Safety Bill. That fight was not successful, of course, but the massive public protests organized by groups like the NSF, ANH, NaturalNews and others was effective in forcing amendments to the Food Safety Bill, such as the Tester Amendment.

I'm not saying it was a victory or anything, but it could have been a whole lot worse. Grassroots action prevented it from being worse.

Urgent action needed to fight back against GMOs and genetic pollution

Please take action today in whatever way suits you best.

Join our Facebook group to get hourly updates (www.Facebook.com/HealthRanger).

SHARE our anti-GMO music video: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=B459FF2B150FDF...

SUPPORT the OCA, the IRT, the CFS and other non-profit groups that are working their tails off (I know, because I know these people, and they work long hours like I do) to protect your interests.

Get involved now and we have a chance to beat back food tyranny, GMO pollution and the corporate takeover of the entire food supply. If we all stand back and do nothing, we will be enslaved by the corporations who will very, very quickly seize control over the world's seeds and crops, putting us all in the position of being mere sharecroppers who have to buy our food from the company store.

We are dangerously close to full-on food enslavement right now. Help us fight back and you help save our collective future. And don't mistakenly think that we can do all this for you while you sit back and just watch what happens. The OCA, the IRT, NaturalNews and other groups are powerless without your direct participation in this battle. Your financial support, your petition signings, your campaigning and everything else you can do makes all the difference. We are here to serve you, but we are nothing without your participation and grassroots action. We are a team, and we need your teamwork to be effective.

Help us put an end to GMOs and protect the future of life on our planet.

Read more:

Does Whole Foods support GE alfalfa?
http://food.change.org/blog/view/whole_foods...
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/01/whole-...

The Organic Elite Surrender to Monsanto:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/art...