Category Archives: CAFO’s

GMOs Impact on Gut and Mental Health

Posted on April 2, 2013 | 1 Comment

 

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Go with your gut! Your gut is like a second brain.  Everybody knows this is somehow true.  Now science has recently discovered that 90% of the body’s serotonin is produced in the digestive process.  Over 30 nuero-transmitters (brain chemicals) are created by the digestive process and the bacteria found in your gut. GMOs and their herbicide glyphosate (RoundUp®) have  recently been shown by science to have a terrible effect on digestive bacteria.

Poor digestion creates cascades of physical and emotional problems.  What’s news is that poor digestion and poor “gut health” is often the culprit for ADHD, autism and depression.  The New York Times just reported that 20% of high-school aged boys are diagnosed with ADHD.   Many children’s ADHD symptoms have been mitigated by eating a clean diet. Dr. Lidy Pelsser claims that “food is the main cause of ADHD.”  Poor digestion can even cause autism.

While good bacteria died, highly pathogenic bacteria were unaffected by glyphosate.

Poor digestion causes nutrient deficiencies.  A deficiency in just one mineral like magnesium can cause tremendous emotional and cognitive problems.  And supplementing with pills won’t help much because digestion is so poor!

RoundUp’s® glyphosate has been found in 100% of urine samples at 5-20 times the limit for drinking water. Monsanto’s RoundUp® harms gut bacteria.  Small children are especially vulnerable.

Italy serves all it’s public school children organic food.   ADHD rates are MUCH lower in Italy.

Don’t eat CAFO meat.  CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, or typical American factory (torture) farming.  Look for animals humanely raised and antibiotic-free, even when you eat in a restaurant.

Video of European egg producer who found drastic improvements in the health and production of his hens after changing from GM to non-GM soy feed 

Pigs’ Health Improved Drastically After Switching to a GMO-Free Diet

 Roundup harms beneficial gut bacteria – study

New study by scientists at Leipzig University which found that Roundup herbicide, used on Monsanto’s herbicide resistant crops negatively impacted the gastrointestinal bacteria of poultry in vitro. The researchers found that highly pathogenic bacteria resisted Roundup, whereas beneficial bacteria were moderately to highly susceptible to it. The study provides a scientific basis to farmer reports of increased gastrointestinal disease in animals fed GM Roundup Ready soy, which is tolerant to Roundup.

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Think Twice: How the Gut’s “Second Brain” Influences Mood and Well-Being

“The second brain informs our state of mind in other more obscure ways, as well.  “A big part of our emotions are probably influenced by the nerves in our gut,” Mayer says. Butterflies in the stomach—signaling in the gut as part of our physiological stress response, Gershon says—is but one example. Although gastrointestinal (GI) turmoil can sour one’s moods, everyday emotional well-being may rely on messages from the brain below to the brain above. For example, electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve—a useful treatment for depression—may mimic these signals, Gershon says.
Serotonin seeping from the second brain might even play some part in autism, the developmental disorder often first noticed in early childhood. Gershon has discovered that the same genes involved in synapse formation between neurons in the brain are involved in the alimentary synapse formation. “If these genes are affected in autism,” he says, “it could explain why so many kids with autism have GI motor abnormalities” in addition to elevated levels of gut-produced serotonin in their blood.”
So the company that helped invent and supply Agent Orange for chemical warfare in Vietnam is the leading seed supplier (both GMO and non-GMO seeds) and makes GMO crops that are proven to disrupt ecosystems, cause terrible harm to animals and humans- are NOW protected from the constitution for at least 6 months thanks to our broken political system.  Many farmers want out of the GMO treadmill, but since Monsanto bought most of the seed companies, non-GMO seeds can be hard to find!
We were promised that genetically modified crops would increase yields and decrease pesticide use- instead yields are the same or less and pesticide use has risen dramatically- at the expense of our health, our children’s health and the health of the environment.  But since these crops can be patented- ENORMOUS, global profits are at stake.  Food is the biggest business of all, and the giant corporations want total control of it, and our government is helping them get it.  In essence, you are now licensing the right to eat your food- you do not own it- if you purchase GMO seed.  You are also risking your physical and emotional health, especially of your children.  These crops basic DNA has been tinkered with- and the  results are downright scary.  Watch this 15 minute Greenpeace video “Growing Doubt” or this video on how animals are changed when fed GMO feed.

Deadly Bacteria That Resist Strongest Drugs Are Spreading  NYTIMES

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the organisms “nightmare bacteria” during a telephone news conference, and noted that they could pass their trait for drug resistance — encoded in a scrap of genetic material called a plasmid — along to other bacteria.  The problem is most common in the Northeast, particularly in hospitals in New York City, officials said.
 Much of the public forgets the gut when it comes to warding off the flu and other more threatening diseases, but the gut—and its army of beneficial bacteria—are essential in protecting us from harm. That’s why eating genetically modified and/or conventionally farmed food could be a direct assault on your own health. Most recently, research has shown that Monsanto’s herbicide, known as Roundup, is destroying gut health, threatening overall health of animals, people, and the planet significantly.
Because GMOs alter livestock digestion, livestock must be given even more antibiotics just to keep them alive.  This industrial agriculture method has now created drug resistant bacteria, which some epidemiologists predict could have even more wide ranging, dire consequences like that already found in our hospitals.  Antibiotics disrupt gut flora in everyone who takes them. Cattle manure is then often spread on vegetable patches, and the antibiotics enter the vegetables!  From the Times article: “The C.D.C. director, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, likened the rising rates of stimulant prescriptions among children to the overuse of pain medications and antibiotics in adults”.

The journal Current Microbiology recently published a study that caught Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide’s active ingredient, glyphosate, suppressing beneficial bacteria in poultry specimens. Given that gut health is directly linked to chronic illnesses and overall health, this isn’t exactly welcome news for people who can’t always afford or who lack access to organic, locally grown food.

But it gets worse. While good bacteria died, highly pathogenic bacteria were unaffected by glyphosate. These pathogens include several strains of Salmonella and the class Colstridia, anaerobic bacteria known to be some of the deadliest known to us, including C. tetani (tetanus) and C. botulinum (botulin). Although botulin is used to ease overactive muscles and in Botox, America’s most popular cosmetic procedure, it takes but 75 billionths of a gram to kill someone weighing 75 kg (165 lbs).

This is a documentary thriller about how Agro-Chemical multinational corporations victimize international scientists to prevent them from publishing their scary findings.
Short_Bowel
Vandana Shiva has started a Seed Satyagraha – nonviolent non-cooperation around seed laws – has gotten millions of farmers to sign a pledge to break those laws.
http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=Shiva

Fruit Flies Live Longer when Fed Organic Diet

 In Italian government-sponsored research, (v) mice that were fed Monsanto’s GM corn, showed a wide range of immune responses. The mice had an increase in cytokines (substances that are secreted by specific cells of the immune system which carry signals locally between cells, and thus have an effect on other cells). The specific cytokines (interleukins) that were elevated are also higher in humans who suffer from a wide range of disorders. See the table below:
Elevated interleukins Associations
IL-6 Rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, various types of cancer (multiple myeloma and prostate cancer)
IL-13 Allergy, allergic rhinitis, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)
MIP-1b Autoimmune disease and colitis
IL-12p70 Inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis

As you can see, two of the elevated interleukins are associated with inflammatory bowel diseases and one is specifically associated with colitis.

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Posted in Activism, CAFO's, GMO's, School Food

Best Videos on GMO’s and CAFO’s

Posted on September 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

Farmer feeds GMO corn to his pigs: they all become sterile.

What Monsanto Doesn’t Want You To Know

Genetic engineering: The world’s greatest scam?

 

Genetic Roulette Movie Trailer

The Health Dangers of Genetically Modified Foods

 

The World According To Monsanto

 

The video the meat industry doesn’t want you to see.

 

How GMO foods alter organ function and pose a very real health threat to humans

GMO Foods, Genetically Modified Organisms, Wake Up America

 

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Posted in CAFO's, GMO's

Pork Industry FIGHTS BACK! With Monty Python-style video!

Posted on April 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

 

photo source credit:Wikipedia

Meat sales are plummeting in the USA, as more and more of us become aware of the horrific conditions that livestock endure on factory farms.  These livestock feeding centers are called CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations).  Many of us- average, caring human beings are so repulsed by this treatment of our animal cousins that we are refusing to eat the factory-farmed meat, opting instead for grass-fed, humanely raised meat.  So many of us have discovered the terrible facts about CAFOs that it is becoming a crime in many states to photograph them.

How does the Pork Industry respond to the plummeting sales?  By allowing their pigs access to fresh air and sunlight and “normal behaviors” characteristic of the species?  By cleaning up the giant lagoons of pig excrement that cause asthma and respiratory ailments and also pollute streams and groundwater? By giving them non-GMO feed so they don’t get so sick?  But that would cost them money!  It wouldn’t be “efficient”.  Instead they produce propaganda videos like this one, trying to convince us that everything is just fine with the pigs.  Take a look and see.  At first I thought it was a joke.

By the way, the corn they feed these breeding sows is probably NOT GMO, as GMO feed makes animals sterile, (and probably humans as well) as can be seen in this mind-boggling report from livestock farmer Jerry Rosman.

Don’t eat factory meat.  When you or your children eat this kind of meat you are getting antibiotic-ridden, pesticide-laden, torture produced, GMO-fed pollution creating health disasters, that drive small, humane farmers out of business all around the world.  Choose to eat healthy meat.  CAFOs are the primary symbol and reality of all that is wrong with corporatism.  CAFOs are also the single largest user of poisonous, pesticide-laden GMOs. Food connects everything.  We must put pressure on the NYC Dept. Of Education to stop feeding CAFO meat to our kids.

These giant factory farms have driven millions of small farmers out of business.  Because of free-trade agreements, other countries have to accept this meat and this technology.  Now China is importing the technology and the pigs needed to make it work.  But you don’t have to eat it!

The pigs you will see in the video are breeding sows, from a type of pig developed by American agribusiness to be especially large.  They are not “normal” pigs.  The reason they do not leave their new and improved “sow-crates” (which have been banned in other countries, is because these pigs are so fat they can barely move. They are grotesque creations of the new corporate agribusiness model.  I’ve seen rescued ones at Farm Sanctuary. In the State of Michigan, is has recently become a crime to own other types of pig, which are now named feral pigs.

Mentioned in the video is that growth hormones are not used- this is true.  Growth hormones are used on cows to make more milk.  The pigs get antibiotics, which make them grow faster.

 

Watch “Pig Business” by the Center For Food Safety for more information!  And this NY Times article about “sow-crates”, also called gestation crates.

 

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Posted in Activism, CAFO's, GMO propaganda, GMO's, School Food

Paying Them To Do it

Posted on March 31, 2012 | Leave a comment

Most GMOs are fed to slaughterhouse animals like cows, pigs and chickens.  These animals are raised in CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations).  These CAFOs are a relatively recent invention designed to produce meat as cheaply as possible.  What the designers of CAFOs invented was a torture chamber.  We are feeding our children (and ourselves!) meat that was raised under the most horrific conditions imaginable.

These CAFO’s not only torture their inhabitants, they also produce massive amounts of  fecal matter pollution.  CAFOs are also a business model that is being exported overseas via free-trade agreements.  And every time one of us eats CAFO meat, we are paying them to do it!

It’s the trifecta of poison: Poison the environment with GMO crops: Poison and torture CAFO animals by feeding them pesticide laden GMO crops, adding growth hormones and antibiotics, no sun or fresh air: Poison our children by feeding them the cheap meat.  Let’s cut down the rainforest while we are at it to grow the GMO soy (as is being done in Brazil).  And let’s pay these large corporations to do it every time we eat factory farmed meat.

Make the choice that makes a difference:  Eat only humanely raised chicken, beef and pork, and free-range eggs; and cheese made from grass fed cows.  We must also demand that the New York City Department of Education (the worlds largest food purchaser after the Pentagon) stop serving poison meat to our children!!

CAFO the book  (great site!)

GMO pesticides killing bees

1500 beekeepers protest GM crops in Warsaw

Bill Gates and GMO crops

New survey shows 91% of US consumers support labeling of GM foods – only 5% oppose.

Glyphosate (Monsanto’s GMO herbicide) linked to numerous abnormalities

Monsanto and friends target schoolchildren

How NPR Got It Wrong on Monsanto’s Superweeds

Boycott bad meat!

“The present system of producing food
animals in the United States is not sustainable
and presents an unprecedented level of risk to public health and damage to the environment,
as well as unnecessary harm to the animals
we raise as food.”

—Robert Martin, Director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production

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Posted in Activism, CAFO's, GMO propaganda, GMO's, Healthy Alternatives, pesticides, School Food

TED Talk: an 11 yr old schools the crowd on GMO’s

Posted on April 26, 2011 | Leave a comment

 

 

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Posted in Activism, CAFO's, GMO's, Healthy Alternatives, Unhealthy Food

Food For Kids Not Corporations

Posted on April 22, 2011 | Leave a comment


Get Educated on genetically modified food! Ever wonder why the number of children with food allergies has gone up so drastically? Bio-tech, genetically modified foods are the number one suspect!

GMO’s are in 75% of all processed food.  In numerous scientific studies they have caused organ failure, infertility, early death, and MANY other problems in LABORATORY animals.  Yet the Food and Drug Adminstration has still not required independent long-term safety tests on these foods!   Many countries have banned them completely, or at the very least, require them to be labeled.  Not so, here in the USA.

Organic farming can feed the world! according to a  study done at the University of Michigan.

The NYC Dept. of Education buys more food than anyone else in the USA besides the military.  Why do we let them buy, with our money, food that harms us and the environment?


The Many Hazards of CAFO’s

The meat they serve our children is raised in CAFO’s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), operations that torture animals, overuse antibiotics and growth hormones, while feeding their animals GMO’s that make them sick, and that flood the land with unbelievable amounts of waste!  Why do we allow this to happen?  Let’s make a change!

Organic food is not elitist!  GMO’s and CAFO’s are elitist, as they benefit only the very wealthy.  Cheap food is not cheap.  Factor in the cost of poor health and a ruined ecology, and cheap foods are very expensive.  Organic farming would also create jobs while it restores our land, rivers and streams and dead zones back to health!

BOYCOTT GMO’S AND CAFO’S

CONSUMERS HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THE WORLD

We Are Mad As Hell and We Aren’t Gonna Eat It Anymore

 

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Posted in Activism, CAFO's, GMO's, Healthy Alternatives, School Food, Unhealthy Food

Calcium Scam

Posted on April 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

Although milk and cheese are rather poor sources of calcium, and most of us are lactose intolerant,  (80% of African-Americans and 90% of Asians cannot properly digest milk) it is served with every school meal!  On top of that, the milk is often made with a genetically engineered growth hormone designed to increase milk production.  The entire dairy industry is supported by agriculture subsidies, that we pay for as taxpayers.  Then in go the antibiotics and the growth hormones and the pesticide-laden genetically modified corn and soy for the animal feed, and out comes a product on every school breakfast and lunch tray.  And most parents think that if you strip out the fat, the milk is healthy. Don’t believe it!  Milk is a poor diet choice for most people, and a mediocre source of calcium for everyone!  There are many reasons for this, but the truth is that countries like China and Japan that eat almost no dairy, also have almost no osteoporosis and almost no breast cancer or prostate cancer!

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Posted in CAFO's, School Food, Unhealthy Food