Other WTO rules in the Agreement to Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) forbid member countries from using domestic standards or testing, food safety laws, product standards, calling them an 'unfair barrier to trade.' The impact of those two US-mandated WTO rulings meant that Washington could threaten that any government restricting import of GM plants on grounds they might pose threats to health and safety of their population, could be found to be in violation of WTO free trade rules! (Engdahl, 2006)
This resulted in a long awaited plan by the multinational GMO pushers to take over global agriculture, as represented in the following chart that outlines just how many hectares of land were devoted to GMO crops from 1996 to 2006:
(GMO Compass, 2007)
Take a good look at the chart above, and let's do the math. Keep in mind that all figures are approximate.
1 hectare = 2.4711 acres. In 2006, there were 102 million hectares of land on planet earth devoted to GMO crops, or 252.05 million acres. 1 square mile = 640 acres. Therefore, by 2006, there were approximately 393,828 square miles of GMO crops.
The earth's total landmass is approximately 92,229,476 square miles. In 2005, Taipei Times reported that 40% of the earth's land mass was being used for farmland. Not accounting for any increase from 2005 to 2006, the amount of land being used for farmland was, in 2006, 40% of 92,229,476 square miles, or 36,891,790 square miles, and this includes grazing land for livestock production.
According to Science Daily, “grazing occupies 26 percent of the Earth's terrestrial surface.” 26% of earth's total landmass of 92,229,476 square miles = 23,979,664 square miles. So, subtract that from the total amount of land being used for farmland, and we get 12,912,126 square miles of farmland devoted to raising crops. Of this total amount of farmland that is being used to raise crops, 393,828 square miles are devoted to GMO crop production as of 2006. Let's look a bit further:
According the chart above, in 1996, there were 1.7 hectares, or 4.2 million acres, which equates to approximately 6,563 square miles of farmland devoted to GMO crops. In 2006, there were 393,828 square miles of farmland devoted to GMO crops, which was 387,265 square miles more in 2006 than in 1996. Using a rate of increase calculation, this equates to
A 5900% INCREASE IN LAND DEVOTED TO GMO CROPS IN A 10-YEAR PERIOD!
If you think that this trend cannot continue, think again.
In 2007, the cultivation of genetically modified plants also increased. The area dedicated to such plants rose by 12 million hectares to reach a total of 114 million hectares. The greatest increase was shown by maize, which added 10 million hectares to its area. Genetically modified plants are commercially employed in 23 countries, twelve of which are developing nations. (GMO Compass, 2008)
(GMO Compass, 2008)
It looks like the agri-giants are right on schedule, with an average yearly increase of approximately 10 million hectares of land. The increase from 2006 to 2007 was 102 to 114 hectares. At this rate, the amount of land dedicated to the growth of GM killing fields will double in another 10 years.
Barbara H. Peterson is retired from the California Department of Corrections, where she worked as a Correctional Officer at Folsom Prison. She was one of the first females to work at the facility in this classification. After retirement, she went to college online to obtain a Bachelor's degree in Business, and graduated with honors.
The most valuable thing she received from her time with UOP was a realization that her life's passion is writing. Now her business degree sits in her desk drawer, and she counts herself in the category of Writer/Activist.
Someday she will make money writing, but that is not why she does it. "I do it because I must. A driving force compels me to reach out to others with what I learn about the condition we the people are in, and that is what I devote my time to. After all, time is the most precious thing we have, and the older I get the more I want to use it wisely."
Barbara lives on a small ranch in Oregon with her husband, where they raise geese, chickens, Navajo Churro sheep, Oggie Dog, a variety of cats, and an opinionated Macaw named Rita. She believes that self-sufficiency and localization of food sources will be necessary to survive the coming depression. To this end, she has put up a website to share information at:
http://survivingthemiddleclasscrash.wordpress.com.
Her philosophy is this: You are on this earth for a reason - to fight for the light. Your words are swords that penetrate the darkness with truth and light. You have a purpose.
A little known fact is that Abu Ghraib was not only a source of experimental torture, but held the Iraqi seed vault that contained the heritage seeds of Iraqi agriculture. This seed vault was destroyed by the U.S. during the war. To re-build Iraqi farms, guess what kind of seeds they were given? Well, they asked, but were not told. However, if they were GMO, and I am certain they were, the Iraqis will be seed serfs shortly because not only will they have to pay royalties to companies such as Monsanto, but will have to purchase seeds year after year, as well as chemicals from these same companies year after year to use on the plants. This information was taken from William Engdahl's Seeds of Destruction. I highly recommend this book.
by
Barbara Peterson (46 articles, 80 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 416 comments)
on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 6:04:25 PM
A farmer whose corn had consistently won blue ribbons at the state fair was asked why he persisted in giving his seed to his neighbors, since that would represent increased competition for him .
He answered simply: "Because....
My crops are only as good as those of my neighbors'"
by
Bia Winter (1 articles, 2 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 169 comments)
on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 7:49:59 AM
Has anyone thought about the bees and what's been happening to them? Perhaps there's an answer here.
It doesn't stop with botanicals in our food chain.
The bird flu scare has pulled pharmaceutical companies like Gideon in California out of the red with a faux vaccine for a bogus flu. Donald Rumsfeld's stock in Gideon rose to almost $100 million in 2006. Coincidence? Perhaps.
Raising the fear level for this bogus flu has incited the beginning of the destruction of domestic bird populations world wide. Domestic bird populations soon to be replaced by genetically altered, rfid chipped birds.
This is already being done in Asia, China in particular. Don't think for a minute that China's chickens are out of our food chain. Companies like Tyson import poultry from China, package and ship it to supermarkets in the US.
Until we get the country of origin printed on our labeling, I'm sticking to neighborhood farms for my family's food source.
by
grassroots (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 39 comments)
on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 7:02:32 PM
Lyme disease was also hatched right off New York's Plum Island, where a Gov.lab run by ex-("offensive" word starting with N, rhymes with Yahtzi) scientists accidently released it and infected deer and birds.
It is "designed" to keep mutating, making it especially hard to treat and understand.
by
Bia Winter (1 articles, 2 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 169 comments)
on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 7:44:13 AM
I listen to Derry Brownfield, and the other day he talked about another facility in the planning stages where all harmful disease organisms will be stored that affect farm animals. He also revealed a manual by the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization titled Manual on Procedures for Disease Eradication by Stamping Out. This manual is a disease eradication program that details the ways to kill farm animals in the event of a disease outbreak. He put two and two together, and the result is sickening. First you have the manual for stamping out disease, then you place a center such as the one you mention that contains all the disease organisms right in the middle of livestock country, and these centers have a history of leaking diseases. It doesn't take rocket science to figure out what is going to happen.
by
Barbara Peterson (46 articles, 80 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 416 comments)
on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 9:34:46 AM
Ms. Winters, Lyme Disease has been "known" for about a hundred years now; it wasn't called as such until the late 1970s. Its symptoms, though, were first associated with a then unknown disease in Europe in 1908. The same association didn't occur in the US until 1975. Further research in the early 1980s confirmed that both the European and American symptoms were associated with a common bacterium - the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi - http://www.im.microbios.org/13march01/BR3%20Karlen-Margulis.pdf .
Differing vectors exist in Europe and the US, but the spirochete is common to both locales. It's only the bug that carries the "nasty" that differs. Now, unless you're alleging that this origin is a lie, I think your assertion that the bacterium was produced in a lab is fatally-flawed.
by
Tom Murphy (3 articles, 4 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 1719 comments)
on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 12:27:57 PM
I partially agree with you Tom, that originally Lyme disease might not have been created in a lab. However, there is evidence to suggest that the Lyme Disease epidemic might have originated from Plum Island's lab (LINK).
The Plum Island website, which was last modified in 2005, makes the following claim:
We're proud of our role as America's first line of defense against foreign animal diseases.
We're equally proud of our safety record. Not once in our nearly 50 years of operation has an animal pathogen escaped from the island.
However, according to a New York Times article in 2002 titled "Power Fails for 3 Hours at Plum Island Infectious Disease Lab," (LINK)
The latest incident was made public when a replacement worker notified members of Senator Clinton's staff of the power failure. In an interview, the worker, who insisted on anonymity, said, ''The reason I am coming forward is because what I have seen at the center is really out of hand and something needs to be done about it.'' Requests by The New York Times to visit the island have been rejected.
The power failure is the first time the possibility of a leak of the pathogens studied on the island has been raised.
Evidently, the 2002 possible leak of pathogens is not something the Plum Island website takes into account. One has to wonder just how many other instances like this have occured in the past that Plum Island simply did not tell the public.
Sandy Miller Hays, spokesperson for the USDA stated:
With the power out, the filtering would have stopped, but experts thought that the overall pressure of the facility would probably have stayed low enough to have limited the risk of a leak.
"Limiting the risk of a leak" is not the same as eliminating the risk of a leak, and "probably" is not the same as definitely. The words "probably" and "limiting the risk" are double-speak for "well, it might have happened, but we don't think it did, but cannot guarantee it." Not good enough. If there was a leak due to either sloppiness or calculation, the result is the same. A leak is a leak.
by
Barbara Peterson (46 articles, 80 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 416 comments)
on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 1:44:51 PM
I've heard that almost all of the so-called organic seeds already are or are becoming contaminated. I heard this from www.mercola.com, which I highly suggest you visit and subscribe to its weekly newsletter. One article is "The Global Blight of Genetically Modified Crops" among many others. You can support local farms, but even those are in trouble and are being subverted by the giant food corporations. We should all push for and support any legislation dealing with ANYTHING natural/organic: hopefully that will be enough.
by
Doosen Tachia (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 8 comments)
on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 10:08:46 AM
9 comments
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