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 (73 articles, 109 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 541 comments [98 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008 at 6:04:25 PM

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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, Apr 2, 2008 at 7:49:59 AM

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by grassroots (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 42 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008 at 7:02:32 PM

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Global Research has an excellent article regarding the bees. You can access it here.

by Barbara Peterson (73 articles, 109 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 541 comments [98 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008 at 7:31:08 PM

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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, Apr 2, 2008 at 7:44:13 AM

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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 (73 articles, 109 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 541 comments [98 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Apr 2, 2008 at 9:34:46 AM

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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, 5 quicklinks, 16 diaries, 2103 comments [55 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Apr 2, 2008 at 12:27:57 PM

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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 (73 articles, 109 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 541 comments [98 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Apr 2, 2008 at 1:44:51 PM

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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, Apr 2, 2008 at 10:08:46 AM

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