Superweed Explosion Threatens Monsanto Heartland

By CLEA CAULCUTT - France 24 - SUNDAY 19 APRIL 2009



“Superweeds” are plaguing high-tech Monsanto crops in southern US states, driving farmers to use more herbicides, return to conventional crops or even abandon their farms.
Read more here...

Artist Paul Hoppe

The Swine Flu Scare Lays Bare the Meat Industry's Monstrous Power

By *Mike Davis. Posted April 28, 2009.

(Photo courtesy of "Centre for Research on Globaliziation")

Animal husbandry now more closely resembles the petrochemical industry than the happy family farm. Click on title for more ...
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Please also read - Flying Pigs, Tamiflu and Factory Farms - by F. William Engdahl
AND

Swine Flu Is Related to Virus Born on U.S. Hog Factories in 1998
AND
A FOOD SYSTEM THAT KILLS
New from GRAIN - April 2009

SWINE FLU IS MEAT INDUSTRY'S LATEST PLAGUE

Read more here...

COMMENT:
Johanne Dion said...

Very few seem to want to ask the question: how do these epidemics start and what can we do to avoid them? Seems to me that factory farming is just begging for these new virus mutations while creating pools of superbugs by using micro-dosing of antibiotics.

A productive thing than anybody in an industrialized country can do is to buy pork and ham that comes from a family size, almost organic pig farm, and avoid all prepared meats that come from big mainstream companies that have promoted these intensive, packed inhuman factory farms. The only way to get companies like Smithfields to change their ways is through their wallet.

Anybody who lives in a small village like mine that has had a 5,800 pig farm imposed upon them, like I have, will agree with me. Ask the people of La Gloria, Mexico.

Johanne Dion
Richelieu,
Province of Quebec,
Canada

April 30, 2009 4:07 PM
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Johanne Dion said...

You might like to read and add this interesting article on the subject:

April 30, 2009 4:38 PM

"Big Pharma" Poisons the World's Rivers

Cocktail of Pharmaceuticals Found in the Fish Caught Near Major U.S. Cities -
3/26/2009 - (NaturalNews) - Pharmaceutical pollution is out of control, polluting the waterways of our world to such a disturbing degree that now even the fish are carrying detectable levels of pharmaceuticals in their own bodies! A study conducted by Baylor University... read more...

Also... WORLD'S HIGHEST DRUG LEVELS ENTERING INDIA STREAM

By MARGIE MASON

PATANCHERU, India (AP) — When researchers analyzed vials of treated waste water taken from a plant where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues, they were shocked. Enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.

Why the Free Market Doesn't Work - Especially Regarding our Environment

Why the Free Market Doesn't Work: Consumption vs. Conservation

by Mike Adams, "The Health Ranger"

Ocean Dead Zones Likely To Expand

ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news and science breakthroughs.

Increasing Carbon Dioxide And Decreasing Oxygen Make It Harder For Deep-sea Animals To Breath

ScienceDaily (Apr. 18, 2009) — New calculations made by marine chemists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) suggest that low-oxygen "dead zones" in the ocean could expand significantly over the next century. As more and more carbon dioxide dissolves from the atmosphere into the ocean, marine animals will need more oxygen to survive. Read more here...

About all that can survive in these dead zones are vast hordes of slimy, amorphous, useless jellyfish (r.). They can inflict painful stings on swimmers who fail to heed warning signs (l.)

l.p.

13 Breathtaking Effects of Cutting Back on Meat

By Kathy Freston, AlterNet. Posted April 22, 2009.

The meat industry contributes to land degradation, climate change, air pollution, water shortage and pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

Read more here....
Photos by L.P.
Click on "Water" and "Livestock" labels to the right for related stories.

Honeybees Continue to Vanish: Don't Blame Aliens -- It's Our Addiction to Pesticides

By Evaggelos Vallianatos, TruthOut.org. Posted April 16, 2009.
The chemicals we use in industrial agriculture cause brain damage to the bees, making it often impossible for them to find their way home.
Click on headline for the full story.
Please also read - Should Pesticide "Regulators" & Politicians Face Penalties for Refusing to Protect Honeybees? and "Lament for the Honeybee" here.
Photo courtesy www.nonofficejobs.com