Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Blackwater Mercs to United Arab Emirates


UAE: Arming up with mercenaries
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Monday, May 16, 2011

The Obama Deception: Why Cornel West Went Ballistic

Posted on May 16, 2011
AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

President Obama shakes hands with Princeton University professor Cornel West after speaking at the National Urban League’s 100th Anniversary Convention in Washington in July 2010.

The moral philosopher Cornel West, if Barack Obama’s ascent to power was a morality play, would be the voice of conscience. Rahm Emanuel, a cynical product of the Chicago political machine, would be Satan. Emanuel in the first scene of the play would dangle power, privilege, fame and money before Obama. West would warn Obama that the quality of a life is defined by its moral commitment, that his legacy will be determined by his willingness to defy the cruel assault by the corporate state and the financial elite against the poor and working men and women, and that justice must never be sacrificed on the altar of power.

Perhaps there was never much of a struggle in Obama’s heart. Perhaps West only provided a moral veneer. Perhaps the dark heart of Emanuel was always the dark heart of Obama. Only Obama knows. But we know how the play ends. West is banished like honest Kent in “King Lear.” Emanuel and immoral mediocrities from Lawrence Summers to Timothy Geithner to Robert Gates—think of Goneril and Regan in the Shakespearean tragedy—take power. We lose. And Obama becomes an obedient servant of the corporate elite in exchange for the hollow trappings of authority.

No one grasps this tragic descent better than West, who did 65 campaign events for Obama, believed in the potential for change and was encouraged by the populist rhetoric of the Obama campaign. He now nurses, like many others who placed their faith in Obama, the anguish of the deceived, manipulated and betrayed. He bitterly describes Obama as “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.”

“When you look at a society you look at it through the lens of the least of these, the weak and the vulnerable; you are committed to loving them first, not exclusively, but first, and therefore giving them priority,” says West, the Class of 1943 University Professor of African American Studies and Religion at Princeton University. “And even at this moment, when the empire is in deep decline, the culture is in deep decay, the political system is broken, where nearly everyone is up for sale, you say all I have is the subversive memory of those who came before, personal integrity, trying to live a decent life, and a willingness to live and die for the love of folk who are catching hell. This means civil disobedience, going to jail, supporting progressive forums of social unrest if they in fact awaken the conscience, whatever conscience is left, of the nation. And that’s where I find myself now.

“I have to take some responsibility,” he admits of his support for Obama as we sit in his book-lined office. “I could have been reading into it more than was there.


“I was thinking maybe he has at least some progressive populist instincts that could become more manifest after the cautious policies of being a senator and working with [Sen. Joe] Lieberman as his mentor,” he says. “But it became very clear when I looked at the neoliberal economic team. The first announcement of Summers and Geithner I went ballistic. I said, ‘Oh, my God, I have really been misled at a very deep level.’ And the same is true for Dennis Ross and the other neo-imperial elites. I said, ‘I have been thoroughly misled, all this populist language is just a facade. I was under the impression that he might bring in the voices of brotherJoseph Stiglitz and brother Paul Krugman. I figured, OK, given the structure of constraints of the capitalist democratic procedure that’s probably the best he could do. But at least he would have some voices concerned about working people, dealing with issues of jobs and downsizing and banks, some semblance of democratic accountability for Wall Street oligarchs and corporate plutocrats who are just running amuck. I was completely wrong.”
West says the betrayal occurred on two levels.

“There is the personal level,” he says. “I used to call my dear brother [Obama] every two weeks. I said a prayer on the phone for him, especially before a debate. And I never got a call back. And when I ran into him in the state Capitol in South Carolina when I was down there campaigning for him he was very kind. The first thing he told me was, ‘Brother West, I feel so bad. I haven’t called you back. You been calling me so much. You been giving me so much love, so much support and what have you.’ And I said, ‘I know you’re busy.’ But then a month and half later I would run into other people on the campaign and he’s calling them all the time. I said, wow, this is kind of strange. He doesn’t have time, even two seconds, to say thank you or I’m glad you’re pulling for me and praying for me, but he’s calling these other people. I said, this is very interesting. And then as it turns out with the inauguration I couldn’t get a ticket with my mother and my brother. I said this is very strange. We drive into the hotel and the guy who picks up my bags from the hotel has a ticket to the inauguration. My mom says, ‘That’s something that this dear brother can get a ticket and you can’t get one, honey, all the work you did for him from Iowa.’ Beginning in Iowa to Ohio. We had to watch the thing in the hotel.



“What it said to me on a personal level,” he goes on, “was that brother Barack Obama had no sense of gratitude, no sense of loyalty, no sense of even courtesy, [no] sense of decency, just to say thank you. Is this the kind of manipulative, Machiavellian orientation we ought to get used to? That was on a personal level.”

But there was also the betrayal on the political and ideological level.

“It became very clear to me as the announcements were being made,” he says, “that this was going to be a newcomer, in many ways like Bill Clinton, who wanted to reassure the Establishment by bringing in persons they felt comfortable with and that we were really going to get someone who was using intermittent progressive populist language in order to justify a centrist, neoliberalist policy that we see in the opportunism of Bill Clinton. It was very much going to be a kind of black face of the DLC [Democratic Leadership Council].”

Obama and West’s last personal contact took place a year ago at a gathering of the Urban League when, he says, Obama “cussed me out.” Obama, after his address, which promoted his administration’s championing of charter schools, approached West, who was seated in the front row.


“He makes a bee line to me right after the talk, in front of everybody,” West says. “He just lets me have it. He says, ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself, saying I’m not a progressive. Is that the best you can do? Who do you think you are?’ I smiled. I shook his hand. And a sister hollered in the back, ‘You can’t talk to professor West. That’s Dr. Cornel West. Who do you think you are?’ You can go to jail talking to the president like that. You got to watch yourself. I wanted to slap him on the side of his head.

“It was so disrespectful,” he went on, “that’s what I didn’t like. I’d already been called, along with all [other] leftists, a “F’ing retard” by Rahm Emanuel because we had critiques of the president.” 

Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president, has, West said, phoned him to complain about his critiques of Obama. Jarrett was especially perturbed, West says, when he said in an interview last year that he saw a lot of Malcolm X and Ella Bakerin Michelle Obama. Jarrett told him his comments were not complimentary to the first lady.

“I said in the world that I live in, in that which authorizes my reality, Ella Baker is a towering figure,” he says, munching Fritos and sipping apple juice at his desk. “If I say there is a lot of Ella Baker in Michelle Obama, that’s a compliment. She can take it any way she wants. I can tell her I’m sorry it offended you, but I’m going to speak the truth. She is a Harvard Law graduate, a Princeton graduate, and she deals with child obesity and military families. Why doesn’t she visit a prison? Why not spend some time in the hood? That is where she is, but she can’t do it.

“I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men,” West says. “It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation. When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening. And that’s true for a white brother. When you get a white brother who meets a free, independent black man, they got to be mature to really embrace fully what the brother is saying to them. It’s a tension, given the history. It can be overcome. Obama, coming out of Kansas influence, white, loving grandparents, coming out of Hawaii and Indonesia, when he meets these independent black folk who have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, Jane Crow and so on, he is very apprehensive. He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination. It is understandable.

“He feels most comfortable with upper middle-class white and Jewish men who consider themselves very smart, very savvy and very effective in getting what they want,” he says. “He’s got two homes. He has got his family and whatever challenges go on there, and this other home. Larry Summers blows his mind because he’s so smart. He’s got Establishment connections. He’s embracing me. It is this smartness, this truncated brilliance, that titillates and stimulates brother Barack and makes him feel at home. That is very sad for me.

“This was maybe America’s last chance to fight back against the greed of the Wall Street oligarchs and corporate plutocrats, to generate some serious discussion about public interest and common good that sustains any democratic experiment,” West laments. “We are squeezing out all of the democratic juices we have. The escalation of the class war against the poor and the working class is intense. More and more working people are beaten down. They are world-weary. They are into self-medication. They are turning on each other. They are scapegoating the most vulnerable rather than confronting the most powerful. It is a profoundly human response to panic and catastrophe. I thought Barack Obama could have provided some way out. But he lacks backbone.


“Can you imagine if Barack Obama had taken office and deliberately educated and taught the American people about the nature of the financial catastrophe and what greed was really taking place?” West asks. “If he had told us what kind of mechanisms of accountability needed to be in place, if he had focused on homeowners rather than investment banks for bailouts and engaged in massive job creation he could have nipped in the bud the right-wing populism of the tea party folk. The tea party folk are right when they say the government is corrupt. It is corrupt. Big business and banks have taken over government and corrupted it in deep ways.

“We have got to attempt to tell the truth, and that truth is painful,” he says. “It is a truth that is against the thick lies of the mainstream. In telling that truth we become so maladjusted to the prevailing injustice that the Democratic Party, more and more, is not just milquetoast and spineless, as it was before, but thoroughly complicitous with some of the worst things in the American empire. I don’t think in good conscience I could tell anybody to vote for Obama. If it turns out in the end that we have a crypto-fascist movement and the only thing standing between us and fascism is Barack Obama, then we have to put our foot on the brake. But we’ve got to think seriously of third-party candidates, third formations, third parties.

“Our last hope is to generate a democratic awakening among our fellow citizens. This means raising our voices, very loud and strong, bearing witness, individually and collectively. Tavis [Smiley] and I have talked about ways of civil disobedience, beginning with ways for both of us to get arrested, to galvanize attention to the plight of those in prisons, in the hoods, in poor white communities. We must never give up. We must never allow hope to be eliminated or suffocated.”
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

NATO's Real Goal in Libya

Here are some great articles I have read that I feel shed new light on the situation in Libya.


The first article is from Center for a Stateless Society

Those Libyan “Freedom Fighters”: The Fix is On

Posted by Kevin Carson on May 7, 2011


In a column three months ago (“Egypt: Let the Looting Begin,” Feb. 4),  I suggested that was really going on in Egypt was somewhat different from the official narrative. In quite a few of the “people power” revolutions in recent years — no matter how sincere the people on the streets — it turned out that there were attempts to orchestrate things by people behind the scenes, for whom “people power” was the very last thing on the agenda. In that column I reported that Frank Wisner — a veteran spook, described by Vijay Prashad at Counterpunch as a “bagman of empire,” was Obama’s man on the ground.
Wisner, a former Director at AIG and Enron with longstanding family ties to the OSS and CIA, had previously been involved in drafting the Bush administration’s postwar blueprint for Iraq. That agenda involved so-called “privatizations” of state industry that amounted to insider deals with global corporate interests for pennies on the dollar, “strong intellectual property protections” largely written by Monsanto and the RIAA, and draconian crackdowns on genuine freedom fighters in the labor movement and the Iraqi Freedom Congress. Paul Bremer, with the help of his Heritage Foundation boys in the Green Zone, basically oversaw the looting of everything that wasn’t nailed down.
In that light, some recent news from Libya is especially interesting. First, Alexander Cockburn (“What’s Really Going On in Libya?” Counterpunch, April 15)  reports that a high priority for the NATO operation in Libya was to see to the central banking arrangements of the revolutionary government in Benghazi. On March 19 they authorized the Central Bank of Benghazi to handle monetary policy for the country. Qaddafi, it seems, had announced his intention to repudiate the dollar and the euro and encourage the use of the gold dinar as a common currency by all of Africa. He’d gained tentative buy-in, over the previous year, from a number of Arab and African regimes. The government-owned Libyan national bank in Tripoli, which is independent of the global banking industry, has been a thorn in the flesh of global financial elites for some time.
Things that make you go “Hmmmm …”
Meanwhile, Russ Baker at Alternet announces (“The CIA’s Man in Libya?” April 26)  that the latest head of rebel forces in Libya, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, is a CIA asset. Hifter has lived in the Greater Washington area of Virginia (cough cough Langley cough) for almost twenty years, enjoying an unusually comfortable lifestyle considerably disproportionate to his visible means of support. Hifter has headed the military wing (Libyan National Army) of an opposition movement in exile (NSFL) for most of that time. The CIA sponsored a training operation for the Libyan National Army at a base in Chad during the reign of Bush I, with a view to a possible future overthrow of Qaddafi. In 1996, Hifter headed a failed overthrow attempt, after which he returned to the United States.
So the head of the opposition movement is on the CIA payroll, and the first order of business of the insurgent regime is to create a central bank that takes orders from international finance capital.  Doesn’t look real good for “freedom” in Libya, does it? Looks pretty damn good for the banksters, though.
If the attempt to overthrow of Qaddafi had anything to do with genuine freedom, it’s a safe bet the U.S. government would have had nothing to do with it.  Put not your faith in princes.
Citations to this article:

Comments
There are only five government controlled central banks that are not part of the IMF/BIS system. Libya was one. Can you guess the other four? I bet you can guess three off the top of your head. Think "Axis of Evil". Iran, Cuba and North Korea. Sudan is the final one, but they have been "working" with the IMF as of late. 

Don't forget, the UN Security Council froze all of the assets of the Libyan National OIl Company and the central bank on March 17th. By March 19th, the Rebels had created a new National Oil Co and a new central bank while they were getting their asses kicked all over the desert. Two days. Two freaking days. Do ya think they had a little help? I wonder from whom? Hmmmmm.  ***COMMENT BY: Michael Matalucci

Here is the second article taken from examiner.com

America's true reason for intervention, and missile attacks against Libya has become very clear today with a sudden creation by the rebels of a new central bank on March 29th.
The rebels in Libya are in the middle of a life or death civil war and Moammar Gadhafi is still in power and yet somehow the Libyan rebels have had enough time to establish a new Central Bank of Libya and form a new national oil company.  Perhaps when this conflict is over those rebels can become time management consultants.  They sure do get a lot done.  What a skilled bunch of rebels - they can fight a war during the day and draw up a new central bank and a new national oil company at night without any outside help whatsoever.  If only the rest of us were so versatile!  But isn't forming a central bank something that could be done after the civil war is over?  According to Bloomberg, the Transitional National Council has "designated the Central Bank of Benghazi as a monetary authority competent in monetary policies in Libya and the appointment of a governor to the Central Bank of Libya, with a temporary headquarters in Benghazi." – The Economic Collapse via Uruknet
Libya has been one of the last nations in the world that had its own state run banking system, and control over its own money supply.  By having this system in place, they could demand oil purchases from their oil fields to be made in Lybyan Dinar, and not the US Dollar.  It also means that Libya has ensured themselves a stable economy, with little inflation and currency devaluing as most of the industrialized world has under private central banks.
The parallels for both European and US intervention now in Libya is very reminiscent to why the United States attacked Iraq in 2003.  Six months before the US moved into Iraq to take down Saddam Hussein, the oil nation had made the move to accept Euro's instead of dollars for oil, and this became a threat to the global dominance of the dollar as the reserve currency, and its dominion as the petrodollar.

The American people were given the lie that there were weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and that there were Al Quida training bases in the Arab state, both of which were proven to be false.  No, these were false flags given by the government to try to justify a punishment on Iraq for moving away from dollars as payment for oil.
To be able to create a new central bank under the blueprint that is used by Western powers in less than two weeks by the rebels gives vast credence that the rebellion itself in Libya was initiated by outside forces, and not over demands by the citizens of Libya for social reform.  This plan was put in place by the world's game changers who want complete global control over oil and economic systems.
It did not take long before we discovered the real reason why America chose to intervene and attack Libya, and not any of the other nations in the Middle East that are going through internal rebellion.  The rebels creation of a central bank, coupled with the United Nations report two days ago that there would be no sanctions on the selling of oil by the rebels who control certain fields and refineries, proves that this war is not about human rights, but about punishment for a nation that refused to give up its sovereignty to the global banking and oil cabals.
Continue reading on Examiner.com: America's true reason for attacking Libya becomes clear with new central bank - National Finance Examiner | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/finance-examiner-in-national/america-s-true-reason-for-attacking-libya-becomes-clear-with-new-central-bank#ixzz1MXSvUiOw

This is the third article from Bloomberg.com 

Libyan Rebel Council Forms Oil Company to Replace Qaddafi

By Bill Varner - Mar 22, 2011 2:17 AM PT
Libyan rebels in Benghazi said they have created a new national oil company to replace the corporation controlled by leader Muammar Qaddafi whose assets were frozen by the United Nations Security Council.
The Transitional National Council released a statement announcing the decision made at a March 19 meeting to establish the “Libyan Oil Company as supervisory authority on oil production and policies in the country, based temporarily in Benghazi, and the appointment of an interim director general” of the company.
The Council also said it “designated the Central Bank of Benghazi as a monetary authority competent in monetary policies in Libya and the appointment of a governor to the Central Bank of Libya, with a temporary headquarters in Benghazi.”
The Security Council adopted a resolution on March 17 that froze the foreign assets of the Libyan National Oil Corp. and the Central Bank of Libya, both described in the text as “a potential source of funding” for Qaddafi’s regime.
Libya holds Africa’s largest oil reserve. Output has fallen to fewer than 400,000 barrels a day,Shokri Ghanem, chairman of the National Oil Corp., said on March 19. The country produced 1.59 million barrels a day in January, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Exports may be halted for “many months” because of sanctions and unrest, the International Energy Agency said.

‘Extended Shutdown’

Brent crude for May settlement on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange fell 0.3 percent to $114.62 as of 8:50 a.m. It surged to a 2 1/2-year high of $119.79 on Feb 24 as geopolitical tensions spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
The European benchmark will average $109 a barrel this year, up from a previous forecast of $98, on expectations of an “extended shutdown” of Libyan oil supplies, Societe Generale SA said in a monthly review dated yesterday.
The statement by the Transitional National Council also said the rebels would “urgently prepare a file on the referral of Qaddafi and his gang and his associates involved in the killing of Libyans to the International Criminal Court.”
The Security Council referred allegations of human rights violations by the Qaddafi regime to the court in a resolution adopted on Feb. 26.
The statement said the council would begin choosing ambassadors to foreign countries.
The UN said yesterday that Deputy Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, who broke with the regime last month and said he was then representing the rebels, was no longer Libya’s accredited ambassador. Ambassador Mohammed Shalgham, who also broke with the regime, similarly lost his accreditation when Qaddafi appointed former UN General Assembly President Abdussalam Treki as envoy to the world body.
Treki hasn’t presented his credentials yet to Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon, a prerequisite for officials taking the post.
To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner at the United Nations atwvarner@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva in Washington atmsilva34@bloomberg.net

And lastly after reading this I would like you to examine the Libyan rebels WEBSITE. The stated goals and people who make up this group is fairly intriguing.


The Libyan Interim National Council
The Libyan Interim National Council – Official Website

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Genetically Modified Crops in the Food Supply: The Threat to Your Health

May 14th, 2011
The case against genetically modified (GM) crops has been growing for years. While there are no long-term studies on the health effects of eating food from GM crops, even short-term studies have raised very troubling questions. For example, a panel of scientists in India recently reviewed studies that purported to show that GM crops modified to produce Bt were safe. The reviewers concluded that the studies did not meet international standards, did not accurately summarize the results, and “ignored toxic endpoints” that occurred in rats that were fed the GM grain for just 3 months. The rats suffered organ and system damage to ovaries, spleens, and the immune system, and demonstrated toxic effects to the liver [L. Gallagher, BT Brinjal Event EEa: The Scope and Adequacy of the GEAC Toxicological Risk Assessment: Review of Oral Toxicity Studies in Rats (2010)]. Other studies have come to similar conclusions, namely that even a relatively short period of feeding GM foods to lab animals indicate serious potential health impacts.
Despite that, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to allow GM crops to enter our food supply without labeling, leaving the majority of Americans in the dark about the fact that almost every processed food contains ingredients from GM corn, soy, and/ or canola.
As serious as these problems are, the concerns over GM crops rose to an even higher level recently. On January 17, 2011, Dr. Don M. Huber, an internationally recognized plant pathologist and Professor Emeritus from Purdue University, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack warning him of a previously unknown pathogen that “should be treated as an emergency.” As explained in the letter, the pathogen poses a serious threat to plant health, animal health, and potentially human health – and has been connected to GM crops engineered to be resistant to the herbicide Roundup, whose active ingredient is glyphosate.
“Roundup Ready” crops, as they are called, allow farmers to spray the herbicide glyphosate to kill weeds throughout the growing season. This has two effects: it significantly increases the amount of glyphosate used and results in glyphosate residues on the crop itself.
As outlined in Dr. Huber’s letter and subsequent materials, veterinarians first identified this organism in livestock herds experiencing extremely high rates, up to 45%, of spontaneous abortions and infertility rates of 20% and higher. The vets confirmed that the pathogen was the cause of the problem, and then searched for the source of the pathogen, ultimately finding it in the animals’ feed. The contaminated feeds were made from Roundup Ready soy, Roundup Ready corn, and crops raised for feed in fields treated with glyphosate.
The connection was then made with plant pathologists who have been working to understand the growing scope and severity of plant diseases such as Goss’ Wilt in corn and Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) in soybeans. When examined, the new pathogen was found in very high levels in the infected crops.
Dr. Huber’s January letter urged Secretary Vilsack not to approve Roundup Ready alfalfa and to conduct research on the relationship between Roundup Ready crops, glyphosate, and this new pathogen. The USDA chose to ignore this warning and less than three weeks later approved two new GMO crops, including Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa, creating a threat to the primary forage feed crop for US livestock.
The letter, although intended to be confidential, was leaked by a third party, after which Dr. Huber gave permission for the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance and others to post it. The now-public letter unleashed a storm of accusations and recriminations, including a quick response from Monsanto. Yet, while Monsanto and its allies attacked the letter, they presented no evidence that contradicted it – just their own unsupported claims that circled around Dr. Huber’s statements without addressing them directly.
At the request of other scientists and European leaders, Dr. Huber wrote a second, more in-depth letter in March which can be read at the Farm and Ranch Freedom website.
Last week, Food Democracy Now! released an exclusive 20-minute interview with Dr. Huber in which he explains the issues. We encourage everyone to view it and share it with their friends and neighbors. If you have trouble downloading the full video because of the file size, shorter segments of it are posted on the website of Food Democracy Now! Then scroll down the page to sign a petition urging President Obama to impose an immediate moratorium on GM alfalfa and sugar beets.
The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund has joined a lawsuit against Monsanto that challenges the validity and enforceability of its patents on GM seeds. This lawsuit is an important piece of the overall campaign to protect our farmers and food from the many threats posed by genetically engineered crops. For more details, read “FTCLDF in Suit over Monsanto GMO Seed”.
Judith McGeary is a Policy Advisor for the Cornucopia Institute.
******THIS ARTICLE IS FOUND AT http://www.cornucopia.org PLEASE CHECK THIS SITE OUT FOR MUCH MORE INFORMATION
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Replacing Mother: Infant Formula Report


Replacing Mother – Imitating Human Breast Milk in the Laboratory, details research questioning the alleged benefits of adding “novel” omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, produced in laboratories and extracted from algae and fungus, into infant formulas. The report presents disturbing research indicating that the new additives placed in infant formula are seriously endangering the health of some formula-fed newborns and toddlers. Aggressive marketing campaigns by some infant formula manufacturers appear to have encouraged new mothers to give up nursing and switch to use of the questionable infant formula products.
Take Action Now! Tell the National Organic Standards Board to remove DHA/ARA from organic infant formula and foods.
NEW – Watch our 4-minute video on Martek Biosciences Corporation’s DHA and ARA in infant formula.
NEW – Avoid organic foods containing Martek’s DHA and ARA. Click here to see a list of products with these unapproved additives.
Update May 2010 – Contains updates to the original 2008 report, including personal stories of infant suffering, information on lack of post‐market surveillance and safety studies, and changes in the National Organic Program’s interpretation of the legality of these additives.Download the 2010 DHA Update Updated Report, coming soon
Important Information for Parents: DHA and ARA in infant formula have been linked to severe diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and gastrointestinal pain in some infants. Since these additives are relatively new in infant formula, not all pediatricians are aware of their possible side effects.  If your baby experienced side effects from DHA and ARA in infant formula, please send an adverse reaction report to the FDA and to Cornucopia. For instructions,  read rest of update.
Report and Related Links:
  • Read a sampling of “Adverse Reaction reports” obtained by The Cornucopia Institute’s Freedom of Information Act request to the FDA. The reports detail infant health problems related to DHA/ARA formula.
  • Read the entire news release announcing the release of Replacing Mother – Imitating Human Breast Milk in the Laboratory
  • The Cornucopia Institute and the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy petition the Food and Drug Administration for a warning label on infant forumlas containing DHA and ARA laboratory oils
  • Click here to listen to a podcast about the report.
  • In response to Cornucopia’s work, the National Organic Program corrects improprieties related to DHA/ARA in organic foods. Read the latest press release
  • If you suspect that your infant has suffered an adverse reaction from DHA/ARA infant formula, report this to the FDA.
******THIS ARTICLE IS FOUND AT http://www.cornucopia.org PLEASE CHECK THIS SITE OUT FOR MUCH MORE INFORMATION


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Keep Questionable Synthetics Out of Organics!

Please sign your name to our petition to keep unapproved synthetic and non-organically produced “nutrient” ingredients out of organic foods.


PLEASE CLICK THE LINK & SIGN THIS PETITION
http://www.cornucopia.org/ban-bogus-synthetic-additives-in-organics/
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Who Owns Organic


whoowns
The latest update of major corporate ownership and involvement in the organic food sector is now out. The chart graphically focuses on the organic brands with ties to the top 25 food processors in North America. You can view a full-size version of the latest chart by clicking here.
Dr. Phil Howard, an Assistant Professor at Michigan State, is responsible for the creation and updating of the organic food business chart. He teaches in the University’s Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies program.
Dr. Howard has now created a new graphically animated version of consolidation occurring in the organic food sector between 1995 and 2007. You can view this by clicking on this link:
http://www.msu.edu/~howardp/OrganicIndustry.mov
Dr. Howard’s first organic food sector chart, from 2002 (the date the USDA’s organic standards were implemented), offers an interesting comparison of the dramatic changes that have taken place with organics over the past 4 years. You can view the 2002 organic food sector chart by clicking here.
Two other revealing presentations of organic business have also been prepared by Dr. Howard. These are a chart of major independent organic companies and a chart ofprivate label organic brands, including supermarket chains, specialty chains and distributors.
All of the charts are in a pdf format and may take a few moments to load, depending on your connection speed.
Dr. Howard has other interesting information on the structure of the organic industry at his site.
******THIS ARTICLE IS FOUND AT http://www.cornucopia.org PLEASE CHECK THIS SITE OUT FOR MUCH MORE INFORMATION
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)