The USDA’s response is to talk out of both sides of their mouth.
In a single press release, the USDA closes its investigation of the contamination of wheat fields in Oregon, calling it an “isolated incident,” then immediately contradicts itself by opening another investigation into contamination from genetically engineered wheat. The contamination was found at a research facility in at Montana State University that was the earlier site of authorized field trials.
Both the Oregon and Montana contaminations trace back to wheat developed by Monsanto. No GMO wheat has been approved for commercial use in the US. Of course, APHIS (the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) is not planning any disciplinary action against Monsanto—not even a fine.
The Oregon wheat incident we told you about last year caused Japan and South Korea temporarily to cease buying our wheat, which rocked international trade—and it wasn’t the first time countries have halted trade with the US because of GMOs. We are hoping the National Organics Standards Board will consider shifting some of the blame onto GMO producers and the agencies that oversee them, as we reported in our lead article in this week’s issue of The Pulse.
Readers will recall that we commissioned a report analyzing the cost of not labeling GMOs. Joanna Shepherd-Bailey found that among other problems it affects the country’s ability to compete worldwide. Reduced global consumer demand for agricultural products risks over 130,000 jobs and $33 billion (from food sales, tax revenue, local jobs, and the ripple effect on related industries such as retail, transportation, etc.) in Washington state alone. The damage could be devastating for larger agriculture-producing states. It should be noted that GMO labeling has not had a negative impact on other world economies.
Although the Montana State University research center doesn’t operate as a commercial farm, it raises another big red flag over this issue of uncontrolled GMO contamination. In Oregon, the USDA has no idea how the wheat contamination occurred. If you don’t know how it happened, how can you guarantee it won’t happen again in the future?
Since GMOs are unlabeled, consumers’ only way to be sure they are getting non-GMO foods is the organic certification notice on the package. But organic foods are not routinely tested for unintentional GMO contamination. With this cross-contamination in Montana, it’s clear that GMOs simply cannot be controlled. And that means all organic food is threatened.
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Everyone knows, at least the ones awake, that the USDA and all ABC government agencies are Facist Rothschild Zionist Organization, hell bent on destroying this country as fast as possible before the public totally awakens in which case the public hunts them down with pitch forks and demands public executions by firing squads for Treason against the people who are suppose to be in charge of these scumbags. These little bought and paid for sons of bitches need to slide down into a bucket of ooze and rot!!! They are Satanic Pedophiles and Psychopathic. We will be doing them a favor to remove them from office and place them in a bucket of ooze.
GMOs must be labeled.
Please pass this note on to who so ever. I do think the FDA is falling down on their job by letting the food industry produce GMO grains and whatever else they do to our food. That is why so many Americans are SICK. Please do whatever it takes to wake up our government.
In God We Still Do Trust,
Linda Linebaugh
I ate wheat, bread, cookies etc for 50 years and never had a problem and then (about 15 years ago) my ankles started swelling. I went to 15-20 different Dr’s and got every diagnoses from I don’t know to it was because my lymph glands were not draining properly. Nothing helped. Finally I decided to do my own research. After just a few days, I found that a common cause of edema was gluten intolerance. 10-15% of people had this problem recently. I tried eliminating gluten from my diet and within a week, my edema was gone. Further research has shown me that my edema started about the same tine GMO wheat was becoming common. I am sure that farmers growing GMO wheat will not be happy if 15% or more of the population stops eating wheat and wheat products. If GMO products are not labeled, people like me have no choice but to avoid all possible GMO products.
It is very clear to anyone who cares at all about their health that GMO’s have to go….now they are infiltrating organically grown food, and we are trapped. In the interest of health and human decency, something must be done…..labelling at the very least–but how will that keep us safe from contamination? Very scary…..
Consumers are educating themselves with regards to GMOs. We are no longer ignorant and we will no longer remain quiet. We will not knowingly put our families at risk by allowing them to ingest chemicals. We want to know what is in our food. We have the right to know. And manufacturers and growers owe the consumer a duty to disclose. Their efforts to bypass this disclosure constitutes negligence and willful fraud. It is time that they be made to comply since they obviously will not do so willingly.
we knew this would happen
GMOs need to be banned before our planet is destroyed. Diversity is key to species survival.
This physically and mentally hurts when I think of the harm it will casue our children. It has already has been wide spead asthma and leukemia. This was stated by a pediatrician Its insane.
The news is focusing on the one case of ebola reported here in the states while government ignores the threat of a potential global genocide created by GMOs. Without sufficient regulations and penalties in place, biotech companies have the green light to contaminate our food supply. What better way to bring a country to it’s knees? Sixty four other countries require labeling of GMOs in food products. We are still waiting for the axe to fall before taking measures that protect us from that happening. Where is our representation? Where is the outrage? We must voice our concerns and expect accountability from those in the FDA, USDA and APHIS even though Monsanto is represented in several of those agencies and we pay them.
we do not want any gmo products. please remove them from market
Stop sucking up to Monsanto and do your job. This stuff is more dangerous than Monsanto will lead us to bealave and has no commercial value except to sell more Roundup.
Wheat is wind pollinated, Corn is wind pollinated; there was very obviously only empty air between the ears of whomever approved either of these plants to be planted outside where the wind is necessary for pollination and could and does carry the pollen for hundreds of miles. Where was the critical thinking during the USDA’s approval process?
Time to sue Monsanto.
i firmly believe this is about money it makes us sick ,and there gmos are trying to wipe out competion .they will not listen they do know it harms us they dont care they will do what ever it takes to be on top
We need to ban not label GMOs before we can no longer get the malicious Genie back in the bottle!!
$$ before anything. What else is new, Will there be changes at all?!
If we don’t know where the contamination is coming from, my guess is we can’t keep it from happening again. Other countries won’t buy GMO products. When we contaminate the entire crop, it can’t be sold to these countries. How short sighted and destructive.
This reminds me of the time a foolishly stupid company put a gene for insulin into rice. They were ordered to shut down. Fortunately no pollinators got to it; if they had, the gene would have been spread to ALL rice thereby robbing us of a grain. All of it was destroyed.
Be Well…………………..
Now that there are GMO crops that are resistant to some herbicides in Agent Orange ready to be grown as food crops, why is there no requirement to prove that the added enzymes and other chemicals are safe for inclusion in our diet. I would like to see a double-blind ingestion study over at least a six-month period with enough subjects to be a statistically significant test. That is really a minimum test as these materials could be ingested for years.
People have a right to know if their food is genetically modified or not. Start testing & holding people accountable. People like me that have RA don’t want any more chemicals in their food as it causes adverse reactions to my immune system.
This should never have happened. IT IS LIKE LIVING IN A HORROR MOVIE? They need to stp this persicution of the human race. I was 75 years old before I discovered what happened. I am allergic to this new wheat. I am nearly eighty now.and been glunten free for 5 years. When I grew up food was called food. Now zi must watch all additives and guestion 90 percent o f the grocery. Please stop this horrible train we are om. MKM
Please keep GMOs out of our food supply, they are untested for the long term consequences!
This just shows that if we don’t stop GMOs now, which may be impossible, it will be part of all of our foods, organic or not. Like Japanese knotweed, it will spread and never leave, and we won’t be able to make it leave! Win, lose, or draw we have to fight GMOs and hope for the best. If GMOs do make it into ‘all’ of the food supply, a few years from now the human race will start becoming sicker than ever from this hidden monster. But, at least we can say we fought the good fight!
i know that most of our US grains go to feed animal abuse – CAFOs, but you’d think SOME farmers would realize that in growing GMO crops – or craps – they have voluntarily removed their financial possibilities from the largest consumer market in the world (Europe) and much of the rest of the world.
The main problem stems from their having to buy into a SYSTEM, not a crop. Mandated and limited banks to steal from them, specific poison and poison seed CORPSE-ORATIONS to purchase toxic inputs from, and guaranteed, contracted shippers and end users. Just a mere cog. to be put into the machine to grind along.
We need alternative financing. Crowd-funding, Credit Unions, non-psychopathic banks, Bitcoin – although i have to admit i really don’t trust this thing. We KNOW money only has value because we pretend it does, so bitcoin is simply trading mental value tallied on ‘puters instead of piles of paper and ‘puters……
Barter, community workloads, community farm share of equip/labor as has historically happened for hundreds of years, (establishing legal precedent) correct scaling and modularity, timebanking, and more.
Since GMOs are unlabeled, consumers’ only way to be sure they are getting non-GMO foods is the organic certification notice on the package. But organic foods are not routinely tested for unintentional GMO contamination. With this cross-contamination in Montana, it’s clear that GMOs simply cannot be controlled. And that means all organic food is threatened.
Other countries have banned GMO crops and the majority of the people in the USA do not want these foods but our government is just ignoring all of this
These crops contaminate organic crops and if let continue soon there will be no such thing as Organic and Monsanto. Dow and Synergy will own the rights to our food supply.
Some countries are destroying all GMO crops trying to rid their country of it but once out there is is almost inpossible to get rid of or maybe is inpossible.
GMO’s should be outlawed, it is mad science for profit.
Think about your children and grandchildren and so on down the line. When you look at the vaccines being forced on our children, and the GMO foods being dumped on everyone, it’s no wonder we have an unbelievable increase in Autism and other disabilities, mental and physical on this young generation.
God help us!!
The long term effects of GMO’s is unknown on both humans and wild life. All creatures evolved with the food made by nature, not humans, who’s interest lay in profit. Much more reseach into the safety of GMO’s needs to be done by private, indepented researchers and not reseachers hired by the industries the make the GMO’s
I just bought and have eaten a product made by Wheat Montana Farm & Bakery in Three Forks, Montana. The product is 7-grain Cereal with flaxseed. It claims to be “non-GMO/all natural”
Can you find out whether this claim is true?
Thanks,
Diana Kaplan
GMO labeling should be made law for the aforementioned reasons. Why is there more and mounting scientific evidence linking GMOs to various types of illness and yet the FDA continues to turn a blind eye? Why have GMO products been banned is so many countries around the world and yet they remain legal in the US? Could it be the obsene amount of money donated to US political leaders by the GMO producers and food industry GMO users has made the FDA little more than a rubber stamp for their profits before people agenda?
Americans deserve to know exactly what is in their food! There is no possible justification for not labeling GMO foods, none whatsoever. Or has the USA – become nothing more than a country of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations???
To Curt Sanders,
Or has the USA – become nothing more than a country of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations???
For the best answer I feel your question deserves I have pasted the executive summary of http://www.republicoftheunitedstates.org group whom I believe have not only researched the problem/situation we Americans have found ourselves in with being confronted by all the government agencies as well as the 535 on the Hill … BUT are also in the process of doing something about it. This is a bit lengthy (15 single sided pages if printed out) but it is WELL WORTH THE READ for EVERY AMERICAN that cares about our freedoms, livelihood, etc etc. I didn’t read it all in one sitting but over a couple of days or so. The website also has conference call times listed for questions to be answered several nights during the week. If you do read this and have any questions or comments you would like to share with me I would truly appreciate your doing so. I care about this situation very very much and always appreciate others that do as well. My email is [email protected].
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES
“…cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be able to subvert the Power of the People and to usurp for themselves the reins of Government; destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion…The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism…”
– George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796
It has been 218 years since President Washington delivered the above farewell address to the American People warning in plain language of abusive People behind the scenes who would eventually try to destroy our constitutional Republic. It has been a long drawn out process to get us to where we are today in America. We have a government in power today that has gone as far as to ask the United States of America military personnel whether or not they would “fire on” (go to war against) the American People. This government is actively removing leadership within the U.S. Military that would refuse such an order. Today, it is clear that our lawful republican form of governance has been slowly and deceptively abandoned in favor of the despotism that George Washington warned of in his farewell address.
Americans are discovering how the US Corporation, posing as the Federal…
I can not understand how Monsanto is not having any disciplinary action taken against them. It is clear that they did not take the appropriate actions to control their field tests. An it is to late, the GMO wheat DNA is out in the environment now. The natural strains of wheat are at risk of being hybridized. So who can what strains of wheat are organic or not? When will the USDA start to safe-guard our food supply?
GMO’s must be banned. No one wants them. Other countrys don’t want them. There is no way to stop these gmo’s from polluting our gene pool of seeds. A gene pool of untold centuries hard work & care and nourishment of humans and animals.
I can not understand why we are still having this conversation. More people want to know what they are eating than those who do not seem to care. I make sure that I read the label carefully before putting it in my shopping cart.
Why should I who wants non-GMO foods have to be concern that the organic food I purchased has been cross-contaminated. Those people who grow the GMO should have responsbility of making sure that the organics are clean.
Please initiate a moratorium of all GMO’s with their ever increasing deadly poisons. Our lives depend on it. Thank you
I feel so utterly betrayed by the USDA. As I was growing up, the USDA approved label was an indicator of safety and quality. Originally formed by the government to assure the safety and the wholesomeness of foods, virtually every large decision they have handed down recently compromises the safety and wholesomeness of foods instead. From the withdrawal of USDA inspectors at chicken processing plants (coupled with the decreased time of inspection per carcass), to the attempted wresting of Vitamin B6 from the public domain, to the approval of GMOs without long term testing and the accompanying pesticides and herbicides with proven risks to ecosystems and health, it seems as if the USDA’s sole purpose is to protect the profits of Big Ag. Something is severely broken with the current status quo, I believe that if the USDA cannot live up to its prime directive, they should either undergo a major overhaul, or be disbanded entirely.
Do Monsanto people eat GMO foods? How about Tyson chicken? If not, they should be forced to do so. If they are endangering the health and lives of all Americans, they should also be forced to suffer the consequences. Let them be the “proof of the pudding” so to speak. If what they are doing is good, they should not be afraid.
Any company that is “fooling with Mother Nature” should be required to be the first to consistently use the products.
Bet you they won’t.
Please leave out the individual farmers; they are pretty much at the mercy of big seed industry and big pesticide & herbicide industries. Big business is buying our government officials & elected reps. The power to change this has to be with the consumers and the public.
to Jackie Critser
they should all be thrown out and the members of the grassroots be in place
P.S. To Curt Sanders …. I am sorry but I was unable to post all the executive summary as too many character spaces for this comment section … please go to the website I have listed … just click on the second tab “Educational Resources” and the Executive Summary is first on that list. I truly hope you will read and share and share back with me your thoughts … pro or con. Thanks a bunch for reading thus far.
SKH
Contamination of many GMO are contaminating crops all over the U. S. And South America. In the U. S. They are going after farmers who has contaminated crop. They claim that their yield now belongs to them. They are taking farms and seeds from Farmers and claiming they belong to them, even if there is only 10% contamination. The Farmers that try to fight them in Court are going bankrupt because they have endless funds and attorneys.