> But, back to Aarons point.
> What the hell does GMO have to do with bees?
Two words - "Unintended Consequences".
As bees are the agent of cross-pollination, the spread of GMO traits to
weeds, and the inevitable rise of RoundUp-resistant weeds is a direct result
of bees foraging upon both blooms. Bees forage over a minimum of several
mile's radius from their hives, so even a single incident of serious concern
is very likely to cause bees to be prohibited from wide swaths of
agricultural land, just as the attempt was made to ban them by regulation
from areas where Murcot Mandarins were merely planted too close to members
of the opposite sex by Paramount Orchards (having ignored the expert advice
on planting they were given, as it became clear). So, if bees can be banned
merely because a few seedless organs might have seeds, any unintended
consequences could well find you unable to access yards you used in the past
as a FIRST step response to any problem.
But there is also the unintended consequences that have been ignored years.
While there has not been much objection to the "BT-toxin" (Bacillus
thuringiensis) GMO plants, the herbicide-tolerant GMOs associated with
Roundup directly caused YOUR honey to become contaminated.
As I pointed out, the use of the GMO varieties actually marketed has done
nothing for anyone but increase the sales and use of RoundUp, which is far
more persistent in soil and water than claimed, to the point where we now
have this stuff even showing up in MOST honey.
The FDA released records to the public including this candid report from an
FDA researcher who could not even find any glyphosate-free honey to use as a
lab standard:
http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/FDAblankhoney.pdf
http://tinyurl.com/y9cerkve
"I did a mock run by spiking honey blank at 25, 50, 100, and 500 ng/g and
the recovery data is below...
One of the issue[s] I found is that it is difficult to find blank honey that
does not contain residue. I collect
about 10 samples of honey in the market and they all contain glyphosate.
Below are the example of
some honey sample injected along with reagent blank and standard 5 ng/mL (25
ng/g). I picked the
organic mountain honey for the spike experiment because it contains the
lowest concentration of
incurred glyphosate."
So it is not an exaggeration to say that most all honey foraged anywhere
near agriculture of any sort will contain these residues, and there is no
EPA tolerance for this contaminant in honey, and "no tolerance"
(technically) means what it says - it is not tolerated, one cannot sell such
honey as food for human consumption. I am not exaggerating here, this is
the law.
Despite the shrill denials of some who posture as more scholarly than
others, responsible expert bodies like the World Health Organization have
declared glyphosate a "probable carcinogen", with the notch below being
"possible carcinogen", and the notch above being "known carcinogen".
California, who every other state eventually copies in the field of safety
and health regulations, has added glyphosate to its list of carcinogens
under Proposition 65 (Monsanto sued to stop this, and lost).
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/widely-used-herbicide-linked-to-c
ancer/
http://tinyurl.com/y7ej4c43
https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/crnr/glyphosate-listed-effective-july-7-
2017-known-state-california-cause-cancer
http://tinyurl.com/ycvbzcud
Sadly, the FDA was only recently shamed by the GAO into starting to screen
for glyphosate residues in food. The sway of the agro-chem companies has
been so powerful, that residue monitoring was not even considered necessary.
http://time.com/4227500/fda-glyphosate-testing/
http://tinyurl.com/z2wmdux
In attempted rebuttal to these real and tangible health concerns over
contamination so ubiquitous, even US honey is almost universally affected,
we find apologists among us, who feign authoritative knowledge, while merely
parroting the talking points of the industrial propaganda supporting the
agro-chem conglomerates. (Not my honey, "agriculture" here in the city
consists of double-dug French-intensive raised beds, most no larger than a
bed.)
I talked about the sham that is "Golden Rice", allow me to also provide the
"view of the donor class" on Goats that produce magical milk that is said to
cure diarrhea. My view is firsthand in this regard, as I travel to
far-flung places regularly, and I bring with me as many "ORT packs" as I can
carry to areas of conflict and disaster, to make my tourism both have a
purpose, and more acceptable to people with authority, and/or people with
guns. I travel to see things that I may never get another chance to see,
like the giant Buddha statues of the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan, which
were clearly not going to remain standing for long once the Taliban murdered
enough of the Muja-hideen to take over. (These days, the Taliban are
themselves being murdered by the Al-Qaeda, who are even more
fundamentalist.)
So what's an ORT pack? It is a foil pouch with rehydration salts and a
little sugar. "Oral Rehydration Therapy". They cost about a nickel each in
bulk, and just one pack can save TWO lives, mostly tiny little cute lives,
from dysentery and diarrhea. They work so fast, I have actually hung around
for a few days, or wandered back to play peek-a-boo with patients who were
saved by the ORT I delivered or replenished stock for. They are a
"currency" that can buy one access to just about anywhere, and even get one
a ride or safe passage through a contested area. Carry a backpack full, and
you are everyone's friend.
Now, let's compare with goats. The reason for these dying babies is
invariably water. There's a drought, and due to a lack of water, people are
forced to get drinking water from very near where animals and other people
poop. It is just that simple. Yes, there are wells, but most date from the
1970s Peace Corps days. They were hand-dug, and have long since run dry due
to the drought or been contaminated by surface run-off.
So, in the conditions where drought and starvation and these diseases are so
prevalent, does one really want a goat needing to be watered and fed, and
adding its considerable excrement production to the load than contaminates
what little water remains? One basic truth is that everywhere is downstream
of someplace else, so you have to think things beyond the propaganda where
paid actors portray incredibly photogenic "3rd-World Peoples", invariably
dressed in traditional garb looking like it just came from the dry cleaners.
(Wanna know what 3rd world peoples actually wear most often? Misprinted
tee-shirts like those printed in advance of the Superbowl, proclaiming
Atlanta the winner. They lost in overtime.)
So the goats? Likely slaughtered or sold when water got merely scarce, long
before the real drought came and stayed. And drought? It is so serious in
places like South Sudan, that mud walls are unaffordable. Water is just
that scarce. Yep, people so poor, they can't even afford MUD. What chance
does a goat have of surviving past dinnertime in such an environment?
The goats might seem to be useful in Nepal, where dysentery and diarrhea are
the result of poor sanitation habits, rather than a lack of water, but it is
hoped that education can stop Nepal from having this chronic and preventable
problem. The goats would allow the unsanitary practices to continue, and
lead to even more cholera, which is the biggest reason why sanitation has to
improve there.
As for the "labeling" and "right to know" issues surrounding GMOs and
herbicide contamination of food, I offer this photo of your future:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CDsKCvkWIAAvrtl.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/y9epxw3c
I may be out of date, but in the USA, Corn, Soybean, Cotton, and Potato are
(were), in that order the most common GMO crops, and all have multiple
herbicide-tolerate and BT-toxin variants. To a far lesser extent, the US
also has Squash, Papaya, Canola, Alfalfa, Sugarbeets, and an obscure Apple
variety. Overseas, there are Tomato, Rapeseed, Beets, Rice, Flax, Tobacco,
Plums, and even Roses.
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