today-is-a-good-day
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Home Search

FDA - search results

If you're not happy with the results, please do another search

A New FDA Commissioner Could Be a Disaster for Reproductive Rights

It isn’t very often that we find ourselves saddened when a member of the Trump administration decides to resign. But when FDA Commissioner Scott...

FDA approves ketamine-based nasal spray to treat extreme depression — RT USA News

The US Food and Drug Administration approved a ketamine-based nasal spray, which is the first antidepressant...

FDA Policies Kill – LewRockwell

Only opioid ‘crisis’ is not enough opioids? FDA approves drug 10x stronger than deadly...

The FDA has approved the rollout of a new opioid drug up to 1000 times stronger...

FDA lists psychedelic drugs as ‘breakthrough therapy’ for depression — RT US News

Psychedelic drug researchers can now begin providing psychiatric patients with psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic...

Viagra in vape liquid has FDA hot & bothered — RT US News

The US Food and Drug Administration is stiff with rage after discovering an e-cigarette vendor selling...

Despite Five Deaths, Trump’s FDA Won’t Make Farms Test Water for Bacteria

This story was originally published by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area....

FDA Repays Industry by Rushing Risky Drugs to Market

Nuplazid, a drug for hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson’s disease, failed two clinical trials. In a third trial, under a revised standard for...

FDA approves America’s first marijuana-based medication — RT US News

In a breakthrough for medical marijuana use, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved...

Smart schizophrenia pill that tracks how you take it approved by FDA — RT...

Published time: 15 Nov, 2017 03:10 An antipsychotic pill that digitally tracks consumption has been approved...

Not soy good? FDA to revoke heart health claim for plant protein — RT...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed revoking a claim that soy protein can...

FDA issues warning to bakery for including ‘love’ as an ingredient

Published time: 5 Oct, 2017 01:38 Edited time: 5 Oct, 2017 02:28 The Food and Drug...

FDA approves 1st ‘living drug’ to treat cancer in the US

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first-ever gene therapy to treat cancer in the...

‘Serial killers’: FDA panel recommends approving 1st gene-altering leukemia treatment

A Food and Drug Administration panel has approved the first-ever gene therapy to treat Leukemia. The...

‘No Coko Loko’: Schumer calls on FDA to crackdown on ‘snortable chocolate’

Published time: 9 Jul, 2017 21:16 Edited time: 9 Jul, 2017 22:25 Senate Minority Leader Chuck...

The FDA Is Cancer

The gay lobby was able to overcome the Food and Drug Administration on anti-AIDS “cocktails.” This was one of the few major triumphs of...

Historic 1st: FDA calls for opioid to be removed from market based on risk...

In an unprecedented move, the US Food and Drug Administration has requested a drugmaker withdraw an...

Flint blood tests may be inaccurate, underestimate lead levels, FDA & CDC warn

Federal officials are warning that certain lead tests manufactured by Magellan Diagnostics, which have been commonly...

New opioid painkiller considered too high a risk of abuse – FDA panel

Opana ER, an opioid painkiller redesigned in 2012, still carries too high a risk of abuse...

Trump’s FDA Pick Has Extensive Industry Ties and Dangerous Deregulatory Ideas

WASHINGTON - Note: Today, media outlets indicated that President Donald Trump will nominate Dr. Scott Gottlieb to be the U.S. Food and Drug Administration...

EPA joins FDA to approve 3 types of genetically modified potatoes

Published time: 28 Feb, 2017 21:51 Three types of potato, genetically modified to resist the pathogen that...

‘Gaming the system’: FDA approves old drug with new price – more than 7,000...

A recently FDA-approved drug used in steroid treatments, which has been on the international market for...

Big Insurance, FDA or Pharma as cause of all evil: Sanders and Cruz clash...

Senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders debated the merits of Obamacare, whether healthcare is a right...

‘Unnecessary risk’: FDA says homeopathic teething product is toxic, company won’t recall

After the FDA issued a warning about a homeopathic medication for teething infants, the manufacturer refused...

Many Household Products Contain Antimicrobial Chemicals Banned From Soaps by the FDA

This year marks 20 years since Hasbro was fined for false advertising, claiming their Playskool toys laden with the antimicrobial chemical triclosan would keep...

FDA confirms St. Jude heart monitors can be hacked, Abbott Labs to release patch

All medically implanted cardiac devices made by St. Jude have been deemed vulnerable to hackers by...

Texas sues FDA over withheld execution drugs

Texas has sued the Food and Drug Administration over 1,000 vials of a barbiturate the agency...

Antibacterial soap ingredients unsafe and not effective – FDA

There is insufficient evidence to prove that antibacterial soaps are superior to plain soap and water...

All donated blood should be tested for Zika – US FDA

All blood donations made in the US and its territories should be screened for Zika, following the example set in Florida and Puerto Rico,...

FDA extends Zika testing to all blood donations in US

All blood donations in the US and its territories must be tested for the Zika virus,...

Freak of nature: FDA approves genetically engineered mosquitoes to combat Zika virus

Genetically engineered mosquitoes have been approved for field trials in Florida by the Food and Drugs...

At least 570 stem cell clinics operate unregulated by FDA — study

Businesses marketing stem cell therapy are flourishing in the US, where there is no federal approval...

What the heck does ‘natural’ food mean, anyway? Tell the FDA

The word “natural” is often used to describe hundreds of food products from various companies, but...

FDA moves to regulate E-cigarettes for first time, ban sales to minors

Electronic cigarettes and cigars will be regulated by the federal government and their sale will be...

FDA warns-widely used antipsychotic drug causes uncontrollable sex, gambling urges

Aripiprazole, the active ingredient in common antidepressant and antipsychotic medications like Abilify, has been linked to...

US reports first Zika death as FDA approves emergency test for virus

The US has reported its first death linked to Zika virus, while the Food and Drug...
video

FDA DOCUMENTS ADMITS VACCINES LINKED TO AUTISM

Document: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/UCM101580.pdf

There is a war between Big Pharma and the American people … and the...

Big Pharma has just scored a big victory with the appointment of Robert Califf as new head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)....

3-in-1 Zika test gets FDA emergency approval, to be sent to labs within 2...

A new real-time 3-in-1 Zika virus test was given the green light from the US Food...

FDA changes drug review rules to challenge Martin Shkreli-like medicine monopolies

The US drug regulator is paving a fast-track for generic remedies to market while also sealing...

FDA opens criminal investigation into urination on Kellogg's assembly line video

A video of a man urinating on equipment used to move Kellogg’s rice cereal products went...

Cosmetic giants pressure FDA into cracking down on homemade soap artisans while ignoring their...

Once again, those who are trying to live a simple, clean life or make a decent living from traditional skills are threatened by the...

Big Pharma Officially Owns The FDA

In February, President Obama’s nominee Robert Califf sailed through the Senate approval process to be approved as the next FDA commissioner. Califf has financial ties...
video

Video: Senate Confirms New FDA Commissioner With Close Ties to Big Pharma

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fqQngUnXBc&w=580&h=385] Public Citizen's Dr. Michael Carome describes the thousands in consulting fees new FDA commissioner Dr. Robert Califf received from pharmaceutical ... Via Youtube

FDA’s Ban of Three Toxic Chemicals in Food Packaging Comes Too Late, Say Critics

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it will ban three grease-resistant chemicals from food packaging materials like pizza box liners,...

New FDA rule bans 3 food packaging chemicals with suspected cancer links

Three chemicals used in pizza boxes, popcorn bags, and other food packages are no longer deemed safe by the Food and Drug Administration, but...

Ibuprofen, aspirin and OTC painkillers can cause deadly heart attacks and strokes, FDA admits

In July, the FDA announced changes to the labels of nearly every medication in the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) class, warning that those drugs...

FDA: Kind Bars Can’t Be Labeled “Healthy” But Big Food Can Make False Claims

According to the FDA, Kind bars aren't healthy and they must immediately stop claiming that they are.

Eat at Your Own Risk: Flawed FDA Risk Assessments Strengthen Arguments for Labeling GMOs

For the past two decades, developers of genetically engineered (GE) crops and theircorporate allies have maintained that because their products are so obviously safe,...

Marijuana Backed By More Studies Than Most FDA Approved Pharma Drugs

Marijuana and its use has been studied over the course of the last few decades more so than even many leading FDA-approved pharmaceutical drugs,...

How Much Pesticide Residue on Your Produce? FDA Doesn’t Know

New GAO report reveals FDA doing scant testing for pesticides Andrea Germanos The Food and Drug Administration is carrying out little testing for pesticide residues on...

Inside the FDA Mafia

Inside the FDA Mafia by Jon Rappoport June 22, 2014 www.nomorefakenews.com I post this piece now and then to show how personal things can get inside a terminally corrupt government agency. It’s not all about remote decisions made from a great height. These decisions can come about through the rank intimidation the Mafia exercises with […]

Why the FDA should be charged with murder

Why the FDA should be charged with murder by Jon Rappoport May 16, 2014 www.nomorefakenews.com If you worked for a federal agency that was killing people at the rate of 100,000 a year, every year, like clockwork, and if you knew it, wouldn’t you feel compelled to say or do something about it? At the […]

Why the FDA should be charged with murder

Why the FDA should be charged with murder by Jon Rappoport May 16, 2014 www.nomorefakenews.com If you worked for a federal agency that was killing people at the rate of 100,000 a year, every year, like clockwork, and if you knew it, wouldn’t you feel compelled to say or do something about it? At the […]

War on Health: The FDA’s Cult of Tyranny

Normal Price: $25.95 Your Price: $19.95 You Save: 20% + Free Shipping War on Health is the first documentary detailing and challenging the FDA agenda and its allegiance with...

Unlabeled GMO Salmon? Groups Call on FDA to Rein In Industry Claims

Food & Water Watch and Center for Food Safety called on FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg today to put an end to erroneous statements by...

FDA Vaccine Insert Lists Autism As Adverse Reaction

By Susan DuclosVindication for those parents that have been criticized and mocked for refusing to allow their children to be vaccinated?  You decide.An insert (PDF here) by the FDA (US Food And Drug Administration) now lists Autism as an ...

New FDA Rules Ignore the GMO Elephant in the Room

Katherine Paul  RINF Alternative News On February 27, First Lady Michelle Obama launched a media blitz to tout the FDA's proposed new rules for nutrition labels on packaged...

Researchers Prove FDA Approved Cancer Drugs Have the Side Effect Of Inducing Stem Cell...

by Lizzie Bennett Originally Published at Underground Medic A University of Massachusetts Amhurst and Harvard Medical School combined research team have found that have found that several FDA approved chemotherapy drugs have the side effect of inducing stem cell tumours. Michele Markstein Of Amherst and Norbert Perrimon from Harvard foundRead the Rest...

Under the radar: prestigious mainstream editor torpedoed the FDA

Under the radar: prestigious mainstream editor torpedoed the FDA by Jon Rappoport February 3, 2014 www.nomorefakenews.com Seven years ago, Marcia Angell, who, for two decades, edited one of the most famous medical journals in the world, the New England Journal of Medicine, wrote a piece for the Boston Globe. It was titled, Talking Back to […]

Murder at the FDA

Murder at the FDA by Jon Rappoport January 31, 2014 www.nomorefakenews.com File this one under: “studiously ignored by major media.” I posted this story in August of 2012. It was based on a Truthout interview of a man who did drug reviews for the FDA. He examined applications to approve new medical drugs for public […]

Obamacare: FDA to Require Calorie Labels on Vending Machines

CBS NewsDecember 28, 2013 Regulations will cause many mom-and-pop vending companies to go out of business.Office...

Is the FDA Really Phasing Antibiotics Out of Meat?

This month's FDA guidance for reducing livestock antibiotics will actually make things worse, animal welfare and food activist groups are saying. “The FDA is...

Decades Later, FDA Takes Action on Safety of Antibacterial Soaps

Commonly used antibacterial soaps are no better at killing germs than washing with plain soap and water, but may harm health and contribute to...

Public Health Still Threatened as Toothless FDA Antibiotic Plan Slammed

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's newly unveiled "voluntary plan with industry" to curb the use of antibiotics in livestock does too little, too...

FDA takes first step at eliminating antibiotics in animal feed

Federal regulators in the United States are preparing the country's producers of farmyard animal feed for a change that will make major difference to...

Critics: FDA Plan on Antibiotics a ‘Gift to Industry’ That Fails to Address Public...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's newly unveiled "voluntary plan with industry" to curb the use of antibiotics in livestock does too little, too...

FDA: Many common cooking spices may contain bug parts, rodent hairs

Ethan A. Huff Natural News November 12, 2013 Hiding inside your pepper grinder and cumin shaker could be things like rodent hairs, bug parts and even salmonella,...

Black Sites, Designer Babies, FDA Shutdown — New World Next Week

Welcome to http://NewWorldNextWeek.com — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news. This week: Story #1: Obama Swaps ‘Black Sites’ for ...

Agribusinss is “Playing Chicken” with our Health: FDA Admits Supermarket Chickens Test Positive for...

Back in March, Tom Philpott wroteabout the “insane” practice of feeding factory-farmed chickensarsenic: The idea is that it makes them grow faster — fast growth...

FDA Policy: Big Pharma Firms Pay to Play

Major pharmaceutical companies are engaging in "pay to play" arrangements that allow them to shape public policy on painkiller testing rules and regulations, according...

US drug firms pay to affect FDA policies

A scientific panel provided FDA officials with advice on how to test the safety and effectiveness of painkillers.A number of pharmaceutical companies have spent...

FDA Finally Admits Chicken Meat Contains Cancer-Causing Arsenic

After years of sweeping the issue under the rug and hoping no one would notice, the FDA has now finally admitted that chicken meat...

Senators Angle for Monsanto-Friendly FDA Voluntary GMO Labeling “Guidance”

While consumers battle on for laws mandating the labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food products, some lawmakers are taking the GMO labeling...

FDA deliberately deceiving Americans over arsenic in rice, chicken and other foods; contamination now...

Mike Adams Natural News September 15, 2013 There is arsenic in rice, and it's generally higher in brown rice than in white rice. Consumer...

FDA targets free-range, pastured poultry and eggs with ridiculous new draft guidance pushing for...

Jonathan BensonNatural NewsSept. 11, 2013 America's small farmers are once again under attack, this time by...

FDA Sharing Patients’ Private Medical Records in Order to Harass Integrative Doctors

Alliance for Natural Health September 4, 2013 ANH-USA has learned that the FDA is working with state medical boards behind the scenes–sometimes in...

Scientists, FDA say “don’t worry” about radioactive fish because “the ocean is big”

Anchorage Daily NewsAugust 12, 2013 ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska fishermen and fish consumers shouldn’t be concerned...

The Dangers of Tylenol: Is it Time to for the FDA to Remove it...

photo from Wikicommons IntroductionMost people consider acetaminophen (e.g., Tylenol) as being an extremely safe pain reliever for both children and adults. The reality is that...

FDA sets rules for ‘gluten free’ food labels

Mary Clare JalonickAZ CentralAugust 3, 2013 A label that reads “gluten free” will now mean the...

FDA ban on gay blood donors outdated, discriminatory – US lawmakers

US lawmakers are calling on the Department of Health and Human Services to end the ban on blood donations from homosexual men, a prohibition...

FDA issues new rules on gluten labeling

Elizabeth WeiseUSA TodayAugust 2, 2013 After years of waiting, the Food and Drug Administration released new...

Arsenic In Apple Juice: Under Pressure, FDA Sets New Limits

Matthew Perrone Huffington Post July 12, 2013 Parents who have been fretting over the low levels of arsenic found in apple juice can feel...

Arsenic In Apple Juice: Under Pressure, FDA Sets New Limits

Matthew PerroneHuffington PostJuly 12, 2013 Parents who have been fretting over the low levels of arsenic...

PHOTOS: Secret NSA Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah

Photographer: Rick Bowmerrealclearpolitics.comJune 7, 2013 A set of 13 photos of the NSA Data Center in...

FDA approves first GMO Flu Vaccine containing Reprogrammed Insect Virus

A new vaccine for influenza has hit the market, and it is the first ever to contain genetically-modified (GM) proteins derived from insect cells....

Dispute Flares Inside FDA Over Safety of Popular Blood-Pressure Drugs

Thomas M. BurtonWall Street JournalMay 31, 2013 The top-selling class of blood-pressure drugs is under attack...

War on Health: The FDA’s Cult of Tyranny DVD

Your Price: $19.95
+ Free Shipping
Add to Cart
War on Health is the first documentary detailing and challenging the FDA agenda and its allegiance with the international Codex Alimentarius, which hopes to establish a monolithic food and health regime.

FDA Ready to Approve Frankenfish Despite Fishy Science

Some day soon, you might tuck into a plate of salmon without knowing that the fish you are eating was genetically engineered. The so-called AquAdvantage salmon, a salmon genetically engineered to grow faster than normal salmon, just moved one step closer to legalization. If so, (Photo: Andrea Pokrzywinski via Flickr)it will be the first genetically engineered (GE) animal allowed for consumption in the United States. Thus, every part of the regulatory process related to the GE salmon sets a precedent for all future GE animals in the United States – and so far, according to experts, that precedent is a sloppy, inadequate one.

What Is AquAdvantage Salmon?

To create the GE salmon, the Boston-based public company  AquaBounty Technologies inserted DNA from another salmon species and an eel-like fish into the genome of an Atlantic salmon. The new genes make the GE salmon produce growth hormone all year round instead of just for three months a year as they normally would. This helps them grow to market size in 16 to 18 months instead of the usual 30 months required for an Atlantic salmon.

To prevent any GE salmon from escaping into the wild, surviving, and reproducing there, AquaBounty will only produce female GE salmon, each with three sets of DNA instead of the normal two. Triploids, as organisms with three sets of DNA are called, are infertile. Therefore, producing only female, triploid GE fish should provide two mechanisms of preventing reproduction should any fish escape into the wild. (Obviously, it takes a bit of scientific tinkering to create an all-female triploid fish population and the process used to do this might make your stomach turn.)

AquaBounty will produce salmon eggs in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Then it will transport them to an inland facility in Panama, where it will grow the fish, harvest, and process them. The firm claims no live fish will ever enter the United States.

How Are GE Animals Regulated?

The next question one might ask is how the federal government goes about deciding whether or not a GE animal should be allowed in our food supply. Under a 1980s decision, written by anti-regulation ideologues in the Reagan and Bush I era before any GE foods – plants or animals – were ready for commercialization, the government decided that no new laws were needed to regulate GE plants or animals. This decision is called “the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology,” or the Coordinated Framework for short.

Whereas the European Union debated the regulation of GE foods and drafted new laws to address issues such as safety, traceability, allergenicity and environmental impacts, the U.S. never passed any new laws specific to GE animals or had the kind of public debate passing a new law would require. Instead, they decided to regulate GE animals as “animal drugs,” using laws that are not well-suited to the unique, complex issues posed by GE animals. Specifically, the government considers the extra DNA added to the GE animals as the “animal drug.” New Animal Drugs are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and they receive input from the Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee (VMAC) – a committee mostly made up of veterinarians, not genetic engineering experts.

When a new animal drug is approved, it is only approved for production in a specific facility. Therefore, if you invent a new pill for cats, you submit data on its production in a specific facility, and you receive approval to produce it only in that facility. If you decide to build eight more factories because your drug is so popular, you must go back to the FDA to receive approval for the eight new facilities.

2010: Sloppy Science on Trial

Back in 2010, the FDA took the first steps to approve AquaBounty’s application to produce the GE salmon. It released a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) and several hundred pages of safety testing data from experiments performed by AquaBounty on the GE salmon. Then it gave the public a mere two weeks to comment on the data, and it convened VMAC to advise it on the GE salmon.

For watchdog groups, this was the first signal that something was, well, fishy. Consumers Union senior scientist Michael Hansen excoriated the safety data as “sloppy,” “misleading,” and “woefully inadequate.” In addition to using small sample sizes and culling deformed fish and thus skewing the data, AquaBounty only provided data gathered in its Prince Edward Island facility, where it will produce GE salmon eggs. But, by law, it must also provide data from its Panama facility, where it will grow the salmon to full size.

The VMAC committee didn’t give a resounding approval either. The New York Times summarized their findings, saying, “While a genetically engineered salmon is almost certainly safe to eat, the government should pursue a more rigorous analysis of the fish's possible health effects and environmental impact.” However, the committee only advises the FDA, and its decisions are not binding.

2012: FDA Readies Its Rubber Stamp

Following the VMAC meeting and a second, public meeting on labeling issues surrounding the GE salmon, the FDA went silent. Over the next two years, it quietly examined the public comments and the input from the VMAC committee. But despite VMAC’s suggestion for a more rigorous analysis, the FDA moved the application one step closer to approval without really addressing the gaping holes in the AquaBounty’s science. In May of 2012, it produced an ever-so-slightly improved Environmental Assessment (EA) compared to the original draft it made public in 2010, and a preliminary “Finding of No Significant Impact” (FONSI).

The preliminary FONSI and draft EA were not made public until they were published in the Federal Register on December 26, 2012. At that point, the FDA began a 60-day period in which the public could review its findings and submit comments.

What happened between 2010 and 2012 to improve our confidence that the GE salmon is safe for human consumption and for the environment? Nothing. There’s no new data whatsoever. The only changes are a few minor additions to the EA – certainly not enough to inspire confidence that the government heard the critiques made in 2010 and addressed them.

After a group of Senators led by Mark Begich (D-AK) sent the FDA a letter asking for a 60-day extension to the comment period, the FDA agreed to take comments until April 26, 2013.

What’s Fishy About the GE Salmon?

“There are still unanswered safety and nutritional questions and the quality of the data that was submitted to the FDA was the worst stuff I've ever seen submitted for a GMO. There's stuff there that couldn't make it through a high school science class,” reflected Hansen in early 2013, after reviewing the newly released documents.

Almost laughing, Hansen remarks on the obvious flaws in AquaBounty’s scientific justification of the fish’s safety, saying, “That's not science, that's a joke!" Becoming more serious, he adds, “There's allergenicity questions and other health questions. It shouldn't be approved. They don't have any data to show that it's safe."

"There are environmental issues as well,” Hansen continues. “Not so much in Panama, but on Prince Edward Island. That's where they're going to producing eggs. Guess what, to produce eggs, you've gotta have fertile adults." Before the wild Atlantic salmon population was decimated, the waters around Prince Edward Island was salmon habitat. An escaped GE fish could easily thrive there. “Yet,” adds Hansen, “they conclude that even if they get out the water's too cold!”

In an interview with Flash in the Pan, environmental risk scientist Anne Kapuscinski also criticized the FDA’s process. Back in the 1990s, she authored the reports on how to perform environmental risk assessment. But, by 2007, her 1990s publications were so out of date that she led a team of scientists to write an updated book on the subject. Despite the updated scientific methods, the FDA opted to use the old, outdated methods from the 1990s to conduct its environmental risk assessment on the GE salmon.

The 2007 publication was rigorously peer reviewed by reviewers from around the world. Yet, the FDA ignored it. Kapuscinski calls their methods unscientific, adding that if the FDA were a student who submitted this report for a grade, it would fail. “Students would get into serious trouble if they were citing really old methods, and there had been huge advances in the methods since then and they ignored that. That would be a reason to fail them.”

She submitted comments back in 2010, but says, “it looks like either they didn’t read our comments or they just decided to ignore them.” She points out that the Panama facility that AquaBounty will use to grow the fish out of is not large enough for a commercial venture. “It’s at a scale to show proof of concept of the commercial viability of this,” she said. “Once the company scales up to selling millions and millions of eggs, the fish will be farmed by producers with all kinds of facilities.” Those facilities might not be as well protected as the one in Panama. Unless the FDA brings its risk assessment methods up to date, we have no adequate, scientific assurance that GE salmon won’t escape into the wild.

Next Steps

Despite the scientific questions, there’s no sign that the FDA will overturn its preliminary decision to allow commercialization of the GE salmon. The best Michael Hansen is hoping for at this point is a requirement that the GE salmon – one legalized – will be labeled as genetically engineered. He calls this “an outside chance.”

Unfortunately, as Hansen notes, "This is to set a precedent. If they let the GE salmon go through, why would any other company that wants to get a genetically engineered animal through bother” producing rigorous, scientifically valid data to prove its product’s safety?

If you don’t want to see GE salmon in your local supermarket in as little as a few years, you can take action. The FDA is accepting public comments until April 26, 2013. You can write your own message and submit it at Regulations.gov or you can join Food and Water Watch’s campaign against the GE salmon here. You can also write your representatives to let them know your point of view.

© 2013 Center for Media and Democracy

Jill Richardson

FDA Puts Industry Profit Over Public Health — Defends Safety of Controversial Food Additive

CORNUCOPIA, WI - March 18 - The Cornucopia Institute formally requested that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) remove the common food additive carrageenan from the US food supply.

Last year the FDA rejected a 2008 citizen petition, which presented scientific studies linking carrageenan to gastrointestinal inflammation, including cancer. The petition was filed by Dr. Joanne Tobacman, a physician-researcher at the University of Illinois – Chicago College of Medicine, who has been studying food-grade carrageenan for more than a decade.

“The FDA’s justification for denial was based on a sloppy and incomplete evaluation of available published research, and it was riddled with overt bias which appears to protect an industry’s profits at the expense of public health,” says Charlotte Vallaeys, Director of Farm and Food Policy at Cornucopia, a Wisconsin-based non-profit food policy research group. “We have asked them to reevaluate.”

Carrageenan is a highly processed additive extracted from red seaweed. The controversial material contributes no nutritional value or flavor, but is added to affect the texture of a wide range of foods and beverages.

Scientists have raised concern about its safety for decades, based on research linking food-grade carrageenan in the diet of laboratory animals to gastrointestinal disease, including colon tumors.

“Carrageenan has a unique chemical structure, and research has shown that this chemical structure may trigger an innate immune response in the body,” says Dr. Pradeep Dudeja, Professor of Physiology in Medicine at the University of Illinois – Chicago, who has co-authored nine studies on carrageenan.

“The immune response leads to inflammation, which is a serious public health concern since chronic, low-grade inflammation is a well-known precursor to more serious diseases, including diabetes and cancer,” he adds.

Recent research exploring carrageenan’s effects on the body has been supported financially by National Institutes of Health grants, and was prompted by animal studies showing damage to the gastrointestinal tract from food-grade carrageenan.

More than a dozen animal studies, conducted since the late 1960s, have raised concern about carrageenan’s safety, but the FDA failed to consider the vast majority of these studies in its analysis. The FDA also asserted that these studies have been “disputed,” a claim based on a paper by Duika Burges Watson, a geography professor from Durham University in the UK who appears to have no medical or scientific degree or background.

“It is unclear why the FDA would place higher value on the opinion of a social scientist from the UK than on the medical studies funded by the National Institutes of Health,” observes Vallaeys.

“It is disappointing that the FDA continues to permit carrageenan to be used as a food additive despite clear evidence that it causes inflammation,” says Dr. Tobacman.

Medical specialists in the US are taking these concerns seriously. Dr. Stephen Hanauer, MD, Chief of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the University of Chicago School of Medicine, states: “The rising incidence and prevalence of ulcerative colitis across the globe is correlated with the increased consumption of processed foods, including products containing carrageenan.”

Dr. Hanauer and Dr. Tobacman are currently conducting a study using human patients with ulcerative colitis, a serious gastrointestinal disease.

“Since carrageenan has been found to cause colitis in animal models of ulcerative colitis we felt it would be important to perform a well-controlled dietary study to determine whether carrageenan causes exacerbations (flare ups) of ulcerative colitis in patients in clinical remission,” adds Dr. Hanauer, who is also the Joseph B. Kirsner Professor of Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Chicago School of Medicine.

The Cornucopia Institute also just released a report, Carrageenan: How a ‘Natural’ Food Additive Is Making Us Sick, which compiles scientific studies pointing to harm from consuming food-grade carrageenan. Cornucopia also produced an accompanying buyer's guide for avoiding the ingredient. Some well-known physicians, like Dr. Andrew Weil, have been warning consumers about carrageenan for years.

“[Dr. Tobacman] explained that all forms of carrageenan are capable of causing inflammation. This is bad news. We know that chronic inflammation is a root cause of many serious diseases including heart disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and cancer,” stated Dr. Weil. “All told, I recommend avoiding regular consumption of foods containing carrageenan,” he adds.

Cornucopia already shared an analysis of the scientific data with many organic food and beverage companies. After learning about carrageenan’s harmful effects on human health, some companies are actively reformulating their products to remove the dangerous additive.

The organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm recently joined companies like Eden Foods in committing to remove carrageenan from all its products. “We are pleased to see Stonyfield boldly siding with their informed customers in this debate,” says Vallaeys.

A shopping guide on Cornucopia’s website points consumers to carrageenan-free alternatives for many products. For example, Tofu Shop Specialty Foods, Inc., an organic soy foods producer in Arcata, CA, has for years offered chocolate soy milk without carrageenan. The food industry’s claim is that chocolate milk and chocolate soy milk require carrageenan, because it suspends the cocoa particles. The easy alternative to carrageenan, in this case, is asking consumers to shake or stir the beverage first.

"We couldn't find an organic thickener for our soy milks, and one of our employees had the great idea to simply say "Shake It Up" on the bottle,” says Matthew Schmit, The Tofu Shop’s founder and president. “We're confident that our customers don't mind the minimal effort of shaking the soy milk first and that they prefer a wholesome product free of additives."

Other companies, like Dean Foods, which owns the Horizon organic brand and Silk brand, appear unwilling to part with this convenient additive and are attempting to dispute the science, disseminating misleading claims that food-grade carrageenan is "natural" and therefore safe.

“Natural does not mean safe,” says Vallaeys. “Poison ivy is natural, but you wouldn’t put it in skin lotion. Given that carrageenan appears to do to your gut what poison ivy does to your skin, we urge all companies to remove this ingredient from the foods and beverages they sell.”

“We hope the FDA will act in the public’s interest and perform a good faith evaluation of the science, and revoke the regulations that currently allow carrageenan in food,” says Vallaeys. “But until they do, it is up to individual consumers to take their safety and health into their own hands and avoid any foods and beverages containing this harmful ingredient.”

Will the FDA Crack Down on E-Cigarettes?

An important debate over the safety of the e-cigarette is raging.

January 31, 2013  |  

Like this article?

Join our email list:

Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email.

Cigarette smokers in the United States have been under steady attack. To smoke is no longer considered glamorous, cool or socially acceptable. Smokers are confronted and shamed by non-smokers and have been banished to huddle and inhale in remote locations far from public view. A series of state laws prohibit smoking in almost all workplaces, restaurants and bars. The most common exceptions to smoking bans are casinos, strip clubs and brothels. Signs outside of buildings order smokers to stand a specific distance away from the entrance. 

Last May, New York City banned smoking in parks, beaches, boardwalks and pedestrian plazas. Mayor Bloomberg said, "When you ask people in our parks and beaches they say they just don't want smokers there." 

Smoking cigarettes, which are still legal, has become as stigmatized as smoking crack. An addiction that was once ubiquitous and promoted is now routinely demonized. 

As a result of public health campaigns waged over decades against the lies of the tobacco industry, the number of smokers in the United States has declined. Still, according to the Centers for Disease Control, 443,000 Americans die prematurely from smoking-related illnesses and secondhand smoke. The World Health Organization reports that tobacco kills nearly 6 million people worldwide every year.

Currently, about 45 million Americans smoke tobacco. Seventy percent say they would like to quit and every year 40 percent do for at least one day. The 80 percent who quit relapse within one month and each year only 3 percent of those who quit are successful.  

To help people quit, a number of nicotine replacement products are available: gums, lozenges, inhalers, nasal sprays and transdermal patches. 

The electronic cigarette (e-cig) is the newest nicotine delivery device and has been available since 2008. Electronic cigarettes look and feel like cigarettes but with one crucial difference: They don’t contain tobacco. Smoking-caused disease is a consequence of repeated exposure to carcinogens in tobacco smoke, not to the ingestion of nicotine.

About 2.5 million people use e-cigarettes in the U.S., according to an estimate by the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association. The number of e-cig smokers is sure to grow as they become more widely available and the cost drops. The price of a starter kit ranges from between $60 to $100. Cartridges of liquid nicotine, one equals one pack of cigarettes, costs about $2. 

Big Tobacco views e-cigarette companies as a threat to its profits and is moving to buy them up. Forbes reports that Lorillard, the third largest tobacco company, just bought Blu Ecigs for $135 million. The company earned $30 million in revenue in 2011 and the electronic cigarette market as a whole, generates between $250 million to $500 million. With a long track record of addicting people to tobacco through aggressive marketing campaigns, deception and disinformation, the danger is that these corporations will do the same with e-cigarettes.  

The battery operated e-cigarette is easy to use. An atomizer heats and vaporizes a cartridge filled with nicotine, which is inhaled by the user. The water vapor that is exhaled has no odor because there is no combustion. The e-cig contains five ingredients: nicotine, water, glycerol, propylene glycol and flavorings like cherry and vanilla. Both glycerol and propylene glycol are used in other nicotine replacement products. 

An important debate has been ignited over the safety of the e-cigarette. 

Several years ago, the Federal Drug Administration found trace amounts of toxic ingredients in several samples and attempted to regulate e-cigarettes as drug-delivery devices. A federal judge ruled in 2010 that the FDA lacked the authority. Now the FDA is moving to regulate them as tobacco products. This is nonsensical. The e-cigarette is a drug delivery device and not a tobacco product. And in a confusing move, the FDA has seized shipments of electronic cigarettes on the grounds that they are illegal drug-delivery devices.  

FDA Expands Irradiation of Food Supply; Harmonizing with Codex Alimentarius

Brandon Turbeville, Activist Post |  Demonstrating the lack of concern held by regulatory agencies for public safety or public opinion as well as the increasing attempts to...

FDA Approves Antidepressants for Children, Even After Revelations of Bribery

The FDA has approved Forest Laboratories' antidepressant Lexapro (escitalopram) for use in children and adolescents, even as the federal government and 11 states have...

FDA Scientists Accuse Agency of Corruption, Intimidation

A group of nine FDA scientists has sent letters to top politicians, accusing agency managers of intimidating and coercing scientists into changing or suppressing...

FDA Approves 18 Drugs from Pharma Company Accused of Fraud and Conspiracy

By David Gutierrez The FDA has approved 18 products for market from generic drug manufacturer Ranbaxy Laboratories, even though the company is currently being investigated...

FDA Scientists Revolt Against Corrupt Food and Drug Administration Officials

By Mike Adams | A group of scientists working in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health division has revolted against the corrupt...

FDA Approved Human Medical Experiments with Artificial Blood; Hundreds Died

By David Gutierrez | The FDA allowed tests to proceed on new varieties of artificial blood even though it should have been aware that...

Media Censorship at Olympics in China Mirrors FDA Censorship of Health Product Claims in...

NaturalNews | The U.S. media is loudly protesting the censorship of their reporters at the Olympics in Beijing. Betraying its promise to the International...

FDA Accused of Intentionally Creating Drug Monopolies

By David Gutierrez The outgoing chief executive officer of pharmaceutical giant Wyeth has accused the FDA of "establishing monopolies" by requiring new drugs to prove...

FDA Wants Terminally Ill Patients as Guinea Pigs

FDA Wants Big Pharma to Use Terminally Ill Patients as Guinea Pigs for Unapproved Drugs David Gutierrez  The FDA has proposed allowing the testing of experimental...

Bush Admin Fails To Turn Over FDA Documents

By Justin Blum The Bush administration failed to comply with a congressional subpoena seeking documents related to Sanofi-Aventis SA's antibiotic Ketek. An investigative subcommittee of the...

FDA Caving to Corps

The Food and Drug Administration is developing a proposal for how drug companies can inform doctors about drug uses that aren't FDA approved, a...

‘Modified’: A Film About GMOs and the Corruption of the Food Supply for Profit

Parts of the documentary Modified are spent at the kitchen table. But it's not really a tale about wonderful recipes or the preparation of food....

60 doctors & pharmacists caught up in largest federal opioid bust in US history...

Sixty doctors and other medical professionals across seven US states are facing federal charges for illegal...

Cross-sex hormone therapy age down to 8 in US govt-funded study, doctor finds —...

Cross-sex hormones may now be given to US children as young as eight in a government-supported...

Will Democrats survive own #MeToo moral hype in ‘Bidening’ scandal? — RT USA News

When a Republican faces #MeToo-style accusations, be it President Trump or Judge Kavanaugh, Dems are usually...

Trump to ‘look into’ Facebook censorship after site gags his social media chief —...

President Donald Trump has promised to look into accusations of anti-conservative bias on Facebook, after the...

US approves importation of genetically engineered salmon — RT USA News

The long running battle previously came to a head in 2016 when Congress blocked the FDA from allowing AquaAdvantage Salmon to appear in grocery...

California’s legal weed industry ‘on the verge of collapse’ over licensing woes — RT...

California’s legal cannabis industry – the largest of its kind in the world – is reportedly...

Was Stonehenge created by French sailors? New study suggests long-running mystery could be solved...

The mystery of Stonehenge may be solved, thanks to a new study that reveals the...

Pharma exec gave doctor lap dance while pushing addictive painkiller — RT USA News

A former stripper who rose up the ranks to become a sales director at Insys Therapeutics...

Strange new startup harvests young blood to sell to the rich — RT USA...

A Florida-based company is attempting to combat the aging process by harvesting the blood of young...

Gove warns of GOT-style apocalypse if crucial Brexit vote fails — RT UK News

Britain faces a Game of Thrones-style apocalypse if Tuesday night’s vote on Prime Minister Theresa...

Britons will suspect ‘deep state plot’ if Brexit is delayed (VIDEO) — RT UK...

With the withdrawal date at the end of March looming large Boris Johnson says Britons...

Britons will suspect ‘deep state plot’ if Brexit is delayed (VIDEO) — RT UK...

With the withdrawal date at the end of March looming large Boris Johnson says Britons...

Britons will suspect ‘deep state plot’ if Brexit is delayed (VIDEO) — RT UK...

With the withdrawal date at the end of March looming large Boris Johnson says Britons...

Sunderland poll shows 70 percent support leaving EU without deal — RT UK News

In the British city that delivered one of the most emphatic votes in favour of...

The Return of Reefer Madness

  Nationwide, marijuana legalization is becoming more normal. Colorado’s dispensaries are hailed as an economic success story, and other states are following suit—New York Gov....

BBC’s Neil goes apoplectic as journalist Owen Jones accuses his Spectator mag of defending...

A debate between the BBC’s Andrew Neil and left-wing journalist Owen Jones descended into chaos...

Is Donald Trump an Asteroid?

Sixty-six million years ago, so the scientists tell us, an asteroid slammed into this planet. Landing on what’s now Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, it gouged out...

If You Pave It, They Will Come – As climate teeters, Washington Post pushes...

by Pete Tucker The Washington Post (12/8/18) argues that “Mr. Hogan’s plan…makes sense,” given that “car usage nationally is expanding at roughly twice the rate...

NYT Trumpets New Anti-Suicide Drug

Photo Source Psychonaught | CC BY 2.0 The drumbeat for ketamine as a way to halt the rising suicide rate is upon us, as the...

Johnson & Johnson may have known about ‘carcinogens’ in baby powder since 1971 —...

Johnson & Johnson knew “for decades” that their talcum baby powder contained asbestos and worked to...

Roll Up Your Sleeves, Folks

British MP suggests threatening Ireland with food shortages over Brexit, Twitter outrage follows —...

A Conservative Party MP has suggested using the prospect of food shortages to force Ireland...

BRAIN-EATING amoebas from tap water attack elderly woman — RT USA News

A woman who met a tragic fate after routinely rinsing out her sinuses is thought to...

Active shooter report puts largest US military medical center on lockdown — RT US...

Heavily armed police placed Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on lockdown due to reports...

California Wildfire Likely Spread Nuclear Contamination From Toxic Site

The incredibly destructive Woolsey Fire in southern California has burned nearly 100,000 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, killed three people, destroyed more...

Top-profiting US medtech firm linked to 9,000+ deaths from faulty implants – reports —...

A major US-based medtech company’s faulty equipment could be linked to thousands of casualties and hundreds...

US Calls for Ceasefire, Keeps Attacking Yemen

In case you missed it, US efforts to prolong the world’s most serious humanitarian crisis in Yemen continue to succeed spectacularly. US military support enables the...

Transgender soldier celebrated as first UK woman on frontline duty ‘seduced comrade’s wife’ —...

Chloe Allen, officially recognized as the British Army's first woman allowed on the frontline after...

Monsanto’s top weedkiller now found in pet food as well as cereal — RT...

Two new studies show how extensively Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide glyphosate has permeated our food chain. Designated...

‘Absolutely disgraceful!’ Calls for Ryanair boycott in wake of passenger’s racist rant (VIDEO) —...

People are calling for a boycott of Ryanair after the airline failed to apologize for...

Passenger launches racist rant at woman on Ryanair flight (VIDEO) — RT UK News

A Ryanair passenger was captured on camera verbally abusing a black woman who had the...

Revisionist Historian Ralph Raico – LewRockwell

By Ralph Raico Mises.org October 19, 2018 Tags: ...

From GM Potatoes to Glyphosate: Regulatory Delinquency and Toxic Agriculture

Food and environment campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason has just produced the report ‘Shockingly high levels of weedkiller found in popular breakfast cereals marketed for...

Weight loss & sex supplements are hiding dangerous substances inside – study — RT...

Dietary supplements promising enhanced sexual pleasure, weight loss, and muscle gain secretly contain dangerous pharmaceuticals, researchers...

It’s OK to Criticize the Fed—Even for Presidents

For the Washington Post‘s Catherine Rampell (10/11/18), the Federal Reserve’s “political independence is supposed to be sacrosanct”–but not independent of bankers, of course, who...

From GM Potatoes to Glyphosate: Regulatory Delinquency and Toxic Agriculture

Food and environment campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason has just produced the report ‘Shockingly high levels of weedkiller found in popular breakfast cereals marketed for...
video

Video: Protesters in India Are Massacred as Environmentally Destructive Corporations Have Impunity

Police in India killed a dozen protesters in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, after 100 days of demonstrations against the mining corporation Sterlite....

Trump accused of anti-Semitism over claim Soros funds ‘elevator screamers’ — RT US News

Critics of US President Donald Trump were quick to accuse him of anti-Semitism over a tweet...

Trump accused of anti-Semitism over claim Soros funds ‘elevator screamers’ — RT US News

Critics of US President Donald Trump were quick to accuse him of anti-Semitism over a tweet...

Grassroots outrage? Soros-funded activists behind anti-Kavanaugh campaign — RT US News

Moving videos of women confronting senators over Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination have been framed as...

Why Not Socialism?

Photo Source thierry ehrmann | CC BY 2.0 In May of 1949, the first issue of Monthly Review came off the press, with a circulation of 450...

I Don’t See How a Palestinian State Can Ever Happen

Photo by young shanahan | CC BY 2.0 Abu Yussef Abu Dahuk is 60 years old. But of course he looks around 75 or 80,...

Trump Jr. blasts Democratic congressman for ‘defending’ Muslim preacher who called Jews ‘satanic’ —...

Donald Trump Jr. and Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin) found themselves in a Twitter spat on...

Three Cheers for the Decline of the Middle Class

I realize how callous the title of this article sounds. The decline of the middle class, which in recent years has been the subject...

From Venezuela to McCain, Media and Human Rights Industry on Same Page

The Economist‘s claim (8/20/18) that migration from Venezuela “might surpass the Syrian crisis” is off by a factor of seven. On August 20, the Economist...

WATCH Boris Johnson being mocked by Kenyan president (VIDEO) — RT UK News

Boris Johnson found himself the butt of a joke when the President of Kenya seemed...

The Trump-Media Logrolling by Sam Husseini

Journalist Sam Husseini, reporting for The Nation magazine, displays a sign before being forcibly removed from a press conference after U.S. President Donald Trump...

Raging Mendocino Complex fire becomes largest in California history (VIDEOS, PHOTOS) — RT US...

The raging Mendocino Complex fire has officially become the largest wildfire in California's history, authorities have...

the Psychological and Physical Costs of the Israel-Gaza War

Photo by young shanahan | CC BY 2.0 I have lived in this part of Israel for 45 years – the region that used to...

What Not To Do in Gun Shop

By Kristin Alberts Guns.com July 28, 2018 ...

What Not To Do in Gun Shop

By Kristin Alberts Guns.com July 28, 2018 ...

What Not To Do in Gun Shop

By Kristin Alberts Guns.com July 28, 2018 ...

India Mortgaged? Forced-Fed Illness and the Neoliberal Food Regime

Like many countries, India's food system was essentially clean just a generation or two ago but is now being comprehensively contaminated with sugar, bad...

Key Fact Obscured in Immigration Coverage: MS-13 Was Made in USA

David Frum (Atlantic, 6/20/18) rejects the “extremism” of holding the US responsible for creating the conditions that force mass migration. In a piece for the...

Helsinki Talks – LewRockwell

Musk looks at Flint water crisis after being berated for ‘impractical’ help in Thai...

After his offer of a ‘kid-size’ submarine to Thai cave rescuers was berated as “impractical,” Elon...

Why Does Palestine Matter?

Photo by young shanahan | CC BY 2.0 Why does Palestine matter? It’s a question I ask myself nearly every day. Another way to put...

100,000+ People Call on Microsoft and Other Tech Companies to Drop Contracts with ICE...

WASHINGTON - A growing coalition of grassroots advocacy groups are demanding that Microsoft, Salesforce, and other large tech companies drop their contracts with immigration...

Mother Shoots Home Invader – LewRockwell

By Chris Eger Guns.com June 28, 2018 [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-aBBKTP0Lc] Police in Goochland County, Virginia report...

Death by Regulation – LewRockwell

Don’t Mess With US Gun Owners

By Tom Knighton Bearing Arms June 22, 2018 ...

‘The Black Athlete Has Been Involved in the Political Struggle From the Beginning’

Janine Jackson interviewed Howard Bryant about African-American athletes and activism for the June 15, 2018, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. ...

Break-Dancing FBI Agent Who Shot a Bystander Charged with Assault

By Chris Eger Guns.com June 14, 2018 ...

Philip May’s Capital Group profits from British weed-growing op while British patients denied access...

Charges of hypocrisy have been leveled against the Home Office for not granting patients access...

US intelligence developing human DNA-like models to hoard your personal data — RT US...

As US intelligence services struggle to store the trove of data collected during its snooping operations,...

Obama to blame for Crimea fallout, some want Russia back in G8 – Trump...

Donald Trump says several other G7 states support the idea of reversing Moscow’s banishment from the...

Don’t Eat This – LewRockwell

Trump Peddles “False Hope” to the Terminally Ill With “Right to Try” Law

(Photo: Portra / Getty Images) With the latest revelations about his soured relationship with Attorney General Jeff Sessions dominating cable news and accounts of migrant children ripped from...

Be Your Own Bodyguard – LewRockwell

How To Be Your Own Bod... Nick Hughes Check Amazon for...

The Tired Trope of Blaming Trump on ‘Liberal Smugness’

In an attempt to understand the coalition that gave Trump his narrow victory, for the past year and a half the press has spun...

Russian ‘dirty money’ report sparks rift between Tory MPs — RT UK News

Security Minister Ben Wallace has criticized Foreign Affairs Select Committee Chair Tom Tugendhat, a Tory,...

US man freaks on Spanish speakers in restaurant (VIDEO) — RT US News

A lawyer blew a gasket after hearing people speaking Spanish in a New York restaurant, with...

‘In praise of the Wehrmacht’

In a spectacular own-goal the right-wing magazine The Spectator published an article online headlined ‘In...

Pharma Paid and Trump Delivered

How high are Pharma’s prices? Novartis wants $475,000 a patient for its new cancer therapy. Hep C drugs cost $95,000 for a course of treatment. The...

‘A Result of McCarthyism Is a Much Narrower Range of Political Ideas’

For the May 4, 2018, episode of CounterSpin, Janine Jackson reaired an interview with Ellen Schrecker on the New McCarthyism, originally broadcast January 6,...

Stomach-churning moment tornado rips into Florida bay caught on camera (VIDEOS) — RT US...

A tunnel tornado was spotted tearing across parts of Florida as high winds whipped up in...

The Bogus ‘Credibility’ Argument Returns

Originally appeared on The American Conservative. Trump reportedly deferred to Mattis’ advice and ordered a smaller attack on Syria than he and Bolton had originally...

Woman Confronts Home Burglar in Court

By Joey Clementine Guns.com April 9, 2018 ...

After Gaza Massacre, Israeli Leaders Should Be Prosecuted for War Crimes – Consortiumnews

After its soldiers conducted a massacre against unarmed protesters in Gaza, Israeli leaders should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court, argues Marjorie Cohn. On...

Nestle allowed to pump more water in Michigan despite public outcry — RT US...

Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has given Nestle permission to extract 400 gallons (1,500 liters)...

Census Smoke Signals

The decennial Census is a high-stakes feat. It informs government spending, business planning, and congressional apportionment. No wonder the Census Bureau takes such great...

Viagra to be sold over the counter as drug company falls on hard times...

Hard times for Viagra’s producers have led to a decision to sell the iconic blue...

Cloud act passes without fanfare — RT US News

President Trump on Friday prevented another government shutdown by signing a $1.3 trillion federal spending bill....

Trump Supports ‘Space Force’ For War-Making And Dominance in Space – Consortiumnews

Calls by Trump for a new ‘Space Force’ could further the potential of an armed showdown between US and foreign...

How Insurance Companies Drive Up Drug Prices

(Photo: Peshkov / Getty Images) Faced with angry consumers and impending political reforms, the massive corporations that shape the way we pay for medicine are...

Trump Promotes Longtime Russia Hawk Just as Russiagate Loses Momentum – Consortiumnews

The fact-free and logic-challenged allegations of Trump-Russia collusion have further lost credibility with the appointment of a virulently anti-Russia hawk...
video

Video: “Unprecedented & Shocking”: Armed Secret Service Agents Should Not Be Allowed at Polling...

https://democracynow.org - A bipartisan group of secretaries of state are condemning a proposal to allow armed Secret Service agents at election polling stations. The...

Saudi & UK links ‘saving lives,’ claims Theresa May… just not in Yemen (VIDEO)...

Theresa May has defended the UK’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. Despite coming under fire from...

For NYT, a Trillion Dollars’ Worth of A-Bombs Is ‘Little’ Response to Russia

“Russia has ramped up its arsenals,” and “US has done little in response”—except ramp up its own arsenal by more than the size of...

Doctor shared kid patients’ data with pharmaceutical company to push costly drug they didn’t...

A pediatric cardiologist from Marietta, Georgia, has admitted illegally providing confidential patient data to US pharmaceutical...

Police & fire department respond to ‘major incident’ in Leicester, UK after reports of...

British police said they were responding to a "major incident" after reports of a large...

Stocks Aren’t Everything – LewRockwell

By David Hathaway February 13, 2018 ...

Senator Rubio calls for military coup in Venezuela — RT US News

Republican Senator Marco Rubio called for the Venezuelan Armed Forces to rebel against the government, in...

HRW raises alarm over sedative abuse in US nursing homes — RT US News

Thousands of nursing home patients across the US regularly receive strong antipsychotics, without being properly diagnosed...

Hot in January – LewRockwell

1.  Russia’s New Monster WeaponEric...

Trump’s most controversial applause lines from his 1st State of the Union — RT...

It was billed as a speech that would unite all Americans, but even with memorable lines,...

How To Protect Yourself From Germs While Flying

By Kirstin Fawcett Mental Floss January 30, 2018 ...

DOJ extended surveillance of Trump campaign adviser over Steele dossier findings

A House Intelligence Committee memo shows Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approved extending surveillance on former...

Google Home knows Muhammad & Buddha, but not God or Jesus (VIDEO) — RT...

Internet users are posting videos that show Google products refusing to answer questions about Christian figures,...

We Cannot Survive a Nuclear Apocalypse by Ducking and Covering

(Image: Paul Campbell / iStock / Getty Images Plus) Current fears of the potential use of nuclear weapons -- partly resulting from the North Korean...

Escaped teen helps rescue 12 starved siblings, parents charged with torture — RT US...

Some of the 13 victims, aged 2 to 29, were starving, chained and bound in their...

Death by Physician – LewRockwell

Woman returns ‘dead’ Christmas tree for full refund, social media can’t handle it —...

Published time: 10 Jan, 2018 20:10 Customers at a Los Angeles, California Costco were astounded when...

Trump Already Fading into Irrelevance

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org This will be a nonpartisan commentary about U.S. politics, as viewed by an American historian who is disgusted with...
video

Video: ‘Yemen is dying, conflict will destroy generations’ – author of book on life...

An Italian journalist is raising awareness of the Yemeni people's suffering showing their daily life and traditions - that continue despite the horrors of...

GMOs, Global Agribusiness and the Destruction of Choice

One of the myths perpetuated by the pro-GMO (genetically modified organisms) lobby is that critics of GMOs in agriculture are denying choice to farmers...

‘This Is Simply Price Gouging’: Cost of Cancer Drug Hiked 1,400% Since 2013

Critics of the pharmaceutical industry have expressed outrage over a Wall Street Journal analysis that found the owner of a 40-year-old cancer drug used...

What Depression? – LewRockwell

Review...

America’s Collapsing Prestige – LewRockwell

By Paul Craig Roberts PaulCraigRoberts.org December 23, 2017

The Triumph of the Oligarchs | By Robert Reich

The Republican tax plan to be voted on this week is likely to pass. “The American people have waited 31 long years to see...

Following ‘unmasking’ of Michael Flynn, US to tighten the screws on spies — RT...

Amid persistent claims the Obama administration eavesdropped on members of Trump’s transition team and leaked General...

Your Taxpayer Dollars Are Funding Corporate Propaganda

While Congress hasn’t accomplished much in 2017, it did manage to pass a budget resolution — and within that budget, a sum of $3...

The Wonder Vitamin – LewRockwell

Brit who fought ISIS in Raqqa (VIDEO) — RT UK News

Macer Gifford left his high-flying city job in 2014 to join the fight against Islamic...

What the Latest FBI Data Do and Do Not Tell Us About Hate Crimes...

This November, the FBI released its annual report of hate crimes for 2016, showing that in Trump's America, Muslims experience a greater risk of...

‘US drops Kurds like hot potatoes after ISIS power wanes’ — RT US News

Published time: 26 Nov, 2017 14:12 The Americans have finished with the Kurds, now they can...

Economic Update: Capitalism, Corporations and Media

This week's episode discusses corrupt Congressional "tax reform," giant corporations' abuse of power, GE CEO wastes millions, corporate structure and sexual harassment/abuse, Detroit's fake...

The Food Industry Has the Trump Administration Right Where It Wants It

When Donald Trump was elected president, American consumer protection groups, food safety advocates and commentators were "on high alert." Two months prior, his campaign...

Lawmaker calls for RT YouTube ban during Russia hearing — RT US News

House Intelligence Committee members accusing RT of being “fake news” were only able to point to...

It’s Time to Stop Using Inmates for Free Labor

This article was published by TalkPoverty.org. Last week, a Louisiana sheriff gave a press conference railing against a new prisoner release program because it cost him free...

How To Be Famous – LewRockwell

By David Hathaway October 21, 2017 ...

Make Big Pharma Pay for the Opioid Crisis

Photo by Maryland GovPics | CC by 2.0 Big Pharma is the culprit for the opioid crisis we have today.  This is about crime in...

Are Europe and the Middle East Both on the Verge of Unraveling?

Photo by SCUBACOPPER | CC BY 2.0 Democracy can be messy. In the northeast corner of Spain this week, democracy was downright chaotic. Catalans went to...

Is Your Shampoo Making You Sick?

‘Death Wish Coffee’ could actually kill you, company recalls product

Published time: 22 Sep, 2017 17:38 Edited time: 23 Sep, 2017 18:22 The New York company...

Alzheimer’s Disease

Trump gives first speech at UN General Assembly (WATCH LIVE)

Published time: 19 Sep, 2017 14:04 Edited time: 19 Sep, 2017 14:24 US President Donald Trump...

In Month After Charlottesville, Papers Spent as Much Time Condemning Anti-Nazis as Nazis

Members of the antifa movement “are no different from neo-Nazis,” wrote Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen (8/30/17). “Both practice violence and preach hate. They...

Gov’t Won’t Protect Us From Storms

Bret Stephens, who wrote “Hurricanes, Climate and the Capitalist Offset” for the New York Times, is an economic ignoramus. He opines: “Climate activists often claim that...

Another Wonder Drug

If you think cholesterol-lowering statin drugs are an affront to your intelligence because they were approved on the false promise they save lives yet...

MDMA could be used to treat PTSD in war veterans – study

Published time: 27 Aug, 2017 14:38 Edited time: 27 Aug, 2017 14:39 A drug associated with...

The Opioid Epidemic

The Opioid epidemic is spreading across the heartland of America. The number of drug overdose deaths from both prescription (e.g., Oxycontin) and black market...

You Might Be a Cheapskate

By Daisy Luther The Organic Prepper August 19, 2017 Do you enjoy saving a buck more than most people?  Do you have a black belt in...

Increase in Drug Prescriptions, Decrease in Life Expectancy

By Dr. Mercola If you’re a U.S. adult and don’t regularly take a prescription drug, you’re now in the minority, according to a survey of...

The Grand Old Party’s Over. Make Way for the Trump Party.

You’ve probably heard the story. It’s said that in ancient Rome, the emperor had a member of the Praetorian Guard who, amid all the...

‘Americans should sleep well at night’ – Tillerson on North Korea threat

Published time: 9 Aug, 2017 12:42 North Korea poses no “imminent threat” to the US and...

The Great Leap Backwards: Trump's Blueprint To Make America Not Great

The Trump administration is doubling down on oil, gas, and coal at a time when the rest of the world is committing to getting...

US Lags Far Behind in Banning the Use of Mercury in Dentistry

United Nations -- The United States is lagging far behind its Western allies -- and perhaps most of the key developing countries -- in...

‘Chip party’: US company celebrates implanting microchips in employees (VIDEO)

A Wisconsin company has implanted microchips into its employees at a symbolic ‘chip party’, a first...

History Shows That Stacking Federal Science Advisory Committees Doesn't Work

Scientists are busy people, but every year thousands donate many hours of their time without payment to advise Congress and federal government agencies. They...

Tobacco shares plunge as US government vows to cut nicotine in cigarettes

The US Food and Drug Administration has announced its plan to cut nicotine in conventional cigarettes...

DNA of human embryos edited for 1st time in US – report

A team of researchers in Oregon have become the first to attempt to create genetically modified...

Big Tobacco v Global Health: Time for New Strategies

If present trends continue, experts predict, the tobacco toll in the 21st century will reach one billion premature deaths, ten times the 100 million...

Trump Jr. & Manafort set to testify before Senate judiciary panel

Published time: 20 Jul, 2017 03:53 A Senate panel will hear testimonies from Donald Trump Jr....

US v. opioid manufacturer: First settlement reached over pills on black market

Published time: 12 Jul, 2017 18:09 Edited time: 12 Jul, 2017 18:10 For the first time,...

Is Your Health Being Ruined?

I often find myself looking up the nutrient profiles of the foods I eat. I try to do it on a regular basis, just...

Dangerous Island Suddenly Forms in Atlantic

Experts have warned visitors to stay away as the rip tide is 'incredibly strong' and the waters are infested with 5ft long sharks By Scarlet...

Can pick up egg: Two veterans get DARPA-developed prosthetic arms after 40yrs (VIDEOS)

Two retired army veterans who lost their arms more than 40 years ago have received revolutionary...
video

Video: Top U.S. & World Headlines — June 29, 2017

Visit https://democracynow.org to watch the full independent, global news hour, read the transcript, search our archive and to make a donation to support us. Via...

Trump's Plan for Drug Pricing Executive Order Is a Big Pharma Wish List

(Photo: TBIT; Edited: LW / TO) Raise your hand if you believed Donald Trump's repeated promises to take on Big Pharma. What about the presidential boast that...

Concerned Americans Say New GMO Regs Would Make Oversight Worse, Not Better

WASHINGTON - Today marks the close of three U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) public comment periods on...

‘Chronic Lyme disease’ treatments ineffective, scathing CDC report finds

Published time: 17 Jun, 2017 03:47 Many may recognize the term “chronic Lyme disease,” but the...

State attorneys general announce nationwide bipartisan probe into opioid marketing & production

The majority of state attorneys general have joined together to investigate the growing opioid epidemic and...

Terrifying videos of West London Tower blaze: 120 apartments engulfed, falling debris (VIDEOS)

Published time: 14 Jun, 2017 06:06 A huge blaze, falling debris, and people reportedly still...

US Supreme Court overturns copycat drug delays

Published time: 12 Jun, 2017 16:20 A California-based pharmaceutical company cannot use federal law to enforce...

The Tyranny of Gov’t Science

We have reached a dangerous state of scientific tyranny. People are ridiculed and even vilified for questioning the prevailing narratives about the nature of...

Air supply problem grounds F-35s at USAF base in Arizona

F-35A operations at the Luke Air Force Base in Arizona were temporarily suspended after a series...

Committee Should Reject Legislation That Opens the Door to Industry Promotion of Medicines and...

WASHINGTON - Members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee should reject two bills that would undermine regulatory standards for ensuring...

Trump believes in climate change but wants a better deal – US ambassador to...

President Trump is aware of climate change, but will “take care” of it on America’s own...

Over 60% of US voters say Russia is enemy – poll

Russia ranks fourth on the American public’s list of bad guys, outstripped only by North Korea,...

End the War on Chiropractic

By Dr. Mercola In the U.S., painkiller addiction is so rampant that 91 Americans die every day from an overdose of prescription opioids or heroin.1Prescription...

‘Total lack of awareness’: Elite NH boarding school bungled previous sexual abuse report

St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire has become the latest elite boarding school to publish a...

Abortions for ‘free travel’? Alaska House censures rep over ‘glad to be pregnant’ comments

The Alaska House has formally rebuked a Republican representative who accused women of getting abortions so...

The NY Slimes

Just days after sporting First Amendment pins at the White House Correspondents Dinner – to celebrate freedom of the press – the mainstream U.S. media...

NYT Cheers the Rise of Censorship Algorithms

Exclusive: The New York Times is cheering on the Orwellian future for Western “democracy” in which algorithms quickly hunt down...

Not a Prepper?

By Daisy Luther The Organic Prepper April 27, 2017 Prepping isn’t all about wiling away your hours in a bunker, reloading ammo. It’s about the everyday...

Amid govt shutdown fear, Trump withdraws border wall funding demand – reports

As a possible government shutdown approaches, President Donald Trump has walked back previous demands that funding...

Medical marijuana program ‘could save US taxpayer $1bn’ – study

Published time: 24 Apr, 2017 06:23 A new study claims that medical marijuana use directly correlates with...

The Chickenpox Vaccine Disaster

When I was a child, nearly everybody became ill with chickenpox.  Like nearly all kids, when I became ill with it, I stayed home...

‘Devastating’ report finds decades of sexual misconduct at elite boarding school Choate

An independent investigation into Choate Rosemary Hall, an elite private boarding school in Connecticut once attended...

The GOP Has Declared War on Democracy

Many in the media are portraying the Republicans’ move to invoke the nuclear option to confirm Neil Gorsuch as a mere squabble over Senate...

Fight against deadliest antibiotic-resistant bacteria gets cash infusion for R&D

A major global partnership has announced an injection of cash for researchers seeking to develop the...

You’re a Gov’t Lab Rat

By Daisy Luther The Organic Prepper March 28, 2017 A new law quietly passed last December contains a waiver of informed consent that eliminates the requirement...

DEA approves synthetic marijuana for big pharma company against legalization

A synthetic marijuana product could be available for commercialization after the DEA gave a newly approved...

Behind a Corporate Monster: How Monsanto Pushes Agricultural Domination

A farmhand loads genetically modified corn seed into a planter on Bo Stone's farm in Rowland, North Carolina, April 20, 2016. (Photo: Jeremy M....

Skin creams containing paraffin linked to dozens of UK fire deaths – report

Published time: 19 Mar, 2017 18:20 Emollient skin creams which contain paraffin are responsible for dozens...

‘We decided not to go forward with additional patients’: Stem cell clinic blinds 3...

One woman has been left completely blind and two others partially lost their sight after stem cells were injected into their eyeballs as part...

Stop Protecting the Criminality of the Global Pesticides Industry

The agrichemicals industry wallows like an overblown hog in a cesspool of corruption. With its snout firmly embedded in the trough of corporate profit...

Media Find Room for ‘Trumpcare Too Progressive,’ but Not for Single-Payer – Right-wing critics...

In May 2009, at the infancy of the healthcare reform battle that led to the Affordable Care Act, a group of nurses and single-payer...

Media Fawn Over Trump’s Success at Saying Words in Semi-Coherent Fashion

What came to be known as the “expectations game” during the George W. Bush years was wielded with notorious cynicism. The assumption behind this...

Who’s Behind US Downward-Mobility?

President Trump blames Mexicans, Chinese and other foreigners for the plight of downwardly mobile Americans but the real culprits are...

Trump Didn’t ‘Revoke’ Protections for Trans Students–Because He Can’t

Trump does not actually have the power to “withdraw federal protection for transgender students” unilaterally. If you’re concerned that someone has authoritarian tendencies, the worst...

Arizona lets death row inmates bring their own lethal injection drugs to executions

“BYO” is often seen on invitations asking people to bring booze, but it’s unusual for the practice to be applied to the death row...

Overprescription nation: Seniors taking multiple psychotropic drugs doubles over a decade

The number of retirement-age Americans being prescribed multiple psychiatric drugs without a recorded mental health diagnosis...

Two Americans plead guilty to bomb plot, admit supporting ISIS

A pair of New York City men who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, researched pressure...

Curing the Heroin Epidemic

A heroin epidemic has been spreading across the United States, expanding enormously for the last several years. With it, the number of people dying...

E-cigarettes could raise risk of heart disease, study says

Use of electronic cigarettes devices is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, according to...

Native Americans vow legal action after proposed suspension of DAPL environmental review

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is vowing legal action after the US Army Corps of Engineers...

Tories will use Brexit to make Britain a tax haven, Labour MP tells RT...

Speaking to RT’s Going Underground program, Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon MP warned that Prime...

Army Corps starts Dakota Access Pipeline environmental study

The Army Corps of Engineers have began studying the environmental impact of the $3.8 billion Dakota...

Can President Trump Uphold Scientific Integrity in Government Decisionmaking? New Report Tells What’s At...

Last week, the US Department of Energy released a revised scientific integrity policy in what was likely the last move by the Obama administration...

Are we working towards ‘humanity’?

Peter Van Els While the winter, outside, descends in all its severity, thoughts go to all those people who now have to face the cold,...

Texas executes nation's first death row prisoner of 2017

Convicted murderer Christopher Wilkins, a Texan, has become the first person executed in the US in...

‘Trump is right’: Bernie Sanders hopes to make drug pricing deal with president-elect

President-elect Donald Trump and former presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) don’t always see eye to...

Brexit bust-up: Resignation of Britain’s EU ambassador unleashes political storm

Sir Ivan Rogers could “not be trusted” as Britain’s EU ambassador and must be succeeded by a negotiator with a more positive view of...

The Trouble With Multivitamins

Multivitamins present the most practical and economical opportunity for the public to make up for gaps in the high calorie/nutrient insufficient American diet. Despite alleged...

Media Legitimizing GOP’s ‘Universal’ Health Plan That Doesn’t Exist

The first problem with this New York Times headline (12/15/16) is pretending the Republicans have a healthcare plan. Members of the GOP leadership were likely...
video

Video: Kamchatka stunning 360 aerial footage of one of the most beautiful corners of...

Land of volcanoes & wild bears: Explore Kamchatka, one of the most beautiful parts of Russia, with RT's exclusive 360 video. RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air...

Where Independence Is Illegal Without a Permit

These days, you need permission from the government to do just about anything, including feeding yourself or others. Do you own a car? Every...

Can You Cure the Incurable?

Written with an eloquent flowing style, this book makes the case for Vitamin C as a remarkable medicine that has been overlooked by the...

21st Century Cures Act goes to Obama after Senate passage

The 21st Century Cures Act is heading to President Barack Obama’s desk after passing the Senate....

The ‘Draft Women’ Legislation Roller Coaster Ride

During consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in the spring, the proposal that women be required to sign up with Selective Service...

93% of ‘patient advocacy’ groups funded by drug & medical giants – report

US patient advocacy groups are seen as unbiased and independent authorities championing the public interest with...

Elizabeth Warren accuses big pharma of hijacking ‘cures bill’

Accusing Republicans of giving handouts to pharmaceutical industry, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts warned that...

Trump to pressure foreign govts to investigate Clinton Foundation – report

While President-elect Donald Trump earlier announced a U-turn on investigating Hillary Clinton, he is now reportedly...

Noam Chomsky Favored a U.S. War to Conquer Russia

Eric Zuesse Noam Chomsky, who in a 2005 global poll was voted as the "world’s top public intellectual”, told Qatar’s Al Jazeera television, in a November 24th...

Florida boy calls 911 inviting sheriff’s deputies to Thanksgiving dinner

A five-year-old boy called the emergency services to invite local Florida deputies over for Thanksgiving dinner....

Is this person our new President?

Here’s Why Hillary Won’t Allow Her Corporate Speeches to be Published Eric Zuesse (update added 8 November 2016) In a previous report, I indicated "Why Hillary Clinton’s...

Graphic pics on cigarette packs may avert 650,000+ deaths in US – study

Smoking cigarettes, the key cause of preventable disease and death in the US, accounts for over...

Butter Is Better

By Dr. Mercola In your musings about odd things, it may have occurred to you to wonder, if butter is basically made from the skimmings...

There’s Something Rotten in the State of Weiner

On Monday we were the first to note that Podesta’s friend Peter Kadzik was the DOJ representative chosen to head up a “thorough” review...

Potayto, potahto: Controversial new ‘anti-famine’ GMO potato strains approved

The US Department of Agriculture has given its seal of approval to two new strains of...

Toxic chemicals found in children’s Halloween makeup – study

Halloween is supposed to make your skin crawl, but not like this. A new study finds...

Sanders asks Obama to halt construction on Dakota Access Pipeline until after review

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, along with four other Democrats, asked President Obama to halt construction of...

Emails show State Dept. helped Clinton Foundation donors get contracts for 2010 Haiti quake...

International efforts to help Haiti following the 2010 earthquake have come under scrutiny recently, specifically those...

Still the Only Christian Choice For President

Ron Paul is the only major presidential candidate Christians could hire without sinning against Jesus in my lifetime. What I mean by “sin” is doing...

Pilgrims Attacked in Baghdad; 120 Killed in Iraq

Pilgrims Attacked in Baghdad; 120 Killed in Iraq Militants used Muharram observances to attack Shi’ite pilgrims in Baghdad. An oil deal between Arbil and...

What Actually Keeps Americans Safe: Liberty

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Since 9/11, untold sums of money have gone into building up the national security state. That includes new billion-dollar-plus...

CIA Puppet Masters

By Daisy Luther DaisyLuther.com September 30, 2016 It’s really quite embarrassing on a global scale when members of our own government seem to be deliberately trying...

Rape kit backlog results in lawsuits against police departments

The backlog of evidence taken from the bodies of sexual assault victims after attacks is a national problem. But a San Francisco woman hopes...

The US Is a Country, Not a Business

The US has been sold off to the highest bidder, and until we repudiate the "free market" fundamentalism that has infected our...

Big Pharma spent $880mn on keeping opioids available – report

In the midst of one of the worst drug epidemics in the US, a report found that the money spent on keeping painkillers regularly...

Why Mises and Not Hayek?

Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek are widely considered the most eminent classical liberal thinkers of this century. They are also the two...

Hot topic: GOP’s ‘revolutionary’ new focus on women’s health

Hillary Clinton’s recent public health crisis has a number of Republican politicians weighing in on her...

45 Killed in Iraq; More U.S. Troops Arrive

45 Killed in Iraq; More U.S. Troops Arrive More than 400 additional U.S. servicemembers were deployed to Iraq in the last week,...

Washing Our Hands of Toxins

(Photo: Jeff) Some people love to hate government regulations. Many believe they're just bureaucratic barriers that waste our time. But the Food and...

Washing Our Hands of Toxins

Some people love to hate government regulations. Many believe they’re just bureaucratic barriers that waste our time. But the Food and Drug Administration just...

In OtherWords: September 7, 2016

It’s been more than 130 years since the first Labor Day was celebrated to honor the achievements of American workers. But not everyone got...

21 Life Hacks To Help You Through a Disaster

By Daisy Luther The Organic Prepper September 7, 2016 Life hacks are all over the place at the minute (seriously, they’re everywhere) and some are really...

Sex, drugs & EDM: 400+ arrested at 3-day rave in California

Sex, drugs and electronic dance music created the perfect atmosphere for lots of arrests at the...

‘Private hell’: Dozens of students sexually assaulted at RI boarding school – report

A dense and disturbing report found widespread sexual abuse at St. George’s boarding school in Rhode...

The ‘Anti-Clinton Media’ Are Big Donors to Clinton Foundation–and to Clinton

“At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department...

Beware This Health Bomb

By Dr. Mercola Over the course of a lifetime, the average American uses about 20 gallons of toothpaste,1 and even though you don’t swallow it,...

Gay & bisexual N. Ireland men now allowed to give blood, but only 12...

A lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood has been lifted in Northern...

David Cameron’s final shameless scam: Political allies get 25% pay rise

Former prime minister David Cameron offered inexplicable pay rises to his special advisers mere months before they were given post-Brexit ‘golden handshakes.’ According to figures...

Monopoly & lobbyists: Research reveals why US drugs are so pricey

Mylan and Turing are not “bad apples” but par for the course in the US pharmaceutical...

Police take step toward creating ‘wanted’ posters from DNA, thanks to new study

It’s no secret that there is a genetic aspect to our looks ‒ how many times...

Pregnant women should keep off Miami Beach due to Zika virus spread – official

The Zika virus has officially hit Miami Beach – one of the most popular tourist destinations...

Growing Up Insane

The current state of American politics must make us question whether any of our leaders in the Beltway can be described as “grown-ups”; i.e.,...

‘If You’re So Proud of This Technology, Put It on the Label’ – CounterSpin...

Janine Jackson interviewed Patty Lovera about GMO labeling for the August 12, 2016, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. Patty Lovera: “If...

My Food Identity Dilemma

Why do we eat what we eat? Many of us eat foods that are familiar, convenient, and that simply taste good, without thinking much about...

Pregnant Woman Executed; 57 Killed Across Iraq

Pregnant Woman Executed; 57 Killed Across Iraq Parliament announced on Tuesday the start of a corruption investigation. In response to it, Prime Minister...

US Military Pivots to Africa and the News Is Grim

Originally posted at TomDispatch. Someday, someone will write a history of the U.S. national security state in the twenty-first century and, if the...

Mosquitoes in Miami have transmitted Zika virus – Florida gov

The first known transmissions of the Zika virus in the United States unrelated to travel or...

Libertarian What-Me-Worryism

As elderly people get older they tend toward feeble-mindedness. Not in every case, of course, but as a general rule applicable to any given...

U.S. opens door to a change in blood donation policy for gay men

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened the door on Tuesday to a change in its blood donor deferral recommendations, which currently...

Who you gonna call? Mysterious green slime appears in Utah sewers (PHOTOS)

Residents of a Utah city were left baffled and concerned after a mysterious green foam emerged...

Brain-linked prosthetic arm scheduled to hit markets by year’s end

An advanced prosthetic arm developed by creators of the Segway and with funding from DARPA could...

Black intruder shot by off-duty cop after online argument about Black Lives Matter

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A former Affton High School football standout forced his way into a South County home and was shot and killed by...

Potential cancer break-through treatment halted after 2 trial patients die

Trials of an experimental therapy to treat Leukemia have been halted by US authorities after two...

The Dallas Murders

By Gary North GaryNorth.com July 9, 2016 Paul Ryan had planned a vote on limiting suspected terrorists’ access to legal guns. This was correctly perceived by...

Just Say NO to the State

This year, the 4th of July simply makes me sad. I was trying to summon up a rush of pride to write about what makes...

Never Take These Killer Drugs

By Dr. Mercola It is now estimated that 1 in 8 Americans are on serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) antidepressants1 and a shocking 1 in 4...

Here’s Why Hillary Won’t Allow Her Corporate Speeches to be Published

Eric Zuesse (update added 8 November 2016) In a previous report, I indicated "Why Hillary Clinton’s Paid Speeches Are Relevant”, but not what they contained. The...

Experimental Zika vaccine approved for testing on human subjects

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a Zika vaccine for human clinical trials, marking a significant milestone in the struggle to combat...

Bizarre stomach-pumping device approved in US for fighting obesity (VIDEO)

A new device that sucks food out of your stomach and into the toilet after every...

Orlando fallout: Mateen’s family put on no fly lists

Omar Mateen’s father and wife were added to the US’ no-fly list as investigators try to...

Land Grabs Soar, Worsening Land Conflicts and Climate Change

A woman farms with her cow in rural Bangladesh on May 13, 2007. (Photo: Jankie) Industrial agriculture and financial sectors are hand-in-hand worsening...

‘Pharmaceutical Companies Have Pressured Doctors, Suppressed Evidence’

Janine Jackson interviewed Lee Fang about industry’s role in the opioid crisis for the  June 10, 2016, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly...

Orlando: Thousands Line Up to Donate Blood – But Gay Men Can’t

Thousands of Florida residents formed long lines around blood centers in Orlando, Florida after an urgent call for donations in the wake of the...

Ban hate-crime convicts from buying guns, senator says in wake of Orlando

The first piece of legislation introduced on the federal level after the mass shooting in Orlando,...

‘Horrible irony’: Gay men turned away from donating blood after Orlando shooting

Sunday’s shooting at an Orlando gay club – and subsequent calls from blood donors - has...

If Only Your Body Could Speak to Your Mind

For thousands of years humans have defended themselves from harm by others. But many have proceeded to regularly harm themselves. They have actively searched...

While Canadian Companies Exploit African Resources …

... Canadian "charities" (NGOs) call on Canadians to "walk for hope" in Africa What is wrong here? While Canadian companies exploit African resources for their...

Matt Ridley’s Pro-GMO Blunders and Ignorance in the British Press

In his recent piece for The Times newspaper in the UK, Viscount Matt Ridley argues that a new report from the American National Academies of Sciences (NAS) leaves...

What Big Pharma Does Not Want You to Know About the Opioid Epidemic

The prescription opioid epidemic is not new. It began when Pharma rolled out and aggressively marketed time-released opioids like Oxycontin, driving “pill mills” that...

Feel the burn: Sunscreen not living up to its labels

As summer approaches, so does the tradition of slathering exposed flesh with sunscreen. With SPFs ranging...

Mizzou Faculty Offers Educational Videos for White People Who Have a ‘Way of Life...

Does the University of Missouri have a death wish?  In the wake of capitulating to race grievance demonstrators, Mizzou is already experiencing...

Pfizer no longer allowing its drugs to be used in executions

There is no longer a single major US drug company from which prisons can access drugs...

Bloody Day for Baghdad; 188 Killed in Iraq

The Iraqi government declared that the Islamic State militants now control only 14 percent of the Iraqi territory, down from a high of 40 percent in...

Tests find rat and human DNA in US hamburgers

Think that burger you’re biting into is all-beef? Even if it’s advertised that way, there’s a small chance that you could ingesting be ingesting...

Was Prince the Latest Opioid Casualty?

The autopsy results from Prince’s unexpected death are not in yet, but it has been reported that the musical star had the prescription opioid...

Heart surgery stalled for nearly 5 mins as anti-virus scan crashes computers

A patient undergoing heart surgery at a US hospital was put at risk when the computer...

‘A description of hell’: OxyContin makers downplayed addiction, hyped effectiveness – report

OxyContin became the best-selling US pain-killer based on its maker’s claim that its effect lasts for 12 hours. An investigation has now cast doubts...

Your Chewing Gum Is Making You a Lab Rat

Whenever I’m on a long road trip, chomping down on a piece of gum helps me stay awake. I don’t choose gum because it’s...

Listeria outbreak leads to massive frozen food recall

Hundreds of frozen fruit and vegetable products are being recalled after federal health officials linked them to an outbreak of listeria that has sickened...

US hospitals lack life-saving drugs despite government measures – report

A shortage of life-saving drugs continues to challenge hospitals across the US, a new Yale study...

Quaker Oats sued for use of glyphosate in ‘100% natural’ products

Quaker Oats is facing a new lawsuit following private tests that found trace amounts of the herbicide glyphosate on the company's products. Thus, plaintiffs...

Total media blackout on the biggest cancer story of the decade: Millions of diagnoses...

Ever since President Nixon declared the "war on cancer" in 1971, cancer rates have been continuously rising. The incredibly expensive cancer treatments which promised...

That ‘Natural’ Label Doesn’t Mean Much

Scenario: You’re at the store, trying to make healthy yet frugal choices. You see several products labeled “organic” and others labeled “natural.” You’re trying to...

Unregulated shrooms: GMO mushroom gets clearance from USDA

The US Department of Agriculture has said that it will not regulate a genetically modified mushroom...

Chemical added to hot dogs, sausage and bacon now being developed by USDA as...

A preservative chemical that's routinely added to hot dogs, beef jerky, bacon and breakfast sausage is now being deployed by government researchers as a...

The Globalisation of Bad Food and Poor Health: Sustainable Development or Sustainable Profits?

The proportion of deaths due to cancer around the world increased from 12 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2013. Globally, cancer is already...

Big Pharma Settlements Highlight the Need for Tougher Enforcement

Stronger enforcement is needed to deter pharmaceutical manufacturers from continuing to break the law and defraud federal and state health programs, according to a...

Security gaps found in State Department travel database

A crucial State Department database used to vet travelers to and from the US has gaps...

Ten Huge Drug Rip-Offs — and Big Pharma’s Infuriating Campaign to Keep on Price-Gouging

(Photo: Kev-Shine; Edited: LW / TO) This article was originally published by The Influence, a news site that covers the full spectrum of human relationships...

‘Why not Albright?’: 8 reasons why folks want the US diplomat in the Hague

The 40 year sentence slapped on Radovan Karadžić for war crimes by a Hague court this...

Sandra Bland’s arresting officer pleads not guilty to misdemeanor perjury charge

Brian Encinia, who was fired from his Texas state trooper job over the arrest of Sandra...

The Crusade in Favour of GMO: Falsehoods and Vilification will not Fool the Public

Pro-GMO campaigners often attack critics of the technology by claiming their negative views of it emanate from well-funded environmentalist groups or commercial interests in...

GMO and the Right to Know: But What’s Hidden Beneath the Label?

Rachel Parent’s campaign (Kids Right To Know) on GMO labelling has been the subject of a GM industry strategy aimed at countering her message. Despite this,...

Total recall: Food industry hit hard by glass-laced products, salmonella, allergens

(RT) - That diet you’ve been meaning to go on may start today, as a plethora...

Ditch the soy: There’s a lot more risk in this than you’d ever imagine

In an attempt to eat better, many people opt to replace farm-fresh eggs and grass-fed meats with tofu, mostly likely because we've been "fed"...

Always buy local and organic: 75 percent of high-profile honey brands contain NO honey!

Honey, often referred to as "liquid gold," houses a wide range of vitamins and minerals. It is a natural and healthier alternative to sugar...

Labeling GMO: Dems put forward new bill as ‘Dark Act’ pushed on the hill

US Senate Democrats have offered an alternative GMO labeling bill that would require manufacturers to disclose the presence of GMOs to consumers, while still...

Corporations Killed Medicine. Here’s How to Take It Back.

(Photo: taggartjm / Flickr) Along the path toward the creation of a global capitalist system, some of the most significant steps were taken by the...

Turning Change into Chaos

Early U.S. presidents warned that foreign entanglements could endanger the Republic, but it turns out that modern U.S. interventions are hazardous to the rest...

Safe sex work: Britain declares 1st permanent, legalized ‘red light district’ open for business

A pilot scheme in Leeds to allow sex workers to ply their trade on the streets without fear of arrest will continue indefinitely after...

Taiwan bans GMOs from school lunches… mandates GMO labeling nationwide… throws down gauntlet on...

Even as the fascist, corrupt U.S. government and its regulators (FDA and USDA) actively conspire with the biotech industry to poison Americans with genetically...

Yurok Tribe Adopts Ordinance Banning Frankenfish and GMOs

In this photo, the Yurok Tribe wraps up commercial fishing for 2014. The tribe has banned genetically engineered salmon on their reservation on the...

The Fishy Science Behind Mutant Salmon

Americans have been eating genetically modified corn, soybeans, and other crops for nearly two decades. But thanks to the Food and Drug Administration, now...

Eco Groups Take Canadian Government to Court in GMO Salmon Fight

Genetically modified fish pose too high of a risk to surrounding ecosystems, lawsuit states by Nadia Prupis Green groups on Tuesday launched a legal challenge against the...

$10mn dare: MIT grad challenges Monsanto over ‘nonexistent GMO safety standards’

One of the world’s largest GMO producers has been challenged by an MIT graduate who claims there are absolutely no GMO safety assessment standards....

AP/GfK Poll: Americans Want Gov’t. Shutdown Unless Federal Spending Is Cut

Eric Zuesse According to the AP/GfK Poll published on October 27th, 50% of Americans agree with the statement, "Congress should ONLY increase the debt ceiling if...

US Government Accused of Stifling Medical Marijuana Research

With its widespread usage and support, research into the drug has never been so critical by Lauren McCauley Government bias and schizophrenic marijuana policy in the U.S....

Global Trade Is Collapsing As The Worldwide Economic Recession Deepens

By Michael Snyder (RINF) - When the global economy is doing well, the amount of stuff that is imported and exported around the world goes...

‘We Could Have All These Drugs Available at Generic Prices’ – CounterSpin interview with...

Janine Jackson interviewed Dean Baker about drug prices for the September 25 CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. MP3 Link Janine Jackson: Start-up Turing Pharmaceuticals...

Nearly 4,000 People Fighting California’s Fires Are Paid Just $1 an Hour

California is on fire. The wildfires covering over 100,000 acres of the state are so ferocious that they're creating their own weather patterns and...

Drug industry created "female sexual dysfunction" just to sell more high-profit drugs to women...

One of the major roadblocks to achieving wellness is the diagnosis mindset. People who seek out diagnoses for things like social anxiety or an...

Ben & Jerry’s Joins Fight to Protect Vermont Law Requiring Disclosure of Genetically Engineered...

BURLINGTON, Vermont - Ben & Jerry’s joins other Vermont businesses and consumer groups in defending Vermont’s new labeling requirements for genetically engineered (GE) foods...

Dementia now striking people in their 40s as mercury from vaccines causes slow, degenerative...

Dementia and other neurological brain diseases are striking people younger and younger, according to a new study conducted by researchers from Bournemouth University in...

Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: Monsanto’s Silence is Deafening 

In his book ‘Altered Genes,Twisted Truths’, US public interest attorney Steven Druker exposed the fraudulent practices and deceptions that led to the commercialisation of GM food...

Google ponders creating GM mosquitoes to fight tropical disease

Tech giant Google, soon to be Alphabet, is considering entering the burgeoning research area of genetic modification, beginning with the mosquito genome. Online portal...

Forced vaccinations part of HHS’s Healthy People 2020 ‘Decade of Vaccines’ agenda

We're right smack-dab in the middle of the federal government's "Decade of Vaccines" (2010-2020), and things couldn't be moving any faster in the direction...

Murky death of Sandra Bland points to possible police lynching

By Evan Blake The circumstances surrounding the death of Sandra “Sandy” Bland while in police custody remain very murky. Bland, 28, was found hanging in a...

Is Coke Illegally Claiming ‘Diet’ Soda is a Treatment for Obesity?

WASHINGTON - U.S. Right to Know, a consumer advocacy group, sent a letter today to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), asking it...

Capture, Smear, Contaminate: The Politics Of GMOs

When rich companies with politically-connected lobbyists and seats on public bodies bend policies for their own ends, we are in serious trouble. It is...

Rick Perry becomes first presidential candidate to reveal Big Pharma connection to mass shootings

He was widely panned for it, but former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who recently joined the crowded field of Republican presidential contenders, became the...

Same corporations that manufacture vaccines are killing half a million people annually with deadly...

Psychiatric medications are not only useless, but they're responsible for killing at least 500,000 people aged 65 years and older every single year. This...

Video: Meredith McLeod Reporting On SB277 Merck Hasn’t Won Yet For The Richie Allen...

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62PYQfdaQR0&w=580&h=385] Please Support The Show — http://richieallenshow.com/donate/ http://richieallenshow.com/ https://www.facebook.com/richieallenshow ... Via Youtube

BBC Panorama Programme: Promoting GMO and Cultivating Ignorance

  "There is no global or regional shortage of food. There never has been and nor is there ever likely to be. India has a...

Canadian Risk Assessment Finds GMO Salmon Susceptible to Disease

WASHINGTON - A never-before-seen draft environmental review of AquaBounty Technologies’ (ABTX) genetically engineered (GE) salmon reveals that Canadian government scientists disagree with the U.S....

The New Challenge to Monsanto

In a challenge delivered to Monsanto’s headquarters on May 20, 2015, US public interest attorney Steven Druker calls on that corporation to find any inaccurate statements of fact...

‘Altered Genes, Twisted Truths’ Author Challenges Monsanto’s Robb Fraley to respond to his Book

In a challenge delivered to Monsanto’s headquarters on May 20, 2015, US public interest attorney Steven Druker calls on that corporation to find any inaccurate statements...

5,000 Cooks and Cashiers Wage Largest-Ever Protest at McDonald’s Shareholder Meeting

Oak Brook, Ill. - Marching behind a giant banner that read, “McDonald’s: $15 and Union Rights, Not Food Stamps,” 5,000 cooks and cashiers massed...

‘Tories may cut 100,000 jobs over next 5 years’

A union representing British civil servants is warning that the new Conservative government may slash up to 100,000 jobs over the next five years. The...

Anti-Consumer DARK Act Legislation

by Stephen Lendman (RINF) - On March 25, House Rep. Mike Pompeo (R. KS) introduced HR 1599: Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015. It...

The Most Dangerous Vaccine

EricksonOn this week’s Real Politik James speaks with Norma Erickson, president of Sanevax Inc. Founded in 2010, Sanevax is an international clearinghouse of information and advocacy concerning one of big pharma’s most corrupt and dangerous profit-generating schemes: the HPV vaccine. Amazingly, the HPV vaccine is recommended by several governments as a preventative to cervical cancer. Yet there is no evidence that HPV is in any way related to such cancer. At the same time the pharmaceutical company’s own studies indicate that 2.5% of women who receive the vaccine–that’s 2,500 for every 100,000–will have one or more adverse reactions. Such figures are corroborated by the number of adverse reactions reported to the Centers for Disease Control since the mid-2000s when Gardasil hit the market.

Sanevax presently has affiliates in over 30 countries, and has been especially influential in educating the public on the HPV vaccine’s dangers while acting as a conduit for medical professionals and policy makers to challenge the pharmaceutical industry’s increased control over official vaccination programs.


https://memorygapdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/5-4-15_norma_erickson_-_the_most_dangerous_vaccine1.mp3 Download

Interview Highlights

Norma Erickson began to research the HPV vaccine as an investigative writer. Her findings led her to the establishment of Sanevax. “The Sanevax team and all of the people that we work with strongly believe that vaccines should scientifically proven to meet four common sense criteria: They should be scientifically proven safe, affordable, necessary and effective prior to their inclusion in any mass vaccination program. We work with doctors, attorneys, scientists, health advocates, injured girls and their families, and handle most anything having to do with the HPV vaccine controversy.”

Sanevax has succeeded in prompting or facilitating policy reforms in several countries concerning the HPV vaccine, yet United States regulators are among the most impervious to information contradicting data they are fed by major pharmaceutical companies. “Probably the first thing we started working on was the discovery of contamination in the Gardasil vaccine,” she notes.

Dr. Sing Hang Lee agreed to test a vial of Gardasil for us because an individual in Canada reported that her daughter had tested positive for HPV in her blood two years after innoculation. This same girl had been diagnosed with rhematoid arthritis 24 hours after her second injection. I knew from my research and speaking with experts that HPV did not remain in the bloodstream for more than 48 hours–at least natural HPV viruses didn’t. The immune system took care of them within that period of time.

We kept researching and researching, talked to Dr. Lee, and we came to the conclusion that we had to rule out the Gardasil vaccine because it had been advertised, promoted, and approved in every country around the world based on the fact that it had no viral DNA in it. So, we felt obligated to rule it out for this parent. [Dr. Lee] tested that first vial, and sure enough there it was: recombinant HPV DNA in Gardasil. We immediately informed the FDA. They brushed it off, changed their website, and indicated that it was no health problem whatsoever. It was a natural part of the manufacturing process.

Merck is releasing a new HPV vaccine despite the fact that the number of vaccine injuries attributable to Gardasil and reported to the CDC’s own Vaccine Adverse Reaction Reporting System have skyrocketed since its introduction in 2006. “As a kind of indication of what one can expect, Merck just got Gardasil 9 approved. During the clinical trials for Gardasil 9 they used Gardasil as the control solution. Normal people would say placebo. (A placebo is an inactive solution.) They used Gardasil during that time and because they had not conducted the safety trials for any great length on Gardasil the FDA required that they follow these girls throughout the course of the study, which was three years. Their new package insert indicates that the serious adverse event rate was 2.5% for Gardasil and 2.3% for Gardasil 9. Now that doesn’t sound like a whole lot until you translate that in to per 100,000 recipients.”

With the above in mind, among Sanevax’s most disturbing observations is the fact that the cervical cancer rate per 100,000 females is far surpassed by the rate of adverse reactions attributable to the HPV vaccine–as evidenced in the manufacturers’ own studies. “When you look at cervical cancer statistics they’re always quoted as x number per 100,000. In the United States there are approximately 12 diagnoses of cervical cancer per year per 100,000 people. If you innoculate that same 100,000 with Gardasil, for instance, you can expect 2,500 adverse events. I can’t see how anyone in their right mind would say that’s a logical tradeoff to avoid 12 cervical cancer diagnoses.”

Further, there is no confirmed link between HPV and cancer. “HPV is associated with cervical cancer. It has never been proven to cause cervical cancer or any other kind of cancer in and of itself,” Erickson explains. “In fact, there’s some very good scientific evidence that’s just been released recently that indicates it may not cause cancer at all.”

Sanevax has produced and participated in the creation of several documentaries highlighting the dangers of the HPV vaccine, many of which highlight how young lives can be destroyed after administration of the HPV vaccine. For example, it brought US high schooler Gabi Swank to the attention of The Greater Good‘s producers following Swank’s extreme adverse reaction linked to Gardasil. Such stories are especially tragic because they involve adolescent girls  stricken with terminally debilitating mental, emotional and physical conditions just as they are about to enter womanhood.

I’m working on a story now that’s going to be published on our website where a girl in Ireland was administered the vaccine in a school program … This was according to her father. She had an adverse reaction straight away. For over an hour she was left lying on a mat on the floor while the rest of the girls were being vaccinated. During this time she had seizure-like jerking, rolling eyes, blurred vision, headache, nausea, etc. That was only the beginning of their journey. The parents were called to the school to pick her up and they were told that they were overreacting when they asked why an ambulance wasn’t called, and that all of these symptoms would wear off. Now, six months later, the little girl is still suffering those symptoms and more.

We have had reports of spontaneous abortions, still births, miscarriages, adrenal failure, severe anxiety and panic attacks, autistic-like symptoms, the whole gamut of auto-immune disorders. There are 70 or 80 recognized autoimmune disorders, and these girls are coming up with any and all of them.

Obama Fights to Spread GMO Foods Throughout Europe

Eric Zuesse (RINF) - One of the major barriers blocking U.S. President Barack Obama’s campaign for his mammoth international trade deals – the TTIP with...

The Two Most Dangerous Artificial Sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners were initially designed to be sugar substitutes and a helpful tool for the battle against the bulge. Unfortunately, the state of obesity...

Fight Dirty: How to Become a Backyard Garden Guerrilla Even If You’ve Never Grown...

Don't worry if you aren't trained in garden warfare. There's an easy way to declare your independence and become a gardening guerrilla.

Guess What Else is Put In Vaccines?

Makia Freeman RINF Alternative News Aborted fetal tissue,believe it or not, is another one of the horrendous ingredients found in the vaccines of modern Western Medicine...

The Pro-GMO Lobby In Retreat

RINF, Global Research, Countercurrents

It has been such a tough period for the pro-GMO lobby that it’s difficult to know where to begin. But let us start by looking at two pieces of recent research that strike at the very heart of the pro-GMO argument, namely:  

1)      GM crops are needed to feed the world.

2)      The GMO agritech industry is based on sound science and reasoned argument.

GM crops are not needed to feed the world

new report just released by Environmental Working Group has delivered a stinging rebuke to the argument that GM crops are the answer to future global food shortages (also see this, this and this). A thorough analysis of recent research conducted in the US and around the world shows that such crops have not significantly improved the yields of crops such as corn and soy. 

Author of the report Emily Cassidy says:

“Biotech companies and proponents of conventional, industrial agriculture have touted genetically engineered crops as the key to feeding a more populous, wealthier world, but recent studies show that this promise has fallen flat.”

While GM crops have been a mainstay in US agriculture for roughly two decades, they “have not substantially improved global food security” and have instead increased the use of toxic herbicides and led to herbicide-resistant ‘superweeds’. 

The report found that over the last 20 years, yields of both GE corn and soy have been no different from traditionally bred non-GM corn and soy grown in Europe. It argues that corn and soybeans account for roughly 80 percent of the global land area devoted to growing GM crops. Both are overwhelmingly used for animal feed and biofuels, not for food. This is unlikely to change in light of increased consumption of meat around the world and the US biofuels policy requiring production of millions of gallons of corn ethanol to blend into gasoline.

Gary Hirshberg, chairman of Just Label It says:

“Biotech companies and their customers in chemical agriculture have been attempting to sell the benefits of GMOs for two decades. Between exaggerated claims about feeding the world and a dramatic escalation in the use of toxic pesticides, it is no wonder consumers are increasingly skeptical.”

The report concludes that traditionally bred varieties have been the major source of improved crop yields in recent years and this trend is likely to continue. 

Emily Cassidy states:

“Seed companies’ investment in improving the yields of GMOs in already high-yielding areas does little to improve food security; it mainly helps line the pockets of seed and chemical companies and producers of corn ethanol. The world’s resources would be better spent focusing on strategies to actually increase food supplies and access to basic resources for the poor small farmers who need it most.”

Consider that by 2012, 59 percent of the area planted with GM crops were those resistant to glyphosate. Some 26 percent consisted of insecticidal Bt crops and 15 percent were crops carrying both traits. The organisation GRAIN says that is just two traits after 20 years of research and mega-millions of dollars invested. The real measure of what this technology has produced is according to GRAIN to be found in damaged ecosystems, potential health harms, farmer dependency and big profits for the companies.

But profits are and were always the bottom line, not addressing world hunger. If anything, the planting of GM crops is displacing peasants from their lands, depriving local communities of access to food production and increasing food insecurity. Any amount of genetic modification will not address the structural nature of poverty, inequality and hunger, including the geopolitical antecedents.

The GMO agritech industry is not based on sound science and reasoned argument

The second piece of research that strikes at the heart of the industry’s other major claim - that the case for GM agriculture is based on sound science and reasoned argument - is debunked in Steven Druker’s new book. Druker pulls the rug from beneath the GMO agritech industry and its apologists in academia and the media who ceaselessly trumpet their allegiance to discourse based on science. 

Altered Truth, Twisted Genes’ exposes the fraudulent basis upon which the GMO agritech sector is based. GM foods first achieved commercialisation in 1992 but only because the Food and Drug Administration covered up the extensive warnings of its own scientists about their dangers, lied about the facts and then violated federal food safety law by permitting these foods to be marketed without having been proven safe through standard testing.

If the FDA had heeded its own experts’ advice and publicly acknowledged their warnings that GM foods entailed higher risks than their conventional counterparts, Druker says that the GM food venture would have imploded and never gained traction anywhere. He also argues that that many well-placed scientists have repeatedly issued misleading statements about GM foods, and so have leading scientific institutions such as the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the UK’s Royal Society.

While Druker’s book serves to expose the sheer hypocrisy of the industry and its supporters who claim critics to be anti-science and ideologues (a case of projecting their own faults and failings on to critics), Emily Cassidy argues that what GMOs have done is to increase the use of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. She concludes that, unfortunately, the only things popping up faster than herbicide-tolerant superweeds are the unsupported claims of GMOs’ benefits.

Even more bad news

And that neatly leads us on to glyphosate itself. 

On 20 March, the World Health Organisation reached a decision that strikes at the heart of the company. The WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said that glyphosate was "classified as probably carcinogenic to humans." This is just one step below the risk designation of "known carcinogen." 

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, which was primarily responsible $5.1 billion of Monsanto’s revenues in 2014.  But that’s not all. The herbicide is used to support Monsanto's Roundup Ready crops, which comprise the vast bulk of the balance of its revenue stream.

Little surprise that with so much money at stake Monsanto is calling for a retraction of the IARC’s report. It remains to be seen if the WHO capitulates.

While the agribusiness sector has a long history of silencing science and scientistsit has now been alleged that USDA scientists are ordered to retract studies, water down findings, remove their name from authorship and endure long indefinite delays in approving publication of papers that may be controversial. Scientists who are targeted by industry complaints find themselves subjected to disruptive investigations, disapprovals of formerly routine requests, disciplinary actions over petty matters and intimidation from supervisors focused on pleasing stakeholders.

So much for open discourse based on sound science and reasoned argument.

And the bad news just keeps coming.

Bt brinjal has failed for the second year in Bangladesh resulting in hardship for farmers, and Monsanto has been forced to pay out $600,000 in fines for not reporting hundreds of uncontrolled releases of toxic chemicals at its eastern Idaho phosphate plant. It also paid out a string of lawsuit settlements totaling $350,000 as a result of its GMOs tainting wheat in seven US states. 

But there is some good news in all of this for Monsanto. Monsanto’s ‘discredit department’  now has more than enough on its plate and will certainly not be closing down any time soon. 

The only thing it will be attempting to shut down are studies that affect the company's profits.

The Pro-GMO Lobby In Retreat

It has been such a tough period for the pro-GMO lobby that it’s difficult to know where to begin. But let us start by...

GMO critics vindicated: Biotech corporations were pushing fraud all along

The sordid sequence of events that opened the floodgates for the genetic takeover of the American food supply – that is, the mass introduction...

5 Reasons Monsanto Will Continue Losing Money in 2015

The biotech giant known as Monsanto is facing major financial downturn amid the backlash from consumers over their concerning GMO creations and the international...

Want Some GMO Easter Candy, Little Girl?

Now that I know what's in the "treats" that they push, I'm positive that taking candy from strange rabbits is a terrible idea.

Paul Craig Roberts: The Social Costs Of Capitalism Are Destroying Earth’s Ability To Support...

Paul Craig Roberts RINF Alternative News I admire David Ray Griffin for his wide-ranging intelligence, his research skills, and for his courage. Dr. Griffin is not...

The Great GMO Legitimation Crisis

Author of ‘Altered Genes, Twisted Truth’ Steven Druker recently talked of how back in the seventies a group of molecular biologists formed part of...

The Great GMO Legitimation Crisis

RINF, The 4th Media, Global Research, Countercurrents, The Nation (Sri Lankan newspaper), The Ecologist, CounterPunch

Author of ‘Altered Genes, Twisted Truth’ Steven Druker recently talked of how back in the seventies a group of molecular biologists formed part of a scientific elite that sought to allay fears about genetic engineering by putting a positive spin on it. At the same time, critics of this emerging technology were increasingly depicted as being little more than non-scientists who expressed ignorant but well-meaning concerns about science and genetic engineering.

This continues today, but the attacks on critics are becoming more vicious. Former British Environment Minister Owen Paterson recently attacked critics of GMOs with a scathing speech that described them as a self-serving, elitist “green blob” that was condemning “billions” to misery. Professor Anthony Trewavas has continued this theme by stating:

Greenpeace notably decides its opinions must prevail regardless of others, so it arrogates to itself the right to tear up and destroy things it doesn’t like. That is absolutely typical of people who are unable to convince others by debate and discussion and in the last century such attitudes, amplified obviously, ended up killing people that others did not like. But the same personality type the authoritarian, ‘do as I tell you’, was at the root of it all. Such groups therefore sit uneasily with countries that are democracies.”

According to this, critics of GMOs possess authoritarian personality types, are ignorant of science and unable to convince people of their arguments and thus resort to violence. 

Part of the pro-GMO narrative also involves a good deal of glib talk about democracy. In an open letter to me, Anthony Trewavas says:

“It would be nice if you could say you are a democrat and believe that argument is better than destruction but argument that deals with all the facts and does not select out of those to construct a misleading programme. Misleading selection of limited information is causing considerable problems in various parts of the world that leads some into very violent behaviour, particularly in religious belief. I am sure you agree that this is not a good way forward… Whatever their [farmers’] choice is… they must be allowed to make that decision… That is the nature of every democracy that I hope all will finally live under?”

Pro-GMO scientists have every right to speak on psychology, politics and democracy. However, let a non-scientist criticise GMOs and they are accused of self-serving elitism or ignorance. Indeed, let even a scientist produce scientific evidence that runs counter to the industry-led science and he or she is smeared and attacked.

Let a respected academically qualified political scientist, trade policy analyst or social scientist whose views are in some way critical of GMOs and the corporations promoting them express a coherent viewpoint supported by evidence from their specific discipline and they are attacked for being little more than ideologues with an agenda, or their evidence or sources are described as ‘biased’. Any analysis of the role of the IMF, World Bank and WTO and their part in restructuring agriculture in poor nations or devising policies to favour Western agribusiness is suddenly to be side lined in favour of a narrow focus on ‘science’, which the masses and ideologues could not possibly comprehend; by implication, they should therefore defer to (pro-GMO) scientists for the necessary information.

The pro-GMO lobby talks about choice, democracy and the alleged violence of certain environmental groups but says nothing about the structural violence waged on rural communities resulting from IMF/World Bank strings-attached loans, the undermining of global food security as a result of Wall Street commodity and land speculators, the crushing effects of trade rules on poorer regions or the devastating impacts of GMOs in regions likeSouthAmerica. To discuss such things is political and thus 'ideological' and is therefore not up for discussion it seems.

Much easier to try to focus on ‘the science’ and simply mouth platitudes about democracy and freedom of choice while saying nothing about how both been captured or debased by powerful interests, including agribusiness. By attempting not to appear to be ideological or political, such people are attempting to depoliticise and thus disguise the highly political status quo whereby powerful corporations (and some bogus notion of a 'free market') are left unchallenged to shape agriculture as they see fit:

“Anyone who’s seen the recent virally circulated Venn diagrams of the personnel overlap between Monsanto and USDA personnel, or Pfizer and FDA, will immediately know what I’m talking about… A model of capitalism in which the commanding heights of the economy are an interlocking directorate of large corporations and government agencies, a major share of the total operating costs of the dominant firms are socialized (and profits privatized, of course), and “intellectual property” protectionism and other regulatory cartels allow bureaucratic corporate dinosaurs… to operate profitably without fear of competition." Kevin Carson, Center for a Stateless Society. 

If certain politicians or scientists and the companies they support really do want to ‘feed the world’ and are concerned with poverty and hunger, they should forget about GMOs and focus their attention elsewhere: not least on how the ‘free market’ system that they cherish so much causes hunger and poverty, whether for example through food commodity speculation (see earlier link) by powerful banking interests or a US foreign policy that has for decades used agriculture to trap nations into subservience.

Rather than have the public focus on such things, such people try to mislead and divert attention away from these things with puerile notions of authoritarian personality types who reject some illusory notion of open debate, free choice and democracy.  

Failure is us

Even with this power and political influence at its disposal, the GMO agritech industry is far from being a success.  Much of its profits actually derive from failure: for example, Andrew Kimbrell notes that after having chosen to ignore science, the industry’s failing inputs are now to be replaced with more destined-to-fail and ever-stronger poisonous inputs. The legacy of poisoned environments and ecological devastation is for someone else to deal with. In his book, Steven Druker has shown that from very early on the US government has colluded with the GMO agritech sector to set a 'technical fix-failure-technical fix' merry-go-round in motion.

This system is designed to stumble from one crisis to the next, all the while hiding behind the banners of ‘innovation’ or ‘research and development’. But it’s all good business. And that’s all that really matters to the industry. 

There’s always good PR ground to be made from blaming critics for being ‘anti-science’ and money to be made from a continuous state of crisis management (‘innovation’ and bombarding farmers with a never-ending stream of new technologies and inputs).  Part of the great con-trick is that it attempts to pass off its endless crises and failures as brilliant successes.

For many promoters of the GMO cause, it is a case of not even wanting to understand alternative approaches or the devastating impacts of GMOs when their lavish salary or consultancy fees depend on them not wanting to understand any of it.

When it comes to labelling unsafe and untested GM food in the US, the pro-GMO lobby grasps at straws by saying too much information confuses the public or sends out the wrong message

When it says sound science should underpin the GMO issue, it does everything it can to circumvent any science that threatens its interests.

When it says its critics have a political agenda, it side lines debates on how it hijacks international and national policy making bodies and regulatory agencies.

When it talks about elite, affluent environmentalists robbing food from the bellies of the poor, its private companies are owned by people who form part of a privileged class that seek to turn their vested interests into policy proscriptions for the rest of us.

The pro-GMO lobby engages in the fraudulent notion that it knows what is best for humanity. Co-opting public institutions and using science as an ideology, it indulges in an arrogant form of exceptionalism.

The world does not need GMO food or crops, especially those which have not been proven safe or whose benefits are questionable to say the least. There are alternative ways to boost food production if or when there is a need to. There are other (existing) ways to tackle the impacts of volatile climates. 

However, the alternatives are being squeezed out as big agritech and its captured policy/regulatory bodies place emphasis on proprietary products, not least GMOs and chemical inputs. 

The pro-GMO lobby has a crisis of legitimation. No amount of twisted truths or altered genes, expensive PR or attacks on its critics can disguise this.

Danny Schechter (1942-2015)

Today, we lost a journalist’s journalist, the moral commander of investigative reporters from New York to Johannesburg. Known for bringing the world the story of Nelson Mandela, Danny gave up cushy jobs at ABC and CNN, the big bucks and a steady flow of mainstream awards to blow the whistle on the degradation of American [...]

Why McDonald’s Announcement on Chicken Is Important for Everyone’s Health

Fast food chain announces phase-out of antibiotic-treated chicken Andrea Germanos Chicken McNuggets might not be part of your diet, but a new announcement from McDonald's could...

Not Science, Just Lies And Propaganda: The Massive Fraud Behind GMOs Exposed

Counterpunch, RINF, Global Research, Countercurrents, The 4th Media, Morning Star

This is not what the GMO industry wanted to see: banner headlines in major newspapers and across the internet exposing the fraud behind GMOs. But this constitutes much more than a PR nightmare. The story behind the headlines shakes the very foundations upon which the industry is built.

‘Altered Genes, Twisted Truth’ is a new book by the US public interest lawyer Steve Druker. The book is the result of more than 15 years of intensive research and investigation by Druker, who initiated a lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that forced it to divulge its files on GM foods. Those files revealed that GM foods first achieved commercialisation in 1992 but only because the FDA covered up the extensive warnings of its own scientists about their dangers, lied about the facts and then violated federal food safety law by permitting these foods to be marketed without having been proven safe through standard testing.

If the FDA had heeded its own experts’ advice and publicly acknowledged their warnings that GM foods entailed higher risks than their conventional counterparts, Druker says that the GM food venture would have imploded and never gained traction anywhere.

He also argues that that many well-placed scientists have repeatedly issued misleading statements about GM foods, and so have leading scientific institutions such as the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the UK’s Royal Society.

Druker states that contrary to the claims of biotech advocates, humans have indeed been harmed by consuming the output of genetic engineering. The technology’s first ingestible product (a food supplement of the essential amino acid, L-tryptophan) caused dozens of deaths and seriously sickened thousands of people (permanently disabling many of them). Moreover, the evidence points to the genetic alteration as the most likely cause of the unusual contamination that rendered the supplement toxic.

He explains that laboratory animals have also suffered from eating products of genetic engineering, and well-conducted tests with GM crops have yielded many troubling results, including intestinal abnormalities, liver disturbances, and impaired immune systems.
Druker says:
“Contrary to the assertions of its proponents, the massive enterprise to reconfigure the genetic core of the world’s food supply is not based on sound science but on the systematic subversion of science – and it would collapse if subjected to an open airing of the facts.”
Eminent environmentalist and anthropologist Jane Goodall has written the foreword to the book and states that Steven Druker is a hero for exposing this massive fraud and is worthy of a Nobel prize for lifting the lid on the truth about GM.

She goes on to state that the industry worked to:
“convince the public and government officials, through the dissemination of false information, that there was an overwhelming expert consensus, based on solid evidence, that the new foods were safe. Yet this, as Druker points out, was clearly not true.”
Goodall adds that the companies have spread disinformation to try and win public support. 

She states:
“Druker describes how amazingly successful the biotech lobby has been – and the extent to which the general public and government decision makers have been hoodwinked by the clever and methodical twisting of the facts and the propagation of many myths. Moreover, it appears that a number of respected scientific institutions, as well as many eminent scientists, were complicit in this relentless spreading of disinformation.”
Jane Goodall is best known for her 55-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. She holds many awards for her environmental and humanitarian work, including the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, the French Legion of Honour, Japan’s Kyoto Prize and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.

She describes Druker’s work as one of the most important books of the last 50 years, and adds:
“It will go a long way toward dispelling the confusion and delusion that has been created regarding the genetic engineering process and the foods it creates. Although this book tells a story that’s in many ways distressing, it’s important that it has finally been told because so much confusion has been spread and so many important decision-makers have apparently been deluded.”
Steven Druker gave a press conference in London on Wednesday and has challenged Britain’s Royal Society to apologise for its pro-GM stance and its part in rubbishing scientists who have safety doubts over the crops and food. (Perhaps the likes of Owen Paterson and Anne Glover should too for their role in dismissing legitimate concerns about GMOs, especially Paterson for his recent tirade against critics see this and this.)

His work highlights research which has found tumours, liver and kidney harm in animals given GM feed in trials. And he complains, that researchers who dare to raise these problems have been pilloried.

He said:
“Contrary to the assertions of its proponents, the massive enterprise to reconfigure the genetic core of the world’s food supply is not based on sound science but on the systematic subversion of science – and it would collapse if subjected to an open airing of the facts.”
With the TTIP having the potential to open the floodgates to allow GMOs into Europe, Pat Thomas, director of the campaigning group Beyond GM, said:
“Steven Druker’s investigation into the history of fraud and deceit that ushered in the era of GM deserves serious consideration before we take actions that will irreversibly alter the European food supply.”

Not Science, Just Lies and Propaganda: The Massive Fraud Behind GMOs Exposed

This is not what the GMO industry wanted to see: banner headlines today in major newspapers and across the internet exposing the fraud behind...