Archive for 01 Food ebook – Page 6
Natural Solutions Foundation
Your Voice of Global Health & Food Freedom™
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.GlobalFoodFreedom.org
General Bert’s World Risk Assessment: Threats to Health and Food Freedom #1
Start with my co-trustee, counsel Ralph Fucetola JD’s cogent analysis of the new Free Speech about Science bill, HR 1364 (a pretty good bill) and S. 216 (a really, really bad bill). His blog entry is entitled “HR 1364, S.216 and the Struggle for Health and Food Freedom” and it is here: http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2011/04/free-speech-about-science-act-hr-1364.html.
While cheering for HR 1364 is all the rage in Health Freedom circles at the moment, you won’t see Counsel Fucetola or the Natural Solutions Foundation joining the wild cheering, since, while supporting the bill, we are all too aware of the limits of trying to solve such problems piece-meal. He concludes:
“…FDA has ignored these legal restrictions, prompting Dr Ron Paul to remark that, when the Congress gives more power to FDA, the agency always engages in an “abuse of power…” A couple of years ago it ignored the 2007 restrictions to exceed its power and ban the interstate sale of certain vitamins. Just last year it sought to ban the entire Ear Candling industry and asked the Courts to recognize NO right of Americans to make their own dietary choices.
This is an agency run-amok. An agency that is so incompetent that about half of the dangerous drugs (including vaccines) it approves must be withdrawn from the market, or strictly curtailed, within 5 years of approval, thus proving that the Public has become the final stage in drug company research and development. All the while, supporting drug company exemptions from legal liability for the horrendous harm they cause the Public.
Meanwhile, what we call Sen. Leahy’s Criminalization of Food and Speech bill, which claims to “increase criminal penalties for certain knowing and intentional violations relating to food…” but applies only to SPEECH, has reared its ugly head again, as S.216. While that dangerous bill slid through the Senate, we hope it will stall in the House. But the Senate may have more surprises in store for us, with Sen. Durbin planning on introducing a new Dietary Supplement labeling bill that would, for the first time, subject vitamins to registration with the federal government prior to sale.
While all this is happening, Dr. Ron Paul continues to urge “legalization of freedom” with his recent Raw Milk Freedom bill, HR. 1830. Read more about this Interstate Commerce Bill, see my interview with him, and use the Action Item to support it, here: http://tinyurl.com/rawmilkfreedom.
Yes, Congress, can pass new laws to protect us from its agents — or subject us to even more harassment.
But better, DIVEST THE FDA OF FOOD AUTHORITY! Let it stick to messing up dangerous drugs and deadly vaccines… FREE US from this bureaucratic nightmare that leads to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths every year!
And that’s our gripe about a bill that’s been introduced with the best intent, but with hardly enough clout to do the job of restoring our Health and Food Freedoms…
We want to see a return to state, local and family food independence…“
That’s why we continue to post important videos and other information at the Food Freedom eJournal, www.FoodFreedomeJournal.org, which can now be accessed through LikeMinded at: http://likeminded.org/resource/the-food-freedom-ejournal.
DATA POINT 1 of the World Risk Assessment is, therefore, WATCH YOUR FOOD.
DATA POINT 2 has to do with the devastating, escalating disaster in Japan where and entirely new set of reactors, at Onagawa, Japan have cracked open and are leaking more radiation following a severe aftershock earlier this week.
I am very troubled by this development and urge you to watch Dr. Rima’s three important videos below and take the proactive steps she recommends here, http://tinyurl.com/radprotect, to protect yourself and family. This horrific threat is not going away anytime soon. The reactors at Fukushima have been classified as a “Chernobyl Level Disaster” but, in reality, the radiation levels are far higher than that at Chernobyl. During a trip to Russia in 1991, scientists there informed Dr. Rima and me that the “accident” at Chernobyl was, in fact, an astoundingly stupid experiment that ran amok. The information I have suggests strongly to me that the “accident” at Fukushima was a HAARP event intended to run amok. The quake that opened 3 additional nuclear reactors at Onagawa appears to have been an aftershock from that event. However they got there, 3 more TEPCO nuclear reactors are leaking radioactive water and ionizing radiation-producing materials into the environment. Once there, it reaches the US in just a few days, then the Atlantic, Europe, Russia and China, then back around.
When will it stop? There is no indication that it will. Radiation WILL go up up, first in the Northern half of the planet, then all over it. That is why we are calling on you to take action to call for a ban on this inherently disastrous technology, along with the other DNA-destroying technology, GMOs here: http://drrimatruthreports.com/?p=8845 . More news about these matters is posted below.
DATA POINT 3 is the increasing probability of a financial meltdown in the United States if Congress is unable to hold the line on the Federal Debt Limit. Breaking through the $14+ billion figure may very well trigger the hyperinflation that has been building pressure. Obama Care legislation gave the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sibelius, a $16Billion “Slush Fund” which will only be funded IF the Federal Debt Ceiling is raised.
With that fund, she will find the Food Fascism bill which was sneaked through Congress at the last moment of a lame duck session in 2010. If the Federal Debt ceiling is NOT lifted, then this disastrous blow to health and freedom cannot be funded. Take this Action Item, http://tinyURL.com/NoDebtIncrease, to make sure that it is NOT funded so that your food, your farmers and your seed remain yours to choose and use. In Europe, the saving of seeds is being criminalized. In the US, it is being regulated into a crime. This battle is too important to lose!
Another part of Data Point 3 is the steady march of the US government toward your pension, IRA, 401 or other retirement money. Since retirement monies represent sent that last pool of “real money” in the US economy, it is a ripe plum for the picking by the greedy and chaotically faltering US government. If you have dollar-denominated assets (such as 401, IRA, trust ofr similar funds) now is the time to consider safer havens like the Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project in Panama. Please visit http://tinyurl.com/4v95t37 to learn more about these options.
Right now, other data points that we have considered in the past, such as weaponized pandemics and dangerous forced vaccine campaigns seem to be in temporary hiatus… but eternal vigilance is still required. Each and every one of these data points could reactivate at any time and, in fact, the WHO and CDC are trying, once again, to beat the drum for a Bird Flu pandemic. It doesn’t seem to be attractive to a stress-weary MMD (Media of Mass Deception), but they are trying, so expect another go-round of “We’re all gonna die if we don’t take the shot RIGHT NOW!!!” in the very near future. We also continue to “keep score” at Codex Alimentarius meetings and, with your generous financial support, expect to have observers at next month’s Codex meeting in Canada; please donate here: http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=189.
DATA POINT 4 is the continued spread of world-genome (DNA) destroying GMOs while other environmental toxins continue to escalate: Genomicide – the destruction of the world’s natural genome through GMOs, nuclear power and similar toxic risks. Take this vitally important Action Item to ban both of them NOW, and then take it viral. It is our world. Let’s protect it for ourselves and ALL future generations: http://drrimatruthreports.com/?p=8845.
We have important Action Items covering each of these risk points, since we know that PUSH BACK works. Please use the Action Items here daily : Our “7 + 1 Action Items: http://drrimatruthreports.com/?p=8653.
DATA POINTS 1-4 will, I believe, help you understand the future as it unfolds. More importantly, they will help you focus your PUSH BACK so we can choose the better future we all seek!
And, while we are pushing back, remember to support the Push Back Engine! Make your generous recurring donation, large or small, here, now, while you are thinking of it: http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=189.
DONATIONS: THE PUSH BACK ENGINE:
http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=189.
4.20.11 UPDATE: S.216, the bill that would put you in jail for ten years if the FDA later decides your speech about food was intentionally false and put people at risk, has passed the US Senate and has been sent over to the House. The food controllers attempted to include this criminalization of speech about food bill in the so-called FDA “Food Safety” (actually food control) Modernization Act of 2010, but with regard to that provision and other similarly draconian provisions, your PUSH BACK worked… last year. Now it’s a new year and a new Congress up to its old tricks! Please use our revised Health and Food Freedom of Speech Action Item here, daily: http://tinyurl.com/healthfreespeech.
General Bert’s World Risk Assessment: Genomicide Warning #2 is here:
http://drrimatruthreports.com/?p=9217
General Bert: Genocidal and Genomicidal Maniacs:
http://drrimatruthreports.com/?p=9593
Natural Solutions Foundation
Your Voice of Global Health & Food Freedom™
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.GlobalFoodFreedom.org
Please Donate Here and receive your holistic gift!
What can we do?
In order to bring this matter forward, by filing the Motion to Reconsider and then, if that is rejected, a full appeal, we need to raise needed legal expense funds. None of the companies that make the NonMedical Devices Formerly Known as Holistic Ear Candles (FDA says they cannot be called anything that uses the words “ear” or “candle” or “holistic”) is a big company; all are small family businesses. While they cannot afford the costs of fighting the Federal Government in its own courts, they can offer you a gift of 6 Ear Candles (our use of the term “Ear Candles” herein should be considered short-hand for said NonMedical Devices Formerly Known as Holistic Ear Candles). So PLEASE DONATE GENEROUSLY!
Our prior posting on the case: http://drrimatruthreports.com/?p=5210
JUDGE THROWS EAR CANDLE CASE OUT OF COURT:
“TARGET EAR CANDLE COMPANIES HAVE NO STANDING TO DEFEND THEMSELVES AGAINST BEING PUT OUT OF BUSINESS”
Our employee, the FDA is, once again, wreaking havoc and terror on you and me – on We the People!
Having declared Ear Candles a Medical Device, the Fraud and Death Administration then stated that under no circumstances could Ear Candles ever be APPROVED as a Medical Device and issued “Cease and Desist” orders against the manufacture or sale of Ear Candles.
Whether or not you use Ear Candles, it is clear that this assault on a safe, time-honored and danger-free modality is the first in a new campaign of terror –yes, terror – against the manufacturers, marketers and consumers of anything but dangerous, expensive and easily replaced pharmaceuticals.
FDA is vigorously attacking Ear Candle Manufacturers while, for example, supporting Pfizer and reversing the FDA position on antibiotics: Pfizer new vaccine “for” ear infections killed 4 more children in Japan shortly before the Tsunami. AMA has reversed their long held, science based position against antibiotics in ear infections and now are claiming that antibiotics “cure” ear infections despite the lack of clinical evidence to suggest that it is true. The press, however, is not touting this “breakthrough”.
Although claims are sharply prohibited by FDA in this war of terror, the truth as Dr. Laibow and other holistic practitioners know from their clinical experience is that Ear Candles have a significant efficacy rate in ear infections. None of the companies adopt this position, of course.
And the Supreme Court tells us, in the leading case of Thompson vs Western States (535 U.S. 357, 2002) that –
“If the First Amendment means anything, it means that regulating speech must be a last – not first – resort … We have previously rejected the notion that the Government has an interest in preventing the dissemination of truthful commercial information in order to prevent members of the public from making bad decisions with the information… Even if the Government did argue that it had an interest in preventing misleading advertisements, this interest could be satisfied by the far less restrictive alternative of requiring … a warning that the [device] had not undergone FDA testing and that its risks were unknown.”
This nonmedical device example is just one in a long, long line of shameful distortions and persecutions of natural products health and wellness manufacturers and those who disseminate and purvey the information about what they are and how to work with them. Because Ear Candles are less known than other modalities like, for example, Chelation therapy or Vitamin C drips for treatment of cancer, we believe that the FDA sees them as a good place to start this new assault. The strategy is to declare them untested medical devices and then prevent them from being made or sold through Cease and Desist orders without taking a final action. It is this lack of final action which the Judge says prevents the companies from having standing to defend themselves.
We believe that if we do not file a successful appeal, we, the health freedom community, will see a blizzard of these Cease and Desist orders, none of them final action, but all of them definitive: “Keep making the product, or selling it, and go to jail.”
We have no choice but to fight as long as it takes to stop the FDA. Ear Candles are the tip of the iceberg: fighting and winning the Ear Candle issue is identical to fighting and winning a major portion of the health freedom battle: the right to decide what methods you use to gain and maintain health.
Please Donate Here to fund the appeal process which we must begin within the next couple weeks.
For every 25 dollars donated, we will send you 6 free ear candles from your preferred vendor:
Harmony Cone Ear Candles
Beck Ear Candles
Lees Ear Candles
Coning Works
So Fine Distributor
Please indicate in the “comments” section of the donation page the vendor from whom you would like to receive your “thank you” gift of 6 Ear Candles.
Thank you in advance for your donation to help win this peaceful health freedom revolution!
Ear Candlers’ Association
Natural Solutions Foundation
Citizens for Health
We know it’s really hard out in America right now. We know you are working hard just to make ends meet. We know how all your expenses have been going up; we buy groceries too. Frankly, there is no one else to whom we can turn for the resources to make a difference. So it is up to you.
How important is the fight? What do you care about some holistic device?
What we can tell you is, this FDA “cease and desist” order to these companies sets a precedent, a dangerous one… But, we can Push Back through the courts and seek redress of grievances that can protect all of our access to natural means to achieve and maintain health.
Protest this gross violation of civil rights:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2521
Natural Solutions Foundation
Your Voice of Global Health & Food Freedom™
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.GlobalFoodFreedom.org
[All food photos from the Valley of the Moon BeyondOrganic™ Restaurant – www.MyValleyoftheMoon.com.]
I was asked about our term, “BeyondOrganic™” which I answered this way:
Thanks for asking. BeyondOrganic™ is a very carefully chosen term.
The background – As many of you know, Gen. Bert is the President and I am the Medical Director of the Natural Solutions Foundation, the world’s largest health freedom organization. We are a global NGO with projects in the US, Africa and Panama.We are deeply concerned with the continuing contamination of food around the world through the use of agricultural chemicals, GMOs, irradiation, the use of synthetic fertilizers and modern food processing techniques.
As part of that concern, we are deeply troubled by the continuing and accelerating devolution of the regulatory and functional meaning of the term “Organic” — that is why we identified what is needed to be truly natural, which, in today’s world food market, means being BeyondOrganic™. That is also why we developed the Friendly Food Certification program, discussed below.
Codex Alimentarius, a United Nations Commission jointly run the WHO (which receives more than 2/3 of its funding from Big Pharma) and FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and the USDA . They set the international standards and guidelines allowing food to be shipped internationally. The Organic Products Board, an agency of the USDA, has consistently succumbed to the pressures of commercial producers who make increased profits by using the USDA label and lowering their standards to increase the distance between the cost of production (down) and the cost of the product (up). The process has been continual – and totally predictable – since the NOPB (Natural Organic Products Board) was founded.
Shrimp Salad with Sour Orange
Clean food activists have struggled with the unremitting pressure on the NOPB but have, in general, the activists had lost the battles. Not always, of course, but in a steady advance downward the standards have been eroded. For example, the US now has the highest permitted level of contamination with GMOs for “organic” foods: 10%. Other countries in the world allow, variously, 0% contamination, 0.9% contamination or 0.1% GMO contamination.
The NOPB has continued to press for the approval of industrial sludge as a permitted organic fertilizer (recall that San Francisco recently tried to distribute this toxic substance free for local organic farmers to use). The toxins in this dangerous material include a variety of hydrocarbons, heavy metals of a truly appealing variety and concentration and wide array of other metabolic and environmental horrors.
Since the organic food market share increases approximately 20-24% annually while the conventional food share remains flat, the incentive is enormous to degrade the standards while maintaining the label.
Crab in Cucumber Appetizer
Internationally the situation is even worse. Codex Alimentarius (some of whose meetings around the world we attend as an Observer Organization, reporting on these issues in our daily bulletins) sets standards which are “voluntary” but which are often relied upon by the World Trade Organization (WTO) for determining whether or not trade sanctions should be imposed on nations for not observing them. In practice, unless they know about the legal option available to them which our book, the Codex eBook (available here: http://drrimatruthreports.com/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=1191), presented to the Presidents, Ministers of Health and Agriculture, etc., in countries around the world, the bureaucrats who make these decisions tend to believe that Codex is a required standard which their countries must follow.
The US Government, not surprisingly, perpetuates this incorrect information since its multinational constituents profit greatly by this distortion. By the way, as anyone watching Codex knows, the US is the dominant dog in every Codex process with no second runner even close to it.
So, back to “Organic“: the standards by which the word is defined are now totally corrupted. The certification of the NOPB is, in my estimation, pretty close to meaningless.
The Codex Organic standard is also pretty close to meaningless as well. For example, it used to be that a farmer could not grow conventional crops and organic ones on the same land. Now pesticide, herbicide, fungicide agriculture can take place on the same land, using the same water, without windbreaks, distance or other protection.
Refreshing Tomatillo
For another example, a cow whose mother was treated with drugs and vaccines and fed on blood meal instead of mother’s milk before weaning, treated with drugs and vaccines itself, fed on chemically contaminated and GMO feeds, can still be brought onto a farm as “organic” cattle with the certification of a local official and a stamped piece of paper.
There is no way, in the professional opinion of our legal counsel and our strategic analysts, that the word “Organic” either has meaning now or can be reclaimed.
We therefore carefully considered many, many options and decided that “BeyondOrganic™” is the best option because it communicates the general intention – clean food without contamination, “Organic” is not good enough, there is something better, people need to think about what “Organic” means and the word “BeyondOrganic™” invites that consideration – thus the thread on the forum where the question was originally posted.
Fish Entree
The practical definition is that the food is either:
1. Plant or animal food grown BY us without any chemical input from open-pollinated, uncoated, certified organic, heirloom seeds
2. Plant or animal food grown FOR us without any chemical input from the best seeds we can find or produce
3. Plant or animal food which is internationally certified by organizations we have reason to trust as a higher standard setting organization than the USDA and NOPB
4. Last, least and minimally, when we currently have no other choices, we will source USDA Certified Organic foods.We use laboratory services to assure that our foods are clean which we source here in Panama. For example, we purchase our honey from a producer with hives way, way up in the mountains.
Chocolate Cake Coba
We know that honeybees travel significant distances, so we test the honey in a lab that uses chromatography and HPLC technology to detect herbicide, pesticide and fungicide residues. The honey tests out with no detectable residues and so we buy it.
We take this kind of care with all of our foods so that it is –
1. As free of chemical inputs as we can possibly make it, and we put a LOT of energy into it (despite idiotic rumors like “We saw guys wearing Valley of the Moon shirts in Cero Punta buying sacks of produce so the Valley of the Moon Restaurant is not organic!”)
2. Made with the diversity of individual dietary requirements in mind so that people can enjoy organic food that is veggie, vegan, non veggie, gluten-free, raw, whatever their bodies and their hearts desire
3. According to all reports, absolutely delicious!Valley of the Moon All Natural Coffee
More information? Contact us at 011-507-6618 0395 (that’s right; Panama cell phones have an extra digit) or, better yet, come eat at the restaurant and see for yourself! Open every day except Tuesday from 11AM to 9 PM, last entree order at 8 PM.
www.MyValleyoftheMoon.org for directions.
As I said above, thanks for asking what BeyondOrganic™ means. As you can see, the name has at least accomplished goal No. 3!
If you want to know what “Friendly Food Certified™” means, I’ll be happy to answer that, too!
More about that here: www.FriendlyFoodCertification.org
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
www.DrRima.net
Natural Solutions Foundation
Your Voice of Global Health & Food Freedom™
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.GlobalFoodFreedom.org
NEW ACTION ITEM: BAN GMOs AND NUCLEAR POWER TO PROTECT ALL LIFE –
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5731
Tell Decision Makers That Your Body and Your DNA are Not Available To Be Contaminated and Destroyed!
General Bert’s World Risk Assessment #2: Genomicide Warning!
http://drrimatruthreports.com/?p=9217
Dr. Rima on the Natural Solutions Response to Radiation Exposure: http://tinyurl.com/radprotect
http://tinyurl.com/radprotect
Dr. Rima just sourced a natural product with Iodine
Highly bioavailable EmeraldSea
www.NaturalSolutions.myemeraldstore.com
And Join the Emerald Express Team Here:
http://www.naturalsolutions.myemeraldbiz.com/landing/
Louis Carrol, in his masterpiece of whimsy and political commentary, posed the question, “Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk?” We are asking a far more serious question: “Why are GMOs like Nuclear Power Stations?”
Unlike Carrol’s whimsy, the answer to our question is of earth shattering importance: GMOs and Nuclear Power stations both threaten all life on Planet Earth. They both contaminate and change DNA down stream from their manufacture in unforeseen, unpredictable and deadly ways. They both cause cancer, infertility, birth defects, immune system failure and other nightmare diseases while garbed in the profitable, but threadbare cloaks of “science” and “progress” and “good for humanity technology”.
Sensible scientists, observers, public policy experts, epidemiologists and common sense thinkers know better. But, the “force” is with them. The “force”, of course, is money. Lots and lots and lots of it.
Think Monsanto. Think Bayer Crop Sciences. Think General Electric. Think the largest, most malignant money machine in history. Think Uber Cartel. Thing obscene profits before, during and after globalization and population reduction.
Think underground cities, like the enormous one being built for decades now near Tokyo. Think your DNA and mine corrupted beyond repair, but no natural medicine methods for either prevention or treatment available to us. Now open your eyes and look around
GMOs are nearly ubiquitous. Every, repeat, every independent report on their safety finds that there is none. There are risks without benefits.
Nuclear Power is still being touted as “Safe” while what might very well be the greatest natural cataclysm to ever take place unfolds – and WILL contaminate the entire US (save the panhandle of Florida and the souther tips of Texas and California, at least on this first pass) just as GMO “PHUDE” has already contaminated our entire food supply. GMOs are being touted as “Safe”as well.
For neither claim is there the least shred of evidence. But the profits? Oh, my, oh, my!
Incalculable!
And the dangers? Incalculable as well.
One thing that we do know is that the Uber Cartel is right there. Do you really think that the Big Pharma honchos are crying over your cancer, or your child’s or your mother’s or your father’s?
Do you really think that, wearing their Big Energy hats, they are shedding tears for those tragedies either?
Do these industries co-own one another? Why wouldn’t they, given that they are both profitable and protfolios are only about bottom lines, right?
Let me ask you a rude question: “What’s in YOUR portfolio?” If you do not have one, this does not pertain to you. But pass it along to the people who do have them, perhaps the people you used to work with before the Uber Cartel out-sourced your job and democracy.
Back to your portfolio: are you giving the genocidalist, the madmen, the globalists the capital they need to destroy you? Well, yes, but it’s a really good investment?
Well, yes, but my little holding doesn’t really make a difference? Well, yes, but we need drugs and electric power don’t we?
During the 70’s, as I recall, brilliant social commentator, critic and comic Dick Gregory said of smoking that he was not going to allow anyone to give him cancer and he sure as Hell wasn’t going to pay local, state and federal tax on it.
The principle stands. If you have investments in death, consider your personal choices and make better ones. The choice is yours.
The Merchants of Death depend on us to keep them fat, deadly and very, very happy.
Just as we call for a total ban on GMOs, we call for a total ban on all new Nuclear Power plants and safe decommissioning of all operating ones.
Is it our world or not? Is it our DNA or not? Is it our future or not? WE, all of us, are the active principle, not the tiny minority of globalists.
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima Laibow, MD
www.DrRima.net
Natural Solutions Foundation
Your Voice of Global Health & Food Freedom™
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.GlobalFoodFreedom.org
Ban GMOs – A Dangerous, Untested, Unnecessary, Globalist Technology
Before All DNA on the Planet is Contaminated — Forever! Action Item Here:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2049
More information here:
http://drrimatruthreports.com/?p=6955
May Be Causing Animal Miscarriages and Infertility
http://farmandranchfreedom.org/gmo-miscarriages
One of the nation’s senior scientists alerted the federal government to a newly discovered organism that may have the potential to cause infertility and spontaneous abortion in farm animals, raising significant concerns about human health. Dr. Don Huber, professor emeritus at Purdue University, believes the appearance and prevalence of the unnamed organism may be related to the nation’s over reliance on the weed killer known as Roundup and/or to something about the genetically engineered Roundup-Ready crops. In a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, the professor called on the federal government to immediately stop deregulation of roundup ready crops, particularly roundup ready alfalfa.
Below is the full text of the letter. FARFA received an electronic copy of the letter from Dr. Huber and we have spoken with him directly to confirm its authenticity.
The letter was intended as to alert the government about preliminary research results that indicate serious problems. As Dr. Huber himself clearly states, more research is needed.
January 16, 2011
Dear Secretary Vilsack:
A team of senior plant and animal scientists have recently brought to my attention the discovery of an electron microscopic pathogen that appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings. Based on a review of the data, it is widespread, very serious, and is in much higher concentrations in Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans and corn—suggesting a link with the RR gene or more likely the presence of Roundup. This organism appears NEW to science!
This is highly sensitive information that could result in a collapse of US soy and corn export markets and significant disruption of domestic food and feed supplies. On the other hand, this new organism may already be responsible for significant harm (see below). My colleagues and I are therefore moving our investigation forward with speed and discretion, and seek assistance from the USDA and other entities to identify the pathogen’s source, prevalence, implications, and remedies.
We are informing the USDA of our findings at this early stage, specifically due to your pending decision regarding approval of RR alfalfa. Naturally, if either the RR gene or Roundup itself is a promoter or co-factor of this pathogen, then such approval could be a calamity. Based on the current evidence, the only reasonable action at this time would be to delay deregulation at least until sufficient data has exonerated the RR system, if it does.
For the past 40 years, I have been a scientist in the professional and military agencies that evaluate and prepare for natural and manmade biological threats, including germ warfare and disease outbreaks. Based on this experience, I believe the threat we are facing from this pathogen is unique and of a high risk status. In layman’s terms, it should be treated as an emergency.
A diverse set of researchers working on this problem have contributed various pieces of the puzzle, which together presents the following disturbing scenario:
Unique Physical Properties
This previously unknown organism is only visible under an electron microscope (36,000X), with an approximate size range equal to a medium size virus. It is able to reproduce and appears to be a micro-fungal-like organism. If so, it would be the first such micro-fungus ever identified. There is strong evidence that this infectious agent promotes diseases of both plants and mammals, which is very rare.
Pathogen Location and Concentration
It is found in high concentrations in Roundup Ready soybean meal and corn, distillers meal, fermentation feed products, pig stomach contents, and pig and cattle placentas.
Linked with Outbreaks of Plant Disease
The organism is prolific in plants infected with two pervasive diseases that are driving down yields and farmer income—sudden death syndrome (SDS) in soy, and Goss’ wilt in corn. The pathogen is also found in the fungal causative agent of SDS (Fusarium solani fsp glycines).
Implicated in Animal Reproductive Failure
Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of this organism in a wide variety of livestock that have experienced spontaneous abortions and infertility. Preliminary results from ongoing research have also been able to reproduce abortions in a clinical setting.
The pathogen may explain the escalating frequency of infertility and spontaneous abortions over the past few years in US cattle, dairy, swine, and horse operations. These include recent reports of infertility rates in dairy heifers of over 20%, and spontaneous abortions in cattle as high as 45%.
For example, 450 of 1,000 pregnant heifers fed wheatlege experienced spontaneous abortions. Over the same period, another 1,000 heifers from the same herd that were raised on hay had no abortions. High concentrations of the pathogen were confirmed on the wheatlege, which likely had been under weed management using glyphosate.
Recommendations
In summary, because of the high titer of this new animal pathogen in Roundup Ready crops, and its association with plant and animal diseases that are reaching epidemic proportions, we request USDA’s participation in a multi-agency investigation, and an immediate moratorium on the deregulation of RR crops until the causal/predisposing relationship with glyphosate and/or RR plants can be ruled out as a threat to crop and animal production and human health.
It is urgent to examine whether the side-effects of glyphosate use may have facilitated the growth of this pathogen, or allowed it to cause greater harm to weakened plant and animal hosts. It is well-documented that glyphosate promotes soil pathogens and is already implicated with the increase of more than 40 plant diseases; it dismantles plant defenses by chelating vital nutrients; and it reduces the bioavailability of nutrients in feed, which in turn can cause animal disorders. To properly evaluate these factors, we request access to the relevant USDA data.
I have studied plant pathogens for more than 50 years. We are now seeing an unprecedented trend of increasing plant and animal diseases and disorders. This pathogen may be instrumental to understanding and solving this problem. It deserves immediate attention with significant resources to avoid a general collapse of our critical agricultural infrastructure.
Sincerely,
COL (Ret.) Don M. Huber
Emeritus Professor, Purdue University
APS Coordinator, USDA National Plant Disease Recovery System (NPDRS)