Cornucopia Institute: ACTION ALERT: Big Ag/USDA Could Run Organic Leafy Green Growers out of Business!

Cornucopia Institute,  June 29th, 2011

http://www.cornucopia.org/2011/06/action-alert-big-agusda-could-run-organic-leafy-green-growers-out-of-business/

National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement Comments: Due July 28

Action Alert

Corporate agribusiness wants to tell the rest of us how to farm, and shut anyone out of the market who does not follow their one-size-fits-all “food safety” standards for leafy green vegetables. The USDA is supporting their plan, which, if accepted, will allow a committee of industry representatives, lobbyists and other officials to write a set of so-called food safety standards for the entire leafy green farming community—this could competitively injure smaller, local and organic producers.

If passed, leafy green handlers/marketers who sign on to this agreement will require every grower they buy from to follow a uniform set of standards, which will be written with large-scale, monoculture, chemical-intensive farming methods in mind. Farmers do not sign on to the agreement – their buyers (brokers, distributors and supermarket chains) do. Sustainable organic and local growers who take different approaches to food safety will likely be shut out of the market when buyers refuse their buy their crops.

With the recent passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act, this proposal by industrial-scale, monoculture interests for industry self-regulation is simply unnecessary and counterproductive.

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"J. D. Heyes" - Treasure trove of rare earth metals discovered on sea floor; will mining devastate ocean ecosystem?

J. D. Heyes

http://www.naturalnews.com/033027_rare_earth_metals_sea_floor.html

(NaturalNews) Rare earth metals, which have a number of useful applications, are also key elements in the construction of some of the world's leading green technologies. And as these technologies mature, naturally the industries developing them will need more of these metals to keep up with demand.

But until recently, the bulk of these metals were only found in China, which supplies about 97 percent of the world's demand for rare earth metals.

In fact, so "rare" are these elements that China has threatened recently to stop supplying them to the rest of the world, crippling a number of industries - electronics, automobile manufacturing, farming equipment - in the U.S. and throughout the West.

Now, however, Japanese researchers say they have found vast deposits of these elements in the ocean's seabed, thereby nullifying the Chinese threat and unlocking potentially limitless supplies of the very elements so needed to keep our societies on the cutting edge technologically while at the same time solving some of our most pressing energy needs.

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"J. D. Heyes" - Japan radiation specialists accuses TEPCO of total cover-up regarding radiation exposure of nuclear plant workers

J. D. Heyes

http://www.naturalnews.com/033028_TEPCO_radiation_exposure.html

(NaturalNews) Reports continue to surface about Japan's tsunami-caused nuclear disaster at the Fukushima complex, and this time Japanese radiation specialists say the plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company, is engaged in a number of cover-ups and misinformation campaigns.

One specialist, Nishio Masamichi, director of the Hakkaido Cancer Center, who initially called for "calm" in the early days following the disaster, wrote recently in a top Japanese business journal that the crisis has caused Japan's "myth of nuclear safety" to fall apart.

Nishio, according to this independent report, says it's time to confront the very real prospect of long-term radiation exposure, and has accused TEPCO executives of hiding the truth about the real damage caused by the disaster at the expense of saving the company. He also laid some blame for the way the aftermath of the disaster was handled on the country's leadership, saying Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Cabinet lacked urgency and direction.

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ScienceDaily: Maternal Nutrition: What Impact Does It Have On Gene Expression?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110704123236.htm

ScienceDaily (July 15, 2011) — During intrauterine life and lactation, undernutrition brings about modifications involving DNA, leading to metabolic pathologies at the adult age. Researchers from CNRS, INRA and Inserm have demonstrated for the first time, through an animal-based study, such repercussions at the level of the leptin gene, the hormone that regulates satiety and metabolism. Published in The FASEB Journal, this work could, in the longer term, have an impact on the prevention of metabolic diseases, medically assisted procreation and care for premature infants.

Over the last ten years or so, studies carried out on humans have shown that the intrauterine environment and, in particular, maternal nutrition play an important role in the onset of complex diseases such as obesity, diabetes or hypertension at the adult age. Molecular mechanisms of fetal programming, which scientists are attempting to decipher, are behind such observations.

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CNN: 'Ice Wars' heating up the Arctic

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/07/15/larsen.arctic.ice.wars/index.html

(CNN) -- On a small, floating piece of ice in the Beaufort Sea, several hundred miles north of Alaska, a group of scientists are documenting what some dub an "Arctic meltdown."

According to climate scientists, the warming of the region is shrinking the polar ice cap at an alarming rate, reducing the permafrost layer and wreaking havoc on polar bears, arctic foxes and other indigenous wildlife in the region.

What is bad for the animals, though, has been good for commerce.

The recession of the sea ice and the reduction in permafrost -- combined with advances in technology -- have allowed access to oil, mineral and natural gas deposits that were previously trapped in the ice.

The abundance of these valuable resources and the opportunity to exploit them has created a gold rush-like scramble in the high north, with fierce competition to determine which countries have the right to access the riches of the Arctic.

This competition has brought in its wake a host of naval and military activities that the Arctic hasn't seen since the end of the Cold War.

Now, one of the coldest places on Earth is heating up as nuclear submarines, Aegis-class frigates, strategic bombers and a new generation of icebreakers are resuming operations there.

Just how much oil and natural gas is under the Arctic ice?

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"Dennis Jett" - Commentary: Keeping some voters from the polls is part of the game plan

McClatchy Washington Bureau

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/07/18/117704/commentary-keeping-some-voters.html

Posted on Mon, Jul. 18, 2011

Dennis Jett | Special to McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: July 15, 2011 01:37:13 PM

It should be clear to all but the most steadfast of reality deniers that the strategy of the Republican Party for the presidential election next year is to cause another recession and hope the voters blame President Obama.

If the economic outlook is even more dismal and they can pin that on the president, the Republican candidate will probably win. If the economy is improving, he or she will not.

Political wars are not won with a single point of attack, however, and there are other elements in the GOP’s strategy. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by the man George W. Bush called “turd blossom” lays them out. That term is Texan for a flower that grows from a pile of cow dung and was the nickname given Karl Rove, Bush’s chief political strategist.

In his article, Rove predicted Obama will likely lose in 2012 and offered four reasons for that conclusion — the very weak economy, the dissatisfaction of key groups of voters, Obama’s unpopular policies and his bad strategic decisions.

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U.S. West Coast erosion spiked in winter 2009-10, previewing likely future as climate changes

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/US_West_Coast_erosion_spiked_in_winter_2009_10_previewing_likely_future_as_climate_changes_999.html
Terradaily.com
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 18, 2011

Knowing that the U.S. West Coast was battered during the winter before last by a climatic pattern expected more often in the future, scientists have now pieced together a San Diego-to-Seattle assessment of the damage wrought by that winter's extreme waves and higher- than-usual water levels.

Getting a better understanding of how the 2009-10 conditions tore away and reshaped shorelines will help coastal experts better predict future changes that may be in store for the Pacific coast, the researchers say.

"The stormy conditions of the 2009-10 El Nino winter eroded the beaches to often unprecedented levels at sites throughout California and vulnerable sites in the Pacific Northwest," said Patrick Barnard, a coastal geologist with the United States Geological Survey in Santa Cruz, Calif.

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Ellen Brown: Why Banks Aren't Lending -- The Silent Liquidity Squeeze

Friday 15 July 2011

by: Ellen Brown, Truthout | News Analysis

http://www.truth-out.org/silent-liquidity-squeeze/1310652572

Where did all the jobs go? Small and medium-sized businesses are the major source of new job creation, and they are not hiring. Startup businesses, which contribute a fifth of the nation's new jobs, often can't even get off the ground. Why?

In a June 30 article [3] in The Wall Street Journal titled "Smaller Businesses Seeking Loans Still Come Up Empty," Emily Maltby reported that business owners rank access to capital as the most important issue facing them today; and only 17 percent of smaller businesses said they were able to land needed bank financing. Businesses have to pay for workers and materials before they can get paid for the products they produce and for that they need bank credit; but they are reporting that their credit lines are being cut. They are being pushed instead into credit card accounts that average 16 percent interest, more than double the rate of the average business loan. It is one of many changes in banking trends that have been very lucrative for Wall Street banks, but are killing local businesses.

The Travesty of the $1.6 Trillion in "Excess Reserves"

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"Andrew Gavin Marshall" - The Great Global Debt Depression -- It's All Greek To Me

By Andrew Gavin Marshall

Global Research, July 15, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25648

In late June of 2011, the Greek government passed another round of austerity measures, ostensibly aimed at getting Greece “back on track” to economic progress, but in reality, implementing a systematic program of ‘social genocide’ in the name of servicing an endless and illegitimate debt to foreign banks. Right on cue, protests and riots broke out in Athens against the draconian measures, and the state moved in to do what states do best: oppress the people with riot police, tear gas and bashing batons, leaving roughly 300 people injured.

Is Greece simply a case of a country full of lazy people who spent beyond their means and are now paying for their own decadence? Or, is there something much larger at stake – and at play – here? Greece is, in fact, a microcosm of the global economy: mired in excessive debt, economically ruined, increasingly politically repressive and socially explosive. This report takes a look at the case of the Greek debt crisis specifically, and places it within a wider global context. The conclusion is clear: what happens in Greece will happen here.

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Washington's Blog: "Economic Medicine" and the Debt Ceiling Debate

By Washington's Blog

Global Research, July 15, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25651

The blood pressure of the patient in the emergency room drops precipitously.

The ER docs have already given 15 pints of blood over the course of many hours. But the patient is still on the verge of dying.

Medical rules and regulations say that more than 15 pints of blood should never be given, as too much transfusion can cause other fatal problems.

The "liberal" doctors want to give the patient more blood. After all, this is a life-or-death emergency ... and if they can just buy more time, they might be able to figure out a way to save the patient.

The "conservative" doctors want to stop with the transfusions. After all, giving too much blood could kill the patient ... and maybe he'll be able to pull out of it on his own.

Who is right?

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