Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 05 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Top Secret

Emails show: Food industry enlisted academics in G.M.O. lobbying war

Eric Lipton
New York Times
Sat, 05 Sep 2015 18:32 UTC
Image
© Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Monsanto Asgrow brand soybeans. Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, and its industry partners have relied on academics to push their case for genetically modified crops.
At Monsanto, sales of genetically modified seeds were steadily rising. But executives at the company's St. Louis headquarters were privately worried about attacks on the safety of their products.

So Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, and its industry partners retooled their lobbying and public relations strategy to spotlight a rarefied group of advocates: academics, brought in for the gloss of impartiality and weight of authority that come with a professor's pedigree.

"Professors/researchers/scientists have a big white hat in this debate and support in their states, from politicians to producers," Bill Mashek, a vice president at Ketchum, a public relations firm hired by the biotechnology industry, said in an email to a University of Florida professor. "Keep it up!"

And the industry has.

Comment: The biotech industry is desperate...as Dr. Benbrook clearly states 'Monsanto wants to influence the public...but nobody believes them...there is a friggin war going on and everyone is looking to gain as much leverage as they can.' It's not really surprising that Monsanto enlisted academics to push their agenda. they have already 'taken over' regulatory bodies that are supposed to enforce and monitor 'food safety', why not take over university academics as well!
  • Monsanto took over regulatory bodies all over the world to lobby GMO
Monsanto is the largest seed company in the world. Their background is quite controversial - they were continually voted the most hated and most unethical company on Earth for years and years, [even] with stiff competition. They lied about the toxicity of their former products - PCBs, Agent Orange and DDT - and they have unprecedented control around the world over regulatory bodies.

By the way the documents made public from a lawsuit revealed that the overwhelming consensus among the scientists working at the FDA was exactly the opposite of that exposed in the policy. The scientists said GMOs would be dangerous, could create allergies, toxins, and new diseases, and should be tested. Monsanto's takeover essentially of the FDA has been replicated around the world, I've been in 37 countries and I've seen how they "capture" regulators, ministries, departments, etc., and once that happens, they discredit and dismiss any adverse findings about GMOs - they don't even read the dossier. Unfortunately, it's a rubber stamp situation around the world and if you trace it back, it comes down to them doing it, based on Monsanto's own research. We've caught them red-handed, rigging their research to avoid finding problems, and covering up problems when they persist nonetheless.

They have paid an enormous amount of money for campaign contributions and lobbying - a recent article came out - it was $8.7 million last year. They have a very strategic way of infiltrating and influencing, in fact, what the entire biotech industry and Big Agriculture does.


      Read More...
SOTT Logo Radio

The Truth Perspective: Psychological protection from pathology


Sott.net
Sat, 05 Sep 2015 18:00 UTC
Sott Talk Radio logo
Broadcasting from deep in the heart of the American Empire, join your host Elan Martin, and fellow Sott.net editors, as they discuss everything from current events and the latest machinations and manipulations of the global elite to history, science, and religion, and how it all fits together.

This week, join The Truth Perspective as we discuss ways people can protect themselves from pathological behavior in personal relationships and in society. We'll look at the influences of worldwide destabilization and global events and how to proactivly face our reality to build psychological defences.

The Truth Perspective is brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT.net, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events.

Live every Saturday from 2-4pm EST / 11am-1pm PST / 8-10pm CET.

Running Time: 01:56:00

Download: MP3

      Read More...
Document

Putin and Xi meet to boost ties, sign raft of agreements


The BRICS Post
Thu, 03 Sep 2015 11:43 UTC
Putin, Xi
© thebricspost.com
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) in conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) on the Tian’anmen Rostrum during the commemoration activities to mark the 70th anniversary of China’s victory against imperial Japan in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 3, 2015 [Xinhua]
Russian President Vladimir Putin held bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday after attending a spectacular military parade, to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Tiananmen Square.

Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed the signing of a raft of agreements between the two sides on Thursday. "Good bilateral relations are a guarantee of close cooperation between our two countries on the international scene," said Xi. "About 30 documents will be signed a little later in your presence, and this is clear evidence of the success of your visit," the Chinese President added.
"A number of documents was signed dealing, in particular, with cross-border electronic trade; yuan loans for trade finance purposes; investment in priority sectors of the Russian and Chinese economies; natural gas supplies to China via the pipeline in Russia's Far East; cooperation in the development of data processing centres and cloud services in the Asia-Pacific region, and joint oilfield development," said a Kremlin statement following talks between Xi and Putin.
Following Xi-Putin talks on Thursday, Russia's Gazprom and China's National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have signed a memorandum of understanding on a project of natural gas deliveries from Russia to China via a new pipeline in Russia's Far East. "Today, a memorandum on gas supplies from the Russian Federation's Far East to China was signed. The memorandum stipulates a third route for gas supplies to China," said Alexey Miller, CEO of Gazprom.

Comment: These are voices of mutual good will, reason and sound planning. The West had best beware that antagonizing Russia to war may include China as a partner and ally, perhaps one of many.

      Read More...
Eye 2

Need more refugees: France eyes strikes against Islamic State in Syria


RT
Sat, 05 Sep 2015 14:44 UTC
French Mirage 2000 fighter
© Kaisa Siren / Lehtikuva / Reuters
France is considering carrying out strikes against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Saturday citing an anonymous "high-level source."

President Francois Hollande will give a news conference on Monday to clarify the matter, but government officials are refusing to comment on the report yet.

The issue was allegedly discussed at a defense meeting with the president on Friday, and over the last few days unnamed top officials hinted to the French paper that the decision had been made.

Comment: So France thinks that by bombing more people that it will "push back" IS and reduce the refugee crises when in reality it will have the opposite result.

EU refugee crisis is absolutely expected, says Putin: a result of Western policies in the Middle East

      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Blowback on a NATO beach

Pepe Escobar
RT
Fri, 04 Sep 2015 15:26 UTC
Man with Poster
© Osman Orsal/Reuters
A man holds a poster with a drawing depicting drowned Syrian toddlers during a demonstration for refugee rights in Istanbul, Turkey, September 3, 2015.
We've had it coming. And when it came, virtually the whole planet reacted with stunned silence. Sometimes it takes just a photograph to put a noxiously complex version of hell in perspective.

Little did Nilufer Demir, 29, the female photojournalist of the Turkish Dogan News agency know that the moment she saw little Aylan Kurdi, 3, washed ashore at the Ali Hoca Burnu beach near Bodrum, she would be making history.

Aylan is alone, as if suspended by the immense solitude of death, just as his family's dream of offering him a new life in a new continent away from death and destruction was about to be fulfilled. It's as if his lone lifeless body at the shores of a NATO beach was also about to prefigure the death of Europe - or the death of a once pan-European dream of solidarity and compassion.

Hannah Arendt once wrote movingly about the banality of evil, referring to the mechanism of fascism and Nazism. Aylan's lifeless body now illustrates the banality of an evil he was trying to flee: the "arc of instability", a Pentagon self-fulfilling prophecy.

So to put hell in perspective we must retrace some steps of the arc.
      Read More...
Snakes in Suits

Erdogan complains West only interested in oil and slams refugee crisis response


RT
Fri, 04 Sep 2015 00:01 UTC
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan
© Umit Bektas / Reuters
The interests of the West in war-torn countries such as Iraq and Libya are focused on their natural resources, oil in particular, while the current refugee crisis remains badly dealt with, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On Thursday, Erdogan "expressed with sorrow" that some European countries have "double standards," slamming the West for drowning "humanity," Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Erdogan slammed the West's policies in oil-rich countries such as Iraq and Libya, which both suffer from dire security situations and have experienced Western military interventions.

"Do you know what is being done in these places? 'There is oil in Libya and Iraq, so let's seize the oil-wells.' Isn't this the situation now?" the president said. "80 percent of Iraq's oil wells are under the control of the West. It is the same in Libya. While all these realities exist, this [international] structure is not acceptable."

Comment: So is Erdogan upset because so many refugees are crossing his country? He is not innocent in the refugee crises: Turkey's criminal cabal and their role in the Syrian war.

      Read More...
Vader

U.S. State Dept. warns renowned jazz musician not to play at Crimea festival


RT
Wed, 02 Sep 2015 18:52 UTC
Image
© Grigoriy Sisoev / RIA Novosti
Musician Igor Butman
The leading light of the Russian jazz scene, Igor Butman, recently drew fire from Washington and Kiev when he agreed to play at the music festival held in the Crimean city of Koktebel. Butman received a warning from the US State Department not to attend.

Butman, 53, who has worked with some of the world's finest musicians, including Ray Charles and Al Jarreau, told RT that music should never suffer because of politics.

"We should keep one side of life just without politics, especially jazz music, which is all about improvisation, [which] came from freedom... They are leaving us with no money and no audience if they say 'Do not perform there! If you play there, you play for this party or you play for that party...' No!" the saxophonist told RT.


Comment: The U.S. government is doing the same thing here that they did over the summer to FIFA. Anything involving Russia has become political, even sports and music. It shows how petty the U.S. is in its rigid stance against Russia.

      Read More...
Yoda

Putin: People aren't running from Assad in Syria, but from ISIS


RT
Fri, 04 Sep 2015 18:46 UTC
Image
© Mikhail Voskresenskiy / RIA Novosti
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the fight against terrorism should be a coordinated international effort, and Russia is taking steps to form such a coalition. He added that in Syria it should go hand in hand with an internal political process.

"Of course, we know that there are different approaches to Syria. By the way, people are running away not from the regime of Bashar Assad, but from Islamic State, which seized large areas in Syria and Iraq, and are committing atrocities there. That is what they are escaping from," RIA Novosti quoted Vladimir Putin as saying on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

"They [IS] kill hundreds and thousands of people, burn them alive or drown them, cut off people's heads. How are people supposed to live there? Of course, they run away."

He stressed that it is necessary to fight terrorism in all forms, saying, "We really want to create some kind of an international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism."
      Read More...
Light Sabers

German MP slams UK for indifferent reaction to migrant crisis


RT
Wed, 02 Sep 2015 16:53 UTC
Image
© Hannibal Hanschke / Reuters
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Britian's Prime Minister David Cameron
Britain's failure to accept more asylum seekers in the intensifying global refugee crisis could threaten Anglo-German relations and hinder Prime Minister David Cameron's attempt to prize back powers from Brussels, a leading German MP has warned.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's core ally Stephen Mayer said Britain's stance on the refugee crisis could damage Germany's relationship with the UK and the Tories' agenda of renegotiating Britain's EU membership.

Britain's refusal to take more refugees has sparked anger in Germany, with one newspaper labeling Britain "the slackers of Europe."

Speaking to the Times, Mayer said the flood of refugees entering Europe represents a serious challenge and if Westminster remains "out of the club" in dealing with the crisis its relationship with Berlin could be damaged.
      Read More...
Megaphone

Head of Chechen Republic on migrant crisis: U.S. and EU created situation by destroying Islamic nations


RT
Fri, 04 Sep 2015 15:47 UTC
Image
© Said Tsarnaev / RIA Novosti
Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov
The head of Russia's Chechen Republic claims the current asylum seeker crisis in European countries originated in the aggressive policies of the United States and the EU. He also called upon all Muslim nations to jointly fight the root of the problem.

"If today no one rises against the inhumane policies of the Western countries, tomorrow the disaster may come to any Muslim country. I call upon you to urgently discuss this problem, to develop a unified position and to save the lives of thousands of people," Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on his Instagram account (Kadyrov uses Instagram as a social network for public statements).

"Tens of thousands of Muslims are dying. Women, old people, children and young people as well. Under such conditions the leaders of Islamic countries has no right to remain silent, to stand aside and remain simple observers," he added.

Kadyrov also explained in his post that in his opinion the West must be blamed for tragedies that are currently taking place in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Libya, Yemen, Algeria and other Muslim nations.

Comment: The Chechen leader sees things pretty clearly. The U.S. and their vassal states in Europe are absolutely responsible for the migrant crisis currently unfolding in Europe.

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts