"Producing more. Conserving more. Improving farmers' lives. That's sustainable agriculture. And that's what Monsanto is all about."
From a full back page Monsanto advertisement in a recent New Yorker magazine.
The adjective 'seedy' has several definitions, including "having many seeds," as does the adverb 'seedily' and the noun 'seediness.' Monsanto, which calls itself an agriculture company, is currently best known for what it calls its "advanced hybrid and biotech seeds" and is by definition a seedy company.
Health & Wellness
Another influenza season is beginning in the northern temperate zone, and our government's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will strongly urge Americans to get a flu shot. Health officials will say that every winter 5 - 20 percent of the population catches the flu, 200,000 people are hospitalized, and 36,000 people will die from it.
The CDC's 15-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) makes recommendations each year on who should be vaccinated. Ten years ago, for the 1999 - 2000 season, the committee recommended that people over age 65 and children with medical conditions have a flu shot. Seventy-four million people were vaccinated. Next season (2000 - 01) the committee lowered the age for universal vaccination from 65 to 50 years old, adding 41 million people to the list. For the 2002 - 03 season, the ACIP added healthy children 6 months to 23 months old, and for 2004 - 05, children up to 5 years old. For the 2008 - 09 season the committee has advised that healthy children 6 months to 18 years old have a flu shot each year. Its recommendations for influenza vaccination now covers 256 million Americans - 84 percent of the U.S. population. Only healthy people ages 19 - 49 not involved in some aspect of health care remain exempt. Pharmaceutical companies have made 146 million influenza vaccines for the U.S. market this flu season.
The CDC's 15-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) makes recommendations each year on who should be vaccinated. Ten years ago, for the 1999 - 2000 season, the committee recommended that people over age 65 and children with medical conditions have a flu shot. Seventy-four million people were vaccinated. Next season (2000 - 01) the committee lowered the age for universal vaccination from 65 to 50 years old, adding 41 million people to the list. For the 2002 - 03 season, the ACIP added healthy children 6 months to 23 months old, and for 2004 - 05, children up to 5 years old. For the 2008 - 09 season the committee has advised that healthy children 6 months to 18 years old have a flu shot each year. Its recommendations for influenza vaccination now covers 256 million Americans - 84 percent of the U.S. population. Only healthy people ages 19 - 49 not involved in some aspect of health care remain exempt. Pharmaceutical companies have made 146 million influenza vaccines for the U.S. market this flu season.
There had been no confirmed deaths in the United States related to swine flu as of Tuesday afternoon. But another virus had killed thousands of people since January and is expected to keep killing hundreds of people every week for the rest of the year.
That one? The regular flu.
An outbreak of swine flu that is suspected in more than 150 deaths in Mexico and has sickened dozens of people in the United States and elsewhere has grabbed the attention of a nervous public and of medical officials worried the strain will continue to mutate and spread.
Experts are nervous that, as a new strain, the swine flu will be harder to stop because there aren't any vaccines to fight it.
But even if there are swine-flu deaths outside Mexico -- and medical experts say there very well may be -- the virus would have a long way to go to match the roughly 36,000 deaths that seasonal influenza causes in the United States each year.
"That happens on an annual basis," Dr. Brian Currie said Tuesday. Currie is vice president and medical director at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York.
That one? The regular flu.
An outbreak of swine flu that is suspected in more than 150 deaths in Mexico and has sickened dozens of people in the United States and elsewhere has grabbed the attention of a nervous public and of medical officials worried the strain will continue to mutate and spread.
Experts are nervous that, as a new strain, the swine flu will be harder to stop because there aren't any vaccines to fight it.
But even if there are swine-flu deaths outside Mexico -- and medical experts say there very well may be -- the virus would have a long way to go to match the roughly 36,000 deaths that seasonal influenza causes in the United States each year.
"That happens on an annual basis," Dr. Brian Currie said Tuesday. Currie is vice president and medical director at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York.
What to call the new strain of flu raising alarms around the world has taken on political, economic and diplomatic overtones.
Pork producers question whether the term "swine flu" is appropriate, given that the new virus has not yet been isolated in samples taken from pigs in Mexico or elsewhere. While the new virus seems to be most heavily composed of genetic sequences from swine influenza virus material, it also has human and avian influenza genetic sequences as well, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Government officials in Thailand, one of the world's largest meat exporters, have started referring to the disease as "Mexican flu." An Israeli deputy health minister - an ultra-Orthodox Jew - said his country would do the same, to keep Jews from having to say the word "swine." However, his call seemed to have been largely ignored.
Janet Napolitano, the secretary for homeland security, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack went out of their way at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday to refer to the virus by its scientific name, as the "H1N1 virus."
Pork producers question whether the term "swine flu" is appropriate, given that the new virus has not yet been isolated in samples taken from pigs in Mexico or elsewhere. While the new virus seems to be most heavily composed of genetic sequences from swine influenza virus material, it also has human and avian influenza genetic sequences as well, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Government officials in Thailand, one of the world's largest meat exporters, have started referring to the disease as "Mexican flu." An Israeli deputy health minister - an ultra-Orthodox Jew - said his country would do the same, to keep Jews from having to say the word "swine." However, his call seemed to have been largely ignored.
Janet Napolitano, the secretary for homeland security, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack went out of their way at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday to refer to the virus by its scientific name, as the "H1N1 virus."
Considering the rapidly increasing number of confirmed swine flu cases, WHO officials have decided to raise the pandemic alert level to phase 5.
Swine Influenza (swine flu) caused by type A influenza, regularly leads to influenza outbreaks among pigs. The virus does not normally infect humans.
Confirmed sufferers in the United States and Mexico, however, are believed to have spread the disease to their families and others in close contact.
Swine Influenza (swine flu) caused by type A influenza, regularly leads to influenza outbreaks among pigs. The virus does not normally infect humans.
© Unknown
Doctors don't know yet if the swine flu that may have killed at least 149 people in Mexico is more like the 1918 form of influenza that left 50 million people dead, or a 1976 version that was fatal to just one.
Either way, the lessons from past pandemics in 1918, 1958 and 1968 may help reduce the severity of the current threat, said Barry Bloom, a professor at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. The most basic precautions, including hand washing, avoiding close contact with the sick and covering the nose and mouth during coughs and sneezes, remain the same, according to the World Health Organization.
Either way, the lessons from past pandemics in 1918, 1958 and 1968 may help reduce the severity of the current threat, said Barry Bloom, a professor at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. The most basic precautions, including hand washing, avoiding close contact with the sick and covering the nose and mouth during coughs and sneezes, remain the same, according to the World Health Organization.
Out of the blue, a novel influenza virus has emerged in Mexico. The virus seems to have been born from the combination of at least two pig viruses, that themselves carried gene segments that originated in viruses of other species such as birds or humans. The combination of elements from three species is called "triple reassortment".
This new virus, although dubbed "swine flu", has not been identified from pigs in Mexico, nor is it caught directly from pigs, but has the ability to infect and transmit efficiently between humans. This led the World Health Organization to increase its pandemic alert to level 4.
So far there seem to have been around 159 fatalities among perhaps 2000 cases in Mexico, although only a small number of these have been confirmed in the laboratory as influenza infections. Although this suggests a scary fatality rate of around 10%, there has so far been just one death outside of Mexico - of a 23-month-old Mexican child in Texas, who had recently been in Mexico. The "case fatality" of the virus is not yet known.
This is the key point that scientists are now investigating. Travellers returning to their home countries after acquiring the virus in Mexico have experienced mild influenza-like illness. What might explain this apparent discrepancy in disease outcome?
This new virus, although dubbed "swine flu", has not been identified from pigs in Mexico, nor is it caught directly from pigs, but has the ability to infect and transmit efficiently between humans. This led the World Health Organization to increase its pandemic alert to level 4.
So far there seem to have been around 159 fatalities among perhaps 2000 cases in Mexico, although only a small number of these have been confirmed in the laboratory as influenza infections. Although this suggests a scary fatality rate of around 10%, there has so far been just one death outside of Mexico - of a 23-month-old Mexican child in Texas, who had recently been in Mexico. The "case fatality" of the virus is not yet known.
This is the key point that scientists are now investigating. Travellers returning to their home countries after acquiring the virus in Mexico have experienced mild influenza-like illness. What might explain this apparent discrepancy in disease outcome?
© Peter Macdiarmid/Getty
Homeopathic remedies
Homeopathic remedies
We knew this was coming. Even though the bird flu hype was removed years ago from the nightly news, planning for the global pandemic and the development of pandemic flu vaccines has continued with little notice. Our government has instructed FEMA, made checklists for Homeland Security, given action plans to State and local authorities. These plans include methods and drills for global inoculation with a vaccine that will no doubt have the same deadly consequences as the Swine Flu vaccine in 1976.
My book, FOWL!, published in 2006, foretold the events that are now happening in Mexico. Reported death rates are skyrocketing, from 20 to 60 to 86, in a matter of hours. More than 1,300 others have supposedly become ill with "suspected" cases of the infection and reports are coming in from various States and Canada of swine flu. There are no sources or references given with these numbers; we have to take the word of CNN. A short look back at plans that were put in place several years ago will confirm this is not a spontaneous eruption and the solution - global vaccination - has been in the works for quite some time.
My book, FOWL!, published in 2006, foretold the events that are now happening in Mexico. Reported death rates are skyrocketing, from 20 to 60 to 86, in a matter of hours. More than 1,300 others have supposedly become ill with "suspected" cases of the infection and reports are coming in from various States and Canada of swine flu. There are no sources or references given with these numbers; we have to take the word of CNN. A short look back at plans that were put in place several years ago will confirm this is not a spontaneous eruption and the solution - global vaccination - has been in the works for quite some time.
Vegetables have been the main stay of our diet for centuries. They have been the back bone of entire countries, offering not only sustenance to its citizens but also a way to make a living through farming and trade. But most important of all they are the main source of many vitamins and minerals that are essential for maintaining a long healthy and fulfilling life, and we need more now than ever before.
Comment: At this point it's unknown if this current (appearingly man-made) virus will indeed 'go live' worldwide at this juncture. However, common sense and self preservation behooves us to look after ourselves and our loved ones.
That includes ridding ourselves of toxins as best we can, and helping to boost our immune systems. Please listen to Sott's latest Podcast entitled 'Toxic World, Toxic Bodies' - Flu, or no flu... this information is eye opening and (as noted) should not be missed. Large Download (right click to save)
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