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Wednesday, March 30
Suicide Gene Bill Passes Iowa Senate
by
Linda Thieman
on Wed 30 Mar 2005 04:39 AM CST
 Suicide Gene Bill Passes Iowa Senate
by Iowa State Rep. Mark Kuhn (D-Floyd)
Dear Friends,
SF 259,
the companion bill to HF 259, passed the [Iowa] Senate by a vote of
33-16 with 1 absent. I wrote and distributed a two-page letter to
the Senate [yesterday] asking them for further discussions before
passage of the bill, which is sure to be signed by Governor
Vilsack. My last ditch attempt to persuade the Senate to defer on
the bill for this legislative session and call for the appointment of
an interim study committee to study the issue failed. There was a
verbal agreement among Senate leaders to call for the appointment of an
interim study committee, but that was not written into the bill, and it
is not known if even that will happen. Even if it does, it's like
shutting the barn door after the cows are in the cornfield.
I want
to thank each of you for your support during consideration of this
bill. You all played a unique and important role in opposing this
bad piece of legislation. In conclusion, let me say that a democracy
void of discussion is not representative of the voices of the
people. Legislators introducing these preemptive seed laws are
not acting on behalf of the people they represent, they are acting
despite the will of the people.
Thank you for going against the grain and standing up for what's right.
Keep lookin' up,
Rep. Mark Kuhn, Mark.Kuhn@legis.state.ia.us
P.S. Please be assured I'll be writing Governor Vilsack ASAP to ask him to veto this legislation.
Click here to email Gov. Vilsack asking him to veto this dangerous bill.
 A big thank you from Blog for Iowa to Rep. Mark Kuhn for taking the lead on this important issue.
Submitted by Larry Hanus of Waterloo
Monday, March 21
Cleaning Up Factory Farms
by
Linda Thieman
on Mon 21 Mar 2005 04:35 AM CST
 Cleaning Up Factory Farms
By J.R. Pegg, Environment News Service, AlterNet.org
The
Bush administration thinks it's perfectly OK to let factory farms
discharge waste into the nation's waters. A federal appeals court says
the policy stinks.
The Bush
administration's regulations to limit water pollution from factory
farms violate the Clean Water Act and must be revised, a federal
appeals court ruled [last month]. The court found the regulations
failed to ensure that factory farms would be held accountable for
discharging animal wastes into the nation's waters.
...The
decision continues a long-running battle over how to regulate factory
farms – known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). CAFOs
have emerged as the dominant force in the modern production of
agricultural livestock as the size of livestock operations has grown
over the past two decades. These operations produce some 500 million
tons of animal waste annually – disposal and storage of this waste
presents serious risks to public health and the environment.
CAFOs
often over-apply liquid waste on land, which runs off into surface
water, killing fish, spreading disease, and contaminating drinking
water supplies. Waste can leak onto the land and into groundwater and
drinking water supplies from the massive waste storage units on the
farms.
Three
decades ago, the U.S. Congress identified CAFOs as point sources of
water pollution to be regulated under the Clean Water Act's water
pollution permitting program. The 2003 rule aimed to implement that
decision – it applies to some 15,500 livestock operations across the
country.
(Click here to read the complete article.)
Saturday, March 19
Update on Biogate: Iowa Suicide Gene Bill
by
Linda Thieman
on Sat 19 Mar 2005 04:43 PM CST
Update on Biogate: Iowa Suicide Gene Bill
by Linda Thieman
This past Monday, March 14, the Iowa House, as expected, rushed through the passage of what has come to be known amongst activists as the Suicide Gene Bill. This bill would take away the right of local governments to ban the planting of certain seeds, such as those that have been genetically modified, in order to avoid contamination from cross pollination and other methods. Some GM crops have been modified so that all seed produced from these crops is sterile, hence the name Suicide Gene, forcing farmers to buy new seed every year and robbing Mother Earth of her ability to reproduce.
The Inside Scoop
The expectation was that once the Iowa House rushed the bill through (it passed 70-27), the Iowa Senate, under pressure from Gov. Vilsack, would follow suit. However, according to Carlos Jayne, a lobbyist for Iowa Farmer’s Union, there is some resistance amongst Democrats in the Iowa Senate who feel this “fast track” is too fast. Opponents of the bill hope to get Democrats to stand up in caucus for delaying further consideration of this legislation until next session.
Additionally, it is Jayne’s perception that Vilsack is suddenly less insistent on getting this gift to big agribusiness and the biotech industry passed quickly. This, Jayne believes, is because Sandy Greiner (R-Washington), the representative who introduced the bill in the House, crowed too soon on the floor of the House, claiming support from Vilsack.
Jayne insists, however, that we aren’t winning this battle yet, so “don’t anyone let up.” If the bill actually makes it to the floor of the Senate for a vote, it will probably pass.
Contact your Iowa senator here.
“Democracy Works Best at the Local Level”
One of the fascinating things to come out of this legislative session thus far was the testimony to the Agriculture Committee of the Iowa House regarding the Suicide Gene bill given by George Naylor. Naylor is a farmer from Churdan, Iowa, and is president of the National Family Farm Coalition.
Naylor’s testimony was moving and eloquent. It’s the kind of thing we usually don’t get to hear about. Blog for Iowa is including it here. After the brief excerpt, scroll down and click on more>> to read the full text of Naylor’s testimony.
George Naylor:
As the president of the National Family Farm Coalition representing the hopes of family farmers around the country, my remarks today against passage of H.F. 202 are based on two simple messages: First, don't fall for the idea that H.F. 202 will be of benefit to farmers, and second, democracy works best at the local level which H.F. 202 precisely prohibits. (This applies to siting hog factories, too.)
Democracy depends on a well informed citizenry. This must be why the giant genetic engineering corporations have lied so much to farmers and consumers about their technology. An executive of DuPont-Pioneer Seed-as recently as two years ago was repeating the misleading statement that genetic modification is no different that when people first made bread and beer. You would have to drink a lot of beer to believe that moving genes from one species to another at will is the same as making bread or beer, or for that matter, crossing different varieties within a species. The statements that genetically engineered crops were the most regulated and studied plants in history also led citizens to believe that scientists were confident that there was no need to worry about these products' effects on human health or the environment. The fact is, the crops were only voluntarily registered with the FDA and no transparent scientific studies were ever available for peer review.
The lack of regulation of these GE crops starting from the federal government on down illustrates that the democratic process breaks down the further we move away from our local communities. There has been a widespread cover-up of the lack of regulation and possible dangers of the technology resulting in unbelievable power in the board rooms of giant corporations over our food and the biosphere. I hope the outcome of the debate on H.F. 202 may ironically open up the larger debate and reveal this treacherous cover-up -- I would call it Biogate.
more »
Monday, March 14
This Week in the Iowa Legislature: Tipping Point for a Ravaged Earth
by
Linda Thieman
on Mon 14 Mar 2005 09:15 PM CST
This Week in the Iowa Legislature: Tipping Point for a Ravaged Earth
By Eileen Dannemann, National Coalition of Organized Women
The Tipping Point
Tuesday, March 15th
Steps of the Des Moines State Capitol
10:00am sharp
In the Iowa legislature this week: Genetically Engineered Foods, Seeds, and Cloned Animals unlabeled at the consumer level.
The Biogate Conspiracy: It’s on the fast track.
The word
has come down from the highest government authority, sent through Iowa
Governor Tom Vilsack’s channels, that under no circumstances should
Iowa HF 202 (amended to HF 642) and SBS 1144 (now SF 259) be stopped.
Through this bill, activated in 22 other states, the US, via its
partnership with the Biotech Industry (Biopharmaceutical industrial complex), is finalizing their acreage conversion plan that seeks totalitarian control of production. This is the last hurrah in Iowa to safeguard organic and sustainable agricultural, family farmers and community integrity.
This bill is aimed to sabotage the initiative in Mendocino and Marin
counties in California to ban GMOs and will affect the outcome of bills
all over the nation. If the bill fails in Iowa, by our efforts we
will have affected positively the national movement to save the
integrity of sustainable agriculture and consumer's right to choose.
Iowa is the Tipping Point.
Seven
years have gone by and CODEX, the lawmaking body of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), has succeeded in keeping the issue of labeling off
the calendar. This has enabled Monsanto and friends to covertly convert
185,000,000 acres all over the world into GMO crops even in the face of
great opposition by the European Union. Mexico has now fallen against
its own wishes and the once pristine and diverse corn crops are contaminated.
Many,
and perhaps the majority, of representatives in both the Iowa house and
senate have their orders. But some are beginning to think that a
totalitarian government is not what our founding fathers had in mind.
Others are beginning to see a downright evil hand at work. Shocked by
the temerity of the biotech industry to name their sterilizing
technology the Terminator and the Exorcist,
a few representatives have chosen not to follow orders. Monsanto,
seeking to terminate the reproductive nature of Mother Nature Herself,
has made many downright angry and suspicious of the source of this
bill. It certainly seems that wheat is being separated from chaff when
the choice is either to facilitate the bio-tech story by sabotaging
God’s Law of Abundance through the Terminator and the Exorcist or to
stand up for sustainability, safeguarding the sacredness of the seeds.
Seeds are being genetically manipulated, privately owned and the
quality of a free abundant reproductive nature and availability is
being terminated for the express purpose of monetary gain, with no
consideration of the land or the people. And this is being speedily
processed by Governor Vilsack and perpetrated by our State government
this week.
Inside the Iowa Legislature
Due to
many brilliant efforts in the agricultural committee last week,
discussions are now taking place in caucus whether to obey orders from
the national and international hierarchy or to make considered
decisions for the welfare of the State of Iowa. In the taking
away of local control, the Iowa State Legislature is, in turn, losing
their sovereignty as well. By falling in lockstep with the governor and
senators like Chuck Grassley who, in turn, are being pre-compliant with
the World Trade Organization, Iowa legislators see themselves as
significant players; important and connected.
But some
courageous legislators are trying to protect Iowa’s agricultural
portfolio. They are trying to preserve diversity in an irresponsible
system that has allowed Iowa to invest 90% of its soybean fields in
biotechnology, a technology that has already proven itself to be
dangerous.
The bill is being fast tracked through the Iowa house. The only place we can stop it is in the senate.
The key
leadership in the senate is Senator Kibbie, Senator Reilly and Senator
Fraise. Only an expression of outrage from their constituency
would provide a legitimate excuse for tabling this bill against blanket
orders to pass it.
We have
the opportunity, Tuesday, to take a stand, witnessed by all, to stand
up for Mother Nature. Every farmer and consumer within earshot of this
message is asked to show up on Tuesday, March 15th. Be on the steps of the State Capitol in Des Moines, a hundred strong; men, women and children at 10:00 AM. Your presence and prayers will make all the difference!
Contact your state senator here.
Saturday, March 12
Destroying Organic Agriculture in Iowa
by
Linda Thieman
on Sat 12 Mar 2005 04:52 PM CST
Destroying Organic Agriculture in Iowa
by Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception
Iowa Bills Fight GM Free Zones and Farmer Choice
$$$
-Organic agriculture is the only sector bounding ahead at a double
digit growth rate. Iowa has about 900 organic grain farmers — one of
the largest contingents in the Midwest. $$$
* * * * * * * * *
Whenever
large agribusiness or their political representatives come up with a
new farm strategy to save local farmers, watch out. It seems that more
small farmers suffer while agribusiness prospers. The latest proposal
is a bill before Iowa legislators that would prevent local
jurisdictions from creating identity preservation zones.
Using identity preservation (IP), farmers keep crop varieties separate from others to meet purity requirements of their buyers.
Iowa farmers, for example, may earn an extra $8.50 – $15.50 per bushel
for organic soybeans. Non-GM beans bring in about $0.50 more than GM
varieties, and non-GM food grade raise that to $2.00. Several specialty
varieties comprise the approximately 5 percent of total US corn acreage
that is IP, including an extractable starch corn grown for Japanese
breweries by 60 southeast Iowa farmers.
*These
bills are being debated this coming week. Please contact your state representatives on this
issue immediately. An Iowa-specific letter and email technology is available at www.seedsofdeception.com/iowa.
While
low commodity corn and soybean prices contributed to the 22 percent
reduction of Iowa’s mid-size farms between 1997 and 2002, IP niche marketing keeps many profitable. IP crops also can bypass the “normal” big agribusiness marketing channels.
Contamination is a key challenge to IP growers.
Unwanted varieties may cross-pollinate or get mixed up in the seed,
harvest equipment, or during storage and transport. Some farm regions
create entire zones that exclude unwanted varieties, where all the
farms, and if possible all collection and distribution points, only
handle approved grain.
The
current bills before the Iowa house and senate - Iowa HF 202 (amended to HF 642) and SBS 1144 (now SF 259) - would
disallow local jurisdictions from regulating the sale or production of
seeds. The reason? They are trying to prevent Iowa farmers from
creating GM-free zones. These zones, which do not allow the cultivation
of genetically modified crops, are being created at an accelerated rate
on all continents, including the US. They provide farmers easier access
to the significant world markets that avoid the controversial
technology.
The introduction of GM crops in 1996 was heralded by agribusiness as the key to greater profits, but the opposite ensued.
Europe cut off its $300 million corn purchases. Japan soy orders
dropped by nearly 25 percent. Lowered prices for GM commodities boosted
U.S. subsidies by an estimated $2-3 billion per year. Even the threat
of GM wheat being introduced rallied the industry to try to make North
America a GM-wheat-free-zone.
If
Iowans knew before 1996 about the loss of GM markets, they could have
created GM-free zones. If they knew before 1999 that A.E. Staley and
ADM would not take varieties of GM corn not approved in the EU, they
could have created EU-approved zones. If they realized that StarLink
was not approved for human consumption, they could have created
StarLink-free zones before its discovery in taco shells prompted the
recall of more than 300 brands and massive economic damage to the farm
sector.
It’s hard to predict the future, but there are clear trends. Organic agriculture is the only sector bounding ahead at a double digit growth rate. Iowa has about 900 organic grain farmers—one of the largest contingents in the Midwest—and many others are testing the waters.
GM
markets continue to dry up with the consistent finding that the more
people learn about the technology, the less they trust it. Now, even GM
animal feed markets are shrinking overseas due to consumer demand for
GM-free meat. Many EU retailers promise this to their buyers and as of
February 10, 2005, three major Australian poultry producers are also
refusing GM feed. An ISU economist projected that if GM wheat were
introduced here, 30-50 percent of our foreign markets would go
elsewhere and wheat prices would drop by a third. This could put wheat
into competition with corn as a feed grain.
And we
also know that Iowa hosts field trials of GM varieties unapproved for
the market. The most threatening of these is the corn engineered to
create pharmaceuticals. In 2002, 155 acres in Pocahontas County had to
be destroyed because of “pharm” corn contamination. If drug-producing
corn got mixed up in the food supply, the debacle could eclipse
StarLink.
Looking
at current trends, farmers may decide to create a pharm-corn free zone,
an organic corridor, an approved-variety-only sector, a non-GM
marketing zone, or any one of a number of zones to capitalize on any
future trend, GM-related or not. Zones can give farmers greater
control, greater profits, and better protection. The Iowa bills,
however, would prevent all that. If they pass, biotech companies would
be the winner and Iowa farms and communities would be the loser.
These
bills are being debated during [this coming] week (in March, 2005). For Iowans wanting to contact state representatives on this
issue, visit www.seedsofdeception.com/iowa.
To view a sampling of possible future news stories with and without
these laws in place, go to www.seedsofdeception.com/iowafutures.php
Submitted by Larry Hanus of Waterloo.
Friday, March 11
The Suicide Gene: A Political Drama Coming Soon to the Des Moines State Capitol
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 11 Mar 2005 05:36 PM CST
The Suicide Gene: A Political Drama Coming Soon to the Des Moines State Capitol
National Coalition of Organized Women
Representative
Mark Kuhn (D-Floyd) is playing the part of David in a behemoth battle
play against the Giant Biotech industry, directed by Governor Vilsack,
who seems to be the first cloned governor of the nation. Written
by the U.S. Corporate-ruled government; executive producer: The World
Totalitarian Octopus (WTO)
A
nationwide initiative, in the form of the bill Iowa HF 202 (amended to HF 642) and SBS 1144 (now SF 259) has quietly and quickly passed out of the
House and Senate agricultural committees destined now for a suppressed
debate on the House floor, perhaps in as little as 72 hours, unless we
can wake up the media and our legislators to our OUTRAGE. The
March 2nd, Des Moines Register gave a mere 2 by 6 column to the
globe-shattering takeover by Agribusiness of the seeds of Iowa and the
State of Iowa's usurping of all local rights over seeds.
“What
202 really is is an attempt to prevent, in Iowa, what has happened in
California, where counties have banned the growing of genetically
engineered crops. It is basically a front for the biotech
companies to try to push the biotech agenda and disallow local
control,” said Jeffrey Smith, author of the bestselling book Seeds of
Deception.
This
national State model bill, rolling rapidly across the nation, completes
the final takeover of God's seed by private corporations and gives the
thumbs up to a technology that, in effect, sterilizes the procreative
value of Mother Earth. “The terminator technology,” says Eileen
Dannemann, director of the National Coalition of Organized Women, which
was founded in Iowa in the early 1990’s, “is an audacious move against
all members of all species; all kingdoms; all classes of the female
gender. . . . This technology can only result in a spontaneous
abortion by Mother Nature, depression and scarcity. . . . Having been
cauterized, sterilized and chemicalized was not enough,” Ms. Dannemann
continues. “The corrupted, weak and powerless politicians, the
greedy executives, the ungodly ones, the egotistical scientists and
victimized farmers who have lost the knowledge of true land
stewardship, have relentlessly implanted Mother Nature's womb with
genetically engineered mutant alien life forms.”
Dannemann
calls this travesty “the global agricultural holocaust (GAH) or the
imminent agricultural collapse (IAC). That is . . . GAH and IAC,
the choking sounds of the great Mother as she struggles to survive this
final assault.”
In a
private battle in the agriculture committee, Tuesday, March 1st,
Representative Kuhn introduced an amendment that would define
genetically engineered seeds. The amendment, which would put a definition
in the Iowa State Code, was summarily defeated 14 to 7.
“The State
Code defines all other agriculture seed: hybrid seed, vegetable
seed, weed seed,” explains Rep. Kuhn, but not genetically engineered
seed. Why the resistance and obvious omission? In lieu of a
definition, Mona Bond, the lobbyist for the Biotech Industry, in her
discussion papers, refers to GE seeds simply as It. “How can we
regulate a seed when we can't even define it?” questions Rep. Kuhn.
”To
invest 90% of Iowa's agricultural portfolio in an untested technology
that has already demonstrated risk, like the StarLink debacle, is
irresponsible,” said Rep. Kuhn in his final remarks to the agricultural
committee. He continued, “What would you say about your financial
advisor if he invested 90% of your stock portfolio in one stock and it
crashed?”
URGENT ACTION
*Please call and/or email today, tomorrow, Monday and
Tuesday, the Des Moines Register's assistant managing editor, Randy
Essex, and demand that he cover, on the front page, one of the most historically significant
events in the history of mankind: the takeover of agricultural seed by
agreement between the State, the Federal government and the
agribusiness and biotech industries.
Randy Essex: 515 284-8461
Email: ressex@DMReg.com
*You can
contact your own Iowa legislators at this site, or call in Des Moines
at 515-281-5566. It is best to call them at home due to the
enormous number of e-mails they get with many going un-read.
*You can
also contact your County Board of Supervisors. Their state
organization is lobbying against HF 202, but, locally, many of them are
actually unaware of their imminent loss of power.
Submitted by Larry Hanus of Waterloo.
Saturday, March 5
Willie Nelson Markets Biodiesel Fuel
by
Trish Nelson
on Sat 05 Mar 2005 10:49 AM CST
 Willie Nelson Markets Biodiesel Fuel
jimhightower.com
[There
is a] a clean-burning alternative fuel that Willie Nelson is helping to
market through a new company called Willie Nelson Biodiesel. What is
it? It's essentially vegetable oil, mainly soybean oil, though the used
frying oil from Dunkin Donuts or Sid's Greasy Spoon also works.
ExxonMobil
and the like don't want you knowing this, but if you take veggie oil
and process it slightly to remove the glycerin (which, by the way, is
what soap is made of) – you have a ready-to-go fuel for diesel engines.
Not only
do you get a fuel that is better for your engine at a competitive
price, but biodiesel also is much better for the environment, it can be
an economic boon for America's family farmers, and one more big plus –
we can put "farmers back on the land growing fuel and keep us from
having to start wars for oil."
Rep.
Dennis Kucinich is preparing legislation to help develop this new
biodiesel industry for America. For information, call 202-225-5871.
(click here to read the entire story)
And in a related story:
John Deere in Waterloo to Use Bio-Diesel Fuel
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