Posted on

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK!

Monsanto, leading a self-serving gaggle of monitarly-motivated malevolent mercenaries, is suing California in an effort to jettison science and replace it with a more profitable kid glove treatment of its deadly herbicide, Glyphosate.
To review, Glyphosate is the chief ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, the world’s most commonly used herbicide. Over the past two decades, fully 80% of GE (genetically engineered) crops have been sprayed with deadly weed killer Glyphosate.
The scientific arm of the World Health Organization has determined Glyphosate to be a “likely human carcinogen.” This fact figured in prominently in California’s designation of Glyphosate as a carcinogen.
Alarmingly, studies show 93% of Americans have glyphosate in their bodies (https://livingmaxwell.com/93-percent-americans-glyphosate-u…). Even more worrisome is the fact that Glyphosate – at even the tiniest amounts (measured in parts per Billion) – delivers negative impacts on human health.
Monsanto and cronies legal efforts are designed to replace science with profit-making. No thanks, Monsanto, we’re not buying! Jim

“The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment made the decision in July.

“The agency said Wednesday it followed proper procedures in listing the herbicide and ‘stands by its decision.’

“California’s Proposition 65, a ballot initiative passed in 1986, requires the state to protect drinking water sources ‘from being contaminated with chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.’

“It also requires businesses to warn California users about their chemicals’ dangers…

“Monsanto sued the California agency in 2016 to block glyphosate’s potential listing. The case was dismissed in March, but the seed and chemical company is appealing the ruling.”

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/2017/11/15/iowa-farm-groups-monsanto-sue-california-roundup-glyphosate-cancer-causing-chemical/866446001/

Posted on

KATAHDIN WOODS AND WATERS NATIONAL MONUMENT ‘PARK LOOP ROAD’ NOW CLOSED FOR THE YEAR.

With ponds and soil freezing over now in northern Maine – as well as bouts of snow – the National Park Service has seasonally closed the beautiful ‘Park Loop Road’ in the southern portion of America’s new KWWNM in the Katahdin Valley near Patten and Shin Pond.
One may still access the northern portions of KWWNM – those roads are still open for the time being.
For planning purposes, KWWNM is a little over a 3 hour drive north of Portland, Maine. Exit I-95 at Medway and head up the highway that goes through Grindstone.

https://www.nps.gov/kaww/index.htm

Posted on

THE FIGHT TO PROTECT ORGANIC GOES NATIONWIDE.

Greedy and dishonest corporations are doing their best to crash the organic community and water down tough standards.
The big fight right now is keeping out illegal soil-less Corporate Hydroponic which turns on its head the basic reality that ORGANIC FARMING IS AND MUST EVER BE A SOIL-CENTERED SYSTEM.
Organic farmers and eaters from across the country are building the resistance to PROTECT ORGANIC from corporate fraud.
Please help by signing the petition on our alliance website. Thanks and spread the word! Jim & Megan https://www.keepthesoilinorganic.org/

“Organic food is in danger of losing its meaning, so farmers and activists rallied today to stop corporate interests from destroying the last vestiges of ethical organic farming.
Corporate lobbyists are pushing the National Organic Standards Board to include hydroponic production in the Organic label. While the details can seem esoteric, the implications are already rippling through the food system…

“’For over one hundred years, organic farming has been synonymous with nurturing the soil and thereby providing the success of organic farmers in growing strong, healthy plants and nutritionally superior food. Soil-less, artificial production, regardless of how politically powerful Industrial Hydroponics may be, has no place in honest organic. And it never will’ – Jim Gerritsen, ME organic farmer, Wood Prairie Family Farm; President, Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, Bridgewater.”

http://halalfocus.net/usa-nationwide-rallies-to-fight-for-organic-food/

Posted on

WHY THIS FORMER DELAWARE GOVERNOR URGES ABANDONING TAXPAYER GIVEAWAYS TO CORPORATIONS.

This NY Times opinion piece is directly related to yesterday’s article about the Amazon Mania and its new HQ search.
The issue is this: should precious funds from hard-working taxpayers be TAKEN FROM INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS and used to bribe mega corporations to locate in a certain locality? No, writes former two-term Delaware Governor Jack Markell. And he tells us how to to get there. Jim

“Amazon recently sent state and city officials across the country scrambling to respond to its announcement that it was seeking enticements to build a second headquarters, promising 50,000 new jobs and $5 billion in investment to the winning location. Governments are mobilizing to devise lucrative incentive packages. I know how this works, because I spent eight years supporting these types of incentives as the governor of Delaware.

“Amazon’s public encouragement of a bidding war highlights a competition that state and local governments engage in every day. I became very familiar with this process: A big business promises thousands, hundreds or even dozens of jobs and waits for offers from mayors and governors eager to demonstrate to voters that they are bringing them jobs. In Delaware, our economic development office, with my full approval, was busy calculating direct subsidies to corporations through grants and tax breaks.

“I was as guilty as any elected official at playing this game. But it’s a game that should stop. There’s a better way to compete for business.

“A New York Times investigation in 2012 found that states, counties and cities were handing out more than $80 billion a year in incentives to attract and retain companies. Amazon, for example, has already benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies as it expanded its warehouse network around the country, according to a report last year by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance…

“The solution is straightforward: Congress should institute a federal tax of 100 percent on every dollar a business receives in state or local incentives that are directed specifically to that company. This would not include investments in public infrastructure, work force development or other investments that can attract employers while also providing a significant long-term benefit to taxpayers.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/opinion/incentives-businesses-corporations-giveaways.html

Posted on

MEMO TO DESPERATE CITY PLANNERS: WHEN IT COMES TO AMAZON, BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU HOPE FOR.

The mania over where Amazon will locate its new mega distribution facility is in high gear and has been sparking audacious acts.
One anxious – but hopeful! – Arizona city delivered a huge fifteen-foot-tall cactus to Seattle in the hopes that such a stunt would bring notice of its existence to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
Wiser might be to conduct some due diligence as to just what kind of dubious empire Mr. Bezos has created. This Huff Post piece delves into the inner-Amazon and will be an eye-opener to some. Jim

“One of the wealthiest men in the world is thinking of ways to give back. But he’s still taking from the very people who helped him build his fortune…

“But as Bezos, whose worth now exceeds $80 billion, loosens his pockets, it’s important to put his charitable giving — and the philanthropy of the super-rich — into perspective: Many people worked hard for Bezos to help make him so rich, and he has a record of treating them poorly…

“Amazon’s history of dodging taxes, its mistreatment of workers, and its ruthlessness toward even the smallest competitors have been well documented. It put ambulances outside distribution centers rather than install adequate air conditioning. It broke up a union organizing effort by closing the call center and dismissing everyone who worked there. The New York Times documented its punishing work environment in a front-page exposé. The company’s actions, as Forbes put it, hark back to an earlier time when workers were treated as ‘replaceable cogs in the machine’…

“No wonder Bezos would prefer to turn people’s attention toward philanthropy. It’s nothing new. The Rockefeller family perfected the strategy more than a century ago…

“But as with other multi-billionaires, Bezos should remember that his vast wealth came in part from labor, and he should do more to share that wealth with workers. As the owner of an institution that’s critical to democracy, he should go out of his way to set a tone of progressive stewardship toward employees in all his businesses.

Instead, Bezos has shown that he views his employees as parts in a high-tech machine, that income inequality is someone else’s problem, and that modern corporations owe little more to their employees than a paycheck.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeff-bezos-workers_us_59a7220fe4b07e81d354e6e3

Posted on

NEW ‘TOO BIG TO FEED’ STUDY DOCUMENTS ASTRONOMICAL CORPORATE CONCENTRATION IN FOOD INDUSTRY

This detailed landmark study (http://www.ipes-food.org/…/Rep…/Concentration_FullReport.pdf) by the ‘International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems’ explores “the impacts of mega-mergers, consolidation and concentration of power in the agri-food sector.”
Thankfully, the report contains recommendations for what needs to be done to counter the march towards absolute corporate control of our food system.
As a taste, digest these statistics from the report:
*3 companies supply over 90% of the breeding stock for broilers, laying hens, turkeys and pigs.
*4 firms control 53% to 75% of all animal slaughter, depending on species.
*5 companies have more than half of the farm machinery market; and 3 mega-companies (Dow/DuPont, Bayer/Monsanto, Syngenta/ChemChina/Sinochem) will have over 70% of the agro-chemical industry. Jim

Posted on

MONSANTO MONOTONOUS MANTRA OF BLAMING OTHERS FOR ITS OWN FAILURES KEEPS SCIENTISTS AWAY FROM PROPAGANDA DICAMBA ‘SUMMIT.’

Monsanto’s serial deployment of shopworn excuse ‘All we know for sure at this point is it’s not our fault’ is losing its charm.
Also, attacking the integrity of honest scientists is not a winning technique. Jim

“Monsanto Co invited dozens of weed scientists to a summit this week to win backing for a controversial herbicide but many have declined, threatening the company’s efforts to convince regulators the product is safe to use…

“The company plans to present data at the summit that it says show user error was behind the damage, contrary to academics’ findings that dicamba products can vaporize and move off target under certain conditions in a process known as volatilization…

“Reuters contacted 10 scientists who were invited. Of these, three said they would attend and seven said they would not, for reasons including scheduling conflicts…

“Monsanto’s critiques of experts follows past accusations by farmers and activists that the company improperly influenced science.

“In March, farmers and others suing Monsanto claimed in court filings that Monsanto employees ghostwrote scientific reports that U.S. regulators relied on to determine that glyphosate, a chemical in its Roundup weed killer, did not cause cancer.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pesticides-monsanto/u-s-scientists-to-skip-monsanto-summit-on-controversial-weed-killer-idUSKCN1C13CK

Posted on

THE STATE OF MAINE AS A CASE STUDY IN PROTECTING WATER, AN ASSET OF THE COMMONS.

As a compliment to yesterday’s post about dubious multinational water extractor Nestle’, we offer this excellent essay, “Who Owns Maine Water,” as a case study. It was written eleven years ago by Mainer Jim Wilfong. http://www.onthecommons.org/who-owns-maines-water…
Jim Wilfong has had a lifelong selfless commitment of service to the public interest. He has been Maine’s premier water champion for many, many years. Jim is our friend and a former Maine Legislator who lives in the western Maine town of Stowe – smack dab in the center of Maine’s water extraction fight. Jim & Megan

“In 2003, I accompanied a small business agricultural client on a trip down to East Texas to visit one of his suppliers. East Texas is the site of the largest oil discovery in the lower 48 states. Over nine billion barrels have been extracted from it. We had time to visit an oil museum in the town of Kilgore. Our tour guide told us that in 1932, East Texas crude oil sold for 10 cents a barrel, and water was selling for one dollar per barrel. Imagine, water was ten times more expensive than oil!

“On our way back to Maine, my Aroostook County client and I discussed a few compelling facts: water was more expensive than wine, beer and milk; it takes 1000 tons of water to raise one ton of grain; and in the future, with a growing world population, fresh water will be in short supply. My client and I agreed that those who control fresh water would control life as we now know it. It became clear to me that we should regard Maine’s water as Maine’s oil. I needed to know more. I needed to know if the State of Maine, in its role as trustee for the citizens of Maine, was actually protecting Maine’s fresh water supply.”

Posted on

RECORD WARMTH IN RECENT DAYS IN NORTHERN MAINE.

Recent daytime highs have been 20-30oF higher than what we’re used to this time of year in Northern Maine. Read some of the records set in this article from the NOAA Weather Office in Caribou.
Because of the heat we’ve been limiting our potato harvesting to mornings. By ending at noon we’re not putting away potatoes holding too much field heat.
Showers are expected tonight and after that, cooler temperatures are ahead in the forecast. Jim

http://www.weather.gov/car/RecordSeptemberWarmth