If you ever wanted to be a hero and save the world, today is the day to do it.

You don’t need a cape, a pair of snazzy tights, or magnificent powers to be a superhero.

You just need to get out there and join your nearest March Against Monsanto, the bioterrorist company that is trying to take over the world’s food supply.

By uniting and standing together, whatever our political values, whatever our race or sexual orientation, whatever our differences, we can build a powerful momentum that can’t be stopped.

Yesterday, the US Congress betrayed America again by voting that individual states could not demand the labeling of GMOs.

Today, let Congress and the whole world know how you feel about the toxins that line our grocery store shelves, and about who the biggest culprit is, Monsanto.

As for us, we’ve made our t-shirts and our signs.  I’m just about to go make our picnic lunch and fill some water bottles.  We are driving 3 hours and then, my children and I will make our stand.  I hope that you will too.

450 Marches in over 55 Countries. Pick one and join over 2 million Marchers. Help to make this whisper of resistance into a roar that cannot be ignored.

Join a March Against Monsanto near you today!

RT reported Wednesday on a bizarre spate of respiratory illnesses in Alabama, two resulting in death.

A mysterious respiratory illness has claimed the lives of two people in southeast Alabama, and caused five other hospitalizations. The illness has left health officials baffled, who have no idea what this disease is or where it originated.

The mysterious illness has sickened its victims with flu-like symptoms, including a shortness of breath, fever, and coughing. Of the seven people who were hospitalized with the new disease, two have died, Alabama Department of Public Health spokeswoman Mary McIntyre told AP.

While the cause is currently unknown, it’s interesting to note that Southeastern Alabama’s cotton fields are in full bloom this time of year – and that some of these crops are Bt cotton. Bt cotton is a genetically modified cotton that contains a Bacillus thuringiensis (or Bt) pesticide within the plant.

There is no proof that this is related to the mysterious illnesses in Alabama, however, history shows us that serious illnesses occurred in India wherever Bt cotton was grown.

When Monsanto’s cotton was planted in India, two stories were presented.

The Institute for Responsible Technology reported :

Workers exposed to Bt cotton developed allergies

1. Agricultural laborers in six villages who picked or loaded Bt cotton reported reactions of the skin, eyes and upper respiratory tract.
2. Some laborers required hospitalization.
3. Employees at a cotton gin factory take antihistamines everyday.
4. One doctor treated about 250 cotton laborers

 Sheep died after grazing in Bt cotton fields

1. After the cotton harvest in parts of India, sheep herds grazed continuously on Bt cotton plants.
2. Reports from four villages revealed that about 25% of the sheep died within a week.
3. Post mortem studies suggest a toxic reaction.

If you are to believe the Monsanto PR folks, however, their seeds and Indian farms were a match made in heaven.  They even created a page on their website to celebrate ten years of partnership and to explain how Bt cotton improved the farmers’ standards of living:

Bollgard has been Indian farmers’ pragati ka saathi (partner in progress), as it has increasingly helped Bt cotton farmers enjoy a higher standard of living. With the combination of higher yields and reduced pesticide costs, India’s cotton farmers have increased their incomes. And with this additional money, they are able to purchase vehicles, provide education for their children, afford better housing for their families and purchase farm equipment. Additionally, because these farmers have additional income, they are able to put resources back into their villages’ economies.  Therefore, villages where farmers are planting Bt cotton have seen improvements in access to services, such as telephone systems, electricity, drinking water, better internet connectivity, banking services, and better access to markets – things many around the world take for granted.

Despite Monsanto’s glowing description of the partnership, cotton farmers in India began to commit suicide at a rate unheard of previously, as the crops failed and they could not pay their debts to Monsanto.  Anthony Gucciardi of Natural Society wrote:

According to the most recent figures (provided by the New York University School of Law), 17,638 Indian farmers committed suicide in 2009 — about one death every 30 minutes. In 2008, the Daily Mail labeled the continual and disturbing suicide spree as ‘The GM (genetically modified) Genocide’. Due to failing harvests and inflated prices that bankrupt the poor farmers, struggling Indian farmers began to kill themselves. Oftentimes, they would commit the act by drinking the very same insecticide that Monsanto supplied them with — a gruesome testament to the extent in which Monsanto has wrecked the lives of independent and traditional farmers.

To further add backing to the tragedy, the rate of Indian farmer suicides massively increased since the introduction of Monsanto’s Bt cotton in 2002. It is no wonder that a large percentage of farmers who take their own lives are cotton farmers, the demographic that is thought to be among the most impacted…

…Many families are now ruined thanks to the mass suicides, and are left to economic ruin and must struggle to fight off starvation.

Regardless of PR efforts to debunk claims that the Indian farmer’s were suffering due to Monsanto’s practices, the Indian government last year cancelled the cotton license with Monsanto, citing unfair trading practices.  ”We have given fair chance to the company and all charges of unfair trade practice have been proved,” says Sudam Adsule, the director of inputs and quality control for Maharashtra, India’s biggest industrial region, in the ENS article. “Hence, under the existing cotton seed act, we have taken action and it can’t be revoked.”

This year, Monsanto introduced 3 new varieties of “Deltapine” cotton, with 180 growers testing them out.  This means that the communities around these growers are unwitting lab rats in Monsanto’s latest experiment.

Are the mystery illness victims casualties of this current experiment? If so, proving it will be difficult and because of the Monsanto Protection Act, it is unlikely that, even if proven,  any penalty or charges will ever be forthcoming against the company.

The Monsanto Company likes to proclaim that they are the good guys, here to selflessly feed the world, help with sustainable agriculture, and, as if those lofty goals are not enough, champion human rights across the globe.  All you have to do is look at their commitments page to see how worthy they are of a shiny corporate halo:

At the heart of Monsanto is a very clear and principled code of conduct – one we expect all employees, contractors and management to live by every day. We operate under a genuine value system—our pledge—that demonstrates integrity, respect, ethical behavior, perspective and honesty as a foundation for everything we do.

A key part of fulfilling the promise of our value system is by engaging our communities in a significant and positive manner. Not only do we work hard to support the family farmer in a variety of ways, but we also:

• provide extensive educational programs – particularly in science and agriculture – for students around the world

• fund numerous research grants for graduate students

• work in partnership with government bodies, non-profit agencies and advocacy groups to make agriculture more sustainable

If you happen to have your hip-wader boots on, you can delve even further into their purported goodness by reading, in it’s entirety, The Monsanto Pledge:

The Monsanto Pledge is our commitment to how we do business. It is a declaration that compels us to listen more, to consider our actions and their impact broadly, and to lead responsibly. It helps us to convert our values into actions, and to make clear who we are and what we champion.

At the risk of your breakfast, click HERE to learn more about Monsanto’s commitment to integrity, dialogue, transparency, sharing, benefits, respect, acting as owners to achieve results, and creating a great place to work.

Monsanto’s CEO, Hugh Grant, has long been of the opinion that the company is deeply misunderstood.

“From his point of view, the company is working on the side of angels, helping to create commodity crops to feed today’s population and the 2 billion more people who might occupy the planet by 2030. He is proud that Monsanto scientists were among the first to have a patented genetically modified plant on the market—Roundup Ready soybeans were introduced in 1996—and he is excited about new efforts to bioengineer wheat and vegetables, too, as well as the next generation of super beans and corn.” (source)

So why does such a noble, benevolent company require the services of the most notorious mercenary army of modern times?  Why did Monsanto dish out half a million dollars to an arm of Blackwater called Total Intelligence (which now operates under the acronym OODA)?

What is Blackwater?

Blackwater is now known as Academi.  According to Wikipedia, the company:

“…previously known as Xe Services LLC, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide—is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark. Academi is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department’s three private security contractors. Academi provided diplomatic security services in Iraq to the United States federal government on a contractual basis.  Academi also has a research and development wing that was responsible for developing the Grizzly APC along with other military technology. The company’s headquarters is located in Arlington County, Virginia.”

They have made numerous attempts to rebrand their hit squads, changing the company name (Xe and Academi) and creating subsidiaries (Total Intelligence, The Terrorism Research Center, and Greystone, to name a few).  They have reportedly done business under the names of at least 30 shell companies.  Because of Despite their tarnished reputation gained from, for one example, gunning down civilians, in 2010, CIA head Leon Panetta awarded them a classified $100 million dollar security contract.

How are Blackwater and Monsanto connected?

While rumor had it that Monsanto had actually purchased Blackwater, that is not the case. Monsanto contracted with the mercenary group for “security services”.  In 2010, an illuminating report called Blackwater’s Black Ops, written by Jeremy Scahill, of The Nation, revealed that Monsanto had given a contract worth up to half a million dollars to Blackwater.

According to internal Total Intelligence communications, biotech giant Monsanto—the world’s largest supplier of genetically modified seeds—hired the firm in 2008–09. The relationship between the two companies appears to have been solidified in January 2008 when Total Intelligence chair Cofer Black traveled to Zurich to meet with Kevin Wilson, Monsanto’s security manager for global issues.

After the meeting in Zurich, Black sent an e-mail to other Blackwater executives, including to Prince and Prado at their Blackwater e-mail addresses. Black wrote that Wilson “understands that we can span collection from internet, to reach out, to boots on the ground on legit basis protecting the Monsanto [brand] name…. Ahead of the curve info and insight/heads up is what he is looking for.” Black added that Total Intelligence “would develop into acting as intel arm of Monsanto.” Black also noted that Monsanto was concerned about animal rights activists and that they discussed how Blackwater “could have our person(s) actually join [activist] group(s) legally.” Black wrote that initial payments to Total Intelligence would be paid out of Monsanto’s “generous protection budget” but would eventually become a line item in the company’s annual budget. He estimated the potential payments to Total Intelligence at between $100,000 and $500,000. According to documents, Monsanto paid Total Intelligence $127,000 in 2008 and $105,000 in 2009.

Reached by telephone and asked about the meeting with Black in Zurich, Monsanto’s Wilson initially said, “I’m not going to discuss it with you.” In a subsequent e-mail to The Nation, Wilson confirmed he met Black in Zurich and that Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and worked with the company until early 2010. He denied that he and Black discussed infiltrating animal rights groups, stating “there was no such discussion.” He claimed that Total Intelligence only provided Monsanto “with reports about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information. The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites.” Wilson asserted that Black told him Total Intelligence was “a completely separate entity from Blackwater.”

How does this affect the current wave of activism against Monsanto?

Although there is no clear evidence that Monsanto and Blackwater are working together against current activists, a recent spate of odd activity indicates that Monsanto is taking surreptitious action against the movement, whether on their own or through the use of “contractors”.    They have engaged in a social media war against activists.  Mysterious things have been occurring on the social networks: posts have disappeared, some posts are hidden from the timelines of readers, and trolls abound on pages promoting this weekend’s March Against Monsanto, happening worldwide on May 25.

After I wrote the article yesterday regarding the odd issues with social media, I was flooded with emails and comments from readers, verifying they, too, had difficulty sharing information related to the March.  Accounts had been banned and blocked by Facebook. Videos had vanished from Youtube.  I even heard from the editor of From the Trenches World Report, who had intercepted a comment that was allegedly from me, saying that the March had been cancelled.

Monsanto has a history of hiring an unscrupulous mercenary army.  Be aware during this weekend’s activism that agent provocateurs may be afoot, particularly at the larger events.  Don’t rise to the bait of those who would try to deflect protesters from their goal. The goal remains clear – we are there to peacefully spread awareness about Monsanto and about the health and environmental hazards of GMOs.  Around the world, the movement for real food has created an enormous global awakening.  Through the power of social media and alternative news, we are cresting a wave with this event.  We must maintain our unity and momentum, and stay focused on the goal, because with every attack made against us, we may be reassured that Monsanto is on the run.

One of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of the grass roots food freedom fight is social media.  Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and many more networks allow people to instantly connect and provide a platform for information to be passed on exponentially. Facebook and Google are the two biggest websites in the entire world, and their reach is nearly unlimited.

Last week, the Monsanto Company made it very clear that they were under the gun via social media, and they went on the defense, weakly claiming that those who object with their toxic seeds and deadly farming methods were “elitist,”  thereby attempting to undermine us as snobbish people who don’t see the big picture and who don’t care about world hunger.

This week, they’ve upped their game.  Mysterious things have been occurring on the social networks: posts have disappeared, some posts are hidden from the timelines of readers, and trolls abound on pages promoting this weekend’s March Against Monsanto, happening worldwide on May 25.

Like any cornered rat, the leviathan seed company can see the very large threat coming their way, and it appears that they are pulling out all the stops to fight as dirty as they can.  But the movement against the company is so powerful, that despite paid-off politicians and billions of dollars in the war chest, Monsanto knows that they’ve been outmatched.  What we’re seeing now are the last, desperate attempts to keep the general public from learning about the manmade global disaster that was created by Monsanto.

On my own page, I found an interesting anomaly.  I posted this yesterday:

As the mercury in the thermometer starts to climb, you may be looking for different ways to keep your home a bit cooler without an exponential increase in your electric bill. That battle starts in the kitchen.

The one thing that adds the most ambient heat is cooking.  Your choice of cooking methods can greatly increase the warmth that your air conditioner must then overcome.  And if you have no air conditioner, it can make your home humid, muggy and miserable.

Now is the time to look to some different kitchen strategies.  We can look back in history for a guideline, based on what our pioneer ancestors ate.  Foods were lighter and required less cooking, since nearly all cooking was done on a wood-burning stove that would have made the house unbearable. As well, many people set up summer kitchens, consisting of either a separate building to keep the main house cooler, or an outdoor fireplace.  We can take our cues from them and adapt their diets to our modern lifestyles.

1. Change your eating habits with the thermometer. As the weather warms up, the harvest from your garden will increase.  Most summer vegetables require little, if any, cooking, and can generally be quickly steamed to perfection on the stove top.  Look for easy, no-cook recipes and fast non-processed foods.
2. Break out the kitchen gadgets.  Instead of firing up the oven,  or cooking something for hours on the stove top, pull out those dusty, seldom-used kitchen gadgets.  Pressure cookers, toaster ovens, counter top grills, and crock pots can all make meals without heating up the house. If I am going to be gone for the day, I often put something in the crock pot for a nice meal to welcome us home.  (I’ve included one of our favorite recipes below.)  The low heat of the crock pot will not affect the temperature in your home, and it’s a great way to tenderize a less expensive cut of meat, to which you can add some fresh veggie sides at dinner time.  Skip the roasting and baking during the summer.
3. Always make enough to have leftovers.  Leftovers are a goldmine for speedy future meals.  They generally require just a quick heat in the toaster oven or on the stove top, and some foods are delicious when compiled into a cold salad or rolled up in a flatbread.
4. Take it outside.  Use a barbecue, a sun oven or an outdoor fireplace to cook your meals in the summer, keeping all of the cooking heat outdoors.  If you are grilling meat outdoors, make extra to add some quick protein to your salads.
5. Focus on local abundance.  Even if you don’t have a garden, you can still have delicious local produce.  Hit your farmer’s market and plan your menus around the seasonal goodness found there. (Find farmers and markets in your area HERE!) Enjoy summer fruits and vegetables like berries, cucumbers, peaches, tomatoes, and much more!  None of these requires much, if any, cooking time.  Just wash and eat!
6. Try different protein options.  Look for delicious plant-based sources of protein.  Beans picked fresh from the garden won’t require nearly as much cooking time as the dry ones sitting in your pantry.  If you consume animal products, look for quick-cooking proteins like fish, chicken cut into small pieces, and eggs.  Save large oven-baked roasts for winter fare, or at the least, use an alternative cooking method.
7. Enjoy the health benefits of eating seasonally.   Seasonal foods provide you with exactly what you need at different times of the year.  For example, in the spring, those tender leafy sprigs like lettuce, kale, peas and pea shoots, and asparagus provide vitamins K and folate, which support blood health, bone health, and cell repair.  The cool delicate foods are light, low in calories, and rejuvenating to the body as you gear up for the upcoming warm weather.  Feasting on these waistline friendly foods is a great way to get rid of that  insulating layer of fat that you may have acquired during the winter.
8. You’ll save money in more ways than one.  Not only will your electric bill be reduced by adjusting your summer eating habits, but so will your grocery bill.  Seasonal foods are less expensive by nature of their abundance at a given time.  Farmers MUST sell them quickly or they’ll spoil.  So you can often purchase them in large quantities at rock bottom prices. And if they come directly from your garden, it’s even better for your wallet!

*****

Crock Pot Con Carne

As promised above, here’s a great summer recipe that you can make in your crock pot.  Serve your con carne on a bed of rice or in soft tortillas.  Top it with sour cream or plain yogurt, and garden fresh chopped lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds beef or pork roast, or 2 pounds of skinless, boneless chicken
• 4 cups of diced tomatoes
• 1 diced bell pepper
• 1 finely minced onion
• ¼ cup of fresh cilantro or 2 tbsp dried cilantro or 2 tbsp parsley
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 4 tbsp of chili powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp of brown sugar

Directions

1. In the crock pot, combine all ingredients except the roast.
2. Add the roast to the crock pot, being sure to submerge the meat completely.
3. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
4. Remove the meat from the crock pot and use two forks to shred it.
5. Place the meat back into the liquid in the pot and stir it together.  Allow it to sit, uncovered, for 10 minutes before serving.

The establishment has made no secret of the fact that they are not very impressed with Adam Kokesh’s planned Open Carry March on Washington DC this coming July 4.

But yesterday the situation devolved to a new low when Kokesh was arrested for….doing nothing.

The controversial talk-radio host of Adam Vs. the Man has been made a political prisoner.

A “political prisoner” is defined as:

A person who has been imprisoned for holding or advocating dissenting political views.

source

Regardless of your personal beliefs on whether marijuana should be legalized, if you believe that freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, what happened at the May 18 “Smoke Down Prohibition” event in Philadelphia is a clear-cut violation of Kokesh’s rights.  While other people there were actually breaking the law and smoking in an act of civil disobedience, Kokesh was not – he was simply speaking.

Adam Kokesh is being charged with resisting arrest…Check out the video – all I see is a man with his hands up (and no marijuana in those hands either).  You don’t have to be an expert on the law to see that he went with the officers peacefully.

Does this mean that only popular opinions are protected by the Constitution?  Does this mean that the Constitution is no longer in effect for those who disagree with the current laws?  Or is this something more sinister? Perhaps an attempt to prevent Kokesh’s planned march on July 4 for occurring?

According to his Facebook page, which is being updated by friends, Adam Kokesh is being held in a federal jail until he can appear before a judge on Monday.  And things may get worse for him – watch the first 40 seconds of this video – it is the same as the video above, but a closer shot – do you see someone’s hand at Adam’s waist?  Are they planting “evidence”?  Don’t be surprised if you hear he had all manner of illegal substances in his possession – think critically because the information will be presented in the mainstream to paint the picture that the PTB want you to see, and this picture will very likely be at odds with the truth.

Activism is getting a lot more dangerous. Expect to see an example made out of Adam Kokesh.  The Powers That Be would like to quell the Open Carry March before it happens and locking up the driving force for that protest is a clear cut way to do so.  If we allow this to happen by doing nothing, then we are just as bad as the police who are “just following orders” who arrested him without cause and just as bad as the system that is charging him with resisting arrest despite video evidence that he did no such thing. Doing absolutely nothing is as dangerous an attack on freedom as the attacks being made by the government itself.

As a strategic move by the government, this one is a little better thought out than others because of the nature of the protest.  Many conservatives that would be behind a demonstration for the Second Amendment might be offended by a demonstration in which the protesters smoke pot.  You have to see through that to what this really is.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the use of marijuana other than as a way to present Adam Kokesh as distasteful to those who have more conservative values.  This is an effort to publicly silence those who resist and an attempt to make an example out of Kokesh to deter others from resisting.

So, what can you do about this?

• Share information.  The power of social media is an incredible thing.  Use email, Twitter, Facebook, and any other platform that you have to help you share this information with others.
• If you use Facebook, “like” Adam Kokesh’s page – it is being frequently updated by his supporters.  They are publishing pertinent phone numbers and giving suggestions for activism.
• Don’t let actions like this silence you.  The entire purpose of this is to make people afraid to speak out against the government.  But they can’t silence all of us.  You can allow this to frighten you into submission or you can allow it to motivate you into resistance.

The Powers That Be have taken a gamble with this arrest. The results could go one of two ways. They know that those who love freedom are basically good, moral people.  None of us wants to be arrested or disappeared into the depths of a federal detainment facility.  They’re counting on that to keep us quiet.  Alternatively, this might just cause a groundswell of resistance.

Make their gamble backfire.  Help resistance to grow exponentially by sharing information about this unconstitutional act.  Keep in mind that this has trampled on the right to free speech, the right to peaceful assembly, and possibly, the right to due process.  Adam Kokesh is being held as a political prisoner to teach us all a lesson and to enforce their desire that we all be peaceful sheep to be herded along.  If Adam Kokesh can be arrested for doing nothing more than disagreeing with the establishment, then so can you.

Think about the many outrages against personal freedoms in past years: big things like the Presidential and Congressional assaults on the Bill of Rights, Big Brother style surveillance, and the NDAA, down to simple things like people having their vegetable gardens forcibly ripped out of their front yards or going to jail for having the audacity to harvest and use rainwater.

This is NOT about the legalization of marijuana. This is about something we can all get behind – the legalization of freedom.

]]> http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/adam-kokesh-is-a-political-prisoner-05192013/feed 19 http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/monsanto-hides-behind-cries-of-elitist-in-response-to-tremendous-global-social-media-movement-and-impending-day-of-protest-05162013 http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/monsanto-hides-behind-cries-of-elitist-in-response-to-tremendous-global-social-media-movement-and-impending-day-of-protest-05162013#comments Thu, 16 May 2013 21:52:20 +0000 Daisy Luther http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/?p=1452 Read the Rest...]]>

Monsanto made a weak strike back in the mainstream media against the burgeoning grass roots movement that is trying to bring the leviathan company down.

Monsanto is attempting to marginalize opponents while polishing their own dingy reputation.  “There is this strange kind of reverse elitism: If I’m going to do this, then everything else shouldn’t exist,” said Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant. “There is space in the supermarket shelf for all of us.”

The power of social media has never been more evident, as it has brought to light the unsavory science behind Monsanto, as well as their incestuous ties with the FDA, the Supreme Court, and the US government.  There is a new public awareness about genetically modified organisms that the company would prefer to have silenced. No one with a Facebook account can escape the facts that are being shared, exponentially, across the globe.

Grant said in a rather condescending interview:

Some people lose sight of the bigger global picture, the CEO said.

“This place is getting busier and more crowded,” Grant said. “As long as you’ve got money in your back pocket and you drive your station wagon to the supermarket on weekends, then it’s out of sight out of mind, so far.”

Opponents on social media are capitalizing on an increased public interest in how their food is produced, Grant said.

“And the sad piece of this is, it ends up either or,” Grant said. “So you get conventional agriculture or broad scale or however you define it, and organic. I think we’re going to look back on this period and say, ‘How on earth did that ever become the fight that it became.’”

“In the U.S., we have a system that works,” Grant said. (Bloomberg)

And why, exactly does that system work?

Perhaps it is the “elitism” displayed by Monsanto as it pads the pockets of US Congressmen and other elected officials.  Perhaps it is the “elitism” of being beyond the law and actually writing the text of their own protection acts.  Perhaps it is even the simple “elitism” of the employees of Monsanto, who are served organic food in the company cafeterias.

If Monsanto is so proud of their genetically modified produce, then why do they fight so hard against attempts to label it as such?

This is a blatant attempt to disparage a movement that has taken on a life of its own. On May 25, across the globe, people who believe that we should have the right to healthy, non-toxic food, or at the very least, LABELS, will unite to March Against Monsanto.  Hundreds of thousands of people are fans of Facebook pages that are organizing the protests.  Citizens intend to deploy all over the world to protest Monsanto and everything it stands for.  People from many diverse political backgrounds, different religions, and varying belief systems will all be unifying for one cause – to save humanity from this company that personifies evil while trying to display a halo of benevolence.

As for Monsanto’s claims that we, who stand against them, are elitist because we can “afford organics” – we can’t.  Many of us have to do without other things in order to pay for the few items on the market that are still safe to eat.  We are willing to do that because we understand that not only are the food products unsafe, but the farming methods are detrimental to the environment.  We know that these short-term “solutions” are causing long-term problems.  If the billions of dollars that Monsanto spends on researching ways to make Frankenfood and buying off politicians were instead invested in education, sustainable farming methods, and access to water, the world would be a lot better fed.

In a world run by money, social media may be the free weapon that turns the tide on this war against humanity.  Clearly the Monsanto Company can see that, and they are on the attack.

Find the March nearest you via Facebook.  Come on out – millions of us will be there!

Have you ever read about a survival scenario where a kidnapping victim, a forgotten prisoner,  or lost hiker was forced to choke down insects in order to survive?  Did it sound repulsive? Demeaning? Even sub-human?

Well, welcome your life if the United Nations has anything to do with it.

Our “friends” at the United Nations have released a report that promises a solution to world hunger:   Edible insects: Future prospects for food and feed security.

According to an article about the report that appeared on Time.com, the UN is

…asking us to consider how underutilized insects are as potential food for livestock, or the ways insect consumption could benefit the environment. The original report notes that insects’ feed conversion rate is fairly high (we’d get more for less, in other words), they could be raised on “organic side-streams” like human/animal waste, they emit fewer greenhouse gases and ammonia than animals like cattle and pigs, and they need much less water than the latter.”

If you needed more evidence that the “elite” and those in charge at the UN think of the rest of us as somewhat lesser beings, this is it.  Do you think that Bill and Melinda Gates will be sending their housekeeper to the market to pick up a basket of fresh caterpillars for dinner?  Will baked beetles be on the menu at the Rothschild estate?  Will the Obama children have bug salad sandwiches in their lunch boxes when they go to school?

The UN’s  Food and Agriculture Organization touts another environmental benefit of “farming” insects – they eat poop.

Aside from their nutritional value, farming insects could considerably benefit the environment. According to the FAO, insects emit fewer greenhouse gases and need less land or water than cattle when farmed.

As cold-blooded creatures they are “very efficient” in converting feed to protein, needing 12 times less feed than cattle in order to produce the same amount. They also feed on human and animal waste, and can transform this into protein. (source)

This suggestion that everyday people be reduced to consuming insects that are fed excrement is part of the hijacked green movement, cloaked under the guise of “sustainable development”. World leaders and fake environmental groups are doctoring science and conveying propaganda through tools like the media and the school systems.  The development that is going to be sustained with their plan is not the development of everyday people like you and me.  It is not the development of struggling families who don’t even have clean water to drink.  It is the development of the “elite” and their heirs.

The thing that is so insidious about the UN is that they cloak their motives in an air of benevolence.  They garner the whole-hearted support of the unaware by their word choices, their propaganda, and their warm politically correct facade. The people of the world are being willingly, happily led off a cliff, while being lulled by the UN Scheherazade. (learn more about the UN)

Through Agenda 21 and the United Nations, the  ”elite” are attempting to brainwash the entire world to believe that allowing them to control the resources of the earth will be in our best interest. I would be willing to bet that grass-fed beef and free range chickens will still make their way to the groaning banquet tables of the wealthy.

Clearly, indigenous people around the world have consumed insects as part of their diet. However, do you believe they farm those insects and purposely feed them feces?  There is an enormous difference between the UN’s proposition and the foraging methods that are employed by hunter-gatherers across the globe.

If the United Nations was truly concerned about the well-being and health of the hungry people of the world, wouldn’t they be teaching sustainable farming methods?  Wouldn’t they be promoting urban gardening, micro-livestock, and handing out heirloom seed packets?  Wouldn’t they be cracking down on companies like Monsanto and Dow, who are poisoning much of the farmland of the world with their toxic seeds and pesticides? This is pure Agenda 21 “resource management” and the purpose is to remove more resources from the hands of the poor and reallocate them to the wealthy.

If you are truly worried about world hunger, the answer is teaching food self-sufficiency.  It is diverting gray water to the garden. It is learning to save seeds from one season to the next. It is using farming methods that feed your soil.  It is the avoidance of toxic chemicals. It is urban farming techniques.  It is learning how to work with one’s specific environment.  It is the means to harvest  and store water from multiple sources. It is true education, not brainwashing behind a disguise of benevolence, land grabs, and the presentation of dehumanizing options in a trendy new light.

Cancer.

Just the mention of the word causes an immediate wave of fear through young and old, rich and poor, men and women.   The disease is no respecter of persons.

How far would you go to lower your risk of cancer?

If you are one of a growing number of women, you might go as far as to have a preventative double mastectomy.

Today the media is applauding the “medical choice” of Angelina Jolie, who has joined celebrities Sharon Osbourne and Miss America contestant Allyn Rose in having both of her healthy breasts removed.  Much is being discussed about her “bravery” in undergoing this procedure “proactively”.

I’m personally appalled by this action, and I know my opinion won’t be a popular one.  Particularly in the case of Angelina Jolie, I am disturbed, because of the influence she has.  She is a beautiful woman, a very popular celebrity, and a UN ambassador.  Her influence is broad – many people respect her activism, and for that reason, I am fearful that many other women will consider this to be a wise course of action.

Mutilating your healthy body by undergoing a series of traumatic, invasive surgeries does not sound like good preventative care to me.  It sounds like a very expensive, self-mutilating reaction to tests that say you “might” have a health issue in the future. No matter what the percentages are that you could develop cancer in the future, the fact remains that you are removing parts of your body that are currently healthy.

Making a decision like this is a matter of personal choice and I am not writing this to deny that Angelina Jolie has the right to opt for this surgery on her own body. I’m writing this because I believe that there are other options that should be explored first. I’m writing this because cancer has become a vehicle of profit.

Breast cancer has become a multi-billion dollar industry, with all of the “Think Pink” products available in stores, the Run for the Cure races, and the celebrity pleas for donations.  An estimated $6 billion per year has been collected from the well-meaning purchasers of all that pink gear and only a small portion of it has actually made its way to the researchers.

Now we can add voluntary surgery to the profit side.  The scare tactics from the “Think Pink” crowd have hysteria over this terrible disease at a fever pitch.  Throw in a few beautiful people having their bodies mutilated “preventively” and easily influenced, frightened women will hop on-board.

All of this has to do with normalizing something that should be anything but normal.  Cancerous tumors growing inside your body should not be a common thing, but these days, it is.

The President’s Cancer Panel, a three-person panel that reports to the U.S. president on the National Cancer Program calculated that 41% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetimes.  If you’re male, the chances are 1 in 2 that you will be diagnosed with some type of cancer, and women have a 1 in 3 chance of hearing the diagnosis.

A Global Cancer Statistics for 2011 study names cancer as the #1 killer in the western world and #2 in developing countries.

In 2000, prominent holistic researcher and practitioner Burton Goldberg addressed the US Senate regarding the increased incidence of cancer:

“A century ago, one in 33 people had cancer; today, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), it is more than one in three, and growing. When I was born in 1926, cancer was the tenth leading cause of death among children – now I am 73 and it is second. No other health topic today has the urgency of cancer because no other health condition is escalating as fast.”

The outlook is not improving, either. Despite the billions spent on cancer research, the World Health Organization predicts that deaths from cancer will DOUBLE by the year 2030.

Big Pharma, Big Agri and Big Business are getting rich off of poisoning Americans.

Instead of having a “preventative surgery” what if we tried to prevent cancer by reducing the exposure to toxins that cause cancer?  Whether or not you have the genetic markers for a disease, there are still many things that you can do to keep that disease from developing that do not include voluntary amputations.

There are steps you can take to limit your exposure to the toxins in our environment that  are proven to cause cancer.  When you do, be prepared for many people to consider your actions extreme. Interestingly enough, some of those very same people are the ones applauding the drastic measures of voluntary double mastectomies. I can’t tell you how many times I have watched people roll their eyes or scoff when I refuse to partake in things that are hazardous.  Somehow, drinking water from my own BPA-free water bottle is considered to be more extreme than someone’s “brave choice” of  having body parts removed.  Somehow, not taking my children to McDonald’s or feeding them hot-dogs and Doritos is “mean”. Making our body care products and cleaning products from wholesome, non-toxic ingredients is “silly”.

People can laugh all they want.  They can consider me dramatic and hysterical.  I am making my own “brave choice” to take care of my family by reducing our exposure to everyday carcinogens.

Be truly proactive. Commit yourself to your health and the health of your family by identifying the dangers and then go against the current of popular opinion to avoid these perils. Don’t think pink, think green.

• Purchase organic foods as often as possible.  GMOs and pesticides are proven carcinogens.
• Load your plate with colorful antioxidants.  Opt for organic versions of foods like berries, colorful veggies, dark chocolate, and coffee, to name a few, are loaded with powerful, cancer-fighting antioxidants.
• Avoid processed foods. Many of the additives and preservatives featured abundantly in North America are banned in other countries precisely because of the health risks they represent.
• Avoid artificial sweeteners. Aspartame, for example, is a known carcinogen that breaks down into formaldehyde in the human body.
• Refuse vaccines. Many vaccines contain mercury, another known carcinogen.  By the age of two, if a child has received all of the recommended vaccines, he or she has received 2,370 times the “allowable safe limit” for mercury (if there is such a thing as a safe level of poison).
• Maintain a healthy body weight. Obesity has been linked to increased risks of cancers of the esophagus, breast, endometrium, uterus, colon and rectum, kidney, pancreas, thyroid, gallbladder, and possibly other types.
• Exercise daily.
• Don’t smoke.
• Consume alcohol only in moderation.
• Limit the use of plastic in your home. BPA or Bisphenol-A are petrochemical plastics that are a major component of many water bottles, lines the inside of canned goods, and makes up the hard material of many reusable food containers, including some brands of baby bottles.
• Select personal care products that do not contain petrochemicals. Many cosmetics and other health and beauty aids contain petrochemicals. The danger of this is their byproduct, 1,4-dioxane, a proven carcinogen.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies dioxane as a probable human carcinogen California state law has classified dioxane to cause cancer. Animal studies in rats suggest that the greatest health risk is associated with inhalation of vapors.
• Opt for natural, biodegradable food grade cleaning products. According to the website Natural Pure Organics, the average household contains up to 25 gallons of toxic materials, most of which are in cleaning products.  When you use these cleaners, they linger in the air and on the surfaces, increasing your exposure to carcinogens as you inhale the toxins into your lungs or absorb them through your skin.

Instead of having a life-altering surgery, take steps to rid your environment of as many cancer-causing toxins as possible.  We are breathing them in, eating them, and rubbing them on our skin. While changing your lifestyle is not a guarantee against cancer, neither is surgery.

Be radical.  Make the “brave choice” of living a clean life and avoiding toxins.

Making a trip to the grocery store these days is like running a gauntlet.  From one side you are assaulted by food-like substances in brightly labeled packages, some even touting exaggerated health benefits from the toxins within.  From the other side, you are gouged and poked by cleverly marketed “natural” foods that are 4 times the price of conventional foods.  When you change directions to avoid one onslaught, you are immediately attacked by the other.

We’re at war and the grocery store is the battlefield.

That war has been declared on us by multiple enemies with unlimited budgets, such as Monsanto, Big Pharma, Big Agri and and Big Food.  What’s even worse is that they are aided and abetted by their allies at the FDA and the US Congress, administrations peopled by those who are actually supposed to be the gatekeepers that protect us from this.

What’s a frugal whole food shopper to do?

Lots of people write to me and say, “I’d love to eat the way you do, but I can barely afford regular groceries. There’s no way I could afford all that healthy stuff.”

Good food might be expensive, but as the saying goes, have you checked out the price of illness lately?

If you don’t believe you can afford to eat healthfully, consider the high price of being sick and lethargic.  Calculate the cost of days missed from work for illness. Add up the price of having no energy to play with your kids or to do things that would help you to save money.  Think about the exorbitant prices of medical care.  Many of these things are completely avoidable – all you have to do is feed your body real food and you will be astounded at the resultant glowing health.  How much money have you spent over the last year fighting ill health that could have been avoided through good nutrition?

GMOs have been proven to cause cancer, ghastly tumors, organ failure, and death.  Many of the additives included in the products proudly displayed on grocery store shelves have been banned in other countries because of the health consequences they wreak.  Top this with a produce section absolutely drenched in pesticides that have been proven to result in cancer, hormone disruptions, and learning problems in children.

To quote the Terminator, “Come with me if you want to live.”

We all know the reasons that we should switch to whole foods, but with the ever-increasing checkout counter inflation, how can we make it happen?  Here are a few realistic tips that do not include relocating to 30 acres of prime springfed organic  farmland blocked off on 3 sides by mountain ranges.  Realistically, you may not be able to make every one of these things happen, but for each positive change you make, you are taking steps towards better health and you are revolting against the toxic food cartel.

1. Buy local. Ideally, you never need to set foot in a grocery store.  Change your shopping habits and buy from local farmers, either directly from their farm or from a farmer’s market.  You will get your produce at the optimum time, right after it was picked. As well, you can directly ask the farmer about his practices.  Sometimes farmers grow organically and they just haven’t gone through the expensive and highly regulated certification programs that exist to make increase the monopoly of factory farms. (Find a local farm HERE.)
2. Join a food co-op or CSA. This is win-win, because it helps out the farmers and it helps out your family.With both of these options, you can register ahead of time (in some cases you pre-pay for the season) and then receive a box brimming with abundance from your own area.  You will get to try lots of new things (this is how we tried one of our family favorites, rutabaga, for the first time) and you will get to do this at a fraction of the price.
3. Buy produce that is in-season. Purchasing food that is in-season is not just cheaper, it is nutritionally beneficial too.  Buying strawberries in January and asparagus in October requires that the produce be picked before it is fully ripe, and the produce begins to decompose and lose nutrients the second it is separated from the plant.  Avoid the high cost of transporting your “fresh” Christmas berries and melons and stick to the items that nature is currently providing in your area.
4. Grow as much as you can in the space you have.  Plant a sunny windowsill with salad veggies and herbs, grow a container garden on a balcony, or turn your yard into a mini-farm.  Every bite of food you grow yourself is a revolutionary act.
5. Plan your menu AFTER shopping, not before. This allows you to stay on budget because you aren’t shopping for special ingredients to make pre-planned meals. You can take advantage of the best deals and plan your meals around those.  This can also help by keeping those unplanned budget purchases from going to waste in your crisper drawer while you carry on with your planned menu.
6. Drink water. We generally stick to drinking water. Not fluoridated tap water – we purchase 5 gallon jugs or fill them in a spring when that option is available.  Water is cheaper and healthier.  Beverages that you make yourself like coffee and tea are far less expensive than the soda pop and energy drinks that fill most modern refrigerators, not to mention, relatively free of the toxic chemicals that overflow in the store-bought drinks.
7.  Buy staples in bulk. Organic grains like brown rice, wheat berries, cornmeal, barley and oatmeal can be purchased in bulk quantities.  This reduces the price to lower than or equivalent to the smaller conventional packages that are offered in your local grocery store.
8. Buy some meats frozen instead of fresh.  Some butcher shops freeze meat that isn’t sold immediately and sell if for a lower price.  Look for deals on frozen chicken breasts, frozen fish, and frozen turkey breast. Fish is nearly ALWAYS cheaper frozen. Just read your ingredients carefully and make sure you are just getting fish, and that the fish is from a safe source (not the radiation-laden Pacific Ocean, for example, or a tilapia farm where they feed fish their own recycled feces).
9. Buy meat in bulk.  Look into buying beef in quantity.  Check out the prices at local farms for a quarter of a cow.  You will pay slightly more for the lesser cuts but much less for the better quality cuts.  It balances out to a much lower price for meat farmed in the healthiest way possible.
10. Add some lower priced protein options.  While lots of us would love to have grass-fed beef and free range chicken breasts twice a day, the cost is prohibitive.  Add value-priced wholesome protein with beans, farm fresh eggs, homemade yogurt and cheese, nuts, and milk.
11. Stop eating out. Just one McCrud meal for a family of 4 is between $20-30.  Delivered pizza is about $25 plus a tip. The $45-55 that you would spend for this “convenience” could buy a lot of whole foods.
12. Get into the habit of bringing a cooler with you.  If you are going to be out running errands for the day, load up a cooler with healthy snacks, water, and even a picnic lunch.  This is the perfect answer to the lament from the back seat, “I’m huuuunnnngryyyy.”
13. Don’t buy anything with an ingredients list greater than 5 items. The more items on the ingredients list, the more likely you are to be consuming someone’s chemistry project.  Even things that sound relatively innocuous, like “natural flavorings” can be, at best, unappetizing, and at worst, harmful.
14. Cook from scratch. Cooking from scratch doesn’t have to be as time-consuming as you might expect.  I don’t spend hours each day slaving in the kitchen. Spend a weekend afternoon prepping your food for the week ahead and you can have weekday dinners on the table in less than half an hour.  Consider the price differences in homemade goods:  homemade tortillas (pennies for a package that would be $3 at the store), pizza dough, peanut butter oatmeal cookies, trail mix,  and granola bars. This stuff is literally pennies on the dollar in comparison to the same goods store-bought.
15. Some conventionally grown foods are okay. Learn about the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen.  Some foods have a fairly low pesticide load, even when conventionally grown.  Use these foods to help offset the higher prices of items that are soaked in poison, like strawberries.
16. You will actually eat LESS when you feed your body.  Part of the reason that the obesity problem is epidemic in North America is because people are desperately seeking nutrients from depleted food-like substances.  Their bodies are crying out, “I’m hungry!” even though they have consumed thousands of calories, because their nutritional requirements are not being met. What’s more, many chemicals are added because they are engineered in a way that makes you want to eat more and more (like MSG, for example).  They don’t stimulate the satiety centers in the brain that tell your body that it’s full.
17. Brown bag your lunches.  When I worked outside the home, most of my coworkers ate out every single day.  They often invited me along, saying that a certain restaurant offered “healthy” food.  The thing is, the price of that presumably healthy food was 4-6 times higher than the healthy food that I had brought from home.  My daughter takes a healthy lunch from home to school every day, as opposed to eating the offerings there.  Depending on the school, this may or may not be cheaper, but it’s guaranteed to be more nutritious.
18. Preserve food.  Whether you grow it yourself, rescue it from the “last day of sale” rack at the grocery store, or buy it by the bushel from a farmer, learning to preserve your own food allows you to buy in bulk and squirrel some of that delicious food away for the winter ahead.  Canning, dehydrating, and freezing are all methods to help extend the summer harvest for use later in the year.
19. Eat leftovers.  The act of eating leftovers is almost unheard of, it seems.  But if you put aside small amounts of leftovers in a freezer container, you can make “soup” for a meal that is basically free because it came from items that would have otherwise been discarded.  Use larger amounts of leftovers for lunch boxes or  a “buffet-style” meal for the family.
20. “Shop” from nature.  You might be surprised to learn how many edible plants are growing wild in your own neighborhood.  Even city dwellers can often find things to forage.  When we lived in the city, we used to pick up fallen walnuts from a tree in a local park.  For those not ethically opposed to it, hunting or fishing can abundantly supply your protein needs, and you don’t have to worry about whether or not you are consuming antibiotics and hormones with game.

If you’re ready to make a change to a whole foods lifestyle, don’t let your budget hold you back!  Take a long hard look at what you are spending on take-out coffees and lattes, fast food, delivered pizza, microwave meals, and frozen dinners that you shove into the oven. Look at the beverage budget you spend at the grocery store every week, and keep track of how many soda pops you buy from the vending machine at work. You might be pleasantly surprised when your budget goes down, instead of up!