The Media Freedom Foundation » agriculture

Government Sponsored Technologies for Weather Modification

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 01:14:25 +0000

Rising global temperatures, increasing population, and degradation of water supplies, have created broad support for the growing field of weather modification. The U.S. government has conducted weather modification experiments for over half a century, and the military-industrial complex stands poised to capitalize on these discoveries.

One of the latest programs is HAARP, the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program. This technology can potentially trigger floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. The scientific idea behind HAARP is to “excite” a specific area of the ionosphere and observe the physical processes in that excited area with intention of modifying ecological conditions. HAARP is also a weapon of mass destruction, capable of selectively destabilizing entire regions.

Another EnMod program is that of atmospheric geoengineering or cloud seeding, which has found new life since the global warming scare. Cloud Seeding is cirrus clouds created from airplane contrails. Unlike regular contrails, which dissolve in minutes, these artificial contrails can last for several hours…even days. At a recent international symposium, scientists asserted that “manipulation of climate through modification of cirrus clouds is neither a hoax nor a conspiracy theory.” The only conspiracy surrounding geoengineering is that most governments and industry refuse to publicly admit what anyone can see in the sky or discover in peer-reviewed research. As Dr. Coen Vermeeren, of Delft University of Technology, stated: “Weather manipulation through contrail formation … is in place and fully operational.” Currently, China conducts more cloud seeding projects than any other nation.

Sources:

“Atmospheric Geoengineering: Weather Manipulation, Contrails and Chemtrails,”

- Report on the international symposium held in Ghent, Belgium May 28-30, 2010

Rady Ananda, Global Research, July 30, 2010. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20369

”Global Warming: An Effect of Weather Manipulation?” European Union Times, Jan. 3, 2010. http://www.eutimes.net/2010/01/global-warming-an-effect-of-weather-manipulation

“Earthquake Machines – HAARP (Weather Warfare),” Benjamin Fulford, posted April 1, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0AnDDTky3M

“Persistant Jet Contrails & Man-Made Clouds – Change our Climate, Harming Agriculture & Our Natural Resources” Rosalind Peterson, Agriculture Defense Coalition, July 12, 2009. http://www.agriculturedefensecoalition.org/sites/default/files/file/articles/NWV_Persistent_Contrails_and_Man_Made_Clouds_July_12_2009_by_Rosalind_Peterson.pdf

Student Researcher: Noe Otero, San Francisco State University

Faculty Evaluator: Ken Burrows, San Francisco State University

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US Agencies Trying to Outlaw GMO Food Labeling

admin — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 22:57:20 +0000

There is growing concern over the health impact of growing and eating genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The World Health Organization has identified allergenicity, antibiotic resistance, gene transfer, outcrossing, GM genes introduced into the wild population, gene stability, susceptibility of non-target organisms (insects), and loss of biodiversity as potential issues of using GM seeds.

Currently, most health studies are done by GM companies who have a natural conflict of interest that can lead to biased research or reporting. Many countries such as Japan, Australia, China, and the European Union recognize the possible risks and require mandatory labeling for products made with GMOs. There is a growing call for more comprehensive, independent research.

However, the official position of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) is: there is no difference between GMOs and non-GMOs. These agencies have also proposed to the CODEX Alimentarius Committee (UN Food and Agriculture), that no country should be able to require mandatory GMO labeling on food items. The FDA and USDA say that mandatory labeling of GMOs is “false, misleading, and deceptive, implying there is a difference between GMO and non-GMO ingredients. Ultimately, the FDA and USDA want to do away with product labeling standards over-all, trusting corporations to keep necessary health standards.

Sources:
“GMO Alert: U.S. Attempting Global Censorship of GMO Food Labeling”
Mike Adams, Natural News, May 4, 2010
HYPERLINK “http://www.naturalnews.com/z028716_GMOs_food_labels.html” http://www.naturalnews.com/z028716_GMOs_food_labels.html

“US opposes honest labeling of GMO foods”
Ethan A. Huff, Natural News, July 9, 2010
HYPERLINK “http://www.naturalnews.com/z029168_GMO_foods_labeling.html” http://www.naturalnews.com/z029168_GMO_foods_labeling.html

“GE Food”, The Center for Food Safety, March 25, 2011
HYPERLINK “http://truefoodnow.org/campaigns/genetically-engineered-foods” http://truefoodnow.org/campaigns/genetically-engineered-foods

“WHO 20 Questions on Genetically Modified Foods”
World Health Organization, April 1, 2011
HYPERLINK “http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/20questions/en” http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/20questions/en

Student Researcher: Brittney White, San Francisco State University

Faculty Researcher: Kenn Burrows, San Francisco State UniversitySimilar Posts:

Turning Agriculture From Problem to Solution

admin — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:46:55 +0000

After thousands of years of agriculture taking place on China’s Loess Plateau, forests were turned into a dry zone and due to the loss of trees fine yellow soil was left vulnerable to erosion. The erosions filled the rivers with silt and all the flooding resulted in major environmental damage.

However, sixteen years ago, the Chinese government created a project in which the local population constructed silt dams and the planting of fruit trees and grass on slopes to steep for other crops. In addition, locals were paid for their hard work and granted cheap long-term leases on land as it was recovering its viability.

Experts in agriculture are claiming that the farmer delivering a “triple win” with the removal of carbon in soil, to gaining greater resilience to drought and higher temperatures, to the improvement of food security.

In Africa, scientists, researchers, and policy makers should hasten their pace in finding adaption measures because unless action is taken, the impacts of climate change could derail sub-Saharan Africa’s revitalized efforts to change the agricultural sector.

On the much-smaller Humbo Plateau in Ethiopia, smallholders have succeeded in regenerating forest and restoring productivity. Farmers there have adopted new rules for sustainable use of wooded areas – helped by energy-efficient stoves that reduce the demand for fuel wood and charcoal. Alongside nurturing the regrowth of badly degraded woodland, training has allowed locals to diversify into raising livestock and poultry as well as non-farm activities.

The Humbo project is one of the few African Clean Development Mechanism projects, receiving its first $34,000 cheque for carbon stored in its 2,700 hectares of forest in October 2010.

Farmers in Malawi, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Niger and Zambia are also involved in agro-forestry, integrating trees into food crop and livestock systems.

Title: Turning Agriculture From Problem to Solution

Source: IPS, 12/5/10 http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53777

Author: Mantoe Phakathi

Student Researcher: Cassie Petersen, Sonoma State University

Evaluator: Jim Bertoli, 4-H State Climatology Medalist

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Pollution in Kashmir Jeopardizes Native Fish

admin — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:08:53 +0000

Agriculture and horticulture in India has significantly increased use of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers within the past few years. These pollutants are poisoning the native fish of Kashmir at alarming rates often while the fish are still in their larvae or juvenile stages.

Professor A. R. Yousuf, specialist in limnology of fresh water lakes and rivers notes that the fish species threatened by such pollution include the algaad, churn, chosh, shont, sater gaad, and the endangered fish species rama gurun. Yousuf reports that in the early 20th century, without any scientific compatibility studies, the exotic fish species salmo trutta fario and oncorhynchus mykiss were brought to River Jhelum for angler attraction. The exotic species became predators to the native species.

The government has been notified of the problem several times by Kashmir’s Pollution Control Board (PCB). P.C.B. reported that the city of Srinagar itself dumped over 40 million liters of untreated liquid waste and 350 metric tons of solid waste into Kashmiri’s various bodies of water. Deforestation and sand extraction add to the list threatening the native fish species’ breeding ground.

Article Title: “India Pollution Threatens Kashmir’s Fish Species”
Publication: HYPERLINK “http://ipsnews.net/”ipsnews.net, February 13, 2011
Author: Athar Parvaiz
URL: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54460

Faculty Evaluator: Tom Jacobson, Sonoma State University
Student Name: Amanda Newhall, Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

Massive African Land Grab By Rich Nations

admin — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 03:23:31 +0000

Over Twenty African countries are selling or leasing land for intensive agriculture in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era. Ethiopia is one of the hungriest countries in the world with more than 13-million people needing food aid, but paradoxically the government is offering at least 7.5 million acres of its most fertile land to rich countries and some of the world’s most wealthy individuals to export food. Ethiopia alone has approved 815 foreign-financed agricultural projects since 2007. Any land there, which investors have not been able to buy, is being leased for approximately $1 per year per 2.5 acres.

Ethiopia is only one of 20 or more African countries where land is being bought or leased for intensive agriculture on an immense scale in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era.

An Observer investigation estimates that up to 125 million acres of land — an area more than double the size of the UK—has been acquired in the last few years or is in the process of being negotiated by governments and wealthy investors working with state subsidies. The land rush, which is still accelerating, has been triggered by the worldwide food shortages which followed the sharp oil price rises in 2008, growing water shortages and theEuropean Union’s insistence that 10% of all transport fuel must come from plant-based biofuels by 2015.
The foreign companies are arriving in large numbers, depriving people of land they have used for centuries. There is no consultation with the indigenous population. The deals are done secretly. The only thing the local people see is people coming with lots of tractors to invade their lands. In many areas the deals have led to evictions, civil unrest and complaints of “land grabbing”.

Leading the rush are international agribusinesses, investment banks, hedge funds, commodity traders, sovereign wealth funds as well as UK pension funds, foundations and individuals attracted by some of the world’s cheapest land. Together they are scouring Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania,Malawi, Ethiopia, Congo, Zambia, Uganda, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ghana and elsewhere. Saudi Arabia, along with other Middle Eastern emirate states such as Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, is thought to be the biggest buyer..

Many of the deals are widely condemned by both Western non-government groups and nationals as “new colonialism”, driving people off the land and taking scarce resources away from people.

Title: Food, water driving 21st-century African land grab Mail & Guardian / March 7, 2010

URL; http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-03-07-food-water-driving-21stcentury-african-land-grab

Author: By John Vidal

Fuculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips

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Chevron and USAID Fund AgroAid in Nigeria and Angola

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:21:02 +0000

Clinton promised $6 million of investment in Angolan agriculture through a partnership with USAID and Chevron, the second-largest US oil company. Despite billions of dollars in oil wealth, Angola ranks among the worlds lowest in terms of development indicators. The corruption watchdog group Global Witness revealed Angolan state oil company had given permission to bid for oil and gas licenses to a private company whose shareholders had the same names as top government officials. There seems to be ongoing corruption in Angola for the sake of promoting US energy interests and the availability of Angola’s vast resources. This proposed agro aid threatens more corruption leading to further degradation of environmental and human conditions.

Title: African Development Hindered by Vast US Corporate Interests in Continent’s Land,

Resources Source: Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, 8/12/2009http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/12/land

Student Researcher: Amanda Bruna

Faculty Evaluator: Debora HammondSonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts: