Opening the Door to an Ever Increasing Contaminated Food Supply

(Source: lab grown meat: screenshot from video)

Do you remember the ‘March Against Monsanto’? If so, you may remember former Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and his relationship to big ag.

Back in 2008, “Vilsack had a questionable reputation as being a promoter for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto and was known to have often traveled in Monsanto’s jet.” (source)

Today, he continues to serve as head of the US Dairy Export Council, which is invested in perpetuating the use of pesticide-drenched genetically modified feed, the practice of keeping prices paid to farmers below the cost of production to drive the consolidation of ever-larger factory farms, and the system of CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). (source)

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So why does a homemaking blog write about such things?

Because – based on past performance – Mr. Vilsack’s nomination to head the US Department of Agriculture will completely open the breach to an ever-increasing contaminated food supply. 

The Organic Consumer’s Association list of GMOs in our food supply illuminates what we have to thank Tom Vilsack for:

•Monsanto’s Roundup Ready sugar beets. Inevitable contamination of non-GMO sugar beet crops would lead to the loss of “a consumer’s choice to eat non-genetically engineered food” (sugar).

•Lab-made meat. Vilsack let companies like Memphis Meat begin engineering cell-cultured meat under his watch without invoking the USDA’s regulatory authority to inspect or label it. 

•Cloned animals and organic milk. When Vilsack was asked in 2010 if cloned cows or their offspring had made it into the North American food supply, he claimed he didn’t know. Needless to say, this aroused alarm. Europe moved for an embargo on imports of cloned animals and their produce and offspring. Vilsack didn’t! He left the door open for cloned animal products to be labeled “USDA Organic.” Thus, it is very likely that the offspring of cloned animals are being used to produce organic milk and other food. (source)

•Arctic Apple (Golden Delicious and Granny varieties). This apple remains bright green when juiced, doesn’t turn brown when it is bruised or starts to go bad. It was the first USDA approved GMO created with RNA interference. Evidence exists that the double stranded RNA survives digestion, enters the bloodstream, and can influence the functioning of the consumer’s cells. 

•Dairy substitutes. Vilsack allowed companies like Perfect Day to begin using genetically-altered yeast cultures to manufacture synthetic dairy substitutes―with no regulations to protect consumer health or the interests of family dairy farmers. 

•2,4-D-tolerant corn, cotton and soy. A known endocrine disruptor, Dow’s 2,4-D is linked to cancer, thyroid disorders, decreased fertility and birth defects. Vilsack’s approval of the crops increased the use of 2,4-D as much as 600%.

•Innate potatoes. The former Monsanto scientist who invented this “RNA interference” GMO exposed the dangers of his work four years after Vilsack approved it in our food supply. He found an accumulation of toxins in the potatoes,  and even scarier, he found their double-stranded RNA enters the human bloodstream, where it can influence our own cell function. (source)

•Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa, the first genetically modified perennial crop. By the end of the his term, it had gone wild, costing American alfalfa growers and exporters millions of dollars in lost revenue.

•Monsanto’s DroughtGard corn. The GMO seeds actually ended up yielding 11% LESS corn than conventional corn during the 2012 drought. (source)

•Syngenta’s Agrisure corn. Vilsack just watched passively as this seed that contained genetically engineered traits—illegal in China—was sold to U.S. farmers. The corn crop was rejected, costing farmers $1.51 billion. Seven years later, Syngenta (now owned by ChemChina) will soon be mailing settlement checks to harmed farmers. (source)

And there’s more to be aware of:

•Wind drift of Monsanto’s toxic herbicide dicamba-tolerant Xtend for soy and cotton has been a nightmare for farmers and state pesticide regulators fielding complaints of crop destruction. It has destroyed millions of acres of non-resistant soy crops, as well as nurseries, vineyards, vegetables, trees, native plants and ornamentals. States have instituted bans on using dicamba, but that hasn’t stopped the damage in those states or across the country.

•Scotts Miracle-Gro Roundup Ready lawn grass. Vilsack told the company it didn’t need federal approval or permits to conduct field trials or sell the seed commercially, even though a different type of genetically engineered grass had already escaped from company test plots.

There are also concerns related to Black farmers, including alleged manipulation of census data to cover-up historic discrimination and to falsely claim there was a renaissance in Black farming under Vilsack’s leadership. (source)

If this is NOT okay with you, call your U.S. Senators and ask them to Vote No on Vilsack! Let us pray they will listen.

“The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.” ~Psalm 9:9-10

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