some news

[Guest guest]

Why is organic important? Because insecticides contain heavy metals. This

is from personal experience as a Dursban exposure sent my daughter (who had

recovered, graduated from regular h.s., reg. classes) back in to autism worse

than the first time.

And genetically modified foods (their concentration increases as they move

up in the food chain from the plants to animals) are an enormous question mark,

and invasive. So please read:

Friends,

In spite of 20,00 e-mails from organic consumers and, in apparent

contradiction to his announcement that he

wants an organic garden at the White House, Obama has chosen Tom Vilsack, a

strong bio-tech proponent

supporting genetically engineered crops, cloned animals, etc., to run the

Department of Agriculture.

As you will see below, Vilsack is truly Monsanto's boy. He pre-empted the

local votes of towns and

counties who had voted to disallow GE seeds!

It's still possible to block Vilsack's confirmation with a massive support

of the petition drafted by the

Organic Consumer Association. It's easy to sign on at this link:

_http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1783_

(http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1783)

or from the Organic Consumer Association website

_http://www.organicconsumers.org/_ (http://www.organicconsumers.org/)

Your email will be sent to your Senators and the President-Elect's office.

The article below gives further details.

PLEASE POST THIS TO YOUR E-MAIL LISTS!

Thanks!

Gerhard Bedding

OpEdNews

Original Content at

_http://www.opednews.com/articles/Vilsack-is-not-just-totall-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-\

081218-394.html_

(http://www.opednews.com/articles/Vilsack-is-not-just-totall-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-\

081218-394.html)

December 18, 2008

Vilsack is not just totally pro-biotech, he is committedly anti-democracy

By Linn Cohen-Cole

Excerpts from this article, chosen by Gerhard Bedding:

Vilsack, according to The Organic Consumer's Association, was named Governor

of the Year by Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the biggest

pro-genetic engineering lobby in existence. Why? Not for nothing. Because

he'd

championed local transgenic R & D corporations like Trans Ova, which clones cows.

Vilsack was also the founder and former chair of the Governor's

Biotechnology Partnership. Vilsack speaks for biotech. He is the man who helped

wipe out

the local votes of many towns and counties who had voted not to allow

genetically engineered seeds

_haphazardgourmet.blogspot.com/2008/11/tom-vilsack-emerges-as-frontrunner-for.

html_

(http://haphazardgourmet.blogspot.com/2008/11/tom-vilsack-emerges-as-frontrunner\

-for.html)

OCA names six reasons Vilsack was a terrible choice:

* Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack's support of genetically engineered

pharmaceutical crops, especially pharmaceutical corn:

_http://www.gene.ch/genet/2002/Oct/msg00057.html_

(http://www.gene.ch/genet/2002/Oct/msg00057.html)

_http://www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/drugsincorn102302.cfm_

(http://www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/drugsincorn102302.cfm)

* The biggest biotechnology industry group, the Biotechnology Industry

Organization, named Vilsack Governor of the Year. He was also the founder and

former chair of the Governor's Biotechnology Partnership.

_http://www.bio.org/news/pressreleases/newsitem.asp?id=200..._

(http://www.bio.org/news/pressreleases/newsitem.asp?id=2001_0920_01)

* When Vilsack created the Iowa Values Fund, his first poster child of

economic development potential was Trans Ova and their pursuit of cloning dairy

cows.

* Vilsack was the origin of the seed pre-emption bill in 2005, which many

people here in Iowa fought because it took away local government's possibility

of ever having a regulation on seeds- where GE would be grown, having GE-free

buffers, banning pharma corn locally, etc. Representative Sandy Greiner, the

Republican sponsor of the bill, bragged on the House Floor that Vilsack put

her up to it right after his state of the state address.

* Vilsack has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness

biotech giants like Monsanto. Sustainable ag advocated across the country were

spreading the word of Vilsack's history as he was attempting to appeal to

voters

in his presidential bid. An activist from the west coast even made this

youtube animation about Vilsack

_