Tag Archives: genetic engineering

And Now, Genetically Engineering Fruit Flies

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Company genetically engineers fruit flies to be “biofactories” for fake meat production

 

Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly

Future Fields’ EntoEngine insects have serious environmental and ethical downsides. Report by Claire Robinson; technical advice by Dr Michael Antoniou

The biotech company Future Fields has notified the Canadian authorities of its intention to commercialise EntoEngine, a genetically modified fly. The flies are engineered to produce foreign proteins – in this case, growth factors, which are cell signalling molecules that play important roles in cell proliferation and development, for use in what Future Fields calls “cellular agriculture” – what we call lab-grown or fake meat.

The public can comment on the application until 28 January 2023 and we encourage them to do so. In our view, EntoEngine flies poses serious environmental risks in the likely event that they will escape contained conditions.

The details

The company says, “The EntoEngine fly line has been genetically engineered to express a growth factor isolated from cows…. The gene sequence poses no known risks to either humans or animals. Expression of the gene encoding the growth factor is under the control of a gene expression regulator isolated from yeast.”

Future Fields argues that the GM fly is needed to replace the usual way of producing growth factors – in bioreactors. The company confirms what GMWatch has long said – that bioreactor technology is expensive, resource and energy hungry and produces vast quantities of problematic waste. The company concludes, reasonably, that growth factors cannot be produced cost-effectively using bioreactor technology – so they aim to produce them in GM drosophila, or fruit flies.

The company makes grand claims for the fly’s sustainability and environmental friendliness, compared with bioreactor protein production, based on lower input use and less greenhouse emissions. Drosophila, Future Fields says, “do not have these large operation costs and require only modest environmental controls to ensure optimal rearing… Drosophila can feed on organic side streams and byproducts from other processes (i.e. organic waste). In fact, insects are some of the most efficient organisms at converting nutrients into biomass.”

However, the problem with this “solution” is that even with a cheaper source of cell growth factors in the shape of the flies, lab grown meat will still need to be produced in huge bioreactors, with the consequent vast running costs and environmental impacts.

Patent

Future Fields describes the status of the patent on EntoEngine as “pending”. Our patent search on the Espacenet and USPTO databases only found one patent on a GM insect with Future Fields as an applicant. The patent, titled “Method for producing recombinant proteins in insects”, describes the general concept patent but lacks the experimental data to prove that the system actually works. It’s unclear whether other patents exist, but the details of this patent illustrate the types of process that would be used for EntoEngine protein production.

The patent focuses on heat stress (taking the temperature up to 35-40 degrees C) as the trigger that will activate expression of the transgenes in the flies to produce the desired growth factors.

The expression of the transgenes encoding for the desired protein (in this case, mammalian cell growth factors) is under the control of a “gene expression regulator” derived from yeast. So these flies would appear to contain two foreign transgenes: One encoding the desired protein to be expressed and isolated from the flies; and the other encoding the yeast gene expression regulator.

In all likelihood, the yeast-derived gene expression regulator is a member of the heat shock factor family of proteins. The function of these proteins is elevated upon heat stress and their role is to increase expression of genes that will help the organism protect itself from external stresses (e.g. heat, cold, UV light).

Torturing fruit flies

Regarding the heat stress trigger, the patent describes a gruesome and torturous process of gradually getting the flies used to the higher temperature of the heat stressor so that they don’t die from the shock of a sudden rise, by applying the stressor interspersed with “rest” periods.

When the insects have exhausted their ability to produce growth factor, they are killed and “harvested”, in the words of the Future Fields patent, then ground up into a mass, and the desired protein is extracted and purified out. It is unclear how well the purification process will work and GMWatch warns that native fly proteins could end up contaminating the final product.

Doubtful ethics

The company’s patent and publicity make a big deal out of the supposedly superior ethics of using fruit flies to manufacture growth factors for “cellular agriculture”, as opposed to extracting them from fetal bovine serum (FBS) taken “from fetuses of pregnant cows prior to slaughter”. The patent says that cattle-derived FBS gives rise to “ethical concerns regarding the production of cultured meat products”.

But the point on ethics is disingenuous and contradictory, as Future Fields itself justifies its GM flies approach as replacing growth factors produced in bioreactors and not as replacing FBS, because FBS is not used by the lab grown meat industry.

Along the same lines, Future Fields’ use of language in its patent seems manipulative. While the cattle from which FBS is derived are subject to “slaughter”, the GM fruit flies are merely “harvested”, just like the crop plants that even vegans would be happy to eat.

But anyone concerned with the ethics around animal use in agriculture is unlikely to be impressed by Future Fields’ description of its GM fly as “a standalone biofactory” – the ultimate reduction of a living creature to a machine.

At a time when prominent environmentalists, from Sussex University’s Prof Dave Goulson to TV’s David Attenborough, are trying to persuade the public to give insects the respect they deserve as key regulators of ecosystems, genetically engineering fruit flies and then characterising them as “biofactories” or as non-sentient beings on a par with a wheat or maize crop seems distasteful in the extreme.

By timely coincidence, recently published EU-funded research shows that fruit flies, though “tiny”, are ” amazingly smart”. They are capable of attention, working memory and conscious awareness – abilities we usually only associate with mammals.

Environmental risks

The main risk posed by the GM flies is environmental. Containment facilities for GM animals are notoriously insecure – GM glofish have escaped from tanks and are breeding in the wild in Brazil and a whistleblower report paints a damning picture of lax attitudes and neglect of protocols at AquaBounty’s GM salmon-producing facilities. The risk with GM flies is that they could escape and breed in the environment or cross-breed with natural flies, leading to the escape of growth factor-producing genes into wild populations.

This wouldn’t pose a human health risk, as most of us don’t eat living fruit flies and the proteins in dead flies would quickly degrade. But plenty of animals, including mammals, fish, amphibians, and birds, do eat living flies. Because the growth factors in the GM flies are mammalian, they will to some degree be active in any animal that ingests them. This could cause uncontrolled cell division in the animal consumer – potentially leading to cancer.

In evaluating environmental risk in the case of an escape, much depends on what triggers are used to make the growth factor-producing genes express. The heat stress triggers discussed in the patent are worrying because they are designed to spring into action at 35-40 degrees C – temperatures regularly reached in the climate conditions of many parts of the world. And this raises the question: What happens at 31 or 32 degrees? Nothing, or something? And if something, then what?

Conclusion

Future Fields’ GM fly appears to be an invention of dubious utility that will do little to improve the sustainability of the environmental catastrophe-in-the-making that is lab grown meat. It poses unacceptable environmental risks in the event of an escape and the ethics around the GM fly’s grim life and grimmer death are dubious, to say the least.

from:    https://gmwatch.org/en/106-news/latest-news/20155-company-genetically-engineers-fruit-flies-to-be-biofactories-for-fake-meat-production

Of Human Chimeras, Embryos, Family, & DNA

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France adopts bioethics law that will introduce chimeras, genetic engineering of ‘human material’

In its latest revision, the law will also allow access to artificial procreation to all women, including women in same-sex couples and single women.
Fri Jun 11, 2021 – 12:50 pm EST
Featured Image
Lab work with petri dish Shutterstock

June 11, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The French National Assembly adopted a radically transgressive bioethics law that will likely enter into force at the beginning of July, once it has passed its last legislative hurdles after this third reading. It is truly revolutionary in its conception of the world and of society. It marks the end of the recognition of paternity, but also the beginning of legally manufactured chimeras, and other kinds of genetic engineering of “human material.”

France’s first bioethics law dates back to 1992; from the start, provisions were made for its periodic revision, and over the years, it has increasingly legalized embryo research. In its latest mutation, the law will allow access to artificial procreation to all women, including women in same-sex couples and single women, as had been promised by French president Emmanuel Macron in his election campaign.

Access to “medically assisted procreation for all” (“PMA pour toutes”) was rejected by the French population during public consultations before the draft law was set up, and was also taken out of the text by the Senate in February, leading to a further discussion by the National Assembly which reintroduced the measure. The newly adopted version will go back to the Senate for a third debate within a few weeks, but whatever happens there, the lower chamber will have the definitive vote which is expected to take place by the end of the month at the latest. This is in keeping with the government’s recent actions to force the text through Parliament.

The law will introduce other significant changes. For the first time, destructive research on the human embryo up to 14 days will be allowed in principle: until now, such research required special prior dispensation. The new law will also liberalize research on human embryonic stem cells, and allow the creation of artificial gametes, copies of human embryos, chimeric embryos (which can be implanted in animals), and transgenic embryos (including in vitro fertilization with “three parents”).

Access to abortion will be even easier than it already is. The new law is scrapping the cooling-off period of “at least one week,” and also provides a new justification for abortion: “the partial voluntary interruption of a multiple pregnancy.” At the same time, it does away with the obligation to consult a person holding parental authority when young women under 18 are having a “medical interruption of pregnancy:” abortions beyond the legal term of 12 weeks’ gestation and up to birth for health problems affecting the mother or the child validated by at least two doctors and a medical team.

Another barbaric provision introduced by amendment was rejected by the National Assembly. It aimed to introduce a new motive for “medical” abortions: “psycho-social distress.”

On the other hand, the specific conscience clause attached to the practice of medical abortions has been dismantled.

The most publicized aspect of the law, however, was that of fatherless procreation, as mentioned above. Old-fashioned law — law that organizes reality without contradicting it, that almost all of humanity has understood since the dawn of time — calls the woman who gives birth “mother,” and “father” the man who has begotten the new individual who was just born (such law even allows the unborn child to inherit from its deceased father, if orphaned in utero). French law assumes that the mother’s husband is a child’s father, unless proved otherwise.

All this is over. When the law enters into effect, begetting a child can become merely symbolic, and parenthood will be adapted to the woman’s desire. And if you dare say that a child needs a father, it must be because you are irremediably stuck in gender stereotypes, in hatred of the LGBTQI+ community, and that you are a supporter of the “patriarchy” that, as Antonio Guterres, U.N. secretary general, said in the middle of the pandemic, is the root of all our ills.

These are the words he used last August, according to a UN tweet: “The #COVID19 pandemic is demonstrating what we all know: millennia of patriarchy have resulted in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture which damages everyone – women, men, girls & boys.”

This is more important than it seems. It shows that the pandemic, “bioethics,” and promoting “LGBT rights” are all linked as facets of a same ideology.

France is presently facing a severe crisis consecutive to the restrictions imposed on its population in the name of COVID. Personal freedoms have been torn to pieces, often in absurd and contradictory ways, unemployment is at a height and public spending has gone through the roof, and despite all these major problems, the French government has been focusing on forcing the bioethics law through Parliament at high speed.

Remember that “bioethics” has nothing to do with natural law or respect for human life and the human person. When it was first developed, it was presented as a form of “ethics of life” at the service of life in general and of its improvement. Understood thus, bioethics considers man as a species living among other species, while the individual is less a person than an element of humankind, that is usable, interchangeable, and modifiable.

In its logic, the new French bioethics law is a eugenicist law: It allows for the turning of man into a genetically modified organism, the crossing of the barrier of species, choosing embryos for implantation in order to “use” them as “medication” for an older sibling, and editing them using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique. To be sure, the law prohibits the implantation and gestation of genetically engineered embryos, but allows the first steps that one day might lead to the nightmare of designer babies.

Besides the negation of the truth of filiation, this urge to make tampering with the human genome legal is the most terrifying aspect of the law.

According to French geneticist Alexandra Henrion-Caude, there is a direct relationship with the COVID crisis and the pushing through of the transgressive law: As she pointed out during a January interview on Radio Courtoisie, France’s historic independent associative radio station, there is a link between the drive to use experimental “vaccines” to make human cells produce proteins by introducing mRNA, “augmenting” their capacities, and allowing modification of the DNA of embryos. The purpose is clearly “transhumanist,” she argued. The idea of augmenting the capacities of the body and mind are also central to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as the World Economic Forum founded by Klaus Schwab sees it.

Over the last year, most decisions in France have been made by executive orders, which Parliament was allowed, at best, to comment upon. The bioethics law, instead, is being pushed down Parliament’s throat, as if the government “needed” the approval of the nation’s representatives but was at the same time prepared to force their hand.

Many opponents of the planned law complained that the conditions for a proper democratic debate were not present. Only a small proportion of deputies and senators actually assist at the parliamentary debates: In the case of the bioethics law, 130 out of the 577 were present at voting time. Also, the issue goes way beyond the population’s present concerns: getting out of the COVID quagmire, keeping jobs, reuniting with family and friends.

The government imposed the debate anyway, going out of its way to prevent ordinary hearings of the parliamentary commissions involved in the issue. Time for amendments and discussion at the National Assembly were also severely restricted, and the whole text took less than three days to discuss: the opposition “Republicains” party and independent members were for the most part unable to explain their (over 1,500) amendments and obtain a rational debate on measures that have such far-reaching consequences.

The text garnered 84 votes in favor and 43 against (as well as abstentions), with a few courageous representatives doing overtime to try to weigh in on the debate. Emmanuelle Ménard, an independent representative from the south of France, explained why she would vote against it, accusing the government and its majority party of “opening Pandora’s box:” “You are false gods in training, who believe you are above everything: common sense, reality, our fleshly nature, and especially, and this is the most serious, the best interest of the child.”

The French Bishops’ Conference published a statement condemning the new bioethics law, saying: “Once again, the law claims to authorize new transgressions by setting them within a framework. But a framework never holds. Inevitably, it ends up being erased. To frame is to authorize. Humanity has grown by imposing prohibitions on itself: the prohibition of killing an innocent person, of incest, of theft, of rape. Mixing human cells and animal cells cannot be simply set within a framework: what must be forbidden must be clearly stated; what can be authorized must also be clearly stated. This is only possible with reference to a thoughtful vision of the human person and his or her filiation.”

On the day of the vote, Bishop Olivier de Germay of Lyon issued a call for prayer during the month of June, including fasting on Fridays, to ask God to help legislators to discern the true good of society and children. A miracle could still happen in the coming days …

from:   https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/france-adopts-bioethics-law-that-will-introduce-chimeras-genetic-engineering-of-human-material

First Came GMO’s And Now GDO”S

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NGOs call for moratorium on controversial ‘gene drive organisms’

By Natasha Foote | EURACTIV.com

 Jul 3, 2020 (updated:  Jul 6, 2020)

Synthetic gene drives are a new form of genetic engineering intended to permanently modify or eradicate populations, or even whole species, in the wild. [SHUTTERSTOCK]

After over 78 environmental and agricultural organisations signed a letter this week calling for a moratorium on gene drive technology, EURACTIV took a closer look at the controversial technology to find out about what it is and the implications it holds.

The letter, which was sent on Tuesday (30 June), urges the European Commission to outlaw the release of so-called ‘gene drive organisms’ (GDOs), calling the technology “incompatible” with the Commission’s proposed EU strategy on biodiversity protection. But scientists say the technology holds enormous potential for eradicating some of the world’s deadliest diseases.

Synthetic gene drives are a new form of genetic engineering, created via the genetic engineering method CRISPR/CAS9, and are intended to permanently modify or eradicate populations, or even whole species, in the wild.

They are currently defined as a system where genetic elements or traits have more than the usual 50% chance of being inherited, irrespective of whether they benefit or harm the organism inheriting them.

The idea of gene drive technology is to force the inheritance of detrimental genetic traits. In this way, scientists hope to reprogramme or eradicate species such as disease-carrying insects and invasive species.

This is a key distinction between GDOs and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which are explicitly designed to contain the spread of modified traits.

Debate about if and how GDOs could be safely employed is proceeding. As it currently stands, GDOs fall under the EU GMO directive but an EFSA expert working group, mandated by the Commission, is currently developing recommendations for regulations on gene drive modified organisms, expected by the end of 2020.

While it may sound far fetched, this is far from mere conjecture, with experiments already well underway both in the EU and elsewhere.

from:    https://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/ngos-call-for-moratorium-on-controversial-gene-drive-organisms/

DNA, 37, Aliens, & Mathematics

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Did aliens encode hidden messages into human DNA?

by Janice Friedman

Could it be that the answer to whether or not we’re alone in the universe resides deep within each of us, encoded into our DNA, just waiting to be revealed?

It’s a heady subject, one that has fascinated mankind for centuries and even led us to build spaceships to explore the skies beyond our vision.

But what if aliens have come and gone already? Imagine if they did indeed visit this planet and left clues of their presence into what makes each of us unique, waiting for the day that we will finally realize the true origin of the human race.

Are we the product of evolution, or were we created by unseen beings? (Via YouTube)

All of this may sound a bit far-fetched and way outside the normal channels of scientific discourse, but as Ancient Origins notes, some very distinguished minds in the world of science think there could well be a connection between human DNA and aliens:

“In 2013, two scientists affiliated with the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute in Kazakhstan published an article in the journal Icarus suggesting that the search for extraterrestrial life should be expanded to include a survey of human DNA.

“Physicist Vladimir Sherbak and astrobiologist Maxim Makukov are convinced we’ve been genetically engineered by beings from another star system. These founders may have done so directly while visiting here hundreds of millions of years ago. Or, they may have sent an information-packed signal into space that reached Earth and somehow triggered alterations in our DNA. Or, they may have seeded our planet from space with alien genetic material that evolved elsewhere (presumably on their planet of origin).”

Codes and symbols are all around us. Could they have a deeper meaning that is tied to our DNA? (Via YouTube)

The idea that we (and our DNA) are products of alien engineering is known as panspermia, and has drawn the enthusiastic support of none other than James Crick, co-founder of the DNA double helix. In the panspermia view of our planet, our creators intentionally chose to place their own DNA inside of humans and then leave us on the Earth as some sort of experiment.

How can such a theory be supported? The two Khazak scientists explain:

“Makukov and Cherbak say human DNA looks as though it has been created with mathematical precision. ‘Simple arrangements of the code reveal an ensemble of arithmetical and ideographical patterns of symbolic language. Furthermore, it includes the use of decimal notation and logical transformations that are accurate and systematic.’”

Consider that there’s also a repeating numerical pattern in human DNA:

“Makukov and Cherbak have spotted a specific repeating numerical pattern in the human genetic code. By looking closely at the various mathematical ratios, fractions and constants that show up in calculations and measurements of human DNA, they’ve uncovered multiple instances where the number ‘37’ seems to play a prominent role.”

“In their Icarus research paper, the scientists listed nine instances where the number ‘37’ could be derived by performing calculations somehow related to DNA’s chemical structure, and they calculated the odds of that happening by random at 10 trillion to one against.”

The concept of panspermia suggests that we were created by aliens and encoded with their DNA. (Via YouTube)

The number 37 has relevance when it comes to the human body:

“Expressed in the metric system, the normal body temperature of a human being is 37 degrees Celsius . And according to the latest estimates, there are approximately 37 trillion cells in the human body . So even outside its inclusion in our DNA, the number ‘37’ does help define who we are in some fundamental ways. This is just as we might expect, if that number were included in DNA as a sign.”

Clearly, there are still more questions than answers when it comes to either DNA or aliens, let alone whether a connection can be made between the two. The human genome has already been partially decoded by scientists, and yet we are no closer to proving that intelligent life exists beyond our planet.

Mysteries remain, and in time we may finally discover the answers to them. Until then, all we can do is keep searching.

The “Ancient Aliens” TV show has dealt with the idea of DNA and aliens. Here’s an excerpt from that episode:

Featured Image Via YouTube Screenshot

from:    https://www.ancient-code.com/did-aliens-encode-hidden-messages-into-human-dna/

GMO’s, Health, Survival

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THE PERIL ON YOUR PLATE: FILM EXPLORES THE HUMAN HEALTH EFFECTS OF GENETIC ENGINEERING AND CHEMICAL AGRICULTURE

June 27, 2018

After being told by her doctor that genetically engineered (GE) food and pesticides could be responsible for her son’s food allergies, Ekaterina Yakovleva set out to investigate. Her quest for answers was captured by the Russian Times in the featured film, “The Peril on Your Plate: Genetic Engineering and Chemical Agriculture.”

The film shows Yakovleva and her team traveling the world to meet “the people who lift the lid on the perils of GMOs and the chemicals used in the industry,” as well as proponents of GMOs who argue that genetic engineering is a “high-tech” solution to feeding the world’s growing population. Advocates for genetic engineering tell Yakovleva that the technology is beneficial to farmers in that it increases resistance to pests and disease, as well as produces higher yields. But Yakovleva isn’t convinced.

She learns nothing could be further from the truth after witnessing the devastation caused by mass farmer suicides in India as a result of the failure of Monsanto’s Bt cotton. Yakovleva visits the U.K. where she meets Lady Margaret, Countess of Mar, a member of the House of Lords and a former farmer who suffered from chemical use, and then to the U.S. where she meets with Zen Honeycutt of Moms Across America about the link between GMOs, pesticides and chronic disease in humans.

What Is Genetic Engineering?

In order to better understand genetic engineering and its impact on human health, Yakovleva starts to research the technique and how it’s used. She learns that genetic engineering enables DNA to be transferred not only between different kinds of plants, but even between different kingdoms, meaning scientists can take DNA from an insect or animal and insert it into the genome of a plant.

Many GMO proponents claim that genetic engineering is just an extension of natural breeding methods, and just as safe. Nothing could be further from the truth — on both counts. Genetic engineering is radically different from conventional breeding techniques used to improve a crop. For starters, it’s a laboratory-based technique allowing scientists to create a food that could never be created by nature.

Claire Robinson, editor of GM Watch and coauthor of the book, “GMO Myths and Truths: A Citizen’s Guide to the Evidence on the Safety and Efficacy of Genetically Modified Foods and Crops,” says:

US Leads World in GM Crop Production

Yakovleva learns that an estimated 190 million hectares (469.5 acres) of GE crops1 — an area three times the size of France — are cultivated in 28 countries worldwide.2 The U.S. leads the world in GM crop production, growing about 40 percent,3 while Brazil grows 27 percent and Argentina 13 percent. Canada and India each grow 6 percent.4 GE crops currently in production include squash/pumpkin, alfalfa, sugar beet, potato, papaya, rapeseed oil, corn, soy and cotton.

Monsanto, soon to forgo its name and merge with Bayer, controls a vast majority of GE crops including 80 percent of GE corn and 93 percent of GE soy in the U.S. The first GE crop to hit the market was tobacco. It was genetically modified in 1983 to be resistant to an antibiotic.5 It was later altered for other reasons, including to remove a gene that turns nicotine into a carcinogen in tobacco leaves,6and to increase the amount of nicotine in cigarettes.7

The first genetically engineered food crop was the Flavr Savr tomato, produced by Calgene, a California-based company later bought by Monsanto. The tomato was genetically modified to stay riper longer by inhibiting a gene responsible for producing a protein that makes a tomato soften.8 Calgene is reported to have been transparent in its marketing of the tomato, clearly labeling the product and adding an 800 number for people with questions. Monsanto later removed the Flavr Savr tomato from store shelves.

A Growing List of Countries Say No to GMOs

The film highlights regions that are completely GMO-free, including Romania, which stopped cultivating GE crops despite being the first country in geographical Europe to introduce them.9 Portugal and Spain have reduced the amount of areas under GE crop cultivation,10while a number have enacted a total ban including France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Greece, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Russia forbids GE crop cultivation,11 but does not prevent GMOs from entering the country’s food chain, according to the film. Yakovleva travels to the Agrarian University in Moscow to meet GMO proponent Arkady Zlochevsky, chairman of the Russian Grain Union. She confronts him about the human health effects of eating GE foods.

“There is absolutely no risk to the human body associated with eating GM foods compared to traditional equivalents, not a single one,” he says, adding that GMOs are “high-tech” and have “significant advantages.” He even went so far as to say that glyphosate, the key active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, is safer than 100 percent manure.

Glyphosate Doubles as Herbicide and Suicide Poison in India

Unconvinced, Yakovleva travels to India where glyphosate doubles as a lethal human poison. The Punjab region, formally known as the bread basket of India, is now known for colossal suicides among farmers, particularly young farmers between the ages of 20 and 35.

Yakovleva meets with families of farmers who committed suicide. She learns that thousands of farmers have taken their own lives after agriculture corporations granted them loans they could never repay to purchase seeds and pesticides that ultimately failed to provide the profits that were promised.

Inderjit Singh Jaijee, chairman of Punjab’s Baba Nanak Educational Society, says farmers who commit suicide often take drugs, drink alcohol or even take a swig of glyphosate to muster up the courage to go through with it. Singh Jaijee, who is on a mission to raise awareness about the serious issue of suicides in Punjab, says that young farmers are more susceptible because they don’t yet have the experience older people do to survive.

Thousands of Indian Farmers Commit Suicide Over Faulty GE Crops

The amount of suicides in the Punjab region is so massive that some people are making a profit removing dead bodies from a local canal. Ashu Malik, an underwater diver, uses surveillance cameras to monitor the canal for floating bodies. If a body is not claimed, it’s placed back into the water, he says. Ending up in the canal as a result of suicide is so common in this region that families built a house on the canal’s shoreline for them to stay in while they search for their loved ones who are missing.

The exact number of suicides occurring annually in the Punjab region remains unknown. One estimation found the annual suicide rate to be about 2,200. However, Singh Jaijee’s research estimates it to be closer to 4,000 suicides per year, while farmer organizations estimate up to 6,000. Shocked by what’s become a normality for agricultural communities in India, Yakovleva interviews agricultural scientist Kiran Kumar Vissa to learn more about Monsanto’s Bt cotton, the crop responsible for placing so many farmers into debt.

Monsanto’s Bt cotton was marketed as a solution to the challenges faced by cotton farmers, many of whom were in crisis; however, it ended up causing farmers more problems. There are many places where Bt cotton is not suitable for cultivation, including dry, nonirrigated areas, explains Vissa. The packaging says that Bt cotton is suitable for both irrigated and nonirrigated conditions, but it’s not true, says Vissa, adding, that it’s deceptive to farmers.

Big Ag Uses Images of Rich, American Farmers to Sell GMOs Abroad

Next, Yakovleva meets with renowned scholar and environmental activist Vandana Shiva, who blames the mass suicides solely on the corporations that sell the seeds and chemicals. Monsanto spends huge amounts of money on advertising. Between the fiscal years 2011 to 2017, Monsanto spent more than $500 million on advertising worldwide.12

Shiva explains that seed and chemical agents show farmers in India images of American farmers with big tractors and promise them that if they just take this seed, which they can pay for later, they will be rich. But what they don’t tell the farmer is that they can’t save the seed and that it might fail because the seeds aren’t meant for dry, nonirrigated areas, says Shiva.

So, the farmer takes it on credit, not having a good understanding of the costs involved, and the seed fails, Vandana explains, adding that in two years’ time the agents who sold the seed and pesticide return and repossess the farmer’s land because he could not pay his loan. Shiva tells Yakovleva that she has personally spoken to widows whose farmer husbands committed suicide and when she asked what their debt was, they showed her packages of Monsanto’s Bt cotton seed.

Are Farmers Risking Their Health by Using Chemicals?

Yakovleva’s investigation proceeds to the U.K. where she meets with Lady Margaret, Countess of Mar, a member of the House of Lords and a former farmer who suffered from chemical use.

While serving organic tea and pudding, Lady Margaret says she had to give up farming after she was exposed to harmful chemicals while dipping sheep. The sheep dip contained organophosphates, the same class of chemicals to which glyphosate belongs. The chemicals are used as both flame retardants and pesticides. According to National Geographic:

Within weeks of being exposed, Lady Margaret says she began to suffer from intense fatigue and neurological problems. She even felt suicidal. At one point, she was forced to rely on an oxygen tank for up to 16 hours a day. Lady Margaret was ill for three years before doctors diagnosed her with organophosphate poisoning.

Most of Americans Have Glyphosate in Their Bodies

Humans are increasingly testing positive for residues of glyphosate.14 In tests conducted by a University of California San Francisco lab, 93 percent of the participants tested positive for glyphosate residues.15 In the European Union, when 48 members of Parliament volunteered for glyphosate testing, everyone one of them tested positive.16 Humans are exposed to glyphosate via the food they eat, the air they breathe, the water they drink and the lawns, gardens, parks and other environments they frequent.

What impact is this having on human health? To find out, Yakovleva and her team head to the U.S. to meet with Honeycutt, who blames chemicals in our food for the rise in chronic disease. A number of chronic diseases have been linked to pesticides, including autism, cancer, food allergies, endocrine disruption, diabetes and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.17

One in 4 females over the age of 30 now has a gluten intolerance, says Honeycutt; however, she believes it’s not gluten that’s the problem, but the glyphosate that’s applied to wheat as a drying agent prior to harvest.

“It’s destroying their gut lining. They can’t process it and then the body acknowledges it as a gluten intolerance,” says Honeycutt, adding that food today not only has more chemicals, but is also less nutritious. Chemical-intensive agriculture has depleted our soils of essential nutrients and has drawn out vitamins and minerals that make our food healthy, she adds.

Long-Term Safety Studies Are Sorely Lacking

Yakovleva and her team reached out to Monsanto regarding the public health concerns tied to its Roundup weed killer, but the company refused to comment, instead directing them to its website which, of course, states that all of their products are safe and environmentally friendly. The deceptive GMO talking points Yakovleva received from the seed and chemical industry failed to convince her that GE crops are safe for human consumption, as there’s no real evidence to support this claim.

While few in number, longer-term animal feeding studies have been published over the past several years showing there’s definite cause for concern. Liver and kidney toxicity and immune reactions tend to be the most prevalent. Digestive system, inflammation and fertility problems have also been seen. A major part of the problem is that safety studies conducted for regulatory purposes to gain market approval for a GE product are too short to show the damage that could occur from life-long consumption of the GE food.

Some independent studies looking at lifetime consumption of GMOs have found rather dramatic health effects, whereas the safety studies used to promote GE foods as safe have all been short-term. There seems to be an agreement among biotech scientists to not test GE foods longer than 90 days in rats, which is only about seven to nine years in human terms. That’s nothing when you consider the average human life span is somewhere in the 70s, and the current generation is fed GMO food from Day 1.

How to Protect Yourself From Toxic Agriculture

The biotech giants have deep pocketbooks and political influence and are fighting to maintain their position of dominance. At the end of the day, we must shatter Monsanto’s grip on the agricultural sector. There is no way to recall GMOs once they have been released into the environment. The stakes could not be higher. Will you continue supporting the corrupt, toxic and unsustainable food system that Monsanto and its industry allies are working so hard to protect?

For more and more people, the answer is no. Consumers are rejecting genetically engineered and pesticide-laden foods. Another positive trend is that there has been strong growth in the global organic and grass-fed sectors. This just proves one thing: We can make a difference if we steadily work toward the same goal.

One of the best things you can do is to buy your foods from a local farmer who runs a small business and uses diverse methods that promote regenerative agriculture. You can also join a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program, where you can buy a “share” of the vegetables produced by the farm, so that you get a regular supply of fresh food.

I believe that joining a CSA is a powerful investment not only in your own health, but in that of your local community and economy as well. In addition, you should also adopt preventive strategies that can help reduce the toxic chemical pollution that assaults your body. I recommend visiting these trustworthy sites for non-GMO food resources in your country as well:

Organic Food Directory (Australia) Eat Wild (Canada)
Organic Explorer (New Zealand) Eat Well Guide (United States and Canada)
Farm Match (United States) Local Harvest (United States)
Weston A. Price Foundation (United States) The Cornucopia Institute
Demeter USA American Grassfed Association

Monsanto and its allies want you to think that they control everything, but they are on the wrong side of history. It’s you, the informed and empowered, who hold the future in your hands. Let’s all work together to topple the biotech industry’s house of cards. Remember — it all starts with shopping smart and making the best food purchases for you and your family.

Biotech Companies Are Gaining Power by Taking Over the Government

to read the rest of the article, go to:    http://www.wakingtimes.com/2018/06/27/the-peril-on-your-plate-film-explores-the-human-health-effects-of-genetic-engineering-and-chemical-agriculture/

How Safe is the Impossible Burger?

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News Release: “Bleeding” veggie burger has “no basis for safety,” according to FDA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Creators of a fake-meat burger made with a high-profile genetically engineered ingredient may have landed their experimental industry in a sizzling food safety mess, casting doubt on a Silicon Valley foodtech investor bubble.

As reported on in today’s New York Times, recently obtained documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reveal that Impossible Foods, maker of the Impossible Burger, the meatless burger that supposedly “bleeds,” was told by FDA officials that it hadn’t provided adequate proof of safety for a genetically engineered protein that gives the burger its meat-like taste and color. Impossible Foods put the genetically engineered product on the market for public consumption even though the company privately admitted to the FDA that it had not conducted or designed safety tests. The FOIA-produced documents state that the “FDA believes that the arguments presented, individually and collectively, do not establish the safety of SLH for consumption, nor do they point to a general recognition of safety.”

“The FDA told Impossible Foods that its burger was not going to meet government safety standards, and the company admitted it didn’t know all of its constituents. Yet it sold it anyway to thousands of unwitting consumers. Responsible food companies don’t treat customers this way,” said Jim Thomas of ETC Group. “Impossible Foods should pull the burgers from the market unless and until safety can be established by the FDA and apologize to those whose safety it may have risked.”

“Under no circumstances should any food company ignore FDA safety warnings and put consumers’ health at risk,” Dana Perls, senior food and technology campaigner at Friends of the Earth. “The FDA must be the authority when it comes to determining food safety, and that means overhauling the broken regulatory process so that companies like Impossible Foods cannot self-regulate and rubber stamp their products as safe.”

The FDA’s safety designation of “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) allows a manufacturer, like Impossible Foods, to decide for itself, without FDA input, whether or not a product is safe. The self-determination does not require notice to the public or the FDA, and may apply to food chemicals regardless of industry conflicts of interest, or whether the chemicals are new or not widely studied.

U.S. government documents, obtained by ETC Group and Friends of the Earth U.S. through the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that Impossible Foods was warned by FDA officials that its key genetically engineered ingredient, “soy leghemeglobin” (SLH), would not meet the basic FDA GRAS status. SLH, or “heme,” is a bio-engineered protein additive that adds meat-like taste and color. Impossible Foods recognizes that SLH has never been widespread in the human diet in its natural or genetically engineered form. Despite touting the color properties of the engineered “heme,” Impossible Foods did not seek FDA approval as a color additive, which has stricter safety regulations.

In discussion with FDA, Impossible Foods also admitted that up to a quarter of its “heme” ingredient was composed of 46 “unexpected” additional proteins, some of which are unidentified and none of which were assessed for safety in the dossier.

The case of Impossible Burger raises concerns that surpass this one patty and implicates the extreme genetic engineering field of synthetic biology, particularly the new high-tech investor trend of “vat-itarian” foods (meat, dairy, and other animal proteins grown in a biotech vat instead of from an animal). While Impossible Burger is the poster child for this vat-grown approach, other companies such as Perfect Day (synthetic biology cow milk) and Clara Foods (synthetic biology egg whites) appear also to be racing to market. Just as biofuels were pitched as a “clean tech” fix to climate change a decade ago, the vat-itarian venture capitalists are now attempting to capitalize on animal welfare concerns through “molecular farming.”

While the health and environmental damage caused by large-scale industrial livestock production should not be minimized, the success of non-animal burgers like the non-GMO Beyond Burger demonstrates that plant-based animal substitutes can succeed without resorting to genetic engineering.

A 2013 US National Survey by Hart Research found that 61% of respondents felt negative about synthetic biology-produced food additives. Polls also show that consumers increasingly want GMOs to be labeled as such, but so far, most companies selling products with synthetic biology ingredients, including Impossible Foods, are not labeling on the products or menus.

Friends of the Earth and ETC Group reached out last week to Impossible Foods, inviting the company to a discussion on the safety of the Impossible Burger.

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Impossible Burger FOIA documents are available here.

For further information and analysis see ETC Group’s on-line searchable database of synthetic biology derived ingredients, including Impossible Food’s “heme”.

See Friends of the Earth’s blog on synthetic biology animal replacement products “Is ‘Food-Tech’ the Future of Food?” and website for additional information on synthetic biology’s risks to our health and environment.

from:    http://www.synbiowatch.org/2017/08/bleeding-veggie-burger-has-no-basis-for-safety-according-to-fda/?lores

Transhumanist Agenda – Crashing

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The Crashing Matrix and Last Ditch Trans-Everything Agenda

by Zen Gardner

The outdated matrix programming by the engineers of deceit can’t keep up. The vibrational changes are exceeding their capabilities.  The imitators of creation can’t maintain a current operating system any longer in the face of this massive Universal shift we’re undergoing.

And it’s driving them nuts.

Just look at the desperation we’re witnessing. Crude military and police state maneuvers are only one aspect, of course working in concert with dastardly economic manipulations and an outlandish propaganda barrage. The biggest clue is seeing the previously incremental and now hyperbolic use of technocratic programs from mass surveillance and data gathering to the advent of cyber warfare and artificial intelligence, while crazed maniacs at CERN try to crack into other dimensions.

The magnitude and desperation of their insane agenda has become completely transparent to just about anyone.

This last techno-based stage is a draconian move to try to delete our innate humanity before our awakening reaches critical mass. They’ve openly admitted this. Hence their attempt to transmute everything from genes and humans to automated monsters and geoengineering. Agreed, when it comes to realizing what’s happening there are the entranced apathetics who swallow anything, but we’re witnessing what’s bound to lead to a total meltdown of their dark designs before our very eyes.

If you can’t see it, look again.

The Proof is in the Dot Connected Pudding

First of all you’re in the wrong mindset if you’re looking only for data or left brained evidence that they are in their death throes, although it’s out there for those who can see. When we come to understand the vibrational workings of our holographic reality everything takes on new dimensions and opens us up to understanding these more esoteric notions.

Those with awakened hearts can feel this. I say hearts because much of what we need to grasp or at least track is intuitive and somewhat metaphysical. Taking all of the information and dot connecting and personal spiritual experience together paints very clear pictures, we just need to trust what we’re seeing and learning. When we explore these realities we’re sensing, we start to notice how they’re manifesting.

Forbidding free speech, shooting civilians with no cause, obviously propagandized news, wars with no possible end, deliberate poisoning, starvation and dumbing down of populations are all completely transparent. Add these next levels of technotronic and genetic morphings and the picture is as plain as day.

They’re as obvious as the desperate, flailing, and dying aberrant parasitical species that they are.

It’s kind of a conscious or spiritual symbiosis we’re experiencing as our awakening dissolves their machinations. They all work together. But ignoring the spiritual and metaphysical as “evidence” in conjunction with such obvious manifestations is why this world has devolved into its current state. Previous enlightened civilizations and earth connected tribes took this type of understanding to heart. Our current imposed paradigm does nothing of the sort.

Of course, because it only exposes their perfidy.

Spirit-Bear-by-Simon-Haiduk

They Can’t Control the Shift

Their programs can’t keep up with the changes the cosmos is bringing to our planet and race. The perfect metaphor. While they’ve literally gotten away with murder for millennia and are working furiously to enforce their “programs” at so many levels, the time’s up.  We have news for you boys, you’ve been superceded, or should I say “super seeded”. The new upgraded paradigm is taking over one awakened light infused body at a time. It’s just a matter of time before your whole wicked system crashes.

The shift is moving through their lower level grip and on into massive human empowerment and transcension beyond the net they’ve laid for humanity.

It’s got to be frustrating the hell out of these creeps. Imagine, the very thing you’re trying to encase in every way possible keeps morphing before your eyes and slipping through the grate. They can throw up matrix program after program but their perceived petri dish subjects just keep finding ways to survive and grow beyond their control or even imagination. What irony the Universe has.

But again, this reality is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps it’s those who grasp this that transcend. Something to think about.

end-of-time2

Hence the Transhumanist Agenda – Things They Think They Can Control

Humanity is getting out of hand, in their eyes. All the while we’re being empowered not only by our own awakening and resultant commitment to truth, but also by a fundamental vibrational shift we’re undergoing. No savior, no galactic battlestars. It’s us, and an organic consciousness evolution at the deepest level with a living, expanding and all enveloping Universe.

We’re awakening with Creation Itself.

Anyone who’s woken up to almost any degree understands everything is interconnected. Even “modern” physics is arriving at this reality, all while mainstream thinking ignores the profound ramifications of such a liberating concept. That we’re all interconnected not just as a race, but with the earth and the cosmos in such a fundamental way is a game changer. While this has been known for eons and is now finally being identified, our current control model cannot even begin to acknowledge this fact. To these oligarchs and self-appointed maniacal masterminds, no matter what powers they’re summoning, that truth is something apparently well beyond their debased comprehension.

It’s out of their league.

Sure, they have their satanic rituals and tap into other dimensional powers and entities, but it’s child’s play compared to the True picture of our all Powerful Creative Universe. That they live in rebellion against this Force is a known reality for millennia, and even alluded to by spiritual traditions and native shamanic teachings alike for ages. Bringing this understanding “down to earth” is another story.

This is why genetic engineering and the transhumanism agenda is so important to them. This attempt to fundamentally change human nature and the merging of man with machine has been in the works for a long time. Clipping the link with our humanity by short circuiting the human creation is an obvious next step for these would-be controllers. Agreed, they’ve made it a fad and carefully groomed acceptance of such a trend, but it’s going to fritz and die in the junkyard of temporal existence. It can’t stand, never mind last, in such a creative force field.

Time will bear this out, as has happened to previous off-course civilizations.

field-of-cormallen

The Time the Warrior Arrives

It’s up to us. We have everything going for us but our will and actions need to be aligned with this transition. We can ignore it or respond. The sanctity of our free will cannot be violated. Either we fully awaken and get paddling and ride the wave or it crashes on us and perhaps dissipates on the shores of time for lack of recognition or response. And the whole cycle may need to be repeated. Not a nice destiny.

I don’t know.

I know I’m not coming back. I’m pretty sure I’m done with this insanity while doing my damnedest to change things this time around. If enough of us did it won’t get repeated, but time will tell. Not many seem to be willing to respond, even though their lives and their children and grandchildren’s lives are at stake as well as the future of humanity. Talk about self imposed defeat and debilitation.

But people are waking up.

Either way, the matrix will collapse over time. We have an opportunity to make it this round. Let’s take it. The true civilization of love, peace, harmony and abundance awaits manifesting.

Is it time?

I think so. It is for me.

How about you?

Love, Zen

from:    http://www.zengardner.com/crashing-matrix-last-ditch-trans-everything-agenda/

Wave Genetics & Health

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Wave Genetics: Increase Energy and Regrow Tissues, Organs, Bones, and Teeth

by PL Chang
Wave genetics is the process of using resonant waves and certain electromagnetic waves to affect the genes in DNA. Russian scientists have been experimenting with wave genetics for more than 80 years. Their research has shown that wave genetics has the potential to heal any illness and dramatically extend the lifespan of certain organisms, including human beings.

The Healing Potential of Wave Genetics
Wave genetics is not well-known in the West because most Western scientists think that it is based on pseudoscience. It is unfortunate that most Western scientists feel this way, because wave genetics is important for taking genetic engineering to the next level. With better knowledge and technology, scientists could one day be able to use wave genetics to make GMO healthy to eat, cure “incurable” diseases, and regrow tissues and lost body parts.
As described at WaveGenetic.ru.
At present we are able to program/manage/encode stem cells of various types by means of a quantum bio-computer. The quantum bio-computer initiates wave/field-based commands, given to cells and tissues of the donor/recipient, and accordingly the stem cells exposed to the waves/field will be prompted to guided cytodifferentiation leading to emergence and development of planned/projected new organs and tissues. This will bring us closer to the fact of substantially increased life expectancy.
Significant achievements in applying WaveGenetics have been made thus far in regeneration of pancreas in rats previously destroyed by chemical substance called alloxan.
Three series of experiments with identical protocol were conducted by the groups of P. Gariaev in 2000 in Moscow Russia, in 2001 in Toronto, Canada, and in 2005 in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia. These are more advanced experiments based on the principles and technology of WaveGenetics.
How Wave Genetics Can Cure Diseases and Regrow Tissues and Lost Body Parts
Wave genetics has the ability to stimulate certain parts of DNA and even change them. This is possible because DNA has electromagnetic properties and therefore when the right electromagnetic waves flow through DNA, they can affect the electromagnetic properties of DNA.
DNA is not only made of nucleotides, sugars, phosphate, and amino acids. It is also made of biophotons. According to some Russian scientists, the helical structure of DNA allows biophotons to spiral in a coherent manner. This process acts as an electromagnetic communication system that is found in every cells of our bodies.
One of the ways that wave genetics can be used to heal genes is by beaming a laser with epigenetic information toward a specific area of the body. This process can transfer the epigenetic information into the DNA of cells and change its gene expression. By changing the gene expression of cells, it can stimulate cells to regenerate organs and bones, and slow the aging process.
Since the emergence of epigenomics and wave genetics, they have already revolutionized the health industry. With the right technology, epigenomics and wave genetics will revolutionize the health industry by giving us the tools to cure every disease known to mankind. For more information on epigenomics and DNA, read this empowering article titled Epigenomics and How Natural Nutrients Heal Genes.
Why Understanding How DNA Works is the Key to Longevity and More Energy
DNA contains the codes of life. When these codes are changed through unhealthy diets, emotional problems, and other means, they can affect our bodies in negative ways, which in turn could lead to premature aging and a lack of energy.
The codes of DNA are not your normal computer codes, because they are “living” codes that have the ability to communicate at a level that allows them to “think” to a certain point.
As mentioned at AwakeAndEmpoweredExpo.com.
In order to better understand Gariaev’s work, he (and others) insist that we acknowledge that the 1962 Nobel Prize winners James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins missed some key points that caused the field of DNA and genetic research to be built on an incomplete foundation from the start. He states, “We must first alter our entire understanding of genetics and move to a different understanding of the genetic code.” Gariaev goes on to state a fundamental fact that, “DNA is like written, readable text”. This genetic structure has an individual’s consciousness and thinking contained within. Put bluntly, Gariaev says, “It can think on its own”. Genetic information exists everywhere internally and externally. It can be found in physical fields, electromagnetic fields and torsion fields. However, Gariaev points out that “the way we transmit information in our body is through the electromagnetic and torsions fields.”
Once you know how DNA works at the level described by Gariaev, you will know that there is a spiritual side to DNA. Because of this, scientists will never know how DNA really works until they learn to combine science and spirituality as one.
Wave Genetics Can Cure Any Disease – Dr. Peter Garyaev
Sources:
Eversole, Finley. Energy Medicine Technologies: Ozone Healing, Microcrystals, Frequency Therapy, and the Future of Health.
Inner Traditions. Rochester, Vermont, 2013.
from:    http://www.riseearth.com/2015/07/wave-genetics-increase-energy-and.html

GMO Trees

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Check out this video on GMO trees, what they are, how they are, and think about it.  oH, and as always, do the research:

Video Information

The largely unknown potential danger to human health and the environmental health of our planet posed by the planned introduction of genetically engineered trees is explored in “Silent Forest.” Narrated by Dr. David Suzuki, the film lays out, in compelling detail, the dangers of open-air plantations of these untested man-made trees. And the added problem of intellectual property rights. “A Silent Forest” is a wake-up call to the dangers of genetic engineering of trees and the impact it could have on all of us.

 

http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=CB069DB645440DF9AF4E74E8BA4C5E77

 

from:    http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=CB069DB645440DF9AF4E74E8BA4C5E77