ARK NEWS, NOTES AND INFORMATION

To submit an article that you feel we should see or re-post on this site, please submit your article here. Personal published articles or short stories appreciated, but please be aware that we will not post anything inflamatory, hateful, or slanderous, and will tend to shy away from opinion pieces regarding politics or religion.

Come sign the petition to tell WalMart, the largest food retailer, that we don't want them selling Monsanto ChemiCorn! You don't have to like WalMart, or even shop there, but signing the petition can help raise awareness and hopefully stop the spread of the untested genetic monster!

We want to cover the world in our non-GMO produce gardens! Please help support great organizations like Urban Sprouts in their mission to feed the hungry and deserving, and also support The Ark Institute so that we can continue to support such movements!Your support can come in the form of spreading the word, or purchasing seed, or just donating straight to one of our supported organizations on your own. Or just grow your own non-GMO produce and help support the mission at home!

Too bad not all top-10 lists can be Letterman-style hilarious...

Monsanto acquired a firm that has successfully mapped the genetic structure of honeybees. Now, all they have to do is breed and release bees that are resistant to every known pesitcide on the market, except for their own brand, and then monopolize the pesticide market just like they have sought to do with the herbicide market. If only they had been around in mid-20th century Eurpoe, I think they would have been good friends with the Führer...

Even though everyone knows it doesn't work, the FDA is still pushing to get more money sunk into it. I really wish my job description had such leniency as the FDA - fail dramatically and still get paid big dollars...

FDA reviewing Monsanto's use of herbicide 2,4-D, a major chemical used to make the Vietnam war's killer "Agent Orange". If you want to fight it, please visit this site to sign the e-petition.

Recent statement from retired food executive states that his company (and many others) use beaver anal gland extract as "natural flavoring" in processed foods to recreate the taste of rasberry and vanilla. Just because it says "natural" doesn't mean it makes sense...

Planting your own vegetable garden is like your own private "Occupy" movement, and it's one with goals that are easily stated and easily reached! Great article from a vigilante gardener in the city.

Video interview with Dr. Don Huber, agricultural scientist and expert in microbial ecology, on how "RoundUp Ready" genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are causing an outbreak of new plant, animal and human diseases. Carve out some time for this interview at nearly an hour, and contains a lot of technical jargon, but it's worth your time.
The basis for the interview is how glyphosate (Round-Up) works and how it also causes the negative effects on plants, animals and humans. To hear how exactly this happens, you can skip to 9:52 and watch for about 4 minutes; to see which crops are the most widely affected skip to 18:32, and then after that portion they discuss how this affects animals eating GMO crops (22:15) and then humans and beyond throughout the rest of the interview.
It is curious how anyone that has the power to stop (or at least halt) this science doesn't see that manipulation of the genes of plants - and directly afterwards animals and humans - as anything other than dangerous! It's more than dangerous, it should be criminal!

Congressman Dennis Kucinich has been a strong supporter of the labeling of GMO foods, and is now stepping it up a notch. Last week in DC, he introduced ligislation which would prohibit GMO crops from being grown where they can contaminate non-GMO crops through open cross pollination. The bill would also require strict tracking of all GM foods to ensure that they don't get misused or contaminate other natural foods. Now let's see what the agrochemical giants' lobbyists do to shut it down in the name of profits and secrecy...

Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, Dow and DuPont have been tried and found guilty for widespread human rights violations, and the courts are now urging the world governments to intervene and act to prevent further death and sickness. This is a HUGE step in the right direction, but a little late for the millions who have died from pesticide poisoning and related illness, and the generations of damage that have been done to our food supplies and soils.

This article shows many studies that prove Monsanto RoundUp herbicide causes sickness, disease, birth defects, and increased mortality. Worse, it shows that the negative effects are traced from GMO crops designed to resist RoundUp as well as natural, non-GMO crops.

I'm not even sure that this counts as news anymore, really...

Australia's largest bakery recently succumbed to a major social media campaign led by GreenPeace and vowed to refuse to use genetically modified (GM) wheat in their products. If we can't eliminate GMOs by other means, we can always use good old fashioned capitalism and greed and tell the food companies that if they use GMOs then we're not buying what they're selling.

A very well written article about GMOs and their proliferation right under our noses. Many studies have shown - PROVEN, not suggested - that GMOs lead to organ failure, sterility, high infant mortality, birth defects, cancer, and other diseases, when testing on animals, yet the US government continues to turn a blind eye. In this article, another consideration is brought to bear, and the Tribal Nation describes how traditional, clean organisms such as maize (corn) and others, are used for religious ceremonies. Maybe taking the religious argument to court will get some attention, because the crazy "this stuff could be killing us slowly" argument hasn't worked yet...

Bayer (yes, they make pharmaceuticals AND wheat) announced an agreement with the European Union to develop a more heat- and drought-resistant wheat over the next 10 years, and to do it without using genetic modification - aka, to do it all non-GMO. It's a great step in the non-GM battle, but Bayer actually used the announcement to further their claim that technology is essential to the food security of the world in the coming years.
I like to think that technology is required, but in the aspect of improving efficiency and irrigation, etc, just as the technology improved over the past few thousand years. The next logical step isn't to genetically modify the organisms, rather we should continue improving our kitchen gardening and regional farming systems. In other words, decentralize the subsidized farming system here in the US...

Federal court requires GM sugar beets to comply with and complete full-scale environmental impact study before being allowed to widespread use. This is no small victory - it sets the precedent that there may no longer be absolute unregulated roll out of GMOs.

AgroChemical giants Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta, DuPont & BASF (yes, those are the companies that control the majority of the seed on this planet) are going to trial under charges of "systematic human rights abuses" in that they have been encouraging and promoting the use of poisons and toxins that have yet to be tested in human consumption.

Andrew Kimbrell, founder and executive director of the Center for Food Safety, gives shockingly honest and no-nonsense dissertation on the worldwide failure of GMOs, and more so the government-wide failure of the United States government to regulate GMO use. Here we are again, back to greed and power - governmental officials (on both sides of the aisle) fail to prevent failures in the food safety sector just as they did in the financial sector, all due to the large lobbying forces in DC and the large political donations made by those that otherwise would be bearing the brunt of the regulations.

Former executive from major food companies dishes the truth about how little most of the major food companies actually care about the customers, as long as they keep paying for more their products. Well composed interview!

World scientest agree that the recent string of extreme and rare weather events are the direct result of global warming, and warn that there is a 2-in-3 chance that things will worsen. The October snowstorm of the US NorthEast, the Thailand flooding, the Texas heatwave and drought, etc - all tied to greenhouse gasses.

Howard Buffett, son of billionaire Warren Buffett, and Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations, states that Monsanto, DuPont, and GMOs in general are not the key to making a real dent in world hunger. This all while food prices AND starving people are at highest levels ever.
If you doubt his farming passion, he claims he'd rather spend a night in a field on a trailer than on a date with Angelina Jolie... I find his farming knowledge credible.

Argentinian physicians report extreme increase in cancer, birth defects, and reproductive disorders in towns where Monsanto Round-Up is sprayed.

Russian scientists link Monsanto GMO Soy to infertility, birth defects, high rate of infant mortality, and more. FYI: Monsanto GMO soy is grown on 91% of the soy fields in the United States alone...

Kitchen Gardens International, and its founder Roger Doiron, is leading the charge to reclaim America's food sustainability at the personal, home level. Here is a great video presentation of Roger sharing his vision for the 21st century and beyond, the "beyond" part being totally reliant upon our ability to grow our own food.

We at The Ark hope to be teaming up with Roger and KGI soon to bring the reality and ease of home gardening to your backyard.
Watch Roger's YouTube Video Read about Roger's White House and nationwide initiatives

Turkish game designers have created an app to allow you to single-handedly take down GMO companies, a la "Angry Birds". Too funny... You can also take them down by growing your own non-GMO produce varieties, but we don't mind you starting with these games...
Check your own smart-phone app store for versions compliant with your device.
iPhone version iPad version

Not all hybrid vegetables are bad, as is seen in this new super-broccoli. Most hybrids and even GMOs were devised with the best of intentions; sadly the best of intentions quickly morphed into the most greedy of intentions...

Let's be honest - If all GMO seeds and produce were banned today, and were taken off the shelves and destroyed in the fields tomorrow, the world would be thrust into starvation. We cannot just eliminate the GMOs, we need to first build the world supply of open-pollinated non-GMO and non-hybrid seed. We are nowhere near that point today, and it could take years to get there. That's why we should all start today!

Great article by a very respected resource for all things organic and healthy.

Ark Institute and founder Geri Guidetti support the Fair Farm Rules bill, which supports and protects small, local farmers and gardens against the monopolistic large corporations that control our food system. The sick reality is that if you put the CEOs of the companies which control approximately 75% of the nation's food supplies all together, they could sit on an average patio around a grill. That's right, there's only a few of them. We pay more for our foods at the grocery store, while they all make more money and local farmers make less and less.

We are not making a political statement here , as we try not to ever do so in this forum, but with some people trying to strip the US Government down to nothing, wouldn't we at least want to keep the parts that just may keep us alive and maintain our food health?

If you feel better buying foods that have the label "NON-GMO" on them, you may not want to read this study that shows the ease with which GM foods can contaminate planned non-GM crops, just in transit! All the more reason to grow your own produce and stay as self-reliant as possible... The study is from Australia, but so are koala bears and Crocodile Dundee, right?

It seems that everyone is starting to realize that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not so good for you. Monsanto, the largest agrochemical vegetable company in the world, is now starting to limit their GMO foods in their own corporate cafeterias!

Join the Fight for Fair Farm Standards and help protect the small- and medium-sized farmers around the country from being beaten out of the market by the large agro-chemical food goliaths! Find your local chapter or support group and let your voice be heard!

Need to contact a local politician for support or to petition for change, but don't know who he/she is? Great resource website!

Do you believe that chemical treatments and hybridization of your food has no real negative impact on your health?

If you think you're safe taking drugs that are listed as "FDA APPROVED", then you should really read THIS ARTICLE and see that it really basically just means that there is a better chance that it will help you than kill you - but maybe not by much...

News and Notes in the world of Sustainability, Self-Reliance, non-GMO Produce, and all-around Healty Living