Author: TomsWrite

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Farmer suicides rising in India as GM Bt cotton crops fail

The record suicide rate among farmers in India continues to rise, with one farmer now committing suicide every 30 minutes. Many media reports blame failed GM Bt cotton crops for the crisis.

More than a quarter of a million farmers have killed themselves in the last 16 years in what is the largest recorded wave of suicides in history. An article for Sky News reports that one farmer who committed suicide “had been persuaded to use genetically modified seeds by the possibility of a better harvest. What he wasn’t told was that they needed more rain than the region provided.”

Farmers who grow GM crops also have to borrow money for expensive pesticides and fertilizers. When the crop fails, they cannot repay their debts. The article comments, “Across rural India there is now widespread despair. The fields are also filling up with widows.” Read the Article]

* Bt cotton was first released for commercial growing in India in 2002, and the data on farm suicides show clearly that the last eight years were much worse than the preceding eight – which is alarming since the total number of farmers is declining. [Read the Article]

India’s Bt cotton “revolution” has lost its sheen over the past five years, with government data showing a consistent decline in cotton yield. Even as the area under Bt has grown to 93 per cent of the total area under the cash crop, the overall yield is estimated to decline to a five-year low this year. [Read the Article]

Farmers and activists who oppose GM crops argue that none of the promises made during the introduction of GM seeds have come true. In certain cases, the opposite has happened. Some farmers report that crops failed to flower, producing no yield at all. Others report low yields and high cost of GM seed and chemical insecticides, which farmers still have to spray in spite of marketing claims that Bt cotton reduces or eliminates the need for them.

As for GM proponents’ claims that if GM seeds were so bad, farmers wouldn’t buy them, it’s clear that the consolidation in the seed market means that GM seeds are all that’s available. [Read the Article]

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Fluoride is Toxic

I just read a post form someone saying fluoride has been used for years so it must be safe. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here is my response with several excerpts from my book.
Just because something does not kill you instantly it does not mean there is nothing wrong with it. Some factors take a while to work through the system and are not always obvious as to their effects.
As just one effect, the rate at which people are contracting cancer is growing rapidly, despite the billions of $ spent in the war on cancer.
This year or last, 150 mummies were tested to see if the bodies had any sign of cancer. Only one did. In our lifetimes 50% of people will contract cancer. This indicates cancer is not “natural” but a result of dietary or lifestyle changes made in the last 2,000 years.
We now have tens of thousands of chemicals to which we are exposed every year, many of them toxic, many carcinogenic. While the body does have mechanisms to protect us from their effects, those mechanisms can be overloaded or disabled.
Chlorine is added to water to kill pathogens. It breaks apart and recombines with chemicals from lotions, shampoos and makeup that wash down the drains. Even worse, it combines with pharmaceutical residuals to form contaminated chloroform compounds in town water mains. Remember chloroform? It used to be used as an anesthetic. Not any more. The US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health considers chloroform a carcinogen. It has been found to cause liver, kidney and thyroid tumours and has been linked to bladder and rectal cancer.
Town water contamination is now being linked to cancer and other serious ailments and birth defects. The Australian newspaper of 11 June 2008 carried a report on Australian town water, being seriously high in Trihalomethane [THM] chloroform contamination. The report cited tests conducted on 20,870 babies in Perth agreeing with similar tests by British and Taiwanese scientists on 396,049 babies born in Taiwan identifying serious birth defects and other health problems caused from Chlorinated Town water.
The thyroid gland is a principle player in the immune system. 94.5% of people tested by one doctor are deficient in iodine. 20% of adults over 40 have thyroid problems. The most common is hypothyroidism – an underactive thyroid. Hypothyroidism is one of the primary reasons many people over 40 struggle to lose weight.
In a 1958 book to do with diet written by a doctor in America the chapter regarding the thyroid gland states:
“All the blood in the body passes through the thyroid gland every 17 minutes. During this 17 minute passage the gland’s secretion of iodine KILLS weak germs that may have gained entry into the blood through an injury to the skin, the lining of nose or throat, or through absorption of food from the digestive tract, Strong, virulent germs are rendered weaker by each 17 min trip, until finally they are killed.
“It is well established that the iodine content of the thyroid gland is dependent upon the iodine available in the food and water intake of the individual.
“This gland performs other functions besides killing harmful germs in the blood. The 1st is the rebuilding of energy with which to do the day’s work. The 2nd is to calm the body and relieve nervous tension, and the 3rd relates to clear thinking. Iodine is also one of the best oxidizing catalysts we have.
“Now while the thyroid gland helpfully stores iodine from the blood passing through it every 17 minutes, the gland MAY also BE MADE TO LOSE THAT STORED IODINE IF, for example, WE TAKE IN DRINKING WATER TO WHICH CHLORINE IS ADDED, or use too much sodium chloride, whose common name is table salt.
“There is a WELL-KNOWN law of halogen displacement. The halogen group is made up as follows:
Halogen Relative Atomic Weight
FLUORINE 19.
CHLORINE 35.5
BROMINE 80.
IODINE 127.
ASTATINE 210
“The clinical activity of any one of these halogens is in INVERSE proportion to its atomic weight. This means that any one of the four, CAN DISPLACE THE ELEMENT WITH A HIGHER ATOMIC WEIGHT but cannot displace an element with a lower atomic weight.
“Therefore FLUORINE with the LOWEST atomic weight CAN REPLACE ALL of the others, but most of all IODINE. BUT A REVERSE ORDER IS NOT POSSIBLE.
“Iodine is one of a group of 5 elements called halogens. Fluorine is the one with the lowest atomic weight, iodine is second highest. Elements with lower atomic weights will displace those with higher atomic weights, hence fluoride will displace iodine. Since we take in fluoride with our water supply and the iodine levels in food have dropped 50% over the last 50 years then we have a 94.7% chance of being iodine deficient.
“Conclusion: This means we are less resistant to germs and more likely to get sicker for longer and more likely to die.
“Iodine and colloidal silver and gold can be used to disinfect water. Data on how to use iodine to sterilize water can be obtained from http://www.beyondweird.com/survival/iodine.html
Dr Rashid Buttar says toxicity is a major factor in cancer.
If you want 438 pages of life changing data like this, check out more from my book at www.DefeatDegenerativeDisease.com