“JUST DO IT” is a film about the direct action taking place in the U.K. and all over the world. It is a great relief and a sense of hope to see a new generation of climate change activists taking peaceful protest to new levels. Emily James’ film follows a lineage of independent film makers such as Franny Armstrong (The Age of Stupid), Annie Leonard (The Story of Stuff) and the thousands of filmakers all over the world who are chrystallising events and providing a community memory of efforts to save the planet despite governments and vested interests.
Mike Reynolds has been a constant campaigner for eco living, fighting against planning and building regulations to the point where he can no longer practice as an architect. His globally acclaimed documentary “Garbage Warrior” was seen as an example of how the building of the future could follow ecological principles. Whilst filming a programme on “the nuclear” industry in Los Alamos U.S.A., “Democracy Now” presenter Amy Goodman, interviewed Mike Reynolds.
As the American ‘corn belt’ shrivels under the extended drought, the future of food has taken an amazing turn as DOW AGROSCIENCES ‘proudly’ announces the introduction of 2,4D into the food chain.
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A predictable ‘glyphosphate immunity’ was evident less than 5 years after the introduction of Monsanto’s “Round-Up Ready” seeds. Now, of the 200 million acres a year sprayed with Round Up, 15 million acres is affected by “giant Ragweed” which is able to survive 24 TIMES the recommended usage.
GMO food is regarded by ALL world authorities and governments as the “silver bullet” for the looming food crisis to feed the expected population of 10 billion people by 2050. Monsanto’s early promise was absolutely shredded by a new report detailing the usage of chemicals in agriculture.
The promise ; “Roundup agricultural herbicides and other products are used to sustainably and effectively control weeds on the farm. Their use on Roundup Ready crops has allowed farmers to conserve fuel, reduce tillage and decrease the overall use of herbicides.”
found that ; Monsanto’s Roundup Ready technology, which dominates corn, soy, and cotton farming, has called forth a veritable monsoon of herbicides, both in terms of higher application rates for Roundup, and, in recent years, growing use of other, more-toxic herbicides. Overall, GMO technology drove up herbicide use by 527 million pounds, or about 11 percent, between 1996 (when Roundup Ready crops first hit farm fields) and 2011. For several years, the Roundup Ready trait actually did meet Monsanto’s promise of decreasing overall herbicide use—herbicide use dropped by about 2 percent between 1996 and 1999. But then weeds started to develop resistance to Roundup, pushing farmers to apply higher per-acre rates. In 2002, farmers using Roundup Ready soybeans jacked up their Roundup application rates by 21 percent, between 2009 and 2010 alone, herbicide use jumped 24 percent.
The report’s author, Chuck Benbrook, research professor at Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, cites 2,4D use on corn crops went from 4.4 million pounds in 1995 to 2.4 million in 2000 before jumping to 3.3 million pounds in 2010, as farmers increasingly resorted to it to attack Roundup-resistant weeds. If 2,4-D resistant corn is widely adopted, 2,4-D use will hit 103.4 millon pounds on corn fields per year by 2019. Overall, Benbrook projects a 30-fold increase in 2,4-D applied between 2000 and 2019. Because 2,4-D is so toxic, the result will not be pretty.
Such a dramatic increase could pose heightened risk of birth defects and other reproductive problems, more severe impacts on aquatic ecosystems, and more frequent instances of off-target movement and damage to nearby crops and plants.
As the American ‘corn belt’ shrivels under the extended drought, the future of food has taken an amazing turn as DOW AGROSCIENCES ‘proudly’ announces the introduction of 2,4D into the food chain.
No place like home. 