The Obama USDA continues to cut its reaper's scythe through American agriculture, as it stands poised to approve Monsanto's GMO cotton and soybeans. Monsanto has created these new Frankenfoods to be more resistant to two herbicides, dicamba and glufosinate, the latter of which was banned by the European Parliament in 2009 after scientists found that it tended to interfere with human reproduction. Scientists have linked both herbicides to various reproductive, kidney, and cancer-related disorders, and we all know that more genetically-modified crops means more bombardment with harmful herbicides and pesticides -- and sadly, it might also mean the demise of organic agriculture as an alternative to corporate agriculture, as the wind spreads the new Frankenseeds (or even the pesticides and herbicides) around the land until organic farms become contaminated beyond rescue. Hence Friends of the Earth helps you tell the USDA to reject Monsanto's GMO cotton and soybeans. Regrettably, I must ask you to act quickly, because the deadline for comments to the USDA on this matter is today. That doesn't preclude the possibility that they'll extend the deadline so that they can get more pro-GMO comments, though.
Meanwhile, West Virginia activists have started a petition on Change.org which helps you tell West Virginia's Governor and Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection to reject plans to frack under the Ohio River. The Ohio River runs a long way, you see -- not just through Ohio, but also through Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky -- and gives three million good folks their drinking water, so if West Virginia allows gas drillers to frack underneath the Ohio, there's a good chance all those carcinogenic chemicals used in fracking will wind up in someone's tap. Perhaps it looks like West Virginia's politicians are trying to wean their state off coal, but no one ever seems to try to wean off coal with wind and solar, though states can certainly do these things, and surely West Virginia's politicians know that gas drilling puts methane into the atmosphere, and methane traps heat far more efficiently than any pollutant coal puts out. I can't help but think they're just trying to add gas drilling corporations to the list of cronies they can tap for campaign funds. You'd think they'd know better than to play such games, considering the Elk River chemical leak was only nine months ago. Best we remind them, then.
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