Montag, 25. Februar 2013

Genetic manipulation and Equal Money Capitalism



Problems:

Ok, so artificilly genetic modified organisms have been around of a while and there are lots of points and fundamental questions that one could bring up and discuss in terms of if we „should“ do genetic manipulations at all and as indicated in the „should“ or „could“ the debate is often from a starting point of Moral or some form of Ethics, kind of involving fear of some kind of „god“ or „creation“ that can not be changed my man. Nevertheless it is done for some time now, indicating that if there was a „God“ that would forbid messing with his/her/its Creation humans do not care that much apparently. So this „question of principle“ i will not discuss here, also because it is already answered in the word „Principle“ - but rather look at the current manifestation of genetic engineering on the basis of a recent Article from „Mail Online“:
 

Basically, what the article says is that in a new study of the European Food Safety Autority segments of viral DNA were found that the international approval process failed to identify. The consequence is that the savety or potential danger and the overall effects of the presence in the crop of „Gen VI“ was not studied beforehand and now we are facing „problems“.


"It has been assumed that virus genes are not present in the plant once it is grown in the field and reaches consumers, however it is now clear that this is not the case.

 
A review of the EFSA research in Independent Science News said the presence of the viral gene appears to have been missed by biotech companies, universities and government regulators.

'This situation represents a complete and catastrophic system failure,' it said. 'There are clear indications that this viral gene might not be safe for human consumption. It also may disturb the normal functioning of crops, including their natural pest resistance.

'A reasonable concern is that the protein produced by Gene VI might be a human toxin. This is a question that can only be answered by future experiments.“

 
What this shows again is that the „biotech companies“ + officials simply have no clue on that is really accepted and allowed in terms of long term as well as unexpected effects genetic engineering can have.

 So - Problem number one is that we do we do not know all what consequences genetic manipulation and introducing manipulated organisms such as pants or animals to the ecosystem actually are. We do not know the consequences that the consumption of GM-Food has in fact. If you have the chance, i would suggest everybody to watch the Documentary „Gekaufte Wahrheit – Gentechnik im Magnetfeld des Geldes“. It reveals some pretty concerning facts about the Bio-Tech Companies and their methods.



Gekaufte Wahrheit - 12min-Trailer (with english speaking interviews)
 
Gekaufte Wahrheit, Zensurund Gesinnungsterror (interview in german)
 
Around 95% of all „Scientists“ working in this field are at the moment or where payed directly by the industry – So much in terms of „independet research“, it does not exist. No long term Studies of GM-grops where done up to now and the ones that where done showed for example serious alteration of Organs and tissue in the Animals, when feed over an extended period of time, i. e. a few months. This results are then deliberatly made „unscientific“ because for example the grop what was feed as a „Control“ of a not genetically engineered crop was not the same „mother-line“ of seeds/grops. That mother-line is in the hands of the Company producing the manipulated grops/seeds, they wont give it out for studies/research, and so practically no study/research can be done that will be accepted according to „scientific terms“. Another example is the spreading of GM-corn in Mexico, the country of origin of corn. Nobody wanted manipulaed corn there, and in fact it is still prohibited to grow it, but through cross-pollintation it has mixed and spread throughout the whole country. This shows that the companies have in fact no Control over thier apprent creations. Scientic work that proves this such as presented by Ignacio Chapela is put down and the careers of such beings are usually compromised.

Second problem i wan to adress her is that most of the crops, lets take soy here, is modified to give them a resistance against herbicides like. The example most know is Monsanto selling the genetically modifed soy + the poison „Roundup“. Besides the inconsiderate/abusive approach towards plants, we have the problem of Posion in our nature, our soil, our crops and so in the end Food that was treated with poision. As the weeds that should be killed with the Poison adapt and also develop resistances towards the chemicals they grow again and the farmer has the same weeds-problem again. As the apparent solution More Poison is promoted and so there are farmers using up to 8-9 Herbicides on their fields. This means lots of poision accumulates + we dont even know how this different Chemicals react with each other and the environment, what effects this will have on the ecosystems.

A last Problem-point for this blog is the practice of producing steril seeds, so that the farmer become dependet and have buy again each jear, each season. Is there a more explicit definition of „unsustainable“ than to take fertile life and sterilize it just make Profit?


Solutions:

As already touched upon in the in the beginning of this blog, the „Problem“ ist the Starting-Point Principle on which genetic engineering is currently based upon, which ist Profit, makeing money. The same can be/become our main „Solution“ when we redefine Profit and Captialism according to the Principle of „Equality and Oneness as Life“ what will also change our total startingpoint and so practices of science like genetics. No longer will scientist be dependent on coorperations to pay their bills and so not forced into situations of compromising their scientific standards or concerns for example about the safety of modified organisms, just so that a „product“ can be „created“ and thrown on the maket, or rather on the earth, at nature at us all with unpredictable consequences.

Again i will quote here two excerpts from the Equal Money Capitalism – Proposal, that is layed out in the Economist Journeyto Life Blogs:  

„So studies like ecology, physics, sociology, education, psychology will form the basis of economics and not the other way around - where today, economics determines science in terms of what is currently being researched as that which is the most profitable.“
Day 184 – The Relationship betweenEcology and Economy in Equal Money Capitalism

Informed Decision-Making

"Within Capitalism, the assumption is made that the consumer always has full knowledge available about the products they can buy - and thus, that they are always able to make informed decisions about the purchases they make - and that this mechanism, therefore - makes it so that only the best quality products are bought and stimulated to be produced, while inferior products will phase out. Obviously - this is currently not the case. The only point that is shared (and not even that comprehensively) is the ingredients. Labelling within Equal Money Capitalism will include not only ingredients, but also how the price was established - who contributed to the production process, what share of the profit goes to these participants - what are the externalities involved in terms of the harm that was caused towards the environment in the form of pollution and what resources were involved to produce the product, etc." Day 162 Equal Money Capitalism - The Way Forward
 

Informed decision making is a crucial point in this discussion and as we can see clearly informed decisions were not made in the field of genetic engineering, knowledge and information is held back, not considered and studies have not been carried out even though it was suggested by the FDA itself. The „rights“ to do so are protected by money and when we really look at it, it is atrocious and scary that we/the animals are feed potentially harmful stuff for decades and the companies making profit of this are protected behind „walls of paper“. Would you buy and eat GM-Food when its is labled? Would you buy and eat GM-Food when you know and have the information that there are studies that show that anmials feed with modified food show significant alterations in thier physicals? At least it would be cool to know and have all points investigated properly and results disclosed and put on the table openly so we can decide what is best for all.

As for now genetic engineering is only best for the Companies, like Monsanto, where they deliberatly create „products“ to make thier costumers = farmers dependent on. The truth is that we find bare to none gain in field with modified crops, and more studies show that there is no benefit (http://www.geneticallymodifiedfoods.co.uk/gm-foods-product-yields.html):

„A report that was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that the GM crops currently available are not able to improve the yield potential of hybrid varieties. Another study suggested that yields can actually decrease if the varieties that are used for carrying herbicide-tolerant genes or also ones resistant to pests aren't the strongest yielding cultivars.“

So, the solution to problem Number two is pretty simply: We grow regular grops – if we can still find them. There are biodynamic methods of farming, where one considers the individual plants and and their relationship to the soil, environment and each other to have less parasites or/and diseases and when we really look at it we will often find that if there is a epidemic of pests/parasites/weeds there is somewhere a disharmony in the System – which at the moment mostly the human is the very cause of or at least a factor in. Would for example be weeds-problems or outbreaks of bark-beetles if there are no monocultures? Does Nature know the term „Pest Plant“?

The solution for third problem is also: Simply not doing it! But rather supporting ourselves and the plants as well in supporting and fostering their ability/design to grow in life-cycles with the by-product of giving us foods what we can do equally in giving them the necessary environment, nutrients and minerals that they need. Co-Existance in mutal support instead of abuse and inconsideration. A cool approch and example of how such a farming could look like is the work of Sepp Holzner.


 

The Rewards:
Lets start again with the first Point. The reward of having scientists that earn a equal profit share just like anybody else will be a transparent and trustworthy science where we can be sure the necessary studies are carried out in the best interest of all, instead of in the interest to survival and greed. Without the fear of „gentic engineering, which is in fact the fear of actually exactly knowing that the Bio-tech companies are more caring their profits then for the majority, we could look at the whole point with real eyes and see if, what, how we can align it to with what is best for all. Without need, force, push, judgement or fear simply investigating considering everything and when we find that there is something cool and worthwhile we can do it. But there will no secret about it, no debates about labeling and no hidden ingredients.

The reward for changing our approach in terms of farming will be less poison in the environment, soil and eventually healtier food. We will kill less lifeforms for your survival in an inconsiderate manner but instead get to know how everything functions and cooperates in the phyiscal world what has a doubble bonus included, where on the one hand we will develop an in depth understanding, consideration and regard for the plants, their relationship between themselves, to the soil, the environment, waht they need, what nutrients, water etc. and on the other hand the more effective and real our understanding for and relationship with the plants/nature is and will be the more cool, healthy, nurishing and diverse foods we get in return. So, here we have the chance to develop real sustainability WITH what is here. 
 
                                      WWW.EQUALMONEY.ORG 
 

Art: Marlen Vargas del Razo


Dienstag, 19. Februar 2013

The great Pacific Garbage Pad and Equal Money Capitalism


Problem:

In our Oceans several so called Garbage Patches have formed. The most pronounced are the North Atlantic Garbage Patch, the Indian Ocean Garbage Patch and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. What is a garbage Patch and why is it a problem?



Basically Garbage Patches are large Vortexes in which floating plastic waste is sucked and cycles trapped by the ocean currents. Obviously neither the Oceans nor the Currents are to blame for the accumulation of waste in these areas. It is estimated that around 20 % of the plastic stems from sea-based human emitters such as ships or oil-rigs, while 80% is emitted from land-based human systems/emitters.

 
To find out more about the genesis of these patches we have to look back more than 150 years where the first plastics were discovered and since became a primary resource/material for our Economic System. For Self-education on this I suggest watching the Documentary “Addicted to Plastic”, a great film which covers also most of what is discussed here. One can lit(t)er-Ally say that plastics has become our “drug of abuse/addiction”, the Way it was/is used to promote and facilitate the fast paced consumerism lifestyle with lots of cheap and disposable feel-good products. Plastics are resistant and durable, dependent on the specific compound and circumstances they last several hundred years in the environment. This means that, besides a small amount that has been incinerated, all the plastic produced from the beginning is still in circulation on the planet – and it gets more and more on a daily basis. We are just now becoming aware of the potential timebomb we have been and are accumulating within the unaware use of plastics – in the name of Money.


Suggested to watch:

Addicted to Plastic
This Film should see all of the world!!


At this Point we can already spot a the major “Problems” that can as well be realized as starting points for preventive and corrective measures, namely:


- The sheer mass of plastic products and packaging and its  unquestioned and unaware usage.
  • A dysfunctional Relationship to the “waste” plastic, meaning the waste management systems did and (almost everywhere) do not function effectively, treating plastic as a valuable resource that is manmade from the earth, while realizing that due to its nature and properties: plastic is not part of the natural environment.
  • Just because its so widespread and seemingly “inert” plastic is seen as harmless, effecting no consequences
In fact plastic is not harmless as we can see when having a look at the consequences it creates for animals and ecosystems. Bigger parts and particles of plastic pose a threat to animals like Sea-Birds, Turtles and seals that can get caught in old nets, plastic strips or similar pieces. As one can see in the Picture below they will also eat the plastic. A study carried out by US and Canadian Scientists found that dead Sea-Birds now have 9 times more plastic in their bellies then 40 years ago. On the impacts of plastic a quote from the Article on “wildlifeextra.com”:

"The science on this issue is still being refined - there is much we don't know about the impacts of plastic ingestion on birds in general and Northern Fulmars in particular. We do know that the plastic in the stomach displaces the space for food that the birds need and that plastic can lacerate the stomach lining. Some of the birds we looked at had their gizzards completely full with plastic. We also know that plastic in the sea absorbs an astounding level of contaminants in a very short time and that these contaminants may leach out in a bird that swallows it," said Avery-Gomm.


What we also know with certainty is that plastic does not belong on the natural food table and in the stomach of animals. Most of the plastic in the patches is in form of small/very small pieces - with time they break down to even smaller particles - that float in the water layer beyond the surface. When plankton tries to consume this particles they usually choke on them and die off. So called “Nurdles” make up a big percentage of the marine debris. Nurdles are small pellets of plastic that can be easily transported and handled in large quantities and from which the actual plastic and plastic-products are made. According to Wikipedia a Orange County Study in 2001 found that 98% of the collected beach debris consisted of Nurdles. This poses the questions: How did they get there? Where/How did they spill – What did happen? Who didn´t handle with care? etc.

What all of this small plastic debris has in common is that they accumulate (hydrophobic/oily) contaminants, for example PCB. The accumulation-factor in this case is 1 million. That means that there is 1 million times more PCB per weight in the plastic Nurdles than in the surrounding water. Through the consumption of fish and smaller organisms the plastic enters the food-chain. What happens once the Contaminants are present in the Food-chain is that they accumulate.

Bioaccumulation is the process of accumulation on one “tropic level” of the ecosystem, meaning for example the accumulation of PCB in one animal species. This depends for example on the rate the fish consume Nurdles instead of actual food, what again depends on how the Nurdles/food-ratio is in the feeding-ground. The more plastic is in the water = the more contaminants enter the food-chain. The concentration of contaminants also plays a role and one can say the the higher the concentration in the plastic, the more will accumulate in the organisms consuming it. 

 

Biomagnification describes the Process of accumulation along the food-chain, meaning that generally the bigger the animals the more contaminants per bodyweight they accumulate in their bodies.

Now, even if one do not care and is ignorant about the consequences that this has for animals themselves one can see that that our plastic-waste and contaminants are a boomerang, coming right back to us, because at the top of the food-chain: sits the Human.





After so much Problems, lets look at the solutions:

Solutions:
Frist it is for us to realize that basically we have really fucked up in terms of what we have done and still are doing to the Ecosystems and the Planet as a whole. We have created consequences that will stay for a while, even if we stop immediatly, and that will/may have further consequences that we are just now really starting to get aware of, like this plastic-timebomb – Thus it is to in fact stop our addiction to plastic as a main ingredient for our consumerist frenzy. Now - how do we do this? Clear is that we can not allow ourselves to stay on our old ways of how we have done and treathed „things“ – So - we need a systematic and complete change. A new system that is based on Life as the only real value. Equal Money Captitalism is the proposal of such a system. Following are two excerpts of the Economist Journey to Life that i will expand on. Here you can Educate yourself on how such a system functions.

Informed Decision-Making

"Within Capitalism, the assumption is made that the consumer always has full knowledge available about the products they can buy - and thus, that they are always able to make informed decisions about the purchases they make - and that this mechanism, therefore - makes it so that only the best quality products are bought and stimulated to be produced, while inferior products will phase out. Obviously - this is currently not the case. The only point that is shared (and not even that comprehensively) is the ingredients. Labelling within Equal Money Capitalism will include not only ingredients, but also how the price was established - who contributed to the production process, what share of the profit goes to these participants - what are the externalities involved in terms of the harm that was caused towards the environment in the form of pollution and what resources were involved to produce the product, etc".
Economist Journey to Life – Equal Money Capitalism – The WayForward


In a System based on life a inferior product is a product that harms or poses a threat to life – and it is interesting because this already so, just because we do not consider the animals, nature, the environment as ourselves as equal life, because we see them in separation of ourselves we can justify that harm and abuse being done, in the name of money, what means that that our system currently is not based on life but on Greed. Labeling is a cool tool to expose the real cost of “things” and at whose cost these “things” are created. We have to re-evaluate all products and processes involved in the production of goods in terms of their
consequences for Life on earth. The current knowledge is flawed and can not be trusted so easily, as – in most of the cases – the very founders of Research/Studies are the very profiteers of that research/studies. For the first time we will be able to establish real science that takes all life into consideration and so enables informed decision-making:
 

“So studies like ecology, physics, sociology, education, psychology will form the basis of economics and not the other way around - where today, economics determines science in terms of what is being researched as that which is the most profitable”
Day 184: The Relationship between Ecology and Economics in Equal Money Capitalism

So in concrete terms this means that we look through all the products/applications we use plastic for at them sort out what we can do differently. Do we need to have candy and detergents tabs double packed in plastic? Or is this design based on psychology trickery to sell better – Competition will be eliminated and with it will go a lot of the diversity in plastics and and multi-material-packaging that cause problems when the product/package becomes “waste” and enters the recycling. There are bioplastics and some bigger companies already have proven that they can create sustainable and applicable products from it. With a sound foundation for economics like proposed here, a lot of things will change – because it becomes possible to change them.

And finally a good dose of common sense will help us see our “Blind Spot” namely that plastic is made from Oil and Oil is running out. That means that the way plastic is used currently is not sustainable whatsoever and will stop, one way or another. Thus for the applications where we still will be using the plastics of today, a recycling-system where we threat plastic as a valuable resource would be a good idea.


Rewards:
Our primary Reward will be that the Oceans are clean and that we do not further accept or allow to contaminate and poison our environment and so in the End ourselves – This will have a positive effect on various levels of our existence, beginning with the own physical bodies, we will be more healthy and can really enjoy a dish of seafood without fearing that it is a rather toxic cocktail. It will affect our overall mood and Self as humans when we will see clean beaches and rivers where we can spend our free time and we will know that we have changed a corrupt/abusive System to one that is best for all life – Nature it self will flourish as we can not even conceive at the moment, because for the first time we would tend to and support your environment, and so not only ourselves but also the generations to come will be rewarded with a harmonious place to life.
 
Art: Matti Freeman