Looking for products that are truly GMO-free?

Shop for Natural Food Certifiers non-GMO and 'Apple K' kosher items

Monday, August 19, 2013 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: kosher food, GMO labeling, Natural Food Certifiers

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041686_kosher_food_GMO_labeling_Natural_Certifiers.html#ixzz2cQVZ8TIe
(NaturalNews) You may have heard rumors recently that all kosher-certified foods -- that is, foods that meet strict Jewish dietary standards -- are now free of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). Unfortunately, these rumors are not true. But there is one kosher certification company in particular, Natural Food Certifiers (NFC), that recently announced it will no longer certify as kosher any foods or food brands that contain or use GMOs.

In a recent press release, NFC, which also offers organic, gluten-free, non-GMO, and vegan certifications, announced that it will no longer accept any applications from manufacturers seeking kosher certification for products that contain GMOs. And all existing certified kosher foods under NFC's "Apple K" program will have one year to change their ingredients and remove all GMOs, or else lose their certification.

"By granting certification only to those products which are GMO-free, the Apple K is adhering to the principle of 'Begin Naturally. Stay That Way,'" says Rabbi Reuven Flamer, Founder and Director of NFC. "NFC was very proud to introduce the first 'Natural Only' kosher supervision. Rejecting products that contain GMOs for kosher certification is a logical addition to our kosher supervision, given the variety of certification and verification programs which NFC offers."

While kosher food law does not specifically prohibit GMOs, probably because GMOs did not exist when it was first established, Rabbi Flamer says the modern food additives are still unnatural. And in the interest of guarding public health, as well as ensuring that all NFC-certified products are trusted, safe and nutritious, Rabbi Flamer believes it is only right that GMOs be removed from all Apple K kosher-certified products.

"Recent studies show that GMOs may cause various kinds of health problems from digestive disturbances to food allergies, and that GMOs require more herbicides, which is really the opposite reason why GMOs were touted to be so environmentally helpful in the first place," he adds. "For all of the many reasons that GMOs raise a red flag, consumers simply don't want them in their foods, and our clients want to accommodate their customers."

Rabbi Flamer is referring, of course, to studies such as the Gilles-Eric Seralini paper on GMO corn, which found that rats fed a lifetime of Bt corn treated with Roundup (glyphosate) developed serious liver and kidney damage, not to mention horrifying tumors all over their bodies. Other recent studies have linked GMO consumption to gastrointestinal damage and behavioral problems.

You can see an image of the Apple K kosher-certified logo, in order to look for it on product labels, by visiting:
http://nfccertification.info

Natural Food Certifiers also introduces non-GMO product verification program known as 'GMO Guard'

To go along with its new Apple K kosher-certified standard, NFC has also introduced a new non-GMO verification program known as "GMO Guard" that it says will help make it even easier for consumers to avoid GMOs while shopping. Unveiled back in March, the program accompanies the more well-known Non-GMO Project in certifying food products that are determined to be free of GMOs, adding momentum to a much larger movement to rid the food supply of GMOs altogether.

"We ourselves operate under full transparency," says Rabbi Flamer about his organization's activities. "GMO Guard offers reliable verification that our clients can trust. We're committed to ensuring the personal choice for consumers in food purchases today, which demands the proper labeling for no GMO usage on products."

You can learn more about the GMO Guard program by visiting:
http://nfccertification.info

You can also learn more about the many other certification programs offered by NFC by visiting:
http://nfccertification.info

Sources for this article include:

http://nfccertification.info

http://gmwatch.org

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041686_kosher_food_GMO_labeling_Natural_Certifiers.html#ixzz2cQVWfa29

Failure of GMO crop technologies leads to huge increase in herbicide, pesticide use

Monday, August 19, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: GM crops, failure, pesticide use

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041684_GM_crops_failure_pesticide_use.html#ixzz2cQUyr1Gd
(NaturalNews) Since the time when genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) were first introduced into the American food supply back in 1996, there has been a dramatic increase in pesticide use rather than the decrease we were all promised by the biotechnology industry as a supposed benefit of GMO technology. A new research paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Sciences Europe explains how, today, conventional farmers are dousing their crops with more pesticides than ever -- and as long as GMOs remain in the food supply, pesticide use will only continue to escalate.

The report, authored by Charles Benbrook, a research professor at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University (WSU), spells out how overall pesticide use on conventional crops has risen by 404 million pounds since 1996 when GMOs were first introduced. Similarly, herbicide use has increased by more than 527 million pounds, contradicting industry claims that GMOs would reduce the need for such crop chemicals.

The primary culprit in this rise appears to be the continued emergence of "superweeds," or weeds that have developed resistance to GMO crop chemicals like Roundup (glyphosate). Roundup-ready crops like Monsanto's GM soybeans, corn, cotton, canola, and sugar beets, all possess artificial genes that make them resistant to glyphosate. But it is this resistance that has triggered the onset of superweeds, which require increasing amounts of chemicals to keep at bay.

"Resistant weeds have become a major problem for many farmers reliant on GE crops, and are now driving up the volume of herbicide needed each year by about 25 percent," says Benbrook. "The relatively recent emergence and spread of insect populations resistant to the Bt toxins expressed in Bt corn and cotton has started to increase insecticide use, and will continue to do so."

The only category of chemicals to see a decrease in use between 1996 and 2011 were insecticides, and this was likely due to the release of newer GM crops like Bt corn that contain their own built-in insecticides. But according to Benbrook, insecticide use is once again on the rise as well, as insects develop increasing resistance to Bt and other GM insecticides.

"In order to deal with rapidly spreading resistant weeds, farmers are being forced to expand use of older, higher-risk herbicides. To stop corn and cotton insects from developing resistance to Bt, farmers planting Bt crops are being asked to spray the insecticides that Bt corn and cotton were designed to displace."

You can view a PDF document containing Benbrook's complete study here:
http://www.enveurope.com/content/pdf/2190-4715-24-24.pdf

For more information about the failures of GM crops, visit: http://www.naturalnews.com/GMOs.html

Sources for this article include:

http://uk.reuters.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041684_GM_crops_failure_pesticide_use.html#ixzz2cQUvv5mX

Ron Paul: Obamacare is a brainchild of Big Pharma

Monday, August 19, 2013 by: J. D. Heyes Tags: Ron Paul, Obamacare, Big Pharma

(NaturalNews) Natural News, as you know, is no fan of either Obamacare or Big Pharma. Neither, it seems, is former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Paul, a physician himself, connected the two seemingly unrelated concepts during an appearance on CNN recently, claiming that one is actually the master creation of the other.

Here's the genesis of how the Affordable Care Act became the coveted creation of major pharmaceutical companies - and how said creation is expected to affect you.

As usual, the fix was in

You may remember investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald; he's the one who broke Edward Snowden's story that the NSA was spying on Americans' electronic communications en masse. In December, he wrote in The Guardian that retiring U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and his aide, Elizabeth Fowler, were the chief architects of Obamacare (Baucus has since described the very law he reportedly wrote as a "train wreck").

The law, notes Kurt Nimmo at InfoWars.com, is a "government-enforced boondoggle minus a public option salivated over by blindsided socialists far and wide."

"As Baucus himself repeatedly boasted, the architect of that legislation was Elizabeth Fowler, his chief health policy counsel," writes Greenwald. "Indeed, as Marcy Wheeler discovered, it was Fowler who actually drafted it."

In 2009, when the forces of progressivism began coalescing around what would become Obamacare in the nation's capital, veteran journalist Bill Moyers said this about Fowler:

"She used to work for WellPoint, the largest health insurer in the country. She was Vice President of Public Policy. And now she's working for the very committee with the most power to give her old company and the entire industry exactly what they want: higher profits, and no competition from alternative non-profit coverage that could lower costs and premiums."

Moyers went on to note that Baucus was "one of the biggest recipients in Congress of campaign cash from the health care industry." After Obamacare passed, he "boasted that the architect of the legislation was none other than Liz Fowler," Moyers said.

"I want to single out one person," Baucus crowed. "... Liz Fowler is my chief health counsel. Liz Fowler has put my health care team together... She put together the White Paper last November 2008, [the] 87-page document which became the basis, the foundation, the blueprint from which almost all health care measures in all bills on both sides of the aisle came."

Paul knows the game

Paul, long a critic of government-centric solutions and corporate welfare schemes, was all over it in his interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer:

Under this administration as well, the drug companies, the insurance companies, organized medicine...they're the ones who write these laws, and it's corporations that are making out on this deal.

Nimmo adds that the ultimate goal of the progressives was not to dismantle "corporate insurance" or even create a single-payer system, one in which individuals pay taxes or fees into a government-created agency - mostly because a government-run insurance agency wouldn't be able to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes - er, campaign contributions:

The so-called public option, the idea that the government will create its own health insurance agency to compete with corporate leviathans, was never a serious consideration and was indeed anathema. It was a ploy crafted to trick persistently gullible Democrats into supporting yet another corporate swindle, this time enforced by the most violent and ruthless player on the block, the federal government.

Recently Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada "let slip" that the ultimate goal of government social engineers is the creation of a single-payer system, which is present in Canada and Great Britain. But the law of the political jungle - pay for play - says otherwise.

Sources:

http://www.infowars.com

http://www.theguardian.com

http://www.salon.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041677_Ron_Paul_Obamacare_Big_Pharma.html#ixzz2cQTR0e99