Incidence of GMO corn, cotton and soy updated

As of July 2018 the average incidence of food crops grown in the US.

Corn:
All GE varieties: 92%

• Herbicide tolerant only: 10%
• Produces Bt (insect resistant): 2%
• Stacked gene: 80%

Soy:
All GE varieties: 94%

• Herbicide tolerant only: 94%

Source: USDA.gov.

DelMonte to eliminate BPA and GMOs

Del Monte, a major US food producer, announced that it would be eliminating BPA in can liners. But they must use another phthalate, which has not been shown to be safe. They also want to eliminate GMO foods in their products. But Roundup is not just used on GMO food, it's used on all crops to kill it all at the same time, whether the crop is GMO or not.

Links
Article: http://www.organicauthority.com/Del-Monte-Eradicate-BPA-GMOs

List of GMO crops used in many countries

This list of GMO crops will tell you which countries use them. However, Roundup is spread on non-GMO crops as well, right before harvest, so a non-GMO product does not mean pesticide free.

Henry Miller: Small amounts of poison are good for you

When people selectively ignore facts, that could be called religion, or a cult. So here's Henry I. Miller. He was the founding director of the FDA’s Office of Biotechnology. He's written numerous articles about GMO foods. He is against labeling GMO foods and against informed decisions. He gets paid for writing articles supporting something so you know his opinion is biased.

Be careful with religious fanatics. The results could be bad.

Source
USRTK.org.

What is the truth about GMOs and pesticides?

EarthOpenSource has a 330pg PDF for free that claims to cut through the corporate BS. But be careful, even well-meaning groups can misinterpret studies or even have their own agenda.

You can read the PDF here. But they want your name and email address, so you will surely be put on a "newsletter" list.

The truth is, many studies from many countries show the harm pesticides can do to people, not just farmers. Some of these studies are covered in this blog. You can click on the right sidebar to find a tag name to narrow down the blog posts you want to see. For example, all blog posts where the main topic is "glyphosate" have the "glyphosate" tag. But tags also are for the main agencies involved (like "FDA"), countries involved (like "India", but not "US"), and the pesticide name (like "dicamba").

China rejects tons of GMO corn

This is from 2014, but I list it just for the "hmmmm".

[SANTIAGO] China’s rejection on March 24 of 21,800 tonnes of US corn containing an unapproved genetically-modified organisms (GMO) strain takes the volume of US corn turned away by the Asian nation since November to 908,800 tonnes. The contamination detected by the Chinese has hit sales and corn prices, damaging US farmers growing GM-free crops.

Source
GMO Journal.

Scotts grass escapes test beds

A type of grass by the Scotts company has escaped test beds and is now in the wild of Oregon. The grass is Roundup resistant, and people have been trying to kill it for 10 years. Now Scotts is trying to have Oregonians foot the bill, and ignore its own responsibility in the debacle.

Source
GMO Inside. Jan 8, 2017.

Local Gov't can Prohibit GMOs says US Court of Appeals

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its decisions Friday on whether federal and Hawai'i state laws preempt Hawai'i counties' authority to regulate genetically engineered (GE) crops and pesticide use. Of significance to state and local communities throughout the U.S., the Ninth Circuit ruled that federal law—specifically, the Plant Protection Act—does not prohibit states and counties from passing local laws to regulate and ban commercially-grown GE crops.

At the same time, however, the court ruled that under Hawai'i law, counties and municipalities do not have the authority to regulate GE crops (as some in other states do), and that Hawai'i state law places such authority in the hands of the State alone.

Source
Ecowatch.

Sonoma County (California) bans GMO crops

Sonoma County voted to ban all GMO crops in the county. The reason being organic crops can be contaminated with GMO pollent, and then Monsanto can sue the farmers and take their farms. Also, people don't want organic produce contaminated with GMO genes, such as the ones that produce the Bt toxin that also hurts people.GMOs are bad for farmers because it's too easy to violate Monsanto's draconian agreement.

Source
Ecowatch.

Indian court blocks GMO mustard!

India leads the way with blocking GMO seeds and plants and this latest decision by an Indian court blocks GMO mustard seed from being grown. Indians are committing suicide due to the high cost of GMO seed. When they use GMO seed they have to buy seed every year, they cannot save seed on their own. The Indian farmers are having so many financial problems with GMO seed they are committing suicide in record numbers from the crushing Monsanto debt.

This site says GMO seeds are not linked to suicides and there is no good source for this statement. This statement was traced back to Vandana Shiva, who is an Indian environmentalist who has said repeatedly that Monsanto’s “suicide seeds” have triggered a “genocide” in India.

More info

1. More stories on mustard seed in India.
2. "Rising rates of suicide blamed on GMO seed". Smaller farms suffer the most. The problem with GMO seeds in India is that they are often “not bred for that area, for rain-fed agriculture, so they fail more frequently,”

Pro-GMO Soylent bar making people sick

There are many ingredients in this food bar that could make people sick, and no one knows if it's the GMOs or not. The food bar is a favorite among Silicon Valley techies but it's not rated high on tasted.

Source
Newyorker.

Tensions rise in Missouri Bootheel due to drifting GMO pollen

Malden, Missouri.Dicamba spray drift is killing crops of farmers who didn't plant dicamba-resistant GMO strains. Last year (2015) Monsanto released strains of dicamba-resistant soybeans and cotton, but the form of dicamba used on these GMO crops has not been approved by the EPA yet.

The southeast region of the state is a part of a multistate swath where damage from suspected illegal herbicide drift has slashed yields for farmers who did not plant crops resistant to the herbicide, dicamba. Fallout from the damage is pitting neighbor against neighbor and straining, or simply ruining, relationships in the area’s tight-knit farming communities.

Insurance companies do not cover losses sustained from pesticide spray drift, meaning civil suits are the only way farmers can recoup losses. Losses can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars (USD). The amount of coverage a farmer can buy is the average of crops harvested during the last 10 years. If overspray is killing their crops year after year, the insurance they can get drops, year after year.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been lost due to spray drift.

Source
STL Today.

GMO crop use shows widespread environmental damage

From the largest GMO crop study yet (soon to be demonized by Monsanto), GMO crops cause the increase of pesticides and that leads to more and more pesticide-resistant weeds, causing more and more problems for farmers. The study data was gathered from 1998-2011.

From the study: On average, adopters of GE glyphosate-tolerant (GT) soybeans used 28% (0.30 kg/ha) more herbicide than nonadopters, adopters of GT maize used 1.2% (0.03 kg/ha) less herbicide than nonadopters, and adopters of GE insect-resistant (IR) maize used 11.2% (0.013 kg/ha) less insecticide than nonadopters...  For both soybean and maize, GT adopters used increasingly more herbicides relative to nonadopters, whereas adopters of IR maize used increasingly less insecticides. The estimated pattern of change in herbicide use over time is consistent with the emergence of glyphosate weed resistance.

And this is also telling:

“In the beginning, there was a reduction in herbicide use, but over time the use of chemicals increased because farmers were having to add new chemicals as weeds developed a resistance to glyphosate,” Ciliberto said.

Source
Sustainable Pulse. Sep 18, 2016.
Science Advances. Aug 31, 2016. Open access article.

Cotton grower sees better crop after dropping GMO seeds

African cotton grower sees better harvest ahead after he stopped using GMO seeds. The grower stopped using GMO seeds because the short fibers were ruining his reputation and revenue.

Source
Agweb. Sep 19, 2016.

GMO industry co-opts the concept of sound science

The concept of sound science means the results are not skewed or hidden by vested interests, or are influenced by dogma or profits.

Corruption, payoffs, and hiding poor science abounds in the GMO industry. So people have less trust in GMO science than ever before.

Read the article and see for yourself.

Source
HuffPo.

Iowa Farmer: GMOs are complete failure

An Iowa farmer tells how GMO crops kill critical birds and insects. (This year for the first time ever I have to hand pollinate my own cukes.) George Naylor comes form a long line of farmers. With GMO crops farmers go into a spiral of debt one reason being because they cannot collect their own seed, they must buy new seed each year. Even the corn rootworm has become resistant to GMO crops.

GMO crops also produce super weeds. Roundup Ready crops add poisonous glyphosate to foods. See Breakfast foods contain glyphosate.

And just a few more problems:

1. India has GMO problems.
2. Some plants produce the poison Bt. Monarch caterpillars killed by Bt pollen. 
3. Aphids stopped ignoring GMO wheat in UK. 

Source
NaturalNews.

38 countries now ban GMO crops

Although some still grow them, GMO crops are banned from importation in some countries.

More here.
More info on GMO bans by country and the type of ban (growing, importing, etc).
GMO ban map by country.
World map: countries with GMO labelling laws.
World map: 64 countries require GMO labelling.

GMO problems in India

Indian farmers committing suicide due to GMO crops. In 2002 Indian farmers started using GMO cotton that makes it's own pesticide called Bt so they wouldn't have to buy the very expensive pesticides from Monsanto. Then pests became resistant to the Bt cotton, and the farmers had to switch to other GMO cotton crops, and that means they had to buy seed every year. This leaves many farmers stuck in a cycle of debt from which they have no out, and that leads to bankruptcy.

Sources

1. Suicide figures are here at the New York Uni School of Law.  PDF here. 
2. GMO news related to India from GMO Free Regions.

Aphids stop responding to GMO wheat in UK

(It's worth repeating older news to show a pattern of bad behavior among gov't and industry.)

A GMO wheat was tested in the UK. The wheat was supposed to emit the aphid distress pheromone to keep aphids away, and reduce pesticide use, but after a while the aphids stopped responding to the signal.


Source
ANH International. July 2015.
GM Freeze.

GMO crops not fair, not sustainable, very damaging

1. GMO crops are not sustainable. Farmers cannot collect their own seed from their first ripened crop. They must buy seed every year. This keeps people in poverty. 
2. GMO crops are highly dangerous. The decline of the monarch butterfly by 90% is blamed on GMO crops that produce their on Bt toxin. 
3. GMO crops increase the amount of pesticides used. These  pesticides get into the food chain, causing many illnesses in people, and get into the environment, killing and sickening many animals, and damaging streams and wildlife. Glyphosate found in 51 streams. Monsanto causing autism? Pesticides in your pills and supplements. Pesticides in organic food. People are wanting to test their own food too. Monsanto breaks GMO law in India. Sperm counts declining since 1938.
4. Just like the injudicious use of antibiotics creating super bacteria, GMO crops are producing super weeds that are resistant to Roundup. This creates a market for doubly harmful pesticides with 2 active ingredients, which further fouls up the water and food supply, thus increasing medical costs for almost all people in the US. Americans are more 5.8x exposed to glyphosate than Europeans. 
5. GMOs and Monsanto's predatory legal actions steal farms from innocent farmers. If GMO pollen blows into another farmer's field, the farmer can be sued, and the legal expenses alone can cause the farmer to sell their farm and lose everything. Monsanto sues, and wins, against things the defendant cannot control.

Source
GM Freeze.