Not surprising really, being as Monsanto and FDA are bedfellows themselves.
Former Monsanto people now in with the FDA.

So knowing that US Diplomats work for Monsanto is par for the course.
And explains why Monsanto gets by with so much, between their GMO controversial foods and cancer causing Roundup.

Quote:Biotech giant Monsanto has been genetically modifying the worlds food supply and subsequently breeding environmental devastation for years, but leaked documents now reveal that Monsanto has also deeply infiltrated the United States government. With leaked reports revealing how U.S. diplomats are actually working for Monsanto to push their agenda along with other key government officials, Monsantos grasp on international politics has never been clearer.


Amazingly, the information reveals that the massive corporation is also intensely involved in the passing and regulations concerning the very GM ingredients they are responsible for. In fact, the information released by WikiLeaks reveals just how much power Monsanto has thanks to key positions within the United States government and elsewhere. Not only was it exposed that the U.S. is threatening nations who oppose Monsanto with military-style trade wars, but that many U.S. diplomats actually work directly for Monsanto.

(SOURCE DELETED BY ADMIN DUE TO CHANGE IN SOURCE'S CONTENT. NOW CHINESE ADVERTISMENTS)

What the leaked documents reveal Military style trade wars, government corruption

Quote:In 2007 it was requested that specific nations inside the European Union be punished for not supporting the expansion of Monsantos GMO crops. The request for such measures to be taken was made by Craig Stapleton, the United States ambassador to France and partner to George W. Bush.

Despite mounting evidence linking Monsantos GM corn to organ damage and environmental devastation, the ambassador plainly calls for target retaliation against those not supporting the GM crop. 

Quote:The undying support of key players within the U.S. towards Monsanto is undeniably made clear not only in this release, but in the legislative decisions taken by organizations such as the FDA and USDA. Legislative decisions such as allowing Monsantos synthetic hormone Posilac (rBGH) to be injected into U.S. cows despite being banned in 27 countries.

How did Monsanto pull this off?

The biotech juggernaut managed to infiltrate the FDA positions responsible for the approval of rBGH, going as far as instating the companys own Margaret Miller as Deputy Director of Human Safety and Consultative Services. After assuming this position, Miller reviewed her own report on the safety and effectiveness of rBGH.

Many US diplomats pawns of Monsantos GM agenda

Quote:While it may be shocking to you if you are not familiar with the corrupt influence of Monsanto, the cables also show that many US diplomats are pushing GMO crops as a strategic government and commercial imperative.

Interestingly enough, the U.S. focused their efforts toward advisers to the pope specifically, due to the fact that many Catholic figureheads have openly voiced their opposition to GM foods.

With this kind of political influence, is it any wonder that many food staples are now predominantly GM? Nearly 93% of U.S. soybeans are heavily modified conservatively, with many other staple crops coming in at similar numbers.

U.S. diplomats have unique opportunities to spread honest and intellectual campagins that can serve to better mankind and end suffering, however they are instead spreading the roots of Monsanto deeper and deeper into international territory.

As a substitute for the betterment of mankind, these paid-off diplomats are now spreading environment desecration and health destruction.

Quote:As if there wasnt already enough information to reveal Monsantos corruption, the biotech giant also spends enormous amount of money lobbying government each year.

Monsanto spent an astonishing $2 million lobbying the federal government in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone, according to mainstream sources. Why so much cash? The government lobbying focuses on issues like regulations for GM crops and patent reforms. This legal form of persuasion is the reason government agencies like the USDA and FDA let Monsanto roam freely.

Satisfying government officials financial vested interest is all that matters when dealing with corrupt mega-corporations like Monsanto. As long as these financial ties continue to exist, Monsanto will continue to reign over the food supply and continue to wreak devastation to the environment, ecosystem, and humankind.

i'm not Surprised at all.
Government Agencies don't give a Shit about us, they're only there to push the current Political Agenda and Keep the Money Following.

(09-28-2016, 06:59 AM)guohua Wrote: i'm not Surprised at all.
Government Agencies don't give a Shit about us, they're only there to push the current Political Agenda and Keep the Money Following.

I know.

Anymore, it's about the almighty dollar.
Whether it's Monsanto or about climate change.

Money talks.
Bullshit walks.


In the meantime, us citizens are screwed.

The government has contaminated our water supply   and now our food supply.
Yummy, ain't Roundup delicious! ../sarcasm

It will only get worse...


Bayer and Monsanto to merge in mega-deal that could reshape world’s food supply

Quote:A cadre of megabanks, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, will provide $57 billion in short-term bridge financing to help finalize the deal, the companies said.

Bandits. All of them !

I'll Do Anything For Money Hillary is Said To Have Deep Ties To Monsanto.

Quote:Hillary Clinton’s history of backing the biotech industry is said to date as far back as her early days in Arkansas as a lawyer with the Rose Law Firm, which represented Monsanto and other agribusiness giants. 

And only this month Bill Gates’s pet pro-GMO PR project – the Cornell University Alliance for Science – featured a photo and a prominent quote from Hillary's controversial 2014 keynote address to biotech industry lobbyists, in which she says she stands in favor of using the industry’s “seeds and products” because of their “proven track record.”

In the speech she tells the industry lobbyists how her State Department sold GMO technology around the world, and she even gives some PR advice to the GMO vendors on how to overcome consumer concerns about GMOs. The speech, for which she got a $335,000 speaking fee, is stuffed full of misinformation.

Clinton even has Monsanto lobbyists raising millions of dollars in campaign contributions to return her to the White House.

Source
Anything Hilary Touches Evil and Should Be Banned!


Monsanto and Bill Gates are top donors to the Clinton Family Foundation.

Quote:Bill Gates, of course, pushes vaccines on the world, while Monsanto pushes GMOs. It’s a toxic one-two punch for global depopulation.

Hillary Clinton’s donors also include the drug maker Pfizer, ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical, Goldman Sachs, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and many more. It’s a who’s who compilation of the most evil corporations and institutions on planet Earth, and they’ve all given huge money — tens of millions of dollars — to Hillary Clinton.

All the corporations are, of course, buying influence with the Clintons. This obvious fact was wildly attacked by extreme leftist Democratic party operatives like George Stephanopoulos, who turned out to have hidden his own $75,000 in donations to the same Clinton Foundation. He claims he thought he was donating to halt “deforestation.” Hillaryious!

Source

It has to be Passed On To The Bubble Headed Liberals, The Fact That Hillary and Gates are Involved Only Could Mean One Thing, It's Not Controlled Or Managed, there 's No Oversight that Assures the Little People, You and Me and Jack & Jill American is Protected.
Hialry's in it for the Money and Gates For The Favors He Can From Hillarys Administration!

Monsanto and the EPA have been lying to us for years about Roundup.

'Yesterday's groundbreaking news of a new lawsuit regarding Monsanto's collusion, cover ups,
and corruption inside the EPA is a part of a long string of unraveling safety claims.  

Decades of faulty chemical review procedures are beginning to be overturned.
Last week, after years of asking, I received an email from the EPA confirming that the National
Toxicology Program is currently reviewing glyphosate and glyphosate formulations.



This is incredibly welcome news because it has long been the EPA’s policy to only require long
term safety studies on the one declared “active” chemical, for approval, not on the final formulation.

This means that any claims that the final formulation of Roundup and other pesticides, are safe, 
are unfounded.

The current approval process is similar to the FDA saying that a cookie is safe for a child to eat
based on assessing the safety of just one ingredient, like vanilla in the cookie, regardless of the
contents or safety of all the other ingredients, which could be fatal food allergies. 

Obviously the assessing of only one chemical in a chemical product is a faulty system, as even third
grade science shows that when one chemical is added to another chemical, the effects are completely
different.

The significance of this response from the EPA, that they and the NTP are finally looking into the full
formulation of a chemical product rather than just one ingredient, is enormous.

80 percent of genetically modified foods are engineered to withstand Roundup or glyphosate-based
herbicides (GBH) in the USA. Non organic crops are also sprayed with GBH as a drying agent, making
it the most widely used herbicide in the world.

The implications of this final formulation review and the possibility of the EPA pulling the license for
glyphosate and Roundup could be the beginning of the end of Monsanto. Over 76.7 percent of Monsanto
sales comes from genetically modified seeds and 23.3 percent comes from herbicides, the leading
seller being Roundup brands.

In 2015, Monsanto made nearly $4.76 billion in sales of Roundup. Currently, 300 million pounds of
glyphosate are applied each year to American farms.

In a meeting I attended with a panel of scientists and consumer groups last year, the EPA Pesticide
Review Board admitted to me that they didn't have a single long term study of the final formulation of
Roundup. “Then how can you claim that it is safe?” I asked...and they refused to answer.
Because they couldn’t.

So, how did it come to an actual review of the final formulation of glyphosate-based herbicides?
One can only speculate that massive public pressure from mothers and activists with sick family members,
along with alarming results of scientific and citizen-funded glyphosate testing in food have made a difference.
Additionally, several European countries have either banned or voted against the renewal of glyphosate-based
herbicides.

Just this January, Anne Temple and I attended the Monsanto shareholder meeting. Two years ago there were
around 1,200 people in attendance, but this year there might have been 60. Anne asked a question that was
brought to our attention by Carey Gillam of US Right to Know. She asked: 

“The EPA said in September that it wants the National Toxicology Program to research the toxicity of the complete
formulated product, not just the active ingredient. We are not aware of Monsanto or Bayer going on the record
yet about this, though CropLife and Syngenta recently have.

If Roundup is so safe, why not evaluate the whole formulated product and present the information to the public?
Does Monsanto support this effort, or will it try to block such research?”

In the meeting, the CEO of Monsanto, Hugh Grant's response was to claim that "numerous regulatory agencies
have assessed glyphosate and all of them have found glyphosate to be safe.” 

Although this statement is debatable all on it’s own, notice, that he did not say glyphosate-based herbicides.
Also note that glyphosate is never used alone. “Safe” has a different meaning in the world of chemical companies
as well. In general, chemical companies can claim “safe” equals “not toxic,” meaning it won’t kill a human in 96 hours.

However, the other formulants in Roundup and 750 other generic glyphosate based herbicides, have been found to
be 1000X more toxic.

Regardless of Monsanto’s definition of safe, hundreds of studies have recently shown a wide variety of harm from
glyphosate-based herbicides, including neurotoxicity, liver disease, thyroid disorders, endocrine disruption, birth
defects, testes and sperm damage, growth of breast cancer cells, increased non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, the destruction
of gut bacteria which leads to numerous autoimmune diseases and autism symptoms, and more.

It should be noted that the EPA staffer refuted the statement that the EPA requested the National Toxicology Program
to review the final formulations of glyphosate-based herbicides. I wonder why the EPA would not initiate such a study.

With Roundup and glyphosate-based herbicides in the hot seat of the National Toxicology Program, one can only hope
the truth about the final formulations will be acknowledged by our regulatory agencies and glyphosate-based herbicides
and toxic chemicals will be removed from the market.

President Trump’s recent announcement to cut the EPA budget means that getting a swift answer regarding the final
formulation review of glyphosate-based herbicides is critical. 

Zen Honeycutt is Founder of Moms Across America, a National Coalition of Unstoppable Moms with the motto
"Empowered Moms, Healthy Kids." Moms Across America has over 400 leaders who have organized over 700
community events in all 50 states.

Moms Across America empowers and amplifies the voice of the mom locally and nationally to create healthy
communities by raising awareness about GMOs and related pesticides in our food...'
The Hill:

Link To PDF Proof:

I was trying to find an article I saw yesterday about them finding the chemical(s) that go in Round Up in vaccines they give to babies; I think it was in some of the first shots they give them.  I didn't find the article, but that goes beyond WRONG!

No wonder our youth are growing up as air heads, and having to depend on their parents or the government for help to survive. That's exactly what "they" want!!  Make them dependent, then they can control them.  

Quote:INPESTATION


"All Sorted!"  shouted Alison, as she rushed into the holiday cabin, all excited...
"I managed to get him a couple of those "unbleached" natural cotton T-Shirts - cheap too!"

"I'm sure he'll love them"  replied Dave, "He's turning into a bit of a hippy - Isn't he."

"Wonder where he gets that from!"  came the slightly sarcastic response as she ruffled his hair.


It was Gregs' 13th birthday, and although his parents didn't have much money to spend, they were determined to make it a birthday to remember.
So, along with a few close friends, they had decided to take him away for the weekend, down near the Mexican border.

Dave glanced down at the new T-Shirts, and he had to admit they looked just great!
A natural pale cream colour, with a tiny black fleck through it, and a swirly green logo with a rainbow over a silhouetted tree.

"Made in MEXICO - I might have known! Especially at that price"  he mused.

Alison had skipped upstairs to the bedroom and was admiring her own new purchase of luxurious Egyptian cotton bedsheets...
"Just Lovely! Now we can get down to the serious business of organising the party!"  she thought aloud.

The kitchen was chock-full of shopping bags, boxes, tubs and trays full of home-made goodies for Gregs' party, and Alison made short work of arranging the contents neatly onto plastic serving platters, ready for the afternoon guests to arrive.
Dave lazily and half-heartedly offered to help, as he yawned, scratched his head and clicked on the TV, but Alison just gave him "The Look!" and smiled to herself, resigned to the knowledge that she'd seen this a thousand times before.

The TV had some news item about farmers' protests and pesticides on it, and a man was loudly shouting in Spanish whilst brandishing a poorly made placard which read something like "distribuidor muerte - NOMSANTOS!"

Nomsantos was a huge agri-pharma conglomerate, and it looked like they had been upsetting the farmers down south of the border again.

Dave's' mind drifted as he remembered a couple of years back, when Nomsantos were forcing farmers to use their "special" pest-resistant Maize, Corn and Cotton. Some of them had nearly been bankrupted, because the crops turned out to be high-yield but of nearly unusable poor quality, and it turned out that they weren't actually very pest resistant either.
The cotton in particular had a very persistent Boll-Weevil type of pest which didn't seem to mind the "special" anti-pest chemicals they had put in the crop.

"I wonder what happened with all that?"  Dave pondered...
"What? Did you say something Dave?"  asked Alison, who by this time was arranging pretty paper napkins and plastic cups.
"nah, just something on TV, not important. Want me to get Greg up out of his bed yet?"
"yeah - go for it! I know he was up late, but this is turning into the longest lie-in in history"  came her excited reply.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!"  was the enthusiastic shout that greeted a rather fuzzy-headed and bemused teen, as he ambled downstairs and into the living area.
A big smile spread across his lips when he saw the party food and presents arranged before him.
"Thanks Mom! you guys are just awesome, can I open my presents now?"  he said as he enthusiastically ripped into the first package.

Co-incidentally, the man on the TV was ripping open his shirt, and showing the reporter a strange mazy pattern of scars on his body, still shouting loudly in Spanish.
A caption appeared with an unusual picture of a little insect, next to a diagram of a strange wasp-like creature which appeared to be assuming an "attack" posture towards the insect.

"That's weird"  thought Dave, "It looks like they're using a bug to get the bugs now!"

He didn't yet imagine that it was much, MUCH worse than that...

Nomsantos' own technical team had known that the cotton Boll-Weevil was resistant to all of their poisons, and had developed an indestructible GM superbug specifically to target and eradicate the Boll-Weevils in their cotton crops, and that was what was now appearing on the news.

The superbugs had been a success. A huge success.
So much so, that they quickly killed off the entire Boll-Weevil problem.

"GREAT!! New sneakers!"  squealed Greg "Thanks Mom, thanks Dad!"

The problem is... now that their intended prey had been eradicated, they were supposed to die off, but...
The wasp which Nomsantos had modified was capable of going into a state of hibernation or suspended animation, to help get it through periods of hardship/cold/famine etc.

"T-Shirts!! Cool!! and they're Natural, unbleached and Environmentally friendly too!!!"  Greg beamed as he pulled on one of his new Tees.

...and, if the gathering and processing of the crop wasn't too intensive, the superbugs could survive!

Dave scratched at his head again, as the man on TV came back on... crying. He was shaking all over and pointing towards a bundle on the back of the trailer behind him.

Alison was still busy, scrubbing at her hands in the kitchen. "Must have got something on my hands"  she cried, "my skin feels like it's burning!"

The reporter followed the man as he beckoned him over to the trailer and pulled back the bundle of cloth to reveal the still, lifeless body of a young boy of about 13.
He was covered in scar tissue, which looked strangely like crazy-paving in a garden path or the pattern on a giraffes body, with random squiggly lines going off in all directions.
Dave was struggling to take it in, he stared at the images, trying to make sense of them, trying to put it all together.

Alison rubbed at her forearms now, "Have we got any antiseptic cream with us? this is really starting to itch!"
Dave was unresponsive, fixatedly staring at the TV as he found himself rubbing at his neck, suddenly he glanced up to see what his wife was complaining about, flicked back to the TV and quickly felt the colour drain from his face as the realisation dawned.
He looked over at his son Greg, just in time to see him scratch at his belly, as he happily reached out for his next present, whilst sporting his new T-Shirt with the little black flecks...

The reporter on the TV was sobbing now, as a computer graphic came up on screen showing a map of Mexico and the Southern States.
A row of large red arrows marked pandemia de insectos depredadores was spreading out over the map, up towards the Mid-west and out towards the East and West Coasts and beyond...

That was a short story I wrote for another site a while back.... thought it might "fit" here?
G

(08-08-2017, 08:34 PM)gordi Wrote: ...That was a short story I wrote for another site a while back.... thought it might "fit" here?
G

A great tale, G... let's just hope it stays as a tale!

@"gordi" interesting story you wrote,,,, I think it fits in pretty good.

You're a great writer, @"gordi".  I always enjoy your stories. 
And, yes, I think it fits here perfectly. As BIAD said, let's hope it remains "just a story".  

Thanks everyone, I forgot to say that it was based on REAL "superbugs" that a certain agri pharma conglomerate were working on. No, Really.

anyway...

****************************************
PART II
****************************************

Dave's jaw dropped onto his chest, "Oh My GOD! Their GM bugs survived!!!
...They've killed off all the weevils and are looking for new hosts!"

"Whaaat??? What's wrong? What's going on??" cried Alison.

"On TV!!!! It's a Bug, a superbug... GM.. artificial... those stupid idiots have tried to use them to eradicate a pest insect, but they were too good at it. They've killed off all the pests and now they're spreading out...
IN THE COTTON!!! My GOD!!! They're in the cotton on the T-Shirts!!! and they're seeking new hosts!! - US!!"

Gregs attention was now focused entirely on his dad as the seriousness of their situation sank in, and his expression swung from joyful smiles... to confusion... to fear, in the space of a split second. He ripped the shirt from his body just as quickly, and instinctively stomped on it.

Alison was still scrubbing at her arms... screaming as she saw the movement under the skin for the first time.

"hold on!!! Shhhh!!! LOOK!" cried Dave, forelornly peering at the TV again.

"tratamiento de emergencia / EMERGENCY TREATMENT.
luz ultravioleta! / ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT!" had appeared in big bright-red flashing letters on the screen.

"Ultraviolet??? UV light?? wtf? Where in gods name...?" Dave's voice trailed off in desperate desolation...

Alison scrubbed and screamed louder and faster than ever.

"The... tan... th.. the tanning room in the salon!" stammered Greg, "There's sunbeds in the tanning room, behind the laundry - aren't they Ultraviolet??"

"Whaat? What did you say???" asked Dave, as hope dared to creep back into his thoughts.

"The sunbeds in the tanning room - They're UV! They might help us??" came Gregs reply as he began to compose himself.

"Go! GO NOW!!!! RUN!!!!"

The three of them were out of the cabins' front door before Dave had even finished shouting, and they raced across the lawns towards the laundry area.

Their minds were racing, hearts pounding, lungs bursting, and yet everything around them seemed so... calm?
It was like a dream, all floaty and serene.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion all around them.
It felt like an hour had passed in the 20 seconds or so that it had taken them to reach the laundry, with it's tanning room to the rear.

They dived onto the vacant sunbeds and pressed the tan-cycle buttons to start them up. The purple tubes blinked a few times then glowed a steady glow.
Dave's heart was in his mouth.... was it working?
He felt.... nothing.
Greg glanced back and forth towards his Parent's sunbeds on either side...
"Is it working???? Is it doing anything?? I can't tell!!"

The room fell silent as the family searched for even the slightest clue... and then all hell broke loose!

Alison flung her arms up and clasped her hands over her ears as she heard the loudest SCREAM she had ever heard.
It penetrated her head and shook her chest, and she couldn't seem to keep it out, no matter how tightly she clasped.
It was only after several horrifying seconds that she realised why... It was her own scream!

The pain in her hands and arms was excruciating as the UV light penetrated the tissues and began to break down the superbugs.
They writhed and clawed and bit and stung as they fought to survive, but nothing could save them.
Nomsantos had included a UV sensitive gene in their DNA as a last-gasp fail safe and now those protocols were all that stood between this family and their horrible infestation.

The screaming died away, and the family began to bring their breathing and heartrates back to normal.
The pain subsided now, and they dared to open their eyes and look at their skin again.
There were a few small areas of scarring in strange wavy-lines on Alison's hands and forearms, and Dave had one long line down the back of his neck, but Greg seemed to be OK.

Even now, they couldn't bring themselves to leave the safety of the sunbeds until the tanning cycle ran out and the beds automatically clicked off.
Slowly they rose to their feet, checked one another closely for signs of the bugs, then gradually began to break into relieved smiles.

It was over.

They returned to the cabin and quickly burned the T-shirts!

"Good riddance!" said Dave, as the fire hissed, burned and popped in the brick-built BBQ pit behind the cabin.

They fell inside and slumped together on the sofa, hugged and stared blankly at the TV.
The coverage was a lot calmer now, focused on the UV treatment messages and images of GM bugs popping and breaking up.

The family were exhausted. Drained. It felt like the day had gone on forever.
So they put the word out that the rest of the birthday celebrations were cancelled, and decided to have an early night.
Greg hugged his mom and then made his way up to his room, "At least I won't forget THIS birthday for a while!" he joked over his shoulder, shutting his room door.

Dave and Alison slowly made their way through to their bedroom and slumped onto the bed, and it's beautiful, comforting new sheets.
"Hmmmmmm, you can't beat the fresh feel of new sheets" purred Alison as she rolled over to turn out her bedside lamp.
"Yeah..." came the slightly less enthusiastic reply from Dave, as he reached out for his lamp switch, and caught sight of the packaging for the new sheets, now lying crumpled in the bedside trash bin;

"Quality Egyptian Cotton Bedsheets with U-V fade resistance Guaranteed!"

Dave slowly shut his heavy eyelids, and felt a slight itch in his leg as he turned off the light and said... "goodnight".

I can't give ratings from the Discussions side, so I'll just say it here: you get 2 points from me.    

That sounds like the makings of a good sci-fi movie. Maybe you should get a screen writer to submit it for a short film?
After all, most movies are based on truth, you know?  

@"Mystic Wanderer"  Are you the only member who can't give a rating from viewing a post by using the Discussion Area?

(08-09-2017, 12:45 AM)guohua Wrote: @"Mystic Wanderer"  Are you the only member who can't give a rating from viewing a post by using the Discussion Area?

I have no idea. Not seen anyone else mention it. Maybe you should do a poll and see?

Quote:'Yesterday's groundbreaking news of a new lawsuit regarding Monsanto's collusion, cover ups,
and corruption inside the EPA is a part of a long string of unraveling safety claims.  

Decades of faulty chemical review procedures are beginning to be overturned.

Yay, 'bout damn time!!!  :smallimpatient:

Being as there are former Monsanto employees on the EPA board, whatcha expect? 
And Monsanto has been known to "take care" of Congressmen to look the other way. Oh wait, would that be considered a cover-up?
Say it ain't so.....tsk tsk.



What I have always wondered about, is the increase in autism in kids over the past decade or so. 

I know some people pass that off as a side affect of vaccinations, but being as it takes 20-30 years for studies/research  to truly be analyzed and come to a conclusion, makes one wonder how much sickness (allergies, mental impairment, autism, eating disorders etc, etc) could be caused by Monsanto's GMO products.

Nothing like making billions/trillions of dollars off a product all the while, using the public as guinea pigs
Aaah, but then again, that is what the pharmaceutical companies do. 


Anyhow--- deny, deny, deny Monsanto.
The truth WILL come out. Eventually.
Better late than never.





Good find @BIAD      
Thanks for sharing!!

(08-08-2017, 08:34 PM)gordi Wrote:

Quote:INPESTATION


"All Sorted!"  shouted Alison, as she rushed into the holiday cabin, all excited...
"I managed to get him a couple of those "unbleached" natural cotton T-Shirts - cheap too!"

"I'm sure he'll love them"  replied Dave, "He's turning into a bit of a hippy - Isn't he."

"Wonder where he gets that from!"  came the slightly sarcastic response as she ruffled his hair.


It was Gregs' 13th birthday, and although his parents didn't have much money to spend, they were determined to make it a birthday to remember.
So, along with a few close friends, they had decided to take him away for the weekend, down near the Mexican border.

Dave glanced down at the new T-Shirts, and he had to admit they looked just great!
A natural pale cream colour, with a tiny black fleck through it, and a swirly green logo with a rainbow over a silhouetted tree.

"Made in MEXICO - I might have known! Especially at that price"  he mused.

Alison had skipped upstairs to the bedroom and was admiring her own new purchase of luxurious Egyptian cotton bedsheets...
"Just Lovely! Now we can get down to the serious business of organising the party!"  she thought aloud.

The kitchen was chock-full of shopping bags, boxes, tubs and trays full of home-made goodies for Gregs' party, and Alison made short work of arranging the contents neatly onto plastic serving platters, ready for the afternoon guests to arrive.
Dave lazily and half-heartedly offered to help, as he yawned, scratched his head and clicked on the TV, but Alison just gave him "The Look!" and smiled to herself, resigned to the knowledge that she'd seen this a thousand times before.

The TV had some news item about farmers' protests and pesticides on it, and a man was loudly shouting in Spanish whilst brandishing a poorly made placard which read something like "distribuidor muerte - NOMSANTOS!"

Nomsantos was a huge agri-pharma conglomerate, and it looked like they had been upsetting the farmers down south of the border again.

Dave's' mind drifted as he remembered a couple of years back, when Nomsantos were forcing farmers to use their "special" pest-resistant Maize, Corn and Cotton. Some of them had nearly been bankrupted, because the crops turned out to be high-yield but of nearly unusable poor quality, and it turned out that they weren't actually very pest resistant either.
The cotton in particular had a very persistent Boll-Weevil type of pest which didn't seem to mind the "special" anti-pest chemicals they had put in the crop.

"I wonder what happened with all that?"  Dave pondered...
"What? Did you say something Dave?"  asked Alison, who by this time was arranging pretty paper napkins and plastic cups.
"nah, just something on TV, not important. Want me to get Greg up out of his bed yet?"
"yeah - go for it! I know he was up late, but this is turning into the longest lie-in in history"  came her excited reply.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!"  was the enthusiastic shout that greeted a rather fuzzy-headed and bemused teen, as he ambled downstairs and into the living area.
A big smile spread across his lips when he saw the party food and presents arranged before him.
"Thanks Mom! you guys are just awesome, can I open my presents now?"  he said as he enthusiastically ripped into the first package.

Co-incidentally, the man on the TV was ripping open his shirt, and showing the reporter a strange mazy pattern of scars on his body, still shouting loudly in Spanish.
A caption appeared with an unusual picture of a little insect, next to a diagram of a strange wasp-like creature which appeared to be assuming an "attack" posture towards the insect.

"That's weird"  thought Dave, "It looks like they're using a bug to get the bugs now!"

He didn't yet imagine that it was much, MUCH worse than that...

Nomsantos' own technical team had known that the cotton Boll-Weevil was resistant to all of their poisons, and had developed an indestructible GM superbug specifically to target and eradicate the Boll-Weevils in their cotton crops, and that was what was now appearing on the news.

The superbugs had been a success. A huge success.
So much so, that they quickly killed off the entire Boll-Weevil problem.

"GREAT!! New sneakers!"  squealed Greg "Thanks Mom, thanks Dad!"

The problem is... now that their intended prey had been eradicated, they were supposed to die off, but...
The wasp which Nomsantos had modified was capable of going into a state of hibernation or suspended animation, to help get it through periods of hardship/cold/famine etc.

"T-Shirts!! Cool!! and they're Natural, unbleached and Environmentally friendly too!!!"  Greg beamed as he pulled on one of his new Tees.

...and, if the gathering and processing of the crop wasn't too intensive, the superbugs could survive!

Dave scratched at his head again, as the man on TV came back on... crying. He was shaking all over and pointing towards a bundle on the back of the trailer behind him.

Alison was still busy, scrubbing at her hands in the kitchen. "Must have got something on my hands"  she cried, "my skin feels like it's burning!"

The reporter followed the man as he beckoned him over to the trailer and pulled back the bundle of cloth to reveal the still, lifeless body of a young boy of about 13.
He was covered in scar tissue, which looked strangely like crazy-paving in a garden path or the pattern on a giraffes body, with random squiggly lines going off in all directions.
Dave was struggling to take it in, he stared at the images, trying to make sense of them, trying to put it all together.

Alison rubbed at her forearms now, "Have we got any antiseptic cream with us? this is really starting to itch!"
Dave was unresponsive, fixatedly staring at the TV as he found himself rubbing at his neck, suddenly he glanced up to see what his wife was complaining about, flicked back to the TV and quickly felt the colour drain from his face as the realisation dawned.
He looked over at his son Greg, just in time to see him scratch at his belly, as he happily reached out for his next present, whilst sporting his new T-Shirt with the little black flecks...

The reporter on the TV was sobbing now, as a computer graphic came up on screen showing a map of Mexico and the Southern States.
A row of large red arrows marked pandemia de insectos depredadores was spreading out over the map, up towards the Mid-west and out towards the East and West Coasts and beyond...

That was a short story I wrote for another site a while back.... thought it might "fit" here?
G

  That was right up my alley that was!

(08-08-2017, 11:29 PM)gordi Wrote: Thanks everyone, I forgot to say that it was based on REAL "superbugs" that a certain agri pharma conglomerate were working on. No, Really.

anyway...

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PART II
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Dave's jaw dropped onto his chest, "Oh My GOD! Their GM bugs survived!!!
...They've killed off all the weevils and are looking for new hosts!"

"Whaaat??? What's wrong? What's going on??" cried Alison.

"On TV!!!! It's a Bug, a superbug... GM.. artificial... those stupid idiots have tried to use them to eradicate a pest insect, but they were too good at it. They've killed off all the pests and now they're spreading out...
IN THE COTTON!!! My GOD!!! They're in the cotton on the T-Shirts!!! and they're seeking new hosts!! - US!!"

Gregs attention was now focused entirely on his dad as the seriousness of their situation sank in, and his expression swung from joyful smiles... to confusion... to fear, in the space of a split second. He ripped the shirt from his body just as quickly, and instinctively stomped on it.

Alison was still scrubbing at her arms... screaming as she saw the movement under the skin for the first time.

"hold on!!! Shhhh!!! LOOK!" cried Dave, forelornly peering at the TV again.

"tratamiento de emergencia / EMERGENCY TREATMENT.
luz ultravioleta! / ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT!" had appeared in big bright-red flashing letters on the screen.

"Ultraviolet??? UV light?? wtf? Where in gods name...?" Dave's voice trailed off in desperate desolation...

Alison scrubbed and screamed louder and faster than ever.

"The... tan... th.. the tanning room in the salon!" stammered Greg, "There's sunbeds in the tanning room, behind the laundry - aren't they Ultraviolet??"

"Whaat? What did you say???" asked Dave, as hope dared to creep back into his thoughts.

"The sunbeds in the tanning room - They're UV! They might help us??" came Gregs reply as he began to compose himself.

"Go! GO NOW!!!! RUN!!!!"

The three of them were out of the cabins' front door before Dave had even finished shouting, and they raced across the lawns towards the laundry area.

Their minds were racing, hearts pounding, lungs bursting, and yet everything around them seemed so... calm?
It was like a dream, all floaty and serene.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion all around them.
It felt like an hour had passed in the 20 seconds or so that it had taken them to reach the laundry, with it's tanning room to the rear.

They dived onto the vacant sunbeds and pressed the tan-cycle buttons to start them up. The purple tubes blinked a few times then glowed a steady glow.
Dave's heart was in his mouth.... was it working?
He felt.... nothing.
Greg glanced back and forth towards his Parent's sunbeds on either side...
"Is it working???? Is it doing anything?? I can't tell!!"

The room fell silent as the family searched for even the slightest clue... and then all hell broke loose!

Alison flung her arms up and clasped her hands over her ears as she heard the loudest SCREAM she had ever heard.
It penetrated her head and shook her chest, and she couldn't seem to keep it out, no matter how tightly she clasped.
It was only after several horrifying seconds that she realised why... It was her own scream!

The pain in her hands and arms was excruciating as the UV light penetrated the tissues and began to break down the superbugs.
They writhed and clawed and bit and stung as they fought to survive, but nothing could save them.
Nomsantos had included a UV sensitive gene in their DNA as a last-gasp fail safe and now those protocols were all that stood between this family and their horrible infestation.

The screaming died away, and the family began to bring their breathing and heartrates back to normal.
The pain subsided now, and they dared to open their eyes and look at their skin again.
There were a few small areas of scarring in strange wavy-lines on Alison's hands and forearms, and Dave had one long line down the back of his neck, but Greg seemed to be OK.

Even now, they couldn't bring themselves to leave the safety of the sunbeds until the tanning cycle ran out and the beds automatically clicked off.
Slowly they rose to their feet, checked one another closely for signs of the bugs, then gradually began to break into relieved smiles.

It was over.

They returned to the cabin and quickly burned the T-shirts!

"Good riddance!" said Dave, as the fire hissed, burned and popped in the brick-built BBQ pit behind the cabin.

They fell inside and slumped together on the sofa, hugged and stared blankly at the TV.
The coverage was a lot calmer now, focused on the UV treatment messages and images of GM bugs popping and breaking up.

The family were exhausted. Drained. It felt like the day had gone on forever.
So they put the word out that the rest of the birthday celebrations were cancelled, and decided to have an early night.
Greg hugged his mom and then made his way up to his room, "At least I won't forget THIS birthday for a while!" he joked over his shoulder, shutting his room door.

Dave and Alison slowly made their way through to their bedroom and slumped onto the bed, and it's beautiful, comforting new sheets.
"Hmmmmmm, you can't beat the fresh feel of new sheets" purred Alison as she rolled over to turn out her bedside lamp.
"Yeah..." came the slightly less enthusiastic reply from Dave, as he reached out for his lamp switch, and caught sight of the packaging for the new sheets, now lying crumpled in the bedside trash bin;

"Quality Egyptian Cotton Bedsheets with U-V fade resistance Guaranteed!"

Dave slowly shut his heavy eyelids, and felt a slight itch in his leg as he turned off the light and said... "goodnight".

Just adding that the DoD has been in bed with Monsanto since the 80s. Just watch the 1985 movie "Warning Sign" for starters.

(03-25-2022, 12:38 AM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote: Just adding that the DoD has been in bed with Monsanto since the 80s. Just watch the 1985 movie "Warning Sign" for starters.

Yes, worrisome isn't it.... not very comforting to say the least 


I don't think that we saw that movie, I will have to watch it. Thanks