I know these are baby steps. But let’s face facts: The imprints left
behind are embarrassing. Really. Unless you factor in the idea that
this is something new, a challenge. This course is a tremendous
opportunity to begin again.
I hope I get to look back at this and do something besides grimace.
Peter Terezakis
Tisch School of the Arts
http://www.terezakis.com
In 2009, President Obama appointed Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto lawyer-lobbyist, as Food Safety Czar in the FDA (Food & Drug Administration), and Tom Vilsack, Iowa’s former Biotech Governor of the Year as Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture. Mr. Vilsack’s award was conferred by an industry organization representing Monsanto and the other genetic engineering companies.
have to be safety tested or labeled. The Food & Drug Administration conducts no premarket review or approval engineered foods, as long as Monsanto (and other industry members such as Dow, Dupont, Syngenta, BASF) concludes that the genetically engineered substance is not “materially different” from normal food.
Michael Taylor’s FDA has rubber-stamped Dow Chemical Corporation’s conclusion that their Agent Orange Corn (genetically engineered to resist the herbicide 2,4-D used in Agent Orange) is somehow comparable to normal corn.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Tom Vilsack’s USDA is ready to give Agent Orange Corn final approval. Soon, we will be eating corn engineered with genes from a soil bacterium that isn’t killed by 2,4-D herbicide: A “food” which human beings have never eaten before, has never been tested for safety, and marketed without any indication that it is a genetically engineered product.
2,4-D is currently the 7th largest source of dioxin pollution in the US and is toxic to the eye, thyroid, kidney, adrenals, ovaries/testes, and neurological system. Agent Orange Corn is projected to increase 2,4-D use 50 times over.
Kurt Mix, of Katy, Texas, is charged with two counts of obstructing justice for deleting from his iPhone hundreds of text messages he exchanged with a co-worker and a contractor, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.
The complaint represents the first criminal charges brought against any workers involved in the accident or its aftermath.
Interesting coincidence that this arrest followed a recent New York Times editorial:
TWO years after a series of gambles and ill-advised decisions on a BP drilling project led to the largest accidental oil spill in United States history and the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, no one has been held accountable.
How bad are the effects from the spill? We still do not know for the long term. But these articles are worth reading:
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:45:01 -0700
Subject: Nuclear Inspectors descend on San Onofre – NRC will have
meeting open to public to discuss preliminary findings
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to discuss preliminary
findings with Edison at a meeting that will be open to the public,
with inspection team members available to answer people’s questions.
A date for that gathering won’t be set until much of the inspection
is completed. A written report with more extensive findings will be
issued within 30 days of the site visit.
Full article:
NRC to send in more inspectors to Edison’s failing nuclear plant
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/mar/15/nuclear-inspectors-descend-san-onofre/
Manfre says the plant is actually designed to withstand more force than Japan’s facility.
Operators could not say their safety rank but said the governing committee says they are up to safety standards.They also noted that the world is ripe with radiation, which is said even be found in bananas.
The power plant also generates much more than power. It is responsible for 3,000 jobs.
“It’s very much a part of the local economy,” said Manfre. – 10 News.com (click for article)
I received the following email last night from an area toxicologist who has been involved with efforts to shut down the San Onofre nuclear plant for some time and have no reason to doubt the facts of Mr. Johnson’s letter.
To: Mike Nichols; Lesa Heebner; David Ott; Dave Roberts; Tom
Campbell; Joe Kellejian
Subject: Radiation found in Downtown San Clemente Yesterday
Importance: High
Dear City Council Members and City Manager Ott,
Residents of San Clemente flew two citizens of Miyagi Prefecture near Fukushima Japan, to San Clemente this past Saturday for a public presentation to warn Californians about the horrors of nuclear power plant disasters.
The Japanese guests took their Geiger counters down to the crowded public beach in downtown San Clemente and found levels of radioactivity in the sand equal to those found on the beach in Miyagi Prefecture (near Fukushima) where children are developing tumors and cancer. This was yesterday here in Southern California! They also tested the inside of a home they were staying at in San Clemente and found radiation levels equal to those in their own homes in Miyagi Prefecture Japan!
The owners of the power plant, SCE and SDG&E operate the only radiation monitors within 50 miles of the power plant but do not share their radiation readings with the public on a real-time basis. They must have known about these levels but have said nothing.
It is unclear if this radiation is due to the “minor leaks” that SCE admitted to a week ago, or from the 40 years of constant venting of radioactive material that the NRC has allowed San Onofre to quietly do on a regular basis, or from the radioactive fallout from Fukushima one year ago. Either way this news is alarming as Solana Beach is only 30 miles from San Onofre via the north westerly winds
that blow on a regular basis.
Stunned by the finding,
Torgen Johnson
Solana Beach
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