The bio-tech company Monsanto can sell genetically modified seeds before safety tests on them are completed, the US Supreme Court has ruled. Please do some research on Monsanto if you are unfamiliar with them. They get their daily exercise from the revolving door at the FDA and EPA. Apparently, the Supreme Court is in bed with them as well.

If you are trying to start or turn around a farmers’ market, it’s easy to get distracted by all the possibilities of signage and events and promotions. Before you order your banners, though, make sure you’ve mastered the basics. Each step should set the foundation for the next to make sure things unfold as planned on opening day—and finish strong at the closing.

A monopoly is exclusive control of a commodity or service that makes it possible to manipulate prices. This is accomplished through governmental regulations used to enforce the monopoly. The way to break a monopoly is to remove those laws. This is simple, but not easy in the case of Monsanto, because the roots extend to international, federal, state, and local government regulations. Monopoly owners corner a market by taking control of the resource AND preventing others from using the resource.

A new study done by Russian scientists suggests that Genetically Modified Food may cause long term sterility, that is, sterility in second and third generations. The individual results are pretty shocking – read more!

Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute inserted artificial genetic material — chemically printed, synthesized and assembled — into cells that were then able to grow naturally. Furthermore, the synthetic DNA was able to instruct and control the new host form into rapidly coverting to match it’s intended life form. Morphing or quickly evolving, you might say.

Upwards of 90% of all corn, soybeans and cotton are grown from genetically engineered seeds, also known as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). A study by the International Journal of Biological Sciences revealed that Monsanto’s Mon 863, Mon 810, and Roundup herbicide-absorbing NK 603 in corn caused kidney and liver damage in laboratory rats. They also discovered damage to the heart, spleen, adrenal glands and even the blood of rats that consumed the mutant corn. This hasn’t slowed down Monsanto’s profit machine. In 2008, Monsanto cleared over $2 billion in net profits on $11 billion in revenues and is expecting gross margins in Q2 2010 of 62%.

Scientists have been given permission to put human genes into goats, sheep and cows for the next 20 years, to see if the animals will produce human proteins in their milk. AgResearch hopes human proteins made by the animals could eventually be used to make “biopharmaceuticals.”

Drug and chemical giant Bayer AG has admitted that there is no way to stop the uncontrolled spread of its genetically modified crops. According to the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Don Downing, genetic material from the unapproved rice contaminated more than 30 percent of all rice cropland in the United States.

At least seven US state attorneys general are investigating whether Monsanto Company has abused its market power to lock out competitors and raise prices on seed. Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and two other unidentified states are in a working group to investigate the biotech giant.

Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear

Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.