US pork producer Smithfield Foods to be sold to China for $4.72 billion – and this is just the beginning

“Recent announcements about the acquisition of U.S.-based Smithfield Foods Inc., the world’s largest pork producer and processor, by a major Chinese holding company has sent significant shockwaves throughout the American economy. According to new reports, Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. is in the process of pulling the trigger on purchasing Smithfield for $4.72 billion, a move that some say marks the beginning of a much larger takeover of American industry by the Far East.

Reports of a potential Smithfield acquisition have been surfacing here and there in recent months. But now it appears that the decision is all but complete, pending approval from Smithfield’s shareholders. As reported by Newsday.com, the deal was officially announced at the end of May, and part of its terms included shareholders receiving $34 per share, a roughly 31 percent premium from earlier share value, as part of the deal.”

Via Natural News

GMO feed turns pig stomachs to mush! Shocking photos reveal severe damage caused by GM soy and corn

“If you have stomach problems or gastrointestinal problems, a new study led by Dr. Judy Carman may help explain why: pigs fed a diet of genetically engineered soy and corn showed a 267% increase in severe stomach inflammation compared to those fed non-GMO diets. In males, the difference was even more pronounced: a 400% increase. (For the record, most autistic children are males, and nearly all of them have severe intestinal inflammation.)

The study was conducted on 168 young pigs on an authentic farm environment and was carried out over a 23-week period by eight researchers across Australia and the USA. The lead researcher, Dr. Judy Carman, is from the Institute of Health and Environmental Research in Kensington Park, Australia. The study has now been published in the Journal of Organic Systems, a peer-reviewed science journal.

The study is the first to show what appears to be a direct connection between the ingestion of GMO animal feed and measurable damage to the stomachs of those animals. Tests also showed abnormally high uterine weights of animals fed the GMO diets, raising further questions about the possibility of GMOs causing reproductive organ damage.”

Via Natural News

Monsanto sued by Kansas wheat farmer over release of unapproved GMO wheat in Oregon

“A wheat farmer in Kansas has filed a lawsuit against Monsanto alleging that the infamous agricultural giant is guilty of gross negligence for not containing unapproved genetically modified wheat which was recently discovered in Oregon.

The farmer, Ernest Barnes, said that Monsanto’s GMO wheat has put all of the United States’ wheat export sales at risk. Meanwhile, Monsanto claims they have no clue how the “Roundup Ready” strain of wheat ended up in an Oregon field since they say they abandoned their research in 2004.

Indeed, Barnes is quite right in saying that the discovery has already impacted U.S. wheat exports. Japan canceled part of a tender to buy U.S. western white wheat. Japan is one of the largest export markets for U.S. wheat.

South Korea also suspended imports of U.S. wheat and said they would increase inspections of imports.

The EU similarly said they will test incoming shipments and will block any shipments containing GMO wheat.”

Via Activist Post

South Korea joins Japanese ban on U.S. wheat imports after shocking GMO contamination announcement by USDA

“News about the GMO contamination of U.S. wheat crops seems to be spreading faster than the GMOs themselves. On Friday, South Korea joined Japan in announcing a halt on imports of U.S. wheat due to the USDA’s recent announcement that commercial wheat grown in the USA is contaminated with Monsanto’s genetically engineered wheat.

Some Americans may still not realize this, but GMOs are outlawed or shunned nearly everywhere around the world. Only in the USA have GMOs managed to avoid being labeled or outlawed — and that’s primarily due to Monsanto’s financial influence over lawmakers.

Monsanto shares plummeted 4 percent on Friday following the announcement by South Korea.”

Via Natural News

Arsenic being intentionally added to conventional chicken

“The old saying, “You are what you eat,” poses troubling implications for public health in light of a new study on chicken meat, which found that most of it contains dangerously high levels of toxic arsenic. And the worst part is that industrial chicken producers are directly responsible for causing this, as they intentionally add arsenic-based pharmaceutical drugs to chicken feed in order to bulk them up quickly and improve the color of their meat, which in turn poisons you and your family.

You can thank researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future in Maryland for exposing this little-known fact in a recent paper published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. As it turns out, virtually all commercial chicken, including certified organic and “antibiotic-free” varieties, contain some level of inorganic arsenic. But it is the conventional chicken fed arsenic-based drugs that have the highest levels.

As reported by GRACE Communications Foundation Senior Policy Advisor Chris Hunt, writing for Ecocentric, Johns Hopkins researchers collected a variety of chicken samples from grocery stores in 10 cities across the U.S. Some of the meat samples came from conventional sources, while others were U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified organic or “antibiotic-free.” All the samples were tested side-by-side with each other, including in both raw and cooked form.”

Via Natural News

The Chinese Are Coming, And They Want America’s Pork

“Moments ago, news broke that in a stunning M&A move, an American pork icon – Smithfield Foods, may be acquired as soon as today by China’s Shuanghui, also known as Shineway, which is China’s largest pork producer. The Chinese are coming, and they want America’s pork. It unclear how soon after the deal gets clearance by the Committee on Foreign Investment (if it does at all) will the US be subject to that well-honored China excess pig “clearance” strategy: floating ‘em down the river.”

Via Zero Hedge

Seventy-five percent of honey bought at the supermarket isn’t real honey

” Large scale tests on US supermarket honey now reveal that roughly 75 percent of honey on the market isn’t even real. According to investigation by Food Safety News, today’s mass produced honey is often times void of real pollen, artificially processed and laundered from China. Honey manufacturing experts and the World Health Organization agree that real honey must contain true microscopic particles of pollen, to be considered real, with an identifiable source. Honey void of pollen is an artificial, nutrition-void, watered-down scam.

Watered down, heated, pressurized honey not real at all
Much of the honey hitting supermarket shelves is derived from an ultra filtering procedure that heats honey to high temperatures, forcing the natural substance at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove pollen. In this way, manufacturers conceal the identity of the source of the honey, which is a technique used by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of their honey on the U.S. market for years. The Chinese are responsible for dumping dangerous antibiotics, artificial sweeteners, and leeching copious amounts of heavy metals into imported honey products.”

Via Natural News

Monsanto Wins Fight to Take Away State Food Labeling Rights

The Next Food Crisis Will Be Caused By Globalist Land-Grabs

“The UN warns that global food stores like grains are depleting at an expediential rate and when combined with failing harvests, there will be a food crisis in 2013.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) explain that “we’ve not been producing as much as we are consuming. That is why stocks are being run down. Supplies are now very tight across the world and reserves are at a very low level, leaving no room for unexpected events next year.”

Since 2010, the FAO have stated that the rise in food prices is directly correlated to the 80 million people being added to the world’s population annually. This fact, according to the globalists at the UN, is beginning to “tax both the skills of farmers and the limits of the earth’s land and water resources.”

Added to this problem are the 3 million people who are “moving up the food chain” eating more than their share in gluttonous nations like the United States and China.”

Via Alt Market

Colony Collapse Disorder Is a Fraud: Pesticides Cause Bee Die-Offs

“Years ago, Gaia Health informed that bee die-offs are a direct result of pesticide nerve agents called neonicotinoids. The term, Colony Collapse Disorder, is fraudulent, designed to direct attention from the known cause. Agribusiness, the poison manufacturers making death-producing pesticides, is the other face of Big Pharma.

The massive bee die-off is not a great mystery. Colony Collapse Disorder is poisoning with a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. Clothianidin, a neonicotinoid pesticide manufactured by Bayer, has been clearly linked to die-offs in Germany and France.

Although the bee die-offs that have occurred recently are more severe, there have been many in the past from the same and similar products. In North Dakota, a lawsuit was filed against Bayer for the loss of their bees in 1995, the result of spraying rapeseed with imidacloprid. In 1999, the same product was banned in France for use as a seed dressing for sunflowers when they lost one-third of their hives after widespread spraying. In 2004, it was banned for use on corn. Recently, France refused to approve Bayer’s request to sell clothianidin.”

Via Activist Post