SWEET CONNECTIONS: DARK SECRETS IN THE BOX

 By Gundhramns Hammer

June 30, 2013

Source: Clyde Three Peaks Challenge Blog

Tears, danger and even death lurks behind the bush. The right questions for the right reasons to the wrong persons could mean jail or crossing the line of no return.

Guy-André Kieffer, a French-Canadian freelance journalist, has vanished from the surface of the Earth since April 16, 2004. Nobody knows what happened to him.

A small boy was able to escape from the smugglers and run away as as fast as he could but all of his efforts were useless. He was outrun and captured by a bunch of men mounted on motorcycles. The scene was like something taken out of a Hollywood movie. 

Children are captured like wild game and taken across the border to be abused and enslaved. Trafficked children cry and yell out for help but nobody is there to save them.

What powers this drama needs the tropical heat to be grown. Once prepared, it takes many shapes but always keeps its flavour.

Battles have been fought by men to establish its world monopoly in the past. And at the present time, there is a battle for the hearts, minds and consumer´s wallets in the emerging economies of the Far East (Allen, 2010). 

It brings sweetness to some people but to others is hell. 

In Europe, the humid tropical heat mixed with body odours, human ambition and corruption, smell of papermoney and the desperate cries of smuggled children is connected indirectly to a school girl that has just open her lunch box. 

It is break time and the school girl is hungry. She is also curious what her mother has put for a snack today. The box contains a sandwich, an apple and a bar of sweets.

- It´s a chocolate bar!!, she exclaims surprised. Her favourite sweets. 

She smiles as she unwraps the snack bar. She loves chocolate. Chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake, chocolate muffins, chocolate milk, chocolate candies.... Nothing is sweets or desserts for her unless it has chocolate. She is hooked on chocolate (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Assortment of chocolates. Source: Infinite Unknown

But she does not know what´s behind the chocolate bar she is about to bite. Would she care if she was told about it? 

Try it at home with your own children. But remember: It is your own example which counts best.

Let us explore the sweet connections we never see behind our chocolate consumption, around 8-10 kg/person. Let us take a good look at the dark secrets in the box. The dark side of chocolate:

                                                                    ENGLISH/SPANISH

                                                                  ENGLISH/ITALIAN

Remember, sweet connections may take some humans high and others down. Check out the other end of the connection in your hand.

Examining our home connections with Earth and its inhabitants

More and more we are confronted with the tough decision of looking into what we eat each day. We must remember that everything is connected on this planet. 

Therefore, we cannot go about squandering natural resources anymore. Neither can we go about pretending to be responsible consumers unless we come face to face with the facts that our consumption can have a heavy impact not only on the environment but also on human communities as well.

We cannot act like careless consumers anymore. If we want our future generations to have a healthy Biosphere where justice and peace prevails, we must start right now by changing our consumption habits where needed. Simplifying holds the key.

We must care for others. And our caring must go beyond the borders of our homes, for no home is unconnected on Earth.

Have you examined your home connections to Earth and its inhabitants?


References

Allen L. L. (2010). Chocolate Fortunes: The Battle for the Hearts, Minds, and Wallets of China´s Consumers. AMACOM, American Management Association, New York, NY, USA. 244 p.

TRANSLATE: Select and paste HERE.

ORANGUTANS ARE OURSELVES TOO

Source: MailOnline

"Although we may all look apart, we are all one. And one needs the other one. One is not only one but many ones hooked like one in unbeknownst ways to all the ones that compose the only one - the Biosphere- that looks like it is not one but it is one indeed.

Since we are all stuck on this beautiful Earth, we must join forces to change our fucking blind course. 

Being on top is definitely not sustainable.

Any "sapiens" out there left?

Let us hear your voice in support of those who look like they have no voices but indeed have voices. Not only their own but also yours and ours. 

We are all one after all. But we have got to act like one on this business of taking care of Earth.

Let us do something for ourselves. But we are talking about the ourselves that comprises all of ourselves. 

Even though they may not look like ourselves or they are not ourselves, they are indeed ourselves. All ourselves are one ourselves on this planet, our dear Earth."

READ MORE...

MAN´S CULTURAL CHAIN: IT IS NOW WISER TO EAT THE GRAIN

Source: Gundhramns Hammer
View original


By Hugo M. G. von Österreich und von Toskana
Member of the Union of Concerned Scientists (USA)
June 25, 2013

Source: BFC

If there is such a thing as reincarnation, and who is to say that this is not true or otherwise, to be born as a chicken would be the worst punishment. 

Chickens are the most mistreated and tortured animals on Earth. 

From Japan to Portugal and San Francisco (USA), from Norway to South Africa, from Patagonia to Alaska... Around the world, chicken is on the menu. 

Every hour that goes by, millions of chickens (Fig. 1) die bleeding with their throats cut at industrial slaughterhouses (Fig. 2, Videos 1-2) or at home.

Figure 1. Sentient living chickens are transported piled up to the slaughterhouse. Source: www.learntoquestion.com

Figure 2. A butcher is finishing off chickens by cutting the throat of those birds that avoided the mechanical blade. Source: photobucket.

                                                         WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES!

                                                  Video 1. Industrial chicken slaughterhouse.

                            

                                          Video 2. Organic chicken slaughterhouse.

                    

It does not matter whether they are grown organically or non-organically, death always awaits the chickens.

Earth is Chickens´ hell!!!!


The cultural chain

Humans eat what they were taught to eat. They drink what they were taught to drink. They behave as they were taught to behave. They talk as they were taught to talk. They even think as they were taught to think at home and school.

They grow up soaked in a cultural soup and the surrounding juice penetrates up to their bones and neurons. 

It is a cultural chain to which we humans are tied to whomever or wherever we are born.

It is our duty to question any link of this cultural chain.

It is now wiser to eat the grain

The way we treat animals and nature is a direct reflection of our cultural chain. If we add only links of destruction and pain to this chain, we will have a painful society. 

If we add only kindness and caring links to this cultural chain, we will enjoy a peaceful and kind society.

At the present time, man´s cultural chain is dotted with good and bad links here and there, with no uniformity whatsoever. And we are not talking of cultural homogenisation, which is a different thing.

Nevertheless, there are certain patterns on this cultural chain. The bad links tend to fall together and form long sequences along the chain, making it weaker. Weaker in the sense of the healthy maintenance of the Biosphere.

Whereas the good links are very dispersed and far apart and should all come together to make man´s cultural chain stronger. Stronger towards a healthy Biosphere.

Despite its drawbacks such as sickening our minds with wrong information or images which do not add up but rest, internet could be used to bring about the gathering of the good links, to balance and hopefully outbalance the force of the bad links and, in the long run, end up with a stronger chain, always geared towards taking good care of the Biosphere.

Considering that we are now 7 billion human beings on planet Earth adding certain links to our massive cultural chain, such our addiction to meat consumption, will make weaker the planetary ecosystematical web of chains upon which our cultural chain, including its alimentary aspects, depends.

Meat eating at the present scale and level that man has elevated it is now exerting and will put a tremendous pressure upon the finite natural resources of the planet. 

Furthermore, heavy and frequent meat eating makes us sick.

Massive meat consumption by man weakens Mother Earth´s chain web. 

And if there is no Earth´s chain, there is no man´s cultural chain at all in the end.

It is now wiser to eat the grain.



References

FAO (2006). Livestock´s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options. United Nations, Rome. Read document in ENGLISH (2006, 390 p.), ESPAÑOL (2009, 465 p.) or FRANÇAIS (2009, 464 p.)

Spellman F. R. & Whiting N. E. (2007). Environmental Managament of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA. 475 p.

Turner J. & D´Silva J. (Ed.) (2006). Animals, Ethics and Trade: The Challenge of Animal Sentience. Earthscan, London, UK. 286 p. 

Disclaimer:

The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein. The information herein contained is for educational and/or entertainment purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. The owner will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information. These terms and conditions of use are subject to change at anytime and without notice.

BIRD SLAUGHTER IN THE NEAR EAST: DOCUMENTATION OF POACHING IN THE LEBANON

Source: Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS)
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Trophy exhibition on Facebook

 

This Lebanese poacher proudly displays a shot White Stork 

A freshly-shot, still living Short-toed Eagle is proudly presented as a trophy. Armed men pose with freshly killed cranes and pelicans. Another hunter holding a dead Lesser Spotted Eagle grins into the camera lens. His hunting companion has neatly draped his bag for the day - hundreds of shot song birds - on a bedsheet. Two children, hardly eight years of age - inspect wide-eyed two dead Honey Buzzards that their father has brought back today from the hunt. Another still life shows nine freshly shot White Storks in the foreground with behind them the hunter, completely relaxed with a cigarette in one hand and the beak of one of the storks in the other. Such photos give an idea of the incredible damage that Lebanese poachers inflict on the European bird populations. There are several hundreds, perhaps thousands of such trophy pictures. Most are taken by the poachers themselves to show off to other hunters. Some of the photos are even posted on the Internet for friends and acquaintances to see. They prove in great detail that species gravely endangered in Europe are being killed on a massive scale in the Lebanon. And they are especially authentic because they are taken by the hunters themselves. Scientists and conservationists in Europe are now alarmed about the scale of the killing because the Lebanon straddles one of the most important routes for European migrant bird species, the Eastern Flyway. This route is used every spring and autumn by millions of song birds, as well as hundreds of thousands of storks, eagles and other birds of prey.

More than 140 species are affected by poaching 

 

A child with a shot Cuckoo 

The Lebanese Environmental Movement (LEM), with support from CABS; has monitored the hunters’ Facebook pages for months and meticulously collated more than 700 photographs as proof of the poaching of European migrant birds. The result is a comprehensive photographic documentation that has rendered bird and wildlife conservationists speechless. CABS experts need a full two months to analyse the photographs and count and identify the birds. A total of 13,100 birds are shown on the photos, of which 11,213 can be identified at species level. The spectrum includes song birds such as the Ortolan Bunting, Golden Oriole and Common Redstart, as well as numerous water birds and birds of prey as for instance Lesser Spotted Eagle, Red-footed Falcon and Egyptian Vulture.

The sale of hunting equipment is booming

 

Hundreds of birds shot on a single day - hunter with dead Barn Swallows and Swifts 

The most important migration corridor is the Bekaa Rift Valley in the east of the country. This is the continuation of the Jordan Rift Valley and its fertile fields and extensive wetlands are used every year as a stopover for millions of migrant birds on passage. Embedded between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains the valley is only a few kilometres wide in places. Here, in this migration bottleneck, hunting has a long tradition. In addition to the sale of the shot birds on local markets, the trade in hunting weapons and equipment is booming here. Hundreds of hunting equipment shops are located in the area of the town of Chtaura alone. In the centre of the town there are 20 such traders in a radius of 50 metres. The second most important migration corridor is the coastal are to the west where above all water bird species and in autumn birds of prey pass through. Illegal hunting is a big problem here as well. In addition to the hobby sportsmen from the capital Beirut there are an increasing number of professional poachers in this region, whose families live from the profits of the sale of dead song birds to restaurants or private persons. These ‘pros’ are capable of harvesting several hundreds of birds daily using decoy devices, mist nets and shotguns.

Help from Europe

 

Heaps of song birds - This Lebanese hunter poses in Facebook with finches, buntings and other protected species. 

 In order to put an end to this environmental anarchy, the LEM and CABS believe that is it essential to finally implement a new hunting law (a draft has been on the back burner for years), educate hunters and establish an official organisation to monitor and control hunting. In order to put pressure on the responsible politicians in Beirut to take action the conservationists count on assistance from abroad. “The birds that are killed in the Lebanon are on the Red List of protected species in their breeding areas and great efforts are made for their conservation” comments Bernard Abi Nader, a bird conservation expert from Beirut. The member states of the European Union in particular must take a clear stance against this massacre and put pressure on the Lebanese Government to do more for bird protection. “The EU bird protection guidelines oblige the member states to improve the conservation status of endangered bird species. The necessary measures to protect the complete annual habitat of these species - in the Lebanon as well - must be implemented” demands CABS President Heinz Schwarze. “One such measure could be the use of EU funds for the development of a hunting warden organisation or education of the local population”.

In order to make the responsible politicians in Europe aware of the dimension of this bird conservation problem, CABS and the LEM are currently working on a joint report for the European Commission and the environment ministers of all EU member states. “We intend to use all channels open to us to persuade the Beirut government to finally take action to improve the situation for our migrant birds in the Lebanon” states Heinz Schwarze.

Protests to Lebanese Embassies

The publication of the hunters’ photographs, and a call for protest on the CABS website, have already caused a wave of outrage and led to a flood of protest mails to Lebanese Embassies in the countries of the EU. For the migration season 2013, the LEM plans in parallel a comprehensive public relations campaign in poaching hotspots. This will include educating hunters on the conservation status of migrant birds and the printing, putting up and distribution of relevant posters and brochures. CABS has agreed to provide funding and logistic assistance for this campaign. It is also planned to send a delegation of CABS experts to the Lebanon in autumn in order, together with our LEM colleagues, to collect more date on the scale of the migrant bird hunting problem and seek local solutions.

Report as download

The joint CABS/LEM report on bird killing in the Lebanon in English can be downloaded here:

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01-CABS & LEM Lebanon bird hunting report 2013 web.pdf	2.12 MB

THE DESTRUCTION OF MOTHER NATURE: A SHORTCUT FOR MAN´S DOWNFALL

 

Source: Mother Nature Network

Source: Vital Issues

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"We are members of probably the last generation who will share this planet with living forests, living rivers, living oceans." -- Derrick Jensen, writing in The Ecologist, October 2003

One million species of animals and plants face extinction from drastic Climate Change (global warming) alone within decades.

"A quarter of known land animals and plants, more than a million species, will eventually die out because of the global warming that will take place over the next fifty years, the most important study of its kind has concluded. International scientists from eight countries have warned that, based even on the most conservative estimates, rising temperatures will trigger a global mass extinction of unprecedented proportions." (The Independent, 8 January 2004, "Revealed: how global warming will cause extinction of a million species", by Steve Connor, Science Editor)

Has anyone tallied how many extinctions have already taken place? Extinctions were said 20 years ago to have occurred at a rate of one a month. How many a month is it now? Nearly one-half the world’s forests have been lost in the past 30 years. How many animals & plants have disappeared
along with them?

Human beings are destroying their own biosphere, their life support system -- killing off mammals and birds and fish and other aquatic creatures and soil & aquatic micro-organisms; decimating forests and killing off plant species; polluting the seas into depleted-oxygen Dead Zones and befouling rivers & lakes & streams & any available pool of water with disease-producing & cancer-causing chemicals and radioactivity.

Human beings -- primarily the controllers (major shareholders) and operators of giant corporations -- are destroying living creatures and their habitats as if we could live completely without them.

You doubtless have not heard of the tiny Californian tecopa pupfish that was made extinct by a commercial development that could have avoided doing it.
 

They are gone. But we can still rescue endangered and threatened animal species such as (to name only a few of the best-known creatures): African gorilla and chimpanzee, Sumatran orangutan, tiger and lion of India, rhinoceros and elephant of Asia, several species of whales, the South American condor (the largest bird on the planet), leopards in the Caucasus and Far East. Not to mention severely diminished populations, such as the wonderful cheetah (just about the fastest creature on earth)

How many among us have any sense of Wonder and Beauty concerning the natural world, Creation?

How many of us are sensitive to what the wholesale destruction of Life means, in moral terms?

For all of us, and especially for that silent majority that only seems to care about money and material things, know that we are destroying ecosystem 'property' worth an estimated 33 trillion dollars a year to us.

READ MORE...

OCEAN ACIDIFICATION: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CARBON DIOXIDE COIN

By Gundhramns Hammer

June 17, 2013

Source: NOAA

 

We human beings are the biggest predators and enemy of all of the Earth´s ecosystems including the oceans. We are literally scraping the sea bottoms and beds throughout the world to extract metals and catch fish. 

Whales are starving in Antarctica because of our recent fad for chewing patties made up of krill (Euphausia superba), the source food for these marine mammals.

We are literally stealing away the whale´s food, for we are not only nasty top predators everywhere but also the biggest robbers and pirates on this planet.

Krill is in high demand by commercial fisheries for feeding farmed fish, dietary supplements for humans, cosmetics and other products that we could do without.

There is a lot of talk about the sustainable management of krill, but this is really nonsense. Sustainable is a euphemism for sophisticated exploitation of animals. The best thing is to leave krill alone. 

We have no business in interfering in the life of whales, penguins or any other Antarctic animal species unless our help is required after we have stuck our noses where we should have not been in the first place.

Antarctic krill already has it tough with the rising temperatures as a result of the climate change.

Many marine species are at the brink of extinction because of our greediness and squandering habits. And despite the numerous campaigns done by advocate groups with guts to remind us that we are failing in the upkeep of our only home, Earth, we still continue and insist on trampling on the same track as if nothing has ever happened. 

We have got to be real idiots not to change our course! Some people affirm we are indeed so. We concur and do not question that at all!

And to top it all off, we now have another problem in our hands. This is quite serious. It has come about as a result of our addiction to oil, our love affair with cars and other gas machines, our habit of cruising around and breezing up our faces, riding cars and chasing imaginary wild geese in our delusions of power and grandeur.

And what is this new problem? It is call "Ocean Acidification". But we will let others speak about this environmental isssue:

Source: NRDC

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Increased carbon dioxide is changing the chemistry of the earth’s oceans, threatening marine life

Earth’s atmosphere isn’t the only victim of burning fossil fuels. About a quarter of all carbon dioxide emissions are absorbed by the earth’s oceans, where they’re having an impact that’s just starting to be understood.

Over the last decade, scientists have discovered that this excess CO2 is actually changing the chemistry of the sea and proving harmful for many forms of marine life. This process is known as ocean acidification.

A more acidic ocean could wipe out species, disrupt the food web and impact fishing, tourism and any other human endeavor that relies on the sea.

The change is happening fast -- and it will take fast action to slow or stop it. Over the last 250 years, oceans have absorbed 530 billion tons of CO2, triggering a 30 percent increase in ocean acidity.

Before people started burning coal and oil, ocean pH had been relatively stable for the previous 20 million years. But researchers predict that if carbon emissions continue at their current rate, ocean acidity will more than double by 2100.

The polar regions will be the first to experience changes. Projections show that the Southern Ocean around Antarctica will actually become corrosive by 2050.

Great Barrier Reef Great Barrier Reef Great Barrier Reef Click the photo above to view a slideshow of corals and learn more about the impact of ocean acidification.

Corrosive Impacts on Sealife

The new chemical composition of our oceans is expected to harm a wide range of ocean life -- particularly creatures with shells. The resulting disruption to the ocean ecosystem could have a widespread ripple effect and further deplete already struggling fisheries worldwide.

Increased acidity reduces carbonate -- the mineral used to form the shells and skeletons of many shellfish and corals. The effect is similar to osteoporosis, slowing growth and making shells weaker. If pH levels drop enough, the shells will literally dissolve.

This process will not only harm some of our favorite seafood, such as lobster and mussels, but will also injure some species of smaller marine organisms -- things such as pteropods and coccolithophores.

You’ve probably never heard of them, but they form a vital part of the food web. If those smaller organisms are wiped out, the larger animals that feed on them could suffer, as well.

Disappearing Coral Reefs

Delicate corals may face an even greater risk than shellfish because they require very high levels of carbonate to build their skeletons.

Acidity slows reef-building, which could lower the resiliency of corals and lead to their erosion and eventual extinction. The “tipping point” for coral reefs could happen as soon as 2050.

Coral reefs serve as the home for many other forms of ocean life. Their disappearance would be akin to rainforests being wiped out worldwide. Such losses would reverberate throughout the marine environment and have profound social impacts, as well -- especially on the fishing and tourism industries.

The loss of coral reefs would also reduce the protection that they offer coastal communities against storms surges and hurricanes -- which might become more severe with warmer air and sea surface temperatures due to global warming.

What Can We Do About It?

Combating acidification requires reducing CO2 emissions and improving the health of the oceans. Creating marine protected areas (essentially national parks for the sea) and stopping destructive fishing practices would increase the resiliency of marine ecosystems and help them withstand acidification.

Evidence suggests that coral reefs in protected ocean reserves are less affected by global threats such as global warming and ocean acidification, demonstrating the power of ecosystem protection.

Ultimately, though, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed into the oceans may be the only way to halt acidification. The same strategies needed to fight global warming on land can also help in the seas.

The acidification of our oceans is the hidden side of the world’s carbon crisis, says Lisa Suatoni, an NRDC ocean scientist, and only reinforces that we need to make changes in how we fuel our world -- and we need to do it quickly.

Citations and links to scientific articles behind this problem are available here.

ACID TEST (EN ESPAÑOL): Click AQUI

___________________________________________________

Although the above article falls short when it comes to suggestions to help solve this ocean acidification problem, we suggest the following:

What can you do?

For one thing, stop using the car for useless trips. Quit jacking around too much! 

Walk more! Your body will be happy for it! And the planet and its inhabitants will thank you for it!!!

A lot of people use the car just to go shopping for a bag of potato chips, a pack of cigarettes or a beer at the convenient store around the corner. This is ridiculous!! It is totally antibiospheric!! Just in case you are wondering, we do not have a car and travel very little. 

Stop eating any type of ocean fish, especially tuna and shark or any fish grown in commercial fisheries because fish grown under crowded conditions in pens is pumped with antibiotics and growth hormones. Otherwise the farmed fish would die. Besides they are usually GM animals. You will not die if you do not eat any fish anyway.

And remember, the Omega-3 business is just another band wagon scam. It serves as an excuse to sell more fish and grow salmon in floating pens in the sea. It is business as usual. 

Aquaculture is not what they are telling us to be. It is not green. Its ecological footprint is high.

This industry uses raw materials such as soybean as ingredient for fish feed. Soybean usually comes from Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil where rain forests are replaced by plantations of this crop. Poor people are kicked out of their land to plant this crop as well.

Moreover, aquaculture is often used by the mafia for money laundering. Transnational crime has gone green.

In case you are into this new fad and you wish to stuff up your body with Omega-3 fatty acids, buy some chia seeds (Salvia hispanica), which are amongst the richest sources of these  lipids on Earth.

Also, keep in mind that a single leaf of grass in your garden is infinite. So is a "grain of sand" as William Blake once said.

Travel abroad should be reduced unless you have to. There is no need for exotourism, by this we mean travelling to other lands. This can be classified as narcissism. Instead, try to do more endotourism, meaning travelling and exploring your subconscious, your inner self, getting to know yourself. Endotourism can be done at home.

The workings of our inner space is terra incognita for the vast majority of Humans and most people will pass away without ever knowing a tiny part of themselves. An entire life without ever achieving a chink into themselves.

And do not forget, whatever you are searching for, it is already within you! 


References

National Research Council of the National Academies (2010). Ocean Acidification: A National Strategy to Meet the Challenges of a Changing Ocean. Committee on the Development of an Integrated Science Strategy for Ocean Acidification Monitoring, Research, and Impacts Assessment. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, USA. 175 p.

EUROPE: MYCOTOXIN CONTAMINATION IN ANIMAL FEED

By Gundhramns Hammer
June 13, 2013

Aspergillus conidiophore and spores. Source: IFT.

They invade domestic animals through their feed. Then they are transmitted to you when you eat the products derived from livestock. They anchor and bind in your body silently. And they accumulate in your body until you cannot stand them anymore and succumb to cancer.

These invaders are called Mycotoxins. They are natural chemicals produced by fungi as secondary metabolites and are amongst the most potent carcinogens known to man. 

Amongst the 300-400 known mycotoxins, European Union sanitary authorities monitor chiefly five in our foods: Aflatoxins, zearalenone, fumonisins, ochratoxin A and deoxynivalenol (Fig. 1).  

Figure 1. Chemical structure of mycotoxins found in foods and animal feed. Source: IFT.

When you eat a slice of cheese, drink a glass of milk or eat a pork chop from an intensive animal exploitation, you are really consuming deadly stuff, for animal factories are not only cruel but also highly dangerous to our health. 

These concentration camps require huge quantities of animal feed which are normally contaminated with mycotoxins. 

All it takes is ca. 12-15% moisture and warm temperatures in the raw materials for the fungi to develop and produce these secondary metabolites, which are released into the substrate to protect themselves from invasion by surrounding bacteria. 

In other words, raw materials and animal feed are a perfect breeding medium for the development of toxicogenic fungi.

Thus, the more you consume animal derived foods, the more you become exposed to these dangerous fungal carcinogens. 

But this is no the end of the problem. Even a loaf of bread may contain these potent killer chemicals. The longer are kept in storage the grains and cereals we use to elaborate bread and other flour consumer goods, the more they are exposed to becoming contaminated with these fungal metabolites, which in turn means a higher potential for consumers to ingest these mycotoxins.

With the globalisation, you may end up eating wheat that was produced on the other side of the world and it may be possible that the cereals that were destined for animals may end up in your shoping cart in the shape of a loaf of bread. 

Remember, business is business and the whole goal of these global agricultural and food enterprises is to make money and often at the expense of our health.

Just to give an idea of this health problem. Bread samples obtained from different bakeries and supermarkets in Valencia, Spain, for instance, contained ochratoxin A (OTA). An incidence of OTA varied between 20.3 and 23.0% for non-organic and organic bread, respectively (González-Osnaya et al., 2007).

To give you an good grip of the situation of mycotoxin contamination in animal feed throughout Europe, we recommend you to read the following scientific study whose abstract we cite below:

CURRENT SITUATION OF MYCOTOXIN CONTAMINATION AND CO-OCCURRENCE IN ANIMAL FEED—FOCUS ON EUROPE 

By Elisabeth Streit (1), Gerd Schatzmayr (1,*), Panagiotis Tassis (2), Eleni Tzika (2), Daniela Marin (3),
Ionelia Taranu (3), Cristina Tabuc (3), Anca Nicolau (4), Iuliana Aprodu (4), Olivier Puel (5) and
Isabelle P. Oswald (5,6)

Abstract: Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by fungi especially those belonging to the genus Aspergillus, Penicillum and Fusarium. Mycotoxin contamination can occur in all agricultural commodities in the field and/or during storage, if conditions are favourable to fungal growth. Regarding animal feed, five mycotoxins (aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, fumonisins and ochratoxin A) are covered by EU legislation (regulation or recommendation). Transgressions of these limits are rarely observed in official monitoring programs. However, low level contamination by Fusarium toxins is very common (e.g., deoxynivalenol (DON) is typically found in more than 50% of the samples) and co-contamination is frequently observed. Multi-mycotoxin studies reported 75%–100% of the samples to contain more than one mycotoxin which could impact animal health at already low doses. Co-occurrence of mycotoxins is likely to arise for at least three different reasons (i) most fungi are able to simultaneously produce a number of mycotoxins, (ii) commodities can be contaminated by several fungi, and (iii) completed feed is made from various commodities. In the present paper, we reviewed the data published since 2004 concerning the contamination of animal feed with single or combinations of mycotoxins and highlighted the occurrence of these co-contaminations.

Toxins 2012, 4: 788-809. READ MORE... 

Humans crammed and piled up in a sheeple coop


The convenience of modern living has its advantages and it is highly addictive. But living crammed and piled up in the cities also has its disadvantages. 

One is that our health is basically in the hands of a few global businessmen who could care less should you get sick unless you can prove that they are the culprits. 

We are at their mercy and it is entirely our fault, for we are addicted to food and are constantly searching for amusement and sex in the metropolis. So the price for a slice of the party is too expensive.

Now it is too late to go back to a time when you had the reigns in your hands, well at least you were able to grow your own food until the king and his crew of parasites came along to reclaim your tax.

Sooner or later even planting your own vegetable garden will be forbidden or at least you will have the local authorities watching over you and making sure you have paid the high tax to grow one. For the world is moving towards a global sheeple (human sheep) coop.

So please God help us!!

References

Fink-Gremmels J. (Ed.) (2012). Animal Feed Contamination: Effects on Livestock and Food Safety. Woodhead Publishing Series in Food Science, Technology and Nutrition: Number 215. Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, UK. 672 p.

González-Osnaya L., Soriano J. M., Moltó J. C. & Mañes J. (2007). Dietary intake of ochratoxin A from conventional and organic bread. Intl. J. Food Microbiol., 118 (1): 87-91. 

Disclaimer:

The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein. The information herein contained is for educational and/or entertainment purposes only.