Natural Communities Magazine A magazine devoted to the local natural wellness culture.

Forget the excuses, the spin and the propaganda. America’s proposed health reforms won’t work. The economy won’t be saved with more bailouts, and technology isn’t going to rescue us from carbon emissions. You want to know what’s real in our world? Here are ten “Big Duh” realizations that need to be flatly stated.

Big Duh #1 - Pharmaceuticals don’t work
Big Pharma’s drugs simply don’t work. They don’t cure any disease. Ask a cancer doctor about the number of patients he’s ever cured with chemotherapy: That number is zero. Ask a heart doctor how many patients have been cured with heart drugs: The answer is zero. How many diabetes patients have been cured with diabetes drugs? Also zero.

Big Pharma’s drugs don’t work. And the only reason people think they do work is because doctors and consumers alike are easily fooled by commercial advertising. Virtually all the so-called “science” backing drugs is utterly fraudulent (and the FDA continues to outlaw anything that might compete with drugs).

Big Duh #2 - You can’t raise healthy children on garbage food
America continues to feed its children junk processed food laced with chemical contaminants (food coloring, artificial sweeteners, MSG, etc.). And yet we somehow expect the next generation to grow up healthy and intelligent. This expectation is simply incompatible with the diets we are currently feeding our children.

Any society that hopes to have a future MUST base that future on a serious investment in the health of each successive generation. That means eliminating the junk foods, chemicals, processed foods, sodas and toxic pharmaceuticals that are poisoning our children today.

Big Duh #3 - Modern society is not sustainable
Let’s stop kidding ourselves on this one. The structure of modern urban living is simply not sustainable. From the importation of food, the dwindling supplies of water, the dependence on oil, the depletion of natural resources and the destruction of nature, human cities flat out cannot continue for very much longer as currently configured. We must either radically reduce our eco-footprint (and learn to live more locally) or we will not live much longer at current population levels. It’s as simple as that.

Another glaring issue with modern society is the population problem. We keep creating more people who consume more resources and ultimately destroy more of our natural environment. It’s time we realized we are in a population bubble that will soon burst, resulting in a sharp reduction in population in one way or another (a pandemic, crop failures, etc.).

Big Duh #4 - the American Empire is bankrupt
Do the math: The American Empire has no escape from outright financial destitution. The nation is so broke that even the big lenders who have been subsidizing America’s way of life for at least four decades are about to bail. Massive hyperinflation is on the way, and the gargantuan financial bailouts of the last nine months are just a sign of the financial idiocy that now seems to dominate the minds of those in Washington. Read about today’s horrifying debt spending under “Obamanomics” here: http://www.heritage.org/research/fe…

The era of “free money” is history, and with it goes the United States of America (at least as we know it today). Our brand of democracy combined with unlimited spending was a fascinating experiment. That experiment has now failed, and we’d better start thinking about the next revision of how a free society might work. My suggestion? Instant Runoff Voting (www.InstantRunoff.com) combined with an honest money system (gold standard).

Big Duh #5 - The health care crisis cannot be solved unless we focus on health
Everybody’s talking about the health care crisis, but nobody in Washington has a real plan to solve it. Instead of solving the problems, all the current discussion is about appeasing powerful lobby groups that represent corporations and institutions. The whole thing is a cruel joke.

Here’s a REAL solution to the health care problem: The Health Revolution Petition: www.HealthRevolutionPetition.org

Big Duh #6 - You cannot “screen” your way to good health
Big Pharma loves the idea of offering “free screening” for everything: Breast cancer, prostate cancer, depression, ADHD… you name it. The whole scam is a big recruiting ploy, of course, because screening for disease does nothing to prevent disease!

The conventional health industry cleverly liked to call screening “prevention.” But it isn’t. It’s just detection, not prevention. Real prevention is done with foods, sunlight, exercise and nutrition, not with a mammogram or a multiple-choice questionnaire.

Big Duh #7 - Carbon emissions do impact the environment
Sure, politicians around the world are hopping on the global warming bandwagon with devious plans to seize power and limit freedom based on this global emergency, but that doesn’t mean carbon emissions have no effect on the environment. The truth is: The stuff we put into the air affects the environment just as much as the stuff we put into our bodies affects our health.

Global warming may or may not be overblown, but only a fool would suppose that human beings can dump unlimited pollutants into the atmosphere without suffering any negative effects whatsoever. Virtually every destructive impact on our planet today is caused by man (including so-called “natural disasters” which are often accelerated by global warming).

Big Duh #8 - Animals have consciousness
It’s time consumers (and food industry profiteers) stopped pretending that cows, pigs, chickens and other animals have no consciousness or experience of pain. Cows and pigs in particular are highly intelligent, social mammals with real memories and real experiences. Growing them in factory farms as a food source is cruel and inhumane. Eating meat products (and drinking milk) from such animals is, itself, an endorsement of that cruelty.

Big Duh #9 - All the medicine we need already exists in plants
The “search for the cure” is a marketing gimmick. We already know how to cure cancer! … and diabetes, heart disease, kidney stones, depression, ADHD and a thousand other conditions. All the medicines we need to be healthy exist right now! They’re found in medicinal plants from around the world.

Big Pharma could be completely shut down tomorrow with absolutely no net loss of life across the world. The entire world could shift to medicinal plants (and foods) and live happier, safer and more abundantly based entirely on the natural medicines found in plants. There is no need for Big Pharma on our planet. It is an industry that could disappear without a trace to the great benefit of humankind.

Big Duh #10 - Humankind has learned nothing from the “advancement” of technology
Computers, combustion engines, nanotechnology and biochemistry… Compared to a hundred years ago, we seem smarter now because we have more gadgets. But in reality we’ve learned nothing from all this technology. Instead of ending all wars, we just fight them with more advanced weaponry. Instead of seeking real happiness, we just seek more high-tech stuff that fills our empty lives with convenient distractions. Instead of prioritizing quality of life, we focus on medicalizing people’s lives so that they become dependent on biochemical technologies instead of independently free and healthy based on natural medicine.
Technology has given us no answers, but it has allowed us the leverage to create far larger problems that we have yet to resolve.

Source: www.naturalnews.com

Germany has banned the cultivation of GM corn, arguing that the corn breed MON 810 is dangerous for the environment. But that argument might not stand up in court, and Germany could face fines totaling millions of euros if Monsanto decides to challenge the prohibition.

Under the new regulations, the cultivation of MON 810, a GM corn produced by Monsanto, will be prohibited in Germany. A clause in EU law allows individual countries to impose such bans. Environmental groups welcomed the ban, pointing out that numerous scientific studies demonstrated GM corn was a danger to the environment.

However, it may be hard to prove conclusively that MON 810 damages the environment, which could enable Monsanto to win a court case opposing the ban. Monsanto has said that it would look as quickly as possible into whether it would begin legal proceedings.

MON 810 had been the only GM crop that could be grown in Germany. The plant produces a toxin to fight off a certain pest, the larvae of the corn borer moth. MON 810 is already banned in five other EU member states: Austria, Hungary, Greece, France and Luxembourg.

Sources:   Spiegel Online April 14, 2009

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Germany has now become the sixth country in the European Union to take a stand against GM corn — a wise move that unfortunately the United States has yet to do.

Whereas close to 9,000 acres slated to be planted with MON 810 corn in Germany will now be GM-free (assuming the ban stands up in court if necessary), the acres to be planted with GM corn in the U.S. is in the tens of millions.

German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner announced she was banning not only the cultivation of GM corn but also the sale of its seeds, saying she had “legitimate reasons to believe that MON 810 posed a danger to the environment.”

Why GM Corn is Dangerous

French Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini, molecular endocrinologist at the University of Caen and a member of two French government commissions evaluating GM food, found that MON 810, along with several other varieties of GM crops, showed statistically significant problems in animal studies that regulators have not pursued with follow-up research.

Seralini said the effects of the GM crops were similar to that of pesticides, including inflammation disorders, and problems with livers and kidneys, two major organs involved with detoxification.

Further, biology professor Bela Darvas of Hungary‘s Debrecen University discovered that Monsanto’s Mon 810 is lethal to two Hungarian protected species and one insect classified as rare. Now Monsanto refuses to give him any more Mon 810 corn to use in his tests. They also refused his request for Mon 863, another GM variety.

So not only has MON 810 been shown to cause serious damage to animals, but it may also wipe out protected plant and insect species. Of course, adding to the potential devastation is the fact that corn is a wind-pollinated plant, which means it depends on the wind for pollination.

While growers of GM food often say their crops will be contained and unable to contaminate nearby fields, from an environmental perspective contamination between GM and non-GM crops is generally acknowledged to be unavoidable.

Really what can stop wind, tornadoes or other weather from blowing or transporting GM pollen or seeds over onto non-GM crops?

Not a whole lot.

So by planting even a few thousand acres of land with GM crops, there’s a very real possibility that a much greater area could become contaminated with the altered seeds, and subject to the potential health and environmental insults as a result.

The United States government‘s support for biotech is no secret. In fact, it is the official policy in several U.S. agencies to promote the industry, and some of them have attempted to push acceptance of GM crops in Europe — but let’s hope they continue to hold out.

MON 810 was currently the only GM crop approved for cultivation in Germany, so in choosing to ban GM corn, Germany will become an entirely GM-free country — a wise, wise move.

Of course, it’s not just GM corn that’s the issue here; all GM crops have the potential to cause great, irreversible harm.

Are GM Crops Threatening the Future of Humankind?

GM crops routinely create unintended proteins, alter existing protein levels, or even change the components and shape of the protein that is created by the inserted gene.

This results in brand new proteins that have never before existed in food, some of which may be causing severe allergic reactions.

Creating a GM crop can also produce massive changes in the natural functioning of the plant‘s DNA. Native genes can be mutated, deleted, permanently turned on or off, or change their levels of protein expression. No one knows how this will impact human health, but so far Jeffrey Smith has documented at least 65 serious health risks related to GM foods.

Among them:

• Offspring of rats fed GM soy showed a five-fold increase in mortality, lower birth weights, and the inability to reproduce
• Male mice fed GM soy had damaged young sperm cells
• The embryo offspring of GM soy-fed mice had altered DNA functioning
• Several US farmers reported sterility or fertility problems among pigs and cows fed GM corn varieties
• Investigators in India have documented fertility problems, abortions, premature births, and other serious health issues, including deaths, among buffaloes fed GM cottonseed products

Austrian researchers have now also confirmed a direct link between a decrease in fertility and a genetically modified diet. In order to protect the health of humankind and the fertility of women around the world, GM opponents are calling for an immediate ban of all GM foods and GM crops.

I agree with them wholly, as genetically modified foods are, from my perception, one of the largest threats that we have against the very sustainability of the human race.

How to Ban GM Foods from Your Diet

You may not be able to single-handedly decide to ban GM crops in your country the way Germany did, but as a consumer you do have power. You can choose not to be a victim of deception, and you can choose what you feed your family.

Large portions of Europe have already succeeded in removing GM foods out of their food supply, forcing food manufacturers to use real ingredients in their European product lines. But here in the United States we’re still stuck with it to a very large degree.

Since GM foods do not need to be labeled in the United States, there are two main tricks you can use to figure out if something is genetically modified:

• Examine produce stickers on the fruits and vegetables you buy. The PLU code for conventionally grown fruit consists of four numbers; organically grown fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number nine; and GM fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number eight.

• Buy organic as often as you can. By definition, food that is certified organic must be free from all GM organisms.

Keep in mind, too, that soy, corn, cottonseed, and canola are four of the crops most likely to be GM, and these are also ingredients commonly added to virtually every processed food. So if you eat processed foods, be sure to buy only organic varieties or, ideally, cut them largely out of your diet.

If more of us begin to refuse GM foods, food manufacturers will have no choice but to listen.

Source: www.mercola.com

The international drug company Merck had a hit list of doctors who had to be “neutralized” or discredited because they had criticized the painkiller Vioxx, a now-withdrawn drug that the pharmaceutical giant produced.

Staff at the company emailed each other about the list of doctors. The email, which came out during a class-action suit against the drug company, included the words “neutralize,” “neutralized” or “discredit” alongside some of the doctors’ names.

The company is alleged to have used intimidation tactics against researchers, including dropping hints that the company would stop funding their institutions, and possibly even interfering with academic appointments.

“We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live,” a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt read to the court.

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

It is not at all surprising that Merck would have been keeping tabs on doctors speaking out against their blockbuster drug Vioxx. But it is quite disturbing and makes you wonder just how far they would have gone to “neutralize” or “discredit” those physicians had Vioxx not been pulled from the market.

I was one of the very first doctors who openly criticized Vioxx a full year before it came on the market. Those who made it onto Merck’s “hit list” said they experienced instances of intimidation, including suggestions that Merck would stop funding the institution or interfere with academic appointments.

This clearly gets in the way of academic freedom, researchers’ ability to accurately report their findings, and doctors’ ability to speak out against a drug they believe is harmful. But then that is what Merck was after.

Adding to the issue, of course, is that this is probably not an isolated occurrence. Drug companies could be keeping any number of lists of people who are interfering with their ability to sell and make profits, and my guess is that they are at work “neutralizing” those people as we speak. In fact, I would bet on it.

Fortunately I did not have any funding from Merck, but there are strong suspicions that they and other drug giants fund organizations like Quackwatch that openly seek to discredit me and other natural health care professionals.

Drug Companies Routinely Collect Secret Reports on Doctors

Drug companies have been hiring outside firms to purchase data on doctors from pharmacies since the mid-1990s. The reports let drug sales representatives see a doctor’s prescribing habits, among other things, which lets them know:

1. If their sales pitches are working
2. How to change their sales pitch if they’re not

For example, if the report shows a doctor generally prescribes a drug’s competitor, they can prepare a sales pitch specifically to discredit the competing drug. Meanwhile, those doctors who do regularly prescribe their drugs would likely be singled out to receive some “incentives” to keep doing so. But it’s not only doctors who are being quietly influenced.

Congress and YOU are Being Influenced, Too

The pharmaceutical industry spent $1.5 billion lobbying Congress in the last decade, and in so doing has manipulated the government’s involvement with medicine and secondarily reinforced our dependence on them, through government policies.

Their relatively minor investments allow them to manipulate votes on key legislation that are highly favorable to their bottom line and almost always in conflict with your best interests.

At the same time, drug companies have also brought their drug ads directly into your living room — on your television, in your magazines and over the Internet. The United States is one of only two countries that allows drug companies to advertise directly to patients (the other is New Zealand), and they are taking full advantage of it.

One study even found that if you mention seeing an ad for a particular drug to your doctor, you are five times more likely to be given a prescription for that drug!

How Else do Drug Companies Make Sure Their Products are Viewed Favorably?

The common thread here is that drug companies are willing to do just about anything to make you, and your physician, think their drugs are great — quietly devising a hit list of doctors to silence, collecting secret reports on doctors, buying off Congress, advertising to you in your living room … and what else?

Across the board, drugmakers do an excellent job of publicizing the things they want you to know, while keeping very quiet about the rest. For instance it was recently revealed  that drugmaker AstraZeneca “buried” unfavorable studies on its antipsychotic drug Seroquel that showed it may cause diabetes and other health problems.

They’re also well known for funding their own studies so they can have a say in how the results turn out. This isn’t just my opinion; it’s well known that studies funded by industry or conducted by researchers with industry ties tend to favor corporate interests.

Drug companies also shower money and other incentives onto medical schools and their professors, even prestigious schools like Harvard, to get medical students to jump on board with their way of thinking right from the start.

The way the drug companies operate is like a massively powerful, well-run, and well-oiled machine — but it is not invincible.

As more people like you learn the truth about the drug companies, including that their primary motive is money, not your health, the sooner we will begin to see real positive change in the health care arena.

Source: www.mercola.com

The FDA admits that it negotiated a deal with pharmaceutical companies to recommend that over-the-counter cold-and-cough medicines should not be given to children under the age of four — rather than six, as recommended by pediatricians.

“The analysis that led to the under-four cutoff was performed by FDA,” agency spokesperson Rita Chappelle said. “We suggested it, and then it was voluntarily adopted by industry. [They] did not come up with the proposal themselves.”

Pediatricians had petitioned the FDA to impose a ban on the use of cold-and-cough drugs in children under the age of six, citing lack of scientific evidence that the products work at all in children, as well as a high risk of adverse effects. Advocates of such a measure point to studies finding that 7,000 children in the United States visit emergency rooms every year due to cold-and-cough drug overdoses.

An independent panel commissioned by the FDA to review the doctors’ suggestion concluded that the recommendation was sound and should be adopted as a rule by the agency. Instead, the FDA ignored both groups and came up with a new rule.

The agency claims that its conclusions were based on a review of emergency room data on cold-and-cough overdoses in children, but it has refused to release the data it used in its analysis.

“There was no data suggesting that the drugs were effective in kids under 12,” objected FDA advisory panel member Sean Hennessy of University of Pennsylvania. “I don’t see how [the new policy is] a fully rational approach to the problem.”

Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, one of the pediatricians who initially asked the FDA for a new rule, agreed that the agency’s actions in the case are questionable.

“There is a delicate dance between how much legal authority the FDA has and their use of the bully pulpit for getting some sort of compromise,” he said.

The FDA has yet to impose any compulsory regulations regarding cold-and-cough drugs in children.

Source: www.naturalnews.com

Burt’s Bees lip balm was originally sold at independently owned health food stores. But more recently, Burt’s Bees products have appeared everywhere — in grocery stores, drug stores, and big-box stores like Target and Wal-Mart. That’s because Burt’s Bees is now owned by Clorox, a massive corporation that has historically cared very little about the environment.

Many of the products you may trust and respect for their independence and social responsibility are now owned by big corporations that are going out of their way to hide their link to the small, socially responsible brands.

Tom’s of Maine is owned by Colgate-Palmolive, a massive company with a revenue of approximately $11.4 billion. Danone, the French conglomerate which also owns Brown Cow, has acquired a majority holding in Stoneyfield — the same Danone that had to recall large quantities of its yogurt in 2007 after it was found to contain unsafe levels of dioxins. Horizon Organic milk was bought out by the largest dairy company in the U.S., Dean Foods, in 2005.

Odwalla is now owned by Coca-Cola. Almost as soon as Coca-Cola bought the company, it stopped selling the fresh-squeezed OJ that had made Odwalla famous and popular — fresh squeezed can’t last the days and weeks the juices are now in transit or on the shelf. Pepsi bought Naked Juice in 2006, in order to compete with Odwalla. Smuckers grabbed several juice mainstays from the health food store shelves: After The Fall, R.W. Knudsen and Santa Cruz Organic.

Kashi cereals was bought in July 2000 by Kellogg’s, the 12th-largest company in North American food sales (but if you look at a box of Kashi’s “Go Lean Crunch”, for example, you will find not one mention of the fact that Kellogg’s owns them.) Kraft Foods bought the natural cereal maker Back to Nature. Kraft is a subsidiary of Altria, which also owns Philip Morris, one of the world’s largest producers of cigarettes.

General Mills owns Cascadian Farm. Barbara’s Bakery is owned by Weetabix, the leading British cereal company. Health Valley and Arrowhead Mills are owned by Hain Celestial Group, a natural food company traded on the NASDAQ, with H.J. Heinz owning 16 percent of the company.

Green and Black’s organic chocolate was taken over in 2005 by Schweppes, the 10th-largest company in North American packaged-food sales. Dagoba Chocolate is actually owned by Hershey Foods.

Marketing strategies have been fooling you, convincing you to trust that the niche brands continue to be small, environmentally conscious businesses with ecologically sound practices. In fact, they are frequently cogs in the giant corporate wheel. It is time to question how much the ownership and neglectful marketing of these “pseudo” responsible brands warrant crossing them off your shopping list. And it is time to find products more in tune with your values — at least until they, too, get bought out by a large conglomerate.

Source: AlterNet March 18, 2009

Dr. Mercola’s Comments

For those of you still under the assumption that your Horizon organic milk, your Kashi crackers or your Green and Black’s chocolate was being churned out by a small farm or mom-and-pop shop nestled in a pristine valley, brace yourself for disappointment.

The reality is that many of your favorite organic products are owned and operated by the same corporations that make the worst kinds of highly processed junk foods on the market — soda, potato chips, sugary cereals, candy, etc.

Unfortunately, when multinational corporations create or purchase these natural health companies, they are looking to maximize their profits by turning out the largest amount of product for the least expense. And,  that frequently means sacrificing some ethics and skimping on quality.

And what you, the consumer, are left with is the misguided impression that you’re spending your hard-earned money on a product that adheres to a certain set of values, which have likely long since perished in the wake of corporate strategies.

The Power of an Idea

On the positive side, this trend is a clear sign that when you speak with your pocketbook and start demanding healthier food choices, America’s largest corporations have no practical economic choice but to respond.

With the involvement of large corporations, organic food has turned into a $16-billion business, with sales growing by as much as 20 percent per year. What this means for much of America is access to more organic foods at lower prices – which is a great thing.

Companies, eager to gain market share in the natural foods movement have begun acquiring and mass-producing “organic” foods which has resulted in a slow but noticeable deterioration of the meaning and health benefits upon which the organic label was founded.

So whereas many people are now getting the core message that organic is far healthier for you, they don’t stop long enough to make a distinction between raw organic food and processed food that contains organic ingredients. It’s important to realize that organic versions of junk food are STILL just as detrimental to your health as their original counterparts.

Additionally, a significant element of the organic ideal is environmental sustainability and protection, but at least one study has found that the transportation of organic produce causes an environmental impact large enough to cancel out any of its environmental benefits.

There’s Something Even Better Than Organic

Personally, I’m not surprised at this development; it was bound to happen. Food companies, as any other primarily profit-driven company, would not let a swelling market niche go untapped.

That doesn’t mean you have to buy into the hype, however. You still have the power to demand the real deal, and the fact of the matter is; true organic IS better. Both for you and for the environment.

It’s mainly a matter of knowing where to find locally harvested organic foods and buying from sources you want to see thrive. You also want to read the packaged food labels and not simply take the organic label at face value.  It’s sad to say but the organic label has become virtually meaningless as a sign of quality.

Depending on where you live, finding a local farmer or food coop may seem unrealistic, but just as demand drove the rise of organic, it is driving the demand for locally grown foods. You can peruse this list of sustainable agriculture options to find like-minded people in your area who will know how you can connect with local food producers.
Also be sure to take advantage of farmer’s markets and roadside stands now as spring and summer approaches.

Source: www.mercola.com