Meat Claimed as Invention by Monsanto

Multinational seed corporations are following a consequent strategy to gain control over basic resources for food production. As recent research shows not only genetically engineered plants, but more and more the conventional breeding of plants gets into the focus of patent monopolies: International patent applications in this sector are skyrocking, having doubled since 2007 till end of 2009.

Further on the multinationals expand their claims over the whole chain of food production from feed to animals and food products such as meat. In a pending patent application from Monsanto even bacon and steaks are claimed: Patent application WO2009097403 is claiming meat stemming from pigs being fed with the patented genetically engineered plants of Monsanto.'

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FDA Says Vaccine With Pig Virus DNA OK For Humans!

The Food and Drug administration, in a statement, said it was safe for doctors to resume giving patients Glaxo's Rotarix and continue using Merck's Rotateq. The agency said there was no evidence the contamination caused any harm and the vaccines were important in preventing hospitalizations and death.

Rotavirus can cause fatal diarrhea. Both vaccines target the virus, but pieces of DNA from porcine circovirus (PCV) have been found in both companies' products.

The FDA's decision follows a May 7 recommendation by its advisory panel, which ruled that the risk to humans from the pig virus was theoretical at best. It called for continued use of the vaccines, saying their benefits outweighed any potential risk.'

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30 Million Kids Got Vaccine Tainted With Pig Virus

Federal health authorities recommended Monday that doctors suspend using Rotarix, one of two vaccines licensed in the United States against rotavirus, saying the vaccine is contaminated with material from a pig virus.

"There is no evidence at this time that this material poses a safety risk," Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg told reporters in a conference call.

Rotarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, was approved by the FDA in 2008. The contaminant material is DNA from porcine circovirus 1, a virus from pigs that is not known to cause disease in humans or animals, Hamburg said.

About 1 million children in the United States and about 30 million worldwide have gotten Rotarix vaccine, she said.'

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And if you believe what Margaret Hamburg says then check this out and see where she is really coming from

Euro Crisis - Latvia And The PIGS

Down on the Euro Animal Farm, some animals are more equal than others, finds Eric Walberg...

Two million people took to the streets of Athens last week in the country's second general strike this month, protesting the austerity measures proposed by their socialist government. All of Greece came to a 24-hour standstill and the airport was closed as a result of the action. The only public transport was the commuter train so that protesters could reach the demonstration.

The crisis broke last autumn after Prime Minister George Papandreous took office and discovered the country was bankrupt. The conservative government had cheated to get into the European Union euro zone in 2001, cooking the books. What on paper -- creative accounting courtesy of Goldman Sachs -- was a budget deficit of 3 per cent and public debt 60 per cent of GDP, by 2009 had ballooned to 13 per cent and 125 per cent.

Initially, the EU tried to finesse the issue, declaring solidarity with Greece. But the financial sharks are sharpening their teeth, smelling blood. Their response to the Greek problem is naturally to rush to profit from it. Greece's "credit rating" has already been lowered, meaning any new bonds will carry a much higher price tag for the government (read: people). That of course makes it all the harder for Greece (read: the people) to actually pay the bankers. And when the country defaults, the EU will be forced to cough up in any case. Win, win for the fat cats. What EU leaders meant by solidarity was not that they were going to pour public money into Greece, as they have been pouring into their banks over the past year and a half, but that they intended to squeeze the money "owed" the banks out of the Greek people, relying on IMF oracles.'

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