cmello’s Recent Comments

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  just as I suspected

  The US really needs to stop accepting studies of drugs, pesticides, and GMOs from the companies that created them in the first place.  Before government approval of a new product is given,  studies need to be done by some independent agent.  Companies requesting approval should be required to fork up the money for the independent agent (selected by the government and with no ties to the requesting company) to study the product.  

  Every milk carton I buy says "does not contain rBST" but also "rBST is safe."  Yet studies, not those done by the rBST company nor by the dairy industry, have proved rBST is not safe for either treated cows or people who drink milk from treated cows.

  We have to stop the fox from guarding the chicken house.

  cmello

  On Long-term study: GMOs lower fertility in mice posted 1 year ago 7 Responses

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  Bill Gates Foundation

  Like "duh!"  Yes, I know about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They do not do environmental grants. Here is the statement about the kind of grants they give right from the foundation web site:

  Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett set our overarching grantmaking priorities--such as improving health and reducing extreme poverty in the developing world and improving high school education in the United States. They establish high-level goals for our grantmaking programs. Then our three program teams devise a strategy for meeting these goals.

  So my statement stands: We need to get Bill and Melinda interested in environment issues so they can add it to their list of programs which are eligible to receive grants.

  cmello

  On Why Al Gore isn't running for president posted 1 year ago 25 Responses

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  GM crop scam?

  Yet again, I am left wondering about the "value-add" of GM crops.

  Monsanto's

  high-tech cottonseeds genetically engineered to contain a natural pesticide

  needs pesticides???

  To keep these monocropped cottonseed fields free of pests, farmers lean heavily on pesticides.

  I had a thought (no, please don't fall on the floor laughing). So Monsanto genetically modifies some seed (whether the modification really works is beside the point) so they can patent the modified seed and sell it exclusively to farmers for an arm and a leg year after year thereby making themselves lots of $$$ for something of questionable value. It sounds like a legal scam.

  cmello

  On Monsanto uses child labor in its Indian cottonseed fields posted 1 year, 8 months ago 4 Responses

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  What's Nader done lately

  besides run for President?

  No one is questioning that he made a big impact on consumer product safety in the 1960s. He continued to be active in that area in the 1970s.

  Ever since then (1980s and onward), he's been fixated on getting elected...first to Congress and then, in the 1990s, to President.  

  He is running on what he did in the 60s and 70s. That would be like me trying to get hired based on my school achievements from 30 years ago.

  A member of the Democratic Party can get elected while Nader is running (he ran in 1992 and in 1996). Yes, the Democratic Party was wimpy in 2000 and in 2004 in not challenging the major corruption in vote counting in those elections. On the other hand, the courts were stacked against them in the states where it occurred and challenging the underhanded vote counting would have been an expensive way of banging their heads against the wall.

  Lastly, Nader supporters are being extremely naive by claiming he is blameless for Bush being elected in 2000.  Bush "won" Florida by a very small number of votes. Not all Nader voters would have voted for Gore, true, but it is fair to say that enough of them probably would have voted for Gore rather than Bush to have elected Gore despite all the GOP vote tampering.

  IMHO, just about anyone (including an imperfect Gore) would have been better for this country, by any method of measurement, than George W. Bush.

  cmello

  On Ralph Nader might jump into the presidential race posted 1 year, 8 months ago 129 Responses

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  stopped eating tuna years ago...

  ...but for the wrong reason, apparently.

  I noticed that whenever I ate tuna (steaks), my tongue would get sore. I figured it was a Sign. Tuna had changed: there was a trace of something in modern tuna not good for me and my sore tongue was signalling that. I guess I have inadvertently saved myself from years of exposure to mercury.

  It's not just tuna...

  I have developed lots of sensitivities to consumer products that I had not had a problem with before in the last 20 years. In nearly every case, I have been able to track my sudden sensitivity to the product to a change in its contents. (I check out the contents on products I use on the EWG site nowadays -- Environmental Working Group.)
  

  cmello

  On The mercury problem isn't contained to New York City's sushi restaurants and markets posted 1 year, 9 months ago 11 Responses