In Griftopia—another must-read for anyone wishing to understand the roots of the Occupy movement—Matt Taibbi takes us through the corruption of our government from the Age of Reagan on, from the rule-bending of the savings-and-loan collapse to the real-estate bubble, commodities speculation, and the near destruction of the world economy. As he notes, this is how the puppet masters of our banks and speculators "have stripped the last meat off the bones of American prosperity"—to the point where we're having to sell off parking meters and turnpikes to foreign investors to make ends meet.
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On March 11, 2008 a new documentary was aired on French television, a documentary that Americans won’t ever see. The gigantic bio-tech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years.
Genetically modified foods (or GM foods) are foods derived from genetically modified organisms (GMO). Genetically modified organisms have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques. These techniques are much more precise than mutagenesis (mutation breeding) where an organism is exposed to radiation or chemicals to create a non-specific but stable change. Other techniques by which humans modify food organisms include selective breeding; plant breeding, and animal breeding, and somaclonal variation.
GM foods were first put on the market in the early 1990s. Typically, genetically modified foods are transgenic plant products: soybean, corn, canola, and cotton seed oil. Animal products have also been developed, although as of July 2010 none are currently on the market. In 2006 a pig was controversially engineered to produce omega-3 fatty acids through the expression of a roundworm gene. Researchers have also developed a genetically-modified breed of pigs that are able to absorb plant phosphorus more efficiently, and as a consequence the phosphorus content of their manure is reduced by as much as 60%.
