Fwd: Response to your recent comments

Mel_Martinez@martinez.senate.gov wrote:

Subject: Response to your recent comments
From: Mel_Martinez@martinez.senate.gov
To: stars2man@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 10:45:39 -0400

Below is a response to the recent comments I received from you:


Dear Mr. Weaver:

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns over the sale of cloned animal products. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to take this opportunity to respond.

On December 28, 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a draft risk assessment which found that meat and milk from cloned cattle, pigs, and goats and their offspring are as safe to eat as those of conventionally bred animals. It is my understanding that the assessment was peer reviewed by a group of independent scientific experts in cloning and animal health, and its primary conclusion regarding the safety of cloned food was in keeping with the findings of the National Academies of Sciences.

According to the FDA, they have yet to make a decision requiring the labeling of food products from cloned animals. In addition, the draft assessment specifically differentiated between genetic engineering, which involves altering, adding or deleting DNA, and cloning, which does not change the genetic sequence.

Under regulations established by the United States Department of Agriculture, the FDA is seeking comments from the public until April 2, 2007 (90 days). To submit electronic comments on the three documents, visit http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/oc/dockets/comments/commentdocket.cfm?AGENCY=FDA. Written comments may be sent to: Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD, 20852. Comments must be received by April 2, 2007, and should include the docket number 2003N-0573. For more information, visit http://www.fda.gov/cvm/CloneRiskAssessment.htm.

Again, thank you for contacting me. If you have any additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. In addition, for more information about issues and activities important to Florida, please sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://martinez.senate.gov.

Sincerely,

Mel Martinez
United States Senator


**Note: PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL. If you would like to reply to this message, please contact me through my website at http://martinez.senate.gov.

What's At Stake: Stop Meat and Milk From Clones!

Eeeek this is freaky... now I know I'm stuck being vegetarian!!!
No more Ice Cream either!!!

"What's At Stake?
Stop Meat and Milk From Clones!

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is poised to lift a voluntary moratorium on the sale of meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring. In January, the agency issued a draft risk assessment and other documents to defend its assertion regarding the safety of these products.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has joined many others in opposing the sale of meat and milk from clones in our food supply, particularly when the FDA currently has no plans to require products from clones to be labeled. Dr. Margaret Mellon, director of UCS's Food and Environment Program, said in a statement: 'If consumers aren't going to be told if their meat is from a clone, the FDA has to be certain that meat is safe.'

This move by the FDA comes despite widespread opposition to the practice of cloning animals that are part of our food supply. A 2006 survey by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology found that 64 percent of consumers are uncomfortable with animal cloning."

Strong Suspicions of Toxicity in One GMO Corn

Yea, big surprise... pollution in our feed stock...

"Strong Suspicions of Toxicity in One GMO Corn
By Stèphane Foucart
Le Monde

Tuesday 13 March 2007

Allowed to go on the market in France and Europe, MON 863, a transgenic corn invented by Monsanto, has been at the center of a controversy over its innocuousness for over two years (April 23rd, 2004, Le Monde). These debates could resume after the March 13th publication in 'Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology' of a study suggesting this genetically modified organism (GMO) is toxic to the liver and kidneys.

According to this work, consumption of MON 863 corn disturbs numerous biological parameters in rats to a greater or lesser extent: weight of the kidneys, weight of the liver, the level of reticulocytes (new red blood cells), the level of triglycerides, etc. Urinary chemistry is also changed, with reductions in excreted sodium and phosphorus going as high as 35 percent. The effects vary with the sex of the animals. 'Female rats exhibit an increase in blood fat and sugar levels, and an increase in body weight - all associated with greater hepatic sensitivity,' says Mr. Sèralini, principal author of this study and, moreover, president of the Research Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (Criigen). 'Among males, the impact is"

The New Age

Have you ever wondered when the "New Age" started? Believe it or not, it dates back to the late 1800s, a period of intense spiritual activity in Western
Neptune, ruler of spirituality and psychic phenomena, had just been discovered. Coincidence? Of the many innovations that came out of this extraordinary period was the combination of astrology with Tarot. Today, the connection between the two is a given, and there's no doubt that their divination power is vastly increased when they are used together.

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Food is Power

Yes POWER is right... they American Machine takes over the water supplies, uses all their chemicals to destroy all the seeds and foods outside of their control and then pumps their "patented" seeds and GMO's into the counties so you can only eat and survive by buying from a multinational corporation that has taken over...


WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Food is Power: "“Forum on Food Sovereignty” near Bamako, Mali. For the first time, the world’s largest social movements working on behalf of food producers throughout the world have gathered to discuss the idea of food sovereignty. The organizers include international social movements of peasants, women, fisherfolk, environmentalists, and consumers.

Most of the focus of the forum has been conversation, discussing what the delegates represented here are fighting for, what they’re fighting against, and to set an agenda for the next five to ten years for collective, global campaigns. The gathered groups will also develop position papers on themes ranging from trade and local commerce, to resource rights and urban-consumer partnerships, from production models and appropriate technologies to bilateral and multinational trade policies.

Ultimately, this alliance plans to share these position papers with networks in their home countries as well as heads of state, the United Nations, the FAO, and development bodies.

I’ve been here for a few days now and have been continually amazed by the feat to pull this event off. In rural West Africa, the organizers were able to create a village for more than 600 delegates, from scratch, using mostly local materials and mostly local labor. As one of the org"

"MORE NATURAL CURES REVEALED"

"A government that once stood for the people is now being sold over and over again to some of the most powerful and influential money interests on the planet. Four of the top ten Fortune 500 companies are pharmaceutical companies. They have a lobbyist for every state representative and senator in Washington, with some extras assigned to the public committees of the House and Senate. Your health is being sold on a daily basis by every representative and senator who takes their money." - p. 74.

"The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) repeatedly puts out press releases which are flagrantly false and misleading. Corruption must stop. The government must stop taking advantage of the citizens. The large multinational corporations must stop putting profits above ethics, integrity, and honesty. We, as a society are being made sick purposely, so that large companies can make billions of dollars in profits. This must cease. The FTC is helping this to continue to occur. They must be stopped. The FTC is supposed to protect us; instead it is protecting the large multinational corporations." - p. 122.

"The FTC is not interested in protecting the consumers; it is interested in protecting the profits of the large companies. The FTC repeatedly sues people like myself who advertise truthfully and honestly, but whose products and opinions can have an adverse effect on the large companies. This is how the FTC protects the monopolies and protects the profits of the large corporations. This is wrong and must be stopped..." - p. 123.

Ivory Trade Threatens Future of African Elephants

But you know this will also happen to Oil, Old Growth Forests, Wild Tuna and Salmon and every other commodity. . . The Profit Machine is designed to increase the use until there is NO MORE. then they will have total control of the market with Stored supplies and pirated access. Just like the Diamond trade where all the African Tribes that could compete in the market are getting systematically exterminated... ALL of them!!!!

Ivory Trade Threatens Future of African Elephants: "Ivory Trade Threatens Future of African Elephants

SEATTLE, Washington, February 27, 2007 (ENS) - The illegal ivory trade is flourishing and threatens to undermine efforts to save the African elephant from extinction, according to a new study released Monday. Poaching of the species has risen to a level not seen in two decades, researchers report, and could doom the world's largest land animal unless western governments step up efforts to halt the illegal trade.

'The illegal ivory trade recently intensified to the highest levels ever reported,' according to the study, published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

China's burgeoning economy is a major force driving the growth of the illegal trade, escalating prices and attracting organized crime.

A kilogram of ivory that $200 by 2004 now fetches some $750, the researchers said, and from August 2005 through August 2006, authorities seized some 24 tons of illegal ivory destined for Asia.

But that figure represents only about 10 percent of the estimated illegal shipments, bringing the total closer to 240 tons - an amount that would require the slaughter of more than 23,000 elephants, about 5 percent of the estimated"