The Cycle of Clever, Intelligence And Good (Beauty)
I was recently made aware of a documentary film about matters I care a lot about. Such as food, health, agriculture, welfare. Also about the economy.Are the top pharmaceutical companies, that are obviously also involved in biotechnology, and GMOs, and what not, also making the same substances that may give us all, or at least 1/3 of us, cancer? That is the concept behind Idiot Cycle.
A documentary by Emmanuelle Schick Garcia. Seems Google is not very fond of this film. Also, I'm told they couldn't get the insurance that is needed to show it on TV in North America. Scary, as "freedom of speech" is something we all care a lot about, right?
I'll be complete honest and say that I don't like the image of the dead lab rat that they have chosen for the film's poster. Yes, millions of lab rats are killed for research, I don't like it but that is considered as normal, and no one seems to care. I don't understand why not, but that is reality.
Milkweed is not just a "weed" but also a very important plant that has grown wild in North America for ages. Now it is being killed by GMO crop farming, as Roundup will eradicate anything that isn't genetically modified (and patented by Monsanto) to tolerate - Roundup (glyphosate). Recently most of these herbicides are made in China.
If this film had chosen the Monarch Butterfly as its poster child, hey, I think donations and support may have been a lot easier. The Monarch flies from north to south, feeding on milkweed, from Canada to Mexico.
Milkweed
Monarch Butterfly
Monarch Watch
Aren't we humans strange. We have millennial of emotions for certain creatures, like dolphins, yet care not for the pigs, cows, rats that we use for research and development - and food. Lab rats? Genetically modified mice? Guinea pigs? Don't get me started. Any thoughts?
Indiegogo (do donate if you can)
The Idiot Cycle follows the world's largest chemical producers:
Dow Chemical
BASF
Bayer
Dupont
Astrazeneca
Monsanto
and how these chemical companies, who manufacture and emit cancer causing chemical substances, also develop, produce and invest in cancer treatments, the most profitable disease on the planet.
But that is not all:
I am Emmanuelle Schick Garcia, the director of the award-winning documentary The Idiot Cycle
that investigates the connections between the chemical, cancer and GMO
industries (the film focuses on Dow Chemical, Monsanto, Bayer, Dupont,
BASF and Astrazeneca).
We produced The Idiot Cycle with no commercial partnerships,
financial support from broadcasters or distributors or state funding,
making The Idiot Cycle a truly independent film.
While we allowed non-profit associations (Slow Food, Friends of the
Earth, PAN UK) and university medical, law and agricultural students in
over 40 universities (UCLA, University of Oxford, University of Toronto)
to screen the film without paying any licensing fees in its first year,
we could not continue to do this, since we have the sole responsibility
of repaying the film's costs.
While my producer, Laila Tahhar and I were never paid for our over
three years of work on the film (and never will be), the cost to make
the film was a little over 200,000 euros. This is an average budget for
an investigative film that is shot in 8 countries - Canada, USA, France,
Netherlands, Germany, England, Northern Ireland, Italy and where the
crew is paid fair wages with social security benefits.
As of today, between television licensing fees (the film was
broadcast on Russia Today, Al Jazeera, and AB), DVD/download sales and
library licensing fees we have recuperated about 14,000 euros (which
means, we still have $192,532 to repay).
But we agree with the many people who have contacted us, this is an important film that needs to be seen.
That is why we have decided, with the publics help, to make The Idiot Cycle part of the public domain.
If 7,500 people make a $25 (price of a DVD) donation, The Idiot Cycle
will be in the public domain, where anyone, anywhere can see the film
and learn about the links betwen GMOs, toxic chemicals and cancer.
We hope you will share the following campaign information below with your mailing list, facebook, twitter or on your blog.
1) Make a financial contribution on this page !
If we DON'T reach our goal, everyone is refunded their contribution and JPS Films retains the copyright.
If we DO reach our goal, The Idiot Cycle will belong to everyone,
launching a massive awareness campaign about toxic chemicals, GMOs and
cancer.
We have until July 21st!
With your help:
*Anyone will be able to screen, watch, stream, share and distribute
The Idiot Cycle anywhere, by any means, sparking debates and awareness.
*Anyone will be able to make translations of the film in any countries.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions at THEGEEKS (AT) JAPANESEPOPSONGS.COM (replace the (AT) with @).
Kind regards,
Emmanuelle Schick Garcia
JPS Films
6 rue Pierre Haret
Paris 75009
JPS Films is an independent production company based in Paris, France.
The Impact
If the film is in the public domain it will spark an international debate on toxic chemicals, GMOs and cancer.
Other Ways You Can Help
Other Ways You Can Help
If you can't contribute financially, you can be a cheerleader!
Please inform the members any non profit association that would be interested, your facebook friends, anyone!
If the film becomes public domain, your association will be able to
screen the film for the public, stream it on their web site, share it
with members. It will be a great educational supplement.
So, here is the latest on how GMO corn, GMO soybeans are linked to Monarch butterfly losses:
- Article by: JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY , Star Tribune
Genetically engineered corn and soybeans make it easy for farmers to
eradicate weeds, including the long-lived and unruly milkweed.
But they might be putting the monarch butterfly in peril.
The rapid spread of herbicide-resistant crops has coincided with -- and may explain -- the dramatic decline in monarch numbers that has troubled some naturalists over the past decade, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota and Iowa State University.
Between 1999 and 2010, the same period in which so-called GMO crops became the norm for farmers, the number of monarch eggs declined by an estimated 81 percent across the Midwest, the researchers say. That's because milkweed -- the host plant for the eggs and caterpillars produced by one of one of the most gaudy and widely recognized of all North American butterflies -- has nearly disappeared from farm fields, they found.
It is one of the clearest examples yet of unintended consequences from the widespread use of genetically modified seeds, said John Pleasants, a monarch researcher from Iowa State in Ames, Iowa.
"When we put something out there, we don't know always what the consequences are," he said.
Pleasants and Karen Oberhauser, of the University of Minnesota, published their findings online last week in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity.
"It is quite an extraordinary paper," said Chip Taylor, an insect
ecologist at the University of Kansas and the director of research at
Monarch Watch, a conservation group. He noted that Oberhauser and
Pleasants were able to tie the loss of habitat to a decline in numbers
across the country.
But the evidence they present -- estimates of the number of milkweed plants across the Corn Belt and a decade's worth of butterfly egg counts by an army of volunteer citizens -- is indirect, say others.
"It does not resolve the debate," said Leslie Ries, a University of Maryland professor who studies monarchs.
Butterflies in decline
The orange and black butterflies migrate every year to the mountains of Mexico, where they collect in fluttering clouds in trees, an extraordinary event that has inspired festivals and tourism.
But for reasons that are not well understood, the number of butterflies that make it to Mexico -- half of which come from the Midwest -- has been on the decline. This year, according to a report released Thursday, the butterflies occupied seven acres of trees in their refuge west of Mexico City -- 28 percent less than last year and a fraction of the 45 acres they occupied in 1996, a peak year.
Experts said last year's drought probably had a serious effect on the insects. Others say damage to the wintering grounds from logging and development are also playing a part, and that the number that make it to Mexico does not necessarily reflect the health of the species.
But some scientists have for years wondered whether the use of genetically modified crops is affecting the spring and summer reproduction in this country.
Earlier studies suggested that monarch caterpillars would die if they ate milkweed dusted with pollen from another kind of engineered seed known as BT corn. It contains a gene that produces a toxin that kills corn-eating pests.
That theory was disproved, but it led scientists to take a hard look at milkweed plants in corn and soybean fields, said Pleasants. "Surprisingly, monarchs use those milkweeds more heavily than milkweed outside [farm fields]," he said. The butterflies lay nearly four times as many eggs on farm field plants as on those in pastures or on roadsides, the researchers said.
More important, they also found "that milkweed in the fields was disappearing," he said. That's because more farmers are using a new kind of genetically modified seed developed by Monsanto, Roundup-ready corn and soybeans, that contain a gene allowing the plants to withstand Roundup, or glyphosate. That allows farmers to spray their fields without harming the crop.
Monsanto, which did not respond to a request for comment, says on its website the seeds help farmers increase yield. Today, it's used by 94 percent of soybean farmers and 72 percent of corn farmers, according to federal data.
Assessing the effect on milkweed plants both in and out of farm fields, was difficult, researchers said -- never mind the challenge of counting butterfly eggs.
Pleasants said he used data on the change in milkweed density in Iowa, and extrapolated those numbers to landscape use data across the Midwest. That showed an estimated 58 percent decline in milkweed plants throughout the Corn Belt, primarily on agricultural lands.
Oberhauser supplied data she has been collecting for years through the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. Every week during the monarch breeding season, volunteers across the country go to the same patches of non-agricultural milkweed in their communities and count all the eggs they can find.
That showed two things: Butterflies were not flocking to breed on plants outside agricultural fields; those numbers remained the same. And overall production, measured in eggs, declined 81 percent between 1999 and 2010.
Taylor said the new study should help make the case that increasing monarch habitat along roads in pastures, gardens and on conservation lands must become a national priority because the milkweed will never come back to farm fields, he said.
"The scale of the loss of habitat is so big that unless we compensate for it in some way, the population will decline to the point where it will disappear," he said.
Study ties GMO corn, soybeans to butterfly losses
USDA considers milkweed to be "poisonous" and can be "controlled with 2,4-D plus picloram (0.5 kg ae/Ac) or glyphosate at a spot spray. Follow all precautions for handling herbicides."
But they might be putting the monarch butterfly in peril.
The rapid spread of herbicide-resistant crops has coincided with -- and may explain -- the dramatic decline in monarch numbers that has troubled some naturalists over the past decade, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota and Iowa State University.
Between 1999 and 2010, the same period in which so-called GMO crops became the norm for farmers, the number of monarch eggs declined by an estimated 81 percent across the Midwest, the researchers say. That's because milkweed -- the host plant for the eggs and caterpillars produced by one of one of the most gaudy and widely recognized of all North American butterflies -- has nearly disappeared from farm fields, they found.
It is one of the clearest examples yet of unintended consequences from the widespread use of genetically modified seeds, said John Pleasants, a monarch researcher from Iowa State in Ames, Iowa.
"When we put something out there, we don't know always what the consequences are," he said.
Pleasants and Karen Oberhauser, of the University of Minnesota, published their findings online last week in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity.
"It is quite an extraordinary paper," said Chip Taylor, an insect
ecologist at the University of Kansas and the director of research at
Monarch Watch, a conservation group. He noted that Oberhauser and
Pleasants were able to tie the loss of habitat to a decline in numbers
across the country.But the evidence they present -- estimates of the number of milkweed plants across the Corn Belt and a decade's worth of butterfly egg counts by an army of volunteer citizens -- is indirect, say others.
"It does not resolve the debate," said Leslie Ries, a University of Maryland professor who studies monarchs.
Butterflies in decline
The orange and black butterflies migrate every year to the mountains of Mexico, where they collect in fluttering clouds in trees, an extraordinary event that has inspired festivals and tourism.
But for reasons that are not well understood, the number of butterflies that make it to Mexico -- half of which come from the Midwest -- has been on the decline. This year, according to a report released Thursday, the butterflies occupied seven acres of trees in their refuge west of Mexico City -- 28 percent less than last year and a fraction of the 45 acres they occupied in 1996, a peak year.
Experts said last year's drought probably had a serious effect on the insects. Others say damage to the wintering grounds from logging and development are also playing a part, and that the number that make it to Mexico does not necessarily reflect the health of the species.
But some scientists have for years wondered whether the use of genetically modified crops is affecting the spring and summer reproduction in this country.
Earlier studies suggested that monarch caterpillars would die if they ate milkweed dusted with pollen from another kind of engineered seed known as BT corn. It contains a gene that produces a toxin that kills corn-eating pests.
That theory was disproved, but it led scientists to take a hard look at milkweed plants in corn and soybean fields, said Pleasants. "Surprisingly, monarchs use those milkweeds more heavily than milkweed outside [farm fields]," he said. The butterflies lay nearly four times as many eggs on farm field plants as on those in pastures or on roadsides, the researchers said.
More important, they also found "that milkweed in the fields was disappearing," he said. That's because more farmers are using a new kind of genetically modified seed developed by Monsanto, Roundup-ready corn and soybeans, that contain a gene allowing the plants to withstand Roundup, or glyphosate. That allows farmers to spray their fields without harming the crop.
Monsanto, which did not respond to a request for comment, says on its website the seeds help farmers increase yield. Today, it's used by 94 percent of soybean farmers and 72 percent of corn farmers, according to federal data.
Assessing the effect on milkweed plants both in and out of farm fields, was difficult, researchers said -- never mind the challenge of counting butterfly eggs.
Pleasants said he used data on the change in milkweed density in Iowa, and extrapolated those numbers to landscape use data across the Midwest. That showed an estimated 58 percent decline in milkweed plants throughout the Corn Belt, primarily on agricultural lands.
Oberhauser supplied data she has been collecting for years through the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. Every week during the monarch breeding season, volunteers across the country go to the same patches of non-agricultural milkweed in their communities and count all the eggs they can find.
That showed two things: Butterflies were not flocking to breed on plants outside agricultural fields; those numbers remained the same. And overall production, measured in eggs, declined 81 percent between 1999 and 2010.
Taylor said the new study should help make the case that increasing monarch habitat along roads in pastures, gardens and on conservation lands must become a national priority because the milkweed will never come back to farm fields, he said.
"The scale of the loss of habitat is so big that unless we compensate for it in some way, the population will decline to the point where it will disappear," he said.
Study ties GMO corn, soybeans to butterfly losses
USDA considers milkweed to be "poisonous" and can be "controlled with 2,4-D plus picloram (0.5 kg ae/Ac) or glyphosate at a spot spray. Follow all precautions for handling herbicides."
Comments
Private citizens need to grow more butterfly plants far away from pesticide-laden industrial farms.
2-4-D is a component of Agent Orange. Vandana Shiva said that pesticides and fertilizers are both derived from chemical warfare. So many Americans maintain unsustainable lawns they have doused with these chemicals, thereby poisoning not only their own homes, but also groundwater. They have been desensitized to nature and the cycles of nature.
This is a film that can help awaken people...