American Farmers Benefit from Drought and Fires in Russia

The amazing wild fires in Russia, that have encircled Moscow, shutting it down with smoke, soot, and ash, have also devastated the wheat harvest this year, causing Russia to suspend all exports of wheat and other grains. Ravaging drought in the rest of Europe, drought in Australia, where locusts are also destroying fields of grain, producing dramatically curtailed harvests , has proven a bonanza to American wheat farmers who are seeing undreamed of prices for wheat. At about $7 a bushel, the sharp spike in wheat futures will undoubtedly lead to a sharp spike in over all food prices globally, leading to shortages, increased hunger, and in some places outright famine and food riots. Are you ready for what's coming?

 

Wheat is the new gold in time of plenty for America’s breadbasket

As fires wreck Russia's harvests and poor countries brace for shortages, it's boom time for Kansas farmers.

By David Usborne

Strong wheat yields in Kansas and Colorado this year have been boosted by the crop trading for $7 a bushel on futures markets

Wildfires, floods, crippling droughts, and even a threatened plague of locusts have wrecked crops and ruined harvests around the world, raising fears of global food inflation shortage and food riots.

But as they hose off the dust and chaff caked on their exhausted combine harvesters, farmers in America's plain states are adjusting to something possibly wonderful: a combination of unusually good wheat yields and suddenly soaring prices – thanks to disastrous circumstances elsewhere – has put them at the centre of a gold rush.

"It feels like Christmas in August," admitted Darrell Hanavan, of the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee, noting that the harvest just completed in his state seems to have been the most bountiful for 25 years. More importantly, the dollar value for the crop is almost sure to set a record.

The thin soil of the plains is not always so kind. Scorching drought and relentless rains are frequent visitors to the breadbasket of America. So it is startling for some to find themselves singled out for good fortune, while the rest of the US combats an unemployment rate that refuses to come down.

Russia announced that weeks of fierce heat and uncontrolled fires would cost the country a quarter of its crop and that its wheat exports, which will be frozen from tomorrow, may not resume until next year. Output in Ukraine and Kazakhstan has slumped too. Canadian wheat farmers have been struggling with crops drowned by rains that won't stop, and in eastern Australia, the wheat crop could be devastated by a plague of locusts expected to start hatching next week.

Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer, and Indonesia and Thailand, which also both rely on imports of grain, complained this week that they face a sudden price squeeze on such staples as bread, pork and sugar and with that, the risk of social unrest of the kind witnessed in 2008, when food price hikes provoked riots in a number of countries.

Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome, said Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Iran all face higher budget deficits because of the amounts they spend on bread subsidies. "Some are politically unstable countries – they simply cannot afford" the social effects that bread queues could have on the urban poor.

Whether the risk abates could depend on farmers in the American Midwest and whether they decide to cash in by planting more wheat, the world's most consumed cereal. The rosy outlook for them was confirmed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). It expects US exports to surge by 36 per cent this year.

"Crop revenues look to be much improved, with record crops and generally higher prices than we anticipated earlier this year," Joseph Glauber, the USDA's chief economist said.

"The US is an island of supply in a year of very big demand," noted Daniel W Basse of AgResource, a Chicago commodity-forecasting concern. The US Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, added: "There is no question this is an opportunity for us and we're going to take advantage of it."

Farmers everywhere are notoriously slow to pop the champagne, however. Even now, some, such as Daryl Larson, who farms 1,500 acres in Kansas with his brother, can't entirely shed their natural caution. "I guess maybe farming makes that happen to you," he suggests with a chuckle. "Nothing is for certain."

He knows, for instance, that while the futures prices of wheat on the Chicago commodities exchanges are spiking at heights that even a few weeks ago would have seemed mad –above $7 (£4.50) a bushel in recent days – the cash he receives from selling now is considerably more modest.

Moreover, it is no secret to Mr Larson that speculators who have rushed to buy wheat in the wake of Russia's export ban may have created a bubble that is not immune from bursting. After finishing his harvest in June, Mr Larson, 56, sold nearly half of his wheat crop but will keep the rest in the silo in the expectation that the prices will at least climb further if not astronomically. "I am expecting the export business will pick up in the next few weeks because the rest of the world does not have a whole lot of wheat to export. If that is correct, we should see new strength in our exports."

Most analysts would concur with Mr Larson's strategy of holding on to some grain for added profit but not expecting the world. American farmers will, more than likely, increase their wheat acreages when planting time comes in the next few weeks.

"It's hard for me to imagine that we won't see some increase in wheat acreage," said John Anderson, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation. "Wheat prices are certainly at a level historically that would look very attractive." The pressure put on pricing by the speculators could, of course, always backfire on them. But for now at least, the upwards pressure on wheat prices is rubbing off nicely on other crops grown in the US.

Mr Larson is preparing to harvest his fields of soy bean and sorghum, crops for which the market has also been strengthening. Because wheat is also produced in parts of the world, for instance the Ukraine, for cattle feed, a similar effect is being felt for another crop that is huge in US: corn (or what the British call maize).

So surely this is one of those unusual times when farmers in the US at least can afford to admit to some joy. Did Mr Larson at least skip a little when he saw the news about Russia moving to suspend exports of wheat? Mr Larson, who has been working his farm since the day he graduated from high school in 1972, wouldn't say that exactly, but it did cheer him. "We've had better. And we have a lot worse."

Related articles by Zemanta

• Russia bans wheat and grain exports (bbc.co.uk)
• No Global Wheat Shortage, but Prices May Rise (nytimes.com)
• U.S. wheat rises ahead of USDA report (reuters.com)

The Great American Die-Off

If the following article is true, then we are in the midst of a major die-off of the human population on the planet, starting with the United States. According to the article, a Russian report finds that 2 million Americans may have already died due to a mysterious lung disease caused by a mutant "crossover plant viral disease" linked to genetically modified corn and other foods. Even the possibility of this being true is cause for concern and demands further research into the true nature and consequences of the GMO "foods" promoted by Monsanto and their toy, the FDA. On the surface, on first hearing, this may sound impossible, but can we be sure? How can we find out for certain whether or not this is true? If "GMO" was required to be on labels, that would help. At least we would have a free choice to indulge in the GMO gamble or not. Read and decide for yourself what you think is best for you and your family. If we grew our own, would we have these worries?

When is enough enough?

Enjoy. Learn. Think. Share.

[The]most chilling report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared by the Russian Academy of Medical and Technical Science for Prime Minister Putin states that a “mysterious die-off” in the United States has claimed over 2,000,000 lives since 2008 and is “more than likely” linked to a “crossover” plant disease linked to genetically modified grains and foods.
According to these reports this mysterious, and as yet unidentified, lung disease responsible for this mass die-off began during the spring of 2008 in the US agricultural State of Iowa where (very ironically) at least 36 people attending a Lung Association event at the Governors mansion were stricken.
Important to note about Iowa is that it is one of the largest corn producing regions in the World harvesting over 2 billon bushels of this valuable grain farmed on nearly 32 million acres of its farmland, over 99% of which are genetically modified varieties made by the US agricultural giant Monsanto and idententifeid by their trade names of Mon 863, insecticide-producing Mon 810, and Roundup® herbicide-absorbing NK 603.
Not reported to the American people about these genetically modified corn varieties made by Monsanto was the study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences warning that they were linked to organ damage. Monsanto quickly responded to this study, stating that the research was “based on faulty analytical methods and reasoning and do not call into question the safety findings for these products.”
Russian scientists in these reports, however, call Monsanto’s claim of their genetically modified Mon 863 corn as being safe for human or animal consumption “totally without validation”, a finding supported by the French biomolecular engineering commission, the Commission du Génie Biomoléculaire (CGB) who stated in their report, “with the present data it cannot be concluded that GM corn MON 863 is a safe product.”
Further supporting the findings of Russian scientists was Greenpeace International, who in their report titled “MON 863: A chronicle of systematic deception” warned that the campaign to unearth and evaluate data about this most dangerous of genetically modified grains demonstrates, beyond all doubt, that MON863 is unfit for consumption.
Most unfortunately for the American people though, all of these warnings have been ignored by their government masters who have allowed the mass planting of these genetically modified crops to such an extent that in the United States today fully 80% of their corn and 93% of their soybeans are of these dangerous varieties and leading one Russian scientist in these reports to warn that our World is now on the verge of experiencing an ecological disaster of “Biblical proportions”.
And according to these reports this ecological disaster is well underway in the United States and supported by American death statistics showing that of the nearly 2.5 million deaths reported by them each year the number of “sudden deaths” has increased to 40% equaling out to over 2 million “mysterious and unexplained” deaths from early 2008 to March, 2010.
Now of these “mysterious and unexplained” American deaths, these reports continue, nearly all of them are lung related and being erroneously documented as being caused by influenza and pneumonia type diseases so as not to panic these peoples, but have, instead, been caused by as an yet unidentified plant virus that has successfully jumped the species barrier to human beings.
Supporting Russian scientists in these conclusions is new research being conducted by the Didier Raoult of the University of the Mediterranean in Marseilles, France, where for the first time in human history a plant virus has been found to cause problems in people.
Russian scientists further claim in these reports that the United States mass vaccination of their population this past year for the supposed H1N1 Swine Flu epidemic was instead a “very clumsy attempt” to stop the spreading of this mysterious lung disease by injecting into these peoples a DNA “fix” to this genetically modified corn, and which by all the evidence available, they state, appears to have failed.
For those wondering how the United States government could ever allow such a monstrous outrage to be committed on their citizens one only need know that over the past 10 years Monsanto has paid over $500 million in bribing those American officials responsible for food safety while at the same time has joined US corporate giants General Electric and Exxon Mobil in not paying any taxes despite the billions in profits they have reaped.
And for those Americans believing that President Obama will protect them from these outrages they couldn’t be more mistaken, and as we can read as reported by the Huffington Post News Service in their article titled “You’re Appointing Who? Please Obama, Say It’s Not So!” and which, in part, says:
“The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US food safety czar. This is no joke.
Here’s the back story.
When FDA scientists were asked to weigh in on what was to become the most radical and potentially dangerous change in our food supply — the introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods — secret documents now reveal that the experts were very concerned. Memo after memo described toxins, new diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and hard-to-detect allergens. They were adamant that the technology carried “serious health hazards,” and required careful, long-term research, including human studies, before any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be safely released into the food supply.
But the biotech industry had rigged the game so that neither science nor scientists would stand in their way. They had placed their own man in charge of FDA policy and he wasn’t going to be swayed by feeble arguments related to food safety. No, he was going to do what corporations had done for decades to get past these types of pesky concerns. He was going to lie.”
Even worse for these American people are those believing they will be able to change their government in the upcoming National elections to be held in the United States this coming November, but which new reports are showing that Obama is also preparing for with a special military unit called the “Consequence Management Response Force” said ready to deploy during these elections at his command from his White House fortress the Washington Post writes has now become more like “Soviet-era Moscow” then the house of the people it used to be should these Americans begin to rise up against the growing corporate-run police state surrounding them.
New reports from America are also warning that Obama’s growing police state government is further moving against its own citizens by ordering their Internet giants to turn over all emails written by every citizen in their country, an insidious move Yahoo, for one, has vowed to fight.
To the final outcome of all of these events it is not in our knowing, other than to note that in the same week that one of Obama’s Federal Courts has outlawed all Americans from celebrating their National Prayer Day, and Obama has vowed to rid the United States of all of its nuclear weapons, President Putin, on the other hand, stated that Russia’s internal and external security depends upon two things – “its traditional religions and its nuclear forces”…and leaving no doubt whatsoever that our World has, indeed, turned upside down as the US descends into tyranny and Russia moves toward freedom.
VN:F [1.8.8_1072]

Mansanto bite the dust: GM Corn foods banned from Germany and Europe
Health Warning specially for Americans: Europe bans Monsanto GM crops due to dangerous health risks
South African farmers suffer from crops harvest failure due to GM made corrupt Monsanto
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Russia suspends all adoptions to US families
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Tags: 2 Million Dead In US, Cancer, Chemical Substances in Foods, Genetically Modified Foods, Genetically Modified Grains, Kremlin, Mysterious Die-Off, Prime Minister Putin, Report, Russian Academy of Medical and Technical Science

10 Responses to " Russia Reports Over 2 Million Dead In US As Mysterious Die-Off Accelerates

Chance says:
18/04/2010 at 10:49 pm
Thank you for this information. I believe every word of it.
a few years back Monsanto was involved and tried to hide the fact that it was injecting hormones into cows to make them produce more milk. Two investigators of their own were assigned to do a “goodwill” story on it. However, they found out that the hormones produced cancer and that Monsanto knew about it and did not inform the public.
The investigators would not write the report they were told to by Monsanto and both were fired even after Monsanto made them change their story 80, yes eighty times and then fired them anyway. The reporters then brought the story to the public.
There also was controversey and outcry by Americans about the GMO’s. The result was codex, alimentarius. Nothing produced by the US can even be trusted anymore.
I too, shutter to think about our new food czar.
Americans are waking up and fighting back on all levels.
UN:F [1.8.8_1072]


Roger says:
19/04/2010 at 12:04 am
The American people are being turned into slaves and they don’t realize how close they are to loosing all of their freedoms, because of an illegal election. They are about to wake up to find that they are going to live under a dictator not a president. America as we knew it is dead. We are the laughing stock of the rest of the world now.
UN:F [1.8.8_1072]


Truth says:
19/04/2010 at 4:46 am
It’s not the corn, it’s the chemtrails.
OldSchool says:
19/04/2010 at 4:56 am
Monsanto has a primary goal of controlling the world food supply. And since they cannot control organic agriculture, they chose to usurp it with GMO crops, whose pollen affects every other crop around you. More than likely, monsanto is responsible for the vast die-off of honeybees, due to the pesticides they push on their ‘customers’. All them trace elements in the pollen are carried back to the hive where it accumulates and kills the bees. There are plenty of monsanto goons that need some good ol’ American Country Justice..
UN:F [1.8.8_1072]


Peter Pan says:
19/04/2010 at 7:16 am
Everyone, please watch “Food Inc.” Your hair will stand up.
UN:F [1.8.8_1072]


CalDre says:
19/04/2010 at 9:09 am
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard such a tall tail – OK, Paul Bunyon. Where can I read this supposed report?
Where is there any evidence of any “mysterious die-off”? 2 million people? The fact that some people actually believe this lunacy is troubling at best ….
UN:F [1.8.8_1072]


eileen says:
19/04/2010 at 11:21 am
Eventually genetically modified food will be identified as the number one killer of Americans.
It only took rats a few months to be affected and die miserably from GMO corn. Are we next?… and how effective will staying off GMO products be, even if you try?
How can anyone be sure 100% that what you eat, even organic, hasn’t been contaminated?
UN:F [1.8.8_1072]


Piotr says:
19/04/2010 at 4:01 pm
OMG! This is such a bullshit. I stumbled over this website and it’s entertaining, yes but nothing of this news about 2 millions dead in the US is true.
UN:F [1.8.8_1072]

The Surprising Truth About Wheat and Your Health

As a nutritional healer, I use autonomic response testing to determine the state of health of a body and what foods and supplements are right for it and those that are not. This is a very exact and accurate way of assessing health, one person at a time. It leads to individualized or personalized nutritional programs that can bring the individual who follows it to perfect health very quickly. While every person is unique, there are some amazing patterns that emerge over time.

One of the most surprising to me is the number of health issues that are caused by or related to the consumption of wheat.

During a recent 'Abundant Life on the Road' trip, I found nearly 75% of tested individuals having a problem with wheat. One woman was totally incapacitated by wheat suffering from mental fog and depression, severe body pain, thyroid disease, diabetes, digestion problems and more, only to find that it was entirely due to her consumption of wheat! When the wheat factor was taken into consideration, her long list of complaints and weak body reflexes went down to ZERO!!! Nothing much was wrong with her except the wheat in her diet. It was literally killing her. And maybe you too.

Most of us (me included) are surprised to learn this. That is because we have been taught that wheat is an excellent food for health. But what we have not known is how wheat is now grown in this country and all of the things done to it that have now made it a danger to health and life for many, many people.

Read the following 2 articles to learn as much you need about wheat -that once was good- that has now become suspect in many of our common illnesses and complaints. You should be tested to see if you are one of the many who may be suffering from the altered wheat in our diet.

(More on this important topic later)

Enjoy. Learn. Share.

More Reasons to Avoid Wheat
Wheaty Indiscretions: What Happens to Wheat From Seed to Storage
By Jen Allbritton, Certified Nutritionist
Wheat--America’s grain of choice. Its hardy, glutenous consistency makes it practical for a variety of foodstuffs--cakes, breads, pastas, cookies, bagels, pretzels and cereals that have been puffed, shredded and shaped. This ancient grain can actually be very nutritious when it is grown and prepared in the appropriate manner. Unfortunately, the indiscretions inflicted by our modern farming techniques and milling practices have dramatically reduced the quality of the commercial wheat berry and the flour it makes. You might think, "Wheat is wheat--what can they do that makes commercial varieties so bad?" Listen up, because you are in for a surprise!
It was the cultivation of grains--members of the grass family--that made civilization possible.1 Since wheat is one of the oldest known grains, its cultivation is as old as civilization itself. Some accounts suggest that mankind has used this wholesome food since 10,000 to 15,000 years BC.2 Upon opening Egyptian tombs archeologists discovered large earthenware jars full of wheat to "sustain" the Pharaohs in the afterlife. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, was said to recommend stone-ground flour for its beneficial effects on the digestive tract. Once humans figured out how to grind wheat, they discovered that when water is added it can be naturally fermented and turned into beer and expandable dough.2
Botonists have identified almost 30,000 varieties of wheat, which are assigned to one of several classifications according to their planting schedule and nutrient composition3--hard red winter, hard red spring, soft red winter, durum, hard white and soft white. Spring wheat is planted in the spring, and winter wheat is planted in the fall and shoots up the next spring to mature that summer. Soft, hard, and durum (even harder) wheats are classified according to the strength of their kernel. This strength is a function of the protein-to-starch ratio in the endosperm (the starchy middle layer of the seed). Hard wheats contain less starch, leaving a stronger protein matrix.3
With the advent of modern farming, the number of varieties of wheat in common use has been drastically reduced. Today, just a few varieties account for 90 percent of the wheat grown in the world.1
When grown in well-nourished, fertile soil, whole wheat is rich in vitamin E and B complex, many minerals, including calcium and iron, as well as omega-3 fatty acids. Proper growing and milling methods are necessary to preserve these nutrients and prevent rancidity. Unfortunately, due to the indiscretions inflicted by contemporary farming and processing on modern wheat, many people have become intolerant or even allergic to this nourishing grain. These indiscretions include depletion of the soil through the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals, high-heat milling, refining and improper preparation, such as extrusion.1
Rather than focus on soil fertility and careful selection of seed to produce varieties tailored to a particular micro-climate, modern farming practices use high-tech methods to deal with pests and disease, leading to overdependence on chemicals and other substances.
It Starts with the Seed
Even before they are planted in the ground, wheat seeds receive an application of fungicides and insecticides. Fungicides are used to control diseases of seeds and seedlings; insecticides are used to control insect pests, killing them as they feed on the seed or emerging seedling.7 Seed companies often use mixtures of different seed-treatment fungicides or insecticides to control a broader spectrum of seed pests.8
Pesticides and Fertilizers
Some of the main chemicals (insecticides, herbicides and fungicides) used on commercial wheat crops are disulfoton (Di-syston), methyl parathion, chlorpyrifos, dimethoate, diamba and glyphosate.9
Although all these chemicals are approved for use and considered safe, consumers are wise to reduce their exposure as much as possible. Besides contributing to the overall toxic load in our bodies, these chemicals increase our susceptibility to neurotoxic diseases as well as to conditions like cancer.10
Many of these pesticides function as xenoestrogens, foreign estrogen that can reap havoc with our hormone balance and may be a contributing factor to a number of health conditions. For example, researchers speculate these estrogen-mimicking chemicals are one of the contributing factors to boys and girls entering puberty at earlier and earlier ages. They have also been linked to abnormalities and hormone-related cancers including fibrocystic breast disease, breast cancer and endometriosis.13
Hormones on Wheat?
Sounds strange, but farmers apply hormone-like substances or "plant growth regulators" that affect wheat characteristics, such as time of germination and strength of stalk.11 These hormones are either "natural," that is, extracted from other plants, or synthetic. Cycocel is a synthetic hormone that is commonly applied to wheat.
Moreover, research is being conducted on how to manipulate the naturally occurring hormones in wheat and other grains to achieve "desirable" changes, such as regulated germination and an increased ability to survive in cold weather.12
No studies exist that isolate the health risks of eating hormone-manipulated wheat or varieties that have been exposed to hormone application. However, there is substantial evidence about the dangers of increasing our intake of hormone-like substances.
Chemicals Used in Storage
Chemical offenses don’t stop after the growing process. The long storage of grains makes them vulnerable to a number of critters. Before commercial grain is even stored, the collection bins are sprayed with insecticide, inside and out. More chemicals are added while the bin is filled. These so-called "protectants" are then added to the upper surface of the grain as well as four inches deep into the grain to protect against damage from moths and other insects entering from the top of the bin. The list of various chemicals used includes chlorpyrifos-methyl, diatomaceous earth, bacillus thuringiensis, cy-fluthrin, malathion and pyrethrins.14
Then there is the threshold test. If there is one live insect per quart of sample, fumigation is initiated. The goal of fumigation is to "maintain a toxic concentration of gas long enough to kill the target pest population." The toxic chemicals penetrate the entire storage facility as well as the grains being treated. Two of the fumigants used include methyl bromide and phosphine-producing materials, such as magnesium phosphide or aluminum phosphide.14
Grain Drying
Heat damage is a serious problem that results from the artificial drying of damp grain at high temperatures. Overheating causes denaturing of the protein26 and can also partially cook the protein, ruining the flour’s baking properties and nutritional value. According to Ed Lysenko, who tests grain by baking it into bread for the Canadian Grain Commission’s grain research laboratory, wheat can be dried without damage by using re-circulating batch dryers, which keep the wheat moving during drying. He suggests an optimal drying temperature of 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit).27 Unfortunately, grain processors do not always take these precautions.
Modern Processing
The damage inflicted on wheat does not end with cultivation and storage, but continues into milling and processing. A grain kernel is comprised of three layers: the bran, the germ and the endosperm. The bran is the outside layer where most of the fiber exists. The germ is the inside layer where many nutrients and essential fatty acids are found. The endosperm is the starchy middle layer. The high nutrient density associated with grains exists only when these three are intact. The term whole grain refers to the grain before it has been milled into flour. It was not until the late nineteenth century that white bread, biscuits, and cakes made from white flour and sugars became mainstays in the diets of industrialized nations, and these products were only made possible with the invention of high-speed milling machines.28 Dr. Price observed the unmistakable consequences of these dietary changes during his travels and documented their corresponding health effects. These changes not only resulted in tooth decay, but problems with fertility, mental health and disease progression.30
Flour was originally produced by grinding grains between large stones. The final product, 100 percent stone-ground whole-wheat flour, contained everything that was in the grain, including the germ, fiber, starch and a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. Without refrigeration or chemical preservatives, fresh stone-ground flour spoils quickly. After wheat has been ground, natural wheat-germ oil becomes rancid at about the same rate that milk becomes sour, so refrigeration of whole grain breads and flours is necessary. Technology’s answer to these issues has been to apply faster, hotter and more aggressive processing.28
Since grinding stones are not fast enough for mass-production, the industry uses high-speed, steel roller mills that eject the germ and the bran. Much of this "waste product"--the most nutritious part of the grain--is sold as "byproducts" for animals. The resulting white flour contains only a fraction of the nutrients of the original grain. Even whole wheat flour is compromised during the modern milling process. High-speed mills reach 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and this heat destroys vital nutrients and creates rancidity in the bran and the germ. Vitamin E in the germ is destroyed--a real tragedy because whole wheat used to be our most readily available source of vitamin E.
Literally dozens of dough conditioners and preservatives go into modern bread, as well as toxic ingredients like partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and soy flour. Soy flour--loaded with antinutrients--is added to virtually all brand-name breads today to improve rise and prevent sticking. The extrusion process, used to make cold breakfast cereals and puffed grains, adds insult to injury with high temperatures and high pressures that create additional toxic components and further destroy nutrients--even the synthetic vitamins that are added to replace the ones destroyed by refinement and milling.
People have become accustomed to the mass-produced, gooey, devitalized, and nutritionally deficient breads and baked goods and have little recollection of how real bread should taste. Chemical preservatives allow bread to be shipped long distances and to remain on the shelf for many days without spoiling and without refrigeration.
Healthy Whole Wheat Products
Ideally, one should buy whole wheat berries and grind them fresh to make homemade breads and other baked goods. Buy whole wheat berries that are grown organically or biodynamically--biodynamic farming involves higher standards than organic.34 Since these forms of farming do not allow synthetic, carcinogenic chemicals and fertilizers, purchasing organic or biodynamic wheat assures that you are getting the cleanest, most nutritious food possible. It also automatically eliminates the possibility of irradiation31 and genetically engineered seed. The second best option is to buy organic 100 percent stone-ground whole-wheat flour at a natural food store. Slow-speed, steel hammer-mills are often used instead of stones, and flours made in this way can list "stone-ground" on the label. This method is equivalent to the stone-ground process and produces a product that is equally nutritious. Any process that renders the entire grain into usable flour without exposing it to high heat is acceptable.
If you do not make your own bread, there are ready-made alternatives available. Look for organic sourdough or sprouted breads freshly baked or in the freezer compartment of your market or health food store. If bread is made entirely with l00 percent stone-ground whole grains, it will state so on the label. When bread is stone ground and then baked, the internal temperature does not usually exceed 170 degrees, so most of the nutrients are preserved.28 As they contain no preservatives, both whole wheat flour and its products should be kept in the refrigerator or freezer. Stone-ground flour will keep for several months frozen.28
Sprouting, soaking and genuine sourdough leavening "pre-digests" grains, allowing the nutrients to be more easily assimilated and metabolized. This is an age-old approach practiced in most traditional cultures. Sprouting begins germination, which increases the enzymatic activity in foods and inactivates substances called enzyme inhibitors.1 These enzyme inhibitors prevent the activation of the enzymes present in the food and, therefore, may hinder optimal digestion and absorption. Soaking neutralizes phytic acid, a component of plant fiber found in the bran and hulls of grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds that reduces mineral absorption.32 All of these benefits may explain why sprouted foods are less likely to produce allergic reactions in those who are sensitive.1
Sprouting also causes a beneficial modification of various nutritional elements. According to research undertaken at the University of Minnesota, sprouting increases the total nutrient density of a food. For example, sprouted whole wheat was found to have 28 percent more thiamine (B1), 315 percent more riboflavin (B2), 66 percent more niacin (B3), 65 percent more pantothenic acid (B5), 111 percent more biotin, 278 percent more folic acid, and 300 percent more vitamin C than non-sprouted whole wheat. This phenomenon is not restricted to wheat. All grains undergo this type of quantitative and qualitative transformation. These studies also confirmed a significant increase in enzymes, which means the nutrients are easier to digest and absorb.33
You have several options for preparing your wheat. You can use a sour leavening method by mixing whey, buttermilk or yogurt with freshly ground wheat or quality pre-ground wheat from the store. Or, soak your berries whole for 8 to 22 hours, then drain and rinse. There are some recipes that use the whole berries while they are wet, such as cracker dough ground right in the food processor. Another option is to dry sprouted wheat berries in a low-temperature oven or dehydrator, and then grind them in your grain mill and then use the flour in a variety or recipes.
Although our modern wheat suffers from a great number of indiscretions, there are steps we can take to find the quality choices that will nourish us today and for the long haul. Go out and make a difference for you and yours and turn your wheaty indiscretions into wheaty indulgences.
The Weston A. Price Foundation

Dangerous Grains
by Dr. Mercola October 05 2002

If you suffer from a condition such as osteoporosis, Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis or depression, you're unlikely to blame your breakfast cereal. After all, intolerance of wheat, or celiac disease (CD), is a an allergic reaction to a protein called gluten, thought to affect only about one in 1,000 people.
But now two American clinicians, James Braly and Ron Hoggan, have published a book, Dangerous Grains, claiming that what was thought to be a relatively rare condition may be more widespread than was previously thought. Braly and Hoggan suggest that gluten intolerance does not just affect a few people with CD, but as much as 2-3% of the population.
They claim that gluten sensitivity (GS) is at the root of a proportion of cases of cancer, auto-immune disorders, neurological and psychiatric conditions and liver disease. The implication is that the heavily wheat-based western diet - bread, cereals, pastries, pasta - is actually making millions of people ill.
Your doctor, if asked about CD, would tell you that it involves damage to the gut wall, which makes for problems absorbing certain nutrients, such as iron, calcium and vitamin D. As a result, you are more likely to develop conditions such as osteoporosis and anemia, as well as a range of gastrointestinal problems.
Children who have it are often described as "failing to thrive". The proof that you have CD comes when gut damage shows up in a biopsy. The treatment, which has a high rate of success, is to remove gluten - found in rye and barley as well as wheat - from your diet.
But if Braly and Hoggan are right, the problem is far more widespread than the medical profession believes. Celiac disease, they suggest, should be renamed "gluten sensitivity" and, in an appendix to the book, they claim that no fewer than 192 disorders, ranging from Addison's disease and asthma to sperm abnormalities, vasculitis, rheumatoid arthritis and hyperthyroidism, are "heavily overrepresented among those who are GS".
Dangerous Grains contains more than a dozen case histories of people who have recovered from a wide variety of chronic conditions - back pain, chronic fatigue, the auto-immune disorder lupus - simply by following a gluten-free diet. Both authors claim great personal benefits from such a change. "After eliminating gluten grains," writes Hoggan, "I realized how uncomfortable and chronically ill I had been for most of my life."
If you are someone who has visited a clinical nutritionist or a naturopath, this will come as no great surprise. One of their most common suggestions is temporarily to remove wheat from the diet to see if it makes a difference. In fact, so widespread has talk of a wheat allergy become that last November the Flour Advisory Board felt impelled to issue a statement warning of the dangers of this idea. Professor Tom Sanders, head of nutrition and dietetics at King's College, London, was quoted as saying: "Unless you suffer from celiac disease, a very rare condition, cutting wheat out of your diet is extremely unwise."
Sanders certainly represents the mainstream medical view, but there is good evidence - such as the work of Dr Harold Hin, a GP from Banbury in Oxfordshire - to suggest that it may be in need of revision. Over the course of a year, Hin carried out a blood test on the first 1,000 patients who came to his surgery complaining of symptoms that might indicate CD, such as anemia or being "tired all the time". Thirty proved positive and a diagnosis of CD was confirmed by a biopsy.
This indicated that CD was showing up at a rate of three per 100 - 30 times more than expected. Significantly, all but five had no gastrointestinal symptoms. "Underdiagnosis and misdiagnosis of coeliac disease," Hin concluded in an article for the British Medical Journal in 1999, "are common in general practice and often result in protracted and unnecessary morbidity."
More recently, a large research program carried out by the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research in Baltimore has confirmed Hin's findings. Scientists there tested 8,199 adults and children. Half the sample had various symptoms associated with CD and, of those, one in 40 of the children tested positive for CD and one in 30 of the adults.
But it wasn't just those who seemed ill who were having problems with wheat. Far more worrying was what the Maryland researchers found when they tested the other half of the sample, who were healthy volunteers, selected at random. Among kids under 16, one in 167 had CD, while the rate among the adults was even higher - one in 111.
If those proportions are true for the American population in general, this means that 1.8m adults and 300,000 children have undiagnosed CD - people who, sooner or later, are going to develop vague symptoms of feeling generally unwell, for which they will be offered various drugs that are unlikely to make much difference. Ultimately, they are at higher risk of a range of chronic diseases.
There seems, therefore, to be good evidence that CD is underdiagnosed. But Braly's and Hoggan's proposition is more radical than that. They believe that the immune reaction to gluten that damages the gut in CD can also cause problems almost anywhere else in the body. The evidence for this is a test involving a protein found in gluten called gliadin. When the body has an immune reaction, it makes antibodies. The test for anti-gliadin antibodies is known as AGA and people who test positive to AGA often have no sign of gut damage.
In fact, according to Dr Alessio Fasano, who carried out the University of Maryland research, "Worldwide, CD 'out of the intestine' is 15 times more frequent than CD 'in the intestine'." Braly estimates that between 10% and 15% of the US and Canadian populations have anti-gliadin antibodies, putting them at risk of conditions as varied as psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, jaundice, IBS and eczema.
The idea of gluten causing damage to parts of the body other than the gut is supported by another UK practitioner, Dr M Hadjivassiliou, a neurologist at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield. He ran an AGA test on patients who had "neurological dysfunction" with no obvious cause and found that more than half tested positive. What is more, only a third of the positive group had any evidence of CD gut damage. In other words, while the gluten antibodies can damage the bowels, they can also cause problems elsewhere. In this case, it was the cerebellum, or the peripheral nervous system.
So if a reaction to gluten can cause problems in the brain, might it also be linked to immune disorders? Braly and Hoggan certainly think so, and claim considerable clinical success in treating patients for conditions such as Addison's disease, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative colitis with a gluten-free diet. In fact, almost all the body's systems can be affected (see below). So if you suffer from a chronic condition that doesn't seem to respond to treatment, cutting out wheat for a while seems worth a try.
Are you gluten sensitive?
If you suffer from any of the following, the possibility that you are GS may be worth investigating.
Upper respiratory tract problems such as sinusitis, "allergies", "glue ear"
Symptoms related to malabsorption of nutrients such as anemia and fatigue (lack of iron or folic acid), osteoporosis, insomnia (lack of calcium)
Bowel complaints: diarrhoea, constipation, bloating and distention, spastic colon, Crohn's disease, diverticulitis
Autoimmune problems: rheumatoid arthritis, bursitis, Crohn's disease
Diseases of the nervous system: motor neuron disease, certain forms of epilepsy
Mental problems: depression, behavioral difficulties, ME, ADD
The Guardian September 17, 2002

Frankenstein Wheat On the Way Here

Frankenstein wheat is on the way according to recent reports from the Frankenstein Company, Monsanto. They are charging full speed ahead to get GM wheat varieties planted all over the country and world. The quality of wheat has plummeted as it is for other reasons, but now wheat will become just as dangerous to the health as soy beans, corn and canola oil. The options for a real food diet just got smaller.

We know what to do.

GM wheat is on its way
Five years after scrapping its trials, Monsanto calculates that the time is now ripe for GM wheat to make a comeback
Henry Miller and Colin Carter
guardian.co.uk,

Saturday 19 December 2009 16.00 GMT


Wheat is a critical staple crop, supplying much of the world's dietary protein. In 2007 world production was 607m tonnes, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice. The grain is used to make breads, biscuits, cakes, breakfast cereal, pasta, noodles, and couscous, and for fermentation to make beer, vodka, and grain alcohol. Up to now, wheat has not benefited from the application of modern genetic engineering that has revolutionised the farming of maize, cotton, canola and soy. But that is about to change.
By 2004, Monsanto, the world's leader in the production of seeds for genetically-engineered crops, had made substantial progress in the development of genetically-engineered wheat varieties for North America. But suddenly in that year, the company scrapped its wheat programme, in part because of opposition from North American grain merchants and growers, as well as concerns that some major foreign importers would reject imports of all American wheat because they could be "contaminated" with genetically engineered varieties. European countries and Japan, which have traditionally imported about 45% of US wheat exports, have been resistant to genetically engineered crops and food derived from them.
In addition, food manufacturers doubted that the introduction of genetically engineered wheat would lead to a significant improvement in their profits because the cost of wheat is typically only a small fraction of inputs for most processed food products, and food processors were afraid of losing market share if environmental and consumer activists were to organise boycotts of food products containing "biotech" wheat. For the last 25 years, activists have opposed agricultural biotechnology, in spite of proven environmental, humanitarian and economic successes.Monsanto's abdication gave competitors outside the US the opportunity to become the first to adopt new technologies for genetically improved and lower cost wheat, relinquishing what could have been a first-mover advantage – the privileged position of the initial occupant of a market segment. However, American growers and millers have had a change of mind. In 2006, a coalition of US wheat industry organisations called for access to genetically-engineered wheat varieties with enhanced traits, and a survey released in February 2009 by the US national association of wheat growers found that more than three-quarters of US farmers wanted access to genetically engineered varieties with resistance to pests, disease, drought and frost. Such varieties are important as plant scientists and farmers continue to battle diseases such as leaf rust, the world's most common wheat disease, which can lead to yield loss of up to 20%. In Kansas, the heart of the US wheat belt, for example, leaf rust is the most significant pest, in 2007, it destroyed a shocking 14% of the wheat crop. American growers, caught in the middle between the inclinations of some of their largest customers and the developers of new wheat varieties, lost out on substantial benefits when Monsanto opted not to follow through with creating genetically-engineered wheat. This left the field (literally and figuratively) to countries such as Australia and China, which are now ahead in their research and field trials of genetically-engineered wheat. For example, the German plant science and chemical company Bayer and Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) are collaborating to develop wheat varieties with higher yield, more efficient nutrient use and greater tolerance against drought.These developments are important for several reasons. Wheat farming is a struggling industry in the US, in large part because it has not received the technological boost from recombinant DNA technology that has benefited the corn and soybean industries. US wheat acreage is down by about one-third from its peak in the early 1980s, due to reduced profitability compared with alternative crops – in spite of the price of a bag of wheat flour having soared from $10 to a peak of $36 during the past 36 months. As a result, the US's position as a leading wheat exporter has declined over several decades, from a high of 50% of world exports in 1973-74 to only around 20% currently.Five years after letting their biotech wheat research program wither, Monsanto recently revealed plans to resurrect it. The agribusiness company not only announced in July 2009 that it would resume development of genetically engineered wheat varieties, it also further demonstrated its commitment by buying WestBred, a Montana-based wheat-breeding company that specialises in wheat germplasm, the plant's genetic material. Greater productivity in wheat farming achieved with improved varieties would confer an important environmental dividend: wheat is the largest crop in the world in terms of area cultivated (220m hectares) and is the second largest irrigated crop (each bushel produced requires 11,000 gallons of water on average), so enhanced productivity would conserve both farmland and water. (A more direct approach is being taken by scientists at Egypt's Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute, who have performed at least five years of field trials of drought- and salt-tolerant wheat created by transferring genes from barley into a local wheat variety.)
Monsanto's volte-face reflects the company's assessment that the various relevant factors – technology, business, public policy and customer acceptance – had now become favourable, and was spurred by the world food crisis that saw a tripling of the price of wheat and certain other food crops during 2008. But it will likely take at least eight years until the first varieties of Monsanto's genetically-engineered wheat could be commercialised in the United States. Monsanto and the US wheat industry may already have been relegated to the position of second mover, and whoever wins the race to get desirable genetically engineered wheat varieties to the marketplace will enjoy a strong cost advantage and attract market share in many importing countries.
Henry Miller is a fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of The Frankenfood Myth. Colin Carter is professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California at Davis