Government for Sale
| ******** Action Alerts for This Campaign ******** | |
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Tell Congress to Support the BoxerDeFazio GMO Labeling Bills!
The Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act was introduced last Wednesday in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) with nine cosponsors in the Senate and twenty-two in the House, would require food manufacturers to clearly label any product that has been genetically engineered or contains genetically engineered ingredients, or else the product would be classified as “misbranded” by the FDA. Maryland Residents: Tell Then to Make Smart Meters Optional! We are asking Maryland residents to write to the Maryland Public Service Commission and to their state senators and delegate, and ask them to mandate an opt-out provision so that citizens will not have to bear the possibly carcinogenic effects of smart meters without their knowledge and consent. Tell FDA to Stop Listening to Big Food Interests on the “Gluten-Free” Definition In 2004, Congress directed the US Food and Drug Administration to establish a uniform definition for “gluten free” for food companies that want to claim that designation for their products. Congress set a deadline of 2008, but now, three years later, nothing has been finalized. Instead, the FDA has been asking experts and analyzing “various technical issues,” when they should simply adopt the international standard of 20 parts per million. Tell FDA to Keep Labeling Artificial Sweeteners on Milk in School Lunches! The dairy lobby is petitioning the FDA to remove any reference to non-nutritive sweeteners, mainly aspartame, from milk labels in school lunches. They claim—in one of the most spectacular failures of logic we’ve ever seen—that not labeling the milk “promotes honesty and fair-dealing in the interest of consumers.” |
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| Read More About Government for Sale: | |
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| Your Tax Dollars May Buy 400,000 Tons of Sugar to Keep Prices Artificially High | |
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April 23, 2013
Welcome to the government sugar/industrial/drug complex. |
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| Washington’s Brand of Crony Capitalist Medicine | |
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November 13, 2012Does AARP really speak for the elderly? Or the AMA for doctors? |
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| Readers’ Corner – Mandatory Flu Shots | |
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October 16, 2012
Readers share their own stories of discrimination, workplace pressure, and mandatory vaccinations for hospital employees. |
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| Flu Shot Being Forced on Health Workers | |
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October 9, 2012
Why don’t they want it? Because some of them know too much. Here’s the whole tawdry tale. |
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| Score One for the Crony Capitalists in the School Lunch Program | |
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December 20, 2011
Score One for the Crony Capitalists in the School Lunch Program. |
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| Merck—Too Big to Prosecute? | |
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December 6, 2011
There is a surprising reason why the government won’t go after drug companies for serious crimes. |
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| No Surprise Here! “Tyranny of the Year” Judge Quits the Bench—to Work for Monsanto Law Firm | |
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October 18, 2011
One more example of the rampant crony capitalism in food. |
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| FDA “Negotiating” to Get More Money from Big Pharma—Again! | |
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September 13, 2011
Increasingly Pharma is funding the FDA. No wonder the agency seems to dance to their tune. |
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| USDA Sued Over Deceptive Language in New Dietary Guidelines | |
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March 22, 2011
It was meant to be “The People’s Department.” But today’s USDA routinely sides with big agribusiness over “the people,” heedless of safety and nutrition concerns or the needs of small independent farmers. |
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| Vitamin D, Fluoride, and Vaccines: The Common Theme | |
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January 18, 2011
If government is going to act as a scientific arbiter, it needs to have clean hands. That means getting private commercial interests out of the decision-making process. |
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| Botulism Toxin…for Headaches? | |
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November 2, 2010
Botulinum is one of the most toxic substances in the world. So why has the FDA recently approved it for the treatment of headaches? |
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| Tell The FDA That Cherries—And Now Walnuts—Are NOT Illegal Drugs! | |
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April 13, 2010
In the latest volley of the US Food and Drug Administration’s bizarre war on scientific freedom of speech, the FDA has sent a Warning Letter to the president and CEO of Diamond Foods stating that the firm’s packages of shelled walnuts are “in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.” |
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| Just How Broken is the FDA? | |
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March 30, 2010
The reexamination of a knee device and a campaign to extend the patent of a blood-thinning medication underscore the need for FDA reform. |
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| Big Pharma and the FDA: Suppress the Science, Ban the Natural Substances, Sell the Drugs! | |
| June 9, 2009
Earlier this year the FDA agreed to ban companies from selling pyridoxamine as a dietary supplement, even though it is a common, naturally occurring substance that has always been available in foods such as chicken and brewer’s yeast. They have tried to ban scientific information on the health benefits of tart cherries, the cholesterol-lowering benefits of Cheerios, and health claims about the benefits of fish oil for heart, cancer, depression, body pain. |
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| FDA to Receive More Money from Drug Manufacturers, But Denies “Undue Influence” | |
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May 26, 2009
The FDA is raising its industry user fees again. But many in Congress worry that the $828 million they are asking from manufacturers of medical and food products, including hundreds of millions drug manufacturers pay annually to help speed the review of new medicines, might compromise the agency’s independence. Even the current FDA head says, “I think these concerns reflect a broader lack of trust in the FDA.” |
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| Conflicts of Interest at FDA and the New England Journal of Medicine | |
| January 20, 2009
A new report from the Inspector General’s office at Health and Human Services indicates the FDA’s review of financial conflict of interest relating to drugs approved in 2007 is flawed. Two doctors’ conflicts of interests related to a lung cancer screening were not reported by the New England Journal of Medicine. Conflict of interests are especially dangerous in that they can affect drug approval, medical research, and medical journal publication. |
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