Within Vandana Shiva’s dedication to defending the natural world is a profound celebration of life. When we allow systems to sustain balance and wholeness, life truly can thrive. Below are some clips from an interview with THRIVE that never made it into the final cut of the film.
In conjunction with World Health Day, on April 7th, Vandana has asked us to share this message and call to action about choosing biodiversity over GMOs - specifically the Trojan horse that is Golden Rice. Please tune in for this important message.
- Kimberly Carter Gamble - April 4, 2015
Vandana Shiva - Biodiversity or GMOs?
Transcription
Vandana Shiva: As long as we stay alive, as long as we do not see ourselves as separate, as long as we see ourselves as carried by this amazing force, this amazing intelligence, there is never a moment you can feel powerless because you experience that deep power every moment and that’s where you stop despairing.
And in the ???, communities have got together to harvest rain as they used to traditionally through ??? and rivers that had died are coming alive. So, we are seeing a realignment with the water cycle and the sanctity of water and it is a power. That realignment unleashes energies, political and spiritual energies, that are, in my view, stronger than the power of capital, irresponsible capital, and we are turning things around.
There’s nothing like “the big work” and “the small work”. All work done for keeping life in its fullness and maintaining life in its fullness is The Great Work, as Thomas Berry taught. As a mother, I always say, “Once you’ve changed a babies ‘nappies’, that becomes the measure of the great work.” The ability to be there to change the ‘nappie’ at 3 a.m. in the morning — that is as important as dealing with the World Bank and it’s as important as dealing with the World Trade Organization.
Most cultures for most of humanity have lived over long periods of time by adapting to the patterns. We have developed in contemporary times this arrogance that our patterns are superior and that there is no pattern — that it’s all chaos, it’s disorder, it’s just accident — and then imposing the structures of concrete, the structure of fossil fuels, the patterns of pollution on a body of patterns of constant recycling. It is really the challenge of our times.
I think real science has to be a spiritual endeavor because real science is understanding deep patterns, understanding lasting process, and understanding how things hang together. Spirituality is the same thing. It is about understanding our place in the universe, it is about connecting to the rest of life, and that connection creates in its very existence a humility of you being just a small part of a very, very large, limitless beast and, while creating humility in you, it also creates responsibility that what you do has impact on a lot, on the full fabric, on the whole web of life.
Healthy Biodiversity or GMOs: will the future of nutrition be in women’s hands or under corporate control?
- By Vandana Shiva
Summary
Women have been the primary growers of food and nutrition throughout history, but today, food is being taken out of our hands and substituted for toxic commodities controlled by global corporations. Monoculture industrial farming has taken the quality, taste and nutrition out of our food. As a result, India is facing a nutritional crisis: every fourth Indian goes hungry, and in 2011 alone, diabetes took the lives of 1 million Indians. Malnutition and Anaemia requires affordable, diverse, nutritionally rich food where health & nutrition of women & children are given high priority, with them having much more say in decision making.
Now, the same companies who created the crisis are promising a miracle solution: GMOs. Genetically engineered Golden Rice and GMO Bananas are being proposed by corporations hiding behind the cloak of academia as a solution to hunger and malnutrition in the Global South. But these are false miracles. Indigenous biodiverse varieties of food grown by women provide far more nutrition than the commodities produced by industrial agriculture. Golden Rice is 350% less efficient in providing Vit A than the biodiversity alternatives that women grow. GMO ‘iron-rich’ Bananas have 3000% less iron than turmeric and 2000% less iron than amchur (mango powder). Fenugreek (Methi), drumstick (Sahjan) and many others are far richer in Iron, & their availability & affordability need to be promoted. Apart from being nutritionally empty, GMOs are part of an industrial system of agriculture that is destroying the planet, depleting our water sources, increasing green houses gases, and driving farmers into debt and suicide through a greater dependence on chemical inputs. Moreover, these corporate-led industrial monocultures are destroying biodiversity, and we are losing access to the food systems that have sustained us throughout time. When we consider the number of patents involved in these initiatives, it becomes all too clear that the only beneficiaries of these supposedly ‘people-led’ ventures are large companies operating for profit — not for people.
This needs to stop now. We call on all women — the world’s primary food-growers and food-givers — to stand together and reclaim our knowledge, our farming, and our food. To expose the lies generated by the GMO industry, to reject the false promises of Golden Rice and GMO Bananas, and to reclaim the planet for all living beings.
India’s nutritional emergency
India is facing a nutritional emergency. We are the capital of hunger and malnutrition. Every fourth Indian is hungry. Every second child wasted and stunted. India is the diabetes capital of the world with 50.8 million patients.
In 2011 the diabetes epidemic in the country took 1 million people’s lives. Diabetes, a metabolic disorder, is a result of an imbalanced diet. The Green Revolution’s focus on rice monocultures has been made at the cost of greens, daals, and more nutritious millets — and diabetes has crept into rural areas. Contrary to popular belief, diabetes affects more people in rural India (34 million) than affluent urban Indians (28 million).
An imbalanced agriculture based on monocultures and an imbalanced diet based on further denutrified white polished rice, & fine white flour has become a cause of increasing chronic Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs). With 80% Medical costs being Out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) paid for by the patients & the families, NCDs become killers. Nearly 50% of Indian women suffer from iron deficiency anaemia.
What should be our response to this nutritional emergency: bringing biodiversity into our agriculture and food, or intensifying chemical monocultures of rice through the introduction of GMO Golden Rice? Empowering women by keeping food and nutritional security in their hands, or allowing corporations to take control of our food?
Nutritional deficiencies are a direct result of destruction of biodiverse sources of nutrition by industrial monocultures. Proponents of industrial agriculture — most significantly implemented in India through the Green Revolution — did not value nutrition. Instead, they focused on increasing inputs of imported chemicals, water and fossil fuels to grow chemical monocultures, in which food was reduced to an empty, toxic commodity. It lost is quality, taste, aroma, and — most importantly — its nutrition.
There are six processes through which industrial farming robs food of its nutrition.
First, industrial breeding is based on uniformity, long distance transport, and industrial processing. In comparison, food grown by women — who have been the primary seed breeders and producers of food — is based on diversity, taste, nutrition, quality and resilience. Traditional Indian varieties of wheat like Kathia, Bansi, and Mishri are full of taste and nutrition with low gluten varieties too. Industrially bred wheat varieties, on the other hand, are low in nutrition and have contributed to the epidemic of gluten intolerance.
Second, by replacing biodiversity with monocultures, industrial agriculture reduces the amount of nutrition per acre. With diversity we can grow enough iron for 20 Indias, and enough Vit A for all of India today.
Third, by substituting the sophisticated ecological processes of renewing fertility with chemical inputs of synthetic fertilizers, the health of the soil is destroyed, nutrition in soils is reduced, and plants which provide our food become nutritionally empty.
| Mineral | US 1963–1992 (13 fruits & vegetables) | Britain 1936–1987 (20 fruits & 20 vegetables) |
|---|---|---|
| N/A, not analyzed. * U.S. (Berginer, 1997) and British (Mayer, 1997) data. | ||
| Calcium | −29 | −19 |
| Magnesium | −21 | −35 |
| Sodium | N/A | −43 |
| Potassium | −6 | −14 |
| Phosphorus | −11 | −6 |
| Iron | −32 | −22 |
| Copper | N/A | −81 |
The British Journal of Nutrition published a meta-analysis done by Professor Carlo Leifert of Newcastle University and 15 other scientists from around the world. This research finds significant differences in the nutritional content of organic and non-organic crops (fruit, vegetables, cereals and pulses). Organic crops and crop-based food products were found to have significantly higher concentrations of antioxidants (including phenolic acids, flavanones, stilbenes, flavones, flavonols and anthocyanines) compared with their conventionally produced counterparts. The mean percentage difference for most antioxidant compounds was between plus 18% and 69%. Smaller, but still statistically significant, composition differences were also detected for a number of carotenoids and vitamins.
A switch to eating organic fruit, vegetable and cereals (and food made from them) would lead to a 20–40% (and for some compounds up to a 60%) increase in crop-based antioxidant/(poly)phenolic consumption without any increase in calories. This is important as there is strong scientific evidence of the health benefits of increased consumption of (poly)phenolics and other plant secondary metabolites with antioxidant activity, most notably protection against chronic diseases, including cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases and some cancers.
Fourth, GMOs are also leading to a decline in nutritional availability, because the biotechnology industry is growing commodities, not food. 90% of the GMO corn and soya goes to biofuel and animal food, not human food. This is not a viable food system.
Fifth, herbicide tolerant crops account for most of the GMOs cultivated. The use of Roundup (glyphosate) with Roundup Ready crops removes vital minerals like manganese through “chelation”-binding. Manganese is vital to the gut-brain connection. The depletion of this nutrient could be contributing to the autism epidemic in the USA. According the Centre of Disease Control, at current rates of increase, 1 in 2 children in the USA could be born autistic in 10 to 20 years. (Seneff in Vandana Shiva(ed) Seed Sovereignty, Food Security: Women in the Vanguard, Women Unlimited New Delhi, 2015)
Sixth, just as there is an ecology of biodiversity in our fields, there is an ecology of biodiversity in our nutrition. Nutrients need each other. Fats are needed for absorption and bioavailability of Vit A, and Vit C is needed for absorption of iron. Mechanistic reductionism in nutrition, like mechanistic reductionism in agriculture, undermines the ecological processes through which our farms grow nutrition and our bodies are nourished.
All the evidences points to the need to grow nutrition by intensifying biodiversity and ecological processes in our food and farming systems. This is the path Navdanya has followed over more than 2 decades. We have increased production of nutrition (Health per Acre) as well as farmers’ incomes (Wealth per Acre) through agroecology and biodiversity.
But today, industrial agriculture paradigm is trying to extend its non-sustainable life by promising answers to malnutrition through GMOs such as Golden Rice and GM Bananas.
Golden Rice is a False Miracle
Golden Rice is genetically engineered rice with two genes from a daffodil and one gene from a bacterium which gives it a yellow colouring, which is supposed to increase beta carotene, a precursor to Vit A. It is being offered as a miracle cure for Vit A Deficiency (VAD).
But Golden Rice is a false miracle. It is a disease of nutritionally empty monocultures offered as a cure for nutritional deficiency. According to goldenrice.org, children under the age of 7 require 450 ‘units’ of Retinol (Vitamin A) Equivalents. Children would therefore have to eat 300gms of Golden Rice to get their daily requirement of Vit A. In indigenous food cultures, a child’s diet normally contains less than 150 gms of rice, but also contains a range of other nutritious foods grown by women. In fact, Golden Rice is 350% less efficient in providing Vit A than the biodiversity alternatives that women have to offer. To get your daily requirement of Vit A, all you need to eat is one of the following:
- two tablespoons of Spinach or Cholai leavesor Radish leaves
- four tablespoons of Mustard or Bathua leaves
- one tablespoon of coriander chutney
- one and a half table spoon of mint chutney
- one carrot
- one mango
Not only do these indigenous alternatives based on women’s knowledge provide more Vit A than Golden Rice at a lower cost, they also provide other nutrients. One such example is iron, which helps fight iron deficiency and anaemia. But just like the biotechnology industry is offering Golden Rice for Vit A deficiency, it is promoting GMO bananas for increased Vit A and iron. In reality, GMO bananas provide 7000% less iron than indigenous biodiversity that Indian women are experts in growing and processing.
The Vit A in GMO Vit A bananas has been pirated from indigenous bananas in Micronesia. The beta-carotene traits have been added to the sticky japonica rice Taipei 309, which Indians do not eat. The feeding trials for Golden Rice as well as the GM Bananas were done illegally and unethically.
By foregoing biodiversity alternatives that provide more nutrition, the biotechnology industry is pushing for a monoculture rice diet, which is a recipe for intensifying the diabetes epidemic. With 62 million patients, India already has extremely high rates of diabetes. Golden Rice is an irresponsible proposal that would intensify this by blocking much-needed alternatives — biodiversity and balance in our diets. For example, dietary fats are needed to absorb Vit A. To get these in our diets, we need biodiversity of oilseed crops and livestock. Rice monocultures displace both these forms of fat, leaving us with no way to absorb Vit A, and thus aggravate the nutritional crisis.
Golden Rice will also aggravate the ecological crisis caused by industrial agriculture. Since Golden Rice is part of the industrial agriculture package (also known as the seed-chemical package), it promotes monocultures, which further destroy biodiversity. Golden Rice will increase the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, which are rupturing the planetary boundary of the nitrogen cycle.
India is already one of the largest importers of nitrogen fertilizers, and Golden Rice will only serve to increase this. Moreover, it will increase the use of water, intensifying the water crisis. It will contribute to climate change through increased green house gas emissions. And it will leave our farmers liable to higher input costs through dependence on chemicals and fees for proprietary technologies.
As a source of nutrition for the Global South, Golden Rice has no real benefits. But considering the precedents set by soya, corn, canola and cotton, introducing Golden Rice as a way for large companies to gain control over entire food cultures based on rice, makes perfect sense.
Golden Rice is A Trojan Horse for Corporate Control
Proponents of Golden Rice declare that it is a product of public research carried out through public funding. But in reality, the scientists involved are closely linked to the biotechnology corporations pushing royalty collection through patents.
Scientists Ingo Potrykus (Zurich) and Peter Beyer (Freiberg) are closely connected to the Biotechnology corporations for commercialization of Golden Rice through patents. There are more than 70 patents linked to Golden Rice, despite it being promoted as a product made for the public by the public. Corporations controlling these patents include Bayer AG, Monsanto Co, Orynova BV and Zeneca Mogen BV. A letter written by Dr. Potrykus illustrates just how enmeshed the invention of Golden Rice and corporate interests always were. When questioned about his partnerships with corporations in an email exchange with RAFI/ETC Dr. Potrykus wrote,
“Why did we need to involve a commercial partner? Because Golden Rice also needs a commercial basis to reach the urban poor. Why do we need a patent? Because only then we can ensure, that nobody interferes with our task. Zeneca (now Syngenta) had, therefore, legal rights on the Golden Rice. Why are you upset if in return Zeneca is trying to make profit from developing a commercial ‘Golden Rice’, which even also will have benefits for the poor not directly linked to subsistence farmers? Could you not agree that it is neither fair nor wise to blame industry for working for profit? This is for what they are there.”
The project leader on the Golden Rice project at the International Rice Research Institute is Dr Gerard Barry, was also involved with some of Monsanto’s ‘golden egg’ patents and the man responsible for the company’s toxic RoundUp resistant products. There is a clear revolving door between corporations and research institutions in which a handful of actors are driving a for-profit corporate venture. Giants including Monsanto and Syngenta sit in the driver’s seat by controlling patents Intellectual Property Rights, while cleverly spinning these initiatives as philanthropy to open up for more & more patented grains, vegetables, fruits, while ensuring systematic erosion of tradition diverse foods & Traditional knowledge about healthier, more nutritional, culturally acceptable, diverse food crops & foods, projecting them as inferior.
The alternative lies in women’s hands and minds
On International Women’s Day 8th March 2015 and World Health Day 7th April 2015, we the women of India and the world concerned & engaged with Women’s Health & nutrition commit ourselves to reclaiming our seed, food, and knowledge sovereignty so that we can all enjoy healthy, safe, nutritious, tasty and diverse food. And through our food, we will reclaim our health and the health of the planet.
We will not allow a further degradation of our food systems and knowledge systems. We do not have to go down the road of replacing our biodiversity with GMO monocultures and our rich knowledge of food and nutrition with scientific and ethical fraud. We will not sacrifice our seed and food sovereignty for corporate control and profits.
We commit ourselves to
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Promote and evolve the use of our indigenous seeds, crops and foods to address the crisis of malnutrition and health.
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Spread gardens of hope, diversity and nutrition everywhere: in schools, on rooftops, on balconies.
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Spread nutritional literacy about our diverse foods, and biosafety literacy about toxics and GMOs. Celebrate 7th April, World Health Day, which WHO has declared Safe Food Day from Farm to Table as a day for promoting Pesticide Free, GMO Free food.
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Celebrate Mahila Anna Swaraj (food sovereignty in women’s hands) at Navdanya’s biodiversity farm in Doon Valley (27–29 March 2015) by strengthening alternatives that promote sustainability, justice and health.
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Celebrate Mother Earth Day, 22nd April 2015 to liberate the Earth, our farms, our kitchens and our bodies from the burden of disease. Celebrate the connection between the health of the soil and the health of all beings on the planet during 2015 the United Nations’ “Year of Soil”.
As women, in all our vibrant diversity, we will make a paradigm shift from monocultures to diversity, from chemicals to organic, from reductionist and mechanistic science to ecological knowledge, from corporate control and monopolies to seed sovereignty, food sovereignty and knowledge sovereignty in women’s hands and women’s minds. We will grow alternatives to the ecological and health disaster of industrial agriculture and its new false promises of Golden Rice and GMO Bananas.
We will shape the future of food and nutrition through biodiversity in our hands and in our minds. We will take back our seeds, and we will take back our food.
For further information please contact:
| Dr Mira Shiva Initiative for Health and Equity in Society Mob: 91 9810582028 |
Dr Vandana Shiva Diverse Women for Diversity |
Truck Hits Utility Pole, Thousands of People’s Smart Meters Explode, Causing Power Surge
- By Melissa Melton - April 1, 2015
No, this is not an April Fool’s joke.
Perhaps smart meters aren’t the safest, nor the “smartest” idea to put on people’s homes after all.
Despite the fact that these meters have been known to burst into flames from time-to-time, and aside from the fact that they continuously expose occupants to electromagnetic radiation, and despite the fact that they can be used to continually collect data on everyone who lives in a home (the newer versions can send signals from individual outlets in a home every 15 seconds to be later broken down with disaggregation algorithms)… now this.
A truck crashed into a utility pole in Stockton a few days ago, causing a power surge that ultimately resulted in some 5,000 smart meters on people’s homes exploding, leaving all of them without power.
Via CBS:
Neighbors in the South Stockton area described it as a large pop, a bomb going off, and strong enough to shake a house.
“The neighbor across the street, his meter doesn’t look as bad but his receptacles are all blackened.” said Brad Abernathy.
PG&E says a dump truck crashed near its Alpine substation on Arch Road. When the truck hit the utility pole, the top wire fell onto the bottom wire, creating a power surge.
So now, instead of just having to worry about continual data collection and surveillance, or the negative health effects of electromagnetic frequency exposure, or the potential for a random house fire, there’s also the possibility of a truck randomly hitting a pole and causing your smart meter to straight up explode, also damaging your home and leaving you and yours without power for at least a week, maybe longer until it can be replaced… to possibly happen all over again?
How “smart” is this smart grid again?
Melissa Melton is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple and a co-creator of Truthstream Media with Aaron Dykes, a site that offers teleprompter-free, unscripted analysis of The Matrix we find ourselves living in. Melissa also co-founded Nutritional Anarchy with Daisy Luther of The Organic Prepper, a site focused on resistance through food self-sufficiency. Wake the flock up!
Smart Meter Information Consumers Should Know
- By Catherine J Frompovich - March 25, 2015
Over the course of a year that my electric power company in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been installing AMI Smart Meters on homes in my area, I have been able to keep one off my house by placing a “No Permission Granted to Install Smart Meter” sign on the meter along with a padlock on the meter latch. Early in February of 2015, I received what I perceived as a threatening letter to my health, safety, and well-being, that if I don’t give PECO permission to install a Smart Meter, my electric power will be turned off, and not because I’ve not paid my bill! No utility bill wherever my late husband or I have lived ever was missed or even made as a late payment! So, I’ve decided to tell my story of what’s been going on in the USA about Smart Meters.
Smart meters basically are licensed radio stations that transmit electrical usage, occupancy times, and other information out of homes on which they are installed, thereby, providing wiretapping without proper and legal search warrants.
As a result of that illegal activity, Smart Meters are illegal and cannot be forced upon anyone since they basically are breaking federal laws, even though they supposedly function within the purview of law, especially in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania where there is no “opt out” provisions in the law. Furthermore, some U.S. Constitutional issues are involved.
Moreover, a Smart Meter basically is nothing more than “a search without a warrant every day,” hundreds of times during the day—24/7, due to the constant collection of information being transmitted out of the house. It’s nothing short of electrical, house-wiretapping! Wiretapping is illegal in all 50 states!
18 U.S. Code § 2511 – Interception and disclosure of wire, oral, or electronic communications prohibited (Source – Cornell Law)
Also, Smart Meters are a part of the United Nations Agenda 21?
“Smart Meters” are a tool or mechanism for Sustainable Development, which was first introduced to the world in the pages of a 1987 report (Our Common Future) produced by the United Nations World Commission on Environmental and Development, authored by Gro Harlem Brundtland, VP of the World Socialist Party. Sustainable Development was offered as official UN policy in 1992, in a document called UN Sustainable Development Agenda 21, issued at the UN’s Earth Summit, today referred to simply as Agenda 21. UN policy does not supersede U.S. sovereignty, or is it being implemented by state laws?
What supposedly gives Agenda 21 ‘authority’?
More than 178 nations adopted Agenda 21 as official policy during a signing ceremony at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Then U.S. president George H.W. Bush signed the “1992 Convention on Biological Diversity” document for the USA, which the U.S. Congress/government has refused to embrace, and the ongoing refusal by the American Senate to ratify the convention after President William J. Clinton signed the treaty in 1993. (Source)
So, how can any U.S. locality or state enact legislation that complies with, acquiesces to, or circumvents U.S. federal sovereignty and law? Any such laws, therefore, are considered null and void, and illegal, I contend and, therefore, are in contradiction to U.S. federal law and Constitution.
Smart Meters Malfunctions and Fires
Furthermore, regarding Smart Meter fires in Pennsylvania, there have been numerous.
According to PECO’s [electric company] spokesperson, Cathy Engel Menendez, ‘an extensive analysis of the meter data collected so far will be completed before the replacement work begins,’ was in response to PECO’s suspending installation of smart meters due to fires and overheating.
As a result of that assessment, PECO decided to install Landis-Gyr Smart Meters, a Toshiba company, which also have been responsible for fires. See this photo of the Thunder Hollow Apartments SM fire, with corresponding documentation. Landis+Gyr SMs do catch fire, but that’s not what PECO admits to in your March 9th letter to me.
Another Fire: Landis + Gyr Smart Meter Causes Apt. Blaze (posted July 7, 2014)
http://stopsmartmeters.org/2014/07/07/another-fire-landis-gyr-smart-meter-causes-apt-blaze/
Fire in Bensalem - thunder hollow apartments - 2/6/2014
Bensalem Township Apartment Fire Feb. 6, 2014
Fox 5 Investigates: Smart meters spark controversy
http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/22240644/fox-5-investigates-smart-meters-spark-controversy#ixzz2TIPxfMlI
Was the Upper Makefield, Penna. Meter fire a Landis +Gyr?
“I was walking to the seventh tee, when the pro came up and said, ‘Jump in the car. We just got a call. Your house is on fire,” Michael Capetto said.
“He lives in Upper Makefield, near Philadelphia, where the utility PECO this past summer reported at least 15 smart meters caught fire or got so hot, the meters melted. Similar fires have been reported in other states too.” Source: EMF Safety Network / Smart Meter Fires and Explosions
I have to ask, “Were those 15 SMs Landis+Gyr Smart Meters too?”
Furthermore, I cannot find the Underwriters Laboratories approval per se for Landis+Gyr Smart Meters on UL’s site. Can PECO please supply that exact UL number (i.e., UL Mark layout, serial or issue numbers — http://ul.com/offerings/manufacturers/) not just that “Underwriter’s Laboratories has tested the AMI meters based upon the UL-2735 standard.” Note that PECO has not supplied any information regarding Underwriter’s Laboratories UL number!
Apparently, fire hazards and safety issues still exist regarding PECO’s AMI meters versus analog meters, which were made entirely of mechanical parts with glass front covers and little insulation that does not allow for easy ignition.
Whereas, the new AMI digital Smart Meters are made of numerous electronics inside, which are flammable components, plus the meter ‘face’ is all plastic rather than glass like the analog. Once overheated or ignited, the plastic face contributes to rapid conflagration. I refer you to the 39-page report “Utility of ‘Smart Meters’” produced by the Office of the Fire Marshall, Fire Investigation Services, Midhurst, Ontario, Canada, dated June 15, 2012 whereon page 27 he discusses various issues that apparently were of concern to that official regarding Smart Meter fires in their/his jurisdiction.
From my research, all Smart Meters are constructed the same regardless of manufacturer: Sensus, Landis+Gyr, GE, Itron. Their design and installation [retrofitting] into an existing meter socket is what causes the great potential for damage to a customer’s appliances, and worse, causing fire or explosion.
RF radiation emissions from Smart Meters can interfere with the function of Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupter type sockets and the ARC-Fault Circuit Interrupter creating other fire hazards and potentials, which Underwriter’s Laboratory or any other organization has not certified for safety issues, as I understand. THAT also is a KEY fire safety issue that doesn’t seem to be addressed. Why? may I ask.
I would like to know this regarding PECO’s Landis+Gyr Smart Meters:
- Is the thermal sensor adequate and approved for detecting heat elevation that results from poor contact between the SM and the meter box jaws? What components are provided in SMs for shut off when the thermal sensor detects heat elevation? Or, is it too late then, and even the shutting off of power will not prevent fire, which probably will have been ignited already?
- How well are PECO installers trained regarding replacement problems at the meter box jaws, which are tricky and subject to mechanical damage just from removing the old analog and replacing the new SM? Do PECO installers know the correct meter insertion sequence(s)? Please explain it, as I think I know how it should work.
- Is “hot switching” used to replace meters and does that result in damage to appliances that happen to be operating at the time the meter is replaced/installed? Are PECO installers telling homeowners to shut off appliances during the new install? If not; why not? Again, may I refer you to the Canadian Fire Marshall’s report pages 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, and 38. Those pages discuss that meter bases and meters react differently in fires.
- A “hot switch” can damage the receptacle jaws in the meter box with almost 100% certainly! What guarantee does PECO give of no “hot switch” occurring during installation? Furthermore, will PECO be financially responsible/liable for damage to any of my appliances: refrigerator, hot water heater, electric heat pump, etc.? How many PECO employees have been injured by or during a “hot switch”?
- Flickering lights frequently occur in Smart Metered homes. What causes that? From my understanding, apparently, more current demand results—higher electric bills or ‘phantom electricity’?—causing more arcing, more resistance, less power and voltage delivered to a light bulb? As a result of that happening and due to excessive heat and arcing, the insulation of the main feed line to the house can/will ignite. What is built in to SMs to prevent that from occurring?
- Does PECO plan to replace the currently-installed Smart Meters with another updated SM in five years? as I have heard. Those replacements only will rec-compound the above-mentioned fire risks.
Before I leave the fire hazard/safety issues of Smart Meters, I would like to bring to PECO’s attention a three-page report from Thermografix Consulting Corporation “Smart Meter Installations & Fires.”
On the first page, paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 are more than alarming, i.e.
The fact sheet left out the Smart Meter Routers, collectors, antennas that communicate with the meters. Those electromagnetic wavelengths are high speed frequencies hitting the building from top to bottom and going through the walls of the residence.
The ramifications are high speed vibration of electrical systems, structural components, fire separations and electromagnetically inducing Pacemakers as well as electrical systems. That puts the building in violation of Part 4 of BC Building Code. High speed vibrations billions of times per second equates to molecular earthquakes.
BC Medical Services puts in Pacemakers and manufacturer’s specifications tell the patient to stay out of an electromagnetic field. BC Hydro is taking the electromagnetic fields to the patient’s home.
That is a major concern for most people: The negative health aspects of Smart Meters!
On the second page, paragraphs 1 and 5:
Electrical failure of equipment can cause explosions, fire, injury, loss of life and insured loss including production losses for industry.
For BC Hydro or any utility to blame homeowners or wiring for fires after meter installation is ridiculous when their installers aren’t qualified to even understand the scope of work required.
Furthermore, the electrical wiring worked fine with analog meters. Shouldn’t power companies be mandated to install proper electrical wiring to accommodate SMs and not leave homeowners with faulty electric wiring that the utility company created by installing SMs thereby putting homeowners in jeopardy for fire, explosion, and other SM hazards?
On the third page, paragraph 1:
Electrical Meter Bases have wired connections as well as stabs. Qualified electrical professionals would check ALL connections when the meter is pulled. (safely and working with the home owner) Before installing the new meter any electrical problems would be identified and repaired, even replacing the meter base if required. There are no compromises electrically or there will be failure with consequences including fires.
My question is: How does PECO’s SM installation fit in with the above?
Who’s Responsible for Damage?
Therein apparently is another legal aspect to the entire Smart Meter matter, i.e., Product and professional liability problems. State legislatures, businesses, and corporations cannot demand consumers place their lives and properties in jeopardy or harm’s way, as all the data and information I’ve provided over the past month or so—documents that Smart Meters do—without providing safety measures to preclude such problems. When such malfeasance happens materially or by law, then that law must be opposed and ultimately changed or killed by legislative bodies that enact them. Pennsylvania is no exception.
Since fire is an ever-present possibility with Smart Meters that no one should be made to live with—we have smoke detectors for inside our homes to warn us—what kind of protection does/will PECO supply as Smart Meter fire alarms? After all, PECO and utility companies that install Smart Meters are providing the fire danger, so they must provide a safety measure alternative to protect against it. Legally, you have to, or hasn’t anyone mentioned that legal liability? That fire/safety issue alone, along with what I will discuss next, should be the very reasons that the Pennsylvania state legislature should see the folly of the law it enacted and remove it from the books in the current session, and as soon as possible.
Smart Meter Health Problems
Now on to the REAL and SERIOUS HEALTH PROBLEMS that Smart Meters effectuate
I enclose a five-page report by Ronald M. Powell, PhD in Applied Physics, titled “Symptoms after Exposure to Smart Meter Radiation” dated March 12, 2015.
The Introduction paragraph says,
People from coast to coast in the USA, and from one side of the world to the other, are becoming ill after exposure to the radio frequency radiation emitted by Wireless Smart Meters. Attached are the results of two surveys of the symptoms being reported.
USA Survey of 318 Individuals in 28 states in the USA
Notice the ‘laundry list’ of new or worsened symptoms reported
Victoria, Australia Survey of 92 Individuals
A correspondingly similar list of new or worsened symptoms reported
Notice that numerous body symptoms are disrupted by Smart Meter radiofrequency radiation.
The RESULTS:
The most frequently reported symptoms from exposure to smart meters were (1) insomnia, (2) headaches, (3) tinnitus, (4) fatigue, (5) cognitive disturbances, (6) dysesthesias (abnormal sensation), and (7) dizziness. The effects of these symptoms on people’s lives were significant.
The last sentence from the report’s CONCLUSIONS,
Interestingly, the vast majority of Victorian cases did not state that they had been sufferers of electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome (EHS) prior to exposure to the wireless meters, which points to the possibility that smart meters may have unique characteristics that lower people’s threshold for symptom development.
The AAEM’s Recommendations
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine published “Recommendations Regarding Electromagnetic and Radiofrequency Exposures,” a two-page report.
You will note the listing of medical conditions and disabilities that would benefit from avoiding electromagnetic and radiofrequency exposures, plus the Bibliography. People have to live their lives without being electromagnetically harmed by a technology [electric power meters] that, prior to Smart Meters, and for generations, were safe!
March 2015 Study: RF fields Cause Tumors
Early in March 2015, Micro Wave News published a new animal (mice) study, “Tumor promotion by exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields below exposure limits for humans,” wherein this disturbing find was revealed:
Numbers of tumors of the lungs and livers in exposed animals were significantly higher than in sham-exposed controls. In addition, lymphomas were also found to be significantly elevated by exposure.
Consumers, homeowners, and children—especially autistic children—should not be forced by Pennsylvania law, any locality’s or other state’s laws—even federal law—to live in cancer-causing conditions pumped into their homes via Smart Meters!
Opt-Out Legislation
Furthermore, numerous states [AZ, CA, FL, GA, HI, IA, LA, MI, ME?, PA, TX, VA, VT] have introduced or have provisions for opt-out from SMs. There are several bills in the current Pennsylvania legislative session regarding that issue. In the last PA legislative session, despite state-wide constituency protests, etc., Representative Godshall sat on the SM bills and would not move them in committee for vote—truly a ‘political crime and democratic injustice’ against the citizens of Pennsylvania.
Vermont’s Ideal Smart Meter Legislation
However, the people of Vermont have been blessed with their Smart Meters legislation:
5/18/12 Gov. Shumlin signed S.214 into law (Act 0170) allowing installation if utility company
(1) provides written notice to the customer indicating that the meter will use radio or other wireless means for 2-way communication between the meter and the company and informing the customer of his or her rights;
(2) allows a customer to choose not to have a wireless smart meter installed, at no additional monthly or other charge; and
(3) allows a customer to require removal of a previously installed wireless smart meter for any reason and at an agreed-upon time, without incurring any charge for such removal.
Source: http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/Acts/ACT170.pdf
Questions for PECO
Regarding PECO’s answers to my questions, I have found numerous answers to be at total variance to the facts, especially No. 6: Have there been fires where smart meters have been installed?
PECO’s answer:
No. The AMI meter that will be installed at your home is manufactured by Landis+Gyr. There are no Landis+Gyr meters that have experienced overheating issues. Some Sensus meters originally installed experienced overheating issues; however, PECO has replaced all Sensus meters with Landis+Gyr meters. The company no longer installs the Sensus meters and there have been no overheating issues reported with Landis+Gyr meters.
Well, I beg to differ, and have cited a Landis-Gyr SM meter fire. See the photograph of that fire earlier in this article. I found other answers in a similar disparaging vein.
My question 7 with regard to adverse health effects from RF/Smart meters, which PECO claims there are no studies of adverse health effects. I’ve cited and sent them to PECO.
Hopefully, there is a sensible way of working on this issue other than PECO’s turning off my electric power. I have given legitimate legal concerns for an illegally instituted and totally unsafe Pennsylvania law that Pennsylvania legislatures currently are trying to correct with several bills in this legislative session, and in view of that, I believe I am entitled to considerations, as are others who are in equally-challenging health-status conditions. Everyone believes in humanitarian reasons, or so I’m led to believe.
The analog meter that has been on my house since I’ve owned it, never has had a meter reader come to take a reading. But somehow by magic, PECO has been able to know how much electricity I use and, consequently, sends me a bill every month, which I have paid promptly. PECO knows what I use, and it’s very nominal, as I don’t have all the electric gadgets everyone has, including no TV or microwave oven! If everyone used as little electric power as I do, PECO would have to create some other business to make a go of it.
And, that’s the last thing I want to discuss: My energy bills increasing with a Smart Meter, to which PECO said, “No. Your energy bill will not increase.” That has not been the case for power company bills around the USA.
Electric Bills Increase after Smart Meters Are Installed
“Do you want an accurate, reasonably priced utility bill? Utility customers have noticed huge increases in their bill after a ‘smart’ meter is installed–in some cases hundreds of dollars more than usual. Utilities claim the meters are accurate, but unexplained over-billing has featured in many negative reports, all around the US.”
“Is it true that your bill goes up after getting a “smart” meter?
Many people have experienced hikes in their utility bill after a “smart” meter was installed. A recent survey published on EMFSafetyNetwork.org documented how many people have received higher bills—over one third of those surveyed. Here’s another account of the overbilling issues. Here’s another article.” (Source)
Phantom Electricity
Apparently, instead of filing for utility rate hikes, Smart Meters automatically increase monthly power company bills dramatically. Furthermore, there’s something called ‘phantom electricity’ which consumers apparently are being billed for now due to SM metering/monitoring because every appliance has ‘phantom loading’ built in that power companies apparently want to access as another revenue stream, it would seem. Please see this:
A modern household is packed with appliances connected to the electrical power. Most consume some electricity regardless of whether they are actively used or not. The worst offender is the digital cable television box and digital video recorder. That is just the beginning. The world electricity consumption is roughly 20 billion megawatts per year, or 20 trillion watts. It is estimated that about 10 to 15 percent of that amount is just going up the chimney as the phantom loads. Namely, the civilization of the world consumes 2 trillion watts in electricity constantly in the phantom loads. That is a huge waste. There have been some effective policies to limit the phantom loads (one watt limit), however, the total number of devices is on the rise to offset the power reduction effort. The result is that total phantom loads are still on the rise. (Source)
In view of all the above, I feel I have every legitimate and legal right to ask and be given opt-out status. Please know that I value the services PECO supplies and delivers, but I am not in alignment with forced RF and electromagnetic radiation coming into my house and body through the electrical wiring in my house, that puts my life, health and property in constant jeopardy.
There has to be a way to work this out besides turning off electric power to a 76-year-old widow.
Here’s the reply that I received regarding several letters with ‘tons’ of printed and Internet link citations regarding Smart Meters:
If the company is not able to install the meter, your service will be terminated.
If you have any further questions regarding your right to “opt out” of the meter installation, I recommend that you contact the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. In the interim, since you will not give the company access to install the meter, your service can be scheduled for termination.
And that dear readers, is how I’m being treated regarding what apparently is an illegal law, not very carefully thought out, but enacted in Pennsylvania enforcing Agenda 21 Smart Meters.
Resources:
San Antonio Smart Meter Awareness / Richard M. Powell, PhD
http://www.sanantoniosmartmeterawareness.org/#!ronald-m-powell-phd/c1o0u
Maryland Smart Meters Awareness / Richard M. Powell, PhD
Symptoms Resulting from Exposure to Radiofrequency/Microwave Radiation from Smart Meters
http://marylandsmartmeterawareness.org/recources/symptoms-resulting-from-exposure-to-radiofrequencymicrowave-radiation-from-smart-meters/
Catherine retired from researching and writing, but felt compelled to write this article.
Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.
Catherine’s latest book, published October 4, 2013, is Vaccination Voodoo, What YOU Don’t Know About Vaccines, available on Amazon.com.
Her 2012 book A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective & Non-Toxic Treatments, is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook.
Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008)
Stop Making Us, The People, Guinea Pigs
- By Mark Bittman - March 25, 2015 - The New York Times
The issues surrounding G.M.O.s — genetically modified organisms — have never been simple. They became more complicated last week when the International Agency for Research on Cancer declared that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the widely used herbicide Roundup, probably causes cancer in humans. Two insecticides, malathion and diazinon, were also classified as “probable” carcinogens by the agency, a respected arm of the World Health Organization.
Roundup, made by Monsanto for both home and commercial use, is crucial in the production of genetically engineered corn and soybean crops, so it was notable that the verdict on its dangers came nearly simultaneously with an announcement by the Food and Drug Administration that new breeds of genetically engineered potato and apple are safe to eat. Which according to biotech industry are safe to eat, but I am sure the biotech folks themselves are not GMO crops and foods. The genetically engineered papayas we have been eating for some time, again according to biotech industry, to date there’s little credible evidence that any food grown with genetic engineering techniques is dangerous to human health..! Unless, like much corn and soybeans, it’s turned into junk food. But, really.
Fair, too, is a guess that few people are surprised that an herbicide in widespread use is probably toxic at high doses or with prolonged exposure, circumstances that may be common among farmers and farm workers. Nor is it surprising that it took so long — Roundup has been used since the 1970s — to discover its likely carcinogenic properties. There is a sad history of us being used as guinea pigs for the novel chemicals that industry develops. For this we have all too often paid with our damaged health.
Rarely is that damage instantaneous, but it’s safe to say that novel biotechnologies broadly deployed may well have unexpected consequences. Yet unlike Europeans, Canadians, Australians and others, we don’t subscribe to the precautionary principle, which maintains that it’s better to prevent damage than repair it.
We ask not whether a given chemical might cause cancer but whether we’re certain that it does. Since it’s unethical to test the effects of new chemicals and food additives on humans, we rely on the indirect expedient of extensive and expensive animal testing. But the job of the F.D.A. should be to guarantee a reasonable expectation of protection from danger, not to wait until people become sick before taking products off the market. (You might have thought that government’s job was to make sure products were safe before they were marketed. You’d have been wrong — Rezulin, thalidomide or phthalates, anyone?)
Even now, when it’s clear that more research must be done to determine to what degree glyphosate may be carcinogenic, it’s not clear whose responsibility it is to conduct that research. The public health agencies of other countries? Independent researchers who just happen to be interested in the causes of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the cancer with which glyphosate is associated, according to the I.A.R.C.?
Or — here’s an idea — how about Monsanto, which has made billions of dollars selling glyphosate and the associated seed technology. (The company produces crop seeds that are resistant to glyphosate, which can thus be freely sprayed onto fields, in theory killing all plants but the crop. This scheme isn’t working as well as it once did for weed control, because many weeds have become glyphosate-tolerant. But that’s another story.)
Now that the safety of glyphosate is clearly in question, perhaps it’s time to mandate that the corporation — not the taxpaying public — bear the brunt of determining whether it should still be sold. Since the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t have the resources to test, let Monsanto pay for the necessary, and independent, research.
While we’re at it, let’s finally start labeling products made with genetically engineered food. Right now, the only way we can be sure to avoid them is to buy organic food. If G.M.O.s were largely beneficial to eaters, manufacturers would proudly boast of products containing them. The fact is that they have not. To date, G.M.O.s and other forms of biotech have done nothing but enrich their manufacturers and promote a system of agriculture that’s neither sustainable nor for the most part beneficial.
We don’t need better, smarter chemicals along with crops that can tolerate them; we need fewer chemicals. And it’s been adequately demonstrated that crop rotation, the use of organic fertilizers, interplanting of varieties of crops, and other ecologically informed techniques commonly grouped together under the term “agroecology” can effectively reduce the use of chemicals.
Meanwhile, how about getting glyphosate off the market until Monsanto can prove that it’s safe to use? There’s no reason to put the general population, and particularly the farming population, at risk for the sake of industry profits.
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