In 2007 Monsanto spent US$4M+ on lobbying, in 2008 it spent US$8M+, while in 2009....

Graph U.S. Agricultural sector lobbying expenditure 2009

Monsanto & Co. continues to expand its dominance of the world seed and genetically modified food additive markets with certain of its corporate expenses rising each year this century.

In 2006 this biotech multinational spent over US$3 million on lobbying governments and government agencies. By 2008 it was spending over US$8 million. In 2009 so far Monsanto & Co has spent over US$6 million on similar activities.

It is only one of 342 agricultural sector lobbyists in the United States listed by Open Secrets but is by far the biggest spender this year.

The U.S. agricultural lobby sector in 2009 is worth $25,721,913, has made over $2 million in campaign contributions for the American 2010 election cycle to date and Monsanto is in the top five donation contributors.

In February of this year Monsanto approached the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking a ruling that stearidonic (SDA) omega-3 soybean oil was generally recognised as safe.

Monsanto intends to market SDA soybean oil as a food ingredient in the United States in a variety of food products including baked goods and baking mixes, breakfast cereals and grains, cheeses, dairy product analogs, fats and oils, fish products, frozen dairy desserts and mixes, grain products and pastas, gravies and sauces, meat products, milk products, nuts and nut products, poultry products, processed fruit juices, processed vegetable products, puddings and fillings, snack foods, soft candy, and soups and soup mixes. SDA soybean oil will be added to foods at levels that provide 375 mg SDA/serving.

Now it is reported that Monsanto is positioning itself to release soy-based GMO omega-3 oil on the market sometime after 2010 and according to a Monsanto media release the FDA has announced this month that genetically modified omega-3 oil is safe to use (however the FDA makes it plain that it has solely relied on Monsanto's own assessment).

Are we getting close to quod erat demonstrandum?

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Mackenzie Harvison crowned as new Grafton Jacaranda Festival Queen 2009

Congratulations to Mackenzie Harvison for being crowned

Grafton's 75th Jacaranda Festival Queen.

Congratulations also to

Amanda Finucane 2009 Jacaranda Princess

Samantha Dive Holiday Princess

Ashleigh O'Connor Junior Jacaranda Queen

Micaela Burgess Junior Jacaranda Princess.

Hope you all have a wonderful year.

The Daily Examiner slideshow here.

Cardinal George Pell's hypocrisy

Peter FitzSimons provided this gem in today's Sun Herald.

Images from smh.com.au

NASA images show Australian Government failure to curb oil & gas companies

A NASA satellite image of Australia's north-west coast, said to show the sheen of the Timor Sea oil leak. (NASA Earth Observatory) courtesy of ABC News 31 October 2009

Oil slick in the Timor Sea on 30 August 2009 from NASA Earth Observatory

Click on images to enlarge

Fears of second oil leak off WA

Toll rises as sea life feed at oil spill

After seeing the scale of the oil slick, which is spread over 4223 square kilometres, Dr Watson told the Herald: ''I am amazed at how little Australia really cares about this. This is a huge oil slick.'' (WA Today 31 October 2009)

Oh for goodness sake - leave me with something!

I'm doing my best to reduce my consumption level and live within a smaller environmental footprint in response to the threat of global warming - like a lot of other Australians I suppose.
I re-use where possible, limit the amount of household waste I produce, purchase second-hand goods in preference to new, shop locally, buy Australian almost exclusively when it comes to groceries, avoid buying food with ingredients which were produced by denuding rainforest, limit my meat eating to flesh that is less carbon intensive, walk everywhere I can or get public transport, don't load my garden with chemicals and I'm getting quite miserly when it comes to electricity and water.
So why do I feel like too much is being asked of me?
Because Larvatus Prodeo has opened my eyes to the fact that someone somewhere has written a book called "Time to Eat the Dog? the real guide to sustainable living" and those authors obviously want me to feel guilty about having a pet.
What next will I have to offer up on the altar of climate change - the heart of my first born?

Katz
Grafton

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.

The Guardian newspaper kills Blair softly [with laughter]

Pass notes No 2,763: Tony Blair
All you need to know about the man who would be president of the European Council

The Guardian, Wednesday 28 October 2009

Age: 56.
Appearance: Two parts ambition to one part madness, wrapped in flesh.
He's still alive? Yes, although he is now held together entirely by his all-consuming thirst for power.
Which manifests itself how? He's got his eye on the job of president of the European Council.
Got his eye on? He hasn't officially declared his candidacy.
Why not? According to a friend, "Tony will not put himself into a position where he is humiliated like Guy Verhofstadt."
Ah, well, obviously no one wants to end up like Guy Verhofstadt. Quite.
You can't get much more humiliated than Guy Verhofstadt. Nope.
I mean when you think of the word 'humiliation', you immediately think . . . You don't know who he is, do you?
Not even slightly. Please fill me in. Verhofstadt was due to be the next President of the European Commission but, once he became the frontrunner, Blair and Silvio Berlusconi vetoed him......

The rest of the article here.

In the land of the blind today a one-eyed Health Minister is queen

"MEDICARE rebates for the most common type of cataract surgery will be slashed by more than $280 from Sunday, after the federal government sidestepped a Senate vote blocking its planned cuts and announced a new set of reductions only slightly less severe."
Ah, Nici, Nici, Nici - a true believer you never were and now it seems you're an ersatz Liberal decked out in Howard feathers as you begin to reduce healthcare access for the very poor from today onwards.

I don't know what's more offensive - Abbott's arrogance or his monumental stupidity

Earlier this week Tony Abbott said that he wasn't worried about climate change.
Sky News repeated the exact words that he used in interviews that night.
Sea levels had risen along the NSW coast by more than 20 centimetres during the past century, the Liberal frontbencher said. 'Has anyone noticed it? No, they haven't,' he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
The man's mad. Doesn't he look out the window during a big storm or go down to the beach afterwards?
More importantly, hasn't he been reading news from small towns up and down the coast where houses are losing front yards to the ocean and landslips are becoming common?
I've got my own news for Abbott. Mother Nature doesn't stop misbehaving just because you and your cronies don't believe in global warming and you can't hold back the sea by pretending that the tide isn't getting higher each year.

Martin
Coffs Harbour

Coalition dinasours!: the Member for Page rises to her feet during the second reading debate on the re-introduced CPRS Bill 2009

Open Australia website; an exerpt from the Hansard debate record of the Federal Labor Member for the NSW North Coast elecorate of Page on 29 October 2009:

Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this Link to this Hansard source

In 2007, when I stood for election with the Rudd Labor team, we had a plan. That plan was to tackle climate change. It was a 10-point plan, a holistic approach to the challenge of climate change. It was a plan that would protect our jobs, protect the environment and the economy in the here and now, and take us into the future. It was a plan that rose to the challenge. Since I came into this place—since the Rudd government was elected—we have all worked to implement that plan. Since the election we have had the appointment of the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, the green paper, the white paper, draft legislation, and wide consultation and deep consultation with communities, industry and interested groups on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, which brings in the emissions trading scheme and its implementation. It is one of the biggest consultation processes that I have seen.

When we went to the election, the people of Australia said: 'We want you to do something about climate change.' We are doing something about climate change and we will continue to, but that has been thwarted by the coalition—the opposition. The coalition were and are divided on climate change. They do not talk about solutions and responses. Their view of climate change prevents them from coming to any reasonable let alone reasoned response. It just seems to me a crazy way to do business. They say that they are interested in jobs and, you know, they are—it seems the key job they are focussed on is the Leader of the Opposition's job and other aspirants coming up behind him. It is in their base political interest to drag it up. That is what I see and that is what people in the electorate see. That is the reality. Their coalition partner, the National Party, has nine members in this place and five in the Senate. The only jobs they are interested in are their own. It is like natural attrition; they are going the way of the dinosaur.