With more and more people across the nation opting to ditch the meat and animal products and move towards a plant-based diet, we are seeing many alternative options emerge. While in some ways this is definitely a step in the right direction, we still have to be wary of what these products are made of and how they are made and determine whether or not they are actually healthy for us to consume.

Recently, the Impossible Burger hit White Castle restaurants across the U.S. This is a soy derived, genetically modified burger, that ‘bleeds,’ it’s creators claim that it is safe, healthy and good for the planet, but is this true? Let’s take a closer look.

The company behind this is a Silicon Valley startup called Impossible Foods. They have received over $400 million dollars worth of funding from pro-GMO advocates like Bill Gates. The company’s genetically modified ‘ground beef analogue product’ has penetrated in the mainstream market when it hit over 400 White Castle Burger restaurants throughout the U.S. this past month. This burger has already been served at Applebee’s, Bareburger, Whalburgers and other independent restaurants throughout the U.S.

Related CE Articles:

Hundreds of Scientists Tell The World That The GMO/Cancer Link Is Real

Federal Lawsuit Forces US Government To Share Disturbing Facts On Genetically Modified Foods

How Monsanto Genetically Modifies Our Food Compared To What Happens Naturally In Nature

Is This Burger Truly Safe?

In July of this year, the FDA granted this product as GRAS status, (Generally Recognized As Safe) which essentially exempts it from human safety studies. Considering the product is made from genetically modified soybeans, it makes it very difficult to believe that this burger is actually healthy. What gives this product its distinct blood-like color and taste is a protein called heme that is derived from soy protein. It is also known as legume hemoglobin or leghemoglobin and can be found in the root system of soy plants in very small quantities. However, it is estimated that it would take approximately 1 acre of soybeans in order to produce just 2.2 pounds of soy leghemoglobin.

Realistically, we have no idea how such a massive amount of this protein, and specifically from a genetically modified source will affect us in the long run. A Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request revealed the FDA’s concern over Impossible Foods admitting that up to one-quarter of it’s “heme” ingredient consisted of 46 unexpected additional proteins, which were not tested for safety.

Don’t forget to refer to the articles linked about that go into more detail and provide more of the science.

What’s In An Impossible Burger?

Water, Textured Wheat Protein, Coconut Oil, Potato Protein, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Leghemoglobin (soy), Yeast Extract, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Konjac Gum, Xanthan Gum, Thiamin(Vitamin B1), Zinc, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12.

First of all, wheat is a well-known allergen, affecting millions of Americans and the cause of so many adverse effects on the digestive system. Roundup herbicide is often used in wheat production as a pre-harvest desiccant. Surprise, surprise, potato is also EPA-approved for Roundup herbicide desiccant treatment, and of course the soy that is being used as an ingredient is genetically modified, which means it also contains a hefty dose of Roundup. This is why it’s so important to be aware of what you are putting into your body, it’s one thing to read ingredient labels, and an entirely different thing to understand what those ingredients are and what they represent.

Be Aware, Don’t Fall For These Tricks

Sayer Ji from GreenMedInfo put it nicely, saying,

“The Impossible Burger is a great example of how the pro-GMO agenda has shifted it’s marketing message from ‘saving the world from hunger’ to a ‘save the planet through sustainability.’

It is so important to take everything with a grain of salt and not just accept what is presented to us at face value. Too many of those who have chosen to stop eating meat and animal products, be it coming from a place of compassion, environmental concern or health reasons, this burger might come across as a huge step in the right direction. But no doubt, those that do not have our best interest at heart are one step ahead, and will make this burger appear to be better for us and the planet, meanwhile it’s using extremely toxic ingredients that we still do not know the long-term effects they will have on humans.

Check out this clever marketing taken straight from the Impossible Burger website,

This is not a time to be naïve, we have to stay diligent and continue to do our research. On the surface this burger seems to be right in alignment with our shifting dietary preferences and desire to protect our environment, but all it takes is a little look below the surface to see what’s really going on. Don’t fall for the clever marketing tactics. The more we take responsibility for our actions, and make the choices that are in alignment with our highest good and the planet, the less we will be manipulated by the aspects of the system that don’t have our best interest at heart. Always use discernment, and spread the word! We can all do our part.

Much Love

Since I wrote about Targeted Individuals a while back, I have heard from several people who themselves are being targeted, and their common message has been one of gratitude, for speaking about this phenomena without the scorn and skepticism that so many of them have had to put up with–this in addition to the pain and disorientation caused by the targeting itself.

The impact of being targeted is often associated with attempts made to alienate friends and family from the target in subtle but powerful ways, often leaving the victim not only with varying forms of physical and psychological torture, but also without trusted friends or family members to help them come to grips with and process these insidious attacks on them. In fact, those people who the victims once considered as friends and acquaintances can often be persuaded through false information, coercion and/or bribery, to distance themselves from the victim or even participate in the targeting tactics.

As members of the Awakening Community, it is incumbent upon us to come to understand the breadth of this phenomena, so that we can become a support mechanism for all these individuals affected, and join in to super-charge the vehicle of change for those Targeted Individuals who band together to challenge the powerful forces that are behind these covert actions.

An Essential Part Of Our Awakening

In his comprehensive article entitled ‘In the Post 9/11 Era, Understanding the Targeted Individual Phenomenon is No Longer Optional,’ Thomas Fontanez McFarlan delivers a broad overview of what he labels as ‘Security-Service-Stalking’ which includes several videos, and is certainly recommended in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding on the subject. The main thrust of this article–and it hearkens to many other phenomena that we try to bring to light here at Collective Evolution–is that we will not get to where we are going, to the creation of a new world founded on freedom, love, and unity, unless together we acknowledge, inform ourselves about and challenge Deep State tactics meant to control and enslave us like the organized targeting of individuals. As McFarlan states,

In the post September 11th era, the security-service-stalking situation represents a state-of-emergency that requires people from every walk of life — including those with integrity within our intelligence agencies and all security-service organizations — to see through the very fear that arises in the face of such a grotesque problem, and leverage that seeing, to let this fear give wings to your innate evolutionary impulse to evolve to your truest, deepest, most genuine self. The self within you that knows no fear.

The Targeted Individual phenomena thus is founded not only on the ignorance of the public at large, but also with the complicity of people in the know who ‘are forced to “stand-down” while these stalking crimes occur,’ out of fear or having been compromised themselves. Hence, the engagement of the Awakening Community can also serve to push those of integrity within law enforcement and surveillance agencies to take the brave step of ending their complicity, whether by commission or omission, and accept whatever consequences a new choice to act with integrity may bring upon them.

What Is A ‘Targeted Individual’?

A Targeted Individual is someone who has been chosen to be the target of a varied and growing list of social, physical, and psychological attack tools which include stalking, blacklisting, harassment, surveillance, just to name a few, as well as ‘Electronic Frequency Weapon Attacks’, of which there are several types outlined by McFarlan. These attacks are conducted, sometimes 24/7, for one or more purposes, including personal vendettas, attempts to impede an individual’s positive impact on society, or simply as experimentation to further an understanding of how to control and dominate a society at large. Hence this seemingly eclectic group of people that McFarlan observes as the main targets:

It is perpetrated against people who live their life with a high-level of integrity; people who have a progressive or libertarian political and cultural orientation; people who possess extraordinary atypical talents and potential that is seen by a security-services leader to be a threat to their fascist notions of how society should be run and shaped; people who are sexually attractive to a security-services leader; people who become the victims of medical, police, city or state government fraud — especially if they pursue litigation and activism; people who have an independent and genuine interest in philosophy and spirituality; people who are famous that represent and advance a cultural and/or social-political perspective that is at odds with a security-services leader’s fascist cultural and social-political orientation; people who run a business that is seen as a threat or desirable prey for intellectual property theft to a security-services leader; people who are perceived by a security-services leader as expendable for any number of arbitrary and fraudulent reasons; people who are vulnerable because of a handicap, isolation or poverty; or people who arbitrarily happen to rub-up against a security-services leader amid the course of their everyday life in a way that is perceived to be offensive by this leader.

One can surmise from this description that security-services leaders are the local eyes and arms of the Deep State within their particular regions of influence and responsibility. We can note that while there may be an overall mandate that dictates the types of people who will be targeted, there may be some level of arbitrariness in terms of the types of people that get attacked, based on some personal connection to the security-services leader in everyday life.

9/11 And The Increase In Surveillance Agency Spending

One of McFarlan’s main observations about Security-Service-Stalking is that after the September 11th attacks it has grown from a very serious problem that was perpetrated against hundreds of thousands of people around the world, into a wildly out-of-control and monstrous war — now carried out in an almost unimaginable high-tech extreme way against millions of people in the United States, and millions more around the world.’:

After the September 11th attacks, all intelligence agencies’ budgets and staff doubled or tripled within about a year, and have secretly merged at the highest levels, and become networked under one global organizational super-structure for most of their activities. Additionally, the passage of numerous laws that suspend citizens’ fundamental rights under the pretense of protecting citizens from terrorists, as well as, extraordinary advancements in technology, internet connectivity and applications have networked and empowered these entities in previously unimaginably powerful ways.

One could imagine that after 9/11, the Deep State garnered a vast surplus of money and human resources for their surveillance/intelligence agencies, and with this surplus they would have been able to dramatically increase their experimentation with unsuspecting individuals within society by empowering local leaders to carry out these attacks on whomever they chose. They literally must have gained the funds to pay a dozen people or more at various levels within an operation to target single individuals full-time. And these operations were not simply about surveillance or intimidation. As McFarlan notes, these coordinated attacks would often serve ‘to virtually imprison, incapacitate and ultimately drive the victim to insanity, suicide or murder.’

Likely many Targeted Individuals have been driven to suicide without even being aware that they were being attacked by someone. These attacks are often done completely covertly, in ways that many targets actually have doubts whether or not they are actually being targeted. This can be very disorienting, and it would be difficult for a victim to be truly sure if the incidents are real and intended, or figments of their imagination and paranoia. Fear of embarrassment and ridicule surely prevents many victims from even talking about it. And this is why an awareness and comprehension of these activities is widely needed.

What We Can Do

For Targeted Individuals, it may be instructive to look over the spiritual approach to self-protection that L. Grace Christian speaks about in my previous article ‘Meet A “Targeted Individual” – Woman Shares Her Experience With Directed Energy Weapons & More‘. Others have found that banding together for individual support or even collective litigation is a way to deal with it. Of course, there are currently very few champions of this cause either in government, law enforcement, the judiciary, or the mainstream press. All efforts need to align with removing the stigma associated with this phenomena and bringing credibility to it, whereby victims will be widely listened to, believed, and respected.

As for the rest of us, the main tool at the disposal of the Awakening Community is consciousness. We need to be the ones listening and paying attention. It is important for each of us to incorporate the testimony of the many credible self-identified Targeted Individuals (McFarlan lists many in his article) into our broader understanding of the kind of tyranny and enslavement we are up against, as well as spreading information and having discussions about this phenomena.

We can all use this phenomenon as a way to come together, and as another instigator to our collective awakening, which can eventually become powerful enough to dissolve all the veils of deception and put the fate of our lives and our civilization back in our hands.

Article was originally published on karamariaananda.com/ and is being re-published here by the author.

One of the greatest growing threats to women’s health today is the environmental and social devastation caused by fracking.
The landscape of the United States is changing irreversibly and rapidly. Over the past 20 years I have driven back and forth across this country from coast-to-coast 7 times and have seen first-hand the increasing devastation caused to our environment from the boom in gas and oil wells, and 95% of new wells are being fracked.

Hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking, is on the rise in the United States in a shocking way. This is the process of injecting pressurized water, sand, and a dangerous cocktail of hundreds of industrial chemicals deep into mined gas or oil wells in the Earth to stimulate greater production.

Over 12 million people in the United States currently live under a half-mile from active gas and oil wells, facilities, and processing plants today, in the highest threat radius, including nearly 3 million children in schools and daycares.

Modern high-volume hydraulic fracturing was only developed 20 years ago, and in the past decade it’s increased at a rapid fire rate due to advanced fracking technology and horizontal fracking practices, that even run right under the homes and neighborhoods of communities around the country.

The long-term repercussions of fracking on our health are unknown and may take decades to truly reveal themselves, as diseases like cancer can take many years to develop, and the consequences of pregnant women being exposed to extreme toxins will be passed on to the future generations.

What A Waste

A single fracking operation can use more than 9 million gallons of freshwater, and there are over 1.3 million active drilled gas and oil wells in the US today.
Over 700 chemicals are used in the drilling and fracking process and most are undisclosed due to proprietary trade secrets, yet many of the detected chemicals are known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors, and cause environmental pollution.

The wastewater from fracking is even more toxic and dangerous than the process itself, as it creates an enormous volume of radioactive toxic fluid that must be disposed of somewhere, and is not safe for humans, animals, or the environment.

The water is usually either trucked to treatment plants to filter it, or dumped back into the earth through deep well injection at high pressures which can lead to earthquakes and groundwater contamination, while a small amount is recycled into other fracking operations.

In addition, there can be contamination of the environment by the leaking of fracking fluids from the thousands of trucks used to transport the toxic liquid from the drilling sites to the treatment plants and disposal wells. In some cases, these trucks travel extensively between states, such as how much of Pennsylvania’s used fracking fluid is being trucked to Ohio, which has more deep injection wells. In other cases, such as in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, used drilling liquids are actually sprayed directly on public roads for de-icing.

There have been many recorded incidents of wastewater spills and explosions, as well as illegal dumping of wastewater and radioactive “filter socks”, which are used to separate solids from the post-fracking liquids.

The irreversible and immediate pollution of our water resources by fracking causes devastating environmental impacts, and effects all life and future generations, while the operations also cause significant air and noise pollution, as well as a myriad of health concerns.

We are facing a global water crisis today, and billions of gallons of water are being destroyed and removed from our water system by fracking. Yet, the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act, a federal law to protect public drinking water, does not apply to fracking operations, and fracking wastewater is exempt from federal hazardous waste regulations.

Water is the blood of the Earth that sustains all life, all plants, all people, and is recycled through our whole planet’s biosphere. Our health depends upon access to clean fresh water for drinking, food, and washing.

Hormonal Havoc

One of the biggest dangers to human health from the byproducts of fracking is reproductive and developmental toxicity, which disproportionally impacts women’s health in communities near gas and oil wells.
Due to the sensitivity of women’s reproductive organs to environmental triggers, exposure to industrial chemicals may lead to increased breast cancer, infertility, and fetal abnormalities, among other complex systemic health issues.

The toxic soup created by fracking is full of endocrine disruptors which mimic female sex hormones and disrupt hormones. This can result in not just reproductive and developmental problems, but also interfere with immune functioning and cause neurological disorders.

Fracked Up

Fracking negatively impacts women’s health on many levels from the destruction of our homes and environment, the polluting of our water, air, food, and land, to the wide-scale sex trafficking, assault, and prostitution happening in “man camps” in large oil production sites.
It’s noteworthy that the term “frack” has also become a slang word for having sex with or taking advantage of someone. This exemplifies the connection between the violent raping of the Earth’s natural resources and fossil fuels, to the abuse of women’s bodies, health, sexuality, and lives even in the name itself.

Intensive oil and gas drilling and fracking operations bring thousands of workers to the areas, who are mostly single young transitory men, and many registered sex offenders, which results in drastic increases in violence, murder, rape, prostitution, and sex trafficking in the local regions.

The male workers are housed in vast “man camps”, which are often huge areas of mobile houses, RV’s, and barracks set up by the energy corporations.

In North Dakota, over 100,000 men have flooded in recent years to set up home in the man camps of the Bakken Shale, resulting in skyrocketing violence and sexual assault, particularly targeting the indigenous women and youth from the region, many who have become victims of rape, assault, and sex trafficking.

Native women and children are being murdered and disappearing at devastating rates, due to the complacency of the oil companies, and the government is doing nothing about this.

Sex trafficking is crime upon humanity, that affects women, children, families and communities, and disproportionally effects the indigenous population. Due to the man camps proximity to reservations, and the reduced legal prosecutorial abilities of Native governments, cases are less likely to be tried, even if a sexual abuser is known and identified.

Studies have also shown increased rates of sexually transmitted infections in areas with fracking. Research at the Yale School of Public Health has shown that Ohio counties with large-scale fracking have 21% higher rates of gonorrhea and 19% higher rates of chlamydia than the same state’s counties without high shale gas activity.

Increased Risk of Breast Cancer

New research has been released showing that prenatal exposure to fracking chemicals caused abnormal mammary gland development and pre-cancerous lesions in the female offspring of mice (Endocrinology). The scientists tested various levels of chemical exposure on the mice, from the potency that would be found in drinking water in areas near fracking, to the level found in wastewater pools on sites, and every level resulted in breast abnormalities.

In Texas, there are highly elevated breast cancer rates in the counties that have active fracking sites, despite statewide reductions in the overall breast cancer rate. Yet this is considered inconclusive evidence to show direct causation, and the Texas Department of State Health Services insists there is no reason to be concerned.

Pregnancy Problems

Proximity to fracking operations has been associated with multiple challenges with fertility, menstruation, pregnancy, and infant health. Exposure to fracking chemicals, has been linked to decreased sperm count, miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm birth, and low birth weight.

Studies in Pennsylvania have found a 25% increase in low-birth weight and decreased infant health with babies born to mothers living near active fracking sites. In response, a spokesperson for the Marcellus Shale Coalition insisted that “It’s dangerously misleading and inflammatory to suggest that natural gas development has done anything but improve public health.” (Science)

Tragically, the health problems from exposure to these chemicals during gestational periods aren’t always evident during pregnancy, birth or infancy, as seen with the mice in the breast cancer study, whose offspring didn’t develop breast lesions from prenatal exposure to fracking chemicals until puberty and maturation.

Pass On The Gas

It’s absolutely essential that the United States government and concerned citizens work together to stop this violent destruction of our environment and health due to fracking. Otherwise, we are set to experience an increasing boom of oil and gas fracking, that will destroy our land, homes, water, air, health, and future, and spread into new states.

Women are leading the way in environmental activism to address the concerns about fracking, yet are more likely to be dismissed, belittled, and threatened.

A study in the UK showed that 58% of men supported fracking, while only 31% of women did. In response, the chair of UK Onshore Shale and Gas made the claim that the reason more women were opposed to fracking than men were because they were more likely to be uneducated and lacked understanding of the science. This kind of belittling sexism is rampant from fracking proponents.

We must stop the spread of fracking in the US and invest into renewable forms of energy, divest money from big banks that support fossil fuels, and demand that the U.S. government protects our water, air, and communities now.

It is clear that fracking disproportionally affects the health and lives of women, and women’s health is a vital marker for the health and future of a nation. If we seek to grow a thriving country, we must prioritize the wellbeing of women and protect the children who are the future of this land.

This boom has been lauded by the energy companies and lobbyists as an answer to cheap and domestic energy production, reducing our dependency on foreign oil, as well as causing less air pollution than the coal industry. But is cheap energy today worth thousands of years of radioactive waste, the destruction of our precious water resources, and the compromising of the health of our people?

Sources

2017 Map of Oil & Gas Activity in the U.S. – Fractracker Alliance

Water Use Rises as Fracking Expands – Scientific American

Fracking Fact Sheet – Honor The Earth

Don’t Frack With Our Health – Breast Cancer Action

Are Breast Cancer Rates Elevated Near Texas Fracking Sites? – EcoWatch

Prenatal Exposure to Unconventional Oil and Gas Operation Chemical Mixtures Altered Mammary Gland Development in Adult Female Mice – Endocrinology

Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Birth Outcomes in Pennsylvania, USA. – Epidemiology

Hydraulic fracturing and infant health: New evidence from Pennsylvania – Science Advances

Fracking Women: A Feminist Critical Analysis of Hydraulic Fracturing in Pennsylvania – International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics

Extreme Extraction and Sexual Violence Against Indigenous Women in the Great Plains

Counties With Fracking Have Increased Rates of Sexually Transmitted Infections – Yale School of Public Health

State Policies on Use of Hydraulic Fracturing Waste as a Road Deicer – OLR Research Report

Fracking Chemicals Linked to Serious Reproductive, Health Risks – Center for Environmental Health

Women Linked to Fall in Support for UK Shale Gas Extraction – The Guardian

Fracking? Women “Don’t Understand the Science” – The Times

This article was originally published on http://karamariaananda.com/ and is being re-published here by the author.