Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Thursday, June 28, 2007
The danger of pesticides is a three-way merge onto a dangerous roundabout.
While Canadians are worried about the dangers coming their way from the US, Americans are worried about the dangerous pesticides being imported from Canada. Meanwhile the US exports banned or unregistered pesticides to Mexico.
25 % of all fresh and frozen produce in the US is imported, 50% of which is imported from Mexico. Canada is the second largest market for US agricultural exports and US exporters are the dominant suppliers of produce exporters to Canada.
In March of this year The US EPA and the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency gave the first joint approval of a NAFTA ‘harmonized label for pesticide.
The first product called Avadex in Canada, and Far-Go in the US is an herbicide that “Warning labels state that it should not be applied directly to water, to areas where surface water is present, or to intertidal areas below the mean high water mark.” “The use of this chemical in areas where soils are permeable, particularly where the water table is shallow, may result in ground water contamination.” “Have a high potential for runoff into surface water where there are poorly draining or wet soils with slopes toward adjacent surface waters, frequently flooded areas, areas over-laying extremely shallow ground water, areas with in-field canals or ditches that drain to surface water, areas not separated from adjacent surface waters with vegetated filter strips, and areas over-laying tile drainage systems that drain surface water.”
Is there any type of land being farmed that doesn’t fall under the above classification?
It defies logic that the US and Canada, known for ‘feeding the world’, now depends on importing food from the world to be feed?
Importing and exporting, and shipping and receiving. Fast tracking, highway building, and labeling. NAFTA, SPP, NAF, NASCO, CTCS and the rest of the alphabet look strangely like a perpetual motion profit machine. A machine engineered by a basket full of corporations that walk hand-in-hand into the sunset with our good will, our health and our money in their pockets.
Tomorrow we lighten up!
Labels: Canada, Mexico, NAFTA, NASCO, North American Union, SPP, Supercorridor, Superhighway, USA
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Is NAFTA Growing a Farming Traffic Jam?
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Road expansion construction is already underway on miles and miles of the NAFTA superhighway.
NASCO repeatedly insists they are not now, nor have they ever been behind building a ’supercorridor’ and that the ’superhighway’ already exists in the form of the north and south running I35.
So much conflicting information surrounding this superhighway must certainly come from all the secrecy surrounding this colossal NAFTA project.
Interstate 35 does already exist, but the path it takes may be the only thing NASCO recommends leaving the same.
The 3 respective Governments seem to be signing on for 1 Nation of super colossal proportions, which will certainly change our lives.
Envisioned by the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) task force report were: a North American court, a North American inter-parliamentary group, a North American executive commission, a North American military defense command, a North American customs office and a North American development bank.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership office (SPP) has formed working groups comprised of representatives from the largest North American corporations.
These groups are operating behind doors sealed so tightly that the list of membership has never been published nor has any of their work product.
The SPP lists some 20 groups and does disclose the ‘nature’ of their assignments. Harmonized Pesticides (labeling) aviation policy (no-fly coordination) borders and immigration are just a few of the assignments for which these working groups are drawing up blue prints.
Now we know why all the secrecy, but the offices of the SPP inside the NAFTA office of the USDC wants the public to believe something different. “We did not want to get the contact people of the working groups distracted by calls from the public.” Geri Word SPP.
Word, suggested the work products were ‘described on the SPP website, so publishing actual documents did not seem to be required’.
Canada’s Foreign Affairs and International Trade (FAITC) invites Canadians to ‘add your voice to the discussion’ on its website, while in the US meetings have been held in buildings able only to hold only a small number of citizens leaving in some cases hundreds upon hundreds of opposition voices locked out of these so called public meetings.
It sounds like NAFTA will be the end of soverinty for these 3 nations.
This must be the road to the new land of OZ!
Labels: Canada, Mexico, NAFTA, NASCO, SPP, Supercorridor, Superhighway, USA
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
NAFTA Superhighway: The Road to the New Nation of OZ
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Shake hands with your partner.
Allemande Left, do the NAFTA DoSaDo!
If you feel like you’re at a square dance that’s being called in a foreign language, it’s because you are. Welcome to the NAFTA Dance. Where the power elite is the belle of the ball, and the public, that’s you, is the whore in the hall.
Mexico, Canada and the US have joined hands and are now forming a circle that is becoming impossible to penetrate. Impossible to penetrate because as more of the public is becoming aware of exactly what affect NAFTA is going to have on our futures the heavier the veil surrounding NAFTA becomes.
Among a litany of fast-track recommendations the Council of the Americas recommends being implemented by the end of this year are:
1. Establish a set of rules that provide legal protection for companies that conduct risk assessments and share information on vulnerabilities with the appropriate government entities.
(Protection from litigation resulting in bad risk assessments resulting in harm to the public?)
2. Implementing preclearance pilot projects.
(Well underway, this moves customs processes further inland from actual border crossings. This move constitutes moving potentially catastrophic events into the hearts of Canada and the US rather than keeping these events in the nation in which they originate.)
3. Improve the benefits of voluntary business participation in security programs.
(Little needs to be said regarding business doing anything voluntary as it applies to anything much beyond the profit margin.)
4. Further simplify the NAFTA rules-of-origin requirements.
(US$30billion in trilateral trade has already been simplified to the point our health protection is becoming virtually non-existent.)
5. Simplify NAFTA certification process and requirements. “The long-term goal should be to eliminate the NAFTA certificate on shipments.”
(Eliminating the administrative burden on producers of finished goods)
6. Withdraw or suspend the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
(US and Canada should lower their standards by mitigating legitimate risks while minimizing disruption to legitimate trade.)
Potential meaning:
Lower your health and safety standards as it pertains to imports.
Raise the potential for dangerous cargo getting past the borders and moving inland.
Leave border crossings free from congestion so that goods can still move freely across the border should there be a catastrophic event inland.
Spend all resources necessary for the promotion of trade rather than finding innovative, safe and secure ways of protecting and feeding our own citizens.
Those yellow bricks paving the NAFTA superhighway appear to be made of gold. Who is financing the fancy footwork of the NAFTA dance?
Photo by birdw0rks NYC
Labels: Canada, Mexico, NAFTA, NASCO, North American Union, Supercorridor, Superhighway, USA
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Welcome to the NAFTA Dance: May I see YOUR invitation?
Monday, June 25, 2007
The same way water seeks its own level; NAFTA seeks to level the field
between Canada, the USA and Mexico.
Under the guise of creating a seamless commercial endeavor between the three countries, it appears NAFTA will in fact create a North
American Union similar to the way the European Union was created. Smaller less economically developed nations could share in prosperity and economic growth by becoming members of the larger ‘Nation of Commerce’. NAFTA will certainly lead to the same situation on the North American Continent. This scheme, for better or for worse, is rolling full steam ahead.
I can think of no other country that may guard its sovereignty more tenaciously than Great Britain, who did not sign on to the EU.
So why are people in Canada and the US only now starting to take a look at what may become of their sovereignty? The answer is simple answer is much of the nuts-and-bolts of this agreement have been parsed out to the people one tiny bite at a time, with many of the facts being concocted in high-level secret meetings where the public has not been made privy to these facts.
NAFTA has been served to the people in small bites that are easily swallowed, digested and passed. The pile of facts surrounding these digested pieces is now beginning to smell.
Proponents of the NAFTA, nearly without exception, are large corporations who stand to rake in even more profits and smaller business that hope to become larger by this agreement.
The battle cry for the seamless integration of these three nations is Security and Prosperity as the name (SPP) Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America would indicate. But, it isn’t clear what part of our security will be enhanced by this plan. What is clear is that the Security OF Prosperity will be enhanced.
Does the seamless transportation of goods from Mexico to Canada through the USA make us more secure?
Is prosperity the definnition of security? According to the CEO’s of industry and the Politicians the answer is yes.
We will have a look at these people tomorrow.
Labels: Canada, Mexico, NAFTA, NASCO, North American Union, SPP, Supercorridor, Superhighway, USA
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
NAFTA, the SPP, Deep Integration: Follow the Yellow Brick Road!
Friday, June 22, 2007
If we thought the FTAA was going to send us up the river, we may want to hang on to our oars.
NAFTA is coming to a neighborhood near you.
If you are a “superpower”, or “any variation” on the superpower theme, such as Canada, Mexico and the USA you’re going to be thrilled over what is in store for you.
If, however, you happen to be an ordinary Joe, you’ll want to sharpen up your focus. Business and Industry is asking us to leave on our rose colored glasses. I suggest we take them off and have a good look at what NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) is going to do for us.
To put things into perspective I’ll quote and misquote Shakespeare. “Me thinks the lady doth protest too much.” Sounds pretty good. Sounds fairly right. Still, something about that quote sounds just a little wrong, doesn’t it?
That’s the way the NAFTA agreement sounds. It sounds pretty good. It sounds fairly right, in it’s concept, anyway. A free flowing exchange of goods from Canada to Mexico with the US looking a lot like the ‘middleman’. Hey, someone has to broker the deals. Still, something sounds just a little wrong.
In reality the correct Shakespere quote is “The lady doth protest too much, me thinks”.
The supporters of NAFTA seem to be protesting a bit too much. For example the people at North America’s Supercorridor Coalition,INC (NASCO) state they have a “fervent devotion” to transport efficiency. I don’t mean to call anyones idea of devotion into question. But, Devotion? Fervent? Transport efficiency?
I’m really fond of ice cream. Sometimes I honestly ‘desire’ ice cream, but fervent devotion just seems a little over the top to me. Maybe a bit ‘too much’.
The people at NASCO also seem to be more than just a little ticked off at their ‘critics’. NASCO says, “Critics are attempting to exploit this ‘misunderstanding’ to disrupt federal, state, and local projects aimed at propelling our communities and countries foward”
NASCO doesn’t state what those ‘misunderstandings’ may be. Explaining those misunderstandings would be the right thing to do, given the context of their statement. Maybe they don’t want to bring them up, call more attention to them, maybe even expose more issues inadvertantly.
The NASCO doth protest too much, me thinks!
Why in the world would anyone want to ‘disrupt’ federal, state and local projects aimed at propelling our communities and countries forward? That seems to be a resonable question. Why would anyone want to do that?
Why indeed. Perhaps “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”.
We’ll be spending several days trying to get to the bottom, or the top of this complicated issue starting with the ’superhighway’ on Monday.
Labels: Canada, Mexico, NAFTA, NASCO, Speak no Evil, Supercorridor, Superhighway, USA
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
NAFTA Superhighway: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
