Cereal Crimes

For more information: www.cornucopia.org "Natural" claims in the cereal and granola aisle mislead consumers. A new research study from The Cornucopia Institute indicates the "natural" claim is mostly meaningless marketing hype, in contrast to the USDA certified organic label which signifies the food was produced without genetically modified organisms (GMOs), toxic pesticides and other potentially dangerous synthetic inputs. Cornucopia and USDA research finds GMOs, and toxic pesticide residues, in "natural" cereal ingredients... and many "natural" brands are often priced higher than equivalent organic products.

According to the Darwinian principle ("natural selection" ? "survival of the fittest"), living organisms are more or less passive "objects", whose activity is restricted to the "desire" to multiply. Beneficial chance variations in the progeny provide them with the ability to survive in the given environmental conditions, and evolution results from the appearance of more and more fit species. According to Lamarckian principle, living organisms possess intrinsic activity for perfection. In response to changing environmental factors organisms are able to modify their whole organization. Adaptive changes of living organisms can be inherited in their progeny providing for the transmission of the acquired successful trait in generations. Lamarck is mostly known for suggestion of this mechanism that was ridiculed for the whole XXth century. However re-discovery of epigenetic inheritance rehabilitated Lamarck in this respect, though his "intrinsic activity" principle is still neglected as "vitalistic". The principle of intrinsic activity implies that living organisms use internal forces for the performance of functions for their self-development and sustaining alive. Besides an organism actively extracts energy (and matter) from its environment and is capable to concentrate it. Thus an organism has higher energetic potential than its (immediate) environment and incessantly transforms this potential into free energy. Rejection of the principle of intrinsic activity is based on the ...