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Genetically Modified Foods (GM)
We have to include a conversation about the 'Genetically Modified' foods.
What is meant by GMO ('genetically modified
organism' or just GM or GE for 'genetically engineered')? If this is new
to you, you are in for a surprise. Modern science has learned not only
how to read the DNA of organisms, they have also learned how to modify
it. Is it a good thing or a threat to us? Well, this Frankenfood is in
the grocery and on your food shelf. And it has been in the US since
1996.
DNA is the basic instructions in your cells.
These instructions tell each cell what it is to be. It also tells
the cells what the organism is to be. Cancer occurs when the DNA in
a cell is attacked by free radicals causing the cells to be
different than they are suppose to be. Change the DNA and you make a
new cell and possibly a new organism or give an organism different
characteristics.
Imagine taking the DNA that causes a firefly to
glow and putting it in a tobacco plant. You get a glowing tobacco
plant. Cute trick, huh? Or how about putting the DNA of a bacteria
into soybean plants to make them resistant to certain pests. Or crops that produce sterile seeds that
will not sprout the next season. Or corn that produces its own
insecticide.
We have all seen what happens when you
introduce a new organism to an area it never existed before in.
The companies that make this stuff got the FDA to
not require GMO labels on your food. You don't even know what
food you are eating has GMO products in it. (You would be shocked to
know how prevalent GMO foods are in the US marketplace,
click here to
see a list.)
"Treat the Earth well: it was not given to you
by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not
inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children." - American Indian Proverb
DNA manipulation has the promise of great things.
We could make crops resistant to insects and diseases. We could
change cows so that their milk contains better nutrients, plants
with wider range of nutrition. Tomatoes
that can be shipped across country with cells walls do not
breakdown so they stay firm to the market place. Rabbits
that glow in the dark. Bacteria that survives the GM plants and
kills bees. Diseases we need new names for.
“With the exception of climate change,
genetically modified crops are the most serious political and
environmental question under debate at the current time.” - Michael
Meacher MP, Former Environment Minister
United Kingdom.
There is only one problem with playing GOD. These
new organisms are not natural. Nature has spent millions of years
finding a balance. Whether we like it or not there is a harmony in
nature. If nature wanted a tobacco plant that would glow in the
dark, it would already exist. For whatever reason Western civilization doesn't respect
what GOD and nature have put together. We are not content to accept
our responsibility as caretakers of the planet Earth and its flora
and fauna. We have to change it. We have done a fine job so far. The
air is not good to breath. The water is polluted. Our foods are the
cause of our disease. We introduce thousands of new chemicals into
our environment each year. We are pushing our planet towards global
warming which could be the beginning of the end. Now we want to
modify the basic DNA of plants and animals to create new life
forms.
Winston Churchill:
“Science should be on tap, not on top.”
What is the price we could pay for the promise of bigger,
better and faster genetically modified plants and animals? Is it
worth that cost? We don't even know what that cost is or could be.
There is minimal research being done on this. And much of the
research that is being done is by the companies like Monsanto who have a
vested interest in making sure their products are given the FDA
blessing if the FDA is even looking at it. This has the potential of
being a huge catastrophe even a threat to our very survival. And we
may not
know until it is too late. Boycott GMO products!!! Do it for your
children and grandchildren.
| 60-70% of food products in US grocery stores are already
genetically modified or contain GM substances. (2) |
 |
| Read "So what's wrong with GMOs?" as given by
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho in a
plenary lecture to the People's Health Assembly
2, 17-22 July 2005, Cuenca, Ecuador.
Click here |
No one knows what the long term effects could be
of this. How can we even consider this path without concern about
what could happen? It was once said that science itself is not evil,
it is how this science is used.
But we have proven over and over again that we cannot keep the genie
in the bottle once we know how to let it out. And there are powerful
companies that are more interested in profits than the well being
and possible survival of mankind. Don't worry, be happy. What you
don't know won't hurt you, right?
 | There is no requirement in the US to label
GMO foods as such. You could be eating GMO foods right now and
not know it. (Take a look at the list,
click here.) You could be eating a product that now contains
a protein you have an allergy to that was never there before and
you won't know it until you eat it. |
| No one know what the possible long term
effects are to humans that consume GM products. There is reason
to believe that GM soybeans (60% of the soybeans produced in
the US are GM.) are hazardous to our health. Many countries
like Japan will no longer import our soybeans. |
| Dr. Arpad Pusztai was commissioned by the
German government to evaluate a Monsanto study concerning any
toxicities in MON863 corn in light of Monsanto pushing to get
the ok to export their GM seeds to Europe. Pusztai's report stated, "..this imperfectly
designed and executed (Monsanto) study revealed a huge list of
significant differences between the various biologically
meaningful parameters of rats fed GM maize diets and the proper
controls.." "..the study strongly indicates that feeding rats
on diets containing significant amounts of MON 863 corn can
potentially be detrimental to the health of these animals and
may cause major lesions in important organs (kidneys, liver,
etc.), interfere with the function of their immune system
(lymphocyte, WBC, granulocyte counts) and change their
metabolism (glucose)…"(5) Monsanto still got the ok for
MON863 Corn to be feed to animals and allowed into the food.
|
| "Why Do Cattle Die Eating Bt Cotton Plants
Only In The Telengana Region Of Andhra Pradesh In India? " read
the headlines in AgiBioWorld article. This is the same article
that says MON863 corn did not cause the toxicity in rats feed
it. Bt Cotton has a gene added to from a bacterium bacillus
thurigiensis to American cotton to poison bollworms, pests to
the cotton plant. Earlier about 120 sheep died on eating Bt
cotton leaves in 11 Mandals of Warangal and Khammam districts
(in India), last year. (4) |
| Monsanto plans to produce GM seeds for food
crops. These seeds not only have what some consider good
attributes over the natural varieties, but the plants produce
sterile seeds that WILL NOT GROW the next crop season. So if you
want to raise that plant again next season you have to purchase
seeds from Monsanto. At face value you could say what a
great marketing gimmick. Sure guarantees profits to that
company. Well, how about all the people in third world countries
that depend on getting seeds for the next season from the
current crops? Those seeds will not grow crops. Worse than that,
there is strong evidence of cross contamination between GMO
crops and non-GMO crops. That is why this was proposed in the
first place to keep GM and contaminated non-GM crops from
reproducing and making the issue worse. Read
How Monsanto's mind was changed to get the real picture
of this craziness. |
| There is reason to believe bees are being
killed off from the GMO crops they have been exposed to. (If you
didn't know this
50-90% of the honey bees are gone
in North America.) More than 100
plants are pollinated by bees. This has huge, wide spread implications
if bees do not pollinate plants. Many plants depend on insects,
like bees, to travel between them to pollinate. No pollination,
no fruit, no plants. (Click here for more information -
Bee Colony Collapse Disorder - Where is it
Heading?) |
| Products of apiculture are especially exposed
to the GMO issue since honey bees will not stop collecting at
the border of a GMO field. Pollen and nectar of GMO crop are
as attractive as conventional crops to bees. One question
arising is: are active substances from transgenic plants harmful
to the insects especially the honey bees? (15) |
| US Food and Drug Administration had data
since the early 1990s showing that rats fed GM tomatoes with antisense gene to delay ripening developed small holes in their
stomach (7) |
| Monarch butterfly larva die from eating GMO
plants. Remember when butterflies were abundant? How many did
you see last year? |
| An Italian
researcher found that mice fed on GM soya experienced a slowdown
in cellular metabolism and modifications in liver and pancreas. |
| A study, in
Australia, showed that genes from a bean introduced into a pea
created a protein that caused such serious inflammation of lung
tissue in mice that the research was halted. |
| A
Russian scientist, found that an astonishing 55 per cent of the
offspring of rats fed on GM soya died within three weeks of
birth compared with only 9 per cent in the control group.
|
| Between 2001 and 2002, twelve dairy cows died
on a farm in Hesse, Germany, after eating Syngenta’s Bt176 GM
maize, and others in the herd had to be slaughtered on account
of mysterious illnesses [21]. Todate, there has been no
detailed autopsy reports available, even though the company
claims the deaths and illnesses were unrelated to Bt176.
Nevertheless the Spanish Food Safety Authority has just
withdrawn authorisation for Bt176 cultivation in Spain [22]
after it had occupied almost all of the 20 000 hectares of GM
maize grown in Spain since 1998 [23]. The decision was taken
following an EFSA recommendation that GMOs containing antibiotic
resistance marker genes such as that found in Bt 176, be
restricted to field trials. (9) |
| Grape seeds are the source of a powerful
antioxidant. When you eat grapes you should also eat the seeds
for your health. If there are any seeds. |
| Allergies: By inserting foreign DNA into
common foods, without adequate safety testing, the biotech
industry is introducing possible new food allergens (1) |
| Antibiotic Resistance: The rise of diseases
that are resistant to treatment with common antibiotics is
already a serious medical concern. Doctors warn that the current
use of antibiotic resistant genes in GM crops may add to this
risk (1) |
| Arpad Pusztai and colleagues found that GM
potatoes with snowdrop lectin adversely affected every organ
system of young rats, and the stomach and small intestine lining
grew up to twice the thickness of controls (10)
Scientists in Egypt found similar results in the
gastrointestinal tract of mice fed GM potato with Bt
toxin (11) |
| GM insect resistant crops could create
superbugs who will build up a tolerance to a fundamental pest
control tool used by organic farmers; the loss of this tool
would be devastating to the safest, most environmentally
friendly food production we have. (1) A whole new crop of
resistant insects. |
| Aventis (now Bayer) found 100% increase in
deaths of broiler chickens fed glufosinate-tolerant GM maize T25
compared to controls (8) |
| Other studies have shown that GM crops can
cross-pollinate with related weeds, resulting in "superweeds"
that become difficult to control. Canadian canola growers have
found weeds in their fields resistant to Round-Up and Liberty
herbicides, forcing the growers to use more potent & toxic
herbicides. (1) |
| Biological Pollution: Unlike chemicals that
are released into the environment, genetically engineered
organisms are living things that will reproduce and spread
uncontrollably and at will, with little possibility of
containment or clean-up. (1) |
| International scientists, including those
from the United States, have praised Zimbabwe and Zambia for
rejecting genetically-modified food donations from the West
to feed scores of their rural folk facing drought-induced food
shortages.
By standing firm against GMOs, said the scientists, the two
governments avoided manipulation and deception, which could have
resulted in their vulnerable poor being used as guinea pigs.
(13) |
| Corporate Hijack of Sustainable
Agriculture Backfired to Moratorium on GMOs
- The IUCN (World Conservation Union) World
Conservation Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, voted overwhelmingly
for a moratorium on further environmental releases of GMOs
“until this can be demonstrated to be safe for biodiversity,
human and animal health beyond reasonable doubt ”. (14) |
| More than 60 million hectare of GMO crops
are being cultivated in the world with increasing tendency.
It is mainly corn, soy beans and cotton. |
| 'Transgenic instability' is a key safety
issue. A GM variety that has changed its identity since
characterized by the company, invalidates any safety tests or
assessments that may have been done. It also makes it impossible
to identify the GM variety for post-release monitoring, for
implementing remedial action in case of harm and for assigning
liability. (6) Which makes that product illegal in Europe. Some
GM products do not stay the same. The next generation plant is
different the prior generation therefore any tests given on
the first generation do not apply to the second generation. |
There is a powerful movement in other parts of the
world to stop US imports of GMO products. Groups in Europe are
organizing to create GMO Free-Europe. The European Parliament is
voting soon on a measure to keep ALL GMO products out of foods in
Europe. We Americans blindly go along thinking the FDA & USDA will keep bad
things out of food. Wrong. They are tools of the big
corporations.
You won't find "genetically engineered" on the
label of any products containing GE ingredients in the US. The FDA
cooperated with the companies who
don't want you to know that their products are an experiment unique
in human history, an experiment that doctors and scientists around
the world are warning may not be safe. (1) NON-GMO products do say
so on the packaging. Read the labels of your food.
"While
scientific progress on molecular biology has
a great potential to increase our
understanding of nature and provide new
medical tools, it should not be used as
justification to turn the environment into a
giant genetic experiment by commercial
interests. The biodiversity and
environmental integrity of the world's food
supply is too important to our survival to
be put at risk." - Greenpeace 
"Let's go eat some
genetically modified food for lunch." -
President Bush, in private remarks at the
White House to visiting European leaders.
Golden Rice - GM Rice
There is an interesting
argument over "Golden Rice", a GM rice that
has the gene modified to increase its
content of Vitamin A. The supporters tout
how this super rice could prevent blindness
in thousands of people in developing
countries. What is the truth? The truth is
not a shortage of good food, but lack of
distribution to poor countries. This PDF from
Greenpeace not only discusses the reality
vs. fiction on this product, but it also
shows what producers and supporters of these
GM products do to get acceptance of their
products.
Click here for PDF - "Golden Rice - Fact or
Fiction"
* * * * * * * * *
Greenpeace is demanding the complete and immediate
withdrawal of Monsanto's MON 863 maize from the global market and is
calling on governments to undertake an urgent reassessment of all
other authorized GE products and a strict review of current testing
methods.
"This is the final nail in the coffin for the
credibility of the current authorization system for GE products. Now
it's known that a system designed to protect human and animal health
has approved a high-risk product despite clear evidence of its
dangers, we need to start 'strip-searching' all GE products on the
market, and immediately abort this flawed approval procedure," said
Christoph Then, Genetic Engineer campaigner, Greenpeace
International.
* * * * * * * * * *
If the Honey Bees Die...
Albert Einstein made the statement
"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would
only have four years left to live." He was speaking in regard to the
symbiotic relationship of all life on the planet. All part of a huge
interconnected ecosystem, each element playing a role dependant on
many other elements all working in concert creating the symphony of
life. Should any part of the global body suffer, so does the whole
body."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is
for good men to do nothing"
Links:
|
Michael Meacher: To know the truth about GM, ask the Canadians
- Minister of the Environment UK
1996-2003 (PDF
copy to download.) |
|
Michael Meacher:
GM: why I think it matters
- another to
the point article from a past Minister of the Environment UK (PDF
copy to download) |
|
| Michael
Meacher - Are GM Crops Safe? (PDF
copy to download) |
|
How Monsanto's mind was changed -
In spring the
US giant was sure its GM technology was unbeatable. Then one man
convinced the organization that the game was up. This is worth
reading. Monsanto was dead set on introducing seeds that produce
sterile seeds that won't grow the next season. This is the story
of how it was stopped at least temporarily. (PDFcopy
to download) |
|
Am I eating genetically
engineered foods?
- From
Cornell University. The answer is yes. Read this page to know
how you are getting exposed to GM foods and what isn't GM. |
|
So what's
wrong with GMOs? -
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
told the
People's Health Assembly that GM is proving bad
for health because it goes against the grain of the new genetics
science
(PDFcopy
to download) |
|
Troubled Times Amid Commercial Success for Roundup Ready
Soybeans - The argument for
creating GMO soybeans was to cut down on the amount of weed
killer needed. Apparently that isn't what is happening. In fact
more is required. Read this. |
|
Be
careful about certifying in writing that crops are free of GMOs
- University of Minnesota Extension cautioning farmers
about certifying their crops are GM free even if they are using
Non-GMO seeds. |
|
GMO Free
Europe - Europe is organizing to keep GMO products out
of Europe. |
|
Say no to genetic engineering - Greenpeace supports
slowing down this race towards GMO products |
| Bee
Colony Collapse Disorder - Where is it Heading? |
|
Biotechnology Will Feed the World" and Other Myths
by Karen Charman
|
| |
| The
True Food Network - The Grassroots network for food
safety
Force Feeding Genetically Engineered Foods
by Karen Charman
|
|
Force Feeding Genetically Engineered Foods
by Karen Charman
|
|
SERIOUS FLAWS IN A CONFERENCE ON MORAL IMPERATIVE OF
BIOTECHNOLOGY - a good conversation over the answer to
hunger around the world is not biotechnology it is distribution
of the surplus that exists as given in response to the US
Embassy's presentation to the Pope's in 2004. - (Greenpeace)
(Dr.) Roland Lesseps, S.J., Senior Researcher and Instructor,
Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre, Lusaka, Zambia (rl@uudial.zm)
(Dr.) Peter Henriot, S.J., Director, Jesuit Centre for
Theological Reflection, Lusaka, Zambia (phenriot@zamnet.zm)(3) |
|
Food Standards Australia & New Zealand -
Update: MON863 corn safety assessment
|
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When
it comes to GM food, some say ignorance is bliss -
the February 2007 Idaho Observer - the
National Health Federation (Crop producing nations do not want
food marked as such, the rest of the world wants to know what
they are eating. Read this) |
Links to places you can find out what you can
do:
Footnotes:
| (1) True Food Now.com -
http://www.truefoodnow.org/home_whatis.html |
| (2) Ohio State University -
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5058.html |
| (3) Greenpeace at Greenpeace.org |
| (4) AgriBioWorld.com - March 15, 2007 -
click here |
| (5)
MON88017 Another MON863? - The
Independent Science Panel |
| (6)
GM Food & Feed
Not Fit for "Man or Beast" - the Institute of Science in
Society |
| (7) Pusztai A, Bardocz
S and Ewen SWB. Genetically modified foods: Potential human
health effects. In Food Safety: Contaminants and Toxins,
(J P F D'Mello ed.), Scottish Agricultural College, Edinburgh,
CAB International, 2003 |
| (8) Novotny E. Animals avoid GM food, for
good reasons.
Science in
Society 2004, 21, 9-11. |
| (9) Ho MW and Burcher S. Cows ate GM maize
and died.
Science in Society 2004, 21, 4-6.; and
Ho MW. Syngenta's Spanish Trojan horse.
Science in
Society 2004, 21, 8. |
| (10) Pusztai A, Bardocz
S and Ewen SWB. Genetically modified foods: Potential human
health effects. In Food Safety: Contaminants and Toxins,
(J P F D'Mello ed.), Scottish Agricultural College, Edinburgh,
CAB International, 2003. |
| (11) Fares NH and El-Sayed AK. Fine
structural changes in the ileum of mice fed on
dendotoxin-treated potatoes and transgenic potatoes. Natural
Toxins, 1998, 6, 219-33; also "Bt is toxic" by Joe Cummins
and Mae-Wan Ho, ISIS News 7/8, February 2001, ISSN:
1474-1547 (print), ISSN: 1474-1814 (online)
www.i-sis.org.uk
|
| (12) Greenpeace paper on "The
MON863 case -a chronicle of systematic deception"
|
| (13) Zim, Zambia
Stance On GMO Food Hailed Wisdom Mdzungairi - The Herald
(Harare), October 11, 2005
http://allafrica.com/stories/200510110710.html Summary
article found at The Independent Science Panel -
GM Press Watch |
| (14)
Corporate
Hijack of Sustainable Agriculture Backfired to Moratorium on
GMOs - The Independent Science Panel |
| (15)
GMO (genetically modified organisms)
Agroscope Liebefeld-Posieux Research Station ALP - Confederation
Switzerland
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