GMW: Evidence of harm from GMOs growing.

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GMW: EVIDENCE OF HARM FROM GMOS GROWING"GM WATCH" <infoWed, 19 Apr 2006 21:24:20 +0100GM WATCH dailyhttp://www.gmwatch.org---EXCERPT: This is the same company that in February 22, 2002, was foundguilty by a US court in Anniston, of poisoning the water supply of thelocal residents, on all six counts of "negligence, wantonness andsuppression of the truth, nuisance, trespass, and outrage".---PRESS RELEASE: GMOs REJOINDER AFFIDAVITSERIOUS EVIDENCE OF HARM FROM GMOS TO HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT SAFETY GROWSA Rejoinder Affidavit was filed on the 18th April 2006 in the SupremeCourt [in India]. This is a

follow-up of the Public Interest WritPetition, filed last year for a moratorium on Genetically Engineeredcrops,pending a comprehensive and transparent biosafety testing protocol.The 'Rejoinder' contains clear and damning evidence from independentworld scientists about serious hazards of GM crops to health andbiosafety. It effectively destroys the government's stance that GM crops,including those used for animal feed, eg. Bt cotton are safe.One of the main selling platforms of the biotech industry, for example,is that GM crops are effective against pests and weeds. Scientists havelong known that both claims hold little truth based on their knowledgeof how 'resistance' occurs in nature. Farmers around the world havereported it for both Bt and herbicide-tolerant GM crops. They wereignored. Now, there is scientific proof that GM crops, both pest and weedresistant crops create a nightmare of super pests and super

weedspreciselybecause of the phenomenon of resistance. Yet various nationalgovernments, including the Indian Government, have preferred to belured by thehigh claims of the biotech industry and their commercial agenda toprofiteer and control farming through patents. The G of I has evenignoredthe reasons for farmer suicides directly linked to the failure of Btcotton and has comprehensively ditched farmer interests and public healthsafeguards to support the biotech industry. So if this fundamentaltenet of GE is now proven to be the sham it always was, the Q is: What is left of this technology and what conclusions must civilsociety draw from a government that is resolute in its support of thebiotech and US commercial agenda? The evidence against GE on every dimension of biosafety is now soserious that the 'Rejoinder' accuses the Government of "deliberate intentto allow GM

contamination in India. The biosafety violations are soextreme that they represent the highest betrayal of India's nationalinterest including national food security".Transgenic (Bt) cotton is recognised by scientists to be a potentiallytoxic crop. Therefore, the effects of GM crops are similar to that ofpesticides and must be tested accordingly, using stringentsafety-testing protocols as required in the Public Interest Writ. Itmust bestressed that no GM food has been proven safe for human consumptionanywherein the world because the safety testing has simply not been done.Notwithstanding the serious evidence of biosafety hazards of GE, theGovernment has concluded an agreement with the US, which will swamp Indiawith GM crops and allow access by multinational biotech corporations toIndia's rich genetic wealth. The so-called 2nd green revolution to beushered in by the 'Indo-US Knowledge Initiative on

Agricultural Researchand Education', will contaminate India's biodiversity and our foodsupply in perpetuity. It astoundingly elevates Monsanto, a thoroughlydiscredited company internationally, to the position of official 'USbrandambassador' to India. Monsanto is the 90% monopoly leader of biotechwith the stated dark dream of supremacy over world agriculture, where"NATURAL SEEDS ARE VIRTUALLY EXTINCT and the hope of the industry is thatover time, the market is so flooded that there's nothing you can doabout it. You just sort of surrender". This is the same company that inFebruary 22, 2002, was found guilty by a US court in Anniston, ofpoisoning the water supply of the local residents, on all six counts of"negligence, wantonness and suppression of the truth, nuisance,trespass, andoutrage". Outrage, according to Alabama law, usually requires conduct"so outrageous in character and extreme in degree as to go

beyond allpossible bounds of decency so as to be regarded as atrocious and utterlyintolerable in civilized society."Monsanto hasn't changed. If Monsanto hid what it knew about its toxicpollution for decades, what is it hiding now? And what does it mean,what are we called upon to believe, when the Indian Government forms analliance with such a company, with such a track record? This agreementwill deliver Monsanto's dark agenda with the active help of the IndianGovernment! It is a morally bankrupt and ethically deviant policy on GM;a tragically inappropriate tie-up, wholly detrimental to the nationalinterest, which impacts sovereign issues of genetic wealth and IPRs,bio-safety, food security, farmer and consumer rights and public health.The Country now faces the unbelievable situation, which defies the mostelementary logic, where Indian policy concerning these issues will besubject to even greater manipulation than

at present, by privatemulti-national biotech corporations that exist to make a profit. Thecompanywith its hand firmly on the rudder is MONSANTO! The Rejoinder providesevidence of why and how this will lead to the predicted fait accompliof contamination that is "the objective of a regulatory body, which ismanifestly in a conspiracy of collusion and UNTRUTH with the biotechindustry". This is a serious charge. It asks for a high level enquirybased on prima facie evidence of the regulatory bodies including the GEACof misleading the Prime Minister and his cabinet about the hazards ofGM.It is a truism that the goal of health safety-assessment is that a"food should not cause harm when prepared, used or eaten according to itsintended use" (Codex Alimentarious guideline 2003). Or, to expand thelogic, if a product causes cancer in animals, it should not be put infood. This is in fact the

`Delaney Amendment' in the US, which is beingused in the case against Monsanto's Aspartame, (the sweetner alsocalled EQUAL), which has been proven to cause cancer amongst otherserioushazards as outlined in the Writ Petition. If GMOs cause cancer in rats,as has been demonstrated along with other significant health risks,then, eminent world scientists are absolutely right to call forstringent,independent and peer-reviewed long-term animal feeding studies todetermine the health safety of GM crops. Until then they have calledfor aglobal moratorium. This is also the impeccable logic of the Petitionersprayer in the WP. The `Precautionary Principle' is the superiorscientific principle and path that must be followed most urgently forGM cropsbecause the spread of GMOs will alter the molecular structure of theworld's food supply in PERPETUITY. Even if, eventually, for the sake ofargument, the

evidence against GM were to be proved wrong on alldimensions of biosafety, it would still prove to be `right action'based onprudence, for India to apply the precautionary principle in the SHORTTERM in order to be reasonably sure of the biosafety of GM crops. Theshort term is a mere blip on the horizon of perpetuity and worth everynano-bit of trouble to avoid a disaster of unimaginable and manymagnitudes, should even a small part of the evidence be proved right.Aruna RodriguesPetitionerCo-Petitioners: Devinder Sharma, Rajeev Baruah and PV Satheesh------------------------ "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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