Americans to Obama, Stay off Biotech

[Guest guest]

Thanks Mr. Chatterjee for posting such a nervechilling story on 'biotech

development.'

Sakti

 

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 6:45 PM, Jagannath Chatterjee

<jagchat01wrote:

 

> Don't be fooled by the 'Biotech Myth'

> Grand Forks Herald

> Published Monday, November 24, 2008

> http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=94342 & section=Opinion

> By Kristine Mattis

>

> GRAND FORKS — The new presidential administration would do well to ignore

> the not-very-impartial advice of Art Brandli ( " Obama must lead on biotech, "

> Page A4, Nov. 15).

> Biotechnology may have produced exponential economic growth for large

> agribusiness corporations such as Monsanto, Cargill, DuPont and Dow, but it

> has done little to help people.

> There exists a world food crisis, but as Francis Moore Lappe and others

> have noted, we do not have a world food shortage. We have a problem of

> growers forced to produce monocultures for export while not being able to

> feed themselves and their own communities.

> We have enormous distribution problems and tremendous waste. The United

> Nations recently estimated that at least 50 percent of food produced ends up

> as garbage, while billions of people around the world go hungry.

> A three-year study by the University of Kansas showed that genetically

> modified soybeans produce 10 percent less yield than their non-GM

> counterparts. So, even if there were shortages, biotechnology is not the

> solution.

> Moreover, the safety claims of biotechnology are dubious at best. GM foods

> do not undergo comprehensive health studies before being released to the

> market. Dr. Arpad Pusztai of the United Kingdom conducted the world's most

> thorough research on the health effects of GM foods. He found evidence of

> autoimmune problems, allergic reactions, underdeveloped organ growth and

> cancer resulting from the ingestion of genetically modified food.

> Is it any wonder that farm animals and wildlife feeding on agricultural

> crops avoid GM crops at all costs?

> Furthermore, genetic modification of crops has the potential to alter the

> genes of, and consequently the health of, entire ecosystems. Pollen from GM

> plants can travel far and wide, creating a " genetic pollution. " GM crops

> also create a seed dependence for farmers, which often ruins their

> prosperity and their lives. More than half a million farmers in India have

> committed suicide as a result of losing their livelihoods to the endless

> cycle of dependence on seeds and chemicals that biotechnology produces.

> Finally, the unknown and potentially irreversible consequences of such

> technology are innumerable. GM crops are treated with extreme caution in

> Europe.. Starving nations on the African continent even have banned the

> import of GM food aid from America.

> Another biotech example, recombinant bovine growth hormone, was introduced

> by Monsanto in 1994 to increase milk production in cows, even though America

> was already producing far too much milk. Monsanto hoped increased milk

> production would drive down milk prices, thereby putting small dairy farms

> out of business while huge agribusiness corporations could absorb the costs

> and take over the market.

> But the real results of rBGH use were not just financial. It produced

> severe impairment and infection in dairy cows. That infection and the

> antibiotics used to treat it are passed down to the milk consumer. Other

> health effects from ingesting dairy products made from rBGH: higher risk of

> colon, prostate and breast cancers, possible role in pediatric bone cancer

> and implication in lung cancer.

> No wonder countries such as Canada, New Zealand and all of the European

> Union have long ago banned rBGH from even being introduced.

> President-elect Obama should be curtailing the use of biotechnology and

> implementing the precautionary principle within our current regulations. The

> rest of the Western world is light years ahead in consumer protection and

> the use of sustainable agriculture, while the American government remains

> under the influence of agribusiness giants who are on a mission to control

> the entire world's food supply to the peril of us all.

>

> Mattis is a graduate student in Earth System Science and Policy at UND.

>

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>