News about gm foods

June 5, 2005

(Organic Bytes) Weeks Biggest Environment,

Consumer and

Organic News Tidbits

Tue, 24 May 2005 14:24:46 -0700

" Organic Consumers Association "

<listadmin

This Weeks Biggest Environment, Consumer and

Organic News

Tidbits (Organic Bytes #58)

Organic Consumers Association

Food, Consumer and Environment News Tidbits with an

Edge!

Organic Bytes #58

5/24/2005

EXPLOSIVE MONSANTO DOCUMENTS REVEAL SERIOUS HAZARDS OF

GENETICALLY

ENGINEERED CORN

A May 22 headline news story in the London Independent

has rocked

Monsanto and the biotech industry and fueled the

controversy over the

safety of genetically engineered food. The story

reveals that internal

Monsanto documents, reviewed by EU scientists, show

serious health

damage to laboratory animals fed Monsanto's new

genetically engineered

" rootworm-resistant " corn. Rats who consumed the

mutant corn developed

smaller kidneys and exhibited blood abnormalities.

Scientists say

these are " red flags " for immune system damage and/or

cancer tumor

promotion. Although the EU will now likely ban

Monsanto's new GMO

corn, this same rootworm-resistant corn is already

being grown and

consumed on a major scale in the United States.

Monsanto has denied

that the corn can harm humans, but nonetheless refuses

to turn over

its data to the media, claiming that the lab studies

are " Confidential

Business Information. "

Learn more and take action:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.htm

CALIFORNIA MAN'S DEATH MAY BE LINKED TO MAD COW

DISEASE

The USDA has recently been accused of been covering up

cases of mad

cow disease for over a decade. Now a deceased

California man's family

and doctor have announced they believe Patrick Hicks,

aged 49, died

late last year from variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease,

or vCJD. The

fatal disease is contracted from eating beef

contaminated with mad cow

disease. Dr. Ron Bailey, a neurologist at Riverside

Medical Center,

believes this will be the first documented case of

vCJD in the U.S.,

and in order to bypass the hand of the USDA, is

sending brain samples

overseas for testing in an independent laboratory.

Over 150 Europeans

have already died from vCJD, with thousands more

believed to be

incubating the disease.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/CAman051605.cfm

EUROPE DEBATES THE MOST MASSIVE CHEMICAL BAN IN

HISTORY

The European Parliament is set to debate new

regulations that would

dramatically increase the number of banned chemicals

in the EU. The

law would require manufacturers of some 30,000

currently legal

chemicals to provide scientific evidence that their

products are safe

for human health and the environment. If the

legislation passes, it

would have a major impact on thousands of chemicals

and products

manufactured and sold in the U.S. Despite much weaker

regulations in

the U.S. many American companies have no choice but to

adhere to

European regulations given that the EU, with 25

countries and 460

million people, represents an even larger market than

the U.S.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/Politics/strict051805.cfm

AVIAN INFLUENZA DEEMED MOST SERIOUS GLOBAL HEALTH

THREAT

World Health Organization Director, General Lee

Jong-Wook opened the

58th World Health Assembly last week by saying avian

influenza is the

most serious health threat facing the world. " The

timing cannot be

predicted, but rapid international spread is certain

once the pandemic

virus appears, " Lee said. " This is a grave danger for

all people in

all countries. " Lee strongly advised leaders of every

nation to

implement, as a top priority, systems for responding

to the onset of

the virus.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/Politics/avian051805.cfm

CORPORATE DOLLAR OVERPOWERS SCIENCE...AGAIN

The American Diabetic Association (ADA) is suddenly

countering decades

of scientific studies that have consistently linked

diets high in

sugar to diabetes. In a May 16 interview, Richard

Kahn, the chief

scientific and medical officer with the ADA said " What

is the evidence

that sugar itself has anything to do with diabetes?

There is no

evidence. " Coincidentally, last month, the ADA

announced a

" three-year, multi-million dollar alliance " with

Cadbury Schweppes,

which is the third largest producer of soft drinks in

the world.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/diabetes051705.cfm

BILL SAYS SODA POP IN SCHOOLS IS GOOD

The Oregon Senate Education Committee has rewritten a

law that would

have banned soft drinks from vending machines in the

state's schools.

In a complete turnabout, the new law actually gives

the green light to

sugary beverages in schools. Lawmakers instrumental in

the rewrite

process claim the change of heart has nothing to do

with the fact that

the Oregon Soft Drink Association, a powerful industry

lobby group

opposed to banning junk foods in schools, contributed

$91,000 to their

election campaigns in 2004.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/coke050905.cfm

REMOTE CONTROL HUNTING

Texas entrepreneur John Lockwood, whose new internet

business

advertises a " real time on-line hunting and shooting

experience, " has

spurred emergency proposed legislation in 14 states.

Lockwood's

website charges a monthly fee to rs who can

then sit at their

computers, anywhere in the world, watch live web

cameras situated on

Lockwood's game farm, and remotely shoot guns at

real-life animals

with the click of a mouse. Animal rights groups, the

National Rifle

Association and legislators across the U.S. are

teaming up to pass

laws that would ban such activity, referencing dangers

of the spread

of remotely fired guns, while Lockwood argues that

this is a more

ethical way of harvesting food than buying factory

farm meats from the

slaughterhouse.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/hunt.cfm What do

you think? Share your thoughts on this issue in OCA's

web forum:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/chat/index.php

NEW " MONSANTO LAWS " AIM TO MUTE COMMUNITY RIGHTS

Responding to the growing number of localities whose

citizens are

voting to regulate or even ban genetically engineered

crops, the

biotech industry, led by Monsanto and Syngenta, has

brought new

legislation to ten states in the U.S. that would

remove the rights of

communities to have any control of agricultural

regulations in their

area. On one side of the issue, citizens and farmers

in counties that

have banned GE crops, like Mendocino, Calif., say they

have a right to

protect their predominantly organic county from

contamination by GE

pollen from neighboring crops. On the other side of

the issue, the

biotech industry is investing tens of millions of

dollars to remove

these local rights, saying anti-GE citizens and

farmers " lack the

education to make these kinds of decisions. "

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/laws052005.cfm

QUICK NEWS TIDBITS

The European Union has, once again, rejected

Monsanto's genetically

engineered sweet corn. Under pressure from the U.S.,

the EU lifted its

ban on GE foods last year, but has since only approved

two GE products

for import. The U.S. claims the EU's precautionary

stance on GE foods

is a violation of free trade agreements.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/sweetcorn052305.cfm

In December of 2004, the OCA rallied its supporters in

a massive

letter writing campaign to the University of

California Berkeley. At

the time, Dr. Igancio Chapela had been denied his

tenure for speaking

out on the issue of GE crop contamination. Thanks to

everyone who took

action, the University has announced it will reverse

its prior

decision and grant Dr. Chapela his well deserved

tenure.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/ignacio052305.cfm

New Chapter Inc. has become the first company to prove

that vitamins

can be made 100% organic, following the guidelines of

the USDA

National Organic Program (NOP). The USDA currently

refuses to regulate

products such as vitamins and body care, based on

their argument that

the NOP should only regulate food, despite the fact

that the NOP

regulations specifically oversee how a product is

created, not how a

product is consumed.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/supplements051805.cfm

Alaska has become the first state to pass a bill that

will require the

labeling of genetically engineered fish. Senator Gary

Stevens said of

the bill, " The message that Alaska seafood is more

natural than

seafood that has been engineered in a lab is a highly

important

marketing tool. " There were no discussions as to how

that same

regulatory labeling philosophy should apply to other

genetically

engineered foods.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/alaskabill051105.cfm

WHOOPS

We're a little embarrassed... The OCA would like to

apologize for

referencing a non-OCA related document in our last

issue of Organic

Bytes that contained an incorrect statistic. The

article we cited

claimed that a new study connected high consumption of

processed meats

with a 6700% increase in cancer. Woah!!! That shocked

the heck out of

us too. But the article we were referencing, along

with several other

newspaper articles, were wrong. The actual study put

that rate at 67%.

We apologize, for not quadruple checking our sources

in that Byte, but

are proud to say this is the first statistical error

retraction in 57

issues of this publication, a commendable record for

any purely

fact-based publication.

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