GM surprise in the cereal box

[Guest guest]

http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/News/Article.aspx?id=814190 The same atrocities have no doubt been committed in the United States aswell from the very moment the clearly scientifically-illiterate HW Bushsenior issued an Executive Order in 1992 proclaiming GM plants (soya, corn)to be “substantially equivalent” to its traditional counterparts andtherefore not needing any special health safety study or testing.The conceptof substantial equivalence the biotech lobby keeps harping on is by no meansbased on evidence-based science, but was coined by scientifically illiteratelawyers of the biotech industry, in particular Michael Taylor of Monsanto.Ethical scientists and researchers, including my own daughter who is agenetic researcher herself refute the validity of the substantialequivalence principle and consider it the biggest farce and fraud evercommitted in the science field. Not one single double-blind,randomized,controlled HUMAN safety study has ever been conducted providing scientificevidence that GMOs are fit and safe for human (and animal) consumption!Monsanto and the other biotech mafiosi are not in the least concerned aboutthe safety of their genetically engineered concoctions, as once so aptlyexpressed by Phil Angell, Monsanto’s director of corporate communications“ Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Ourinterest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring it’s safety isthe FDA’s job” . The FDA, supposedly established to protect peoples’ health, and otherregulatory bodies such as EPA blindly adopted this ill-begotten ruling,which, however, is not surprising given the amply documented corruptsymbiosis between the FDA and pharma and biotech companies. And anyoneinvolved in the GM debacle, as I have been for the past ten years, is wellaware of the meanwhile legendary revolving door at the FDA, the best exampleof which was the approval of aspartame and Monsanto’s rBGH drug, which wasapproved against the advice and conscience of the FDA’s own scientiststhanks to the moles planted in the FDA by Monsanto, such as Michael Taylormentioned above. The wording of the approval, i.e. “the risks to animals andhumans is MANAGEABLE” goes down in history as the most appalling case oftotal disregard to human health by the very agency that is supposed toprotect the latter and is the first time ever that a veterinary drug hadbeen approved for human consumption because the risk was consideredmanageable. Of course, it will be “manageable”, namely by thebillion-dollar cancer industry, given the fact that according to independentresearchers, scientists and physicians NOT bought and funded by bio-techcompanies rBGH may cause colon, prostrate and breast cancer. Think of allthe wonderful blockbuster drugs that will subsequently be invented andapproved by FDA “scientists” who have financial stakes in the very drug orbiotech companies whose drug they blindly approve and unleash on theunsuspecting public and – oops – too bad when such drugs then kill 70,000people in the U.S. alone as happened in Merck’s Vioxx case. In addition tothe scientifically nonsensical ramblings of the FDA and the extremelywell-remunerated spin doctors of biotech companies, i.e. that geneticallyengineered foods are "substantially equivalent" to their traditionalcounterparts, they also repeat ad nauseum that genetic engineering has beendone for more than thousand years, although even a primary school pupilcould tell you the difference between conventional hybridization and geneticengineering, which entails the insertion of antibiotic-resistant markergenes, viral promoters and foreign proteins never before consumed by mankindand not found in crops produced through normal means of hybridization.The most dangerous viral promoter used in genetic engineering is thecauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV), closely related to the Hepatitis B and HIVvirus (see my article pasted below). South Africans are currently fightingthe release of a genetically modified potato concoction, which againcontains the Bt gene (you will find the latter also in Nestle babyproducts!), the cauliflower mosaic virus and every cell of that potato fromhell contains the antibiotic KANAMYCIN which crosses the placenta andproduces detectable serium levels in the fetus!!! There have been severalreports of total irreversible bilateral congenital deafness in childrenwhose mothers received that drug during pregnancy and kanamycin has beenclassified by the manufacturer as pregnancy risk category D. It also entersbreast milk! And in South Africa (and no doubt in the United States as wellsince the SA project was financed by Michigan State University and UNAID -go figure!) they put that drug in a bloody potato to be consumed by millionsof people (and then they wonder about the sharp rise in multi-drug resistanttuberculosis cases and other multi-drug resistant diseases!) Here is my article (based on research papers by Dr. Mae Wan Ho and Prof. JoeCummins)http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2008/03/19/shedding_light_on_genetically_engineered_food.htm Correlation between GMOs and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis---IngridBlank "Instead of blaming multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis on patients and theiralleged non-adherence to the prescribed drug regime, it would be prudent toinvestigate and eradicate the underlying cause for multi-drug-resistanttuberculosis and other drug and antibiotic resistant infectious diseasesfirst - namely commercial gene technology! The disaster unfolding on aglobal scale is exactly the reason why the first genetic engineers calledfor a moratorium in the Asilomar Declaration of 1975. For decades, reputableand ethical scientists such as Dr. Mae Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins havewarned -substantiated by scientific evidence - that horizontal genetransfer, i.e. the transfer of genes by vectors (viruses and otherinfectious agents)designed to cross species barriers and thus enhancing thepotential for creating new viral and bacterial pathogens, will result in thecreation of superbugs and multi-drug resistant diseases. According to theseeminent genetic researchers, strains of bacteria "crippled" in thelaboratory can survive in the environment and exchange genes with otherorganisms. DNA from dead and living cells persists in the environment andtransfers to other organisms. Naked viral DNA (virus without its viralcoat)is even more infectious and may well be taken up by mammalian cellsincluding our own! In addition, viral DNA has shown to resist digestion inthe gut of mice, enters the blood stream to infect white blood cells, spleenand liver cells. One such virus most commonly used as a promoter in geneticengineering is the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV)which, due to itsrecombination hotspot, is prone to break and join with other DNA tointegrate into the cell's genome, which could activate host genes and leadto cancer. In addition, CaMV is closely related to the Hepatitis B and HIVvirus and due to its ability to propagate in plant and insect hosts afterrecombination may also recombine with related Hepatitis B and HIV to createa most powerful disease in a large number of people consuming large numbersof virus genes incorporated into crop plants. In the South African setting,the number of people at risk could not get any larger, since our governmentunilaterally decided without the peoples' knowledge and above all priorCONSENT, to grow our staple food (white maize) in genetically modified formwithout adhering to the precautionary principle, thus violating ourconstitutional rights to a healthy environment and healthy food. For thereasons described above it is therefore imperative to demand immediateimplementation of mandatory labeling of genetically modified food productsin compliance with our constitutional rights of informed choice and consent,participation in decision-making processes and above all the individual'sright to bodily integrity, the latter being the most significant provisionof the Nuremberg Code, which sets forth the legal requirements for humanexperimentation, i.e. " voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutelyessential". Likewise, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rightsdeclares bodily integrity central to both human rights and human dignity andthe International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights unmistakablydeclares that "no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medicalor scientific experimentation". By deliberately ignoring the precautionaryprinciple and refusing to implement mandatory labeling of GM products, thisgovernment allows its citizens to be used as guinea pigs, sacrificing thenation's health for corporate greed. There is no such thing as "substantialequivalence". This phrase was coined by scientifically illiterate lawyers ofthe biotech industry and in 1992 written into law by H.W. Bush, whoproclaimed GM plants to be "substantially equivalent" to their traditionalcounterparts and therefore did not need any special health safety study ortesting. Ethical scientists and researchers consider this the biggest farceand fraud ever committed in the science field. Contrary to what thecorporate yarn spinners of biotech companies want the public to believe, notone single human safety study has ever been conducted! One does not need aPhD in genetics to see the correlation between GMOs and the sharp rise inHIV infections and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and other diseases.Thedecision-makers who keep violating our human right to bodily integrity byunleashing these toxins into our environment and food chain without ourknowledge and consent must be held accountable." Here is the Sunday Times article:http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/News/Article.aspx?id=814190 GM surprise in the cereal boxBobby Jordan Published:Aug 03, 2008 Label battle grows as lab tests show top breakfast brands contain a heftyproportion of genetically modified maize Millions of South Africans eat genetically modified cereals for breakfast.Laboratory tests have found that more than half of the maize used in some ofthe country’s top breakfast brands is genetically modified. Maize is one of the country’s staple foods and a key ingredient in breakfastcereals. The type of modified maize grown locally contains an additional gene,borrowed from a type of bacteria, that makes the crop more resistant toinsects. Products that have tested positive for GM maize include ProNutro originalflavour (52.7 %), ProNutro Toddlers Instant apple and banana flavour(97.5%), Iwisa Maize Meal (27.2%), Tiger Brands Ace samp (53.7%) and Puritycream of maize baby soft porridge (24.9%). Cereal products found to be completely GM free were Pick n Pay No Name Brandcornflakes and Kellogg’s cornflakes. The results have drawn an outcry from anti-GM groups, who want compulsorylabels on all GM food sold in South Africa. Labelling in South Africa applies only to GM foods that are “substantiallydifferent” from non-GM foods or contain animal or human genes. There is aglobal row over the labelling of GM foodstuffs, with some countries —including all European Union member states — insisting on labels for anykind of GM food. “Labelling GM foods in Europe did not result in increased food prices butdid result in an almost total rejection of them,” said Andrew Taynton,spokesman for SafeAge, which commissioned the latest survey. Andries Pretorius, director of food control in the Department of Health,said: “Currently in South Africa, GM foodstuffs on the shelves only containinserted bacterial genes and proteins and these foodstuffs are consideredsubstantially equivalent to their non-GM counterparts and therefore do notrequire to be labelled.” The laboratory tests, done at the University of the Free State, drew acautious reaction from retailers, who said the days of GM-free cerealappeared to be over due to the size of the country’s GM crop. With more than half the maize crop now genetically modified, buying GM-freemaize is increasingly difficult, and likely to become more expensive. BothKellogg’s and Pick n Pay, whose cereals tested negative for GM, said theydid not specifically request non-GM maize from suppliers. Kellogg’s spokesman Marlinie Kotiah said: “We don’t have a policy one way oranother. But we produce crops that can give us the corn flakes we desire.” Pick n Pay’s Cindy Jenks said GM crops were so widespread that very fewfoods were completely GM-free — and labels to that effect might bemisleading. Felix Lombard, a spokesman for Bokomo, which produces ProNutro, said thecompany supported the government line, that GM labels were only needed onproducts whose nutritional content was changed due to GM. Tiger Brands’ Jimmy Manyi said GM maize was an industry issue, not aTiger-specific matter. South Africa, Africa’s only sub-Saharan country to commercialise GM foodcrops, has about 1.6 million hectares of GM maize — about 57% of the totalmaize crop. Other African countries have expressed concern about trade and technologyissues around GM technology. To date there are no documented health risksassociated with GM foods, although anti-GM lobbyists are concerned aboutpossible long-term GM side-effects. Leslie Liddell, director of environmental group Biowatch, said: “Thepatenting of GM seeds, which prohibits saving of the seeds by farmers whoplant them, in normal circumstances, but particularly in the current foodcrisis is disturbing as our food production system is increasingly beingplaced in the hands of GM seed companies, thus undermining not onlyhousehold food security but also food sovereignty.” Jocelyn Webster, executive director of GM-lobby group Africa Bio, gave acounter view: “Farming is a hugely risky business; the input costs can beanywhere between R5000 to R7000 a hectare. If you’re spending that much youhave to get a good yield. . . the major beneficiaries here are thefarmers. ”