Genetically Engineered Food Endangers Health

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Genetically Engineered Food Endangers Health; JoAnn Guest Mar 17, 2005 18:37

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Political Corruption Exposed

http://www.thenhf.com/articles_11.htm

August 2003

 

 

 

Evidence Counters U.S. WTO Challenge Against EU

 

At a time when the U.S. is claiming Europe’s restrictive genetically

modified (GM) food policy is illegal and baseless, an explosive exposé

shows that the foods are in fact unsafe. The book, Seeds of Deception:

Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the

Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating, presents overwhelming

evidence documenting serious potential health problems associated with

these hi-tech foods that Americans eat everyday. Moreover, the book

reveals how corporate influence and political collusion have allowed GM

foods on the market.

 

To keep the potential dangers hidden, whistle-blowers were harassed,

stripped of responsibilities, or fired. Evidence was stolen. Research

data was omitted or distorted. The FDA even withheld information from

Congress after a GM food supplement killed nearly a hundred people and

disabled thousands. According to author Jeffrey M. Smith, “Internal

documents made public by a lawsuit reveal that the FDA’s own scientists

warned that GM foods could lead to unpredictable toxins, allergies, and

new diseases. They insisted that each GM food be subject to long term

safety testing before it was approved.” The agency’s political

appointees—including a former lawyer for biotech giant

Monsanto—overruled the scientists’ recommendations. No safety tests are

required and few have been conducted.

 

According to Arpad Pusztai, an expert on GM foods, “Seeds of Deception

is a major event in informing the public about the safety or (more

precisely the lack of it) of genetically modified foods” Pusztai himself

had been silenced with threats of a lawsuit after he unexpectedly

discovered that rats fed an experimental GM food developed immune system

damage and other serious health problems in just ten days. Pusztai later

reviewed an industry-sponsored study and found that seven of forty rats

fed a GM crop died within two weeks; others developed stomach lesions.

The crop was approved without further tests.

 

September Publication May Influence International Policy

 

In May, when the U.S. filed a challenge with the World Trade

Organization (WTO) disputing Europe’s GM food policy, Trade

Representative Robert Zoellick stated, “Overwhelming scientific research

shows that biotech foods are safe and healthy.” According to Andrew

Kimbrell, director of the Center for Food Safety, “The evidence in Seeds

of Deception refutes U.S. science and safety claims, and undermines the

basis of their WTO challenge.” The book’s September publication

coincides with the major WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico from September

10-14, and will likely benefit from the considerable media attention on

the topic.

 

Kimbrell says, “The book also presents a compelling argument that

nations may use to ban GM foods altogether.” Countries gain the right to

impose such a ban on September 11, three months after the UN biosafety

protocol was signed by 50 nations. “The revelations in the book,” says

Kimbrell, “are being made public at a pivotal time in the global GM

debate, and could tip the scales against the biotech industry.”

 

Author Jeffrey Smith has worked in the field of genetically modified

foods for nearly a decade—with non-profit and political groups, and at a

GMO detection laboratory. He proposed legislation to protect

children—who are most at risk from the potential health effects of GM

foods—and to protect farmers from genetic drift. Seeds of Deception is

published by Yes! Books, and is distributed by Chelsea Green Publishing.

The foreword is by Frances Moore Lappé.

 

###

 

Backgrounder:

 

Dangers of Genetically Engineered Foods—a Partial List

 

(Footnotes refer to pages in the book Seeds of Deception by Jeffrey M.

Smith.)

 

Industry manipulation and political collusion—not sound science—allow

dangerous genetically modified (GM) foods on the market. Government

employees who complained were harassed, stripped of responsibilities, or

fired.77-83* Scientists were threatened. Evidence was stolen. Data was

omitted or distorted. FDA scientists warned that genetically modified

(GM) foods could create toxins, allergies, nutritional problems, and new

diseases; their superiors, including a former attorney for Monsanto,

ignored their recommendations for long-term safety tests.131-140 None

are required.146

 

There are only ten published animal feeding studies on GM foods—two are

independent. One found damage to the immune system and vital organs, and

a potentially pre-cancerous condition.12-13 When the scientist tried to

alert the public, he lost his job and was silenced with threats of a

lawsuit.18-20 Two other studies likewise showed evidence of a

potentially pre-cancerous condition.37 And an unpublished study revealed

that laboratory rats fed a GM crop developed stomach lesions and seven

of the forty died within two weeks. The crop was approved without

further tests.37, 137-140

 

Industry studies appear rigged to avoid finding problems. With

genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH), for example,

researchers injected cows with only one forty-seventh the normal dosage

before reporting hormone residues in milk.91-92 They heated the milk 120

times longer than standard, to report that pasteurization destroys the

hormone.93-94 They added cows to their study that were pregnant before

treatment, to claim that rbGH didn’t impede fertility.89 Cows that fell

sick were dropped from studies altogether.80-81 Similarly, nutritional

differences between GM and natural soy varieties were omitted from a

published paper.35-36 Feeding studies diluted GM soy by 10 to 1,34 and

tests on GM corn used 1,250 times the amount of a digestive enzyme

recommended by international standards.

 

There are no tests to guarantee that GM food is not allergenic. Although

recommended international testing standards can minimize that

possibility, GM corn on the market today would most certainly fail those

tests. 179

 

The only human feeding trial of GM food ever conducted confirmed that

engineered genes transferred from a soy burger and soy milkshake to the

bacteria inside the digestive tract after only one meal. The World

Health Organization and the British and American Medical Associations

are concerned that if the “antibiotic resistant marker genes” used in GM

foods transferred to gut bacteria, it could create super-diseases—immune

to antibiotics.59-60 Scientists are also worried that the “promoter”

used inside GM foods may transfer to bacteria or internal organs.

Promoters permanently turn genes on and might create unpredictable

health effects, including the potentially pre-cancerous cell growth

found in the animal feeding studies mentioned above. 37

 

Although the biotech industry says that millions have been eating GM

foods without ill effect, this is misleading.

 

· About 100 people died and 5-10,000 fell seriously ill from a

genetically modified food supplement L-tryptophan.107-125

 

Milk from rbGH-treated cows contains an increased amount of the hormone

IGF-1, which is one of the highest risk factors associated with breast

and prostate cancer.94-97

 

Soy allergies skyrocketed by 50% in the UK, coinciding with the

introduction of GM soy imports from the U.S.160-161

 

Food related illnesses in the U.S. increased substantially,

corresponding to the period when Americans have been eating GM food.

There is no way to confirm a connection since no one has looked for one.

 

 

Former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said, “What I saw generically

on the pro-biotech side was the attitude that the technology was good,

and that it was almost immoral to say that it wasn’t good, because it

was going to solve the problems of the human race. . . . If you’re

against it, you’re Luddites, you’re stupid. That, frankly, was the side

our government was on. . . . You felt like you were almost an alien,

disloyal, by trying to present an open-minded view”152-153 The

meticulously documented facts in the book Seeds of Deception,

demonstrate how dangerous this closed-minded attitude is, and how it has

put an entire generation at risk.

 

For further information or a galley, contact:

 

Andrea Vardi

 

in-

 

641-472-8338

 

 

 

*** Additional Suggested Reading ***

 

Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the

Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating, by Jeffrey M.

Smith (click here for an overview)

_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

DietaryTi-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

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