Organic vs. GM Latest + Healthfood

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" Zeus " <info

Organic vs. GM Latest + Healthfood

Mon, 5 Sep 2005 11:22:56 +0100

 

 

We've Gone Natural - Eight years ago we had to make a decision: would

we sell our little farm in northeast Montana . . . or could we do a

turnabout and somehow learn to operate the place successfully? For

years we'd been losing money. Our animals were always sick, we were

sick and—between doctor and hospital bills—we were going deeper into

debt every year. Our health was so poor that we were having our

cattle boarded out during the winter months to save us the work of

hauling and feeding hay. This arrangement seemed economical except for

the fact that we lost the manure we needed for our pastures. Of

course, we bought commercial fertilizers to take the place of the

manure . . . or so we thought! After a few years of the commercial

fertilizer treatment, however, we found that our pasture would no

longer absorb moisture. The ground was as hard as concrete and no

amount of water would penetrate it. Our garden and lawn was much the

same story. We'd used commercial fertilizers on them and what few

plants did grow there were soon devoured by insects. Naturally, we

bought insecticides and sprayed everything—even livestock—only to find

the bugs still flourishing. The grasshoppers took everything in the

garden . . . I mean they ate the leaves from every plant! I sprayed

with everything our local stores, county agent or anyone else would

recommend. It never even slowed the pests down. The insecticides sure

got the birds, though! Each time we mowed the lawn we'd find dead,

dried-up feathery corpses. Our place had once been a bird haven . . .

but now the meadowlarks, robins and all the others were gone. Even the

formerly-abundant earthworms were impossible to find. It seems that we

had cut off our nose to spite our face.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/top_articles/1972_January_February/We_ve_Gone_Nat\

ural

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GENE GIANT CLAIMS OWNERSHIP OF WORLD'S RICE - The Swiss biotech

corporation Syngenta has filed patent applications on

much of the genetic material found in thousands of varieties of rice,

the staple crop of more than half of the world's population. Syngenta

is also attempting to patent the use of rice in plant and animal feed.

" With these patents Syngenta is claiming the work of breeders and

farmers from the past centuries as the company's own invention. The

attempt to monopolize thousands of gene sequences from most important

crop plants in one rush is nothing less than a theft of common goods, "

says Tina Goethe from Swissaid.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/syngenta081605.cfm

 

VICTORY! USDA YIELDS TO OCA'S DEMANDS

Organic Consumers Association

 

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is proud to announce a major

victory this week. Following a June 14 lawsuit filed by the OCA and

Dr.Bronner's, a leading organic body care and hemp food company, and a

nationwide OCA grassroots pressure campaign, the USDA has agreed to

allow certification of qualifying organic body care products, pet

foods, and nutritional supplements. Since last summer, the USDA

National Organic Program has been telling certified organic companies

to remove the " USDA Organic " seal from all non-food products. Taking

advantage of the lack of regulatory oversight, some body care and

supplement companies have been misleading consumers with fraudulent

" organic " labeling claims on products with a host of synthetic

ingredients. Thanks to thousands of consumers signing our petition,

and over 400 businesses signing on to support our campaign, the USDA

surrendered to the OCA's demands on August 23, saying they will accept

certification and allow use of the " USDA Organic " seal on all organic

non-food products that meet the national standards. The " USDA Organic "

seal will help consumers find real organic products while

substantially boosting the market for organic farmers. This is a major

victory for consumers and the organic community!

http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/

 

 

IMPORTANT ALERT TO CALIFORNIANS! - Last year, Mendocino County

California became the first county in the U.S. to ban genetically

engineered (GE) crops. Since then, two more California counties and

two cities have followed Mendocino's example, starting a domino-effect

of similar anti-GE ordinances across the nation. Fearing the

contagious spread of BioDemocracy in North America, the Biotech

Bullies are striking back. In the past several months, 14 U.S. states,

prodded by Monsanto and the Farm Bureau, have made it illegal for

local communities to ban GE crops. Two recently introduced bills (AB

1508 and SB 1056) in the California legislature would make California

the 15th state to eliminate local communities' rights to ban or

otherwise regulate genetically engineered seeds. This " preemption "

bill would overturn GE-Free victories in Mendocino, Trinity, and Marin

counties, as well as the cities of Arcata and Point Arena, and

prohibit local communities from banning or regulating genetically

engineered crops in the future. Take action today to stop the Biotech

Bullies from taking away our democratic rights in California! Send a

message to your state legislators by clicking here!

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

 

PESTICIDES SPAWNING SUPERWEEDS - A study in the recent issue of the

journal Outlooks on Pesticide Management reports that there are now 15

weed species that have complete resistance to the world's most widely

used herbicide, Monsanto's glyphosate. Researchers say most of these

" superweeds " have developed resistance over time, due to long-term

overuse of the chemical. Glyphosate, most commonly applied as

Monsanto's Roundup, has been in heavy use globally for over 30 years.

The study warns these superweeds

pose " serious " problems to farmers if new control strategies are not

developed. Of course the best way to avoid spawning superweeds is to

ban genetically engineered crops and to adopt organic farming

practices. http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/superweed081905.cfm

 

 

A COCA-COLA STORY - Once upon a time (in 2001, to be specific), the

Coca-Cola corporation built a bottling plant in a small and remote

Indian village in the state of Kerala. In exchange for sucking vast

amounts of water out of the local land, the mighty corporation

promised to bring the people great wealth. But within a few short

months, the village people began to notice their wells were running

dry, so they complained to the corporation. Coca-Cola calmed the

concerns of the people and attempted to win back their favor

by giving them vast amounts of free fertilizer, saying it would grow

bountiful crops beyond their wildest dreams. After several years of

use, we arrive at the present day when the village people have

suddenly discovered the fertilizer is actually the bottling plant's

waste sludge and is laden with cadmium, a highly toxic, cancer-causing

heavy metal. The village soil and water are now too heavily

contaminated to safely occupy human life, so the plant was shut down

last week. Moral of the story: Don't drink Coke..........drink Pepsi!

Just kidding, Pepsi is actually in the process of being thrown out of

India for similar crimes, as well.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/BTC/cocacola082405.cfm

______________

Prof. Joe Cummins and Dr. Mae-Wan Ho catch Monsanto trying to get a

different version of an already controversial GM maize variety deregulated

 

This article has been submitted to the US EPA on behalf of the

Independent Science Panel (identifier: APHIS-2005-0068-0008). Please

add your support by registering your opposition in the docket and

referring to this article and its identifier number.

 

Monsanto Corporation has submitted a petition to USDA/APHIS for

non-regulated status of a transgenic maize line MON 88017 that was

made with the same plasmid sequence as was used for event MON863. The

petition is put up for public comment ending September 11,2005 [1].

MON863 has raised serious concerns in Monsanto's own secret feeding

studies, which came to light during an application for market approval

in Europe. There is reason to treat MON88017 with suspicion until

proven otherwise.

 

MON88017 was derived by transforming the maize plant material with the

same Cry3Bb1 plasmid sequence as used in maize strain MON863

(YieldGard rootworm), which was deregulated in 2002. In addition,

MON88017 contains the EPSPS gene that confers tolerance to the

herbicide glyphosate. The actual construction included a synthetic

approximation of the cp4 EPSPs gene to which the chloroplast transit

peptide CTP2 was fused. The gene was driven by the rice actin-promoter

enhanced by a rice actin intron placed upstream of the translation

start codon, transcription was terminated using the Agrobacterium NOS

3' terminator. The synthetic approximation of the Cry3Bb1 gene was

driven by a cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter with a

duplicated enhancer, the wtCAB leader sequence from a wheat

chlorophyll a/b binding protein, followed by a rice intron enhancer

located just upstream of the translation start codon; transcription

was terminated by the terminator of tahsp173 from wheat heat shock

protein [2]. The Cry3Bb1 of MON88017 differed from the Cry3Bb1 gene in

MON 863 by a single amino acid [2, 3].

 

Earlier, the United States Food and Drug Agency (FDA) noted that the

Cry3Bb1 toxin produced in MON863 differed from the original natural

gene product produced in the bacterium by seven amino acids and by an

additional amino acid in the second position from the start of the

toxin protein [4]. Regulators and proponents seem to assume that it is

acceptable to switch a few amino acids without any consequence, even

though the genetic reality is that a single amino acid change is often

sufficient to produce lethal effects. Furthermore, the Cry3Bb1 toxin

used in many environmental and mammalian safety tests was a surrogate

produced in bacteria, and not the actual toxin produced in maize

because pure bacterial toxin is cheaper to produce in pure form in

bacterial cultures [5]. That kind of evaluation is too risky and

misleading to provide valid data for food and feed that affects

millions of people.

 

The evaluation of the food and feed safety of MON 88017 was based

primarily on the previous evaluation of MON863. According to the

company, " results from acute oral toxicity demonstrate that the

Cry3Bb1 protein is not acutely toxic and does not cause any adverse

effects " [2]. The study upon which the above conclusion was based was

withheld under the claim of confidential business information, but

subsequently released after a great deal of public pressure and a

successful legal challenge by Greenpeace Germany. The study was a

thirteen- week feeding trial with MON863 maize grain on rats that were

then sacrificed to examine the organs and tissues [6]. A sanitized

version of the study was recently published in a scientific journal [7].

 

Dr. Arpad Pusztai was commissioned by the German government to

evaluate the Monsanto study. His report was also deemed confidential,

but was released after agreement was reached with all concerned

parties [8].

 

Pusztai's report stated, " ..this imperfectly designed and executed

study revealed a huge list of significant differences between the

various biologically meaningful parameters of rats fed GM maize diets

and the proper controls.. "

 

" ..the study strongly indicates that feeding rats on diets containing

significant amounts of MON 863 corn can potentially be detrimental to

the health of these animals and may cause major lesions in important

organs (kidneys, liver, etc.), interfere with the function of their

immune system (lymphocyte, WBC, granulocyte counts) and change their

metabolism (glucose)… "

 

Pusztai summarized the differences between GM fed and control-fed

rats, and their potential implications: increased basophil count,

which may indicate allergic reaction; increases in the number of

lymphocytes and white blood cells, which usually increase in the

presence of infections, cancer, various toxins, and disease states;

decreased reticulocyte count, which is indicative of anaemia;

decreased kidney weight, which points to blood pressure problems; and

elevation in blood sugar levels, which cannot be dismissed as

biologically insignificant, given the diabetes epidemic.

 

There were also elevated levels of kidney inflammation, liver

necrosis, and other changes. Pusztai added, " It is almost impossible

to imagine that major lesions in important organs (kidneys, liver,

etc) or changes in blood parameters (lymphocytes, granulocytes,

glucose, etc.) that occurred in GM maize-fed rats, is incidental and

due to simple biological variability " .

 

Monsanto submitted a " follow-up study " in response to the concerns

raised over MON863 by the French expert body that evaluates GMOs, the

Commission du Genie Biomoleculaire (CGB). Pusztai criticized this

" follow-up study " as inadmissible. Monsanto defended changes in kidney

weights by comparing results from the test animals with rats used in a

completely different study, conducted in a different laboratory, using

MON863 hybrids with other GM maize samples. In the " follow-up study " ,

the results of the original MON 863-study was quoted (but not actually

re-done) for comparison. As Pusztai asserts, this inter-experimental

comparison is entirely inappropriate for nutritional evaluation and

should be disregarded [9]. "

 

One very disturbing aspect of the original Monsanto study [6] was the

numerous statistically significant differences between control and

treated animals, which were initially ignored; and then minimized by

comparing the values with values in unrelated studies [9]. The very

meaning of statistical significance has been altered for the purpose

of misleading the public in order to get its product approved that has

clear signs of being unsafe.

 

The Institute of Science in Society has reported numerous

unsatisfactory features of the regulation of Bt Cry toxins in general,

and Cry3Bb1 in particular [10, 11]. It is certainly time to ensure

that the GM crops given non-regulated status are fully and adequacy

tested. MON88017 maize must be subject to a full animal feeding study

and environmental assessment that should be made available for public

scrutiny before it is released. The commercialization of yet another

version of a transgenic maize strain already strongly suspected of

being harmful to mammals is adding insult to injury. The regulators

have deleted paragraphs deemed " Confidential Business Information "

from Monsanto's MON88017 petition. Such deletions should be restored

and scrutinized by all those evaluating the proposal, as this is a

matter of public health.

 

 

References

1. The USDA/APHIS docket and location for public comments on APHIS-

2005-0068 can be contacted at the URL: http://docket.epa.gov/edkf

ed/do/EDKStaffCollectionDetailView?objectId=0b0007d48094774f

 

2. Sidhu R. and Brown S. Petition for the determination of

non-regulated status for MON88017 Corn 2004 pp1-277 http://www

..aphis.usda.gov/brs/not_reg.html

 

3. USDA/APHIS Decisions on Monsanto Petition 04-125-01P seeking a

determination of non-regulated status for Bt cry3Bb1 insect reistance

corn line MON 88017 2004 pp 1-41 http://www

..aphis.usda.gov/brs/not_reg.html

 

4. US Food and Drug Administration Biotechnology Consultation Note. To

the File BNF No. 000075 2001 pp1-4 http://w

ww.cfsan.fda.gov/~rdb/bnfm075.html

 

5. Cummins J. Regulatory sham on Bt-crops Science in Society 2004, 21,30.

 

6. Burns J. 13-Week dietary subchronic comparison study with MON 863

corn in rats preceded by a 1- week baseline food consumption with PMI

Certified Rodent Diet #5002, 2002 http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/c

ontent/sci_tech/prod_safety/fullratstudy.pdf

 

7. Hammond B, Lemen J, Dudek R, Ward D, Jiang C, Nemeth M and Burns J.

Results of a 90-day safety assurance study with rats fed grain from

corn rootworm-protected corn. Food Chem Toxicol. 2005 Aug 3 in press

 

8. Puszta A. Evaluation of and Final Report on the summary report of

the " 13-Week Dietary Subchronic Comparison Study with MON 863 in Rats

Preceded by a 1-Week Baseline Food Consumption Determination with PMI

Certified Diet #5002(Report MSL-18175/Covance Study No. 6103-293) " .

http: //www.twnside.org.sg/title2/service219.htm

 

9. Lim LC. Third World Network Biosafety Information Service

Evaluation of Monsanto's Feeding Study on MON863 2005 ht

tp://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/service219.htm

 

10. Ho MW and Cummins J. GM food and feed not fit for man or beast

ISIS Report 2004 http://www.i-sis.org.uk

 

11. Cummins J. Bt toxins in Genetically Modified Crops : Regulation by

Deceit Science in Society 2004 22,32

 

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at http://www.i-

sis.org.uk/mon.php

 

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Sales of bottled water up, carbonates down.

http://www.targetpublishing.com/ONB/latestnews.htm#storyone

Napiers+Culpeppers merger

http://www.targetpublishing.com/ONB/latestnews.htm#storytwo

 

London flag ship store of Fresh and Wild

http://www.targetpublishing.com/ONB/latestnews.htm#storyfive

 

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