Guest guest Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Dining on GMO's! JoAnn Guest Dec 07, 2003 17:15 PST Picking up some " gmo's " for dinner? Odds are if you live in the United States there are foreign " genes " implanted in most of your foods and to be healthy you must 'go out of your way' (work) to avoid them! While typically you may scan a few specific items for caloric content, fat or fiber, you may not be aware of the more imminent dangers of unlabeled genetically manipulated ingredients which are widely dispersed throughout our refined processed food supply. To find out just how pervasive genetically engineered foods have become, Michael Hansen, a research associate with the " Consumer Policy Institute " in New York and his colleagues went grocery shopping around the country, took it all home and analyzed the DNA in various processed foods for GMO's. Genetically engineered ingredients were in everything they tested— from baby infant formula to McDonald's McVeggie Burgers!! A German consumer foundation conducted a similar study. Of the 82 food products they tested, more than one-third contained either genetically modified canola oil,soybean oil, gm dairy (rBGH) gm soya or corn ingredients. It is these unlabelled but ubiquitous smidgens that have consumers `nervous'.In Europe, the opposition to genetically engineered foods has boiled for years.In the United States, it has just begun to simmer. " There are a lot of unanswered questions. " And the issue is not just about labeling. " Most people don't want them at all, " Harris notes. " They see it as a ploy by industry to cram something down our throats that we don't need. " ********************************************************************* Two crops dominate the food industry. --- More than half of the U.S.soybean crop and most of the canola, cotton and corn crop is genetically engineered. Over 80 million acres of GE crops are presently under cultivation in the US, while up to 750,000 dairy cows are being injected regularly with Monsanto's recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH). Used to make snacks, cereals, vegetable oils, soft drinks and countless other products, these grains are found in " about 60 to 70 percent of pre- packaged foods, " according to Hansen. There's simply no system to segregate them from other crops. Many companies say they do not even know whether or not their product contains engineered ingredients. ********************************************************************* Public awareness is currently on the rise, however due to FDA's hide and seek policy, more specific knowledge of the long term effects of this new technology is sorely lacking. We will attempt to address some of these concerns in this newsletter. -- With little or no regulatory restraints, labeling requirements, or scientific protocol, bio-engineers have begun creating hundreds of new GE " Frankenfoods " and crops. Today an estimated 60 percent of all processed foods -- from candy bars and tortilla chips to milk, cheese, tofu dogs and infant formula -- contain at least one genetically engineered component. The Brave New World of Frankenfoods is frightening. GE food and fiber products are inherently unpredictable and dangerous- for humans, for animals, the environment, and for the future of sustainable and organic agriculture. Given the potential risks -- and the warnings from respected scientists -- how did genetically engineered crops find their way onto farms, and then into supermarkets, with such ease? The potential impacts on human health are the ones that have stirred the most consumer protest. Instead of thoroughly responding to such concerns, critics say, the Food and Drug Administration -- the agency charged with safeguarding the food supply -- has bowed to the influence of major biotech corporations – in particular, Monsanto, which has enjoyed an especially cozy revolving-door relationship with FDA regulators. According to internal documents, the FDA ignored objections from several of its own top scientists when it ruled, in a landmark 1992 policy statement, that genetically engineered foods are similar to those produced by traditional plant breeding, and are hence " generally recognized as safe. " Without rigorous testing and accurate labeling, there is simply no way to predict what kinds of dangers such foods may pose, say critics of the FDA policy. ********************************************************************* All of it, the threat to monarchs, the potentially allergenic Hi- Bred soybeans, the illness and death linked to ge tainted L- tryptophan -- comes as no surprise to Dr. Richard Lacey. A professor of medical microbiology at the University of Leeds and an expert on food safety, Lacey predicted the malady that descended on Britain in the mid-1990s and came to be called " mad cow disease. " " Recombinant DNA technology is an inherently risky method for producing new foods, " insists Lacey. " Its risks are in large part due to the complexity and interdependency of the parts of a living system, including its DNA. DNA molecules are the " genetic instructions " of life. Scientists have been swapping DNA from one organism to another since 1973. The process, known as 'transgenic technology', uses incredibly tiny biological scissors to take a gene out of one organism and put it in another, with the hope that the gene will perform in the same way as it did in the old organism. Wedging foreign genetic material in an essentially random manner into an organism's genome necessarily causes some degree of disruption, and the disruption could be multifaceted. " Genetic engineering is used to break down the " natural boundaries " thatexist between species. A fish and a strawberry will not breed in nature, but in the laboratory, scientists can take a gene from a fish, insert it into a strawberry, and essentially create an entirely new organism. A designer " gene gun " blasting slivers of metal into an innocent soybean plant may sound like a futuristic and far-fetched way to " ward off " famine. So does subjecting stalks of defenseless corn to doses of high- voltage electricity, or bombarding them with sound waves. But these are just some of the " techniques " used by scientists striving for more versatility in altering plant cell structures in the controversial research area known as biotechnology. A specially-designed " gene gun " fires dozens of metal slivers like bullets at target cells. The tiny pellets, usually of tungsten or gold, are much smaller than the diameter of the target cell, and coated with " genetic material " . While the shell cartridge is stopped in its tracks by a perforated metal plate, the metallic micro-missiles are able to penetrate into living cells where the genetic material is then carried to the nucleus to be 'integrated' among the host genes. The danger of genetic engineering, adds Lacey, lies in how little we know. We must really question it when the scientists of Scandinavia, who havethe largest plant base data system in the world, cannot " identify " the third molecule that Monsanto put into their Soy. One is from the pansy plant, one is from a cockroach(????) and the third was " unidentifiable " ! ********************************************************************* In 1992, the year the policy was issued, Dr. Louis J. Pribyl of the FDA's Microbiology Group warned in an internal memo of " a profound difference between the types of unexpected effects from traditional breeding and genetic engineering. " Dr. Linda Kahl, an FDA compliance officer, concurred that " plant breeding " and genetic engineering are different processes, adding that " according to the technical experts in the agency, they lead to different risks. " ********************************************************************* * In 1999, front-page stories in the British press revealed Rowett Institute scientist Dr. Arpad Pusztai's explosive research findings that GE potatoes are poisonous to mammals. These potatoes were spliced with DNA from the snowdrop plant and a commonly used viral promoter, the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CaMv). GE snowdrop potatoes were found to be significantly different in chemical composition from regular potatoes, and when fed to lab rats, damaged their vital organs and immune systems! The damage to the rats' stomach linings apparently was a severe viral infection caused by the CaMv viral promoter apparently giving the rats a severe viral infection. Most alarming of all, the CaMv viral promoter is spliced into nearly all E foods and crops! Dr. Pusztai's path breaking research work unfortunately remains incomplete. Government funding was cut off and he was fired after he spoke with the media!! ********************************************************************* ** In 1994, the FDA approved the sale of Monsanto's controversial rBGH. This GE hormone is injected into dairy cows to force them to produce more milk. Scientists have warned that significantly higher levels (400-500% or more) of a potent chemical hormone, Insulin-Like Growth Factor (IGF- 1), in the milk and dairy products of rBGH injected cows, could pose serious hazards such as human breast, prostate, and colon cancer. A number of studies have shown that humans with elevated levels of IGF-1 in their bodies are much more likely to get cancer. In 1998, Monsanto/FDA documents that had previously been withheld, were released by government scientists in Canada showing damage to laboratory rats fed dosages of rBGH. Significant infiltration of rBGH into the prostate of the rats as well as thyroid cysts indicated potential cancer hazards from the drug. Subsequently, the government of Canada banned rBGH in early 1999. The European Union (EU) has had a ban in place since 1994. Although rBGH continues to be injected into 10% of all US dairy cows, no other industrialized country has legalized its use. - The GATT Codex Alimentarius, a United Nations food standards body, has refused to certify that rBGH is safe. The US Congressional watchdog agency, the GAO, told the FDA not to approve rBGH. Throughout Europe and Asia, a growing number of scientists, elected officials, and activists have sounded the alarm over bioengineered agriculture. Japan, the largest importer of American crops, is now considering mandatory labeling of GE products. Some European nations have stopped buying U.S. corn in order to stop gene-altered grain at their borders. The mainstream media here in the States has mainly portrayed the widespread international concern as little more than a foreign backlash against the increasing Americanization of the planet. ********************************************************************* ** The technology used in making genetically modified crops is the intellectual property of companies such as Dow, Dupont, Novartis and Monsanto and developing countries don't have the funds or legal acumen to wade through the complex patent web. In a recent editorial, C.S. Prakash, a professor of plant molecular genetics at Tuskegee University, wrote, " Nobody should expect Monsanto to end world hunger. That's like counting on Microsoft to wipe out illiteracy. " ********************************************************************* ** In 1998, 24 African scientists at a United Nations conference wrote an angry rebuke of Monsanto's advertising which used photos of starving African children under the headline, " Let the Harvest Begin. " In their statement the delegates wrote: We....strongly object that the image of the poor and hungry from our countries is being used by giant multinational corporations to push a technology that is neither safe, environmentally friendly, nor economically beneficial to us. We do not believe that such companies or gene technologies will help our farmers to produce the food that is needed in the 21st century. On the contrary, we think it will destroy the diversity, the local knowledge and the sustainable agricultural systems that our farmers have developed for millennia and that it will thus undermine our capacity to feed ourselves. In fact, development experts warn that genetic engineering may lead to an increase in hunger and starvation. Biotech companies are eagerly pursuing a genetic engineering technique named " terminator " technology that would render a crop's seed sterile, thus making it impossible for farmers to save seed for replanting. As Peter Rosset,Director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy explains, half of the world's farmers rely on saved seed to produce food that 1.4 billion people rely on for their daily nutritional needs. These people are at risk of greater hunger from genetic engineering. ********************************************************************* ** Finally, most arguments that GMOs can solve world hunger are based on the notion that the root of the problem is shortage of food. In reality, however, the world today produces more food per person than ever before. Enough food is produced to provide 4.3 pounds to every person, every day: two and a half pounds of grain, beans and nuts; about a pound of meat, milk and eggs; and another pound of fruits and vegetables -- more than anyone could ever eat. The problem of world hunger is not one of quantity, but rather a matter of poverty, inequality, and access to food. ********************************************************************* ** In July, a coalition of environmental and consumer groups launched the latest campaign, pressuring food giants Kelloggs and Campbell's to remove altered ingredients from their products. Some companies are listening. Yet none of these companies is actually abandoning biotechnology. Genetically engineered canola, chicory, corn, cotton, flax, papayas, potatoes, soybeans, squash, sugarbeets,sugarcane, radishes and tomatoes are all grown for the commercial food supply. Others such as rice,wheat, strawberries, apples and even walnuts are being planted on test sites. ********************************************************************* ** While people are worried about environmental threats to wildlife and plants, human health seems to stand out as the greatest concern, according to Simon Harris, West Coast field organizer for the Organic Consumers Association. His group is trying to establish a moratorium on genetically engineered foods until(?) they are proven safe. " Ask the FDA—--there are no long-term studies on the effects of eating [engineered] foods, " he says. PepsiCo, Frito Lay's parent company, still uses corn syrup made from engineered crops for its soft drinks. And McDonald's still cooks its fries in oil made from genetically altered corn and soy. ********************************************************************* ** The growth of genetically engineered crops is at an all-time high. Last year,nearly 100 million acres were planted, more than 70 million of which filled the fields of the United States. And those harvests are filling the shelves of your local grocery store. Most supermarket processed food items now " test positive " for the presence of GE ingredients. In addition, several dozen more GE crops are in the final stages of development and will soon be released into the environment and sold in the marketplace. And speaking of your grocery cart…… I would bet that some of those pretzels and tortillas you are picking up may be made with corn `blasted' with genes used for killing insects, the bag of chips fried in gmo altered canola, soy or corn oil, the soft drink in your cart is no doubt sweetened with genetically engineered high fructose `corn' syprup and the pork roasts, are from farm animals fattened on genetically engineered corn! In addition to this, just remember the next time you visit your doctor….that the vast majority of those drugs/pharmaceuticals you are comtemplating using are genetically engineered! JoAnn Guest mrsjo- www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.