A Moratorium on Genetically Manipulated (GMO) Foods

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US Doctors’ association calls for Moratorium on GMO Foods

 

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has just issued a call for an immediate moratorium on Genetically Manipulated (GMO) Foods. In

a just-released position paper on GMO foods, the AAEM states that ‘GM

foods pose a serious health risk’ and calls for a moratorium on GMO

foods. Citing several animal studies, the AAEM concludes ‘there is more

than a casual association between GMO foods and adverse health effects’

and that ‘GM foods pose a serious health risk in the areas of

toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, and

metabolic, physiologic and genetic health.’ The report is a devastating

blow to the multibillion dollar international agribusiness industry,

most especially to Monsanto Corporation, the world’s leading purveyor

of GMO seeds and related herbicides.

 

In

a press release dated May 19, the American Academy of Environmental

Medicine, which describes itself as ‘an international association of

physicians and other professionals dedicated to addressing the clinical

aspects of environmental health,’ called immediately for the following

emergency measures to be taken regarding human consumption of GMO foods:

 

* A moratorium on GMO food; implementation of immediate long term safety testing and labelling of GMO food.

* Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community and the public to avoid GMO foods.

* Physicians to consider the role of GMO foods in their patients' disease processes.

* More independent long term scientific studies to begin gathering data to investigate the role of GMO foods on human health.

 

The

AAEM chairperson, Dr Amy Dean notes that ‘Multiple animal studies have

shown that GM foods cause damage to various organ systems in the body.

With this mounting evidence, it is imperative to have a moratorium on

GM foods for the safety of our patients' and the public's health.’ The

President of the AAEM, Dr Jennifer Armstrong stressed that ‘Physicians

are probably seeing the effects in their patients, but need to know how

to ask the right questions. The most common foods in North America

which are consumed that are GMO are corn, soy, canola, and cottonseed

oil.’ The AAEM's position paper on Genetically Modified foods can be

found at http:aaemonline.org.

 

The

paper further states that Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)

technology ‘abrogates natural reproductive processes, selection occurs

at the single cell level, the procedure is highly mutagenic and

routinely breeches genera barriers, and the technique has only been

used commercially for 10 years.’

The

AAEM paper further states, ‘several animal studies indicate serious

health risks associated with GM food consumption including infertility,

immune dysregulation, accelerated aging, dysregulation of genes

associated with cholesterol synthesis, insulin regulation, cell

signalling, and protein formation, and changes in the liver, kidney,

spleen and gastrointestinal system.’

They

add, ‘There is more than a casual association between GM foods and

adverse health effects. There is causation as defined by Hill's

Criteria in the areas of strength of association, consistency,

specificity, biological gradient, and biological plausibility. The strength of association and consistency between GM foods and disease is confirmed in several animal studies.’

 

GMO is toxic

The

AAEM paper should give grounds for official rethinking of the current

quasi laissez faire regulatory stance to GMO in which the solemn word

of the GMO seed companies such as Monsanto is regarded as

scientifically valid proof of safety. The AAEM study is worth citing in

detail in this regard:

‘Specificity

of the association of GM foods and specific disease processes is also

supported. Multiple animal studies show significant immune

dysregulation, including upregulation of cytokines associated with

asthma, allergy, and inflammation. Animal

studies also show altered structure and function of the liver,

including altered lipid and carbohydrate metabolism as well as cellular

changes that could lead to accelerated aging and possibly lead to the

accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Changes in the kidney, pancreas and spleen have also been documented. A

recent 2008 study links GM corn with infertility, showing a significant

decrease in offspring over time and significantly lower litter weight

in mice fed GM corn. This study also found that over 400 genes were

found to be expressed differently in the mice fed GM corn. These are

genes known to control protein synthesis and modification, cell

signalling, cholesterol synthesis, and insulin regulation. Studies also

show intestinal damage in animals fed GM foods, including proliferative

cell growth and disruption of the intestinal immune system. ‘

The

AAEM study also reviewed the biotechnology industry claims that GMO

foods can feed the world through production of higher crop yields. It

cited contrary evidence that the opposite appeared to be true, namely

that over time GMO harvest yields were lower than conventional yields

and required over time, more not less, highly toxic herbicidal

chemicals such as glyphosate. The report noted, ‘The several thousand

field trials over the last 20 years for genes aimed at increasing

operational or intrinsic yield (of crops) indicate a significant

undertaking. Yet none of these field trials have resulted in increased

yield in commercialized major food/feed crops, with the exception of Bt

corn.’ However, the slight yield gain for Bt corn they report was

‘largely due to traditional breeding improvements,’ and not to GMO.

They

conclude that because GMO foods ‘pose a serious health risk in the

areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health,

and metabolic, physiologic and genetic health and are without benefit,

the AAEM believes that it is imperative to adopt the precautionary

principle, which is one of the main regulatory tools of the European

Union environmental and health policy and serves as a foundation for

several international agreements. The most commonly used

definition is from the 1992 Rio Declaration that states: ‘In order to

protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely

applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are

threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific

certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective

measures to prevent environmental degradation.’

Under

intense public pressure, the German Minister of Agriculture recently

issued a prohibition of planting for Monsanto MON810 GMO corn.

Unfortunately, two weeks later she permitted planting of GMO potato

seeds. Amflora, a genetically modified potato manufactured by chemicals

giant BASF (a joint venture GMO partner of Monsanto), was declared by

the German Ministry as posing ‘no danger for human health or the

environment,’ The Ministry cited ‘in-depth examination’ and talks with

scientific and economic experts as basis for the reckless decision.

The publication of the sensational critique of GMO by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine has been greeted with stone silence by most major US media and international press.

 

GMO politics

 

As I describe in great detail in my book, Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation, ,

GMO was released on the general public in the early 1990’s in the USA

under an executive decision by then President George Herbert Walker

Bush, reportedly following closed door meetings with leading Monsanto

executives. President Bush mandated that there should be no special

health and safety tests done by any US Government agency before

releasing GMO for food consumption. It came to be known as the Doctrine

of Substantial Equivalence.

 

The

US Government, on urging of Monsanto and the GMO lobby, further decided

that labelling of a food product as ‘GMO free’ should be prohibited,

using the vaguely formulated and entirely unscientific ‘doctrine’

proclaimed by President Bush in 1992, namely that GMO plants and

non-GMO or ordinary plants were ‘substantially equivalent’ and hence

needed no special testing before being released to the public.

 

That

Substantial Equivalence Doctrine, despite the fact that it directly

contradicts the demand of the GMO companies for exclusive patent rights

to their GMO seeds as being ‘unique’ and different from ordinary seeds,

enabled Monsanto, Dow Chemicals, DuPont and other GMO patent holders to

proliferate their products with no control. Most Americans naively

believe that the Government Food and Drug Administration and US

Department of Agriculture are there to make certain industrial food

products are confirmed fully safe for human and for animal consumption

before licensing.

 

That

de facto prohibition on labelling GMO foods has meant that most

Americans have no idea how much of their daily diet from store-bought

Corn Flakes to soybeans to corn and additives in every food on the

supermarket shelf contained GMO contamination.

 

Coincident

with the mass introduction of GMO into the human and animal diet in the

United States beginning the end of the 1990’s, there have been reported

epidemic levels of allergic outbreaks in humans, strange diseases and

numerous other health issues. The fact it is forbidden by Federal law

to label GMO products means most health professionals are not even

aware there might be any connection to a GMO diet for millions of

Americans. The US

population, since the 1992 ruling of President Bush—a ruling reaffirmed

by presidents Clinton, George W. Bush and now by Barack Obama and his

pro-GMO Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack—has been in effect

treated as human guinea pigs in mass experimentation for substances

never independently proven in long-term (ten years or longer) studies

to be safe.

 

It remains to be seen if the scientific critique of the AAEM is given the attention it warrants.

 

 

F. William Engdahl is author of Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation (www.globalresearch.ca). He also authored A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order (Pluto Press). His newest book, Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order (Third Millennium Press) is now in print and will be available by mid-June. He may be contacted over his website, www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net.