GENETIC ENGINEERING FACT-SHEET
[The Unprecedented Dangers of GM Food, Crops, Food Supplements, Animal Fodder, Derivatives, MEDICINE & VACCINES, the GM process itself]
Note: Keep in mind when reading the following, that Corporations and Governments are morally and legally obligated to satisfactorily test food and medicine for safety before putting them on the market.
Most consumers presume that products have been proven safe before marketing --- how very wrong they are.
Unfortunately, corrupt relations between corporations and governments negate assumptions and moral-legal obligations. This fundamental of political economy must always be held in view to understand what is transpiring.
[Terminology: genetic engineering (GE), genetic modification (GM-- the British term), GMOs (genetically modified organisms), transgenic, biotechnology, and the more graphic Frankenstein food and crops, are basically synonymous.]
1. Genetic engineering is an unnatural, unnecessary, contamination-prone process which can inject genes of one species into a totally unrelated species, something impossible in Nature (e.g. injecting human genes into cows).
The Pope has rightly called Genetic Engineering "sacrilegious".
GE evades Evolution's safeguards, and one should not be surprised at the many horrors (disease epidemics and other ugly incidents) enumerated below which have been produced by this unnatural, nightmare process.
[In brief, genetically engineered food and medicine have been clearly implicated (by any reasonable standard of evidence) in many hundreds of deaths, thousands of cripplings, hundreds of thousands of hospitalisations, and millions of so-called 'allergic' (i.e. toxic) reactions. ]
- - - - - - -
2. Patents on Life-Forms are the most contemptible and unjust of the abused and abusive patent laws.
[ 2/3 of patented products are never marketed. Patents are tools of monopoly designed to quash beneficial research, control markets, and set artifically high prices. Over 90% of patents should be instantly abolished and their commodities/processes placed in the Public Domain where they belong.]
Illegal until fairly recently, these truly sacrilegious patents on living things are vital to deadly GM. Without them, biotechnology corporations would be liable for the GM contamination of crops planted by organic and conventional farmers.
But given Patents on Life-Forms, the Corporations can and DO sue victimised farmers for "patent infringement" -- and are upheld by our politically-influenced, tainted lawcourts.
In other words, GM Contamination + Patents on Life-Forms = Corporate proprietary rights in contaminated crops, spelling the ruin of small family farmers everywhere on the planet.
[Ever heard of a more astonishing racket ??]
Note: In early 2006, the Biotechnology Industry went a step further in its ambition to monopolise the world's food supply. Monsanto announced it will demand rights over processed foods containing its genetically engineered soya gene (found in many many products).
["Monsanto Asserts Rights Over Processed Food", 11 March 2006, GM Watch, Monthly Review 30]
Maize of course will be next. Since almost all processed food contains GM soya or maize, surely you comprehend the world-agriculture-and-food conquest goal of these giant Chemical-Drug-Biotechnology corporations.
As contamination proceeds. they will be able to dictate the prices of food -- and medicine -- worldwide.
When these corporations control the world's food supply, forget about such a thing as political democracy and Liberty. They go the way of the dodo.
The deep corruption of the political and legal processes makes all this possible.
Therefore, it is terribly important that the reader understands the connection between Genetic Engineering and Patents on Life-Forms.
And understands the absolute necessity to OUTLAW this nightmare technology, and make illegal again the obscene, sacrilegious Patents on Life-Forms.
[Note: The only method that can break this entrenched system of Corruption whereby Giant Corporations dominate the political system through pervasive bribery, is for the mass of Citizens, in sparetime, but regularly, to participate in some aspect of reform politics.
[And this method will indeed break that system of Corruption.
[That is the subject of our final section, "What To Do", educating and politically activating the General Public, university students in particular.]
- - - - - - - -3. GM-Tryptophan Epidemic
A food supplement called Tryptophan had been produced for many years by various companies, including Showa Denko of Japan. These companies had been producing Tryptophan with the usual ingredients without ill effects.
Then, Showa Denko, to increase profits, gene-spliced (genetically engineered) a bacterium into the previously harmless product. Result: 37 dead and 1,535 crippled. Another estimated 5,000-10,000 were afflicted with a blood disorder due to this new, strange and incurable disease (now called Eosinophilia Myalgia Syndrome, EMS).
The corporation paid out two billion dollars to people who threatened to sue.
Hundreds of these victims have died since the initial onset, apparently in most cases the end result of contracting EMS.
[for extensive coverage of the GM Tryptophan epidemic, see the excellent book Seeds of Deception, Jeffrey M. Smith, 2003, chapter 4. The full title indicates the inclusion of vital political information: Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of Genetically Engineered Foods You are Eating]
[read Dr. John B. Fagan's report "Tryptophan Summary", typing that into the Google search. John B. Fagan, professor of molecular biology, returned 613,000 dollars of federal grant money to the National Institutes of Health on the grounds that his DNA research might lead to dangerous applications in genetic engineering with unforeseen consequences for humanity.
The U.S. government then offered him two or three million dollars to continue his research into GM. Dr. Fagan refused the money and went to teach chemistry in a university.]
[also "The Thalidomide of Genetic Engineering", Institute of Science in Society, London, www.I-SIS.org.uk; and "Tryptophan and EMS: the Skeleton in the GMO Closet" found online as an excerpt from the book Unnatural Harvest: How Corporate Science is Secretly Altering Our Food, by Ingeborg Boyens]
- - - - - - - -
4. GM-Insulin Epidemic
There have been hundreds of deaths and many thousands (I believe tens of thousands) of "unwanted side effects" (to use a reporter's euphemism) in a genetically-engineered insulin epidemic.
Those "unwanted side effects" include anaemia,, memory loss, seizures, comas, and permanent brain damage.
[ Society for Diabetic Rights, Vancouver, Canada; Macleans magazine, Toronto, 30 September 2002 ]
- - - - - - - - - -
5. Note: Genetically engineered medicine and vaccines are extremely dangerous and should be outlawed. GM medicine/vaccines are entirely unnecessary as well.
Item: London, March 2006 --- Six healthy male volunteers were given an experimental drug manufactured by a German biotechnology company, TeGenero. The drug, supposedly intended as an "immune stimulant", was genetically engineered.
It came as no surprise to this observer when it was announced that all 6 men suffered multiple organ failure and nearly died, and that one of them may remain in a coma for a year or more.
One of the 6 victims said he felt like his brain was "on fire". "I thought my eyeballs were going to pop out."
The head of one victim swelled up to 3 times its normal size.
It was also unsurprising that the BBC, International Herald Tribune (New York Times), etc., suppressed the fact that the drug was genetically engineered. (Could they conceivably be accused of ignorance? Surely not possible.)
( "Calamitous GM Drug Trial Raises Questions About Modern Science", GM Watch, Weekly Watch 170, 6 April 2006; "A drug trial catastrophe", Prof. Joe Cummins, Ban-GEF online newsletter, 19 March 06; "Victims' agony as 'Elephant Man' drugs firm goes bust", Neil Sears, Daily Mail, 4 July 2006)
Item: Genetically engineered medicines / vaccines are UNLABELLED. Whenever we do learn that one is a GMO, we see a death toll associated with it.
(a) Ibuprofen, an over-the-counter pain reliever which has relieved the pain of at least 44 people, permanently. Ibuprofen is genetically engneered.
(b) the Hepatitus B vaccine was genetically engineered. On account of this vaccine, during the 1990s there were, in the USA alone, more than 17,000 cases of hospitalisations, injuries and deaths, including the deaths of 72 children, reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) of the U.S. government.
[Dr. Philip Incao's testimony to the Health Committee of the Ohio House of Representatives, 1 March 1999]
Note: a former FDA (U.S. government Food and Drug Administration) Commissioner wrote in 1993 in the presitigious medical journal, JAMA, that a study showed "only about 1 percent of serious events attributable to drug reactions are reported to the FDA".
- - - - - - - - - - -
6. Extremely Important Fact: "The third largest cause of death and illness in the [western] world is medical intervention [essentially, prescribed drugs]." --- Paul Flynn MP, House of Commons Health Select Committee report on "The Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry", April 2005, vol. 2, p. 153
Only cancer and heart disease are bigger killers than prescribed drugs. As for heart disease, mark that the arthritis pain reliever, Vioxx, caused an estimated 140,000 heart attacks and up to 55,000 deaths in the USA alone.
[ Dr. David J. Graham, former associate safety director of the FDA; and see "Intimidation, Politics and Drug Industry Cripple U.S. Medicine", Ritt Goldstein, Inter Press Service, 31 December 2004 ]
Question: Is Vioxx genetically engineered? Will anyone ever do an analysis or search the patent for that information??
Indeed, in the United States (can Europe be any different?) prescribed drugs are surely the leading cause of death and illness, at least equal to cancer and heart disease combined, and quite possibly a multiple of this.
[see "Modern Health Care System is the Leading Cause of Death", Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, et al, www.mercola.com]
- - - - - - - -
7. Note: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) accounts for the lives of 6,000 children every year in the United States, and the problem is not confined to the U.S. Parents, usually mothers -- have been sent to prison, accused of killing their children.
I sincerely doubt that there are many guilty persons here.
Opinion: I will wager that a very large majority of deaths attributed to SIDS are the result of drugs -- vaccines in particular. ( How many of these are genetically engineered?)
I suggest there are innocent mothers in prison, 'taking the rap' for the Drug companies who have the political power to manufacture this injustice.
There are worldwide epidemics of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and "Shaken Baby Syndrome". This researcher deems it sheer nonsense that mothers internationally have in recent years become so murderous to their children.
PRESCRIBED DRUGS are the third leading cause of death and illness in the western world, perhaps the leading cause, and these drugs -- medicines and vaccines -- are very likely killing all those babies, NOT the mothers of the world.
- - - - - - - - -
7a. How many of these drugs are genetically engineered?
8% of total global pharmaceutical market sales are accounted for by genetically engineered drugs.
[Memorandum by the BioIndustry Association (PI 147), "The Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry"]
Worse, one-third of all drugs in development are biologics !
[It is unclear whether the Memorandum refers to the UK only, or the Western drug corporations in general. I think the latter.]
This ought to frighten anyone who thinks he or she may ever again see a doctor or hospital.
- - - - - - - - -
8. GM Aspartame Epidemic--- This unprecedented artificial sweetener, made by Monsanto, has been linked to cancer, paralysis, brain damage, blindness, diabetes, and cardiac arrest, not to mention death. Aspartame is genetically engineered.
[Dr. John B. Fagan's genetic identification; Seeds of Deception)
The New Mexico legislature and the British Parliament are currently (May 2006) discussing proposals to ban the GM carcinogenic neurotoxin Aspartame.
- - - - - - - - -
9. GM StarLink epidemic --- Thousands of Americans reported having suffered allergic reactions to maize (corn) after a genetically-engineered maize fodder, StarLink, entered the food supply. Reports included affliction of anaphylactic shock.
[for an account of such a GM maize-related incident of anaphylactic shock occurring in a restaurant, see the International Herald Tribune, 20 March 2001 (Washington Post on 19 March), "Allergic Reactions Trigger a Sober Look at Biotech Foods";
StarLink epidemic covered in Seeds of Deception pp.146-155 and Andrew Rowell's Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat, 2003, pp. 131ff; www.foe.org/camps/comm/safefood//gefood/starlink.pdf]
- - - - - - -
10. Food-Induced Anaphylactic Shock epidemics
There have been approximately 30,000 cases of food-induced anaphylactic (life-threatening) shock each year in the United States since genetically engineered food pervaded the American food supply.
[Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, vol. 107, no. 1, January 2001, pp. 191-3; Andrew Rowell, Don't Worry , It's Safe To Eat, p.131; www.Parents.com]
This unexplained and dramatic increase over previous times can only be explained by GM ("Frankenstein") food and crops.
[To wit, the Genetic Engineering process evades Evolution's safeguards and thus opens up terrible possibilities that Evolution has tried to prevent; the StarLink epidemic gave evidence that genetic engineering, GM maize in particular, could -- and did -- cause anaphylaxis; the timing coincidence of the GM era being the food-induced anaphylactic shock era; and everything else you read on this Fact-Sheet bears witness to the declaration that Genetic Engineering is a nightmare technology that can and does produce life-threatening shock as one of its ugly and persistent consequences.]
In the UK, where GM crops have not been grown commercially, the incidence of food-induced anaphylactic shock has jumped 560% since American genetically engineered food has entered UK supermarkets en masse.
[UK figures drawn from data supplied by the Anaphylaxis Campaign, London]
Note, re UK children: "The director of the Royal Children's Hospital's allergy unit, Donald Hill, said yesterday that hospitals needed to set up planning systems to cope with what was being described as an allergy 'epidemic'. The Royal Children's allergy unit has a six-month waiting list. . . . British research showed the number of children with food-induced anaphylaxis had tripled in 10 years, he said." (Rachel Kleinman, The Age, 20 July 05)
In France, the percentage of emergency admissions to hospitals related to food-induced anaphylactic shock has increased fivefold in the last 10 years.
[Allergy Vigilance Network, University Hospital, Nancy, France]
This is becoming an international pattern. Food-induced life-threatening shock now accounts for one-third to one-half of all anaphylactic cases treated in hospital emergency rooms in Europe and Australia as well as in the United States.
[Pediatrics, Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, vol. 111, No. 6, June 2003, pp. 1601-1698, "Anaphylaxis and Emergency Treatment" by Hugh Sampson, MD]
Note: Typical symptoms of anaphylaxis: a swelling in the throat and mouth, difficulty breathing, there is a drastic fall in blood pressure, the victim collapses with a terrible sense that death has come.
This is what people face more and more in a Frankenstein world. We play Russian roulette with our food.
- - - - - - - -
10-a. Peanuts --- They are not yet genetically engineered, but probably will be soon.
Understand that peanuts account for a tiny, miniscule number of cases of anaphylactic shock. Tiny. Miniscule.
Note that peanuts are normally eaten in PROCESSED FOODS which all contain at least one GMO and usually more. To all appearances, GM soya and maize are, in an overwhelming majority of cases, the real problem -- not poor peanuts.
It seems to me that Corporate influence over scientists and the media is trying to make peanuts a scapegoat and red herring, diverting you from comprehending the predominant cause of food-induced life-threatening shock -- genetically-engineered food.
- - - - - - - -
11. Food-derived illnesses in general in the United States have escalated sharply since GM food pervaded the marketplace.
In recent years, Americans have been afflicted annually with 76 million food-related diseases (!!), 325,000 food-related hospitalisations, and 5,000 food-related deaths.
[Seeds of Deception 147; and see New York Times, 16 March 2001, Greg Winter, "Contaminated Food Makes Millions Ill Despite Advances"]
Processed foods in the West almost all contain untested genetically engineered ingredients. This is true almost everywhere in the world now due to the growing concentration of international economic power in the hands of giant corporations ('globalization'),
Genetically engineered maize (corn) and soya are very common, almost ubiquitous in processed foods. When I read the ingredients on a package or can, I can no longer find a product that does not contain at least one GMO, and usually I find two or more.
"Vegetable oil" generally means it was derived from GM soya. "Lecithin" is almost always GM soya lecithin. I have found products advertised as "organic", indeed given a seal of approval by an organic association, which used GM soya lecithin.
Coca-Cola contains GM corn (maize) fructose.
Cottonseed oil and canola (oilseed rape) are other GM ingredients.
Vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from GM maize, and Vitamin-E from GM soya. The scandal of popular health supplements involving genetic engineering !!
Monsanto's genetically-engineered artificial sweetener, Aspartame, is an insidious worldwide presence in processed foods (of course in diet drinks).
In the United States, Monsanto's genetically engineered growth hormone infests American cattle, hence the perils of cow's milk and beef products.
Probably all except organic animal feed contain GMOs. GM animal feed imperils the animal and people who consume animal products.
Genetically-engineered yeast is beginning to infest the production of American wine. I am a wine-drinker, and I shall never again drink American wine until we have outlawed Frankenstein food and crops.
The Biotechnology corporations are pushing to genetically engineer French wine. I call on all Frenchmen -- and the world's wine-lovers -- to stop them.
The genetic engineering process can be used to inject many different things into food and crops. Little wonder the incidence of food-related disease, food-induced life-threatening shock, and Chronic Fatigue are soaring worldwide, as worldwide as the spread of GM food and other GM products.
Obvious advice: EAT ORGANIC food as much as possible.
- - - - - - - - -
12. Chronic Fatigue and Myalgia epidemics
In the past 20 years there has been an explosion of people suffering from Chronic Fatigue, often accompanied by myalgia (muscle pain), and not so infrequently amidst a strange syndrome of multi-organ diseases (M.E./CFS).
[CFS -- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; M.E. -- Myalgia Encephalomyelitis]
In the United States, there are currently some 500,000 cases (a very conservative estimate, it may be double or triple that figure) of M.E./CFS, and the U.S. National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey appears to believe that tens of millions of chronic fatigue and chronic myalgia cases exist in the U.S. and Canada.
[www.nutramed.com]
In the United Kingdom there are over 250,000 cases of M.E./CFS. And the incidence of Chronic Fatigue would presumably be much, much higher.
Chronic Fatigue may be defined as overwhelming fatigue, prolonged and recurring, lasting over 6 months.
M.E./Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is considered to be a Mystery disease with no known cause. And, generally, the causes of Chronic Fatigue are also thought to be mysterious.
But I personally believe that the major cause of this epidemic in the past two decades is readily apparent.
Victims of GM Tryptophan frequently reported their suffering from chronic fatigue and chronic muscle/ joint pain (EMS, Eosinophilia MYALGIA Syndrome).
This new and incurable genetically-engineered disease was initially diagnosed by many doctors as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Similar reports came from victims of GM insulin -- extreme fatigue and myalgia.
[Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust, UK)
Many victims of GM hepatitis B vaccine reported suffering from chronic fatigue and myalgia.
{Doris M. Jones MSc, "ME [Myalgia Encephalomyelitis, the term includes chronic fatigue] and Vaccinations" Yoga and Health, March 1997, and "How Vaccinations Can Cause ME", WDDTY newsletter, December 1995, vol. 6. No. 9]
One of the more common side effects of
the genetically-engineered drug Ibuprofen is fatigue.
[Cerner Multum drug information]
Genetically-engineered Aspartame (an artificial sweetner) is linked to Chronic fatigue and joint&muscle pain.
[Aspartame reaches 70% of the U.S. population. The U.S. National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey's staggering estimate of the incidence of chronic fatigue and myalgia may not be exaggerated.]
GM food --- Skyrocketing soya allergies (i.e. GM soya toxicity) in the UK have been accompanied by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
And of course, the United States has seen this enormous epidemic of chronic fatigue and myalgia arise during the very period that genetically engineered food has pervaded the American food supply.
So, what is the Mystery???
- - - - - - - - -
13. "Cows ate GM Maize and Died" (Institute of Science in Society, London) ---
In Hesse, Germany a herd of twelve dairy cows on a farm in Woelfersheim died after being fed GM maize and silage. In 2002, Syngenta, the British-Swiss biotechnology giant that manufactured the GM maize, paid farmer Gottfried Gloeckner 40,000 Euros in compensation.
Why is genetically engineered fodder given to animals? Have we learned nothing from Mad Cow Disease?
Repeat: GM animal feed not only endangers the animal, but endangers human beings who eat animal products.
Note: As pollution and gigantic (indiscriminate and horribly wasteful) corporate fishing nets proceed to destroy the fisheries of the world (see www.ccin.info), much of the fish we eat comes from fish farms, which are often themselves polluted with chemicals and genetically-engineered feed.
- - - - - - - - -
14. "Mass Deaths by Sheep Grazing on Bt [GM] Cotton"
(Institute of Science in Society, London)
At least 1,800 sheep were reported dead from severe toxicity after grazing on Bt cotton fields in just four villages in Andhra Pradesh, India.
[see below, mass suicides of farmers in Andhra Pradesh due to the failure of their GM (Bt) cotton crop]
( Bt, bacillus thuringiensis, is a poison genetically engineered into cotton and maize plants to kill an insect which feeds on the pollen. This poison, which seems to acquire much added 'oomph' from the genetic engineering process, permeates the crop which human beings and animals feed upon.)
If you were an Indian shepherd caring for your animals, look at the face of Frankenstein as it appeared in Andhra Pradesh: --- The major symptoms of the disaster as reported by shepherds were:
1. Sheep became dull/depressed 2 to 3 days after grazing
2. Cough with nasal discharge
3. Reddish and erosive lesions in the mouth
4. Blood
5. Blackish diarrhoea
6. Sometimes red urine
7. Death within 5 to 7 days of grazing on the GM cotton fields
- - - - - - - - - -
15. Infertility linked to GM fodder --- Pig farmers in Iowa grew GM maize and fed it to their pigs. 80% of the sows became infertile.
["GM Crops : What you should know", GM Free Cymru, 2nd ed., July 2003, pp.21-22]
- - - - - - - -
16. Animal antipathy to GM feed --- There have been many reports that livestock and laboratory animals avoid genetically engineered feed when given a choice.
The previous three items in this Fact-Sheet demonstrate that they have excellent reasons for doing so.
Domestic cows and pigs, wild geese, laboratory rats and mice --- they all avoid GM food when given a choice.
[Institute of Science in Society; Seeds of Deception pp. 47, 73, 138, 199]
- - - - - - - - - - -
17. Israel. Infant deaths from GM Soya baby food --- "With 2 children dead and 15 suffering from possible brain damage Israeli officials pulled the formula from stores. . . ." [International Herald Tribune, 18 November 2003]
The soya would have to be genetically engineered because GM soya contamination is so widespread and no non-organic company will use increasingly expensive organic soya.
A private organisation (Green Action) tested the soya (the Israeli government evidently would not) and found, as one would expect, that the soya was genetically engineered.
- - - - - - - - - - -
18. Nutrition --- Hardly surprising, GM foods can be substantially less nutritious than organic and conventionally farmed foods.
[Seeds of Deception 20, 177, 178, 186]
- - - - - - - - - - - -
19. The GM cattle growth hormone, rBGH (or rBST), for which Monsanto received Food and Drug Administration approval despite the opposition of FDA scientists, poses serious risks of breast cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer.
[The chief authority here is the research of Dr. Joseph Epstein, medical doctor and professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Public Health.]
This growth hormone has
been widely employed in the U.S. and infested
American dairy supplies nearly
a decade before
it was formally approved by the FDA, and this approval was given, it
bears repeating, in spite of FDA scientists disapproving the hormone.
In practice, according to scientific evidence, rBST has been
shown to
cause numerous serious detrimental effects on the cow, and to
be
potentially carcinogenic. These effects include mastitis,
lesions in
the thorax, speeding up of circulation, reduced weight, proliferation
of cells in the gut which may lead to tumors, etc.
The animal suffering caused
by this unnecessary hormone is simply inexcusable.
Prof.
Epstein has written: "GE milk is entirely
different from natural
milk: nutritionally, biochemically, pharmacologically and
immunologically. It is also contaminated with pus
and antibiotics used to treat mastitis, high levels of the
GE hormone, and high levels of the naturally occurring growth factor
IGF-1. Elevated
levels of IGH-1 in GE milk have been strongly associated with high
risks of colon, breast and prostate cancers, besides promoting their
invasiveness. (emphasis added)
"However,
in spite of such well-documented scientific evidence, the FDA still
authorized the sale and marketing of GE milk in 1984, while blocking
any labeling. In contrast, both Canada and Europe have banned
the sale
of GE milk. The USA is now isolated in the reckless and
unscientific
insistence on the safety of GE milk."
[Find
extensive coverage of rBST issue, including the blatant
'irregularities' , malfeasances and non-feasances involving industry,
government, and media, in Seeds of Deception: Exposing
Corporate and Government Lies about the Safety of Genetically
Engineered Food by Jeffrey M. Smith.
{For instance, "The Ottawa Citizen [October
23, 1998] reported the scene this way: 'The senators sat dumbfounded as
Dr. Margaret Haydon told of being in a meeting when officials from
Monsanto, Inc., the drug's manufacturer, made an offer of between $1
and $2 million to the scientists from Health Canada --- an offer that
she told the senators could only have been interpreted as a bribe.'"
(p. 75)
{"But not all the data made its way
into the hands of the FDA. According to Burroughs
[veterinarian
Richard Burroughs, "who had a lead role in the review process of rbGH],
cows that developed infections of the udder, for example, were often
dropped from the study, skewing the studies' conclusions.
{While the FDA and Monsanto said that they saw only a handful of cows develop udder infections, documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act revealed that 9,500 cows from 500 farms were infected. In addition to omissions of data, dubious statistics were applied that further masked the drug's effects." (p. 78)}
{While the FDA and Monsanto said that they saw only a handful of cows develop udder infections, documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act revealed that 9,500 cows from 500 farms were infected. In addition to omissions of data, dubious statistics were applied that further masked the drug's effects." (p. 78)}
The European Union has placed a ban on rBGH, so closely
associated is it with "human breast cancer cell growth" (
European Journal of Cancer, vol. 29A, no. 16, 1993,
pp. 2273-2279; and the Lancet, vol.
351,, no., 9113, 1998, pp.1393-1396), "prostate
cancer risk" (Science, vol. 279, January
23, 1998).
- - - - - - - - - -
20. Biopharm dangers --- Believe it or not, food crops -- whose pollen can travel, whose food might be eaten -- have been genetically engineered to produce substances including an abortion-inducing chemical, growth hormones, vaccines, industrial enzymes, blood clotters, and blood thinners.
One must expect incidents such as the following 15 November 2002 IPS item: "U.S. officials have ordered 500,000 bushels of soybeans, worth 2.7 million dollars, destroyed after the crop was contaminated by maize genetically engineered to produce an experimental drug." --- The U.S. dept. of Agriculture could not guarantee there had been 100% containment of the contaminated crop. (Bon appetit !)
- - - - - - - - - -
21. The Philippines. "Scientists Suspect Health Threat from GM Corn" (The Guardian, 28 February 2004)
"Scientists investigating a spate of illnesses among people living close to GM fields in the Philippines believe that the crop may have triggered fevers, respiratory illnesses and skin reactions."
- - - - - - - - - -
22. Mystery Diseases --- At least 50 new viruses attacking human health emerged between 1988 and 1996.
[Institute for Science in Society]
Note 1: Laboratory tests show that the genetic engineering process can produce novel viruses.
Note 2: Continuing to quote from the above article on the Philippines: "His team [that of Terjee Traavik, scientific director of the Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology} also said it had found genetically engineered viruses used in the GM process recombined with natural viruses to create new hybrid viruses with unpredictable characteristics.. It confirmed this could suggest that they could cause new diseases."
- - - - - - - - -
23. "Could cause new diseases" such as Bird Flu? SARS? California's Poison Oak Death? The mysterious disease that caused 95% of Florida's elkhorn coral to die in a short period of time? The 50 new viruses that emerged between 1988 and 1996? The new viruses which have emerged since 1996?
- - - - - - - -
24. E. coli 0157:H7 is one such mystery disease which has been scientifically analysed. (Scientists avoid doing analyses for fear they will find GMOs and cause trouble for themselves from corporations and corporation-biased governments.)
Genetic engineering appears to be the cause of a pathogen which is responsible annually in the USA for some 75,000 cases of infection.
[Institute of Science in Society, London]
SARS --- Scientific analysis finds the SARS virus to be derived very probably from genetically engineering. SARS is a new coronavirus unrelated to any previously known.
[Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins]
BIRD FLU --- Like SARS, Bird Flu can jump species. This is clue enough to suggest that it too derives from the GM process because jumping species barriers is what Genetic Engineering is designed to do.
Comment: If one evades Evolution's safeguards, the emergence of 'unexpected' pathogens is precisely what Nature tells us is bound to happen.
This is occurring again and again and again, and will continue until we OUTLAW this nightmare technology.
- - - - - - - - -
II. Threats
to Nature, our Natural Environment
"At
current rates of conservation and deforestation and other forms of
environmental destruction, at least one-fifth of species of plants and
animals would be gone or committed to early extinction by 2030, and
one-half by the end of the century." -- The Future
of Life, Edward O. Wilson, 2002.
Professor Wilson, of Harvard University, may be the foremost
authority on endangered ecosystems.
Please keep this quotation in mind when reading the following:
Please keep this quotation in mind when reading the following:
25. Monarch Butterfly Deaths --- "An example of what can happen when genetically modified crops are introduced was reported in May [1999] in the United States. Pollen from corn into which a toxin called Bt had been genetically engineered, killed nearly half the monarch butterfly caterpillars [that] fed on it in a test at Cornell University."
[International Herald Tribune, 5 August 1999, "Genetically Modified Food Alarmingly Out of Control"]
- - - - - - - - -
26. Genetically-engineered Bt cotton killed 30% of the bees in the fields when field-tested in Thailand.
[Institute for Science in Society, London]
-- - - - - - - - - -
27. Poison Oak Death
--- a mysterious environmental plague
Excerpts from a New
York Times editorial of October 5, 2002, entitled "The
Dying Oaks of California":
"The forests and woodlands of America conceal a landscape of loss. . .
.the most volatile and in some ways the most frightening scourge of
trees at the moment is Sudden Oak Death, which has killed tens of
thousands of oaks in coastal California in just a few years. . . .
Sudden Oak Death first appeared in California in the mid-1990's.
. . . The potential economic damage is enormous. . . . Even now,
California is facing significant agricultural quarantine.. . .
. No one yet knows where Phytophthora
ramorum came from or how this cycle of tree
sickness began.. . . . Phytophthora ramorum
itself is new to science."
The words I have emphasized above could also be said about Eosinophilia-Myalgia Syndrome (EMS). The obvious question we ought to be asking: Is Phytophthora ramorum and Sudden Oak Death related to a GMO, perhaps causing a mutation? (There has been much experimentation with genetically-engineered trees in the United States, California in particular.)
Poison Oak Death has now reached northward into Oregon.
- - - - - - - - - -
28. IHT, 26
December 1996. "Disease Attacks Florida
Keys". Over 95% of the Elkhorn coral
have died in a short period of time from a mysterious disease.
- - - - - - - - -
29. GM (Bt-toxin) cotton and maize: death of worms & soil degradation / lacewing & ladybird deaths / textiles
Mark that the GM cotton plant leaches its Bt-toxin into the soil. This causes worms to die (according to a a study published in Nature), and almost assuredly results in soil degradation.
- - - - - - - - -
29. GM (Bt-toxin) cotton and maize: death of worms & soil degradation / lacewing & ladybird deaths / textiles
Mark that the GM cotton plant leaches its Bt-toxin into the soil. This causes worms to die (according to a a study published in Nature), and almost assuredly results in soil degradation.
[Another study shows that the mortality among lacewings, beneficial
insects that feed upon caterpillars and aphids, increased
after feeding
on GM (bt-toxin) maize.]
The processed cotton fibre also contains this poison. When
you wear GM-cotton underwear, shirts or pants or sox or
whatever, will
it leach over time into the orifices and pores
of your body? What sense is there in
wearing such things?
The truly fearful danger is of the genetic engineering process giving rise to pathogens, and -- even worse -- combining with the Bt toxin to produce who-knows-what.
29a. Note: the mysterious Fiber Disease
Here is another new, mystery disease erupting in the Genetic Engineering era.
Although primarily incident in the United States (where genetically engineered cotton is almost unavoidable), it too is becoming international , like GM products (in this case, Bt cotton).
[There are reports of incidence from 15 other nations including Canada, the UK and The Netherlands]
[Where on this entire planet has Fiber Disease been most prevalent? First, California. Second, Texas. Third, Florida. Three big cotton-growing regions.]
Certain cotton products are carrying something that gives rise to virtual science fiction symptoms among users of these products.
The afflicted have strange fiber-like material (or tiny pieces of thread) sticking out of sores or wounds that erupt.
Painful with intense itching, it has been described as "an ever present sensation as if something is crawling under the skin".
Signicantly (as per our above section on Chronic Fatigue), disabling FATIGUE is a common symptom of Fiber Disease, reported by 95% of patients.
Commonly reported also is the full Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia (which features both chronic fatigue and chronic myalgia).
Cognitive (memory and thought-processing) difficulties, and, naturally, certain behavioural problems are also associated with Fiber Disease. (Genetic engineering seems to have a penchant for attacking the central nervous system.)
Fiber Disease certainly appears to be another genetically-engineered disease, this one evidently brought to us by GM (Bt) cotton textiles and other Bt cotton products.
Note: Pets, especially dogs but also cats (and even horses) are beginning to suffer from this bizarre Fiber Disease. What seems to link all of them? I would say it was exposure to genetically engineered Bt cotton.
[Advance NewsMagazines for Nurse Practicioners, article by Ginger Savely NP and Mary Leitau, vol. 13, issue 5, p.16, www.nurse-practicioners.com;
["Morgellons Fiber Disease", Ed Kasper LAc, reviewed by a Medical Advisory Board/Morgellons Research Foundation, www.happyherbalist.com/morgellons.htm;
[and see "The Fiber Disease", www.biology-online.org/biology-forum; and
["Fiber Disease Alert: Cotton: A Clear and Present Danger" by Cliff Mickelson, www.chemtrailcentral.com]
- - - - - - - - -
III.
The Calamitous Plight of the World's FarmersThe truly fearful danger is of the genetic engineering process giving rise to pathogens, and -- even worse -- combining with the Bt toxin to produce who-knows-what.
29a. Note: the mysterious Fiber Disease
Here is another new, mystery disease erupting in the Genetic Engineering era.
Although primarily incident in the United States (where genetically engineered cotton is almost unavoidable), it too is becoming international , like GM products (in this case, Bt cotton).
[There are reports of incidence from 15 other nations including Canada, the UK and The Netherlands]
[Where on this entire planet has Fiber Disease been most prevalent? First, California. Second, Texas. Third, Florida. Three big cotton-growing regions.]
Certain cotton products are carrying something that gives rise to virtual science fiction symptoms among users of these products.
The afflicted have strange fiber-like material (or tiny pieces of thread) sticking out of sores or wounds that erupt.
Painful with intense itching, it has been described as "an ever present sensation as if something is crawling under the skin".
Signicantly (as per our above section on Chronic Fatigue), disabling FATIGUE is a common symptom of Fiber Disease, reported by 95% of patients.
Commonly reported also is the full Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia (which features both chronic fatigue and chronic myalgia).
Cognitive (memory and thought-processing) difficulties, and, naturally, certain behavioural problems are also associated with Fiber Disease. (Genetic engineering seems to have a penchant for attacking the central nervous system.)
Fiber Disease certainly appears to be another genetically-engineered disease, this one evidently brought to us by GM (Bt) cotton textiles and other Bt cotton products.
Note: Pets, especially dogs but also cats (and even horses) are beginning to suffer from this bizarre Fiber Disease. What seems to link all of them? I would say it was exposure to genetically engineered Bt cotton.
[Advance NewsMagazines for Nurse Practicioners, article by Ginger Savely NP and Mary Leitau, vol. 13, issue 5, p.16, www.nurse-practicioners.com;
["Morgellons Fiber Disease", Ed Kasper LAc, reviewed by a Medical Advisory Board/Morgellons Research Foundation, www.happyherbalist.com/morgellons.htm;
[and see "The Fiber Disease", www.biology-online.org/biology-forum; and
["Fiber Disease Alert: Cotton: A Clear and Present Danger" by Cliff Mickelson, www.chemtrailcentral.com]
- - - - - - - - -
30. SUPERWEEDS, etc. --- Genetically engineered crops produce LESS, require MORE pesticides and herbicides, increase the cost of farming, destroy the living organisms and fertility of the soil, and produce SUPERWEEDS which need deadlier pesticide applications to eradicate --- all contrary to the unending, empty propaganda of the biotechnology corporations.
[ especially note the work of Dr. Charles Benbrook of the Northwest Science and Environmental Policy Center in Idaho, e.g. "Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the United States: The First Eight Years". Biotech Infonet Technical Paper No. 6, Nov 2003; Daily Mail 15 April 2004, and the Guardian's "GM soya 'miracle' turns sour in Argentina"]
- - - - - - - -
31. Farmer suicides in India due to failures of GM cotton --- "Farmers growing Monsanto's genetically-modified Bt cotton in the southern Indian region of South Telengana made seven times less money from the 2002 harvests than those growing non-GM varieties, according to the state government of Andhra Pradesh."
["GM farmers' incomes collapse", The Ecologist,
November 2003]
"As a result of the insurmountable debt accrued from paying more for the GE seeds [Monsanto's] and having a poorer crop [in quality as well as yield], more than 70 Indian farmers have reportedly committed suicide."
[Organic Consumers Association]
In fact, the situation is far, far worse. More than 40,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide since the chemical-drug-biotechnology corporations and their enforcers, the Indian and U.S. governments together with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Bank, initiated so-called "free trade" policies of dumping heavily subsidised western food supplies onto a glutted Indian market; pushing GM crops; and insisting on acceptance of Patents on Life-Forms.
More than 90% of farmers who committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh and Vidharbha (Maharashtra state) had planted Monsanto's Bt cotton during the 2005 cotton season.
The obvious intent is to ruin small family farmers who compose most of the population in India, and convert Indian agriculture into gigantic corporate industrial farms controlled by giant Western chemical-drug-biotechnology corporations.
[Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE), New Delhi, India; see "Movement to Stop the Genocide of Farmers" and "Seeds of Death Vs. Seeds of Life" by Dr. Vandana Shiva, director of RFSTE and winner of the 1993 Alternative Nobel Prize, www.navdanya.org]
- - - - - -
32. The Robe
of Nessus: Contracts signed by farmers with
biotechnology corporations
GM crops are costly and Farmers are liable --- The GM farmer must pay technology fees to the biotech corporation. GM seeds are expensive, and the farmer must sign a contract which prevents him from saving seeds for re-planting -- a revolutionary situation.
GM crops are costly and Farmers are liable --- The GM farmer must pay technology fees to the biotech corporation. GM seeds are expensive, and the farmer must sign a contract which prevents him from saving seeds for re-planting -- a revolutionary situation.
Loss of farmers' independence --- GM
farming and biotech contracts have turned out to be a robe of
Nessus for many GM farmers. As
with Hercules, once put on, it cannot
be taken off. Aside from technology fees
and prohibition of
seed-saving [revolutionary
and enslaving], the GM farmer must buy agrochemicals
from the biotech company.
In Mississippi Farmer, a
Farm Progress publication, an article of 1
December 2000 entitled
"Monsanto Contracts: To Sign or Not to Sign" quotes Oklahoma's
Secretary of Agriculture, Dennis Howard:
"After
reviewing Monsanto's 2001 Technology Agreement, I would discourage any
farmer from signing this document. Not only does this
contract
severely limit the options of the producer, it also limits Monsanto's
liability." The Secretary of Agriculture goes on to
say that "the
protection of the Monsanto contract is strictly one-sided."
- - - -Biotechnology contracts spell serfdom for farmers, even if their crops do not fail.
- - - - - - - - -
33. South America --- A similarly brutal process is occurring here too. Argentina, for example, has been victimised by the syndrome of small farmers expelled from their lands to make way for corporate farming of GM soya, the genetic pollution of the land and loss of food security, deforestation and soil degradation, superweeds and an increase in herbicide poison use, a new disease of soybean rust, and the building of transport infrastructure which threaten ecosystems.
- - - - - - - - - -
34. USA -- Family farmers are not only becoming serfs to corporate masters, but are going out of business.
In Hawaii, almost 50% of Hawaii's papaya growers have stopped farming the fruit due primarily to the University of Hawaii's GM papaya which has genetically contaminated non-GM papaya.
["Hawaii Papaya: GM Contaminated", Melanie Bondera and Mark Query, www.gmofreehawaii.org]
- - - - - - - - - -
35. GM contamination
So virulent is contamination by GMOs that eventually -- unless stopped -- the planet's crops and vegetation will become totally polluted.
Contamination spreads by so many means -- windblown pollen, insects and birds, accidental and intentional human mixing of seeds and planting of GM crops, the giving away of GM seeds by biotech corporations.
[Entire animal and insect species can be wiped out as pest-control genes, for example, spread to the wild.]
GM has contaminated areas in North America which make Britain and even western Europe look quite small.
The worst joke ever told is that "coexistence" with GM crops is possible, that safe separation distances can be established between GM and non-GM crops. The people speaking of "coexistence" are either fools or liars.
Genetically engineered crops, well-named by the graphic British term Frankenstein food & crops, must be OUTLAWED, with severe financial and criminal penalties for manufacturing, trafficking, and intentionally growing.
- - - - - - - - - -
36. GM Contamination + Patents on Life-Forms equal Corporation proprietary rights and the ruin of small family farmers everywhere.
Add to this the serfdom of farmers signing biotechnology contracts, and one can perceive the terrible agricultural revolution that is taking place in the world.
- - - - - - - - - -
37. The expansion of varieties of Genetically Engineered crops
These corporations are already producing GM fruits and vegetables, which will arrive at your supermarket unless stopped.
["These corporations", that is, the biggest players in Biotechnology, are principally Monsanto, Dow, Dupont (USA), Syngenta (UK's AstraZeneca and Swiss Novartis), Bayer (Germany).]
Worse, genetically engineered WHEAT and RICE are already beginning to loom menacingly over food supplies here and there in the world.
GM Rice is on the verge of entering Asia.
GM wheat (and biotechnology contracts) are being forced on Iraqi farmers by the American military regime in Iraq.
That this should happen in the land which first domesticated wheat 10,000 years ago, should upset any decent person.
["Critics decry GM rule in Iraq", Anne Harding, The Scientist, November 30, 2005]
- - - - - - - - - - -
37a. GMO trees (see Poison Oak Death above) and grass are here. Why? There's always a semi-plausible corporate propaganda reason (a lot of baloney of course when one looks closer) that it serves this or that purpose.
But the real reason for such corporate invasion is Patents on Life-Forms, because the corrupt political-judicial systems allow corporations to acquire patents (monopolies) on things that belong in the Public Domain, by pointing to the counterfeit GM card -- splice a gene and it's a so-called "inventive step" and "Here's your patent." GM contamination then spreads the area covered by the patent. As stated before, it's quite a racket !
- - - - - - - - - - -
38. Note: No insurance company in the world will underwrite GM technology.
What does that tell you?
- - - - - - - -
IV.
Ethics and Religion
39. What suffering do & will
animals endure from genetically-engineered
ingredients in their feed and experiments that mix species?
Genetically-modified pigs have shown a high incidence of gastric ulcers, arthritis, cardiomegaly (enlarged heart), dermatitis, and renal disease.
Genetically-modified pigs have shown a high incidence of gastric ulcers, arthritis, cardiomegaly (enlarged heart), dermatitis, and renal disease.
40. What do you personally think of
consuming human genes in medicines? of eating plants
containing animal genes?
What of religious and ethical concerns?
Hindus will not know of, and will be compelled to eat, cow genes in food (as in the monstrous GM salmon) and in medicines. (Biotech companies are growing drugs in the bodies of cows, which is cheaper for them than paying laboratory technicians).
Muslims and Jews may well face a similar situation regarding pig genes.
Vegetarians and people with allergies -- they will have no way to protect themselves.
- - - -
- - - -Hindus will not know of, and will be compelled to eat, cow genes in food (as in the monstrous GM salmon) and in medicines. (Biotech companies are growing drugs in the bodies of cows, which is cheaper for them than paying laboratory technicians).
Muslims and Jews may well face a similar situation regarding pig genes.
Vegetarians and people with allergies -- they will have no way to protect themselves.
V. Novel Viruses and Biological Weapons
40. One can comprehend the explosive, deadly potential of GM products , resulting in unheard-of multi-organ diseases, when reading about the fine line separating gene-injection and biological weaponry.
Indeed the viral and bacterial tool kit for making GM, Frankenstein crops is the same as for making bio-weapons.
{see International Herald Tribune, 25 January 2001, "Australian scientists have accidentally [via the genetic engineering process] created a virus that kills mice by crippling their immune systems, and warn that the technique might threaten to produce deadlier forms of human viruses and new kinds of biological weapons."}
- - - - - - - - - -
VI. Conclusion
Human beings and Nature, as we have known them, cannot survive in a GMO-Frankenstein world.
The nightmare technology of Genetic Engineering Biothnology, and its incestuous Patents on Life-Forms, must be OUTLAWED.
- - - - - - - -
VII. How To Do It?
There is only one way to overcome this extremely powerful, ruthless Corporation-Government-corporate Mass Media axis.
It is to conduct Public Education Campaigns to educate and politically activate the General Public.
The General Public !! Stop forever talking to the Converted. To get around the corporate media's suppression and distortion of truth, one must talk to people and go door-to-door with leaflets and vocal messages.
And major efforts must be made to inform and activate college/university students.
Important Hints:
(1) Concentrate on university students.
And senior citizens.
I speak to you now, elder citizens like myself. Put moral purpose into your lives and help rescue this planet and your grandchildren.
(2) AVOID NGOs and all established organisations, especially large ones. They are not what they seem.
Their hierarchies and decision-making are corporation-influenced if not outright purchased.
[see George Monbiot's very important article in The Guardian, 4 September 2001, "Sleeping with the Enemy: Consumer and Environmental Groups are Getting into Bed with Big Corporations]
[Note: In developing countries there are some exceptions, but very very few in the West.]
The environmental field especially is riddled with wealthy, prestigious, deceptive organisations adept at dilutng and derailing environmental causes, GM in particular.
When they talk about being 'practical' and seeking 'Coexistence' with GM, let a red flag go up.
Nothing short of OUTLAWING GENETIC ENGINEERING and PATENTS ON LIFE-FORMS will save us and our planet.
Do your educational work as individuals or in small groups of people you know.
Educate and activate the Public by writing and telephoning and just talking to your family members, friends and acquantances; write letters and make telephone calls to local, regional and national media; write, call and especially visit your legislative representatives and other government personnel, and take appropriate direct action.
Good Luck to You.