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Yet another indication of how genetically modified food just isn't
safe and the real reason why the powers that be refuse to label
them. Nobody would buy them if they knew that they were genetically
modified. For now, I think the only way to avoid them is to buy
organic.
Best Wishes,
Misty L. Trepke
health.groups.yahoo.com/group/searching-alternatives
news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2278044.ece
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
Published: 17 February 2007
Campaigners against genetically modified crops in Britain last are
calling for trials of GM potatoes this spring to be halted after
releasing more evidence of links with cancers in laboratory rats.
UK Greenpeace activists said the findings, obtained from Russian
trials after an eight-year court battle with the biotech industry,
vindicated research by Dr Arpad Pusztai, whose work was criticised
by the Royal Society and the Netherlands State Institute for Quality
Control.
The disclosure last night of the Russian study on the GM Watch
website led to calls for David Miliband, the Secretary of State for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to withdraw permission for new
trials on GM potatoes to go ahead at secret sites in the UK this
spring. Alan Simpson, a Labour MP and green campaigner, said: "These
trials should be stopped. The research backs up the work of Arpad
Pusztai and it shows that he was the victim of a smear campaign by
the biotech industry. There has been a cover-up over these findings
and the Government should not be a party to that."
Mr Simpson said the findings, which showed that lab rats developed
tumours, were released by anti-GM campaigners in Wales. Dr Pusztai
and a colleague used potatoes that had been genetically modified to
produce a protein, lectin. They found cell damage in the rats'
stomachs, and in parts of their intestines.
The research is likely to spark a fresh row about GM crops in
Britain. Graham Thompson, a Greenpeace campaigner, said: "It is
important because it backs up the research by Pusztai, which was
smeared at the time by the industry."
Brian John of GM Free Cymru, who released the findings, said the
research was conducted in 1998 by the Institute of Nutrition of the
Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and has been suppressed for
eight years.
It showed that the potatoes did considerable damage to the rats'
organs. Those in the "control groups" that were fed non-GM potatoes
suffered ill-effects, but those fed GM potatoes suffered more
serious organ and tissue damage.
The potatoes contained an antibiotic resistance marker gene. The
institute that carried out the studies refused to release all the
information. However, Greenpeace and other consumer groups mounted a
protracted legal battle campaign to obtain the report. In May 2004
the Nikulinski District Court in Russia ruled that information
relating to the safety of GM food should be open to the public.
The institute, however, refused to release the report. Greenpeace
and Russian activist groups again took the institute to court, and
won a ruling that the report must be released.
Irina Ermakova, a consultant for Greenpeace, said she had conducted
her own animal feeding experiments with GM materials. "The GM
potatoes were the most dangerous of the feeds used in the trials ...
and on the basis of this evidence they cannot be used in the
nourishment of people."
Greenpeace said the Russian trials were also badly flawed. Half of
the rats in the trial died, and results were taken from those that
survived, in breach of normal scientific practice.
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In Reply to: FYI. Let tue public beware. Archive posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on February 17, 2007 at 18:01:30:
Walt,
I am against GM too.
What worries me is that the damage may have already been done.
Can we be 100% certain that any of our produce, even organic, is GM free? How do we account for the pollen of GM plants? Pollen is, by it's very nature, designed to spread far and wide. How far and wide has this experiment now developed?
In Reply to: Re: FYI. Let tue public beware. Archive posted by ukchris [1400.3207] on February 17, 2007 at 18:10:58:
Thanks, UK.
I think you are right. The coming generations will have to cope with this. It may be the end of the species as we know it. Considering the insanity and shortsightedness of our current system, the extinction of our species is probably the healthiest thing Gaia could do.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: FYI. Let tue public beware. Archive posted by Walt Stoll [93.1889] on February 18, 2007 at 07:15:33:
There is a vault being developed (link below) for storing the seeds of crops from around the world.
I think it's a great idea! If GM turns out as we fear, and presuming the seeds are not contaminated, then this project might be priceless.
In Reply to: Re: FYI. Let tue public beware. Archive posted by ukchris [1400.3207] on February 18, 2007 at 10:13:41:
I'd think they would need pre-GM seeds for them to be of use; do these actually exist? They would possibly also have to burn all crops planet wide before planting the stored seeds. Do packs of seeds for garden planting have an expiration date?
I stopped eating potatoes about 5 years ago and the few I now get in minestrone soup taste bad to me; no wonder the rats die from potatoes. Mike-S
In Reply to: Re: FYI. Let tue public beware. Archive posted by Mike-S [80.56] on February 18, 2007 at 23:22:58:
It depends where the seeds were sourced. Perhaps in Norway GM is not happening, I dunno.
I would think if a reasonably isolated country has a no-GM policy, or is it not advanced enough for GM (countries in Africa perhaps), they should be safely GM-free.
In Reply to: Re: FYI. Let tue public beware. Archive posted by Mike-S [80.56] on February 18, 2007 at 23:22:58:
seed packets you buy are dated, but seeds found in the Egyptian pyramids have been sprouted. Depends on how they are syored and whether moisture gets to them. When I was preparing for Y2K, I had 50 pound bags of lentils as well a jugs of water. One of the jugs of water leaked, getting the lentils wet and I had a mess of moldy sprouts to clean up.
I read that the vault is in Norway, which could be a problem, if the predictions of the book, The Coming Global Superstorm should be correct. Norway would be under glaciers for the foreseeable future.
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