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We interrupt our regularly-scheduled deprogramming to cover breaking news on the Health beat. Earlier this week results were published from a new study on genetically-modified (GM) foods. Such studies involve feeding GM foods to laboratory rats over a period of time, and measuring the incidence of disease and premature death.
The results, which the research team has deemed “alarming,” showed premature deaths were higher by 66 percent among male rats and an outrageous 350 percent among female rats — compared with rats on a non-GM diet. The animals on the GM diet were found to suffer disproportionately from mammary tumors as well as severe liver and kidney damage.
This was the first long-term safety study of its kind, covering the entire two-year life span of the rats. Previous studies, relied upon for regulatory approval of GM crops, were limited to just 90-day time spans. We’re talking about GM crops currently in the food supply, particularly in free-market America (and developing countries like Brazil and India). The GM crop used in this study was corn, genetically engineered to tolerate increased levels of herbicide.
GM crop production began innocuously enough with the 1994 introduction of a delayed-ripening tomato. But the most alarming contributions in this field have come from the infamous biotech and chemical giant Monsanto. This conglomerate developed the technique for making corn and other crops resistant to its “Round-Up” herbicide. The technique entails insertion of bacteria genes into the natural plant DNA.
Genetically-modified corn, the kind fed to these rats, now accounts for around 90 percent of the US corn crop. Corn is likely your largest source of GM crop exposure, since it exists not only in vegetable form but also in cereals, snack foods, as cooking oil, and as a sweetener widely used in beverages and processed foods (high fructose corn syrup). Virtually all processed foods sold in the US contain genetically-modified ingredients.
America’s status as the world leader in genetically-modified food, with no labeling requirements whatsoever, comes despite overwhelming skepticism by the American people. Polls show that over 90 percent favor mandatory labeling rules; instead we have a Monsanto executive being cynically appointed as America’s “Food Safety Czar.” So much for “democracy.”
It is only now, thanks to the California citizens’ initiative process, that GM labeling may become a reality in the US as it has been in Europe. A victory for Proposition 37 would come despite Monsanto and other corporate “persons” spending over $40 million to defeat the citizen-sponsored ballot measure.
19 Comments
Nobody who’s objective believes the study. Apparently even the scientist who led the study is an anti-GM activist, which calls into question his own ability to carry out an impartial study.
Nice to see you’re pushing the Industry hacks’ meme, cal222.
Monsanto and Dow’s testing is what’s been discredited.
Recommended. It is a web of evil. Conspiracy fact. The US Government actively and covertly promotes these toxic genetic monstrosities.That is another wikileaks revelation.
Bill Gates is also trying to poison us all with Franken Foods. His tax exempt “Charity”, a criminal organization, is an ally with Monsanto.
And surprise, Mitt Romoney’s Bain Capital have been palin’ around with Monsanto for years.
The billionaires frack our water, they put more and more greenhouse gasses to destroy the planet, and they poison our food.
And I think the reason, I was banned from Daily Kos, was because I criticized Monsanto and Franken Foods.
Thanks Wendy. I did read your recent post. I always hesitate to wade into this debate, but sometimes I can’t resist. People just kind of believe what they want to believe about this I guess; it’s almost like a religion in a way. I think if people would spend a little bit of the time they spend opposing GM learning more about what GM is in some detail, they would be less afraid of it. But that is something an individual has to decide for him- or herself.
I can see the Love Me I’m GM crowd spinning these results in their favor. If GM crops are toxic to and kill rats this is a Good Thing, who likes rats anyway.
Just look at how the Global Warming lovers claim that excess CO2 will help crops grow better.
Mitt Romney worked for Monsanto, and Barack Obama appointed its lawyer to the Supreme Court.
Are there any independent scientists in this debate?
Or is it just those paid by Big Food vs those not paid by Big Food?
um Synoia
what could possibly be the third option?
Regardless of this study – whether it’s valid or not, GM foods should be labeled as such so we know what we are eating, we should have that choice. That much should not be in dispute.
It probably won’t make much difference if food with GMOs requires labeling since most consumers hate to read bc they don’t understand what they read and they live their lives based on faith. Nothing will convince them that GMOs are biological time bombs, like they don’t care if they ingest Aspartame by name or by its other names, NutraSweet and AminoSweet. They’re ‘informed’ that sugar is bad for you.
Those food consumers who do read and try to understand find required disclaimers on the food packaging, legal compromises that try to undermine the labeling. For example, the cheese I buy is permitted (after winning the right) to state that the product is “rBGH-rBST Hormone Free (class of bovine growth hormone) with an asterisk, and the footnote: “The federal government states there is no significant difference in milk from rBGH-r-BST treated and untreated cows.”
If GMO labeling is required, that sort of dissembling re-direction of information will probably co-exist on the products.
I want all of it banned and all the patents and formulas incinerated, but I’ll accept labeling as a start.
That funny comic picture up there lumps MSG into the frankenstew, and I think that’s a strategic mistake since the so-called controversy over MSG is an entirely separate issue. MSG as a food additive may annoy or irritate some people who ingest it, but it’s not especially harmful and it has no long-term toxic effects. From wikipedia:
“Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is one of several forms of glutamic acid found in foods, in large part because glutamic acid, being an amino acid, is pervasive in nature. Glutamic acid and its salts can also be present in a wide variety of other additives, including hydrolyzed vegetable protein, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extract, soy extracts, and protein isolate, which must be labeled with these common and usual names.”
Food products stopped including MSG as a listed ingredient bc of the highly publicized controversy. Instead, they have to list those other ingredients when the amount of ‘pure’ MSG is less than a certain fractional amount.
The video’s guest, Abby Martin, said a few confusing or mistaken things. She said that (GMO) corn and soy form “the base” of most food products (we buy in a grocery store), but they’re often in small amounts in most products (to add protein, binding, or sweetness), so I don’t know what she means by “base”, which can mean the most significant portion.
Also, she said that the (labeling) term “organic” isn’t reliable, but I’d guess she’s thinking of the labeling gimmick ‘natural’. In fact, for calling a product or ingredients ‘organic’, a rigorous certification process must be followed, and there are several groups of regulators that ensure ‘organic’ means ‘organic’.
A product labeled ‘organic’ or with ingredients identified as organic is the most reliable and unambiguous kind of information we have.
Products labeled ‘organic’ will not have GMOs.
It should be banned, not merely identified. The schmucks who don’t care what they ingest will contaminate our sewage and soil with their excretions and food rubbish.
Products have to be labeled not just “organic” but 100% organic to be guaranteed free of GM ingredients.
Foods labeled only “organic” can still contain up to 30 percent GM ingredients.
We might as well forget about Organic having any real meaning since GM crops are contaminating the whole crop gene pool. Labeling GM foods is also a waste of time since it is or will soon be impossible to avoid them.
Some countries are still resisting the Corporate GM Coup but we have already lost that battle. Even if we could eliminate all present GM use we probably could never return to a non GM contaminated world.
Scientists don’t work for free.
The people who are supposed to represent us in this, the Food and Drug Administration, allowed Monsanto to continue its predatory seed practices before the EPA even had a chance to weigh on. Although that was contrary to law, Obama’s Solicitor General, Kagan, weighed in at the Supreme Court. Not on behalf of Monsanto, of course, but on behalf of the FDA ruling in favor of Monsanto. *wink, wink*
And now she sits on the Supreme Court, where she and Clinton’s appointee, Breyer, joined four Republican Justices who ruled that the federal government cannot force states to expand Medicare.
Since the other part of that decision ruled that the taxing power of federal government could be used force private citizens to buy whatever (no, not only health insurance–whatever) from private vendors, her vote and Breyers really stuck it to the people who are not on welfare, but cannot afford to buy health insurance.
Didn’t that all work out conveniently? Who needs death panels for the poor, when we have SCOTUS Justices like Breyer and Kagan?
Wind, bees and other natural forces of pollinization will ensure that no food is organic, regardless of the label.
Kiss your liver goodbye because it will work overtime trying to rid your body of things that don’t belong in a human body.
Vendana Shiva, who’s been at the forefront of the sovereign food movement forever, has a new piece up at AJE trying to demythologize the current media praise of industrial agriculture. She says that Navdanya will soon publish a synthesis of the many studies showing the danger of the pesticides used in GMO monoculture farming.
Here she in on ‘The Hour’.
Labeling is just a start.
As far as the science is concerned, I don’t necessarily believe this study, but I CERTAINLY don’t believe studies by GMO corporations, or by ‘independent’ scientists whose funding comes ultimately from the same places (and that’s most scientists today, btw).
In any case, we know better than to trust a political system that has long since been bought and paid for to basically force GMOs down our throat, as they it has done, because its in our best interests on any level. Most questions that masquerade as scientific questions can really be evaluated on a political level. And nowadays, that’s usually not going to lead to a positive evaluation, given the endemic and deeply rooted corruption of the system.
That’s such an unpleasant thing to talk about I know…
The words of an industry flack:
“I think if people would spend a little bit of the time they spend opposing GM learning more about what GM is in some detail, they would be less afraid of it.”
Here, educate yourself:
The words of an industry flack:
“I think if people would spend a little bit of the time they spend opposing GM learning more about what GM is in some detail, they would be less afraid of it.”
Here, educate yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0uls507hvM
Rats, the link got dropped first try.