Scientists who are producing genetically modified food for human or animal consumption and governments who are admitting these
crops into the supermarkets for human consumption are overlooking some extremely important considerations:
*Science must always err on the side of caution when human lives are at stake.
*People must be given a choice; presently they are not.
First of all there are some facts about GM food that you might be interested in knowing:
1."Scientists"
in a number of countries are changing in many ways the plants that we eat. Many of these scientists will say that man has
been doing this for hundreds or thousands of years. The major difference is that farmers and biologists have been grafting
plants for many years, and choosing to replant seeds from the biggest, most delicious fruits and vegetables. This has nothing
to do with what some scientists are doing to food today.
2.Monsanto is one of the principal corporations investing
heavily in GM plant modification.
3.GM food production is not an exact science. The people producing genetically modified
food have no idea what the effect on humans their creations might have. We are their experiment.
4.The types of controversial
experiments that scientists are performing on the food we eat are not the same as those that farmers have traditionally carried
out to improve crops. Poisonous plants that seiously undermine health, and which can cause many kinds of allergic reactions,
to include death, are highly likely in this vast area of experimentation.
5.GM food has contaminated
conventionally grown food in many places, and it can also contaminate organically grown food. For example, Mexico is the source
of all corn grown on the earth, and there is, or was, great diversity there, in corn varieties. Scientists from around the
world go there to select corn for seed banks. This sole source of corn has now been contaminated by GM corn by pollen traveling
hundreds, if not thousands, of miles.
6.One type of genetic modification involves inserting genes from poisonous bacteria,
bacillus thurigiensis, which lives in the soil, into the plants that we eat, so as to make the plant poisonous to insects.
Then we eat it? This is even more bizarre than the current practice of spraying plants with poison, then eating them.
7.Another
type of genetic modification involves making sure that crops bear fruit for only one season. These are called terminator crops.
Is this science in the interest of humanity? The objective of course, is to force farmers to have to go back to the source
they bought the seeds from. Since there are about 6 corporations that own 80% of all seed crops in the world, you don't have
to be a genius to see where this is going. It's about absolute control of the world food supply and profit. Of course farmers
will have to accept seeds that have been modified in whatever way occurs to the agricultural scientists, if they want to grow
crops.
8.There are various types of food that qualify as GM, yet it does not have to be labeled in any way. This means
not only that the consumer does not have a choice in selecting traditionally grown food, but in addition has no idea when
he is eating it.
9.Many scientists today are strongly opposed to GM food experimentation and the subsequent forcing
of these foods on the public without any choice.
10.Arpad Pusztai, a famous research scientist who has the support
of dozens of other scientists, has proven in laboratory studies that GM food caused an irreversible shrinkage of the major
organs of the body in laboratory animals that were given GM food. He made this information public in a television interview,
and shortly after was released from his duties at the Rowett Research Centre.
11.The strategy adopted by GM corporations
seems to be to go into countries in which farmers are in great need, and offer the genetically modified seeds and other assistance,
for free. Since most farmers do not know very much about genetically modified organisms, they do not question these apparent
handouts. There are now millions of hectares dedicated to growing GM foods, in places like Argentina, The Philippines, and
other countries.
12.The scientists who are telling the world that genetically modified food is healthy sound a little
bit like the scientists who swore up and down that greenhouse gases had nothing to do with global warming. What do these scientists
all have in common? Unfortunately, it's that in many cases they have been willing to give up their morals, ethics, and human
dignity so as to not bite the hand that feeds them.
13. As stated above, six pharmaceutical companies now own
80% of all commercial seeds in the world. They have been able to pass legislation in Europe to make it illegal for people
to grow and sell other seeds. Can you see where this is going? ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Key points which demand serious scrutiny by objective scientists are:
What are the specific
negative effects of genetic modifications? If they are not known, then how can science be said to be erring on the side of
safety?
Reclassification and labeling of GM foods. Obviously, plants that would never be genetically combined by Nature
must be classified as substantially different from normal crops. This fact alone requires that they be labeled and that consumers
have a choice.
What about the contamination of conventional crops, and even worse, of organic crops, by the pollen,
which travels up to hundreds and thousands of miles in all directions, carried by the wind, animals, birds, and insects.
