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Concerned that industry and government
have failed to carry out proper scientific studies on the
safety of GE corn and other Frankenfoods, a young Dutch science
student, Hinze Hogendoorn, recently decided to take matters
into his own hands.
Dr. Mae Wan-Ho, a British geneticist and
world renowned critic of biotechnology, reported the results
of this simple, yet remarkable animal-feeding experiment on
her website www.i-sis.org
in December 2001. Here are excerpts from Dr. Ho's report:
A Dutch farmer left two piles of maize
in a barn infested with mice, one pile GM (genetically modified),
the other non-GM. The GM pile was untouched, while the non-GM
pile was completely eaten up. Incredible!
Hinze couldn't find a single scientific
report on animals being tested for preference of GM versus
non GM food on the web when he began. On extending his search
to effects of GM foods on animals, he came across reports
from companies developing GM foods, all declaring there were
no adverse impacts.
But he also came across independent researchers
who have reported harmful effects, including Dr. Arpad Pusztai,
who found GM potatoes damaged the kidney, thymus, spleen and
gut of young rats.
Hinze was stumped at first, because he
would have needed to go through a lot of bureaucracy to experiment
on animals. However, he managed to rescue 30 female six-week
old mice bred to feed snakes from a herpetology center.
Hinze gave them a staple food along with
the two foods GM and non-GE corn and soy that were to be compared,
so they could really show their preference without being starved.
Large cages were used so the mice had
plenty of room to move around. At the beginning, all the mice
were weighed before they were put into the cages. The mice
had not eaten for some time, but amazingly, they immediately
showed very definite food preferences preferring the non GM
corn and soy.
For the next nine weeks, Hinze continued
to give the mice GM and non GM maize or soy chunks. the mice
consumed 61% non GM and 39% GM food when given free choice.
For the next experiment, Hinze tested
for the health effects of GM food. Over the next 10 days,
he kept track of the amount of food that the two groups consumed
each day, and weighed the mice, halfway through and at the
end of the experiments.
The group fed GM ate more, probably because
they were slightly heavier on average to begin with, but they
gained less weight. By the end, they actually lost weight.
In contrast, the group fed non GM ate less and gained more
weight, continuing to gain weight until the end of the experiment.
The results were statistically significant.
That was not the only difference observed.
There were marked behavioral differences. The mice fed GM
food "seemed less active while in their cages."
The most striking difference was when
the mice were weighed at the end of the experiment. The mice
fed GM food were "more distressed" than the other
mice.
"Many were running round and round
the basket, scrabbling desperately in the sawdust, and even
frantically jumping up the sides, something I'd never seen
before." They were clearly more nervous than the mice
from the other cage. "For me this was the most disconcerting
evidence that GM food is not quite normal."
Another "interesting result"
is that one of the mice in the GM cage was found dead at the
end of the experiment. Hinze concluded, "At the end of
everything, I must admit that the experiment has done nothing
to soothe my qualms concerning genetically enhanced food."
Frankencorn or Pesticides:
Choose Your Poison
The hazards of genetically engineered
corn, and other GE foods, are frightening. But even if global
resistance were able to drive GE corn off the market tomorrow,
we would still be left with a highly toxic, chemical-intensive,
industrial-style system of corn production which is depleting
soil fertility, poisoning municipal water supplies, and quickly
turning indigenous people and family farmers into an endangered
species.
Even without Frankencrops, we would still
be facing an out-of-control globalization process, which is
driving millions of farmers off the land and forcing desperate
peasants to chop down remaining forests -- in the process
driving hundreds of thousands of landraces and traditional
varieties of plants, microorganisms, and animals into extinction.
Syngenta's conventional non-GE corn and
pesticides are just as scary as their Frankencorn. Syngenta
profits by selling corn farmers either gene-altered Bt corn
or its conventional fertilizer and pesticide-intensive) hybrids,
along with its super toxic weed killer, Atrazine, a known
carcinogen.
Unfortunately Atrazine not only kills
weeds, but also ends up as a dangerous residue in the meat
and dairy products of animals that have eaten Atrazine-sprayed
corn. Atrazine, along with its companion pesticides, have
also polluted wells and drinking water in 97% of the communities
in the US Corn Belt.
What's more dangerous, eating Bt corn,
consuming pesticide residues in your Big Mac or non-organic
dairy products, or drinking the tap water that comes out of
your faucet?
Similarly, Monsanto is in the business
of selling toxic pesticides and herbicides, whether it is
to farmers growing GE crops, farmers growing non-GE hybrid
crops, Roundup-spraying drug warriors in Colombia or California,
or suburbanites trying to get that perfectly green lawn.
After 100 years of poisoning the public
with substances like PCBs and Agent Orange, Monsanto tells
us that their latest toxic chemicals such as Roundup, or their
latest seed varieties, such as Roundup Ready corn are perfectly
safe.
Should We Believe Them?
Or what about Cargill? They're happy to
sell their chemical nitrate fertilizers (which also end up
in most Americans' drinking water) to farmers, whether they
are planting GE Frankencrops or just conventional industrial
hybrids. Or ADM, who are happy to sell you either GE corn
or non-GE corn, as long as they can drive the prices down
which they pay to farmers, and drive the prices up to their
"enemy," the consumer.
The solution of course to all this is
to buy and eat organic food, and to buy from local and regional
farmers and companies, rather than the transnational corporations
whenever possible.
Mexicans can protect their health and
preserve their biodiversity by boycotting gringo GE-tainted
corn and buying organic corn produced by Mexican farmers cultivating
traditional varieties.
US consumers similarly can protect their
health, their drinking water, and their children by buying
organic and local.
Fortunately this is what more and more
people are doing everyday, not only in the USA but across
the world. Farmers in 130 nations are now producing certified
organic food for a booming market of organic consumers, making
organic the fasting growing component of world agriculture.
Thirty million Americans
are now buying organic food and the numbers are rising every
month. Since September 11, sales
of organic and natural food have increased 8%.
BioDemocracy
News #37
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