Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research

[Reterr]

Source: The New York Times

Biotechnology companies are keeping university scientists from fully researching the effectiveness and environmental impact of the industry’s genetically modified crops, according to an unusual complaint issued by a group of those scientists.

Ken Ostlie, an entomologist, said Syngenta had withdrawn its permission and a study about corn and rootworms had to stop.
“No truly independent research can be legally conducted on many critical questions,” the scientists wrote in a statement submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency. The E.P.A. is seeking public comments for scientific meetings it will hold next week on biotech crops.

The statement will probably give support to critics of biotech crops, like environmental groups, who have long complained that the crops have not been studied thoroughly enough and could have unintended health and environmental consequences.

The researchers, 26 corn-insect specialists, withheld their names because they feared being cut off from research by the companies. But several of them agreed in interviews to have their names used.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/20crop.html?_r=1&em

---

Mods-I realize this is more than 12 hours old but I searched and it doesn't look like this was ever posted in LBN and it seems like a kinda big one so I took the liberty of posting it anyway. I hope you will considering keeping this one around since it is kinda important.
If not apologies for the extra work I created for you :blush:.

[alittlelark]

1. Thank you for posting this.... Frankenfoods are a huge issue

that seems to get lost in the mix.

When it comes down to the BASICS (Maslows Heirarchy of Needs) It is #1.

[NashVegas]

11. If You Want to Win This Fight, Stop Using Words Like "Frankenfoods" Until

The movement's independent study, indisputable facts, and verifiable evidence to take down any corporate shill who claims food activists are an irrational lot of chicken littles can finally get heard in MSM.

As it is right now, we are pretty good at taking them down here, in DU.

[SpiralHawk]

14. Right. Use correct terms: mutant, chemically drenched food-facsimile crapola

Make no mistake about it.

The occultly marketed mutant foods will -- in time -- vex the unwitting consumers, and the planet.

Halt agricultural occultism.

Halt corporate exploitation & mutation of plants and animals.

Beware sockpuppetry.

Support clean food & rhetorical freedom.

[rolltideroll]

21. Scary stuff

[Buzz Clik]

29. Or you could simply buy organic foods and dispense with the silliness.

[DCKit]

39. There won't be any organic foods once the entire gene pool is polluted by GMOs.

Wild and heritage strains of corn in some very remote areas of Mexico had already been polluted by GMO pollen by 2005. Monsanto has been suing - and winning - cases where they claim that any crop that ends up with their proprietary genes, belongs to Monsanto.

Taken to the logical conclusion, by polluting the genetics of as many plants as possible, it won't be long until Monsanto (and similar companies) "owns" everything.

Another decade of this and the ability to purchase heritage and/or organic foods will no longer be possible. They will have become extinct.

[loudsue]

40. Can I recommend this post??

You sure hit this one on the head.

[McCamy Taylor]

47. Frankenfoods is a very good name. Keep using it. It tells the reader a lot.

The best words will cue the reader in to your thesis with as few characters as possible. Frankenfoods lets them know that humans tried to mess with nature and fucked it up.

There is no way that guys in labs can predict how a DNA sequence which is inserted into a food crop to make it grow faster can affect its antigenicity in vivo in humans (i.e. how allergic it will make your child) or how much it will reduce its resistance to disease or pests without testing it first .

All things are linked in biology. You can not change one without affecting another. For instance, many of the African-Mediterranean blood diseases like sickle cell, thallasemia etc. exist because they confer malaria resistence. That was a naturally selected process. No one in a lab would have dreamed that up.

[Grinchie]

65. How about "Killing me softly with each bite" foods?

Just like people that are anti nuclear are hippies.

Just like people who are against the vast Military Industrial Complex are Hippies.

Just like those damn hippie tree huggers who actually see what lumber companies leave after clear cutting diverse forest habitat.

Just like those damn hippie insect lover Entymologists.

Especially those hippie marine Biology types that see the Coral in the worlds oceans dying a bit every day.

The facts are that GMO's are completely man made entities, and just because Mary Shelly wrote a book that demonstrated, quite well, that man cannot always control his creation doesn't mean that her story wan not be adapted to this topic.

GMO's, like Pesticides, Nuclear Technology, and Military Weaponry have been promoted by Government policies, and nurtured by them with our own tax money. When we become concerned about the potential side effects, such as killing birds, fish and beneficial insect, or ask them how they will clean up after a Chernobyl type accident, they claim that we are not qualified. So it proceeds until we are all horrified by some major incident of health outbreak. Maybe the state of Pennsylvania becoming irradiated, or kids growing up sterile, obese, or stupid.

We already know that half of America is brain dead or asleep.

[blackbart99]

80. Grinchie......Well Said

Who knows what this food is going to do to us. It could finally be our undoing.
Seed banks/vaults could be our only resort. We MUST protect our natural genetics.
:yourock: Great post and greater dialouge...

[Why Syzygy]

2. kick

to find later. Predict a lock. LBN rules are strict. Post it in Health Forum.

[scarletwoman]

3. Another kick so I can find it later, too. Why not post it in GD? (nt)

[KT2000]

4. Good to see media coverage

of this disaster in the making.
They will not pay for the damage they create and they will not pay for the health problems they are creating either.
They can't even get insurance!

Thanks for posting.

[Grinchie]

66. Not so, the USDA is giving discounted Crop Insurance to GMO's

Under the Bush regime, the USDA announced that it would give discounts to growers of GMO crops...

You didn't hear about this?

You think the grower of Organic corn got this same handout?

[KT2000]

70. Whaaat?

No I did not hear about this but it sounds about right coming from the bush regime.
well - the government and industries have been very good at obfuscating other toxic damage so they will get away with this as well.

So true - no support for the organic industry.

[Idealism]

5. Kick for information

[Pastiche423]

6. K&R!

[izquierdista]

7. Slam the door on the foot

Ever since they got their foot in the door with the Patent Office, biotech companies have been like Yosemite Sam the claim jumper running around yelling "mine! mine! mine!" at every bit of new DNA that expresses itself. And ALL, yes 100% of these companies would have nothing were it not for research funded by the federal government. They are like mining companies who think all the money they pull out of the ground belongs to them and the nerve the government has trying to collect taxes or royalties.

The door needs to be slammed hard, cutting off their foot in the process. Go back to the original intent of patents, that they do NOT apply to living organisms, and let them work without the benefit of a government granted monopoly. The days of businessmen running the government are over. A return to government regulation is of business is what is needed.

[Grinchie]

8. This issue is so important, If DU Mods locked it, they would look like Corporate shills

Seriously, how many times have stories about the increasingly large dangers present within Genetically Modified Organisms have been quashed, minimised or disappeared.

How many stories have you seen on mainstream media regarding the fact that 90% of Americans want to know that their food contains GMO and is labeled as such?

The issue of GMO's follows on a known pattern of lies and deception by the Corporations in order to protect profits. The did this with Insecticides, basically calling Rachel Carson a liar, and having some idiot eat spoonfuls of DDT to prove how "Harmless" DDT was.

Then they claimed Roundup was non toxic, and I remember seeing claims that you can Drink it without any side effects.

Then they claimed that Nuclear Power was safe and clean, until they figured out that they really didn't consider all of the devilish little details which led to Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and several hundred thousand tons of Radioactive waste that they don't know what to do with.


Now we finally arrive at GMO's and we get the same treatment. You will starve without GMO's. The farmers demand it. It's good for you, blah blah blah. They have tainted the Geneticists just like they tainted the Entymologists to be nothing more than product whores for the Corporations they are subservient to.

If anyone demands accountability for the potential dangers on any of the above mentioned failures, they are branded Hippies, Tree Huggers, Coral Huggers, or anti technologists.

I can tell you one thing for certain, if GMO ingrediants were mandatory of Food Labels, the GMO producers would run like hell to another business, because they are sitting on some very terrible secrets about what comes out of the GMO food we are growing. They are truly oblivious of the fact that they could infect our food plants with foreign genes, and have no plan whatsoever to revert to the natural state. A lot like the exclusion zone around Chernobyl. They can't do anything with it, so there it stands, and monument to the scientists that thought they knew everything.

Demand Labeling of GMO's in our Foods!

[jmowreader]

31. That would be anything containing corn or soy, right?

According to http://www.northernstar.info/article/791/, seventy-five percent (75%) of the 2007 US corn crop was GMO, up from fifty-five percent (55%) in 2006.

According to http://www.flex-news-food.com/pages/19058/GMO/Japan/Soy/japans-kanematsu-boost-non-gmo-soy.html, ninety percent (90%) of the US soy crop was GMO, which means we are able to only supply about half the market--Japan and Europe won't buy GMO soy.

I believe it would take five to ten years to completely clear the GMO crap out of the foodstream, starting with farmers having to learn crop rotation all over again.

[Tumbulu]

79. That is if the soil microorganisms have not been infected by the foreign genes

that then infect new non gmo plants growing on that soil.

My biggest fear is that once land has been used to grow a gmo crop, it the is permanently infected by the virus/promotor/foreign gene sequence.

Then there is not way to clean up the soil.

It is a true nightmare.

edited to correct spelling

[bertman]

63. Great RANT, Grinchie. I'm with you all the way!!

[Native]

9. I am so heartened to hear that several of the researchers are going public - this is a big step (n/t...

[JohnyCanuck]

10. Monsanto shuts down negative Fox News story on rBGH (Youtube vid)

This Youtube clip explains how two investigative journalists were fired for persisting in an effort to air a report on a Florida Fox News station about the harmful effects for humans and cows of Monsanto's bovine growth hormone treatment for dairy cows, Posilac. What's even more interesting than Monsanto's legal threats and blackmail (i.e. threats to withdraw advertising dollars) against Fox News in order to get Fox News to kill the story, is that after the reporters won a judgment for unfair dismissal against their employer under Florida's whistleblower protection act, the judgment was overturned. The judgment was overturned when an appeal court ruled that Fox News was under no legal obligation not to falsify the news it broadcasts over the public airwaves. In effect, the appeal court said this meant that the reporters could not be afforded any protection against unfair dismissal under the whistleblower protection act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZkDikRLQrw

This clip is actually No 17 from the video documentary "The Corporation". You can see a list of all 23 clips which "The Corporation" producers have now posted on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FA50FBC214A6CE87

[jmowreader]

35. I bet you didn't know this either, but Monsanto sold the rBGH business

http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto_today/for_the_record/rbst_milk_labeling.asp

It happened in 2008, apparently--Monsanto sold the rBGH business to a subsidiary of Eli Lilly. Because that's what you do with products that are about to be legislated or marketed out of existence--you sell them to someone else. Not even Walmart will sell milk from cows treated with it.

[HillbillyBob]

61. There are 4 bills working their way thru congress

and all have Monsanto and other bio hazard er genie food perveyers finger prints on them.
Here are a few links every one should read some having to do with the new regs about to be emplaced on Every farmer whether you just have a few chickens or are growing organic heirloom for your little road side stand.
By the way Roundup herbicide is dilute Agent Orange, recall how many Viet Nam vets were poisoned by Agent Orange and how many Vietnamese are still suffering genetic damage from exposure?



http://www.organicconsumers.org/nais_faq.cf
http://www.soaringspiritwithtears.com/boycott/boycottmonsanto.html

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.cfmhttp://www.opednews.com/articles/FOOD-SAFETY-REGULATIONS--by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090108-947.html
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Monsanto-bills-being-rushe-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090217-758.html

[jeff30997]

12. "it is kinda important".I disagree.

It is a VERY important issue.Thanks Reterr.Those greedy short-sighted idiots have awful things to

hide if they don't want to allow independent studies. :(

[DeeDeeNY]

13. Here's a petition on this very important topic

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/GMFree/TakeAction/MandatoryLabelingPetitiontoObama/index.cfm

[RedCloud]

15. Just yesterday I read today's food versus 50 years ago.

This is an important topic.

Why we don't have good national health is in part the lack of nutrition we consume. Therefore rising medical costs when all it would take in some cases is return health to the food we eat.

[rolltideroll]

16. I never knew this

Can anyone give me any more info about genetically modified foods?

[JohnyCanuck]

19. For some background information on the potential harm of GMO's,

try this link : http://www.i-sis.org.uk/biotechnology.php . For more information on the anti-democratic, totalitarian-like tactics used by big agri-business in an attempt to drive small farmers off their land while they build a virtual monopoly over the world's seed supply (using their own patented seeds) try http://www.foei.org/en/media/archive/2009/gm-crops-feed-biotech-giants-only , http://www.percyschmeiser.com and http://survivingthemiddleclasscrash.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/the-multiple-ways-monsanto-is-putting-normal-seeds-out-of-reach/ .

[rolltideroll]

20. Thanks, appreciate it nt

[Buzz Clik]

26. Unbiased, rational information about genetically modified foods is not available here.

The information offered at DU can be summarized quite easily: every large seed corporation is poisoning you and the environment and is out to destroy the world.

If you want a different view, you will NOT find it here.

[JohnyCanuck]

34. You are of course free to offer your sources and links to unbiased sources,

so have at it.

[Buzz Clik]

37. I've engaged the frothing-at-the-mouth types on this subject before.

I get called a "corporatist motherfucker" for my trouble.

No thanks.

I'm simply offering the straight truth that people who post on the subject of GMOs at DU tend to be irrational fools. This thread supports my previous observations.

[Reterr]

42. Many problems with this thread are unfortunately of your creation

:shrug:
You come in here hyperventilating about previous problems you have had blah, blah and try to hijack the thread and make it about you, throwing in some broad-brush slams on various DUers for good measure. Seriously wtf?
And sorry but it is just a transparently lame cop-out to say "Oh I had this agument before" and wave your hands. If you have any facts (which I highly doubt-I suspect it would be more some vague bullshit line based on the imaginary superiority of sensible people like you over all those other DUers or something) use them but this laundry list of all the problems and terrible persecution you have suffered is pathetic and lame. Anyway all of your little tantrums past or present have nothing to do with this article. Do you have anything to say that is even remotely relevant to the topic of this thread and is not all about you and your fixations?

p.s.: Your type kills me. "DU is so full of people like this waaah, DUers do this waaaah, I am the only Important, Sensible Person who posts here"...but yet somehow you never quite manage to leave. Your type stays bitching and whining despite all your purported problems with DU.

[Grinchie]

67. If the shoe fits, be a GMO food tester

Show the facts and stop whining.

[Odin2005]

46. I can't stand the anti-GMO luddites.

Yes, the seed companies are pulling BS, that doesn't mean the technology itself is bad. Know someone who is a diabetic? Their insulin comes from genetically modified E. coli.

[bertman]

64. You are correct, Odin2005. But stifling research and studies on your product line is NOT

the way to 1) be sure the products are not dangerous to humans, animals, and our environment; 2) the long-term effects of the products are not detrimental; 3) the public feels there is an opportunity to have input, as opposed to having one more corporate decision rammed down the throats of "consumers".

If the technology is not bad, it will be shown to be safe. These companies want to control the product, the research, the marketing, the distribution, and the consumer. It has been proven time and again that they use their corporate clout and government toadies to run over anyone in their way.

[Odin2005]

74. That's why I said they were pulling BS.

And my response down-thread explained that this BS they are pulling is dangerous because it causes people to think the technology itself is bad.

[Grinchie]

69. Thats fine and good. But it doesn't come fromt eh E-Coli in my gut.

Because thats where the E.Coli with Antibiotic resistance now lives, along with the perpepuual production of BT Toxin and Roundup Ready enzymes.

If people were not forced to take insulin, do you think they would stick themselves with needles 4 times a day for fun?

People like you make me sick. Reductionist who actually think they know the complexities of life, but really have no clue whatsoever. Scientists will cure my pain with a pill, instead of seeing that they only alleviate the symptoms and not the cause, reaping vast fortunes in the process.

[Odin2005]

75. "Reductionist"? as opposed to what? New Age woo woo crap?

I'll take the pill over the charlatans offering to "balance my chakras" for $$$.

[uppityperson]

82. Your gut bacterial won't cure your diabetes.

Something along that line. Or is it that antibiotic resistant gut e.coli is bad, so all uses of e.coli is bad? You reductionist you! What is a reductionist? Someone who reduces things to the basics, simplifies?

[uppityperson]

81. wtf? Seriously. wtf?

Insulin doesn't come from e. coli in your gut because that is where antibiotic resistant e.coli lives. And this is...bad?

"If people were not forced to take insulin, do you think they would stick themselves with needles 4 times a day for fun?" And this has ...what to do with anything?

"Scientists will cure my pain with a pill, instead of seeing that they only alleviate the symptoms and not the cause, reaping vast fortunes in the process." And this has...what to do with insulin dependent diabetes?

Each word is readable, but as a whole, all I can do is think "wtf"?

[roody]

49. www.organicconsumers.org

www.organicconsumers.org

[rollingrock]

52. Most Americans haven't heard of this issue

because the corporate media has decided almost never to report on it.

[biermeister]

77. watch the dvd "the world according to monsanto" it's available online

or you can order the dvd. it's full of info

[acmavm]

17. This is why we should all be so THRILLED by Obama's appointment of

Vilsak as Ag Sec. I mean, a Monsanto lackey will surely look after our best interests.

:sarcasm:

[JohnyCanuck]

24. This Vilsack?

The Multiple Ways Monsanto is Putting Normal Seeds Out of Reach

1. They’ve bought up the seed companies across the Midwest.

2. They’ve written Monsanto seed laws and gotten legislators to put them through, that make cleaning, collecting and storing of seeds so onerous in terms of fees and paperwork and testing and tracking every variety and being subject to fines, that having normal seed becomes almost impossible (an NAIS approach to wiping out normal seeds). Does your state have such a seed law? Before they existed, farmers just collected the seeds and put them in sacks in the shed and used them the next year, sharing whatever they wished with friends and neighbors, selling some if they wanted. That’s been killed.

In Illinois, which has such a seed law, Madigan, the Speaker of the House, his staff is Monsanto lobbyists.

3. Monsanto is pushing anti-democracy laws (Vilsack’s brainchild, actually) that remove community’ control over their own counties so farmers and citizens can’t block the planting of GMO crops even if they can contaminate other crops. So if you don’t want a GM-crop that grows industrial chemicals or drugs or a rice growing with human DNA in it, in your area and mixing with your crops, tough luck.

Check the map (go to original for clickable link /JC) of just where the Monsanto/Vilsack laws are and see if your state is still a democracy or is Monsanto’s. A farmer in Illinois told me he heard that Bush had pushed through some regulation that made this true in every state. People need to check on that.

4. For sure there are Monsanto regulations buried in the FDA right now that make a farmer’s seed cleaning equipment illegal (another way to leave nothing but GM-seeds) because it’s now considered a “source of seed contamination.” Farmer can still seed clean but the equipment now has to be certified and a farmer said it would require a million to a million and half dollar building and equipment … for EACH line of seed. Seed storage facilities are also listed (another million?) and harvesting and transport equipment. And manure. Something that can contaminate seed. Notice that chemical fertilizers and pesticides are not mentioned.

You could eat manure and be okay (a little grossed out but okay). Try that with pesticides and fertilizers. Indian farmers have. Their top choice for how to commit suicide to escape the debt they have been left in is to drink Monsanto pesticides.

5. Monsanto is picking off seed cleaners across the Midwest. In Pilot Grove, Missouri, in Indiana (Maurice Parr), and now in southern Illinois (Steve Hixon). And they are using US marshals and state troopers and county police to show up in three cars to serve the poor farmers who had used Hixon as their seed cleaner, telling them that he or their neighbors turned them in, so across that 6 county areas, no one talking to neighbors and people are living in fear and those farming communities are falling apart from the suspicion Monsanto sowed. Hixon’s office got broken into and he thinks someone put a GPS tracking device on his equipment and that’s how Monsanto found between 200-400 customers in very scattered and remote areas, and threatened them all and destroyed his business within 2 days.

http://survivingthemiddleclasscrash.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/the-multiple-ways-monsanto-is-putting-normal-seeds-out-of-reach/

[acmavm]

25. Uh yeah, that guy.

[Joanne98]

18. The corporate seed companies are terrorists.

[ananda]

23. Rural cleansing is taking place..

Corporations like Monsanto are taking over
agricultural land all over the world in
order to control the growth and distribution
of food as production becomes more distressed
due to economic and climate change issues.

Farmers are literally forced off the land
and then either leave or return to work for
the corporations under conditions imposed
by those corporations.

How is this done? Through lawsuits and
obsolescent seeds that only last for one
year. When farmers are forced to buy
the gm seeds that last only one year, they
can't afford to stay in business.... and
when farmers are sued because gm seeds
owned by corporations just happen to end
up on those farmers' land, they are again
forced out of business.. and the corporations
snatch up the land and that's that. Humanity
is so screwed!

[Buzz Clik]

28. Small scale farming has been a losing proposition for decades. 100 years?

Farmers have been living on government aid for at least 40 years.

I wish it were not true, but the fact is that small scale farmers remain on the land only out of a love for the lifestyle.

[rolltideroll]

30. Small Scale farming

Have to agree, just like it is more efficient to manufacture cars en masse it is more efficient to mass produce crops. Specialization of crops grown leads to greater yield. Simple.Opposite argumentsseem to have an ethical bend to them, which does have some good points.

[Buzz Clik]

33. No doubt. All of us have great affection for locally owned and operated businesses (including farms)

We hate the Walmarts of the world, but they simpy have the upper hand.

A way to combat this trend is to bite the bullet and pay the extra $$ for the locally-grown, locally produced goods and leave the inferior crap rotting on the shelves.

[Buzz Clik]

27. Terrorists? Really? Please elaborate how, if guilty of everthing suggested here, they are terrorists

The hysteria on this board is unsurpassed.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[arikara]

43. If the tactics fit...

http://www.percyschmeiser.com/

[uppityperson]

83. How are they terrorists?

whom are they terrorizing?

[arikara]

86. Farmers.

All over the world. With no exaggeration, Monsanto is a truly evil entity, a legal terrorist organization.

Google Percy Schmeiser's story. Google farmers in India committing suicide by drinking pesticides.

http://www.saynotogmos.org/ud2009/updates2009.html

[uppityperson]

88. I also believe Monsanto is a truly evil entity. Just not a terrorist organization.

They can be a really nasty evil company without being a terrorist organization.

[mia]

22. "The World According to Monsanto"

Vandana Shiva has been addressing this issue for over 20 years. I heard her speak in Miami in 1989 at an environmental conference (World Women's Conference for a Healthy Planet). I still have the tape.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swVjzIVqRUA&feature=related

[L0oniX]

36. Gee ...another sociopath corporation ...who da thunk it?

:shrug:

[Joe Chi Minh]

38. K&R.

[bvar22]

41. My wife and I feel so strongly about this.....

...that we moved way out in the country, and now grow our own from local heirloom seeds.
Our area is not suitable for large scale agriculture, so there are no Factory Farms for many, many miles.

Factory Farms + NAFTA (Free Trade) has made our Food Production & Delivery system unsafe.
Before NAFTA, the USDA could offer some oversight over our food supply....not anymore.

Eating CorpoFood & "Free Trade" food is literally Russian Roulette.
Was the lettuce on your sandwich grown according to USDA regs, or was it grown in the toxic sludge of a Mexican sewer? :shrug:

Even the "Farmers Markets" can not be trusted.
Some small scale farmers will use MORE pesticides and herbicides than Factory Farms if their crop is threatened,....and THEN tell you "Sure, my stuff is Organic".

WE also keep HoneyBees, and belong to our local BeeKeepers Association.
We have not had a problem with CCD in our area.
This is only anecdotal testimony, and we could lose our bees tomorrow, but it does give rise to the speculation that CCD may be connected to Factory Farms and GM crops.

[arikara]

44. I've asked local and small scale beekeepers about CCD

and they have not experienced it here either. From what I've heard, its the ones who truck the hives from crop to crop commercially. This then could well have something to do with the cocktail of pesticides that are sprayed on the crops, as well as GE crops which probably have never been tested for safety of the pollinators.

The corporate producers of what they try to call "food" are going to do themselves in. Nutrition and flavour keeps declining, and now they are finding it harder to pollinate the crap anyhow. They can't keep tinkering with genes and spraying it with poison and expect it to come out right.

[Grinchie]

71. I wrote a letter to the USDA about GMO Corn pollen and CCD

I actually got a reply back which the drone at the other end said it could not possibley be so because Corn is an "Open Pollinator" meaning it realease clouds of pollen that make it to other plants.

While this is true, all one has to do is go out into a field and see bee's all of the flowers of corn, whether by intention or as a resting spot. Or how about the thich yellow film of pollen that settles onto everything within miles of a pollinating corn field. What about the layers of pollen that settle on the waterways where the fish and insects can come in contact with it.

When I related these facts to the writer at the USDA, the drone disappeared, emails bounced, and the new campaign to promote High Fructose Corn Syrup began.

The only way they can get people to eat the crap they are churning out these days is through "Flavor Enhancement" AKA "Spices" like Citric Acid, Phosphoric Acid and irradited natural spices that are shipped in from countries that don't even have running water.

The GMO companies like Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, etc all have roots in the Military Industril complex, and a well entrenched within State, Local, and Federal Governments, promising the allure of a better world for all. Unfortunately, all for them means the profiteers at the top. Who cares about millions of sick, unhealthy, scared, sheeple that spend all of their energy trying to get well again?

As long as their is a buck in it, they don't give a damn.

[Odin2005]

45. I'm a Biotech major and this BS Monsanto et. al. are doing is pissing me off.

The fuckers are using are making GMOs that make them quick bucks instead of making GMOs for the greater good, thus giving the luddites an excuse the bash the technology itself.

:grr:

PS: I hate the term "frankenfood", it's BS luddite scaremongering. Please quit using it.

[bvar22]

50. You can use whatever term you like,

...but my family and our HoneyBees are going to avoid it like we avoid other toxins.

Feel free to call me a luddite, but until you have 30 years of Field Testing, you have NO basis to insist that GM foods are safe, and NO right to insult those who believe that caution is the correct path. Whether you admit it or not, the potential for catastrophe with GM crops is HUGE, and there will be NO way to put that genie back in the bottle.

BTW: Could a "BioTech Major" offer an unbiased opinion in this matter?


Call me back in 30 years.

[Odin2005]

55. IIRC it was recently discovered that some pesticide was the cause of the bee hive collapses.

"30 years of field testing" is paranoid overkill. Too bad you let yourself succumb to paranoid luddite fearmongering by those who think technology is evil. Me being a biotech major means I understand how the technology works and am not amused by luddite propaganda and superstitious ignorance.

[bvar22]

60. Technology is evil ???

I LOVE technology.
I use inclined planes (wedges) and levers to split my firewood everyday.
I even used a gas powered roto-tiller last week!
:rofl:

Technology is wonderful.
We lived for three years on a Solar Powered Houseboat on the upper Mississippi River.
THAT technology was superb.

I am also aware that technology brought us the Love Canal and the "Cancer Corridor" on the lower Mississippi River. (My wife is a cancer survivor).

We've made our choices, and am very happy with them.
Thanks, but no thanks to GM foods and Factory Farm clone crops.
We'll stick with growing our own from heirloom seeds, raising our own free range chickens, and keeping our own HoneyBees.... all free from CorpoChemicals.

You can have your tasteless (but long shelf life), pesticide & herbicide drenched, irradiated, narrow gene pooled, mono-cultured frankenfoods until the Field Tests come in.
In fact, YOU will be the field test!
Good Luck!

Cheers.

[arikara]

62. The Precautionary Principle

is a moral and political principle which states that if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of a scientific consensus that harm would not ensue, the burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking the action.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle

30 years of testing is not unreasonable. This is huge, and the genii can't be put back in this bottle when... not if... problems are realized down the road. The pollen flies in the wind contaminating any non-franken crops in its path.

Perhaps the reason for the CCD is that the frankencrops allow for more spraying than conventional crops. Perhaps its a combination of toxic pesticide and the unnatural fish gene that's added to the mix is the tipping point. There is no definitive answer to it yet because nobody is looking at the big picture. But 5 years without bee pollination and we won't have to worry about it.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but these crops are not genetically engineered for better flavour or nutrition. My understanding is that they are made mainly so that they can withstand higher applications of proprietary pesticides. How then can this be beneficial to the end user, or to the ones who have to work in the fields? Once farmers are sucked into buying them they can't even save their own seed anymore and if the pollen blows into a farmer's crop that hasn't even planted it, the corporation claims it as theirs. There is NOTHING benign about this technology.

Mandatory labelling of this frankenfood crap isn't unreasonable either. Why should people not have the right to know what they are ingesting. If its "luddite" for not wanting to eat untested genetically engineered products sprayed with massive amounts of toxic chemicals, then so be it. With most corn and soy in the US now altered, any commercially processed food that contains corn or soy... which is nearly everything in the store from soda pop to soup to cereal contains genetically engineered ingredients. We don't have it in our house and more people are realizing that plant your own or buy local is the way to go.

[uppityperson]

84. false dichotomy. technology is evil vs technology is not evil/wonderful

Technology is simply technology. It is the uses it is put to that are evil or wonderful.

I'm not a paranoid luddite though. I understand that technology is what it is and is used properly AND misused. I distrust Monsanto and GM foods coming from them.

[Grinchie]

72. Start Testing the GMO's before we eat them and maybe we will

But you and I know it will never happen, So get used to it Dr. Frankenstein.

[Reform]

48. codexalimentarius

google it

[Reterr]

51. Off topic but thanks to whomever gave me my heart

I don't post that much here so I have to imagine it is because of this thread that you gave me a heart. Thanks, it is much appreciated :hug:.

[rollingrock]

53. Our new Ag Secretary is a major league Monsanto shill

* Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack's support of genetically engineered pharmaceutical crops, especially pharmaceutical corn:
www.gene.ch/genet/2002/Oct/msg00057.html
www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/drugsincorn102302.cfm

* The biggest biotechnology industry group, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, named Vilsack Governor of the Year. He was also the founder and former chair of the Governor's Biotechnology Partnership.
www.bio.org/news/pressreleases/newsitem.asp?id=200

* When Vilsack created the Iowa Values Fund, his first poster child of economic development potential was Trans Ova and their pursuit of cloning dairy cows.

* Vilsack was the origin of the seed pre-emption bill in 2005, which many people here in Iowa fought because it took away local government's possibility of ever having a regulation on seeds- where GE would be grown, having GE-free buffers, banning pharma corn locally, etc. Representative Sandy Greiner, the Republican sponsor of the bill, bragged on the House Floor that Vilsack put her up to it right after his state of the state address.

* Vilsack has a glowing reputation as being a shill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto. Sustainable ag advocated across the country were spreading the word of Vilsack's history as he was attempting to appeal to voters in his presidential bid. An activist from the west coast even made this youtube animation about Vilsack

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmoc4Qgcm4s

The airplane in this animation is a referral to the controversy that Vilsack often traveled in Monsanto's jet.

*Vilsack is an ardent support of corn and soy based biofuels, which use as much or more fossil energy to produce them as they generate, while driving up world food prices and literally starving the poor.


www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_15573.cfm

[arcane1]

57. Beat me to it

I don't expect much action on this topic from the Obama admin. We're more likely to see right-wingers develop a sudden concern for it, but only so they can attack Obama with it. We still lose.

[rollingrock]

58. If Americans had any sense at all

we'd be out on the streets protesting these outrages to our food supply en masse.

[Peace Patriot]

54. Thanks so much for posting this info! VERY important topic, as the entire world's

food security is likely at great risk from GMOs.

[Tashca]

56. Thank you for posting.

This article does point out a real problem. Where does a person go to get independent research?

Research funded by agribusiness does have the appearance of going after information that proves there is not a problem
Research funded by environmental groups does give the appearance of going after information that proves there is a problem.

Who do you trust to do real independent research???.....to me that is the message of this article and an excellent question.

[The abyss]

59. After we “secured” Iraq…

This was one of the first things the Quisling government put in place. Traditionally Iraqi farmers operated on a farm-saved seed operation. The new government quickly changed that.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/patent/iraq111704.cfm

[jwirr]

68. Just a question: What is the difference between hybrid crops and

genetically altered crops? We had hybrids years ago already.

[ret5hd]

73. The GM crops today have genes from...

totally non-related species inserted into their genome using viruses or other similar methods. For example, a gene from a fish is spliced into the rna of a virus that can infect the target crop (say, corn). The fish gene is thus planted into the genome of the corn plant. No such gene transfer was possible using traditional hybridization.

[Tashca]

76. Hybrids have been around for years.

Hybridization in simple terms is crossing two plants of the same species with specific traits you might want to improve. You might have a particular trait in one plant and one you like in another plant of the same species. You cross pollinate the parents and hope some of the offspring has both traits that you want. Maybe in school when you learned about dominate and recessive gene's in flowers...This was hybridization......could potential happen by itself in evolution.

GMO's are something entirely different. You will through various means actually insert a desired gene directly into the DNA. I believe you have to eliminate another gene to do this. Many times this desired DNA will come from a completely unrelated plant or animal source.....Something that could never happen in natural evolution.

[Odin2005]

85. Viruses can in nature shuffle genes around to different organisms, but it's rare except in microbes.

So to say it never happens is wrong.

[lonestarnot]

78. Sick bastards.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

87. So a group of anonymous people are claiming a conspiracy.

Yeah, right.