Britain: GM: The cover-up

[cal04]

Revealed: Government food watchdog gave green light to supermarkets to sell 'illegal' genetically modified rice

Britain's official food safety watchdog has privately told supermarkets that it will not stop them selling an illegal GM rice to the public.

Documents seen by this newspaper show that the Food Standards Agency assured major manufacturers and retailers 10 days ago that it would not make them withdraw the rice - at the same time as it was telling the public it should not be allowed to go on sale.

The environmental group Friends of the Earth has already found GM material in two types of own-brand rice sold in Morrisons supermarkets - in direct contravention of food safety regulations - and believes the GM rice is likely to be widespread throughout Britain.

But the agency has not carried out its own tests for modified rice in products on the market, and has not instructed retailers to do so. It says that the rice is safe, but some scientists disagree.


http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1604094.ece

[bananas]

1. k&r nt

[JohnyCanuck]

2. I would not be surprised if this was the game plan all along -

that is, to get this GM shit thorougly contaminating the food supply, then governments can throw up their hands and say, "Ok, so we goofed a bit by taking the word of those friendly scientists at Monsanto and Cargill etc. as to how their GM experiments could be controlled and kept from polluting the food supply until their safety was assured. They seemed so convincing at the time. Unfortunately, there isn't a hell of a lot we can do about this, so get used to eating GM food whether you want to or not. Eat your GM corn, wheat, rice, whatever, and quit your griping and complaining. You should be thankful that at least you've got something to eat."

Meanwhile, Monsanto and Cargill etc. are laughing all the way to the bank and probably rewarding some government regulators with high paying, cushy jobs when they leave government service.

Rice wars

SNIP

The genetic modifications being used or promoted for rice pose a significant threat to the environment if they contaminate conventional rice fields or spread transgenes to weedy relatives such as red rice. Pollen mediated gene flow was substantial from Mediterranean GM rice bearing a gene for herbicide tolerance to conventional rice and to the weed, red rice. Gene flow from herbicide tolerant to cultivated rice was also substantial in another study of Mediterranean rice. Rice pollen was spread from a test plot up to 110 meters from the boundary of the test plot. It is very clear that transgenic rice will pollute any nearby conventional rice.

GM rice may soon be approved for commercial production in a number of countries. Safety testing of the currently described products has not yet been published. GM rice cannot be presumed to be substantially equivalent to conventional rice, but that may not hamper approval in the United States of many such constructions. For the most part, GM rice is formed from synthetic genes that should require much fuller safety testing than has been done in the past.

In North America, regulators have allowed substitution of genes and proteins produced in bacterial surrogates for the actual genes and proteins produced in crop plants in toxicity tests of human and environmental safety. The use of the bacterial surrogates is allowed, to save corporations the cost of preparing genes and proteins from the crop plants, even though the genes and proteins tested differ significantly from the genes and proteins produced in the crop plants <28>. The public should insist that the actual genes and proteins produced in the crops be tested.

The world’s leading food crop should be treated with more care than has been done with maize, soy and canola.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/PPGMR.php

Cancer Promoting Transgenic Rice

Biotech corporations, government and academia have joined up to devote intense efforts into producing pharmaceutical products in transgenic crop plants in Canada. There have been many field trials, and at least one crop, rice genetically modified to produce human lactoferrin and lysozyme is being promoted for commercial production in the field.

SNIP

Recently, researchers from the University of Ottawa and the National Research Council of Canada reported that they had developed transgenic rice and tobacco plants to produce human insulin like growth factor (hIGF). The transgene is a synthetic form of the human gene, altered in DNA sequence to enhance production in plants. The activity of the protein produced in the plants was tested using an assay based on the promotion of growth of brain cancer cells.

The Canadian investigators claimed that hIGH would be useful in treating a range of disorders: growth deficiency in children, insulin resistant diabetes, osteoporosis and AIDS. However, they have singularly failed to comment on the cancer-promoting abilities of hIGF and the dangers of exposing humans and animals to it, nor the potential contamination of food crops with hIGF. Scientific reviewers and journal editors have similarly neglected to discuss the risks of hIGF production of plants while promoting the clinical benefits.

There is voluminous literature on the role of hIGF in cancer cell transformation and proliferation. For example, there is evidence on the increase in breast cancer risk associated with increased hIGF. Increased IGF has been observed in the milk of cattle treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) and rBGH milk is considered a potential risk factor for both breast and gastrointestinal cancers.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/CPTR.php

[SpiralHawk]

5. Right on, Jonhnny C

That was the plan from the beginning -- to contaminate everything, sya ooops--it's too late, and then keep raking in the money and causing mutations in the food chain and eventually the people

it is the republicon way

Mutants Unite!

[TheGriz]

6. Republicans?

What do the Republicans have to do with agricultural issues in England??

GM food on the market doesn't cause mutations or any other health problems. The controversy in my mind comes from patent disputes, and screwing independant farmers out of their land because seeds found their way into a ditch someplace, and foods slipping by unapproved by whatever regulating body applies - as in this case - though, IMO, the risk is very, very small.

[SpiralHawk]

7. It's the republicon mind set. That's how they think, what they do

So I use republicon in the generic sense of - selfish and willing to sneak and screw other people to get their way, including surreptitiously shoving mutant food down their gullets.

That -- as facts have amply demonstrated -- is republicon all the way.

[Dover]

3. Surely the GM rice is already in U.S. supermarkets. Buy Quinoa instead.

Much better for you and a great substitute for rice.

[cal04]

4. GMO rice found in Britain-Friends of the Earth

Chain Morrison Supermarkets said on Sunday it had withdrawn two rice products after an environmental group said they contained unauthorised genetically modified (GMO) rice.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth said in a statement the GMO strain had been found in two samples of rice from Morrisons stores. At present it is forbidden to grow, sell or market any biotech rice in the European Union's 25 countries.

(snip)
Friends of the Earth said it sent a number of samples to be tested after the European Commission decided in August to tighten requirements on U.S. long-grain rice.

France and Sweden have also detected the presence of GMO rice, a European Union diplomat said on Tuesday. Three bargeloads of U.S. rice have tested positive in Rotterdam.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1375792006