Monsanto Whistleblower Says Genetically Engineered Crops May Cause Disease

[Dems Will Win]

By Jeffrey M. Smith

Monsanto was quite happy to recruit young Kirk Azevedo to sell their genetically engineered cotton. Kirk had grown up on a California farm and had worked in several jobs monitoring and testing pesticides and herbicides. Kirk was bright, ambitious, handsome and idealistic—the perfect candidate to project the company’s “Save the world through genetic engineering” image.

It was that image, in fact, that convinced Kirk to take the job in 1996. “When I was contacted by the headhunter from Monsanto, I began to study the company, namely the work of their CEO, Robert Shapiro.” Kirk was thoroughly impressed with Shapiro’s promise of a golden future through genetically modified (GM) crops. “He described how we would reduce the in-process waste from manufacturing, turn our fields into factories and produce anything from lifesaving drugs to insect-resistant plants. It was fascinating to me.” Kirk thought, “Here we go. I can do something to help the world and make it a better place.”

He left his job and accepted a position at Monsanto, rising quickly to become the facilitator for GM cotton sales in California and Arizona. He would often repeat Shapiro’s vision to customers, researchers, even fellow employees. After about three months, he visited Monsanto’s St. Louis headquarters for the first time for new employee training. There too, he took the opportunity to let his colleagues know how enthusiastic he was about Monsanto’s technology that was going to reduce waste, decrease poverty and help the world. Soon after the meeting, however, his world was shaken.

“A vice president pulled me aside,” recalled Kirk. “He told me something like, ‘Wait a second. What Robert Shapiro says is one thing. But what we do is something else. We are here to make money. He is the front man who tells a story. We don’t even understand what he is saying.’”

Kirk felt let down. “I went in there with the idea of helping and healing and came out with ‘Oh, I guess it is just another profit-oriented company.’” He returned to California, still holding out hopes that the new technology could make a difference.

Possible Toxins in GM Plants

Kirk was developing the market in the West for two types of GM cotton. Bt cotton was engineered with a gene from a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis. Organic farmers use the natural form of the bacterium as an insecticide, spraying it occasionally during times of high pest infestation. Monsanto engineers, however, isolated and then altered the gene that produces the Bt-toxin, and inserted it into the DNA of the cotton plant. Now every cell of their Bt cotton produces a toxic protein. The other variety was Roundup Ready® cotton. It contains another bacterial gene that enables the plant to survive an otherwise toxic dose of Monsanto’s Roundup® herbicide. Since the patent on Roundup’s main active ingredient, glyphosate, was due to expire in 2000, the company was planning to sell Roundup Ready seeds that were bundled with their Roundup herbicide, effectively extending their brand’s dominance in the herbicide market.

In the summer of 1997, Kirk spoke with a Monsanto scientist who was doing some tests on Roundup Ready cotton. Using a “Western blot” analysis, the scientist was able to identify different proteins by their molecular weight. He told Kirk that the GM cotton not only contained the intended protein produced by the Roundup Ready gene, but also extra proteins that were not normally produced in the plant. These unknown proteins had been created during the gene insertion process.

Gene insertion was done using a gene gun (particle bombardment). Kirk, who has an undergraduate degree in biochemistry, understood this to be “a kind of barbaric and messy method of genetic engineering, where you use a gun-like apparatus to bombard the plant tissue with genes that are wrapped around tiny gold particles.” He knew that particle bombardment can cause unpredictable changes and mutations in the DNA, which might result in new types of proteins.

The scientist dismissed these newly created proteins in the cotton plant as unimportant background noise, but Kirk wasn’t convinced. Proteins can have allergenic or toxic properties, but no one at Monsanto had done a safety assessment on them. “I was afraid at that time that some of these proteins may be toxic.” He was particularly concerned that the rogue proteins “might possibly lead to mad cow or some other prion-type diseases.”

Kirk had just been studying mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and its human counterpart, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). These fatal diseases had been tracked to a class of proteins called prions. Short for “proteinaceous infectious particles,” prions are improperly folded proteins, which cause other healthy proteins to also become misfolded. Over time, they cause holes in the brain, severe dysfunction and death. Prions survive cooking and are believed to be transmittable to humans who eat meat from infected “mad” cows. The disease may incubate undetected for about 2 to 8 years in cows and up to 30 years in humans.

When Kirk tried to share his concerns with the scientist, he realized, “He had no idea what I was talking about; he had not even heard of prions. And this was at a time when Europe had a great concern about mad cow disease and it was just before the noble prize was won by Stanley Prusiner for his discovery of prion proteins.” Kirk said “These Monsanto scientists are very knowledge about traditional products, like chemicals, herbicides and pesticides, but they don’t understand the possible harmful outcomes of genetic engineering, such as pathophysiology or prion proteins. So I am explaining to him about the potential untoward effects of these foreign proteins, but he just did not understand.”

Endangering the Food Supply

At this time, Roundup Ready cotton varieties were just being introduced into other regions but were still being field-tested in California. California varieties had not yet been commercialized. But Kirk came to find out that Monsanto was feeding the cotton plants used in its test plots to cattle.

“I had great issue with this,” he said. “I had worked for Abbot Laboratories doing research, doing test plots using Bt sprays from bacteria. We would never take a test plot and put into the food supply, even with somewhat benign chemistries. We would always destroy the test plot material and not let anything into the food supply. Now we entered into a new era of genetic engineering. The standard was not the same as with pesticides. It was much lower, even though it probably should have been much higher.”

Kirk complained to the Ph.D. in charge of the test plot about feeding the experimental plants to cows. He explained that unknown proteins, including prions, might even effect humans who consume the cow’s milk and meat. The scientist replied, “Well that’s what we’re doing everywhere else and that’s what we’re doing here.” He refused to destroy the plants.

Kirk got a bit frantic. He started talking to others in the company. “I approached pretty much everyone on my team in Monsanto.” He was unable to get anyone interested. In fact, he said, “Once they understood my perspective, I was somewhat ostracized. It seemed as if once I started questioning things, people wanted to keep their distance from me. I lost the cooperation with other team members. Anything that interfered with advancing the commercialization of this technology was going to be pushed aside.”

He then approached California Agriculture Commissioners. “These local Ag commissioners are traditionally responsible for test plots and to make sure test plot designs protect people and the environment.” But Kirk got nowhere. “Once again, even at the Ag commissioner level, they were dealing with a new technology that was beyond their comprehension. They did not really grasp what untoward effects might be created by the genetic engineering process itself.”

Kirk continued to try to blow the whistle on what he thought could be devastating to the health of consumers. “I spoke to many Ag commissioners. I spoke to people at the University of California. I found no one who would even get it, or even get the connection that proteins might be pathogenic, or that there might be untoward effects associated with these foreign proteins that we knew we were producing. They didn’t even want to talk about it really. You’d kind of see a blank stare when speaking to them on this level. That led me to say I am not going to be part of this company anymore. I’m not going to be part of this disaster, from a moral perspective.”

Kirk gave his two-week notice. In early January 1998, he finished his last day of work in the morning and in the afternoon started his first day at chiropractic college. He was still determined to make a positive difference for the world, but with a radically changed approach.

While in school, he continued to research prion disease and its possible connection with GM crops. What he read then and what is known now about prions has not alleviated his concerns. He says, “The protein that manifests as mad cow disease takes about five years. With humans, however, that time line is anywhere from 10-30 years. We were talking about 1997 and today is 2006. We still don’t know if there is anything going to happen to us from our being used as test subjects.”

Update

It turns out that the damage done to DNA due to the process of creating a genetically modified organism is far more extensive than previously thought.<1> GM crops routinely create unintended proteins, alter existing protein levels or even change the components and shape of the protein that is created by the inserted gene. Kirk’s concerns about a GM crop producing a harmful misfolded protein remain well-founded, and have been echoed by scientists as one of the many possible dangers that are not being evaluated by the biotech industry’s superficial safety assessments.

GM cotton has provided ample reports of unpredicted side-effects. In April 2006, more than 70 Indian shepherds reported that 25% of their herds died within 5-7 days of continuous grazing on Bt cotton plants.<2> Hundreds of Indian agricultural laborers reported allergic reactions from Bt cotton. Some cotton harvesters have been hospitalized and many laborers in cotton gin factories take antihistamines each day before work.<3>

The cotton’s agronomic performance is also erratic. When Monsanto’s GM cotton varieties were first introduced in the US, tens of thousands of acres suffered deformed roots and other unexpected problems. Monsanto paid out millions in settlements.<4> When Bt cotton was tested in Indonesia, widespread pest infestation and drought damage forced withdrawal of the crop, despite the fact that Monsanto had been bribing at least 140 individuals for years, trying to gain approval.<5> In India, inconsistent performance has resulted in more than $80 million dollars in losses in each of two states.<6> Thousands of indebted Bt cotton farmers have committed suicide. In Vidarbha, in north east Maharashtra, from June through August 2006, farmers committed suicide at a rate of about one every eight hours.<7> (The list of adverse reactions reported from other GM crops, in lab animals, livestock and humans, is considerably longer.)

Kirk’s concern about GM crop test plots also continues to remain valid. The industry has been consistently inept at controlling the spread of unapproved varieties. On August 18, 2006, for example, the USDA announced that unapproved GM long grain rice, which was last field tested by Bayer CropScience in 2001, had contaminated the US rice crop<8> (probably for the past 5 years). Japan responded by suspending long grain rice imports and the EU will now only accept shipments that are tested and certified GM-free. Similarly, in March 2005, the US government admitted that an unapproved corn variety had escaped from Syngenta’s field trials four years earlier and had contaminated US corn.<9> By year’s end, Japan had rejected at least 14 shipments containing the illegal corn. Other field trialed crops have been mixed with commercial varieties, consumed by farmers, stolen, even given away by government agencies and universities who had accidentally mixed seed varieties.

Some contamination from field trials may last for centuries. That may be the fate of a variety of unapproved Roundup Ready grass which, according to reports made public in August 2006, had escaped into the wild from an Oregon test plot years earlier. Pollen had crossed with other varieties and wind had dispersed seeds. Scientists believe that the variety will cross pollinate with other grass varieties and may contaminate the commercial grass seed supply—70 percent of which is grown in Oregon.

Even GM crops with known poisons are being grown outdoors without adequate safeguards for health and the environment. A corn engineered to produce pharmaceutical medicines, for example, contaminated corn and soybean fields in Iowa and Nebraska in 2002.<10> On August 10, 2006, a federal judge ruled that the drug-producing GM crops grown in Hawaii violated both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.<11>

A December 29, 2005 report by the USDA office of Inspector General, blasted the agriculture department for its abysmal oversight of GM field trials, particularly for the high risk drug producing crops.<12> And a January 2004 report by the National Research Council also called upon the government to strengthen its oversight, but acknowledged that there is no way to guarantee that field trialed crops will not pollute the environment.<13>

With the US government failing to prevent GM contamination, and with state governments and agriculture commissioners unwilling to challenge the dictates of the biotech industry, some California counties decided to enact regulations of their own. California’s diverse agriculture is particularly vulnerable and thousands of field trials on not-yet-approved GM crops have already taken place there. If contamination were discovered, it could easily devastate an industry. Four counties have enacted moratoria or bans on the planting of GM crops, including both approved and unapproved varieties. This follows the actions of more than 4500 jurisdictions in Europe and dozens of nations, states and regions on all continents, which have sought to restrict planting of GM crops to protect their health, environment and agriculture.

Ironically, California’s assembly, which has done nothing to protect the state from possible losses due to GM crop contamination, passed a bill on August 24, 2006 that prohibits other counties and cities from creating GM free zones. The senate is expected to vote on the issue by the end of their session on August 31st (see http://www.calgefree.org/preemption.shtml). It is yet another example of how the biotech industry has been able to push their agenda onto US consumers, without regard to health and environmental safeguards. No doubt that their lobbyists, anxious to have this bill pass, told legislators that GM crops are needed to stop poverty and feed a hungry world.

]

http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=678

Jeffrey Smith’s forthcoming book, Genetic Roulette, documents more than 60 health risks of GM foods in easy-to-read two-page spreads, and demonstrates how current safety assessments are not competent to protect consumers from the dangers. His previous book, Seeds of Deception (www.seedsofdeception.com), is the world’s best-selling book on the subject. He is available for media at [e-mail]. Dr. Kirk Azevedo has a chiropractic office in Cambria, California. Press may reach him at [phone] or at drkirk(at)charter.net.



Spilling the Beans is a monthly column available at www.responsibletechnology.org.

Permission is granted to publishers and webmasters to reproduce issues of Spilling the Beans in whole or in part.

[MADem]

1. Confessions of a scanner

I scanned. Quickly.

WHAT disease?

That's way too fucking much info in a single post. A summary paragraph, and a link would do better to make your point and also stick within the rules regarding four/five paragraphs of copyright text.

Your goal was to gain an advocate? Didn't happen. I got annoyed and posted instead.

[Dems Will Win]

2. The rogue proteins created by particle injection in genetic

engineering can lead to misfolded proteins called "prions". These are the bad little greeblies that make you sick in Mad Cow Disease.

He was particularly concerned that the rogue proteins “might possibly lead to mad cow or some other prion-type diseases.”

Kirk had just been studying mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and its human counterpart, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). These fatal diseases had been tracked to a class of proteins called prions. Short for “proteinaceous infectious particles,” prions are improperly folded proteins, which cause other healthy proteins to also become misfolded. Over time, they cause holes in the brain, severe dysfunction and death. Prions survive cooking and are believed to be transmittable to humans who eat meat from infected “mad” cows. The disease may incubate undetected for about 2 to 8 years in cows and up to 30 years in humans.

[MADem]

7. Wow, I am thrilled I don't eat cow...!

And have not for many, many years.

But you get my point?


Lead with the big punch.

Big forum. Many threads.
You cannot count on the wonky intellectuals who will peruse and parse and contemplate.

And because you cannot count on them, because this is a big tent....good, juicy, responsible, weighty threads sometimes just go KLUNK. It's not lack of care, it's sheer traffic sometimes.

Ya gotta SELL...

[Tellurian]

47. You're no better off if your Vegan or a Pastafarian

Monsanto has tainted all foodstuff.

Do a cursory check of their Board of Directors.

Also, ADM.. you'll be shocked and awed at the name recognition.

[pitohui]

8. i am very skeptical of this claim

mad cow disease turned out to be a tempest in a teapot, all britain was supposed to be depopulated by now because of the bad beef that got into the food supply in the 1980s

less than 200 people have died and it's 20 years later, as for maybe someday pie in the sky people will develop in the next decade or two, a great many of those cases were teens and young people in their 20s so clearly the disease DOESN'T hang around and wait around

it just turned out to be something that affects only a tiny percentage of the population for whatever reason, i would assume a genetic susceptibility

i think it's quite a leap from round-up ready cotton to some cows eating the cotton plants to mad cow disease, i'm just not seeing this chain of events, the source sounds (and i'm sorry to say this) like he way over reacted, painted himself in a corner, and lost his career -- a sad story but not a terribly convincing one

[bananas]

17. What an ignorant post

http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/01/23/carcass.piles/index.html

[pitohui]

20. not ignorant at all, what does an irrelevant linky prove?

i think it's terrific that we have tests for mad cow disease and that they are removed from the food chain

nonetheless around 200 or so people worldwide have died from mad cow disease...ever

and none of the cows went mad from eating cotton

[bananas]

22. Millions of cows were destroyed

Quarantines were established
Millions of cows were destroyed
They stopped putting dead cows into the cow feed
Steps were taken to prevent the spread of BSE
So now you don't believe it was ever a problem.

A few weeks ago someone told me he didn't believe that CFC's had to be banned, his proof was that the ozone hole is getting smaller.

Sheesh.

[populistdriven]

55. the official numbers are BS hundreds have died in the US

a diagnosis is very difficult

http://www.fortunecity.com/healthclub/cpr/349/index.html

[OnionPatch]

61. Yes, there are tests for mad cow disease but

Less than 1% of our cattle here in the US are *ever* tested for mad cow disease. Plus the disease has a twenty year incubation period in humans. People could start popping up with it all over the place sometime in the next twenty years. That only around 200 have died so far is not really a comforting thought in this light. As a consumer, this info is enough to make me feel like the safety of my food is being violated.

[midnight]

70. Thanks for condensing this crucial info.

I have been very leary of the GMO products since they were introduced. Europe has barred them from their borders, and pointed out the fact that the long term outcomes were to risky.

[roody]

9. I scanned too and will read it later. This is IMPORTANT!

If you want sovereignty over the food you eat, pay attention to this issue. Reject genetically modified food.

[MADem]

10. You did not read it NOW, though. My point is NOT that it is unimportant

My point is that if you want people to READ, you put the KEY POINTS UP FRONT.

If it grabbed you straight away, you'd have read the whole thing by now.

It's a basic lesson--lead with the big, juicy chunk--the one that leaves everyone wanting more. You learn it when you write your first essay in elementary school.

[roody]

13. OK, I concede.

Your point is taken.

[druidity33]

33. complex issues...

A lot of background needed, and much in the way of describing oblique science terms are necessary for this subject. GM crops are one of the best examples of human hubris i can think of. We splice and dice and we don't know what we've created or how it affects anything. I can't believe people in this forum are doubting the relevance of GM crop issues. The evidence is scattered but there... no one wants anyone to connect the dots. Soon someone will write a book and its effect wil be like Carson's Silent Spring... but i betcha it won't happen till a Democrat is in the Big seat.

btw, i read the whole thing, the title was enough to grab me, and i appreciate not having to link to another site sometimes, as popups are often worse than the small ads here at DU...

:shrug:

[slaveplanet]

106. WE?

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------
We splice and dice and we don't know what we've created or how it affects anything.
--------------------------------------------------------------

I hope you're not including me in this mad science experiment.

no it is not WE issue, this is an us against them issue as straight up as warfare.

They, those who've declared war on food choice in perpetuity, including the major GMO corps. Anyone who works for them, anyone who benefits from a paycheck, including their families, from these corps. The AG inspectors who've been bought off, the lawyers, the congress who've been bought off in their respective states, the judges, the investors, the truck drivers that deliver one more item to those secret laboratories, have declared war on the rest of mankind and in some eyes, God, with their little Frankenstinian experiments.

It is THEY who have struck first blood. And they know damn well what they've done.

It's over for soybean and canola.
It's soon to be over for corn, rice, tomato and your front lawn, and soon your backyard garden.

It is a War to end choice, and they've brazenly admitted to such.
Don't ever give the impression they know not what they are doing.

[druidity33]

111. yo...

chill a little. I'm on your side... i agree. I was saying "we" in the species sense, y'know as in humankind?

As far as not knowing what they're doing... yeah they "think" they know what they're doing, but there will be problems years from now that i think no one will have percieved.

They know how to rape and demean farmers and farming... and they know how to suck every last penny out of our good earth.

"they" are evil. pure and simple.

[w4rma]

34. Agreed. At least boldface important points.

That said, I have not eaten any beef, that I know of, for over 4 years now, since I first heard about mad cow and how the Bush administrations FDA has forced American companies to NOT test for mad cow.

This disease is crazy: No cure. 30 year incubation so you don't know about outbreaks until massive numbers of folks are infected. The prions stick to surgical equipment so much that surgeons have to use a disposable set of equipment when they operate on a known infected person which definitely makes me wonder about the tools used to cut the meat in the slaughterhouses.

I like my brain and I want to keep it intact.

[SmokingJacket]

57. I'm a scanner too, but I got the point.

Was intrigued enough to follow the link.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

11. I Read The Whole Thing. There Was No Disease.

A lot of it seemed like the rantings of an obsessed lunatic, and the rest was some scientific support to some of the lunatic's ramblings.

There was some interesting stuff in the article, but overall it seems like an exercise in over dramatization more than anything else. There was no disease found or anything else, it is just theorizing that GE can yield unintended proteins which have some risk (though no mention of what the risk is: one in a million? one in a hundred? who the fuck knows?) of causing disease.

Reallllly long article, some interesting stuff, in the end probably not worth the effort to have read fully.

[pitohui]

14. i am afraid i agree w. operationmindcrime

i felt a little bad about it but i started to wonder about the sanity of the "whistleblower"

he just made too many wild nonscientific leaps to my mind

[Lerkfish]

38. well, even an insane whistleblower can still be correct.

it appears from the article that his concerns have been corroborated independently, and I know the genetic rice issue is accurate and verified from other sources.

[MADem]

16. Well, glad I did not waste that precious time, then!

It's gotta grab me to peruse the whole item. That presentation did not grab me at all.

[Dems Will Win]

35. The point is Monsanto doesn't know if it causes disease or not

or what any odds are. They just want to make money and testing would show clear hazards SO THEY DON'T TEST! This is similar to Big Pharma covering up the heart and stroke problems from Vioxx, etc.

By the way, what this article is saying is that you could possibly develop Mad Cow Disease without any Mad Cow being involved. The genetic material from Bt Cotton could drift into other crops that are eaten AND COTTONSEED OIL IS USED TO COOK YOUR SNACK FOOD.

READ THE LABEL ON THE NEXT BAG OF POTATO CHIPS YOU GIVE YOUR KID TO EAT.

No Mad Cow Required!

[TheFriedPiper]

36. Some of us aren't that lazy

[MADem]

44. And some are. Your point?

[ldf]

37. my apologies

i can't come up with anything that is quick, witty and insulting enough to address your post. it would definitely take longer, and you would scan and miss it.

ADD is unfortunate. however, everyone here does not necessarily suffer from it.

AND you are obviously not the only one reading. or is this the MADemocraticunderground?

[MADem]

45. You want to get your point out, package it so it sells.

And get some thicker skin. This is the 'internets' after all.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

86. you turned an article on GM into a marketing class you alone attend.

[leftchick]

46. you are joking right?

I read every last word and it scares the shit out of me. DWW would only post the whole thing if permission were given, which it was. This is invaluable information and I for one truly appreciate and recommend this thread highly.

[MADem]

50. Not at all

Look, I did not say the info wasn't worthwhile, but an intro or an underlining of the salient points would aid discussion.

This is a big forum, it moves quickly. And that swirl of monotonous paragraphs doesn't encourage one to set down and plow through the whole thing.

[Occulus]

56. Okay, how about this

Your cotton T-shirt might make you dead thirty-odd years from now.

Is that a big enough grab for you?

How about this: the chips you serve with your kids' box lunch might kill them years down the road. (As someone above pointed out, they use cottonseed oil in a lot of those products.)

It took me about five minutes of my time to thoroughly read and completely understand every word of that post. I'm just sayin'.

[MADem]

60. There ya go.

Good for you for whipping through that in Evelyn Wood fashion. You stand on the mountaintop of speed readers.

It failed to grab me as written.

Had it been preceded by your little synopsis, it would have played better.

Sales, you see, sales.

[leftchick]

59. I don't understand

why bother even replying to the thread if you don't like the way it was posted? DWW did a fantastic job if I read the whole thing without stopping! picky picky, sheesh.

Keep Up The Great Posts DWW!

:yourock:

[I Have A Dream]

3. Thanks for posting this, Dems Will Win. Very interesting & important.

n/t

[Rainscents]

4. I preach this to people and I get this surprise look from them.

[NYC]

5. Worth reading.

Thanks.

[fed-up]

6. K/R Kuccinich is/was the only Pres nominee that is against GE-pendulum

may start to swing towards anti-ge here in this very, very, very red-neck farming county that I live in. Rice farmers are starting to freak out over the contamination of the long grain rice. Other farmers are hearing about the GE grass that is spreading around Oregon.

Maybe, life will be better in 2008 and we can have another shot at passing an initiative to ban GE crops here.....

[Nikki Stone 1]

67. Big Kucinich fan here. And your post scares the hell out of me

That's why GM seeds are so problematic. They spread like any other seeds.

[Greyhound]

12. Thanks for the info. I was trying to get this point across to a

skeptic a couple of weeks ago. The problem with this, and so many other science-out-of-control stories,is the utter lack of understanding present in the majority of amerikans. They just don't have a basic understanding of how things work, and just don't get it.

Very frustrating.
:kick:

[bananas]

18. And that "lack of understanding" is seen in this very thread. nt

[SlavesandBulldozers]

89. what you have to do, see, is bundle it in easy to understand phrases

and market it like candy.

candy, people. candy.



:eyes:

[Nutmegger]

15. Kick

:kick:

[oblivious]

19. Fascinating. Thanks for posting.

[RC]

21. I had no trouble reading and understanding the original post.

Monsanto is out to make money - period. The proper safe guards would interfere with their bottom line.
It should not take a rocket scientist or an Einstein to figure out pollen floating around from GM plants will cross pollinate non GM and even related non GM species. These modified plants get eaten by animals (and you & me) which take up these modified proteins for their own use, with unknown results. The Prion of 'Mad Cow" is nothing more than a regular protein that has been mal-formed. We don't even know the reason why. All we know is how. The disaster stories of GM foods are not getting the exposure they need. GM plants are really bad news. Worse it may take another 10 to 30 or more years before the damage starts to show up wholesale to the point it cannot be covered up any longer. By then it will be too late.

[Oilwellian]

23. Monsanto is a beast

They also have the nasty little habit of patenting the indigenous seeds of farmers all over the world and when a trade agreement is struck up in one of those particular countries, Monsanto has the right to impose their seeds on the farmers because they own the patent. I remember reading recently they did just that in Iraq.

Nice little racket, eh?

[sunnystarr]

62. There was a dvd that reported that issue

It was about a Canadian farmer who fought Monsanto and lost everything. When the Monsanto trucks drive down a rural road some of their seed blows off and shows up in rural farmers' crops. Then Monsanto goes out and has the farmers crop (corn in this case) tested and if their gene is present they sue for the whole crop. This also destroys the farmer's seed that is used for all future crops since it's now contaminated with the Monsanto gene. This puts all those small farmers out of business.

We should all be concerned that a gene can be patented. All life is comprised of genes including human life. If a corporation can own a gene then they can eventually own all life forms. Very scary stuff.

This is the result of allowing corporations an individual status legally. I wish there could be a movement to change this worldwide.

ps: This documentary dvd belonged to my daughter who insisted I watch it. I don't remember the name of it but will ask her when she's back from her holiday weekend.

[Ezlivin]

91. "The Future of Food"

http://www.thefutureoffood.com/

[OnyxCollie]

96. Don't forget Terminator seeds.

The plants they grow into produce non-viable seeds, thus forcing farmers to buy new seeds. Just a little "thank you" from Monsanto.

Can't wait for THAT to show up in the environment.

[slaveplanet]

107. They can't patent the seeds

or any form of life.

But they can patent a specific gene.

[whatelseisnew]

24. An example of the "profit-oriented company"

http://www.percyschmeiser.com/conflict.htm

For those of you who may not have heard of Percy Schmeiser's fight against Monsanto:


Excerpt from Aug 14, 1999 Vancouver Sun article by Dave Margoshes

"Percy Schmeiser was mad as hell, and decided he wasn't going to take it.

Schmeiser has been growing canola -- the yellow-blossomed oilseed that used to be known as rapeseed -- for 40 years, and he knows his stuff. He's been experimenting, developing his own varieties, using his own seed and generally prospering with canola. reaping the benefits derived from growing an increasingly popular crop.

So when Monsanto, the giant multinational agro-chemical company that is at the forefront of developing genetically modified foods, accused him of patent infringement and demanded restitution for its seeds, his pride was hurt. He chose to fight rather than roll over and take it."
...

[KT2000]

25. GE crops DO cause illness

It is really sad that people are not getting this.
GE crops are not studied for health and safety - period.
But as Smith and Kirk are trying to tell us, the technology that creates the GE product also creates "side effects" that are not being studied at all.

Dr.Arpad Paztai found serious damage to mice fed GE potatoes for two weeks. He found that it was not the pesticide that was inserted that was causing the problems but the gene insertion method. His study was rewritten at the behest of the British government and his career was ruined for his efforts. Human health studies are no longer encouraged at all.

If people do not think that the so-called background noise - novel proteins, misfolded proteins are not going to cause health problems in humans - that is just denial.

[mhatrw]

26. Thanks for this information. n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

27. Jesus. Do you think this is why Bush won't allow 100% testing of cows

in America? What a son of a bitch. I don't even want to know what will happen if we discover we have a massive problem here in the US and he tried to hide it.

[Horse with no Name]

31. Interesting.

Possibly so.:scared:

[Nikki Stone 1]

68. He'll just blame it on Clinton

As usual

[wickerwoman]

28. This is an especially chilling bit:

"When Kirk tried to share his concerns with the scientist, he realized, “He had no idea what I was talking about; he had not even heard of prions. And this was at a time when Europe had a great concern about mad cow disease and it was just before the noble prize was won by Stanley Prusiner for his discovery of prion proteins.” Kirk said “These Monsanto scientists are very knowledge about traditional products, like chemicals, herbicides and pesticides, but they don’t understand the possible harmful outcomes of genetic engineering, such as pathophysiology or prion proteins. So I am explaining to him about the potential untoward effects of these foreign proteins, but he just did not understand.”


Even I had heard of prions at that point and I'm not a scientist. But these same happy assholes will be all over TV swearing on a stack of bibles that nothing could possibly be dangerous about GE foods.

[Horse with no Name]

29. Long but very informative

I have lived in farming communities for much of my adult life.
What I find "odd" is that, in particular, dairy cows that are dry lotted and fed, the cancer rates are staggeringly high--even to the point of being called clusters.
We had privately speculated that it was more than likely due to the chemicals that the farms used, however...maybe a more interesting look would be at what the cattle are being fed.
The cattle eat the feed and then the waste products are washed away.
The water that is used to wash the feces away hastens entry of it into the ground water supply, causing cancer.
Very interesting indeed.
Thank you for posting this.

[malaise]

30. Thanks worth reading n/t

[symbolman]

32. Thanks so much for this solid work

I've been reading up on GM foods, as a matter of fact I live in Hawaii and not 100 feet from a Monsanto Field of corn.. nice to find out a Federal Judge called them on it, the corn is gone now, and I'm glad to hear it - I've got a toddler and the wind blows this way, to our house.

It would be ironic that I would move here to be at the outer limits of the Bush Empire only to find out I've been breathing crap from a GM field (or my son and wife have) that could kill me or make us all very ill at any time in the future.

GM is NOT something to mess with, it really is a Frankenstein situation with no one making sure it's safe.. ever want to read something really CHILLING, read about the Asilomar Conference in California in the 70's when they were messing with bacteria, esp the ECOLI bacteria that lives in the gut of every mammal on the planet... Scientists met because they were freaked that some idiot could make an ECOLI bacterium that could REPLACE the ones that occur naturally and aid digestion. If that were to happen NO MAMMAL would be ABLE to DIGEST FOOD, and they'd all DIE.

This is not the stuff of science fiction or some whiny little snot, this shit is very serious, and THINK about corporations OWNING DNA, period.

Have you Trademarked YOUR DNA yet? I've actually been thinking of doing that, Patenting my PERSONAL DNA to make sure that *I* OWN IT.

The world gets very wierd and very fast when idiots full of money and no scruples take over. I'm actually surprised that no one has made a OIL EATING bacteria or some such, think about all of your furniture, your computer, car parts, anything made of plastic, CDs, DVDs, etc DISSOLVING as Bacteria ATE IT.. Not to mention all the OIL in the world going BYE BYE.. anyone with 10K and a garage or basement can do this shit folks, and THAT is more scary than a bomb or airplane..

Thanks for the plethora of info, I'm passing this around, esp to my wife as we look out the window at Monsanto, sitting there on a street that almost EVERYONE on this island uses to get around.. man, oh man..

[Blue Diadem]

39. Thank you for the very informative article & links. N/t

[derby378]

40. Watch THE CORPORATION - Monsanto has a very shoddy record

Pay careful attention to the segments on rBGH in milk and attempts to suppress news reports of possible health risks. Monsanto made FOX News bring the hammer down on two of its investigative reporters in Florida who were on the trail of rBGH.

I drink a lot more organic milk nowadays after seeing that DVD. Monsanto can bite me.

[Dems Will Win]

42. Drink only organic milk, eat only organic butter, cheese, etc.

Also GM corn and wheat, etc. was genetically programmed to create natural pesticides and herbicides in the plant as it grows to prevent crop loss.

WELL, GUESS WHAT?

Those same genetic programs create fresh herbicides and pesticides in YOUR STOMACH WHEN YOU EAT THOSE PLANTS.

Now everybody take a guess as to what creating pesiticides and herbicides in your stomach will do to your health.

SO JUST EAT ORGANIC BREAD AND CORN TOO.

This has been a private announcement....

[yellowcanine]

90. Bt sprays are used on organic crops, did you know that? You are way

off base here with your claims. You don't know anything about Bt.

[appal_jack]

112. BIG DIFFERENCE: Organic Bt vs. GMO Bt

Organic Bt is a dried, flowable powder consisting of the metabolite produced by Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) bacteria which are grown in vats. While the metabolite would not be good to eat in large quantities, organic food consumers are quite safe, because:

1) The organic form of Bt is not stabilized or preserved, and will break down within <72 hours from sunlight and rainfall. In fact, organic growers often have to be sure to spray the undersides of their leafy crops (kale, etc.), to make sure that the Bt is around long to kill the caterpillar pests that the Bt targets.
2)Bt is expensive. Organic farmers only use enough Bt to protect their crops to the point that they produce & look good. They only spray the plant parts that matter. Around me, the big organic broccoli growers (and around me "big" means 10 acres) have found that the broccoli actually does BETTER if they refrain from spraying too often. What happens is the growers protect the young broccoli plants until they grow several true leaves. Then it's OK for the caterpillars to munch a bit - a little caterpillar activity actually triggers the plant's own immune system to get going. Finally, the organic broccoli grower sprays Bt once at "cupping" (the formation of a broccoli head) and maybe once again a week before harvest, to make absolutely sure there are no critters in the heads, which would cause a whole truckload to possibly be rejected by the (Whole Foods - type - wholesale) buyer. This final spraying of Bt is completely bio-degraded well before harvest.

Contrast this with a Bt-GMO-Corn grower. In this case, the gene for producing the Bt toxin is either shot (via a "gene gun) willy-nilly into the corn germ-plasm, or implanted there by the Cauliflower Mosaic retrovirus. Not only does this disturb other genetic (i.e.- protein coding) activity in the corn plant (as the above article highlights well), but it also means that EVERY CELL of the resulting GMO corn plant produces high quantities of Bt toxin during the plant's ENTIRE LIFE. Corn root cells produce the toxin, with unknown effects on beneficial soil life (e.g.- predatory nematodes, etc.). Corn Pollen has Bt toxin in it, which is why the plants were shown to be harmful to Monarch Butterfly caterpillars. The corn ear you then eat also has a full-load of Bt toxin in it, and I would wager in sufficient quantity to do some harm (at least over years of eating GMO sweet corn).

Your equating occasional organic Bt sprayings with corporate GMO expropriation and careless mis-use of the Bt gene is utter nonsense. I sprayed my kale bed with organic Bt last week (first time in more than a month), and the monarchs are healthily spinning their chrysalises on the milkweed plants just 25 yards away. You won't find that in a GMO corn agribusiness operation.

I can eat my kale tonight and be 100% sure it is free of any Bt toxin.

-app

[Joanne98]

41. Where are the Christians? I thought they hated science?

Oh I forgot. They only hate the GOOD science. Poisoning babies is okay because they're not fetuses. Only the unborn matter. Wait doesn't this affect the UNBORN too?

[buddhamama]

43. uh mm, you think?!

thanks for validating what a good majority of people already suspected.

[Tellurian]

48. There is a new DVD out called: "THE FOOD WE EAT"

Buy it or netflix it asap. Give copies as Christmas presents to your friends.

The visual is a documentary on all the research done by scientists and farmers outraged over
the bio-engineering of classic seeds hundreds of years old forever changed, because they have been patented by Monsanto and ADM.

A trip to the supermarket becomes another battlefield of avoiding land mines of unidentified, unlabeled, genetically altered foods.

I saw it several weeks ago and it will leave you disturbed and angry.

[buddhamama]

49. GM foods is an issue

i have been involved with for yrs. whenever the subject comes up I'll be there, and I'll promote Miss Shiva's site.

Ms.Shiva has battled the giants in her native land, India. And unlike a lot of "so-called" experts, She is a scientist.

http://www.vshiva.net/

her articles on the subject of GMO's can be found here:
http://www.zmag.org/bios/homepage.cfm?authorID=90

[MountainLaurel]

51. Thank you for the recommendation!

Another one to add to the queue.

[Tellurian]

52. See:" The Future of Food"... first

There are two eye opening documentarys.
Deborah Koons Garcia did the research and put up her own money
to produce this film. She leaves no stone unturned.

[MountainLaurel]

109. Awesome.

Thanks!

:hi:

[JohnyCanuck]

53. GM Ban Long Overdue

GM Ban Long Overdue
Dozens Ill & Five Deaths in the Philippines
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

In July 2003, a farmer living in a small village in the south of Mindanao Island of The Philippines, found himself and his entire family suddenly falling ill with fever and respiratory, intestinal and skin ailments. They were not alone; at least fifty-one residents of Sitio Kalyong (Barangay Landan, Polomolok, South Cotabato Province) had similar complaints at around the same time. They all lived within 100 m of a field planted with GM maize, and their illnesses coincided with the GM maize flowering time.

Another resident of Sitio Kalyong, said <1> that the GM-maize pollen made him dizzy, gave him severe headaches, chest pains and caused him to vomit.

The field in Sitio Kalyong belonged to a local official who bought five bags of Monsanto's Bt maize seed (Dekalb818YG with Cry1Ab from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis ), enough to plant 5 hectares. He paid 4 500 pesos per bag, which was more than twice as much as the non-GM variety at 2 200 pesos per bag. The premium price included the promise of a small vehicle if the harvest turned out to be good, as it was supposed to. In the event, the promise was broken on both counts: the harvest of 93 sacks compared poorly with the usual 150 sacks per ha, and the small vehicle was never delivered. The local official stopped planting the Bt maize after 2003

As part of an investigation to determine what made the villagers ill, one of the farmers was “volunteered” to venture inside the Bt maize field in the presence of more than 10 witnesses, as he explained to me via an interpreter. “Within 5 minutes, I could not breathe and felt something extraordinary on my face,” he recalled. The others could see that his face had swollen up and remarked that it was “very dangerous”.

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

More Illnesses Linked to Bt Crops
by Dr Mae-Wan Ho

We recently reported illnesses and deaths among villagers of south Mindanao in the Philippines that are suspected of being linked to the genetically modified ‘Bt’ maize with an insecticidal protein from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis <1> (“GM ban long overdue, five deaths and dozens ill in the Philippines”, SiS 29).

Since then, similar illnesses are reported to have occurred in Madhya Pradesh, central India, as a result of exposure to ‘Bt’ cotton genetically modified with the same or similar insecticidal protein(s).

India began commercial planting of Bt cotton in 2002/03 with 38 038 ha (0.78 percent of hybrid area), increasing to 6.4 percent and 11.65 percent respectively in 2003/4 and 2004/5. Currently, nearly 9 million ha of cotton is grown in India, 2.8 million hybrid cotton.

Madhya Pradesh is India’s fifth largest cotton producing state, with Malwa and Nimad the main cotton growing regions. The Bt cotton varieties planted were developed by Monsanto, and carry the insecticidal Cry1Ac protein (Bollgard) or both Cry1Ac and Cry1Ab proteins (Bollgard II), according to an article on the industry’s website <2>.

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

[Tellurian]

54. This HAS TO BE Priority One for any Democratic Contender for President

While Bush is keeping us occupied with wars and disasters he is allowing corporations
to slowly KILL the unsuspecting masses ingesting these food stuffs, without knowing
the peril awaiting them.

[Odin2005]

58. Correction, the Bt toxin causes the disease, not the technology.

Sorry to nitpick, but I don't like it when people bash a technology just because Monsatan abuses it.

[mike_c]

69. Bt does NOT cause any disease in humans or other vertebrates....

I'm sorry, but you are simply wrong about that. This has been discussed here before-- I'll refer you to Google for detailed information, but the short version is that 1) Bt toxin is not active at vertebrate gut pH-- it remains in its inactive pro-toxin form and is treated like any other non-active protein, i.e. simply digested by enzymatic proteases; 2) vertebrate gut epithelium cells do not have the specific receptors that activated Bt delta-endotoxin binds to in any event-- and Bt cannot activate in vertebrate guts anyway (#1). The mode of action of Bt is SO specific to individual groups of insects, down to the level of species, that the portion of the physiology that it harms simply does not exist in the same form in vertebrates.

on edit-- you're wrong on your other point too, although there is no specific reason to expect the gene blast method to reliably cause protein anomalies as the OP suggests. Nonetheless, the OP's point is that it is precisely the transformation technology that introduces the possiblility of anomalous protein expression. However, that in itself is unlikely-- selection operates against most such novel expressions-- and even if it does happen the chances of it causing disease are slim. Not impossible, and worth checking out, but the most likely outcome is that any anomalous proteins would simply be digested too. Prions are a different matter, but I know of no evidence that prions have EVER actually been formed through this method, or that misfolded PLANT proteins have any ill effects on animals.

[greiner3]

63. Sorry;

But while the guy may or may not have a legitimate case that may save life as we know it, as soon as I read where he entered chiropractic 'college' I stopped reading. It was along the lines of reading a book and discovering that it was written for and by republicans. Just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

[Dems Will Win]

64. kick

[bloom]

65. I'm glad this post has gotten lots of rec-s

As MADem said - this is a big board - and I look for the highlights - but I disagree with her that this is not worth reading the whole thing.


The ruination of our planet for some people's profit is the most important issue of our time AFAIC. Whether there is PROOF that a mad cow type disease will result is irrelevant - the fact that Monsanto has no idea whether something like that will happen or not - IS.

That the person decided to go to Chiropractic school than participate in such a venture does not diminish the article.

I would like to know the credentials of those who think that they know more than the whistleblower - where do THEY work? Where did they go to school? What scientific degrees do they have? etc.

[mike_c]

66. the important issues get buried under WAY too much hysteria...

...surrounding GM foods. I find it hard to believe that a guy with an undergrad degree-- I presume-- had a lock on some major side effect of transforming cotton but that none of the research scientists at Monsanto, or at the University of California, could understand what he was talking about. I work with those sorts of folks. They are not only VERY VERY smart, they're extremely curious and interested in new ideas and suggestions. This article makes them sound like a bunch of boobs who couldn't understand which end of the loaded gun they were sticking into their mouths. I'm sorry, but it lost me right there.

[bloom]

71. If this was the only piece of the puzzle

then - you might have a point. I think the value of this is that the person worked on the inside - and I think that viewpoint is worthwhile.

There have been other people - PhD people - who also question the whole GM/profit making at the expense of our health stuff that is going on. IE> http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/06/142202&mode=thread&tid=25

[mike_c]

72. I know-- I'm one of them-- but MUCH of what I read in the "popular"...

...press reflects pretty poor understanding of the scientific issues involved. For what it's worth, my primary objection to GM crops etc has little to do with genetic engineering per se, but much more to do with economic and genetic diversity issues. I do believe that GM can be done responsibly and well-- I mean, we've been tinkering with the genomes of agricultural species for 10,000 years, just with less efficient tools-- and with few opportunities to produce hybrid genomes with any degree of precision, of course, but the precision of the tools doesn't make them inherently bad. It MIGHT do just the opposite.

What I do find is MUCH more uninformed hysteria about this issue. Informed objections are one thing, but stuff like the OP's default opposition to genetic modification-- and propagating unlikely myths like the whistleblower from the sales dept who knew more about genetic engineering than all the scientists working in the field that he approached-- does little to advance a real, informed discussion about the topic.

I tell my students to bring me arguments drawn from the scientific literature or developed from first principles in molecular biology, not hysterical articles from the anti-GM movement.

[Dems Will Win]

73. Here is the scientific literature and press from the original link:

bring me arguments drawn from the scientific literature or developed from first principles in molecular biology

Take a look and tell me what you think, mike.

<1> JR Latham et al., “The Mutational Consequences of Plant Transformation,” The Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Vol 2006 Article ID 25376 Pages 1-7, DOI 10.1155/JBB/2006/25376; for a more in-depth discussion, see also Allison Wilson et al., “Genome Scrambling -Myth or Reality? Transformation-Induced Mutations in Transgenic Crop Plants, Technical Report - October 2004, www.econexus.info.
<2> Mortality in Sheep Flocks after Grazing on Bt Cotton Fields – Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh. Report of the Preliminary Assessment April 2006, http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6494
<3> Ashish Gupta, et. al., Impact of Bt Cotton on Farmers’ Health (in Barwani and Dhar District of Madhya Pradesh), Investigation Report, Oct - Dec 2005
<4> See for example, Monsanto Cited In Crop Losses New York Times, June 16, 1998 , http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04EED6153DF935A25755C0A96E958260; and Greenpeace http://archive.greenpeace.org/geneng/reports/gmo/intrgmo5.htm
<5> Antje Lorch, Monsanto Bribes in Indonesia, Monsanto Fined For Bribing Indonesian Officials to Avoid Environmental Studies for Bt Cotton, ifrik 1sep2005, http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2005/Monsanto-Bribes-Indonesia1sep05.htm
<6> Bt Cotton - No Respite for Andhra Pradesh Farmers More than 400 crores' worth losses for Bt Cotton farmers in Kharif 2005 Centre for Sustainable Agriculture: Press Release, March 29, 2006 http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6393; see also November 14, 2005 article in www.NewKerala.comregarding Madhya Pradesh.
<7> Jaideep Hardikar, One suicide every 8 hours, Daily News & Analysis (India), August 26, 2006 http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1049554
<8> Rick Weiss, U.S. Rice Supply Contaminated, Genetically Altered Variety Is Found in Long-Grain Rice, Washington Post, August 19, 2006
<9> Jeffrey Smith, US Government and Biotech Firm Deceive Public on GM Corn Mix-up, Spilling the Beans, April 2005
<10> See for example, Christopher Doering, ProdiGene to spend millions on bio-corn tainting, Reuters News Service, USA: December 9, 2002
<11> See www.centerforfoodsafety.org
<12>Office of Inspector General, USDA, Audit Report Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Controls Over Issuance of Genetically Engineered Organism Release Permits, December 2005 http://www.thecampaign.org/USDA_IG_1205.pdf
<1 3> Justin Gillis, Genetically Modified Organisms Not Easily Contained; National Research Council Panel Urges More Work to Protect Against Contamination of Food Supply, Washington Post, Jan 21, 2004

[mike_c]

77. thanks for the references-- I've seen some of those before...

...particularly the reports of sheep and cattle illness from India. I've commented on them before-- I don't find them very compelling in their present form-- they really don't have much information that can be used to infer a link between GM in general and health risks, or even between Bt cotton and livestock health, frankly. Still, that particular matter really does need more investigation. I'm a bit concerned about GM Watch as a source, but still.

Most of those reports really aren't from the scientific lit, despite their scientific sounding titles.

BUT-- in fairness, it's late, I'm tired, and I just opened a bottle of wine, so reviewing papers is NOT on tonight's agenda, my friend! I do appreciate you taking the effort to link them, however, and I'll try to get to the ones I haven't seen in a day or two.

I want to be clear about one thing-- as an entomologist and ecologist I have some strong misgivings about both the technology underlying GM foods and their appearance in the food chain, mainly because the profit motive is not as rigorous a testbed for public health risks as it should be :-) and because I'm VERY suspicious of agribusiness. But as a scientist, I have to keep those motives-- which are primarily social-- separate from the biological issues. I don't think there's anything inherently bad about GM food from a biological perspective-- and much good could come from the technology if it's used wisely.

[Dems Will Win]

74. Here is a 40 -page technical report on genome scrambling

http://www.econexus.info/pdf/ENx-Genome-Scrambling-Report.pdf

Please report back to us the flaws if any in this report.

Thanks!

[yellowcanine]

97. No mention of prions.

[Dems Will Win]

75. And a Long Case Study on the IMpact of GM soya in Argentina

http://www.econexus.info/pdf/ENx-Argentina-GE-Soya-Report-2005.pdf

Please get back to us to debrief us on any potential flaws in this field report of contamination. We'll be interested to hear from a professional.

Thanks, Mike!

[yellowcanine]

98. No prions here either. Actually this is a sociological study, not

biological. It has little to say about potential biological problems with GM soybeans.

[Dems Will Win]

76. Like a good student, I bring you another!

Horizontal gene transfer of viral inserts from GM plants to viruses

Hmmmm. Sounds NASTY!

http://www.econexus.info/pdf/Horizontal-Genes-virus-2004.pdf

Anyway, look this study over as well and let us know if it has any fatal flaws.

I won't be eating any cottonseed oil or non-organic bread or cereal until I hear back from you, as you are a real scientist.

And reading the above the GM Field Test Contaminations and Rapid Entry into the Market Problems seem quite real to me. Especially those New York TImes and Washington Post articles.

[mike_c]

78. you rock....

:hi:

[yellowcanine]

99. No prions here either. This is about viruses, not prions.

[Jcrowley]

80. Here's some interesting information

and the home site of this link will provide you with more scientific data on GMO's and many other issues. Watson and Crick in their rush to "greatness" had to throw out much of the DNA and call it "junk", scientific terminology I guess, as they couldn't compile or comprehend all of the mystery they wanted to understand. In fact it is impossible to calculate all of the combinative and synergistic complexities of molecular biology. Well informed molecular biologists such as Lynn Margulis, many others, understand this very well.

Recent Evidence Confirms Risks of Horizontal Gene Transfer

ISIS Contribution to ACNFP/Food Standards Agency Open Meeting 13 November 2002

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Institute of Science in Society, PO Box 32097, London NW1 0XR
[e-mail] Tel: [phone]

Horizontal gene transfer is one of the most serious, if not the most serious hazard of transgenic technology. I have been drawing our regulators’ attention to it at least since 1996 <1>, when there was already sufficient evidence to suggest that transgenic DNA in GM crops and products can spread by being taken up directly by viruses and bacteria as well as plant and animals cells.

The oft-repeated refrain that "transgenic DNA is just like ordinary DNA" is false. Transgenic DNA is in many respects optimised for horizontal gene transfer. It is designed to cross species barriers and to jump into genomes, and it has homologies to the DNA of many species and their genetic parasites (plasmids, transposons and viruses), thereby enhancing recombination with all of them <2>. Transgenic constructs contain new combinations of genes that have never existed, and they also amplify gene products that have never been part of our food chain <3>.

The health risks of horizontal gene transfer include:
1 Antibiotic resistance genes spreading to pathogenic bacteria.
2 Disease-associated genes spreading and recombining to create new viruses and bacteria that cause diseases.
3 Transgenic DNA inserting into human cells, triggering cancer.

The risk of cancer is highlighted by the recent report that gene therapy - genetic modification of human cells - claimed its first cancer victim <4>. The procedure, in which bone marrow cells are genetically modified outside the body and re-implanted, was previously thought to avoid creating infectious viruses and causing cancer, both recognized major hazards of gene therapy.

The transgenic constructs used in genetic modification are basically the same whether it is of human cells or of other animals and plants. An aggressive promoter from a virus is often used to boost the expression of the transgene, in animal and human cells, from the cytomegalovirus that infects mammalian cells, and in plants, the 35S promoter from the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) that infects Cruciferae plants.

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

[Dems Will Win]

82. I knew I didn't like the sound of horizontal gene transfer...

Calling Dr. Frankenstein! To the Emergency Room, STAT!

[mike_c]

83. that's a very legitimate concern IMO and really emphasizes...

...why transformations should not be undertaken lightly, and certainly not to produce "designer crops" matching proprietary seed with particular herbicides or other agribusiness driven motives.

[ContraBass Black]

79. From a toxin contained in botulism to virulent Mad Cow?

Color me skeptical.

[Dems Will Win]

81. Not Mad Cow, just the possibility of prions without the Cow

No Mad Bovines Required!

But Nobody Knows whether or not it's a problem, so the gummint is letting Monsanto put it out on the market without a single test for prions anyhoo.

Sounds logical... to a corporatist.

[yellowcanine]

85. If ther is zero evidence for proins, why the fuss? Are you going to test

for every known toxin based on someone's speculations? This is nuts.

[Dems Will Win]

92. I think you must have missed this--it is a long thread

Update

It turns out that the damage done to DNA due to the process of creating a genetically modified organism is far more extensive than previously thought.<1> GM crops routinely create unintended proteins, alter existing protein levels or even change the components and shape of the protein that is created by the inserted gene. Kirk’s concerns about a GM crop producing a harmful misfolded protein remain well-founded, and have been echoed by scientists as one of the many possible dangers that are not being evaluated by the biotech industry’s superficial safety assessments.

GM cotton has provided ample reports of unpredicted side-effects. In April 2006, more than 70 Indian shepherds reported that 25% of their herds died within 5-7 days of continuous grazing on Bt cotton plants.<2> Hundreds of Indian agricultural laborers reported allergic reactions from Bt cotton. Some cotton harvesters have been hospitalized and many laborers in cotton gin factories take antihistamines each day before work.<3>

In addition, you should read the Horizontal Gene Transfer Technical Paper I posted upthread. This is where the genes that jumped from one species to another naturally gain the ability many times to jump to OTHER SPECIES NEVER INTENDED BY GENETIC ENGINEERS TO BE AFFECTED.

Now that could be a problem, ne c'est pas?

[yellowcanine]

94. I read the thread. You are the one missing things. There is NO evidence

that Bt or Bt crops have anything to do with prions. Furthermore you have been making a lot of wild claims about Bt, apparently not realizing that Bt sprays are routinely used on certified organic crops and non organic crops with NO ill effects on humans or animals. There are about twenty different kind of Bt sprays that have been used on many different kinds of caterpillar pests on literally dozens of different crops. The only difference with a GM Bt crop is that the crop plant itself produces the BT. The prion connection is wild speculation. You are also mish mashing a lot of claims about GM crops and throwing terms around that you do not understand and somehow making it seem that your claims vindicate the Bt-prion connection. Well they don't.

[Dems Will Win]

102. There is no evidence it does not is the point

Why does Monsanto not simply test for prions? How can they if the scientists never heard of them?

They don't know about prions YC, because they are specialists.. Specialists don't study things far outside their specialty, do they? And prions were also not taught at the time they went to school. So that is actually very easy to believe.

[yellowcanine]

105. You have not documented your ridiculous claim that Monsanto does not know

about prions. Your speculations about why Monsanto scientists would not know about prions is just that - speculations. And nonsense, by the way. Prions are found in neural tissue of mammals. How the hell are they going to test a plant for something found in the neural tissue of mammals?

[mike_c]

84. Bt has nothing to do with botulism....

Am I missing something in your comment?

[ContraBass Black]

87. No, I made a word replacement error.

[yellowcanine]

88. And Bt has no known effects on human health. Bt is used on certified

organic crops for Christ's sake. A ton of misinformation is being promulgated in this thread.

[Dems Will Win]

93. Bt is OK. Bt Cotton genes that can jump to other species and

perhaps even cause prions to be produced (nobody knows because Monsanto does not know what a prion is yet), is BAD.

See the difference?

Natural Bt: GOOD. Genetically engineered Bt genes that make people sick: BAD...

[yellowcanine]

95. Monsanto does not know what a prion is? You are full of it. You base

that absurd statement on the say so of the nut who is making these prion claims. Again, he has NO evidence for his claims and biologically it is absurd. Prions have NEVER been found in plants, GM or otherwise.

On edit: Your premise that GM Bt genes are "bad" is also unproven.

[OnyxCollie]

100. I went to a lecture by Howard Lyman, author of Mad Cowboy.

I asked whether plants could contain the prions necessary for BSE. He said, No, they could not. I was still curious though, and wondered if vegetables contaminated by prion-carrying animal matter could convey BSE.

[yellowcanine]

104. How the hell could a vegetable get contaminated with an animal prion?

Unless someone shot a mad cow in the head and splattered its brains on the vegetables....What are the chances? Short of that it is pretty much impossible.

[OnyxCollie]

108. It's easy.

While the brain and spine contain the most prions, ANY part of the animal could be contaminated. Like milk or cheese? Guess what? They might contain prions. Also, the prions CAN'T BE DESTROYED. All the cows that were burned in the U.K. are stored in buildings.

Farms aren't what I consider to be the most sanitary places, so it makes me wonder. Do you wash your vegetables? Why?

[Dems Will Win]

101. Monsanto is bad for not doing the testing that scientists

(not Kirk) are asking for.

And I'm sick and tired of scientists acting like a priesthood and telling laypeople not to be active critics because their priesthood happened to royally fuck up the gene pool in outrageously unprotected field tests, and because their priesthood sold what they knew were contaminated and dangerous test plots INTO THE MARKET--and then those same high priests get all high and mighty and inform us laypeople activists to not stick their nose into their priestly business, to leave science to the corporations and trust them and the Republicans to do the right thing always and forever.

That's what I'm sick of....

Didn't you Dr. Frankenfooders ever hear of the old saying: "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature?"

[yellowcanine]

103. Which "you" are you talking to. I am not a gene jockey. And you have

not made your case for the prion-Bt link, in spite of all of the **it you have thrown up on the wall in an attempt to get something to stick. Criticize all you want, but educate yourself first so you know what you are talking about. Otherwise it is so much noise. It is not enough to track down some papers with scary sounding titles and somehow think that proves something. It doesn't. You want to argue science? Stop whining and learn some science.

[mhatrw]

110. kick