The Truth about GMOs Is Exposed
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An important new book entitled, “Altered Genes, Twist Truth,” by Steven M. Druker, a public interest attorney who sued the Food and Drug Administration so he could read its files on genetic engineering, reveals a systematic subversion of science, corruption of government, and decades-long deception of the public. What he discovered forms the basis for this well researched and meticulously documented book.
Druker writes, “Numerous scientists (including those on the US Food and Drug Administration’s Biotechnology Task Force) have concluded that the process of creating genetically engineered (GE) foods radically differs from conventional breeding and entails greater risk.
“Consequently, not only has there never been a consensus within the scientific community that GE foods are safe, many eminent experts have issued cautions, as have respected scientific organizations like the Royal Society of Canada and the Public Health Association of Australia.
“In contrast to the experts who counsel caution, many of the scientists and scientific institutions that promote GE foods have systematically suppressed evidence and distorted the truth in order to advance them.
“In fact, the GE food venture has been chronically and crucially reliant on such deceptions and could not have survived without them.”
He shows how GE foods first achieved commercialization only because the US Food and Drug Administration covered up the extensive warnings of its own scientists about their abnormal risks, lied about the facts, and deliberately violated federal food safety law by allowing them onto the market without having been proven safe through standard testing.
The FDA and other GE proponents have created so much confusion that although US food safety law in regard to GE foods is much stricter than EU law, most people are under the illusion it’s weaker – and don’t realize that these inadequately tested foods have entered the American market, not due to the law’s failings, but to the FDA’s failure to obey it.
Here’s what primatologist Jane Goodall says in the foreword she wrote for “Altered Genes, Twisted Truth”: “One of the most important books of the last 50 years.”
Next time someone tells you that you are anti-science for believing that genetic modifications aren’t benign, refer them to this website:
http://www.responsibletechnology.org/posts/now-available-altered-genes-twisted-truth-by-steve-druker/
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BREAKTHROUGH ON SOLAR ENERGY
A team at IBM has developed what they call a High Concentration Photo Voltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system that is capable of concentrating the power of sunlight by 2,000 times. They are even claiming to be able to concentrate energy safely up to 5,000X. That’s huge.
“Each HCPVT chip can convert 200-250 watts, on average, over a typical eight-hour day in a sunny region. In the HCPVT system, instead of heating a building, the 90 degree Celsius water will pass through a porous membrane distillation system where it is then vaporized and desalinated. Such a system could provide 30-40 liters of drinkable water per square meter of receiver area per day, while still generating electricity with a more than 25 percent yield or two kilowatts hours per day. A large installation would provide enough water for a small town,” the team reports.
The heat is absorbed into hundreds of tiny solar cells called photovoltaic chips. These gather the energy and are then cooled by microchanneled water, which is why they are safely able to concentrate such large amounts of solar energy.
According to Greenpeace, this technology can establish itself as the third largest player in the sustainable power generation industry. A study published in 2009 predicted that solar power could supply all the world’s energy needs in minimal space. Greenpeace estimates that it would take only two percent of the Sahara Desert’s land area to supply the entire planet’s electricity needs.
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MORE AMERICANS TRUST FOX ‘NEWS’ THAN TRUST OBAMA
More U.S. adults believe Fox News is a more reliable source of information about climate change than President Barack Obama, according to a new poll from St. Leo University.
The March poll of 1,016 Americans found that 17 percent trust Fox News on climate change, while only 11 percent trust the president. Twenty-two percent of respondents said they trust print, online, and broadcast media outlets such as CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, Associated Press, and The New York Times.
And if there’s any doubt in anyone’s mind about climate change, they should visit this website:
http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
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GLYPHOSATE CAUSING BIRTH DEFECTS IN PIGLETS
Glyphosate has been found in malformed piglets, according to research conducted by a team of scientists from Germany and Egypt in collaboration with the Danish pig farmer Ib Pedersen, whose pigs were analyzed for glyphosate content.
The rate of malformations increased to one out of 260 piglets if sow feeds contained 0.87-1.13 ppm glyphosate in the first 40 days of pregnancy. In the case of 0.25 ppm glyphosate in sow feeds, one out of 1432 piglets was malformed. In this case, therefore, the higher dose of glyphosate led to more malformations.
The piglets showed different abnormalities, including ear atrophy, spinal and cranial deformations, hole in the skull, and leg atrophy. In one piglet, one eye was not developed. There were piglets without a trunk, with an “elephant tongue,” and a female piglet with testes. One malformed piglet had a swollen belly and the foregut and hindgut were not connected.
The highest concentrations of glyphosate were found in the lungs and heart, with the lowest concentrations in muscle.
The researchers note, “Further investigations are urgently needed to prove or exclude the role of glyphosate in malformations in piglets and other animals.” This would mean feeding laboratory animals a diet containing the same concentrations of glyphosate (in the form of Roundup) as were in Ib Pedersen’s pigs’ feed, in a multigenerational study. This would provide the definitive causative proof needed to condemn glyphosate herbicides as the culprit.
Here’s the link to the study:
Krüger M, Schrödl W, Pedersen Ib, Shehata AA (2014) Detection of glyphosate in malformed piglets. J Environ Anal Toxicol 4: 230. doi:10.4172/2161-0525.1000230, or visit: http://omicsonline.org/open-access/detection-of-glyphosate-in-malformed-piglets-2161-0525.1000230.pdf
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W.H.O. SAYS GLYPHOSATE ‘PROBABLY CARCINOGENIC’
An ingredient in Roundup weed-killer – glyphosate – is “probably carcinogenic,” according to a new decision by the World Health Organization. The analysis is based on the existing research on the chemical exposure in people and lab animals.
The report determines that there is “limited evidence” that the chemical can cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and lung cancer in humans. It says there is, however, “convincing evidence” that it can cause cancer in laboratory animals. Among people who work with the herbicide, who generally have traces of the compound in their blood and urine, there appears to be a slightly increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to the report: “Case-control studies of occupational exposure in the USA, Canada, and Sweden reported increased risks for non-Hodgkin lymphoma that persisted after adjustment for other pesticides.”
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MONSANTO RESPONDS IN A LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
To the Editor:
Safety is fundamental to our work with farmers. The glyphosate they use is probably the most thoroughly studied pesticide in history, and researchers know more about it and its safety than just about anything else used for weed control.
German regulators just completed a four-year review of glyphosate safety for the European Union. Unlike W.H.O.’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, German regulators had to review all available data. They examined every study the agency looked at, plus many more.
German regulators concluded that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk and posted a skeptical response to the cancer agency’s recent statement.
As a physician, I encourage people not to take our word for it, but rather to research all the facts. Overwhelming evidence regarding glyphosate supports a conclusion of no cancer risk.
DANIEL GOLDSTEIN
Associate Medical Director
Monsanto Company
St. Louis
In a more recent press release, Monsanto has called the W.H.O. report “junk science.”
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AG SCIENTISTS RATTLED BY DEMANDS FOR GMO DOCUMENTS
The fierce public relations war over genetically modified (GM) food has a new front, according to Keith Kloor, writing in ScienceInsider, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
A nonprofit group opposed to GMO products filed a flurry of freedom of information requests late last month with at least four U.S. universities, asking administrators to turn over any correspondence between a dozen academic researchers and a handful of agricultural companies, trade groups, and PR firms.
The scientists—many of whom have publicly supported agricultural biotechnologies—are debating how best to respond, and at least one university has already rejected the request. “It seems like a fishing expedition to me,” says geneticist Alison Van Eenennaam of the University of California Davis, one of six UC researchers targeted by the requests. “I am very worried [the correspondence] is going to be used to sully the reputations of scientists.”
The group, U.S. Right to Know of Oakland, California, says it has no vendetta. USRTK is interested in documenting links between universities and business, its executive director Gary Ruskin says, and is “especially looking to learn how these faculty members have been appropriated into the PR machine for the chemical-agro industry.”
Ruskin is no stranger to the GM food debate. Late last year, he helped found USRTK, which works “to expose what the food industry doesn’t want us to know. We stand up for the right to know what is in our food and how it affects our health.”
The group’s three board members include Juliet Schor, a prominent economist at Boston College. USRTK’s website says its sole major donor (more than $5000) is the Organic Consumers Association, a nonprofit group based in Finland, Minnesota, which has donated $47,500.
In the requests, Ruskin seeks any letters and e-mails exchanged after 2012 between the scientists and 14 companies and groups. The list includes Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Dow, major biotech and grocery trade groups, and communications firms including FleishmanHillard and Ogilvy & Mather. “The records disclosed … will be used in preparation of articles for dissemination to the public,” states one request obtained by ScienceInsider.
Many researchers are awaiting advice from university lawyers on how to respond.
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