X-Sender: rwolfson@pop3.concentric.net
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Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 15:21:56 -0500
To: info@natural-law.ca
From: Richard Wolfson <rwolfson@concentric.net>
Subject: GENews
Here is a personal report from a few days ago in UK, that I thought you
might appreciate:
GREAT MEDIA VICTORY IN BRITAIN FOR ANTI-GEMA FORCES
10 Aug 1998 From a UK email sender.
Today was another normal day in the UK media. Front page articles on
research funded by the Scottish Office on mice being affected by genetic
potatoes (One normally sedate newspaper had the headline -Genetic Crops
Stunt Growth). Bits and pieces on news items and a Monster big wig being
interviewed on a middle of the road programme (The Jimmy Young Show). The
Monsanto guy made your skin creep telling all their normal blatant lies.
Audience phone in messages were overwhelmingly anti.
But the absolute best was 'World in Action' on one of the main TV
channels tonight. World in Action has specialised for around 25 years on
exposing what companies, governments etc do not want us to know.
Monsanto refused to take part. A member of the Government
Advisory body gave out the usual things about safety and so on, and then
the programme producers gave strong examples showing the true situation and
basically making her look silly. They also brought in the L-Tryptophan
incident and showed a letter from the Japenese company that pretty much
admitted that the genectic modification was the prime cause of the deaths
and disabilities.
A Monsanto site scientist, interviewed as a test site was being
'decontaminated' admitted that they did not do long term testing on mammals
and was very confused about what testing they did do.
The programme lined them up and shot them all down beautifully. Star
of the show was Adrian Bebb from Friends of the Earth .... great... If
anyone would like a video copy I can probably arrange it. Contact:
devatalk@mcmail.com
Today was one happy day.... From: <JTGardens@aol.com>
............
The following websites have recent articles. Great numbers of articles are
coming out in England especially, as public concern rises:
GE potatoes that were harmful to rats.
http://www.abcnews.com/sections/living/DailyNews/potatoes980810.html
BBC News - Scci-tech -Experiment
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_148000/148384.stm
Immune system fear over altered potatoes
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000930489921268rtmo=VJfg6gwK&atmo=rrrrrrYs&
pg=
/et/98/8/11/ngen111.html
Guardian
http://reports.guardian.co.uk/articles/1998/8/11/15829.html
http://www.mirror.co.uk/stories/F1108802.html
Mirror
WE'RE ALL JUST GUINEA PIGS
GENETICALLY modified food is a "huge experiment with the human race as
guinea pigs", pressure groups warned last night.
They claimed it is used in a wide variety of foods without proper
research into the possible impact on human health. In the US genetically
engineered cows were used to produce more milk until fears of a link to
breast cancer.
A new wave of superbugs resistant to antibiotics is being linked to
widespread manipulation of genes in food. Friends of the Earth said a
dietary supplement containing GM products was blamed for 37 deaths in the
US. Greenpeace genetics campaigner Jim Thomas claimed a small number of US
pharmaceutical giants would soon "control world food - they are
controlling seeds used, crops developed and even buying into food suppliers.
"They do their own tests and are not really looking for problems. There
is not enough independent testing."
Dr Mae-Wan Ho, head of the Open University Bio-Electrodynamics laboratory
in Milton Keynes, Bucks, said: "Safety regulations seem to have been
relaxed. The public is being used against its will as guinea pigs."
====================
..........
http://www.independent.co.uk/sindy/stories/A0908801.html
Sunday 9th Aug 98, The independent (UK)
Bees make honey from genetically altered crops
By Alison Craig
BEEKEEPERS say that genetically modified honey is being produced by default
in Britain as bees come into contact with nectar and pollen from
experimental crops.
There are 107 field crop trials of oil-seed rape planted in Britain and the
beekeepers are concerned at the extent to which bees have access to the
fields where modified crops are grown.
Licensed plant-breeders carrying out the experiments are under no
obligation to monitor either the bees or the resulting honey. While there
have been attempts to keep birds off by covering the crops with netting, it
is impossible to stop bees. The result, say beekeepers, is that humans
could unwittingly be exposed to the crops by their consumption of honey.
We eat about 25,000 tonnes of honey per year in the UK, and the health
market in particular is expanding. Thick-set granular white honey is
typically derived from oil-seed rape flowers.
The beekeepers yesterday became the latest experts to join the chorus of
concern about the spread of genetically modified crops. Last week
genetically modified foods were banned from Palace of Westminster
restaurants, although the Government has refused to ban GM crops from shops
and supermarkets.
According to Richard Jones, director of the International Bee Research
Association: "We are concerned about the possible effects of GM crops on
bees and hive products, such as honey and beeswax.
"Bees are the interface between us and the plant. We eat their product.
They move on from the genetically modified plant and pollinate other
plants. There could be a huge chain reaction we are not aware of yet."
The Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes, which has been
assessing the risks of genetically modified crops, has identified three
ways in which there are possible risks to consumers' health through GM
transmission by bees:
- bees could transport pollen leading to contaminated hybrid crops
containing toxins or allergens;
- toxin residues originating from GM crops could be contained in honey;
- genes could be transferred from pollen (at up to 2 per cent in honey)
into the human gut. Many GM strains have an antibiotic marker gene which
could lead to extra antibiotic resistance further up the food chain.
"Honey bees are under enough stress as it is," said Richard Jones. "New
pressures on them are just not needed."
_________________________________________________________
Richard Wolfson, PhD
Consumer Right to Know Campaign,
for Mandatory Labelling and Long-term
Testing of all Genetically Engineered Foods,
500 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, ON Canada K1N 6N2
tel. 613-565-8517 fax. 613-565-1596
email: rwolfson@concentric.net
Our website, http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/geindex.html
contains more information on genetic engineering as well as
previous genetic engineering news items
Subscription fee to genetic engineering news is $35 for 12 months
See website for details.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
--Dan in Sunny Puerto Rico--
dan.worley@mindless.com
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