GMOs




Monsanto's Roundup Residues in GM Food Cause Cell Damage

Examine the little sticker on the produce
and if you see a five-digit number that
begins with an 8, take a big pass, as that
produce is GM.

Monarch butterfly killed by GM pollen (BT maize)

Researchers dusted GM maize pollen onto the
leaves of milkweed, which is commonly found
on the edges of corn fields, and is the main
source of food for monarch butterflies. Half
the monarch butterflies died and the rest
grew to only 50% normal size.

Trees by design

The concerns environmentalists have raised
about traditional agriculture - that genes
will "leak" into the wild, with unknown and
irreversible consequences - are magnified
with trees. Unlike engineered corn or
soybeans, a genetically altered tree could
live for decades, if not centuries. And trees
are far hardier and better able to survive in
the wild than most crops. If seeds or pollen
from a genetically modified poplar escaped,
they could grow and spread the new gene, as
well as contaminate natural poplars in the
forest. Wildlife, insects, and other plants
in the forest ecosystem could be affected as
well.

US Attorney General orders
Monsanto to reveal secrets

According to The Associated Press, September
13, 2007, The Iowa State Attorney General has
ordered GM seed manufacturer Monsanto to
provide full information on it's seed trait,
chemical and it's licensing and marketing
programs.

Monsanto has consistently withheld
information from the public and was recently
ordered by a South African Court to disclose
information on i's seed traits in the public
interest.

In Germany, Monsanto had suppressed the
evidence of serious damage to the liver and
kidneys of rats in their own GM MON863 maize
trials until ordered to release this evidence
by a German Court.

In July, 2007, Monsanto told the South
African Advertising Standards Authority that
MON863 was not their product and was ordered
by Judge King to withdraw an advert that
claimed that in food tests "No negative
reactions have ever been reported.

PUBPAT > Monsanto Patents Asserted
Against American Farmers Rejected By Patent
Office

n its Office Actions rejecting each of the
patents, the USPTO held that evidence
submitted by PUBPAT, in addition to other
prior art located by the Patent Office's
Examiners, showed that Monsanto was not
entitled to any of the patents.

Monsanto has filed dozens of patent
infringement lawsuits asserting the four
challenged patents against American farmers,
many of whom are unable to hire adequate
representation to defend themselves in court.
The crime these farmers are accused of is
nothing more than saving seed from one year's
crop to replant the following year, something
farmers have done since the beginning of
time.

GE Trees Threaten Ecosystem Collapse

Arbogen has invited serious criticism on
several fronts: In its permit application,
the company classified certain genes as
confidential business information, meaning
even the USDA could not assess their impact;
its field trial site in Alabama is prone to
severe storms that could blow eucalyptus
seeds much farther than the mere 100 meters
the USDA anticipated.

And there's also the choice of
trees. Eucalyptus, a fast-growing, high-yield
hardwood, is notorious for colonizing native
ecosystems. The species has become so
successful in California, it's now listed as
a plant pest by the state's Invasive Plant
Council. The tree additionally depletes
ground water, exacerbating drought
conditions, and is extremely flammable,
potentially causing massive wildfires, an
ongoing issue for the American South, where
ArboGen is headquartered.

http://strangeculture.net

Genetically engineered rice
gets into the U.S. food supply

Back in the spring of 2001, a 64-year-old
Texas rice farmer named Jacko Garrett watched
a fleet of 18-wheelers haul away truckloads
of rice that he had grown with great
care. "It just bothers me so bad," Garrett
said. "I'm sitting here trying to find food
to feed people, and I've got to bury five
million pounds of rice." No one likes to
waste food, but for Garrett, who runs a
charity that collects rice for the needy,
the pain was especially acute.

Garrett's rice was genetically modified, part
of an experiment that was brought to an
abrupt halt by its sponsor, a North Carolina-
based biotechnology company called Aventis
Crop Science. The company had contracted with
a handful of farmers to grow the rice, which
was known as Liberty Link because its genes
had been altered to resist a weed killer
called Liberty, also made by Aventis.

GMO Alfalfa Will Devastate Organic Dairy Industry

The Center for Food Safety recently won a
lawsuit filed in northern California finding
the USDA illegally approved GM alfalfa
without conducting the required Environmental
Impact Statement. A judge in the Federal
Northern District ordered a preliminary
injunction, stopping the sale of GM alfalfa
seed. Monsanto and Forage Genetics,
developers of the seed, are arguing against a
permanent injunction, which is now being
sought by the Center for Food Safety.

Collapsing Colonies:
Are GM Crops Killing Bees?

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the
globe then man would only have four years of
life left. No more bees, no more pollination,
no more plants, no more animals, no more
man."

Pig-human chimeras contain cell surprise

The hybrid cells had both human and pig
surface markers. But, most surprisingly, the
hybrid cell nuclei were found to have
chromosomal DNA that contained both human and
pig genes. The researchers found that about
60 per cent of the animals' non-pig cells
were hybrids, with the remainder being fully
human.

GM crops cause 'breakdown' in
Indian farming systems

Genetically modified crops have helped cause
a "complete breakdown" in farming systems in
India, an authoritative new study suggests.

The study threatens to deal a fatal blow to
probably the most powerful argument left in
the biotech industry's armoury, that it can
help to bring prosperity to the Third World.

Attack of the Mutant Bollworms

Starting this summer, thousands of
genetically modified insects could be
released in Arizona. Assuming that scientists
get the green light from the government, this
field test will mark the first time a GM bug
has been let loose in the U.S.

Cautionary tales of microbe evolution

What happens after we design and create a
synthetic microbe that does some wonderful
thing like chew on corn stalks and generate
hydrogen? What happens if it mutates
unexpectedly, sneaks out of the biorefinery
and starts chomping on a nearby oak forest?
What are the safeguards to prevent that?

GM Potatoes – Facts and Fictions

From the Kitchen of Dr. Frankenstein

By 2005, the Agriculture Department says,
the vast majority of U.S. soybean acres
and 52 percent of corn acres were planted
with genetically engineered seed.

Genetically Engineered Crops
May Cause Human Disease

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. 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.

Institute for Responsible Technology
August 29, 2006

About GM Foods - Institute
for Responsible Technology

Dangers of Genetically Engineered Foods

USDA: Rice supply
contaminated
with unapproved variety

Johanns said the company that made the
experimental rice, Bayer CropScience of
Monheim, Germany, had provided information
to the Agriculture Department and the Food
and Drug Administration indicating that
the rice poses no threats to human health
or the environment.

The variety, known as LLRICE 601, is endowed
with bacterial DNA that makes rice plants
resistant to a weed killer made by the
agricultural giant Aventis.
GM crops created superweed, say scientists
Modified rape crosses with wild plant to
create tough pesticide-resistant strain
July 25, 2005
Genetically Modified Corn Study Reveals
Health Damage & Cover-up -July 16, 2005
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