Yep. I have to admit, my friends were right about the dangers of GMO food. I didn’t want to believe it, because I’m 1) lazy and 2) poor, and didn’t want to have to search out special food, but I do it as much as possible now:
Biotech giant Syngenta has been criminally charged with denying knowledge that its genetically modified (GM) Bt corn kills livestock during a civil court case that ended in 2007 [1].
Syngenta’s Bt 176 corn variety expresses an insecticidal Bt toxin (Cry1Ab) derived from the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and a gene conferring resistance to glufosinate herbicides. EU cultivation of Bt 176 was discontinued in 2007. Similar varieties however, including Bt 11 sweet corn are currently cultivated for human and animal consumption in the EU.
The charges follow a long struggle for justice by a German farmer whose dairy cattle suffered mysterious illnesses and deaths after eating Bt 176. They were grown on his farm as part of authorised field tests during 1997 to 2002. By 2000, his cows were fed exclusively on Bt 176, and soon illnesses started to emerge. He was paid 40 000 euros by Syngenta as partial compensation for 5 dead cows, decreased milk yields, and vet costs (see [2] Cows ate GM Maize and Died, SiS 21). During a civil lawsuit brought against the company by the farmer however, Syngenta refused to admit that its GM corn was the cause, claiming no knowledge of harm. The case was dismissed and Gloeckner remained thousands of euros in debt.
You don’t suppose that the Medical Industrial Complex is in cahoots with the Food Industrial Complex to make people sick, and then well, and then sick, and then well, on into infinity do you? Like the War on Drugs and the Prison Industrial Complex getting together to fill all those prison beds with people the cops always find to arrest? Something smells in Denmark.
They still haven’t actually found cause of death for Gloeckner’s cattle. The Bt toxin affects an insect hormone system that mammals don’t have. And glufosinate resistance means the crop can have more glufosinate herbicide dumped on it. (Just in case it helps: glufosinate is not the same as glyphosate/RoundUp.)
More glufosinate herbicide sounds like it could be a problem since (going by Wikipedia…) it attacks some universal metabolic pathways. It doesn’t sound, from 30,000 miles away, like there’s any reason to hope that there’s a big difference in the plant pathways, which they’re trying to target, and mammals like us who they’re presumably not trying to target. So residues in food will affect people and livestock, and there are no doubt more residues on the resistant plants.
That, to me, is one of the big problems in pro-GMO / anti-GMO arguments. The “pro” side tends to talk purely about the genetic modification itself. “Bt toxin is harmless to humans.” Which is true in isolation. “Cows digest DNA. It doesn’t make any difference if it’s modified.” True in isolation.
But to get that Bt DNA into the plant they have to use vectors. Those are what show some evidence of causing reactions when things go wrong. So, sure, Bt is safe. But the stuff around it isn’t.
Likewise with the herbicide resistance. You could eat herbicide resistance DNA all day and have no effect. But every once in a while the vectors used to get it into the plant seem to bust loose. And all those herbicide residues aren’t so great. Etc.
So the two camps really talk past each other. The companies just want to talk about the safe bits (of course). The anti-GMO folks keep pointing out weird symptoms. but the companies say that’s irrelevant because we can’t (yet) explain the exact molecular mechanism causing them.
It’s the same problem we had with DDT in the Old Days. Use it because of course it’s safe. See weird symptoms like thin shells on bird eggs. Nothing to do with DDT because you haven’t figured out the exact mechanism. Once the mechanism is figured out, then go “Oops.”
(Erm. Sorry. I didn’t realize I’d let that comment turn into a book. :redface:)
Sometimes ya just gotta say it all. Thanks for the information. On topic, didn’t I see news within the past year or so about ranchers in Texas linking cattle deaths to GM crops?? It was swept under the rug almost as soon as I saw it in press.
Big T/U, quixote.