EAT FRANKENFOOD OR GO HUNGRY
Thomas Smith
July 6, 2003
NewsWithViews.com
Here in America, possibly because of our Puritan heritage, we seem to feel the need to cast
any rotten evil thing that we do in a guise that makes us appear as the world's benefactor. This is no less true of corporations than it is of government. Nowhere else in the world does a nation's propaganda ministry spend so much effort to appear "good" while justifying the most evil things the mind of man can imagine. In America, the "cover story" has been raised to an artform. Consider the willful destruction of the world"s food chain by a merger of corporate and government interests as a case in point.
A conference on genetically engineered agricultural products was recently sponsored by the US department of Agriculture in Sacramento, California. Police in riot gear were sent to control the angry crowds that swarmed the streets making very clear the fact that they do not want to be forced to consume GM food.
The US department of Agriculture who, theoretically represent the interest of the American people, presented the needed "cover story" for the forcible promotion of GM foods. According to their story, it seems these
GM food products were developed to "reduce hunger and improve nutrition by using advanced technology". The benefit is designed to be all for the small farmer who can "reduce the use of pesticides on his GM crops".
Of course they can use less pesticide--pests don't like to eat franken food any more than people do.
US Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman said "What we're talking about is increasing food productivity in areas of the world where people are both hungry and poor. Many developing countries get 90% of their food from local production and there isn't any infrastructure. That means that they save seed from one year to the next and do not have to come to the seed companies to buy seed to plant crops every year.
Lets get the facts on the table. What Ann Veneman was really talking about is building a government/ corporate monopoly that alone has absolute control over the food supply of the entire world. The independent farmer who does all the work becomes enslaved. Having total control over the food supply has been a dream of those who manage the American food chain since Wesson first started to engineer edible oils in 1911.
Where is our antitrust protection from these ravening wolves? Exactly what is it that the FDA doesn't understand about its responsibilities to assure a safe food supply.
A glimpse at agricultural history
The step up to using genetic engineering technology to render our crops impervious to herbicides is a natural extension of the practice of establishing hybrid seed technology that is now an accepted fact throughout agriculture. Once, before the profit motive dominated every area of life, seeds reproduced their own kind with great repeatability. When seed companies got into the act they selectively bred a variety of hybrid seed that would not reproduce themselves. When the farmer, typically not any less gullible that most of us, bought into this scenario he found himself forced to buy seed every year for whatever price the seed purveyor chose to ask. Previously, with the expenditure of a little extra work every year he could save his seed and not have to pay anybody anything to plant his crops.
Now the farmer has to come to the seed companies every year, hat in hand, to see what his seed is going to cost him. He is forced to pass on these costs in the price of food.
GM agriculture was specifically developed to make the crops immune to the use of herbicides. When weeds develop in a field containing a food crop, the farmer sprays the field with an herbicide. Theoretically, if the concentration of herbicide is correct, it kills the weeds and spares the crops.
The repeated use of this technology has bred a weed population that has proved increasingly resistant to the use of herbicides.The window between a lethal dose of herbicide for the weeds and a safe dose that would not kill the crop also has narrowed dramatically. The money making solution to this dilemma is to "engineer" the gene structure of the crop for increased resistance to the herbicide.
The keystone cops of the scientific community
Bad science; really, bad, inept, corrupt and bungled science is the norm in the agricultural community. The reality of what they're doing is far removed from the cover story presented by the US Department of Agriculture. Thinly veiled profit motives that rape the environment commonly masquerade as science in this community. There are at least three major scientific blunders hidden in Ann Veneman's plan to "reduce hunger and improve nutrition by using advanced technology". If this community's standard for advanced technology were the norm in other industries, as for example the transportation industry, we would all be still riding in horse drawn buggies, whose wheels kept falling off.
First the process results in development of herbicide resistant weeds. When a field containing both weeds and herbicide resistant crops is sprayed with an herbicide the herbicide is supposed to kill the weeds and leave the crops. What actually happens is that
the herbicide kills most of the weeds but not all. Those weeds that are not killed reproduce as herbicide resistant weeds. As this process is repeated from year to year a new class of weeds evolves that is immune to the herbicide. This process, at least outside of the agricultural scientific community, has been well
understood for over a hundred years as the process of natural selection.
As the evolution of increasingly resistant weeds proceeds, the "advanced technology" of the agribusiness community prescribes ever increasing doses of herbicide. Within a short time however, the weed population has become so resistant to the herbicide that it no longer works. That is where we are now in the battle of the weeds. That is why there is such pressure to market GM food products that can stand the ever increasing use of ever more ineffective herbicides.
The so called scientists who want to force their "advanced technology" on the entire world have been raping our fields and plundering our farmers for decades. This is the "infrastructure" that our Department of Agriculture wants to force on third world nations. To a very large extent, the American farming community has been severely damaged by these profit oriented practices. Now we want to export them to the "poor farmer" in other parts of the world.
Second,
there is no way to prevent cross pollination of these genetically modified products with natural non-modified strains. Birds consume the seeds and scatter them where they will. GM seed will inevitably be transported into fields containing non-GM crops. Bees cross pollinate GM and non GM crops in a totally uncontrolled manner. The wind blows the pollen all over the landscape. The use of herbicides on fields that contain a mix of GM and non-GM crops preferentially kills the non-GM crop. The end result of this process is to inexorably eradicate the non-GM crop and replace it with the GM crop.
This gives the owner of the GM seed patents absolute defacto dictatorial control over the food chain; a super efficient way to establish profit margin superiority. By the exercise of patent rights, good food has been rendered impossible to grow in these herbicide polluted fields. The goons that did the destruction must now be paid dearly for the only seed that remains capable of growing in the herbicide polluted fields. Needless to point out, the same scientists that sell the GM seed have a close business connection to the scientists that sell the herbicide.
Third there have been no useful studies done to provide even a "cover story" type of assurance that the resulting GM strains are even edible let alone nutritious.
More on the health effects of soy products
This engineering of the seed causes foreign herbicide resistant proteins to be present in the crop. No long term tests to determine the effect of these foreign proteins on the human metabolism have been conducted. Tests have been conducted only to demonstrate the increased resistance of the crop to being sprayed by the herbicide. The crop looks good, it is economical to grow and provides justification to continue the use of modern herbicides. Only one minor problem;
its so inedible that the GM sponsors themselves admit that even pests won't eat it.
Numerous reports have been surfacing about the bad reactions we humans are having to these foreign proteins.
Argentina, after their recent economic problems, decided to supply GM soy as a staple to both their population and their cattle. The immediate result was an incredible disaster. According to a report in the February issue of the Ecologist. "The result of this use of GM soy products was anemia, hormonal disruption, weak bones, rotten teeth and malnutrition." The GM soy animal feed also was reported to contain over "200 times the glcyphosate (Roundup herbicide) that the human GM soy products contained". Glyphosate in any amount interferes with the absorption of minerals, particularly iron and zinc.
When consumers ingest GM soy they also unknowingly ingest the Roundup herbicide used for weed control in the fields. This is according to a recent study out of Freiburg University.
The March 15, 1999 issue of The Journal of the American Cancer Society contains an article that makes the connection between Roundup (glyphosate) and non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a form of cancer.
The Ecologist, in January 2003, discussed the connection between farmers that use the Roundup herbicide and increased incidence of prostate cancer. Another California study demonstrated that pregnant women that lived within a mile of farm where Roundup was sprayed on crops experienced a significantly increased chance of losing their baby. A Chinese study reported severe gastro-intestinal disorders as well as damage to the immune system in a study they conducted with rats. Their report, released under the auspices of the Chinese Academy of Science, also concluded that:
GM products cause food poisoning. GM products cause cancer GM products cause allergies and severe immune system disruption GM products are deficient in nutritional value
The literature is replete with increasing evidence that the reluctance of people to consume GM products is very well founded indeed.
The reaction of the American government in the "land of the free and the home of the brave" is interesting. It is to this we turn next.
A few examples of government bullying and deception
The European Union has passed a law that prohibits the importation of GM products into their countries for five years. This is an altogether sensible idea that has caused a furious response from America.
The US is lodging a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization in an effort to force Europeans to accept this frankenfood.
The US has recently suspended plans to conduct free trade talks with Egypt. This is punishment for Egypt because they refused to join the US in a complaint about the five year ban on GM food products put in place in the European Union.
The US congress has recently passed a law that makes American help in combating the AIDS virus in Africa contingent upon Africans accepting GM contaminated food.
Despite unprecedented levels of American dictatorial coercion as well as a famine in their land Zambia, has refused to import GM food. Mozambique and Zimbabwe refused to import GM corn grain but had to accept milled corn because of a serious ongoing famine. We have produced a furious reaction in Africa by attempting to force GM food on a poor population. Nnimmo Bassey, Director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria, said
"African nations should have the right to decide what their people are fed. It is immoral for the US to exploit the famine and the AIDS crisis in this way".
The US has regulations in place to conceal the fact of GM contaminated food in the American grocery store. The idea is to prevent Americans from being able to choose whether or not they want to eat it.
A step back to take a harder look at soy products in general
Those of you who have been following my work exposing our criminal epidemic of diabetes already have a built in protection against this wholesale food chain fraud being perpetrated by the American corporate-government complex. Ask any American about the dangers of saturated fat and he will quickly parrot "saturated fat is bad- it causes heart attacks". This widespread and totally false belief is the result of a massive marketing campaign in America to replace good beneficial fats and oils that we once had with these cheap junk oils. The idea was to greatly increase the profit margin of processed food by using worthless oils instead of beneficial healthy oils.
Noteworthy among these junk oils that were successfully introduced into our food chain by this deception is soy oil. An immediate consequence of this marketing success has been the explosive increase in degenerative disease including obesity and diabetes.
At one point,
a few years ago, soy oil, cottonseed oil and rape seed oil (canola) among others, were considered inedible. They were not fit even to use as animal feed let alone human. A massive marketing campaign was launched against healthy beneficial oils here in America. The result was a huge gain in acceptance for cheap worthless food products that up to then had no market. Another result was the stigmatizing and removal from the marketplace of the more expensive beneficial oils, such as coconut oil, we had always depended upon.
The idea was, and is, that soy is easy to grow and, if widespread market acceptance could be manufactured, the use of soy in processed food could be made to produce immense profits.
Soybean products, even before being genetically modified, were, and remain, almost worthless as human or animal food. There are many really good studies that have repeatedly exposed the soy fraud.. Genetic modification has simply brought products already known to be bad to the point where they are rightfully regarded as not just worthless but poisonous.
Unprocessed soy whether GM or non-GM is basically a poisonous substance. Although considered a high protein food, the protein is locked up with trypsin inhibitors to the extent that the protein is not available when it is eaten. This is why diets that are high in soy content lead to malnutrition. Diets high is soy content have been associated with Parkinson's disease because of their high phytate content and their disabling of zinc absorption. Soy is associated with precocious puberty because of their elevated phytoestrogen content. The daily amount of soy milk required for a bottle fed infant contains the same amount of estrogen to be found in five birth control pills.
bFermented soy is a special case
Successful processing of soybeans to make them even marginally useful in a dietary health program requires very long fermentation times. The only healthy way to prepare soy for human consumption is by fermenting it into products like
Tempeh and
Miso.
Tofu is not an acceptable processing method. Long time users of Tofu have shown a significant increase in the development of Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's.
So what can we do
While we await the collapse of this crooked corporate government complex under the weight of its own bungling, deceit, ineptitude, thievery, bad science and criminal misuse of force against us, we need to survive. And, we need to routinely throw as many lawful monkey wrenches as possible into this criminal conspiracy.
First we can go to the root of the problem; money. Refuse to buy or eat any of this junk that's being touted as food. Read labels in the grocery store. Whenever you see soy oil or any soy product on the label in these processed foods simply leave it on the shelf. In time this refusal to be deceived into feeding your family worthless and dangerous food products will have an effect. This desired effect can be speeded up considerably by taking the time to tell the supermarket manager that you will not buy food containing soy in any form. Because of GM soy's great propensity to cross pollinate with non-GM soy and because of labeling fraud that conceals the presence of GM food products, you must assume that any product is contaminated with the genetically modified strain. Do not buy or consume any food product that contains soy or soy oil or indeed, any of the junk oils.
Second we can bombard our Congress with letters, phone calls and faxes from an irate constituency that is well aware of the upcoming election and our perceived need to replace unresponsive representatives. Since the rigging of elections and the explosive increase in lying, double dealing and bribery have become commonplace in our political arena, this technique has become less effective than our founding fathers once envisioned. However, it is still better than doing nothing. As the late Senator Everett Dirksen once said, "When I feel the heat, I see the light".
Third, those of you out there that have a few extra bucks in your jeans and want to do something useful might consider exhausting available legal and administrative avenues of redress through regulatory challenges. Others may form groups to share the expense and accomplish the same thing. As long as these "regulators" believe their chicanery goes unnoticed they do their dirty work. When once they start getting exposed, as individuals, in the press, in the courts and in their neighborhoods they may find it considerably more difficult to hide the truth about what they really do. You might start by publicly asking Ann Veneman exactly why she said that less pesticide is required for GM crops.
These are only some suggestions. I'm sure that the remarkable inventiveness that has characterized America throughout its history will prove helpful once again as more and more Americans come to fully realize what is being done to them, by whom and why.
© 2003 Thomas Smith - All Rights Reserved
