Why Genomics Won't Deliver the Health of Nations. Special ISIS Lecture.

The UK government launched a DNA BioBank in 2002 to collect DNA samples from 500 000 volunteers aged 45-69 to "capitalise on the knowledge from the Human Genome Project, which made available the genetic book of life". The hope is that by combining genetic, medical and lifestyle information, the study will unravel the origins of important diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's, and lead to improved diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

more:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/YGOYH.php

http://www.gmwatch.org

Pharm Aid - contaminated U.S. aid shipments to Guatemala

"This isn't the first time developing countries have been less than pleased to use our science experiments for their sustenance. In 2002 the Bolivian Forum on Environment and Development said their World Food Program sacks of corn were contaminated by StarLink. The U.S., a primary contributor to the WFP, is the only country in the world to have ever grown Starlink."

Pharm Aid

Genetically altered corn, banned for health reasons, pops up in U.S. aid shipments to Guatemala

by Aina Hunter

February 28th, 2005

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0509,hunter,61585,6.html

Latin American environmentalists are criticizing our food aid again after a genetically altered type of corn banned for health reasons was found in the shipments.

The problem is StarLink, a type of genetically altered corn that generates its very own, built-in pesticide. It seems to cause allergy symptoms and asthma, so it's not EPA-approved. Still, a few weeks ago StarLink was detected in bags of World Food Program corn, and now activists in six Latin American countries are denouncing the U.S. for trying to palm off dangerous food on the Guatemalan poor.

http://www.humboldt.org.ni/transgenicos/denuncia_englishfeb16.htm

Five years ago, U.S. factories shut down and supermarkets pulled corn chips, taco shells, and grits off the shelves after more than 300 different kinds of corn products were found tainted with StarLink, which is supposed to be used only for animal feed and to manufacture ethanol.People were getting sick right and left, and the fiasco costStarLink developer Aventis CropScience hundreds of millions of dollars.

http://www.platformgentechnologie.nl/genetech/thema_incidenten/starlink_panel.html

StarLink was introduced in '98, but by the year '00 it was all mixed up in our food supply. Aventis argued that growers weren't isolating it, as they were supposed to, which led to pollen drift.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0153.html

In addition, grain processors inadvertently mixed StarLink with regular corn at mills and in grain elevators. It seems that no one knew the stuff was so dangerous.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/sueaventis.cfm

When that word got around,alarms went off around the world as countries demanded that the U.S. stop trying to export StarLink.

http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/news-ng.asp?id=40422-consumers-urge-ban

The Japanese cut U.S. corn imports by 50 pecent when they detected it in samples the U.S. Department of Agriculture said was free of StarLink.

The Koreans banned American corn all together after detecting StarLink in a shipment of tortillas that the USDA also said was clean. After that, even starving countries like India and Zambia started getting picky.

http://www.biotech-info.net/india_says_no.html
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/stories/s714981.htm

The biotech industry maintains that no one has ever proven that StarLink is bad for you. Nevertheless, after the scare, the EPA "encouraged" the developer to take it off the market. As for the huge surplus, leftover StarLink was to be fed to animals or and churned into ethanol. And, apparently, sold to the World Food Program.

All evidence to the contrary, the U.S. denies sending StarLink overseas. Ed Loyd, a spokesman for the USDA, says all corn destined for the WFP is tested for StarLink. He says he can't explain why Genetic I.D., an Iowa-based laboratory, says that 80 percent of the samples they took from aid packages to six countries tested positive for variousgenetically modified organisms (only the Guatemalans were treated to Starlink), but he told the Voice that the tests the USDA used came out clean.

http://www.genetic-id.com/

This isn't the first time developing countries have been less than pleased to use our science experiments for their sustenance. In 2002 the Bolivian Forum on Environment and Development said their World Food Program sacks of corn were contaminated by StarLink. The U.S., a primary contributor to the WFP, is the only country in the world to have ever grown Starlink.


Informant: JHW369

Werbefilm für Genmais: Leitung der Gentechnik-Kontrollbehörden wird auf Befangenheit überprüft (01.03.05)

Verbraucherschutzministerin Renate Künast (Grüne) will Spitzenbeamte in Kontrollbehörden für Gentechnik auf Befangenheit überprüfen. Nach Recherchen des ARD-Magazins "Report Mainz" geht es dabei um eine Interessenkollision der für die Zulassung gentechnisch veränderter Organismen zuständigen Beamten. Wie das Magazin am Montagabend berichtete, traten der Leiter des Zentrums für Gentechnologie, Hans-Jörg Buhk, und sein Stellvertreter Detlef Bartsch 2002 in einem Werbefilm für Genmais auf. Dem genannten Zentrum untersteht auch die "Zulassungsstelle Gentechnik".

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=10568

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GMFTTUT.php
http://www.phpbbforfree.com/forums/infonature-post-21.html

Tillamook, an Oregon-based nationwide distributor of cheese, has announced it plans to require that all of its dairy farmers stop injecting their cows with Bovine Growth Hormone, a drug banned in Europe and most industrialized countries. In response, Monsanto, the producer of the controversial genetically engineered animal drug, rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone), has threatened to sue Tillamook. Tillamook's farmers will vote on banning rBGH at their meeting Monday, Feb. 28 at 10:00 a.m. Please contact Tillamook as soon as possible and tell them to stay rBGH-free.

Take action here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/rbgh/tillamook.cfm

According to semen brokers, cloned animals will begin to enter the U.S. food supply in less than eight months. Thousands of units of semen from cloned bulls have been exchanging hands among ranchers. Ranchers say it's eerie how similar the cloned animals are to the originals. "Every wrinkle--everything about them, even the disposition and character--are the same," said Larry Coleman, a cattle rancher who sells semen from clones of his prize bull for $700 a vial.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/patent/beef021605.cfm

World Food Programme (WFP) food aid shipments, predominantly from the United States, have been found to be heavily contaminated with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), including Starlink, a genetically engineered (GE) variety of corn banned for human consumption worldwide. Starlink corn, which is gene-spliced with an insecticidal protein, was registered for animal feed use in the U.S. in 1998, despite protests from scientists that it would inevitably contaminate human food supplies. As predicted, in 2000 Starlink contaminated a full 10% of the U.S. corn harvest, prompting complaints from hundreds of U.S. consumers who suffered allergic reactions after eating Starlink-tainted corn taco shells and other products. Recent tests have found 80% of food aid corn sent to Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala contains GMOs which are prohibited in these countries. Julio Sánchez from Centro Humboldt in Nicaragua said it's outrageous that the WFP would purchase GE corn from the U.S. that is not fit for human consumption, jeopardizing the health of vulnerable populations like pregnant women and children, while contaminating indigenous corn fields and seed banks. Sanchez added that there are massive amounts of surplus non-GE corn produced by nations other than the U.S. that should be used for food aid instead.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/caribbean21705.cfm

"Friends of the Earth" werfen der Europäischen Behörde für Lebensmittelsicherheit Parteinahme für die Interessen der Gentech-Industrie vor...

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/19/19518/1.html