Dear Christy, All,
Thank you for your "page-turning" summary of the Biodevistation7 conference in the 6/8 digest (and at http://www.theruralcenter.org/ ). I am forwarding it to one of my MCS lists, where a recent posting gave the URL for a website where one click can send an email to one's congressrep to protest GE foods/seeds. FOI (For Our Informtion), I enclose that info here:
<< Dear Donnie,
Thank you for posting this info in the 6/10 digest, about action we may take by (or through?) this coming Tuesday, 6/17, to let our representatives know (in the context of standing up for Europe's right not to have this happen to them) what we think about corporations forcing GE food down people's throats*.
(* I am indebted to Christy Korrow at http://www.theruralcenter.org/ for this turn of phrase)
You wrote: ------------- Original Message ------------- << GM food action alert
We have received a request from Representative Dennis Kucinich to have people immediately call or e-mail their House Representative to oppose a Resolution that will be brought up in front of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Here is a link to send an e-mail: http://www.thecampaign.org/alert-house.php
The resolution is H. Res. 252 - "Expressing the sense of the House of
Representatives supporting the United States in its efforts within the
World Trade Organization (WTO) to end the European Union's protectionist and discriminatory trade practices of the past five years regarding agriculture biotechnology."
As you are probably aware, the United States has brought a WTO case against the European Union over their moratorium on genetically engineered foods. Representative Kucinich and The Campaign oppose the WTO case and oppose this resolution in support of it.
This is a "Suspension bill" which means there can be no amendments, 40 minutes of debate and 2/3 vote to pass. We only need 145 votes to defeat the bill.
Please call or e-mail your House Representative.>> ------------- end of original Message -------------
(As a quick aside, one can reach both Senators' AND Representatives' offices using a tollfree number: 1-800-839-5276 and then <<just ask for the office of the legislator you want to leave your comment with.>>[I have not tested this procedure for current workability but it worked a pretty short while ago when I used it with another issue])
Going to the site you gave us Donnie, gives, on the very first page, a very easy "click here if you want to send an email" which automaticaly sends a to-the-point mesage to one's State representative (automaticaly chosen by the site based on your zip code). Short and sweet, it reads:
<< I am writing to ask you to oppose House Resolution 252 which will be brought up for a vote on Tuesday, June 10, 2003.
This resolution supports the World Trade Organization case the United States has brought against the European Union over their moratorium on genetically engineered foods. I don't think we should be forcing genetically engineered foods on the Europeans. And I also think we should have these biotech foods labeled in the United States.
Please oppose H. Res. 252. Thank you! >>
Here's what I would have written if there hadn't already been a message there:
<< Dear Congressman,
As a freedom-loving American, I find it outrageous that, not satisfied with forcing genetically engineered foods down the throats of Americans by taking away the power of choice that informed consumption (labeling of GE foods, which industry refuses to do) in OUR "free market" would bring, NOW corporations have managed to get the US Government, formerly a beacon of freedom in the world, to bring a case in the WTO against the European Union over their moratorium on genetically engineered foods.
Do not the European peoples, have the basic human right to determine what goes down their own throats*? And the basic human right to keep out crops that will contaminate non-GE crops and bring ruinous lawsuits upon them (a la Percy Schmeiser) for unknowingly "hosting" rogue GE plants that have strayed from their owners' fields into the fields of their unwitting *and unwilling* recipients?
Unless you believe that free trade means the violence of forcing others to purchase that which they consider to be poison to their lifeblood, I expect you will vote NO to H. Res. 252, and to any other proposals that infringe upon basic human rights including free choice and self-determination.
Respectfully,
P.S. I have just noted that the resolution makes the folowing claim:
<< Whereas Americans have been consuming genetically-modified corn and soybean products, which are subject to a rigorous Federal review process, for years with no documentation of any adverse health consequences; >>
Gee whilikkers, how can one *document* ANY kind of health effect when industry's refusal to label these products makes it imposible for consumers not only to draw any conection between symptoms and consumption of the product, but even, in most cases, to even be aware of the *posibility* that much of their "food" is genetically engineered!?
I can tell you anecdotally, however, that after getting severe gut pain and bloody bowel movements after eating one can of corn produced by one of the major brands (this after never before having had such symptoms in years of corn eating, including from time to time from cans years ago), I could not help wondering if these symptoms were the result of consuming geneticaly engineered corn.
My suspicions were strengthened after reading, some year or more after this experience, that well-regarded scientist Arpad Pusztai (<<who lost his job at the prestigious Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen after outlining his findings in a television programme in 1998>>found that:
<<rats fed on GM potatoes had suffered gut lesions, retarded growth and other symptoms.>> !!!
(article from which the above 2 quotes is extracted, is below)
This is a dismaying piece of information that I have never seen or heard anywhere in the U.S. media. Since there is no way of knowing (due to lack of labeling) what canned corn is GE and what is not, you may be sure I have never again eaten ANY canned corn, and tend to stay away from the fresh stuff, too, unless it's from an organic field.
I will add that a certain rye bread, after many years of no problem with it or any other rye bread, now leaves me with a peculiar gassy gnawing growliness in my gut, and swollen gums, after eating just 2 slices of it. This having occurred twice has convinced me I must avoid this brand's rye bread, and because I am not sure, due to no labeling, that other rye breads also have this problem, or many other breads, I no longer buy comercial bread.
Here's the above-referenced article, which I enclose in full because I don't have its URL, about the potentially literally life-threatening dangers of Genetically Polluted "foods":
---------fwd------------- Scientist raises new GM food health fears
Sunday Times (London) May 4, 2003, Sunday
A SCIENTIST who shocked the world with research claiming that genetically modified (GM) crops might damage human health is to release new findings supporting his warnings, writes Jonathan Leake.
Arpad Pusztai, who lost his job at the prestigious Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen after outlining his findings in a television programme in 1998, will publish the new research this week.
It warns that the work carried out by biotechnology companies into the human health hazard from GM food is inadequate and unsafe. It also points to technical defects in the way GM plants are created.
Pusztai's study is contained in a book called Food Safety, a compilation of scientific papers which describes the contaminants and toxins contained in modern foods. In his section, Pusztai brings together all the scientific studies carried out into the safety of GM foods and subjects them to rigorous statistical and scientific scrutiny.
This weekend he said: "We found that there are only a few such studies and they show many problems. In particular, they illustrate that GM foods have never been publicly tested for their safety and wholesomeness. There is increasing research to show they may actually be very unsafe."
The research comes at a crucial time. This autumn the Royal Society is expected to publish the results of the government-sponsored field trials of GM crops. The government is also about to sponsor a nationwide debate on the issue.
However, Britain's Food Standards Agency has completed separate research appearing to confirm some of Pusztai's warnings. It showed that genetically modified DNA in plants can be taken up by gut bacteria in humans and animals. This finding was contrary to previous assurances from biotechnology firms, which had said DNA would be broken down in the gut shortly after consumption.
It raises the possibility that alien genes inserted into crop plants and conferring properties such as antibiotic resistance could be passed on to bacteria, making them resistant, too.
Pusztai had been a plant researcher at the Rowett Institute until he appeared in a World in Action documentary on GM foods to describe how rats fed on GM potatoes had suffered gut lesions, retarded growth and other symptoms.
He spoke fewer than a dozen sentences but his words reverberated around the world, infuriating GM firms and the scientific establishment. They claimed his research had been poorly done and that he should not have revealed the results before having it reviewed by peers. However, it was later approved and published in the medical journal The Lancet.
Pusztai's first warnings have been echoed by the Royal Society. Its experts last year concluded that GM crops could offer substantial benefits but said too little was known about their potential health impact.
---------end fwd-------------
* http://www.theruralcenter.org/ gives a fascinating, brief yet current and comprehensive summary of the geneticaly engineered food/seed issue, in which the "pre-emptive" arrests of peaceable attendees at a conference on GE foods/seeds is also adresed. It is called <<Report from Biodevistation 7 >>, in the June 2003 newsletter of the Rural Center for Responsible Living.
take care, and thank you to the original poster of the above Sunday Times article, sorry I don't remember who posted it, or even to what list that I'm on.
-Lily
PS Allan, as listmaster I ask you if there would be any problem in my sending a copy of my above post that I am making to your list, to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ? Thanks.
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