TO GENE ACTIVISTS AND OTHER INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS -
Monsanto has lodged an application with the Genetic Manipulation Advisory
Committee (GMAC) for a general release (i.e. the growing on a commercial
scale) of its Roundup Ready Cotton.
Objections are needed to be sent to arrive by Monday 28/6 - please make the
effort to send something, even if it is no more than a few lines. GMAC's
email address is;
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
You may want to include some of the following points;
- In New York State, USA, Monsanto agreed in a US $50,000 out of court
settlement to retract advertising claims on the safety and
biodegradeability of Roundup
- Roundup has a toxic surfactant and has been linked to many cases of
herbicide poisoning in the US
- no human testing of foods derived from Roundup Ready cotton has been
carried out
- the crops contains an antibiotic resistance gene; independent scientific
opinion considers the use of these genes to be a threat to human health. In
the UK, both the House of Lords Select Committee on the European
Communities and the British Medical Association have voiced doubts over the
safety of foods derived from crops containing these genes.
- antibiotic resistance genes could be transferred to bacteria in the guts
of animals and humans, and in the environment. A proportion of modified
genes are likely to survive digestion and pass into the colon.
- not all DNA is likely to be destroyed during processing into cottonseed
oil, and DNA will probably also be present in linters, used in products
such as sausage casings
- there is a risk of a loss of sales of cottonseed oil to the Japanese
market, which is turning away from genetically modified foods
Martin Oliver
Gene-Ethics Network Northern Rivers
c/- 123 Keen St, Lismore, NSW 2480
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website: www.nor.com.au/environment/genethic
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