Myron (Mike) Stagman, PhD
Concerned Citizens Information Network
www.ccin.info  (environmental website)
www.MyronStagman.com
email: artemesium@gmail.com


GMO DISEASE EPIDEMICS:

(7)  Food-Derived Illnesses in General


I.  The Face of Frankenstein's Monster

Genetic Engineering Biotechnology (GE, GM, GMOs) evades Evolution's safeguards by injecting genes of one species into a totally unrelated species, something impossible in Nature.

GM evades Evolution's safeguards, and may therefore give rise to PATHOGENS that can -- and HAVE, many times --  caused crippling and deadly DISEASE EPIDEMICS -- documented but unpublicised.

Genetic Engineering is also ideal for developing horrific biological and other military weapons --- sufficient cause to OUTLAW GM.

The Greatest Racket in History (Listen to this !): ---

GM contamination is virulent, spread by wind, bird, insect, animals and travelling  human beings.  Co-Existence with GM is completely impossible, only fools or liars would say differently.

GM has contaminated  crops in areas of North America which dwarf the UK and even Western Europe.   Planetary contamination is inevitable, if We don't stop it.

The Biotechnology corporations know oh-so-well how contamination spreads and spreads and spreads.

Now get this:   Through their political influence, these Corporations have been able to acquire the obscene, sacrilegious, and indeed revolutionary  PATENTS on LIFE-FORMS.

Before these revolutionary Patents on Life,  a farmer could have sued -- successfully without any doubt -- the Biotechnology corporation for having contaminated, poisoned his crops.

However, given these Patents on Life (here, on the seeds), the Corporation can -- and DOES, successfully -- sue the victimised farmer for (Hold your nose) "infringement of patent".

[Our tainted, corrupted political systems allow this monstrosity.]

Thus the formula the reader might keep in mind:
GM Contamination + Patents on Life-Forms  equals Corporate Ownership Rights in the crops of victimised farmers.

This formula spells the serfdom and ruin of all small family farmers on this planet.  (They are the majority of the population in Asia, Africa, and Latin America).

The Chemical-Drug-Biotechnology syndicate and its Enforcers (corrupted governments in the West and Third World, corporation-dominated organisations like the WTO, World Bank, IMF) have started a WORLDWIDE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION.

They want to destroy small family farming, and have only gigantic Corporate GM Plantations with farmers working as serfs.
 
[This process is underway, especially in South America where the U.S. Military has begun to intervene on behalf of GM Plantations to crush farmer opposition.]

Already, according to the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE) in New Delhi,  40,000 farmers in India have committed suicide primarily as a result of the Corporate Enforcers' so-called "free trade" policies --- dumping heavily-subsidised Western farm produce onto glutted Indian markets, pushing GM crops, insisting that Patents on Life-Forms be accepted so farmers must sign contracts with GM Corporations and can no longer save seeds, etc.

The Greatest Racket in History --- GM Contamination + Patents on Life-Forms equals Corporate Proprietary Rights in the crops of victimised farmers, and spells the serdom and ruin of small family farmers everywhere on this planet.

We MUST OUTLAW GM and PATENTS on LIFE-FORMS -- or else !! 
(e.g. No more organic, healthy food --- you and your children will only be able to eat unsafe GM) 

See the Action Plan in Part III designed to OUTLAW GM and PATENTS on LIFE-FORMS. 
But beforehand, read the next in our series of "GMO Disease Epidemics". 

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II.   Genetically-Engineered Food-Derived Illnesses in General

[Note:  The reader is invited to read earlier articles in this series on GMO Disease Epidemics for more extensive information on certain items below.  Namely:   GM maize epidemic, GM Aspartame artificial sweetener epidemic, and food-induced anaphylactic (life-threatening) shock epidemic caused principally by eating genetically-engineered (Frankenstein) food.]

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UK:

Since the GM food era got into swing, the incidence of food-induced illness has not only skyrocketed in the United States  - - - but in the United Kingdom since American GM food (soya and maize in particular) entered UK supermarkets en masse.

Soya 'allergies' (i.e. GM soya toxicity) in the UK skyrocketed in recent years.  The York Nutritional Laboratory report of March 1999 cites a range of chronic illnesses accompanying the rocket ---notably Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
        
[Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government  Lies About the Genetically Engineered Foods You are Eating,  Jeffrey M. Smith, ch.6, "Rolling the Dice with Allergies"]

York, one of Europe's leading laboratories specialising in food sensitivity, found a 50% rise in soya 'allergies' in 1998, the exact year that genetically-engineered soybeans were introduced to the world market.

    [Allergy, Asthma, Sinus Relief Resource Center, "Soy Allergens: Shock of the New", Kaayla Daniel, PhD, author of The Whole Soy Story]

The York Laboratory urged the British Government  to impose an instant ban on GM food pending further tests.
[A Government dominated by giant corporations, the chemical-drug-biotechnology industry in particular, ignored the appeal.]

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On the subject of soya:

Israel.  Infant deaths from GM Soya baby food ---   "With 2 children dead and 15 suffering from possible brain damage Israeli officials pulled the formula from stores. . . ."    [International Herald Tribune, 18 November 2003]

The soya would have to be genetically engineered because GM soya contamination is so widespread and no non-organic company will use increasingly expensive organic soya.
  
A private organisation (Green Action) tested the soya (the Israeli government evidently would not) and found, as one would expect, that the soya was genetically engineered.

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Processed foods in the West almost all contain untested genetically engineered ingredients. This is true almost everywhere in the world now due to the growing concentration of international economic power in the hands of giant corporations  ('globalization'),

Genetically engineered maize (corn) -- clearly linked to anaphylactic shock -- and soya are very common, almost ubiquitous in processed foods.  When I read the ingredients on a package or can, I can no longer find a product that does not contain at least one GMO, and usually I find two or more.

"Vegetable oil" generally means it was derived from GM soya. "Lecithin" is almost always GM soya lecithin.  I have found products advertised as "organic", indeed given a seal of approval by an organic association, which used GM soya lecithin.

Coca-Cola contains GM corn (maize) fructose.

Cottonseed oil and canola (oilseed rape) are other GM ingredients.

 Vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from GM maize, and Vitamin-E from GM soya.  The scandal of popular health supplements involving genetic engineering !!

Monsanto's genetically-engineered artificial sweetener, Aspartame, is an insidious worldwide presence in processed foods -- about 6,000 of them -- and of course is found in diet drinks.
[see an earlier article in this series]

In the United States, Monsanto's  shown-to- be carcinogenic genetically-engineered growth hormone infests American cattle, hence the perils of cow's milk and beef products.

Probably all except organic animal feed contain GMOs.  GM animal feed imperils the animal and people who consume animal products.

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Biopharm dangers ---  Believe it or not,  food crops -- whose pollen can travel, whose food might be eaten --  have been genetically engineered to produce substances including an abortion-inducing chemical,  growth hormones,   vaccines, industrial enzymes, blood clotters, and blood thinners.

One must expect incidents such as the following 15 November 2002 IPS item: 

"U.S. officials have ordered 500,000 bushels of soybeans, worth 2.7 million dollars, destroyed after the crop was contaminated by maize genetically engineered to produce an experimental drug."

The U.S. Department. of Agriculture could not guarantee there had been 100% containment of the contaminated crop.  (Bon appetit !)

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Therefore,

The genetic engineering process can be used to inject many different extremely foreign things into food and crops. 

Little wonder the incidence of food-related disease, food-induced life-threatening shock, and Chronic Fatigue are soaring worldwide, as worldwide as the spread of GM food and other GM products.


Obvious advice:  EAT ORGANIC food as much as possible.  And do something to protect organic agriculture,  threatened as it is by GM contamination.

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III.  Conclusion and What To Do

Human beings and Nature, as we have known them, cannot survive in a GMO-Frankenstein world.  

The nightmare technology of Genetic Engineering Biotechnology, and its incestuous Patents on Life-Forms, must be OUTLAWED.


How To Do It?

There is only one way to overcome this extremely powerful,  ruthless Corporation-Government-corporate Mass Media axis.

It is to conduct grassroots Public Education Campaigns to educate and politically activate the General Public, university / college students in particular.

The General Public !!   Stop forever talking to the Converted.  To get around the corporate media's suppression and distortion of truth,  one must talk to people and go door-to-door with leaflets and vocal messages. 
And major efforts must be made to inform and activate university students.

Important Hints: 

(1)   Concentrate on  university students. 

 And  senior citizens.
   
I speak to you now, elder citizens like myself.    Put moral purpose into your lives and help rescue this planet and your grandchildren.

(2)   AVOID NGOs and all established organisations, especially large ones.  They are not what they seem.

Their hierarchies and decision-making are corporation-influenced if not outright purchased.

Never ever join them.  Never ever give them Money.  

  [see George Monbiot's very important article in The Guardian,  4 September 2001, "Sleeping with the Enemy:  Consumer and Environmental Groups are Getting into Bed with Big Corporations]

[Note: In developing countries there are some exceptions, but very very very few in the West. If by a miracle one of them ever conducts a genuine and sensible public education campaign, then you can help out.  But NEVER join or give money to them.]

The environmental field especially is riddled with wealthy, prestigious, deceptive organisations adept at dilutng and derailing environmental causes,  GM in particular. 

[I am thinking at this moment of one such organisation I have observed over a long period of time, in my view a very slick and dangerous FOE of environmentalism, originally created by polluting Corporations to deal with the growing environmental movement.
Don't go anywhere near this one.]

When they talk about being 'practical' and seeking 'Coexistence' with GM,  let a red flag go up.

Nothing short of OUTLAWING GENETIC ENGINEERING and PATENTS ON LIFE-FORMS will save us and our planet.

Do your educational work as individuals or in small groups of people you know.

In a little of your SPARETIME (perhaps 3 or 4 hours a week, but regularly, as part of an ethical life-style):

Educate and activate the Public by writing and telephoning and just talking to your family members, friends and acquantances; 

Write letters and make telephone calls to local, regional and national media; 

Write, call and especially visit your legislative representatives and other government personnel,  and

Take appropriate Direct Action.


Good Luck to You.

P.S.  For a detailed Action Plan on conducting education/activation campaigns (e.g. composing A4 leaflets for distribution, lobbying your legislative representative) see "Creating a Grassroots Democracy While Outlawing Genetic Engineering"currently on the Indymedia Biotech website.  Or email me and request it.
 
For extensive information on the casualties and unprecedented dangers of Genetic Engineering, see "Genetic Engineering Fact-Sheet" on the website of the Concerned Citizens Information Network,  www.ccin.info