NOTE: These are just extracts from the latest of MADGE's brilliant weekly newsletters. Go to the original page (see the link below) for the rest + multiple embedded links to sources and further information. To find out more about MADGE and to subscribe to their newsletter: http://www.madge.org.au/
---
---
Digest No #117 [extracts only]
MADGE Australia, 22 April 2011
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=f4c8d30c064f6851b3c340a8b&id=1dccfbf6cd

1) "Human milk" from GM cows - or is it? GM toxins found in pregnant women and babies

"Human milk" has been produced from GM cows by Chinese scientists we are told. Setting aside the creepy nature of the announcement, has it really been done?

Human breastmilk contains about 285 proteins (study abstract) as well as sugars, fats, nucleotides, vitamins, minerals, antibodies and more. In this latest study the scientists managed to produce just one protein; lysozyme. The Chinese research group has experimented with making two other human proteins.

To produce cows making the human form of lysozyme they made and implanted 312 embryos of which many failed and only 4 survived to reach lactation. One cow had 2 copies of the protein coding material, one had 7 copies, the other two had one copy. The cows produced 20 times less human lysozyme than humans (cow 13-26 micg/ml vs human 200-400 micg/ml).

The DNA used to create this GM milk was from a mixture of animals:

* Chicken - insulating factor
* Goat - modified promoter DNA, intron and exon DNA and terminator DNA
* Cow - signal transit peptide DNA
* Human - protein coding DNA

Nevertheless the media went wild. The Age Editorial implied this milk was the same as human milk and that it was a better alternative to formula.

It was a shame that the media preferred fantasy reporting rather than informing us of two worrying effects of GM on women and babies:

a) Pesticides associated with GM crops were found in the blood of pregnant women, their babies and non pregnant women in Canada.

GM crops are engineered to survive being sprayed with herbicides and/or to produce toxins (Bt) within the plants to kill the insects that eat them. In Canada 30 pregnant women had blood tests before giving birth and the cord blood of their babies was also tested. 39 healthy women of similar profile having tubal ligations also had their blood tested.

* 100% of the pregnant women and babies and 18% of non-pregnant women had the breakdown product of Glufosinate - a herbicide used on GM crops, in their blood. It has shown to cause congenital malformations, growth retardation and increased death in mouse embryos.

* 93% of the pregnant women, 80% of babies and 69% of non pregnant women were found to have Cry1Ab toxin in their blood. This is a toxin found in Bt GM crops. The paper suggests that women may be exposed to this toxin by eating meat fed on Bt GM crops.

Our food regulator, FSANZ, accepted GM company Monsanto's hypothesis that this Cry1Ab toxin would be fully digested. 15 years after this GM food was introduced this study was the first to see if this assumption was true. It has shown to be false and this toxin may be circulating in our bodies and those of our children. FSANZ last year decided not to even assess Smartstax a GM corn with 6 of these insecticidal toxins and it can survive being sprayed with Glufosinate and Roundup (glyphosate). MADGE put out press releases on this and the 7.30 Report did a story on this but FSANZ was able to continue unchallenged.

The conclusion of the Canadian paper says: "Given the potential toxicity of these environmental pollutants and the fragility of the fetus, more studies are needed, particularly those using the placental transfer approach".

Could this be linked to the unexplained drop in babies' birth weight in the US? This article notes "birth weight declines were especially notable after 1995." GM crops were first grown commercially in 1996 but some GM derived food additives and processing aids were in use before this.

b) Women in South America have agricultural toxins in their breastmilk

Women in the soy producing areas of Brazil have high levels of agrochemials in their breastmilk.

"All can potentially cause fetal malformation, induce abortion and disrupt the endocrine system - the system that regulates the body's hormones. Therefore they can cause several disturbances. They can also cause cancer."

It would be easier to respect and trust media reports if they related all the discoveries being made. Failure to do so is putting our health and that of our babies at risk.
...
4) Gates feeding Africa or Africa feeding Gates?

Africa is reported as an agricultural disaster zone that needs outside help. In late January this year the World Bank hosted a high level meeting of "experts" in Washington DC. "Their purpose was to 'unlock Africa's agriculture,' 'assist African smallholder farmers to transition from subsistence to commercial farming' and to 'help nurse Africa's baby agricultural industry to maturity'.

Who are these experts? The full list is not known but they include:

* World Bank President, Robert Zoellick, formerly vice chairman of the Goldman Sachs Group, an investment bank that played a key role in the 2008 global financial crisis,
* Walmart - world's largest retailer known for low wages and cut-throat business practices
* South Africa-based retailer Shoprite,
* SABMiller - global brewer that also bottles Coca-Cola, accused of evading tax in Africa and India
* Standard Chartered Bank, involved in scandals politely called "ethical lapses"
* Cargill, the worlds' largest privately owned company. Sued on behalf of children trafficked onto its cocoa plantations and responsible for deforestation and food contamination

It appears that the plan for Africa is to grab land to grow crops to suit and profit multinational corporations.

Under the guise of philanthropy The Gates Foundation is teaming up with Cargill to bring Africa soy that they can export to feed cows in the rich world rather than grow food for their families.

Perhaps these companies wish to "help" not because Africa is so poor, but because it is so rich. Companies such as Cargill, Microsoft, Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Shell, ExxonMobil, Unilever, Goldman Sachs and more, are planning to shift their enterprises from being based on fossil fuel to genetically engineered and synbio products from plants (biomass) instead. The great reservoirs of "biomass" on the planet are Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa. The ETC Group has produced an excellent report on this called "The New Biomassters: Synthetic Biology and the Next Assault on Biodiversity and Livelihoods". Women in Brazil, Nigeria and PNG explain how their ability to feed their families has been destroyed by global companies grabbing resources.

Do African farmers need all this "help"? No. They have traditional varieties of seeds that survive in harsh conditions . They have been neglected by decades of agricultural development that has favoured crops like maize, wheat and rice. Women in Kenya are using traditional varieties and knowledge to succeed at farming where their husbands have failed. There is a growing consensus that industrial farming will not feed the world but small scale agroecological farming will. African farmers are trying to stop this takeover of their lives and their lands. Hear this woman farmer speak out about how monoculture ruins livelihoods.

Since global agribusiness is so keen to increase their model of agriculture based on a free market it is important to see what it is producing.

* US farm subsidies and policies are creating practices that are washing away topsoil, creating pollution in rivers and lakes and "dead zones" in the sea
* Australians throw away 4.45 million tonnes of food each year. The value is estimated to be $5.2 billion
* 25% (1 in 4) US children are in poverty and some know hunger and homelessness. Listening to them speak is heartbreaking. One child thought her parents' poverty was her fault.

Perhaps the Gates Foundations and the other companies saying they want to help Africa would be better off helping the poor in their own countries first. In fact maybe the most useful thing they could do would be to pay their taxes and make sure their workers have decent pay and conditions.
...
5) Monsanto on ABC for kids TV - propaganda or balanced information?

The biotechs seem to have decided the way to get GM accepted it to convince children it is the way of the future. Here are the latest attempts:

* Friday 14th April, Monsanto appeared on ABC children's TV promoting GM soy, cassava and golden rice to "save" the third world. To counteract this they had one statement from Bob Phelps from Gene Ethics and a shot of a MADGE GM labelling protest. MADGE will be debunking this show in detail once the ABC sends through a transcript or copy of the show.

* On Thursday 10th March MADGE, Fiona Hankinson, told us she saw an "advertisement for GM Foods, thinly disguised as an educational television show." It was on ABC's "Food for thought" programme aimed at school children She wrote two excellent emails of complaint. Thank you Fiona.

* Thursday 17th March - ABC's Catalyst programme appeared to run a promo for Monsanto.

* Maybe this is all part of Monsanto's campaign to educate Australians about GM. MADGE has suggested that perhaps Australians need to be educated about Monsanto's long record of harm to people and the environment.

* Nanotech is also being promoted as an exciting new science for schoolchildren with very little real discussion about the dangers or alternatives

Children are being targeted worldwide. The ISAAA is producing a cartoon "Mandy and Fanny" about GM corn and cotton for children in SE Asia . The ISAAA is a biotech funded group with a history of producing misleading information. More than 200,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide in the past decade and many deaths have been linked to the growing of GM cotton. If children are from an affected family how will they feel about "Mandy and Fanny"?

Perhaps children wanting to learn about GM could look at the extensive information on the net including:

* Recent discussion on GM in the US hosted by Deepak Chopra. It covers a wide range of issues including the science of GM, bee colony collapse, free trade agreements and more.
* Excellent compilation of videos on GM by GM Watch.

It appears that Julia Gillard was impressed with corporate financing of education after her recent visit to the US. "One of the things that really made an impact on me was the level of engagement of business in education . . . There is certainly an opportunity for those engaged in corporate Australia to play a role in the education of our young people."

Perhaps she would do better to redirect some of the $32 billion dollars Australia spent on the military in the last budget or the $5 billion rebate on diesel fuel, of which mining companies are the main beneficiaries, towards a decent education for all children instead.