Fwd: BIO backtracks on drug crop moratorium

[Barry Carter]

Dear Friends,

If you are not subscribed to the Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods email newsletter you should be. You can sign up on their web site at:

http://www.thecampaign.org/listnotice.htm

Here is the latest:

News Update From The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear News Update Subscribers,

The Biotech Industry Organization (BIO) has backtracked on their
self-imposed moratorium on growing genetically engineered crops that
contain pharmaceutical drugs in major corn-growing states.

In October, BIO announced that their members agreed to not grow
genetically engineered pharmaceutical crops in the states of Iowa,
Illinois and Indiana and parts of Nebraska, Ohio, Minnesota and
Missouri. BIO said they changed their policy "because we did not want to
appear to encourage discrimination against certain parts of the
country.''

Genetically engineered pharmaceutical crops are an accident waiting to
happen. The U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations to prevent these
crops from cross pollinating with food crops would be laughable if this
wasn't such a serious matter. They do not take into consideration such
elements as human error, workers who may not follow instructions,
hurricanes, tornados and other acts of nature that could result in the
human food supply getting contaminated with these pharmaceutical drug
crops.

You can read the USDA's weak and ineffective guidelines at:
http://www.thecampaign.org/pharm-2002.pdf

Most of our politicians are not informed about the potential for
contamination that these genetically engineered pharmaceutical crops
pose to the human food supply. However, the grocery industry and
environmentalists do understand the problem. So things are shaping up
for a major battle with the biotech industry fighting both the grocery
industry and environmental organizations.

Previously the grocery industry had been on the side of biotech industry
regarding genetically engineered foods. That is about to change rapidly
as the grocery industry starts aligning itself with environmental groups
to fight the dangers that these pharmaceutical drug crops pose to the
human food supply.

We feel the biotech industry is making a major error by pushing forward
on their plans to develop these pharmaceutical drugs in food crops such
as corn. As the adage goes, " Give them enough rope and they will hang
themselves." As soon as a situation develops where the human food supply
actually gets contaminated, as it inevitably will with this loosely
regulated technology, popular opinion in the United States will rapidly
turn against ALL genetically engineered crops.

Posted below are three articles. The first one is from Associated Press
titled "Biotech Companies Change Moratorium." The second one is from Dr.
Mae-Won Ho, Director of the Institute of Science in Society, titled
"Pharmageddon." It discusses the serious problems that could develop
with these pharmaceutical drug crops.

The third article is also from the Institute of Science in Society
titled "British Doctors Call for Halt to GM Crop Trials." The British
Medical Association (BMA) is urging that all crop trials of genetically
engineered crops be stopped. The American Medical Association should pay
attention to what the British Medical Association is pointing out about
the potential health problems associated with genetically engineered
crops.

NOTICE: The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods needs your
financial support! Please support our efforts by making an end-of-year
donation:
http://www.thecampaign.org/donate.htm

Thanks!

Craig Winters
Executive Director
The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

The Campaign
PO Box 55699
Seattle, WA 98155
Tel: 425-771-4049
Fax: 603-825-5841
E-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org

Mission Statement: "To create a national grassroots consumer campaign
for the purpose of lobbying Congress and the President to pass
legislation that will require the labeling of genetically engineered
foods in the United States."

***************************************************************

Biotech Companies Change Moratorium

By EMILY GERSEMA
.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Biotechnology companies are softening a self-imposed
moratorium on growing pharmaceutical crops in major corn-growing states
after Iowa lawmakers complained that the policy unfairly discriminated
against their state.

Lisa Dry, a spokeswoman for the Biotechnology Industry Organization,
said Tuesday the companies changed the policy ``because we did not want
to appear to encourage discrimination against certain parts of the
country.''

Companies are producing enzymes and proteins used in pharmaceuticals by
growing them in genetically modified corn. A dozen companies that are
members of the biotech group agreed in October to stop growing such
crops in corn-belt states in 2003, saying they wanted to build the
public's trust that they could grow them without contaminating crops
grown for food.

But the new policy said: ``Detailed scientific and regulatory analyses
confirm that plants that produce pharmaceutical and industrial products
can be safely planted, grown and harvested in an agricultural region
where all of the appropriate production, confinement, and handling
practices are implemented.''

Dry declined to elaborate on the change. But Andrew Baum, president of
SemBioSys, a Canada-based biotech company that is a member of the group,
said the revised policy is really a clarification of the moratorium.

``It's not a fundamental change in what any of the companies are going
to do,'' Baum said. ``I don't think any companies have backed away from
their commitment to ensure that we don't create a problem for the food
supply.''

Carl B. Feldbaum, the group's president, sent a copy of the new policy
with a letter Monday to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, saying the
organization hoped to work with Grassley ``to make the economic rewards
of this and other new uses of biotechnology become a reality in Iowa as
rapidly and as broadly as possible.''

Grassley said in a statement that the biotech organization is making a
good move by revising its policy.

``Iowa should be much better served with the new position BIO has
taken,'' Grassley said. ``It's good to see that BIO has realized that
they are putting unscientific restraints on Iowa and many other
states.''

Environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth say pharmaceutical
crops should not be grown at all.

``Not only is this brand of science for profit wildly ill-advised, it's
sure to lead to a plate full of food rife with chemicals that ought to
be on a druggist's shelf or in a chemical plant - not in a grocery
store,'' said Mark Helm, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth.

On the Net:

Biotechnology Industry Organization: http://www.bio.org

Friends of the Earth: http://www.foe.org

***************************************************************

'Pharmageddon'

Our fields are being turned into pharmaceutical and industrial factories
that poison our food supply and entire life support system. Our
governments have been warned and should be held liable for all damages
along with the companies involved. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho reports.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Pharmageddon.php

We have repeatedly warned against using food crops to produce gene drugs
and industrial chemicals since 1998. The inevitable contamination of our
food supply has now come to light. But the more insidious pollution of
our soil, water and air has yet to be assessed. Poisons can seep through
the plant roots and dissolve in ground water. Pollen carrying the
offending drugs and chemicals could be inhaled. Wild and domestic
animals of all kinds are likely to feed on the crops.

On November 11, the US government ordered the biotech company,
ProdiGene, to destroy 500,000 bushels of soybeans contaminated with GM
maize, engineered to produce a drug not approved for human consumption.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) refused to give details on the
protein involved because it is deemed 'confidential business
information'.

It could be one of the following: the HIV glycoprotein gp120, a
blood-clotting agent (aprotinin), a digestive enzyme (trypsin), an
industrial adhesive (a fungal enzyme, laccase), vaccines for hepatitis
B, vaccine for a pig disease, transmissible gastroenteritis.

USDA records show that ProdiGene has received 85 test permits for
experimental open-air trials of pharm crops and chemical crops in at
least 96 locations.

The 'edible' AIDS vaccine with the HIV glycoprotein gp120 gene has been
condemned as dangerous by a number of AIDS virologists because the gp120
gene and gene product can undermine our immune system and generate new
viruses and bacteria that cause diseases.

A day later, the US government disclosed that ProdiGene did the same
thing in Iowa back in September. The USDA ordered 155 acres of nearby
corn to be incinerated for fear of contamination.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The true extent of the
contamination remains unknown owing to the secrecy surrounding more than
300 field trials of such crops across the country since 1991. Still
others sites are in Canada. The chemicals these plants produce include
vaccines, growth hormones, clotting agents, industrial enzymes, human
antibodies, contraceptives, immune suppressive cytokines and
abortion-inducing drugs.

The majority of engineered biopharmaceuticals are being incorporated
into maize. ProdiGene, the company at the centre of the current scandal
has the greatest number of pharm crops and projects that 10 percent of
the US maize will be devoted to biopharm products by 2010.

Far from supporting even weak containment strategies such as buffer
zones, ProdiGene has told its shareholders it is hoping to "gain
regulatory approval to lessen or abandon these requirements altogether".

Trials in other countries have also come to light. According to a recent
report by Genetically Engineered Food Alert, a US-based coalition of
environmental and consumer advocacy groups, Puerto Rico is one of four
main centres in the US for these tests. The other three are the states
of Nebraska, Wisconsin and Hawaii.

Another report by the same group reveals that these plants are by no
means the only experimental GM crops grown in Puerto Rico. This
Caribbean island has been host to 2,296 USDA-approved GM open-air field
tests as of January 2001, making Puerto Rico host to more GM food
experiments per square mile than any US state, except Hawaii.

Puerto Rico is not a state. Its residents are US citizens but have no
voice or vote in the US Congress or in the UN.

Puerto Rico Farmers Association president Ramon Gonzalez revealed that
he plants GM crops in his farm in the town of Salinas. He said that
genetically modified crops in Puerto Rico are commercial and include a
herbicide-resistant soya made by Monsanto (Roundup-ready) and a variety
of corn that produces its own bio-pesticide, or Bt corn.

According to Gonzalez, the harvested GM crops planted there are sold as
seed to be planted elsewhere. "Puerto Rico is the preferred place to
make seed because our weather permits us to have up to four harvests a
year."

Local regulatory agencies seem to be unaware of the issue. A spokeswoman
for the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board said that as Puerto Rico
has no laws or regulations for GM crops, it has no mandate to intervene
or investigate.

USDA spokesman Jim Rogers is reported to have said, "Nobody's going to
know all the possible risks", and "We mitigate these risks to what we
feel is appropriate".

On the contrary, we do know enough of the risks for such crops to be
banned immediately. The USDA and other government regulators have been
warned, and they should be held liable for all damages along with the
companies involved.

***************************************************************

British Doctors Call for Halt to GM Crop Trials

The British Medical Association (BMA), which has a membership of over
120,000 and represents more than 80% of British doctors, has called for
a moratorium on GM crop trials in Scotland. Lim Li Ching reports.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BMA.php

In its submission to the Scottish Parliament's Health and Community Care
Committee on 20 November 2002, the BMA urged that GM crop trials be
stopped immediately, as a precautionary measure to safeguard public
health. It said that "insufficient care" has been taken over public
health and concerns are "serious enough" to justify an immediate end to
the trials.

The Health Committee, in response to a petition from the Munlochy GM
Vigil, had launched an inquiry into the health impacts of GM crops. The
inquiry is considering whether the Scottish Executive's decision to
approve the testing of GM crops at a number of sites in Scotland will
have negative consequences on public health.

The BMA originally called for a moratorium on the planting of GM crops
in 1999. At that time, the doctors had already expressed deep concerns
about the impact of GM foods on long-term health and had called for a
halt to any further planting of GM crops until trials could be assessed
for environmental contamination and ecological impact. Its latest
submission is made with the benefit of more information, and notes
instead that the numbers of crop trials have increased, without the
requisite thorough assessments or adequate public consultation.

The BMA's answer to the Committee's question as to whether the Executive
should prevent GM crops trials from continuing on the grounds that it is
against the precautionary principle was a resounding "Yes". Citing the
lack of a robust and thorough search into the potentially harmful
effects of GM foods on human health, the BMA urged that on the basis of
the precautionary principle, farm scale trials should not be allowed to
continue. It stated that the concerns doctors have about the impact GM
foods may have on long-term health are serious enough to warrant a
precautionary approach.

It urged that GM crops be subject to rigorous and comprehensive risk
assessment prior to farm scale trials, including the consideration of
longer-term environmental and health consequences. Only once such
rigorous assessment is made should field trials be allowed. And until
these risks are fully understood and quantified by field trials, there
should be a moratorium on any further planting of GM crops on a
commercial basis.

Currently, the BMA said that not enough is known to give an accurate
risk assessment of the health impact of GM crops on the health of local
communities. It thus called for independently funded and reviewed
research in the public domain, which considers the long term health and
environmental health impacts of GM crop planting and the consumption of
GM food. Until such research is conducted, GM crops should not be freely
cultivated and extension of the current farm-scale trials would be "ill
advised" and "potentially irresponsible".

According to the BMA, the most worrying issue is the potential danger
posed by GM crops in creating antibiotic resistant pathogenic organisms.
ISIS has been consistently drawing attention to this issue and to the
dangers of horizontal gene transfer. The BMA asserted that there is
evidence that these genes may be transferred to non-GM plants and that
there is significant risk of antibiotic resistance transferring
"possibly into pathogenic organisms causing human disease".

Any increase in the number of resistant micro-organisms through the
transfer of marker genes from GM foods would potentially have very
serious adverse effects on human health. The BMA cited the use of
antibiotic resistant markers in GM foods as a completely unacceptable
risk, however slight to human health, and called for the use of
antibiotic resistant markers in GMOs to be prohibited immediately.

Another concern expressed was the potential adverse effects of
allergenicity on human health from GM products. The BMA called for
further research and tests on GM foodstuffs for allergenicity, pending
which there should be an open-ended moratorium on transgenic products,
and especially on introducing nut genes and proteins etc. into cereals.

The BMA warned that routine health surveillance currently in place would
not pick up adverse effects on the health of people living in the
vicinity of GM crop trial sites. It thus called on the Executive to
monitor the health of people living near the trial sites and to track
any subtle changes in these areas.

Dr Charles Saunders, Chair of the BMA's Scottish Committee for Public
Health Medicine and Community Health, cautioned that the absence of
monitoring meant any potential side effects experienced by people living
near GM crops trials were not being picked up. He said, "There are
certain mechanisms within the NHS with regards to human health in
relation to food that tend to pick up known organisms and known
conditions. They are quite good at picking up things that kill people,
but are relatively poor at picking up things that don't. I would have no
confidence in their ability to pick up unusual symptoms in people living
near GM trial sites."

Following the BMA's submission, Robin Harper, Green MSP, tabled a motion
in the Scottish Parliament, calling on MSPs of all parties to demand the
halting of the trials. The Scottish National Party, the main opposition
party in the Parliament, also threw its weight behind moves to have the
trials stopped, saying there was now overwhelming evidence against them
continuing.

However, the Scottish Executive continues to insist that there is "no
evidence" that the field trials are inherently harmful and denies that
public health is being put in danger. Ross Finnie, the Scottish Minister
for Environment and Rural Development, says that he has no plans to
introduce a moratorium on GM crops. Sources:

Submission of the British Medical Association to the Health and
Community Care Committee on the health impact of GM crop trials

'Doctors want GM crop ban', BBC News, 20 November 2002,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2494267.stm
'Crop trials must stop, say doctors', The Scotsman, 19 November 2002,
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=1284692002
'BMA report leads to call for halt on GM crop trials', The Scotsman, 20
November 2002

--

With kindest regards,

Barry Carter
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2319 Balm
Baker City, Oregon 97814
Phone: 541-523-3357
Web Pages:
Forest - http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/bmnfa/index.htm
ORMUS - http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/whatisit.htm

"What you think upon grows. Whatever you allow to occupy your mind you magnify in your life. Whether the subject of your thought be good or bad, the law works and the condition grows. Any subject that you keep out of your mind tends to diminish in your life, because what you do not use atrophies. The more you think of grievances, the more such trials you will continue to receive; the more you think of the good fortune you have had, the more good fortune will come to you."
--Emmet Fox