On Saturday 10 July 2004 22:39, Frederick Sparber wrote:
> The Baron wrote:
>
> Snip
>
> Making a difference one person at a time
> Get informed. Inform others.
> You might start here,.
>
> http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/gm/gm.jsp?id=22671100
>
>
>
> Unfit for humans
>
> Corn has been contaminated with a potentially harmful protein (Cry9C)
>
> A PESTICIDE gene only approved for use in maize for animal feed may have
> jumped into a corn variety destined for people.
>
> The discovery comes just two months after StarLink corn, which was
> engineered to contain the gene, turned up in foods such as taco shells,
> sparking a recall of about 800 different products in the US.
>
> The gene's product, Cry9C, makes maize more resistant to the European
> corn borer. Because of concerns that the protein might cause an allergic
> reaction in humans, StarLink can only be fed to animals. But Aventis
> CropScience, which developed StarLink, has now found traces in another
> variety.
>
> "Aventis CropScience does not know how Cry9C protein came to be present
> in a variety other than StarLink brand seeds," the company says in a press
> release.
Oh boy! I can hear the lawyers shout from sea to sea. Now the Starlink folks
will start DNA testing of all the cornfields that they can find. They will be
literally able to farm all the farms in the country for blood money. New case law says
that if the the 'copyrighted' gene contaminates another crop, then the
farmers who own or manage the field where that crop is planted are liable to
lawsuit for copyright infringement and to prosecution for terrorism. The
seemingly ludicrous linkage has been through courts in this country in case
law. The standard 'settlement' extorted out of the victim farmers can be
as little as 30,000 dollars American or as high as one can imagine. The
victims have to sign confession of judgment contracts and mortgage their
farms and/or put up the farms as bond (in case they get contaminated again).
We grow a lot of seed corn around these parts in southern Michigan and all of
it is copyrighted, patented trash guaranteed to give one and only one good
producing season. The picked ears are sterile or give stunted unproductive
plants. Farmers are warned that saving some of the crop for next years
planting is against the law and punishable by 5 years in the state penn when
they try to use this 'seed' again. They have buy new hybrid seed every
year at inflated prices because their business models of their ag businesses
mandate a production rate attainable only with this seed in order to be able
to pay the debts of the operation on time. This monkey wrench in the
operation from these greedy monsters will drive thousands of farmers and
lower level corporate operations out of business. The only buyers for these
farms will be larger corporate operations or foreigners or the Amish. What
little land ends up in Amish control is saved and conserved as the Amish
have a respect for God and Nature. They do not use this poisoned seed,
but they will probably end up as victims of the Starlink scam when the
pollen from the copyrighted and patented stalks wafts on the wings of
malevolent winds over on their land, sweeping away their farms to large
corporations as well and their people into various penal systems.
Suppose the problem 'grows' on its own...after all...it IS life!
It will not stop there! Corn is a grass. Yes, a grass! A big grass, but still
a grass. Look it up in your nearest friendly botany book. There are many
grasses. All of them feed us in one way or another. 'Silent Spring' may
not be as far off as we think. This gene is part of life's programming now.
Who is to say that it may not mutate into another form that will better
protect the plant from harm. We HARVEST these plants all the time. What
better defense for nature to enact on her own than to give her little green
children a defense against US?! Yes! That little gene could mutate on
its own into a poison against humans, become a dominant gene and then
transmit itself to all grasses around the world......corn......rice......wheat..
oats......sesame..... Talk to an Irishman about what his parents and grand
parents told him of stories told to them in turn concerning the Irish Potato
Famine of 1846-8. Have him tell you about people eating their shoes,
their pets, even their own dead.
Suppose this gene has a latent toxicity that neither its developers nor
we know about, and that many of us are really walking dead as we ponder
this issue. We in America really have no choice but to eat this 'food'. It
is in the law that producers do not have to tell us about foods being genetically
modified. They can feed it to us in secret with no liability devolving on them.
......kinda makes me look for the European Union stamp on my produce!
Even talking about it runs afoul of 'veggie libel' laws in Texas, as Oprah
Winfrey found out a few expensive years ago.
Isn't it nice to see how big money can literally sow the wind?
I wonder what we will all inherit?
Bin Laden does'nt have to do a thing. We will do it to ourselves!
Character is probably dead, propped up like 'El Cid' by an unlikely
combination of terrorists for whom he is a 'saint', and American politicians
for whom he is 're-election' insurance.
Who is the 'terrorist' now?
Spectator
