GM Foods

I gotta say I know many people here may disagree with me possibly, but I'm not fond of GM foods, not yet anyway! Maybe with more research and trials and if they are properly labelled GM Foods in store I'd be ok with them.

But most countries that allow GM foods in their stores do not label them at all.
And though the UK already said no to GM a while back we already get GM foods in about 20-30% of our foods via ingredients that are not labelled as GM from US.
And now Tesco and some government institutes are gonna start pushing the GM dilemma again as the publics attitude as changed they say. Like how our attitude to joining the EU changed all of a sudden...LOL

Well with the world food crisis and global warming coming at a ever faster rate it seems like GM foods are gonna get pushed in. They have been used to feed most cattle in many countries over the last few years with many reports of dire consequences especially in India.
But I read a few articles recently, thought I'd post them they are very one sided but its the side I am sort of on so yay!! lol... But seriously I dont mind them bringing in GM foods but I want more testing done on them and stringent ones and GM foods should be labellede, least then the consumer gets to choose for once.


ARTICLES BELOW: One supporting and one against.

Potential Health Hazards of Genetically Engineered Foods
by Stephen Lendman


Sheep grazing on Bt cotton developed "unusual systems" before dying "mysteriously." Reports from four Indian villages revealed 25% of them died within a week. Post mortems indicated a toxic reaction. The study raises questions about cottonseed oil safety and human health for people who eat meat from animals fed GM cotton. It's crucial to understand that what animals eat, so do people.

Nearly all 100 Filipinos living adjacent to a Bt corn field became ill. Their symptoms appeared when the crop was producing airborne pollen and was apparently inhaled. Doing it produced headaches, dizziness, extreme stomach pain, vomiting, chest pains, fever, and allergies plus respiratory, intestinal and skin reactions. Blood tests conducted on 39 victims showed an antibody response to Bt-toxin suggesting it was the cause. Four other villages experienced the same problems that also resulted in several animal deaths.

Iowa farmers reported a conception rate drop of from 80% to 20% among sows (female pigs) fed GM corn. Most animals also had false pregnancies, some delivered bags of water and others stopped menstruating. Male pigs were also affected as well as cows and bulls. They became sterile and all were fed GM corn.

German farmer Gottfried Glockner grew GM corn and fed it to his cows. Twelve subsequently died from the Bt 176 variety, and other cows had to be destroyed due to a "mysterious" illness. The corn plots were field trials for Ag biotech giant Syngenta that later took the product off the market with no admission of fault.

Mice fed Monsanto Roundup Ready soybeans developed significant liver cell changes indicating a dramatic general metabolism increase. Symptoms included irregularly shaped nuclei and nucleoli, and an increased number of nuclear pores and other changes. It's thought this resulted from exposure to a toxin, and most symptoms disappeared when Roundup Ready was removed from the diet.

Mice fed Roundup Ready had pancreas problems, heavier livers and unexplained testicular cell changes. The Monsanto product also produced cell metabolism changes in rabbit organs, and most offspring of rats on this diet died within three weeks.

The death rate for chickens fed GM Liberty Link corn for 42 days doubled. They also experienced less weight gain, and their food intake was erratic.

In the mid-1990s, Australian scientists discovered that GM peas generated an allergic-type inflammatory response in mice in contrast to the natural protein that had no adverse effect. Commercialization of the product was cancelled because of fear humans might have the same reaction.

When given a choice, animals avoid GM foods. This was learned by observing a flock of geese that annually visit an Illinois pond and feed on soybeans from an adjacent farm. After half the acreage had GM crops, the geese ate only from the non-GMO side. Another observation showed 40 deer ate organic soybeans from one field but shunned the GMO kind across the road. The same thing happened with GM corn.




UNITED KINGDOM-TESCO MOVE WITH THE TIMES.

Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy has signalled that the retailer is willing to back genetically modified (GM) foods, saying consumer attitudes have changed and it has a vital part to play.

Speaking at the annual City Food Lecture, held in London, Leahy said: "In some ways it may have been a failure of us all actually to stand behind the science.

"You get a sense that whilst always the scientific evidence was clear, governments let alone retailers stopped short of wholehearted endorsing it and I think that that certainly didn’t help in the case of GM…"

He added that there also seemed to be a growing appreciation by people that GM was likely to play "a vital role in feeding the world, in adapting to climate change and indeed in producing some of these more nutritional products – foods - that people will need".

Leahy said: "I get a sense that the science has moved on another notch and maybe there is an opportunity to discuss again these issues based on still clearer scientific evidence."

Amid rising food insecurity where food manufacturers face volatile commodity prices and supply issues, GM crops have been promoted as a way of helping to ease a food crisis.

However, controversy over the benefits of genetic modification, and its ability to deliver on promises of enhanced yields and nutrition, continues.

Meanwhile green campaigners have expressed concerns that the long-term safety of GM crops has not been established and there is also the issue of winning consumers over.

The UK’s National Farmers Union president, Peter Kendall, who was also on the panel at the recent lecture, said: "As a farmer I need to be really confident that consumers want to buy the product I grow."

He added that the concern for the farming industry was that strict rules for GM produce in Europe could give other countries where such products were freely available an advantage.

Kendall said: "We run a real risk of raising the bar here in Europe and actually exporting our industry to other parts of the world."

He added that there was need for real scientific debate and not media the ’scaremongering’ that has been seen.

Professor Lord Krebs, former chairman of the UK Food Standards Agency, who also joined the panel agreed and said: "To me the real moral tragedy of the whole GM debacle was not so much the impact on our food here in the UK, but the fact that the European prissiness about GM has affected its adoption in Africa.

"The tragedy in terms of human loss and starvation has been in Africa.

"I hope as we move forward, somehow European attitudes can change and so African attitudes will also change

Consumer acceptance of GM foods varies among countries with more positive attitudes found in the US, Canada and Japan than in Europe, according to a report from the Royal Society of Chemistry and Institution of Chemical Engineers published last month called: ’The vital ingredient: Chemical science and engineering for sustainable food".

It said that the acceptance of GM crops had proved problematic in the UK and Europe and added: "The true benefits to all must be balanced against any potential risks through a better dialogue between consumers, the food industry and government."

The City Food Lecture is organised by the seven City Livery Companies of bakers, butchers, cooks, farmers, fishmongers, fruiterers and poulters.

lol...

found this video. Def worth a ickle giggle, pretty funny...