GM crops may cause disease

Written By: Ed Deak
Date: 2006-09-04 15:42:39
<a href="/article/134239711-gm-crops-may-cause-disease">Article Link</a>

He left his job and accepted a position at Monsanto, rising quickly to become the facilitator for GM cotton sales in California and Arizona. He would often repeat Shapiro’s vision to customers, researchers, even fellow employees. After about three months, he visited Monsanto’s St. Louis headquarters for the first time for new employee training. There too, he took the opportunity to let his colleagues know how enthusiastic he was about Monsanto’s technology that was going to reduce waste, decrease poverty and help the world. Soon after the meeting, however, his world was shaken.

“A vice president pulled me aside,” recalled Kirk. “He told me something like, ‘Wait a second. What Robert Shapiro says is one thing. But what we do is something else. We are here to make money. He is the front man who tells a story. We don’t even understand what he is saying.’”

Kirk felt let down. “I went in there with the idea of helping and healing and came out with ‘Oh, I guess it is just another profit-oriented company.’” He returned to California, still holding out hopes that the new technology could make a difference.

Possible Toxins in GM Plants

Kirk was developing the market in the West for two types of GM cotton. Bt cotton was engineered with a gene from a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis. Organic farmers use the natural form of the bacterium as an insecticide, spraying it occasionally during times of high pest infestation. Monsanto engineers, however, isolated and then altered the gene that produces the Bt-toxin, and inserted it into the DNA of the cotton plant. Now every cell of their Bt cotton produces a toxic protein. The other variety was Roundup Ready® cotton. It contains another bacterial gene that enables the plant to survive an otherwise toxic dose of Monsanto’s Roundup® herbicide. Since the patent on Roundup’s main active ingredient, glyphosate, was due to expire in 2000, the company was planning to sell Roundup Ready seeds that were bundled with their Roundup herbicide, effectively extending their brand’s dominance in the herbicide market.

In the summer of 1997, Kirk spoke with a Monsanto scientist who was doing some tests on Roundup Ready cotton. Using a “Western blot” analysis, the scientist was able to identify different proteins by their molecular weight. He told Kirk that the GM cotton not only contained the intended protein produced by the Roundup Ready gene, but also extra proteins that were not normally produced in the plant. These unknown proteins had been created during the gene insertion process.

Gene insertion was done using a gene gun (particle bombardment). Kirk, who has an undergraduate degree in biochemistry, understood this to be “a kind of barbaric and messy method of genetic engineering, where you use a gun-like apparatus to bombard the plant tissue with genes that are wrapped around tiny gold particles.” He knew that particle bombardment can cause unpredictable changes and mutations in the DNA, which might result in new types of proteins.

The scientist dismissed these newly created proteins in the cotton plant as unimportant background noise, but Kirk wasn’t convinced. Proteins can have allergenic or toxic properties, but no one at Monsanto had done a safety assessment on them. “I was afraid at that time that some of these proteins may be toxic.” He was particularly concerned that the rogue proteins “might possibly lead to mad cow or some other prion-type diseases.”

Kirk had just been studying mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and its human counterpart, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). These fatal diseases had been tracked to a class of proteins called prions. Short for “proteinaceous infectious particles,” prions are improperly folded proteins, which cause other healthy proteins to also become misfolded. Over time, they cause holes in the brain, severe dysfunction and death. Prions survive cooking and are believed to be transmittable to humans who eat meat from infected “mad” cows. The disease may incubate undetected for about 2 to 8 years in cows and up to 30 years in humans.

When Kirk tried to share his concerns with the scientist, he realized, “He had no idea what I was talking about; he had not even heard of prions. And this was at a time when Europe had a great concern about mad cow disease and it was just before the noble prize was won by Stanley Prusiner for his discovery of prion proteins.” Kirk said “These Monsanto scientists are very knowledge about traditional products, like chemicals, herbicides and pesticides, but they don’t understand the possible harmful outcomes of genetic engineering, such as pathophysiology or prion proteins. So I am explaining to him about the potential untoward effects of these foreign proteins, but he just did not understand.”

Endangering the Food Supply

At this time, Roundup Ready cotton varieties were just being introduced into other regions but were still being field-tested in California. California varieties had not yet been commercialized. But Kirk came to find out that Monsanto was feeding the cotton plants used in its test plots to cattle.

“I had great issue with this,” he said. “I had worked for Abbot Laboratories doing research, doing test plots using Bt sprays from bacteria. We would never take a test plot and put into the food supply, even with somewhat benign chemistries. We would always destroy the test plot material and not let anything into the food supply. Now we entered into a new era of genetic engineering. The standard was not the same as with pesticides. It was much lower, even though it probably should have been much higher.”

Kirk complained to the Ph.D. in charge of the test plot about feeding the experimental plants to cows. He explained that unknown proteins, including prions, might even effect humans who consume the cow’s milk and meat. The scientist replied, “Well that’s what we’re doing everywhere else and that’s what we’re doing here.” He refused to destroy the plants.

Kirk got a bit frantic. He started talking to others in the company. “I approached pretty much everyone on my team in Monsanto.” He was unable to get anyone interested. In fact, he said, “Once they understood my perspective, I was somewhat ostracized. It seemed as if once I started questioning things, people wanted to keep their distance from me. I lost the cooperation with other team members. Anything that interfered with advancing the commercialization of this technology was going to be pushed aside.”

He then approached California Agriculture Commissioners. “These local Ag commissioners are traditionally responsible for test plots and to make sure test plot designs protect people and the environment.” But Kirk got nowhere. “Once again, even at the Ag commissioner level, they were dealing with a new technology that was beyond their comprehension. They did not really grasp what untoward effects might be created by the genetic engineering process itself.”

Kirk continued to try to blow the whistle on what he thought could be devastating to the health of consumers. “I spoke to many Ag commissioners. I spoke to people at the University of California. I found no one who would even get it, or even get the connection that proteins might be pathogenic, or that there might be untoward effects associated with these foreign proteins that we knew we were producing. They didn’t even want to talk about it really. You’d kind of see a blank stare when speaking to them on this level. That led me to say I am not going to be part of this company anymore. I’m not going to be part of this disaster, from a moral perspective.”

Kirk gave his two-week notice. In early January 1998, he finished his last day of work in the morning and in the afternoon started his first day at chiropractic college. He was still determined to make a positive difference for the world, but with a radically changed approach.

While in school, he continued to research prion disease and its possible connection with GM crops. What he read then and what is known now about prions has not alleviated his concerns. He says, “The protein that manifests as mad cow disease takes about five years. With humans, however, that time line is anywhere from 10-30 years. We were talking about 1997 and today is 2006. We still don’t know if there is anything going to happen to us from our being used as test subjects.”

Update

It turns out that the damage done to DNA due to the process of creating a genetically modified organism is far more extensive than previously thought.[1] GM crops routinely create unintended proteins, alter existing protein levels or even change the components and shape of the protein that is created by the inserted gene. Kirk’s concerns about a GM crop producing a harmful misfolded protein remain well-founded, and have been echoed by scientists as one of the many possible dangers that are not being evaluated by the biotech industry’s superficial safety assessments.

GM cotton has provided ample reports of unpredicted side-effects. In April 2006, more than 70 Indian shepherds reported that 25% of their herds died within 5-7 days of continuous grazing on Bt cotton plants.[2] Hundreds of Indian agricultural laborers reported allergic reactions from Bt cotton. Some cotton harvesters have been hospitalized and many laborers in cotton gin factories take antihistamines each day before work.[3]

The cotton’s agronomic performance is also erratic. When Monsanto’s GM cotton varieties were first introduced in the US, tens of thousands of acres suffered deformed roots and other unexpected problems. Monsanto paid out millions in settlements.[4] When Bt cotton was tested in Indonesia, widespread pest infestation and drought damage forced withdrawal of the crop, despite the fact that Monsanto had been bribing at least 140 individuals for years, trying to gain approval.[5] In India, inconsistent performance has resulted in more than $80 million dollars in losses in each of two states.[6] Thousands of indebted Bt cotton farmers have committed suicide. In Vidarbha, in north east Maharashtra, from June through August 2006, farmers committed suicide at a rate of about one every eight hours.[7] (The list of adverse reactions reported from other GM crops, in lab animals, livestock and humans, is considerably longer.)

Kirk’s concern about GM crop test plots also continues to remain valid. The industry has been consistently inept at controlling the spread of unapproved varieties. On August 18, 2006, for example, the USDA announced that unapproved GM long grain rice, which was last field tested by Bayer CropScience in 2001, had contaminated the US rice crop[8] (probably for the past 5 years). Japan responded by suspending long grain rice imports and the EU will now only accept shipments that are tested and certified GM-free. Similarly, in March 2005, the US government admitted that an unapproved corn variety had escaped from Syngenta’s field trials four years earlier and had contaminated US corn.[9] By year’s end, Japan had rejected at least 14 shipments containing the illegal corn. Other field trialed crops have been mixed with commercial varieties, consumed by farmers, stolen, even given away by government agencies and universities who had accidentally mixed seed varieties.

Some contamination from field trials may last for centuries. That may be the fate of a variety of unapproved Roundup Ready grass which, according to reports made public in August 2006, had escaped into the wild from an Oregon test plot years earlier. Pollen had crossed with other varieties and wind had dispersed seeds. Scientists believe that the variety will cross pollinate with other grass varieties and may contaminate the commercial grass seed supply—70 percent of which is grown in Oregon.

Even GM crops with known poisons are being grown outdoors without adequate safeguards for health and the environment. A corn engineered to produce pharmaceutical medicines, for example, contaminated corn and soybean fields in Iowa and Nebraska in 2002.[10] On August 10, 2006, a federal judge ruled that the drug-producing GM crops grown in Hawaii violated both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.[11]

A December 29, 2005 report by the USDA office of Inspector General, blasted the agriculture department for its abysmal oversight of GM field trials, particularly for the high risk drug producing crops.[12] And a January 2004 report by the National Research Council also called upon the government to strengthen its oversight, but acknowledged that there is no way to guarantee that field trialed crops will not pollute the environment.[13]

With the US government failing to prevent GM contamination, and with state governments and agriculture commissioners unwilling to challenge the dictates of the biotech industry, some California counties decided to enact regulations of their own. California’s diverse agriculture is particularly vulnerable and thousands of field trials on not-yet-approved GM crops have already taken place there. If contamination were discovered, it could easily devastate an industry. Four counties have enacted moratoria or bans on the planting of GM crops, including both approved and unapproved varieties. This follows the actions of more than 4500 jurisdictions in Europe and dozens of nations, states and regions on all continents, which have sought to restrict planting of GM crops to protect their health, environment and agriculture.

Ironically, California’s assembly, which has done nothing to protect the state from possible losses due to GM crop contamination, passed a bill on August 24, 2006 that prohibits other counties and cities from creating GM free zones. The senate is expected to vote on the issue by the end of their session on August 31st (see <a href="http://www.calgefree.org/preemption.shtml">http://www.calgefree.org/preemption.shtml</a>). It is yet another example of how the biotech industry has been able to push their agenda onto US consumers, without regard to health and environmental safeguards. No doubt that their lobbyists, anxious to have this bill pass, told legislators that GM crops are needed to stop poverty and feed a hungry world.

[Update 9/1/06: The California Senate session ended without senators voting on the bill to prevent local jurisdictions from creating GM-Free zones. For the time being at least, California counties and cities may still enact GM-Free zones. Click here to read the full press release.]]

Jeffrey Smith’s forthcoming book, Genetic Roulette, documents more than 60 health risks of GM foods in easy-to-read two-page spreads, and demonstrates how current safety assessments are not competent to protect consumers from the dangers. His previous book, Seeds of Deception (<a href="http://www.seedsofdeception.com">www.seedsofdeception.com</a>), is the world’s best-selling book on the subject. He is available for media at [email protected]. Dr. Kirk Azevedo has a chiropractic office in Cambria, California. Press may reach him at (805) 927-1055 or at drkirk(at)charter.net.

Spilling the Beans is a monthly column available at <a href="http://www.responsibletechnology.org">www.responsibletechnology.org</a>.

Permission is granted to publishers and webmasters to reproduce issues of Spilling the Beans in whole or in part. Just email us at [email protected] to let us know who you are and what your circulation is, so we can keep track.

The Institute for Responsible Technology is working to end the genetic engineering of our food supply and the outdoor release of GM crops. We warmly welcome your donations and support.

Click here if you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation, or click here if you would like to become a member of the Institute for Responsible Technology. Membership to the Institute for Responsible Technology costs $25 per year. New members receive The GMO Trilogy, a three-disc set produced by Jeffrey Smith (see <a href="http://www.GMOTrilogy.com">www.GMOTrilogy.com</a>).

[1] JR Latham et al., “The Mutational Consequences of Plant Transformation,” The Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Vol 2006 Article ID 25376 Pages 1-7, DOI 10.1155/JBB/2006/25376; for a more in-depth discussion, see also Allison Wilson et al., “Genome Scrambling -Myth or Reality? Transformation-Induced Mutations in Transgenic Crop Plants, Technical Report - October 2004, <a href="http://www.econexus.info">www.econexus.info</a>.
[2] Mortality in Sheep Flocks after Grazing on Bt Cotton Fields – Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh. Report of the Preliminary Assessment April 2006, <a href="http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6494">http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6494</a>
[3]Ashish Gupta, et. al., Impact of Bt Cotton on Farmers’ Health (in Barwani and Dhar District of Madhya Pradesh), Investigation Report, Oct - Dec 2005
[4] See for example, Monsanto Cited In Crop Losses New York Times, June 16, 1998 , <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04EED6153DF935A25755C0A96E958260">http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04EED6153DF935A25755C0A96E958260</a>; and Greenpeace <a href="http://archive.greenpeace.org/geneng/reports/gmo/intrgmo5.htm">http://archive.greenpeace.org/geneng/reports/gmo/intrgmo5.htm</a>
[5] Antje Lorch, Monsanto Bribes in Indonesia, Monsanto Fined For Bribing Indonesian Officials to Avoid Environmental Studies for Bt Cotton, ifrik 1sep2005, <a href="http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2005/Monsanto-Bribes-Indonesia1sep05.htm">http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2005/Monsanto-Bribes-Indonesia1sep05.htm</a>
[6] Bt Cotton - No Respite for Andhra Pradesh Farmers More than 400 crores' worth losses for Bt Cotton farmers in Kharif 2005 Centre for Sustainable Agriculture: Press Release, March 29, 2006 <a href="http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6393">http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6393</a>; see also November 14, 2005 article in <a href="http://www.NewKerala.comregarding">www.NewKerala.comregarding</a> Madhya Pradesh.
[7] Jaideep Hardikar, One suicide every 8 hours, Daily News & Analysis (India), August 26, 2006 <a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1049554">http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1049554</a>
[8] Rick Weiss, U.S. Rice Supply Contaminated, Genetically Altered Variety Is Found in Long-Grain Rice, Washington Post, August 19, 2006
[9]Jeffrey Smith, US Government and Biotech Firm Deceive Public on GM Corn Mix-up, Spilling the Beans, April 2005
[10] See for example, Christopher Doering, ProdiGene to spend millions on bio-corn tainting, Reuters News Service, USA: December 9, 2002
[11] See <a href="http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org">www.centerforfoodsafety.org</a>
[12]Office of Inspector General, USDA, Audit Report Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Controls Over Issuance of Genetically Engineered Organism Release Permits, December 2005 <a href="http://www.thecampaign.org/USDA_IG_1205.pdf">http://www.thecampaign.org/USDA_IG_1205.pdf</a>
[1 3] Justin Gillis, Genetically Modified Organisms Not Easily Contained; National Research Council Panel Urges More Work to Protect Against Contamination of Food Supply, Washington Post, Jan 21, 2004

© copyright Jeffrey M. Smith 2006

Full URL
<a href="http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=678">http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=678</a>

[Editor's note - article reprinted in full, with permission. Dr C]

[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on September 5, 2006]

Great post Ed, very informative look at the tip of the iceberg of fascist science.

---

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
(Albert Einstein)

I wonder how long they thought they could keep it from getting out?

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Canada for Canadians

But more to the point, do they really care what "gets out"? All they have to do is crank up the PR machine, like they're doing with farmed salmon. Sales of the stuff are increasing, and that is all that counts for them.

Do people in Canada have the "right stuff" to ban GMO's? Or do we care, what with the blinders we like to wear?

We can't even get people to vote Green, because they figure they'll lose something if they do.........

---
"We can have a democracy or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few. We cannot have both."
- Justice Louis Brandeis

<a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19125643.100-escaped-golfcourse-grass-frees-gene-genie-in-the-us.html">http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19125643.100-escaped-golfcourse-grass-frees-gene-genie-in-the-us.html</a> 
 
"A nondescript grass discovered in the Oregon countryside is hardly an alien invasion. Yet the plant - a genetically modified form of a grass commonly grown on golf courses - is worrying the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) enough that it is running its first full environmental impact assessment of a GM plant." 
 
--- "We can have a democracy or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few. We cannot have both." 
- Justice Louis Brandeis

Good God. Now Montsanto is causing mad cow disease! When will it end? And what are the bets this will never see the light of a CBC news broadcast?

---
“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous, the essential act of warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labour”

This just came in, showing how GM is gradually destroying agriculture and could do irreversible harm to the world's ecology, only to feed the profit machine and crooked politicians. 
 
Cheers, Ed. 
========================================================= 
 
<a href="http://www.progress.org/2006/gene111.htm">http://www.progress.org/2006/gene111.htm</a> 
The Progress Report 
Crop Contamination Could Ruin Small Farmers 
US Rice Farmers Betrayed by Genetic Manipulators 
 
In this battle between the Bush administration and American values, America is the underdog. 
Child safety advocates, scientists, consumer protection groups, state and local governments, citizen activists, and food safety organizations are all lined up against genetically modified rice. But the federal government won't restrict it even though it has not yet passed scientific tests. 
 
 
 
Rice farmers in Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and California have sued Bayer CropScience, alleging its genetically modified rice has contaminated their crops, attorneys for the farmers said. The lawsuit was filed on August 28 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock, law firm Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll said in a statement. 
The farmers alleged that the unit of Germany's Bayer AG failed to prevent its genetically modified rice, which has not been approved for human consumption, from entering the food chain. 
 
As a result, they said, Japan and the European Union have placed strict limits on US rice imports and US rice prices have dropped dramatically. 
 
A Bayer representative could not be immediately reached for comment. 
 
US agriculture and food safety authorities learned on July 31 that Bayer's unapproved rice had been found in commercial bins in Arkansas and Missouri. [More recently, we learned that the contamination has also spread into Louisiana.] While the United States is a small rice grower, it is one of the world's largest exporters, sending half of its crop to foreign buyers. 
 
The genetically engineered long grain rice has a protein known as Liberty Link, which allows the crop to withstand applications of a poisonous herbicide used to kill other plants. 
 
The European Commission said on Wednesday the EU would require US long grain rice imports to be certified as free from the unauthorized strain. The commission said validated tests must be done by an accredited laboratory and be accompanied by a certificate. 
 
Japan, the largest importer of US rice, suspended imports of US long-grain rice a week ago. 
 
The US Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration have said there are no public health or environmental risks associated with the genetically engineered rice. [The Progress Report points out -- that is an irresponsible statement paid for by lobbyists. The lobbyists got the government to say that without running any scientific tests at all!] 
 
The United States is expected to produce a rice crop valued at US$1.88 billion in 2006. US rice growers are responsible for about 12 percent of world rice trade. Three-fourths of the crop is long grain, grown almost entirely in the lower Mississippi Valley. California, the No. 2 rice state, grows short grain rice. 
 
_______________________________________________

thanks for the article Ed!

Its funny that, because of greed, thousands of years after humans discover pollination and how seeds spreading by wind, people just act like they are ignorant of it and unable to grasp it. Just shows money is powerful I guess.

This is being taught in our universities and around the globe as "good, free enterprise economics and agriculture".

So why are people blaming the politicians and the corporations, when they're only following the dogmas of "scientific research".....they pay for ?

Cheers, Ed.

"....people just act like they are ignorant of it and unable to grasp it." 
 
This is entirely true. Very few people in our society have an inkling of the food they consume. We have become quite stupid. We can blame this on so-called "specialization", where we are actively discouraged from knowing more than what is needed for the craft each of us practices. 
 
I mean, look at the near-panic of parents fearing their child won't learn the right things in school. Music is out; engineering is in. 
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Jared-Diamond/dp/customer-reviews/0143057189">http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Jared-Diamond/dp/customer-reviews/0143057189</a> 
 
 
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." 
 
-Robert A. Heinlein 
 
 
--- "We can have a democracy or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few. We cannot have both." 
- Justice Louis Brandeis

Great article. It opens a small window into the state of a lot of research. Closed systems driven solely by profit.

RPW: That Robert Heinlein quote is one of my favorites. Words to live by.

Thanks

Mike
Winnipeg

Kiwis in New-Zealand (I mean the people) have gone through a huge awakening a few years ago on GMOs. Being insular, they tend to be a whole lot more responsible on their Land. Are there lessons learnt coming out of New Zealand on this matter?

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"We are all in this together somehow, some more than others somehow"

One of the main tenets of neoclassical economics, as it is of communism, is the force feeding of specialization on humanity.

The main purpose of specialization is the creation of incompetence and total reliance on an exploitative economic system, patterned on the "phalanster theory".

I've been writing on this for many years. In my opinion, based on many years of personal experience, the best way to achieve reasonable living standards for all, is through the encouragement of self sufficiency to the greatest degree, from the personal to regional, national and cooperative international levels. This can be proven this very easily.

As long as the stock and money markets rule and warp the economic systems, there's no hope for betterment.

Ed Deak.

"As long as the stock and money markets rule and warp the economic systems, there's no hope for betterment."

I heartily agree!

Mike