Kucinich: Genetically Engineered Food

[Flabbergasted]

Genetically engineered food (GEF) poses grave risks, and much serious research into the potential harms is needed. The dominant voices in the public debate over genetically engineered food have been those of the agri-business and biotechnology industries. These multinational companies have invested millions of dollars into the research and development of GEF. They claim that genetically engineered food is safe and that it is associated with good environmental practices. Of course, there is a huge conflict of interest when the leading authorities on GEF are the same industries that hope to profit by them.

Genetically engineered food is produced with the use of bacteria and "gene guns" along with other unnatural techniques to aggressively insert foreign genetic material into a plant or animal. Genetic engineers also use viruses and genes that are resistant to antibiotics in order to activate these foreign genes.

These methods lead to questions about the introduction of allergens and toxins into the food, the reduction of nutritional value of the food, and how consuming the food might lead to resistance to antibiotics. Environmental concerns also arise. The biggest push in GEF has been for creating plants that are resistant to herbicides and pesticides. Crops that encourage the increased use of pesticides that already have a negative impact on our eco-systems are a step in the wrong direction. Despite the obvious concerns that these practices cause, the FDA has maintained since 1992 that genetically engineered food is "substantially equivalent" to conventional food.

Proponents of genetically engineered food have said that this technology will end world hunger because increased crop yields will create more food. This simplistic argument does not take into account the true causes of hunger. In the past we have consistently produced more than enough food to feed the people of the world. The United Nations has predicted that growth in agriculture will continue to exceed population growth. The real cause of world hunger is not a shortage of food, but poverty. Food is not distributed well enough to the areas that need it, and hungry people are too poor to buy that which is available, or they lack the land and resources to grow it for themselves.

People must have a right to select foods for themselves and their families that are proven to be safe and environmentally friendly. In Congress, I have introduced legislation in support of regulating genetically engineered food. I have argued for scientifically valid testing of the safety of all GEF. I have opposed the introduction of genetically engineered fish, because the ecological effect was not adequately considered. I have worked to empower farmers against the GEF industry. I have worked to require that all foods containing GEF be labeled as such.

To accomplish these goals, we should create a fund, financed by genetically engineered food corporations, for farmers who incur losses caused by GEF. We should fund research institutions that help family farmers make the transition to profitable and sustainable agriculture. We should also provide funding to assist independent farmers in qualifying for organic certification.



http://kucinich.us/issues/geneticallyfood.php

[Cobalt-60]

1. If there was nothing wrong with it

They would be proud to have GM prominently featured on the label.
The whole Gm concept is misleading.
In the days of yore a gamma emitter would be placed at the center of a field.
Its purpose was to cause random mutations in the crop. Some of these hybrids proved useful, most just died.
They're still shooting a random stream of particles at the crops' DNA. But now it occurs indoors.
They have still have no idea what the modified seed will produce.
But this time they're determined to ram the results down our throats, toxic or not.

[Cogito ergo doleo]

2. "People must have a right to select foods for themselves

and their families that are proven to be safe and environmentally friendly."

Given the confusion surrounding the labeling and regulations of GE foods, it's impossible at this point to assure anyone of what they are getting.

[DCKit]

3. Wow, a smart candidate

Even if he didn't write it, he's knows who to hire to make him look good... That puts him up five steps above any I've seen so far. That's good management, a far cry from what we've seen lately.

But, they did neglect to mention the damage to the gene pool of the wild and open pollinated plants by GEOs. Once that's gone, we've got NOTHING.

GO DENNIS!

[AnOhioan]

4. This is one area of science I disagree with...

They are messing around with our food, that which sustains and enables us to live, nature has already provided what we need nutritionally, but that is not good enough, let's mess with the genes and see what happens! :sarcasm:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. Everyone except the people who know what they're talking about opposes GM.

Kucinich should be ashamed of himself.

[Greyhound]

6. So, then the solution is obvious. The "people that know what they're talking about"

need to spend the next couple of decades proving that there are no drawbacks or unintended consequences to their creations like good science dictates, instead of pushing it out before then in the name of profits.

[truedelphi]

7. Greyhound you can't convince people of things like that.

WHile they drink the corporate (genetically modified kool aid,) they are believers.

The fact that many GMO debunkers have science degrees doesn't convince them. The fact that there have been over thirty deaths from GMO amino acids doesn't convince them.

[Joe Chi Minh]

9. Also Nobel prize-winners, I believe. Though Watson's a GM apologist. Or was.

I don't know his current position on it.

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. Blair has been all too compliant about GM, though mercifully has

been strongly opposed. Surprise, surprise, though, they won't serve it in the restaurants in Parliament. Nuff said.

Most politicos didn't come with the last shower of rain.

[truedelphi]

11. Prince Charles probably doesn't support GMO's

He is very much into organics

[Joe Chi Minh]

16. Thats true. He's wiser in a lot of matters than the "experts" and journalists

who deride him.

[Josh]

10. NORMAN BORLOG is in favour of GM food -

he says that if it's up to you and what you want to buy for yourself, fine, but the world has enough resources to feed TWO THIRDS of the world's population. So what are we going to do for everyone else? GM is actually the only solution out there that has a chance of ending world starvation.

[truedelphi]

12. The argument against what you're stating is this

Worldwide, much of the food that is raised is done by subsistence farmers. They can't afford the
RoundUp that the GMO RoundUp ready grains require - though often they are talked into it
for the first time around.

It is only the second season into it that they realize that now they have to perpetually buy seed - whereas before they simply retained the seed from the past crop. Thousands of Indian farmers have committed suicide. (I have heard as many as six thousand)

Numerous studies show that the GMO crops don't deliver on the promised increased yield.

And there is the hybridization factor that comes into it - since the introduction of GMO rapeseed (from which we get canola oil) a group of GMO super weeds has come into being. These weeds cannot be decimated by the usual herbicide RoundUp (as they are resistant to it)

So now the farmers have to use more expensive herbicides.

[Greyhound]

18. Evolution is a permanent and persistent process. That is what the corporatists

and their useful idiots don't seem to understand.

Genetic engineering, as it is now practiced, is a fascinating and potentially wonderful technology, but we just don't know enough to do well yet. It should still be relegated to the laboratory and strictly controlled environments, but that doesn't make anybody any money so we can't have that.

[Quakerfriend]

13. Kick this up there!

Interesting, that just in the past 24 hrs. the CARGILL pop ups have been showing up on my computer.

A lovely country gentlemen farmer and his animals await their delivery of CARGILL feed. Made to look like a picture from out of the Irish countryside. Makes me want to puke!

All the while the FDA is trying today (4/2) to make it unnecessary to label cloned meat and dairy products as cloned AND also trying to get away with allowing cloned meat and dairy to be labeled ORGANIC). WE THE PEOPLE DO NOT WANT CLONED ANYTHING! And, it is ludicrous to think that this will in ANY way solve work hunger problems.

[mr715]

14. OH SWEET JESUS

DOES ANYONE KNOW *ANYTHING* ABOUT GM!?

I'm a goddamn ecologist and I've been doing cloning and genetic engineering for 3 years now. ITS PERFECTLY SAFE.


Sheeeeeeeeeeeeesh

[Greyhound]

17. Then see #6. n/t

:kick:

[truedelphi]

19. Tell the families of the 39 people who died from

L-tryptophan that had been grown on a genetically modified medium.

There were scores of people whose blood cell count went awry as well,from this same incident.

And of course any of us who enjoyed that supplement had to forego its use - the media and government spun the problem as being inherent to l-tryptophan.

When actually the problem was in having that bad batch grown on GMO altered material.

[mr715]

20. L-Tryp?

As in the amino acid found in milk?

[truedelphi]

25. Yep that one. Found in milk and turkey and other foods n/t

[Karenina]

22. Vested interest?

[mr715]

23. Yup.

Genetic modification is a standard laboratory procedure.

Genetic modification is how we make HUMALIN. You know, insulin for humans that doesnt cause hepitis?

Genetic modification is how we make antibiotics.

Vegetarians cannot get vitamin B-12 unless you supplement it. But ONLY meat makes B-12, unless we genetically modify bacteria to make it.

Do you eat candy? Xanthan gum is from genetically modified sources.

How about MSG? How about Nutrasweet?

You guys use toothpaste? Yup! Genetically modified organisms make the emulsifiers.

[Karenina]

24. A man will never understand a thing

if his salary depends upon his NOT understanding it.

[lovuian]

15. go Dennis Go

GE food is a hot topic
we have only seen the beginning of it

[truedelphi]

21. Here's a page worth of dangers (attn: Lengthy read)

Section One: Cautions about GMO
http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0000008#journal-pbio-0000008-t001
Opinions differ on this, however, and seem to follow the United States–European Union divide over the use of GM crops. Kaare Nielsen, microbial geneticist at Norway's University of Tromsø, is one of the few scientists to find examples of horizontal gene transfer. “There are actually very few studies and most of the ones conducted have been on first-generation plants,” Nielsen explains. Given that plant DNA can last in soil for over two years, Nielsen does not believe the possibility can be dismissed and argues that long-term studies are necessary. Work continues in this area in Europe.

The lack of baseline ecological data—even agreeing on what an appropriate baseline is—presents a substantial knowledge gap to environmental impact assessments. Scientists, including Nielsen, wonder whether there could be unexpected risk factors. Allison Snow, weed expert at Ohio State University, agrees with what many feel is the most important risk—the inability to anticipate all the effects. “Do we know all of the right questions we should be asking?” she wonders, adding, “Genes are complicated and can interact.” For these reasons, identifying factors that regulate weed and pest populations and determining how microbial community changes affect larger ecosystems are important areas of research.




Section Two: Overall considerations
A Different Article outlining dangers
© 2000 Nathan B. Batalion, Published by Americans for Safe Food. Oneonta, N.Y. Email [email protected]


The National Academy of Science released a report that GM products introduce new allergens, toxins, disruptive chemicals, soil-polluting ingredients, mutated species and unknown protein combinations into our bodies and into the whole environment. This may also raise existing allergens to new heights as well as reduce nutritional content. Even within the FDA, prominent scientists have repeatedly expressed profound fears and reservations. Their voices were muted not for cogent scientific reasons but due to political pressures from the Bush administration to buttress the nascent biotech industry.

A four-year study at the University of Jena in Germany conducted by Hans-Hinrich Kaatz revealed that bees ingesting pollen from transgenic rapeseed had bacteria in their gut with modified genes. This is called a "horizontal gene transfer." Commonly found bacteria and microorganisms in the human gut help maintain a healthy intestinal flora. These, however, can be mutated.



Section Three: Economic considerations
For example, two bioengineering firms have announced a GM vanilla plant where vanilla can be grown in vats at a lower cost – and which could eliminate the livelihood of the world’s 100,000 vanilla farmers – most of whom are on the islands of Madagascar, Reunion and Comoros. Other firms are developing bioengineered fructose, besides chemical sugar substitutes, that threatens, according to a Dutch study, a million farmers in the Third World. In 1986, the Sudan lost its export of gum arabic when a New York company discovered a bioengineering process for producing the same. Synthetic cocoa substitutes are also threatening farmers. It is estimated that the biotech industry will find at least $14 billion dollars of substitutes for Third World farming products. Far beyond hydroponics, scientists are developing processes to grow foods in solely laboratory environments – eliminating the need for seeds, shrubs, trees, soil and ultimately the farmer.


Section Four: Dosing ourselves with medicine when we think we are merely eating food

The bio-engineering crowd thinks that it a good idea to implant a needed medicine into a plant. Theoretically this might be wise - if a farmer can dose a herd of cattle with antibiotics simply by feeding them -what could be wrong with that?

But if the foodstuff thus innoculated with meds instead gets mixed up and put into the human food chain, there could be many complications. Many Americans are now ingesting complicated medines into the bloodstream -what happens to such a person if additionally they consume a medicine meant for an animal the next time they reach into a bowl of corn Chips. (This is pretty much what happened with the Starlink disaster of several years ago.)

The use of microbes and their gene products introduces additional considerations to the toxicological dose-response relationship, including a need to determine the plausibility of infectious and immunological effects in association with human exposure to these biopesticides in food or the environment.



Section Five: Other dangers -- Those posed to soil
From Ronnie Cummins
Scientists in Oregon found that a genetically engineered soil microorganism, Klebsiella planticola, completely killed essential soil nutrients. Environmental Protection Agency whistle blowers issued similar warnings in 1997 protesting government approval of a GE soil bacteria called Rhizobium melitoli.