Tag Archives: GM foods

Anti-GMO Catholic Sentiment

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Roman Catholics join call to end GMOs

Wednesday, August 21, 2013 by: J. D. Heyes

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(NaturalNews) Several Roman Catholic priests and Catholic laymen are seeking to convince some in the Church hierarchy to publicly denounce genetically modified organisms as they prepare to publicly honor a trio of scientists largely responsible for GMO development.

In an open letter to Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, who is set to honor the three scientists in Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 16-18, Brother David Andrews, a senior representative of Food & Water Watch and the Committee on World Food Security, among other groups, says he wants the Church to reconsider:

As you know, the United States government and agriculture giant Monsanto have been seeking the support of the Holy See for genetic modification of food for years.

During my last visit to the U.S. Ambassador Miguel Diaz, just before he resigned, Diaz sung to me the praises of Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, because he supported GMOs. I wonder what you will say, particularly given your leadership of the synod on Africa and the strong advocacy that Monsanto and the U.S. government have for transforming African agriculture through the G-8’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

Monsanto pushing the Vatican for endorsement

In his letter, Andrews says the U.S. has “repeatedly” pushed the Holy See to endorse GMO seeds “as a moral obligation,” but that the “policy of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has been to resist officially adopting GMOs.”

“While the Academy of Sciences has recurrently hosted one-sided conferences on GMOs in 2004 and 2008, the Holy See formerly has not done so. Cardinal Renato Martino, your predecessor at the justice and peace office, came close but backed off, and you yourself have been quite careful,” David writes.

He goes on to say that the U.S. has typically taken the position that the world, and the African continent in particular, has to produce more food, and that the best way to do so is through the implementation and use of GMO seeds, most of which are pushed by Monsanto (one of the three scientists to be honored is a Monsanto executive and the founder of Syngenta Biotechnology).

Most African farmers, however, disagree, David says, “believing instead that agro-ecology is the better way to go: through methods of production more in harmony with their own cultures and traditions, and more realizable by small-scale farmers and women producers.”

Continuing, he writes:

In my meetings with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the State and Agriculture Departments and congressional staff, this method of production – agroecology, which was endorsed by the United Nations through the 2008 International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology in Development – is referred to as eco-topian thinking, theology or faith-based reasoning. Yet more than 50 countries endorse that study, conducted by hundreds of scientists and agriculturalists.

U.S. working behind the scenes

He also points out that U.S. farmers have complained that Monsanto owns upwards of 60 percent of the seeds planted in American soil, just to limit the availability of other seeds. He calls that an unhelpful track record on the part of Monsanto, saying also that “the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition fails to provide adequate guidelines for responsible agricultural investment.”

“I hope you will speak to the U.S. public about the important issue of GMOs in your World Food Prize address in Des Moines,” David concludes.

Other open letters have similarly requested that the Vatican refrain from endorsing GMO seeds.

Says Dr. Brian John, at GMWatch.com: “These open letters reflect the debate within the Roman Catholic church about GMOs and the ongoing diplomatic offensive by the U.S. administration to push the interests of Monsanto and the other biotech multinationals within the Vatican and within the Roman Catholic church generally. The Wikileaks cables gave us some indication of how the US works behind the scenes.”

GM Foods, Animals, & Safety

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Study Shows Animals Are Seriously Harmed By Eating GM Crops

Posted: June 12th, 2013

Researchers with Genetically Modified Corn

A ground-breaking study, published today, June 12, 2013 (1), shows that animals are harmed by the consumption of feed containing genetically modified (GM) crops.

The research results were striking, showing that the weight of the uterus in GM-fed pigs was on average 25% higher than in the control group of pigs. The finding was biologically and statistically significant. Also, the level of severe inflammation in stomachs was markedly higher in pigs fed on the GM diet. These animals were 2.6 times more likely to get severe stomach inflammation than control pigs. While 22% of male pigs and 42% of female pigs on the GM diet had this condition, when these pigs were compared to pigs on the control diet, it was found that male pigs were actually more strongly affected. While female pigs were 2.2 times more likely to get severe stomach inflammation when on the GM diet, males were 4 times more likely. These findings are both biologically significant and statistically significant.

The research was conducted by collaborating investigators from two continents and published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Organic Systems. The feeding study lasted more than five months and was conducted in the US. 168 newly-weaned pigs in a commercial piggery were fed either a typical diet incorporating GM soy and corn (2), or else (in the control group) an equivalent non-GM diet. The pigs were reared under identical housing and feeding conditions. They were slaughtered over 5 months later, at their usual slaughter age, after eating the diets for their entire commercial lifespan. They were then autopsied by qualified veterinarians who worked “blind” – they were not informed which pigs were fed on the GM diet and which were from the control group.

The research was undertaken because farmers have for some years been reporting reproductive and digestive problems in pigs fed on a diet containing GM soy and corn (3). Farmers have seen a reduced ability to conceive and higher rates of miscarriage in piggeries where sows have been fed on a GM diet, and a reduction in the number of piglets born if boars were used for conception rather than artificial insemination. There is also evidence of a higher rates of intestinal problems in pigs fed a GM diet, including inflammation of the stomach and small intestine, stomach ulcers, a thinning of intestinal walls and an increase in haemorrhagic bowel disease, where a pig can rapidly “bleed-out” from its bowel and die.

Much of the previously anecdotal evidence from within the pig-farming industry is now confirmed by this new study, linking the symptoms observed by farmers and veterinarians with obvious and statistically significant physiological damage in pigs at the age of slaughter.

Farmer and livestock advisor Howard Vlieger, one of the initiators and coordinators of the study, was not surprised by the results documented by the veterinarians. He said: “For as long as GM crops have been in the feed supply, we have seen increasing digestive and reproductive problems in animals. Now it is scientifically documented. In my experience, farmers have experienced increased production costs and have seen escalating antibiotic use when feeding GM crops. In some operations, the livestock death loss is high, and there are unexplained problems including spontaneous abortions, deformities of newborn animals, and an overall listlessness and lack of contentment in the animals. In some cases, animals eating GM crops are very aggressive. This is not surprising, given the scale of stomach irritation and inflammation now documented. In short, I have seen no financial benefit to farmers who feed GM crops to their animals.”

Lead researcher Dr Judy Carman (4) said: “Our findings are of huge significance for several reasons. First, we have found these results using real-world conditions that don’t occur in a laboratory. Second, we have used pigs. Pigs with these health problems end up in our food supply. We eat them. Also, pigs have a very similar digestive system to people, so we need to investigate if people are getting similar digestive problems from eating GM crops. Third, we found these adverse effects when we fed the animals a mixture of crops containing three GM genes and the GM proteins that these genes produce. That is, we observed the combined effects of these GM proteins on health. These proteins may be acting synergistically to cause these effects. Yet no food regulator requires a safety assessment for synergistic effects. Regulators simply assume that they can’t happen. Our results provide clear evidence that regulators need to safety assess GM crops containing mixtures of GM genes, regardless of whether those genes occur in the one GM plant or in a mixture of GM plants eaten in the same meal, even if regulators have already assessed GM plants containing single GM genes in the mixture.”

from:    http://topinfopost.com/2013/06/12/study-shows-animals-are-seriously-harmed-by-eating-gm-crops