Saturday, June 27, 2009
Monsanto & Dole Team Up to Force-Feed Consumers Genetically Engineered Fruits & Veggies
Dole, Monsanto enter into innovation agreement
By Eric Schroeder
Food Business News, June 23, 2009
Straight to the Source
MONTEREY, CALIF. - Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc. and Monsanto Co. have entered into an agreement to develop new products that will "enhance consumer vegetable choices," according to the companies. The five-year agreement will focus on broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach. Any new products developed through the agreement will be commercialized by Dole in North America.
Plant breeding techniques will be used to improve the nutrition, flavor, color, texture, taste and aroma of the vegetables. Monsanto's role in the collaboration will be to improve the development of new and beneficial vegetable characteristics. Their efforts will be guided by Dole's knowledge of consumer needs and marketing.
"Dole prides itself on innovation and bringing consumers high quality, nutritious and great-tasting products," said Roger Billingsley, senior vice-president of research and development for Dole Fresh Vegetables. "We are looking forward to collaborating closely with Monsanto to do just that."
Notice that the article(click article link at top of page) shows the "stamp of approval" from the Organic Consumers Association when Monsanto is trying to push their agenda of genetically modified foods. Since we know that genetically modified foods(GMO) are not organic, the Organic Consumers Association must be in bed with these two large food conglomerates to endorse this article.
Did you also notice in the upper right hand corner of the website the following phrase "campaigning for health, justice, sustainability, peace and democracy." The word sustainability is a dead giveaway that the Organic Consumers Association(OCA) is probably funded at least in part by these two large food conglomerates. Why would an organization (OCA) whose primary interest should be in pure food production be involved with campaigning for peace and sustainability?
They make it sound so appealing: "to develop new products that will 'enhance consumer vegetable choices,'" "Dole prides itself on innovation and bringing consumers high quality, nutritious and great-tasting products,", "Plant breeding techniques will be used to improve the nutrition, flavor, color, texture, taste and aroma of the vegetables." "Plant breeding techniques" means genetically altering these plants(broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach) Anyone read Jeff Smith's book, Seeds of Deception?
"Monsanto's controversial past combines some of the most toxic products ever sold with misleading reports, pressure tactics, collusion, and attempted corruption. They now race to genetically engineer (and patent) the world's food supply, which profoundly threatens our health, environment, and economy."Click this link to watch a video about Monsanto and GMO crops.
"Monsanto has a long history of falsifying scientific studies and cannot be trusted. They are systematically destroying the ecology of the worlds bio-diversity, and attempting to gain ownership and control of global food supply, and eventually all life on the planet. This misuse of the courts, government and science is robbery and piracy of the highest order."
"Monsanto came under heavy public fire with the development of their "Terminator Technology", a.k.a. "suicide seeds", known technically as V-GURTs (varietal Genetic Use Restriction Technologies) in which the seeds resulting from the first year's planting would be sterile thereby forcing farmers around the world in the Roundup Ready System to buy their seed from them every year rather than saving their best seed for the next years planting, a traditional and economical practice [16]. Seed saving has had the benefit of allowing farmers to continually improve the quality of their crops through careful artificial selection."
"Fears were also expressed that Monsanto's terminator genes could spread to wild plants. According to the UN Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, "Cross-fertilising V-GURT containing crops may cause considerable effects in neighbouring crop stands and wild relatives.... The fact that in North America, where large stands of GMO varieties are now grown contamination of non-GMO varieties by GMO germplasm has been observed ... suggests that this scenario is a realistic probability."
"Monsanto has sued many a farmer when their GM crops have turned up on the farmer's fields even though the farmers say they never planted them (examples)[33] [34] [35]. For an alarming expose of Monsanto's legal battles with American farmers see Goliath and David: Monsanto's Legal Battles against Farmers."
"In 1994, FDA approved Monsanto's rBGH, a genetically produced growth hormone, for injection into dairy cows – even though scientists warned the resulting increase of IGF-1, a potent chemical hormone, is linked to 400-500% higher risks of human breast, prostrate, and colon cancer. According to Dr. Samuel Epstein of the University of Chicago, it "induces the malignant transformation of human breast epithelial cells." Rat studies confirmed the suspicion and showed internal organ damage with rBGH ingestion. In fact, the FDA's own experiments indicated a spleen mass increase of 46% - a sign of developing leukemia. The contention was that the hormone was killed by pasteurization. But in research conducted by two Monsanto scientists, Ted Elasser and Brian McBride, only 19% of the hormone was destroyed despite boiling milk for 30 minutes when normal pasteurization is 30 seconds. Canada, the European Union, Australia and New Zealand have banned rBGR. The UN's Codex Alimentarius, an international health standards setting body, refused to certify rBGH as safe. Yet Monsanto continues to market this product in the US. Part of the reason may be that the policy in the FDA was initiated by Margaret Miller, Deputy Director of Human Safety and Consultative Services, New Animal Drug Evaluation Office, Center for Veterinary Medicine…. and former chemical laboratory supervisor for Monsanto. She spearheaded the increase in the amount of antibiotics farmers were allowed to have in their milk - and by a factor of 100 or 10,000 percent. Michael Taylor, Esq. was the executive assistant to the director of the FDA. He drafted the Delaney Amendment that allowed for the minimizing of cancer risk and was later hired as legal counsel to Monsanto, and subsequently again became Deputy Commissioner of Policy at the FDA. Several other GM approved products involve herbicides that are commonly known carcinogens - bromoxynil used on transgenic cotton and Monsanto's Roundup or glufonsinate used on GM soybeans, corn, and canola. Furthermore and according to researcher Sharyn Martin, a number of autoimmune diseases are enhanced by foreign DNA fragments that are not fully digested in the human stomach and intestines. DNA fragments are absorbed into the bloodstream, potentially mixing with normal DNA. The genetic consequences are unpredictable and unexpected gene fragments have shown up in GM soy crops."[emphasis mine]Superviruses
"Viruses can mix with genes of other viruses and retroviruses such as HIV. This can give rise to more deadly viruses – and at rates higher than previously thought. One study showed that gene mixing occurred in viruses in just 8 weeks (Kleiner, 1997). This kind of scenario applies to the cauliflower mosaic virus CaMV, the most common virus used in genetic engineering - in Round Up ready soy of Monsanto, Bt-maise of Novaris, and GM cotton and canola. It is a kind of "pararetrovirus" or what multiplies by making DNA from RNA. It is somewhat similar to Hepatitis B and HIV viruses and can pose immense dangers. In a Canadian study, a plant was infected with a crippled cucumber mosaic virus that lacked a gene needed for movement between plant cells. Within less than two weeks, the crippled plant found what it needed from neighboring genes - as evidence of gene mixing. This is significant because genes that cause diseases are often crippled to make the end product "safe." Results of this kind led the US Department of Agriculture to hold a meeting in October of 1997 to discuss the risks and dangers of gene mixing and superviruses, but no regulatory action was taken."[emphasis mine]Transform Your GI Tract Into a Toxic Factory
"One obvious goal of genetic plant modification is to make the plant resistant to insects. This is commonly done by inserting a bacterial gene into the plant. This bacterial gene codes for a protein which is toxic to insects, such as the Bt gene from the Bacillus thuringiensis.
In 2004, Dr. Trudy Netherwood of Newcastle University studied the fate of these ingested plant genes (GM soya) after human ingestion. However, before even starting the study, Dr. Netherwood found copies of the plant trans-genes already colonizing the gut bacteria of 3 of 7 human subjects. Apparently, these three human subjects had already consumed food contaminated with GMO products, just like all the rest of us trusting consumers.
If you remember from high school biology class, bacteria have the ability to transfer genetic material from one to another, called horizontal gene transfer. What this means is that our friendly bacteria of the gut take up and incorporate the bacterial genes from GMO food and manufacture the protein instructed by the new code. These proteins are the expected toxins and pesticides coded by the trans-genes, as well as the totally unexpected protein byproducts inherent in today's crude technology. Thus we have transformed our own GI tract into a toxic factory. An even greater problem arises for genes coding for antibiotic resistance which are commonly spliced into plants and used in the GMO manufacturing process. These genes coding for antibiotic resistance are then incorporated into our own gut bacteria. Thus we have created a new race of super antibiotic resistant bacterial organisms already in place waiting for a chance to cause an antibiotic resistant infection.
To make matters worse, not only is the new genetic code from GMO food incorporated into friendly gut bacteria, it is also incorporated into the epithelial cells of the GI tract, and the liver. Dr. Netherwood's work was confirmed in a 2006 study by Dr. Sharma in Alberta Canada who found that transgenic DNA from Roundup Ready Canola Meal could be found in the gut epithelial tissues of pigs eating the GMO meal."
Next time you drink a glass of milk or soy(89% is GMO) think about how Mansanto, Novaris and other food conglomerates have used genetically modified foods to make a profit, sue farmers, patent seeds that can't reproduce("terminator gene"), control the food supply, and give you cancer(they will never admit it). And now Monsanto wants to modify lettuce, spinach, cauliflower, and broccoli so that it will improve "flavor, color, texture, taste and aroma". Don't fall for the lies.
Would you trade improved "flavor, color, texture, taste and aroma" for cancer and other degenerative immune system dysfunctions caused by genetically modifying these vegetables? They are driven by greed, corporate corruption and profit, even if it destroys our food supply and us in the process.
"and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." Matthew 24:7 KJV.
"The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, the grain has dried up." Joel 1:17 NIV.
"Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed." Joel 1:11 NIV.
"The(threshing) floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her." Hosea 9:2 KJV.
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