Nick Maclaren7/3/04 6:05

In article ,
Sacha wrote:

The Daily Mail ran an article the other day about illnesses among people in
the Phillipines (IIRC) and the strong suspicion of links between that and GM
maize recently planted near their homes. You could try copying that and
sending it with your protests.

I wouldn't bother. With the CURRENT modifications, the chances of a
direct effect are negligible; if there is a link, it will be due to
the pesticides used.

Not trusting my ageing memory, I looked for and found the article. It was
in yesterday's Mail and says: A Philippine politician who is also a farmer
planted *last year* 1.75 hectares of corn seed from Monsanto. The seed has
an inbuilt pesticide gene, designed to poison the stem borer insect. The
flowering of the corn stalks in July coincided with an outbreak of fever,
respiratory, skin and stomach disorders among villagers living within 100
metres of the field. It's alleged that eight months later some are still
suffering symptoms and it's also alleged that two horses died suddenly,
frothing at the mouth after suffering seizures. The article goes on to say
that Monsanto offered 'Bt corn' which contains a gene for an iinsect-killing
toxin, isolated from the soil microbe 'Bacilus thuringiensis. The Monsanto
produced strain is Dekalb 818YG. "The farmers were told that they could sow
corn in May, when the stem borer is at its most voracious, without recourse
to pesticide. But the Bt corn seed cost twice as much as the one the
farmers were already using. Asked why, Monsanto officials replied: 'You
are paying for peace of mind.'"
When the corn flowered "a large number of villagers fell inexplicably ill."
When they moved a couple of miles away, all but one recovered quickly.
Others around that field fell ill, too.
Locals have also pointed out the "discolouration and brittleness of the
leaves on pineapples plants".
Monsanto mounted a PR offensive and one ploy was to gather villagers
together, cook cobs and eat them, telling villagers they were perfectly
safe. The villagers answers was that Monsanto officials were welcome to eat
all of them.
The Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology became involved. Der Traavik who
was in Mindanao in relation to a separate study on Bt corn offered to
analyse the blood of sick villagers. Blood was taken from 38 individuals
and sent to his lab in Norway. The first results of the tests suggest that
the villagers immune systems had reacted to the Bt corn toxin. but says that
those results alone do not conclusively prove a cause and effect. Dr
Traavik suggests however that it can be interpreted as an early warning and
should encourage serious further study.

He said that when he started out "25 years ago, I was a fanatical proponent
of modern biotechnology........but now I am a sceptic because genetic
modification is so unpredictable. It is assumed the results will be the
same in the Philippines as in the American Mid-West. But you can never
predict the given amount of toxin from a given plant in a given place.' And
he described Monsanto's reaction as 'very, very unhelpful.'"



I don't think that even Monsanto are currently
field testing their really nasty additions in food crops - the risk
of a backlash is too high even for them.

It seems they may have that backlash already.

I believe quite a lot of research has been done in Canada where it's said
there are big regrets over the planting of GM maize and its consequent
effect upon the environment.

That is the more serious issue. It is a pretty minor issue here, as
maize is a fairly minor crop and it has no close wild relatives in
the UK. GM rape, on the other hand :-(


Plenty of maize is grown down here for cattle fodder. England is small,
Canada is big but Canada is said to regret its decision BIG time.

From a study conducted by Cornell University, it is said that Monarch
butterflies died after being fed with leaves dusted with pollen from Bt corn
engineered by Monsanto.'

We've so over used pesticides, ripped out hedges, cleared ground cover that
we have lost vast numbers of birds, butterflies, wild flowers - think DDT,
alone banned, I think in 1947? When did you last hear a cuckoo? The last
time for me was in Tresco two years ago and that was the first time for as
long as I can remember.
Why on earth would we willingly bring upon ourselves something potentially
worse that is irreversible? We stopped using DDT, we can reduce the use of
pesticides, we could replant hedgerows. It is ironic, I think, that while
on the one hand we all talk of such things here as ecologically desirable,
governments also try to force GM foods upon us because they will make money.
That's the only reason for them. Monsanto et al are not charities.

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)