Vatican studies genetically modified crops

International scientists raise concerns over genetically modified food

By Keith Lee and Richard Tyler
17 February 1999
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/feb1999/food-f17.shtml

The Labour government has been rocked by a dispute over the possible health dangers posed by genetically modified food. Last week 20 scientists from 13 countries issued a memorandum supporting their colleague Dr. Arpad Pusztai's research into the possible harmful effects of genetically modified (GM) food.

They oppose attempts by his former employers, the Rowett Research Institute in Scotland, to undermine his research and tarnish his reputation as a scientist, and are calling for his reinstatement.

Dr. Pusztai, a world authority on plant proteins called lectins, has written three books on the subject and published 270 research papers. He worked at the Rowett Institute for 35 years. His research involved feeding GM potatoes to rats and looking for changes in their physiology, particularly the gut, metabolic process and immune systems. This showed that the size of several organs decreased, including the brain, and that their immune system was weakened after the feeding trials.

Last year, Pustzai was abruptly removed from his research project at the Rowett Institute and forced to retire after raising his concerns in the media. In April Pusztai appeared on Granada TV's World in Action programme, with the consent of the Rowett Institute. In the course of the documentary, he remarked that he would not eat GM food and that he found it "very, very unfair to use our fellow citizens as guinea pigs".

Two days later, Professor Philip James, director of the Rowett Institute, suspended Pusztai and forced him to retire. Pusztai's supporters say that his removal was the result of industry and political pressure on the institute to silence him. Following his dismissal, Pusztai was gagged from speaking in his own defence, while his scientific methodology was publicly questioned and he was all but accused of cheating.

An internal audit carried out by the Rowett Institute into Dr. Pusztai's research denies the rats suffered any physiological abnormalities as a result of being fed the GM potatoes. The audit report did exonerate his experimental method and approach, and Professor James told the press that the investigation found absolutely no misconduct on Dr. Pusztai's part. However, the Institute has only made a summary of its findings available.

Dr. Stanley Ewen of the pathology department at Aberdeen University repeated the experiments and reached similar conclusions to Dr. Pusztai. He submitted his findings to a meeting of COST 98 Action (European Union Programme) in Lund, Sweden, in November 1998. The organisers also invited both Professor James and Dr. Chesson, the chairman of the Audit Committee, to present and justify the conclusions in the Rowett Institute's audit report to this gathering of senior scientists. Neither James nor Chesson attended or even responded to the invitation.

On February 12, professor Edilbert van Driessche and professor Thorkild C. Bøg-Hansen, joint organisers of the COST 98 meeting, issued a memorandum supported by over 20 other leading scientists who had studied Dr. Pusztai's findings.

Their memorandum states, "Those of us who have known Dr. Pusztai's work or have collaborated with him, were shocked by the harshness of his treatment by the Rowett and even more by the impenetrable secrecy surrounding these events. It is an unacceptable code of practice by the Rowett and its Director, Professor James, to set themselves up as arbiters or judges of the validity of the data which could have such a profound importance not only for scientists, but also for the public and its health."

The memorandum concludes, "There is no doubt in our minds that the reviews will remove the stigma of alleged fraud and will restore Dr. Pusztai's scientific credibility."

One of the scientists who reviewed Pustzai's work, Dr. Vyvyan Howard, foetal and infant toxico-pathologist at the University of Liverpool, told the World Socialist Web Site, "I am working on some features of lectin toxicity and that is how I came to know Arpad Pusztai, who is certainly one of the world's experts in this field."

Dr. Howard said that he believed Dr. Pusztai's data was sound. "We think it would pass peer review and be published and we are at a loss to really explain why the Rowett Institute came to the conclusion it did." Dr. Howard added that Pusztai's findings "are of considerable importance in the current debate on the safety and hazard assessment of genetically modified foods".

Professor S. Pierzynowski, from the Department of Animal Physiology, Lund University, Sweden, said, " I must stress that there is enough strong evidence that the work of the audit group was not objective and per se dangerous, not only for Dr. Pusztai, but generally for free and objective science."

Joe Cummins, Emeritus Professor of Genetics at the University of Western Ontario, Canada described the Rowett Institute's treatment of Pusztai as "a great injustice", adding that the "Institute continues to look inward to cover up its mistakes".

These eminent scientists have not only raised serious concerns about the way research into GM food is being conducted, but that those who have dissenting voices are being suppressed and have had their careers ruined, and sometimes their health. Dr. Pusztai has suffered a mild heart attack brought on by the stress caused by trying to restore his scientific reputation and the credibility of his research.

These concerns were echoed by Dr. Kenneth Lough, FRSE, a former principal scientific officer at the Rowett Institute between 1956 and 1987. He said, "In my view the evidence presented in the audit report must be considered as unsafe and is without justification for use against the scientific reputation of Dr. Pusztai. The Institute is at risk in sending the wrong signals to scientists in this field of research that any sign of apparent default will be treated with the utmost severity. The awareness will of course act as strong deterrent to those who wish to conduct research in this vitally important field."

Required Reading
http://ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/science/failu...

It is time that these Cardinals and Archbishops get themselves "educated" on this too, so that they are not "caught uninformed" during their next trip to the VATICAN:

1. Cardinal Justin Rigali - Philadelphia, PA; Chairman, USCCB Pro-Life Committee
2. Cardinal Francis George - Chicago, IL; President, USCCB
3. Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua (Archbishop Emeritus) - Philadelphia, PA
4. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo - Houston, TX

5. Archbishop Donald Wuerl - Washington, D.C.
6. Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk - Cincinnati, OH
7. Archbishop Edwin O'Brien - Baltimore, MD
8. Archbishop John C. Nienstedt - St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN
9. Archbishop Joseph Naumann - Kansas City, KS
10.Archbishop John J. Myers - Newark, NJ
11.Archbishop Alfred Hughes - New Orleans, LA
12.Archbishop José Gomez - San Antonio, TX
13.Archbishop Timothy Dolan - New York, NY
14.Archbishop Charles Chaput - Denver, CO
15.Archbishop-Elect Robert Carlson - St. Louis
16.Archbishop Eusebius Beltran - Oklahoma City, OK
17.Archbishop Daniel Buechlein - Indianapolis, IN

The Gmo Trilogy And Seeds of Deception Set (Paperback)
by Jeffrey M. Smith

Yes! Books; DVD edition (September 15, 2006)
ISBN-10: 0972966536; ISBN-13: 978-0972966535

Now Jeffrey M. Smith’s best-selling book is paired with a new DVD and CD set that shows how genetically modified organisms (GMOs) put our health and environment at risk. This set will impact consumer perceptions and buying habits.

DVD 1: Unnatural Selection

This stunning, award-winning documentary by Bertram Verhaag and Gabriele Kröber reveals harsh consequences of genetic engineering on three continents. Vandana Shiva, Andrew Kimbrell, Percy Schmeiser and others, describe uncontrollable, self-replicating GM contamination, failed crops, farmer suicides, and new GM animals that threaten natural populations.

"Best Film," (CineEco, Portugal), "Best Long Production," (IEFF, Brazil), and "Best Journalistic Achievement," (IEFF, Germany).

"Meticulously researched, excellently photographed" –Ökomedia

DVD 2: Hidden Dangers in Kids’ Meals: Genetically Engineered Foods

Shocking research results, inadequate regulations and warnings from eminent scientists explain why GM foods are dangerous and should be removed from kids’ meals. The dramatic story of how student behavior in a Wisconsin school was transformed with a healthy diet provides added motivation to make a change. It features Jeffrey Smith and more than a dozen scientists and experts.

"Hidden Dangers pierces the myth that our government is protecting our food supply."

–John Robbins, Diet for a New America

"It will change the way you look at food forever."

–Howard Lyman, Mad Cowboy

Audio CD: You’re Eating WHAT?

Jeffrey Smith’s riveting one-hour talk.

"The most powerful presentation I have ever heard on the issue of genetically engineered foods.

–Craig Winters, The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods
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Seeds of Deception

This is the top-rated, best selling book in the world on GM foods. Smith exposes the serious health dangers of genetically modified foods and the corporate cover-up. A fast-paced thriller of industry manipulation and political collusion, combined with lucid descriptions of genetic engineering and guidance on how to protect yourself and your family.

From the Publisher
From Publishers Weekly

Recent news headlines have focused on the disagreement between the U.S. and Europe over genetically modified foods: the U.S. exports them, but the European Union doesn't want to import them, believing their safety remains unproven.

Are genetically modified foods safe? Longtime anti-GM foods campaigner Smith presents the "opposing" case. He offers cases where GM produced results that were at best unexpected (increased starch content in potatoes), at worst grotesque (pigs without genitals).

He describes how one corporation reportedly tried to bribe Canadian government scientists into approving genetically engineered bovine growth hormones they deemed unsafe;
How some scientists have reported their careers were threatened as a result of their refusal to approve certain GM products in the U.S.; and How "conflicts of interest, sloppy science, and industry influence" can distort the approval process.

The cases Smith presents are scary and timely.

HAIL to POTRYKUS! HAIL to FAO!!! HAIL to the VATICAN!!! - the THREE STOOGES for MONSANTO

GOLDEN RICE MADE IN SWITZERLAND

I wonder if Papa Ratzi knows that POTRYKUS is "MANIPULATING the VATICAN" on the behalf of MONSANTO to repeat the mistakes of another Conference:

THE Berlin Conference (1884)
The Berlin Conference (German: Kongokonferenz or "Congo Conference") of 1884–85 regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power. Called for by Portugal and organized by Otto von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of Germany, its outcome, the General Act of the Berlin Conference, is often seen as the formalization of the Scramble for Africa. The conference ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity on the part of the European powers, while simultaneously eliminating most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance.King Leopold II was able to convince France and Germany that common trade in Africa was in the best interests of all three countries. On the initiative of Portugal, Otto von Bismarck, German Chancellor, called on representatives of Austria–Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway (union until 1905), the Ottoman Empire, and the United States to take part in the Berlin Conference to work out policy. However, the United States did not actually participate in the conference.

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Switzerland (which does not EXPORT RICE!!) is telling the regions of the world that grow rice (ASIA, AFRICA and AMERICA) as to HOW TO IMPROVE their RICE!!

WHAT a JOKE! Only POTRYKUS can "believe" that he can "SAVE AFRICA" with his golden rice, MADE IN SWITZERLAND.