USDA's New Biotechnology Regulations Could Allow Drugs in Food
By Jane Rissler
Union of Concerned Scientists, October 6, 2008

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today denounced newly proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rules governing genetically engineered crops, including food crops engineered to produce pharmaceutical and industrial products. The proposed rules, UCS charged, would not protect the U.S. food supply from potential contamination by drugs from "pharma" crops, and could allow drugs that it deems "safe" to enter the food supply. This contamination could occur through cross-pollination or seed mixing between pharma food crops and crops intended for consumption.

The USDA ignored recommendations for a ban on the outdoor production of pharma food crops from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, major food companies, UCS, and more than 100 environmental, agricultural, health, and consumer organizations.

Below is a statement by Jane Rissler, UCS's Food and Environment Program deputy director: "Under the proposed rules, USDA's new motto is 'Only safe levels of drugs in U.S. food.' If  these proposals are enacted into law, American consumers must accept the possibility of drugs in their breakfast cereal or other common foods. Moreover, these rules likely will lead to contamination scares, which will hurt the food industry.

"The USDA proposal, unlike the ban we recommended, offers no incentives to drug companies to pursue already existing, safer methods for producing drugs.

"In its rush to enact the proposed rules into law before the end of the Bush administration, the USDA has given short shrift to public participation. The department is allowing only 45 days for the public to analyze and comment on this major proposal, which will determine the government's approach to regulating genetically engineered organisms for years to come.

"The proposed rules also overhaul the existing regulatory system for genetically engineered crops other than pharma crops. Some of the proposed changes represent steps in the right direction such as making the regulatory program more coherent and comprehensive, expanding the scope of genetically engineered organisms subject to government oversight, and allowing the department to consider impacts on public health."

You're welcome, petslave. 

There is another FDA comment open about pharma crops via the Union of Concerned Scientists--I don't know, is the FDA "link" to comments may still be impeding the right to comment?

http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php  (scroll down to Oct. 6)

USDA's New Biotechnology Regulations Could Allow Drugs in Food

Statement by Jane Rissler, Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), 6 October 2008

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today denounced newly proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rules governing genetically engineered crops, including food crops engineered to produce pharmaceutical and industrial products. The proposed rules, UCS charged, would not protect the U.S. food supply from potential contamination by drugs from "pharma" crops, and could allow drugs that it deems "safe" to enter the food supply. This contamination could occur through cross-pollination or seed mixing between pharma food crops and crops intended for consumption.

The USDA ignored recommendations for a ban on the outdoor production of pharma food crops from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, major food companies, UCS, and more than 100 environmental, agricultural, health, and consumer organizations.

Below is a statement by Jane Rissler, UCS's Food and Environment Program deputy director:

"Under the proposed rules, USDA's new motto is 'Only safe levels of drugs in U.S. food.' If these proposals are enacted into law, American consumers must accept the possibility of drugs in their breakfast cereal or other common foods. Moreover, these rules likely will lead to contamination scares, which will hurt the food industry.

"The USDA proposal, unlike the ban we recommended, offers no incentives to drug companies to pursue already existing, safer methods for producing drugs.

"In its rush to enact the proposed rules into law before the end of the [edited] administration, the USDA has given short shrift to public participation. The department is allowing only 45 days for the public to analyze and comment on this major proposal, which will determine the government's approach to regulating genetically engineered organisms for years to come.

"The proposed rules also overhaul the existing regulatory system for genetically engineered crops other than pharma crops. Some of the proposed changes represent steps in the right direction such as making the regulatory program more coherent and comprehensive, expanding the scope of genetically engineered organisms subject to government oversight, and allowing the department to consider impacts on public health."

For UCS's Web feature profiling innovative biotechnology companies that are developing drugs more safely, go to http://ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/sensible_pharma_crops/sensible-pharma/.

For the location of pharma crops that have been grown outdoors across the country, go to http://go.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/pharm/index.php?s_keyword=XX.
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http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/feed/feed-october-2008.html#1

1. What You Can Do: Send USDA comments on engineered crops
We need your help! A new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposal regarding genetically engineered crops, including food crops engineered to produce drugs and industrial chemicals, could allow these substances to contaminate the U.S. food supply. The new proposal ignores calls from the Union of Concerned Scientists and major food companies for a ban on outdoor production of these "pharma" rice, corn, and other food crops, and could instead weaken the existing regulations. The USDA will accept comments from the public on its proposal through late November, and UCS wants to generate hundreds of personalized letters from citizens like you in opposition. Will you commit to submitting individualized comments to USDA? If so, send an email to jpalembas@ucsusa.org with the subject line "USDA comments" to sign up. We will provide you with background materials and guide you through the comment submission process. Your input is critical to change this proposal and keep drugs and industrial chemicals out of our cornflakes!
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Melamine is bad enough!  Please, help stop the madness!!

If you click on the above link:   http://go.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/pharm/index.php?s_keyword=XX , here is some of the "information" you can receive for my state, Florida:
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Monsanto-Corn was engineered with an unidentified gene taken from an unidentified organism to produce an unidentified pharmaceutical protein. The identities of the gene, gene source, and pharmaceutical protein produced are withheld from the public as confidential business information. Pharmaceutical proteins, including therapeutic drugs, hormones, vaccines, blood thinners, and blood substitutes, are used in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of human and animal diseases.
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Pioneer received permission from USDA to plant corn engineered with more than a dozen genes taken from a variety of sources to produce a variety of proteins, including an unidentified novel protein that may or may not have pharmaceutical or industrial purposes. From the information available to the public, it is not possible to determine the identities of the genes or gene sources for the novel protein.
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It makes me wonder if any of these sites were near my local farmers who sell to the public.  How are these companies preventing cross-pollination, etc, of crops that may or may not have pharmaceutical or industrial production purposes.

However, in light of the current state of politics, etc, I am certainly not surprised.  Who knows what's for dinner anymore?

DMS visited the link and punched up IL. They have a bracelet you can wear that states you do not want any fake plasma should you be in an accident and be unconcious and not able to speak for yourself. This fake sh##t killed some people and can stop up your heart.

Also they are very vague in descriptions - creating a novel protein? then nothing more is said - what for, what does it do, where is it gonna end up, why are they trying to develop this novel protein that could mean anything.

http://www.alibaba.com/buyofferdetail/100335897/We_Need_Some_Food_Additives.html
We are importer from USA, we are looking for a good manufactory who can provide us food additives such as:

1.Sorbic Acid

2.Potassium Sorbate

3.Carrageanan

4.Benzoic Acid

5.Cinnamic Aldehyde

6.Nisin

7.Sec-Butylamine

8.Chlorine Peroxide

9.Hydrogen Peroxide

10.Carbon Doxide

Mosanto which was a plain old chemical business before it rechristened itself a "life sciences" company, and started using bioengineering to develop genetically altered crops, is one of the biggest threats to both mankind and the earth today. They have both the capability and the ruthless drive to, more or less single-handedly, destroy the world’s natural biodiversity and food supply for their own profit.

Complicating the picture further, Monsanto is also deeply entrenched with the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmacia Corporation was created in April 2000 through the merger of Pharmacia & Upjohn with Monsanto Company and its G.D. Searle unit. Few people ever make the connection between GMO crops and the sale of drugs.

I believe the GMO crop issue is one of the most significant challenges to your future health. And, the drug industry is one of the primary driving forces for the traditional paradigm, which focuses on the treating symptoms with expensive band-aids, so you get sicker and sicker and require more of their self-serving expensive drug solutions to relieve your symptoms. Put these two health disasters together – where one is feeding the profits of the other -- and the picture becomes bleak indeed.

Folks, it’s time to just say no to this madness and abrogation of ethics.

Let your elected officials know how you feel about it; ask your local supermarket to stock their shelves with more natural organic foods; vote with your pocketbook – avoid everything that contains GMO products. That means abstaining from virtually all processed food products and sticking to fresh, locally grown, organic food stuffs, and going back to basic food preparation in your own home.

Cooking from scratch, with wholesome ingredients based on your nutritional type, is one of the absolute best things you can do for your long-term health.

Is New Terrifying Disease the Cause of Genetically Modified Foods?

Have you ever heard of “Morgellon’s Disease?”

As of February 2007, more than 10,000 reports of the mysterious disease have been reported on the Morgellon Foundation's website. That’s up from 2,000 reports in February of 2006.

Reports come from 15 nations across the world, including Canada, the UK, Australia and The Netherlands, as well as all 50 U.S. states. The majority of reports have come from Texas, California and Florida.

People with Morgellon’s disease describe it as a feeling of bugs or parasites scuttling around beneath their skin, accompanied by open lesions that heal slowly and ooze out blue, black or white fibers that can be several millimeters long. These fibers appear like pliable plastic. They can be as fine as spider silk, yet they are strong enough to distend the skin when pulled and elicit shooting pains when you try to remove them.

The CDC, unusually slow to respond to what can only be described as a new outbreak, has finally set up a web page about the phenomenon, which they refer to as “Unexplained Dermopathy.” In August 2007 -- a year after vowing to look into the terrifying disorder -- they gave $300,000 to Kaiser Permanente to investigate the disease.

The CDC’s website lists additional symptoms, including fatigue, mental confusion, short term memory loss, joint pain, changes in vision, and social dysfunction, including suicide.

According to an article in Natural News, published last week, Morgellon’s disease may be linked to genetically modified food.

While the CDC dragged its feet, a research team from Oklahoma State University lead by Dr. Randy Wymore, studied some of the fibers sent to them by Morgellons patients. They found that the fibers from different people look remarkably similar to each other, yet do not match any common environmental fibers.

Vitaly Citovsky, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University in New York, discovered that the fibers contain the substance Agrobacterium, a genus of gram-negative bacteria capable of genetically transforming not only plants, but also other eukaryotic species, including human cells. 

Are we now teetering on the brink of the GM food disaster we feared from the very beginning?

Good advice to not eat processed foods (tv dinners, anything frozen in a box that you can throw in micro for lunch or dinner, etc.) things you don't make from scratch. Also the chances of melamine showing up in processed food is almost a certainty and should give one another reason to not consume processed foods.

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/ge-threat-to-fertility-11112008

Genetically-engineered food: potential threat to fertility
Study shows that genetically engineered maize affects reproductive health in mice
11 November 2008
Vienna, Austria — A study published today by the Austrian government identified serious health threats of genetically engineered (GE) crops. In one of the very few long-term feeding studies ever conducted with GE crops, the fertility of mice fed with GE maize was found to be severely impaired, with fewer offspring being produced than by mice fed on natural crops. Considering the severity of the potential threat to human health and reproduction, Greenpeace is demanding a recall of all GE food and crops from the market, worldwide.

The study, sponsored by the Austrian Ministries for Agriculture and Health, was presented today at a scientific seminar in Vienna, Austria. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Zentek, Professor for Veterinary Medicine at the University of Vienna and lead author of the study, summarised the findings: Mice fed with GE maize had less offspring in the third and fourth generations, and these difference were statistically significant. Mice fed with non-GE maize reproduced more efficiently. This effect can be attributed to the differences in the food source.

"GE food appears to be acting as a birth control agent, potentially leading to infertility - if this is not reason enough to close down the whole biotech industry once and for all, I am not sure what kind of disaster we are waiting for," said Dr. Jan van Aken, GE expert at Greenpeace International. "Playing genetic roulette with our food crops is like playing Russian roulette with consumers and public health".

The Austrian scientists performed several long-term feeding trials with laboratory mice over a course of 20 weeks. One of the studies was a so-called reproductive assessment by continuous breeding (RACB) trial, in which the same parent generation gave birth to several litters of baby mice. The parents were fed either with a diet containing 33% of a GE maize variety (NK 603 x MON 810), or a closely related non-GE variety. A decrease in litter size and weight was found to be statistically significant in the third and fourth litters in the GE-fed mice compared to the control group.

Owned by Monsanto, the GE maize variety tested in this study is tolerant to a herbicide and resistant to certain insect pests. It has been approved for planting and food use in a variety of countries, including the US, Argentina, Japan, Philippines and South Africa. In Mexico and the European Union(1), it is approved for food and feed use.

 "This study is yet another example that the food and feed safety of GE crops and food cannot be guaranteed. The reproductive toxicity of this GE maize was a totally unexpected result, but regulators around the world had considered this GE maize variety as safe as non-GE varieties - a potentially devastating error," said Dr. van Aken.

Notes to Editor
(1) In 2005, the European Food Safety Agency EFSA gave a green light for this variety. Without conducting any independent studies and just relying on Monsanto's data, EFSA wrote it "considers it unlikely that NK603 x MON810 maize will have any adverse effect on human and animal health". This exemplifies how flawed and ill-designed the European risk assessment for GE crops is.