Healthy Andy

Newly released Wikileaks documents suggest the United States is willing to wage trade war tactics on the European Union in order to force acceptance of genetically modified (GM) crops.

If this smells like another evil Monsanto plot, your nose has got it right.  Monsanto, for those of you new to the debate, is a massive biotech company that’s big on creating genetically modified crops and forcing them past any legal opposition despite real health concerns.  They’re apparently also big on the idea of controlling the world’s supply of food, since they can patent their seeds and sue farmers who use the age-old method of using seeds from last year’s crops to plant this year’s harvest (the NERVE of those farmers!).

As usual, big money special interests that are borderline Darth Vader-evil have managed to hijack the power of the US federal government for their own ends.  A series of Wikileaks cables shows that embassies in Europe are calling for the United States government to put pressure on the European Union to block any opposition to GM crops, using so-called “trade war” tactics if necessary.

Studies have already shown that GM crops, and Monsanto crops in particular, are dangerous and cause organ damage, but apparently, the stance of the US government is screw all that because tons of money is at risk for a giant faceless corporation who tried to hide those risks with statistical trickery.

I don’t want to get off on a rant here (oh, who am I kidding, sure I do), but is this what I’m paying taxes for?  So that some a-hole ambassador or other government employee who’s bought and paid for by one Evil Empire or another can use their influence to force unhealthy and dangerous genetically modified crops on foreign lands?  Meanwhile, our roads and bridges are crumbling, an entire generation is suffocating with student debt, and drug companies have completely taken over our health care system.

The cables themselves are pretty creepy if you read through them.  One flat-out acknowledges that 85% of the local population thinks GM crops are dangerous, and yet, still advises that pressure be brought against the government on behalf of GM crops and Monsanto.  And there’s talk of the Vatican’s stance on GM crops… really?  We’re spending our resources convincing the Pope that God digs GM crops?

I don’t know about you, but I have a serious problem with Mosanto railroading their dangerous GM crops into production in THIS country, much less allocating taxpayer resources to insure they can destroy the health of foriegn lands as well.  Let’s not forget that trade war tactics usually hurt our economy as well as theirs… something the US economy can hardly afford just so Monsanto can march a little closer to world food crop domination.

Many thanks to my friend and fellow health blogger Emily Giuffre’ for bringing this to my attention!

Includes links to some individual Wikileaks cables: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/03/wikileaks-us-eu-gm-crops?utm_source=streamsend&utm_medium=email&utm_content=13190181&utm_campaign=Food+News+Tuesday%2C+January+4

Anybody here think that delicious genetically modified food is not dangerous?  Well, I have some bad news for you.  A study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences shows that three varieties of genetically modified corn created by monolithic agro-giant Monsanto actually cause organ damage.

Fantastic.  Especially considering how Monsanto is rapidly trying to monopolize the seed market with their patentable GM crops, and the government seems just fine with that idea, seeing as how the Supreme Court recently lifted a ban on GM alfalfa seeds.  So even though we have scientific evidence that genetically modified crops are dangerous, the government’s reaction seems to be “Eh, big whoop.”

How Genetically Modified Corn Is Dangerous

Ah, where to start.  Well, how about this little gem of an excerpt from the article itself: “One corn (NK 603) has been genetically engineered to tolerate the broad spectrum herbicide Roundup and thus contains residues of this formulation.” (emphasis mine)

In other words, these genetically modified crops actually contain pesticide residue embedded within them.  Seeing as how our bodies evolved to break down and digest corn, not “corn with Roundup pesiticide stuck inside of it”, that little extra tidbit of chemistry might just cause some problems.

The Study

What’s wild about this study is, the researchers actually used data from Monsanto itself.  You see, Monsanto actually took rats and fed them GM corn for 90 days to see if there were any effect.  They reported that there wasn’t anything to see here, move along please.

However, it turns out, when you run a proper statistical analysis on their data, there ARE health effects that begin to crop up (pun fully, fully intended).  I’ve said it before… statistics DO lie, if you know how to mis-report them.

There’s a number of disturbing things that come to light as you read this article.  First off, Monsanto only did a study for 90 days?  Are you kidding me?  People are going to be eating this corn for a lot longer than 90 days.  Last I checked, average life expectancy for an American is around 70, 75 YEARS. 

Do you think we might just miss some stuff if we only look at effects over 90 days?  Especially since, as the authors of this study note, it takes one or two years to start noticing a lot of different disease processes beginning to take place (like cancer or immune disorders, among others). 

Also, they only did this one piddily quick-o study on only one species (rats).  If we’re going to be stuffing GM crops into people’s faces for the long term, which Monsanto definitely wants to do, maybe several, longer studies using a number of different species might be in order, no?

Bah, screw all that!  There’s money to be made!

Okay, so Monsanto did a lousy study that was too short and too narrow, so it’s not surprising that they found nothing… except, when you sift through the data correctly, even with this very brief study, evidence of organ damage still comes out. 

I’m not going to go into the particulars of how the study’s authors performed their statistical analysis, mostly because it’s extremely technical and tedious and would bore the hell out of you.  As one example, the authors discuss how male and female rats had significant differences in their level of liver and kidney damage, which makes sense due to gender differences in liver and kidney metabolism, but was dismissed and ignored in the original report.

The Results

So what exactly happened to the rats?  Liver and kidney damage, mostly.  This makes sense, since those two organs do the heavy lifting in detoxifying the body… and in case you were wondering, herbicides and pesticides are toxins.  The authors don’t discount the possibility that something about the mutation process of creating a genetically modified crop might also be responsible.

The effects seemed to be dose- and gender- dependent.  So there was a link between how much GM corn a rat got, and whether it was a boy or a girl.  The effects were also different for each of the three different varieties of GM corn tested.

Effects were also found in the heart, spleen, and adrenals, but not as much as the liver or kidneys.

So, to sum up, Monsanto did a poorly-designed, super-short study on only one species, fudged the statistical data so it didn’t look like anything happened, and on the basis of that, declared their genetically modified corn wan’t dangerous.  Once somebody took the time to sort the data out properly, even in a brief 90 day time span, evidence of organ damage had already started to appear.

And people wonder why I’m so vehemently against genetically modified foods.

Avoid creepy Monsanto GM corn and stay healthy!

Research article citation: http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm#headingA11

Earlier today, I posted a huge win for Science with a gel that fixes cavities.  Well, Science just crapped the bed, because now we’ve got this:  the first genetically modified (GM) animal is about to be released onto the market for human consumption.

Oh, great.  Because we haven’t screwed up our food supply enough with pesticides, herbicides, or high fructose corn syrup.  It wasn’t enough that we started genetically modifying corn.  No, now we’re going to take the next step toward complete stupidity and start eating Frankenfish.

What’s the modification?  They’re taking salmon and inserting  DNA from some sort of eel so it will grow faster in a fish farm.  Farmed fish is already unhealthy, for the same reason penned-up livestock isn’t as healthy as grass-fed beef or chicken, but this is really taking it to another level of unhealthy… and un-natural.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been genetically modifying animals for centuries… through breeding.  But that uses the natural processes of genetic selection, not some cut-and-paste laboratory procedure where we’re combining DNA of animals that don’t breed.  Now we’re adding together bits of DNA that  never evolved to be together, and doing it in a way that Nature never allowed for during the evolutionary process.

What could possibly go wrong?

Here’s a basic rule of thumb to hold on to.  The more modified, refined, or otherwise un-natural a food is, the worse it is for you.  The further from Nature you get, the more opportunity you have for some weird, unforseen side effect.  So stick to whole foods, and eat as wild as possible (in a sense of getting closer to Nature, not with reckless abandon).

Avoid Frankenfish and stay healthy!

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/7857310/Giant-salmon-will-be-first-GM-animal-available-for-eating.html