Showing posts with label genetically modified foods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label genetically modified foods. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Whole Foods Market Takes Huge Stand Against GMOs: Mandatory Labeling by 2018

Whole Foods

Image: Whole Foods Market

Organic Authority: Whole Foods Market, the nation’s leading supermarket chain focused on organic and natural foods, has announced that it will begin labeling all products containing genetically modified ingredients throughout its U.S. and Canadian locations by 2018.

This moves makes Whole Foods the first national grocery chain to set such a deadline and commit to total transparency on the prevalence of genetically modified ingredients.

“We are putting a stake in the ground on GMO labeling to support the consumer’s right to know,” said Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, in a press release. “The prevalence of GMOs in the U.S. paired with nonexistent mandatory labeling makes it very difficult for retailers to source non-GMO options and for consumers to choose non-GMO products. Accordingly, we are stepping up our support of certified organic agriculture, where GMOs are not allowed, and we are working together with our supplier partners to grow our non-GMO supply chain to ensure we can continue to provide these choices in the future.”

Whole Foods came under scrutiny last year for its slow commitment to support California’s Proposition 37, which would have made it the first state to require labeling of genetically modified foods had it not lost by a narrow margin last November. The retailer came under attack in 2011 when an investigation found genetically modified ingredients in its private-label cereal brands. And it was also targeted last year by the faceless organization, Organic Spies, in undercover video encounters that showed an overwhelming number of Whole Foods employees (in California) who were misinformed about genetically modified ingredients, particularly when it came to whether or not Whole Foods Market actually carried foods containing GMOs.

Genetically modified foods are widespread in the U.S.; the Grocery Manufacturers Association estimates that 75-80 percent of processed foods contain genetically modified ingredients. Five major U.S.-grown crops: soy, corn, canola, cotton and sugar beets are overwhelmingly genetically modified.

While organic foods by definition cannot be genetically modified, organic ingredients can be mixed with non-organic, potentially GMO ingredients in processed food products. And Whole Foods has admitted that their stores most definitely carry products that contain GMO ingredients.

Currently, the U.S. is the only developed nation without any regulations on GMOs, making it a difficult task for consumers to determine which foods are GMO free. The Non-GMO project is the only third-party verification program in the country.

Proponents of GMO labeling cite a number of reasons for wanting labels on genetically modified foods, mainly so consumers concerned about the human health and environmental impacts can make informed purchasing decisions. “While we are encouraged by the many mandatory labeling initiatives, we are committed to moving forward with our own GMO transparency plan now,” said Robb.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Monday, August 22, 2011

Obama appoints Monsanto's vice president Michael Taylor as senior adviser to the commissioner at the FDA...

Who Owns Obama and FDA... None Other Than Monsanto!

monsanto.no.food

Obama appoints Monsanto's vice president Michael Taylor as senior adviser to the commissioner at the FDA... Folks, it just keeps getting more insane... ~ Jeffrey Smith

Michael Taylor was just appointed senior adviser to the commissioner of the FDA!

This is the same man that was in charge of FDA policy when GMO's were allowed into the US food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety.

He "had been Monsanto's attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA [and then] he became Monsanto's Vice President and chief lobbyist. This month [he] became the senior adviser to the commissioner of the FDA.

He is now America's food safety czar! This is no joke."
The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US food safety czar. This is no joke.

Here's the back story.

When FDA scientists were asked to weigh in on what was to become the most radical and potentially dangerous change in our food supply -- the introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods -- secret documents now reveal that the experts were very concerned.

Memo after memo described toxins, new diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and hard-to-detect allergens. They were adamant that the technology carried "serious health hazards," and required careful, long-term research, including human studies, before any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be safely released into the food supply.

But the biotech industry had rigged the game so that neither science nor scientists would stand in their way. They had placed their own man in charge of FDA policy and he wasn't going to be swayed by feeble arguments related to food safety. No, he was going to do what corporations had done for decades to get past these types of pesky concerns. He was going to lie.

Dangerous Food Safety Lies...

When the FDA was constructing their GMO policy in 1991-2, their scientists were clear that gene-sliced foods were significantly different and could lead to "different risks" than conventional foods. But official policy declared the opposite, claiming that the FDA knew nothing of significant differences, and declared GMOs substantially equivalent.

This fiction became the rationale for allowing GM foods on the market without any required safety studies whatsoever! The determination of whether GM foods were safe to eat was placed entirely in the hands of the companies that made them -- companies like Monsanto, which told us that the PCBs, DDT, and Agent Orange were safe.

GMOs were rushed onto our plates in 1996. Over the next nine years, multiple chronic illnesses in the US nearly doubled -- from 7% to 13%. Allergy-related emergency room visits doubled between 1997 and 2002 while food allergies, especially among children, skyrocketed. We also witnessed a dramatic rise in asthma, autism, obesity, diabetes, digestive disorders, and certain cancers.

In January of this year, Dr. P. M. Bhargava, one of the world's top biologists, told me that after reviewing 600 scientific journals, he concluded that the GM foods in the US are largely responsible for the increase in many serious diseases.

In May, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine concluded that animal studies have demonstrated a causal relationship between GM foods and infertility, accelerated aging, dysfunctional insulin regulation, changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system, and immune problems such as asthma, allergies, and inflammation
In July, a report by eight international experts determined that the flimsy and superficial evaluations of GMOs by both regulators and GM companies "systematically overlook the side effects" and significantly underestimate "the initial signs of diseases like cancer and diseases of the hormonal, immune, nervous and reproductive systems, among others."

The Fox Guarding the Chickens...

If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history.

That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto's attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto's vice president and chief lobbyist.
This month Michael Taylor became the senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA. He is now America's food safety czar. What have we done?

The Milk Man Cometh...

While Taylor was at the FDA in the early 90's, he also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST) -- injected into cows to increase milk supply.
The milk from injected cows has more pus, more antibiotics, more bovine growth hormone, and most importantly, more insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). IGF-1 is a huge risk factor for common cancers and its high levels in this drugged milk is why so many medical organizations and hospitals have taken stands against rbGH.

A former Monsanto scientist told me that when three of his Monsanto colleagues evaluated rbGH safety and discovered the elevated IGF-1 levels, even they refused to drink any more milk -- unless it was organic and therefore untreated.

Government scientists from Canada evaluated the FDA's approval of rbGH and concluded that it was a dangerous facade. The drug was banned in Canada, as well as Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

It was approved in the US while Michael Taylor was in charge. His drugged milk might have caused a significant rise in US cancer rates. Additional published evidence also implicates rbGH in the high rate of fraternal twins in the US.

Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.

Taylor's disclaimer was also a lie. Monsanto's own studies and FDA scientists officially acknowledged differences in the drugged milk. No matter. Monsanto used Taylor's white paper as the basis to successfully sue dairies that labeled their products as rbGH-free.

Will Monsanto's Wolff Also Guard the Chickens?...

As consumers learned that rbGH was dangerous, they refused to buy the milk. To keep their customers, a tidal wave of companies has publicly committed to not use the drug and to label their products as such.

Monsanto tried unsuccessfully to convince the FDA and FTC to make it illegal for dairies to make rbGH-free claims, so they went to their special friend in Pennsylvania -- Dennis Wolff...

As state secretary of agriculture, Wolff unilaterally declared that labeling products rbGH-free was illegal, and that all such labels must be removed from shelves statewide. This would, of course, eliminate the label from all national brands, as they couldn't afford to create separate packaging for just one state.

Fortunately, consumer demand forced Pennsylvania's Governor Ed Rendell to step in and stop Wolff's madness. Rendell allowed Wolff to take a compromised position that now requires rbGH-free claims to also be accompanied by Taylor's FDA disclaimer on the package.
President Obama is considering Dennis Wolff for the top food safety post at the USDA. Yikes!

Rumor has it that the reason why Pennsylvania's governor is supporting Wolff's appointment is to get him out of the state -- after he "screwed up so badly" with the rbGH decision. Oh great, governor. Thanks.

Ohio Governor Gets Taylor-itus...

Ohio not only followed Pennsylvania's lead by requiring Taylor's FDA disclaimer on packaging, they went a step further. They declared that dairies must place that disclaimer on the same panel where rbGH-free claims are made, and even dictated the font size.

This would force national brands to re-design their labels and may ultimately dissuade them from making rbGH-free claims at all. The Organic Trade Association and the International Dairy Foods Association filed a lawsuit against Ohio.

Although they lost the first court battle, upon appeal, the judge ordered a mediation session that takes place today. Thousands of Ohio citizens have flooded Governor Strickland's office with urgent requests to withdraw the states anti-consumer labeling requirements.
Perhaps the governor has an ulterior motive for pushing his new rules. If he goes ahead with his labeling plans, he might end up with a top appointment in the Obama administration!

Jeffrey Smith - August 15, 2011 - posted at ConspiracyPlant

*** Jeffrey M. Smith is the author of Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating  and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods from Chelsea Green Publishing (GMO Set). Smith worked at a GMO detection laboratory, founded the Institute for Responsible Technology, and currently lives in Iowa—surrounded by genetically modified corn and soybeans. For more information, visit Chelsea Green.

Also checkout: The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption, and the Control of the World's Food Supply

Submitted by SadInAmerica on Fri, 08/19/2011 - 5:51pm.

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Would you vote for a Food Bill Monsanto Supports?

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Frankenfood Coming Soon to a Store Near You

Food Laws – Forcing people to globalize

Sunday, June 19, 2011

How Swedes Stopped GMO Potatoes

activists

After being arrested twice, dedicated activists tie themselves to tractors to stop plantings of GM potatoes

IN SOME AREAS GREENPEACE HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY UNWANTED ELEMENTS, BUT IN SWEDEN, THEY SEEM TO BE DOING A GREAT JOB.

HERE IS THE LINK IS PICTURES OF THEM, DOING WHAT IS NECESSARY TO STOP THE PLANTING OF POTATOES WITH A MODIFIED GENE THAT IS RESISTANT TO ANTIBIOTICS. 

Friday, June 17, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer

(NaturalNews) When petitions, protests, and even sit-ins were not enough to stop the biotechnology giant BASF from planting its genetically-modified (GM) Amflora potato in Sweden, Greenpeace activists there "walked their talk," so to speak, by literally tying themselves to the tractor plows that were about to be used to spread the GM seeds throughout fields.

As we recently reported here on NaturalNews, an initial group of activists, for the second year in a row, had been blocking the entrance to the BASF warehouse near the field where Amflora was to be planted, that is until police came and arrested them (http://www.naturalnews.com/032544_B...).

Now, a new group has taken their place to continue the efforts of the first by doing whatever it takes to stop BASF from planting the crops in violation of EU law, even if it means going directly after the company's planting equipment.

Amflora potatoes contain an artificially added gene that is resistant to antibiotics, which opponents say is contributing to the rising epidemic of antibiotic resistance around the world.

Amflora was also never properly investigated for safety, nor was it subjected to a rigorous environmental impact review as it should have been -- the Swedish government basically just allowed the European Commission to approve the "Frankencrop" arbitrarily without so much as a peep of opposition.

So activists have decided to take matters into their own hands once again, this time directly accosting BASF tractor plows, which were actually accompanied by a police escort in expectation of the activists. Police arrested seven members of the group early on, but a number of others made it through the blockade where they proceeded to tie themselves to the plows.

You can view photos of Greenpeace's efforts here: https://info.greenpeace.se/a_mediarelease/?openfolder=110519_Haparanda_Sweden_GMO_repository_blockade/

"What we see here happening is that the profit interests of a company like BASF is ranked higher than the health interests of the European public who by large majority rejects the cultivation of GMOs," said Ludvig Tillman of Greenpeace Sweden. "The Commission rubberstamped the approval of risky Amflora and the Swedish government did nothing but watching [sic]. So if they do not act, we have to act."

To help stop BASF's efforts to plant GM Amflora in Sweden, visit:
http://www.naturalnews.com/032585_G...

Sources for this story include: http://gmwatch.eu/latest-listing/1-...

Natural News

h/t to: Claudia Johnson

Related:

Greenpeace calls for global ban on American rice after GM contamination discovered

Would You Vote For A Food Bill That Monsanto Supports?  -  Your Government Did!

Top 6 Ways to Identify and Avoid GMO Foods

Genetically Modified Foods Engineered to Make Mankind ‘Retarded’ Already in 21st Century

The E.coli Outbreak in Europe is BioWar???

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Genetically Engineered Foods… and what they can do to your immune system

Before talking about genetically engineered foods, we first need to know a little about DNA. DNA is nature’s way of creating the individuality of a living organism; it is a complex molecular structure that acts as a code to tell our cells and bodies what to do. DNA molecules make up genes and genes are the blueprints of life, life as lived and life as passed on to future generations. Genes make an astounding variety of proteins, proteins that are central to the body’s operating systems like neurotransmitters, enzymes, antibodies, and hormones.

As part of normal living, genes mutate. A mutation is any change in the coding of the gene. These occur naturally, often as a result of accidental omission or reversal of any of the thousands of molecules that make up the complex string of molecules that we call a gene. One species evolves from another as a result of mutations, which increase adaptability to the local environment. However, through the introduction of man-made chemicals, radiation, prescription drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and cooked foods, man has doubled the natural mutation rate with unknown consequences for the future of the human race. These changes are thought to be playing a major role in our epidemic of cancer and other chronic diseases.

Because DNA is so important to life itself, playing deliberate games with DNA requires extra careful scrutiny and caution. This is why all of us should be alarmed at what is happening in our food industry with genetically engineered foods. These foods are already on the market! They include corn, tomatoes, squash, potatoes, soybeans, and cotton. In addition, other foods like apples, rice, wheat, broccoli, cucumbers, carrots, melons, and grapes are in the process of being engineered. Because the FDA does not require these foods to be marked, consumers are unaware of what they are buying. Right now, the only way to be sure you are buying natural foods is to buy organic foods.

The reason we must be concerned about these developments is because genetically engineered foods have the potential for seriously damaging us as individuals as well as the entire ecosystem of the planet. With a potential like that, we need to be careful! We are introducing changes with unknown consequences, and unlike chemical contaminations, gene contaminations cannot be contained or cleaned up. Once they have been released into the environment, if they prove to be dangerous, we can’t simply recall them. Meanwhile, they could be setting off a chain reaction throughout our entire ecosystem. Every living thing could be exposed to completely unanticipated and uncontrollable side effects.

Here are some examples of what I’m talking about. Fields of genetically engineered crops are capable of cross pollinating neighboring fields and thereby creating new and potentially harmful species. Right now, the safest thing to do is eat organically grown foods, but if insects, birds, and wind carry seeds and pollen to the organic fields and cross pollinate them, we lose even that haven of safety. A genetically engineered bacterium produced toxic metabolites that rendered soil infertile. Corn crops that were planted in this soil grew only a few inches tall and fell over dead. What would happen if this bacterium got out of the lab? In 1989, 37 people died, 1500 were permanently disabled, and 5000 became extremely ill by taking a genetically engineered version of the amino acid tryptophan. The tryptophan was contaminated by a “novel amino acid” that was toxic. The problem is there was no way to test for this. Existing safety tests only test for known contaminants, not for new and “novel” ones.

Genetic engineering is no minor development. This is not crossbreeding potatoes with potatoes or corn with corn. This is inserting insect genes into potatoes, human genes into pigs, and fish genes into tomatoes. This has never been done before! This is creating species that have never existed with potential for lots of unanticipated side effects and unknown long-term consequences. Genetically engineered foods could contain allergens, toxins, and be of reduced nutritional value, and the unexpected results might not show up until years after the food is introduced, but then it’s too late. The fact is that putting those genes into a living organism is an extremely imprecise process, so you are never sure of what you are doing. All kinds of unintended things can happen.

What to do? For now, the best thing to do is eat a diet of organically grown foods. Insist on laws to label genetically engineered foods. The public has a right to know what they are eating. Safety tests should be at least as rigorous as those for new food additives. Right now we are on an honor system. The biotech companies do their own testing and are not required to inform the FDA if they suspect a problem. An organization called The American Campaign to Ban Genetically Engineered Foods has begun a nationwide campaign to collect one million signatures from people opposed to biotech foods.

Source:  Sanoviv Medical Institute Blog

Posted:  True Health Is True Wealth