India & biotech

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Fri Aug 14 09:12:47 PDT 1998


[More on the reception of engineered crops in India from Mark Ritchie.]

AGRICULTURE-INDIA/ VIGIL AGAINST GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SOYABEANS

August 13, 1998

NEW DELHI - Inter Press Service via NewsEdge Corporation : A campaign against the landing of one million tons of soyabeans from the United States, suspected to be genetically engineered, got off today with a farmer's rally in the capital.

The suspicions arise from the fact that soyabean consignments from the U.S have been found to be mixed with crops from the biotechnology giant Monsanto which has more than five million hectares under genetically engineered (G.E.) soya.

"What the Europeans have rejected due to environmental and health hazards is now being dumped on Indians who traditionally do not consume soya," said leading activist Vandana Shiva.

................

The scientist in UK who brought the information to the public that the genetically engineered potatoes injured rats has been fired. The institute he was working for has not said that his results were incorrect, but has said they require further analysis. It seems that the controversy he stirred up resulted in him losing his job.

----------

BBC Wednesday, August 12, 1998 Published at 15:42 GMT 16:42 UK

Genetics scientist suspended

Dr Arpad Pusztai will now retire

BBC Science Correspondent James Wilkinson reports

The scientist at the centre of controversial claims over the risks of eating genetically-modified (GM) food has been suspended.

Dr Arpad Pusztai claimed research on rats fed with genetically modified potatoes had suffered immune damage.

He had gone on the ITV World In Action programme to raise questions about the safety of GM food in the human diet on the basis of the study.

But his employers, the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, said the scientist had got into a "muddle" and had provided misleading information.

............... August 13 1998 BRITAIN

Scientist's potato alert was false, laboratory admits

BY NIGEL HAWKES, SCIENCE EDITOR

The Times (UK)

WARNINGS about genetically modified food issued by a scientist earlier this week were improper and misleading, a top British nutrition laboratory admitted yesterday.

The scientist involved, Dr Arpad Pusztai, 68, has been suspended by the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen and will retire. He had claimed that experiments with genetically modified potatoes had shown immune-system damage in rats that ate them for more than 100 days.

The Rowett said yesterday that this was not true. The data to which Dr Pusztai had referred, first in an interview with World in Action and then with The Times and other media, did not involve genetically modified potatoes. Rather, it involved feeding trials in which a protein from the jack bean, a lectin, was added to a potato-based feed. Since this lectin is known to harm the immune system, the damage was not surprising. ....

Last night Dr Pusztai said ... : "I do not want to speak right now because I have effectively been sacked."

Dr Pusztai is thought to have arrived in Britain from his native Hungary in 1956. He is a leading world expert in lectins and, according to institute sources, has an "enormous international reputation". He has worked at the institute for 20 years.

.............

The facts on this story may take some time before they are clear---Richard

...................

Thanks to "Quentin Gargan," <quentingargan at tinet.ie> for the following two articles:

Danes debate safety of Round Up herbicide ENDS Daily - 10/08/98 ------------------------- A debate is under way in Denmark about the health risks of one of the most widely used herbicides in Europe - Round Up - sold by US firm Monsanto, which contains the active ingredient glyphosate.

The debate was prompted by reports in the Danish press of research at Italy's National Institute for Cancer Research, which found that an "unknown compound" in the formulation of Round Up - not glyphosate itself -caused gene damage in mice, indicating that it could be a carcinogen. Around 86% of Round Up is made of so-called "inert" chemicals that support the action of glyphosate.

Newspapers have also been asking why Denmark has less strict rules on the use of glyphosate than neighbouring Sweden, where the national chemicals inspectorate has ruled that it should not be used within 10-14 days of crops being harvested because otherwise it left unacceptably high residues in food that were a "danger for human consumption."

Mounting public concern has led to a number of leading bread manufacturers in Denmark refusing to buy flour made from grain treated with Round Up close to harvesting. ... Tomorrow, environment minister Svend Auken is due to answer questions put to him by the Danish parliament's environment and planning committee, including why Denmark has not followed Sweden's rules on the use of glyphosate.

Contacts: Danish environment ministry (http://www.mem.dk/ukindex.htm), tel: +45 33 927 600; Danish parliament, tel: +45 33 37 55 00; Monsanto (http://www.monsanto.com), tel: +32 2 776 4111; Danish Farmers' Union, tel: +45 33 12 75 61.

================== PRESS RELEASE

Research Highlights Risk of using Viral Promoter Genes in New Foods

Fragments of artificial genes inserted into foods were detected in the brain cells of baby mice in research conducted Dr. Walter Doefler of the Institute of Genetics, University of Cologne. (Ref: Journal of molecular genetics and genetics Vol 242: 495-504, 1994 ) Conventional wisdom had previously assumed that genetic material was destroyed in the process of digestion. The research emerged on the UTV World in Action programme last Monday.

"This has huge implications for the use of genetically engineered foods" said Quentin Gargan of Genetic Concern. "Industry would have us believe that genetic engineering is a simple technology in which a single naturally occurring gene is taken from one plant and inserted into another, but nothing could be further from the truth".

We may have a gene which gives us blue eyes, and this gene exists in every cell in our body - part of this gene is a promoter region which ensures that it is only switched on in cells in our eyes - otherwise, every part of our body would be blue from our hair to our toenails.

When artificial genes are inserted into a plant, they are accompanied by a promoter region from a virus. This promoter ensures that the gene is switched on at all times and in all parts of the plant. Viruses such as the cauliflower mosaic virus and a figwort virus have promoter regions which are highly active, and these are included in genes which were inserted into the sugar beet currently being tested in field trials by Monsanto around the country.

"The idea that fragments of DNA from viral promoters could find their way into cells of new born babies is a frightening prospect", said Quentin Gargan of Genetic Concern "yet Monsanto admitted in the World in Action programme that they do not conduct long term testing of these genetically engineered foods". ....

"Once again, we hear regulatory authorities assuring us that there is no scientific evidence that genetically modified foods are unsafe - this was exactly the situation with BSE, DDT, Thalidomide and many other calamities" said Mr Gargan "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and with something irreversible such as genetic engineering, we must learn from past mistakes and take a very cautious approach"

ENDS

_________________________________________________________ Richard Wolfson, PhD Consumer Right to Know Campaign, for Mandatory Labelling and Long-term Testing of all Genetically Engineered Foods, 500 Wilbrod Street Ottawa, ON Canada K1N 6N2 tel. 613-565-8517 fax. 613-565-1596 email: rwolfson at concentric.net

Our website, http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/geindex.html contains more information on genetic engineering as well as previous genetic engineering news items Subscription fee to genetic engineering news is $35 for 12 months See website for details. __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________



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