KUUF Social Justice Committee
Summary/intro:
Genetically modified (GM) food is (or will someday soon be) a huge problem,
impacting everything we eat; this post from "Organic Bytes: Millions
Against Monsanto" explains the threat to organic foods from
cross-pollination from nearby GM fields.
Take Action
Stop
Monsanto's Genetically Modified Alfalfa!
Don't believe Monsanto's
greenwashing. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), aren't meant to feed the
world or survive the evermore frequent droughts and floods brought on by global
warming - they're designed to sell Monsanto's patented Roundup resistant or Bt
seeds and pesticides now spliced into millions of acres of corn, cotton, soy,
canola, sugar beets and alfalfa.
A 2009 study showed that, over the
last 13 years, Roundup Ready crops have increased herbicide use by 383 million
pounds! In addition, once GM alfalfa and other Monsanto crops are planted in
the open environment, they contaminate non-GMO and organic varieties as well as
plant relatives. So if you are operating an organic dairy, feeding your cattle
organic alfalfa, a nearby farm growing GMO alfalfa will almost inevitably
contaminate your alfalfa fields, causing you to lose your organic
certification.
During the Bush administration, the
movement to stop GMOs was making progress. Reflecting public concern over GMOs,
in 2007, a Federal court ruled that the Bush USDA's approval of Roundup Ready
alfalfa violated the law because it failed to analyze risks such as the contamination
of conventional and organic alfalfa and the development of
"super-weeds." The court banned the planting of GM alfalfa until USDA
completed a rigorous analysis of these impacts. The Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals twice affirmed the national ban on Roundup Ready alfalfa planting, but
Monsanto is appealing. They're taking producers of organic alfalfa seed all the
way to the Supreme Court!
Barack Obama, despite promising us
"change we can believe in," is unfortunately turning out to be just
as pro-GMO as the preceding Bush and Clinton administrations, packing the USDA
and other government bureaucracies with Monsanto men and biotech cheerleaders
such as former Iowa Governor, Tom Vilsack, named "Biotech Governor of the
Year" in 2001, now serving as USDA Secretary. Vilsack, notorious for
flying around in a Monsanto company jet during one of his previous election
campaigns, is now busy trying to get the court-ordered ban on Roundup Ready
alfalfa lifted by issuing a new draft environmental impact statement (EIS) that
denies or downplays the obvious environmental (genetic pollution and creation
of herbicide-resistant superweeds) and human health hazards of GM alfalfa.
Alfalfa is the fourth most widely
grown crop in the U.S. and a key source of dairy forage and hay. The first
perennial crop to be genetically engineered, GM alfalfa can regenerate itself
from its root-stock. It is open-pollinated by bees, which can cross-pollinate
at distances of several miles, spreading Monsanto's patented, foreign DNA to non-GMO
and organic crops. Widespread GMO-contamination of organic alfalfa is
inevitable if the Obama Administration successfully distorts science and
ignores public opinion and allows Monsanto's GM Roundup Ready alfalfa to be
planted across the U.S.
Consumers who ingest GM alfalfa are
likely risking their health; since even the Obama Environmental Impact
Statement admitted that, "acute toxicity in mice was observed."
According to the EIS, consumers who
ingest foods with residues of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide may experience
"general and non-specific signs of toxicity from subchronic and chronic
exposure to glyphosate includ[ing] changes in liver weight, blood chemistry
(may suggest mild liver toxicity), liver pathology, and weight of the pituitary
gland."
The EIS warns that, "Based on
upper estimates of exposure ... infants consuming fruit and all age groups
consuming vegetables may be at risk of adverse effects associated with acute
exposure to glyphosate [the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide] residues."
Consuming milk and meat from animals
fed crops that are genetically engineered is also risky. Mounting evidence
shows damage to animals and humans from unlabeled and untested Frankenfoods.
Even in Europe, where farmer and consumer rejection has kept GMO corn and
soybean acreage to a bare minimum, (massive quantities of GMO tainted animal
feed is imported from the U.S.) a survey of milk products sold in stores in
Italy, results from the screening of 60 samples of 12 different milk brands
demonstrated the presence of GM maize sequences in 15 (25%) and of GM soybean
sequences in 7 samples (11.7%).
Most consumers, especially organic
consumers, are determined to avoid Roundup Ready alfalfa, and meat and dairy
products derived from animals ingesting Roundup Ready alfalfa, but according to
the EIS, we don't have that right because, "At the present time, there is
no policy regarding the unintended presence of GE (genetically engineered)
material in organic products or food, consistent with the fact that the NOP
(National Organic Program) is a process-based program for certifying a farm or
production system as organic, and not a product-based program that tests or
certifies individual products as organic."
We must stop the Obama
administration from taking away our right to grow and consume organic and
GMO-free food. The "change we believe in" is a healthy and
sustainable future based upon organic food and farming and a green economy.
--
Barry Pegg
22059 Royalewood Rd.
Houghton, MI 49931-9014, USA
(906) 482-8614