03/07/2015

Adressing the Science?

Will Federated Farmers new “Reclaiming choice” lobby groups look at the science that is not provided by industry?

This week two new publications add to the rising mountain of studies showing that the toxic chemical and genetically engineered cocktails in our foods are causing a health crisis.

The first, a new comprehensive study published in scientific journal Carcinogenesis has found that low dose exposure to cocktails of chemicals that have been deemed 'safe' by regulatory authorities, may be triggering cancer [1]. The study concludes that current regulatory processes need to be reconsidered, as they do not adequately assess these types of risks.

The second, published in PLOS ONE [2] has found that a large range of pesticides and genetically engineered contaminants are part of every laboratory rodent diet. Questions need to be answered of Food Standards ANZ regulators if this is the reason they are choosing not to ask for feeding trials on GE food applications because the disease outcomes findings are “inconclusive and have no biological meaning”.

“These results are highly concerning for all developers, consumers and users of products that require testing for safety. The laboratory diets could skew results leading to dangerous effects being normalized due to the confounding presence of these dangerous contaminants,” said Claire Bleakley president of GE Free NZ. [3]

Mounting research in the last few years has indicated that low dose bio-chemical ingestion can cause hormonal, nerve and organ damage leading to endocrine disruption, reproductive failure and mutagenic effects. These independent studies on genetically engineered foods have been vilified by industry and called fraudulent, yet to date there have been no studies to refute the evidence of harm.

These findings come after 15 years of genetic engineering that allows a small number of foods types to tolerate herbicide applications or produce insecticides whilst they are growing. This has seen a rising level of pesticides entering the food we eat. More and more health professionals are reporting that they are seeing the toxic effects of these chemicals in patients eating these foods.

“It is extremely concerning that regardless of these published findings, Federated Farmers are denying these findings and placing strong pressure to adopt GE farming through their lobby groups,” said Mrs. Bleakley “Denying the adverse effects of chemical and engineered foods on consumers and the environment could lead to a health crisis that is far greater than the thalidomide disaster on the babies of pregnant women [5]. The thalidomide manufacturers and distributors also used the same denial rhetoric as today’s agri-biotech companies”.

References:

[1] http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/content/36/Suppl_1/S254.full.pdf)

[2] Mesnage R, Defarge N, Rocque L-M, Spiroux de Vendômois J, Séralini G-E (2015) Laboratory Rodent Diets Contain Toxic Levels of Environmental Contaminants: Implications for Regulatory Tests. PLoS ONE 10(7): e0128429.

[3] The Lancet Oncology http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanonc/PIIS1470-2045%2815%2900081-9.pdf

[4] The Lancet Oncology Volume 16, No. 5, p490–491, May 2015 http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045%2815%2970134-8/fulltext?hc_location=ufi

[5] Michael Magazanik. Silent Shock. Text Publishing Company, Australia 2015.

ENDS:

© Scoop Media