Critical Observer

GM SOY ALTERED DNA, MILK, AND OFFSPRING IN GOATS - STUDY

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First, the herbicide chemical glyphosate was found in breast milk of mothers around the country. Now, there is a new study showing that the DNA in goats fed transgenic, GM soy feed is altered, and the milk itself is of lower quality, affecting the offspring. 
 
Kid goats were studied both in vivo and post mortem, and what the researchers of this study found was not good. Colostrum is the ‘pre-milk’ in all mammals that provides incredible immuno-defense to offspring. It comes in first before the regular milk supply to ensure that new babies (in this case, baby goats) are ready to take on the dangerous microbes of the world. 
 
It was found that kids (baby goats) which fed on GM soy had both DNA fragments that were not supposed to be there, i.e., are not normally found in goat milk, and the immunoglobulin concentration was altered. Furthermore, the colostrum had significantly lower levels of both protein and fat. 
 
The study states: 
 
 
“. . . transgenic DNA fragments were amplified (P < 0.05) in samples from goats that received the transgenic soybean.” 
The baby goats that came from mothers fed GM soy also had altered physical traits. For instance, a significant height difference at the chest and withers than their non-GMO fed counterparts was observed. 
 
How GMOs Could Hurt Not Only Us, but our Offspring 
 
It is becoming increasingly obvious that genetically modified foods not only have negative effects on people who consume them, but are also future offspring. Morphological and biochemical changes in DNA fed GM corn was also found in male rats. You can imagine what it is doing to the human form. 
 
Oh, but you don’t have to imagine. There is evidence of GM foods altering human DNA as well. Geneticist David Suzuki recently said that human beings are part of a “massive genetic experiment,”  and he is right to be concerned. Suzuki points out: 
 
“One small mutation in a human being can determine so much, the point is when you move a gene, one gene, one tiny gene out of an organism into a different one you completely change its context. There is no way to predict how it’s going to behave and what the outcome will be. We think that we design these life forms, but it’s like taking the Toronto orchestra prepared to play a Beethoven symphony and then you take some random drummers from “here” and flip them in with the Toronto symphony and you say play music. What comes out is going to be something very very different. Publicists say that there is good intention behind GMOs, but the fact of the matter is it’s driven by money.” 
 
Horizontal gene transfer is a very real phenomenon, even though biotech advocates say it doesn’t pose any risk. This means that genetic material is transferred from one organism to another without reproduction in the ‘usual’ sense in which we understand it. 
 
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, an expert for the currently ongoing trial against Monsanto for false advertising in California, says that genetic modification interferes fundamentally with the natural genetic modifications that organisms undergo in order to survive. Under natural circumstances, this is done in real time as “an exquisitely precise molecular dance of life.” 
 
Too bad the baby goats aren’t able to refuse GM food, but you can. 
 
by CHRISTINA SARICH | INFOWARS.COM - This article originally appeared at Natural Society.

GM SOY ALTERED DNA, MILK, AND OFFSPRING IN GOATS - STUDY

First, the herbicide chemical glyphosate was found in breast milk of mothers around the country. Now, there is a new study showing that t...

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Greece and Latvia ban Monsanto's GMO Crops

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Two more European countries are rejecting genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Latvia and Greece have specifically said no to growing Monsanto‘s genetically modified maize, or MON810, that’s widely grown in America and Asia but is the only variety grown in Europe. 
 
Lativia and Greece have chosen the “opt-out” clause of a European Union rule passed in March that allows member countries to abstain from growing GM crops, even if they are authorized by the EU. Scotland and Germany also made headlines in recent weeks for seeking a similar ban on GMOs. 
 
According to Reuters, in many European countries, there is widespread criticism against the agribusiness giant’s pest-resistant crops, claiming that GM-cultivation threatens biodiversity. 
 
Monsanto said it would abide by Latvia’s and Greece’s request to not grow the crops. The company, however, accused the two countries of ignoring science and refusing GMOs out of “arbitrary political grounds.” 
 
In a statement, Monsanto said that the move from the two countries “contradicts and undermines the scientific consensus on the safety of MON810.” 
 
Monsanto also told Reuters that since the growth of GM-crops in Europe is so small, the opt-outs will not affect their business. 
 
“Nevertheless,” the company continued, “we regret that some countries are deviating from a science-based approach to innovation in agriculture and have elected to prohibit the cultivation of a successful GM product on arbitrary political grounds.” 
 
According to NewsWire, the EU’s opt-out clause “directly confronts U.S. free trade deal supported by EU, under which the Union should open its doors widely for the US GM industry.” 
 
In a statement on Thursday, the European Commission confirmed its zero-tolerance policy against non-authorized GM products. The commission said that it’s also consulting with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in order to answer “a scientific question” on GMO crops that’s unrelated to trade negotiations with the U.S. The EFSA announced that it would release a scientific opinion on the question by the end of 2017. 
 
The environmental group, Friends of the Earth Europe, however, has accused the European Commission of “bowing to pressure from large biotech companies to minimize the level of health and safety checks on imports” of GM crops. 
 
“The Commission is working behind closed doors to undermine rules that guarantee Europe’s food is GM-free,” said Mute Schimpf, a Friends of the Earth Europe food campaigner, said in a statement. “They’re bowing to pressure from big biotech companies who want to bring GM-crops through the backdoor as part of the EU-U.S. trade deal.” 
 
The group cites a leaked letter suggesting that the European Commission has asked the EFSA to explore bypassing food safety checks in the case of GM-imports. 
 
“Undermining current food safety laws would mean the food on our plates could be contaminated with GMOs and we’d never know,” Schimpf continued. “It would have severe consequences for the food sector — low-level contamination could not be traced and products could never be guaranteed GM-free.” 
 
By Lorraine Chow / EcoWatch

Greece and Latvia ban Monsanto's GMO Crops

Two more European countries are rejecting genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Latvia and Greece have specifically said no to growing M...

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FARMERS SEE DANGER FROM GMOs; REJECT GMO SEEDS

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GM crops reportedly come with increasingly high costs and few benefits, and as a result, many farmers are refusing to plant them. 
 
On its website, Monsanto – the world’s biggest producer of genetically modified organisms – claims that these realities are false. The manufacturer says that by genetically building certain traits into seeds, such as insect and herbicide tolerance, it can “help to increase yields by protecting the yield that would otherwise be lost due to insects or weeds.” Monsanto goes on to list five countries that have seen rather drastic increases in crop yields since the introduction of GM traits. 
 
But nothing is more powerful than first-hand accounts from farmers who have tried to utilize GM crops in their own fields. 
 
Illinois farmer Dan Beyers told the San Jose Mercury News last week that he abandoned GM corn and soybean seeds that had been altered to withstand glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, because planting the crops no longer made sense financially. 
 
“As they added more traits, we didn’t really see a yield advantage. And every time they added a trait, they added cost,” said Beyers, who also worries that GMO seeds could be damaging his soil. 
 
According to the Mercury News, anecdotal evidence suggests that Beyers is far from alone in his rejection of GM crops. [1] 
 
As the world begins to wake up to and worry about the impact GMOs could have on humans and the environment, non-GMO foods – especially soybeans – are in high demand. Thus, they make farmers far more money. The demand for non-GMO crops is largely driven by foreign nations like Japan and South Korea, which are constantly in the market for conventional (non-GM) soybeans. 
 
Plus, non-GM seeds are just plain cheaper because they lack the need to recoup the massive costs of research and development that are basically built into the price of GM seeds. [1] 
 
Even if profit is the cornerstone on which this change is based, it is still telling. After all, experts project over $35 billion in sales for organic, non-GMO foods in 2015. As GMO corn, soy, and other GM grain prices rise, along with the costs to grow them (associated with more pesticide and herbicide use to control super weeds, for example), farmers are looking past the GMO propaganda which promised higher yields and more cash for farmers who grew their poison crops. 
 
This phenomenon is explained clearly in “The Genetic Engineering of Food and the Failure of Science” (full text available for download here) published in The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. 
 
Gilbert Hostetler, president of Illinois-based Prairie Hybrids commented: 
 
“Our non-GMO seed sales are significantly higher than last year.” 
Mac Ehrhardt, president of Minnesota-based Albert Lea Seed reports that he is selling more conventional (he describes conventional corn as non-GMO) corn seed by the end of November than he did all of last year. He says that farmers are turning to non-GMO to cut costs and to earn more money for their non-GMO yields. 
 
Farmers are also fearful of planting GM seeds in their fields because they see the damage already caused by GMOs and wearily wonder what kind of toll they might take on their businesses in the future. Glyphosate is becoming less effective as more weeds become resistant to the chemical. “Roundup isn’t cleaning up the fields the way it used to,” Beyers said. 
 
In order for a crop to be considered non-GMO, it must contain less than 1% of glyphosate. 
 
The ever-present nature of glyphosate is making it hard for non-GMO farmers to keep their crops “clean.” Sometimes glyphosate from neighboring farms finds its way onto non-GMO farmers’ crops, for example, making it hard for farmers to keep their crops separate from GMO crops. This is called GMO cross-contamination, and it’s a problem. 
 
GMO farmers have to be more cautious about where they spray herbicides, and non-GMO farmers simply have to hope that GMO farmers will be careful. 
 
This article originally appeared at Natural Society.

FARMERS SEE DANGER FROM GMOs; REJECT GMO SEEDS

GM crops reportedly come with increasingly high costs and few benefits, and as a result, many farmers are refusing to plant them. On its...

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HAWAII’S SPIKE IN BIRTH DEFECTS PUTS FOCUS ON GM CROPS

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Pediatrician Carla Nelson remembers catching sight of the unusually pale newborn, then hearing an abnormal heartbeat through the stethoscope and thinking that something was terribly wrong. 
 
The baby was born minutes before with a severe heart malformation that would require complex surgery. What worried her as she waited for the ambulance plane to take the infant from Waimea, on the island of Kauai, to the main children’s hospital in Honolulu, on another Hawaiian island, was that it was the fourth one shehad seen in three years. 
 
In all of Waimea, there have been at least nine in five years, she says, shaking her head. That’s more than 10 times the national rate, according to analysis by local doctors. 
 
Nelson, a Californian, and other local doctors find themselves in the eye of a storm swirling for the past three years around the Hawaiian archipelago over whether a major cash crop on four of the six main islands, corn that’s been genetically modified to resist pesticides, is a source of prosperity, as the companies claim – or of birth defects and illnesses, as the doctors and many others suspect. 
 
by CHRISTOPHER PALA | THE GUARDIAN | AUGUST 24, 2015

HAWAII’S SPIKE IN BIRTH DEFECTS PUTS FOCUS ON GM CROPS

Pediatrician Carla Nelson remembers catching sight of the unusually pale newborn, then hearing an abnormal heartbeat through the stethosc...

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