We
need to watch this. Sooner or later the
push back on the whole GM protocol will become a huge policy issue and media
story. The science is stacking up as
researchers are now rapidly going over the gamed science that has been used to license
much of these products.
Importantly,
we are heading for import bans from a wide number of important markets and that
will drive the farmers from the field fairly quickly.
I
still recall my father returning his first can of Roundup back in the mid-sixties
after he read through the disclaimers and all that. It was early days and the language likely reflected
corporate fears a little too honestly and he would have read between the lines
too easily.
This
is a huge global story that may well take the majors down before it is all
over. It is wise to avoid investing in
the sector until this is all sorted out.
Total
GMO Ban To Be Considered By Russia Within Weeks
September 30, 2013
Natasha Longo, Prevent Disease
As one of the few
nations in the world with a GMO-free platform, Russia does not allow any cultivation of
GMOs for commercial purposes. Their regulatory agencies recently suspended the
import and use of an American GM corn following a study suggesting a link to
breast cancer and organ damage. The Russian Prime Minister has now ordered the
same agencies to consider a possible ban on all GMO imports into Russia.
The Russian Federal
Environmental Assessment Commission has not adopted any commercialized GM
varieties for agricultural use.
The recent decision by the Russians to suspend
authorisation for American GM corn threatens to trigger a transatlantic
commercial and diplomatic row.
A growing body of scientific research - done mostly in
Europe, Russia, and other countries – showing that diets containing
engineered corn or soya cause serious health problems in laboratory mice and
rats.
Experts at the
University of Caen conducted an experiment running for the full lives of rats -
two years.
The findings, which
were peer reviewed by independent experts before being published in a respected
scientific journal, found raised levels of breast cancer, liver and kidney
damage.
Russian Prime
Minister Announces Possible Ban On All Imports
Russia’s consumer
rights watchdog and Health Ministry, Rospotrebnadzor, announced one year ago
that it had suspended the import and use of the Monsanto GM corn.
Now, the Russian
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the relevant agencies to consider a
possible ban of all imports into Russia of products containing genetically
modified organisms (GMOs) by October 15.
The order is
addressed to Rospotrebnadzor, the Agriculture Ministry, and the Trade and Economic
Development Ministry. They have been ordered to “submit proposals on amendments
to the Russian legislation aimed at tightening control over the turnover of
products containing components obtained from GMOs together with the relevant
federal executive bodies.”
The aforementioned
agencies are also ordered to submit proposals “on the possibility of banning
the import of such products into the Russian Federation.”
A list of the prime
minister’s orders was drawn up to fulfill the presidential orders issued after
the meeting on the socio-economic development of the Rostov region held on
September 18. Medvedev’s orders have been posted on the government website,
Interfax news agency reported last September 25.
Russia is currently
taking a hard line on GMOs — in August the first independent project for
identifying whether Russian farmers are growing illegal GM crops started in the
Belgorod region.
NAGS (The National
Association for Genetic Safety) conducted the first checks of agricultural
crops for the presence of GMOs. No GMO plants were found in any Belgorod
fields.
According to the
current law, 19 GM lines are allowed in foodstuffs, but the cultivation of GMOs
is not allowed.
After joining the
World Trade Organisation (WTO), Russia is being pressured simplify the
procedure for registration of genetically modified products, seed and feed, to
stop their safety checks, and to stop controls over their distribution.
Nations Banning
Monsanto’s Glyphosate Herbicide
Glyphosate is the
world’s top selling herbicide, and Monsanto’s formulations Roundup is used with
more than 80 percent of all genetically modified (GM) crops grown globally. But
evidence of its extreme toxicity has been emerging within the past decade.
Glyphosate was found to kill human placental cells at concentrations below that
recommended for agricultural use and approved by our regulators, while Roundup
was lethal at even lower concentrations.
The toxic effects
of Roundup (R400) begin at 5 ppm, and the first endocrine disrupting action is
already evident at 0.5 ppm, 800 times lower than the level of 400 ppm
authorized by the US Environment Protection Agency in food or feed.
According to one
analysis, GMO corn tested by Profit Pro contains a number of elements absent
from traditional cord, including chlorides, formaldehyde and glyphosate. While
those elements don’t appear naturally in corn, they were present in GMO samples
to the tune of 60 ppm, 200pm and 13 ppm, respectively.
“Glyphosate is a
strong organic phosphate chelator that immobilizes positively charged
minerals such as manganese, cobalt, iron, zinc [and] copper,” Dr. Don
Huber attested during a separate GMO study recently released, adding that those
elements “are essential for normal physiological functions in soils,
plants and animals.”
El Salvador has
recently voted to ban glyphosate, the pesticide that most GM crops are designed
to be grown with, along with 52 other chemicals.
Predictably,
protests have been raised by the GM lobby group CropLife, which is scaremongering about losses of up to 60% in crop production if
the chemicals are banned.
CropLife is funded
by the big GM companies, including Monsanto.
The news of the
historic El Salvadorean vote comes on the anniversary of the publication of the
groundbreaking study led by Prof GE Seralini, which found that the
glyphosate-based pesticide Roundup – and a GM maize engineered to tolerate it –
caused severe organ damage and increased rates of tumours and premature death
in rats. Roundup was found to be toxic at half the level permitted in EU
drinking water.
Denmark has also
imposed widespread bans on the spraying of glyphosate in response to research
showing that the sprays have been contaminating the countrys groundwater.
The chemical has,
against all expectations sieving down through the soil and polluting the ground
water at a rate of five times more than the allowed level for drinking water,
according to tests done by the Denmark and Greenland Geological Research
Institution (DGGRI).
A decade ago, the
Danish environment minister Hans Christian Schmidt announced unprecedented
restrictions on glyphosate, the country’s and Europe’s most widely used
herbicide.
About the Author
Natasha Longo has a master’s degree
in nutrition and is a certified fitness and nutritional counselor. She has
consulted on public health policy and procurement in Canada, Australia, Spain,
Ireland, England and Germany.
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