MONSANTO's GM MAIZE LINKED TO ORGAN DAMAGE, HIV TRANSMISSION, DANGER TO THE ENVIRONMENT, BANNED IN EU & AUTHORIZED IN EAST AFRICA...

“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”
~Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father & president of the United States

GM MAIZE OPEN-FIELD TESTING BEGIN IN EAST AFRICA, WHILE SCIENTIFIC STUDIES LINK MONSANTO's GM MAIZE TO ORGAN DAMAGE and MAIZE CONSUMPTION TO HIV TRANSMISSION IN AFRICA & EU COUNTRIES BAN GM MAIZE…

In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto's GM corn is linked to organ damage.

The data “clearly underlines adverse impacts on kidneys and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, as well as different levels of damages to heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system,” reported Gilles-Eric Séralini, a molecular biologist at the University of Caen.

Worse, another scientific research paper recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has found that “ HIV transmission frequency is positively associated with maize consumption in Africa.

Several EU states and other countries have banned GM maize and other GMO crops based on independent scientific and empirical evidence which link GM maize and other GMO crops to serious negative health effects on both human and animals and to serious irreversible hazards to the environment and the entire ecosystem. The German government has banned Monsanto's GM Maize (MON 810)- the only GMO crop authorized by the EU - calling it "a danger to the environment.."

Tragically, however, at the same time East African countries begin open-field testing of Monsanto's so-called "drought-resistant" GM maize to fight " hunger and poverty" in Africa...

Please read below for details:

GM maize trials to begin in East Africa

By Katy Migiro

NAIROBI, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Confined field trials of genetically modified maize will begin in Kenya and Uganda this year once regulators approve it, the U.S.-based non-profit African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) said.

Scientists from Kenyan and Ugandan government research bodies, Monsanto (MON.N) and research body International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) developed the 12 varieties of Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) due to be planted.

Maize is the most widely grown staple food in Africa and is badly affected by drought. The scientists aim for the drought-resistant GM maize to increase yields by 24 to 35 percent.

"Everything we have seen in the simulated trials shows that we can safely test transgenic maize varieties in carefully controlled and confined field trials in Africa," James Gethi, the WEMA-Kenya country coordinator, said in a statement seen by Reuters late on Thursday.

Scientists conducted mock trials in simulated conditions in Kenya and Tanzania in 2009. The transgenic maize will now be planted in 1-2 hectare confined fields once Kenya and Uganda give regulatory approval.

The world's poorest continent, where agriculture contributes up to a quarter of GDP in some countries and is an important source of foreign exchange, is increasingly turning to genetically modified crops to bolster food supplies.

But critics and consumers, mostly in Africa and Europe, have questioned the safety of GM foods and have banned their import or cultivation due to fears they could harm humans and wildlife.

If the maize is approved, it will be licensed to AATF, which is funded by the United States and British governments.

"The expected WEMA transgenic drought-tolerant maize seed will be sub-licensed to local seed companies royalty-free for a term or duration to be determined based on future product deployment agreements," AATF Communications Officer Grace Wachoro said in a statement to Reuters.

"The confined field trials will enable the project to address safety issues."
AATF said the resulting trial maize crop will be destroyed in accordance with Kenyan and Ugandan research regulations.

Trials are also planned for South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania.

More than 30 countries, including all of the European Union, have restricted or banned the production of GM crops because they are not considered proven safe.

source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE69D1Q320101015

MONSANTO'S GM MAIZE LINKED TO ORGAN DAMAGE WARNS SCIENTIFIC STUDY

Huffington Post, Katherine Goldstein/Gazelle Emami

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/monsantos-gmo-corn-linked_n_420365.html

01-12-10

In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto's GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.

According to the study, which was summarized by Rady Ananda at Food Freedom ( see copy below), "Three varieties of Monsanto's GM corn - Mon 863, insecticide-producing Mon 810, and Roundup® herbicide-absorbing NK 603 - were approved for consumption by US, European and several other national food safety authorities."

Monsanto gathered its own crude statistical data after conducting a 90-day study, even though chronic problems can rarely be found after 90 days, and concluded that the corn was safe for consumption. The stamp of approval may have been premature, however.

In the conclusion of the IJBS study, researchers wrote:

"Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted. As there normally exists sex differences in liver and kidney metabolism, the highly statistically significant disturbances in the function of these organs, seen between male and female rats, cannot be dismissed as biologically insignificant as has been proposed by others. We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity....These substances have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences for those who consume them, especially over long time periods are currently unknown."

Monsanto has immediately responded to the study, stating that the research is "based on faulty analytical methods and reasoning and do not call into question the safety findings for these products."

The IJBS study's author Gilles-Eric Séralini responded to the Monsanto statement on the blog, Food Freedom, "Our study contradicts Monsanto conclusions because Monsanto systematically neglects significant health effects in mammals that are different in males and females eating GMOs, or not proportional to the dose. This is a very serious mistake, dramatic for public health. This is the major conclusion revealed by our work, the only careful reanalysis of Monsanto crude statistical data."

Three Approved GMOs Linked to Organ Damage

Posted on January 1, 2010

By Rady Ananda

In what is being described as the first ever and most comprehensive study of the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers have linked organ damage with consumption of Monsanto’s GM maize.

Three varieties of Monsanto’s GM corn – Mon 863, insecticide-producing Mon 810, and Roundup® herbicide-absorbing NK 603 – were approved for consumption by US, European and several other national food safety authorities. The data used for this approval, ironically, is the same data that independent researchers studied to make the organ damage link.

The Committee of Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN) and Universities of Caen and Rouen obtained Monsanto’s confidential raw data of its 2002 feeding trials on rats after a European court made it public in 2005.

The data “clearly underlines adverse impacts on kidneys and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, as well as different levels of damages to heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system,” reported Gilles-Eric Séralini, a molecular biologist at the University of Caen.

Although different levels of adverse impact on vital organs were noticed between the three GMOs, the 2009 research shows specific effects associated with consumption of each, differentiated by sex and dose.

Their December 2009 study appears in the International Journal of Biological Sciences available at the following link: http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm#headingA11.

This latest study conforms with a 2007 analysis by CRIIGEN on Mon 863, published in Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, using the same data.

Monsanto rejected the 2007 conclusions, stating:

“The analyses conducted by these authors are not consistent with what has been traditionally accepted for use by regulatory toxicologists for analysis of rat toxicology data.”

[Also see Doull J, Gaylor D, Greim HA, et al. “Report of an expert panel on the reanalysis by Séralini et al. (2007) of a 90-day study conducted by Monsanto in support of the safety of a genetically modified corn variety (MON 863).” Food Chem Toxicol. 2007; 45:2073-2085.]

In an email to me, Séralini explained that their study goes beyond Monsanto’s analysis by exploring the sex-differentiated health effects on mammals, which Doull, et al. ignored:

“Our study contradicts Monsanto conclusions because Monsanto systematically neglects significant health effects in mammals that are different in males and females eating GMOs, or not proportional to the dose. This is a very serious mistake, dramatic for public health. This is the major conclusion revealed by our work, the only careful reanalysis of Monsanto crude statistical data.”
Other problems with Monsanto’s conclusions

When testing for drug or pesticide safety, the standard protocol uses three mammalian species. The subject studies only used rats, yet won GMO approval in more than a dozen nations.

Chronic problems are rarely discovered in 90 days; most often such tests run for up to two years. Tests “lasting longer than three months give more chances to reveal metabolic, nervous, immune, hormonal or cancer diseases,” wrote Seralini, et al. in their Doull rebuttal. [See “How Subchronic and Chronic Health Effects can be Neglected for GMOs, Pesticides or Chemicals.” IJBS; 2009; 5(5):438-443.]
Further, Monsanto’s analysis compared unrelated feeding groups, muddying the results. The June 2009 rebuttal explains, “In order to isolate the effect of the GM transformation process from other variables, it is only valid to compare the GMO … with its isogenic non-GM equivalent.”

The researchers conclude that the raw data from all three GMO studies reveal novel pesticide residues will be present in food and feed and may pose grave health risks to those consuming them.

They have called for “an immediate ban on the import and cultivation of these GMOs and strongly recommend additional long-term (up to two years) and multi-generational animal feeding studies on at least three species to provide true scientifically valid data on the acute and chronic toxic effects of GM crops, feed and foods.”

Human health, of course, is of primary import to us, but ecological effects are also in play. Ninety-nine percent of GMO crops either tolerate or produce insecticide. This may be the reason we see bee colony collapse disorder and massive butterfly deaths. If GMOs are wiping out Earth’s pollinators, they are far more disastrous than the threat they pose to humans and other mammals.
Source: http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/three-approved-gmos-linked-to-organ-damage/

Note: Over 90% of the feral (wild) bee population in the United States have died out. Recent studies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have shown that bee diversity is down 80 percent, and that "bee species are declining or have become extinct in Britain." The studies also revealed that the numbers of wildflowers that depend on pollination have dropped by 70 percent.

As Albert Einstein said & warned: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years left to live."

Germany bans cultivation of GM corn

Wednesday, December 15, 2010 by: David Gutierrez

(NaturalNews) The German government has banned the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) corn, calling it "a danger to the environment."

The cultivation of all other GM crops is already banned in Germany. The variety in question, known as MON 810, produces a pesticide inside its tissues to repel insects such as larvae of the corn borer moth. Such corn is also known as Bt corn, after the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium that the toxin-producing genes come from.

MON 810 was approved for cultivation by the European Union in 1998, but E.U. law allows individual countries to impose their own bans. Such bans have since been implemented by Austria, France, Greece, Hungary and Luxemburg. According to German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner, Germany will now join their ranks.

The move was welcomed by environmental groups Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth Germany. Greenpeace spokesperson Stephanie Towe said that the decision is based on solid scientific evidence of environmental harm and should have been made long ago.

Critics say that GM crops can damage wildlife, spread their genetic material to wild relatives, and produce health problems in humans.

"As an example, it is now being discovered that pollen from genetically modified corn can kill monarch butterflies," writes Ron Garner in his book Conscious Health.

"There is long-term concern that pollen from bio-engineered crops will spread and kill beneficial insects as well as create strains of superweeds that are totally-resistant to pesticides," he writes. "Genetic engineering is changing the composition of foods, and most North American consumers are uninformed on the issue."

Biotechnology giant Monsanto, manufacturer of MON 810, condemned the new ban and said it is investigating the possibility of a lawsuit. Analysts warned that the environment ministry may have trouble proving to a court's satisfaction that the crop is harmful, potentially subjecting the government to millions of dollars in fines.

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/030733_Germany_GMOs.html

SCIENTIFIC STUDY REVEALS LINK BETWEEN MAIZE CONSUMPTION & AND HIV IN AFRICA

Worse, a scientific research paper recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by a team of american scientists from the University of Georgia (USA) has found that “ HIV transmission frequency is positively associated with maize consumption in Africa.”

ProdiGene, edible HIV maize, USAID & Food Aid

While doing further research on this subject, I came across an investigative article which carried out further research into this issue and found a disturbing link between the conclusions of this study, USAID and a US biotech company called Prodigene that in 2002 developed a GM 'pharma" maize containing a key protein found on the surface of the monkey form of HIV (gp120)to be used as an “edible vaccine” against the HIV virus…

Furthermore, during the course of his investigative research, Robert Wingfield found that the CEO of the Prodigene –Anthony G Leos - was appointed as head of USAID in 2002 by President George Bush...

As you surely know, USAID has been distributing millions of tons of GM maize as (so-called) “food aid” across Africa & is aggressively & fraudulently promoting GM food crops in African agriculture to "fight hunger and poverty..." USAID itself clearly states that among other things its role is to "integrate GM into local food systems" and "spread agricultural technology through regions of Africa."

As Robert Wingfield writes :

" In summary, we have the president of a company producing HIV tainted strains of corn on the board of an organization ( USAID) that is involved in providing genetically modified crops to sub Saharan Africa, where corn consumption is now being linked to HIV infection rates."

Coincidence…?

I have written to both USAID and the lead researcher & author of the scientific study regarding this troubling link and other issues related to the findings of his study.

I invite you to read a copy of the correspondence exchanged between us on my blog at the following link.

http://yajnacentre.blogspot.com/2011/01/open-letter-to-rajiv-shah-usaid.html

http://yajnacentre.blogspot.com/2010/12/maizecorn-linked-to-hiv-in-africa.html

URGENT ACTION TO BE TAKEN BY AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS & COUNTRIES

Precautionary Principle

In view of the above and given the serious health and irreversible environmental hazards associated with GM maize and GMO crops:

African governments/countries must immediately ban or declare a moratorium on both GM food distributed as "food aid" and on all commercial imports of GM foods and immediately halt all confined and open-field testing and growing of GMO's in Africa using the "Precautionary Principle" clause contained in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which states:

"In order to protect the environment, (and taking into account risks to human and animal health) the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation."

Nothing less than the future survival of the entire african population is at stake...

In fact, GMO's constitute the BIGGEST danger & threat facing the future survival of the African people and are truly the last nail in the coffin of Africa...

THE REAL (hidden) GEOPOLITICAL OBJECTIVES & AGENDA OF THE US ADMINISTRATION AND THE BIOTECH COMPANIES

"CONTROL OIL AND YOU CONTROL NATIONS
CONTROL FOOD AND YOU CONTROL PEOPLE."

Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under Nixon ( and Nobel Peace Price laureate!)

Of course, the real objectives of the US and the biotech companies are NOT " to fight hunger & poverty" in Africa...

On the contrary...

Food used as a weapon

In fact, GMO’s are used as a “weapon” and a Trojan horse by the biotech industry and the US administration to serve their own economic & financial interests and to achieve their geopolitical and genocidal agenda.

GMO's: Trojan Horse...

In fact, GMO's are a Trojan horse used by the US administration and the biotech industry to take over complete control over the supply of seeds ( and thus of food ) in Africa and worldwide through the following mechanism:

- INEVITABLE & IRREVERSIBLE GENETIC CONTAMINATION of traditionnal seeds

- STERILISATION of all contaminates seeds through the use of the jointly US government and Monsanto owned "Terminator Technology " which renders all contaminated seeds sterile.

- PATENTING of all GMO and contaminated seeds.

As a result, Africans farmers will forever lose all their traditional seeds and will be obliged to purchase patented GMO seeds from biotech multinationals every year, thereby making farmers and millions of Africans exclusively and dangerously dependent on a handful of biotech companies to eat and thus to live...

Furthermore, GMO's are NOT intended to "fight hunger and poverty" in Africa". Rather, GMO's will be used to produce agrofuels, industrial and pharmaceutical raw materials and feedstock (using GMO food crops) grown on vast seized tracks of land in Africa for consumption in affluent countries, NOT to produce food for starving Africans...

Thus, GMO's will lead to the biggest recorded FAMINE in the history of Africa & to the GENOCIDE of millions of Africans...!

The root causes of hunger & poverty

Hunger - the worst form of violence - is a direct result of unfair global trading rules and exploitative economic practices and suicidal economic policies imposed on Africa by the IMF ( International Monetary FRAUD), the World Bank(sters) and the WTO (World TERRORIST Organisation), blindly followed by so-called african "leaders" and governments which result in abject human poverty and hunger.

There is more than sufficient food to feed everyone in Africa and around the world. The problem lies in its inequitable distribution and in the lack of financial resources required to purchase it by the vast majority of the human population.

Thus, simply increasing food production without addressing the root economic, political and structural causes of poverty and without distributional justice will NOT resolve hunger.

As Mahatma Gandhi rightly stated:

"There is enough food in the world to satisfy everyone's needs but not everyone's greed."

I invite you to read the following article I have written & published on this blog for an overview of the REAL economic, social, health & environmental consequences and hazards of GMO's and the (hidden) geopolitical objectives and agenda of the US administration and the biotech companies...

http://yajnacentre.blogspot.com/2009/12/real-consequences-agenda-of-gmos.html

WAKE UP AFRICA...!

MAY GOD PROTECT AFRICA.

Thank you for widely sharing this info.

Truthfully,

Arya

" In a world surrounded by deceit, telling the Truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell