Thanks Mr. Chatterjee for posting such a nervechilling story on 'biotech
development.'
Sakti

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 6:45 PM, Jagannath Chatterjee
<jagchat01@...>wrote:

> Don't be fooled by the 'Biotech Myth'
> Grand Forks Herald
> Published Monday, November 24, 2008
> http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=94342&section=Opinion
> By Kristine Mattis
>
> GRAND FORKS — The new presidential administration would do well to ignore
> the not-very-impartial advice of Art Brandli ("Obama must lead on biotech,"
> Page A4, Nov. 15).
> Biotechnology may have produced exponential economic growth for large
> agribusiness corporations such as Monsanto, Cargill, DuPont and Dow, but it
> has done little to help people.
> There exists a world food crisis, but as Francis Moore Lappe and others
> have noted, we do not have a world food shortage. We have a problem of
> growers forced to produce monocultures for export while not being able to
> feed themselves and their own communities.
> We have enormous distribution problems and tremendous waste. The United
> Nations recently estimated that at least 50 percent of food produced ends up
> as garbage, while billions of people around the world go hungry.
> A three-year study by the University of Kansas showed that genetically
> modified soybeans produce 10 percent less yield than their non-GM
> counterparts. So, even if there were shortages, biotechnology is not the
> solution.
> Moreover, the safety claims of biotechnology are dubious at best. GM foods
> do not undergo comprehensive health studies before being released to the
> market. Dr. Arpad Pusztai of the United Kingdom conducted the world's most
> thorough research on the health effects of GM foods. He found evidence of
> autoimmune problems, allergic reactions, underdeveloped organ growth and
> cancer resulting from the ingestion of genetically modified food.
> Is it any wonder that farm animals and wildlife feeding on agricultural
> crops avoid GM crops at all costs?
> Furthermore, genetic modification of crops has the potential to alter the
> genes of, and consequently the health of, entire ecosystems. Pollen from GM
> plants can travel far and wide, creating a "genetic pollution." GM crops
> also create a seed dependence for farmers, which often ruins their
> prosperity and their lives. More than half a million farmers in India have
> committed suicide as a result of losing their livelihoods to the endless
> cycle of dependence on seeds and chemicals that biotechnology produces.
> Finally, the unknown and potentially irreversible consequences of such
> technology are innumerable. GM crops are treated with extreme caution in
> Europe.. Starving nations on the African continent even have banned the
> import of GM food aid from America.
> Another biotech example, recombinant bovine growth hormone, was introduced
> by Monsanto in 1994 to increase milk production in cows, even though America
> was already producing far too much milk. Monsanto hoped increased milk
> production would drive down milk prices, thereby putting small dairy farms
> out of business while huge agribusiness corporations could absorb the costs
> and take over the market.
> But the real results of rBGH use were not just financial. It produced
> severe impairment and infection in dairy cows. That infection and the
> antibiotics used to treat it are passed down to the milk consumer. Other
> health effects from ingesting dairy products made from rBGH: higher risk of
> colon, prostate and breast cancers, possible role in pediatric bone cancer
> and implication in lung cancer.
> No wonder countries such as Canada, New Zealand and all of the European
> Union have long ago banned rBGH from even being introduced.
> President-elect Obama should be curtailing the use of biotechnology and
> implementing the precautionary principle within our current regulations. The
> rest of the Western world is light years ahead in consumer protection and
> the use of sustainable agriculture, while the American government remains
> under the influence of agribusiness giants who are on a mission to control
> the entire world's food supply to the peril of us all.
>
> Mattis is a graduate student in Earth System Science and Policy at UND.
>
> Be the first one to try the new Messenger 9 Beta! Go to
> http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/win/
>
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>
>
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