From: John Marlow (johnmarlow@gmx.net)
Date: Wed Jul 04 2001 - 22:52:08 MDT
> In a battle of memes, the anti-GM factions have won this round.
>
> --
Actually, that's not correct--the pro-GM industry has lost it through
its own blundering incompetence.
> If GM foods are to continue to be a viable technology, we must be
>able to control it so that we decide whether it goes into our food
>or not.
Well, you know, another blundering bad-PR strike against these guys
is their rabid insistence that there BE no labeling and, hence, no
choice. 'You'll eat it and drink it and pay us to do it whether you
want to or not,' has been their attitude from the start--just like
the food-irradiation guys.
And they wonder why people don't trust them...
jm
On 4 Jul 2001, at 17:37, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> Eugene Leitl wrote,
> > Subject: [isml] StarLink Bio-Corn Found in White Corn Products - Post
> >
> > >From Reuters,
> > http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010704/ts/food_starlink_dc_1.html
>
> This greatly disturbs me, and could be a setback to the food industry and GM
> foods in general.
>
> StarLink corn was banned for human use, yet it was discovered in many human
> products. It is a form of yellow corn, but now is being found in white corn
> products. This makes it clear that we cannot keep contaminated products out
> of our food. Even industry officials say that there is no way they can keep
> different kinds of corn separate. Many industries actually switched to
> white corn to avoid using StarLink corn, and it still ends up in the food.
> This demonstrates the industry's inability to follow laws or safety
> procedures to keep contaminates out of food. If anyone does develop a
> really dangerous strain of food, it would appear that we would be unable to
> keep it out of the general food supply. This needs to be fixed and
> addressed if we want to continue developing GM foods in a safe manner.
>
> I am also disturbed by the way this problem was discovered. A Florida
> person who had already had a bad reaction to StarLink corn in yellow-corn
> products had the same symptoms when he ate the white-corn products. He
> deliberately switched to white-corn products to avoid StarLink, and
> reportedly had no way to guess that white-corn could ever contain StarLink.
> He says that he recognized the side-effect symptoms as being the same, and
> he notified the FDA who confirmed the presence of StarLink. This seems to
> demonstrate that the side-effects of StarLink are real and not imagined. It
> also is very bad PR if GM food is seen as being detectable by the health
> problems of consumers who eat them.
>
> If GM foods are to continue to be a viable technology, we must be able to
> control it so that we decide whether it goes into our food or not. We also
> need better tests to detect side-effects. The industry insisted that there
> were no side-effects, and that reported effects were imagined, but here we
> have a serious counter-example. These kind of events are going to be the
> deciding factor for most consumers. Scientific tests, studies and
> explanations simply cannot compete with customer experiences in these areas.
> In a battle of memes, the anti-GM factions have won this round.
>
> --
> Harvey Newstrom <http://HarveyNewstrom.com> <http://Newstaff.com>
>
John Marlow
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