Community | September 07, 2008 | 21 comments

Poison in your stomach: genetically modified eggplants

source: http://www.countercurrents.org/sharma040908.htm

Image
JanforGore
After experimenting with rats, goats, sheep and cows, it is now the turn of Indian people. In a few months from now, if the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of India has its way, the first genetically modified food crop Bt Brinjal will be on your table.

Whether it is the laboratory rats or higher mammals, the animal kingdom has been more discerning possibly owing to a sixth instinct which human beings sadly lack. There is otherwise no explanation for why laboratory rats, for instance, should always be spurning GM foods. And when force fed, rats have invariably developed tumours and deformed body organs, including kidneys and livers, as well as serious diseases and ailments.

We have heard repeatedly of the death of sheep and goats when left to graze in the Bt cotton fields of India. First it was reported from Andhra Pradesh, and now newspaper reports point to the south-Indian state of Orissa. However, not much is public about how the cattle react. Several farmers in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have told me that cows avoid the Bt cotton fields when left to openly graze.

The Bt gene that has been infused in Bt cotton (or Bt corn on which most of the laboratory rat studies have been conducted) is no different from the same gene drawn from a soil bacterium scientifically called Bt that is now being incorporated in Brinjal. This gene releases a toxin within the plant that kills fruit-and-shoot borer insects. The Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco), which is spearheading research on Bt Brinjal, claims that the genetically-modified Brinjal is safe for human consumption.

I have never been placated by the safety claims made by these companies. For several decades now we were told that cigarette smoking wasn't harmful to human health, that chemical pesticides were completely safe, and that white sugar poses no danger to the human body. These are not the only products that received the safety certificate - the list is endless. And yet decades later, after inflicting a heavy human cost the world over, most of these products are being banned or phased out. Long since sugar-based food products hit the market and were vouched safe, diabetes has suddenly assumed epidemic proportions.

Diabetes is a case in point: notwithstanding that the disease is growing at an alarming scale, the disappearance of the traditionally-cultivated Brinjal from the market will surely take away one of the simple home remedies and widely-practiced dietary solutions to combating the Type-2 diabetes. I too suffer from Type-2 diabetes, and therefore find it appalling that no scientific organisation, including the GEAC, is coming clean on what the genetically modified Brinjal will mean for people like me.
snip
If you don't believe me, let us listen to Prof Dave Schubert of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California: The Bt toxin is 1000 times more concentrated than in Bt sprays, which do not themselves have a history of safe use. In other words, what Dr Schubert says is that genetically modified Bt plants, and that includes Bt Brinjal, carry a toxin that is a thousand times more potent than what is used to kill insects. Strains of Bt have been used as sprays to control harmful insets. Spine chilling, isn't it?

The problem is that once Bt Brinjal enters the market, there is no way you can distinguish it from the normal ones. Your vegetable vendor will never be able to sell you the normal Brinjal that you are so used to buying. Moreover, once the genie is out, there is no way to call it back.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
India is once again to be the guinea pig to make biotech companies profits. As the article states, there is no shortage of eggplants (brinjal) in India. There is no other reason for this but profit at the expense of health. And once again without disclosure. It is despicable.
  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics,   Green,   Earth and Science,   3 more
  2. tags:
    News,  News and Politics,  Green,  Earth and Science,  12 more
  3. recommended by:
    Vierotchka
  4.     
    |

21 comments // Poison in your stomach: genetically modified eggplants

  • cibalin
    • 0
      cibalin  

    • JFG..is it just me?? I have been seeing more and more of your pods getting on to current tv. This is so very good. I've been saying for a while that this info needs to get out to a way bigger crowd. KUDOS!!

    • 3 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • An important documentary for all to see and share. This is why people in India and around the world now protest BT brinjal, BT cotton, and other GM foods.

      Also, my appreciation to Current TV UK and its voters and all who have participated in these threads.Thank you for helping to get a very important issue about our health, environment, and future out to more people.

    • 3 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • saladin: The author never stated it caused diabetes and neither did I. The author was relating their concerns involving what effect BT brinjal might have on diabetics since in India it is used as a dietetic remedy for type 2 diabetes. I think based on what BT stands for and is their concerns are warranted. So unless you have definitive scientific proof that it is safe, I think what is really stupid is to assume about what I or others think. Monsanto would not be working so hard to keep GM sources off of food labels in the US unless they knew people would not buy their products because they already know scientific tests have not concluded that they are safe for human consumption. And building seeds with BT to include the pesticide in the plant is just downright dangerous and immoral.

    • 3 years ago
  • justright
    • 0
      justright  

    • What products you buy and what you demand from your stores can influence agriculture as much as anti-GM legislation. Vote buy shopping intelligently.

    • 3 years ago
  • asherp
    • 0
      asherp  
    • justright:

      Municipal and state zoning and property tax laws also have a HUGE effect on the availability of locally grown foods.

      I'm doing a documentary on localized agriculture vs centralized global agriculture, and I've learned a lot in the course of doing it.

      Farms are driven out into low income, low population areas, because they cannot afford the property taxes on land in higher population areas. The economic pressure is either to develop the land as use it for houses, or to sell it off and put up strip malls.

      It really can be as easy as calling your local state rep and asking them to introduce a bill at the state level that would exempt all land over one acre that is being used for subsistence or commercial agriculture from property taxes.

      This shortens the distance from the field to the plate significantly, and also improves the small farmer's chance of surviving economically (and your survival in a very real sense... unless you want to eat poisonous eggplant)

    • 3 years ago
  • MeganMcKenzie
    • 0
      MeganMcKenzie  

    • Corporate owning of the world's food supply and feeding its citizenry the garbage that it creates means that soon there will not be any healthy folks to do the dirty work.

      I am planting as much as I can to share with my family/friends. To hell with the crap being sold to us by these criminals. One day they will find they have to eat their own garbage and then won't they be surprised.

    • 3 years ago
  • Dmitri_Molotov
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  

    • This actually is a legitimate concern and a pretty poor and disgusting use of genetic modification. Surely there's a better way to prevent insect infestation than making the plant emit a toxin? That;s downright stupid.

      But why am I not surprised that this is then used by Jan as a springboard against all genmodded foods in general? This surge in diabetes shit is stupid, as are all people against genmodding in general. You might as well be against selective breeding.

    • 3 years ago
  • Hunter2323
    • 0
      Hunter2323  
    • Saladin:

      Well if you actually look at what they are doing with GMO's than you probably wouldn't want to eat them either. Does it seem good for you for people to be splicing genes, having e coli replicate the material, and then inserting it into food. Much of the corn that is grown in America today has inserts of salmon genes to help it survive the cold. It just doesn't seem healthy to be messing with things that have had a very long time to correct their own kinks.

      Why is it that we cannot just selectively breed and use the various plants that tend to do better in the area that they are growing in.

      These GMO's are also taking over existing farms that are trying to grow their own foods. They make a lot of canola plants round up resistant so when they try and get rid of the plants with the normal methods, they aren't able to do so. The worse thing about it is that when these seeds and spores float onto the farmers property the company can sue them for infringement on copyrights, even though they don't want the plants to be growing on their property.

    • 3 years ago
  • iokua_2003
  • justright
  • bmltv
    • 0
      bmltv  

    • It is a shame that modified food has to come into play. Where have we gone wrong to allow such nonsense into our lives.

    • 3 years ago
  • justright
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • Protest in India regarding BT brinjal. This particular video is not in English, but I am posting it to show the breadth of rejection to GM food crops.

      This is a global attack on our food by multiple multi-national agri-chemcial companies that are doing nothing but making them bigger profits through intimidation and lies... andit is also leading to corporate control of our freshwater resources.

      The people of India are standing up. The people in South America stand up. The people in Europe stand up. Where are Americans? Caring more about tit for tat politics.

    • 3 years ago
  • justright
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • JanforGore:

      It looks as though in more states that labelling regarding Posilac in milk is making headway with it being rejected with many farmers standing up to it. I have a feeling that is why Monsanto chose to divest it...of course, they sold it to their drug pal Eli Lilly, so I don't know where that will lead. As far as labelling on our food to disclose GM sources, it is to me not something we will see soon unless more people know about GM foods and demand it. The FDA made it very hard to fight for it in declaring there is no difference between it and conventional food, which reports suggest otherwise. And logically, if there is no difference why market it at all and if it is safe why fight it? However, people can write their states and contact their state reps to introduce bills regarding labelling. In the case of GM foods, Americans need to launch a grassroots repudiation of them like we have seen in Europe, India, and elsewhere. I think it is beginning with the recent rulings of federal courts and votes particularly in California regarding Monsanto's suing of farmers over transgenic pollution. Awareness is the key. So we have to keep talking and demanding change on this, and of course, buy locally. Boycotting them would in the end be the best way to make that change...profits are really all they know.

    • 3 years ago
  • justright
    • 0
      justright  
    • JanforGore:

      Jan,
      Many California rice growers (a strong group) are fighting GMO's, not from an ethical standpoint but from a financial one. Japan won't touch GMO rice and they're our biggest client. After a medical (some drug grown in the rice) GMO rice strain got loose in Arkansas there is a lot of fear of cross pollination in California.

    • 3 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • The takeover of the global food market is preceding at lightning speed. People need to be made aware of this for their own safety.

    • 3 years ago
  • huntre
  • asherp
  • Vierotchka
more from Community:
from the community

top videos