Tech | August 10, 2011 | 18 comments

Monsanto plans to sell BT toxin sweet corn in your grocery

source: http://www.fastcompany.com/1771750/monsanto-reveals-sweet-corn-as-first-product-developed-fo...

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JanforGore
There is genetically modified produce in a lot of the processed food you eat, but this is the first time that Monsanto is taking fresh GM produce from the ground straight to your mouth. If it works out, there will be plenty more.

Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, is known for developing engineered crops (i.e. corn and soybeans) that end up in many of the food products found on grocery store aisles, as well as in fibers and animal feed. Up until now, the company's GM crops have only been available in processed foods--in other words, in little bits and pieces. But now Monsanto is making a move into the consumer market with GM sweet corn, which will be found in a supermarket produce bin or farmer's market near you starting this fall.

There is a good chance you've already eaten GM sweet corn: Syngenta--a Monsanto rival--has been selling it for a decade. And Monsanto already sells GM squash developed by Seminis, which the company bought in 2005. So why is Monsanto's sweet corn a big deal? This is the first consumer product actually developed by Monsanto. While previous industry attempts to introduce GM consumer-oriented vegetables in the 1990s failed miserably (see Calgene's Flavr Savr tomatoes), Monsanto may be warming up to the idea. "I think Monsanto is trying to test the waters here," says Bill Freese, a science policy analyst with the Center for Food Safety. If GM sweet corn works out for the agri-giant, we might see even more GM produce on our supermarket shelves.

Monsanto, which already controls 60% of the U.S. corn market, is including traits in the new sweet corn that make it resistant to both Monsanto's Roundup herbicide and to insects (through the inclusion of Bt toxin, a trait that disrupts insect digestive systems and eventually kills them). As we have mentioned before, at least 21 weed species have become resistant to Roundup. And Bt toxin may have negative health effects--a recent study found the toxin in the maternal and fetal blood of pregnant women, though the implications of that aren't known quite yet.

"There's a concern with these GE crops that we eat with minimal processing [like sweet corn]...we're exposed to a lot more of whatever is in it versus a processed corn product," says Freese. This may be one of the rare cases where processed food is better for you than fresh food.

The market for sweet corn is smaller than the market for grain corn, and up until now GM sweet corn sales have been dominated by Syngenta, which also uses Bt toxin in its product. Now that Monsanto is entering the game, there will be even more room for cross-pollination with non-GM corn crops. "Corn is very promiscuous, meaning it's easy for cross-pollination to occur," says Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, senior scientist at the Pesticide Action Network North America. "Farmers won't be able to access conventional seeds, and they may lose local varieties."

Think that consumers would never buy a Monsanto-branded ear of sweet corn given the company's controversial reputation? Maybe not--but it doesn't matter. A Monsanto representative told the LA Times: "It's up to us to make sure we help tell people about the benefits...given how sweet corn is normally sold--by the ear, in larger bins in produce sections of the market--it's not really something that can be easily branded."

More at the link.
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18 comments // Monsanto plans to sell BT toxin sweet corn in your grocery

  • Littlewolf
  • ejasun
    • +2
      ejasun  

    • Why Feeding Factory Farmed Animals Genetically Modified Monsanto Corn Has Resulted in Substandard Meats Sold in Restaurants and Grocery Stores That Lead to Inflammation, Illness, Disease, Weight Gain and Obesity in America.

      Monsanto GMO corn contains an activated insect-killing bacterium called Bt Toxin. GMO corn engineered with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) produces its own built-in pesticide. Simply put, the Bt toxin is part of plant’s DNA and repeats itself in every cell. When bugs bite the plant, the poison splits open their stomach and kills them. When humans eat food with Bt Toxin, the toxins remain in their colon, kidneys, liver and other vital organs.

      New study reveals that the Bt toxin, which is found in genetically ... foods such as GM soy, corn and potatoes), researchers found Bt toxin in: .... EVERY processed food you encounter at your local supermarket.

      http://howtoeliminatepain.com/arthritis/why-feeding-factory-farmed-animals-genet...

    • 10 months ago
  • LivingPong
  • JanforGore
  • letsliveinpeace
  • chew_chew
    • +2
      chew_chew  

    • The idea of eating GM foods makes me sick. I do not want to learn what actually eating them does. Although, in this world of smaller government and deregulation, I may not have a chance to even know what food is GM. The thought of that makes me sick, too.

    • 10 months ago
  • totally_dilapidated
    • +2
      totally_dilapidated  

    • monsanto can beat on the door as hard as they like
      but my local community real-food co-op does not hear them

      until monsanto can KILL every last organic farmer in california
      fk em...

    • 10 months ago
  • freehit
    • +3
      freehit  

    • "given how sweet corn is normally sold--by the ear, in larger bins in produce sections of the market--it's not really something that can be easily branded." Strange, every time I buy produce in the grocery store it has little stickers on just about everything. I guess a little sticker with a skull and crossbones on an ear of corn somehow just is too difficult to attach. Whoops, I meant to say a lable saying it's frankenfood. Darn did it again. A label saying it's good wholesum GM corn. There, that's the label Monsanto can attach, without the GM on it of course. The other thought their comment brings to mind is; how easy is it to brand (as in cattle branding) a monsanto representative?

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • freehit
  • Gravity_Man
  • futuregen
  • JanforGore
  • totally_dilapidated
  • nikonwilly
  • figgdimension
  • JanforGore
    • +4
      JanforGore  

    • http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/toxin-from-gm-crops-found-in-human-blood...
      "Fresh doubts have arisen about the safety of genetically modified crops, with a new study reporting presence of Bt toxin, used widely in GM crops, in human blood for the first time.

      Genetically modified crops include genes extracted from bacteria to make them resistant to pest attacks.

      These genes make crops toxic to pests but are claimed to pose no danger to the environment and human health. Genetically modified brinjal, whose commercial release was stopped a year ago, has a toxin derived from a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis ( Bt).

      Till now, scientists and multinational corporations promoting GM crops have maintained that Bt toxin poses no danger to human health as the protein breaks down in the human gut. But the presence of this toxin in human blood shows that this does not happen.

      Scientists from the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, have detected the insecticidal protein, Cry1Ab, circulating in the blood of pregnant as well as non-pregnant women.

      They have also detected the toxin in fetal blood, implying it could pass on to the next generation. The research paper has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in the journal Reproductive Toxicology. The study covered 30 pregnant women and 39 women who had come for tubectomy at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS) in Quebec.

      None of them had worked or lived with a spouse working in contact with pesticides.

      They were all consuming typical Canadian diet that included GM foods such as soybeans, corn and potatoes. Blood samples were taken before delivery for pregnant women and at tubal ligation for non-pregnant women. Umbilical cord blood sampling was done after birth.

      Cry1Ab toxin was detected in 93 per cent and 80 per cent of maternal and fetal blood samples, respectively and in 69 per cent of tested blood samples from non-pregnant women. Earlier studies had found trace amounts of the Cry1Ab toxin in gastrointestinal contents of livestock fed on GM corn. This gave rise to fears that the toxins may not be effectively eliminated in humans and there may be a high risk of exposure through consumption of contaminated meat."
      __
      You know sometimes I do feel worn down by all of this. This bombardment and saturation of this market and the determination to get this poison in our bodies and bloodstreams shows to me a very malevolent agenda! Is it no wonder those who care rant? Where the hell is the outrage? If this is how these bastards will now get around accountabilty I am then boycotting ALL CORN. We need to start asking our grocers if they know where the corn they sell has come from. If they don't know or won't answer don't buy it. This is how they get out of labelling. They must be feeling the heat. So beware. The next time you go to a farmer's market you may not know what you are buying. One more way to contaminate other varieties as well.

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • +3
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      By the time they actually KILL ANYBODY they'll have already brought complete robot bodies online to take the place of [newly-] sickened human bodies and will be hailed as heroes for having saved mankind. For instance, just in the past several weeks a new type of imitation lung was on display. It can take the place of human lungs and of course we already have artificial hearts and mechanico-prostheitic limbs.

      Of course the new mechanical lung was falsely presented as being incapable of supporting a human for anything longer than the time needed to locate a real transplant... but if the entire human body is done away with, through the new corn, and all the new lung has to keep oxygenated is a person's head and neck muscles you see... then the mechanical lung is more than capable of sustaining a person INDEFINITELY.

      They have also developed artificial muscles now being given war-damaged veterans (how convenient they had a war destroying veteran's limbs eh?] so the total need for oxygenation has recently plummeted. Soon as they maneuver things around to where humans are ALL DYING they can step in and offer continued life [for your head].

      Which has been their objective all along.

    • 10 months ago
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