To Protect Food Safety, Scientists Stand Up Against Corporate Lobbyists
Independent Science Panel for a GM-Free Sustainable World
| Here is a news announcement about a scientific panel being formed to point out the unscientific, untested background of genetically modified foods. |
| In the United States, most people are unknowingly eating untested genetically engineered foods every day. The producers of these foods refuse to label them. These biotech foods were never safety tested on humans before being sold to the public. U.S. adults and children are participating in the largest feeding experiment ever conducted on the planet and most people are not even aware of it. But European citizens and scientists are well aware of what is going on with these untested experimental foods, and they want no part of it. |
In a surprising move, dozens of prominent scientists have joined forces to form an Independent Science Panel (ISP) on GM (genetic modification), to counteract what they see to be a concerted campaign by the government and the establishment in the UK to promote GM under the false guise of 'sound' science.
"This amounts to open scientific rebellion, possibly unprecedented in history," says Mae-Wan Ho, Director of the Institute of Science in Society, who initiated the move, and confessed to having been taken by surprise, and being delighted, by the positive response of the scientists contacted.
Many of the scientists have been feeling frustrated at the lack of open public debate on a whole range of scientific and other issues. The fake 'discussion meetings' organised by the government are invariably stacked with pro-GM scientists hyping the unproven potential benefits of GM, and giving the public bland assurances that "there is no evidence of harm".
[The Progress Report points out that there is indeed scientific evidence of harm. But the evidence does not come from governments, nor from the makers of GM products, because their corporate lobbyists got approval to sell the products without scientific testing! If no one studies X, then it's easier to claim that there's no evidence that X is harmful! But this deadly unscientific game is ending as other groups have done their own studies and found numerous risks and problems associated with GM foods.]It will all change now.
At a special launching conference on May 10 in London, the ISP released their report, The Case for A GM-Free Sustainable World, the strongest, most complete dossier of evidence ever put together to support their call for a ban on GM crops and widespread adoption of organic sustainable agriculture. This is timed to kick off the GM national debate in the UK, and to input into the Ministerial Conference and Expo on Agricultural Science and Technology in Sacramento, California in June. The report has already attracted considerable international attention.
"We'll give them a case to answer," says Brian John, geomorphologist and environment scientist, who has been working closely with the GM Free Cymru campaign. "Those of us who have looked into the science of GM crops and foods from a community or consumer perspective have been appalled at the apparent abandonment of the precautionary principle and at the control exerted over the scientific agenda by the biotechnology multinationals."
The Report will be sent to the president of the Philippines together with a letter in support of one of the ISP members, Roberto Verzola, Secretary-General of the Philippine Green Party, who has initiated an indefinite hunger strike, to protest his government's unscientific approval of Monsanto's Bt maize, now in its 15th day. The Panel includes Britain's best-loved botanist, broadcaster, writer and tireless campaigner for Mother Earth, David Bellamy OBE, who will lead the launch of the ISP.
Other speakers include Stanley Ewen, Consultant Histopathologist, at Grampian University Hospitals Trust; Malcolm Hooper, Emeritus Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Sunderland; Vyvyan Howard, toxipathologist, University of Liverpool; Arpad Pusztai, formerly senior scientist at Rowett Institute, Scotland, and Gundula Azeez, Policy Manager, Soil Association.
For further details see the ISIS website
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/
| Be sure to see Fred Foldvary's editorial on Genetically Manipulated Food |
To whom would you rather entrust the safety of your children's food -- a scientist, or a corporate lobbyist? What's your opinion? Tell your views to The Progress Report:
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