Wise up and Resist March of Frankenstein Food
The Universe
(June 08, 2003)
HUNGER strikers have been collapsing through heat exhaustion and lack of food as they camped out in front of the Philippine Department of Agriculture for weeks.
Their protests against Genetically Modified corn has generated wide publicity in the Philippines and around the world, drawing admiration and support from environmental organizations and church groups.
Where have we seen such dedication and commitment before? This sacrifice of the self for a cause is in itself a powerful inspiration all the more because it is to save us from being poisoned by the GM foods, in particular corn designed to produce it's own pesticide. They are demanding a moratorium against the planting of this genetically engineered variety. They feel the government has succumbed to the pressure of Monsanto, the American food company.
In Europe and other huge markets there is a strong consumer resistance to this kind of food. Monsanto insists that their scientists have shown the corn is safe for human consumption. But courageous protesters in Manila fear that it is anything but safe.
The new GM corn has a gene artificially inserted that enables it to produce it own pesticide making it less susceptible to insect attack. Monsanto says this pesticide has no harmful effects on animals and humans – but there is no long term evidence that this is so.
Campaigners say that the corn pesticide is carried away on its pollen, contaminating other crops.
More than 500 doctors and scientists around the world, including the British Medical Association have expressed concern that the pesticide in the corn might kill off the benign life-saving bacteria in our bodies, weakening the immune system thus making us vulnerable to stomach and cologne cancers and a variety of diseases the source of which we cannot even trace.
We have seen how viruses can mutate like the SARS virus within months. That is where the greatest danger lies. The real possibility is that over time the human immune system will be damaged by the content of the food we eat.
When we see the devastating impact that the Mad Cow Disease (BSE) has had on the lives of so many and the economy too, because of contaminated animal food we have to extra careful with what we eat.
We ordinary consumers are not wised up enough to all the implications of these Modified foods. But in reality they become another supply of junk food crops that can poison all of us if they are allowed to spread and proliferate.
It is not too late to oppose their spread and get a moratorium against them in the Philippines. That's why I am writing to the Secretary of Agriculture Luis P. Lorenzo at the Department of Agriculture, Diliman, Quezon City Philippines, asking him to please hold it for the sake of mankind. I encourage readers to do likewise.
A handbook about GM foods can be obtained for £3 at Columban Justice & Peace office, St. Joseph’s Watford Way, London NW4 4TY.
Knowledge is the power to make this a better world and preserve God’s Creation.
