By Rady Ananda
A United States federal jury ruled this month that Bayer CropScience must pay $2 million to two Missouri farmers for contaminating their rice crops with illegal GMO rice. Farmers Ken Bell and Johnny Hunter, the first in a series of 1200 such litigants, lost sales overseas as a result.
Most people have heard about how GMOs can affect their health, cause cancer, reproductive disorders, diabetes and the likes. This is true, but the adverse consequences of GMOs are actually even more frightening. Take the example of a bacteria-modified plant. The plant is injected with bacteria to make it more robust, but because of this, the plant actually thinks it is a bacteria and spreads toxins in the area around it, killing other plants and organisms like earthworms.
CHANDIGARH: “Release of Bt Brinjal would be the beginning of the end of Indian agriculture.” This voice against genetically-modified food got louder on Sunday with acclaimed scientist Shiv Chopra, who fought against bovine growth hormone in Canada and got it banned, supported the cause of rejecting “the poisoned food.”
The USA is presently the richest and scientifically the most advanced country in the world. Its people spend proportionately the least amount of their incomes on food supply. On the other hand, the incidence of food-borne disease (FBD) in this country is the highest anywhere on the earth. The closest example of another country in this regard is Canada.
The source of FBD during approximately the last 50 years is reported to originate from indiscriminate application of the following five substances in food production: hormones, antibiotics, slaughterhouse wastes, Genetically Modified Organisms and pesticides. The types of FBD that these substances induce include cancer, antibiotic-resistant infections, neurological conditions, including BSE/CJD, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and immune, reproductive and other disorders.
None of the five substances is proved to be safe as required under the Food and Drugs Act of either U.S. or Canada. However, the first three of these products, i.e. hormones, antibiotics and slaughterhouse wastes, are unequivocally banned to be utilized in food production throughout the European Union countries. Consequently, U.S. and Canadian beef is not allowed to be imported into EU countries. However, the U.S. and Canadian regulatory authorities argue that the incriminating substances pose no risk to human health. Therefore, the issue is being contested before the World Trade Organization for approximately the last two decades.
Meanwhile, all five of these products continue to be marketed contrary to the Food and Drug Act of both U.S. and Canada. It is time to revise these policies and thereby protect public health and safety. In doing so, one would invoke what I refer to as the Five Pillars of Food Safety.
