September 2011
The Government's new
e-petitions, which allow the public to create and sign petitions
online, got off to an interesting start.
Twenty per cent of the
early e-petitions to the House of Commons were calls for a
re-instatement of the death penalty in Britain. One such petition
got more than 2,000 supporters, while a petition opposing the
restoration of capital punishment had over 3,000 signatures.
Unless or until GM
foods kill a large number of people, and the biotech bosses are made
to take full responsibility, the existence of the death penalty has
no bearing on the GM issue.
However, the comments
and warnings given by the Commons Leader in response to public
petitions are highly relevant.
He told MPs not to shy
away from debating an issue if a groundswell of voters had backed a
petition demanding it, because:
“If lots of people want parliament to do something which it rejects, then it is up to MPs to explain the reasons to their constituents. What else is parliament for? People have strong opinions and it does not serve democracy well if we ignore them or pretend that their views do not exist.”
At the time of writing,
only one e-petition concerned food safety (a call for a ban of
trans-fat in food).
OUR COMMENT
Anyone who's been
campaigning on the GM issue, or any other food-safety issue, will be
aware of how often our government seems to pretend their views do not
exist.
Clearly, e-petitions
could be a very real way to get your GM-concern message across, but
the channel seems to be under-used so far. Check out e-petitions on the DirectGov website. Perhaps you might like to organise
a call for the removal of Roundup and artificial Bt toxins from our
food chain? See below.
WHAT ROUNDUP DOES TO
PEOPLE
A shocking report,
commissioned by one State Government in Argentina, documented what
had been happening there in the ten years (2000 to 2009) since
Roundup Ready crops were introduced. It found a four-fold increase
in both cancers and birth defects in the villagers living near where
the GM crops were sprayed with Roundup.
Besides such
observations from South America, other relevant and corroborating
laboratory-based evidence of the dangers of Roundup has been slowly
emerging. For example: interference in early embryo development,
disruption of a placental enzyme vital for hormone balance,
impairment of mitochondrial function (i.e. the cell's energy source),
cell toxicity and death, and DNA instability which could lead to
cancer.
See also ROUNDUP CAUSES BIRTH DEFECTS – GMFS News Archive, October 2010.
WHAT Bt TOXIN MAY DO TO
PEOPLE IS UNTESTED
Genetic engineers can
chemically alter artificial Bt toxins at will. They can also stack
genes to produce an infinite variety of pesticidal crop plants. Bt
proteins have a recognised allergenic potential and a known ability
to react with mammalian cells.
A study in Canada
detected Bt toxins not only in healthy pregnant and non-pregnant
women, but in the babies of the pregnant women just after birth.
See GM PESTICIDESINSIDE YOU – April 2011.
SOURCE
- John Higginson, Voters call for capital punishment, Metro 5.08.11
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