April 2015
GM-free Scotland has regularly voiced concerns about the lack of GM-food safety studies focused on the most vulnerable populations, especially the very young. Routine feeding tests use healthy, post-weaning laboratory rats fed standard laboratory chow with optimised nutrition: they won't identify problems in infancy.
During the first hours after birth, before the mothers' milk as we know it is produced, suckling mammals receive 'colostrum'.
Colostrum is a clear fluid of concentrated nutrients. It's packed with essential fats and proteins including immune system and growth promoters, protective antibodies and tissue maturation factors. These antibiotic properties of colostrum plus its role in intestinal cell development are thought to be responsible for the formation of a healthy digestive system and gut microbial flora.
In other words, colostrum is what the vulnerable newly-born need to protect themselves from disease and to form the healthy organs and tissues vital for their future growth.
So, what happens to the mother's colostrum when she eats GM food?
Glyphosate through your skin
April 2015
Your skin is the largest organ of your body. It consists of an underlying layer of living 'dermal' cells which grow continuously, and at the same time undergo a special form of programmed death. This proliferation and die-off is carefully orchestrated to produce, and continuously maintain, the protective outer 'epidermis'. The epidermis is waterproof, elastic, and provides a barrier to biological, physical and chemical damage.
Skin function is vital to health. Its function depends on the integrity of its structure. And its structure depends on the integrity of the living dermal cell physiology.
In the modern world, our skin is exposed to a host of potentially harmful chemicals.
One such chemical is glyphosate herbicide, widely used in rural and urban weed control, and heavily sprayed on GM crops, most of which have been genetically transformed to survive it.
Your skin is the largest organ of your body. It consists of an underlying layer of living 'dermal' cells which grow continuously, and at the same time undergo a special form of programmed death. This proliferation and die-off is carefully orchestrated to produce, and continuously maintain, the protective outer 'epidermis'. The epidermis is waterproof, elastic, and provides a barrier to biological, physical and chemical damage.
Skin function is vital to health. Its function depends on the integrity of its structure. And its structure depends on the integrity of the living dermal cell physiology.
In the modern world, our skin is exposed to a host of potentially harmful chemicals.
One such chemical is glyphosate herbicide, widely used in rural and urban weed control, and heavily sprayed on GM crops, most of which have been genetically transformed to survive it.
Take action to stop GMOs!
April 2015
A MESSAGE FROM FOOD AND WATER WATCH
A MESSAGE FROM FOOD AND WATER WATCH
Why Don't Our
Supermarkets Sell GM Food? Because We Don't Eat It!
We have some of the best, most
wholesome food in the world. Act to protect it from the GM crop experiment.
Why action now is critical: Two BIG reasons: GM corn and newly granted powers.
Why action now is critical: Two BIG reasons: GM corn and newly granted powers.
With recent rule changes, we can now
ban crops one by one. We need to act quickly. DuPont could even foist a new GM
corn on us by 2016! More are sure to follow.
Why action matters: Our good, nutritious non-GM food and farming need our protection from government mismanagement.
Why action matters: Our good, nutritious non-GM food and farming need our protection from government mismanagement.
The government seems confused about
the reality of growing GM crops. A few weeks ago, the UK Food and Farming
Minister said she wants UK farmers to have access to GM crops to fight disease
and raise farm yields, but no GM crop actually does this. The
Minister wants decisions on GM to be made on scientific evidence, but scientific
field trials conducted in the UK showed that GM harmed the threatened wildlife
which we should be protecting.
What's the truth behind the push for GM crops? It's really about trade.
What's the truth behind the push for GM crops? It's really about trade.
Our
government is spending our money on GM research to sell the results here and
overseas because it claims that it will help our economy. That's just not true.
GM could cost us dearly instead. Contamination happens wherever GM is grown, so
growing GM crops will jeopardise the reputation of our agriculture, which
employs 3.5 million people and makes up 7% of our economy. UK food exports
alone are worth nearly £19 billion per year, so betting the farm on GM crops is
a bad plan.
Write now to keep GM crops out of
our fields and our food. You don't have to live in the UK to care about what
happens in the UK fields
TAKE ACTION HERE
Hostage to gene pollution
March 2015
Back in the 1990s, an early fear of anti-GM campaigners was that the biotech industry would purposely create so much gene pollution in the fields and food chain that no matter how unwilling the public and regulators were to accept the novel technology, they would be forced to do so or starve.
Nearly 20 years on, the same concerns seem to be back in the limelight. But this time round, they're being raised by lawyers, with documentary proof to back them up.
Back in the 1990s, an early fear of anti-GM campaigners was that the biotech industry would purposely create so much gene pollution in the fields and food chain that no matter how unwilling the public and regulators were to accept the novel technology, they would be forced to do so or starve.
Nearly 20 years on, the same concerns seem to be back in the limelight. But this time round, they're being raised by lawyers, with documentary proof to back them up.
Knowledge is never frootless
March 2015
America's in a mess: a GM mess.
US paediatrician, Michelle Perro, tells us: "Digestive health is rapidly declining in children. If children eat conventionally grown food, they will potentially be eating glyphosate, pesticide ingredients and GMOs ... The bioaccumulation effects of gyphosate have not been addressed in children and the standards of safety are arbitrary and not based on any clinical evidence."
America's in a mess: a GM mess.
US paediatrician, Michelle Perro, tells us: "Digestive health is rapidly declining in children. If children eat conventionally grown food, they will potentially be eating glyphosate, pesticide ingredients and GMOs ... The bioaccumulation effects of gyphosate have not been addressed in children and the standards of safety are arbitrary and not based on any clinical evidence."
Another neurotoxin to add to the mix
March 2015
The possibility that neonicotinoid-type insecticides are contributing to the decline of insect pollinators is hotly contested by the agri-industry.
However, experimental evidence has just emerged form a Scottish laboratory demonstrating serious harm to bumble bees from neonicotinoids.
When bumble bees were fed the insecticide at low levels, as found in the nectar and pollen of the plants they forage on, there were clear signs of brain dysfunction. The poisoned bees exhibited learning difficulties and disruption to their ability to forage, accompanied by a decline in healthy brood cells and decimation (57%) of the total bee mass in the nest.
The possibility that neonicotinoid-type insecticides are contributing to the decline of insect pollinators is hotly contested by the agri-industry.
However, experimental evidence has just emerged form a Scottish laboratory demonstrating serious harm to bumble bees from neonicotinoids.
When bumble bees were fed the insecticide at low levels, as found in the nectar and pollen of the plants they forage on, there were clear signs of brain dysfunction. The poisoned bees exhibited learning difficulties and disruption to their ability to forage, accompanied by a decline in healthy brood cells and decimation (57%) of the total bee mass in the nest.
Glyphosate and Parkinson's disease
March 2015
Monsanto's safety testing of GM maize does not include neurobehavioural assessments. Apparently, these are "not considered appropriate for test articles like corn grain that has no history of producing neurotoxicological effects".. Presumably this reasoning would apply to most food crops.
However, the vast majority of GM crops are designed to accumulate glyphosate herbicide, and questions are emerging on the neurotoxicity of this chemical.
Monsanto's safety testing of GM maize does not include neurobehavioural assessments. Apparently, these are "not considered appropriate for test articles like corn grain that has no history of producing neurotoxicological effects".. Presumably this reasoning would apply to most food crops.
However, the vast majority of GM crops are designed to accumulate glyphosate herbicide, and questions are emerging on the neurotoxicity of this chemical.
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